Bánh Xốp Bơ (Chewy Butter Cookies)

There is very little butter in this recipe, yet it has a rich buttery taste. Weird huh?

Ingredients:
-2 egg yolks
-90g tapioca starch
-40g flour
-1/3 tsp baking powder
-few drops yellow coloring (optional)
-60g sugar
-2 tbs sweetened condense milk
-1 tbs melted butter

What to Do:
Mix together tapioca starch, flour and baking powder. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until light and lemoned colored. Add yellow coloring, condensed milk, and butter. Add flour mixture. Rest dough for 1/2 hour. Preheat oven to 350'F, divide dough into 10-12 portions. Roll each portion into small balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for about 10-15 mins.

Reference:
Bánh Hoa Cúc by Madam Nguyễn Thị Hường aka Gia Chánh Hoa Hường/Rose School of Home Economics

Courgette shred in curry sauce

Ingredients

3 medium size courgette

1 medium size carrot

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tsp cumin powder

salt

2 tbsp water

Method

1. Wash and shred courgette. Skinned carrot and cut into shreds.

2. Heat pan with some oil, pour in the shred courgette and carrot and mixed well in the pan.

3. Add water, curry powder, cumin powder and salt and blend well. Allowed simmer for another 2-3 minutes.

4. Off fire and serve hot.

Gỏi Đu Đủ Khô Bò Gan Cháy (Papaya Salad with Beef and Liver Jerky)

The first step in making this dish is to make the basic sauce. The basic sauce is then used to make the beef and liver jerkies, and as dressing for the salad.

Basic Sauce:
-3 parts sugar
-3 parts soy sauce
-3 parts water
-1 part ginger (crushed)
-1 part chili sauce (optional)

*Boil everything together in a saucepan until sugar dissolves. Cool before using.

Beef Jerky:
Basic sauce + pepper + 5 spice + honey + minced garlic + mince shallots = marinate for jerky.

Liver Jerky:
Marinate 1/4" slices of beef liver in basic sauce for approx 1/2 hour. Simmer liver slices and marinate in a frying pan until all of the liquid evaporates. Add about 1tbs butter and fry until liver is golden, fragrant and jerky like in texture.

Dressing:
Basic sauce + minced garlic + red vinegar.

The Salad:
Shredded green papaya + chopped thai basil + beef jerky cut into thin strips + liver jerky cut into thin strips + dressing.

Express Pau Dough

What do you do when you're itching to make paus but don't have the time to go after "traditional recipes" which call for long hours of proving? Use a mix? NO! Why use a mix when you can make you own paus from scratch... in roughly 20mins? Here it is, my express pau dough recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
-400g all purpose flour
-4 1/2 tsp double acting baking powder
-100g sugar
-1 tbs oil
-130g fresh milk or water

What to Do:
Mix together flour and baking powder, sift twice. Stir together milk, sugar and oil. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and mix well, knead for about 5 mins. Rest dough for 10 mins, wrap filling and steam. Done!

Note:
Flour and baking powder must be mixed well and sifted twice to ensure the paus will be white and fluffy. Recipe makes enough dough for about 12 large "dai paus" or 24 small sweet/dimsum/char siu paus. The paus will puff up and double in size when steamed so space them accordingly in the steamer.

Mushrooms in mock mushroom paste

Ingredients

200 g fresh mushrooms

1 carrot

1 canned mock mushroom paste

chopped coriander leaves

pepper

Method

1. Wash mushrooms and sliced thickly. Skinned and shred carrot.

2. Heat pan with oil, add in mushroom and carrot and simmer for 2-3 minutes.

3. Stir in the canned mock mushroom paste and chopped coriander leaves.

4. Dash with pepper and off fire.

Simple vegetable curry

Ingredients

200 g coco plat or hariot vert

1 carrot

5 big fresh mushrooms

egg (opt)

5 small dao po

curry powder

1 tsp cumin powder

semi thick cream milk

water

salt

Method

1. Sliced thinly the coco plat and shred carrot. Bring a pot of water to boil, pour in the prepared vegetables and allowed simmer for 3-5 minutes. Drain.

2. Wash fresh mushroom, removing any soil and slice thickly. Hard boiled the egg and deshelled when cool. Sliced moderately the dao po and set aside.

3. Heat a pot with some oil, pour in the mushroom and stir fry about 2 minutes. Put in the cooked vegetables, dao po and mixed well.

4. Add in some water, curry powder, cumin powder and salt. Carefully put in the egg and blend well with the rest.

5. Dilute a few tablespoons of cream with some water. Stir well and slowly add into the curry pot. Serve hot.

Note: cream milk is used here to avoid too much fattening from coconut milk.

Mixed Vegetable pot

Ingredients

2 stalks celery

1 carrot

1 canned straw mushroom

1 piece of dao kwa

1 tbsp mushroom sauce

pepper

Method

1. Washed celery and sliced it slantly. Skinned carrot and wedge it. Empty the canned mushroom and sliced each into halve. Dao kwa cut into blocks and slightly stir fry in a pan with oil. Dish up.

2. Heat the pan with oil, put in the carrot and straw mushrooms and stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add in the celery and dao kwa and mixed well.

3. Add in the mushroom sauce and pepper. Allow simmer for another 2 minutes. Dish up and serve hot.

Bắp Hầm (Vietnamese Style Grits)

Ingredients:
-300g crushed hominy
-100g sweet rice (aka glutinous rice)
-pandan leaves (optional)
-toasted sesame seeds
-salt
-sugar
-fresh grated coconut

What to Do:
Mix together hominy and rice; rinse and soak overnight. Drain and add enough water to cover the surface of the rice and hominy by approx. 1 1/2". Simmer with pandan leaves until all of the water is absorbed and the hominy is tender (about 30-45mins). Serve with sugar, coconut, pinch of salt and toasted sesame seeds.

