Jade: Bitemydates

For as long as I can remember, my grandma would brew a huge pot of red date tea on the first day of Chinese New Year. And on the morning of the first day, all her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren would gather in her kitchen, slurping down bowls of longevity noodles and cups of this sweet tea. It never occurred to me that I didn't actually have to wait until new year to have it...until my mum started brewing her own. It's amazing how 4 simple ingredients can give off such concentrated flavour...sweet, smoky...and a lovely note at the end that reminds me of palm sugar.

Ang zhor teh [Wikipaedia says it's good for stress and soothing sore throats...just so happens I have both]

100g red dates

80g dried longan

3 honey dates

5-6 cups water

lump sugar

Dump everything into a stock pot and boil for about 1-2 hours

Serve hot on a nippy day. Don't forget your porcelain spoon to scoop out crunchy bits of longan;)

~Although when I'm back home and it's 40 degrees, my mum always makes sure there's a ginormous bottle in the fridge

Jade: Bitemyturnip #2

I didn't finish my ultimate selfish day;) After a hearty breakfast of kaya toast and soft boiled eggs, my idea of the perfect selfish lunch would be a piping hot plate of 'char kuay'..not unlike the ubiquitous char kuay tiaw..only instead of boring flat rice noodles, what you get is mouthful after mouthful of fluffy turnip cake, crunchy preserved radish, barely wilted beansprouts and bits of caramelized egg. I like it because it reminds me of late night suppers with my best friends, of noisy food courts and cold beer in the smothering heat... of home:)

Char Kuay~ [my earliest memory of this was actually watching my dad eat my grandma's steamed pumpkin cake. He would cut up the panfried cake into bite sized pieces, and toss them in my grandma's chilli sauce.. and it looked like the most delicious thing in the world to my 5-year old self]

Steamed turnip cake, cut into bite sized chunks

Preserved radish, soaked for a few minutes and finely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 spring onion, chopped

1 large handful beansprouts

1 beaten egg

1/2 tsp thai chilli shrimp paste [optional]

Glug of kicap manis for colour

1. Heat up some oil in a non stick pan, and pan fry the turnip cake. Don't turn them too much, the idea is to let them sit and caramelize and get all nice and crispy on the outside

2. When that's done, set it aside

3. Fry garlic, spring onion and preserved radish on high heat till fragrant and the radish starts to 'pop'

4. Add the chilli shrimp paste and the fried radish cake

5. Add the beansprouts and give a quick stir. Don't add the sprouts too early. You want them to retain their crunch

6. Add the beaten egg, scramble lightly and leave to set.

7. Add kicap manis, give a quick stir and leave it for a bit while you do the washing up. Again, you want some lightly charred bits..it just adds so much more depth to the dish

8. Dish up, sprinkle some chopped spring onions over it, drizzle with some chilli sauce if you like and there you have it...my perfect selfish lunch..

Your turn to tell me all about yours :)

Jade: Bitemyturnip

One of the things that kept me sane in my 3rd year were the frequent visits to the local dimsum joint with the girls. For those 2 hours, we would forget about looming exams and horrendous consultants and just be girls. There was an almost ritualistic feel to those afternoons that was remarkably comforting~we would start off with a small cup of chinese tea, necessary in dreary british weather, chat over fried pastries and the occasional plate of roast duck..and finally have full-blown discussions about the most random things while savouring hot steamed dumplings and glistening chee cheong fun. We're in final year now, and while the conversations remain riveting, a 2-hour lunch is a luxury we can no longer afford...not when there are past year papers to be done and journal articles to be critically appraised. What I could and did do, however, was steam my own little dimsum treat..in between revision sessions, of course ;)

Lor Bak Gou~Daikon/turnip cake [Adapted from TasteofHongKong]

1kg turnip, peeled, grated and left to drain in a colander

150g rice flour

25g corn flour

1 piece lap cheong [optional, but it really does add to the flavour]

4 pieces dried mushrooms, soaked and roughly chopped

small handful dried scallops, soaked and flaked

20g dried shrimp, rinsed and roughly chopped

1 shallot, thinly sliced

**1 1/4 cup liquid

Marinade

1/4 tsp fish sauce

1/4tsp sugar

1/4 tsp shaoxing wine

Seasoning

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp fish sauce

few dashes white pepper

1. Prep your steamer

2.** Reserve juices drained from the grated turnip as well as the soaking juices for the mushrooms and scallops. Make it up to 1 1/4 cup and set aside

3. Marinade mushrooms, scallops and dried shrimp in fish sauce, sugar and wine

4. In a large wok, heat up some oil, I used lard because I had some around. Fry the shallots till they turn a light golden brown, add the marinated mushroom mixture, and fry till fragrant

5. Add the drained turnip and fry for about 5-7 minutes, until they turn translucent and a lovely shade of gold

6. In the meantime, add the reserved liquid to the rice flour and corn flour and whisk till you get a fairly thin batter

7. When the turnip is ready, lower the heat, and pour in the flour batter, stirring as you go along

8. Season to taste and keep stirring until the whole mix starts to resemble thick, sticky, mashed potatoes

9. Grease a baking tin, scoop in your cake mixture and level out the top

10. Steam over high heat for about an hour.

*I didn't have a steamer, so I attempted to construct one using a large pan filled with briskly boiling water, a cookie rack, and my baking tin covered tightly with tin foil. Didn't work very well and I wasn't about to let all that grating go to pot, so I poured some boiling water into a large roasting tin, preheated the oven to 150 degrees, transferred my batter-filled tin into the water bath, foil covering intact and oven steamed it for about an hour or so. Worked like a charm.

