3 minute cake

mug cake

It all started 2 months ago when I, as usual, was strolling though a
Chinese supermarket for fun. I found an intriguing box called 'Easy Cake' in the shape of a mini-size microwave oven, which claimed on the box to produce a lovely chocolate cake in the microwave in just 2,5 minutes. Of course I found it irrestistible and bought it right away. I took it home, much to the delight of my daughter. We made the cake a few weeks back. All it said on the package was to mix the ingredients with some milk, oil and a fresh egg, pop it in the microwave and then to see it rise. It was very exciting to see it go up, almost going over the plastic bowl provided, and then set. Indeed, after 2.5 minutes we had a chocolate-y, puddinglike cake which tasted surprisingly OK. Child's play.

In the back of my head the riddle kept coming bak what the ingredients were. Surely there couldn't be that many secret ingredients, could there? What did they put inside anyway? Then, quite unexpectedly, I found the recipe of a similar cake on the web. It wasn't called 'easy cake' but 'mug cake'. All over YouTube and other places I found movies of people making chocolate cakes in large coffee mugs, sometimes with self raising flour, sometimes with chocolate powder instead of cocoa, sometimes with extra chocolate chips or marshmellows added... They looked pretty much the same as the 'easy cake' from the Chinese store to me. So I tried the mug cake recipe - and it worked beautifully. Anyone can make a chocolate cake in 3 minutes flat!

For the 3 minute cake, you will need:
1 large mug (I used a 'soup mug' for this)
some oil to grease the mug with
3 tablespoons of cake flour or self-rising flour
3 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of milk
1 egg

Grease the mug. Then put in all dry ingredients and mix together. Add oil, milk and mix again. Finally, break the egg and stir it in until everything is a smooth batter. Put microwave on highest setting (mine was on 800 watt) and put the mug inside. Put it on a plate or something in case something goes wrong. Put the microwave on 3 minutes. After about 1.40 minutes the mixture will rise to the rim of the cup, then it will rise spectacularly above the rim, looking as if it might wobble and spill over any minute. If all goes well, it won't. Although high above the rim of the cup, it will set and cook.

After 3 minutes take out your mug (hot!) and spoon out the cake. Cut up in slices and eat with whipped cream. Of course you can bake a cake the traditional way in the oven and get probably better results. But there is something truly satisfying in knowing it takes as long to make a chocolate cake as it takes to brew a cup of coffee, so you can enjoy both of them at the same time. Or get this together for a last-minute dessert !

baozi

baozi by kattebelletje.

It is funny how lately my new food surprises don't come from a new cooking technique. I have been surprised by the excellent taste of mapo tofu that materialized; I have been surprised by the delicious flavour of the Chinese eggplant recipe; and yesterday I was shocked to find my homemade baozi (Chinese meat buns) tasted really great. Great as in “if I ordered this in a restaurant I would be happy and come back again” kind of way.

But the funny thing was this didn't have to do anything with my cooking techniques. The secret was all in the ingredients. For my mapo tofu recipe, I found adding a lot of oil to fry meat and chili sauce in, makes the difference between pretty OK and great; for the eggplant I found buying Chinese slender eggplants does the trick (so tender and not-bitter); and for the baozi (meat buns – white dough with a meat or vegetable filling, eaten as snack in China, called bapao in Dutch because of our Indonesia connection) using the right flour turned out to be vital. Without this flour, your buns might not get the right texture and you might end up with a food experiment: interesting, but just for once.

I bought an interesting package with a dark green Chinese paksoi cabbage on the front with a very white flour inside. On the package it said 'low gluten flour' in Chinese, but “Plain Flour” in English. The package explained it was suitable for Chinese style buns. So: I found a recipe in one of my older Chinese cookbooks and gave it a try. For the dough, you will need 300 grams of white flour (low gluten) and 120 grams of sugar. I thought this was a bit much on the sweet side (and I ran out of sugar) so I added about 70 grams. Then 2 tablespoons of lard, one tablespoon of baking powder and 250 mls of water. The dough became a bit sticky so I added a bit more flour, so in the end I am not sure if it was supposed to be supple like that. Cover with a wet towel and let sit for 10 minutes.

