Chewy Rice Paper Pan-fried Nian Gao

This inspiration came about when I was watching a Korean Variety Show called "Happy Together".  There was a winning dish that used the rice paper to wrap leftover and pan-fried it.  Just so happen that I still have a small piece of nian gao/ steamed glutinous rice cake in the refrigerator, so I thought rice paper and nian gao would go well together and quickly set out to give it a try.  We all loved this chewy variation of eating the nian gao too.  Now I have a new way to enjoy the leftover nian gao from Chinese New Year!  I bet you all have some nian gao laying around your house too right?  Give this a try!! *wink*

Soft and chewy bite with melted nian gao/ tikoy/ steamed glutinous rice cake with a slight crispiness from the skin, simply divine!  If you don't like it chewy, you can also try my Crispy Springroll Fried Nian Gao.  You can omit other filling and just wrap it with the nian gao alone, crispy and delicious!

Almond Milk Pancakes

My girls wanted some pancakes but when I looked through my old keepsake pancake recipes, it called for milk.  Since I don't buy milk anymore, I had to use my alternative almond milk and had to experiment with it.   I told them they had to eat all the pancakes even though it didn't turn out soft and fluffy since this was an experiment.  They agreed and so I gave it a try.  Luckily, the pancake turned out just as delicious and it was also soft and fluffy!!  My girls really enjoyed the almond milk pancakes.

Korean Boneless Spicy Chicken

I once made a Korean style spicy chicken wings  and really loved it.  However, I never make it again because I don't buy chicken wings (the fattest part of a chicken so I want to eat less of it), but my husband loved chicken wings so sometimes he would buy a bucket of buffalo wings to eat.

The other day, we ordered a spicy fried chicken dish in a Korean restaurant and I thought it would be wings and drumettes and was pleasantly surprised that it was actually chicken thigh.   I wonder why I never thought of using the skinless and boneless thigh to make this before!  It gave me such a great idea that I wanted to make this dish again.  Now I can enjoy this dish more often but wondering would it be as good without deep-frying the chicken first?

Adapted from Korean style spicy chicken wings.

Ingredients:

2-3 skinless and boneless chicken thigh meat, cut into pieces
Sweet potato starch/ or cornstarch
Toasted sesame seeds

Sauce:
2 Tbsp. gochujang/ Korean chili paste
1 Tbsp. raw honey
1 Tbsp. mirin
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/8 tsp. white pepper
1 1/2 Tbsp. minced garlic
1 1/2 Tbsp. minced ginger
1 1/2 Tbsp. chopped scallion

Method:

1.  In a bowl, add in all the sauce ingredients, mix until combined.  Set aside.

2.  Heat up your wok with oil.  Coat the chicken thigh with sweet potato starch.  Deep-fry until golden brown or cooked.  Drain on paper towel.  Set aside.

3.  Pour away the oil.  In the same wok, add in the sauce, stir to warm.  Add in the fried chicken thigh and mix and coat each piece with the sauce.  Dish out and serve on a plate.  Garnish with toasted sesame seeds before serving.

Stir-Fried Arugula

Since I was introduced to arugula by mistake a while back, we learned that we actually like this veggie, even my girls liked it (even though it is slightly bitter and lemony). However, this veggie can be kind of fibrous, so I like to cut each leaf into half before stir-frying.  We really loved the Spicy and Sweet Tuna Arugula Pasta and I hope you will get a chance to try it too.  Because my girls like it so organic arugula has been in my vegetable rotation for my family.  I have since added organic arugula and organic baby kale into our vegetables of choice.  I tried to incorporate as much variety of vegetable and fruit into our diet each week as possible.  Sharing with you this easy stir-fried arugula recipe!

Slow Cooker Whole Chicken

This is one SUPER DUPER easy slow cooker whole chicken recipe.  All you need are two ingredients, one whole chicken and a packet of Emperor Chicken spice mix.  In your slow cooker, add in the washed whole chicken, pour the Emperor Chicken spice mix on top of the chicken and give it a good rub to cover all sides of the chicken.  Put it breast side up and turn it to High for 5 hours.  When the internal temperature register as 180'F, it is done.  Soft and tender that it will be easily tear off with your hand.

