Tag Archives: red bean

Cake, Chinese, Fruits, Pancake, Uncategorized

Persimmon Pancake

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Autumn is persimmon season, yet I haven’t tried persimmon before. Last Sunday when my husband and I were shopping in a Chinese supermarket, we found persimmons on the shelf. My husband was also very curious about them. So we bought 1 box of persimmons.

Persimmons taste very sweet but also with a bit astringent. So I was thinking maybe I could use them to make something sweet but at the same time to reduce the astringent taste.

1, Choose soft persimmons. As a Chinese saying goes “挑软柿子捏” which means to pick the soft persimmons as they are rotten and sweeter. But now in Chinese soft persimmon means someone who is a pushover.

2, Put persimmons in a bowl, pour hot water over them. This is to make the peeling process easier.

3, Remove the stem and peel and put persimmons in blender to blend them into paste.

4, In a big bowl, add in persimmon paste. Stir evenly.

5, Add in flour. Keep stirring while adding flour until it can be kneaded into a dough. I actually add in some sticky rice flour, so the ratio is close to sticky rice flour: plain flour= 1:3. No water is needed. I didn’t add in any sugar either, cos the persimmons are sweet enough. As I was going to use red bean paste as the filling, so I didn’t want my pancakes to be too sweet.

6, Let the dough rest for 20 mins. And then divide it into small doughs. My small doughs are about 60-70g, and the red bean paste filling for each one is about 40g.

7, Make dough flat and put the filling in the center. Wrap it up and roll into round shape. Press gentlely.

8, Heat a pan, brush it with oil. Fry the flat dough till both sides turn golden brown.

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Dumplings

粽子 Sticky Rice Dumplings With Red Bean Paste Filling

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I’ve made zong zi before. This time, I decided to make some with red bean paste filling.

Main ingredients:

big bamboo leaves

sticky rice

red bean paste

kitchen twine

Bamboo leaves should be soaked in water overnight. Cut off the leaf stalk before wrapping. Sticky rice should also be soaked for hours, I usually soak them overnight.

Use bamboo leaves (1 or 2 ) to make a funnel shape at one end. Add into 1 or 2  tbsp rice, then add in red bean paste as many as you want. 🙂 Top with another 1 tbsp rice. Cover it with the rest bamboo leaf and wrap with twine.

Boil them in pressure cooker for 30mins.

Yum! 🙂

I also tried to use sago instead of sticky rice. If you use sago, better not cook them with pressure cooker, cos sago is much easier to cook.

But I like sticky rice more, sticky rice taste more chewy.

Chinese, Uncategorized

青团 Qing Tuan (Sweet Green Rice Ball)

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I love Qing Tuan. But I don’t know where to buy them in Singapore. I decided to make them by myself. Yet, another problem is I don’t know where to get 艾草 Ai Cao (Artemisia argyi, commonly known as silvery wormwood or Chinese mugwort). It’s one of the main ingredients to make the dough. So  I have to replace it with pandan, which is very common here in Singapore.

But the color is not as green as Ai Cao. I guess spinach would be a better choice.

Ingredients:

glutinous rice flour  180g

rice flour 20g

pandan leaves 20

water 1 cup

oil 10g

red bean paste 200g

1, In a big bowl, mix glutinous rice flour and rice flour.

2, Cut pandan leaves into small pieces. Put them into the blender with water and blend. Drain the water. Only keep 140g of the green water.

3, Heat green water in a pot. Turn off the heat when it’s about to boil.

4, Pour the hot green water into the flour mixture while stirring. Add in oil.

5, Knead it into a big dough ball.

6, Divide dough ball into smaller ones with each about 35g. Divide red bean paste into 10 smaller balls with 20g each.

7, Press the small dough balls into a thin and flat disc. Place the red bean paste into middle. And gently wrap it up.

8, Better put parchment paper under the Qing Tuan. And steam over hot water for 12 mins.

I really really love those green rice balls. Very delicious.

Quick recipe, Uncategorized

Homemade Simple Chedol

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I was planning to make Chedol all by myself. Yet I couldn’t find mung bean flour at the supermarket. So I just bought the packed green pandan part, which made it a lot easier for me to prepare this famous dessert in Singapore & Malaysia.

Above are the main ingredients needed: coconut milk, cooked red kidney beans, green pandan part, gula malaka syrup.

Coconut milk: 200ml coconut & 1 pinch salt in a pot. Heat it and stir at the same time. Just turn off the heat when the coconut starts to bubble up. Cool Down.

Gula malaka syrup: 100g gula malaka, 50g water, 1 pinch salt. Put them in a pot. Heat it till gula malaka completely dissolved. Cool down.

Add ice cubes into a blender. and grind the ice.

In a bowl, Add in ice, coconut milk, green pandan part, red beans and top up with syrup.

Pork, Uncategorized, wrap

粽子 (Zong Zi, Sticky Rice Dumpling)

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This year, Dragon Boat Festival is on June 7, which is  next Friday. I never tried to make sticky rice dumpling (Zong zi) by myself even though I like them very much. I saw there were bamboo leaves for zongzi on the supermarket’s shelf and thought maybe I can try making zongzi this year.

The preparation should be done on the night before.

From left to right: glutinous rice, red bean, preserved dates, pork & shiitake mushroom, bamboo leaves.

Bamboo leaves should be soaked in water overnight. Cut off the leaf stalk before wrapping.

 

Because my husband likes meat zongzi, which is salty, while I like sweet ones. So I have to prepare 2 fillings.

I wrapped a lot of zongzi, please feel free to deduct the ingredients.

 

For the savory ones:

pork belly 200 g (cut into slices)

Shiitake 4 (cut into slices).

