Braised Abalone, Sea Cucumber and Mushroom

Hello everyone.  I've been away for a while but I'm back now.  Life is crazy busy with my two kids!  Lately I'm interested in buying and making sea cucumber (hoi sam).  I didn't measure my ingredients for this dish since I'm just testing my cooking.  My parents cook sea cucumber numerous times but I've never bother to learn how to clean or cook it.  But now I have my own family I'm getting more interest in cooking this dish.  It's a lot of work to rehydrate and clean the dried sea cucumber.  I've ordered some more dried sea cucumber so I will post how to rehydrate later.  I will also make this again later and include the recipe when I get more sea cucumbers.  For now, I'm just happy I'm back!

Black Sesame and Peanut Mochi

I love Mochi!!! I love how it's soft, chewy, and sweet. I love black sesame and peanut mochi the most. Back when I was 12 or 14 year old, there was this old lady who would carry these mochi to sell early in the morning. It was $1 for 3 pieces or maybe 4. It was so good I could not forget the taste of the soft and chewy mochi. Not long later my family moved...so no more black sesame and peanut mochi. I've eating mochi from the supermarkets and some from relatives but none the same as the one from that old lady. So I was searching for a recipe and finally found a recipe for the mochi skin. It was very similar to the one the old lady made. I just had to create the fillings since there is no recipe for that. Well, here it is! It's just so very yummy. Remind me of old time....a very good feeling.

Lima Bean Dessert (Che dau Van)

Che dau van is another good Vietnamese dessert that my family loves to eat. However, the hard part is removing the skin of the beans before cooking. The original bean being used is the hyacinth bean. To try something new, I used the large lima beans instead. The taste is very similar to the hyacinth bean. It's also easier to peel the skin of the large lima beans.




Ingredients:

1 bag of large lima beans
1 bag of rock sugar or use regular sugar
1- 1 1/2 cup tapioca starch
2.5 quart water
2 cans coconut milk

Method:
1. Follow the instruction on how to fast soak the lima beans. Boil a pot of water and pour the beans in to boil for a coupon minutes on high and then turn it lower for a couple more minutes and then turn off heat. Cover the beans and let it soak for couple hours. Remove the skin afterward.

2. Boil 2.5 quart of water and then add in the lima beans and cook on low until bean soften but not crumbly.

3. Add in the sugar and taste. Then add in yellow coloring.

4. Mix the cornstarch with just enough water and slowly pour into the beans. Stir while pouring. Turn off heat when mixture is thicken. Do not over cook your beans or they will break in small pieces.

5. Now cook the coconut milk and sugar to taste with a dash of salt. Add in a little cornstarch mixture to thicken coconut milk. I usually add 3 tbsp sugar per can of coconut milk and 1-2 tbsp of cornstarch.

6. Serve hot or cold.

My Christmas Present- Sugar Apple (Man Cau)

This year I got a yummy Christmas present, home grown sugar apple. I planted this sugar apple from seed 2-3 years ago and this year it fruited for me. The fruit ripen on Christmas day. This is a Vietnam variety. I was surprised by the size of the fruit. It was 10.7 oz and very tasty. This is the chewy type...which I love most. Mom and dad got a piece of it and they were like wow. :))

Hot Pot Time!!!

The weather is getting cold and hot pot is the best. I'm missing it already....yum yum yum....

Sesame Tang Yuan (Sesame Dumplings)

I was craving for some sesame tang yuan but the frozen one always leaks so I decided to make my own. First time making this and it's good. The only thing I would change is instead of using lard I should use butter. I think lard doesn't smell that good compared to butter. I also should make the tang yuan a little smaller....guess I was too greedy...hehehe.



Ingredients:

1/4 cup black sesame
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 stick of unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup glutinous rice flour
water

Syrup water- boil slap sugar and water. Add ginger if you like.


Method:

1. Clean the sesame by rinsing it over water. Add the sesame in the heated pan and stir continuously until roasted.
2. In a grinder, grind the sesame into power. Back to the pan and add in the butter, sesame power, sugar and stir them together. If it's too dry then add in more butter. Remove from heat and let cool.
3. Form the sesame into small balls and refrigerate.
4. Add water to the glutinous rice flour to form a dough. Add little at a time to prevent over watering.
5. Using the dough to wrap the sesame balls. Drop them into boiling water and then turn the heat lower to prevent dumplings from opening. They're done when float to the top...best if keep in for another 1-2 minutes.
6. Drain the dumplings and serve with syrup water.

