Glutinous Rice with Shredded Coconut

I like to make this easy kuih if I happen to crave for some Malaysian kuih-muih (Asian steamed/baked cake).  You can either use a rice cooker or a steamer to make the bottom part of this kuih which is the glutinous rice.  For this recipe, I will use a rice cooker to cook the rice since its more widely available in people house.  Serve this as a dessert, snack or breakfast.  This kuih should be finished in 3 days without refrigeration.  The glutinous rice will harden when place in the refrigerator but you can always microwave it before consuming.

Chinese Fried Donuts

I am sharing the secret recipe of the Chinese donuts dessert that you order at the Chinese restaurants.  This is so simple to make, so delicious to eat and loved by many.  It is hard to stop at just one!

Homemade version is so much healthier and cheaper.  You get to use your own trans fat free oil and 100% pure cane sugar instead of the GMO granulated beet sugar.  Furthermore, you can save this clean oil to reuse for your next batch of fried donuts as well.

Wait no further, continue to the next page for the recipe!  Enjoy!

Simply Butter Cake

I was looking for a butter cake recipe that I had tried before but somehow lost the recipe.  I found this recipe at allrecipes.com that seem like the one I was looking for.  So, I set out to give this recipe a try.  It turned out buttery with vanilla fragrant but the texture was not really what I was searching for.  I don't know whether it was me using the raw cane sugar instead of granulated white sugar has anything to do with it?  It was soft with buttery vanilla flavor!

Coconut Red Bean Agar-Agar/ Jelly

This is just a simple and delicious dessert to serve to your guests.  Easy to make and delicious to eat, furthermore the look is very presentable.  You can use the pattern knife and cut it into diamond shape as well.

You can use any agar-agar powder and follow the instruction at the back.  Just substitute the water with coconut milk.  Then, follow my recipe.  Hope you like this dessert!

Magic Lemon Custard Pie

I wanted to try an easy magic custard pie recipe and I found this recipe that used a blender.  Just blend, pour and bake, super easy right?  So, with the request of my daughters since they loved eggs custard, I set up to try this recipe shared by Robyn.  It was watery before making, but after baking, it came to have three different layers.  Top crispy crust (turn soft when cold), egg custard in the middle and a base at the bottom.  Next time, I shall play with different flavors.

Baked Pumpkin Mochi Cake

I wanted to try making this because I saw a picture of someone selling pumpkin mochi.  Since I made red bean mochi before, I knew I could easily modified the recipe and made my own version of pumpkin mochi.  So, I set to work and created this beauty.  When it was out of the oven, the top crust was crispy and soft inside.  On the next day, it turned soft and slightly chewy.  I hope you like this recipe and feedback to me!

My easy recipe, with only a whisk and a bowl.  Less steps and less things to wash later.  I couldn't resist and cut one small row to try, before I remember I haven't taken a picture yet!  Heehee!

Lemony Lemon Brownies

When I saw this recipe shared on my Facebook page, I just had to make it.  My girls loved anything lemony such as my Lemon Sables, Crispy Lemon Cookies and Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins.  Needless to say, I have been making lots of lemony dessert lately.  This brownie got my girls approval too, is a change from the usual chocolate brownie, but I like the fudgy brownie better.  *wink*

I modified the methods in making this lemon brownie from the original version because I remembered I only needed a hand whisk to make the best brownie ever recipe.  So, I improvised and experimented with it and glad to announce that it worked!  So, you are free to use my lazy method or follow the original recipe.  I also cut down on the sugar and changed the glaze recipe, as the glaze recipe provided by the original poster yields too much runny glaze and hence resulted my brownie looking like the above.

Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins with Lemon Glaze

I don't know, I love to buy lemon when it's on sale.  And if it is 3 for $1, I would buy 3 instead of 1 even though I only needed one.  Often time when that happen, I have no idea what to do with the lemons.  I just realized that I can just cut it into slices and put it into an air-tight container in the fridge and take each slice out for use in my water (to make it alkaline).

Anyway, for these 2 lemons that I was left with, I decided to make Lemon Poppy Seeds Muffins.  I created this recipe because I want to make it into a recipe that is easy to make and less thing to wash.   No electric appliance needed, just a bowl and a hand whisk!  It turned out soft, lemony and delicious, even my hubby that normally doesn't eat sweet had 3 in a day!  Of course the rest my girls walloped it up, now I will need to buy more lemons to make more of these yummies.

Soft and fluffy with the flavor of lemon and the crunch from the poppy seeds!

My Version of Vietnamese Dessert

We loved Vietnamese dessert.  Often time when we went up to Denver, we would go to a Vietnamese bakery shop to buy some of the kuih (Asian steamed cake), "tofu fah" and cups of sweet dessert like the above.  It came with several variety and it was hard to pick a favorite, but often time I would pick one loaded with beans, sweet potato, sago and taro.  I don't know how they really make theirs but I know it is sweet and covered with coconut milk.

This is my version and it tasted just like the one sold at the store.  It is not difficult to make but involved a few steps like cooking the tapioca pearls or strips first and steaming the sweet potato or taro if used.  Then, you just mix it all together and place into an individual serving bowl or cup and refrigerate until serving.  It is best eaten on the same day as the tapioca strips might harden when kept in the fridge for too long.  If you make this, please feedback to me ya!  Enjoy!

Chewy Rice Paper Pan-fried Nian Gao

This inspiration came about when I was watching a Korean Variety Show called "Happy Together".  There was a winning dish that used the rice paper to wrap leftover and pan-fried it.  Just so happen that I still have a small piece of nian gao/ steamed glutinous rice cake in the refrigerator, so I thought rice paper and nian gao would go well together and quickly set out to give it a try.  We all loved this chewy variation of eating the nian gao too.  Now I have a new way to enjoy the leftover nian gao from Chinese New Year!  I bet you all have some nian gao laying around your house too right?  Give this a try!! *wink*

Soft and chewy bite with melted nian gao/ tikoy/ steamed glutinous rice cake with a slight crispiness from the skin, simply divine!  If you don't like it chewy, you can also try my Crispy Springroll Fried Nian Gao.  You can omit other filling and just wrap it with the nian gao alone, crispy and delicious!

Happy Dongzhi Festival !!

Dongzi Festival falls on the first day of winter.  Chinese celebrate it by eating "Tang Yuan" or glutinous rice balls.  By eating the tang yuan, you are also a year older or wiser.  *wink*  They also cook an elaborate meal to celebrate it with family members. 

These tang yuan were shaped by both my girls.  It is great that now they are able to help me in the kitchen and doing some house chores.  My eldest is interested in learning how to cook now, thus far, she can make her own ramen noodle with eggs and fried eggs.  I will slowly teach her more, it's my way of imparting my cooking knowledge to the next generation.  So that they will know what to do when they are in college.

Last but not least, HAPPY DONGZHI FESTIVAL to all who celebrated and also Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all my readers and family!

Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese Filling

I always wanted to make a pumpkin roll with cream cheese filling as I couldn't trust the ones sold outside at the supermarkets.  Eating healthier also means most of the things we eat now have to be homemade.  I really do not wish to live like my great grandma used to live in this "modern" days, but because of the GMO and toxic chemicals that they put in the processed food, in order to protect ourselves, I am force to make things from scratch.  I do buy organic cookies or non-GMO verified potato chips but I haven't seen non-GMO verified pumpkin roll yet.  So, I have to make it if I want to eat it right?  Anyway, this pumpkin roll is oil free and butter free!!  Most of the fat comes from the cream cheese filling.

This pumpkin roll is soft and kind of spongy (which is strange as I just hand whisked the ingredients).  The cream cheese filling is just yummilicious and a plus for me is that this pumpkin roll is very easy to make (only a hand whisk, a bowl and a spatula plus measuring spoons and cups), quick to mix the batter and filling, 15 minutes to bake and just a little assemble would do.  Not a lot of things to wash too, so try it if you like easy recipe like me.

Three Beans Detox Soup

We all know beans are good for us right?  But I have never heard of this combination before until I watched a Taiwanese TV show recently.  She said this three beans detox soup can detox the body.  Since I always have these three beans in my pantry so of course I have to cook it.  Her recipe is without the sugar but I added Chinese brown sugar so that it is more like a dessert soup to us.  My girls both like this kind of Chinese dessert soup, they wallop all the beans including the soup every time I cooked it.

Green bean is cooling so it is not advisable to eat/drink green bean soup during your menstruation.  So, she suggested that during your menstruation, you can cut down on the green beans or even omit it.  Red and black beans are considered neutral so you can eat it all the times.  I always thought red bean is a bit on the heaty side, but I guess I was wrong.  On the side note, green tea is also cooling, so no green tea during menstruation please!

For this to work, you will have to cook until all the beans are broken out and eat it along with the soup.

The Best Brownies Ever

I finally found the best brownies recipe!!  Years ago before I became more health conscious, I always bought brownie premixed in a box.  I never know to look at the ingredients list before buying anything.  Now, it's a different story.  I was not satisfactory with the previous brownies recipes that I had tried and always in search of a better one and am glad to report that I finally found the keeper recipe for me.

