I prefer reducing the liquid to get thick sauce, or using corn flour. Gelatin, I use them only for dessert.
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i found out that using evaporated milk rather than whole milk as well as increasing the amount of gelatin makes a firmer gelatin as i like to cut them into diamond shape blocks that holds their shape when i add the fruits with their juice to make almond float. Evaporated milk is after all whole milk minus 60 % liquid. i also find using evaporated milk for my flans a firmer better overall flan in my humble opinion.
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In this particular recipe of mango pudding, sweet condensed milk to be poured over the pudding when serving. But I see numerous recipes using condensed milk instead of milk and cream.
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yes, the leche flan recipe does call for both milk and condensed milk. However, in following the recipe, I found the flan to be more jiggly and not firm . if I use whole milk. So, I used evaporated milk which makes a firmer flan, better as far as texture and taste is concerned.
No energy to cook today despite being Chinese NY
Spent 6 hours yesterday and 4 hours today dealing with health insurance company, still not resolved. No wander, some provider will not accept Medicare as not only are premiums high ( depending on whether you were serve employed non government coverage during your working days, and your called IRMAA ,if one has to withdraw money from IRA to enjoy your lifestyle, reimbursement for provider is very low. Medicare punished subscribers like me with IRMAA. ( Income related monthly medical adjustment) .
Anyway, for lunch, I made Ma Po Tofu using 2 lbs ground pork and 2 packages of organically sprouted tofu from Costco. After caramelizing 2 chopped onions, white part of spring onions ,smashed ginger, chopped garlic, the pork was added, then szechuan pepper, pixie ma po sauce, chili black bean sauce and pickled red chili pepper. I wanted to add some broad bean sauce but found I had to open a another
bottle so decided against it as I was really tired. Added some rice wine, adjusted seasoning, 2 tablespoon of sweet potato starch and two scrambled eggs and finally some sesame oil. Ate this with rice.
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I really really love both turnip cakes and radish cakes, but i have only a few odd times been able to find them made vegetarian since the traditional way is with the meat or shrimp.
Impressive spread you made! What is the garnish on top of the broccoli dish?
In our version of the pork stew, the thick caramelly consistency can only be obtained if we add sufficient amount of palm sugar (or white sugar, in the case of the Penang version).
I love Filipino adobo, a very delicious variant of this dish, as we also have Filipino relatives and friends, and I’ve had a close affinity to this dish since very young.
Those are called “lor bak” in Penang, but “wu xiang rou” (5-spiced rolls) elsewhere: pork-strips marinated with 5-spice, mixed with chopped jicama/waterchestnut, egg, tapioca flour, then rolled in beansheets (yuba), and deep-fried. The ones in Penang tasted exactly like those I’d had in Taipei and Xiamen, so it’s a very Fujianese dish.
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That was the classic Hakka stewed pork and yam fish, flavoured with fermented beancurd and dark soysauce. To-die for.
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well, I guess I will have to stay with my variant as sugar would make it a little too sweet for my taste.
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Yes, it is a fukienese or fujianese dish. We call it Ngo Hiong Kue Keng meaning 5 spice chicken rolls although I do not know why it is called Kue which means chicken. There is no chicken but minced pork. Our version use minced pork, water chestnut or jicama to give it a little crunch, finely shredded reconstituted dried mushroom, spring onions, field shredded carrots with five spice powder , sesame oil for fragrance and egg to bind with perhaps a tablespoon of sweet potato starch, then rolled tightly in reconstituted dried bean curd sheets and pan fried. After it is fried, it is typically sliced diagnoally, eaten with ketchup and in my family, mixed with tabasco. The bean curd crust should be crispy while the meat inside soft with slight crunch from the carrots and waterhestnut/jicama.
