Electric Lunch Box Recipe: Steamed Egg Custard

The instruction is obtained from the Empress Electric Lunch Box manual. Just in case you have lost the manual, you may refer to the below guide.

Steamed Egg Custard Recipe
1. Break the eggs into the plate and mix evenly.
2. Add proportionate amount of water and salt, and keep stirring in one direction until small bubbles appear in the mixture.

Amount	Water Volume for cooking (in th estainless steel container) ml	Water volume for steaming (in the main unit)	Time
2 eggs	150	200	12

It says in the manual to steam for 12 minutes. However I steam the eggs at the same time as I steam the rice for 30 minutes which does not affect the texture of the steam eggs =)

Electric Lunch Box recipe: How to cook hard boiled eggs

The recipe is obtained from the Empress Electric Lunch box manual.

There is an egg holder provided in the lunch box.

Amount	Water volume for steaming (in the main unit)	Time
5 eggs	200	25

Place the eggs in the egg holder and put in into the main unit

Cover with the upper lid and steam.

Electric Lunch Box Recipe: How to measure and cook rice

How to cook 1 serving/portion of rice by steaming in a kuali or electric lunch box

I took this from the instruction manual as I find the guide useful. I have tried using both the electric lunch box and the conventional kuali for steaming the rice for single/small portion which works for me! I find the method great as previously I had to use a Rice Cooker and their minimum cooking portion is intended for 2 person. Thus there will be times when there are leftover rice and I had to keep it in the fridge which could be troublesome and unhealthy.

With this method, I could cook rice for 1 person only.

Steps for steaming the rice using the Empress Electric Lunch Box.
1. Measure the rice in the measuring cup provided. I use mine from the Empress Electric Lunch box. The cup size measures 100gram of rice. Fill the rice to the RIM. Not lesser and not more.

2. Place the washed rice in the 1.2Lt stainless steel container and add water.

Below are the guide. I find that the 100gram rice is adequate for 1 person.

Rice (cup)s = grams	Water Volume for cooking (in th estainless steel container) ml	Water volume for steaming (in the main unit)	Time
100g	150	160	30
200g	270	180	40
300g	370	190	45
400g	440	200	60

3. Place 1.2Lt stainless steel container into the Main unit. Pour the water as per column 3 above and close the lid. Switch on the electric and cook as per timing provided in column 4 above.



Steps for steaming the rice using conventional steamer or kuali

Rice (cup)s = grams	Water Volume for cooking (in th estainless steel container) ml	Time
100g	150	30
200g	270	40
300g	370	45
400g	440	60

1. If cooking for 1 person, Follow the 100gram guide as per above chart with 150ml water and put it in a large bowl. I tested using stainless steel bowl and it works.
2. Put in your steamer and steam for 30min.

Electric lunch box recipe: Steam chicken recipe (fast, simple, time saving method for single portion serving)

Steam chicken recipe
The most common, simple and prepping in advance that I could think of is steam chicken. I would go to the market, buy a whole chicken, ask the butcher to cut into small pieces and de-skin if possible. When I get home, I would clean and remove any fat that is left.

Next I would put two small pieces/one medium size chicken into small containers. Pour the seasoning and ginger then freeze. When I need to pack my lunch, I would just put the container into my lunch box and go to work without further prepping.

This method involve some work during the initial prepping time but it's so much easy and time saving during packing the lunch box. I would prep during the weekend and by Sunday evening, my freezer would be pack with various small containers!

This recipe is also very convenient for prepping a quick lunch or dinner at home.

Below are my suggested recipe whereby it will taste fragrant and salty as I would omit heavy seasoning for vegetable when paired together.

If you are living alone with minimal seasoning on hand, you could even just season with salt and soya sauce. You may tweak as it is a versatile recipe.

Recipe in each container:
Hua tiao chew 2 tablespoon (or replace with brands chicken essence)
Soya sauce 1/2 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Ginger slices - to taste about 2 tsp
Red dates 2 pcs- slice into smaller pieces (optional)
Wolfberry seed 1 tsp (optional)

Steps
Put all the above into the container with chicken. Cover and freeze it. Pack with lunch box or steam it straight from the freezer by transferring to a small bowl and steam in your Kuali.

ZWILLING J.A. Henckels TWIN Signature 6-pc Knife Block Set unboxing

Finally my knife set has arrived after a very long wait from mysale.

So here goes the picture of the unboxing.

About the set:TWIN Signature is ZWILLING J.A. HENCKELS stamped line, offering sharpness to the aspiring cook. Precision stamped from one piece of ZWILLING Special Formula Steel. FRIODUR® ice-hardened blades guarantee optimal balance of hardness, toughness, and corrosion resistance. Hand sharpened and polished, laser controlled edge. The result; knives that start sharper and stay sharper longer. Ergonomic designed three rivet, full tang handle features a ZWILLING J.A. HENCKELS logo.

Box front - explain about the knife. It mention that knives are manufactured in Germany

Side of the box 1

Side of the box where there are description of the contet. Notice that it says knives are made in Germany, kitchen shears and block made in China and sharpening steel made in Taiwan

Let's unbox! What is inside?

content of box

10 hole knife block

My new toys unbox

It include a warranty card that says lifetime warranty

Instruction manual

I am so happy that I finally bought the knife set after many years of waiting! Btw an interesting fact is that the authorise dealer of zwilling offers free sharpening service! 

Red bean bread recipe

I got this recipe when I attended bread classes. The dough is called sweet bread and you could use it for various combination with hotdog, chicken floss, tuna and cheese.

