The Boba Mania

For the past one year, many Malaysians have fallen into some state of mania where bubble teas (boba) are concerned. If you're wondering what the craze is all about, don't ask me. I have no idea. All I know is that people have been paying a lot of money to guzzle sugar.

This drink originated from Taiwan during the 1980s. The word 'boba' in Thai means chewy little pearls which are made from tapioca. Tapioca is derived from the cassava root. It is tasteless.

This bubble tea drink has a tea-base which is combined either with milk or fruit. It is then combined with the sweetened little tapioca balls. If it is milk tea, then powdered milk is used although fresh milk is the more famous ingredient.

Since the pearls are gluten-free and tasteless, they are mixed with brown sugar to give it flavour and the distinctive black colouring. The texture of the pearls are similar to gummy bears.

*picture taken from HERE

Click on The Hidden Sugars in Bubble Tea

Click on Brown Sugar Milk Tea is the Unhealthiest Milk Tea

Click on Boba Tea Has 2x More Sugar than Coke - 20 teaspoons!

Click on What's in My Bubble Tea?

Boba Health Concerns

*Back in May 2011, DEHP (which is a chemical plasticiser and potential carcinogen which is used to make plastic) was found in drinks and juice syrups in Taiwan. It became a huge scandal where the manufacturers were fined heavily. DEHP was then found in a syrup which was used to make bubble tea in Malaysia. 

Then in August 2012, scientists from the Technical University of Aachen (RWTH) in Germany analyzed bubble tea samples in a research project to look for allergenic substances. The result of their search found that the products contain styrene, acetophenone, and brominated substances, which can negatively affect health.^[***] The report was published by German newspaper Rheinische Post. 

In May 2013, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration issued an alert on the detection of maleic acid, an unapproved food additive, in some food products, including tapioca pearls. The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore conducted its own tests and found additional brands of tapioca pearls and some other starch-based products sold in Singapore were similarly affected.

In May 2019, approximately about 100 undigested tapioca pearls were found in the abdomen of a 14-year-old girl in Zhejiang province, China after she complained of constipation.

In July 2019, Singapore's Mount Alvernia Hospital warned that the sugar content of the bubble tea was too high. The risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease was high if one were to consume these drinks frequently. 

*taken from here

*picture taken from HERE

The boba mania at Sunway Pyramid. 

Thermomix Brownie

(*NOTE: This recipe is from the Thermomix cookbook.)

Ingredients:

1. 220gm of unsalted butter (softened at room temperature)
2. 250gm of dark chocolate (70% cocoa - cut into cube size)
3. 70gm brown sugar (I reduced the amount by 3/4)
4. 6 eggs (room temperature)
5. A pinch of salt
6. 150gm of organic all-purpose flour (I used the less gluten flour)
7. *150gm of walnuts (optional) (you can choose to omit this or replace with cashews if you're intolerable to other nuts)

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1. Place chocolate into the mixing bowl and chop 5 sec/speed7.

2. Add butter and melt 4min/70C/speed2.

3. Add sugar, eggs, salt and flour. Set 1min/speed4.

4. Add walnuts and mix 10sec/speed4.

5. Preheat oven to 170C.

6. Line baking tray with baking paper.

7. Pour the batter into the tin.

8. Bake for 23 to 25 minutes.

9. Allow it to cool before cutting into squares.

Bon appetit!

Cooking For Joel: The Perfect Milk

Ingredients:

1. 3 tablespoons of brown rice
2. 1/2 tablespoon of quinoa
3. 1.4 litres of water
4. *Optional: Brown sugar

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1. Wash the rice and quinoa and soak it for an hour in the fridge.

2. Pour the water away and give it a rinse.

3. I used my Philips soya maker for the next step. If you do not own one, you can blend the mixture with the water and then strain the liquid out. You can also blend the mixture, boil it and then strain it. Or you can boil the rice with water until everything becomes mashy and then strain the liquid out.

4. The soya maker pulverized the rice and boiled it for approximately 25 minutes.

5. I did not sieve the milk out this time. We drank everything. It was as good.

Bon appétit!

