Recipe: Homemade Coconut Snowballs

You've probably seen these in Chinese grocery stores or, if you're lucky, in pot lucks. These glutinous rice coconut snowballs can be filled with a variety of things like toasted ground peanuts, black sesame, sesame and sugar, or coconut and sugar. I've noticed that many cultures have a version of this. It's called nom plae ai in Cambodian, for instance; in Thai, it's kha nom tom; and banh bao chi in Vietnamese.

Here's the recipe Mom wrote down many years ago. She knew exactly what everything meant. I've seen her make this a few times so I'll try my best to break it down.

Ottawa's 1st Annual Poutinefest

Sparks Street has really been stepping it up lately with the sheer amount of food festivals being hosted this year.  Most people know about Ribfest, usually held in June, but the organizers also brought many of the same vendors back in October for Ribtoberfest.

Screen shot from Sparks Street Mall.

The newest addition to the food festivals on Sparks is Poutine Fest, going on NOW!  Although not completely necessary, I (Lucy) bought a $20 poutine pass that gives you five samples from the participating vendors.  They'll be great for sampling and figuring out which poutine we'd like to dine on, though it will probably mean that we'll be lining six times instead of just one or two.  These passes are sold in a small tent on the east side of Metcalfe and Sparks (block 1).  Otherwise, the vendors are selling the regular sized poutine at regular prices.

Poutine Fest is on now and runs until tomorrow night.  Check it out before it's gone, and make sure to vote for your favourite vendor!

Christine here:
Based on what I've heard, the lines are worse than Ribfest. It's probably because it's the first year for the event. But I think that Sparks Street will be more packed since there are vegetarian options too.

So here's my plan of attack. Depending on how busy it is, I might get the Poutinefest pass where you pay $20 and get five 8oz-small poutines from any of the participants. With that pass, I'll try to get poutine from 5 different places. I'll try to get one regular poutine (cheese curds, gravy, and fries), one with chicken gravy and, finally, a poutine that has unusual toppings. We'll see how that goes. Worse case scenario, we'll just go somewhere else for poutine.

I hear that there's also churros and mini donuts available for dessert too!

For those who have been to Ottawa's Poutinefest, what was it like? Which poutines were among your favourites?

Sticky Rice with Mangoes and Sweetened Coconut Milk - Khao Neeo Mamuang

When the weather is sunny and hovering around 30 degrees Celsius (or 84 degrees Fahrenheit), it makes me think of desserts like shaved ice and sticky rice with mangoes. Although my relatives are from Cambodia, I can’t recall eating mangoes with sticky rice and sweetened coconut milk.  In Thailand, they call it khao neeo mamuang.

Not long after watching some youtube videos of street food in Thailand and Singapore, I had sudden cravings of tasting sticky rice with mangoes. We luckily had some ripe mangoes from Toronto. Perfect.

Sticky rice was made with a bit of coconut milk powder and water. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough water and some of the rice became crunchy.

A couple of mangoes from the case were placed in a plastic bag to ripen quicker for a few days. (You can also use this technique to ripen bananas quicker too.) This was the result. The soft mangoes were deep orange and, once peeled, filled the kitchen with a sweet perfume of mangoes.

The coconut-scented sticky rice was topped with the sliced mangoes. Coconut milk was drizzled on top but it just didn’t taste right. There was something missing. Simple syrup was needed to sweeten the sticky rice and make it taste better.

This dessert dish would’ve been much better if the sticky rice was made properly.  Some of the sticky rice earned a big womp womp. Not only did it stick to our teeth, but they also weren’t pleasant to chew. I’m not sure that it’s worth the extra effort to eat ripe mangoes. I’d be perfectly happy to eat cold ripened mangoes alone -- especially in the heat.

Krop Knao aka Med Kanoon - Dec. 24, 2009

I found this while cleaning out my external hard drive. I totally forgot that we didn't blog about this, even though we blogged about the hot pot dinner. So continuing with the random tidbits, here's the third one.

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Krop Knao is a Thai dessert, made of mung beans, sugar, coconut milk and egg yolk. In Thai, the dessert is called med kanoon, whereas the Cambodians call it krop knao. It doesn't look the best. Okay, so they look like yellow turds - sweet and sticky yellow turds. Mmm.. very appetizing. Hahaa!

This is another dish my mom makes without a recipe. When she cooks and bakes, she doesn’t necessarily know the exact ingredients and measurements, but she does know how it’s supposed to look and feel before/when she cooks and bakes.

