Soon Kueh

From young, I have always love eating kuehs. Koo chai kueh, peng kueh, soon kueh, you name it, I love it. Is it due to my dialect influence? Not sure though, but I do know I grew up eating lots of kuehs.

Drizzle sweet black sauce (and some sambal chilli if you have them) over the steamed hot soon kueh and enjoy!

My grandmother used to make the kuehs for us all and we have them for breakfast. Later stage my Mum learned the skills of kueh making and then made them.  Somehow, this is like a passing baton. Now I make kuehs too.

I was lazy gathering all different flours (rice flour, sago flour etc) for these soon kuehs , and so I took the easy way out - get a pack of ready mix soon kueh flour!

Maiden attempt in making soon kuehs and it turned out not too bad. Hubby tried and enjoyed it. Mum feedbacked that filling would taste better with dried mushrooms added, otherwise all is okay being a first try.  Practice makes perfect and I'll definitely make them again because Hubby and I love eating soon kuehs!

Soon Kueh

Soon Kueh skin
I used Skytime brand Soon Kueh flour (400g a pack)
Reserving about 30g to 50g of Soon Kueh flour for dusting
 Add adequate amount of boiling water to mix flour together (using a spatula or a pair of chopstick). Knead dough till pliable and smooth. Divide dough into 32g portions and roll them into balls.

To wrap, flatten and roll out each 32g ball dough into circular skin of about 2mm thick. Spoon 1 tbsp of filling onto centre of soon kueh skin and bring centre of soon kueh skin together, then press both sides of skin to seal gaps. Set on light greased pan. Repeat the same till skin or filling is used up.  Allow about 1 inch of space in between each soon kueh.

Put steamer to boil.  Before setting soon kueh to steam, brush top of kueh with oil. Put to steam for 10min on medium high heat.

Drizzle soon kueh with sweet dark sauce and chilli and serve.

To store, allow steamed soon kueh to cool completely then place into airtight containers and refrigerate (you can line baking paper in between to prevent sticking). If you are not able to consume it within 3 days, freeze soon kueh and re-steam it when needed.


Soon Kueh Fillings
(Recipe by Mrs Leong Yee Soo of Everyday Favourites) - I doubled the amount for fillings

455g jicama (bangkuang)
3 tbsp oil
1 tbsp minced garlic (I used 10 garlic)
1 tbsp yellow bean paste (taucheo) (I kept to just 1 tbsp with the doubled filling portion)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp MSG (Optional - I did not use this)
1/2 tsp salt
115ml water (I used the water from soaking dried shrimps, top up with tap water till the desired amount if not sufficient)
55g dried shrimps (rinsed, soaked, drained and roughly chopped)
170g prawn (Optional - I did not use this)
I added 1 tsp of pepper and 3 tbsp fried shallots to enhance the taste of the filling.


1. Peel and slice jicama into thin strips, immerse in water and drain.
2. Heat oil in a pan and fry garlic until light brown. Add yellow bean paste,sugar, MSG if using) and salt and fry for a moment.

3. Add the water, dried shrimps and prawns (if using) and bring to a boil.

4. Add the jicama, stir and cook over moderate heat until almost dry.  Stir in pepper and fried shallots till well mixed. Set aside to cool before use.

Espresso Choco Chip Mantou

Bad hazy periods like these have seriously affected me by quite abit. With an already not-too-good respiratory system, the nose just got worse with the ever increasing PSI. I cannot wait to get out of here for the fresh air man!!!

Now, bad weather not only cause me to have bad blocked nose, it has also dampened my mood to bake and cook! These steamed buns were a result of forced baking, but fortunately they still turned out well and fit for brekkie.

Wanna make them again when the weather and my mood gets better.

