Chinese New Year : Peng Cai 盆菜

Ever since I've got married to the boss almost 11 years ago, we have had reunion dinner with his family at our place ( well, minus the period when we were away in Aussie for 18 months). We always have steamboat for Chinese New Year reunion dinner, until about 2 years ago we started to have peng cai, partly also it has grown in popularity in Singapore. For the 1st time, we ordered from a local restaurant and we were quite disappointed, with the ingredients and the taste. From then on, since last year, I have started to make my own.

As I love to cook and experiment with recipes, I managed managed to improved on the taste and presentation this year.

Many shun away from making own peng cai as its time consuming, but with some cheats, and the happy and satisfied looks on my family members its all worth it.

This year I've adapted my recipe from 2 sources, 1 from the Savour magazine free from Cold Storage and the 1, NoobCook . With the basics, generally you can put in anything you like to eat and remove any which you do not like. The picture above showed the 1 I made for Chinese New Year Eve, we used snow crab legs. I made another 1 on Chinese New Year Day 2 which replaced the snow crab legs with scallops instead. So below is the sample recipe of how we did it for the picture above, I did not specify the quantity of each item as its dependent on the quantity 1 is making for.

Recipe
Layer 1 (A)
Lotus Root
White Radish / Daikon
Chinese Sausage (Lup Cheong)

Layer 2 (B)
Chinese cabbage (Wong Bok)
Fish maw (soften in hot boiling water and remove excess oil)

Layer 3 (C)
Fried beancurd stick (Tau Kee)

Layer 4 (D)
Roast pork
Fried beancurd (Tau Kwa)

Black moss (Fatt Choy) (soak in hot water)

Layer 5 (E)
Baby abalone
Snow crab legs
Prawns
Dried scallops (soak for 15 mins)
Dried mushrooms (soaked overnight)
Steamed / salted chicken
Carrot

chicken stock

Method
Step 1 :

The night before, we cooked the baby abalone in their can, by placing them in boiling water inside a thermal pot overnight. From what I understand some people do the same in a slow cooker or over stove. For over stove, timing will be shorten greatly.

 Step 2 :

Sliced daikon and lotus roots to about 1 - 1.5 cm slices.
Sliced chinese sausage
Place all 3 items into pot (same pot that will be used as final presentation - Pot A) and add in chicken stock just enough to cover the ingredients (Note : I'm using box chicken stock, and we dilute at ratio 1:1 to reduce saltiness)
Cover and allow to boil for 20mins

Step 3 :

In a separate pot (Pot B), heat some chicken stock (same ratio dilution as above). Once boiled, quick blanched of chinese cabbage. (Note : do not fully cook the cabbage, as it will be simmered further later, else it will turn very soggy.)


Once done, transfer to Pot A as 2nd layer, over the daikon, lotus root.

Add in fish maw. Can either mix with vegetable or place them in the middle.

Step 4 :

In pot B, add in some dark sauce.
Place in the soaked dried scallops and mushrooms to simmer for 20-30 minutes.
At the same time also place in the beancurd sticks (Tau kee) remove after 10minutes and it has soften.

After tau kee is soften, transfer to Pot A as layer 3.

Step 5 :

Cut roast pork and tau kwa into cubes and arrange for layer 4.
This year instead of making my own roast pork, I've bought ready-made from the duck rice stall near my place.
I've also air-fried my tau kwa (180C, 5 minutes)
I used black moss to fill the gaps and also the middle

Step 6 :

 

In a new pot (Pot C) boil some water to blanch the following
Prawns
Broccoli florets (soak in ice water to retain the green
Carrots

Layer 5 (Final layer)
Arrange the dried scallops in the middle and mushroom around them.
Using the broccoli florets as dividers, divide the remaining space into 4 parts
Place half a chicken on 1 of the quarter (I've used store bought salted chicken from the market and deboned it, except the chicken leg, to save time. We can also do our own poached chicken instead).
Place prawns in the next quarter
Place baby abalone straight from can into the 3rd quarter (after step 1)
Place snow crab legs in the final quarter (thawed over night in the fridge)
Place sliced carrots
Cover and allow to simmer for 20 -30 mins

Step 7:

In pot B, pour in the water used to soaked the dried mushrooms and scallops and allow to simmer.
Add in cornstarch to thicken the soup. Once it reach desired consistency, then pour thickened sauce over the ingredients, as seen on the 1st picture.

Enjoy! Gong Xi Fa Cai!
:)

I'm nuts

Apart from making pineapple tarts today. I have also air-fried a few batches of cashew nuts for friends and family.

Ever since we have invested in an air-fryer there was no looking back, we have been making so much yummy stuff that we once thought will never happen in our kitchen.

1 of our favorite, Chinese New Year or not, Nuts. Yes, the boss (aka the husband) loves nuts, and all ready roasted nuts in the shops are so expensive, so since last year we have been air-frying nuts as and when we like and we can seasoned according to what we feel like, and its as easy as ABC.

RECIPE

Cashew Nuts
seasoning ( sea salt, garlic salt, creole seasoning, etc)

Method :

Rinse and wash cashew nuts
In a colander, let it dry
Pre-heat air-fryer 160degrees
mix seasoning with nuts and put into air-fryer basket for 10 mins (check at 5min mark, and also give it a shake)
Add additional seasoning if required and allow to cool before storage
(Note : Nuts will be crunchy after cooling)

Chinese New Year : Pineapple tarts

Pineapple tarts made with love

Its starting to feel like Chinese New Year, when you hear all the those CNY songs every where you go.

Ever since I was young my mum would always bake lots of goodies as the festival gets closer, especially Pineapple tarts. As we didn't have much money then, my mum would make pineapple tarts and sell them to her colleagues (who would gladly place order).  All so good.. the buttery melt in your mouth tarts, and pineapple fillings that were cooked over charcoal fire. Those good old days. Since mum became unwell 2-3 years ago, she has stopped baking, and partly also because she hasn't figured out how to operate those 2-in-1 convectional oven.

So as we (Mum and I) were having 1 of small talks, we were both reminiscing the good old days plus the goodies, and we decided why not we bake a batch over at my place? So the idea was born, and my mum decided that she make the pineapple fillings ( no more over the charcoal fire, but over the gas stove) over at her place and bring over and we will do the rest over at my place.

Hence this morning we had so much fun baking together. It was fun baking with mum. Last time whenever mum bakes I was not allowed to help, as its deem that I would be playing more than helping. 

Also I've decide to blog about it partly to document down the recipe (as old people dislike measurement, and everything is done via estimation), and also to keep as memories. As we grow up, our parents grow older, I do not know how many more times we can do this together.

Mum mixing and kneading the dough

A we-fie with mum while baking

All ready to go into the Oven

 RECIPE

Ingredients : 

Tart 

about 850-900gm Plain flour

500gm butter 

1 tablespoon sugar

1 egg

Pineapple filling

can be store bought or DIY

for DIY

Roughly about 5 pineapple, grated 

sugar 

Method : 

Tart

Mixed all the ingredients by hand till they form dough

DIY pineapple filling

drained grated pineapple

cook over small fire w sugar (to taste as some like it tangy while others sweet)
P/s :  Mum add about 200gms of sugar to 3 pineapple to start off)

stir often, and cook till all juice have been evaporated and pineapple is dry, and allow to cool

Roll dough out and cut with pastry cutter

roll pineapple filling into balls to be placed in the middle 

egg wash pastry portion (use only egg yolk)

Pre-heat oven to 165- 170 degree celsius

bake for 20 mins

allow the tarts too cool before storing in containers