Chinese Almond Cookies

Macau Almond Cookies

Makes 1 dozen medium-sized cookies.

Ingredients:

1 cup almond powder

3/4 cup mung bean flour

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

2 tsp almond extract

2 Tbsp water

flour, for prepping cookie mold

Equipment:

mixing bowl

almond cookie mold

pastry brush

cookie sheet lined with parchment

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together until you get an evenly mixed cookie dough. The dough will look crumbly and on the dry side, but should stick together when you firmly press the crumbs together.

2. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F. Dust the inside of the mold generously with flour using a pastry brush. Take care to get into all the nooks and crannies of your mold design. Stuff the mold with the correct amount of dough until it is just full. Press the dough in firmly.

3. Give the mold a hard and deliberate smack against a durable, edged surface to release them. Use one hand to hold the mold and your other hand to catch the cookie, or use the release technique I used when making mooncakes. Place the cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment.

4. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until the cookies look just set on the outside. Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool while still on the hot baking sheet. Let the cookies cool completely before serving. Happy Chinese New Year!!

Hong Kong Mango Pudding

No, it’s not a pudding. It’s kind of like panna cotta IMHO.

INGREDIENTS

4 envelopes Gelatine unflavored gelatin powder
5 cups cold water
1 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
3 mangoes (or 2 large mangoes)
Evaporated milk, optional

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Cut the mangoes into small pieces and puree. You will 859-900 gr of mango puree.
2. In a bowl, combine gelatin powder and 1 cup cold water. Let it dissolve for 10 minutes.
3. In a pot, combine 4 cups water and sugar and cook under low heat.
4. Add the gelatin mixture. Keep whisking and don’t let it boil.
5. Add the mango puree and heavy cream to the mixture. Let it cook for another 2 minutes until completely dissolved.
6. Pour into jelly mold and refrigerate overnight or at least 3 hours.
7. Serve with evaporated milk.

Hong Kong Breakfast Noodles

INGREDIENTS
Ingredients:
7 ounces bean sprouts
salt
6½ ounces dried egg noodles
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (divided)
2 ginger slices (peeled and smashed)
1 medium shallot (peeled and cut into quarters)
3 green onions (cut into 1½-inch pieces)
1 teaspoon ginger (minced)
1 green onion (finely chopped)
sesame seeds

Sauce:
¼ cup, plus 3 tablespoons water
¼ cup dark soy sauce
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon, plus 1 teaspoon soy sauce

INSTRUCTIONS

1. For the bean sprouts, remove the roots and leaves with fingers or scissors. Rinse the sprouts under water and drain. Set aside.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the dried egg noodles. With a pair of chopsticks, loosen the noodles while cooking. As soon as the noodles have separated and softened, drain and rinse under cold water until cool. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine the sauce ingredients. Mix well.
4. In a large pan or wok over high heat, warm the pan and add 1 tablespoon oil. Add 2 ginger slices and cook for a minute. Add the shallot and green onion pieces. Stir and cook for another minute. Add the bean sprouts and a pinch of salt. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes. Transfer to a fine mesh sieve and drain. Remove the ginger slices and shallot.
5. In the same pan or wok, quickly clean with paper towel. Over medium-high heat, add 1 tablespoon oil. Add the minced ginger and cook until fragrant. Add the noodles. Stir for a minute and add half of the sauce. Mix well and cook until the sauce has been absorbed mostly. Add the bean sprouts and stir to mix well. Taste and adjust with a few more tablespoons of sauce if needed. The finished noodles should not be completely dried. There should be a little sauce at the bottom of the pan. Transfer the noodles to serving plates. Top with the finely chopped green onion and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

Notes
Dried egg noodles can be bought from Chinese supermarkets, like 99 Ranch Market (https://www.99ranch.com) or from Amazon (https://amzn.com/B00B5HMH4E).
Dark soy sauce is very different from regular soy sauce. It is darker and sweeter. You can also get it from Chinese supermarkets or Amazon (https://amzn.com/B0001EJ4CU).
If you like spicy food, you can serve the noodles with Sriracha sauce.
These noodles make great leftovers.

