Yummy 'Nai Wong' Bun

Last weekend we went down to London for Dim Sum with Steph's cousin. Steph's cousin is leaving London and going back to Singapore after 3.5 years here so we thought it will be a good idea to have a farewell lunch and at the same time satisfy Steph's craving for Dim Sum. Too bad I'm no Dim Sum chef so we will have to let the real chefs do the cooking this time. Well, as usual when you go for Dim Sum, you will order the standard Char Siew Bao, Har Gao, Cheong Fun and etc. A conversation came up on Custard Bun aka Nai Wong Bao which Steph recalls was introduced to her when she was working in Singapore. So I told myself that I will attempt to make that for her when I have the time. Well, I attempted it...........and here are the results in pictures. I didn't attempt to make a steamed version this time because I wanted to try the baked version. Turned out pretty nice but the filling wasn't gooey. Probably too much egg and flour this time.

Steamed baoz and mantao

Its officially autumn in the UK but surprisingly it isn't that cold yet. We can still go out with a single layer of clothing but I doubt that will last for long. Just completed a round of pau and mantao making and was very satisfied with the results. The texture and taste was very nice and similar to the ones you usually get at dimsum restaurants. The colour was a bit yellow compared to the extra white ones you get at dimsum place probably due to some additives they use. Anyway, just thought we share some pics we took of our pau and mantao. The flavours were black+gold (red bean and kaya) and for the mantao was black sesame.

-Adrian

Steam buns @ Mantou

Back to blogging again!

It's been awhile since our last blog. I blame it on the good Summer that has come and gone. To be honest, I'm just feeling lazy.

What have we been up to the last couple of months?

Abit of travelling, catching up with friends in the UK, random drive and exploring different parts of UK, playing host to family and friends who came visiting, celebrating birthdays, engagements, baby shower party, football, BBQ, phototaking, berries picking, and of course our favourite pastime baking & cooking!!

And what have we done today?
We had Mantao with chicken curry, I made the curry and Adrian made the "Mantao", usually reffered as Chinese steamed buns. This is what I call team effort! You can easilly get those Mantao frozen pre-cooked from supermarkets and all you need to do is just steam it. But Adrian being him, made them from scratch. There is a popular story in China that the name Mantou actually originated from "barbarian's head" (direct translation). Interesting yea? Anyway, Adrian knead the dough yesterday to let it rest in the fridge. He rolled them up into individual mantao and steamed them today. He made unfilled mantao but he added a cheeky amount of butter into each one to give a nice buttery taste.

The mantao look really gorgeous sitting in the steamer.
I was really excited when I see the Mantao double in size. I somehow thought they look like alot like durian puff.. wish we had some durian paste around. Maybe we shall do that the nextime, or maybe not considering that it cost close to 10 pounds for us to buy one durian here.
Adrian then decided to panfry them later to go with our chicken curry. It was good, we had an amazing dinner tonight (as usual) =)

We will be making more mantao tomorrow, but with black sesame as stuffings. Hopefully will post some pictures up.

Chinese macaroni

The other day we had macaroni miso soup for dinner. This came straight from a packet (instant). Strange how Italian has started to influence our Asian food. I love macaroni soup because there are so tasty and easy to prepare. Just throw in whatever stuff you have in the fridge and you'll have your warm hearty comfort food. I always prefer using macaroni to instant noodles whenever I have the crave for some soupy meals. I just love the texture of those little macaroni.

We also had red bean soup with glutinous rice balls for dessert. Red bean is more commonly known as adzuki beans in the UK. We will usually have this once a fortnight. Adrian haven't perfected the glutinous rice ball because it wasn't chewy enough.

- Steph

Herbie affairs

We had Emperor Chicken couple of days ago. This dish originated long ago in China, the story begins when a starving, homeless beggar in rural China who stole a chicken from someone’s yard. That person killed it, built a fire and prepared the chicken for cooking. Suddenly, the emperor's guards came along with the emperor and his entourage, and in a panic to hide the chicken this person covered it with mud and threw it into the fire. Attracted by the aroma of the baked chicken, the Emperor stops and dines with the beggar, demanding to know how this food was created, and such a delicious meal. As the story goes, this emperor had such fancy and admiration for this humble dish that he made it his favorite dish in his palace. So with some herbal concoction this dish has become the Emperor's Chicken.

I used a packet of Emperor Chicken herbs & spices mix, you can easilly get this from any supermarket. One can choose to either steam or roast it. I decided to do the original - steam it.

First, apply the herbs and spices mix onto the skin and inside of chicken, massaging the chicken at the same time. Wrap the chicken in the plastic wrapper, followed by aluminium foil provided in the package mix. Place the wrapped chicken on a steaming dish. Steam the chicken for 2 hours over low heat.
I used the left over chicken for herbal soup the next day, just add in water & let it boil. It tasted like those herbal chicken soup which has been simmered for hours!

