Cooking Recipe and Tricks

Chinese New Year Day falls on the 23rd of January this year, about two weeks time to go. We all start thinking about what we should cook for the celebration. The traditional dishes, like radish cakes, coconut pudding, steamed fish and Chinese mushrooms seem to be a must on our list. I’m still searching new ideas of cooking something new to my family.

After I served the first piece of pancake for hubby, then quickly went back to fry my second piece for myself, I heard he yielded out a word, “YUMMY”. At the very moment, I knew this dish could be on my Chinese New Year menu. It’s a perfect appetizer.

The mandarin pancakes are best served when they are still warm. They are chewy and springy in texture, going so well with the crispy duck skin. One more remark, the hoisin sauce is a must because it adds more flavour into the wrappers. Traditionally, Chinese people use cucumber and the white parts of leek (京蔥). But you could replace with julienned white parts of large spring onions, or add any greens you like.

Mandarin Pancakes for Peking Duck (Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 5 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Yield: Makes 8

Ingredients:

• 200 gm plain flour
• 150 ml hot water, at about 80C/175F
• 30 to 35 ml water, at room temperature
• salt, to taste
• sesame oil, for brushing pancakes

Method:

• Use a large mixing bowl, sift in the flour. Drizzle the hot water into the flour evenly. Quickly stir with a pair of chopsticks and combine well, and create some flour crumbs. Knead it into a dough. Add the room-temperature water bit by bit at a time. (Note: Kneading more water into the dough will help prevent the pancakes from being dried after pan-frying.) Continue to knead until the surface is smooth and not sticky. Place the dough in a greased bowl, covered with a damp cloth. Let it rest for 20 minutes.
• Sprinkle some flour on a clean surface. Roll out the dough into an 1½ inch-thick tube. Cut into 8 equal portions. Roll each portion into a small ball shape. Lightly press each into a small disc. Brush one side with some sesame oil. Then put two discs together with the sesame sides touching. Roll the discs again into 15cm (6 inches) in diameter. Repeat this step with the rest of the dough discs.
• Heat a non-stick frying pan. Cook 1 to 2 dough discs at a time, over low heat until both sides have small light brown spots. You can easily separate the two pancakes when they bubble slightly. Cook and brown the inner sides. Serve immediately. Wrap roast duck skin, cucumber and julienned leek or white parts of spring onion. Serve with Hoisin sauce. Enjoy!

Don’t forget to use the Hoisin sauce.
It makes the wrappers taste as good as those served in Chinese restaurants. 

Notes:

• While rolling out the dough discs, remember to cover the rest of the dough with a wet towel to keep from drying out.
• This pancake is best served straight from the pan when it’s still hot. Yet, you can make the pancakes a day or a few days ahead. Keep them in a sealed plastic bag or an air-tight container and store in fridge. When you’re ready to serve, steam the pancakes in a wok/bamboo steamer to reheat them.
• Add a bit of hot water to loosen the Hoisin sauce for easy spreading.
• You can get a whole roast duck from any Chinese BBQ shops. Preheat oven to 150C/300F, and reheat the duck for about 15 to 20 minutes. Or ladle hot oil over the surface of roast duck for a few times, then you’ll get more crispy duck skin. Serve immediately when it’s still warm.

Share with friends:

Posted by
Christine Ho


at
Tuesday, January 10, 2012

This pandan chiffon cake recipe has been sitting in my draft folder way long ago. Chiffon cakes are my family’s all time favourite dessert. I make this cake quite often. Having posted the Chinese version of the recipe, I’ve nearly forgotten to translate and publish here. Thanks to the tv productions. Watching this season’s Masterchef, surprisingly found that Dan Hong’s pandan chiffon cake was set as a pressure test for their contestants. The episode, shown on 6 June 2011 (Elimination Day: The race to recreate Dan Hong’s dish is on), reminded me of this silently awaiting recipe. Upon viewing the episode, my urge inside yielded for trying Dan Hong’s recipe as I wanted to give my family a surprise. Too bad, after a long haul searching, Dan Hong’s pandan chiffon cake recipe was not found on the Masterchef’s official site, even up to the time of this writing. Will try if it’s up there later for sure. Looking back to my old photos taken by my point-and-shoot camera two years ago, feeling it’s better to reshoot some new ones when I made this cake again. If you can’t find Dan Hong’s pandan chiffon cake recipe like me, give my recipe a go. This cottony soft cake, with its subtle fragrance of pandan leaves and coconut, won’t let you down either. The cake was gone quickly. And I might bake one again for bringing along to a tea party on this weekend.

