Shoya Nouvelle Wafu Cuisine

A week ago it was a certain special day for Wk and I so we decided to have a more fancy dinner. I wasn't bothered to go anywhere far and we weren't bothered to go anywhere popular cos it will most likely be crowded, so we picked Shoya. We initially already decided to have the Chef's course meal which is like a set meal, but after looking through the a la carte menu I wanted to try everything! Lol.

For appetisers, we had the Unitama - scrambled egg with sea urchin, topped with fresh salmon caviar. Never had sea urchin before. It was delicious, but don't think there's a lot of sea urchin in there? I don't know. Maybe I was expecting a more significant unfamiliar taste of the sea urchin, which wasn't present. The salmon caviar was good! I've had it once in Malaysia and let me tell you, it sucked. I think maybe because it wasn't fresh, it tasted so 'fishy' that it made me want to puke.

My fancy drink of the night, Shochu Lime Bitters, like Lemon Lime & Bitters but with Shochu. I'm not a fan of alcohol but I love Lemon Lime & Bitters. I like it, it's a little sweet and the alcohol was not overpowering.

For entree we had the Deluxe Entree - premium sashimi cuts served in an ice bowl. How cool looking is that ice bowl?! It was entirely made of ice! And the sashimi was so good too! The cut was excellent, the fish was fresh. You know it's good when it doesn't make you feel sick after eating a few of it, which can be the case for lousy sashimi.

Another entree, good old Chawan Mushi because Wk loves this kind of steamed goodness. Nothing fancy, the egg custard was really soft and smooth. I found it to be a little bland though.

One of the mains we had was Maguro Steak - tuna fillet steak sprinkled with thinly sliced seaweed with special home made sauce. Delicious.

Tempura Moriawase - assorted tempura with prawns and variety of vegetables. Pretty self-explanatory.

Kurobuta Rosu Katsu - breaded black hair (Berkshire) pork loin with sweet red miso and Japanese BBQ sauce. It's delicious but it's not that I can tell the difference in taste between a normal pork and a Berkshire. It's very juicy though, probably because there's a lot of fats in it haha.

Lastly, Dessert Platter of Sea Urchin Cheesecake, Kurogoma Panacotta (sic), and Umeshu Chocolate Cake. This is easily my favourite part of the entire night. Look at the magic in the plate! How can anyone not like desserts?? I especially like how each dessert is accompanied with summer/autumn fruits or nuts.

Umeshu Chocolate Cake with walnuts, almonds, and (I think) chocolate sauce. The chocolate ganache (or mousse?) layer was so smooth and rich. So good!

I was a little hesitant but curious at the same time at the Sea Urchin Cheesecake but the waiter said he likes it so I decided to give it a go. It's served with a variety of berries and a drizzle of cream. So pretty! If you're wondering how it tasted like, well, it tasted just like any cheesecakes. Although I'm still unsure how sea urchin tastes like, I'm sure I didn't taste anything significantly unfamiliar in the cake.

The Kurogoma Panacotta (sic) - black sesame panna cotta covered with soy bean and green tea powder was my fayyyyy-vourite (must accent this word to show my excitement) dessert in the platter. Poeple who know me will know my love for sesame, black or white, I'm not racist HAHA ok not funny. I love panna cotta for a start, I love how bouncy the pudding is with a light, smooth texture. Black sesame panna cotta? GENIUS. And it goes so damn well with the soy bean and matcha powder too, drizzled with caramel and served with autumn fruits such as grapefruit and orange segments, grapes and kiwi.

By the time the dessert platter was served, we were quite stuffed. But we managed to finish everything on the dessert platter because it was that good.

This place is pretty expensive, but for the ambience, service and food quality, it's definitely worth going for a celebratory meal.

NYE 2012

I finally got to know how it feels like working 5 consecutive days in a week. I have only one word for it, EXHAUSTING. I know to most people they'd go, "Pffft work 5 days only complain so much. I work 6 days since forever!" If you come and be in my shoes I bet you won't laugh at me the same way. 

I stand almost all day at work, and not only that, for most of the day I use my entire body strength to give massages, lift heavy towels, brisk walk around (because running looks silly) trying to get everything done on time (one of the most crucial requirements in this field), in short it's very physically demanding to say the least. Some days I don't even have time for toilet breaks, a sip of water or even lunch. On top of that my brain has to constantly be thinking of retailing and rebooking opportunities, how long I can spend on each component of the treatments, what I've got to prepare for my next treatment. And of course not forgetting this is a customer/client-based business, some days you will have to face shitty people and all you can do is give them a punch in your imaginery world but in reality, smile and just suck it in and pray that time goes by as quickly as possible. 

