Glutinous Rice

The Chinese dish, nuòmi fàn (糯米饭), is steamed glutinous rice usually cooked
with Chinese sausage, chopped Chinese mushrooms, chopped barbecue pork
and optionally dried shrimp or scallop.

Glutinous rice is also often ground to make glutinous rice flour. This flour is then made into “niangao” and sweet filled dumplings “tangyuan”, both of which are commonly eaten at Chinese New Year. It also sometimes used as a thickener and for baking.

Dried shrimp are shrimp that have been sun dried and shrunk to a thumbnail size.
They are used in many Asian cuisines, imparting a unique umami taste.

In Chinese, it is called xiānggū (香菇, literally "fragrant mushroom").
Fresh and dried "fragrant mushroom" have many uses in the cuisines of East Asia.
In Chinese cuisine, they are often sauteed in vegetarian dishes such as Buddha's delight.

Dried oyster.

Ingredient   
300g glutinous rice, soak for 4 hours   
40g dry shrimps, soaked    
20 dry oyster, soaked, diced   
8 cloves mushrooms, soaked and diced   
80g chicken meat, diced   
1 table spoon chopped garlic   

Seasoning
1 1/2 table spoon oyster sauce  |  1 table spoon sesame oil  | 
1/2 table spoon black soya sauce  |  a bit of white pepper  | 
a bit of 5 spices powder  |  3 table spoon water  |

Method
Clean glutinous rice and cook in boiled water for a short while, Drain dry

Heat up 1 1/2 table spoon oil , fried all the ingredient (follow by dry shrimps, chopped garlic, dry oyster, chicken meat and mushrooms) and add in the seasoning.

Add water turn lowest heat add in the glutinous rice mixed well.

Bring to steam for 45 minutes.

serve hot or cold.

Tangyuan

For many Chinese families in mainland China as well as overseas, Tangyuan is usually eaten together with family. The round shape of the balls and the bowls where they are served, come to symbolise the family togetherness.

Historically, a number of different names were used to refer to tangyuan. During the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty, the name was officially settled as yuanxiao, a name derived from the Yuanxiao Festival, also known as the Lantern Festival. This name literally means "first evening", being the first full moon after Chinese New Year, which is always a new moon. This name prevails in northern China.

In southern China, however, they are called tangyuan or tangtuan. Legend has it that during Yuan Shikai's rule from 1912 to 1916, they disliked the name yuanxiao because it sounded identical to "remove Yuan" (元宵),[citation needed] and so they changed the name to tangyuan instead.

This new moniker literally means "round balls in soup". Tangtuan similarly means "round dumplings in soup". In the two major Chinese dialects of far southern China, Hakka and Cantonese, "tangyuan" is pronounced as tong rhen and tong yun respectively. The term "tangtuan" (Hakka: tong ton, Cantonese: tong tyun) is not as commonly used in these dialects as tangyuan.

Ingredients A
80g tapioca starch  |  200ml water  |

Ingredients B
400g glutinious rice flour  |  250ml water  |

Ingredients C (ginger soup)
2500ml water  |  250g rock sugar  |  3 knotted pandan leaves  |  20 ginger (sliced)

Method (Tangyuan)

Mix ingredient A and stir with lowest heat until slightly thick.

Add in ingredient B and mix until dough and no longer stick to your hand, add little bit of pink food colouring to half portion of the dough, leaving another half plain.
cover and keep it rest for an hour.

Roll the pink and plain dough into small ball.

Bring a pot of water to boil, drop in the “Tangyuan” and cook until the “Tangyuan” floats.

Remove and soak in cold water for a short while. dish and drain.
place into ginger syrup.

Serve hot.

Method (ginger syrup)

Bring Ingredient C to boil until aromatic.

Valentine's Day

Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day is an annual commemoration
held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions.

The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs, Saint Valentine, and was established
by Pope Gelasius I in 496 AD.

It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards

The day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer
in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

In Finland Valentine's Day is called Ystävänpäivä which translates into "Friend's day".
As the name indicates, this day is more about remembering all your friends, not only your loved ones.

In Chinese culture, there is an older observance related to lovers, called "The Night of Sevens"
(Chinese: 七夕; pinyin: Qi Xi). According to the legend, the Cowherd star and the Weaver Maid star
are normally separated by the milky way (silvery river) but are allowed to meet by crossing it
on the 7th day of the 7th month of the Chinese calendar.

info taken from wikipedia

A special made heart-shape mould.

Ingredients A   
80g caster sugar  |  3 omega eggs  |  1 tea spoon vanilla essence   

Ingredient B
170g butter  |  200g cooking chocolate chips

Ingredient C
80ml F&N Evap Filed Milk  |  180g self-raising flour  |  20g coco powder

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees for 30 minutes.

Melt ingredient B in a double-boiler, set side (half melt will do)

Beat ingredient A until light and fluffy. (about 4 minutes)

Add in ingredients B, mixure and stir well

Fold in Ingredient C, mix well

Transfer to the cake tin and bake at 180 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 55 to 60 minutes.