jessiefoodinthekitchen

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...

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...

  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...

  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...

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...

Steamed layer cake is popular snack in Southeast Asian dessert. When I was a little girl, I really enjoyed seeing this cake in different colour layers. Most of them are made in three colours which are green, red, and white with coloring. Today I am sharing with you how to make this pandan and mung bean steamed layered cake. This dessert is soft and has a glutinous texture if you are using an accurate ratio formula. They are made with natural green that comes from the fresh pandan leaves and mung bean puree. This layered cake will have 9 layers in total with green and yellow in colour. It’s a very eye-catching dessert but also a very time-consuming recipe since it takes time to cook each layer. One of the confusing parts of this recipe is how much batter to add for each layer and what type of pan to use to make the layer evenly. I am using a 28cm x 20cm x 5cm rectangular gratin dish which the four corners are not in 90° angle. You can use an 8” square pan as well. You might need t...