Zongzi

Well, I guess I managed to find the time to prepare quite a few CNY goodies this year. I can't believe how adventurous I'm being, in terms of cooking new foods. I had never made Nian Gao before... but now I can say that I did. All that's left is for me to attempt the ever popular Zongzi. Would I do it? Of course...

Zongzi

Ingredients:

- 650g glutinous rice, soaked overnight and drained

- Dried bamboo leaves, boiled, washed and soaked

- Hemp strings

- 1 bag of redbean paste

Method:

1. Boil a large pot of water; add in the bamboo leaves and string and continue to boil water for 10minutes.

2. Stop boiling, but keep leaves and string soaking until ready for use.

3. Roll paste into balls and set aside.

4. Take two leaves, and form a cone out of them. Fill the cone half-way with glutinous rice, then add a ball of bean paste. Continually tap the filling, to ensure that it is being firmly packed down. Top off the cone with some more glutinouse rice.

5. Wrap up the zongzi and then tie them up with the string.

6. Boil a large pot of water and drop in the zongzi. Boil for 1 hr, remove and serve.

We love to eat our sweet Zongzi dipped in granulated sugar, brown sugar or really any type of sweetner (condensed milk could be good with it too... albeit strange). My parents were quite impressed with the rice dumplings I made, and were amazed at my "wrapping-job" knowing that this was my first attempt at working with bamboo leaves. Hmmm... what can I say, I have a gift!

CNY: Nian Gao

Woot! Finally, I gotten the courage to make Nian Gao. Actually it wasn't so much the courage as the pressure to find the "right" recipe. There are so many recipes available on the web that I had no clue which one to use. I finally settled on Florence's recipe and it turned out great. I didn't have such a nice mold to make the rice cake in, so I simply lined an 8-inch cake pan with banana leaves and steamed.

Here's the cake before steaming...

Here's the cake after steaming... (note the silly little holes that decided to appear. Probably due to condensation on the steamer lid dripping down)

Well, I'm still contemplating how to serve this... should I simply cut it into pieces and plate it? Or should I sandwich it between 2pcs of yam, dip it in egg and then fry it? I think the latter sounds best...

Happy CNY!!!

Finally, it's the Year of the Rat!
Today is the first year of the lunar new year. Hooray! Don't think that I've forgotten... how could I? Being CNY, my dad went out to buying CNY treats (from T&T of course), here are a couple pictures of the goodies. Needless to say, I will be getting high on sugar for the next week.

Rice Crackers and Milk Chews

Candied Waterchestnut and Coconut Strips

The ever popular, Peanut Candy!

Cuttlefish Crisps and other Crackers

Of course, with my father getting the family hyped up for CNY, I now have to think of the perfect CNY recipes to make (good thing I have a week).

Happy CNY

It's that time of year again, Chinese New Year!!! Wahoo! I love this "holiday" because it gives me an excuse to bake, buy and make yummy CNY treats.

Prosperity Buns filled with Lotus Paste (Not a creation of mine, but I bought these from T&T... I think I'll try making them someday... but only when yeast and I have mended our broken relationship)

The Japanese also enjoy CNY celebrations, so of course I had to prepare my sisters' favorite treat. Hanami Dango... this time I used matcha powder for the green dough, and it was superb

Laughing Dumplings... one of my personal favorites. I actually made these ahead of time, and then brought them to work (KFC) and fried them. Hehehe, I'm so sneaky... but it beats slaving over the wok and hoping that my oil was a consistent temperature.

The Laughing Dumpling recipe can be found on Florence's Blog along with a bunch of other great CNY recipes. I hope to make some more CNY treats before my stressful student life takes hold of me once more... but I've got midterms this week, and my world is spinning round-and-round. Well, I still have until Thursday to celebrate CNY! But until then... Gong Xi!

So Simple Fa Gao

Since finals are approaching (and me being the kind of person who can't go 1 week without baking something)... I decided to make a really simple recipe FA GAO! I just love this light and fluffy cake. This was an excellent decision.

