How to Make Easy Ice Sweet Corn Summer Dessert

Mega delish easy ice dessert. Just the perfect thing for this crazy sticky hot humid Hong Kong summer.

I saw this dish made by a celebrity in a Korean show called Happy Together, the Late Night Cafetaria segment. It's brilliant! It's savory-sweet, sweetness can be adjusted to any level, many different combinations can be done, it involves some sort of ice & super easy to make. I just had to try it!

Recipe (adapted from the show)

- 1 small can of coconut milk (the original recipe uses 1 box of milk)

- sweet corn kernels (fresh or canned - whichever lights your fire)

- condensed milk

Pour coconut milk into freezer friendly container, freeze. A couple of hours before serving, thaw in fridge until you can "mash" it with a fork. Or you can freeze the milk/coconut milk in smaller container so that you can use blender to make the "shaved milk ice". Place a serving of the granita-esque coconut milk in a bowl, add as much corn kernels (if you're using fresh corn, cook the corn & get the kernels) as you like & top it with condensed milk. 

Icy creamy sweet savory goodness. LOVE! 

Pandan French Toast - Ugly Delicious

The color might be lurid green and scary, but I can assure you that it's very yummy!

Bread soaked in mixture of egg, melted butter, coconut cream, sugar & pandan essence. It's a no brainer, really! Must be yum! I will definitely use coconut cream more often when making french toasts. It gives me that much needed kick-in-the-gut richness.

Recipe
- bread of your choice (I used 1 small mixed grain bun, sliced to 1 cm thick slices)
- 2 tsp sugar
- 5 tbsp coconut cream
- 3 tbsp butter (salted), melted
- a pinch of salt
- 1 egg, beaten
- a few drops of pandan essence (add bit by bit, I added half a teaspoon)
- some more butter mixed with vegetable oil for frying

Melt butter, let cool for a bit while preparing other ingredients. Mix sugar, salt, coconut cream, pandan essence and melted butter in a bowl, soak bread pieces in the mixture and let them "marinate" in fridge for a couple of hours. Before serving, heat up some butter mixed with a bit of vegetable oil to prevent from burning, pan fry bread pieces until golden.


Rich, fragrant, sweet, and fluffffffy! I really adore the scent and creaminess of coconut milk in these babies.
Enjoy!

Grilled Chicken in Creamy Turmeric Sauce - Ayam Panggang Santan Kuning

Another recipe from what I made for baby M's recent bday celebration at home.
I hardly use coconut milk when marinating meat, but I should really use it more often. It's this magic ingredient that makes everything creamy and fragrant. Plus, the wet marinate keeps the chicken meat moist even after grilling.

Recipe
(for 4)
- 4 Chicken thigh fillet with skin on (allow half or one chicken thigh fillet per person, depending on whether it's served with other dishes and lots of rice/other carbs)
Marinate
- 3 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 3 shallot, peeled
- 2 cm ginger, peeled
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp turmeric
- salt, pepper, sugar
- 200ml of coconut milk
Process everything except coconut milk in a food processor or blender, or you can use mortar and pestle to make your paste. Add coconut milk, mix well. Marinate chicken in the mixture for a couple hours, or leave overnight in the fridge.

On the day of serving, you can either cook the chicken a bit in the marinate before broiling the chicken to brown the skin, or you can place chicken in a preheated oven (200C) along with some of the marinating liquid and grill it until it's done (you can crank up the heat in the last few minutes to really brown the skin). Cook the remaining marinating liquid until reduced, thickened and creamy as use as a sauce.

Golden delicious.
I might make this in the form of sate...because who doesn't love food on a stick?

Seabass in Indonesian Opor Sauce 印尼椰汁鱸魚

I thought it was going to be so easy.

The idea sounded perfect in my mind.

1. Pan fry a piece of nice fish perfectly.

2. Prepare a flavorful sauce using instant spice pack

3. Garnish

In my mind, these 3 easy steps would turn the tasty Indonesian dish into something that looks "fine dining".

