Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

For the longest time, I’ve wanted to make char siu bao.

These barbeque pork filled steamed buns are a Yum Cha (Dim Sum) staple, and one of my favourites as I was growing up. When I came across this recipe by Lydia Teh at Rasa Malaysia, I thought it looked promising. Turns out it’s more than that, it’s an absolute cracker!

Follow Lydia’s directions carefully, and you’ll turn out fluffy white buns that taste just like the ones they serve at Yum Cha. The only change I made was to increase the amount of char siu used – my sixteen bao used 350g of pork rather than 250g…

I found low gluten flour and wheat starch at the Tan Hung Long Supermarket in Flemington…

Each bao was shaped and placed on a small tart liner – squares of parchment paper would work equally as well…

This photo of my first attempt highlights a mistake I made – be sure to dissolve the baking powder well before adding it to the dough, to avoid a blotchy finish…

A few other tips:

• Use a rolling pin rather than flattening out the dough with your fingers – it results in a more even bun.

• Use scales to divide your dough and filling into sixteen portions before you start assembling.

• Adding a little vinegar to the steaming water really does seem to whiten the finished bao.

• Keep the steamed char siu bao covered until ready to serve – if exposed to the air for too long, they’ll harden and dry up.

This recipe is definitely a keeper! It should be quite easy to find the specialist flours needed at Asian grocers. And if you’re looking for a gluten-free version, my friend Becca the InTolerant Chef has one here!

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Completely by chance, I’ve been able to tweak my pulled pork recipe to produce a much more tender result!

I was roasting one of the pork necks we bought at Haverick Meats on Saturday, and was all set to roast it for four hours, when I realised that I had to leave the house to run an errand.

So I only gave the meat 35 minutes on 200C (fanforced), then dropped the temperature to 150C (with fan). As I wasn’t sure how long I was going to be out for, I added a lot more hot water to the pot (at least twice as much) to ensure that it didn’t dry out. When I got home two and half hours later, I checked on the meat. It was so incredibly tender that not only did it not require an extra hour of cooking, it took two of us to get it out of the pot, as it simply fell apart when we tried to lift it. I’m going to amend the original post now!

I could have shredded the pork with a spoon…

I packed two 300g boxes of pulled pork in the freezer, then turned the remainder into two trays of baked burritos – one for us, and one for the neighbours. The $19 pork neck stretched a long way!

Our baked burritos are a hodge podge – I fill soft tortillas with annato rice, refried beans, black beans, salsa, pulled pork and cheese, then roll them up and pack them snugly into a baking tray. These are then topped with more salsa, jalapeños and grated cheese, and baked until golden.

Small Man’s not a fan (so he had a huge plate of annato rice topped with pork, refried beans and cheese), but Big Boy absolutely adores these!

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I’m almost embarrassed to admit this but…even though I’m Chinese, I’d never made dumplings at home before. I was keen to try them though, as they’re a traditional Chinese New Year dish, so when this video appeared in my email feed, I was inspired to have a go…

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I followed the instructions for the filling provided in the video, but I bought wrappers rather than making my own. At just $1.69 for 32 pieces, these locally made ones were silky smooth to work with…

The ingredients list for the filling was quite long, and we made some substitutions based on what was available in our garden. Our dumplings were filled with:

• 400g free range pork mince
• bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• cornflour (cornstarch)
• fine sea salt
• sugar
• white pepper
• water
• dry sherry
• dark soy
• light soy
• sesame oil
• chopped bok choy
• minced garlic
• garlic chives
• baby perennial leeks

The ingredients were all combined in a large bowl and stirred together with a pair of chopsticks. Make sure you add enough water to give the mixture a soft, scoopable texture…

A little cornflour was mixed with water and used to moisten the perimeter of each wrapper before folding…

Pleating the skins takes a little practice. The video provides clear instructions, but I’d previously had a lesson from Carol’s son Nick, the Grand Poobah of dumpling shaping…

As I made the dumplings, Pete cooked them.

