Thursday, December 23, 2010

Koren dessert - 식혜 (Shikhye)

Thanks to Maangchi again before I'm making this korean dessert. Well, this is quite easy to make but is REALLY REALLY time consuming. So be really patient when you're making this dessert o ❤ 

Ingredients:
A package of barley malt powder, 2 cups of rice, 2 cups of sugar, 24-30 cups of water, and pine nuts.

Barley Malt Powder

Directions:
Sink 1 packet of barley malted powder (1 pound) in a large basin with 24-30 cups of water. Let it sit for 2 hours until all the dregs sunk to the bottom of the basin.

  1. Make rice and set it aside.
    Cook rice without a rice cooker: (good experience, try this)
    • Wash 2 cups of short grain rice. Drain and put in a pot with thick bottom.
    • Pour 1.5 cups of water into the pot. Soak it for an hour and close the lid.
    • Bring the pot to a boil over medium heat for 10 minutes.
    • Open the lid and turn the rice over with a rice scoop or spoon.
    • Simmer it over low heat for another 10 minutes! You will have nice fluffy rice!





      This is also one of the Korean snack - nooroongji (burnt rice snack).Told you it's good experience!!!


      • When the mixed liquid of barley malt powder and water is completely separated (it takes about 1.5 hours-2 hours), pour the clear liquid from the top into your rice cooker.
        *tip: if you have leftover clear liquid, save it and keep it in the refrigerator. We are going to use it later.
      • Add 1 cup of sugar and the cooked rice into the rice cooker with the liquid.
      • Stir it and set the rice cooker’s function to “warm” for 4- 5 hours. Be sure not to set it “cook.” (Reason: setting it to “warm” is to ferment the rice so that the cornstarch from the rice converts to sugar. If you boil it, the fermenting process will stop).
      • Throw out the sediments sunk on the bottom of the basin.
      • 4 hours later, check to see if the rice is fermented (* When the rice is fermented, a few grains of rice will float to the top of liquid).
      • Strain the rice and rinse it with cold water. Set it aside in a container. Add a little cold water and keep it in the refrigerator.
      • Transfer the liquid from the rice cooker to a large pot, and add the saved leftover liquid from #3 if you have it.
      • Add 1 cup of sugar and bring to a boil.
      • Remove the foam floating on the top of the boiling liquid.

      • Cool it down and transfer it to a glass jar or bottle and keep in the refrigerator.
      • To eat, serve it cold in a bowl with a scoop of rice from #8. Drop in a few pine nuts, just before serving it.
        * tip: you can add crushed ice made with sikhye liquid. If you like all your rice grains to float, add 1 tbs of sugar and mix it right before serving it.
      Ready to be served ❤



      Eat it COLD ^^

      Happy 'Midwinter' 冬至 to EVERYONE

      The very first 'Midwinter' - 冬至 in Sydney by myself (ALL ALONE  T-T).
      Used to celebrate this day with my family (well, I chose to stay for Christmas in Sydney with my friends this year).

      I remember we (my siblings and I) used to wake up so early on the 'Midwinter' so we could help mum to make glutinous rice ball - 汤圆 (tang yuan). I don't know what kind of soups the other families have, but we LOVE the 'gula melaka' soup! My mum's secret recipe is to boil the 'gula melaka' soup with pandan leaves to make the soup smells good!
      Well, we don't make 'fancy flavours' glutinous rice ball with fillings like red bean, black sesame, peanut etc. All we would make is glutinous rice ball with 'gula melaka' (AGAIN). This is also a hard work ok! We have to chop the 'gula melaka' into small cubes (well, my youngest sister would always take this job. Know why? She could then stealing the 'gula melaka' while chopping =D)

      Really love those days we made the glutinous rice together~~~
      Too bad I couldn't get to eat the home-made glutinous rice ball this year at home with my lovely family... Well NEVER MIND! I could still make my own glutinous rice ball --------- soup only (Of course I don't know how to make the dough!!! There's ready-made glutinous rice ball in the supermarket OK!).

      My soup -----> 'Gula Melaka' + ginger
      Glutinous Rice Ball -----> Black sesame (I always LOVE black sesame)


      AND
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .

      Tadah~

      My glutinous rice ball~


      Yum~ It's the black sesame flavour~


      The 'Midwinter' dinner back home.... (my sister was very "KIND" to tag me to these photos)

      Yummy chicken curry + bread (for dipping). I miss my mum's curry T-T


      Glutinous rice ball with 'Gula Melaka'. Same colour (soup) as mine... OF COURSE!!! Cause I stole my mum's recipe =P

      Monday, December 20, 2010

      Christmas Countdown~

      5 days to Christmas. Have been getting pressies from my boss, colleague and children =)
      I find it interesting that Aussie gives food (mostly chocolate) for Christmas pressie, well, not all though. 
      Ok, some of my pressies.....


      From my boss and colleague

      From boss -----> White wine and chocolate~

      From colleague -----> cookies

      From my kid. Guess what's this? Chocolate? Wine? Candy cane?

      A pressie that is NOT food! It's hand and finger spa set~ I saw this before with my cousin in Singapore. It was quite expensive in Singapore but apparently the material is quite different. I can now do manicure by myself at home!!!

