Mooncakes with Lotus Seeds and Salted Egg Yolks

中文食谱：莲蓉蛋黄月饼

Mid-autumn Day is a very important festival day for Chinese people.  It is kind of like thanks giving day.  It is a tradition for families and friends to get together on this day.  One of the traditional designated foods is mooncakes.  Their round shape represents happiness and life fulfillment.  

I make mooncakes every year.  Nowadays mooncakes come in many shapes and with tons of different fillings.  My personal favorite is lotus seeds filling with salted duck egg yolks.  It is old fashion and I just love it.  The combination sounds exotic?  Trust me; it is really tasty and amazing! O(∩_∩)O~

I posted detailed instructions last year

Spray the duck egg yolks with a couple teaspoons rice cooking wine and roast them in preheated oven 375F/190C for 8 minutes.  

Salted duck egg yolks can be bought from Asian grocery store.  I love to buy fresh duck eggs from our local farmers market and make them myself.  Here is how to make them at home.

After 8 minutes, the yolks are done

Divide the lotus seed fillings into 25g/each.  Gently press down, wrap around egg yolks, and shape each of them into a little ball between palms

When the mooncakes are molded, transfer them to cookie pans lined with baking mats .

Preheat the oven to 350F/176C.

Bake for 5 minutes.  Take them out and gently brush them with egg wash.

Send them back to oven to bake for another 15 minutes or until they all get gold brown.

Wrap them in individual little pastry boxes

Gift packaged them in pastry boxes and share with my friends O(∩_∩)O~

Rice Dumplings with Pork and Salted Egg Yolks Wrapped in Bamboo Leaves

中文菜谱：咸鸭黄板栗肉粽

May 30th is the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival in 2017.  The festival is set according to the lunar calendar, so it comes on different days every year.  Mostly it is either May or June.

Rice dumplings are the most traditional food to have on this day.  I make rice dumplings every year too.  It is fun to make them; even more fun to eat them!

Ingredients：

3 cups of sweet rice
dried bamboo leaves
1to 2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
salt to taste
water
2  to 3 bags of roasted chestnuts (3.5oz/bag)
12 slated duck egg yolks (available in the frozen food aisle in most Asian grocery store)
1/2 pound chickpeas
 

For the pork marinate：

1 to 2 pounds pork belly
1 to 2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 /2 to 1 teaspoons sugar
1 to 2 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon five spice powder
salt to taste

 

Directions:

Cut the pork into 1 by 2 inches cubes.  Add dark soy sauce, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, rice cooking wine, ground white pepper, five spice powder and salt.  Mix well and cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for 24 to 48 hours.

Thaw salted duck yolks and cut each one into halves.  They add texture and flavors to the dumplings.

Add sweet rice along with seasonings to a large bowl.  Add water just to cover the rice.  Let them sit for a couple hours.

Boil the chickpeas until they are soft but not mushy

Fold every two bamboo leaves into a cone shape; add a tablespoon of sweet rice and chickpeas.

Add pork, roasted chestnut, duck egg yolk and chestnut.

Add another couple tablespoons of sweet rice and chickpeas on top

Wrap it up

All done

Add water.  Cook on high heat until it comes to boil.  Cover with lid and reduce the heat to simmer.

Cook the dumplings in simmering boiling water for two hours before serving.

Drain well and you can either serve them hot or cold.

Unwrap the dumplings right before you are ready to eat.  Sweet rice is perfectly cooked.  The dumplings are savory with all the seasonings and marinated pork inside.  The duck egg yolks and roasted chestnuts add texture and tons of rich flavors too.

Bon Appétit! 

Chicken Soup with Oyster Mushrooms and Chinese Yam

What Asian people mean by chicken soup is quite different from American chicken soup.  Our chicken soup is more like broth with diced chicken in it with added herbs or vegetables.  Southern Chinese are known for their delicious and wide variety of soups. 

The soups my grandma usually made in her kitchen were chicken soup and pork rib soup.  I grew up eating them and now they are two of the most frequent soups I make in my kitchen too. 