Pandan Chiffon Cake Recipe (Printable recipe)
Prepare an ungreased 20cm (8 inch) round tube pan (removable base preferred)
By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 40 mins
Yield: 8 serves

Ingredients of batter:

• 5 egg yolks
• 20 gm caster sugar
• 100 gm cake flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100 ml coconut milk
• 2 Tbsp pandan juice (see below for making pandan juice)
• a few drops pandan essence/pandan paste, optional
• 3 Tbsp olive oil

Ingredients of egg whites:

• 5 egg whites
• 60 gm caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Ingredients of pandan juice:

• 10 pandan leaves, fresh or frozen
• 1 1/2 Tbsp water

Method:

• Preheat oven to 170C (338F).
• Beat the egg yolks with a balloon whisk and mix in 20 grams of sugar. Add coconut milk, pandan juice, and a few drops of pandan paste (if desired). Combine well.
• Sift in cake flour and baking powder in three batches into the egg yolk mixture. Mix well. Lastly, add olive oil. Set aside.
• Use a large clean bowl, making sure there’s no water or oil in it. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until bubbles form. Add the cream of tartar. After mixing well, add the 60 grams of sugar in three batches, about one-third at a time, and beat well between additions. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form. (Note: please refer to this video “How To Beat Egg Whites”.)
• Spoon out 1/3 of the beaten egg whites and fold into the egg mixture. Lightly fold in the rest of the beaten egg whites with a spatula, until just combined. (Note: please refer to this video “How To Fold-in Egg Whites.)
• Pour into the cake pan and bake in preheated oven for about 35 to 40 minutes. After baking the first 15 minutes, if you find your cake gets browning, reduce heat to 150C（302F）, continue to bake until cooked through. A needle comes out clean when inserted in the middle.
• Remove cake from the oven. invert the pan immediately. Allow it to cool completely.

To make pandan juice:

• Chop pandan leaves into chunks, pop in a food processor and add about 1 1/2 tablespoons of water. Process to small pieces.
• Place pandan leaves in a muslin bag and squeeze out the juice. You need about 2 tablespoons of it to make this cake. If you don’t have a muslin bag, just use your clean hand to squeeze out the juice.

• I added a few drops of pandan essence so the cake is in light green.
• If you want a totally natural pandan cake, just skip the pandan essence. Your cake would look a bit light yellowish, not bright green though.

Share with friends:

Posted by
Christine Ho


at
Friday, June 10, 2011

Lee Kum Kee held a cooking competition for bloggers in April. To my knowledge, it’s the first one ever run in Hong Kong before. I felt honoured to be invited and created a demo recipe for their official site. Healthy, creative and fusion were the requirements and themes for every entry. So here you go, I translated my demo recipe into English to share the joy of participating something significant in food blogging.

What else could be more healthier than a steamed fish dish? Believed that this dish had nailed the competition themes, off I went to submit my recipe and posted on my chinese food blog. By adding a bit of vietnamese condiment, fish sauce, into the fish paste, I planned to bring in a kind of cross-over-taste in Chinese traditional seasoning. Besides all the cooking, I was able to know and connect more Hong Kong food bloggers through this event, as well as expand my blogging horizon a bit.

As a side note, I was invited to visit the LKK headquarter during my trip back to Hong Kong last month.

Amazed by their warm welcome message！Very impressed by their giant, modern kitchen. I could imagine how excited the contestants would have felt while cooking their invention dishes in this splendid kitchen.

A peek view of LKK giant kitchen – taken by my ipad2Prepare 8 chinese tablespoons or cook in batches.
Steamed Golden Fish Cakes with Oyster Sauce (Printable recipe)

By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Yield: Makes 8 golden fish cakes

Ingredients:

• 200 gm white fish meat (e.g. mackerel)
• 1 shiitake mushroom, soaked until soft, finely diced
• 8 thin strips of carrot
• 8 leaves of baby bok choy

Marinade:

• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• pepper, to taste
• 1 Tbsp freshly grated carrot juice

Sauce:

• 3 tsp Lee Kum Kee premium oyster sauce
• 1 tsp Lee Kum Kee light soy sauce
• 1/4 tsp Lee Kum Kee dark soy sauce
• Lee Kum Kee sesame oil, to taste
• 2½ Tbsp water

Thickening:

