Airfried Crabsticks Round 2!

We just can't get enough of Airfried Crabsticks, they're so tasty and you can even eat it with rice!

So I did some experimenting, this time made one with Nestum Cereal and Curry Leaves, kind of like Cereal Prawn. The cereal didn't quite stick to the crabsticks, I don't know why eventhough I've put a spoonful of oil. I could smell the cereal and the curry leaves though so it was nice and fragrant. 

The other flavour was a Hot and Spicy Seaweed flavour. I used the Big Bang brand, ripped the sheets in small pieces and used a hand blender to crush them up, then added them to the shredded crabsticks. It's also important to add a spoonful of oil so that the seaweed will stick. You will get some seaweed dropping off in the airfryer but it's ok.  

After the seaweed has been mixed in.

Towards the end of cooking it's better to cover the crabsticks as they'll fly up into the coil as they dry up. Make sure you stir every few minutes.

 

Yummy Yummy! 

From reading the airfrying groups people mentioned apart from Dodo brand crabsticks, Li Chuan one also airfries well. So I gave it a go. Straight away as I was shredding the crabstick I realised I didn't like it. It just wouldn't unroll and shred into wide strips like Dodo does. Instead it was more like matchsticks size. The taste isn't that great either compared to Dodo one. But it does crisp up faster and I noticed that they don't curl either as they crisp up. So I guess it's a matter of personal choice, in future for me, I will stick to Dodo frozen one.

The extra brown one is Dodo Brand, the Lichuan one on the bottom you can see doesn't curl up.

Airfried Crab Sticks

Since Chinese New Year is just around the corner, the airfrying groups on facebook are filled with pictures of Airfried Crab Sticks made by different people.

I have tried it a couple of times before but always they wouldn't end up very crispy or the crispiness was uneven, meaning some would be brown and some would still be kind of white and chewy. Actually my little one prefers it chewy rather than crispy!

From trial and error, I realised I had been cooking it at too high of a temperature at 200C. I'm lazy and most times just keep the temperature at 200C. But now I realised that when you lower the temperature to 160-180 degrees, it slowly dries out the crabsticks giving you a more even crunch and colour. You do have to keep on opening every few minutes or so and stir the contents around to loosen them because they do stick together when you first put it in. I also think that adding a drop of oil to coat the crab sticks before you cook them helps in maintaining their crunch, so I added a drop of Coconut Oil, hey anyway it's an oil that's actually good for you!

This time I used Dodo Brand of Crabsticks, and really I must say, they are the best ones I've made so far (don't know if the brand made a difference). Perhaps I should make more and share around to the in laws (and suck up a little) :)

After finished cooking.

During Cooking. 

Potato Skins cooked in the Airfryer (Recipe)

Sometimes I make shapes with vegetables...in the hopes that it would mean little princess would eat it...or maybe I should say more of it. But when you make shapes (hello kitty, what nots) there's always wastage. And I hate wasting food. One day I suddenly realised I could turn them into airfried potato skins! And these were so good, and made them even better was a drizzle of truffle oil and a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese. Yum yum! Little Princess ate that whole portion there in the pic. It's not much, but it's a great start.

Before you airfry the skins, drizzle some olive oil over it and season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 10mins or less or until your desired doneness, and stir it or turn it over halfway through.

My version of Martabak Telor

Martabak Telor is a pretty fattening Indonesian snack that is sold on the streets. It's basically a pastry filled with minced meat and then fried in some oil till crispy and golden. A bit like the Indian Murtabak, whereby they put a filling like curry or sardines inside a prata. Our version tho is served with a sweet and sour dipping sauce with pickled cucumber/carrots,  rather than curry sauce.

I honestly don't know how that pastry is made but the way I make it at home - and also a healthier version - is by using ready made frozen spring roll skins. Simply mix some minced meat with some diced french beans (string beans), add some garlic, seasoning and 1-2 eggs depending on how much mixture you have. Then lay out your skin and spoon a generous amount of the mixture. To ensure a crispy exterior, I wrapped the whole thing in another piece of spring roll skin. This is also so the fillings don't ooze out. The mixture will actually seep through the first layer of spring roll skin so the next layer of skin will easily adhere to the first layer. Once you've done that, just heat up some oil in a skillet pan and pan fry them until crispy. You don't really need a lot of oil. Once golden and crispy, take them out and chop them into squares. To make the dipping sauce, mix sugar, rice vinegar and soy sauce with water till you get a sweet salty sour flavour.

Tip: If you have left over spring roll skin, wrap it tightly with cling wrap and refreeze for later use.

I've used minced pork

Gyozas (Post #2)

So after my last attempt of making Gyozas (which worked out beautifully), I made them again, this time by doing it the traditional way of pan frying them and then adding water to the pan rather than steaming them first. It came out to be more or less the same. they puffed up a little more than if they had been steamed first. So presentation wise, steaming is better because it keeps its original shape better. But at the end of the day, it's the crispy bottoms that mattered since gyozas are served upside down - or crispy bottom side up.

Look at how yummy and crispy these look!

Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls

Made this beautiful dish to bring over for the weekly family dinner. I don't think the in laws are used to eating something so 'out of the ordinary' (to them anyway), but I was glad to see my mil actually enjoying it and it goes to show that she's more adventurous than I give her credit for. My fil on the other hand who was having a cold kept on saying he didn't want to eat it cos it was 'cold'. He actually thought it came from the fridge. Kept on insisting it was cold even before he tried it. But at least he did try a bite. I think they weren't so used to eating Thai basil because of the strong flavour and fragrance. Mil seemed to enjoy it, but not so much sil. What's important is my darling hubby telling me that it was delicious and that's all I needed to hear :)

I bought the prawns at Pasar that morning and boiled it myself. It was soo good and sweet. The other fillings included marinated pork, thai basil leaves, vermicelli and curly lettuce. I cut the spring rolls in half so that it wouldn't be so daunting to everyone. This is a great dish for entertaining, cheap, easy and you can make the rolls and the dipping sauce it in advance!

