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Thursday, February 3, 2011

Chinese New Year and 年糕 recipe

Hello, everyone. This is my second post. yeah me. :) Right now, it is still Chinese New Year, and boy am I really tired. I went to bed at 3 in the morning, because of staying up to eat the first meal of the New Year. I should be sleeping now, but, I can manage.  I've posted some of the pictures of the food. The first picture is the vegetarian meal that I ate. The 2nd picture is 年糕。It's really yummy. It's a Chinese  New Year cake. The last two are the prosperity cupcakes and the sesame rice balls.



 Even though the food was really good, my energy today was not. I ended up being really hyper in my first couple of classes today, playing around and hanging on the desks. I'm surprised I didn't crash. However, I did almost fall asleep during my afternoon orchestra class, while the conductor spent 10 minutes with the 1st violins working on one part. I somehow took a short nap while leaning on my cello. Quite strange. I'm surprised my cello didn't fall and that  the conductor didn't catch me sleeping. So, that's basically how my New Year went today.
  I cannot wait until all the family gatherings start for the Chinese New Year. All the younger generation people receive red envelopes. I get to spend time with my whole extended family, which is actually pretty often. At least once a month. I also can't wait to eat some more of the delicious food. It's so good, and I will post some of those recipes later on. I have to control myself about the eating though. I don't want to gain any weight.

 I think that I should post a recipe. So, as you see, the 年糕 looks really yummy. It's also something that's traditional in the Chinese New Year. So, here's a link to Christine's 年糕 recipe
One thing though,  is that, the measurements are in metrics. Here is her recipe, converted into cups and tsps and such.

Ingredients:
  • 1 1/4 cup Glutinous Rice Flour
  • 1/3 to 1/2 cup Wheat Starch Flour 澄麵粉
  • 250 grams (4 full sticks) Brown Sugar Pieces
  • 1 cup water
  • about 1/3 cup Coconut Cream
  • 2 tablespoon oil and a dash for the cake mold
  • 1 egg, whisked
Directions: 
  1. In a sauce pan, boil the 1 cup of water. Add brown sugar and cook until completely dissolved. Stir in coconut cream and oil. Drain syrup through a fine sieve to make the mixture smoother. Let cool.
  2. Sift glutinous rice flour and wheat flour twice beforehand. Add flour little by little into the syrup, stirring constantly. If you'd like your batter really smooth, drain through a fine sieve.
  3. Pour the batter into a greased cake mould/pan. Place in a wok and steam over high heat, covered, for about 60 to 75 minutes. The cake is very sticky, even though it may be all the way cooked. So, it sticks to your needle/chopstick if you test it. But if you can’t taste any raw flour, it’s done. Make sure to steam the cake for enough time.
  4. Let cool. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. It makes it easier to slice into thick pieces when cold.  Coat the sliced cake with whisked egg, fry on medium-low heat until both sides are brown. Serve hot. Enjoy. :)

  So, before ending this post, I'd like to talk about my blog. My blogs will mainly be in English, with occasional things in Chinese and Spanish. I'll be posting recipes once a week, sometime during the weekend. So, those who are living in New Zealand, for example, it might be early on in the week instead because of the time difference. Besides just recipes, I'll occasionally have posts about random things that have happened to me that day, my thoughts, culture, rants, things about my musical life, and fitness and exercise. I guess that is it. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Leave a comment, or email me at helenssugarsweetrecipes@yahoo.com. I'll be happy to answer your questions.:)

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