Glutinous rice in Lotus Leaves!

I've been dying to try this out for absolute ages - even before my last exam and before my Sydney trip! Yay finally I managed to find some time (at the expense of my tax assignment... hmmm hmmm :P) on Sunday afternoon and made it!

Check it out!

1. You can purchase these dried lotus leaves from Asian grocery shops - soak them in hot water for an hour till it is soft.
   

2. Most recipes will ask you to soak the glutinous rice in water overnight and then steam it for about 30mins - My mum taught me a quick way of just microwaving it for about 20mins (I used about 3 cups of rice for this recipe) - just place enough water to cover it about 1-1.5 inches above the surface of the rice. I think it's better to have less water than more, as you can always add in more later! :)

Place the rice in a steam-proof container and steam for about 30mins.

3. Ingredients are chinese mushrooms, shrimp, chinese sausage (see below) and chicken breast. Soak ingredients, other than the chicken in hot water for about 30mins. Up to you how much ingredients you would like to use :)

Marinate the sliced chicken fillet with a bit of sesame oil and soya sauce.

4. Thinly slice the chinese sausage.

5. Simmer the ingredients. Heat the pan with oil, and fry the chicken till slightly brown. Place the chopped garlic, chinese mushrooms, chinese sausages and shrimp once chicken is fairly cooked and fry for a few mins. I like the filling to be brown, so I threw in some dark soya sauce and oyster sauce. Make it as tasty or as not tasty as you like! :) Oh yeah, and throw in some spring onions as well!

To make the sauce thick, combine some cornflour with cold water and mix it into the cooked ingredients, and simmer for a few mins.

6. The steamed glutinous rice.

7. Place a big tablespoon of rice in the middle of the lotus leave, and put a bit of the ingredients into the centre, and cover it with the glutinous rice. Wrap the 'rice parcel' with the lotus leaves like an envelope.

Steam for about 30mins or so.

8. This is it! :) Yum yum!!! The lotus leaves really do give it a nice fragrance! :)
Eaten best when straight out of the steamer!!! :)

Agar Jelly!

Fellow foodblogger from "Grab your Fork" asked ages ago for the agar jelly recipe! Sorry it has taken this long!

Extremely simple - it's basically follow the instructions at the back of the pack of this particular brand of agar powder that I used! Absolutely no tricks there! I like using the powder version, heaps quicker! Actually I have never used the strips before, but Mum has said it is more of a hassle!

Some quick pointers on making the layered jelly (besides it being absolutely time consuming, but totally worth while when it works out!):

• I like using coconut milk to get the pastel colours - I dont really have a set amt of how much of it I use. Eg. 1 recipe = 1L of water, you could do half water and half coconut milk. I have never used 100% coconut milk before!

• Each layer takes about 3-5mins to harden - use a toothpick to lightly tap each layer to make sure it is actually set before pouring in the next layer.

• To get a nice pandan flavour, use the green pandan flavour colouring which can be purchased from Asian grocery shops.

• A problem I had was how do you keep the jelly from not hardening in its pots/containers whilst you wait for each layer to set? Keep it on a low flame! Otherwise it will most likely set in the pot :)

• Recipe asks for 250g sugar... I always use just under a cup of sugar.. I think this is less than 250g sugar, and just right if you ask me! :)
  

Pretty in Pink!!!

For those that know me, I love PINK!!! I'm not sure when or how this obsession happened but it did! A couple of weekends ago, Mum and I went to this cake decoration supply shop in Bibra Lake and I bought some royal icing sugar (which you can buy from Coles as well) and decided to buy some liquid food colouring to try! Of course I chose my favourite colour - Pink! Surprisingly, you only need a tiny bit of this liquid (so yes this tiny jar is going to last me yonkers!!!) to get a really lovely pink colour!

