Glutinous Rice Balls (Tang Yuan) and Sweet Potatoes Dessert Soup (冬至送甜蜜)

"Happy Dongzhi, with hearty Tang Yuan, for a Treat of Sweetness"

Tomorrow is Tuesday (22nd Dec), it's also the Chinese Dōngzhì Festival (冬至), or you called it in more proper English term as Winter Solstice Festival. This festival is important to most Chinese, as it represents the growth of another year of wisdom with bountiful harvest.

Last year, we made our own rice balls and cooked it into dessert soup dish for the festive. And this year, I am not going to make my own rice balls, but to get the readily types of rice balls in the market. In fact, these kinds of convenient packs are available to most major supermarkets in Singapore all-year-long. You can simply buy and cook it anytime you want. Well, this is the Chinese ritual to have rice balls (pronouced as: Tang Yuan, 汤圆) in Dongzhi Festival, not just celebarating the growth, but to also symbolise the reunion of family (团圆) and the round shaped rice balls refers to the hope of having a perfect result in anything we do (圆满).

I yearned for a difference in making this traditional festive food. There are already many different delicious ways of having the rice balls desserts done interestingly in the market. They are no longer just having the rice balls in ginger soup, but have it in peanut soup, in "Dou Hua" (sweet beancurd dessert), with grassjelly and even go with chocolate dippings! So, how can I not be a little more adventurous this time since I was on my 'own time, own pace' basis (chuckling). As you know, I am a big fan of sweet potatoes, and in fact, I was having this soup the other night as my 'dinner meal'. So, I created this sweetness treat and hoping to cook it again for this upcoming Dongzhi festive, if the combination works well!

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
12 - 15 balls of Tang Yuan aka Glutinous Rice Balls (汤圆), with choices of filling: black sesame, red bean, yam and mashed peanut. *My favourite: the mashed peanut filling.
2 medium-sized orange-flesh sweet potatoes, cut into bite size
8 seedless red dates (红枣)
2 tablespoons of tiny sago
1 lump of ginger (about thumb-sized big), lightly smashed
2 lumps of honeyed rock sugar or normal ones (each about half the palm-sized big)

1 pot of water, 50% filled (about 1500ml)

Dipping (Optional):
Ground peanut mixture (peanut, white sesame and sugar)

Method
1) Boil a pot of water over high heat. Place ginger into the boiling water. Add sweet potatoes into the pot and bring it to another boil.

2) Reduce heat to low fire. Add in ginger, red dates and sago. Simmer the soup till sweet potatoes are softened, for about 20 minutes.

3) Add in rock sugar and simmer for another 10 minutes. When rock sugar is completely dissolved, increase heat to medium-high fire to bring the soup to a boil.

4) Place frozen rice balls into the boiling broth. Then, reduce heat again to low fire and let simmer till all rice balls rise to the surface of the broth. Heat off and serve hot.

Well, you still can make your own homemade glutinous rice balls with sweetened ginger soup (see recipe), and cook it this way. Tell you something, there are also beliefs in Chinese culture that one has to take the amount of rice balls according to one's age, simply means, if you are 30 years old, please take 30 balls (laughing)!! So... if you are making your own rice ball, make it tiny!

With the ingredients used in this recipe, you may actually cook this during Chinese New Year as one of the auspicious food items.

A bowl of my sweet dessert soup with 2 chunky peanut glutinous rice balls counts about 350kcal.

Tips: Do not thaw the readily-packed frozen glutinous rice balls before cook.

Apple Tarte Tatin

“This upside-down apple tatin will simply make a statement to your cooking history! Voilà!”

French is back again! Hey! Remember my French cook out session where I learnt the making of this ever-famous apple tarte tatin? I finally made it at home again, and here I am sharing the recipe and my experience of making this luscious French apple tarte tatin.

As I mentioned before, apple tarte tatin, or simply called it apple tatin, is fun to make. This is an “upside-down” caramelized apple tart which you have to over-turn the whole tarte after baked, in order to serve. It is easy to understand why apple tatin is so immensely popular. This apple tatin takes on the traditional French apple tarte features the pleasant sweet and refreshing sourish flavors that’s ideal for the sunny weekends. It’s delicious and truly an indulgence topped with Crème Fraîche (French soured cream)~

Use of frozen puff pastry to make an express dessert within an hour, makes it hassle-free and convenient to have this elegant and sumptuous dessert anytime. I got my frozen puff pastry from NTUC supermarket (find it at instant frozen food compartment). Well, I can show you the homemade puff pastry next time round when I make the apple strudel, if you are really keen to make your own pastry.. ;p

As for the choice of apple, 90% of the people knows that Granny Smith green apple is the best for making apple tatin, while the rest thinks that it is alright to use any other type of apple, e.g Gala and Fuji. I personally prefer to use green apple as it helps to offset some sweetness of the caramel, and yields a refreshing taste in the palate. The apples used in this recipe have to be fresh and firmer apples so that it will not be too soggy and mashed after cooked and baked. That’s why Granny Smith apple is more suitable to be used for sautéing and baking due to its well-known durable nature.

Serves 6
Ingredients:
5 – 6 firm green apples, peeled, halved and cored
1 sheet of puff pastry (or 8oz unrolled puff pastry, roll into 10" thin round sheet), thawed
100 gram of unsalted butter, thawed for 5 minutes
150 gram of sugar

Toppings (Optional):
Crème fraîche

Method
1) Peel and cut apples into halves. Core, and remove stem and the blossom end. Coat with few drops of lemon, or simply rinse with salted water, to prevent it oxidation (browning).

2) In a 10" ovenproof round skillet, melt butter over low heat. Put in sugar, and let it dissolve and simmer on very low heat, until mixture is thick and syrupy in pale honey colour. You may turn up the heat a little, if do not find the mixture bubbling. Do tilt the skillet and move it around from time to time to prevent over heat (but do not need to stir it with spatula). Remember to watch out the fire throughout the caramelizing process, do not let the mixture burn!


