Agar Agar Jelly Cake with Coconut and Pandan

Chinese New Year is coming up on 19 February. This year my in-laws from Malaysia is coming to spend CNY with us making it extra special. As usual for any Chinese celebration, there will be lots of cooking and eating. Agar Agar jelly is a popular sweet you would see in any Malaysian party. It is made from sea vegetable which is a good substitute for gelatine for vegetarian.  It also helps to create many colourful and healthy dessert. It is a great last minute dessert that is very simple to prepare.

I finally find the frozen pandan leaves from Yuen's Market at Sunnybank in Brisbane. I usually use the pandan essence which is very bright green in colour and taste not as good as the real one. I normally make this dessert using coconut milk, evaporated milk and mung bean.  As I don't want to over power the taste of the pandan, I have omitted the evaporate milk here. After discovering this Asian vanilla essence, surely there will be more pandan recipes to come. If mung bean is not your thing, you can omit it as well.

Have a great Chinese New Year!

Agar Agar Jelly Cake with Coconut and Panda

Ingredients:

A:
1/4 cup split mung beans or yellow split peas
1 cup water

B:
3 pandan leaves
1 cup boiled water at room temperature

C:
20g agar agar leaves
2 litres water
1 3/4 cup sugar or more to taste
1 1/2 cup coconut cream

Method:

1. A: Cook mung beans with water till boil, turn down heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until the beans are cooked. Strain and put the bean aside.
2. B: Cut the pandan leaves into pieces. Add into the blender with water and blend till the juice is green. Strain and preserve the water and discard the leaves.
3. Place agar agar into boiling water and let it dissolves. Add sugar and stir till sugar dissolves.
4. Pour about 1/3 of the agar agar sugar mixture into a large baking tray (25cmx30cm). Keep in fridge for about 15 minutes.
5. Add coconut cream and pandan juice to the remaining agar agar sugar mixture. ( If not using pandan juice, you can add 1/4 cup evaporated milk here) Spread mung bean over the 1st layer of the cake. Then use a ladle to pour the coconut mixture into the tray.  Keep in fridge for at least 1 hour before cutting into slices. It is best to consume the jelly slices within one or two days.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Chocolate Bliss Balls

These bliss balls are packed with nutritions and I can pop three or four into my mouth without guilt.  And yet, they are so easy to make, just blend everything and roll it into the coconut.  It keeps very well for a few days.

Chocolate Bliss Balls
(make about 18-20)

Ingredients:

1 cup medjool dates, pitted
1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup organic cacao powder
1 teaspoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon organic extra virgin coconut oil
1 tablespoon goji berries
1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt
desiccated coconut for coating

1. Blend almonds and walnuts until starting to become paste, add chopped date, cacao power, chai seeds, salt and coconut oil.  
2. Blend until it becomes sticky to shape.  Put into a bowl, add goji berries. 
3. Use hand to shape into ball shape, roll into coconut.

Easter Bunny Popsticks

There is only a week away from Easter, this year I'm making chocolate bunny to give to people instead of store brought Easter eggs.  I found this "Make your own Easter Gifts" pack from IGA supermarket at $10.  It includes all the things you needed to make 12 chocolate bunnies.  I buy more chocolate melts and have been making many bunnies (I do lost count how many I've made as I eat some along the way...)

I have been experiment different flavour, and I like the Hundred & Thousand Bunny and Milk top bunny the most.  The pure white choc bunny takes longer time to set and it doesn't keep well at room temperature.  It would be great to have more mould so it would take me faster to do the job.  I found that reheating the melted chocolate is not good, so I put the extra chocolate into other chocolate mould to make something else rather than washing if off.  In my first lot of chocolate, I forget to press medium on the microwave and burn my chocolate so please be careful and never overheat the chocolate!

Aren't those bunnies adorable?  They're so easy to make and you should try it!

Happy Easter!

Easter Bunny Popsticks
(make 4 each)

For the milk chocolate bunny:
120g milk chocolate
Hundred & Thousand sprinkles

For the milk top bunny:
30g white chocolate
90g milk chocolate

Method:

1. Wipe the mould clean with paper. 
2. Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl on medium heat for 1 minute, then 30 second on medium heat until the chocolate is all melted. 
3. Use a spoon to spoon chocolate into each mould until half full.  Place a popstick into each mould, then tap onto the table to ease the air.  Fill with more chocolate and tap again.  Don't over fill and top with hundred & thousand sprinkles.  Wipe clean and put into fridge for 15 minutes or until set.  
4. For the milk top bunny: melt white chocolate on medium heat until melted.  Spoon chocolate into mould, tap off air and then put into fridge to set.  Meanwhile, melt the milk chocolate on medium heat and lay a popstick into each mould.  Spoon the milk chocolate over the milk chocolate and keep in the fridge for about an hour or until set.

Salted Caramel Fudge

 With Chinese New Year around the corner (Feb 10), people that celebrate this biggest festival would be busy cleaning their houses for visitors, prepare delicious food for family and friends or planning a special trip for a holiday.  To try to keep the Chinese tradition, I would prepare a candy tray at home for the visitors and make some cookies as gifts.  Then there would be a special dinner on the New Year's Eve.  Kids are looking forward to receive the red pockets filled with money given from the seniors.  Chinese candy are dried and preserved fruit & nuts such as sweeten coconut, lotus seeds, pineapple and winter melon.  My westernised candy tray usually filled with kids favourite from the lollies and chocolate in the supermarket.

Since I like fudge but never make it before, I think this would be something nice to put into my candy tray or wrap up as a gift.  My husband takes them to work and people already giving it a thumb up!  If you love something sweet, especially salted caramel, you'd love this recipe!  You can omit the salt to make it as plain caramel instead.

Salted Caramel Fudge

I can condensed milk
1 cup less 2 tablespoons brown sugar
125g butter
2 tablespoons glucose syrup

(put later)
100g white chocolate bits
1/3 teaspoon rock salt

Method:
Put all ingredients except the chocolate and salt in a microwave safe bowl.  Cook on high for 6 minutes,  stir, then cook again for 2 more minutes till thick and golden.  Remove from heat then add the white chocolate.  Stir till all the chocolate is melted.  Pour into a square pan and stand for 1 minute before sprinkle with rock salt.  Set aside till set and cut with a warm knife.

Rocky Road

The school fete finally comes, I have just bought the armbands for the kids for the rides.  They have been checking out the show bags and thinking how much money they should spend for the night.  It is the biggest fund raising of the year and the children just love it.  Besides the rides, there are stores selling goodies fitted into a jar for $1, cake and sweet store, arts and crafts, plants, second-hand clothing and toys, international foods, BBQ and ice-cream.  This year, my daughter makes some Rocky Road for the sweet store.  She learns making chocolate sweet at school and it is very easy to make.  You can remember the recipe straight away.  We cut it and put it into a large container in the fridge and pack it into small bags on the day of the fete.  I put in some speckled easter eggs into the bag to match the Easter theme.  Let's hope the weather is good for the night and we sure will have lots of fun.


Rocky Road


Ingredients:
Milk Chocolate and/or dark chocolate, glazed cherries or chewy lollies such as snakes (chopped) and marshmallow

Method:
Lay a piece of baking paper onto a baking tray.  Gently mix together the cherries, lollies and marshmallow.  Melt chocolate in a microwave safe bowl under medium heat,  heat for 30 seconds then heat for 20 seconds a few times until the chocolate is melted.  Pour the chocolate over the marshmallow mix and stir with a spoon until it is all well mixed.  Refrigerate before cut into chucks.

Note: Switch to white chocolate for white Rocky Road.