Six Minute Chocolate Cake

The Richmond Cooking Club resumed its activities in September 2008, just like schools heading off for a new school year. I’ll start off the recipe series with the South Arm Seniors’ Cooking Club. The Seniors’ Cooking Club made three dishes for the first meeting.

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The dishes were Six Minute Chocolate Cake, Chicken Paprika and Quiona and Black Bean Salad.

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This season, the Seniors’ Cooking Club is very privileged to have custom made aprons to be used in the kitchen.

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The aprons were sewed by Karen and the embroidery was sewed by Karen’s daughter.

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As an appreciation, Karen was presented with a potted plant from Stella, the South Arm Seniors’ coordinator.

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For the start of a new season, Stella and Minoo (the coordinator of all the Richmond Community Kitchens) handed out some feed back sheets for the participants to comment on their views and also to get ideas of what the seniors would like to learn in the kitchen.

For those Richmondites who are interested to join any of the Richmond community kitchens, please contact Minoo at 778-885-5165 or email her at minoocita@hotmail.com. It’s a great place to learn and to share and make new friends.

Please click on the link below for the recipe of the Six Minute Chocolate Cake.

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Oat Bran Carrot Muffin

Caring Place Community Kitchen kicked start the first meeting for the fall season of 2008. Minoo made a healthy muffin in the Caring Place Community Kitchen.

Minoo prepared a list of pictured references of common kitchen utensils, unit of measurements for kitchen use, some common ingredients and a how to list for the Caring Place Community Kitchen participants. In this particular kitchen, there are more new comers from mainland China and Taiwan who are not familiar with the terminology used in cooking. This pictured references will help them to identify the ingredients better and familiarize with kitchen terminology. Minoo puts a lot of effort in improving the community kitchens and she’s a good leader.

Minoo also briefly covered the objective of the community kitchens which are:

  • introduce healthy and economical recipes
  • promote sharing in terms of work load, cost of food and culture
  • promote team work

Minoo told us that the community kitchens are funded by the Coastal Health Canada and United Way through the Family Services of Canada.

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The Oat Bran Carrot Muffin is great as an after school snack and also great for lunch box. It’s a great way to get fussy kids to eat their vegetables.

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups oat bran
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/4 cups milk (skim or soured)
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • a teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • 1 cup grated carrots
  • 1 tablespoon ground flax seed (optional)
  • 1 handful of raisin (optional)

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Strawberry Freezer Jam

Karen showed us how to make this beautiful Strawberry Freezer Jam. Summer is the time where we get all the delicious, nutritious and antioxidant laden berries and what better than preserving them in freezer jam for enjoyment all year round.

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The Freezer Jam can be refrigerated for up to 3 weeks or freeze for up to 8 months.

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This is a no-cook freezer jam using light pectin crystals. The freezer jam pectin requires less than half the sugar used in freezer spreads made with regular pectins.

Ingredients

  • 8 cups (2L) strawberries (about 2 lbs), hulled
  • 1 box (49g) light pectin crystals
  • 3 1/4 cups (800ml) granulated sugar

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Do not use overripen strawberries for making freezer jam. This is due to the need for the acidity in the strawberries to react with the sugar and pectin to form the jam.

Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Dilled Beans Pickles

I was invited by Arzeena to attend another workshop at the Garrat Wellness Center again. This time, it’s Savouring Spring longer workshop. The workshop is conducted by Karen Dar Woon who cooks for the community meal at Gilmore Park Church. Karen demonstrated to us how to do home canning using the heat processing method and make a no-cook freezer jam.

The first demonstration is making Dilled Beans Pickles using the heat processing method. The green beans and carrots are steeped in a zesty dill brine. These pickles can be used in salad, relish trays or as garnishes. You can mix the brine with a bit of salad oil to make a flavorful vinaigrette dressing.

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These pickles can be kept for 1 year if you follow the proper home canning method. The heat processing canning method kills the enzymes in food which cause the food to rot or spoil. Since we are preserving the food in a high acidity environment in our case, harmful bacteria will not survive in it. To learn more about home caning, you may visit this page.

Ingredients

  • 2.2 lbs (1kg) green beans
  • 2.2 lbs carrots
  • 3 small red or green peppers
  • 3 cups (750ml) white vinegar
  • 3 cups water
  • 3 tablespoons (45ml) pickling or Kosher salt
  • 18 peppercorns
  • 3 teaspoons (15ml) dill seed or 6 sprigs fresh dill
  • 6 cloves garlic

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Sesame Baked Tofu

Tofu is a source of protein for vegetarian. One half-cup serving of raw firm tofu has double the content of protein from one half-cup of dairy milk. Tofu is low in calories for the protein it packs in. One half-cup of tofu contains 94 calories. For comparison, for each 100 calories serving, tofu contains 11 grams of protein while 100 calories of ground beef provides 8.9 grams of protein, and a 100 calories serving of cheese contains 6.2 grams of protein.

