Hong kong Style Rice Cake Pudding - 香港街边 砵仔糕

Recipe: yields 8 small puddings

Ingredients:
80 g rice flour
10 g wheat flour (deng mian fen)
10 g corn flour or tapioca flour
70 g brown sugar ( I used Taiwan brown sugar so that the finished product turns out very dark)
300 ml water

50 g  red bean   - washed  and soaked in  water for at least 4 hour or over night,  and boiled until the beans split open a little.

Method:
1)  Combine all the flours together into the bowl.  Pour in 120 ml water and whisk until there is no flour lumps.  The mixture should be quite thin. Set aside for later use.

2)  Boil brown sugar with the remaining water (180 ml) on medium heat.  Once the sugar is melted, pour into flour mixture, stir constantly as you pour. Transfer the mixture into the measuring jug.

3)  Pour batter 3/4 full into each mould in the steamer (see tips).  Then add some of the beans.  Steam them on high heat for bout 15 - 20 minutes. To test whether they are cooked, just insert a skewer in the middle of the pudding comes out clean.  Remove from heat, cool them on the wire rack.
When cool, remove from moulds and serve.

Tips:
Set up a steamer . Lightly grease the moulds or small bowls you will use for the puddings and steam for a while.

Bitter gourd pudding - 苦瓜凉冻

You can either eat with coconut cream (or fresh cream) or top with ice-cream.

2 years ago, I went on a trip with my family to Sydney and we chanced upon a Chinese restaurant where we had a meal. The owner was very kind and served us complimentary desserts.

On first look, it looked like matcha or green bean pudding. When I tasted it, it was very refreshing and I could not guess what was giving the pudding its subtle flavour. Only after tying up the owners and interrogating her intensively did she finally reveal the mystery ingredient - bitter gourd! It was a surprise. We released her and after many months  of procrastination, I have now finally made my first attempt in making this refreshing dessert.

Bitter gourd is normally not easily acceptable among children (and even adults) and this is a good way to make them eat them for their cooling properties.

Verdict of my end product:
1)  Refreshing
2)  Sweet and slight hint of bitter gourd taste.
3)  Easy to make.

Recipe:

Ingredients A:
120 g sugar
1/2 tablespoon agar-agar powder
1.75 (one and three-quarter) tablespoon galatine powder
500 ml water
2 pcs pandan leaves
pinch of salt

Ingredients B:
150 g bitter gourd - clean and remove seeds
some water

Method:
1) Blend bitter gourd with some water,  Drain and collect 100 ml bitter gourd juice.

2) Combine ingredients A and method (1) in a small pot, boil over medium heat. Keep stirring until the ingredients dissolve and no lumps.

3)  Pour the mixture into moulds. When cool, chill in the fridge. When the puddings are fully set, remove from mould and serve with coconut cream (or fresh cream) or ice-cream.

QQ Glutinous Rice Dumplings

Happy  DongZhi to all of you.

Tomorrow is Chinese Winter Solstice Festival or called  "DongZhi" （冬至）which symbolises reunion and a year older by eating the tang yuan.

The main ingredient for the tang yuan that you normally have is glutinous rice flour and water only, just combine and knead into a dough.  But this year I give it a change.  I add bean curd and fruit jam into glutinous rice flour .  Very curious and interested to know the result of the end products? So do I!.So I without any hesitation, gathered all the ingredients to start it off.

The texture of the tang yuan is very smooth and fine, and  bouncy. Nice, nice. I like.

Recipe:

You can make many colourful tan yuan from the natural colouring  of vegetable and fresh fruits. It is a good news for those people who do not like artificial colouring. The method is very easy, just combine the ingredients and knead into  a smooth and fine dough.  Divide into small portion, roll round, cook them in a pot of boiling water.  When they are afloat on the surface, dish up and serve with sweet soup or syrup water.

Strawberry tang yuan: 
 30 g glutinous rice flour
10 ~ 15 g bean curd ,( eg. unicurd brand)
20 g strawberry jam

Mango tang yuan:
30 g glutinous rice flour
10 ~ 20g bean curd
20 g mango jam

Pumpkin tang yuan:
30 g glutinous rice flour
25 ~30 g bean curd
25 g pumpkin puree
5 g fine sugar

Black sesame tang yuan:
30 g glutinous rice flour
30 ~ 40g bean curd
1/2 teaspoon black sesame paste (from supermart)

Green Tea tang yuan:
30 g glutinous rice flour
30 ~ 35 g bean curd
1/4 green tea powder (dissolved with 1/2 tsp hot water)

And many others, you can go and modify yourself.

