Birthday Longevity Noodles

 

DH had his birthday recently. In our family, birthday is celebrated by spending quality time together (the whole family) and eating out for that day. Sometimes, I would bake a cake for the occasion.

This year, instead of feasting out, I thought it could be a good idea to have a special meal at home. DH always prefer something simple.

So, I made longevity noodles for dinner and the children got DH a surprised cake for his birthday. Being a Chinese, I grew up to the tradition of eating longevity noodles on my birthdays. It is believes that eating these noodles is auspicious as the long strands of noodles symbolize a long life.

Instead of just cooking a bowl of longevity noodle for the birthday boy (man), I served this to the whole family. 

This is my own version of longevity noodles (using organic Mi Sua)

Longevity Noodles Soup

Ingredients (Serves 5 –we are small eaters)
- 1liter clear chicken stock
- 1 carrot, peeled and cut to thin strips
- 1 Japanese cucumber, cut to thin strips
- 5 hard boiled eggs, halved
- 5 drumsticks
- a handful of wolfberry (Kei chi)
- 5 shitakei mushroom (rinsed and soaked in 1 cup of water for 30 mins)
- 300gm of organic mi sua noodle

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Method:

1. Hard boil 5 eggs.To cook perfect hard boiled eggs, place eggs in saucepan of cold water (enough water to cover eggs). Bring to a boil for about 2 minutes, off the flame and cover with lid for about 10 minutes. Rinse the eggs with cold water till they are cooled. Crack the eggs gently with a spoon and remove shell. Cut in half.
2. Cut the Shitakei mushrooms into half  and set aside. Strain the water from the Shitakei mushroom and set aside.
3. Add the water from the mushroom into the chicken stock and bring to a boil in a pot.
4. Add in the drumsticks, mushrooms and wolfberry. Once the broth starts to boil, reduce the flame and simmer till the drumsticks are cooked. Season with salt to taste.
5. Rinse mi sua in cold water to remove the starch, then cook them in a saucepan of boiling water for about 2-3 minutes, separating the strands with chopsticks. Take out the cooked mi sua and set in individual bowls
6. Pour the hot broth over the noodles, then place a drumstick, cucumber, carrot, eggs on top.

The Broth

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After the healthy dinner, we had this as dessert.

The Green Tea sponge Birthday cake :)

Happy Birthday, DH….

Many more happy returns of the day!!!

Purple Sweet Potato Rose Mantou

 

How time flies!!!!

I’ve just noticed that I’ve not been posting anything here for over a couple of months.

Sorry for slacking….

No, I have not abandon this blog…

I have been so busy lately, that I just could not find the time to blog here.

Anyway, I made this a couple of weeks ago, took pictures to post here and totally forgot about it till today.

No… this is not clay art or play dough… this is edible mantou!!

I found this interesting recipe while blog hopping one morning. Thanks to Wendyywy of Table for 2….or more, I now can have colorful and pretty mantou (without artificial coloring).

I love playing with my dough … so this is just the perfect recipe for me.

Purple Sweet Potato Rose Mantou (by Wendyywy)

Ingredients :

250gm steamed purple sweet potato (I skinned and cut them into cubes and microwaves for 3 mins on High… instead of steaming)
200gm water
500gm pau flour ( I used Blue Key Pau Flour)
1 tsp baking powder
100gm sugar
50gm shortening/Crisco ( I substitute with 50ml Corn Oil as I do not have shortening)
1/4 tsp salt
11 gm instant yeast

Method :
1. Mash sweet potato, or blitz sweet potato with almost all the water to get a fine paste. Purple varieties tend to be firmer than orange ones.
2. With balance of water, mix with yeast.
3. Combine everything except shortening( or Oil) and mix to form a dough.
4. Put in shortening (or Oil) and knead until dough is smooth. Add slightly more flour if dough is way too sticky to handle. If the dough is sticky but can retain its form, like not slacking down, just continue to knead, the gluten just hasn’t form, there’s no need to add extra flour.
5. Cover and let dough proof until double, about 1 hour.
6. Punch down dough and knead for 1-2 minutes.
7. Divide dough into into 2 and shape the dough as follows :

Rose Shaped Buns.(pictorial instruction here)
1. Make small dough balls of 15gm each.
2. Flatten each ball and roll out flat.
3. With fingers, press the sides of the circle to make them flatter and to create ripples (uneveness) .
4. Arrange 6 pieces of flattened dough, half stacking on top of each other.
5. Start rolling from the first piece on the bottom.
6. With a chopstick, saw the roll, it will roll while you saw, creating a fatter center than the sides. Eventually it will break into 2.
7. Place rose buds upright on a piece of paper.
8. Let buns rise to double (it will take about 45 mins) and steam on high heat for 12 minutes.

Ain’t they pretty… proving (and blooming) for almost 45 minutes.

 

Straight out from the steamer… so pretty.. love the smell of the sweet potato.

The 1st time I made them, I had my in-laws over for a family gathering. Received lots of compliments and the roses were wiped out within minutes. I made them again a week later so that I could share my parents and my family.

A lot of time is spent in forming the rose buds. If you do not have the patience to do so, just form them into small balls and prove & steam. :D