FENG CUI PING-MOONCAKES

Now I can proudly presents you my Hong Choi Pia.Wow! After so many years I finally found the

recipe.Thanks to my daughter who help me to google search in chinese.I had a hard time finding for this recipe as I found that no one has posted out this recipe but yes,there's at least 3-4 bloggers who did posted it online.Typing in english or pinyin for the words "Feng Cui Ping",or "Hong Choi Pia" didn't help in my search,but typing in chinese,she easily found the recipe,so I happily make
for the first time and with success except it was too thick and a bit too sweet.

This was way too thick.(above pic)The taste is not wrong.

Today I try to make another batch with the same recipe but I lessen the sugar by 40g.I also made it much thinner than the first batch,that was only yesterday.Yesterday,I only yield 4 pieces of pancakes,but today I can yield to 8 pieces because I made it smaller and thinner,hence can get 8 pieces.

Makes 4 small and 4 big pieces.

It may still look like it is too thick,but in actual fact,it is not so.This is the standard size.

By the way,when you stored bought this pancake mooncakes,it is written as 5-spice mooncake on the packaging.Therefore,I've added some 5-spice powder to it.

The recipe was adapted from: Here
From: Here and also: Here

I refer to all the above mention websites.They are all very similar.

First,I make the dough ready,then I began crystallizing the sugar for the filling,and the final stage is the wrapping,rolling and pan frying the pancakes.The glutinous rice flour have to be cooked too before adding in.

I do not wish to write a long post but jump to recipes:

THE SKIN;

300 G plain flour
100 G vegetable shortening
100 G hot water
1 big tbsps icing sugar
1 big tbsps maltose

In a big mixing bowl,add veg shortening,plain flour,maltose,icing sugar and hot water.Slightly mix
using a tablespoon.Knead until it form a soft dough and set aside for later use.

CRYSTALLIZED SUGAR;

260 G caster sugar
60 G water

In a cooking pot or saucepan,add in the sugar and the water.Stir and melt the sugar to crystallized.

THE FILLING;

1 tbsp+ orange zest from 1 orange
75 G cooked glutinous rice flour(fried)
150 G plain flour
100 G roasted sesame seeds(white or black seeds mixed will also do)
1 tbsp maltose
1/3 tsp 5 spice powder(optional)
Crystallalized sugar

In a bowl,mix the crystallized sugar and maltose together.Add 40g of water and let it slightly dissolved.

In another mixing bowl,mix flour,cooked glutinous rice flour,5 spice powder,roasted sesame seeds and orange zest.

Make a hole in the center and pour in the liquid mixture and mix until smooth.Divide into 8 balls.

Divide the dough to 8 balls as same with the fillings.  Flatten the dough and wrap the fillings in with the dough.Using rolling pin,roll each balls into a round shape.

Pan fry the pancakes under low fire on both sides until cooked and brown in colour.

MANI CHAI BEE HOON

Serving 1-3 persons

INGREDIENTS;

150-200g Mani Chai(1 stalk)

100g Bee Hoon,soaked

2 eggs

1 tbsps onions/garlics

2 tbsps chicken stock or according to your tastebuds

dashes of oyster sauce or according to your tastebuds

1 cup of cooking oil for frying


METHOD;

1,  Pluck the leaves and wash it in a big basin of water at least 3 times.

2.  Wring/crush it small.

3.  In a wok,heat  some oil to fry the eggs. Dish up for later use.

4.  Heat the cup of oil.Fry the onions,garlics,then the mani chai till cook,then add in the soaked bee-hoon.Add in chicken stock and oyster sauce.Stir and fry to mix well.

5.  Ready to serve.

Preserving Salted Green Mustard At Home

 This picture above is preserved with using rice flour and salt only.Colours are light yellow.

This below picture is preserved using the over night rice flour.Both works,but I like to use rice water.
I also think with added vinegar and tumeric works perfect.I like my salted vegetables to be a bit sour.
The tumeric added in makes a nice yellowish colour.

Known to everyone as salted green mustard and known to us here as kiam chye.It is make by using the bitter green vegetables.I'm sure everyone already knows how to make this,but just in case you're a new learner you can follow my instuctions in this video here.it is not that hard to make as long as you are very patient to wait for a few days to see the result.
Some may have use sea salt to preserved the mustard,but here I preferred to use coarse salt.






After the 7th day,I take out some to fry with some meat as I have always done in the past.
Both plates shown different days of cooking the salted mustard.Just cooking with some meat is enough to satisfy our family's stomach.

Ingredients:

2-4 stalks of green mustard

1/1/4 cups coarse salt

1 tbsps vinegar

1 tsp tumeric powder

overnight rice water(enough for one pot or bowl)

Method:

1.  Dry the freshly green mustard under the hot sun for several hours until dry and no water.

2.  Rub some coarse salt over it.

3.  Throw in the salt into the pot or bowl,follow by the vinegar and tumeric.

4.  Put in the dry wilted mustard to the pot of overnight rice water that already has salt,vinegar and tumeric added.

5.  Wait for fermentation to takes place,Usually about 5-6 days.Then it's ready to cook it.

BASIC BREAD DOUGH RECIPE

The basic bread dough is simple.With basic bread dough recipe,I can make all kinds of buns,pizzas and even doughnuts.Sometimes,I just don't like to add in a lot of things.A lot of ingredients.
This basic dough is just what I needed sometimes.

