Spicy Minced Meat Brinjal & Basil

My family eating habit is getting weird these days. Hubby & my girl are both eating less meat, me ALMOST 0% meat intake and my boy is getting along well with eggs these days ( he used to hate eggs !), yet still a carnivore. Well, I'll have to say not easy to satisfy this kind of family members every meal. Absolutely, headache ! But hate it or like it..... I'll sometimes just playing selfish..... only cooking my own favourite food. haha.... I love brinjal especially when it is nicely brown. It smells simply fantastic. And one of my favourite brinjal dish is the one cooking with basil.

And here's my brinjal dish with basil with bird eyes chilies.

Ingredients :
200gm  chicken minced meat
2 large brinjal/eggplant, cut small
a handful of basil leaves
2 shallots, thinly sliced
1/2" ginger knob, juliened
3 bird eye chilies, cut small

Seasoning :
Salt & pepper to taste
sweet/caramel dark soy sauce

Method :
(1) preheat frying pan with just 4 TB cooking oil, then brown the brinjal in batches till fragrant. Set aside.
(2) now, add in 2 TB cooking oil and saute ginger & shallots over medium till fragrant.
(3) once the ginger & onion started to brown, add in minced meat and cook over high heat till cooked but stir in the basil half way through.
(4) now, add in fried brinjal and chilies and keep on cooking over high heat for another 3-4 minutes but at the same time adding in salt & pepper and then finally add in caramel dark soy sauce. Stir in everything till well mixed and off the heat.

The aroma simply irresistible and I can just have it with my favourite unpolished rice. Usually, most meat will be left on the dish after meal. :o) My beagle will be the lucky & happy one at the end. haha.... I wonder if anyone of you love it as well ?

Enjoy & have a fabulous week ahead everyone.

Chocolate & Cinnamon Babka ~ The Famous Babka In New York

Babka is such a familiar name to me. I've first learnt about Babka is from Mary from One Perfect Bite, a dear blogger buddy, since a couple years back. But have never thought of trying it even once though. haha.... Weird huh ! And then by early of this year, I was again seduced by the introduction made by Kak Dewi from Elra's Baking on my facebook. She drove me all the way to the most famous & beautiful babka in New York ! And I was stuck there since then. haha.... After a long consideration, I finally decided to make one most famous chocolate babka at home and found some really good info from here & here. And here I go.

Ingredients for bread dough : (2 loaves)
(A)
1 cup  warmed milk
1 TB  yeast
1 TB  sugar
1 cup flour
(mix well and leave to rest for 20 minutes)

(B)
3-3/4 cup bread flour
3 large eggs
120gm  butter, chopped
2 tspn  vanilla paste
1 tspn  salt

Method :  once the ingredients (A) is ready, stir ingredients (B) into (A) to form a soft dough and knead till smooth. Then keep dough into a well sealed plastic bag and keep refrigerated overnight.

Ingredients for chocolate fillings : Please refer here. (double the recipe for 2 loaves)
Or you might as well try out my green tea flavour fillings.

Ingredients for cinnamon sugar spread :
1 cup  brown sugar mixed with 1 TB  cinnamon powder

Ingredients for streusel topping :
60gm  butter, softened
2 TB  brown sugar
2 TB  sugar
1/2 tspn  cinnamon powder
3/4 cup  all purpose flour
(cream butter & sugar till smooth then add in cinnamon & flour to form crumble paste. Keep refrigerated before used)

TO ASSEMBLE :
(1) divide dough into 2 portions, roll each into 12x12" and place chocolate paste into the middle. Wrap it like an envelope and nicely sealed. Unlike the usual process, I'm using the pastry folding method on this.
(2) now, roll wrapped dough into rectangle shape as thin as you could. Then sprinkle on the cinnamon & brown sugar.
(3) next, roll dough like swiss roll from the longer side and then simply twist the rolled dough as much as you could with both hands.
(4) finally, place dough to 4x4x9" tray with parchment papers and let to rest for an hour.
(5) brush on egg glaze or milk then spread on streusel topping and let to bake at preheated oven at 165'C for about 60 minutes or till brown.
(6) once its done, cooled completely before slicing.

Babka is a traditional Jewish bakery specially made during Easter celebration. And also well known as sweet yeasted cake which meaning more eggs & butter are involved in the recipe. Something similar to brioche. And some say Babka is a classic Czech coffee cake as well. Well, whateverso its a scrumptious treat for everyone. My babka turned out looking great. I am a happy happy baker ! :o)

The outcome of this bread like cake is totally out of my expectation and I'm dancing to celebrate this gorgeous cake. Aaaa.... finally, one of the famous babka is in my kitchen right at this moment. What not to be happy about !

Shanghai Sweet Pancake @ Wo Bing

'Wo Bing' or Shanghai sweet pancake is often served at many wedding dinner for the final serving dish as dessert in Malaysia. Of course, not all restaurants served this scrumptious dessert as their final dish or neither as dim sum. Some restaurants only served chilled sweet soup & hot sweet soup. Still I prefer this crispy treat. Its been a long long time since the last time I had them. Guess, its time to make them my own.

(recipe adapted from Kuali )
Ingredients for pancake crust :
125gm  all purpose flour
45gm    glutinous rice flour
1 TB  sugar
1/2 tspn  baking powder
1/4 tspn  salt
2 eggs
280ml   water

Method :
(1) Combine everything and mix till well cooperated.
(2) Preheat a 9" non-stick frying pan with a bit of cooking oil then pour one scoop of mixture to the pan and let to cook till brown. But make sure you keep some leftover for the sealing task.
(3) You will get about 6 sheets of pancake then set aside to cool.


There is one more recipe for Shanghai pancake here & here, where you may as well put into consideration.

*450gm  red bean paste for fillings (homemade red bean paste)

TO ASSEMBLE :

(1) Divide red bean paste into 3 portions, then flatten each into 5x6" or 5x5" size. Set aside.
(2) place one piece of pancake to working table, brush all sides with the leftover batter then top in the red bean paste.
(3) now, brush another piece of pancake with some batter then cover the other half of the filled pancake with it.
(4) once its done, preheat a wok with enough cooking oil and then fry pancake till brown & crispy.
(5) cut pancake into 6 or 8 slices and serve hot.

Note : its best to fry the pancake with medium heat till pancake slowly brown.

The bubbles are formed by the baking powder working well. It gives the pancake perfect crisp. I fried them for 2 times to give me the diehard crust. Though, it couldn't last for too long. You can still preheat it any time.

I can't wait to give it a BIG bite. Just look at the melting hot red bean paste. Ooooo..... so yummy ! Or you may try using phyllo pastry for the crust. I'm sure it turns out as wonderful. Anyway, hope you guys will like this too. Enjoy your week ahead everyone !