Year of Water Dragon 2012

Wishing all prosperity, good health, happiness in the Year of Water Dragon 2012!

Let me share with you some of the new year goodies and food that were dished out by me....

1) Steamed "Huat Kueh" - one of my mum's favourite! Hopefully we can "一路發發" in the year of Dragon!

I'm submitting this Steamed "Huat Kueh" recipe to this month's Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (Jan 2012) hosted by Wen's Delight.

2) CNY cookies - Everything has to be easy and less fuss this year as I'd to lift my hands to do spring cleaning now that my better half is still recovering from his injury. Only managed to churn out 2 types - sugee cookies and pineapple tarts.


- Pineapple open-tarts like pretty daisy! After so many years of preparing the pineapple paste from scratch, this is the first time I'm using store bought pineapple paste. The 1kg low-sugar pineapple paste from Kitchen Capers is a good alternative and I don't mind using it again if lazy bone sets in next year!



- Sugee/Sugi cookies, tasted as good as last year! Still have a big can of sugee leftover due to small quantities prepared this year.


- Osmanthus cookies - Did I say 2 CNY cookies? This is actually not meant to be included as one of my CNY bakes and there's no recipe. I just used the leftover dough from the pineapple tarts and added osmanthus and little more flour. It would have tasted better if there's more crunch and more sugar.


3) Nian gao spring roll or 年糕夹心卷. Another dish I learnt from my mum on how to eat up the otherwise "hardened" nian gao, and instead of coating with egg-flour and fry it which would be a pretty mess with the melted nian gao sticking to the wok.

Ingredients/Method:
1 packet of spring roll skin, small
Yam
Sweet potatoes (can be the yellow, orange or purple ones)
1 Nian gao
1 tbsp corn flour + 3 tbsp water

1. Clean and slice the yam and sweet potatoes of equal sizes.
2. Steam them for about 5-8 mins on med-high. Set aside and cool.
3. Slice up Nian gao of almost same size as the yam & sweet potatoes.
4. Arrange yam, Nian gao and sweet potatoes on top of each other and place on a piece of spring roll skin.
5. Roll up and secure edges of spring roll skin with cornstarch mixture.
6. Heat up pot on med heat and fry with enough oil to cover the spring roll, until golden brown.

I'm submitting this Nian gao spring roll recipe to this month Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (Jan 2012) hosted by Wen's Delight.

4) Crispy skin roast duck, recipe adapted from Peng's kitchen. My first time roasting duck which yield a delicacy to savour when I invited my relatives to my house on the 6th day of CNY. Although the process of preparation is easy, there is the long hours of air/sun-drying the duck before it can be sent to the oven for roasting. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the process thoroughly and would attempt to do it again (of course, when I have the luxury of time!)

I'm submitting this Crispy skin roast duck recipe to this month Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY (Jan 2012) hosted by Wen's Delight.

5) DIY Spring Roll, which signifies good luck, prosperity and abundance! This is a special spring roll made good by my mil, but due to her health condition, she has not made it for many years. My hubby jotted down the recipe based on his mum's brief dictation years ago, and it's my must-have once a year! Another dish that we prepared when my relatives came but my skill needs improvement...lol. Anyway, my hubby & me had it for breakfast on 7th day of CNY as well, which happened to be "人日" and aren't we supposed to eat at least 7 types of vegetables on this day? This dish would fit the bill!









Hope everyone has many many good years ahead!