Note:
If all of the water has evaporated and the hominy is still not tender; just add more water and continue to simmer until done.

Apam Sri Ayu - Steamed Pandan Sponge Cake with Grated Coconut

Ingredients:
-1/2 recipe basic spongefon cake
-approx 150g grated coconut
-2 tbs tapioca starch

What to Do:
Make the pandan variation of spongefon cake. Mix together coconut and starch. Lightly grease cake moulds and fill about 1/3 with coconut mixture. "Pack" the coconut down with you fingers. Fill the remainder of the mould with cake batter. Steam cakes for about 15 mins, lifting the lid of the steamer every 5 mins to release excess steam.

Dao Kwa Salad

Ingredients

2 big Dao Kwa

a handful of bean sprout

2 tbsp mushroom sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

some roasted sesame seeds

Method

1. Deep fry the dao kwa till golden brown. Remove and drain. In a pot of boiled water, put in the bean sprout and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. Cut the dao kwa into biteable size and placed it on the plate. Spread the cooked bean sprout on top of the dao kwa.

3. Pour the mushroom sauce and sesame oil on the serving dish. Sprinkle with some dry herbs or fresh coriander leaves and sesame seeds.

Monkey Mushroom with pak choy

Ingredients

1/2 packed of pre-cooked Monkey mushroom

1 medium side carrot

1 packet of Cantonese pak choy

1 tbsp mushroom sauce

pepper

sesame oil

Method

1. Sliced monkey mushroom and set aside. Cut pak choy as shown in the picture, rinse and drained. Sliced carrot and halved it to create the slant wedge look.

2. Heat pan with oil, put in pak choy and carrot. Allow simmer for 2-3 minutes, add in the monkey mushroom and mixed well.

3. Add in mushroom sauce, pepper and sesame oil. Blend well, dish up and serve hot.

Tofu Combi 2

Ingredients

1 case of tofu

1 green capsicum

1 tomato

1 small carrot

seasoning

fresh coriander leaves

Method

1. Drain away excess water from the tofu. Deseed capsicum and cut into diamond shape. Tomato cut into chunks and carrot into cubes.

2. Heat the pan with oil, put in carrot cubes and stir fry for 2 minutes and followed by capsicum and tomato. Mixed well.

3. Add in the tofu and messed it with the utensil. Seasoning and dish up after 2-3 minutes. Serve hot and garnish with coriander leaves.

Champignons de Paris Aperitif

Ingredients

1 canned canned button mushroom (small)
some provence de herbs
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 small ginger slice
a few twigs of coriander leaves
1 tbsp olive oil
200 ml apple cider
1 tsp of white or black peppercorns(opt)

Method

1. Empty the liquid from the canned, and pour into a bowl.

2. Pour boiling water to the mushroom and soaked for 2 minutes. Sterilised a glass bot with cap in a pot of boiling water for 2-3 minutes. Dish up and leave to cool.

3. Drain completely the mushroom and put all into the glass bottle, with all the ingredients mentioned above.

4. Closed tight with cap, tilt the bottle upside down a few times to get all mixed well.

5. Keep in the fridge for preservation until 3-7 days later.

Radish Pickled

Ingredients

1 bunch of radish (fresh)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sesame oil

Method

1. Cut the leaves stalks and set aside.

2. Rinse the radish, and sliced it round in shape.

3. Sprinkled salt and add in the sesame oil. Mix well with spoon and allow marinate for at least 30 minutes.

4. Drain away excess liquid and serve for porridge or rice with other dishes.


(note: For the leaves, rinse thoroughly incase of sand. Bring a pot of water to boil, put in the leaves and add seasoning. Dash with pepper and serve hot.)

Long Beans scrambled eggs

Ingredients

100 g long beans

2 eggs

2 tbsp light soya sauce

pepper

Method

1. Discard the end stalks of the long beans, rinse and cut into smaller stalks as shown in the pic.

2. Prepared 2 beaten eggs with light soya sauce.

3. Heat the pan with oil, and stir fry the long beans for about 5 minutes.

4. Pour in the beaten eggs, spreading around coating the long beans. Add pepper.

5. Allow to set alittle before cutting the eggs into pieces mixing with the long beans.

6. Off fire, dish up and serve hot or cold.

Seaweed Noodle Soup

Ingredients
(serve 2)

5 sheets roasted sushi seaweed
1 canned mock braised duck
5-6 fresh mushrooms (opt)
600 ml water
200 g spaghetti/yellow mee
bean sprout (opt)
2 tbsp dark soya sauce
pepper and salt

Method

1. Cut roasted seaweed into pieces and soaked into a pot with water for cooking.

2. Add dark soya sauce and seasoning, and bring to boil.

3. Rinse and slice fresh mushroom, stir fry without oil for 2-3 minutes. Dish up. Sliced mock braised duck and set aside.

4. For serving, put enough noodle in a bowl and scoop soup onto it. Garnish with mushroom and mock duck. Dash with pepper and serve immediately.

Note: Do offer your own choices of ingredients for garnish...

DIY Yu Sheng

Ingredients

(served 2)

2 leaves of iceberg - shred

1 carrot - shred

a handful of cooked bean sprouts

2 oranges - cut into slices

1 fuji apple - shred

2 tbsp grinded peanuts

1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds

Sauce

2 tbsp vegetarian mushroom sauce }

1 tbsp sugar } mixed well

2 tbsp lemon juice }

OR

1 tbsp honey }

2 tbsp lemon juice } mixed well

Additional choices of fruits like pineapples, pears, pomelos and etc...

Optional with potato chips, cashew nuts or other veg crackers...