dakdoritang

My family loves Korean food. Although I am not much of a good cook, I will try my best to replicate authentic Korean dishes at home.

Today, I am sharing with you this easy spicy chicken stew known as Dakdoritang or Dakbokkeumtang in Korean. I have been cooking this regularly as it has now become my favourite one-pot meal...delicious and yet easy to put together. Most importantly, I can always prepare this earlier in the afternoon at a much leisurely pace than having to wok up 3 dishes during the evening rush hour. It makes home cooking a much fun activity for me to 'enjoy'...of course, minus the washing, cleaning, mopping and putting every single utensils and cutlery back to where they belong, single handedly.

The main ingredients or rather the dish itself looks similar to our curry chicken dish with potatoes. But, the taste is totally different. While our curry chicken tastes spicy, milky and flavoured with lots of spice, dakdoritang is equally spicy, but tastes lighter and slightly sweet. You won't feel jelak(to describe the stage when you won't enjoy the food any more after taking too much of it or it means the food is too rich) even you were to over eat, I am speaking from experience (^^"). This dish also reminds me of the non-spicy Chinese version of braised chicken and potato stew. I personally prefer this Korean version since we really like spicy food.

To prepare this dish, besides the basic ingredients, there are two Korean ingredients to get ready, Gochujang ((고추장) and Gochugaru (고추가루). Gochujang or red chili paste is easily available at local supermarkets here. I have to make special trips to get my Gochugaru, red chili powder (coarse chili flakes) from Korean supermarts though. It usually comes in bigger packs but I can get smaller ones (300g) from Shine Korea Supermarket. I am sure you won't have problem or be confused when buying gochujang as it comes in Red plastic tubs (see here). Those in Green tubs are SSamjang and Brown tubs are Doenjang. So, just grab the Red ones! For Gochugaru, do read this post by Maangchi to avoid getting the wrong type of chili powder. Do not attempt to replace gochugaru with other types of chili powder and always look for gochugaru made in Korea.

Despite its fiery red appearance, it is only mildly spicy as I use less chili powder. This is a very comforting and hearty dish, I simply love the potatoes that have absorbed all the flavours and the sauce is great to drizzle over hot steamed rice. Yum!

Dakdoritang (Korean Spicy Chicken Stew)

Ingredients:

1 medium size whole chicken, cleaned and cut into 2x2 inch pieces
1 yellow onion, peeled and cut into chunks
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into chunks
3 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 green chili, sliced
1 red chili, sliced
2 stalks spring onions, chopped
½ tablespoon cooking oil
1½ cups water

Seasoning:
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon ginger juice (grate fresh ginger and squeeze to get juice)
2 tablespoons light soya sauce (I used only 1½ tbs)
2 tablespoons Korean red pepper paste, Gochujang
1 tablespoon Korean red chili powder, Gochugaru (use 2 tbs if prefer the dish to be very spicy)
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Method:

• Combine seasoning ingredients in a bowl, mix well and set aside.
• Heat oil in a deep pan until hot but not smoking. Pan fry the chicken for about 5mins. 
• Add the seasoning mixture, stir to combine. Add in water and bring to the boil. Cover with lid and turn to medium low heat, leave to simmer for about 10mins. 
• Add the onions, carrots and potatoes, stir to combine. Cover with lid and leave to simmer for about 20~25mins or until the chicken is cooked but the vegetables are not mushy. Stir occasionally while it is cooking.
• Remove cover and turn heat to high. Let the mixture boil for 1 to 2 mins until the sauce is reduced and slightly thickened. 
• Turn off the heat, toss in the sliced spring onions and the green and red chilies. Dish up and serve hot with rice.

Recipe source: adapted from Korean by Lee Minjung

pizza in a cuppa

I don't know what has got into me when I googled using the key words 'pizza muffins'.

I have some left over cheese, ham and pineapples after making a seafood pizza and a hawaiian pizza. Not knowing what to do with the leftover ingredients, I surfed the net for recipe ideas. Nothing much inspires me when I searched using the words such as 'ham and pineapple'. A silly thought suddenly came to my mind and I typed 'pizza muffins' in the search box. I wasn't expecting anything at all...but to my surprise, pizza muffins is actually nothing new!

It took me no time to decide on this Hawaiian pizza muffins by Donna Hay since I have most of the ingredients on hand. I halved the recipe and adapted it slightly as I needed to substitute a couple of the ingredients.

