How to Make: Taro Dumplings 芋頭角 Wu Gok

Happy New Year 2012!  Today I made a Taro Dumpling called Wu Gok in Cantonese.  It's a very popular dish to see in Chinese Dim Sum/Yum Cha places.  I must admit, it is quite difficult to make this.  The oil has to be at a good temperature otherwise it just won't work... Out of the 6 dumplings I made, only 3 came out mildly acceptable.  Try it out though, maybe you just have better luck than I do. The nettings become nice and crispy after you fry them...

How to Make: Peking-Style Pork Chop/Strawberry Pork Chop (京都排骨)(Ging duo Pai gwat)/(Jing du Pai gu)/(Ching Du Pai Gu)

Today's recipe is authentic Chinese Peking Style Pork Chops- Jing duo Pai Gwat in Cantonese or Ching du Pai gu or rou pai in Mandarin (京都排骨).  In Western Canada (Vancouver, Calgary in particular), the most common variety is called Strawberry Pork Chop or spare ribs. Did it originate from Hong Kong?  I don't know :-(  It might sound unappetising, but it is very delicious!  You can't taste the strawberries at the end, but it helps make the sauce have a unique flavour.  I used boneless pork chops but you can use the one with bones too.  Usually the dish is made with Hoisin Sauce instead of Gochuchang (Korean Hot pepper paste), but I didn't have any.  I learned how to make this dish from experience and observing how the restaurants did it.  It's just like the restaurant! Try it out.

How to Make: Simple Char Siu Pork Buns (Cheating Version :P)(Nikuman (肉まん)/ Char Siu Bao (叉燒包)/ Jjinppang mandu 찐빵 만두 )

Bar-bq pork buns (Char Siu bao) is one of the most common Chinese food available.   It is sold very commonly in bakeries, dim sum/yum cha restaurants, supermarkets, almost anywhere.  It is also very common in Japan, Korea, Hawaii and Southeast Asia as snacks, however, as expected, the fillings do vary drastically.  Today, I will show you how to make my ''cheating'' version of it that has been handed down from my grandparents.  I have made them with different fillings, but this is by far my favourite.  It tastes just like Char siur bao, but you don't have to make or buy the Char siur.  Char siur is Barb-qued pork butt or shoulder that has been marinated with many different sauces overnight, and char-grilled. The cooking process is very long, smelly and tiring if you choose to make it.  But this recipe, I use ground pork belly, which will be very similar. No one will ever tell that you didn't use it! You will save many hours and a heck of a lot of energy making it this way.  The dough has been a very long adventure for me.  I started making these baos (buns) since I was a little kid, and I've been experimenting with the ratio, the flours, and all sorts of things. It is fluffy and very white. I am glad to share with a very special dough recipe with you today, so please enjoy this delicious bun!

How to Make: Chinese Sweet Taro Paste (芋泥餡) ''Or Nee'' Dim Sum/Yum Cha Filling

Taro Paste is a common and relatively a new filling to see in Chinese pastries, steamed buns and desserts.  Chinese pastries are usually filled with some kind of paste whether it be red bean paste, lotus seed paste, black bean paste, black sesame paste, chestnut paste... the list goes on.  The taro paste however, is my favourite and the easiest, quickest one to make.  Taro (芋头 yù tou) is a starchy root vegetable that originated from Hawaii.  It is used in various cuisines such as Hawaiian, African Japanese, Chinese, and almost all Southeast Asian cuisine.  The flesh of the root has a murky grey-ish tint to it with specks of purple.  When it is cooked, the purple specks tints the entire vegetable giving it a beautiful cloudy-purplish colour.  The texture of a taro is like a potato, with a little less moisture and has a distinct taste to it.  It has a mildly-sweet, coconut-like flavour which complements many Chinese dishes.  It served at Dim sum/Yum Cha  restaurants as a filling in the Coconut Pudding Jelly (椰汁糕), Pineapple buns, Steamed buns, baked buns, etc.  Taro paste is very exciting to see and taste whenever it is inside a bun because it fits so well, texturally, visually and flavour-wise.  Plus, when do you ever get to eat something purple that isn't food coloured?

