Hey, Is Christmas coming soon?

Salmon Teriyaki Lemon Pomegranate Cous Cous

I can't stop looking at this photo, especially the green and red which reminds me of Christmas. Christmas, what a wonderful occasion! A season of love, an unconditional love where God gave His one and only Son to us, to die on the cross for us. What greater love than this? Christmas is about Jesus!
When I first came across this picture from sugar and spice it was the color of this dish that attracted me. Not only it looks and tastes delicious, it is so fast to cook. I will make this dish for my salmon loving guests and for Chrismas lunch? Definitely!

Serves 4
Ingredients
4 pieces of salmon fillets
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp sake
1 tbsp brown sugar
4 cm root ginger, grated and squeezed to give 2 tsp juice
pinch of black pepper

Note: I used store bought Teriyaki marinade

Method

• Heat the grill to high. Mix together the marinade ingredients, put the salmon in a shallow dish and pour the marinade over. Leave for 20 minutes.
• Heat a little oil in a large frying pan and cook the salmon skin-side-down, for 4-5 minutes until the skin is crisp and the salmon almost cooked through. Spoon over a little leftover marinade and slide under a hot grill. Cook until the surface is glossy brown.

Ingredients for the Lemon Pomegranate Cous Cous
500g couscous
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon, juice only
500ml boiling chicken stock or water
1 tsp salt and black pepper
3 tbsp chopped mint or coriander
1 pomegranate, cut in half, seeds removed

Method

• Place the couscous in a bowl and add the olive oil and lemon juice, and mix well.
• Pour over the boiling stock or water and season with salt and pepper.
• Leave on one side to sit until all the liquid has been absorbed - about 5-10 minutes.
• Stir in the chopped herbs and add the pomegranate seeds.

Enjoy!

Powerlab Update

Thank and Praise the Lord 220 children have registered with Powerlab camp. We have to hold back another 30 over forms due to space constraint and also these children are worshipping from other churches. This is an outreach after all but we're still open and welcome all children from non Christian homes. Early bird registration is closed.
Jesus said in Mark 10:14 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.'

T I L L

TILL stands for Touch and Impact Little Lives. This is our class for new and aspiring Sunday school teachers. The class not only equips teachers to teach The Word truthfully and clearly, but effectively, so as to touch and make an impact on the little ones.
We have close to 80 children who attend Sunday school regularly and 20 teachers and helpers. There will be another 5 joining us and more teachers are urgently needed.
Jesus said  to his disciples in Matthew 9:37 'The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of harvest to send out his laborers into his harvest.'
We also played  a recruitment video after sermon.

Cupcakes

On my last post, I said that I will post the cupcake recipe. It is nothing new, but cake is very moist and delicious and is adapted from the famous Magnolia Bakery. The buttercream is adapted from Martha Stewart. I added nutella for flavoring.

Ingredients ( make 12 )

85g self raising flour
70g plain flour
113g unsalted butter
170g caster sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

• Preheat oven to 170C
• Line muffin tins with cupcake papers
• In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside
• In a large bowl, cream butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes, Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add in vanilla extract.
• Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and flour. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.
• Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3 full.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

When cake is cooled, use a knife to cut out a round in the centre of cake and fill a teaspoon of nutella.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream with Nutella frosting

2 egg white
1/4 cup sugar
180g unsalted butter,cubed
2 tablespoon nutella

Whisk egg white with 1/4 cup of sugar in a double boiler. Whisk until sugar dissolve and not grainy.Transfer to a mixer and whisk at high speed. When mixing bowl is cooled, Add in cut butter cubes and continue whisking to a cream consistency. Add the nutella and mix well.

swiss meringue buttercream with nutella

I made the cupcake toppers from free downloads.

Ice Cream In A Bag

I did an experiment of making ice cream in a bag. This is for the Sunday school Family Night on Friday. We usually include a fun and bonding activity for families to do. We had done cupcake decorating,face painting,egg painting,Chinese calligraphy, scroll making and other family friendly crafts and games.
After studying some youtube videos, I tried to make them at home. A lot of shaking is involved and this needs good muscle strength which I do not have. My daughter did the shaking for me. I used UHT milk because it is cheaper but it has no creamy taste of ice cream. I will use single cream on Friday night. The trick to make it frozen and stay stable like ice cream is to add lots of coarse salt onto the ice bag. This is what you need:

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup coarse salt
3 cups ice
1 quart size ziploc
1 gallon size ziploc

Place cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a bag. Remove excess air and zip the bag. In another bag, place ice cubes and salt and put the bag of  cream into the ice bag. Zip the ice bag and shake vigorously for 5 to 8 minutes. Remove and scoop out the ice cream.


Family Night
Just back from church after Family Night. What a fun night! We had a simple dinner of chicken rice and fried bean curd, catered from a nearby foodstall, Someone brought Japanese jellies for dessert.

After dinner, we continued the study of The Five Love Languages Of Children, We had covered the first love and that is Physcial Touch. Tonight we learnt about the second love, Words of Affirmation. A 10 minutes screenshot from a local movie was shown. This local movie is about communication problems between children and parents.We learnt parents must be able to encourage, to instil courage to the child, like learning to walk,swim, taking an exam or anything a child does. Just like words that we would also like to hear from Christ; 'Well done, faithful servant'.
Matthews 25;21.

We ended with the folding of origami hearts and every one was to write something encouraging to their loved ones.
The children were very excited by now because it is craft time next and they know they are making their own ice cream.

Add Cream and milk

Ice and Salt

Do the Shake

Yummy ice cream with oreo and rainbow toppings

Yum!

Love is in the air

Fatherly love

We ended with birthday cakes for those celebrating their birthday this month and next.

