Mango Shaved Ice! 芒果冰

Description:

Who doesn't love mango shaved ice on a hot summer day? 

Ingredients:

cubed mangoes

condense milk

ice

Mango juice:

1 whole ripe mango, cubed

1/8 cup sugar

1 Tbs lemon juice

Mango juice instructions:

1. Blend the cubed mangoes and pour through a fine filter (to remove the pulp).
2. Boil the mango juice with sugar until the sugar melts. Turn off heat.
3. Add lemon juice.

Instructions:

1. Make a bowl of shaved ice using a machine.
2. Add cubed mangoes on top.
3. Drizzle mango juice and condense milk over the ice.

Suggestions:

You can add a scoop of vanilla or mango ice-cream on top.

If you want creamy shaved ice, instead of freezing water, freeze milk & condense milk mixture (1:1 ratio) to turn into "milk ice." 

Sugar Coated Fruit Sticks

Description:

Mmmm yum! Love the sweet and the sour taste. This recipe should make about 10 full sticks of coated fruit.

Prep Time: 10 mins

Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Cherry tomatoes, strawberries, seedless plum preserves, kiwi, etc

Shishkabob sticks

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Instructions:

1. Prepare the fruits by cutting off the inedible parts. Wash the fruits in saltwater, dry them off, and put them on shishkabob sticks.
2. Boil the water and sugar together until the sugar turns into a golden color. Be careful not to burn the syrup. You can test by dipping a spoon in the syrup and then in cold water. If the sugar hardens immediately, then it's ready.
3. When the syrup is ready, turn the heat to low and then take the fruit sticks and dip into the syrup. Then you can use styrofoam or similar materials to poke the bottom of the sticks so that the coated fruits are not touching a surface, or you can just put them on a oiled cutting board to cool off.

Suggestions:


Seedless Plum Preserves 化核應子
I think these are absolute perfect with tomatoes. Like Romeo & Juliet. You can't enjoy tomatoes without these plum preserves. You can get them packaged like this. Just look for those four Chinese characters. Make sure you get them seedless/pitted.

Egg Custer Pudding 雞蛋布丁

Description:

Ah. The taste of pure bliss. 

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Bottom syrup

1/3 cup boiling water

1/2 teaspoon Knox gelatin powder

4 tablespoon brown sugar

Pudding

6 egg yolks

2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup sugar

1+1/2 cup water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 packages of Knox gelatin powder (14g)

Instructions:

1. To make the dark syrup, mix the gelatin powder with the brown sugar, and then pour it into the boiling water. As soon as they melted, pour them into containers and let it cool.
2. For the pudding, beat the egg yolks in a large bowl.
3. Pour milk and water into a small pot and heat it up. When it becomes warm, stir in the gelatin powder and sugar and mix well.
4. When the liquid comes to a boil, turn it off and then slowly stir it into the egg yolks along with the vanilla extract.
5. Pour the mixture into the cooled syrup and refrigerate until firm.

Suggestions:

For a richer flavor, you can try substituting water and milk with condense milk mix with water or heavy cream. 

Papaya Milk

Description:
I once tried to ask a smoothie place to make this, they just stared at me...

Prep Time: 5 mins

Ingredients:
1 cup cubed, extra ripe papaya
1 cup milk
2 cups of ice cubes
2 Tablespoons sugar

Instructions:

1. Put the papaya into the blender with the milk and blend on medium~high.
   
2. Slowly pour in the sugar.
   
3. Blend until smooth and serve.
   

Suggestions:
Serve immediately after making it, or it will become chunky.

Vanilla Ice Cream
Typically, Taiwanese deserts are not very sweet. You can add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to the papaya milk and it will give it a rich creamy taste!

Tofu Pudding

Description:
Taiwanese tofu pudding is usually eaten cold without ginger as opposed to the Cantonese ones. Since soy milk is now available in most supermarkets, this recipe is as easy as making jello.

Prep Time: 1 mins

Cook Time: 5 mins

Ingredients:
4 cups soy milk
1/2 oz gelatin
2 cup sugar
4 cups water

Instructions:

1. Pour soy milk into a large pot. Mix the gelatin and stir until dissolve.
   
2. Heat up the soy milk on the stove. Stir constantly to prevent a layer on the surface hardening.
3. When soy milk boils, remove from heat. Once it cools, you can place it in the refrigerator.
   
4. In a small pot, pour in the 3/4 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water and heat on low heat until sugar browns. DO NOT STIR.
   
5. Once the sugar starts to brown, remove from heat. Stir in the rest of the sugar and water. Place it back on the stove on low heat and stir constantly. Ta da! You got syrup. You can place this in the refrigerator when it cools.
   
6. You can serve the tofu with syrup, but you can also add red beans, boba, boiled peanuts, etc.
   

Suggestions:

Soybean Pudding Powder
If you are lucky enough to have an oriental market close by, you can check to see if they have the tofu pudding powder. This would replace the gelatin and give a slightly different softness to the tofu pudding. There is also instructions on the back, but I think it's in Chinese.

The instructions goes like this:
1. Mix 1 packet of Soybean Pudding Powder with 2 cups of cold water and mix well
2. Pour 10.5 cups of HOT soymilk into the mix.
3. Wait at least 30 mins for pudding to solidify before serving with syrup

Simple Sweet Eight Treasure Congee

Description:
This is actually a traditional Chinese herbal food eaten to improve health and this recipe will actually make a pretty big pot. It can be served hot or cold. Enjoy.

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 1 ~ 1.5 hrs

Ingredients:
2 cups mixed wild rice
1/4 cup long grain sweet rice
1/4 cup barley
1/8 cup red beans
1/4 cup dried lotus seeds
1/8 cup mung beans
1/8 cup dried longan
1 cup of sugar
*Starch water*

Instructions:

1. Wash all the ingredients (except dried longan)
   
2. Soak all the ingredients (except mung beans, sweet rice, and dried longan) in twice as much water overnight. Keep in the refrigerator. For the first time, you may want to soak them separate so that you can add the ingredients one by one.
   
3. Next day, boil the soaked ingredients in medium heat for one hour. You may want to start with the lotus seeds because they are harder and may take a little longer to cook. And then add the red beans, then the wild rice.
   
4. When the red beans are almost ready, add the mung beans and sweet rice. Continue to boil for another 15 mins, until mung beans and sweet rice are ready.
   
5. If the congee is not thick enough, you can add some starch water.
   
6. Stir in the dried longan.
   
7. Pour the sugar over the surface of the congee and close the lid. Let it sit for another 10 mins or so. This will allow the ingredients to absorb the sugar.
   
8. Serve it hot or you can leave it in the refrigerator over night and serve it cold.
   

Suggestions:
As far as ingredients, you are free to change it up. If you like a certain ingredient more, you can add more, if not, don't add it.

The cook time for different types of beans, seeds etc in this recipes may vary depending on the brands. What you will have to do is test cook all the ingredients (may be a few of each) and boil them to see which ones get soft first, so that next time you will know the order to add the ingredients to the congee.

These are dried lotus seeds. When you buy them from the store, check in between the two halves to make sure that it doesn't contain the germ in the middle (it's greenish in color). It is very bitter.








These are dried longan.

Mochi - Sweet Rice Balls

Description :
The Taiwanese traditional mochi requires pounding cooked sweet rice into dough, and that is just a pain to make. The Japanese style mochi are similar enough and just as delicious. Taiwanese kids love them as well!

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:
1.5 cup sweet rice flour
1.5 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup regular flour
coconut flakes

Stuffing choices:
red bean paste
peanut powder with sugar
black sesame powder with sugar

Instructions:

1. Mix the sweet rice flour with sugar in a large glass bowl
2. Add water to the mixture and mix until it turns into a sticky dough
3. Cover the glass bowl with a moist towel and microwave for 10 mins
4. The dough should turn semi-clear.Let the dough cool
5. Dust your hands with flour and start wrapping the dough over a tablespoon of stuffing
6. Coat each mochi with flour, or coconut flakes, or peanut powder

Suggestions:
To differentiate the different stuffing, you can coat the mochi accordingly, or simply place the mochi on color coded paper. You can even add food coloring to the mochi before cooking to color code them. For example, red mochi is stuffed with red beans, peanut coated mochi is stuffed with peanut powder, coconut coated mochi is stuffed with sesame, etc.

For purchasing ingredients at the Oriental market, it's best to ask for help. Let them know that the ingredients are for making mochi, and they should be able to show you the correct ones, since many of them are labeled in Chinese.

The sweet rice dough hardens overnight, therefore make and eat them right away! It's even fun for the kids to make them!

Sweet Mung Bean Dessert!

Description:
Kids love this desert on a hot summer day! It's not too sweet, and it helps prevent pimples and nose bleeds!

Prep Time: 5 mins

Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:
One package of mung beans washed
1 package of rock sugar

Instructions:

1. Pour the mung beans into a large pot and add water (enough to cover the beans by 1").
2. Boil it for 10 mins and then turn off the heat.
3. With the lid on and stove off, let the mung beans sit in the water for 10 mins.
4. Fill the pot with as much water as you want and then bring to a boil. Turn off the stove as soon as you see the skin of the mung beans cracking open. This is so that you won't over cook it.
5. Add the sugar into the pot and stir it.

Suggestions:
You can eat this desert hot AND cold. In winter time, eat it warm. In the summer, add ice cubes to it.

Rock Sugar
This is the type of sugar that's more preferable in making deserts in Taiwan because it's not as sweet.