Mee Sua Soup with Dumplings (菠菜饺子汤面)

I needed a quick lunch fix for Edda and me.  Earlier, I made a batch of chicken chive dumplings and freeze it for emergency such as a quick lunch idea and also an alternative for Evy when I didn't cook enough for her school's lunch box.  I checked my pantry and I had one bundle of somen left, just enough for both Edda and myself.  An lunch idea was formed as I remembered the way my mom cooked the somen for me during my confinement.  If you liked to check out my mom version just click under confinement.  It's similar to this except I added the spinach, dumplings, homemade glutinous rice wine and a little this and that.

Toasted Barley Tea (大麦茶)

My girl friend from China first introduced me to this barley tea.  She said she had it in Korean restaurant and really liked it and thus she bought it to make it at home.  Strangely though, I was never served barley tea when dining in Korean restaurants, or I have to ask for it?  They said it usually served with Korean BBQ.

Anyway, I saw this barley tea recipe in multiple Korean cookbooks and it's really easy to make.  You just have to search for this toasted barley in the Korean supermarket or Asian market.  This barley tea is very nutritious too and said to aid weight lost.  Chinese has been catching up and this barley tea is popular in other Asian countries too.  I found the benefits in a Chinese article which I copied and pasted here, 据本草纲目记载，大麦味甘、性平；有平胃止渴，消渴除热，益气调中，宽胸下气，消积进食，补虚劣、壮血脉，益颜色、宝五脏、化谷食之功.  Sorry I don't know how to translate it.

This is how it looks like and it's really fragrant.  The house was infused with toasted fragrant when I was boiling this.  The tea itself was fragrant and I like it without sugar.  The instruction at the packet of the barley that I bought said you can also served it cold with condensed milk or sugar for breakfast.  I will show you the picture of the packet in the next page.

Steamed Custard Sponge Cake

I wanted to create a recipe for steamed custard sponge cake.  This was my second trials.  I used a different recipe for the first attempt and for some reason the bottom half of the steamed cake was slightly hard, even though it rises beautifully.  So, I played around with this second recipe and added oil into my steamed sponge cake.  It didn't raise as high because my bamboo steamer was too big, I used a 12-inch bamboo steamer.  This recipe is okay but I wanted to try it with separating egg yolk and egg white (like a chiffon cake method) and compare the result.  And of course use a smaller pan!  This cake was soft but after the second day, it was still soft but had a slightly dry texture.

The steamed custard sponge cake from the bamboo steamer had nice top, even though I didn't cover it with a cheese cloth.  The first one I steamed using my electric steamer had bubbles top because the water condensation from the steamer kept dropping onto the cake.

Pickled Radish, Cucumber and Carrot

This is an Asian pickled.  This pickle is pretty common in Asian cuisine.  Most countries have their own version but cooking method is similar, 1:1 ratio of white vinegar:sugar.  It can be served as a Korean banchan too.  I tried to use less sugar and the result was less satisfactory as it leans toward sourish.

This is great as an appetizer as the vinegar really increases your appetite.  Not to say vinegar is good for us too.  It said to control high blood pressure, improving digestive system, reduce urinary tract infections and diseases, strengthening bone, etc.  You can do a search on the Web to read more benefits of vinegar.  With this pickle, I finally found a delicious way to have a little vinegar everyday.  Not to say cucumber, radish and carrot are good for us too.  But got to warm you though, this has quite a lot of sugar in it, so if you are watching your sugar intake, be aware.  Also, eat in moderation, a little bit in a day, not the whole thing in a day no matter how tempting it is.

Clementine or Mandarin Marmalade

 

What to do if you have sour mandarins?  The last batch of the Cuties mandarins that I bought turned out so sour that I wouldn't want to eat it.  Worst yet I bought 6 pounds of it!!  I would have returned it but my hubby said the gas money would have cost about the same and suggested to throw it away.  I am not a wasteful person, so it's hard to throw away 6 lb. of good looking mandarins even though it's inedible.  Then, I got an idea to make it into marmalade.  With added sugar, we can turn anything sour into sweet.  I came across an easy recipe but forgot where I have seen it but the process is really simple.

Look at those good looking mandarins, who could have guess it was so sour!  I guess it's time to stop buying the mandarins, is it the end of the season?  The last 40-50lbs that I bought was so sweet that I was truly disappointed in this recent batch.  Luckily the marmalade rescued me, it turned out so good that even my girls loved it.  I still have about 3 lb. of cuties left, right now sitting in my refrigerator to prolong the selves life, should last for a month before I make another batch of marmalade.  The marmalade can also be used in baking and cooking such as making cake, cookies, spread on Swiss roll, marmalade chicken, marmalade meat balls, marmalade baked salmon, etc.

Fruit Cake Mix Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I made this heart shape fruit cake mix cookies for this Valentine's day!  Also took this opportunity to wish all my readers a fun and happy Valentine's day celebration.  This cookie came about when I was shopping at my local supermarket and spotted the fruit cake mix was on clearance for 99 cent for a 16oz tub.  The 8 oz cherries an pineapple was on clearance for 49 cent.  How could I pass it out?  I used about half of the fruit cake mix to make this cookie and the other half I am planning to make a cake.

For the above cookies, I rolled it out and cut it with a cookie cutter.  The rest, I shaped into logs and placed in my freezer for future craving.