Strawberry Mousse Cake & An Old Pal

Today is the happiest day of my life! Not because I won a prize or receiving some awards or whatever!!!!! It's all because I'm blessed that I finally found.......(shout out!) my long lost pen friend. AAAAAHHHHHHHHH...........I am totally thrill when I saw her mail after coming back from my hubby's workshop. Suddenly my eyes turned red ....I'm quite an emotional person. This is just unbelievable...... unbelievable! There's so many things to catch up with her after so long......if not mistaken it's about 24 years. This is most probably a perfect cake for a perfect day!

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients for Biscuit Base :

150gm digestive biscuits, finely crushed

50gm ground toasted almond

125gm butter, melted

(combine all ingredients and mix well, then press mixture onto a 8" spring form pan and leave chill untill set)

Ingredients for Strawberry Mousse :
(A)

200gm fresh strawberries

120gm sugar

1 tspn strawberry paste(optional)

*

(B)

25gm gelatine

100ml water

*

(C)

400ml whipping cream

*

Method :

- cook ingredients (A) over low heat until sugar dissolved.

- dissolve gelatine into water then stir into mixture (A).

*

*

- finally, fold in whipped cream and mix to combine.

- spread mixture to biscuit base pan and leave chilled to set.

- then decorate the top with grated chocolates.

*

Oh dear, this is just so delicious! Such refreshing flavour for this heaty season.

Somehow, miracles did happened! I believe in faith and so is hard work & courage.

*Marie, I'm looking forward catching up with you what we have missed out! It's like filling in the blank in our lifetime stories. The greatest moment ever. With lots of love, ((hug)) & kisses!

Easy Mustard Green Soup

We call this kind of green veggie as 'choy sum', in cantonese; and also named as mustard greens in other words. This kind of green veggie is easily found here. After searching the site, I only found out that it is actually an excellent anticancer vegetable. Besides of that, they also be beneficial especially for women who are going through menopause. They have the ability to protect against breast cancer and heart disease. Their high content of nutrients (such as calcium, folic acid, and magnesium) is also supportive of bone health. Isn't that sounds wonderful. I normally used them in my braised noodle, noodle soup, stir fried or veggie soup. It tastes better after cooked. ^_^

So, here's my simple recipe.

Ingredients :

1 Lt homemade chicken broth

200gm minced chicken meat

1 egg, lightly beaten

one bunch of mustard green, washed and cut small portions

salt & pepper to taste

1 large onion, chopped

3 slices fresh ginger

Method :

- bring chicken broth to boil.

- add in onion & ginger slices and simmer over medium heat untill the onion became tender. (add in extra water if needed)

- then place in minced chicken meat (marinade with salt & pepper, a tspn of sesame oil & a tspn of corn flour), let it simmer untill the meat is cooked.

- now, add in the green veggie and bring to boil over high heat.

- off the heat immediately after that and then pour in the beaten egg and let it stand there untill it's serve. (do not stir the soup)

*I omit the salt because the minced chicken meat already good enough for the flavouring.

Hope you guys will enjoy this simple soup recipe. This kind of soup is actually quite similar to those Mexican Wedding Soup.
*

And before ending this, there are some good friends that I wanted to thank them for.... passing these wonderful awards to me. I'm truely honoured and also very sorry for the delay. Hope you would mind!

A big thank to Shirley @ Welcome To Shirley's Luxury Haven! , a dear friend from Singapore. We met at Foodbuzz.

Thank you so much, Fimere @ Aux délices des gourmets , for passing all these beautiful awards to me. I love them very much.

Now, this is one award that I'm really proud of myself. Thank you very much for passing this to me and believing in me, Chaya @ My Sweet & Savory. According to her, this is a very special award. So, I'm going to take good care of it and promise to keep on the good work.

*

And I'm going to pass all these awards to some good friends who deserve it.

*

(1) Penny @ Jeroxie-Addictive and consuming ~ this baby is getting better & better each day!

