Hi peeps !!!

I'll be back soon ... stay tuned =)

Yam Cheesecake (Or Nee Cheesecake)

I love cheesecake.  I just can't resist this sinful & yummy dessert from my diet :)  

I first came across this yam cheesecake recipe in one of our local newspaper The Star last year.  For my love & passion in baking, I straight cut down the article & keep the recipe until I found sometime to try it out few months back.  I didn't snapped much picture & blogged about it then on my first bake.  My kids they love it so much.  I would like to thank Sherie Lee's for sharing her recipe of this Yam Cheesecake.  The sour cream + coconut milk's topping was a great combination to this cheesecake.  I'm loving it !!!   I never taste a cheesecake with a truly asian touch & here it is.. hehe.  I just love how all the flavors blends so well together :) 

To cheesecake lovers out there, this is a must try recipe.   Yeah, thumbs up from me!!

Recipe adapted from : Sherie Lee of maameemoomoo

Yam Cheesecake (Or Nee Cheesecake)

(Ideal for 8" cake)

Crust/Base

• Oreo cookies - 150g (cream removed*)
• Butter - 70g (melted)

Here you go:

Crushed & finely ground the oreo cookies.  Pour the melted butter onto the ground cookies and toss well to coat the mixture with butter.  Press into an even layer on the bottom of the cheesecake pan.  Freeze for at least half an hour.

While freezing the base, proceed to make the filling of the cheesecake.

Filling/Cheesecake

• 500g cream cheese (room temperature)
• 120g castor sugar
• 2 1/2 eggs (I use 3)
• 150ml whipping cream
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 cup yam (peeled, cubed, steamed & pureed)
• 4-5 tbsp (steamed coarse yam chunks - if you prefer the bites of yam in the cake)*
• few drops of purple coloring - optional*

What to do :

Beat cream cheese & sugar until creamy.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing until it is just incorporated.  Gradually add in whipping cream, alternate it with mashed yam & lastly add in salt.  

Note:  don't over mix because we want to incorporate as little air as possible to prevent cake from cracking * 


Pour the cream cheese mixture on top of the freezed oreo base cake pan.  Bake at 150c for 60 - 75 minutes or till the edge of the filling is set & center is slightly wobbly.  

Topping 

• 1 cup Sour Cream
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 coconut milk

Hand whisked together all the ingredients in a bowl.  Mixed well & spread on top of the baked cheesecake.  Bake 5 minutes at 150c.

Note:  Gently whisk it to prevent air bubbles forming **

Cool cheesecake completely in pan on rack, 1-2 hours preferably

Cover cheesecake & chill in the fridge until cold for at least 4 hours or more.  It is best to chill it over-night.

Note :

* Bake the cheesecake in water bath.  If you are using spring form pan, be sure to wrap the bottom of the pan in 2 layers of foil to prevent any water from seeping into the cheesecake. Alternately, you can just slide in a tray filled with water just beneath the rack.

HAPPY BAKING !! ＾＾

Best Regards, 

AMY ONG

Home-made Hainanese Chicken Rice (海南鸡飯)

Ever since my beloved father passed-away I've been busy. Clean & rent out my parent's home. Now, it's my turn to take care of my mom. My father used to help me fetch my kids from tuition classes or school when I'm half-way baking or cooking but now no one is there to help me anymore :(

I'm sorry to readers who've leave me message. I've got 58 unanswered message in my message inbox and I just realized that I have abandoned this Cooking Crave blog for more than 6 months. I promised will go thru all the message & answer it one by one when I'm free. I'm so sorry for those who really have waited my reply.

From now on, I will try to make sometime to continue blogging and share my recipe with all of you. Thank you so much for being such a loyal follower of my blog. It really put a smile on my face & cheer up my day !! ~

Yeah, today I cooked chicken rice for lunch.  There are 2 types of chicken rice available or sold at "kopitiam".  Some chicken rice come with roasted chicken & boiled chicken.  Normally I will have the roasted type when we dine outside.   

For me, I still prefer the steamed chicken type when cook it myself at home.   Less oily, juicier & it's very easy to prepare it.  At least it won't messed up our kitchen, less work to clean all the oily stuff.. hehe.  If you're chicken rice lover, do try this out ... I bet you'll fall in love with it ... haha !!!  It smells heavenly too .. yums!!

Hainanese Steamed Chicken Rice Recipe

Ingredient for Rice :

4 cup thai fragrant rice 

(can be replace with any type of rice of your choice)

chicken broth

(enough for rice cooking)

1 piece of ginger - about 2-3 inch size

(skinned & smashed)

8 gloves garlic

(lightly smashed with skin intact)

5 cardamom (buah pelaga)

1 cinnamon (kulit kayu manis)

- about 2 inch in size

5 cloves (bunga cengkih)

p.s : don't be greedy, too much of cardamom, cinnamon & cloves will ruin the taste of the rice, just add it accordingly.

6-8 pandan (screwpine) leaves

washed & tie into knot

some salt to taste 

1 spoon of margarine 

(for stir-frying)

How to cook:

• Heat the wok & add in margarine, saute smashed ginger and garlic till fragrant.
• Add in cardamom, cinnamon & cloves.  Continue to saute till it is fragrant. 
• Add in washed rice and saute till rice is coated well with the oil.
• Add salt to taste (about 3/4 teaspoon is enough).
• Stir until it is well mixed.
• Place the rice with all the ingredients - spices, ginger & garlic into rice cooker.
• Add in the pandan (screwpine) leaves.
• Add in chicken broth instead of your usual water.
• Cook the rice as usual.

