Sesame Pancake (芝麻大餅)

One of our college friend's father used to make sesame pancakes and feed all of us everytime we have a party.  His sesame pancakes is better than the ones made in Restaurant.  Recently, he moved back to Taiwan and we feel so sad that we won't be able to enjoy the homemade pancakes anymore.


In the new year party, my friend and his better half made the pancakes that is as good as their father's.  Now the torch is passed on and I got my friend's blessing to share the recipe.   I am going to try it soon.

Ingredients:

4 cup of all purpose flours
1.75 tsp yeast
scallions (1 bundle, about 9 stems)
unroasted white sesame seeds


Steps:
1. Add 1tsp sugar and 1.75 tsp yeast on one cup of warm water, wait for 5 minutes until the yeast is bubbling.

2. Chop scallions finely.

2. Add yeast water into four cups of all-purpose flour, add another 3/4 cup of cold water.  Mix all together with mixer (set to level 2) for 2 minutes (or hand-kneading) until the surface is smooth.  Cover it up with a wet paper towel (or plastic wrap).  Turn the oven to 200 degree for 20 seconds.  Turn it off and then put the dough in the oven for 45 minutes (on a warm day, you can leave it under room temperature or in front of a sunny window).  Let the dough rise until it is doubled in its size.

3. Put the dough in the mixer and mix it for two minutes (at level 2).  Cut the dough into three even parts to make three pancakes.  Use roller to roll into a big, thin pancake (see leftmost picture below), brush vegetable oil evenly (about 1 TB), sprinkle 1 tsp salt evenly, then sprinkle finely chopped scallions (about 3 stalks for each pancake, see middle picture below).  Roll it up, press both ends tight and twist and spiral up (see rightmost picture below, similar to scallion pancakes, 蔥油餅).  The press it down from the top and use a roller to make it a 8 to 10 inch pancake.

4. Brush one tsp water on the surface of the pancake.  Sprinkle the unroasted white sesame seeds generously and press them firmly.  Leave it out for 10 minutes.

5. In a 10-inch fry pan, heat 2 Tbsp vegetable oil in medium to low heat, put the pancake with the sesame seed side faced down.  Cover it for 5 minutes.  Flip over for another 4 minutes.  Check the color,  make sure the color is golden brown.  Don't burn the sesame seeds.

Note: if you don't have a mixer, use your hand to knead the dough until the surface of the dough is smooth and there is no dough stick to the bowl.

十全十美 素十錦 (Ten Ingredient Vegetable)

This is another New Year dish I cook once a year.  There are 10 different vegetables in this disk symbolizing "perfect 10" for good luck.  Each family may use different vegetable as long as you can find 10 different ones.  All the vegetables are chopped into thin strips, so there is a lot of chopping and preparation.  Since I only do it once a year, I usually make a big tray (see the picture!), I will share with my relatives and friends and bring good luck to everyone!

Ingredients:

1. Celery 1 bundle (either Chinese celery or American celery is fine.  I used Chinese celery this year, but I actually like America celery better)
2. Soy Bean Sprouts 1/2 lb
3. Carrots 2
4. 百葉 (thin soy sheet) 4 oz
5. 蒜苗 (Chinese leeks) 3
6. Dry Mushroom 10
7. Bamboo shoot 1 (medium size)
8. 金針菜 (lily flowers) 1/3 cup
9. 木耳 (black wood ears) 1 cup
10. bean curbs 2 squares

Preparation:

1. Soak mushrooms, wood ears and lily flowers for 2 hours
2. Cut 百葉 (4) into 1 in x 1/4 in stripes and  put them in a big bowl of cold water.  Add 1TB 雪鹼水 (sodium carbonate water) in the water.  Take 百葉 out when it turns white and is easy to tear apart, probably 20-30 minutes.  Rinse it thoroughly with cold water.  Don't soak it too long, because it will be too soft.
3. Cut celery into 1.5 inch long strips, remove the long roots of the soy bean spouts (wash them first).

4. Peel the skin of carrots, shred the carrots (3), slice the bamboo shoots (7).  This year, 99 Ranch Market has fresh bamboos for sale with reasonable price.  It is pretty hard to find fresh bamboo any other place, so the frozen one or the canned one are good too.
5. Slice the bean curb horizontally to 4 pieces, then cut them into thin strips (10).
6. Wash black mushrooms, wood ears and lily flowers.  Cut the tip of the lily flowers (8), then cut each one in two half.  Slice black mushrooms (6) and wood ears (9)
7. Chinese leek (蒜苗) is only available during new year time in Chinese supermarkets in LA or other big cities.  I usually use scallions instead.  It just adds some green color to the dish.  But Chinese leek has its own strong flavor and it is a good addition to this dish. Slice the white part of the leek open, then cut it in diagonal direction into thin strips.

Steps:
You need a BIG wok to cook this dish.  Cooking part is easy after you are done with all the chopping.