A tip I learned from my friend's mom, to prevent the cover from moving, stick a piece of white paper in between the cover and the crock pot as shown.  It prevents the moving and  thus the noise and the sprinkling of water on the countertop.

Korean Soy Sauce Pickled

After a while of hiatus from Korean Food, I finally back on with a new Korean soy sauce pickled dish to introduce to you all.  I was introduced to this at a Korean friend's house.  She took this out as a side dish/ banchan for a fish paste kelp soup that she made me.  I totally loved it especially I learned that it can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a year!  I bet it can be kept longer than that.  :-P  So, I came home and made my own.  I used the vegetable that I liked to eat, but you are free to add any vegetable that you like.  All these vegetable will fully absorb the flavor of soy sauce, sugar and vinegar, so it is like sweet, salty and tangy at the same thing when you bite into one.  Go well with rice!

Crisp Citrus Cookies

This Crisp Citrus Cookie is really easy to make by using a food processor.  This is requested by Evy and also I wanted to test out the new cookie cutters that I bought from Amazon.  I think I scored this cookie cutters pretty cheap at Amazon, each pair cost less than $2 each, but I can't remember the specific amount.  Since it was shipped from China, it took awhile to arrive but I can't complain since the shipping was free. If you are in the US and want this kind of cookie cutters, you can buy it via Amazon.  They have a lot of different characters to choose from as well.

Easy Pineapple Rolls

Easy pineapple rolls for a lazy me!  Or should I named it Lazy Pineapple Rolls??  What to do if I want to eat pineapple tart or roll but don't want to spend a whole day of making it?  I gotta think of a short-cut!!  With the earlier Red Bean Pastry Roll, I got the idea of making my pineapple roll the same easy way.  Granted it was not as pretty as the traditional method but I got my pineapple rolls and my girls were happy!  This is mostly for overseas moms who want some CNY treat but don't want to spend too much time of making it.  It's easy, so for those moms who were too scare to attempt it before (or too lazy), you can make this easy version!!

This is not the melt-in-the-mouth pastry, but not too bad I might say.  After years of making the CNY cookies every year, I have gotten lazy so this year I pick or create an even easier cookie recipes to make.  Now my girls are getting bigger and they look forward to my yearly CNY cookies, so I would make some for them.  Last time, I used to make a lot to give to friends but now just for my family consumption.

Simplified Yu Sheng (Yee Sang) for the Year of the Horse

It is the year of the Horse as my Yu Sheng will tell you if you can read Mandarin.  My girls requested I created a running horse on the Yu Sheng, I tried doing that but it was not easy so I settled with this.  Because I didn't have the wonton skin, I made my own fried cracker here, I just used flour, sea salt and water to make the dough.  The trick was to roll it very thin and deep-fried it twice to make it crunchy.  I made the crackers a day before so it made it easier.   Happy to use my homemade raspberry vinegar ginger here and this year no colorings was used in the creation of this Yu Sheng.

Get the simplified Yu Sheng recipe here.

Red Bean Pastry Rolls

A friend shared a link to this recipe via Facebook and it interested me because I had a pack of red bean paste that needed to be used and this recipe looked easy.  I simplified the recipe further by using a food processor and with a ready made red bean paste, this was really easy to make. 

The pastry was crispy on the day it was baked and not as crispy day 2 onwards.  However, it was still a delicious treat.  A change from the usual CNY cookies!

Crispy Almond Cookies

Wow, how time flies!  Another Chinese Lunar New Year to be celebrated and this year is the year of the Horse!  I just realized that I have been blogging for the past 9 years and next year will be my 10 years anniversary!!  WOW!  My blog is getting old and hopefully I am not.  Haha... I really have to thank my readers who have supported my blog and who have come back to read my blog over the years even though I am not a good writer and I don't take beautiful pictures.   Nothing seem to change much over the years blogging wise, except I am now into a healthier eating life style and even simplified cooking method and recipes.  Also just to let you know that you can also follow me on Tweeter, Pinterest and Facebook for the latest blog update.  I hope after so many years, I still have more new recipes to share with you.  Okay long story short, hereby wishing all of you a healthy new year!  Eat healthier, eat healthy, eat more colorful food, eat more variety of superfood, eat more whole fresh food, cut down and minimize processed food and exercise for a HEALTHIER YOU!!  Money is nothing without health, so work on your health first and the rest will come into place.  HAPPY CHINESE LUNAR NEW YEAR!!!

