My daughter can’t have enough of the dish and truly enjoys the delicious chewiness of these sticky rice cakes after coming back from her first visit to Shanghai. Nian Gao (rice cakes), which means “higher every year”, is a squishy, sticky foodstuff made by pounding cooked rice with a woonden cudgel until smooth and elastic, then forming it into cakes that are sliced before cooking. There are a big variety of ways to cook it: it can be stir-fried with all kind of ingredients or frosted with fine sugar.

Dried sliced nian gao, which must be soaked in cold water to soften it, are available at many Asian supermarkets. I choose to use fresh, vacuum packed Korean rice cakes which can be used directly from the package. The packaged rice cakes normally come in the form of oval slices of strips.

Serves 3-4,

• 8 small             dried shiitake mushroom
• 1 sprig              spring onions, (separate white and green pat, cut into small pieces)
• 200g                   green bok choy
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons     cooking oil
• 350g                    Korean sliced rice cakes
• 150ml                  stock or water
• 1 tablespoon    light soy sauce
  

  

Method

1. Cover the shiitake mushrooms in boiling water and leave to soak for 30 minutes (you should keep the brownish water left as it can be used as ‘stock’ later when frying the rice cake.). Then remove the stalks and slice the caps into slivers. Cut the green boy chok across the elaves into 2cm in length. Beat the eggs in a small bowl.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a frying pan over high heat Add the egg and stir-fry till barely cooked, remove the pan and set aside.
   

   
3. In the same pan, add another 1 tablespoon of oil over high heat. Add white part of the spring onion, fry for 1 minute. Add into the shiitake slivers and stir-fry till fragrant. Add the boy chok for and stir-fry until the leaves have wilted. Put the sliced rice cake on top of greens in the frying pan, pour the stock or water around the edges and bring to the boil. Cover the wok with a lid, turn the heat down very low and cook gently 2-3 minutes, until the rice cake has softened. You may want to move around the rice cake slices to keep them from being stuck on the bottom of the pan. Stir in eggs and season with a tablespoon of light soy sauce.
   

   

   

 

 

The beautiful aroma of the fresh bananas fills the room when these muffins are taken out of the oven – there is no better way to welcome kids back after their good and long day at school. These muffins are not fancy, but ultra soft, moist and flavorful. The majority of the moisture comes from yogurt and bananas. Kids love them and we all do. It is also a great way to make good use of overripe bananas which we have them at home all the time.

 Makes 12 muffins,

• 1 and ½ cups         all-purpose or plain flour中筋面粉
• 1 teaspoon    baking powder 泡打粉
• 1/2 tablespoon   baking soda小苏打
• 2-3           overripe bananas熟透的香蕉
• 2 eggs
• 1 small carton    yogurt
• 3 tablespoons   brown sugar or caster sugar (adjust the volume of sugar to your taste)
• 1/3 teaspoon       vanilla essence
• 35g        butter (melted and cool it off)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175℃ or360°F. Line muffin tin (regular size, not jumbo, not mini) with baking cups/cupcake wrappers.  In the meantime, melt the butter in microwave or on the stove and cool it off.
2. In a mixing bowl, place peeled bananas and make the banana mash. 
   

   
3. Then add into eggs, yogurt, brown sugar, a drop of vanilla essence and melted butter. 
   

   
4. In another medium bowl, mix together plain flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set the flour mix aside. Mix well. Add into the liquid mix indicated in step 2 above. 
   

   
5. Use a spatula to fold and combine the ingredients well until you can’t see flour anymore。 
   

   
6. Now pour batter into a lined muffin tin. I use a level ice cream scoop for even measuring. Fill liners to about 2/3 full (do not over-fill).
7. Place the muffin tin into the middle rack of the oven. Bake for 25-30 minutes. You can insert a toothpick into the center of the muffin. The muffin is done if the toothpick comes out clean.
8. Remove the tin from oven and place it on the cooling rack for about 10 minutes. Then enjoy.

Can not ask a simpler way to roast a Chinese-flavoured chicken. The skin is golden and extremely crunchy while white meat is tender and juicy.

