My son loves a variety of fruits, be it sweet or slightly sour. Does that mean he is not picky about fruits? Not really. In fact, he can be outright picky. He clearly likes some (a lot) and dislikes many as well. One particular fruit that is near to the bottom of his preferred list is Chinese pear, especially when served as freshly cuts. He would only take one small bite and give me the standard “Mummy, I’m full” excuse. “Sweet talking” him to try a few more cuts didn’t work, and I have been scratching my head on how to entice him to like Chinese pear until I almost give up and hope for miracle.

Sometimes a better answer lies in approaching a problem indirectly, which brings me to try out this Chinese “osmanthus poached pear” sweet dessert soup. When I made it for the first time, to my surprise, my son finished an entire bowl of the soup including the poached Chinese pear!  He loved the soft and smooth texture of the poached pear just like the softened apple in his favourite apple soup. Don’t you think that kids’ taste bud is so unpredictable? Hmm! So, by thinking laterally, you don’t really need to wait for a miracle to happen. And, I was persistent enough to be answered.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, pear is capable to remove excess body heat, moisten throat and lungs, and help relieves cough and clear phlegm. Hence, you will find poaching or boiling pear soup quite common among Chinese households. But I find it interesting and unique to use dried osmanthus flowers (桂花) in poaching pears as these yellow tiny dried flowers are more commonly used to infuse tea and in making Chinese desserts (such as osmanthus jelly).

I find the overall taste of this sweet dessert soup incredibly fragrant with the infused scent of osmanthus in the poached pears and not overly sweet as well. I was totally enchanted by its sweet floral and apricot scent of osmanthus when sipping the soup. It’s very nutritious and healthy too.  You can serve it warm or chilled. Definitely a perfect choice of “cooling” dessert for this hot weather!

Apart from pear, the use of white fungus and Chinese almonds (both sweet and bitter almonds also known as apricot kernels or seeds) can bring substantial benefits to our body too. White fungus can treat insomnia while Chinese almonds are good in treating cough and phlegm. If you want to know more about Chinese almonds (also known as apricot kernels or seeds) and candied dates, please refer to this post and this post.

I had tried making it using both pot method and slow cooker method (yeah, that’s my cheater method!) as mentioned in my recipe. Both methods worked well for me. Taste-wise, the end result is the same. But I prefer the latter as it is easier and straight forward. So just let your reliable slow cooker do the job while you watch your World Cup worry-free!

>>> Click on PAGE 2 BELOW for osmanthus poached pears recipe…………

Avocado 酪梨 (also known as butter pear 牛油果or alligator pear 鳄梨/) is rich in the antioxidants beta carotene, vitamins C and E, magnesium, potassium and monounsaturated fat which can boost your immune system.

Not only does it bring many health benefits to adults, it is an excellent weaning food for babies too. I introduced this fruit to my son when he got past 1 year old. He enjoys very much the smooth and creamy consistency of the flesh. He does not mind eating just the flesh scooped out from the skin. Among fruits, it’s now one of his favourite.

Unlike a couple of years ago, avocado can now be found in the supermarket throughout the year. Avocado can be used in a variety way, from appetizers, main menu to dessert. It’s common to see it being used in making sushi rolls, sandwiches, bread spread, salad, dip dessert, drink, dip and even in baking (as a substitute for egg).

As for myself, I like to use avocado in my sushi rolls, dessert (avocado with banana dessert as shown in my earlier post), milkshake or drink. Of these, I find avocado drink as the most acceptable way of introducing avocado to people who is new to this fruit. Both my mother in law and hubby have no problem accepting this drink when I first made it for them.

You can easily prepare this simple yet refreshing drink in less than 10 minutes with some basic ingredients and a few simple kitchen tools. The response can be so good that you face the problem of not having enough left for yourself. So you may need to consider doubling the amount. Hurry up and make it today.

Below are some useful tips on how to select and handle avocados:

a)  How to select 

1. Cup the avocado in your hand and feel it gently with your fingers. Don’t squeeze it too hard. Choose avocados that are firm but slightly soft, and then ripen them at home.
2. Color alone may not tell the whole story. Some avocados will turn dark green or black as it ripens, but other varieties retain their light-green skin even when ripe.
3. If you plan to serve the fruit in a few days, stock up on hard, unripened fruit.
4. Avoid fruit with dark blemishes on the skin or feels a bit soft.

 b)  How to store  

1.  Do not store unripened avocados in the refrigerator. After being chilled, they will never ripen properly.

   Once ripe, they can be stored in the refrigerator, unpeeled, for up to 2 weeks.