I should've known that I'm not a fine-dining material.

我仲以為好容易

1. 剪好D魚

2. 用調味包

3. 裝飾吓

我成日都以為整到好似高級餐廳咁係好容易...

I butchered the fish!

I've failed to get the skin crispy and I've overcooked the flesh.

Grrrr.

Luckily, seabass is a pretty forgiving fish. So apart from looking horrible, it stays moist and yummy. Phew! And the sauce, I did use an instant opor (Indonesian coconut milk sauce) spice pack, but cranked it up with a lot of fresh ingredients, so it was really yummy!

I'll do better next time.

我浪費左條咁靚既魚...

我整唔到D皮脆, 條魚又煮得太熟...

好彩鱸魚點整都係好食...除左望落去唔好睇, 食落去都仲OK既

個現成印尼椰汁調味包係得既, 成碟魚3D晒..仲有自己都加左好多配料落去

我下次會努力的了...

Recipe

The Sauce

- Opor seasoning pack

- 1/2 cup coconut cream

- 2 cloves garlic, crushed

- 1 stalk lemongrass, crushed

- 2 cloves shallot, thinly sliced

- 4 kaffir lime leaves

- a touch of sugar, pepper, cooking oil, water

Saute garlic, lemongrass and shallot in a bit of cooking oil, add spice pack, add coconut milk, a bit of water, and a touch of sugar. Set aside

剪香D蒜頭, 檸檬葉, 紅䓤頭, 加調味包, 加椰奶, 加水, 加糖, 放埋一邊

The fish

- 2 fish fillet (I used seabass)

- cooking oil, butter, salt and pepper

Season fish fillet with salt, pepper, rub generously with oil. Heat up a frying pan. When pan is really hot, add the fish skin down. Let cook until the skin crisped (I was too impatient), add oil and butter when necessary, turn once, let cook for a bit (thin fish fillet cooks real fast!), place fish fillet on top of sauce. I garnish mine with mint leaves and ate it with a lot of rice.

條魚, 用監鹽, 油, 胡椒調好味, 同佢按摩吓. 整熱個獲, 落個皮煎先, 煎脆左, 落油, 牛油, 每面只可煎一次, 自己因時間. 上碟, 落埋D醬汁

Dammit. If only I cooked that fish perfectly...

自古失敗在嘗試!

Steamed Nin Gou with Coconut Milk and Pandan Leaves

My good friend Ieie brought these precious goodies as dessert for our Chinese New Year lunch.


I was absolutely impressed and she was kind enough to share the recipe with us. It's the perfect way to make nin gou (Chinese sweet and sticky cake, which I normally despise) a billion times more delicious.

Sweet, sticky, wonderfully chewy yet soft nin gou, with rich, creamy and slightly savory coconut milk, topped off with super fragrant aroma from pandan leaves and banana leaves. Delicious to the max! I think I ate about 5 packets of this goodness. Yum!

Recipe
- As much nin gou as desired (hopefully available in Asian/Chinese stores during Chinese new year), cut into 1 cm thick rectangle)
- pandan leaves (2 small piece per serving)
- add a bit of salt into a can/box of coconut milk
- Banana leaves (boiled or submerged into hot water until softened) to wrap, tooth picks to seal


Add one piece of nin gou, 2 pieces of pandan leaves, and a bit of coconut milk into banana leaves, wrap and seal with tooth pick. Steam for 15 minutes, and serve warm.

What else did we have that day? Nothing new and pretty much nothing Chinese. Hahah.


Soto Betawi (Indonesian Creamy Beef Soup), recipe here


Grilled Chicken in Shrimp Sauce (Ayam Panggang Terasi), pretty much the same recipe as this one

This time I managed to photograph the chicken without showing its butt! Major improvement!

And more goodies brought by Ieie...

...these yummy Japanese white chocolate sandwich cookies.

And these delicious Japanese apple juice from Steve.

What a great day of good food!
We also had fun photographing the Chinese New Year fireworks that day.
Heheheh.

