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Sliced Pork Belly with spicy Chili Oil Sauce

  Every time a festival is celebrated, this dish of boiled white meat (pork belly) must be prepared for worship. After the worship, the boiled white meat will be sliced, and then dipped in soy sauce with chilli to serve with rice. I'm sharing a special condiment today that I made with hot chilli oil for this dish. Whe preparing it, we need to bring the cooking oil to a boil then gently pour the hot oil into the bowl with the chili flakes and other spices, stirring constantly with a spoon or chopsticks so the chili flakes and spices can absorb the flavor of the hot oil. There is no seasoning that compares to this hot chilli oil always possesses. Just add a spoonful of it to the food, no matter how much there is, whether it is meat or vegetarian, steamed buns, or noodles. It becomes appetizing and satisfying. I always enjoy making extra chilli oil. You'll want to pour it on everything once you get hooked. To make the dipping sauce for the boiled white meat is simple and str...

Braised Pork With Preserved Vegetables (梅菜扣肉)

  During gatherings for New Year, holidays, or special occasions, we always have various challenging dishes to support the scene. This braised pork with preserved or plum vegetables (Mei Cai Kou Rou / 梅菜扣肉) is one of them. Many people choose to eat this dish outside, perhaps because they think the restaurant's version tastes better or maybe because they think the recipe takes a lot of time.   Yes, it is made from scratch, it’s taken a long time to make it. The toughest part is to deep fry the pork and to clean the preserved veggies.   And the rest of the process is to put all the ingredients into the bowl and steam it. It’s easy once you figure it out. It's not difficult at all. Cleaning the preserved veggies is the most difficult aspect of this dish—it's crucial to give them a thorough cleaning. And the preserved veggies are a unique for this Chinese pork belly. The flavor added by this preserved mustard greens is unique and appetizing. I am using two types of pres...

Sweet potatoes Tang Yuan (甜番薯奶黄馅汤圆)

  This is another tangyuan (汤圆) recipe I would like to share for the DongZhi (冬至) festival. It is a sweet dessert. They are made with flavorful sweet potatoes with custard filling. These glutinous rice balls taste like mochi. They  are distinctive from others since they are made with flavorful sweet potatoes. The custard filling is wrapped in a glutinous rice ball, which is not only distinctive in form but also incredibly eye-catching . Glutinous rice balls are made of glutinous rice and have a high viscosity, which makes them difficult to digest for some people. This tangyuan uses more sweet potatoes and less glutinous rice flour. For those who like to eat tang yuan but worry that it will cause stomach bloating. This is the right recipe for you. Making this tangyuan with the kids is a delightful project since you may shape and fill the rice balls with your own paste. I am using two different types of sweet potatoes, which are orange and sweet potatoes. I combined mas...

Savory Glutinous Rice Balls (咸汤圆)

It's customary to have glutinous rice balls (Tangyuan 汤圆 ) on the winter solstice. Tangyuan is a must-have food for the winter solstice. It is a round dessert made of glutinous rice flour. There is a folk saying that “ you will be one year older after eating glutinous rice balls”. Even restaurants also serve glutinous rice balls as a promotional menu on that day.   On the dining table, Cantonese treat sweet glutinous rice balls seem to dominate.   My late parents are Cantonese, yet my mother never makes sweet "tang yuan" on this day; instead, she always makes a pot of salty glutinous rice balls. The filling is not wrapped in glutinous rice balls, but glutinous rice is rolled into balls and boiled into a soup base with other ingredients. Glutinous rice balls, fresh prawns, dried shrimp, vegetables, and a flavorful soup base with distinctively flavored mushrooms are all combined. The soup is tasty and has a distinctive flavor. You will adore it. Typically, it takes arou...

Pumpkin Ma Lai Gou (南瓜马来糕)

Ma Lai Gou is a Cantonese dessert. It sounds very fancy, but the method is very simple. If you master the skills, you can make it successfully in one go. Last time, I shared the method of making brown sugar Ma Lai Gou, which is quite overwhelming. This pumpkin Ma Lai Gou is also relatively simple to make. There is no need to knead the dough throughout the process. It only requires a few steps of mixing and steaming. This pumpkin Ma Lai Gou is fragrant, soft, chewy, and nutritious, and it is so delicious that you can’t stop eating it. What distinguishes Pumpkin Ma Lai Gou (MLG) from traditional Fat Gou or Huat Kueh ( 发糕 )then?   This pumpkin MLG is like pumpkin steamed cake( 发糕 ), except that part of the flour is replaced with tapioca starch. Add tapioca starch to the ingredients will make the cake more elastic and chewier. The texture of the pumpkin MLG is as soft as a sponge and chewier than that of the traditional Fat Gou. I am using a 28cm x 20cm x 5cm rectangular gratin dis...