Mango Soft Choc Chip Cookies

Ingredients (makes ~72)

560g Plain Flour

9g Bicarbonate of Soda

455g Butter, softened

330g Packed Brown Sugar

100g White Sugar

190g Instant Mango Pudding Mix

4 Eggs

10ML Vanilla Extract

670g Semi-sweet Choc Chips (Nestle is good)

240g Chopped Walnuts (Optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175 degC

2. Sift together flour and baking soda, set aside

3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar

4. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended

5. Stir in the eggs and vanilla extract

6. Blend in the flour mixture

7. Stir in the choc chips (and nuts)

8. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets

9. Bake for 10-12mins. Edges should be golden brown

Honey Snaps

Ingredients (makes ~20)

50g Butter

2 Tablespoons Sugar

3 Tablespoons Honey

1/2 Cup Plain Flour

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Ground Ginger ( 1/4 Teaspoon if you don’t want the taste of ginger to be too strong)

Method

1. Melt butter, sugar and honey together in a saucepan

2. Remove from heat

3. Add flour, baking powder, ginger and stir until mixture is smooth

4. Drop teaspoon lots onto a cold oven tray, leave enough room for the mixture to spread double its size

5. Bake at 180 degC for 10mins or until golden

6. Leave tray for a few minutes to cool before removing the honey snaps to a wire rack (this allows them to harden enough to be moved without breaking)

**Note: The mixture in step 1 hardens really quickly once it has been removed from the heat, especially if you’re in cold temperatures. So, it’s advisable to only do a small batch of 20 at a time.

Enjoy!

xx

Ingredients:
Split green beans (skinned) or Mung Beans
Potato Flour
Pandan Leaves
Rock Sugar
Yu tiao

Step 1a: Preparing the Beans
There are two ways to do this. If you have one of those microwave pots for rice, you may choose to use that. So what you do is, you put the desired amount of beans in. Use your imagination. Visualize how ‘beany’ it would have to be and do what is required. For example, don’t just use 1 cup worth for a huge pot.

- Rinse beans
- Put enough water to cover the beans
- Microwave for 6-7 minutes on high (note: it won’t be fully cooked, so don’t be alarmed)

Step 1b: Preparing the beans
This is the more traditional way of doing it.

- Soak the beans in water for 30 minutes
- Drain water
- Steam for 20 minutes on high heat

(Step 2) While waiting for beans to be a) microwaved or b) steamed:
- Bring a pot of water to boil
- Put in pandan leaves (knot them and make tears along the leaves for more taste)
- Stir in rock sugar (keep adding until the solution is very very sweet to make up for the beans later. A good gauge is the ratio at which you put sugar in your tea, only you double it – assuming you put about 3 packets of sugar in your tea normally)
- Remove the pandan leaves once the desired pandan taste has been achieved

Step 3: Thickening
- Mix potato flour with water in a bowl (easier if you use your finger) – should be about 1 tablespoon per liter of water
- Add mixture into the pot (ensure that it’s completely dissolved and not clumped)
- Keep stirring slowly to avoid clumping
- Add water if it’s too thick and keep boiling if it’s not thick enough

Step 4:
Taste the mixture to ensure that it’s very sweet and is thick enough.

- Turn off the fire
- Stir in the beans
- Then let it sit for a while (approximately 10 minutes)

The heat from the thickened mixture will finish cooking the beans.

Serve
- Stir the mixture and taste
- If it’s not thick enough, boil it a little while stirring continuously

Then when all is good, serve tau suan with yu tiao

So first the ingredients. You will need:

1 Whole chicken
Ginger (minimum of 1.5 handfuls depending on the intensity of ginger)
2 Cloves of Garlic
Chicken Stock (I prefer the powdered version)
Pandan leaves (optional)
Cucumber
Sesame oil
Dark Soya Sauce (make sure it’s not the thickened/caramelized kind)
Table Salt
Parsley
Spring Onions
Pepper
Rice

Step 1: Preparation
- Wash chicken inside out
- Massage chicken with salt
- Peel 1 clove of Garlic and stuff into chicken
- Remove skin from ginger and stuff 1 handful into chicken (ensure that they are about the size of your thumb)
- If possible, tie up opening of chicken so that stuffing stays inside

Step 2: Boiling of Broth
- Bring a pot of water to boil. Ensure that the pot is big enough to contain the chicken
- Add chicken stock in and stir (taste to determine amount – usually about 1 teaspoon per cup of water)
- Once it starts to boil, turn to medium heat and put chicken in
- Leave chicken in for at 30-45 minutes (you have to leave it in longer if you’re using a hot plate or weak electric stove)
- Ensure that water doesn’t boil so that chicken skin would not tear

While waiting and monitoring the chicken…
- Peel the rest of the garlic and blend it (that will be for later as one of the condiments of course)
- Skin the rest of the ginger and you have 2 options

1. You can chop it into very very tiny pieces
2. You can cut them into thumb sizes

This depends on how much you like ginger. You will be mixing the ginger with the rice so if you really hate ginger, I’d suggest option 2 as you’ll be able to remove the ginger.

- Mix sesame oil and dark soya sauce in a bowl (it should be about a 40-60 ratio)
- Slice cucumbers
- Wash pandan leaves and tie them in knots (2-3 leaves should suffice)
- Wash the rice

Step 3: Removal of chicken
- Before removing the chicken, prepare a pot of (ice) cold water
- Remove the chicken and dunk it into the pot of cold water
- Let it sit for a while

While waiting…Cook Rice
- Cook the rice as per normal except use the chicken broth instead of plain water
- Mix in the ginger
- You may throw in one of two pieces of garlic if you wish
- Put the pandan leaves on top

Step 4: Preparing the chicken
- The chicken should be cool enough for you to take it out of the pot of water
- Take out the stuffing from the chicken
- Chop the chicken (I can’t really show you how but to make it easier, chop the chicken in half then start on the legs and wings)
- After doing the necessary chopping, pour the sesame oil-dark soya sauce mixture over it
- Garnish it with cucumbers and parsley

Step 5: The Rice
- After the rice is done, remove the pandan leaves
- Then you have 2 choices

1. Pour in sesame oil and just mix
2. Remove the rice and fry it in a wok or pan in sesame oil

- Then it is ready to be served

Step 6: The Soup
- Mix in pepper and spring onions in the chicken broth
- You may choose to add in carrots, tofu and/or cabbages for taste

Chilli
Don’t bother trying to make your own chilli. It’s really too much work. Instead, go out to the nearest Asian Supermarket or Grocery store and get a bottle.

Serve chicken, rice, chilli and garlic paste.

Enjoy!