Glam-up the traditional Rice Krispie Treat with Earl Grey for a Fetus Fiesta~!

a.k.a., a gender-friendly Baby Shower that just won the Best Title Award!


As the time runs short, I allowed my favourite flavour and aroma to guide through a mysterious venture, giving me the inspiration to dress up an ordinary treat in a savoury couture.


~ Earl Grey Rice Krispie Treat ~



3 tbs Unsalted butter
10 oz package Miniture marshmallow
6 cups Cocoa Rice Krispie
Earl Grey Ganache
- 4 Earl Grey tea bags
- 10 oz Chocolate couverture (60-71% cacao), chopped finely and place in a bowl
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
Melted white chocolate for final touches, French silver dragees optional


1. In large saucepan melt butter over low heat. Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted. Remove from heat.

2. Stir in the cereal until well coated.

3. Using buttered spatula or wax paper evenly press mixture into buttered 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan. Allow the mixture to cool.

4. Pour Earl Grey Ganache (recipe below) and spread evenly over the treat. Allow it to solidify prior cutting into desired sizes and shapes.

5. Drizzle the pieces with white chocolate.


Earl Grey Ganache:

1. In a small sauce pan, bring the heavy cream to a slow simmer.

2. Add the Earl Grey tea bags and allow them to seep in the cream for 5 minutes.

3. Remove the tea bags and bring the heavy cream back to a boil.

4. Pour the boiled cream over the chopped chocolate, allow the chocolate to melt undisturbed for 1 minute.

5. Stir the cream and chocolate mixture gently until chocolate has completely incorporated into the cream.


For further information on Earl Grey tea, please check out my other post:
"Earl Grey....from an obsession to a devotion...."


Bon Appetit~!

Delicacies for Chinese New Year Round Three - The Overloaded Taro Cake~!

This recipe is dedicated to my family, and to anyone who is as obsessed with this purple root as we are! Just make sure you do not overload with this fragrant yet zesty tasting taro, which turns the cake into a more croquet like consistency, but still mouthwatering.


For those who might be interested in reading further on this amazing root, please check out my previous post:
"Macaron de la divinité captures the essence of this mulberry purple coloured root....~ le Macaron aux Taro~
Taro flavoured macaron filled with coconut white chocolate ganache"


~ Chinese Taro Cake - 芋頭糕~

Ingredients:

- 2 lb Taro root - about 2 medium size, peeled and cut into 1/2 cubes
- 500 g plain rice flour (粘米粉) - not glutinous rice flour
- 4 long links Chinese sausages (臘腸) - cut into 1/4 inch cubes
- 200g Chinese cured bacon ((臘肉) - cut into 1/4 inch cubes
- 4 dried scallops, 3 tbs dried shrimps, 6 dried shiitake mushrooms
(place all 3 above ingredients in a bowl and soak overnight with cold water just
enough to cover all the ingredients)
- 750mL water
- 3 tbs chicken bouillon powder
- 4 tsp white pepper
- 2 tsp five spiced powder
- 3 tsp salt
- 4 tsp sugar
- a bunch of coriander - coarsely chopped


1. Squeeze out the soaking liquid from the hydrated dried scallops, dried mushrooms and shrimps, and finely chop these ingredients. Reserve soaking liquid.
2. Steam the cubed taro in a even layer for 20 minutes or until all pieces have turned slightly translucent.
3. Heat up a wok or a large frying pan over medium high heat, add in the Chinese sausages and cured bacon, stir-fry for a 5-8 minutes or until most of the oil has rendered out from the cured meats.
4. Gradually add the finely chopped mushrooms, scallops and shrimps. Keep stir frying them for about 5 minutes.
5. Stir in all the seasonings and allow them to warm in the mixture for a minute. Remove from heat.


6. In a large baking pan (ideal size would be a 16 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep, or 2 9-inch cake pan would also be fine), pour in the rice flour and gradually stir in the soaking liquid and water. Mix until completely incorporated.
7. Stir in the solid ingredients from the wok and mix thoroughly, and gently fold in the steamed taro cubes.
8. Steam the cake in a large wok with consistent yet vigourous steam for an hour and a half.


9. When it is cooked, remove from heat and sprinkle the chopped coriander on top as garnish.
10. The cake can be served immediately as the steamed version,


11. For the pan-fried version, allow the cake to cool and refrigerate overnight. Cut the cake into slices and pan-fry until golden brown and crispy on each side. Serve with XO sauce or chili sauce if preferred.


Bon Appetit~!

Celebrate a decade of absence with my grandmother's famous Chinese Daikon Cake!

I often wondered what Chinese New Year is like for visitors in Hong Kong. This festival is a time for families to reunite, not only to welcome in the new lunar year, but also to feast together with home-prepared meals. Meanwhile, as the expat population flies to places like Bali or Thailand for the extended national holiday, the trains to the rural New Territories would be overflowing, while the bar-filled Lan Kwai would be partly deserted.


To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of my absence from Hong Kong during this festivities-filled celebration, I subconsciously trickle passed the fellow patrons of a local Chinese grocer, fluidly gathered all the necessary ingredients, for the making of my favourite Chinese Daikon Cake (蘿蔔糕).

Chinese Daikon Cake or Lo Pak Gao, is my all time favorite, you can find this all year round in Dim Sum restaurants. Yet, this speciality dish, similar to the Chinese New Year cake, is one that almost no commercial versions would be in competition with ones made at home, filled with joy, love, and hours of grating, chopping, steaming, and enduring the stinging sensation as the daikon juice attacks the skin surrounds your fingers....thanks dear Granny, Mum and Dad for all the decadent daikon cakes I have devoured in the past!