Here are more nutritional facts about tofu:

  • Tofu is a cholesterol-free food, as are all plant-based food.
  • One half-cup serving of raw firm tofu has only 5 grams of fat.
  • One half-cup serving for firm tofu contains about 227 mg of calcium or about 22% of the recommended dietary allowances (RDA).
  • One half-cup serving of firm tofu contains about 1.82 mg of iron, this can vary greatly, depending on the brand. The RDA for women is 18 mg, and 8 mg for men.

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The Sesame Baked Tofu takes on the flavour of the seasonings as tofu itself is quite bland. The toasted sesame seeds gives the dish some crunchiness and nuttiness. This dish goes well with some baked sweet potatoes.

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs firm tofu, cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 tablespoon roasted sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
  • 1/8 cup tamari
  • 1/8 cup water
  • 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds

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South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors

I had promised Minoo and Stella to visit the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors since it was established in January 2008. The South Arm Cooking Club meets on the second and fourth Tuesday. Unfortunately, Tuesday is my cake meet day with Polly because she is off on Tuesday. As all the cooking clubs are coming to an end in June for the summer break, I decided to cancel my cake meet in order to visit the cooking club for seniors on their first meeting in June. I was lucky as this will be the last meeting to cook for the club as they decided to go out for lunch instead of cooking for the last meeting.

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It was a huge turn out that day. There were thirteen in the meeting including me, some had shy away from the photo session. The young lady at the far left, Stella is the coordinator for senior programs in the South Arm Community Center while the lady at the far right, Minoo is the coordinator of all the cooking clubs in Richmond.

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The group made a scrumptious meal that day. We had Basmati Rice Flavoured with Saffron, Meatballs with an Italian Tomato Sauce, Spinach Salad with Orange Sesame Dressing, Sesame Baked Tofu and Baked Sweet Potatoes.

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The group was divided into 3 groups to work on different recipes. Above are the salad and tofu groups.

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The group here is working with the meatball recipe.

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After labouring in the kitchen, the group is enjoying the food they prepared.

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After lunch, the group is divided into two groups. One group is to divide the leftover food for them to take home.

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While another group is in charged of cleaning up. This is team work. I truly enjoy this cooking club.

The meatball recipe we used is the one we made in the Gilmore Park Church kitchen.

Click on the link below for the recipe of the Italian Tomato Sauce we made to go along with the meatballs.

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Meatballs

In the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen, we helped Karen to make meatballs for the community meal. We made about 800 meatballs.

Karen made us a Wedge Salad for lunch. It is a classic 60’s steak house lunch. It has a wedge of iceberg lettuce served with a creamy dressing and served with a form of beef, in our case beef meatballs. Karen made Thousand Island dressing for the salad.

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Here is the recipe for meatball. I’m posting only the ingredients for a smaller portion which serves about 6 people. For those who are interested for a recipe which serves 100 people, you can email me for the recipe.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb ground beef, lean
  • 1 medium or large egg
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons flax seed, ground
  • 1/2 cup buckwheat or brown rice flakes or rolled oats
  • 1/2 medium onion, chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon thyme, dried leaves or ground
  • 1/2 cup milk or soy beverage

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Fried Steamed Bun (Sang Jien Pau)

Using the Napa Cabbage and Pork buns, Grace showed us another way of cooking the bun. The buns are fried and steamed together and therefore, it’s called Fried Steamed Bun or in Cantonese, Sang Jien Pau.

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The Fried Steamed Bun is golden brown in colour unlike the steamed version which is white.

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The Fried Steamed Bun is crispy on the surface but soft and fluffy inside. The toasted sesame seeds gives the bun an extra crunch and fragrant.

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Napa Cabbage and Pork Steamed Bun (Choy Yoke Pau)

Grace showed us how to make another batch of dough on the spot. For this batch of dough, we made Napa Cabbage and Pork Steamed Bun or in Cantonese it’s called Choy Yoke Pau.

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The Napa Cabbage and Pork Steamed Bun is moist and taste great. You can substitute the cabbage with garlic chives.

Ingredients

Ingredients for the dough:

  • 4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 cups milk (you may substitute with water plus two tablespoons of milk powder or 1/2 cup of coconut milk plus a cup of water)
  • 1 tablespoon margarine
  • 1 teaspoon yeast
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 or 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 1 egg, optional

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Ingredients for the filings:

  • 1/2 lb lean ground pork
  • 1/2 head small Napa cabbage
  • soy sauce
  • sesame oil
  • cornstarch
  • ginger powder
  • salt
  • sugar
  • white pepper

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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