Macau Almond Cookie (澳門杏仁饼)

This is my attempt to mimic one of my favorite cookies from Macau. It is a nutty cookie that is perfect to go with a cup of coffee.  

Ingredients:

Whole almond  - 60 g (optional, I replaced with almond flour)
Green bean flour - 200 g (Not Green Bean Starch)
Almond flour- 60 g
Powdered sugar - 80 g
Butter - 1/2 cup (1 stick) at room temperature
Water - about 4 tsp (add 1 tsp at a time)

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F.
2. If you have whole almond, use a rolling pin to bash the almonds into small objects but not powdered. You can roast the raw almond in the oven first to make it easier to break. Set aside.
3. Whisk all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, add the and water a little bit at a time, and use your fingertips to rub all the ingredients until it can be formed into chucks.

4. Divide the dough into small balls, and use a moon cake mold to shape them.
5. Place cookies on the cookie tray and put the tray in the bottom shelf of the hot oven, leave a few inches gap of the door open and bake for 30 minutes, then switch off the heat and close the oven door, keep the cookies in the hot oven for another 5 minutes to make it more crunchier.

6. Cool down on a wire rack.

Panda Cookie

The dough is the same recipe from the egg free sugar cookies. I made two batches of dough, one white, and one brown. To make the brown dough, replace 1/4 all purpose flour in the recipe with 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder.

Pickled Cucumber (酱瓜)

Home made pickle to serve with porridge.

Ingredients:

Soy Sauce - 3/4 cup
ChinKiang Vinegar - 2/3 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Cocktail cucumber - 1 bag, 1.5 lb

Steps:

1. Wash and cut the cocktail cucumbers in small chucks about 3/4 inch long.

2. Put soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar in a sauce pan, and bring to boil. Then add the cucumber. Wait for the sauce to boil again (about 3-4 minutes). Then fish out the cucumbers to spread them on a tray. Cool the cucumber quickly in the refrigerator.

3. Repeat step 2.

4. Once the cucumber pieces and sauce are both cool. Add the cucumber pieces to a clean glass jar, then pour in sauce to immerse all the cucumbers. Cucumber is ready to serve after two days.

Steamed Turnip Cake (萝卜糕)

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 2 cups
Tapioca starch or Corn starch - 1/2 cup
Water - 2 and 1/2 cups
Turnip - medium size, about 750 g after peeling
Salt - 1 tsp
White pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Dried shrimp - 2 TBSP
Dried mushroom - 4-5 medium size
Cantonese style sausage - 2 sticks, diced
Red pearl onion - 1 small, chopped

Steps:

1. Soak dried shrimp and mushroom until they are soft. Dice the mushroom.
2. In a mixing bow, mix rice flour, tapioca starch, and add water.
3. Peel the turnip and use a cheese grater to shred it.

4. In a frying pan, add oil and stir fry onion, shrimp, mushroom, and sausage. Then take them out and put aside.
5. In a frying pan, stir fry the shredded turnip until it is cooked. Then add in the ingredients from last step. Add salt and white pepper powder.

6. Turn off the heat, and stir in the rice flour mixture from step 2.
7. Coat a 9" cake pan with oil, and pour the barter in the pan.

8. Steam at high heat for 40 minutes. Let the cake cool thoroughly before taken out of pan.

You can steam the cake again to serve directly. I prefer to slice it and pan-fried it.