Tomato Tart

The other day on a train ride to San Francisco, a lady who sat next to me was eating her lunch in a container. It looks delicious, and I asked her what is it. She told me it tomato tart that her mother made for her, whenever she go home to visit her. This is the recipe from her. Thanks Brenda for sharing!

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Made this for our daughter, who love chocolate mint cookies and ice cream. This is my first time making it, so I hope you like it.
Ingredients; (adapted from aspicyperspective.com)
2 sticks of butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar (for less sweet)
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour (and some extra for dusting)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup Andes Creme de Menthe chips
1/2 tsp. mint extract
a few drops of green food coloring
Method:
1. Cream butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy. Add beaten eggs and vanilla, combine to mix.
2. In a bowl, sift 2 cups of flour, baking powder, salt together. Gently add to the egg mixture and beat to combined.
3. Divide mixture into thirds, keeping 1.3 in the mixing bowl. In this, add mint extract, and green food coloring and extra flour to mix into a smooth dough. Form the dough into a flat rectangle and wrap with plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour.
4. Place the rest of the 2/3 dough into the bowl, add cocoa powder and mint chips. Mix well to combine and wrap dough with plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour.
5. On a floured piece of wax paper, roll the chocolate dough into a flat rectangle, about 1/8 inch thick. Do the same with the green dough and place over the chocolate dough. Press gently to stick both pieces together. Roll into a log and press down on the end to seal, pinching any cracks together. Wrap the log in wax paper and refrigerate for another 30-45 minutes before baking.
6. 5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
7. Line baking tray with parchment paper. Unwrap dough and slice into 1/3-1/4 inch pieces. Place pieces 2 inch apart on baking trays and bake for 10-15 minutes. Cool on trays after removing from oven, before transferring to cooling trays.

Printable Recipe

Persimmon Cookies

A friend gave me some ripen persimmons from her tree, and she even gave me a recipe for making these cookies. They are soft and moist cookies with raisins and nuts. Yummy.

Pfeffernusse Cookies

I made these delightful German cookies, a popular holiday treat in Germany. They are small round cookies filled with aromatic ground spices and molasses. If you like gingerbread cookie, you will find this one quite similar in taste. If  you like yours to be spicy, just adjust the spices to your taste.

Korean Stuffed Chicken with Fresh Ginseng Soup (SamGyeTang)

This soup reminds me of the wonderful visit I made to South Korea a few years ago. Our friends took us to a different restaurant each day. One of my favorites was this quaint restaurant, where we all sat down on the wooden floor around a low table. We were served with a variety of colorful dishes, piping hot ginseng soup and Makgeolli, a milky colored rice wine. I love the sweet taste of this wine, and I am quite smitten by it's unique taste and flavor. It reminds me of Chinese rice wine, that my mother used to make in Malaysia.Ginseng is a popular health food in Korea, and the Koreans eat ginseng and other herbs to recuperate strength and for youthful complexion. Ginseng has been used as medicine for thousand of years both in China and Korea, and Korea is one of the largest producer of ginseng.I bought some fresh ginseng roots in a Korean supermarket to make this nutritious soup. This soup calls for young chicken, preferably 100-day old hens. You can also use black silky chicken, or raise your own pullets. I used Cornish game hens for this recipe. Enjoy!

Kuih Bangkit

Kuih Bangkit is an all time favorite during the Chinese New Year celebration. It is a traditional Nyonya cookie that melts away in your mouth. This recipe is adapted from Nyonya Flavors.

Osmanthus Flower Cookie

Osmanthus is little white flower with a lovely and delicate fragrance. I bought some dried Osmanthus flowers while I was on vacation in Kunming last year from a street vendor. The fragrance is just heavenly! I stumbled upon this recipe online and thought I'd shared it here.