Island Folk's Corner: September 2007

Friday, September 28, 2007

Chinese dessert

Part of the ingredients for the traditional Chinese dessert.

This is our favourite dessert. It can be served hot or cool. No sugar is being added. Yummy!

Tapioca cake

Tapioca cake before bake.

Baked tapioca cake.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Ingredients include dried oyster, dried anchovies (ikan bilis), dried shrimps, peanuts, cabbage, thousand- year-old eggs, salted eggs and rice.
Serve with raw young ginger, fried garlic, spring onion or fresh coriander. Great for party too.

Radish cake (brown rice)

The traditional Chinese radish cake is made of refined rice flour with white radish, shrimp and salt, but I usually make it with brown rice instead. It's precooked before steam, and then steamed for an hour, let cool (usually overnight), cut and fry.

Steamed brown rice radish cake.

Fried brown rice radish cake, serve with chilli.

Brown rice & wholemeal pancake

This high fibre brown rice & wholemeal pancake is added with grated coconut and stuffed with sliced banana, without any sugar being added.

Wholemeal potato bread

This wholemeal potato bread is added with raisin, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

The adding of mashed potato to wholemeal bread makes it having lighter texture compare to wholemeal & rye bread.

Wholemeal & rye bread

Wholemeal & rye bread before fermentation.

After fermentation.
The wholemeal & rye bread is added with raisin, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. It's a high fibre bread.The bread is much heavier than the store's. But hubby and I have been used to the solid texture of this heavy loaf, so it tastes nice to us, especially when it's fresh from oven.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Cheese cake 1

This cheese cake 1 is fluffy as compare to cheese cake2. It's baked.

Palm Oil handmade saop

The palm oil soap, being the simplest soap, is made from NaOH, palm oil and water. We use either new palm oil or recycle palm oil for this soap.
It's a natural soap and without any harmful ingredient being added. New palm oil soap is used for my handwash clothing and also cleaning cooking utensils, but the recycle palm oil soap is used for other miscellaneous cleaning.
The saponification process for palm oil soap takes only 3 weeks.

Handmade soap with cocoa butter

Made of NaOH, Olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, bee wax and water, this handmade olive oil soap takes 3 weeks to saponify and produces a light smell of coconut oil blended with the sweet scent of cocoa butter.

Hand made soap 2

The 3 cakes of handmade soaps are undergoing saponification process. After which they will be cut and can be stored for one to two years.

Wholemeal Pizza

The pizza dough is made from wheatmeal 100% flour. Sometimes I do away with cheese, it still tastes okay for me.

Cheese cake 2

This cheese cake2 has a very different texture and taste as compare to cheese cake1. It's creamy and sticky with a layer of crunched digestive biscuit at the bottom. It's unbaked, made with gelatin and cream cheese, and kept in fridge for setting.

Granola : ingredients 2

The other parts of ingredients for granola.

Granola : ingredient 1

The raw ingredients for granola are listed on the picture.

Granola (Baked)

Granola is our favourite snack, it's easy to make and high in fibre and excellent for breakfast or tea break. It can be stored in an airtight container or canister upto 3 weeks. The main ingredients are rolled oats, ingredient 1 and ingredient 2 (refer photos).

Prawn crackers (Keropok Udang)

Being one of our favourite crunchy titbits, especially great for party or festive occasion like Chinese New Year, these prawn crackers are made from simple ingredients such as tapioca flour, prawn, pepper and salt. These 4 loaves are fresh from steamer, they have to be hardened in fridge (usually overnight), sliced, dehydrated (usually sun dry) before fry.
The sun dried prawn crackers can be stored upto 2 to 3 years! But the tempting crackers just won't last any longer than a week during festive season!

Handmade olive oil soap 1

The handmade olive oil soap is our favourite soap for years. It's something that we will never go without.
Made by mixing NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide), an alkaline, with water, bee wax, and 7.5% palm oil, 92.5% Pure Olive oil, using a cold process, the olive oil handmade soap is full of pure, natural glycerin and it's lusciously different from the commercial bar. Glycerin is a natural by-product of the soapmaking process called saponification. Because it is a valuable commodity that can be sold to the cosmetic and other industries, the commercial soap manufacturers extract glycerin for a higher profit. What is being left behind is a soap without glycerin, which will dry out your skin. That's the reason people use moisturizer after using commecial bar.

But a handmade soap retains the glycerin which moisturizes your skin and provides a lovely, silky feel.

After an exhausting workout or a good day's work, it's definately a treat for your skin.....
We have a hard feeling for shower gel and shampoo after using the handmade olive oil soap.
The process of making is pretty easy and if you like baking or making pudding, this is for you! But it has to undergo a 6 weeks saponification process before you can use it.

Brown rice yam & radish cake

One of our favourite nutritious breakfast! It's also great for party or gathering. The traditional Chinese yam cake is made of refined (white) rice flour and yam. But I make it from brown rice with white radish added, on top of the yam, which render it a high fibre and nutritious snack. Serve with chilli sauce.