"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! :)

Kaya French Toast

I made this snack for my family last weekend, mainly because I am left with a big loaf of wholemeat bread which is going to expire in 2 days' time and if I dont do anything to it sooner, I am sure this loaf of bread will ended up feeding the trashbin :p

Coincidently, I bought some cookie cutters recently, so I played around with the new utensils and made heart and star shapes out of the norm-looking bread. Doesnt it look more interesting to eat this way? :)

Trenyce was really fascinated with the french toast. When I showed her, she exclaimed:"wow, you very good at doing something!" hahaha...I am really flattened by my little gal! ;p

**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:
- One loaf of wholemeal bread
- 7 eggs (small)
- 3 tablespoons of raw honey
- Oil
- One ready made Kaya from bakery shop
- Frying pan (average size)

How to cook:

- Break and mix the eggs with the honey until egg whites, egg yolk and honey evenly dissolved
- Prehot the frying pan with some oil
- Dip the bread into the egg mixture (must dip in totally, otherwise only the surface of the bread with the egg mixture and when you bite the bread, it is tasteless)
- Put the bread into the pan and start frying.
- When frying, always turn the bread otherwise it will turn charcoal very soon becos of the honey content.
- Fry over slightly smaller fire after 2 rounds of frying as the pan has already been heated up, if continue using same amount of fire, will 'overfry'(aka turn charcoal) the bread.
- Finally, when the bread is ready to serve, add a layer of kaya over it. (If you like it sweeter, you can increase the kaya portion)

Mushroom Ipoh Hor Fun

I love this mushroom Hor Fun dish since young. I am not sure if this is a special DIY recipe from my mom or she knew about it from elsewhere perhaps from Ipoh, her hometown. I remembered her cooking this dish whenever someone from the family brought back some Ipoh Hor Fun (the plain ones mostly, aka Cheong Fan) to Spore. The Cheong Fun from Ipoh tastes very different from the ones I have in Spore, the texture is really smooth and when you put it in your mouth, you feel like its slipping into your mouth! :p

Well, unfortunately, I dont have anyone coming back from Ipoh recently. So, I have to make do with the frozen pre-packs that I can find at the supermarket, it has some wordings written on it that said its "Ipoh Hor Fun". Not too bad tho not as smooth as those fresh ones I had at Ipoh :D

**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 (5pax share):

- 2 pkts of pre-packed Hor Fun, soaked in boiled water for 5 minutes (to soften it) and remove the water.
- About 150g spare ribs, for boiling soup (can use chicken bones or ikan billis)
(I prefer using bones for cooking soup as it makes the soup more fragnant and definitely more nutritious for the children)
- 150g pork meat (chicken or pork, always use breast meat) sliced/minced and mixed it with some soya sauce and starch powder (note: starch powder is to soften the texture of the meat, only for pork)
- About 8-10 mushrooms (of average size), sliced.
(If you want to decorate the dish, dont slice all)
- One can of preserved caixin, chopped into cubes
- Some wolfberries (optional)
(not too much otherwise will make your soup too sweet, mainly to add some colour to the dish, can use red chilli if you like it hot)
- 1 tablespoon of Vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce
- 2 tablespoons of Soya sauce
- 2 tablespoons of starch powder, mix with a bowl of water and stir till the powder dissolves
- Pot of water, about 3/4 full (use an average size pot)


How to cook:

- Put the spare ribs in a pot of boiling water and soaked for 2-3 mins to remove the porky smell.
- Then boils another fresh pot of water together with the spare ribs
- When the water boils for the first time, add in the mushrooms, canned caixin and wolfberries
- When it boils again, put in the meat and the 2 sauces (oyster and soya sauce)
- When you get the taste you desire, add in the starch powder mixture (to pour in the starch powder gradually as you stir the soup otherwise the starch mixture will clog together)
- Pour the soup onto the Hor Fun (before pouring the soup, the Hor Fun should already be placed on individual plates)

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.