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Other Chinese NY’s dish is abalone with mushroom and bok choy. I cannot afford the Calmex Mexican canned abalone that retails for about 160 dollars/ can . They are locked in a case at the Asian Supermarket. However, I found a brand ( cannot remember name) which retails for 9.99. Quite decent with the same orange color wrap very similar to the Calmex brand. Typically, we use the largest whole mushroom we have, reconstituted, and saute that in peanut oil, with ginger, garlic, scallions, soy sauce shoo ming wine, then, in goes the prepared sliced baby bok choy stem first. When the seasoning is corrected, small amount of broth is added, so as not to dilute the taste of the abalone broth to be added towards the end, sweet potato starch just to thicken it so slightly, sesame oil enough to smell the fragrance and make the broth glisten, then the broth from the can of abalone is added , being careful that the abalone broth is not boiled off , then the presliced abalone added for just a minute or two so it will not be cold but just luke warm. Served with rice. I love this dish, so simple, elegant but sadly, only to share with Chinese friends and my husband when he was alive. as most Americans, not even my son appreciate it ( He does not eat mushroom). I had this for gregorian NY with my sister. We really enjoyed that.
Shark’s fin soup is another delicacy that my mother used to serve for NY. I have never cooked that or attempted to do it.
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If you are making it on your own, you can replaced the meat with the dried radish and dried mushroom (soak them with water before using) and sparkle with spring onion when serving.
Thanks! As for the broccoli dish they are dried scallop with Chinese oyster sauce. Original recipe called for fresh straw mushroom instead of the shiitake mushroom I used here. The smaller white mushrooms were fresh shimeji. I cooked the chopped broccoli and shiitake in chicken broth with a bit of salt and sugar until cooked. You can replace it with vegetable broth. Then I pan fried the shimeji mushrooms with vegetable oil, added a bit of broth, dried scallops, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce (you can replace scallop and oyster sauce by minced garlic and light soy sauce), stirred a bit of cold water with corn flour, added to thicken the sauce. Quite easy.
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It’s not only the Chinese and Vietnamese who have the same New Year. I did some research and learnt these are some of the typical Korean New Year dishes. They are not hard to make. There’s more to come in the coming days as we can’t eat everything in a day.
Rice cake soup and dumpling soup are the most iconic Korean NY dishes so I had to make them. I used a big disk of beef shin for the broth, which looked almost clear after filtering to remove floating bits. The broth is super beefy, though. I used some shreds of the shin meat for decoration.
The Korean potato noodles were greenish/blueish before cooking. Sliced smoked tofu to replace meat.
A platter of stuff.
Based on a dish called Gujeolpan, like in the cookery book next to the plate. I used what I have so this is what it looks like, without a wooden plate with sections. Fun to eat. When I go to Korea again I must look up where to eat this meal. It’s not something one can find in most restaurants.
From left to right: chives, enoki mushrooms, daikon cress, shimeji mushrooms, Hokkaido squash, smoked tofu, salmon roe, chard ribs. The rounds in the middle are pancakes. I have Peking pancakes to use up.
Also, my usual camera has stopped working today due to some error. I had to use my holiday camera which is a different system and the lens is very different as well. Not very happy about it! A replacement costs 1400 euros (a Nikon body only)!
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Looked amazing your broth, so transparent yet so “beefy”, I guess you didn’t brown the meat?
Rice cake and the "Tray of Togetherness " (shown in your book) is prominent in NY for all Asian culture, including Chinese and Vietnamese.
Oh my… Did you make these dishes? They look so attractive…
You can always make your turnip cake in vegetarian style. I was going to make turnip cake for Chinese New Year, but too much food already in the refrigerator. If I make my turnip cake, then more wasted food…
One thing I love about turnip cakes is that they are very healthy.
I know this is super late, but I’m just getting around to sorting through my pics and catching up. Our local Chinese school has an annual New Years bash. This year was great as usual.
My favorite was the sesame sponge cake. Best sponge cake I’ve had in my life. From the savories, the Szechuan items stole the show. Red dates stuffed with sweet sticky rice and sesame seeds were good, too.
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That pancake looks yummy. On your third photo, what is the white cubes, were they white radish or some jelly cubes?
All your beloved dishes that you described, the dish were half empty. 