Serve tang yuan in sweet soup.

I adapted the recipe from this book.

Colourful Tang Yuan

Hi Happy Yuan Xiao, dear bloggers and friends! Hope you all have enjoyed the tang yuan today. As much as I can, I make it a point to have tang yuan with my family every 15th day of the Lunar New Year. The Chinese believe that eating tang yuan is symbolic of a closely knitted family, 甜甜蜜蜜，圆圆满满. Tang yuan is made of glutinuous rice flour wich is no good for those who have indigestion problem, I advise not to eat too much.

Ingredients:

240g glutinous rice flour
20g rice flour
120g hot water
80g room temperature water  or coconout milk
2 teaspoon fine sugar
red, yellow, green and blue food edible colouring
pandan leaves

Coating ingredients: Mix toghether
roasted peanuts (diced/chopped)
roasted sesame seeds
fine sugar

Brown sugar sweet soup or rock sugar sweet soup: Boil together until sugar dissolves. Set aside.
4 bowls water
1 thumb size ginger
2 pcs pandan leaves
sugar to taste

Method:
1) Mix rice flour, glutinous rice flour, sugar and water together.  Knead  into smooth dough. Divide dough into  3 to 4 portions, and add each different   colour to each portion respectively, and roll into small balls.

2) Put dumplings into boiling water, cook until they are afloat, dish out and serve with peanut mixture or brown sugar sweet soup.

Dragon Fruit & Vitagen Ice-Cream Stick-龙珠果冰棒

HOT!HOT! What a hot weather! Can hardly bear the hot wave. So I made some ice-cream just to cool down and quench the thirst. Easy and fool-proof, this popsicle is everyone's favourite - and it reminds me of my childhood days, cycling my old bicycle on the dirt tracks, school bag slung over one shoulder, with one popsicle in hand...(My brothers did that, not me lol).

Recipe: (Get the idea from this book "Tang Shui - DESSERT ICE")

Ingredients:
100g red dragon fruit
100g sugar
300ml cool boiled water
1 bottle Vitagen

Method:
 Combine ingredients in a liquidizer, blend till fine, pour into ice-cream moulds.  Leave in freezer till set.

材料：
100克     红色龙珠果肉
100克     白糖
300克     冷开水
1瓶         维他精

方法：
用果汁机把材料打至幼滑，倒入冰棒模型内，放入冰库冷冻至结冰即可享用。

Deep Fried Sesame Seed Balls- (Jian-dui) 煎堆

This is another recipe for chewy sesame seed balls. This time I am using potato instead of pumpkin. You can refer to my older post " Chewy Pumpkin Sesame Seed Balls" recipe here, if you are interested.

Recipe: yields about 24 balls

Ingredients:

~~ 75g water

~~ 60g sugar

~~ 150g cooked potato - mashed

~~130g glutinous rice flour

~~ 1/4 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

~~ 300g red bean paste

~~ Sesame seeds - for coating

Method:

1) Boil sugar and water in a saucepan till sugar dissolved, leave to cool.

2)  Mix mashed potato, glutinous rice flour, vanilla and water syrup together in a mixing bowl.

3) Beat at slow speed to form a smooth dough, scale in 15g each and red bean paste 15g each.

4)  Flatten the dough and wrap with filling, seal up and roll into round balls.

5) Spray water onto balls and roll over sesame seeds, roll the balls with your hands until each ball is properly coated with sesame seeds.

6)  Deep fry over medium heat, keep stirring occasionally for even colour. When the balls expand in size and golden brown, dish up and ready to serve.

Purple Sweet potato balls in Pumpkin cream

 

Today is 1^st of May – Labour Day. A public holiday, everyone is staying at home so I took this good opportunity to prepare this delicious dessert for our afternoon tea break.  It has been quite some time since the family sat down together and has a meaningful conversation. Especially now that two of my children have graduated and are working, it is harder to find a time. It will get worse when after marriage and when they have their own family. 