Cooking For Joel: Rice & Millet Milk

I went out the other day to get some 'wheat-free' flour a.k.a 'gluten-free' flour and decided to look at the rice milk that was sold. 1L of organic rice milk was selling for RM15.90! It was like buying gold. I did take a look at the ingredients and rice was only 15%! The bulk of the drink was water. The rest was sugar, and some added vitamins and non-coagulant ingredient which I can't remember what it's called.

This is my second version of home-made rice milk. Even I drank it. And it worked very well for the stomach. It soothed it.

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup of white organic fragrant rice
2. 1/4 cup of organic millet
3. Brown sugar

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1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Pour 1 cup of rice and millet onto baking tray and bake for 20 minutes. (This makes the milk to be more fragrant).

3. Once it is done, allow to cool.

4. Wash the rice/millet and soak it overnight in the fridge.

5. Pour the water away and give it a rinse.

6. I used my Philips soya maker for the next step. If you do not own one, you can blend the mixture with the water and then strain the liquid out. You can also blend the mixture, boil it and then strain it. Or you can boil the rice with water until everything becomes mashy and then strain the liquid out.

7. The soya maker pulverized the rice/millet and boiled it for approximately 25 minutes.

8. Once it was done, the milk was sieved.

9. I added some brown sugar to the drink.

I found that the white rice milk becomes even thicker than the brown rice once it cools down. It became one big blob of goo. I poured water into a mug, added the milk and stirred it whenever we wanted to have a drink. I kept the remainder in the fridge in an airtight container. I am experimenting with all sorts of wheat-free (gluten free) food now. But I won't be making white rice milk anymore. Brown rice tastes better and it's healthier too.

Bon appétit!

Cooking For Joel: Brown Rice Milk

Since Joel is unable to take soy, cow's milk or even almond, that leaves him with very little choice where milk is concerned. He needs a drink before he sleeps. I dare not try oats as it is very frequently cross contaminated with wheat. So rice milk is the safest.

As this is my first time in making rice milk, I scoured the internet with the intensity of looking for a lost kin. There were many recipes and methods. I combined a few of them. So here's my own way of making Brown Rice Milk.

1. 1 cup of brown rice
2. 1 litre water
3. Brown sugar

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1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Pour 1 cup of rice onto baking tray and bake for 20 minutes. (This makes the milk to be more fragrant).

3. Once it is done, allow to cool.

4. Wash the rice and soak it overnight in the fridge.

5. Pour the water away and give it a rinse.

6. I used my Philips soya maker for the next step. If you do not own one, you can blend the mixture with the water and then strain the liquid out. You can also blend the mixture, boil it and then strain it. Or you can boil the rice with water until everything becomes mashy and then strain the liquid out.

7. The soya maker pulverized the rice and boiled it for approximately 25 minutes.

8. Once it was done, the milk was sieved.

9. I added some brown sugar to the drink.

Honestly, it tastes very bland. But we will get used to it. It also thickens when it cools down. If it gets too thick, you can add water to it. I kept the remainder in the fridge in an airtight container.

Bon appétit!

Chickpeas Pita

Ingredients:

1. 500gm of organic high protein flour
2. 270gm of chickpeas (grounded into fine flour) (I used a food processor)
* Not everything will be grounded into fine flour. I am fine with that as it will give the pitas a crunchy texture.
3. 1 teaspoon of sea-salt
4. 3 stalks of spring onions (scallions) (finely chopped)
5. 1 big onion (chopped finely)
6. Dry yeast (1 tablespoon)
7. 1 teaspoon of brown sugar
8. 1 cup of warm water

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1. In a small bowl, mix the warm water, sugar and dry yeast. Stir and leave aside for about 15 minutes until the mixture becomes foamy.

2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, grounded chickpeas, sea-salt, spring onions, big onion and the yeast concoction. Knead into a smooth dough. (*Add more water if not enough. And if too mushy, add more flour.)

3. Place aside and cover the bowl with a cling film for about 1 hour until it doubles in size.

4. Knock the dough back down and split the dough into golf-ball sizes.

5. Flatten the dough into round, flat pieces.

6. Preheat oven at 240C.

7. Place the flattened pieces of dough onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.

8. Bake for about 15 minutes.

9. Serve when it is warm.

Bon appétit!

