Potato Zucchini Flat Cakes

Lunch time is closing in on Easter Sunday.  I wanted to use the zucchini on hand, but I'm kind of tired of the usual stir fry or stuffed zucchini.  I could make zucchini fries, but then I had to have something to go with it.  Hmm...wonder what the good old internet has advice for me....As I was typing "zucchini" in the search bar, a picture titled "zucchini cakes" in the search result caught my eye.  Yes!  I shall make that; but of course, my own version.

1 medium Rusett potato
1 large zucchini, shredded

What they look like when uncooked.

3 stalks of green onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 cup of meatless crumbles, heated through
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon dry basil
1 egg
Garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons milk (unsweetened almond milk)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Olive oil

Half of the batch, nice and golden.

Cut the two end of the zucchini off and shred it in a big bowl, mix in a little salt.  While waiting for the juice to come out, wrap the potato in a moist paper towel and cook it in the microwave till well done.  Peel the skin off and mash the potato well.  Mix all the ingredients except for milk, soy sauce, zucchini and cheese.

A couple bunny shaped patties for my kids, well, they were meant to be bunnies.

Drain the juice out off the zucchini, mix in with the mashed potato mixture; then put milk and soy sauce in, the cheese last; mix all the ingredients well.

Heat a large skillet with olive oil in, shape the potato zucchini mixture in patties, plop them in to cook until golden brown, about 4 minutes each side.  Make about 11 patties (around 2&1/2" to 3 " in diameter).  It might be tricky to flip the patties since the potato is very fine and easy to crumble apart.

It tasted savory, yet mild, quite yummy, perfect for lunch.  Four of us cleaned up the whole batch, no leftovers!

Mini Sesame Seed Balls

Ever since I repinned a picture of sesame seed balls from Pinterest, I wanted to make these yummies myself. Gosh! It's been almost 6 months now (had to go to my Pinterest board to check when I pinned it). I bought the ingredients but hadn't got to making them. Finally, today I had the time and determination to do it.

The bare ball before the sesame seeds.

2 + 1/4 cups glutinous rice flour *
3/4 water
1/2 cup brown sugar
About 1/3 cup untoasted sesame seeds
Red bean paste *
Oil for frying *


* For some reason, I couldn't form a dough with the amount of the flour in some of the recipes I found. It was too soupy. This is what I came up with through experiment. Red bean paste is available at Asian supermarkets. You can use peanut oil, vegetable oil, or canola oil for frying.

Heat the water in the microwave for 1 minute, mix the brown sugar well in the hot water. Place the flour in a big bowl and create a well in the middle. Pour the sugar water into the well and mix it well to form a dough. The dough should be moist and smooth but not too sticky to pry your fingers away from.

Ready for frying

Pinch some off the dough to form a ball about an inch diameter big, make an indentation in the ball, big enough to scoop the red bean paste inside, then pinch the dough to cover up the paste and roll it in your hands to form back the ball shape. Roll the ball in the sesame seeds, make sure it's covered with seeds evenly all around. Line the seed-covered balls up ready for frying.

You can use a wok, a pot or a fryer to fry the balls. Cover the pot with a little over an inch of oil. I find that amount of oil is enough to do the job since the balls aren't that big. Heat the oil up to 350 F. Gently lower the balls into the pot. The number of balls to fry each batch depends on how big your frying vessel is, the rule of thumb is not to crowd it. Also, be aware of the oil temperature will heat up above 350 F, so it's a good idea to turn the heat down and keep an eye on the temp to make sure not to burn the balls!

Floating on the surface

Let the balls stay in the pot about 3:50 to 4 minutes. When they are ready, the balls will float on the surface. Ladle them out and put them on paper towels to drain off some of the extra oil. The whole batch makes about 32 sesame seed balls. They taste best when they are just cooled off, but still taste good even after the crispiness goes away. I don't recommend storing in the fridge however, it will get too chewy I imagine. They are what I call "yum yum". Enjoy!

This is also a good family activity with kids. I bet they will have fun forming the balls and rolling them in the sesame seeds. Of course, they will certainly enjoy eating them, like mine do.


One side note, I recently prepared the balls at night but didn't have time for frying, so I stored them in zip lock bags in the fridge overnight and fried them the next morning. They still tasted good. However, I'm not sure what the maximum of time you can store them in the fridge since the glutinous rice flour will get drier over time.

Ready for eating

Chinese Pumpkin Cake

I made a pumpkin pie a couple weeks ago. The inevitability of the pumpkin leftover going bad has loomed over my head ever since, but I kept forgetting to do something about it. Of course, the container sitting at the back of the fridge didn't help me to remember it either. Today, I finally remember to make some Chinese pumpkin cake.

This is part of the dough. Remembered to take a picture halfway.

1 cup mashed pumpkin
1 cup glutinous rice flour
1/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
Red bean paste for filling
Extra flour for rolling
Oil for frying

Frying on the bottom sides.

Mix the pumpkin, flour and sugar well together to form a stretchy dough. Add a little water if it gets dry. Put hands on the extra flour so when your hands roll the dough, it won't get sticky. Form a dough ball with a generous inch diameter. Make an indentation in the middle while holding it in one hand, scoop some red bean paste in there, say 1 to 1&1/2 teaspoons full depending how sweet you want it to be. Pull the edges of the dough to wrap the filling inside, make sure no filling is showing. Apply more flour if it gets sticky to the hands (you don't want that, it'll be a sticky mess). Flatten it to a small round shape. The batch makes about 15 little cakes.

Heat oil in the pan, fry each side of the cakes for a few minutes until they are golden brown. Drain the oil off the cakes a bit on a paper towel. Let them cool. Voila! They are ready to eat. Good stuff!

I used cashew butter as filling for some and the rest was the traditional red bean paste. My family members prefer the bean paste ones. I think it's because they are sweeter than the cashew butter ones. I like both kinds. I can imagine experimenting with other food as fillings, sweet or savory, creamy or crunchy, whatever floats your boat. It might turn out to be a pleasant surprise.

Nicely browned and ready to be eaten.