Waffle (Hong Kong Style) Recipe

Waffle is a very popular street snack sold by hawkers in Hong Kong. It has got another special name, “grid cake” (格仔餅) as it is cooked in a larger waffle mould, round in shape and divided into four quarters. Generally Hong Kong style waffle is spread with butter, peanut butter and white sugar, then folded into a semi circle, wrapped in a paper bag. People just grab the hot waffle and eat while walking away. You have to pay before going of course. Some dessert cafés in Hong Kong would also offer different flavours, like strawberry, chocolate sauce and honey to suit different tastes.

This waffle was really a comfort food to me especially when I was on the way home after school in winters. I only paid two dollars and was able to keep my stomach full and warm. I bought a waffle maker in the first few months of moving to Australia so that I can make this Hong Kong style waffle whenever I desire. Making this comfort snack becomes so much easy and handy.

Makes 3

Ingredients

• 120 gm cake flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 20 gm caster sugar
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk (or milk)
• 50 gm melted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• water, to adjust

Method:

1. Stir caster sugar into whisked eggs until dissolved completely. Pour in milk. Add melted butter and vanilla extract. Stir well. Sift in flour together with baking powder and combine well. Set aside for 10 minutes. Add some water to suit your preferred thickness of batter as the batter would become a bit thicker after setting aside for a while.
2. Pour 1/2 cup of batter into a preheated waffle maker. Cook until lightly brown. Done.

Note:

The serving of waffle in traditional Hong Kong style is quite unique. Spread butter, peanut butter, condensed milk, sprinkle with white sugar. Fold in half and enjoy. Having said that, these extras are optional, depending on individual preferences.

Waffle with vanilla ice-cream is a good choice as well.

Beef Fillet with Mushroom and Red Wine Sauce

Although I don’t drink wine, I really love cooking with red wine. The red wine brings out all the best flavours of meat, especially with beef. To me, it was a successful experiment of cooking beef fillets topped with red wine sauce using this Cabernet Sauvignon 2000 because this dish completely pleased my whole family in 2000. Well, this red wine was a gift from a travel agent when I bought air-tickets for my family back to Hong Kong. I stored the red wine in my pantry immediately after taking from the travel agent and didn’t touch it until now.

I can’t describe how delicious this red wine sauce was. The sour taste of Balsamic vinegar cut through the beef making you feel more craving. So be cautious!

Ingredients:

• 3 to 4 steak fillets
• 1 onion, shredded
• 250 gm button mushrooms, sliced
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp olive oil

• 1 tsp crushed garlic
• 1 Tbsp parsley, chopped
• 2 tsp thyme, chopped

• 3/4 cup dry red wine
• 1/4 cup chicken stock (or beef stock)
• 1 1/2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp seeded mustard
• 3 Tbsp thickened cream
• A pinch of black pepper

Thickening:

• 1 1/2 tsp cornflour
• 1 Tbsp water

Seasoning:

• 2 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp cooking wine
• 1 tsp mustard

Method:

1. Rinse steak fillets and drain well. Absorb moist with kitchen paper. Marinate with seasoning for 15 minutes. Set aside.
2. Melt butter over medium heat in a frying-pan. Sauté onion until translucent. Add crushed garlic and mushrooms. Cook until all ingredients soften. Stir in parsley and thyme.
3. Pour in red wine, chicken stock and Balsamic vinegar. Bring it to a boil. Slow heat to low and simmer.
4. While cooking red wine sauce, heat up a non-stick pan. Add oil and cook marinated steak fillets to your preferred doneness. Place on a warm plate, covered.
5. Turn up the heat to high and cook red wine sauce. Add seeded mustard, black pepper and cream. Bring it to a boil. Stir in thickening and cook to your preferred consistency. Pour sauce onto the cooked steak fillets. Serve hot.

Red Bean Mochi Recipe

Mochi is one of our family’s favourite desserts which is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice. One of the many Japanese confections such as daifuku, that is mochi stuffed with sweet fillings, like sweetened red bean paste, is very popular around the world. You can stuff any other sweet fillings you like in mochi. No wonder mochi is widely welcome by different people with different tastes.

Its sticky texture is a challenge to handle. My good friend, Juanna, gave this mochi recipe to me. I found it’s simple and easy to follow. I tried several times. Every time my family and I were very satisfied with the results. Many thanks to her.

