My homemade moon cake from my first attempt

I cannot believe how simple I can make this at home. Making Bing Pi Moon cake is so easy nowadays since we can always use the premix. A bit of kneading to do though (and with shortening, it is a bit quite oily and messy).

Ingredients you can get from bakery supply shops are:

• 1 pack Mooncake premix @ Rm8.80 (I used brand: BAKER’S ONE)
• 1 pack White Lotus filling @ RM29.90 (I used brand: HOY KEE)
• 70g shortening
• Some ice water
• Flavouring – fresh squeezed Pandan Juice
• Flavouring – mashed dragon fruit (you can see biji-biji on them)
• Mould – Plastic Bing Pi Mould (most easiest to use)
• Mickey Mouse cookie cutters

Method to make Bing Pi dough (instruction on the package itself)

1. First you need to add the shortening and ice water to the premix
2. Knead till you feel its elastic
3. Cover and let it rest in fridge for at least 30mins

As for the filling-roll them into balls.

First time I bought White Lotus. Very expensive but this brand is very good because it is not sweet at all.

Cheaper options will be red beans / lotus paste if you just wanna play with it. You can even use any paste you like or make your own paste if you have the time.

How to shape the mooncake

1. Divide ready cold dough into balls. Press them flat.
2. Wrap the filling with your dough.
3. Shape them into balls before putting them carefully into your mould.
4. Press them out (if you use mooncake mould) or carefully remove it from the cookie cutter after you stamp the face

Many recipes you see on book call to measure the dough (about 60% dough, 40% filling) but I did not measure them because my mould sizes vary. Just agak-agak.

My perfectly shaped moon cake

The experience was really amazing. Never I though I would be able to make my own moon cake as pretty and perfect as above. We did not get it right when we tried it initially, but since the dough is so flexible, we can always reshape it into a ball (try your best to keep the filling inside) and try to stamp print again.

My Mickey and Minnie Bing Pi Moon cake

If you are using cookie cutters like this, it is really not that easy because the filling would run out when you need to shape some parts to Mickey’s ears. However, if you do not get it right for the first time, you can always roll it back into balls and slowly reshape them into the mould again.

Though the ingredients are quite pricey, still it is cheaper to make your own  because you get more and can give away these beautiful moon cake as gifts to your friends.

*Si-beh shiok* Macam playing play-doh with your kids eh!

Ingredients

• 1 yam, cubed
• 5 cloves garlics

(A) Mix Well

• 1 packet blended rice flour
• 2 tbsp tapioca flour
• Water (agak-agak)
• Seasoning – salt, 5 spieces powder, sugar to taste
• Garnishing – shallot crisp, dried prawns crips

Method

1. Heat oil and sauté shallots and dried prawns (separately) till crisp. Dish out and set aside.
2. Saute garlic with remaining oil, add in yam and stir-fry till fragrant. Mix in water and bring to boil.
3. Add in mixture (A), cook batter becomes thick. Pour out batter into a greased tray to steam (30minutes).
4. Once yam cake is cooled, add garnishing and serve with your favourite sauce (I use sweet black sauce from the market).

A very beautiful Nyonya Chang my mum brought up for me from Melaka

I just had the BEST of the BEST!

Unlike normal dumpling sold, these best nyonya chang must be homemade which uses only premium ingredients because they are made meant for family and friends. Homemade just taste so different from those sold on the street.

I know because I grow up eating only authentic Nyonya delicacies. That’s the benefit of staying in Melaka in those days because many of our neighbours were Nyonya families. During the festive seasons, my neighbours will always gather at the back lane of our house to make them. And once it came out hot from their hot stove, us, being their neighbour who was just a door away would usually have the privilege of tasting them first!

It has been so many years I have not tasted good Nyonya Chang like this ever we moved out from our new home. But still I remember those taste, which brought back so much childhood memory to me. Thanks dear Adrienne for this!

