Lod Chong Singapore

I have been looking for this Lod Chong Singapore recipe forever and had tried many time to guess the recipe and always failed.  Finally a couple of days ago I happen to be browsing  through a YouTube site and happen to see that import Thai online grocery making it.  Of course, they didn’t specifically list the exact ingredients, but roughly described what was in it.   Finally, seeing the light I decided to try making it again and to my surprise, I think I got it!  All along I was trying to make it like the original Lod Chong, with the water and flour and stirring it to clear and then pressing it.  This way makes the noodle very tough and crunchy not chewy like it suppose to be.  This new recipe that I just figure it out is the right way and consistency of the noodle texture and flavor.  Have fun!

Ingredients:

1  Cup tapioca flour

¼ Cup boiling hot water ( adding a little at a time and kneading it until it soft an manageable like play dough)

7 or 8 Pandan leaves and grinned it for the juice for flavoring

Sauce:

1 Can coconut milk

½ Cup of water (optional)

¼ Cup of palm sugar or 3 to 4 cubes

½ Teaspoon of kosher salt

Methods:

1.       Take the Pandan leaves and grinned and exact the juice and set aside.

2.       Put some ice and water in another boil for cooling the noodle when it done.

3.       Bring another half pot of water to boil for blanching the noodle.

4.       In another bowl measure the flour and bring the water to boil.

5.       Slowly add the hot water to the flour and mix with a spoon until it slightly cool (if not enough water you can add it 1/2 teaspoon at a time). 

6.       Now add the pandan flavoring and begin to kneading with your hands until it soft and pliable.

7.       Dust some to the flour on the cutting board and rolling pin.  Divide it into 4 or 5 parts and start rolling to the 1/8” and cut it like you would linguine.

8.       When the water in the pot begin to boil hard, drop the noodle into the pot and stir it to prevent it from sticking together.

9.       When it floated on top that meant it cook, but if you’re noodle is a bit thick leave it for another 5 minutes or so. 

10.   To test it just strain it up and put in the ice water.  When it turn clear, that meant it the right texture.  If you don’t want it too chewy just let it boil a bit longer.

11.   Make sure to leave the noodle in the ice water until ready to serve.

12.   To make the sauce just bring a coconut milk and water to boil.

13.   Add the palm sugar and salt and let it completely melted, remove from heat and serve.

*This can be served warm with a couple cubes of ice or room temperature.

Enjoy!

Note:  The red round thing is another dessert that call Precious Gem or Ruby.  It very easy, just chop up chestnut soaked in desire food coloring then dust with tapioca flour and and drop in hot boiling water.  The same method as above and serve with the same coconut milk sauce.

The white ball are Korean melon to gives it the some texture.

The Best Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today out of the blue, my little babies craving chocolate chip cookies.  Instead of buying it from the grocery store, I have decided to make my own batch.  Upon researching for thick, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, I saw this recipe from food.com by Marg.  I thought I will give it a try.  .  To my amazement it came out perfectly.  So if you like thick and soft and chewy cookies, give this recipe a go.

My babies had a blast helping out and making a mess, but it was a very easy and fun experiences  I did some adjust to sugar, chocolate chips and adding a bit of sea salt to my liking.  

Before you start, preheat your oven to 375 F.

Ingredients:

2 ½ cup of all purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar packed

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ cup of shortening

1 cup butter at room temperature

½ teaspoon of sea salt

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

8 ounce of chocolate chips (12 ounce if you like more of it)

Methods:

1.       Measure and mix flour, baking soda and salt and set aside.

2.       In another bowl, beat the butter and shortening until creamy.

3.       Slowly add the sugar, vanilla and eggs and beat until blend completely.

4.       Now add the flour a little at a time beating on low and blend well.

5.       Add the chocolate chips and mix well.

6.       Lined your cookies try with baking parchment paper .

7.       Scoop about 2 tablespoon of the dough on the paper and placed it 2 inches apart.

8.       By now you oven should we hot and ready at 375 F.  Bake for 11 minutes.

9.       When done or brown around the corner, let it sit for 15 minutes before transferring it to a cooking rack.

Enjoy!

