Yam Cake/Taro Cake 芋头糕

Taro cake or yam cake? Well, in this part of the world, it is called yam cake. Don't be deceived by the name. It is not a cake per se. This cake is savoury with lots of yam and other ingredients such as mushroom, dried shrimp and five-spice powder. I guess most of my Asian peers would have known that already. There is a slight difference between the Hong Kong version and our Southeast Asian version though. Ours is normally eaten steamed while the former is pan-fried after steaming. The Hong Kong version also have Chinese sausage and dried scallops added to the dish.

Pork Belly with Taro (Yam) / Wu Tau Kau Yoke 芋頭扣肉

This comfort food has its origins from the Hakkas from China. It has that trademark upside-down presentation that is popular in Hakka dishes. By braising the dish in an upside-down manner for hours, the gravy and flavour are soaked completely by the meat and yam giving you that most scrumptious bite. It is no wonder why it is such a popular household dish.

Honestly speaking, this dish is not much of a looker. Any established chefs would have been appalled at its blackened mashed-up appearance. I would rather call this rustic. But once you have tasted these succulent layers of melt-in-your-mouth proteins, the mere uninspiring appearance would be enough make you salivating. I am not kidding.

Chinese New Year Dinner: Yam Basket/Fatt Putt 佛钵 （盘满钵满）

Today my family is in for a treat. Because I am doing this post for Chinese New Year dinner, my family gets to enjoy this crispy melt-in-the-mouth yam basket pre-Chinese New Year dinner. Like any other food served during Chinese New Year, it has an auspicious meaning. The yam basket/fatt putt is filled to the brim signify an overflowing of fortune (phoon woon put woon 盘满钵满 in Cantonese).

The yam basket derives its name from the Buddhist alms bowl (fatt putt). It is no wonder the yam basket bears resemblance to this said bowl. This dish is originally created as a vegetarian dish with ingredients such as carrots, mushrooms, bell peppers, bamboo shoots and cashew nuts. Nowadays you could practically fill anything that you fancy inside.

A good yam basket is crispy on the outside at the same time fluffy inside. It must showcase the beautiful fluffy strands that encased the ring. Not an easy feat since fire control is essential here. If you have a thermometer, the temperature should be around 150C. But like most home cooks, we cook by feel. Here's the pointer to see if the oil temperature is right: drop a piece of the yam into the oil. If it disintegrates, the the oil is not hot enough. If it does not spread at all, the oil is too hot. Another challenge is to fry the yam basket whole. While the Chinese restaurants uses bamboo mat to hold the yam ring when putting in, we home cooks have to be creative. I used aluminium foil with cut holes.

I normally create my own recipes but for this scrumptious yam basket, I phoned my faraway hubby. He makes the perfect yam basket. Of course, the recipe comes in large quantity and I have to painstakingly reduce it and omit the msg for home cooking. I was pretty satisfied with the results and proceeded to take photographs. Upon showing my hubby the pictures, he said that the heat was too high when frying resulting in lesser fluffy strands. So I fried another mini yam ring to show all of you it is supposed to look. Gong Xi Fa Chai!

Chinese New Year Dinner: Yam Basket/Fatt Putt 佛钵 （盘满钵满 ）

Makes 2 medium yam basket

Ingredients

360 g yam, diced and steamed
180 g wheat starch (tang mein)
180 g chicken stock (original uses water)
90 g lard (pork oil) (click here to find out how to make your own lard)
90 g shortening
1/8 tsp five spice powder
1/4 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
pepper

oil to fry
aluminium foil
stir-fry dish of your choice to be put inside the ring
meehoon (rice vermicelli)

Cooking Instruction

1. Steam yam for about 10 minutes until cooked. Meanwhile, boil chicken stock. Add chicken stock to wheat starch and stir with a fork until combined.

2. Mash steamed yam and add into wheat starch mixture while it is still hot. Combine well with fork. Be careful as the mixture is still hot.

3. Add in all the other ingredients and seasoning and work the mixture into a dough with your hands. The dough is ready when it doesn't stick to your hands. Make holes on the dough (apparently for it to cool faster) and put in the chiller for it to cool.

4. Remove dough and use the dough to make your desired ring on a piece of aluminium foil. Make some holes on the aluminium foil so that oil could circulate.

Not enough oil initially. I have to add until the whole ring is submerged

5. Heat oil. Test the oil with a piece of yam dough. If you see beautiful strands forming, the oil is ready. Gently put ring into the oil. The oil should totally immerse the ring. Deep-fry ring until golden and crispy. Increase heat when about to remove. Remove and drain.

6. Add meehoon into the hot oil. The meehoon should expand beautifully. Quickly remove from the hot oil and drain well.

7. Put meehoon on a plate and the fried yam basket on top. Then fill it up with your choice of stir-fry until the brim symbolising an overflowing of goods.


Notes:
1. Oil control is very important when frying this yam basket. Use clean oil for nicer looking yam basket.
2. The oil must totally immerse the yam ring, hence, a lot of oil is necessary. Find your desired pot/wok that is not too wide to save on oil, but at the same time allows you to remove the yam basket easily when cooked.
3. The basket and fried meehoon absorb a lot of liquid. Do prepare more gravy for your stir-fry if it is intended to be put into the basket.   





Would you like a wonderful desert to go with this dish for your Chinese New Year dinner?

Molten Lava Black Sesame Tang yuan

Pumpkin Tang Yuan

Yam Paste Snowskin Mooncake 芋头冰皮月饼

Have done a little yam paste with the intention of making mooncake with it for this coming Friday. I know it is still quite early but I thought of surprising my friends with an early mooncake when they come over for dinner on Friday. As for the filling that I did, I used the yam paste with pumpkin in the middle (in replacement of salted egg yolk) to make what I call an orh nee (Teochew yam paste) mooncake. Making the yam paste and pumpkin filling itself was pretty easy. I got it done in 15 mins because of the small quantity.

Beans Revisited - Bubur Cha Cha with Large Sago 摩摩喳喳跟大西米

Some Chinese make this on the 15th of the Lunar New Year. This recipe is from my previous shop's menu. Hope you like it.

Bubur cha cha is a famous nyonya dessert in Malaysia. It is so famous that you can actually find it in places like Hong Kong (lewdly pronounced as mo mo ja ja which also means touching and holding), China and some Chinese restaurants in Australia and the States. The authentic bubur cha cha consists of an array of sweet potatoes with yam and black eye beans sweetened by fragrant fresh coconut milk sweet soup. If you are not wooed by its rich unique taste, you would definitely be captivated by its burst of colours such as orange, yellow, purple and sometimes red (from the coloured tapioca jelly bits) from the result of the use of various types of sweet potatoes and yam.

Bubur cha cha used to be one of the best sellers amongst the 15 odd type of desserts or sweet soup in my shop. It shows the popularity of this unique dessert. I suspect it is also due to the difficulty in preparing this dessert. An authentic bubur cha cha would have different types of colours and also the tapioca jelly bits that adds a chewy texture to the dessert. I admit my bubur cha cha lacks colour as I only use orange sweet potatoes (the Indonesian type as it tastes better than the yellow ones). I do not really fancy purple sweet potatoes either as it will taint the sweet soup with its natural purple pigment if left too long, making the water purplish.