Mia Bakes: Steamed Milk Rice Cake

Yup, I've been on a steamed (rice) cake craze these days because:

1. There was a crazy shortage of wheat flour recently (they're back on the shelves now, though) and I ended up picking up a pack of rice flour. 

2. My "proper" oven has officially run its course with me and the backup, 'similar-to-an-airfryer' one that we have in the house takes almost 2x the usual time to bake, even at higher temperatures. 

Plus, steamed rice cakes are also gluten-free (not that I'm on this BS "healthy" trend, but my mum does get bloated easily with wheat bread... but she still eats them anyway) and being steamed and not baked also makes them less "heaty".  

So here goes! To get around 8 steamed cupcakes, you'll need:

170g rice flour

190ml water

10g full cream milk powder

60g castor sugar

1.5 tsp baking powder

Optional: 

1 tsp dried Osmanthus flower

I intended to make this Osmanthus flavour, hence I only added a little bit of the milk powder such that the milky flavour will not overpower the Osmanthus flavour. To make rice cakes with only milk flavour, you can replace the water with milk instead. The amount of sugar is also nearly the bare minimum for you to taste an obvious sweetness in the cakes, so I'll not recommend reducing it any further, unless you don't mind a bland steamed cake. 

This recipe is super easy to make, and you'll only need a large bowl and a whisk. Dump all your ingredients in and mix until you get a smooth, watery batter. But since I'm adding Osmanthus flower, I will need to let the flowers steep in some hot water first. 

So to roughly 100ml of hot water, add in 1 tsp of Osmanthus dried flower and let it steep for 10 to 15 minutes, before adding in the remaining 180ml room temperature water. Then, all in all the dry ingredients and mix until everything is well combined. 

Divide your batter equally into your cupcake/muffin moulds that's lined with cupcake liners. 

Once your moulds are filled, steam them at high heat immediately if you wish to achieve the open-mouth, huat kueh look. If you prefer to have your steamed cake with a dome-top, steam them at a low to medium heat instead. 

Depending on your steamer and heat, steam your rice cakes for 15 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Do make sure that your moulds are laid perfectly FLAT for them to open up nicely/symmetrically.

These steamed cakes are best eaten when still warm from the steamer, as they'll harden up considerably when cooled, and the texture will be very similar (though not nearly as hard) to a cold huat kueh. It will regain some softness if you reheat them up slightly in the steamer again, but they'll never be as soft as they were when freshly steamed. 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: 2 (or 3) Ingredients Healthy Banana Pancakes

Craving for some pancakes, but you can't find flour anywhere? 

(well, actually you should be able to find them now, it's the "smaller things" like yeast and baking powder etc that's missing on the shelves these days)

Fret not, you can actually make yourself come yummy pancakes with just two ingredients (or three), and flour is not one of them! 

And it's some healthy, banana pancakes!

To get 1 serving of 2 to 3 pancakes (depending on the size you make them), you'll need:

1 medium over-ripe (spotty/browned) banana (around 120 - 130g)

1 large egg 

1/4 tsp baking powder
(to make them fluffier, but you may omit to keep to a 2-ingredients recipe)

Optional:

2 tbsp Rolled Oats or Green Banana Flour
(and you should be getting a stack of 4 to 5 pancakes)

First, make sure your banana (or bananas, if they're small and you're using 2) is over-ripen and spotty, if not it'll be hard to mash them up and your pancakes will also end up lacking flavour.
So, in a clean bowl, mash up your banana with a fork until you get a relatively smooth puree. Some small chunks are okay, if you wish to add more dimensions to your pancakes (eg. biting into chunks of bananas). Then, to the mashed banana, crack in an egg and mix until well combined. You may add in the baking powder for it to fluff up slightly while cooking, or just leave the leavening agent out completely.

