RongHua Ching

Summer is coming, Berry&Berry Daiquiri!!

Drinks, Recipes, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Daiquiri Asianfoodtrail

Raspberry & Strawberry Daiquiri

Cocktail Time!! Timing just about right, needed a drink and with two punnet’s of fresh strawberries it can’t go wrong right…. (sigh) No ice! ;-(

So I was about to bring everything back to its place, when my daughter asked whether I had a stash of frozen fruits in the freezer. Besides cocktails our house likes smoothies, baking and so on, so I always stock on one or two fruit bags on hand. Yowzhaa!!

With the blender going full on I suddenly had a pitcher instead of two servings, but the colour red is attractive to everyone. By the time I walked into the living room to retrieve glasses everyone wanted to have one too, sold! How to make the cocktail as shown, the Berry & Berry Daiquiri mix is in the recipe box here below.

But I do have a handicap when it comes to cocktail making, meaning I can’t make single servings it is mostly two or actually four glasses. It all started years back when I wanted to remake one of my very first then favourite cocktail ‘the grasshopper’, equipped with the ingredients and virgin bottles to open and mix I tried to discover the ultimate ‘cocktail’ recipes. Hard lesson here with ‘sweet’ cocktails if you drink too much or make it too sweet it will be a slap in the face instead.

But like any recipe you need to have measurements and equipment, early days I had none or not much so I used the nearest (even that was way off, either too small, too much and incorrect) look-a-like tools. Trouble, trouble, wavering between endless possibilities the first mixes were none worthy but feeling happier I got bolder in blending tastes and a dash here, combined with an oops there it was bound for a misadventure.

Although at the end of the experiment I believed it certainly tasted better, the morning after I had a painful coconut song clanging between my ears. Figured that it wasn’t the brightest idea to work without good equipment, so over the years I assembled the Bartender tools and equipments list;

  1. Bar Spoon
  2. Bar Towels
  3. Bartender Book
  4. Blender
  5. Bottle Opener
  6. Can Opener or Can Punch
  7. Champagne or Wine Stopper
  8. Citrus Zester / Stripper
  9. Cocktail Muddler
  10. Cocktail Shaker
  1. Cocktail Strainer
  2. Corkscrew / Wine Opener
  3. Ice Bucket and Ice Tongs
  4. Jigger / Measurer
  5. Juicer or Citrus Reamer
  6. Knife and Cutting Board
  7. Measuring Cups and Measuring Spoons
  8. Shoes
  9. Speed Pourers

At a certain moment I did had almost everything, but now it has reduced to the most important items for me, which I regard as an absolute must; the blender, cocktail muddler (for my favourite caipirinha’s & mojito’s), shaker and jiggers and a highly valued ice-crusher which is not listed.

The only pre-mix I have often ready is sugar syrup, this pre-mix has many purposes in my kitchen and drinks. After my first very failed mix attempts the jiggers (measuring cups) were indeed the very first items I purchased after a good Cocktail Shaker, you’ll get it when you think you shake the mix but actually splashing and spilling.

Actually I just like mixes and blends, making more is meant for sharing which makes it only more enjoyable. Let’s blend, crush and pour some more with warm, sunny days laying ahead of us, if you like cocktails join me to start mixing with more cocktails coming up!

Berry & Berry Daiquiri

You will find the ingredients and recipe are here below.

Aubergine stuffed with minced lamb and spices

Food, Recipes, , , , , ,
Greek/Turkish Stuffed Aubergine with minced Lamb and spices
Greek/Turkish Stuffed Aubergine with minced Lamb and spices

Had plans for MaPo DouFu, but the minced meat was Lamb mince, slight adjustment and a dive into the cupboard and fridge to see what else was available. On the left two shiny aubergines, a jar with tiny dried bird’s eye chilli peppers, a quick look in the cupboard with jingling spice bottles. Two bell peppers from the vegetable drawer, asked hubby to snip a big hand of fresh parsley from our potted garden outside. Love Greek and Turkish cuisines and thought it would be a nice surprise after a few days of Asian dishes, with most of the ingredients at home it is easy to fuse flavours and mix with spices. Creating a new dish or cooking a flavour is most of the time not ingenuity but missing an ingredient which forces you to substitute in the hope it fuses and blends all well together. If it does happy faces at the table, if not it will be voted out not to be repeated. Luckily this dish is a keeper, easy to prepare and adapts with all most all vegetables even a spinach version turned out tasty, so go figure.

