Use of Leftover 5: Stir-fried Radish Cake

My hubby bought back a stir-fry radish cake with eggs for dinner the other day from Denver along with salt and pepper pork ribs and fried rice noodle. Needless to say we couldn't finish the radish cake. For the picture above, I already cut the radish cake into smaller pieces. It came in big square pieces like those served in a Dim Sum restaurant. Frankly this radish cake with eggs was a bit bland to me. It seem like it has more rice flour than radish in the mix.



I love fry radish cake with chai por (sweeten turnips) and in dark soy sauce so I prepared the above for lunch the next day. I added red bell pepper, green onion and garlic. I didn't add any egg because it already came with eggs. What a great way to turn something bland into something delicious ya?

Stir-fried Sweet Potato Leaves with Garlic

We loved sweet potato leaves and I often buy this so that we have a variety of green vegetables to enjoy. This is a dish similar to what we ordered in Malaysia and I realized that this simple stir-fry can be equally delicious. Something so simple can be so tasty! Stir-fry with sambal belacan is not the only way to enjoy sweet potato leaves, even though this is the most popular method. I noticed that an easy stir-fried with garlic can be equally divine from my recent trip home. Evy especially loved this and said this is her favorite veggie dish. If you haven't tried this method, DO TRY! I'm not kidding you, it's delicious!

Ingredients:

Sweet potato leaves, trimmed and washed
2-3 cloves of garlic
Salt to taste
1 tsp. chicken granules
1/4 cup water

Method:

Heat oil in wok. When heated, add in garlic, fry until slight golden, add in sweet potato leaves. Stir-fry for a little while, add in salt, water and chicken granules. Stir-fry to blend well and serve hot. Sprinkle the top with some crispy shallots if you want to.

Singapore Curry Laksa

My pot of Singapore curry laksa with fried tofu puffs (tau fu pok). The difference between a Singapore laksa and Malaysia laksa is Singapore laksa has dried shrimps in it. Both are coconut based curry made with grinded spices and chillies. If you think I made it from scratch, you are dead wrong. Hahaha... Come on, with the convenient of premix paste available which taste about the same or better than the home cook one, why should I trouble myself? Furthermore, this ready made paste is ready in 5 minutes. This time I used the Dancing Chef's Singapore Curry Laksa paste which is much cheaper than the other brand.

I served mine with fried tofu puffs, fried fish balls, fish balls, tofu fish cakes and bean sprouts. Top it with my homemade chili in oil.

Wow, my chili is so spicy! A yummy bowl of curry laksa is ready for dinner. Of course, you can add shrimps, chicken slices and hard boiled egg if you want to.

I would love to share this dish with Presto Pasta Night . Presto Pasta Night was created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast. This week host is The Food Hunter's Guide to Cuisine. Please hop over on Friday to see the round up.

Soft Chocolate Mint Cookies with Candy Cane

I have some leftover candy canes that I bought from after-Christmas sales. And then a friend of mine told me that she baked some candy cane cookies during Christmas to give to her friends and it was delicious. So, "Ding Dong", that's it, I can make some cookies with the candy canes that I have. I know chocolate and mint pair well together and I wanted to incorporate the candy cane with the cookies so my experiment began. As you can see, the candy cane melted while baking in the oven, nevertheless it still created a beautiful effect on the cookies.

This recipe produced soft cookies. Since a dark cocoa powder was used, it's slightly bitter with the fragrant of mint, quite refreshing actually. And the melted crushed candy canes gave a little crunch to the soft cookies. This recipe yield about 33 cookies for me. Please stay tuned for my other variation of this cookie, the hard and crunchy type, which I called my dark beauty!

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter (113g), cut into 8 cubes (8 Tbsp.)
(A)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder
1/2 cup powder sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
(B)
1/2 tsp. pure peppermint extract
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 egg

(C)

1/4 cup crushed candy canes

Method:

1. In a food processor/stand mixer, add (A). Pulse to mix.

2. Add (B) and cut butter cubes. Pulse until a dough is almost formed.

3. Take a piece of plastic wrap, pour dough on it and knead a couple of times until a dough is formed. Then, roll the dough into a long log shape. Wrap and put in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 375'F. Unroll the plastic wrap and cut the cookie dough with a knife, about 3mm thick and place on parchment paper lined baking sheet and sprinkle the top with crushed candy cane. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

5. Let cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to cool completely on a wire rack. Store in air-tight container.

