Pear and Sea Coconut Dessert Soup

Happy New Year, everybody!  I just watched the amazing fireworks display at the Roof Garden lounge in the service apartment where I am staying in Hong Kong.  It is on 42th floor. The weather was good and the sky was very clear.  I arrived at the lounge at 11:30 p.m.  I was lucky I got the best position and stood in the second row.  Many hotel residents had gathered on the roof at around 11:45 p.m.  

As the magic moment approached, we shouted ‘Three, two, one!”  Then firework shot up over the harbor, lighting up the sky in bright colors as we cheered and took photos and videos.  The display, which lasted 10 minutes instead of the normal eight, featured patterns including six interlocking stars and butterflies.  We clapped hands and wished each other “Happy New Year” at the end of the show. The atmosphere was fantastic. 

I bought some local ingredients from a grocer in Sheung Wan.  I made this dessert soup on New Year Eve.  Dessert soup, which is called tong shu in Cantonese, is a traditional Chinese dessert.  It consists of sweet and hot soup. The Chinese always believe tong shu is good to health especially in dry and cold season.   Let's have a bowl of dessert soup in the beginning of Year 2017! It's so sweet throughout the year! All the best!

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Serve: 2

Ingredients:

n  40g dried longan (cleaned)

n  2 pears (peeled, unseeded and sliced)

n  3 sea coconuts (sliced)     

n  15-20g rock sugar

n  1000 ml water

Method:

1.	Boil water in a small pot over medium heat.
2.	Add longan, pear and sea coconuts in the pot and simmer for 30 minutes.
3.	Toss in the rock sugar and simmer for 10 minutes.  If you like more sweet, you add more rock sugar as necessary.
4.	Ready to serve.

Coconut Red Bean Pudding

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Serve: 2

Ingredients:

Ø  150g coconut milk

Ø  110g cooked red bean

Ø  50g water

Ø  50g skimmed milk

Ø  10g gelatin powder

Ø  2 tbsp sugar

Method:

1.	Put coconut milk and skimmed milk in a small stove top pot or small saucepan over medium-low heat.  Heat the milk and stir it continuously to avoid solids sticking to the bottom and burning.
2.	Add 5g gelatin and 1 tbsp sugar into the warm milk and stir the mixture well to dissolve the gelatin.
3.	Pour the mixture into the moulds.  Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours until it is set.
4.	Place the cooked red bean and boiling water into a small saucepan over low heat.  Add 1tbsp sugar and 5g gelatin powder and stir well. Set aside and let it cool down.
5.	Once the milk mixture has set, pour over half the cooled red bean layer.  Chill for a further 3 hours.
6.	Turn out the pudding onto a plate (you may have to give a little jiggle to dislodge pudding) and serve.  Garnish with a halved strawberry.

Matcha (Green Tea) panna cotta

https://mamaleeblog.wordpress.com/2016/06/06/matcha-green-tea-panna-cotta/

I am a fan of matcha for nearly 25 years.  I firstly had matcha ice-cream when I had visited Japan in 1991.  Then I tried matcha cake, tea, mochi and so on.  A few years later, I read some articles about matcha and love it more and more. 

Matcha is a stone-ground powdered green tea used in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies.  It is made from ground up whole tea leaves.  It contains three times more of the catechins than other kinds of standard green tea.  Besides, it is rich in antioxidants which help fight against cancer and heart disease.  The taste of matcha is strong; some of my friends describe it as grass or spinach-like.  The taste of high quality matcha is smooth and mellow, and not at all bitter.  A high quality matcha should have a bright green colour.  I always buy those which come from Japan.  Recently, one of my friends gives me a pack of matcha powder after visiting Tokyo and I think of making matcha panna cotta.

Matcha (Green Tea) panna cotta

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Chilling time: 4 hours

Serve: 4

Ingredients:

l   350g fresh milk

l   150g single cream

l   45g sugar

l   3 tsp matcha powder

l   100g hot water

l   10g gelatine powder

Red bean paste

l   50g red beans

l   3 tsp brown sugar

l   800g water

Method:

1.	For the matcha powder mixture: In a large bowl, mix matcha powder with hot water thoroughly.  Then add gelatin powder into the bowl and stir well until the gelatin powder is totally dissolved.  Set aside.
2.	In a non-stick pot, mix milk, cream and sugar.  Stir thoroughly.
3.	Put the pot over low heat, use a wooden spoon to stir the milk mixture until the sugar is totally dissolved.
4.	Add the ready-made milk mixture into the bowl and mix well with the matcha powder mixture.  Then drain the mixture through a fine sieve.  Stir well.
5.	Meanwhile, pour the mixture into the moulds.  Let them cool down and chill in the fridge for 4 hours.
6.	For the red bean paste: clean and soak the red beans in a bowl of water at least 3 hours.  Then boil the red beans in a small saucepan for 30 minutes until it is a bit soft.  Place the beans in a bowl and mix with brown sugar until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the red bean paste on the top of the panna cotta.