Bowles Mint Jelly

This is a scheduled post.
This jelly is something either you like it or you dislike it. You’ll like it if you like the smell of Bowles mint, or vice verse. Hubby requested some jelly as water soluble fiber to his diet. Here comes the new flavor for him since I have lots of home grown Bowles mint leaves harvested. Hubby did not comment much, but he finished up the jelly in few days time. 

Bowles Mint Jelly

Ingredients:

5 tbsp of agar-agar powder
1600ml water
20 Bowles mint leaves, rinsed under running water
brown sugar to taste

Steps:

1. Boil 1600ml water in a pot. Add Bowles mint leaves when boiling.
2. Leave it simmers for 5 minutes.
3. Mix in the agar-agar powder. Add brown sugar to taste. Leave it simmers for 3 minutes.
4. Remove the Bowles mint leaves. Off the fire, and leave the agar-agar mixture to cool for few minutes in the pot.
5. Pour it into jelly moulds. Cool it to room temperature.
6. Chilled for 2 hours before serving.

Blue Seaweed Jelly

Few months ago, I passed some blue pea flower seeds to my parents in law’s domestic helper. She has green-thumb, and now the plant blossoms with blue pea flowers. She collected the flowers and sun-dried it. I’m so pleased when she passed to me a small bottle of sun-dried blue pea flowers.

This maid contributes so much to the family. With her around, we have organic sweet potato leaves, eggplants, tomatoes, sawi, bird’s eye chilis, bananas, papayas, and others. Tomorrow, she will go back to her home town. It's a loss to the family. Not easy to get a such responsible and kindhearted maid.

Okay, back to the jelly now. With the natural blue coloring contributed by the blue pea flowers, here comes the blue seaweed jelly. Does it look interesting? For a start, I thought of this simple way to utilize the dried blue pea flowers. Many more to come hopefully. 

Blue Seaweed Jelly 

Ingredients:
5 tbsp of agar-agar powder 

1600ml water 

6 screw pine leaves, tie into knots 

sugar to taste 

To prepare the blue coloring: 

a handful of dried blue pea flowers, rinsed 

250ml hot water 

Steps: 

1. Soak the blue pea flowers in hot water. Leave it for 30 minutes or more. Sieve it and retain the blue liquid.
2. Boil 1600ml water in a pot. Add screw pine leaves when boiling.
3. Pour in the blue liquid. Let it simmers for 5 minutes. 

4. Mix in the agar-agar powder. Add sugar to taste. Leave it simmers for 3 minutes. 

5. Remove the screw pine leaves. Off the fire, and leave the agar-agar mixture to cool for few minutes in the pot. 

6. Pour it into jelly moulds. Cool it to room temperature. 

7. Fridge it for 2 hours before serving.

Agar Jelly with Grass Jelly

After the first attempt of making seaweed jelly with coconut milk, I’ve been thinking of other alternatives to make the jelly more interesting, and yet not complicated. The first idea popped up in my mind to add in grass jelly cubes. With black-colored grass jelly, I can eliminate other colorings, and I’m able to add patterns to the jelly. A stone to kill two birds.

Agar Jelly with Grass Jelly

Ingredients:

25g agar jelly powder

3500ml water

8 screw pine leaves, tied into knots

250g grass jelly, cut into cubes

sugar to taste

Steps:

1. Bring water to boil. 

2. Add screw pine leave and leave the water simmers for 5 minutes or more. 

3. Add sugar to taste. 

4. Pour in agar-agar jelly powder and stir to dilute it. Boil for few minutes. 

5. Add grass jelly cubes in the heat-proof containers. 

6. Pour in the agar-agar mixture into the containers. 

7. Leave it cool to room temperature and fridge it. 

8. Serve cold.

Agar-agar With Coconut Milk

I'm making agar-agar jelly for the first time. My sister in law used to make this, so I asked her for the recipe. Basically her measurement is 8 bowls of water for a packet of 25 grams agar-agar powder. Usually she makes 4 bowls of water with half a packet of agar-agar powder into the red colored agar-agar jelly as the bottom layer. While the other half packet of agar agar powder to mix with coconut milk to make the top layer.

