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.

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!

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.  

Garlic Butter Fried Rice #SundaySupper

Today will be a special Sunday for me as it is also the Mid-Autumn Festival which also known as the Mooncake Festival celebrated by the most of Chinese community.  The festival is held on the 15th day of the eight month of the Chinese Lunar calendar, that's today.  Traditionally, all family members would gather in the evening to celebrate after the dinner.  Varieties of fruits and mooncakes will be prepared and they would lightened up lanterns with  candles at home or a community open park for this "appreciate of the moon" festival.  This year I will celebrate with Simon alone as both of us unable to join our family members and this will be our first Mid-Autumn Festival together.

Besides what  need to prepare as mentioned above, I have to thank our most jovial #SundaySupper member - Amber from Mama’s Blissful Bites for her wonderful idea for this week theme.  Dishes in Five Ingredients or Less.  What do you think?  Challenging right?  But, I believe you will love this event when you got to see the creative menu list from more than 50 contributors of #SundaySupper with this theme.  It will definitely will be a helpful menu for those busy mothers  and who have busy daily schedule like me.  Can't wait to see the rest of what of the rest have prepared.

My choice for this theme is Garlic Butter Fried Rice.  Rice is an essential food for most of the Asian to go with other dishes.  To make it more savory and to save time to prepare other dishes, this recipe will be ideal for those who always rush of time.  You only need four main ingredients for this recipe - rice, butter, eggs and garlic.  It will be a brilliant recipe if you happen to have left over white rice as overnight white rice always have a better result when you fried it.  You may choose to just take it plain like that or serve with some side simple dishes or ready made food.  For example, I like it to go with some Chinese sausage that I have cut into tiny cubes that I have saute with a small portion of oil and some saute garlic and onions, fresh cucumbers and some chopped scallions.  Does this sounds good?  Let's try this out!

Homemade Apple Jam #SundaySupper

Autumn is always my favorite season of the year, even though I am not living in a country that have four seasons.  It could be I was born during the autumn and that reason for me to  a have special affection with autumn.  Just celebrated my birthday yesterday and this was the first was done in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. 

This week the #SundaySupper group is coming up with Autumn Apple Party to welcome the fall season of the year.  Hosted by our team member Cindy from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings.  There are more than 50 wonderful recipes using apple will be shared during this party and this is going to be an exciting one!

This is my first experience that I have do my "assignment" for #SundaySupper on my birthday and I challenge myself to bring Homemade Apple Jam to the party, as I never tried to make them before.   Simon and myself love bread with spread all the time.  Butter and peanut butter were always our normal choice.  There is a day he did mentioned he likes fruits jam too. It's straight away strike on my mind to try it out!

I love any pastry that goes with apple, especially those with cinnamon combination is one of my favorite too.  So, cinnamon will not missed from my jam.  I simmer it with low heat about 30 to 40 minutes.  To my surprise, it only takes me about an hour plus to prepare the whole process.  The result turns out good - looks good, taste good and am sure will make some more soon.  Good news is, after this experience, I will not have to buy fruit jam from the store!