Black Sesame Filling 2 Ways

Have been looking for ways to finish my left over black sesame powder before it expire and finally found a recipe online. All I need are black sesame powder, icing sugar, some sesame oil and enough canola oil for smoothness. Mix everything in bowl until a smooth paste is form and chill it in the fridge before use.

Now that I have the filling, what's next?
Green tea black sesame mochi. The mochi recipe and instruction can be found from LCOM. I really like this green tea version, very soft and refreshing especially if you eat it right away. Or you can chill in the fridge. I especially like the chilled version.

Black sesame steam bun. This is one of my favorite steam bun besides the egg custard bun. Not many dim sum place has it but you can certainly get the frozen from Asian Groceries store. I prepared the bun with the store bought pre-package pau flour. The sesame filling was rather dry not sure whether because I over steam the bun? Nevertheless, it still taste ok.

Chinese New Year Nian Gao

This is my first CNY creation of the year. How could you complete a chinese new year celebration without a nian gao? So I decided to get some steaming going with this quick and easy nian gao recipe from fellow blogger on Tuesday night and get ready for CNY celebration.
This recipe was adopted from Florence . Never imagine I will make my own nian gao as I heard that there are many pantang larang when steaming a nian gao. I guess due to the culture differences, Hong Kong style nian gao seems to be easier to prepare as compare to malaysia version when people spend all day long just to steam the kuih.

Ingredients:

• 300g glutinous rice flour
• 75g wheat starch (tang mien fun)
• 250g black/brown sugar
• 250ml water
• 250ml thick coconut milk

Method:

• Boil sugar with water till sugar dissolved. Strain and leave to cool. Stir in coconut milk and ginger juice.
• Pour sugar solution into sieved glutinous rice flour and wheat starch. Stir the mixture until well blended. Strain mixture if necessary so that it will be smoother.
• Pour nian gao mixture into a greased pan, cover it with aluminum foil and steam for about 45 - 60 minutes.
• Stick a red date in the middle of the cake immediately after it is cooked.

Kuih Ubi Kayu ( Cassava Cake)

Never know how easy is to make Kuih Ubi Kayu until I saw this recipe from Lily's blog. I love this snack and I remember my cousin used to make this from scratch. Scratch mean buying fresh Ubi kayu, remove the skin and grate the ubi with hand. I was surprise that I am able to get the frozen grated cassava from Asian store in state and still made this delightful snack in less an hour.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb grated cassava
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup coconut cream
• 1 stick (4 ozs) butter
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 tsp salt

Method:

• Preheat oven at 375 F
• Mix all the ingredients in a large glass bowl and microwave on high for 1 minute at a time for about 3 minutes.
• Pour into greased tin and bake for 30 minutes.
• Cool before cutting into pieces.

My ID4 Snack

Saw this Loh Mei Chi from chowtimes. It is so simple. All you need to do is just mix everything together and microwave for a few minutes. During the ID4 holiday, we have a pool gathering for my son and his friends, so I decide to make some mochi for snack. Since I don't have red bean paste with me, I used roasted peanut and sugar for the filling. The recipe provided enough make around 8 mochi balls. This is just about the right quantity for me since they don't taste as good if left overnight.

My husband certainly not a mochi eater like me except ice cream mochi.