Espresso Choco Chip Mantou

5g Instant yeast
60g espresso, cooled (without sugar)
123g fresh milk
35g caster sugar
340g plain flour
5g butter (room temp)

3 tbsp unsweetened chocolate chips


1. Mix caster sugar with all of espresso and part of fresh milk to make 137g and stir well to dissolve sugar. Sprinkle instant yeast over remaining 46g of fresh milk and let it sit for about 2 minutes before stirring them to dissolve yeast. 
2. Sift plain flour. Place all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, Pour in the wet ingredients and mix well to form a rough dough. Knead dough till smooth and shiny.
3. Place kneaded dough in mixing bowl and cover with clingwrap to let proof for 10 minutes.
3. Do a quick knead on the dough to remove the air then using a rolling pin, roll out dough to form an even rectangular shape with even thickness of 0.5cm and 70cm in length.
4. Trim off sides of dough to get a nicer rectangular shape, sprinkle chocolate chips over rolled dough evenly and carefully roll up dough like rolling swiss roll. About 1cm at the end of the dough, brush on some water and gently press down dough to flatten it a little. 
5.  Using a sharp knife, slice rolled up dough into 10 equal pieces. (I got 9 pieces)
6. Place baking paper under dough and leave dough in steamer to proof for 20 minutes.

7. Steam mantou on medium high heat for 8 minutes. Make sure water is boiling before placing in mantou. Place lid cover sideway for about 1 minute. Remove steamer with lid covered slideways away from stove and let cool for further 2 minutes or so to cool - this is done to prevent mantou skin from crinkling up with the sudden temperature change. Serve warm!

To freeze - Allow mantou to cool and then place in ziplock bag, press out air, zip and freeze.

Cocoa Mantou

I love mantou.

Ever since I got myself a book on mantou and started making my own mantou, I said N-O No to supermarket frozen mantou. 

Knowing what goes into my food is very important to me these days. Not comfy with the idea of preservatives in my food and so I am a strong believer of almost all food homecooked, homemade and homebaked.

Got myself busy with these mantou and woo! I wished I had made more of them. They were so soft and fluffy with a tinge of cocoa fragrance in them. These fluffy little buns definitely ignited my mantou making flame once again. 

What mantou should I make next?  :P

Cocoa Mantou

5g Instant yeast
183g fresh milk
35g caster sugar
340g Hong Kong flour
20g unsweetened cocoa powder
5g butter (room temp)


1. Mix caster sugar with 3/4 of fresh milk (137g) and stir well to dissolve sugar. Sprinkle instant yeast over remaining 46g of fresh milk and let it sit for about 2 minutes before stirring them to dissolve yeast. 
2. Sift Hong Kong flour and cocoa powder. Place all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, pour in the wet ingredients and mix well to form a rough dough. Knead dough till smooth and shiny.
3. Place kneaded dough in mixing bowl and cover with clingwrap to let proof for 10 minutes.
3. Do a quick knead on the dough to remove the air then using a rolling pin, roll out dough to form an even rectangular shape with even thickness of 0.5cm and 70cm in length.
4. Trim off sides of dough to get a nicer rectangular shape and carefully roll up dough like rolling swiss roll. About 1cm at the end of the dough, brush on some water and gently press down dough to flatten it a little. 
5.  Using a sharp knife, slice rolled up dough into 10 equal pieces. (For me, I got 8 pcs, and with the trimmed dough I divided it into 2 long portions and made them into knotted patterned mantou)
6. Place baking paper under dough and leave dough in steamer to proof for 20 minutes.

Let proof for 20min

Put to steam.

There you are. Home made mantou.

7. Steam mantou on medium high heat for 8 minutes. Make sure water is boiling before placing in mantou. Place lid cover sideway for about 1 minute. Remove steamer with lid covered slideways away from stove and let cool for further 2 minutes or so to cool - this is done to prevent mantou skin from crinkling up with the sudden temperature change. Serve warm!

To freeze - Allow mantou to cool and then place in ziplock bag, press out air, zip and freeze.

No need to defrost mantou before steaming. Just set your steamer to boil and place in mantou to steam on medium high heat for 7min. 

Pork, Chives & Mushroom Dumplings 猪肉韭菜香菇饺子

Was doing our weekly marketing at the supermarket when I saw chives at the vegetable section. It then came upon me that I have not made dumplings for a long long time! So let's do it!

I just wanted simple fillings for my dumplings. No prawns or shrimps. Save the shells peeling and chopping. I am lazy.

Used 3 simple mains for the dumpling. Pork and chives are the must have, and I added chinese mushrooms this time. Yummy!

Lazy me used store bought dumpling flour for the dumpling wrapper. Simply pour in water, mix, knead, rest and ready to use!

