Stir Fried Sweet Potato Starch Noodle

Made with 100% sweet potato starch, it is a Korean style noodle, usually used in making a Korean dish called Japchae. I like the texture of this noodle and have been buying it to stir-fry. I still season it with the Korean flavor because I think it is most suitable for this type of noodle. Why change the tradition right? But I did use the ingredients I have in the house for this. I just soaked the noodle with warm water until soften, drained and finished it in the wok with other stir-fried ingredients. I didn't pre-cook the noodle first.

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast, thinly sliced and seasoned with soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil.
1/4 head of cabbage, thinly sliced
1 carrot, julienned
5-6 Chinese dried mushrooms, soften in hot water, drained and thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp. of toasted sesame seeds

Seasoning to taste: soy sauce, salt, sugar, sesame oil.

1 packet of sweet potato starch noodle (can see picture through the above JapChae link)

Method:

1. Soak sweet potato starch noodle in warm water until soften, drain and set aside.

2. Heat a wok with some cooking oil. Stir fry garlic until fragrant, add in chicken breast, stir fry until cooked. Scoop the chicken to the side of wok, add a little oil if need to. Add in mushrooms and stir-fry well. Add in carrot and cabbage, mix all together and stir fry well.

3. Add in noodle and mix well. Add in seasoning and season to taste. Pour in a big serving plate or bowl. Lastly add in toasted sesame seeds and mix well. Serve warm or cold.

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast. This week host is Ruth herself, do go and check out Once Upon a Feast round up on Friday, Oct 2nd!

Deep Fried Shrimp Wontan

I happen to have some wontan skin in the freezer and also I haven't done any deep-fry food for awhile, so I thought I would give my girls some deep-fry treat. They loved crispy and crunchy food but I have cut down a lot of deep-fry food. So, whenever Evy asked for it, I will make them the healthy crunchy baked chicken strips or baked crunchy fish fillets. They all loved it and I can provide the crunch without the oil.

The idea of this dish came along from food bloggers who used the whole shrimp instead of minced shrimps with pork as filling. I added onion and carrot just because I always wanted to have some veggies in my cooking. By doing it this way, my girls tend to eat the onion too. Otherwise, they would just picked out the onion and put it on the side of their plates. No matter how I stress that onion (or ginger, or bell pepper) is good for their bodies, it just went it one ear and out the next. *sigh*



Ingredients:

Shrimps, marinate with hoisin sauce, sesame oil, salt and white pepper.
Some sliced yellow onion
Some sliced carrot
Wontan wrappers
Oil for deep-frying

Some water to seal

Method:


1. Take a piece of wontan skin, put a shrimp in the middle, add some onion and carrot.


2. Put some water at the edge of the wontan wrapper and seal the filling like shown above.


3. Add a little water at the corner and stick it together like above picture.

4. Prepare the rest as shown. Heat a pan with enough oil to cover. Turn to medium heat and deep-fry the wontan in batches until golden brown. Drain on paper towel before serving.

Special Fried Eggs

Why is this fried eggs so special? Because I added black sesame seeds in it! Sesame seed has antioxidant and anti-cancer properties and rich in iron, magnesium, copper, calcium, manganese and contains vitamin B1 and E. It is pretty hard to incorporate sesame seeds into our diet unless we use sesame oil frequently or eat cookies or bread made with sesame seeds. So, one day when preparing my beaten eggs for stir-fried, I saw my bottle of black sesame seeds in the cabinet and thought why not. I could hardly taste the sesame seeds at all, so my girls ate it with no problem. Well, unless of course you have an allergy reaction towards sesame seeds, this will be another way to consume sesame seeds.

