25 Mar 17 (Sat) - Hot Mango Orange Ginger Smoothie

The mention of smoothie and the image of thick juice in a tall glass with water condensation on the outside will form immediately in our heads. So when I saw the title "Make a HOT smoothie for a change: Orange mango ginger, nice" while browsing through the MSN website, I couldn't resist but to click on it to find out more about this interesting recipe.

Since I have mangoes in my fridge, all I need to buy were oranges and ginger. Bought some in the morning and went on to try out the recipe. Before adding water, the mixture was really thick. Mix some with hot water and some with cold water. Both types were equally nice. Guess the hot one stood out a little because ginger tasted better in hot drink.

So who says smoothie has to be cold, hot one tastes nice too!

19 Mar 17 (Sun) - Durian Fried Rice

I was told that the durian season started couple of weeks ago and my sis's family was feasting on durian that couple of weeks ago. Recently she sent me a link to this recipe called "Durian Fried Rice" by Ellena Guan of Cuisine Paradise. My first reaction was "Whut?!" and then didn't think much about it because I was busy at work. Last Friday was messaging her about my intention to get some durian from the stall near my house the next day and she resent me that link to the "Durian Fried Rice" recipe again.

Well, she managed to perk my interest. So clicked on the link to read the blog post and the recipe. Looked simple enough. Wrote the recipe on a piece of paper and listed the ingredients to buy on Saturday. Followed the recipe as close as I can but the end result was far from the picture I saw on the blog post. The picture showed the dish to be on the drier side and grains of rice didn't seem to be sticking together.

I can only think of two reasons why mine looks gooey:

1.   The rice was a bit soggy to begin with.

2.   I used too much durian. (I remember 3 seeds of durian but forgot should be 80g)

Tastewise... To be honest, I can't accept it totally. Perhaps with some adjustments such as reducing the amount of durian use and the addition of salt to make it more savoury, I may change my opinion of the dish.

In short, I still prefer to eat my durian fresh and whole. Heh.

A Review: Green Caviar

Read about the green caviar from an article found on the HerworldPlus website back in January. It is a more affordable kind of caviar because it does not hail from fish but is actually a type of seaweed. The article also mentioned that online purchase of this green caviar can be done through Meal Belly. So went to check out the website and sent them a private message through Facebook messenger to find out more about the delivery method.

After getting the replies from Meal Belly, I finally placed my order of a 20g pack for $4.60 (including $1 delivery fee) towards the end of February and received them this morning. There were instructions printed on the packaging telling the customers how to prepare the green caviar. Followed the instructions on a small amount which balloon to a lot after soaking. Used them on salad. It tasted salty so cannot have too much at a time.

5 Mar 17 (Sun) - Passion Fruit Butter Cake

Since I have some fresh passion fruit juice left over from yesterday, decided to try to use it on a butter cake recipe. Turned out that the butter taste overpowered the passion fruit taste. So as a work around, made some passion fruit glaze using own estimation and brush on top of the cake to enhance the passion fruit taste.

Ingredients:

50g self-rising flour 50g butter - soften 50g castor sugar

1/3 tsp vanilla extract                                                      15ml passion fruit juice                                                      1 egg

Method:
1.  Line cake tin with baking paper and pre-heat the oven to 180 degree celsius
2.  Sift the flour and set aside
3.  Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk till off white color
4.  Add the egg and mix well
5.  Add vanilla extract and passion fruit juice then mix well
6.  Fold in the flour
7.  Pour the batter into the cake tin
8.  Bake for 20-30mins until risen and firm to touch
9.  Do the toothpick test, if the toothpick comes out clean, transfer the cakes to a wire rack and allow to cool
10.  Brush the passion fruit glaze on the top of the cake

The mango and passion fruit ice cream from yesterday turned out to be slightly icy. Guess it was due to the juice from the passion fruit. Taste-wise, it was a bit on the sour side instead of the usual sweet as expected from mango ice cream.

---------------- Edited on 8 Mar 2017 ----------------

Brought a tub of the ice cream to office for my usual group of tasters to try and received positive feedback. Most of the comments were that they like the tartness of the passion fruit in the otherwise sweet mango ice cream.

4 Mar 17 (Sat) - Mango & Passion Fruit Ice Cream

Have wanted to make this ice cream for a very long time and finally got around to it. Used the improved mango ice cream recipe and make some modifications. This is also the first time I am making such a big portion of ice cream. Both the mango and passion fruit smell very nice, hopefully the ice cream will turn out equally nice.

Ingredients:

400ml whipping cream

450g diced mango
165g icing sugar
6 passion fruit
zest and juice of 1 lime

Method:

1.  Place diced mango in a blender and pulse 3-4 times

2.  Add whipping cream and 1/3 of the icing sugar then pulse 4-6 times

3.  Add another 1/3 of the icing sugar and zest and juice of a lime then pulse 3-4 times

4.  Add the remaining icing sugar and blend the mixture for about 15-20 seconds
5.  Pour mixture into a container of your choice and put into the freezer

6.  Remove from freezer after 3 hours to churn* with a fork
7.  Remove the pulp from the passion fruit and set aside

8.  Repeat step (6) for another time
9.  Add in the pulp from the passion fruit** and mix well before freezing it overnight

* Try to churn the mixture in a whisking manner to try to incorporate as much air into the mixture as possible
** Drain as much of the juice away as possible before adding