Checkerboard Cookies

I made these cookies some time before Christmas, intending them as giveaways. They never made it to the packaging!

The dough is actually quite simple, and the process of assembling seems complex, but it is actually quite easy.

Check out the recipe at this site. Enjoy!

Creamy Prawn Pasta

Everyone kept complaining that my prawn chowder was too rich and creamy. I admit, I may have needed some watering down.

I was already too tired of this chowder that I decided to just make in into a pasta sauce. I know, I put in potatoes in that chowder, but if I water (err, maybe milk) it down a bit more, then it wouldn't matter.

So that's what I did, I boiled the chowder with two cups of milk added and some chopped fresh basil leaves for added flavor. I adjusted the seasonings and tossed it with some pasta.

The chowder that no one dared to touch for two days in my ref was gone in less than an hour!

Two more doses of Satay!

After making a plateful of beef and kangkong satay some days ago, I was determined to make several more dishes using the really wonderful spicy and flavorful satay sauce I bought on trip to HK. It was a good thing we had a lot of greens stocked up in our refrigerator!

So I made this dish the same manner I made the satay kangkong, except that I substituted half a head of cabbage and one carrot for one bunch of kangkong. I substituted the beef with some fishballs. I added a few pieces of julienned mushrooms as well. The veggies, especially the carrots made the sauce somewhat sweeter this time, but still spicy anf flavorful nonetheless.

The next day, I sauteed some beef and Taiwanese pechay (choy sum) in satay, adding some carrots and tofu. I watered it down with some beef broth then added some sotanghon (mung bean noodles). The amount of water you put depends on the package instructions. It was again fantastic!

Prawn Chowder

I originally wanted to make a New England clam chowder, but clams were not in season. I had a stash of prawns in my freezer and made some prawn chowder instead.

I merely followed the recipe on Martha Stewart's site, but substituted one pound of pelled and deveined prawn meat. I used the shells and heads to make prawn broth to water down the soup.

My version ended up a bit thicker, perhaps because I used Nestle thick cream. I also grated the potatoes into the broth instead of cutting them into cubes.

Satay Kangkong

We ate at a Chiu Chow restaurant in Hong Kong and we were served a plateful of beef and broccoli leaves sauteed in satay sauce. The combination worked. I mean, how could you go wrong with broccoli and beef? But I never liked satay that much - perhaps because it tasted as if they toned down the strong flavors of satay with something that resembled oyster sauce or fisch sauce.





Anyway, I bought a bottle of satay while in HKG and brought it home to use. I made my own version, but this time using a bundle of Chinese kangkong (grown on land instead of water - making them more tender).



On a very hot pan, saute a handful of sukiyaki-cut beef that has been marinated in one teaspoon each of soy sauce and cornstarch. Cook until seared but still rare. Set aside.



On the same hot pan, saute a tablespoon each of chopped garlic, ginger and onions. Add one stalk of sliced celery (believe me, the sweetness and fragrance of the celery really complements the spiciness of the satay). Add the kangkong stalks and cook until bright green in color. Add the leaves and the beef.



Add one tablespoon each of satay sauce and oyster sauce. Dilute with water and simmer until kangkong is of desired tenderness.

Taro Cake

Everybody likes dim sum! And what dim sum meal would be complete without the fried turnip/ radish cake? As Chinese New Year was just around the corner when i visited HKG, almost all the food shops were selling their own version of radish cake.

It is common to find them here, so I decided to buy Taro cake instead. I am not a fan of taro as it is "heavy" and rich. But I do eat it once in a while especially when cooked a special way. So I bought one tub of taro cake from Wing Wah for my parents.

Surprisingly, it was quite "light" and soft. It was also very flavorful. It tasted almost like the normal radish cake except it had the perfumy-ness of taro. Yum!

Hong Kong

I've not really been busy...just plain lazy! Sorry I have tons of stuff to post!

To begin with, I just came from HKG a week ago. You can find some of my pics here. I am yet to post the pics I took last November when i travelled for free using my mileage.