Water Chestnut Jelly Cake

If you have been reading my blog, you probably aware that I did this before but the plain version.   With the yellow rock sugar that I used, my water chestnut cake turned out white, not the result that I was looking for.  So, this time I played with the recipe and used Malaysia's Gula Melaka and added the chopped water chestnuts.  It turned out so much better, love the fragrant of Gula Melaka that I could taste with each bite as well as the added crunch from the water chestnuts.  It is really refreshing eaten it cold straight from the refrigerator.  I prefer this instead of pan-frying it with batter, less grease thus healthier.

This will be the way I am making this in the future until I am out of the Gula Melaka, then the other substitute that I could think of will be the Chinese brown sugar in bar shape.  That would give me the color that I want but with different fragrant.

Deep Fried Oyster Mushrooms

I saw this recipe emerged during the Chinese New Year period.  Deep-fried oyster mushrooms, how interesting and said to be delicious.  I seldom do deep-frying so it has taken me a while to revisit this idea of deep-frying oyster mushrooms.  Speaking of which, I wonder why people only do this during Chinese New Year?  Since I have tried this, I got to say it is very delicious when just out of the deep-fryer, it is hot and crispy on the outside and slightly soft inside.  I was trying a new batter here and it turned soft when cold, so you got to eat this hot!  Or use your trusted batter recipe for this.

This is the fresh oyster mushrooms.  You can buy it at the Asian grocery store.  It is said to be able to lower the cholesterol levels because it is naturally contain lovastatin.  Asian eat this mushrooms a lot, we used it in soup and stir-fry.  I prefer the fresh one when comes to oyster mushrooms, the canned oyster mushroom has a smell that I dislike.

Chinese Water Chestnut Cake

My friend gave me three packets of water chestnut flour recently.  I wanted to try this Chinese water chestnut cake for a long time and finally I got my chance.  The above is my Chinese water chestnut cake without the bits of chestnuts.  I didn't have the water chestnuts but decided to make it anyway.  It turned out pretty good I think, tasted like cold jelly straight from the refrigerator.  I will certainly play with this recipe in the future because I saw others people water chestnut cake in yellow color instead of white.

This cake is actually served during Chinese Lunar New Year by Chinese, depended on where they are located.  I don't think we Malaysian eat this during Chinese New Year.  I pan-fried this with the equal mixture of flour: rice flour.  The batter was really crispy!

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.  :-)

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.

Sweet Lily Buds and Lotus Seeds Soup

This is a pretty common Chinese sweet soup in Malaysia. I know I didn't like this soup when I was little or when I was back in Malaysia. It is just not my thing especially the lotus seeds and lily buds, not something that youngster would like. But as I got older, my taste bud changed as I am more into healthy food these days or food that would provide benefit to my body as to the opposite. I came into this soup again and the benefits of drinking this simple soup really changed my mind about this soup. This soup is said to be supporting heart, nourish kidney, fight memory loss, insomnia, loss of appetite, nourish brain especially for students or white collar workers who need to use brain to think a lot and anti-aging. I believed in Chinese medicinal soup for prevention and overall body wellness so I guess I will cook this sweet soup frequently from now on. Yeah, I thought my girls wouldn't like this soup but surprisingly they both loved it, even finishing all the lotus seeds, longan, wolfberries and lily buds I gave them. I seriously thought they wouldn't eat the lotus seeds and lily buds like when I was young.

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).

Duo Colors Marbled Tang Yuan (Glutinous Rice Balls)

I saw this recipe on CCTV4 TV food program, "Everyday Food" and thought what an excellent idea! Thought I share it with my readers here, so we will have another way to serve our favorite dessert "Tang Yuan". As I mentioned earlier, in order to incorporate more diary into the Chinese families diet, they have used fresh milk in cooking and making dessert. Usually we used water to make glutinous rice balls but for your own family consumption, you now have the option to use fresh milk for extra nutrient, what an excellent idea right? Also, I never thought that I can add cocoa powder into making my glutinous rice balls too, we usually just use the different colorings. Can you tell, I really learned a lot from this episode. It looked too pretty not to try it out especially all of us adored "Tang Yuan". So, I gave it a go and really liked it, you can give it a try too!

I want to wish my readers a "Happy Mid-Autumn/ Moon Cake Festival" too! Enjoy the mooncakes, food, full moon and good company!

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*

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.

Chinese Peanut Soup Dessert (花生糊)

This is one of the desserts serving in the Chinese restaurants. I vaguely remember this dessert until I was served this while dining at a Chinese restaurant in Denver two years ago. Yeah, it was a while back as recently I have no luck in getting this as a free dessert anymore, usually it was either green bean with sago or red bean soup. In case you were wondering, few Chinese restaurants in Denver give free tea and dessert at dinner and free tea, soup and sometimes jelly/oranges for lunch. Not bad yeah?

