Pieces of Gold

I'm really intrigued by this new plant in my balcony.

I saw it in a nursery all the way at Chua Chu Kang.

I didn't know the name of the plant, so I asked the lady at the nursery what they were.

"Oh.. I don't know too.. we just call it Pieces of Gold (片片黄金)"

I laughed.. and brought the plant home.

The flowers are yellow and where there is a flower, there will be a white leaf or two accompanying the flowers.

Very interesting. If you do know the name of this plant... pls let me know?

Onde Onde

I like eating onde onde a lot. It is probably one of my favourite nonya desserts.

Onde onde (or sometimes spelt as ondeh ondeh) is a sweet snack made out of sweet potatoes with gula melaka (brown palm sugar) in the centre, rolled with fresh grated coconut.

I like the "popping" sensation one gets when eating onde onde. The melted gula melaka bursts out from the skin of the onde onde and mixes very well with the fresh coconut. As a child, onde onde was what I imagine Pop Biscuits to be like when I read the Faraway Tree.

I didn't know that onde onde is so simple to make.. until the class at A's place on Saturday.

All you really need is:
- Sweet Potatoes
- Glutinous Rice Flour
- Pandan Leaves and Green Food Colouring
- Grated Fresh Coconut (mix with a little salt)
- Gula Melaka

To make the "skin" of the onde onde, boil some sweet potatoes with pandan leaves until very soft and then mash it up well. Add an equal part of glutinous rice flour and knead the sweet potatoes and flour together, adding water until you get a firm dough. Add the green food colouring to the dough. If you like, you can add a bit of the juice of pandan leaves for better flavour.

Then, roll the dough into little balls of equal sizes. Fill the dough with chopped gula melaka and then it's done!

All you then need to do is to put the little balls into a pot of hot water and when the water boils and the little balls float up, take them out and roll them on a bed of grated coconut.

Boil the sweet potatoes

Mash the sweet potatoes up well with 2 forks

Mix the sweet potatoes with the glutinous rice flour

Knead until the dough is smooth and then add the colouring

When the onde onde floats up, they are cooked

Roll the onde onde over a plate of grated coconut

The final product - homemade onde onde

Simple homemade granola

One of my favourite frozen yogurt is Yami Yogurt. I like the peach flavour at Yami Yogurt so much.. I don't think I've ever ordered another flavour before. And I like the granola topping so much that I've never really ordered another topping before.

I've never figured out the brand of the granola they use.. but I decided to make some of my own so that I can have healthier breakfast on weekdays.. I got the general idea of the recipe from Evan's blog.. but I just simply added what I liked and had at home to the granola too.

My version of homemade granola consisted of:
- 3 cups of old fashion rolled oats
- A small handful of raisins and dried cranberries
- A small handful of macadamia nuts, sliced almonds and some sunflower seeds
- A tablespoon of dessicated coconut

I mixed everything together with a little bit of salt and then addded in a mixture of canola oil and honey (2 tablespoon oil with half a cup of honey)

Then everything went into the oven at 160 deg C for 40 mins. Be sure to line your baking tray with silpat for this. I used a non-stick pan but the granola still stuck on to the tray after it cooled.

The granola should be stored in an airtight container when it is completely cooled.

The results? A weeks' full of granola to go with fruity yogurt. I'd be trying a different variation sometime soon again.