Biscotti From The U.S Of A

Got these from Mee Fung when K came back from the States. I turned pink when I remembered the first time I had biscotti in Rome and how, I wondered aloud to K, a nation that has such fine food came up with a biscuit that is so hard and dry, the almonds although tasty compounded to the rocky texture.

I had bleeding gums and painful jaws after having just one piece. 

If only I knew then these were dunking biscuits, usually in liqueur (Vin Santo) with coffee... so sam pa lou! 

I was told  these biscotti are baked twice to make sure they are super hard! 

So here I made myself a black coffee as thick as can be (gau gau) with a dollop of this...

 
...coffee layered liqueur. Perfect day. 

I have since ran out of biscotti but with still half a bottle of this sweetness left. 

Maybe I'll do some home-baked biscotti. Anyone with a no-fail recipe for this biscuit? Like to share?

Have a lovely weekend.

Jo

Loh Hon Goh

This best home-brewed tong sui recipe came from my sister, Pit, many years ago which has since become one of our favourites. We call it loh hon goh but I think in the kopitiam (coffee shop) it is referred to as tung kwa leong cha (winter melon cooling tea). I find most shops would use candied winter melon instead of fresh melon. It really taste so much more aromatic with fresh melon. Another trick to give this tong sui a rich caramel taste and aroma is to add a few pieces of gula melaka (palm sugar) when adjusting the taste. I also like to add more lieu (ingredient) like dried longan meat, thinly sliced dried persimmon or sea coconut, if available, to make this more a dessert than a drink.

Fresh winter-melon, loh hon goh, tai hoi lam, rock sugar, longan

4 L water

2 loh hon goh (Buddha's fruit), wash and cracked open

10 tai hoi lam, washed and soaked

200g winter melon flesh, finely shredded

1/2 cup dried longans, rinsed

rock sugar  

gula melaka (optional)  

Tai hoi lam is an olive-like dried fruit. When soaked in water it expands more than double its size and the flesh is transparent and feels like jelly. The outer skin has to be discarded and that's the part I find most tedious in this whole process of preparing the tong sui. The skin can be easily detected when soak in water as they are opaque while the flesh is transparent. At the top of the bowl of soaked tai hoi lam you can easily see a small black triangle speck floating on the water - that's the skin to be discarded. This ingredient is used more for the texture than its taste. Strain away the soaking water and it is ready to be used. 

Bring the winter melon, loh hon goh (skin and seeds) and water to a boil, lower heat and let simmer for 3 hours. 

Fish out the loh hon goh and discard. 

Add the sugars to taste. Turn the heat off. 

Add the soaked tai hoi lam and dried longans. Let it stand for a minute and it is ready to be served hot.

Leave in the fridge and you can have icy cold tong sui whenever the weather get unbearably hot.

Home-made Yogurt with Mango

Mango season is here once again. These are from Ben's garden, probably the last because they moved and sold the house along with the mango tree (that got to be one of the hardest thing to part with). As these mangoes are super sweet, I love to eat it with yogurt. 

For this yogurt I used a low-fat milk powder but you can use any fresh, UHT or even soy milk (I've never tried it, a friend did and it worked fine but with a soy milk taste of course). The yogourtmet is used as a starter for the yogurt. If unavailable, substitute with a tablespoon of any unadulterated fresh yogurt. 

If possible, get it from an Indian restaurant that serves yogurt, as most of those sold in supermarkets are processed with sugar, preservatives and thickening agents.

Prepare the milk powder as per instruction on the package. 

Here I used 3 cups of water with 1 cup milk powder. 

With milk powder, the thicker (more fat content) the milk solution the thicker consistency yogurt will turn out. 

The milk should be warm and not hot to the touch (about the same temp as the milk for feeding babies).

Stir in the starter.

Pour into sterilized glass containers. 

Keep them covered but not airtight.

Place them on a baking tray with about 1/2 inch of water.

Preheat oven to slightly below 50C. 

Switch off the oven and put the tray in.

Leave for 3-6 hours. 

By 3 hours the milk should be firming up and set like custard. 

The longer it is left in the oven the more acidic (sour) it gets.

So, if you don't like the yogurt too sour put it into the fridge as soon as it set.

If the milk do not set by 6 hours it means the bacteria (culture) in the starter is dead and no yogurt is produced. Get another new batch of starter and start all over again. 

Keep a tablespoon of the newly formed yogurt aside in a small clean container in the fridge as starter for the next round of yogurt making (it should be used within a month). I was told some Indian restaurants have yogurt starter that originated more than 40 years ago! 

