Last Sunday at the local market I was intrigued by one stall selling something I thought was pak choi
; but the seller told us the origin of this veg. is France. Whatever it
is, the taste is good and do remind me of the chinese pak choi.
This is a simple preparation, you only need cooking oil, sesame seeds,
ready-made crispy shallots/onions and soy sauce. This method also works
well with iceberg lettuce, egg noodles, bean sprouts or anything that
you could think of.
Cantonese-style Vegetable dish
Ingredients
1 bunch of Vegetable of your choice,
1-2 tablespoon of cooking oil
garlic, optional
light soy sauce, to taste
For garnishing
ready made crispy shallots/onions
sesame seeds, toasted
Method :-
1) Heat water in sauce pan , and blanch vegetable just until wilted to take away the rawness. Drain.
2) In a non-stick pan, toast some sesame seed. After toasting, set aside to be used later as garnish.
3) In the same non-stick pan, heat up the cooking oil, once heated and
if you're using garlic as aromatic, start saute until golden brown and
remove from heat. If not using garlic, just removed heated cooking oil
from heat and pour in dashes of soy sauce to taste. Mix in the blanched
vegetable and mix well. And you're ready.
4) Serve on a dish, garnish with toasted sesame seeds and crispy shallots.
Tomorrow, September 19, Chinese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese celebrate the the Mid-Autumn Festival
. Traditionally the day is to celebrate the end of autumn harvest. You
can read the legend of the festival from the link given and why moon
cake is serve on the day.
There are many variations of moon cakes ; however, for a more manageable
bake, I've chosen to try the Shanghai Moon cake. The traditional
filling of lotus or bean paste has been replaced with poppy seed paste ;
of which I think works well with the pastry. Give it a try!
Shanghai Mooncake
via :Simply Hanushi
Ingredients (Makes 4)
20 g icing sugar
6 g egg, lightly beaten
40 g butter, cubed
60 g plain flour
10 g custard powder (sub. with milk powder)
Some black sesame seeds / pumpkin seeds / melon seeds, for sprinkling
Filling
130 g ground poppy seed (traditionally it is lotus paste, but I couldn't make it in time)
a little bit of milk
vanilla sugar, to taste
icing sugar, to taste
lemon zest
Method
1. Filling: Heat enough milk to turn ground poppy seed into
paste, be careful not too wet. Once heated pour into ground poppy seed,
mix in sugars and lemon zest. Mix well and divide into 4 portions and
form into balls
2. Sift plain flour and custard powder together. Set aside.
3. In a bowl, sift icing sugar and add in egg and butter. Beat well till well-combined.
4. Add in the flour mixture slowly and knead into a soft dough. Divide into 4 portions of around 35 g.
5. Flatten a piece of dough into a round shape and wrap in a filling. Seal the edges to form into a ball.
6. Place the sealed ends facing downwards on a baking tray. Brush egg
wash on the surface and sprinkle with some black sesame seeds / pumpkin
seeds / melon seeds on top.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 20 minutes, or until golden brown.
