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.

凉拌苦瓜

我不是一个很喜欢吃苦瓜的人,所以对苦瓜的做法没有怎么钻研过。一般来说,我只是凉拌或者炒蛋,我知道苦瓜还可以炒肉,或者配上肉馅做酿苦瓜。这几种做法里面,我比较偏爱凉拌苦瓜,因为吃起来比较爽口。

我很多时候会用洋葱和黄瓜来拌苦瓜,这次家里库存有限,只看到半根胡萝卜和一个白菜心,拌出来也挺好吃的。要是有紫洋葱的话,颜色和味道都会更丰富一些。

食材:

苦瓜,白菜,胡萝卜,调味料。

做法

1. 苦瓜洗净,切成两半,把白瓤清理干净。

苦瓜清理的越干净,吃的时候就越不苦。

很多人不喜欢吃苦瓜,说太苦,其实就是没有处理干净的缘故。

2. 白菜去叶留帮,切条。

3. 胡萝卜削去表皮,切丝。

4. 用调味料调好酱汁,浇在切好的菜上面,拌匀。

我用了生抽,醋,盐,糖和香麻油。

5. 拌好的苦瓜静置几分钟入味,即可上桌。

Bitter Melon Salad with Napa and Carrot

I talked with a friend right before I made this dish. He said he never had bitter melon salad before, and he didn’t even know bitter melon can eat raw. So I decided to make this salad to show him.

I love salad during the summer. The big difference between Chinese salad and American salad is the dressing. We make our salad dressing by mixing vinegar, soybean sauce, sesame oil, etc. 

Ingredients:

bitter melon, napa cabbage, carrot, seasoning.

Methods:

1. Slice bitter melon in the middle, clean all the white stuff, then slice into thin slices. 

2. Shred carrot and napa cabbage. Mix with sliced bitter melon.

3. Mix whatever seasoning you would like to use, or if you prefer store bought salad dressing.

I used salt, sugar, vinegar, soybean sauce and sesame oil.

4. Pour salad dressing over vegetables, mix well, let it sit for several minutes to have the salad well seasoned. 

5. Serve it cold. 

Bitter Melon

 

Bitter Melon

 

Of Course, bitter melon tastes some bitter. 

A lot people don’t like the bitter taste. But once you fall in love with it, you’ll like it as it is.

there are seeds inside bitter melon, and you don’t want to cook it with the seeds. 

To clean the seeds, I normally use a spoon to scoop all the white out of it. Then it won’t taste too bitter after cooking.

Below is the wiki link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momordica_charantia

 

For dishes cooked with bitter melon, please see following links:

Stir Fried Bitter Melon with Eggs and Wood Ear

Stir Fried Bitter Melon with Eggs and Woodear

 

Bitter Melon Salad with napa and carrot

香辣小土豆

我这两年比较喜欢吃黄土豆,觉得黄土豆吃起来有点点甜,比一般的白土豆好吃。前几天去超市买菜的时候看到有小黄土豆,忍不住诱惑,买了一包回来。

这个做法是网上看来的,调料是我自己琢磨的。虽然我不怎么吃辣,但是觉得香辣味应该比较配这款小土豆。

材料:

小土豆,熟花生,白芝麻,辣椒碎,小葱,调味料。

步骤:

1. 小土豆清洗干净,冷水下锅,开锅之后小火煮 15 分钟,然后捞出,用冷水过一下,用刀略微拍扁。

          

2. 小葱切葱花,花生用刀拍碎,和芝麻及辣椒碎一起放入碗里。

3. 平底锅倒油烧热,中火,放入拍扁的小土豆煎至一面金黄,然后翻面。两面金黄之后盛出放入盘中。

土豆已经是煮熟的了,所以只要表面煎好就可以了。

        

4. 用小锅烧热油,倒入调料碗中,静置一两分钟,把辣椒和葱花爆香,然后放入盐,五香粉等调料,搅拌均匀,倒在土豆上面即可。

调料可以按个人的口味放,我吃东西其实偏清淡,所以我只加了一点盐。