As the name implied, this almond cookie is crispy!  I always made the melt-in-the-mouth peanut/cashew/almond cookies in the past and I wanted a change.  This year I wanted some crispy almond cookies, so I created this recipe.  This was actually my second attempt, my first attempt failed miserably resulted in a soft and melt-in-the-mouth almond cookies (so not sharing my failed attempt here).  I also wanted this recipe to be easily made (as I am famous for!), so out with my food processor!!  You can use your Kitchenaid mixer as a substitute.  Just add and mix and viola and not many things to wash later too.  Very easy and the dough can be easily shape and cut as well.  I didn't even use a roller to roll the dough, I just flatten it with my palms, but if you want an even shape, use your roller!  ;-)

Salted Chicken Egg Steamed Eggs

I made some salted chicken eggs a while back and I had no idea what to do with it.  Haha... you could say that was why I never bother to make my own or even buy salted eggs before.  But since I decided to make some the other day and my family members do not like to eat porridge, so there is no way that I can serve it with porridge.  I didn't want to waste the salted eggs so I made this!    It was so simple and blend well with the steamed eggs and not too salty at all.  I didn't season the beaten eggs for this reason.  Those tiny black dots were white pepper in case you were wondering.  I also added it in fried eggs, like a salted eggs fried eggs and my girls said it was good as well.

Pan-fried Tofu with Broccoli

I was trying on a new sauce called "Wan Ja Shan- Stir Fry Sauce" and I wanted to share it with you all.  It made this stir-fry dish delicious and I only used this sauce alone without any other seasonings.  You can make it into a one dish meal by adding some meat or poultry and serve it with a hot bowl of rice.  Or serve it vegetarian by adding some mushroom with a bowl of hot rice.  You should be able to find this sauce in the Asian supermarket.  You don't have to add a lot, just 1 Tbsp. should be enough for a whole dish.

Slow Cooker Spiced Chicken

I have been using my slow cooker quite often these days because I found it to be such a convenience.  I mostly used it for my Asian style recipes, Chinese herbal chicken tonic soup and Chinese dessert.  Today, I wanted to try it with a western style approach so I used whatever ingredients and herbs that I have in my house.  I loved sage and rosemary as I know these combination would work well together.  I am not disappointed at all as this got two thumbs up from both of my girls.  I served this with white rice and a Chinese style romaine lettuce side dish. 

Delicious Tropical Gluten Free Cookies

This is a little different from my Gluten Free Almond Flaxseed Cookies as I added some tropical feel to it.  I added dried pineapple and dried mango.  You can substitute that with chocolate chips, dried cranberries or raisins.

This tropical cookie is crispy and slightly soft in the middle on the first day.  On the next day, it turns soft and chewy but still delicious.  My younger girl said this cookie doesn't look pretty but tastes delicious.  ;-) Oh well, it looks pretty nutty and healthy (nutrients from almond, flaxseed and coconut) to me, and it is gluten free.  If you try it, remember to feedback to me ya!  I want to know whether you like my creation.

Homemade Salted Chicken Eggs

This is just a spur of the moment thingy as I don't normally consume salted eggs in any kind, no salted duck egg unless in a mooncake and I don't buy salted eggs.  I made this because I had lots of eggs in my refrigerator, bought too much because I couldn't pass up on a deal.  So, I had to preserve some and this was what I could think of at that time.

It is so easy to make your own salted eggs, after that you just have to wait for a month before you can enjoy it.