This brownie is chocolatey, soft, slightly chewy and moist and so irresistible with each bite that I have to give you a warning.  Self-control is required when you bake this brownie as it is not really low fat but I made it less sinful without the frosting and also cutting down on the sugar.  You really don't need to add extra fat and sugar with this already divine brownies in my opinion.  We all loved this brownies and it's our best brownies recipe ever!  I hope you try it and feedback to me ya!

Blueberry Cheesecake Cups

I eat fruit based on whatever fruit is on season, same with vegetable.  And when Whole Food had their one day 1 pint organic blueberries on sales for $1.99, I couldn't pass it up.  Did you all manage to get some too?  For the most benefit, it is best to eat it raw, without cooking or baking to get the most nutrients.  So, instead of baking with it, I used it as a decoration on these cheesecake cups.  The rest, we just washed and ate it by the handful.

I remembered my lazy cheesecake cups recipe that I did back in 2009 and this is another version revised from that recipe.  I used ginger snap cookies as a base this time and it soften up just like a crust.  Brilliant!

I did a no-bake cheesecake cookie cup in 2011 using the ginger snap as well if you are interested.
 

Milo Chia Seed Pudding

Chia seed is so popular these days because of its high omega-3 fat and long shelve life.  Also, it doesn't have to be crushed (unlike flaxseed) to get the full benefits.  I have been added it in bread, waffle, pancake and muffin. But I also like to try new thing and chia seed pudding caught my eyes.  It seem easy enough, just add liquid and chia seeds and see it transform into a pudding like consistency.

I made a small batch to test it out and luckily my girls loved it too.  Just that we have to add more syrup to make it tasty.  Next time I would probably mix the syrup with the milk first before adding the chia seeds so that the pudding would be sweet.  I think it would be delicious in the Asian style sweet soy bean milk too.

Flaxseed Pumpkin Cake

After seeing all the delicious cakes baked by fellow bloggers, it made me realized that I haven't been baking cake in a while.  But I wanted something that was easy and not too troublesome to make, like my one whisk and one bowl cake recipe.  I finally decided on this pumpkin cake recipe because I have some organic pumpkin puree stock up in my pantry.  This time I added ground flaxseed just to make it healthier, no harm in getting an extra omega-3 right?

This cake is best eaten the next day.  The texture doesn't look like the usual pumpkin cake yet it is dense, soft and moist and so good with my morning cup of coffee.  I could taste the flaxseed, pumpkin and spices in the cake. Delicious!

Pina Colada Yonana

It has been almost a year since I owned my Yonana maker and I am still loving it.  It is always cool to have a new recipe to try.  When I saw the Pina Colada recipe posted at Yonana's Facebook page, I just wanted to try it.  This recipe was posted by Gerry Quesinberry and thanks Gerry for sharing this fantastic recipe.  I made one quart (more than the recipe stated) to freeze so that I can have few scoops a day.  I always like to make a big batch so that I can freeze for later, also I don't have to wash the Yonana maker every time I feel like eating some.  *wink*

Black Porridge Dessert

According to the Chinese, black food is a golden food for the kidney.  And taking care of your kidney is very important as it can reverse aging and makes you look vibrant and younger.  A good kidney can erase the sign of aging, black spots and blemishes on your face, and even turn white hair into black hair.  If you maintain a strong healthy kidney, you will have strong bone and bone marrow, articulate, hear well, clear face and jet black hair. Other black foods that need to be noted are black fungus, black mushroom, kelp, seaweed, fermented black beans, black chicken, black lentils, blackberries, black grapes and etc.  Are you impressed?

So, I made a quick and fuss free black porridge for us, using a slow cooker (the idea came from a Chinese source).  I finally found another way to enjoy some black beans besides cooking it in soup.  Since this is sweet, it is enjoy by everyone, even my girls loved it.  Not only this is delicious, fuss free to cook but also extremely healthy.  For the real benefit, it was recommended to have a bowl everyday and you will see result in week 3 +.  I am not sure whether I want to eat it every day though, but probably once a week (good enough for 3 days) as I do cook with black sesame seeds, seaweed, mushroom and black fungus often during the week.

All ingredients can be found at the Asian supermarkets except walnuts.  If you don't see the black slab sugar, feel free to buy the brown slab sugar.  Dried lily bulbs can be found at the herbal aisle in the Asian store.

Avocado Milkshake with Gula Melaka

Gula Melaka as we said it in Malaysia or palm sugar is made by extracting the sap from the flower bud of a coconut tree.  It is very fragrant and has the deep dark brown color and used in many Malaysian dessert.  I made the avocado milkshake before using the chocolate sauce and my readers commented that I can substitute the chocolate sauce with Gula Melaka which I thought was brilliant.  Finally the avocado was on sales again and I couldn't wait to try this.  It was indeed delicious but I think you need to like avocado to really enjoy this dessert.