His tip for cooking the perfect potsticker is to slowly fry the dumplings in a little oil until the bottoms are very brown and the skins start to puff up (which means the filling is starting to boil and cook). Then add half a cup of water (it will sizzle like crazy) and cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid. The water will evaporate away in a minute or so, and the dumplings will be ready…

We made nearly sixty dumplings, and ate them all for dinner that night. We’ll definitely be making them again – the boys loved them!

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When I was a little girl, I used to read the Magic Faraway Tree stories by Enid Blyton. In the books, one of the characters (I can’t remember if it was Silky the fairy or Moonface) would often bake “pop biscuits”. These would go “pop” in the mouth when eaten, and as a child, I was fascinated with them.

I’d like to think that if pop biscuits actually existed, they might taste a bit like these amaretti. They’re supposed to be easy to make, but it’s taken me three attempts to get them right!

I started with a recipe from Alice Medrich’s Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts (which I bought as an e-book)…

Here are my first two attempts – maybe they’ll save you from making the same mistakes I did.

Initially, I tried to cheat and use almond meal rather than grinding blanched almonds. These tasted quite nice, but they were heavy and dense, and took ages to bake…

The second batch ended up very flat – which would have been great if I’d been making macarons. The egg whites need to be beaten until very stiff, and they weren’t for this batch, which resulted in the meringue spreading out as it baked…

Finally, success on the third attempt…

 I tweaked the original recipe a little, but I was very happy with the end result. They’re light, super crisp, and really do go “pop” in the mouth…

• 225g (8oz) blanched almonds (I used almond slivers)
• 225g (8oz) icing sugar mixture (confectioner’s sugar)
• pinch of fine sea salt
• 4 large (59g) free range egg whites
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• 110g (40z) caster (superfine) sugar

1. In a large food processor, blitz together the almonds, icing sugar and salt. Pulse until the almonds are well ground. Don’t be tempted to substitute almond meal here – it doesn’t work, but I have no idea why not.

2. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, using the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy, then gradually add the caster sugar until the mixture is thick and glossy. Continue beating until the whites are very stiff.

3. Gently pour the almond and icing sugar mixture over the top of the egg whites and, using a large metal spoon, carefully fold the dry ingredients in until just combined. Try to keep as much air in the egg whites as possible.

4. Preheat the oven to 150C with fan. Using two teaspoons, drop heaped teaspoonfuls of the meringue mixture onto parchment lined trays. This batter makes a large number of amaretti (I ended up with about 75).

5. Bake for 30 minutes, rotating the trays halfway through the baking time. The amaretti should puff up and turn a light brown. Turn the oven off, leave the oven door slightly ajar (I prop mine open with my leather welding gloves) and allow the cookies to cool in the oven (sometimes I leave them overnight). Once completely cool, store in an airtight container.

Allowing them to dry out completely in the oven ensures they’ll keep well for weeks…

One last suggestion – turn the four leftover egg yolks into microwave custard, and serve it with crushed amaretti for a perfectly simple, delicious dessert. My microwave custard recipe is all through this blog, but here it is again to save you searching for it…

• 2 cups (500ml) full-cream milk (I used UHT)
• 1 tsp homemade vanilla extract*
• 4 egg yolks (from 59g eggs)
• 1 Tbsp (4 tsps) cornflour (cornstarch)
• ¹/₃ cup (70g) caster (superfine) sugar*

* Instead of the extract and caster sugar, I often use vanilla sugar.

1. In a large pyrex mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, extract, cornflour and caster sugar until smooth.  Microwave on high for 2 minutes until hot (my microwave is 1100 watts).

2. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth.  Pour the egg yolks through a sieve into the bowl of heated milk, whisking constantly as it ribbons into the hot mixture to ensure it doesn’t curdle.

3. Heat the eggy milk in the microwave on high for 1 minute, then whisk.  Heat for another 30 seconds, then whisk again.  Continue heating in 30 seconds bursts, whisking well after each, until the custard has thickened to your liking. Use immediately, or refrigerate until needed, with a piece of clingfilm pressed to the surface to stop it skinning.

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