How to Make: Japanese Strawberry Almond Tart (Sugar-Free)

 

Hello, long time no posts... I've finally have had time to make something again, and this time, I made a Strawberry Almond Tart, a recipe that I stole from Ochikeron, on Youtube.   It is ridiculously easy to make and it looks like a patisserie made it at the end.  I used coconut oil, but use butter instead if you prefer.  You can use whatever fruits you have, strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, mangoes...

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...

Green Tea Matcha Mousse Cake (New Year's Cake)

Hi Everyone!  For New Year's Day, I made my Mousse Cake again (Click Here to See the recipe).  Except this time, I used Matcha, and it turned out sooo well.  I think I'm going to get so fat, LOL I'm kidding.  I've been eating cakes non-stop since Dec 22.  I like cakes, but aye....  New Year's Resolution? haha
Here are some pictures of it, and I made a video on How to Make it as well.  Hope you enjoy and please subscribe if you know how to!

How to Make: Japanese Style-Christmas Cake (クリスマスケーキ) Kurisumasukeki

Today is my birthday!  Yeah... So I made myself a cake.  Since it was close to Christmas or X-mas, I made a Japanese style X-mas cake, which is not too hard to make, and very yummy.  It's usually whipped cream and strawberry in a Asian style sponge cake.  It's also sold in Vancouver from many Asian bakeries most notably is the Chinese-Canadian supermarket chain T&T. This kind of cake, from what I hear, is almost like a tradition in Japan along with eating KFC (fried chicken).  This type of cake is sold at bakeries before Christmas and eaten on or before Christmas.  Strawberries are very expensive at this time of year, which make this cake even more special than a summer Strawberry Shortcake.  My decorating skills are not perfected yet by any means, but it turned out okay.  Try it out, it is very easy to make!  The sponge cake is a very good recipe, very light and fluffy.  It's another not too sweet cake, but be careful not to eat it all at once, I ate half in one sitting, but it's my birthday.

How to Make: Korean Seafood Pancake (Haemul Pajun/Pajeon) (해물파전)(파煎)

Seafood Green Onion Pancake is a popular Korean side dish.  It is always available as a popular appetiser at Korean Restaurants, because of it's savoury and comforting taste.  Whenever I go to a Korean restaurant, I always order this because it's so good.  It's sort of similar to the Chinese pancake, except much easier because it does not require kneading the dough. Today, I made this Korean Green Onion Pancake with my mum.  It's actually very easy to make, and it's tonne cheaper than ordering in a restaurant.  The sharp taste of the green onion becomes mild after it has cooked.  The pancake becomes crispy on the outside, but very soft and slightly mushy in the centre.  It contrasts really well with the taste of the seafood.  If you don't like seafood, leave it out, and just add in more vegetables like carrot or more green onion.  I like to have a lot of squid in the pancake, so I used mostly squid, some octopus, crab and prawns.  Customise the ingredients yourself, it's really fantastic and easy to make!  Be sure to serve the sauce with it, it brings all the flavours together.

''Cooking Quick n’ Easy Dinner Recipes for Asian Dishes'' from James Kim (Guest Post) author of foodonthetable.com

Hi Everyone, today's post is my first guest post.  The guest is James Kim, author of http://blogcontentguildnews.com/.  Please check it out!  Today he writes and gives advice about ways you can eat a nutritious and satisfying Asian meal even when there is very little time.  He will explain what you'll need on hand, and what you should think about when shopping for groceries.  View James Kims popular website ''Food on the Table''

http://www.foodonthetable.com.

James also writes about food for 

http://blogcontentguildnews.com/

Happy Reading! Thanks James for your post!

How to Make: Jajangmyeon/Jajiangmien/Jajangmyun Black Bean Sauce on Hand Pulled Noodles (자장면)(炸酱面) Koreanised Chinese Food

It's December already, so it's time for some hearty food to warm up from the cold.  Zha jiang mian/Jajangmyeon in Korean, is a traditional Chinese dish, composed of a sweet black bean sauces, meat and other delicious ingredients on top of chewy hand pulled wheat noodles.  It's really good, and sometimes it can be spicy too. But today, this recipe is the Korean version of this classic dish, which tastes completely different, but it is very delicious as well.  Originally, the Chinese version has a combination of fermented bean sauces like, sweet bean sauce, yellow soybean paste (similar to miso), and/or broad bean sauce.  The Korean version uses Jajang, a black bean sauce combined with caramel which gives it a charcoal like taste.  It's slightly sweet, and it's very interesting.  There is an instant ramen variety of this dish by Nongshim, ''Chapaghetti'' because this Chinese dish is so popular in Korea.  Usually it's ordered with Tangsooyuk or Sweet and Sour Pork, another popular Korean-Chinese Dish.  Make sure you get Korean style Black bean paste, it's completely different from the original Chinese one.  It's super easy and satisfying!

