Oriental Er-Wu Cake

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Veggie Spring Rolls

A friend saw this picture and asked me for the recipe!
I think I should also share with all of you too.
Hope you will enjoy this Veggie Spring Rolls =)

Ingredients:
-Cabbage 1/4
-Carrot 1
-Dried Tofu 2
-Shitake Mushroom 3
-Dried Flat Mushroom aka. "Wood Ear" 2
-Eggs 2+1
-Garlic 3 cloves (Optional)
-Spring Roll Wraps 1 pack (Large size)

Seasoning:
-Salt 1.5 tsp
-White Pepper 1/4 tsp
-Soy Sauce 1Tsp
-Five Spice a pinch
-Chicken Seasoning (Or Mushroom seasoning to make it vegan)

Recipe:
1. Slice all the ingredients except the last three; Mince Garlic
2. Beat 2 Eggs and Fried them like the crepe, then slice
3. Add Oil to a bit pot, on medium heat, stir fry the ingredients in order, 15-20min
4. Drain All liquid from the pot, let cool
5. Cut Spring Roll wraps to quarters, fill around 1 tsp veggie filling per roll, seal with Egg wash (1 Egg + same amount of water)
6. Heat Frying oil on medium, use chopstick to hold the opening of the spring roll and lightly drop it to the oil. Hold the spring roll in the oil for 10 sec before let it fry on itself to prevent breaking. Around 10min.

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Happy Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese new year everyone!
This lunar year is Rabbit!
I wish you all and your family good health and good forturn..

I celabrited my new year day with my family at a family friend's restaurant,
we had lion dance during lunch!
It was so fun, and all the food, drums and noise from people bring up the tradition atmostphese!

On my blog, I want to share a little story with you about Chinese new year. via chinesefortunecalendar


"Nobody knows when the legendary story about Nian began. Nian was a ferocious and carnivorous beast. It had lion-type head with elephant-type body. Nian couldn't find the food in the cold winter time, because many animals hibernated in the mountains. It must go down from the mountain to find the livestock. Later, It become a man-eater.

Nian was too strong to kill. Every winter night, people must stay inside the house. Years later, people found Nian was afraid of red, fire and noisy sound. So they cut red-color peach wood hanging on the door, made a campfire in the front of the door. When Nian approached the village, then people put the bamboo into the fire to make cracking sound. They also beat the metal kitchen and farming utensils to make noisy sound to scare Nian away.

People survived, celebrated and said congratulation each other on the next day. People felt like a restarting point after passing the disaster. Then, they called Guo-Nian (passing Nian) as the day before the new starting day."


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Chinese Steam Buns (Custard)

Have you try this at a Dimsum restaurant?
Since I was a kid, my family have always order this bun right after we are seated.
We do not see the Custard bun as dessert.
Beacuse when you are very full your stomach would not have space for this yummy sweet bun.
Now you can make it at home too.



Remember the left over Old bun dough from the Bokchoi Bun?
There should be 100g left in your refridgerator
Which is perfect to make another Bun dough for this recipe
Visit Bokchoi Bun recipe for review
However, I didn't use oil in this dough for a super smooth texture

The filling is what make it different.



Custard filling Recipe:
Milk 180g
Sugar 75g
Salt a pinch
Unsalted Butter 50g
Egg 2
Custard powder 15g
Corn starch 25g
Pastry flour 30g
Salted Egg yolk 1 (chopped) they are available in many Asian supermarket, if there isn't one near you, you can make them at home, Recipe link at recipeland.com

1- Add butter, salt, sugar and milk in a pot, bring it to small bubble, turn the heat off
2- In the mean while, mix egg, custard powder, corn starch and pastry flour with a piano whisk
3- Pour the hot milk into the egg mixture and whisk till all combined
4- Transfer everything back to the pot with the salted egg yolk, on a low heat, whisk untill the heat bring the mixture into a paste, let cool before using

In this bun recipe, divide your dough to 12 small piece, using the same method of wrapping the bun, you will stuff about 2 Tsp of filling into the bun.

Turn the ruffles side down and stick it with a parchment paper
So you will have a nice round shape for this sweet bun
I hope you enjoy it =)


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Chinese Steam Buns! (BokChoi)

I tried to use another method to make the Chinese steam bun dough this time.
I found a pretty cool recipe at Carol's blog.
But another Carol who also loves cooking.
If you are interested in reading the original recipe,
you may read her blog at http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/carol-jay/
However, her blog is only available in Chinese.
Don't worry, I am going to share the recipe here from my cooking.

This dough is different than the earlier recipe I used for the Veggie Bun
This is more chewy and more of a North Eastern China style.
Try it to see if you like it!

