Peach Crumble Cheesecake

Heather asked why I haven't blog for so long and I have been asking myself that too. Laziness most probably sums it up but that is not the entire reason. 

I love the part about the food - cooking, eating and even the photo sessions (have tons of photos waiting to be posted) but not so much the latter part of blogging, ie the photo editing, composing and typing. The most daunting task for me is converting my Chinese thinking mind into English hardcopy. To put down in English words what I am thinking in Chinese calls for some major reconstruction thinking (a lot of brain cells) and so very time consuming. I told hubby I need to go for English course. Hubby sometimes helped to correct my grammar and punctuation! 

So, when I do not appear in this space for a while you know I am taking a break from thinking... in English only ie :-p.

I have done this cake three times for different occasions and always a crowd winner. The recipe came from a cook book Mui Fung gave me 4 years ago for my birthday. It is called 'A Touch Of Classic Baking' by Kevin Chai.

This is a simple basic cheesecake but with the addition of the peach and the crumbles on top, the humble cake gained superstar status in my book.

Here is the recipe.

Peach Crumble Cheesecake

500g cream cheese

100g caster sugar

3 eggs

250ml whipping cream

2 T cornstarch

1 can (825g) halved peach, drained and wiped dry

Base

250g digestive biscuit, crushed

120g butter (melted)

Topping

150g plain flour

40g caster sugar

75g butter

Preheat oven to 160C

1. Combine finely crushed biscuit (I put all the biscuits in the food processor and gave them a good 1 minute blitz) and melted butter well. Press evenly and compactly into the bottom of a 9" cake pan.

2. Beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is properly mixed in before adding the next. 

3. Stir in whipping cream and cornstarch, mix well.

4. Spread a thin layer (about 1/2 cm thick) of the cheese mixture on top of biscuit.

5.  Arrange peaches onto the layer and pour in the remaining cheese mixture to cover the peaches.

6. For the topping, combine flour and sugar, rub in butter until mixture resembles bread crumbs.

7. Sprinkle over the cheese mixture.

8. Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes. Cool completely and refrigerate. Serve cold.   

Oaty ChocoChips Cookies

It was a school holiday project for Leanne and my hair-pulling strategy to get her off her PSP. Go to Hungry Hamster for the recipe as we followed it to the T except for the chocochips which we threw in a few handfuls (definitely more than 12 oz) and added some chopped walnuts as those were the only nuts I had in hand. 

A true winner with me for its simplicity and the lovely texture which was crisp on the outside and moist/chewy inside. 

The oat content make this indulgence a healthy snack in my book *hookwink*and between my two girls and me we polished off these in one movie sitting!

Sawi Korean Style

Koreans do pickles as much as the Chinese and the Japanese. Similar yet with distinct differences. This dish is not quite a pickle, more a salad, I think. It reflects Korea's cuisine - rugged, simple, unpretentious and no fuss and frills. The good thing about this dish is it can be eaten as soon as it is prepared, no need to wait for days like the Korean kimchi.

Pickled mustard greens

300g mustard greens aka sawi aka sayur bunga

1 fresh red chilli

2 thin slices ginger, julienned

2 cloves garlics, peeled and chopped

salt

vinegar

sugar

sesame seeds, toasted

sesame oil

Wash the leaves off all grit and dirt. Use drinking water in the last rinse, drain and pat dry.

Gather in a bunch and chop them into about 1/2 cm bits.

Use about 1 teaspoon of salt, rub into the veggie until they turn deep green and sweat. Leave for about 30 minutes. 

Wash the salted sawi, drain and squeeze out as much of the moisture as possible.

Add the rest of the ingredients, adjust sugar and vinegar to suit one's taste. 

Drizzle a teaspoon of sesame oil. Mix well.

Best served chilled and with a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. 

A Thank You Note

Hubby and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary on the 1st of March this year. That sounds like a lifetime but actually feels like the blink of an eye. Time does fly especially when we are taking care of 5 lively children. 

