Chinese New Year Cake (Pressure Cooker + Video)

It’s still Chinese New Year celebration time until the 15th day of lunar calendar. We enjoy all the delicious snacks, radish cake (pressure cooker recipe), taro cake and Chinese New Year cake, especially when getting around with friends and family. You might find this CNY cake in Chinese dim sum restaurants all year long. This is a popular, traditional cake in Chinese cooking.

When it comes to making this CNY cake, it takes forever to get it cooked through in a wok or steamer. But with an electric pressure cooker, Instant Pot, I can cut short the cooking time a lot. This recipe exactly use up one packet of brown slab sugar (片糖, picture shown here). I made a batch ahead, then pan-fried it next morning, and brought it along to share with my friends after church. They commended with thumbs up, saying it’s not too sweet with the texture just right to their liking. It’s a kind of remarkable reward when you cooked with your heart and soul for your loved ones, isn’t it?

Chinese New Year Cake Pressure Cooker Recipe (Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 30 mins + plus pan-fry time
Yield: One 12 cm (diameter) x 5cm (depth) round container + one 20cm x 14cm x 6.5cm rectangular container

Ingredients:

• 450 ml water + plus 1½ cup for steaming
• 450 gm brown slab sugar
• 150 ml coconut milk
• 55 ml oil + plus more to grease the containers
• 360 gm glutinous rice flour
• 125 gm wheat starch
• 1 egg, whisked

Method:

1. Use a deep pot, cook 450 ml of water with the sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour in the coconut milk and oil. Combine well. Set aside to let it cool down.
2. Combine and sift the glutinous rice flour and wheat starch. Sift the flour mixture into the sugar mixture in 3 batches. Stir to combine very well. You’ll get a very smooth batter. Drain through a fine sieve to get rid of any lumps inside.
3. Grease the containers. Pour in the batter.
4. Pour in 1½ cups of water into the Instant Pot. Transfer the round container first, followed by the rectangular one. Cover with foil. Close the lid and turn to “sealing” position. Press “manual” button, cook on high pressure for 30 minutes. After finishing cooking, let the machine run “natural release’ for 10 minutes. After the pressure valve drops, remove the containers and let them cool down completely. Chill in fridge for at least 3 hours until it turns firmer for easily slicing into pieces. When you’re ready to serve, coat each slice with whisked egg. With a non-stick pan, pan-fry both sides until golden brown over medium-low heat. Serve hot.

Notes：

• It’s best to use glass containers. You may use bakery tray or foil tin instead. I won’t recommend to use plastic take-away boxes though as they are not suitable for high-heat cooking.
• If you're interested in getting an Instant Pot, here's the info for you. I got it from Amazon (UK) as the model for sale in UK, with 220 volts, suitable for using in Australia.
• If you’re living in US or any countries with 110~120 volts electrical system, the model listed on Amazon (US) is the one to go for.

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Mixed Vegetable Curry (Easy Meal)

This Malaysian curry dish is one of my favourite meatless meals. If you’re looking for some easy or quick dinner ideas, this recipe is a good choice. This dish tastes a bit spicy and hot, good for warming up our body in cold weather, or increasing our appetite on hot days. The Malaysian curry paste I used was store-bought. It tastes really authentic. You don’t need to add any spices yourself. Best still, the curry paste is very versatile. You can add any vegetables you’ve got, or add any meat you like. This recipe is so easy to make on the go.

Mixed Vegetable Curry Recipe (Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Yield: 3 to 4 serves

Ingredients:

• 1 packet (200 gm) Tean's gourmet vegetarian curry paste (田師傅素咖哩醬)
• 300 ml water
• 300 ml vegetable stock
• 250 gm red sweet potato, peeled and roughly chopped
• 180 gm cauliflower, cut into pieces
• 200 gm green beans
• 250 gm egg plants, roughly chopped
• 200 ml coconut milk

Method:

1. Mix 2 teaspoons of oil with the sweet potato. In a microwave oven, cook on medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. If a sharp knife can easily poke in, it’s done.
2. Combine the curry paste, water and stock well. Pour into a large pot. Bring it to a boil.
3. In the meantime, blanch the cauliflower and green beans in boiling water for 3 to 4 minutes. Drain up and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
4. When the curry sauce boils, add the egg plant, sweet potato and cauliflower. Cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the green beans.
5. Pour in the coconut and combine well. Bring it to boil. Serve hot.