3) Arrange apples as many as you can, neatly and compactly. Apple flat surface down. Sauté apples over medium heat, undisturbed, for 5 - 8 minutes, or until apples are browned, and juices are golden and bubbling. Over turn each apple (now flat surface facing up) and let it sauté for another 5 - 8 minutes. In the meantime, preheat oven to 425°F or 210°C.

4) Bring apples together in the skillet and place in the middle of the oven. Bake 10 minutes.

5) Then, remove skillet from oven and lay pastry round over apples in the skillet. Return the skillet to oven and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until pastry is browned and fluffy. Remove skillet from oven and let it cool on rack for 10 minutes.

6) Invert a serving plate with lip over the skillet, hold skillet and plate (with heat-proof gloves) tightly together, and over-turn to invert tarte onto the plate. Now, rounded side of apples will be facing top with the puff pastry underneath (that's what we called upside-down tarte). You may then slice the apple tarte to serve with 1 tablespoon of crème fraîche on top of each slice.

Voilà!

A slice of apple tatin counts about 400kcal.

Hey! Wanna see how's the BURNT caramel look like?
Log on to my FaceBook Fan Club to check out the real stink burrrny. Yes, I screwed up the first caramelizing (medium heat was too strong.. sob..sob). So, see and learn from me, do not repeat the wrong step. Cook with PATIENCE! :p

* If you find it difficult to caramelize sugar with butter. Do it this way, place only the sugar to melt and simmer till caramelized. Then, add in butter to melt and further caramelize.
* Skip Step 4, if the apples are soften enough. Poke apple with a toothpick to test its texture.
* If your frozen puff pastry is unrolled, roll it out gently on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Cut out the sheet to fit slightly larger than the skillet with a sharp knife, using a plate as a guide.

Bo Bo Cha Cha (Asian Dessert Soup) Recipe

"Mind me, this is a ‘Sinfulicious’  week!"

Another ‘sinful’ (but delicious) recipe today, the Asian dessert soup, Bo Bo Cha Cha!

I am surely not a fan of coconut milk based dessert, but not sure why, I was craving for this Bo Bo Cha Cha the other day. Missed the feeling of chewing the super chewy tapioca flour cubes in this dessert soup! I loved having yam cubes and different types of sweet potatoes altogether! So, I cooked it yesterday. Yummy!

Bo Bo Cha Cha dessert soup is an Asian dessert, porpularly sold at hawker centers and food courts in Singapore and Malaysia. I heard the original name of Bo Bo Cha Cha in Malay words is, Bubor Cha Cha. Bubur means ‘porridge’, and I guess it was due to its thick consistency of soup base resembling texture of porridge.

Coconut milk in this dessert soup has to be the main character as its soup base is completely made of coconut milk! Hence, the choice of coconut milk, from its texture till the brand used, is important, in that sense. The best and most fragrant coconut milk soup base is, of course, cooked completely with coconut milk. However, as you know, I am one of the ‘healthy freak’. So, even for the food I craved for is sinful, I tried my best to make it less (laugh). Yes, I used lots of water (and less coconut milk) in my soup base cooking. Thus, please expect less thick and fragrant consistency in my dessert soup, unless you adjust the thick coconut milk cream from 300 gram to 400 gram, or use just 1200 gram of thin coconut milk without water to cook this. Two methods for your choice! Both are fine, so depends on what coconut milk you could get.

And, here I present... My Bobo Cha Cha Recipe, and the Making of Tapioca Flour Cubes!

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
½ portion of medium yam (also called taro), peeled and diced into cubes of your desired sizes
1 medium (about a palm-sized) orange-flesh local sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 medium (about a palm-sized) yellow-flesh local sweet potato, peeled and diced. (*If getting Japanese (yellow-flesh) sweet potato, use 2 as they are usually smaller size)
**1 cup of tapioca flour cubes

1 packet of THICK coconut milk cream (300 – 400 gram) with ½ pot of water (about 800 ml), (OR: 1200 – 1500 gram of THIN coconut milk, squeezed from 2 coconuts)
200 gram of sugar (*may adjust amount to your desired sweetness)
4 pandan leaves (tie into a knot)

**Ingredients for tapioca flour cubes:
150g of tapioca flour, sieved
70 - 80 ml of hot boiling water
Few drops each of red, yellow and green food colourings
Gentle touch of salt
1 pot of water (to precook the cubes)

**Method (to prepare colourful tapioca flour cubes):
i) Sift tapioca flour if lumpy flour found in it. Then, please tapioca flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Slowly stir-in hot boiling water and combine well until mixture turns dough-like texture. When mixture is cooled, form it into dough on a well-floured table top.

ii) Flour your palm, and divide dough into 4 parts. Mix each portion with 3 different colourings prepared and leave one portion as 'white' original colour (no colouring added). Knead to combine well and become non-stick dough. Then, roll and shape each portion out into long and squary thin stripe. Thereafter, dice into small cubes.

iii) Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. When boiled, reduce heat, and put in tapioca flour cubes to cook for about 30 minutes, or until all the cubes float up. Texture of cooked tapioca flour cubes should be chewy, and look bright (in colour) with a little transluscent apperance.

iv) Dish up and plunge cubes into a bowl of iced water for few seconds. Drain and remove cubes from iced water. Reserve for later.

Method (to prepare complete dessert soup, with thick coconut milk cream):
1) Boil water in a pot over high heat. When boiled, add in pandan leave, sweet potatoes and yam cubes, and bring them to a boil again. Reduce heat to medium fire, and let them cook for 20 minutes, or until ingredients are cooked and soften with right texture (not too soft).

2) Return tapioca flour cubes into the pot. Add in sugar and stir until dissolved. Lastly, add in coconut milk cream and stir well. Let it boil for another 5 – 8 minutes before heat off. Serve warm or chilled.

ALTERNATIVE METHOD - If you are using just thin coconut milk for this dessert:
1) No water is needed, in this case. Steam the yam and sweet potatoes cubes for 40 minutes, until cooked and soften.

