Homemade Flour Tortillas and Some Wraps

Remember i said that i'm going to share a few breakfast recipes with all of you, this is one of them. Well, of course you can have tortilla wraps for lunch or anytime of the day. I've made tortilla a few times, the first one being posted here last year. I made them several times later again but didnt put it up cos the tortillas were a bit out of shape, you see, i'm not good at shaping the tortilla round. Actually i'm thinking of getting a tortilla press as i'm typing this now. Few weeks ago, i made tortillas again and okay, they look round, not perfect round but thinner than the previous times. i think tortillas are so versatile that you can stuff in whatever fillings you like to make rolls, quesadillas, sandwiches or you can just dip them in some savoury or curry dish just like the way you eat chappati.

Recipe for homemade tortillas ( taken from here )
2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup warm water

Method:
1.In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour and salt. Add oil and warm water, stirring to combine.  Transfer dough into a lightly floured surface and knead for 3 minutes until dough is smooth. Divide dough into 10 equal pieces and roll each piece into ball. Allow to rest, covered with plastic wrap for 30 minutes.
2.Once dough has rested, preheat cast iron skillet over medium high heat ( i used a flat griddle ) . Roll out each ball into a circle, about 6 inches in diameter.Cook one at a time in the hot skillet, flipping half way through, when it starts to puff and a few brown spots have appeared on the first side. Remove from skillet.

p/s the author advised not to use non stick pan as the non stick pan may not get as hot as the cast iron skillet. I used a flat griddle and am quite happy with this. I used some other recipes previously using a non stick pan and they were okay.


If you are not keen or find it a hassle to make your own tortillas., you can always get the ready made ones from stores. I'm showing here 2 different types of fillings which i made; one is breaded chicken with egg mayonnaise with some leaves and another one is lighter, just ham with some veggies and sprouts. No exact amount of some of the ingredients used, just an idea.

Breaded chicken with egg mayonnaise wraps
4 pieces of chicken fillets, striped. Season them with salt for 10 minutes, Coat them with cake flour, dredge them over beaten egg and finally coat them with dry breadcrumbs . Pan fry them in a non stick pan, letthem cook till fully brown on one side before turning over to cook the other side.
Mashed an hard boiled egg with couple of spoonfuls of mayonnaise and one spoon of dijon mustard and spread them on tortillas. Put the breaded chicken, some lettuce, chopped celery, capsicum  in the center of tortilla and roll up

Ham with veggies and sprout wraps
Spread the tortilla with some mayonnaise or mashed avocado, top with slices ham, capsicum, purple cabbage and sprouts, sprinkle with some black pepper. Roll and cut them into smaller rolls if you want.

Bake Along #17 - Cherry Vanilla Tea Cake with Vanilla Sugar

Another week to go before the Chinese Lunar New Year ends on the 6th Feb, 2012. For the past one week, i didnt really go out that much except meeting up with a few close friends and to a wedding dinner. No party, no drinking , no karaoke, no mahjong but good, still contended. Also didnt really cook that much but has been baking quite a bit..some breads and thinking of some breakfast ideas which i share in the next or two posts.
As for now, cherry vanilla teacake. Joyce, Zoe and myself have decided to bake this cake for our bake along this time. I like the texture of the cake very much, soft with moist crumbs and the cherries complement well with the cake, not very sweet and not too rich. The sugar topping on top is vanilla sugar, i was expecting it to melt into the cake but it didnt , maybe it got a little cool when i sprinkled that on top. Nevertheless, i still claimed that it's a very nice teacake. The recipe below is half of the original recipe, baked in a 7" round cake tin.

For our next bake along on Feb13, we will be baking Red Velvet cupcakes in conjunction with Valentines Day. You can use any red velvet cupcakes recipes of your choice , post it and link it back to one of our blogs. Thanks!

