港式蘿蔔糕 Turnip/Radish Cake

Ingredients:
Daikon 1
Chinese mushroom/Shikita 8
Chinese smoked sausage (Chicken lean meat) 1 link
Mini dried shrimp approx. 10 pcs
Brown Rice Flour 2 cup
Water 1 cup
Sesame Oil 1tsp
Salt 1tsp
Pepper 1tsp
Ginger Powder 1ts
Sugar 1tsp

Daikon/Radish/Turnip

Shredded Daikon. Add 1/3 cup of water and cook these shredded daikon with medium heat.  Put in ginger powder, sesame oil, salt, pepper and sugar. Cook for 8 mins and remove from heat. According to my home-economics teacher and my grandma, do not overcook the daikon as they will give out excessive water that might turn the cake too mushy. 

Diced Chinese mushroom (Shikita), Chinese smoked sausage , dried mini shrimp (skip the sausage and shrimp if you are a vegetarian). These ingredients give out  great flavor and smell. 

Mix approximately 1/2 cup of water with the brown rice flour, then mix in the above diced ingredients.


Pour the mixture into a glass container or aluminium foil container. Steam this mixture for 45 mins to 60 minutes in a rice cooker, until it is firm.  Let it cool down before serving.

Cut the cake into square or rectangular pieces, use a tsp of oil to fried them until they turn slightly browned. 

This morning, we had turnip cake and congee as our breakfast. Honey K made the sauce, which is composed of  oyster sauce, chili sauce and leeks. I must say this is quite new to me. 

                                     

How to make ramen a healthy meal?

Ramen has always been one of my favourite winter meals despite its bad reputation in the United States. I can see that my students often were surprised by my way of turning a bowl of ramen into a delicious and hearty meal. I always tell them, "Well, it depends on what kind of ramen you have." The truth is I never buy those ramen in the vending machine in the United States and I have never tasted any of them, except the ones in Japan.

There are different brands of ramen one can get from grocery stores, from the fried ones to the non-friend ones. The fried ones taste good but they carry a lot of fat and sodium with it. Sometime, their calories can be as high as 500 without adding anything into it. As I learn about the importance of a healthy diet, I rarely have them anymore. I must say I miss them occasionally, though. As an alternative, I usually get those that are non-fried, such as the following:

Sau Tao Noodle King Oat Noodles has been my favourite.
They are less expensive than the imported Japanese Ramen but still tangy and delicious. They carry a wide variety of noodles and they are not too hard to find in the States. Honey K likes this brand as well.

Simple Ramen Recipe (Vegetarian friendly)

Serving: 1

Ingredients: 

Ramen of your choice

My grandma got this for Kaily while we were grocery shopping in a Hong Kong supermarket during the summer. This is one of the best ramen that I have ever eaten. 

                                                                 Vegetables (for cooking)- Chinese cabbage 

Fried tofu cube (a few pieces) 

An egg

Procedures:

1. Boil a small pot of water and put ramen into it. Cook until it is ready. Most of the ramen will only take 3 minutes. Some take 5 or more. Read instructions on the back of your ramen package. 

2. When the water is boiled, put egg, vegetables and tofu into the pot at the same time. The egg will take 10 minutes to become a boiled egg with a soft interior. If you are using Chinese cabbage (Bak Choy) or  the like, it will take less than 10 minutes The tofu cube will take roughly 10 mins to be cooked. 

                                                                                     The egg yolk is still soft. 

3. Put everything into the bowl and serve. If you don't want to use the soup powder, which often contains MSG, you can make your own miso soup by buying a box of miso paste. If you don't care, actually, the soup powder often taste very good. According to Honey K, if you are not eating a ton of MSG on a regular basis, there is no detrimental effect on your body. 

I was so excited about this bowl of Ramen that I forgot to put scallions on the topic of it. Yummy : )