Sweet & Spicy Tuna Arugula Pasta

I can't believe I made a mistake of buying a vegetable!  I was trying to pick up a bunch of organic spinach and some how mistook the organic arugula as the spinach.  Interestingly, even the cashier thought it was the organic spinach and charged me that.  So, I was clueless until the next day when I decided to wash my spinach.  When I took it out, it smelled different and then when I looked at the leaves, I realized it looked different and then when I checked the tag, it read organic arugula.  WOW!  What a surprise there as I never bought arugula before and frankly not too sure of how to cook it.  So, I searched online and found a recipe that I wanted to try and thought it would taste good.  So, this recipe was inspired by Simply Recipes.  I changed it a little bit to what I had at home at that time and it turned out delicious.  You all should try it too!
Even my husband took a second helping!

Simple and delicious!  Guess next time I can add arugula into my shopping list as I took some to make kimchi fried rice and it was good as well.  I stir-fried the rest with olive oil, chili flakes and sea salt.  How do you normally cook with arugula? 

Citrusy Biscotti with Dried Cranberries, Chocolate Chips and Coconut

This recipe is adapted from my previous Tropical Biscotti Recipe. It is so delicious and I wonder why I only make biscotti during the Christmas holidays.   It is not difficult to make at all, you only need a hand whisk and then a spatula before using your hand to knead the dough.  The only troublesome part is you have to double or triple bake it.  I bake mine three times because I like it brown on all sides.

I already perfected this recipe the last time, even I go back to my old recipe to make biscotti, so you can rest ensure that it will turn out good, not hard rock that you couldn't even bite into it.  It is so good that you can eat it just like that or dip it in your coffee.  I received compliments on my biscotti every time I give it away.

Wishing all of you a very Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!!  It is a long holidays break for the kids, I guess I should start on a new Korean drama marathon.  *wink*

Happy Dongzhi Festival !!

Dongzi Festival falls on the first day of winter.  Chinese celebrate it by eating "Tang Yuan" or glutinous rice balls.  By eating the tang yuan, you are also a year older or wiser.  *wink*  They also cook an elaborate meal to celebrate it with family members. 

These tang yuan were shaped by both my girls.  It is great that now they are able to help me in the kitchen and doing some house chores.  My eldest is interested in learning how to cook now, thus far, she can make her own ramen noodle with eggs and fried eggs.  I will slowly teach her more, it's my way of imparting my cooking knowledge to the next generation.  So that they will know what to do when they are in college.

Last but not least, HAPPY DONGZHI FESTIVAL to all who celebrated and also Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all my readers and family!

Crunchy Pumpkin Spiced Cookies

I finally succeeded in making a better, crispier and crunchy pumpkin cookies than my previous attempt.  Since I don't use canola oil now, I have to find a substitute for it.  I can't use peanut oil because I mostly make this as gift besides our own consumption.  You know, have to be careful about peanut allergy these days.  I don't want to use my extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil because they are expensive.  So, I left with butter, butter is what our grandma used in the old days anyway before cheaper oil replaced it in baking.  Anyway, today we know that butter is a good fat and it would not raise your cholesterol level by eating it in moderation.  So, I am not afraid of butter anymore and have been using it to substitute my older recipes that called for canola oil.  As for my Chinese New Year cookie recipes, I will either use peanut oil or butter as the substitute.

This is so crunchy and delicious!  You just have to make it to believe it!  Now I learned the trick, I have to shape it thin and bake it until it's slightly brown to make it crunchy.  As you can see above, I make it for teachers at school and I hope they like this little crunchy pumpkin spiced cookie!  :-)

If you make this, please do feedback to me ya! 

All Natural Red Hue Pickled Ginger Slices

 

I discovered a way of making the all natural red hue pickled ginger slices so I want to share it with you all.  I actually thought of this while writing a draft post for the raspberry vinegar that I made.  What a coincidence that I was put off by the store-bought version when I realized that they actually used artificial red colorings to make it red.  As my readers probably know, I am trying to feed my family with healthy food choices and cutting down or eliminate artificial food colorings and flavorings are one of it.  I am 100% concurred with the saying that if you are going to feed yourself anyway, why don't feed your body with all natural and nutrients rich superfood?  Why feed your body with more chemicals and toxic (we already have enough of that via air, water, environment, etc), and burden your body to work extra hard to get rid of it?  If your body is overworked all the times everyday, what would happen?  Think about it!

