Buddha’s Delight aka Luohan Zhai (罗汉全斋或罗汉菜）

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

Luohan Zhai (罗汉斋） is a very representative dish or iconic of Mahayana Buddhism..The stew of 18 vegetarian cooking ingredients and the 18 ingredients represent the 18 arhat, the disciples of Buddha. In Wikipedia, it was written that:

“The Eighteen Arhats (Chinese: 十八羅漢/十八阿羅漢; pinyin: Shíbā Luóhàn/Shíbā āLuóhàn; Wade-Giles:Lóhàn) are depicted in Mahayana Buddhism as the original followers of the Buddha who have followed the Eightfold Path and attained the Four Stages of Enlightenment. They have reached the state of Nirvana and are free of worldly cravings. They are charged to protect the Buddhist faith and to await on earth for the coming of Maitreya, a prophesied enlightened Buddha to arrive on earth many millennia after Gautama Buddha’s death and nirvana. In China, the eighteen arhats are also a popular subject in Buddhist art, such as the famous Chinese group of glazed pottery luohans from Yixian of about 1000.” (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighteen_Arhats)

There is another name for this dish in Western world, the Buddha’s delight. It was written that:

“Buddha’s delight, often transliterated as Luóhàn zhāi, lo han jai, or lo hon jai, is a vegetarian dish well known in Chinese and Buddhist cuisine. It is sometimes also called Luóhàn cài (simplified Chinese: 罗汉菜; traditional Chinese: 羅漢菜). The dish is traditionally enjoyed by Buddhist monks who are vegetarians, but it has also grown in popularity throughout the world as a common dish available as a vegetarian option in Chinese restaurants. The dish consists of various vegetables and other vegetarian ingredients (sometimes with the addition of seafood or eggs), which are cooked in soy sauce-based liquid with other seasonings until tender. The specific ingredients used vary greatly both inside and outside Asia. In the name luóhàn zhāi, luóhàn – short for Ā luóhàn (simplified Chinese: 阿罗汉; traditional Chinese: 阿羅漢; pinyin: Ā LuóHàn) – is the Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit arhat, meaning an enlightened, ascetic individual or the Buddha himself. Zhāi (simplified Chinese: 斋; traditional Chinese: 齋; pinyin: zhāi) means “vegetarian food” or “vegetarian diet.The dish is usually made with at least 10 ingredients, although more elaborate versions may comprise 18 or even 35 ingredients.^[1] If 18 ingredients are used, the dish is called Luóhàn quánzhāi (simplified: 罗汉全斋; traditional: 羅漢全齋)”

Towards the end of my vegetarian diet last month. I have decided to prepare this dish as a respect to my vegetarian diet. This is an important dish and I have put a lot of emphasis on the dish. it took me a few hours to get ready 18 ingredients .. and finding the 18 ingredients is really a headache and I have to substitute a fair bit of the ingredients..

As per Chinese Baike, it was written:that out of the 18 ingredients, 3 must be mushrooms, 3 must be fungus and it usually pair with other soya bean products.

“罗汉斋是取十八罗汉吉祥之意，以十八种素菜精制而成，这道菜里的食材虽不名贵，但是要凑齐三菇三耳等等，却是颇费心思的；正宗的做法里烹饪步骤也相当繁复，所以也有说这道菜是佛门最奢华的一道素斋。”(Source: http://www.baike.com/wiki/%E7%BD%97%E6%B1%89%E6%96%8B)

This dish is not a dish that is usually cooked for daily consumption unless during special occasions due to its large varieties and quantities of ingredients being used. It is ideal if there is a vegetarian reception or family gathering. The final dishes is of quite a bit portion and it took us two days to finish all that I have cooked.

In this recipe, I will not be providing the quantities and I will list out the ingredients I used for reference. If you are serious to cook this dish, you will understand how the dish work after you read the recipes..

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 6-8 adults servings

A handful of white fungus (云耳）- soaked
A handful of black fungus (黑木耳） – soaked
A few monkey head mushrooms or Hericium (猴头菇） – soaked
A few winter mushrooms (香菇）- soaked
A handful of dried lilies (金针） – soaked
A small pack of white jade mushrooms (白玉菇） – cleaned
A small carrot (胡萝卜） – cut into small pieces
A handful of water chestnuts (荸荠） – skinned and cut into halves
Some broccoli (西兰花）- cleaned and cut into big pieces
Some asparagus (芦笋） – Skin and cut into big pieces
Some pumpkin (金瓜） – cut into big pieces
Some bamboo shoots (芦笋） – cut into bite size chunks
A handful of lotus seeds (莲子） – soaked
A handful of cashew nuts (腰豆）
Some bean curd skin – (豆腐皮）
Some firm deep fried bean curd – taukwa (炸豆干） – cut into big pieces
Some deep fried bean curd sticks (豆腐支） – Soaked and cut into big chunks
few sprigs of coriander (芫茜）

Others

Few tablespoons of cooking oil
Some ginger slices
Pinches of salt
Few tablespoons of vegetarian oyster sauce
Dashes of white pepper
Drops of sesame oil
Some starch solution (1 tablespoon of corn starch mixed with 3 tablespoons of water)

Note: To make it a luxury version, monkey head mushroom is a must as it is one of the most expensive vegetarian ingredients

STEPS OF PREPARATION

In a pot, put some oil and salt, bring to boil. Blanch the broccoli, asparagus， pumpkin and carrots for 4-5 minutes until soft . Drain and set side.

In a clay pot or wok, add a few tablespoons of oil, sauté the ginger slices and winter mushrooms until fragrant. Add the ingredients in the following order; black fungus, monkey head mushrooms, cloud fungus, bamboo shoots and red carrots. Stir fry for 1-2 minutes, add the white mushrooms, dried water lilies, water chestnuts , lotus seeds, firm bean curd and deep fried bean curd sticks. Stir fried for another 2-3 minutes until the flavour incorporated.

Add adequate water that cover 3/4 the height of the ingredients. Add salt and vegetarian oyster sauce to taste. Stir until well combined. Bring to boil and let it simmer for 10 minutes until the ingredients are soft. Add the bean crud skin and blanch vegetables. Let it simmer for another 2-3 minutes. Before off the heat, add the starch solution. Simmer until starch thickens which took about 1-2 minutes. Off the heat and let it rest in the clay pot for another 15 – 30 minutes for the flavour to develop For serving, add the coriander, dust with some white pepper and drizzle with sesame oil. Best served hot in a clay pot.

CONCLUSION

Don’t be disheartened by the large varieties of ingredients to be used. Just remember to qualify for the name “Buddha’s delight”, there must be at least 10 ingredients unless you are preparing the full version like this recipe that uses 18 ingredients.. The taste of the dish is very delicious . I have done my part of preparing this dish during my vegetarian diet 2015 and I am finally able to share this famous iconic Buddhism cuisines for those who are interested. With regard the over all timing of cooking and overall seasoning, readers will have to exercise discrete judgement and it will very much depends on your pot and type of ingredients used. Feel free to change the ingredients but you must have 3 mushrooms and 3 fungi.. (note I can only found 2 fungi, ha-ha)

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 13 March 2015) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

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What I Cooked Today Series (Special Post)- 2013 Mid Autumn Festival

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

I have not forgotten about this series – “What I Cooked Today Series”! I have discontinued for a while because I am a vegetarian and the dishes were usually cooked by my mother in law who is visiting me. Therefore, I can’t claim the credit of the dishes cooked if I posted it.

Well this series will be starting soon in one two weeks time after end of my vegetarian diet. This year, I have calculated wrongly about the starting date of my diet, therefore, I am having slightly more than 2 months of vegetarian diet and it was pointed out by my neighbour when I keep on rejecting her meat dishes. She asked curiously why the diet is so long this year, she said it cannot be ! I asked my wife to recalculate again and yes, we are wrong as both of us are not that concern about anniversary dates.

Yesterday is the Mid Autumn Festival, one of the very big festivals for the Chinese worldwide. Even People’s Republic of China’s government have declared this day as a holiday in recent years. Usually, in big festivals, family gathering and get together is very important.

I only confirmed to invite my nephew’s family for dinner yesterday morning and I told them that I would only cooked what I have at home. As they are my very close relatives, I need not really concerned about what I should cooked as he have been staying with me for the past few years. I did not have the time to plan for the meal as I have to take care of the kids and I have to rush out my report for Eight Treasure Porridge.