(2) Lyndsey @ The Tiny Skillet ~ she works hard to try all the new things! ((hugs))

(3) Bo @ Bo's Bowl ~ believe me, you going to like him too!

(4) Drick @ Drick's Rumbling Cafe ~ amazing seafood recipes guru!

(5) Heavenly Housewife ~ she's been trying so hard to make macaroons!

(6) 3 Hungry Tummies ~ these guys are awesome cook!

(7) Reeni @ Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice ~ she's an amazing cook!

(8) Silvia @ Citron et Vanille ~ she's my inspiration!

(9) Denise @ Quickies on the dinner table ~ check her out if you prefer quick meal!

*

Please feel free to drop by to collect the buttons!

My Sweet Caterpillar

Lucky me! Finally, managed to spare myself a little free time for some baking. As time concern, I bought some ready made mung bean paste at the store. Hopefully, I could finish the whole process within two hours! hehe....

Ingredients :
(A)
450gm bread flour
100gm all purpose flour
1-1/2 tspn yeast
50gm sugar
1/4 tpsn salt

(B)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
200ml lukewarm milk
50ml cooking oil

*500gm pandan flavour mung bean paste

Method :

- combine ingredients (B) and leave aside.
- combine ingredients (A) in a large mixing bowl.
- then stir in ingredients (B) untill form a soft dough.
- leave to rest for an hour or untill double in size.
- punch out the air and knead dough untill smooth.
- divide into 12 portions both bread dough & mung bean paste.
- wrap mung bean paste into bread dough and roll out flat.



- make a few fine cuts to the dough and roll them up (as shown).
- place all dough to baking tray and leave to proof for another 20 mins.
- brush on egg glaze, then bake at 190'C for 20 mins or untill golden brown.

Actually, I was trying to relax myself a little through baking. Yeap, having lots of fun for sure! Don't they just look like some green crawling little thing.....caterpillars? ^_^ Ooops...I'm going to bite on them.

For pandan flavour mung bean paste : replace water with pandan juice plus an extra 200ml water for steaming, and stir in 100ml cooking oil after steamed untill you get smooth paste. It's best to chill before used.

Hi guys, just to show you how's my finger getting on! The skin looks fine but not the sensibility. I think it's only 80% healed. Not the same anymore! However, thank you so much for everything, dear friends. Am really appreciate for all your concern.

With love, Kristy

Simple Rocky Road Ice-Cream Cake & A Happy Sweet 16!

Firstly, I would like to apologize for not visiting you guys lately or have missed out visiting anyone of you! I've been extremely busy and don't have much time for any baking but just some simple meal for my family. Though, under my children's request I did a quick one a couple days ago, at 12am in the morning! *_* It only took me half an hour to complete the whole thing....so, it's OK! And here's what I did.

Ingredients for Biscuit Base :

130gm graham biscuit(I used tiger biscuit), crashed finely.
1/2 cup sugared almond praline
80gm butter, melted

- combine all ingredients and mix to combine.
- then press the mixture to a 8" spring form pan & keep chilled.
(for 9" pan, add another 70gm biscuit)



Ingredients for Ice-cream Mixture :

1.3L ready-made ice-cream (I used raspberry flavour), softened
1 cup canned dark cherry
1 cup mini marshmallow
1 cup ready-made apricot ice-cream

- beat ice-cream untill creamy and then pour half portion over to the biscuit crust base pan.
- throw in all the dark cherry & marshmallow.
- and then cover with the rest of the ice-cream about 3/4 of the pan.
- Freeze untill set before top with 1 cup of apricot ice-cream to have a smother surface.
(which I did it in the next morning)
- again freeze to set before serving.

Just look at those melting ice-cream....almost everywhere! I did cut the cake as quickly as possible. Yes, it's a very challenging task! haha.... After slicing the cake, I put them back into the freezer. They still look great after that!