PS. In Chinese tradition, today is everybody's birthday, so...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!
Have a fantastic year!

Creamy Spiced Pumpkin & Banana Dessert

It's almost Halloween, and I'm obligated to put up something cheesy and clichéd, such as...a pumpkin post.

Plus, I received half a small pumpkin from SC's mom, and I didn't feel like stir frying it as much as she'd like me to...so I whipped up this weird version of Indonesian kolak.

Weird? Why?
It does have coconut milk in it, but instead of palm sugar, I used normal caster sugar, and instead of pandan leaves for fragrance, I used nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves.

Weird it is.

Recipe
- half a small pumpkin, cut into bite size chunks
- one large (super duper ripe, the skin should be all black) emperor banana, cut into a few sections
- 200 ml coconut milk
- hot water, a pinch of salt, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves

Cook pumpkin chunks in hot water, some sugar (adjust the amount of sugar to suit your taste) and spices until tender, add coconut milk, a pinch of salt, adjust the amount of sugar and spices in necessary, add banana chunks, consume hot or cold.

...preferably in a slutty (or not ^_*) Halloween outfit.

Very Chocolatey Dark Chocolate Steamed Milk Dessert

Never thought that I could make a chocolate steamed milk dessert chocolatier than that of Yee Shun Milk Company's. But I think I just did.

How?
I started with dark chocolate milk instead of normal full fat milk ;)
I used 1 cup.


and to make things even more chocolatey...

Unsweetened chocolate powder and Hershey's dark chocolate chips.

I can't call this post a "recipe", since I really didn't measure stuff exactly...

To blend everything, you'll need to heat up the milk.
Heat the milk on stove top, add chocolate powder, chocolate chips and sugar, whisk everything until combined. Taste and adjust until you achieve what's yummy to you.

OK, we're done with the most difficult part of the "recipe" :D
Wow. Is it really that easy?
Yeah, otherwise, with my track record of failures, I wouldn't have even considered trying it.
Next, crack and beat two eggs.


Wait until the chocolate milk batter is just warm (so the eggs won't get cooked), pour into the beaten egg and whisk until all combined.

Hmmm, if I didn't think of the raw egg, I would've said cheers and drunk the whole thing. Run the batter over a fine sieve and pour into molds.

I just used my every day blue and white humble little bowls.

Place them on a plate for steaming.
If you have a steamer, congratulations, I envy you. Grrrrr.
I just used my wok.


In a wok, bring water to boil, add metal stand or you a plate/bowl placed upside down.

Oppps, forgot to tell you to cover the bowls with aluminium foil...please do so.

Place in the wok, cover wok and steam for about 15 minutes.


The surface should be a little jiggly....I think I've overdone mine a little, steamed for 20 minutes. Don't to what I did, guys.
But still...look at this...


A little spoonful of heavenly, silky, creamy, chocolatey deliciousness.
A little bokeh won't hurt, right?


Serve them hot, warm, or cold....but I just couldn't wait.
Some like it hot :)

Opor Ayam Panggang - Improving Leftover Opor Ayam

I wanted to spice up the leftover opor from the night before, but didn't want to...

- buy more ingredients
- do more chopping, slicing and dicing
- turn on the stove
- wash another pot

...in other words, didn't wanna do anything more complicated than dumping a pot into my oven.

So there you go...

Opor Ayam Panggang (Grilled Chicken in Coconut Milk and Spices)

Before:
A pot of Opor Ayam

Creamy? Yep...but I need something that'll punch me on my face the next day, thus...

After:
Grilled Opor Ayam

Why does with golden bits look sexier...
It tasted a lot better too!
The golden part of the chicken turned crispy while the parts buried in coconut milk stayed juicy, tender and bursting with flavors!