For the filling, you will need: 125 grams of ready charsiu meat (Chinese style cured pork); one tablespoon of soy; one tablespoon of sweet bean paste; one chopped clove of garlic and 2 small spring onions. Fry garlic and onions in some oil, add soy, sweet bean paste and meat; stir to combine. Thicken with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch diluted with some water. You will need a thick filling. Add some drops of sesame oil and some pepper. Don't add salt since the bean paste and meat are quite salty by themselves.

Cut the dough into 12 portions and shape into rounds. They might be sticky, flour your workspace. Then take a large tablespoon of filling and pleat the dough to close the baozi buns. It actually doesn't matter if they are closed tightly or not, because they will expand and be artistic and fluffy anyway. Shape them one by one – you will find you can make them quite quickly. Handle them gently, the low gluten content makes them tear easily. Put on a floured tray until ready to steam. Put in a bamboo steamer, lined with baking paper and steam for about 10 minutes until puffed up and ready to eat. They will have doubled in size and taste great! The dough is light and spongelike, like a cake, and has a slight sweet flavour. The filling is savory and delicious.

I never suspected the dough to have anything to do with the sweet flavour I tasted when having a baozi, so this was quite an eye opener for me. I always thought the sweetness was in the filling somehow. You could make this with minced meat or ckicken too, easily. Just fry it beforehand and add flavorings, then use cornstarch to thicken it up. Easy and tasty snack.

Vietnamese nem rolls

Vietnamese nem rolls by kattebelletje.

Flickr is such an amazing site. You can find pictures of almost everything. Have you ever traveled to somewhere special? Type in the place name and you'll probably find thousands of photos which look like the ones you made yourself! Then click some more. If you find pictures you like, click on the favorites of the person who made them. I always search for things people cook and eat. There are so many foodies there, it is amazing, and they have such excellent photography skills. How do they do it? Sushi chefs, pasta lovers, Dubai sweets clubs ... anything, anything anything. People who make a snapshot of their food, every day. Or photograph things they have in restaurants. All of it is there, you just have to go there and look!

Not too long ago I found an amazing collection of Vietnamese food through a friend of mine who works for the Medisch Comité Nederland-Vietnam. He himself made Vietnamese 'spring' or 'summer' rolls with a couple of Vietnamese friends (here), and it looked so tasty I had to try myself!

Basically, you make a filling for these Vietnamese nem and wrap it in a soft rice sheet. Then you dip it in a sauce for eating. You can have them fried or unfried, I did the fried version, but they did become a bit greasy (I am no expert) so next time I will have them plain I think. You can also use spring roll wrappers for frying.

For these rolls, you will need: 1 package of rice sheets from the oriental supermarket; glass noodles; a selection of vegetables like bean sprouts, carrot (in shreds), cabbage (in shreds); cooked shrimp, a tin of crab meat (if you like) and pork mince (if you like) and dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked). Start to soak the glass noodles : pour boiling water over them and let soak until soft (about 10 minutes). Soak your shiitake mushrooms in a separate bowl - you can use the same boiling water. Cut glass noodles into 4 cm sections, cut mushrooms into small dice. Shred your carrots and cabbage (if using), and mix all in a large bowl. Add 100 grams shrimp, 100 grams pork mince (I didn't have it this time) and crab meat (if using). Add shredded spring onions and 1 or 2 cloves of chopped garlic. Add one or 2 eggs to combine, and a splash of preferably Vietnamese fish sauce.

Soak the rice sheets in cold water and dry carefully on a towel. Add filling and roll up. Then fry in a pool of hot oil until crispy on all sides. Turn carefully as they might break - I guess the ready-made spring roll sheets might be a bit more robust.

Eat with gem lettuce leaves and a chili and lime dip, made with the juice of one lime, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic and 1 teaspoon of fresh chili in small rings. Stir 3 tablespoons of water and a splash of fish sauce into the dipping sauce. Delicious and addictive, you can have at least 4!