2. The flesh of the avocado turns dark easily when exposing to the air, so it is important to work quickly with the meat once the avocado is cut.
3. To store cut avocado, sprinkle it with lemon, lime juice or white vinegar and place in an air-tight container in your refrigerator. It can be stored for 1-2 days. If refrigerated avocado turns brown during storage, discard the top layer.
4. When you have an abundance of fresh avocados, consider freezing them. To freeze avocado, puree flesh with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice per 2 avocados, and place in a tightly-closed container with the air removed. Frozen avocado can be kept for 3 to 6 months at 0 degrees F.

Sources:

- Avocado Nutrition Facts – Health Benefits of California Avocado

- Avocado storage and selection

- WHF – Avocado

- Real simple – Avocado

>>> Click on page 2 below for Simple Avocado Drink recipe ……………….

Ever since I started my food blog one and half year ago, I have been starring at the computer more often and for longer duration too. As a consequence, both my short-sighted and astigmatism have deteriorated. Making thing worse is that I also suffered from long-sighted. Admittedly, these are also signs of aging, and hopefully wiser.

Those blurry eyes of mine reminded me of a chrysanthemum and wolfberry tea recipe (菊花枸杞茶) that I had chanced upon quite sometime back. According to Chinese traditional medicine, both ingredients are said to be effective at improving eyesight and treating illness associated with the eyes like blurred vision and dizziness. I had actually made this tea a couple of times before for my family, but stopped doing so as my hubby did not really like it as much as I thought he would. The main reason being, he disliked seeing chrysanthemums floating in the tea. Another picky eater, agreed?

Recently, I made this tea again. This time, however, I carefully filtered all the Chrysanthemums away before adding the wolfberries. And, I added rock sugar to enhance the taste. Otherwise, it can taste quite bland, which is another reason for my hubby’s initial dislike. To my surprise, he drank the whole cup and even asked me to make it more often in future. As for my son, he won’t say no to anything that has wolfberries in it.

This non-caffeinated tea is so easy-to-prepare. The ingredients used are also cheap and can be found easily at any Chinese medical shops/ supermarket. It is highly recommended for those cybraian who stay along in front of a computer, just like me! Drink this tea once or twice a week to improve your visions and clear heatiness of the liver.

A word of caution! While this tea is suitable to all in general, you need to watch out for the following. As chrysanthemum is cool-natured, people who are asthenia (sensation of chill and easily have cold sweat) are not advisable to drink often. For wolfberry, it is not suitable for those having flu, fever, flame and diarrhea.

Note:

a) Wolfberries is used as a general Chinese tonic since ancient times to protect the liver, improve the vision, strenghten weak legs and promote a long life.

b) Chrysanthemum has powerful anti-oxidant. It is used to treat the eyes, blurring, spots in front of the eyes, diminished vision, dizziness and clear heatiness of the liver.

Other reading references :
- What is the benefit of chrysanthemum tea
- The Wolfberry’s health properties
- Chrysantemum tea (Wikipedia)
-Wolfberry (Wikipedia)

Updated on 10 Oct 2009 (Thanks to the kind sharing of Meg Kat from Imperrfections)
An excerpt from Gojiberry.com
“Tibetan Goji berries are not Chinese wolfberries and it is not correct to call the Chinese wolfberry ‘Goji’.
The ancient Tibetan Lycium berry has different energetic qualities than the Chinese wolfberry and is grown in a different country and soil conditions. The nutrient dense energy of the Goji berry has been recognized as having the highest in nutrient content of all the 80 plus varieties of Lycium berries on Earth.”

>>> Click on page 2 below for Chrysanthemum and Wolfberry tea (菊花枸杞茶) recipe …………

Soybean milk (豆水）is a healthy, nutritious,and delicious drink for everyone. It’s also one of my family’s favourite drinks. For convenience, we usually consume those pre-packed ones even though they lack the wholesome freshness in taste. Beggar can’t be choosy, right?

But recently I chanced upon a very informative post written by Dr Leslie Tay of ieatishootipost on how to make tau huay/ tofu fah. Tau huay (soybean curd/豆花) is an end product from the coagulation of soybean milk. I was truly inspired and impressed by the amont of efforts and time he spent experimenting before he finally made his perfect tau huay.  However, going all the way to attempt at making tau huay looks a bit too ambitous for me for the time being. So, I decided to just stop at making soybean milk using Dr Leslie’s easy-to-follow steps. The slide show presentation in his post also helped me to understand better the process. Besides that, I had also added some tips I learnt from Delicious Asian Food who had also made the awesome looking black soybean milk.

There are several key points to take note before making soybean milk:
a)  use a coffee sock/filter to make the squeezing process easier (and less messy if you have space limitation in your kitchen).
b) filter 2 times before cooking and 1 time after cooking to give the soybean milk the extra smoothness.
c) stir the soybean milk constantly during the cooking process so as to avoid burning the milk.
d) bring the soybean milk to boil very slowly.
e) loosen and remove the soya bean skins before cooking. This is to remove the waxy taste.