Aubergine vegetarian version

If you want an aubergine vegetarian version just omit the meat and cook the vegetables or you may add one can of chickpeas instead. After cooking and filling the eggplant shells, you will have more than enough stuffing left over to enjoy the next day either for lunch or dinner.

Variations we like for the next meal as lunch or dinner ideas are:

  • Wrap in a tortilla as a burrito with extra lettuce or with rice.
  • Grill Turkish/Moroccan bread/Ciabatta layer with lettuce and top with eggplant stuffing
  • If you don’t have time to wait and bake the potato, zapp the spud in the microwave on full, cut a cross and pull it open top the eggplant stuffing on top with a dollop of yoghurt.
  • or if you happen to have some hummus, lavash and other dips you can have it as a snack too.

Share the food! Enjoy and send me a photo of your dish 🙂

Huat Kueh 发糕 or Prosperity Cake by Louisiana van Menxel

Baking, Recipes, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

wpid-storageemulated0PicsArtLouisiana-Huat-Kueh_wm.jpg.jpg

A Guest recipe contribution from my Indonesian-Chinese friend and fantastic home Chef Lousiana van Menxel. Both our family moved around the same time to India and she has single-handedly rocked New Delhi with her famous Sate’s and left a lingering Indonesian food impression behind. They were sad to see her leave and I am very happy to enjoy her up close again, a more than welcome opportunity to sample even more of her dishes.

Louisiana shared her recipe of making Huat Kueh 发糕 (Fa Gao aka Fa kueh) or Prosperity Cake. Kue’s are a popular snack in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, (even Vietnamese and Thai dessert versions) as a former colony it is also popular in The Netherlands. What makes it so special is that besides local native specialities you can distinguish many different cultural influences as Chinese and European pastry making methods.

Another indication is language in Chinese-Indonesian culinary culture, mainly through loanwords derived from the Hokkien, Hakka and Cantonese dialects for many snacks and dishes. For example kue is derived from the Hokkien pronunciation ‘kueh’.

Huat Kueh or easier pronounced Prosperity cake, the name originates due to leavening process when the cake produces a bloom that bursts, opening up the top like a flower symbolizing a burst of prosperity.  The prosperity cakes were often used as props in many Lion dances during Chinese New Year’s celebrations or business openings to bring prosperity and good luck.

If not by friends or family food talk, a simple search on the internet will provide an impressive overload on recipes and making methods for Huat Kueh, which also proves how popular this scrumptious little cake is in south-east Asia and in Chinese diaspora’s across the globe.

'Huat Kueh' 发糕 Prosperity Cake

‘Huat Kueh’ 发糕 Prosperity Cake

 

The earliest method of making these cakes comes from the tradition of making Chinese rice wine as was customary in the old days in many farm households, a sustainable life was a survival necessity. Nothing was spoiled and everything has it purpose or re-used, so were the wine lees (sediment after wine is filtered). Wine lees* as well as soy pulp (okara) were fed to the pigs on the farm or the lees were used to be mixed with rice flour into fermentation in making these prosperity cakes, hence the wait for a couple days but it is absolutely worth it.

Fermented rice has many purposes and I have seen the product in plastic containers at the Oriental Supermarket in The Hague on display directly in front when you pass through the entry gates. Worth to note is that in south-east Asia you will often notice the use of Eno* as a substitute for baking powder.

Can’t wait to try my hand with Louisiana’s Huat Kueh, have devoured these on many occasions and now they hopefully will burst as prosperous out of my steam pan soon and yours too 🙂 However if you rather like to just east them, she is happy to make them for you, send me an e-mail request to connect with Louisiana HomeChef.

Terima kasih banyak, Lousiana! ♥ 非常感谢!

Huat Kueh 发糕

Louisiana’s resep asli in Indonesian for English recipe box below;

Bahan:
Mix A:
250 beras
2 sendok air
2 sendok teh ragi/ tape
2 sendok teh gula
Campur semua diamkan 2 hari

Mix B:
300 gr gula
4 gelas air
Di masak dan diamkan dingin

Menggabungkan:
A+ B di mixer di halusin semua baru campur 600 gr tepung beras dan diamkan 9 jam dan baking powder 2 sendok teh.

sebagai langkah terakhir:
Panaskan royang 20 menit
Taruhkan mangkok ke dlm kukus
Taruh ENO 2 sendok
Baru tuangkan kedalam mangkok kukus 20 menit.

Dingin dan Selamat makan

 

Prosperous tray of Huat Kueh

Prosperous tray of Huat Kueh

Note:

  • The Japanese sake rice lees makes a perfect marinade base for meat, vegetable or fish, read this food & wine article by Makiko Itoh. Digesting of brown lees is also good for health especially lowering the risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease according to a PubMed (US National Center for Biotechnology Information) article click to read for more information.
  • Eno (a fast-acting effervescent fruit salts, used as an antacid for upset stomach and reliever of bloating) contains; sodium bicarbonate, citric acid with anhydrous sodium bicarbonate, when it gets mixed with water the bubbles of CO₂ gets produced which relieves gases. The soda neutralizes the acids in the stomach. Hence their tag-line; “Gets to work in 6 seconds”. Available in little 150 gr. jars or 5 gr. sachets  at most Asian shops and supermarkets in The Netherlands and other European countries, however since 2013 it is withdrawn from the UK market. While Eno can be taken  by diabetics, their competitors with alternative fruit salts use sucrose making it unsuitable for diabetics.

Smashed Beetspuds hodge-podge:

Food, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Smashed Beetspuds, hodge-podge

Smashed potatoes with beets, bacon, garlic, onion & fennel seed

After visiting an entertaining seminar I biked home along with a late afternoon sun, but the temperature had dropped to 4°C and I was stone cold by the time I stepped into the house. Time to prep dinner quickly, hot with loads of carbs since everyone was dropping in hungry and on the run for sports night or other social activity.

In the fridge was a packet pre-cooked beets, bacon lardons and we needed a filling so big potatoes or ‘spuds’. A different take on a local Dutch dish “Bieten Stamppot”; Dutch stuff ( ingredients ) + American influence (smashed potatoes) + Chinese cooking (moi) = Smashed Beetspuds! 🙂

Beets are a unique source of phytonutrients called betalains. Betanin and vulgaxanthin are the two best-studied betalains from beets, and both have been shown to provide antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and detoxification support. 

I am actually the only one who loves beets in our house and just telling they are highly nutritious root vegetables doesn’t cut it. You have to be inventive to balance the earthy ‘beets’ flavour into a nutritional and colourful dish. A Wednesday night hodgepodge, everything nice with sugar and spice with just a drop of balsamic vinegar and pinch of fennel seeds.

Instead of a pureé, opted  to ‘smash’ it and just give it a quick mix so it retains structure instead of a red pinkish mash-up. Unfortunately,the photo’s are not supporting my claim, but give the recipe a try I love to hear your comments or even better share your results send me a photo of your plate.

[recipe]

Chicken broccoli easy stir-fry

Chicken Broccoli easy stir-fry recipe

Food, Recipes, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A request from TinYee for “What’s for dinner?”, how about a quick stir-fry tender chicken with broccoli florets flashing out of the wok onto a plate. Let’s not forget to write down the Chicken Broccoli easy stir-fry recipe and post it please :-).

If you’re cooking for a family or friends this is a healthy and tasty dish to serve on the table. Chinese stir-frying and Asian cooking is all about setting up for flash cooking.

Chicken Broccoli stir-fry recipe is an easy budget-friendly dish and a crowd pleaser. All the ingredients can be easily substituted with other meat cuts and greens in season. Pork, lamb, beef (even fish, see note) with vegetables like cauliflower, green beans, Pak Soi or Chinese cabbage. Versatile and ideal to mix vegetables of what is left in the refrigerator and needs to be finished

 

Quick, easy and economic no leftovers of ingredients, whether you cook Chicken Broccoli easy stir-fry for 4 persons or make 4 meals ahead for your weekly meal plan. Start with the preparation, cutting up the ingredients in bite-size pieces. Season the thinly sliced meat quickly set aside. blanch the vegetables and quickly into an ice-bath. Have all other seasoning bottles and jars ready to grab and heat up the wok.