Recipe
(serves 4)
- 3 boneless chicken thigh fillet (I removed the skin, cut into bite sized chunks)
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 4 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 stalk lemongrass, chop into 5 cm long pieces and crushed
- 2 cm ginger, crushed
- 1 tsp ground corriander seeds
- 1 tsp cumin
- 200 ml coconut milk
- salt, pepper, sugar, olive oil

Saute garlic, shallot, ginger and lemongrass in hot oil, add chicken pieces, season with ground corriander seeds, cumin, cook until almost done, add coconut milk, add salt, pepper and sugar. You can already eat this, or set aside, let cool and refrigerate overnight to make a golden brown version like mine.

The next day, preheat oven to 220C, pour opor ayam to an oven proof container, grill until the top of the chicken turns golden brown (if you left the skin on, grill the chicken skin up, until the skin turns crispy). Garnish with freshly chopped corriander. Devour with rice or mop the creamy gravy with a baguette.

I wish spicing up my appearance is as easy as dumping something into a hot oven, no diet/exercise required...sigh...

Creamy, Sweet, Tangy, Spicy, Hearty - Minced Meat, Pineapple & Eggplant in Coconut Milk

Somehow, the title of this post kinda reminds me of Spice Girls.
Imagine Creamy Spice, Sweet Spice, Tangy Spice, and Hearty Spice. Spicy?

Ehm, that brought back memories of another thing something I am not proud of...

When I was young, the five of us, my sis, my cousins and I, love love LOVE, a Japanese series Google V. It's a team of 5 heroic characters, fighting various world destroying baddies. We loved the series so much, we watched the series again and again (It was the time when videos were still in! Gowd, I am old) we sang the songs, we remember the tag lines, we remember which bad guys did what, we could imitate the moves/routines, the weapons, the transformation into robot, the robot's moves/routines and the final weapon (which worked every time, I am now wondering why they didn't use it straight away to kill the monster. oh yeah, there would be no series if they did that. gotcha).

We were a bunch of hopeless, geeky, nerdy freaks!

Everyone got to choose their own character. My chubby sis was goggle yellow, my girly cousin was goggle pink, both my boy cousins snatched the blue and the black, just because there were their favorite colors, and I was stuck being red. Actually, I didn't mind as the guy playing goggle red was kinda hot, although my major childhood crush was really...goggle blue.

Why am I feeling more like a loser each time I typed one more word into this post...

Anyway, that was then. My fun filled childhood.

Now, if creamy, sweet, tangy, spicy and hearty are characters out of spice girls or any group/band, I would have a major hard time choosing a character, cos I love 'em all and I like mixing 'em all up in one easy peasy dish, such as this one...

Creamy, Sweet, Tangy, Spicy, Hearty Minced Meat, Pineapple, and Eggplant in Coconut Milk

Recipe
- 1 lb minced meat (I used pork, but chicken will work too)
- 1 pineapple, remove core, cut into bite sized chunks
- 1 eggplant, cut into bite sized chunks
- a box of 200ml coconut cream
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 4 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- 3 red chilli, chopped
- olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar
- 1 sprig of spring onion or corriander, chopped (garnish)
- crispy fried shallot (garnish, optional)

Saute garlic, shallot, and chilli in olive oil until fragrant, add minced meat, cook for a while until it changed color a bit, add eggplants and pineapple, add seasonings, cook covered until eggplants are cooked through, add coconut milk, mix well, garnish with freshly chopped corriander/spring onion and crispy shallot. Serve hot with steamed rice or between two slices of bread of your choice.

Creamy, sweet, tangy, spicy, hearty.

Now tell me, who was your action hero childhood crush?

Sticky Rice Cake with Palm Sugar and Coconut Milk - A Desperate Attempt of Indonesian Street Snack

What comes to your mind when you see something challenging?
A. Yes! I should try! I can do this!
B. .........Oh shit!

Not proud of it, but I am leaning more towards B. Oppps. Rarely From time to time, I welcome challenges and feel excited...but most of the time, including the time I heard that the cooking together (Masak Bareng Yuuk) event 's theme is Indonesian street snack, and not only that...the snack has to be made of rice...."oh shit" was really the first thing that came to my mind. I've never attempted any Indonesian snacks at home. Whenever I miss them, I'd dig deep into my pocket and just buy some. So, I initially planned to "miss" this event, but after some intense discussions with my blogging pal, Deetha, I gave it a go.

