Chow Times » 2006

Crispy Oatmeal Bars

Suanne — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 09:00:00 +0000

Jenny commented on my previous blog asking what I made for the Potluck. Well, here it is.

I made some Crispy Oatmeal Bars for the Caring Place Community Kitchen potluck. We’ve got very short notice on the potluck, just the day before the potluck. I had to look for a recipe which I can make without going out for last minute shopping and I found this Crispy Oatmeal Bars where I had all the ingredients on hand.

Ingredients

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup shortening (or margarine or butter)
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups quick oatmeal (not instant)
1/2 cup chopped nuts or raisins or other dried fruit or chocolate chips

Click on the link below for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Crispy Oatmeal Bars (59 words)

Caring Place Potluck

Suanne — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 09:00:00 +0000

It’s coming to the end of another year. The Caring Place Community Kitchen ended this year’s sessions with a potluck. No cooking demonstration this time, just everyone coming with food to share.

This is a small group but have one the strongest supporters. The numero uno and the assistant group leader of the entire Richmond Cooking Community Kitchen is from this group. From left, Shaker, Angela, Minoo, Jean, Betty, Yvonne and me.

Jean, who always cooks the most and creative dishes, made 3 dishes to share. I am always amazed with her ability to think of so many varied types of food to cook.

The Chicken Pot Pie was flaky and had creamy rich sauce in the fillings.

The Lemon Meringue Pie is really sour. Jean used a lot of lemon juice with this. I like this a lot.

Jean made the Apple/Cabbagge Coleslaw before.

Shaker made Potato Curry. It is mild and not too spicy. I had expected this to be spicy but this is surprisingly good.

Yvonne made a platter of “All Spice” prawns with steam broccoli. The prawns were fried with the shells on and gives gives a very fragrant smell. The platter looks pretty with a good balance of colours.

Betty was in the midst of moving house. Despite that she did not come empty handed but managed to fry some vermicelli for the potluck.

Angela made some pancake with bacon. It was crispy and smoky. Seems like something that my boys would like. I should try this someday at home.

As for Lynn, she brought a lot fruits for dessert. The oranges were carved very nicely. We told ourselves that we should have a session or two on fruit/vegetable carving next year. Sounds like a great idea.

The Kitchen is taking a few weeks break and will commence in early January. This Kitchen meets twice a month on Thursday mornings. This is a great place to meet new friends and learn cooking. It is fun and I enjoyed it very much. Minoo and Jean were awesome leaders and made everyone feel belong. Let me know if you could come and attend our sessions. Send me an email at chowtimes@gmail.com.

So ladies, thank you for sharing your time and your recipes. I had a great time this year. Happy holidays and look forward to seeing you all next year.

Mango Swiss Roll

Suanne — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 09:00:00 +0000

Here is the second of Juanna’s demonstration — the Mango Swiss Roll. Refer to my blog yesterday for making the sponge cake base. To make this, it is important to get ripe sweet mango for the filling. Unripe ones will produce a sourish cake.

The Swiss Roll, done right, is a very soft and moist cake with the sweetness of the fruit. I like this because it is not overly sweet unlike others where the sweetness comes from the icing. I think you and your family will like this. Try it, it’s not hard to make.

Ingredients

Refer to the Fresh Fruit Cake blog for the sponge cake base and cream ingredients.

Click in the link below for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Mango Swiss Roll (200 words)

Fresh Fruit Cake

Suanne — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 09:00:00 +0000

Juanna Zhou made two delicious cakes in the Gilmore Park Church Cooking Club meet. She made a Fresh Fruit Cake and a Mango Swiss Roll. For this blog entry, I am blogging on her Fresh Fruit Cake.

The Fresh Fruit Cake is a soft sponge cake and decorated with thin slices of fruits. She used soft fruits like strawberries, kiwi fruit and cantaloupe. I think you can’t really use harder fruits like apples and pears for obvious reasons that it will be impossible to cut them. Moreover apples and pears can oxidize and turn brownish.
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Fresh Fruit Cake (474 words)

Sweet Rice Soup/Congee

Suanne — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 09:00:00 +0000

I love dessert soup but it takes a long time to make and my kids do not like them. So, I don’t make it at home. Whenever we eat out in Chinese restaurants which end the meal with a dessert soup, I would usually finished my kids helpings too.

Tanni made this Sweet Rice Soup in the South Arm Community Kitchen this week.

This Sweet Rice Soup is made from pearl glutinous rice, black glutinous rice, peanuts, lotus seed and slap sugar.

