~: January 2010

Sunday, January 31, 2010

La Gourmet Thermal Wonder Cooker

I have been eyeing to own a Thermal Wonder Cooker. Saw one demo in the wet market which is made locally. Cost about S$200+, think is on the high side.

Come across this promotion at Robinson under La Gourmet brand. Buy one 7L La Gourmet Thermal Wonder Cooker, get one 1.5L Thermal Wonder Cooker free at S$129.00. A great deal for me.

1.5L Thermal Wonder Cooker

7L Thermal Wonder Cooker

1.5 L Thermal Wonder Cooker (available in this green or the above light brown col)

What so special about this cooker ?

It reduce cooking time

It save gas, energy or electricity

It is convenience

It is hassle free

How ?

Simply cook soup, stew the normal way for 20 - 30 mins. Remove from stove and place the inner pot into the thermal wonder cooker. Leave it to cook w/o any power connection. Food stay hot, soft and tender after 7 - 8 hours. So if you're on the go, you may just carry it along with you while you on the road and your food is still cooking in the wonder cooker. Cool meh !

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Seaman's Scarf Knitting Pattern

Yin Yin's Auntie daughter-in-law have left behind 6 - 8 rolls of brand new wool after she headed back to HK.

She gives these wool materials to me. With that I start to look for suitable design and think knitting a scarf will be the right choice.

This is the website that I obtain the pattern. I did some modification to the no of sts for width and length differential.

http://knittingonthenet.com/patterns/scarfseaman.htm

Seaman's Scarf Knitting Pattern
Designed by Knit Picks Design Team
Ribbing around the neck hugs the scarf close, keeping the cold wind out. This makes an exceptionally warm scarf.

Instructions

Loosely CO 64 sts using cable cast on.
Knit 4 rows in garter stitch.

Establish cable base with 3 stitch garter stitch border:
Row 1 (RS): Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, K2, *P2, K6; rep from *, ending P2, K3
Row 2: Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, K2, *K2, P2; rep from *, ending K5
Repeat Rows 1 and 2 three more times.

8 Row Cable Sequence with 3 stitch garter stitch border:
Row 1 of Cable Sequence (RS): Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, K2, *P2, slip next 6 stitches off left needle, use left needle to pick up the 2 far right stitches leaving the other four stitches in the front, use the right needle to place the middle 2 stitches on the left needle, finally use the right needle to place the far left 2 stitches onto the left needle, k6; rep from *, ending P2, K3.
Row 2 of Cable Sequence: Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, K2, *K2, P2; rep from *, ending K5
Row 3 (RS): Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, K2 *P2, K6; rep from *, ending P2, K3
Row 4: Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, K2, *K2, P2; rep from *, ending K5
Repeat Rows 3 and 4 two more times.
Repeat Cable Sequence 10 times ending with Row 1, preparing to flow into neck ribbing.

Neck Ribbing:
Row 1 (WS after Row 1 of Cable Sequence): Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, *P2, K2; rep from *, ending P2, K1
Row 2: Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, *K2, P2; rep from *, ending K3.
Repeat these two ribbing rows until ribbing rows measure to desire length. End by purling across last row (WS row).

8 Row Cable Sequence with 3 stitch garter stitch border:
Row 1 of Cable Sequence (RS): Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, K2, *P2, slip next 6 stitches off left needle, use left needle to pick up the 2 far right stitches leaving the other four stitches in the front, use the right needle to place the middle 2 stitches on the left needle, finally use the right needle to place the far left 2 stitches onto the left needle, k6; rep from *, ending P2, K3.
Row 2 of Cable Sequence: Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, K2, *K2, P2; rep from *, ending K5
Row 3 (RS): Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, K2 *P2, K6; rep from *, ending P2, K3
Row 4: Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, K2, *K2, P2; rep from *, ending K5
Repeat Rows 3 and 4 two more times.
Repeat Cable Sequence 10 times ending with Row 1

Row 1 (RS): Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, K2, *P2, K6; rep from *, ending P2, K3
Row 2: Slip 1 as if to purl with yarn in front, K2, *K2, P2; rep from *, ending K5
Repeat Rows 1 and 2 three more times.

Bind off

Here's the finishing scarf

English-Chinese Flour Glossary

1) Low-protein flour/ cake flour
低筋麵粉 [Chinese]
Hakurikiko 薄力粉 [Japanese]
Notes: wheat flour, 6-8% protein
Cake Flour is a superb quality, soft-as-silk flour. It has excellent tolerance to a high amount of butter and sugar, resulting in cakes of good volume. This flour is best used for baking sponge cakes and very rich cakes like pound cakes.

2) Medium-protein flour/ all-purpose flour
中筋麵粉 [Chinese]
Notes: wheat flour, 10-12% protein
Plain Flour is an all-purpose flour, best used for making cakes, pancakes, pastries, batter and as a thickener. This flour is also ideal for Oriental specialities like Chinese dumpling (bao), Chinese dough fritters (yu tiao) and roti prata.

3) High-protein flour/ bread flour
高筋麵粉 [Chinese]
Notes: wheat flour, 13%-14% protein
Bread Flour is a high-protein flour, ideal for making all varieties of bread, buns

4) Self-Raising Flour
Self-Raising Flour is a premium quality flour blended with the right amount of leavening agents. It is best suited for baking cakes, hot cakes such as American pancakes and cookies. It is also excellent as a batter for frying chicken, fish, prawns and banana fritters.
1 cup self-raising flour = 1 cup cake flour + 1 tsp baking powder + pinch of salt

5) Superlite / Hong Kong Flour
Superlite is a super soft flour. It is best used for making Hong Kong type steamed buns (bao), Japanese castella cake, Malay sponge cake (kueh baulu) and others where a specially soft and light texture is required.

6) Top Flour
Top Flour is an extra-fine quality flour to give exceptionally smooth and fine texture for your baking needs. It is especially ideal for baking very fine cakes; such as chiffon cakes, swiss rolls, crepes, cake doughnuts and butter cookies

7) Wheat starch
澄麵粉 [Cant.] tung mein fun
澄粉 [Mand.] deng4 fen3
Suitable for making chinese dim sum like prawn dumpling (ha kau), nian gao and turnip cake

8) Glutinous rice flour/ sweet rice flour
糯米粉 [Chinese]
Shiratamako 白玉粉 [Japanese]
It becomes thick when mixed with water and heated. Chinese dim sum and local desserts made from glutinous flour are smooth and shiny.
Notes: Cooked, or dry-fried, glutinous rice flour is sold as a different product called 熟糯米粉／糕粉 gao fun [Cant.]. According to Kuali.com, “You can dry-fry glutinous rice flour yourself but it will not be as fine as the commercialised kao fun. Those that are imported from China are very fine. Try looking for this item in provision shops around your area.”Cooked glutinous flour used for making Snow Skin - Ping Pei (chilled) mooncakes and banana rolls

9) Rice flour
粘米粉／黏米粉／在來米粉／在萊米粉／再來米粉 [Chinese]
Jyoshinko　上新粉 [Japanese]
Used frequently in chinese dim sum like turnip cake and yam cake, and local desserts like kuih lapis and kuih talam.

10) Corn flour/ cornstarch
生粉 [Cant.]
粟粉／粟米粉／玉米粉／玉米澱粉
Corn flour is very useful for gluten-free quick breads. As a thickener, having double the thickening properties of regular flour. It is widely used for thickening sauces, gravies, and puddings

11) Water chestnut flour
馬蹄粉 [Chinese]
Its best uses are similar to those for corn-starch, e.g., as a thickener and breading material. It is mixed with a small amount of water before being added to the hot mixture to be thickened.

12) Tapioca flour
樹薯粉／木薯粉／茨粉／(菱粉／泰國生粉／太白粉／地瓜粉)
Consumed as a vegetable, or used in bread baking or as a thickening agent in liquid foods, custards, puddings etc. When cooked, tapioca swells into a pale, translucent jelly.
Malaysians use this flour frequently in kuih making, e.g. kuih bangkit, kuih bongkong and onde-onde.

13) Potato flour
生粉／太白粉
Katakuriko 片栗粉
Gives smooth and transparent result when used as thickener in soups or sauces. Sauces thickened with potato starch turns thinner after cooling.

14) Sweet Potato flour
番茨粉
蕃薯粉 fan1 shu3 fen3
地瓜粉 di4 gua1 fen3
Normally used as thickener and in making of chinese dim sum.
Gives crispy skin when used as coating of fried food.

15) Soya bean flour (toasted)
Kinako きな粉
Soy flour turns up in an amazing array of food products, including fudge and other candies, pies, doughnuts, cakes and rolls, pasta, pancake mixes and frozen desserts. Some meat loaves and other prepared meat products use soy flour. Baked products containing soy flour tend to brown more quickly, so it may be necessary to shorten baking time or lower the temperature just slightly.

16) Sago flour
沙谷粉
Used as thickener or Kueh Bangkit

17) Arrowroot flour
葛粉
Kuzuko葛粉
Used in diets requiring bland, low-salt, and low-protein foods. It is, however, mostly used as a thickening agent for sauces, fruit pie fillings, glazes, puddings, but can also be used as a flour substitute mixed with rice flour for gluten-free baking.

18) Mugwort flour
Yomogiko 蓬粉
A flour used in making in sai biang, molded steamed cakes served in celebration of certain Chinese festivals.

19) Hoen Kwe flour, Green bean flour, Mung bean flour
Commonly used in making Malaysian kuihs (like pandan layer cake, cendol) and Indonesian desserts.

Baker's percentage

As long as you're making the same bread, no matter how much you want to bake, you may easily calculate the amount of each ingredient with baker's percentage method. To determine the baker's percentage, the weight of flour is always set at 100%. All ingredients are measured by their weight in relation to that of flour. The total must add up to over 100%.

Example :

Calculate the baker's percentage according to the amount listed in a recipe.
Baker's percentage = (weight of a certain ingredient / weight of flour) x 100

Flour - 1000 g (100%)
Sugar - 30 g (30/1000 x 100) = 3%
Egg - 200 g ( 200 / 1000 x 100) = 20%
Sea Salt - 10 g (10/1000 x 100) = 1%
Yeast - 30 g (30/1000 x 100) = 3%

Based on the above percentage and re-compute the weight of each ingredients.

~

Sunday, January 31, 2010

La Gourmet Thermal Wonder Cooker

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Seaman's Scarf Knitting Pattern

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