Assorted Favour Jellies

First of all I would like to thank one of my good blogger friend Tracy for contributing two of her new creations to this blog. She is someone who loves all kinds of dessert and she is very innovative in creating her very own dessert using whatever ingredients she can find in her kitchen pantry. Like from those Assorted Agar Agar you can see she actually takes the time to boil the Dried Longan with Peng Da Hai to make the Ching Teng Favour. I can said, when comes to dessert Tracy really gives me a lot of wonderful ideas. Thank Pal for all the ideas and support.

The word agar comes from the Malay word agar-agar (meaning jelly). Agar is usually sold as packaged strips of washed and dried seaweed, or in powdered form. Raw agar is white and semi-translucent. For making jelly, it is boiled in water at until the solids dissolve, after which sweeteners, flavoring, coloring, and pieces of fruit may be added. The agar-agar may then be poured into molds or incorporated into other desserts, such as a jelly layer on a cake.



Japanese konnyaku jelly is made by mixing konnyaku flour with water and limewater. Without additives for color, konnyaku is pale white. It is then boiled and cooled to solidify. Konnyaku has almost no calories but is very high in fiber. Thus, it is often used as a diet food.

This Dried Fruits Konnyaku Jelly is something that is interesting from her. Because usually we add can mixed fruits or fresh fruit in it, I had never eaten this type of jellies with dried fruits added. So I am actually very keen on trying out the Sour Plum Favour type. So I am going to look for a suitable Sour Plum from Umeya to test this out. According to her, you just need to cut the dried fruits into smaller pieces then put into the jelly mould and cook the konnyaku according to packet instruction and pour into the mould set it in the fridge when cool over night or for a few hours to let the favour developed.

Ginger Milk Custard

Those who like to have a bowl of dessert after meal might had already known this simple homemade dessert. It's a very famous HK sytle dessert which is pretty easy to make. You only require simple ingredients like Fresh Milk, Ginger Juice & Sugar.


Since today I had an early dinner, I decided to whip up a one person share portion for this dessert. You can make it into small tea cup size or small soup bowl that suits your own liking.

Ingredients:(serve 1 or 2)
140ml Full/Low Fat Fresh Milk
1/2 Tablespoon Fresh Grated Ginger Juice
1/2 Tablespoon Sugar

Methods:
1. Bring the milk to the boil, reduce to low heat, add in sugar and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.
2. Set aside for a while(about 2-3 minutes).
3. Pour the milk between 2 cups for about 10 times.
4. Put ginger juice into bowl or tea cups then pour in the milk from about 8" height over the bowl.
5. Do not jiggle the content until it set(about 5 to 10 minutes, depend on it's size).

Notes:
a) Bring the milk to the boil first before reducing to low heat. This makes it more thickened and easier to set.

Yam Paste With Pumpkin & Ginkgo Nuts

Or Nee(Yam Paste With Gingko Nuts) is a must dessert for Teochew People during the Chinese New Year. So this year I decided to make some of this to share with my friends who came over for New Year gathering.


I cook and mashed the yam then stir-fry it with oil and top with Mashed Pumpkin, grated water chestnut, sugar ginkgo nuts and drizzle with some coconut cream.

Ingredients:
500g Skinned Yam, cubed
50-60g Caster Sugar
30ml Vegetable/Fried Shallot Oil

Methods:
1. Steam yam for 30 minutes or until soften before mashing.
2. Heat oil in a wok, then add mashed yam and sugar.
3. Stir well and cook over low heat until not sticky.

Topping:
20-25 Vacuum Pack Gingko Nuts
1 Tablespoon Caster Sugar
2 Water Chestnuts, grated
100g - 150g Skinned Pumpkin, cubes
1 1/2 Tablespoons Coconut Cream

Methods:
1. Wash and pat dry the gingko nuts then marinate it with 1 tablespoon of caster sugar for about 10 minutes.
2. Steam the pumpkin cubes over medium heat for about 15 - 20 minutes until soft then mash it using a fork and set aside.
3. Scoop cooked yam paste into a bowl or plate with depth then arrange the sugar gingko nut around it and place the mashed pumpkin in the middle and top with grated water chestnut.
4. Steam it for 15 minutes then drizzle the coconut cream on top and steam for another 5 minutes on medium heat.
5. Serve either hot or warm.

Notes:
a) If you prefer sweet taste then add more sugar or else you can reduce the sugar amount.
b) You can either used those vacuum pack gingko nuts found in leading supermarket or you can used those dried type one.
c) You can omit the pumpkin and water chestnut if you don't prefer them.

