Che Banh Lot (Cendol)

I tried to make this dessert many times before and I failed miserably. Either it was too hard or too soft that it breaks easily. I tried different recipes and ingredients but none works. But after failing so many times I have learned which recipe works and the easy method of making it. I like the texture to be silky soft and smooth. Eat this with syrup and coconut milk. Super good!!!



sorry for the mess. was in a hurry.:)







Ingredients:

1 cup rice flour
2 tbsp mung bean starch (can use tapioca starch)
3 3/4 cup red limestone water or white limestone water
1/4 tsp salt
1-2 tsp pandan paste
3-4 drops green color

1 can coconut milk + 2 tbsp sugar +1/4 c water + 1 tbsp cornstarch + dash salt
250 gram palm sugar + 1 slap brown candy sugar + 4 cup water

1 potato ricer (or anything with holes)
a big bowl of ice water

Method:

Red limestone water- 2 tbsp red limestone mix with 8 cups water. Stir well and let lime crystals sink to the bottom at least over 1 hr. Just use the clear water. Better to strain over paper towel. (Note: Add more water to the lime crystals after each use and you can use it again and again.)

1. Mix rice flour, mung bean starch, 3 3/4 cup red limestone water, salt, pandan paste, and green color together. Mix well.

2. Microwave the mixture 1 minute at a time until the mixture is slightly thicken like the picture above. Each time take the mixture out and stir well with chopsticks. I microwave it about 6 times. Cook another half minute if not cook. Do not let it too dry or too watery. Too dry of the mixture will make the cendol soft.

3. Have a large bowl of ice and add in some cold water. Now quickly pour the rice mixture in the ricer and press lightly to desire length. The cendol should fall freely in the water when you press it. Continue until all mixture is gone. Add more ice if water is warm. The cold water is very important for the hot mixture to harden. Drain the cendol out of the ice water and serve with syrup, ice, and coconut milk. (Note: must work quick before the mixture gets harden. Once harden it, your cendol will not come out smooth.)

4. Cook the coconut milk mixture until slightly thicken.

5. Boil the palm sugar, rock sugar, and 4 cups water until slightly thicken.

6. Put some cendol in a cup. Add in 2-3 tbsp syrup, ice, and coconut milk. Serve cold.


Note: You can serve this with red bean, mung bean paste , grass jelly, or any other dessert.

Curry Fish Balls

For my brother and sister I made their favorite fish balls. I made a big pot more than enough for 6 people. However, my brother finish 1/3 of the pot by himself overnight. :)



Ingredients:

4 bag milk fish balls
2 bag shrimp balls
2 can quail eggs

Seasoning:

15 gm curry powder (about 2-3 tbsp)
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp salt
3-5 soup spoon fish sauce
1/3 piece brown candy sugar
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
6 cup water
1 can chicken broth
2 tbsp vegetable oil
5-6 hot chilies (will be spicy)


Method:

1. Fry the fish and shrimp balls until golden brown. The quail eqqs are hard to fry since it will pop open and cause bubble in oil. I only fried it a little at the end.

2. While frying the fish balls, in another pot heat the oil and add in the curry and turmeric powder. Fry in medium heat until you can smell the curry but not burnt. Add in the water and chicken broth. Bring it to boil and add in seasonings. Add more fish sauce for taste. Also add in more curry if you can't taste enough curry.

3. Now add in the fried fish and shrimps balls. Also, add in the broken fried quail eggs. Let it simmer until the sauce is somewhat thicken. Now add in the chilies and try to break the chilies to release the flavor. Remember to taste to see it and add in more season as needed. It should be tasty, spicy, not too sweet, and full of curry flavor. It should not be salty either.

Note: The longer you fry the fish and shrimp balls, the more chewy it will be. Chewy is good! This is good to eat alone or with rice. The egg yolks make the sauce creamy and super rich!

Order from Pine Island Nursery

Well, I got the tropical bug bite again! This time I ordered two trees from Pine Island Nursery, the Thai Lessard sugar apple and 48-26 Lisa Atemoya. Is it my first time purchasing from them and the shipping was great. Great packaging. However, the trees are not as big as I expected...especially the sugar apple. It looks like a 1 gallon plant put in a 3 gallon pot. Oh well, I know not to purchase from them again since their plants are smaller and because they don't ship larger plant. The trees overall look pretty healthy with only a few leaves dropped. Hope the sugar apple grow fast! Can't wait to eat the fruit. :) left is sugar apple. right is 48-26 atemoya.

2009 Tropicals Update

After reading this post you can call me crazy for having so many tropical fruit trees. And I just ordered two more trees. It is on it's way here. :) What an expensive hobby here. All my trees are in pots since I can't leave them outside in the winter. Hope you enjoy looking at these. Please comment if you know how to get these to fruit! :)

This is my sweetheart lychee. It is now over 4ft tall. Got it last year and more new leaves this year. Can't wait until it have fruits!

This is the star apple. It is the purple variety. I have it for 3 years now. No fruit yet but growing bigger.

This is Hasya sapodilla. I got this on June 08. There are couple flowers on the tree now. Hopefully, I will get some fruit this year. I'll be happy with just one. :)

This is the Makok sapodilla. Also got it on June 08. It is taller and also flowering.

This is the dwaf june plum. I still have 4 of these. One fruited last year and die. :( All of them are in bloom now. Maybe I should remove the flower and let it grow.