As for my version, I didn't use the full packet of agar-agar powder. All the ingredients was just estimation, so no recipe sharing for this post. What I'm going to share is the secret of making this traditional agar-agar jelly with full of fragrant. The first secret for the bottom layer is to boil water with lots of pandan leaves. So, the jelly is infused with natural pandan fragrant. The second secret is for the coconut milk layer. Add some salt to the mixture. A pinch of salt will bring out the coconut taste to a higher level. It's so magical. This secret works for all desserts with coconut milk.

Enjoying a cup of cold agar-agar jelly on a hot afternoon is a kind of happiness.

Sweet Potato Dessert 番薯糖水

My friends asked if I have not been cooking for couple of months. It made me realized blogging is no longer my priority in daily routine task. I have very limited time to reply my readers' comment, and my readers' email. Although I spent very little time to blog, but I still cook a lot. I seldom fail to prepare dinner at home on weekdays, except Friday. Friday used to be our dine out day and to shop for groceries.

When comes to weekend, life's seem hectic. Baby sticks to me every time I bring her home. She prefers mummy much more than daddy. Hence, weekend cooking becomes difficult to me. I can cook on really simple stuffs. For example, the one-pot-dish, the stew, and slow cooked dessert like this sweet potato sweet soup. 

This is an improved version of normal sweet potato dessert. I added some dried longan, red dates and white fungus to this sweet soup on top of the sweet potato and screw pine leaves. So, you can imagine, it is tastier.

Sweet Potato Dessert 番薯糖水

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 liter water

1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into bite-sized

10 dried longan, soaked and drained

12 red dates, rinsed and pitted

2 florets of white fungus, soaked and divided into portions

4 screw pine leave, knotted

rock sugar to taste

Steps:

1. Bring water to a boil. Pour it into the slow cooker.

2. Add all the ingredients and cook under high heat for 2 hours.

3. Add rock sugar to taste.

4. Serves hot or cold.

Sweet Potato Dessert 番薯糖水

This is a fuss-free dessert. Everyone can cook this. To cook this, you can either dump everything in a slow cooker or to cook it on the stove.  I prefer the latter. It won't take very long as the orange sweet potato turn soft very fast.

Sweet Potato Dessert 番薯糖水

Ingredients:
300gm of orange sweet potato
1 piece of ginger, about 2 thumb-sized, bruised
6 pandan leaves, tied into knobs
1200 ml water
Brown sugar to taste.

Steps:
1. Peel the sweet potato. Use "cut & tear" method to prepare the potato into bite-size. This will create uneven surface to the potatoes which will increase its surface area to shorten the cooking time.
2. Bring water to boil in a pot. Add in the pandan leaves and ginger to simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Pour in the sweet potato and let it simmer under medium heat until it turns soft.
4. Season with brown sugar about 15 minutes before the dessert is ready. Let the dessert cool down a bit in the wok (with cover) before serving.

Banana Milkshake 香蕉奶昔

Do you have leftover ripe bananas? Instead of making banana muffin or banana cake, you can turn it into banana milkshake. That was what I did. The ingredient is so simple, just banana, fresh milk and honey (optional). You can add a scoop of vanilla ice-cream to replace honey. I believe it will taste more delicious.

Banana Milkshake 香蕉奶昔
Serves 2 to 3

Ingredients:
2 ripe banana, peeled and sliced
200ml cold fresh milk
1 tbsp of honey or a scoop of vanilla ice-cream (optional)

Steps:
Put everything in a blender and blend into smooth liquid.

Durian Popsicles

We got some left-over durian last night. I hate the odor if I had to fridge up the fresh durian. So, I kept thinking of what can I do with the balance durian. Then I thought of the durian ice that my mom used to make during every durian season. My mom’s durian ice consists of durian flesh, sugar and water. No dairy product is used as she is allergic to it. She has no recipe, as she mix it up the ingredients to form the desired concentration.

As for my version, I added some condensed milk. So the outcome is creamy durian popsicles that is not as hard as the version without milk. You can taste the durian flesh, the ice and the milk that are well blended in a popsicle.