So how do you like your dumplings to be cooked?

I steam it.

And also boiling it.

Love lots of ginger and black vinegar with it.

You can also pan fry the dumplings and eat them as guo tie (pot stickers). 

Come, let's dig in! :)

Pork, Chives & Mushroom Dumplings

Wrapper
600g store bought dumpling flour
300g water

Filling
600g minced pork
300g chives, washed 3x, remove soggy and yellow parts, cut and remove stem parts
8 pcs dried chinese mushrooms, soaked till softened, remove stems and steam for 6 min on high heat till cooked, then cube into small cubes

Seasoning
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp cornflour
dash of pepper

1. Mix dumpling flour and water to form a dough, knead well till dough does not stick to hands and is soft. Cover with a clean moist cloth and set aside to rest for 30 min. This allows the dough to become smooth and stretchy, ready for use.

2. Place minced pork, chopped chives and mushroom cubes into a mixing bowl.

Add in all seasonings and mix well with a pair of chopsticks till filling mixture turns into a sticky paste. Cover with clingwrap and set in fridge for 30 min.

3. Punch down dough cut out dough into small pieces for use. I weigh each pc to be 12g round and roll them flat. Place a teaspoon heap of filling on centre of dough wrapper and wrap up. Pinch a side of dough and press tight to seal opening. Repeat till use up fillings.

Place wrapped dumplings on a plate or tray, taking care not to let them be too close and stick together. When one plate or tray is fully filled with dumplings, cover with cling wrap and leave in freezer and let dumplings freeze before removing each frozen dumpling and storing in ziplock bags. Freeze dumplings.

4. No need to thaw dumplings when you want to eat it. Bring a pot of water to boil. Add enough jiaozi to cover the base of the pot about one and a half times, stirring to make sure no dumplings stick to the base of the pot. Cover.

When it comes to a boil, add 250ml water. Cover and repeat 2 more times. When the water comes to a boil for the third time, the dumplings are ready. Scoop dumplings onto a plate and serve immediately with vinegar and shredded young ginger.


NOTE: The theory behind adding cups of water is that if you stop it before the third boil, the meat will not be cooked through. Also, if you don’t add cold water each time, the jiaozi will fill up with air and explode.

For steaming, put steamer pot filled with water and let it come to boil on high heat, place frozen dumplings into bamboo steamer basket and set in steamer pot to steam for 15min, or till done. Serve immediately.

Pork & Shrimp Siu Mai Dumplings

Siu mai dumplings and har gao prawn dumplings are the usual suspects that will appear on our order list when we are out for yum cha.  It has been quite awhile since we had dim sum so I decided to make siu mai for yum cha at the comfort of our own home!

I did not wanna waste time on making the yellow wanton wrappers and got ready made ones from the supermart.

It was a great treat for hubby as he loves siu mai.  These are easy food that everyone can make at home, so try it!  It will not be too long before I make them again :)

Siu Mai Dumplings

250g minced pork
8 medium sized tiger prawns
4 chinese mushrooms
3 water chestnuts
1 packet of wonton wrappers (round)

Seasonings
1.5 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbsp chinese cooking wine
a dash of pepper
1.5 tsp sesame oil
a dash of salt
1 tsp cornstarch

Garnishing
Gouji

1. Soak chinese mushrooms in warm water till soft. Lightly squeeze out mushroom water, remove stalk and cut into little cubes. Set aside.
2. Remove water chestnuts skins and cut into small cubes.
3.. Deshell and devein prawns. Wash and pat dry with kitchen towel.  Roughly chop up prawns into coarse texture.
4. Place minced pork, prawns, chinese mushrooms and water chestnuts into a mixing bowl. Add in all seasonings. Mix with chopsticks till well blended. Set aside for 15 minutes.

5. Carefully separate each pieces of wonton wrappers and cover with a damp cloth.
6. Rinse a tablespoon of gouji, drain and set aside.
7. Place a piece of wonton wrapper into middle of palm. Using a butter knife or teaspoon, place about 1 tbsp of filling onto centre of wrapper.

8. Smooth sides of filling, dap sides of wrapper with some water and carefully gather the sides of wonton wrappers up around filling, with the top filling exposed.
9. Place siu mai on flat tabletop to flatten the base.  Smooth top exposed fillings. Trim off excess wrapper at the top sides to level with filling, if required. Repeat the same for all other siu mai.
10. Place 1 or 2 gouji on centre of siu mai as garnishing.
11. Put a big pot of water (for steaming siu mai) to boil. While waiting for water to boil, line a piece of baking paper in a chinese bamboo steamer and oil lightly with a brush.

12. Place siu mai into bamboo steamer, cover and place it into the steamer pot. Steam on high for about 6 to 8 minutes.

13. Remove and serve immediately.

Note:
- If you do not have a chinese bamboo steamer, you may place siu mai on a plate suitable for steaming too.

Steamed Spare Ribs with Fermented Black Beans

Hubby always love to order steamed spare ribs whenever we go for dim sum. I have nothing against it actually but dislike that some steamed spare ribs are not done well and meat are so tough it gets stuck in between teeth after you bite into the meat!

We seldom go for dim sum nowadays as it is not cheap eating it here in Singapore.  We only gorge ourselves crazy with dim sum when we are in Hong Kong, where dim sum dishes are so much cheaper, nicer and most importantly, authentic.

I have made this steamed spare ribs with fermented black beans many times, and always like how it pairs so so well with rice. Love it homemade because I can add lotsa minced garlic and that increases the flavour of this dish even further.

A simple, savoury and yummy dish this is.  Yet another dish good for lazy days hehe!

Steamed Spare Ribs with Fermented Black Beans

(Serves 2)

200g spare pork ribs 

(I normally ask the butcher to help me cut them into smaller pieces so that I just have to trim of excess fats and and wash them when back home)

Seasoning sauce

1 tsp baking powder or 2 tsp cornflour

1 tsp fermented black bean, washed briefly and crush the beans using the back of a spoon

1/2 tbsp cooking wine

1.5 tsp abalone sauce or oyster sauce

2 or 3 garlic, minced (if you aren't a garlic lover like me, just use 1 pc)

1/2 tsp sugar

A dash of pepper

2 tsp dark soy sauce (reduce to 1 tsp if you do not like the end product to be too dark)

1/2 tsp of sesame oil

1. Wash spare ribs and drain excess water.

2. If using baking powder, mix it well into the meat and let stand in fridge for an hour. This is done to tenderise the meat. After an hour, wash meat under running water, drain and season meat with the rest of the seasoning sauce ingredients (exclude cornflour since baking powder has been used to tenderise meat). 

If you do not have baking powder, you can just season the meat with cornflour together with the rest of the ingredients, thus skipping the 1 hour step of tenderising the meat.

3. Mix well and leave it to marinate in fridge for at least an hour or overnight.  Steam for 15 minutes on medium high heat, or till done. Serve.

Shandong-style Dumpling

Jiaozi (饺子 in chinese), to me are like little "gems" filled with flavourful goodness that Hubby and I both love.

Having had enough of the western-style food during the past 2 weeks of vacation, I decided that I should go the chinese way for the time being, and so making and eating jiaozi is one of the way to go!  I love how we can cook them in noodles or even eat it on its own!  Good for times when you do not feel like cooking and cleaning much.  All you have to do is just to boil a pot of water and dump the frozen dumplings in and voila!, you get a fast meal out of it - best when eaten with vinegar and thinly sliced ginger.

Not wanting to take the shortcut this time, I made the dumpling wraps instead of getting ready-made ones.  So, I went on a recipe-search spree and finally decided to go with Chubby Hubby's Shandong-style Jiaozi recipe.

It was a nervous first time for me and I had my worries. All the worries about dumpling wraps turning out too thick, dough will be too difficult to hand etc turned out to be unfounded.  All I can say is, the first few wrappings will be abit difficult to handle, and the wrapped dumplings will not look as pleasant but few more practices later you will be good on your own.

This recipe is truly a keeper.  I will use this recipe again if I need my jiaozi fix next time!

