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The Chef made baozi again today, these have vegetable fillings too.  Search for baozi for more information on this food.

These magical corn bread pastry is unique only to the Chinese cooking culture.

Remember the mentou and baozi?  (if not…no fear, do a search from the search box on the right)

These corn bread used to be extremely popular back in the age when rice and white flour were seen as rare commodities only affordable for the wealthy.  Corn flour were cheap in that time and age.  Every poor/middle class family made corn bread dough and used them to make pastry as the primary source of starch. It's funny how those food only eaten by the poor are seen as exotic healthy food in the present time.

Sorry, I can't figure out a good name to call them. The Chinese name is "Wo Tou", because they are shaped like muffins, I will call them corn bread muffins.

I like them, always have, always liked corn bread.  Do you see the indent on the bottom?  These muffins are hollow shaped before they are steamed, but the hollow closes up and leaves a small intent in the cooked version.  Good luck making them!  I'm sorry I can't offer any details on making them.  I've never seen the Chef making it from scratch to the end product.  Try your luck by mixing corn flour then shape them into hollow bell shapes. Place them evenly in a bamboo steamer.  Enjoy!

Like squids?  This will be your favorite dish.  The Chef loves squid.  When I was growing up…I always thought there were something funny about those weird looking squid chunks.  But because the chef likes them, we had them all the time.

After 20ish years……..I have learned to like squid curls.  They are very chewy. 

Remember those delicious golden steamed nugget squash?  Well….here we have another version!  A bit sweet with crispy skin and just as tasty as the nugget squash.

I present the pepper squash!!

Unlike the nugget squash which has thick golden skin that turns all soft and chewy when cooked, these pepper squash have green and crispy skins.  The skin is still edible. The squash is softer and sweeter.  A different version of steamed squash, still very yummy.  I know the idea of eating steamed squash chunks may sound strange to some, but if you've never had steamed squash, you don't know what you are missing!

*new creation alert*  This is the Chef's new creation, a successful one too.  Let's congratulate her!  Good job, Chef Jiang!

This dish is made with the green part of leeks and mushrooms.  I've always been a big fan of mushroom, so we normally would have lots of dishes where mushroom plays an important part.  Leeks on the other hand….hmm….I can't remember the last time I had it actually.  Back in university, for a semester or two, I tried leeks as replacements for green onions because they were cheaper. (oh..I ate the leeks raw. Those were my good old days when I ate green onions raw. hehe…I know I know)

Well, this new dish is good!  I liked it.  The leeks are not spicy at all.  I was surprised I couldn't really taste any strong flavors in them.  The mushrooms were awesome, as usual.  The two blends super well.  Delicious!

Make sure you get the de-shelled shrimps for this, we want just the meaty shrimp inside….no heads.  The sauce is critical and consists of finely chopped green onion, a bit of garlic, ginger, salt and a bunch of other ingredients.  (experiment a little, everyone's taste is different, this is one of those dishes that you can customize to get your own version!)

When you find your perfect sauce, send your mix recipe to us, we will publish the creative ideas~

Ever wonder how those delicious fried noodles are made?  Well….follow the instructions below: 

For this dish, please prepare shrimp (defreezed from frozen ones are okay), carrots, cabbage and garlic.  Finely cut carrots and and cabbage into thin slices such as pictured above.

Cook the chubby noodles until they're ready to eat.  Do not add in any ingredient, we want to boil these noodles in plain hot water.

Take the noodles out, try to pour out as much water as possible.  Put the dried noodles and the prepared vegetables in a frying pan. Add in your favorite sauces.  (Some of the must ones include salt, vinegar and soy sauce)

Taaa taaaa~  It's ready!

I love this congee!  I love red bean dishes, whether it's pastries, desserts, drinks or soups. 

Have you had the delicious and famous red bean soup?  The sweet red bean soup?   If you like that, you will LOVE this famous Chef Jiang invention:  sweet red bean and rice congee!

Now, the red bean soup itself is just a dessert, but when you also add in rice, it's a simple meal!

You can have this for breakfast or lunch/dinner with delicius pastries!  Hmm…talking about all this is making my mouth watering….hehe, I'm a sugar junkie, so I love all these sweet stuff.  If you do have it, you might want to restrict the serving sizes, too much sugar isn't good for ya.  ^_____________^

Try it! Try it!  I'm sure you will love it!

This is one of Chef's favorite dishes, its official Chinese name is "he xi" which translates into "boxes".  Hehe…I know, it's strange.  All the Chinese restaurants here call them giant dumplings, so I will adopt their terms.

Now…I'm not too sure how to call the fillings inside.  The vegetables are green and have something to do with the green onion/garlic, I think if you plant garlic, the green stuff that grow on top is the vegetables used.  I know this isn't called leek.  The Chinese name is "Jue Cai", if you know what it's called in English, please tell me.

To sum this up, the process of making these dumplings involve:

1. Make the dough

2. Prepare the fillings (egg and leek (Jue Cai)), also mix in with salt and other ingredients for flavoring

3. Fold the dough into individual pouches for the dumplings

4. Close the dumplings after you put fillings in.

5. Oil frying pan.  Put dumplings in frying pan and fry them!  When the bottom of these dumplings turns gold brown, then you will know they're done!

Enjoy, let me know what you think about this dish.

Cauliflower always go well with broccoli, in fact, I think these two vegetables belong together in the same veggie family.

Carrots also tastes great with cauliflower.  So, the only thing I see that stands out from this dish are the seaweed chunks.  Hmm…the chef used to only put these in cold appetitzer salad dishes.  Anyhow, this dish looks colorful and healthy, and it's super delicious too.  If you have a plate of this, I bet you're well on your way to fulfill your veggie serving for the day.