Tag Archives: Chinese

Uncategorized

Stuffed Lotus Root with Sticky Rice

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This is one of the dishes that I want to try for a long time. With a pressure cooker, it will be a lot easier.

  1. Prepare a lotus root. Mine is about 700g. Peel it. Cut two ends at about 3-5 cm. Don’t throw them away.
  2. Wash sticky rice and drain them. I used about 1/2 cup.
  3. Fill the lotus root hole with sticky rice. This step needs patience and time. You can use chopsticks to help you with it.
  4. After that, put the two cut-off ends back and fix them with toothpicks firmly.
  5. Put lotus root into pressure cooker. Add in enough water covers it or at least 3/4 of it.
  6. Cook under higher pressure for 30 mins.
  7. Cut 6 big red dates into slices and remove the seed. Also prepare 30g rock sugar cubes.
  8. After 30 mins. Add red dates and sugar into the pressure cook and cook under high pressure for another 20 mins.
  9. Take the lotus root out. Remove all the toothpicks. Let it cool down and cut into slices.
  10. The red date water is delicious. You can also use some to get thickened sauce. And glaze the dish.

Lotus root is very soft and so is sticky rice.

Soup, Uncategorized

White Fungus, Red Dates, Lotus Seeds & Longan Soup

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It’s a sweet soup, more like dessert.

Ingredients are simple:

White fungus soak in water till soft and tear them apart. Lotus seed washed in water. Split in halves and remove the green sprout if there is. Remove the seed of red dates and cut or tear into smaller pieces. Other ingredients are longan meat, goji berries and rock sugar.

Put everything into pressure cooker. (I really love my pressure cooker. It makes cooking a lot easier.) Add in 6 cups water. Cook under high pressure for 50 mins.

White fungus becomes as soft as jelly. Soup is thick.

A good desert for women especially.

Cake

Steamed Rice Cake (Bai Tang Gao 白糖糕)

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I followed this recipe:

Bai Tang Gao also known as Lun Jiao Gao (伦教糕) is a popular dessert in China, especially in Canton area.

In this recipe, the following ingredients are required:

Rice flour    150g

water 300ml (2tbsp water to mix with dry yeast)

90g sugar (1 tsp sugar to mix with dry yeast)

3/4 tsp  yeast

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vegetable oil

1, Add sugar into a sauce pan. Pour into 150 ml water. Turn to low heat and stir at the same time till all the sugar dissolves.

2, Add rice flour with the rest 150 ml water. Stir till no lumps.

3, Add rice flour water into sugar water. Turn to low heat and stir till fully mixed. Then turn off the heat and let it cool down.

4, In a small bowl, mix 1 tsp sugar, 2 tbsp water and 3/4 dry yeast. Let it rest to foam up.

5, When rice flour water is completely cool and yeast foams up. Add yeast water into rice flour water. Also add in baking powder and oil. Mix well.

6. Put it in a warm place, cover it with plastic wrap and towel. Let it ferment for 5 hrs. Original recipe needs 6 hrs. But it is very hot here in Singapore. So I think 5 hrs should be long enough.

7. Brush oil to steaming pan. Pour everything into it. Steam over medium heat for 20-25 mins. Check with toothpick.

This is how it looks after steaming:

Cool down and cut into slices.

 

Pork, Ribs, Uncategorized

Sweet & Sour Ribs （糖醋排骨）

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  1. Wash ribs in water. Put all the ribs in a deep pot. Add in enough water. Bring it to boil for 3-5 mins. Take out all the ribs and rinse under water.
  2. Heat a pan with a little oil. Stir fry drained ribs till they turn a bit brownish.
  3. Add in ginger slices and green onion. Stir fry till aromatic.
  4. Drizzle in 1 tbsp cooking wine. Stir fry till ribs dry again.
  5. Prepare sauce: 1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce, 2 tbsp vinegar, 3 Tbsp rock sugar (you can reduce or add more sugar according to your taste). Pour sauce into the pan.
  6. Stir fry to let the ribs be coated with sauce.
  7. Pour in enough hot water can cover all the ingredients. Turn to low heat and simmer for 30-40 mins.
  8. Lid off. Turn to high heat and reduce the sauce.
  9. When sauce is about to dry, spread in white sesame. Quickly stir fry evenly.
  10. Garnish with chopped spring onion.

https://flic.kr/p/2gEfmaB

I know for sure that my husband will love it.

https://flic.kr/p/2gEeDuc

I prepared his bento with this delicious ribs. And the sauce made rice very tasty too.

My husband loved them so so much!

Chinese, Dumplings

Zong Zi Again!

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There are still some bamboo leaves left in my fridge since last time I made zongzi (sticky rice dumplings). Last Wednesday was my resting day. No work, no need to go out. So I decided to use some to make Zongzi. And also because I really missed zongzi, could’t wait to have some.

This time, I only used sticky rice, no red bean. And for the filling, I went with the simplest one – red dates.

Only when I went to college in Fujian did I know that not all the people in China have simple zongzi with only sticky rice and red date inside. People in Fujian have the meat zongzi, with pork, mushroom, peanut, beans inside. And according to the different color, they call the meat ones Hongzong (red zongzi), and our simple ones Baizong (white zongzi).

After trying so many types of zongzi, simple white zongzi are the ones I miss most. And that’s why I decided to only make Baizong this time.

  1. Bamboo leave and sticky rice should be soaked in water for overnight.
  2. Prepare red dates, either dry ones or sweet preserved ones are OK. Cut off the  bamboo leaves’ stalk before wrapping.
  3. Use bamboo leaf to make a funnel shape. some rice first, then red date, and rice at last. Try to cover and wrap with the rest of leaf. And tie it with kitchen twine. Again I don’t care about zongzi’s shape. As long as it is tightly tied, it is a good zongzi to me. 🙂
  4. Boil for 3 hours.

If you make too many at a time like me, Please boil them before store them in freezer.

Oh~~~~I love them.

If you think they taste plain, you can even dip them in sugar first. I know some people in China have that customs.

Pork, Uncategorized, wrap

粽子 (Zong Zi, Sticky Rice Dumpling)

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This year, Dragon Boat Festival is on June 7, which is  next Friday. I never tried to make sticky rice dumpling (Zong zi) by myself even though I like them very much. I saw there were bamboo leaves for zongzi on the supermarket’s shelf and thought maybe I can try making zongzi this year.

The preparation should be done on the night before.

From left to right: glutinous rice, red bean, preserved dates, pork & shiitake mushroom, bamboo leaves.

Bamboo leaves should be soaked in water overnight. Cut off the leaf stalk before wrapping.

 

Because my husband likes meat zongzi, which is salty, while I like sweet ones. So I have to prepare 2 fillings.

I wrapped a lot of zongzi, please feel free to deduct the ingredients.

 

For the savory ones:

pork belly 200 g (cut into slices)

Shiitake 4 (cut into slices).

Put pork and shiitake into a small bowl. Add in 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 pinch salt, 2 tsp dark soy sauce, 2 tsp oyster sauce and 1 tsp five spice powder. Mix them well. Put into fridge overnight.

glutinous rice 500g

red bean 1 cup

Wash them under water. Then soak them overnight. You can mix them before soaking or after.

Drain glutinous rice and red bean. Put them in a big bowl. Drizzle in 1 tbsp light soy sauce and 1 tbsp sesame oil. Mix well.

 

For the sweet ones:

glutinous rice 500g

red bean 1 cup

Soak overnight too.

Mix them before using. If you want Zong Zi to taste sweeter, you can also add in sugar.

 

Wrapping sticky rice dumplings is not as difficult as I expected, unless if you want to make them very neat and pretty. My rule is as long as I can wrap the filling , rice inside and I can tie them with twine, it will be a big success. 🙂

 

For the savory ones with pork inside:

Use bamboo leaves (1 or 2 ) to make a funnel shape at one end. Add into 1 tbsp rice, then 1 or 2 slices of pork and shiitake. Top with another 1 tbsp rice. Cover it with the rest bamboo leaf and wrap with twine.

Please remember to use the light soy sauce and sesame oil marinated rice.

Same procedures are applied to the sweet ones.  Just replace the pork with preserved dates and use the normal rice.

Wrap them tightly with twine. You can use different colors of twine to different types.

Boil them for 3 hours. If yours are bigger then mine, please cook longer. Better boil them separately due to different flavor.

https://flic.kr/p/2g4MUyh

Well, my sticky rice dumplings are a bit….. ugly and diverse in shapes. 🙂

Actually, I think zongzi is delicious even if there were only plain sticky rice inside.

So I can never say no to zongzi. 🙂

 

Uncategorized, Vegetables

Chinese Style Pickled Cucmber

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This kind of pickled cucumber is really a perfect choice to go with porridge. And it’s very easy to make too.

Because I didn’t want to make too many, I just used 2 medium cucmbers.

  1. Cut cucumbers into strips or any shape you like. But better not to be very thin.
  2. Put them in a bowl. Sprinkle 1/2 Tablespoon salt. Toss a bit. Leave them there for 30 mins.
  3. Drain the water. and dry them.
  4. In a bowl, add in 2 tablespoon light soy sauce, 2 tbsp vinegar, 2 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp honey, 3-5 crushed garlic cloves, and 2 spicy red chili. You can add more or less chili according to your preference.
  5. Put cucumber into a sterilized container. Then pour the sauce over them. Lid on. Put into the fridge. And you will have a crunchy sweet & spicy appetizer in several hours.

Fish

Sweet & Sour Fish (糖醋鱼)

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Finally, I got the chance to try this sweet & sour fish (糖醋鱼，tang cu yu). Before everything, I want to give you a little warning here: this dish requires too too much oil to fry the fish. That’s also why I didn’t dare to try it.

Yesterday, my husband and I went to shopping for groceries. I was too busy recently. Some of my blogs were done maybe days ago, or even months ago. I wrote them when I got time and was not feeling lazy. Then when I was busy and had no time for blogging, I would just publish my draft done before.

But I did cook this dish today. Yesterday my husband chose sea bass at the supermarket. I’ve done steamed fish, braised fish, roasted fish, fried fish before. I also cooked sweet & sour fish fillet before. But I never did this whole sweet & sour fish. It’s a very popular fish in China. But it’s not an easy dish to make at home, since it requires cutting skills and too too much oil. So most people order it at the restaurant.  My husband had this dish when he was in Dalian, He loved it. My brother is also a big fan. I was planning to learn this dish and cook for my brother when I go back home.

  1. Prepare a sea bass, you can also choose carp. My fish was cleaned at the supermarket. So I just need to wash it again. Then  use a sharp knife to cut about 4 cm below the gill. Make several more cut every 4 cm. When cut the fish, first cut it vertical to the bone, then horizontal to make a crescent moon shape. Do the same to the other side.
  2. Marinate fish with 2 tbsp cooking wine, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp black pepper for 10 mins maybe.
  3.  Dust fish with potato starch and shake off the excessive.
  4. Prepare batter: 1/2 cup flour, 1/3 cup potato starch, 3/4 cup water. Mix well. You can test batter by scooping some batter up. If it can flow like tiny stream then it’s good. Add more flour if too thin. Add more water if it’s too thick.
  5. Heat oil. To save oil, you can just add in enough oil that can cover half the fish. Dip fish in the batter. Make sure whole fish is coated with batter completely, especially the cut part.
  6. When oil is hot, grab fish by head and tail with 1 hand.  Fry the fish for a little while to let the fish get firm. Then drop whole fish gently into the pot. Use a ladle to scoop and pour hot oil over the fish. Flip fish if one side turns golden brown. Fry for about 5 mins or till whole fish turns golden color. That’s how to make fish crispy.

https://flic.kr/p/2fH4neM

This is how my fish looks after frying. Fin is really crispy.

7. To make sauce: Heat a pan. Add in 1 tbsp oil. Then add in 4 tbsp tomato sauce. Stir fry to make tomato sauce fully mixed with oil. and color will be brighter. Add in 3 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp vinegar and 2 tbsp water. Simmer with low heat. Dissolve 1 tsp starch in a little water and add into the sauce. Reduce sauce to condensed.

8. Pour sauce over the fried fish.

https://flic.kr/p/2fH4n7c

When I put the fried fish into a bigger plate, I accidentally broke its tail. Poor fish 😦

I have to let it lie down in the plate. I also garnish fish with green peas.

My husband gave me thumps up. The fish is really crispy outside, but tender and juicy inside.

https://flic.kr/p/2fH4n7H

Yum!

spinach, tofu

Vegan Stir-fry (Thin Tofu Sheet & Spinach)

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This kind of thin tofu sheet is called Qianzhang （千张）in Chinese. Qianzhang literally means thousands of layers, which quite matches how it looks. I guess it’s not very popular in Singapore, cos when I first cooked it, my husband was very curious what it is. There are so many kinds of tofu products, qianzhang is just one of them.

This dish is vegan. Main ingredients are Qianzhang and spinach. It’s also very simple.

  1. Cut Qianzhang into medium strips. (The original one inside the package is a very big sheet). And separate them by tossing a bit. Also wash the spinach and trim off the root and cut into medium strips.
  2. Prepare chopped ginger and chopped garlic. If you want it to taste a bit spicy, then also prepare 2 dried red chili.
  3. Boil some water. Blanch Qianzhang in hot water for about 1 min. Then soak them in cold water and drain.
  4. Heat a pan, add in 1 tbsp oil. Saute chopped garlic, ginger and red chili first. When spices are aromatic, add Qianzhang in. Stir fry evenly for about 1 min.
  5. Add in spinach strips. Stir fry for another 2 mins or till spinach becomes soft and dark green.
  6. In with 2 tsp light soy sauce and 1 tsp sugar. Quickly stir fry evenly.
  7. Season with salt.

Chicken

Chicken Leg Rice

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1. Prepare chicken legs. Wash them clean. I used 3.

2. Place them in a deep pot. Add in enough water. Bring to boil. Skim the soup, remove all the floating dirt.

3. Add in 2-3 ginger slices, 3 cloves of garlic, salt to season. Cover the lid. Turn to low heat and simmer for 20-30 mins.

4. Turn off the heat. Take the chicken out.

5. Prepare 1 cup rice. Wash and drain. Turn on the rice cooker. Cut in 1 small cube of butter. When butter melts, add in 1 tsp chopped garlic and 1 tsp chopped ginger. Stir fry till aromatic. Add rice in. Stir fry a bit. Pour in 2 cups of chicken soup from the pot. Add in a pandan leaf knot. Cover the lid and cook the rice.

6. Place chicken legs in a bowl. Add in 1 tablespoon light soy sauce, 1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce, 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce and 1 tablespoon honey. Mix chicken with sauce well.

7. Into the oven 200 degree C for 20 mins. Flip over in the middle.

Serve the chicken leg with rice and chili sauce.

My husband loves it, especially chicken leg.