Ingredient for Chicken :

5 chicken drumstick with the upper thigh

(can use 1 whole kampung chicken)

1 tbsp light soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

some pepper

5 gloves garlic

(skinned & chopped)

 - stir-fried it with some oil - garlic oil for garnishing the cooked steamed chicken

some ginger

(skinned & sliced)

coriander leaves (daun ketumbar)

(for garnishing)

What to do :

• Clean the chicken, remove the excessive fat and blood.  Keep the skin intact.
• Place the chicken into a metal plate.  Sprinkled ginger slices on top of the chicken, add in soy sauce, sesame oil & pepper.
• Place the chicken into the hot boiling pot or wok & steamed for about 35-40 mins. (make sure the water already boiling hot before put the chicken to steam)
• In a small pan, heat some cooking out and saute the chopped garlic until it is golden brown.  Remove the garlic together with the oil into a small bowl.  Set aside.
• After 40mins, remove the cooked chicken from the wok.  Chopped the chicken into biting size and arrange it nicely into a plate.
• Garnish it with garlic oil & chopped coriander leaves.

How to make Sauce for rice:

• In a bowl, add 3-4 tbsp oyster sauce, 1/2 tbsp sugar & some soy sauce.  Stir to mix before add in some chicken broth.  If it is too salty, adjust by adding some sugar to taste.  Bean paste, chillies, garlic & coriander leaves can be added too.  As my kids they don't like all those ingredients, I didn't add it.  (this is my lazy method of making sauce, you can always make your own sauce to eat it with the rice.. hehe)

Ingredient for Ginger Chili Sauce for chicken:

5-6 red chillies, stem & seeds removed

1 inch ginger

5-6 glove garlic, skinned

4-5 limes, juiced

6-7 tbsp chicken broth

What to do :

Blend all ingredients till smooth ... that's it !!

P/S :  For the left over chicken broth, I add in some white radish & carrot, continue to boil it for few minutes.  Here we have chicken rice served with a bowl of radish soup .. Just in case, you get choked when eating too fast .. hehehe 

HAPPY COOKING 

Amy Ong

Simple Stir-fry Lady Finger with Oyster Sauce

A simple & easy dish that's very appetizing ... will share how to cook this soon !!

AMY

Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Breast

I use to cook crabs & prawns with salted egg yolks.  While browsing some of the cooking blog for new recipe, I stumbled across this recipe at Elin's blog.  After gone thru the recipe and her yummy pictures I decided to try this recipe.  Guess what, all my 3 kids they love it so much.  For those who have kids at home shall try this yummy recipe :)

Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Recipe

I piece chicken breast - sliced into smaller pieces 

some salt

pepper

1 egg white

tapioca starch 

oil for deep frying 

Seasoned chicken with salt and pepper and mix in egg white. Marinate for at least 30mins. Coat pieces of chicken with tapioca starch. Dust off extra starch and deep fry chicken pieces until golden and crispy.  Set aside.

1 tbsp margarine (I use planta)

2 springs curry leaves, remove from stem, leaves only

1 or 2 bird’s eye chilli, sliced 

3 salted egg yolks, steamed and mashed 

2 tbsp or more evaporated milk 

1 tsp cooking oil

1/3 tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

3 pips of chopped garlic

Heat wok, put in oil and butter. When butter has melted, add in chopped garlic, sliced chilli and curry leaves. Stir till it's fragrant, add in mashed egg yolks.  Flatten the yolks and cook until it look bubbly and fragrant. Lower the heat, add milk, salt and sugar. Cook for a little while and put in chicken and toss until well coated. 

HAPPY COOKING!! 




AMY

Crispy Cashewnut Cookies

In less than one month's time we'll be celebrating CNY.  As usual I will bake some cookies & cakes for this special occasion.  For the love of baking, I prefer to bake my own cookies to share with my family & friends.  Here are my first batch of cookies baked by me - Crispy Cashewnut Cookies, one of the must have cookies for CNY.  My kids they just love it so much.  A very crispy & buttery taste cookies topped with cashewnut.  Yummy!!

Crispy Cashewnut Cookies's Recipe
- adapted & editted from Agnes Chang's Baking Made Easy

Ingredients A:

240g butter/margarine (I use Golden Churn Butter)

100g castor sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp salt

Ingredients B (sifted):

350g plain flour

20g custard powder

Decoration:

100g cashewnuts, halved

1 egg, mixed with pinch of salt, beaten

Method:

• Cream A till just combined.  Mix in B to form into a pliable dough.
• Place dough in between 2 sheets of plastic, roll into 1/2 cm thick.  Cut into the shapes you preferred using a cookie cutter.
• Place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.  Press a half cashewnut on top of cookies and glaze it with beaten egg.
• Bake cookies in pre-heated oven at 180c for about 20mins till golden brown.  Remove from oven.
• Cool completely before storing.

p/s : The cookies are soft when it's still warm.  Make sure it's completely cool before remove the cookies from the baking tray.  

AMY 

Happy New Year 2011