HappyPearEats

I love hotcakes. Every now and then, I will crave for McDonald's hotcakes for breakfast. But do you know, it is actually very easy to make at home? I am not referring the premix one that you can get from the supermarket. What I mean is to make it at home from scratch! Yes, you can do it!!! Trust me, you do have most of the ingredients at home already, what you really need is your motivation!

The Japanese hotcakes gives you a thicker and fluffier hotcakes compares to the traditional one. Hope you enjoy! 

The mornings are still freezing cold here in the sunshine Brissy. Sometimes, I wish I don't need to go to work and stay in bed for the whole morning. Having said that, if I have some fresh bread coming out from the oven and waiting for me every morning, I am sure before my alarm goes off I have already out of my bed :D

Egg salad bun is something that I don't mind having everyday. Egg salad itself is nice, bake together with some flour and yeast which makes it like food falling down from heaven! I want to have one nooooow!!!

Let's make some bread! 

Happy Easter!!! Long weekend just started. Have you got any plan? As for myself, Mr. Pear and I decided to have a quiet holiday. Staying home with our lovely Cindy who just dug her first hole in our garden...+o+  We may consider to see the royal tomorrow~ Or going to Gold Coast to soak up the sun sounds like a good plan too. :D

Anyway, if you don't have a plan like me, maybe this is a good time for you to try baking some fresh bread for your family! This is one of those yummy bread that you should never miss.

In Hong Kong, no matter who you ask, almost 9 out of 10 people will tell you their favourite bread from the bakery is sausage bun. Of course, I am not an exception. Why? As for me, it is easy to eat, especially you are in a hurry to go to work or school. Also, it is inexpensive and the smell and taste of the sausage is just so divine.

Since I am so into making bread and Mr. Pear loves his sausages, I combined our desire into this little gorgeous bun. Sure, we are the happy pair! :D

If you haven't tried, I highly recommend you to buy one from the nearest Asian bakery or simply follow the recipe and make one.

This recipe is again from Veronica's Recipes. Just love her work! 

Early this year, our dear friend Nadyne came back from her six months business trip, so we decided to have meet up before she went on her next trip. Since two in our group have got kids, I thought meeting outside would be hard and we possibly won't have much time to catch up. Therefore, I was so brave to put my hand up and suggested to meet up for brunch at my place!

I have never cooked for seven adults plus three kids before. However, I do love being around with people. Well, it turned out not bad. Actually, I would say it was good! Considering, I have no experience at all :D So, that was a big proud moment for me when I put up the food on the table.

I always want to cook a nice breakfast / brunch to Mr. Pear and friends. This was the perfect time! A week before the brunch I tried to think about the menu and thought about if I could have enough time to prepare all the these that I wanted to cook. I was stressed, but a good one! I love the challenge! So, these were the dishes on the menu (clockwise):

• Chorizo & broccoli quiche
• Egg salad buns
• Pancakes with blueberry compote
• Curry chicken salad sandwiches

This is my first ever quiche from scratch. My first batch of the pastry was a disaster. I did not know what went wrong but the tart came out was ugly (but it still tasted good). So, I quickly did another batch and put it in the fridge and finished the rest in the next morning.

 The second batch was not looking great but it was so much better. I love the tart pastry, very crunchy! I will definitely make it again for weeknight dinner!

Have you attempted to make bread? I have made it ten thousand times, but none of them was success! Yes, it is depressing to be honest. I have come to the point giving up, as I just don't know what went wrong. All the bread I made were so hard to eat. Very unpleasant! -__-

Until I "met" Veronica, my bread making teacher on her blog "Veronica's Recipes", I was very reluctant to try making bread again. I just simply cannot afford the attack from failure.

In her blog, there are so many Asian bread/ bun recipes and it also has the step by step pictures, so you can follow better and know how your dough should look like in each stage. It's so helpful especially for the new bee like me.

Most of her recipes are using basic method which is mixing, kneading, initial proofing, resting, shaping, final proofing and baking. Yes, it is basic method even it has so many steps, but I guess this is the most direct way to make your bread dough. One thing you have to bare in mind, before you start to make bread, make sure you have plenty of time because it takes a very long time. However, it is very rewarding when the bread comes out from the oven. You can definitely taste the sweetness and love from each bite of the bread.

Ever since I have made my very first edible bread, I start to love making bread. Til today, I have made: this sweet corn & tuna bun, sausage bun (2 times), egg salad bun, pineapple bun and seaweed & pork floss bun. Exciting right? I start using tang zhong method for the last two buns. However, the results were not up to standard. They still tasted very nice, but I think the texture of the bread can be improved.

This is the first time, I kneaded the dough by hand... so it was a very good experience, even it is very tiring... Stay tuned for my bread making adventure. 

Happy Chinese New Year!! Oops... I think it is over soon! :P Anyway, how's your CNY so far? Mine, was good. Got a reunion dinner at in-laws, a little bit of fishing and I finally made this Chinese Radish Cake. I remembered mum used to make this and the New Year Cake (Niangao 年糕) every Chinese New Year . 

I missed those days.

Anyway, have you tried the Chinese Radish Cake before? This is my all time favourite whenever I go yum cha. They normally served as a pan fried dim sum. But lately, they are also served as a steamed dish which I find more original and healthy. Mum used to fry radish cake with XO sauce and it is yummmm~

This batch I made it a bit lumpy but the taste was great. According to my father-in-law, he said next time I can put a little bit more water, then it should turn out smoother :D Thank God that I have a father-in-law who can really cook! 

There are many different recipes in the internet world, this time I picked the one from Day Day Cook 日日煮. Yes, it is a Chinese site, but you can choose to read in English. Awesome right? I know! So now you can cook Asian food without any trouble! :)

  Zucchini Slice   

{ by Julie Goodwin }

 make 12 slices | prep 10 mins | cook 35 mins

[ Ingredients ]

2 zucchini, grated

1 large onion finely chopped

3 rashers bacon finely chopped

1 cup tasty cheese grated

1 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup of oil

5 eggs 

salt/ pepper

[ Method ]

Note: the below is for reference only, for a proper full version of the recipe, please click here and click photo to enlarge.