The dough using the combination of two different kind of doughs to create a smooth fluffy texture

A) Old Bun Dough base Recipe:(makes about 200g)
All purpose flour 120g
Instant dry yeast 1/2 tsp
Sugar a pinch
Warm water 90g (original recipe used 80g, since it is very dry in Ontario I am using a little more)
Salt a pinch

1- Add yeast and sugar into the warm water, stir to dissolve, let it sit for 5min
2- Mix salt with flour, make a hole in the middle, using the back of the wooden spoon or a chopstick to stir in the yeast water
3- Knead for 5-6 min, then form the dough into a ball with smooth surface
4- Spray some water on the dough, cover in a container, let it raise in the refrigerator for 5-6 hours or over night

According to the site you can keep it in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days or in the freezer for longer, remember to defrost it 1 day ahead before using


B) The main Bun Dough:
Old Bun Dough base 100g
All purpose flour 300g
Instant yeast 1/2 tsp
Warm Milk 180g
Sugar 20g
Oil 30g
Salt a pinch

1- Warm the milk for 20 sec in the microwave, stir in yeast, sit for 5min
2- Mix flour, sugar and salt in a big bowl, make a hole in the middle and pour the yeast mixture and oil, stir until combined
3- Add the old bun dough base, knead for 7-8min
4- Roll into a big ball, spray some water and cover for 1.5 hour


C)Prepare the BokChoi stuffing:
Ground pork 1Lb (you can substitute with other kind of ground meat or 1.5 cups of scramble eggs for vegan)
BokChoi 2cups (uncooked)
Ginger 3slices (finely chopped)
Small carrot 1 (peeled and finely chopped)
Mushroom 4-5 (chopped, optional)
Corn starch 1Tsp
Soy sauce 3 Tsp
Salt 1tsp
Sugar 1Tsp
Oil 1Tsp
Rice wine 1Tsp (optional)
White pepper a pinch

1- After all the chopping, wash your Bokchoi a few times because they usually have a lot of sands, I suggest to cut them in halves to get the inside clean too
2- Put your clean Bokchoi in a microwaveable bowl (they are already drained, but still wet, we are taking the advantage of it to cook them in microwave), cover with a microwave lid or microwaveable plastic wrap, heat it up for 2min
3- Let it cool for 5min before handling the Bokchoi, chop them finely and squeeze all the liquid out, discard the liquid
4- Now mix all the ingredients with the Bokchoi, set it aside



Assemble the Bun!
1- Before you start making the yummy buns, you will need to cut 18 small squares of parchment paper, around 5cm X 5cm
2- Dust some flour on the surface where you are going to roll the dough, make sure your hand is always dusted with flour too
3- Punch off the air of the dough in its bowl, move it to the working surface, roll it to a long rope
4- Divide the dough into 18 small pieces, put them back into the bowl and cover with a wet towel before using
5- Take the dough out one at a time, roll into a ball and then roll it to a 8cm round shape
6- Now put about 1 Tsp of your stuffing in the middle of the dough, slowly gather the edge together by making small ruffles
7- Place the bun on a parchment paper, keep them on a plate cover with wet towel before steaming, which allow the bun to rise for another 30min while you are making other ones
8- Steam the buns for 12min on high heat, remember to give each of them some space because the steam does the magic and the buns will double their size after cooked
9- The trick to keep the buns nice and fluffy with a smooth surface: is to leave a small gap open after 8min on the steaming process. At 12min, turn off the heat and allow the buns to remain there for extra 3min, at this time the lid is still covered with a small gap to allow the extra steam to come out. This way the buns are slowly changing its temperature and will not shrink.


I have also found a video on youtube,
it shows you how easy you can close the bun


Hey everyone wants a bigger bun! Thanks for sharing the tip Carol :)
I hope you all enjoy the recipe.
Also, I would like to ask you what kind of bun will you want to try next month?
Leave a comment below and I will try my best to create a recipe for it.

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Taiwanese Pineapple cookies

Successfully made some pineapple cookies,
Mark's favor pineapple cookies!





