I recently made this famous street snack and they proved to be popular among my relatives in London, UK.
Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
Fully ripened bananas (a comb of 5 bananas or 700g bananas)
300g plain flour
60g granulated sugar ( I don't like the dish to be too sweet)
1/2 tsp baking powder (to form the dough into a ball while in the frying pan)
1/2 soda bicarbonate (to make the dough crispy)
500ml vegetable oil
Steps
1. Mash the bananas using a potato masher until they are smooth. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder and soda bicarbonate into the mash. Whisk the mixture using a whisk until it becomes smooth.
2. Heat a frying pan over a low heat. Add the oil to the pan.
3. Drop a bit of the mixture into the pan to see if the oil is hot enough for frying. If the dough floats to the top of the oil immediately, it is ready for frying.
4. Use a spoon or an ice cream scoop to scoop the mixture and drop it into the pan. Once the bottom of the dough turns brown, turn over the dough to make sure that the dough is fully fried and cooked.
5. Turn the dough frequently until both sides turn fully brown, not black.
6. Remove the doughnut from the frying pan. Do the same with the rest of the mixture/ batter.
7. Let the doughnuts cool for 30 minutes before consumption. Enjoy!
Homemade cucur kodok!
(Note: eating the doughnuts instantly can lead to a sore throat!!!)
I am currently watching this tv series starring Sun Li, Chen Xiao and Peter Ho. It's about a businesswoman living during the late Qing dynasty in China.
Zhou Ying married Wu Ping so that she could save him from death. Wu Ping survived and decided to honour the marriage because he had already fallen in love in Zhou Ying.
But, a tragedy struck the marriage but Zhou Ying was determined to overcome whatever obstacles came in her way. After all, she was an ordinary girl from the world of jiang wu.
Watch this series if you are bored with silly Chinese or Korean tv series!
I had always wanted to make this snack myself so that I wouldn't have to rely on the Chinese dim sum restaurants for them!
Which I did make them two days ago. See the photos below.
The spring rolls are pretty easy to make. All you need are the following ingredient below:
Ingredients
Marinates
10g or 1 tsp baking soda
10g or 1 pinch of salt
1 tbsp ordinary sugar
1 tbsp white pepper
1 tbsp corn starch or corn flour
1 tbsp sesame oil
1.5 tbsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp minced garlic (I made myself a jar of lazy garlic ie. chopped garlic in white wine vinegar)
1 tbsp onion (or shallots) (I used a half of a medium sized onion because I didn't have shallots in the fridge)
1 egg
Fillings
150g defrosted medium sized prawns
200g minced pork
Spring Roll Skin
Vietnamese rice paper spring roll skins (14 sheets)
Dipping Sauce
A bottle of Vietnamese dipping sauce (bought it from the local Sainsbury's)
Steps
1. Mix the fillings with the marinates in a mixing bowl and combine them well. Put the mixture in the fridge for at least one hour.
2. Use a damp cloth to soften the spring roll wrapper rather than soaking the sheet in water. This will make the skin easier to manage when it comes to filling and rolling the rolls.
3. Take the mixture out of the fridge and fill the damped spring roll sheet with the mixture. Roll and place the spring roll in a tray. Do the same with the rest of the paper sheets. Make sure that the rolls are placed apart to prevent them from sticking to each other.
4. Heat the oil in a wok to 350'F. Once the oil is ready, place one spring roll gently in the wok one at a time. Make sure that the rolls are kept apart as the barely hot paper sheet can stick to other rolls. (I placed three rolls in one fry as my wok is quite small)
5. Once the rolls are ready, place them on a paper kitchen towel to soak the excess oil. Let the rolls cool for 30 minutes before consumption. Dip them in the Vietnamese spring roll dipping sauce for extra kick. Enjoy the snack!
Photo 1: Vietnamese spring rolls in a hot wok!!!
Photo 2: Dipping sauce for theVietnamese spring rolls
I made a third batch of the chocolate drop cookies today. I used cashew nuts in this experiment.
The other ingredients in the recipe by Anna Olson remained unchanged. Except, for this time, I used 120g brown sugar and 30g granulated sugar. The cookies turned out to be perfectly sweet. Not too sweet or not too bland. I'll stick with this sugar measurement in the future.
I kept the chocolate chips in the fridge on the day it was purchased (about 3 weeks ago) all this time because I wished to preserve the shape of the chips. I would recommend this tip to anyone who wishes to bake the cookies and wants to retain the shape of the chips.
Not only that, when the batter was ready, instead of making small balls, I just used an ice cream scoop to scoop a lump of batter and place it in a baking tray. I did the same with the rest of the batter and place the tray in the fridge for an hour. The reason is the lumps were too sticky to handle at this stage. It would be easily handled when the butter in the batter hardened.
After an hour, I began to make balls out of the batter. Then, I placed the cookie balls back in the fridge to cool them for an hour in order to retain the shape of the balls. After one hour, I preheated the oven at 180'C for ten minutes. Then, I divided the balls into two separate trays so that each of the balls had room to melt into a disc. After that, I placed the trays in the oven and baked the cookies for 15 minutes or until the edge of the cookies turned brown. The cookies were then removed from the oven and cooled for 30 minutes before I started enjoying them.
Below are the photos of the finished product!!! Enjoy baking these cookies.
Photo 1: Cookie balls are being baked in the oven
Photo 2: the cookie dough are melting at this stage
I had planned to make sorbet for a while ever since I bought a Kenwood ice cream machine at a local charity shop.
As the summer is arriving, it's best to make plans in order to escape the heat. Eating sorbet is one of them.
I searched for recipes online and found one which was reasonably easy. At the same time, I wanted to make the sorbet taste different from the others. So, it was time to experiment a new and simple recipe.
I had a box of 150 g frozen blueberries which I bought from the local Aldi for £1.49. My kitchen had a good supply of sugar, both granulated and brown.
As my ice cream machine was rather small, I decided to make 300 g of sorbet (150 g blueberries plus 150 g sugar syrup) only.
On the Easter Sunday, at 10pm, I made the sugar syrup and chilled it in the fridge overnight. I made the sorbet the next day. See the photos and Youtube videos below.
Below is the recipe which can also be found on the Youtube videos below:
Blueberry sorbet with ground nutmeg recipe
150 g granulated sugar (use honey for healthier option)
150 ml water
150 barely frozen blueberries
a pinch of salt (5g)
a pinch of nutmeg (5g)
Steps
1. Pour 150 g granulated sugar and 150 ml water into a pot.
Boil the mixture until the sugar dissolves.
Remove the pot from the hob.
Let the mixture cool for at least 2 hours.
Chill the mixture in the fridge for at least 10 hours or overnight.
(I made the syrup at night so that I could make the sorbet later in the evening on the next day)
2. Pour the blueberries and half of the sugar syrup into the food blender.
Add a pinch of salt and a pinch of ground nutmeg to the mixture.
Blend the mixture for 3 minutes.
Then, add the rest of the sugar syrup to the mixture.
Blend it for another 2 minutes.
3. Pour the mixture into a sieve over a bowl to remove any lumps from the mixture.
Chill the mixture in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
4. Freeze the mixture for 30 minutes only before pouring it into the fast-freezing insulated bowl of the ice cream maker.
(This step actually shortens the amount of time spent on making the sorbet using an ice cream machine. It took me only 15 minutes to make the sorbet)
Pour the softly frozen blueberry and syrup mixture in the bowl. Switch on the ice cream machine and watch the machine in action.
5. After the sorbet is ready, scoop it out of the ice cream and put it in a plastic tub. Freeze it again until it is ready to be consumed. (I tried a cup of the freshly made sorbet before freezing it. It was awesome! :-))
Enjoy the recipe!!!
Photo 1: Blueberry sorbet base
Photo 2: Blueberry puree and sugar syrup blended with salt and ground nutmeg
Photo 3: Blueberry sorbet in a plastic cup
Photo 4: Blueberry sorbet
Video 1: Sorbet base is being churned by the paddle in the ice cream machine
Video 2: Celebrating the success of making blueberry sorbet!!!
This was my first time baking chocolate drop cookies.
I watched Anna Olson's Youtube video recently and decided to have a go.
The first attempt went badly. The cookies were rather hard because I used butter spread instead of pure butter.
The second attempt went well and the cookies tasted excellent. This time, I used shortening for cookies and pastry. I even remembered the recipe by heart this time.
½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (115g) ½ cup packed light brown sugar (90g) ½ cup granulated sugar (90g) 1 large egg, at room temperature 1 tsp vanilla extract (10 ml)
Dry ingredients 1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (185g) 1 tbsp cornstarch (15ml) ½ tsp baking soda (7.5g) ½ tsp salt (7.5g)
To be added last 1 ½ cup chocolate chips (225g) 1 cup lightly toasted, coarsely chopped pecans (optional) (150g) (I used roasted walnuts)
(Note:I am planning to make another batch of cookies using a reduced amount of sugar because I find 180g of sugar is a bit too much for my teeth)
Below are the photos of the cookies:
Photo 1: 1st attempt- cookie balls before baking
Photo 2: 1st attempt- freshly made cookies
Photo 3: 2nd attempt- cooled and ready to eat cookies
This morning, I decided to bake plain blueberry muffins for treat.