All in all, its both mentally and physically draining. I'm not complaining, I do prefer myself to be constantly moving around rather than sit by a desk all day, just want to point out that doing it 5 days consecutively is really quite a task.

Ok work aside, since the last post was seriously lacking in pictures, here's a post to make up for it. And what's Ee Von's blog without some tantalizing food pictures? :p

On New Year's Eve Maggie and I together with the blokes whipped up a feast! After both disasterous roasts on Christmas Day 2011 and New Years Day 2012, we came to a unanimous decision of NO ROASTS this year lol, just be practical and do some simple dishes. Pipis, snapper, chicken and kailan (Chinese broccoli). 

For those of you who don't know what pipis are, they're basically clams (lala) but slightly bigger and with thicker shells. Quite easy to prepare. It's done when the shells open, just like cooking any other marine molluscs.

Pipis in XO sauce. XO sauce is very flavourful by itself. All we need to do is just saute with some garlic and ginger, add some condiments, then lids on to steam the pipis till they're opened.

Teochew style steamed snapper. The 'fish liquid' is flavoured with the ingredients used in the dish resulting a savoury and sour sauce, not 'fishy' at all. Probably because our fish was fresh. Really easy to prepare too. Spring onion, ginger, fried garlic with garlic oil, pickled mustard, sliced Chinese mushrooms, tomatoes, silken tofu, a dash of soy sauce and sesame oil. Steamed for approximately 10-15 minutes.

This was something I looked forward the most to it tasting really good but in my opinion it tasted the least impressive compared to the others. We were trying to make Clams with Chinese Wine and Ginger but the soup turned out really salty, plus lacking in the wine and ginger aroma. The strange thing is we didn't even season with any salt, but we did use quite a bit of Chinese rice wine and after skimming through the ingredients list, it's predominantly made of rice and salt. Not sure if we're not supposed to cook the wine and instead splash it at the very end of cooking, or not use so much of wine.

San Bei Ji or 3 Cups Chicken, one of my favourite chicken dishes and it's made of whole chicken breasts. I've never liked chicken breasts except for this dish. So tender! I came across this Youtube recipe and it's the best everrrr.

Kailan with oyster sauce. I think these are baby kailan, not sure but these are the more expensive type of kailan compared to the bigger ones. It was soooooo fawesome! (no it's not a typo, the f is there on purpose) Basically the kailan is boiled in sugared water until just cooked (about 30 seconds), then the sauce is drizzled on it. Sauce is made of oyster sauce, light soy, chicken stock, sugar, pepper, fried garlic, sesame oil, Shao Xing wine, water and cornstarch mixture to thicken. They taste exactly like in Chinese restaurants!

And how can a feast be complete without some fancy drinks, right? None of us are into alcohol so we made this mix of ribena, soda water and canned lychees. Perfectly refreshing for summer time!

Ok a picture of myself to take a break from all the food wtf.

 

Fringe has finally grown and I no longer feel like I look stupid with it wtf. Can you see that massive pimple on my right chin near the corner of my mouth? That was one of the worst, angriest pimple I've ever gotten. Obviously I have makeup here so it doesn't look that horrible. It was so massive and red but it wouldn't erupt at all for 2 solid weeks. I've erm... taken care of matters and now the bump is cleared of nasty organisms leaving behind what looks like a scar, which has been there for a week. T_T Hate how these scars stay forever.

Ok last picture!

Maggie made some buns and gave me some. The top 2 are Japanese Coconut Custard Buns and the bottom is obviously Po Lor Bao (Pineapple Buns). If you've never had Po Lor Bao you're seriously missing out. So yummy! I mean both Po Lor Bao in general and her buns. We were both discussing about our woes of our Kitchenaid heating up whenever we knead bread doughs. Silai betul. And her breadmaking craze got me interested too! Made something yesterday but I think that's enough of food pictures for today, will blog about my bread in the next post.

Ok time to do some chores. How sad. Doing chores on my day off work T_T

Que Sera Sera, what ever will be, will be.

2012 Achievements:

1. Became a qualified beauty therapist.

As I have mentioned before, I did a Diploma of Beauty Therapy. I finished the course in August after a year and 2 months of ripping hair off people's vajayjay, armpits, legs, face, cleaning their faces, fingers and feet, and stroking their full body... no not in a sexual way. Its funny how as someone who has never stepped into a beauty salon or gotten a massage in her entire life, decided to pick up the course. Gotta say it's interesting and I didn't regret a single bit of it :)

2. Became a permanent resident.

And it happened on Valentine's Day! The timing just couldn't get anymore perfect. After years of planning, it finally happened. Nothing much changed, but it certainly opened a lot of doors for future planning.  

