No-Frills Recipes ... cooking, baking & excerpts on travel

Buddha's delight or 'Loh Hon Jai' is a popular vegetarian dish in the Chinese and Buddhist cuisine.  Basically it's a dish of mixed vegetables and fungi.  It's a tradition to serve this dish on the first day of Chinese New Year and it's all personal preference what vegetables you would like to use for this dish.  My family loves this dish because it's not too oily and there's a variety of ingredients all lumped into one.   Buddha's Delight ( Loh Hon Chai)  ~  罗汉斋  Ingredients 500 gm cabbage 1/2 medium carrot, sliced 1 green capsicum, cut into wedges 40 gm glass noodles 8 gm cloud ears 50 gm fried beancurd skin 6 mushrooms 6 beancurd puffs, cut 1 piece ginger, smashed 1.1/2 pieces of nam yue (preserved red beancurd) 2 Tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce 2 tsp light soy sauce Sugar, salt to taste Sesame oil Cornstarch mixture to thicken Method Soak the glass noodles in water to soften, but not too long.  If too soft, it will be lumpy when cooked. Soak the clo

  There are many names for this butter cookie.  Galette Bretonne, Palets Bretons, Sables or simply put French Butter Cookies which orginated from Brittany in the North-West of France where it's famous for its high quality salted butter.  In French,  Sable means Sandy and Breton refers to Bretagne region.  So literally it's Sandy Cookies from Brittany. They are somewhat like shortbread but richer because of the addition of egg yolk, flat, sweetish, a wee bit salty, crunchy and always with their signature criss-cross pattern on top.  These salted, golden cookies are very addictive and you simply can't stop at one and it's perfect for tea time.  As I prefer more bite to this cookie, I opted to use caster sugar and if you like to try with a different flavour of French Butter Cokies, do hop over to  Anncoo's  post. French Butter Cookies  :  Palets Bretons  ~   法式奶油曲奇饼        Ingredients 150 gm plain flour 90 salted butter - softened (I used Petit Normand salted Fren

  These cookies are crunchy on the outside and a bit soft and chewy on the inside.  They are healthy cookies with sunflower seeds and whole grains giving a unique and delicious flavour.  I used instant oats in this recipe and they tend to soften the cookies somewhat but if you prefer them to be more crunchy when you consume the next day, just pop them into the oven toaster for a minute or two. You may like to add this onto your CNY to-do list of cookies. Sunflower Oatmeal Cookies    ~   向日葵麦片曲奇饼   Ingredients 60 gm butter 80 gm brown sugar 20 gm caster sugar 120 gm plain flour 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla 1/4 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda 1/4 tsp salt 100 gm raw sunflower seeds 80 gm oats (instant or rolled oats) I used instant oats Method With a hand mixer beat butter with brown and caster sugar till well combined.  Add in egg and vanilla. Sift in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt.  Mix well. Fold in the sunflower seeds followed by the oats.  Mix till well combined.