25 Sep 11 (Sun) - Apple Flavour Konnyaku Jelly

Couple of weeks ago, my colleague, NYP, asked me to make jelly for her. So I told another colleague, CC, who is also pregnant, that I would be bringing jelly the next day and if she would like some as well. She was pretty excited about it and so as promised, I brought jelly to work on 14 September. Unfortunately, CC was on medical leave that day and she sounded disappointed when she found out that there were no more jelly left when she returned to work the following day. So told her that I will make for her next time. Last week, she emailed the team that she will be going on maternity leave from 6 October onwards and so decided to make jelly for her before she goes on leave for three months.

As I was at my sis's place so borrowed the jelly moulds from her SIL. There was one with the shape of two fishes and a few with shapes like heart, seashell, flower and so on. Then bought a bottle of apple juice yesterday during the usual weekend grocery shopping to used in the jelly making. Woke up early and started the cooking. There were some sliced peaches left from the night before and so took three slices, diced them and arranged them in the jelly moulds. Since I was using apple juice, I didn't add extra sugar. So added the jelly powder bit by bit into the boiling apple juice until all used up and dissolved. I noticed that by adding the jelly powder directly, the side of the pot got lumpy easily. I wondered if it was because of the direct addition or because of the bubbles from the boiling apple juice. Scraped them from the side and tried to dissolve them but wasn't very successful. When I turned off the heat, the jelly solution had some lumps in it.

Poured the jelly solution into the moulds and left them on the table to cool before putting them into the fridge to chill. Unmoulded the jelly in the afternoon, took some photos before packing some to bring to office the next day and some arranged on the plate for my younger niece and nephew to eat.

Jelly Moulds Apple Flavour Fish Shape Jelly - Top View Apple Flavour Assorted Shapes Jelly - Top View

Giant House-brand Apple Juice Apple Flavour Fish Shape Jelly - Side View Apple Flavour Assorted Shapes Jelly - Side View

Ingredients:

10g konnyaku jelly power

950ml apple juice

3 slices of peach, diced

Method:

1. Boil apple juice over medium flame.

2. Add konnyaku jelly powder to the pot of apple juice. Stir until powder is fully dissolved then off the flame

3. Add diced peaches to each jelly mould, then pour the jelly solution to fill each mould

4. Let the jelly cool down a bit in room temperature and chill in fridge till the jelly is set

13 Sep 11 (Tue) - Osmanthus Jelly with Mango and Wolfberries (桂花糕)

Had a long, tiring but enjoyable weekend with four consecutive late nights and thought I can finally get some rest after work today. However, a colleague, NYP, who is pregnant came over this morning and asked if I could make osmanthus jelly for her coz she has craving for it. Well... It's rather rare to get food request from people in office and I got to admit, I was rather flattered by it.

So headed home after work, tended to my plants, took shower and started making the jelly. Was given mango today from the office coz it was fruits day so made use of it as well. Since I would be meeting SWT for lunch tomorrow and so decided to make a bowl of jelly for her too. Added the diced mango to the plastic container and to my two favourite glasses before adding the wolfberries.

Boiled the osmanthus flowers in water then added the jelly power and sugar. After the jelly solution was done, carefully poured them into the jelly mould, the plastic container and the two glasses.

Osmanthus Jelly with Mango and Wolfberries

Ingredients:

2.5 tsp dried osmanthus flowers

10g konnyaku jelly power

210g sugar

950ml water

2 tsp wolfberries, soaked for 20min till puffy

1 mango, diced

Method:

1. Bring water to a boil in a pot, lower heat, add osmanthus flowers and simmer for roughly 2mins

2. Add konnyaku jelly powder and sugar. Stir until powder and sugar are fully dissolved then off the flame

3. Add diced mango, 2-4 wolfberries to each jelly mould, then pour the jelly solution to fill each mould

4. Let the jelly cool down a bit in room temperature and chill in fridge till the jelly is set

11 Sep 11 (Sun) - Colorful Rice Balls in Sugar Syrup (缤纷汤圆)

Had some glutinous rice flour left from my recent attempt at making song pyeon and since it is going to be Mid-Autumn Festival tomorrow in Singapore and Chuseok in Korea so decided to make colorful rice balls for my elder niece, younger niece and nephew. Again didn't follow any particular recipe but just measured four portions of 25g of glutinous rice flour.

Started with one portion without any coloring then followed with the second portion using the red food coloring and then the third portion using the blue food coloring. When I was about to start on the fourth portion, my elder niece came to the kitchen so let her try making the dough. Helped her mixed the purple color using both the red and blue food coloring and dissolved sugar into the mixture.

The purple color didn't turn out to be as solid as the other two colors, maybe I should make the purple color sugar solution darker next time. After we were done making the rice balls, told M to make the sugar syrup using sugar, water and pandan leaves. Then after the sugar syrup was boiling, we put the rice balls in and after they floated, we turned off the fire and left it aside for a while.

Scooped some to take photos and then gave to my nephew to eat while my elder niece, M, also scooped some for herself. Then my younger niece scooped quite a fair bit for herself to eat. After we were done, went out to Novena with M to collect her long awaited U-Kiss album "Neverland".

Rice balls before cooking

Rice balls after cooking

Wanted to eat tteokbokki from Hankook Rice Cake House in Novena Square 2 but because it's Chuseok the next day and so they did not have that so instead I bought a box of gul tteok (also known as honey tteok). The guy who sold us the gul tteok was rather cute, he said a lot of things after he gotten the box out from the display but I didn't understand a word. It was after we left then M translated them for me and the guy was simply explaining to us what was inside gul tteok and what it's called.

Gul Tteok from Hankook Rice Cake House 

Then we headed to Baskin-Robbins at Novena Square for ice-cream coz it reminded us of our Korea trip last year. M chose Raspberry Cheese Louise while I chose Chocolate Trilogy and we enjoyed our ice-cream there. Overall, I had a wonderful day with M and I treasured the time spent with her.

Chocolate Trilogy and Raspberry Cheese Louise

Note: Gul tteok and Baskin-Robbins ice-cream photos compliment from M