Bitter Gourd Indian Curry Recipe

This is a classic Indian vegetarian dish. But we have tweaked the recipe to suit the Malaysian taste buds. And of course add in chicken as our all-time favorite meat. Bitter gourd is definitely a healthy vegetable, especially for those with diabetes mellitus. It's nutritious and can help to prevent blood sugar level hikes after meal.

The star ingredient here is my Honey Hub Tualang Honey with curcumin which is bursting in antioxidant content. It's supposed to be drank directly. But we are not big fans of the tardy taste and texture. So it's become my marinate instead. 

 Ingredients

1 bitter gourd

1/2 cauliflower

2 tomatoes, sliced

2 tsp salt

1 brown onion

Sunflower oil

1 tbsp Garam Masala

1 tbsp curry powder

500g chicken chunks 

1/2 cup M&S coconut milk/evaporated milk

4 tbsp Honey Hub honey with curcumin

Method

Marinate chicken in Honey Hub and 1 tsp salt for at least 30mins.

Halve bitter gourd lengthwise and cut into 2-3mm thick slices.

Immerse bitter gourd slices in water, just enough to cover with 1 tsp salt for 30mins. Then lightly squeeze , wash and strain to remove bitterness. 

Cut cauliflower into florets. Blanch in boiling water for 5 minutes until cooked. Strain and set aside.

Sautee bitter gourd until slightly brown. Set aside.

Slice brown onion then sautee in wok until caramelized.

Add garam masala and curry powder. Fry until fragrant.

Caramelize chicken. 

Add coconut milk.

Add bitter gourd, cauliflower, tomatoes. Simmer 10-15minutes over low heat.

Serve with Basmathi rice or chapatti!

Lazy Keto Apple Banana Crumble Recipe

Instead of using my old hand held mixer, I'm loving the food processor. Especially when i have to mash frozen bananas and mix butter. I didn't have to defrost/ melt them before hand. 

Baking healthy cakes is an addiction that I even have to do it on my birthday! Because my parents are diabetics and I'm very much high risk. So we have to go low GI and low carb.

For the Apple Filling

2 golden delicious Apples

4 large bananas (mashed)

200g all purpose flour

50g coconut flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup canola oil

1 tsp salt

2 tsp baking soda

2tbsp honey

1/4cup milk

For the Crumble Topping

40g all purpose flour

100g pumpkin seeds

2tbsp Erythritol

1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

2 tbsp Unsalted Butter

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 150 C fan.

Mix all the ingredients for the filling except the apples into the food processor. Use the plastic blade and mix for 2-3 minutes.

Slice apples. Throw the cores.I kept the peel on for extra crunch.

Pour the batter into a square glass casserole.

Arrange sliced apples on top.

Place all the ingredients for the topping into the food processor. Use the steel blade and crumb for 1min.

Sprinkle the crumbs over the top of the apple, pressing it down very lightly to make it even.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 60-80mins at 150degrees C until it's golden on top, the crumble topping is coming away from the edges of the dish and a skewer inserted into the center comes clean.

Enjoy while warm!

Healthy Fruit Trifle Recipe

Trifle is a mix and match dessert using custard. The classic English trifle calls for whipped cream layer which I make do of. Instead of trifle fingers, I use dark chocolate bars and oat cookies.

Custard

Ingredients

25g Bird's Custard powder

250ml Meadow fresh milk

Method

Heat the milk and Bird's custard powder in a saucepan using low heat.

Make sure there are no lumps and all dissolve well.

Chill custard for at least 2 hours.

Chocolate Banana trifle

Ingredients

1cup Frozen banana cut into coins

Kit Kat dark chocolate bars

1/2 cup ground peanuts

Mango Coconut Trifle

Ingredients

1cup mango cut into cubes

6 pieces belVita biscuits 

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

Method

Layer one-third of the chocolate/biscuits in the bottom of the trifle dish.

