Ang Ku Kuih

I didn't have red colouring at home, so I added in some pandan paste to get a light green coloured ang ku kuih. My first attempt at ang ku kuih, the moulding and shaping part is the hardest, I couldn't get an even spread of the filings and always end up having filings mixed into the skin after moulding. Nontheless, the texture is very nice and it taste so soft and QQ when I ate it after it had cooled down. Try it and let me know if you like it too =)

The yellow spots u see on the skin are actually sweet potatoes, somehow I always couldn't mash sweet potatoes nicely

 Luckily the skin is not too thick!

This formed part of my lunch, together with my favourite dessert - homemade Dao suan

Ingredients - I yielded 12 ang ku kuihs with this portion

Sweet Potato Skin
100g sweet potato
150g glutinous rice flour
1 tbsp canola oil
120ml water - you might not need to use all
Pandan paste

Mung Bean Filing
150g split bean (soaked in water overnight)
50g sugar
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
1/2 cup diced shallots
1 tbsp oil
a little water

Banana leaf

Method

1. Sweet potato skin: Steam sweet potatoes until soft. Mash the sweet potatoes with a fork and add in glutinous rice flour, oil, enough water and pandan paste to form a smooth dough and to obtain your preferred colour shade.
2. Mung bean filing: Steam the soaked split beans till soft. Mash with a fork. 
3. In a wok, heat oil and fry the shallots till its fragrant. Leave to cool.
4. Add the fried shallot, salt, sugar to the mashed split beans. Add in a little bit of water to form a soft dough.
5. Moulding: Brush ang ku kuih mould with oil. Take a small ball of sweet potato dough and flatten it into a round shape.
6. Place mung bean filing into the flatten sweet potato dough, seal it and press the ball into the mould firmly. Place the ang ku kuih on a piece of oiled banana leaf.
7. Repeat till skin dough / filing finished.
8. Steam the ang ku kuih over high heat for 3min. After 3 min, remove the lid to release steam and continue to steam for another 3-5min over medium heat till kuihs are ready.
9. Brush the surface of the cooked ang ku kuihs with some oil to prevent sticking. Cool before serving.

Steamed Cream Corn Cake

Recipe adapted from Alex Goh "Magic Steamed Cake"

Ingredients

4 eggs
200g sugar (I reduced to 160g)

200g Cream Corn
250g flour
1 tbsp baking powder
80g melted butter


Method

1. Whip eggs and sugar till its light and fluffy.
2. Fold cream corn into the egg mixture.
3. Fold in Flour and baking powder.
4. Add in melted butter and mix till combined.
5. Pour batter into greased 7" tin and steam over high heat for 30-40min till cake is ready.

Steamed Garlic Mussels

Ok, enough of CNY posting.

Here's a quick and easy dish which I prepared for dinner. Frozen New Zealand green lip mussels with garlic, ginger, chili, chinese cooking wine and soya sauce. You can taste the sweetness of the mussels and best of all the dish is ready in less than 15min! Very suitable after a busy day in office and you still need to get dinner on the table.

Yu Sheng

I love yu sheng, give it to me anytime of the year and I'll gladly take it. We didn't had the chance to toss yu sheng on the 7th day and 15th day of CNY as both were working day. Finally had the chance to do it on 18th day when everyone is at home. This year I bought the Kwong Cheong Thye brand as I've read good review on the net about this brand. Its more expensive, but trust me, it really taste better, and it came with 2 packets of crackers haha

 

We added in shredded radish and carrot, as well as a huge handful of pomelo

 

and realised that the plate we used is too small and its gonna be real messy if we were to toss in this small plate....

 

so... we transferred the yu sheng to this huge glass plate! Now it looks so much better. 

 

beautifully (and messy) tossed yusheng, I just love the vibrant combination of colours.

And it taste sooo good....omph....so tasty this huge plate was all snapped up in no time!

Maybe I should try making my own yu sheng so that I can have it anytime of the year =)

Simple Lunch

After all the heavy meals and goodies during CNY, decided to have something light and simple for lunch

 

Dried oyster brown rice porridge

 

Pork fillet mushroom omelette 

was too lazy to prepare pork and egg separately so came up with this!

CNY Seamboat Dinner

Steamboat dinner with my family on 4th day of CNY:

 

My homemade yong tau foo

 

 Bubbling pot with everything in!

A Not so Successful Okonomiyaki

I attempted to make okonomiyaki, a popular Japanese snack consists mainly of vegetables and seafood/ meat of your chioce.....

 

and....ended up pouring too much batter in with the vegetables and got a pancake-like snack instead. Well, it still tasted good, though I'm pretty sure it would have tasted better if the vegetables had been covered in less batter. Will definitely try making this again. Oh I gotta add that this is a very versatile dish, and a good way to clear leftover vegetables in your fridge. I just threw in whatever vegetables I have in my fridge!

Ingredients

Cabbage, shredded

Red bell pepper, cut into strips

Yellow bell pepper, cut into strips

Brinjal, cut into strips

Carrot, shredded

or, whatever you have in your fridge, just don't miss out the cabbage

pork, beef, squid or prawns - optional and based on your own preference

Pancake batter

1/2 cup plain flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup water

1 tsp dashi powder - I omitted this as I do not know where to get this

1 egg

Method

1. Prepare batter. If you're using dashi powder, add the powder to warm water and mix till dissolve. Let it cool to room temperature.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder together. Add the water slowly to the bowl, mixing thoroughly. Let the batter sit for at least 2 hours.
3. Add the vegetables (and pork, beef, prawns or squid) to the batter. Toss the mix lightly.
4. Heat a frying pan and add a teaspoon of cooking oil.
5. Scope the batter mix to the pan and let it cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat for 5min or till its cooked on one side.
6. Flip the okonomiyaki and cook the other side for another 5min or till its cooked through. Dish up.
7. Add mayonnaise and chili sauce to the okonomiyaki and add bonito flakes on top.

Breakfast on 4th day of CNY

Wow, looks like I'm really keeping track of what I ate during CNY haha. I cooked this simple noodle as breakfast on Sunday, using dried oysters, mussels and sea asparagus, and my hubby's favourite yellow noodles. He finished everything, even the soup =)

Lunch on 3rd day of CNY

My mother-in-law prepared these on the 3rd day of CNY

 

Pig Trotters - yeah yeah my favourite! Wouldn't get sick of it no matter how often I eat 

Steam Mantou to go along with the pig trotters - perfect match!

 

Stir-fry vegetables

 

Cereal Prawns

 

Braised limpets with broccoli

 

Steam Cod Fish

CNY Eve Reunion Dinner

This year we had reunion dinner with my in-laws at China Court @ Subang Avenue.

This is the restaurant

Dishes we had

Prosperity Salmon Yu-Sheng - A must have to start off CNY meals

 

Yu-Sheng after tossed. The colours looks so nice after its been blended together.

 

Deep-Fried Imperial Crispy Chicken platter

 

Steam Garoupa Fish with Soya Sauce

 

Braised Shark's Fin Soup with Crab Roe

 

Roast Goose- this is very nice, and supposedly the restaurant's signature dish

 

Pan fried Nian-Gao

 

Glutinous Rice Ball in a Ginger Tea

We also had a fried rice and pig trotter with fatt choy, which was my favourite of the night. I had forgotten to take a picture of it as I was too busy eating!

CNY Eve Reunion Lunch

A table full of goodness....prepared by my mum with me as her assistant hee =)

Meat Balls - I made this, but let my mum do the frying as I don't know how to fry things

 

Chinese Leeks - Suan (算）, a must have on every CNY reunion, you will see everyone snatching this in supermarkets during the new year. Eat this and you'll have lots of $$ to count in the new year!

 

Black Vinegar Pig Trotter - my personal favourite! I especially like to pick those with big pieces of skin, they are very rich in collagen!

 

Roast Pork Belly - my dad's favourite, also a common dish during CNY reunion, you'll often see long long queues forming outside the more famous stores, and prices inevitably increased during the CNY period. Decided to do this myself this year as I realised its really not too difficult to make. Got good comments from the family (except it could be slightly more salty) and am happy with the results.

 

 

Blanched Chicken (白斩鸡）- again we decided to make this at home instead of queuing to get from the stores. More economical and taste good as well

 

Steam Black Garoupa - Fish is a must have during CNY. It signifies abundance in the new year! 年年有余！

 

Had a very good and satisfying CNY reunion with the family!!

Roast Pork Belly

Decided to try roasting pork belly myself as it doesn't seem too difficult and it beats queuing up to buy. And we all know how expensive things can get during CNY, with prices of roast duck, chicken and pork belly etc rising above the pre-CNY prices.

The result is not too bad, considering this is my maiden attempt on roasting pork belly. This yields a soft and succulent insides with a crispy top from the grilling. Try it and I'm sure you'll like it!

Ingredients

500g pork belly (mine was about 540g)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp five spice powder

Method

1. Rinse and dry the pork belly. Combine the seasonings. 
2. With the pork belly skin side facing down, rub the seasonings over the top and sides of the pork belly. Flip the pork belly over and chill it for at least 6 hours to dry the skin.
3. Bake pork belly (with skin side facing down) in pre-heated oven of 220C for 40min. (use a roasting tray lined with aluminium foil)
4. Remove pork belly from oven and prick skin all over with tip of knife or fork (I used skewers)
5. Return pork belly to oven with skin side facing up. Grill the pork belly for 30min till skin turns golden brown and blistered. Take care not to burn the skin.

After a Week of CNY Baking.....

After a week of CNY baking, these were what I made:

 

5 bottles of pineapple tarts (1 was taken by hubby before I could take photo)

5 bottles of green pea cookies

 5 bottles of almond cookies

 

5 bottles of peanut cookies

3 bottles of cranberry cornflakes cookies

2 bottles of sesame crisps

A batch of 2 bottles of Kuih Bangkit

5 bottles of cashew nut cookies

and 3 bottles of butter cookies (not pictured)

Butter Cookies

This is the last type of cookie which I made before CNY. A very simple and easy to do recipe, especially like the fact that I can simply pipe the cookies out. After a week of tedious cutting and shaping of cookies. This is such a breeze!

The cookies looks so pretty before baking, but after baking most of the cookies expanded and the shape is not as nice. Those you see above are the nicer ones.

Ingredients

100g butter
25g icing sugar
75g plain flour
25g corn flour

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar till fluffy.
2. Fold in plain flour and corn flour and combine to form a batter.
3. Pipe the cookies out using a star nozzle and bake in pre-heated oven of 180C for 10-15min.
4. Cool before storing in air-tight containers.

Cashewnut Cookies

Ingredients

227g butter
1/2 cup + 1tbsp icing sugar
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
180g ground cashew nut
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
whole cashew nut to decorate (I broke the whole cashew nuts into halfs)

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix well.
2. Fold in flour, baking powder and ground cashew nut.
3. Chill the dough in the fridge for at least 30min before working with the dough. Roll the dough into thickness of about 0.5cm and cut shapes using cookie cutters.
4. Place a half cashew nut on each cookie and apply egg wash.
5. Bake in pre-heated oven of 175C for 15-20min.

Green Pea Cookies

Ingredients

130g green pea powder
100g icing sugar (reduced)
1/4 tsp salt
150g plain flour
100g oil

Method

1. Combine all ingredients (except oil). Slowly add in oil to bind the ingredients and to achieve a soft, pliable dough.
2. Roll the dough to a thickness of about 0.5cm and cut out shapes using cookie cutter. Apply egg wash before baking.
3. Bake in pre-heated oven of 175C for 15-20min till cookie is ready. Cooled and store in air-tight container.