Fujian is a province in China. So I suppose this dish probably could trace its origins there.

I grew up in Singapore without my parents, but with a hired “nanny” to watch over us (me and my siblings). At times, this hired “nanny” would take a break from cooking. She would assign us some money, to settle lunch on our own.

I looked forward to these occasions, because back then, I didn’t like home cooking. She wasn’t the world’s best cook. And it was always the same few dishes that came out of her kitchen.

So Hokkien Mee was something i liked to order when we had the chance to eat out. I remember the stall owner would fire up his stove, make a hell lot of noise stirring his metal spatula against his giant wok. Minutes later, a plate of steaming hot, soggy noodles would appear.

I especially loved it when the noodles are extra soggy. Because it means, extra broth. This broth is the highlight of this dish. It is bursting with all the flavors from hours of simmering stock.

As a kid, I couldn’t pinpoint as to what made the broth so delicious. It was only after reading the recipes for this dish that i discovered that the stock was made of pork, chicken and prawns.

Yup, that’s three types of meat, combined to make one stock. Can i justify further?

Singapore Hokkien Mee

Recipe taken from Rasa Malaysia

Singapore Hokkien Mee Recipe

Ingredients:

250g Yellow Noodle
250g White thick rice vermicelli (I used dried rice vermicelli)
400g Prawn
350g Squid (Sotong) (omitted, added sliced fishcakes instead)
200g Pork Belly (omitted)
40g Green chives
750ml Chicken stock
3 Eggs
5g Chopped garlic

Seasoning:

1/2 tbsp Fish sauce
1 dash Pepper
1 dash Sesame oil

Method:

1. Peel the prawn head.  In a hot wok, add a tbsp oil and fry the prawn head until fragrant. Add fried prawn head into chicken stock and boil for 30mins to 1 hour. (I usually reserve the uncooked prawn shells and prawn heads from other dishes and keep them frozen in the freezer)
2. Add the pork belly into the stock and boil for 45mins. Take out the pork belly and cool. Cut pork belly into strips. ( I omitted this step)
3. Blanch dried vermicelli, fishcake and prawns in boiling water. Drain and set aside
4. Into a hot wok, add 1 tbsp of oil, fry the garlic until fragrant. Add in egg and scramble.
5. Add in yellow noodle and blanched rice vermicelli. Fry for a few minutes until noodles just begin to sear. (Use high heat)
6. Add 1/3 of prawn stock and seasoning. Fry until stock is almost dry. Add another 1/3 of prawn stock. Cover wok to braise the noodles on medium low heat. (5 to 7 mins) * Note: I had to add a bit of water as my stock wasn’t quite enough
7. Lastly add in prawn, squid, chives and fry together. Add remaining stock, fry for 1 min and plate. Serve with sambal chilli and lime.

This is a chinese dish of braised pork belly in soy sauce, or also known as the “tau yew bak”.

I’ve added dried shitake mushrooms, a hard boiled egg and some beancurd puffs. Apparently, these three are the common accompaniment to this dish.

I’ve also been bloghopping to find a recipe for this. But i couldn’t settle on one.

Some required the pork to be browned in a skillet, some don’t. Some add light soy sauce, in lieu of salt.

So I’ve decided to come up with my own recipe.

A recipe scaled for one serving.

Oh, i am also linking this post to Joyce of Kitchen flavours

She happened to be hosting this month’s Little Thumbs Up event

Little Thumbs Up, is an event organized by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids and Doreen from my little favourite D.I.Y.

And since this month’s event happens to be “Mushrooms”, so here i go!

Tau Yew Bak

Serves one.

1 egg, hardboiled

2 Tofu puffs, cut diagonally

125 grams pork belly

2 dried shitake mushrooms

Light soy sauce

Dark soy sauce

sugar

half of a whole garlic

half a star anise

1 clove

1/8 tsp five spice powder

500 ml of water

1. Using a little oil, brown the pork belly on all sides. Rub some dark soy sauce over the browned pork belly

2. Bring the water to boil. Add garlic, 5 spice powder, clove and anise seed

3. Add the pork belly, and the shitake mushrooms, let it simmer for 1 hour, or till the meat turns tender.

4. Add the light soy sauce and sugar to taste, and the dark soy sauce for color

4. Add the egg, tofu puffs, simmer for another 15 minutes.

5. Serve with white rice

But they are laden with synthetic sugar.

I’ve seen cakes that claim to be refined sugar free.

But they are laden with a whole party of unrefined sugar.

This cake however is wholly Sugar Free.