2) Place thin coconut milk into a pot, and heat it up over medium fire. Add in sugar and stir until dissolved. Place steamed yam, sweet potatoes and tapioca flour cubes into the pot, and let them boil for 10 minutes. Heat off and serve. Warm or chilled.

Source of coconut milk fyi:
a) Thick coconut milk cream:
It is usually pre-packed and available at dry goods shelves.

b) Thin coconut milk:
There are different types of thin coconut milk, you may get the liquid types which clearly stated for dessert/ cake making use, available at chilled section in majoy supermarket. Or, those pre-packed powder form which you need to mix with water beforehand. Another type will be the freshest, freshly squeezed from coconuts, and available in Asian wet markets/ markets.

To serve chilled, keep dessert in refrigerator, once it is cooled. This is heavy coconut milked soup, best to keep it refrigerated as soon as possible, for maximum freshness.

A regular bowl of Bobo Cha Cha counts about 560 kcal.

Tips: * If those local orange-flesh sweet potatoes you have gotten are too big, use only halves.
* Purple-flesh sweet potato is not recommended as it will turn the soup into purplish colour instead of cream white colour.
* Thickness/ Consistency of the soup base always depends on type of coconut milk used. If cream type is used with adding of water is needed, adjust the amount of water added to your liking of thickness/ consistency of the soup.

Homecooked Bird Nest with Ginseng and Rock Sugar

"How to clean the "unprocessed" raw bird nest? Let's check it out! And your effort & time will surely be paid off with this goodness!"

Time to pamper yourself with luxurious bird nest dessert soup!

My mum got me some of these unprocessed original bird nests of the home-bred swallows. It was the first time seeing those raw bird nest pieces. Unlike those already well-processed with machine types which also moulded very beautifully in standard curve shape and size, these raw bird nests were full of feathers and dirts, and never in uniformed shape and size. And to be franked, unlike the COOKED bird nest drink (see below picture), the UNPROCESSED raw bird nest (see picture on right) wasn't appealing to me at all!

Benefits of taking bird nest regularly:

I heard bird nest is rich in amino acids which reqiured by our body. Eating bird nest regular helps to improve health condition and it is the best food for more radiant and smoother skin complexion for women, while it helps strengthening lungs and kidneys for men who take bird nest on regular basis. For young children, bird nest helps to boost up immune system.

As for myself, I am more concern on promoting fairer and smoother skin. Not sure if I am over-sensitive, I do feel that my complexion is better after having my homecooked bird nest every week for the past 1 month (laughing).

And, it is the best to have the unprocessed types of bird nest to avoid any chance of taking the bleaching chemical substance during the process of cleaning the bird nest goodness for better commercial value. I convinced myself with this reason, and started to do the cleaning, all manually.

It was indeed tedious and very long a process to get every single tiny feather, dirt and any other excrement out of the hard and dry nest, but they worth it all!

Tool needed:
Sharp tipped tweezer

Method to clean "unprocessed" bird nest:
1. Soak the dry curvy bird nest in a large bowl of luke water till soften, about 1 hour or more.

2. Drain and remove softened bird nest from large feathers and dirt. Place bird nest in a large bowl of clean water.

3. Repeat step 2 for a few more rounds to get rid of all the large dirty substances.

4. Prepare another separate bowl of water and a sharp tipped ear tweezers to pick up those tiny feather and dirt that are still in the bird nest. To easily remove the tiny feather that sticks on the tweezer's tip when you picked up, submerge the sharp tip into the bowl of water you have prepared separetely.

5. Drain bird nest and change to clean water constantly during the few cleaning stages.

You may also separate the cleaned portions out of the large bowl, and place them in another bowl, little by little.

6. Complete the cleaning process till the bird nest is totally free from feather/ dirt. It might take up to 3 hours to complete the task. Now, ready to cook this goodness which should already be in a form of transparent jelly-like thin strands.

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
4 pieces of dry and unprocessed bird nest (*Prepare with the abovelisted methods)
10 grams of thinly sliced ginseng roots (泡参)
5 red dates
1 large lump of rock sugar, about palm sized (or more if prefer sweeter taste)

4 regular bowl of water

Utensil
Double boiler or slow cooker

Method:
1. Place water, ginseng slices and red date into a ceramic bowl/ croak pot (the size of the bowl musn't be too small, water level should reach max. till three-quarter filled to avoid spillage). Bring it to a boil in double boiler or slow cooker, with medium heat. When water is boiled, reduce fire/ switch to low heat and simmer for 2 hours.

2. Add clean and soften bird nest and white rock sugar into the bowl/ croak pot, and continue to simmer for another 45 minutes.

3. The fragrance of egg white-like scent will emerge in the air, by then. Ready to serve hot, or store in refrigerator when it's cooled at room temperature, to serve chilled later.

The top-graded bird nest should be able to cook into loose crystal clear strands. And its texture should be soft and silky, resembling jelly strips. I loved to have it chilled as it tasted more refreshing.

Bird nest is low in calorie. So, it is alright to have it regularly!

Tips: Every single feather in the raw bird nest has to be cleaned away, especially if this is to be consumed by young children.
* Unprocessed bird nest was gotten from neighbourhood country.

Sweet Potato Dessert Soup with Dried Longan Recipe

"Heart-warming & savoury sweet potato dessert soup with dried longan. Simple recipe and tips to attain perfect taste and texture of this sweet soup dish!"

You do have impression that potato-related food is generally a ‘fattening’ food, don’t you? Would you believe if I tell you only potato is considered as, but not the sweet potatoes? Yes, not all kinds are. Sweet potatoes are not a fattening food. In fact, both potato and sweet potato are NOT high in calorie. The difference is, potatoes contain higher GI (= 56 – 65) (which somehow related to ‘fattening’), while sweet potatoes are relatively low GI (= 48 – 54) food. Check out GI(Glycemic Index)/ GL elaboration here.