Purple balls in orange coloured cream sound and look funny for a dish but it actually looks very adorable and tantalizing. The size just right to pop one into one’s mouth, the purple balls, made from purple sweet potato, encourages you to pop one after another. The chewy QQ texture is fantastic – not only is it tasty and fresh, it does not stick to your teeth or back of your jaws. Next, the orange coloured cream, coming from none other than the humble ugly pumpkin, is a healthy dish by itself, giving you our body’s much needed antioxidant and beta-carotene.

Recipe: adapted fromTang Shui by Jamie Jong

Ingredients: 

500g pumpkin (without skin) - sliced

250g sugar

200ml concentrated coconut milk

4 -6 pandan leaves

1500ml water

100g sago

Purple Sweet potato balls:

100g  purple sweet potato - steamed till soft, peeled skin and mashed

250g glutinous rice flour

180 ml water (if it is too dry add more water to form a pliable dough)

Methods:

1. To cook purple sweet potato: Combine all ingredients, knead  into smooth dough. Roll into small balls, boil over medium heat till the balls are floating on the surface. Dish up and drain, leave to cool.

2, To cook sago: Rinse sago under running water, drain well, do not soak, then pour into a saucepan of boiling water, keep stirring over over low heat till sago is transparent ( about 10 minutes), pour into sieve and wash away starch under running water, drain well, add to method no.4 or you can add in during serving time.

3. Boil pumpkin, pandan leaves and water in a pot, boil over medium heat till pumpkin is soft, remove from heat, leave to cool.

4.  Use blender to blend till fine and smooth, pour back into the pot, add sugar and bring to boil.  Add in coconut milk, sago and precooked purple balls.

5. Serve with a beautiful dessert bowl, enjoy!

Dumplings in Red Bean Soup

Recipe:

 A: Dumpling ingredients:

~240g glutinous rice flour

~20g rice flour

~120g warm water

~80g  either water or coconut milk

~ 2 tsp sugar

few drops of  red, yellow, green and purple colouring.

 B: Red Bean Soup :

300g red beans – soaked overnight or at least 4 hours.

5 pandan leaves

200g sugar ( adjust to your liking)

1500g water  (adjust amount to get  the thickness of the soup base to your liking).

Some corn starch  water mixture to thicken the soup.

Cook the beans until soft with the pandan leaves. Discard the pandan leaves and add in sugar . after the sugar is dissolved,  blend the mixture with electric blender until fine and smooth .

C: Peanut  filling. Mix filling, shape them into small balls and keep them in the fridge for 30 minutes.

60g peanuts (roasted and pounded)

3 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp peanut butter

1 tbsp peanut oil

D: Black sesame filling.  Mix filling, shape them into small balls, and keep in the fridge for 30 minutes.

35g black sesame powder (roast  black sesame seeds and pounded into powder)

5g icing sugar

15g softened butter or peanut oil.

Method:

1) Knead dumpling ingredients into smooth dough, then separate into 4 equal portions and add in red, yellow, green and purple colour respectively. Each colour dough makes 8 balls, each ball is about 15g, shape roundly, flatten and wrap in the filling,  set aside.

2) Boil small pot of water and pour in the dumplings, cook until they are afloat.

3)  Dish out and add into the hot  red bean paste soup . Serve while hot.

ENJOY!

Almond and Seaweed Jelly Beancurds -杏仁海藻豆腐

Ingredients:

1 packet agar- agar powder -seaweed flavour (7g)

500ml Magnolia fresh milk or evaporated milk

700ml - 750ml water

350g sugar

1 tbsp almond essence

3 pandan leaves

1 tsp green colouring

Method:

1) Bring water and agar-agar powder, sugar, pandan leaves together to boil. Add in milk, mix well.

2) Add almond essence, mix well. Pour mixture into moulds, when cool, chill in the fridge until completely set. Remove from moulds and serve with your favourite fruit, or canned longan syrup.

Yam Paste - 潮洲芋泥

Ingredients:

300g taro (nett)

50g pumpkin (nett))

15 ginko nuts

10 lotus seeds

5 tbsp sugar

3 -4 tbsp cooking oil

Method:

1) Steam ginko nuts and lotus seeds until soft. Leave aside.

2) Steam taro and pumpkin until soft. Mashed taro until very fine and smooth.

3) Heat up oil in a non-stick frying pan, place sugar and taro stir fry until well combined and smooth.

