Korean Style BBQ Beef on Dried Shrimp Pancake

When the big fish fight the shrimps must lie low.
~ Creole Proverb

The Richmond Community Kitchen, coincidentally, showed Korean BBQ beef for the session this week. The lesson today was led by Tanni Lee. I like Tanni because she is soooo cheerful and have a smile all the time for everyone.

Tanni made two separate dishes that complements each other. The Korean Style BBQ Beef goes very well with the dried shrimp pancake. For garnishing, she used kiwi fruit. She also used the kiwi fruit juice to marinate and tenderize the beef.

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Korean Style BBQ Beef

Ingredients:

  • 1.5 lb Beef
  • 1.5 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon honey
  • 2 tablespoon kiwi juice
  • 1.5 tablespoon green onions
  • 2.5 tablespoon korean soya sauce
  • 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
  • 1/2 tablespoon chopped ginger
  • 2 teaspoon dark soy
  • 1.5 tablespoon sesame oil

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Cinnamon Coffee Cake

He who goes to bed hungry dreams of pancakes.
~ Maltese Proverb

I made Cinnamon Coffee Cake today. I normally make cakes at least once a week for breakfast and snacks for the boys. Ben likes cakes with coffee in the mornings too. It goes very well with coffee.

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Cinnamon is a small evergreen tree 10-15 m tall native to Sri Lanka and Southern India. The bark is widely used as a spice. It is principally employed in cookery as a condiment and flavouring material, being largely used in the preparation of some kinds of desserts, chocolate and spicy candies and liqueurs. In the Middle East, it is often used in savory dishes of chicken and lamb. In North America, cinnamon and sugar are often used to flavor cereals and fruits, especially apples.

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To prepare the cinnamon coffee cake, I use the following ingredients:

  • 2 cups flour (if using self-rising, eliminate next 2 ingredients)
  • 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/3 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans if you prefer)
  • 1 stick margarine or butter, melted
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup sour cream

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Chinese Sponge Cake

To the Chinese, cakes are normally steamed rather than baked. Today, I steamed a very simple Chinese sponge cake made primarily from eggs. Total time taken to prepare this cake is less than an hour with 25 minutes for steaming.

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Here are the ingredients:

  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon almond extract (can substitute vanilla if desired)
  • 1/2 cup evaporated milk (can substitute regular milk if desired)
  • 4 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

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I made a Green Tea Sponge Cake with the addition of one tablespoon of green tea powder (which was shifted with the dry ingredients). The colour turned out to be brown rather than green. I wonder why. Nevertheless, I like the green tea flavour. (more…)

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Nasi Lemak

Only the man who is not hungry says the coconut has a hard shell.
~ Ethiopian Proverb

We can never go wrong serving the ever favourite Malaysian Nasi Lemak. Nasi Lemak is a favourite rice meal normally eaten for breakfast. It is the closest to being the official national dish of Malaysia. Directly translated from Malay, nasi lemak means “rice in cream”. Nasi lemak is spicy.

When I was in Malaysia, I remember that we line up to buy the dish from the hawkers even before they get a chance to setup their stalls. Good Nasi Lemak is hard to come by now in Vancouver. I love the sotongs (cuttlefish) and cangkerang (cockles) for side dish … sigh.

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Suanne made Nasi Lemak for dinner recently. The most important ingredient is the sambal which gives the dish the signature spicyness. Polly gave us some Malaysian-style fried anchovies which we have not found in Vancouver (thanks Polly!). The fried anchovies and fried peanuts gives the dish the crunchiness.

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The nasi lemak rice must be cooked in coconut milk (otherwise, it will not be called nasi lemak, wouldn’t it?). Suanne put in some sliced ginger for flavouring.

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Lo Bak Go (Chinese Turnip Cake)

The only unsinkable ship is friendship.
~ Jeff Sczpanski

Polly came over and helped me make Lo Bak Go. I am glad she came over because it’s a lot of work making this. I learned this from a previous Community Kitchen class.

Lo bak go is a savory cake which primary ingredient is grated daikon radishes. The daikons are mixed with bits of dried shrimp and Chinese sausages that are steamed and then cut into slices and pan-fried. Chinese people normally make Lo Bak Go in the Chinese New Year.

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As the name implies, the main ingredient is the daikon radish, which is also known as Chinese turnip (or lo bak). The rice flour and corn starch is used to hold the cake together. The other ingredients such as Chinese sausage, mushrooms, shallots and dried shrimp are used for flavouring.

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Korean Pancake

He who goes to bed hungry dreams of pancakes.
~ Maltese Proverb

I prepared Korean Pancakes for a light dinner tonight. It is a batter with vegetables and meat. For meat, I used luncheon meat.

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Pancakes are apparently popular in the Korean culture. There are many types but the one I prepared tonight is the vegetable pancake. The pancake mix costs about $2-$3. Other ingredients used are carrot, suey choy, cilantro and luncheon meat. You may substitute the luncheon meat with other meat like prawns, baby oysters, etc.

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Peanut Butter Pita Bread

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Qn: What is the only food that does not spoil?
An: Honey

Hello all. After eating out the past week, we’re blogging again about food at home. This is my (Suanne’s) creation — I call this PBPB, the Peanut Butter Pita Bread. I am preparing this as a snack for Ben’s flight to Atlanta today.

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The PBPB is a very simple snack, filling and easy to carry (i.e. it does not get squished like sandwiches does). I made this for all the guys at home. All of them like it very much. We buy the Pita Pockets from the Superstore about once every two weeks. Each pack comes with 18 pita pockets and costs $4.19. About 23 cents each … it is cheap.

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The main ingredients are peanut butter and frosted cornflakes.

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Buns, Buns, Buns and Buns

Warm food, warm friendships.
~ Czech Proverb

Polly and Xiao Qin came by this morning to make the buns Ben & I blogged earlier. We made two batches of buns and experimented with four different type of fillings. Polly brought her own (stir-fried) minced pork and Xiao Qin brought some peanut butter. I still had some pulled pork leftover and I also bought some lotus paste from the Great One Supermarket.

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I had the dough prepared the night before. So, we started off immediate filling the dough. Polly and Xiao Qin did the filling for almost all the buns while I played paparazzi. It was pretty hard work as it took almost 1 hour to fill 24 buns. We baked the buns in two different batches.

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