Cafes & Wineries

Fortunately the weekend is near, so I can get some work done. Hundreds of arugula sprouts are screaming in my hothouse, begging to be taken outside and planted in the earth, with the bees and the sparrow hawks and the outlaw coyote that is cleaning up the neighborhood of meandering felines.

Later today, if anyone reading this is in the Dallas, Texas area, I will finish up the week with a Friday Night Wine Flight, five Sicilian wines. I’ll be taking those folks, who show, on a Sicilian Carousel, starting with several Nero d’Avolas, a white Grillo and a surprisingly good Syrah.

Now, I have been buying a lot of pumpkins recently and suddenly getting very nostalgic for the Kim Kuah Kuih which I haven’t tasted for a long time. I also have never made this kuih before, so I thought it is time I give this a go. After consulting a few recipes, I plunged headlong into making the kuih – a few tips from one recipe, another hint from the next recipe and so on… I have also planned to use the more ‘glamorous’ waxed meat (臘肉) and Chinese sausage (臘腸) as part of the filling, but it was raining sporadically on Saturday and I couldn’t be bothered to go all the way to the Chinese supermarket in the next suburb to get the ingredients, so I settled for the more ‘homely’ minced pork which I already have. I mixed and matched the recipes and techniques, and also trying to recall the kuih I had back home to create the kuih I remembered. Wow, I couldn’t be more happy with the end result, maybe it was just my nostalgia talking, but it tasted wonderful, and just as I remembered it.

Makes one 20cm kuih.

[Ingredients]
500g shredded pumpkin flesh
240g rice flour
60g tapioca flour
400ml pumpkin liquid (excess pumpkin juice + water)
400ml soaking liquid (water from soaking dried prawns and mushrooms + water)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 stalk green (spring) onion, chopped
1-2 tablespoons fried shallot flakes
1 red chilli, cut into thin strips or sliced into rounds (optional)

Seasoning:
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
250g mixed meat & dried preserves filling (臘味) – e.g.
· 150g minced pork *;
· 50g dried prawns, soaked then chopped;
· 25g dried Chinese mushrooms (冬菇), soaked then chopped;
· 25g salted preserved radish (chaipoh 菜脯), chopped
* the minced pork may be substituted with Chinese sausage (臘腸) or waxed meat (臘肉) for special occasion.
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
1. Squeeze excess juice from the shredded pumpkin and add water to the juice to make 400ml. Blend rice flour and tapioca flour with this pumpkin liquid and set aside. Grease and line the base of a 20cm round pan with baking paper.

2. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a wok and sauté chopped garlic until golden. Add chopped prawns and fried until aromatic, then add minced pork, mushrooms, preserved radish (chaipoh) and seasoning. Stir-fry for about 5 minutes, or until meat is cooked, then dish out. Set aside about ¼ of the meat mixture for topping.
3. Heat another 2 tablespoons oil in a wok and stir-fry shredded pumpkin until softens, add the remaining ¾ of the cooked meat mixture and the soaking liquid. Bring quickly to a boil then gradually pour in the flour mixture, stirring as you pour. Cook over a low heat until mixture thickens slightly, stirring all the time.

4. Pour into the prepared pan and level the surface. Sprinkle the reserved ¼ cooked meat mixture evenly over the surface. Steam over high heat for about 1 hour.
5. Garnish with chopped green (spring) onion, fried shallot flakes and red chilli strips. Serve warm or cold with chilli sauce if desired.

[Note]
Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.

According to Wikipedia, the Japanese name of daifuku, 大福 (meaning great luck or fortune), was originally written as 大腹 (meaning big belly) which described the big belly-like round shape of the sweet. Since the pronunciation of the word 腹 is the same as 福, it was later changed to 福 to give it a more auspicious sounding name as this sweet is, as are most wagashi, usually given as gifts in Japanese tradition.
Although Daifuku Mochi is the basic style with white translucent skin and red bean paste filling, there are many variations of this sweet. They include Ichigo Daifuku (苺大福, see my adaptation into a mooncake) which has the addition of a strawberry inside the bean paste, Yukimi Daifuku (雪見大福) which uses ice cream as a filling instead of the red bean paste, Yomogi Daifuku (蓬大福) which uses kusa mochi (草餅) flavoured with yomogi, and the most recent creation known as Yuki Ichigo (ゆきいちご 雪苺娘), with a myriad of fillings made from a combination of whipped cream, custard, a variety of fruits and a small piece of sponge cake.

Recently I bought a packet of red bean paste to try out as it came in a plastic pack instead of a tin. I think it is made for the Japanese market as the instructions on the back are all in Japanese although the bean paste is made in China. So I decided to use it to make some daifuku mochi. I also decided to keep it simple by using the cooked glutinous rice flour to make the skin and avoided the cooking process. I added a little strawberry paste to colour the skin, so it is basically the same as my Snowskin Strawberry Mooncakes but with a little changes to the recipe. So here they are, my quick and easy daifuku dumplings!

Makes approx.10 daifuku mochi.

