Merry Christmas Pancakes

Just want to say Merry Christmas to all the readers of Tasty Tales! We finally have a lovely white christmas this winter in Chicago :) 

We are also very excited this year because it's our baby boy's first christmas, also our first christmas as a FAMILY. Man, I really can't believe he's already so big now! 

That being said, our holiday plans became more limited. With the cold weather, we decided to stay home to spend a quiet and lazy Christmas. To add more festivity to the calmness, I made what I called "Christmas pancakes" for adults. This recipe uses a special pancake mix I bought from a local brunch place - M. Henry But any pancake mix will do. This recipe is definitely good for any lazy morning too!

Ingredients:

Egg 1

Pancake mix 1 cup

Canola oil/melted butter 2 tbsp

Vanilla extract 1/2 tsp 

Raisins 1/2 cup

Semi-sweet chocolate chips handful 

Contreau/rum 2 tbsp

Milk/soy milk 1/2 cup

Optional: spices (1/2 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg)

Steps:

1. Beat eggs, pancake mix, oil/butter, vanilla extract, milk, liquor in a mixing bowl until slightly combined. Don't overmix
2. Add raisins, spices and chocolate chips into batter. Gently mix until it becomes a thick mixture
3. Preheat pan in medium heat, brush butter/oil. Pour 1/3 cup of batter into pan and make a nice circle shape. Wait for 1-2 minutes or until small holes formed on the surface, then flip the pancake. It should rise slightly as the side is browning. Repeat step 3 until all batter is used up
4. Dust pancakes with powdered sugar or serve with butter and maple syrup. Enjoy!

Tips:
*To make fluffy and thick pancakes,  the batter needs to have a thich texture. Not too thick that it doesn't spread nicely on the pan, but not too runny that it slides out quickly. Add more liquid if the batter is too thick.
*Do not tap your pancakes when they are rising, it will make it flat.

Where to start?

FOREWORD:
Being kicked in the a** about how I abandoned here and I feel totally guilty that my friend, who is a new mom, is publishing even more than myself. I am so guilty. My redemption is to keep blogging as much as I can. The fact is that I did not give up cooking or baking and I still have pretty much to share.

I feel a bit skeptical that when I watch American dramas, people have chicken noodle soup when they get sick. Or you get your friends some chicken noodle soup when they get sick. But here in Hong Kong, we Chinese think you can't have chicken when you get sick, especially if you get a cold. I am not going to go through the theory inside but just yesterday I felt sick and I caught a cold. Then chicken noodle soup is all over my head. I googled. WOW WAIT! Too complicated for a sick person to do all the chopping and peeling. And then it was time the pins you have on Pinterest come handy. I came across this recipe and it is pretty similar with the chicken noodle soup. But without all the chopping and it is a one-pot-to-the-end-so-you-have-less-washing-up kind of way to treat your cold or anything.

People call it Italian Wonderpot because you literally put EVERYTHING in the pot at the same time and just put on the stove. In no time, you have some nice pasta to comfort your half-deadly soul(it's still a very nice dish for everyday). I just cooked it my way and the ingredients can be replaced with anything you can think of and the quantity is rather casual. Try anything you like and sky is the limit!  Get your aprons on folks!

Italian Wonderpot
(Serves 2)

While it was cooking...

Ingredients:
Half an onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 can of chopped tomato
1 handful of chopped spinach
1 handful of mushrooms
Any pasta (portion for 2)
500ml chicken stock
Black pepper
Dried parsley flakes

1) In a large pot, put everything in and make sure the chicken stock slightly covers the pasta. If you don't want the spinach to be overcooked, leave it in this step and add it right before you turn off the heat.
2) Bring to boil and turn to medium heat, give it a nice stir occasionally.
3) You can see all the stock and juices are being absorbed by the pasta and usually it needs to be cooked for about 7-8 minutes with this portion.
4) Serve hot and enjoy.

*The starch in the pasta thickens the sauce and eventually makes a very nice sauce for the pasta.
*Personally I like to sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top. Oooh-lala!

Japanese Sweet Potate Chiffon Cake

Japanese sweet potato is one of my favorite winter snacks. There's countless possibilities with this sweet veggie, you can caramelize, bake, boil, mash, anything!
Today I tried to use sweet potato puree to add to my all time favorite cake recipe - chiffon cake.
The recipe calls for a 12 cm chiffon cake mold.

Ingredients:
Egg whites 180g (~6 large eggs)
sugar 90g
corn starch 10g

Egg yolks 70g (~4 large eggs)
water 80g
canola oil 70g
mashed sweet potato 100g
all purpose flour 90g
caramelized sweet potato (diced) 150g

decoration
whipping cream 200g
sugar 18g
contreau/rum 1 tbsp
caramelized sweet potato optional

Steps:

1. Preheat oven 320 F (160 C) 
2. Caramelized sweet potato: Cook sweet potato in 100g water, 40g sugar and 1 lemon zest until softened. Diced 150g and mashed the remaining for use. Add 1 tsp of rum to sweet potato if desire. 

1. Chill mixing bowl, whisk egg whites in low speed using electric mixer until bubble rises. Then mix in high speed. Add all sugar and whisk until soft peaks form. Add corn starch until peaks stiffen.
2. After stiff peaks are formed, slightly stir 3-4 times manually and test the consistency of the egg whites

1. Use a different mixing bowl, blend egg yolks, water, oil until smooth and thick. Add in smashed sweet potato, mix well.

1. Add all purpose flour, stir in the same direction until combined. Don't over mix.
2. Gently fold in diced sweet potato into the mixture. 
3. Put 1/3 of egg whites and mix into (5), gently stir and combine.
4. Then pour (6) into the remaining egg white mix, gently fold in the batter without breaking the bubbles from the egg whites.

1. Lightly pour batter into cake mold, gently tap the mold onto table to even out the surface. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown
2. Prepare cream by mixing whipping cream, liquor and sugar. 
3. After cake is ready, gently tap the mold on the table again, then flip mold upside down. Place the mold on table until completely cool. Remove the cake by cutting the cake along the edge, lift up the cake by supporting the detachable base. 

1. Cream the cake with cream and decorate with sweet potato as desired. Enjoy!

Tips:

1. The consistency of the egg whites is a major key to success. NEVER over mix or under mix. Make sure it stays in the bowl even you tilt it. That shows the whites are stiff enough to rise when baking
2. measure ingredients precisely to ensure the cake is not too moist or dense
3. Don't over heat the oven to speed up the process. If the cake is over-heated, it will sink down when it cools down
4. too much wet ingredients will also make the cake sinks