Oyster Jade Boat

Selena partnered with Betty to demonstrate in the Caring Place Community Kitchen. In this way, the participants will not feel too pressured to come out with two dishes at a meeting.

Selena made a finger food called the Oyster Jade Boat. This is a great finger food which can be served on Japanese cucumber, celery or iceberg lettuce or any kind of vegetable which can be eaten raw and has the shape which can hold some filings.

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The Japanese cucumber which was used here gives this finger food a very nice crunch. This dish is perfectly name as the green in the cucumber is as green as a piece of jade and its shape is like a boat.

Ingredients

  • 8 Japanese cucumbers
  • 3 dried shiitake mushroom, reconstituted
  • 3 button mushrooms
  • 1/2 carrot
  • 2 pieces of savoury pressed tofu
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/3 lb ground pork
  • 2 tablespoons rice wine
  • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
  • white pepper
  • tomato and cilantro for garnishing

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If you would like to serve this as a vegetarian dish, omit the pork and use vegetarian oyster sauce instead.

Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Mah Poh Tofu

Vanessa and Ming, once again, demonstrated in the South Arm Community Kitchen. Vanessa made Mah Poh Tofu while Ming made some hand made noodle from scratch to be eaten with the Mah Poh Tofu.

For dessert, Vanessa made some Hong Kong style Tang Yuan, something sweet for the coming Valentine’s day which is way past by now due to our posting delays.

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Mah Poh Tofu or Mapo Toufu is a szechuan cuisine which is famous for spiciness. It’s main ingredients are pork and tofu which are cooked in a spicy sauce made from szechuan pepper corns. The szechuan pepper corn is a so spicy that it will numb your mouth, hence the word “ma” in Mah Poh is taken from. There is also a legend that the name came from the lady who made famous this dish. She is an old woman with pock-marked face. You can read more about the legend from wikipedia.

Ingredients

  • 1 package traditional tofu (or any soft or medium tofu), drained and cut into cubes
  • 1/2 lb ground pork
  • 2 shallots, sliced
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • Oyster sauce
  • Soy sauce
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Sugar
  • Corn starch
  • Chili Bean Sauce

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Click on the link below for the instructions.
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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.

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Jiaozi is also believed to get its name from the shape which resembled horn shape.

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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

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The garlic chives has flat leaves unlike the regular chives which has hollow rounded leaves.

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Roast Pork Rice Paper Roll

Vanessa also made some Roast Pork Rice Paper Rolls to serve with the Pineapple Fried Rice. The roast pork is bought from the best roast pork stall at Parker Place in Richmond.

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The Roast Pork Rice Paper Roll is best served warm, unlike the Vietnamese Shrimp Rice Roll which is served cold.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb roast pork, cubed
  • 1 package of rice paper
  • 3 carrots, peel and cut into match sticks
  • 1 large red onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 bag of bean sprouts
  • Hoisin Sauce to taste

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Shallot Pork Sauce

On the last cooking meet at South Arm Community Kitchen in 2007, Julie demonstrated two Chinese dishes. The first one is a very traditional Taiwanese dish called Shallot Pork Sauce.

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The Shallot Pork Sauce is very fragrant as it has lots of shallots in it. The shallots are first fried to crisp and braised with the ground pork.

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This Shallot Pork Sauce is great with noodles or rice. Kids will love this.

Ingredients

  • lean ground pork
  • shallot (use about 10 to 12 shallots for each pound of ground meat)
  • dark soy sauce
  • salt to taste
  • sugar to taste
  • ground black pepper to taste
  • water

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Steamed Hairy Gourd Stuffed with Minced Pork

While the Pork Neck Bone and Pumpkin Soup is simmering away, Julie prepares her second dish which is Steamed Hairy Gourd Stuffed with Minced Pork. Hairy Gourd is another winter squash which is in season too.

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Meanwhile, Vanessa prepared a simple fried rice with egg and green bean to accompany the Steamed Hairy Gourd.

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Ingredients

  • 4 hairy gourds, peel and cut into 1 inch round
  • 2″ knob of ginger, minced
  • 1.5 lbs lean ground pork
  • 3 green onions, finely chopped
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon white pepper
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
  • 1 egg, optional
  • corn starch

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Pork Neck Bone and Japanese Pumpkin Soup

Julie is back from Taiwan and Vanessa immediately catch hold of her to demonstrate in the South Arm Community Kitchen. Julie demonstrated two Chinese dishes. The first one is Pork Neck Bone and Japanese Pumpkin Soup. In this time of the year, pumpkin and winter squashes are abundant in the farmer’s market.

Pumpkins are orange because they contain massive amounts of beta-carotene which turns into vitamin A in our body. Vitamin A is essential for good eye sight.

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Ingredients

  • 3 lbs pork neck bone
  • 10 cups of water
  • 1 small Japanese pumpkin (Kabocha), cut into chunk
  • 1 inch knob of ginger, slice
  • salt and white pepper to taste

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Sticky Rice Roll

Arkensen and Nanzaro love the Sticky Rice Roll from the Shanghai Restaurant. For those of you who lives in around the Vancouver area, you might know that T&T also has a station in their food section which sells Sticky Rice Rolls. We love those from the T&T as you get the choice of fillings to choose from.

With the Pork Floss I made earlier, I made this simple Sticky Rice Rolls for my kids for their lunch box for school. This is so simple to make. Of course you may use other ingredients as you like.

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Ingredients

  • sticky rice
  • pork floss
  • toasted sesame seeds

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Pork Floss Sub

I made this Pork Floss Sub for picnic during one of the hot summer day. Polly, Chin-Chin and I brought our kids to the water park at No. 5 Rd and Cambie. The water park was very busy as a lot of families were out there to enjoy the sun.

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Ingredients

  • Sub
  • Pork Floss
  • Eggs
  • Butter

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Pork Floss Recipe

I sure had a nice looooong break during this summer. Ben had been eager to blog because I think he wants to show off his pictures! He is bored now and is soooo eager to pass back the baton to me.

I did not cook much during the summer due to the hot weather. We had simple Chinese meal with stir fries at home and eat out on weekends. However, this is something I made during the summer, home-made pork floss. I’m sure some of you would say why go to all the trouble making it when it’s easily available in Chinese groceries which are abundant in Richmond. Well, for one, I just want to try to make it once and at least I know that its fresh.

We had blogged about the store bought version before here. Back then we remember that blog entry did generate a lot of comments about the name “floss”.

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Ingredients

  • 3 lbs pork shoulder
  • 1.5 cups water
  • 1.5 tablespoons dark soy sauce
  • 6 tablespoons light soy sauce
  • 2 teaspoons white pepper powder
  • 1.5 teaspoons salt
  • 250g sugar

Please click on the link below for the instructions.

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