Made HK style Double Skin Milk :)

Made my highly-missed Hong Kong Australian Dairy Company's double skin milk today.

It's surprisingly easy peasy child's play!

To make for a family of 4, I used:

- 800ml full cream milk (200ml each bowl's capacity)
- 4 egg whites
- 4 teaspoons sugar

Boil the milk over low heat and stir occasionally. Turn off fire when bubbles start forming at the sides of the pot.

Next, whisk the egg whites and sugar until it forms a bubbling foamy texture.

Sift this egg white mixture into the pot of warm milk.

Pour into bowls and remove any air bubbles on top.

Cover with aluminium foil and steam for 15 minutes, turn off fire and leave it for another 5 minutes.

Remove and serve.

Silkie eggs vs Normal egg

Who else misses Hong Kong Cha can teng food like me?!

How to make Kuih Talam.

My hubby is a Peranakan, so it is little wonder that he loves to eat and cook.

During this Covid-19 lockdown period I have decided to learn how to make some Nonya dishes :)

Here's a simple, no-bake recipe on how to make Kuih Talam.

GREEN LAYER:

- Pandan leaves 6-7 pieces

- Coconut milk 330ml

- Tapioca flour 50gm

- Rice flour 25gm

- Green bean flour 25gm (Not the same as green bean powder. Can be bought from Phoon Huat)

- Sugar 120gm

- Pandan essence 1 teaspoon.

WHITE LAYER:

- Tapioca flour 15gm

- Rice flour 15gm

- Green bean flour 15gm

- Sugar 1 tablespoon

- Salt 1 pinch

- Coconut milk 270ml

- Pandan leaves 5-6 pieces tied in a knot

METHOD FOR GREEN LAYER:

- Use a brush to oil your desired baking pan in which the Kuih Talam will take its final shape.

- Use a blender to blend pandan leaves and coconut milk.

- Pour the mixture through a sieve into a big mixing bowl

- Pour in all the flours and combine well until smooth and no lumps.

- Stir in a pan over super low heat for 2 minutes then pour into oiled baking pan

- Steam at high heat for 15 minutes.

METHOD FOR WHITE LAYER:

- When the green layer is steaming for 10 minutes, you can start combining and cooking all the white layer ingredients over extremely low heat, give a few stirs for 2 minutes then throw the pandan leaves away.

- By now the green layer would have been steamed for 15 minutes, lift the steamer cover and pour white layer over it.

- Cover back the steamer and steam BOTH LAYERS together for another 15 minutes.

[garden to table] EASY Quail egg tart recipe.

Hi all! Hope you guys are holding up well during this Covid period.

Too many productive quails but don't know what to do with their eggs?

You guys can try this simple recipe at home with your kids :)

Pastry Ingredients:

- Plain flour 145gm

- Chicken egg x 1 (you need 1 egg yolk and half portion egg white)

- Butter 75gm

- Icing sugar 1 teaspoon

Custard Filling  Ingredients:

- Sugar 70gm

- Warm water 130ml (to combine with sugar and stir well)

- Quail eggs x 9

- Fresh milk 125ml
- Vanilla essence x 1 teaspoon

Pastry method: 
- Mix 1 teaspoon Icing sugar into 75gm Butter, add 1 egg yolk + half portion Egg white and mix well using hand-whisk.
- Pour in 145gm plain flour and knead using fingers until pastry is formed.
- Wrap in ziplock bag or clingwrap and put in fridge for 15min while you prepare Custard fillings.

Custard method:
- Using handheld whisk, mix well the 9 quail eggs with the cup of Sugar warm water (70gm sugar stir well with 130ml Warm water)
- Add in Fresh milk 125ml and whisk evenly.
- Add Vanilla essence 1 teaspoon.

- Pour this mixture through a sieve to prevent any lumps in the eggs mixture.

Preheat oven 190deg for 10 Min while you work on the dough.

Mould the dough into your casings and use a fork to poke holes on the bottom of pastry.

Pour the custard fillings into your pastry moulds.

Bake in oven 190deg celcius for 25 minutes.
Then leave the egg tarts inside for another 10 minutes before removing.

Before Covid-19, I used to think that I didn't need to bother learning cooking or baking as in Singapore, whatever you want to buy or eat is readily available and easily store-bought.

Now it's a real wake-up call for us to start thinking about going back to basics (kampong days if you may) and start investing in self-grown/ self-raised/ self-taught/ self-made, and being more self-sufficient.

It is extremely rewarding to have food harvested from garden to table.