This is my Priestly atemoya tree. I aslo got this on June 08. I got one fruit out of it last year. :) Currently blooming.

This is my seed grown sugar apple tree. I went on a trip to Canada and purchased some sugar apples there and saved the seeds. Planted it around November 06. It is now 4ft tall and I cut it back twice already.

This is the soursop. Man, this tree is slow growing and seem to die back every year. It is now just starting to put out new growth.

My atemoya tree planted from seed. I think I planted this in 07.

My three varieties dragon fruit. I have magenta, white, and yellow varieties. It had 3 blooms last year but no fruit. What can I do to get it to fruit???

My papaya planted in 08 from seeds. I got many small papaya from Chinatown and decided to plant the seeds afterward. They are about 2 ft tall now. This is the personal papaya. Just enough for one person. :)

Peonies

This is the second year for my peonies flowers. They are extra pretty and fragrant this year. The flowers are larger than my hand! I even cut some to put in the vase. A very beautiful cut flower. I ordered four different varieties online in 2007. They will come back nicer every year.:)

Karl Rosenfield Peony




Martha Bullock Peony




Edulis Superba Peony


Festiva Maxima Peony

Tapioca Pearls Soup (Che Khoi Mi)

This is one of my creation of che. Che is a Vietnamese sweet soup. I love to eat che. I had some grated Yuca and feel like eating something sweet and chewy. So I created this sweet soup. It is not hard to make and taste great. I also made some with mung durian fillings.



Ingredients:

2 cups grated yuca (tapioca)
1/2 cup green tapiocal pearl
1 can coconut cream
4 cups water
3/4 cup sugar (to your tasting)
8 tbsp tapioca starch
4 tbsp sugar
pink food color
dash salt


Methods:

1. Soak the tapioca pearl with just enough water to cover it. If you only have white tapiocal, soak it in some pandan paste to make it green. Boil 1 cup water and place the pearl in to cook. Stir to prevent sticking to the bottom pan. If too dry then add in more water. A little at a time. We want the pearl to be cooked but not wet.

2. Boil a pot of water to use for steaming yuca. While boiling water. Take one cup grated yuca, add 2 tsp sugar, dash salt, 4 tbsp tapioca starch, 2 tbsp water, and couple drop of pink color. Mix everything together and form small balls. Place the balls on an oild plate for steaming later.

3. Do the same for the other cup of grated yuca except this time no food color. Steam the balls for 15 minutes until cooked.

4. In a pot boil 4 cups water. When water is boiled, add in the coconut cream. Add in 3/4 cup sugar and a dash of salt. Stir and taste. Turn off the fire once it the soup is boiled. Leave it to cool.

5. Now scoop the cooked tapical pearl (try making in ball shap) and drop in the soup. The tapiocal pearl should stick together. Just wet your spoon when trying to scoop it.

6. Once the yuca balls are cooked, drop them into the soup.

7. Serve warm or cold. This dessert is actually better cold. So leave the left over in the refrigerator and eat again later.

Peach Blossoms

It is the time of the year where all my peach trees bloom. I have three different varieties of peach trees. All three are so beautiful when it blooms.

This is the dwarf bonfire peach tree. I have 6 of these in the front yard. :)





This is how the bonfire peach look like after the bloom. The tree is covered with dark red leaves. And now the fruiting begins. I picked over 30 small peaches last year from this one tree.

This is the weeping peach tree. I was a little late on taking the picture so most flowers are gone. This is the best looking flower tree. It's like the cherry blossom except this one have double dark pink flowers. I have two of these trees. :) It's starting to weep like the weeping cherry.

This is the redhaven peach tree. It bear some fruits last year but the squirrels got them even when they were green. Hopefully, I can get some fruits before the squirrels. Got to get some form of netting.

Che Ba Ba

Another great Vietnamese dessert. This one consists of many ingredients. All a good combination. I took this to my friend Helen's party and I guess my friends like it. However, the Vietnamese friends like it sweeter than the Chinese friends. I think Vietnamese people have a sweet tooth so more sugar if your Viet. :) I reduced the ingredients here since I made a really big pot to the party.





Ingredients:

1 lb Yuca (cut in 1 inch chunks)
1/2 lb yam (2 different kind)(cut in 1 inch chunks)
1/2 bag blanched peanuts (170 g soak for 1+ hr) (optional)
1/2 bag tapioca strip (3-4 oz. soak for 1hr)
3/4 cup hulled mung bean (soak 30mins)
2 cans coconut cream or milk
10 cups water (less or more as you like)
sugar

1. Cook the peanuts for 30+ minutes. Remove water and set a side.
2. Boil 10 cups water and add in the peanuts. Let it brings to boil and cook for another 5 minutes. The peanuts will be a bit crunchy.
3. Add in the soaked mung bean and cook for 5-8 minutes.
4. Add in the yuca and yam. Cook for 5-8 minutes until they are soft. They cook pretty fast so watch them and not let them melt.
5. Now add in the soaked tapioca strips. This should cook pretty fast as well so when you see them clear they are cooked.
6. Add in the coconut cream and let it bring to boil.
7. Now add in the sugar until sweet.
8. Serve hot or cold.

My Crazy Orchids Garden

Here are some of my orchids in bloom. Other than crazy for tropical fruit trees I also love orchids. And as you can see I have too many of them..lol :) It's a pain to water all of them at once. But the blooms are worth it. Enjoy!!!