Charcoal Noodle Topped with Acar

The other day, when I got a bottle of Acar from my mom, an odd conception popped up in my mind. I thought of a noodle dish that is topped with Acar. Does this sound appealing to you? I had no idea at all how will it turn out be. I just wanted a short-cut to prepare a simple dinner. So, I beared the risk to proceed with the idea.

As you can see, it turned out quite acceptable. I'm glad with it. Haha...Besides Acar, the charcoal noodle is garnished with fried beancurd strips, carrot strips and mint leaves. This is quite a healthy dish for our meatless dinner. 

I'm submitting this dish to Presto Pasta Night #183 which is hosted by Ruth from Once Upon A Feast.

Charcoal Noodle Topped with Acar

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Dried charcoal noodle, portion for 2

1 hard beancurd, cut into strips

half carrot, peeled and cut into strips

Acar for topping

cooking oil

Steps:
1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Cook the charcoal noodle as per the packaging instruction. Drain and divide the portion into 2 bowls.
2. Heat some oil in a pan. Shallow fried the beancurd strips until golden brown. Dish out and set aside. With the remaining oil, sauté carrot strips for 30 seconds. Dish out and set aside.
3. Top the noodle with Acar, and garnish with beancurd strips, carrot strips and mint leaves.

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.

Acar (Pickled Vegetables)

Mom cooks quite a lot of delicious Nyonya food, though she is not from Peranakan family. For example, she cooks very nice loh bak, assam curry, chai boey, jiu hu char, assam prawn, curry chicken, bubur cha cha, and many more.

Recently I brought up a topic that is related to the food that mom has not cook for very long. I thought about Acar - the pickled vegetables. I volunteer to cook with mom on my off day, so that I can learn how it is prepared. I want to learn mom's home cooked food. I want to pick up her dishes as much as possible.

About Acar, it's a kind of Nyonya pickled vegetables. It has cucumber, long bean, pineapple, carrot, cabbage and chili. Before cooking, some veggies are marinated with salt and rice vinegar, and some is boiled vinegar-salt water. Then the veggies are stir-fried with chili paste and seasoned with turmeric powder, vinegar, salt, sugar and light soy sauce. Once it's done, mix it with grounded roast peanut powder and top with roasted sesame seeds. It tastes sweet and sour, with a hint of spiciness and aroma of roasted peanut. Hmm...and viola!

Mom used to make a big portion of Acar, so we can keep the left over in fridge for the next few days. It can be served either warm or 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.