Makes 12

Ingredients

• 220 gm glutinous rice flour
• 110 gm sugar
• 200 ml coconut milk (or milk)
• desiccated coconut (or fried glutinous rice flour) to coat mochi

Red bean paste ingredients:

• 1/2 cup red beans
• 1 1/2 cup water
• rock sugar to taste

Method:

1. Combine glutinous rice flour with sugar well. Gradually stir in coconut milk (or milk) until smooth.
2. Transfer flour mixture in a greased shallow plate (see picture 1), steam over high heat with cover for 30 minutes, or until cooked through (see picture 2). Use a chop stick to test if it’s cooked. If not much flour mixture sticks to the chop stick, it’s done. Let cool down a bit until you don’t feel too hot to handle.
3. Transfer to a greased surface. Cut into 12 even small portions. Knead each into a small disc. Spoon red bean paste in the middle (see picture 3). Fold the edge to seal the mochi. Lightly roll it into a ball shape using both palms, then coat with desiccated coconut. The alternative way to coat mochi is to use cooked glutinous rice flour. Fry some extra glutinous rice flour on a non-stick frying-pan over medium-low heat without any oil. Let it cook for 3 minutes until aromatic. Don’t let it burn by all means. After the cooked flour cools down a bit, you can use it to coat mochi.

How to make red bean paste:

1. Rinse red beans and soak for 3 hours. Drain well. Add red beans in boiling water to cook over medium-low heat with cover until soften. The proportion of red beans and water I usually follow is 1:3, and cook over my electric ceramic stove. When all the water is vaporized, the red beans are cooked, resulting with very soft texture, yet sustaining the whole shape of red bean. I just love this kind of red bean paste, not too hard but not too soggy.
2. While half the water is gone, add rock sugar to taste. When it’s almost done, taste by yourself to adjust the sweetness of the red bean paste. Add some raw sugar to adjust the sweetness if needed.

Tips:

1. The plate you use to steam glutinous rice flour should be big and shallow. Spread flour mixture thin in it. Otherwise it takes forever to be cooked through.
2. Glutinous rice flour is pretty sticky in its own nature even when is cooked. If the flour is steamed for enough time, it’s all right even though it still sticks to your chopstick a bit. If you don’t taste any uncooked-flour flavour, it’s cooked and can use it to wrap fillings.

Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Generally speaking, it’s pretty croweded in every restaurant on Mother’s Day, so we didn’t really want to dine out. Yet my family suggested that I should have a day off from kitchen, at least not cooking for dinner as usual. Then came an idea from my daughter. She would like to bake a chicken and mushroom pie for us. My husband said it was a nice Mother’s Day present that was better than those bought from gift shops. Thus, I didn’t need to cook, yet was quite busy around in the kitchen, giving a bit of coaching to my daughter and taking photos of her cooking. When the pie came out from the oven, I couldn’t wait to taste it. The creamy fillings and the puffy pastry made me a memorable Mother’s Day. Together with pumpkin soup and garlic bread, I was so full to take any dessert.

Serves 3

Ingredients:

• 350 gm skinless chicken breast, cut into chunks
• 100 gm button mushrooms, halved if large
• 20 gm butter
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 celery, chopped
• 8-10 green beans, diced
• 1/3 carrot, diced
• 3/4 cup salt-reduced chicken stock
• 25 gm plain flour
• 100 ml pure cream
• 2 Tbsp parsley, coarsely chopped
• 1 puff pastry, defrosted
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp milk

Marinade:

• 2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp cornflour
• a pinch of pepper

Method:

1. Rinse chicken and drain well, chop into chunks. Marinate for 15 minutes. Heat oil in frying-pan, cook chicken for 5 minutes, until lightly brown. Set aside.
2. Melt butter on medium. Sauté onion, celery, carrot and green beans until soften. Add flour and cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring, to make a paste. Gradually stir in stock and cream. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir through mushrooms and chicken. Season, stir in parsley.
3. Preheat oven to 200C (392F). Roll out pastry on a floured surface. Place a 4 cup-capacity pie dish upside down on pastry. Cut around dish. Cut out leaves from excess pastry to decorate and damp with a bit of water to place onto the pastry. Cut a 1cm slit in center of lid.
4. Spoon chicken mixture into pie dish. Top with pastry and crimp edges to seal. Whisk together egg and milk. Brush over pastry. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden. Serve hot.

Pork Fillet Adobo Recipe

Before moving to Australia, I employed a domestic helper from Philippines because my life was hectic and I felt too tired to cook any meals after busy work. Interestingly, I haven’t tried my domestic helper’s hometown cuisine. Maybe she thought that we wouldn’t be interested.

Recently, I came across this Pork Adobo that is quite popular around Southern Asia. As I am very curious about what “Adobo” means. I didn’t know the meaning of this strange word “Adobo” until I searched on the internet. Here’s the quote from Wikipedia, “Adobo is the Spanish word for seasoning or marinade. The noun form is used to describe the actual marinade or seasoning mix, and the term used for a meat which has been marinated or seasoned with an adobo is referred to having been adobada.”