Durian Popsicles


Ingredients:
200gm durian flesh (just an estimation)
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp condense milk
350ml water

Steps:
1. In a mixer, beat durian flesh, sugar and condense milk to form thick liquid base.
2. Slowly add water and mix well.
3. Pour into popsicle moulds. Froze it over night.
4. Just before serving, put the popsicle moulds under running water for few seconds. Then the popsicles are ready to be removed from the mould. Enjoy!

Rainbow Jelly

This rainbow jelly is suitable for any party. It's simple to make and yet appetizing. It's sweet, cool, and refreshing. I used egg shells as the jelly container, just like what I did for the dragon fruit jelly.

Rainbow Jelly

Ingredients:

10g Konnyaku jelly powder

1 liter water

200gm sugar

fruit cocktail

Steps:

1. Mix Konnyaku jelly powder with sugar.

2. Bring 1000ml of water to a boil. Gradually pour in the mixture in boiling water and stir well until mixture is dissolved .
3. Put fruit cocktail into moulds and pour the Konnyaku solution into the moulds.
4. Put moulded jelly solution in the fridge for at least one hour. Serve chilled.

Father’s Day Special

Last year, I invited my parents to my house to celebrate Mother’s Day. This year I did the same for Father’s Day. On this special day, I prefer to spent some private time with families at home rather than joining the crowd.

Here’s what I cooked today. I got thumbs up from my parents. I’m glad they like it.

Watercress soup with red dates and pork ribs

Otak-otak aka spicy fish custard, this is my dad's favorite

Chili crab, my mom's courtesy

Fried Chicken Chop, that I experimented last week

And lastly, the rainbow jelly for dessert

Happy Father's Day!

Bowles Mint Cough Remedy

Last week when I pay a visit to my sister's place, I noticed that she grows her potty garden very well. I asked for few stems of Bowles mint leaves (the species that is big and furry type). I used the leaves to boil a pot of natural cough remedy to soothe my cough. Then, the steams are planted.

This type of mint leaves have very strong smell. You'll either love it or hate it. Of course, I like it a lot. It's very refreshing.

Bowles Mint Cough Remedy

Ingredients:
2 liter water
30 Bowles mint leaves
2 thumb-sized ginger, peeled and sliced
brown sugar to taste

Steps:
1. Bring water to boil in a pot.
2. Add ginger and Bowles mint leaves. Leave it simmers for half an hour.
3. Add brown sugar to taste. Serve warm.

Glutinous Rice Balls For Winter Solstice

Sharing a bowl of glutinous rice balls and wishing you Happy Winter Solstice! 冬至快乐!
Did you have your bowl of festival dessert already?

Apple and Calamansi Green Tea

While enjoying mooncake on the Mid-Autumn Festival, don't forget to prepare a jar of tea. This is what I did while munching away my favorite mooncake  - Apple and Calamansi Green Tea. The mooncake itself is very sweet and filling, not to mention the ones with salted egg yolk! So it is good to have a refreshing tea to cleanse your taste bud.

Apple and Calamansi Green Tea

Ingredients:

2 tea bag if organis green tea bag (2g each)
4 calamansi, halved
1 green apple, cubed
1.2liter boiling water
honey to taste

Steps:

1. Pour boiling water into a jar.
2. Infuse the tea bags into the water. Remove the tea bags after 2 minutes.
3. Squeeze the calamansi juice and add the rind.
4. Add green apple cubes and honey to taste. Serve hot or chilled.

Jelly Mooncake and Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

I don't know how to bake a moon cake nor snow skin moon cake. So, I just played around with the jelly molds to come out with these crystal clear jelly moon cakes. I made 12 of them to share with my nieces and nephews.

My home made jelly moon cakes contain less sugar and  more fruits. I try to use different colors of fruits to beautify the jelly moon cake.

Here, I would like to wish all of you, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! 中秋节快乐！

Jelly Moon Cake

Ingredients:

10g Konnyaku jelly powder
180g of fine sugar
1000ml of water
pineapple cubes
ruby  grapes, halved
green kiwi, cubed

Steps:

1. Mix Konnyaku jelly powder with sugar.

2. Bring 1000ml of water to a boil. Gradually pour in the mixture in boiling water and stir well until mixture is dissolved .

