Butter Tart Muffin

Jean’s last dish in this week’s cooking club meeting is Butter Tart Muffin. The ingredients are similar to the Raisin Butter Tart, so do the flavour.

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The Butter Tart Muffin taste just like the Raisin Butter Tart.

Dry Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups raisins
  • 3/4 cups white granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon mace (optional)

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Swiss Steak

This is Jean’s second recipe in this week’s cooking club meeting. The Swiss Steak recipe is best cooked in a slow cooker for 8 to 9 hours. However, due to time constraint in the meeting, Jean cooked it on the stove for only 1 hour. Though the meat is not as tender as desired, but the Swiss Steak is still very flavourful and creamy.

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Ingredients

  • 2 – 2.5lb sirloin tip steak
  • 1 can (10 3/4oz) Cream of Mushroom soup
  • 1 cup chopped celery
  • 1/2 cup chopped onions
  • 1 or 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 10 pcs sliced button mushrooms
  • 1 – 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 – 3 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
  • 1 1/3 cups water
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

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Raisin Butter Tart

In this week’s cooking club meeting, Jean, who is the leader of the Gilmore Church Park group, shared with us three recipes. The recipes are Raisin Butter Tart, Swiss Steak and Butter Tart Muffin.

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Here is the first recipe, Raisin Butter Tart. The tart has a very flaky pastry shell and the filing is sinfully rich.

Ingredients for making the Rich Pie Pastry

  • 1 lb shortening
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 4 cups all-purpose flour

The above ingredients make 45 to 48 tarts.

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Instructions for making the Rich Pie Pastry

IMG_4756_edited-1First of all, put the dry ingredients i.e. flour, salt and baking powder in a big bowl. Mix the dry ingredients well with a whisk.

Next, beat the egg in a measuring cup. Add vinegar and fill the measuring cup to the 3/4 cup mark with water. Add to the flour mixture and mix well.
IMG_4758_edited-1Finally, add in the shortening and mix with your hands until the dough comes together.
IMG_4760_edited-1The dough has to be chilled in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.This dough can also be frozen for later use.This recipe can be used to make pie, egg custard, chicken pot pie, etc.

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Fried Chicken — 3 Ways

In this week’s cooking club, Julie from Taiwan showed us three different way of making fried chicken. She made a chicken scallopini and two sesame chicken dishes. She made a scrumptious lunch for us.

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Ingredients

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Julie marinated the chicken overnight with some salt, white pepper, garlic, ginger, wine, sugar and soy sauce. She used two type of chicken meat. One type is boneless and skinless chicken breast which had been pounded very thin to make chicken scallopini. The other type is chicken with bones, which had been cut into small pieces. (more…)

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Decadent Cheesecake Brownies

The second recipe which Minoo shared with the cooking club is a decadent cheesecake brownies. These rich and creamy brownies have less than half the fat of regular cheesecake brownies.

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Ingredients

For the cheesecake topping:

  • 1 8oz pkg light cream cheese
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg white
  • 1 tablespoon flour

For the brownie base:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup stick margarine or butter, melted
  • 1 1/4 cups sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder, dissolved in 1 teaspoon water

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Lubria Polo (Persian Green Bean 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.

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Ingredients

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

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Tomato Soup

During our weekly Cooking Club, we take turns showing two dishes. Earlier last week, it was Andreas turn. I have blogged about the Beef and Noodle dish earlier. This one is about her other dish which she called simply Tomato Soup.

This soup goes well with some crusty bread or crackers.

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Ingredients

  • 1 or 2 onions, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons of oil
  • 2-3 lbs tomatoes
  • 2-3 tablespoons tomato paste (optional)
  • 2 carrots, cut into coins
  • 1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
  • salt and pepper to taste

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Beef and Noodles

Andrea showed us how to make the Beef and Noodle in our last Richmond Cooking Club. Andrea told us that she adopted the recipe from the Canadian Living magazine and that she makes this often for her family.

It is a variant of a dry rice noodle flavoured primarily with soya sauce. This is a simple and quick dish to make.

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Ingredients

  • 6 oz rice stick noodles
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 large cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, sliced (optional)
  • 6 oz top sirloin grilling steak or inside round marinating steak, thinly sliced
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped broccoli or green beans
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce (or 1 tablespoon of fish and soy sauce)
  • 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
  • 1 cup bean sprouts
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or parsley
  • lime pieces

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Japanese Cabbage Pancake

For this week’s cooking club, Tammi also showed us how to make a Japanese Cabbage Pancake. This seems like a simplified version of Okonomiyaki that Yumiko made. Yumiko’s Okonomiyaki was awesome and had a lot more ingredients. Tammi uses prawns and cabbage — a simpler version but much more quicker to make.

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Ingredients

There are only 5 ingredients in this recipe:

  • 1/3 piece of a small cabbage
  • 6-7 pieces of prawns
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 3 tablespoons water
  • 4 eggs
  • salt and pepper

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You may substitute the prawns with mushrooms, green onion, peppers or carrot if you prefer a vegetarian pancake. For those who prefer other meat can also substitute the prawns with diced ham, diced cooked chicken, bacon, cheese, etc. (more…)

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Berry Bread

Today, Tammi showed us (the Richmond Community Kitchen Cooking Club) how to make Berry Bread. She made 2 types of Berry Bread, mixed berry (frozen) and strawberry (fresh). She used the same batter recipe for both the bread.

Here is the fresh strawberries bread.

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Ingredients

  • 1 cup of fresh or frozen berries, chopped
  • 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup butter, melted
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 cup milk

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