Chow Times » Chinese New Year Food

Taro Cake

Suanne — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:00:54 +0000

Back to the South Arm Community Kitchen, Peggy demonstrated to us how to make Taro Cake. Taro Cake is a common dim sum item. It can be eaten fresh from the steamer or lightly pan fry to give it a crispy outer layer. The Taro Cake can be eaten as a snack or even as a meal.

Peggy made two loaves of Taro Cake in the kitchen. She also brought one which she made earlier as the cake needs to be cooled down before you can slice it up into pieces for frying. The Taro Cake is so good that the group finish all the three loaves of Taro Cake.

Peggy’s Taro Cake is filled with pork and mushroom. However, you can substitute the filings with dried shrimp and Chinese sausage which are more commonly found in Dim Sum places.

Ingredients

2 cups grated Taro
1/2 cup ground pork
1/4 cup chopped shallot
1/4 cup thinly sliced dried mushroom
2 cups rice flour
1 cup cold water
1 cup boiling water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
soy sauce paste as dipping sauce

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Taro Cake (328 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments
Post tags: Chinese New Year Food, Community Kitchen, Dim Sum, Recipe, Snack, Taro

Steamed Fatt Ko

Suanne — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:00:39 +0000

This post is for Carol. She asked for a recipe of steamed cake. I’m not sure if this is exactly what’s in her mind but nevertheless, as Chinese New Year is approaching, steaming some Fatt Ko seems to fit the festivities. Fatt Ko in Cantonese sounds like rise and high which is what Chinese wishes one another during Chinese New Year.

The Fatt Ko did not rise as much as it should be because I ran short of the double-acting baking powder. Anyway, I love the taste and texture of these Fatt Ko.

Ingredients

Starter:

200g Hong Kong flour (I used all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
150ml water

Dough:

250g Hong Kong flour
20g double-acting baking powder (I used only 12g as that all I have in my pantry)
160ml water
200g brown sugar or gula melaka (I used brown sugar)

If done properly, the Fatt Go should rise very high and the top will split. The Fatt Go is a little chewy and denser than it should be. It also has a yeasty flavour to it as Nanzaro said it’s like eating Man Tau (in his words, eating Char Siu Pau without the char siu).

Click on Read More for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Steamed Fatt Ko (233 words)

Baked Chinese New Year Cake

Suanne — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 09:00:12 +0000

Betty showed us how to make Chinese New Year Cake, the baked version. The baked version takes much lesser time than the steamed version. Betty made two different flavours of the baked Chinese New Year Cake.

She made one with red bean soup and another just plain. You can make it in coconut milk flavour too.

This is the coconut milk flavour I made at home. The crust seemed to be thicker as I used two smaller pans to bake it and I forgot to reduce the baking time.

Ingredients

1 package of glutinous rice flour (400g)

3 eggs (medium)

1 1/2 cups water or milk or coconut milk or red bean soup

1 1/2 cups brown sugar (use 1 cup if red bean soup has been sweetened)

Click on the link below for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Baked Chinese New Year Cake (206 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | 10 comments
Post tags: Chinese New Year Food, Community Kitchen, Kuih, Recipe

Yee Sang in Metro Vancouver

Ben — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 05:34:04 +0000

We had a gathering among friends from Singapore and Malaysia today to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We had been meeting every year and these group of friends had been very much like family to us.

This year we gathered in Mark’s and Jess’ place where each family brought something for potluck. The planning for this gathering started a month before the Chinese New Year. This year we had TWO, not one, potlucks. One for during lunch time and the followed by a dinner steamboat (or better known as hot pot in Canada) out in the cold.

I just wanted to share the Yee Sang that we had. Yee Sang (sometimes spelt as Yusheng or Yuu Sahng) is a Chinese style fish salad. I think this is served and eaten during Chinese New Year only among Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore. So, if you ask other Chinese about Yee Sang, they will give you a puzzled look! Yee Sang is served from the 7th to 15th day of Chinese New Year.