I only started cooking at 4.00 pm in the afternoon. I looked at the fridge, I have some tofu, one pumpkin, one luffa, some chicken fillets, some asparaguses, minced meats, chicken thighs, drumsticks and fish fillets.

What influenced my dish menu last night was what I perceived what my family members like to have. I know anything soft and silky will be welcomed by them, so tofu and pumpkins would be good choices.

While the family always have bitter gourd with minced meat, but luffa with minced meat is something new to them. In addition, my kids loved luffa so luffa with minced meat was in the menu.

Preparing these two dishes had resulted some mesh pumpkins, minced meat and tofu left, therefore, I have decided to turn these 3 ingredients into a dish.

PORK STUFFED LUFFA (丝瓜酿肉碎）

This is a dish adapted from pork stuffed bitter gourd (苦瓜酿肉碎). The luffa was first de-skinned, and cut into 2 cm chunks. Make a hole in the centre and set aside. Minced pork were marinated for about 10 minutes with sesame oil, corn flour, light soya sauce, flavour enhancers, sugar, pepper, chopped coriander leaves and chopped winter vegetables. Stuff the minced pork into the hole of the luffa chunks, placed it in a serving plate nicely and put a goof berry on top of minced meat for garnishing. Before steaming, put some water in the plate of the meat stuffed luffa. (A bit of water is important as it will speed up the process of cooking the luffa. The luffa will be “water bathed” causing it easier to get cooked). Steamed for about 20 minutes or until your luffa is soft. More juices will be secreted out and these gravy was very tasty as it was essentially a meat and vegetable broth. You can put some corn starch to thicken this juices if desirable.

TOFUS SAIL IN PUMPKIN SEA (豆腐金瓜海）

I have to admit that I do not know how to name this dish. Since it looks like a seas of mashed pumpkins, I named this as “tofu sail pumpkin seas”. Firstly, I cut opened a pumpkin, de-seeded and steamed the pumpkin until the pumpkin was soft. I then scratched out the pumpkin flesh, put some sesame oils, salt, mushroom concentrate, mixed well and let the mashed pumpkin to cool.

Two packets of tofu’s were cut into 8 pieces and arrange in a serving plate. I used a teaspoon to make a hole on the tofu, put some mashed pumpkins to cover the hole. Use the remaining pumpkin to put beside the tofu and steamed for about 10 minutes. Surprisingly, the tofu and pumpkins really blends well.

MINCED PORK FRIED WITH MASHED PUMPKINS AND TOFUS (山寨蟹粉豆腐）

From the above two dishes, I have some mashed pumpkin left , some tofu left (from making a hole in the tofu cubes), some minced meat left (as I have prepared one package of minced meat for the luffa dish, therefore, I still have about half of the minced meat left). With these 3 ingredients, I have decided to mash the tofu and fried these 3 ingredients together.

I first stir fried some spring onion (white part) in a frying pan of hot oil until aromatic, followed by the minced meat and once the meat was 50% cooked, add the mesh pumpkin and mesh tofu. Stir fried for another 2-3 minutes, add white pepper, sugar, light soya sauce and salt and it become a rather presentable dish..like the famous Shanghai dish, “Tofu With Hairy Crab Roe”. Therefore I have named this dish in Mandarin the “Fake Tofu With Hairy Crab Roe”.

The dish was very tasty and smooth, it is well liked by the kids because of the aromatic spring onions. I have placed the cooked dish in the empty shell of the pumpkin for serving.

BLANCHED ASPARAGUS WITH CHICKEN FILLETS （芦笋鸡柳）

This is really an easy dish.

Asparagus were de-skinned (depends on whether it is too mature or not) and cut into same length. Chicken fillet were first cut into the desired sizes, marinated with sesame oil, pepper and light soya sauce for about 10 minutes,

Have a pot of boiling hot water, drizzle a few drops of cooking oil and pinches of salt. Get ready a serving plate and put some oyster sauce on the plate. Blanched the asparagus in the hot boiling water for 3 minutes and dip in icy cold cooked water.

Place these asparagus neatly in the serving plate on top of the oyster sauce. Coated the chicken fillet with some corn flours and blanched the chicken fillets in the hot boiling water for about 5 minutes. Scoop out and placed on top of the blanched asparagus. Sprinkled some fried shallots on top of the chicken and the dish was done.

This was definitely an easy and healthier dish as it involved no frying like the traditional method. Though I did not taste the asparagus but I can tell you that it was sweet as all the juices were being sealed inside the asparagus via blanching method of cooking.

CENTURY EGGS WITH PICKLED GINGER (皮蛋酸姜）

This dish was usually treated an appetizer in Chinese full course dinners and did not really need any preparation. As I have quite a lot of pickled ginger left from my demonstration in Guaishushu’s Page, therefore, I have decided to prepare this dish as an appetizer. You may want to learn about how to prepare the pickled gingers HERE.

POMELO (柚子/文旦）

When I was young, we did not celebrate Moon Cake Festivals with pomelo.

However, in recent years, it seemed that it is very common that pomelo became one of the festival fruit during the Moon Cake Festivals. I checked the internet, pomelo have the syllables as “have kids” (有子）in Mandarin, therefore, having pomelo means that it will bring you luck in conceiving a kid. Well, definitely not for me.

It is my usual way to de-skin my pomelo like what is in the picture to make it easier for my kids to eat. Therefore, all my kids loves to eat pomelo as they do not need to peel the internal white membranes separating the lobes in the fruit. They have been pampered, Unlike me, I never like to eat pomelo when I was young because of the difficulty to peel of the internal white membranes.

GREEN DATES (甜枣）

This is nothing to do with this festival. I just spotted in the supermarket a few days ago and I really love these green dates. I always called it mini apples. In my humble opinion, it taste like apples and is a one bite size. I am able to finish one box within a day. I don’t know but I do believe it is a very healthy snack, much healthy than any carbohydrates and sugar loaded snacks. Yesterday, it was served together with pomelo after dinner.

MOONCAKES (月饼）

I have a few boxes of moon cakes and I have decided to serve a durian moon cake that my nephew gave me from the international “Three” Seasons Hotel. However, I am rather disappointed with the moon cakes. Put in bluntly, it is just pure durian flesh wrapped in snow skin. When you eat the moon cakes, it is very soft and just like when one is eating fresh durian (though it don’t taste that fresh any more after so many days).

It was definitely not cheap and my nephew told me even after discount, one small moon cake cost SGD 12. I honestly believed that should I received the moon cake earlier, I will be able to replicate the moon cake .. and how much is one durian is this season? May be 3 durians for SGD 10? Well the one below is equally disappointing as they have incorporate orange flavour in the lotus seeds fillings.

Lastly, I hoped that you like my cooking adventures today and unlike previous festivals, I have cooked something very simple. In other festivals, majority were meat dishes and I managed to locate an old picture in my Facebook to share with you. This was taken by one of my nieces in 2012 to celebrate Chap Goh Me (元宵）during Chinese New Year.

Have a nice day and cheers.

Auspicious Day With Auspicious Porridge–Eight Treasure Porridge (八宝粥）

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

It is such an auspicious day that I am writing this post. I swear it is not pre-planned. Today is Mid Autumn Festival aka Moon Cake Festival, it is a festival that is celebrated by all Chinese worldwide. As request by one of the Google communities, I have written a brief write up on Mid Autumn Festivals HERE which you may want to have some casual reading.

The cuisine that I am going to post today is a vegetarian dish called 8 treasure porridge (八宝粥). There are so many versions of this one pot dish in the internet but the recipe that I am going to share is from my kind neighbour. She liked to cook this porridge and after I tried it for the very first time, immediately I fell in love with it. Since then, I had liked to cook this dish in important festivals such as Chinese New Year Day where the whole family were supposed to be on vegetarian diet for one day.

I have cooked this yesterday not because of the festival, but because I craved for the porridge since I am still on my vegetarian diet. I gave two boxes of the porridge to my daughter’s schoolmates mother, she immediately asked for the recipe when she reached home. She commented that the taste of the porridge was totally different from what she had tasted in the vegetarian stalls.

I did not know where my neighbour get the recipe but I found that there are certain ingredients that we used were not found in other 8 treasure porridges sold by the vegetarian stores. Both the ingredients were mock meat acceptable to all vegetarians and without these two ingredients, the taste will definitely be different.