Macarons with Spicy Strawberry Butter Cream

 

If the title caught your attention and wondering if there an error in the word spicy, no it isn’t. Yes, you saw it correctly. I meant it by stating it as spicy. I know it sound awful and wacky with dessert being spicy, but it actually very delicious. It spicy flavor is enough to complement the sweet and tangy strawberry in the butter cream perfectly. I for one never though about coming up with this flavor, but it my error that led me to discover this amazing flavor. You see I have two jar, one is strawberry preserved that I made a couple of week back and another is the spicy chilies paste that I made for my spicy wings a month back. Both are store in the identical container in the refrigerator and both look very similar in color. In haste to make my butter cream, I grabbed the first container that look like the strawberry preserve and put a whole teaspoon full into the freshly mashed strawberry and mixed it into the butter cream and set it aside.

Never judge a book by it cover is always my motto in life. So after my macarons is nicely cool down I piped some of the butter cream into my first perfect looking little macarons pie. So naturally I wanted to be the first to try my accomplishment and take the first bite…first tasting the rich sweetness and tangy strawberry as it slowly melt in my mouth I start tasting the salty and spicy combination of the chilies paste. To my surprise it was very unique and tasty. The sweet and tangy just combine so beautifully with the salty and spicy flavor as it was meant to be this way! I am delighted to accidently discover this savory delicates and will include this in my new favorite recipes list. In all, although sometime thing can sound wacky and out of place, never judge it until you try it first.

Macaron recipe

Spicy Strawberry Butter Cream

1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks 4 oz.
(1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup of finely smash strawberry
1 tsp of Korean spicy paste
1 squirt of sriracha hot sauce (optional for extra spice)
2 drops of red food coloring for the orange pink coloring.

In a sauce pan, whisk together the egg yolks, and sugar together until blend and sugar melted. Now whisk at medium speed until light, stiff and glossy.
Remove the pan from heat and set aside to cool down. Slowly added the butter and food coloring a little at the time whisk until blended.
Lastly, add the mashed strawberry, Korean spicy paste and sriracha sauce and whisk again until nicely blended.

 *Butter will melt at room temperature. If not using right away refrigerate it.

Chewy Colorful Dessert

Here something for anyone, whom like me love, love chewy dessert with rich coconut milk and palm sugar combination. This dessert is so good, that is almost impossible to stop eating once you started. It very easy to make using readily made Lod Chong Singapore style package, coconut gel cube and giant boba. As for the pink round shape it made from tapioca flour and sticky rice flour combine. The rest is just coconut milk and palm sugar. There no way to put in words how good this is. It just very refreshing and addicting, especially in the hot Summer heat, serve over crush ice.

Kanom Chan

This one is more of the Thai version.



This is Khmer version.

I have been away so long, that it made me realized that I don't really have enough time to post any new recipes. Now I came up with a solution to my busy days. I will post photo of the food that I made and if anyone that reading want the recipe that goes with it just drop me a comment and I'll make sure to post it up.

With that being said, you will get to enjoy more of my photography side than my writing skill. So now I can say that I am truly going to commit some more time to load some picture up.

Last weekend, I decided to make some chewy dessert call Kanom Chan in Thai and Nom Chak Ka Chan in Cambodia. Now if you're wondering to yourself and asking yourself what is the difference? There is actually a lot and not very much. First of all if anyone ever bought this from the Khmer market and the Thai market, you will noticed a different in texture, fragrance and taste. I can honestly say that the Khmer version is a lot easier to make, because of the ingredients that are readily available being rice flour and Tapioca flour.

As for the Thai version it very similar method but they omitted the rice flour and used only tapioca flour and sweet potato starch or cassava starch. This making it very chewy and gummy like, but enough to still melts in your mouth. Of course, this is an acquire taste and preference. Oh yeah, Thai tend to used Jasmine flavor with this dessert where the Khmer version is more leaning toward pandan flavor.