We had great fun today tossing the Yee Sang. It is an act called Low Sang (or Low Hei) which signifies abundance, prosperity and vigor for the new year. Here is how we did it today:

Now, I have never seen anywhere in Metro Vancouver where one could buy Yee Sang. Do you know of anywhere one sells it? Suanne had blogged about the recipe here before. Check it out if you want to see how this is made. The recipe is from our master Yee Sang chef, Jess Chim. Jess makes this and sells it by the “mai” (a “mai” is a serving for four people) and could deliver it to (almost) anywhere in the Lower Mainland. So, if you want to place an order for Yee Sang, just send her an email at jesschim@shaw.ca.

© ben for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | 5 comments
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Steamed Rice Cake

Suanne — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 09:00:04 +0000

For the Chinese New Year celebration, I also made a Steamed Rice Cake. This is slightly different from the Pak Thong Koh. Pak Tong Koh is leavened by yeast while this Steamed Rice Cake is leavened by double acting baking powder. It does not have the hint of sourness as the Pak Thong Koh.

This Steamed Rice Cake is lightly sweet. It is eaten during Chinese New Year because of the way the cake rises and blossoms. Rise in Cantonese is “fatt” and “fatt” in Cantonese also means prosperity or wealth.

Ingredients

Step 1:

200g rice flour

200ml coconut milk

160ml boiling water

1 teaspoon double acting baking powder

Step 2:

120g sugar

1 teaspoon double acting baking powder

1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Steamed Rice Cake (116 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | 32 comments
Post tags: Dessert, Kuih, Recipe, Rice Flour

Nian Gao (Chinese New Year Cake)

Suanne — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 08:00:04 +0000

Nian Gao is a traditional Chinese New Year dessert. It is a sticky rice cake which requires long hours (7 hours!) of steaming. It is eaten in Chinese New Year because its pronunciation is a homophone for “a more prosperous year, higher position, grow taller, etc, year after year”. For example, businesses to grow more prosper, working class people to go higher in their career path and for kids to grow taller.

I do have a baked version which takes less than 1 hour to make.

Nian Gao can be kept for a long time. It just need to be re-steamed to regain its soft texture.

Ingredients

For the golden syrup:

300g sugar

200ml water

2 slices lemon

For the Nian Gao:

300g glutinous rice flour

300g sugar

300ml water

4 tablespoons golden syrup

banana leaves or parchment papers for lining tins

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Nian Gao (Chinese New Year Cake) (263 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | 13 comments
Post tags: Dessert, Glutinous Rice Flour, Kuih, Recipe

Garlic Chives Jiaozi

Suanne — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 09:00:51 +0000

At the South Arm Community Kitchen, Vanessa brought along a new friend, Ming. Ming is from Beijing and she was a chef back there. We are fortunate to learn from Ming how to make jiaozi from scratch. Yes, even the dough is made from scratch.

The timing is just right as Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Jiaozi is a traditional food during Chinese New Year. Ming enlightened us on why jiaozi is eaten during Chinese New Year. For one, the shape of jiaozi resembles the gold ingots which is a form of money used during the past. Therefore, jiaozi is believed to bring wealth in the new year. Also, the Cantonese believes that the way the filings is wrapped in a wrapper keeps the wealth within the family.

Jiaozi is also believed to get its name from the shape which resembled horn shape.

There are various filings for jiaozi. Garlic chives or also known as Chinese chives is the most common one. The mild garlicky flavour of the chives complements the flavour of the pork very well. I had blogged about other types of jiaozi here and here.

Ingredients

ground pork (can also use ground beef or lamb), about 2 lbs

garlic chives, 1 bundle, finely chopped

minced ginger

salt

sesame oil

cooking oil

chicken bouillon powder (optional)

flour

water

The garlic chives has flat leaves unlike the regular chives which has hollow rounded leaves.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Garlic Chives Jiaozi (675 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2008. | Permalink | 9 comments
Post tags: Chinese New Year Food, Community Kitchen, Dumpling, Pork, Recipe

Pineapple Fillings

Suanne — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 09:00:00 +0000

Pineapple is native to Brazil and central America, but is now a favorite crop in tropical and subtropical climates. Pineapple is a good source of manganese, as well as containing significant amounts of Vitamin C and B1.

Pineapple makes an excellent marinade and tenderizer because it contains bromeline, an enzyme that digests protein. The enzyme also keeps gelatin from setting, so pineapple is not good for fruit jellies.