3.  We've hit one decade.

It's scary but amazing too how quickly time passes by. Looking back, who would have thought we would be here in a suburb in Melbourne, sitting next to each other in our little cosy apartment, relaxing after a hearty home-cooked dinner we whipped up together?

4. I am employed.

Yes, finally, as a beauty therapist. The search was frustrating and disheartening at times, but I'm glad it came to an end when my employment was confirmed. Really, seeking for a job is all about luck. You need the skills too, but probably only 30%, the rest is all luck. I'm sorry if it comes of as discouraging but that's just life. It's been only 2 months and I'm still in a probationary period though. I shall elaborate on it once I'm out of the period.

5. Goals

Out of 8 goals/resolution I've set last year, I'm super happy to report that I've achieved 7 out of them! I couldn't even remember all these goals I've set for myself until I looked back at my blog archives. Things tend to happen when you're not stressing over them don't they?

I've learned:

1. To have self control and save money.

Coming here and leaving all the convenience I had in Malaysia has definitely made me so much more disciplined when it comes to money. I'm not the best at it, like I don't think I can be a stingy arse or only shop in thrift stores or only buy reduced price groceries, but I'm so much more disciplined now. I go to Asos.com, I see so many things I like and saved them in my cart, at the end of the day I don't buy them because I know I don't need them. I call it window shopping at home, haha. Besides, I don't have the space to buy so many stuff anyway.

2. The art of selling.

Being a music teacher in the past, I have never had to sell a single item until I started helping out at my dad's shop. We do framing and glass work services and we sell paintings. I hated doing sales, SO. FREAKING. MUCH. And I stink at it. I hate it when I have to pretend to know the stuff and promote the product, or when people ask for discounts (MAJOR HATE, damn hagglers) or free delivery etc. Being a beauty therapist, we're required to retail the products. Its slightly different because with beauty, I know what I'm talking about and I know what to recommend, and you can't bargain for these sort of products (YES!). And when they actually buy something, oh gosh that sense of reward is priceless. Slowly but surely, I'm getting there.  

3. That hard work pays off.

It's true and it applies in every single situation. I know I said looking for a job is all about luck, but without the effort to actually look for it, you'd end up with nothing anyway. When I was studying, eventhough it was only a diploma, I did and gave my best in everything. And I dare say that's exactly how I landed myself in this job. If I had not been serious in it, I wouldn't have gotten good testimonials from my instructors, I wouldn't have gotten recommendation from a friend who's working there.

4. That being a beauty therapist is not easy!

Honestly I've never thought that being a beauty therapist involves so much of knowledge as well as stamina. I don't know about Malaysia, but when I'm working an 8 hour shift, it's 7.25 hours of standing (unless it's a facial or mani/pedi), 45 minutes are all you get for break where you can sit down, eat and think about nothing. That being said, I'm not complaining as I prefer this over sitting by a desk for 8 hours for the rest of my life. Being in the industry myself has definitely changed my thoughts and views on beauty therapists.

5. To let go.

As much as I would love to continue living in the world of music, I know that I'm not young, I need to pay bills, I need a retirement fund, and I need to secure my future. And I don't see all of this happening if I were to teach music or do anything related to music (with my fading experience). It's funny how having learned and taught music all my life couldn't even get me a job but a little diploma course has managed to get me a job that gave me the capability of paying bills and supporting myself. In the past I've told myself and everyone else "music is my passion, I will do it in the future". Pfffft. How silly. Nobody knows the future. I'm letting the thought of doing music go for now, but the experience will always be a part of me that I'm proud of. Que sera sera, what ever will be will be, the future's not ours to see.

This year I shall:

1. Be positive.

So many times I've allowed myself to dwell in so much of negativity whether it's at school, searching for a job, or at work. Fortunately I have someone who's always there to pull me out of it and inject as much positivity into me as he can, and continuously reminds me of all the positive things that exist along with the negative.

2. Save more money.
Because everything is about money when you get older.

3. Buy a piano.

Eventhough I stopped learning to play the piano many many years ago, I still find myself going back to it and just casually playing some pieces. It's really therapeutic (if you don't play the virtuosic ones of course) and relaxing, something I tend to do when I feel stressed. I've never realised how important is its presence until I moved to Melbourne, leaving my good old companion behind back in Malaysia. I really do miss getting my fingers dancing on the keys of a piano.

4. Stay healthy.

Exercise, eat healthy, and get a health cover. Because nobody gets healthier as they get older.

