Baked Ice-Cream Cake - A Different Approach

Someone gave me a tub of ice-cream that I didn’t quite like. As I was taught as a kid not to waste food, I ran through my cookbooks and googled for recipes trying to find some use for the ice-cream. My eye caught on some key words and the idea of baking flashed through my mind.

I began to piece together a recipe which I thought doable; and so, here is an idiot-proof recipe to bake ice-cream into a lighter version of a pound cake. I loved the result, especially the fragrance that came from the red-bean ice-cream. If you have a sweet tooth, add another 20 g of sugar to the recipe below.

Baked Red Bean “Ice-Cream”

Ice-cream                    230 g, any flavours and liquefied

Self-raising flour          190 g

Method:

1.     Set oven to 180 degree C

2.     Sift flour.

3.     Stir ice-cream until completely melted.

4.     Add self-raising flour and mix well.

5.     Pour mixture into a cake mould and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.

6.     Test cake with a toothpick. If it comes out clean from the batter, remove the cake from the oven.

7.     Let the cake rest on a rack.

8.     Serve cake plain, or with a dollop of ice-cream.

Scholarly Moon Cakes

In the past, Hokkien moon cakes came in a box of 63 pieces; and they were called zhuang yuan bing or Scholarly Cakes for an interesting reason. During dynastic times in China, scholars sat for the Imperial Examination to fill administrative positions in the imperial court ranging from the most senior to the most minor. Likewise, the moon cakes in the box were arranged in groups of descending weight and size that corresponded to the actual number of positions in each imperial grade. The largest moon cake could weigh as much as 750 grams.

While anyone would baulk at the thought of wolfing down ¾ of a kilogram of sugared paste and pastry at one go, Hokkien moon cakes were actually made of savory minced meat and candied winter melon. But these moon cakes began to lose popularity after WW II, and their traditional savory fillings gave way to a sweet Teochew-influenced filling of red bean paste cooked in lard. Their appearance – that of a white moon -- remained.

The Tan Hock Seng Cake Shop on Telok Ayer Street was established some 63 years ago. Its current owner, Tan Boon Chai, continues to preserve and perpetuate the traditions of Hokkien-style pastry making, like his father and grandfather before him. The production of the moon cake involves painstaking labor. The dough is thoroughly mixed and kneaded until it turns pure white. The filling is a mix of candied winter melon, candied tangerine peel, melon seeds, sugar and lard. And before baking, additional sesame seeds are sprinkled at the base of the cake to give it a distinctive fragrance.

It is easy to distinguish the Hokkien moon cake: it is the one shaped in a white disc with a red “fu” stamped on it.

TAN HOCK SENG CAKE SHOP

86 Telok Ayer Street

Singapore 048469

Telephone: 65331798

Wing Beans – Adding Zing to Greens

I was introduced to wing beans late in life. I remember it pretty well – it was an office lunch, a potluck, and one of my Malay colleagues contributed an interesting Asian salad.  Its sauce was fairly typical: prawn paste (hei go), crushed peanut, assam juice, and chili sambal; quite similar to rojak. But the combination of greens was intriguing. There was turnip, pineapple, ginger flower, guava, snake fruit, and of course, wing beans.

Just like aragula, wing beans contribute a surprising, refreshing “green” taste, and a hint of bitterness. Wing beans basically add depths of sweetness and a hint of "rawness" to any veggy cocktail, and because of that, I fell in love with it. Nowadays I like wing beans however it’s done -- in salads or simply fried with belachan.

When a Hong Kong newspaper asked me for a Singapore recipe for their Singapore supplement, I contributed the one below without hesitation.

Wing Bean Salad

Wing bean                             1 cup

Long bean                              ½ cup, blanched in hot water

Cucumber                              ¼ cup, cubed

Red chili                                  2, sliced thickly

Onion                                      ½, sliced thickly

Garnishing:

Fried shallots                      2 tbsp   

Dried shrimps                     2 tbsp, soaked and deep fried

Coriander                             1 sprig, sliced

Salad Sauce (mixed thoroughly):

Sriracha                                  3 tbsp

Tomato                                  1 tbsp

Peanut oil                              ¼ cup

Calamansi juice                   1 tbsp

Sugar                                       ½ tbsp

Salt                                           ¼ tsp

White pepper                      ¼ tsp

Durian                                    3 seeds, deseeded

Calamansi                             2, juiced

Sugar                                      1/3 tbsp

Salt                                          a pinch

Method

1.              Assemble all ingredients in a mixing bowl.

2.              Pour salad sauce slowly and toss with the ingredients until it is sufficiently wet.

3.              Spoon the salad in a serving bowl and top with the garnishings.

Red Bean Soup – Sweet and Precious Dessert

In Cantonese homes, red bean soup is one of the most popular desserts at the dining table. The ingredients are simple: red bean, water, sugar, and dried tangerine peel. Here are some little known facts about red bean soup -- this simple dessert was listed in the Chinese medical “bible”, Ben Cao Gang Mu (本草纲目), as a remedy to “cool” the body and to detoxify it. It is also described in the ancient manual as an aid to eliminating water retention and preventing constipation.

Since the ingredients for this dessert are simple, for best results, use the best grade possible for each ingredient. I would normally pick red bean from Hokkaido, Japan, and cane sugar directly from Guangzhou, China. But the most important ingredient would be the dried tangerine peel.

There are various grades of peel available, with prices ranging from a few dollars to thousands of dollars per 50 grams, depending on origin and age. Dried tangerine peel is much treasured because it is believed that the older it is, the better its taste and aroma. In fact, tangerine peel is much like wine -- with age its color turns a beautiful dark golden brown, and its scent becomes robust, earthy and aromatic. The Cantonese believe it possesses medicinal value, and most Chinese medical doctors would prescribe it as part of a medicinal concoction for cough as it releases excessive phlegm in the lungs, and also as a means to improve digestion.

This dried tangerine peel is around 30 years old

The Cantonese on the mainland and in Hong Kong use tangerine peel often in their cooking, be it in savory dishes or sweet desserts. An effect the tangerine peel has on a dish is to purge away unpleasant smells and the taste of game meat.

These days, aged tangerine peel can be worth its weight in gold. The best are from Xinhui, a province in Guangzhou, but their existence is precarious. The expanse of orchards producing them has dwindled from 140 000 acres before the Cultural Revolution to about 700 acres in the early 90s. However, in recent years, the burgeoning demand for this ingredient has again motivated farmers to increase the area of plantations to around 2 000 acres.

When buying dried tangerine peel, always be mindful of where it came from. The most prized are those harvested in Xinhui, however the ones most commonly found in the market are from Guangxi, which are less robust in taste and fragrance.

When the peel is first harvested, it is set to dry for about three years before it is taken to the market. When storing dried tangerine peels, do not place them in airtight containers; instead allow them to “breathe” in a dry and cool environment, so that fermentation could continue to age the peel. Once a while, the peel should be taken out for sunning to get rid of fungus and bacteria.

Red Bean Dessert Soup with Dried Tangerine Peel

Red bean                     250 g, soaked 2 hours and drained

Water                           3 liters, preferably mineral water

Dried tangerine peel   5 g, soaked 30 mins, scrape off white pith

Rock sugar                   ¼ cup

Cane sugar                   4 tbsp

Method:

1.    Boil red bean, water and rock sugar vigorously for one hour.

2.    Scoop ¾ of the red bean and push through a fine sieve. Discard all bean skin and lumps. Return the sieved bean to the pot and simmer for one hour.

3.    Add dried tangerine peel and continue to simmer for another hour. The tangerine peel will start to disintegrate into the soup.

4.    Add cane sugar and stir well.

5.    Serve while it is hot.

Note: Groundnuts or lotus seeds are often added into this dessert for extra bite.