Chocolate Flavored Jelly Mooncake

 

Chocolate flavoured jelly mooncake

For this year, I've decided to make my own mooncake and since I love chocolate flavoured food, I want to try making chocolate flavoured jelly mooncake. After making quite a few batches, there are some details to pay attention to in making this mooncake. Castor sugar, agar-agar powder and jelly powder dissolve easily in milk type ingredients. However if you mix the chocolate powder, whipping cream and the powder together, it is difficult to dissolve the chocolate powder and also the agar-agar powder and the jelly powder. So the sequence in mixing these ingredients are very important to achieve smooth textured jelly mooncake. This recipe is also inspired by Little Duck's Kitchen.

Chocolate Flavored Jelly Mooncake
Prep Time: 4 hours
Cooking Time: 10 min
Serving Size: 6 in 8 cm diameter mooncake jelly mould 
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
80 grams of chocolate powder
400 mls of water
80 grams of whipping cream
40 grams of castor sugar
2¼ teaspoons of agar-agar powder
1 teaspoon of Konnyaku jelly powder

1. Mix the castor sugar, agar-agar powder and the jelly powder in a small bowl.

Ingredients for making the jelly mooncake

2. Pour the water and the whipping cream into a pot. Mix it well.
3. Pour the castor sugar, agar-agar powder and jelly powder into the pot as well. Mix it well with the water and whipping cream.
4. When everything is well mixed, pour in the chocolate powder and mix it well. 
5. Once it is well mixed, heat up the solution until it started to boil.
6. Fill up the jelly mould partially. 
7. Add in the oreo whipping cream filling.
8. Fully fill the jelly mould with the solution and chill in the fridge.
9. After chilling for 4 hours, remove the jelly from the mould. 

Chocolate flavoured jelly mooncake

Ratings:

Kev ★★★★☆

Bunny ★★★★☆

Butterfly Pea Flower Jelly Mooncake

Butterfly Pea Flower Jelly Mooncake

  

Kev is fascinated with blue and purplish food. Butterfly pea flower is usually used in colouring the rice in Nasi Kerabu. Butterfly pea flower is said to contain antioxidant which can prevents cancer development. I've developed this recipe with the inspiration of this recipe from Little Duck's Recipe. However i did not put more soya into the skin because Kev said that since the filling contained soya already, it will taste too rich if even the skin contained soya as well. I decided to keep the flavour of the skin plain. Kev said that the combination of taste is good and it looked pretty with the flowers in the jelly.

Butterfly Pea Flower Jelly Mooncake
Prep Time: 4 hours
Cook Time: 10 min
Serving Size: 4 in 8cm diameter mooncake jelly mould
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
550mls of water
40 grams of castor sugar
2 teaspoons of agar-agar powder
1 teaspoon of Konnyaku jelly powder
2 tablespoons of butterfly pea dried flower

1. Soak the butterfly pea flower in the water for 15 minutes.

The ingredients

Soak flower in water

2. Mix the castor sugar, agar-agar powder and jelly powder in a bowl.
3. Drain the water and remove the flower from the solution.

Remove the flower from the water after it turned blue after 15 minutes

4. Distribute the flower on the jelly mould. 

Distribute the flower in the jelly mould after removing it from the water

5. Pour the water into a pot. Mix the castor sugar, agar-agar powder and jelly powder in the pot.
6. After it is well mixed, heat up the mixture until it started to boil.
7. Pour part of the mixture into the mould. 
8. Put the soya filling which contained the egg yolk into the mould.
9. Fill up the mould until it is full.

Pour the mixture into the jelly mould with the soya filling into the mould

10. Chill the mixture which is in the mould in the fridge for 4 hours.
11. Remove the jelly mooncake from the mould.

The pretty butterfly pea flower mooncake

Ratings:

Kev ★★★★☆

Bunny ★★★★☆

Jelly Mooncake Whipping Cream Filling

  For those who likes to have a vanilla milk flavored filling, you can try this recipe. This recipe goes really well with chocolate jelly mooncake. The cookie crumbs are optional. The cookie crumbs do not have to be added when  it is not paired with the chocolate skin. Again, this recipe is modified from Little Duck's Kitchen.

Jelly Mooncake Whipping Cream Filling
Prep Time: 4 hours
Cooking Time: 10 min
Serving Size: 6 in 7.5cm diameter cupcake mould
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
300 mls of water
50 grams of whipping cream
3 pairs of Oreo biscuits with the filling
40 grams of castor sugar
1¼ teaspoon of agar-agar powder
½ teaspoon of Konnyaku jelly powder

1. Remove the oreo fillings from the oreo biscuits. Crush the biscuits into crumbs.

The ingredients

2. Mix the castor sugar, agar-agar powder and the jelly powder together.
3. Pour the water and whipping cream into a pot. Add the oreo fillings into the pot.
4. Add the powder into the pot.
5. Put the biscuit crumbs into the mould, evenly divided in the 6 moulds. (optional)

Crush the Oreo cookies and put it into the moulds

6. Heat up the pot until the liquid starts boiling. Reduce the temperature while pouring the mixture into the mould.

Mix the whipping cream and the water with the powder together. After mixing it, heat up the mixture.

Pour the mixture into the mould

7. Leave the mould into the fridge for 4 hours.
8. Remove the whipping cream filling using a toothpick.

Cookie crumb whipping cream filling

Ratings:

Kev ★★★★☆

Bunny ★★★★☆

Jelly Mooncake Soya Filling

  During one of the charity sale, Kev bought a soya flavored mooncake and we enjoyed it a lot. So when I saw that Little Duck's Kitchen made soya filling for her jelly mooncake, I know I just have to try it out. The thing about soy milk is that the powder mixture which made up of castor sugar, agar-agar powder and jelly powder tend to dissolve quite quickly in milk based liquid. So even without heating up the soya mixture, the powder will get dissolved in it easily. After the liquid boiled, milk based liquid will get solidify really fast, so it is important to have quick hands to pour it into the mould just before it gets harden. Once it starts to bubble (boils) you can start pouring the liquid into the mould while lowering down the heat. You do not need to turn off the heat as when the temperature is low, the liquid will hardens even faster. The usual ratio of 1:1 of agar-agar powder and jelly powder doesn't really work for milk based liquid either as it will become mushy and too soft to maintain its shape. Usually for milk based liquid, you will need a higher ratio of agar-agar to jelly powder.

Jelly Mooncake Soya Filling

Prep Time: 4 hours

Cooking Time: 10 min

Serving Size: 4 in 7cm diameter cupcake mould

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

150 mls of soy milk

150 mls of water

25 grams of castor sugar

1½ teaspoon of agar-agar powder

1 teaspoon of Konnyaku jelly powder

1. Mix the castor sugar, agar-agar powder and the jelly powder together.

The ingredients

2. Pour the soy milk and water into a pot.

3. Pour the powder mixture into the pot and mix well.

4. Heat up the mixture until it boils. Lower down the heat but do not turn off the heat. 

5. Fill up half of the mould with the mixture. Put 1 egg yolk (can be either the orange flavored egg yolk or the carrot flavored egg yolk) into each mould.

6. Fill the rest of the mould fully.

After filling up the mould with the soya jelly and also the egg yolks

7. Chill the mixture and mould in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

8. Remove the jelly from the mould using a toothpick.

The soya filling finally with egg yolk inside

  Kev says it's quite difficult to judge these fillings on its own. Most importantly is the taste when it is combined with the outer layer and also the yolks. I did this in different blog post because you can actually mix and match the different egg yolk and jelly mooncake outer layer flavors. It might just give you a surprise.

Ratings:

Kev ★★★☆☆

Bunny ★★★☆☆

Jelly Mooncake Carrot Flavored Egg Yolk

  There's a healthier alternative to the orange flavored egg yolk which is the carrot flavored egg yolk. Kev love this as he says that it tastes like gula melaka. For me I think the taste of the carrots are a bit too strong. However it goes well with soya filling to make butterfly pea flower jelly mooncake. This recipe is also taken and modified from Little Duck's Kitchen on YouTube.

Jelly Mooncake Carrot Flavored Egg Yolk

Prep Time: 4 hours

Cooking Time: 10 min

Serving Size: 20 egg yolks (3.5cm diameter)

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:

2 carrots

1½ cups of water

30 grams of castor sugar

1 teaspoon of agar-agar powder

1 teaspoon of  Konnyaku jelly powder

1. Cut the carrots into pieces.

The ingredients 

2. Put the carrots and water into the blender.

Blend the carrot and water in the blender

3. Strain the carrots and water to obtain 300 mls of carrot juice.

Strain the carrot mixture to get 300 mls of carrot juice

4. Mix the castor sugar, agar-agar powder and jelly powder in a bowl.

5. Put the carrot juice and the castor sugar, agar-agar powder and jelly powder into a pot. Mix them together.

6. Heat up the pot.

7. After the mixture boils, pour the mixture into the egg yolk mould.

Pour the mixture into the mould

8. Chill your mixture in the fridge for 4 hours.
9. Remove your jelly from the mould. 

Carrot flavored egg yolk ready!

Ratings:

Kev ★★★☆☆

Bunny ★★★☆☆

Jelly Mooncake Orange Flavored Egg Yolk

Orange flavored egg yolks

Mid autumn festival is just round the corner. There are quite a few types of mooncakes. For me, I like eating jelly mooncake though Kev will say it is filled with sugar, water and some jelly powder. This year I want to try making it as well. To imitate the usual mooncake with an egg yolk in the middle, we will have to start off by making the orange yolk. There are 2 types of yolk. One is the orange flavored yolk and another one is the carrot flavored yolk. For this post I will explain the steps for the orange flavored yolk. For most of my jelly mooncake recipes, I got it from Little Duck's Kitchen and of course as usual, I will modify the recipe to suit my taste and try to make it a little healthier for my family. Surprisingly for this egg yolk recipe, I did not even make the slightest change to it because Kev and I love the consistency and taste.

Jelly Mooncake Orange Flavored Egg Yolk
Prep Time: 4 hours
Cooking Time: 5 min
Serving Size: 20 egg yolks (3.5cm diameter)
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
300 mls of Tropicana Twister Orange Juicy Burst 
30 grams of castor sugar
1 teaspoon of agar-agar powder
1 teaspoon of Konnyaku jelly powder
1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Mix the castor sugar, agar-agar powder and the jelly powder together. 

Ingredients

2. Pour the orange juice and lemon juice into the pot.

Mix the orange juice and lemon juice into the pot

3. Pour in the mixture of castor sugar, agar-agar powder and jelly powder into the pot. Mix the sugar and powder with the juices.
4. Heat up the pot.
5. When the mixture starts to boil, pour into the egg yolk mould.

Pour the mixture into the mould. 

6. Wait for the mixture to cool then put into the fridge for 4 hours.
7. Remove the egg yolks from the mould.

The egg yolks are ready

  For the mould, you will probably have to source it from the local bakery or get it online. The mould can also be used to make round ice cubes which is kinda cool to serve it in your drink.

Ratings:

Kev ★★★☆☆

Carol ★★★★☆

Beef Stock

Beef Stock

Kev used to use a lot of chicken stock. However I'm more of a natural type of person. Although I do enjoy KFC and fried steak, I prefer to cook food without artificial flavoring eg chicken stock or Ajinamoto. Since Kev has hypertension, he is now all ears when talking about cooking and he agrees to go my way. All cheers to my favourite good food eg salmon but nay to to pork belly and stuff. But I believe I still get to get them sometimes of course without Kev. And also because of the wedding. I will need to get my bikini bod ready. So it's good for me to go all healthy as well. There are quite lots of uses for the beef stock. The leftover cooked beef, I give it to Snow and Fattie (both are Kev and my dogs). Then for the stock, we use it to cook soup or during stir frying the vegetables or when cooking any savoury dish. It adds the taste to it. My reference recipe will be from here.

Beef Stock
Prep time: 20 min
Cooking time: 5 hours
Serving size: 2 Litres
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients:
1.5 kg of Australian beef bone with meat
2 carrots
1 stalk of fresh parsley
1 stalk of leek
1 big onion
1 red onion
1 garlic
10 grams of peppercorn
5 pieces of bay leaves
5 grams of salt
Enough olive oil to brush the beef
Enough water to cover the other ingredients

1. Preheat the oven at 210 degrees Celcius.
2. Get the beef onto a tray. Brush the beef with olive oil.

Brush beef bones with olive oil

3. Cut the parsley, carrots, onions, garlic, leek and celery into pieces. Put the cut parsley, carrots, onions, leek, celery, peppercorn, salt and bay leaves onto the tray. Spread it out evenly.

The rest of the ingredients

Put all the ingredients into one tray

4. Roast your ingredients in the oven for 40 minutes.

Roasting time

5. After the 40 minutes is up, put all your ingredients (including the juicy saps and also the marrows on the tray) into the slow cooker. 

Roasting time up!

6. Fill up the slow cooker with water just enough to cover the ingredients that you put into the pot. 

Filling up the slow cooker

6. Boil your ingredients for at least 6 hours or overnight. 

After 6 hours of cooking

7. Strain the beef stock onto a bowl.

Straining all the stock from the ingredients

Fresh stock with the layer of fat still on the surface

8. Leave the beef stock in the fridge until the fat on the surface solidifies.

9. Remove the fat layer using a big broad spoon.

Removing the layer that can cause atherosclerosis. Yucks!

  To store the stock, you can leave the stock with the layer of fat on top and remove it just before you use it. It can protects the stock underneath and prevent it from getting spoil. Make sure to leave your stock in the freezer if you plan to keep it for a long time or in the fridge will be suffice. Mine lasts for about a month. 

Ratings:

Kev ★★★★☆

Carol ★★★★★

Commitment to be Free From The Past Part 3

One of our tasks as adult is to identify our thoughts and feelings and discover their origin. Recognizing them is easier but accepting or modifying them may be difficult. Memories are the basis for how we feel about ourselves and many of us carry distorted views of ourselves. They usually stem from childhood and may have been created by longtime parental attitudes.

The Effects of Personal Rejection
  Many people grow up from childhood with the belief that acceptance and affection have a price tag- they are not free gifts, but something one earns by accomplishing something, attaining some goal or refraining from doing something. Rejection communicates to your that you are not worth having a relationship with or even knowing. Rejection occurs and you feel hurt and even bitter. You become very sensitive to actual or apparent rebuffs. You anticipate rejection and read it into other people's response.You assume the worst and are very suspicious. You also tend to reject yourself if you feel you were rejected by someone you care for. You will enter marriage starved for love and acceptance, needing constant attention, acceptance and affection.
  Some people are perfectionists. They have endless goal of pleasing their parents even though the parents are no longer around. They become anxious because the lack of perfect behavior in others arouses his own feelings of self-belittlement. Perfectionists are difficult to live with. They experience success but still feel empty and dissatisfied.
  We do not need a list of achievements to prove ourselves as persons of worth. We need not fear losing our worth, because God's estimation of us is not based upon our qualifications. We can believe that our worth is a gift from God, we are free to risk because worth remains stable whether we achieve or not. We are free to attempt new ventures which could actually enhance this gift of worth. God's act in our life is an emancipation. We are free from the infringement of fearful hesitation and perfectionistic striving.