I did refreshments again this week for church and inspired by the pretty pictures in the August 06 Good Taste magazine of their cupcakes, made the White Chocolate Mudcake cupcakes, but made them Mini size. The recipe was simple enough and seemed really good, but I guess with all mini size cupcakes they often tend to be more dry... anyway going ahead with my initial plan, I decided to "dress" it up in Pink! Used Betty Crocker's vanilla frosting and with a bit of the pink liquid food color, the gorgeous pink was born! I bought a really cute set of little cutters to get the tiny heart shapes :)


Oh, and just a quick one - I tried out the Orange Yoghurt cake from "Milk and Cookies" blog (http://ilovemilkandcookies.blogspot.com/) last weekend - and perhaps it was just me, as her review on the cake was excellent, but yeah it was a bit dry and more solid than expected. Flavour wise was really nice though, the fresh burst of orange flavour! By the way, check out her blog, it is really cool! :)

Made Nigella's brownies - haha funny how sometimes it turns out different each time you make it, but as my friend Cheryl comforted me, sometimes this works out for the best! And true enough it did - altho not as fluffy as it was the previous time, it was still delicious, and moist - just gotta warm it up and serve it with cream/ice cream! Yumm!!! It was probably more brownie like this way! :)

Taronga Zoo!

My good friends Gen and Gloria and I always went to the Singapore Zoo whenever we went back to Singapore for our summer hols! So going to a zoo in a new city seemed quite natural!

it was with great fondest to visit a zoo again - Gen and Gloria, I still think the Spore Zoo is better!!! Although the view from the Taronga Zoo is breath taking! So nice! Worth the $34 adult entry fee! By the way, the zoo is 90 years old this year, so for the month of July, if you are born in July, you can get it for 90cents only! :)

My favourite was the giraffes! Check the pictures out - it says it all!!! I haven't posted pictures of any other animals, apparently Sydney is probably quite famous for its Gorillas (yes they look like King Kong!) and snow leopards - we only saw the tail... it was sleeping... :( But I have posted pictures of the view...

Bondi Beach & HUGE ribs!!!

Hahaha, yes I'm still blogging about Sydney... nearly finished, nearly there!

Anyway, here are some pictures of Bondi beach... I think I prefer the Perth beaches... however, what was really cool about this beach was that there was this swimming pool that was next to the Ocean! Check it out!


There is this fantastic restaurant that we went to for dinner that night at Bondi - it is just a street away from the beach! It is called Hurricanes! They are famous for their pork and lamb ribs! It's hard to actually see the size from the pictures above, but let's just say it was MASSIVE!!! I think the size of the plate was the size of your serving plates which you use to serve like 5 people!

The stack of ribs is bigger than a guy's hand! Yum yum yum.. pretty good value too, $27. No! Do not be horrified, I did not consume it all myself!!! The lamb looked a lot less than the pork.... as Gen's expression (which unfortunately I did not capture! It was a classic!) so well revealed! No one left home hungry, or unsatisfied! A must go place! The fastest service ever, considering we went in a group of 40! Go go goooo!!! :) - check out those bones... boy would Cruise have loved it! :)

Raspberry trifle Cupcakes AND Nutella Cupcakes!!!

(Note: Had heaps of problems putting pictures up... so this was written like nearly a week ago... on Sunday!!!)


The smell of chocolate is DIVINE.....!!! My nutella cupcakes are currently happily baking in the oven and wow.... I can really smell the chocolate!!! Yummmyyyy!!! Boy, have I missed my oven and kitchen! :)

This weekend was a food feast!!! Eulynn organised a really nice steamboat dinner last night (forgot to take pics!) for a few of us - such good fun! Loads of food and fantastic fellowship! Friday night we had 2 birthday surprises - which funnily enough I missed both of them by about 5mins! Hahaha! But yes there was more food.... and more laughs and tons of fun!!! This is what is called "home"!!!

