The story behind Jianbing

I enjoy looking at how food is being prepared.  Have you heard of Jianbing?  It is a popular street food for breakfast in China.  The first time I saw this pancake being made was at the wet market in Balakong (Batu 11, Cheras).  The vendor was a lady from China.  

It also has a very interesting story on how it was first made by soldiers fighting a war in Shandong Province 2,000 years ago.  Check out how it is made by a street vendor in China:

It is a very cheap breakfast meal, which is why in the Shandong Province, jianbing (aka the Chinese crepe) vendors are on almost every street corner.  So, if you plan on starting your own Jianbing store in Shandong Province, what can you do to beat the competition and draw customers to you?  From a free course I took, sponsored by eHomemakers; "Science of Product Innovation", one of the ways, is to make your product different from others.  

Check out the Jianbing created by these innovative vendors.

What will you wrap in Jianbing to localise the flavour?  That will make it different too.

I read from Woks of Life that instead of making the batter, I can use store bought frozen pancake.  The one that I can think of is this Paratha with Onion from Kawan that I often buy.  

Oil is not require to fry this Paratha but I will add a little oil to the pan since I usually cook it with an egg and cheese added.  Here are the steps:

-cook one side on a non stick frying pan till it is golden brown.
-turn it over and spread egg over it (you can scramble the egg if you want to). 
-turn it over again to cook the egg side.
-(optional) cut a slice of cheddar cheese in half and place in the middle of Paratha.
-once the egg is cooked enough, fold the sides up to cover the cheese.
-the heat will melt cheese.
-remove from pan to serve.

If I want to make it Jianbing style, I can add chopped scallions and cilantro and spiced it up with chillie sauce of my choice.  The one used at Woks of Life is spicy bean sauce.

I read from Reddit that the traditional Tianjin-style Jianbing’s made with pure mungbean.   These are the ingredients you need if you want to make their version:

Ingredients for the batter:

180g All purpose flour
60g Millet flour
or Fine Cornmeal
1 tsp Five spice powder
1 tsp Salt
420g Water

The toppings and sauce required for Jianbing are:

8 Eggs (2 per Jianbing)
Guobie (crispy fried dough)
or deep fry dumpling skins
Handful Cilantro or Green Onion
2 Tbsp Tianmianjiang Sweet Bean Paste with 2 Tbsp Sugar added 

Optional toppings for Jianbing:

3 Tbsp Chili Sauce
Lettuce
Meat (“王中王火腿肠” from the brand Shuanghui (双汇), spam, American hotdog)
Black Sesame Seeds  

Watch their video and you will also learn about the utensils you need to make it properly.

I think if I make, it I will use the batter recipe that I have shared earlier for making Onion Paratha:

Homemade Nougat Recipe

Nougat is a chewy confection I discovered during a holiday in Australia.  I like eating it because there are nuts in the candy.  

These are the ingredients required to make it:

100g Butter 

250g Marshmallow

250g Milk powder |  (4.3 cup/6.3 oz)

30g Raisins

40g Almonds 

40g Pistachios 

40g Dried cherries (cut into smaller bites)

Here are the steps:
-heat pan to melt the butter.
-add marshmallow to melt. 
-add milk powder to blend in till smooth.
-add the nuts and candied fruits into the mixture

-refrigerate for 4-5 hours.

I read from Meaningful Eats that classic nougat is not made with marshmallow.  

You start by melting in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat:

2 Cups Granulated Sugar

2 1/2 Cups White Corn Syrup

1/4 Tsp Salt

Beat on medium-high speed for 2 minutes until starting to thicken/foam:

1/3 Cup Egg Whites (from 3 large eggs)

Once syrup mixture comes to a boil, pour 1/3 of it with the egg white and continue mixing on low speed.  Continue heating the remaining syrup in the pot before adding to the egg white to mix on medium-high speed for 5 minutes.  With the mixer still running on low, stir in:

1 Tbsp Vanilla Extract

6 Tbsp Butter (room temperature and cut into small pieces)

2 tsp Flour 

Once the mixture is thoroughly blended in and has thicken, stir in:

1 Cup Salted Peanuts or nut of choice (optional)

Pour the mixture into a 9×13 pan lined with parchment paper and grease with non-stick cooking spray.  

Optional toppings for nougat:

-nuts or almonds

-melted chocolate
-peanut butter
-white chocolate chips

-mini marshmallows

Allow to cool overnight or for at least 4 hours.  Use a greased knife to slice into pieces.  Store in an airtight container between pieces of wax paper or parchment.

Put Chai Kou 杯子糕

 I am thinking of learning to make our own Put Chai Kou.  

These are the ingredients required:

I found a simpler version for making the same at Scarlet Lunar where rock sugar is used instead of palm sugar.

Mix and Match Dish with Potato

I wrote about my Mix and Match Dish earlier.  

I discovered recently that if I have leftover BBQ chicken...

...which I have reheated with my leftover bell pepper dish...

...I can enhance its flavour further by adding boiled potato which I have cut into small cubes.

Instead of boiling potato for this mix and match dish, I prefer to use those boiled in my ABC Soup.  

Airfry Puff Pastry Meals

 Do you like eating curry puffs?  This is the process for making them.

These are the ingredients required:

You can also make this snack when you have leftover chicken curry.  This is how I cook my curry chicken:

However, if I plan to make curry puff with it, I will cook it with extra potatoes and use chicken breast instead of drumsticks.  When it is time to make my curry puffs, I will remove the leftover potato and the chicken with a tong so that I can dice them up.  

Instead of making my own pastry dough, I use the puff pastry from Kawan.  

In one packet there are 10 square pieces.  As I have a stainless steel rack, I do not have any problem airfrying all 10 pieces in my airfryer.  Once the filling is enclosed, I fold the pastry in half and press the edges together with a fork.  They taste alright without the hard boiled egg added.  I will airfry them according to the setting for baking pastry of my airfryer.  .

I can bake this at night if I have to leave the house early the next morning.  The curry puffs can be kept in the fridge once they are cool enough.  They can be eaten for breakfast after heating them up in the airfryer for 3 to 4 minutes.

There are many ways to make snacks with puff pastry.  In this video you can see other kind of fillings you can use and ways you can fold the pastry to bake.

Airfry Peanut Butter Banana Brownies

I came across this simple brownie recipe on FaceBook:

Batter ingredients:

Add these:
-1 Tbsp Cocoa Powder
-1 Tbsp Peanut Butter
To mix in:
-1 banana (mashed)

Airfry the batter in a container at 160°C for 30 minutes.  Top the brownie with dark chocolate chips and a sprinkle of sea salt flakes.

Here is another way to bake it with similar ingredients: 

These are the ingredients required:

Easy Way to cook Chicken Breast

 I am not a fan of chicken breast but this looks like an interesting way to eat it.

These are the ingredients required to cook it:

These are the ingredients for the mashed potato dish: