Potstickers (Guo Tie, Jiao Zi, Gyoza or Yaki Mandu)

Potstickers...now, this is one snack which everyone loves. I came across so many other names for this little babies ~ gou tie, jiao zi, gyoza, yaki mandu...the list goes on for the same old thing. Hub was pestering me to whip up some gou tie as he wasn't too keen to buy it outside. He said its too expensive - 6 pieces for $7.50

So...I went into the kitchen, ransack my fridge and voila!....made my gou tie skin with plain flour and water, marinated my minced pork with napa cabbage, chives, sesame oil, soy sauce, seasonings, ginger and chinese cooking wine. I let the dough and my marinate sit for an hour before I begun.  I really am not good in plaiting the gou tie but I guess it really does not matter as its for my family...ha!ha!

After an hours, I rolled out the skin. As you can see from the photo below, my skin is not as round as the commercial bought ones. Then I seal the edges with some water and plait it. Gou tie has a thicker skin and its chewy. After that I shallow fry and followed by steaming  the gou tie.

When I was a child, gou tie was only eaten during festivals like Chinese New Year. My Grandma will even hide a clean coin into one of the gou tie for the lucky one. However, these days, gou tie can be found in spring, summer, fall and winter. Aren't we lucky...ha!ha!

Here's some photos to share:

The verdict from my hubby - DELICIOUS!!!

Sweet Buffet Showpieces

I was very excited when I started my showpieces class. We learnt how to use sugar, chocolate, pastillage and marzipan to build our showpieces.

The sugar base is made with sugar and vinegar. If we want it to look better, we can add in some black sesame seeds. As for pastillage, its a sugar dough. Its like playdough but it hardens really fast. When its hard and you drop it, it shatters like glass. For chocolate, we use modelling chocolate and it made out of chocolate and light corn syrup.

When I was trying to put together my very first showpiece, the sugar base broke into few pieces...(really wanted to cry!!!) and then my pastillage broke into 2 pieces (definitely gonna cry)...things really not going my way....Oh well, in the end, my first showpiece turned out like this.

Here's some photos which I took at my showpiece class:

Really hope that I will do well for my practical exam...fingers cross!!!

Happy Halloween 3D Cake

I have been pretty busy this Halloween....firstly, my little Prince wanted cupcakes with spiders. Then, my hub wanted a cake for the boys as they were working on Halloween night. So, the boys decided to have a small potluck. Hub volunteered to bring a Halloween cake...that means, little old me will be baking one.  Oh well, since its for the boys, I decided to make a witch....he!he!he!

For the cake itself, I used the mud cake recipe. I also made some chocolate ganache for the filling. Then I covered the cake with fondant.  Here's a photo of my Halloween Witchery Witch Cake.

That's all for now....

Happy Halloween, big boys!!!