Today’s Community Kitchen cooking class was led by Wonnie. Although Wonnie is a quiet and unassuming person but she led the class well today.

Wonnie made two dishes today. The first dish is Tofu pudding. I had featured the Tofu Pudding recipe in my blog sometime ago and so I would not describe Wonnie’s recipe. Click here for the tofu pudding recipe.

Now, the second dish that Wonnie made was Kimchee and Pork Fried Rice.

The Kimchee and Pork Fried Rice is very appetizing with a mild tanginess and spiciness from the kimchee. We all enjoyed it very much.

continue reading "Kimchee and Pork Fried Rice"

Vannessa, the leader of the South Arm Community Centre cooking club, shared with us two recipes this week. Vannessa is originally from Hong Kong. She shared with us Hong Kong Style Fried Rice and a Bake Salmon recipe.

This is the recipe for the Hong Kong Style Fried Rice. Fried rice originates from China and is made typically from cold leftover rice and leftover ingredients. Most regions in China has their own way in making fried rice with the most well known from Fujian and Yanhzhou.

Click on the link below for Ingredients and Cooking Instructions.

continue reading "Hong Kong Style Fried Rice"

In this week’s cooking club at Gilmore Park Church, we had Minoo to sharing with us two recipes. Minoo is the coordinator for the entire Richmond’s Community Kitchens. There are six community kitchens in all Richmond. She is also the group leader for 4 cooking clubs.

By the way, I’m attending 2 cooking clubs, i.e. the South Arm Community Centre cooking club and the Gilmore Park Church cooking club. I look forward going to the club meetings every week — I get learn cooking techniques and best of all made some good friends.

Here is the first recipe, the Persian Rice with green bean.

Ingredients

• 2 large onions, chopped
• 300-500g ground beef
• 2 cups gren beans, cut, 1 cm
• 1/2 teaspoons saffron
• 1 teapsoon cinnamon powder
• 1 5 1/2oz can of tomato paste
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Minoo started off with the cooking 4 cups of Basmati rice with 4 cups of water in an electric rice cooker. She used Basmati rice because it’s fluffy and the rice are separated when cooked (i.e. they don’t stick together). She also added some salt in the rice for taste.

While the rice is cooking, Minoo sauteed the onions with some oil.

When the onion is soften, she added the ground beef and cooked until the beef is brown.

Minoo then added the green beans and sauteed for a while.

Finally, the saffron, cinnamon and tomato paste are added to the beef/green bean mixture and stirred to mix well.You may adjust the amount of tomato paste to your preference. I used 3 tablespoons when I prepare this dish for my family.

She also added about 100ml of water to the beef/green bean and cooked them for on low heat, covered for another 5 to 10 minutes.

By now, the rice will be 3/4 cooked. Minoo added the beef/green beans into the rice and mixed them well. The rice is then left to further cooked for another 5 to 10 minutes.

The rice is perfumed by the fragrant of saffron. According to Minoo, there is no substitute to saffron in this dish. For those who lives in Richmond, BC and would like to try out this dish, you can purchase saffron from a store called Sahand Supermarket along New Westminster and Minoru. Minoo said you may grind the saffron with a cube of sugar until they are in grain form. Another way to use it is to soak a few strands in hot water and use the saffron water. Even though this is a very expensive spice, you only use a little amount at a time.

This is a very simple one pot dish and it’s great for picnic or potluck. I will certainly make this for my family. Minoo, thank you so much for sharing the recipe.

A pearl is worthless as long as it is in its shell.
~ Native American Proverb

Here is the other dish tha Winnie showed us how to make in our cooking class this week. She called it the Pearl Ball, which is basically meat ball wrapped in glutinous rice. The dish derives it’s name from the translucent appearance of the glutinous rice in a ball shape.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1/2 lb fish paste
• 2 tablespoons dry shrimp, soaked and chopped
• 2 tablespoons finely diced carrot
• 2 tablespoons chopped shiitake mushroom
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon chopped scallion
• 1 teaspoon chopped ginger
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 egg
• 1 cup glutinous rice, soaked in cold water for at least an hour

Instructions

First, the ground pork has to be moistened with 2 tablespoons of water. Then rest of the ingredients except the glutinous rice are added into the pork mixture and mixed well. The mixture will be very sticky.

