Red Bean Mooncakes

Nothing better than baking for a holiday. With Mid-Autumn festival just around the corner, now’s the time to start mooncake making!

Be aware that this is a time involved recipe, and can be made easier by buying the filling instead of making it if you prefer. The hardest part is getting that super fine outer shell, so you can showcase the filling. This recipe doesn’t have the egg yolk centres (as I’m currently in lockdown and can’t source any!).

Ingredients

for the filling

• 120g golden syrup
• 3/4 teaspoon lye water
• 72gm vegetable oil
• 300gm plain flour

for the pastry

• 2 cups red beans (azuki beans)
• 6 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 4 tablespoons butter
• pinch of salt
• egg wash

Equipment required

• mooncake molds
• rolling pin
• baking paper, or silicon mats

Prep time: 8 hours soak time for the beans

Cooking time: 1 hour

Makes: 15

Method

for the filling

1. Wash the beans, and soak them for 8 hours or overnight.
2. Drain and place in a large pot. Add 6 cups of water and cook for 40mins-1 hour until soft. Add more water if required, beans are done when squeezed they smush, not break into two.
3. Drain the beans, and transfer to a food processor and blend until smooth.
4. Transfer to a pan, add the sugar, salt and butter, and heat on low. Continue frying until the mixture is thick and the water has evaporated out.
5. Allow to cool , and place in a sealed container or with glad wrap so the top doesn’t dry out. Place in the fridge.

for the pastry

1. Mix the golden syrup, lye water, vegetable oil, and plain flour together in a bowl.
2. Once it has come together, cover in glad wrap and allow to rest by placing it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

lye water

• Lye water is an alkali ingredient, that helps keep everything together, and gives the lovely golden colour to your mooncakes
• Lye water can be easily self made if you are unable to purchase it from your local Chinese grocery store (which in lockdown is particularly hard!!)
• Bake bicarbonate soda in the oven at 180degrees Celsius for 30mins.
• Remove and add 4 parts water to every part bicarb soda.

to assemble

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Roll out 4cm balls of red bean paste
3. Roll out 2.5cm-3cm balls of your pastry and roll it out between two pieces of baking paper. You want it to be 2 millimetre thickness, so when you pick it up you can see light through it.
4. Wrap a red bean paste ball with the pastry you have just rolled. Make sure it is all covered, and places where there is overlap of pastry, pinch off the excess dough without exposing your paste.
5. Flour your mooncake press by pressing the piston down onto a floured surface. Tap off the excess. Place the mooncake ball inside, press down and compress. Remove, and admire the mooncake pattern! Then place on your baking tray.
6. Finish making your mooncakes, and line them up on your tray.
7. Bake for 5 minutes, remove from the oven and egg wash. Bake for 10 more minutes, or until a lovely golden colour.
8. Remove, rest and mmmenjoy.

Sourdough

Ingredients:

• 200gm starter
• 700gm warm water
• 1kg flour
• 20gm salt
• 40gm warm water

Recipe

1. Mix dough: In a bowl (preferably glass if you have one) mix 200gm starter with 700gm warm water. Then mix in 1kg flour, and mix until till no dry bits are showing.

2. Autolyse: cover with a towel and leave sitting at rm temp(aim for 22 degrees if possible- i do this by turning on the heat, or turning on the oven to the lowest temp then turning it off and putting in the bowel with the door ajar) for 30mins.

3. Add salt: Mix in 20gm salt and 40gm warm water. Then wet your hands and mix them in, as if you were a child playing with slime! Let rest for 20mins

4. First fold: Now to start the folds! Slightly wet hands so the dough doesn’t stick to you. Fold in half towards yourself then turn the bowl 90 degrees clockwise. Repeat the fold towards yourself and turn 90 degrees clockwise. Repeat two more times until you have done a total of four folds. Then cover and allow to rest for 30mins.

5. Second fold: Repeat four folds and allow to rest for 30mins

6. Third fold: Repeat four folds then allow to rest for 30mins

7. Forth fold: turn out mixture onto clean bench top (ideally u want a glass, marble, or something smooth, bench top, where your dough wont stick and that you can use to create tension in the dough) do four more folds, and with the last fold try to drag it up and over and tuck it in underneath to create a nice smooth top. Now shape the dough into a tout ball by using a bench scraper and you hand to push the dough around side to side and up and down and slightly tucking in as you do it to build that tension in the dough. What you are aiming for is for it to look like a water droplet on a rose petal on a monday morning! You just want to build that tension. Then allow to rest for 30mins covered with either a moist towel or an over turned bowl.