We had a lot of plans as to how to spend this special day but then everything changed when Heather, our eldest daughter decided she would be home for the occasion. She started planning last year when she realised she couldn't be home for x'mas or CNY. She wanted it to be a surprise but realised she had to let one of us in on her plans to make sure we do not fly off to somewhere at the time. She decided to surprise her daddy as he has always been the one giving surprises. So I was made to conspire in my own surprise anni celebration. I didn't anticipate this job to be sooo difficult...I had to turned down a culinary trip to Changmai, a visit to NZ to see Don and a Rod Steward concert in Singapore!! And my hubby was getting very upset as the date approached and I was refusing to go anywhere he suggested. I was bursting to tell too when the younger siblings asked when the che che be home but I had to keep mum.

Anyway, back to the surprise, the look on hubby's face when he spotted Heather in the car after I picked her up from the airport was worth all the torture. Now I understand why he loves to give surprises, the pleasure was all ours...the planners. 

We spent one night at the Kinabalu National Park as this was the place where we first met more than 35 years ago. Our honeymoon 30 years ago was, yes, you guessed it, here too. This has to be our favorite place on earth. 

The surprise gift Heather presented us was most touching and couldn't have been more appropriate-- a dinner by a French chef. 

For Kevin, it was like a dream come true whereby he got to work closely with a chef (he called himself sous chef for that day) and he got to ask the chef all the culinary questions he needed answering so much so that William let him on to a secret. If he ever get a chance to dine at a top restaurant in Paris, Tokyo or New York, keep all these questions flowing, the chefs might think he is a Michelin inspector and he just might be lucky enough to be served the best meal they have to offer. He even got the chef to teach him how to sharpen all his knives. 

I was told to go do my nails, pamper myself and only come downstairs when the guests arrive. I was also told not to take any pictures. So I had to steal all these pictures from hub's camera. One shot I would love to have taken was my three girls serving the seated guests. They were so good! Thank you, girls.

    

The chef at the market and....

all the hard work that went into making the most enchanting evening...

Thank you, Heather for your love and thoughtfulness. William, thank you for so generously sharing with us some of your culinary secrets and artistic skills. 

Go to Terri for the night's food review as she summed it all up perfectly. For us it was an eye-opener as far as entertaining at home is concerned. Simplicity is the keyword but having a chef certainly helps. 

I felt so inadequate as I had so limited equipment and kitchen utensils for them to work with but look how far a little creativity can get you. They sourced all these from my kitchen,  store room and garden. 

And turned an ugly duckling into a swan... a beautiful table setting...

To our dear family and friends who shared with us the lovely evening, thank you for making this a truly memorable anniversary. 

We would have loved to share this occasion with all our family and friends, however the logistics and location would have made it impossible to make it the intimate, memorable and culinary experience that it was.   

We are deeply grateful to God for all these years we are permitted to be together. No words are ever adequate to express our deep gratitude.

Lai Lai Yong Hi Soy-Bean Milk, Shanghai

This is a Taiwanese store in Shanghai that serves soybean dishes and other small eats.

We found this outlet near the Bund and the food was surprisingly good as the place didn't look too promising at first. We went in because our feet were hurting and it was drizzling. The place was half-filled with mostly locals (you can tell by the noise level).

These xiao long baos were very good, better than those we had at one high-end shop at Nanjing Lu.

 
Traditional Shanghai soybean milk served with seaweed, sliced you tiao (a long deep-fried bun flavored with salt and garlic) and many other stuff (can't remember) but I do remember that it was very tasty. It was creamy without being oily. I thoroughly enjoyed slurping it down and dipping the extra long buns into the soup soaking up every last drop.

Another dish I must have if I have another chance to go to Shanghai.  

This is soybean curd served Shanghai-style, savory of course with seaweed, a sprinkling of dried shrimps in a soy sauce base. It was good too but I like the soy milk more.

Pumpkin buns and dumplings, both yummy.

Chicken-one-pot

These days there are usually only three of us for dinner. Knowing me, I like short cuts and have everything in one dish - save on dish washing too! I don't remember where I came across this recipe so sorry I can't give credit. I like it because it is really simple to cook and  with minimal everyday ingredients that can be found in most household, it is a breeze. As for taste, according to Leanne, she doesn't like it... but loves it! She likes to tease me with a long pause at the... :0 Naughty girl.

Any veggies like celery, bell peppers, peas can be added too. A good fridge cleaning recipe.

