Happy Dumpling day! 端午节快乐

 

Finally, the end products ……….

Penang Nyonya Bak Chang

( Glutinous Savoury Rice Dumpling).

This year Chinese rice dumpling day falls on Monday 23rd May 2014 (also is fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar on which the Chinese calendar is based)

Happy Dragon Boat Festival  to all Chinese readers !

 

Penang Nyonya Rice Dumpling 粽子

 

Look what we have here?

Bamboo leaves, glutinous rice, marinated pork belly ………

Ok, by looking at these ingredients, can you guess what we are going to prepare?

29th  May 2014 ( Thursday)

Yes, it is Rice Dumpling ( Bak Chang) 粽子!

Another 2 more days we are going to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival (Duan wu jie) 端午节 and following Chinese traditional custom, the main food to prepare for this day is "Zong Zi" (Rice dumpling).

I had introduced this traditional Penang Nyonya glutinous rice dumpling recipe before in this old blog post Bak Chang (Savoury Rice Dumpling) 咸肉粽子 back in 2010 when I still resided in Auckland, New Zealand.

Along with the recipe, I uploaded the video below, featuring our master Chef Auntie Lan showing the right way to wrap the rice dumpling. Recently, I was so pleased to find out that this video received very good response and already getting more than 34 thousand hits!

I notice more and more Chinese traditional recipes and food preparation skills seem to gradually get lost in the process of modernization. If we continue not making any effort to preserve them via the right channel/media, I doubt the young generations will get the chance to learn and inherit these skills/rituals to run down the generations. Or worst, they will be lost forever.

Good things are meant to be shared. Visual aid is always easier to facilitate learning. Hence,I really hope the following video will offer helpful guidance to those interested in learning to make Bak Chang ( Rice dumpling) !

 

We are still in preparation stage, soaking the bamboo leaves and glutinous rice overnight, will only start to make by tomorrow, will update again when the “end products” are ready this Saturday! Stay tune

CHEESE & MILK COOKIES 芝士牛奶方块酥

Heat it up again!

I just realized since CNY I have not been updating this site! Which also means, I have not been active in kitchen for so many months?

Well, I have to admit that, I am guilty as charged. Frankly, for the past months other than focusing on work, much of my free time was spent on running, gardening and at some point I was rushing sewing projects to prepare wedding gifts and baby gifts to my colleagues.   I will share the photos of these sewing projects in later posts.

Besides, I must confess in the last few months I was kind of addicted to the small screen of a tablet chasing after a few famous Korean dramas. The Korean wave was still on to me, as I just came back from my 8 days DIY trip with 3 lady friends near the end of April 2014. I will try to find time to share some of the highlights of my Korea trip later especially the food we enjoyed there.

Last Sunday morning, after my routine long run and some weeding at my garden, I decided to resume my baking activity by trying out this simple cookies recipe.  I had prepared the ingredient even before my Korea trip and I told myself not to delay anymore and decided to finish them off.

This recipe was extracted from Yum Yum food magazines featuring Chinese New Year cookies, but this cheese cookie can be served anytime of the year.  It is especially great for afternoon tea serving as kids-friendly nutritious snacks!

 

CHEESE & MILK COOKIES 芝士牛奶方块酥