I am also submitting my recipe to the Original Recipe event hosted by Lore at Culinarty. Check out others' recipes around the week of 15th.

Stir-fried Two Types of Noodles

This is my stir-fry two different types of noodles. It happen because I have a little of this noodle and a little of that noodle left, not enough to make a full meal and hence have to marry these two together.

Ingredients:

Flat egg noodle (1/3 of packet)
Wontan type egg noodle (1/3 of packet)
Napa cabbage (about 4-5, sliced)
Carrot (1 small, sliced)
Red bell pepper (half, sliced)
Fried fish balls (8, sliced)
Garlic (2 cloves, chopped)
Green onion (2 bunches, chopped)
Crispy fried shallots (1/4 cup)

Sauce:
Oyster sauce (about 3 Tbsp.)
Dark soy sauce (about 1 Tbsp.)
Sesame oil (about 1 tsp.)
Freshly crushed white peppers

Method:

1. Boil a pot of water. When boiling, add in the dried egg noodles and briefly cook it. Drain and set aside.

2. In a wok, heat oil, add garlic, fried fish balls, napa cabbage, carrot and red bell pepper. Stir-fry well and season with a little oyster sauce. Pour into the bowl of waiting noodles.

3. Add sauce in the noodles and stir well to mix. Do a taste test, adjust the taste accordingly. Lastly garnish the top with green onion and crispy fried shallots.

I would love to share this dish with Presto Pasta Night . Presto Pasta Night was created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast. This week host is Noob Cook. Please hop over on Friday to see the round up.

Stir-fried Gai Choy/Asian Mustard Green

I decided to try stir-fry Asian mustard green/gai choy for dinner. Tips from my readers suggested I stir-fry it with anchovies and season with salt. And since I have some leftover chicken breast I decided to add it in. I really loved it! I couldn't taste the slight bitterness at all. It is slightly crunchy and really good in stir-fry. I am going to use it for more stir-fry from now on. Thank you readers and S for sharing. Now I have an additional vegetable to buy when grocery shopping in the Asian market. ;-) Oh, it is also very good in Hotpot/Steamboat (another recent discovery).

Ingredients:

Washed and sliced one big bowl of Asian mustard green/gai choy
1/4 cup of anchovies, rinsed and dried
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Salt to taste
1 cup of leftover chicken breast (optional)



Method:

1. Heat wok with oil. When heated, add in anchovies, stir-fry until golden brown, add in garlic.

2. Add in gai choy, stir-fry for a little while, add in leftover chicken breast (if used) and season to taste with salt.

Don't over fry it, just stir-fry until the gai choy is cooked.

Plain Old Butter Cake

Added sprinkles for the kids.



Can you feel the power of butter cake? We can have chocolate cake, green tea cake, pandan cake, lemon cake, orange cake, etc but deep inside us, we do crave for the simple butter cake. There is an attraction there and I find myself couldn't resist the simple looking plain old butter cake. Often time, I found it calling my name at the bakery section at the supermarket, oh the temptation to resist picking it up. So, instead of buying I would make it at home. Since Valentine's Day is around the corner and I have some heart shape foil holders, so why not? So, I made this heart shape butter cake to wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day!

Oh I over filled the cups and thus the spilling over when baking. :P




Ingredients:

1 cup / 2 sticks of soften butter
1 cup sugar (use 3/4 cup if you prefer it less sweet)
3 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
1 1/3 cup self-raising flour



Method:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar with electric beaters until soft and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time. Beat until combined. Preheat oven to 350'F.

2. Add in vanilla extract and milk, beat until just mix. Lastly, add in flour and beat until blended. Spoon batter into cupcake pan that lined with cupcake paper.

3. Bake in preheated 350'F oven for 25-30 minutes or until tooth pick inserted in middle comes out clean. Cool on wire rack completely before storing into an air-tight container.

Tea Tree Mushroom

Brief introduction (from the back of this packet):

Tea Mushroom is one of the series products of the People Fortune Company. It is picked in the Daba Mountain which lies in Sichuan Province. The Tea Mushroom is a parasite of the oriental white oaks. In the wild nature, thanks to the special climate there, it is bathed in the sunshine and the moonlight, moistened by rain and dew. It is a kind of mushroom which has a long stem and tender pulp with a crisp and refreshing flavor.