Grease your heated non-stick frying pan lightly with some butter and use a kitchen towel to remove any excess oil. Pour the batter onto the pan and cook on low to medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, until you see that the edges are set. Lift the edge to check that the base is nicely browned before attempting to flip. I have to warn you first, that this pancake batter is extremely watery and contains NO flour so flipping them can be a challenge, especially if you make them too big for your spatula, as they'll almost break instantly off the sides of your spatula when you lift them up.
I'll strongly suggest that you make them smaller than usual for an easier time while flipping them.
Cook the pancakes on the other side for another 2 to 3 minutes until they're browned to your liking.

And tadaa~

For more satiety factor, I've chosen to add in some rolled oats to make myself more pancakes. And while I've added 2 tbsp of pancake syrup to my pancake stack (of 4 pancakes), I felt that the pancakes are sweet enough (I've used an extremely spotty and soft Cavendish banana) on their own and the syrup was redundant. The subtle banana flavour of the pancakes go really, really well with peanut butter though. YUMS! 

And the 2nd time I made the pancakes, I decided to replace the rolled oats with green banana flour. 

And this time, the banana flavour came out strong. Initially I thought it's because of the green banana flour adding more banana flavour to the pancakes, but after using the flour for other bakes, I realised that the flour actually does not taste like bananas. So I reckon it's because I've used Malaysian banana instead of Cavendish banana this time, which has a stronger flavour. So yup, your choice of banana for this pancake recipe is very important! 

And as I've mentioned, these pancakes go damn well with peanut butter..... And also just for added moist-ness, I've added 1 tbsp of pancake syrup to my stack of 5 pancakes.

Till then,
Mia Foo 

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Send Some Positivity With Farm Florist [Sponsored]

Napoleon Hill said, "if you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way."

And what's a greater way to do a small thing for your loved ones by sending some positivity their way when we're now 2nd week into our 2nd month of circuitbreaker?  

Even though with limited variety of flowers available due to Covid-19, Farm Florist is still delivery daily and even providing free same day delivery with no minimum purchase, with contactless delivery option available! 

With a surprise bouquet as affordable as only $25 and a surprise bloom box as affordable as $39, you really need not break the bank to send some lovely flowers over to brighten someone's day. 

Personally love how gorgeous and convenient these bloom boxes are, you really only need to find the best spot in your house to place them. And it's currently been slightly more than a week since the flowers has been delivered and they're still looking pretty okay! 

In addition, you can also pick up some preserved flower domes from Bloom Studio (previously review HERE) if you fancy something more unique and lasting (for a few months). 

So why not hop over to Farm Florist right now and make someone's day? 

ps. They can even deliver bespoke bouquets and arrangements within an hour! 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Makes: Mee Chiang Kueh (Apam Balik)

Mee Chiang Kueh (面煎粿), anyone? 

Growing up, I love LOVE LURVEEE the idea of having 2 (yes, not 1, but TWO) slices of peanut mee chiang kueh for breakfast. The chewy, yet soft and slightly tender thick pancake that's filled to the brim with overspilling (literally) sugary ground peanut filling is just, YUMS!

Well, that's my go-to breakfast until I learnt more about various food and their calorie count. >.<"

But nothing is out of bounds for cheatday, so let's make some peanut mee chiang kueh! Well, I don't like coconut, so.... only peanut. HEH!

Anyway, let's get over with the ingredients so we can get started. To get 4-5 slices (basically a full happycall pan size), you'll need:

Pancake:

100g plain flour (all purpose flour)

30g rice flour

1/2 tsp instant yeast

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp sugar

1 medium/large egg

160ml lukewarm water

Filling:
Ground Peanuts, Granulated Sugar (2:1 ratio)
I used about 4 tbsps peanuts to 1 tbsp sugar, and left the other 1 tbsp sugar separated. 

Preparing the batter can't get any simpler. Just add all the dry ingredients into a large bowl, crack in the egg and add in the water and just stir with a whisk until everything is well combined and you're left with a thick and runny pancake batter.
Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel (or cling wrap, pan lid etc) and set it aside to rest for 1 to 1.5 hours.

After the batter is rested, heat up your pan and grease it slightly with a non-stick cooking spray or some butter. Make sure your pan is non-stick. I'm using a happycall pan and this recipe fills it up nicely. You might need to cook your batter more than once to get multiple smaller mee chiang kueh, depending on your pan size and your pancake thickness preference.

