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!

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!