Homemade Apple & Pear Sauce + Cinnamon Apple & Pear Filled Pastry…

I never posted photos of the Apple & Pear Sauce which I made back in September 2011… So here they are.

Unknown Apple Variety

I harvested a bunch of Apples and Pears from our garden. We have a bunch of trees, so I just take a couple here and a couple there for a mixture of different Apples, Pears and Asian Pears.

Various Apple & Pear Harvested

Just dump them into the sink and wash them in a pool of water.

Washing Apples & Pears

Skin them… You can leave the skins on, but I like the Apple and Pear sauce without the skins. Chop them up into pieces.

Apples & Pears Skinned and Chopped Up

Place the sliced Apples and Pears into a big pot with about a teaspoon of cinnamon and some sugar. I usually put about a quarter to a third of the amount that the recipe calls for because my Mom doesn’t like it too sweet. You can also add a little bit of lemon or use honey instead of sugar… You can find various recipes online.

Ready to Make Apple & Pear Sauce

Set the stove between medium and high until the Apples and Pears soften and releases its liquid (I don’t even add water). Once it starts to bubble, reduce the heat to low… then just continue to mix, mash and cook it down until it’s a consistency that you like. I like a little bit of fruit chunks, so I don’t cook it too long. It will get darker as you cook it more.

Reduced Apple & Pear Sauce

Once done, I place them in prepared canning bottles and boil the bottles according to the canning instructions. Once cooled, these should last for a while.

Bottled Apple & Pear Sauce

We have ours stored in the pantry and sometimes when I feel like making a simple and quick pastry, I’ll open a bottle and fill biscuit dough (from those refrigerated tubes) with about a teaspoon of sauce. Fold the edge together to enclose the filling and crimp the edges.

Filling Dough with Apple & Pear Sauce

Then roll the dough in cinnamon sugar and bake. Eat while warm because once they cool down, the pastry may get soggy.

Cinnamon Sugar Apple & Pear Sauce Filled Pastry

Apples, Pears and Asian Pears…

Apple and Pear Crisp

I harvest various Apples, Pears and Asian Pears from our garden to make an Apple and Pear Crisp.

Harvested Apples, Pears and Asian Pears

I harvested the two Asian Pear ‘Hosui’ Folia fruits because they were starting to soften. I think I should have harvested them a few weeks ago when they were more firm.

Asian Pear 'Hosui' vs Other Asian Pear

The Asian Pear ‘Hosui’ fruits are more brown and spotted than our existing Asian Pear (unknown variety) Folia that they are grafted onto.

One of our Apple variety has splotches of semi-translucent areas inside the fruit. It looks mushy, but isn’t. My Mom says that this is normal and it tastes a little like Pineapple.

Unknown Apple Variety

I didn’t remember to take a photo of the unpeeled Apple. I’ll have to check the tree and take a photo.

Anyone happen to know this Apple variety?

Potato and Cauliflower Curry Soup…

Curry Soup

This evening I made hearty Potato and Cauliflower Curry Soup. I didn’t really follow a recipe. I just kept adding whatever I felt like to the pot.

Ingredients include: chicken stock, water, onions, garlic, olive oil, ginger, carrots, celery, potato, cauliflower, barley, garam masala, fennel seeds, bay leaves, parsley, cumin, salt, pepper and of course curry powder.

It was really good and hit the spot :)

Mung Bean Mochi…

A few days ago, I saw a friend Meighan’s photo of Mango Mochi that she made. I searched online for recipes and saw a bunch of recipes for Red Bean Mochi… which gave me an idea to use a Mung Bean filling (like in Hopia) instead of the Red Bean. So I set out to try to make my version of Mung Bean Mochi.

Finished Mochi

Continue reading

Homemade Palak Paneer with Zuchinni and Red Pepper…

I wanted to make one of my favorite Indian dishes called Panak Paneer, which is Spinach and Paneer Cheese in a Curry sauce. I’ve purchase the pre-made packages from Trader Joe’s, but my Mom and other people in my family can’t really eat it, because it’s too spicy, so I wanted to try to make a mild version of it. I didn’t have much of the ingredients like the ground coriander and garam malasa, but I improvised.

Palak Paneer

My recipe is loosely based on this recipes from allrecipes.com:
Absolutely Perfect Palak Paneer

Continue reading

Kale Chips…

I saw someone mention Kale Chips on Twitter and it fascinated me so much because I love Kale… I followed the links, read about it… and the recipe seems pretty easy. It’s basically baking or dehydrating pieces of Kale that is coated with olive oil, lemon juice and salt…

I’m at work right now and I can’t wait to try this. Maybe I can stop by Ranch 99 (an Asian grocery) and get some Kale… Hmm, or maybe Mustard Greens… Which I also love… I bet Mustard Greens will add some kick to it, similar to Wasabi Chips…

[Update]

So I tried making the Chips and they turned out really good!

I got some Curl Leaf Kale and baked it at about 200°F for 20 minutes. It was still not crunchy, so I baked it longer. I think it took a total of about 45 minutes.

Kale Chips
Kale Chips

I also tried Mustard Greens, but instead of baking, I dehyrated them.

Mustard Chips
Mustard Chips

Here are some links I found:
Crispy Crunchy Kale Chips on Meghan Telpner’s blog.
Kale Chips? Yes Please! on EasyEcoToGo.com
Basic Kale Chips on simplyrawrecipes.com

Eggplant and Zucchini Clay Pot…

My friends Howard and Bill gave me a clay pot for Christmas and I used it this evening for my first clay pot dish.

Eggplant and Zucchini Clay Pot

I actually cooked the eggplant and zucchini in a wok, then finished it in the heated clay pot. Ingredients include eggplant, zucchinni, oil, onions, ginger, garlic (lots of it), oyster sauce, fish sauce, soy suace, sesame oil and an egg.

Clay Pot Instructions

The clay pot came with these instructions in Japanese… which I can’t read… so if you can read this, can you translate it for me? :) Thanks in advance…

☉ I got some tips from Violet Oon in this YouTube video: Cantonese Chicken in a Clay Pot