Recipe: ( from Bon Appetit Desserts )
93gms cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
57gm butter, at room temperature
80gm sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup canned pitted dark cherries, halved, drained

For sprinkling
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1tbsp sugar
2 tbsps powdered sugar
( i used vanilla sugar)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 177C. Lightly butter and flour a 7 " diameter baking tin with 2 inch high sides.
2.Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl until well blended. Add egg, beating well and blend in vanilla extract.
3.Transfer 1 tablespoon dry ingredients to small bowl. At low speed, beat half of the remaining dry ingredients into butter mixture, then mix in sour cream . Beat in remaining half of dry ingredients . Mix cherries into reserved 1 tablespoons dry ingredients, fold cherries into batter.
4.Spoon batter into prepared tin, smooth top. Bake until tester inserted into center of the cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer cake to rack and cool for 10 minutes. Remove cake from springform tin if using or invert cake onto plate.
5. If you do not have vanilla sugar, using a small knife, scrap seeds from vanilla bean into small bowl, mix in 1 tbsp sugar, rubbing with fingertips to distribute seeds, add powdered sugar and rub again. Sift vanilla sugar over hot cake and cool.

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

hi, i thought of wanting to make another post before Chinese New Year but just a lil lazy of doing it now, maybe next week. Not really that busy for me, think i will just sit and watch a movie after this. I would like to wish all my chinese readers and blogger friends and those who are celebrating a very Happy Chinese New Year and may the dragon brings us all good health and abundance of happiness , love and prosperity!! Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Sweet Potatoes Muffins or Huat Koh

If anyone looking for a kind of huat koh (发糕) lookalike but doesnt taste like huat koh, then maybe you would like to try this. It's a nice recipe, original recipe uses pumpkin but i replaced it with sweet potatoes. Now the best thing about this recipe is not that it blossoms and rises so well, it is the smiling cracks that greet you upon opening the lid of the steamer. Dont you like it when you see those cakes smiling back at you? You need not make a cut across the dough to get the crack and it's good to eat too. Sweet and not like some traditional huat kohs, where some tasted quite yeasty. Try it.

if you 're making this for cny, do not use the white cupcake liners like mine..colourful ones preferably! 

Recipe ( adapted from Wendy, original source from Aunty Yochana  with slight changes )
125gm steamed orange sweet potatoes flesh
1 egg

120gm sugar
120gm milk
30gm vegetable oil
180gm cake flour
20gm rice flour
1.5 tsp baking powder

Method:
1. Prepare your steamer and bring water to a boil.
2. Blend steamed sweet potatoes, egg, sugar, milk and vegetable oil till it becomes a smooth paste.
3.Sift cake flour, rice flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl.
4.Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the blended ingredients into the well. Mix until well combined.
5.Spoon into lined steaming cups or cupcake liners and steam on high heat for 15 minutes.

Mushroom Garden

I do not know what to name this dish so i just simply call it ' mushroom garden'. There are 3 types of mushroom here; chinese mushroom, shimeji mushroom and Bai Ling mushroom. I tried to look at the can for the english name of this bailing mushroom but there isnt any, it just states as bailing mushroom. It's my first time cooking this mushroom, i've seen it in a magazine sometime back..something like this dish so i wanted to try bailing mushroom. After cutting it looks like slices of abalone..the fake abalone..quite tasteless.  As i've have some anchovies stock and shimeji mushrooms left from my simple noodle lunch, i just went ahead and cooked this. If i were to cook this during chinese new year, i probably would use chicken broth, i think this would taste much better using chicken broth. There are 3 pieces of bailing mushrooms in the can, i just used one..you can also use some other variety of mushrooms like straw mushrooms or the whole button mushrooms if you wish and the quantity is really up to you. Now what am i going to do with the 2 pieces left in the can? i  guess just dump it again for my next noodles and eat with chilli or else just keep it till CNY next week and cook it.