How to have sweet potato taken regularly with nice cooking ways, and yet, not causing weight issue? Besides having just the steamed ones, try to have it cooked into dessert soup! Cook the sweet potato in dessert soup might look simple and very easy for some season cook, but it could be quite a challenge to some newbies, to reach the desired taste and texture of the sweet potatoes, too. The key is to control the sweetness in your soup. I never liked my sweet dessert soup to be too sweet (smile), of course, cannot be tasted bland! A successful sweet potato soup, taste of the ginger in it counts, too. I won’t have the ginger tasted over-whelming. Neither would I forgo the spicy fragrance at all.

Don’t forget the sweet potatoes mustn’t be cooked too soft as it will lose its interesting bites and beautiful & glossy appearance. Over-cooked sweet potatoes look ‘aged’ and easily disintegrated upon ladling into bowls. Always test its readiness with a fork inserted into the potato, after boiling for 30 minutes or so.

I had my Purple (and yellow) Sweet Potato Dessert Soup Recipe previously. Last week, I cooked the orange flesh (with yellow flesh) soup, with dried longan pulp added. Dried longan (龙眼干), also called Gui Yuan (桂圆) in Chinese, is rather common in Chinese sweet pr tonic soup cooking. I liked dried longan in my dishes due to one of its main benefits, promoting better sleep, according to some Chinese practitioners. Dried longan looks dry (of course!) and shrinked before it's cooked. Need not to pre-soak it, just wash and put in the soup to cook. You'll have the bulging and chewy textured longan pulps once it's cooked.

Dried longan complements the sweet potato soup so well. My sweet potato with dried longan dessert soup was a hit, when served to my friends and family.

It's indeed imaginably simple, and easy to cook! Check it out now:

Serve 4 - 6
Ingredients
2 regular yellow flesh sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized/ small cubes
2 regular orange flesh sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized/ small cubes
1 palm-sized honey rock sugar (or normal rock sugar, if desired)
1 thick slice of ginger (about 1cm thick, thumb-sized), lightly smashed once
1 pot of water (about 1500ml)

Method
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add ginger slice. Put in dried longan, yellow and orange flesh sweet potatoes, and bring them to another boil. Reduce heat to low fire, add rock sugar, and simmer for 20 - 30 minutes, or until sweet potatoes just soften. Serve hot.

Of course, you can have some sweet potato caserroles or briny-taste dishes, instead of having it sweet. Give me some time, I will have more sweet potatoes recipe in due (trying… winking smile)!

A bowl of this sweet potato dessert soup with dried longan counts about 120kcal.

Tips: Please do not over-cook the sweet potatoes as it will become too soft to yield the right texture.
* Cut the sweet potatoes into small cube size makes the cooking faster. It is also easier for the children to chew. Most of all, it looks much more presentable in appearance when served.
* Do simmer the rock sugar together with the sweet potatoes to attain perfect sweetness.

Homemade Tang Yuan in Ginger flavoured Sweet Soup (姜汤手工汤圆)

"Hand made Glutinuous Rice Balls filled with loves for this festive celebration, Dongzhi Festival (冬至)"

Today is Dōngzhì Festival or you called it Chinese Winter Solstice Festival (in Chinese: 冬至). One of the important festive celebrations to Chinese. Chinese calls this celebration as Gua Dong (过冬). Normally 冬至 falls on 22nd December, but this year falls on 21st December instead.

The most essential festive food in 冬至 is Tang Yuan (汤圆) aka Glutinuous Rice Ball. 汤圆 symbolises reunion. Eating 汤圆 together with the family is the best celebration in this festival.

Nowadays, many ready-packed 汤圆 are available in supermarket all year long. It comes with ground peanut, sesame and sugar mixture to serve as dipping condiment. Just make the soup will do. It is convenient and suitable especially for young family who prefers convenience. However, we prefer to make 汤圆 by ourselves. For a home-cooked taste and greater satisfaction for such important celebration. It's also for fun, to my girl!

I make use of this day as family day making 汤圆 together with my girl. She enjoyed making it and we had happy and quality bonding time spent together. My girls learnt to share work with me. I guess it is important as her learning and development path, in my opinion (smilling).

To yield some good bonding sessions with your children and loves one, try this at home!

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
For the rice ball:
300 gram glutinuous rice flour (about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon of cherry red colour essence
½ cup of water

For soup:
3 slices of ginger
5 pandan leaves, washed and cut off dead edges, tie leaves into a knot/ bundle
1 lump of rock sugar or brown sugar (about palm size, adjust sweetness to your liking)
1 pot of water, 50% filled (about 1000ml)

Dipping:
Ground peanut mixture (peanut, white sesame and sugar)

Method
1) Place glutinuous rice flour in a clean large bowl. Put some water (in few stages) while kneating the flour into dough, which means mix the flour with a little bit of water, kneat and put a little bit of water again. Repeat the step till it becomes dough. The texture of the dough has to be smooth and a little sticky.

2) Split half the dough. Half of it to mix with red colour, while the other half remains white.

2) Take a small lump of dough, put on your palm and roll into bite-sized ball. Repeat step till all complete.

3) To add ground peanut into the rice ball as its filling: take a biggr lump of dough, put on your palm and roll into (size of fifty cents) ball. Then, kneat with finger tips to flatten the piece. Put half teaspoon of ground peanut at the centre of the dough, fold it half and kneat around the edge to seal it. Tenderly roll it into ball. Repeat step till desired amount of rice balls. Reserve rice balls for later.

4) Boil a pot of water over high heat. Place ginger slices and pandan leaf bundle into the boiling water. Add rock sugar. Bring broth into a boil again.

5) Place rice balls into the boiling broth. Wait till all rice balls rise to the surface of the broth, when cooked. Heat off and serve.

Tips: Colour of the 汤圆 depends on your liking. You may use any other colour, but Chinese prefers red colour as auspicious colour. Alternatively, mae pandan flavour. Pound or blend a bundle of pandan leaves, squeeze its juice, and mix the juice with the dough (to make Pandan flavour rice balls in green colour).
* To know if the rice balls are cooked: rices ball will float on the surface when cooked.

