Chinese Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

    1 1/2 C cake flour
    9 1/2 T melted butter
    3 T bakers sugar
    1/2 C powdered sugar
    1 egg, whisked
    1/4 tsp vanilla

Method:

• Preheat oven to 190C (375F).
• Cut butter into cubes and allow to soften at room temperature. If time is limited, here is a quickest way to soften butter. Melt butter in microwave at high-medium power for 10 seconds or so, then transfer to freezer for a few minutes. When the butter begins to be frozen again and thickens, it’s ready to use. If not, put it back to freezer for more minutes.
• Cream butter with an electric mixer over medium speed until smooth. Add bakers sugar and powdered sugar, continue to cream until fluffy.
• Add one-third of the whisked egg into the butter mixture at a time. Stir and combine well between adding egg each time, the volume increases and color lightens.
• Stir in vanilla and combine well.
• Sift flour into the egg mixture. Use a spatula to combine all ingredients. Don’t over stir, just incorporate the flour into the mixture. Transfer the batter into an icing bag. Pipe the batter on a lined baking tray with baking paper, in 1.5-inch circles, that’s about 1 tablespoon each of batter, evenly spaced 1.5-inch apart. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 to 13 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack completely. Store in an air-tight container.

Tips:

• The magic ingredients in this recipe are both caster sugar and icing sugar. Two kinds of sugar will work together, producing the perfect balance of delicate, crispy texture, and keeping the pattern well in shape after baking. If you only use icing sugar, the cookies won’t be crispy as you expect. Without using the icing sugar, the original pattern of cookies that you pipe out wouldn’t be kept so clear and beautiful. (Note: icing sugar is a super fine, powdered form of sugar.)
• The baking time of cookies is quite short at high temperature. Don’t leave them unattended, especially for the last few minutes because you don’t want them burnt.
• When the color turns to the point a bit lighter than you prefer, then you can remove the cookies from oven. The cookies will get a bit darker after a while. Well, practice makes things perfect. After some trials, you’ll bake cookies with perfect color to your liking.

Clear (non spicey) Beef Noodle Soup

Serves 4

Stock Ingredients (8 servings)

4 litres (8.4 pt) water
1 large beef bone
1/2 large onion
1/2 large carrot
1/2 large daikon radish
1 stalk of scallion
1 large slice ginger
1 star anise
2 tablespoons rice wine
1/2 teaspoon salt

Stock Method
    Boil water in large pot.
    Wash bone.
    Peel and wash carrot and radish, and cut into halves.
    Peel onion, cut in half.
    Add all ingredients to pot.
    Cover and simmer for 1-1/2 hours.
    Filter stock. Put stock solids aside.

Noodle Soup Ingredients
400 g (14 oz) (dry) white, round noodles
400 g (14 oz) boneless beef shank*
2 litres (4.2 pt) stock
4 slices ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stalk scallion, chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

Noodle Soup Method
    Wash, blanch beef.
    Throw out water and clean pot.
    Put stock, beef, ginger and salt in pot and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.
    Remove beef from soup and allow to cool.
    Bring a pot of water to boil, add noodles, bring to boil again and simmer according to package instructions.
    Cut beef in 1/2 cm (0.2 in) thick slices across muscle.
    Drain noodles and place equal portions in 4 large bowls.
    Place beef on noodles.
    Add soup
    Garnish each bowl with a drop of sesame oil and a sprinkle of spring onions.

Notes:
*Boneless beef shank (牛腱肉) appears to be a Chinese cut of meat. When cooked it balls up to resemble some sort of internal organ. Other beef cuts with a bit of fat and plenty of connective tissue (the sight of tendon is a good sign when it comes to this dish), like rib meat, shank or chuck are fine too. Cut into small chunks and cook for 2 hours. Most plain-flavoured Chinese noodles are suitable, but thin, round noodles are most common for this dish in Taiwan. The vegetables from the stock can be eaten separately.