It relies wholly on bananas and raisins to its sweetness.

Perfect for my 10 month old baby Crusta.

Yup, she is still not allowed sugar. Refined, or not refined.

My poor baby.

So till you hit your 12 month mark,

and are finally allowed a moderate amount of sugar

here is something to tide you over.

Sugar Free Banana Bread with Raisins

Makes 2 large muffins

20 grams organic raisins, chopped

40 grams boiling water

40 grams whole wheat flour

12 grams All purpose flour

1/4 tsp organic/natural baking powder

28 grams olive oil

125 grams (about 1) banana

1 egg yolk

Pour the boiling water onto the chopped raisins, set aside for half hour

preheat oven to 180 degree celcius, Grease and line the muffin tins.

Sift whole wheat, all purpose flour with the baking powder.

Drain the raisins, reserving the liquid.

Put the olive oil, banana and 12 grams of the steeped raisin water in a food processor. Process till smooth.

Pour the processed banana mixture onto the flour mixture and mix till well combined.

Add the chopped raisins and pour the batter onto awaiting muffin tins.

Because i successly:

1. Poached an egg

2. Made hollandaise sauce.

Yay Me!

For tips and instructions to make these two, i refer to KitchenRiffs, here

This cupcake here, is a strawberry fanta flavoured steamed cupcake.

As with butter cakes, the surface of this cake is supposed to “break open”, indicating that the cake has fully risen.

And if you are wondering what the black stuff on it is, they were shredded chocolate.

I love how the strawberry fanta imparts the pretty pink colour.

Not to mention a slightly strawberry flavour.

Fanta Steamed Cupcakes

2 eggs

200 grams sugar

275 grams AP flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

175ml Fanta

50 grams thick coconut milk

Some shredded chocolate

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl, set aside

Beat eggs till pale and fluffy (about 10 mins)

Fold in the sifted flour alternately with the fanta and coconut milk

Pour onto cupcake molds which have been prelined.

Sprinkle chocolate over the cupcakes

Lower cupcakes into a pre-heated steamer, and heat with high heat for about 10 minutes.

I don’t even know how to title it.

It has cream cheese in it.

It has white chocolate,

It has butter.

Yet it’s not exactly a cheesecake,

nor is it a buttercake,

and definitely not a blondie.

Oh, and did i mention that it was steamed, not baked?

But if i were to have a go at this cake,

I would say this is a cake between a sponge and a butter cake.

It’s light and soft, yet it’s “bulky”.

It’s sweet, but not sponge-cake sweet.

Its rich, but not buttery cake rich.

Oh well, whatever the case, i think it’s a pretty good cake, considering that it’s steamed.

Which brings me to another point.

Admist rising electrical bills (Having a baby really jacks up your bills!), and a full force electrical oven which drains 2200 watts each time i fire it, I decided that i should steam more often and bake less.

So here it is!

Steamed cheesecake with white chocolate

Taken from Cake Kukus (Sedap)

(Makes 5 cupcake size)

38 grams cream cheese (double boiled till melted)

4 egg yolks

2 egg whites

63 grams sugar

1/8 tsp salt

63 gram AP flour

10 gram milk powder

1/4 tsp baking powder

50 grams butter, melted

38 grams white chocolate (melted with butter)

Beat eggs, sugar and salt till light and fluffy. Add melted cream cheese, mix till well combined.

Fold in flour, milk powder and baking powder

Add melted butter and white chocolate slowly, and fold till evenly mixed

Pour into cupcake tins that have been lined with greased baking paper.

Steam for 30 minutes or till cooked.

It seems to me that some countries have their own versions of “Rojak”. . I’ve heard of the Singapore Rojak, the Indian Rojak and the Indonesian Rujak (Notice the different spelling here?)

While being completely ignorant about the Indian Rojak, I do think there is a fair resemblance between the Singapore and the Indonesian Rujak i both grew up with.

Both of them came served with a thick, dark, sweet sauce which looks like this:

The sauce for the singapore rojak however, is more pungent. The indonesian rujak sauce is milder, sweeter, and spicier.

The three main ingredients in both rojaks are the same. Shrimp paste, palm sugar, and tamarind and sometimes chilli.

I guess you can play around with the proportions and come up with your own recipe that suit to your personal taste.

Sauces aside, we come to the “bulk” of the rojak

You can pretty much use every “dry” fruit, such as green apples, rose apples, jicama, under ripe mangoes … etc

But unlike the Indonesian rujak which use only fruits, its singapore cousin likes to add a bit of fried beancurd and youtiao in it. Nothing to complain about. It’s great!

