Apple Fruit Rolls

中文：苹果果丹皮卷

Fruit rolls were so popular in China when I was still a kid. They were like the potato chips today.  No matter where you go or where you shop, they are just everywhere.  The fruit rolls I used to enjoy were made from hawthorn (thornapple) fruits.  They are almost as tart as cranberry.  Once you add a lot of sugar, they become addictively sweet and sour flavor.

Actually, a lot of fruits high in pectin can be used to make fruit rolls.  I made them before using prunes.

And I find out you can make fruit rolls with apples too!  I made one batch a couple days ago.  They were gone in minutes!  O(∩_∩)O~

Ingredients：

8 to 10 apples
6 to 8 tablespoon packed brown sugar (use more if you have a sweet tooth)
1 to 2 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1/4 to 1/2 cup water

Directions：

Clean and core the apples.  No need to peel them because most natural pectin is in apple skins.

Cut the apples into chucks.  Add them to a medium pot, along with brown sugar, lemon juice, ground cinnamon and water.  Heat over high heat until it boils.  Reduce the heat to medium high.  Stir the apples occasionally to prevent them getting burnt at the bottom.

 Cook until the sauce is thick enough to coat a wooden spoon.

Remove from heat and let it cool down to room temperature.

Sometimes I make larger batch and seal them tightly in mason jars.  Steam them for about 30 minutes; remove from heat; and place them upside down until they cool down.  Yea, it is just like how you can tomato at home.  The apples can be stored at room temperature for a long time.  And they go really great with pancakes and crepes.

Add apple chunks and it sauce to a food processor.  Puree the apples.

Divide the apple puree into halves or three equal pieces.  Spread each of them evenly on a dehydrator tray.

Run the food dehydrator at vegetable/fruits 135F/ 57° C for about 10 to 12 hours, or until the puree is totally dried out.

Peel it off the tray and roll it up. 

Now you have beautiful homemade apple fruit rolls!

The apple fruit rolls go really well with a cup of freshly brewed green tea!

purple sweet potato and taro cakes

中文：紫薯芋泥糕

I never understand why purple sweet potatoes haven’t been widely popular in America like potatoes do.  They are sweet, nutritious, and so pretty to look at. And there are so many ways to enjoy them.  You can steam them, deep fry them, and bake them like any regular sweet potatoes. They are sweeter and have a tenser texture.  I load up with purple sweet potatoes whenever I go shopping in an Asian grocery store. 

A lot of Asian dessert involves purple sweet potatoes too.  What I am making today is a really simple and fast snack. 

Ingredients：

2 small / or 1 medium size sweet purple potatoes
1 large piece of taro root (about 1 cup when cut into cubes)
5 to 6 tablespoon whole milk / heavy cream
4 to 5 tablespoons honey (use more if you have a sweet tooth)
water for steaming

Directions:

Steam the purple sweet potatoes until a fork can easily piece through them.  Peel and puree in a food processor with whole milk or heavy cream.

Peel the taro root and cut into half inch cubes.  Steam them over medium high heat for about 10 minutes.  Puree in a food processor with milk, honey, and a little water.  Taro root is very starchy after steamed.  Water will help to make it smooth.  But don’t add too much water.  We need taro paste here, not soup. O(∩_∩)O~

Spray a mooncake mold with oil.  Add 2 tablespoons purple sweet potato paste to the bottom, 1 to 2 tablespoons taro paste in the middle and then top with another 2 tablespoons purple sweet potato paste. 

Flip the mold; press it tightly for a couple seconds and then release.

If you have a mooncake mold handy, a mousse ring will do the work just fine. 

Top with honey and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

Sweet rice cake balls with black sesame and purple sweet potato

中文：紫薯黑芝麻醪糟汤圆

Purple sweet potato is one of my favorite.  Unfortunately we don’t usually see them in American grocery stores.  I will stock up on them whenever I drive to Detroit area where there is a big Asian grocery store that sells all kinds of Asian goodies. 

You can steam, roast, bake or even grill them.  Whatever you can do with pumpkins and sweet potatoes, you can do it with purple sweet potatoes.  Purple sweet potatoes have a denser texture than regular sweet potatoes.   They are starchier, sweeter and I guess healthier. 

I make some sweet rice cake balls and put some purple sweet potatoes.  Ta-dah!  I have a bowl of gorgeous sweet rice cake balls! 

Ingredients for sweet rice cake balls：

1 cup of sweet rice flour
1 teaspoon oil
1 tablespoon sugar
water
1 medium size purple sweet potato, steamed
1/2 cup fermented sweet rice (homemade or available in Asian grocery store too)

Black sesame filling：

1/4 cup toasted black sesame seeds
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons honey
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoon butter

Directions：

Add black sesame seeds and brown sugar to a coffee grinder.  Grind for 20 to 30 seconds.

Microwave the butter on high for 20 to 30 seconds to melt it.  Add honey and ground sesame; mix well and refrigerate until it hardens.   Equally divide them into 20 or 30 pieces.  And roll each into a ball shape.

Peel the purple sweet potato.  Use a fork or food processor to puree it.

Combine sweet rice flour, oil and sugar in a medium bowl.   Gradually add water while whisking with chopsticks or a wooden spoon.  Stop when there is no dry flour left.

Equally divide the sweet rice dough into 20 to 30 pieces and roll each piece into a ball shape too.

Press down sweet rice cake ball with a thumb, add sesame filling, wrap it up and roll into a sweet rice ball again.  Repeat it until all sweet rice cake balls are finished.

