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Showing posts with the label Chinese desserts

Pumpkin Sago Dessert(南瓜西米露)

Pumpkin is a very good food material, suitable for men, women and children. Although it tastes very sweet, it does not contain high sugar content. It can even be eaten by diabetics. Pumpkin sago is a dessert that many people like because it does not harm the body. So, how to make pumpkin sago? This creamy, smooth pumpkin sweet soup is one of my favorites.   So aromatic with coconut milk.   Since the soup tends to thicken, I prefer it to serve hot rather than cold. I prefer to cook coconut milk in the soup with a little salt. Coconut milk is naturally sweet and rich. Salt helps to balance these flavors, making the soup more palatable and enjoyable. Others may prefer to drizzle some coconut milk on top before serving. The main ingredients of pumpkin and sago are pumpkin and sago. The general method of cooking sago is to boil water in a pot, pour in sago and cook on low heat for about 10-15 minutes. Turn off the heat when only a little white spot is left in the middle of the ...

Fried Taro Puff Dumplings (Woo KOK 芋角)

Taro puff dumplings or Woo Kok ( 芋角 ) are another must-eat snack when you go to a restaurant. The outside is honeycomb-shaped, and the inside is soft and smooth. Even if you go to a restaurant to eat, not every restaurant makes them crispy. And for that reason, I decided to learn how to make this snack. Someone once told me, because of the complicated workmanship, it is difficult to make at home. She advised me not to spend effort on it. If you know me well, I always like to challenge my limits. Today, I will show you how to make them! The fillings of taro dumplings must contain pork, dried shrimps, and mushrooms! The filling can be prepared one day ahead. The dumpling skin is made of taro paste. I am using Areca taro ( 槟榔芋 ). It has a tough, brown exterior with an interior that is white/beige in color with purple flecks. The ideal taro for this recipe will be more mature and starchier. The hardest and most tiresome step of the entire process is frying Woo Kok. A crispy crust w...

Fried Turnip Cake ( Chinese Lo Bak Gou)

These crispy crust with inside QQ chewy but not sticky. When you break it apart, it's  full of white radish stripes within, salty flavor of shrimp, it’s so delicious. Traditional savory turnip cakes or Lo Bak Gao slightly from place to region, radish and rice flour are the two main components. When making turnip cake in the old days, folks would typically grind rice pulp in a stone mill. But now it is very convenient to use store-bought rice flour to prepare it.   It is frequently steamed along with Chinese sausages (Lap Cheong), dried shrimp, mushrooms, scallops, and other ingredients. However, some people might say that turnip cake cannot be considered exquisite because the ingredients are so common, some people believe that turnip cake cannot be regarded as exquisite.   Although the recipe is straightforward. Making a delicious carrot cake, meanwhile, is not always simple if you do not grasp it properly. It will either be too soft or too hard or perhaps sticky to e...

Mango Pomelo Sago Dessert (杨枝甘露)

The weather is getting hot, there is nothing that can’t be solved with a glass or a bowl of this Yang Zhi Gan Lu ( 杨枝甘露 ) 。 It’s a kind of mango pomelo sago dessert. It has a strong mango aroma, chewy sago peals and coconut milk. It’s unique with its sweet taste and great to beat the heat. The name itself seems complicated; it is actually easy to make at home. The recipe, the ingredients are straight forward. There is no fixed method of making this dessert. You can add other fruits you like to increase the flavor.   If you don’t have coconut milk, you can replace it with milk, evaporated milk, or fresh cream to make the dessert with rich flavor. I think the key point of making this dessert is the method of cooking sago. There are a few tips that I would like to share about cooking sago. First, the sago cannot be soaked or washed in advance, because sago is made of powder, soaking or washing in advance will make sago completely dissolved in water. Second, sago is not coo...

Longevity Peach Ang Ku Kueh (寿桃红龟糕)

Among Nyonya pastries, red tortoise cake is a very common and popular Nyonya pastry. The red tortoise cake also names as Ang Ku Kueh. Because red tortoise cake represents blessing, honor and longevity, it is a must-have offering during worship services by the Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore, especially during the birthday of the Jade Emperor on the ninth day of the first lunar month and the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. This year is my mother-in-law’s 73rd birthday. The kitchen is where I get creative. Since some people make longevity peaches into birthday buns, I can also make birthday buns into a longevity Ang Ku Kueh peach for her birthday. For this recipe, I am making my own mung bean paste, it really paired well with this longevity peach Ang Ku Kueh. You may use other fillings like red beans paste, peanuts, custard or even salty filling with black-eyed peas or turnip This longevity Ang Ku Kueh does not need a mould. All you need is a littl...

Baked Cassava or Tapioca Cake (烤木薯糕)

Cassava or tapioca cake can be prepared in several methods, including baking, steaming and wrapping in banana leaves. It can be made with or without eggs and with or without butter. Today, I am going to share how to bake cassava or tapioca cake. Tapioca cake is very easy to make, whether to steam or to bake. The only tedious part is grating. I used to grate them into fine silk manually. But now I blend them with Thermomix to paste form. If you are using a regular blender, add a little water to the blender to blend it together. This cassava cake has a beautiful burnt skin on top and dense golden color inside. My daughter thought it was burnt cheesecake. The texture is soft but firm and not too sticky compared to the steam type. Every bite taste of cassava, coconut milk and the burnt aroma. Not overly sweet and greasy. If using a blender, cut the tapioca into smaller chunks, then carefully cut out the tough, fibrous core from the middle of each piece using a knife.   Once the t...

Pastry Rice Cakes (酥皮年糕)

  Rice cakes or Nian Gao are a symbol of "prosperity", so during the Lunar New Year. Every household will buy or make rice cakes during the Lunar New Year in the hopes of a "higher year," which represents greater success and fortune in the upcoming year. Instead of frying the Nian Gao” with batter, I wrap it with a piece of puff pastry and bake in the oven, in this way, I can taste a gluey Nian Gao with crispy pastry. I made this last year, and my kids requested to make this again for this year. It is not a recipe, it is merely a method of serving Nian Gao, or Chinese rice cake. Everyone will be thrilled by this fantastic twist and surprise to a classic. In I'm using store bought puff pastries.   Some come in 8" or 4" square sizes, while others come in a rolled-up sheet. If you're using the rolled-up sheet, as I did, you'll need to roll them out and cut them to the appropriate size. Simply place the Nian Gao onto a piece of puff pastry a...

Caramelized Egg Fritters (Sa Chi Ma /萨琪玛)

  Sachima (萨琪玛) takes me back to my early years. When I was younger, I really liked eating this. They taste very good. They are popular snacks for both adults and children, and they are the ideal edible gift for Chinese New Year.   Making sachima dough is like making egg noodles. So, basically, they are egg noodles that have been deep-fried till they are puffed, occasionally topped with additional ingredients for flavor, bonded together with melted sugar, pressed into a square pan, and then sliced into squares. Sachima is distinguished by its beige hue, crisp and delicate flavor, sweetness and delectability, and rich maltose aroma. One of Ipoh, Malaysia's regional specialties!   A few years ago, my husband and I made a trip to Ipoh's "Mistress Lane" ( 二奶巷 ) to try the local Sachima, which has been there for more than 50 years. There are a lot of different kinds of sachima including ones with sesame, pumpkin seed, walnuts, cranberries, and almonds. According to the...

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...