The recipe is taken from Thai Sweet Taste, since my mom doesn’t know how much she put. I asked my mom to look at the recipe on the blog and confirm the measurements. “I don’t know. Depends on how much you want to make,” she answered. I added two additional ingredients to the recipe and changed the steps up a bit because that’s the way my mom did it.

For the mung bean:

450g Yellow Mung Beans

200g Sugar

400g Coconut Milk           

½ Teaspoon Salt

2 Drops of Rose Extract/Water

5 Egg Yolks

For the syrup:

3 cups Sugar

2 cups Water

To prepare the mung beans, soak it in water for 2 hours. Then steam the mung beans until cooked. While the mung beans steam, boil some of the coconut milk with the sugar until it becomes as sticky and thick as liquid honey. Cool the coconut syrup for a few minutes.

Once the mung beans are cooked, mash (or blend it in a blender) and then mix them with the coconut syrup, the remaining coconut milk, salt, and rose extract. If you like the mung beans smoother, mash it more. You can add more or less drops of rose extract, depending on how fragrant you like it. Same thing applies to sugar. If you like it a bit sweeter, or less, just adjust the amount – but remember, this is a dessert. 

Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and scramble it. Set the scrambled yolks aside.

Prepare the syrup by simmering the sugar and water in a deep pot on medium-high heat until its consistency is a bit thicker than syrup. My mom says that she tests the syrup by adding a drop of yolk. If the drop of yolk spreads out and doesn’t cook quick enough, then the syrup is not thick and/or hot enough.

You’re ready to start dipping and cooking the mung bean pellets when the drop of yolk holds it’s shape and cooks.

While the syrup gently simmers to the right consistency, you can form the mung beans into small pellets. Then when the syrup is ready, take the mung bean pellets, dip it in the egg yolk and then drop them into the simmering syrup. They should float up pretty quickly. Once the yolk-dipped mung bean pellets start floating, give it an extra 30 seconds before taking them out. You can serve them right away or throw them in the fridge to enjoy later.

Sometimes my mom takes some syrup and mixes it with a few drops of rose extract/water, then pours some of the rose scented syrup onto the cooked pellets.

Andrew's Birthday - June 1st

So we're a bit behind on some posts. Yeah. The dates won't be following a specific timeline, as I'll be posting up my share quicker than Lucy. Just a heads up.

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Let's see... my mom bought Andrew a cake from Costco. We enjoyed it during the weekend with our large extended family before his actual birthday.



Look at all the icing! How can people enjoy cake with this much icing? Apparently Jimmy likes the amount of icing.

As a joke, I scrapped off the icing off my slice of cake and added it onto his.



I wasn't expecting him to eat it all. He tried though. It was quite funny how sluggish he was as he was nearing the end.

I like eating this cake (without majority of all the icing). The sweet, moist chocolate cake sandwiches a sweeter filling (custard or pudding?). Served with a nice pot of hot tea from Ten Ren, it's a great dessert. The tea helps cut down the sweetness and icing as well.


On his actual birthday, our family went out for dinner to treat Andrew. When asked what he wanted to eat, he chose Totoya. My parents didn't want to try and find parking downtown, so we asked for his second option. He eventually chose the Cafe Orient.

We started off with some hot and sour soup.


It was on the watery side.

Salt and pepper steak.


The meat had been too tenderized. The texture of the meat barely resembled meat.

Richard ordered some peanut noodles, which essentially was pad thai.


I wasn't a fan of this. I was hoping we'd order a plate of rice noodles with beef (the dry one with soy sauce and onions).

This was some sort of fish with black bean sauce.




We got some enoki mushrooms with other vegetables.




The final dish we ordered was the salty fish with tofu casserole pot.



Dinner was disappointing for me, because nothing really stood out. I'm sure everyone else was happy though.

~*~*~

Address:

Cafe Orient

808 Somerset St W

Ottawa, ON

613-563-2422

Random Eats – End of April Roundup

I am still behind on my posting, so I’ll just give short blurbs about the last few pictures from April.

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Steamed Egg and Seaweed – April 21, 2009

I was feeling lazy one night, but wasn’t lazy enough to eat instant noodles or go out for some junk (McDonald’s or 2-4-1 Pizza).



I made some steamed egg with little bits of fake crab (you can’t see any in the picture) and green onions. As for seasoning, I added some salt and fish sauce. Steam until the middle is no longer liquid, and you’ve got a dish! The only thing I hate about this dish is washing the bowl afterwards. The edges get crusty and gross, and it’s a total pain scrubbing it off.

That night, we also opened up a can of BBQ eel from Taiwan and some packets of seasoned, roasted seaweed. Not exactly an awesome meal, but it’s definitely better than noshing on pizza or McDonald’s.

