Chinese dessert tong sui - longan date luo han guo tong sui 龍眼紅棗羅漢果糖水

I purchase a lot dry ingredients from Hong Kong during my Hong Kong trip. I love cake, chocolate and many sweets.When I have this chinese dessert that I am making tonight, I had it at a vegeterian restaurant in Hong Kong. I am glad I had this dessert, these ingredients are nostalgic to me, the very familiar taste. and honestly if I have never left Hong Kong. I probably won't care it much. I hope you all will like it. :)

龍眼紅棗羅漢果糖水

Ingredients: 

dried Long an about 15 pcs

Red date 15-20 pcs

luo han guo 1 pc

goji berry 15-20 pcs

snow fungus 1 pc

Rock sugar adjust to taste

Directions
1. Soak white fungus in a bowl of water for about 15 mins, discard water. The white fungus should be puffed up. Cut them into small pieces on a cutting board and discard the dark yellow hard part on the centre underside of the fungus. Put it aside .

2. wash dried long an, red date, and goji berry. 

3. rinse the luo han guo, break it into a quarter

4. In a soup pot, add water, add all 1, 2 and 3 ingredients. Bring to a boil and then simmer (with lid closed) for 30-40 minutes. Add rock sugar simmering for 5 minutes.
5. Turn off the flame when the sugar is fully dissolved.  Serve warm or chilled.

Some changes from now on

I love food! There will be some changes in my diet. I have always been eating a lot fruits and veggies but I will decrease my 80% of animal fats in my diet from now on just to stay healthy and I need to! :)

I am excited and determined. I know it will be so worth it. 

guppy babies was born today

guppy babies just born today! they are so adorable. :) so happy today! I was so busy seperate them from guppy mama.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

yumm... so I made some chicken tortilla soup last Saturday and I indeed did not like the flavor, I have some left over tonight. oh wow, the soup flavor has developed, I was actually suprised! I think next time I will boil a little longer and probably it tastes better the next day!
so this time I used follow ingredient for the soup, I did not make a big batch.

1 chicken breast
3 garlic clove (chopped)
1 medium onion
2 dried shitake mushroom - Optional (I just love to use mushroom in my soup)
1/2 cup chopped red pepper
1 T chopped jalapeno
1/2 T chipotle pepper (I used the can one)
2T some dried chili (the one I used was chili pods california)
1 bay leave
1 can chopped tomato with green chili
1t garlic powder
1t chili powder
2T tomato paste
1T honey
5 pcs corn tortilla
lemon juice
a handful of cilantro
I think I used water about 5 cups (I am not sure it was a small batch)

1. sweat the onion and garlic first around 5 minutes
2. added remaining ingredients to the pot except tortilla and lemon juice
3. Boiled for about an hour
4. added the corn tortilla to the soup and boiled additional 15 minutes
5. take out the chicken and shredded it
6. puree the soup with handheld blender
7. put the chicken back to the soup and add the cilantro cook for about 10 mins
8. taste with salt and pepper a splash lemon juice

so in my previous post I mentioned that I am not familiar with pepper, and yes I found it very challenging when I was looking for chipotle powder, at the local market that I went to did not really carry chipotle powder, I am not sure if there is other name for it. I found some chipotle pepper in a can so I got them. There are a lot peppers in a small can, I froze the rest of the peppers individually (some people suggest to puree them and put them in ice tray and freeze them - really good idea I would do it next time).
I was also looking for ancho chili, I couldn't find them. Now I learned that they also called pasilla, they are next to those california chili pod I bought, I think I saw pasilla in powder form too. I love adding chili to the dishes, I will continue to try different chili. :)

Lunar New Year 2013 is coming this sunday!

2013 Lunar New Year

It's Thursday Feb 07 today, I haven't have a plan for the new year yet. This Chinese New Year's Day falls on 10 February 2013 (Sunday) . The upcoming new year will be the year of the snake. I don't think I will do anything particular since my family is not in the States (sad face); however, I probably will try to make some Taro (Root) cake 芋頭糕 or some Turnip cake 蘿蔔糕 this weekend to try to feel I am at home. :) I'll post some pictures later this weekend! Hope they will turn out just fine!
I bought some chicken tortilla soup from Fresh & Easy two weeks ago. I love them! It's a little spicy, I tried to google a couple of chicken tortilla soup recipe on the internet and have tried to make it over the weekend, it just didn't taste right. So I went on fresh&easy website and looked at the ingredients of the soup and figured that probably the Chipotle powder and Ancho chili did some magic in the soup. I love pepper and different peppers give the dish an unique flavor. I am going to try to use them this weekend and I'll come back to give everyone a report! :D 

Additional info for people who aren't familiar with pepper like me. 
 
Ancho chili is the dried form of Poblano chili, it is a mild chili pepper originating from Puebla, Mexico. 
The ripened red poblano is significantly hotter and more flavorful than the less ripe, green poblano. I think the dried form of the ancho chili is in red color.

Chipotle powder is little smokey flavor chili pepper. Its a relatively mild but earthy spiciness. Chipotle can be ground and combined with other spices to make a meat marinade, adobo.

Poka Poka -

Welcome to my poka poka blog! Tonight is just a regular weekday night, nothing much happening tonight. I have an idea, starting a food blog, that make a good start in life.