Cut up broccoli florets or other vegetables in equal bite-size pieces. Blanch the vegetables, short and quickly into an ice-bath. This will stop the cooking process. Have all other seasoning bottles and jars ready to grab and heat up the wok.

Chicken broccoli easy stir-fry recipe

Tip:

Check the fridge if other ingrediënts can be chopped into the dish too. This help clearing and finishing into a colourful and healthy cooked meal. When stir-frying always add the hardest/toughest ingredients first and soft ingredients last into the wok.

Another Chinese stir-fry recipe is Flat beans with ground pork and bean sauce or try seafood suggestion Thai Red Curry Mussels Recipe.

Cooking notes:

  • This recipe is suitable to adapt for Keto, Paleo and diabetes diet.
  • For soy sauce gluten free options:
    • soy sauce choose tamari sauce (wheat free) as the closest substitution
    • Bragg liquid amino (purist would say nay because it’s not made with a natural fermentation but chemical process instead)
    • Coconut amino (a healthy soy substitute, made from coconut sap. It has a salty, slightly sweet flavour and is rich and dark in colour)
    • fish sauce (made from fermented fish/seafood although it is different it tastes as good). If there are none dietary restriction I often use both in cooking.
    • home-cook experiment, make your own instead. Will follow up soon with a discovery post.
  • Cooking oil
    • Olive oil use light, extra virgin is too heavy and will carry an after taste.
    • Sesame oil is only used for flavouring at the end, not intended for stir-frying, it burns too quickly and becomes bitter.
    • Coconut oil is mostly used in Keto and Paleo cooking.
  • Chicken seasoning powder in principle should be gluten free or use a vegetable powder as substitute
  • For vegan diet:
    • use fresh tofu
    • dried compressed soy flavour tofu
    • Tempeh (fermented soybeans)
    • Okara, when I make fresh soy milk the leftover soybean pulp is called Okara. Very nutritious and versatile to make pancakes or burgers.
    • Quorn
    • You can also buy a large variety mock soy meat packages at Chinese supermarkets.
  • Instead of meat, you can also substitute with fish fillets too. Coat the pieces in corn flour and fry them first, take out, continue with the recipe and add when almost done.
  • Cornstarch is what I standard use, next tapioca starch and tapioca flour or arrowroot.
  • Mushroom sauce (vegetarian) and oyster sauce are both used as extra flavour seasonings or omit.

 


[recipe]

AMT Seminar 26 March: The new middle class in China – who are they?

Arts and Ideas, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

China Leiden China-gerelateerde lezingen en andere activiteiten aan de Universiteit Leiden

China Leiden
China-gerelateerde lezingen en andere activiteiten aan de Universiteit Leiden

AMT Seminar 26 March: The new middle class in China – who are they?Posted: 24 Mar 2014 08:04 AM PDTTime
15.00-17.00 hrs

Venue
Lipsius Building Room 148
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden

Everyone is welcome!

 

The new middle class in China

The new middle class in China – who are they? What are their dreams? What do they worry about? Can you be happy in a dictatorship? And how about sex?

Journalist and anthropologist Sybilla Claus writes for the Dutch daily newspaper Trouwabout East Asia. She will talk about two special projects she researched in China.

  1. Wherever you look, China is building apartment buildings. In 2020 there will be hundreds of cities with a million inhabitants. But who is living in all those flats? Sybilla Claus lived for a week in Tower XII of a new high-rise complex.
  2. Soul searching: the changing moral landscape.
    a. Chinese citizens are better off economically, and feel emotionally liberated. But can the modern Chinese be happy in a dictatorship?
    b. A sexual revolution is happening in China, of course in Red style. How do citizens find their (erotic) way between the do-nots of censorship?
    c. Chinese are world champions in hard working and making money – but spending it is a different story. Philantrophy and volunteer work are upcoming phenomena.

