Vanilla Chiffon Cake

The basic vanilla chiffon cake & this bake made my day. There are of course room for improvements but till then, this is a good bake for me. It has a slightly dark hue of yellow because Kampung Eggs were used in this recipe.

• This recipe is adjusted, with guidelines adapted from My Mind Patch

*This recipe is baked using a 6" push bottom cake tin

*I have adjusted this recipe to suit the desired cake size

 

Ingredients :

(A)

1. 50g Milk 
2. 35g Fine Sugar
3. About / less than 1/2tsp Salt 
4. 40g Vegetable Oil (I used Canola)
5. 1tsp Vanilla 
6. 6 Egg Yolks 
7. 85g Top / Cake Flour (I used Cake Flour)
8. 20g Tapioca Starch

(B)

1. 6 Egg Whites
2. 1tsp Lemon Juice
3. 70g Sugar

Method 

1. Line the base of your cake pan with parchment paper.
2. Briefly mix together flour & starch. Set aside
3. Add together 35g sugar, salt, oil, vanilla & milk. Briefly mix to dissolve sugar a little.
   
   
4.  In a mixing bowl, add together egg yolks & milk mixture. Beat with hand whisk until pale & creamy.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Carefully, sieve flour into egg yolks mixture.
6. Using a hand whisk, beat to combine well. I call it a yellow batter now.
7. Preheat oven at 150°c.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   Yellow Batter

8. In a separate dry & grease-free bowl, pour in egg whites & lemon juice. Beat at medium high speed (KA Mixer 6-8) until frothy. Add in sugar, increase speed, continue to beat until firm peaks formed.

   

   Pour Egg Whites into Mixing Bowl

   

   Add in Lemon Juice into Egg White

   

   Egg White is Frothy, Ready for Sugar to Be Added

   
   

   

   Add 70g Sugar into Frothy Egg Whites

   

   Firm Peak Formed

9. Visually divide meringue into 3 parts. Add 1/3 (1 part) of it into yellow batter. Fold with a spatula to combine. This is to lighten up the yellow batter [heavy] so that it will not deflate the meringue [light] in the following step.

   

   1/3 of Meringue in Yellow Batter

   
   

   

   Fold with Spatula to combine

   
   
   
   
   

   

   Lightened Yellow Batter

10. Once yellow batter is lightened with 1/3 of meringue, pour it into the remaining meringue. (Yellow into White). Gently fold with spatula to combine well. 

    

    Add Yellow Batter into Meringue

    
    

    

    Fold

    
    

    

    White streaks are still visible, continue to fold

    
    

    

    Batter is well-combined

11. Carefully, pour the entire batter into your prepared cake pan, fill up to 80%. Drop filled cake tin onto your countertop a few times to remove trapped air. (If there are extra batter, pour it into cupcake cases).
12. Bake at 150°c for 30 - 35 minutes or until cake tester inserted comes out clean.

    

    Add caption

    

    
    

13. Once your cake is done, remove from oven & drop it onto your countertop from 10cm high to prevent cake from shrinking. 
14. Invert cake to cool. 
15. Once completely cool, remove cake from pan. Cut to serve or store.

*Please use a serrated knife to cut. Gently "saw" downward to avoid breaking the cake :). 

Dried Shrimp Sambal

This is my late dad's recipe & was created out of memory. 

Be warned, if you are not energetic today, don't try. It will take you at least 40minutes (frying - non-stop tossing) to complete, not including preparation.

Ingredients 

1. 650g Dried Shrimps (+/-), rinsed & soaked 
2. 400g Big Red Chilies (+/-), stem removed & each cut into 3 parts, for easy blending
3. 100g Small Red Chilies (+/-), stem removed
4. 100g Onions (I used 2 medium onions), wedged
5. 1 whole Garlic, skinned 
6. 20g Ginger (optional) 
7. 600ml Calamansi + Lime Juice or either ONE
8. 250g / 1 block of Belacan 
9. 4tbsp Sugar (or to taste) 
10. 4tbsp Oil to heat & coat wok + enough oil for the whole process

*Adjust level of spiciness by increasing or reducing amount of Small Red Chilies
*I would say the spiciness of this yield is around 6/10, 10 being unbearably spicy
*The amount of ingredients here yield about 1.5kg (+/-) of sambal. 
*If you need a smaller yield, adjust according to this ratio : (Remember to take note of the Spicy level)

