Tuesday 28 January 2014

[With Recipes] Our Chinese Lunar New Year Goodies

Three more days to go before the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration begins and most of the households are busying with new year bakes such as pineapple tarts, almond cookies, love letters and etc. Whereas for savory dishes most of us will be making the ngoh hiang (minced meat roll), braised soy duck, braised sea cucumber, chicken curry and etc.

In this post, I am sharing some of the goodies (with recipes) that we had made till date such as Kueh Bangkit, Orr Nee, Ngoh Hiang and etc which you might be interested to try any of them during the 15 days of lunar new year feasts.



MATCHA AND PISTACHIO NUTS BUTTER COOKIES


[Lunar New Year Bakes] Matcha Pistachio Nuts Butter Cookie
Pistachio Nuts (开心果) is one of the popular nuts to get during Chinese New Year because of it's name in Mandarin meaning "Happy Nuts". For this recipe I added in premium Japanese matcha powder to achieve the lovely green and fragrant together with some crashed pistachio nuts for extra crunch and bits. Below is another featured recipe of mine over at Bake King website which I would like to share with you.

[Lunar New Year Bakes] Step-by-Step on how to make Matcha Pistachio Nuts Butter Cookies

(Make: 40 pieces  | Preparation: 10 minutes | Baking Time: 15 minutes)

Ingredients:
350g Bake King All-Purpose Plain Flour
15g Japanese Matcha Powder
250g Unsalted Cold Butter, cut into small cubes
150g Icing Sugar
1 Medium Egg, lightly beaten
50g Pistachio Nuts, toast and chopped

Method:-
1. Please refer to the recipe at Bake King website here.


[Lunar New Year Bakes] Assorted Butter Cookies
With the above recipe you can create different flavour of butter cookies according to your own preference. Like what I did, I use the same dough recipe and add in extra ingredients to make some chocolate chips and dark chocolate with cashew nuts flavour on top of the matcha ones.


CHEESY PINEAPPLE ROLLS


[Lunar New Year Bakes] Cheesy Pineapple Rolls

[Lunar New Year Bakes] Cheesy Pineapple Rolls with extra Shredded Cheese

[Lunar New Year Bakes] Cheesy Pineapple Rolls
This year I made quite a number of pineapple rolls for friends and relatives which I hope they would like this new flavour despite from the usual open-face pineapple tarts. If you are interested to do some last minute bakes on these savory rolls, you can refer to the Cheesy Pineapple Rolls recipe at another separate post here.

[Lunar New Year Bakes] Open Face Pineapple Tarts made by my mum
Step-by-step recipe for the Open Face Pineapple Tart can be found here.

[Lunar New Year Bakes] Pineapple Rolls And Pandan Cake
Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe(s) can be found at this link here and if you don't have an oven you can even use a Happy Call Pan to "bake" one too.


KUEH BANGKIT


[Lunar New Year Bakes] Kueh Bangkit
If you asked me which is my favourite Chinese New Year cookies, my answer is always Kueh Bangkit (薯粉饼) or also known as Tapioca Cookies. I love it's lovely fragrant and melt in the mouth texture which makes it very addictive and you tends to pop them in your mouth one after another. And if you do a Google search on kueh bangkit recipes you would most probably find quite a few popular ones on the list too with.

[Lunar New Year Bakes] Kueh Bangkit - Ingredients

(Make: 100 (depend on the size) | Preparation: 20 minutes | Baking Time: 20 minutes)

Ingredients:
200g Fried Tapoica Flour
75ml Thick Coconut Milk
60g Icing Sugar
2 Egg Yolks
Knot of Pandan Leaves
Kueh Bangkit Mould

[Lunar New Year Bakes] Kueh Bangkit
Method:-
1. Beat egg yolks and sugar in a mixture using a hand-held mixer till light and fluffy. Slowly add in coconut milk and beat till combined.

2. Sieve 200g cooked tapioca flour in a mixing bowl, add in coconut milk mixture slowly and mix until it resemble crumbs. Covered with wet kitchen towel.

3. Dust some tapioca flour in the mould and filled it with a teaspoon of the mixture in each pattern and press firmly or else the cookie might not hold its shape.

4. Next knock out the cookies and arrange on prepared baking tray lined with baking paper.

5. Bake in preheated oven at 180°C (degree celsius) for 15 - 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove and leave it to cool on baking rack before storing in airtight containers.

Tips:
~ To prepare fried tapioca flour:- Heat up wok and fry 230g topicoa flour together with a few pieces of pandan leaves over low heat until fluffy (about 5 - 8 minutes). Dish up, discard pandan leaves and cool flour thoroughly before sieving.

