Red Bean Soup

I cooked this red bean soup for my family few weekends ago (13July08). Yeah, I knew its quite some time back and I only have time to update it now :p

This is a special red bean soup I invented myself using dried rose buds to get the flavor instead of the usual pandan leaf. I kind of like this invention and so sharing this with everyone :)

Its simple to cook...the exact way to cook with the pandan leaf except replace the pandan leaf with the dried rose buds.

**Food picture unavailable** 
[Unfortunately Slide.com had ceased operation on 6 March 2012 and I didnt manage to transfer the pics in time of which some are lost permanently as I didnt have a spare copy.] 

Ingredients (4 pax share):

- 3 handfuls of red bean
- 1 small handful of dried rose buds
- 2 pieces cane sugar, medium size
- water

How to cook:

- Wash and soak the red beans for at least two hours before cooking (so that the beans can soften faster when cooking).
- Boil a pot (average size) of water and add in the red beans and rose buds.
- When the water boils, put to small fire and simmer for another hour.
- Add in the cane sugar and stir till it dissolves. If you find the soup too thick, you may add more boiled water to thin it and its ready to be served. If you like it cold, you may add in ice and serve as a cold dessert.

Notes:
1. You may also add in dried tangerine peel (another version) or/and lily buds.

"Tang Yuan" aka Glutinous Rice Balls

Today is the day to eat the glutinous ric balls also known as "Tang Yuan Day". I dont have time to make the rice balls myself especially at this stage when I am already 7mths preggie. Couldnt tahan standing too long so I just bought the ready made ones from the supermarket and cooked the soup myself. I bought 2 types of ready made ones, one with filling inside and the other type without.

Ingredients (for 6 pax share):

- 2 packets of glutinous rice balls with fillings
- 1 packet of plain glutinous rice balls (without fillings)
- 1 small ginger (usually used a medium sized but some of my family members do not like the taste of ginger so I just added a small piece to have the "spicy" taste)
- 4 small pieces of coconut sugar
- 2 big tablespoons of white sugar
- 1 pack of pandan leaf
- water

How to cook:

- Cook 1 pot (average sized pot) of water
- When the water is boiled, add in the plain glutinous rice balls.
- When the rice balls float to the top, it means its cooked.
- Use a strainer and sieve it out and put it in a big bowl of water. This big bowl of water must be suitable for consumption and at room-temperature.
- Repeat the same procedure for the glutinous rice balls with fillings.
- Cook an another pot (slightly smaller than the 1st pot) of water.
- Add the pandan leaf and ginger into the water to boil.
- When the water is about half-boiled, add in the coconut sugar.
- Then add in the white sugar when the coconut sugar has dissolved.
- Stir the water for a while and off the fire.
- Finally, sieve the rice balls and add in the soup, and its ready to be served.

PS: If you do not have coconut sugar, you can replace with brown sugar. I personally find white sugar a little bland. Anyway, this recipe is given by my cantonese mother :)

Chinese New Year Kueh (aka Nian Gao)

I was doing housekeeping at home and found two pieces of this CNY must-have kueh. Not wanted to waste it (last year still in my fridge :p), I used some coconut to turn it into a nice dessert dish! Hubby loves it and pesters me to make more! hehe!

Ingredient:

- 1 piece Nian Gao (refer picture far below)

- 1 packet of coconut (not the coconut milk hor, can get it from major supermarkets, I got mine from ShopnSave)

- 2 teaspoons of salt

How to do it:

- Steam the Nian Gao in the wok together with the water for about 15-20mins (Notice that I didnt say "boil the water first". I 'boiled' it with the water)

- Once the Nian Gao turned soft, off the fire.

- Pour out the coconut on a plate, add in the salt and mixed.

- Used spoon to scoop a spoonful of the Nian Gao and roll over the coconut.

This is Nian Gao, one of CNY must-have goodies!

