Macapuno Ube Ensaymada

This is such a delicious bread. My husband and I love to eat them! He asked me to make them again and again. But I need to stop since these are pretty fattening. I can only eat this once a month....lol. Thanks to Manang for sharing this recipe. I only make half the recipe each time since it usually takes us 3 days to finish them. I usually wrap each bread in a sandwich bag and eat them each day.:)






Here is the link to the recipe: Supersoft Ensaymada
I used macapuno and ube paste as fillings for these bread. After the bread is cooled I used whipped butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Please follow the instruction and not be like me.....:)
I realized that I didn't follow directions...lol. I forgot to divide the flour into 3. I poured all the liquid into the flour and started mixing it with my chopsticks, then I realized why the dough is so hard...lol. Then I went back and read the directions..lol. Oops. So I went and melt the butter and add in the egg and 2 egg yolks. Then mix everything together and leave it to let it rise for 2 hours. Then I beat it down and let it refrigerate for just another hour...hehehe

My New Fig Trees

Hello everyone. Recently I got the fig bite and kept on wanting to own a couple fig trees. Not sure why either since I have not eaten a fig maybe over couple years. Why am I like this? Well, maybe because I went to the fig forum and saw that many people are growing these trees. So it must be good since many people are growing them and they own so many varieties...right? And plus after looking at hundreds of pictures and read hundreds of posts, I am convince that these are delicious fruits so I got to plant a tree or two. Deep into my research on fig trees I realized there are over hundreds of varieties. It gave me so much headaches trying to decide what to get. Originally I only plan to get 2, because I have no room for more since I have a lot of tropical fruit trees. But like the rest of the collectors I want and want.....so I ended up with 5. Thanks to Bass from TreesofJoy I get to spend a lot of money for a new hobby. My husband say I'm crazy!!! Sadly, I might have to agree with him.

Bass is from Bethlehem, PA and he is a really nice guy who grow hundreds of fig trees...in his backyard, front yard, greenhouse, and garage! He also have what I wanted pawpaw and jujube. He got some really good varieties and I'm sure I will be back this summer to help him eat his jujube and pawpaw....maybe I'll get to taste some fig too if my fig trees need another year to fruit. Before I met Bass, I thought he lives near or in a farm since he have so many trees. And I thought my gps too me to the wrong place when I was in front of his house....LOL

So here are my new babies. I do want to plant them in the ground but I might have to wait until they are larger since I am new and not sure how to protect them from frost. This is how they look like after I repotted them.



This is how they look like before I repot them.


This is how the Ronde de Bordeaux looks like when I took it out of the pot. Bass- you seriously needed to repot this tree a while ago.


I got two of the larger fig trees since I really want to taste some fig this year. But I really want to taste other good varieties so I got 3 small ones too. These were from the greenhouse.


This is how they look like without the pots. I was surprised since they were rooted with only perlite. I mixed those perlite with my potting soil, peat moss, and some slow release fertilizer. I read somewhere saying they like ph of 6 or 6.5 so I added some sulfur to slowly change the ph. I will need to get some garden lime next time. The sulfur was here since I needed to use on my lychee tree.

Steamed Milk Custard (Dun Nai)

Another Hong Kong style dessert I must try. I made the steamed egg custard the other day and now I made the milk custard. I used some coconut milk and it tastes great. It's suppose to be healthy too!



Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup coconut milk
2 egg whites
15 slices of ginger
3 tbsp sugar

Method:

1. Boil the coconut milk with ginger and sugar. Remove from heat and slowly add in the milk. Strain to remove the ginger. Try to squeeze out the ginger juice.
2. When milk is cooled then add into the egg whites. Using a fork to beat the egg whites and milk together. When almost all egg whites dissolve then strain again. Careful not to beat too hard to cause bubbles.
3. Pour the milk into 4 bowls and then cover with aluminum foil. Steam for 20 minutes.
4. Serve hot or chilled.

Stark Bros Trees

So I ordered two persimmon trees, Hachiya Oriental and Ichi-Ki-Kei-Jiro. I also ordered Pennsylvania Golden Pawpaw. When I saw the box I was like wow, so tall. The trees must be tall too.... Well, I was disapponted after I opened the box. The trees are so small and all stick-figure.:( I had to wait for the trees to adapt to the outdoor weather before planting. Now it's time to dig some holes. Hopefully my trees will grow fast and fruit for me in another 2 years. I know pawpaw will takes at least 5-6 years. I will get another pawpaw but somewhere else.

Steamed Egg Custard (Dun Dan)

I was watching this movie and in the movie they eat this steamed egg custard and it looks so good. So I had to make my own to try. I do like it and it's good hot or chilled. It is just like the silken tofu, so smooth and soft. This was very easy to make and eating it was even faster. This is the Chinese version of steamed egg custard. Dun means steam, dan means egg.



