Half Hakka Version of Lui Cha Fan

At the end of each week, I always end up with a whole lot of vegetables in the crisper. This is because at the beginning of the week I buy different kinds of vegetables with the best intentions to have a balanced diet during the week. During the week, when I come back from work we always focus on cooking the main staples first being rice and a meat/fish dish that the vegetable dish gets forgotten in the process.

So what better way to use up all the vegetables in the crisper than to prepare this dish! This is a loose interpretation of lui cha fan (thunder tea rice), a Hakka dish which has a variety of individually prepared vegetable dishes accompanied by a pounded tea mixture, herbs and sesame seeds.

It is a time consuming dish which involves some effort. The time it takes to wash each type of vege, chop them up, prepare them individually, then prepare the pounded tea 'soup' which involves pounding tea leaves and herbs with a special wooden mortar and pestle cannot be underestimated.

For my half Hakka version of lui cha fan, I prepared:

snake bean omelette
winter gourd stir fried with dried shrimp
stir fried brocollini with garlic
chai poh
peanuts

Mix all the vegetables on a bed of rice. In place of the pounded tea leaves and herb soup, I used steeped tie guan yin tea.

Pipa Tofu

Gaz commented on my recent dishes - 'Why are you using the food processor for everything these days?' It's because I have been making chicken/tofu nuggets, pork/prawn siu mai, steamed minced chicken & tofu recently. Each time I use the food processor, he has to pack it up and place it back in its original position on the top of a shelf. So you see, there is work involved for him besides eating up my creations.

This pipa tofu is one of the dishes in the list of that requires the food processor. Do not fear the blandness of tofu, the minced prawns gave it the slightly bouncy texture and taste that  tofu do not have on its own.

They are called pipa tofu because it resembles the shape of the pipa, a Chinese guitar. The shape of the tofu is achieved by using a porcelain Chinese spoon.

200g tofu (semi firm)
200g prawns
3 shitake mushrooms
1 carrot

Whiz up prawns in food processor, till it becomes a paste. Crumble tofu and finely minced mushrooms and carrot into the paste, mix well.

Season with salt and white pepper. Use a chinese spoon as a mold, heap the mixture into the spoon, then dislodge the mixture from the spoon and fry till golden brown.

I used the ubiquitous soy sauce, oyster sauce and corn flour mixture as a sauce to drizzle over the tofu. There is a little effort required for this dish, but it tastes delicious!

Dragon Cookies

It is the Year of the Horse this year. Do you know the story of how the chinese zodiac signs come to be? Once upon a time, the Jade Emperor called all the animals in the animal kingdom for a feast. He told them that the first twelve animals who arrive at his place would also have the honour of a year named after them. But first, they have to cross a big river to the Jade Emperor's palace.

Both the cat and the rat are intelligent animals, but they were terrible swimmers. They met an ox at the bank of the river and persuaded him to take them on his back. The Ox being good natured, did so. Nearing the other side, the rat pushed the cat off into the river and it drowned. The rat then took off and reached first with the ox in second place. The tiger arrived soon after.

The rabbit arrived next, by nimbly hopping from log to log floating on the river. He explained that he nearly fell off at one point but the wind blew the log to the safety of the bank of the river.

Next came the flying dragon. Although it was strong and the only one who can fly, he was delayed because on the way to the palace he saw the Rabbit clinging on to a log and took time to blow the log to safety. 

Next came the horse with a snake clinging on to its hoof. The sudden appearance of the snake as it slithered away from its carrier to the finishing line spooked the horse and thus was cheated of the sixth spot. 

The goat, monkey and rooster came together. The rooster spotted a raft and together, the monkey and goat pulled and tugged to get the raft across. The goat got the eighth spot, the monkey and rooster the ninth and tenth respectively.

In the eleventh place was the dog, who could have gotten there a little earlier but was too playful and so had stopped midway playing. The last was the pig, who ate too much before going to the feast and fell asleep on the way.

There! Easy to remember? 

Even though this is not the year of the dragon, or snake, I made these dragon cookies for Chinese New Year. They are easy to make and melts in the mouth. Just be sure to leave the butter to room temperature so it whips up light and feathery otherwise the dough will be very hard to pipe.

Beware, these cookies are very crumbly!

120g corn flour

20g all purpose flour

10g milk powder

80g butter

50g icing sugar

1 egg yolk

Whip butter and icing sugar till smooth. Add egg yolk and whip. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and whip till well mixed. 

The dough should be pliant, but not runny. Place into piping bag and pipe in the shape of 'S'. 

Bake at 160c for 15 mins.