Steam Mee Sua. Recipe posted earlier here

Garnished and cut out Steam Mee Sua

Kakak’s signature fried mee hoon

My favourite Choux Puff with its cream. Recipe here

Irresistable with the food posted on top right? Will will be even spoiled for choice if you see what else was spread on our table today.But if you think you can eat a lot and then take diet pills, you better get good ones and check out what are the side effects of diet pills.

Read more on what we did during our playgroup there today

My first trial making Kuih Jagung. *Yummy* as exclaimed by hubby and my neighbour. Too bad my kids are too young to eat this.

Kuih Jagung has been my all time favourite when I was little.  I love love it a lot, especially when it is cold (kept in fridge). Hence after searching for high and low for the recipe online, I tried it for the first time, and result, voila, taste is really good, except that it was a little bit dry (probably cooked too long on the fire). I had to keep stiring so quickly and even almost spilled on one of my beautiful kitchen rugs. Will surely try out the double boil method next round

See my modified recipe and cooking method to suit my own conveninence

Mixture A

• 200g custard powder (Bird’s brand)
• 200g castor sugar
• 16 oz coconut milk (diluted)

• a pinch of salt
• one can corn syrup 425g

My shortcut method

1. Mix all A ingredients evenly and put on fire to boil lightly. Lower fire
2. Add in corn syrup and keep on stiring on low fire until thicken
3. Pour on to lightly oiled pan and steam for 15 mins

Tips

• If cook directly on fire, must keep stiring and fire very low to prevent lumps
• Can also use double boil method (just like how we melt chocolate)

This is a very unique recipe as i have never came across such steam mee sua in any cookbooks or recipe. Contributed by Alicia. Miss this dish so much. Should be doing it again very soon after a good vacation during the weekend at Genting with our free hotel rooms.

Ingredients
240g mee sua (about 8 stalks, rinsed), 700ml water,250g pumpkin (thinly sliced), 6 black mushroom, 3 clove garlic, 5 clove shallots, and Optional (RM2 shredded pork and 75g dried prawns).

Garnishing – fried shallots, cut chillies and onions
Seasoning – 2T soy sauce, 1T water, 1/2t salt, 1/2t pepper and 1/2 sugar.

Method
1. Fry onion, garlic, then mushroom till fragant. Add pumpkin and fry.
2. Add water and seasoning.
3. Once water boiled, add mee sua and kei chi (for vegetarian, this can replace meat).
4. Fry till dry, pour onto steam plate and steam for 30mins.

Tips: Dish is ready once mee sua looks transparent, with a bouncy surface (test with your finger)

Ingredients for Green layer

• combine A – 50g tapioca flour, 60g rice flour, 90ml water
• Combine B – 150 thin coconut milk, 2 pandan leaves, dash of salt, 90g sugar
• edible green coloring (I used the color from crushed pandan leaves instead)

Method

1. Cook B mixture at low heat to dissolve sugar. Add coloring
2. Mix A and B. Strain to remove impurities.
3. Spoon batter into mini cups, half full (I used Chinese tea cup)
4. Steam rapidly over boiling water on medium heat for 8-10minute

Ingredients for Top layer

• 25g tapioca flour, 30g rice flour, 50g sugar, salt, 300ml thick coconut milk

Method

• Combine all the ingredients and strain.
• Cook mixture over gentle low heat for less than 1 minute (just warming up)
• Pour over the green layer to fill up the cup
• Continue to steam the cups for about 15mins or until cooked
• Removed the kuih from cup after it is cooled

I only tried to make this once, and the process is quick as I checked the timing on my J12 Chanel. Although it taste really good (please excuse me for my lousy color as I did not use coloring), boy, there is so much to do and so much to wash! I rather buy them the next time as it is quite cheap being sold in the morning market.

Want to get a munch on something for tea? This is what you can do very easily at home.

Ingredients
Red bean paste (optional)
Raw sesame seeds
Glutinous rice flour
Sugar

Method
1. Add some sugar to the glutinous rice flour.
2. Add water and make into a dough.
3. Prepare some little balls with the dough.
4. Make a few balls with the red bean paste.
5. Wrap the red paste with the little dough.
6. Roll little balls onto a bowl of sesame seed to cover up the surface.
7. Deep fried the balls.