Ingredients:

3 eggs
340 ml water
60 gm rock sugar
5 slices of ginger
1 tsp custard powder (optional)

Method:

1. Boil the rock sugar and ginger in water. Strain out the ginger small particles and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes.
2. Using a fork and slightly stir the eggs together.
3. Stir the custard powder into the syrup and then pour into the eggs. Stir and strain.
4. Heat a pot of water.
5. Pour the egg mixture into 4 small bowls or cups. Remove any bubbles. Cover the bowls with aluminum foil or plastic film. Do not let the foil touch the liquid.
6. Steam for 20 minutes.
7. Serve hot or chilled in the refrigerator.

***Adding the custard powder gives a darker nicer yellow.

Homemade XO Sauce

I made this XO sauce and it's so good for noodles or stir-fry veggies. I love it!!! Save it in the refrigerator and you can use it when ever you want to stir-fry or mix with dry noodles.



Ingredients:

1/2 cup dried small scallops
1/2 cup dried small shrimps
1 1/2 cup olive oil
15 dried chillies
4-5 small shallots sliced
2-3 cloves garlic
3 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp msg
1/2 cup already fried shallot

Method:

1. Soak dried shrimps and scallops in different bowls for 6 hrs or overnight.
2. Drain the dried shrimps and place in chopper to give it a couple chop. Chop it coarsely.
3. Using hands tear the scallops in fine shreds. Then place in a pot and bring it to boil. Strain and squeeze out the water.
4. Place the dried chillies in chopper and chop finely. Set aside for later.
5. Slice the shallots thinly. Chop garlic finely.
6. Heat a wok and fry the shrimps for a minute and then scallops. Fry until lightly golden and then add in chillies. Fry for a minute and then add in shallots and garlic. Fry until shallot and garlic is somewhat dried.
7. Add in the salt, sugar, msg, and then oyster sauce. Now add in the fried shallots. Turn heat lower and stir until brown. Remember not to over cook as the scallop and shrimp will be too dry.
8. Let cool completely then refrigerate. This can keep refrigerate for at least 1 month.

Sugar Apple 1st fruit (Man Cau)

I'm so excited because my first sugar apple fruit tastes so sweet and chewy!!! I planted this tree from seed three years ago. I call this tree the Canadian sugar apple because the seed was from the sugar apple we ate in Canada. It's just so exciting because the fruit is actually sweet, chewy and have a nice aroma. I love it!!! The best thing is I didn't pollinate the flowers for it to fruit. I think the flower was pollinated by the bee sometime in September. I picked the fruit in March 1st. So it took about 6 months for the fruit to ripe. Maybe it took this long because the tree was in the house since November. I'm surprise the skin is so thick but the meat close to the skin is sweet too.:) Now I will need to take extra care of this tree...hehehehe

Soybean Custard (Tau Fu Fa)

Today I made this delicious soy bean custard. It is so smooth!!! I only made enough for me...hehehe. So if you want to make more then double the soy milk, gypsum powder, and cornstarch.



Ingredients:

1 liter soy milk
1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp gypsum powder
1/4 cup water

Method:

1. Boil soy milk. Remove any bubbles.
2. Mix gypsum powder, cornstarch and water together. Mix well.
3. Pour the hot soy milk and gypsum mix together into a large bowl. Give it a real quick stir. Then cover with wet cheesecloth and cover. Let it sit for 1 hr without moving it.
4. Serve the custard with sugar syrup.


Sugar syrup:
1 cup water with 1 slab brown sugar. Boil until slightly thicken. (optional: add a couple slice of ginger if you want ginger taste.)

****Microwave the custard for a super hot dessert. It's so smooth that it'll slip down your throat before you know it.

Steamed Banana Cake (Banh Chuoi Hap 2)

This banana cake is even better than the first version. You can use the regular banana and still tastes great!



Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup tapioca starch
1 cup rice flour
2 cups water
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
6 bananas
yellow food color


Method:

1. Mix the starch and flour with water, sugar, salt, and yellow coloring.
2. Slice the ripe bananas into about 1/2 inch. Make sure not too thin. Stir the bananas into the flour mixture.
3. Heat a pot of water for steaming. Oil pan and steam the pan for a couple minutes. Now stir the banana mixture and pour into the pan. Pour about 1 inch high. Cover and steam for 5-10 minutes until the top is harden to pour in another layer. Repeat until all banana mixture is gone.
4. After finishing all the layers then steam for at least 40 minutes. Remove any extra water on top of cake. (Remember to add more water to the pot!!) Let the cake cool before cutting.
5. Serve with coconut milk, roasted peanuts and sesame.

Coconut Dip:

1 can 560 ml coconut cream
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp cornstarch
4 1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt


1. Mix everything together and stir constantly over heat. Once the coconut milk become thicken then it's done. Remember to taste and see if you need more sugar.


To serve:

1. Slice the cake side way so it have the diamond shape. Pour coconut milk over and sprinkle some roasted sesame and peanuts. Sesame can be roasted in mini oven on 350F until golden. Same with peanuts. Enjoy!!!