The Effects of Indulgence
  Some parents think that the best way of expressing their love is through indulgence. The child is constantly kept in a dependent passive state and does not learn to take initiative. He expects others to provide and entertain him. You will label him as selfish or self-centered. This person expects his/her spouse to be a mind reader and if the spouse is not, he/she will complain not always outwardly but in inner conversation eg "my wife ought to know i like..." This person is a taker and not a giver. Intimacy and emotional involvement in marriage cannot develop. He has no concern over disappointing his partner. He resists any efforts on the part of his partner to help him become a contributing member of the marriage. He will find many ways to escape giving.

Materials taken from
Wright, H.N. (1985). So You're Getting Married. Ventura, California: Regal Books.

Nasi Kerabu Mekla

  This restaurant was once mentioned to me by my houseman as I love Nasi Kerabu however up till now I have not found any that is nice enough. This is recommended by Kev's colleague. We decided to go there and try out as breakfast and I assure you this is def a heavy breakfast however the price is quite reasonable. The restaurant is located at the outskirt of Kuantan town and on the way to Gambang. There are not much houses around the shop.

When we arrived, there's lots of cars parked in front of the shop. We arrived within have an hour of the shop opening. 😮 Luckily extra parkings are provided at the side of the shop.

The front of the shop. The 1st floor seems to be on renovation. The feel that this restaurant gives me is that it might be an unfinished building then someone abandoned it and this shop owner bought it over and gave it a makeover with the skeleton of the building. 

The deco in the shop- photography place

The drink station

The menu

You can have different choices to go with your nasi kerabu, puyuh (bird), chicken or prawn

Other choices, different types of dishes. They also offer nasi kuning (yellow rice) or laksam

My choice of prawn and beef to go with my nasi kerabu

Their teh tarik looked kinda odd with that yellow look

A favourite of Kev's late grandmother. The glutinous rice and the coconut is sweet and it goes really well with the savoury fried fish. It's called Pulut Gaul Nyior which Nyior means desiccated coconut

Ratings:

Ambience ★★★☆☆

Food ★★★★☆

Cleanliness ★★★☆☆

Price ★★★★☆

 Jalan Permatang Badak Baru 3 (7.56km),

25150 Kuantan

Tel: 019-9313558

Opening hours: Open daily from 8am to 12am except for Thursdays

Satti Sorru Kuantan

  This shop is recommended by my Indian colleague. He says that this shop is really famous in KL. It is rice cooked in claypot the Indian way. So, one fine evening, Kev and his Dad and I decided to give it a go. It's not really easy to find as you have to open your eyes wide. It's located in the middle of the other shops in a foodcourt like setting where there's lots of other restaurants around esp Thai.

If you want an air conditioned place to have your meal, don't come here. Basically all the sitting is outside the shop. 

Authentic Indian Claypot. They even have chinese writing on their signboard!

Their menu and pricing. Not so bad pricing though

Chicken claypot

Mutton claypot

Fried chicken, definitely recommend this. The waiter told us this recipe is one of the oldest that belongs to the shop owner

Nice salad

  Basically, the claypot rice is pretty much similar. As described by Kev, " It looks like someone eat the curry rice and vomited out on to the claypot." Lol. However we think that the food is good. The cold salad goes really well with the spiciness of the rice. They even asked us the spiciness of the claypot rice and we chose to have it moderate. I had to have 2 cups of water in the end. It wasn't that spicy in the beginning but getting hot towards the end. I prefer the mutton one compared to the chicken one. Always like the indian way of cooking mutton. I like the amount that they gave us however Kev thinks that it is too little and he is not having enough. Lol. If there is a chance to go back, I gotta try out wild boar flavour. 

Ratings:

Ambience ★★☆☆☆

Food ★★★★☆

Cleanliness ★★★☆☆

Price ★★★★☆

Sattisorru Kuantan,

Jalan Air Putih,

Galing, Kuantan.

Tel: 012-9382801

Opening hours: Open daily 6pm to 11pm except on Sundays