Braised Shiitake Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce

This classic braised shiitake mushrooms in oyster sauce delivers plump, meaty mushrooms simmered in a rich, velvety glaze that elevates any family gathering or holiday meal. A staple dish for Chinese New Year and special occasions, it balances deep savory notes with a hint of natural sweetness.

During my childhood, when I saw this dish served on our dinner table, I’d feel that we’re enjoying a luxury meal simply because mushrooms were quite pricey at that time. Although big and best quality shiitake mushrooms are still very expensive now, we can get smaller ones with good quality at much cheaper price for substitute. We are quite satisfied with their texture and taste.

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Sweet Potato Glutinous Rice Balls

Impress your family or friends with this easy-to-make sweet treat. The melted runny fillings of these sweet potato glutinous rice balls (dumplings / tangyuan) will amaze them.

This Chinese dessert, sweet potato glutinous rice balls, reminds me of the western molten cake (aka lava cake), that often make people utter “ooz” and “aah” after cutting or biting open the tiny cute ball.

Not only does this sweet treat taste heavenly, but also it has an appealing presentation with its melted filling running down. You can impress your family and friends with this easy-to-make dessert for any occasion.

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Pandan Dumplings (Tangyuan)

Tangyuan (dumplings 湯圓) traditionally served on the day of Chinese Winter Solstice Festival (冬至), that fell on 22nd December this year. They are mainly made from glutinous rice flour, with different kinds of fillings or without any at all, boiled in syrup.

Chinese families in southern areas will eat tangyuan on Chinese New Year’s Eve too. My mum used to cook us some at midnight on that day, with a symbolic meaning of bringing harmony in the family.

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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.

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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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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.

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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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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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Butter Prawns

These butter prawns were so creamy and delicious. Mind you, it's very addictively delicious.

One of the good things that I love about food blogging is receiving feedback from my readers’ email. Through all the email exchanges, I shared their joy and satisfaction after trying my recipes. Thank you all for your encouraging feedback.

Amongst all the encouraging feedback, here’s a unique one from Eric Tan, a reader in Malaysia, that’s a wonderful recipe I didn’t ask for. When I saw this popular Malaysian recipe, Butter Prawns, fine-tuned by himself appearing in my inbox, I said to myself that was a must to try.

Yet, without any reason, it took me quite a long time to try it out. Finally, I’m glad I did. It’s a fantastic dish. Thank you, Eric.

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Baked Drunken Prawns (焗醉蝦)

To make this drunken prawns dish is very straightforward without any fuss at all. All the flavours are absorbed by the tender prawn meats.

Drunken prawns are very popular in Chinese cuisine just like drunken chicken dishes.

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Glutinous Rice Balls with Peanuts & Sesame Seeds

This Glutinous Rice Balls dessert (糖不甩，sounds as “Tong But Luck” in Cantonese) is a common snack in Hong Kong and many Chinese people like to make some for Chinese New Year. 

Basically, they are sticky rice dumplings, not in syrup, but with crushed peanuts and sesame seeds sprinkled on top, syrup drizzled as much as you like. It's so addictively delicious.

Tong But Luck literally means undetachable sugar. I don’t know how and where this name came from. These cute little sticky rice balls are symbolic of completion, happiness and fulfillment and that’s why it is also served in many festive seasons or celebrations.

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Cheat’s Sweet Egg Twists (Chinese New Year Snack)

Ever tried a traditional sweet egg twists (蛋散, dansan) ? It’s my childhood CNY snack in Hong Kong. Some Chinese restaurants offer egg twists as dim sum. It's crispy and delicious. Here you'd find my cheat's version of the traditional egg twists.

Our family celebration often starts from the New Year’s Eve dinner (團年飯). Not only we enjoy the relaxed festive holidays, but also many delicious traditional Chinese foods, being around with family and friends with lots of fun.

Some traditional savory and sweet snacks, like radish cake, taro cake, glutinous rice flour cake and cookies, seem to be a must on my list. Yet, sometimes, I like to tweak a traditional dish into a modern and quick one.

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Tomato Chilli Prawns (Chinese New Year)

There are many traditional dishes cooked during the Chinese New Year season. Many Chinese families like to cook prawns/shrimps, as the pronunciation of prawns in Cantonese is “ha” – much like “laughter”, that is associated with the idea of happiness and joy.

So prawns have been a must-have on a traditional Chinese New Year celebration menu.