8. Final shaping: repeat step above and get as taut a ball as possible. Then flip upside down and place in a well floured banneton (or a bowl with a well floured tea towel). Lightly flour.

9. Final fermentation: leave to rise for 4-6 hours, or overnight in the fridge (6-24 hours)

10. Preheat oven to 250degrees celsius, with dutch oven inside. Make sure it is hot and ready before you put in your sourdough (I normally preheat for one hour!) to avoid getting burnt (and trust me i have some bad ones from sourdough!) I invert my banneton on baking paper. I then use the paper to lower my dough gently into the dutch oven. Slash artistically, and place in the oven with the lid on for 55minutes. Remove lid and allow to brown as much as you like, normally around 5-10mins.

11. Allow to cool for 30mins, tap to hear that delightful sound of hollowness and success!!! And mmmenjoy!

Vegetarian Dumplings

Ingredients

For the dumpling wrapper

◦ 2 1/4 cup plain flour (320gm)

◦ 3/4 cup hot water (175gm)

For the filling

◦ Half a Spring onion spring

◦ 6 white mushrooms

◦ Enoki mushrooms

◦ 2 large carrots

◦ 1/2 napa cabbage

◦ 2 tablespoons pureed garlic

◦ 2 tablespoons pureed ginger

◦ 3 tablespoons soy sauce

◦ 3 tablespoons black vinegar

◦ 3 tablespoons dry sherry

◦ 3 tablespoons sesame oil

◦ White pepper

Method

To make the wrappers

1. Mix the hot water and flour together

2. Knead for 10minutes (either by hand or as I prefer, with a kitchen aid using the dough hook!)

3. Rest for 15-30mins, until it springs back when you press into it (while it is resting make your filling)

To make the filling

1. Finely cut the mushrooms, cabbage, spring onions, and grate the carrot.

2. Splash some oil in a pan, and lightly fry garlic and ginger. Add all the cut vegetables and mushrooms Fry until cooked.

3. Season with soy sauce, white pepper, dry sherry, black vinegar, sesame oil. Adjust to taste.

To make the dumplings

1. Timing is everything for this step as the dumpling wrappers like to stick. I like to use the cheat method -A pasta maker, to roll out the dough to the perfect thinness, however you can also hand roll it out.

2. Using the pasta maker run through a quarter of the dough until it is thin enough to see through. Then using a cookie cutter, cut out large diameter circles.

3. Fill each circle with filling and seal together creatively (i recommend using youtube tutorial for this step as it can be tricky to get the folds right)

4. Repeat step 2 and 3, with the remaining dough until it is all used up.

5. Place some left over cabbage leaves on a steamer basket, and put the dumplings on top. Steam for 10-15 mins and mmmenjoy.

6. If you’re like me and also like to save some for a later date, freeze the dumplings before steaming. And just remove from the freezer, and steam from frozen next time you crave some dumplings.

Melting moments

Ingredients:

For the cookies

• 500gm butter cubes
• 1tsp vanilla essence
• 2/3 cup icing sugar
• 3 1/2 cups plain flour
• 2/3 cups for four

For the filling

• 125gm butter
• 1 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1x orange rind
• 1x lemon rind

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius, and line several trays with baking paper.
2. Beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence together until pale.
3. Beat in the cornflour and plain flour until just mixed together.
4. Roll the mixture into small balls around 3cm diameter. Then using a flour dusted fork, flatten each ball.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, transfer to a wire rack to cool.
6. Beat filling ingredients together until pale, and spread between two cookies. Serve, and mmmenjoy!

Tofu fries

Sooo everyone is becoming vegan….

So here is a recipe for my favourite tofu fries.

Prep:10mins cooking time:20 mins

Ingredients

• 2 blocks hard tofu (i tend to do 1 block per person
• A punch of Salt, pepper, basil oregano, thyme, rosemary, paprika, garlic powder
• Vegetable oil

Method:

1. Mix oil and herbs
2. Cut tofu into 1cm x 1cm fries
3. Coat tofu with oil/herb mixture
4. Bake for 20 mins- flip halfway
5. Mmmm enjoy

Vegan tteokbokki

I love tteokbokki!!! My friends and I are all slowly becoming vegan, so I have been converting all my favourite recipes 😊

Ingredients:

• Rice cakes
• Firm tofu
• Dry noodles
• 2 cups vegetable stock

For the sauce

• 3 tbsp Korean chilli paste (gochujang)

• 3 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp minced garlic

Method:

1. Soak rice cakes in warm water for 10mins to soften (longer if frozen)

2. Mix sauce ingredients together, taste and adjust as required

3. Bool vegetable stock and mix in the sauce. Add in the rice cakes and boil for 5-10mins until soft. Add in tofu and noodles and allow to thicken.