Evy had some sort of reaction like swelling of eyelid, face and lips and hives on her body. We took her to her pediatrician and he said it was an allergic reaction. Now I am wondering whether it is the sesame seeds. Since she started having diarrhea after consuming some toasted sesame seeds noodle, but what strange was she had sesame seeds cookies, sesame chicken, sesame seeds oil cooking before and never encountered any allergic reaction. After two days of observation, I finally discovered the cause, and it was the new non-stick pan that I bought. Now, it's all fell into pieces as she started having diarrhea when I started using the new pan. After that, she started having hives and swollen lip, etc. I gave her the allergy medicine and it was all gone, she was having the sesame chicken and peanut butter & jam bread with no problem. And then, after she had some fried eggs cooked with the new pan, her condition resurfaced. So, that was how I found out it was the new non-stick pan, otherwise, I would not have thought of this. As this is the only new thing that I bought recently and used. So now, back to my good old wok. At the mean time, also wondering what's in the new non-stick coating that made her have such an allergic reaction.

Ingredients:

4 large eggs
A handful of fresh cilantro, thinly sliced
2 tsp. black sesame seeds
A little milk (I used 2%)
1 tbsp. dried onion flakes
White pepper to taste
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp. Chicken granules (optional)

Method:

1. In a bowl, cracked in the eggs, beaten well. Add a little milk and the rest of the ingredients. Beat well.

2. In a hot non-stick wok pan, add in some cooking oil of your choice. When hot, pour in the beaten eggs batter. Cooked, flipped on both sides until cooked. Serve hot.

Green Tea Buns with Green Tea Crusted Topping

My twist on Rotiboy (or Mexican Buns)! Instead of the coffee flavored that we have known and loved, I made it into green tea flavored. As my readers know, I love green tea powder or matcha and I had done some baking based on it as well. This recipe came about while I was looking at my previous Rotiboy's post, I thought of this idea, why not experiment it in a different flavor and green tea just stood out. So, I have this recipe in file for me to try for months, but just never gotten to really make it (blame my laziness). I finally made it today because my store-bought bread is running low and I am short of posts to post in my blog. So, that did it, I had to take my breadmaker out and start working. :P

These green tea buns came out so good, soft and fluffy (it even left a dent when my fingers picked out the buns to cool) with the crusty sweet topping that I loved. Simply delicious! If you love green tea, you should give this bun a try! I will certainly make more of this. :)


Resting and proofing until double in size.


Then, pipe the topping into spiral on top of each bun.


Add a little black sesame seeds in the center of each bun.


Like this! Don't spread the sesame seeds all over, just place it in the center as the topping will spread out when baking.

Green Tea Buns: (Yield about 18-20 buns)

230ml cold water
1 Tbsp. milk powder
1 large egg
5 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. green tea powder for baking
2 3/4 cup bread flour
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. bread improver
1 Tbsp. instant yeast



Method:

1. Add everything according to your bread maker manual. Turn on the dough function and let the bread maker do the work.

2. When done, take the dough out, give it a few kneads and roll the dough in cylinder shape, cut out individual portion, roll it into ball and place it on a baking pan lined with parchment paper.

Note: You can add filling you like at this point such as cream cheese, red bean paste or salted butter. (I omitted filling to cut down on calories and fat)

3. Cover with plastic wrap and let it proof for 45-60 minutes depending on the temperature of your room (or double in size).
4. When double in size, pipe the green tea topping on top of each bun in spiral motion and add some black sesame seeds in the middle. Bake in the preheated 375'F oven for 10 minutes.

5. Cool on wire rack and keep the leftover in the air-tight container. If the topping turns soft (should turn soft) the next day, just toast it in the toaster oven for 4-5 minutes, the topping will turn crispy again.



Really very soft and fluffy. Delectable!

Green Tea Crusted Flavored Topping:
1/3 cup + 1 Tbsp. sifted cake flour
1/4 cup sifted icing sugar
4 Tbsp. of soften butter (or 1/4 cup)
1 large egg
1 tsp. green tea powder for baking

Step:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Whisk until well blended and put it into a piping bag (or a zipper bag and cut the corner off) in preparation for spiral piping on top of each bun.

Stir Fried Imitation Sea Cucumber

I saw this dish featured on CCTV4 recently and though what an interesting idea. I never buy sea cucumber before, love to eat it but have no clue how to handle it. Another reason of not buying is my hubby doesn't like it. So, when I saw this imitation sea cucumber made using the seaweed, I was intriguing and wanted to try it. Well, I supposed to shape it into an oblong shape to resemble the sea cucumber but I did not bother. This Chinese food series named Everyday Food does not come with measurement, they cooked with feel like every Chinese cook. So, I tried my best to recreate the dish. It tasted pretty good, the deep-fried ones are crispy and good on it's own. The sauteed one was kind of chewy, just different.