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Bun Bo Hue and Vermicelli from Little Saigon – April 23, 2009

Jimmy and I had a quick lunch at Little Saigon late one afternoon. The place was completely empty, which felt weird for a place that always has a few tables eating.



We ordered the spring rolls, as per usual. The picture only shows two because Jimmy and I greedily ate the first one before remembering to take out the camera. Oops!

As you can see, it’s served with fish sauce. Jimmy made his own dipping sauce of garlic chili sauce mixed with soy sauce (both condiments are always on the table).

This time, the spring rolls weren’t fried and blistered enough. It was soggy in some bites, and crispy in others. Not the best we’ve had.



Jimmy craved a bowl of bun bo hue. I don’t remember his comments about it.



I ordered the curry beef vermicelli. My complaint with the vermicelli (bun) dishes at Little Saigon is that they don’t give enough vegetables and herbs. In fact, they don’t put in fresh herbs at all! Lame.

This was okay. It didn’t blow my mind, but it wasn’t awful either. The end of the bowl looked like I had just eaten a soup because the curry beef comes with almost a ladleful of curry sauce.

It seems that each trip to Little Saigon ends up in “meh” rather than “wow!” That kinda sucks, but I guess that’s what happens when you eat there every other week.

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Cambodiana’s Saucy Dishes – April 24, 2009

We had dinner here before catching a movie at the theatre. For the past few trips to Cambodiana, it seems that they can do no wrong.



As we were seated, the waitress brought us some glasses of water and a pitcher to keep at the table. Jimmy judges a restaurant’s service by how often they come by to refill his water. This pitcher means a perfect ten in his books.



I don’t know which dish I ordered. Judging by the picture, it had chicken, tomatoes, and basil in a red curry sauce. I know it wasn’t overly spicy, and it was aromatic. The rice was a little mushy, but at least it wasn’t undercooked. That’s just nasty.



Jimmy ordered the salaw kako. My grandma makes an awesome version of it. It’s a very green stew with bits of all sorts of vegetables, normally whatever my grandma has lying around in her fridge. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find a place that tastes like my grandma’s kako.

It’s not a spicy dish at all, and it’s not meant to be spicy. There’s a delicate aroma to it, but it’s definitely an acquired taste.

This meal was pricier than lunch at Little Saigon, but I think we were more satisfied with the food. The dishes still cater to non-Southeast Asians, but it has a vibrancy in flavour that Little Saigon lacks.

~ * ~

Little Saigon
284 Princess Street
(Between Clergy and Sydenham)
Kingston, ON
(613) 536-5774

Cambodiana
161 Brock Street
(Brock and Montreal)
Kingston, ON
(613) 531-0888
*Cash and debit only!*

Little Saigon’s Little Lunch – April 2, 2009

From mid-March to the end of April, Jimmy and I were crazy busy. We ended up eating take out more than we normally do. The next couple of posts won’t be particularly exciting because we started getting into a rut. Also, these posts will be shorter because frankly, I’ve already forgotten the details.

Jimmy brought home some Little Saigon for lunch one day. This is what we normally order.



Pork spring rolls with fish sauce. These are wrapped in rice paper and fried to a crisp.



Tom yum goong for Jimmy. He likes Little Saigon’s version because they don’t add coconut milk. I think he only really likes it for the bundles of enokitake in the soup. This is served with a small bowl of steamed rice.



When I don’t feel like eating anything in particular, I get the pad thai with no shrimp. I just don’t like the shrimp from Little Saigon because they don’t taste fresh. And yes, I am aware that this pad thai has been doctored for non-Asian taste buds.

I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll say it again: Little Saigon doesn’t have the most authentic food, but it is dirt cheap. This comes to $18 for two people, before taxes.

And that’s always good in my books.

~ * ~

Little Saigon
284 Princess Street (near Princess and Clergy)
Kingston, ON
(613) 536-5774

Thai-ish Curry - December 4th, 2008

*This was originally posted waaaaaaaay back in December, but it lacked pictures.*

After missing Thanksgiving dinner with my family (I was working all weekend), I must admit that I’m homesick for some home food. I went through the fridge and found some carrots and potatoes that needed to be used up, so I made some Thai curry. Except there’s not much that’s Thai about it. I pretty much made up my own curry. And it didn’t taste like home. At all.

It didn’t occur to me to take pictures of my prep, so you’ll just have to make do with these photos.

