Lao Po Bing / Wife’s Biscuit

YUM YUM!! I have a love for all the traditional Chinese pastries, but never i have i considered making them myself. =X chanced upon this <recipe> at Florence’s blog, and hey! high reviews rating and it calls for koh fun (glutinous rice flour)! recently got a big bag for my snow skin mooncake making and since i have all the ingredients called for on hand, there’s no reason to reject making these yea? oh, and i Used the mooncake mould’s plates to do the prints on the pastries.

I’m SUPER DUPER glad that i did these. *grin* it tasted sooooooooooooo good! Check out the nice flaky pastry crust! Many thanks to Florence for the detailed step by step picture instructions and also this yummy recipe! This recipe yields 12 pieces, >.< NOT enough! i made another 3 batch immediately after dinner. for my mum to share with her friends. These are most certainly worth the effort! so what are you waiting for? hope on over to Florence’s blog and bake these!

*UPDATES* the flaky skin stays crispy for 2 days in an air tight container.

- .: Baker Lee :.

Steamed Glutinous Rice

Ingredients:

1 tbsp chopped garlic
3-4 small shallots (sliced)
50g dried shrimps (washed)
250g Glutinous Rice (soaked overnight)
5 pcs preserved Chinese mushrooms (washed and soak overnight to soften, discard stems and sliced)
1 chinese/taiwan sausage (sliced)
50g meat of your choice (i used cubed pork belly)
1/2 cup water (i used the water which i soaked the mushrooms with)

Seasonings:
1 tbsp Dark Soya sauce
1 tbsp Oyster Sauce
1/2 tbsp Dark Sweet Sauce
1 tbsp Sesame oil 1/2 tbsp Chinese Rice Wine
1 tbsp chinese cooking wine

Garnishes:
Toasted peanuts, spring onions (chopped), red chili (sliced)

Steps:

1. Wash and drained the soaked glutinous rice.
   
2. Heat up a wok, add in oil, followed by garlic and shallots. Fry for about 2minutes till fragrant.
3. Add in dried shrimps, fry for another 3minutes till nicely golden brown.
4. Add in th meat, sausage and mushroom.
5. Add in Seasoning, followed by rice. Mix.
6. lastly, add in water, Mix and remove wok from the flame.
7. Scoop rice mix into a dish for steaming.
8. Steam over high heat for 20-30 mins, depending on how u prefer your rice, (soft or chewy)
   
9. Garnish and serve.

Verdict?
I always believe when it comes to cooking, it is more of a personal preference. one may prefer to have more or less of a certain ingredient in a particular dish, one may opt to be more creative by introducing additional ingredients. =X and it is even more true when it comes to seasoning, there is no definite “perfect” seasoning as it is all up to your taste buds and preferences, more salt? less salt?

This recipe, is whipped up all according to how i prefer my steamed glutinous rice to taste like. So feel free to play around and whipped up your own version of steamed rice *wink* that’s the fun of cooking!

This should serve 4-6 *laugh* but it all depends on the portion size and the crowd u are serving to, (adults, children, big eater, small eater) In my place, it serves 3, Dad helped himself to 3 serving, mum 2 and me with 1. How does it tasted like? well… My family loved it! We munched up everything *gasp*

- .: Amanda :.