These delicious savoury muffins smell just like pizzas when they are baking in the oven! They are great for afternoon snacks and certainly a great way to use up any left over pizza ingredients :)


Hawaiian Pizza Muffins

Ingredients:
(makes 9)

225g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried mixed herbs (optional)
105g grated cheddar (divide into 60g and 45g portion)
100g ham, chopped
100g chopped pineapple, drained
80ml vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
1 tablespoon tomato paste (I replaced with 2 tablespoons pasta sauce)
1 egg
120ml milk

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180°C.
• Sieve flour, baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add salt, mixed herbs (if using), 60g of the grated cheese, ham and pineapple, mix to combine. 
• Place the oil, tomato paste (I used pasta sauce), egg and milk in a bowl and whisk to combine. 
• Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture, with a spatula mix until just combined. 
• Spoon into 1/3 cup-capacity (80ml) paper muffin cups and sprinkle top with remaining cheese. 
• Bake for 30 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. These muffins are best served freshly baked. Any leftovers can be stored in air tight containers. Warm them in the oven before serving. 

Recipe source: adapted from Donna Hay.

kinako chiffon

This is a much delayed post. I have made this Kinako Chiffon cake on several occasions but only managed to take pictures of it when I baked one again recently.

Kinako is roasted whole soy flour commonly used in making Wagashi (traditional Japanese confectionery) such as dango and mochi. I find kinako tastes bland on its own, but it has got a very nice nutty fragrance, somewhat like roasted peanut powder, or similar to the familiar whiff of an open jar of peanut butter. It is a healthy, gluten-free wheat flour with a high nutritional value, full of vitamin B and protein. It is easy to incorporate kinako into one's diet...sprinkle some over buttered toast bread with sugar or honey; dust it over ice cream, yoghurt or mixed it with soy milk or cow's milk for a nutritious beverage. Kinako also works well in baking recipes such as pancakes, cookies and quick breads.

Although the recipe from the cook book 'Okashi – Sweet treats made with love by Keiko Ishida' states 'brown sugar' I used dark brown sugar. As a result my chiffon cake has a much darker shade. Dark brown sugar has more molasses, this gives the cake a deeper, richer flavour. The texture of the cake is light and airy and has a nice 'peanut butter' fragrant.

I served the cake with banana slices sprinkled with kinako powder and a drizzle of homemade dark brown sugar syrup. I got the idea from this famous Chinese blogger, Carol, when I stumbled upon her post 黑糖蜜黃豆粉香蕉 (banana with dark brown sugar syrup and kinako). It only takes a little extra effort to turn the cake into a delightful sweet treat that my family enjoys :)




Kinako Chiffon Cake (黃豆粉戚风蛋糕)

Ingredients:
(makes one 7" cake)

3 egg yolks (use large eggs)
15g dark brown sugar
40g vegetable oil (I used canola oil)
40g water
30g cake flour
30g kinako (roasted soybean flour)

3 egg whites (use large eggs)
30g caster sugar
6g corn flour


Method:

1. Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl. With a balloon whisk, whisk the yolks a little. Add in brown sugar and whisk to combine. Add in vegetable oil gradually, whisk to combine. Add the water, whisk to combine. Sieve over the flour and kinako, whisk till the flour is fully incorporated. Do not over mix. Set aside.
2. Mix the 30g caster sugar with the corn flour.
3. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer on low speed until mixture becomes frothy and foamy. Add half of the sugar and corn flour mixture and turn to high speed and beat the mixture. Continue to add in the remaining sugar mixture and beat until the egg whites reaches the soft peak stage.The soft peak stage is reached when the peaks of the whites curl over and droop slightly. The egg whites should appear smooth and glossy. (Do not over beat the whites still stiff, it is better to beat the whites still soft peaks for easy folding with the yolk batter.)
4. Add the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula (I use a balloon whisk) until just blended.
5. Pour batter into a 7" chiffon tube pan(do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
6. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 degC for 30 mins, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, when lightly pressed the cake will spring back. Invert the pan immediately and let cool completely before unmould. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan and the center core. Release the cake and run the knife along the base of the pan to remove the cake.

Serving suggestions: Serve chiffon cake with sliced banana, topped with 1 tablespoon kinako and a drizzle of dark brown sugar syrup*.

*to make dark brown sugar syrup: Place 25ml water and 50g dark brown sugar in a pan. Heat the mixture till the sugar dissolved. Remove from heat. Add in 1/2 tablespoon honey, stir to combine. Leave to cool before using. (Double or triple the recipe accordingly to yield more syrup).

Recipe source: adapted from Okashi – Sweet treats made with love by Keiko Ishida

Kopitiam Milk Buns

I have to admit I am really slow in keeping up with the joneses...

not in the social sense, but in the world of 'cyber baking' (wonder whether there is such a term?).