      Sunday, December 19, 2010

      Korean dessert - 마탕

      Had my first attempt making Korean dessert. Thanks to Maangchi for her recipe and demonstration. Her blog is all about cooking Korean food. Lotsa recipes in her blog and the photos of the food make me hungry!!! Have a look if you are interested =)
      Well, I always love to cook, especially making dessert! Read this recipe the other day and looked quite easy... So I decided to try making one! Seriously, this dessert is the easiest I guess! The result of my first attempt ----> PASSED! 
       
      Matang (마탕) - Candied Sweet Potato



      There's actually black sesame in Maangchi's recipe to sprinkle on top of the Matang for decoration but I have no black sesame... Look a bit plain but they are really yummy! The sweet potato pieces look so shiny~~~
      Love it! Will try other recipes when I'm free SOON!

      Saturday, December 18, 2010

      Gold Goast Trip (5th-10th Dec 2010)

      Before I blog about this trip, I would love to thank to the gang (you know who you are) for organising this trip and being such a great group to travel with =)

      The organisers took lotsa time to hunt for great accommodation, hire car and consider everyone's budget. Around a month I think... And here's our trip!!! Yay!

      5th Dec
      Rainy day... First day in Gold Coast. Didn't get to do much thing. Arrived GC around 12pm and waited for the stupid car to come (it's a really budget budget car hire so there's no counter at the airport), all the drivers (Gavin, Jay and Trevor) had to go and get the cars; luckily, it's just 5 minutes from the airport. The rest of us waited in the airport with everyone's stomach grumbling.....
      First lunch in GC was the KFC! I think I must be very hungry... The lunch was SO SUPER DUPER YUMMY! I wonder if the others had the same feelings =P
      Checked into our house... Wow!!! Very nice and big house!!! Sorry for my lousy camera again... but the house was really great!

      Outdoor...

      Lounge and dining area...

      Master bedroom... The bathroom of this room has no DOOR at all. If you sit on the bed or anywhere in the room, you can actually see the person in the bathroom (no matter what the person does--> showering, pee-ing or poo-ing  lol).


      Outdoor again with swimming pool and BBQ pit...

      We did some shopping to stock up some food and alcohol (for alcoholics only =P). 
      First dinner in GC was BBQ, home made pizza (tasted really good!) and cake (of Rina's birthday). Yum~ very full!
      Rest earlier and hopefully it's not raining tomorrow...


      6th Dec
      A few showers today... Well not too bad, at least it wasn't raining the whole day! 
      So SEA WORLD today!!!
      Lotsa things and performances to see! The best performance of the day for me was the DOLPHIN PERFORMANCE! I always love dolphin cause they are really cute! I wish I have a pet dolphin =)
      Seriously, I have no idea how these people trained the dolphin! Well the performance was really good... still I hope those dolphin have their freedom in the sea... No matter how good their lives in the aquarium, sanctuary or whatever... I guess it is the best to be able to swim freely in the sea... the natural home.


      Group photo at the Sea World entrance...


      Sesame street~~~


      These were the audience of the dolphin performance.


      The dolphin's stage of performance...


      7th Dec
      Well, we expected it would be rainy day so it would be PERFECT to get more wet! Very obvious, our destination ----> WET N WILD WATER WORLD!
       Not many photos for this theme park as we stored our things in the locker (well, I bet no one would bring camera to the water???). 

      Group photo at the entrance again...

      Let's get wet!

      Woohoo~ Sexy girls~


      8th Dec
      Sun finally smiled! Yo~~~ It was such a good day to go to the MOVIE WORLD (well we all know most of the rides are very sensitive to rain)! 
      Had really great fun in the theme park! Some of the rides are too scary for me... So DO NOT ask me if I went up the Superman ride! That's too obvious! I will never take that ride seriously! That's too scary ok (don't have a good photo of it to show but it is one of the MUST RIDEs in the theme park)! 

      Tanya and HD joined us today...




      Well, these are not real graves of somebody. Just... you know, the theme park thing.


      Characters of the day~~~


      Wild West Fall~ The photo we bought from the shop. This one is really fun! It's different from the typical one (I won't tell the reason cause it's the secret of this ride! Try it if you go to Movie World next time). Everyone loves this photo because of Arnie's face (Sorry Arnie)! lol


      We wanted to try this! This photo is really nice... But it took so many shots to get the perfect one ok!!! Well, still thanks to Darryl's DSLR and multiple shots of this motion =)


      9th Dec 
      Busy day, as we were going back the next day early morning. DREAMWORLD + WHITE WATER WORLD + BEACH...
      I was glad that the White Water World is connected with the Dreamworld (as Dreamworld's rides are scarier than those in Movie World)! Really really wet today! After White Water World... got wet at the beach again! GC beach is really beautiful! We went there around sunset...

      Dreamworld~


      White Water World~ Everyone was laughing at this photo! Thought they were laughing at Tanya's expression... Stupid Darryl said i was funnier! He said 'At least Tanya was cool. You... tried to act cool but failed! Wakakaka!'. Whatever =.="




      The Beach~


      Big wave~


      I left my footprint and signature on the beach... Proof of my visit to GC~~~






      I think beach is one of the most popular location for dating couples~






      Last but not least... The significant jump~ WE LOVE GOLD COAST!!!


      10th Dec
      Back to Sydney... Very tired! Basically slept the whole day! 


      When I got up the next day, I saw people already discussing about GC on Facebook and all of us missed GC already...Well, hopefully we'll go to GC again sometime~
       *For more GC photos, view my Facebook*  
      Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...