How to make Macaroni and Cheese

Recipe for Macaroni and Cheese. Made with cheddar cheese, butter, milk, parmesan cheese, cayenne pepper and macaroni.

Ingredients for Macaroni and Cheese:

• ½ cups butter
• ½ cups flour
• 4 cups milk
• 1 cup cheddar cheese
• 1 cup Parmesan or Monterey Jack cheese
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste
• cooked macaroni

Method:

1. Make a roux using half cup of butter (a stick) and half a cup of flour.
2. Add 4 cups of heated milk and stir until smooth to complete the white sauce.
3. Add cheese and cayenne pepper.
4. Finally, mix with a pot of cooked pasta.

Alternate Recipe:

• 8 oz (by weight) elbow macaroni
• ½ cups milk
• ¼ cups butter
• ½ cups cheese (of the chef's preference)
• 1 egg
• dash of dried parsley and oregano
• salt to taste

Method:

1. Fill a pot with water, and add Macaroni and salt. Bring to boil stirring occasionally. While waiting to boil, in pot heat milk, and grate cheese into milk. This should create a basic cheese sauce. If too thin, add more grated cheese, if too thick, add more milk.
2. When Macaroni becomes soft (chef's discretion) drain. Melt butter in pot and replace macaroni (without water). Stir until macaroni is completely covered. Add 1 egg, unscrambled. Stir until completely incorporated. Add cheese sauce, and herbs. Stir well, and serve hot.

Printable Version - Macaroni and Cheese

Source - Macaroni and Cheese

Pulut Durian

Dessert recipe for Pulut Durian. Glutinous Rice in Sweet Durian Pudding or Durian with Sticky Rice.

Ingredients for Pulut Durian:

• 1kg glutinous rice
• 500ml coconut milk
• pinch of salt
• 300gm sugar
• 1 durian
• 2 screwpine leaves (or optionally, pandan paste)

Method:

1. Steam the glutinous rice with a pinch of salt until it is cooked.
2. Combine the flesh of durian with coconut milk, sugar, salt and screwpine leaves / pandan paste, and boil them until its sauce thickens.
3. Serve it hot with the rice.

Printable Version - Pulut Durian

Luxury Dinner at Special Price

In Hong Kong, there are many ways of eating good food at reduced price. One way I do it is by taking the special offers from restaurants. I receive a leaflet in my mail box from U Banquet for their special promotions. All my favourite foods are there. So I decided to take my family members there and enjoy an economic luxury dinner.

Chicken Broth with S…k Fin (intended typo)*
HK$368 (US$47)

Wow, a lot of s…k fin! Depends on the type of s…k fin, it could be very expensive. But I paid HK$368 only which is good for four persons.Chicken broth usually required a lot of cooking time in order to become milky white, thick and rich in taste. Essence of the broth is the ingredients. Cantonese restaurants usually serve the ingredients and here is our chicken.

*Notes about my intended typo. It is meant to escape from keyword searches. Everytime I write about s...k fin, I receive complaints from environmental fans. I was forced to remove my last post on the topic. Though I feel deeply sorry for the s...ks, I'm unable to control myself in front of yummy food and low price. My apologies anyway to the s...ks and environmental fans. Here is a good news that s...k fans may want to know: S...k Fin off menu beginning January 2012 - Peninsula Hong Kong.

Cantonese Mutton Hot Pot 羊煲腩HK$98 (US$12.56)

Cantonese mutton hot pot is served on real fire. We really love this in winter days which keeps us warm. Apart from mutton, we have tofu sheets, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, mushrooms and plenty of gingers. And there is a special kind of preserved bean curd sauce. The whole combination is meant to make the mutton less smelly and more delicious.

Spinach with Garlic Cloves in BrothHK$55 (US$7)

As a matter of balance of diet, we must have a dish of vegetable. The beauty of Cantonese cuisine is simple yet delicious. And spinach is extremely healthy, not oily and rich in fiber.

Steam Live Fish - $0 Apart from the special price items, here comes the free items. This fish is not too big, but just good for the four of us. The best thing about it is 'FREE'. The chef mastered timing extremely well, and the fish was JUST cooked. Very fresh and delicious!

Snow Ear Fungus and Red Dates Dessert - $0

The snow ear fungus dessert is a Chinese delicacy cooked with white snow ear fungus (雪耳), lotus seeds (蓮子), dried red dates (紅棗) and rock sugar (冰糖). I love this dessert as it is beneficial for facial beauty because the ingredients used are highly nutritious. It is another free item of the night and of course very yummy.

Chinese Birthday Bun - HK$14@ (US$1.8)

Although we were pretty full, we still wanted to share half a birthday bun. None of us were born in November, but we simply love it. This buns were exceptionally good, not only because it is cheap. It is BIG and steam to order. The most important thing is that it has a very thin cover and lots of stuffing. Many chefs were unable to produce a bun with thin cover and thick stuffing. The stuffing consists of lotus seed paste and egg yolk (similar to that of mooncakes). Very yummy!

Dinner date: November 15, 2011
Cost: HK$668 (US$85.6), included 10% service charge
Restaurant name: U Banquet
Restaurant address: 3/F, 288 Hennessy Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Restaurant telephone: 852-2811-9628

Hong Kong Food Blog - Luxury Dinner

How to Make Green Bean Syrup

Weather is turning cool and dry in Hong Kong. Per Chinese calendar, winter began Tuesday November 8 in 2011. 立冬, one of the 24 weather festives - time to enjoy some hot and sweet desserts. One of the most traditional and easy-to-make Hong Kong Cantonese desserts is Green Bean Syrup. Every dessert shop would have this on their menu, but home made is cheap and you can tailor to your own taste.

Home Made Green Bean Syrup 綠豆沙

Home-Made Old Hong Kong Cantonese Dessert –
Green Been Syrup with Seaweed and Herbs

Ingredients:
• green beans
• seaweeds
• herbs (optional) (臭草*)
• sugar

* The herb itself is very fragrant, but I don’t know why it is called the opposite – bad smell grass.

Directions
1. Soak the green beans for a few hours. Overnight if possible.
2. Soak the seaweeds until soft and cut into slices of your own preferred width.
3. Boil 8 bowls of water.
4. Add green beans, turn heat down after boiling.
5. Let it simmer for 20 minutes. Then turn heat off.
6. Cover for 20 minutes.
7. Add seaweeds and herb.
8. Turn heat on and simmer for 20 minutes.
9. Add sugar and then turn heat off.
10. Cover for 20 minutes before serving.

NOTE: The alternation between simmering and covering is important to let the syrup become very silky and smooth.


Bar sugar is usually used in making green bean syrup. But I have some red sugar which has a flavour of ginger. I tried to use it and find that my green bean syrup taste extremely well. Did you notice that my green bean syrup has a tint of red?
Hong Kong Food Blog - Green Bean Syrup Dessert