My homemade noodle

Homemade noodle tastes so good and although it takes me some time and energy, it worths. I toss hot noodle with peanut butter, mmm, smells wonderful.

Saturday lunch: homemade roll and cranberry dessert

To make a Chinese style roll, the first and the most important thing is, of course, the wrapper, which is very very thin.

(1) Boil a pot of water, let cool for 2 minutes. Slowly add 2/3 cup hot water into 2 cup all purpose flour, blend well, and form a dough. Cover, let sit for 1 hour. Knead to have a smooth dough.

(2) Roll dough into a long cylinder, cut into 16 small doughs. Press each small dough with palm, and roll dough flat. Brush oil on each dough, stack four doughs and roll them together as thin as possible.

(3) Heat fry pan under medium-low until the pan is very hot. Place rolled wrapper dough in the pan, cover. When some bubbles appear on the surface of wrapper, turn it over and cover again until new bubbles appear (don't overcook). Transfer hot wrapper on the plate, let cool a little bit and then separate the four layers (each layer is one wrapper). Serve warm.

This lunch, I made stir-fried onion roll:

Cranberry dessert:

Pie crust is my favorite, an easy and neat procedure to get tasty dessert.

(1) In a mixing bowl, blend 1/4 cup cake flour and 3/4 cup all purpose flour;

(2) Cut 4 tbsp soft butter in small portions and sprinkle evenly over the flour mixture;

(3) Mix with dough blender to have all flour covered with butter;

(4) Sprinkle ice water (I put some ice cubes in the water to maintain the temperature) one tbsp at a time on the flour mixture, shake the bowl to help mealy flour absorb the moisture, totally, 5 tbsp ice water is required;

(5) Although the dough doesn't look like a real dough, with bits and pieces and don't fully hold together, don't hesitate, stop, put down the bowl, and transfer into zipper sandwich bag, press out gas, and seal the bag;

(6) Quickly form the "dough" into a ball and pat into a flat disk, chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes (I chilled them overnight).

(7) Roll pie crust flat and thin, cut into six portions, wrap cranberry pie filling in each portion, make a cut on the top.

(8) Bake at 375F for 35 minutes.

Homemade adzuki bean paste

Step 1: Soak 2 1/2 cup adzuki bean overnight;

Step 2: Strain and remove water, transfer to rice cooker. Add water (at least twice the volume of soaked adzuki bean). Heat under "cook" mode to bring to boil, switch to "warm" mode, cook until beans are tender and can be easily mashed;

Step 3: Stand sieve on a large mixing bowl with enough water, strain cooked beans portion by portion, mash beans so that bean paste can pass through sieve and skins of red bean are separated and left in sieve;

Step 4: Strain adzuki bean paste / water suspension through jelly strainer bag, squeeze paste as dry as possible;

Step 5: Heat wok under medium powder;

Step 6: Add 100 mL oil into hot wok, stir in adzuki bean paste;

Step 7: Stir until water in the paste evaporates completely and paste turns into dry powder;

Step 8: Add 2 cup sugar and stir vigorously, making adzuki bean powder evenly covered with melted sugar and thus, turns back into paste in a dark brown color;

Step 9: Transfer adzuki bean paste to a container. Let cool to room temperature and store in the freezer. Defrost to room temperature before using.

* 2 1/2 cup dry red bean can give 8 cup adzuki bean paste.

Homemade Rice powder

(1) Soak 2 cup rice for 6 hours, strain and add into blender.

(2) Add 1 cup water, blend under "grind" mode followed by "sauce" mode.

(3) Strain through jelly strainer bag, keep filtrate in a container and squeeze white paste in bag as dry as possible.

(4) Line wire rack with two-layer cheesecloth, divide paste into small portions and sprinkle over cheesecloth, let dry in ambient air.

(5) For filtrate in container, let sit in the fridge overnight. Remove upper clear water with baster, transfer precipitate to cheesecloth, let dry in ambient air too.

(6) Mill bulky rice powder in mortar and pestle, transfer to a sealed bag and keep frozen.

* About 400 g rice powder can be obtained from 2 cup rice.

** For preparation of sticky rice powder, starting with sticky rice under the same directions.

Homemade gelatin

I have collected a large box of pork skin in my freezer -- torn from pork shoulder, pork hock.

Okay, it is time to have my homemade gelatin ^&^.

People say, gelatin is of nutrition, works well in anti-wrinkle and anti-aging ... this and that. I have no idea if they are true, because I haven't found data to support that theory yet. What I am interested in is that gelatin is fat and cholesterol-free. And, I don't think throwing pork skin in garbage is a good idea, see, I paid the same price for skin as meat.

(1) Bring a pot of water to boil, put in defrosted skin, bring water to boil again, turn off power and cover for 5 minutes.

(2) Cool skin with tap water, remove white fat and clean skin fully.

(3) Thinly slice skin.

(4) Rub slices in water, rinse until water is clear.

(5) Strain and dry slices (totally, 2 cup pork skin slices obtained).

(6) Add 3 cup water and pork skin slices in a pot, bring to boil.

(7) Remove white foam with small size sieve until the surface is clear.

(8) Transfer to a preheated slow cooker, cook in "High" mode for 5 hours, or until the broth is thick and white in color. Dip a drop of broth on the pointer, touch it with thumb, strong stickiness can be felt.

(9) Strain through jelly strainer bag to a container.

(10) Cool to room temperature and then keep in the fridge until gelatin forms.

I eat sliced gelatin with a mixture of soy sauce and Sichuan chilli sauce as side dish. It can also be used in baking.