Banana Cupcake with lemon cream cheese frosting

Makes 12

Ingredients
11/2 cups self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
1/3 cup vege oil
1 egg
3/4 cup milk


Icing
125g light cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup icing sugar
1 - 2 tsp lemon juice

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degree. Grease a 12x 1/3cup muffin pan or two 6x 1/3cup muffin pan.
Combine all dry ingredient and whisk in mashed banana, oil, egg and milk together. Pour into the dry ingredient and gently stir until just combined.

Spoon mixture evenly among prepared muffin holes. Bake in oven for 15mins or until skewer comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Beat cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon juice until light and fluffy.
Spread to the top of each muffins and serve.

Mary's Homemade Pork and Fennel Sausage Rolls
18 rolls or 36 mini rolls

3 puff pastry sheets
1 carrot corsely grated
1 zucchini corsely grated
100g cheddar cheese
a few springs parsley chopped
1 sml onion chopped
2tbs tomato sauce
2tsp ground fennel
pinch of salt and pepper
2 eggs
500g pork sausages
sesame seeds

*made with Perry and Sandi's home-grown zucchini

Preheat oven to 180 C
Add cheese, parsley, onion, tomato sauce, one egg, fennel, salt and pepper to a large bowl and mix. Wring all water from the carrot and zucchini (this is an important step to prevent soggy sausage rolls). Add carrot and zucchini to the bowl.
Rip open sausage casings and squeeze the sausage meat into the mixture. Mix thoroughly and set aside.
Cut each sheet of pastry in half, to leave you with six rectangular strips of pastry.
Divide the sausage mixture evenly between the sheets and roll into a snake like shape.
Position each snake on one side of each piece of pastry.
Crack the remaining egg into a small bowl and gently wisk to break yolk. Paint the exposed pastry lightly with the egg mixture.
Gently fold the pastry over the mince to create a sausage roll, pressing the edges firmly with the back fork where the pastry meets. Brush the top of the sausage roll with remaining egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cut sausage rolls into desired portions. Place on a lightly greased oven try and bake for 25-30 mins until golden and cooked through. Serve with tomato sauce.

Hakka Yam Balls

Ingredients

600g cooked yam, mashed
300g tapioca flour
300g minced pork
100g dried pickled sweet radish, chopped
5 pieces dried shitake mushrooms, shredded
2 cloves garlic, chopped
75g dried shrimps wash, soaked and chopped
2 tbsp oil

Stir-fry sauce:
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
Dash of dark soy sauce
Dash of soy sauce
Dash of rice wine
Dash of pepper
100ml chicken stock
1 stalk spring onion, chopped
1 stalk coriander, chopped

Method

Combine mashed yam with tapioca flour and mix until breadcrumb stage. Add seasoning ingredients and mix well. Stir in 3 tbsp oil and 1 tbsp sesame oil and knead until yam dough is smooth.Form small round discs and make a dent in each one with your forefinger.

Cook them in boiling water, then dish out with a perforated ladle and steep in a basin of cold water for a few minutes. Dish up, drain and place on an oiled plate.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok, fry garlic and dried shrimp until fragrant. Add the rest of the ingredients and saute until aromatic. Stir in sauce ingredients and bring to a boil. Add the cooked yam discs. Cook for one to two minutes.

sliced mushrooms pre-soaked, dried shrimps pre-soaked, dried pickled sweet radish

Dish out and serve hot with spring oinons and coriander.

Beef with Garlic shoots in black bean sauce

Ingredients
300g sliced beef (pre-marinated in soya sauce and garlic for half an hour)
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 tablespoons of black bean and garlic paste
a splash of chinese rice wine
a pinch of sugar
a splash of water
1 bunch of garlic shoots, cut in 2 inches long
a small cup of corn flour solution with water as thicken agent

Method
Heat wok until smoking with some oil.
Add marinated beef and garlic and cook for 3 mins and set a side
Add garlic shoots and fry for 1 mins and add beef back to the wok.
Add rice wine, black bean paste, water and sugar and fry for 2 mins.
If needed add a plash of corn flour solution to thicken sauce.
Serve with rice.

Oven Baked Spring Rolls

Ingredients

100g minced chicken
100g minced pork
1 packet vermicelli noodles
4 spring onions, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 large carrot, peeled, grated
1 1/2 cups shredded cabbage
1 tablespoon of grated ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
20 frozen spring roll wrappers (21.5cm square), thawed
1 tablespoon of cornflour
oil, for baking
Sweet chilli sauce, to serve

Method
Preheat 200°C.
Stir-fry cabbage, carrot, noodles, minced meat and spring onions for 3 to 5 minutes. Add soy sauce and pepper. Transfer to a bowl. Set aside to cool.
Combine cornflour with 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl. Place 1 wrapper on a board with a corner pointing towards you. Brush edges with cornflour mixture (keep remaining wrappers covered with damp tea towel). Spoon 1 tablespoon filling mixture into corner of wrapper. Fold corner over filling then roll up from corner to corner, folding edges in to enclose filling.

*Irene had done a fantastic job with wrapping all rolls ^_^

Brush uncook rolls with oil and baked spring rolls for 25 minutes or until golden. Remove to a wire rack over a baking tray. Serve with sweet chilli sauce.

Back to Chinese Basic @ the Church Block

Next Sunday 7th June 2009
Starts at 6pm

starter
spring rolls

main
black pepper beef with snow peas
prawns and tofu with egg sauce
served with steamed rice

dessert
ice-cream with red bean paste and crushed roasted peanuts and black sesame

Simple Chicken N' Rice

First dinner @ the Church Block
Monday, 11 May 2009

Ingredients
(Serve 4)

For Chicken
1 kg x chicken tight fillet
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
2 tablespoons of sesame oil
2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce

Garnish:
½ cup of finely chopped spring onions
3 tablespoons of fried onions (optional)
½ cup of finely chopped coriander (optional)

For Rice
2 cups of rice
2 ½ cups of water
2 tablespoons of hainan chicken rice paste / stock / cube (you can get this from asian store)
If you don’t have the paste, please opt for the following:
2 ½ cups of chicken stock
4 cloves of garlic including skin (bruised)
1 inch of ginger (bruised)
2 tablespoons of sesame oil

Marinade chicken with all ingredients and let them sit for 30mins.
Then pan fry chicken fillet until cook. Let them rest for a few mins before slicing into bite size.
Cook rice with ingredients for about 15mins.
Served with Asian green vegetables or salad.