Serve 2-4

• I whole chicken, 1.3 kg
• 200g                       baby tomatoes, sliced into half
• 6-7 cloves            garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons    cooking oil
• Salt and black pepper
• Dip sauce (optional):
• 2 tablespoons                   light soy sauce
• A few red chilies             sliced

 Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C°.
2. Half the baby tomatoes. Roughly the garlic. Place 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in a frying pan. Stir fire the garlic and tomato over low-medium heat for about 3-5 minutes. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. Set aside.
   

   

   

   

   
3. Pat dry the whole chicken and tuck into with the tomato and garlic mixture.
4. Sprinkle the chicken with about 1.5 tablespoons of freshly ground sea salt.
   

   
5. Place the chicken onto an aluminium foil lined tray. Place it in the oven and bake for 50-60 minutes till golden.
6. Move the chicken out of the oven. Use a spoon to scoop out of the tomato and garlic mixture. Use a knife to scrap the salt on the surface of the chicken. Slice the chicken and top with the tomato and garlic mixture.
   

   

   

 

 

Stem lettuce, also called celery lettuce, asparagus lettuce, is uniquely grown and enjoyed in China. The flavor and taste are reminiscences of both celery and lettuce. The tender pale green leaves (油麦菜) and white stems(莴笋), can be prepared separately and served as cold appetizers, salads or stir-fired dishes. Chinese believe that the stem lettuce is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals.

Serves 4-6

 Vinegar dressing

• 5 sprigs                                spring onions, roughly chopped，香葱切丝
• 4 tablespoons                     Cooking oil
• 2 tablespoons                    Chinese white rice vinegar 白米醋
• 2 tablespoons                   Chinkiang vinegar镇江香醋
• 2 teaspoons                       Sesame oil 香油
• 1/2 teaspoon                     table salt
• 1 tablespoon                     light soy sauce 生抽
• 2 teaspoons                       caster sugar白糖

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• 750g           Stem Lettuce莴笋一根 (You likely to get about 500g of the ingredient after peeling and removing the tough parts);  cut into thin strips
• 1/3 teaspoon      salt
• ¼ cup              dried wood ears mushroom木耳, rehydrated and roughly chopped
• 1-2 Red Chili Pepper       Red chili pepper or red bell pepper, thinly sliced，红辣椒切丝 (optional)
  

  

Method

1. Prepare a clean cutting board. Peel the lettuce stem and get rid of the tough end if any. When peeling, make sure you get rid of the tough white strings attached between the green core and skin.
   

   
2. Move the clean lettuce stem onto the cutting board. Let introduce the ‘Bias Slicing” cutting technique to prepare the lettuce stem strings. Hold a small chef’s knife or cleaver at a 45-degree angle to the vegetable. Make the first cut. Continue making cuts at the same angle as the first cut, spacing the cuts evenly. Try to make your slices as thin as possible but please be careful not cutting yourself. Now use your knife patting down the stack of slices. Then hold your knife at 90-degree and cut the vegetable to thin strips. If this sounds complicated, just use Julienne cutting to prepare the vegetable strips as thin as you can handle.
   

   

   

   
3. Place in a mixing bowl. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon of salt. Set aside for 10 minutes.
   

   
4. In the meantime, let’s make Salad Dressing. Heat the cooking oil over medium heat for 2 minutes. Add spring onions and fry over low medium heat for about 5 minutes. Drain by removing the caramelized spring onions. This will yield 3 tablespoons of spring onions oil.
5. Place the spring onions oil in a mixing bowl. Add into rest of the vinegar dressing seasonings. Mix well. Set aside.
6. Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch rehydrated wood ears mushrooms. Drain. Rinse it under running water to cool off.
7. Now return the lettuce stem strips. Use your hand squeeze the juice out of the vegetable. Move the juice out of the bowl. Add into the wood ears mushroom and sliced red chili pepper.
   

   

   
8. Pour the vinegar dressing onto the sliced lettuce stem. Mix well.
9. Chill in the fridge for a half hour then enjoy.