Share of my home-made peanut butter mochi with shredded coconut~ =)

This is my home-made peanut butter mochi with shredded coconut~!!! =)

A home-made peanut butter mochi

This kind of dessert can be also called sweetened glutinous rice dumpling with peanut butter~>v<

Here is a detailed video which takes 12.03 minutes teaching the audience about how to make the mochi properly~! Although it is in Chinese with English subtitles, it is in clear instructions and explanations, so we can learn it easily ^_^

[Eng subbed] How to make peanut mochi

 

A step-by-step direction of recipe is sourced from this YouTube video ; )

To make the mochi skin you need:

• 140g Glutinous rice flour
• 12g Rice flour
• 10g Instant custard powder
• 60g Sugar
• 200g Skimmed milk
• 200g Coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon Vegetable oil (or salad oil)

Sift the glutinous rice flour, rice flour and instant custard powder into a mixing bowl.
In a small pan mix the sugar, milk, coconut milk and oil and simmer on medium heat until slight boil.
Add the milk mixture slowly into the flour mix and mix well. This should create a paste like dough. Place the dough on a greased bowl to steam on top of some boiling water on high heat for 18-20 minutes.
Take out the pan with the dough and let it cool.
Once cool, split the dough into 16 even parts and can then roll out to be filled with mochi filling.

To make the mochi filling you need:
• 100g Chopped peanuts
• 20g Sugar
• 10g Sesame seeds
• 20g Desiccated coconut
(the amount of each ingredient can be changed according to personal preference)

Mix the ingredients together well and use as the filling for the mochi. (As shown in the video, the ingredients can be used to make different kinds of mochi)

There is another shorter video teaching with different mochi filling - mocha, in English explanations! *v*

How to Make Easy Mocha Mochi

Actually, Chinese and Japanese people like making mochi and enjoy it in their snap tea time~

References:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSD-F2P9dE4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeluN2mnMjs&feature=related

A Story of Chinese traditional dessert -- wife cake

Chinese Traditional dessert – wife cake

A sweetheart cake or wife cake is a traditional Chinese pastry with flaky and thin skin made with winter melon almond paste, sesame and pork lard, spiced with five spice powder. Sweetheart cake is the literal translation of Low Paw Bang from Cantonese dialect. There are many classes held in Hong Kong for making sweetheart cakes. The sweetheart cake, though it has such a long history, is still popular among many in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Many people in Hong Kong, as well as professional chefs, bake also "modern" varieties of this cake.

There are two legends that attempt to explain the origins of the Sweetheart cake. One tells the tale of a couple that lived a very poor life in imperial China. They loved each other and lived in a small village.

Suddenly, a mysterious disease spread. The husband's father became very sick. The couple spent all of their money in order to treat the man's father, but he was still sick. The wife sold herself as a slave in exchange for money to buy medicine for her father-in-law.

Once the husband learned about what his wife did, he made a cake filled with sweetened winter melon and almond. He dedicated this pastry to his wife, whom he'll never forget and sold it. His cake became so popular that he was able to earn enough money to buy his wife back.

There is another version where the man went searching for his wife after he earned enough money to buy her back. In his search, he had a cup of tea at a local teahouse, when he suddenly recognized the pastry they were serving with the tea. They were reunited at the teahouse.

Traditional Chinese Dessert -- Bing Tang Hulu (Candied Haw in a Stick)

Sugar-coated haws is a traditional Chinese food, it is the string of wild fruit clusters with the bamboo stick dipped after the maltose thin, taffy case of wind quickly harden. A common snack in northern winter, usually strung with hawthorn, starch syrup was frozen hard, eating sweet and sour, is still ice.

Sugar-coated haws, sweet and sour, all ages, it is not only delicious but also very good-looking, bright red sugar-coated haws hawthorn fruit arranged by size through the bamboo stick to the elements, wrapped in crystal clear starch syrup, people tend to sell one of its only the string of candied fruit on a stick inserted in a special, like a small tree laden with fruit, is really attractive

It is easy to make the Sugar-coated haws
Ingredient: 　
20g Fresh hawthorn,
10kg sugar 　　
Preparation: 　　
Wash hawthorns, pick out the core. 　　
Place hawthorns in boiled water and divide them into groups in bowls. 　　
Cut bamboo sticks 18-20cm. 　
Pierce 5-7 hawthorns in one bamboo stick, about 50g. 　
Place sugar in wok and 3kg water. 　
Heat 20minutes and stir.
1/2 hit at sugar mixture 5-7 minutes.
Roll over hawthorns in sugar mixture. 　
Press sticks on oily board

People judge a successful dessert intially by its first looks

Usually, people will determine whether a dessert is successfully made with delicious ingredients or not by its appearance at first, so there's no doubt that a dessert with an unique design and presenting style can attract a person's sense of sight and pass on to the sense of taste, benefiting both of the senses. Here is an example of a special designed mango-flowered dessert which is extracted from weibo in suggesting for couples can home-make this on Valentine's Day.