Last few days I made butter buns using the basic dough recipe.It is easier and faster because not many ingredients are added.I was lazy to make the tangzhong,so I decided to make a quick dough without cooking the flour.Not long ago I made butter buns using the tangzhong method.Refer here:
https://bit.ly/2ZgTaJh

If I made a big batch the leftover dough I made it into pizzas or dinner rolls or sausage buns and
a whole lot more of things can be made using this basic dough.

BASIC DOUGH RECIPE ADAPETED FROM: https://bit.ly/2ZkZjIh

500G Bread Flour 100G Sugar 5G Salt 11G Instant dry Yeast 30G Melted Butter/Cooking Oil 220G Plain Water 1 Egg

Usually,I use the bread machine to do the kneading for me.

For using mixer-gather all the ingredients into a mixer bowl and start to mix at low speed at first,then
change to higher speed until the dough is smooth and leaves the sides of the bowl.Transfer the dough
to a lightly dust table top.Knead the dough for about 2 minutes.Shape into round ball and cover with a
damp towel to let it rise to double in size.
Now can make buns and pizzas.

MANI CHAI OR CANGKUK MANIS

This is called" Mani Chai".Translated from hokkien to english is money vegetables.The malay called it ''Cangkuk Manis".It means sweet shrub.
In chinese it is called "Shu Cai".

Above picture is the raw "'Mani Chai".One stalk of this "Mani Chai" can be share with 4 persons.Before cooking,this vegetable have to be wring small first so that it will taste sweet and delicious.The smaller you can wrng the better.It's like wringing your clothes to take the water out or squeeze/crush
as some said.The stalk you can put to the soil to grow in your backyard or it can also be grown in a pot.If you grow it near the bitter gourd,it will be bitter.So,do not grow near to the bitter gourd.
                   





We got a habit of ordering for Mani Chai whenever my family and I went out to eat in the restaurant,or any dining places.It is one of the popular dish of Sarawak.It is often cook with eggs.

We have now try to eat less of this vegetable.It is long believe to have cause headaches when eaten too much.Parts of the reasons too is because Mani Chai need to be cook with a lot of oil and add in
monosodium glutamate(MSG) so that it is palatable.It eats up a lot of oil.If the oil is fewer,it won't be that nice.The MSG enhances the dish making it sweet and appetizing,though nowadays people
opt out the MSG and substitute with chicken stock or some even oyster sauce.I totally opt out both.
One more thing is "Mani Chai" have to be cooked dry and not too moist and watery.The plenty of oil made it moist a bit and not too dry.

INGREDIENTS;

1 stalk mani chai/cangkuk manis
2 eggs
1 tbsp onion/garlic
1-11/2 tsp(adjust to your taste bud)
1/2 cup oil
1/2 tsp aji-no-moto(monosodium glutamate

METHOD;

1.  Heat up oil in a wok.When smoke comes out,saute the onions/garlics until fragrant.

2.  Add in the vegetable together with the access bits of water.Stir.

3. Make a hole in the center of the veg.Add in the beaten eggs.

4. At this stage don't do anything,Wait for the eggs to turn dry,then quickly stir-fry the eggs and
    the vegetable.You can even fry the eggs first then the mani chai.Both ways will do.Add in the
    salt and the msg.

5.  Continue stir-fry for another 2 minutes then dish it up to serve with warm rice.

WATER MELON LAYERED CAKES

Whenever I saw people posting water melon cakes or cookies,I weren't interested but just admired their creativity and hard work.Lately,I don't know why I suddenly became very interested and had tried to make this water melon layered cake.
I wanted to use raisins instead of the chocolate chips for the seeds,but I don't have raisins at home,so I just used chocolate chips.I'm very pleased with my cake.

Perhaps next time I'll use raisins.


INGREDIENTS;

10 Eggs
500G Golden Churn butter
200G caster sugar
300G Hong Kong flour
1 small tin kaya
1 small tin condensed milk
50G santan/coconut cream
1Tbsp ovalette
1Tsp vanilla essence
1 botol chocolate chips
2Tbsps of cocoa to mix with the red batter

Red,Yellow and Green colouring

METHODS;

1.  Preheat oven to 200°C.Line an 8"x 8" baking tray with greaseproof paper on the bottom        and lightly grease the sides with butter.
2.  Beat butter,sugar,vanilla and ovalettes till creamy and fluffy using high speed.
3.  Add in eggs one by one till well combined.
4.  Switch the beater to low speed and add in the milk,kaya and santan/coconut cream. 
    Beat again till all are well-mixed
5.  Add in the flour in batches or slowly(bits by bits).Mix well.
6.  Divide the mixture into 3 portions:
   
     Using the soup ladle,
   
     Portion 1-Scoop up 3 ladles-Add in green colour

     Portion 2-Scoop up 2 ladles-Add in yellow colour

     Portion 3-The rest of the portion add in red colour and cocoa powder

7.   First layer,set the oven to top and bottom heat.

8.    Pour the first layer of green to the baking tray.Spread it evenly.Grill with top and bottom heat for about 7 mins or when it turns slightly brown.Take it out from the oven
     .
9.    Change the oven setting to top heat only and pour in the second green layer,third green layer,then  first yellow layer,then second yellow layer,and follow by  the red layers till all the 
layers are used up.Flatten each layer with a flattener.If no flatterner,use the bottom of  a glass.
This is to ensure that no wind are trapped inside and that the cake are level and nice.Each
 layer of red must put in some chocolate chips as the seeds.
10.  After all layers are baked,cool on a wire rack.When cooled,cut into water melon shape.