I love pineapple but I seldom buy a whole pineapple. This is because I’m intimidated by the task of cutting up a pineapple. There are lots of so called eyes on the pineapple which need to be removed.

I guessed the exporter of pineapples are aware of this and nowadays, you’ll find a little brochure attached with the pineapple illustrating how to cut up a pineapple.

First, you remove the top and bottom of the pineapple.

Then, you stand the pineapple up on the flat bottom and cut the pineapple into quarters.

Remove the core which is too fibrous to eat.

Next, I divide the quarters into eights. A slimmer piece makes the removal of the skin easier. The last thing is to remove any remaining eyes on the pineapple.

To make the pineapple filling, I used:

2 pineapples

180g rock sugar (I added more because the filling is very tangy)

1 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Finely chop the pineapple in a food processor.

Transfer the grated pineapples to a pot and add the rock sugar and cinnamon powder.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until most of the liquid has evaporated.

This is the most daunting part. It took me 3.5 to 4 hours to get the liquid evaporated. I was thinking if I drain the pineapple first to get rid of some of the juice, it will take me less time to cook it. But, on the other hand, I would want the pineapple filling to have a very concentrated flavour of pineapple by cooking off the liquid slowly. Well, is there a better way to do this? I wonder if this can be done in a slow cooker without the constant stirring.

After almost 4 hours of cooking, I finally ended with a bowl of pineapple fillings for the Tangerine Cookies and Pineappple Tarts. No wonder those homemade Pineapple Tarts are so expensive. I used to buy them in Malaysia for Chinese New Year celebration. It is so labour intensive to produce.

© suanne for Chow Times, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post tags: Chinese New Year Food, Cookie, Pineapple, Recipe

Tangerine Cookies

Suanne — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 09:00:00 +0000

During Chinese New Year, tangerine is the official fruit. Every Chinese family will surely have tangerines. Tangerine in Cantonese is ‘kum’ which has the same pronunciation as gold in Cantonese. So, tangerine is an auspicious fruit during this festive season.

It is the Chinese customs to visit families and friends during the 15 days of Chinese New Year celebration. During such visits, the visitor will bring gifts which always include tangerines.

I saw this Tangerine Cookies in a recipe book which Ben brought back from Malaysia and its just perfect for Chinese New Year celebration. Unfortunately, the Tangerine Cookies did not turn out as pretty as those in the recipe book. I think its the temperature of the oven which caused the cookies to be slightly burn. Anyway, if you would like to try this recipe, I’ll recommend you lower the oven temperature.

Since the first batch of the Tangerine Cookies did not turn out as I expected, I used the rest of the pastry to make Pineapple Tarts. Actually its more to a Thump Print Pineapple Cookies because I do not have a pineapple tart cutter.

The Pineapple Tart turned out pretty good. Of course, I bake them in lower temperature that the recipe book recommended. I have always love the tartness of the pineapple in a slightly sweet pastry cookie.

Ingredients

Pineapple filling (I will blog about this tomorrow)

300g plain flour

50g custard powder

1 tablespoon milk powder

180g butter

70g icing sugar

1 egg

1 beaten egg yolk

Cloves for decoration

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Tangerine Cookies (163 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2007. | Permalink | 4 comments
Post tags: Chinese New Year Food, Cookie, Kuih, Recipe

Kueh Bangkit

Suanne — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 09:00:00 +0000

Kueh Bangkit is one of the traditional cookies served during Chinese New Year. It is a very light and fragrant cookie that melts in your mouth.

Traditionally, its made with a mold in the shape of little chick. I do not have such mold, so I tried to use my cookie press to make it.

I was successful with the cookie press for the first batch of the Kueh Bangkit and ran into difficulty with the second batch. The dough just wont come out from the press. So, for the rest of the dough, I just shaped the dough into long strips and cut them into 2 cms strips for baking.

Ingredients

300g tapioca flour

3-4 pieces pandan leaves (screwpine leaves)

20g margarine, softened

1 egg yolk

140g icing sugar

120ml coconut milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder (I substituted with 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract)

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Kueh Bangkit (161 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2007. | Permalink | 9 comments
Post tags: Chinese New Year Food, Cookie, Kuih, Recipe