So after pouring all the batter into the pan, I kept the lid closed and cooked it over low heat for around 9 to 10 minutes before checking on it. By this time the pancake base is pretty much set, but hardly browned (since I cooked over the lowest heat possible). So I sprinkled the separate 1 tbsp of sugar evenly over the top of the pancake and cover the lid back on, cranking up the heat slightly to medium such that the pancake can brown. Cook for another 3 to 5 minutes until the pancake is browned to your liking. Then, sprinkle the ground peanut filling evenly over the top of the pancake and flip it over into half and take it off the heat.

Leave the entire slab of mee chiang kueh over a wire rack to cool before slicing them up.

As compared to the other recipes using only plain (wheat) flour, the addition of rice flour gives the pancake a softer, more tender bite. The store-bought ground peanuts were a disappointment though, for they were seriously lacking in fragrance and flavour. My grandma has already warned me previously that store-bought ground peanuts are "useless" (tasteless), and that we cannot try to cut corners when making stuff using ground peanuts, need to roast our own peanuts and grind them. But, too much work lah! xp
I think I would be better off using some Skippy's peanut butter as the filling instead.

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Ume Tonya 梅問屋 Plum Juice Concentrate [sponsored]

Do you know that plums are plentiful in minerals like potassium, fluoride and iron, and other health benefiting compounds such as dietary fibre, sorbitol and isatin? They are also rich in antioxidants, which are helpful for reducing inflammation and protecting our cells from damage by free radicals. In addition, plums are found to be particularly high in polyphenol antioxidants, which have positive effects on bone health and may help to reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes!

And with the current #stayhomeforSG situation to keep ourselves safe from COVID19, I can't be any more glad to receive the Ume Tonya Plum Juice Concentrate from SampleStore.com to give me a healthier alternative to my daily dose of ice-cold sweet drink to beat the unbearable heat of being cooped up at home all day long. 

Oh, did I forget to mention that I do not have an air-conditioner at home? 

Made with preserved plums, the juice concentrate has no added preservatives and flavouring, and is the perfect drink to quench thirst and replenish the salt and mineral content in our bodies during hot weather. And each serving is barely 67 kcals! No worries about this contributing to our ever-growing waistline. 

Preparation can't get any simpler. Just empty the content of 1 sachet into your mug, top it up with cold/hot water and stir till combined! If you'll prefer a lighter taste to your plum juice drink, just add slightly more water to dilute the concentrate (but why would you, 250 - 300ml is perfect!) to suit your personal preference! You just can't mess this up. 

I'm a huge fan of tangy flavours and this plum juice concentrate is right up my alley! It's the right balance of sweet and sour, that's super light and refreshing on the taste buds, the perfect drink to reach for right after a meal. 

And guess what, you can now redeem your free bag of Ume Tonya 梅問屋 Plum Juice Concentrate samples (3 sachets) from Sample Store right HERE

Also comes in a a box of 12 sachets going for only $8.50 HERE

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia Makes: 2 Ingredient Yogurt Bread & Cabbage Hashbrown

With the  Circuit Breaker measure ongoing here in SG, it seems like everyone has turned into a social media baking/cooking guru. HAHAHA! >.<

While the flours are flying off the shelves and everyone is trying to make themselves muah chee, breads and... I don't know, tapioca boba pearls (??), I've (somehow) went the other way and tried to find quick and easy recipes with as little ingredients as possible (and preferably lower calories/healthier alternatives). 

And so here's two of the recipes I've found on the internet that is super quick and easy to make, which turned out really well!

The first one is the 2-ingredient dough that was supposedly trending on IG, which I read about on Buzzfeed. 

The ingredients are really simple, just greek yogurt and self raising flour. If you do not have self-raising flour, you can make yourself some by adding baking powder and salt to plain flour, but that won't be "two-ingredients" anymore. 

So, to get yourself 1 serving of this quick bread, you'll need:

1/4 cup self raising flour

1/4 cup Greek (or drained) plain yogurt.

