Jicama Beancurd Rolls

 

This is my jicama beancurd rolls.  I made some of these to bring to my friend's party and save two for ourselves.  The filling is my mung kuan char or stir-fried jicama.  This mung kuan char consisted of jicama, carrot, woodear, garlic and dried shrimps, season with salt, sugar and chicken granules, very simple.  Then, I wrapped it with the beancurd sheet.  I made a mistake as I dipped the beancurd sheet in water, you are only supposed to soften it with wet fingers.  So, the end result was not as crispy.  Also funny looking skin texture.

It changed the beancurd skin texture and when deep-fried, it was not as crispy.

One of the roll burst opened when frying.  So lesson learned, never to immerse your beancurd sheet in water to soften before rolling, just wet it with your fingers.  I knew that but still decided to try it out because my beancurd sheet won't seal with cornstarch mixture.  Alas!  now really learned my lesson.  I made lots of mistakes in the kitchen too, I made mistake and learned from it, only then I can improve myself.  :-)

Rose Konnyaku Jelly

How you like my twin Koi fishes?  Spotted my mistake yet?  I made a mistake here when I made thing without thinking.  I should have pour some konnyaku liquid in the mold first before I added in the mixed fruits.  I just added the mixed fruits into the mold and pour in the konnyaku liquid and let it set.  So, the end result, not as pretty and some of the mixed fruits fell off when unmold.  Oops!

If you want my rose flavored konnyaku jelly recipe, you can get it here.  The rose flavored is really great, I loved it because it reminded me of the rose drink that the Malay served in Malaysia during Hari Raya.  Here nian nian you yu to all of us!

Shrimp Ball Mushrooms

Sharing a picture of a dish we had on Lunar New Year 1st. day.  I had to confess I didn't make this.  We paid $25/person to dine a 9-course meal in a Chinese restaurant with some Taiwanese friends.  This was one item served on that day.  We couldn't finish all the food and this was what I brought back along with white chicken, sauce duck, crabs and mei chai three layers pork. :P

But I can tell you how it was made, it was pretty easy actually.  The top was shrimp balls, the bottom was Chinese mushroom.  First, you minced the shrimps or processed it in a food processor, then you seasoned it with salt, white pepper, rice wine (or however you would like to season it) and shaped it into a ball shape big enough to place on top of your soften Chinese mushroom.  Afterward, you steamed it until cooked, probably about 10-15 minutes.  You can cut some broccoli for garnish.  Quickly boil it in salt water to briefly cook it or you can cook it in the microwave.  Garnished the broccoli around the round plate and placed the cooked shrimp ball mushrooms in the middle.  Then, you can prepare the white sauce to pour on top.  As for the white sauce, heat up a pan, add in chicken stock and let it boiled.  When boiling, add in the cornstarch water mixture to thicken and stirred in some chopped scallion, removed from heat.  Pour the thicken sauce on top to serve.  Enjoy!

Bak Kua (Chinese Pork Jerky)

Bak Kua, my all time favorite when I was a kid and now too.  Love to sandwich it in bread and have it as breakfast.  This is also one favorite for Chinese New Year, people give this as gift in Malaysia.  They also served this for people who visits their houses.  When I moved here, bak kua was non-existence.  All I found that was similar to this is American beef jerky which I couldn't stomach.  Then, four years ago, I found a very easy bak kua recipe shared by a fellow blogging friend.  I tried it and loved it and have been making it all these years.

 

This recipe is so easy to make and trust me it is really good.  The above has about 1lb. of ground pork, I thought I might be able to share with my friends until my hubby spotted it.  He never dared to try the bak kua I made all these years (he thinks it was yucky so more for us) and suddenly he came and grabbed a piece to try and kept coming back for more and more.  Needless to say, any food that he set his eyes on, will be gone in no time.  He only left few pieces for my girls and I.

Gong Xi Fa Cai & Xin Nian Kuai Le!!!

I want to wish all my readers a Happy Chinese New Year and may this new year brings you prosperity, health, happiness and things that you wished for.  I am off to celebrate Chinese New Year eve reunion dinner at auntie Lily's house.  Yeah I know I am lucky because I get to eat her Yu Sang and all the cookies she made for Chinese New Year. 


Go home and have a reunion dinner with your parents, family and relatives.  Nothing spread joy more than having your loved and closed ones close by and have a feast together.  Sharing food, laughter, stories and fun together.  Have a good one you all and enjoy all the 15 days of Lunar New Year.