As this was our dinner last night, I did not have much chances to take pictures and the poor lighting make the picture a bit disappointed. But trust me, this is a very different 8 treasure porridge and it is definitely good for casual dining or a presentable dish in important Buddhist religious occasions.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Though the name is 8 treasure porridge, however, we tend to have more than 8 ingredients and I do not think all my ingredients are in the picture. I should have used 11-12 ingredients here. Most of the ingredients are nuts and a few ingredients and some mock meat.

1 cup of uncooked rice – not in picture （白米）

1 cup of jujube （红枣）

1 cup of peanuts （花生）- soaked

1 cup of cashew nuts （腰豆）

1 cup of lotus seeds （莲子）- soaked

1 cup of gingko nuts （白果）- soaked

1 cup of red carrots (cut into cubes) （红萝卜）

1 cup of dried mushrooms (soaked and cut into cubes) – not in picture （冬菇）

1 cup of mock duck (must have) – (素鸭）

1 small packet of “fat Choy” or “black moss” （发菜）

1 packet of about 2 sheets of mock goose (素鹅）(must have)

6-8 cups of plain water (if not adequate, you can add in water later)

Mock Duck

Mock Goose

Please do not ask me why they were called mock duck or mock goose, frankly, I do not know. While the shape is difference, the taste is nothing like duck of goose. Both are made of wheat gluten, oil, soya sauce, sugar, salt and packed with proteins. They do have their distinct flavour but I can’t describe exactly what is the flavour. They can generally found in Chinese grocery stores that sell vegetarian supplies. These two items are the two most important ingredients in this porridge and without it, the taste will be different.

“Fat Choy” or “ Black Moss”

This a type of moss now commercially cultivated in the Gobi dessert and Chinese Government do place a restriction in harvesting the moss. The meaning of having these mosses signifies prosperous since the syllables in Chinese name is the same of both “Fat Choy” and “Black Moss”. I hereby quote what Wikipedia had explained about this moss.

“Fat Choy (Nostoc flagelliforme), also known as faat Choy, fa cai, black moss, hair moss or hair weed is a terrestrial cyanobacterium (a type of photosynthetic bacteria) that is used as a vegetable in Chinese cuisine. When dried, the product has the appearance of black hair. For that reason, its name in Chinese means “hair vegetable.” When soaked, this vegetable has a very soft texture which is like very fine vermicelli.” (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_choy)

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Preparing all other ingredients

Clean all ingredients (except mock duck and mock goose) and you may want to soak the peanuts and lotus seeds (if you buy the dry type). Cut into almost the same size as the peanuts and set aside for the later use.

Frying the mock goose

In a frying pan, have some cooking oil under high heat, fry the mock goose until crispy. When cooled, cut into thumb size pieces and set aside for the later use. (Note: While it is good to have minimum oil in the cooking, however, without performing this step, the fragrance will not be there. However, you can try using “air fryer” but I am unsure whether the taste will be the same.)

Depending on your preference, you can use the same oil to stir fry the mock duck, gingko, lotus seeds, mushrooms, carrots etc. for a few minutes such that the mock goose and mushroom aromas blends with the other ingredients. Set aside for later use. This illustration bypassed this step to minimize the usage of cooking oil in the porridge and the taste will not be compromised much.

Clean your rice and place in the rice cooker. Add in all other ingredients except “fat Choy”. Select porridge function for cooking the porridge.

Just a few minutes before the porridge function was done, add in fat Choy and seasonings. Suggested seasonings are light soya sauce, salt, sugar or other flavour enhancers. Note that some of the ingredients already have some seasonings, please take some porridge out for tasting before you put the condiments.

Note that you can also use pressure cooker but remember to select the porridge function if it have. Alternatively, I have ever cooked the porridge over the stove and in this way it is easier for you to monitor the desire texture of your porridge though the cooking time may be longer. As long as all ingredients are soft, the porridge is considered as done.

Best served hot with “you tiao” – a type of Chinese plain dough fritters or additional crispy “mock goose”. Both these are optional.

CONCLUSION

As I have said earlier, I fell in love with this special porridge when I have my first bowl years back. I am confident you will like it too. Bookmark this page for your future usage. You may want to cook it during Chinese New Year like me!

Hope you like the post today. Cheers

If you are looking for more CHINESE NEW YEAR COOKIES, you may want to visit this post summarizing all relevant Chinese New Year Cuisines.

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit this blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE .

If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 1000 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD. You can also join the Food Bloggers and Foodies United Group Facebook Group to see more recipes.

How About An Eggless, Butter Less, Milk Less Chocolate Almond Cup Cakes?

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Kenneth Goh

UPDATED POST ON 5-11-2014

I will include in this post another recipe that I have developed this morning, it is gluten free, dairy free, egg less and fatless. It is a rather healthy moist and aromatic snack. I hope this post will benefit those who are on a certain diet.

It is the same recipe for both cookies and cupcakes. For cookies just make it in smaller size and bake slightly longer.. It can be crispy or chewy. It will not be as crispy as those using flour.

Taste wise is satisfactory. You can imagine taking some almond meal, add some cocoa powder, water and sugar.. It is definitely acceptable to most. Please scroll down for the second recipe.

INTRODUCTION

Seriously, when I looked at the recipe, I was curious how it would turn out to be. When I prepared the batter and baking, I am even more doubtful about its outcome.. I did not have any picture to compare and I did not know whether what I have prepared and baked was correct or not. Not until I took the first bite this morning that I am confident to issue this post…

This is an eggless, butter less and milk less cup cake that I have adapted from a 2003 recipe. I have printed out this recipe as early as year 2005 when I just started to have interest in doing some baking. Then, I have been cracking my head to look for recipes that were suitable for niche markets like health conscious people or people that are less fortunate like diabetes . While flipping my recipe file yesterday, I saw this piece of printed paper and I thought I might wanted to give it a try.

While I am writing this post, I try searching this recipe in All Recipes Cake Recipes website, I am rather happy that the recipe is still there but with no picture, that proves that it is a very old recipe. The recipe was submitted by Ms. Kathy Thurston and some body named Ms. Bernadette Beaupre had gave some explanation of this cake:

“This cake comes in handy when all you have left in the cupboard is the tin soups just before shopping day. It really was a treat served warm when we came in from the cold. And it was c-o-l-l-l-d-d-d, North of 53′. Sprinkle brown sugar or dust confectioner’s sugar over the top.” — Bernadette Beaupre (Source: All Recipes Cake Recipes website,)

Since it is an eggless, butter less and milk less, what should be the structure liked. If you looked at the recipe in detail in later part of the post, you will note that there are some shortening and water. Butter less can be substituted with cooking oil or vegetable shortening (as in this recipe) and milk less can be substituted with any liquids (be it eggs or water). Therefore, the crucial element that determine the outcome of the cup cake will be eggs.

Eggs have the role of supporting the structure of the cup cake or in general any baked products. They are binder which help to hold the ingredients together. In addition, it contributed to the liquid component in a cake recipe. Therefore, it is expected that without eggs, the cake will be dense and the rising of the cake will depend entirely with the leavening agents such as baking powder and baking soda.

I am worry about whether the dense cake will be dry and difficult to swallow. The conclusion is not, as the recipe have minimal vegetable shortenings and some liquids which is adequate to make the cake moist.

In this recipe, I have increased the amount of water, addition of cocoa powder and some almonds chunks. The final baked products were well beyond my expectations and I concurred it was some form of good snacks. As I was experimenting with this recipe, I have reduced the volumes and managed to make 4 small cup cakes. As with any other cakes, serving with additional sauces and whipped cream will heighten the palate to another level.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Recipes adapted from: Eggless, Butter less and Milk less Recipe by Kathy Thurston (make 8 cup cakes)

2 cups plain four

1 cup white sugar

1 cup almond chunks

2 cups water

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius and get ready some cup cake moulds.

In a sauce pan under medium heat, bring the vegetable shortenings, water and sugar to boil and continue boiling for about 2 minutes.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda together into the liquid.

Use a spatula to stir the batter until it is well mixed.

Stir in the almond chunks and ensure it is well mixed.

Scoop into the paper cups for cup cakes and baked in the oven for about 20 minutes or when the skewer inserted come out clean.

CONCLUSION

This is a rather unusual cake. So who should prepare this? In fact this cake is very suitable for people who are vegetarian in accordance with Buddhist principles.

