Aspiring Bakers #39: CNY Rock and Roll Round Up

祝大家捞得风生水起！

Thank you all for your support despite the busy period. I myself also have to squeeze some time to submit and manage the round up. Guess there are more to come just that everyone is busy during this CNY and may have missed the deadline to submit your wonderful post.... Pity.

Sad to hear from SSB that This is the second last AB theme and #40 mark the last AB theme.

I am honored to be the 2nd last host of AB and I would like to say a big thank you to all bloggers who bother to send in your post to support.

This theme has attracted 22 posts, can see most Popular items among the food bloggers are Bak Gwa, baked cod fish strips and traditional Nian gao.

Are you ready? This CNY , let's rock and roll!

1. 简易自制肉干 Homemade Chinese Pork Jerky (Bak Kwa) by Min of Min's Blog

2. 芋薯年糕卷（Nian Gao Spring Roll) by May Law of 厨苑食谱

3. Bak Kwa ~ Pork Jerky by Cheah of No-Frills Recipes

4. Crispy Baked Cod Fish Strips by Ann Low of Anncoo Journal

5. 香脆白芝麻紫菜鳕鱼丝 Bake cod fish strips with sushi nori and sesame by Jozelyn Ng of jozelynng.blogspot.com

6. Bakkwa (Pork Jerky) by Veronica of Minty's Kitchen

7. 香烤紫菜鳕鱼丝 by Angela Ng of pretty-life-things.blogspot.com

8. 自制猪肉干 by Eileen Lee of eileenの记事本

9. Meat floss 肉丝 by Jozelyn Ng of jozelynng.blogspot.com

10. 年糕 Chinese New Year's Cake | Nian Gao by Violet Song of ~♥紫羅蘭的爱心厨房♥~ Violet's Kitchen

11. Crispy Crab Sticks by BitterSweetSpicy

12. Fried Ngaku Chips by Kimmy of Cooking Pleasure

13. Baked Nian Gao by Adeline of Lite Home Bake

14. Coconut egg roll Kuih Kapit by Corlin of Simple Delights

15. Black Pepper Bak Kwa by Passionate About Baking

16. 步步糕升 by Rachel of 简单 @ 生活

17. Baked Cod Strips by Food Playground

18. 慈菇片 by Rachel of 简单 @ 生活

19. Homemade Bak Gwa by Food Playground

20. 糖心酥 by Rachel of 简单 @ 生活

21. Yam Nian Gao芋头年糕 by food playground

22. 桂花馬蹄糕 Water Chestnut Cake with Osmanthus Flower by Violet Song of ~♥紫羅蘭的爱心厨房♥~ Violet's Kitchen

AB #39: Yam Nian Gao 芋头年糕

I add Chilli sauce on top of yam Nian gao


Recently I was watching a HK cooking programme and come across this recipe. Promised my mom will cook for her during this CNY period and I did.

This is my first time making it. Maybe I did not add enough water, it was a bit hard and abit chewy, but still acceptable I hope.

Ingredients:
45gm tapioca flour
75gm rice flour
300gm yam
A handful of dried prawn
1 Chinese sausage (I use Taiwan sausage)
1 tsp salt
A pinch of pepper
A pinch of five spice powder(the prog did not ask for it but I want to give it a try)

Method:
1. Cut yam to small cube, steam for 30 min.
2. Mash yam with fork when it's hot. Set aside.
3. Mix both sift flour with yam till form like bread crumbs.
4. Add water till it form thick smooth paste. (should have add more)
5. Add dried prawn and sausage till well mixed.
6. Add salt, pepper and five spice powder till well mixed.
7. Pour into bowl (spread with oil), steam for 45 min till skewer come out clean.
8. Cut and serve hot or pan fried.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #39: CNY Rock and Roll! (Jan 2014) hosted by Food Playground

AB #39: baked Cod strips

Notice during the month of Jan , this CNY snack is very popular among many food bloggers. Am curious to try this out, so on the last day of snake year, I tried baking this, with reference from Ann's recipe. I used hundreds and thousands sprinkles instead of seaweed and sesame seeds, thinking the colorful sprinkle will attract the kids, but it looks like spiders, ha!

Ingredients:
1 pkt of cod strips
Thousands and hundreds sprinkles
Egg white

Method:
1. Take out Three cod strips tie a knot at the middle.
2. Dip into egg white before dip in thousands and hundred sprinkles, lay on baking tray (with baking paper).
3. Bake at 140C for 10-15 min. Let cool before put in air tight container.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #39: CNY Rock and Roll! (Jan 2014) hosted by Food Playground

AB #39: Homemade Bak Gwa

Gong Xi Fa Cai to all!

From Xmas to CNY, I have been so busy with work, spring cleaning and Baking CNY goodies that I hardly have time to update my post and even reply to some submission. Paiseh!

During this CNY , thanks to this topic and also the submission of Bak Gwa recipes, I got to know how to make Bak Gwa at home. With this, I not only save a lot of trouble queuing, save $$$, and also get to Bake our own Bak Gwa to serve guests.

I have tried recipes from Nasi Lemak lover, Sze Min and Cheah to see and taste the difference.

The first batch, I set my oven to 240C degree(according to some recipes), and ruin the whole batch, the batch turn dark and chao da(burnt), then I realized my oven is a simple oven with no grill function.

So the second time, I set 160C for 15 min then to 180C, and watch the item Closely, the second batch turned out ok. So I tried again using another recipe, and I realized I like the taste better and the result turned out well.

No offense, my liking as in the taste I like is from Cheah's recipe. The recipe asked for lesser ingredients yet the result turn out almost like the Bak Gwa we bought from outside. Thanks Cheah for the wonderful recipe(see below)

Mix all ingredients and leave overnight

Ingredients:
500 gm double minced pork
100 gm sugar (after many tries, I think half caster sugar n half brown sugar is best)
1 Tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 Tbsp Chinese cooking wine
2 Tbsp honey
3/4  Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1. In a large mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients, except the minced pork, stir till creamy.
2. Add in the minced pork, stir with a wooden spoon till gluey.
3. Cover with cling wrap and keep refrigerated overnight.
4. Spread the marinated meat on a parchment lined baking tray with a spatula, about 1/4 inch thick.
5. Bake in a preheated oven @ 160 deg.C for 15 to 20 mins.
6. Remove from the oven, cut into desired size, flip over and bake @180C for another 15 min.
7. As my oven no Grill function, I turn oven to top heat and bake for 5 min or less till the desired colour is attained.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #39: CNY Rock and Roll! (Jan 2014) hosted by Food Playground

P.S: AB #39 is the second last AB theme, and tomorrow is the last day to submit your post. 请马上行动！祝你马上成功