This is a very simple dish to make and you can get your kids to help out rolling the meat balls in the glutinous rice. I will surely make this at home. Thank you again Winnie for your recipe.

Only the man who is not hungry says the coconut has a hard shell.
~ Ethiopian Proverb

We can never go wrong serving the ever favourite Malaysian Nasi Lemak. Nasi Lemak is a favourite rice meal normally eaten for breakfast. It is the closest to being the official national dish of Malaysia. Directly translated from Malay, nasi lemak means “rice in cream”. Nasi lemak is spicy.

When I was in Malaysia, I remember that we line up to buy the dish from the hawkers even before they get a chance to setup their stalls. Good Nasi Lemak is hard to come by now in Vancouver. I love the sotongs (cuttlefish) and cangkerang (cockles) for side dish … sigh.

Suanne made Nasi Lemak for dinner recently. The most important ingredient is the sambal which gives the dish the signature spicyness. Polly gave us some Malaysian-style fried anchovies which we have not found in Vancouver (thanks Polly!). The fried anchovies and fried peanuts gives the dish the crunchiness.

The nasi lemak rice must be cooked in coconut milk (otherwise, it will not be called nasi lemak, wouldn’t it?). Suanne put in some sliced ginger for flavouring.

While the rice cooks, Suanne prepared the all important sambal. There are several ways to prepare the sambal but it typically is cooked with onions and anchovies. We prefer the anchovies crunchy and so Suanne just cook the sambal with onions. Making the sambal is a lot of work and does make the whole house smells sambal for a week — Suanne just uses those bought from the stores.

Making peanuts is well, peanuts. Suanne just pan-fry it for about 10 minutes. Added some salt and once it’s all dark brown, it’s done.

It’s common to have eggs served with nasi lemak. They are served with either hard-boiled or sunny-side up. We prefer the sunny-side up ones because the soft yolk goes really well with the rice.

All happiness depends upon a leisurely breakfast
~ John Gunther .

We had sticky rice for dinner today. Both Arkensen and Nanzaro said that they love this a lot because it’s tasty. I think that it not only tastes good, it looks good too.

The main ingredients for this dish are glutinous rice, chinese sausage, shitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, shallots and garlic. Suanne got this recipe originally from her younger sister. Here are the before and after preparation shots of the ingredients:

Suanne starts off by frying all the ingredients until they are fragrant for about 5 minutes or so. You will know that it’s ready for the next step when you can, well, smell the fragrance of the ingredients.

The (uncooked) glutinous rice and the seasonings are then added in to the ingredients. Before this, the glutinous rice need to be soaked overnight. The seasonings consists of oyster sauce, light and dark soy. Suanne fries the rice together until the rice are well coated.

The glutinous rice are then transfered into a steamer. The steaming process will take about 40 minutes. Every 10 minutes, you stir the rice and add a few tablespoon of water. This is done so that you don’t get the sticky rice that is too soggy at the bottom and too dry at the top.

That’s it. It’s a simple dish to prepare and I think it’s a favourite with kids. To serve, you can add some chopped green onions and some fried shallots.

Here are our ratings:

äääää Nanzaro
äääää Arkensen
äääää Ben
äääää Suanne (Self)

Everything has an end — except for a sausage which has two.
~ Danish Proverb

This was what Suanne made for dinner yesterday. She found the recipe from the internet. It has been one of the more frequently made dish at home. Suanne says that she likes to make this dish is because this is the only way she can make Nanzaro eat carrots. Here is how it looks like:

It’s quite an easy meal to make. It will take about 1.5 hrs in all, including baking and preparation time. It’s has everything one needs for nutrition … vegetables, meat, carbohydrates … all in one pot. Cleaning is also easy because it’s just one casserole and dry plates to wash. Email Suanne if you want the recipe.