These Kopitiam Milk Buns are all the rage for the past year but I only got to discover it recently. I am not able to keep up with the latest baking trends as I have been spending less time blogging or surfing the net. It doesn't help that I don't own any social media accounts such as facebook, twitter or what have you. I am oblivious to what's 'hot', what's 'current'. Hmmm, actually, I am happy to be a frog in the well, baking the usual old-fashioned muffins, bread and cakes, unwilling to move out of my comfort zone and definitely lacks motivations to try new things (^_^")

I only happened to stumble upon this popular kopitiam milk buns while searching for bread buns recipe that would yield close to those buns which I will always order whenever I have the chance to get my breakfast kopi fix at Koufu foodcourt.

The recipe looks really promising and I took the plunge. The first thing to do was to prepare the sponge dough which has to be left to ferment in the fridge for at least 12 hours. It was quite easily done by hand...simply by mixing flour, milk and yeast. The sponge dough was rather dry and tough...just as what it is meant to be. I left it to chill overnight and finished the next step of kneading the dough with my Bosch mixer. It took about 20 to 25mins of kneading before I was satisfied that the dough had indeed become smooth and elastic.

I divided the dough into 12 portions which yield smaller buns. On hindsight, I should have made do with just 9 portions to get bigger buns so that I could toast them and slap on generously with kaya and butter.

I sprinkled the top with some coarse granulated sugar and the buns were a real treat fresh out of the oven. The texture was very soft and fluffy and it taste good even without any fillings. The only complain I have is that these buns didn't keep that well. Despite storing them in an air tight container, the soft texture deteriorated significantly when left over night. By comparison, they were not as soft as those bread buns made with tangzhong. I baked a batch of tangzhong bread buns right after and true enough they remain soft on the third day whereas these kopitiam milk buns were only good freshly baked. I am not sure whether I have done anything wrong while preparing the dough? Nevertheless, the recipe is still a keeper which I will go to if I know we would be able to finish all the bread buns with no left overs ;)




Kopitiam Milk Buns

Ingredients:
(makes 12)

sponge dough:
214g bread flour
128g full cream milk
2g instant yeast

• Place bread flour and instant yeast in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add in the milk. Mix with hand to form a dough. (Note: The dough is quite dry and hard.) Cover with cling wrap and leave in the fridge for at least 12 hours or overnight.

main dough:
92g bread flour
12g milk powder
61g caster sugar
5g salt
5g instant yeast
12g full cream milk
30g egg (lightly beat an egg, weight 30g for the dough, and reserve leftover for egg wash)
45g unsalted butter

some coarse granulated sugar
egg wash (mix left over egg from main dough with 1 tablespoon water)

Method:

• When ready to use, tear the sponge dough into pieces and place in the mixing bowl of a stand mixer. Add the rest of the ingredients except the butter. Knead with a dough hook at high speed for about 10mins or until the mixture becomes smooth dough.
• Add in the butter and continue to knead at high speed for another 15mins or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. To test whether the dough is ready, pull and stretch a portion of the dough. It should be elastic, and can be stretched into a thin membrane without tearing/breaking apart easily.
• Smooth the dough into a round ball. Cover with cling wrap or a damp cloth and let it rest for 15mins. 
• Divide dough into 12 portions (50g each). Roll each portion into round balls and place on a greased (or lined with parchment paper) baking tray. Space doughs two inches apart to allow them to expand. Cover with damp cloth or cling wrap and leave doughs to proof for about 60mins, or until double in size. 
• Brush top with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse granulated sugar.
• Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for 12 mins or until golden brown. Remove from oven and transfer to wire track to let cool. Once cool, store immediately in an airtight container.

Recipe source: adapted from Vinnie Baking Paradise

挞入我心

When I met up with fellow blogger pal Sherlyn to pass her some books which my children have outgrown, she was so kind to give me a batch of her freshly baked egg tarts. I was very touched and was totally intrigued by her cute mini egg tarts. You need a pair of very skilled hands to be able to bake something so exquisite and delectable! Her homemade goodies were so well received by my family that I was inspired to try my hands at making some myself.

I made my first batch of egg tarts using this popular egg tart recipe by heimama (黑妈妈祖传蛋挞). Many thanks to Angel of Cook.Bake.Love who shared her experience in baking those easy and delicious egg tarts in her blog post.

