Huat Kueh or Fatt Koh (发糕)

Huat Kueh or Fatt Koh (发糕) are mostly made for altar offerings and Chinese New Year. This recipe doesn't require yeast or eggs. Try making this for Chinese New Year this year. It's fairly simple but remember to follow to recipe precisely!

Three important things to remember when making Huat Kueh (发糕).

1. Fill batter up to the brim of your mould or else it won't "smile".

2. Make sure you have enough water in the steamer so you don't need to add water mid way.

3. Do not open your steamer lid until it's done steaming. Make sure you have ample room in your steamer for the Huat Kueh (发糕) to rise or "smile".

INGREDIENTS:

360g self rising flour
150g sugar
350ml water
1 teaspoon baking soda
Some food coloring (Red & Yellow)

Mix dry ingredients thoroughly and then add water. Mix until batter is smooth. Divide a small portion of the dough. Add food coloring to both portions of the dough. I used yellow for the larger portion and red for the smaller portion. You can do vice versa.

Fill moulds with yellow batter. Make sure you fill it up to the top. Add a small portion of colored dough in the middle.

Steam in high heat for 25 mins.

Vegan Stuffed Peppers

These stuffed peppers are easy to make and the filling can be quite versatile. You can swap out different veggies or add different types, but these are my husband's favorite. To make ones with meat, use 2 cup of browned ground chicken, turkey, or beef. I like to use Trader Joe's Beef-less Ground Beef for this recipe but you can use your favorite vegan ground beef, as long as they hold up when cooking. I like to use stale brown rice for this recipe. I freeze brown rice that I get from Chinese take out and use them for this recipe. 

INGREDIENTS:

6 bell peppers (use different colored ones for a colorful presentation)

1 cup chopped onions

2 cups chopped mushrooms 

1 packet (12 oz.)Trader Joe's Beef-less Ground Beef (or 2 cups of browned ground chicken, turkey, or beef)

2 tablespoon oil

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tbsp paprika

1 cup brown rice

1 cup vegetable stock (or chicken, turkey, or beef stock)

2 cups tomato sauce

I recommend using this, but you can also use your favorite ground meat substitute

Mix vegetable stock with tomato sauce. Set aside for later use.

Cut the top of the bell peppers, take out all the seeds. Wash thoroughly.
You can either keep the top of the bell pepper to be cooked with the stuffed peppers, or you can chop them up and use as stuffing. I like the former because it has a better presentation.

In a pot, saute onions with oil in medium heat until it starts to brown. 

Add in garlic and continue cooking until onions and garlic are browned.

Add in mushrooms. Continue to cook in medium heat.

Sweat your mushrooms. Use the liquid to scrape up the brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Saute until liquid almost dries out.

Add in the Trader Joe's Beef-less Ground Beef (or browned ground meat). Stir evenly.

Add 1 cup of the vegetable stock and tomato sauce mixture into the pot. Add in oregano, basil, and paprika. Stir evenly.

Stir in brown rice. At this point, your brown rice should soak up most of the liquid. If it is too watery, you can leave it in the stove for a few more minutes.

Turn off the heat and let mixture cool for a few minutes.

In a casserole dish, stuffed and arrange your peppers neatly so they do not tip when you transfer them into the oven. Pour in the remaining of the vegetable stock and tomato sauce mixture. Bake for 30 minutes at 350°F.

Chunky Cranberry Orange Sauce

This easy homemade cranberry sauce will wow your guests and perfume your kitchen with a lovely smell of orange and cranberry. Make a day or two ahead and refrigerate before serving. When heated, the combination of sugar and pectin (from the cranberry) will thicken the sauce. There is also an easier raw version of this recipe here: Easy Cranberry Sauce. Do you know that cranberry sauce is typically cooked and sweet while cranberry relish is typically raw and more on the tart side?

INGREDIENTS:
2 bag cranberries (24 oz.)
1.5 cups sugar
1 orange (juiced)
Orange zests (from the orange you juiced)

Wash, rinse, and drain the cranberries. In a food processor, chop half of the cranberries. You can also chop all of the cranberries if you don't want whole berries in your relish.

