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We love taro a lot and we were thinking to make the Pork Belly with Taro which Eric wanted to eat all these while. But it requires too much of work and then it was often put aside. While I was researching about the dish, I stumbled across this long forgotten Hakka recipe Stir Fry Taro Dumpling or Abacus Beads “Suan Pan Zi”(客家炒算盤子). I was so excited as I didn’t have this for years. So I have decided to give the recipe a try. Obviously Pork Belly with Taro was put aside again.

Since my father side is Hakka, that’s why I know of and have tried this dish. We often get to eat various traditional Hakka dishes whenever we go back to “Semenyih”, our old home town (老家) in Malaysia. My uncle is a great cook and he will always prepare a big meal, like 8-10 dishes sometimes double the dishes because we have so many relatives visiting.

In Chinese the dish is called 炒算盤子 “Chao Suan Pan Zi”, literally means Stir Fry Abacus Beads. The taro is steamed and prepared into dough form then shaped into round balls resembling the beads on the Chinese Abacus, an old calculating tool before calculator.

The taro balls are then boiled and rinsed under cold water becoming chewy little taro dumplings. I thought this is actually very similar to Italian Pasta making except they used different ingredients. But they are both prepared into dough and shapes turning it into carb food to the meal.

To my Hakka friends, please enjoy!

Ingredients:

For the Dough
1 lb Taro (peeled, sliced, steamed, mashed)
1 cup Tapioca Starch (木署粉)
1 tbsp of cooking oil
1 tsp salt
Water

For Stir Fry
2-3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 handful of dried shrimps (soaked and chopped)
1/2 lb minced pork (marinate with soy sauce and wine)
1 medium carrot (cut into fine strips)
6 mushrooms (soaked, cut into strips)
1/2 cup sliced dried wood ears of black fungus
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Cooking Method:

1. Steam the taro slices until soft about 20-30 minutes. Mashed into paste about 2 cups.
2. While it is still warm add the starch and salt, slowly add in water little by little, mix and combine well to form a dough. (Note: add little if dough too dry, add in more starch if too watery) Recommended to add in few drips of cooking oil for easier kneading.  Knead to form smooth dough without lumps.
3. Shape dough into marble size balls and gently press in the center. Repeat.
4. Bring a pot of water to boil, add in the taro balls cook until it floats. Remove and drain under cold water.
5. Heat 1 tbsp oil in pan, stir fry minced garlic, add in dried shrimps stir fry till fragrant.
6. Add in minced pork, stir and combine, follow by carrots, mushrooms, wood ear fungus. Continue to stir fry.
7. Add in taro dumplings, stir and combine well with all ingredients.
8. Add in seasoning of oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Stir and combine well.
9. Serve and garnish with chopped scallions.

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Who’s up for a bowl of Bubur Cha Cha (摩摩查查)? Bubur Cha Cha is a popular sweet dessert originated from Nyonya cuisine. It is also known as Sweet Potato And Yam Dessert. The dessert typically uses varieties of sweet potatoes (yellow, orange, purple), taro/yam, colorful tapioca jelly/sago pearls with palm sugar cooked in thick coconut milk dessert. Sometimes you can even add beans like black-eyed beans, red beans and green beans. To make the dessert more colorful, you can also make different colors of tapioca jellies to go with it.

Bubur Cha Cha is a sweet, delightful, colorful yet fulfilling dessert that you cannot resist. You can always serve it hot or put in some ice to get an icy cold Bubur Cha Cha. This is actually very similar to Hong Kong recipe of sweet sago in coconut milk (西米露). Great to serve in any occasions.

Ingredients:

2 small Orange Sweet Potatoes (diced)
1 small Yellow Sweet Potatoes (diced)
2 small Japanese Purple Yam (diced)
1 lb Taro (diced)
3 Tbsp Sago Pearls
1 can Coconut Milk
4 Pandan Leaves  (tied in knot)
2 pieces Palm Sugar (based on sweetness desired)

Cooking Method:

1. Cut the potatoes into dices, steam the sweet potato and yam dices on a high heat for about 20 minutes, or until cooked and tender soft.
2. In a pot, fill in half a pot of water , add in Pandan leaves and bring to boil. Combine coconut milk, bring to boil and turn heat to low.
3. In another small pot, bring water to boil, add Sago pearls and cook for about 5-10 minutes until Sago turned translucent. Drain and rinse under cold water. Set aside for serving.
4. Add in the cooked sweet potato and yam dices into the coconut mixture pot, add palm sugar keep stirring until dissolve. Simmer for another 5-10 minutes. Make sure the potatoes are cooked nicely, not too hard yet not too mushy.
5. Serve in a small bowl, add in cooked sago pearls and mix well. Can be served cold with ice too.

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We moved into the new apartment for a week. Everything is cool. I guess we are ready for serious cooking again.

As usual, I was looking for something fresh to try out. Again, I looked into the culinary book but then I remembered I had the taro rice recipe from mom a couple weeks ago. I customized the recipe by cooking it without the rice. Taro (芋頭) is commonly used in the Chinese cuisine in various ways, mostly for flavor enhancement. In the previous post, Bel had made the taro cake which was so good. This time I used it to make the taro chicken.

The result turned out not bad but the presentation looked unappealing due to overcooking it and the taro melted. It’s my first time anyway.