An additional pinch of salt (optional, for more flavour) 

First up, make sure your yogurt is GREEK YOGURT, the thicker the better, for the 1:1 volumetric ratio of this recipe to work. Otherwise, you can use normal plain yogurt, but reduce the amount of yogurt (start with just adding 2 tbsp first and slowly adding more if the dough is too dry) to get a workable consistency. 

Depending on what exactly you want to get out of the dough (bagel, pizza, bread bun etc), tweak the amount of yogurt to add to get the best dough consistency. For example, if you are planning to make a pizza out of the dough, you'll be better with a dough that's still soft but definitely not sticky at all. The lower hydration of the dough also meant that your "bread" will be less soft and fluffy. 

But for me, as I was just making a "English muffin" lookalike bread on the hob out of it, which needs minimal shaping and handling, I could get away with a much more sticky dough, as I could easily just dump the lump of wet dough directly onto my hot pan from the bowl of I wanted to. 

But I didn't, I chose to dust some flour over the wet dough and briefly shaped it into a round muffin shape before cooking it over a non-stick pan on low heat over the hob, with lid on, for around 5 to 6 minutes on each side, until the bread is browned to your liking and when pressed down with a finger, it springs back up.

And yes, I prefer my bread more evenly browned and "toasty".

I used about 3 tbsp normal plain yogurt to 1/4 cup flour and got really soft and fluffy bread. I also added a generous pinch of salt, which gave my bread a delicious salty flavour. YUMS!

And the other recipe I've tried for this meal is a healthier alternative to hashbrown, the cabbage-hash. I first saw this recipe from Erwan Heussaff's video, in which he actually used about 2 eggs to 1 cup of shredded cabbage & white onions. But I found that the overall dish didn't really work that well. Basically the egg and cabbage are pretty separated, and even with my effort to squish them together into a patty while they cooked, the final consistency of this "hashbrown" still tasted more like cabbage stir-fried in eggs to me. 

As you can see, the shredded cabbage and eggs aren't really together. 

So here's my tweaked recipe for the cabbage-hash:

180g - 200g shredded cabbage 

(you can sub part of the cabbage with white onions if you fancy them)

2 medium eggs

1-2 tbsp corn flour or plain flour

(corn flour will make it crispier)

Seasoning of your choice 

(I used garlic salt and the good old black pepper)

Just dump everything into a large bowl and mix until well combined. So simple!

For me, I prefer to beat the eggs and add in my seasonings first, before adding the egg mixture into the shredded cabbage and tossing them around for abit to get all the cabbage coated with the egg mixture before stirring in the flour to thicken the mixture. 

Then, pour the mixture onto a well greased pan and cook over medium heat until browned to your liking. I cooked my entire bowl of mixture into one huge "pancake" that's the size of my happycall pan, but I'll advise that you make smaller individual hashbrown sizes for easier cooking and flipping. 

Cooking time and heat also varies according to how you'll prefer your "hashbrown" to turn out. Do you prefer your cabbage softer or crunchy? The longer you cook over lower heat, the softer your cabbage will get. 

So just trial and error and get this low-calorie, low-carb "hashbrown" to your best liking! 

And yes, I repeat. DO NOT attempt to cook the entire batter into 1 huge pancake unless you have a happycall pan like I do. I just flipped the entire pan over to cook on the other side. HAHA!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Osmanthus Rice Cake

I vaguely remembered my very first taste of the Osmanthus flavour that wasn't just purely sugar in disguise in the form of some green tea, was a good 8 years ago during my visit to Suzhou/Hangzhou, China when I had a taste of 桂花糕 (osmanthus cake). 

-credits to guilinholiday-

Not to be confused with the jelly version, the traditional osmanthus cakes are made with a mixture of rice and glutinous rice flour, osmanthus flower and sugar, and then steamed over boiling water till set/cooked. When eaten warm, they're soft and slightly chewy with a distinctive osmanthus scent and a very mild and subtle sweetness. When cooled, they'll actually turn pretty hard and dry, like a crumbly, powdery biscuit. 

