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. 

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.

Mango Coconut Mochi

Mango Coconut Mochi

Ingredients (Makes approx. 16)

Glutinous rice flour 140 gm

Rice flour 15 gm

Sugar 80 gm

Water 50 gm

Coconut Paste 200gm

Fresh Mango (blended) 150 gm

Vegetable Oil 1 tbs

Shredded Coconut 1/4 cup

Diced mango 1/2 cup

Method

1. In a large bowl mix together the glutinous rice flour and flour.

2. In a sauce pan, boil the water and dissolve the sugar. Add the blended mango, coconut paste and oil.  Bring to a boil then add to the flour mixture. Mix until the mixture forms a dough. Pour into a lightly greased dish and steam 20 minutes.

3. Remove the dish of the steamed dough and place dish in a large plate of ice water until the dough has cooled.

4. Divide the dough into 16 pieces and put 2-3 pieces of fresh mango and form a ball. Dip each mochi ball into the shredded coconut. For easier handling of the dough, wear disposable plastic gloves.

Matcha Tofu Pudding

Match Tofu Pudding

Ingredients (Serving : 2)

First layer (white) :

1/2 cup of unsweetened soya milk

1 tsp sugar (if you like it sweeter, can increase the sugar)

2 tsp gelatine

3 tbs water

Second layer (green) :

1/2 cup of unsweetened soya milk

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp matcha powder

2 tsp gelatine

3 tbs water

Method

A. First layer

1. Boil the soya milk under low heat. Add the sugar to the milk and cook slowly. Turn off heat when the sugar has melted.  Set aside.

2. Sprinkle gelatine over the water and let it stand for a few minutes. Heat the gelatine water over a bowl of hot water until all gelatine has dissolved.

3. Pour gelatine water into the milk. Let it cool for 5 minutes.

4. Pour into serving cups. Refrigerate until the pudding has set.

B.  Second layer (make after the first layer has set)

1. Boil the soya milk under low heat. Add the sugar to the milk and cook slowly. Turn off heat when sugar has melted. Add the matcha tea powder and whisk until the matcha has dissolved into the milk.

2. Repeat steps 2 and 3 above.

3. Once the matcha mixture has cooled, pour into the serving cups with the already set soya milk pudding to form the second layer. Refrigerate until the pudding has set.