Semi-Homemade Version of Panipopo

I, VERY UNLIKE like dear mother who can do everything at the same time and nurse kids back to health, do not like to bake!  I mean I do but I hate all the steps before the actual placing in the oven and pressing BAKE(:  It's just too much labor, thinking, and patience of which I have none.  Anywho, here's a semi-homemade version of panipopo - tastes soooo good, almost like the real thing baby!

Mom's authentic panipopo

Semi-Homemade Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 package Rhode's warm and serve rolls
• 2 can coconut milk
• 2 c water
• 2 blocks Imperial margarine (uh-huh;)) 1 for before and 1 for after baking
• sugar to taste (add lots but taste it as you go)
• cornstarch slurry: 2-3 heaping T of cornstarch to 1 c water

Directions:

Purchase your rolls early a day ahead from your grocer's freezer.  Butter the bottom of the pan you want to bake in with one block butter.  Place frozen rolls in pan to thaw for 5 hours.  Rolls will rise and get bigger.

In a sauce pan, heat coconut milk and water to a rolling boil.  Turn heat down and add cornstarch slurry.  Stir until sauce is thick.  Pour 3/4 of the sauce in pan over the rolls.  Bake at 350 until golden brown.

When ready, SMOTHER tops of rolls with another block of butter and pour the remaining sauce over the rolls and butter.  Yum!!!

Here's a reminder of how your lovelies will turn out...  YUMMY!!!

Hope your recipe turns out and that you EAT THAT PANIPOPO... all of it!  Don't share it!  Today, you deserve your own pan of panipopo(:

Thank you for reading,
I ♥ You!

Faga

My Favorite Chinese Recipes to Try...

I will try these recipes this week in time for New Year's Eve.  I thought I'd share it with you so if you decide to try it first, I don't have to;)


Let me just say that Hawaii has THE BEST Chinese food in the nation!  Yes, in the nation!!!


Here are my recipes (send me a pic and review please):

Image from ONOKINEGRINDZ.com

Crisp Gau Gee Mein Recipe

Gau Gee:

10 small dried Chinese mushrooms

Boiling water

1 pkg Won Ton wrappers

1/4 lb Fresh shrimp

1/2 lb Ground pork

7 cans Water chestnuts, chopped fine

3 Green onions finely chopped

1 tsp Oyster sauce

1 tsp Soy sauce

Dash of white pepper

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp pared and grated fresh ginger root

1 small clove Garlic, pressed

1-1/4 Tbsp Cornstarch

1 egg

3 C Vegetable oil    

Place mushrooms in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand 20-30 mins. Drain and squeeze out excess water and chop finely. Remove shells, devein shrimp and finely chop. Transfer chopped foods to a large bowl. Add soy sauce, ginger, garlic, cornstarch and egg. Mix well. Place one level teaspoon of mixture onto center of each wonton. Brush edges with water. Fold in half over filling, pressing edges firmly together to seal. Heat vegetable oil in wok over high heat until it reaches 375 degrees. Fry 8 to 10 gau gees at a time in hot oil until golden, 2 to 3 mins. Drain on absorbent paper towels. Put on top of pan fried noodles or may be served separately with Sweet and Sour Sauce.

Pan Fried Noodles:

1 lb Fresh thin Chinese egg noodle or 1 lb dried

1-1/2 C sliced BBQ pork (char siu)

1/4 lb Fresh shrimps, shells removed, deveined, left whole or sliced

1 whole Chicken breast sliced into bite-size pieces

1/2 C Dried small black Chinese mushrooms

1 medium Onion sliced

2 stalks Celery cut at a diagonal

1 C Fresh mushroom, sliced or 3/4 C canned slice mushrooms

1 C Bean sprouts

1/2 C sliced Waterchestnuts

1/2 C Bamboo shoots, sliced

1 C Bok choy chopped into 2-inch pieces

1 C sliced Chinese or Napa cabbage

1 C sliced Carrots

1/4 lb Snow peas, trimmed

Peanut oil

Put the mushrooms in a small bowl and pour boiling water over them. Let soak for 20-do mins. Meanwhile, cook the noodles in a large quantity of boiling water for 3-1/2 to 5 mins. Drain, rinse under cold water, drain again, toss with a little sesame oil and set aside. Heat a work or skillet over medium high heat until hot. Add 1 cup peanut oil and heat until the oil is very hot. Lower the noodles into the oil to form a nest and let them cook until brown on one side (About 8 to 10 mins.). Turn the noodles over and brown the other side. Remove to a large serving platter and keep warm. Pout off all the oil except 1/4 cup and heat. Add chicken and stir fry for 2 mins. Add the shrimp, BBQ pork and vegetables. Mix all the sauce ingredients well and add and bring to a boil until thickened. Pour vegetable mixture over gau gees and noodles and serve garnished with Chinese parsley (cilantro), sliced green onions, and egg shreds, if desired.