11. Let it cool completely before cutting as it's very soft when it's still hot

12. Either enjoy it as is, and believe me, it's delicious enough..or, for that something extra, pan fry it with a little oil so you get a little piece of heaven that is crisp, slightly charred on the outside...and soft, almost creamy on the inside..

Jade: Bitemytausa

Tau sa p'neah~Because I didn't have enough buttermilk filling and fancied making something pretty :) Sweet, nutty red bean paste, crisp, filmy pastry and a faint hit of sesame...brings back memories of treasured visits to the bakery with my dad on hot Saturday afternoons.

Jade: Bitemybuttermilk

There is this bakery opposite where I live back at home. Really really good buns, appalling service. I'm not one for violence but I have been sorely tempted on more than one occasion to throw a frying pan at the 2 owners. The thing that keeps me going back and my urge to hurt someone in check is the buttermilk bun. Not the tangy buttermilk that guarantees a moist cake, but rather this intensely buttery crumble-like concoction that is simultaneously sweet and savoury. It reminds me of the squishy buns we used to get off those mobile sundry shops that would come round in the mornings and how my cousin and I would tear the buns open, scrape out the filling and leave the stale bread. I tried recreating that filling in my kitchen to soothe my ego after pastest told me I'm unfit to sit for finals...choosing to encase the delicate filling in layers and layers of flaky chinese puff pastry instead. I am happy to announce that I no longer have reason to put up with rude bakery owners..and should they upset me ever again, I can always buy me a new frying pan after ;)

Buttermilk pastry~ my new favourite thing to eat

Water dough

120g flour

1/4 tsp maltose dissolved in 1/4 cup water

20g sugar

pinch of salt

35g butter

Oil dough

100g flour

60g shortening

Filling

100g butter

80g icing sugar

100g milk powder

pinch of salt

1. See here for pastry method

2. Leave pastry to rest for about 10 minutes and preheat oven to 200 degrees

3. Cream butter, sugar and salt, and beat in milk powder to form a soft, pliable dough

4. Shape into little spheres and wrap

5. Give the pastries a quick eggwash and bake for 20-25 minutes

6. You absolutely have to have one fresh from the oven...doesn't matter if it's burning hot...you need to smell the milky fragrance that wafts towards you as you cut into the pastry..you need to feel the light, crisp pastry melt on your tongue..and you need to let the utter pleasure that is the gorgeous buttermilk filling wash over you and absolutely make your day :)

Jade: Bitemykaya

I love Roald Dahl books..I love them for their simplicity and almost lyrical prose, I love how his characters seem to think the exact same thoughts as I do..and how they are brave enough to act on those naughty impulses..but most of all, I love the way he incorporates food into every one of his intricately spun tales ~ from the juicy meat pies and roasted stolen pheasants in Danny to the little aniseed balls I used to crave for in Boy...Imagine my delight when I discovered his granddaughter, equally witty with a deliciously impish demeanour, has a cooking show on BBC featuring themes, my favourite of which is the ultimate selfish day~ A day dedicated entirely to self indulgence. If you think about it, so much of our time is spent worrying about one thing or the other..sometimes pencilling in some down time is a lot more effort that it's worth. But with 2 months to finals, I thought a selfish day sounded like the perfect thing to do ;)

Kaya ~ [an hour of mindless stirring in preparation for my favourite selfish breakfast: Kaya toast and soft boiled eggs, light on the soy, heavy on the pepper]

4 large eggs

80g castor sugar

120g brown sugar

1 tbsp chopped up gula melaka

300g coconut milk

salt

1. Beat eggs on medium speed

2. Add sugar and beat on high

3. Add coconut milk and beat on high for another minute or so

4. Sieve and transfer into a double boiler

5. Cook over low heat until it coats the back of your spoon. Should take about an hour

6. Throw in a pinch of salt at the end, and don't fret if some bits curdle. Just run it through a sieve and you'll end up with a smooth, luscious jam

7. Toast some bread, top with thick chunks of butter and slather with freshly made kaya....sweet coconut jam, slightly salty butter..melted into the tiniest crevices of crispy, hot toast....do you blame me for not wanting to share?;)

Jade: Bitemyyolks

4 eggs, 4 twin yolks. Toto anyone? and does anyone know if chickens can bear twins too?