Pumpkin Mochi Cake

Every year when Thanksgiving is coming around the corner, we might think of the tasty pumpkin pie. How wonderful it would be when this traditional Thanksgiving dessert is served after an enjoyable Thanksgiving dinner.

Quite often, I feel a bit weird of living down under here, while Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming closer, but the weather getting hotter and hotter. Sometimes It comes to the point that I don’t want to turn on the stove, let alone the oven. Being a home cook, I feel the hot weather is a hindrance to enjoy cooking. Here come these cute pumpkin mochi cakes served perfectly in such a situation, but when I'm still craving some warm pumpkin dessert. Best of all, the dessert can be finished within half an hour, and help my family to feel the atmosphere of Thanksgiving.

But for this year, I and my family would experience an extremely special Thanksgiving. We will travel on that day overseas. The whole family will be enjoying the company of each other in Tokyo, Japan for a week. Yay!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! Enjoy every moment of being with your loved ones! Sure, I’ll moderate and respond to your comments whenever I have access to internet during the stay in Japan.

Stir Fried Shredded Beef with Preserved Vegetable (味菜牛柳絲)

Whenever this classic Chinese dish, Stir Fried Shredded Beef with Preserved Vegetableis put in front of me, I’d definitely eat more rice. You can’t image how tasty the sweet and sour preserved vegetable would be, that goes so well with the tender stir-fried beef.

In Chinese cooking, there is a variety of preserved vegetables that can be used. For this dish, it has to use the one that is also known as pickled Chinese mustard (味菜 or 酸菜, Suan Cai), fermented by pickling with salt and brine. To prepare the suan cai, it only involves three steps: soaking in salted water, rinse with plenty of water and stir-frying with vinegar and sugar to adjust the taste to preference. I learned the trick from my mother-in-law, who is experienced in cooking suan cai.

When it comes to cooking suan cai, an important note for all my readers who love Chinese cuisine: we have to use the stainless steel wok or pan to cook it for the sake of health, because stainless steel won’t react to vinegar at any temperature

Banana Cake Recipe

Banana cake is very popular in Hong Kong style bakery shops. Since banana is quite expensive in Hong Kong, not all bakery shops have banana cakes available. When we moved to Australia, we could easily find beautiful and cheap Australian bananas. Not long, the price of bananas was going up.

Bananas were extremely expensive in 2006, about three years ago. The price increased across the country by 400-500%, rising as high as $13-35/kg. The normal price was about $2-3/kg before that year. Sometimes we could get good quality bananas below one dollar per kg if supermarkets put them on sale. The increased price of bananas was due to the shortage of banana supply after a severe cyclone that destroyed 80 to 90% of Australia's banana crop. Australia is relatively free of banana pests and diseases, and therefore does not allow bananas to be imported. (Hop over to take a look at the detailed report via wikipedia if interested)

Now, we’re really glad that banana supply is back to normal, yet the price has increased significantly since then.

My family loves eating this healthy fruit very much, to the point that we can’t live without it everyday. So when bananas are on sale or in season, I’d buy as many as we can consume. Then I’ll reserve some to wait them ripe enough and bake this beautiful and tasty banana cake.

Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies

Last week my friend SK brought some cookies to a luncheon gathering and shared with us. They were the most crunchy and delicious cookies that I’ve ever tasted. It got me recall the old fashioned peanut butter cookies with criss-cross pattern, a favourite treat for young kids. Yet, the cookies made by my friend were a bit different from the old-fashioned ones as she added some extras, including some nuts and chocolate chips. I asked for her recipe of course. Thanks so much for her generosity. All ingredients in this peanut butter cookie recipe are blended and balanced so well. I like her idea of adding the extras. So I followed her recipe and mixed in some petitas, sunflower kernels as well as a bit of pine nuts. It turned out really good, enriched with more texture of natural nuts. You might like to omit the extras and retain the traditional taste of peanut butter cookies, or replace with peanuts if you desire though.

Pork Chops with Vegetable Rice (排骨菜飯)

I was bumped into some foreigners in Asian stores and asked about how to cook baby bok choy for a several times. It seems that western people are getting to know and like this kind of Chinese vegetable. In Hong Kong, there’s a trend of cooking baby bok choy with rice, that was originated from Shaighai cooking. And this Pork Chops with Vegetable Rice (排骨菜飯) is a famous Shaighai cuisine, suitable for home cooking as well. When it comes to cooking this dish, the pork chops has to be deep-fried. Well, I don’t quite like to do deep-frying in home cooking simply because of saving some oil and money. Hehe…

So I just pan-fried the pork chops and add some fish sauce. Yes, I know….. I know that fish sauce is Thai sauce. Oh, that’s my kind of cooking, adding bits of yummy sauce from the fridge to my liking. I found these pork chops tasted heavenly after mixing with the fish sauce. If you want to maintain the authentic Shaighai taste of this dish, then not to add any fish sauce. That’s it.

Shepherd’s Pie (A touch of Oriental Taste)

This classic Shepherd’s pie is well-known to many people living in western countries. Yet I didn’t know or even ever had a chance to see or taste this delicious pie before moving to Australia. In Hong Kong, we have all pies that are made of pastry, either crust or puff one. I love making this Shepherd’s pie. Not only does it taste heavenly, but also easy to make due to no pastry needed at all. My daughter loves this pie very much and requested me to make for her again and again. You’ll notice my Shepherd’s pie is a bit different from those of original ones because I adapted Chinese marinade in seasoning beef, adding a touch of oriental taste.

Walnut Butter Pound Cake

I still remember that my father often brought some cakes back home after work, saying those cakes were redeemed from gift cards given by friends. Inside the beautiful box, there were dozen of assorted cakes. Among them, there was always a piece of walnut butter cake that was my favourite. My four other siblings also liked it very much. How could a piece of cake be enough for the whole family? This question always came up in my mind: why not all of them were walnut butter cakes? Now, I don't have this problem at all, as I’d bake a walnut butter cake, big enough for the whole family. Not only can everybody have one piece, but also as many as they want.