Fried Nian Gao and Sweet Potatoes with Spring Roll Wrapper

An interesting new way to serve nian gao that I noticed this year.  I was eager to try it and I did.  I saw a friend did a deep-fried nian gao with spring roll and she said it was delicious.  But I bought a sweet potato to go with my nian gao already and thus I wanted to incorporate the sweet potato into this spring roll.  Then, I saw another similar post while blog hopping.  That blogger used smashed steamed taro mixed with coconut flakes to wrap the nian gao and rolled it in the spring roll wrapper before deep-frying.  So, that was my "aha" moment.  I can steam and then smash my sweet potato before wrapping it with the nian gao and spring roll wrapper.  The idea was set and I got to work and the resulted product was really crispy and delicious.

I used the steamed nian gao that I did earlier.   The verdict of this nian gao is not what I was hoping for.  I wanted one that would melt when deep fried but this one was not.  It is not as fragrant too maybe it was because I didn't use the palm sugar but the Chinese bar sugar instead.  Therefore the color of this nian gao is not as dark brown.  Overall, it was an okay recipe, definitely not the best.  But I would try it again with palm sugar just to see whether it will have any difference (just want to experiment :-P).

Brie Tuna Wonton

This recipe came about when I decided to create a recipe for brie.  Usually brie is best to serve it with crackers or even toasted English muffin or bagel but I wanted to think outside of the box.   I wanted it a be a healthier combination and also delicious.  So, I created this appetizer or finger food for party or any occasion.

My idea came from cheese wonton but totally different in a sense that I used canned tuna and a slice of brie and some seasoning.  I wrapped it differently too.  After I done deep-frying, it was the taste test time.  I gathered my girls and asked them to try it.  We all loved it and Edda thought it was pork as a filling, LOL!  It's slightly sweet and savory at the same time and brie and tuna came out well together.  It's hard to believe I was actually eating a tuna wonton.

I was at a friend's house during a Chinese New Year Party and she was serving some crackers with Brie as an appetizer.  That was the first time I had brie because I don't normally had cheese in my house or tried any sort of cheeses out there in the market.  My hubby and I were blown away at how creamy and delicious it was but when asked, the host forgot which brand of brie she bought.  I tried one brand in the market and it was not it and tasted horrible. Then, I think I finally found it, it was this Ile De France Le Brie that she was serving at that time.  This cheese was mild and creamy and totally yummy.  This brand is awesome!

Nam Yee Chicken Pieces

Since I bought a bottle of Nam Yee (fermented red bean cubes) to make Chicken Biscuit (Kai Chai Peng), it had been left unattended.  I was not familiar with Nam Yee and that was my first bottle.  I searched the web for recipes that I could possibly use with Nam Yee and collected a few that I could try out.  One of it was fried chicken wings with nam yee. Click read more for my version of the recipe.  I hardly buy chicken wings anymore because I don't want to encourage my girls to eat chicken wings.  And the best alternative I found was chicken thigh which I would cut away the skin and fat before chopping into pieces.

We gave it a thumb up!  The cornstarch gave it a nice crunch and the nam yee gave it a unique taste.  You do get the crunch without the skin!  Next time I would try a bake version, as this will be healthier than deep-frying.

Golden Ingots

 

Sorry for the bad pictures because it was taken at night.  I saw this Golden Ingots at Daily Affairs and decided to give it a try.  It was really an interesting idea and very suitable for Chinese New Year.  The bottom layer was fried beancurd puff (taufu pok) and topped with meat ball of sort. 

I prepared it in the afternoon and took an un-fried version.  The natural lighting made the food looks so good.  Too bad I was just too lazy to fried some just to take the finished products for this post.  I used ground pork and water chestnut for mine with my own seasonings.

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.  :-)

Vietnamese Fried Springrolls (Cha Gio)

We loved Vietnamese fried spring rolls (Cha Gio). I loved the texture and crispiness of fried rice paper, it added a touch of difference from the usual fried Chinese spring rolls or egg rolls. It was quite pricey to order it in a restaurant as it costs about $2 a piece. So, I decided to make it at home. I got to put more ingredients in my filling as usually what we got at a restaurant was filled with minimal ingredients. It was definitely a treat but I hated that my hair smelled of fried oil afterward.

Deep Fried Seaweed Beancurd Rolls

Deep-fried food, hardly anyone can resist. Deep-fried beancurd rolls with seaweed, give me anytime! I finally bought some frozen beancurd sheet at my last visit to the Asian market and I was so eager to try this out. Of course my homemade version was not as pretty as I made the rolls too long. So, when I tried to roll the seaweed around, I noticed that it looked weird with just one seaweed wrapped around it, so I wrapped two seaweeds, one on each end with the thought that I could cut it in half and made a better presentation. And thus tada! This beancurd sheet is actually the vegetarian version of the pork fat sheet that we used to make "5 spice meat roll" (五香肉).

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.

Deep Fried Imitation Crab Legs with Dessicated Coconuts

This dish was created because a reader asked me to come out with a dish which had imitation crab meat, coconut and preferably deep fried for her party. This was what I suggested for her and thought I would share it with everybody as well. Did you know that imitation crab legs can be deep-fried into such a great looking appetizer before? Now I know deep-fried imitation crab legs actually tasted divine especially with the added dessicated coconuts. My recipe is super easy too as I don't like complicated recipes. So, everyone can make this!

