Cream Puffs

Today being a public holiday(Hari Raya Puasa) I had the whole carefree day to myself, enjoying myself lazing around and watching tv programmes. All of a sudden the urge of eating cream puffs came upon me(hee hee I am no preggie). So, I ransacked my kitchen and managed to have all the ingredients available to bake my cream puffs . In fact, hubby has been bugging me for months to bake him cream puffs, back then my mood for baking was hibernating. Well, perhaps his lucky day indeed and ta da, I present my humble cream puffs.

Here's the wonderful recipe thanks to Florence:-

Ingredients: (16 medium puffs)
Choux Pastry:
85ml water
50g butter
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

50g bread flour
20g cake flour2 eggs (lightly beaten)

Creme Patisserie:
240ml skim milk
5 tbsp castor sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg + 2 yolks
2 tbsp cornstarch

Method:
Choux Pastry
1. Cook water, butter, sugar and salt in a saucepan till bubbling hot. Turn the heat to low.
2. Add in the flour mixture in one go and mix with a wooden spoon till a dough is formed.
3. Still on low heat, cook the dough for 1 - 2 minutes till a thin white film is formed at the bottom of the saucepan.
4. Transfer dough to a mixing bowl and beat till it is lukewarm.
5. Add in egg by thirds and mix till well blended and smooth.
6. Place batter into piping bag and pipe it onto a lined pan in rounds of about 5cm in diameter. Spray some water on it.
7. Bake at 200C for 25 minutes then 180C for 8 - 10 minutes or till dry and golden brown in color.
Turn off the oven and let it cool in the oven for 30 minutes.

Creme Patisserie
1. Mix 60ml of milk with the cornstarch till smooth.
2. Add the beaten egg and yolks into the cornstarch mixture.
3. Boil the remaining milk with sugar in a saucepan till bubbling hot. Pour 1/3 of this hot milk into the egg cornstarch mixture. Stirring all the time.
4. Now pour the egg cornstarch mixture through a strainer into the rest of the boiling milk. Stirring constantly till mixture thicken. Do not burn the custard.
5. Cling wrap custard with glad wrap with the wrap touching the surface of the custard (this is to prevent a hard film forming on surface of the custard) and chill till ready to use.

Notes:Do not open the oven door in the baking process. Open oven door to remove puffs only after the 30 minutes in-oven cooling process.

My Wok Fried Char Siew

Did this at my mum's place on Sunday. I marinated the meat on Saturday night and leave it overnight in a ziplock bag in the fridge. Hee hee thanks to Michelle, my neighbour for her contribution of the oyster sauce and I also omitted the garlics in the recipe as I do not have them at home. I think the red fermented beancurd could be halved as the smell is very pungent. As my mum's place do not have an oven, I did the wok fried method. I boiled some water in a wok, add in the marinated char siew with the marinade, then let it simmer slowly till the water is dry. Then continue to pan fry it until crispy. Oh my little 3 years old nephew enjoyed the char siew and he kept running now and then to the dining table to have little strips of the char siew.

Here's the recipe for the char siew:-

1-11/2 kg pork belly (pork must have some fat in it to be tender. Do not use lean pork loin)
Marinade : 4 tablespoon Oyster sauce
4 Tablespoon Tomato sauce
5 Tablespoon Soya sauce
3 Tablespoon Black soya sauce
1 teaspoon Sesame oil
2 Tablespoon sugar
1 piece red fermented beancurd
1 Tablespoon Chinese wine
4 cloves garlic, finely minced

Glaze :
1 tablespoon honey mixed with 1 tablespoon water

Method :
1. Mix all the ingredients for marinate together. Pour onto pork and leave to marnate for at least 4 hours, even better overnight.
2. Take meat out from refridgerator 1/2 hour before grilling.
3. Grill/broil the meat until cooked. While grilling, make sure you turn the meat 3-4 times, to allow even browning.
4. When meat is cooked, brush with honey glaze and remove

Thanks to the Kitchen Capers members cwl who shared this wonderful char siew recipe and Angie who shared her wok fried method!