Simple Fa Gao

Ingredients:

- 1 cup self raising flour

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- 1/2 cup coconut milk (the good quality thick stuff)

- water

Method:

1. Sieve flour and brown sugar together, this helps remove sugar clumps and gives the cake an nice fluffy texture.

2. Mix in coconut milk.

3. Add enough water to make batter ribbon-like in consistency.

4. Pour into prepared muffin tin and steam on high for 13 minutes. (NOTE: Do not open the lid of the steamer for the first 10 minutes... this helps ensure that the cake "smiles" nicely)

5. Allow to cool in pan and then remove... eat fresh, with a mixture of brown sugar and dessicated coconut. Enjoy!

Recipe Yields: 6 servings

Since the weather here's been pretty gloomy and wet, my parents really enjoyed eating this cake and remembering the sunny and warm atmosphere of Malaysia. My sister, who loves coconut and brown sugar was so excited that I was making this recipe... when your family enjoys your baking, it just makes it that much more special :P

HAPPY CNY! Gong Xi!

Well guys, I didn't really go all out in baking goodies this CNY (although that doesn't really matter, because we got a ton of treats from T&T... as you've seen in my previous post) but I did manage to make at least one treat. One of my favorites... Kueh Bangkit. I used the recipe from Little Corner of Mine and the kueh turned out beautifully; light, crisp and melt-in-your-mouth. Didn't have parchement paper to line my trays with, so I generously covered each tray with tapioca starch. I made many shapes using small cookie cutters, but really wish I had the real Kueh Bangkit moulds. Pictured above are my cute little piggies; I had to make them by hand... and they took a while (me being a perfectionist and all) so I only made a couple. They are so cute and I think they truly encompass the spirit of the Fire Boar. My sisters loved the cookies and my parents said they tasted just like the real thing. We've decided to eat the pig one's last... maybe on the last day of the lunar new year. Seems fitting, eh?

So, I've decided that I must invest in buying some traditional kueh moulds. Some for Bangkit, Ang Koo and Mooncakes. Can't find them in stores though. I've only seen the bangkit and mooncake one's online at amazon.com (still not sure if I trust buying stuff off the internet... we'll see).

One more day and counting...

Well, CNY is only a day away. My family has plans to go out for dinner at Hon's and maybe we'll stop by at T&T to watch the festivities. Although if you really want to get a taste for the traditional CNY fun go to the Plaza of Nations or even Crystal Mall. Since all of my extended family is in Singapore, my family of 5 usually just has a small CNY bash... but that doesn't mean it's not exciting. And this will be the first CNY that my puppy will be involved in! I'm thinking of dressing him up like a dragon! What d'ya think?

We've been loading up on all the Chinese New Year goodies... take a look. We've got sugared water chestnuts, peanut candies and peanut crunch pastries.

The peanut candies are my favorite, I always start to miss them around Decembers. But then I remember that CNY is just around the corner and the stores will start selling these again :) The flavors are (from bottom to top): Coffee, Almond, Peanut, Cocoa, Nutmeat, Black Sesame, Cream and Coconut... Yum!

The picture of the peanut pastry is pretty sad. That's because I didn't remember to take a photo until there was only one left... so I really had no choice in which pastry to photograph :P And if you want a recipe for this see: Florence's Crispy Peanut Puff

Not quite sure what the multicolored sweet things are... supposedly they're made of sugar, glutinous rice flour, butter and oil (didn't quite like them). But my family just started gobbling up the deep-fried sesame balls, or as Florence calls them Chinese Laughing Dumplings.

Well I should definetly rest up a bit before CNY, so I'll see you then!

CNY!!!

Well Chinese New Year is just a day and little bit away. I decided I had to make at least one post about it... after all I am chinese! How could I miss one of our largest celebrations??!?! Well, today I went to my favorite supermarket T&T and amazingly found a lot of caucasians shopping there. I guess everyone wants in on the chinese culture... after all, we are an incredible people are we not? I found the cutest looking Hongbao in store and had to buy them, pictured above. I figured after 18 yrs of getting money from my parents it's about time I started sharing prosperity. Aren't they cute? And when you pull on a side-tab it opens to reveal a chinese new year symbol... and of course the money! I bought the Hongbao on impulse and actually was a T&T looking for a fish nian gao mold. I found the nian gao and decided to buy it. The cake came with the mold still encasing it... I hope the mold can be reused *crosses fingers* we'll just have to wait and see. But anyways, the store bought nian gao looked so cute how could I pass up the opportunity to but it, and at only $1.99 it was a steal!

Thinking of making some special desserts for CNY, not quite sure if I have the time... but we'll see. If I don't have, a HAPPY NEW YEAR; and if I do then I will see you soon! (Hypothetically speaking)