In my circle of friends, I have a few friends who are vegetarians. However, though all are vegetarians, there are certain ingredients that fell into “grey area” and subject to arguments.

One of the ingredients is eggs. Some of my vegetarian friends do not eat eggs as they believed there may be an embryo attached to the eggs. However, other Buddhist vegetarians believed that current eggs are commercially “produced”, therefore , it is impossible to have any embryos in the eggs. Even if you hatch the eggs, no chicks will be born,

Another two special ingredients are two diary products, milks and butters. Some vegetarian will not touch any food “produced” by an animals, therefore milks and butters were excluded in their diets. Whereas some choose to believe that as there is no need to kill a cow to get milks and butters, therefore, these can be included in the vegetarian diets.

These belies have an impact in pastry terms. Every year, when I baked my pineapple tarts for my relatives and friends, I will have to bake two types, the normal with milk, eggs and butter and another version, which is rather hard to prepare that is eggless, milk less and butter less! Of course the onus will lie on me to find relevant substitute for the ingredients.

Hope you like this rather strange post today. But, I have to admit that looking at the picture, you may not be convinced until you take a bite of it. Have a nice day and cheers.

RECIPE 2 – GLUTEN FREE, DAIRY FREE, EGG LESS AND FATLESS CHOCOLATE CUPCAKE AND COOKIES

WHAT IS REQUIRED

1 cup of almond meal or almond flour
3/4 cup of water
1/3 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of cocoa powder

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Pre-heat the oven to 160 degree Celsius
Mix all the ingredients above until well combined
Transfer to cup cakes cup .
Baked in the pre-heated oven at 160 degree Celsius for about 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean

For cookies, add about 1/8 teaspoon of baking powder to the batter, bake at 160 degree Celsius for about 20 minutes. Let it sit in the tray for 5 minutes before transfer to the rack for cooling. If you want it to be crispier, can extend baking time by another 5-10 minutes.

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 15 October 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.

You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP to see more recipes. Currently there are about 11,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

Vegetarian Pizza Is Just As Tasty ! Simple And Basic Vegetarian Pizza Preparation

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

I loved pizza. Pizza is one of the most common food that I ordered when I have meals in Western Restaurants. I love pizza for its dough and cheese. It is a comfort food that I can easily eat an 6 inches diameter pizza. However. I have never really ever prepare pizza since I start my baking 15 years ago. I am thinking that since I have made bread, cakes, muffins cupcakes etc., why don’t I make my own pizza?

In my Facebook group : Food Bloggers and Foodies United, one of the bloggers Ms Ainy Wajahat from Pakistan have posted some pizza recipes and I promised here that I will bake some pizza. Therefore, I have based on her recipes to make the dough. For the toppings, since I am still on the vegetarian diet, I have used mostly vegetables found in my fridge.

Initially, I intended to make my own pasta sauce. Somehow, as I am too tired that afternoon, I rushed to a provision store nearby and bought a can of ready made pasta sauce. You can read the making of Pasta Sauce from fresh tomatoes HERE.

Instead of preparing it in the traditional round shape pizza, I have opted to make a rectangular shape pizza which is easier for me to bake and cut for later serving. I made the dough in the morning and intended to have the pizza for lunch, somehow, the family members decided to go out for lunch, therefore, I froze my dough in the fridge and only made the pizza during dinner time.

Making pizza is really simple and at times, I just wonder why shall I pay so much for pizzas that were sold in the eating outlets.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Dough – Recipe adapted from Ainy Cooks

500 grams plain flour

30 grams butter (at room temperature) or olive oil or ghee or normal cooking oil

300 ml of water

1 egg

1 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of instant yeast

Toppings

Some Enoki mushrooms (cut into half)

Some fresh mutton mushrooms (shredded)

Some fresh sweet corns

Some green capsicums (shredded)

Some sausages (for my kids portion)

1 tin of pasta sauce about –about 500 grams

Abundant of mozzarella cheeses or cheddar cheeses or goat cheese or other cheeses of your choice.

The ingredients here are for reference only. You can add a whole range of your preferred vegetable such as tomatoes, pineapples, preserved olives, celeries and etc..

STEPS OF PREPARATION

In a big mixing bowl, place all materials except butter/ghee/cooking oil/olive oil and use a dough hook to mix until well mix. Add in butter and continue to beat until the dough is smooth. Let it proof for at least 1 hour or until the dough size double. Use a cling wrap or a wet towel to cover the top.

Lightly grease a baking tin and pre-heat your oven to 200 degree Celsius.

Punch your dough in the centre to let the air escape. Lightly knead and use a roller pin to roll into a flat piece resembling the shape of the baking tin. It will be about 0.5-1 cm thick for the dough to cover all the tin area. Make it as even as possible.

Use a fork to lightly make some holes on top of the dough. As this is a big piece of pizza, this is to let the air to have some holes to escape.

Spread some pasta sauce on top of the dough

Fill the top with your choice of vegetables and meats, if desired. sprinkle some Italian herbs mix such as basil, oregano etc..

Sprinkle sparingly with mozzarella cheese or other cheeses with your choice.

I have make half of the pizza as vegetarian and another half into ham and sausage pizzas for my kids.

Bake your pizza in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the bases are cooked and cheeses have melt.

Cur into your desired size and shape and best serve hot with your choice of additional sauces such as Tabasco sauces, mayonnaise or just plain.

CONCLUSION

This was one of my very first basic vegetarian pizza that I have made with great success. The post was very short because it deals with basic pizza preparation. More variations will come and Guaishushu will tailor the taste to the very Asian taste such as curry and etc.. However, that shall have to wait after Guaishushu finishes his vegetarian diet.

Hope you like the post today and have a nice day. Cheers.

You Stingy Old Man, You Ruined My Mexican Coffee Buns–Polo Buns and Mexican Coffee Buns

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Kenneth Goh

INTRODUCTION

Please scroll down for the updated posts

Guaishushu is seriously regretting for his “creativities” and “stinginess”. He made a batch of Polo buns and Mexican Coffee Buns. However, as the final proofing of his bun is less than his desired diameter, he was left with some coffee pastry dough. Instead of throwing it away, half way when he baked the buns, he just took out the buns and pumped in the left over coffee pastry dough thinking it will melt and become a coffee buns with double dose of crusty coffee toppings… And the end, he found that instead of making it more beautiful, he made a bunch of ugly buns… Well, he still decided to share the recipe here as readers can just follow the recipe and get some good quality buns…… Don’t be misled by Guaishushu’s pictures.

POLO BUNS AND MEXICAN COFFEE BUNS

Polo bun or pineapple bun is a type of soft, sweet bun commonly found in Asia. The word “Polo” in Mandarin literally translated to pineapple. In another word, it is supposed to be a soft bun that have skin that resembles the skin of pineapples. Usually what is being sold in the market is with fillings such as barbecue pork. However, as I am on a vegetarian diet, I have opted to make it into a plain bun for breakfast. The buns were wrapped with a soft cookie liked dough on top of the buns, when it proved for the second time, the plain dough will start to make the soft cookie liked dough to break and those resembling the skin of a pineapple. Some have used a knife to cut into a pattern of a pineapple skin.

Mexican coffee buns is popularized by Rotiboy in Malaysia and it is a type of sweet bun with coffee flavoured crusty toppings. Usually, inside the buns, there is a slice of butter which will melt when the buns are baked. Therefore the buns is full of buttery flavour.

THIS IS DEFINTELY A WORKABLE RECIPE AND IF YOU LOOK AT MY WORK IN PROGRESS PICTURES, YOU WILL SEE THE IT IS OKAY UNTIL THE VERY LAST MOMENT WHEN GUAISHUSHU IS GREEDY TO ADD ADDITIONAL COFFEE TOPPINGS.

This post is a rather long post and have the following sections

Section A: Preparing the Buns

Section B: Preparing the Polo Buns Crusty Toppings

Section C: Preparing the Mexico Buns Crusty Toppings

Section D: Preparing Polo Buns for Baking

Section E: Preparing the Mexico Buns for Baking

SECTION A: PREPARING OF BUNS

What is required

500 g bread flour

100 g castor sugar

Yeast one packet (about 11 grams)

30 grams of butter (at room temperature)

Pinches of salt

50 grams eggs (about 1 egg)

240 grams of water

50 grams of tangzhong (please refer to https://kwgls.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/home-sick-buns-yes-it-is-sarawak-style-butter-buns/)

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Mix all ingredients except softened butter and beat at slow speed for about 5 minutes.