 

MEARC

 

 

Modern East Asia Research Centre (MEARC)’s mission is to be an international centre of excellence for research on contemporary East Asia. MEARC aims to maximize the impact of East Asia research on stakeholders within and outside academia in the Netherlands and beyond. MEARC funds original research projects, serves as hub for academic and non-academic networks, organizes targeted dissemination events, and offers bespoke executive courses. MEARC’s expertise includes politics and international relations, and deep insight into the socio-cultural and economic dynamics of contemporary East Asia.

 

#asianfoodtrail #AFT #hashtag #asianfoodtrail_com

#hashtag Let’s do it #rightnow

Tech & Gadgets, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

What are hashtags?

According to Urban Dictionary: If you have been on Twitter, you may have seen a “hashtag.” To put it simply, a hashtag is simply a way for people to search for tweets that have a common topic and to begin a conversation. For example, if you search on #LOST (or #Lost or #lost because it’s not case-sensitive), you’ll get a list of tweets related to the TV show. What you won’t get are tweets that say “I lost my wallet yesterday” because “lost” isn’t preceded by the hashtag.

A hash tag is a word or grouped (an unspaced) phrase prefixed with the hash symbol (“#“). These tagged words, phrases are used on social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram) for social networking and appear in sentences or messages as e.g. @Asianfoodtrail #Live #Travel #Food #andmuchmore).

Using the hashtag

Use this symbol “#” makes it easier to filter out messages with the same topic on one specific medium, it does not interchange with other platforms nor does it links to graphics. It is, however, a fun and effective way to highlight topics of daily events and news, aggregating and creating conversations. On Instagram platform it is an absolute must to use #hashtags with a maximum of 30#tags, believe it on average they receive => 3 times as many likes compared to users who only use a few tags instead. Thus proving a very strong correlation between tags and likes.

As a rule of thumb, always search for the “hashtag” you plan on using before you ever use it. You do NOT want to be confronted with a social media disaster to be made painfully aware that a hashtag is hijacked or harmful. Above all avoid overusing the “#” in all your social media messages as made very clear in the video of Tonight Show “#Hashtag” episode with Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake.

#hashtag correctly

Achieve better results with social media by following hashtag etiquette, Hashtags.org has published an overview titled “Etiquette” with a summary of how-to articles explaining hashtags and use in social networking and platforms. Andrew Harasewych owner of Socialize Me has written a “Hashtag how-to guide with infographics“, how to simply remember this guide, be prepared, and #hashtag with confidence. #HaveFun 🙂

Share the #hashtag love
Follow us on #Instagram @Asianfoodtrail_com say hi and send the love with #like join our FB Page @Asianfoodtrail Let’s tweet together @Asianfoodtrail 

Where would we be without the Web?

Market Information, Tech & Gadgets, , , , , , , , , , , ,

world wide web
Do you remember the world without the Web? Well…yah! without digital “cut, copy, paste” writing copies was the only way to multiply text apart from printing but even that you had to do by hand. If you had to look something up, you had to wrestle through encyclopaedia’s to find information, which was not a guarantee for an answer or resolution and a time consuming process.

The digital world in terms of social media has not only widen the possibilities but improved and boosted maintaining global contact, networks up-to-date, collaborating on projects over distance. The Web is what the younger ones of the last two decades can not even phantom to be without, the net has fully ingrained itself in our life.

Happy birthday, World Wide Web! On 25th anniversary, inventor calls for action to ensure freedom online

Last week internet was flooded with articles marking the World Wide Web 25th Anniversary and its inventor calling for a communal decision to protect the web and its users.

“As the world marks the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web today, its inventor is calling on more people to take action this year to keep the online resource open, global, accessible and free of censorship.

British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, who first proposed the Web in March 1989, said in a statement today: “If we want a Web that is truly for everyone, then everyone must play a role in shaping its next 25 years.”  Opening paragraph in the South China Morning Post read the full article by clicking the highlighted title link above.

BBC News mentioned calling for a ‘Magna Carta’ bill of rights to protect its users, click on the links for redirection for article and transcript of his speech before the Knight Foundation igniting the world wide web discussion.

