Evy's Birthday Cake: Marshmallow Cake

I asked Evy what cake she wants for her birthday, a store-bought cake or a cake mommy made for her, at first she said she wanted a store-bought cake but later changed her mind to a marshmallow cake. So I said okay and since the strawberry was in season again, large and sweet, why not make a strawberry chiffon cake again and decorated it with whipped cream. Just like a cake I made for her last year except this time will have some marshmallow on the cake. When I started to decorate the cake, she said she wanted a smiley face marshmallow cake, so here's her smiley face marshmallow cake for her 5th year old birthday.


Another look of my tall chiffon cake. Can you see the smiley face?


This time I made it three layers with two layers of whipped cream with strawberry bits.



I definitely added too much red coloring as this cake is redder compared to my previous one. This time I also used 2 cups of fresh whipped cream plus 1/3 cup of confectioner sugar to ice the cake. Remember to place the bowl and beaters in the refrigerator before you whip the cream. The whipped cream beats best when the bowl and beaters are cold.

Note: The marshmallow turned soft the next day but nevertheless still delicious.

I realized I haven't shared the pictures of my girls for quite some time, so here are the most updated pictures of them saying Hi.


Evy with her birthday cake saying cheese.


Edda saying cheese without looking at the camera.

Stir Fried Baby Bok Choy

Baby Bok Choy has been a regular vegetable in my household. All Asian grocery stores have it, even WalMart and the grocery stores here have it. It is one of the common Asian vegetable and most people know what it is. I buy my Baby Bok Choy at the Asian market here because it is cheaper. Sometimes the Asian grocery store here doesn't carry much vegetable choices, but they always have the Baby Boy Choy and regular Boy Choy (darker green) available and looking fresh. That's why this vegetable is a staple in my house. Sharing with you an easy and delicious recipe.

Ingredient:

4 heads of Baby bok choy, separated into leaf, washed and cut into small pieces with steams and leaves separated
1 small carrot, cut
1/4 red bell pepper, cut into small cubes
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 Tbsp. oyster sauce
Oil for cooking (I used canola oil)

Method:

1. In a wok, heat up oil. When hot, add in garlic, fry until slightly golden and fragrant. Add in the steams of baby Bok Choy and carrots. Stir-fry for a minute or two, add in bell pepper and leaves and fry well.

2. Add in a little water (about 1/4 cup) and oyster sauce. Stir-fry well and serve hot.

Chinese Steamed Mantau (饅頭) with Red Bean Paste & Mung Bean Paste

Assorted steamed buns or Mantau with filling. I used the breadmaker mantau recipe I posted earlier. The ones at the back with pleats were with mung bean paste filling. And the round ones were red bean paste filling. I made these and freeze individually in the freezer before putting them all in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. Each time I just take out whatever I needed for breakfast or afternoon snack and reheat it in the microwave. Those were the store-bought pastes that I brought back from Malaysia, need to use it before it expired.


Steamed mantau (饅頭) with mung bean paste.


Steamed mantau (饅頭) with red bean paste.

Since this is made using the mantau recipe instead of the bao recipe, the texture is soft and slightly chewy. We can use this recipe to stuff filling but for best result mantau recipe is still a mantau recipe, leave it plain, or brush it with sesame oil and add green onion, or make flavor mantau like yam, black sesame seeds, green tea, chocolate, etc. I saw some duo colors mantau before.

Ground Pork Patties

I had some ground pork at home and was wondering what to make of it because I just used some to stir-fry tofu the previous night. Was thinking of making deep-fry wontan but my girl was having sore throat so that was a bad idea. Then, probably baked meat balls but was too lazy to make a sauce for it. Then, why not pan-fry some pork patties as this would be easier. So, I started seasoning my meat and let it marinated. Wow, this turned out to be so delicious! It's slightly crispy on the edges, moist inside and so flavorful. It will be suitable as a hamburger patties too. Next time try this Asian fusion pork patties for your Summer grilling party ya. It was really good that I quickly pen down my marinade ingredients. I will give an estimate recipe so that you would know which one to put more or less. I will certainly make this again.



Ingredients:

Ground pork (about 1/2 pound)

Seasonings:
Hoisin sauce ( about 2 Tbsp.)
Dark soy sauce (about 1/2 Tbsp.)
Shao Xing rice cooking wine (about 1/2 Tbsp.)
Freshly crushed peppercorn medley/white pepper/black pepper (about 1/4 tsp.)
Paprika (about 1/4 tsp.)
Garlic powder (about 1/4 tsp.)
Cornstarch (about 1 tsp.)