Add the softened butter and continue kneading at medium high-speed for about 20-30 minutes or when the dough did not stick to the wall of your mixing bowl and do not break when you pull the dough.

In the flat surface dusted with normal or bread flour, take out the dough from the mixing bowl and slightly knead it using hand for 1-2 minutes and shape it into a ball.

lightly oil you mixing bowl and place the ball in the bowl. Cover with damp cloth or cling wrap (to prevent moisture loss).

Leave it to proof until almost double in size. This should be about 30-45 minutes depending on the day’s temperature.

SECTION B: PREPARING THE POLO BUNS CRUSTY TOPPINGS

What is required

75 grams butter, melted

110 grams of ~~bread flour~~ self raising flour, sifted

50 grams of icing sugar, sifted

25 40 grams of eggs, lightly beaten

30 grams of milk powder
One egg yolk for egg washing
Some sugar for sprinkling

Steps of preparation

Melt the butter in an microwave oven for 1 minute.

Add in beaten eggs, sifted icing sugar, milk powder and sifted ~~bread flours~~ self raising flour. Mixed well until it form a soft dough.

Divide the dough into 8 equal portions.

Shape in round shape and set aside for later use.

Section C: Preparing the Mexico Buns Crusty Toppings

What is required

100 grams of butter, melted

100 grams of flour, sifted

80 grams of icing sugar, sifted

50 grams of eggs, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons of unsweetened instant coffee dissolved in 2 tablespoons of hot water.

8 pieces of 1 cm x 3cm x 0.2 cm cold cut butter (sizes is just for reference and you can just cut the butter in a small piece) – for usage in Section E. Store the butter in the fridge.

Steps of preparation

Melt the butter in an microwave oven for 1 minute.

Add in beaten eggs, sifted icing sugar, instant coffee paste and sifted bread flours. Mixed well until it form a soft sticky dough and set aside.

Note that in the above illustration pictures, I only add in the instant coffee paste at a later stage.

SECTION D: PREPARING POLO BUNS FOR BAKING

* For newer detail instruction of preparing it from frozen dough, please scroll towards the end for the updated post

Take the dough out, punch into the dough to let any trapped air escaped. Knead for one minute and divide into 2 portions. Set aside one portion for Mexico Coffee Buns in Section E.

Divide the dough equally into 8 portions and shape it into a round ball.

Use a roller to flatten the “cookie liked dough” as prepared in Section B.

Use a brush to lightly brush some water on the plain dough so that it is easier for the cookie dough to cling on the plain dough.

Wrap around the plain dough and let it prove until double in size.

As the dough proves, you will see the cookies dough started to break. If you find you cookies dough have the tendency to drop from plain dough, spray or brush with additional water to let them stick together.

When double in size, baked in the oven at 190 degree Celsius for about 15 minutes.

* For newer detail instruction of preparing it from frozen dough, please scroll towards the end for the updated post

SECTION E: PREPARING MEXICO COFFEE BUNS FOR BAKING

Lightly knead the other half of the dough as mentioned in Section D.

Divide the dough into 8 equal portions and shape into a sound ball.

Use a roller to roll the ball into a flat dough, place a piece of cold butter on top of the dough. Use the dough to wrap a butter and make it into a round ball.

Put it in the baking tray and proved until double in size.

Put the coffee soft dough into a piping bag. Cut a small hole in the bottom.

Pipe the coffee soft dough on top of the proved buns in the pattern as in the above images.

After finished piping, bake in the oven for 190 degree Celsius for about 15 minutes.

CONCLUSIONS

In this post, I have shared two types of common sweet buns. If you have some baking basics, it is definitely not a difficult bun to prepare. The crispy toppings of both buns are rather similar except the proportion of each ingredient is different. These toppings can actually be prepared in advance to shorten the preparation time. Remember that you can always wrapped barbecue pork in the Polo buns and you can refer Guaishushu’s Facebook Page post P1 – Roast Meat Bun (烧肉餐包）.

Sincerely, honestly, faithfully hope you like the post today and don’t get discourage by the ugly pictures today. Guaishushu’s promise to be less stingy (at least for photo taking purposes, ha-ha) in my coming illustrations..

Have a nice day and cheers….

UPDATED ON 2 AUGUST 2014

I have prepared some Mexican Buns on today and I have decided to take some picture and update the post.

As the above dough recipes uses tangzhong is rather time consuming, I have decided to use another faster dough as in my Blueberry Sweet Bread. It is definitely a faster and easier straight dough method that yields a fluffier bread.. As for the toppings, it is the same as the recipe above.

UPDATED POST ON 12 SEPTEMBER 2014

With the frozen dough that I have in the fridge, I have decided to prepare some polo buns for the breakfast.

There are some changes to the recipe as indicated in “red” as above as I found that this recipe for the topping is better. In addition, I have used another way of preparing the buns.

Pre-heat the oven to 190 degree Celsius.

Cut the frozen dough into 10 parts of about 30 grams each. Let it defrost in the room temperature for about 5 minutes before shaping into a ball. You can refer to the basic dough recipe in this post : Basic Bread Dough Recipe And Plum Blossom Sausage Buns (梅花香肠面包）

Weigh the topping and divide into 10 equal balls. Take one topping, shape it like a ball, place a dough ball on top of the crust ball, wrap the topping around the dough ball. Use a knife to cut some lines on on top of the toppings.

Let the dough proof until double in size, egg wash with the egg yolk followed by sprinkling some sugar on top of the crust. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 12-15 minutes or when the breads turn golden brown.

For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 28 July 2014) here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts.

You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP to see more recipes. Currently there are about 11,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.
If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

Come, Lets Have A “Soaked” Rice Vermicelli Dish–Vegetarian Fried Tom Yam Bee Hoon （素炒东炎炒米粉）

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Kenneth Goh

Being a Chinese, I have been eating fried noodles since I was young. It is usually a one pot noodle dish and a comfort food. There are many types of noodles that can be fried. It can yellow noodles like spaghettis or rice stripes like kuay teow or rice vermicelli aka bee hoon. Therefore, for me, there is really nothing much to blog about this type of noodles preparation. In essence, I have no recipe since this dish has full flexibility in terms of both ingredients and cooking spices or herbs used.

This picture shows the various type of noodles that we used for frying in a typical Chinese household kitchen cabinet and the “main actor” today is rice vermicelli or bee hoon which is the white stringy noodles on the top right hand corner.

However, I have decided to have a short post on fried bee hoon after reading some posts in Facebook and queries on how to fry noodles and especially rice vermicelli. I thought it might be a good idea to share with international readers on how I fried my bee hoon.

I used to have “arguments” with my mother in law with regards to the ways we fried bee hoon or rice vermicelli and I witnessed the changes in my cooking method over the years. When I was young, I have never like to eat fried bee hoon. One of the reasons was that it was very dry and I always got choked if I ate it in a rush. The way my late mum cooked was also the same as what my mother in law was cooking now.

FRIED VS “SOAKED” RICE VERMICELLI

Traditionally, rice vermicelli was blanched in hot water or soaked in cold water (or some even do not soak in the water). The cook will then stir fried the garlics until fragrant, add in rice vermicelli, put part of condiments, scoop out and set aside. They will then stir fried the meat and vegetable ingredients with garlics and shallots again, until almost cooked, add in the partly fried bee hoon earlier, “bits” of water, stir until well mixed, add in condiments and the dish preparation is considered as done. The result of this type of fried bee hoon is rather aromatic but the rice vermicelli is very dry and most of the condiments have no time to “penetrate” the rice vermicelli due to the lack of liquids. The rice vermicelli can be rather tasteless.

Since I started cooking on my own, fried rice vermicelli is always not in my menu though I missed what my mum have cooked. For me, fried bee hoon is always dried and tasteless.

When my kids reach aged 3, I have to introduce them more varieties of noodle dishes. Initially, it was always soupy type of noodles preparation. Then I chanced upon a Taiwanese Food Program that demonstrate the cooking of the famous Taiwan Pumpkin Rice Vermicelli (南瓜米粉）using the Xinzhu rice vermicelli (新竹米粉）, after that 1 hour program, I have changed my method of cooking rice vermicelli and the rice vermicelli that was cooked will usually be moist and tasty.

