Cake for my lil helper

I have been reading a book for my lil girl during her bedtime. It was her favorite book. A simple story about a lil bunny visiting her grandma, and they make cupcake together. The grandma bunny doesn’t mind that lil bunny get all covered in sticky pink frosting. When come to this part of the story, my lil girl has a lot of questions to ask…

“Mommy, what the lil bunny doing?”
“Mommy, lil bunny sitting on the table?”
“Mommy, lil bunny eating the pink frosting?”
“Mommy, lil bunny is dirty?”
“Mommy, lil bunny is happy?”

So, I wanted to allow her to experience this for herself, eating the cake frosting on the table, getting all sticky and dirty.

Here’s is the chocolate sponge cake with chocolate frosting. The cake is not the most important thing, but the process.

cakeday01

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This is what my lil helper gets to do in the process…

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And this is the end result…

cakeday_helper

One happy sticky lil helper. And a mommy with lotsa cleaning to do 🙂

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I loved you at your darkest

Recently, I am having lotsa moment that I need the extra “GRACE” from Him.

I am not kind when I am disappointed
I don’t smile when I am tired
I am angry when I am rejected
I get sick when I am blamed
I persecute myself when I regret

I am not the me I want to be. I reject this me…the darker side of me. The sinful side of me.

Then, I found this verse…

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

And it also written this way…

I loved you at your darkest.
Romans 5:8

It is very comforting to know that God love me even when I am a sinner, or I am at my darkest. I am not perfect and goody nice sweet lady next door angel all the time. It is not my excuse but is just a natural part of every human being, living a journey call life.

I do hope and pray, this darkest part of me can be minimize as much as possible. So, I created this quote art for this purposes. Not to allow myself to drift into darkness, but I allow myself to come out from it quickly before I got suck into it.


Romans 5:8

How to make Gyoza (Fried Dumpling)

I love gyoza. My lil girl love gyoza. JP love gyoza too. It is a snack that is both comforting and filling to the tummy. We often pay RM10 for 4 pieces of gyoza to be share among 3 of us. It is nice but we never have enough. My Hungarian friend has been asking me to share with her some Chinese dishes and I think this will be a good dish. So, I decided I should try it from home.

gyoza_servehot

Here’s the list of ingredient I used

Mince Pork – 500 gsm
Shitake Mushroom – 4 pieces
Spring Onion – 3 stalks
Red Carrot – 1 medium size
Dumpling Skin (Ready Pack) – 1 Pack

gyoza_ingredient

Marination:
Lite Soy Source – 6 Table spoon
Sesame Source – 1 teaspoon
White Pepper – 1 table spoon
Chinese Rice Wine (Chao Xing) – 1 tablespoon
Corn Flour – 4 table spoon

gyoze_marinate

Here’s my simple steps. Add in 6 tablespoon of lite soya source, 1 table spoon of Chinese Rice wine, 1 tea spoon of sesame oil, 1 table spoon of white pepper. Picture below are the Chinese Rice wine I used.

 

gyoza_ricewine

Then, mix well. Do taste the meat if is salty enough. The mixture to be a little salty because we need to add other fresh ingredient to balance the overall taste. Then, put in 4 table spoon of corn flour to marry all the mixture together. Corn flour also make the meat more tender.

gyoza_cornflour

I cut my Shitake mushroom and soak them inside hot water to reduce the wood taste. While soaking the mushroom, I shred the carrot and cut the spring onion finely. Last, I cut the Shitake mushroom to same small size.

gyoza_cut

I mix all the vegetable into the marinated pork and mix well. You can also use other ingredient like leek, corn, garlic, onion, ginger, jiuchai and etc. Just cut the ingredient finely before mixing. Beside, do not mix more then 3 types of  ingredient. The taste will be too overwhelming. It should be in the ratio of  5 Meat: 1 vege: 1 vege: 1 vege. Garlic and ginger need to use in moderation unless you love the sharp taste.

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I have my dumpling mixture ready and my packet of dumpling skin I bought from local supermarket.

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Place the dumpling skin on a dry surface, take a tablespoon of the mixture and place it in the middle. Draw half circle with clean drinking water around the edge of the dumpling skin. Fold the dumpling to half and ensure the 2 side of the dumpling skin stick together.

gyoza_meatin

You can fold the skin in scallop shape to ensure the skin is close tied. Else, using your finger to press them together and ensure no hole in between. Meanwhile, put a pot of water to boil while you insert the mixture into the dumpling skin.

gyoza_folded

Now all your dumpling is done, throw the dumpling inside the boiling water, one by one. The dumpling will stay in shape if the wrapping is done well.

gyoza_hotboilwater

Depending on the size of your pot, be sure to leave enough room for the dumpling so they won’t stick to one another. Do feel free to use the scoop to help the dumpling. I throw in 8-12 dumpling into my medium size pot. When the dumpling is floating on top of the water, means they are ready!

gyoza_floated

Lift it up and directly transfer them into a frying pan which was heat up with 2 table spoon oil (medium fire). It is ok that your dumpling is still sticky and wet. The moisture will help the dumpling to coat with the oil in the pan well. If your frying pan not too heavy, do flip the dumpling by shaking the pan front and back. Else, add more oil and flip with your spatula often so they don’t stick to the pan, or one another.

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When the skin start to crisp up. Your dumpling is ready! 🙂

gyoza_readyfried

Eat with Black Vinegar. Enjoy! 🙂