Cover with one-third of fruits.

Add one-third of the custard.

Repeat the layer twice.

Sprinkle ground peanuts or dessicated coconut on top. 

Chill until ready to serve. 

Productive Ways to Spend the MCO with RodeoGO

Who's bored? Hands up! This is the first time in my 30 odd years of life having to go through Movement Control Order. I'm a very outdoorsy person and enjoy hanging out at local cafes even when I'm not travelling. Now we are constantly cooped at home, our family of 4 has developed this new routine.

1. Trying new homecooked food. This is why I have been blogging so much about my recipes. We adapt recipes to make them more children friendly and healthy- low sugar and low GI!

2. Gamexercise! Since we stopped visiting the parks (even though it's allowed now by law but covid 19 doesn't follow the human law ok), JustDance and our old Wii Sports become our source of endorphins.

3. Online shopping. Shoppee and Lazada have amazing offers and efficient delivery that we have parcels delivered almost everyday.

Besides that, we have also realised a way to earn some fast passive income. I'm sure many of us have tried a few apps which require us to share certain ads on our social media or Whatsapp so we get rewarded. But many also required certain number of views or else nothing will be rewarded. This means that even though it's shared, you may not get the rewards if there are not enough likes and resharing. I, personally, dislike this because it makes my account so spammy.

Instead, we have downloaded RodeoGO app. There are a few ways to quickly earn some bucks. Go to campaign for a list of active advertisements.

Watch & Earn

Watch an advertisement in the app. Each video only takes a minute or so. To make sure we really watch it, we will be required to answer a simple question related to the video to earn the coins. For example, at the end of this Kinder Bueno video, we were asked how many bars were there is a single wrapper. This is kind of fun and made me pay more attention. The coins are immediately earned after answering. It is that simple! On average, we get to earn RM1 for each video.

Spot TV ad & Earn

Watch TV and spot certain advertisements on TV such as Vanish as stated in RodeoGO app. Snap a photo using the app. One is then required to post on social media with a creative caption,  #RodeoGO and tag @RodeoGo. 

For each campaign, one can win up to x3! There's no limit on the number of posts that can be made. The RodeoGo team will then reply on the post to signal approval. Once approved, one can then win the stipulated amount of coins.

The exciting part is the coins can then be redeemed into payments or vouchers. Just go to earning report, click on the completed campaign then click on the amount earned. 

Fill in banking details then money is on its way to you! It will be processed within 14 working days. There's no minimum withdrawal amount or administrative charges. Easy peasy!

Download your own RodeoGO app here!

Apps:-
Android:- https://lnkd.in/fW6NJ3e
IOS:- https://lnkd.in/f6EUPua

RodeoGO Social Media:-
Youtube:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGjdBfMBECo
FB:- https://www.facebook.com/RodeoG0
IG: https://www.instagram.com/rodeogo_my/

Air Fried Rainbow Begedil (Potato Patty) Recipe

Remember how I talked about how to make your picky children eat the rainbow? One of the tips is camouflaging their least favorite ingredients into the dish. This air fried rainbow begedil (potato patty) is a good example to sneak in vegetables.

Ingredients
100g minced meat (pork, chicken or beef are all fine)
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 onion coarsely chopped
2 large potatoes
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup frozen vegetables (green peas, diced carrot, sweet corn, leave to defrost at room temperature for 30mins)
Pinch of salt
Dash of pepper (optional)
1 egg, beaten (for dipping)
1-2 tablespoon corn flour (for coating)
Cheddar cheese cubes (optional)

Serves 4 adults

Marinate mince meat in sesame oil, soy sauce, pepper and salt.

Caramelize the onion. Then add meat. Sautee.

Peel the potatoes and quarter them. Toss with oil to coat.

Air fry at 200C for 18 minutes until soft enough to mash.

Combine the cooked minced meat, mashed potatoes and vegetables.

Mix well and shape into patties with your hands.