Spicy Szechuan Salad

Salad:

1 small head crinkly Chinese cabbage, sliced in long, thin strips
1 small head red or purple cabbage, sliced in long, thin strips
2 c fresh bean sprouts
2 c fresh alfa alfa sprouts
1 or 2 carrots, cut into julianne strips
8 radishes, thinly sliced

Dressing:

1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp dried basil, pounded in a mortar and pestle
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/3 c wine vinegar
1/3 c soy sauce
1/3 c sesame oil
1 tbsp hot chili flavored sesame oil

Chinese Trail Mix

Easy to make, easy to eat, portable and shareable, ’70s snack mixes that combined spiced cereals, nuts and pretzel bits still rule the home-party recipe roost. Lynae Fearing and Tracy Rathbun, co-owners of Dallas’ Shinsei restaurant, serve a variety of Asian-inspired retreads of best ’70s mixes as complimentary snacks at their bar. Here are two–the first is an adaptation of their original mix; the second is the current snack mix offering in a smaller quantity. Make some for your next cocktail party and you can serve it with Rathbun’s Shinsei Sangria–sake, white wine and vodka with chopped pineapple, Granny Smith apple, orange and lychee.

Makes

Mix #1 Ingredients
2 cups each corn, wheat, rice pocket cereal
2 cups mini pretzels and bagel chips
1 9-oz can wasabi peas
1 pound container salted cashews
2 tsp garlic powder (granulated garlic)
2 tsp onion powder (granulated onion)
4 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
1 Tbsp tamari soy sauce
2 sticks soy butter, melted
Mix #2 Ingredients
4 1/2 cups rice pocket cereal
4 1/2 cups wheat pocket cereal
1 cup wasabi peas
1 cup sesame sticks
1 cup rice chips
1 cup peanuts
1 stick melted butter
2 oz. soy sauce
1 Tbsp sambal chili sauce
Instructions
Combine dry ingredients. For mix #1: Whisk Worcestershire, tamari and melted butter. Pour over snack mix. For mix #2: Whisk melted butter with soy sauce and sambal chili sauce. Pour over snack mix. For either recipe: Spread mix over three cookie sheets. Toast in a 225 degree oven for one hour, and up to two hours,if not dry, using tongs to lift and toss mixture on sheets every ten minutes.

http://lostrecipesfound.com/recipe/70s-asian-style-trash-snack-mix/

Indo Chinese Thai Quick Noodles

Ingredients:

Swad Hot and Sweet Sauce (It’s not spicy)

Tamarind nectar or paste

Thai Garlic Chili Paste

Rice noodles (thin)

roasted peanuts, crushed

red cabbage, chopped thin and stir fried

green cabbage, chopped thin and stir fried

green onions, chopped thin and stir fried

shredded carrots, chopped thin and stir fried

sprouted mung beans

fresh lemon slice

Directions:

In wok, add Swad sauce, can of tamarind nectar or 1 tsp of tamarind paste, 1/4 tsp thai garlic chili paste (or less or more, depending on how spicy you want it). Let cook until cohesive.

Add in rice noodles. Let cook (takes about a minute or two).

Take off stove. Toss in cabbages, onions, carrots.

Plate. Top with sprouted mung beans, peanuts, and squeeze lemon juice on top.

Enjoy!

Indian Chinese Recipes

INDO CHINESE

PAV

AUTHENTIC JUHU PAV BHAJI

Best Ever Dinner Rolls (Half Recipe)(Soft Rolls)

BEST EVER Dinner Rolls / Indian Pav Bread / Indian Dabeli Bread
(Water Roux / Tongzhen Method)

HALF RECIPE

STARTER

3 tbsp flour (King Arthur bread flour or all purpose flour)
1/2 c liquid (1/4 c water + 1/4 c milk)

Mix in saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until it becomes of pudding-like consistency. Let cool.

DOUGH

2.5c flour
1/4 c sugar
1/4 c milk powder (Carnation nonfat dry milk powder) (optional – if you don’t have it, add that much more milk to the recipe)
1/4 c half and half (or whipping cream) (if you don’t have this, just sub with plain milk)
3/8 c milk
1 egg
2 tbsp (1/4 stick) butter
2 tsp (or one packet) yeast
1/2 tsp salt
All the STARTER

DIRECTIONS

Using stand mixer, mix all dough for 15 min. Dough will be sticky and stringy, silky and smooth.

Cover. Let rise until double in size, about 1 hour.

