Potstickers/ Guotie

I made Guotie last week, which is a pan-fried version of Jiaozi. In U.S., we called this potstickers. I have been deciding on whether to deep-fry it, boil it or pan-fry this little dumplings and ended out with pan-frying them. I think it's healthier than deep-fry and so much quicker too (since I can do a bunch of them in a non-stick pan). I love the crispy skin at the bottom and soft top skin with moist and juicy filling. Normally we serve Guotie with vinegar soy sauce and chili.

I made two dipping sauces for my potstickers. The top one is sweet vinegar soy sauce with chili oil and chopped scallion. The bottom one is salty vinegar soy sauce with sliced gingers. Of course I also have Sriracha hot chili sauce as an additional dipping sauce (not shown). Got to have my chili right? :)

Dried Lotus Seed Soup

My mom used to cook this soup for us because it's a cooling soup for warm weather. She actually spotted this while shopping at the Asian grocery store in Denver (she was here during my confinement) and recommended me to get it. Now I look for it whenever I go shopping in Denver.

You can also buy each individual ingredient and make this soup yourself, which I did also. This soup consisted of dried pearl barley, dried lotus seed, dried lily bulbs, dried dioscoreae (wai san), dried foxnut and dried polygonatum (yuk chuk).

I boiled it with chicken drumsticks. For sweeter taste, you can use pork ribs or pork bones. I only used half packet of the barley because too much of it makes the soup muddy.

For those who lives in Denver area, you can buy it at VietHoa Supermarket for 50 cents each, cheap right?

Common Chinese Herbs Translation:
Rhozoma Dioscoreae (wai san)
Astragalus Root (pak kay)
Angelicae Radix (tong kwai)
Codonopsis Pilosula (tong sum)
Polygonatum (yuk chuk)
Panacis Ginseng Radix (ginseng, ren shen)
Fructus Lycii (kei chi)

Chicken Curry Rice Dinner

Another one of my super lazy dinner. Can't you tell, I'm lazy all the times? :P This curry is made with Malaysia Traditional Specialties Chilliz - Meat Curry Paste. I added fish balls for Evy.

As for the rice, it's also my lazy version. I just threw cumin seeds, coriander seeds, dried curry leaves and turmeric powder with the rice and cooked in a rice cooker. After I tasted it, I knew this was not the way to do it, should have fried the spices in butter until fragrant then add in the rice and turmeric powder and not forgetting adding some salt, then transfer it to the rice cooker and let it cook. The rice will taste better this way as oppose to my lazy version. Lesson learned eh! Nevertheless, it tasted great with lots of curry gravy mixed in (everything in curry tastes good lah ;P).

P/s: June, I'm trying to meet your demand of posting more spicy food. LOL!

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Decided to make something fresh and refreshing for snack this afternoon. Going with the roll here as I have seen all sort of wraps/rolls popping out in the food blogs to beat the heat of Summer. Also, I had this at V's house recently, so decided to make my own as well.

My hubby loves Vietnamese spring roll. He has to order this every time we go to eat Pho (Vietnamese beef noodle) in a Viet. restaurant. We like the dipping sauce there too, as you can see I was trying to reinvent the sauce for my spring rolls here. Haven't made this for years and learned that to wrap the roll really tight with filling was not easy. Mine was still kinda loose unlike the one we used to in the restaurant, this was also my hubby complain. Luckily, he liked my dipping sauce. :) Guess next time I would have to practise wrapping the roll tightly without breaking the skin!




The fillings for my spring roll as seen above are:
Sliced romaine lettuce, cilantro, tanghoon (vermicelli) and cooked shrimps (or you can use thinly sliced 
cooked pork) .

Click below for my dipping sauce recipe:

Tagged: My Favorite Food ...

I got lucky and got tagged by East Meets West Kitchen for this tag. As a Malaysian it was really hard for me to come out with my favorite food. Come on...there are so many delicious food in M'sia thus how to pick just one? I managed to pick two as my favorite though because these are the two dishes I got to have whenever I go back to M'sia.

1) Nasi Lemak - They called it a Malaysia National Dish and I couldn't agree more. I don't think there is any one Malaysian who don't know what is nasi lemak. We basically see it selling every where in M'sia, be it in a fancy restaurant or mamak stall (hawker stall), either comes wrapped in a fragrant banana leaf with a minimal ingredients or serves in a plate with extra ingredients such as curry chicken, beef rendang, sambal cuttlefish, fried egg, etc, I love it all. :) For those who don't know, it is rice cooked in coconut milk and screwpine leave.

2) My second love is Penang Assam Laksa. I just love the sourness and spiciness from this gravy along with freshly sliced pineapple, red onion, cucumber, lettuce and fresh mint. Of course lots of fish as I made my own, I can afford to add lots of fish with the fat fat noodle top with shrimp paste, who could resist? At least I couldn't! Oh man, now I need a bowl of Penang assam laksa!

OK, now I have to pass the tag to __. Who's the lucky one?


The Cooking Ninja

Fresh from the Oven

Teczcape

I Sha

Stream in the Hip Desert


BTW ladies, no obligation okay? ;)


**Start Copy**

Proposition: What is your favorite food in your state or country?

Requirements: Find some info about the food and show delicious pictures of it?

Quantity: FIVE PEOPLE.

Tag Mode: You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below.


Mybabybay loves Asam Laksa from Penang, Malaysia

JustMyThoughts loves Penang Char Koay Teow

My Lil Venture loves Laksa Sarawak

Monterssorimum loves Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun

Chinnee loves Melaka Wan Tan Mee

PeimunLeah loves Hakka Lei Cha

Hui Sia loves Crispy duck skin from China

Karen loves Pan Mee

Simple American loves Cheese Enchiladas

Nicole Tan loves Char Tau Kueh

velverse loves Otak-Otak

Giddy Tiger loves Dim Sum

may loves Roti Bakar

Selba loves Gado-gado

Chen loves Satay*

eastcoastlife loves Shanghai Buns

Kev loves 蕃薯旦

Bokjae loves Ipoh Sar Hor Fun

Cooking Momster loves Penang Heah Koh & Chee Cheong Fun

Blur Mommy loves Clam Chowder

Granmother Stories loves everything

East Meets West Kitchen loves Good Dim Sum

Little Corner of Mine loves Nasi Lemak & Penang Assam Laksa

Winter Melon Soup

I went shopping at the Asian Market the other day and spotted the winter melon which was actually looking fresh, so I bought it to make soup. The cooking time for this soup is about 30 minutes, a quick and easy soup to prepare.



Ingredients:

1 bowl of 1 1/2-inch cubed winter melon pieces
4 Chinese dried mushroom, soften and sliced
4 slices of fresh ginger
1/2 pound of ground pork (marinate with light soy sauce, Shao Hsing cooking wine, sesame oil, garlic powder, white pepper, salt and sugar, mixed well and let it marinate in the fridge for at least an hour)
3-4 Tbsp canola oil
4-5 cups of water

Seasonings, to taste:
Light soy sauce
Salt
Sugar, about 1 tsp.
White pepper

Method:

1. In a saucepan, add in cooking oil. When hot, add in sliced ginger, stir for a while then add in sliced mushrooms. Stir for a minute, add winter melons and water. Let the water comes to a boil.

2. When boiled, scoop the ground pork with a small cookie scoop and drop into the soup. Add in seasonings, turn the heat to low and simmer until the pork balls cooked, about 20 minutes.

Note: Hubby didn't touch the winter melon at all. Love everything else especially the meat balls but no thanks to winter melon! Picky right?