All Entries Tagged With: "Chinese New Year Food"
Taro Cake
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
Steamed Fatt Ko
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.
Baked Chinese New Year Cake
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.
Garlic Chives Jiaozi
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.
Pineapple Fillings
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.
Tangerine Cookies
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
Kueh Bangkit
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)