My mum used to make a very simple and quick dish, stir-fried prawns with tomato sauce or ketchup that I love the most. Based on my mum’s cooking way, I tweaked it a bit by adding an amazing kick to this dish with Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce, since my kid has grown up, getting love to have hot foods more and more.

If you have young kids at home, you just skip the chilli sauce, or vice versa, add more if you want it hot to your liking.

Hope all of you a happy New Year!

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Water Chestnut Cake (Chinese New Year Recipe)

Water chestnut cake is a well-known Cantonese dim sum dish, almost served at every yum cha restaurant in Hong Kong. When Chinese New Year comes, Hong Kong people like to make their own different kind of cakes (糕), like radish cake (aka turnip cake), taro cake, sticky rice cake to celebrate the season.

Needless to say, this water chestnut cake is one of Hong Kong people’s favourites. “Cake” (糕) pronounces as “high” in Cantonese, Chinese, that resembles a meaning of “rising”, ” growth”, “achieving higher level”, a symbol of prosperity and rising fortunes.

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Butter Cookies (Melt-in-mouth Goodies)

These butter cookies are best for party or as presents. Each bit of the buttery cookies will literally melt in your mouth.

Do share these butter cookies with your family or friends. Yes, they are like melting moments.

Each bit of the buttery cookies will literally melt in your mouth. It’s hard to stop eating after the first bite.

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Pumpkin Dumplings with Purple Yam (南瓜湯圓)

Way back to my childhood, my mum used to make us some dumplings during Chinese New Year.

I love sipping the hot, gingery sweet soup, then with a bite of chewy glutinous rice dumplings. The melted sugar inside each dumpling adds more adventurous fun in tasting.

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Pineapple Roll Tarts (Chinese New Year)

Pineapple roll tarts (aka pineapple cookies, or pineapple tarts) are considered as festive cookies, usually consumed during the Chinese New Year season, popular in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan (Note: Taiwanese have their own pineapple cookies in rectangular shape), classified as of Nyonya food.

Chinese like to have these cookies during Chinese New Year season because of the auspicious name, signifying success and prosperity, so they become as nearly must-served treats. The melt-in-mouth pastry outside is very addictive, with tasty pineapple jam wrapped inside. You can’t stop eating once you start to bite the first one.

I’m so glad that one of my fans, Chooi Mei Lok submitted her creation on my Chinese fan page, that instantly attracted lots of responses. Thanks to Chooi so much for her generous sharing on both of my blogs. Please welcome Chooi. Here comes her recipe below.

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Radish Cake (Pressure Cooker + Video)

I was asked if we could use an electric pressure cooker, Instant Pot to make radish cake via email. Definitely we can! It can be done quicker than steaming in a wok.

This year’s Chinese New Year is just around the corner. When I made radish cakes again for preparing CNY, I also shot some video clips showing the whole process step-by-step. I used the same radish cake recipe that I used year after year, only omitted the Chinese bacon (臘肉) this time.

If you like to add shiitake mushrooms, feel free to go ahead. Yet remember to finish your cake as soon as you can since mushrooms won’t last too long.

Chinese sausage and dried radish are salted, thus no need to season your batter with salt. You may dip your pan-fried radish cake with soy sauce if desired. Also, it goes perfectly with sriracha sauce. The taste is so good.

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Baked Peanut Dumplings (Chinese New Year)

Way back when I was small, I would consume quite a lot of deep-fried dumplings (you jiao 油角/角仔) during Chinese New Year (CNY). I still remember that my parents tried every effort to remind me not to eat too much as the deep-fried dumplings are “yeet hay” (“熱氣” in Cantonese Chinese, literally means “hot air”) which basically means not good for health. They didn’t want me to consume too many oily foods either. Since I moved into Australia, I haven’t bought any for celebrating CNY at all for so many years. Until a while ago, an idea of baking some CNY dumplings came from nowhere. Then off I went to test the idea and made these baked dumplings with desiccated coconut and roasted peanuts inside.

The traditional ones are mainly made of plain flour and lard. After deep-frying, the crust will turn golden brown, crispy, brittle, and a bit harder than cookies. I wanted to get my baked dumplings similar to the texture of deep-fried ones, thus I chose bread flour (i.e. high protein flour), adding a little of baking powder. The end results were satisfied. They were crunchy and delicious, yet guilt-free and less oily. Once the dumplings were out from the oven, my husband took three of them in a row and commended my efforts.

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