Mango Sago Pudding

I had hoped if I made this summery dessert it would make the heat come by quicker — Ooh and it seemed to have worked as today was a super 40 degree!
I spent half an hour searching for a simple recipe and I’ve narrow it down to this!

Ingredients
2 Tbs Sago pearls
1 Cup hot water
2 Tbs Mango or Passionfruit flavoured Jelly crystals (I coudln’t find mango so I used passionfruit, I love the tangyness)
½ Mango pureed
½ Mango diced
½ Cup Evaporated Milk

Method
1) Put the sago pearls in a pot of boiling water and simmer until sago turns transparent, strain under cold water and set aside.
2) Dissolve the jelly crystals in the hot water, allow to cool
3) Combine the jelly mixture, evaporated milk, mango and sago pearls
4) Divide among 4-6 glass bowls
5) Chill for 3 hours or over-night for best consistency.
* Serve with mango pieces and evaporated milk.

Chirashi on the Run

Sunday night was making sushi at a friends place. Make as you eat!

Kind of like steam boat only with sushi.

Had heaps of left over ingredients for the next night. However, pressed for time so just combined all this for a Chirashi-don!

 

Ingredients
Crab stick
Yellow pickled cucumber
Julienned cucumber
Sashimi Salmon pieces
Thin omelette shredded
Salmon roe
Cooked Japanese rice (cooled)

Method
arrange as in picture (too easy!)
serve with soya sauce and wasabi

Colour me in Udon

Can this bowl of Udon be any more colourful?

Ingredients:

Toppings
1 packet of Udon – cook in boiling water for 2 minutes then run cold water through, drain and set aside.
3 slices of Kamaboko (Japanese fish cake) boiled till cooked
30g Spinach washed then blanched and cut into 2 inch length
1 Egg – boiled for 3minutes and cut into halves
Unagi – prepare according to packet
5 Fresh shitake mushrooms – boiled till cook – reserve water for stock
4 slices of Carrot boiled till cooked
1 stem Spring onion finely chopped

Stock
1 Cup dashi stock (1ts dashi granules & 1 Cup of water that was used to boil Shitake)
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp mirin

Method:
1) Prepare all topping ingredients and set aside
2) place udon at the bottom of a large bowl and arrange the colourful toppings on top.
3)  bring all the stock ingredients to the boil
4) pour over udon and toppings

 

Some may have come across this from my previous cooking blog. So now slowly merging the two. Yes, cheating in a way, as they are not brand spanking new recipes! But hope you enjoy them nonetheless!

Sushi Sandwiches

Healthy. Creative. Delicious.

Sushi is great for your taste buds,  not so much for your hips, ladies!

I purposely did not purchase any rice for two weeks to keep the intake of carbs as low as possible as Spring is approaching.

These healthy, yummy and FUN sandwiches will spice up any snack or lunch (or dinner) box!

 

Ingredients:
Whole meal sandwich slices, flattened with a rolling pin.
Japanese Mayo
Avocado slices
Capsicum slices
Cucumber sticks
Carrot julienned
Crab stick cut into halves
Fish roe
Chicken thigh (marinated in soy, mirin and sake), pan fried and cooled.

 

California roll in the making

 

Method:
1) Spread japanese mayo and/or avocado onto bread slices
2) line up crab stick, avocado slices cucumber, carrot and fish roe at one end of the bread and roll up, press down to secure. (California)
3) line up chicken, capsicum, cucumber, carrot at one end of the bread and roll up, press down to secure. (Teriyaki Chicken)

 

Teriyaki Chicken rolls in the making

Ready! And on the run!

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

Hello my much neglected blog!

I have been a bit naughty and been eating out quite often for the past month.
I miss cooking, I really do. A huge part of me was disappearing because I had not had the pleasure to cook.

Last weekend I had a family dinner and one of my aunty made this super soft cake and begged her for the recipe!
I discovered later on it was a recipe for Chiffon cake.

I have seen recipes for green tea, pumpkin and banana chiffon cake.
This is my Earl Grey tea flavoured Chiffon Cake – first trial!

Ingredients:

Bowl 1:
5 egg yolks
20g Caster sugar
1 Tbs vanilla essence
pinch of salt
120ml Milk, infused with two earl grey tea bags and allow to cool
100g cake flour (I bought mine from a chinese grocery story)
1 tsp baking powder
3 Tbs Rice bran or vegetable oil

Bowl 2:
5 egg whites
½ tsp cream of tartar
50g caster sugar

Method:
Preheat oven to 160 degrees
Prepare baking tin with a spray of oil around.
1) Beat egg yolks, sugar, salt and vanilla with an electric beater on low.
2) Add in milk
3) Sift through flour and baking powder in 3 batches, using a hand whisk till no more clumps
4) add oil and whisk till combined.
5) In bowl 2: Beat egg whites till soft peaks form with electric beater on medium
6) add in cream of tartar and beat.
7) Add sugar in 3 batches and beat on high until stiff.
8) Fold egg whites to egg yolk mixture, keeping it light and airy.
9) Pour into tins and bake for 30-40mins, until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

I trimmed the cake and divided into two. Then spread a layer of apricot jam on one half and placed the second half on top, like a sandwich.

 

A delicate and moist treat!

Enjoy it with a nice cup of Early Grey tea!!

A Pizza A Day

To me, cherry tomatoes are small versions of full size tomatoes. Very cute and packed with flavour!
Now, just imagine super small cherry tomatoes!

With these mini red jewels as my inspiration, I decided to make some mini pizzas for the next few days!

Great activity with the kiddies if you have any!

I used wholemeal pita pockets (5 inch in diameter) for the base of the pizza.

Since these are not traditional pizza bases, I also left out the tomato paste.

Keeping the ingredients to a minimum, the pita bread was filled with mozarella cheese plus one to two toppings only. Then seasoned with salted herbs.
Grilled until cheese had melted and done!

Day 1: mini cherry tomato & rocket

Day 2: Hot Salami & Cheese

Day 3: Ham & Pineapple

Day 4: Supreme with salami, ham, pineapple & tomato

Day 5: Chicken & Mushroom

Not For The Faint Hearted

[WARNING] This blog is not for the faint hearted!

My bestfriend have been raving on about ducky eggs since a long time ago.

It took me a while to warm up to the dish below. Mind you, I am still luke warm about it!

What are ducky eggs?
In a brief, clinically-non-grotesque description,  it is a duck egg with the embryo inside.

I have been tethering the idea whether this is cruel or not. Then it hit me, we all eat unborn chicken – eggs!

My other bestfriend has been itching to go eat these ducky eggs so we all went to Fairfield for our quest, well their quest and my entertainment.

Among this speciality were other very enticing dishes!

Green Papaya Salad – my favourite! Tangy and appetising!

Palette Cleansing – Steamed Mussels

Loas Sausages with Sticky Rice

Grilled Beef Tongue – crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside

Getting ready for the gory stuff – Chicken Feet Salad (this was quite tantilising!)

Ok, so they look pretty tamed?

Crack open the top, there’s some egg white and egg yolk…

Then you scoop it out and I am not sure if that is part of the head or the body…
Either way, the meat was very tender but I needed a LOT of mint leaves and lemon juice to down this baby (no pun intended).

To top it off, I had just watched the Hong-Kong thriller “Dumplings” before I went to eat this! The movie is about a lady eating human embryos to keep herself looking young while her husband ate these ducky eggs to keep his youth and stamina! Like I said in the beginning of this post – Not for the faint hearted!