New West KnifeWorks

I have always heard people and famous chefs said that having a good knife in the kitchen is important. I have always drooled over those expensive knives but I just can’t bring myself to pay so much for it. A good knife can cost well over $300.00 each. Now I can understand why people pay so much for a knife as I finally owe one. New West KnifeWorks , a company from Wyoming recently sent me Fusionwood Knife Chopper for review. The knife has a 5’5” blade with an overall 10” length.

There is a lot of hard work that goes into making each and every piece of their knife. Highly skilled artisans and modern precision tools work together to create these pieces. The finest materials are sculpted, assembled and hand-finished to ensure every piece is perfect. You can read all about the premium high carbon stainless STEEL {which btw boast a high carbon content - 70% higher than Wusthof }, BLADES that are cut, precision ground hand finished, and the amazing gorgeous colorful HANDLES that are created from select hardwood veneers that are vacuum impregnated with penetrating dies and resins.

Chinese Crullers/Yau Char Kwai

Our group of Malaysian ladies attempted making Yau Char Kwai this month. We tried out two recipes and one turn out really well and one failed miserably. Not sure what went wrong with the failed recipe as we follow the ingredients and instructions to the T. Anyhow, we were glad Agnes Chang recipe turns out so well with less work and proofing time compare to the other one. The YCK were light with hollow texture on the inside. So the next time if we are going to make this again we will just stick to this recipe.

Tempeh in Honey Lime Sauce

I found tempeh at one of our supermarket here a few years ago and I’ve been cooking with it ever since. Beside the regular organic soy bean tempeh, I am able to get the 3 grains, wild rice, flax seeds and garden veggie tempeh. I tried all of it but I still prefer the good old soy bean kind. Tempeh is basically fermented soy bean cake. You can cook sambal shrimp, or vegetable curry with it. They are a great source of protein especially for those who are on Vegetarian diet. This recipe is from HomeKreation-Kitchen Corner and she used Anchovies for this dish but I replaced it with Tempeh.

Wife Biscuit/Sweetheart Cake/Lao Por Peng

Wife Biscuit/Sweetheart Cake is a traditional Chinese pastry with flaky thin skin and the filling made with winter melon and sesame seeds. This pastry is originated from Hong Kong but now you are able to buy it from almost all the Chinese Bakery. So how does the name of this pastry come about? There are quite a few stories out there and one of them is this.

In ancient China, there was a poor couple. They adored and loved each other, staying in a small village. When a mysterious disease spread, the husband's father became very sick. Although they tried really hard to raise money to provide treatment for him, it wasn't enough. Sadly, the wife decided to sell herself as a slave, exchanging herself for her father-in-law's medicine. Once the husband learned about what his wife did, he made a cake filled with winter melon and with a crispy crust in honor of his wife. However, his cake became so popular that he was able to earn enough money to buy his wife back

I wanted to make this biscuit for the longest time but I can’t seems to find ‘koh fun’ here in the US until one of my blogger friend told me that I am able to get it from the Asian Store in PA. Making the pastry takes a bit of work but the end result was fantastic. The pastry is flaky and the filling has a great fragrant of sesame seeds and the right sweetness from the winter melon. This is really addictive that I don’t think you can stop by just eating one. Here is the recipe adapted from Corner Café with some minor changes.

Ingredients for Water Dough:

70g bread flour
70g  flour
25g caster sugar
55g  shortening
70ml water, adjust as necessary