Grounded chickpeas flour.

Before baking.

Yummy-licious pita!

Oatmeal for Breakfast!

Ingredients:

1. 8 tablespoons of regular, organic oatmeal
2. 1 1 /2 cups of boiling water
3. 3 teaspoons of brown sugar

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1. Pour 1 1/2 cups of boiling water into a bowl.

2. Then pour 8 tablespoons of oatmeal and continue to boil the mixture over high heat. (You can either use the stove or microwave). Stir continuously.

3. Boil for another 4 minutes or until the oats have fully softened.

4. Add the sugar and mix thoroughly.

5. Allow to cool before consuming.

Bon appétit!

Super Moist Chocolate Cake

My mom attended a gathering yesterday with her friends. I made a chocolate cake for them. Below is the recipe:

Ingredients:

1. 1 1/2 cups of milk
2. 100gm of butter
3. 1/4 cup of sunflower oil
4. 1/2 cup of cocoa powder
5. 1 cup of self-raising flour
6. 1 egg (beaten) - room temperature
7. 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
8. 100gm of brown sugar

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1. Heat milk, butter, oil and cocoa powder until the butter melts.

2. Set aside to cool.

3. In another bowl, add flour, baking soda, sugar and beaten egg to the cooled wet ingredients.

4. Preheat oven at 170C.

5. Beat/whisk until all ingredients are mixed well.

6. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

7. Remove from oven promptly once cake is done. Allow to cool.

8. Dust lightly with icing sugar.

Bon appétit!

Fried Eggs with French Beans

Ingredients:

1. 500gm of french beans (cut into tiny pieces)
2. 6 large eggs
3. Sunflower oil
4. Sea-salt
5. Soft brown sugar

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1. Break all the eggs in a large bowl.

2. Add about 1 tablespoon of sunflower oil, a dash of sea-salt and brown sugar to the eggs.

3. Beat the eggs.

4. Add the cut french beans to the beaten eggs.

5. Heat a wok on high heat.

6. Once the wok is hot, pour the eggs and stir fry on medium heat until slightly browned and the aroma of eggs and french beans fill the air.

7. Scoop onto serving dish.

8. Serve hot with warm rice.

Bon appétit!

The 3Bs Pancakes!

Ingredients:

1. 300gm of organic all-purpose flour (sieved twice)
2. 100gm of organic buckwheat flour (sieved twice)
3. 6 large bananas (mashed)
4. 50gm of barley flour (sieved twice)
5. 2 3/4 cups of barley water
6. Sunflower oil
7. 1 teaspoon of sea-salt
8. 1 teaspoon of brown sugar
9. 4 eggs (beaten)

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1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients above.

2. Whisk the mixture with an electric whisk until all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly and the mixture is smooth. (*Add more barley water if mixture is too dry.)

3. Heat the frying pan.

4. Pour a ladle of the mixture into the pan.

5. Once the bottom side of the pancake is browned, flip it over and cook the other side until it is browned too.

6. Repeat steps 4 to 5 until the mixture is all used up.

7. Serve warm.

Bon appétit!

Banana, buckwheat & barley pancakes!

Steamed Red Snapper

Ingredients:

1. 1 red snapper
2. 1/2 teaspoon sea-salt
3. 1 teaspoon soft brown sugar
4. 3 tablespoons sunflower oil
5. Pepper (optional)
6. Chives (sliced into small pieces)
7. Garlic (4 cloves, minced)
8. 3 shallots (sliced into thin slices)
9. 10 tablespoons of warm water.

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1. Wash fish thoroughly.

2. Place in a large dish.

3. Season with sea-salt, soft brown sugar and sunflower oil.

4. Pour the chives, minced garlic and shallots onto the fish.

5. Pour in the 10 tablespoons of water.

6. Place in steamer for 45 minutes.

7. Serve hot with warm rice.

Bon appétit!

This was one BIG fish! But totally yummy-licious!

