Weekend Getaway in Phuket

Phuket, a lovely island on the South of Thailand, is one of the most popular resort destinations for those of us in HK who wants a cheap but luxurious weekend getaway.  One of the great thing about Phuket is the lovely resorts and great services offered by the local Thais. We stayed at the Anantara this time and they upgraded us to their Laguna Pool Villa. The hotel is lovely and all rooms have private pools. Although the pool is a bit small, it was great to have a private pool where you can enjoy a dip any time of the day. Food at the Anantara is quite good but expensive. So we ate out at the local Thai restaurants on most nights. If you want night life and shopping, Anantara is not the place for you. It's situated at Mai Khao (15 mins from the airport) which is far from all the happening places like Patong (1.5 hours from Patong).

We truly enjoyed our stay at the Anantara so if you are looking for a romantic and relaxing getaway, I would highly recommend it. We also tried their in villa BBQ. Not cheap (around HK$600/person) but was quite fun and food was good.

We were blessed with great weather during our stay and look at the lovely sunset....the colour of the sky is amazing ....

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

Ingredients (makes 2)


1 small carton of skim milk 
1/2 cup of strawberries
1 cup of frozen banana
2 tbs strawberry yogurt
1/2 tbs honey


Method


Blend all ingredients together and serve.

Salted Fish and Beancurd with Mixed Herbs

First time making this dish and turned out quite well. Easy to make. The combination of salted fish and tomato paste may seem strange but the taste is actually quite good.

Ingredients


2 pieces of hard beancurd (diced)
3 tbs salted fish (diced)
1 piece of chicken breast or 200 gm (around $15) of pork belly (diced)
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 tbs tomato paste
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
2 tsp minced shallot
1 tbs chopped spring onion


Sauce


1 cup water
1/4 tsp chicken powder
2 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tbs oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
pepper


Method


1. Marinade the pork or chicken with some light soy sauce, pepper, cornstarch and oil.
2. Blanch the tofu and drain.
3. Heat wok with little oil and saute the chicken/pork. Dish up.
4. Heat wok with little oil. Saute ginger, shallot, garlic, tomato paste and mixed herb. Pour diced chicken/pork and tofu to wok. Stir fry for 1 minute. Add the sauce and cook until the sauce reduces to 1/4. Add spring onion. Dish up and serve.

Stir Fry Bitter Gourd with Minced Pork

Ingredients

1 bitter gourd (deseeded, sliced)
1/4 cup of minced pork
1 tbs minced garlic
1 tbs minced Chinese olives (lam choy)

Sauce

2 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 tbs water
1/2 tsp chicken powder.

1. Marinade pork with some light soy sauce, sugar, pepper, cornstarch, water and oil.
2. Coat the sliced bitter gourd with salt for 1 hour. Squeeze out juice from bitter gourd. Rinse the bitter gourd.
3. Heat wok with little oil and fry the bitter gourd. Add a pinch of salt. Dish up and set aside.
4. Heat wok with little oil. Add minced garlic and fry. Add the pork and minced Chinese olives. Fry. Add the bitter gourd and sauce. Fry for a few minutes. Dish up and serve.

Aloe Vera soaked in Osmanthus (桂花蜂蜜蘆薈)

We are all familiar with the benefits of using aloe vera on the skin - for rashes, cuts, bruises, sunburn and so on. But not so many people know about the health benefits of drinking and eating aloe vera. It is a great aid to detox as it helps to improve bowel regularity and decreases unfriendly bacteria and yeast in our gut. It is also full of anti-oxidants which can boost and enhance our immune system. Most important is that it adds a supply of raw material to our diet which can produce and maintain healthy skin. Together with osmanthus flower (which apparently gives you radiant skin), this easy recipe will do your skin some good. I usually make a jar and spoon out a few tablespoons a day as dessert. 




Ingredients

1 whole piece of aloe vera
1 tsp of osmanthus dried flowers
2 tbs honey
1/4 cup of water


Method


1. Boil water and add the osmanthus dried flowers. Boil for 1 minute. Turn off heat and let the flower soak in the hot water for 5 mins. Mix with honey.
2. Remove skin of aloe vera and dice. Put diced aloe vera in glass jar. Pour the osmanthus honey mixture into the jar of aloe vera. Cover and leave in fridge over night. Serve.

Low Sugar Green Bean Paste Snowy Mooncakes

After failing the first time with my mango mooncakes, I learned that being creative can sometimes be a challenge. So I decided to go back to the traditional green bean paste snowy moon cakes. But this time, I reduced the sugar to 70 gm (instead of 95 gm) for the dough and I used sugar free green bean paste. The sweetness is just perfect for me but for those sugar lovers, you prob prefer the green bean paste with sugar.

I used the same reciepe as the snowy mooncake but reduced the sugar to 70gm.

An early Happy Mid Autumn Festival to you all!