Ingredients:
1 whole medium taro (peeled, cut into small bite size pieces)
5 dried shitake mushrooms (soaked in hot water, shredded)
2 tbsp dried shrimp
1/2 chicken breast or pork (sliced)
4 garlic cloves (finely chopped)
2 shallots (finely chopped)

Seasonings:
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
3 dashes white pepper powder
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Cooking method:

1. Heat up the work with cooking oil. Sauté the garlic and shallot until fragrant.
2. Add in the dried shrimp, dried shitake mushroom, taro, chicken or pork and stir fry until the chicken meat is cooked.
3. Add seasonings and a little water. Stir well for 4- 5 minutes. Note: Constantly add water if you think it is getting dry.
4. Cover the wok lid and cook for 10 minutes with medium heat.
5. Dish up.

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When I go to the Chinese restaurant for Dim Sum, I always order the daikon radish cake (蘿蔔糕) or taro / yam cake (芋頭糕). However every time after I taste it, it always disappoints me, there aren’t enough ingredients and flavor in it, plus the texture is either too mushy or too hard. They just never taste the same like home made rice cake. Back home my grandma’s cousin sister (姨婆) always made a big serving of  taro cake for us, fully loaded with ingredients and flavor. She truly made the best taro cake. I missed it so much that I decided to try this complicated dish.

Taro or Yam Cake (芋頭糕) is not that kind of sweet cake that you find in dessert, in fact it is a savory cake made with the main ingredients of taro or yam and rice flour. It is also one of the Chinese New Year recipes that you can prepare. Traditionally it is cooked and steamed for long period of time in a big round deep mold. When it is done, they are cut into cute diamond shapes. Now they can be found in dim sum cuisines, usually cut into slices, you can either eat it as original or pan fried for extra crunchiness and fragrant.

I like my taro cake loaded with ingredients, so I added additional ingredients for more flavors, optional ingredients such as Chinese sausages, black mushrooms, chopped scallions, fried shallots and red chillies. Don’t forget to prepare the hoisin sauce and chili sauce for dipping. Although it was a lot of work, these delicious savory taro cake just made my day!

Ingredients:
4 lbs taro or yam (peeled, cut into small cubes)
2 Chinese sausage (chopped into small pieces)
5 black mushrooms (soaked in water till soft, chopped into small pieces)
1/2 cup dried shrimps (蝦米) (chopped into small pieces)
1 cup rice flour (粘米粉)
3/4 cup potato starch flour (英粟粉)
2 tbsp wheat starch flour (澄麵粉)
2 1/2 + 1 cups water
1/4 tsp five spice powder (五香粉)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

For the toppings:
3 scallions (chopped)
2 red chillies (de-seed and chopped)
6 shallots (peeled, sliced and pan fried till golden brown)

Cooking Methods:

1. Mix the flour together and sift the flour. Add in 1 cup of water and mix well.
2. Heat  up a wok with 2 tbsp oil stir fry chopped mushrooms, Chinese sausage, dried shrimps till fragrant. Dish up.
3. In the same wok, stir fry the yam cubes with five spice powder till fragrant.
4. Add in 2 1/2 cups of water to the yam cubes and bring to boil. Turn to low heat and cook till yam cubes become slightly tender.
5. Scoop up 1/4 cup of yam and mashed into paste. Put in back to the wok. Add seasonings of soy sauce, salt and pepper. Stir well.
6. Add in other cooked ingredients of mushrooms, chinese sausage, dried shrimp. mix well.
7. Pour in the flour mixture and stir throughly. The mixture will start to become sticky. Add in some fried shallots for more fragrant if desired. Turn off heat.
8. Pour the mixture into 8″ cake mold. Steam for 45 minutes.
9. When it is done let cool a bit, top with chopped scallions, red chillies and fried shallots. Serve with hoisin and chili sauce.

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Eating Chinese New Year’s cake or year cake (年糕) is believed to have a symbolism of rising higher or taller in each coming year, such as getting a raise in job, promotion in income, or simply just growing taller for kids. I was told so during my childhood. In Chinese, Nian (粘) means sticky which is identical in sound as year (年) while gao (糕) means cake which is identical in sound as high (高). Thus it is dubbed as year cake.

Back in Malaysia, the sweet year cake is usually what we have during the Chinese New Year. Steaming and deep-frying are two common eating methods. I remember when I was in Malaysia, my mom preferred to steam the sweet year cake until it dissolved to become sticky and then it was served with the fresh grinded coconut meats. It was delicious! For the deep fried sweet year cake, it is normally sold by the Chinese doughnut hawkers together with other fried breads like Chinese fried bread stick (油條) and sugar cake (糖糕).

Being in the United States more than seven years, I didn’t have this delectable food. I was grateful when Sam brought two of these big sweet year cakes from Malaysia two weeks ago. Actually Sam was requested by my mom to carry them over for me. Although there are sweet year cakes selling in the Asian market for the coming Chinese New Year, these are homemade by my mom from Malaysia. So, I’ve utilized them for making the deep fried sweet year cake.

Ingredients:
1 sweet year cake (sliced 0.3-inch)
1 yam / taro (peeled and sliced 0.3-inch)
2 sweet potatoes (peeled and sliced 0.3-inch)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 cup water

Note: the true measure of ingredients may vary by depending on the quantity you want to make.

Cooking method:

1. Combine egg, rice flour, all purpose flour, salt, baking powder and water in a bowl. Whisk them until become smooth batter. Note: Make sure the batter is not too thick and not too watery.
2. Heat up the pot or deep fryer with enough oil.
3. Place one piece of sweet year cake between the sweet potato and yam. Try to put a little batter in between to make them stick together.
4. Coat them evenly with the batter.
5. Deep fry them with low / medium heat until golden brown.
6. Drain on paper towel before serve.