Notes：

• Tean's gourmet vegetarian curry paste is available at Asian grocers. Or get it from Amazon.
• If you’re a meat lover, you may add chicken, fish or pork into it. I tried to make curry fish balls with this curry paste with satisfied results.
• I used store-bought vegetable stock. For convenience, you might like to replace it with water.

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Garlic Butter Tiger Prawns

Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Are you still searching for ideas of planning Chinese New Year menu? Here comes a good one to put on your menu. It’s a no-brainer dish and quick to be done. Not only is this dish flavoursome, but also it’s full of nutrients.

These large tiger prawns I used were so big. From head to tail, it’s long as my palm. They were so fresh that I didn’t need any more seasonings except garlic and butter, with salt and pepper of course. Since I love more flavours developed in this dish, I pan-fried the prawn with shells on. Yet, you may shell the prawns before cooking for convenience if you have young kids at home.

Garlic Butter Tiger Prawns Recipe (Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 10 mins
Yield: 2 to 3 serves

Ingredients:

• 6 (390 gm) large tiger prawns
• 3 tsp olive oil
• 16 gm butter, about two-thumb size
• 2 cloves, garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp dry white wine
• 1 sprig parsley, chopped, for garnish
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste

Method:

1. With a pair of scissors, trim away the sharp point head and legs. The cut open the shells along the backs. Use a knife to cut a shallow slit into the meat. Devein and rinse. Pat dry with kitchen towels. Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan. Add half of the butter. Pan-fry the prawns, about 4 mins on one side. Flip over to the other side and cook about 2 minutes. Don’t over cook them, or else the meat turns tough. Add garlic. Pour in wine. Add the remaining butter. Cover and cook for 1 minutes, or until the prawns are just cooked though. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle parsley for garnish. Serve immediately.

Notes：

• By heating some oil with butter, it helps the butter not to burn too quickly.
• The taste of this dish will be enriched with frying the shells together. For convenience, you may shell the prawns before cooking.
• The amount of butter can be adjust to your preference. Either unsalted or regular butter will work.
• The prawns I used were very large with shells. So I cover the pan and cook for a little while to help the inside cook through. If you use smaller prawns, you may skip this step. If the prawn meat doesn’t sticky to the shell, it’s cooked through.
• I used Chardonnay, a kind of dry white wine. You may use any wine you like.

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Chinese New Year Cake (Sticky Rice Cake 年糕)

2010 is the year of tiger (Chinese zodiac)

Chinese New Year is a time of enjoying many delicious foods and snacks. One of popular desserts eaten during this festive season is Chinese New Year’s cake (nian gao 年糕), that made with sticky, glutinous rice flour (mochi flour) with brown sugar because it’s symbolic of growing taller, achieving higher every year, that signifies a prosperous year awaiting ahead.

It’s often served warm as it is. However, in Hong Kong, people like to have the steamed sticky rice cake, sliced and then pan-fried with egg. If it's pan-fried without egg, the texture would be slightly crispy outside and still pasty inside. When some relatives or friends come to visit them (bai nian拜年), they’d serve the sticky cake warm, with some other snacks, like turnip cake and taro cake.

Update: If you have an electric pressure cooker, Instant Pot, you might like to take a look at this radish recipe with video tutorial.

Chinese New Year Cake / Sticky Rice Cake Recipe (Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 100 mins
Yield: Prepare a cake mould (removable base preferred), 5-inch round

Ingredients:

• 200 gm glutinous rice flour
• 70 gm wheat starch (澄麵)
• 250 gm brown sugar in bar (片糖)
• 1 cup water
• 80 ml coconut cream
• 30 gm oil + a dash to grease cake mould
• 1 egg, whisked

Method:

1. Use a saucepan to bring 1 cup of water to boil. Add brown sugar and cook until completely dissolved. Stir in coconut cream and oil. Drain syrup through a fine sieve to make the mixture smoother. Let cool.
2. Sift glutinous rice flour and wheat flour twice beforehand. Add flour bit by bit into syrup, stir constantly along the way, and combine well. If you'd like your batter really smooth, drain through a fine sieve once more.
3. Transfer batter to a greased cake mould. Place in a wok and steam over high heat, covered, for about 60 to 75 minutes. As the cake is very sticky, even if it’s cooked through, it still sticks to your needle/chopstick if you test it. But if you can’t taste any raw flour, it’s done. Make sure to steam the cake for enough time.
4. Let cool. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. When the cake is cold, it’s much easier to slice into thick pieces. Coat the sliced cake with whisked egg, fry on medium-low heat until both sides are brown. Serve hot.

Notes：

• The time of steaming cake depends on how big and thick your cake is.
• I followed the traditional way of decorating the cake and inserted a date in the middle, after steaming 15 minutes or so when the surface is slightly set.

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Radish Cake (Pressure Cooker + Video)

I was asked if we could use an electric pressure cooker, Instant Pot to make radish cake via email. Definitely we can! It can be done quicker than steaming in a wok. This year’s Chinese New Year is just around the corner. When I made radish cakes again for preparing CNY, I also shot some video clips showing the whole process step-by-step. I used the same radish cake recipe that I used year after year, only omitted the Chinese bacon (臘肉) this time. If you like to add shiitake mushrooms, feel free to go ahead. Yet remember to finish your cake as soon as you can since mushrooms won’t last too long. Chinese sausage and dried radish are salted, thus no need to season your batter with salt. You may dip your pan-fried radish cake with soy sauce if desired. Also, it goes perfectly with sriracha sauce. The taste is so good.

Radish Cake Instant Pot Recipe (Printable recipe)
By Christine’s Recipes
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 60 mins + plus increasing pressure and pan-frying time
Yield: two glass containers (each 19.5cm x 14cm x 6.5cm) or one 7-inch round tin

Ingredients:

• 1 kg radish
• 170 gm rice flour
• 4 Tbsp wheat starch (澄麵)
• 1 (40 gm) Chinese sausage (臘腸)
• 55 gm Chinese dried shrimps, soaked until softened
• 60 gm dried radish, soaked for 10 minutes and squeezed the excess water out
• 2 shallots, minced
• 3/4 cup salt-reduced chicken stock (or homemade salt-free stock)
• white pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Peel the radish and grate it into strips. I used a food processor. It’s done within a minute or so.
2. Blanch the Chinese sausage in boiling water to remove excess grease. It also helps to cut easily. Drain up and cut into dices.
3. Heat a little of oil over medium high heat. Add the diced Chinese sausage. Cook until oil is released. Add the dried shrimps and dried radish. Saute until aromatic. Set aside.
4. Heat some more oil to sauté the shallot. Toss in the shredded radish. Sprinkle white pepper to taste. Stir to combine. Pour in the chicken stock. Cook until the radish turns soft and translucent.
5. Remove from heat. Sift in the rice flour and wheat starch. Combine thoroughly. You’ll get a thick batter. Stir in the Chinese sausage, dried shrimps and dried radish. Transfer the batter into the glass containers or tin.
6. In your Instant Pot, put a trivet inside. Pour in 1½ cup of water. Cover the lid with the pressure handle to “sealing” position. Press “Manual” button and cook for 40 minutes. Run quick release.
7. Remove the radish cake from the pot. Let cool completely for easily cutting into pieces. Pan-fry them over medium high heat. Serve immediately. You may enjoy it as it’s when fresh from the pot if desired. The leftover can be kept in fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Notes：

• The water content inside every radish is quite different. Adjust the amount of chicken stock accordingly. The consistency of your batter should look like the one shown in the video. Then your radish cake will be just right, neither too soft nor too tough.
• If you're going to make this radish cake in a wok, please refer to this recipe.
• If you're interested in getting an Instant Pot, here's the info for you. I got it from Amazon (UK) as the model for sale in UK, with 220 volts, suitable for using in Australia.
• If you’re living in US or any countries with 110~120 volts electrical system, the model listed on Amazon (US) is the one to go for.

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