Preparing the sticky rice dough

Ingredients

3 cups of glutinous rice flour (sticky rice flour), 1 ½ cups of water

Instructions

1. Mix all the sticky rice flour with the water, to make dough.
2. Put 20% of the dough into boiling water, and cook for about 2 minutes.
3. Put the cooked dough back together with the remaining uncooked dough.
4. Knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic.
5. Allow the dough to rest for about half an hour.
6. Divide the dough into 3 portions.
7. Roll each portion of dough into a sheet 1cm thick, then slice that into 3cm x 3cm pieces.
8. Roll each dough piece in your hands, and make it into a round ball.

Preparing the peanut icing

Ingredients

1 cup peanut powder, ½ cup of caster (superfine) sugar – you can adjust the amount to your taste.

Instructions

1. Mix the peanut powder and caster sugar together well.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons soy paste

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon refined sugar (or adjust the amount according to your taste)

Ingredients

1 cup sticky rice, and 0.75 cup water

1 cup black or purple rice, and 1.5 cup water

1 tablespoon cooking oil

 

5 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons sugar

 

4 tablespoons cooking oil or black sesame oil

A small chunk of ginger, sliced

 

12 small shiitake mushrooms, sliced

 

2 cups cooked taro, chopped 1cm square

½ cup soup stock

Coriander, chopped for garnishing

Cooking ingredients

Cooking oil, 3 tablespoons

Hard tofu, about 270g, cut into triangular shapes

Eggplant 100g, sliced 0.5 cm thick

2-3 shiitake mushrooms, sliced 0.5 cm thick

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

1 teaspoon chopped ginger

Toban paste, 1 tablespoon

1 tablespoon sugar

½ cup water

A small bunch of basil

Ingredients

1000g young ginger

4 teaspoons salt

400ml rice vinegar

200g crystal sugar

 

What is young ginger?

There are several things to look for to identify young ginger:

1. The color is pale, not dark like aged ginger.

2. The texture is tender, not strong like older ginger.

3. Young ginger is less than 30 days old. Aged ginger is from 3 months to 2 years old.

Ingredients

400g new potato, semicircle cut

100g carrot, 0.3cm sliced

1-2 teaspoons salt, or enough salt to taste

Taiwanese garlic and sesame oil dressing

3 tablespoons green onion, 0.2cm sliced


Instructions

1. Bring one liter of water to the boil. When the water is boiling, add the potatoes and carrots. Cover with a lid, and allow it to simmer for about 12 minutes, or until it’s cooked.

2. When the potatoes and carrots are cooked, use a colander to drain away excess water.

3. Put the cooked potatoes and carrots in a bowl, and season with the garlic and sesame oil dressing, and salt. Garnish the salad with green onion, and serve.

Ingredients

1-2 teaspoons garlic (smashed)

1 teaspoon chili (smashed)

4 tablespoons sesame oil


Instructions

1. Use a bowl to mix the garlic, chili, and sesame oil finely.

2. Feel free to adjust the amount of garlic and chili.


How to use the garlic and sesame oil dressing?

The garlic and sesame oil dressing can be use on cold salad such as cucumber, cabbage, kohlrabi, tomato, and red radish. You can also use on warm salad such as asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, pak choi and so on. Remember to add some salt to the salad to taste.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon garlic (smashed)

1 teaspoon chili (smashed)

2 teaspoon drinking water

3 tablespoons soy paste

Note: Please see the soy paste details here: http://kitchen.j321.com/soy-paste-key-to-taiwanese-cuisine


Instructions

1. Use a pestle and mortar to mix the water, chili and garlic finely. (The purpose of the water is help to you grind the chili and garlic finely).

2. Add the soy paste, and mix well.

3. Taste it. If it is too salty or too strong, add a little bit of water to balance it. You can also adjust the amount of garlic and chili, if it is too much or little for you.


How to use the spicy garlic sauce?

The sauce is very often used on Taiwanese dishes such as white chicken, steamed shrimps, squid, green vegetables, tofu, omelet, fried radish cakes, boiled dumplings, and so on. You can feel free to use it on anything which needs sauce to add flavour or to make it more pleasant to eat.