Monday, October 1, 2012

YAM MOONCAKES AND MID AUTUMN FESTIVAL DINNER (Part 1)

Guess everybody have a good weekend with the Mid-Autumn Festival.

At the last minute, I decided to make these Yam Mooncakes for the festival.

I followed the recipe from TheNasiLemakLover and as usual her recipes are no fail and results always satisfying.

The white water  dough and the lilac oil  dough.

Wrapping the oil dough with the water dough.

Rolling it up -swiss roll style- 1st roll.
Repeat the second time before cutting roll into half and then roll out into round for the yam paste filling- also homemade following her recipe.

I loved these delicately coloured swirls. Bake for 20 minutes at 170C. 

The good side ie  the 2nd lot after baking- actually 20 minutes-breaking out minimum.  

The ulgy side - this was the first lot that I baked for almost 30 minutes- the paste had started to leak out through the pastry.
Good or ugly (looks only) they still  tasted great.  The pastry which was crispy on the first day, soften to wafer thin layers the next day. By the way  I used shortening instead of ghee.

I also tried another recipe taken from Kuali.com (Ms Amy Beh). This pastry is much softer and slightly oily.
I managed to get around 16 medium size mooncakes and packed them into bag of 2's together with a lantern each for my siblings and  family.

We are going to play lanterns!

The dinner for the festival was held at my eldest brother's house. So happened it was his birthday that day!.  My sister-in-law prepared a special soup for us - mini Buddha Jumped over the Wall. 

Dried Scallop, mushroom, sea cucumber, abalone and last but not least sharkfins.
We were there early and Sarah helping to distribute the ingredients to each bowl. 


I made some Green Papaya Salad. The  green papaya that I bought on Saturday has ripen overnight! Luckily for me, the fruit stall is just opposite my house.  I don't know whether it is because they saw my urgent need or does a small green papaya (slightly large than my palm) costs RM2.20? The helper refused to even give me a 20 cents discount! 

Anyway, the main ingredients are :-
shredded green papaya (peeled and shredded while whole- no need to cut);
Shredded carrot
white fungus (soaked overnight and blanched quickly in boiling water and then into iced cold water and drained well- press with a dry towel)
mints leaves (from my garden),
coriander
kaffir leaves, remove the center stem and  thinly cut (also from my garden), bunga kantan also thinly sliced
dried prawns -soaked, drained and pan fry till fragrant and crispy
peanuts roasted and pounded coarsely
sesame seeds roasted
red chilies (de-seeded and finely minced) or chili padi if preferred spicy
slices of ginger (julienned),   red onion,  tomatoes - all thinly sliced and mix into the sauce
For the sauce: sesame oil, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar,  salt and pepper (adjust to taste).Mix all ingredients together and pour over sauce.

Colourful medley of  vegetables - celery, red and yellow peppers, brocoli,  baby corn and baby pacific clams.

 
Braised mushroom with pig trotters.
Prawns with salted egg yolk. She also cooked her Taiwan signature dish of Braised Lion's head.  
My sister also cooked some Sambal Sotong with Petai (no photo).

The standard festival dishes of Steamed Chicken, Roasted Pork, Roasted Duck and Steamed Pomfret also made their appearances on the table.  

 
Waiting for dinner to start.

No comments:

Post a Comment