Finally found a reliable steamed bun recipe from MY Kitchen.  I have attempted to make steamed buns before, but the result was not as  good as I was expected, partly due the the type of flour I used. Western white plain wheat flour produced yellowish buns and they are probably higher in gluten, the buns were quite chewy. In UK, you should be able to get "Bao" flour (low-gluten wheat flour) from the Chinese grocer.

I am pleased with the original recipe. The buns looked authentic, especially the splits on the top of the buns, so much like those Char Siew Bao (BBQ pork buns) you will get from the dim sum restaurants. The texture and taste of the buns are both good. But I find the alkaline aftertaste left in my mouth was a bit too strong (probably the issue of the 10g baking powder called for in the recipe!) I wonder if there is anything I can do to reduce that aftertaste? Will using Alluminum-free baking powder as suggested by David Lebovitz reduce the aftertaste? I shall experiment next time round!

The temperature in Brighton is a bit low at the moment, so the proofing time for the dough was 30-45 minutes longer than what is being stated in the original recipe. 

Lesson learned from the original recipe: Lemon juice (acid) added to the dough and in the steaming water would make the buns whiter!

My flat was infused in the toasty fresh moss scent last night when these biscotti were baking in the oven. Almost like being in a forest by the camp fire. I imagine that would be the kind of feeling being in a transitional Japanese chanoyu (tea ceremony) in a rustic chashitsu (tea room). All these reminded me of my favourite book, The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura. A book that has a big influence on my view on things/life and architectural designs. I should read it again!

The green tea powder for these biscotti is not just the colour, the 2.5 generous teaspoon of the matcha powder adds great toasty-ness and makes the biscotti just like a cup of green tea but in a crunchy way! I do really like the idea of "eating" green tea. The red of the cranberries and white of the macadamia nuts made this biscotti almost Christmasy! 

The basic biscotti recipe I always use is on here, just a few twists, you could create your special version! 

I have also made other unusual biscotti before..

1. Cheesy Biscotti! 
   
2. Caramel Bacon with Sesame seeds Biscotti

And I have even designed and handmade the packaging to go with the Japanese theme! The effect of the translucent parchment paper with red pattern goes really well the the silhouette of green contained inside..:-)

The second attempt of making these choux pastry and profiteroles. I am really quite pleased with the result. If I keep perfecting my skills, I should master it soon!

The reference of the choux pastry recipe was from The Cook's Book. One of my favourite comprehensive and informative cookbooks. I have learned a lot of new cooking techniques from this book. It has various chapters for different types of food and each recipe has it step by step instructions and accompanied by sequential photographs. Note: I don't get any commission by promoting this book! 

Something new for me about choux pastry making is that it should be made with equal amount of water and full-fat milk in order to achieve a smooth pastry consistency. Just using water will only result in rough pastry. I think the smooth pastry does give a more professional feel to the final presentation of the profiteroles.

For the pastry recipe, you could refer to any choux pastry recipes that you could get hold on from online or other resources, but maybe consider the equal water and milk formula (if the reference recipe only uses water).

For the refreshing raspberry cream filling, I simply whisked double cream until stiff, and then add few generous tablespoonful of mashed frozen or fresh raspberry to the cream. 

You can either pump the cream into the puffed pastry, but personally, I think a cut-top profiteroles with cream filling visible would add more visual excitement to the final presentation.

Lazy health-conscious or vegetarian food served in the restaurant annoys me quite a lot! 

I will always question the intention to serve the customers those bland and boring (unimaginative simply-just poach) looking health-conscious or vegetarian food that garnished with some raw green vegetable. Are they just being really lazy to make better food!?  Healthy or vegetarian food doesn't have to be bland and boring! They should stimulate both the Mind and our taste buds!

This salad is so easy to make, very little cooking (skills) involved (other than to poach the chicken breast), but rich in various appetising colours, textures and full of traditional healthy medicinal, hydrated Chinese ingredients such as goji berries, snow fungus, cloud ear fungus and chrysanthemum flowers. (Ingredients typically used to make traditional herbal soup). Super healthy!

Once all the ingredients are prepared and put into a large bowl, prepare the oyster sauce with fresh grated ginger (with some of my special home made mango chilli pickles). Then sprinkle the sauce all over the salad and serve cold.

Perfect for hot summer days (to come..soon!!)

You can read articles about the benefits of those Chinese herbal ingredients used for the dish.

