Stir Fried Baby Bok Choy

Baby Bok Choy has been a regular vegetable in my household. All Asian grocery stores have it, even WalMart and the grocery stores here have it. It is one of the common Asian vegetable and most people know what it is. I buy my Baby Bok Choy at the Asian market here because it is cheaper. Sometimes the Asian grocery store here doesn't carry much vegetable choices, but they always have the Baby Boy Choy and regular Boy Choy (darker green) available and looking fresh. That's why this vegetable is a staple in my house. Sharing with you an easy and delicious recipe.

Chinese Steamed Mantau (饅頭) with Red Bean Paste & Mung Bean Paste

Assorted steamed buns or Mantau with filling. I used the breadmaker mantau recipe I posted earlier. The ones at the back with pleats were with mung bean paste filling. And the round ones were red bean paste filling. I made these and freeze individually in the freezer before putting them all in a Ziploc bag in the freezer. Each time I just take out whatever I needed for breakfast or afternoon snack and reheat it in the microwave. Those were the store-bought pastes that I brought back from Malaysia, need to use it before it expired.


Steamed mantau (饅頭) with mung bean paste.


Steamed mantau (饅頭) with red bean paste.

Since this is made using the mantau recipe instead of the bao recipe, the texture is soft and slightly chewy. We can use this recipe to stuff filling but for best result mantau recipe is still a mantau recipe, leave it plain, or brush it with sesame oil and add green onion, or make flavor mantau like yam, black sesame seeds, green tea, chocolate, etc. I saw some duo colors mantau before.

Ground Pork Patties

I had some ground pork at home and was wondering what to make of it because I just used some to stir-fry tofu the previous night. Was thinking of making deep-fry wontan but my girl was having sore throat so that was a bad idea. Then, probably baked meat balls but was too lazy to make a sauce for it. Then, why not pan-fry some pork patties as this would be easier. So, I started seasoning my meat and let it marinated. Wow, this turned out to be so delicious! It's slightly crispy on the edges, moist inside and so flavorful. It will be suitable as a hamburger patties too. Next time try this Asian fusion pork patties for your Summer grilling party ya. It was really good that I quickly pen down my marinade ingredients. I will give an estimate recipe so that you would know which one to put more or less. I will certainly make this again.

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.