Monday, January 05, 2009

1st Weekend Of 2009

It was another busy weekend for me where I had spent most of my time in the kitchen. I have started baking my first batch of cookies for Chinese New Year. It’s the right timing to start now as CNY is approaching very soon, in about 3 weeks’ time only. As I am working the only time I can bake is during the weekends. I normally prefer to bake my own cookies for CNY, as they are cheaper, tastier and not too sweet. If I am following a particular recipe I always reduce the amount of sugar by 20gm – 30gm. In times like now, I am sure a lot more people will home baked their own cookies. It really saves you a great deal than buying them from shops. But the only thing is that you need to spend a lot of time doing it.

I already planned to bake 5 types of cookies this year. Hopefully, I will have enough time to bake all of them. During the weekends, I managed to do ‘kok chai’ (mini peanut puffs) and fry approximately 7kg of ‘ngaku’ (arrowhead chips) with the help of Sharlene's nanny.

I love to eat ‘kok chai’ make by Sharlene’s nanny. Every CNY I would look forward to her tasty and crusty 'kok chai'. I wanted so much to learn the way of doing it and finally I’ve got her to teach me how to do it last Saturday :)


Here's the mini peanut puffs ready for deep-frying. The pastry dough consists of plain flour, peanut oil and water only. It took me one whole hour to master the skill of pinching the sides (which resembles flower plait) to enclose the filling. Phew! really not an easy job but so glad I was able to acquire the technique and I am an expert now...haha. Besides doing this way, you can get a mould to save the hassle of pinching with hands.


And here is the filling for the puffs - combination of ground roasted peanuts, toasted sesame seeds and castor sugar.


All you need to do is to deep-fry the puffs in hot oil until the pastry turns golden in colour (like the pix above).


Dish out the puffs and drain them well on kitchen paper. Once they are completely cool store them in air-tight containers.


While we were busy making 'kok chai', hubby and sil went to Tesco for grocery shopping and they bought about 7kg of 'ngaku' (arrowhead) back. So on Sunday, we spent most of our time in the kitchen again to fry the 'ngaku'. Everyone in the house loves this snack to bits!

16 comments:

Jaanvi said...

Your kok chai looks so yummy... here we have a similar kind of sweet named "gujiya"...

Adrine said...

5 types of cookies..... you're really hardworking!

The "kok chai"s look really good.

slavemom said...

Sigh... y am I so lazy, even tho I hv a maid? :(

Mummy Gwen said...

Wow..you are so talented and hardworking in doing all this. Salute!

Kristie said...

wow looks yummy! is arrowhead like chestnut, or is it the same thing?

Fussy mum said...

Kristie: no, it is not chestnut. Arrowhead or 'ngaku' is only available once a year, during CNY. 'Ngaku' chips look something like potato chips and once you start crunching on it, you can't stop...haha.

Sarah's Daddy and Mommy said...

Woww....You are an expert in making biscuits! The kok chai looked so nice and you have done a good job in pinching the sides.
My grandma also very good in baking kok chai.

Ngaku...yes, all time favourite! But it needs alot of job in cutting and frying it.

JK said...

It's wonderful to be able to bake. I can't, don't know how to, lazy.....

Anonymous said...

Are you an expert in frying ngaku chips? I bought 2 kg from TESCO too and I fried it but hor .... why ah the side turned brown so fast.

Fussy mum said...

Suesue: I am definitely not an expert la. From my experience, I think the reason for browning at the side is because of the oil heat. Your oil must be too hot already. The level of heat is very important. Throw in ngaku when the oil is hot (big fire) and try to lower the fire once the ngaku is slightly firm and slowly deep fry them until cook. Try this and hope there won't be any brown ring at the side. :)

2xMum said...

Wow... 5 types of cookies! I don't think I could even make one type... sigh!

By the way, where to get peanut oil?

I've not seen or tasted the ngaku before. I also thought it's kinda like the water chestnuts :P

Fussy mum said...

Doreen: For peanut oil I used 'Knife' brand. 'Red Eagle' is also another type of peanut oil.

Ngaku can be seen everywhere now (both supermarket and wet market). Go get some and try, it is really tasty. :)

Health Freak Mommy said...

I love the ngar koo chips too.... lotus roots chips too. You're so hardworking. I'll just buy them, really no time to do my own.

2xMum said...

Ohh... use that type of cooking oil. I thought got special type of peanut oil specially for making this... silly me :P

Hmm... I'll try to look out for it in the supermarket next time.

Irene said...

keng lar you!

9uArdiaN StaRz said...

hello hello my dear sister...pls rmb to bring all the cookies down for me ya during CNY...esp "ngaku" ok cos ur dearest mum got no time to fry for me...so sad!! sobsob...

*u know la, we busy packing ok! hehe...

Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin