Author Archive for Suanne

Oat Bran Carrot Muffin

Caring Place Community Kitchen kicked start the first meeting for the fall season of 2008.  Minoo made a healthy muffin in the Caring Place Community Kitchen.

Minoo prepared a list of pictured references of common kitchen utensils, unit of measurements for kitchen use, some common ingredients and a how to list for the Caring Place Community Kitchen participants.  In this particular kitchen, there are more new comers from mainland China and Taiwan who are not familiar with the terminology used in cooking.  This pictured references will help them to identify the ingredients better and familiarize with kitchen terminology.  Minoo puts a lot of effort in improving the community kitchens and she’s a good leader.

Minoo also briefly covered the objective of the community kitchens which are:

• introduce healthy and economical recipes
• promote sharing in terms of work load, cost of food and culture
• promote team work

Minoo told us that the community kitchens are funded by the Coastal Health Canada and United Way through the Family Services of Canada.

The Oat Bran Carrot Muffin is great as an after school snack and also great for lunch box.  It’s a great way to get fussy kids to eat their vegetables.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups oat bran
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cups milk (skim or soured)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• a teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 cup grated carrots
• 1 tablespoon ground flax seed (optional)
• 1 handful of raisin (optional)

Click on the link below for the instructions.

Popularity: 68% [?]

Crispy Candy

Look what I found in one of the groceries store in China town.  It’s one of my childhood candy which I had not eaten for a long, long time.

This candy is called Crispy Candy.  It costs 1.39 for this bag.

I’m not sure of the origin of the candy but it’s wrapper has some kind of Japanese or Korean like prints on it.

The Crispy Candy has a thin outer layer of hard candy and an inner core which has a ‘flaky’ texture.  The inner core actually tastes a bit nutty although there is no nuts in the components.  Perhaps it’s the spice that gives the nutty flavour.

The way to eat this candy is to allow the outer layer melts in your mouth.  Do not bite on the candy as it will sticks to your teeth.  Once the outer layer dissolved, the inner core will crumble in your mouth.

Here is the nutrition facts of the Crispy Candy.  Give it a try if you happen to come across it and you may like it as I do.

Popularity: 56% [?]

Steamed Pandan Cake

One of chowtimes reader asked for the recipe of steamed pandan cake and I decided to try to make some adjustments to the Chinese Sponge Cake recipe to incorporate the pandan flavour.

The steamed pandan cake smells great and Arkensen commented that it smells like the Layer Cake which also has pandan element in it.

The only thing is that the bottom part of the cake is more densed than the top part.  Do you have any idea why?

Here is the ingredients adjustment I made to the Chinese Sponge Cake:

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup flour (substituted with 1 cup less 2 tablespoons flour plus 2 tablespoons of milk powder)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon almond extract (substitute with pandan essence)
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk (substituted with pandan juice)
• 4 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted

The pandan leaves (also known as screwpine leaves) can be found in Filipino stores.  I got mine from Great One Supermarket in Richmond.  I’m sure you can find it in Chinatown too.

I’m not sure if we can find the pandan essence here in Vancouver as I got mine from Malaysia.  The pandan essense is optional as the pandan juice itself is very fragrant.

To extract the pandan juice, cut up the pandan leaves into 1 inch piece and blend them with water.  You then sieve the juice from the pulp.

Popularity: 100% [?]

Fried Banana Fritter (Kuih Kodok)

Fried Banana Fritter or Kuih Kodok in Malay is a common street food in Malaysia. I had not eaten this for 9 years since I immigrated to Canada. I missed it so much that I decided to make it at home despite that I do not like deep frying in my kitchen.

The Fried Banana Fritter is soft and sweet and full of banana flavour.  It is best eaten warm.  I got the recipe from Kuali but made some adjustment to it as I find that the recipe in Kuali has too much salt in it which makes the banana fritter more savory than sweet.  I prefer it to be sweet.

Ingredients

• 150g (net weight) ripe bananas (about 1 large banana)
• a pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 5 tablespoons self-rising flour
• 1 tablespoon rice flour
• 1 tablespoon Quaker oats (I subtitituted with 1 ground flax seed)
• a pinch of baking soda

Click on the link below for the instructions.

Popularity: 70% [?]

Pork Liver Soup

This is a small interruption to the Washington DC travel series as Ben is away at Chicago right now.  Here is a simple soup recipe which Ben enjoys which I like to share with you.

It’s Pork Liver Soup.  I had a lot of this soup during my confinement as it has lots of ginger in it.

Ingredients

• big knob of ginger
• pork liver
• chinese cooking wine
• ground white pepper
• salt to taste
• soy sauce to taste
• sesame oil

Click on the link below for the instructions.

Popularity: 66% [?]

Kona Mocha Blended Ice Coffee Mix

Summer is the time to enjoy a cup of iced coffee. My kids’ favourite is Tim Horton’s Iced Capp Supreme. However, I would prefer a McD’s ice coffee simply for the lesser calories. Here is a comparison of nutritional value for a small serving of both of them:

Tim Horton’s Iced Capp Supreme
Calories: 250
Fat: 11g
Saturated fat: 6g
Trans fat: 0.4g
Cholesterol: 45mg
Sodium: 50mg
Sugar: 33g

McDonald’s Iced Coffee
Calories: 110g
Fat: 6g
Saturated fat: 3.5g
Trans fat: 0.2g
Cholesterol: 20mg
Sodium: 35mg
Sugar: 15g

We bought this Kona Mocha Blended Iced Coffee Mix from Costco for about $8. It has become one of Nanzaro’s favourite home made drink in summer.

This is a fairly good iced blended coffee which has the creaminess that resembles Tim Horton’s Iced Capp.

Comparatively, it’s nutritional values is between McD’s Iced Coffee and Tim Horton’s Iced Capp Supreme.  The only thing I’m concerned about this product is the sodium is quite high, not good for people with hyper tension.

Making the Kona Mocha Blended Ice Coffee is simple.  You just need a blender, some ice and milk.

Nanzaro will always volunteer to make it as he always gets a cup for himself and share the other cup with his brother or father and leave the clean up for me :-(.

Here is the finished product, a creamy ice coffee for a hot summer day.  You can make 17 servings of 473ml blender drinks from the tin of 1.36kg (48oz) of Kona Mocha Blended Ice Coffee Mix.  That average to 25cents per cup serving, way much cheaper than Tim Horton’s small Iced Capp ($2.49)or McD’s small Iced Coffee ($1.39).

Popularity: 23% [?]