Chicken Wings in Lemon & Ginger Sauce

It seems that chicken wings won’t be enough whenever they are cooked for my family. My daughter is a chicken wing lover. As it’s quite easy to cook and there are many different ways of cooking chicken wings, I love cooking for her. Here comes her favourite dish, chicken wings in lemon and ginger sauce. The taste of this dish that is mainly sweet & sour, blended with the heat of ginger makes the chicken wings irresistible. I think I have to double the size if I cook this dish again. While eating the wings, my daughter asked me why I hadn’t cooked more. The quantity listed here was not even enough for her, let alone for the whole family. Huh….

Ingredients:

• 700 gm chicken wings (middle parts)
• 1 lemon
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 3 to 4 slices of lemon

Marinade:

• 1 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 2 tsp Shaoxing wine
• pinch of pepper

Seasoning:

• 1 1/2 Tbsp honey
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp cornflour
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp water

Method:

1. Cut chicken wings into chunks, and stir in marinade. Set aside for 30 minutes.
2. Heat frying pan with oil over medium heat. Fry chicken wings until both sides are brown (see picture 1). Add grated ginger, cover and cook for a while. Once there are some steam release, cook 2 to 3 minutes more to make sure the chicken wings are cooked through. Toss in seasoning and lemon slices, combine with the chicken wings (see picture 2). Cook until sauce dries up a bit. Dish up. Serve hot.

Steamed Tapioca Red Bean Cake

Look at these mini tapioca cakes with red bean paste inside. Aren’t they lovely? They indeed look gorgeous when presented on a serving table in a small or big party. Not only do they look attractive, but also they taste wonderful. One bite one cake, it’s pretty easy to make!

Makes 24 serves

Ingredients:

• 200 gm tapioca
• 85 gm sugar
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 145 gm sweetened red bean paste (canned or cooked by yourself)

Method:

1. Soak tapioca over 1 hour. Rinse and drain well. Add sugar and olive oil, mix well. Set aside for later use.
2. Use a mini non-stick muffin tray or any shape of mould you like. Put 1 teaspoon of tapioca and line evenly on the bottom, up to 1/3 in depth. Then add red bean paste, followed by another layer of tapioca (see picture shown above). Lightly press the surface with your finger or spoon.
3. Steam tapioca over high heat in a wok for 25 minutes with a cover until the tapioca translucent and cooked through.
4. Use a knife to run around each mini tapioca cake. They can easily be taken out from the tray. Serve on a platter.

Tips:

1. The tapioca cake is translucent when it is hot or at room temperature. However, if it’s chilled, it would turn white. So you can reheat the chilled tapioca cake before serving.
2. It’s pretty easy to make red bean paste at home. The ratio of read bean and water is 1:3 in order to cook perfect red bean paste. When the water is dried up, the red bean would be just soft enough but still retain the round shape. Just put 1 part of red bean into 3 parts of boiling water and cook on low-medium heat until really tender. Well, I use ceramic glass top stove to cook. If you use gas instead of electricity, then you have to adjust the heat and time. Add sugar to taste when almost done. The red bean paste can be stored in freezer for 1 to 2 weeks.

If you liked this dessert, you might like the following recipe as well:

Taro & Tapioca Pearl Dessert

Chinese New Year Taro Cake

I have been very busy with cooking Chinese New Year cakes for the past few days. Taro is my favourite food, so it couldn’t be missed out on my cooking list for Chinese New Year. The taro used here was the leftover after making the Taro & Pearl Dessert, and was kept in the freezer until now. It’s indeed a good one, after cooking for a little while, it turned tender enough to my taste. Although it’s not the favourite of my daughter, she still liked to eat some because of the accompanied XO sauce. If any dish can go with any sauce, she would like to eat. Haha…

Taro cake is also one of popular snacks in Hong Kong, that can be easily found in Chinese restaurants. The Chinese word of 糕（gao, means cake or pudding）sounds the same as “rising”, ” growth”, “achieving higher level” in all endeavours. No wonder why Chinese people like eating all kinds of cakes, including this one during Chinese New year season.