Recipe
Ingredients
8 pieces chinese mushrooms, soaked till soft and drained
1 piece of bailing mushrooms, cut into slices
just a small bunch of shimeji mushrooms, washed and cleaned
140gm brocolli , cut into florets
150ml anchovies/chicken broth

bai ling mushroom

Seasoning
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
little dark soya sauce for colouring
salt to taste
chicken powder( optional)
cornflour solution, for thickening ( 1 tsp cornflour + 2 tbsp water)

Method:
1. Blanch the broccoli under boiling water in the pot till they are tender. Remove.
2. Using the same boiling water, blanch the bailing mushrooms just for a minute ( i dont think it's necessary but i did that). Remove.
3. In a wok, pour in the stock, let it boil and put in the oyster sauce, sesame oil, dark soya sauce and taste. You can add in some chicken powder here if you are using.
4. Put in all the mushrooms and let them cook under medium heat for about 8-10 minutes. Taste and add salt if necessary. Pour in the cornflour solution, stir for about few seconds and off the fire.
5. You can then arrange them on a plate and pour the sauce all over.

Will be submitting this post to the Aspiring Bakers Event#15 : Auspicious Chinese Dishes for CNY( January 2012 ) hosted by Wen from Wen's Delight

Black Sesame Brownies

i like the aroma of black sesame, its nutty aroma and smells tantalizing. When i came across this black sesame brownies recipe here, i thought this is pretty interesting. Brownies are always a very american thing to me and black sesame i believe it's more commonly used by asians, i also see soya sauce in this brownies recipe which the author said that it's a substitution for salt ..hmm..so i am very eager to find out how do these black sesame brownies actually taste like. Okay, they are very aromatic, some members of my family like it , i wouldnt say i love these a lot cos i  find  the taste a little buttery for my liking despite its nice cakey texture, i probably prefer a black sesame chiffon.

Recipe ( adapted from Green Cilantro  with minor changes) makes one small loaf
Ingredients:
80gm unsalted butter, room temperature
30gm sugar
2 egg yolks
40gms black sesame paste
1/4 tsp soya sauce
1 egg white
10gm caster sugar
pinch of cream of tartar
50gm cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp black sesame seeds , for sprinkling

Method:
1. In a bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer on low, until it lightens in colour and texture, then add 30gms of sugar and carefully combine.
2.Add in the yolk one by one, making sure to fully blend into the mixture before each addition.
3.Add the black sesame paste and soya sauce into the mixture.
4.In another clean bowl, beat the egg whites with cream of tartar for 2 minutes, then add the remaining sugar ( 10gm) and beat till the egg white is fluffy and stiff.
5.Combine and sift flour with baking powder. Add half of the whipped egg whites into the black sesame mixture as well as half of the flour mixture. Use a rubber spatula to fold and combine.
6.Add the remaining egg whites mixture into (5) and also the remaining flour mixture, fold and combine.
7.Pour the mixture into a prelined baking tin, sprinkle the black sesame seeds on top and bake for 15minutes at 150C.

p/s - as Joyce from Kitchen Flavours has some personal matters to attend, she wont be able to join in the bake  along for this round. Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids has chosen a Cherry Vanilla Teacake for our next bake along on Jan 30. If you are interested to bake along , you can get the recipe here.

Kimchi Fried Rice with Pineapple

Thanks everyone for all of your holiday and new year wishes. Likewise, i would also like to wish all of you  here a very happy and a fruitful 2012! I had a good break, all is well and am now back to blogging. Yeah, as if blogging can make me rich and must not forget to blog..haha. The thing is i'm enjoying what i am doing now and i hope to continue as long as i can if there's still this little passion in me. And it's not just only about food, i am enjoying the interaction between me and all of you here. I know i sometimes never replied to each and every one of your comments, be assured that i'm reading it and appreciate all of them. Also even though sometimes i think that my food is not that really nice or appealing but all of you are always so sweet and nice with your words, i really thank you.

This post has been sitting in my folder for quite sometime, not long after i made my Homemade Kimchi. Fried rice with kimchi is something not unusual..just here i've added some pineapples to it.  If you have kimchi at home, you can always make this, it's so easy and you can also put in some meat and beans if you like. I never put in any seasoning as the rice has already got its taste from the kimchi and its juices. But i did put in a little syrup from the cubed pineapple tin.