Blackberry Preserves

I love making berries preserves.  Whenever berries are on sales, I would buy a lot (my bad habit) and since we couldn't taste the berries first, it is like playing with luck, sometimes we would get sweet berries and sometimes we would end out with sour berries.  Luckily these days whenever I end out with lots of sour berries, I know I can make jam/preserves with it.  When blackberries were on sales, I bought a lot again because normally blackberries were sweet, unlike raspberries most of the times were sour.  So, imagine my dismay when it turned out to be sour, so sour that none of us want to eat it.  Hence, I made some refrigerator preserves with it, even without realizing it, I have been making my own jam/preserves throughout the summer (blueberries, raspberries and now blackberries).  I also have some blueberries freeze up to make some preserves during the winter.  Another winter jam that I like best is cuties clementines!  I am waiting for cuties to go on sales.

Baked Butter Tilapia Fillets

Baked fish seem like the easiest way to prepare fish for me these days.  It is basically fuss free and ready in 10 minutes.  Since we like the flavor of butter and some crispiness on the fish, I used the dried chopped onion on the fish, it provides the crispiness to the fish fillets.  Also added some dried celery flakes, I guess extra celery flakes and onion won't hurt as those two are pretty much superfood.  Just season lightly with natural sea salt or Himalayan rock salt for the natural minerals.  Just pair it with steamed broccoli and carrot (if you don't eat carb or rice) and Viola and there you have it!  

Quinoa Chili

While browsing the coupon website, I came across this recipe.  A chili recipe that uses a slow cooker and quinoa.  As you know, I love love the convenience of a slow cooker so this recipe hit the spot.  Furthermore, I have about 3/4 cup of quinoa left that I wasn't sure what to do with it,  if I use it to substitute rice, it would not be enough, it has to mix with something more substance to make it into a meal.

Hence this recipe is great as I have some canned beans in my pantry, quinoa, onion, chicken breast and spices in my cabinet.  Just put all in a slow cooker and the dinner is ready!  This is just an idea, you can play with your own recipe!

I also like to wish all my readers a Happy Thanksgiving holidays, drive safely, enjoy each other companies and delicious food.  I will be off during the week to spend it with friends. :-)

Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese Filling

I always wanted to make a pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling as I couldn't trust the ones sold outside at the supermarkets.  Eating healthier also means most of the things we eat now have to be homemade.  I really do not wish to live like my great grandma used to live in this "modern" days, but because of the GMO and toxic chemicals that they put in the processed food, in order to protect ourselves, I am force to make things from scratch.  I do buy organic cookies or non-GMO verified potato chips but I haven't seen non-GMO verified pumpkin roll yet.  So, I have to make it if I want to eat it right?  Anyway, this pumpkin roll is oil free and butter free!!  Most of the fat comes from the cream cheese filling.

This pumpkin roll is soft and kind of spongy (which is strange as I just hand whisked the ingredients).  The cream cheese filling is just yummilicious and a plus for me is that this pumpkin roll is very easy to make (only a hand whisk, a bowl and a spatula plus measuring spoons and cups), quick to mix the batter and filling, 15 minutes to bake and just a little assemble would do.  Not a lot of things to wash too, so try it if you like easy recipe like me.

Chocolate Bread Machine Bread

This is my experiment with chocolate bread made in a bread machine.  It is a soft sandwich bread but lack of chocolate flavor.  I should have added some chocolate chips perhaps?  Or use Specially Dark cocoa powder?  The color looks like whole wheat bread to me instead of chocolate bread. :-P  But it does has a hint of chocolate smell.  Just a hint!

I will probably play with this recipe some more.  Not sure whether we can buy natural chocolate essence here?  Oh well, needs to figure it up more as how to bring up the chocolate flavor without compromising the texture of this bread.  If you know of any idea, let me know.  It has to be made in the bread machine though!