Steamed Mantau (Chinese steamed bun, 饅頭) using a Breadmaker

My assorted shapes of steamed buns or 饅頭. Can you tell I was playing with the shapes and failed miserably? Haha... I was trying to follow the pictures guidance from a Chinese cookbook that I have and I was totally sucked at it. Later I just simply shaped it however I liked. Do you see some scallions on some of the steamed buns? Those are my variation mantau listed below. I also tried some with black sesame seeds but didn't get much taste out of it.

This is a recipe shared by Gina few years ago. I copied it down because I loved the idea of using a bread maker to make mantau (as you know I am lazy). I think I told her I am going to try her recipe but I never did until now (see, now you know how lazy I am). I wanted to make this to eat with my soy 5-spice powder braised pork (coming up), so that was the motivation I needed. So glad I did, the steamed bun/mantau was indeed very soft and fluffy when warm. My girls couldn't stop popping it into their mouths too. Thanks Gina for sharing her tried and tested recipe! She got the recipe from a Taiwanese cookbook called "Zhong Dian Zhi Zuo".

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.

Fried Rice with Asian Mustard Green (Gai Choy) and Shrimps

Once I discovered a veggie, I went crazy with it. If you are my avid reader, you should have noticed that a new veggie in my blog has surfaced. That's right, that's Asian mustard green or gai choy. I have been in love with this veggie and have been buying it and thus have been cooking it and thus the sprout of gai choy recipes in my blog. A dear reader of mine provided me with this great idea. She left in my comment that her mom used it to fry rice and the thought of fried rice with gai choy hasn't left my mind ever since. I could have tasted it in my mind how delicious it is going to be and determine to make my own.

Stir-fried Flat Rice Noodle (kway teow/ hor fun) with Black Pepper Sauce

Bought some flat rice noodle (kway teow/ hor fun) and decided to cook something different with it. Instead of the usual Penang fried kway teow or the Chinese style beef hor fun, I wanted something unusual. Since I alway have a bottle of LKK black pepper sauce in my refrigerator, I thought the combination would be great. So, I stir-fried my first kway teow in black pepper sauce.

Crunchy Chocolate Mint Cookie with Candy Cane

As I prefer crispy and crunchy cookies, I played around with the recipe again. This time I added the crushed candy cane into the cookie dough and baked it together. I liked this version better, it's hard and crunchy with the burst of mint each time you bite into it. Me and my girls loved it. Of course if you don't have any candy cane on hand, you can omit it. It is optional since pure peppermint extract is added. If you are brave enough to try this, feedback to me ya. :-)