I started making this snack without any expectation of success, not aiming to create any specific classic snack. I was thoroughly submissive of what the result was gonna be, it was a desperate experiment.

My plan was to throw the following:
- Sticky rice
- Palm sugar
- Coconut milk
- a pinch of salt
into a pot, cook them for a while and see how it goes....

Sticky Rice Cake with Palm Sugar and Coconut Milk

I realised that I haven't even tried cooking sticky rice before. I imagine it should be the same as cooking regular rice, which is..dump them into the rice cooker and press cook. I assumed I could do the same with this thing, and when I heard the beep, I would have some sweet and fragrant sticky rice thingy, ready to be consumed.

Clearly, I was delusional. Cooking sticky rice is a gadzillion miles away from cooking regular rice. It has to be soaked, it has to be steamed, and then cooked again, and possible steamed again. Whoa! Was I ready for that? Not really. But with a pack of sticky rice on my hand...and the fear of that pack of rice being thrown onto my face by Deetha (albeit virtually - hehe no, Deetha is sweet and not at all violent), I got onto it and did this very dubious snack, which despite of it looking miles away from any classic Indonesian snack, tasted bloody fantastic. Sticky, sweet and fragrant.

Recipe
- 1 cup of white sticky rice, soaked overnight
- blocks of palm sugar (add bit by bit until you reach the desired sweetness)
- a pinch of salt
- coconut milk (I use 200 ml)
- water (add when necessary)

Cook soaked sticky rice in a bit of water, add coconut milk, add palm sugar and pinch of salt, adjust taste until it is perfect for you and all the coconut milk are absorbed. Set aside, let cool. When you want to consume it, steam until the cake is done thoroughly. You can create a sticky rice cake "sandwich" by adding mashed bananas or durian in between, or serve it with creamy coconut milk, or consume as is.

Hope I won't say "oh shit" again next month and take whatever challenge with courage and optimism (nah, that doesn't sound like me, does it?)

Fusion Opor: Minced Meat and Kidney Beans in Creamy Coconut Milk

This is what happens when one craves Mexican and Indonesian food at the same time. I wanted some hearty bites of beans and meat, but I felt that I should not do any more spicy tomato or sweet soy sauce, or sous chef might think that I am just a two-tricks monkey.

Not that I care...."take it or leave it" is the "today's special" at Mochachocolata-Rita's. Haha! (Oppps. SC, if you are reading. I'll cook whatever you want tomorrow, ok?)

Hmm...what could be good with minced meat and beans? Something easy, and quick, and tasty?
- Sour cream, onion, tomato, cheese? Nah. I love. SC hates. Damn!
- Spicy sambal (chilli sauce)? Nah. Done that yesterday.
- Shrimp paste? Nah. Done that the day before.
- Teriyaki? Nah. That's for tomorrow.

AHA! Why not something like Indonesian Opor (cooked with coconut milk and spices)?

Fusion Opor: Mince Meat & Kidney Beans in Creamy Coconut Milk

Recipe
- 1 lb minced meat (chicken, beef or pork)
- 1 can of kidney beans, drained (chick peas or butter beans should work well too)
- 4 cloves shallot, thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3 red chillies, chopped
- a bunch of fresh corriander, roughly chopped
- 200ml coconut milk
- 1 stalk lemongrass, bruised
- 2 cm ginger, bruised
- 1 tsp ground corriander seed
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp turmeric
- salt, pepper, sugar

Saute garlic, shallot, ginger, chillies and lemongrass, add minced meat. Cook until the meat changed color, add beans, add coconut milk, season with spices, bring to boil, sprinkle chopped corriander. Serve with steamed rice.

Hmm, I bet minced meat and beans will work well with oyster sauce too. Ok, for next time.

