Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

I am the type person who do not really like cheesecake. However, I am amazed with this fluffy and soft cheesecake. The taste is mild and this cheesecake is not as dense as the traditional cheesecake and yet the cheese flavour taste so good when it melts in your mouth. I was first get to know about this cheesecake 6 months ago and I have no time to explore it until these few days when it is nearer to X'mas since this is holiday season and no activities for kids as well.

The secret of baking this cake is the egg white. You must have a stiff white egg in order to get a fluffy soft cheesecake. You may refer to this link on "How to beat egg white."

Initially I thought using more egg white will help the texture but it turns out very wet and soggy. Thus, in this recipe I have reduced the egg quantity in order to improve the cake texture.

Another thing to take note is the batter. It is necessary to sieve the batter in order to remove all the big lumps. This will make your cheesecake more perfect.

Ingredients
40g Cake flour
15g Cornstarch
40g Butter
125g Cream Cheese
80ml milk
3 medium egg yolks
75g sugar
2tbsp lemon juice
3 medium egg white


1. Preheat oven to 150'C

2. In a bowl, combine milk, butter and cream cheese together. Heat and melt them using a double boiler method. Slowly whisk them until a smooth mixture is formed. Let it cool down.

3. Sieve both cake flour and cornstarch together and put aside.

4. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with 40g of sugar until pale yellow. Slowly blend in the milk cheese mixture from step (2) and then add in lemon juice.

5. After that, slowly mix in flour into the mixture (4) until the mixture is homogeneous.

6. If there is large lumps, sieve the mixture (5).

7. In a clean bowl, whisk egg white with sugar until a stiff white egg is formed. Please refer to "How to whip egg white".

8. After obtaining a stiff egg, fold in the egg white slowly into the cheese mixture (5). Please refer to "How to fold in egg white".

9. Pour the batter into a wrapped square tin or spring foam. Bake the cake in a boiled water pan. (Similar method as you bake cheesecake).

10.Bake the cake at 150'C for 1hour and 20 minutes. You may test the cake readiness using the toothpick method.

11. Once it is ready, off the oven and let the cake continue to sit inside the oven with the door ajar for another 5-10 minutes. A sudden change in the environment temperature will cause the cake to shrink.

12. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool down fully.

13. Chill the cake in the fridge for overnight and ready to serve.

Sambal Kangkung

Kangkung also known as water spinach is a vegetable that is usually found throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It is easily grown in front of our house compound and due to this, it is a common dish in our daily life.

There are a lot of methods of cooking this dish but the most common is stir fry this vegetable with chili and belacan. Since the stem is hollow, water spinach can remain its crunchiness after cooking. This dish is really nice especially when it is served with hot rice.

To make the chili paste, it is important to use more onion than garlic. The paste will taste better if there is more onion in the paste, If you prefer more spicy, you may increase the number of chili in this recipe. In order to get a fine paste, add in some oil in the blender and blend. Using oil is better than water as the paste will eventually fry in the oil till fragrant.

When frying the chili paste, low heat is used in order to avoid any burning on the chili paste. A chili paste is ready when you see oil flow out from the paste.

Ingredients 
1 clove of garlic
6 pcs of shallots
3 chilies
belacan to taste
3 tbsp or sufficient oil to stir fry chili paste
300 g of water spinach, cut into 3 inches long
100 g prawn, remove shell and devein

1. Blend garlic, shallots, chilies and belacan together. You may add in some oil (2 tbsp) so that it is easier to blend into fine chili paste.

2. Pour the blend chili paste onto a pan. Heat up the pan. If there is not enough oil, add in another 1 tbsp into the paste. With low heat, stir fry the chili paste until oil is flowing out from the paste.

3. Add in prawn and stir-fry for a minute. Turn the fire into high heat. Then, add in water spinach and stir-fry for another 30-60 second or until the water spinach is cooked.

Black Bean and Spareribs Soup

Black bean has a lot of benefit from TCM point of view. It is good for the spleen and kidney while reducing blood fat level. Due to its benefit, this soup nourishes the Yin by regulating blood chemistry, benefit the kidneys and darkens hair. Thus, this soup is good to be taken during Summer.

