12 May 13 (Sun) - Cinnamon Flavour Rice Balls & Orange Flavour Rice Balls in Longan Red Date Ginger Soup

Have been eating oranges since a few weeks back and have been processing the peels into ant-repellents. Accumulated too much of those and began to think what else I can do with the peels. Searched the Internet and got a few ideas, one of which is to grate the zest and use them in cooking. So I have processed a couple more oranges for their zest and store them in the freezer.

Decided to do experimental cooking today using the orange zest and to play it safe, I made rice balls. The thought of rice balls in sugar water seemed a bit plain, therefore, searched the Internet on recipe to make ginger soup. Saw a basic one and some slightly more complicated ones so decided to adapt all and come up one on my own. Saw a bottle of ground cinnamon in the pantry and thought, "Oh, why not?" and came up with the cinnamon flavour rice balls.

After adding the orange zest to the glutinous rice flour and mixing them up, the orange zest were almost invisible but they showed up after adding the blue solution. Similarly for the ground cinnamon, the colour only showed up after adding the water.

Nice colours

After assembling the rice balls and ginger soup                        The ginger soup with other ingredients

Cinnamon Flavour Rice Balls & Orange Flavour Rice Balls (Make 12)

Ingredients:
25g glutinous rice flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp orange zest
1 tsp sugar
hot water
1-2 drops of blue food coloring

Method:
1.  Mix glutinous rice flour with sugar
2.  Divide the mixture into two portions
3.  Add ground cinnamon to one portion and mix well
4.  Add orange zest to the other portion and mix well
5.  Add hot water little by little to the cinnamon portion and knead the dough with hands
6.  Tear out some dough and roll it between the palms to make rice balls
7.  Add blue food coloring to the hot water to make a blue solution
8.  Repeat step 5 and step 6 with the orange zest portion
9.  Bring some water to a boil and add in the rice balls
10.  Turn off the heat when the rice balls floats and set aside

Longan Red Date Ginger Soup (with Lotus Seeds and White Fungus)

Ingredients:
500ml water
10 dried longan
6 red dates, seeds removed
40g ginger, cut thick slices
10 lotus seeds, core removed
1 bowl of white fungus (after soaked)
rock sugar cubes to taste

Method:
1.  Use a fork to poke the ginger slices
2.  Place all the ingredients except rock sugar cubes into a pot and bring to boil
3.  Lower the heat, add rock sugar cubes to taste and let it simmer for 5 minutes or until sugar cubes dissolve
4.  Turn off the heat and remove the ginger slices

To assemble, scoop some rice balls into a serving bowl and fill it up with the ginger soup.


The two flavours turned out quite well, there were hints of cinnamon and orange in the rice balls without getting too overpowering and the ginger soup complimented the rice balls. And if I may add, the orange flavour ones tasted rather refreshing when biting into the zest. The ginger soup can be eaten hot or cold as a dessert on its own with the other ingredients.

Bought three avocado few weeks ago and ate one as part of a salad combo. It wasn't very ripe and so I let the other two stand for another few weeks. One of them turned out to be very soft while the other one was not as soft. Anyway, since they were not as hard as the first one I ate the other time, decided to just go ahead and used them. Made avocado milkshake and instead of the usual gula melaka, I used honey instead.

Avocado Milkshake (Make 2 cups)

Ingredients:
2 ripe avocados
1 cup milk
1 tbsp honey

Method:
1.  Cut avocados into halves, remove the seeds and set aside
2.  Scoop out the flesh and cut into small pieces
3.  Add all ingredients into a blender and blitz
4.  Put the seeds* into one cup each before pouring the milkshake

*The seeds are to prevent discolouration

Recipe for Cinnamon Flavour Rice Balls & Orange Flavour Rice Balls in Longan Red Date Ginger Soup submitted to Munch Ministry