We spend a lot on quality feed for our pets and thus we know what goes into the food we eat from the garden.

Hope you guys enjoy making this delicious tea-time snack at home!

{sponsored post} BakKwaDelivery.sg

When it comes to CNY shopping this year, I just want everything to be fast and easy.

I can't be in a busier time in my life right now - Adam just started P5 (his last year before PSLE), and Ashton has started P2 (bye bye honeymoon year).

Come February, my days will be spent sending and fetching them around their school/ enrichment/ tuition.

When Bakkwadelivery.sg contacted me to collaborate, I jumped for joy.

I was gonna have 1kg of charcoal-roasted goodness delivered right to my doorstep!

Let's check out the food stuff:

What BakKwaDelivery.sg website says:

"At Bak Kwa Delivery, we are highly invested in the quality of our Bak Kwa. Unlike other Bak Kwa shops who have given up the traditional methods of roasting Bak Kwa in favour of newer methods, we are still roasting Bak Kwa the same way it has been done since the 20th Century.

Charcoal roasted and bamboo sieved, our Bak Kwa gives off a mind-blowing unique fragrance and taste you’ll not find anywhere else."

 To order, simply click on SHOP.
Currently, as of 14/01/2020, the Spicy Bak Kwa option is out-of-stock, they are only left with their classic Traditional pork slices, going for $55.90 per KG (that's about 12 huge slices with each slice bigger than a piece of Gardenia bread).

There is a flat rate delivery fee of $12.90, regardless of your amount of order.
I feel the delivery fee is a wee bit pricey, but it beats having to pay for parking and queuing for hours even before opening hours to get your hands on another competitor brand.

Their website also claimed that speedy delivery can be done in 2 hours, depending on availability. 

Simply put, it was Charcoal-roasted, Bamboo-sieved goodness.

They also make great gifts for family and relatives without you having to purchase them physically at stores.

Do check out BakKwaDelivery.sg for your last minute CNY shopping!

Beijing December 2019 - PART THREE

Part three - Checked out of Le Zai Nanluo and on to Waldorf Astoria hotel.
After staying in their traditional si-he-yuan (cottage style), this swanky and posh hotel is something different, a change which we welcomed.

Today is free-and-easy day, after we checked in and dumped our luggage we walked around the vicinity in search of local street food and shopping.

Qian Men

The Chinese donch care if Starbucks is an American company, you simply had to fit in if you wanted business in China.

Qian Men street where we bought their local delights and some local souvenirs for quite a steal

The first and oldest cinema in China - Daguanlou 

Beijing December 2019 - PART TWO

On Day 2, our private tour guide Jerry brought us to the Great Wall (Mutianyu section), which is about 1.5hr - 2hr drive away from Beijing city.

Did you know? 

The total length of the Great Wall of China is 21,196.18km.

It took more than 2000 years to build the Great Wall, between 770BC - 1633AD, completed over many stages and several dynasties and leaderships, with most work done during the Ming Dynasty.

There are about 10 most popular sections of the Great Wall of China.

1) the best-restored, Mutianyu, 2) the most beautiful, Jinshanling, 3) the wildest, Jiankou, 4) Simatai, 5) Huanghuacheng, 6) Gubeikou, 7) Juyongguan, 8) Huangyaguan, 9) Shanhai Pass, and by far the most crowded 10) Badaling.

Picture courtesy from https://www.chinahighlights.com/greatwall/section/

Mutianyu Section is the most restored part of the Great Wall and most child-friendly.

There are toilet stops along the way, there are drink stalls where you can buy overpriced drinks and souvenirs.

You can also toboggan down at the end which our kids enjoyed thoroughly.

Please ignore my unruly children in the foreground, I would really like to highlight that this Lily's Souvenir shop is a rip-off and there are other stalls as you walk further down that allows you to haggle prices if you are nice & buy a few items.

November and December is a great time to visit as it is not crowded and you don't get photobombers or queue very long to get on the Ski lifts and toboggan rides.

Ashton was a real trooper who was the only kid that walked the most of the section, while the rest gave up and went to the starting point to hide from the cold. Looks like he's the worthy one who can go to Nepal with us some day LOL

We ended the Great Wall tour with some piping hot steamboat using copper pots when we finally got back into Beijing city.

Dong Lai Shun is Halal so it is suitable for Muslim travellers.

With our guide Jerry. 

He's highly rated on Trip Adviser and was a really friendly and accommodating chap, putting in mind our kids' endless needs and not compromising our itinerary. 

Thank you for the 2 days of fun and carefully planned itinerary Jerry!