This type of traditional 桂花糕 is nearly impossible to find in Singapore, so I guess the only way for me to taste it again is to make them myself! And when's a better time than now to do it, when everyone is snatching plain/bread/cake flours for baking and tapioca starch for boba pearls? 

To get 8 servings of 桂花糕, you'll need:

100g rice flour

25g glutinous rice flour

60ml brewed osmanthus tea 

(I used 2 tsp dried osmanthus flower and 1 tsp sugar in a cup of hot water and left it to steep until cooled) 

6 deglet noor dates, pitted and chopped

45g brown sugar 

(you may omit the dates and use more sugar)

Mould(s) of your choice

recipe adapted from Amanda Tastes

I used a silicon cake mould, but I will advise against it as it's too wobbly on its own and will cause the cake to crack when you are putting it into the steamer. You can also make smaller versions in a muffin tin. :) 

It's actually pretty simple to make these osmanthus cake. In a clean bowl, add in the rice flour and glutinous rice flour and give it a quick stir with a balloon whisk to combine. Then, slowly trickle in the osmanthus tea as you continue stirring the flours. It will slowly form small lumps, and you may need a little bit more tea, depending on the hydration level of your flours, so always make sure you have more than just 60ml of the liquid on hand. Add enough water such that there's no pockets of dry flour and you can get the flour to stick together into a piece of dough by just pressing them in your hands. And at the same time, with the slightest pressure of your fingers, you can crumble the big piece of dough back into its powdery form. Drain out the osmanthus flower from the rest of the tea, pat them as dry as you can and set them aside. 

You can check out Amanda's video (link above under ingredient list) to better understand the flour condition you should get.

After the flour mixture is hydrated, comes the hardest part. Sifting!

With a good amount of patience, slowly press the hydrated flour mixture through a sieve and into a large bowl. You'll eventually get back a bowl of fluffy flour mixture and then it's time to start assembling the cake!

Spray down your choice of mould with some non-stick cooking spray (or grease it with butter) amd spoon half the amount of flour mix into the mould LIGHTLY. Do not try to pack the flour down, but leave it light and fluffed. If you're left with an uneven surface, use a fork to even out the surface lightly without applying any form of pressure onto the flour. 

Then sprinkle the chopped dates and brown sugar evenly on top, making sure to cover up the whole surface, even the corners. If not you'll be left with corner pieces of the rice cake with no fillings in between. Take half of your drained osmanthus flower and sprinkle them over the sugar filling, before topping the mould up with the remaining half of the flour mixture. 

Even out the surface lightly with a fork before sprinkling the rest of the drained osmanthus flower over the top. 

Place the assembled cake into the steamer or over a double boiler on the hob and steam for 15 to 20 minutes until cooked. The cake is done when it's firm to the touch when you press down on the surface. 

The cake might be too delicate to handle when just hot out of the steamer, hence do leave it to cool down for a bit before trying to unmould and slicing it. 

My top flour layer was a little too thin, hence the cracks. T.T

When warm, this rice cake is soft and slightly chewy with a yummy sweetness from the chopped dates and brown sugar filling and a pleasant Osmanthus scent. If it weren't for the calories, I would have easily eaten all 8 slices at one go. 

When left to cool completely (overnight) the cake will significantly harden up to give a dry and crumbly texture, but still sweet and delicious!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Japanese food delivered to your doorsteps with sushidelivery.sg [Sponsored]

 Craving for some Japanese food, but also feeling too lazy to head out to a Japanese restaurant? 

What if I tell you, you can get your craving fixed within an hour with just a few clicks of your mouse?

 

I kid you not, for that's really what it is with sushidelivery.sg! 

Just a few clicks of the mouse and there you have it, a scrumptious Japanese dinner coming up!

I know when it comes to Japanese food, especially for sashimi or sushi with raw fish, freshness is always an issue and some may feel that "delivery" and "freshness" doesn't complement each other that well. But at sushidelivery.sg, not only their fish are sourced daily from Osaka and Hokkaido, they're also flown to Singapore within 18 hours to ensure maximum freshness possible. 