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: Kinako Yoghurt/Yogourt/Yogurt/ Mousse Cake (きなこのヨーグルトムースケーキ)(酸奶慕斯蛋糕)(Asian Style Cake)

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!  Today I will share with you a very pretty cake! It is a Yoghurt Mousse Cake that is very common at Asian Bakeries.  It is not too sweet and very elegant.  The mousse is airy, creamy and delicious. Oishi!  I made mine with Kinako, which is roasted ground soy beans which sort of taste like peanut butter.  I thought the colour would be nice and complement the Thanksgiving spirit. Please try it with Matcha green tea powder, cocoa, orange, strawberry and other flavours.  They are delicious too!  This is relatively easy to make, if you follow the steps, and there are quite a few.  Be patient and you'll be greatly rewarded with this beautiful cake!

How to Make: Easy Cabbage Kimchi/Gimchee/Kimchee (김치) (沈菜)

Kimchi/Kimchee/Gimchee/Gimchi is a Korean side dish and most of the time, it's the first thing you think of when you hear about Korean food. It is served with almost every meal along with other side dishes. It is full of complexity and it is spicy, salty, crunchy and as time passes, sour. For this recipe, I learned this way of making Kimchi from my Korean host family when I was travelling a couple months back. She showed me how easy it was. One thing to watch out is that, make sure you use KOREAN chillies, not just any chili powder, it has to be KOREAN type. I've made it with the common hot pepper flakes,- it was beyond spicy, and the colour was not as bright too. You can get it (usually in big 500gm-1 kg bags) at Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese- almost any Asian market.

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: Jjapchae: Korean Stir Fried Sweet Potato Starch Glass Noodles 잡채(雜 菜)

Recently, I've been trying out some Korean food that my mother used to make for fun.  Here's the first one: Jjapchae. Jjapchae or Chapchae is a delicious noodle side-dish loaded with healthy vegetables and flavour.  The colours of this dish makes it so appetizing.  It is slightly sweet and salty with a strong sesame taste to it.  The toasted sesame oil is the real key to this dish.  It adds a unique flavour to the entire dish, so be sure you use it!  The best thing of all though, it is extremely easy to make and it is quite a fast dish to make. The noodles are made out of sweet potato starch and are labelled sometimes as ''Sweet Potato Starch Noodles,'' ''Oriental Noodles'' or just ''Starch Noodles.''  It shouldn't be very difficult to find them in an Asian Supermarket.  But if you can't find them, you can use rice noodles which are a bit thinner.  This dish is so versatile, you can just use whatever vegetables you have in the fridge.  This dish is wheat free! Enjoy this recipe!

How to Make: Sweet Taro Paste/Red Bean Baked Pastry Dumplings (Manju 만주) Adapted from Maangchi

Recently, I've found about a Youtube celebrity chef; Maangchi.  If you haven't seen her, go look her up NOW.  She is so relaxed and makes everything looks so delicious and easy.  Her video and recipe of Manju (Click here to see her recipe and video!) made me make it.  I've adapted the recipe to more Chinese style and diary free, and in fact, these kinds of pastries are common in Asian Markets.  T&T Supermarket in Canada have something similar to this in their baking aisle, but I don't know what it's called. This pastry is actually amazing easy to make and only takes a couple of minutes to prepare.  You'll impress anyone with the cute chestnut shape.  You can shape it however you want but I like it like this.  I've used the taro paste this time, and it was pretty damn good!  But you can always use red bean paste or any other pastes. Maangchi uses lima beans, but I can't find them. Give it try, you'll be so you made beautiful pastries!

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: Golden Syrup (The British Style)

 

Golden syrup is one of Britain's greatest contribution to the culinary world.  It is a thick, sweet, golden syrup, that has a reddish tinted hue to it.  It looks like molten, edible amber.  Traditionally it is served drizzled on top of scones and clotted cream, (known in Cornwall as the, ''Thunder and Lightning'').  Though it may seem just like a sweetener, it actually has a unique slightly sourish, bitter flavour to it, which adds such depth to cakes, pies, biscuits, cookies and even in marinades.  It is an important ingredients required to make Chinese mooncakes.  Golden syrup is made of sugar and water which has been allowed to caramalise, and combine with an acid to it to make it stable as a liquid, preventing it from crystalisation.