4. Remove and mmmenjoy!

Chilled tofu with soy dressing

Ingredients:

• Silken tofu
• Coriander
• 5 tablespoons Soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Black vinegar
• 3-5tablespoons Caster Sugar
• 3tablespoons hot water
• 2 tablespoons soy bean paste
• 1 teaspoon Sesame oil

Method:

1. Steam tofu for 5 mins, refrigerate till cold. (If you are lazy, feel free to also serve this dish with warm tofu!)
2. Dissolve 3tbsp sugar in hot water. Mix in soy sauce, soy bean paste, black vinegar and sesame oil. Taste and adjust soy sauce and sugar as required.
3. Finely cut coriander. Cut tofu into cubes, place coriander on top, and drizzle dressing over the tofu. Serve and mmmenjoy!

Sundries tomato, olives and feta scones

Ingredients:

• 3 cups self raising flour
• 80gm cubed butter, chilled
• 1-1 1/4 cups milk
• 5 tablespoons sundried tomato strips
• 5 tablespoons olives
• 5 tablespoons australian feta cubed

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius
2. Rub butter into flour mixture, until it resembles fine breadcrumbs
3. Make a well in the centre of the mixture, and mix in milk with a butter knife
4. Mix in olives, sundried tomato and cheese
5. Lightly dust a flat surface and rolling pin, roll out dough until 2cm height. Use a circular cutout to make scones. Place on baking tray and bake for 20mins.
6. Remove and mmmenjoy!

Carrot cake

This is my favourite carrot cake recipe, it has that perfect moistness, crunch and creamy cheese icing.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 1-1.5 hours

Ingredients:

For the batter

600g (4 cups) self raising flour

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2tsp mixed spice

480g (3 cups) dark brown sugar

330g (3 cups) grated carrot (around 6 carrots)

500ml (2 cups) vegetable oil

8 eggs

250g walnuts, lightly roasted, and roughly chopped

440g tinned pineapple chunks, roughly chopped

For the icing

• 375g cream cheese
• 90g butter at room temperature
• 160g (1 cup) icing sugar
• 2tsp orange rind

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees, and line two cake tins with baking paper

Mix the flour, cinnamon, and mixed spice together. Mix in the sugar and grated carrot.

In a seperate bowl whisk the oil and eggs together, then slowly mix into the dry mixture

Mix in the walnuts and pineapple, divide batter into two portions. Pour each portion into a baking pan and bake for 1-1.5 hours, until a skewer comes out clean.

For the icing

1. Make sure the butter and cream cheese are at room temperature. Cream the butter then slowly add in the cream cheese, beat in the icing sugar and the orange rind, and keep beating until smooth.

To assemble the cake

When the cakes have cooled, cut to size and stack with a layer of cream cheese on top.

Ice the top layer of the cake, and decorate with some dried fruit, cut and mmmenjoy!

Shakshuka

This is my favourite breakfast to have on a day off, throw in some lovely sunshine and great company, and you have my perfect morning.

I add in some extras depending on my mood, my favourite is chorizo, and some greek yoghurt on top, paired with a freshly baked sourdough, and brown rice tea.

Hope you enjoy!

Prep time 10 minutes

Cooking time:30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 cloves garlic- finely chopped
• 1x chorizo sliced
• 1 red capsicum
• 4 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 2 teaspoon cumin
• 2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 6 eggs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Coriander to garnish

Methods:

In a large frypan heat some oil and lightly fry the chopped garlic. Add in chorizo and fry till nearly cooked, add in capsicum and fry till it starts to soften

Add in the tomato paste and lightly fry. Pour in two cans of tomato and mix everything together.

Mix in the cumin, paprika, chilli. They add enough salt, pepper and sugar until the flavours are balanced.

Make 6 little cavities, around the pan and one in the middle. Crack an egg into each hole then cover with a lid. Allow to cook for 10-20 minutes depending on how you like your eggs (if you like them runny stop cooking at 10 minutes. However if you like them nearly cooked through keep it on for the 20).

Remove from heat, sprinkle on the coriander, and mmmenjoy!