Google Take Action

Add your voice, just click here above and browse the website

Freedom of Speech is a worthy cause and needs our;

Attention, Care, Support and Safeguard the same counts for protecting the Web   “A free and open world depends on a free and open web”

How about you, any thoughts?

AppleBerry Oatmeal bake recipe

Food, Recipes, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Over the weekend I received a request by @Erdbeervogel from Australia on my Pinterest pin for my home-made Apple Blackberry Slice recipe on “What’s for dinner – Home Creations” board. On the Creations bar, you can click on our social media Pinterest icon for a direct link or here.

Keeping my promise to bake and write down the recipe I checked my ingredients and only had frozen strawberries, raspberries left. However, I had a last punnet of fresh cranberries waiting to be used so I substituted these instead for the filling and changed the title to AppleBerry Oatmeal Bake. My photos are not complete while doing the layering I totally forgot to shoot, but the instructions are easy to follow. Apologies for that will upload and add the missing steps with my next bake :).

It seemed more befitting since this base can be filled with any fresh and frozen berries, single or mixed (very nice, especially in the summer), the final bakes always came out right.  So I am adding the recipe for my Cranberry-Orange fruit preserve here according to the featuring photo as shown, which I cooked off the cuff. After preparation, I initially thought it would be too tart but the family and guests were nicely surprised with the end result.

Apple varieties: I used Granny Smith, Braeburn, Cox Orange (autumn harvest), Dutch Golden Reinette (goudreinet), Fuji. But having tried once with a sweet apple berry filling, let’s say it didn’t ignite any spark to repeat again. Grate the apples as last otherwise sprinkle some lemon juice to prevent discolouration.

Serving suggestions: Warm AppleBerry Oatmeal Bake by itself is a treat, for a brunch or dessert you can serve together with vanilla ice-cream, or a dollop of Greek cream (fat) yoghurt to make it special. When cooled down and firmed up nicely, the taste is even better and a light custard sauce or half-whipped cream will go down easily with the crowd.

Note: I stumbled upon the original Slices recipes in Better Homes and Gardens magazine June 2005, a quick bread recipe easy to assemble with cupboard ingredients. Have substituted and experimented with various berries and even adaptation to the flour-oat mixture by adding quinoa and flaxseed recipe variation will follow soon.

[recipe]

Cranberry Orange preserves

Food, Recipes, , , , , , ,

Wanted to make a quick bake with one of my staple frozen berries, I had none in the freezer but I did have a last punnet of fresh cranberries waiting to be used so I started making this ahead.

When you boil the water with sugar and adding the cranberries, you will hear a popping sound just be careful for the splatters do not squash unless you want a smooth variation or turn it into a jam or jelly. I only added one cup of sugar, but depending what you want to do with the final result and taste you can vary between 1-2 cups and add vanilla and/or cinnamon to boost even more flavour. For a Christmas dish, I have added Cointreau liquor to enhance the taste but cranberries and vodka find each other in marriage as well. Since my AppleBerry Oatmeal bake mix already has cinnamon added I choose not to repeat in this Cranberry Orange preserves.

Before I couldn’t tell the difference between jellies, jam and preserves but the secret lie in its appearance apparently:

  • In jelly, the fruit comes in the form of fruit juice.
  • In jam, the fruit comes in the form of fruit pulp or crushed fruit (and is less stiff than jelly as a result).
  • In preserves, the fruit comes in the form of chunks in a syrup or a jam.
  • In compote, whole fruits are cooked in water with sugar and spices. The syrup may be seasoned with vanilla, lemon or orange peel, cinnamon sticks or powder, cloves, ground almonds, grated coconut, candied fruit, or raisins. The compote is served either warm or cold.

So I suppose without adding the flavourings my Cranberry Orange Filling it is a preserve and if I had added the spices it changes into a compote, whad’ya know two preparations in one. I should make it again just to fine tune the recipe, but please share your results so we can make adjustments together for a better fruit filling with multiple purposes.

Note: You might think when tasting the final cranberry orange preserves it is too sour or tart, keep in mind that it combines flavours with the flour oatmeal bake and apples, so do not add more sugar or sweeteners it might be too much for the end result.