Ngo Hiang (五香粉, ngó͘-hiong-hún)

I developed a liking to this chinese delicacy referred to as hokkien spring roll or ngo hiang, 
( usually in different spellings and pronunciations ) but are all physically-- the same from the outside. With that specific chili sauce on the side, who could ever resist! 

Out of curiosity, i wondered how they made this delectable side dish or main dish? Oh, that bean curd made all the mystery, so to make your Chinese New Year giddy--yapping or simply vary your repertoire... try this recipe...



NGO HIANG


Ingredients:

300 g minced pork marinated
500 g minced shrimp/prawn marinated
bean curd skin
fried shallots
1 medium carrots, minced
3 stalks spring onions 
1 pack water chestnuts
1 c fried shallots ( you can make your own or just buy the ready made one's which I did cause i don't want to end up wasting )
1 egg
Bean curd sheets
Oil for pan frying

A delicious and nutritious ingredient in any of my mix meat!

Pan Milk

BreadTalk becomes popular in the Philippines i think sometime in 2004 at Glorietta 4, Makati. I can't forget this since I was so amazed with its green tea cake --a small size cost about 700++, well the price struct me actually.  Made me wonder who would patronize their cakes when we have Red Ribbon and Goldilocks or even Becky's Kitchen to turn to. That green tea cake hit me like... You had me at green!  Ssssshhhh... the truth, I only bought once and never did it again. My naiveté disregards the value of the cake not even its elegance, or probably my fondness of green tea as a concoction supersedes the vast possibilities of this flavour.  Though i love its physiognomity but that's all there is.

Going back to BreadTalk, it never fails to amaze its fans with its innovative baking. The soft, moist delicious breads magnetized anyone in just one bite. Now its my quest to discover or at least mimic its bread in my own addictive way.

Pork Asado Filling

Have you tasted the famous pork bun made by Paradise Group or Tin Ho Wan? Oohh that bun tastes de-lish ... so far (wink, wink!) .   With that inspiration, I challenged myself into baking one of those buns in a series of variations, but first "i have to get to the filling of this" ;-). This version is the simplest, easiest asado filling to go with my pork buns adventure...

PORK ASADO FILLING

Ingredients:

200 g minced pork
1 medium onion minced
2 gloves garlic minced
spring onion
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
dash of ground black pepper
1 tsp cornstarch dissolve in 1 tbsp water
2 tbsp water for the sauce


Method:

Heat pan and sauté garlic and onion.
Add minced pork and pepper.
Pour hoisin and oyster sauces.
Mix cornstarch with 1 tbsp water then pour into the pan.
Stir continuously until well combined. Then add the remaining 2 tbsp water, simmer until sauce thickened.  When done set aside to cool.
Ready to use.

Hawaiian Pizza

     You don't call it lazy afternoon when you have nothing to do but bake!  You won't deny it once you see those pans and bowls on top of the other, and its never ending. Believe me when I say, I should have been busy reading a book instead.  But kids have convincing power of pulling you off out of your potato couch--ing!  What can I do???  Well, roll those sleeves and let's start mixing ;-).

Pork and Cheese Empanada

Another day of pampering and spoiling.  For those days when kids hated vegetables, here is a great trick. Another empanada recipe --

Dough
     Use flan pastry or  pâte a foncer.

Shortcrust Pastry

There are several dough recipes which you can use for your favorite pastries and none of it is wrong.  The texture and tastes may vary but all of them are as good as the other. So I gathered and tested a few to make comparisons. Each of these are delectable, so why not try them.  The ingredients are easy to remember and the preparation is as good as 1-2-3...since you will be following 7 similar steps for these pastry doughs. Just get acquainted with the ingredients, memorize them and your good to go. From my kitchen to yours, sharing these recipes --

Apple-Blueberry Pie

Paige is exploring her tastebuds and starting to immerse herself to "foodography." I wouldn't be surprised if one day she will replace me in my kitchen or would wish for  a kitchen showcase (instead) for christmas {wink, wink}.  Well, not bad though.

These past weeks have been busy for the school kids and it's us--the parents who ensure that days will be a little lighter as much as possible. We so called spoiled them for the time being =D.  So when Paige requested for an apple pie (she specifically wanted the one in pie crust not in puffs of Mc Donalds ), I instantly say yes!, I will bake you one.  Checking our stock, I saw this punnet of blueberry and a bunch of candy apple (this is a kid size version of granny smith) so I thought why not bake a medley:  Apple and Blueberry instead. So here it is... the ABP--

Roasted Chicken in Coconut Mushroom Chardonnay Sauce

       There are times that dining out is imperative.  It will immerse us to various food hubs of cultural origins and arrays of ingredients. I remember back in Manila, whenever our time permits, some of us siblings (whoever is in Manila and available)-- all food enthusiasts,  meet up on weekends and pig out to our hearts desire after watching a movie or simply after a day's malling.  We food hop especially to those newly opened dine-ins and restos  and scrutinise our new discoveries. We add our best food choices to our archive and defy those rejected by our palates.  But the next great thing is -- recreating those new discoveries in our own "dirty" kitchens. Aahhh brings back memoirs. 

Double Chocolate Walnut Brownie

There are times when you have to choose between following standards and going with your hobby-tual instincts, most often the latter is way much convenient and exciting. So tonight, I made this brownie from recipes which I combined and edited for my convenience of course =), no more lengthy procedures just pour, or drop then mix!

Lumpiang Sariwa

It's been months since we had lumpiang sariwa in the house.  There is this one food that Hubby discovered-- its called popiah (pȯh-piá ) a fresh spring roll known to Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Cambodia and Thailand which is very similar to our lumpiang sariwa. It tastes good except for its wrapper which we can equate with our fried lumpia wrapper but I am more inclined to a soft and smooth crepelike wrap. Actually lumpiang sariwa is more like a crepe without the sweet taste and on my bias opinion tastes even better than popiah!


LS is basically made of stir fried vegetables and meat.  I even tasted one with buko (young coconut) strips though the buko made its stand on the texture but not the taste and adding one would be a bonus.  I was suppose to include this into my recipe but due to buko grabbing today,  non of it exist in the store nearby {sigh}.


But the good thing about cooking or baking, you can have alternatives. If one ingre is missing, go for the alternatives and you will be surprised on its outcome.

Peanut Sauce

PEANUT SAUCE

Ingredients:
2 cups water
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp Superior Light Sauce **
3/4 pork cube
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 garlic head, crushed and minced

** you may adjust to your preference

Method:
Mix all the ingredients (except the peanut butter) and simmer with constant stirring over medium heat until the mixture becomes thick and transparent. Add peanut butter and whisk to thoroughly incorporate the butter. Cool and set aside.