Anmitsu - Japanese dessert

Dear bed,

You're so warm and toasty, and I almost wish you weren't this comfy making it so hard for me to get up in the morning.

Dear rain,
Please can you re-think your forecasted long stay this week?

Dear pizza delivery boy,

Please don't deliver anymore pizzas to my place. *burp*

Dear treadmill,

You make me sweaty and my heart beat faster than anything else. And you challenge me like no-one does. That's why I like you. 

Dear friend,

Thank you for your 'surprise'. Now I can watch Ugly Betty and The Mentalist whenever I want!

Dear poodle in cooking with dog,
Your hair is slightly wonky at times but I admire your patience and self control whilst your owner is cooking.

Dear Australian winter,

Your baldness (on trees) is starting to appeal to me. I also like how I can turn up my heater and eat summertime desserts when you're around too. 

Have you seen the youtube cooking videos: cooking with dog? 

I've been a fan for a while now. Not just because I am fascinated by a sleepy poodle who sits by the stove like a rock, but I adore all the mouth-watering Japanese dishes featured on this channel.

So remember how I was sick a few weeks back? I watched the clip for Fruit Cream Anmitsu then and it immediately took me back to my unforgettable Japan trip (where I had anmitsu every single day) and I wanted to recover from the flu faster than anything else. (Talk about the most effective 'medication'!)

Anmitsu is a popular Japanese dessert made of small cubes of agar agar in a brown sugar syrup. It is also served with sweetened red bean paste, pieces of gyuhi (mochi-like sweets) and a scoop of ice-cream. Oh and decorated with seasonal fruits too. Yummo!

Ok, wanna see how it's made?

First you'll need to make some agar agar. Not flavoured or sweetened. Simple as!

Then dice them up into dainty fine cubes...so translucent that it's almost like they're invisible!

To make the kuromitsu (Japanese sugar syrup) to go with the agar agar, you'll need to melt some dark brown or muscovado sugar with corn syrup.

Pour it onto the agar agar...

To make the gyuhi (which is a type of traditional Japanese mochi), get some glutinous rice flour in either powdered form or granules...

...add a bit water to the rice flour and heat it up and eventually you'll get something like this...

To prevent the glutinous rice flour mixture sticking to everything else, you'll need to dust some potato starch all over!

Then you make some anko - sweet red bean paste (just because red beans and green tea ice-cream are a match made in heaven!) If you don't have time, just buy them canned (sweetened) at your local Asian grocery store. Recipe (or rather, another youtube video with the poodle) for anko can be found here.

Then it's just a matter of slicing up the oranges wedges and strawberries...and adding a scoop of the green tea ice-cream! You might want to use an ice-cream scoop for this. Sadly I don't own one. I wonder why? Definitely not because I eat ice-cream out of the box! How unladylike!

If you generally love Japanese desserts and can never get enough of the red bean and matcha (green tea) combination, I think you might totally adore this...even on a cold winter's day :)

Fruit Cream Anmitsu

From Cooking with Dog

Serves 3

• 4g/0.141 oz Agar Powder
• 500ml Water (2.11 us cup)
• 1 tbsp Mizuame - Thick Starch Syrup (I used light corn syrup)
• 100g Kurozato - Muscovado or Unrefined Brown Sugar (3.53 oz)
• 70ml Water (2.37 fl oz)
• 30g Shiratamako - Glutinous Rice Flour (1.06 oz)
• 50g Sugar (1.76 oz)
• 60ml Water
• Potato Starch
• 3 Strawberries
• 3 Navel Orange wedges
• 3 tbsp Anko - Sweet Red Bean Paste (buy canned or recipe here.)
• 3 scoops of Matcha Ice Cream (I bought mine but you can make it using this recipe)
• 20-30 Boiled Aka Endomame - Red Endo Beans (I omitted this).

The simple instructions for the recipe can be found from the linked videos! :)

Watch them! They're kinda...cute?! 

Might also make you want to get a dog to cook with too!

Have a blessed week ahead :)

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Black Sesame Agar Agar + winners of Baker's Delight challenge

[Scroll to the bottom of the post to see if you're the winner of the Baker's Delight Challenge!]

This week I am learning to surrender. 

The relinquishment of one's own will, says wiki. 

What exactly am I surrendering? Well, a dream of mine. Although small - it does mean something to me. A dream that is almost within an arm's reach.

But circumstances change in our lives, and most of the time with little notice. So you try to be mature about it. You wrestle with the decisions in your head over and over. Then you step back. If you don't let go your hold on it, how can you know what else God has planned for you?

So here I am.  I am trying to be patient and I am waiting. I am also a bit scared of the unknown. 

Thankfully the thought that this joyous time of the year is upon us (9 more sleeps 'til Christmas - I kid you not!) just makes everything a little better. The sun came out for me this morning... Did that 'mean' person from work just smiled at me? Oh why, doesn't my hair look fashionably messy today? And how could I have made this black sesame agar agar look rather...well, presentable? ;)

Truth be told, I haven't been able to do any Christmas cooking/baking! But I have definitely enjoyed reading soo many wonderful posts from all over the world. This agar agar was made just because I happened to have the ingredients available. It may look like black sesame panna cotta, but the texture is completely different! Do not expect some smooth, velvety kind of pudding. The agar agar makes it rather 'chewable' if you know what I mean. It's almost like eating a banana that's black sesame flavoured. That sounds weird, doesn't it? But if you're a black sesame fan like I am, you'll be addicted and have one after another....

