No-Frills Recipes ... cooking, baking & excerpts on travel

Chee Cheong Fun or steamed Rice Noodles are a Cantonese dish and commonly served either as a snack, breakfast or as a variety of dim sum.  It's a thin crepe made with rice flour and rolled into a long noodle.  You can add filling into the rice noodle, like dried shrimps, prawns, or char siew (BBQ pork) or even with vegetables for a meatless option.  As they are flavourless, a sweetened soy sauce usually accompanies the dish. Chee Cheong Fun (Rice Noodles) with dried shrimps  ~  虾米肠粉 Ingredients 100 gm rice flour 20 gm cornflour 20 gm tapioca flour 400 ml water 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp oil 1 Tbsp dried shrimps Spring onions, chopped Ingredients for sauce 2 tsp light soy sauce )   1 tsp sesame oil        )  Mix well and bring to a light boil. 1 Tbsp sugar             ) 3 Tbsp water             ) Method Wash, rinse a...

I have made Honey Maltose Char Siew and Chicken Char Siew before and this is another version of char siew,  glazed with honey.  I like my char siew to be slightly sweet and sticky and without the addition of red colouring.   Sliced up to serve, this juicy, tender char siew pairs very well with rice or noodles. Honey glazed Char Siew (3)  蜜汁叉烧   Ingredients 700 gm pork belly, skin removed 1/2 Tbsp honey 1/2 Tbsp light soya sauce 1 Tbsp dark soya sauce 1 tsp sesame oil 2 Tbsp brown sugar 1 tsp chopped garlic 1 Tbsp Chinese rose wine a dash of 5 spice powder a dash of pepper Honey and a bit of water to glaze Method Marinate the pork belly with the above ingredients for a few hours or preferably overnight. Place the marinated meat in a wok with the gravy and 1/4 cup water, cook on medium heat, turning the meat over once in a while. Once the meat is thoroughly cooked and gravy reduce, transfer the meat onto a parchment lined p...

This pumpkin pancake is soft and delicate and not too sweet as the sweetness is only from the red bean paste filling.   For a crispy pancake you can deep-fry them but I chose to just shallow pan-fry them in a non-stick pan.   This is great to serve as a tea-time snack over a cup of brimming hot Chinese tea. Chinese Pumpkin Pancake ~ 金瓜饼 (adapted from  'here' ) Ingredients 150 gm pumpkin, steamed (should get around 350 gm raw pumpkin)) 100 gm glutinous rice flour 100 gm red bean paste Sesame seeds (optional) Method Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds and steam the pumpkin.  Once soft, drain off water and mash it up.  Weigh out 150 gm. Add in half glutinous rice flour and mix well.  Continue to mix in the glutinous rice flour and lightly knead till the dough does not stick to your hands. Wrap the pumpkin dough with some red bean paste, roll and shape it into a round ball.  Gently flatten it to a round disc o...

This almond jelly is commonly found in Dim-sum restaurants and it is a refreshing dessert to enjoy. You can either treat your family with this home-made jelly or serve this to your guests after a meal.  There are many ways to serve this dessert.  Can be eaten on its own or served with fresh fruits and some syrup or canned fruits or fruit cocktail.  No one will refuse this dessert except for some people who may not like the almond fragrance. Chinese almond jelly ~  杏仁豆腐 Ingredients 20 gm agar agar strip 100 gm rock sugar 1 cup water 5 cups soy milk 4 Tbsp almond powder mixed with 1/4 cup water a can of rambutan and pineapple and some Osmanthus flowers Method Soak agar agar strips for 30 mina or more, till softened, squeeze out excess water. Place the softened agar agar stips into a pot with 1 cup of water and cook on low heat.  Keep stirring till strips have dissolved. Mix 1/4 cup of water with the almond powder, add this...

I made this using the same recipe as my previous post of  'Steamed sponge cake' but this time added in black sesame seeds to lend an extra flavour.  I was very pleased with the result as the cake was soft, not too sweet and tasted good with a slight sweet aroma of sesame.  I can never resist steamed sponge cake as it's light, oil free and the best part is that I can have more without much hesitation!

With only a few ingredients like snow fungus, sweet potato and some rock sugar, you can easily whip up a decent dessert.  This dessert can be served chilled or warm, after a meal or you can enjoy it at any time of the day.   This cooling dessert  is very much more look forward to especially when we had to tolerate the current hot, humid heat. This is with some beaten egg whites Snow Fungus with Sweet Potatoes  ~   雪耳番薯糖水 Ingredients 1 sweet potato, about 200 g, cut into small pieces 1 piece snow fungus, about 30 g  2.1/2 litres water Cane rock sugar to taste 2 egg whites, beaten  (optional) Pandan/screw pine leaves Method Soak the snow fungus in water till it becomes soft,   Snip off and discard the yellow hard part on the under side of the snow fungus.  Cut up the snow fungus into very tiny parts. In a pot, bring the water to a boil, add in the knotted pandan leaves and snow fungus.  Let it...

