Cantonese Steamed Sponge Cake (馬拉糕)

Cantonese Steamed Sponge Cake (馬拉糕, pronounced as Ma-La-Gau) is a dim-sum dessert. It's steamed, not baked, hence more moist than the usual sponge cakes. This was made at the beginning of 2019, when Papa's mom was still able to eat a cake like this. We largely followed what's in one of those out-of-print Wei-Chuan recipe books (味全食譜), with minor adjustments here and there.

1. Line a 8”x8” glass baking pan with plastic wrap;
2. Place 5 eggs and 1 cup brown sugar into a stand mixer, and beat to creamy color; 
3. Melt 1/2 cup of butter or shortening in Microwave (30 seconds), stir with chopsticks, heat in Microwave for 15 seconds again. Add 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract, and 3/4 cup of evaporated milk (or, 1/2 cup half and half). Pour both the melted butter and the evaporated (or half and half) into the stand mixer, beat for 1 more minute; 
4. [Dry Ingredients] Mix thoroughly 2 Tbsp baking powder, 0.5 cup corn starch, and 1.5 cups flour, Sift the dry ingredients-mix into the stand mixer; 
5. Use a spatula to fold and mix the Dry Ingredients with the beaten liquid thoroughly. Pour the mixture into the 8”x8” glass pan.
6. Place the glass pan (uncovered) into a steaming pot, turn on high heat till full steam, then reduce to medium heat for 30 mins. Note- The cake needs enough room to rise up (4-5" in height). The top steaming basket along with a dome-lid should be high enough. Also we need wipe the inside of the dome-lid clean, to avoid vapor drops coming onto cake surface (instead of flowing smoothly to the side of the pot). The result from our kitchen is at the top of this post.

Fried Crispy Duck (香酥鸭)

Another duck dish! This is a traditional banquet dish, that’s originated in the provinces along the YangTze River, and nicely demonstrated in this great YouTube Video by the famous celebrity Chef, Fu Pei-Mei (in Chinese Sound Track). We made it at home with much simplified and more efficient procedure, using boiling, as we did in the Beer-braised Duck (vs steaming), up front, and pan-frying (vs deep-frying) at the end. The results were quite pleasing. An air fryer version of this recipe is also tried and written in this post (in Part V).

1. Get a non-frozen ("fresh") duck from a Chinese market, or a frozen duck from almost any market, which needs at least 48 hrs to defrost in the fridge;
2. Place the whole duck into a large pot (a 7.5-Qt soup pot is used in our kitchen), add water to immerse at lease 60% of the duck. Bring the pot to boil, and simmer the pot for 30 minutes (flip the duck at half way point). Take the duck out, and air-dry the for for an hour.
3. Follow the spatchcock instructions in this excellent page to remove the duck's backbone with a poultry shear, i.e., remove ~1/2"-wide along the backbone. Flatten the duck by hand as much as possible.
4. Add 1/2" of veggie oil into a large (10-12" in diameter) flat-bottom cooking pot (no need to add oil in this process, as the duck fat will be rendered into the veggie oil as we fry the duck). Under medium-to-high-heat, bring the oil to 350-375 degF. Note- Make sure you use veggie oil suitable for frying (i.e., oil with smoke point above 400 degF). Use a thermometer to test the oil temperature. Or use this fairly reliable empirical method: stick a single chopstick into some water, swing the chopstick vigorously to get ride of most of the water, then stick the chopstick into the oil, if you see tiny water bubbles rising up quickly from this slightly wet chopstick, the oil has reached the desired temperature range for frying. 
5. Place the flattened duck into the oil slowly and carefully. Fry both sides of the duck till golden brown (10-15 minutes for each side, under medium-to-high-heat).
6. Let the duck rest for 10 mins in a warm oven (by preheating the oven to 200-degF, then turning off the heat). Cut the duck with a knife and a poultry shear, before serving. The result from our kitchen is at the top of this post.

Some Air Fryer Recipes- Pita Chips, Potato Wedges, Crispy Duck, etc.

We bought an air fryer in early November on our way up to Northern Cal, and liked it very much, because it is versatile and it cooks much faster than a full-sized oven (hence more energy efficient). By our calculation, each of the 5 recipes below uses less then 1 kw-hr, i.e., 1 killoWatts-Hour of electricity, for cooking.

Except for the crispy duck dish (in Part V), the recipes below are all available on the internet. Just search your favorite dish by name, and add "air fryer" at the end of your search phrase. You might have to adjust the cooking time a bit, to fit better with your air fryer settings and your taste preferences. It's worth noting that we've tried "air-frying" frozen egg rolls without much success, and went back to pan-frying (i.e., to pan fry the egg rolls in small amount of oil slowly, under low-to-medium heat).  In the near future, we might try curly fries and blooming onion, just for fun. Incidentally we bought a Gourmia 6-qt air fryer from Costco (GAF685, 1700 watts, $49.99+tax, with a $30 discount before Thanksgiving).

