Sunday 21 October 2012

Chinese Radish Cake

I was craving for Steam Yam Cake and has planned to make it today.  Unfortunately, when I went to the fresh market this morning, I can't find any yam and a bit disappointed.  So, I decided to change my plan.  I go for Radish Cake instead, another type of cake that is very popular among the Chinese community.

The wonderful part of this steamed radish cake is, you may not only choose to eat just straight away with some garnishing of chopped spring onion, fried crispy shallot and dried shrimps on top, you even can choose to cut it into into slices and pan-fry it before you dip it with some sources....yummy! 

If you wish to challenge yourself further, there is another way that's very popular in Malaysia - stir fry it.  Cut the steamed radish cake in about 1 cm cubes and stir fried with chopped garlic, dried shrimps, beat in an egg and some soy sauce and fried until its turn brown and fragrant.  For those who love it with some spicy taste, you may even add in some chili paste to fry together.  What about adding some bean sprout in it?  Good isn't it? This will be a perfect savory snack that goes well with a cup of tea.  So, lets find out the basic steps in how to steam the radish cake before you venture to next step of alternative way of eating.

Sunday 14 October 2012

Sweet and Sour Pork

Happy Sunday!  Is time for me to share another recipe to all my blog readers.  This dish is something that I have missed for so long - Sweet and Sour Pork  (咕噜肉).

Sweet and Sour Pork is a Chinese dish that is particularly popular in Cantonese cuisine and am sure it can be found in all over the world.  Being a pure Cantonese myself, I was introduced to this dish since I was young.  This is one of the dishes that my late mom won't missed during all occasions or any festivals.....the taste of her cooking still deep in my memory.  Even though I was familiar with this dish but I have not try to cook it myself.  This is my first trial and am satisfied with the result.  

Sweet and Sour Pork are consists of deep fried pork in bite sized pieces, and next you have stir-fried in customized sweet and sour sauce that normally mixed with sugar, ketchup, plum sauce, soy sauce and others seasoning with additional of varieties of vegetables like bell pepper, tomatoes, onions, etc.  Most of the time from my experience from most of the restaurants, the sweetness of the sauce over covered the sour taste of the sauce.  So, to enhance the sour taste  I substituted the plum sauce with lemon juice.   And the meat, I marinated with Chinese Five Spice Powder for almost half an hour before I fried them to ensure the fragrant of the meat stays even it has stir-fried with the vegetables.

You may use spareribs instead of the pieces of meat and for those who does not have a desire with pork, you may alternate it with chicken meat or fish to become Sweet and Sour Chicken or Fish.  This dish is perfect to serve with rice, hope you like this recipe and enjoy your weekend!

Sunday 7 October 2012

Sweet Potatoes Mini Balls for #SundaySupper


This week #SundaySupper theme is All Things Orange!   This week our host is Pam from The Meltaways and Pam loves October and all things Orange!  Is another theme to receive the Autumn season.  We are given the challenge to use anything fruits or vegetables that are orange color like oranges, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, etc to create a recipe.    The recipe can be in savory, sweet, baked goodies or to main dish for breakfast, lunch, dinner or supper.  I love this ORANGE idea!

I would like to bring Sweet Potatoes Mini Balls around the #SundaySupper table.  Sweet Potatoes balls is known to me since I was young.  And there is this particular stall in Kuala Lumpur city that selling these sweet potatoes balls always packed with people has attracted my attention.  I witnessed the crowd everyday, when I was on my way to catch a bus to attend my classes.  Of course, I became one of their regular customers too later.  I still remembered the first experience of my first bite of the sweet potatoes ball and straight away  i knew it tasted so different from others - because the balls mixed with some grated coconut in it. 

Therefore, there should not be any excuse for not to try on this recipe.  My sweet potatoes balls will not the same from what the stall did as mentioned above.  Instead of mixing those grated coconut with the dough, I modified it to became the fillings.  I used fresh grated coconut and I added in with a pinch of salt to enhance the flavour.  But, I know not everyone fancy grated coconut, so, it will be an optional item.  The taste of the balls are still as sweet as the sweet potatoes without any fillings.  These sweet potatoes mini balls perfect to goes with your tea-break especially during this beautiful season of Falls in your garden.