Hot grog for winter keeps you warm

It is colder and colder, I love drinking herbal tea after dinner, to keep us warm and to have better sleep.

There is hot grog too, alcoholic drink which keeps you warm. Also when you get a cold, it is a good drink to cure it :)
I love the flavor of cinnamon, but my suggestion is to use cinnamon stick instead of powder, the flavor will be better. Also you won't want to chew the cinnamon powder in your mouth.

Ingredients
57g dark rum
14g fresh lime juice*
1tsp brown sugar
113g water
1 cinnamon stick

Slice of orange

* I used 1/2 orange - cut into pieces and squeeze the juice out

Instructions
1. In a small pot, put all the ingredients except slice of orange

2. Let it boil, then turn off the heat

3. Add in the slice of orange
Serve hot!

Enjoy!

Chinese white fungus sweet soup for dry weather

It was so hot last week, the temperature drops very fast, it's cool this week, I feel drier too!

There is good Chinese sweet soup which can hydrate your body & skin effectively. The main ingredient of this soup is Chinese white fungus/ snow fungus - it is great to hydrate your skin!

It's mild too, so you can try to make it if you never make any Chinese sweet soup.

There are several versions that you can choose the one you want.

Ingredients
Recipe 1
1 big* Chinese white fungus (or several small)
10 dried red dates
2tsp apricot seeds (mix of bitter apricot seeds and Prunus armeniaca L. seeds)
1 apple, peeled and diced into small pieces
2 pears, peeled and diced into small pieces
6 cups water
1 rock sugar (you can add more if you want sweeter)

*After soaking into the water, it is big as your palm

You can see in the photo, left = dried white fungus, right = soaked white fungus (Thanks tastehongkong.com for the photo!)

Apricot seed/kernel 
Left: bitter apricot seeds
Right: Prunus armeniaca L. seeds (sweet)















Recipe 2
1 big Chinese white fungus (or several small)
10 dried red dates
2tsp dried goji
6 cups water
1 rock sugar (you can add more if you want sweeter)
Optional: 2 dried fig

Recipe 3
1 big Chinese white fungus (or several small)
50g dried longan meat
10 dried lotus seeds
10 dried red dates
6 cups water
1 rock sugar (you can add more if you want sweeter)

Instructions
1. Soak the fungus for 15mins or until it is soft, cut it into small pieces, remove the hard part in the middle by a scissor

2. Put all ingredients EXCEPT sugar in a pot, heat it until it boils, reduce the heat to small and cook for 1.5 - 2 hours

3. Turn off the heat and add sugar

Serve hot :)

Enjoy!

Mango Lassi - Indian drink

I love Indian food, I tried their sweet lassi, which was rich and delicious. That's why now I want to share with you the recipe of lassi!

They have salted lassi and sweet lassi, consumed by different countries (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan...). The main ingredients are yogurt & water.
Salted lassi consists of spices while sweet lassi consists of fruit, mainly mango
I remember my friend from Bangladesh asked me to try salted mint lassi - it was special :p

Well... If you like other fruits you can use strawberry too

Last time I made lassi I tried to use coconut milk - even more tasty - but it won't be called lassi :)

Ingredients
1 cup Plain yogurt
1/2 cup milk*
1 cup chopped mango or strawberry
Optional: 4tsp sugar / honey

*Traditional lassi uses water

Instructions
1. Peel the mango by cutting it in half, use a big spoon to scoop the meat out, chop it into pieces
=> peel off the skin around the stone, you might want to eat directly the meat around the stone :)

2. Blend all the ingredients in a blender/ food processor until it's combined and well mix

3. Pour the lassi into a jar

To serve: You can serve immediately or even better - put in the fridge for few hours (consume it up to 24hours)

Got some strawberries, so made strawberry lassi :)

Enjoy!

Strawberry raspberry banana juice for dessert

It is still very hot today :( It's hot over the Europe...
I lose my appetite and the cats too ... :(

That's why today we have something refreshing, light, healthy, natural & homemade dessert lol - fruit juice! I used strawberry, raspberry and banana. I wanted to add kiwi but may be next time I'll make only kiwi juice :) I made it in advance so I put it in the fridge for several hours before serving. It helps to cool us down ;)

All you need is a blender, food processor... as I got a slow juicer, I used it, but actually I like eating all pulps with juice... I like to chew the seeds haha

NO SUGAR is needed, well, if you like sweet, add some honey

Since it is dessert, I made whipped cream ;p

Enjoy!

Home made soya milk

Soya milk... yum :) it has many nutritive value. 

I found a post about how to make our own soya milk, so I want to try. 

It is the 2nd time I make it! I really love the result, though the process is a bit frustrating... last time I made it I said it would be my last time to make it. Yet, I still want to do it after tasting the soya milk... 
It is a real reward. I always think of the farmers who grow rice when I drink the soya milk! What a hard work but it brings a wonderful reward!

Anyways, my kitchen is the victim when I make the soya milk, because the process is a bit complicated and I always make it messy (I really hate messing around the kitchen)

If you want to try - I used 1500ml water & 500g soya bean & Sugar (optional - I don't add it)

1. Soak the soya bean in water (largely cover the bean because the bean absorbs the water quickly) for at least 5hours - I always soak it over night

2. Mix the soya bean & 500ml in the food processor. 
Note that you don't need to mix it for too long time to make the beans become too fine for the 1st time.

3. Squeeze it in a fine fabric bag, you can see the milky water, good news :)

4. Put back the squeezed soya bean into the food processor and then repeat step 2 & 3 for 2 times more

5a. Optional: You can add sugar into the soya milk and you can boil it now

5b. If you don't add sugar, then you can directly boil the soya milk in a pot - better to use higher height ones... because when you boil it the milk will form bubble and will spread everywhere once it is boiling...
When it is boiled, keep boiling it at low heat for 8 mins.

6. Done - Enjoy!

Please let me know if you have any question :) I will be happy to answer you if I can!