4) Transfer to a shallow dish, decorate with ginko nuts, pumpkin and lotus seed.

5) Steam for 20 minutes. Serve.

材料：

300 克 芋头 （净）

50克 金瓜 （净）

15 粒 白果

10粒 莲子

5 汤匙 白糖

3 - 4 汤匙食油

作法：

1）煮熟白果和莲子至软。

2）芋头和金瓜切块，蒸至熟，搓烂。金瓜切小方粒。

3）烧熱油，下糖和芋头，炒至香，盛在一个盘里，用金瓜，百果和莲子摆饰。

4）上锅蒸20分钟即可享用。

Papaya and Snow Fungus Sweet Soup (Dessert)

This is a Hong Kong style sweet soup (tangshui). It is very easy to prepare. You can prepare more and keep some in small containers and put them in the refrigerator. You will definitely feel refreshed after drinking this soothing chilled dessert.

Besides sharing the recipe, I would also like to share with you some of the health tips below.

Snow fungus contains iron, vitamin C, calcium and phosphorus.
White fungus is also said to be effective in nourishing the lungs, healing dry cough and clearing heat in the lungs.

Papaya is well known in preventing constipation and aiding digestion. It contains anti-oxidants that help in controlling premature ageing.. The high concentration of Vitamin C and Vitamin A boots our immune system. Papaya is also very good for the hair and helps in controlling dandruff. The anti-inflammatory properties in papaya will help reduce pain for those suffering from arthritis , edema and osteoporosis.

Sweet almond kernel tastes sweet. It is non-toxic and relieves cough. ,
Bitter almond kernel heals cough and expels phlegm. Bitter almond carries a slight trace of toxins (cyanide), hence please use it with extreme cautions.


Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 kg almost ripe papaya
4 tablespoon sweet almond kernel
1 tablespoon bitter almond kernel
80 g dried snow fungus
360 g rock sugar or more
20 cups water (or more as you wish)

Method:

~~1)Soak dried fungus in water for 30 minutes until soft. Trim the thick yellowish base and tear softened snow fungus into little florets. Rinse again to remove grit. Drain in.
~~2)Skin and discard seeds of papaya. Cut into 2 cm cubes.
~~3)Rinse both sweet and bitter almond kernels.
~~4)Bring 20 cups of water to boil in a deep pot. Add snow fungus and both almond kernels and simmer over moderate heat for an hour. Add rock sugar and papaya cubes and continue to cook for ½ hour.
~~5)Serve hot or cold.

Mango Pudding 芒果布丁

I have not made mango pudding for a long time. This mango pudding is awesome. I purposely use big chunks of fresh mango as fillings so as to enhance the taste when you devour the pudding. Best serve chilled。

Recipe: (Makes 16)

Ingredients:

24 g gelatine powder

100 g Carnation evaporated milk

110 g fine sugar

100 g whipping cream

225 g ice cubes

225 hot water

3 ripe mangoes (Half cut into cubes and half blend into puree)

Method:

~~1) Mix sugar and gelatine powder well.

~~2) Add boiling water to No.1, using a whisk to stir constantly until mixture dissolves. (OR you can boil them)

~~3) Add milk to No.2 . Stir well.

~~4) Then add whipping cream and stir till well mixed..

~~5) Add mango puree, Stir well.

~~6) Add mango cubes to the mixture. Mix well.

~~7) Add the small ice cubes into the mixture, gently stir with whisk till ice is all melted and mixture is smooth.

~~8) Pour into moulds and leave to set in refrigerator over night.

Enjoy!

Agar-Agar Gula Melaka (palm sugar)

Recipe

Ingredients:

~ 1 packet powdered agar-agar

~ 1000 ml water

~ 4 pandan leaves

~ 280 g - 300 g gula melaka (palm sugar)

~ 150 ml water

~ 1/2 teaspoon salt

~ 200 ml concentrated coconut (santan) from one coconut or Kara Brand packet coconut milk

Method:

1) Boil gula melaka with 150 ml water until sugar dissolves, strain.

2) Boil agar agar powder, 1000 ml water, pandan leaves , gula melaka water and salt. Stir half way through cooking.

3) Add coconut milk and boil for few minutes.

4) Pour into jelly mould. When slightly cool chill them in the fridge.

ENJOY!