Recipe
Ingredients:
2 bowls of cooked rice
1/2 bowl of kimchi
80gm pineapple cubes
2 tbsps of syrup ( from the can)

Method:
1. Pour a little oil into your wok and stir fry the rice for a minute. Put the kimchi in and continue to stir fry till they are well mixed.
2. Add the pineapple cubes plus the syrup and keep frying for another 2 minutes. Done.

Free and Easy Bake Along #15 : Apricot and Walnut Bars

Somehow my apricot bars look quite different from the original recipe here. I have a bad habit of not drafting my post after i bake something..this was written 2 weeks after i baked and also never realised that i've done a mistake here until now..i suspected i could have measured out my ingredients wrongly cos i've marked my flour as 94gms. It should hv only been 42gms instead. But these bars still can be eaten..infact i wouldnt say it's not delicious but it should have been much much better. Instead of  a bar, they look something like a type of crisp, firmer crisp. Yeah, at times i'm just that clumsy and disorganised. So let me just put down the original recipe here instead of what i actually put in in order not to mislead you. Now i'm eager to see how my other fellow bake buddies' apricot bars turned out.

This will be our last bake along for the year . Our next bake along on the 9th Jan, 2012 will be making brownies, you are welcomed to make any brownies you like. Lastly, i would like to wish all of my friends,  everyone Merry Christmas and Happy New Year ! Catch up with all of you when i come back next year. Enjoy the holidays! Bye!

Recipe ( original from Bon Appetit Book or here)
Shortbread Layer
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup ( 1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Apricot Layer
2/3 cup dried apricot halves, coarsely chopped
1/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup golden brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts

Powdered sugar for dusting

Method:
Shortbread Layer: Preheat oven to 350F/177C. Spray 8x8x2 inch glass baking dish with nonstick spray or butter your baking dish. Blend flour, sugar and salt in a food processor. Add butter, using on/off turns ( pulse mode) process until coarse meal forms. Press crumbs firmly onto bottom of prepared dish. Bake until center is golden, about 25 minutes. Maintain oven temperature.

Apricot Layer :Meanwhile, place apricots in a small saucepan, add enough water to cover. Boil until soft, about 4 minutes, drain.Set aside and let cool.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into small bowl. Using electric mixer, beat eggs in large bowl. Add brown sugar and vanilla, beat until blended. Stir in flour mixture, then nuts and apricots. Spread over shortbread.

Bake until puffed and dark brown and tester inserted into topping comes out with small moist crumbs attached, about 35 minutes. Cool in dish. Cut into bars, transfer to waxed papers. Sift powdered sugar over bars.

Christmas Tree on Potato

While i was looking for ideas on what to make for the White Christmas Challenge, i came upon this Christmas Sushi. I thought it was pretty cute. I could have made a sushi since i have all the ingredients in my kitchen but i was just a little lazy to cook the sushi rice, well it's not difficult to cook sushi rice , it's just that i  didnt feel like doing that at that moment. So this idea is very much inspired by that Christmas Sushi. Actually i think making this is more like playing with food. I was just looking around in the kitchen and see what else can i used instead of making a sushi christmas tree. Ok , i see potatoes. Going to use that as a base for that christmas tree then. OK friends, my christmas tree may not look as pretty as the sushi christmas tree, or maybe you think it doesnt look like a christmas tree at all..hohoho! I roasted  some potatoes but now i think probably i need not roast the potatotes , maybe just boil it till just a little tender, i also think we need not flavour the potatoes because the tuna and avocado spread is quite a lot here, i dont think we would be able to taste the flavour of that little piece of potato here. The base of the christmas tree is potatoes, the tree itself is tuna with avocado spread, the fish eggs is for decoration and the mayonnaise is for ..errr..artificial snow.