The aim of this post is not really to provide a recipe but more to share my method of cooking rice vermicelli. As I am on a vegetarian diet, in this illustration, I have used vegetarian Tom Yam paste to prepare “Vegetarian Tom Yam Fried Bee Hoon”. Of course meat was not included and as I said earlier, the noodle dish is with full flexibility and you can add in any ingredients suitable to your family taste buds.

WHAT IS REQUIRED

All ingredients here are substitutable. I am frying vegetarian rice vermicelli and you can definitely add in prawns, meat stripes (like chicken fillets, pork bellies slices and etc.) if you wish.

Quantities are intentionally omitted as I have raid my fridge to come out with these ingredients. Use some less fresh vegetables if you want to. For me, the ingredients of fried bee hoon is based on what you have in fridge and what suits your family’s taste buds. As the taste of the ready made pastes can vary considerably, therefore, you will have to “test” your fried rice vermicelli after you have fried it and readjust the taste, if necessary. Therefore all ingredients and quantities here are for references only.

Some black fungus, soaked and cut in stripes

Some dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked and cut in stripes

Some dried bean curd cut in stripes

Some dried tofu puff cut in small cubes

Some bean sprouts or cabbage cut in stripes

Some green chillies cut in small pieces (optional)

Some ginger slices (note that you can always add in slices of shallots and garlics)

Some red carrots, julienned into thin stripes.

Some enoki mushrooms

Some rice vermicelli (soaked in cold water) and I have use half a standard package of dried rice vermicelli.

Few tablespoons of vegetarian Tom Yam paste. (You can always substitute to normal Tom Yam paste)

Note:

You can don’t soak your rice vermicelli if you prefer. If you don’t soak, in subsequent steps, your broth will need to have more. For me, we prefer to soak the rice vermicelli because it will wash away dirt that we can’t see. In addition, it will soften the rice vermicelli.

STEPS OF PREPARATION

Preparing the Egg Stripes For Garnishes

Lightly beat 2-3 eggs.

In a big non stick frying pan, pour the beaten eggs to the non stick frying pan to prepare a thin omelette.

As long as there are no runny yolks, it is considered as cooked.

Cut the egg omelette into thin stripes.

In a big frying pan, have 1-2 tablespoon of cooking oil. Stir fry your garlics and/or shallots and/or gingers until fragrant. If you have dried mushroom, you can fried at the same time.

Add in your ingredients . The order of adding ingredients are as follows: Meat followed by vegetables that are difficult to cook followed by leafy vegetables. Any vegetables that can withstand long periods of cooking shall be added first. Vegetables that cannot withstand long periods of cooking such as bean sprouts shall be added just before you off the heat.

Add in 1-2 tablespoons of vegetarian Tom Yam paste, adequate water to cover your ingredients (adequate water means: about 1 cm above all your ingredients). Stir well and bring to boil under high heat for 1-2 minutes.

Add in the Enoki mushrooms (or beansprouts), rice vermicelli, stir well and let it simmer under medium heat for 2-3 minutes. Off the heat.

Add in your choice of condiments such as light soya sauce, flavour enhancers like mushrooms concentrate, salt, pepper and etc.. Note: Taste before you add because different brands will have different concentration and some can be extremely sour or salty.

If you find that your rice vermicelli is a bit dry, add in some more water. Remember that the rice vermicelli will continue absorbing the water after you off the heat. So let it rest at least 5-10 minutes before your serving.

You may want to use a kitchen scissor to roughly cut the rice vermicelli as some rice vermicelli are rather long. However the step is optional.

Preferably serve hot garnished with egg stripes, chopped Chinese celeries, coriander leaves or any other garnishes you deemed suitable. Seaweed stripes and meat floss are two great alternatives.

CONCLUSION

Is it not this is a simple one pot noodle dish and a comfort food? Don’t worry to add in water in this stir fried rice process. The water had the role to blend the ingredients and sauces into a Tom Yam soup. This will help the rice vermicelli to absorb the Tom Yam broth. Whether you want to call it a fried rice vermicelli or a “soaked” rice vermicelli is irrelevant to me. Do you concur with me? What is important is that it is delicious and can wake up the palates of my guests or family members.

Hope you like the post today. Thanks and have and have a nice day.

What I “Ate” Today (家常便饭系列）…. 17 August 2013- Special

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Kenneth Goh

You may be surprised about this title! In fact, the title is not correct either. What I am going to post is not “what I cooked today” or “what I ate today”. It was a gathering at one of my relative’s house and she had cooked some Chinese dishes that are not common among Fujian or Guangdong Province.

My relative is from Jiangxi Province and therefore the food that she cooked were rather different! As you all know, Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese are descendants of immigrants mainly from the South Eastern Coastal Fujian and Guangdong Province.

JIANGXI CUISINES

Per Wikipedia:

Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; pinyin: Jiāngxī; Wade–Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal map spelling: Kiangsi, Gan: Kongsi) is a province in the People’s Republic of China, located in the southeast of the country. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south and east, it shares a border with Anhui to the north, Zhejiang to the northeast, Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei to the northwest. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiangxi)

As compared to Nanyang Chinese (Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese), in a household meal, they are more dishes but with a smaller portion. For us, we will usually serve 3 dishes and 1 soup, for them the dishes can be as many as 6-12 dishes. Today, the host is kind enough to cook us 7 dishes (excluding desserts and sweet soups). Jiangxi dishes were rather spicy (chilli hot) and as my kids were having meals with us, for some dishes, they have to prepare both the spicy and non spicy version.

Note than I am currently on a vegetarian diet and since I did not told them in advance, I have taken my meals before joining them. Therefore, I did not join them for meals.

SPICY AND SOUR SHREDDED POTATOES (酸辣土豆丝）

Yes, this is my favourite. Potatoes were julienned into thin strips. There were then soaked in cold water until all the starch were gone. This will make the potatoes “crunchy” and water have to be changed regularly. Look at the thin strips, these were all manually done. They were then stir fried with spring onions, black vinegars and chilli. This is something that I have yet to share the cooking illustrations with readers but I can assure you it is something simple yet the taste is superb. Kids are fighting for this.

BRAISED BEEF （酱牛肉）

I do not know if there is any translation of this dish. It is basically beef braised in dark soya sauce (and herbs and spices). It was then air dried. If it was kiln dried, it will become smoked beef. This is a form of meat preservation that can be commonly found in many parts of China. My relatives have prepared these meat in China and brought it over.

I still remembered when I was stationed in Changchun, China about 10 years ago, one of the past time is to buy some braised chicken drumsticks and ate it in the hotel. It is delicious and thinking about it make me drooling. Depending on the regions, the preservations can be sugar based or salt based.

TOMATOES FRIED WITH EGGS (番茄炒蛋）

A common household dish in China. Besides stir frying, another way of cooking this combination is making it into a soup.

Tomato is not a common vegetable in my traditional house cooking. Tomatoes are considered vegetables imported from other countries (though this may not be true any more). This is evidenced in its Chinese name literately translated as Western Persimmon (西红柿）or Foreign brinjal (番茄）。In Hokkien dialects, it was called Caucasian Brinjal (angmokio)! Therefore, my mom seldom cooked tomatoes in the house.

As my girl is a tomato fanatic, this will definitely her top choice. However, as my boy is tomato phobia, this is definitely a good dish to make my boy eating tomato. Though he is a tomato phobia but he is an egg fanatic. I usually requested that if he wanted to eat 2 tablespoons of eggs, he will need to finish 1 tablespoon of tomatoes. Haha

STEAMED CHINESE SAUSAGE WITH CHINESE BLACK FERMENTED BEANS （腊肠蒸豆豉）

The Chinese sausages were prepared by my relatives in China and brought it over. You can hardly find any fats in the Chinese sausages. Before I am on my vegetarian diet, I have tried the sausages before and it is delicious.

The Chinese sausages were cut into slices, steamed with Chinese black fermented beans and chopped garlics. May be after my vegetarian diets end, I shall cook this. Good thing about having this post is that it can remind me of what I should cooked when I run out of ideas.

PIGTAILS PORK BELLIES SOUP (猪尾猪肚汤）

I never have this combination before, pork bellies plus pigtails. The reason is because both meats have different cooking times. You know pork bellies are rather difficult to cook until soft. So, it is not easy to cook this soup. Even if you used pressure cooker, both items will have to be cooked separately. There is no vegetables or white peppers. It is pure meat broth!