Great for cooking curry dishes (lighter than coconut milk and love the tangy taste it gives to the dish), as salad dressing and cooling drinks (just mix 2-3 tablespoon of yogurt + a teaspoon of honey + 1/2 a glass of drinking water with a handful of ice-cubes... so refreshing).

For breakfast or dessert, serve it with any fresh or dried fruits, add some nuts or muesli for crunch and honey for sweetness. Prefect for these hot and humid weather we are experiencing now.

Jo

White Fungus Tong Sui

Having a serious bout of flu for the past two weeks. Started off with a minor sore throat which quickly followed by an on and off fever. Later develop spasm of gut-wrenching cough that last for a minute or so a session and leaves me with a husky vocal like Rod Steward :p. Latest verdict - the minor sore throat grew into energy-zapping bronchitis.

There were many tips as to what to eat and drink to soften the cough but I did this because these were the only ingredients I could find at home. Just too exhausted to have gone out shopping for pears or whatever these recipes call for.

Just wash and soak some white fungus, about 1 cup. They double in size after a few minutes in water. Get rid of any hard parts that doesn't soften up after 10 minutes or so of soaking. Drain.

Wash a handful of red dates. Get the stones out by flattening each date with the side of the cleaver.

Wash a tablespoon each of wolfberry (枸杞) and dried longan meat.

Boil 2 litre of water in a pot, add fungus and red dates. Simmer for about an hour. Add longan and wolfberry, cook for 2 minutes. Add rock sugar to taste. I add a small piece of gula melaka (palm sugar) to give it a richer aroma. Off heat.

Drink it warm or cold. Warm if you are in my condition but I really like it cold straight from the fridge on a hot afternoon. I don't think it did much to ease the cough but it did help lift my spirit.

Jo

Nian Gao 年糕

Let us kick start the Chinese new year season with this traditional sticky cake.

When we start getting this special cake, we know for sure the season of Chinese new year is here. This dessert is synonymous with CNY as fruit cake is to Christmas. It is a must-have in all Chinese households during this festive season.

Chinese love auspicious sounding food during this most important season of the year. Nian Gao has the same connotation of 年高, which literally is 'year high' - means something like getting higher in the year. When this cake is given as a gift, it brings with it the wish that everything in the year will improve and get better (higher).
An old legend related to this dessert is that the Kitchen God is fed with this cake. The stickiness of the cake would glue the Kitchen God's mouth and that, hopefully will prevent him from reporting anything unfavourable about the family in heaven.

This cake is seldom eaten as is but can be prepared in many different ways.
The simplest method and the way my mum liked it best is to pan-fry thin slices of the cake coated in beaten eggs until soft and golden.
My children like it deep-fried, sandwiched between two slices of yam (taro) dipped in a light batter.
The dessert above is my favourite way to eat this cake. Steam the cake till soft. If the cake is freshly made omit the steaming. Cut it into bite-size cubes with a thick thread and roll the cubes in freshly grated coconut. Simpl yet so delicious.
Pit Fung gave us the above cake specially ordered from a lady who makes it every year. The texture is unbelievably smooth and it is also kurang manis (less sugar). It is wrapped in banana leaves which gives it a very alluring aroma.

Traditionally, nian gao is made of only a few basic ingredients - just glutinous rice flour, sugar and water. Mix them together well and knead. Divide the dough, place in lined (with fragrant leaves like banana, lotus, pandan or like those we get in the shops - just cellophane) containers and steam for 3-4 hours. Depending on the sugar content in the cake, some can be safely kept for days without refrigeration or months in fridge.

My grandparents used to make these cakes in the olden days to sell .
They made them from scratch. Started with the grinding of soaked glutinous rice in a hugh stone grinder.
2 hugh cylindrical slabs of stone, one piled on top of the other. The top slab has a hole in the centre and a handle with which to move the stone that required a lot of muscles to turn.
One hand spoon the soaked glutinous rice into the hole and the other hand would turn the stone in a circular path. The grinding takes place between the two slabs of stones and the final produce comes out in a milky solution.
The ground rice would then be tied into a bag and hang to drain out some of the water used to ground the rice.
They also used the same machine for grinding soy beans for tofu making. I am biased I know, but then, everything used to taste so much better - my grandparents made the best tofu I have ever tasted. Silky smooth with the most exquisite smoky aroma.
Cooking with firewood is something we have sacrificed for convenience
I remember the hustle and bustle in the kitchen at the back of the shop house (they lived upstairs in the shop) a month or so before Chinese new year with rows and rows of metal containers lining up to be filled and steamed.
A gigantic triple story bamboo steamer atop a big wok that sat on a hugh furnace fed with fire wood working non-stop and the aroma that filled the kitchen was intoxicating.