Ready to eat my dragon fruit!

So after many years of disappointment, my dragon fruit finally hold it's fruit. Yes, just one this year. I have three different variety, magenta, red, and yellow. Well, I thought this one is the magenta one....but I was wrong after cutting it in half. It's not pink or red...but white! Not sure what happened but the size of the fruit is small but inside is not pink. The fruit was ripe on the vine so it was very sweet. I wonder what variety is this. Small in size, pinkish skin, and white inside.

Banh bo (Vietnamese steamed rice cakes)

I recently received a few questions about my banh bo. I then question if my recipe works or not, so I decided to use the recipe and make some banh bo. I followed the recipe step by step. At the end my banh bo turned out delicious!!





Here is the recipe to the banh bo: Click

My dragon fruit finally fruited!!!

I am so shock as my dragon fruit finally fruited for me here in PA! I have this plant for 5 years and this year it fruited. It was funny because I told myself I will give it a severe pruning if it doesn't fruit this year since it was a pain to drag it in and out of the basement.

I hand pollinated the flowers every year at around 5 am but this year I pollinated them at 6 or 7 am. I guess I didn't do it right before with the time? I will from now on pollinated the flower at 7 am. I think this dragon fruit is the magenta color. I could not wait for it to mature so I can taste it. YAY!!!!!!!

Homemade Grass Jelly (Suong sam )

I am so happy and excited because my plant grass jelly finally had enough leaves for me to make some fresh jelly. Yes, this grass jelly is not made from powder but from a plant. The grass jelly is also called suong sam in Vietnam . It is a vine with heart shaped leaves. The leaves are extracted with water using both hands rubbing on leaves back and forth until all the green part in the leaves are out in the water. Strain and collect the green liquid water. Then put a little of the cuttlebone powder to make into jelly. This jelly is very different than any jelly from the store. It is very refreshing, chewy, and it have a cooling effect on the body. The botanical name of this plant is called tiliacora triandra. This is such a natural and yummy dessert!!!

My Potted Figs

It's the fig season here in PA. My fig trees are loaded with figs! The ronde de bordeaux is the early fig because I already getting some ripe figs. The figs this year are larger than last year. I have six different fig trees. These fig trees grow so fast!

Figs are so sweet when ripe and good for your health. It is rich in potassium and calcium which helps to maintain blood pressure and prevent bone thinning. The soluble fiber, called pectin, in figs helps in reducing blood cholesterol. Consuming figs also helps in aiding digestion and taming various stomach and bowel-related problems. It's also a good source of dietary fiber that have a positive effect on weight management....meaning a sweet way to lose weight! I'm going to eat a lot of figs now....hehehehe.

My Potted Sugar Apple Trees (Man Cau)

I have a lot of tropical fruit trees and I have quite a few sugar apple trees (5 +) because the fruit is my family favorite. There are a few variety of sugar apple but the best one is the one that is chewy with more flesh than seed ratio. The green variety seems to be the best but the kampong mauve sugar apple looks very pretty. So I have both varieties and also planted a few green variety from seeds. They are pretty easy to grow and fruit in 2-3 years. I think I will get a lot of kampong mauve sugar apple this year. :)

Kampong Mauve Kampong Mauve

Thai Lessard

Seed from Vietnam

Fruiting at 2 years

More seedlings

My Potted Mango Trees

I'm so excited as my two potted mangoes are fruiting. I have the Carrie and Nam Doc Mai mango trees. Got the trees from Nipa Hut Garden last year (May 2010). Both tree flowered and fruiting. I think I will only leave one fruit on each tree if the fruits stay. But I think most of the fruits will drop by themselves since the tree can not support all of them. As you can see the flowers on each tree is different. The Carrie flowers are closer together in clusters compared to the Nam Doc Mai. The color of the flowers are also different.

Carrie

Nam Doc Mai