~ I bought the kueh bangkit mould at baking shop which cost SG$2.20 each)



STEAMED YAM CAKE


[Lunar New Year Goodies] Steamed Yam Cake
Other than cookies and cakes, we also made some of our family all-time Chinese New Year favourite such as Steamed Yam Cake, Ngoh Hiang (wu xiang) and Orr Nee (yam paste). There are quite a few methods in making yam cake where you can use different combinations of flour and ingredients. Here my mum's version featured on using rice flour, mushroom, Chinese sausage and diced yam because I prefer the texture on eating whole piece of yam rather than shredded.

[Lunar New Year Goodies] Step-by-Step on making Steamed Yam Cake
(Make: 8" Round/Square Tin | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 20 - 25 minutes)

Ingredients:
400g Yam (taro or 芋头) , peeled and diced
30g Dried Shrimp, soaked till soften
5 Fresh Shiitake Mushroom, sliced
2 Shallots, chopped
3 Garlic Cloves, chopped
3 Tablespoons Cooking Oil
250ml water

Flour Batter:
200g Rice Flour (茨粉)
1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
500ml Water

Seasonings:
1 Tablespoon White Pepper
1/2 Tablespoon Five Spice Powder
1 Chicken Stock Cube
1/2 Teaspoon Sesame Oil

Garnish:
Some Chopped Spring Onion
Some Chopped Coriander
Some Fried Shallot Flakes

Method:-
1. Please refer to the steps on the steamed yam cake recipe post here.

[Lunar New Year Goodies] Steamed Yam Cake
Tips:
~ Alternatively, you can divide the yam batter into small disposal foil tins (14cm x 10cm) like what I did which makes it a great festive gift ideas too.



NGOH HIANG


[Lunar New Year Goodies] Ngoh Hiang
"Ngoh Hiang (五香)" is a must have in our family and I remember during my childhood time me and my brother always look forward to it during Chinese New Year. The version that my mum made always varies depending on the ingredients that she bought but basically the main items would still be minced meat, shrimp, water chestnut and yam (taro).

Step-by-step recipe for Homemade Ngoh Hiang can be found at another separate post here.


TEOCHEW ORR NEE


[Lunar New Year Goodies] Ore Nee
Orr Nee (芋泥) is one of the traditional Teochew (朝洲) dessert which often served at a Chinese Wedding banquet which symbolises unity and happiness for the newly weds. For us we always made a few of boxes and stored them in the fridge with optional toppings (pre-cooked) such as mashed pumpkin, water chestnut and gingko nuts. For us we preferred to served this dessert lukewarm with drizzle of coconut milk to enhance it's taste.

Recipe for this Homemade Orr Nee can be found in another separate post here.


OSMANTHUS CHESTNUT CAKE


[Lunar New Year Goodies] Osmanthus Chestnut Cake
Like what I did for last Chinese New Year, this year I also made some Osmanthus Chestnut Cake (桂花马蹄糕) for friends and relatives as well as for our own. This cake is very easy to prepare by just mixing the chestnut flour batter with the sugar syrup and cook till it turns gluey then divided them into separate tins/trays and steamed till cooked through.

[Lunar New Year Goodies] Osmanthus Chestnut Cake
The trick to master this cake is to steamed it on Medium High heat for 10 minutes then lower the heat to Medium and continue to steam for another 10 minutes or more depending on the size of the cake. When done the cake might still look gluey but just let it cool completely at room temperature before chilling it in the fridge overnight so that it will be for firm to slice and serve.

[Lunar New Year Goodies] Osmanthus Chestnut Cake
Step-by step recipe for this Osmanthus Chestnut Cake can be found in another separate post here.

[Lunar New Year Goodies] Osmanthus And Chestnut Koi Jelly
Other than Steamed Osmanthus Cake perhaps you can also consider to make these adorable Osmanthus And Chestnut Koi Jelly which is super easy to prepare as one of the Chinese New Year feast dessert too.  Step-by-step recipe for this koi jelly can be found in another separate post here.

For other Chinese Lunar New Year related recipes you can refer to the link @ http://ellenaguan.blogspot.sg/search/label/ChineseNewYear for more inspirations.


6 comments:

  1. This post get me the chinese new year's feeling~

    ReplyDelete
  2. How I wish I could be your next door neighbour! So many yummy Chinese New Year dishes and goodies! You make me feel like tomorrow is Chinese New Year. Wishing you and your family 龙马精神, 心想事成!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Delicious goodies! Wishing you and family a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year.

    ReplyDelete
  4. oh my everything looks amazing!

    ReplyDelete
  5. What an excellent selection of CNY goodies! Yum

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi everyone, thanks for all the warm wishes and kind words, Here I also wish each and everyone of you a Happy Valentine's Day plus 元宵节快乐 (15th days of CNY) :)

    ReplyDelete

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