I used Anna Olson's recipe of classic streusel blueberry muffins but this time, I excluded the streusel from the recipe. I just wanted to watch my weight.
Preparation is key to baking. I had all the ingredients in my pantry so I just got on with gathering and mixing them. I replaced the butter with sunflower spread which made the mixture look more like a batter.
This time, I just used all the blueberries from the packet that I bought for the previous blueberry muffins. I also bought a box of 300g frozen blueberries from Aldi for £1.49, compared to Waitrose's £2.20 400g frozen blueberries. I think they have increased the price to £2.30. Aldi's frozen blueberries are the cheapest.
This morning, I attempted to make mooncakes using the mung bean paste and the new mooncake moulds from Malaysia.
I prepared the mooncake skin following an online recipe and the given steps. See the photos below for the result.
I am totally disappointed with the result. This means, I will have to look for better recipes.
I am unsure about what went wrong apart from the dough of the mooncake skin had been kept in the fridge for four days. And, the oven was not been preheated and the temperature was set at 180'C. They were baked for 15 minutes.
There was a bit of dough left so I decided to make some biscuits. They taste better than the mooncakes!
One thing for sure : don't use mung bean paste for filling. It's best to use red bean (adzuki beans) paste or lotus paste or durian paste.
Today, I made cinnamon rolls for the fourth time although the second attempt had never been mentioned before.
I managed to knead the dough on my glass worktop. This time, I applied a lot of flour on the surface of the worktop to prevent the dough from sticking on it. I was able to form a proper shaped dough like those on Youtube videos. I was really excited but had to wait for 1.5 hours for the dough to rise.
This time, I applied some cooking oil to the bowl before placing the dough in it.
Patience is a great virtue. The dough doubled in size after 1.5 hours. This time, the dough was easier to be removed from the bowl where it had sat due to the coating of the cooking oil in the bowl.
I sprinkled some flour on the glass worktop and on the dough before it was taken out of the bowl. I found that the rolling of the dough easier as the dough was not sticking to the glass worktop. I was able to roll the dough four times this time. The shape of a cinnamon roll had formed successfully.
I placed the cinnamon rolls in a tray and left it in the cold oven to rise for another 1.5 hours.
After 1.5 hours, I simply insert the tray into the preheated oven at 180'C and baked for 15 minutes.
I have just finished watching this series. It was better, compared to the other series, Princess of Lan Ling Wang. The series come with English subtitles.
William Feng and Ariel Lin star as Gao Chang Gong, Prince of Lan Ling and Lady Zheng, his wife. Ariel Lin sounds so Taiwanese in this series which is a bit hilarious. Meanwhile, William Feng as the Prince of Lan Ling is not bad as the Prince but his hairstyle and makeup are awful.
I enjoyed watching this series although the opening theme song is not suitable for period dramas. I couldn't stand it.
Overall, if you are a fan of William Feng and Ariel Lin, you'll probably enjoy the series!
On 23 March, I went to Wardonia Hotel at Argyll Street, St. Pancras, London, to meet my schoolmate for the first time in 23 years.
We have grown old and mature. Monica has always been lovely and kind, as far as I have been able to recall. She brought me mooncake moulds as requested.
We decided to have our meal in Leicester Square. The dinner was OK. After the meal, I decided to leave Monica and her husband, Hong, to discover Chinatown on their own.
I went to Loon Fung to look for lye water and found one brand, Tung Chun, 500ml. I decided to go to See Woo to see if I could get any cheaper. The shop had the same brand of lye water but smaller in volume, 225ml, which was adequate for my 1st attempt on mooncake making. I paid £2.25 for the bottle but didn't get a tub of maltose as it was priced at £1.60 for 500g at See Woo but £.149 at Loon Fung where I bought from.
My plan to make moon cakes is going smoothly as planned. Thanks to PRINCE2!!! :-)
red kidney bean soaked in a bowl of water, lye water and maltose
I made some cinnamon rolls yesterday to see if the only recipe in my previous blog worked. I was still unable to make the rolls look like those in online Youtube videos.
I think the problem is probably due to the texture of the dough and the lack of kneading in my case. I used a spatula and hand to knead the dough instead of using a food mixer.
The texture of the finished roll is good.
Once I get myself a food mixer, I'll try the cinnamon roll recipe in my previous blog to see if the shape of the rolls has improved.
For the filling, this time, I just mixed 60g brown sugar and 15g cinnamon powder in a bowl by using a fork to stir them all together. Then, I brushed 50g melted unsalted butter on the flattened dough. I sprinkled the sugar-cinnamon mixture on the flattened dough before rolling it into a roll. This amended process helped the filling easily distributed and stuck to the flattened dough.
