【大黄米年糕】Glutinous Millet Steamed Cake

大黄米又叫“黍”，是去了壳的黍子的果实，在古代被列为五谷之一。它比小米稍微大一点，颜色淡黄，煮熟以后非常黏。

大黄米中氨基酸的含量，几乎是大米和小麦的两倍，大黄米是粗粮，它有润肺、通便、养阴补虚功效。

再过一个礼拜就是农历新年了，今年买了一包中国西北产的大黄米，就用它来做一个中国北方吃的年糕吧！

Glutinous millet, was listed as one of the five grains in ancient times. It is yellow in color, and very sticky when cooked. The content of amino acids in millet is almost twice that of rice and wheat, thus it is a very good choice of carb in a balance diet.

The Lunar New Year is only one week away. I bought a bag of glutinous millet from the Northwestern China, and made this rice cake that is normally eaten during Chinese New Year in the North China!

【酒酿米发糕】Tapai Rice Huat Kueh

发糕里我最喜欢的是米发糕，而米发糕里我最喜欢的就属这款酒酿发糕了。这款酒酿米发糕完全满足了我对食品的追求。天然，质朴，美味，古法少添加。就是食品原有的样子。

注：做这个米发糕要用新鲜酿制的酒酿才会发得好。

These rice cakes were made using fermented glutinous rice (酒酿）as rising agent, it was made from whole grain rice.

The batter took around 12 hours to ferment naturally at room temperature. There is nothing not to love about this Huat Kueh, it is 100% natural, made the way foods were made hundreds of years ago.

To me, it is almost like a batch of art work, made possible only by ancient wisdoms passed down to us by our ancestors.

【红豆年糕】Adzuki Bean Nian Gao

一转眼，虎年已经来到了眼前。今年还是因为疫情没法回乡过年。那就趁这两周工作不太忙的时候做两个年糕过节吧！

往年我一般做的都是我奶奶生前爱做的古法年糕，今年我想了想，就做了这款红豆年糕，也特别香甜美味呢！

It is the time of the year again to celebrate Chinese New Year. Since I am not able to make the trip back home (again) due to the pandemic, I decided to make a few Chinese New Year dishes to celebrate here in the States.

This year, instead of the traditional Niao Gao that I normally made for CNY, I opted for this Adzuki Bean Nian Gao this year, somewhat healthier, and something different.

【古早味咸蛋糕】Traditional Steamed Sponge cake with Minced Meat

小时候过年过节的时候，我们会做传统的“鸡蛋糕”（Guay Neng Koh）吃，在电动搅拌机并不普及的时代，做蛋糕是一大家子轮班用大大的弹簧大力搅拌而成的。家里祭祀祭祖时，都要做这个鸡蛋糕，用村里人自己养的土鸡生的蛋，做出来的蛋糕分外香甜。

传统鸡蛋糕可以还可以变化做出精致版的这款加上肉臊的咸味蛋糕，虽然它叫做咸蛋糕，其实口味是葱香咸甜的，一种闽南人都钟爱的丰富味道，也是我忘不了的童年和家乡味。 

I made Traditional steamed sponge cake/Kuay Neng Koh for the Chinese New Year celebration few days back. The same recipe can also be use to make this "Salted cake", which has minced meat with fried shallot added to the cake as filling, a type of savory cake that also smell heavenly with the shallot added to the mix.

It is an upgraded version of the simple steamed cake, a heritage delicacy that carries in the family for generations, it is very tasty and has the taste of home and my childhood.

【紫薯发糕】Purple Sweet Potato Steamed Cake

前阵子在超市买了几只紫薯打算烤了吃，剩下的两小只我拿来做了这款紫薯发糕当早餐，成品颜色非常让人惊艳，味道也非常好吃。真是一款赏心悦目的糕点。

I bought a few Purple sweet potatoes as snacks and made this steamed cake with two of them, the color of this cake is so enchanting that it is almost sad to eat them! LOL

Chwee Kueh （Steamed Rice Cake) 【水粿/菜脯粿】

It all started one year ago around this time, the Asian supermarket near my house was having radishes on sales at 10 cents per lb, I had to bring some back and made a batch of Chai Poh/Preserved Radish.

The Chai Poh turned out really well, so earlier in July this year, when the price of radishes in the local market is low again, I made yet another batch of Chai Poh. This time I have better understanding of the timing and the Chai Poh turned out even better than the last batch.

