my life as we knew it has ceased (temporarily i hope) as i take a brief hiatus before trudging into the unknown, unofficial "second part" of life.

instead of panicking in light of the absence of a stable employment (and more importantly, financial inflow), i am thoroughly enjoying myself, doing nothing, and thinking abt nothing. i've already turned down 2 offers thus far and waiting for bigger things to come. i'm not in a rush and i hope my decision to wait will prove to be right insyaAllah.

wat better way is there to fill up time then to try out new recipes. so far, i've been really successful with recipes like italian lasagna and penne with cabonara sauce. also tried a recipe from nigella, deep-fried calamari with semolina and paprika which was so crunchy, spicy and yummy. i even made my own deep fried chicken wanton which was super delicious. and of course, i have almost mastered the british fish and chips, substituting beer for zappel of course. haha.

this week, however, i decided to make dessert. and as usual, its always a transcontinent affair. yesterday, i made a traditional chinese dessert, Tang Yuan. its really easy to make and fun to eat! tang yuan is a sweet dish that they sometimes serve for chinese tea ceremony or during reunions and stuff. it was originally made for lantern festival, but since its nice and easy to make, people now eat it all year round.

to make tang yuan, i used 2 cups of glutinous flour and about half a cup of lukewarm water. mixed it together with my hands (i wore gloves coz i dun like things sticking to the parts in between my fingers) until it was sorta an elastic dough consistency. IM SORRY i dun have pictures....... didnt even think of blogging abt it actually. hee2. anw, i then divided the mixture into 3. i coloured one of it green, with a touch of honeydew flavouring, and the other yellow, with banana flavouring. [im lucky coz all these things are always found around my house anyway]. i then shaped the dough into small, marble-sized balls.

Next, i added 2 cups of sugar, 4 cups of water and some pandan leaves in a pot and heated it up to make a syrup. i then only needed to plonk all the glutinous balls into the syrup and waited for them to float. once they float means they are cooked and i took them out. to make the "soup", i threw away abt 2 cups of the syrup and added 2 cups of water to make it "thinner". also added ginger slices which gave a very nice aroma. put all the balls back into the soup and voi la! DONE! the dish can be served hot or cold. since i put flavouring into the coloured balls, they sorta tasted like bubblegum, very nice!!



check out my tang yuan!


today, i wanted my tastebuds to fly from china to spain so i made churros, which are a very popular tea time sorta snack sorta dessert in spain and mexico. if u love cinammon flavour and cinnamon pretzels from auntie annie's u HAVE to try this recipe. i even took pictures which i hope will inspire u to try!

to make churros, u need to first heat up 1 cup of water with 50gm of butter and a tablespoon of sugar. once its hot, turn the heat off and add in 1 cup of all-purpose flour. quickly mix it up until it becomes a soft dough(it should all come together into a ball). next add in 1 egg and stir it in. if the dough becomes too soft, add in some flour again to make it a ball. now, u leave it to cool.




meantime, u should prepare the sugar cinammon. its just one tablespoon of cinnamon powder with 3 tbsp caster sugar. if u dun have cinnamon powder, u can just ground a cinnamon stick, mix with sugar and sieve the mixture. spread it on a plate.





when ur dough is cooled, put it in a piping bag, with a star-shaped tip (this is the best shape i swear coz it gives a crunch at the edges and allows the sugar to stick to the nooks and crannys). heat up oil abt 2 inches deep and pipe the mixture into the oil, cutting it abt 10 cm each (or wtv u like). i usually use 2 seperate piping bags, one for the dough, which i put inside another one with the tip. this way, the dough doesnt stick to the tip and i dun have to waste time scrubbing it.fry til deep golden brown, drain the oil on a paper towel and roll it in the sugar-cinnamon mixture.





and voila!




CHURROS! a spanish teatime that is sooo fabulous when eaten with traditional hot chocolate. YUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMYY!

with all these dishes and desserts under my belt, both my parents (even my mum!) have proclaimed tt i am ready to get married! FEEEEEEEWIIIIIIIITTTTT!! i urge u babes and dudes to try these really easy recipes to impress the heck out of ur parents and partners!