Matcha Mango Mochi

Lately, I've become a mochi maniac because they are easy and fun to make. Plus everyone loves them. You can have fun experimenting different flavours of the mochi and filling. Tonite, I tried these matcha mochi with mango filling. I even tried putting vanilla ice cream in some. Not easy to handle ice cream filling but the taste is great. For mango and other fruit filling, as a tip, I would suggests you dice them and freeze them for a few hours before using. This can avoid the fruit getting all watery and making it messy to handle.


The recipe is basically the same as the one I used for mango coconut mochi and mango green tea mochi.


Ingredients (Makes approx. 15-18 mochi)

Glutinous rice flour 140gm
Rice flour 15 gm
Wheat starch 10 gm
Cooked glutinous rice flour 1/4 cup (you can either make it your self by toasting in a wok under low heat or buy it readily made from baking shop. I make my own because it's easy!)
Sugar 70 gm
Matcha green tea powder 1 tbs (I order my matcha online and use uji matcha)
Water 200 gm
Coconut milk 50 gm
Vegetable oil 1 tbs
Fresh mango 1/2 (diced and put in freezer for a few hours before use)

Method

1. Sift together the glutinous rice flour, wheat starch, rice flour and matcha tea powder.
2. In a small pot, boil water and add sugar. Cook until sugar has dissolved. Add the coconut milk. Boil.
3. When the liquid starts boiling, pour liquid into the flour mixture and mix with a spatula until it forms a dough.
4. Place dough in a dish and cover with cling wrap. Steam for 15 mins. Remove wrap and let it cool until room temperature.
5. Lightly grease work table. For easier handling of the dough, wear disposable plastic gloves. Put dougn on work table and roll into long sausage shape. Using a  plastic cutter divide dough into 15-18 pieces.
6. For each piece of small dough, flatten it and put 3-4 pieces of mango and wrap the dough into a ball. Roll into the cooked glutinous rice flour. Repeat for all the 18 pieces. Brush off any excess cooked glutinous rice flour from the mochi and place them in paper cups. Serve. Refrigerate any leftovers and can keep up to 3 days. Enjoy!!

p.s. For a demo of wrapping a mochi can check out this mochi blog

Mango Green Tea Mochi

Felt like doing some fun cooking tonite. Since I had some green tea filling left from my snowy mooncakes I decided to experiment with these green tea filled mango mochi. Turned out quite well and a bit like the Japanese kusamochi (草餅). Any volunteers to be my guinea pig for these mango green tea mochi? :)

Ingredients (makes 12)


140gm glutinous rice flour
15gm rice flour
10gm 澄麵
200 gm coconut milk
150 gm water
60 gm sugar
1 tsp mango flavouring
1/4 cup 熟粉 (i.e. fried glutinous rice flour. to make this, heat the glutinous rice flour in a wok over low heat without any oil and until flour turns slightly brown but not burnt)
180gm green tea paste (I used the ones for snowy moon cakes) 


Method


1. Sift together glutinous rice flour, flour and 澄麵
2. In a separate pot, boil water and add sugar until dissolved. Add coconut milk to mixture and boil.  When boiling, pour liquid into the dry ingredients. Add the mango flavouring. Mix until all ingredients are mixed well together. Pour into a slightly greased dish and steam for 20 mins. Let dough cool.
3. Divide the green tea paste into 12 portions and roll into a ball then flatten.
4. Divide the dough into 12 portions. 
5. For each portion, flatten the dough and place the green tea paste in the middle and wrap each mochi (similar to making dumplings) to form a ball. Roll each mochi in the 熟粉. 

Mango Kiwi Smoothie

Had some mango puree leftover from my mango mooncakes (which turned out a disaster!) so decided to make a nice cool smoothie.


Ingredients (serves 1 glass)


1/2 mango 
1 kiwi
1 tsp honey
1/2 cup of skim milk.


Method


Blend everything in a blender and serve!

Snowy Mooncakes

These are really easy to make and low fat.


Ingredients (9 mini snowy mooncakes)


Snowy mooncake flour (𣲙庋粉) - 75 gm
Sugar - 95 gm
Hot water - 170gm
Vegetable oil - 2 gm
Filling (餡料) - 180gm (TIPS: you can buy from baking shops e.g. Twinco)
太白粉 or cornstarch - 1/4 cup

Mooncake cutters 


Method


1. Mix mooncake flour with sugar.
2. Add the hot water to the flour mixture and beat until the flour is evenly blended (i.e. no lumps). Cover with cligwrap. Steam for 15 mins.
3. Divide the filling into 9 portions and roll into a ball shape (20gm each).
4. Remove the steamed dough from steamer. Add vegetable oil. Use an egg beater to beat the dough (using a left / right movement) until it turns white.
5. Flour working surface with cornstarch or 太白粉. Put the dough onto the floured working service. Roll the dough into a long sausage shape. Divide dough into 9 portions.
6. Flatten each portion, add the filling and wrap into a ball shape. Use the mooncake cutter to shape the mooncake. 
6. Brush away any excess flour. Place mooncake in fridge for an hour. Serve.


p.s. mooncakes can last up to a week.