As I wasn't sure whether I would be successful in my first attempt at making the egg tarts,  I omitted the custard powder that is called for in making the crust. Nevertheless, my first batch of egg tarts were a breeze to make and they turned out to be really good. This prompted me to get a pack of custard powder right away since I know I would be making these egg tarts again and again! The custard powder did wonders to the texture of the pastry crust. The pastry was more crisp (酥) and gave a melt in the mouth texture to the already very buttery and flaky crust. So, do include the custard powder if you are interested to make these egg tarts, or at least, substitute it with corn flour.

Making and baking the tarts was easy...the only problem I had was unmolding. I had made sure the pastry was above the rim of the mould and took extra care not to fill the crust with too much custard filling. I had also greased all the moulds with butter and so I would expect the tarts to release easily simply by inverting them. To my surprise, the tarts were all stuck to the moulds.  I tried 'shaking' one of them, hoping the tart would fall off, but it refused to budge. The original recipe says to give the tart a gentle knock to release it, but it didn't work when I tried knocking it against the table top. Maybe I was too gentle as I have this fear of breaking the tart into pieces. In the end, I tried tapping the base of the tart mould with a spoon, and voila, the tart dropped off from the mould. Just a whack or two will do the trick, lol!  (Updated as at 29 March: As advised by Angel, I baked another batch of egg tarts without greasing the moulds. After baking and once cooled, I tapped the tart mould against the table top, then inverted it and the tart released from the mould easily.)

This recipe is certainly a keeper. It is very straight forward as there is no unnecessary steps to pre-bake the crust. The custard filling didn't bubble up too much or burst even without adjusting or lowering the oven temperature during baking. I wasn't sure how to test the doneness since there was no instructions on this. I followed this method of inserting a toothpick into the custard, if it stands on its own, it’s done. I had also baked the tarts for another minute longer so that the crusts were lightly browned on the rim. Compared to other egg tart recipes, this heimama egg tarts use a lot less sugar for the pastry crust. As such, do not expect the crust to turn golden browned upon baking.

The wobbly filling was not too sweet nor taste eggy. It had a smooth and silky texture just like what many other bloggers have raved about. They were close or rather, even better than store bought ones. My elder child who loves egg tarts devoured half the batch and still looked forward to more. With this good experience and knowledge I have gained from baking these egg tarts, I am more confident to try other egg tart recipes. Next on my to-do list will be coconut tarts, do give me your recommendations if you have tried any good coconut tarts recipe :)



Egg Tarts （黑妈妈祖传蛋挞）

Ingredients:
(makes 10, tart mould size: 7cm diameter)

for the crust:
150g plain flour
1 tablespoon custard powder
1 tablespoon milk powder
100g butter, cold, cut into cubes
½ tablespoon caster sugar
½ large egg (about 25-30g), beaten
½ teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

for the custard filling:
140g water
55g sugar (I used granulated sugar)
1½ large eggs, beaten
40g evaporated milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Method:

for the custard filling:

• Boil water and sugar till sugar dissolved. Let cool completely. Add beaten egg, evaporated milk and vanilla extract and mix well. Sieve 3 times. Set aside.

for the crust:

• Sieve flour, custard powder and milk powder into a mixing bowl. Place cold, diced butter into mixing bowl. With a fork or a dough scraper, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. 
• Add in sugar, mix well. Make a well in the centre and add beaten eggs and vanilla extract (if using). Mix with hand until the mixture comes together to form a soft dough. (Note: do not over mix or knead the dough as it may cause gluten to develop and the crust may become tough and hard upon baking). Pat the dough into a round ball and flatten it to form a disc (Wrap with cling wrap and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 30 mins before use. 
• Lightly grease each tart mould with butter. (Updated as at 29 March '14, it is not necessary to grease the tart moulds).
• When ready to use, divide the dough into 10 portion (about 29~30g each). For each portion, roll dough into a ball, flatten to form a small disc and place into the tart mould. Press dough into the mould until the dough comes up to slightly above the rim. (Note: I hold the mould with both hands, then press the dough into the mould using my two thumbs while at the same time turning the mould with my other fingers in a clock wise direction, going round and round until the dough is evenly moulded to the tart mould.) Smooth the edges at the rim with fingertips to make it even.
• Fill each tart with the fillings to 80~90% full or till it comes just below the rim. Bake in middle rack in preheated oven at 180 degC for 20 mins. Leave to cool on cooling rack. To unmould,  invert the mould on your palm and tap the base of the mould with a spoon. The tart should release and drop onto your palm tap/knock the mould on table table for a few times, invert the mould on your palm and the tart should release and drop onto your palm. Place a paper liner on the base of the tart (optionally) and invert it back. 
• Egg tarts are best freshly baked. Any left overs can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Warm them in the oven and they will taste as good as freshly baked ones. 

Recipe source: Cook.Bake.Love