Candy Cane Butter Biscuits

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup of organic strong bread flour (sieved twice)
2. 1 cup of organic all purpose flour (sieved twice)
3. A teaspoon of sea-salt
4. 2 tablespoons of soft brown sugar
5. 125gm of softened butter
6. 1 tablespoon of active dry yeast
7. 500ml of warm water
8. 1/4 cup of sunflower oil

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1. Place the organic bread flour and all purpose flour, sea-salt, brown sugar, active dry yeast, softened butter, sunflower oil and water in a large bowl. (All in the order which I wrote.)

2. Knead until smooth.

3. Cover the bowl with a cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for approximately 45 minutes.

4. Preheat oven at 180C.

5. Punch the dough back down and break small round pieces from the dough. Roll the dough into 15cm sticks. Shape them into candy cane shapes.

6. Place them on baking trays lined with baking papers.

7. Bake them for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

8. Allow to cool.

Bon appétit!

Apple + Quinoa Cake

Ingredients:

1. 3 large Red Delicious apples (I could not find any Golden Delicious in any supermarket or market)
* Peel, core and dice the apples.
* Soak the apples in a bowl of salt water and place in the fridge before you start preparing the cake.
2. 3 large eggs
3. 1 cup of sunflower oil
4. 1/2 teaspoon sea-salt
5. 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
6. 2 1/2 cups of organic all-purpose flour
7. 1 teaspoon of baking soda
8. 1/2 cup of quinoa
9. 1 cup of soft brown sugar

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1. In a large mixing bowl, pour the sunflower oil and eggs and beat until creamy.

2. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat well.

3. Combine the flour, salt, baking soda into another bowl.

4. Add this mixture to the egg mixture slowly and mix until well combined. The batter will be very thick.

5. Drain the salt water from the apples and fold the apples and quinoa into the batter.

6. Preheat oven at 175C.

7. Prepare a baking tray with baking paper. Pour and spread the batter into the pan. Sprinkle the top of cake with a handful of quinoa.

8. Bake for approximately 45 minutes.

9. Allow cake to cool before serving.

Bon appétit!

Home-Made Rich Sugar Syrup

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups soft brown sugar
2. 1 cup water
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1. Pour the 1 cup of water into a large pan or a pot.

2. Bring the water to a boil.

3. Pour the 2 cups of sugar into the boiling water and stir it consistently.

4. Once the sugar has dissolved completely, remove the pan/pot from the heat.
(*Note: If you want your syrup to be thicker than usual, boil it longer. If you like your syrup thin, remove it from the heat once all the sugar has dissolved completely. Remember that when the syrup cools, it will thicken on its own.)

5. Allow to cool, then keep it in a bottle. (I keep mine in the refrigerator.)

*I am able to upload pictures again. The granola bar pictures are up. Click here to view.

Home-Made Granola Bars

The usual granola bars are packed with nuts and dried fruits. Being a salicylate sensitive person, nuts and dried fruits are out of the question. Below, is my own healthy, home-made granola bars recipe.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups of organic rolled oats
2. 1 cup of quinoa
3. 2 tablespoons of soft, brown sugar
4. 1 cup of home-made sugar syrup
5. 1 egg
6. 1 teaspoon of baking soda
7. 1 cup of sunflower oil

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1. Pour the rolled oats, quinoa, soft brown sugar, baking soda into a large bowl. Mix them thoroughly.

2. In another bowl, pour the sunflower oil and egg together and whisk until thoroughly mixed.

3. Pour the liquid concoction onto the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

4. Preheat oven at 190C.

5. Pour the mixture into a baking pan.

6. Drizzle the home-made sugar syrup onto the mixture.

7. Bake for about 1/2 hour or until golden brown.

8. Once it is cooled, cut the whole chunk into bars.

9. Serve with warm drink.

Bon appétit!

Oat and quinoa granola bars!

Home-Made Chick-Pea Patties!

For this recipe, I did not cook the chick-peas after soaking them.

