Soy Bean Milk

I have not been making this as often as I was recently, so last weekend MIL "reminded" me to do it...

Sometimes I like to blend everything--soy beans plus pandan (screw-pine) leaves together. I would get green soy bean milk this way. But as the soy milk cools downs the colour would turn to yellowish green then to yellowish white, as you can see here and also the picture at the top

See? The light green colour which I like:

The method is still the very normal way we usually use to make soy milk, the only difference is I blended all the pandan leaves together. Although my blender doesn't need me to sieve the milk but I still sieve it through a muslin bag as I could still taste some very fine meal inside.

How much water being used is subjective to how thick/thin you want the milk to be. I like my soy milk to be thick, so I usually use 3 cups of water to 1cup of soy beans(soaked)...maybe a little more when I give the meal a second squeeze.

I'm really not an expert when it comes to anything in the kitchen, so you can refer to Wendy or Food-4tots for more explanations.   :P



Red Dragon Fruit Jelly

I've actually lost count of how many times I've made this... I found it on Wendy's blog long time ago and since not only Little Bear but also both my parents-in-laws enjoyed it, I've been making them quite frequently...Especially the first few months ever since I've first introduced it to them.

This time I blended the fruit in my blender coz I read somewhere that the seeds contained calcium (I forgot where). Then when I googled for it, this came up:

"Dragon fruits are high in antioxidants, which help to fight carcinogenic free-radicals from forming in the body. In addition, they are a good source of Vitamin C, and are rich in minerals, especially calcium and phosphorus. They are also low in calories and high in fiber, while the seeds are have high polyunsaturated fatty acids. Aside from its nutritional content, the fruit is also said to help excrete heavy metal toxins from the body and lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Dragon fruits are also known to be a natural laxative."

and also:

"The crunchy seeds have a nutty taste and are high in lipids, although they are indigestible unless chewed. "

So this time I made them like this:

Ingredients:

1 whole red dragon fruit

200gms rock sugar

lemon juice from 2 lemons (About 100ml--I like the flavour of lemon to be stronger)

1 packet of agar-agar strips (about 25gms)

2l water (Depends on how firm you want your jelly to be, actually my packet of agar-agar calls for only1.4L)


Method:

1. Bring 2L water with the agar-agar strips and rock sugar to a boil.  Simmer until all the agar-agar and sugar have dissolved.

2. Meanwhile, puree dragon fruit flesh with a blender. Mix in lemon juice.

3. Take the agar-agar off the fire.

4. Mix in fruit puree and pour into moulds to cool down.

5. Chill in the fridge before serving.


These are from my earliest attempt...see the differences of the ones with seeds and without?

 The ones using blended fruit will never look as good as these. The crushed seeds make them look dirty.

A Trip to Singapore

(Sigh...! I know this is so,so, so late... but---okay lah...better be late than never. At least in future my kids would know that I recorded all these for them...)

We went to S'pore for 8 days(4-11 Sept 2010), plus all the travelling to and back. We went to Universal Studio in Sentosa, watched Voyage de la Vie, met up with my sisters, shopping (needless to say...) and lazed around my BIL's new home most of the time...

We did not go to the Zoo as we thought we would, the rain is one of the reasons...no special offer for the tickets is another.  But overall we did enjoyed our stay there, thanks to JS and A for being such lovely hosts. I felt so sorry when Little Bear fought with his cousin, G especially...Luckily everybody understood the "Kids are like that" fact.

(Ok, ok...enough said...actually I'm lazy to explain more...here are some pics to show...)

The kids in the stroller rented for $15 at Universal Studio.

Little Bear with Cousin M, munching away.

Trying to make Little Bear stand still in front of Shrek's castle for a photo.   :(

Little Bear having fun with Cousins M, G and L at the splash park of IMM.

 Even Baby Bear had fun.

 Uncle JS and Aunt A bought a cake (and a present too!) for Little Bear to celebrate his birthday earlier.

Champagne Grapes

Last weekend, when we were browsing through Jusco's shelves, Little Bear had his eyes laid on some very cute "baby grapes".  So, I bought some because he was pestering and also I was curious about how Champagne grapes taste like.

It was SUPER DUPER EXPENSIVE!!  RM16.90 for 1 pound (which was not even a Kg)!!   I don't think I'm going buy this again...not even if Little Bear tears down the whole Jusco with his screams...!

The grapes were quite sweet (though there were a few sour ones) with softer and thinner skins than regular grapes.  I think Little Bear wanted to buy them just because the grapes looked cute...although he was very excited to try them but he stopped after eating a small bunch. I admit that it was quite tiring to pick the tiny grapes one by one and to pop them into one's mouth...but it was nice to feed them to Baby Bear because I didn't have to worry about him choking on the seeds or bigger pieces of flesh. Plus that little fella enjoyed them too!

Little Bear trying to pinch some grapes while I was trying to photograph them. I noticed that bloggers with small kids have this problem...sigh!   :P

Strawberry Jelly

Isn't this beautiful?? So red...so shinny...BUT THIS IS NOT MINE....      :(

This is from Wendy's blog, a long, long time ago...

Mine...? Oh, ok...here goes the funny looking strawberry jelly I made (Last year or earlier this year, can't remember)

Don't ask me about the orange colour...it beats me, til now. I didn't put in enough sugar too (Didn't follow Wendy's recipe exactly) so it was sour when you eat the fruit.

