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Homemade Dun Daan Recipe – 燉蛋

Steamed Egg Custard Sweet Dessert

I really enjoy simple Chinese desserts, and Dun Dan is one of those desserts that is simple and really delicious. I learned this recipe from my aunt and have always kept it in my recipe box. I’ve recently dug it out and now I’ll share this delicious wonder!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of milk
1 egg
2-3 tablespoons of sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

First, dissolve the sugar in the milk by whisking it together. You don’t need to heat up the milk or anything as it will dissolve over time.

Then, beat the egg until smooth and frothy – then which together with the milk mixture and add your vanilla extract. If you like a touch of ginger taste, this is when you’ll add some ginger juice.

When the mixture is smooth and mixed, get a strainer and strain the mixture into a steamable bowl (heat-safe bowl) such as a ramekin.

Place some saran wrap or tin foil over the bowl before placing this into the steamer – that way, it ensures no liquid will get into the bowl for a smooth custard. Steam the bowl for around 7 minutes. To test if it’s done, take some chopstick and tap the side of the bowl. If it jiggles like jelly – it’s ready. If it moves more like a liquid, then it hasn’t set.

You can either enjoy this delicious dessert hot from the steamer or let it cool down then chill it for a more refreshing dessert. It tastes wonderful both ways! We like to make 2 and enjoy one fresh and hot, and we eat the other one at a later time cold.

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Nestlé Aero Peppermint Lamb

It’s Easter soon, where the grocery store isles will be filled with candies and chocolates. One thing that really caught my eye this year was the Aero Peppermint Lamb which I couldn’t resist and got myself one! The package was really cute, and I just needed to see and taste this peppermint lamb.

I went home and immediately opened the package, and to my excitement, it really was just like the wrapper – almost to size too!

This is the cutest chocolate “egg” I’ve ever seen, even though my lambs nose was had a little blemish, it was almost too cute to cut through to see the inside. But, we did it anyway! The inside was green with the tradmark Aero bubble look throughout!

The taste was quite minty too! It was enjoyable and satisfying! It was just really neat to see a chocolate lamb instead of a bunny or egg or something more traditional!

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Homemade Chinese Nian Gao – 年糕

Sweet Sticky Rice Cake – Neen Gow

It’s that that time of year when we’re in our kitchens cooking up a storm and sharing goodies with family and friends. One goodie you’ll always see is the Nian Gao which is a very simple recipe that is very sticky with a hint of sweetness.

Ingredients (makes 1 – 8″ pan)
2 cups of Glutenous Rice Flour
300 mL boiling water
1 cup brown sugar or 5 sticks of peen tong (片糖)

Note: You can add more sugar if you like it sweeter – we like it much more subtle tasting!

Peen tong is basically Chinese Rock Sugar or Chinese Rock Candy and it comes in a pack of “slabs of sugar”. If you don’t want to purchase/use it, or simply can’t find it, a great substitution would be to use brown sugar – which is what I did as it was sold out when I wanted to get it!

First off, boil some water and dissolve the sugar into it. When it becomes a syrup, you’re ready to start making your nian gao! Measure out the glutenous rice flour and pour in your syrup. Caution, this is a boiling water mixture, but make sure it’s hot!!

Mix together until it’s smooth and creamy and pour it into the dish you’d like to steam your nian gao in before it gets cold.

Once the nian gao is ready in it’s dish, put it into the steamer for about 1 hour to an hour and a half. You’ll know it’s ready when you can move the edges and it’s set. If you stick anything into this cake, it’ll stick so the toothpick test is not a good idea in this case.

If you’re enjoying it right away, be sure to allow it to cool and set for at least 15 minutes. It will be really soft and gooey and very sticky at this point – but it’s always nice to eat freshly steamed food. If you like it properly made, once it’s cooled enough, pop it in the fridge for at least 3 hours where you can cut it up and serve.

One of the ways we like to eat nian gao is to pan fry it with an egg. So, we cut the nian gao into pieces and dunk it into a beaten egg before placing it on a fry pan with some oil. It’s very important to do this on low temperatures or the nian gao will melt and stick to your pan. You’ll know these are ready when it’s “soft and gummy”.

Things I’ve heard about nian gao, but I’ve never tried it – I guess you can bake your nian gao instead of steaming it, and you’ll get a crunchier topping and more cake-like. It does however use another recipe but I don’t know it and haven’t tried it yet. But, I’m thinking I should one day! I’ve also heard that nian gao’s are extremely freezable, and when you want to enjoy it again, just steam it back up! It could be handy if you’ve received one too many for New Years!

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Chinese Rice Crispies with Peanut

Chinese New Years often entails lots of deep fried goodies, and there are many sweets and snacks associated with Chinese New Years.

Rice Crispy with Peanut – 米通

is often a treat that is made at home and it’s nothing like Rice Crispy treats that are store bought or made with cereal.

These snacks only have a subtle sweetness to them, and much more peanut flavour. Once you open the box that’s the primary smell you’ll notice.

Once you bit down on these treats, you’ll definitely notice the super crispiness of the treat and then the peanut taste and texture fills your mouth. Then, as a back note, you definitely get the ginger taste! It’s a great combination of all the subtle flavours and the remarkable texture makes it such that you want to eat lots!

If you have the time, be sure you try to make these rice crispies at home! Here’s a walk-through on how I made mine Homemade Chinese Rice Crispies!

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Great Taste Chinese Restaurant

It was New Years Eve, and we wanted to grab a bite to eat to kill some time – and we found ourselves walking by what use to be one of our favourite Chinese places to eat… and noticed the place had changed names. So, out of curiosity, we went into what is now called Great Taste Chinese Restaurant

Since this wasn’t a meal, and we were looking for snack, we ordered really random snacks – which we really LOVED! Something I’ve always ate if I found, it would be Shanghai Style Sticky Rice (Savoury). These sticky rice are only availability on weekends only – so I was really happy it was a weekend when we popped in! We can pick from sweet or salty sticky rice, but I do prefer the salty ones.

Dumplings will also always be a great snack for me! It’s never too early or too late to eat dumplings, and here, they have Pan Fried Shanghai Style Pork Dumplings which we always remembered them as being like wor-tip (potstickers) pan fried to a nice crisp. I believe they make these dumplings themselves as it doesn’t look uniform – so I like to think it’s made of good quality pork dumpling filling. This filling is very flavourful and is perfect alone or with the vinegar dip they provide you with.

The last snack we had to order is Deep Fried Sweet Buns which is an Asian style bun made with either Hong Kong or Korean rice flour as it adds much more “bounce” in the dough. This bun is made with “threads” of the dough and then steamed. In this case, it is deep fried to a wonderful golden brown such that you get a crispy shell with a soft bun inside that shreds into strands/threads. This wonderful bun is then dipped to one of my all time favourite condiments – condensed milk. It’s a great vehicle to move condensed milk to my mouth – and when paired, it’s a great combination! The hot crisp of the exterior of the bun, the soft gooey strand inside of the bun with the sweet condensed milk sure make it a treat!

I’ve been trying to not use too many pictures in my blogs lately, but i have to post a picture of the “silver thread buns” interior as well! Even though this bun is cut into 3 pieces, it’s a great bun and I think the picture kind of shows it!

This was such a great place for simple Shanghai style snacks that I’m sure I’ll be back to eat here! I loved it before the new owners and I’m still loving it! I assume the owners changed, as the concept of the restaurant has changed – but the food is still really good.

Great Taste Chinese Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Great Taste Chinese Restaurant

123 2nd Avenue SE
Calgary, AB T2G 0B2
403-265-9880