This is quite like the usual snow fungus dessert, but adding dried apricot gives it a fruity sour taste from the usual red date taste.  Kids will like it chilled.

Ingredients

1. 10 dried appricots
2. 10 red dates
3. 20 grams dried snow fungus or roughly the size of a clenched fist
4. 1 tablespoon north almonds (北杏)
5. 1 tablespoon south almonds (南杏)
6. 10-15 tablespoon sugar (depending on your taste)
7. 2 litres water

Method

1. Soak the snow fungus in water for 3 hours or until fully expanded.
2. Rinse the snow fungus and cut into small pieces and put into a pot with 2l water.
3. Wash red dates and the almonds and put into the pot.
4. Bring to boil and lower flame to simmer for 1 hour. 
5. Add in the dry apricots and simmer for another 1-2 hours.  Adding the apricots earlier together, from the start of cooking in step 3 is ok, except it will be much softer.   (if total cooking time is 2 hours, the snow fungus should be slightly crunchy, 3 hours will be softer).
6. Add sugar to taste.
7. Cool it and chill in fridge for a refreshing desserts.
8. Can be served warm too.

The wine is very fragrant for cooking like steam chicken or fry vegetables or fish soup.  It has also a very nice color like brandy. This is so much easier to make compare to the rice wine. This recipe is also given to me by a confinement lady (maid that help in the family to cook, look after mommy and baby after arrival of baby for month).  Made this once myself. 

Ingredients

1. 1 kg Black raisin
2. 800 grams crystal rock sugar (水晶糖)
3. 2 sweet yeast cakes  (甜酒饼)
4. 2 strong yeast cakes (烈酒饼)
5. 4 litres water

Method

1. For the yeast cakes, in Singapore, some provision shops sell them.  Ask around the shops above Waterloo Street market, you will find them.
2. Boil a kettle of boiling water.  Put the black raisin in a pot and pour the newly boiled water over it.  Stir and let it sit for 1 min, strained away the water.  This step basically removed the oils on the raisin.
3. Add in the 4 litres of water, and the crystal sugar.
4. Bring it to boil and continue to boil for 30 minutes in low flame.
5. Allow it to cool down completely, very important.
6. Put the content into a big air tight container, and throw in the 4 yeast cakes, and cover.
7. 2 months later, strain out the wine and keep in air tight bottles for cooking. The wine when strained out is very cloudy with suspension of the yeast and remnants of raisin.   Keep them in tall bottles for a week or more until the suspension settled at the bottom leaving very clear wine on top, Slowly transfer to another bottle without shaking.  May need to repeat this process 2 or more times to get very clear wine.

This recipe is given to me by a confinement lady (maid that help in the family to cook, look after mommy and baby after arrival of baby for month).   I have not made this myself yet.

Ingredients

1. 1 Kg glutinous rice
2. 2 sweet yeast cakes  (甜酒饼)
3. 2 strong yeast cakes (烈酒饼)
4. 3 tablespoon of red yeast rice (红曲)
5. 1 small bottle good quality rice wine.
6. water

Method

1. For the red yeast rice, you can get it from Chinese Medicine shops.
2. For the yeast cakes, in Singapore, some provision shops sell them.  Ask around the shops above Waterloo Street market, you will find them.
3. Wash the glutinous rice and lay them on a big flat baking tray. Fill with water until the water just over the rice.
4. Steam with high heat, and every 15 mins, open up and stir and loosen it, and sprinkle water on it.  Repeat this 4 times (almost 1.5 hour).  Apparently this step will cook the rice evenly and very loose instead of caking together.
5. Allow it to cool down completely, very important.
6. Using the side of a glass bottle, or anything that can grind the yeast into powder form.
7. Lay the cooked rice flat on a clean and dry big tray.  Spread it out and flatten into something like a big pancake.  Sprinkle the powdered yeast evenly on the surface, flip around and do the same on the other side.
8. Sprinkle the red yeast rice the same way.
9. Sprinkle 1 bowl of room temperature boiled water on the rice
10. Put all the content (you can tear it up into chucks or fold it up) into a big clean and dry air tight glass container and tighten the lid.  Make sure the content is not up to rim, as it will expand during fermentation and spill out.
11. 3 days later, open and add 1 small bottle of good quality rice wine (this will induce more wine to be produce).  Do not stir! Very important.  Cover the lid and let it continue the fermentation for 2 months.
12. 2 months later, strain out the wine and keep in air tight bottles for cooking, and the vinasse (the remains of the fermented glutinous rice and red yeast rice) can be kept in fridge for other cooking such as Hong Zao Chicken (红糟鸡).  The wine when strained out is very cloudy with suspension of the rice.   Keep them in tall bottles for a week or more until the suspension settled at the bottom leaving very clear wine on top, Slowly transfer to another bottle without shaking.  May need to repeat this process 2 or more times to get very clear wine.

Not sure of what to cook for reunion dinner? Here are some suggestions and links to the recipes.

汤Soup

• Shark Fin and Fish Maw Soup (with or without shark fin) (鱼翅/鱼瓢羹)     

金玉满堂 Meats      

• Steam Chinese Winter Meats(臘味)        

年年有余 Fish

• Basic Steam fish     
• Steam fish with Shitake Mushroom (花菇), Daylily (金针) and Red Dates (红枣)
• Sweet and Sour Grouper Fish     

黄金滚滚 Dumpling

• Gold Nuggets (Fried Wonton 金元宝)     

嘻哈大笑 Prawns

• Pan Fry Salted Prawn        

大红大吉Chicken

• Hong Zao Chicken (红糟鸡)

天长地久 Noodles

• Longevity Mee Sua (长寿面) with Stock and Ingredients from Steamboat  

甜甜蜜蜜 Desserts

• Glutinous Rice Balls in Ginger Soup (汤圆糖水)          
• Bean curd skin, barley and ginkgo dessert (腐竹薏米白果糖水)        
• Lotus seed, lily bulb, ginkgo dessert (莲子百合白果糖水)        
• Lime Lychee

New Year Goodies

• Pork Floss Mini Spring Roll          
• Love Letters (Egg Roll, 鸡蛋卷)    
• Kok Zai (角仔)          
• Honey Caramel Corn Flakes and Sliced Almonds

This recipe taste better with pork, but you can also do it with chicken.  Chicken turns up dryer and harder as it does not have fats in between the meat, while pork (if you get the shoulder cut, 五花肉) has streaky fats in between the lean meat.  However, you can still do it with chicken if you dislike pork.
The picture shows the version with chicken.

Ingredients

1. 6 Chicken drum stick or chicken thigh, or 500gms of shoulder cut pork (五花肉)
2. 5 garlic
3. 3 tablespoon oyster sauce
4. 3 tablespoon sugar
5. 1 tablespoon chinese rice wine (花雕)
6. 1 tablespoon sesame oil
7. dash of ground pepper

Method

1. Do not peel the garlic, just wash the whole garlic.
2. Season the meat with all the ingredients for 30 mins, including the garlic. 
3. Heat up a thick based steel cooking pot (not too hot, just when water droplets start to evaporate and dry up will be just nice).  Thick based pots do not burn the food that easily as it distribute the heat evenly.
4. Put in the garlic and the meat in the pot, lay them out nicely.  Do not pour in the seasoning left in the bowl yet.  You should hear slight sizzling sound as the pot is slightly hot.
5. Cover and cook for 15 mins with very small flame.
6. Open the cover, and pour in the remaining seasoning gravy, and turn up the flame slightly (but still small), flip the meat over, cover and cook for another 20-30 mins (flipping the meat every 5 mins).  Cook till the gravy is almost totally dried up into a sticky gravy.
7. Slice the pork.  Serve.