If you are still with me, thank you for putting up with my memory lane ramblings . Our grandparents are no more here but the fond memories they left behind are sometimes still so vivid!
Better stop here and leave you with these sweetness before I get started on a novel...

Jo

Mozartkugel

This, I allow myself to have only one at the end of a long day. Received this gift during the Christmas season and I have been selfishly hogging it since. And now with the contents half gone and guiltily admitting gluttony, I decided to share them with you :p.
This Austrian gem comes from Salzburg. It is called Mozartkugel, named after the famous composer, Mozart who was born in Salzburg.
It is made with an outer layer of rich dark bitter chocolate (super velvety smooth) enclosing within a layer of light praline cream and a layer of dark praline cream. Right in the center is the finest marzipan with pistachio nuts.
That should give you an idea what will-power I had to exert restraint on myself from pigging out the whole content in two sittings.
Truly heaven in a bite.
Lucky for me K doesn't share my passion for chocolate.
Enjoy and have a lovely second weekend of 2008!

Jo

Apple Pie Deluxe

Don't know whether it is the weather (I love the rain but to wake up to a grey and gloomy sky early in the morning...) or the time of the year (nearing the end of year...) that I am feeling so melancholy (can't resist using this nice sounding but sad meaning word). It is time for a sweet fix. Looked through my new cook book The Sweet Comfort Food but couldn't decide what to try out until Bryan asked ' Can we have an apple pie?' That hit all the right cords! My ultimate comfort food (well, second only to chocolaty desserts). Apple pie it is.

It has been a long while since I last made an apple pie but fear not, I have this recipe which has been through many ups and downs with me over the years and it has never fail to deliver.
Why deluxe? You might ask. Well, I figured since I am going to indulge I might as well do it in a grand scale and pack in as many of my favourite things in life as possible.

Deluxe apple pie

For the filling

6-7 small cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly

130 g brown sugar

3 tablespoon flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup raisin, washed and drained

1/2 cup walnuts or any nuts you fancy, washed, lightly toasted and crushed coarsely

Mix sugar, flour and cinnamon together well.

For the pastry

350 g all purpose flour, sifted

175 g butter, unsalted and diced

pinch of salt

~ 5 tablespoon chilled water or 1 beaten egg mixed with some chilled water

Combine the flour, salt and butter into a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs.

Sprinkle in the water (or egg if use for a richer pastry) tablespoon by tablespoon and mix until the crumbs gather together to form a soft (but not wet) dough.

Put in a container, cover and chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes (can be kept up to three days in the fridge).

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.
Roll out just slightly more than half the pastry on to a plastic sheet to about 27 cm in diameter. Work the pastry lightly and quickly. Over-handled pastry will yield a hard crust. The plastic sheet make it easier to transfer the rolled pastry to line the pie dish (about 23 cm). Allow the pastry to overhang the edge slightly.

Dip the apple slices into the sugar/flour mixture before arranging them over the lined dish. Sprinkle raisins and nuts generously in between the apple layers.

Dot filling with butter.

Roll out the rest of the pastry to form the lid.

Place the lid over the apple filling and press gently to seal.

Trim the edges of pie; use a fork and press on the edges to make markings.

Brush the top of pie with egg wash.
Prick the lid with the fork to make small vents for the steam to escape.

Place pie at the lowest level in the oven for 20 minutes (that ensures a crusty bottom, never fail).

Lower oven temperature to 180C/350F and bake for a further 30 minutes until the pastry is golden and the apple filling oozing out of the vents.

Serve hot or cold with or without cream or ice cream.

The children like it hot with vanilla ice-cream...

I like it just the way it is - hot or cold.

After having this piece of heaven, I felt like what my mum would aptly described in one Chinese verse - 'Tian diao xia lai, dang bei gai' - translated as 'sky falls down, use it as a blanket for cover'. Hah, come what may and I shall overcome...Definite sign of sugar overdosed! That explained why I am still wide awake at this unearthly hour. How am I going to wake up at 5.30 am to get Leanne ready for school?!?! Maybe I'll just stay awake till then...Meantime, maybe I'll have another piece of pie with a nice cuppa Earl Grey, care to join me?

Good night and good day!

Jo