1. Heat 1TB oil, add 0.5 tsp salt, stir fry soy bean spouts for 5 minutes.  The soy bean on the spout takes a while to cook, you need to taste it and make sure they are cooked.  Take the soy bean spouts out and put them in a big serving tray.
2. Heat 2TB oil, add 0.5 tsp salt, stir fry carrots and celery until carrots are soft. Take them out and put into the big tray.
3. Heat 3TB oil, add 1/2 tsp salt, stir fry black mushrooms for 1 minute, add bamboo shoots, lily flowers, bean curbs and wood ears.  Add 1TB soy sauce, 1TB oyster sauce, 1.5 tsp sugar to season.  Mixed them well for several minutes, add 百葉 and Chinese leek toward the end, continue stir fry until Chinese leek become soft.  
4. Add soy bean spout, carrots, and celery back in, mix them together.  Taste again, if not enough flavor, add a little more salt or soy sauce.  Add 1tsp sesame oil before you take it out.

You can eat this dish cold.  No need to reheat.   It will be fresh for a week in refrigerator.  You can replace any of the ingredients by your favorite Chinese vegetable as long as it doesn't have a lot of juice and it can be sliced into 1.5 inch strips.

Wish everybody a perfect new year!

Sticky rice cake with mustard greens (雪菜炒年糕, 薺菜炒年糕)

Today is the new year's eve (2/2).  When I was a child, we would have a family reunion and a big feast.  After dinner, we would pay respect to our ancestors, gamble with dices, and get red envelops from our parents.  Since it is a workday and it is in US, my husband and I just had a quiet dinner with take out food in front of TV.  This weekend, I will have a Chinese New Year feast with friends.  年糕 (rice cake) sounds like "getting higher every year" is the dish I cook every Chinese New Year.  This recipe is from my mom.  Last weekend, Christina called me and asked me how to make this dish because she has a pot luck tomorrow (new year's day) and she wants to make this dish.  So, I wrote down the recipe and found a picture from last year.   I will post some more New Year dishes after this weekend's dinner :).  See note at the end for another traditional Shanghai-style rice cake dish, 薺菜炒年糕.

 Ingredients:

1.  雪菜 1 box (pickled mustard greens, see product image to the right)

2.  lean pork 1/2 lb
3.  dry black mushrooms 8 pieces
4.  bamboo shoots (canned, frozen, or fresh) few pieces
5.  Chinese Bock Choy (小白菜）1 bundle
6.  rice cake (1.5lb, pre-sliced, vacuumed package, any Korean brand, see product image below)
7.  chicken broth 1 can

Preparation:

1. First, if you can't find pickled mustard green, you can make it yourself.  Buy a bundle of fresh mustard green (小芥菜), wash them thoroughly.  Slice them first along the same direction of the leaves into strips, then chop  orthogonally into small pieces.  Put them in a big bowl, sprinkle salt generously and mix the salt in.  After you are done with all the leaves，use both your palms, hold a handful of green leaves and shuffle them (用手搓) until the leave turn darker (the salt got into the leave and liquid start to come out). Do the same to all the leaves.  Then put the leaves in a big glass jar, seal it and put it in the refrigerator for a day or two and it is ready to use.
2. Put the dry rice cake in a big bowl (or sink) and submerge them in water.  Separate the pieces if they are stuck together
3. slice lean pork into thin stripes and marinate them with corn starch, soy sauce and salt
4. soften the dry mushrooms in water for one hour, remove the stems and slice them into thin slices
5. cut the bamboo shoots into thin stripes
6. Wash Chinese Bock Choy and cut them into inch-long pieces

Steps:

1. Stir fry pork until cooked, take them out.
2. Add 3TB vegetable oil, stir fry mushroom and bamboo shoots, add salt and soy sauce (if you have light soy sauce 生抽, use that), then squeeze  the water from mustard greens (taste it first, if it is too salty, you can use water to rinse it first.  Also, if it is salty, don't add salt to mushroom), add mustard greens in the wok and mix it with mushroom and bamboo.  Add 1 tb sugar.  At last, put the pork back in and turn off the heat.  Don't stir fry mustard greens too long, it will turn yellow.  Also, add soy sauce before you put mustard greens in, you want it look green, not brown.  Take out everything.
3. Add more vegetable oil, probably another 2TB, add 1 tb salt, then add Chinese Bock Choy and stir fry it until it start to get soft.  Now, drain the water from the rice cake and pour in the rice cakes.  Stir it frequently and don't let them stick to the wok.  Add chicken broth (probably half can) gradually and keep stir fry it.  I used to put one can of chicken soup and cover it up.  I found out the rice cakes would be too sticky.  So, don't put too much at the beginning, if they are too hard and chewy, add a little more at a time.  Add salt and pepper to the taste.  When the rice cake turn soft, add #2 in and mix well.  (#2 could be too much for one bag of rice cake.  You can put 2/3 in and make 雪菜肉絲麵 with the remaining :-)

Add some sesame oil before you remove them from the wok.
Happy Chinese New Year!

Note-  If we substitute Chinese Spinach (薺菜, see product picture to the right) for mustard greens and Chinese Bok Choy, we get another traditional Shanghai-style rice cake dish, 薺菜炒年糕.  Chinese Spinach came in a frozen package.  Immerse the frozen vegetable in water for an hour or two. Defrost, cut off stem roots, rinse thoroughly, mince, and then stir-fry as we stir-fried the mustard greens.