[Ingredients]
150g cooked glutinous rice flour (加工糕粉), sifted
100g pure icing sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon canola or corn oil
180ml cold boiled water, adjust as necessary
few drops strawberry paste
extra cooked glutinous rice flour, for dusting
500g red bean paste
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
1. Mix together cooked glutinous rice flour and icing sugar in a mixing bowl.
2. Dissolve strawberry paste in water, adjust colour to your liking.
3. Add oil to the flour mixture and mix well. Gradually pour the coloured water into the flour mixture and stir vigorously until a soft dough formed. Knead into a smooth dough. Rest for about 15 minutes before using.
4. Divide the red bean paste into 10 equal portions. Divide the dough also into 10 equal portions. Wrap each red bean paste ball inside each flattened dough pieces. Dust with extra cooked glutinous rice flour.

[Note]
Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.

I have wanted to try making this snack for a while now, but never got around to it. As I have never tasted it before, I wanted to search for another recipe to compare with the one in Mrs Leong’s book. After googling all over, I could only find one other recipe posted at Diana’s Desserts Forum. So armed with both recipes, I mixed-&-matched and even threw in a few inspired ingredients to come up with my own version of Bun Susi!
Although, I had done it my own way, I still tried to keep at least to its authenticity. I have read in a few articles about Eurasian cuisine that this bun is made with sweet potato pastry. Now in Mrs Leong’s recipe, the pastry is made from pure sweet bun dough without the addition of sweet potato – probably a Nyonya adaptation of the recipe. The one from Diana’s Desserts Forum does use sweet potato in making the pastry. I also did some more googling and found tons of recipes for Portuguese Sweet Bread (known as Massa Sovada or Pão Doce and they use mashed potato in their recipes). So I adapted them into my recipe as well – thus the addition of eggs in the pastry which is not used in the one at Diana’s Desserts. As for the filling, I adapted the one in Mrs Leong’s book which is a pork based filling, since from what I’ve read most mentioned using pork as the filling, so I guess this is probably more authentic. I think maybe the chicken version is created for halal consumption. But then I could be wrong… that both types of meat are used traditionally.

The sweet potato pastry is really nice to eat with a hint of the sweet potato aroma as you bite into it. The filling is slightly on the sweet side with a peppery aroma, my own addition of a few extra spices made it really yummy. Luckily in comparing the recipes, I reduced the amount of ground pepper used in the filling, or I think it could have ended up being too overpowering. All in all, the taste came up triumph, I scoffed down 3 buns as soon as they came out of the oven! The only problem was my wrapping skill. Half of the buns split open along the seal after baking… Well more wrapping training needed for next time…

The sealed ends split open after baking.

Even without using the bread improver, and the buns were all made using hand power, they still stayed reasonably soft the next day… but I love to heat them up in the microwave for about 30 seconds before eating, so they become hot and soft again anyway…

Makes 24 buns.

[Ingredients]
Pastry:
500g bread flour
2 tablespoons milk powder
1 teaspoon bread improver (optional, I didn’t use)
1 sachet (7g) instant yeast
¼ teaspoon salt
60g caster sugar
100g steamed, mashed sweet potato
2 eggs
(In a coincidence, I cracked 2 eggs to use for this recipe and both are double-yolk!)
½ cup (approx. 125ml) lukewarm water
75g butter
1 extra egg, lightly beaten for glazing
Filling:
300g minced pork
125g potato, boiled then diced
1 tablespoon canola oil or lard
3-5 shallots, chopped
(I used 3 French échalotes, which are bigger than Asian shallots)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon tapioca flour mixed with 2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon fried crispy shallots
Spices:
2 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, pounded
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ teaspoon ground white pepper
2 green cardamom pods, discard pods, use seeds only, pounded
¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
http://cafeoftheeast.blogspot.com/
[Preparation]
Filling:
1. Heat oil until hot in a wok. Sauté shallots and garlic until fragrant. Add all the spices, except nutmeg, and stir briefly. Add minced pork and stir-fry about 5 minutes. Add the diced potato and cook briefly.
2. Add light soy sauce, sugar, salt and water. Continue to stir-fry until the meat mixture is almost dry. Add nutmeg and fried crispy shallots. Pour in the tapioca mixture and cook 1 minute. Cool before using.
Pastry:
1. Sift bread flour, bread improver (if using), milk powder, salt and caster sugar onto the working surface. Add yeast and mix well. Form the flour mixture into a well. Add mashed sweet potato, lightly beaten eggs and enough lukewarm water to form into a soft dough. Knead for 10 minutes until smooth.
2. Knead in softened butter until incorporated. Form the dough into a round ball and let it rise until doubles in size (about 1 to 1½ hours in warm weather) in a large greased bowl, covered with cling wrap.
3. Punch down, knead briefly. Divide dough into 24 pieces (each about 40-45g). Form each into balls and let rest for about 10 minutes.
4. Flatten each dough ball and fill with about 2 teaspoons of the meat filling. Wrap into an oval shape.
5. Space the wrapped buns out on a greased tray, allowing room for expansion. Leave to rise, covered with cling wrap, for 20-30 minutes. Preheat oven to 190°C.
6. Glaze the buns and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until golden brown.

[Note]
1. Please note this recipe uses 1 standard cup of 250ml, 1 tablespoon of 20ml and 1 teaspoon of 5ml.
2. The size of egg used is about 60g (includes shell) unless otherwise stated.