Since I have so many homemade Chai Poh sitting in my pantry now, I can't help but to keep thinking of ways to use them. This Chwee Kueh made it to the top of my list, Chwee Kueh is a snack close to many Malaysian/Singaporean's hearts, a breakfast or teatime choice for many when we were home.

A good Chwee Kueh is full of fragrance of rice, it melts in your mouth with the bits and pieces of Chai Poh toppings giving it the crunchiness and flavors that it needs. The duo compliment each other and their unique taste are there to stay in my memories.

There are a few recipes of Chwee Kueh online, I have tried one of them, and it turned out okay, but in my opinion, does make the real Chwee Kueh. The original Chwee Kueh is made only with ground rice and water, when steamed at high heat, the kueh will form a natural dent in the middle which make a perfect shape to fill and hold the toppings.

Since I wanted nothing but the original taste of Chwee Kueh, I took it to heart to experiment and make the kueh from scratch! I read all the information I could find on the making of this kueh and experimented 5 times before I could come to this recipe of mine.

If you like Chwee Kueh, here is my recipe to share!

事情的起因是这样的，一年前因为超市里的萝卜又大又便宜所以我就买了十磅回家做了一批日晒菜脯/萝卜干 。 因为自己晒的菜脯太香了，今年萝卜盛产的时候我又制作了第二批。既然有了上好的菜脯，我当然就忍不住开始计划各种菜脯美食了。

这个水粿是菜脯煎蛋之后我第二个想到的美食。水粿是一种潮汕小吃，是一款米浆蒸制的糕点，米糕本身味淡，所以吃的是纯粹的米香。因此铺在上头的菜脯碎非常关键，菜脯的咸香爽脆和润滑柔软的米糕相辅相成，是一款非常细致而又古朴的美味。

我之前尝试过网上传得比较久的一个水粿食谱，是混合澄粉和玉米粉制作的。口感比较接近台湾的碗粿，比较扎实，比较Q弹。该食谱用的是生熟浆的技巧，所以制作出来的水粿是平滑的，没有传统水粿应有的中间塌陷的碗状模样，颜色也偏黄。

潮汕人比较纯粹，做的水粿其实只有米和水按一定的比例磨成米浆蒸制而成，成品洁白如玉，入口即化。这款看似简单的小食在制作上却非常不简单，为了做出有古早味的水粿，我一共尝试了五种不同的米水比例才找到了我喜欢的口感。 非常喜欢成品的纯粹和简朴，喜欢水粿的朋友也希望你能尝试做做看哦！

Millet Steamed Cake 【小米糕】

I like making Millet porridge once in a while for breakfast, I like the unique nutty flavor that it has and its high nutrient value is definitely a plus. One good choice for healthy plant base diet.

Making it into steamed cake is another way to enjoy this delicious healthy grain.

冬天我喜欢熬点南瓜小米粥喝，很喜欢小米特殊的香气，它还是个营养价值很高的粗粮。
小米拿来做糕点也非常好，今天的这款小米糕好吃还不上火，真是早餐的另一个好选择。

Banana Chocolate Chips Cake 【香蕉巧克力蛋糕】

My husband have this obsession of bananas that it's almost absurd, he has to bring a bunch of banana back whenever he goes to the grocery store. Needless to say, he goes to the store a little too many times this month, and I was left with a bunch of overripe bananas again.

So I made this cake with the help of my son A yesterday night and had it for breakfast today, the chocolate chips really kick the taste up a notch!

俊爹有很奇怪的香蕉情意结，他每次去超市非得带一梳香蕉回来不可，这两周我比较忙，日常购物就让他去得比较多。单看我家香蕉的数量，大概就可以知道最近是谁在购物了。

香蕉一过熟，我们家就没人肯吃了。昨晚带着俊宝把熟透的香蕉都用来做了这款蛋糕，加入巧克力豆真是个精明的选择，让这款蛋糕好吃得不行哦！

【酵母版曼煎糕】Apam Balik (Yeast Leavening method)

Apam balik (Turnover Pancake) also known as Min Chiang Kueh，Ban Jian Kuih in Malaysia is a type of griddle pancake common in Malaysia. It is usually sold at specialist roadside stalls the country.

In Malaysia, the dish has been declared a heritage food by the Malaysian Department of National Heritage. It is believed to have its origin from China, the Fujian Province.

