Chinese Recipes | Cooking Tips | Good Eats

The packet said: “Radish (Daikon) Rice Cake”. But I know it as Carrot Cake. And the Chinese words (not that I could read it) looked vaguely familiar.

Here’s a mathematical analysis:

Radish is also known as White Carrot or Chai Tow in Hokkien. Rice cake is known as ‘kway’ in Hokkien.

IF [radish => (white) carrot] AND [rice cake => kway]
THEN radish rice cake => carrot cake => chai tow kway!

God, I hate programming.

The authentic Chai Tow Kway is supposed to be in smaller pieces, and stir fried with radish and an egg. You can get it in the “black” or “white” form. “Black” because it is stir fried with dark soy sauce, and “white” because it is stir fried in light soy sauce. I was told that when you order Chai Tow Kway from a hawker center in Singapore, you must order from a stall whereby the cook is very energetic in his or her stir frying and makes a lot of noise as he or she hits the ladle against the wok, then the Chai Tow Kway will be more tasty!

Of course I cannot stir fry my Chai Tow Kway with the same vigor, or the whole stove and kitchen floor will be in a mess and I will be the one doing the cleaning ultimately. So what I did was to cut the block of Chai Tow Kway into cubes, stir fry them in a tablespoon of oil, or just enough oil to coat my frying pan. Since I am a meat person, I also bought some Char Siew (Roasted Pork) from Ranch 99 deli, and stir fried that together with my Chai Tow Kway. Nearer completion, that is when the Chai Tow Kway looked a bit crusty on their sides, I added soy sauce to taste and mixed well.

The Chai Tow Kway from Ranch 99 tasted quite authentic! I will give it a go again and stir fry it with radish and egg - the good old Singaporean way!

I love it when I succeed in something. For some, they say they will be happy when they make a million dollars. For me, it’s something as simple as making a chicken curry puff and making a real good one. It’s your life. You set your own rules on what makes you happy.

The chicken curry puff inspiration was triggered by the fact that I had to pay $1.50 for one tiny puff, so I decided to make some myself. The recipe for the chicken curry puff filling is exactly the same as the chicken curry recipe using the Rasaku Chicken Curry Mix.

Here’s the rest of the cooking method:

1. Follow the puff pastry box instructions and defrost one piece of puff pastry for 40mins (I used Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets). While doing so, cover the puff pastry with a damp paper towel to prevent it from drying.

2. Meanwhile, cook the curry chicken and potato according to the Rasaku packet instructions. When ready, cut the chicken and potato into small pieces.

3. Sprinkle some flour onto a cutting board. When puff pastry is soft and at room temperature, cut the puff pastry into 4 equal pieces. Sprinkle some flour onto the rolling pin to prevent the puff pastry from sticking to it. Use the rolling pin to “expand” the puff pastry. Sprinkle more flour if necessary.

4. Using a spoon, transfer the cut curry chicken and potato to the puff pastry.

5. Carefully fold into a triangular shape and squeeze out as much air as possible.

6. Using a fork, crimp (make fork prints) the edges to seal the puff pastry. (If you have trouble making them stick, apply some water to the adjoining edges before crimping.) After that, poke the fork onto the “body” of the pastry puff to make holes. This is to allow steam to escape so that your chicken curry puff will not explode in the oven.

7. When you are done with the crimping of the edges of all 4 chicken curry puff pastry, brush the top with butter, margarine or egg wash, so that they will brown nicely. Transfer them to a 400 degree F preheated oven and cook until the pastry turns golden brown. This will take about 25-30 mins, depending on your oven.

8. Voila! Done! I did! I DID! I did increase my PUFF - My Chicken Curry Puff.

The Italians have a “prochiutto with cheese wrapped in grilled asparagus” recipe. The Asian twist to that is wrap the asparagus in bacon and grill them together!

Chinese are creative in their own way, don’t you agree?

Ingredients:

- 4 strips bacon
- 16 stalks asparagus

Method:

1. Pre-soak 16 wooden toothpicks in water for about 20-30 minutes to prevent them from burning when placed in the oven. I did not have toothpicks, so I used short wooden skewers and cut them into shorter lengths.

2. Cut each bacon strip into 4 pieces of equal length, to get a total of 16 short pieces.

3. Cut off the dry end of the asparagus and then cut them into thirds.

4. Wrap the asparagus in bacon and secure with toothpick.

5. Place the asparagus and bacon roll onto the “grilling tray” instead of just the baking sheet to allow the oil to drip from the bacon.

6. When the bacon turns golden brown and crisp, remove from the oven and place them on paper towels to soak up excess oil.

Enjoy!

Remember I used anchovies in my Spaghetti with Shrimp and Anchovies meal? Those were super large anchovies soaked in olive oil.

In the Asian supermarket, you can find small boiled anchovies in packets. They are in the cool section, together with the dried shrimp and dried mini scallops.

(more…)

I have tried fried Mars bar in Bondi Beach, Australia; fried green tea ice cream in some Japanese restaurants and fried bananas (also called goreng pisang) in Singapore.

So I thought how about fried mango?

(more…)