Glutinous Rice Rolls

This is made for our last breakfast for the year 2010 - Glutinous Rice Rolls. Since I had the whole week off from work, I had decided to give this recipe a try as Hubby loves glutinous rice and this is something new that we haven't try before; I told myself - 'Why not give it a try'. For those who don't know, I am not good in making Pau items as I always have difficulty in 'wrapping up' the dough with its filling. Anyway, that was certainly not an excuse for not attempting again.

Cooking the filling for this rolls was a pretty easy task as we just need to fry all the ingredients before rolling it up with the Pau dough. As I had anticipated, I was still a 'mess' in rolling up up the fillings. Nevertheless, I had managed to complete the task. WELL DONE for myself *clap clap clap*.

Special Message to Hubby here:

Thanks for always being by my side for all the ups and downs in our life. Hope that the year 2011 will a great year for you, I and of course for US. I love you!

Ingredients

Skin
(A)
400g pau flour
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp instant yeast
30g shortening
(B)
200ml water

Filling
200g glutinous rice (soaked for 4 hours, steamed till cooked)
2 tbsp dried shrimps (soaked, drained and chopped)
3 shallots, diced
7 mushrooms (soaked, drained and diced)
200g minced pork
2 tbsp oil


Seasoning
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp pepper

Methods

1. Place Pau flour on a clean working area. Make a well in the centre. Add in remaining (A) ingredients. Add (B) slowly, mix into a dough and knead with both hands till it becomes elastic. Cover and rest dough for 30 minutes.
2. Add 2tbsp oil to wok, saute onions, dried shrimps and mushrooms. Stir well, add in pork and seasoning. Add in glutinous rice, stir till its well mixed. Set aside.
3. Roll out the dough into a long roll. Cut into four parts, and roll out each part into rectangular shapes. Roll the filling using a plastic sheets (microwave wrap) to the same length as the dough.
4. Place filling on top of the dough. Flip over to encase the filling. Place a parchment paper below the glutinous roll and repeat for the remaining ingredients.
5. Steamed the rolls in a wok with boiling water. Steam over medium heat for 5 minutes and serve.

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ABC Soup

Boiling, boiling, boiling hot...

A simple soup to warm our hearts and tummy for the Winter Solstice dinner. ABC soup as easy as its' name tell us, it consist of carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, any type of meat (I had used chicken parts) and added with salt and peppercorns to taste. Yummy and simple for anyone of us.

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Dry Bak Kut Teh

Since we were staying nearby the famous Bak Kut Teh town, thus it is quite weird if I don't try to make this dish on my own. There's two version of Bak Kut Teh in Klang - the soupy type and also the dry type. For our Winter Solstice dinner celebration, I had decided to try out making the dry type at home to serve to our guests. It was much easier than I had thought it would be in preparing this dish.

Boiling the soup till the gravy thickens.

My home made - dry Bak Kut Teh.

Ingredients

(A)

1 pack Bak Kut Teh spices

1 kg belly meat (cut into bite size pieces)

4 garlic

2 litres hot water

salt and pepper to taste

(B)

10 dried chillies

2 tbsp thick soy sauce

50g dried squid (fried)

3 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tsp sugar

(C)

lady fingers, sliced

shao xing wine to taste

Methods

1. Place A in a wok, bring to boil. Reduce to low heat and cook for 45 minutes.
2. Remove meat, place in a claypot. Add in B and adequate soup to cover the ingredients.
3. Bring to boil. Stir in wine and cook till gravy thickens. Stir in lady fingers to cook.
4. Serve hot.

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Kai Lan with Chinese Sausages

I had used up 4 Chinese sausages for this dish

*desperately wanted to finish up the Chinese sausages in the fridge*

Ingredients

1 tbsp oil

5 slices ginger

1 tsp garlic, chopped

1 pair Chinese sausages (I had used 2 pairs)

200 g Kai Lan

Seasoning

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp oyster sauce

adequate water

1 tsp corn flour solution, thickening

sesame oil to taste

Methods

1. Heat up oil in wok. Stir fry garlic and ginger till fragrant. Add in sausages.
2. Add in Kai Lan, seasoning and stir fry till well mix.
3. Thicken with corn flour, sesame oil and stir well.
4. Dish up and serve hot.

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Hot and Spicy Garlic Steamed Fish

Recently we had been ordering steamed fish every time we had our dinner outside. Thus, I wanted to look for a recipe for steamed fish for this special dinner as well. In the past, I had always felt that it is a challenge to prepare fish dishes. Not to say that I had mastered the skill, but I am starting to be more confident nowadays with steaming fishes after a few try till date. So Hubby had personally hand picked the Siakap fish from Tesco the other day, so we will be having steamed fish as well for Winter Solstice dinner.

At the steamer

After steamed

Ready to be serve - best eaten while it's hot.

Ingredients

(A)

3 tbsp oil
6 tbsp garlic, chopped

8 chilli padi, chopped

5 limes, squeezed

4 stalks spring onions, chopped

Seasoning

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp sesame oil

1 fish, around 1 kg

Methods

1. Heat up oil. Stir fry garlic till fragrant, mix A with seasoning. Stir fry for a few minutes. Dish up and set aside.
2. Place fish on the steamer. Steamed for 5 minutes. Throw the 'fishy' water from the fish.
3. Place the fish again on the steamer. Pour the mixture over the fish. Steamed for approximately 20-25 minutes.
4. Garnish with some spring onions on top. Serve hot.

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Herbal Chicken

Chicken is a commonly prepared dish especially when it comes to Chinese celebration. So I guessed it's a SOP to have in my dinner dishes for this Winter Solstice dinner in our house. Since I am cooking all by myself, the simpler the preparation of the dishes involve, the easier my life will be in the kitchen. So here's another simple dish that I had chosen for the menu - Herbal Chicken. Just marinate, dump everything inside the aluminium foil and put on a steamer.

Yummy Yummy...

I had placed in lots of wolfberries as well.

Ingredients

1 kampung chicken

8 slices dang qui

3 tbsp wolfberries

2 tbsp ginger, shredded

Seasoning

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp Shao Xing wine

1/2 tbsp sugar

1 aluminium foil

Methods

1. Marinate the chicken with seasoning. Leave overnight in fridge.
2. Place in remaining ingredients and wrap in aluminium foil.
3. In wok, bring water to boil. Place the wrapped foil into wok. Steamed over 45mins-1 hour in medium heat.
4. Serve hot.

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Winter Solstice 2010

22nd December 2010 - was the Winter Solstice for the Chinese. During the old days, families will gather around to have their reunion dinner as it was said to be the most important day in the Chinese Lunar calendar. But in the modern days. I guessed this was not popularly practice anymore as people are busier nowadays and often this date falls in the middle of the week where working ones can't make it back to their respective home town. I had tried to practice and celebrate this dinner in KL even though we can't go back to be with our parents. This year I had invited a few friends to join us (Hubby and I) for dinner. At least we celebrate it with friends while we are away from home. We get to eat some Tong Yuen and spend some time with each other.

Ready made Tong Yuen - for lazy people like me.

I had used brown sugar for the syrup instead of normal white sugar. Added Osmanthus as well.

The feast I had prepare - minus the Satay on the table.

Happy Winter Solstice 2010!

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