I love chinese herbs (most of them anyway). I am the type who happily breathe in the pleasant tonicky aroma whenever I walk pass chinese medicine shop. Thanks to my granny and mummy, when I came to the UK, I brought along some chinese herbs with me, only the common ones which can be used easilly:-

1. Red dates / Hong Zao - strengthen the functions of heart and lung, as well as nourish the stomach and spleen. Contains lots of Vitamin C. Ocassionally used this to boil soup together with Tong Sum.

2. Wolfberries / Gou Xi- high in antioxidants, good for improving eyesight and eyestrain. Also for soup and my steammed herbal chicken. This little berries are really sweet, we put them into our porridge to give it some sweetness. Can also put them into boiling water and drink it pure.

3. Tong Sum / Dang Shen - for lung and spleen, improve one’s 'chi' and stamina, good for those always feeling tired. It's a root similar to that of the ginseng family and is regard as the poor man's ginseng as it is cheap yet full of amazing properties. Love using this for our soup and herbal chicken. Throw some into a boiling water together with red dates and you have your tong sum red dates tea.

4. Bai Xian - Commonly used to treat cough with lots of white mucus that is difficult to dislodge. Use this for soup and cooking.

5. Pao Shen / american ginseng - tonic for the whole body, and believed to cure lethargy, arthritis, impotence, senility, diabetes, bla bla bla (the list goes on, there are tonnes of goodness in those roots) and also is one of the most effective anti-aging supplements. Good yeah? Since this stuff is quite expensive, I usually boil it under low heat overnight and drink it in the morning.

6. Cane root and arrow root - this one is prepacked with some other herbs in there. Just some sweet herbal drinks, has yet to boil it.

7. Ju Hua / Chrysanthemum - Mentioned this because it is a type of herbs as well. haha.

8. Snow fungus - Good quality snow fungus has a pale and yellowish-white color. Ladies, drink more of this as it is believed to promote healthy skin and good complexion. I love to boil this with red dates as sweet dessert. I'm boiling this today.

9. Pre packaged herbs - there are probably 6 types of herbs in there. Quite cheap, bought this for rm3 per pack. Will use it to make herbal chicken soup one day.

So, do I sound like an old ahma who is expert in chinese herbs? No way, I only know a handful of these, the rest I went to Eu Yan Sang's website to check out the name. Hahaha. By the way, I found out that there is a type of herb which shares the same name with me - the Stephania Root (Hanfang Ji), good for bladder, intestines.. cool huh.

Well, here is my herbie collection. I know these are nothing compared to most households back in Malaysia, but I'm already worried whether we will be able to finish them. Adrian doesn't touch these stuff for his cooking. It's me who has been using them constantly because I usually cook chinese food and I love drinking soup.
Hmmm, maybe I could try growing some ginseng in my backyard since my spring onions arent growing as well as I hope it would be (Nothing came out! Maybe the worms ate all the seeds?).
I wonder whether they have those prepack 'grow your own ginseng root'. Just stick the baby roots to the ground and let it grow? That would be easy...

- Steph

oh my, what a lovely pungent-ness smell

I prepared dinner today! Adrian gotta work in London, so by the time he comes back, we will both be starved. Each time when I am incharge of dinner, it will be 99% that we will be having Chinese meal. Why? I need my rice... tend to feel uneasy if I don't pop some rice into my mouth for more than 3 days. typical chinese girl.

For the vege, I sitr fry the lettuce together with some mushrooms, beancurd and oyster sauce and chinese Shao Hshing wine. I love lettuce but dislike having them for salads. Adrian always munch them raw.. eeee-yak!

As for the meat, I did the Shrimp Paste Chicken, Har Jiong Kai (in Cantonese). This is one of Singaporean’s favourite fried chicken dish. I remember having them quite frequently while working in Spore. This dish is like a must order when I eat in any Tai-chau stall.

I used the Lee Kum Kee's shrimp sauce which I've brought along from Spore. To many Westerners unfamiliar with this condiment, the smell can be extremely repulsive... but to Asians, this stuff are like heaven made.
I used chicken drumsticks instead of the more common used chicken wings.



Really simple -
1. clean the chicken (dont throw away the skin, that's the best part!)
2. marinate them with shrimp sauce and let them sit in the fridge for few hours
3. Coat the chicken with corn flour
4. Open wide the kitchen windows (to let the smell escape or the whole house will smell of shrimp)
5. Fry them till golden brown

and tadaa!

Tender juicy on the inside. Crispy shrimpy taste on the outside. Say hello to my pungent shrimp fried chicken (I can still smell it in my nose) ... and Bye bye to KFC!

- Steph