 

3 chicken thighs, deboned

corn starch seasoned with salt and pepper to coat chicken

2 T oil

1 big onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 tomato, diced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and peeled

2 T brown sugar

4 T apple cider vinegar

1 T Worcestershire-sauce

black pepper, freshly ground

salt

Cut chicken into two. 

Pat dry and coat them in the corn starch. 

Heat oil in pan, fry the chicken until it is golden and cook through. 

Remove to a plate.

Fry onion in the same pan on fairly high heat until fragrant and slightly caramelized, add garlic, carrot and tomato. 

Combine sugar, apple cider vinegar and Worcestershire-sauce in a bowl and adjust the sweet and sour balance to taste, add 2-3 tablespoon of water if like thinner gravy. 

Add to the veggies and cook for a few minutes until sauce thickens a little. 

Return the chicken to the pan and mix well. Season with some black pepper and salt if you like. Dish out and garnish with cilantro (which I didn't have) and serve with rice.

Dolar Hot Pot Shop, Shanghai

I love steamboat especially so when the weather is cold. It is so comforting sitting around a hot stove surrounded by family and food. 

This is one of  Dolar chain stores that serves steamboat which in Shanghai, is called hotpot. The difference between this hotpot restaurant to the rest is that here each patron has the choice of his/her soup base which is served individually in a small pot with it's own small stove. Cool. Put in whatever your heart's desire and create a soup that is uniquely you. 

Seafood soup which actually has two baby hairy crabs about the size of a spoon. My choice, obviously.

A sour soup with preserved veggie, hum choi, Leanne's choice, obviously.

Heather had the mushroom soup which looked very yummy too, San San and hubby had mushroom and seafood too. 

This was also one of the very few places in China that I was told I could not take pictures but I managed a few stolen shots when the waitress was out of sight. Please excuse the

rather shoddy images as I had to snap quickly from where I sat. It was a pity as I only managed pictures at our own table and wasn't brave enough to venture to the sauce station where the culinary happenings were. The sauce station is where you, as a chef for the night, go to concoct a designer's, one-of-a-kind dipping sauce from an immense (sooo many, tooo many) variety of condiments. I was like a child in a candy store...didn't know where to start at first but once got started, couldn't stop...:p. My first sauce turned disastrous as I got too greedy and piled on everything. The good thing was, you could start all over again until you get the prefect sauce to complement your hot pot.  

Too impatient, added too many ingredients at one go and the slice of beef landed in a cold soup :O

One pot each, a tableful of food and a night of total indulgence.

Yong Tofu

I grew up with traditional Hakka food and to me yong tofu is just that -  stuffed beancurd with mince meat (most times of pork but fish is more popular now for health reasons I suppose). I only learnt to eat all the different types of stuffed veggies when we were stationed in KL years ago. 

Mui Fong has taken on the task of marketing for me these days. She reckons home-grown veggies without pesticides and chemicals are easier to find in Tamparuli. These are some of the very fresh veggies she brought over, a few of each. 

So, to make a feast out of them, I sliced, slit and stuffed them...

The yong tofu without the tofu
 

I like to cook this dish as a one-pot-meal and the veggies go down easier for the young ones.

I was lazy so I bought two packets of minced pork from the Lido market, minced some fish flesh (about 300g) and mixed it into the pork. 

Stuff the veggies. 

Deep fry the stuffed eggplants, bitter gourd and chillies to brown, not to cook them but just to make them more attractive to the young ones. Drain and keep aside.

Fry some chopped shallots and garlic with a tablespoon of oil until fragrant. Set some aside for garnishing (which I forgot).

Add  a tablespoon of oyster sauce into the same wok.

Before the mixture burns add in 2 - 3 cups of stock (use the remaining fish bones to make stock or just boil some ikan billis or bonito flakes in water for 10 minutes, strain and use the stock). 

When boiling, place bitter gourd in first as they will take the longest to cook (omit this if some members of family don't eat this veggie), then chillies, egg plant and then lastly the lady fingers.

Cook until the stuffing turns color and the veggies slightly soft.

Thicken the gravy with 1t cornflour + 1T water. For a soupy dish, omit the thickening, just add more stock, season to taste.

Eat with a chilli/lime/garlic/soy dipping sauce.

My favorite from this selection has to be the stuffed red chilli (do deseed them before stuffing).