From the onset, I had the impression that Shangjian Bao can be quite an intimidating recipe to attempt but after sitting down and surfing the internet for various versions on how this bao is being made, I was quite confident to give this a try.  It wasn't that difficult after all and I really enjoyed biting into the golden brown crisply fried bottom and they stayed crispy even after some time. Will definitely make these again and perhaps use chicken filling instead. Recipe for Shengjian Bao ~ Pan-fried Pork Buns ~  生煎包 (adapted from 'here' with adjustments) Ingredients Dough 200 gm plain flour 110 ml warm water 1/2 tsp dried yeast 1.1/2 tsp sugar 1 tsp oil Pinch of salt Sesame seeds to garnish Filling 200 gm minced pork 2 Shitake mushrooms, soaked and cubed 1 stalk of spring oinions, chopped Seasoning for Filling 2 pips of minced garlic 1 Tbsp light soya sauce 1/2 tsp sugar 1 tsp cornstarch 2 tsp water 1 tsp ses...

These Lotus paste chicken floss pastries are getting very popular here in Ipoh and some of them are with Pandan Lotus paste.   To me, at Rm2.50 for an approximate 2 inch diameter size pastry, is a bit on the high side, so why not try to DIY it I told myself.  Well, I did and here's what I'm going to share with you today........ I enjoyed the fruits of my labour with a nice cup of hot local coffee. Recipe  for Lotus chicken floss pastries ~   莲蓉 鸡肉 松 酥 饼 Ingredients Water dough 100 gm plain flour, sifted 40 gm shortening 10 gm caster sugar 30 to 50 ml water to be added gradually Oil dough 80 gm plain flour, sifted 60 gm shortening 250 gm lotus paste Chicken  floss Sesame seeds Egg wash - 1 egg  beaten  Method  For the water dough, mix the flour, shortening, sugar together, then add in water gradually and knead to form a soft dough.  Cover with cling wrap and let rest for 30 mins. For the...

Saturday, being a public holiday, we took the opportunity to  have brunch at Li Yuan Dim Sum restaurant.  There are quite a number of  dim sum restaurants in Ipoh  and I've passed by this shop a couple of times but only decided to give this a try at the recommendation of my neighbour.  The shop is not very spacious and as it was close to lunch time, we were lucky to find a table for the two of us. Pan-fried Carrot Cake - Rm 4.00.  Very tasty especially with their 'homebrand' chilli sauce. These fish balls were delicious, tasted a bit different from what I've tasted at other dim sum joints. Steamed Pork Dumpling with Fish fillet - Rm4.80. This was the chef's recommendation for he concocted the bunga kantan/ginger flower sauce, only available here in this restaurant.  Yummy! Steamed Beancurd Rolls with BBQ sauce  - Rm4.00 Steamed Coco flavoured buns with Salted Egg - Rm5.00 for 3 pcs  (Lau  Sar ...

Siew Bao is among the many items that I'll order whenever I have dim sum in the restaurant but not all dim sum joints serve this pastry.  I chanced upon a post by My Kitchen Snippets for this favourite pastry and decided to give it a try.   The Siew Bao turned out great and I had Gertrude to thank for!   They were indeed yummy more so if teamed with a hot cup of Chinese tea. Recipe for Siew Bao (Baked BBQ Buns)    Ingredients for Oil Dough 240 gm plain flour 120 gm shortening Water Dough 240 gm plain flour 60 gm icing sugar 60 gm shortening 90 to 120 ml water Egg Glaze - 1 egg + 1/2 tsp honey Sesame seeds Filling 400 gm chicken or pork, diced. 1 big onion, diced 3/4 cup green peas 1 Tbsp oyster sauce 2 tsp dark soya sauce 2 tsp light soya sauce 1/2 tsp seasalt 2 tsp sugar or to taste A dash of pepper 1/2 cup water 1 Tbsp cornflour + 2 tsp water to thicken Method   for the Filling (best ...

I took the opportunity to try my hands at making puff pastry from scratch when I was on vacation as the weather was quite cooling and I assumed that the dough wouldn't be sticky and messy to handle. I could make both oil and water dough easily and there were no 'sweat and tears', LOL!  The pastries turned out nice and flaky and everybody gave their thumbs up for this dim sum, especially my dear grandnephew who asked for more! Oil dough - Sieve the plain flour into a mixing bowl, add in the cold, cubed butter, mash with a fork and slowly combine to form a soft dough.  Wrap up with clingwrap and keep in the fridge for 30 mins.  (You can do this with a food processor if you wish), Water dough - Sieve the plain flour into a mixing bowl, add in the slightly  beaten egg yolks, mix well, add ice cold water gradually ,( you may not require the whole amount of water as too much water can make the pastry tough), mix well and form into a dough.  Wrap up ...