 

曼煎糕是马来西亚大街小巷都可以找到的小食，我喜欢周末早市的时候买一大块的慢煎糕，一边逛早市，一边吃。很多人不知道它的来源，提起晚清名臣左宗棠，大家都知道有在美国几乎每一家中国餐厅都会有的左公雞，却鲜少有人知道滿/曼煎糕。

网上找来马来西亚饮食界名人的的一段说明：

“相傳咸豐五年(1855年) 太平軍入福建，左宗棠率清兵前往平定，為了讓軍隊吃飽且不擾民，他決定將傳統鹹味煎餅給加以改良，利用福建盛產的蔗糖和花生碾碎，撒在已發酵鬆軟的煎餅上成為甜食煎糕，使士兵容易入口，且攜帶方便，於是這種煎糕便漸漸在福建尤其泉州一帶流傳開來，成為經濟實惠，食用方便的街頭小吃；後來也流傳到台灣，以及隨著早期閩藉移民的步履帶來了南洋。

在福建泉州及台灣金門，這種煎糕叫做“滿煎糕”，傳到台灣稱為“麵煎餅”，下了南洋，於檳城登岸後則化作福建方言“曼煎粿”(Ban Chang Kueh)，中文寫成“曼煎糕”或“慢煎糕”，到了怡保則稱為“大塊麵”，南下吉隆坡一帶廣東人把它誤稱為“煎燶包”(其實煎燶包是另種傳統煎餅的名稱)，再到新加坡，則寫成 “麵煎糕”或 “米煎糕”。

原鄉對這食物名稱中的滿字有兩種解釋，一為“滿清”之食，與左宗棠有關，另個則因為它用圓形大煎盤製作，麵糊倒入後會“漲滿”整個煎盤而得名。至於後來如何演變成南洋化的“曼慢麵米”， 就可能是經過方言的變奏與一廂情願的誤解了。

所以把“滿”變成了音譯的“曼”，再聯想成製程上的“慢”時，似乎已脫胎成很南洋風的一則傳奇，再加上近30多年來，除了保存傳統的大煎盤製作外，更出現大量接合印尼爪哇一帶的kueh terang bulan，而創造出另種小型薄脆的新版本，配料也從原先簡單的花生碎和糖外，變化出教人眼花撩亂的多種甜鹹口味。"

我曾经做过泡发粉版的曼煎糕，味道很不错但是口感比较接近西式的pancake，马来西亚的曼煎糕是口感上比较有嚼劲的，带点微微的碱水味道。我搜了相当久都找不到一个好的方子，后来就凭自己的记忆，摸索了好几次，用酵母和碱水做出了和夜市里买的味道一样的曼煎糕。

Green Tea Kaya Swiss Roll 【绿茶咖椰瑞士卷】

上个周末本来约了朋友们在纽约聚餐庆祝春节，我就做了几罐的焦糖咖椰 打算带给朋友们. 怎知聚餐前一晚俊爹突然头疼得厉害，第二天一早去了急诊室，所以聚餐就没去成。冰箱里倒是因此多了好几罐的咖椰，家里还有一盒俊爹给我买的有机绿茶粉，因为带糖，我喝了一次就搁在那里了。一直想着什么时候拿来做个绿茶口味的甜点。

周末无事我就做了这个绿茶咖椰卷，考虑到抹的咖椰比奶油要甜腻，口感也比奶油湿润，所以我就在瑞士卷的配方上做了点调整，做比较干爽的蛋糕体。又因为焦糖咖椰的颜色是深褐色的，我把瑞士卷的皮烤成褐色，用了皮外卷的方法，这样卷起来和咖椰的颜色内外呼应，搭配得几乎天衣无缝呢！

I made a big pot of Caramel Kaya last weekend to bring to our Chinese new year gathering in New York. My husband N started having severe headache few hours before we head out, we had to cancelled the plan and rush to the doctor, we later learnt that he was hit by sever sinus and had to take a course of antibiotic.

So that is the prelude to the many bottles of Kaya sitting in my fridge, I did though send out a few to some friends who live nearby. 

Since I also have a box of sweetened (Yucky!) organic green tea powder sitting in my pantry for a long time, I decided to make this Greentea Kaya Swiss Roll, it turned out really nice and my son A loves it!