• 1 Tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp corn flour

Method:

• Place the fish in a food processor and process until smooth. Transfer to a large bowl. Mix in marinade. Use chopsticks and blend towards only one direction, either clockwise or anti-clockwise, for about 10 minutes. (Note: Beating fish meat towards only one direction will help you produce elastic fish meat.)
• Damp 8 chinese tablespoon (as picture shown above) with a bit of water. Divide fish paste into the tablespoons and make 8 oval shapes. On each fish paste portion, carefully place two diced mushrooms as fish eyes, one tiny strip of carrot as fish mouth. Steam in a wok over high heat, about 5 minutes, or until cooked through. Run a sharp knife around each tablespoon and remove the fish cakes. Arrange on a large serving plate.
• While steaming the fish cakes, use a small saucepan, cook the sauce over medium heat. When it boils, add the thickening and cook to preferred consistency. Set aside.
• Add a dash of oil in boiling water in the wok, briefly cook the baby bok choy until soft and turns green. Don’t overcook them. Drain them, and cut away the stalks. Place each leaf next to each fish cake as its tail. Serve hot with the sauce.

• Carrot is a healthy ingredient. Utilize its natural golden orange colour to replicate the look and colour of a golden fish in order to enhance the appetite.
• When it comes to making this fish cake, only use fish meat, without any fish skin, as you don’t want the fish cakes get some black spot inside.
• It’s much more easier to get the colour you like if you add carrot juice bit by bit, and stir at the same time.
• When shaping the fish cake, you might find the fish paste a bit sticky or messy. No worries. To make it workable, damp your hands with a bit of water, you’ll find shaping a fish cake is a piece of cake.
• Cook the bok choy with stalks intacted, it helps to drain out easily without tearing off the delicate leaves. The stalks can be eaten with sauce anyway, you won’t waste anything.
• When serving this dish, the sauce can be transferred into a small sauce pot.
• The intensity of saltiness of different brands of fish sauce is different. Adjust the amount of it accordingly.

Share with friends:

Posted by
Christine Ho


at
Monday, June 20, 2011

Chinese broccoli (aka, Gai lan) is widely used in Chinese cuisine, especially Cantonese dishes. Its name in Chinese, (芥蘭 Gai lan) literally means “mustard orchid”, and belongs to the same plant family as broccoli and kale. It’s high in beta-carotene, and contains folate, vitamin E, iron and calcium.

The most popular way of cooking gai lan is stir-fried with ginger or garlic, or just boiled with water, then served with oyster sauce. Their thick stems are edible, but take longer time to be cooked as compared with their dark green leaves. Sometimes, you might find it’s got a bit bitter in taste. My mum used to add a hint of sugar to balance their mild bitterness and bring out the best of this lovely vegetable. If you’re fed up with the usual way of blanching gai lan or stir-fried it with garlic, here’s my mum’s favourite cooking way. She liked to stir fry it with fish cake or/and Lap Cheong (臘腸 Chinese sausage). This dish is tasty, full of flavours, that the gai lan turns out to be the most enjoyable part, as it absorbs the oil of lap cheong and natural sweetness of fish. My kid likes this vegetable the most when it’s cooked in this way.

Stir-fried Gai Lan with Fish Cake Lap Cheong (Printable recipe)

By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 25 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Yield: serves 3 to 4

Ingredients:

• 200 gm Gai Lan (Chinese broccoli)
• 200 gm white fish meat (e.g. Mackeral)
• 4 to 5 shiitake mushrooms, soaked until soft, diced
• 1 lap cheong
• scallion, to taste
• 3 to 4 slices ginger
• 2 tsp Shaoxing wine
• salt, to taste
• sugar, to taste
• 4 Tbsp chicken stock

Marinade:

• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour
• pepper, to taste

Thickening:

• 2 tsp cornflour
• 2 Tbsp water

Method:

• Rinse and wipe dry gai lan. Cut into 1½ to 2 inches long sections. Separate stems and leaves. Set aside.
• Blanch lap cheong in boiling water and remove grease and impurities outside if any. Cut into two halves. Dice one half and slice another half.
• Chunk fish meat and place into a food processor. Pulse until smooth. Transfer into a large bowl. Add shiitake mushrooms, diced lap cheong, scallion and marinade. Use chopsticks to blend towards only one direction, either clockwise or anti-clockwise until elastic, about 10 to 15 minutes.
• Heat oil in a frying pan. Place fish paste and lightly press to flatten. Cook over medium-low heat until both sides are golden brown. Remove from pan, let cool a bit. Cut into smaller pieces. Set aside.
• Add oil in the pan, sauté ginger until fragrant. Toss in the stems of gai lan. Increase heat, and stir fry until they soften. Add leaves, quickly stir fry. Sprinkle wine, pour in chicken stock. Season with salt and sugar. Toss back fish cake and lap cheong slices. Add thickening, cook to preferred consistency. Served hot with steamed rice.

