Oven delights

Last week was my third consecutive birthday in China, and Ling Ling was so nice to buy me a simple but adequate electric oven. It was a strategic gift, of course. A gentle push to stimulate me to start baking the cakes and brownies I have been bragging about. It has been at least three years since I used an oven, and I have to admit, it feels good to have one in the house again. I never really craved Western food since I moved to China, but an oven gives a lot more possibilities than only a rice cooker and a wok can offer.
The first thing we tried was a fish. Oven baked fish is easy and very tasty. The past week we did it twice, first a yellow croaker, which is a common fish here, and then a turbot, which was exceptionally good. The turbot is much more expensive than the croaker, but still affordable, at 56 RMB/kg. Nowadays these fish are mostly farmed, since the population in the wild has reduced drastically after years of overfishing.
Both fish are readily available in Chinese supermarkets, usually kept alive in fish tanks and killed and cleaned on request. Always super fresh!

For cake making we needed some extra tools. Cake tins and other baking tools are surprisingly hard to find in Xiamen, so we ordered online on taobao.com. Two days later we received a nice collection of both a large square and a small circular spring form, a rectangular cake tin, and some baking utensils.
The first thing I tried was a simple banana cake, which came out well. Since all the ingredients where right in front of me, I quickly made some pancakes while the cake was in the oven, and taught Ling Ling how to do it.
Butter is not commonly used in China, and a bit hard to find. It's only sold in international supermarket chains like Walmart or Carrefour, imported from New Zealand or the USA, and relatively expensive. It accounted for 70% of the cost of the banana cake. I brought some slices of my cake to the Absinthe bar, for their staff to try. Needles to say, they all liked it. The next step will be chocolate brownies (of course), but the cocoa powder is still missing. I'll keep you posted.