1. Snow Fungus
   
2. Goji Berry
3. Cloud Ear Fungus
4. Chrysanthemum Flower

This is quite an easy tart to make. An impressive dessert for any potluck gathering. Or any day when you really fancy some decent dessert without having to spend a lot of money to buy them in a patisserie. Homemade tarts are always taste much much better (and cheaper) than those from the supermarket!

There are two stages to make the tart.

Stage 1: The Pastry.
Ingredients:

1. 225g Plain flour
2. 125g Unsalted butter
3. 55g Icing sugar
4. 1 zest of orange
5. 3 Large egg yolks
6. 2 tbsp Orange juice

Rub the butter into the flour until they resemble fine breadcrumbs texture and then mix in the icing sugar and orange zest. Add one egg yolk at a time to the flour mixture until incorporated. Finally add one tablespoon of the orange juice at a time to the flour mixture and mix until all come together as a dough. Wrap the dough with the cling film and refrigerate it for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180'C. Prepare the 22cm fluted loose base flan tin by rubbing butter all over the internal surfaces.
After 30 minutes, roll out the pastry to about 3mm thickness (big enough to cover the whole flan tin). Gently press the pastry in place within the flan tin and chill it in the fridge for another 20mins. 

Crumple a large piece of parchment paper (enough to cover the flan tin) and then carefully open it up and line it over the chilled pastry. Sprinkle ceramic baking beans over the parchment paper and blind bake the pastry for 15mins. Then set it aside to cool down completely before the next stage.

Stage 2: The filling
Ingredients:

1. 50g Self raising flour
2. 100g Ground almond
3. 100g frozen blueberries
4. 1 zest of orange
5. 1 tsp of orange essence
6. 80g Unsalted butter
7. 2 tbsp Thick double cream
8. 125g Castor sugar
9. 1 Large egg and 1 egg yolk

Preheat the oven to 180'C.
Use an electric hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the orange zest and essence and mix well. Add the egg and mix it until fully incorporated then mix in the egg yolk and beat until well mixed. Then add the thick double cream. Beat until everything is fully incorporated. Gently fold in the flour and ground almond until just combined. Spread the filling mixture over the cooled pastry case, the level it. Sprinkle the blueberries over the mixture.

Bake the tart in the oven for 30-35minutes or until the crust is golden colour. Insert a skewer to the middle of the tart, if it comes out clean, the tart is cooked. Remove it from the over to cool down. Allow the tart to cool down before removing it from the flan tin. 

Done! The tart tastes good if serves warm or cold! Simple!

The idea of foraging for food in the wild has always been a fascinating idea for me! Free food and all that..If I can stomach garden snails, I would have a lot of meat to eat through out the year! But those slimy creatures are nasty! 

But I found out that there is another wild thing that I can eat from my garden..WEED..onion! An edible Spring bulb plants. The whole plant is edible from the bulb, the leaves to the pretty white flowers. The plant has a hint of oniony smell plus a pungent fragrance that I can't put into words, maybe a bit too overpowering for my liking when they are raw. (Maybe that is why they are regarded as weed not vegetable!) It doesn't smell anything like spring onion, or young leek (as some people might suggest).

But since they are free food from my garden, I am happy to give them a try! Once cooked, they smell a lot less pungent, and very much like other complementary ingredients for a dish. 

I mixed the finely chopped weed onion to marinated minced pork to make some burgers. And also experiment using the whole plant as the substitute for spring onion for the pork liver stir fry. I think they work well with ginger and meat! But I don't think I will eat them in any raw salad! 

No longer a molten lava cake virgin! I am quite happy that I got it right for the first time round. So effortless to make these rich and tasty cakes. I wonder why they always make it seems so dramatic and difficult to make these on MasterChef! 

The processes of making these cake are rather straight forward and simple! 
Ingredients: (makes 3)

1. 50g (70%) Dark chocolate
2. 50g Unsalted butter
3. 75g Soft brown sugar
4. 2 Medium eggs
5. Few drop of Vanilla extract
6. 25g Plain flour.

Pre-heat the oven to 200'C. Grease the ramekins and dust it with cocoa powder.

Melt chocolate and butter together over a double boiler, and set aside to cool down for 15 minutes.
Then add soft brown sugar to the chocolate mixture and stir until well combined. Hand whisk one egg at a time to the mixture until well integrated. Add the vanilla extract then gently stir in the flour until combined.

Pour the mixture to the greased ramekins and bake in the oven for 10-11 minutes. 

Quickly, but gently tip the cakes to the serving plates and duct them with icing sugar or cocoa powder to decorate the plate. All done! 

Serve these cakes immediately while still hot. The cake will continue to cook until you dive in! If you leave it for few more minutes, the molten lava inside might gone solid by then!