Name: Chocolate Mochi
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Ingredients: 100g glutinous rice flour; 70g white sugar; 120ml water; 100ml milk; 60g chocolate (i use milk chocolate) - cut into small pieces; cocoa powder (unsweetened)

December 12, 2020

Chocolate Mochi

Prep Time

20 minutes

Cook Time

1 hour

Total Time

1 hour, 20 minutes

Ingredients

100g glutinous rice flour
70g white sugar
120ml water
100ml milk
60g chocolate (i use milk chocolate) - cut into small pieces
cocoa powder (unsweetened)

Instructions

1. Spread some cocoa powder onto a plate and set it aside.
2. In a bowl, add glutinous rice flour, sugar and mix well.
3. Add milk and water, then mix well. Transfer to a cooking pot.
4. Cook over medium heat. Mix gently with a silicone spatula. Once it starts to be thick, add chocolate and mix constantly until completely incorporated.
5. Cook until it all comes together, silky and smooth. Spread some cocoa powder onto the workspace and place the mochi on it. Spread more cocoa powder over the mochi.
6. Coat mochi with cocoa powder on all sides. Shape it to an about 2cm thickness. Cut into bite sizes, dust with more cocoa powder on all sides and place mochi on the plate you prepared.
7. Cover with saran wrap and chill in the fridge before eating.

December 12, 2020

Face mask – less fog for glasses wearer! – Free Pattern

Here is another face mask design. If you wear glasses, I think it will help to have less fog :) This mask is also the easiest and quickest design to make!

Download from the product page here – don’t worry it’s free!

November 19, 2020

Soup Dumpling | Xiao Long Bao | 小籠包

Persons

Prep Time

2 hours

Cook Time

15 minutes

Total Time

2 hours, 15 minutes

Ingredients

For the wrap :

- 120g T55 or all-purpose flour
- 1g fine salt
- 60ml water
- 1/8 tsp vegetable oil

For the aspic :

- 160ml water
- 5g fresh ginger
- 5g green parts of a leak
- 1 tsp oyster sauce
- 8g gelatin powder dissolved in 1.5 to 2 tbsp water
- 7g Chinese chicken bouillon powder

For the filling :

- 100g pork belly - chopped roughly
- 100g ground pork (shoulder preferred) *arrange the split as you prefer
- 5~6g lard
- 3/4 tbsp grated fresh ginger
- 10g green long onion
- 1 tsp water
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- a dash of salt
- a dash of sugar
- 1 tsp Chinese shaoxing rice wine or cooking sake or white wine

For the dipping sauce :

- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 3 tsp rice or apple cider vinegar
- some fresh ginger - cut into julienne

Instructions

1. Making the dough
In a bowl add flour, salt and mix well. Add the water then knead with your hand gently. Once the dough starts to be like crumbles, add vegetable oil. Knead until the dough comes together in a ball.
2. Transfer to a working surface, and knead by hand for 3 minutes. Then cover with saran wrap and let sit for 1 hour.
3. _Making the aspic (in advance, maybe a day before?)
In a small heat-safe cup, add gelatin and water. Mix. Set it aside.
4. In a cooking pot add water, green parts of a leek, ginger and bring it to a boil. Once it boils, add chinese chicken bouillon powder, oyster sauce and mix. Remove from the heat. Strain the soup into a heat-safe plate and let it cool a little to 55~60℃.
5. Add the soaked gelatin and dissolve it completely. Let it to cool to room temperature, and then chill in the fridge until firm.
6. Making the filling
In your food processor, add pork belly and process until minced. Add the ground pork and process until combined well.
7. Add cooking sake, water, sesame oil, fresh ginger, green long onion, lard, a dash of salt and sugar. Pulse until the pork turns into a paste. Transfer the meat mixture into a bowl. Cover it and keep it in the fridge if your aspic is not ready.
8. Take out the aspic from the fridge and transfer it to the food processor. Pulse for a few seconds. Add the diced aspic to the pork mixture. Mix well. Cover and chill for now.
9. Making the wrap
Take some of the dough and feed 1 to 2 times in position 1 of the Kitchenaid Pasta Roller. Change to position 2 or 3 and feed 1 to 2 times. Change to position 5 or 6 and feed 1 or 2 times. Finally change to position 8 (thinnest) and feed 1 or 2 times.
10. Cut the dough with a ring (I used a 9cm diameter one). Transfer to a lightly floured plate (Keep the excess dough to make more wrappers at the end). 1 wrapper is about 8 to 9g, so if you don't use the pasta roller, take about 9g of dough & roll it directly into a disc shape with a rolling pin.
11. Place some filling in the middle of a wrapper. Pleats the wrapper's edge with as many folds as you can :) (Pulling the edges make them thinner).
12. Prepare the steamer: place a cloth or a parchment paper with holes. Place the dumplings. Steam for about 8 minutes.
13. Meanwhile make the dipping sauce. In a small cup, add 2 tsp soy sauce and 3 tsp rice or apple cider vinegar. Mix. Place some fresh ginger, it's nice.
14. Now it's ready! Enjoy :)

