If you have the experience cooking risotto, I won’t repeat here. Unlike traditional Italian risotto, I used water instead of stock. I then chopped some green vegetables and Chinese Kam Wah Ham. Kam Wah Ham is a famous produce from Yunnan, China and is widely available in Hong Kong. You may use any other ham or bacon as you wish. As Kam Wah Ham is very rich in taste, I don’t have to use any other seasoning at all.
When you add the last round of water to the risotto, add the chopped ham and keep stirring. When the risotto is cooked, cover for 3 minutes before serving. Now, make use of these 3 minutes, get ready a hot saucepan and heat a little bit of EVO. Stir fry the sliced green vegetables. No need to add salt as the risotto is going to be very tasteful with the Kam Wah Ham. Add the green vegetables to the risotto, mix well and dish up.
Chopped Vegetables
Chopped Kam Wah Ham
Message from AnnaWarning: Do NOT Use These Cooking Oils
Hong Kong Food Blog - Green Risotto
My shoyu chicken is of course Hong Kong Cantonese style. We usually call it Soy Sauce Chicken. It is extremely easy to cook and very delicious. Here we go.
Since cooking a whole chicken is quite demanding, I’ll leave it to professional chefs. For home cooking, I’m going to work on chicken thighs only, which are good for kids as well as parties.
How To Cook Shoyu Chicken
Ingredients
4 boneless chicken thighs. These are all we need. To reduce the intake of fat and cholesterol, I usually remove the chicken skins. However it is your choice to keep it or not.
Shoyu Chicken Seasoning Sauce
- 1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of Huadiao wine (Shaoxing cooking wine)
- 1 tablespoon of water
- Some grinded black pepper
- Pinch of sugar
Get all these into a bowl and mix well for a minute or so to make sure the sugar is melted. Marinate the chicken thighs with the seasoning solution. Turn the meat up side down at least once through out the seasoning period to ensure both sides of the meat absorb the equal amount of seasoning sauce.
Seasoning Tips
The secret to making delicious Shoyu Chicken is the seasoning sauce and the seasoning period. Allow several hours for seasoning to ensure the best taste. I usually season it in the morning if I want to cook for dinner. If I want to cook for lunch, I’ll start seasoning the night before. If you are running short of time, you should allow at least 30 minutes of seasoning before cooking.
Cooking Directions- Heat a pan, add 1 tablespoon of EVO.
- Lay all chicken thighs flat into the pan to ensure they all receive even heat. (**DO NOT throw away the remaining seasoning sauce, we'll use it later on**)
- Turn to medium heat, cover with a lid.
- Cook for 4 minutes.
- Turn meat up side down. You’ll see the beautifully brown colored chicken. Remember you have some leftover seasoning sauce in the plate? It’s time to add this residue solution to the pan. Cover again and cook for 2 minutes. Check if the sauce is getting too thick. If so, add a little bit of water and continue cooking for another 2 minutes with the lid on.
- Dishing up and serve hot. Best to go with plain rice.
NOTE: The total cooking time should be between 8 and 10 minutes. This will avoid under- or over-cooking and ensure the maximum tenderness of the chicken.
Warning: Do NOT Use These Cooking Oils
Do you find cooking Shoyu Chicken simple and easy? I really love it because it is so delicious. Next time when you have friends asking you how to cook Shoyu Chicken, you may direct them to this blog post.
Shoyu Chicken (Soy Sauce Chicken)
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Hong Kong Food Blog - How To Cook Shoyu Chicken
Warning: Do NOT Use These Cooking Oils
Today is the 7th day of Chinese New Year. Chinese traditional call it 'Man's day', meaning the birthday of everybody. One of the Hong Kong Cantonese traditions is to eat congee. We've therefore decided to cook congee at home. In fact, we eat congee every year on this same day.
Congee in Cantonese is called 粥 which sounds like 足 which means 'satisfaction', meaning we are happy with what we have. Make good sense? That's why we eat congee on this everybody's birthday.
We've put lecttuce and fish balls in the congee. These are associated with good meaning as well. Fish - surplus 魚(餘), Lecttuce - create wealth 生菜(生財). See my big fish ball!!Congee with Lecttuce and Fish Balls 生財鯪魚球粥
Here are the other foods we eat during Chinese New Year.Assorted veggies cooked with preserved beancurd. This of course has a good meaning as well - 開齋 means 'a good start'.
Candies Platter is what we prepare at home to welcome visiting friends and relatives. Yes, home visit is another Chinese New Year Tradition here in Hong Kong. The candies platter can be very creative. But roasted mellon seeds are among the musts.Candies Platter 全盒
There are many kinds of roasted mellon seeds - black, red and white.
Dim Sum is a must. Here is what we had:
Let's have a closer look.
