Posted by Bel.C
My mum loves baking big time! Everyone loves her baking, cookies, and cakes so much. She used to sell batches of homemade baking goodies to her friends especially when it came to the festive occasions such as Mooncake Festival and Chinese New Year. All family members would gather around the home and helped out to make the goodies.
Over the years, my mum has spent a lot of time and effort in learning baking and mastering the recipes. I remember during my childhood, I would give her a hand to glaze the cookies with egg yolk, try to shape the cookies and also pack them into the containers. For Chinese New Year, my mum will always have a line up of cookies for preparation, such as the pineapple tart, cornflake cookie, Kuih Bangkit, Kuih Kapit and peanut cookie is what I am sharing with you all today.
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Posted by Bel.C
Our Chinese New Year recipe continues with today’s special ingredient, prawn or shrimp. I came upon this prawn recipe from a Chinese cookbook in the bookstore a couple weeks ago (forgot the name), I thought it is easy yet meaningful that best suits this festive event. The name of the dish is called 如意蝦 , ru yi xia in Chinese, which literally means ones’ wish or dream will be fulfilled, a symbol of good luck. You can name it Good Luck Prawn or Wine-Seasoned Prawn (or Shrimp) with pandan leaves. I have substitute the recipe with 8 large tails of shrimps, that make up the lucky number 8 because it has the similar pronunciation for richness, fa (發) in Chinese. I hope this dish will bring good luck and many wonders to everyone.
This dish is really simple to be prepared, the main thing is to prepare the special wine with rice wine (上等白米酒) and rose wine (玫瑰露酒) or any wine preferred for taste and seasoning. These fresh shrimps are so good when they have adsorbed the aroma of the wine. Plus, they are wrapped in pandan (screwpine) leaves which give them an extra pandan fragrant. When the shrimps are cooked, you can see the vibrant color of reddish orange of the shrimps with a touch of shiny gloss surface, wrapped up in green color pandan leaves. I absolutely love the presentation that would definitely make the dinner more interesting.
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Posted by Bel.C
Chinese Lunar New Year is exactly in two weeks time. I always get really excited during this time of the year. Remember back home in Malaysia when I was young, there was no school for a week, we got to go shopping for new clothes, we could hang out with family, cousins and friends till late night, we got to play fireworks and we received red packets money (紅包) from elders and married couples. The most cheerful thing was we could eat all day long like a food marathon.
Chinese New Year literally starts on Chinese New Year Eve (除夕夜) where members of family will go home to have a reunion dinner (團圓飯) with the family, kind of like Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve. Then a complete Chinese New Year starts from the 1st day of the Lunar month in Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th day which is the Lantern Festival. It is the longest yet the most important festival for the Chinese people, that we will always prepare sumptuous and traditional dishes that signify good luck, wealth and prosperity for the coming new year.
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Posted by Bel.C
Chinese dumpling or Jiaozi (餃子) is one of the traditional yet popular Chinese dishes prepared during the festive season of Chinese New Year. Maybe not for the Malaysians, but for Chinese (especially from Northern part of China) or Taiwanese, this dish is usually served during the Chinese New Year Eve or some other family get together occasions. This is because the dumpling is shaped like a yuan bao (元寶), a traditional money used during the Ming Dynasty, that means good luck, wealth and prosperity.
Being born and raised in Malaysia, I never have dumplings really. Until I attended university in the United States, my Chinese and Taiwanese friends would make these delicate dumplings for me. And I must say once you’ve tried it you will love it. This Chinese Lunar New Year falls on the 14th of February which is also the Valentine’s Day. You can learn to make this recipe ahead and prepare for your family or loved ones just in time.
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Posted by Bel.C
One of the desserts I love is the Black Glutinous Rice Dessert or Pulut Hitam in Malay which means “black rice”. This is a dessert that you can find it anywhere in Asia. In Malaysia, this dessert is prepared specially using the pandan leaves (screwpine leaves) that give you an aromatic smell, and also palm sugar that makes it an unique sweetness. Essentially, the black rice is cooked until it becomes thick and creamy in consistency, somewhat similar to the texture of rice porridge. That’s why the Chinese actually calls it black glutinous porridge (黑糯米粥). Besides, it is also topped with coconut cream which is a perfect combination to make it even delicious.
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