September 19, 2020

Homemade Gyoza Wrappers with Kitchenaid

Gyoza Wrappers w KitchenAid Stand mixer

Persons

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

30 minutes

Total Time

45 minutes

Ingredients

100g cake flour/plain flour (T45)
1/3 tsp fine salt
1/2 tbsp rice flour (optional)
50ml boiled water

Instructions

1. Add flour, salt and rice flour into a large bowl and stir well. Add hot water and stir with a rubber spatula. Then knead the dough by hand for about 1 to 2 minutes until it gets smooth. You can shape it into a ball.
2. Let the dough sit in the bowl for about 15 min, covered with a damp cloth.
3. Remove the bowl of your stand mixer and attach the pasta roller to it.
4. Take some of the dough (about 1/3), shape into an oval. Flatten it and dust it with flour on both sides.
5. Feed the dough through the pasta roller (setting 1 - thickest), at least 3 to 5 times or until the dough is smooth. Turn dial to the thickness setting 3 or 4 and run the dough through once or twice. Repeat (once or twice) at each following position until you reach setting 8. The target thickness really depends on your own preference. I like thin skin, so I roll it until setting 8 :)
6. Lay the rolled out sheet of dough on a cutting board and cut it out, using a circle cookie cutter (8~9cm diameter suggested). Dust the cut out wrappers with katakuriko/potato starch and set aside. Repeat as many times as you can.
Gather all the scrap dough, put it all together and re-roll it a few times until it becomes thin layers again.

Notes

I usually make 300g for 5 people.

May 3, 2020

Soy Sauce ‘Shoyu’ Senbei

Shoyu Senbei - Senbei with soy sauce

Serving Size

about 10 senbei

Prep Time

15 minutes

Cook Time

20 minutes

Total Time

35 minutes

Ingredients

20g rice flour
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp fine salt
1/2 tbsp grated parmesan
1 tbsp white sesame
20ml boiled water
150g steamed japanese rice (reheat with a microwave if was frozen)

For the dipping :

1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp mirin
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 sheet of nori/seaweed - cut into small pieces

Instructions

1. In a heat-safe bowl, add rice flour, sugar, grated parmesan and salt. Mix well.
2. Slowly pour the boiled water, using a cooking scale to help you add the right quantity. Mix with a silicone spatula until it comes together.
3. Add the steamed rice (microwave it for 30 sec at 600W if it was frozen) and sesame. Knead with your hand (or a spatula) until well combined. Pre-heat the oven to 200℃.
4. Spoon some rice mixture (about 1 to 2 tbsp) and make it into a ball, then flatten it with your hand. Make it even thinner, using your fingers. Place on a baking sheet on an oven tray. Repeat until you have used up all the rice mixture.
NOTE : a thinner senbei will be crispier.
5. In a small bowl, add the dipping ingredients (soy sauce, mirin and sugar) and mix. Set aside.
6. Bake senbei 10 min, pull it out from the oven once and flip them all once. Brush the dipping sauce from #5 onto each senbei and sprinkle some nori over the sauce.
7. Then put it back to the oven and bake for another 10 min.
8. Transfer to a wire rack.

April 28, 2020

Face mask – another design

Here is another face mask design. It is quite efficient as it requires less fabric than the previous one ;-) I also tried with Jersey fabric for the outer shell and it worked out very fine :-)

Download from the product page here – don’t worry it’s free of course!