Nian Gao

Fried Nian Gao is another snack that some household will fried during Chinese Lunar New Year.  It is consider good luck when you eat during CNY period.  I preferred fried type than steam type(coat with grated coconut).  Again, this year I deep fry one piece of nian gao together with one piece of sweet potato.  Some people deep fry nian gao with sweet potato and yam so it is up to individual preference.
Recipe adapted from a website 2 years ago.

Ingredients:

Nian Gao, (sliced)

Sweet Potato, (remove skin and sliced)

Batter coating:

1/2 cup rice flour

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/2tsp baking powder

100-115ml water

1/2 egg

1/2 salt

Oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Combine all flour, baking powder, egg, salt and water together.  Whisk till smooth batter formed.

2. If batter too thick, add in some water little by little at a time.  Do not make the batter too watery as it cannot hold nian gao later.

3. Place 1 piece nuan gao and 1 piece sweet potato together and dip into the batter.  Then put into hot oil and deep fry using medium slow heat till it turn golden brown.

盆菜 (Pen Cai)

My first lunar new year dish for year 2015 will be Pen Cai (盆菜)。This is my simple homecooked version.  Hope my hubby and my kids like it.

盆菜 
Pen Cai
Ingredients:
Abalone
Roasted Chicken thigh
Prawns
Mushroom, soak in some water to soften the mushroom and remember to trim off the middle hard portion.
Straw Mushroom
Dried Scallop
Cabbage
Brocolli

Soup Base:
250 ml Swason Chicken Broth
Water from soaking mushroom
300ml Water

Recipe for roasted chicken: Roasted Chicken Thigh


Method:
1. Boil soup base in a pot. Add mushroom and dried scallop in it and let it slowly simmer/ braised for abt for 45min to 1 hrs.  Take out and set aside. Then blanch brocolli using the soup base.
2. In a claypot, lay cabbage in it. Add some soup base in it and simmer for few mins till cabbage is cooked.
3. Then arrange the roasted chicken thigh, brocolli, straw mushroom, mushrooms, prawns, dried scallop, abalone on top of the cabbage.
4. Scoop the remainder soup base in it and simmer for few mins.
5. Serve

kok Chye

Kok Chye is my childhood favourite snack during CNY.  My late Gu Ma's kok chye is the best of all that I have eaten but too bad that I do not know her recipe for making kok chye.

This have been in my to-do list for few years but every year after all my chinese new year goodies bakes, I am totally tired and forgotten to try this kok chye recipe.  I cannot remember where I goggle this recipe but really thanks the owner of this recipe.  It is crunchy and not those hard type.

Breadcrumb texture

Dough formed

Flatten dough till thin

Add filling

Fold up and ready for pleating

Pleating done. Ready for deep frying

Youtube clip sharing on how to pleat kok chye

Ingredients:

150g plain flour

35g rice flour

60g butter, unsalted

50ml cold water

1/2 egg from 1 large egg

Filling: (mix all ingreds together)

112.5g grounded peanut

1.5tbsp roasted and crushed sesame seed

60g fine sugar

25ml peanut oil

Peanut Oil for deep frying

Method for pastry:

1. Use finger tip to mix butter, all flour till breadcrumbs like.

2. Add cold water and beaten egg. Mix into a pliable dough.

3. Rest for 15mins.

To make puff:

1. Roll pastry into thin sheet and use round cutter cut into 2inch round shape.

2. Put in 1/2tsp of filling into the centre and wrap up filling. Pinch edge neatly.

3. Heat up oil for deep frying. Fry till golden brown using med heat.

4. Remove and drain onto kitchen paper.

5. Store in airtight container once completely cool.

Kueh Makmur (Using Butter Method)

These have been in my list to do item for quite some time.  Yesterday night decided to try doing it.  Very happy it turn out well, quite nicely clipped to form leaf shape.  Thank you Catherine Han for sharing your recipe.

Recipe shared by Catherine

Ingredients:

300g plain flour

150g cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

250g chilled unsalted butter (cubed)

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla essence

Few drop of green food colouring (optional)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp full cream milk powder

1 tsp emplex (can be omitted if you do not want preservative in your bake)

6 tbsp cold water

Filling: (mix well together)

200g chopped/ grounded roasted peanut

80g castor sugar

2 tbsp shortening

Method:

1. Sift flours, baking powder, emplex and full cream milk powder together. Then add salt.

2. Cut butter into cubes and rub into the flour till like bread crumb formed.

3. Mix egg yolks, vanilla essence, green food colouring and water together. Beat well.

4. Gradually pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and mix well into soft dough formed.

5. Leave in fridge for 30mins before use.

6. Wrap 10g of dough and 1/2tsp mixed fillings and shape into leaf shape, pinch with a saw edge clipper to get the leaf ceins.