5. BLOG MORE.
I really do miss the feeling of being able to type on and on about a simple day I've gone through, or a funny encounter, or just any kind of random events. Sad to say I'm slowly losing that ability. Probably because as you get older you just tend to not give a shit? Haha. I like how I have all these stories or thoughts saved in my archive and whenever I feel like I want to relive or remember what happened, I can just look back into my archives. I really want to be able to write like there's no tomorrow again.

***

Ooh I managed to do everything in 5... what a coincidence. No... totally planned it. Anyway, anyone's still reading this lousy blog? Haha. Share with me your resolution/goal/whatever. Would love to know what people like to say they'll do but never end up doing LOL. No just kidding. Have an awesome 2013.

Cafe Latte

Last Saturday after a long day at work Wk and I went for dinner with Maggie and Kai Mun at Rockwell & Sons. Food's great, had a good time. On the way back late that night, Wk was telling me about the next day (my birthday)'s plans. He said he's booked a table at Squires Loft for dinner, it's a place we went to on my birthday last year. He also bought movie tickets in this Rooftop Cinema place in the city. He hasn't planned for anytime before dinner so he said we could maybe have brunch then head out to the mall and I could 'pick' my present.

I knew he's busy with work and I should be happy that at least there's a plan but I'd be telling a lie if I say I wasn't a little disappointed. I was disappointed with the restaurant choice as I was hoping we could try some new place? Also I really didn't quite like the idea of 'picking' my present. That means no element of surprise. Well the entire plan has no surprise to it, I knew what we're doing, when and where we're going, and what I'm getting. 

Anyway, I didn't say much about it. He's made the effort to plan so I told myself that I should appreciate it. 

So back in our apartment, I was in the bathroom taking off my makeup and doing my skincare routine when the power suddenly went off. It was pitch black. I called out for Wk and he said he's coming. I didn't know what he was doing outside the room, but after about 2 minutes the power came back. So I continued with my moisturiser and stuff and 1 minute later, the power went off again! And again I called out for him and suddenly I heard him singing the birthday song, and I saw glimmering light approaching... it was Wk holding something with a lit candle stuck on it. As he approached me I could see it was a little macaron.

:')

So he turned off the power just so that he could surprise me with this! The first time he turned off the power, he was holding the candle but it went off before he could get to me. He tried to lit it back by using the fire on the stove but because there was no power, the stove wouldn't turn on LOL! So that's why he had to turn the power back on, lit the candle, and turn it off again.

And I thought that was it! But he told me it wasn't. He said initially there's a cake, but the cake 'collapsed'. I couldn't make sense of what he meant by 'collapsed', it sounded as though he baked a cake (*gasp* how bizarre!) and the cake collapsed. But anyway, because the cake failed him, he decided to get macarons.

He was trying to show me the 'collapsed' cake so I followed him out to the kitchen, when he said, "This is what the cake collapsed into", pointing at THIS

This was exactly how I looked like when I saw it, possibly bigger mouth and eyes.

I did mention a lot of times (a lot is probably an understatement...) that I'd love to have a Kitchenaid someday but I've never ever meant it as a hint because it's such an expensive appliance! I've even planned to get it next year once I've saved up for it. Looks like the money can be used on other things now ;)

This wasn't the only thing which shocked me. He actually HAND CARRIED the Kitchenaid home all the way from city! And we don't even have a car so it's train rides and walking!

This is not just A standmixer, it is a heavy duty stand mixer weighing almost 12kg. Sure you can easily lift it off the floor, but to carry it all the way home is just crazy! He told me his arms were aching and fingers all numb already. Poor guy :')

Anyway, there really was a cake which 'collapsed'.

So he went and bought this birthday cupcake for me from The Cupcake Family and on the way back, the cake toppled. He was so angry of what happened because it's not as though he knocked or dropped the box of cake anywhere, it wasn't placed in a car or bicycle. It was held in his hands all the way and he tried to be as careful as possible but the cake still inevitably toppled. Obviously the design of the packaging was just ridiculously bad. There wasn't anything strong enough to hold the base of the cake, and to sell something like that is just horrible. What's the use of it being all pretty but not being able to withstand a little bit of travelling?

Because this cake failed, he decided to get the macarons as a backup plan. He even bought them from one of my favourite places :)

Here's how the undamaged side of the cake looks like:



Anyway, when I knew he went all the way to get all these, I was speechless and too happy already. I couldn't be bothered with the smashed side of the cake. The cake looks beautiful, everything looks beautiful, life is beautiful :D

First, the macaron. Then Kitchenaid. Then this cake! Triple surprises!

Ok so this is what MY KITCHENAID (muahaha finally get to say this) looks like on the kitchen benchtop.



If you think the colour is white, oh no you're wrong. Hehe.