Dumplings with pig's tongue, oyster and hairy vegetable
Fish balls with hairy vegetable 髮菜鯪魚球
恭喜發財!Happy New Year!
Hong Kong Food Blog - Hong Kong Chinese New Year FoodsTurnip pudding is highly popular among Cantonese families as a Chinese New Year festival food. Many of us DIY at home and it's lots of fun. Today is the CNY eve and I have been busy making turnip pudding at home.
I don't have any professional recipe, all steps were inherited from my mother which in turn was from many generations before. There are many steps but we enjoy doing it.
How To Cook Turnip Pudding - Step by Step
1. Smash 3.6kg of turnips. This is good for 3 plates of 8 inches each.
2. Get some preserved meats such as lap cheung, dry shrimps or mushrooms and cut them into small pieces.
3. Boiled the smashed turnips. Add pinches of salt, sugar, chicken powder and any other seasoning such as pepper or seasame oil to your own taste.
4. Stir fry the preserved meats briefly.
5. Mix the boiled turnips, preserved meats and add 500 grams of rice flour (粘米粉) to the mixture. Use only 粘米粉 for the making of turnip pudding. Add rice flour bit by bit and stir well while adding.
6. Divide the pudding mixture into pudding plates.
7. Steam for 1.5 hours and start eating.
Warning: Do NOT Use These Cooking Oils
Chinese New Year
蒸蘿蔔糕賀新年!
Step 2 - get ready the meats
Here is my turnip pudding mixture 
My sister is dividing them into various pudding plates
Going to steam 
Ready to eat
Time to eat - enjoying my hardwork.
I enjoy eating turnip pudding immediately after cooking. This is the best time and most delicious way to eat turnip pudding. When it cools down, you need to reheat by steaming, pan fried or micro-wave. Honestly I don't like any of these methods as the turnip pudding will be less delicious. If you want to eat the most yummy turnip pudding, make it yourself and eat it immediately after steaming. Try it out. I'm sure you'll agree with me.
4 Servings (total cost: HK$25 / US$3.2)
Ingredients:
Directions
- Boil four eggs for 7 minutes. Remove shells.
- Soak ginkgo, remove the center bit.
- Boil 8 bowls of water.
- Add tofu sheet until it is soften.
- Turn to low heat, let it simmer for 20 minutes until the tofu sheets start to melt. You may want to simmer for 30 minutes if you want to have the tofu sheets dissolved completely.
- Add the boiled eggs.
- Add crystal sugar. Test until you find your loved level of sweetness.
- Before dishing up, add whisked egg and stir gently.
- Turn heat off. Cover for 5 minutes before eating.
As we all love the mini silky soft tofu sheets, so we simmered for 20 minutes only. It was so lovely and delicious. Rest of the day while playing majhong, we were still talking about how delicious our tofu dessert was. 
Dry tofu sheets are available at the market
Hong Kong Food Blog - Home-made Tofu DessertHong Kong is very hot in summer. I always want to eat cold cut but for safety reason, try not to eat outside. So I have decided to make it myself. But Cantonese don't have much cold dishes and they are quite difficult to do. I have therefore decided to go for Japanese. In fact, I always do this in summer.
My cold cut dinner is extremely easy and quick to do. Believe it or not, mine is even quicker than Nigella Lawson's. I only take five minutes to get this cold noodle done. There is only one little preparation work to do - get ready some cool and cold water. I'm sure most of you have these always available at home. NOTE: These cool and cold water must have been boiled. Do not use water direct from tap.
OK? Let's start.
My recipe is for one person. If you have more, just expand it.
1. Get some cool water and cold water ready.
2. Boil water and add soba. Let it simmer for three minutes.
3. Transfer soba to cool water, drain.
4. Transfer soba to cold water, drain.
5. Dish up and add cold soba soup.
6. Add a can of sardine (any flavour).
This Japanese sardine has three flavours. I love the spicy one. Put it in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
As a balance of diet, I also had a few slices of pineapple as my dessert. Wow, very yummy and healthy. 
Hong Kong weather is turning hot, so I tried to make a cool dinner last night.
Drunk chicken is a famous Shanghainese cold cut starter and is quite easy to make at home. Season the chicken (thighs or wings) with grinded black pepper, salt and a bit of soy sauce. Add Shao Xing cooking wine (usually known as Hua Diao wine) depends on the amount of alcohol you can take.
You can season for overnight if you want stronger fragrance, otherwise just a couple of hours will do. Wrap the whole thing up with aluminum foil, pin a few holes with a toothpick and steam for 15 minutes. Let it cool down and put into the fridge for a couple of hours before serving. Wow...I really love the fragrance, very delicious. Of course, my cool dinner also included soba and fruits.
Actually I did try the hot version and it was also very good. 