Teochew Cuisine - Dessert Yam Paste with Ginkgo Nuts & Pumpkins (白果金瓜配潮州芋泥)

"Famous Teochew Sweet Yam Paste, the hearty flavour created at home, for your love ones"

I love sweet yam paste. We pronounce it as "Orr Nee" in Teochew dialect. Basically, most food products made of yam paste are my favourite. I love the taste of yam. Yam puff, yam pancake, yam bun, yam biscuit, yam cake, yam in soup, and etc. Yam, yam, and yammy...

Sweet yam paste is a famous traditional Teochew dessert. This dessert dish will be served at most Teochew restaurants in Singapore. 1 regular portion of sweet yam paste dessert costs about $5 - 6. Price is expensive! So, how about give it a try at home? Try my sweet yam paste recipe here.

Sweet Yam Paste might look complicated to make, but it is not so difficult in fact. Taste might be as good as restaurant standard, much more the hearty feeling to your loves one, with a homemade yam paste!

Serve 6
Ingredient
1 regular yam aka taro, cut into small pieces with skin removed
¼ cup of olive oil (or pork lard for more fragrance)
½ cup of sugar (sweetness adjust to your liking)
½ cup of water (more watery or thicker texture to be determined by the amount of water added, adjust to your liking of its texture)
½ clove of shallot, minced
3 tablespoon of coconut milk
1 tablespoon of corn flour

Garnish
1 wedge of pumpkin, cut into small pieces with skin removed
1 handful of ginkgo nuts, cooked (Get vacumm-packed readily available from supermarkets. Boil with water for 10 minutes)

Method
1) Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the taro pieces and pumpkin pieces, boil for 10 minutes, or until the pieces are thoroughly cooked and tender. Remove from pot, let the taro and pumpkin pieces cool separately. When pumpkin is cool, cut it into small cubes, and reserve for ganishing purpose.

2) Return to the cool taro, use a masher or big fork to mash the taro completely smooth. Heat a wok over medium fire, and add in olive oil. Add shallot and fry till fragrant.

3) Then, add in mashed taro, and stir continously with wooden spatula, until the taro and oil are well-combined. Reduce heat to low fire, gradually add in water and keep stirring it till taro paste becomes smooth and paste-like consistency.

4) Add sugar and coconut milk, stir for 5 minutes. Sprinkle some corn flour, and stir for another 5 minutes. Heat off, and serve in a nice serving dish. Garnish with ginkgo nuts and pumpkin cubes. Serve warm.

This yam paste can be used as the filling of bun or puff, if you wish to make yam bun/ yam puff.

Calorie of a decent portion of yam paste counts 350 - 400 kcal.

Tips: Taste your yam paste while cooking, increase the amount of sugar if sweeter taste is preferred.
* The texture of Teochew yam paste should be thick. If you prefer more watery consistency, add more water when cooking, continue to stir till well-combined.
* You may also choose to add more coconut milk as garnishing when served. Alternatively, add olive oil on top of the yam paste to feel the smooth texture in the palate.

Sweet Red Bean Soup with Lotus Seeds

"Easily made Sweet Red Bean Soup to sweeten your palate and smile"

Red bean soup (with round rice balls most of the time) is commmonly cooked and to be eaten during wedding ceremony in Chinese customary. Color of red signifies happiness and fortune, while sweet dessert represents 'sweet' and good life. Hence, SWEET RED bean soup will be presented in many occasions such as wedding and birthday celebrations.

As for me, I like to take red bean soup regularly, for its high Vitamin B values. Some women believe in taking more red bean soup after their monthly menstruation cycle.

I have added with lotus seeds, for its contrast in colour to my red bean soup to make it looked more presentable, at the same, get to eat some of these nice lotus seeds.

The soup may be served hot, or chilled. With more liquid base (add more water), or more paste-like consistency (less water and boil for longer hour). It's all depend on your preference.


Serve 4 - 6
Ingredients
1 regular cup of red beans
1 handful of lotus seeds (cooked and vacuum-packed easily available in most supermarkets)
1 rock sugar (about palm-sized) or 2 smaller ones (adjust sweetness to your liking)
1 pot of water, 70% filled (about 1500ml, 6 regular cups)

Optional:
1 piece of dried orange peel (sun-dried)

Method
1) Place red beans and lotus seed in a pot of water. Bring it to a boil.

2) Add rock sugar. Reduce heat to low fire, simmer for about 1 hour, or until cooked and tender.

3) If prefer tangy flavour, add in dried orange peel, 15 minutes before heat off. Serve.

Calorie count of a regular bowl of red bean soup is about 120 kcal. Good to have it for tea break, I think.

Tips:Adding a piece of dried orange peel gives the soup a pleasant tangy flavour. Kinda refreshing taste to your palate. It's better to get those peels from mandarin oranges. Sun-dry the peels, pack and keep them in the freezer for more lasting effect. Remember, the longer boiling of the peels, the stronger tangy flavour will be yielded.
* If you prefer to use dried lotus seeds, please soak the seeds overnight before use.
* Soaking of red bean in advance is not necessary.
* Garnish with 1 tablespoon of coconut milk, if preferred.

White (Snow) Fungus with Rock Sugar Dessert Soup (冰糖雪耳糖水)

"Easy-making of Premium White Fungus (or known as Snow Fungus), Lotus Seeds, Red Dates and Candied Winter Melon Strips with Rock Sugar Dessert Soup."

This is the best dessert soup I ever tasted. I love it! However, it is quite expensive to buy from outside stores. I know a regular bowl of premium white fungus with rock sugar dessert soup costs $3 - $5. Moreover, those 'commercial' desserts are normally way too sweet for the palate.

Hence, I decided to cook it at home whenever I feel like having some. I can adjust the sweetness to my liking as well as adding my preference of ingredients which complement the white fungus dessert.

Making process of this dessert might look complicated, but indeed, the cooking steps are far easier than what you thought. The most common way of handling the white fungus is to pre-soak it for at least an hour, and then add it only towards the end of boiling. However, I prefer to soak it for no more than 10 min, but to add it in and boil together with the rest of the ingredients, from the beginning. The texture of white fungus will turn out even better. Chewy, but very tender, its jelly-like consistency almost melt in your mouth.

