Siew Cheong a.k.a. Roasted Sausages

Ah posting!!!!!, I am sure that you all realsied that my postings are crawling, I know, you know.  I need to feel passionate about what I post but i am in a bit of a slump.   It is easy to post a slumpy one but who wants to read it.  Well slumpy or not, this posting might not be worth the reading but the recipes that follow have been in my mind to share for the longest ever. 

I have been wanting to eat these Siew Cheong/Roasted Sausages and not being able to get them here in the States, have to copycat and make some.  It has been so long that i have tasted these sausages and can only recall that they are delicious.  Strangely, i have not eaten these sausages on its own but always come as an accompliment to a large bowl of soup sa hor fun with pork square balls.  Craving for this bowl of soup sa hor fun can only be satisfied by first, making some siew cheong, second, is to make The Square Pork Balls, of which i will share 'How To' in my next posting, then lastly will share how to put them all together, for the most craved bowl of soup sa hor fun.  The siew cheong turned out pretty similar to the real mccoy in taste but no so in size, the sausage casings that i have are for chinese lap cheong, so they are very much thinner.

Shark Fin Soup With Crab Meat

 

According to Wiki, Shark fin soup dates back to Ming Dynasty, China and is considered by Chinese as one of the eight treasured foods from the sea.  This delicacy was coveted by emperors because it was rare, delicious, and required elaborate preparation - i can relate to this cos i just had the chore of preparing a box of dried Shark Fins which costed $134,00 usd. Holding both culinary and symbolic significance, this dish is a staple of gourmet Chinese cuisine which symbolizes wealth, power, prestige and honor. 

Our dearest friend, Belinda celebrated her birthday last weekend and to show respect and honor, i prepared this Shark Fin Soup With Crab Meat for her and her guests as an appreciation to our dear friendship. 

Luckily this soup is not a staple food and only served on important occasions otherwise i will be going around with pruney fingers.  I had to blanch the dried shark fins in hot water  and this process was repeated 3 times.  Then the blanched shark fins had to be soaked,  of which the soaking water was changed several times a day for a whole week.  After soaking the translucent gelatin needles have to be separated from all impurities - this was so laborious and where pruney fingers were possible, i spend more than 4 hours doing this process.

Deco Roll

My apologies to all my readers who keep on coming and visiting my blogs and finding no new postings - sorry!!!!!  no excuses.  Year 2013 has been busy, spring is over and summer is upon us, yard work is not done.  So much eating but did not share anything interesting.  I hope you all will find this Deco Roll interesting as it is so appealing and so fun to bake.  The best part is that the cake is so light and healthy, so acceptable.  You can use any design of your choice and this particular design that i chose had a strange way of sticky to me.  It was a recycled plastic bag which i used when i was packing my bags for my trip home from Malaysia. When i was home, I recycled it again and put in some dvds for my dear friend, Peng.  She was coming to collect them and i had to leave them on the bench outide the house as i was not going to be home.  Peng did come and collected her dvds but she left me a gift(3 lovely bittergourds) and she left her gift in the same recycled bag.  I just don't seem to rid of this bag and when i decided to bake this Deco Roll, I used the design, it was so lovely.  Thank you Peng for the gift and the bag which refuse to leave me.