CNY Eve's Dishes That I Cooked

I managed to whipped up 4 dishes for our CNY Eve's dinner. I am super happy with all the dishes. I added to new dishes that was Steamed Fresh Abalone and Omanthus Egg Omelette With Japanese Imitation Shark Fin . They both turned out the best dishes. I had so much joy trying out new dishes and they will be listed in my dinner list for sure.

1st dish - Braised Sour Spicy Trotters

2nd Dish - Omanthus Egg Omelette withJ Japanese Imitation Shark Fin

3rd Dish - Steamed Fresh Abalone with Sizzled Soy Sauce Oil and Crispy Garlic

Green Onions and chilli garnishing

Close up of the Steamed Fresh Abalone

4th Dish -  Vegetarian Dish

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR - Year if the Rabbit. May the year brings Good Health Joy and Prosperity to all.

Red Bean Sweet Soup With Matcha Glutinous Rice Balls

It has been our family tradition to have sweet dessert served on the first day of Chinese New Year. This year is Rabbit Year. Wishing everyone a blessed CNY. May the Rabbit Year brings good health, joy and Wealth to all of us. 

I cooked a small pot of Red Bean Sweet Soup and added Matcha Glutinous Rice Balls filled with Peanut Butter. Great combo and a great start to a good year.

I used Niko Neko matcha powder. So fragrant. Great for ice cream too. 

I added dried longan to the red bean sweet soup for extra texture

The Matcha Glutinous balls are filled with Peanut butter...

for easy handling, lightly dab the hand with water

lovely green matcha Glutinous Rice dough

Ingredients for the matcha Glutinous Rice Dough

100 gm Glutinous Rice flour

1/2tbsp matcha powder

60 gm or slightly more hot water

Fillings

Skippy Peanut Butter

Divide dough into 15 balls each weighing 11 gm. Fill with peanut butter or anything of your your choice. 

Tip: for easy handling...lightly wet the hand when wrapping the balls. And it also gives the ball a smooth surface.

Enjoy!

Ribbon Cookies

Ribbon Cookies ...my all time favourite cookies. I watch a you tube video showing how it was done. I knew I had to jump onboard and join my other friends in making CNY cookies. It is very to make, even a first timer like me can make it. The texture is fluffy and yet crunchy. Perfect sweetness, not overly sweet. A keeper for sure. I am glad I gave it a try. You can try too. I have the link posted at the end of the page for your reference. 

I enjoy the folding and shaping of the cookies

best to rest the dough for at least 2 hrs for easy shaping

Ingredients

200 gm all purpose flour

18 gm vegetable oil

30gm sugar

5 gm salt

1egg yolk

70 gm water

Refer Video link for the method

Lamb Shoulder For Xmas Meal

I handed over the cooking to the hubby for our Xmas eve dinner. He is best in cooking lamb especially on cast iron pan. I bought the Lodge Cast Iron pan when I retired 7 years ago and it is serving us well. We love to cook meat using the CI pan. It helps seal the juice in the meat and cooks evenly . The lamb shoulder was well cooked. So tender and moist. But most importantly, the special sauce is the highlight of this  CI pan cooked lamb shoulder. So tasty and delicious that I wanna share here with my readers. Hope you guys will like it too.

Just look at the cooked lamb, tender and moist

Marinate the lamb meat for 5 hrs or overnight in fridge

Ingredients for the marinade sauce

1:1:1:1:1 ratio

Minced garlic

Oyster sauce

Thai sweet Chilli sauce

Ketchup

olive oil 

Enjoy!

Danish Butter Cookies

Time flies, it is Christmas again. I didn't bake any cake this year. Last year I baked a Burnt Cheesecake but this year ,I baked some look alike Danish Butter Cookies . I googled for one and just trusting it will not failed but somehow the cookies tasted good but the shape is definitely out. But we are not letting the shape spoil the joyous Christmas mood. This recipe is taken from youtuber Little Duck's Kitchen . I adjusted the icing sugar by 30percent as hubby doesn't like it too sweet. It turned out ,just the piping out was a bit hard. First time making it. I guess practice makes perfect applies here. It should look like a rosette . Tip given is after piping out the rosette, chill the cookies in fridge for 10mins before baking at preheated 180C for clearer pattern after baking. Thanks for the tip given by LDK. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS !

I enjoyed piping out the soft dough

using 1M nozzle

I baked at 190c for 20 mins rotating the tray every five mins. My oven temp is a bit crazy :)

Ingredients

250gm SCS salted butter

130gm icing sugar - (I reduce 40 percents)

1egg

1tsp vanilla extract

270 gm cake flour

70 gm corn flour

20gm milk powder

Method to follow you tuber LDK

Matcha Glutinous Rice Balls / Tang Yuan

Today is Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, the onset of winter the following day. The day will be longer and night shorter. And Chinese around the world celebrate with making and eating Glutinous Rice Balls / Tang Yuan. A very important and big day for the Chinese. These Glutinous Rice Balls are made of Glutinous Rice flour and warm water for a gooey and chewy texture ( like mochi ) with a peanut butter filling and served with sweet soup. Matcha Glutinous Rice Balls ,so yummy good. First time making this Matcha balls. It is fragrant and texture is smooth with the peanut butter bursting in the mouth with every bite. For the not overly sweet soup , I used scewpine leaf and honeycomb sugar . So good. I served the Glutinous Rice Balls with sweet soup from a sake jar just for fun. 

the peanut butter fillings bursting in the mouth with every bite...so good!

before wrapping the filling, freeze the peanut butter filling for a few mins for easy wrapping 

the right texture for the matcha dough shld look like this as shown here. Add in water slowly to get the right texture...not too wet nor too dry. Cover the dough with a damp cloth when not using

 I used NikoNeko Matcha powder

Recipe: 10 pieces

1/2 cup glutinous rice flour

1/2 tbsp matcha powder

1/3 cup or more warm water

Filling

2 tbsp of Skippy Chunky Peanut Butter - freeze for 5 mins -shape them into tiny bit balls  

Method:

Mix glutinous rice flour and matcha powder evenly in a small mixing bowl. Slowly add in warm water and using a spatula, gently stir until you get a soft dough yet not too wet. The amt of water is just a rough guide. Cover with damp cloth if not using to prevent dough from drying . Divide dough into ten equal portions. Shape into  round balls. Gently press down and flatten dough and place the peanut butter filling  in the center and shape into a round ball again. Repeat till all balls are done and ready for cooking. Place the balls in the fridge while waiting for the sweet soup to be ready.

To prepare the sweet soup

Boil screwpine and honeycomb sugar with 2 cups of water. Once the honey comb has dissolved. Off heat. 

To cook the Glutinous Rice Balls

Boil a pot of water. Once water boil,  gently add in the balls into the boiling water. Once the balls starts floating, it means they are cooked. Use a slated spoon to scoop up the balls. Add the cooked balls into the sweet soup. They are ready for serving.

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE