Steamed Cornbread with Dates

This is the Chinese version cornbread. As a Chinese, I do steam a lot. Baking is the least part in cooking since I didn’t grow up with oven.

Ingredients:

corn flour 200g, wheat flour 200g, 2 eggs, 200g + 90g milk, 70g sugar, 1 tsp yeast, some dates.

Please note, I used corn flour, not corn meal.

Methods:

1. Warm up 90g milk, mix with yeast, set aside.

2. Set corn flour in a bowl, bring 200g milk to boil, pour over corn flour, mix well, then set aside, let it cool down to room temperature.

          

3. Mix all the ingredients but dates together. you can barely form a dough. Set aside until the dough double the size.

4. Chop dates into small pieces.

5. Coat a cake pan with cooking oil.

I used a springform cake pan.

6. Lay half of the doug on bottom of the pan, then sprinkle with chopped date pieces, the lay the rest of the doug on top. Lightly press with hand, so the doug would lay flat.

7. Decorate the doug top with dates, then set aside, until the doug double the size.

8. Turn stove top into medium high heat. Pour some cold water into steamer, steam the cornbread for about 25-30 minutes.

You can adjust the cooking time according to doug size. The bigger the doug is, the longer you need to cook.

Banana Nut Bread

I decided to eat healthier, so I bought a bag of pancake mix with almond flour in it. I made one batch of pancake, and my husband and I feel we don’t like it that much. The pancake tastes ok, but not as fluffy as the regular flour one. I think I like the regular ones better.

I didn’t know what to do with the pancake mix, then I saw this banana nut bread recipe at the back of the bag. Of course I tried it, and we both fall in love with it. The bread tastes great!

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup pancake mix, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 4 tbsp butter, 2 banana, 1/2 chopped walnut, 1/2 tsp salt.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Melt butter, lightly beat butter, mash banana, break walnut into smaller pieces.

          

3. Combine beaten egg, melted butter, mashed banana, sugar, and salt, beat together.

The original recipe calls for 1/2 cup sugar, but both of us think it’s too sweet for us, so I cut the sugar to 1/4 cup.

4. Add pancake mix and walnut into the mixture, mix smothly then pour into a greased baking pan, bake for about an hour, or until the tester comes out clean.

Since I used the smaller baking pan, I baked about 50 minutes.

The original recipe said that it needs a 8×4 loaf pan, I used two mini loaf pan, so the bread would be smaller, and easier to store.

Steaming Bun without Filling

In north China, bread or something made with flour is more popular than rice on kitchen table. For example, I won’t miss rice if I don’t have it for a week, but I definately will miss something made with flour. And this is why you see me posting food made with flour a lot.

Ingredients:

wheat flour, yeast, sugar, salt, oil.

Methods:

1. Soak sugar and yeast into warm water, let the mixture sit for 5 – 10 minutes, let the yeast melt, and bubbles come up on the surface.

You don’t need  lots of sugar, I normally do same amount of sugar as yeast.

                

2. Pour flour into a bowl, add little cooking oil, tiny bit salt, then add yeast mixture into the bowl, form everything into a dough. Add more warm water if needed.

I know lots of people would say the flour brand or type doesn’t matter, you can get the same result. But I do like this brand better, and I always use bread flour instead of all purpose flour.

3. Coat the dough with cooking oil, keep it covered, then let it sit for at least 30 minutes, or until dough gets bigger.

4. Reform the dough, try to get as much air as you can out of the dough. then seperate the dough into small pieces.

5. Roll each piece into a smooth shape, put into the steaming tray. Then let it sit for about 20 minutes.

6. Pour cold water into steamer, heat it up with medium high heat with all the trays on. Turn heat into medium when water begin boiling. Cook for 15 – 20 minutes depends on the bun size.

7. Let the steamer sit for 5 minutes after cooking, then take the buns out, let them cool off.

8. Buns can be served warm, and can be reheat with microwave oven or steamer after cool.

Cold Soba (North Korean Style)

This cold soba tasted like what I had when I was in Northeast China. Since it tasted quite different from what I had here in those Korean restaurant, I assume this is the North Korean style since what restaurants here serve is the South Korean style.

I never thought about cooking it until I order it in a Chinese restaurant in College Park, Maryland. It brought me lots of old time memory, so I decided to repeat it at home.

Ingredients:

Chinese Spaghetti, cucumber, tomato, tea egg, cold bottled water, sesame seeds, seasoning

Methods:

1. Add cold water into pan, bring to boil on medium high heat, cook Chinese Spaghetti according to package directions.

2. Pour spaghetti into a drainer, rinse with cold water, then drain.

3. Meantime, peel tea egg and slice into half, chop cucumber into sticks and slice tomato into small slices.

4. Have a big bowl ready, set spaghetti at the bottom, then lay cucumber, tomato and egg on top, sprinkle with sesame seeds.

5. Use a small bowl, mix the seasoning together. Vinegar : sugar should be 2 : 1, but you can adjust it according to your taste. Add some salt, stir until sagar and salt is melted.

6. Pour vinegar mix and cold bottled water into bowl to have everything in bowl covered. Now it’s ready to serve.

Tortilla with Seasoning

 

I’m not a tortilla person, but I do love those ‘uncooked tortilla’. It’s so easy and convienent to cook, and it tastes different from the cooked ones.

Ingredients:

uncooked tortilla, cooking oil, flour, seasoning.

Methods:

1. Pour some flour into a bowl, add salt, pepper into it, then pour some cooking oil into the bowl, mix well. Mixture can be little thinner than peanut butter.

You can use any seasoning as you like. Salt and pepper is what I use regularly.

          

2. Use a spoon, scoop some four mixture on top of the tortilla, spread, then fold as you like.

            

3. Heat a frying pan on medium low heat, add a little bit cooking oil, fry tortilla until golden brown on one side, flip, cook until it’s golden brown on another side.

You don’t have to use cooking oil to cook tortilla. But it sure tastes much better when cooking with oil.

 

Stuffed Tortilla with Chinese Chive

Uncooked tortilla is my forever favorite now. The more I cook with it, the more I love it. It is so easy and convenient. And more important to me, it does not have the smell as the cooked tortilla!

Ingredients:

uncooked tortilla, Chinese chive, eggs, spam, seasoning to your taste.

Method:

1.Chop spam and Chinese Chive into little pieces. Then add egg into the mixture, mix well to make a thick mixture.

2. Heat up the skillet on medium heat, add a little bit oil into skillet.

3. Heat one tortilla until you see little bubble coming up, flip it.

     

4. Scoop some egg mixture on top of the tortilla, make it flat, then hold one side to cover over the other side, make it shape as a omelet.

     

5. Flip the tortilla until the bottom side is golden brown. It’s done when both sides are golden brown.

You can use fork or whatever to punch some holes when you cook it, it will cook sooner.

You can replace any ingredients with something else. I tried shrimp instead of spam, it tastes good, too.

Tortilla is more crispy when first came out of pan. If you heat it up with toaster oven or re-heat it with frying pan, it won’t be too tender.

Steamed Noodle with Rib and Green Bean

Steamed Noodle with Rib and Green Bean

 

This is one of my most favorite way to cook noodle. It tastes a lot better than regular stir fried noodle.

Steamed Noodle with Rib and Green BeanIngredients:

fresh noodle, green bean, ribs, ginger root, seasoning (salt, sugar, cooking wine, vinegar, soybean sauce).

Methods:

Steamed Noodle with Rib and Green BeanSteamed Noodle with Rib and Green Bean1. Slice ginger root, take 4 slices, put into cold water in wok, add some cooking wine into water.

2. Chop ribs into small pieces, then put into cold water, set wok on high heat, bring to boil, then simmer for several minutes. Rinse with warm water.

Steamed Noodle with Rib and Green BeanI had the butcher sliced ribs short when I bought it.

3. Add water into wok, just enough to cover ribs, add cooking wine, vinegar and a little bit sugar, then add ribs back into wok, high heat to boil, simmer for about 30 minutes or until ribs are done.

Steamed Noodle with Rib and Green Bean4. Meantime, tear the edge off green bean, then tear into shorter pieces, wash with water, drain.

5. Add green bean into wok when ribs are done, add salt, soybean sauce, simmer for about 10-15 minutes, or until green bean start getting soft.

Steamed Noodle with Rib and Green Bean6. Spread noodle over rib and green bean, cover with lid, simmer for about 20 minutes.