Optional- insert some cheese into the center of the patties.

Dip each patty in egg followed by a bit of corn flour, just to coat lightly so that the patty retains its shape in the air fryer.

Spray or coat with a bit of oil and air fry for 8 minutes at 200C. Turn around and air dry for another 4 minutes (If deep frying, skip the flour. Just dip in egg and deep fry directly until golden brown).

Have it with some mayonnaise/chilli sauce or ketchup.

Or pair it with some cooked pasta alla carbonara tossed with olive oil for a quick meal!

While pasta is cooking, mix raw egg in a bowl with cheese and black pepper until whites and yolks are mixed, cook bacon in strips or cubes in a frying pan. When pasta is ready mix everything together in another bowl (not a hot one) and mix well!

This is our version of mix grill for my birthday. Absolutely delicious.

Healthy Peanut Banana Daifuku Mochi Recipe

What to do when we had about 30 overripe bananas? 

It's impossible to cook and eat all of them in the next few days without getting sick of them. So we peel and freeze them! Frozen bananas are great for baking, making milk shakes and dessert fillings. One of our favorite is none other than Peanut Banana Daifuku Mochi.

Ingredients 

Skin

-1cup Glutinous Rice Flour

-250ml water

- 1 tbsp cocoa powder for dusting

- 1/4 cup corn starch for dusting

Filling

-ground peanuts 1 cup

- frozen banana coins 1 cup

-1 tbsp Sugar (optional)

Freeze ripe banana cut into coin shapes. 

Dissolve glutinous rice flour with water. 

Microwave the mixture on high for 8 minutes.

When the mochi is still warm, transfer it to a silicone work surface with corn starch.

Dust corn starch on top of the mochi and the rolling pin.

Roll mochi to a thickness of about 2-4 mm.

Cut the mochi into 8 portions. 

Place 1 banana coin and 1tsp ground peanuts in the center of a mochi dough square. 

Gather mochi dough together to cover the filling completely, pinch the edges together at the base.

Place the Daifuku in a muffin mould.

Dust cocoa powder on top.

Have them while warm or freeze to make mochi ice cream!

Other yummy combinations can be-

Matcha dusting with sweet red bean paste filling

Dessicated coconut with mango filling

Cocoa powder dusting with strawberry filling

Instant coffee dusting with chocolate filling

Enjoy!

Healthy 8 Treasure Porridge Recipe 养生八宝粥

1 pot meal is something I really enjoy making. Simple, delicious and nutritious! 8 Treasure Porridge is on top of my list. It's versatile and extremely easy to make. Basically I just use whatever I have in the pantry and turn them into a pot of gold! Traditionally, this porridge is served as sweet dessert during Laba festival 腊八.But it can also be turned into this hearty savoury meal which is low GI. 

8 Treasure Porridge

Ingredients

1cup Basmathi rice

1cup black bean

1cup red bean

1cup soy bean

1cup red dates

1cup dried scallops

1 cup goji berry

1 cup dried longan

1cup dried white fungus

4 pieces of chicken thigh

2-4 slices of Bentong Ginger

Soy Sauce, sesame oil and white pepper to taste

Serves 4

Wash all ingredients. Soak the beans, rice and white fungus for 2 hours.

Put all the ingredients into Russell Taylors pressure cooker. 

Set to porridge P20. Make sure the valve is sealed. If needed, you can set a timer on the pressure cooker. If you don't have a pressure cooker, soak your beans longer for at least 3-4hours and cook your porridge in the rice cooker.

If you want to make the sweet version, omit scallop and chicken, substitute with oats/barley/sweet corn kernels/mung beans/black glutinous rice/oats with or without rock sugar (I tend to omit for a healthier alternative).

Just wait until the timer becomes bb which means done!

Serve warm and enjoy!

The sweet version can also be blended made into ice cream just like our favorite King's red bean icicles!

Or serve with evaporated milk for extra creaminess.