Braised Mixed Vegetables / Buddha's Delight (Lo Hon Chai - 罗汉斋)

This vegetarian dish which is usually served on the first day of Chinese New Year varies from family to family.  The main ingredient in this dish is the red fermented beancurd; due to its strong smell, it is an acquired taste. So, if you are not a fan of red fermented beancurd, you can just omit it and replace with another tablespoon of oyster sauce perhaps.   My family love this dish very much, so I cooked it quite often, not only on Chinese New Year.  

Ingredients:
250-300g Nappa cabbage, cut into 1" length
1 medium sized carrot, sliced
a handful of sugar snap peas, trim both ends
10 dried shiitake mushroom, soaked to soften
a handful of cloud ear fungus, soaked to soften
about 20g dried lily bulbs, tie in knots
1 piece bean curd sheet
40g glass noodles
10 pieces tofu puffs, cut into halves
100g Shimeji mushroom
100g enoki mushroom
4 cloves garlic, minced
a small knob of ginger, minced
3 shallots, minced
cooking oil

Seasoning:
3 cubes red fermented bean curd, mashed
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
salt, to taste
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
1 cup water

• Heat about half a cup of cooking oil in the wok and fry bean curd sheet until crispy.  Remove and using the spatula cut it into smaller pieces; set aside.  Then put glass noodles into the oil and fry until crispy.  Remove and set aside.
• Sauté minced ginger, shallots and garlic until aromatic.  Add in shiitake mushroom, tofu puffs, cloud ear fungus, lily bulbs and fry for about 2 minutes before adding in the seasoning.  Cover and let it stew for about 15 minutes or until the shiitake mushrooms are soft.
• Add in cabbage, carrot,  Shimeji and enoki mushrooms, fried beancurd sheet and fried glass noodles.  Braised until cabbage is soft.   Add more water if too dry.  Finally add in sugar snap peas and cook for a minute or two.

Hakka Steamed Pork With Yam (芋头扣肉）- Revisited

Here's wishing all my readers and friends a very 

Happy Chinese New Year.  

May the year of the Horse brings you 

peace, good health and prosperity.

This is a revisit to the original post with updated photos.  

Nestum Cookies

Recipe adapted from here

Ingredients:

200g plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp bicarbonate of soda

150g butter, softened

75g Nestum cereal

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

90g icing sugar
extra Nestum cereal - for coating
red glacé cherries, cut into small pieces - for decoration

Egg wash: 1 egg + 1/4 tsp salt

• Spread Nestum cereal in a baking tray and lightly toast in preheated oven at 150 deg C for about 7 minutes or until fragrant.
• Sift together flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.  Set aside.
• Beat butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.  Add in egg and vanilla extract.
• Fold in flour mixture and Nestum cereal and mix to form a dough.
• Divide dough into balls of 10g each.  Using a flat plastic spatula, press onto the ball of dough to pick it up.  Brush with egg wash.  Drop the ball of dough onto the Nestum cereal and brush the other side of the cookie with egg wash.  Coat the cookie with cereal and flatten it.  Brush a dot of egg wash in the centre of the cookie and press a small piece of glacé cherry onto it.  
• Place the cookie onto a lined baking tray.  Repeat with the rest of the dough.
• Bake cookies in a preheated oven (150 deg C) for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.  
• Cool cookies completely before storing in air tight containers.

I'm submitting this post to the Bake Along event hosted by

 Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce of Kitchen Flavours and Lena of Frozen Wings

and the theme is 'Chinese New Year Cookies'