Gemstone Jelly

Doesn't it look pretty? It's jelly but gemstones came to my mind when I was removing it from the mould. It's like a combination of gemstones! Rubies, amber and diamonds, all in one! Imagine having gemstones as big as these, nice... Unfortunately, my photo may not do it justice. A little overboard maybe, but it won't hurt to let one's imagination go wild, at least once in awhile. Well, don't they say nothing happens without a dream??

Normally i would just make dragon fruit jelly but these had a combination of 3 types of fruits. The top layer got its red (the "Ruby") from the dragon fruit, orangy hue ( the "Amber") at the bottom came from orange juice while the lychees hidden inside were like sparkling Diamonds!

Now, let's talk about the taste, honestly, i am not too sure about it. Another case of don't be deceived by its look? The orange flavour was so dominant that it overpowered the other two. Of course, one will not forget the presence of the dragon fruit with the crunching of the little black seeds but there was not much rescue for the lychee, it was kinda like there but not there, because the taste and scent of lychee was missing.

I am not sure if I am gonna make this again. Yes would be the most likely answer but I will omit lychee, might try longans (I have tried longan and dragon fruit and it was a good combination). Longans instead of lychees for diamonds, after all Diamonds are Girls' Best Friends, how can we live without them :))

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Happy Birthday Mummy!

This time around it was Mum's birthday. It was extra special because everyone made it this year and it was the first time a new family addition was around to celebrate it with her. Am sure our presence was the best present for Mum :) We give thanks to be able to gather for this occasion. May God shower his blessings on her and let us have many more of this celebrations with her.

After a few successful attempts at the Japanese Cotton Cheesecake, I was confident that I would be able to put up a good one for Mum. The only thing I had to put some thoughts into was how to make it pretty. A birthday cake shouldn't be all plain. I settled for fruits. Firstly, Mum doesn't like creamy and sweet stuff but more importantly I have never done icing, hahaha! Didn't want to take any risk and spoil the cake.

So here's the cake with fruits as dressing. Arranged some oranges, kiwis, rambutans, grapes and strawberries to get a vibrant colour combination. Made some orange clear glaze to give it a glossy effect.

Am glad that Mum and the family loved it. Mission Accomplished! Yeay!

Orange Fruit Glaze
Source : Food.Com
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons corn flour
1 cup fruit juice (I used orange, substitute with any fruit juice prefered)
2 tablespoons corn/sugar syrup

1. Bring sugar and 1/2 cup of juice to boil.
2. Dissolve corn flour in remaining juice.
3. Add no. 2 to boiling juice and cook until thick.
4. Stir in corn/sugar syrup. Bring to a boil.
5. Cool and use! (It's more than enough for a 8 inch cake)

Note : The glaze is orangy and not clear white.

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Earth Hour 2011 Makan Makan in the Dark

Earth Hour? Hype? Maybe... I guess we can all do more than just turning off the lights for one hour but it's great that many people do their part during that hour, at least it is a good start especially if you have kids, be it to create awareness or just symbolic. It is so important to teach them to do their part for Mother Earth. It is unfortunate that we have witnessed so many catastrophes around the world. I believe as parents, we share the same worries on what is in store for our kids? No one knows but let's try our best not to aggravate the situation at least for the sake of our young ones...

This year, just like what we did last year, we had a family candlelight dinner alfresco (in our car porch, the only space that I have to put a table outside the house) :) Being typical Malaysians, any excuse is an excuse for a makan event. This time around everything was home-cooked. We purposely waited until it was that hour, switched off our lights and started digging in.

A full course dinner (must have enough to last an hour :)). The photos were take prior to the darkness, with my limited skills, those taken in the dark are just not blog-worthy :)

Starter ~ Strawberry Cream Cheese Orange Salad (inspired by Table for 2)
A refreshing salad with olive oil and orange juice as the main dressing. Some cubed cream cheese if you like the creamy effect which I think is optional otherwise. I threw in some strawberries, pieces of orange flesh, romaine lettuce and pieces of cubed toasted crunchy garlic bread (basically, it's what you have plus a little creativity to have a balance in taste and colour effect). You can add some freshly grounded black pepper to spice it up a little.

Main ~ Lemon and Herb Roast Chicken and Spaghetti Oglio Olio

This combination was inspired by what we had at an Italian restaurant in LA. Though we were hurrying to catch our flight back home, the spaghetti that BIL ordered left a lasting impression and cravings too (maybe because I took only a little from BIL to try it)! It looked so simple and yet tasted so good. At that time I didn't know it was called Oglio Olio. Only upon doing some research on the Net, I learned it's name and got to know that it's just olive oil and garlic. Actually, I am not convinced, I have tried it twice but nowhere is it near what I tasted. Something is missing, I just don't know what it is...tell me please if you do

I used Herb de Provence plus some lemon zest to marinate the chicken.


As for the spaghetti, it was basically olive oil, chopped garlic, sea salt and black pepper with some fresh mushrooms. I added some chili to spice it and garnished it with parsley and a little grated cheese. That's all!


Dessert ~ Pineapple Jelly



Some good family time we had :)

Here's to a better earth for our future!

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Happy Food

Little one was down with a throat infection over the last few days. He was so upset because it had to happen during school holidays! There goes his plans for all the fun and whatever mischief he had up his sleeves :)

His appetite was also poor during that period. He hardly ate. I made this jelly for him in order to get him to eat something easy but nutritious and to cheer him up.

This is really easy but is a very nice, cooling and tasty dessert. Something fun but nutritious as it's main ingredient is soya milk.

It is quite commonly available in dim sum restaurants and even the night markets. They usually make them in small microwavable cups. I used the jelly moulds that were meant for mooncake jelly. I find the size quite right for individual servings albeit a little on the generous side :)

I used fresh unsweetened soya milk that I bought from the wet market. The recipe used is actually courtesy of the soya milk seller plus a little research for confirmation.

Recipe
(yields 12 pieces plus 3 17*12*5cm microwavable boxes )

Note : This is a very soft jelly (as soft as beancurd) and meant to be eaten with a spoon.

• 1.5 liter water (with sugar syrup from soya milk seller and some syrup from longan to make up volume)
• 13g Agar-agar powder
• 150g castor sugar or to taste
• 2 pieces of pandan leaves - knotted (optional)
• 1 liter unsweetened soya bean milk
• 400ml canned evaporated milk
• A tin of canned longan

1. Mix water, agar-agar powder, sugar and pandan leaves (if available) into a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Add in soya bean milk and evaporated milk and stir. Lower fire and switch off when near boiling stage. Do not allow it to boil.
3. Put longan into moulds.
4. Pour jelly mixture.
5. Cool to set in refrigerator.

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