Articles for the Month of May 2022

Making your instant soup

1. Boil a big pot of water on the stove

2. Add in seasoning paste of your choice

3. Season to taste with fish sauce (or salt), chicken boulion powder and sugar

Prep your vegetables 

1. Wash all your vegetables and place in a larger colander or on a serving platter

Making your sauce

1. The options are endless. I like adding hoisin sauce, sesame oil, topped up with chopped garlic, coriander and chilli in mine

2. My family uses a premade bottle of sukiyaki sauce 

Setting up everything else

1.Place all other ingredients into bowls or on serving platters 

2. Set up your gas/electric portable stove. 

3. In a hot pot pot, add in your soup and bring to boil

3. Gather your friends and family around and enjoy (remember ingredients like beef, pork, lamb and chicken slices cook much quicker than others)

* The ingredient measurements will vary depending on how many people are eating. This is just a rough guide. 

Make the Sugar Syrup

Heat the sugar and mandarin juice in a small pot until the sugar has dissolved.

Simmer on low for 2 minutes.

Turn off the heat and leave to cool completely.

Make the Cake

Preheat a fan forced oven to 160C.

Line the base and sides of a deep round 20cm cake tin.

Cream the butter, sugar and zest in a stand mixer until light and fluffy.

Add eggs in one at a time, mixing well between each addition.

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer.

Add in sour cream and stir with a spatula.

Sift in flour and stir until just mixed through.

Add in almond meal, mandarin juice and vanilla. Stir until just combined.

Pour mix into prepared tin.

Bake for 1 hour 20 mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Use a skewer to poke holes into the top of your cake once it comes out of the oven,

Pour the prepared mandarin syrup over the top of your cake and let it sit for 15mins inside the tin to allow for the syrup to soak in.

After 15 mins, remove your cake from the tin onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.

Decorate your Cake (1)

You can simply top your cake with fresh mandarins.

Just slice a few mandarins in half.

Leave some halves with their peels intact and peel the others to reveal the segments.

Decorate your Cake (2)

Heat 1/2 cup sugar with 1/2 mandarin juice in a small pot. Once the sugar dissolves, simmer until the syrup thickens and starts to darken.

When the syrup has thickened, remove from the heat and let it cool completely.

Once cooled, add in 1/4 cup mandarin juice and mix into the syrup to loosen it so that you can pour it.

Whip 300mL thickened cream with 3T icing sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract until soft peaks form.

Smear cream on top of your cake, leaving a small clear border without cream.

Drizzle prepared syrup over the cream.

Let most of the syrup pool in the centre at the top of the cake. Allow some of the syrup to drip down the sides of the cake.

Decorate your Cake (3)

Decorate as per suggestion in (2) above.

Top with prepared mandarins from suggestion (1) above.

Rice Balls

1. Add glutinous rice to a large bowl filled with water and leave to soak overnight.

2. The next day, pour rice into a sieve/colander and drain.

3. Rinse with fresh tap water.

4. Line a steamer basket with parchment paper and add in rinsed rice (no water).

5. Steam for 30 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the ingredients for making the rice balls and place into a large mixing bowl.

7. After 30 minutes, remove the steamer and leave it to cool for 5-10 minutes on the bench top.

8. Remove the rice from the steamer and when cool enough to handle, mix all ingredients together in the bowl until everything is well combined.

9 Shape balls with your seasoned rice mix (larger than a golf ball but smaller than a tennis ball).

10. Deep fry rice balls until golden.

Set aside.

Dressing

1. Combine the lime juice and sugar in a medium bowl. Stir to dissolve the sugar. 

2. Add in fish sauce and taste (You should be able to taste the sugar, lime and fish sauce but nothing should overwhelmingly stand out).

3, Keep adding fish sauce to the dressing until you achieve this balance.

4. Add water to thin out the dressing a little.

5. Add in garlic and chilli.

Assemble the Salad

1. Toast the glutinous rice grains in a dry skillet until golden.

2. Grind the toasted rice grains using a mortar and pestle to make the toasted rice powder. (The rice powder should not look like dust but needs to be fine enough to not resemble gritty sand.)

3. In a large mixing bowl, add salad ingredients.

4. Break up rice balls into big chunks and add into salad.

5. Pour in dressing and toss through.

6. Garnish serving platter with oak leaf lettuce leaves and serve. Best eaten immediately :)