Below are the photos of my second attempt on the cinnamon roll recipe:
I completely messed up the streusel and the oven temperature: adding too much flour to the streusel; not massaging the streusel with two hands; and baking the muffins at 280'C instead of 190'C for 35 minutes.
(I baked the muffins for 10 minutes before smelling the burnt streusel from the oven! The kitchen was covered with smoke!!!)
The result was muffins covered with burnt streusel. The saving grace out of this trial was the texture of the muffins. They were soft and fluffy due to the sieving process and milk. Another one was the tulip wraps, that were correctly home made by me!
I will follow the instruction for the muffins in the future. Enjoy the photos below.
Today, I made vanilla cookies to fill up my biscuit tin. And, I decided to make use of the orange zest that I made yesterday.
orange zest
I could taste the orange zest in the biscuit. Not bad. Soak the dried skins in hot water for 10 seconds before using them. This will definitely soften the skins.
I am going to use the lemon zest in my next project, the Classic Streusel Blueberry Muffins by Anna Olso.
My first thought of publishing videos on Youtube was it would be fun.
So, I created my first video on Youtube to learn about Youtube video productions. It was an easy process, to be honest, as long as the instructions were followed.
I used the Youtube's Video Editor to upload photos and add a theme audio to the video. The final product looked more like PowerPoint presentation slides!
I also added subtitles to accompany the photos. The process of adding the subtitles to the video was pretty tricky, although, it was not complex for me to handle.
Overall, the experience is very rewarding. I shall be creating and publishing more videos online in the future!
'Love is more than a word' is the first Chinese mainland tv series about a same sex relationship between a magistrate and a talented lawyer. Same sex relationship in China has been around before and after the unification of China by the Qin emperor.
The most famous same sex courtship in the ancient China is the affair between Emperor Ai of the Western Han dynasty and Dong Xian, famously known as ' the passion of the cut sleeve' (斷袖之癖).
Master Tao Mo, a newly appointed county magistrate, arrives in his county with his two most trusted servants, Lao Tou and his page. Tao was illiterate and bought his position via donations to the imperial court. After being laughed at by scholars at a tea house, Tao pursued and hired Adviser Jin on Lao Tou's advice.
At the same time, a young and talented lawyer, Master Gu Shen, became interested in Master Tao. He would help Master Tao when the latter needed help.
If you are curious about the story, watch it! I really enjoyed the series.
Episode 1
There is a book written on the subject of passions of the cut sleeve which is available for sale on the Amazon website. See the link below:
I have been making fruit juice on a daily basis. However, I have been throwing away the pulps from the juice into the bin bag because I have no garden to turn this green waste into compost.
There are several obvious solutions. One of them is to use them to make muffins. However, I discourage myself from eating too many muffins.
Another solution is to dry the skins in the oven. If I need to use lemon/ orange zest in my recipe, I'll just chop the dried lemon/orange skins into small pieces. I dried the skins in the oven today. Voilà!
I came across this Korean street food over the Internet. Apparently, it's quite a famous street food in Korea. It costs around USD$1 or KRW1000 (one thousand won).
I was planning to make it but I couldn't find the little loaf tins. Today, I found the tins by Paul Hollywood on the Curry's website. But, they are too expensive.
So, I decided to surf on the web. Guess what? Lakeland has a special offer on the mini loaf pan priced at £4.99 (see the pan below):
I was looking for pineapple cookie moulds and guess what? I came across the famous vegetable shortening, Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening. I've heard about it so much on online blogs and Youtube videos.
In case you are looking for this particular brand, today is your lucky day.
a mooncake box and a whole mooncake (lotus paste and egg yolk)
2 quarters of a mooncake with lotus paste and egg yolk
It is extremely frustrating that some ingredients in Asian baking recipes are difficult to find. One of them is mooncake glaze that is used to glaze the cakes after they are removed from the oven.
However, I've found an alternative: confectioners edible glaze varnish. If it is too thick, add some water to dilute the liquid. I would try it on one mooncake first to see if it works and then proceed with the rest if the glaze turns out to be OK.
Another one is maltose. It's hard to find it in local supermarkets like Tesco or Sainsbury's. However, specialist shops do sell it. So far, I've found one (brand: Dragon Boat), which is made in China.
The other is lye water. This ingredient browns the mooncake skin so it's quite essential if you wish your mooncakes turn out to be like those made by pros.
These days, mooncake moulds are easy to find. If you are visiting Hong Kong, go to the Shanghai Street where authentic wooden mooncake moulds, along with moulds for other Chinese traditional cakes and pastries, are sold.
Mooncake kits are also available to buy in the UK all year round.
I'll share my verdict on these items once I've made my mooncakes!!! Of course, the recipe is included :-)