That one time seem to be embedded deep in my memory as I couldn't forget this delectable dessert. I remembered I used to have this dessert at the wedding banquet in Malaysia ages ago. Not sure whether they still serve this as one of the wedding banquet desserts today or the more fancy kind? Anyway, because I wanted to eat it again so I have to make it. I just made a batch of toasted ground peanuts for my Vietnamese sauces earlier and kept it ready in the freezer. So, I thought I can used that to make my peanut soup. Thus, I made it my short cut way and it was really good, not too sweet, just nice. Of course if you like it sweeter just add more sugar to taste.

“Mala Hot Pot” (麻辣火鍋)

I received a packet of "Mala" (麻辣) paste from a friend from China. Frankly I never had "Mala" steamboat before, all I know was from watching the food show on Chinese TV. It is called "Mala" because it is made with Sichuan peppercorns which tends to give a numbing effect and lots of chili peppers which gave the hot/spicy effect. I precooked the paste in a big pot of water as the soup base for our hot pot/steamboat.

Getting the table ready for the steamboat of three adults and two kids. Yeah my non-traditional steamboat pot, whatever works right? ;-)

I just prepared some basic such as marinated chicken breasts, marinated pork slices, shrimps, fish fillets, napa cabbage and baby bok choy.

This side we have canned enoki mushrooms, canned button mushrooms, baby corns, cut regular tofu, tofu fish cake, fried fish balls, fish balls and bee hoon (noodle).

The “Mala Hot Pot” (麻辣火鍋) in action. When the "Mala" soup is boiling, just add the ingredients to cook. Let it boiled for few minutes before dishing it out to individual bowls to enjoy. Normally people eat a few rounds of this and chit-chat until late at night. My hubby and guest had Bailey and cold beer with their steamboat. I had lots of water because it was real spicy for me. Imagine whatever you took out from the pot coated with a layer of the numbing and extremely hot chili oil. You would probably scream for milk to cool it down instead of water. Haha... Oh, my kids had the chicken soup version if you are wondering.

The "Mala" (麻辣) soup base. The soup is really oily with a layer of chili oil and very hot/spicy! I prepared a big pot and we ended up having hot pot for two days in a row, with the leftover soup and leftover ingredients.

The Chili sauce that I made, but was too spicy to eat with the already spicy "Mala" soup. We only used the soup base to cook the ingredients, according to our Chinese friend, the soup is not supposed to be consumed, they only used it to cook the ingredients. First I heard of it because we Malaysian Chinese drink the soup, but not sure people drink the "Mala" soup or not because it's really hot. My hubby ate it anyway, but it was too spicy and oily for me.

The vinegar soy sauce that I liked. I added some thinly sliced gingers and it went well as dipping sauce.

Free flow of crispy fried shallots to add in the broth while cooking or in your own bowl.

In conclusion, “Mala Hot Pot” (麻辣火鍋) is really HOT/SPICY and oily. I actually dished out the layer of chili oil for our hot pot the next day. Without the layer of oil it was actually not bad at all, at least it was not that hot anymore. Next time I want to try the herbal soup base version.

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.

Gong Xi Fa Cai 2009

I want to wish all my readers a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous Lunar New Year!! May this Ox year brings us great happiness, better economy, full tummy and wealth.

Too lazy to make pineapple tart this year, so I only pick easy cookies to make. For easy access of my recipes, click the links below:

Cornflakes cookies
Crispy Pizzelle
Peanut cookies
Kuih bangkit
Almond flavored sugee cookies

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!

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.

Pandan Kuih Bahulu (or Kuih Bahlu)

I bought a light non-stick kuih bahlu pan at my recent trip back in Malaysia. This was not the traditional heavy kuih bahlu pan because I certainly wouldn't want to carry those. Since I got the pan, I wanted to test out the pan and I found the kuih bahlu recipe at Rainbows. I added pandan paste into mine because I was curious of how it would taste like. In my first batch, I sprayed the pan with some butter spray and all the pattern disappeared. So, I learned a lesson there. I didn't spray on my second batch and above was what I got. The pattern was not as clear cut because the indentation in the pan was not deep compared the the traditional mold.

Since I have not eaten any store-bought kuih bahlu or any kuih bahlu made with the mold for ages, I couldn't tell how this was. Thus I purposely made this to bring to my friend's house and let them be the judges. According to the hubby, it's better than store-bought and it was pretty good, he said the store-bought one was really dry. According to the wife, it's still a bit dry compared to the one her MIL made. I thought it was kind of chewy. How is it supposed to taste like huh?

Update: I did some research on the web and the texture of kuih bahulu is supposed to be dry, crispy outside and slightly spongy inside and best eaten with coffee/tea because of it's dry texture.

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).