Homemade Hokkien Noodles

Hokkien noodles

Hmmmm......Hokkien Mee. Only ingredient missing is crispy pork fat.

Don's Comfort Tea (Yogi Tea)

Yogi Tea (I)

Yogi Tea (II)

This is one of my favourite drinks...

...with crushed ice and a dash of lemon juice in summer,

...with fresh milk or cream in winter.

Ingredients

• a handful fresh peppermint
• 8-10 pods of green cardamom
• 2 sticks fresh lemongrass (slightly crushed)
• thumb size piece of fresh ginger (slightly crushed)
• black tea of your choice - 2 teabags
• 1 litre water
• sugar/honey to your own preference

Method

Boil all ingredients on medium flame for 20-30 minutes.

Sieve and add sugar/honey.

Serve with lemon juice or milk.

SIMPLE !!

Chinese Mustard Salad (with Ginger Garlic Paste)

Garlic Paste

Chinese Mustard in garden

Mustard cut to bite size

This is one of the basic vegetable dish which every household and restaurant in Asia serves (You Cai).

Ingredients

• fresh chinese mustards from garden
• 1 litre water
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Method

Clean and cut mustard into bite size.

Boil water with sugar and salt.

Boil mustard for 3-4 mins -- longer if you like them softer.

Sauce:

• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp fish sauce or soya sauce

Mix and serve.

Vanilla (essence)

Vanilla Sticks

Cutting + Slitting Pods into Pieces

Vanilla Vodka

Was digging into one of my freezers for some meat this morning. What did I find? A bag with some unidentified 'black sticks'. What in the world are these !?

Then it hit me. Vanilla pods which my dear friend from Mauritius sent me LAST YEAR!! Had totally forgotten about them. Why in the world did I freeze them? Never mind, too late for regrets.

So I defrosted and dried them over the heater for a day ...errr, a bit too long I think, cos some pods snapped when I bent them. But the seeds inside were still moist.

The aroma still very overpowering: the whole house was smelling of Vanilla while the pods were drying. It can't be that bad... can be saved. What choice do I have? They’re too good for the garbage.

Vanilla Essence Recipe of the Day:

• Sacrificed half a bottle of prime vodka from Ukraine.
• Divided the pods into 2 portions:
• First half: I just cut each pod into 4-5 pieces.
• The other half: I slit them open and cut into 1 inch pieces.
• Steeped both portions in vodka and left them in the cellar (hope I will not forget this time).
• Will have to shake them once a week.

Result will be known in 6 months.

Edit: Result can be seen here.

Winter Food Series: Today, Delicious Rhubarb CrumbCake!

Preparing the Rhubarb Filling

Pre-baked Base Crumbs

Spreading Rhubarb on Crumbs

Readied Whipped Egg-White

Luvly Layers

A Piece for You!

Winter. Not only nature, even homosapiens go into hibernation....active hibernation. Foggy days. Icy evenings. Freezing nights. Icy roads. No, No !! Nothing will make me go out.

Germans love to eat Rhubarb .....in various ways. Their favorite is named "Rhabarberkuchen". It's a crumb cake or tart made with rhubarb (though that's neither fruit nor vegetable). Rhubarb flourish very well in my garden. Probably because it is growing right beside my compost. I harvested lots last spring and froze them. Snipe away the huge leafs (they're fairly hairly). What's left are the stalks, thick as a thumb (or a big toe, at least) and arm long. Wait till next spring, then I'll post you some nice-nice rhubarb pictures!

Sour stuff, I tell ya! Don't try to eat them raw. In the past I've used rhubarb to pep up my Tom-Yum Soups when I ran out of lemons.

To cut a long story short: you peel the skin off the stalks, cut it into 1-2 inch long pieces, and then portion them into 500 gram bags for the freezer.

Last Saturday there was no more fresh fruits nor veggies in my fridge. Been hibernating since New Year, remember ? Opened up the freezer; out fell a bag with rhubarb. Been itching to bake something anyway, so rhubarb cake it will be!

One delicious rhubarb cake

Prepare the cake filling

• 1 kg frozen rhubarb
• 100 gm sugar
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp water
• ....cook! But how?

First defrost (can do over night).

Pour the juice (there will be enough after defrosting), and only the juice into a small sauce pan.

Add sugar.

Cook juice with sugar.

Once it's boiling, mix cornstarch with 2 tbsp of water.

Remove pan from heat. Add the cornstarch-water-mix to thicken juice.

Gently add in defrosted rhubarb pieces.

Do not cook again, and do not "over-mix". We want to keep the pieces, and don't want to turn it into mush.

Set aside and let it cool down.

Why the cornstarch? It prevents the later cake filling turning out too soggy.

Make the base

• 150 gm butter (don't use margarine)
• 100 gm flour
• 200 gm almond meal
• a pinch of salt
• 4 egg-yolks

Simply mix-mix until you get crumb-crumbs.

Butter a cake-pan. Spread-spread the crumbs evenly over the pan and bake at 180° C for about 20 minutes. (Temperature adjustments may be needed with different ovens).

While base is baking, whip 4 egg-whites with 4 tbsp of sugar plus 1 tsp of vanilla essence (Germans will use 1 pack of "Vanillezucker").

Whip until very stiff.

Bring out dish from oven. Spread out rhubarb filling on top of baked crumbs. Spread or pipe the whipped egg-whites on top of rhubarb filling.

Place dish back to oven. Bake again. Use 120° C for another 20 minutes. Bake till the top of egg-white start to take colour light brown and become "Baiser".

Eat it whenever you can't curb your lust any longer. If you like, even if cake is still warm.