Today I use it on the ready made red bean so that I could enjoy red bean bread. I found this nice and not too sweet red bean paste at Bake with Yen. On the package it also state that there is less sugar. It only cost rm6++ I will definitely purchase it again.

Hoy Kee Food Industries Sdn Bhd - Low sugar red bean paste. The company is located in Semenyih Selangor. I bought the paste in Bake With Yen.

I notice on the packaging of the Hoy Kee Food packaging, they also have the following paste flavors:
white lotus paste, white bean, pandan lotus paste, lotus paste and pandan bean paste.

For both the sweet bread and red bean I made some modification. I wanted to incorporate black sesame seed and wholemeal flour into the sweet bread dough. As for the red bean, I added toasted white sesame seed as I love the combination of both flavours.

Sweet bread recipe (Make about 18 pcs of bread)

Group A

1. Bread flour/high protein flour 400g

2. Sesame powder 50g (replace with point 1 if unavailable) 

3.Wholemeal flour 50g (replace with point 1 if unavailable)

4. Sugar 75g

6. Salt 5g

7. Yeast 15g

8. Cold water 125g

9. Ice 125g - purpose is to slow down the bread from rising to give you more time to shape the bread.

10. Bread improver 7.5g

Group B 

Melted butter 75g

Steps

-Mix A till the dough can be stretch a bit. This take some practice. Important is to mix at low speed using stand mixer. In between scrap and mix dough evenly. It took me about half an hour.

-Mix B into A. Also at low speed and careful not to overmix. The texture of the dough is soft and elastic. To test if it is ready, pinch a small amount of dough and stretch it to test for window pane test.

-divide the dough into 50g++ ball.

-Put in the red bean paste and shape to a bun/flower.
-Let the bread rest for 40 min. You may spray some water to help the bread rise intermittently.
-Bake in a 175 degree oven for 20min.

Divide the dough into 50gram each

Red bean paste
Ready made red bean paste 500g
Toasted sesame seed (optional) 20g

Just mix the paste and the seed. Divide into 18 portion/28g each.

You may end up using more of the red bean paste if you like more filling. If that is the case, I mix 100g of red bean with 4g of toasted sesame seed.

Shaping the bread
1. Flatten the dough. Put the red bean at the centre and roll into a ball.
2. Flatten the ball and put on the tray line with non stick parchment paper.
3. Use a knife to slit 5 line like a shape of a flower
4. Lift up the flower petal and twist two times. Twist all 5 petals.
5. Spray some water and decorate with some toasted sesame seed.

If you wanted a shortcut or you are press for time, you could always just stop at point 1, spray some water on the bun and decorate with sesame seed. As shaping 18 piece of bread does take up some of the prep time.

Shaping of the bread in progress.

Empress electric lunch box by cosway review and unboxing

I saw my Fren using the empress electric lunch box. She uses it because she is staying alone, renting a room and she make various dishes just with that 1 electric lunch box alone! To me it's a terrific idea. I went and bought the lunch box in a heartbeat since she is satisfied with the product.

The brand Empress is the cosway in house brand. I initially tried to search the product online but I could not locate an online website that sells it. I could only locate other OEM brand in lazada. I only realised that I could only buy from Cosway.

I bought it for rm108 during promo price. The promo I notice happen rather frequently and I was made to understand by my friends that the original price is around rm199. It also comes with a 1 year warranty

After using it, I find this appliance worth every penny as I uses it daily for my lunch in office. I cook from scratch by assembling my raw food in the respective container the night before, bring to work and steam! Off course you can choose to bring your leftovers and steam.

I love that I can prepare at least 3 dishes at one go, to eat my lunch piping hot and eat my lunch with fresh as oppose to overnight ingredients!

My other Frens who saw me using this in office, also went and buy either the same brand or oem from online website. I then get to compare the quality of oem product and empress. My friend bought oem type at rm70++. When compared the  material of the oem product are of lesser quality - metal bowls are thinner, it seems to take longer time to cook, the top tier does not conduct steam well so bottom are cook but the top part are not cook and the plug is not a malaysia plug. Which pretty much convince me that empress is good.

Hower the Empress product has its downside. When heated there is a bit of plastic smell. Further when u cook, the smell of food will emit which might be disturbing to others. I then comfort myself by covering the metal bowl with a normal small plate to minimise the water generated from the steam from dripping into my food during steaming.

Let see what's inside the electric lunch box

In the package it include 3 stainless steel plate, 2 cover, 1cup for measuring, egg holder with stick and instruction manual. 

This is a set. The big, small  plate and plastic cover. the small plate is stack in the big bowl. Plastic cover cannot be use during steamming. It is also not leak proof so be careful if you were to transport soup. It will leak out.

Medium size bowl with cover. Its suppose to be airtight however it is not airtight to me.

Empress electric lunch box. The diagram in a nutshell.

The instruction manual will also teach you how to cook the rice- 1cup of the plastic cup provided with 1and half cup water in the stainless steel bowl.

How to use
I use a normal drinking cup, fill up about 3/4 cup water, pour into the plastic main unit, stack the bowl like in the diagram.plug in and press the one touch button. I general use about 30 min to cook. The vege I will put it in at the last 5-7 min. Do note that when the water run out at the main unit, the cooker will auto shut down as per manual instruction.

If u do not want to use so many tiers, you can omit the middle tier altogether.

You may come to notice why I didn't post the photo of the plastic exterior. This is due to i have left the plastic exterior permanently in my office! So you can just refer to the diagram for an overview.