* This is what i called the "lo hei" salad, sounds good for CNY indeed, especially when i use 8 ingredients, the number representing fortunes in chinese!
** easy to make, just need time and patience to prepare all 8 ingredients in advance.
Ingredients:
1. Canned abalone ( i used the 1 can 1 abalone type as the abalone is big enough to cut out longer slices. Boil the whole can in hot water for 4-6 hours)
2. chicken slices (steam chicken and shred into slices by hand after cool down)
3. Prawns (cook in hot water, then remove shells and heads and cut into half from back from prawn)
4. Eggs - mix eggs in bowl, then add to hot pan like omelette, when brown, turn over to other side and cook until brown, Take out and cool down, then cut into slices.
5. Bean curd stick - blanch in hot water for 5 min then cut into slices after cool down
6. Carrots - cut them into slices then blanch in hot water for 3-4 minutes.
7. Cucumber - cut them into slices.
8. Ham - cut them into slices.
How to Make:
1. after preparing the above ingredients and have them chill in fridge for a while, line up in a big dish as shown above.
2. When ready to serve and eat, spoon the salad dressing you like all over and then mix well with fork or chopsticks, For myself, i think japanese sesame salad tasting goes well!
This salad represents some good fortune and luck. It is completely without any salt! you can replace any ingredients with anything else you like eg. ham to lettuce slices!
Enjoy!
Ingredient:
Spanish pork (梅头）(* best to reserve this part in advance from butcher like City Super)
BBQ pork sauce
Rose Wine (玫瑰露酒）
Malted Candy (麦芽糖)
How to Make:
1. The night before dinner, wash and wipe dry the pork. Cut them into the right size, like stripes.
2. Mix a whole bottle of BBQ Pork sauce with 1-2tbsp rose wine. Place the cut pork in a tray and add the sauce mixture all over to marinate it. Best to wear a glove and then massage each pork with the sauce mixture to ensure each and every part of the pork are covered with the marinate sauce. Lay the pork flat in the tray and cover with cling film, then leave it in the fridge overnite,
3. 1 hr before roasting take out pork from fridge and leave it at room temperate.
4. Preheat oven to 230'C.
5. Rub marinate all over pork one more time, then place then flat on a baking tray lined with foil.
6. Roast one side at 230'C for 10 minutes, then turn over pork and roast at same temperature for 10 min.
7. Then turn over pork again for roast for 20 min - remember to brush all marinate left in pan and tray all over pork.
8. Then turn over pork again for roast for another 20 min
9. Lastly, mix the malted candy with some hot water to soften it, then brush it on top of pork and roast for 5-8min, Then turn over pork brush malted candy again and roast for another 5-8min. (* if you think it is not brown enough, you can turn up the temperature in the last 5 min)
10. Take out pork and cut into slices to your desired size and spoon juice on tray on top of the BBQ pork dish.
Enjoy with a bowl of rice! :)
* recipe adopted from Gordon Ramsay's "Christmas with Gordon"
Ingredients:
Poached Pears
2 large pears
50g caster sugar
100ml water
1 vanilla pod
Base:
150g digestive biscuits
50g unslated butter
2 tbsp Nutella spread
Filling:
300g Philadelphia cheese
125g caster sugar
100ml whipping cream
3 tbsp amaretto liquer
100g amaretti biscuits - lightly crushed
To decorate:
120g good quality dark chocolate
icing sugar, to dust
How to Make:
1. Prepare the poach pear first as the poached pears need to be cooled down before further use. Peel, quarter and core the pears, then cut into 1cm dice.
2. Dissolve sugar in the water in a small saucepan over low heat.
3. Split the vanilla pod, scrape the seeds into a bowl for later use. Add the pod (with seeds already discarded) into the above saucepan and simmer with the syrup for a few minutes to infuse.
4. Add the diced pears and poach gently for about 3 minutes. Drain and leave the pears to cool. (once they are no longer hot, i suggest to further cool down in the fridge).
5. For the cheesecake base, crush all digestive biscuits in a zip lock bag using a roller pin lined with a cloth on top until they become fine crumbs. Melt the butter in a small pan and stir in the Nutella spread. Mix the biscuits crumbs with the butter nutella mixture and spread evenly over the base of a 23-24cm springform cake tin, press down lightly. Chill this cake base in tin for at least 20 minutes in frdige until set.
6. For the filling, mix the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla seeds together using an electric whisk until well blended. Add the whipping cream and the liquer and mix well. Fold in the crushed amaretti biscuits and the poached pears (which are cool already) and mix well.
7. Pour the cheese mixture onto the cake tin over the digestive biscuits base and level the surface. Chill for 30 min to 1 hr until set.
8. For the decoration, grate the bitter chocolate using a potato grater, then spread them on top of cake, then finish by dusting some icing sugar on top.
** this cheesecake recipe is unlike my traditional cheesecake recipe as the filling is quite soft and runny. But it does have a very nice taste and fragrance of pears and almonds!
** if you are using japanese pears, i suggest you to poach the pears without any sugar as they should be sweet enough themselves!
Enjoy!