Step by Step for beginners:

Prepa. ration:

1. Get your prawns and just drop them in boiling water till they change colour. Once they change colour, take them out and soak in cold water or just run the tap over them to stop them cooking and cool them down. Then peel the prawns and if you wish, half them so you can make them go a long way, meaning 1 roll will only use 1 prawn rather than 2. But if you're generous and u can't be bothered then just leave it whole.

2. Boil some water in another pan. While that's happening, wash your lettuce leaves (curly lettuce is prettier) and if using, thai basil leaves, spin dry or towel dry.

3. Get some rice vermicelli. If you use fresh ones then you only need to dunk them in some hot water. You can even use the same water you boiled your prawns in, this cuts a step and saves reboiling water. Fresh ones only need a few seconds, dried vermicelli will take a few minutes. Remove from the water and run tap water over it to stop it cooking and set aside.

4. Once the water in the other pan is boiled, turn off the heat and get your wrapper. Dunk it in the hot water while rotating it. You don't need to dunk it till soft, just till it's wet and lay it on a plate or cutting board. The water will actually absorb into the wrapper and soften it, that's why you don't have to dunk it till it's limp and soft.

5. Then get the prawns and lay them on the wrapper. Lay them down towards the other end of the wrapper away from you. If you've halved the prawns then make sure you put the stripes or orange side down. Then lay your lettuce leaves beside the prawns closer to you and put the basil leaves on top and some rice vermicelli. Then fold the sides towards the middle and then roll the skin away from you making sure it's tight and there you have it!

To make peanut dipping sauce, add equal amounts of peanut butter and hoisin sauce and mix well.

To make the vinegar dipping sauce, pound some garlic and chilli, transfer to a jar with a lid and add sugar, water, vinegar/lemon and fish sauce and shake till thoroughly mixed. Taste and adjust. 

Best Gyozas (made by me!)

I love Gyoza...Dumplings....Guo Tie....Potstickers...or whatever you want to call them. It's that little bundle of meat encased in a soft chewy skin with a crispy brown bottom. We used to make the skins ourselves. It's pretty simple, just flour, salt, and warm water kneaded till it forms a ball. But it's troublesome to roll it out yourself. So I've been buying the ready made ones - the ones that says Guo Tie skin. But I was never really satisfied with them because they were too big and too thin causing breakages in my gyozas and then once cooked it looked all wrinkly and unattractive. Till recently that is, when i found the Holy Grail of gyoza skin. They call it Taiwan Jiao Zi Pi or Taiwan Dumpling skin. These are soft and small and do not break easily. You don't even need to put water around the edges to seal it as it was soft and pliable enough to simply press the skin together. The best thing about these skins is they had just the right amount of chewiness and the bottoms stayed crisp for longer too.

Usually when making gyozas you'd put them in a pan and pour water into the pan, cover with lid and cook till there's no more water. Then take off the lid and pan fry till the bottoms become brown and crisp. But on our recent trip to Tokyo we saw that they actually steamed the gyozas first before pan frying. So that's what we did and it worked wonderfully. Next time I will try putting the water in the pan method with this new skin and see if it comes out the same.

Do u see the difference? The top on is the Taiwan skin.

Taiwan Skin

thin flimsy other dumpling skin

I love gyozas so much, I can really stuff myself with them. And surprisingly Caelyn loves them too. But of course she likes them cos of the chewy skin...but hey I'm not complaining cos I put a lot of wombok and chives in the meat mixture, so it's good for her.

Here's the 'recipe'. I don't have exact measurements as always.

Filling Ingredients:

Minced Pork
Grated ginger
Grated/minced garlic
Wombok shredded finely
Chives diced finely
Oyster Sauce
Sugar
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Dash of Chinese Cooking Wine
Dash of cornflour

Put the minced pork together with the ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, sugar, corn flour and seasoning in a big mixing bowl. Mix the mixture with your hand until it becomes slightly sticky. The reason  you mix it until it gets sticky is to make the meat more tender. In the past I never really did this and just mixed everything in with a fork, but it really does make a difference. Set aside for 15-30 minutes for the flavour to develop. Set it aside before you put the veges in because the veges will make your mixture watery and in turn cause your dumpling skins to go all soggy. Then add the vegetables you've chopped up and mix it some more with your hand until it's mixed in. You can even use a food processor to chop up the wombok. A lot of liquid might come out of the wombok, squeeze it out before you add it to the meat mixture. You can substitute with any veges really or leave them out altogether if you don't fancy veges. But if you don't put veges, your dumplings may be a bit dry, what you can do is add mashed up tofu to it which will help moisten the meat.

Serve with a dipping sauce of Black Vinegar mixed with fried garlic, Soy Sauce, Sesame oil and Chilli Sauce.

Check out this youtube video by Cooking with Dog for instructions http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8MBX-SXnmg

Home-made Kaya Toast

You know the Kaya Toasts you get at the coffeeshops here, instead of buttering the bread, they slice some butter and put it in the bread. I used to think it was a tad unpalatable, not to mention unhealthy, to be scoffing down so much butter. But after so many years here, you know what? I actually love it! Caelyn loves it too, Nevermind the health issue...for now...:p