If you ask me whether it is yummy or not, of course, I can’t tell you directly because I did not taste it. However, from my years of cooking experience, I can tell you that it is a good soup because the soup had turn milky meaning all the gelatine from the meat have been dissolved in the soup/broth.

Don’t believe me, freeze it and you will see that it become jellish and you can use a knife to cut it into small pieces. Teochew dialect group also have a dish that after braising certain meat for a long time, they cut the meat into very small pieces, freeze the broth and become a jelly. The jelly was then cut into small pieces and served as cold dish (猪头粽）

STIR FRIED CHINESE WATER CRESS （清炒西洋菜）

I remembered when I told my mother in law and wife to stir fry water cress previously, they are against it as they always used water cress to cook soup. It is generally true that most Chinese dialect groups like to boil soup with this vegetable. However, when I travelled to China, I always have stir fried water cress in restaurants. Usually, this vegetable were stir fried using garlic without any other ingredients.

Try and tell me whether it is nice or not! Remember that you have to stir fry the vegetables using high heat, otherwise, it may be bitter.

STEAMED KUDZU FLOUR COATED PORK WITH PUMPKIN (南瓜米粉肉）

When I asked for the name of the dish, I was told “namguamifenrou”. However, I can’t find any rice vermicelli or Beehoon. Later she explained the 米粉 is not rice vermicelli, it means “rice flour”. Though the name is called rice flour, the coating of the meat can be any types of flour. It can be corn flour, sweet potato flour, potato flour and etc.…But today the flour that she used is kudzu flour (葛根粉）. Again this is brought from Jiangxi and she disclosed that this was made from wild kudzu roots.

Kudzu has many health benefits and among them are relief symptoms of postmenopausal women, reducing alcohol intake, alleviating cluster headaches, managed metabolic syndromes etc. etc. etc. In Singapore, we do have a type of Chinese instant flu medicine called Kudzu soup (葛根汤) that you consumed when you have a fever and it is believed that it will help to reduce your body temperature. You may want to know more about kudzu from here.

Coming back to the dish. Meat were seasoned and coated with kudzu flour. The meat was then placed on top of the pumpkins and steamed under high heat until the pumpkins were soft. The purpose of the flour is to retain the meat juiciness in the process of steaming. Any meat juices that escaped will dripped into the pumpkins those flavoured the pumpkins.

Lastly, I want to convey my sincere thanks to my relatives who cooked us a sumptuous meal and we really appreciate that.

Hope you like the post today and I find this post is meaningful to share with readers about other different types of Chinese cuisines.

Have a nice day and cheers.

FOOD PREPARATION SERIES INDEX

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Kenneth Goh

The following are temporary indices for all recipes issued by Guaishushu in both https://kwgls.wordpress.com and Guaishushu’s Facebook Page. The index shall be for temporary references only.

Desserts:
Aloe Vera	Some Aloe Vera Sweet Fruit Dessert Just Specially For You, Dear!
Barley Peanut Soup	Easy Peasy Barley Bean Curd Sheets Sweet Soup （腐竹薏米甜汤）
Black Glutinous Rice	What? Having Rice as A Dessert- The Nutritious Black Glutinous Rice Porridge
Sweet Potato Soup	Malaysian Singaporean Chinese Food–Sweet Potato Soup Dessert
Barley/Black Glutinous Rice	X4 – Black Glutinous Rice and Barley Sweet Porridge (血糯薏米甜粥）
Honey Dew Granita	C1 Honey Dew and Cantaloupe Granita 哈密瓜奇异果挫冰
Poached Bosc Pears & Dragon Fruits	X3-Chinese Style Poached Pear and Dragon Fruits Desserts (博斯克梨龙珠果炖冰糖）
Bubur Cha Cha	X5 – Bubur Cha Cha (摩摩喳喳）

Drinks:
Chrysanthemum Tea	Come and have a cup of Chrysanthemum Tea (菊花茶）
Hawthorn Ume Tea	Need A Drink To Repair Your Vocal Cord? Hawthorn Ume Is The Tea For You!
Roselle Tea	Game To Try Some “Wild Hibiscus” Tea………….?（洛神花茶）
Rhoeo Tricolor Tea	Purple is mysterious, purple is nobly and a purple drink is definitely lovely! – Rhoeo Tricolor Tea （如意兰茶，蚌兰花茶，红竹叶茶）
Hedyotis Diffusa	Snake Tongue Tea? Gosh.. I Am Going Away……白花蛇舌草罗汉果茶

Breads
Sarawak Style Butter Buns	Homesick Buns? Yes, I am homesick of Sarawak Style Butter Buns..
Roast Meat Buns	P1 – Roast Meat Bun (烧肉包）

Cakes/Muffins/Scones
Banana Cake	P2 – Banana Cake (香蕉蛋糕）
Butter Cake/Pound Cake	1 Butter + 1 Sugar + 1Egg + 1 Flour + 1 Milk = Mrs. NgSK’s Butter Cake-Guaishushu’s Version
Butter Cake/Pound Cake	Hey, My Chick Want To Eat My Zebra Pound Cake !
Chinese Steamed Sponge Cake	The Plights of Kuey Neng Ko…The Traditional Chinese Steamed Sponge Cake…
Chinese Steamed Sponge Cake	My Steamed Sponge Cake (Kuey Neng Ko) Is Full Of Gas。。。。 (汽水鸡蛋糕）
Steamed Sugar Cake	P3-Steamed Sugar Cake (白糖糕）
Microwave Mug Cake	Microwaved Mug Cakes, Another Quick Alternative to Baked and Steamed Cakes…
Sarawak Midnight Cake	Where is my cake? I Can’t See!–Famous Sarawak Midnight Cake (Cake Seri kaya Sarawak) revisited..
Grapefruit Chiffon Cake	Grapefruit Chiffon with Grapefruit Citrus Glaze,… Ever Try This?
Carrot Muffins	Simple Carrot Muffins for Your Love Ones…
Scones	Basic But Presentable, Basic But Irresistible…Basic Raisin Scones Shared…
Tapioca Cake	CCC – Cheesy Cassava Cake–A Modified Version of The Traditional Nonya Kuih Bengka Ubi
Cake Decoration Ideas	From Plain to Eye Catching…From Muffins to Elegant Celebration Cakes

Cheese Cakes
Ferraro Rocher Ice Cream	Simple, Tasty, Elegant …Chilled Ferrero Rocher Oreo Ice Cream Cheese Cake
Durian Cheese Cake	King of Fruits + Cream Cheese = Durian Cheesecakes, Game to Try?

Cookies
Pineapple Tarts	What A Golf Ball Have To Do With A Pineapple? Well, It Is The Famous South East Asian Pineapple Tarts

Puddings
Bread Puddings	Who Said Bread Puddings Must Be Prepared As Such…..Bread Puddings “Reinvented”
Cake Puddings	P4 – Cake Puddings (蛋糕布丁）
Cookie Puddings	Creative Food Series – Cookie Puddings 1
Cookie Puddings	Cookie Puddings – 2

Snacks
Nonya Chang	Is there any relationship between Dragon in a boat and a Peranakan Women?….The process of making Nonya Chang revisited…(Part I)
Nonya Chang	Is there any relationship between Dragon in a boat and a Peranakan Women?….The process of making Nonya Chang revisited…(Part II)
Popiah	Malaysian Singaporean Chinese Food–Popiah Sarawak Style
Kueh Pie Tee	Malaysian Singaporean Chinese Food -Kueh Pie Tee
Roasted Peanuts	C2 – Spiced Roasted Peanut (香脆花生）

Rice and Porridges
Chicken Rice	Why Not Cook Your Mother A Meal Of Chicken Rice This Coming Mother’s Day?
Nasi Goreng Aruk	Are you kidding? You don’t need oil to fry rice?– The authentic Sarawak Cuisine–Aruk Fried Rice
Fried Rice	N1 – Nameless Fried Rice (无名炒饭）
White Gourd Braised Rice	N2 – White Gourd Braised Rice （白莆焖饭）
Pork Porridge	N3- Pork Porridge (肉粥）

Noodles and Pasta Dishes
Kolo Beehoon	Food Preparation Series–Kolo Beehoon
Sarawak Laksa	Hey, My Laksa Secret Recipe Was Stolen!!!……… An In Depth Analysis and Pictorial Procedural Description Of The Famous Sarawak Laksa (PART I)
Sarawak Laksa	Hey, I have invented my own Sarawak Laksa Paste Recipe !!!……… An In Depth Analysis and Pictorial Procedural Description Of The Famous Sarawak Laksa (PART II)
Sarawak Laksa	Hi, Let Start Cooking the Laksa …. An In Depth Analysis and Pictorial Procedural Description Of The Famous Sarawak Laksa (Part III)
Singapore Prawn Noodles	Prawn noodles? Hokkien noodles?… No, it is Singapore Hokkien Fried Prawn Noodles (新加玻福建炒虾面）
Tom Yam Noodles	Bachelor’s Tomyam Noodles–Quick And Nice…
Tomato Yimin Noodles	What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）– 13-7-2013–Tomato Yimin Noodles (茄汁伊面）
Pasta Sauce	Let’s See How An Asian Make The Tomato Pasta Sauce From Scratch and How He Baked His Pasta….

