Chow Times » 2008

Papaya Dessert Soup

Suanne — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:00:19 +0000

Since Elaina asked for the Papaya Dessert Soup recipe from the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen Christmas Potluck 2008, I decided to post it here to share with everyone. Lorna, thank you for sharing the recipe.

Ingredients

2 Hawaii Papayas —– peel and cut into big cubes
3 White Fungus —– wash, soak in water till soft, core out the centre hard part and cut into small pieces, scald in boiling water and drain
10 Figs (Chinese white figs) —– wash and cut to quarters
20 Red Dates (Chinese dried red dates) —– wash, soak in water till soft cut to halves
3 tablespoons Chinese sweet and bitter almonds* ( skinless ) —– wash
1 pack Crystal Sugar (small cubes) 400 g.—– or rock sugar
16 cups of water

Instructions

Bring the water to boil and add in the white fungus, figs, red dates, sweet & bitter almonds
Bring to boil and simmer on low heat for an hour
Bring the soup to a boil again on high heat, add in the crystal sugar, stir till melt
Add in the Papaya cubes, turn off the stove, cover and let sit for 5 minutes
Serve while hot or chilled.

This recipe serves 12 to 15.

* Chinese sweet and bitter almonds is known as “larm buck herng” in Cantonese.

Holiday Cutout Cookies

Suanne — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:00:16 +0000

Charlene also demonstrated some Holiday Cutout Cookies in the Peach Mennonite Church Community Kitchen. This is a fun session as everyone can participate in rolling out the dough, cutting out the cookies, and decorate the cookies.

Above are some samples of the decorated Holiday Cutout Cookies.

Ingredients:

For cookies:

refer Raspberry Diamonds

For Icing:

3 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons water

For decoration:

food coloring
sprinkles

Tool:

cookies cutters

Click on Read More for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Holiday Cutout Cookies (273 words)

Raspberry Diamonds

Suanne — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:00:40 +0000

After the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen Christmas Potluck, a few of us went to Peace Mennonite Church Community Kitchen for a cookie making session. This cookies making session is sponsored by Family Services and demonstrated by Charlene.

We made 2 types of cookies, one filled with raspberry jam and the other one is just holiday cutout cookies decorated with icings. The dough for both the cookies are the same except that for the holiday cutout cookies, the dough has to be refrigerated for a firmer texture.

Ingredients

For cookies:

2 1/2 cups (11 1/4 oz) all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup (8oz) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon, grated

1 tablespoon lemon juice

For filing:

1/2 cup raspberry jam

For glaze:

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

drop of almond extract (optional)

Click on Read More for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Raspberry Diamonds (359 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | No comment
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Cookie, Recipe

Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen Christmas Potluck 2008

Suanne — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:00:01 +0000

The Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen celebrated Christmas with a potluck as previous year.

We are glad to have Lorna (standing 3rd from left) to join us again. Lorna gave us a very priceless gift from her late husband. It is an art collection of Lorna’s husband arts with the title “Fascinating Mind of Nigel Tam”. Nigel (1937-2008) was born and raised in an artistic family in Shanghai, China. Nigel graduated from TaiNan Polytechnic and Taiwan Normal University with honour in Fine Arts.

Nigel was married to Lorna in 1971 and had two daughters. In 1992, Nigel and family moved to Canada and established the “Tam’s Studio”, teaching art. Nigel managed to publish his art works in the book “Fascinating Mind of Nigel Tam” just before he passed away. This book contains art work from oil painting, ink painting and digital art work. Lorna, thank you so much for sharing Nigel’s dream with us.

Besides sharing food, Karen made everyone a cute little ornament bell to be hang on our Christmas tree. Karen, thank you for the crafted gift. Frank also gave everyone some Japanese cookies and beautifully written Christmas cards.

Back to food, Heidi made this very fragrant 5 spice duck. She told us she marinated the duck with 4 tablespoons of salt and 4 teaspoons of five-spice powder for 48 hours, wrapped with layers of paper towel to absorb all the moisture. She then use some Shioxing wine to rinse the inside of the duck before steaming the duck for 40 minutes. This 5-spice duck is her husband’s favourite.

Lorna made this dessert soup which is supposed to have healing effect for cough. According to Chinese medicinal point of view, this dessert soup warms your lungs. This soup has papaya, red dates, fig, white fungus (or snow ear fungus), north and south almond and sweetened with rock sugar. According to Lorna, the dry white fungus has to be soaked and blanched to remove the sulfuric taste in it.

Click on Read More for more food.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen Christmas Potluck 2008 (168 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Potluck

Canape

Suanne — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 15:00:15 +0000

The last dish Minoo made for the seniors Christmas celebration is Canape. Canape is a finger food which often served during cocktail hours. Canape are usually salty or spicy. Traditionally, canape are build on stale while bread but for simplicity, we use baguette as the base and topped with a mixture of olives and nuts.

Minoo made two different flavours of canape, one with black olives and another with green olives. I prefer the one with black olives as it’s milder in taste. For those who love olives, the green one has a more intense olives flavour.

Ingredients

Green olives Almond slices, toated Lemon zest

Black olives Pistachio, shelled Orange zest

Baguette Olive oil Freshly ground pepper

Click on Read More for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Canape (116 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | 3 comments
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Recipe, Snack

Tex-Mex Bean Salad with Creamy Salsa Dressing

Suanne — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:00:21 +0000

This is one of none Danish dish which the seniors made for the Christmas celebration. It’s called Tex-Mex Bean Salad with Creamy Salad Dressing. It’s kind of Mexican. Christina and June were in-charged of making this salad.

The Tex-Mex Bean Salad is great for potluck but it is advisable to assemble the salad just before serving. This is especially so for the tortilla chips so that they wont get soggy by the salad dressing.

Ingredients

1/3 cup salsa

3 tablespoons light sour cream

1 tablespoon apple-cider vinegar

2 (15 oz) cans black beans, rinsed and drained (or you can prepare your own black bean from dry ones)

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

3/4 cup fresh or thawed frozen corn kernels (or can ones)

1/2 avocado, peeled and diced

4 scallions, chopped

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

6 cups shredded romaine lettuce

24 baked low-fat tortilla chips

1/2 cup cubed cheese (pepperjack or cheddar)

To store the leftover half of the avocado, sprinkle the cut flesh with lemon or lime juice or white vinegar. Place it in an airtight container and refrigerate up to 2 days.

Click on Read More for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Tex-Mex Bean Salad with Creamy Salsa Dressing (65 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Recipe, Salad

Danish Brovst Dream Coffee Cake

Suanne — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:00:55 +0000

For dessert, Charlene, Frank and Karen made this Danish Brovst Dream Coffee Cake. As it was Minoo’s birthday, this cake also serves as her birthday cake.

This cake has a topping of baked coconut flakes which resembles little ant and hence this cake is also known as “ant cake”. This cake is dense and sweet.

Ingredients

250g (2 cups) all-purpose flour

50g (about 3 tablespoons +1 teaspoon) butter or margarine

300g (about 1.5 cups) sugar

4 eggs

200ml milk

3 teaspoons (15ml) baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

Filling:

125g (1/2 cup or 8 tablespoons) butter or margarine

100g grated coconut

250g brown sugar (275ml packed or 1 1/8 cup packed)

50ml milk

Click on Read More for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Danish Brovst Dream Coffee Cake (317 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Cake, Community Kitchen, Recipe

Danish Sugar-browned Potatoes (Brunede Kartofler)

Suanne — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:00:45 +0000

Minoo made this Danish Sugar-browned Potatoes specially for Paul. Paul described this potato dish to Minoo and Minoo was able to get the recipe from a Danish in a grocery store she visited. When Minoo tried the recipe at home, she ate all the potatoes by herself because they are that good.

The Danish Sugar-browned Potatoes are tender and sweet. They pair well with roast beef, chicken, pork or lamb.

Ingredients

12 – 15 Parisian potatoes

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

Click on Read More for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Danish Sugar-browned Potatoes (Brunede Kartofler) (116 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Potato, Recipe

Danish Glazed Mushrooms

Suanne — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 15:00:24 +0000

Since Joan and Paul complete their first recipe so quickly, they have time to do a second recipe. The second recipe is Danish Glazed Mushrooms from recipezaar. The recipe was originally submitted for the 2005 World Tour by Justcallmetoni.

The Danish Glazed Mushroom can be served as a hot appetizer or side dish. This dish is very fragrant with herbs.

Ingredients

1 lb mushroom cap

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1 garlic cloves (chopped)

1 green onion (chopped)

3 tablespoons fresh parsley (chopped)

1 tablespoon fresh dill weed (chopped)

2 teaspoons basil (chopped)

Click on Read More for the instructions.
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Danish Glazed Mushrooms (61 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Mushroom, Recipe

Danish Cucumber in Sour Cream Salad

Suanne — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:00:41 +0000

The first Danish dish is Danish Cucumber in Sour Cream Salad. This is a very simple salad that Joan and Paul made this up in a jiffy.

As the name suggests, this salad is cooling and creamy.

Ingredients

1 medium cucumber, thin sliced (3 cups)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon white vinegar

2 drops Tabasco sauce

2 tablespoons chives or green onion, chopped

1 teaspoon dill seed or fresh dill, chopped

1 dash pepper

Instructions

Sprinkle the cucumber with salt. Let stand 30 minutes. Drain thoroughly. Dry on paper towel.

Combine sour cream, vinegar, tabasco, chives or green onion, fresh dill and pepper.

Pour over cucumber. Chill well before using. Garnish with fresh dill.

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Community Kitchen, Recipe, Salad

Green olives Almond slices, toated Lemon zest	Black olives Pistachio, shelled Orange zest
Baguette Olive oil Freshly ground pepper