Tapioca Kueh

Have always wanted to try to make Tapioca Kueh and I tried today and it turn out not bad (mom told me that it is nice, seconded by my sister : )). Recorded now the receips, in case i need to refer to it in the future. Two tapioca at $1, coconut cream at $0.80 and coconut flower at $0.70, total $2.50. A bit of salt and sugar for taste. Cut the tapioca into cute, wash, cover with water, boil under small fire till the water dry out. Watch out for the fire and be careful not to burn the tapioca. Turn off the fire when you see the tapioca has become soft and the water has dry out. The tapioca turn soft quite fast, so watch out for the fire, cos I burn some of the tapioca. Mash the tapioca (it is almost the same matter as mash potato). add the coconut cream to get the coconut flavour or you can omit the step, if you do not like coconut taste, but it did taste and smell good with coconut cream. Thereafter spread the mash tapioca in a tray, bring it to steam under small fire. As the tapioca is already cook, so you need not have to steam it too long. While the tapioca is steaming, you can prepare the coconut flower.

This is the coconut flower, add a bit of salt to get a salty taste and the flower is white colour when you add it on the top of the tapioca or you can add red sugar to get a sweet taste and the coconut flower will turn out to be red colour.

While the tapioca is still steaming, add the coconut flower on top and let it steam for a short while to have the coconut flower blend with the tapioca. This is the final result. I have cut the tapioca into pieces and serve in a plate. Final review: I added too much salt and it taste a bit salty. Mom told me that it will looks nice if I use red sugar but overall it taste good.

My steamer : )

I love steam food, cos it is one of the healthiest ways to cook. It preserves the important nutrients in the food, stir-frying, boiling, grilling and other high-temperature heating methods destroy many important nurtrients. More importantly, I did not have to wash the kitchen if I steam the food, you know what I mean, the oily and sticky stuff on the kitchen wall, the amount of washing detergent to wash the utensils just to get rid of the oily stuff.

I had a free 2nd-hand Tefal 2-tier electric food steamer from someone and it has been serving me great. I just pop my rice, vegetable, chicken etc into the steamer, fill it with water, set the timer, and go do something else while it cooks. I got my entire meal cooked all at once. It is so easy to use. It save my time to do others things. I did not have to clean my kitchen, wash the pot and wok (if I use the convention way to steam the food), I did not have to worry my food will be over steam or under steam.

If you are thinking of getting one, try to get one with the easy water fill tank rather than you have to lift up the tray to fill the water. It is too hot to lift up the tray to fill the water, if you are thinking of refilling the water. It does not matter whether the steamer trays are transparent or not. Once the steam is up, you cannot see anything. Just set the timing correctly for your food and you can left it there to cook it. Whether you are getting 2-tier or 3-tier, it really depend on your demand, of course, with 3-tier it mean you can steam more, or else a 2-tier will serve you good.

I find it convenience to use electric food steamer cos people like me who work late and tired after a day of work, feel like having some home cook food after so many days of foodcourt food, lazy to take out the wok, pot and rice cooker to cook just a simple meal, especially the number of dishes I have to wash after the meal. The electric food steamer served me well. I would prepared the food in the morning and left it in the fridge, at night when I reached home, I just simple took it out from the fridge and leave it to the steamer to do the cooking and I can have a good meal after a bath. Ins't it wonderful to have a good home cook meal!

Upsized Muffins - Yummy!

Read in the The Straits Times, taste, 27, 1 June 2008, it said that bakeries and cafes in Singapore are nowadays offering upsized muffins and the business is good.

This upsizing phenomenon was happened 5 years ago in USA and it seem to be quite happening nowadays in Singapore where everything is also upsized from clothes to food and drink. It said that it is encouraging people to go for the larger size, leading people to become accustomed to the larger portions and hence, putting on more weight. Well, I thought we adult should know what is overeating versus greedy. Even though we might not go for the upsized, we still could overeating and put on weight (just a thought).

For a normal size muffin of 120g it has 420 calories (this is the size that I usually purchased from Han's at my office downstairs, but I always eat two...me too greedy), a 230g muffin has a 600 calories and an upsized muffin of 400g has a 1000 calories!! Wow...that is too high! If I will to take one upsized muffin, which mean I cannot eat for the rest of the day (scary).

It is a good news to some who love muffin, for eg people like me (hee...)...i do love muffins...but...upsized...might be too much for me.

For those who dare to try and not afraid of calories, here you can find where to get that extra large muffins:

Corduroy Cafe at #01-06, VivoCity, 1 Harbourfront Walk, Tel 63769895

Cakes in Bloom at email christinekoh@cakesinbloom.com or call 62935531

Bliss Haven Muffins at Blk 127, Lorong 1, Toa Payoh, #02-34, Tel: 62524323

Missy Muffins at #02-134, Amoy Street Food Centre, Tel 92235734

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Should I get one upsized muffin and try? I still could not resist the temptation...