Raspberry trifle cupcakes turned out pretty nice, except that I misread the custard icing method and hence it didnt quite have that nice peak form... but it was still pretty yummy! Bought REAL vanilla bean paste (@ $10 a jar! TINY jar too! yikes!) to use as well... :) Anyway, they look a lot prettier than the nutella cupcakes... and it was nice and moist, and not too sweet. This recipe was taken from Donna Hay's magazine... she has some really nice pretty cupcakes in there!

My nutella cupcakes are DONE! I was going to make some pretty decorations and cover it with chocolate frosting, but I think that is going to be an overkill by the smells of it! So perhaps next week we'll do something pretty, for now... we'll enjoy the cupcakes in its natural form, hehe!!! :) (Recipe courtesy from "Baking Sheet" http://bakingsheet.blogspot.com search for "Nutella")

Taste verdict: The recipe was not wrong when it said it would be a little bit tricky to swirl the nutella as the cupcake base is very thick and rich!!! My family enjoyed the cupcakes very much (yay!) - I think it was a rich and solid cupcake, but unfortunately, I think it could have been a bit more moist... it was a little bit more dry than I would have liked it to be! I think it's fairly ordinary... the raspberry trifle one was a little more special! :)

I think next weekend will be proper savoury cooking..... stay tuned!!!

Famous Sydney Sights!

Check out the awesome Sydney weather!!!

Some famous sights as follows.... love it love it love it!!!

Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House and Martin Place!

(Martin Place was where I saw the famous korean actress from "Autumn in My Heart" - she really is very pretty looking! She was shooting a commercial for a drink/juice! - no wonder there were so many asian people around Martin Place that day!!!)

This is The Rocks Market, which is open every weekend! Pictures of the buildings were around Kings St Wharf area... really nice looking buildings, which house cafes! :)

Stay tuned for my afternoon cupcake creation - Raspberry Trifle Cupcakes!!!

It's ready, I gotta go dress it up now! :)))

Japanese pizza & Award winning Corn?!!!

Yes, Japanese pizza... it really was a jap pancake with noodles, cabbage, prawns and meat! It was really yummy! Gotta try to make it sometime! This place in Chinatown also sold the japanese pancake filled with custard, red bean or green tea or chocolate paste :)

Yes apparently this corn has won some prices! It is this stall at The Rocks markets and all they say is cooked corn on the cob, and you can have it with butter, salt and pepper! It was pretty nice! $3 for one tho! :)

Lindt Cafe @ Martin Place!

Ahhhhh..... yes made it to the Lindt Cafe, which is on Martin Place... it is a pretty nice cafe, and between the 2 of us, Cheryl and I ordered a dark hot chocolate and a piece of their Lindt chocolate cake. Ok, ordinary you might think, but the cake was superb! I was immediately thinking how I could replicate it... it was dense, rich, tasty and absolutely satisfying for any chocolate craving!

We were so glad we didnt order more than that, or we would have had a chocolate heart attack! The cake was only $5.50, the hot chocolate was about that price too... but it was more than enough! Despite some bad reviews that I have read, we were quite lucky, we didnt have to wait for more than 5 mins for a table, and the service was relatively normal! They sold some nice different types of Lindt choc balls (I'll post them later) - mocha, peppermint, cookies and cream for $1 each... a little pricey! But yummy!

Sydney Fish Market!

Yum yum yum! Check out the seafood platter! It was from the main fish market - I think it was called Pete's Grill. You can actually pick your seafood and get them to cook it for you! We opted for the yummy seafood platter, which was $60 for 4 people, but you could easily stretch it to 5 people and still be really full!

Sydney Fish Market is a little bit like Freo, but I think Fremantle is nicer and a lot more spacious. Everyone there was chinese! And it was like in Asian countries, people stand around trying to get to the table as soon as you finish eating!!!

Darling Harbour!!!

Darling Harbour, like the Opera house, is beautiful both during the day and at night! There is so many different cafes, all look equally good! Gloria and I made our rounds around Darling Harbour before we decided on one... actually I think I was probably the fussier one! We had a fantastic dinner, great conversation and so many laughs!

