Vietnamese Summer Rolls and Best Peanut Dipping Sauce

We love Vietnamese summer rolls, spring rolls or fresh rolls. We used to frequent one Vietnamese restaurant which served "Nuoc Cham" with the summer rolls and we loved it. And then we started to be more adventurous and tried out other new Vietnamese restaurants around town and discovered a new dipping sauce that was made of Peanut butter and Hoisin sauce. My girls totally loved this dipping sauce and would just lick it off from the spoon. And we started to like this too and would rather prefer this dipping sauce than "Nuoc Cham".

The version of the peanut dipping sauce here are thick and non-spicy. I think they made it non-spicy to suit the American taste buds. Also you can always add the Vietnamese chili sauce if you like it spicy. Because of this peanut sauce, Evy had two summer rolls in one setting for her afternoon snack. Frankly I was surprised because she never had one before and she didn't really like the skin texture of the summer roll. But she said she loved my peanut sauce and thus the summer rolls. My version of the peanut sauce was a hit and both my girls had lots of summer rolls and my hubby didn't touch the "Nuoc Cham" at all. Another surprise because he used to like this sauce with his summer rolls. I guess from now on, I only need to make the peanut hoisin dipping sauce.

Chicken with Chilli Paste with Sweet Basil Leaves

I always liked Lee brand, I have been using the Tom Yam paste from this brand. So, when aunty Lily said this paste is good and bought me a bottle to try, I was glad. Want to know my verdict? I loved this paste, it's better than the chilli paste with holy basil leaves that I tried earlier. Recently while shopping at the new Asian market here, I actually spotted this paste, but more expensive, so will see if I can get it at PO or VH Asian markets at Denver. Anyone knows?

This is how the paste looks like, I strongly recommend it.

I don't think you need me to provide a recipe for this dish. It's quite straight forward but in addition of adding the paste, I also added a little fish sauce and sugar. One thing though, you need to stir and mix the basil leaves with the chili paste before using. Hope you can find this product at your local Asian markets.

Braised Pork in 5-spice Powder and Mantau

I served my Chinese steamed buns/Mantau 饅頭 with braised pork. This is a recipe shared by Josh (Gan55) in 2005. You can read more from my other link here.

Still in the pot waiting for dinner time to arrive. Imagine my mantau soaking up this deliciously thick gravy.

I will share his recipe here with you.

Malaysian Chinese Cookware 101

Anyone with a decent amount of experience in the kitchen understands how the material, size, and shape of the cookware sets used have a strong influence over how your final dish will come out. This is especially important with traditional dishes that rely on specific flavors and textures that are associated with a particular country’s culture. In the case of cooking traditional Malaysian Chinese dishes, there are a number of fundamental cookware items that will give the delicious and satisfying results you’re looking for to serve to your friends and family. Since Malaysian Chinese dishes use a number of different vegetables and meat options, it’s important to take notice of the many ways in which you can prepare a delicious meal for your family.

One of the basic cookware items to have around your kitchen is a bamboo steamer that is perfect for steaming vegetables or making the traditional Yum Cha dish. In addition, a wok set of varying sizes serve as a great tool to use when cooking all of your meal’s ingredients together. The bowl-shaped pan distributes heat evenly throughout the depth of the pan and will allow you to toss both vegetables and meat together to create the stir fry dish you’re looking for. Clay pot cooking for Malaysian dishes is a reliable cookware piece to use for putting together soups and stews or steaming a side of vegetables. They are also versatile in design as they can be used in the oven or on a stovetop surface for slow-cooking meats or creating a delicious casserole.

In addition to the main cookware items used for traditional Malaysian cooking, it’s a great idea to consider adding smaller cooking utensils to your collection in order to make the cooking process easier. Such items include ladles, copper wire strainers, and steam racks that can be used while you’re cooking various meat and vegetable meals. Wok turners and ladles will allow you to handle the ingredients cooking in the wok more easily while wire strainers and skimmers will help separate any components of the meal you need to put more attention on.

The above article was written by a guest writter, Suzanne, an expert at cookware.com.

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.