You know what happened? My son kept on telling me that he doesn't like the cherry but he ate at least 4 slices. I handed 2 slices over to my neighbour. Her daughter was so excited! I only have one slice for myself.

Red Beans Savory Rice Dumpling

I only started making my own rice dumpling since last year, just after started blogging. Haha... I'll have to say I have improved alot within this whole year of time. I'm really proud of myself. I've learned so much and I'm going to keep on the good work. Frankly, my mother has never made any rice dumplings before, nor any baking! But she cooked well for us. This rice dumpling is actually my in-laws' traditional recipe. And I'm honoured to make them this year and many more years to come. This is yet a very simple recipe, not much ingredients are used. Mainly are glutinous rice, beans and just a piece a chicken meat.

And here's the recipe as follow.
Ingredients :
1kg glutinous rice, soaked overnight
1-1/2 cup cooking oil
a few shallots, chopped
3 cloves whole garlic, skinned & slightly smashed

Seasoning for glutinous rice :
2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce/mushroom sauce
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tspn five spice powder
2 tspn coriander powder
1 tspn white pepper powder
1 tspn salt

Method :
- steamed the soaked glutinous rice for 20 mins without additional water.
- by then, fry sliced shallots & garlics with all the cooking oil.
- remove the garlics and place the oil mixture to a big bowl.
- stir in all the seasonings to mix well.
- once the rice is ready, immediately stir in the seasoning mixture and mix well.
Red Beans & Mung Beans Fillings :
1/2kg red beans, soaked overnight
water to boil
100gm sugar
1 tspn salt

- combine all ingredients and boil untill the red beans became tender soft.
- drained and then keep chill.
(I normally make this a day before and keep chill before used, much easier to handle)

200gm mung beans
1/2 tspn salt

- washing mung beans thoroughly and then soak with salt and water for 3 hours.
- drain and leave aside.

Ingredients for Fried Chicken meat :
2 boneless chicken thigh meat
salt & pepper to taste
3 tbsp corn flour

- marinade chicken meat with all the ingredients and then deep fry untill cooked.

TO ASSEMBLE :
- prepared at least 40 cleaned 'zhong'/bamboo leaves and some strings.
- fold a piece of bamboo leaf into cone shape.
- fill in a tablespoon of rice then some red beans & mung beans and then a piece of meat.
- top with glutinous and then cover & shape into triangle.
- secure with a string untill finish the whole process.
- boil the dumpling for 1-1/2 hours and then leave cool before serving.

Maybe because life has never been easy in the past and for those are not so rich, they only used simple ingredients in this kind of dumplings. I think this is much healthier since mainly are beans and the best thing was not much animals' fat added in. I love the sweetness of the beans and it really does make it so unique. Btw, a Vietnamese friend told me that they normally used fresh bananas and fresh coconut shreds in it. I think that is pretty cool too! Maybe I should try it some time. Hope you all will have a great weekend!

Pine-Apple Kuchen For My Big Day

Yesterday was my big day....Yeah, my birthday! It's been a hectic day and don't even have time to celebrate my birthday this year or pamper myself with an elegant treat. Don't feel like buying a ready made cake either, but did make a quick one though. A Pineapple & Apple kuchen! Kuchen in Germany means cake. So, at least I have my cake....a simple slice of cake! So, what do you think about having a non-cream cake for your birthday? Frankly, I don't mind at all.

Ingredients for Dough :

(A)

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 tbsp yeast

(B)

3 tbsp butter, softened

1/4 cup lukewarm milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 tbsp lemon zest

(C)

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tspn salt

Method :

- combine ingredients (A) and leave to rest for 10 mins or untill bubbling.

- combine ingredients (B) and stir into ingredients (A) untill well mixed.

- add in ingredients (C) to form a sticky dough and let to rest for an hour or untill double in size.

- punch the dough to release air and press dough over to the pine-apple fillings.

- bake a t 170'C-175'C for about 35-40 mins.

- serve warm.