【传统鸡蛋糕】Traditional Steamed Sponge Cake/Kuay Neng Koh

在我还很小的时候，蛋糕在我家乡是奢侈品。只有在家里老人过生辰时才会买上大大的奶油蛋糕，一家人分了吃。每次我都舍不得吃被分的那一块，要一点一点慢慢地品尝很久。

平时过年过节的时候，我们吃的是这种传统方法做的“鸡蛋糕”（Guay Neng Koh），在电动搅拌机并不普及的时代，做蛋糕是一大家子轮班用大大的弹簧大力搅拌而成的。家里祭祀祭祖时，都要做这个鸡蛋糕，用村里人自己养的土鸡生的蛋，做出来的蛋糕分外香甜。

传统蛋糕的食谱都是家里老人口口相传的，我们家的食谱由外婆传给了舅妈，前几天给家人拜年时刚好舅妈也，我就赶紧把食谱要了来。说起这个食谱，也是非常好玩，传统的做法食谱也非常古朴。外婆传给舅妈的食谱是用饭碗来量的，我听了就问舅妈那是多大的饭碗啊？舅妈的答案居然是，就是吃饭的饭碗啊! 我当场就懵了，后来还是在视频里把我家吃饭的饭碗拿给舅妈确认了一下。

古法制作的蛋糕材料简单，口感轻盈又带着浓浓的蛋香，非常的可口，它有着我的童年和家乡的味道。 

Cake was a luxury item in my home when I was young, we will only buy cake on elders' birthday, the kids get a piece each and I will savored mine a little by little hoping that it would last longer. 

This Traditional steamed sponge cake/Kuay Neng Koh (Oven is not a common thing back home, even up till today) is what we usually eat during the Chinese New Year or festive season. Electric mixer was not popular in those days, this cake was made using a huge spring like whisk and was whisked manually for a long time with few people taking turn to do it. 

This recipe was passed on to my aunt by word of mouth from the elderly, my aunt was with my mother when I called on Chinese new year eve, so I quickly grasp the opportunity to get the recipe from her and made it the next day. As traditional as this cake could be, the recipe is also very interesting, it is measured using rice bowl rather than measuring cup. I had to showed my rice bowl on facetime to my aunt to confirm the size of bowl that she used!I did, though convert it into cup/weight for recording purpose. 

The ingredients for this heritage delicacy is very simple, it produced the fluffiest cake that I had ever had, it is very tasty and has the taste of home and my childhood.

Traditional Chinese New Year Cake/Nian Gao 【传统年糕制作】

My childhood was spent mostly in a small town in southern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The "festive" atmosphere in small towns during and before Chinese New Year are so much stronger in comparison to cities.

The elderly in families will start making types of New Year cakes/Kuehs weeks before Chinese New Year. This Nian Gao/Sticky rice cake is one of them.

My grandma was the one that makes this cake for everyone in the family, she will stay up all night to watch the fire. Every step of making this cake is manual and rigorous.

Nian Gao is normally used for prayers in Chinese New Year, a well steamed Nian Gao can be stored for months without being refrigerated.

Even though there are many short cut recipes of Nian Gao circulating around the net nowadays.

I still find it imperative to preserve the traditional way of making it.

Though I can't stone grind my glutinous rice and steam cook using firewoods, I do manage to replicate the process as closely to the origin as I can with the aids of blender and slow cooker.

I have to say that I cannot be more pleased with the result!

Here I am, together with my family heritage -- Nian Gao, wishing everybody a prosperous and healthy year of Monkey!

年糕的主要功能是年除夕时祭祖和祭神时用的，一般会在年前好几周就提前制作好，制作的工序严谨繁琐，从铺垫器具，泡糯米，磨米浆，脱水，拌糖到蒸制全都需要人工制作，处理好入蒸笼之后还要在后院用大大的蒸笼蒸上12-16个小时，蒸年糕的过程需要有人不断的添材火，加热水，所以每年蒸年糕的时候，我阿嬤就会有两晚都没法睡觉，实在是一个爱意满满的糕点哦！现在虽然有了很多简易的年糕方子，但我仍觉得，阿嬤亲手做出来的糯米年糕才是最Q弹，最甜糯好吃的！

古法制作的年糕不容易变质，即使在没有冰箱的年代，年糕在室温下都能收藏半年，甚至一年之久。一般都是年后才会把年糕取来切块蒸软或裹上面糊炸了吃。

人在国外我没有条件石磨米浆和材火蒸煮，但在慢炖锅和电动搅拌机的协助下，相当大程度地复制了阿嬤制作的年糕味道。

带着我家乡的传统年糕，向私房的姐姐妹妹们祝贺，希望大家在新的一年里阖家安康，欢乐无限。

Banana Bread Baked By my 3 year old

My son A has been showing a lot of interest in baking lately. Since I have a few ripe bananas lying around at home, I decided to let him bake a simple banana bread.