 Shandong-style Jiaozi by Chubby Hubby
 Makes about 75 dumplings

 For dough
 250g plain flour
 125ml cold water

 For the filling
 500g ground pork (not too lean. Remember, fat is flavour!)
 125ml water
 2 tablespoons soy sauce
 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
 1 egg
 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger
 50g dried shrimps (“hae bee”), soaked till soft, drained and finely chopped
 500g grated and chopped courgette (zucchini)
 250g finely chopped Chinese chives (“koo chye”)
 Salt and pepper to taste

 For the dipping sauce
 125ml soy sauce
 2 tbsp Chinese black vinegar or rice vinegar
 1 tsp sesame oil
 1 teaspoon of chili paste or oil (optional)

 Special equipment:
 a 15cm rolling pin or dowel
 A large, covered pot in which to cook the dumplings


Make dough:
Put the flour in a large bowl, then add water, stirring with a wooden spoon until a shaggy dough forms. Turn out dough (including any loose flour) onto a work surface and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes.  If the dough is too sticky, mix in some extra flour. If it seems a bit dry, sprinkle with a bit of water. Form into a ball and cover well in plastic  wrap. Let stand at room temperature at least 30 minutes.

Make filling while dough stands:
Put the ground pork in a bowl, and start mixing a bit of water in, stirring in one direction only. Chopsticks are ideal stirring implements if mixing by hand. Continue adding water, the soy sauce and the wine and stirring all the while until the filling looks a bit sticky. You may not need all the water so don’t dump it in all at once!

At this point, add in the egg, sesame oil, ginger, dried shrimp, zucchini, chives and salt if needed. Fry off a little patty to check the taste; it should be highly seasoned and almost too salty, as it will be put into skins later on.


ASSEMBLY
After the dough has rested, continue kneading 5 more minutes on a lightly floured surface. The dough should be elastic, smooth and not sticky (it should feel as soft and silky as a baby’s bottom!). Divide the dough into two and cover the piece you aren’t using with some plastic wrap. Roll the other piece of dough into an even rope, about 20cm long. Cut the rope into 1.5cm lengths to form about 30 pieces. Roll each bit into a ball and flatten with your palm. Start rolling out each small disc of dough with a rolling pin that has been lightly dusted with flour into 7.5cm rounds, rolling from the centre to the edges, making the centre slightly thicker and the edges thinner. Remember to keep all unused dough covered when not using.

Line a tray with parchment paper or dust well with flour. Work on one dumpling at a time, keeping the remaining wrappers covered. Place about two teaspoons of filling in the middle of a wrapper. Starting at one end, seal the dumpling together by squeezing to form a crescent shape. Place filled dumpling on the prepared baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining ingredients until all the wrappers are filled.

No nice neat pleats for my jiaozi this round.

Bring large pot of water to boil. Add enough jiaozi to cover the base of the pot about one and a half times, stirring to make sure none stick to the base of the pot. Cover.

When it comes to a boil, add 250ml cold water. Cover and repeat two more times. When the water comes to a boil for the third time, the dumplings are ready. Scoop out with a spider onto a plate and serve immediately with sauce on the side.


NOTE: The theory behind adding cups of water is that if you stop it before the third boil, the meat will not be cooked through. Also, if you don’t add cold water each time, the jiaozi will fill up with air and explode.


Make dipping sauce:
Combine vinegar, soy sauce sesame and chilli, if using.


TO KEEP
You can freeze uncooked dumplings for later use. Freeze dumplings separately on trays until firm, then put them in freezer bags. When cooking from frozen, cook exactly the same way as above.

Steamed egg cake (Ji Dan Gao)

Surely everyone must have eaten steamed egg cake at least once in their life, right? ?  Yeah, I had a sudden craving for it in office yesterday afternoon, and decided that I should do one after I got home from work.  I have always love this cake from young. Yums!

Steamed egg cake aka ji dan gao is one of the few cakes that calls for little and simple ingredients.  4 items and you are set to go. A 5th item if you wanna mask some of the eggy smell and taste. Oh and did I mention that some patience and a strong arm strength is required too? Heh, that's how you get the fluffy end product. Good luck to those who uses a manual whisk to do the job :P

The simple 5 ingredients to soft and fluffy steamed egg cakes!

Our grandmothers were clever to have used soda water to make this cake as baking powder was not an easy find during the old days. 

