Homemade Matcha "Green Tea" Ice Cream

It's been a hot summer day over here and I've been making tons of homemade ice cream since I got my ice cream maker. The store bought kind just doesn't taste the same anymore and the different flavours that you can come up with is endless. 


Today's flavour is Green Tea. A long time ago when green tea ice cream was all the rage, we went out to buy some and it came in this transparent container looking very yummy with it's swirls of green tea. One spoonful later and a very sour face it had to be the most awful tasting ice cream I had ever tried. So I thought perhaps it's gone off or something but  it was and from that moment I have never bought any. I still ate it at the Japanese restaurants but the store bought kind just wasn't the same. I still loved the ice cream but I had to make my own someday.


And I have! My very own green tea ice cream. 
Just added a few teaspoons of Japanese green tea to some creme anglaise and ta da...... ice cream!




Well I couldn't have done it without my fav Christmas pressie that I got last Christmas. I've been experimenting since that time and I'll post some soon. I was tempted to make some avocado ice cream but I ate it before it made it to the machine!

Challenge #1: Ready, Set, Blog Post

Foodbuzz is all about foodies and it's a food lover's community which has launched a food blogging contest called Project Food Blog and they're looking for the next Food Blog Star and I have decided to give it a go and enter it.

What is Project Food Blog? This contest will consist of a series of 10 weekly challenges with contestants being systematically eliminated after each round. The challenges are set out to encourage us to go further and beyond in our foodie adventures and the winner will receive a $10,000 grand prize. So far there have been over 1800 entries and this very first challenge only 400 will move onto the next challenge. So here's Challenge#1....

Challenge #1: Ready, Set, Blog! What defines you as a food blogger and why you think you have what it takes to be the next food blog star?

Where has the time gone? I've been blogging since... oh I have to check this again, um since... March 2010 says my profile. I started out blogging for fun and to try to get back into writing or at least some form note taking to account for the things that I've been up to up until now with being a stay-at-home mum and looking after my three kids and trying to deal with different tastes and varying appetites during all hours of the day.

My biggest foodie critics.

I having an active almost 2 year old who eats just about everything all except peas, which he would pick up from his plate and flick over all areas of the house. I don't think he registers them as food and will hide them all over the house if he could. He seems to take alot of joy out of aiming them at our dear old cat, Sakura but lucky without any fatal shots. I have another son who eats anything with cheese, ham and his favourite .... chicken wings at all times of the day and almost nothing else. A very fussy eater but I'm hoping that will change someday so I try very hard to offer him different foods to tempt his taste buds. And lastly I have a daughter who grew out of her almost all meat diet to being an adventurous eater daring to try out new dishes and now loves her vegies. When she was younger and before she started school she was a very good eater with all her food and wasn't fussy at all... that was until she started school and that all changed when they were given cooked meals at lunch. She was a smart little cookie when delegating who would get her vegies and everything else she didn't like. I guess eating vegetables wasn't the "in" thing at kindergarten but I'm glad it's all changed. So with these three people at home I have the task of trying to get them to eat a balanced meal and I try my best to serve up my style of homecooking. It's a mix of what the kids like to eat and what the adults like to eat, sometimes I  have to compromise with a smuggled vegetable and spices here and there but it all seems to work. 

The food.

My blog is about the food we love to eat, some favourites and some new creations I've stumbled upon that just work well but all of them are foodie adventures that I want to share with anyone who loves food and family. My food is about trying to make a meal that's simple, good and quick to make. They are easy to follow not too complicated, some that have been handed to me from my grandmother... a treasured secret to share and some that have been family staples that have gotten us through the week. I'm always looking out for something to try out or something that evokes a foodie moment from when I first realised my love for good food. I guess you could say food in our family is always about comfort and that's the best kind of food. A meal that is shared and one that gives you that warm "comfy" feeling inside....like all homecooking from a mum's kitchen. As a mum the best compliments are the smiles from the people you love and hearty request for "Mum, can you make this again. I can eat this all the time." or the best compliment so far is from the almost 2 year old... "More?" 

The best compliment...
just a little bit "more" and a quick snooze!

I'm not a trained chef or cook but it's been more of an "on the job" sort of training with a lot of trials and errors.... split gravy, burnt casseroles, smoking volcano cakes and many more misadventures which have lead me down this path. What has kept me going is my passion for food and passing it on to my kids with the hope that they will learn about good food, the love of creating meal and the known pleasure that a shared meal amongst family and friends are one of the simplest and most rewarding feeling a foodie adventurer can have.

one month.....

It's been a while but I'm back... had a bit of a blogging dry spell. I've been cooking and taking photos but putting all down to draft. There's lots to catch up with over the next few days so I hope that these photos will do for now.

Blueberry Snow Skin Mooncake with Chocolate and Strawberry Filling

Mooncake season is here and I've always like those little golden pillows of lotus paste and pandan paste and red bean paste. Until a few years ago you could only find two or three traditional types of mooncakes but now you can find all sorts of new Snow Skin mooncakes or otherwise known as Ping Pi Mooncake. They are completely different from eating the traditional ones as they are usually eaten chilled and the texture of the skin is soft and chewy and much like lo mai chi or mochi. And instead of having just the plain filling with a salted egg you can now have fruity fillings like strawberry, banana, blueberry, pandan and even durian!

So this Mid Autumn Festival or Mooncake Festival I've decided to give it a try and make my own Snow Skin Mooncakes and I guess the hardness thing to come up with is what type of filling to put in it. 