So, as usual Little bear just ate the jelly part and spat out the fruits...   :(

I don't think I'm going to make this in near future, not until I can get nice, ripe, sweet strawberries.

Little Bear's White Beard

Yesterday, after we came back from Jusco, Little Bear insisted to have that cream bun for "supper". So, this is the result....cream on the face...cream on the nose...cream on the hands...cream on his shirt...plus on his baby brother because he went to hug him....sigh...!

Anyone fancy a kiss from me???

Blueberry Ripple Yogurt Ice Cream

This was finally made successfully on my second attempt...thank you so much to Wendy's call in the middle of the night (2-3.30am)...If not this will be another disaster...

Actually this is quite an easy recipe only if you are familiar working with the whipping cream...My 1st attempt resulted in the cream turning into butter---I over-beat it!!! ( So, I froze the blueberries and the syrup separately, then bought another new box of cream to start all over again)

Anyway, this is exactly from Wendy's:

(A)
100gm blueberries
2 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp sugar

Cook these in a saucepan over medium low heat until you can see the water turning into a blue colour. Do not stir, only swirl the pan with the handle. Remove from heat. Let it cool. (I defrosted the blueberries



(B)
1tsp gelatin
2 Tbsp water

Place water in a microwave safe or heatproof bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over water. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
Either microwave on high for 20 seconds or double boil until gelatin melts. Set aside to cool.



(C )
250ml low fat plain yogurt (I used Nestle, 2 cups of 135ml)
200ml whipping cream
80gm sugar

1/3 tsp gelatin (for use only after ice cream has hardened)



1. Chill mixing bowl in the freezer for 5 minutes.

2. Remove from freezer and pour in cold whipping cream.

3. Beat on low for 1 minute then raise the speed gradually to high and whip until it is almost soft peaks. Put in sugar gradually and whip until soft peaks.

4. With the mixer on, pour in the cooled gelatin mixture (B) and mix until incorporated.

5. With a spatula or spoon, mix in the yogurt. Mix well.

6. Put only the blueberries (A) into the ice cream mixture. Leave the syrup behind and keep it chilled until time of use.

7. Fold the ice cream twice, not too much, you want the ripple effect. Take care not to break the blueberries.

8. Pour ice cream into a 1L capacity loaf tin. (I used a disposable 4cup/1L capacity loaf pan) Freeze until hardened.

9. When it’s almost time to serve, sprinkle 1/3 tsp of gelatin into reserved blueberry syrup and let it sit for 5 minutes. Microwave on high for 20 seconds. Let it cool down.

10. Unmould ice cream onto a chilled serving platter. Drizzle blueberry syrup over ice cream loaf.

11. Slice ice cream to serve. Do not use a scoop.

After slicing it up, the interior was nice. The taste is nice as well, the only complain I had was the texture...I can still taste some ice in it...not very much, but some fine ice particles in the middle...surely it's my fault... as I remembered that I wasn't too sure whether the cream soft peak or not???   :P

Ginger Milk Curds...again!!

I saw FIL bought another type of milk which I haven't tried before...so, here goes...

Tonight, I made too much ginger juice. So not to waste them I used 20ml instead of 15 ml.
The outcome was quite watery curds...but the taste was still as great!

The texture:

Then I suddenly had a thought: What if I can do it with my Anmum Lacta?? I remembered how I hated ginger during my confinement month...(Now I wondered why I bothered to try with it...I don't plan to have a third confinement...!!)

Here, again I used 20ml of ginger juice to 130ml of Anmum Lacta ( I followed instructions on the box: add 4 scoops milk powder to 200ml water , then I boiled the milk)

It was a total failure, I would say...But I find it weird to see one third of the milk at the bottom became curd, but the top part just remained watery:

The taste of both curds are different due to the milk, but with the ginger...I like both!

But I really am scratching my head over the different results...Did the fat content affect it? Shouldn't be, right? Ah, bother...let it be the chemist or nutritionist or even the chef to find out...I just wanna savour my milk curds now...

Ginger Milk Curd 姜汁撞奶 (More Experiments...)

I made these again...the week before last...and found out that I actually should use more ginger juice to my 150ml of milk. Then Baby Bear got sick and that made me worried + busy + exhausted to think of more Ginger Milk Curd.  When he got better, he developed rashes on his face and body due to the antibiotic he'd taken. But luckily the rashes subsided in 2 days. 

Then I made some of the curd for Papa Bear last Friday. I waited for his first mouthful and he said: "Mmmm, this is yummy...what is it?" After all the explanation, he said: " Good, so this is something yummy and healthy."

...and I'm just glad that he liked it. (So that he can help eat more of my experiments...hehehehe...)

From 2 weeks ago:

I used Farmhouse fresh milk this time:

(pasteurised and homogenised milk)

1st bowl

150ml milk + 15ml ginger juice + sugar

>>>>>>>>>very soft curd just like the first time I did with the Farmhouse Omega milk, BUT the curd passed the spoon test!!

2nd bowl

150ml milk + 22ml ginger juice + sugar
>>>>>>>>>real success at last!! The curd is more firm, more taufufah-like...So I should have followed Wendy's recipe after all...   :p

Friday's Curd (This is just to show off a bit...    :P)

30ml ginger juice

220ml fresh milk (Yup, I used little Bear's milk bottle to measure) + sugar to taste

...taa-dahhh!

The spoon test...

The texture...

I think I'm a bit hooked on making this...   :P