The batter ready to deep-fry. I really not sure whether I should add more flour in it or not since that cook seem to be able to shape it into an oblong shape with this batter. Hmmm...


The finished deep-fried imitation sea cucumber.

Ingredients:

(A)
Chinese seaweed, soften and drained (also called wild laver)
1 egg
Flour
Fresh mushroom, chopped (I used canned mushroom)
Salt
Sugar
White pepper
MSG (I used chicken granules)

Sauce:
soy sauce
sugar
rice wine

Color bell peppers (I omitted this because I have none at home)
Carrot
ginger
scallion


Good on it's own.

Method:

1. Mix (A) together in a bowl. And then deep-fry until golden brown and drain on paper towel. Try to shape it into an oblong shape if can.

2. Mix the sauce into a small bowl and set aside. Prep and cut the bell pepper, ginger, scallion and carrot.

3. In a hot wok, add in a little oil. When hot, add in ginger and scallion, stir-fry for awhile, then add carrot and bell pepper. Stir-fry well, add the sauce and the imitation sea cucumber. Give a quick stir (add cornstarch water if you want) and dish out to serve.

Kailan with Tofu

Another easy home cook meal from me. I tried Chai Hsin with tofu before and really liked it, so decided to stir-fry it with kailan this time. It turned out very good too. I guess now I can stir-fry the tofu with various kind of different Chinese greens and can come out with a healthy and delicious dish that good eaten with rice. What best is you only need oyster sauce to season it or just salt and soy sauce would do.

Ingredients:

Chinese Kailan, washed each leaf separately and cut thinly (I only used the leaves here)
Firmed tofu, cut like above picture
1 small carrot, sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
Oyster sauce to taste

Method:

1. In a wok, heat up with some oil. When hot, add in garlic and fry until fragrant but do not burn. Add in kailan and stir-fry well. Add in carrot and stir-fry for a minute.

2. Add in tofu, oyster sauce and a little water. Stir well to mix, be careful not to break the tofu too much. Dish out and serve hot.

Special Peanut Butter & Ketchup Noodle

I created this special noodle for our Friday noodle night. I thought ketchup and peanut butter would go well together and I was right. This noodle was delicious and it would be great if I have some beansprout to add to it. You can add more lime juice for a more sour taste and/or even sprinkle the top with toasted crushed peanuts or sesame seeds. Of course this dish is not for people with peanut allergy. I did not have a measurement for this, I just cooked with feel. Hence, only attempt this dish if you are an intermediate cook that is good at feeling it when you cook. Good Luck!



Ingredients:

Large shrimps, cut into half
Firm tofu, cut into rectangle cubes
Dried shrimps, soaked until soften, drain
Carrot, thinly shredded
Cilantro, washed and cut
Garlic, chopped
2 large eggs
1 packet of thin dried rice stick noodle, soaked and soften in warm water

Sauce:
Peanut butter, soften with some hot water
ketchup
fish sauce
lime juice
sugar
salt
dark soy sauce
Chili powder

Method:

1. Mix all sauce ingredients into a bowl. Set aside.

2. In a wok, heat up with some oil, pan-fry the tofu until slightly brown, dish out and set aside. With the remaining oil, stir-fry the shrimps until pink or cooked, dish out and set aside. Add more oil in the wok, pan-fry the eggs and dish out and set aside.

3. With the same wok, add in a little oil. Stir-fry the dried shrimps and garlic until fragrant. Add in carrot, fry well. Then, add in the soften noodle and sauce. Stir well to mix. Add in tofu, shrimps, fried eggs and cilantro, stir to mix well. Taste test and season with salt and sugar accordingly. Serve hot!

I'm sharing this noodle with Presto Pasta Nights, an event created by Ruth from Once Upon a Feast. This week host is Sweet Kitchen, do go and check out her round up on Friday, Sept 18th!