Gula Melaka Ginger Soup with Quail Eggs

This dessert(without the quail eggs) was what my mom used to cook for us during 冬至。 I like the smoky taste of gula Melaka and the spiciness and warm sensation from the ginger. Ginger soup is good for digestion, calm tummy, relief bloatiness, expel wind去风, 活血etc.

I missed the taste of this dessert, so for this month AB theme, I decided to redo what my mom did and add quail eggs to it.

Ingredient: (2 bowls)
6 slices ginger (I like spicer taste)
50g palm sugar (adjust to your liking)
8 quail eggs
6 ready made tang yuan (with or without filling to your liking)

Method:
1. Boil quail egg in boiling water. Set to cool in cold water. Peel and set aside.
2. Boil tang yuan in boiling water. Ready when float. Set in cold water.
3. Boil ginger slices in water. Simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Add palm sugar and bring to boil.
5. Add tang yuan and quail eggs. Simmer for another 15-30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
6. Remove from heat. Ready to serve.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #20: Asian dessert Buffet! (June 2012)hosted by Moon of Food Playground.

Warabi Mochi

I first fell in love with this Japanese dessert during a lunch appointment in "Fat Cow", a Japanese restaurant at Camden Medical Centre. Although I was very full from lunch but when I start eating this dessert, I couldn't stop, because it was so light, so cooling and so soft.
So for this month AB theme, I thought of this dessert as I suddenly have craving for this. I follow recipe from here and drizzle gula Melaka syrup before serve (instead of black sugar syrup) to give it an Asian twist.

Ingredient:
- 60 grams (2 ounces) warabimochiko (I can't find this powder so I used tapioca flour instead)
- 240 ml (1 cup) lukewarm water
- 40 grams sugar (I use caster sugar)
- about 30 grams (1 ounce) kinako (i used toasted black soybean powder, available at Daiso)

Gula Melaka syrup
- 50 gram palm sugar
- 1/2 cup water

Method: (Makes about 24 bite-size pieces)

1. Place tapioca flour in a medium mixing bowl. Whisk in water little by little until the mixture is smooth, with no lumps. Whisk in the sugar. The mixture will be thin.
2. Pour black soybean powder in a ziplock bag.
3. Set a fine-mesh sieve over a saucepan and pour the tapioca mixture through. Place the pan over medium heat. Stir with a wooden spoon constantly and energetically as the mixture heats and becomes thick and elastic. After just a little while, the mixture will turn translucent.
4. When completely translucent, remove from the heat and pour the mixture -- whole or in small pieces -- into a bowl of ice water to chill first, before draining and putting in ziplock bag, coating with soybean powder.
5. Sprinkle the top with powder, and use a dough cutter (or large knife) dusted with soybean powder to cut it into bite-size pieces.
6. Separate the pieces and roll them around gently to coat on all sides. Let cool completely before eating.
7. Transfer them to a serving dish with some of the remaining powder (pour the rest back into the package) and serve with toothpicks. (In Japan, they were served with flat wooden picks with an angled point, that seemed to echo the shape of the kuromoji, the utensil used to cut pastries during the tea ceremony.)
8. Cook palm sugar with water till boil. Set to cool. Drizzle palm sugar syrup on top before serve.

Warabi mochi can keep for a couple of days. Cover and keep at room temperature; if you refrigerate them, they'll get tough.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Baker #20: Asian dessert buffet!(June 2012) Hosted By Moon of Foodplayground.

Q & A - Aspiring bakers #20

After posting Aspiring Baker #20 - Asian Dessert Buffet! (June 12) theme, thank you to some keen food bloggers that sent me their queries. To clear theirs and maybe your doubts, i will answer these questions that were brought up so far:

Q: is kueh accepted?
A: Guessed kueh is more appropriate for the earlier theme: AB #12: traditional kueh(Oct 2011).

Q: is agar agar / jelly accepted?
A: Yes! agar agar, jelly, pudding are all accepted. (will add this point to the AB#20 post)

Q: is Kulfi accepted?
A: Kulfi is a kind of ice cream, so it's not accepted.

Q: Is non cook dessert accepted?
A: Yes, it is accepted. Eg. Chendol, Ice kacang etc.