My Steam Flan

Flan is one of those desserts that come in many shape, size and texture from all over the world. In fact, after some intense searched for the best recipe possible, I noticed that there are many versions to that claimed to be the “original” recipes. I am so sure of this, that I know most family have their own version too that is the original. Of all the recipe, the one I found most intriguing is the one that I had at this Chinese Buffer near my house. It was so rich and creamy, yet just the perfect hint of sweetness that just melts in your mouth and longing for more and more and more. You get the picture. Therefore, that might have been the reason why I never really want to make my own version, for fear of overindulgence!
Now all that changes when my mom came over and told me that she and my sister love this creamy dessert, but can’t seem to get it right. So liking a challenge and thinking that this is just such an easy dessert to make, I went ahead and research for some recipe try my own version. The one that I seem to taking a liking to was the one by Kiss My Spatula. I like that she steamed it instead of baking it and that she didn’t used any condense milk. I had other flan that used too much condense milk that all you taste was the intense sweetness from it that it left a bitterness aftertaste. Too sweet for my taste! Although, I don’t really want to use too much condense milk, but I do like their caramel flavor it brings to dessert so I had added a spoonful of it and it turn out great. Also noticed that I used heavy whipping cream instead of evaporated milk, due to the reason I really like creme brulee extreme creaminess texture. So far this is the best hybrid flan recipe I ever had! It look like flan and last so much like crème brulee..love it! Love it! Found my new love affair…and this one for my sisters..
Ingredients:
Caramel Sauce:
1 Cup sugar
1 Tbsp of ready- made caramel ice cream sauce (optional if you like that intense caramel flavor and thickness)
Flan
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup heavy whipping cream
1 TBSP of condense milk
1/3 Cup sugar
3 Eggs
2 Egg yolks
1Tsp vanilla extract
Methods:
1. Add some water to your steamer and turn it on to warm it up.
2. In a sauce pan, on medium heat, melt the sugar. Do not stir, just sit and watch until it melt completely and golden. Remove from heat and pour into prefer glass dish and make sure to coat the bottom completely.
3. In another sauce pan, heat the milk, heavy cream, condense milk and sugar. Stir until completely blend. Bring milk to hot. Remove from heat and set aside.
4. Beat the eggs and yolk and vanilla extract together until blend. When the milk is slightly cool, whip in the eggs and blend well. Remove any forms or lumps.
5. Pour the blended mixture into the glass bowl and place in the steam and steam for 15 minutes.
6. Remove and let it cool down before refrigerating it overnight.

Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

As I mention earlier in my post, we don’t really have a real Asian market here. The closest one would be in Dallas about 5 to 6 hours drive, so the motivation to cook can be pretty limited too. That had recently changed since our little town finally had a real Chinese/Oriental Market. I was the first to check it out! Yes, that how excited I was. So as I was grabbing everything to put into my basket, I made my way to the cooler section and noticed the Taiwanese noodle. I nearly jumped for joy! I knew right away that I will make it this coming Sunday.
In all honestly, I never had this since I moved to Texas 5 years ago and just thinking about it made my mouth water. The blend of spices with the hot soup and oh so tender beef just compliments the chewy hands pulled noodle to perfection. This noodle soup is so soothing and delicious that it hard to any other noodle to compete with. It one of those noodle that once you have it, you’ll crave for more and more.

3 Pounds of beef shank cut into 2” inches pieces
5-6 Garlic cloves, slightly crushed
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 Tbsp sesame oil
3 Sliced gingers
5 Slightly crushed scallion, cut halved crosswise
1 Tsp Chinese five-spice powder
4 Star anise
½ Tsp of white pepper
1 Tbsp of beef soup base
½ Tsp of black pepper
1 Tsp of sea salt
4 Dried chilies
¼ Cup chile bean sauce
3 Tbsp of Shaoxing rice wine
2 Tbsp of rock sugar
½ Cup of soy sauce
3 Tbsp of dark soy sauce (add more for darker broth)
5 plus Quart of water

1 Bunch water crest or baby bok choy, broccoli flower
2 Package fresh hand pull Taiwanese noodle (find it in your Asian market)

1. Put all the ingredients together and bring to a hard boil.
2. Remove any scum on the top to make the soup clear.
3. Lower the heat to medium and cook for another 1 ½ hours or until beef shank is tender. If you put tendon in there cook the tendon ½ first.
4. When it done do not cover and let it sit for a couple of hours to fully absorb the flavor. Or make it overnight and refrigerated.
5. To serve, in another pot add water to almost full and bring it to boil. Cook noodle to package instruction.
6. Drain and add the vegetable and soup.

Enjoy.