Put pork and shiitake into a small bowl. Add in 1 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 pinch salt, 2 tsp dark soy sauce, 2 tsp oyster sauce and 1 tsp five spice powder. Mix them well. Put into fridge overnight.

glutinous rice 500g

red bean 1 cup

Wash them under water. Then soak them overnight. You can mix them before soaking or after.

Drain glutinous rice and red bean. Put them in a big bowl. Drizzle in 1 tbsp light soy sauce and 1 tbsp sesame oil. Mix well.

 

For the sweet ones:

glutinous rice 500g

red bean 1 cup

Soak overnight too.

Mix them before using. If you want Zong Zi to taste sweeter, you can also add in sugar.

 

Wrapping sticky rice dumplings is not as difficult as I expected, unless if you want to make them very neat and pretty. My rule is as long as I can wrap the filling , rice inside and I can tie them with twine, it will be a big success. 🙂

 

For the savory ones with pork inside:

Use bamboo leaves (1 or 2 ) to make a funnel shape at one end. Add into 1 tbsp rice, then 1 or 2 slices of pork and shiitake. Top with another 1 tbsp rice. Cover it with the rest bamboo leaf and wrap with twine.

Please remember to use the light soy sauce and sesame oil marinated rice.

Same procedures are applied to the sweet ones.  Just replace the pork with preserved dates and use the normal rice.

Wrap them tightly with twine. You can use different colors of twine to different types.

Boil them for 3 hours. If yours are bigger then mine, please cook longer. Better boil them separately due to different flavor.

https://flic.kr/p/2g4MUyh

Well, my sticky rice dumplings are a bit….. ugly and diverse in shapes. 🙂

Actually, I think zongzi is delicious even if there were only plain sticky rice inside.

So I can never say no to zongzi. 🙂

 

Cake

Jing Gao (甑糕)

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I will never say no to any dessert made from sticky rice or sticky rice flour. This cake is from Xi’an. It became popular recently due to a Chinese TV drama. The Chinese name 甑糕 actually should be pronounced as “Zeng Gao”, however, people from Shan’an Xi called it Jing Gao. 甑 is an ancient earthen utensil for steaming rice. 糕 means cake. Well, I have to say this kind of sticky rice cake is really time-consuming in both preparation and cooking.

Ingredients:

sticky rice 1/2 1 cup

red kidney beans 3/4 cup

dried red dates 1 cup

honey red dates 100g

  1. Soak sticky rice and red kidney beans in water for overnight.
  2. Dried date also need to be soaked for a while. Then cut them into halves and remove the cores. And do the same to honey red dates. I added honey red dates just wanted to add sweet taste to the cake. If you want it to be very sweet, you ca also add sugar to the sticky rice when steaming them. I was kind of lazy. Fortunately, dried red dated I have are already core-removed. I just need to cut them. And I did nothing to the honey dates and just put them in as a whole.
  3. Prepare a big bowl. Brush bowl with oil or you can just do what I did, to use parchment paper. The bottom layer is 1/3 sticky rice. Then 1/2 red kidne beans. Then 1/3 sticky rice. Followed by 1/2 red kidney beans. Then the rest 1/3 sticky rice and topped with red dates & honey dates. You can arrange the layer as you like. But make sure the bottom is sticky rice and the top is red dates.

 

Then add water into the bowl, just equally high to the red dates.

Steam for 3 hours. I steamed it for 4 hours. I read online that authentic Jing Gao should be steamed overnight with low heat. A pressure cooker will make it much easier.

After steaming, don’t open the lid immediately. Let it stay for 15 mins.

Use the back of a spoon to press the red dates and mash them.

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Red kidney beans are very soft and smooth. My husband said it tastes like sweet Lor Mai Gai. 🙂 But still, he loves it. I love it very much too.

baking, bread, Uncategorized

Red Bean Bun

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I’m a red bean fan. I love almost everything about red bean. This red bean bun needs red bean paste. I used the one bought from supermarket.

Ingredients:

Bread flour 200g

Sugar 18g

Salt 2.5g

Yeast 3g

Butter 15g

Water 100-120g

Red bean paste 300g
1. Mix flour, sugar, salt, and yeast in a bowl.

2. Pour water in and stir with chopsticks at the same time. 

3. Knead all ingredients into a dough.

4. Cut butter in. Keep kneading till butter is fully absorbed.

5. Put dough in the bowl. Wrap with plastic and let it rise till 2 times big.

6. Press the air out and divide dough into 6 small balls.

7. Press each ball flat. Put a red bean ball (50g) in the center. Wrap it up. Then place red bean buns on a baking pan. Into the oven with a big bowl of hot water under it.

8. Let it rise till 1.5 times big.

9. Preheat oven to 190 degree C. Sprinkle black sesame on the bun. Place a pan on the top of them to press them a bit.


In the oven and bake for 18 mins.


A little crispy outside but really soft and sweet inside. I love them.

Chinese, Uncategorized

Red Bean & Barley —A Recipe for People Who Suffers Edema Like Me

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Recently, I am suffering serious edema. My figures are swollen. I can not even clench my fist. 

So I started this recipe 2 days ago. Every morning, I grab some red beans and barley and soak them in a bowl. In the afternoon, I pour them in the pot. Add in many many water, and cook till red beans get softened and cooked. It works well for me. At least, my figures are not as swollen as before.


Actually, you can soak red bean and barley for overnight, because red beans need to be soaked for hours. Then the next morning, you can cook them. If you don’t like the taste, you can add a little sugar, which will help make it taste better.

According to Chinese medicine, barley belongs to cold food by its property. So pregnant women shouldn’t eat it. And better not eat it a week before period or during period. And if you suffer constipation, please don’t eat it.


Even without barley, red beans are also helpful to ease edema.