Braised Vegetables with Red Fermented Beancurd (南乳炆齋)

This is a must-eat dish during Chinese New Year. Needless to say, I grew up with this Braised Vegetables with Red Fermented Beancurd dish. The red fermented beancurd is the soul ingredient to make all vegetables sing.

During Chinese New Year, we’d have plenty of delicious snacks, desserts and great meals, including lots of meat, like chicken, pork, duck and fish - you name it, you have it.

On the first day of Chinese New Year, my mother used to follow the Chinese tradition and prepare a vegetarian dish. It’s cooked in a large amount and kept in a large pot. Whenever a lunch or dinner is set on our table during Chinese New Year, this vegetarian dish would be served as a side dish as well.

Read More

Baked Red Bean Coconut Cake (Chinese New Year)

The texture of this red bean coconut cake is a bit chewy, yet soft and smooth enough for easily digesting. The taste is so delicious. I especially love the crispy edges. This coconut cake is best served warm or hot out of the oven. 

During the busy Chinese New Year’s celebration week, we have lots of different cakes (gao 糕). Yes, we can’t celebrate without all the traditional cakes, radish cake, taro cake (aka yum cake), sticky rice cake and water chestnut cake.

Except for all these must-have cakes, I pretty like this baked coconut cake.

Read More

Chinese New Year Cake (Pressure Cooker + Video)

During CNY, we enjoy this traditional must-eat snack. Whenever any relatives or friends visit us, we'd pan-fry some pieces of this Chinese New Year cake for welcoming them.

It’s still Chinese New Year celebration time until the 15th day of lunar calendar. We enjoy all the delicious snacks, radish cake (pressure cooker recipe), taro cake and Chinese New Year cake (steamed in a wok), especially when getting around with friends and family.

You might find this CNY cake in Chinese dim sum restaurants all year long. This is a popular, traditional cake in Chinese cooking.

When it comes to making this CNY cake, it takes forever to get it cooked through in a wok or steamer. But with an electric pressure cooker, Instant Pot, I can cut short the cooking time a lot. This recipe exactly use up one packet of brown slab sugar (片糖, picture shown here).

Read More

Chinese New Year Cake (Sticky Rice Cake 年糕)

Chinese New Year is a time of enjoying many delicious foods and snacks. One of popular desserts eaten during this festive season is Chinese New Year’s cake (nian gao 年糕), that made with sticky, glutinous rice flour (mochi flour) with brown sugar because it’s symbolic of growing taller, achieving higher every year, that signifies a prosperous year awaiting ahead.

2025 is the year of snake (Chinese zodiac)

It’s often served warm as it is. However, in Hong Kong, people like to have the steamed sticky rice cake, sliced and then pan-fried with egg. If it's pan-fried without egg, the texture would be slightly crispy outside and still pasty inside. When some relatives or friends come to visit them (bai nian拜年), they’d serve the sticky cake warm, with some other snacks, like turnip cake and taro cake.

Update: If you have an electric pressure cooker, Instant Pot, you might like to take a look at this radish recipe with video tutorial.

Read More

Baked Coconut Sticky Rice Cake (Chinese New Year)

This baked coconut sticky rice cake (aka baked Chinese New Year cake) is absolutely tasty. It's a no-brainer recipe. You won't go wrong if you try. I often bake this coconut sticky rice cake for Chinese New Year celebration recently.

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.

(My daughter likes eating coconut pudding with some fresh cream.)

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 in my family for sure.

Read More

Steamed Tofu with Minced Prawn (蝦膠蒸釀豆腐)

Tofu is one of my favourite ingredients in Chinese cooking. Although it’s cheap and common, it could be served in an elegant way to impress my family and friends, just by adding a bit of prawn/shrimp meat paste.

Every time I have this dish, I love taking a close look at the springy prawn ball sitting on top of the silky smooth tofu before taking a big bite. It’s an incredible feeling that you can feel all the flavours bursting out in your mouth at the moment you bite them.

Read More

Golden Pomfret in Spicy Tomato Sauce

The pan-fried golden pomfret is so meaty, going so well with the delicious spicy tomato sauce, with a touch of sweet and tangy taste. This dish is very appetizing and comforting. It can be served with a bowl of steamed rice.

I’ve tried to cook golden pomfret with Sriracha sauce and tomato sauce several times. My family loved this dish very much.

Read More