Here's the evidence:

Pancakes @ the Rocks and Passionflower @ Darling Harbour!

Pancakes at the Rocks is also ANOTHER famous Sydney thing to visit and eat! It is located at the Rocks, which is where the Sydney Harbour Bridge is, and it is actually pretty cool how this restaurant is hidden away! It's not by the water, it's actually in a building near the Rocks Markets which are open on the weekend.

We attempted to eat Pancakes at about 1030pm on a Sat night but the line was long! At least a 45min wait type of line! So we went on the Sunday morning for breakfast... and look at what I ate... quite disgusting hey! :P (No, I did not eat it all!!!) - and best of all, no line at all :)

It is called Devil's Delight... pure sin it was!

Passionflower is the name of this gelato place at Darling Harbour - where Durian, black sesame, taro, green tea flavours are sold! So yes, a bit of an asian ice-creamery! Quite pricey... but I think quite worth it, considering you have a fantastic view of Darling Harbour. This is the first time I had the Black sesame... first taste is like the asian hot dessert, but funny thing is that after a few tastes it begins to taste a little bland... the durian was good, tasted like durian alright!!!

Harry's Hotdogs & Pies!

This place is apparently very famous! They are famous for their pies with mashed peas on top. I'm not exactly sure where it was... I can't spell nor pronounce the suburb. It's open 24 hours!!!

Not being a fan of peas, I was uncomfortable with the idea of ordering such a pie. But I did try a bit of the peas and it was actually really not bad at all! It tasted a bit like those dried pea snacks! The chilli hot dogs were good! The combination of beef con carne and the american hot dogs on soft rolls is great... yum yum yum! And at about $4 each, it's not bad at all!

Wedding bells!

Ok, this is random - esp since I am supposed to be blogging on Sydney... but I have so much to catch up on! After my exam, flew straight to Syd and had no time to blog about the prior events!

Anyway, seems like this is the year to get married! Everyone seems to be ringing wedding bells! Went to 2 weddings in 2 weeks, and for the first time, got to be bridesmaid!

My fan-ta-bu-lous friend and beautiful bride and me! :)

My good friends Gen & Gloria and I at Wei & Cheryl's wedding! :)

Anyone else getting married??? :)

I'm back!

Hihi! I'm back from Sydney!

Ahhhh..... so many things to say, where do I start? I was there for exactly 19 days! And yes I even managed to throw an Adelaide stop on my way to Sydney - thanks to me missing my plane! ARGG! Thank God that was the only bad thing that happened! I got there, 1.5hours past my scheduled time (btw Adelaide airport IS nice!) - and managed to check into the hotel, shower quickly and rush to work!

Anyway, since it was a business trip, I should say something about it.... hmmm... I worked longer hours, but the funny thing is that time seemed to past real quick! Not sure whether it was because my laptop clock was on Perth time (I apparently cannot change it - only the administrator can!) or whether because everything was new?! Anyway yes time really flew... my Syd colleagues were nice, the office was nice, work was the same as Perth and yes that's about it.......

Here's the view from the office (Oops I forgot to take a picture of the office building!):

I really liked Sydney! The city is huge! There seems to be shops and eating places everywhere! The weather was so nice whilst I was there as well, I think it rained maybe a couple of times and it only ever lasted for a couple of hours at the most! Perth's city is prettier, the swan river is nicer, but really... Sydney is pretty amazing too. It's crowded, it's alive, and I love how George St is still crowded @ midnight and how Woolworths is open 24 hours. Yes, Cheryl and I bought fruit @ 11ish pm! We were thrilled... :)

My favourite part of Sydney was the Harbour bridge, the Opera house, you have to see it both at night and during the day! It's completely different, but both times amazing :) You have to have dinner around there... it's so nice... very cool! Unfortunately, night shots didn't turn out too well!

Anyway, I'm going to start posting up pictures............