In addition, all their cooked food are only prepared by their chefs upon receiving our orders and sent within the hour so there's no worries about getting delivered stale food that has been sitting around for hours.

 And while there's a good selection of fresh sashimi on sushidelivery.sg, I'm not really a fan of raw food (but I'm a huge fan of Japanese cuisine in general, so long they're cooked) so it's gonna be an order of bento, donburi and maki rolls! :)

Pork Cutlet (Tonkatsu) Set Bento - $12.90 (Usual $18.30)

At the current promotional price of $12.90, this is definitely a steal! The portion size of the tonkatsu is nothing short of generous and complemented by equally generous servings of fresh salad, chuka kurage (seasoned jellyfish) and takuan (picked daikon).

The tonkatsu was not only tender and flavourful, but still crispy on the outside when I tucked into it after taking a good 10-15 minutes taking my food pictures. >.<

Being a salad-fan, I have to say that their fresh salad didn't disappoint too, fresh and crisp with just the right amount of dressing to not make it too cloying.

Unagi Don - $15.90

No prize for guessing what the HB chose; the (his favourite) Unagi don.
 At just $15.90, he got quite a huge piece of the grilled unagi, along with an #eggpornworthy onsen egg.

 I'm personally not a fan of unagi, so it'll be unfair for me to comment on the taste of this. 

The HB surely enjoyed it though, especially when he could break the yolk and mix the onsen egg wholly into the rice that's already flavoured with the generous amount of unagi sauce slathered on the eel itself. 

Champion Floss Maki (8 pcs) - $15.90

Maki roll with chicken, avocado and cucumber, topped with nacho cheese sauce, tobikko (flying fish roe) and fried tempura batter bits.

Initially I wanted to get the Chicken Rainbow Maki because they look so IG-worthy but in the end I decided to go with the Champion Floss Maki as there's a worry that all the coloured toppings might not remain on top of the rainbow maki when delivered. HEH!

And I'm so glad I changed my mind because I love, love, love this, so much! The nacho cheese taste (which is so yums) hits you at the very first bite, followed by the saltiness of the tobikko and the savoury flavour of the seasoned chicken and crunch of the cucumber. And all in all, this myriad of flavour and mouth-feel is littered with the pleasant crunch of the crispy fried tempura batter bits. 

Well, it's a champion indeed. 

Just having 8 pieces is definitely not enough for a glutton foodie like yours truly.  T.T

Yam Net Sponge Roll (5 pcs) - $5.50

Although I'm not exactly a huge fan of (white) yam, I was no doubt intrigued by the name of this dish and wanted to try it even though I wasn't really sure of what exactly I'm going to get.  

 It turned out to be seasoned Japanese purple yam, wrapped in vermicelli net and fried till crispy! 

Purple yam, also known as Ube, is not to be confused with the purple sweet potatoes although they do taste really similar. I was also confused at my first bite and thought I was eating mashed purple sweet potatoes. 

But unlike the purple sweet potatoes, which tends to have a distinctive earthy (soil) taste that I do not appreciate, the Japanese purple yam do not have that unpleasant taste. As the yam is mashed, the creamy and smooth texture of the subtly sweet and fragrant puree complemented the crispy exterior of the fried vermicelli layer very well, and added a lot more dimension to the overall mouth-feel of this dish. Even though it's a deep-fried dish, it doesn't feel overly oily and cloying at all.

Other than the usual bento, donburi, sushi, sashimi and sides, sushidelivery.sg also has sushi/sashimi party sets to make life much easier for you when you're looking to host a mini party for your sushi-loving friends. It's also a plus point that they actually do not skimp on the "plating" aspect of their food in spite of them being delivery-based, which also add on to our "dining experience" in the comfort of our home. 

Two thumbs up for you, sushidelivery.sg! 

sushidelivery.sg is open from 10am - 11pm daily, offering free delivery for all orders above SGD $60.

For more details and orders, visit their website HERE

Till then,

Mia Foo

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