Share with friends:

Posted by
Christine Ho


at
Thursday, June 23, 2011

Being a typical Chinese family living down under here, we always have rice for dinner. Ellie from AlmostBourdain via twitter once asked if I still keep the tradition of having Chinese dinner with three courses together with a soup. Yes, as long as I have enough cooking time. Life is so hectic that I can’t keep the tradition as I wish sometimes. But rice will definitely be served on our dinner table as it’s my husband’s most favourite. Or I can say he is a typical Chinese man who can’t live without rice in a single day, whereas my daughter loves tasting different foods in a wide range of variety. So, the same question repeatedly comes up, whether to have Chinese or western cuisine or other kind of dishes for tonight’s dinner. Being a homecook, I have to find a way to please every different palate in the family, without putting too much pressure on myself. That’s why I continue on the search for simple, easy ways of cooking delicious dishes for my family.

We seldom have rice for lunch, but glad that I cooked this scrumptious Japanese chicken rice as lunch the other day, that was quickly recorded as one of my family’s favourites. This rice is quick and simple, full of Asian flavours, best for hectic days or winter days, lunch or dinner.

Japanese Ground Chicken Rice (Printable recipe)

By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 30 mins
Yield: serves 2 to 3

Ingredients:

• 160 gm Japanese rice, about 1 rice cup
• 1 1/4 cups water, for cooking rice (or follow the instructions on the package)
• 120 gm ground chicken meat
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp water
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• scallion, finely chopped, for garnish

Seasonings for chicken:

• 1½ Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp mirin
• ½ Tbsp sake (Japanese cooking wine)
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger

Seasonings for rice:

• 2 Tbsp light soy sauce
• sugar, to taste

Method:

• Rinse rice and drain well. Put the rice and water in a rice cooker. Cook until the rice is done.
• Mix ground chicken with marinade. Cook in a frying pan over medium-low heat until cooked through. Stir constantly and separate the lumps if any while cooking. Set aside.
• Whisk egg with water. Season with salt, pepper. Pour the egg onto the pan and cook into a thin cake. Dish up and shred the egg. Set aside.
• When the rice is cooked and ready, add the chicken, stir in the seasonings. Divide and transfer to serving bowls. Garnish with the shredded egg, scallion. Serve hot immediately.

• The advantage of cooking the chicken before mixing with the rice, you’re pretty sure that the meat is cooked well and get the chicken absorb all the flavours in the seasonings.
• Or you can skip the step of stir frying the chicken, just quickly toss in the marinated chicken onto the surface of rice when it’s nearly cooked, but not cooked through yet. Immediately close the rice cooker cover, let the rice cooker continue to cook through the chicken. Wait until the chicken is done, then stir in seasonings and mix well with the rice.

Other Japanese rice recipes on the internet:

• Japanese Basics: How to make Japanese-style plain rice and sushi rice from Just Hungry
• Omurice (Chicken and Tomato Rice wrapped in Fried Eggs) from Christine’s Recipes
• Tori Zosui—Japanese Rice Chicken Porridge from La Fuji Mama

Share with friends:



Posted by
Christine Ho


at
Tuesday, June 28, 2011

This 5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake is so popular, and you can easily find and choose the recipe you like the most via google search. I’ve been curious about how to make a chocolate cake in such a short time. Is it different from those baked from oven? Does it taste good? How is its texture like? After browsing a dozen of this kind of chocolate mug cake recipes, I decided to take a different route and tried two different cooking ways. Why? Simply for fun. Both mug cakes tasted wonderful. No matter you choose which way, I highly recommend this chocolate mug cake if you’re a chocolate lover when you have a midnight craving for it, or on any no-bake days for whatever reason. This recipe is a keeper. Save it in a place, as a chocolate cake lover, some how you’ll need it some day.

5 Minute Chocolate Mug Cake with Two experiments (Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Prepare a large mug, microwave oven friendly
Prep time: 2 mins
Cook time: 3 mins
Yield: serves 1

Ingredients: