These little chewy balls are a favorite snack/dessert in Asian cuisine. The white and soft, chewy balls are gluten free and made with glutinous flour and water.

I love the texture of mochi, slightly chewy, soft, gooey…and very versatile, can be served in savory or sweet dishes. This dough can be used in many traditional Asian snacks/dishes and it is gluten free.

Ingredients:

1 lb glutinous rice powder
½ cup boiling water
Cold water

Method:

Place the glutinous rice powder in the mixer with the hook. Add ½ cup of boiling water over the powder and let it sit for 20 seconds, turn the machine on and mix on low speed.
Add more water as needed until a uniform ball forms, stop the machine and scrap the sides as needed. Continue mix for a few more minutes, more you knead the dough chewier the little balls will be.

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and make a string, pulling pieces out of the string and make little balls by placing the pieces in between your hands making circular movements. Place the balls in a silicon mate. At this point you can cook them by placing the mochi balls in a boiling water or freeze.

If you decide to freeze, let it sit in the freezer until the mochi balls are totally frozen and then place it in an airtight plastic bag.

When time to cook the frozen mocha balls, proceed as fresh ones by placing the desired amount in a pan with boiling water. Cook until the balls come to the surface and swollen up.

Drain and add the cooked mochi balls to any soup, sweet or savory of your preference.

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Some of you must be thinking kum…what? Yes, kumquat. They are little olive shape oranges with rind that is sweet and  juice in the center that is sour, therefore many people just eat the rind.

I have a dwarf kumquat tree that only gave me 5 little ones, but a friend of mine has a big kumquat tree. So I have been getting lots of them while I wait for mine to give more fruits. I like them raw, but I just can eat so much, therefore decided to make a preserve.

Since I grew up with it, I love it and like the whole fruit, I mean almost, except the seeds. My husband did not acquire the taste for it, either raw or  preserved…so I was like, if you do not like it,  do not force yourself so I have more for myself…am I being selfish?

Anyway, I made a couple of versions by using turbinado sugar and coconut sugar. Today I am sharing the one made with turbinado sugar.

I can eat the preserved kumquat like candy…and the syrup is great when diluted in water, either hot or cold. It is so tasty with a touch of tartness.

If you have a chance, please give this a try. If you find out that you do not like them raw, try this simple recipe for kumquat preserve.

Ingredients:

1 ½ lb fresh kumquats
1 ½ cup turbinado sugar
8 whole cloves

Method:

Wash  the kumquats well by soaking in lots of water. Drain the kumquats and place them in a pot with hot water and let them boil in high heat for a minute.

Drain well and place the kumquat back into the pan. Add sugar and cloves, turn the heat to low and let if cook for approximately 1 ½ hour or until the water has been reduced and kumquats are in a thick syrup.

Remove from the heat and let it cool. Store in glass jar and refrigerate. Serve cold over ice cream, bread, cake or anyway you like.

And some vacation pictures from the resorts and Tulum…

I hope you enjoy this simple recipe for kumquat preserve and the pictures 

Did you know that kumquat has its origins in Asia? Kumquat was introduced into Florida from Japan in 1885.

Thank you for visiting Simple Recipes…have a colorful week!

I love shiso…but I was waiting for months and months for my shiso plant to grow enough so I could remove some leaves. Shiso is a fairly common ingredient in Asian cuisine, especially Japanese. You need to acquire the taste of it…and amazingly my husband who was not exposed to shiso before, enjoyed this dish. This is a very simple recipe to prepare if you like shiso, and only uses a few ingredients. It is great paired with white rice.

Ingredients:

1 lb skinless and boneless chicken thighs, sliced
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 ½ tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon corn starch
Salt and pepper to taste.

1 medium onion thinly sliced
1 bunch shiso leaves

Method:

In a medium bowl add the chicken, garlic, salt, pepper, ½ tablespoon soy sauce and the corn starch. Let it sit for approximately 5 minutes. In the meantime slice the onion.
In a wok or frying pan, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and sautee the chicken in high heat until cooked. Remove from the heat and set aside.
In the same pan add the onion, and cook until slightly soft, add the shiso leaves and the remaining soy sauce, sautee until the shiso leaves turn soft. Add the cooked chicken to the onion mix and serve hot.

Hope you enjoy this simple recipe of chicken and shiso.

You might want to check out the recipe for chicken with asparagus which in a way is as delicious and healthy as the chicken with shiso.

Did you know that shiso is from the mint family? Moreover, shiso is also called perilla or beefsteak plant and it is widely used in Asian cuisine. Besides the green shiso there is also a red shiso, which leaves are not red, but purple.

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I hope you all had a great weekend…since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day I thought that this simple recipe of cheesecake decorated with bright red strawberry sauce would be appropriate for the occasion.

The cheesecake is very light when compared to the classic cheesecake. In a way it is between a cheesecake and a chiffon cake. This cottony cheesecake was adapted from Alex Goh’s recipe from Passionate About Baking.

Ingredients:

Cheesecake

1/3 cup sugar
3 eggs separated
1 ½ tablespoon butter
4 oz. cream cheese
1/3 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
5 tablespoon cake flour
2 ½ tablespoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch salt
pinch cream of tartar

Strawberry Sauce

1 lb fresh strawberry
3 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon water
½ lemon zest
½ tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in ½ tablespoon water

Method:

Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 325F
Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the corn starch, egg yolks, vanilla extract, lemon juice, pinch of salt and mix well.

Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

Add the cheese mixture to the egg white by folding gently and not deflating the egg white. Pour into a cake pan lightly greased and floured.

Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 325F.

Strawberry Sauce

In a sauce pan place the strawberries and all the listed ingredients, first in high heat until starts to boil, then turn the heat to low and let is cook until the strawberries are soft and the sauce is reduced.

Add the corn starch diluted in water to the strawberries and continue mixing until the sauce turns thick.

Let it cool before serving with the cheesecake.

I hope you enjoy this simple recipes for a very light and yet tasty cheesecake and …

You might want to check out the vanilla chiffon cake with lemon curd or the meringue kisses cookies, they are perfect for Valentine’s Day!

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes and have a great week ahead!

To celebrate the Chinese New Year, I decided to make an Asian treat that looks somehow festive. I personally like everything that is made with glutinous rice.  The texture can be described with only one word “chewy”, so if you like chewy texture, you will be pleased with this kind of bread which consistency sits between the conventional mochi (totally chewy) and bread (yeast).

This is sure a very simple recipe for such a “cute” treat. Once steamed, these buns can be left at room temperature for up to 2 days, but if you prefer, you can store it in the refrigerator and warm them slightly again before serving. For this recipe,  I used the bread machine, but it can  easily be done without the help of it.
This recipe was adapted from Yochana.

Ingredients:

Sponge dough

1 tsp yeast
1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup water

Main dough

¼ cup plain flour
¾ cup glutinous flour
¼ to 1/3 cup water
¼ cup sugar
3 to 4 drops of red coloring liquid

Method:

Mix all the ingredients for sponge dough, cover and leave at room temperature overnight.

In the bread machine bucket, add all the ingredients from the main dough and the sponge dough. Set the machine to kneading setting. Knead the dough until soft. Remove from the bucket and place the dough in a bowl and let it proof until triple its original size.

Rub the palm of your hands with a little vegetable oil and make small balls and place into the mini muffin cups. Top each bun with dry cranberry. Leave to proof until double its size.

Place the buns into a steamer over medium heat for approximately 15 minutes. Remove from the steamer and let it cool. Yield approximately 24 mini buns.

Did you know that glutinous flour or mochiko is made from sweet rice or glutinous rice? It is very popular in Asian dishes. Since this flour comes from rice, it is gluten free.

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This bread is very easy and simple to make. It is great just fresh out of the oven or later as a toast. I used the water roux method for the dough, it can be substitute with any sweet dough. The bread is pretty tasty, considering that the only butter in the bread is in the dough. The sweet golden raisins sure add a lot of sweetness to the bread.

I used the Zojirushi bread machine to do all the work and added the raisins after all the kneading was done.

Ingredients:

Water roux or Tangzhong
75 ml of water
15 g of bread flour

Dough
2 cups bread flour
¾ teaspoon salt
1½ tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon dry milk
1½ tablespoon butter
1½ teaspoon dry yeast
1 large egg and complete to 100 ml with water

2/3 cup golden raisin

Method:

Water roux

Mix flour and water in a small saucepan. Cook over low to medium heat, stirring constantly until it reaches 65ºC/149ºF. The mix will turn to a paste and you can see the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat, cover with a saran wrap film over the paste and leave until lukewarm.

Dough

Add the water roux and all the dough ingredients to the bread machine bucket according to the manufacture’s guideline. I let the dough cycle run for 2 times, making sure that the dough reaches a thin membrane. The dough will be slightly sticky. Remove from the bread machine if you are using one to knead the dough and manually add the raisins. Knead until all the raisins are incorporated to the dough. Let the dough rise for approximately 2 hours in a cover container or until it double its initial volume.

Punch down, knead the dough and form into a ball shape. Then split the dough into 6 little balls and with a roller open the dough and rolled it like a Swiss roll, flat it again and roll it again. Place the rolls into a bread pan and let is rise until the size has double. Bake in a hot oven for approximately 20 minutes at 350F. Serve warm or cold. The bread will be still very soft up to 3 days.

I hope you enjoy this simple recipe for a tasty and cottony bread.

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These cinnamon rolls come in cups…it is easy and less messy to serve. I used the water-roux method for the dough, therefore the bun is very soft and together with the crunchiness of the walnut, the sweetness of raisins…all this together blended with a layer of cinnamon…is absolutely delicious. Not to mention when these buns are in the oven, the whole house just smell SO good.
These buns can be stores in the freezer. To serve, warm them in the microwave.

Ingredients:

Water roux or Tangzhong
75 ml of water
15 g of bread flour

Dough
2 cups bread flour
¾ teaspoon salt
1½ tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoon butter
1½ teaspoon dry yeast
1 large egg and complete to 100 ml with heavy cream

1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 ½ tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup chopped walnut

Method:

Water roux
Mix flour and water in a small saucepan. Cook over low to medium heat, stirring constantly until it reaches 65ºC/149ºF. The mix will turn to a paste and you can see the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat, cover with a saran wrap film over the paste and leave until lukewarm.

Dough
Add the water roux and all the dough ingredients to the mixer, knead for approximately 15 minutes, the dough reaches a thin membrane. The dough will be slightly sticky. Let is rise for approximately 2 to 3 hours in a cover container or until it double its initial volume.

Assembly
Punch down, knead the dough and roll into a rectangular shape of approximately 13 x 9 inches. Spread the cinnamon, the sugar, walnut and raisins. Roll it and cut into 12 pieces. Place them in a standard size cupcake pan. Cover the buns with saran wrap film and let rise until double in size.
Bake in preheated 350°F oven for about 12 to 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Serve warm.

Hope you enjoy this recipe and have a wonderful week!

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This is a very easy, simple recipe for a weekday dinner. The black bean sauce can be easily found in Asian grocery stores. Therefore is something that you will see very often in Asian dinner table. It is great to serve this dish with white rice…and the left over are great for next day lunch.

Ingredients:

¾ lb thinly sliced beef
3-4 tablespoon black bean sauce (fermented)
3 garlic cloves
1 bunch green scallion
1 onion
1 tablespoon grape seed oil or any cooking oil

Method:

Marinate the beef with the black bean sauce and finely chopped garlic. In the meantime, slice the onion and cut the scallions (1 in). Sautee the beef in the oil, set aside. In the same pan sautee the onion and the scallion, once they turn slightly soft add the beef back to the pan. Mix gently and serve hot.

Did you know that the color black of the black bean is due to the fermenting/salting of soybeans?

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