• 100g Chilies:20g Onions:2-3pips Garlic:4g Ginger:120ml Juice:130g Dried Shrimps:50g Belacan = 300g Sambal  
• For spicy level according to the above ratio - 80g Big Chilies:20g Small Chilies 

Method

1. Rinse & soak dried shrimps before preparing other ingredients
2. Juice Calamansi & Lime, set aside
3. Wash, cut, peel, Chilies, Onions, Garlic & Ginger, set aside
4. Prepare belacan by just cutting the block into 1cm thick slices for easy blending
5. Blend all ingredient together, except dried shrimps. Remove from blender & pour into a large bowl
6. Blend dried shrimps by adding blended chili paste. (Divide into batches if amount is larger than the capacity of the blender)
7. Once all ingredients are well blended, set aside
8. In a wok, heat 4tbsp oil
9. Once oil is heated, slowly pour mixture into wok, add in 2tbsp of sugar spoonful by spoonful, adjust according to your preference & fry over medium heat for 20 minutes, tossing frequently & pause for 5 seconds every now & then, allowing paste to dry off at the bottom. Watch out to prevent bottom of paste from being burnt. Pay attention to dryness of the wok. Add oil whenever required. 

   

   3 Minutes into frying. Juice from paste bubbling at the sides.

   
   

   

   15minutes later, no more juice bubbling & paste is starting to dry.

10. After 15minutes, start to reduce & increase fire accordingly, not forgetting to toss & pause. Add oil when base of wok is dried. It will take around 30minutes for dryness to be noticeable. Taste sambal & check sweetness. Add more sugar if you prefer it to be sweeter / according to your preference.

    

    25minutes, dryness is noticeable.

11. After 35 - 40minutes (depending on the heat of your stove), your paste should be 80% dried. If you can, continue for another 10minutes to achieve darker colour. It's more aromatic. Again, watch out for bottom of paste being burnt. 

    

    35minutes later. Paste is almost dried. You can choose to remove from heat at this point.

12. Once you have achieved your desired dryness, remove paste from heat & pour sambal into a bowl, let cool before storing.

    

    Done!

13. Refrigerate to store.

*If you are making large amount, divide into medium containers to store. Make sure the utensils are cleaned & dried when scooping as water / liquid (sauce from spoon) or other food will contaminate the sambal & cause molds. 

Mushroom Gravy

This gravy goes really well with flat noodles. Best served with Chee Cheong Fun with some sesame sprinkled on top.

*This recipe makes 1 small pot (10cm deep x 13cm diameter) of gravy. 

Ingredients : 

1. 7-8 Dried Shiitake Mushrooms / Chinese Black Mushrooms, soaked over night, thinly sliced. 
2. Soaked mushroom water. (Because the water is needed for stronger mushroom aroma, rinse the mushrooms before leaving to soak overnight.)
3. 700ml Water (+/-) - You will need to adjust once you have poured in the soaked mushroom water. 
4. 450g Minced Pork (+/-) 
5. 4 Pips of Garlic, chopped
6. 1 Medium Big Onion, chopped 
7. 2 Slices Ginger, about 2cm long
8. 2 tbsp Tapioca Starch, mixed with water 
9. 2 tbsp Oil for stir-frying
10.  Marinade : 

• 3 tbsp Soy Sauce
• 2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
• 1 tbsp Sesame Oil
• 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
• 1 tbsp Sugar 
• 1 tsp White Pepper 

 Method 

1. Marinate minced pork, set aside
2. Slice mushroom thinly, set aside
3. Heat sauce pan / pot with 2 tbsp oil
4. Once oil is heated, lower heat to medium & add in chopped garlic, ginger & onion, briefly toss until fragrant. 
5. Add in minced pork, stir fry until half cooked, add in sliced mushroom & stir fry until pork is fully cooked.
6. Add in mushroom water, stirring until you reach just boiling point, add in enough water to cover 80% of the pot. (Refer to my note before the ingredients list. I used a 13cm in diameter x 10cm deep pot. Adjust according to the size of your pot. Taste to adjust.) Turn fire to maximum, stirring until you reach boiling point, reduce fire to low, cover pot with lid.
7. Let simmer for about 20 minutes. 
8. Open up lid, taste gravy. Adjust by adding water or salt according to your preference. 
9. If you're satisfied, stir in starch mixture to thicken gravy. Stir until gravy reaches boiling point. Remove pot from heat & serve with desired noodles. 
10. Top with fried onions to complement.