Today is the first day of The year of the Ox, coincidentally falls on Australia Day!
Wish you all a prosperous and happy Chinese New Year! Happy “Niu” Year! (“Niu” means ox in Chinese Mandarin, sounds like “new”)

Turnip Cake/Radish Cake (Chinese New Year)

Normally we don’t have any holidays during Chinese New Year season in Australia. As for this year, Chinese New Year coincidentally falls on the same day as Australia Day – 26 January. Fantastic ! We’ll get one day off for celebration. In the meantime, I start to make some Chinese cakes for this special season. The first one is my most favorite, Turnip Cake (aka radish cake).

You can easily find this delicious savory cake served in Chinese restaurants throughout the year. But there’s also a custom to eat this cake on New Year's Day as a symbol of prosperity and rising fortunes. That’s a popular way of thinking in Chinese community anyway.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg Chinese white turnip (daikon)
• 170 gm rice flour
• 4 Tbsp wheat starch
• 40 gm Chinese sausage (臘腸)
• 45 gm Chinese bacon (臘肉)
• 55 gm Chinese dried shrimps
• 60 gm salted radish
• 2 shallots, minced
• 3/4 cup unsalted chicken broth
• pinch of white pepper

Method:

1. Blanch Chinese sausage and Chinese bacon in boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes for cleaning and easy chopping. Drain well and finely diced. Peel the turnip and grate into thick strips. Soak and rinse dried shrimps. Coarsely chop them (if you buy smaller ones, you don’t need to chop them then.) Soak salted radish, rinse well and finely chop.
2. In a big bow, mix the rice flour with wheat flour well.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of oil in a non-stick wok, sauté Chinese sausage and Chinese bacon dices over medium heat. Toss in dried shrimps and salted radish, continue to sauté until aromatic (see picture 1). Set aside.
4. Add another 2 tablespoons of oil, sauté minced shallots. Add grated turnips. Sprinkle white pepper to taste. Pour in chicken broth, bring to a boil, cover and cook until tender and translucent (see picture 2). Remove from heat. Add rice flour and wheat starch, quickly combine all ingredients into a thick batter (see picture 3). Toss in sausages, bacons and shrimps and mix well (see picture 4).
5. Pour the mixture into a greased tray, 8-inch round. Steam over high heat with cover, about 45 to 60 minutes. Check the water level and replenish, if necessary, with boiling water. Insert a chopstick into the middle part. If it comes out clean, the cake is cooked through. Let cool and refrigerate with cover for 4 hours.
6. Cut into pieces, fry both sides until golden brown. Serve hot, accompanying with chili sauce or with soy sauce. Yummy!

Tips:

1. As for preparing Chinese bacon, I used to remove the layer of fat under the rind.
2. The Chinese bacon and sausage would be much easier to chop when they are hot.
3. When cooking turnip, some water would come out. This recipe calls for 3/4 cup of chicken broth. But if you find the turnip is too dry while cooking, you need to add some water into it. The principle is to make the batter thick but not too dry. If you can stir the batter without using any force, the cake would be just right after steaming. Practice makes things perfect anyway.

Tips on buying turnips:

1. Choose the heavy one. That means the turnip consists more water inside.
2. The skin of turnip should be thin and translucent. It’s a young one.
3. If you don’t cook the turnip on the day you buy, trim off the green stem on top. It can be kept for a few days more without growing old and sturdy.

Malaysian Satay Chicken

This satay chicken recipe was from a friend who was a chef in Malaysia. How could it be?

We held a Hong Kong style BBQ party some time ago, grilling foods on charcoal. The Malaysian chef bought some marinated satay chicken to share with us. The chicken was so tempting that nearly everyone there liked it very much. At the end of the party, we all begged him for the recipe. He was so generous to share with us that all of us brought the best thing back home. The best thing is that we can cook this satay chicken whenever we like.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any charcoal BBQ burner at home. So I baked the marinated chicken instead. The meat was very soft and succulent. Comparing with grilling and baking, I’ll vote grilling of course, yet this baked satay chicken didn’t let anyone down in my family. Yummy too! The secret is to use all those spices to marinate chicken for at least one day.

