Mooncakes or 'yue bing' 月饼 are a profound cultural tradition deep in Chinese people's hearts, symbolizing a spiritual feeling. At Mid-Autumn Festival people eat mooncakes together with family, or present mooncakes to relatives or friends, to express love and best wishes. This year Peach Garden offers Mooncakes paired with our Limited Edition Gift Box with LED lights which will give you the ultimate mid autumn experience. Order through https://bit.ly/fbMidAutumn now to enjoy 20% off your early bird mooncake order.

Typical mooncakes are round or rectangular pastries, measuring about 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm thick. A thick filling usually made from lotus seed paste is surrounded by a relatively thin (2-3 mm) crust and may contain yolks from salted duck eggs. Mooncakes are rich, heavy, and dense compared with most Western cakes and pastries. They are usually eaten in small wedges accompanied by Chinese tea.


This year, the Chinese celebrates this festival on 4th October 2017.

Ingredients

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into chunks
2 tablespoons white wine
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil, divided
2 tablespoons cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tablespoons water
1 ounce hot chile paste
1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons brown sugar
4 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 (8 ounce) can water chestnuts
4 ounces chopped peanuts

Directions

To Make Marinade: Combine 1 tablespoon wine, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon cornstarch/water mixture and mix together.

Place chicken pieces in a glass dish or bowl and add marinade.

Toss to coat. Cover dish and place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

To Make Sauce: In a small bowl combine 1 tablespoon wine, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 tablespoon cornstarch/water mixture, chili paste, vinegar and sugar.
Mix together and add green onion, garlic, water chestnuts and peanuts. In a medium skillet, heat sauce slowly until aromatic.

Meanwhile, remove chicken from marinade and saute in a large skillet until meat is white and juices run clear.

When sauce is aromatic, add sauteed chicken to it and let simmer together until sauce thickens.

I was at a Chinese restaurant with an Italian family and a Chinese family last evening for a Chinese dinner in Tallinn Estonia. I was wondering how the name comes about. Today I found out that this dish was named about a Qing Dynasty official and governor of Sichuan Province. Based on his title Gongbao (宫保; pinyin: Gōngbǎo) which literally means 'a palace guardian'. This official is Ding Baozhen who lived from 1820 to 1886. I just think how amazing this dish has become today!

Crispy Chicken Ingredients:
1 whole chicken or spring chicken
2 pieces green onion
1 small piece ginger
Some Sichuan peppercorn

1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon regular soy sauce
1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorn powder
1 teaspoon salt

or

cumin powder 1 teaspoon
chili powder 1 teaspoon
salt 1 teaspoon

The fillings are with Daikon, garlic, carrot, dried shrimps, tofu, Chinese mushrooms, sesame oil, & seasoning like salt. This is almost like a vegetarian traditional Teochew snack food. I've made this snack based on half the recipe in the video recipe by Mdm Tan Pek Hiang as follows:

XLB, Xiao Long Bao, Soup Dumpling, Dim Sum (Chinese) 小笼包. On a snowy cold day, this is one of the most craved for dim sum item. I made it with real chicken broth gelatin cubes today. Guess they're not really difficult to make, just the key to this dish is PATIENCE!

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds chicken backs or wings
• 1/2 pound Chinese ham or slab bacon
• 6 scallions, white separated, greens roughly chopped
• 1-inch knob ginger
• 1 tablespoon white peppercorns
• Salt to season
• 
  
• For the Filling
• 1/3 pound ground pork or chicken minced
• 1/4 pound raw shrimp, peeled
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 
  
• For the Dough:
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup boiling water
• Pinch of salt
•  
• For steaming: Napa cabbage leaves
  
  
  