Blueberry Snow Skin Mooncake with Chocolate and Strawberry Filling! This is my first attempt at making this.... a very messy but rewarding job.

It was a little tricky getting the mooncakes out of the mould but it turned out ok.

The main ingredient: Glutinous Rice Flour, Rice Flour and Lotus Paste. There are so many moulds to choose from with different patterns. 

Chocolate Banana Custard Pie

With everyone having their own favourite things to eat for dessert. I wanted to combine all of them together and this is what I came up with. I have been wanting to make a banana cream pie so I use that for inspiration when I came up with this creation. 


Chocolate for Tristan, Custard for hubby and Ashley and bananas for Jacob. 

CHocolate + Custard + Bananas = Chocolate Banana Custard Pie!

I combined all the flavours but still tried to keep them separate and instead of mashing the banana to make it into a real banana custard I laid a layer of sliced bananas on the bottom of the pie and laid a layer on top of the custard. It went pretty well and hubby thought I had mashed them but the older kids asked me why I had put mushrooms in the custard. They didn't realise that it was bananas and I couldn't believe they had thought I had put mushrooms in their custard pie....really!

Chocolate Banana Custard Pie

1 cup plain flour

80 g butter

1 egg

2tbsp sugar

1/3 cup custard powder

1/4 cup sugar

2 cups milk

3 bananas

100g dark chocolate

1tbsp plain yogurt

1. Using a mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar and butter and rub together until they look like breadcrumbs. Add the egg and knead it until it forms a smooth dough. If it gets a bit sticky just add a bit more flour. 

2. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 23cm pie dish and roll out the dough to fit the pie dish. You can place a layer of greaseproof paper and some beans or rice onto the pie dough and bake for 10 mins. Remove and set aside.

3. Using a medium saucepan, pour in the milk and mix in the custard powder and sugar. Stir it continuously and bring to a simmer. Keep stirring so that the custard doesn't stick to the saucepan and remove once the custard is very thick. Leave the custard to cool down for about 10 mins.

4. Slice 2 bananas into thin slices and then place a layer onto the pie crust. Pour the custard over the bananas and then slice the remaining banana and lay them on top of the custard layer. 

5. Gently melt the dark chocolate and when it has melted add the yogurt and stir until combined. Using a spoon to gently drizzle the chocolate over the pie. Put the pie in the fridge to cool down for about 2 hours before serving.

Alfabeto Pasta Soup

It's a perfect day for soup. A cool, overcast sky and the rains just waiting to fall. A bowl of soup is what is going to keep us warm for lunch. 

Some tomato, chicken stock and lots and lots of alfabeto pasta and we have a bowl of alfabeto soup. Would you like to have some soup?

Alfabeto Pasta Soup

1 1/2 cup Alfabeto pasta

1 large tomato, roughly chopped

300g chicken breast, thinly diced

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

410g tomato puree

1.5 L chicken stock

1/2 tsp basil

1/2 tsp sweet paprika

1 1/2 tsp sugar

50 g butter

salt and pepper to taste

1. Finely chop the onion and garlic. Add them to a saucepan of melted butter. Stir until soften and then add the chicken. Add the basil and paprika and stir until the chicken is cooked.

2. Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, chicken stock and sugar and gently stir. Add the pasta and bring it to the boil. Keep stirring, reduce the heat and gently simmer for about 8 mins. If you need to add more liquid just add a bit more water. The soup should be nice and thick more like a meal than a soup. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Apple Pie

We were invited over for dinner at a friend's place and I always love to bring over something as a little thank you gift. I just love making pies. Apples pies are my favourite ones to make. Apple filling piled up high and sweet shortcrust pastry with a huge dollop of vanilla ice cream. 

I had actually planned to make this apple pie just the family but when hubby told me about our dinner invitation I immediately thought of saving this pie to share with our friends. 

Apple Pie

180 g butter, cold

2 cups plain flour

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup icing sugar

2-3 tbsp cold water

1 tbsp milk

Filling

10-12 medium granny smith apples

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup sultanas

1. Using a mixing bowl, add flour, icing sugar and cold butter. Rub in the butter until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolks and the water and combine until it forms a dough. If the dough is sticky just add some more flour. 

2. Knead it on a lightly floured surface until it is smooth. Divide the dough into half and roll  out the dough to place on a greased 23cm pie dish. I would sometimes just flatten portions of dough on my hand and just roughly cover the pie dish. It gives it a rustic look and I sometimes do it this way to save on rolling out the dough. Set aside the remaining dough and pie dish in the fridge.

3. Filling

Peel the apples and cut them into thick slices. I found this really great apple cutter at Ikea and it just cuts the apple into perfect slices and cores the apple at the same time. Put the apple slices into a sauce pan. Add the sugar and sultanas and heat the pan over med/high heat and constantly stir so that the sugar does not burn. I don't usually add water as I find it makes the pie to watery. You have to constantly stir the apples and you will see that the moisture will come out of the apple and then you will have to cook the apples until the sauce thickens and reduces. Set it aside to cool and when it has cooled down continue with the pie making.

4. Preheat the oven to 180C. Take out the pie dish and remaining dough. Fill the pie dish with the apple filling. Roll out the remaining dough to form a cover for the pie. Seal the edges and poke a few holes with a fork. I usually have some dough left over so I would normally use it to decorate the pie. Brush over the pie with the milk and sprinkle the pie with some cinnamon and sugar. Bake for 30mins or until the pie is golden brown.