It is very easy to boil make a delicious Chinese Soup. You should use high heat to bring the soup to boil at the very beginning. After boiling for about 30 minutes, you may turn to low heat and simmer the soup for the specified time. Soups made with such varied heat usually taste milder and they have better medicinal effects.

Make sure you serve soups before meals, or even better, before dinners. As soups are like solutions of various nutrients, it's best to serve them before meals on an empty stomach. The absorption in the digestive tract is the most efficient at that time.

Ingredients
300 g black beans
20 pieces of red dates, soak and clean with water
600 g spareribs
1 dried octopus (about 38 g)
salt to taste

1. Rinse spareribs. Scald it in boiling water for 3 minutes. Remove and set aside.

2. Rinse the remaining ingredients. Soak black beans and octopus separately in warm water for 30 minutes.

3. Boil 2 liter of water in a pot. Upon boiling, add in black beans, spare ribs and dried octopus in the pot.

4. Use high heat for 30 minutes and reduce to low heat and cook for 1 1/2 hours.

5. Finally, add in red dates and continue to cook for another 30 minutes.

6. Taste with salt before serve.

Braised Sea Cucumber with Pork Ribs

It is Chinese New Year and this year, it is a meaning year for me as I have a chance to cook for my family as well as my husband's family. Besides steamboat, I also prepared Sarawak Laksa for my family. I was trying something new and light so that we are not always stuffed with food!

Since my dad is quite a 'tradition' person, my mom did make his favorite dish, braised sea cucumber with pork knuckle. As for myself who does not really like knuckle, I modify the recipe by replacing the knuckle with pork ribs. The results turns out really good especially if you are a health conscious person as pork ribs do not give as much fat as knuckle.

Besides the ribs, I also add in some dry scallops to bring up the taste of this dish. Scallops need to wash and soak overnight. Keep the water so that you can use it to braise the ribs. Mushrooms also need to soak over night. You may soak the fish maw until they are soft before braising them with sea cucumber. Since I am a lazy person, I did not soak the fish maw. Instead, I braise directly with the pork ribs. I find out the taste of the fish maw is better if I braise directly with pork ribs as the fish maw tends to absorb the sauce of the gravy.

The only step that you need to take note is the time to put in sea cucumber. It is to make sure that the ribs are soft before adding in the sea cucumber. Sea cucumber takes shorter time to braise, normally I will take another 30 minutes. It is all depending on your taste buds.

Last but not least is the ginger. I will normally marinate the ribs, mushroom and sea cucumber with some ginger juice for around 30 minutes before cooking.

Ingredients

300g pork ribs

600g of sea cucmber

2 cloves of garlic ( do not mince)

10 pieces of mushrooms, soak overnight

3 pieces of dry scallops, wash and soak overnight. Keep the water

3 pieces of fish maw

Black moss, soaks with water

4 tbsp of ginger juice

1 carrot, cut into slices

Light soya sauce to taste

Salt to taste

2 tbsp cooking oil

Water

1. Marinate the pork ribs, mushroom and sea cucumber with 1 tbsp of ginger juice respectively for 30 minutes.

2. Heat up 1 tbsp cooking oil, stir fry mushroom and add in some salt to taste. Stir fry for a minute and set aside.

3. Using the same pan, heat up 1 tbsp oil. Add in garlic (with skin) and fry till fragrant.

4. Add in ribs and stir fry till the outer layer of ribs is cooked. Add in water just to cover the ribs for braising. 

5. When the water is boiling, add in dry scallops and its water. Add in also fish maw and mushroom. Keep stirring the fish maw until the fish maw is soft and soak into the gravy. Let them braised until the ribs is soft. It normally takes around 30-45 minutes depending on the size of the ribs. You may add in some water if the water dries up.

6. When the ribs is soft, add in sea cucumber and carrot. Continue braise for another 15-30 minutes until you get the desire softness for the sea cucumber. 

7. Finally, add in the black moss. Wait for another 1 minute before taste with soya sauce and turn off fire. 

NOTE: You may add in oyster sauce in order to get stronger flavor.