For a beginner like me, I must admit that it is indeed a very challenging task. Due to lack of experience, I made several silly mistakes in my first attempt. Nevertheless, I stilll managed to produce a smooth and fragrant soybean milk. In fact, it’s the best soybean milk I had tasted so far!

I am someone who is never be discouraged by failures. Practice makes perfect. I always believe that winner is the one who makes the most mistakes. If you read my post carefully before cooking, it will definitely be a POSSIBLE mission for you! I bet if you have tasted your own homemade soybean milk, you will never drink others anymore.

Equipments:
1 large cloth filter/coffee sock (note 6) – refer to photo
2 large cooking pots
1 large colander
1 large wooden spoon
1 large sieve

Ingredients:
500g soybeans (note 1)
2500ml filter water
5-6 pandan leaves/ screwpine leaves (wash and tie in a knob)
Rock sugar (to taste)

Steps:

1. Wash and rinse the beans several times until the water is clean.
2. Put the beans in a large pot, cover with water and soak the beans overnight (at least 10 hours). (note 2)
3. Loosen skins by rubbing with your hands. This is to remove the waxy taste (note 3).
4. Remove/ discard all the skins from the pot with a sieve (note 3).
5. Rinse a few times until the water is clean.
6. Drain the beans with colander.
7. Put the beans in a blender and add water to cover the beans. Blend until a smooth pulp (slurry) is obtained (note 4).
8. Add any remaining water to the slurry.
9. Filter slurry with a coffee sock/cloth filter. Let the milk drain into the cooking pot. Then squeeze till dry (note 5 & 6).
10. As an extra filter, place a sieve over the cooking pot before squeezing the coffee sock/cloth filter in step 9.
11. Before cooking, filter the milk once more to ensure a smooth texture for the end product.
12. Pour the filter soybean milk into a large pot and add pandan/screwpine  leaves.
13. Stir the soybean milk constantly and bring it to a boil very slowly so as to avoid burning the milk.
14. In the meantime, prepare sugar syrup using the rock sugar.
15. Once the soybean milk starts boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for another 10 mins. Discard the foam and pandan/screwpine leaves (note 7).
16. Filter the cooked soybean milk once more to ensure extra smoothness.
17. Add the rock sugar syrup to taste. Served hot or cold.

Notes:

1. The quality of beans is the most important factor in making tasty soybean milk. In this case, it is recommended to use organic soybeans.
2. The beans will expand and absorb a lot of the soaking water. Thus, make sure you use enough water for soaking. As a rule of thumb: approx. 2 times the amount of the beans.
3. Steps (3) and (4) are optionals but I suggest that you do it in your first attempt and see if you can taste the difference.
4. If your blender is not moving smoothly, add extra water. I have to blend the beans in a few batches because my blender is small.
5. It is easier and faster to squeeze the slurry in 2-3 batches.
6. I found that using a coffee sock/ coffee filter helps to speed up the squeezing process. It also reduces the mess in your kitchen basin. I bought mine from a shop selling kitchenware in the wet market.
7. It is important to allow the milk to simmer for 10 minutes after you bring it to a boil if you want to bring out the full flavour and fragrance of the soymilk.
8. This soybean milk is best consumed within 2 days as no preservative is used. Keep the milk in the refrigerator when not consumed.

This is another body cooling and thirst quenching drink I love to boil for my family on hot and heaty days.  The method of preparation is as simple as that for the barley drink recipe which I posted earlier. 

I first learnt about this method from a neighbour. The drink is her family’s all-time favourite. A kid whom she babysat many years ago loved it so much that he even requested her to make extra portions for his family too.  That testimonial inspired me to try it out immediately. As it turned out, the drink was really delicious and equally loved by my family too.

The ingredients are cheap and easily available in the wet market. Because of that, I usually make extras and chilled some in the fridge. Either served warm or chilled, it tase equally good. However, both my hubby and son prefer the chilled version as they find it more refreshing. My son claimed the chilled drink is as good as lemonade. 

I am strongly against giving sugar packed soft gaseous drinks to toddlers. Similarly, for the commercially packed juices and herbal drinks that contaih high level of sugar, artificial coloring and preservative. It will be a great if we parents  can train our kids to love this simple homemade thirst quencher as the healthier choice. This goes for adults too! Do you agree?

Ingredients:
10 water chestnuts 马蹄
4 fresh bamboo canes 竹蔗
2500 ml water
Rock sugar to taste (I used yellow crystal rock sugar 黄晶冰糖)

Methods:

1. Wash, scrub and rinse water chestnuts. Remove skins and soak in the water to avoid discoloration. Use the side of a chopper to slightly pat the water chestnuts.
2. Wash, scrub and rinse bamboo canes. Cut into shorter lengths (about 12cm). Use the side of a chopper or anything hard eg. rolling pin or hand grinder to slightly break the bamboo canes.
3. Bring water to boil. Add in water chestnuts and bamboo canes and bring the water to boil again. Simmer for 1-1½ hours.
4. Discard bamboo canes. Retain water chestnuts for eating as they are crunchy and have natural sweetness.
5. Add rock sugar to taste. Served warm or chilled.