For so many months, I've been looking for Golden Syrup (yes, the name deserves to be capatilised),  in the USA, but I've had no luck.  The only thing that bared any resemblance in look, was Aunt Jemina's pancake syrup, which we all know, is an inferior, cheap substitution of real maple syrup.  Not only does it not taste good, but it's not quite bad for you (not saying that Golden Syrup is health food too).  Golden Syrup however, is available widely in Canada, made by the traditional UK brand Lyle's and our own Canadian brand, Roger's, both packaged in tins and glass jars.  It is also widely available in the UK (of course), Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, Norway.... the list goes on, but not so common in the USA apparently.  So with no luck in finding it in the USA, I figured why not try making it at home?  I searched up some recipes and I based it upon this recipe from Neck Red Recipe's Blog, but only made a small batch, because I wasn't sure how it would turn out.  I tweaked the recipe and the texture was very close to the ones in the market!  The scent is not like the commercial ones, but it's pretty good! I think it's a fantastic recipe!  It's a must-try, especially since you'll need them to make lots of Nigella Lawson's recipes!  Again, both metric and imperial are listed, but the metric measurements will ensure consistent results.

Thanks so much to Neck Red Recipes!

How to Make: Meatloaf à la mode

  

The school season has started, and time is not so plentiful as it was in the summer!  So when time is scarce, I try to make a dish that can last two or even three days.  Meatloaf is a good one to make.
It can be eaten with rice, in a sandwich or just as it is.
       Meatloaf is a common dish in English speaking nations such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom, and the United States.  Everybody has their own recipes, so I did some research on a few recipes and I saw some interesting techniques that were used such as using potato chips, mashed potatoes, heavy cream, cheese, ground almonds, yoghurt, sour cream, a whole bunch of others.  I personally find that when all of these ingredients are added, it dilutes the taste of the meat, and it ends up tasting like soggy dense bread.  Breadcrumbs are common in meatloaf, but I use Panko, which are Japanese breadcrumbs.  They are much lighter and airier than italian-style breadcrumbs.  This prevents the meatloaf from having a dry and grainy texture.  The idea of adding some hard boiled egg in the middle was an idea I stole from Nigella Lawson's meatloaf recipe, but the actual meatloaf recipe is my own.  The eggs in the middle of the meatloaf makes it so appealing, especially when it is cut.  The bacon wrapped around the loaf makes it even so flavourful because it creates a crisp crust around the juicy meatloaf.
       This meatloaf is one worth trying!  It's very appealing and easy.  I've provided both imperial and metric measurements in the recipe, the imperial is on the right side and the metric measurements are on the left side.  This recipe can be doubled or halved if want to change the serving size.  If doubling the recipe add another 20 minutes in the oven.  If cutting the recipe in half, reduce the cooking time by 15 min.

Click on the description below to buy Panko.  Panko should not be hard to find, it is widely available in both Asian supermarkets and Western supermarkets.
Panko Breadcrumbs on Amazon.

How to Make: Japanese Chocolate Truffle Sponge Cake (チョコレートケーキ)

Yesterday, almost all the shops were closed in the city because of Hurricane Irene.  So what to do when you have the extra time to stay in all day?  Well I baked a Japanese-style chocolate cake!  It is my moist, dense, and fluffl-y at the same time, Chocolate Truffle Sponge Cake.  Beware thought, it is extremely rich. You really only need a tiny slice of it to get satisfaction.  If you have a huge piece, you might actually throw up. Since this is a sponge cake, the amount of butter or oil in the cake is much much less and the texture is lighter which contrasts with the dense chocolate ganache.  I baked mine in a 16 cm (6 inch) cake tin, to make a smaller cake but if you're using a 20cm/8 inch tin, just multiply it by 1/3.  I use 70% chocolate for the frosting. You can always use semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips for this cake.  This is my favourite type of cake, which is also known as Japanese style, because it tastes like chocolate, not sugar, and is not too sweet all. Japanese cakes don't use buttercream frosting recipe because it's way too sweet. Instead they use what I made a ganache which is just chocolate and cream, like a truffle.  I see these types of chocolate cake in Asian Supermarkets all the time, so I thought of giving it a go!  It is the best! The finishing touches are the dusted cocoa powder and the piped whipped cream, it makes it so elegant! It's best to use the metric system when baking (actually for any cooking), but for those people that have not converted, I've listed the imperial measurements on the right side of the page.  There's no reason for you not to try it now!