A bowl of this sweet soup counts 250 kcal.

As usual, I boiled a big pot, and brought some to work, to share with colleagues and boss. Of course, it was appreciated by all of them (smiling). A colleague requested for its recipe, after tasted it. Here you go:

Serve 6
Ingredients
1 palm-sized dried white fungus (chinese translation:雪耳)
6 - 8 red dates
½ cup of cooked lotus seeds (vacuum-packed ready packet)
½ cup of candied winter melon strips
½ cup of small sago (aka pearly starch balls)
1 lump of rock sugar (50 gram)
1 pot of water, 50% filled (about 2000ml)

Method:
1. Soak white fungus in clean water for 10 min, or until expanded. Cut off stub, rinse, and cut to small pieces. Briefly wash red dates and lotus seeds separately.

2) Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add white fungus, lotus seeds, red dates, candied winter melon and rock sugar into boiling water.

3) Bring it to a boil again. Reduce heat to low fire, simmer for 30 min. Add in small sago, and simmer till all ingredients are tender and soup becomes lightly thicken, for another 30 min. Serve hot, or chilled.

As you can see, it is way too simple to have this tasty, healthy and hearty premium dessert soup made by your own at home.

A bowl of such dessert not just satisfies your taste bud, it’s also a reward to your skin and body. It helps to nourish your skin and complexion as well as promoting better health of your body. That’s why dessert soup has been so popular in the Cantonese society.

No particular reason for adding candied winter melon, it’s my preference as I like its crunchy and chewy bites when having this dessert.

Tips: Do not add too many red date as its taste will over-whelm the rest.
* Use mini-sized sago for easily cooked. If choose big sago, pre-boil for 1 hour.
* If you are getting dried uncooked lotus seeds, pre-soak them for at least 3 hours.
* Choose better quality type of white fungus. Its colour should be pale and off-white.

Green Mung Bean with Barley Dessert Soup

"Green (Mung) Bean Sweet Soup & Barley, Double Taste & Double Benefit"

Whenever I think of slimming food, I think of green bean.

I've ever came across an article on how green bean helps in slimming effect. A bowl of green bean paste/ soup (without sugar added) to be taken daily helps to lose weight. Result will be seen as fast as within a week. Frankly, I am not quite sure if it is so real. Based on my experience, it helps a little. Was it due to the green beans? Probably yes, as it aids digestion, afterall. Anyway, green bean offers nutritional benefits.

Chinese believes in its “cooling effect” to our body, green bean aka mung bean, has also asserted to its nutritional fame. (See more details).

A bowl of warm green bean soup served to your loved ones during cold weather warms their body as well as heart. Green bean soup can be served chilled, too. It's extra refreshing to be taken in the sunny afternoon as tea break. It's the hearty feeling that counts...

By adding some whole grain barley to the pot, it further improves our health alongside an enhanced flavour of the soup, with its appealing chewy and paste-like consistency. Barley helps to reduce water retention in the body, too.

A bowl of green bean and barley dessert soup counts about 200 kcal.

Yes, I cooked a pot of green bean soup early this morning. Brought some to work for my colleagues as well, and it was a hit as green bean soup makes good breakfast (or rather good late breakfast... chuckling), too!

Serves 6
Ingredients:
200 gram whole green beans (about 1 cup)
100 gram of pearl barley (about ½ cup)
1 pot of water, 70% filled (about 2000ml)
3 pandan leaves, washed and cut off dead edges
1 big lump of crystal rock sugar (about 75gram)

Method:
1) Wash green beans in running tap water.
2) Place beans in a pot of water. Bring beans and water to a boil over medium fire. Cover with lid.
3) Briefly wash pearl barley, and place in the pot, when water boiled.
4) Tie pandan leaves together into a knot. Add in pandan leaves and rock sugar into boiling water.
5) Reduce heat to low fire, simmer for about 45 min to 1 hour, or until beans have slightly expanded out of their skins. Texture of beans and barley should be soft and fluffy.

With just 3 pandan leaves added in the soup, the pandan flavour will not be over-whelmed. It added just extra frangrance to the soup, and in your palate.

Tips: Ratio of water : beans/barley should be 3 : 1.
*Add more water and/or sugar, if necessary.

Dried Bean Curd, Barley with Gingko Nuts Dessert Soup (腐竹薏米白果糖水)

“Tons of good reasons for having this great dessert soup all the time!”

I cooked this dessert umpteen times and still cook it always, for my family and colleagues! Why so often? Because this dessert benefits our health and it’s tasty. Most Cantonese believed that having dessert soup daily helps to rejuvenate skin and promote better complexion. This dried bean curd, barley with gingko nuts sweet soup offers even greater health benefits. Not only the dried bean curd helps to lower cholesterol level and for better skin, barley does help to reduce risk of getting cancer, also lower cholesterol and alleviate water retention in body. Gingko nut helps to improve female genital issues such as minor vaginal discharge problem.

Made it a little different, I added sago. Not getting much from it, except for carbohydrate and little protein and minerals. I like its chewy texture and crystal-like appearance in my soup (smiling)!

There were a few times I added unsweetened soy milk in this sweet soup (lessen the amount of water by half and replaced with soy milk). It was nice, the thick and ‘milky taste” added pleasure to the palate!

This sweet soup counts 220 kcal for a large portion.

Serves 6 - 7
Ingredients
½ cup of pearl barley (about 150 gram)
1 packet of vacuum-packed (shelled) gingko nuts (about 35 – 40 softened nuts)
1 large sheets of dried bean curd skin (premium grade specially for dessert)
½ cup of small white sago (about 50 gram)
2 large eggs
1 large rock sugar (add more to your preference)
1 large pot of water, 70% filled (about 2000ml)

Method
1) Briefly wash pearl barley. Put barley into a pot of water and bring to a boil over high heat.

2) Add gingko nuts, sago and rock sugar. Bring down heat to low fire, simmer for 30 min, place and tilt the lid on the pot.