Salmon Fried Rice (Quick Lunch)

Eating raw salmon is our family’s first choice when dining out in Japanese restaurants. We'll make sure they are really fresh and clean of course. Well, this salmon fried rice would be the second one then. With this rice, I can easily feed my family on a small budget. I also tried this dish at home, pretty easy and quick. Best of all, I made this quite-good-looking bowl of fried rice by using the leftovers in my fridge, feeling to have an achievement of being a housewife. Heehee..

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 bowls leftover rice
• 200 gm salmon, cut into small cubes
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 50 gm baby peas (fresh or frozen)
• 1 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• pinch of salt, to taste
• pinch of black pepper
• 2 pieces lettuce
• spring onion (for garnish)

Method:

1. Rinse salmon and wipe dry. Cut into small pieces. Set aside. Blanch baby peas in boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes. Drain well.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan, add whisked eggs to fry until half cooked through. Toss rice in the frying pan and stir fry with the egg quickly until the rice is heated evenly. Push rice to sides of frying pan, Add salmon and peas in the middle, and stir fry for 3-5 minutes until salmon is cooked. It doesn’t need too long as the salmon is quite easily cooked through and the peas has been cooked. Sprinkle with soy sauce, sugar, black pepper. Add salt to your taste. Stir fry for another minute or two. Done. Serve Hot.

Tips:

1. You might like to heat up the leftover rice in a microwave oven to shorten cooking time.
2. I’ve shared some tips on how to fry yummy rice in a previous post. Feel free to take a look.

Changed Blog Title: From Easy Recipes to Christine’s Recipes

Just a quick note that the title of this blog was changed from Easy Recipes to Christine’s Recipes. Why? It’s simply because I’d like this blog sounds more unique and personal. All other things on this blog remain the same. That means I’ll keep on sharing easy and simple recipes that I experimented as usual.

Many thanks to all of you for your support!

Chinese New Year Coconut Pudding

As Chinese New Year is coming around the corner, my daughter begins to ask me what I’m going to cook to celebrate. The first thing came up in my mind was this baked Coconut Pudding. My dear friend, Vivian who came from Malaysia baked one to share with us some time ago. I was impressed because it was so delicious. Vivian told us that her family would bake this coconut pudding to celebrate Chinese New Year in Malaysia. During Chinese New Year, Chinese people would make all kinds of cakes or puddings for friends. I have tried a steamed coconut cake that is very popular in Hong Kong. Honestly speaking, I like this baked one most. So I plan to bake one in the coming New Year season. The delicious taste, fragrant smell and chewy texture will make it a hit with everybody in my family for sure.

Stir-fried Eggplants with Basil (Taiwanese Style Vegetarian Dish)

My experience in eating and cooking with herbs was totally changed because of this dish, eggplants with basil. I was not really into the smell of basil before, not hating it, but I wouldn’t classify it as my favourite. Well, my impression of basil was dramatically changed once I tasted this dish.

Every time when I dined out with my family in any Taiwanese restaurants. They would pick and eat all the basil in the plate, if any. There came a special time, they ordered a dish of eggplants with basil. They urged me to try one or two bites. They said it wouldn’t hurt. I didn’t know why I listened to them at that time. I just tried a bit, immediately I love the taste. The fragrance and sweetness of basil totally reset my memory and change my preference. I love eating basil ever since. Now, whenever I think I can add basil, I would definitely add some in my cooking. I even started to grow several plants of basil in my backyard a few weeks ago. Am I addicted to eating basil right now?

Ingredients:

• 2 or 3 Chinese eggplants (the long and small ones best suit for this dish)
• 1 bunch Chinese basil(sweet basil is also good choice)
• 1/2 tsp crushed yellow bean sauce
• 1/2 tsp chili bean sauce
• 1/2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 cup water

Seasoning:

• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp cornflour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp water
• dash of sesame oil

Method:

1. Rinse eggplants and drain well. Cut into pieces about 1 inch in thickness diagonally. Add a pinch of salt in cold water and soak the eggplants for 15 minutes.
2. Rinse basil and pick leaves for later use.
3. Heat plenty of oil in a wok that is enough to cover all eggplants. Drain eggplants very well and wipe dry with kitchen towel.
4. Deep fry eggplants for a couple of minutes until tender. Drain eggplants and put on kitchen towel to absorb excess oil.
5. Pour out the oil from wok and leave a tablespoon of oil to sauté minced garlic, crushed yellow bean sauce and chili bean sauce. When you smell the aroma, toss in eggplants and stir well. Add water to cook until the eggplants are cooked through and really soft with less water remaining. Pour into seasoning, stir quickly and add basil. After adding basil, don’t cook too long. Turn off the heat. Let the heat of the sauce cook basil for a while. Dish up. Serve hot.

Tips:

1. Do not cook the basil too long. You don’t want the basil either too raw or overcooked. Use the remaining heat of the sauce to cook basil, you will just get it exactly right in taste and texture.
2. You have to be very sure that the eggplants are dry enough before putting them in hot oil. If there’s any water, the hot oil would be splashed out then. It’s very dangerous. Be cautious!
3. You can recycle the oil that deep fry the eggplants to sauté vegetables or cook other foods.

Pan-fried Buns with Chives and Minced Pork Filling

Ever tried this delicious Chinese pan-fried pork buns (韭菜豬肉餡餅)? You might have known or even tried the famous and popular Chinese dumplings (餃子 jiaozi). Dumplings and buns are two different kinds of Chinese snacks anyway. The pan-fried buns shown here are more or less like pan-fried dumplings (煎餃子 jian jiaoz) in taste, with totally different shape and texture. Well, the ingredients called for in this recipe are similar to making pan-fried dumplings. Even better, you don’t need to worry about the appearance of them whether they would look good or not, because it’s pretty easy to seal the buns. Best of all, you can wrap as much meat as you like for meat lovers who would really enjoy the juicy and succulent filling inside, yet with thinner wrapper outside.

Makes 10 buns

Ingredients:

• 180 gm plain flour
• 6 Tbsp hot water, about 80C
• 3 Tbsp cold water
• 170 gm Chinese chives (available at Asian grocery stores)
• 160 gm minced pork
• 1 tsp minced garlic

Seasoning for minced pork:

• 1 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp cornflour
• 1/2 tsp chicken stock powder
• 1 tsp Shaoxing wine
• Pinch of salt, to taste
• dash of sesame oil
• pinch of pepper

Method (making filling):

1. Rinse chives and briefly blanch in boiling water until just tender. Drain well and let cool. Squeeze water out of the chives and chopped into small pieces. Set aside.
2. Add seasoning, minced garlic and chopped chives into minced pork. Blend all ingredients towards only one direction, either clockwise or anti-clockwise according to your preference, no turning backwards though. This method will ensure the pork stick together very well. Mix pork very well until elastic, about 15 minutes. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. The filling is done (see the picture 1 above).

Method (making and frying buns):

1. Sift flour into a big bowl. Add 6 tablespoons of 80C hot water into the flour. Use a spatula to mix well and create some little flour crumbs (see picture 2).
2. Add 1 tablespoon of cold water at a time into the flour. Use hand to knead the dough until the surface is not sticky (see picture 3). Brush a bit of oil on the bottom of a bowl, place dough inside and covered with a damp towel. Let sit for 30 minutes.
3. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead a few times until smooth. Roll and stretch the dough out into a long strip, about 1 1/2 inches in thickness. Divide into 10 equal parts. Roll each part into a small ball. Lightly flatten with your palm and roll out into a thin, even round using a rolling pin. (see picture 4). Wrap a heaped teaspoon of filling in the center. Seal the edge (Trim excess dough on the seal if you like, it tastes and looks better then.) with the seal facing down. (see picture 5 & 6).
4. Heat non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of oil. Place wrapped pork buns in a single layer without touching with each other. Fry them until both sides are light brown. Add 1/2 cup of boiling water, cover with a lid and cook until the water dries up. Done! Serve hot, accompanied with a zesty dipping sauce, combining soy sauce, vinegar and chili sauce.

Note: If you'd like to trim the sealing, you can reuse the excess dough when you wrap the next bun. The last one would be a bit bigger of course. You have nine perfect buns, not too bad though.

Mini Banana Walnut Muffins

Muffin is one of my family’s favourite snacks, simple and easy to make. My daughter just likes them baked with bananas. And I love walnuts very much. So, I planned to put both of them together to suit the taste of both of us. Yet, this plan was aborted! Why? She protested to eat any walnuts in her muffins. I simply put some walnuts in mine and hers just with bananas. Problem solved !

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients:

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas (smashed)
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup walnuts (optional, toasted and chopped)
• pinch of salt

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. With a spatula or wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.
2. Add brown sugar, egg and vanilla, mix well. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and stir well.
3. Add the flour, mix well and fold in the chopped walnuts.
4. Pour mixture into a muffin tin. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the center of a muffin, if it comes out clean, it’s done. Cool on a rack.

Fried Chicken with Ginger (Japanese Style)

This dish is very like Japanese cuisine, actually evolved from the previous recipe, Japanese Pork Chops in Ginger Sauce. This recipe calls for hashed ginger, not grated ginger sauce, that would make chicken fillet much more unique in taste. You can use ginger sauce if you don’t like it too hot in taste, of course.

Ingredients:

• 300 gm chicken breast fillet
• 2 Tbsp ginger, hashed
• 1/2 onion, cut into strips
• 1/2 capsicum, cut into pieces
• salt, to taste

Marinade:

• 1 Tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
• 2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp cornflour
• dash of sesame oil
• pinch of pepper

Seasoning:

• 1 1/2 Tbsp Japanese soya sauce
• 2 Tbsp sake (Japanese cooking wine)
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• pinch of pepper

Method:

1. Skin and trim fat from chicken breast fillet, rinse, wipe dry and cut into lengths. Stir in marinade and leave for 20 minutes.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil to sauté onion until translucent. Add capsicum and cook until tender. Sprinkle salt to taste. Set aside.
3. Add more oil to pan over medium heat to sauté chicken till almost done. Remove, let sit on kitchen towel to soak up excess oil for later use.
4. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil to sauté hashed ginger. When you smell the aroma of ginger, toss in chicken fillet, sprinkle wine and pour in seasoning mixture, add onion and capsicum. Cover lid to stew ingredients for 1 minute until cooked through and sauce dry up. Dish up, serve hot.

Best Pancakes (Favorite Dessert for Afternoon Tea)

I really like to commend these pancakes because they were made by my lovely daughter for our afternoon tea the other day. I had no idea of where she found this recipe. Before she headed into our kitchen, I suggested that she could use cake flour instead of plain flour as it would make a big difference in producing softer and smoother pancakes. And she did take my advice. (Hehe…. )The pancakes that she made tasted delicious and looked perfect.

Despite of enjoying the pancakes, the very best part that I enjoyed was being served by my daughter. What a precious experience that I’d treasure in my heart! I believe she would cook better than me some day.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cake flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp caster sugar
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 eggs, lightly whisk
• 60 gm butter, melted

Method:

1. In a bowl, combine sifted flour, baking powder and sugar.
2. In another bowl, add milk and melted butter into whisked eggs. Stir well and pour into the flour mixture. Let sit for 10 minutes.
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan over low heat. Add or spray a little bit of oil on frying pan. Pour 1/4 cup of pancake mixture into frying pan. Gently spread out with the back of a spoon evenly to a round shape. Cook pancakes in batches, each for 2 minutes or until bubbles appear on surface. Turn over and cook the other side until cooked through. Serve with maple syrup, or with strawberry, banana and any fruit you like.

Happy New Year

While 2008 winding down, I'd like to say THANK YOU to those who visit this blog frequently or just drop by coincidentally. On this blog, Easy Recipes, although I have not posted as frequently as on my other recipe blog in Chinese, I know many of my readers are very loyal and keep checking out if there are any recipes translated and published here. Many thanks to you all! I hope that I can squeeze more time to do what I’d like to do in 2009, like posting more frequently on Easy Recipes.

Wish you have a wonderful and happy new year. 

Eat well, cook with joy and enjoy good health!