It's 2012!!

I know, we should count our blessings... I'm glad that everyone's well and healthy and may they continue to be in 2012!!

2011 has been tough for me, struggling with work, studies, home... not sure if i'm biting off more than I can chew in 2012. Hope that it'll be a great year for me...

Well, I've hosted  few dinner for my close friends during X'mas and was initially apprehensive about sharing the pictures and recipes. But after some consideration, why wouldn't I share when this blog is for me to track my progress..Okie, I'm deifnitely going to share what I've whipped up with you guys!

It was the Winter Solstice and part of our tradition, we had to consume dumplings so my baby and I decided to make ourselves some...

You need:

1. Glutinous Rice Flour
2. Caster sugar
3. pandan leaves
4. Ginger (sliced) + Dark Brown Sugar ( at one's discretion)
5. Grounded peanut

Steps for preparing the dough

1. Mix the glutinous rice flour together with some warm water to form a dough in the following form. The dough must not stick to your hand while working with it.

Steps for preparing the filling

1. mix the grounded peanut and caster sugar in a bowl. Ratio is 2:1
2. leave it aside for later use

Steps for preparing the dumplings

1. take a small amount of dough (the size of your thumb), roll it into a ball before flattening it to a circular disc with diameter of 5cm (1.5 inch)
2. place 1 teaspoon of the grounded peanut filling into the centre and rolling it into a ball as shown in the picture above. Be careful not to mix the filling together with the dough and not to tear the dough as well!

Steps for preparing the Ginger tea

*Some people might not take to the liking of ginger hence, please add the amount of ginger at your discretion.

1. boil a pot of water
2. add in the ginger(sliced) and dark brown sugar to the boiling water turn the heat to low. Once again, bring the content to boil before adding in the pandan leaves.
3. Turn off the heat once it starts boiling and place it aside for later use.

Steps for cooking the dumplings

1.  I prefer to cook the dumplings seperately because the dough will turn brown if cooked with the ginger tea.
2. Bring a pot of water to boil and throw in the dumplings. Only turn off the heat when the dumplings are cooked. (They will raise to the surface when cooked)

Lastly, serve the dumplings with the ginger tea in a bowl!! You can chill it if you want!


Oh, I love tea and here's a clever way to strain your tea leaves if you don't own a tea strainer.

Buy a packet of paper strainer and some satay sticks.

Pierce the stick through the sides of the coffee strainer and voila! Your DIY tea strainer. Enjoy! 

Power Up!

Beginning with the simplest, breakfast.

I don't have great penchant for pancakes. However, it's one of the simplest and fastest breakfast one can whip up.

I bought this from a supermarket and do note that the one which  I've bought is the orginal pancake mix. There's another pancake mix which requires neither eggs nor milk but water. The pancakes made from that batter tend to be dryer and you might need to add slightly bit more of oil to your pan before pouring your mixture in.

Ingredients

• 2 to 3 eggs
• 625ml / 2.5 cups of milk/ 1 packet of flavoured soya milk
• White wings pancake mixture

Well, personally, I prefer adding flavoured soya milk (Honey Dew) to the mixture instead of milk as it adds sweetness and fragrance to the mixture. Give it a try and tell me if you like it.