I'm using chopped and whole cranberries for this recipe.

Zests and juice orange. Add into a pot or saucepan along with the cranberries. Juice your orange cut side up so seeds won't fall into the mixture.

Add sugar and mix. Cook mixture on medium heat until sugar dissolves.

Once the mixture bubbles, turn the heat to low. Let the cranberry sauce simmer for about 15 minutes, covered.

Stir occasionally to prevent burning. Turn heat off after 15 minutes.

Let the cranberry sauce cool completely before storing in the refrigerator. Serve with your turkey or Meatless Meatloaf. Or even ice cream!

Tong Yuen (Sweet Chinese Dumpling Soup)

In Malaysia, Tong Yuen (Cantonese) or Tang Yuan (Mandarin) 汤圆 is eaten on the Winter Solstice Festival (冬至) and Chinese New Years Eve. It's easy to get these Tong Yuen on the frozen aisle in Chinese supermarkets if you live in New York City. I do miss making them like I would with my grandma every year.

Me and grandma would pre-roll these Tong Yuen into balls the night before Winter Solstice Festival and Chinese New Year Eve. We cook them up in the morning before we proceed to cook up a feast for the family dinner. Tong Yuen does brings back fond memories of me and grandma so I decided to make them from scratch this year. I think me and grandma had only made Tong Yuen from scratch only a few times, we usually buy pre-made dough and would just roll them ourselves.

Traditional Tong Yuen are white (original dough color) and red (it's really more pink than red) but you can get creative and use other food coloring. Because I am making these for Christmas Eve, I made them white, red and green. Using pandan leaves is optional, but you know how Malaysian are --- pandan leaves is to Malaysians as vanilla essence is to Americans.

Tong Yuen dough:
2 cups sweet rice flour/mochiko
1/2 cup rice flour
7 oz. cold water
1/4 cup white sugar
Food coloring

Tong Yuen sweet soup:
8 cups water
1 cup sugar
3 inch ginger, bruised (more ginger if you like it gingery)
A few pieces of pandan leaves (optional)

Knead ingredients together into a pliable dough that won't stick to your hands. You can add more sweet rice flour/mochiko until the dough is not sticky. Divide them into portions. Add a few drops of food coloring into each portion and knead until well distributed. You can make as many color varieties as possible. Here, I made white, red and green. You can also mix these colored doughs together to achieve a marbled effect. Wrap up the dough with plastic wrap inside the fridge for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight. The dough is much more pliable then.

To make the sweet soup, boil water, sugar, ginger and pandan leaves until a rolling boil. Then, turn the flame to low and let it steep for about 30 minutes. While you let the soup steep, start cooking the Tong Yuen.

To cook the Tong Yuen, roll them up into small balls about the size of a quarter. In a large pot, boil water until it's in a rolling boil. Drop Tong Yuen into the pot but be careful not to overcrowd them.

Cook them as you would cook pasta, stirring occasionally. Cook for about 5 minutes, at which point all of the Tong Yuen should float to the top. Drain Tong Yuen and transfer them to the sweet soup. Serve warm.

Turnip Cake (Law Bok Gow)

Law Bok Gow (萝卜糕) is one of the beloved dishes from dim sum restaurants. "Law Bok" in Cantonese means "daikon radish" and "Gow" means cake. Of course, "cake" in this instance is not referring to the quintessential American cakes. Law Bok Gow is more of a semi-firm savory pudding. Traditional Law Bok Gow is a steamed velvety "cake" studded with daikon radish, Chinese sausages, shiitake mushroom, scallions and dried shrimp. Law Bok Gow is to Chinese New Year as gingerbread cookies is to Christmas. While mostly served in dim sum restaurants, Law Bok Gow is an auspicious dish served during Chinese New Year. Law Bok Gow is sometimes referred to as Turnip Cake or Daikon Radish Cake.

This is a vegetarian/vegan version of the recipe. Dried shiitake mushrooms are used in this recipe (optional if you don't like its taste). Soak dried mushrooms for a few hours and then it's ready to be used. I omitted shiitake mushrooms when I was making this because Vance hates shiitake mushrooms. Other possible filling for Law Bok Gow are chopped Chinese sausage, dried shrimp and chopped scallions. The recipe calls for 2 1/2 cups of filling so adjust as you see fit. Your main ingredient, however, should be daikon radish.

Daikon radishes, photo from Wikipedia.

I like to make my Law Bok Gow with roughly chopped daikon radish because I like to bite into pieces of daikon radish. You can chop them smaller if that is what you prefer. You might want to make Law Bok Gow the day before you plan to serve it because you have to steam it and then let it cool before slicing and pan frying it. Law Bok Gow is served with soy sauce or oyster sauce (or vegetarian oyster sauce).

Here's a tip for steaming. If you are steaming something for a long time, you might encounter instances where water inside your wok is drying out. Keep a pot of boiling water next to you when you're steaming so you can just pour hot water into the wok to replenish the water. This saves the steaming time because you don't have to wait for cold water to boil again.

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped daikon radish
1/2 cup chopped shiitake mushrooms
1 cup water

2 cups rice flour

1 teaspoon oil
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon white pepper
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine

In a pan, heat oil over medium heat. Saute daikon radish and shiitake mushrooms. When the radish starts to turn translucent, turn off the heat and set the mixture aside to cool.

Combine water, rice flour, salt, white pepper, sesame oil and Chinese cooking wine. When the radish mixture had cooled, combine them and pour into a loaf pan (or a cake pan). You are gonna get a batter with the consistency of milk. That's normal. It will congeal as it steams.

Set up your steamer. Place a metal rack in the middle of the wok or a pot. Add in about 3 inches of water. Cover your wok or pot and let the water boil over high heat. Once the water starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium.

Place the loaf pan on top of the metal rack. Cover and let it steam. Check occasionally to replenish water. Let  it steam for about 1.5 hours. The cake is done if a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Depending on the cooking vessel, steaming time range between 1.5 hours to 2 hours.

 Once the Law Bok Gow is cooked, let it cool for at least 2 hours. You can just put plastic wrap on top of the Law Bok Gow and  store it inside the fridge for a few days.

To serve, invert the pan and cut the cake into squares. Cut to about an inch thick. The thicker they are, the less likely they will fall apart.

In a pan, heat some oil over medium heat and pan fry Law Bok Gow until it's browned on both sides. 

Serve Law Bok Gow with oyster sauce (or vegetarian soy sauce) or soy sauce.

Vegetarian Sambal Edamame

This is a vegetarian version of Sambal Edamame with Shrimp. I also added in 1/2 cup baby corn cause Vance likes them and I have it leftover from making curry the other day. You can use or omit the baby corn. Be careful when choosing your sambal, make sure there are no shrimp in it. Any types of soy strips would do, even rehydrated ones. I have a packet of seasoned soy strips in the pantry so I used that instead. I washed the strip in cold water to wash off the seasoning (would probably taste weird with conflicting taste profile).

Soy strips (left) and sambal tumis (right)

Ingredients:

2 cups edamame

1 cup soy strips 

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 packet of sambal tumis 

1 tablespoon oil

some water (if too dry)

Add oil to wok or pan over medium heat. Add in chopped garlic and soy strips. Cook for a few minutes until garlic starts to brown. 

Add in edamame. Cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add in sambal and mix well. Cook for another 5 minutes. If it gets too dry, add in some water. Serve warm with rice.

Grandma's Agar-Agar

Most Americans are only familiar with agar-agar inside Biology labs but do you know that it's actually a common dessert in most Asian countries?

 This is what I used to make my agar-agar. The front and back of the package.

Making agar-agar is not that hard. If you know how to read instructions then you know how to make agar-agar (most agar-agar package gives you measurements for agar-agar/water ratio).

Here's a simple agar-agar recipe that grandma used to make for me. I never quite understand why grandma would use red food coloring but it doesn't really matter anymore because every time I make red agar-agar, I think of her.

Ingredients:

1 packet agar-agar powder (0.88 oz/25.00g)

8 cups water

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 pandan leaves

2 drops red food coloring

In a pot, boil water, sugar and pandan leaves. When the mixture gets to a rolling boil, turn off the heat. Add agar-agar powder and mix until it all dissolved. Add in the red food coloring. Discard the pandan leaves. Pour agar-agar mixture into a mold and let it cool for about an hour.

Leave it in the fridge overnight or until it sets. Cut agar-agar into squares and serve them chilled.

Vegetarian Pad Thai

Pad Thai (spicy fried Thai noodles), serves 4

This is easily my favorite Thai dish, and I'm confident you'll enjoy my take on it. In particular, I highly recommend you find Maesri Pad Thai sauce rather than substituting another brand.

The quality and moisture content of Pad Thai sauce varies wildly, and it can make or break a dish. Also, Maesri does not use fish sauce, making the recipe vegetarian (and easily modifiable to vegan).

Note that I use non-stick spray in place of cooking oil in several steps, to save calories. You can use vegetable oil in those steps if you prefer.

Ingredients:

• 1 package firm tofu
• 3/4 lb. dried rice noodles (I use Erawan Brand, Size M, Oriental Style Noodle)
• 3 eggs (Vegan? Omit the eggs!)
• 1.5 bottles (about 13 oz.) Maesri pad thai sauce
• Non-stick spray for frying
• 1 bunch scallions
• 1 carrot
• 3 cups bean sprouts
• 4 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tsp prik pepper flakes
• 3 cups fresh greens beans
• 1 can baby corn
• 1 package spiced tofu
• 1/2 cup raw peanuts (or roasted peanuts to save time)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vegetable oil

Prep:

1. If using raw peanuts, roast in a wok on high heat. Toss them continuously until lightly toasted, 5-10 mins.
2. Let peanuts cool, put in a plastic sandwhich bag and smash into small pieces with a rolling pin, mallet, etc.
3. Clean carrot, bean sprouts, and scallions under cold water.
4. Peel then shred carrot into thin strips (to make about 1 cup).
5. Cut scallions into 2" segments. Discard tip and root parts.
6. Chop firm tofu into 1" cubes.
7. Drain can of baby corn.
8. Chop spiced tofu into small 1/4" x 1/2" pieces.

Cooking:

1. Bring two pots of water to boil.
2. Turn off heat for one pot of boiling water (this will be for noodles shortly).
3. In the other pot, add 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp vegetable oil, and add the green beans for 10-15 seconds, then remove and drain. The salt and oil help preserve the vibrant green color.
4. Add rice noodles to first pot of hot water and let them soak off to the side. As soon as they are done soaking (see tip below), drain.


TIP: Never boil rice noodles; they will become soft and brittle, and turn to mush! Instead, put them in hot water and after 4-5 minutes check their consistency every 30 seconds. They are ready for frying when you tug at both ends of a noodle and it stretches firmly before snapping. If it doesn't snap at all it's too early, and if it easily pulls apart it's too late.


5. Put a wok on high heat and spray with non-stick spray. Fry tofu cubes until golden brown.
6. Push tofu to one side of wok, and add eggs to other side. Scramble eggs with a fork.
7. Fry the eggs until cooked through.
8. Spray wok with more non-stick spray, then toss in noodles. If you don't have a giant wok, you will need to fry the noodles in 2 batches (if too crowded, they won't cook properly).
9. Vigorously toss and stir noodles to prevent them from sticking to wok. Fry noodles for 1-2 minutes.
10. Add in baby corn, scallions, and spiced tofu. Continue tossing, and fry for 1 minute.
11. Pour in Maesri Pad Thai sauce, and sprinkle prik pepper flakes on top. The pepper flakes are ultra hot, so use sparingly!
12. Vigorously toss noodles to coat them with sauce. Fry for 30 seconds.
13. Add in bean sprouts. Fry for 30 seconds.
14. Turn off heat, and plate noodles.
15. Garnish with crushed peanuts, lime juice, and shredded carrot (on side, to be mixed in by lucky guest).