Soaked and cleaned before using. Can be used in deep-fry or stir-fry.



A Chinese friend got us this Tea Mushroom from China (the direct translation would be Tea Tree Mushroom). He said this mushroom is very popular where he is from and it is delicious. Frankly this is the first time I have seen this kind of mushroom, something new for us to try. The stem of this mushroom is very long and I have no clue whether it can be eaten. I wonder why they package the stems if it can't be eaten? But the stem is pretty hard, so I cut off half and use the top half to test it out.

I just stir-fried it with some ginger, chicken and oyster sauce. This Tea Mushroom has a strong woody smell and pretty fragrant, in a mushroom way. But some of the stems were too hard to chew. Guess it's only the mushroom and the immediate stem below it can be eaten, the rest were too tough. Very interesting mushroom and glad to have a chance to try it.

If you have eaten this tea mushroom, can you let me know whether I did it right regarding the stem, okay? TIA!

Blueberry Cream Cheese Pound Cake

6 oz. fresh blueberry was on sales for $1 again. I bought 5 because my girls loved it. Decided to take 3oz and put it in my favorite cream cheese pound cake and the resulted cake was heavenly. I truly love this cake, you gotta try it if you haven't already. It should do well with other berries as well such as raspberry, blackberry and strawberries.





Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick/113g) butter, softened
1 cup sugar (if you like it less sweet, use 3/4 cup)
1/2 pkg. (4 oz/113.5g) cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup flour (all purpose, unbleached)
1/2 Tbp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (3oz/85g) fresh blueberries



Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Beat butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 1 min. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition, until very light and fluffy. Add cream cheese; beat 1 min. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract, beat to mix.

2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture. Beat 1 min or until well blended. Lastly, gently fold in the blueberries with a spatula. Pour batter into greased and floured 8 1/2 x 3 1/2 loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before inverted it to cool completely on a wire rack. Store in air-tight container.

Sweet Corns Konnyaku Jelly

I made this to bring to a friend's house. Pineapple in Hokkein is "Ong Lai", signify prosperity for the Chinese. So, Chinese love to serve pineapple tart, pineapple related dish or even a jelly that shaped like a pineapple during the 15th days of Chinese New Year. I picked this cream corns recipe because yellow color is so suitable for pineapple. Pretty or not? The sweet corn konnyaku jelly that I made is not that chewy, it's softer more like a normal jelly. If you want it chewy, follow the 550ml water amount listed.



Ingredients:

1 packet of Redman konnyaku jelly powder (10 gm)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 canned of cream style sweet corns (14.75 oz)
750ml water (use 550ml if you want it chewier)
200ml milk (whole, 2%, 1%, skim ~ up to you, I used whole)

Method:

1. In a big bowl, combine the sugar and konnyaku powder, stir to mix well, set aside.

2. In a big saucepan, add in the water and milk, bring to a slow boil (watch don't let it over boiled), add in the sugar and konnyaku powder mixture, turn to medium-low heat. Stir until sugar dissolved. Add in the cream style corns, stir to mix well. Turn off switch. Ladle the liquid into the konnyaku jelly molds, or any jelly mold you have.

3. Let it cool at room temperature for a little while before putting it in the refrigerator for 3 hours, or until it harden completely.

Stir-fried Mexican King Topshell with Napa Cabbage

King Topshell is an abalone like shellfish with fractional of the cost. Since the major producer of canned king topshell situated in Mexico, thus the name Mexican King Topshell. This is my first time buying this product, frankly I actually mistook it for abalone, no wonder it was cheap. Taste wise, it is really delicious. I really like the texture of this shellfish. Normally you slice it thinly and stir-fry it or braise it.


How it looks like before slicing, straight from the canned. The shape does look like abalone right?



I was fooled by the big letter of "bao" or abalone in English. I didn't bother to read the English words and just grabbed one to try since it was fairly cheap compared to abalone ($7). But I bought this with no regret because this king topshell turned out to be really divine. And I discovered another delicacy to add into my menu. Normally I see this selling during Chinese New Year, not sure whether they have it on other time.