The combinations between chicken and vegetables added to the soup can be endless.  You can literally put in anything you like.  Don’t be afraid and get creative.  You might have some amazing soups invented! O(∩_∩)O~

I use Chinese yam and oyster mushrooms today.  They both have mild flavors so that the taste of chicken will not be over powered. 

Ingredients：

1 free range organic chicken
1 large piece of fresh Chinese yam (available in Asian grocery stores)
1 piece of ginger root, smashed or crushed
2 to 3 tablespoons pearl barleys
1 handful dried longan fruit
8 to 12 jujube dates
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 tablespoon rice cooking wine
1/2 to 1 teaspoon rock sugar
3 to 3 1/2 quarts of water
salt to taste

Directions：

Rinse the chicken under running water.  Dice it with a cleaver knife.  Try to find the chicken with yellow fat which will help to make beautiful bright yellow chicken soup.

Peel the Chinese yam and dice it into 1 by 1 inch cubes.  Chinese yam is a very popular ingredient in Asian soup because people believe it is good for health and human digesting system.  Plus, it taste good too!

(Some people might develop minor allergic reaction when exposed to Chinese yam liquid.  My husband does too.  Don’t panic if your skin itches if you peel Chinese yam with bare hands.  Be sure to put on gloves before handling it.  )

Dice the oyster mushroom roughly the same size as Chinese yam.

Fill a cast iron soup pot with water.  Add chicken.  Cook over high heat until the water boils.  Allow it to continue boiling for a few more minutes.  With a spoon, skim off scum that is clouding on top. 

Add ginger root, pearl barleys and rice cooking wine.

Cover the pot with lid and reduce the heat to simmer for about one and a half hours.  Adjust the simmer time accordingly. 

I use a Le Creuset 4 1/4 quart soup pot here.  It is perfect for stewing and simmering.  And it can go straight from stove to table, looking astonish.

After simmering about one and a half hours, increase the heat to high.

Add jujube dates, dried longan fruit, diced Chinese yam, ground white pepper, rock sugar and salt to taste.

Stew over medium heat for another 20 minutes or so.  Add diced oyster mushrooms.

After 2 to 3 minutes, the soup is done.  Remove from heat.

A pot of good chicken soup can be judged by its light golden color.  And this is definitely good O(∩_∩)O~

Serve immediately. 

When cooked, the Chinese yam has a similar texture to potato.  It is starchy and creamy at the same time.  Chicken soup and oyster mushrooms add extra flavors to the yam too.

Sometimes I serve Asian soups over induction cooktop on dinner table.  It can be kept piping hot this way through the whole dinner.  And it can also be transformed into hot pot in no time when needed.  

Asian Sweet Rice Pudding with Red Bean Paste & 2017 Chinese New Year Party

It seems true that either sweet rice or red / green bean paste is well accepted in America.  Insteresting…  Maybe that is because people haven’t realized how good they are and how many amazing desserts there are when sweet rice and red beans are combined together. 

I make Asian sweet rice pudding with red bean paste every year for our Chinese New Year party.  It is a kind of tradition to present it on dinner table on the last day of lunar year.  It means better life will come with a new lunar year. 

But that is not the reason why I love it.  I love it simply because it tastes great!  And I know a lot of friends will agree with me O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients：

1 cup sweet rice (sticky rice)
water for cooking the rice (about 1 1/2 cups)
red bean paste
1 handful of lotus seeds
1 to 2 teaspoon lard/pork fat
sugar to taste
honey for topping
dried fruits of your choice (I use raisins and dried cranberries)
water for boiling lotus seeds (about 1 quart)

 

Directions：

Red bean paste is available in most Asian grocery stores.  They are usually sweetened.  So taste it first before you decide how much sugar you need to add to the pudding.  

I make my red bean paste from scratch.  I divide it into small batches.  Pack, seal and freeze in Ziploc bags. 

In a small pot, add water and lotus seeds.  Cook over medium low heat until the seeds become soft.  It might take between 1 and 1 1/2 hours.  Drain well.

