Oyster Sauce Prawns with Garden Fresh Spring Onions

Food, rich glorious food, always comes to mind whenever any festivals are mentioned! The Chinese believes that every new lunar year must be celebrated with food that are associated with prosperity, good fortune and happiness. Some food are considered taboo or bad luck if consumed within the first 15 days of Chinese New Year, such as fu gua (bitter gourd). Just as the name implies, the melon is bitter and we would not want to start off to a 'bitter' year! Mui Choy (a type of preserved salted vegetable), when translated directly, the name implies "no luck" and we wouldn't want to start off the new year with this either! 

So, every Chinese New Year, in restaurants and even at home, the food that are usually served will be the fatt choy (black moss fungus), meaning 'strike it rich', yee sang (raw fish with shredded vegetables, pomelo and other condiments) meaning prosperity, har (prawns) for liveliness and yee (fish) which must be a whole fish with head and tail intact, meaning that, a good start and a great ending of a lunar year. 

That explained, come and join me in this "liveliness" dish, which is a simple prawn dish marinated with oyster sauce and fried, and stir-fry again with spring onions.

Even tastier with the spring onions from my own garden

I'm sharing this with
Full Plate Thursday at Miz Helen's Country Cottage


Oyster Sauce Prawns with Garden Fresh Spring Onions
600gm medium or big prawns
generous bunch of spring onions, cut to 3" sections
2 tablespoon oyster sauce
pinch of white pepper powder
pinch of salt
2 tablespoon chopped garlic
2 tablespoon chopped ginger
1 tablespoon chopped spring onions, the white part only
2 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine
3 tablespoon water
about 1/3 cup cooking oil

1. Clean prawns, remove legs and devein, but leave shells and heads intact.
2. Cut spring onions to 3" section, reserve about 1 tablespoon of chopped white part only. Lightly crush the rest of the 3" white part using the side of the knife and put aside together with the greens.
3. Marinate prawns with oyster sauce, pinch of white pepper powder, pinch of salt and keep aside for 30 minutes.
4. Heat oil in  saucepan and fry prawns in a single layer on both sides about 2-3 minutes each side until brown and shell turns crispy. Remove and keep aside. Keep marinated juice from the prawn marinade to be used later.
5. In a clean saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon oil. Saute chopped garlic, chopped ginger and chopped spring onions, until fragrant and light brown. Add in retained marinated juice, 2-3 tablespoon of water, stir till it boils and add in the prawns along with the spring onions. Stir for about a minute and add salt if necessary.
6. Add in the Chinese cooking wine, give a quick stir, dish out to a serving plate and serve hot. Enjoy!

Stir-Fry Chinese Leeks with Chinese Sausages

Chinese Leeks are smaller and thinner than the regular leeks. It is more pungent in flavour compared to the regular leeks. When I buy these leeks, I would prefer this over the regular ones, it has a more intense flavour and smell. Choose the small and young tender ones as the big ones can be rather tough.

The Chinese would usually stir-fry this veggie with  dried Chinese sausages. It can be stir-fried together with other vegetables such as carrots, cauliflowers, sweet peas, brocolli, mushroom and capsicums. I love it just plain with Chinese sausages. This veggie actually sweetens when cooked. Even though this veggie is available almost whole year round, they are most popular during the Chinese New Year festival. 

Leeks are a good sources of folic acid, iron and potassium. They are low in calories. They also supply magnesium, calcium, copper, vitamin C,B6 and rich in vitamin A.

I'm sharing this simple, very tasty, stir-fry dish with
Full Plate Thursday over at Miz Helen's Country Cottage
Recipe Swap Thursday at Prairie Story


Stir-Fry Chinese Leeks with Chinese Sausages
5-6 medium Chinese leeks
2 Chinese sausages
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon oil
salt to taste
2-3 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon chicken powder seasoning
1 tablespooon Chinese cooking wine

1. Remove sausage casing from Chinese sausages and slice at a diagonal into thin slices about 4-5mm thickness.  
2. Clean the leeks and slice at at diagonal into thin slices about 6-7mm thickness.
3. Heat oil in wok or suacepan. Over low heat, stir fry Chinese sausages for about 2 minutes and dish out. Keep aside.
4. In same wok, turn heat to medium-high, saute minced garlic till fragrant and light brown. Add the leeks and stir for about 30 seconds. Add water, chicken powder seasoning and salt to taste. Continue stirring for about 5 minutes till leeks are soft and cooked, adding 1 tablespoon water if it appears too dry.
5. Add in the pre-fried sausages and stir to combine, for about 30 seconds. 
6. Add in 1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine, give a quick stir and dish out. Serve hot. Enjoy!

Tip : The casing from some Chinese sausages may be difficult to remove. Just place the sausages on a plate, add a little water to cover and leave for about 5 minutes. It will then come off easily.

Whipping Cream Cake

Hi everyone, I'm back from my Chinese New Year celebrations, even though this festival will last for 15 days, it is more or less back to daily routine, with the kids back in school. Thank you, friends, for visiting while I was away. Thank you for all your lovely wishes, I really appreciate them!

This lovely cake was actually made before the holidays, just never got round to post it! There is no butter in this cake. You would never have guessed it, either by looking at it or even after taking a bite! No, definitely no one would have known, except by the person who baked this! No butter and no oil, the secret ingredient here, well, secret no more, is the whipping cream! The hidden fat is in the whipping cream, but seriously, keep that aside and try out this cake.

This cake has a lovely texture, it is moist, tender and delicious! It is so easy and so simple, it will be ready to be baked in just minutes!

Rose recommended to use the whipping cream with a high-butterfat content of 40 per cent. Well, the one I have does not states the percentage of the butterfat, I guess maybe it was less than that. It turned out great, whatever the percentage is! This is a lovely cake to have with a cup of plain black coffee.

I'm sharing this lovely cake with
Cookbook Sundays at Brenda's Canadian Kitchen
Potluck Sunday at Mommy's Kitchen
Sweets For A Saturday at Sweet As Sugar Cookies

Whipped Cream Cake

(adapted from "Rose's Heavenly Cakes" by Rose Levy Beranbaum)

2-1/4 cups (8 ounces/225gm) cake flour or 2 cups bleached all-purpose flour, sifted into the cup and leveled off ( I use 225gm self-raising flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder (I omit this since I use self-raising flour)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups (12 fluid ounces / 348 grams) heavy cream, cold (see Notes)
3 large eggs (150gm)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces / 225gm) superfine sugar (I use 170gm)

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT : One 10-cup fluted metal tube pan, coated with baking spray with flour.

PREHEAT THE OVEN : Twenty minutes or more before baking, set an oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 375F/190C (350F / 175C if using a dark pan).

MIX THE DRY INGREDIENTS : In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt and then sift them together to make the mixture easier to incorporate.

MIX THE LIQUID INGREDIENTS : In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk beater, whip the cream, starting on low speed, gradually raising the speed to medium-high as it thickens, until stiff peaks form when the beater is raised.

In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla just until lightly combined.

On medium-high speed, gradually beat the egg mixture into the whipped cream. The mixture will thicken into mayonnaise consistency (unless high-butterfat cream is used). Gradually beat in the sugar. It should take about 30 seconds to incorporate it.

MAKE THE BATTER : Add half the flour mixture to the cream mixture and, with a large silicone spatula, stir and fold in the flour until most of it disappears. Add the rest of the flour mixture and continue folding and mixing until all traces of flour have disappeared. Using a silicone spatula or spoon, scrape the batter into the prepared pan. Run a small metal spatula or dull knife blade through the batter to prevent large air bubbles, avoiding the bottom of the pan. Smooth the surface evenly with a small metal spatula.

BAKE THE CAKE : Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted between the tube and the side comes out completely clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center. The cake should start to shrink from the sides of the pan only after removal from the oven.

COOL AND UNMOLD THE CAKE : Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. With a small metal spatula, loosen the top edges of the cake and invert the cake onto a wire rack that has been coated lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Cool completely. The cake requires no adornment, but I love to serve it with a light dusting of powdered sugar or a large dollop of lightly sweetened Whipped Cream.

NOTES :

Do not chill the bowl and beaters for the heavy cream because the eggs will not emulsify as readily if the whipped cream is too cold.

High-butterfat (40 percent) heavy cream produces a finer, more tender crumb. This cream is generally available only to bakeries and restaurants, but it is certainly worth asking your local baker to sell you a container.