7. Turn heat off, mix noodle with rib and green bean, so noodle will be coated with leftover juice in wok.

 

Steamed Noodle with Rib and Green Bean

Steamed Noodle with Rib and Green Bean

 

Yeast Roll

 

Yeast Roll

I’m looking for yeast roll’s recipe, this is not the exact one I’m looking for, but it’s a good one, so I decided to post the recipe here.

Yeast RollIngredients:

2 tsp dry yeast, 1/4 + 1 cup warm milk, 3 tbsp unsalted butter, 1 large egg, 4 tbsp honey, 3/4 tsp salt, 1 + 2 cups flour.

Methods:

Yeast Roll1. Mix dry yeast with same amount sugar, then soak in 1/4 cup warm milk. Set aside for 5-10 minutes or until you see a lot of bubbles.

2. Mix 1 cup flour, sugar and salt.

3. Mix egg and yeast mixture with flour mixture.

Yeast Roll4. Melt butter, mix with milk and honey, add into flour mixture, add 2 cups flour, punch until dough get smooth.

You can leave 1/2 tsb honey out, mix with water, this will be your coating mixture.

5. Coat dough lightly with cooking oil, cover with a damp cloth (I prefer plastic wrap), set aside until it’s double-sized.

Yeast Roll6. Use non-stick spray to coat the baking dish.

7. Separate dough evenly (I did 1.5oz each), form it into a roll, set it in baking dish. Repeat until you are done with the dough, brush it with honey mixture. Set aside until the rolls are double-sized.

8. Preheat oven to 350ºF, bake for 20-25 minutes.

 

Yeast Roll

 

Pocketed Flat Bread

 

Pocketed Flat Bread

I never made this type of flat bread before. I was talking with a friend about some local food in China, and they use pocketed flat bread. I decided to google online to find out how to make them.

Pocketed Flat BreadIngredients:

flour, cooking oil, seasoning.

Methods:

1. Mix flour with cold water, form a solid but soft ball, set aside for a while, punch the dough again, then separate dough into several even pieces.

2. Mix cooking oil with salt, pepper and flour, mix into not-too-thick batter, this is your filling batter.

3. Roll each pieces into a flat thin sheet, then spread with filling batter, leave edge unspreaded.

4. Fold sheet from one end, all the way until the other end.

Pocketed Flat Bread         Pocketed Flat Bread        Pocketed Flat Bread         Pocketed Flat Bread

 5. Fold the folded sheet halfway, then fold it again. Use your fingers push the 4 corners into center.

Pocketed Flat Bread         Pocketed Flat Bread          Pocketed Flat Bread         Pocketed Flat Bread

 6. Roll the folded sheet into a flat sheet again.

Pocketed Flat Bread          Pocketed Flat Bread

Pocketed Flat BreadPocketed Flat Bread7. Heat up frying pan, add a little bit cooking oil, heat the rolled sheet on medium low heat. Flip when the bottom is golden brown.

8. Cut the flat bread in center, carefully separate from layers, then fill flat bread with whatever your filling meat/vegetable is.

 

Pocketed Flat Bread

 

Pancake with Blueberry

 

pancake001

One of my Friends gave me some blueberry. I don’t eat blueberry as fruit, but I do love cooking with it.

Pancake with BlueberryIngredients:

2 eggs, 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder, 1 ½ cups flour, 1 cup milk, 3 tablespoons sugar, 3 tablespoons melted butter, ¾ teaspoon salt, 1 cup blueberries

Methods:

Pancake with Blueberry1. Rinse blueberry, pick out all the bad ones, use paper towel to pat dry, set aside.

2. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, set aside.

3. Mix butter with 1/2 cup milk, pour over flour mixture.

Pancake with Blueberry4. Add another 1/2 cup milk and eggs, mix well until batter get smooth.

5. Add blueberry into batter, mix well.

6. Heat up frying pan on medium heat, add a little bit cooking oil, pour 1/2 cup batter into pan, spread evenly.

Pancake with Blueberry7. Flip pancake carefully when you see bubbles come out and pop.

8. Cook pancake until both side get golden brown.

9. Serve with syrup and butter.

I like to eat pancake plain. It tastes good without syrup.

 

Pancake with Blueberry