   It is so easy to make, you can start filling your cakes, puddings, buns, and even savoury foods with it.   You can serve by itself as a dessert which is called ''Or Nee'' which is a bowl of taro paste, topped with a little bit of sugary syrup, and peanuts.  You can get taro at all Asian grocery markets.  Pandan is the Southeast Asian version of vanilla, but has a completely different profile in taste.  You can find the extract in bottles or the leaves frozen in the freezer section, or if you're really lucky, the fresh leaves.  But you can use vanilla if you can't find it at your Asian grocery store.

How to Make: Chinese Chive and Prawn Pan Fried Dumplings 韭菜虾饺 (Gai Coi Har Gow) Chinese Dim sum/Yum Cha Recipe

Dim sum/Yum Cha is favoured throughout the world (Click here to see what Dim Sum/Yum Cha is). Delicious snack-like dishes offer such elegance to the eyes and the multitude of textures in every dish is truly a unique experience. Today, I'm sharing the recipe of a very common dish to see at Dim Sum/Yum Cha-they are Chive and Prawn Pan Fried Dumplings 韭菜虾饺 (Gai Coi Har Gao). At the Dim Sum/Yum cha restaurants, they are commonly distributed by trollies equipped with a portable electrical grill or griddle attached. They are pre-steamed and are reheated and pan fried as per order right in front of you. I remember I saw Giada de Laurentiis eating this dish on her show, ''Weekend Getaways'' on Food Network TV! So this dish is definitely a favourite throughout the world! The Chinese garlic chives can be purchased at almost all Chinese and Vietnamese grocers, but you can substitute it with other kinds of chives and with the addition of some chopped garlic. The Chinese garlic chive have broader leaves and a much stronger garlic taste and aroma to them. The skin of the dumpling a crisp exterior and a soft chewy interior when they are ready, it's absolutely delicious! Please note that the recipe requires wheat starch! Not all purpose wheat flour. This is very important as wheat starch has no gluten which allows it to be soft. You can easily get it cheaply at any Asian market.

How to Make: Steamed Red Bean Tapioca Jelly Cake (Hong Kong Bakery Sweet)

''Steamed Red Bean Tapioca Jelly Cake.''  Sounds like an interesting combination of words?  Well it is a delicious common item to see in Hong Kong Asian Bakeries.  It is also always sold in bakeries in Vancouver, Canada for about $1.29 a piece.  Not only do they look beautiful but they are so delicious.  The tapioca turns clear when it is finished cooking and has an incredibly gooey- chewy-ness to them.  You can use tapioca or sago pearls, they both work here. Tapioca pearls are made with tapioca starch and sago is made with potato starch.  Traditionally, they are filled with Red Bean Paste but you could try it with other pastes such as lotus, taro etc.  It is incredibly easy to make, and the end result is almost like a not-so stringy Japanese daifuku mochi, with half the mess. I made mine in a 16.5 cm by 7 cm square baking tin but an 8 inch tin will do too.  You can put it in any moulds you want, even muffin tins, but the times will vary depending on the thickness of the pearls. Give it a try, you'll impress your taste buds and your guests!  This recipe is adapted from Christine's Recipes of Steamed Tapioca Red Bean Cake.  Be sure to check out Christine's Recipe Blog! Click Here.

How to Make: Red Bean Paste (Anko) used in Chinese, Japanese and Korean sweets.

Red bean paste is a sweet bean paste that is commonly in East Asian sweets. Red beans have a slight sweet taste even without having sugar added to it.  However, it is most commonly sweetened, and used to flavour, fill or as a base for sweets.  It is used to make Japanese jelly (Yokan), to fill Korean doughnuts and Chinese pineapple buns, as a topping of the Malaysian Ice Kacang and many, many more.  There are 3 main types red bean pastes.  There are the whole, the chunky and the smooth.  The whole one consists of the red beans being whole which is all slicked in a sugary syrup.  The chunky one has the beans mashed with the skins on with a few addition of whole beans for texture. The smooth one is the most common one to be filled in pastries, and cakes.  It is completely mashed and have been strained through a sieve to remove the skins leaving a satiny smooth dark paste.  

   Red bean paste is extremely easy to make, and it can flavour almost any sweets and desserts like red bean cake, red bean pie, red bean pancakes, or just on top of vanilla ice cream.  The best ratio I've found to make red bean anko paste is 1:4 (red beans to water, respectively).  So please multiply or divide according to the amount you require. Both metric (left side) and imperial measurements (right side) are listed.
    Red beans (commonly labelled, ''Anko'') are very easy to get at any Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Malaysian, almost all East Asian markets.  They are in packets and usually inexpensive, perhaps $1.29-$2.50 CAD a packet.  There are pre-tinned and pre-made pastes available as well, but you can't control the sugar content and the addition of preservatives.  I think it's best to make your own, and it's easy too!