I initially did wanted either the White or Almond colour, until I saw THIS!

IT SHIMMERSSSSS!!!

The colour is called Cafe Latte which sounds pretty silly because it's NOTHING like a latte, unless they're trying to compare it to the colour of milk. I'd say it's more of a pearly, metallic-y white. And also, this doesn't come with the standard stainless steel bowl, this is part of a new collection which all come with this clear glass bowl. The only downside to the bowl is its weight in comparison to the stainless steel bowl but other than that, the best part is you can see right through it. You don't have to peek at your mixture from the top of the bowl. You can stand 5 feet away and still be able to see your mixture. Can you do that with stainless steel? ...Yes, if you're a mutant with xray eyes.

Ok enough bragging about my birthday hehe :P I'm still sooooo excited about it! Part of me can't wait to use it, but part of me just wants to keep it brand new and is just paranoid that I'll damage it if I start using it hahaha how stupid.

A new beginning

I'm seriously losing this whole blogging mojo :( from 4 updates in a month, to 2, to now a pathetic 1. Anywaaaaaay.

Don't really have anything in particular to blog about so I'll just put some pictures and elaborate on them since people these days don't seem to bother reading anyway, most people tend to scroll through and stop at pictures that interest them the most. Correct or not correct or not?? You're lying if you say no. I know because I'm like that wtf.

Recently bought 2 new pairs of Converse shoes. Just thought I could use a pair of hipster-ish sneakers :P Seriously, all I have are sandals, flip flops, boots, heels and a pair of Nike running shoes. Obviously I NEED not one, but TWO pairs of sneakers. Wk got a pair for himself too.

 This is one of the best things that happened lately :) I'll elaborate next time!

Made buttermilk pancakes with bananas, hazelnuts, maple syrup and a side of vanilla icecream. Buttermilk pancakes are so yummy and they're so easy to make! No need to rest the batter, no need to mix till the batter is smooth. Lately I've been trying to eat healthy so I've been trying to cut off foods high in sugar and fats e.g. icecream. But alas, I succumbed. The pancakes with only the bananas and hazelnuts were too dry. If I were to choose whether to have more maple syrup or icecream, definitely icecream! The taste of vanilla, hazelnuts and banana go well together. Plus the combination of warm pancakes and cold icecream...mmm.

Yesterday we went to DFO because I wanted to get myself a pair of shoes which I can wear for work. Yes in case you didn't know, you need a pair of new shoes for every freaking occassion, my bestfriend Esther Toh taught me that tee hee. No but really, I needed a new pair cos I'll be standing a lot so I definitely wanted a good comfy, solid pair that'll last. What was supposed to be 1 pair of shoes, turned into TWO pairs, 2 tops (3 tops for Wk) and a grill pan =_____= 

Anyway no pictures of the shoes because they look really boring wtf. They're from Supersoft by Diana Ferari. Diana Ferari is probably the only place with good working shoes in terms of comfort, quality and design and they're affordable. It was an outlet so everything was discounted, not that cheap but since the shoes felt really good, I think they're worth it.

Why 2 pairs? Because I need to spend that extra money wtf. No lah. Wk picked out the 2nd pair and I really liked it too, so had to get it. HAD TO GET IT - there's no better excuse.

We've been wanting a grill pan for a while now and since there was a little promotion at Matchbox, we decided to get it. It completes the set of cookware we're having at the moment, Jamie Oliver by Tefal. This grill pan came with a cookbook by Jamie Oliver! Can't wait to try out the recipes!

This was one of the tops I got yesterday. It's a russet knit from Country Road and it was discounted heavily! Only $20! It's currently spring here in Melbourne but sometimes it gets cold when the weather decides to have PMS or something. So having an extra knitwear is definitely handy. Check out the length. Kind of like the high-low/dip back type of thingie that's really in style now. I thought that was quite interesting.

Woke up this morning wanted to have my bowl of cereal and saw this. ISN'T THIS THE MOST ANNOYING THING EVER?!? It was impossible for me to get my cereal out into my bowl without it spilling everywhere. All thanks to a certain someone who refused to use the freaking scissors to cut it open, but decided rip the shit out of it. Maybe the scissors was inconveniently stored you may guess?

Tell me it's inconvenient. Tell me it's inconvenient and I'll bitchslap you. (Of course I can't but I would love to)

Ok that's it for now. Time to hit the sack. It's Melbourne Cup Day tomorrow. I don't give a shit what day it is but it's a holiday and that's all that matters :D We're heading out to get some stuffs early, Wk thinks I won't be able to wake up. I shall prove him wrong.

