Macau Sawdust Pudding

I have seen blogs & forums about this famous & chilled dessert originated from Macau.

I didn't see shops selling this dessert during my visit in Macau last year.

I wasn't so keen & passionate in cooking & baking, I think that's why I missed it.

Well, I got the recipe I noted a long time ago.

Finally digged it out & made it this week.

I couldn't find Marie biscuits in my nearby supermarket so I used rich tea biscuits instead.

It's a nice & light dessert, not too sweet.

The biscuit & cream layers make a wonderful combination.

Recipe:

160g rich tea biscuit crumbs

400g whipping cream

100g condensed milk

2 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

Mix the biscuit crumbs with cocoa powder.

Whisk the whipping cream until soft stiff.

Fold in the condensed milk & vanilla essence, then continue beating until creamy & fluffy (80% stiff).

Put a layer of biscuit crumbs in your choice of cake pan (can be a bowl, glass, mousse ring etc.)

Spoon some creams on the crumb layer.

Repeat the last 2 steps until the pan is filled.

Chill in freezer for 2 hours to set.

This dessert is easy to make & has delicate taste.

I'll definitely make it again.

But don't know when though because I have a long waiting list for bakery.

Chinese almond cookies, tofu-fa, hazelnut chocolate sables, black sesame seed & tofu cheesecake, New York cheesecake, black tea cheesecake...

This will keep me busy during my holiday.

A Day in Kew Gardens

The Pagoda taken by Sei-Him Cheong

Last week, Cheong & I had gone to Kew Gardens in London.

Student price is £11, not cheap but a coupon given to get discount for the next visit.

The annual fee is quite cheap, it's about £35.

The 1st photo features the iconic building, The Pagoda.

To be honest, it's neither pretty nor special.

I thought the tower is opened for sightseeing but it's not, very disappointed.

Yellow Roses taken by Cheong.

Pink Roses taken by Sei-Him Cheong.

As Kew is celebrating 250th anniversary, different species of roses have planted.

I have never seen so many roses in my life before.

The roses are mainly white, pink & yellow.

In the green houses, there are plants that I'm familiar with because I've seen them in Malaysia.

Including banana trees & the national flower, hibiscus.

The national flower of Malaysia is in red instead of the pink shown in the photo.

But it reminds me the days in Malaysia.

Hibiscus taken by Sei-Him Cheong.

I have also seen Pitcher plants in Kew.

Although it's a typical plant in Malaysia, I had never seen this there, so I was quite surprised to see it here.

Pitcher plant taken by Sei-Him Cheong.

Although I'm not passionate in plants & gardening, I think it's worth visiting.

We didn't have enough time to walk around the whole garden.

We'd been to International Garden Photographer of the Year Exhibition.

My cousin, Voon Wah in Hong Kong is great at taking photographs of birds & wildlife.

I think he'll win if he submitted his works.

I'll definitely tell him to submit for the competition in 2010.

We leaved at 6.30 p.m.

There are many restaurants & cafe that are nicely decorated.

We had a dinner at Pizza Express before heading back to Basildon.

Hitchin Lavender ~ 薰衣草之旅

Walking up the field by Sei-Him Cheong.

This week I went to Hitchin Lavender Field with Julian & my siblings.

Again, with my brother Cheong & sisters Kelly (shown in the picture) & Jen, it looked like we're having a photograph session.

This was the main purpose of Kelly to bring Cheong so he can be the camera man...

Cheong did take some great pictures with my sisters who love to be photographed.

Well, I don't like to be photographed cos I feel & act strange when a camera is pointing at me.

So, there's no photo of me, haha ^___^

My favourite picture of my sister, Kelly in the field by Sei-Him Cheong.

Had to pay in order to get into the field so we got scissors & bags for lavender.

Although the staff at the shop said there're 5 different species, I only saw 3.

Maybe I saw all of them but I couldn't recognize...

There were lots of bees on the fields.

The most scary part was the first step into the field, many bees were surrounding us.

Of course, they were too busy working with lavenders.

Once I got used to the flying bees, I started to enjoy myself with the sight & lavender picking.

The red among the violet '紫原一點紅' by Sei-Him Cheong.

There're horses in the farm too.

So before heading back to the shop, I went to feed one of the horses.

At first, it ignored me & then I finally fed it with some grasses.

I think it's the 1st time I was so closed to a horse.

Horse in the farm by Sei-Him Cheong

There is a small shop, coffee & tea are served there.

But we didn't stay for a drink.

There're pots of lavender for sale & I saw 5 different species there.

There're also some lotions, soaps, essential oils etc.

I was quite surprised they didn't have any lavender cake or biscuit.

I've baked lavender cookies before & I thought it's quite common to use lavender in cooking & baking.

I did baked a lavender butter cake the day after, but I wasn't satisfied with the taste...

So, I didn't take a photo of it & included the recipe with this post.

I still have bunches of lavender & I don't know what to do with them.

But I think 1st thing to do is to sun dry them.

Then, I'll explode ways to use them.

Day of Berry ~ 酸酸甜甜的滋味

It's the season of strawberry & raspberry.

With my family, I went to McLauchlans of Boxted near Colchester for berry picking last week.

Had a great day out in the farm.

Choosing, picking & eating berry...

I also used some of the leftover raspberry to make a cheesecake.

This cheesecake is lighter as I used fat free cream cheese & yogurt.

Perfect for summer!

Recipe (6 inch round pan):

Crust:

60g digestive biscuit crumbs 60g

30g unsalted butter (melted)

Mix together the crust ingredients & press into your preferred pan.

Cheese filling:

250g cream cheese

150g plain yogurt

100g fresh raspberry

70g sugar

8g gelatin

50g water

Make raspberry puree using a blender, remove the raspberry seeds to get the strained juice.

Dissolve gelatin in water over hot water.

Whisk the cream cheese and sugar until smooth.

Stir in the yogurt then the raspberry puree.

Fold in the gelatin in water.

Pour into the prepared pan & cool in the fridge until stiff.

Serve with your choice of fruits.

我弟拿著相機跟隨著我姐，讓我覺得不是在採草莓而是在戶外拍寫真。

那裡的草莓真的很甜，很好吃！