3) Break up dried bean curd into smaller pieces. Rinsed before adding to the soup. Need not to steep dried bean curd. Simmer for another 10 min, or until dried bean curd completely soften.

4) Break eggs in a bowl, briefly beat with serving fork (beat no more than 4 strokes). Slowly swirl eggs into the soup (in few stages). Stir constantly till egg-drop forms strips. Heat off. Serve warm.

Usually, only egg white will be used in this dessert. However, I do not wish to waste it. So, I used whole egg since I did not see any difference in taste with or without yolk. However, if for health concern, eliminate or include only 1 yolk instead.

Tips: Do not beat the egg completely as the presence of both white and yellow (yolk) egg-drop in your soup made it more appealing.
*If you wish to try the soy milk version, use half the recommended amount of water to boil ingredients, and then add soy milk only after adding in dried bean curd.
*Vacuum-packed gingko nuts are available in most supermarket. If unable to get, try canned gingko nuts. Both are ready shelled types.

Nata de Coco & Fruit Mixes in The Glass

"Just another way to serve your fruits, with Nata de Coco this time!"

I go supermarket almost every other day, to buy daily groceries and food as well as checking out information on any latest food or food-related products. My girl always tag along, of course. She accompanies me to walk around the supermarket, but seldom demand for anything for herself, especially junk food and snacks. At most, she'll ask for yogurt drinks which she usually drinks in the morning, beside fresh milk and warm Milo.

We went to NTUC supermarket last Sunday afternoon, as per usual, for some household stuff. While we were walking around, my girl asked if she could get a packet of “jelly in a big packet”. Jelly in big packet? I was mystified. Then, she pointed at the packets. Oh, it’s Nata de Coco! I then recalled that she had a sample tasting of this “jelly” at NTUC during our “supermarket trip” recently. She likes it. I asked her which flavour does she want, Grape, Mango, Lychee…? Original, she voiced joyfully!

Nata de Coco – It might sound unfamiliar when first heard it, but you surely have tasted it before. In cafeteria, dessert store or elsewhere, just could not recall its name at times (smiling). It’s OK even if this is first time you heard about it.

Nata de Coco originates from Philippines. It is chewy, juicy and slightly translucent, jelly-like coconut water (which has been fermented) in tiny cubes. Nata de Coco is high in dietary fiber. One of the best food/ snack for dieting, health conscious people like you and me, as it contains zero fat and cholesterol as well as low in calories. And, it’s tasty! Even though Nata de Coco is often sweetened, but its calories count only 60kcal per serving of generous portion.

Since my girl likes this food, I’ve made this recipe to go along with it! Use this to impress your guests over the gathering in your house, too. It's simple, you'll have a glass of such fancy fruits dessert in no time!

Serve 1
Ingredients
¼ cup of Nata de Coco (Original flavour)
¼ cup of sweetened peach, wedged (from canned fruit)
¼ cup of sweetened lychee (from canned fruit)
¼ cup of fresh strawberry, diced
¼ cup of clear syrup (may get it from the same canned peach or lychee), or honey syrup

Method
1) Get a clean glass, layer peaches, lychee, Nata de Coco and strawberry in the glass, in your desired order (I layered the fruits in contrasting colours manner).
2)Repeat the layering till three quarter-filled.
3) Add in the clear syrup. Serve chilled.

My girl was pleasantly surprise when I served this after our dinner (about 1 hour later) this evening, and told me that she did not expect the Nata de Coco will be served this way (laughing). She finished the whole glass of such fruit mixes all by her own! And I, who expected to share with her for such a big glass, had to make another glass for myself (eye-rolling).

Tips: I chose these few fruits for their colours and the flavour of these fruits are compatible with each other, too.
*Choose the original flavour of Nata de Coco to match with the taste of any fruit.
* Use fresh fruits, if preferred. Just make your own honey syrup instead.
* Just doubled the amount of ingredients if making more than 1 glass.

Purple Sweet Potatoes Dessert Soup

"Take this Low GI, Low GL and Relatively Low Calories Dessert!"

I like sweet potatoes in baked, boiled, steamed, soup, and even fried styles. My girl likes sweet potato, too, but she likes only the purple flesh.

So, I had to have purple sweet potatoes in this sweet soup. I cooked it with less sugar added. I used honey rock sugar which is good for smoothen dry throat, reduce "heatiness" and improve skin and complexion. To add better flavour to my sweet soup, I like to use pandan leaf. It gives an aroma of pandan in my palate when having this soup.

Something I wish to highlight, traditionally, the yellow and orange sweet potatoes are more suitable to cook in soup as the purple flesh type is softened easier than other types. So, to my experience, do not over boil them. Note that the colour of the soup will turn to purplish due to the purple flesh sweet potato. The longer it cooked, the darker purplish soup will be. Hence, do not be alarmed. It gives an uniquely nice colour to this dessert without affecting its taste indeed.

A regular bowl of sweet potato soup here counts about 170kcal.

It's dessert time! Easy steps for mouth-watering sweet potato dessert. Let's start:

Serve 4
Ingredients
2 regular yellow flesh sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into smaller piece, as desired
2 regular purple flesh sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small piece, as desired
2 card-size honey rock sugar (or normal rock sugar, if desired)
4 leafs of pandan leaf, washed and tie all into a knot
1 thick slice of ginger (about 1cm thick)
1 pot of water (about 1500ml)

Method
1) Bring a pot of water to boil. Put in yellow flesh sweet potatoes, and bring to boil again.

2) Reduce heat to simmer, for 10 min. Add in purple flesh potatoes, ginger, pandan leave and rock sugar.

3) Simmer for another 15min, or until sweet potatoes soften. Serve hot.

Many people has this perception that sweet potato is high-carbohydrate food. In fact, the carbs value content of sweet potato is much lesser than in white rice by almost half the carbs value. Sweet potato is low in GI, and relatively low in calories. It is also high in nutrients especially Vitamin A which is good for eyes for children. Sweet potato is a better alternative to rice. I like to cook the sweet potatoes with plain porridge for lunch or dinner, and add low-fat milk to the steamed sweet potatoes to eat as breakfast. It's simply wonderful!