7. Bake at 150deg for 30 mins. Cool completely before dusting with icing sugar.

Note: Emplex is an emulsifierto increase the strength of the dough. It keeps the cookies crispy and last longer.

Airfried Power Sticky Wings

Oh my!!!! This is another easy simple chicken wings dish which I like.  My kids love it too.  This is a crazy dish which many members in one group take turn making this dish including me.  Thank you Sharon Lam for your recipe.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.delishar.com

Instead of oven, I used airfryer

Ingredients:

12 mid wings

2 tbsp honey

1.5 tbsp light soya sauce

Juice of 1/2 lime

1-2 lemongrass, inner soft ends, minced

1 tsp grated ginger

2 cloves grated garlic

Salt and pepper for marinate the chicken wings

Spring onion for garnish

Method:

Preheat airfryer

2. In a small bowl, mix lime, lemongrass, soya sauce, honey, ginger and garlic together.

3. Make the aluminium foil like a basket, fit into airfryer and greased the base.

4. Marinate the wings with salt and pepper.

5. Place the wings in airfryer and bake at 180 deg for 10mins.

6. Open the airfryer, pour the sauce over the wings and use tongs to coat both side of the wings with the sauce.

7. Bake in airfryer again at 160deg for 10mins then another 8 to 10 mins at 180 deg.

8.  The sauce inside the airfryer will thicken and turn sticky when baked.

9. Coat the wings with the thickened sauce before serve.

Tang Yuan (Keroppi shape)

I made these Keroppi Tang Yuan for 3 years specially for my girl.  Think for all the kids, when they see cute tang yuan, they will be happily enjoying the tang yuan.  I am glad she is happy to see such cute tang yuan.

Keroppi Tang Yuan (for kids)

Traditional for adults

Ingredients for dough:

115g Vanillin Glutinous Flour

100ml water

Food colouring

Charcoal powder for black colour

Filling:

Gula melaka sugar, chopped into tiny pieces

Method:

1. Add water slowly to the flour and mix well with hand to get a moist and managable dough.

2. Separate the dough into few portion you want and add the different colourings to the doughs.

3. For Keroppi, add green colouring for face, black for eyes and mouth, pink for cheeks.

4. Roll green dough into oval shape(you can add in filling if you want).

5. Roll two white dough into small ball for eye balls. Attach on top of the face.

6. Roll two tiny black dough and flatten it with finger. Then attach it on top of the white small ball for the eyes.

7. Roll two tiny black dough into strip and attach it on the keroppi face in a "V" shape for the mouth.

8. Roll 2 tiny pink dough into ball and attach it at both side of the mouth ("V").

9. Boil the keroppi tang yuan in a pot of water under low heat.  The tang yuan is cooked when it is floating up to the surface of the water.

Ingredients for soup:

Water

Osmanthus flower

Pandan leaves

Rock sugar to taste

Method:

1. Boil the above soup ingredients and serve tang yuan with the sweet soup.

Steamed Pork Ribs

Omg!! This steamed pork ribs is really sedap!!!  You can eat few bowl of rice simply with this dish.  Yesterday I was searching the website for steamed pork ribs and saw Anncoo blog have recipe for this dish so decided to cook this dish today.  But I steamed it for 1 hours instead of 20mins as I want the meat to be soft enough for my kids to consume.  If you want it for child to consume you have to steam longer and also keep adding hot water in the steaming wok if the water decrease due to longer steaming duration.

Recipe adapted from: http://www.anncoojournal.com

Ingredients:

450-500g spare ribs (with some fats), cut into bite sizes

2 Red chillies, cut to small pieces

2 tbsp Garlic, chopped

1 tbsp Ginger, minced

1 tbsp Spring onion, chopped 

Aluminium foil to cover the steaming plate when steaming

Seasoning: 

    1 tbsp Fermented black bean, rinsed and roughly chopped

    1 tbsp Fermented soya bean paste

    1 tbsp Light soya sauce

    1 tbsp Oyster sauce

    1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine

    1 tbsp Corn flour

    1 tsp Sugar

    1 tsp Sesame oil

     dash of pepper

     2 tbsp Water

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients and seasoning together and marinate for 2 hours or more in the fridge.

2. Then place seasoned spare ribs in a shallow dish plate and cover with aluminium foil, to prevent water drips.

3. Steam at high heat for 20 minutes or until the spare ribs are well cooked (remember to add more hot water when the steaming water is drying out).

4. Garnish with extra chopped spring onion and cut chillies on top before serve. 

Note:  I steamed it for 1 hours in order for the meat to be soft for my kids to consume.