Finding a new chicken recipe always makes me happy. When I first came across this recipe on Kuali.com, it sounded very good and even though the spice list was really long, I knew I had to try it. And I was right, it was a winner. The spices give this chicken dish a really festive feel.
(Update: If you’re looking for the Traditional Baked Mooncake Recipe, click here.)
Just in time for the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, a special moon cake recipe that will make your head spin.
I have a friend here in Kuching who loves to garden. And since she lives next to an empty plot of land, she has put it to good use by cultivating it. When she mentioned that she grew purple sweet potatoes, I was hopeful that they were Okinawan sweet potatoes. I had to ask her if I could come by her house to help her harvest some.
Turns out she got really busy the weekend that we were going but she did dig up some to give to me. The ones she gave me were purple mixed with white and they were dry in texture. In some ways they reminded me of taro (yams) but a little sweeter. And later I found out that they were known as taro sweet potatoes. Well…that explains it…
Despite their dryness (or maybe because of it), I had the idea that I would boil them, mash them and then add some butter, milk and sugar and make them into a paste and use them as a filling for this pastry. After all, during the Mooncake festival, we find Shanghai mooncakes filled with taro which are very similar in size and shape to these pastries.
I’ve been having a lot of success with steaming lately. Both the salted fish chicken and the stuffed squid were delicious dishes that met with the approval of the whole family. Thus, I decided to go about trying yet more dishes from this latest cookbook I bought which was all about steaming.
The recipe I decided to try next looked a little bit more complicated but actually turned out to be quite easy and yet filled with yummy flavors. Also, Nate thought it had shades of Khau Yoke flavors without the crazy amount of work that Khau Yoke actually takes. And as for the presentation, it’s a dish with the "wow" factor. When presented tableside, it really looks like something that could have come out of a fancy Chinese restaurant.
Continue reading Steamed Chicken Wings with Taro and Mushroom
Today is the day…
We had a birthday party for Esther today. Friends from church and work came over to celebrate and eat in typical House of Annie fashion. The menu included Chinese Chicken Salad, smoked Malaysian Chicken Wings, Homemade Breakfast Sausage (grilled on my WSM), beef sliders, and a few other delicious dishes prepared by our helper Jessie. Annie baked and prepared another one of her layer cakes for dessert.
Recently, Annie has been decorating her round layer cakes with a rose pattern made from slices of canned peaches. It’s so easy to do, but quite pretty. All you need is a big can of peach halves, a sharp knife, and a steady hand.