I. Pita Chips

1. Separate 2 pieces of pita bread into single layer. Note- Each pita bread, being a pocket, is separated into two single layers;
2. Scissor-cut each single layer of pita bread into wedges (in similar size as tortilla chips);
3. Place the wedges into the air fryer in one layer, and lightly spray on some veggie oil (or toss in a mixing bowl with 2-3 tsp of olive oil or veggie oil), and optionally, a pinch of salt.  Note- Make your own veggie oil spray, by mixing equal parts of veggie oil and water in a spray bottle, shake and use.
4. Cook in air fryer at 385degF for 7 minuets;
5. Serve with guacamole or hummus. Here is the result from our kitchen-
   

II. Non-breaded Fried Chicken Thighs

1. Rinse 4pcs of chicken thighs (with skin & bone), pat dry with paper towel, or air dry on a baking pan. Note- smaller air fryer might only fit 2-3 pieces of thigh in one layer.
2. Rubbing both sides of the chicken thigh, with 1/4 tsp of "salt and 5-spices mix" (salt to 5-spices in 2:1 ratio, 1/8 tsp on each side). Marinate for 1-2 hrs. Note- Salt and pepper mix can be used instead of salt and 5-spices. Marinating 6-8 hours (i.e., overnight or over a day) could make the meat a bit salty. Simply going lighter with the seasoning mix on the non-skin side of the meat would make the result work equally well, even after 6-8 hours of marinating. 
3. Cook skin-side-up in air fryer at 375degF for 25 minutes. Note- No Need to add oil in this case (the skin will provide more than enough oil for the "air-frying").  Might consider placing the air fryer outdoor or under the kitchen hood, to ventilate the air properly.
4. Let the thighs rest for 10 mins in the air fryer, or in a warm oven (preheat the oven to 200-degF, then turn off heat), before serving. Here is the result from our kitchen-
   

III. Potato Wedges

1. Rinse and brush clean 6 red potatoes or 4 small-to-medium-sized potatoes (no need to peel the skin), then cut into large wedges, i.e., ~1”-size large pieces;
2. Toss dry in a colander, or line a baking pan with paper towel and toss dry the potato wedges;
3. In a mixing bowl, toss the wedges with dry rubs (see Note) and 2-3 tsp of veggie oil. Note- My Dry Rubs- 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional), 1/4 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp garlic powder;
4. Immediately lay the wedges on the air fryer trey in one layer. Note- let potato wedges sit will force fluid out of the wedges;
5. Cook in air fryer at 400degF for 20 mins.

IV. French Fries

1. Rinse and brush clean 2 small-to-medium-sized potatoes (no need to peel the skin). Cut the potatoes into ~1/4” slices. Note- here is a nice video on how to cut a potato into French Fries slices;
2. Line baking pan with paper towel and toss dry the potato slices a bit;
3. In a mixing bowl, toss with dry rubs (see note) and 2-3 tsp of veggie oil. Note- My Dry Rubs- 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional), 1/4 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp garlic powder;
4. Immediately lay the wedges on the air fryer trey in one layer. Note- let potato slices sit will force fluid out of the slices;
5. Cook in air fryer at 400degF for 15 mins. Here is the result from our kitchen-
   

V. Fried Crispy Duck (香酥鸭): this is an air-fryer version of the traditional crispy duck in this post.

1. Get a non-frozen ("fresh") duck from a Chinese market, or a frozen duck from almost any market, which needs at least 48 hrs to defrost in the fridge. Follow the spatchcock instructions in this excellent page to remove the duck's backbone with a poultry shear, and then separate the duck into 2 halves vertically (see photo below for a half duck);
2. For each pound of the half duck, dry rub both sides of the duck with 1/2 tsp of "salt and 5-spices mix" (salt to 5-spices in 2:1 ratio, 1/4 tsp per pound on each side), and marinate for 1-2 hrs (6-8 hrs for stronger flavor);
3. Cook in air fryer at 400degF for 30 mins (see next step for medium to medium-rare doneness of the meat). Note- Might consider placing the air fryer outdoor or under the kitchen hood, to ventilate the air properly.
4. Let the half duck rest for 10 mins in the air fryer, for the duck meat to reach medium doneness. Taking the duck out of the air fryer right after 30 minutes and placing it in a warm oven (by preheating the oven to 200-degF, then turning off the heat) would get the duck meat to medium-rare doneness. When both halves of the duck are cooked, cut the duck with a knife and a poultry shear, before serving. Note- Leaving the duck in the air fryer at 400 degF after 30 minutes of cooking allows the meat to cook a bit more in the residual heat. Here is the result from our kitchen-