Steamed Egg Cake (Ji Dan Gao)
Recipe by The Little Teochew
(I halved the recipe to make a 6-inch cake)

220g eggs excluding weight of shells (about 4 large eggs)
210g caster sugar
230g cake flour or top flour (sifted 2 or 3 times)
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional unless you want to mask some of the eggy smell and taste)
6 tbsp cream soda or 7-Up or Sprite

1. Whisk the eggs till frothy, then start adding sugar a little by little,to ensure it is well-incorporated. Add vanilla extract and continue beating until the batter becomes very pale, thick and creamy. This takes time, and there is no shortcut. (This is why I said having patience and some good arm strength will do you good.)  Meanwhile, heat up your wok, pot or steamer until you get a gentle boil.  Do make sure it is large enough to fit the cake tin and have ample space for the batter to rise and the steam to circulate.

2. Fold in the flour in thirds, alternating with the soda, and ending with flour. Once they are no streaks of flour, stop.

3. To steam, either pour the mixture into a bamboo steamer lined with greaseproof paper or use a 6 or 7-inch lined baking tin. (Line the bamboo steamer first before starting with Step 1 so that you will not fumble with this step.) Pop it into the wok, pot or steamer - then cover - and steam on high for 30min. (I tested by inserting a clean skewer in the middle of the cake, when it comes out clean, the cake is done, otherwise leave it on more further 5-10min)

4. Once done, place the cake on a rack and allow to cool before slicing.

 I did not have a smiley cake, but I was very satisfied with the texture it had!

To reheat on the 2nd day, steam it for 2-3 min and you will get back the soft fluffy cake again.

Note
- If you want your cake to 'smile' (nice cross split) in the middle, you may sprinkle course sugar forming a cross on the batter surface.
- I will skip the vanilla essence the next time to get that full eggy smell and taste!
- Will try adding in a tbsp of fresh pandan juice to get a pandan flavour ji dan gao.

Lo Mai Gai

Health hasn't been too well lately. Bad nose, bad throat, and as if not bad enough, doctor had to tell me that I have signs of slight bronchitis showing when I went back to see him the 2nd time.  Yes, tight and heavy breathing, slight wheezing and coughing, I had them. Hate the haze!  Thank God the rain came in time and haze stayed away, for now.  I want to be well soon!

Last weekend, I got down to do some glutinous rice with chicken (Lo Mai Gai, 糯米鸡), one thing that my hubby enjoys eating. He used to stock some of these from the supermarket and heat them up to eat for breakfast, and I did not like that!  So, I tried my hand at it, for the man, my greatest supporter :)

Followed Happy Flour recipe closely and I thought the end results was not too bad for a 1st try but I could do better :)

Ingredients: (yield 5 bowls)
1 chicken thigh (boneless and skinless, cut into chunk)
3 dried mushroom room (soaked, remove stalk and cut into 2pcs)

Seasoning (A): (adjust seasoning according to your taste)
1/2tbsp oyster sauce
1/2tsp black soy sauce
1tsp soy sauce
1/4tsp salt
1/2tsp ginger juice
1/2tsp sugar
dash of pepper
dash of sesame oil

300g glutinous rice (soak overnight)

Seasoning (B): (adjust seasoning according to your taste) 
1tbsp oyster sauce
2tsp soy sauce
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp sugar
2tbsp chicken stock/ water
1/2tsp sesame oil
(I will prepare more of this seasoning for the rice the next round as hubby said sauce was not quite enough, so rice was a little bland.)

1/2 Chinese sausage (sliced)

Step:
1. Marinate chicken and mushroom with Seasoning (A), set aside for an hour.
2. Grease mould and set aside.
3. Drain glutinous rice, spread rice on tray and sprinkle some water on surface.
4. Steam glutinous rice in a preheated steamer at high heat for 20 min.
5. Remove lid, sprinkle some water on glutinous rice and continue to steam for another 20 min.
6. Remove cooked glutinous rice from steamer and fluffy rice with a pair of chopstick. 
7. Mix Seasoning (B) together and pour it into cooked glutinous rice.
8. Mix well with a pair of chopstick.
9. Arrange chicken, mushroom and Chinese sausage at the base of mould.
10.Fill with glutinous rice and press firmly.
11.Place it in preheated steamer and steam at high heat for 25 min.
12.Dish out and serve.