3. Put cut pieces of fruits into moulds and pour the Konnyaku solution into the moulds.

4. Put moulded jelly solution in the fridge for at least one hour. Serve chilled.

Strawberry Smoothies

I'm quite relax during the long Raya break (4 days in a row). I manage to read a few selected cook books and food magazines. What's more enjoyable is to have a glass of chilled drink while reading. So, I made some strawberry smoothies since I have some imported strawberry from Australia. 

Strawberry Smoothies

Make 2 small glasses

Ingredients:

375ml chilled fresh milk
120gm strawberry
2tbsp honey

Steps:

Put everything in a blender and blend for few seconds and it's done.

Fruit Sponge Cake

Fruit sponge cake is the classic dessert to have for one's birthday. This sponge cake is soft and smooth, and the fluffy texture is kind of melting in your mouth. With a lavish coat of whipped cream and peach sandwiched in between the sponge cake, it tastes heavenly.

This fruit cake is just divine. I'm still drooling while writing this. Thanks to my dear! The cake  was bought by him from Bread History in Queensbay Mall.

Although I'm still a beginner in baking, but I hope I can bake a simple fruit sponge cake for him in this coming September. Basically I have an idea in my mind, let's see if my simple and healthy version of fruit cake will work out fine. Wish me luck. :P

Strawberry Moment @ Cameron Highlands

Strawberry Moment Dessert Cafe

24, Jalan Angsana Satu, Brinchang Point,39100, Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia.

605-4912061

Website: http://www.strawberrymoment.com/

Click here for my previous review

Visiting Strawberry Moment is a must when we go to Cameron Highlands. Enjoying yummy desserts or drinks in a cool ventilated ambiance is so relaxing. Relax, yes, that's the purpose we planned the short holiday anyway. We felt so refreshing in that 2 days. No worries and no stress. Cool...

This time, we went there after our lunch. We just order yogurt and hot chocolate. The Tri-color Fruit Yogurt looked nice, but it's too sweet.

This is nothing special, just the normal hot chocolate. :)

Strawberry Pudding

It's been so hot since the past few months. Hubby and I decided to go for a short getaway to Cameron Highlands again. The weather there is not cool throughout the day, but it is nice during the night.

I bought 3 packets of strawberry there. Cameron's strawberry is always sour. Instead of consuming the fresh strawberry, I made it into desserts. This strawberry pudding suits the freaking hot weather pretty much. Don't you think so?

I don't have exact measurement for the pudding. Jelly powder, sugar, water, fresh milk and blended strawberry flesh are mixed and match into this refreshing pudding.

Enjoy!

Dragon Fruit Jelly In Egg

This is what I made over the weekend to share with my niece and nephews. It's the favorite dessert for most of the kids. If you have time, do make some for your kids. I'm sure they will be more than happy.

To make this, first you have to collect some egg shells (You need to punch a hole at the tip of the egg to remove the egg contents...a bit tricky :P). Clean the shell and keep it dry. Then when you prepare jelly or even pudding, the egg shell will act as container, and you'll get the beautiful jelly in egg shape. Red dragon fruit is a good source of natural coloring to the jelly. Don't you think it's beautiful?

The Famous Cendol?

Penang Road Famous Teochew Chendul

Strategically located in front of Komtar, this café has caught our eye for quite some time now. I thought it would be a good idea to enjoy a bowl of famous cendol under a cozy environment. So, given the opportunity to visit Komtar yesterday, we went to have some dessert there. However, after my first visit, I want to pull back my initial thought. The bowl of cendol and ice-kacang were definitely far behind compared to the one sells at hawker stall in Penang Road. The quality is bad. They prepare the dessert just to fulfill customer’s order, not to satisfy customer’s taste buds.

Hubby opted for the durian cendol, but was told not available, so he changed his order to white coffee cendol. The original cendol is supposed to be served in thick and fragrant coconut milk. But this one, the white coffee is thin and watery. We couldn’t even smell the white coffee fragrant.

I chose to have the ice kacang instead. It was not my cup of tea. I just manage to take a couple of sips, that it! Even hubby commented that it tasted weird.

Definitely dissapointed. This is going to be my first and my last visit.