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.

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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.

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Turnip Cake/Radish Cake (Chinese New Year)

Turnip Cake (aka radish cake) is a must-eat snack during Chinese New Year traditionally. You also easily find it at many dim sum restaurants through out the year though.

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).

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Satay Beef with Vermicelli Noodles

Satay beef with vermicelli noodles are traditionally cooked in an earthen pot (clay pot), a very popular dish on many Chinese restaurants' menu.

This dish can be made in an earthen pot (clay pot), or any kind of deep pots, very simple and easy to make. The vermicelli noodles took up and absorbed all the flavours of the delicious satay sauce, beef and vegetables.

I’m particularly fond of consuming the noodles and don’t need any rice at all, yet it’s a dish perfectly going with a bowl of steamed rice. Making this dish is very flexible. You can add as many vegetables as you like.

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