Valentine's Day Cookies

Chinese New Year falls on Valentine's Day this year so we see some of the Chinese New Year cookies this year were made into heart shape.  I didn't plan on making this cookies actually but I was left with some pineapple dough from making the Nastar.  So, I rolled out the dough, cut it with a lovely heart shape cookie press and put the middle with raspberry preserved.  Valentine's Day needs some red color right?  So, raspberry or strawberry preserved was the best choice for me.  Lovely isn't it?

Be careful not to put too much preserved in the middle as it would spilled out during baking.  But it was still okay, just scrape off the spill preserved when cool.  I baked them in preheated 350'F oven for 12 minutes.  I didn't apply egg wash on them because I didn't want to ruin the look of the raspberry preserved.

Here wishing all my readers a Sweet and Happy Valentine's Day and a Prosperous and Healthy Lunar New Year!!! 

Pineapple Tarts 2010

These pineapple rolls were also called nastar.  This was the first time I made a successful nastar actually because previously I just couldn't roll the pastry out from the nastar molds that I bought.  It was so hard that I just gave up.  When I went back to Malaysia in 2008, I saw another plastic nastar mold with a push stick to push the dough out, I quickly grabbed one.  And it worked!  It made my life so much easier with this new tool.

I spent the whole afternoon and only managed to produce 59 nastars, like shown above!  Like I said before, this was one cookie that took time to make and could be finished in on time.  My pineapple pastry and short-cut jam recipes can be found here. 

This pastry is soft and melt-in-the-mouth type. Some were not as pretty because after a while I just wouldn't be bother anymore.  :P  Great thing is it is just for home consumption.

Below is the picture of the mold I used to make this pineapple rolls.

Stir Fried Roasted Pork Belly with Dark Soy Sauce

My mom used to cook this for us with the leftover roasted pork (siew york) when we were little. This is definitely a childhood memory dish for me. I love love roasted pork belly when I was young, I remember whenever we go to the chicken rice stall, I would request for siew york. And then when I was in my teenage years, I started to be more health conscious and hardly ever touch any pork fat and chicken skin anymore. And when I moved to the States, in a small town with hardly any Asian population, there was no roasted pork belly in sight. It was something that you couldn't buy with money. Luckily now I live an hour away from Denver, so roasted pork belly is selling in most authentic Chinese restaurants and easy to come by. We still eat it sparingly as frankly it is not a healthy food choice at all. But it is a childhood dish so once in a very long time is acceptable for me. Recently my hubby bought a big slab of roasted pork from Denver and we had some leftover, so I slice it thinly and made this delicious dish.

Note:
Yeah I don't know why the people don't know how to slice the roasted pork like in M'sia/S'pore. We sliced it so nicely thin and arrange it so nicely for the customer (we can see the roasted skin, layers of fat and meat). But here, they just simply chop it however they want and in disorganized big pieces that I couldn't see all the layers and meat. Now I know, we have to cut it ourselves when order it again.

Ingredients:

Roasted Pork Belly [siew york]
Garlic, about 3 gloves, chopped
Dark soy sauce to taste
A little sugar

Method:

1. In a wok, heat up some oil. When hot, add in the siew york and fry until slightly brown. Add in garlic and fry it together.

2. Add in the dark soy sauce and sugar to taste. Quickly fry to mix well and dish out to serve.

Kuih Bangkit 2010

My kuih bangkit for 2010.  Same old recipe but using a new cookie cutter.  Too lazy to pinch pattern also.  I wonder how people got energy to make tons to sell?

Recipe can be found here.

Step by step pictures guide here.

Cornflakes Cookies without Flour Take 2

With the advice from youfei, I used honey instead of sugar to help it bind.  I added dried cranberries and walnuts to make it healthier but this is not a healthy cookies because it is packed with butter.  The butter made it really fragrant and when baked, it was really crispy.  This recipe is for those who seeks it, enjoy!  The sweetness is just nice, not overly sweet.

You can add any dried fruits, roasted nuts, chips for baking or anything you can think of  to make it uniquely yours.  Now I know what to make to bring it for Evy's classmates, the chocolate version would be ideal for little kids.  Without nuts, just raisin and cornflakes so all kids can enjoy it.  ^o^

Ingredients:

1 stick of unsalted butter (113g)

2 Tbsp. honey (you can add 1 Tbsp. of sugar for extra crunch)

3 cups packed cornflakes, lightly crushed

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Method:

1.  Microwave butter and honey until melted, about 2 minutes.

2.  Add in the rest of the ingredients.  Stir to mix well.

3.  Spoon teaspoon full into mini paper cups and bake in preheated 350'F for 10 minutes.

4.  Let cool completely before serving.

~Yield about 40 mini baking cups.

Note:  I found it to be oily, perhaps you can add half cup or one more cup of cornflakes into the mixture.