Recipe:
Pineapple Filling Recipe:
Fresh pineapple 400g
Sugar 100g
Maltose 1 Tsp (what is maltose?)
Butter 20g
Glutinous rice flour 35g (can be purpose in most oriental store)
Lemon Juice 1 tsp

1- Cut pineapple into small pieces about 2-3cm, put the fruit and juice in the sauce pan
2- Cook the pineapple on high heat, add sugar, maltose and butter, keep stirring with a wooden spoon, until the juice reduced to 1/4
3- Toast the rice flour in the oven for 10-15min, add to the pineapple jam, stir for 5 min so it doesn't taste like raw flour
4- Turn off the heat and stir in lemon juice, let cool and store in refrigerator

Cookie Dough Recipe:
Salted butter 230g
Sugar 100g
Milk powder 35g
Custard powder 1/2 tsp
Egg 1
All purpose flour 320g
Baking powder 1/2 tsp

1- Cream butter, sugar, add milk powder, custard powder, then egg continue beating on low
2- Using a specular, mix flour and baking powder, roll into a ball, refrigerate for 20min before using
3- Divide the dough into 24 equal piece
4- Dust some flour on working surface, roll the dough out flat, spoon about 1tsp pineapple filling, roll into a ball again

5- Dust flour on a cookie cutter, place the filled cookie dough inside press the top lightly for a flat top, remove gentaly, place on a baking sheet
6- Leave about 2 fingers space in between each cookie, because they will get bigger when they bake
7- Bake 350'F for 30min, cool on rack when it comes out the oven, store in air tight container

OR

5- Push each rolled balls into a 24 mini muffin tin, ungreased and without cupcake paper
6- Bake 350'F for 20min
7- Once it is out from the oven, flip the whole muffin tin upside down on a cutting board, the best is to place a baking paper on the cutting board, this way the dome shape top will become the bottom and flat, let cool
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Chinese Fry Bread

Using the same recipe for Chinese Bun Dough,
add some chopped green onion, sesame seed and salt
it's great to serve with stew or soup



-First, you need to roll the dough into a long shape,add 1tsp of onion and sprinkle a lot of sesame seed, roll it and make a swirl out of it
-Flatten the swirl and roll again, add more sesame seed on top
-Pan fry for about 2 min per side, or until its golden

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Chinese Veg Bun

Irresistible Chinese Bun!
This is my first time making these little ones,
so the look isn't perfect,
they are very easy to make..



Recipe:

Vegetable Stuffing:
1 carrot, peeled, julienned
1/4 cabbage, sliced
salt a pinch
pepper to taste
1tsp veg oil
3-4 slice ginger (chopped)

-on high heat, stir fry all the ingredients until they soften up
-do not add water because the vegetable has enough moisture
-let it cool before using

Chinese Bun Dough:
500g all purpose flour
1tsp baking powder
8g instant yeast
1.5cup warm water
40g sugar

-add yeast and sugar into water, let it dissolve for about 5-10min
-mix flour, baking powder, add yeast mixture
-mix until it form a dough, brush a touch of oil and cover up with a wet tea towel for 1 hr 30min
-divide the dough into 16 pieces
-dust flour onto the rolling surface, roll the small piece to a circle
-stuff about a Tsp of veg in the middle
-use two fingers to close the edge as the picture shown
-steam 12-15min on medium heat
-lid remain covered for 3 min after the steaming process is done


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Bean Curd Rolls Dimsum

Its cooking time again,
I have made some Bean curd Rolls dim sum,
Bean curd was made from boiling big pot soy milk,
when the soy milk heat up,
the very top layer will become a thin sheet,
they are dried in cool area for a couple hours before it gets strong enough to wrap things
which we don't need to do these complicate steps at home,
you can get the bean curd sheets in most Chinese grocery store (freezer section)
Bean curd is very healthy, contains lots of protein, calcium and iron
and the raw product is not fried
I have some pictures that go steps by steps for the following recipe,
have fun and enjoy cooking ^^

Recipe:
Bean curd sheets 30 small piece (cut each big sheet into quarters)
Grounded Pork or Chicken 1/2 lb
Cellophane noodles 1
Ginger 3 slices, chopped
Green Onion 1, chopped
Egg 1
Soy sauce 1 Tsp
White pepper 1 pinch
Sesame oil 1tsp
Pam spray oil
Sauce (1tsp sugar + 2Tsp soy sauce + 1/2 cup cold water + 1tsp corn starch)

1-Soak the cellophane noodles in water for 15min, cut into 2cm pieces with scissors
2-Mix grounded meat, ginger, onion, egg, soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil in a large bowl
3-Stack the bean curd sheets together and wet them with cold water, so its soften up and easier to wrap
4-Take about 1Tsp of filling, make a long shape horizontally, place it in the middle of the bean curd sheet
5-Fold 2 sides to the middle, and roll it to the end
6-Spray oil on a frying pan, pan fry the rolls with medium heat, put the open side down, so it get sealed, about 1min for each side, this step doesn't cook through the meat
7-Move all the rolls into a pot, add the sauce, cook in medium heat for 5-8 min
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