To make this soup, bring a pot of water to a boil (about 4-5 litres). Wash and rinse all the ingredients. Once the water comes to a boil, add in the glutinous rice (about 1 cup), black glutinous rice (about 1/4 cup), peanuts (1/2 cup) and lotus seed (1/2 cup). Bring it back to a boil and cover and simmer on low heat for 1 hour until all the ingredients are softened and the soup is thickened. Add 2 pieces of slap sugar depending on your preference and cook until the sugar melted. Serve warm.

Tanni also made some garlic toast as an appetizer. She buttered the sliced French baguette and sprinkled them with some garlic bread herb powder she bought from Costco. The garlic bread is toasted in the oven until the edges browned.

Tanni. thank you for sharing all the yummy dishes.

Green Curry Lamb

Suanne — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 09:00:00 +0000

Tanni is a another talented cook of the South Arm Community Kitchen. This week, she prepared a set menu (printed out nicely and put on display) for the cooking class. Her initial plan is to make a salad and garlic toast as the appetizers, Green Curry Lamb as the main entree and finally a sweet rice soup/congee as dessert. But unfortunately, with the boiling water advisory still on, she decided to drop off the salad as a safety precaution.

I’ll start off with the main entree. Green Curry Lamb. It was a great dish to be served with steam rice. The Green Curry Lamb is loaded with rich flavour from lemon grass, coconut milk and palm sugar.

Ingredients

2 lbs lamb shoulder, chopped into bite size
2 pcs garlic, minced
2 onions, sliced
2 tablespoons green curry paste (add more if you like it spicy)
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size
2 shallots, sliced
2 sticks of lemon grass, cut into 1 inch pieces
3 tablespoons palm sugar
1 can (400g) coconut milk

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Green Curry Lamb (184 words)

Lemon Chicken

Suanne — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 09:00:00 +0000

It’s Florence turn to share with us in the Gilmore Park Church community kitchen. She made Lemon Chicken, chicken corn egg soup and stir fried some sweet peppers. The dishes go well with steam rice.

Florence told us that this is the first time she’s making the Lemon Chicken. Nevertheless, the Lemon Chicken turned out great.

The Lemon Chicken dish is colourful and appetizing.

Ingredients

4 whole chicken breasts, cut into 2″ pieces and pounded lightly.
1/2 cup corn flour
3 tablespoons water
4 egg yolks
salt and pepper to taste
6 spring onions
oil for deep frying

Lemon sauce

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 3/4 cups chicken stock (or 2 chicken stock cubes dissolve in 1 3/4 cups water)
2 tablespoons corn flour
2 tablespoons honey
2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated ginger

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Lemon Chicken (205 words)

Celery Chicken Fingers

Suanne — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 17:00:00 +0000

The other chicken dish which Angela made was Celery Chicken Fingers. The crispy fried chicken fingers are served with a sweet dipping sauce.

The chicken fingers were made from thinly butterflied chicken breast (which has been seasoned with salt and peppers) wrapping around a celery stick and fastened by tooth picks. The chicken fingers are floured, dipped in egg wash and then rolled in breadcrumbs.

The chicken fingers are pan fried in medium low heat until they are golden brown.

The dipping sauce is made from a mixture of evaporated milk, honey and French mustard in the proportion of 3:1:1.

This is a finger food which kids will love. The celery gives the chicken fingers the extra crunch. Angela, thank you for sharing.

Chicken Jelly Fish Salad

Suanne — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 17:00:00 +0000

Angela made two chicken dishes in the Caring Place Community Kitchen. This is the first dish which is Chicken Jelly Fish Salad. This is a cold salad. It’s great as an appetizer.

Angela marinated a chicken breast with salt and pepper and steam the chicken breast for 30 minutes or until it’s cook. Then she shredded the chicken breast into thin strips.

The other main ingredient in this dish is the instant jelly fish which can be purchased from many Chinese groceries stores. The jelly fish is ready to eat.

Angela seasoned the chicken and jelly fish with sesame oil, chicken seasoning (optional) and sar geong fern (a kind ground ginger seasoning). Angela also garnishes the dish with cilantro and toasted sesame seeds.

The Chicken Jelly Fish Salad has a very distinctive flavour from the sar geong fern. The jelly fish gives the dish a very nice crunch.

Nanzaro loves jelly fish and I will certainly make this for him.

Suey Choy Pork Dumpling

Suanne — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 09:00:00 +0000

Betty made Suey Choy Pork Dumpling in the Caring Place Community Kitchen a couple weeks ago.

This is the pan fried version which I find is more tasty than the boiled version. The boiled version is best served in hot broth to keep it warm. You can check out the technique of making the boiled version at this link.

Ingredients

1 package of fresh dumpling skin (about 50 pieces)
1 lb lean ground pork
1 small suey choy (1 lb or more), finely chopped
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of minced ginger
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon salt

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Suey Choy Pork Dumpling (191 words)