Merry Christmas 2013

May the true meaning of Christmas 

And the Hope prevail in all of us

As we wait for Christmas to happen again some day... And that some day will come.

Granite Tang Yuan 石头汤圆 - Balls #3

I saw this special form of tang yuan many years ago and had been hoping to try it out. Finally I did.
Every year, I do hope to make some  for the winter festival (although there's no winter here), but I just never made some, because no one bothers about it and just end up only me "shiok sendiri".

I was lazy to wrap fillings and decided to serve it 'muah chee style'. Now it looks like pebbles on sand...
I am thinking whether I can construct an aquarium bowl to serve it, complete with aquatic plants, fish and maybe prawns, haha, but that will be sooo big. It's just a crazy idea.

Mine look more like marbles and if you take a look at my source's granite balls, they look sooo real and nice.

I kept mine for more than 6 hours, soaked in room temperature water, waiting for my hubby to come home from work. I reheated the granite balls in the microwave, still submerged in water. Drained them and put them on the peanut sand. He enjoyed his after dinner dessert, saying the peanuts were the loveliest touch.

Granite Sticky Rice Balls
Idea adapted from: maimaidejianguo

200gm glutinous rice flour
14gm or 1 Tbsp butter
90ml boiling water
1-2 Tbsp water

1 tsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bamboo charcoal powder

3/4 cup ground roasted peanut + 1/3 cup castor sugar (roughly 2:1 ratio)

1. Bring 1/2 cup of water to boil on a saucepan.
2. Measure the flour and butter and put it in a bowl. Make a well and when the water has  boiled, measure 90ml water into the well. (You can either use  6 Tbsp or a measuring cup, or weigh 90gm of water with the mixing bowl directly on the scale)
3. Mix it with chopsticks or a fork. Add in 1 Tbsp of room temperature water and knead (it might still be very warm, but it won't  burn your hand). Add  more water if it's needed and knead until a dough forms.
4. Divide  dough into 4 parts  and  knead 1 part with  charcoal powder and 1 part with cocoa  powder.
5. Roll each part into long logs, with equal length. flatten them and stack. Cut the stack into half and stack.
6. Cut the stacked dough into smallish pieces, it's ok if they are not in exact sizes.
7. Roll them into pebble shapes.
8. Bring a saucepan of water to boil. Put the balls of  dough into the  boiling water. Let them boil until they float. Lower the heat to medium low and let them simmer for another 2-3  minutes.
9. Remove the dough balls from the water and serve with peanut sugar.

You can serve these in light syrup too, of which is the usual way.

Blog on Break :)

See you in January for AFF Hong Kong Macau with a chicken week.

Shredded Egg Ball 金丝球 - Balls #2

Chinese New Year is coming soon. Haha, Christmas isn't over yet.
This dish taste pretty good and it feels like eating dimsum. You can prepare the egg balls earlier and steam it or just reheat when it's almost dinner time.

I think I bought the wrong vegetable for garnish. Everything looks too shreddy. I think baby bokchoy or nai-bak will look better. I only realised that when I plated it. But oh well... can't do anything about it. Just went ahead.

Dawood Basha @ Lebanese Meatballs - Balls Week #1

I once had these in Suria KLCC's food court and fell in love with it. But that version didn't come with pine nuts. I was searching for the version that matched my memory, and it was served with a tomato sauce that was spiced.

When I found a seemingly matching recipe, I was elated.

Dawood Basha actually meant High Ranking Officer Dawood (David).

Lebanese 7 Spice Mix

The middle eastern countries have different favourite spice mix recipes that makes the flavour of similar dishes distinguish from each other.

Read this site to see all the different types of spice mixes in the region. There are a few types of 7 spices, so, don't get confused with the composition.

To make this spice mix, you need

1. Ginger powder
2. Cinnamon powder (not cassia)
3. Fenugreek
4. Cloves
5. Allspice
6. Black  pepper
7. Nutmeg

Mix using equal propotions.

In my case, I had these in powdered form:- ginger, cinnamon and allspice.
The others were whole spices. Take note that whole spices after ground were left with slightly more than half the amount in volume.

Lebanese 7 Spice Mix
1. Measure 1.5 tsp of fenugreek, cloves, black peppercorns and 1 nutmeg (shell removed). (Or any other whole spices that you have)
2. Lightly toast them in the oven at 140C until you can smell them. Let them cool down and grind  them finely in a mill.
3. Measure out 4 tsp (tap the spoon on the counter to compact) of the milled spices, there wasn't much left in the mill, and then mix with 1tsp each of the powdered  cinnamon, ginger and all spice (or any other powdered spices you have).
4. Final amount is around 7tsp.