Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Stir Fried Chicken with Eggs (雞肉炒滑蛋)



We had a beef version of this dish in Denver authentic Chinese restaurant and loved it. The beef was tender and the eggs was smooth. Since I don't buy beef at home and trying to cut down on pork intake, I used chicken breast instead. I added milk in the eggs mixture to give it some milk fragrant.

Growing up in Asia, fresh milk is not in our diet at all. All we had were milk powder and we only consumed it when we were kids. Coming here in America, I noticed that people drink fresh milk all the times, not just for breakfast, but anytime they want. It was a culture shock at first. Even to these days, a lot of Asian can't get use to the taste of fresh milk. In China, in order to let the children or elders have some fresh milk, they used it in eggs or bakes or dessert. For example, instead of water that the recipe calls for, they used milk instead. It makes the food more nutritious and also added the fragrant of fresh milk (奶香).
I thought that was brilliant!

Friday, October 02, 2009

Duo Colors Marbled Tang Yuan (Glutinous Rice Balls)



I saw this recipe on CCTV4 TV food program, "Everyday Food" and thought what an excellent idea! Thought I share it with my readers here, so we will have another way to serve our favorite dessert "Tang Yuan". As I mentioned earlier, in order to incorporate more diary into the Chinese families diet, they have used fresh milk in cooking and making dessert. Usually we used water to make glutinous rice balls but for your own family consumption, you now have the option to use fresh milk for extra nutrient, what an excellent idea right? Also, I never thought that I can add cocoa powder into making my glutinous rice balls too, we usually just use the different colorings. Can you tell, I really learned a lot from this episode. It looked too pretty not to try it out especially all of us adored "Tang Yuan". So, I gave it a go and really liked it, you can give it a try too!

I want to wish my readers a "Happy Mid-Autumn/ Moon Cake Festival" too! Enjoy the mooncakes, food, full moon and good company!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Stir Fried Sweet Potato Starch Noodle



Made with 100% sweet potato starch, it is a Korean style noodle, usually used in making a Korean dish called Japchae. I like the texture of this noodle and have been buying it to stir-fry. I still season it with the Korean flavor because I think it is most suitable for this type of noodle. Why change the tradition right? But I did use the ingredients I have in the house for this. I just soaked the noodle with warm water until soften, drained and finished it in the wok with other stir-fried ingredients. I didn't pre-cook the noodle first.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Deep Fried Shrimp Wontan



I happen to have some wontan skin in the freezer and also I haven't done any deep-fry food for awhile, so I thought I would give my girls some deep-fry treat. They loved crispy and crunchy food but I have cut down a lot of deep-fry food. So, whenever Evy asked for it, I will make them the healthy crunchy baked chicken strips or baked crunchy fish fillets. They all loved it and I can provide the crunch without the oil.

The idea of this dish came along from food bloggers who used the whole shrimp instead of minced shrimps with pork as filling. I added onion and carrot just because I always wanted to have some veggies in my cooking. By doing it this way, my girls tend to eat the onion too. Otherwise, they would just picked out the onion and put it on the side of their plates. No matter how I stress that onion (or ginger, or bell pepper) is good for their bodies, it just went it one ear and out the next. *sigh*


Friday, September 25, 2009

Special Fried Eggs



Why is this fried eggs so special? Because I added black sesame seeds in it! Sesame seed has antioxidant and anti-cancer properties and rich in iron, magnesium, copper, calcium, manganese and contains vitamin B1 and E. It is pretty hard to incorporate sesame seeds into our diet unless we use sesame oil frequently or eat cookies or bread made with sesame seeds. So, one day when preparing my beaten eggs for stir-fried, I saw my bottle of black sesame seeds in the cabinet and thought why not. I could hardly taste the sesame seeds at all, so my girls ate it with no problem. Well, unless of course you have an allergy reaction towards sesame seeds, this will be another way to consume sesame seeds.

Evy had some sort of reaction like swelling of eyelid, face and lips and hives on her body. We took her to her pediatrician and he said it was an allergic reaction. Now I am wondering whether it is the sesame seeds. Since she started having diarrhea after consuming some toasted sesame seeds noodle, but what strange was she had sesame seeds cookies, sesame chicken, sesame seeds oil cooking before and never encountered any allergic reaction.
After two days of observation, I finally discovered the cause, and it was the new non-stick pan that I bought. Now, it's all fell into pieces as she started having diarrhea when I started using the new pan. After that, she started having hives and swollen lip, etc. I gave her the allergy medicine and it was all gone, she was having the sesame chicken and peanut butter & jam bread with no problem. And then, after she had some fried eggs cooked with the new pan, her condition resurfaced. So, that was how I found out it was the new non-stick pan, otherwise, I would not have thought of this. As this is the only new thing that I bought recently and used. So now, back to my good old wok. At the mean time, also wondering what's in the new non-stick coating that made her have such an allergic reaction.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Green Tea Buns with Green Tea Crusted Topping



My twist on Rotiboy (or Mexican Buns)! Instead of the coffee flavored that we have known and loved, I made it into green tea flavored. As my readers know, I love green tea powder or matcha and I had done some baking based on it as well. This recipe came about while I was looking at my previous Rotiboy's post, I thought of this idea, why not experiment it in a different flavor and green tea just stood out. So, I have this recipe in file for me to try for months, but just never gotten to really make it (blame my laziness). I finally made it today because my store-bought bread is running low and I am short of posts to post in my blog. So, that did it, I had to take my breadmaker out and start working. :P

These green tea buns came out so good, soft and fluffy (it even left a dent when my fingers picked out the buns to cool) with the crusty sweet topping that I loved. Simply delicious! If you love green tea, you should give this bun a try! I will certainly make more of this. :)


Resting and proving until double in size.


Then, pipe the topping into spiral on top of each bun.


Add a little black sesame seeds in the center of each bun.


Like this! Don't spread the sesame seeds all over, just place it in the center as the topping will spread out when baking.