Creamy Avocado Dessert

Do you know what is this green mixture with the chocolate sauce? Hahaha... For your info, is not Green Tea Ice-cream nor Mint Ice-cream. Is blended Avocado dessert.... This is another way to consume your avocado if you don't like to eat it as what it is.... For more information on Avocado, you can click on this link "All about Avocado".

The original recipe come from Suyin's "A yucky Shade of Green" post. She used sugar, palm sugar and mocha powder for the sauce. But Tracy taught me another methods is to used dark chocolate melted with palm sugar and drizzle on top and it taste great as well.

Notes:
To ripen avocado, place it in a brown paper bag and store at room temperature with an apple or banana for 2 to 4 days or until ripe.

Store cut avocado halves with the seed left intact. Drizzle with lemon or lime juice and wrap tightly in plastic, ensuring plastic is pressed on surface.

Mango Kaffir Lime Sorbet

This is the Kaffir Lime Leave that most Thai Food used. If you remember well, I had used this leave for one of poultry dish called "Kaffir Lime Leave Chicken" which infused a very special fragrant to the dish. You can get it from most supermarket or those Malay vegetable stalls in the local wet market.

This time, instead of using this leave for cooking, we are actually using it's fragrant to make a sugar syrup for the sobert. You may wonder... Err... is it nice? I can tell you, it is..... and indeed it's a very fragrant and refreshing dessert.....

The process of making a sorbet is rather easy but time consuming.. Because you need to break the ice from time to time in order for it to be smooth. Sobert is a frozen dessert made from iced fruit puree and other ingredients. The term "sherbet" is derived from the Turkish word for "sorbet". Sorbet is a form of gelato that contains no milk, unlike ice cream. Sorbets may contain alcohol (which lowers the freezing temperature, resulting in a softer sorbet). Sorbets are traditionally served between the starter course and main course in order to cleanse the palate before the main course.

These Mango Kaffir Lime Sorbet tastes fantastic when you sever it with some extra freshly cubes mango, laychee and drizzle over some Kaffir Lime Syrup......... And again... thanks Tracy for introducing me this wonderful and easy to make dessert.

Ingredients:
100g Caster Sugar
1 .5 Cup Water
6 - 8 Single Kaffir Lime Leaves
2 Mangoes, skinned and cut into slices

Methods:
1. Wash the kaffir lime leaves and tear into small pieces and put everything together in a pot with the sugar and 1.5 cups of water.
2. Bring to boil and stir till all the sugar dissolves then cool and chill overnight in the fridge before use. (Discard the leaves before chill)
3. Reserved 1/2 Cup of the chilled syrup and mix the rest with the mango slices and blend in a food processor until well mixed.
4. Pour the mango puree into a shallow tub or baking tin.
5. Leave it in the freezer for a couple of hours until ice begins to form around the edges.
6. Remove from freezer and use a folk or handheld mixer, whisk thoroughly to break up the ice-crystals.
7. Do this two to three times more at hourly intervals, then transfer the mixture to an air-tight container and allow to freeze solid.
8. Just before serving, scoop the mango sobert to a cup and top with extra diced mango, some fresh lychee and drizzle with some extra kaffir lime syrup.

Mango Pudding

Saw this Mango Puddings recipe from m4m website forum and it was strongly recommended by most of the people who had tried it. Since now it is mango season where you can easily get hold of fresh and juicy mango, I decided to give this recipe a try. I followed most of the ingredients given by Hugbear (base on her recipe) except by replacing some of the required ice-cream to mango juice and milk because I don't have enough at home.

Ondeh Ondeh (元宵节)

The 15th days of the Chinese Lunar New Year is also known as Yuan Xiao Jie ( 元宵节). On this day, every household gets together to enjoy reunion dinner, new year goodies as well as the most important item Tang Yuan (汤圆). But  instead of making the traditional Tang Yuan (汤圆), Rey and I actually re-create it into Ondeh Ondeh which also make use of glutinous rice flour, Gulua Malaka (椰糖) filling but these are eaten "dry" so we coat them with fresh desiccated coconut.

Creamy Red Bean Dessert

My mother-in-law loves to make this red bean "红豆沙" dessert during Chinese New Year and we always ask for second helping because of its smooth texture when compared to those serve in some of the Chinese restaurants. So when I saw a related recipe in one of the forum, I decided to give it a try since the steps are pretty easy to follow.

Orange Mousse Cup

Find this Orange Moose Cup recipe very interesting and easy to do so I just give it a try. If you are a citrus fans than this dessert is something that you have to try. But if you are not then you can replaced it with Mango or Strawberry Mousse. So next time when you are squeezing orange juice, remember to keep the orange case to try out this recipe.