Cardamom Cookies 荳蔻曲奇

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Flour

1 Egg

1 tablespoon Baking Powder

1 tablespoon Ground Cardamom

1 tablespoon Ground Cinnamon

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 Butter, melted

DIRECTION:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F.

2. In a bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar. Add egg, whisk again.

3. Add flour, cinnamon and cardamom. Mix and form it into dough.

4. Divide the dough into equal portions; press each into a 1/2 cm piece.

5. Place them on parchment paper. Bake for 12 minutes.

Steamed Squid Oatmeal Patty | 魷魚麥皮蒸肉餅

INGREDIENTS:

1 pc Squid, dried

300 gram Ground Pork

1/4 cup Whole Oat

SEASONING:

1 tablespoon Chinese Cooking Rice Wine

2 tablespoons Light Soy Sauce

1 tablespoon Sugar

small pinch of White Pepper, ground

small pinch of Salt

1 tablespoon Vegetable Oil

材料：

1 塊  魷魚，乾曬

300 克  豬胶肉

1/4 杯  全粒燕麥

調味：

1 湯匙  米酒

2 湯匙  豉油

1 湯匙  糖

少撮  白胡椒粉

少撮鹽

1 湯匙  菜油

DIRECTION:

1. Soak the dried squid in water until soften; about 2-3 hours.  Dice the squid.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine ground pork, oat, diced squid, and the seasoning ingredients.  Mix everything by hand until the mixture becomes smooth and slightly sticky.

3. Add the meat mixing in a shallow dish and flatten it into about 2 cm patty.  Cover it with foil.  Place it in a pre-heated steamer; steam over high heat for about 20 minutes.  Serve when it is hot.

做法：

1. 魷魚乾用水浸軟；若2-3小時。切粒。

2. 在一只碗內，加入豬胶肉、燕麥、魷魚、和調味料；用手拌勻直至豬肉變得黏稠。

3. 把肉倒入蒸碟內，用手舖平成2厘米厚的肉餅。用錫紙蓋好碟，放入已預熱的蒸爐內，用大火蒸20分鐘。趁熱享用。

Pine Tip Rub Pork Belly 松尖豬腩肉

Pine tip is a very good seasoning; it has the mix of citrus and gin flavour that goes well with pork and fish. Prior to the picking, you will want to do a little taste test around different trees, looking for one that produces the great citrus flavour. I had some great pine tips before, but I also had some were equally bad. Just try a few different trees to do a comparison. My son and I enjoy nippling the trees while taking a walk. He always knows the pine tips is a source of vitamin C and he is so proud of himself for eating them. Personally, I like the tips are still with the brown casings, just because they look the freshest to me. But it is totally fine if they are without the case too. 

Pine tips in their casing.

INGREDIENTS:

20 Pine Tips

1 pc Pork Belly, cut into chunks

4 tablespoons Soy Sauce

1/3 teaspoon Salt

2 tablespoons Sugar

1 teaspoon White Pepper Powder

3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

Honey (for serving)

DIRECTION:

1. Remove the brown casings from the pine tips. Chop the pine tips until fine.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except the oil. Rub the pork bell until it is well coated with the seasoning; marinade it for 30 minutes.

3. Heat up the oil in a skillet. Place the pork belly on top; fry it until golden brown over medium heat; about 10 minutes.

4. Turn the pork over, and fry the other side for another 10 minutes. Transfer the pork on a serving plate. Brush a think layer of honey on top before serve.

Napa and Crunchy Noodles Salad

Adding instant noodles in a salad may be not as traditional, but it is amazingly tasty. The key is you have to leave the salad for 10 minutes after mixing everything, allowing the instant noodles to soften a little and letting all the flavour to develop. 

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 Napa Cabbage, thinly sliced

1 pack Indomie (Mi goreng) Instant Noodles

2 Carrot, cut into sticks

4 stalks Green Onion, thinly sliced

1/3 cup Almond

1/3 cup Pumpkin Seeds

1/2 cup Cranberries, dried

DRESSING:

1/3 cup Greek Yogurt, plain

1 Lime, juiced

1 tablespoon Soy Sauce

Instant Noodle seasoning (except the vinegar)

1 teaspoon Red Chilli Flakes

1/2 teaspoon White Pepper Powder

2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

DIRECTION:
1. In a mixing bowl, whisk together all the dressing ingredients; set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine all salad ingredients; mix well.

3. Pour in the dressing into the salad ingredients; toss well. Leave the salad in the fridge for 10 minutes, allowing the flavour to develop before serving it.

Japanese Knotweed with Cambozola Cheese and Honey

Japanese knotweed is a wild edible vegetable that has a slightly sour taste. You have to pick them when they are still less than 10 cm long or before they turn woody. Young knotweed is very tender and is best to serve raw on cheese with a drizzle of honey. 

The knotweed stood among the dried leaves.

They somewhat look like asparagus.

Lotus Roots, Red Date and Old Chicken Soup 蓮藕紅棗老雞湯

Every Sunday I will make a big pot of soup that enough to last for the whole week.  This lotus root chicken soup is the soup of the week.  The lotus roots are tasty although after couple hours of cooking.  As we don't like food waste, we usually eat everything in the soup.  To replenish the flavour for the lotus root and chicken, serve them with soy sauce.  That is how my mom always does it.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Old Chicken, skin off

1 Lotus Root, peeled and chunked

5 Chinese Red Dates, pitted

10 cups Water

Salt to taste

DIRECTION:

1. In a large soup pot, add all ingredients.  Pour in water that enough to cover all ingredients.  Bring it to a boil over high heat.  Then reduce the heat to medium and continuously boil for another 2 hours.  Add more water half way if needed.  Season with salt to taste.

Marinated Young Cabbage with Fermented Soybean Sauce 黃豆醬伴白菜

The look of soybean paste

INGREDIENTS:

2 Young Cabbage

1 heap spoon Chinese Fermented Bean Sauce

1 tablespoon White Sesame Seeds, toasted

1 teaspoon Sesame Oil

DIRECTION:

1. Cut off the end of the cabbage and loosen the leaves.  Soak and rinse the cabbage in water until clean; drain.

2. Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Add about 1.5 tablespoons salt.  Add cabbage.  Blanch until it is slightly soft; about 20-30 seconds.  Quickly remove cabbage from the hot water and plunge it into cold water to stop the cooking process.  Gently squeeze out the water from the cabbage and set it in a mixing bowl.

3. In the mixing bowl, add fermented bean sauce, sesame seeds and sesame oil.  Toss it gently with hand until well coated.  Serve it steamed rice.