This dish looks very easy and simple. So I tried to use Adobo to cook with pork chops. Our family was very satisfied with its taste. The sauce is sweet and sour in taste with authentic oriental flavour. Best served with rice.

Serves 3

Ingredients:

• 430 gm boneless pork chops
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tomato
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• Parsley or spring onion, for garnish

Marinade:

• 2 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger sauce
• 1 tsp cooking wine
• a dash of white pepper
• a pinch of salt

Seasoning:

• 1 1/2 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 1/2 Tbsp white vinegar
• 3 Tbsp water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 tsp paprika powder
• 1/4 tsp freshly grated black pepper

Method:

1. Rinse pork chops and drain well. Cut into smaller pieces and marinate for at lease 25 minutes.
2. Heat oil in wok or frying-pan. Cook pork chops until both sides are lightly brown. Push pork chops to sides of frying-pan. Add onion and garlic in the middle. Sauté until tender and brown, around 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Pour in seasonings. Bring it to a boil. Slower the heat to low, and cook for 15 minutes with a cover, until sauce thickens. Add brown sugar and stir until completely dissolves. Toss in tomato and cook for a while. Sprinkle parsley or spring onion. Serve with hot white rice.

Red Bean Pudding Recipe

Red beans are very nutritious food. They are low in fat and calories while high in protein, fiber, and minerals. Not only do I like their nutrition, but also their tender texture. They are good ingredients for dessert, especially for Chinese steamed ones. You might find this red bean pudding in some vintage Chinese restaurants or vegetarian restaurants. The red beans inside their puddings might be less than you want though. So, do-it-yourself at home would be the best way of tasting perfect red bean pudding because you could tailor-make the pudding with the exact amount of red beans you like.

There are various types of red beans. Keep in mind that the Azuki beans are commonly used in Chinese dessert, not the (Red type) ricebeans which are the correct ones for traditional Chinese medicine.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup red beans (about 227 gm)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/4 cup wheat flour
• 1/4 cup corn flour
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 4 cups water

Method:

1. Bring 3 cups of water into a boil. Add red beans, covered. Lower heat to medium-low and cook until red beans soften. Check the water level and replenish, if necessary, with boiling water. There should not be too much water left when the red beans are cooked and become tender (see picture shown).
2. While cooking red beans, combine rice flour, wheat flour, corn flour, sugar and oil with 1 cup of water. Pour into the cooked red beans.
3. Cook the mixture over medium heat. Stir constantly.
4. Transfer mixture into a greased tray, 8-inch round. Steam over high heat with lid on for 1 hour. Test with a chopstick or toothpick. If it comes out clean, the red bean cake is cooked through. Cool completely. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours, or until set  Cut into pieces to serve.

Note:

• Use thick-based saucepan or non-stick pot to cook the batter. Otherwise the batter would stick to the bottom of your saucepan. 
  

Shrimp, Avocado and Dragon Fruit Salad Recipe

When summer comes, salad is a very popular dish on our table. This shrimp and avocado salad is our family’s favourite one. In last summer, I added one more healthy and terrific fruit in it. Guess what? It’s dragon fruit, a very delicious and nutritious fruit. There are two varieties of dragon fruit, one with bright red flesh and the other white, both have tiny black seeds. I bought the white one this time, adding my salad a striking colour.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 150 gm medium shrimps (prawns), cooked, peeled, and deveined
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 ripe avocado
• 120 gm lettuce (butter lettuce or red leaf lettuce)
• 1/2 lime, juice
• 1/2 dragon fruit

Method:

1. Combine olive oil, lime juice and minced garlic in a bowl. If the shrimps are too big, chop them into halves. Toss in shrimps and coat with oil mixture well.
2. Rinse lettuce and drain well. Arrange leaves of lettuce at the bottom of a large serving bowl or platter. Cut dragon fruit in half (see picture shown above). Use the tip of a sharp knife to cut cubes. Spoon out the cubes. The middle ones might be too long, cut into half then. Set aside.
3. Use similar method to cut avocado in half. I normally don’t use sharp knife to remove the stone of avocado. Instead, I just use a small spoon to run around the stone, and then safely and easily spoon out the avocado stone. Cut avocado into dices, spoon out.
4. Place half of the avocado cubes on lettuce. Add marinated shrimps, then followed by the other half of avocado. Toss in dragon fruit. Done.

Note:

• You can adjust the amount of lime juice to your taste.