"Fu Chou"

According to the cantonese, this dessert has the effects of beautifying our complexion :D

Ingredients:

- A packet of dried beancurd skin, soaked in boiled water till turn soft
- Barley (of small size)
- Gingko Nuts, peeled and washed
- Water chestnuts, peeled, washed and chopped in fine cubes
- Dried melon cubes, chopped into big cubes
- 2 Eggs (of average size), mixed evenly
- Rock Sugar
- Pot of water, about 3/4 full (use a slightly bigger than average size pot)

How to cook:

- Boils the pot of water together with barley. This will take about 20mins.
- When water boils for the 1st time, add in the gingko nuts. Then leaves it boiled under low fire for approximately 25mins.
- When it boils again, add in the beancurd skin (pour away the water before adding in), water chestnuts and dried melon cubes and leaves it boil for another 15mins.
- Finally add in the egg mixture slowly. Remember to stirr the water gently as you pour in the egg mixture so that they will not clout together.
- Add in some rock sugar to taste.
- Serve with ice, if you like it cold.

Note:
When you buy the beancurd skin, note that its meant for cooking dessert as there are 2 types. The other type is mainly used for cooking dishes and is harder. The one for dessert cooking is generally softer so it takes lesser time to handle.

Pulut Hitam

I love this dessert since young. My mom will cook this dessert over the slow cookpot and leave it overnight. So that by the time we wake up the next day, we get to eat this nice dessert. Serves best with YOU TIAO! :)

Ingredients for 5 pax share:

- 250 grams of black glutinous rice
- 2 handfuls of white glutinous rice
- 3-4 big scoops of sugar (using the laddle)
- Pandan leaf (optional)(For fragnant purpose)
- Coconut Milk
- 2 Pots of water, one full, one 3/4 full (use an average size pot)

How to cook:

- Wash both the black and white glutinous rice
- Boil a pot of water (3/4 full pot) together with the glutinous rice
- Boil another pot of water (full pot, just water)
- When the water boils, let it boils over small fire for another 15 mins then pour over to slow cookpot, also pour over the other pot of boiling water. Then leaves it cook under "low fire" overnight. Alternatively, you can also cook under "high fire" for 3 hours and turn to "keep it warm" for the rest of the day.
- Add 1-2 tablespoon of coconut milk when serving. (Best if you can get YOU TIAO :))

Addition:
PS: This can also serve as cold dessert, just add a big scoop of vanilla ice cream over it. Do remember to wait till the pulut hitam cool down first, otherwise your ice cream will melt away.... Hope you enjoy this dessert! :)

Cheng Teng Dessert

I invited some friends over to my place yesterday, for our annual cny gathering. Wanted to get them over for lunch and cooked a feast for them but they prefer high tea (they didnt want to give me too much hassle :p), so in the end fried some stuff and cooked this dessert for them :) This is one of my favourite dessert, got the recipe from my cantonese mother.

Finally, got a chance to display the picture of my food. Does it look appetising enough? hehe :)

Ingredients for 10pax share:

- 50 grams white fungus, washed and soaked overnight and break into small pieces (will taste better this way. too big a piece, you may find it hard to swallow)
- 50 grams dried lily bulbs, washed and soaked overnight
- 50 grams fresh gingko nuts, remove the shells and soaked overnight
- 30 grams dried LianZi,washed and soaked overnight
- 30 grams large sago, washed on the day you are going to cook and set aside
- 30 grams dried logan meat (the big fat round ones from thailand, can be purchased from ShopnSave),washed on the day you are going to cook and set aside
- about 14 red dates (of average size)
- some rock sugar (preferred to use rock sugar to cook dessert, smell and taste better)
- Pot of water, about 3/4 full (use a slightly bigger than average size pot)

How to cook:

- Boil the pot of water together with your red dates, lily bulbs, gingko nuts and LianZi
- When the water boils, add in the white fungus and logan meat
- When it boils again, turn the fire lower and let it boils slowly for 30-40mins
- Add in the rock sugar and large sago, let it boils for another 15mins (Dont add the large sago too early, it will 'melt')
- Once the gingko nuts and Lianzi (the hardest to soften of all) already soften and chewable, it is ready to be served. If you like it cold, you may add in ice and serve as a cold dessert

Notes:
1. The amount of ingredients serve as a general guide. You may add in more according to your preference.
2. All my ingredients purchased from ShopnSave, so you can go there and get all the stuff at one shopping.