Not forgetting the ground peanuts, which again, the Indonesian rujak lack of.

Toss your choice of fruits, fried stuff, peanuts in a bowl, with your sauce, and your rojak is ready to serve.

And dont forget your skewers !

Singapore Rojak

The bulk:

Here are the list of choices you can choose to add form

Jicama (Mangkuang)

Cucumber

Rose Apples

Green Apples

Pineapple

Tau pok

You tiao

Kangkung

Bean sprout

Dried Cuttlefish

The sauce:

1 tsp of shrimp paste (belacan)

2 tbs tamarind (mixed with a bit of water to “dissolve the flesh”, discard seed)

one block of palm sugar

Mix all ingredients for the sauce, and bring it to a boil over low heat. Keep stirring till it gets syrupy. Off heat, set aside to cool, and drizzle over the “bulk”

Like most groups you see on the internet, this group aims to bring together Indonesian foodbloggers around the world. It is a place where you can share or question anything food related.

To further engange its members, the Indonesian Foodblogger (IFDB) puts forward a challenge each month. And for the month of May, the theme is “layered cake”.

However, there is a catch.

The challenge does not accept cakes that are baked, and then LAYERED with buttercream, ganache and the likes.

It accepts cakes which are layered WHILE they (the cake) is cooking..

Which pretty much means you gotta stand around, fiddling your thumbs while you pour your cake batter and watch it cook layer by layer. It involves a great deal of time.

So, i set aside an evening for it.

I carried baby Crustabakes on my hip as i started weighing my ingredients.It’s crazy, but I have developed some kind of superpower whereby i can balance baby Crustabakes on my left hip and still be completely functional with my right arm.

Like a good trade off, this cake is fairly simple to execute. A time consuming, but minimal labor kinda cake.

All you need is a simple whisk, and a lot of bowls.

Three bowls, for the three different colours on the cake.

I’ve chosen pink and green for this cake.

Because those are the colours stated in the recipe.

Also because those were the only food colorings i had at home. Yes, unfortunately, i used food coloring for this cake.

I may be functional with my right arm, but i am not THAT functional to be pounding at leaves or fruits to get natural food dye.

So off i go, steaming this cake, layer by layer.

8 minutes per layer.

Alternating the layers between white, green, then pink and repeating the sequence over and over again till the batter gets used up.It took a total of about 2 hours.

By the end of it, i had put baby C to sleep, took a shower, brushed my teeth and got ready for bed.

All while cooking a cake.

Talk about multi-tasking!

Lapis Beras

Loosely translated from 52 Resep Kue Berlapis

1.5 Litres coconut milk, squeezed from 2 heads of coconuts

3 blades of pandan leaves

1 tsp salt

300 gram rice flour

85 gram sago flour

300 grams granulated sugar

6 drops green food coloring

6 drops red food coloring

1. Bring to boil coconut milk, pandan leaves and salt, all the while stirring. Strain, and discard the pandan leaves. Set aside to cool.

2. Sift the rice flour, sago flour and the sugar.Slowly whisk warm (not hot) coconut milk into the flour mixture.

3. Divide the batter into 3 bowls. Drop green food coloring into one bowl. Drop red food coloring into another bowl and leave the third one white.

4.Pour 100 ml of white batter onto a greased square tin (18cm x 18cm x 7 cm). Steam for 8 minutes.

5. Pour 100 ml of green batter over the white batter, steam for 8 minutes

6. Pour 100 ml of red batter over the white batter, steam for 8 minutes.

7. Repeat the sequence of white, green and red, till all the batter gets used up.

8. For the last layer, steam for a final 30 minutes. Let cool before serving.

I’ve heard all about it being sticky, and uncooperative to work with.

It cracks, it sweats, it tears, and the list of troubles goes on and on.

I’ve also never cared about its taste.

And the fact that everyone just tears out the decorative fondant after they’ve sung the birthday song and blown the candles didn’t help either. Imagine, all those endless hours shaping the fondant defunct in just a split second.

But something spurred me.

Baby Crustabake’s first birthday.

Her birthday is just in a little over more than two months.

And I would love to make something “passable” to celebrate that special day.

So today, i start practicing.

My very first full fledged fondant cake.

A simple cake with a bow of pastel colors.

The fondant did sweat, and it has fine “wrinkles”

I need to troubleshoot on that. It’s really a long, arduous journey ahead.

Me vs fondant.

It’s a recipe re-visited, from HERE

Happy Friday everybuddy!