Meat and Savoury Dishes
Korma Chicken	Special – What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）– 22-7-2013–Korma Chicken (科尔马鸡肉）
Grilled Chicken	M1- Chinese Style Grilled Chicken (中式烤鸡）
Ginger Chicken	M2 – Ginger Chicken (姜丝鸡）
Soya Sauce Chicken	M4- Braised Chicken with Soya Sauce (酱油鸡)
Minced Pork with Taukwa	Creative Food Series–Minced Pork Belly with Taukwa
Miso Pork Belly	M3 – Miso Pork Belly （味增五花）
Meat Rolls	Hey, This is not Italian Meat Rolls, It Is Chinese Meat Rolls Called Ngoh Hiang

Vegetarian Dishes
Tempeh	Tempeh Revisited – Sweet And Spicy Tempeh And Oven Baked Honey Tempeh
Vegetable fritters	Vege Vege Vegetable Fritters–Indonesian’s Bakwan Sayuran
Vegetables	Blanching Vegetables in Chinese Cooking – 利用汆烫准备可口的中式的”菜”肴
Chinese Lettuce	V2 – Blanched Chinese Lettuce With Fermented Bean Curd Sauce (白腐乳生菜胆）- Vegetarian
Bitter Gourd & Chinese Mustard	V3- Braised Bitter Gourd With Chinese Mustard (苦瓜焖芥菜)
Shark Fin Melon Soup	S6 – Vegetarian Shark Fin Melon Soup (素鱼翅瓜羹）

Vegetable Dishes
Luffa	D1-Braised luffa/tower gourd with egg* 蛋汁炆丝瓜
Preserved Mustard	D4 – Foochow Preserved Mustard Fried With Minced Meat (福州糟菜炒肉碎）
Winged Beans	D7 – Fried Winged Beans With Minced Meat (肉碎四棱豆）
Kailan with Prawns	V1 – Blanched Kailan With Prawn (芥兰虾球）
Romaine Lettuce Miso	V4 – Blanch Romaine lettuce with miso sauce (味真酱罗明旦)

Tofu and Egg Dishes
Minced Taukwa Omelete	D2 – Minced Taukwa Omelete （豆干蛋饼）
Braised Egg & Tofu	D3 – Braised Eggs and Bean Curd (豆干卤蛋）
Bean Curd Omelete	D5-Beancurd Omelet (豆干蛋饼）
Celery Omelete	D6- Celery Omelete (西芹蛋饼）
Steamed Tofu	D8-Steamed Tofu With Eggs (豆腐蒸蛋）
Salted Turnip Omelete	D9 – Salted Turnip Omelete (菜脯蛋饼）素
Devilled Eggs	Devilled Egg- Simplicity Rules…

Soup Dishes
Sweet Corn Soup	S1 – Sweet Corn Pork Rib Soup （玉米排骨汤)
Carrot Soup	S2 – White Carrot Pork Rib Soup (白萝卜排骨汤）
Double Mushroom Soup	S3 – Double Mushroom Chicken Soup (双菇鸡汤）
Bitter Gourd Pineapple Soup	S4-Bitter Gourd Pineapple Pork Rib Soup (苦瓜黄梨排骨汤）
Chinese Napa Soup	S5 – Chinese Cabbage (Napa) Soup ( 大白菜汤)
Salted Vegetable Duck Soup	Salted Vegetable Duck Soup (咸菜鸭）– A Quick and Easy Way to Prepare This Traditional Soup Dish

Interesting Cooking Ingredients
Chilli	Burnt, Hot, Spicy– I am running away!!!– Understanding Chilli Pepper and Making Of Chilli Sauce
Belachan	Can You Stand The Smell of Belachan (Shrimp Paste)?
Belachan	Z1 – Belachan (Shrimp Paste) – Roasting Belachan

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 11-8-2013

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Kenneth Goh

On 7 August 2013, white rice served with :

1. Braised Bitter Gourd With Chinese Mustard 苦瓜焖苦瓜

2. Salted Turnip Omelette 菜脯蛋饼

3. Vegetarian Winter Melon Soup 素冬瓜汤

First of all, I have to be frank that I will be a vegetarian (by religion) for a period of about 1.5 months and being the only member in the family, I am pretty easy going with my meals. Since my relatives are in my house, they can cook what they like and I usually give them the free hand so that I can concentrate on my other food posts.

However, when I have things to share, I will post here and there summarizing what I have made the last few days. As mentioned before, short recipes will be captured in Guaishushu’s Facebook Page, therefore, I will let you know the dishes published and if you are interested, you can go there for some pictorial illustration. Liking the Page (not the individual posts) will ensure that you will be briefed of all future recipes when Guaishushu issue a pictorial illustration.

Salted Turnip Omelette (菜脯蛋饼）

This is a very common Chinese household dish especially for the Hokkien and the Teochew dialects. It is basically preserved turnips (either sweet or salty) fried with eggs. When I was young, we used to have this dish with white porridge as its very tasty. Previously, this dish was considered as a commoner’s dish because eggs and preserved turnip or radish are two of the cheapest cooking ingredients. It is tasty and a slice of egg omelette with a bowl of white rice or porridge can be a meal for the poorer families. However, time have changed, this traditional dish has become so well known that it started to appear in the restaurant menu especially Minan/Hokkien/Taiwan restaurant and Teochew porridge restaurant. Preparation is simple and you may want refer here for detail pictorial illustration.

Braised Bitter Gourd with Chinese Mustard (苦菜焖苦瓜）

This is a vegetable dish “invented” by myself many years ago. Initially, it was just bitter gourd and subsequently, as per my wife’s request, Chinese mustard was added. Both Chinese mustard and bitter gourd were very bitter and if you are a bitter taste lover, you will like it definitely. At times, I have added a can of canned button mushrooms and my kids will eat together with us. This is one way of letting them getting used to the taste of bitter gourd and Chinese mustard.

Both these vegetables were beneficial to the body as per Traditional Chinese Medicine, these are “cooling” vegetables that will help to release the “heat” on your body. For those who are not familiar with TCM, body that have too much “heat “ will have lots of symptoms that can range from loss of voice, acnes in your face, sore throat etc. and you have to have food that are “cooling” in nature to balance your Yin and Yang.

My mother in law is very particular about vegetable combination in a meal and she will casually remarked “we have some “heat” prone vegetable today and today we shall have some cooling vegetables.. So under her, her vegetable choices will take into consideration this factor plus “colour” of the vegetable (green vs. white vs. colourful), leafy vs beans….. Most of time, I “failed” her test under her supervision but I am learning from her gradually as this takes time!

Vegetarian Winter Melon Soup (素冬瓜汤)

Nothing much to say about this dish as it is just another version of winter melon soup without pork ribs. As there is no meat broth, I have use more sweet dates and add in some vegetarian bean curd sheets. My boy did not complain about no meat and my girls, who is soup fanatic, will definitely say nice especially winter melon is one of her favourites.

Banana Cake (香蕉蛋糕）

Beside the savoury dishes, my baking adventures continue. I have made a banana cake using two ripe bananas. Taste is fabulous and texture is superb (soft and moist). Uniqueness about this cake is that it is prepared using a food processor rather than the normal mixer. No creaming of butter, just mixed and blend, a batter will come out that give a delicious butter cake. Cake preparation timing is less than 20 minutes. This is a comfort food that is suitable for those who want a simple way of cake making.