Lamb in Creamy Coconut Milk and Mint

When I saw people posting great dishes using fresh ingredients from their own garden...I turned bright green, full of envy. It gets even worse when I see them submitting their fabulous entries to this fantastic foodblog event called Grow Your Own. I always thought...damnnn!! When do I get to have my very own garden...where I could pluck sprig after sprig of fresh herbs, basketful of fruits and vegetables...with a serene look on my face...and maybe a flower or two in my hair (OK, yuck! My apologies for going a little overboard with the flowers there, guys).

Why can't I grow my own stuff?
I live in Hong Kong. If I told you that I had a garden with a capacity to hold an extensive collection of fresh herbs, fruits, vegetables and flowers..chances are: I am either...a tycoonista/gadzillionairess/married to a gadzillionaire/an heiress/lying to be any of the foresaid people/living in a village so far away from Hong Kong city center...it's probably China. Well, I am none of the above. From my crappy photoshoot post, you can see how teeny tiny my flat is (it can barely contain my huge azz hehe). I don't have a little balcony or an empty windowsill to place even a pot of plant. Sob sob.

And it's not only about the lack of space. I am a notorious plant murderer. When I was browsing through Prince Edward's flower market, it was all "Oh, I've killed this one before, and that one, and that one...and those ones too (basically almost everything)", and I could feel that all the plants were fearing the possibility of going home with me, which would make them my latest potential victims (if they could speak, they'd be saying "pleaseeeee, don't buy me, I don't wanna dieeee!!!").

Nevertheless. I was determined to give it another try. So, I picked a (lucky or unlucky?) pot of mint, and brought it home. I heard stories of raging mint plants taking over food bloggers' whole freaking gardens, and they are almost impossible to stop, let alone kill, yada yada yada. Let's see how they hold up with me. I bet they were either planning a strategy to take over my flat or crying their way to my home. Plus, I love the fresh, fragrant scent of mint, and they normally are not available in wet markets.

I was so nervous that the mint was gonna be dead the moment it arrived my home, I literally looked at it every few minutes, giving it lots of love. I took care of it according to what the seller told me (water when the soil feels dry, about every other day, give it a bit of sun tan every day)...and surprise surprise! It looked like it was dying the day after. HAHA! Sous chef came to the rescue...by giving it more love than one can imagine. The plant was being fed the leftover water we use to wash rice, egg shells, the sun tanning sessions were strictly supervised, the dying leaves were trimmed, and it now has a cute, adorable, Hong Kong nickname, mint jai. It is now a he.

The lack of space I mentioned earlier is true...mint jai is experiencing it first hand. He is pretty much a nomad mint. It doesn't have its own space. On the TV stand near the window? or the dining table next to the laptop? too much radiation. In the kitchen near the stove? Too hot. On the sofa? People sit there. So, poor mint jai shuffles from one place to another, depending on which activity is being carried out at home. When there's no cooking going, he stays in the kitchen by the stove. Otherwise, he has to move to the tiny side table near the window, unless if there's a food blog photo shoot, then he has to move to the dining table, and so on, and so forth.

Our love is not purely unconditional though (hehe, we are selfish bitches after all). We expect mint jai to give us minty fresh leaves for our culinary experiments and gastronomical enjoyment. Here's one:

Lamb in Creamy Coconut Milk and Mint

Recipe
- 1.5 lbs thinly sliced lamb (for sukiyaki)
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2 cloves shallot, thinly sliced
- 5 cm ginger, crushed
- 1/2 cup mint leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground corriander seed
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 1 cup coconut milk
- a bit of water, a bit of olive oil
Saute shallot and ginger in a bit of olive oil, add garlic, add lamb, ground cumin, ground corriander seed, salt, sugar, white pepper, add a bit of water, bring to boil, cook until the meat pieces are cooked through, add coconut milk, mix well until heated through, add fresh mint leaves, mix a little, turn heat off. Serve with more fresh mint leaves.

Submitting this recipe to Grow Your Own, hosted this time by Rachel of the Crispy Cook

Hmm, I could probably buy more plants and hang them out my window. But with the risk of killing a passerby, probably not. :p