Method:

1. In a bowl, add in ground pork and the seasonings except cornstarch. Mix well and then add cornstarch, stir and mix well until sticky and gooey. Let it marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

2. You can either shape the patties by hands and put it in a medium heat hot oil to pan-fry until cooked. Or you can make the patties the cleaner and lazier way like me. I used a spoon to scoop up a sizable ball of ground mixture and put it in the medium heat hot oil and used my wok chuan (spatula) to flatten it. Turn and cook both sides until done. How do you know it's cooked inside? When you press in the middle of the patties, it is supposed to feel hard, any soft feel means the inside is not completely cooked.

3. Dish out and serve. You can also drain it on paper towel if you like. I omitted this step to keep the oil in to keep the patties moist.

Vietnamese Summer Rolls and Best Peanut Dipping Sauce

We love Vietnamese summer rolls, spring rolls or fresh rolls. We used to frequent one Vietnamese restaurant which served "Nuoc Cham" with the summer rolls and we loved it. And then we started to be more adventurous and tried out other new Vietnamese restaurants around town and discovered a new dipping sauce that was made of Peanut butter and Hoisin sauce. My girls totally loved this dipping sauce and would just lick it off from the spoon. And we started to like this too and would rather prefer this dipping sauce than "Nuoc Cham".

The version of the peanut dipping sauce here are thick and non-spicy. I think they made it non-spicy to suit the American taste buds. Also you can always add the Vietnamese chili sauce if you like it spicy. Because of this peanut sauce, Evy had two summer rolls in one setting for her afternoon snack. Frankly I was surprised because she never had one before and she didn't really like the skin texture of the summer roll. But she said she loved my peanut sauce and thus the summer rolls. My version of the peanut sauce was a hit and both my girls had lots of summer rolls and my hubby didn't touch the "Nuoc Cham" at all. Another surprise because he used to like this sauce with his summer rolls. I guess from now on, I only need to make the peanut hoisin dipping sauce.

Sweet Vinegar Dipping Sauce (Nuoc Cham)

1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup hot/warm water
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/8 cup lime juice

Dissolved sugar in hot water and add in the rest, mixed well. Store any extra in the refrigerator.

2 cloves of garlic, minced
Chopped toasted peanut for garnish

In a bowl, add in some minced garlic, top with Nuoc Cham and garnish with chopped toasted peanuts to serve. You can add minced chili pepper if you like it spicy.

Vietnamese Peanut Hoisin Dipping Sauce

1/2 cup water
4 Tbsp. creamy peanut butter, I used Jif reduced fat
4 Tbsp. Hoisin sauce
2 Tbsp. sugar

Put all in a blender and puree until smooth. Store any leftover in the refrigerator.

Chopped toasted peanuts for garnish

In a sauce bowl, add in the blended peanut hoisin sauce and garnish the top with some chopped toasted peanuts. Seriously, this is spoon licking good as that's how Edda loved hers.

Chicken with Chilli Paste with Sweet Basil Leaves

I always liked Lee brand, I have been using the Tom Yam paste from this brand. So, when aunty Lily said this paste is good and bought me a bottle to try, I was glad. Want to know my verdict? I loved this paste, it's better than the chilli paste with holy basil leaves that I tried earlier. Recently while shopping at the new Asian market here, I actually spotted this paste, but more expensive, so will see if I can get it at PO or VH Asian markets at Denver. Anyone knows?

This is how the paste looks like, I strongly recommend it.

I don't think you need me to provide a recipe for this dish. It's quite straight forward but in addition of adding the paste, I also added a little fish sauce and sugar. One thing though, you need to stir and mix the basil leaves with the chili paste before using. Hope you can find this product at your local Asian markets.

Braised Pork in 5-spice Powder and Mantau

I served my Chinese steamed buns/Mantau 饅頭 with braised pork. This is a recipe shared by Josh (Gan55) in 2005. You can read more from my other link here.

Still in the pot waiting for dinner time to arrive. Imagine my mantau soaking up this deliciously thick gravy.

I will share his recipe here with you.



Ingredients:

Pork belly (I just used any part of pork that has some fat in it)
6 Tbsp. oil ( I used 3-4 Tbsp.)
3 Tbsp. brown sugar
Few slices of ginger
Dark soy sauce to cover 1/5 of the pork belly
3 tsp. 5-spice powder
Water to cover the pork

The uncut pieces of pork waiting to be eaten. The fat is totally melt in the mouth and sinful. I guess once in a while is okay to indulge. Some pieces have more meat than fat.

Method:

1. Heat up a pot/pan with the oil in medium heat. Add in brown sugar and stir until sugar caramelized, careful not to burn it. Add in sliced gingers and stir-fry for a little while. Then, add in the pork and seal both sides of the pork.

2. Add in dark soy sauce until it covered 1/5 of the pork pieces. Then, add water to cover the pork. Braise in low heat for an hour. Add in the 5-spice powder and braise for another hour. Check for tenderness, if not braise for another hour.

3. Take out the pork belly/ pork pieces and reduce the sauce by simmering it. Slice the pork belly into pieces and add the reduce thicken sauce on top to serve.