Chocolate Hot Cross Buns

Often Easter isn't complete without eating some warm hot cross buns straight from the oven. So for this coming Easter, perhaps you would like to give this recipe a try and bake a batch of your own. I saw this recipe from one of the Australia best selling Food Magazine known as "Super Food Idea". I am a big fan of this magazine during my stay in Australia a few years back and today all thanks to my dear friend, Quinn who stays in Adelaide. With her help on getting this magazine for us, we are able to try out this wonderful Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Bun. She is so sweet and helpful that she even take photo of the recipes and email to me in case we don't received the book before Easter.

Nested Easter

Today is exactly 1 more week to Easter Sunday. Christians celebrate Easter Sunday because they believed Jesus rose from death. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the fundamental principles and beliefs of Christianity and they celebrate Easter Sunday because they believe, Jesus died for their sin on the Cross-on Good Friday, buried and rose from death on Sunday.

Double-Boiled Fresh Lily Bulbs Soup

Recently a lot of my son's classmates as well as a few members in our family are suffering for dry cough/sore throat due to the hot and humid weather. And while chatting with one of my son's classmate parent, she has shared with me some remedies for smoothing throat as well as cough which they practice way back in her hometown, in China. Although the ingredients that they used are rather simple and inexpensive, but the result is so effective and some of it can also be treated as one of the summer cooling dessert too.....

Lily bulbs taste slightly sweet and is slightly Cold in nature. It benefits the Lungs and Heart as well as nourishes the Lungs, stops cough and calms the nerves. It has certain effects on cough and helps with anxiety and insomnia. Lily Bulbs are rich in proteins, phosphorous and carbohydrates which is one of the good body tonifying and nerve calming Chinese medicine for those suffering from cough due to coldness and loose stools should not eat. Fresh Lily bulbs are rich in glucose that promotes digestion and they are commonly used in cooking and desserts.

Ginkgo nourishes the lungs and relieves asthma but this cannot be taken too much at a time.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
2 - 3 Medium Size Fresh Lily Bulbs(鲜百合)
8 - 10 Fresh Ginkgo Nuts
500ml Boiling Water
Rock Sugar to Taste
2 Pandan Leaves, optional

Method:
1. Rinse, clean and remove the petals from the bulbs, soak in water for a few seconds to remove dirt.
2. Wash and clean the pandan leave then tie it into a knot and set aside.
3. Bring 500ml of water to boil, add in the fresh ginkgo nuts, lily bulbs petals and pandan leave and bring it to boil.
4. Transfer the mixture to a double-boiler and place it in a slow cooker set on AUTO mode and cook for about 1.5 hour on HIGH.
5. Or alternatively, you can simmer on low heat over the stove for about 30 minutes.
6. Sweeten it with rock sugar and serve warm.


Note:
~ You can purchase Fresh Lily Bulbs and Ginkgo Nuts is most local supermarket at the vegetable chiller section.

This is a very tasty sweet soup that is suitable for all members of the family. And if you are towards the healthy or weight-watching side, perhaps you can omit the adding of rock sugar and consume this soup on base on it's natural sweetness and fragrance that is being released from the lily bulbs petals. My son loves the taste of this soup and also due to the long hour of simmering/double-boiled, the lily petals will be soften with the melt -in your mouth texture.

Beetroot & Sweet Corn Soup

I have very limited encounter with "Beetroot" as I only ate it as one of the ingredients found in some sandwiches. Although I have heard/saw a lot of interesting recipes using "Beetroot" as one of their ingredients, I have never thought of using it till today. And to my surprised this can really blend well into our Asian soup too.....

Beetroot can consider to be a very versatile ingredient that can be in many area of cooking. For eg:- in salad, sandwiches, bakes, cakes, dessert and even soup. Sometime it can also be use as a dye to replace artificial colouring. So today's soup of the day, we will try this together with corn and carrot which will add in extra sweetness to the soup.

Ingredients:- (serves 4)
500g Pork Ribs
2 Medium Size Beetroots
1 Sweet Corn, cut into section
1 Medium Carrot, cut into 1" slices
6-8 Red Dates
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries, optional
1.5 Liter of Boiling Water

Method:
1. Rinse, clean and place the pork ribs in boiling water for about 3 minutes, remove and rinse well. Set aside for later use.
2. Rinse the beetroot, peel of the outer skin with a vegetable peeler. Cut it into big cubes or wedges.
3. Remove the husk and leaves of the corn, rinse and cut it into 3 sections.
4. Bring 1.5 Litre of water to boil in a medium soup pot, add in all the above ingredients except wolfberries.
5. When the mixture comes to boil again, lower the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes or alternatively you can transfer the soup to a slow cooker and cook it on AUTO for about 2.5 hours or so. (add in wolfberries 15 minutes before cooking time)

This soup is so sweet and full of flavour that it don't even require any extra seasoning. The sweetness comes naturally from all the ingredients used and the colour of the soup look so gorgeous. From the glance of it, it looks just like any red wine/red currant juice. Em... but just a little sharing, although the soup might give a little "Rooty" flavour but this is indeed a very nutritious soup for kids. We ate all the ingredients except the "beetroot" because it has a very odd taste which my boy feedback that it taste like "roots/wood" :p