To summaries, see here for the rules(this revised copy is reflected in AB#20 post as well):

1) only Asian style dessert are accepted, no western dessert.
2) only cook/non-cook Asian dessert are accepted, no bake dessert.
3) Asian style cooked dessert include Chinese dessert eg. Tang Sui (糖水）, pudding eg. Soy bean milk pudding, 龟苓膏 etc, Malay/Nonya dessert eg. Chendol etc.
4) hot and cold desserts are accepted.
5) ice cream are not accepted.
6) agar agar, jelly, pudding are accepted.

Inspiration
Recently I went to HK for holiday, and brought back some instant HK desserts. See picture to see what I bought, and maybe these can also give your some inspiration to participate in this month AB#20 theme. :)

Top: Ginger Milk Curd姜汁撞奶
Left: Cha Cha Dessert, ingredients: red bean, yam, coconut cream, black-eyed Pea, Red Kidney Bean, brown sugar.
Right: Almond Cordial with Fungus Dessert雪耳莲子杏仁露

Bandung Soy Milk Beancurd Pudding

Was looking for "老伴豆花"the other day, and saw another shop selling pink colour 豆花 pudding, was curious what flavor is that and saw it was strawberry flavor. Was quite disappointed because the pink colour remind me of Bandung.
Why not make my own Bandung beancurd pudding? Yes, so I adopted the recipe I tried earlier and turned it into Bandung flavor. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
500ml Soy Bean Milk
2 tsp Gelatine powder
1/2 tsp rose flavour essence
1/4 tsp red coloring

Method:
1. Add rose flavor essence and red coloring into soy milk and stir well.
2. Heat up soy bean milk in a sauce pan over low heat(do not let it boil).
3. Put gelatine powder in a small bowl, ladle about 50ml of warm soy milk in it and stir till powder dissolve and well mixed.
4. Pour mixture back to sauce pan and stir well. Let it simmer for 30 second (do not let it boil).
5. Off the heat. Wait till mixture cool off slightly before sift it into a container to cool completely.
6. Chill mixture for 3 to 4 hour in fridge before serve.

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #20 Asian Dessert Buffet!(June 2012) hosted By Moon of Food playground.

Aspiring Bakers #20 - Asian Dessert Buffet! (June 2012)

I am a big fan of Aspiring Bakers! Thanks to SSB for giving me this opportunity to host this month theme - Asian Dessert Buffet!(June 2012)

You may wander what kind of Asian dessert? After much discussion, here is a summary:

1) only Asian style dessert are accepted, no western dessert.
2) only cook/non-cook Asian dessert are accepted, no bake dessert.
3) Asian style cooked dessert include Chinese dessert eg. Tang Sui (糖水）, pudding eg. Soy bean milk pudding, 龟苓膏 etc, Malay/Nonya dessert eg. Chendol etc.
4) hot and cold desserts are accepted.
5) ice cream are not accepted.
6) agar agar, jelly, pudding are accepted.

If you are like me, a big fan of AB, and like to eat, cook and learn Asian dessert, do participate and share with us your recipes. Do drop me an email or comment if you have any question.

Looking forward to the delicious Asian dessert buffet!

Who can join?
Everyone! (if you do not have a blog, just send me a photo and recipe of your bake/dish

How to join?

Step 1 :
Make any Asian dessert in the month of June 2012. You may submit more than 1 entry.

Step 2 :
Post it on your blog between 01 June 2012 and 30 June 2012.
Your post must include the recipe or link to the original recipe. If you are using a recipe from a book, please include the title of the book too.
Any entries that are posted outside the date range will not be accepted.
Any entries that do not include a recipe or link to the original recipe will not be accepted too.

Step 3 :
Please mention that you are submitting your post to Aspiring Bakers #20: Asian dessert buffet! (June 2012) hosted by Moon of Food Playground and provide a link back to this post HERE.
Entries will not be accepted if the above is not included.

Step 4 :
Email to Foodplayground@gmail.com in the following format:

Your name or nickname:
Your blog name: (omit this if you do not have a blog)
Name of your bake/dish:
URL of your post:
URL of your photo (one photo for each entry):
(alternatively, you can attach your photo in your email, preferably less than 500kb).

Please use "Aspiring Bakers #20" as your email subject. You may submit more than 1 entry.

The roundup will be posted on 01 July 2012.

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If you are interested to find out what's on the previous Aspiring Bakers #19: Dim sum affair (may 2012), hosted by SSB of Small small baker, see the roundup HERE