Pandan Snow Skin Mooncake

I know the Mid-Autumn (Mooncake) Festival has just passed, I still think this post is obligatory. Simply because I'm the boss of my kitchen, I can make mooncakes whenever I want :P

So last Sunday was 八月十五 (15th day of the 8th Chinese lunar month), the actual day of this festival and incidentally was the day Maggie and I decided to make these Snow Skin Mooncakes.

I used to first make mooncakes when I was 16. It was a little time consuming making it myself, but it was a very rewarding experience. I stopped making because I got lazy, until I came to Melbourne where mooncakes are ridiculously priced, which made me want to make them again. Traditionally mooncakes are moulded with a wooden mooncake mould, with intricate carvings in them. Recently I saw a Youtube video on how to make mooncakes and I saw these plastic mooncake moulds in the forms of cookie presses! How brilliant!

They are brilliant because 

- they're easy to clean

- they're easy to use

- they're light in weight

- there's no erm... violent knocking involved, just press and push!

I'm not even exaggerating when I call it violent. You knock the shit out of the mould to get the mooncake out. With that strength and how solid the mooncake mould is, you can easily knock someone out :o

When I went back Malaysia and went baking supplies shopping I saw them! I quickly grabbed a few of course. They were pretty cheap! RM 7.50 each for the mini ones. And because they're plastic and not wood, I didn't even need to declare when I went through customs in Melbourne airport. 

In case anyone didn't know, Melbourne, or Australia in general, is really strict with incoming goods particularly food and wooden items - even a tiny key chain made of wood. You're allowed to bring them in, you just have to declare. If you don't and they find out you didn't, when you were informed that you have to in the first place, you will be fined. If you declare, it doesn't mean they won't let you keep it. They'll check it and make sure it's of the standards they want before they let you keep it. It's a different queue, it takes more time, which is a hassle so I usually won't want to bother myself with it.

Back to the mooncakes.

You see that little tool at the top? That's the plastic mooncake press. It comes with a plunger, so all you have to do is put your mooncake 'ball' into the mould, press, and push the plunger to release the moulded mooncake.

Back in the days when I used to make the skin for snow skin mooncakes, I used a recipe which uses Koh Fun (Cooked Glutinous Rice Flour), sugar, water and shortening. And it tasted weird not in a good way. I suspect it's the taste of shortening. I use shortening to make puff pastry but that's cooked and it tastes awesome. Snow skin mooncakes made with Koh Fun and shortening are not cooked, they're mixed and rolled into a dough and that's it. Technically you're eating the shortening raw. Eww..

But at that time I didn't bother searching for other variations of the recipe until I saw this video recently, which uses a method that's different: steaming. I had to resort to this method anyway because I couldn't source any Koh Fun in Melbourne. I could dry-fry some glutinous rice flour to produce Koh Fun, but then again I hated the taste of that recipe I used to use so nah.

This was the video I initially saw:

 

When it's a Hongkie or an old, Cantonese speaking woman teaching you how to do it, you know it's legit :D

So anyway, I didn't use her recipe because I found this one that's pandan flavoured. I think either one will work. Hongkie lady's recipe uses coconut milk though. This one uses pandan juice which can be substituted. I figured that you can replace it with any other flavoured liquid you like e.g. juices but take note with the sugar content.

Pandan Snow Skin Mooncake Recipe

Adapted from: Christine's Recipe

Yield: 16 mini mooncakes (70 grams each)

Skin

• 55 gm glutinous rice flour
• 45 gm rice flour
• 25 gm wheat flour / wheat starch
• 60 gm caster sugar
• 230 ml milk
• 30 ml condensed milk
• 25 ml vegetable oil (anything pale, with bland flavour)
• 2 to 3 drops of pandan paste  

Filling

• Any paste of your preference, around 720-750gm. You can find these in Asian grocers, or baking supply stores. To make your own, simply google for recipes.

To coat:

• 3 tbsp glutinous rice flour, to be cooked**

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients (except for the 2 tbsp of glutinous rice flour**) in a bowl, and all of the wet ingredients in a separate bowl/cup.
2. Pour the wet ingredients mixture slowly into the dry ingredients and stir till combined. Lightly rub oil onto a heatproof, shallow bowl/plate. Sieve the mixture into the bowl.
3. Steam the mixture over medium-high heat, for about 15 minutes. 
4. While steaming, place the 3tbsp of glutinous rice flour** in a pan without oil. Fry over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. When smoke releases and the flour turns light yellow, it’s cooked. Remove from the heat and leave to cool completely. Use this to coat mooncakes later.
5. To test if the mixture is cooked, touch and pinch a little of the mixture to taste. If it feels solid, doesn’t have any raw flour taste, it’s cooked through. If not, continue steaming. Remove from wok and let it cool slightly. 
6. When dough is cool enough to be handled, scrape the dough out onto a plastic board or a kitchen bench top lined with cling wrap. Or you can put it into a heavy duty plastic bag like in the video. Lightly knead it until a smooth dough is formed. 
7. Depending on the size of your mould, you will need to work out how much skin and filling you need to make one mooncake. I used 25gm for the skin, and 45gm for the filling.
8. Roll the skin and its filling into a round shape, according to its respective weight.
9. Flatten the skin dough with a rolling pin (best to use a French style pin) and wrap the filling. Lightly coat with the cooked glutinous rice flour and shake off any excess flour. 
10. Press to push the mooncake into the mould, lay the mould on a flat surface and push the plunger firmly to print the pattern. Then gently release the mooncake. 
11. Store the mooncakes in an air-tight container. Put kitchen towel on top of the mooncakes to prevent moisture from soaking them. 

Notes:

• For steaming, the bigger and more shallow your bowl is, the more spread out the mixture and the faster it will cook. So steaming time depends on this factor. Ours took only about 10 minutes.
• The total weight of your mooncake should be engraved somewhere on the mould. Mine was supposed to be a 63gm mould and I felt that there's still space to fit more dough, so I stretched the weight to 70gm. If you're not sure, test with the skin dough by stuffing it into the mould (remember to coat with cooked glutinous rice flour to prevent sticking) and see how much you can fit. 
• The ratio depends on your preference. Some like more filling, some like it balanced. I did around 1:3, skin to filling. The lesser skin you use, the more filling you're going to need, the more mooncakes you'll be able to make with this recipe. And vice versa.
• Roll the ball into a slightly oblong shape so that it's easier to be placed into the mooncake mould.  Make sure the part where the skin connects (or I like to call it the 'ugly' part) is at the base of the mooncake. 
• Best eaten within the day. Once you store it in the fridge, the skin gets hard. 

We tried to make this custard filling that's apparently really popular in Hong Kong. I guess the recipe we used was just bad. The custard turned out really chewy instead of paste-like? And the custard was so soft that the mooncakes weren't able to retain it's shape. They looked like... green pumpkins wtf. It tasted alright but I think that sort of consistency isn't suitable for something like mooncakes. Probably better for a bun or something.

Apart from that, I absolutely love the taste of the skin! :D Finally something that tastes like the real deal!

The technique used and texture produced is similar to mochi, soft and smooth. The pandan flavour is light, not too overpowering so you get that slight fragrance but the filling stands out more. In her recipe it says to use pandan juice. We weren't bothered to get/do it so we replaced it with milk, as she suggested. Tasted fine.

That's it. This recipe will stick with me forever. No more Koh Fun and shortening crap.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Pandan Chiffon Cake... ahh. One of my favourite things to eat when my mom buys one back from pasar malam/local bakery. If you haven't tried Pandan Chiffon Cake, you're missing out big time.

So for the past month I have been researching about this cake. I was looking at countless recipes, hoping to find one that is foolproof and delicious because baking is not cheap, I don't want to be wasting my ingredients on a cake that sucks. Then I found this Youtube video:

 

 

The end result looked promising so I went to her blog and decided to use her recipe. Her Pandan Chiffon Cake post doesn't only contain the recipe, she included lots of info you need to know in order to bake a good Pandan Chiffon Cake too. How can anyone not love bloggers like that? 

Since she got the recipe from another blogger, I went to the other blogger's post. Once again, the blog post contains a massive amount of info you cannot do without if you want to bake a good Pandan Chiffon Cake. This is why you don't need recipe books or go for cooking classes these days.

I highly recommend reading their posts if you're serious about making not just a Pandan Chiffon Cake, but a GOOD Pandan Chiffon Cake. I cannot give them enough of credits for putting so much of info in their blog posts for just a cake. All credits go to the both of them; kitchen tigress and i eat. i shoot. i post. I used the latter's recipe (the blogger's a doctor by the way, I've never thought that doctors can bake! :P) because my chiffon tin was a large one so it's just easier to use his. Kitchen tigress adapted his recipe to fit a 21 inch chiffon tin, which is a lot smaller.

First of all before everything, you need to think about the pandan flavour. There are 2 options: natural or artificial. For artificial flavourings, there's pandan essence (usually colourless) and pandan paste (a deep green). Nothing wrong with using artificial flavourings, in fact it gives a stronger pandan flavour, and richer green if you use the paste. I chose the natural version which is of course using real pandan leaves but the green turned out really faint. The flavour's there but definitely not strong, but I still liked it. Real pandan leaves are mildly fragrant anyway. It's all about that rewarding feeling when you know you've made it from scratch.

If you choose to use artifical flavourings, you can skip the next part of this post and go strainght to the recipe.

In Melbourne, you can find pandan leaves in Little Saigon Market in Footscray. There's only 1 shop which sells it though, the one nearest to Sun Wong Kee restaurant. I got mine for $2.50/bunch of about 15 leaves. 

Then of course you need to extract the 'juice' from those fragrant leaves. From the Youtube video it shows clearly how to do it. You can blitz it with a blender, food processor or a stick blender. If you don't have either, you can pound it with mortar and pestle but... why would anyone go through such torment? Get a blender! They're really useful in the kitchen. 

It's a really clever idea to blend the leaves WITH coconut milk, because then you're not diluting it but instead you're infusing the coconut milk with the pandan extract. I would highly suggest using this method.

I didn't do that because my pandan leaves which I've kept for days in the fridge was not looking good anymore and I knew I had to do something with it pronto or they will go bad. But I wasn't sure if I was gonna bake anytime soon, if I extracted the leaves with my coconut milk and left it there they might go bad TOGETHER, which is even worse.

So I extracted the leaves the conventional way which is to blitz it with water. I found this technique in Wendy's blog post to obtain a concentrated version of pandan juice. Brilliant!

Basically you blitz it with some water. You'll know how much you need because without water, the blades won't be able to blend properly so add slowly until everything is moving constantly. Once you get a fine paste, squeeze and strain the juice. Leave the juice for a few hours to a day and what happens is the chlorophyll will settle to the bottom, and you'll see 2 layers of the juice. The bottom layer is a deep, forest green while the top layer is a translucent greenish (sometimes brownish) colour. I scooped out the translucent layer as much as I can and only used the bottom layer. The chlorophyll is the component which gives your cake that green tint, the extract itself has that mild pandan fragrance.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

Adapted from: kitchen tigress, i eat. i shoot. i post

Mould: 25/26 cm

A:

Corn Oil 115ml

Coconut Milk 140 ml

Condensed Milk 2 tbsp

Pandan Juice 2 tbsp (Or paste/essence 2 tsp)

Salt 1/4tsp

B:

Cake Flour 200gm

Baking Powder 2tsp

C:
Egg Yolks 6

Castor Sugar 65gm

D:

Egg White 9

Castor Sugar 95gm

Cream of Tartar 1 tsp (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180°C, or 160-170°C if fan-forced.

2. Mix A together except for salt, strain, then add salt. Set aside.

3. Mix B together, sift, and set aside.

4. Beat C until thick and pale. (It took me 5 minutes)

5. Add A into C and beat till incorporated, then add B and continue beating till incorporated.

6. Beat/whisk egg whites till foamy, add cream of tartar and beat till soft peaks form. Add sugar a little at a time while continuously beating until stiff peaks form.

7. Fold in D into the C mixture in 3 portions.

8. Pour into an unlined and ungreased chiffon tin, smooth out the top and bake for 45-55 minutes, depending on size of mould.

9. When cake is done, invert it and leave it elevated from the surface and leave to cool completely.

10. To remove cake, run a spatula/knife along the sides and base of the tin carefully.

* I started off at 165°C. My cake was cracking like nobody's business, so I turned down the temperature to 160°C.

 

* Instead of baking it at 55 minutes as suggested, I did only 45 and the cake was perfectly cooked. That could probably be due to the larger tin I used, (26cm, recipe uses 25cm) the batter is more spread out.

* Cake/Low protein flour is necessary. I used all purpose flour once for another chiffon cake and the cake was dry and 'cakey', not soft like chiffon.

* I used to ignore the use of cream of tartar, but I won't anymore because it does make a difference.

* I used condensed milk because someone commented that the use of it gives a better texture/taste. Not sure if it does make a difference but I'm really happy with the outcome of this recipe.

* I didn't use vanilla essence. It's a pandan chiffon cake and I like it to smell only like pandan.

This is what you get when you rush to remove the cake from the tin =.= Take your time when running your knife at the base to get that perfect, brown layer.

As you can see, it doesn't have that type of green you see in most chiffon cakes you buy at the bakery. If compared with kitchen tigress's chiffon cake, the colour of her cake is more saturated than mine, considering we both use natural pandan juice. The only explaination I can think of is her pandan leaves are most probably nicer, the freshly plucked from the garden type while mine were old.

But I'm not complaining as I am really happy with the taste. If there's one word to describe this cake, it's soft. It's soft in almost every aspect; colour, flavour, texture. It's different from the pasar malam/asian bakery ones but I still like it. It's soft, pillowy... like eating clouds.