Sauce:

2 Tbsp Cornstarch

2-1/2 C Chicken or vegetable stock

2 Tbsp Soy sauce

4 Tbsp Oyster sauce

1 Tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry

1 Tbsp Sesame oil

Note: If more gravy is desired, double the sauce ingredients. Assorted seafoods may be substituted for meats. Assorted seasonal green vegetables of your choice, cut into bite-size pieces: e.g. baby bok choy, long green beans, mustard greens, Chinese turnip, Asian okra, Asian broccoli, eggplant, etc.

Beef Broccoli Recipe

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

6 ounces sirloin steak, cut into thin slices, then very thin strips

1 pound broccoli, leaves discarded, large stems reserved for another use, and the flowerettes cut into one to two-inch pieces

1 teaspoon sugar

1 Tablespoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon soy jam (also called soy paste)

1 Tablespoon chicken broth

1 teaspoon sesame oil

Preparation:

1. Heat wok or fry pan, then add oil, and then the strips of meat. Stir-fry them for one minute, then remove to a small bowl.

2. In a small pot, cover and cook broccoli pieces in one-quarter cup boiling water for five minutes, drain, and set aside.

3. Reheat wok, then mix sugar, oyster sauce, soy jam, chicken broth, and sesame oil, return beef to the wok, in half minute, add the sugar and oyster sauce mixture, stir-fry for one minute, add broccoli and stir-fry another minute, then serve.

My First Love

I was just on facebook and guess what I found?  My long time neighbor Elroy posts this picture {How rude!}:

Prune & Apricot Mui... yumm!

My first love, yes even before pake cake and Diamond Head strawberry soda, was cracked seed of any kine; red ginger, rock salt plum, sweet li hing mui, lemon peel, guava peel, cherry seed, you name it!  My papa would buy me seed from Sam Store each and every time we go "holoholo".

It was a family tradition to go Christmas shopping with Mama Valu and Papa Levao each year.  We would drive to Holiday Mart in Kailua to shop and eat lunch.  I looked forward to our yearly trips to Kailua because I would find the huge glass jars with all kine cracked seed at the back.  My mouth would water just standing there looking at the jars.  Most of my Christmas shopping money was spent on cracked seed.

I thought I'd share my much cherished recipes that I've kept secret for many years with you.  I will make all these recipes for Christmas as our family goes Christmas Caroling in memory of the best years of my life spent with my family, especially my mama and papa. {RIL}

These recipes were adapted from "Oldies But Goodies," published by the Kamehameha Schools Alumni Association in 1983 (and for what it's worth, all the recipes were contributed by alumni from the class of 1953).

They include true crackseed -- prunes that are "cracked," or quartered, seeds and all -- as well as other seedless fruits that are flavored the same way. Basically, you cook up a syrup of sugar, salt and lemon juice, then add dried fruit, cool and store.

Prune Crackseed

4 pounds prunes (with seeds)

Juice of 12 lemons, or 6 lemons and 6 limes

5 tablespoons Hawaiian salt

1 pound raw brown sugar

1 tablespoon dark molasses

2 jiggers rum (about 1-1/2 tablespoons)

Crack prunes into quarters.

Combine lemon juice, salt, sugar and molasses in a pan and bring to a boil. Add prunes; reduce heat and simmer until mixture thickens. Cool.

Add rum. Store refrigerated in sterilized jars.

Preserved Apricots

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup water

1 tablespoon molasses

1/4 teaspoon Chinese five spice

2 tablespoons Hawaiian salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

12 ounces dried apricots

Combine all ingredients except apricots in a large pan and bring to a boil. Add apricots and boil 1 minute. Cool. Store refrigerated in sterilized jars, with or without syrup, depending on how juicy you like them.

***Please try these recipes and let me know how it goes.  Post pics on my facebook.

Thank you for reading.

Aloha,
Faga

My Recipe Box: Chinese Rice Cake

I am super excited to try a new recipe I found for rice cake.  This is one of my favorite sweets at Sam Store in Laie.  I can eat oodles and oodles of this with diet pepsi!  Mmmm.... can't wait to try it!  I've missed this the most simply because I don't get it here.  Post a picture and comment if you make it before me.  TIA

 Pak Tong Koh

(Chinese Steamed Rice Cake)

Ingredients:


170g rice flour (sifted)= 1 cup
150g white sugar= 3/4 cup
360ml water= 1 1/2
3/4 tsp instant yeast
1 tbsp warm water


Methods:


Combine the instant yeast with warm water in a small bowl and allow it to ferment for about 5-10 minutes (until you see a lot of bubbles).


In meantime, combine rice flour with sugar and water and stir until it’s well mixed.
Cook the rice flour mixture over low heat, keep stirring constantly till the mixture is slightly thicken (should be less than 5 minutes).


Strain the mixture into a big mixing bowl then let it cool in a basin of water then add in the yeast mixture and stir well.


Cover the mixture with clingwrap and set aside in a warm place for about 2 hours or more until you see a lot of bubbles on the surface.


Pour the mixture into a lightly grease 7″ square baking tin and steam over high heat for about 25 minutes.


Let it cool before cutting into serving pieces.


Recipe and photo found here

Good luck!