We had a lot of fun baking and video taping!

Toddler Meal -- 3 minutes Microwave Milo Cake

This infamous milo cake has gone viral on our Malaysian in USA group on FB. I made this for AS over the weekend with a little twist of my own.

This cake is so easy that even my 3 year old can do it. (With mommy's assistant of course). I let him measure out the ingredients and do all the stirring work, it was a fun filled math and cooking lessons and great family activity, not to mention yummy and quick!

Lava Cake/Molten Chocolate Cake

      Valentine's day this year coincide with the Chinese version of lover's day -- Chap Goh Meh, which only happened once every 19 years or so.

      We just had our No. N snow storms yesterday and expecting another tomorrow, I wasn't in the mood for elaborate cooking due to the weather. Hubby and I decided to go out for lunch while baby A stays with a sitter. Later in the evening, I made this Lava cake as a surprise for hubby, it was yummy to the core and a good way to end our valentine's celebration!

Applesauce Bundt Cake

As I said, I made the applesauce to bake a cake! Here it comes my Applesauce Bundt Cake!

10 minutes Microwave Chocolate cake

I have been craving for chocolate cake for days and almost pick up the car key and drive to bakery a couple of times!

It gets so bad yesterday night that I finally gave in and made this simple, quick microwave cake.

I got similar recipe years back from a auntie in India, I did modified a little to suite my taste and to make it a little moist this time ... it is very nice !!

Zucchini Cake 【西葫芦蛋糕】

I planted a few zucchini plants this year but they didn't do too well, and yield only 2 zucchini by far, as it is getting colder and the plants starts getting yellow, so I decided to pull them up and clean up the garden... and to my surprise, I found two rather big zucchini hidden underneath the plants!

My friend posted zucchini cake not long ago on facebook and I was really tempted to try the recipe as it sounded healthy and yummy... but have no heart to buy the zucchini from the shop. Here I am with two fresh, homegrown zucchini, I am just about to waste no time and make this cake!

As I was trying to come up with a good recipe, the internet search engine shows many recipes that are closely representing pound cake recipe, not much of a pound cake person as I am...

I decided to make it my way... and here it comes, moist, fluffy, and healthy Zucchini Cake!

今年因为好奇，买了几棵葫芦瓜苗回来让我妈种，长得不是很好，收了两根就不再结果了，我妈回国之后我也没去理它。天气渐渐凉了，我就想着把那几棵葫芦瓜拔了整理一下院子。才发现瓜藤下居然还隐藏着两个不小的瓜呢！

收了这两根葫芦瓜就想着要怎么做，正好这阵子一直想着要吃蛋糕，又看见网友Venus在FB上上了的Zuchinni蛋糕照片，就决定跟着做一次。

网上搜了一堆食谱，发现都类似Pound cake的配方，高卡不说口感也比较结实，不是我喜欢的类型。于是就在打发鸡蛋的基础上做了这个西葫芦蛋糕。味道还真的很好呢！

科普了一下：

西葫蘆--櫛瓜
Zucchini，學名：Cucurbita pepo），又稱北瓜、櫛瓜或夏南瓜，香港稱為翠玉瓜，葫蘆科南瓜屬植物。可以食用。
科： 葫蘆科 Cucurbitaceae

https://forum.doctorvoice.org/viewtopic.php?f=152&t=47684

Banana Mixed Nuts Cake 干果香蕉蛋糕

The banana I bought during sales in Walmart are getting too ripe, and I got tired of making milkshake out of it, so I came up with the idea to bake a banana cake.

I have chosen this recipe for it call for lesser butter, thus lesser calories, and yet equally tasty!

前阵子Walmart的香蕉打折，我老公头脑一发热，买了两大串回家，结果一星期不到，就都熟透了。我只好想尽办法消灭香蕉。

这个蛋糕是打发鸡蛋的做法，和一般的Banana Bread有点不一样，Butter用得也比较少，所以稍微低卡健康。更轻盈更好吃！

Vegan Avocado Chocolate Cake

I stumbled upon this vegan recipe and could not stop thinking about how smart it is calling for Avocado as butter replacement. I just have to make this once. So I did. And manage to made it a diabetic friendly dessert!