Ingredients for Pine-Apple filling :

4 large green apples, diced

a quarter fresh pineapple, diced

5 tbsp brown sugar

3/4 tbsp cinnamon powder

2 tbsp flour

- combine all ingredients except flour and simmer over low heat untill tender.

- then off the heat and stir in flour untill well mixed.

- leave cool before spreading it over to a 9" spring form tray.

Surprisingly, everyone likes it! It looks like a cake but tastes like bread. My son wallop about half of the cake and still requesting for more. Truely satisfying! I think it would probably goes well with some custard cream too! Enjoy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! ^_^

Pandan Coconut Pot de Creme

Pot de Creme is a kinda creamy rich dessert and it's also one of the French famous cuisine. It's usually serve in small cups or bowls. Sounds so elegance, isn't it! And I just had my first batch of homemade pot de creme with a little Asian touch. Pandan is a very common flavouring ingredient over here in Asia and it also easily found here. So is coconut milk! These two are the best marriage couples ever!

And here's what I did.

Ingredients for Custard :

3/4 cup coconut milk

1/4 cup pandan juice

1 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp sugar

1 large egg

2 large egg yolks

1 tspn pandan paste (optional)

*

*pandan juice : 1/4 cup water blending with 3 pandan leaves and stained.

*

Method :

- combine coconut milk, pandan juice & paste and heavy cream into a saucepan and stir over medium heat untill bubbling, then leave aside.

- beat egg, egg yolks, and sugar untill creamy.

- now, gradually pour coconut mixture to the egg mixture and stir to combine.

- divide mixture to 4-6 small cups.

- and bake at 170'c for about 40 mins (over water bath) or untill the centre is set.

- then serve warm with palm sugar syrup.

Ingredients for Palm Sugar Syrup :

200gm palm sugar, roughly chopped

100ml water

50gm sugar

1 tbsp molasses

(combine all ingredients and boiled untill sugar dissolved.)

My kitchen smell like heaven, my goodness! Maybe because of the slightly burnt topping. I've reduced sugar in the custard. It tastes just fabulous with the palm sugar syrup and some extra fruits. Now, just let us enjoy the pot of looooove!

Cappuccino Brownie Unbaked Cheese Cake

While I was scrolling for some brownie cheesecake recipe yesterday, I noticed that they normally had the brownie and cheesecake both baked. I've been craving this kind of cake for quite awhile and as time concern I wanted something quick and easy to prepare. So I decided to bake the brownie and then top with unbaked cheesecake. And here's what I did.

Ingredients for Cappucino Brownie :

100gm butter
100gm white chocolate
90gm brown sugar
1 tbsp instant cappuccino powder
(I used 1 pkt 3 in 1 Oldtown white coffee)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp yogurt
100gm flour

Method :

- melt butter and chocolate over a double boiler.
- off the heat, stir in sugar & cappuccino untill well mixed and leave lukewarm.
- combine eggs & yogurt then slowly stir into the chocolate mixture and mix well.
- finally, shift in flour and stir untill combined.
- pour batter to a 8" spring form pan.
- bake at 175'C for 20mins.

Ingredients for Unbaked Cheese Cake :

250gm cream cheese, soften

70gm icing sugar

300gm whipping cream

1 tbsp gelatine

30ml lime juice

20ml water

1 tspn lime zest

* extra dark chocolate for decoration.

Method :

- combine water & lime juice and bring it to boil.

- off the heat, stir in gelatine untill dissolved.

- beat cream cheese and sugar until creamy.

- combine whipped cream, cream cheese, lime zest and gelatine mixture together untill well mixed.

- spread the mixture over to the brownie and leave chill overnight or minimum 3 hours.

Can't wait to dig into it the next morning..... yet still have to wait till after the photography session! And now, here's my first bite....mmm....mm.....Really strong lime flavour cheesecake with yummo coffee flavour brownie. And super love the dark chocolate flavour topping. Wonderful....wonderful! So, are you craving for this tooooo?