How to Make: Hainan Chicken Rice-海南雞飯 (Hainan Zi Fan) Mother's Recipe

Today is a special day. My mother cooked her absolutely delicious Hainan Chicken Rice pronounced Hainan Zi Fan (海南雞飯)! It's my favourite meal from my mother! Hainan Chicken Rice originated from the Island of Hainan, China. However, it is also closely associated with Singaporean cuisine. In Vancouver, near where I'm from, it is commonly sold at fast food restaurants in shopping malls, selling usually at $6.99-$7.99 CAD a set. The chicken is slowly poached in water and salt which makes the meat especially the breast incredibly tender. The rice is then made from the leftover stock of the chicken and fat, making the rice rich, fragrant and absolutely delicious. But you can't have Hainan Chicken Rice with out the onion-y ginger oil sauce! That is the best part!
This dish is not the fastest dish to make, but it is easy if you're organised.
and... the best thing is, it's relatively inexpensive to make!

How to Make: Emperor Pork 皇帝豬肉- Father's recipe-Traditional Chinese Recipe

Today, I didn't cook.  My dad did, and he made his signature, "Emperor Pork."  He would always cook this dish whenever we demanded.  It's a traditional Chinese dish that he grew up with, but has a slight Malaysian twist to it with the Kecap Manis (Sweet Soy Sauce).  Kecap Manis is soysauce that has been boiled down and sweetened with palm sugar. You can get this at most Asian markets nowadays, or you can find it on amazon.com Find Kecap Manis on Amazon.com.  If you don't want to go through the trouble of doing this you can just use 50 mL of dark soysauce with 30 gm of brown sugar.
It is a fairly simple dish to make, and it is sooo delicious on some white rice!  It's sweet, salty, sour and very delicious!  The preserved mustard is a very common sight at Asian markets, just be sure to ask the local storekeeper, because most probably, it won't be translated into English.  The preserved mustard are the leaf of the mustard plants, that have been drenched in salt in the packaging process to preserve it, giving it a unique sour and salty taste.  Be sure that you rinse it very well before adding it to your dish otherwise your dish will come out very salty!

Here is what my dad calls, "Emperor Pork"!

Instant Homemade Microwave Southeast Asian-Chinese Dinner

Easy Southeast Asian Flavoured Dumplings- In the Microwave!

Right now, I'm in Ottawa staying at the dormitories of the University of Ottawa and unfortunately, there are no appliances in the dorm's kitchen except a microwave, a sink, and a fridge/freezer.  It's sort of like in a hotel situation where I sort of have to eat out practically because the kitchen is quite incomplete.  But I was hungry and it was late, and had only a few things in the fridge and freezer which were frozen chinese dumplings, cilantro, one egg, a packet of white vinegar, a packet of toasted sesame oil, a packet of chili sauce and a small packet of Kikkoman's soy sauce.  But I ended up making a delicious dinner.
Click the ''Read More'' on the right to see how I made it without a stove.

How to Make: Dairy-free Pineapple Bun (Bo Luo Bao) 菠蘿包 Recipe

Dairy-Free Hong Kong Favourite- Pineapple Buns 菠蘿包

So I made this recipe a couple of weeks ago now.  It was my first attempt at making the iconic Hong Kong, ''Buo Lo Bao'' (translates into Pineapple bun), it is very similar to the Japanese, 'Melonpan'.  This recipe was a little altered from Christine's Chinese Recipe Blog because the people I was making it for are allergic to dairy products, so I adjusted it with the ingredients I had on hand- Coconut oil instead of butter and soy milk instead of milk.  The end result was pretty good, I let it go a little too brown on some of the buns, but they kept well for a couple of days, staying moist.  I microwave them for 20 sec before I eat them to soften them up a little.  It goes great with a cup-full tea!  I think they could've been more airy though, they were a little on the dense side.  I might try and let them rise a little longer.  The cookie crust was a little flour-y (is that a word?) but with many recipes to go with, it went pretty well.  SO HERE IS PINEAPPLE BUN ATTEMPT NUMBA ONE!!!