ALMOND BUTTER COOKIES 杏仁牛油饼

There is a saying that baking can be a great bonding activity and I agree fully to it. Last Sunday, I had a fun cookies baking session with my son Ming Ray. He enjoyed his little master chef task assigned by me to cut the dough into assorted shapes that he liked with cookies cutter. Not only he gave a big thumb up to the taste of the cookies he made, the following day he proudly shared the cookies with his buddies at school too. J

This easy cookies recipe was adapted from Baking Made Easy by Agnes Chang (蓝赛珍，轻轻松松学烘焙); it was named Almond Cookies in the book. However I found the cookies were overpowered by the buttery flavor. To me it tasted more like butter cookies than almond cookies. Hence, I am renaming this recipe to Almond Butter Cookies. Having said that, the cookies are tasty to eat, not too sweet and it was really crunchy on the outside but soft from the inside.



ALMOND BUTTER COOKIES  杏仁牛油饼

SUPREME PORK CHOP 猪扒王

Oriental Pork Chop

This is a Chinese style pork chop which I adapted from Hawkers’ Fair Simplified. This is one of my family’s favourite dinner dishes. The name is called pork chop but I found it tastes even better with pork loin,the meat is tenderer and juicier. If using pork loin I usually omit soda bicarbonate as tenderizer.

To keep the pork chop crisped, pork chop can be deep fried first and only have the source poured on it when serving.  

SUPREME PORK CHOP 猪扒王



Steamed Buns (Baozi/Pau) 包子

Supreme big Baozi/Pau, anyone? 大包？ 

Bread is the main staple food to Western Cuisine as in Baozi/Pau (steamed buns) is to Chinese cuisine.  Baozi is especially popular in the Chinese breakfast serving.  Baozi making shares similar process to bread making which requires  yeast dough, kneading and proofing with the only difference in its cooking method - steam instead of bake. Hence, baozi can also be regarded as stuffed steamed bread.

There are various types of baozi ranging from plain buns to stuffed baozi with various fillings. What filling can be used in baozi?  The classic fillings are meat (cha siu /BBQ pork/beef/chicken) or sweet fillings like red beans, lotus paste, kaya (coconut egg jam), peanut butter or even vegetables. I would say the list is too exhaustive to name and only imagination is the limit.

Having mastered the basic skill in Western bread making, I reckoned it was time to take up new challenges in learning up Chinese bread making J  I had two fun experience with my cooking members back in Auckland in making Shanghai pan fried baozi(上海生煎包). However, at that time I did not have the chance in making the yeast dough from scratch. The yeast dough was prepared and proof in advance and we were invited to go over to help in wrapping and pan fried.

Last Sunday, I decided to try out the steamed buns yeast dough recipe from Agnes Chang’s “Delightful Snacks and Dim Sum” cook book. With this yeast dough I had successfully made 4 big supreme big pao with shredded chicken breast, egg and yambean fillings and 6 small Kaya bao using my homemade kaya filling.    

Steamed Buns (Baozi/Pau) 包子

I was delighted that the texture of the steamed buns was very soft and springy. However, hubby commented that the taste of the meat fillings could have been improved with longer marinating time overnight in the fridge to further tenderize the chicken breast and the seasoning more thoroughly absorbed.