Ingredients:
2 potatoes, peeled and each cut into halved
2 avocados
1 1/2 tsp of lemon juice
1 can of tuna ( i used ayam brand tuna chunks in water, drained )
some fish eggs and mayonnaise for decoration.

Here's what i did:
1. Boil the potatoes till their edge is a little soft ( takes around 10 minutes ), remove the water from the pan, place the lid back, shake the potatoes in the pot so that they turn floury. Remove and season them with salt and drizzle some olive oil onto your roasting pan and bake in a preheated oven at 190C for 30 minutes.  ( after eating this, i would think you can just boil the potatoes till cook is good enough , not necessary to roast them )
2. Meanwhile, you can make your spread. Mash the avocado , put in the lemon juice. In another bowl, mash the tuna till they become flakes, then add in the mashed avocado by spoonfuls till you get a spreadable or workable consistency. Mix them all together. Cut off a little top of the potatoes so that your spread can sit nicely on the potatoes. Using a gloves, take a small piece of that spread and shape into a cone shape and place that on top of that potato. Using a butter knife, slowly cover the base with more avocado spread and a little on the tree.
3.Sprinkle with fish eggs and pipe some mayonnaise around the tree.

Will be submitting this to the White Christmas Challenge organised by Very Good Recipes via Quay Po Cooks

Also am submitting this to the Aspiring Bakers Event #14 - Creative Christmas Bakes (Dec 2011 ) organised by Hankerie

Yeasted Apple Strudel ( Strucla Jablkami )

This is a kind of strudel but a yeasted type instead of pastry . I read from the internet that  in Poland, these yeasted strudels are very popular and eaten all year round but are more commonly served around christmas and holidays and the most popular ones are the poppy seeds strudel ( Strucla Makiem ) because the Poles believe that poppyseeds bring good luck. But instead of a poppy seeds strudel, i made an apple strudel (strucla jablkami ) also in a yeasted form. The fillings are delicious with sliced apples and  i replaced the raisins with dried  cranberries and comes with a mixture of ground cinnamon, butter and icing sugar. There's also some  breadcrumbs in the fillings but i dont know what happened to them, i cant get to feel them. The strudel is rich, soft and flavourful and i'm sure many of you will enjoy eating this.

Recipe ( adapted from la petite patisserie diza with some modifications )
Ingredients:
To make strudel dough
200gm bread flour ( you may need to add in more, i added 4 more tbsp during the kneading )
50gm cake flour
1 tsp instant yeast
55gm caster sugar
1/8 tsp of salt
1 egg
120ml milk
40gm butter

Fillings:
1 apple ( i shld have used 2 apples )
2 tbsp icing sugar
2 tbsp bread crumbs
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
30gm butter, diced
20gm cranberries

1 beaten egg for brushing and icing sugar for dusting

Method:
1.Put in flour, yeast, sugar, salt in a mixing bowl and using your dough hook, mix them around. Slowly add in the egg and milk and with your machine still running , continue beating till a round dough is formed. Add in the butter and continue beating until the dough is smooth to touch. It takes about 10 minutes. The dough is slightly wet, i added 4 tbsps of bread flour to it during the beating process. Remove to a floured surface, shape into a ball and let proof for about 1.5-2 hrs in a slightly floured big bowl.
2. After almost the dough completes it proofing, you can start making the fillings. Slice the apples thinly. Set aside. Mix the icing sugar, bread crumbs, ground cinnamon together in a bowl and leave aside.
3.Remove the dough from the bowl to a floured surface and with a rolling pin, roll them to a large and thin sheet. Spread the cinnamon, sugar and bread crumbs mixture followed by cranberries and sliced apples and diced butter. Roll them up like a swiss roll and seal the edges.  Let proof in a baking tin for another 45mins to 1 hour.
4. Brush with egg wash ( optional ) and bake in a preheated oven at 190C for 40minutes.

Will be submitting this post to participate in the White Christmas Challenge organised by Very Good Recipes via Quay Po Cooks