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.

Steamed Rib in (Kabocha) Squash

 The Squash I used is normally called ‘Japanese Squash’ at Asian Supermarket. It’s called Kabocha Squash offically. It tastes sweet, and is my favorite squash. 

Ingredients:

ribs, squash, egg white, corn starch, seasoning.

Methods:

1. Clean ribs with water, then put into a saucepan, add water to cover all the ribs, add some cooking wine, white vinegar, and a few slices of ginger root. Cook on medium high heat to boil. Turn off heat, then let it sit for about 5 minutes. 

When cooking meat and seafood, I love to use some ginger root. I think ginger works much better than lemon juice. 

2. Rinse ribs with warm water, then dry with paper towel. Add seasoning to ribs, set overnight in refrigerator or at least several hours. 

For seasoning, I normally use soybean sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt, ginger root, green onion and black pepper.

                   

3. Clean the squash, chop the top off, take all the seeds out.

4. Mix seasoned ribs with a little bit egg white, mix well with corn starch then. Fill ribs into squash.

5. Steam the squash for about 50 – 60 minutes.

6. You can top with chopped green onion. Serve warm. 

You can use other kind but similar squash, like acorn squash. Of course, you can use other kind of meat, too. I’m thinking of trying chicken one day. I think it would be good, too. 

To view this recipe in Chinese, please click here

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.

Steamed Ribs

Steamed Rib

I was in meat mode yesterday, and ribs was the only meat I had, so I cooked some ribs. And it turned out really good, everybody likes it!

Ingredients:

ribs, cellophane noodle (this wasn’t planned to begin with), seasoning.

Methods:

1. Chop ribs into small pieces.

I normally ask the supermarket to slice ribs into inch-wide strips, and then chop them by bones before I cook.

2. Put ribs into a sauce pan, add cold water, then cover with lid, medium high heat, bring pan to boil. Turn off the heat, let it sit for about 5 minutes.

3. Pour ribs into a drainer, raise with warm water, drain well.

4. Put ribs into a container (I used a ziploc bag), add whatever seasoning into bag, massage some, let it sit for several hours.

For seasoning, I used cooking wine, vinegar, soy bean sauce, sugar, garlic powder, ginger powder, oyster sauce, and ground pepper. If you like salty food, you can add some salt into it.

5. Meantime, soak cellophane noodle into cold water.

6. Find a deep plate (like soup plate), lay cellophane noodle at the bottom, then set ribs on top of it.

7. Fill steamer with water, high heat to bring it to boil, then put ribs in, adjust heat to medium after several minutes. Total cooking time is about 30 minutes.

Most of the time when I steam something, the plate will come out with a circle of marks of food, but this time the plate actually came out with clean edge. I think it’s because the cellophane noodle at bottom.

Steamed Cabbage with Bacon and Onion

 

Steamed Cabbage with Bacon and OnionAmerican cabbage is different from Chinese ones. Cabbage leaves in Chinese version are much thinner and are easier to stir fry. I had a hard time to cook cabbage when I first moved here. This is the first cabbage dish in American version I learned here.

Ingredients:Steamed Cabbage with Bacon and Onion

cabbage, onion, bacon, chicken broth/water, salt and pepper to taste

I cooked half of the cabbage, so I used half of the onion in the picture.

Method:

1. Chop onion to small pieces, set aside.Steamed Cabbage with Bacon and Onion

2. Chop cabbage to cubes, set aside.

3. Heat up skillet, add cooking oil, set to medium high heat, cook onion for several minutes until tender.

4. Add cabbage to skillet, cook for about 3 minutes, add salt and pepper, keep stirring until cabbage start sweating.Steamed Cabbage with Bacon and Onion

5. Cook cabbage until it start shrinking, add chicken broth/water until halfway cover cabbage. Bring broth to boil on high heat, then simmer on low heat for 10 minutes.

I don’t like to have too much juice in dish, so I don’t really pour too much broth. If you like to have more juice, you can add water/broth until cabbage are fully covered.Steamed Cabbage with Bacon and Onion

6. Add bacon, stir, simmer for another 10 minutes.

7. Stir well, simmer for another 10 minutes.

8. Serve hot.

 

Steamed Cabbage with Bacon and Onion