Crispy Oatmeal Bars

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.

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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 all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups quick oatmeal (not instant)
  • 1/2 cup chopped nuts or raisins or other dried fruit or chocolate chips

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Caring Place Potluck 2006

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.

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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.

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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.

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The Chicken Pot Pie was flaky and had creamy rich sauce in the fillings. (more…)

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Mango Swiss Roll

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.

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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.

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Fresh Fruit Cake

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.

The fresh fruit cake is pleasing to the eyes and palate. What else could you think of using for this?

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The Fresh Fruit Cake is very light and not overly sweet. A great cake for almost any occasion.

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Both the Fresh Fruit Cake and Swiss Roll use the same base. The base is a sponge cake. Here is the first recipe for the Fresh Fruit Cake.

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 cup sugar, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/2 cup cake flour
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon vinegar/lemon juice
  • 50ml milk
  • fresh fruits – strawberries, cantaloupe, kiwi fruit
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 3 tablespoons icing sugar

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Green Curry Lamb

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.

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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

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Lemon Chicken

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.

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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

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Celery Chicken Fingers

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

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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.

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Suey Choy (Napa Cabbage) Pork Dumpling

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.

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Ingredients

  • 1 package of fresh dumpling skin (about 50 pieces)
  • 1 lb lean ground pork
  • 1 1 small suey choy (napa cabbage), 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

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