Tips: Add more sugar, as desired.
*Remove the pandan leaf and/ or ginger slice earlier, if mild flavour preferred.
* Sweet potatoes will disintegrate if over boiled.
* Add yellow flesh first, and then purple flesh as the purples one softens faster than the yellow or orange ones.
*Choose different colour flesh, as desired.

Hearty Chocolate Fondue Make at Home, for Your Valentine.

"Chocolate Fondue, everyone's favourite! Make this on the Valentine's Day, for your Valentine.."

Besides having chocolate fondue at Häagen-Dazs which costs you about $30+ for 2, you can actually enjoy this decadent dessert from home! I like to have it at home, a homemade one!



That's another way of enjoying fruits, as dessert, too. You can have it served in minutes.

Make your own chocolate fondue isn't difficult. Have it after dinner, weekend tea time, treats for friend's visit to your house, and etc.. It is too simple to enjoy it at home everyday indeed, if you wish...

It is surely an forgetable Valentine's evening, swirling a glass of white and indulging in this sweet treat, while submerging into the romantic night with your loved one. Hmmm ~

Calories? Chocolate counts 90kcal with fruits e.g. apples, grapes, bananas and strawberries. This dessert counts about 230 kcal for 1 decent portion.GI (Glycemic Index) value? Yes, thanks to Eggy from My Chat Box, who reminded me on the GI (chuckling). Well, apple has about 30GI values, strawberry has 40,grape has 46, banana has 51, and dark chocolate about 60.


Serves 4
Ingredients
50g dark couverture chocolate chips, 53% or more of cocoa (couverture: glossy chocolate which melts smoothly)
2 red or green apples, cut into bite-size
15 seedless grapes (less or more grapes, as desired)
3 bananas, thick sliced lenghtwise
9 medium size strawberries

Optional
Chocolate ice cream, cut into 8 cubes or make into 8 balls using the small scooper
8 Love letters (egg rolls which come in chocolate/ vanilla & strawberry flavours)

Method
1) Add dark couverture (in chips or roughly chopped if it's in a block) into the fondue pot.

2) Light up a tealight candle and place it in the fondue burner to soften the chocolate.

3) Nicely place your fresh fruits in a tray.

4) Stir in 1 tablespoon of boiled water or cream to the fondue, if it feels a little stiff.

5) Serve hot melted chocolate fondue with fresh fruits.

Tips: Try large scale super market, for instances, NTUC Extra and Carrerfour, to get the fondue pot set and dark couverture chocolate chips in small or big packet. I got mine at Robinson departmental store, RafflesCity.
Use only chocolates with 53% or above (53% - 70% is ideal) of cocoa solids. Do not use milk chocolate as the taste will not go well with the fruits as fondue.
Chocolate dip with BANANA is the most perfect match. Don't go for chocolate fondue if without banana. Try also ice-cream (cut into cubes) and love letters (chocolate rolls).
To make your fondue a little more impressed, add drops of liquor to the chocolate (if it's not eating with children).

Chunky Fresh Mango-Yogurt in the Glass

"Make for your children, they will sure love it and HEALTHY dessert! Your hubby, and loved ones, too!"

Craving for dessert after dinner? Hmm… cut-fruits - boring, cakes - too “sinful” for the night, what else??

After dinner, I agreed that it’s good to have some dessert or light refreshment (about an hour) before sleep, especially to those who stay up late for work and projects. So, I have an idea for you. A new way of eating fruit that helps to improve your digestive system, and curb your cravings, too!

I used mango, yogurt, and cereal. Healthy ya (chuckling)?!

This is a very simple homemade dessert that your children may help you to do it together, just like I did. I got my girl to mash the mango with fork for me after I peel it. I did not use blender, but a fork instead. The purpose is to make the puree a little “not so refine” as I like to have the “homemade feel” of it, at the same time, we can have the mango pulp in the puree. Of course, by using fork, you can let your little ones do it slowly (especially during non-school days). They will surely be excited to help you, like my little princess. No worries, please go ahead to use blender if you prefer that way. Just peel and cut the mango, add yogurt and sugar to blend them together. This dessert takes less than 10 min to make 2 glasses.

Dessert... It’s OK. A glass of heavenly taste mango-yogurt probably counts 190 kcal (calories less than 1 cup of banana of 220g).

Nothing much we can do to reduce calories this time other than using replacement sugar (artificial sweetener with 0 calorie) than cane sugar. Also use low fat plain yogurt rather than flavored one. Sugar is a must since we are using plain yogurt herein. Otherwise, it won’t taste like a dessert, but more like a slimming food. If you are making it for the family with children, I’ll suggest sticking to normal sugar though.

Serves 2
Ingredients:
2 medium-sized mangos (chilled)
1 small cup of plain yogurt (Low-fat)
2 small scopes of Honey Star cereal (or cornflakes)
2 tablespoons of sugar

Method:
1. Cut 1 of the peeled mangos (any shape you find it easy to mash)

2. Place in a bowl and mash into puree with fork.

3. Cut another mango into small cubes. Set aside.

4. Put the mango puree with yogurt and sugar together. Mix well.

5. Get a nice glass, pour spoonful of yogurt mixture into the glass. Add spoonful of mango cubes.

6. Add 1 scope of honey star cereal.

7. Fill the glass with more yogurt mixture till 90% full.

8. Repeat steps for another glass. Serve chilled.

If too late in the night is no good time for your children to consume chilled food, prepare it earlier or have it 1 hour before dinner time (best time for dessert and this one won’t fill your stomach, but to help for digestion instead). Or, it is also good as afternoon refreshment, especially in hot weather. Your children will have more time to help you out in the day over weekend, too.

Tips: I used Thailand honey mangos which taste sweeter and softer. Choose riper mangos for the puree. As for yogurt, I used Paul's brand. It tastes better and smoother as compared to other brands, to me.