Rice Wrapper with Nori and Stir-fried Jicama

Experiment with wrapping my stir-fry jicama (Mung Kuan Char) with Vietnamese rice roll and nori sheet.


Resulted a delicious wrapped rice rolls! I served this kind of rice roll with Thai sweet chili sauce. What a good match and we couldn't get enough of this rice rolls. The nori sheet acts as a barrier so that the rice roll won't be too wet from the stir-fry jicama filling. In addition to that, it also acts as a bonus favor to the rice roll. Got my thumb up!

This is definitely a great appertizer to serve in a party since it is served as a cold wraps and great eaten cold.

Click here for my estimated "mung kuan char" recipe.

Lettuce Cups

Mung Kuan Char (Stir-fry Jicama) on lettuce = Lettuce Wrap Malaysian Chinese way!


This is what I enjoyed tremendously during Chinese New Year Eve reunion dinner. Top with some homemade sweet and sour chili and I'm in heaven! The crunchiness and juices from the jicama pair with the fresh and crunchy lettuce (I used iceberg lettuce here), how can it not be delicious? Of course during Chinese New Year, I top mine with slices of baked chicken too, oh man, I'm salivating just thinking about it.



I used minced shrimps, carrot, Chinese mushroom, jicama and garlic for this stir-fry jicama (mung kuan char). Seasoned with salt, sugar and chicken granules.

Triangle Spring Rolls

Evy has been asking for my seaweed spring roll. Every time she sees my blog and saw the seaweed picture at the title of my blog, she has been asking, "Mommy, I want to eat that, can you make it again?". After numerous requests from her, I finally made her some. Reason being I tried to stay away from deep-fried food if I can, deep-fried food is delicious but can't really eat it too often. This time instead of the wontan wrapper, I used the spring roll wrapper and make it into the triangle shape. I provided a step-by-step pictures guide for those who doesn't know how it was made. Remember to seal it with cornstarch+water mixture (it acts as a glue).

Wontan Rolls with Nori Sheets

I got this inspiration from Tigerfish. She used nori sheet in this recipe and at that time I thought what a great idea. Never realized I can wrap a sheet of nori seaweed in the usual spring roll wrapper, wontan wrapper, egg roll wrapper or like her, beancurd sheet before deep-frying before, what an excellent idea don't you agree? I promised Evy to make her some egg rolls because her daddy was quite reluctant to order it from outside because of the unknown oil used in deep-frying the egg rolls. He is scared of trans fat.


Cut the nori sheet into the appropriate size for the wontan wrapper. Place filling like above and roll it. Seal with water.


How the rolls look like when done. Remember to pinch and seal the edges with water too.


Deep-fry in low-medium heat canola oil until golden brown.


Ready to serve with Thai sweet chili sauce!

Verdict: Absolutely delicious! Love the extra bite the nori sheet provided.

Fried Cutterfish Balls on a Stick

I made something familiar in the supermarket and pasar malam (night market) back home. Usually sold for $1 each and it comes in fish balls, cutterfish balls and shrimp balls.

This snack is super easy to make. Just buy a package of DoDo cutterfish balls (of course you can choose any variety you like), thaw it until soft and deep-fry it in medium hot oil until golden brown. Skewer them into a satay stick and serve with Thai sweet chilli sauce. Kids friendly as well.

Bak Kua

Yeahhh, I finally made Tazz's bak kua. Her recipe can be found here. It took me awhile but glad I did it. I followed the original recipe provided by her blog. I baked mine in a convection oven.

I only made 1/2 pound of ground pork just to test it out. The result was delicious. Even my daughter kept asking for more. Definitely finger licking good and a die die must try recipe. What's more, super easy to make!

Eat it plain or sandwich it in the Hawaiian sweet bun for breakfast or snack, yummy! Will definitely make more the next time, but need to buy parchment paper first, out of it already.

Eve said it can be kept at room temperature up to 3 days in a plastic container. Thanks Eve! :) 

Malaysian Style Spring Rolls

This was my easy version which used only a few ingredients. As this was my last minute subtitute for what I had in mind to cook earlier and thus I didn't have time to thaw the ground pork. You could add ground pork and shredded soften chinese mushroom in your filling.

Ingredients:

-1 jicama, julienned
-1 carrot, julienned
-3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
-1/4 cup of dried shrimps, soften

-Canola oil for stir-frying
-1 tsp. chicken stock granules
-Salt & Sugar to taste
-Sprinkle of white peppers
-A little sesame oil

-Spring Roll wrappers
-Cornstarch glue (2 tsp. cornstarch + 2 tsp. water)
-Oil for deep-frying

Method:

1. Heat up a wok with canola oil. When heated, add in garlic and dried shrimps. Stir-fry until fragrant, then add in jicama and carrots. Stir-fry a little while, add in salt, sugar & chicken granules. Add in a little water. Stir-fry well until jicama soften. Turn off the heat, sprinkle with white peppers and a little sesame oil. Stir well to mix. Dish out to cool in a bowl.

2. When cooled, wrapped the filling in the spring roll wrappers, sealed it with the cornstarch glue. Covered the made one with wet paper towel to prevent them from drying out.

3. When done, deep-fry the spring rolls in hot oil until golden brown and crispy. Drain on paper towel. Serve hot.