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 Patrick.C
It has been raining cats and dogs since Monday until today and it will be raining tomorrow as well. Thank God for bringing us the rains due to the water crisis in California but sadly, the rain is way too much than what we long for and it flooded some areas in SoCal.
The indolent weather caused me so lazy and inconvenient to drop by the grocery store to pick up some meats after work. Thus my only meat choice to cook for tonight dinner was a pack of shrimps in the fridge. When I thought of peeling and deveining the shrimp, I felt so headache! Anyway, I had no choice but just dealt with the process. I’ve prepared the shrimps with scallion and ginger this time. Easy and delicious!
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Posted by Eric.N
One of my favor party starters is Chinese egg roll. It is made by wrapping a combination of vegetables and meat in a sheet of dough, and then it is deep fried until golden brown. I love eating it since I was a kiddo. Well, I suppose everyone especially kids like the crispy food. I still remember my family always prepared this dish during the Chinese New Year. My sisters and I would help my mom to wrap the egg rolls, and then my mom would deep fry them. Believe it or not, I could finish up 20 egg rolls continuously in less than 10 minutes.
Since my home isn’t equipped with a fryer, it took me quite sometimes to deep fry all the rolls. For those with a fryer at home, you have advantage of doing this. Anyway, if you never try this recipe before, I personally recommend you to at least try making it once at home even you don’t have the fryer. Trust me, you will enjoy toward the last bite of the last roll!
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Posted by Patrick.C
Not sure how many of you love shrimps but I am certainly a devotee of shrimps. I was raised in a family where my mom used to prepare at least a dish of seafood for the dinner daily and shrimp was always my favorite. I love the ways my mom cooked it especially with ketchup.
In Malaysia, the word prawn is more general than shrimp because Malaysia is one of the Commonwealth nations follows the British usage. Shrimp is a kind of shellfish and thus it comes with high calcium, iodine and protein, as well as lofty cholesterol. So I try not taking it too much to prevent myself from high cholesterol.
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Posted by Patrick.C
I had been craving for wonton soup the whole Christmas week due to the cold weather and too much western food I had taken for the past 2 weeks. Hence I thought of heading to one of the local Chinese restaurants to fulfill my longing over the weekend. Apropos of this wonton thing, I told my mom over the phone and guess what? She suggested me to make the wonton soup myself. She is right. I should give it a shot since so far I haven’t yet found a satisfactory one in Los Angeles.
There are various types of wonton and what I love the most is the Cantonese shrimp filled wonton but this time, I decided to make the wonton with filling of minced pork meat and shrimp. Fresh shrimp must be used instead of pre-cooked shrimps to make the wonton. I know most of you might dislike is the process of peeling and deveining the shrimps because it makes your hands stink but bear with it.
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