Blueberry muffins

Alway wanted to try to bake using yogurt. Came across a recipe by Delishar seems easy enough and I have all the ingredients at home.

Yields 15 (not sure why :p)

Recipe:

• 354g flour
• 1 tsp banking soda
• 2 tsp banking power (1 use 1 and a half)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 150 sugar
• 115g melted butter
• 1 egg
• 250g yogurt
• 222g fresh blueberries
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Note: The mix seems a bit dry so i added 2 tbsp water/milk. Recipe is low in sugar already, there is no need to reduce sugar anymore.

Steps

1. Pre heat oven @ 180c
2. Line muffin tray
3. Mix flour, salt, baking power and baking soda together
4. Toss 1 tbsp flour mix with the berries. (keep some untoss as topping)
5. Wisk butter, sugar, vanilla, egg and yogurt. 
6. Mix dry and wet ingredients till almost combined (Over mix will result in tough muffins)
7. Fold in the berries (about 3-4 folds)
8. Fill the liners 3/4 full
9. Bake 180c (fan mode) 20 mins
10. Cool in pan for 5mins before moving to cool on wire rack 

Likely I will try with banana next time, add more yogurt and maybe some roll oats. As it was not as moist as I have hope it would be. 

Black Gold Pineapple Tart

This blog entry is mainly for my future reference ^^

2 weeks before CNY I was looking for a Pineapple Tart recipe and came across a Charcoal Pineapple Tart By Mybakingcottage. Very interesting to use charcoal power. So I try it out, the end results is good. My friends call it Black gold Pineapple Tart :)

Over all I find this type of open face short crust pastry last longer in storage than the other (wrap up pineapple) type.

Recipe:

• 380g Plain Flour
• 15g Charcoal Powder
• 50g Corn Flour
• 10g Milk Powder
• 47g Icing Sugar
• 320g Cold, Salted Butter, Cubed
• 3 Egg Yolks
• 45g Iced Water
• 1 Vanilla Bean Pod (Split pod into half and scrap vanilla beans) - I didn't get pods so I used extract 
• 800g Premium low sweet Pineapple Paste - roll into 1 tsp balls 

To ensure jam doesn’t come out of the oven dry and caramelized for open face type, according to instructions: add 120g of unsalted butter and beat it up together with the pineapple jam. 

Short Crust Pastry Method:

1.    In a large mixing bowl, sift flour, charcoal powder, milk powder and icing sugar together

2.    Whisk egg yolks, iced water and vanilla beans together

3.    Rub in cold cubed butter into the flour till it resembles fine bread crumbs

4.    Add wet ingredients into flour and butter mixture

5.    Gently coax all the ingredients into a large dough

6.    Divide dough into 2-3 portions and chill in the chiller 

7.    While dough is chilling, roll pineapple jam into 10-15g portions

8.    Once dough is chilled, proceed to assemble the tarts

9.    Preheat oven to 180c once you have completed half a tray of tarts
10.  Bake for 15-18 minutes

Note to self: Prep the dough and jam the day before 

Sio Bak 烧肉 (Chinese Roast Pork Belly)

This blog is mainly for my future reference ^^

I was inspired by The meat men's video:

But..... looks like a lot of work and wash up.......

A few months back I came across another recipe from Miki's Food Archives looks easy enough with minimum wash up. Please refer to her blog post for more information.

650g Pork Belly
1 tsp Shao Xing Wine
1 heap tsp Garlic Salt1/2 tsp SugarDash of Five SpiceSome Distilled VinegarSome generous amount of Coarse Salt
Dash of Pepper

Tools: 
Oven, tweezer, aluminium foil, bamboo skewers or a small knife, deep roast tray, baking tray

To do the day before:
1. Wash and dry the pork belly with kitchen towel.
2. Make sure it is dry thoroughly. Transfer to a plate, skin side down. Rub the seasonings all over (except the skin).
3. Flip over, dry the skin again with kitchen towels.
4. Keep in the fridge (chill room) overnight to dry and marinate. Do not cover the belly.

Before cooking:
5. Remove from the fridge. The skin should be dry at this stage. Remove hair (if any) with a tweezer. 
6. Prick the skin layer with bamboo skewers or small knife. (Make sure not to cut too deep into the flesh)
7.  Transfer to a baking tray. Cover the bottom and sides with aluminium foil. Preheat oven 180c. (This is where I find that this recipe require minimum cleaning, the meat is covered up - no messy oil splatter)
8. Brush a thin layer of vinegar on the skin. Leave it to dry. When the oven is ready, cover the skin with generous amount of coarse salt. 
9. Roast for 35 minutes. Remove from oven, discard salt. 
10. Return to oven, grill for 20-25 minutes or until the skin crackling, puffy and crisp.
11. Remove from oven, let it cool for 8-10 minutes on the rack.  

So this is the end results of my roast pork:



I freeze some up, to use as meat in my veg stir fry dishes :)
A dish I will make again!