Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
Last month, I went back to Singapore to visit family and at the same time, it was the hungry ghost festival which is followed by the Mooncake festival. There are a lots of stores selling different varieties and flavours of mooncake like durian flavour, ice cream mooncake, avocado flavour, mango and many more! Seeing these photos again that I took at the shopping mall is enough to make me drool right now!
Sometimes it is difficult to buy the Chinese food that I crave for. So this year, I challenged myself to try cooking more Asian food. I am an amateur at cooking but am keen to learn. I took this recipe from Rasa Malaysian. I was so pleased with the results! Click here to see her recipe.
I bought the pork belly via the butcher as I could tell them the size of the pork I needed. The bigger the better as it shrinks quite a lot.
This recipe is for Red Tractor #RTChallenge. This is my seventh recipe, Chinese Spice Chicken Wings, and my last post for using Red Tractor Assured ingredients they provided. Do check out the rest of my other recipes like Gressingham Duck with an oriental twist, salad with couscous, homemade pizza, rhubarb crumble, Chinese almond cookies and Chinese ABC soup!
This Chinese Almond Cookie recipe is for Red Tractor #RTChallenge. This is my second recipe using the hamper full of delicious Red Tractor Assured ingredients they provided. This time I am baking Chinese Almond Cookies that do not require butter. This is commonly consumed during Chinese New Year. I have not bake this recipe (provided by my sister) for years since I had my son! That was six years ago. This time around, I have my little helper Ms C to help me to bake.
This recipe is for Red Tractor #RTChallenge. Last month, I took part in Red Tractor’s blogger challenge. The challenge is in two parts, the first is to create three recipes using the hamper full of delicious Red Tractor Assured ingredients they provide. The second is to try and only eat Red Tractor Assured ingredients for a week and blog about my experience.
Last year, I made Chinese Steamed Buns – Man Tou using the Food Network website. So last week I went to my Chinese friend’s house and she taught me her own recipe. She had tried a few recipes but they were not as good as the ones sold in her own country. She had also tried a number of different brands of plain flour but found that the Aldi plain flour is whiter than other brand. Also it is cheap at only 49p. Also by adding strong white flour, it makes the bun spongier. She also taught me a new way to steam buns. I saw it on internet before but I dared not try it until now. Since she taught me once, I have been trying it out and it was great but just slightly oily.
Earlier this year, I wrote about Singapore BBQ Pork Slice which are available all year round and they are like pork jerky except that it has been barbecued. It’s one of my favourite snacks. Whenever I am in Singapore, I will buy at least 200g each time and finish it in no time! They are sweet, chewy, meaty and delicious. They are ready to be eaten and can be kept for a couple of days. They are best consumed at room temperature rather than cold.
Green bean soup was never one of my favourite desserts until I came to UK as this is the only dessert I know how to cook. Fairly simple! Soak the mung beans / green beans for a couple of hours or overnight before placing them into the slow cooker, with a 2 to 1 water to bean ratio. Cook it till soft and mushy. After which, add rock sugar or brown sugar. It is then ready to serve.
Glutinous rice is often served as dim sum in Chinese restaurants. They were wrapped up with lotus leaves and steamed. They do sell lotus leaves in Chinese supermarkets typically as a massive pack of 20 leaves. I decided to cook my glutinous rice in my rice cooker instead of using the lotus leaves and steaming it.
Stir fry the meats and add all of them into the rice cooker. It is that easy.
My mother in law is an expert at cooking char siu pork. She gave me her recipe seven years ago but I had never tried to cook it. This is one of my husband’s favourite dishes and he gets to eat it whenever he visits his mum. So I decided it is about time that I would try to learn!
As many of may know, I love to cook Asian food as this is what I was brought up with. Having lived in the UK for over 10 years, now would seem an appropriate time to try old and new Asian food recipes and blog about it.
I always love Chinese sponge cake as they are very light and spongy. On the other hand, my husband is not so keen on them as he feels that the sponge cakes have no content and they are too light. I then saw my Singaporean Facebook friend posted a photo of her steamed cake and I decided to Google it. There are quite a few recipes for the Steamed Vanilla Sponge Cake. I tried two recipes: Siukitchen Steamed Cake and Steamed Pandan Sponge Cake. Both recipes are very successful but I would prefer the latter one as it uses less ingredients.
This week, I have been quite busy making Valentines Day things with my kids and I came across a video post on facebook to make a rose bun.
Valentines Day is approaching soon. Instead of buying an expensive gift to Mr C, I decided to make him a jelly heart as a treat! I bought the jelly mixture from a Chinese supermarket. It is called agar agar and is slightly firmer than other jellies which is good with moulding and cutting. I also bought a pack of heart shaped cookie cutters.
Last week, on the eve of Chinese New Year for our reunion dinner, I had cooked a steamed fish. I mentioned in the post why a fish dish is a must on the table, so today, I am writing my recipe for you if you wish to follow.
Pop the fish in the steamer for 6-8 minutes or until it is cooked. Mix 4 tablespoons of Kikkoman soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, 1 teaspoon Shaoxin Chinese wine and pepper. Pour in the mixture once the fish is cooked. Serve while hot. It is that simple! They are fantastic!
As many of you will know, I’ve been writing a series of Chinese New Year posts from crafts to foods. Check out my Chinese New Year’s Pinterest board for ideas!
Many Chinese will cook a fish dish on Chinese New Year Eve reunion dinner as it represents 年年有余 (Nian Nian You Yu) meaning abundance through the year. It is a great auspicious dish for all to eat. It is also traditional to serve fish with its head and tail intact to symbolise a positive beginning and end to the New Year.