Singapore has been hit by a dry spell since April.  High temperature got many people sick, including members of my family.  The flu bug has been going around town. It started with my hubby, followed by my son, then my mother-in-law (who was here for a short vacation) and finally me (who had not fallen sick for the past 2 years!). During this period, I was drained and in no mood to cook or bake. That goes for photo shooting and writing my post too.

The Chinese believed that fever is caused by the heatiness in our body system. (Too much “yang”!!!) One remedy, besides taking bitter medicine, is to gulp down lots of cooling-effect drinks. One of them is the super-duper barley drink. It is a popular remedy for fever in most Chinese household, one that has been handed down through generations.  Besides its cooling and soothing properties, barley drink has many other medicinal uses as well. It is a good diuretic利尿, and remedy for cough, lack of appetite and recurrent diarrhea in children. However, it is not recommended for nursing mothers as it will suppress lactation. (please refer to this link for futher reading).

When my son was small, he rejected barley drinks. I believe the cause lies in the “slimy” texture of the drink. No matter how hard I tried to “camourflage” it (like diluting the drink or mix it with his milk), he was smart enough to figure out the “trick” and spit it out. I almost gave up until I found this finest pearl barley (see photo). After my son tasted it, he started to fall in love with my barley drink. To my surprise, he even requested for the cooked barleys. If your child is picky with barley drink, give this recipe a try!

p/s:  Stay tuned for another cooling-effect drink in my upcoming post.

Serve: 5-6 cups

Ingredients:

100g uncooked barley (cleaned) – preferably pearl barley (see photo)
4-5 pandan leaves/ screwpine leaves (washed and tied in a knot)
1200 – 1500ml water
Rock sugar to taste  (I used yellow rock sugar 黄晶冰糖)

Methods:

1. Wash and rinse the barleys. Drain and set aside.
2. Bring water to boil. Add in barleys and bring the water to boil again. Simmer until the barleys become semi-soft and the water turns slightly milky. It will take about 40 minutes to 1 hour.
3. Add in pandan leaves to continue simmering for another 10 minutes. Turn off the heat.
4. Drain and discard both the barleys & pandan leaves.
5. Add rock sugar to taste. Serve warm or chilled.

Notes:

1. Cooked barley will make the drink become “slimy” if you didn’t discard them immediately after the simmering. Just retain a small amount if you want to eat them later.
2. You can substitute rock sugar with honey or preserved winter melon (糖冬瓜). Although preserved winter melon can’t be dissolved, it is edible.
3. Pandan leaves will give more flavour to the drink. It can be added at the beginning but overcooking will cause the drink to taste bitter. Thus, it is recommended to add it towards the last 10 minutes.
4. Tying pandan leaves in a knot is to facilitate the removal during cooking.
5. When using pearl barley, it must be rinsed thoroughly with cold water as the fine white dust that adheres to it is most unwholesome. (ref source)

According to Wikipedia, masala chai is a beverage from the Indian subcontinent made by brewing tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs. There is no universal recipe or method used for preparing masala chai. It varies among each household based on their taste and preferences.

I had my first cup of chai latte at an English coffee house many years ago. It was like “love at first sight”. The strong and intense flavour of the mixed spices had produced a warm and soothing effect to my body, making me difficult to resist a second cup. Although I didn’t have this kind of indulgence for quite some time, it has stirred up my interest when I chanced upon a masala chai recipe. When I mentioned this matter to my close friend Mrs R over a casual conversation the next day, she had immediately invited me to her house for a cup of chai! Without a second thought, I happily accepted her kind offer. On that day, she even demonstrated her own method of making chai. Here, I share with you a simple and easy recipe for making masala chai with the courtesy of Mrs R:

Ingredients:
½ cup water
½ cup fresh/ UHT milk
1 piece of fresh ginger
2 cardamoms
2 tsp Indian tea leaves
Sugar (to taste)

Note: My preferred variation: add 1 cinnamon stick (break into pieces) and use a larger piece of fresh ginger.

Methods:
1) Use a rolling pin, pound the ginger and crush the cardamoms.

2) Add water into a small pot/ saucepan and bring it to a boil.
3) Add ingredients in step(1) into the boiling water.
4) After 5 seconds, add in tea leaves.
5) Let it simmer for 1 minute. Then add in milk.

6) Before the milk starts to boil, turn off the heat.
7) Strain the tea and spice residues into a teacup and serve.

Other reading references:
- Chai! Spiced milk tea
- Culinary Teas – Masala chai
- Drink your health with chai tea