~ Chinese Daikon Cake ~

Ingredients:

- 6 lb Chinese daikon - about 3 large ones
- 500 g plain rice flour (粘米粉) - not glutinous rice flour
- 4 long links Chinese sausages (臘腸) - cut into 1/4 inch cubes
- 200g Chinese cured bacon ((臘肉) - cut into 1/4 inch cubes
- 4 dried scallops, 3 tbs dried shrimps, 6 dried shiitake mushrooms
(place all 3 above ingredients in a bowl and soak overnight with cold water just
enough to cover all the ingredients)
- 2 tbs chicken bouillon powder
- 2 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp five spiced powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 3 tsp sugar
- a bunch of coriander - coarsely chopped


1. Squeeze out the soaking liquid from the hydrated dried scallops, dried mushrooms and shrimps, and finely chop these ingredients. Reserve soaking liquid.


2. Coarsely grate the Chinese daikon and place the grated daikon in a strainer over a large bowl. Squeeze out as much of the liquid from the daikon, but reserve the liquid.


3. Heat up a wok or a large frying pan over medium high heat, add in the Chinese sausages and cured bacon, stir-fry for a 5-8 minutes or until most of the oil has rendered out from the cured meats.


4. Gradually add the finely chopped mushrooms, scallops and shrimps. Keep stir frying them for about 5 minutes.
5. Stir in all the seasonings and allow them to warm in the mixture for a minute before adding the grated daikon. Stir-fry all the ingredients for about 2 minutes and remove from heat
6. In a large baking pan (ideal size would be a 16 inches in diameter and 4 inches deep, or 2 9-inch cake pan would also be fine), pour in the rice flour and gradually stir in the reserved daikon juice and soaking liquid. Mix until smooth.
7. Stir in the solid ingredients from the wok and mix thoroughly.


8. Steam the cake in a large wok with consistent yet vigourous steam for an hour and a half.


9. When it is cooked, remove from heat and sprinkle the chopped coriander on top as garnish.
10. The cake can be served immediately as the steamed version,
11. For the pan-fried version, allow the cake to cool and refrigerate overnight. Cut the cake into slices and pan-fry until golden brown and crispy on each side. Serve with XO sauce or chili sauce if preferred.
12. It can also be transformed into the famed dish in HK XO sauce stir-fried daikon cake (XO 醬炒蘿蔔糕). Cut a portion of the cake in small cubes and stir fry with finely chopped garlic, bean sprouts, sliced red and green bell peppers, eggs, and XO sauce.

Bon Appetit~!

The Sticky-Sweet New Year Cake....it was love at first bite!

From an elaborate two-day production to the lightning-fast microwave approach, the methods of preparing Nian Gao may have changed across generations of the Chinese families, but the sticky-sweet New Year's cake is still a savory culinary project within my household, embracing my grandmother's recipe.


Nian Gao, or Chinese New Year’s cake, is sweet and sticky and represents family cohesion and rising fortune. Nian is a homonym for both sticky and year, and gao is a homonym for cake and to rise up. It is a must at Lunar New Year’s time to wish for a family that is stuck together and for good luck in the coming year. As for me, "nian" in this cake also carries one of the most memorable textural experience within my culinary memories, one that I do not ever wish to live without.

Made from glutinous rice flour (preferably the Three Elephant brand from Thailand), and a pair of dedicated hands, this light and delicate flour is kneaded together with sugar, coconut milk and water. The victorious steam creates a veil within the wok as the prized cake rises and transform. As 200 minutes slip away while the master carefully monitors the degree of the steam, the almost 4 hour process has miraculously evolved the velvety fluid batter, into a dense cake that is heavenly soft, creamy, yet carries a multitude of chewiness, an indescribable texture that surpasses any mochi in my opinion. As a bite of the newly made cake dances between my jaw, the prolonged disintegration allows a proper chemical interaction between my senses and the aroma from the coconut milk, as well as the sweetness from the flour and sugar. This texture is well ingrained in my childhood memories. The new year cake should be sticky between your finger tips, but not your razor-sharp teeth.


~ Chinese New Year Cake - Nian Gao ~

- 500g sweet glutinous rice flour (preferably the Three Elephant brand)
- 454g sugar
- 250mL coconut milk
- 150mL water
- vegetable oil - for glazing the pans


1. In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly mix the glutinous rice flour and sugar
2. Mix in the coconut milk in a slow and gradual stream. The mixture will be sticky.
3. Begin to knead and work the mixture until a dough is formed, and the consistency is uniform.
4. Slowly incorporate the water into the dough, a few tablespoons at a time, until you reach a velvety fluid batter consistency
5. Generously glaze with oil a 9 inch baking pan that is at least 4 inches tall. Pour the batter into the pan but not higher than 2/3 of the way up.
6. Place the pan in the steamer and steam for 3-4 hours, over medium heat or a setting that would ensure consistent yet vigorous steam. Make sure the water level does not fall below the bottom of the pan, or over.
7. When the cake is done, remove from the steamer and allow cooling to room temperature.

To serve, simply slice into wedges and serve in a plate. For those who prefer a soft texture, microwave for 20 seconds or steam on boiling water for 5 minutes until softened to the desired consistency.

It is a tradition in my family to pan-fried the new year cake (煎年糕), which is enveloped in a thin layer of crispy savoury egg and served to our guests. When fried, it is slightly crispy exterior complements the magnificant texture within....

Bon Appetit~!