GENERAL TSO'S FRIED BEE-HOON

ONE FINE AFTERNOON LUNCH

With the leftover "General Tso's Chicken" bites pieces,I use it for my fried bihun(rice vermicelli).
Surprisingly,it was super delicious!.Will cook like this again some time.

Ingredients:

General Tso's bites chicken pieces-abt 90g of left over

200g Bihun/rice vermicelli
1tbsp chopped garlics
1tbsp chopped oinions
2 stalks green onions
2tbsps chicken stock powder seasoning or more for extra flavour
1/2 tsp salt
abt 4 tbsps cooking oil for frying

Method:

1.  Soak the bihun/rice vermicelli until it soften in hot boiling water.

2.  Take it up.Drain any excess water.Set aside

3.  In a wok,fry the onions,garlics until brown and fragrant.

4.  Add in the chicken pieces.Stir for 3 minutes.

5.  Add in the bihun/vermicelli.Fry until all are mixed well.

6.  Add in the chicken powder seasoning,and salt.Keep frying for 5 minutes until well mixed.

7.  Lastly,add in the green onions.Dish it out.

8.  Serve warm.

GENERAL TSO'S CHICKEN

Nothing special about this.It's just a sticky chicken.Not much to my liking.Seen everyone raved about it and cooked at home,I decided to give it a try.The taste is sweet,sour and sticky because of the added corn starch.Maybe too much corn starch was added? Marinate with corn starch,coated with corn starch and again corn starch in the sauce.How sticky this chicken bites can be?Maybe I should have add less starch so that it won't be that starchy?

Recipe taken from an internet source,but forgot whose one.I forgot to bookmark it.

Ingredients:

MARINATE;

350g chicken chunks

1 egg white
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
4 tbsps shaoxing wine
2 tbsps corn starch

COATING:

1/3 cup plain flour
1/3 cup corn starch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

SAUCE;

1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsps shaoxing wine
11/2 tbsps white vinegar
3 tbsps water
3 tbsps sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
2 bsps tomato sauce
1/2 tsp corn starch

STIR-FRY INGREDIENTS;

2 tbsps cooking oil
2 tsps garlic chopped
2 tsps thin sliced ginger
some green onions
5 dry chillies(optional)

OIL FOR DEEP-FRYING;

1.Cut chicken into chunks.Marinate the chicken with the marinate ingredients for one hour.

2.Drain the excess liquid away from the chicken and coat with the ready mixed dry flour.

3.Pour enough cooking oil into the wok for deep- frying the chicken.Deep-fried until it turns brown and cooked through.

4.Then when it is cooked,dish out the chicken onto a plate.

5.Mix the sauce together until well-combined.Set aside.

6.Next,stir-fry the garlic,ginger,dry chillies and green onions until fragrant.Pour the sauce to a pan and cook until mixture becomes translucent.Then turn off the heat.Add the deep-fried chicken into the sauce and mix thoroughly through.

7.Serve hot with rice.

FINGER CHEESE HAM ROLLS WITH SPRING ROLL WRAPPERS

Look at this! Don't they look yummy?I sprinkle lots and lots of parmesan cheese to add to the flavours.You can also go with mayonnaise if you don't have parmesan cheese...Or dip it in plum sauce.
It is the same as the chicken ham roll,but this is without chicken.
Above all,it is very easy to make.
This is great for party!

Ingredients for making:

10 pieces turkey ham slices
10 pieces popiah/spring roll wrappers

1 beaten egg 
1tsp salt

For Dusting:
1tsp five spice powder
1tsp garlic powder(optional)
50g plain flour 

Oil for deep-frying

Parmesan Cheese

Method:

1.Gather salt,five spice powder,garlic powder and flour       together.Mix it well.
2. Roll the ham.Place the ham roll diagonally across the spring roll or popiah wrappers.Roll it up and seal the edges wet with the beaten egg and then dung the wrapped into the beaten egg to get a wet finger roll.Then dust it with the flour.Do the same with the rest until you had all the desired 10 rolls.


3.In a wok,pour about 3-4 cups of oil.When smoke comes out,put   the rolls in to fried.Deep-fried until golden brown and crispy.


4.Take it out onto the plate.Sprinkle some parmesan cheese all over or eat it with plum sauce.Parmesan cheese can be substitute with mayonaise.You can either eat it without adding any sauce.

Note: For "Chicken Ham Roll" visit: https://cocomintt.blogspot.com/2015/09/chicken-ham-roll.html