Green Onion Cookies 香葱酥餅

Green Onion Cookies (makes 65 bite size pieces)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chopped green onion
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 stick unsalted butter— soften
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg— room temperature
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tbsps grated Asiago cheese (see note below)

Method:

1. Sauté green onion with 1 tbsp cooking oil (extra) until aromatic. Set aside to cool completely. Combine flour and baking soda.
2. Cream butter and sugar with a balloon whisk until fluffy and pale in color. Whisk in egg, mix to combine completely.
3. Add in sautéed green onion, Asiago cheese and salt, mix well.
4. Sift in flour mixture, then use a rubber spatula to mix and press down to incorporate into a dough.
5. Divide dough into 2 portions. Form each portion into a log on a large piece of plastic wrap. You can use you hand to roughly shape the dough as the dough is not very sticky. As you roll up plastic wrap to wrap the dough, flatten on each side so it becomes square log. Wrap up tightly and chill in the fridge overnight until the dough hardens.
6. Slice the dough to 1/2 inch thickness, and freeze all pieces to harden even more. This will help the cookies maintain its shape during baking.
7. Preheat oven to 350 F. When the oven is ready, place frozen cookie dough slices on lined baking tray 1 inch apart. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until the cookies are lightly golden brown. Cool in the tray for a few minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Store cookies in air tight container when completely cooled.

Regina’s Note:

• Green Onion: the reason for sautéing green onion is to remove may moisture and also bring out the aroma so the cookies has more flavor. The more fine you chop the green onion, the prettier the cookies as there’ll be more beautiful little green specks shown on the cookies.
• Asiago Cheese: You can use other flavor cheese like cheddar, but the cookies will taste slightly different. Also, I don’t use a lot of cheese because I don’t want the cheese flavor to overpower green onion flavor. Feel free to add more cheese, or skip if desired.
• The cookie dough can be kept frozen, just freeze sliced pieces (make sure they are not stick together during freezing) and keep in a sealed ziplock bag. When you’re in the mood for this cookies, bake them straight from freezer, do not thaw the dough.
• The texture and flavor: Because it’s a shortbread cookie, it has the sable texture, but not to the extent that melt in your mouth right away. It still has a little crisp in the bite. The aroma of green onion is there, but not much of the cheese flavor.

Mango Sago Pomelo Dessert 楊枝甘露

I’ve been wanting to make this famous Hong Kong dessert since I had it several years ago, but like many other things it slipped out of my mind… until recently I found frozen mango purée/mango pulp in an Asian grocery store, then I suddenly remembered this delicious dessert. I bought it then forgot it in my freezer…

Now, you see, the timing is finally right— I’ve already had pomelo flesh segments (yes that’s the way I enjoy pomelo, no membrane no seeds just pure juicy flesh) in the fridge, frozen mango purée and mango chunks need to be cleared out of the freezer so I can have more freezer space for my Chinese New Year goodies. Oh and my son Alexander is still recovering from his jaw surgery; this dessert is one of the very few foods that he can enjoy.

I took the shortcut making this dessert. Typically fresh mangoes is used, but I didn’t want to deal with all the cutting/blending mess and clean up. I opted for frozen mango purée and frozen mango chunks. It works out very well because when I added the semi thawed mango purée and semi thawed diced mangoes to the warm milk mixture, it cools down and chill the dessert (well, a few ice cubes help too)! I gotta enjoy the the dessert in minutes rather than hours later had I used fresh mangoes.

Mango Sago Pomelo Dessert 楊枝甘露 (6-8 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup sago (small tapioca balls)
• 2/3 cup (small can) coconut milk
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2/3 cup water
• 6 tbsps sugar
• 2 packs (14 oz each) frozen Mango purée/mango pulp
• 1 lb frozen mango chunks— thawed and diced
• Flesh of half pomelo— membrane and seeds removed, gently break into tiny pieces

Method:

1. In a pot bring 6 cups water to a boil. Soak sago with some water for a minutes the add to the boiling water. Stir immediately to loosen up. If sago starts to clump up use a fork to break it up. Boil on medium high heat for 5 minutes, stirring a few times, then turn off heat and cover the pot with lid fir 8 minutes. Sago will cook through with remaining heat.
2. In a different pot, combine coconut milk, milk, water and sugar. Cook on medium heat until sugar dissolved and mixture starts to boil. Turn off heat. Cool completely.
3. Add mango purée to milk mixture. Stir to combine.
4. Pour cooked sago into a fine mesh strainer under cold running water. Use a spoon to stir while the water is running to loose up sago and to cool it down.drain off excess water then add to mango mixture. Stir to combine. Chill in the fridge until serving time.
5. To serve, scoop some mongo mixture into a bowl, top with diced mango and pomelo pieces. Enjoy!

Cranberry Orange Bread

Cranberry Orange Bread (makes 1 loaf)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cup flour
• 5 tbsps almond flour— optional
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup (1stick) unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• zest of two lemons
• 2 eggs— room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1/2 cup chopped sweetened orange slices (see note below)
• 1/2 cup homemade cranberry sauce
• Sliced almonds for sprinkle on top

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Coat a loaf pan with cooking spray.
2. Combine flour, almond flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl.
3. Place butter in a larger bowl and microwave until butter melts completely. While it’s still warm mix in sugar and lemon zest until sugar dissolves. Cool slightly.
4. Add in eggs and vanilla extract, mix well to combine.
5. Add in flour mixture in two batches. Mix well after each batch. The batter will be stiff like cookie dough.
6. Fold in sour cream gently until just combined. Then fold in chopped sweetened oranges. Lastly fold in cranberry sauce in 3-4 strokes. Do not overwork cranberry sauce to keep its beautiful color vibrant.
7. Pour batter into loaf pan, slightly smooth the top then sprinkle with sliced almonds.
8. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove bread from the pan and transfer to a cooling rack.

Regina’s Note:

• Sweetened orange slices: the ones I bought from Trader Joe’s are sweetened orange slices of a whole orange, which has more citrusy flavor than orange peels.