Bring a large pot of water to boil on high heat.   Add sweet rice cake balls.  Cook until they float to the top.   Stir gently occasionally. 

Reserve about 2 to 3 cups cooking water.  Add purple sweet potatoes puree and sweet fermented rice.  Cook on medium high heat until it boils.  Serve it immediately with cooked sweet rice cake balls.

Both purple sweet potatoes and fermented rice are quite sweet.  I don’t need extra sugar here.  If you have a sweet tooth, add more sugar to the sweet potato puree.

Isn’t it beautiful?  The black sesame filling inside is a really nice touch. O(∩_∩)O~

Pumpkin Sweet Rice Cakes

中文：南瓜糯米饼

I have some leftover steamed pumpkin in the refrigerator.  I decide to make some Asian sweet rice cakes with it.  Pumpkin and sweet rice are also a perfect combination.  Sweet rice flour has a very mild nutty flavor, and pumpkin adds a delicate refreshing and rich flavor to the cakes.

Ingredients：

1/4 steamed mini pumpkin
1 cup sweet rice flour (adjust the amount according the pumpkin flesh)
3 to 4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon oil
2/3 cup sesame seeds
oil for pan frying sweet rice cakes

Directions：

Remove skin from pumpkin, cut into small pieces and place them in a mini food processor.   

Process until you have pumpkin puree. A fork will do the work just fine if you don’t want to use a food processor here.

In a bowl, combine sweet rice flour, sugar, oil and pumpkin puree.  

Whisk with a pair of chopsticks until most dry flour is gone.  Transfer to a well-dusted wooden board and knead into dough.

Divide the dough evenly into 12 pieces.  Roll each piece into a small round smooth ball.  

Quickly dip the balls into water and roll over in the pan filled with white sesame seeds. 

Gently press them down.

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium low heat.  Add oil, and then add sweet rice cakes.  Cover and each side cooks for 4 to 5 minutes. 

They go well with coffee or tea. Enjoy!  O(∩_∩)O~

Zucchini Dumplings: the Taste of Summer

中文： 西葫芦饺子，夏天的味道

Finally, it is summer time!  Summer in Michigan means lots of fresh local produces in farmer’s market.  I get so excited that I always automatically wake up earlier on Wednesday and Saturday morning, so that I can go to our local farmer’s market to see what good eats are available today. To me, summer is the best time of the year.  Yes, it is way better than the holiday season!

Among the produce I am so looking forward to is zucchini.  They are fresh, sweet, tender and refreshing.  There are many ways to cook with zucchini and each and every way is good.  I use them in stir-fries, soup, savory pancakes and dumplings.

Making dumplings is really a good use of zucchini.  But I don’t just chop it up and use it like that.  I dehydrate the zucchini first, so that the flavor is more intense, and zucchini won’t be mushy when cooked.  

For whole-wheat dumpling wraps:

3 cups bread flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon oil

For dumpling filling：

1 1/2 pound ground pork
3 large zucchinis
1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 rice cooking wine
2 to 3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 ground ginger
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
salt to taste
1/4 to 1/2 cup water/ chicken stock

Directions：

Rinse the zucchinis under running water.  Pat dry and slice them thinly with a mandoline slicer. Spread zucchini chips on one or several racks. Dehydrate them under the sun or in a food dehydrator until zucchinis are half way dry.  

In a large bowl, add bread flour, whole wheat flour, oil and salt.  Whisk while gradually adding water to the bowl.  When flour starts to come together, knead with hands until smooth and elastic dough forms. 

Cover and let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes. 

In another large bowl, add ground pork, ground white pepper, sesame oil, soy sauce, oyster sauce, ground ginger and salt.  Whisk with a pair of chopsticks.  If you whisk hard enough, the ground pork, just like the flour, is going to come together and develop some kind of gluten.  Add water/ chicken broth, little by little; and keep whisking.

Add dehydrated zucchinis to a food processor.  

In seconds, zucchinis are evenly and finely chopped. I love my newly bought cuisinart 14 cups food processor.  It can be so helpful in the kitchen.

Add finely chopped zucchinis to the ground pork.

Whisk until the whole pork filling is well combined.  Add salt to taste.

Run the dough through stand mixer pasta roller several times.  

Set the thickness to 5, and run it one more time.

With a round cookie cutter, cut out round dumpling wraps. 

He is working on the dough and wraps; while I am working on dumplings. O(∩_∩)O~

Put 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoon pork filling in the center of one wrap.

Fold the wrap over.  Press the sides together and make a couple creases on the each side.

That is how you make a authentic Chinese dumpling.

Line up the dumplings on a well-flour-dusted board.

I like to make dozens of dumplings at a time and freeze the extra and keep them in large Ziploc bags.  They are so much better than the dumplings you find in grocery store freezer.

Bring a large pot of water to boil.  Add dumplings.  When the water boils again, add one cup of cold water to the pot.  That should help to cook dumplings evenly inside and out. When the water boils again, add another cup of cold water to the pot.  Repeat it one more time and the dumplings should be ready. 

I like to serve my dumplings with garlic chili sauce.  This is the home version.  I post it before: http://www.yankitchen.com/blog/2k1o27b6fzy82wn0sphsah9oqd3hbo

Take a bite!

The dehydrated zucchini has more intense flavor.  I didn’t add any sugar to the filling, but it taste very sweet and refreshing, just like the way zucchini should be.  If you cook with zucchini before, you will know cooked zucchini are most likely to be mushy and watery.  But my version of zucchini dumplings are the very opposite of that.  It is sweet and tender, and well worthy of all the labor work. O(∩_∩)O~