Vanilla cupcakes with Nutella Frosting

I will share the recipe in my next post

They Are Our Family Too

Green Tea chiffon  

I have planned to bake this and give to a church friend who has kindly given me a bottle of pickled vegetables. I did not do a good job of unmoulding and it looked so unpresentable that I decided not to give away. The recipe is from Okashi by Keiko Ishida. Due to my laziness to do less washing up, I did not separate ingredients and weigh individually. I just put a mixing bowl on a scale and add ingredients after each mixing and blending. I added too much oil after blending egg yolks and sugar together and there was no way I could remove the excess, but to increase the quantity. I doubled the recipe and because my oven is too small for 2 pans, the excess batter was baked in these rectangular cupcake cases.
The chiffon turned out so soft and fluffy and I love the colour and taste of green tea. It is very important to add good Japanese matcha powder. The cake was sliced and given to two other friends.

Dusted with snow powder

Ingredients

70g pastry flour
10g green tea powder
5 egg yolk
20g superfine sugar
70g water
60g canola oil

Meringue
180g egg whites
90g superfine sugar
10g rice flour or corn flour


Method

1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Sift flour and green tea powder twice. Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Add water and canola oil and blend together. Add flour and green tea powder mixture and mix until batter becomes sticky. Set aside.
3. Make meringue. Combine sugar and rice or corn flour. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add half of sugar and flour mixture and continue beating for a few minutes, then add remaining sugar and flour mixture and beat until egg whites are glossy, with stiff peaks.
4. Add one third of meringue into egg yolk mixture and fold in lightly, then add remaining meringue and fold to incorporate completely.
5. Pour batter into an ungreased 20 cm cake tube pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes. When cake is done, remove from oven and turn it over, leaving it to cool.
6. Once cake has cooled completely, carefully run a knife or spatula around the sides of the cake to loosen it before inverting onto a wire rack.

Optional
Green Tea Cream
250g whipping cream
7g green tea powder
11/2 tbsp superfine sugar

Combine ingredients in a clean bowl. Place bowl over another one filled with ice cubes and water. Using an electric mixer, whip cream on medium speed until stiff peaks form but cream is still smooth. Do not over-whip or the cream will become grainy and separate to form butter.

Cover chiffon cake with green tea cream using a spatula and a decorative turntable, and slice into even pieces before serving.



Family Night

This Friday is our Sunday school Family Night. Family Night is held once very 2 months. We invite families of our unchurched Sunday school children to church to bond with them and also to introduce the Word of God to them. I have 10 children in my Sunday school class and out of the 10, 2 are unchurched and from the neighborhood.  Some of these children have been with us since kindergarten and over the years we have invited their family to our church anniversary dinners, Christmas eve singing, Church family Day outings and Sunday school Family Night. We also visited them during Chinese New Year.
On our first Family Night last April, we read Psalm 23. Psalm 23 was chosen because it is one of the most popular Psalm and many of them have heard of it but do not know the meaning, especially the first verse'The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want'.
Family Night ususally starts off with dinner, catered and sometimes cooked by me and a few teachers, follows by devotion and a craft or game session. The night ends with birthday celebration of children having birthdays during the month and next.

Roll your sleeves

Pork and Fennel Roll

I borrowed this book Bourke Street Bakery and made this. I have not tried these rolls before nor have I been to the famous Bourke Street Bakery in Sydney. The last time I visited Sydney was some 20 over years ago on work trip. The fillings tasted a bit like the Chinese version of ngoh hiang which has minced pork and prawns,chopped chestnut and five spice powder, wrapped in dry bean curd skin and deep fried.. I wonder if the original version taste much differently from mine. The pastry is store bought and I used Pampas ready to roll short puff pastry. You may want to make this yourself as these rolls make good tea time treats.

Ingredients
30 ml extra virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
40g fennel seeds, finely chopped
4 thyme sprigs, leaves picked
150g brown onions, finely chopped
150g celery, finely chopped
150g carrots, finely chopped
1.2 kg lean minced pork
40g dry breadcrumbs
20g salt
15g white pepper
1 quantity puff pastry
egg wash for brushing
fennel seeds, for sprinkling

Method
1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the fennel seeds and thyme and stir together for 1 minute, or until aromatic. Add the onion and celery and cook for 5 minutes, or until the onion has softened.
3. Add the carrots and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring often, until the vegetables are mushy.
4. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
5. Put the pork mince into a large bowl and add the cooled vegetables, breadcrumbs,salt and white pepper.
6.Using your hands, mix the meat quite forcefully for 3 minutes to thoroughly combine.
7. At this stage it is best to roll up a little ball of the meat mixture and cook it in a hot frying pan for 2 minutes to check the flavour.
8. You may find it is too salty, however once the mix is encased in pastry the saltiness should even out,. But if you cannot taste the salt at all than you need to add a pinch or two more,
9/ Roll out the puff pastry into a rectangle, about 92x32 cm. Cut the pastry into six rectangles about 15x30 cm each.
10.Preheat the oven to 200C
11.Divide the filling mixture into six even-sized portions.
12.On a clean work surface, roll each portion out into a 30cm log with a 3cm diameter
13./Place each log lengthways in the centre of a pastry rectangle and brush one long edge with egg wash.
14.Firmly fold the pastry over, pressing to enclose the log tightly, leaving the ends open. Cut each roll into two even-sized pieces and place on baking trays lined with baking paper, seam side down.
15.Brush the top of each roll with egg wash and sprinkle with fennel seeds. Reduce the oven temperature to 190C and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until they are a golden brown roll of steaming oozing goodness.


Powerlab camp updates

The registration forms are streaming in and the need for volunteers to sign up is urgent. We have only a quarter of volunteers now, and these are the regular faces who do so every year. God bless them, and I know they are richly blessed and rewarded by Him.