TO MAKE DINNER ROLLS

Traditional rolls: Roll dough into 6 equal-sized balls. (Add stuffing to the rolls now if you want, for example red bean paste, or potato onion mixed vegetable, or meat). Cover loosely. Let rise 30 min. Rolls will smush together.

WHAT I DID: You know around Thanksgiving, stores sell that candied lemon and orange peel fruit cake mix? I dumped a half cup of that into the dough and then proceeded as below:

Bundt: I put the little balls into a 2 small bundt pans, four to a pan, and let rise. I did this with half the dough. The other half, I put in a small loaf tin. When the balls in the small bundt pan rise, they smush together and spread all the way to the top of the pan.

Small loaf tin: Take the other half of the dough, and cut into three equal sized balls. Roll out flat. Fold into thirds (like an enchilada). Then roll up the enchilada (basically make two folds from either end again). Do this for all three balls, and place into the small loaf tin. When the balls in the small loaf tin rise, they smush together and spread all the way to the top of the pan.

Glaze with milk or egg wash (1/4 c milk or water and 1 egg, mixed well). The egg wash gives a shiny finish to the rolls, the milk wash makes the rolls brown but not shiny. I used an egg wash in the pictures above.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover loosely. Let rise 15 min to 30 min.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 min.

Enjoy!

Bee Hive Cake (Cliff Notes)

Full recipe and history here: http://kwgls.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/my-childhood-cakebee-hive-cakemalaysian-honey-comb-cake-or-kueh-sarang-semut-%E8%9C%82%E5%B7%A2%E8%9B%8B%E7%B3%95%EF%BC%89/

I use my blog as kind of a baking diary, and consult it while cooking, so this is my cliff notes version of the first recipe (with sugar, not golden syrup).

BEE HIVE CAKE

INGREDIENTS

• 1.5 sticks of butter at room temperature
• 1 can of condensed milk or sweeten beverage creamer (380 grams, 13.4 oz)
  • NOT sweetened condensed milk (Caution!)
• 2 cups of self raising flours
  • SUBSTITUTE WITH 2 c flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups of water
• 2 cups of blended white sugar (so that it is superfine)
  • BRITISH call this blended sugar castor sugar
• 1.5 teaspoons of baking soda
• 8 eggs

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Melt sugar (by itself) on low heat in saucepan on stove. STOP when it is light brown and partly melted OR ELSE it will BURN.  It takes a LONG TIME – around 10 minutes!

Add water to saucepan. Mix. (CAUTION! SUGAR IS HOT, SO IT WILL SPLATTER!). Let cool.

In mixing bowl, beat butter (by itself) until fluffy.

Add condensed milk.

Then add eggs, one at a time.

Add dry ingredients to mixing bowl – flour, baking powder, salt.

Add baking soda.

Add cooled sugar water milk mixture from saucepan.

Mix well.

In an 8 x 8 square glass brownie pan, well greased, with parchment paper lined on the bottom, add batter.

Bake for 45-60 min until toothpick comes out clean.

Cut when completely cooled.

Enjoy!

BEST EVER DINNER ROLLS

BEST EVER Dinner Rolls / Indian Pav Bread / Indian Dabeli Bread
(Water Roux / Tongzhen Method)

STARTER

1/3 c flour (King Arthur bread flour or all purpose flour)
1c liquid (2/3 c water + 1/3 c milk)

Mix in saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until it becomes of pudding-like consistency. Let cool.

DOUGH

5c flour
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c milk powder (Carnation nonfat dry milk powder)
1/2 c half and half (or whipping cream)
3/4 c milk
2 eggs
4 tbsp (half a stick) butter
4 tsp (or two packets) yeast
1 tsp salt
All the STARTER

DIRECTIONS

Using stand mixer, mix all dough for 15 min. Dough will be sticky and stringy, silky and smooth.

Cover. Let rise until double in size, about 1 hour.

TO MAKE DINNER ROLLS

Roll dough into 12 equal-sized balls, 4 to a pan, in 3 pans. (Add stuffing to the rolls now if you want, for example red bean paste, or potato onion mixed vegetable, or meat). Cover loosely. Let rise 30 min. Rolls will smush together.

Glaze with milk or egg wash (1/4 c milk and 1 egg, mixed well). The egg wash gives a shiny finish to the rolls, the milk wash makes the rolls brown but not shiny.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover loosely. Let rise 15 min to 30 min.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 min.