Black Sesame Agar Agar

Makes around 4

• 3 tbsp sweetened black sesame paste (I used 3 tbsp of black sesame powder instead)
• ~2 tbsp sugar (omit this if you're using the paste. Adjust the sugar according to your personal taste.)
• 100ml cream
• 400ml milk
• 1 tsp agar agar powder
• (optional) - whipping cream
• (optional) - brown sugar syrup

1. In a bowl, add in the sesame paste and slowly pour in the cream and mix until combined. If using black sesame powder as I did, combine with the sugar first before blending in with the cream.

2. In a pot, add the milk and agar agar powder. Let sit for a few minutes and begin heating it up on a stove on low/medium heat until it boils. Take the pot off the stove.

3. Pour the black sesame cream paste from step 1 into the pot with the hot milk and mix to combine.

4. Let the pot sit in a bath of ice cold water and to cool down before pouring into the pudding molds.  Place into the fridge until set.

5. To serve - whip up some cream and pour some brown sugar syrup over the top.

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Baker's Delight Challenge Winners!

Sorry for the long wait - but here are the randomly picked winners of the Baker's Delight challenge:

grub

Duong

Angela

deb

LimeCake

Congrats people! I will be sending you an e-mail soon.

Angela - I do not have your details so you will have to shoot me an e-mail!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

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Layered Fruit Agar Agar

Have you ever woken up with the thought

"Omgosh, please tell me I didn't do that yesterday...that it was only a dream, right?"

I did. This morning actually.

Yesterday was the last day of my first full-time job. It's been 3 years. So I did the ugly cry in front of the now ex-colleagues (some looked worried and probably wondered if I'd lost it). I had envisioned that would happen hours before the actual incident. They call it the self-fulfilling prophesy. I call it overactive tear ducts.

But the good news is...I'm about to jet-off and start my holiday now so I can pretend I have a short term memory loss. It's a between-job holiday. Or just an unemployment stint.

I will leave with you the simple recipe for the fruit layered agar agar in the meantime.

And see - I told you I was going to incorporate agar agar into my everyday diet!

Fruit layered agar agar

• Fruits of your choice (try not to use kiwifruit, pineapple and papaya as they have enzymes which may prevent the agar from setting).
• 4 cups water (or you can use juice - I'd probably use lychee or apple juice next time!)
• Honey (to taste)
• 2 tsp agar agar powder

1. Bring the water with the agar agar powder and honey to boil.

2. Pour a thin layer of liquid from the above step to your container of choice before layering the first layer of fruit (in my case strawberries)

3. Once you add the first layer of fruit, pour another layer of the agar agar liquid on top - let it sit for around 2-3 minutes before you layer on second fruit of choice.

4. When done with the layering, place the container into the fridge for around 2 hours!

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Coconut, Red bean and Matcha Agar Agar

Let's talk healthy (or heathier) today.

So you've just had dinner...and it is now time of the night when you scour the kitchen for desserts. So what do you find? Ice-cream, chocolate (with sea-salt!), or cakes? No? C'mon, I can't be the only one!

Ever since my recent over-indulgence in Japan, I've been thinking a lot about low fat desserts. Is that even possible?!

Then I magically found agar agar (kanten in Japanese) in my pantry.

You know what's so lovely about this stuff?

It is made of approximately 80% fibre and as you digest, it increases in volume in your stomach by absorbing the water...which means, you'll be fuller quicker than ever!

Oh and you know what else I love about it? Unlike your usual gelatin, it is all-vegetable (extracted from seaweed) and completely odourless! Thank goodness. Is it just me or does gelatin smell really bad when you boil it?

Many sites I have came across boast that agar agar is completely fat-free, has 0 calories and 0 sugar and carbs. While I don't know how accurate these sources are, I'd say it has been a great replacement to my usual ice-cream lately!

I have tested with one of my favourite food combinations...

Matcha and red beans with coconut....in 2 different versions.

Oy, isn't variety the spice of life?

This is probably the easiest dessert recipe you'll ever find. All you need to know is...

...for every 1 cup of liquid, add 1/2 tsp of agar powder. Really. That's all. The rest, taste as you go along.

Coconut, Red bean and Matcha Agar Agar - Version #1

Coconut layer

• I tbsp demerara sugar (depending on how you like it)
• 1 cup low-fat coconut milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp agar agar

Red Bean layer

• 1 tblsp demerara sugar
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup (or more depending on preference) cooked red bean (boil in water for 45 mins)
• 1 tsp agar agar powder

Matcha layer

• 1-2 tsp matcha powder
• 2 tblsp condensed milk (ok, this isn't healthy stuff I know)
• 1/2 tsp agar agar powder
• 1 cup low-fat milk

1. Pour the coconut milk and water into a saucepan and add the agar agar powder. Let rest for 10 minutes.

2. Add in the sugar and bring the liquid to boil.

3. Once sugar has dissolved, pour the liquid into your preferred container. It should set within 20 minutes.

4. Pour on another layes once the previous layer is about to set. Then refrigerate for 2 hours.

Follow the above methods for the other layers...

Note: with the red bean layer, before you pour the red bean onto the coconut layer, maybe sure you pour a small layer of the liquid first then wait for a few minutes before placing the beans and pouring the rest of the liquid over it. This will ensure that the layers stick together better.

Coconut, Red bean and Matcha Agar Agar - Version #2

This version uses exactly the same ingredients as the above step minus the 2 cups of water with the red beans. I just combined the coconut water with the red beans and omitted one layer.

I also used a different type of green tea (you can obviously see the beautiful vibrant green in this second version. Make sure you use fresh and good quality green tea (matcha) powder. It makes a whole lot of difference. The one I used in the first version was about to expire!


I've now a list of other flavour combinations that I can't wait to try.

Imagine lycee with rasperberries... rosewater with pomegranates...

Go on, give agar agar a chance....

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