Here’s a rough approximation of what I used:

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, diced
¼ medium red pepper, sliced
¼ medium green pepper, sliced
½ cup mushrooms, sliced
½ cup bamboo shoots, sliced
1 cup baby red potatoes, cut into bite-sized pieces
¾ cup baby carrots, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tbsp Thai red curry paste
1 can coconut milk
½ cup chicken breast, diced
1 ½ cups chicken stock
2 tbsp smooth peanut butter
2 tsp salt (to taste)
2 tsp vegetable oil

First, season the chicken with a teaspoon of salt. Sauté the chicken with vegetable oil in a hot pan (medium-high). The chicken will probably stick to the pan and brown, but that’s okay. You’re looking for golden pieces of chicken breast. Remove from pan.

Do not shake the can of coconut milk before you open it. Scrape the cream on top (coconut oil), and add to the pan. Add the curry paste and cook until fragrant. The mixture will get separated and look chunky.

Sauté the garlic and onions in this mixture until fragrant.

Add the vegetables salt, and peanut butter. Cook for 5 minutes. The paste mixture will start to really stick to the pan.

Toss in the chicken and cook for another 5 minutes.

Pour in the rest of the coconut milk, as well as the chicken stock. Scrape the burned bits at the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, and then simmer at a low heat for an hour, or until the vegetables are cooked through.

Serve piping hot over vermicelli noodles, or with a baguette on the side for dipping.

At home, we use Japanese somen noodles. My mum cooks them until al dente, and then quickly douses them in cold water. Once the noodles have cooled, she’ll form them into little bundles of noodles, squeeze out the excess water, and arrange them in a strainer. She puts a damp cheesecloth over top to keep them moist. We do this step to make sure that the noodles don’t get soggy while we wait for the curry to finish cooking. It’s difficult to explain the process without step-by-step pictures, so I’ll have to get someone else to take pictures while I do this. I’ve only done this once with my mum at home because she gets frustrated with my clumsiness.

Considering this is my second time forming the vermicelli into bundles, I think I did pretty well. At first, I thought I was leaving too much water in the bundles; however, they turned out perfect after sitting in the strainer for 15 minutes.

Here’s a shot of the curry and noodles mixed together. I should mention that this curry tasted NOTHING like home. It’s too thick and not savoury enough. I completely bastardized the recipe to the point where my mum would probably refuse to eat it. I’m one of the laziest cooks you’ll meet, I promise you.

In the end, this un-Thai curry managed to subdue my cravings for home food, so I suppose I shouldn’t knock it too much. Only a few weeks until Christmas and REAL home food!

Pad Thai - September 30, 2007

I thawed out some shrimp for dinner a few nights ago and suddenly felt like eating Pad Thai. I would have abandoned the menu for that night and made some, but I didn’t have all the ingredients. I pledged that I would learn how to make Pad Thai the next day.

Well, I didn’t make it the next day, either. I was too lazy to go grocery shopping.

This morning, I planned on going to the Asian food market early to get the ingredients I lacked. When I arrived, I was greeted by a “Sorry, We’re Closed” sign. Lame. They don’t open until noon on Sundays. We had wonton soup for lunch.

I finally managed to get my missing ingredients this afternoon, and made it for dinner tonight. It didn’t turn out as pretty as I had hoped, but I blame that on the wok. It’s not a real wok. It’s a non-stick pan shaped like a wok, but it is flat on the bottom to accommodate electric stove elements. It’s a wannabe wok. Poser.

In any case, I didn’t want to take pictures of the process, for fear of failure, so I took a picture of the leftovers.


Here's a list of ingredients:

Brown sugar (replacing palm sugar)
Fish sauce
Sriracha sauce
Garlic chilli sauce
Tamarind powder
Minced garlic
Shrimp
Eggs
Extra-firm tofu
Chicken breast
Bean sprouts


As you may have already figured out, I’m not huge on recipes. I just eye-balled a lot of it, and adjusted it to taste. It's the way our family cooks. I’m not even going to bother trying to explain how to make it, since I followed the instructions from Chez Pim (thanks so much!).

You’ll notice that I didn’t use roasted peanuts. That was an oversight on my part. I knew I was forgetting something as I paid for the groceries, but I ignored it and left the store. Dang. I was sooooooo sad when I realized I forgot to buy peanuts. They’re definitely essential to the Pad Thai experience. Also, I didn’t use lime or garlic chives. I didn’t remember to buy those… oops!

Still, I thought it tasted pretty great. Close to the real thing. If I had remembered to buy ALL of the ingredients, it would have been BETTER than the real thing! Muahahahahah! No, I’m just flattering myself. But it really did taste great. I surprised myself this time. Pad Thai part deux will be awesome.

*end scene*