A mango-flowered dessert for Valentine's Day special from weibo

Although there is no recipe about how to make this dessert, only provided with the picture, we still can see that it is mainly made with mango on the top and ice-cream as the base. Actually, there are many Chinese-style desserts - especially Hong Kong desserts using mango as a major ingredient, some also with coconut milk.

Mango is a popular tropical seasonal fruit which contains rich Vitamin A, B6(pyridoxine), C & E, potassium, high fibre, copper and other valuable minerals that benefit people's health. In general, mango can help prevent cancer, lower Cholesterol, good for digestion, reduce high blood pressure, antibiotic, limit inflammation, smoothen skin, good for eyes, and alkalize the whole body. In fact, mangoes should not be stored in fridge, they should be kept in between 20～25℃ (Nutrition-and-you, 2012 & Care2, 2012).

Below is a famous Hong Kong dessert - Chilled Mango Sago Cream with Pomelo (origin in 1984 Lei Garden, Hong Kong)

Chilled Mango Sago Cream with Pomelo (Photo taken in Sweeties - China Town)

To create this dessert, we mainly require 3 mangoes, 1 can of coconut milk, 50mL condensed milk, 50g sago, syrup (a little), and 1 grapefruit with peeled as the toppings. This is a general suggestion of how to make it in a suitable taste, you can alter the amount of ingredients according to how many people you are serving, for example a big family =) (Sino Planet, 2009).

Here is a detailed direction of steps to make this dessert, sourced from Sino Planet 2009; for people who are interested and curious about the recipe.

Frozen Mango Pulp

1. Peal two mangos, cut and remove seed, cut mango into small pieces.

2. place mango pieces into a food processor and blend to a pulp.

3. add coconut milk and condensed milk (100 ML combined)

4. Whisk milk and mango mixture until it is smooth

5. add mixture to freezer and allow to solidified for 3 hours.

Sago Pearls

6. Boil a pot of hot water, poured into the sago, and cook until sago pearls are transparent.

7. carefully separate sago from water by pouring into a strainer, then risen sage with cold water in the strainer.

Tangshui

8. Put 2 tablespoons of sago into a dessert bowl, then add an appropriate amount of coconut milk, syrup

9. peal another mango, cut it into pieces, and place in bowl with mixture.

10. next, add cut pieces of grapefruit to bowl.

11. remove Mango Cream from freezer after it has solidified.

12. use ice cream scoop to remove one scoop of frozen mango pulp and place it in tangsui bowl.

13. Remove from the refrigerator has been solidified mango pulp, ice hockey with the ice cream scoop into the dessert bowl.

Besides, there are other types of Hong Kong desserts similar to this Chilled Mango Sago Cream with Pomelo also using mango and coconut milk as major ingredients with mixed fruits.  
                          Now for photos~!!!

 

Photo taken in iSweety House, China Town

Photo taken in Y2K, China Town

Photo taken in Hong Kong when having the summer break

References:

http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/mango-fruit.html

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/10-health-benefits-of-mangos.html 

http://sinoplanet.com/wiki/Chilled_Mango_Sago_Cr%C3%A8me_with_Pomelo 

Chocolates!!

Chocolate has a rich history dating back to 1900 BC. In the 14th century, it was used as currency by the Aztecs! Nowadays, it is probably the most popular flavour of dessert and flavour to add to cooking.

There are many types of chocolates! By varying the quantities of different ingredients it is possible to make  wide variety of forms and flavours. We will discuss the 3 most popular types of chocolates:

Dark Chocolate

This is the most common type of chocolate used in cooking and usually contains 70% cocoa solids giving your recipes that rich chocolate taste. It has a bitter flavour (hence the name) so is ideal for sweet cookie recipes with a high sugar content.

Milk Chocolate

Milk chocolate starts its life as dark chocolate, then has milk powder added to it during the manufacturing process. It has a creamier texture and milder taste than dark chocolate. Because of its different properties it cooks differently than dark chocolate and cannot simply replace dark chocolate in a chocolate cookie recipe as the flavor will be affected. Only use when specified in a recipe.

White Chocolate

White chocolate is not a true chocolate as it contains no cocoa solids and has a high milk content. Its sweetness gives your chocolate cookie recipes a distinctive flavour and taste and is often paired with dried fruit or nuts. The downside is that it burns easily and is hard to handle.

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references:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Types_of_chocolate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate

http://www.homestyle-cookie-recipes.com/types-of-chocolate.html