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

Stir-fried Chicken with Dried Beancurd Sheet

This dish was created because I didn't have much time to soften the dried beancurd sticks. So, instead of beancurd sticks, I used the dried beancurd sheet. As you can see, it is doable as well. The stir-fry beancurd sheet actually gave a more chewy texture. Not bad at all, give it a try if you have limited time to cook up a dish.

I like the sauce I created with this dish so I had to pen it down quick before I forget. I whipped up new recipe all the times and if I didn't write it down I would forget. So, normally for a sauce that I liked, I will pen it down and post it on my blog for my future reference.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Awesomely delicious!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 pkg. (4 oz) Philadelphia cream cheese, softened
3 eggs
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 cup flour (all purpose, unbleached)
1/2 Tbp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Beat butter in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed 1 min. Gradually add sugar, beating well after each addition, until very light and fluffy. Add cream cheese; beat 1 min. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla extract, beat to mix.

2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter mixture. Beat 1 min or until well blended. Pour batter into greased and floured 8 1/2 x 3 1/2 loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes. Stick with toothpick to check for doneness.

Check out my Green Tea Pound Cake.

Chai Bui (Leftver Vegetable Stew)

This dish is widely popular in a Hokkein household. Usually it is cooked the day after a wedding banquet, on Chinese New Year or whenever there is a lot of leftover. I remembered I always picked the Asian mustard green and siew yoke (roasted pork) to eat. This hot and sour dish is easy to cook, everything in it will be the leftover food except the mustard green. Of course today, we don't really have to depend on the leftover in order to cook this dish (I never have so much leftover in my house). So, I enjoy this dish without much of the leftover. Whenever I buy a whole roasted duck, I will save the bone, neck parts and freeze it in my freezer. Then, I will add it in with some lean pork and lots of Asian mustard green to cook this dish.

Trans Fat in 3 in 1 Coffee or Milk Tea

I couldn't believe my eyes this morning when I opened a newly bought bag of 3 in 1 Taiwan milk tea that was manufactured in Singapore. One packet of this has 0.7g of trans fat! I didn't check the label because it never occur to me that milk tea has trans fat. I quickly looked through the ingredients list and the culprit came from the non-daily creamer used. I was at a shock because I just spent $5 for it and I didn't know whether I should throw it away or just have one packet of milk tea per day until it finished and never to buy it again or double check the ingredients list of this product in the future. I beat myself for not checking the ingredients list. Is it safe to consume 0.7g of trans fat a day? Okay, perhaps that was too much, probably two packets per week (by the way, I have a very good total cholesterol level and optimal LDL reading). Of course I quickly threw away the non-daily creamer in my pantry, luckily I only used this when I ran out of milk. Guess it is all come down to this, back to basic! Eat from nature (vegetable, wild-caught fishes, meat, etc), drink from the fresh (milk, cream, etc), and avoid processed food as much as possible. Now I can see the importance of organic food because certain fresh food is still minimally processed unless it is certified as organic. We never know how many years down the road that the scientist will discover something new again.

Okay, before I lost my focus, the thing I wanted to say is go check the ingredients list on your favorite 3 in 1 coffee, 3 in 1 tek tarik or milk tea. So that next time you can buy other brand that has no non-daily creamer (mom, sis, go check yours too!). I know how we love to drink from the 3 in 1, so I want you to be aware of this too. I love the 3 in 1 coffee because I can never make my instant coffee taste as good as 3 in 1. Of course I quickly checked my 3 in 1 coffee made in Vietnam, I like 3 in 1 Vietnamese coffee because I found it less sweet. Luckily it didn't say it has trans fat in the label and on the ingredients list, it said creamer instead of non-daily creamer. Can I assume creamer has no trans fat because it didn't make from partially hydrogenated oil? Anyone knows?

Imagine all these years when trans fat has not been discovered, people were delighted at the invention of shortening, margarine and non-daily creamer that have low saturated fat that were supposed to be good for us (heart healthy they said). And now all these are considered bad because they were made from hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil that has trans fat that is more lethal than saturated fat. So, all these years we have been eating food that was made with trans fat but not knowing it. Now we have the mean to know and thus should take precaution especially people with high cholesterol and/or coronary heart disease.

Sardine Sandwiches

Sardine sandwich - a popular sandwich in Malaysia. Hmm... but I have no idea whether it is still popular now as I have been living here for so long. This is a flavor I remembered when I was in secondary school when my friends came over to my house to teach me how to make it for a school event. These days, I made it as an appetizer for guest or tea time snack. Not only this is easy to make but very nutritious as well, as we know sardine is a good source of calcium, protein, iron and rich in omega-3 fatty acids.