Soak sweet rice in water for at least 1 hour.  Drain and add the rice to a medium bowl.  Add water. Steam over medium heat for about 40 to 50 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in pork fat and sugar when the rice is still piping hot. 

Soak the raisins and cranberries with water.

Grease thoroughly the inside of a round shape bowl.  Add cooked lotus seeds, raisins, and cranberries to the bottom. 

Add a layer of cooked sweet rice, followed by a layer of red bean paste, and then another layer of cooked sweet rice.

Steam over medium heat for about 30 minutes.

Remove from heat and flip the pudding upside down in a plate.  Remove the bowl.

Top with honey and serve immediately.

The pudding goes really well with Chinese tea.

I hosted a Chinese Lunar New Year party at my house.  And I served traditional Chinese food O(∩_∩)O~ 

I was really busy in the kitchen.  I could only squeeze no more than one minutes to point and shoot the dishes.  Most of them are a little blurry.  My bad O(∩_∩)O~

I printed a copy of menu and put it on the table so that everyone knew exactly what they are.  My guests that day were all Chinese.  Sorry I didn’t prepare English menu.

Beef shank and tendon stew with daikon.  The recipe can be found here

BBQ baby back ribs

Duck braised in soy sauce

Pork head cheese

Mini egg dumplings

Mung beans noodles in hot and spicy chili oil sauce

Sweet rice pudding with red bean paste

Stir-fried Sichuan style pickled string beans and ground pork

The other one is stir-fried diced lotus roots with chili paste

Pickled radish

Cucumber and wood mushroom salad

Sweet rice cake with red beans and coconut milk

It is a must have dish on lunar celebrating dinner table.

Pizzelles

I added black sesame seeds to make a bit Asian style

My friend brought another traditional dish: braised pork belly with soy sauce.  She added quail eggs and bamboo shoots to make it extra flavorful.

Another friend brought a duck stew with mushrooms and dakon.  Yum!  I refilled my bowl twice O(∩_∩)O~

Steamed garlic shrimp with fine noodles was from my friend’s husband.  Thumbs up for it too!

A cup of cappuccino was a perfect ending for this great gathering. 

Wish you all a happy 2017 O(∩_∩)O~

Sichuan Style Pickled Jerusalem Artichoke

中文：剁椒泡洋姜

Jerusalem artichoke might be considered weeds because they can grow big and tall like crazy and take up a lot of space.  I have seen miles of Jerusalem artichokes in New York suburbs.  Their little yellow flowers shine like sunflowers in May afternoon sun.  It was beautiful.  Also what a shame that people nearby have no idea what they miss here if they only admire their flowers.  The root is the delicious part.

Sichuan province is widely famous for two things in China: hot and spicy food and Sichuan style pickled vegetables.   Pickles can be found in almost every family here.  A lot of vegetables can be pickled in a dark colored clay jar sealed with water on the edge.  It is the taste of home and comfort food for all the people from Sichuan area. 

We brought a clay jar back to America on one of our trip to China.  Ever since then, it is like my kitchen is cast with a special spell.  That familiar taste of pickled vegetables from this simple jar can always take us back to home.

My friend sent me two small Jerusalem artichoke plants last spring.  They grew into two giant plants!  I dig up their roots before winter comes.

If you want continuous supply of Jerusalem artichoke, just leave behind one or two pieces of root in the ground.  They will come back the next spring. 

Rinse well under running water

Air dry Jerusalem artichoke roots for 2 to 4 hours.

Add them to the pickle jar where the food magic will take place.   They shall be ready to eat in a couple weeks; shorter or longer than that depending on their size.

They can be served as an appetizer or side dish

I like to cut them into bite size and stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons garlic chili paste, 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil, and a little sugar. 

Ok, you still have no idea how to make it?  That is fine.  They can be found in Asian grocery stores. If you don’t want to go through all the trouble to make some pickle you haven’t even heard of but still curious how it taste.  Just go to the nearest Asian store.  You might also find all the kinds of other pickled vegetable on the shelves too.  Don’t be afraid to try them as well.  It might just be the new beginning of your food adventure! O(∩_∩)O~