Skip to main content

Sticky valentines

I had surely made a batch of brownies with a prinkling of candy hearts and sugar crystals but this day of hearts but I'd rather blog about my housemate's homemade tikoy or Nian Gao or Chinese New Year Cake.

TIkoy's are traditionally given during the Chinese New Year celebration, packaged in red boxes with gold prints it is prepared by slicing it into bite squares, dipping in beaten egg and fried in butter. As a child it is something I look forward to (my mom is half chinese and we get a number of boxes each year) because it's not everyday that we get to fry these soft, chewy and sticky sweet treats but even then I must say that even few bites of these treats can be overwhelming - I blame it on the excess oil which seem to seep in the tikoy no matter how hard I try to pat off with paper towels. Thus a couple of mouthfuls is all I can muster.

This year though I have eaten quite an amount of TIkoy because my roommate's home made version is not dripping in oil but is still sticky sweet and laced with young coconut strips. She could not give me the exact recipe but I guess it is a mixture of: glutinous rice flour, fresh coconut milk, condensed milk and young coconut strips. It was then poured into a deep baking dish and baked until the top is golden while basting the top with more coconut milk.

I hope to get to see how she makes it and get the exact measurements next time. HOpe to get a better picture to show you too because I ate my share before I could take photos

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The most egg-cellent sandwich ever!

Simple ingredients does not mean boring sandwiches! Japanese Egg Sandwich Ingredients: - 3 soft boiled eggs, peeled - 1 1/2 tbsp. mayonnaise - 1/4 tsp Dijon mustard - 2 sliced sandwich bread - 1 cup shredded cabbage (wilted with a pinch of salt) *** optional - salt and pepper to taste how to: - chop 1 egg and combine with mayo, mustard, salt and pepper in a bowl - spread over a bread slice, top with the remaining 2 whole egg - top with wilted cabbage - cover with remaining bread slice pressing slightly to hold the shape. - slice and serve

getting Stuffed!

I my house no leftovers are never wasted - we dress them up or 'reinvent' them into new dishes for the next meal, such is the case when I made these stuffed bell peppers. I had a couple of cups of  leftover rice in the fridge along with a slice of steak and mixed veggie sidings from the steak dinner we had the previous night. I wanted to make it like a java rice but didn't have the turmeric powder needed to color the rice yellow so I used the curry powder I had instead and liked the mild spicyness flavor it gave the rice. Curry Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers ingredients: - 2 large bell peppers - 2 cups of leftover rice - 1 cup cooked sliced meat of your choice - 1 cup cooked mixed veggies - chopped onion and garlic - 1 tsp or more of curry powder how to: - cut the bell pepper in half to make 'cups'  - if you are using the long big ones or if using the round ones have 4 and just cut the tops off, carefully remove the seeds - blanche the bell peppers i...

winner winner chicken dinner!

whenever I don't feel like slaving too much in the kitchen and want something fast and cheap, my go to option is to get a whole Roasted Chicken. Yep, we love our chicken, but you got to admit sometimes store bough roast can be a tad bland and dry. In cases like this I dress it up a bit and throw in some veggies and a sauce to give it more flavor and liven it up. Sweet Chili Chicken Stir Fry ingredients: - half a roasted chicken deboned and the meat cut into strips - 1 cup broccoli florets and stems - 1 medium carrot sliced - 1/2 cup broth or water - 1/2 cup of sweet chili sauce (or more according to your taste) how to: - just toss everything in a work cooking until veggies are crisp tender - best served with hot steamed rice  no more bland and dry chicken! this one is saucy, sweet and spicy like chinese take out