  Instructions:
• 1. Combine chicken bones, ham, scallion whites, half of scallion greens, ginger, and white peppercorns in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, remove to a simmer, and simmer for 2 to 3 hours. Strain broth, season to taste with salt, cover, and refrigerate until set into a semi-firm jelly, at least 8 hours.
• 2. Combine pork (or chicken), shrimp, soy sauce, wine, sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, and remaining scallion greens in a food processor. Process until a fine paste is formed, about 12 to 15 one-second pulses. Refrigerate until ready to use.
• 3. Meanwhile, place flour in the bowl of food processor. With machine running, slowly drizzle in water until cohesive dough is formed (you probably won't need all the water). All dough to ride around processor for 30 seconds. Form into a ball using floured hands and transfer to a bowl. Cover with a damp towel and let rest for at least 30 minutes.
• 4. When broth becomes a gelatin, transfer filling mixture to a bowl along with 1 cup of jellied broth (save the rest for another use). Beat or whisk it in until homogenous. Keep filling well chilled.
• 5. Divide dough into 4 sections, and each section into 10 small tablespoon-sized balls (each about 12 grams), making 40 balls total. On a well-floured work surface, roll each ball into a round 3 1/2- to 4-inches in diameter. Stack wrappers and keep under wet cloth until all of them are rolled out.
• 6. To form dumplings, place 1 tablespoon of filling in the center of a wrapper. Moisten the edges of the wrapper with a wet fingertip or a pastry brush. Pleat edges of the wrapper repeatedly, pinching the edge closed after each pleat until the entire dumpling is sealed. in a cinched purse shape. Pinch and twist top to seal. Transfer sealed dumplings to a lightly floured wooden or parchment-lined board.
• 7. Place a bamboo steamer over a wok with 2 inches of water. Place over moderately high heat until simmering. line steamer with napa cabbage leaves (is recommended as these green paper liners still will stick) and place dumplings directly on leaves. Steam until cooked through, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately, being careful not to break them.

Finally. These yummy steamed buns which are the second batch that I made is a success. I like the minced to be chicken, but these ones made with beef are good too. Honestly, it is very easy to make. I didn't have a good luck for one batch prior to this as the yeast did not really work as it should. My recipe for Steamed Buns as follows:

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

Enjoy!

Nikuman (Steamed Pork Buns) is made similarly. The meat inside is Pork and cabbages, as well as mushrooms and shrimps are added.

This is a Green Bean Cake 绿豆糕. Amanda Tastes is one of my personal favorite Youtuber cooking channel. I like her gentle and clear advice on how to prepare the food on her channel. Her recipe videos also gets more and more engaging nowadays. It is in Mandarin Chinese and is perfect for my Chinese friends. The ingredients list are in English too #recipes #video#amandatastes 

Ingredients [mung bean cake] - with spermoderm 250g mung bean 100g crystal sugar 35g butter 15g milk powder a pinch of salt 绿豆糕（带皮版本） 绿豆250g 冰糖100g 黄油35g 奶粉15g 盐一小撮 [mung bean cake] - without spermoderm 50g xylitol 250g mung bean 20g honey 35g vegetable oil a pinch of salt 绿豆糕（不带皮版本） 绿豆 250g 蜂蜜 20g 植物油 35g 木糖醇 50g 盐 一小撮 ————————————————————————— 淘宝店铺：曼食慢语 新浪微博：@Amanda的小厨房 微信公众号：amandatastes Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/amandatastes Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/amandatastes

Originally uploaded by 拜小樂 | Ivy

锅贴 guō tiē is pan-fried jiaozi, also known as potstickers. Peking Ravioli in Boston, Wor tip (Cantonese Jyutping: wo1 tip3). It has so many different names but basically they are a Northern Chinese style dumpling popular as a street food, appetizer, or side order in Chinese, served also on a dim sum menu.

The filling for this dish usually contains pork (sometimes chicken, or beef in Muslim areas), cabbage (or Chinese cabbage and sometimes spinach), scallions (spring or green onions), ginger, Chinese rice wine or cooking wine, and sesame seed oil.

Guotie are shallow-fried in a wok (Mandarin 'guo'). A small quantity of water is added and the wok is covered. While the base of the dumplings is fried, the upper part is steamed and this gives a texture contrast typical of Chinese cuisine.

An alternative method is to steam in a wok and then fry to crispness on one side in a shallow frying pan. Exactly the same dumpling is boiled in plenty of water to make jiaozi and both are eaten with a dipping sauce. Three or five folds are made on one side of the round wrapper that is rolled so that the edges are thinner than the middle. This gives the base a large surface area that helps to give the dumpling stability to stand up in the pan.

The Chinese method of preparing the dough is to pour boiling water onto the flour and letting stand for five minutes and then adding a small quantity of cold water. This helps to activate the gluten in the dough.

Here's a video recipe for the Japanese yaki-gyōza 焼き餃子, enjoy :