Ingredients:

1. 500gm chick-peas
2. 3 big onions (skin peeled)
3. 1 bulb of garlic (skin peeled)
4. 1/2 of sunflower oil
5. Sea-salt
6. Brown sugar
7. 1/2 cup of organic all-purpose flour
8. 3 large eggs

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1. Soak the chick-peas for 8 hours or overnight in the fridge. Alternatively, you need not soak the chick-peas but instead pour boiling water over it and wait for one hour. The peas will swell.

2. Rinse the peas.

3. Blend the peas, garlic and onions.

4. Pour the blended mixture into a large bowl.

5. Add about 3/4 tablespoon of sea-salt and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of sunflower oil and organic all-purpose flour and the 3 large eggs.

6. Mix the mixture thoroughly.

7. Preheat the oven at 210C.

8. Shape the chick-pea mixture into fist sized patties.

9. Lay them on a baking sheet which is placed on a baking tray.

10. Bake for approximately 30 minutes.

11. Once it is browned and a wonderful aroma wafts through the kitchen, the chick-peas are done.

12. Allow to cool.

Patties ALL DONE!

Home-Made Falafels

Falafel is a traditional Arab food. It basically is a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas, lava beans or both.

I made some amendments to the traditional falafel recipe. And I used only chick-peas. Spices (such as cumin and coriander) are used heavily in the traditional falafel. I can't use spices, thus I replaced them with garlic and onions. Falafels are deep fried. I baked mine.

When chick-peas are used, they are not cooked prior to use. But I cooked mine. You can experiment with either way.

Ingredients:

1. 500gm of chick-peas
2. 2 large carrots (peeled and cut into small chunks)
3. 2 large big onions (peeled and sliced into halves)
4. 1 clove of garlic (peeled)
5. 1 cup of all organic all-purpose flour
6. Sunflower oil
7. Sea-salt
8. Brown sugar
9. 3 large eggs (beaten)
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1. Soak the chick-peas overnight or for about 8 hours.

2. If you need some tips on cooking the chick-peas, click here. If you want to use them raw, skip this step.

3. By using a blender or food processor, blend the chick-peas, the carrots, big onions and garlic.

4. Pour the blended mixture into a large bowl.

5. Add the 1 cup of organic all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons of sea-salt, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of sunflower oil and the beaten eggs into the blended mixture and mix thoroughly.

6. Preheat oven at 210C.

7. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

8. Using a small soup ladle, scoop up the mixture and fill up the trays with blobs of the mixture. Use the back of the ladle to flatten the mixture.

9. Bake the two trays of falafels for about 1/2 hour. Once they are browned and a very wonderful aroma fills the air, you will know that it is done!

10. Allow to cool before serving.

Bon appétit!

Fried Rice Noodles with a Gourd Named Hairy

Ingredients:

1. 400gm of rice noodles
2. 1 relatively large hairy gourd (skin peeled and sliced into thin pieces)
3. 1/2 clove of garlic (sliced into thin pieces)
4. 2 big onions (sliced into thin pieces)
5. 4 tablespoons of sunflower oil
6. 500gm of minced chicken (marinate with sea-salt and a dash of brown sugar)
7. 4 large eggs
8. Sea-salt
9. Brown sugar

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1. Soak the rice noodles in a large container of water until they have soften. Drain water and set aside once the noodles have soften.

2. For the recipe to cook the stir fried hairy gourd, click here.

3. Once the hairy gourd dish is ready, add the softened rice noodles and mix thoroughly.

4. Scoop up onto serving dish.

5. Serve hot. You can eat it on its own. Alternatively, you can eat it with rice too!

Bon appétit!

Here's a picture of how the hairy gourd looks like:

Instant Noodles!

I am sure the title caught your attention. I mean instant noodles for people like me = instant DEATH! Haha!

Every time I walk past shopping aisles which are screaming with packages of instant noodles, I feel frustrated. Many days when I am too exhausted to cook, I wish that I could just boil a packet of instant noodles and EAT!

So I came up with a simple recipe which requires minimal fuss (though it is not INSTANT!).

Ingredients:

1. 250gm of spaghetti
2. A pot of water
3. Sea-salt
4. Brown sugar
5. Sunflower oil
6. Fried garlic/shallots (for garnishing purposes)

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1. Heat a pot of boiling water. Sprinkle some sea-salt.

2. Once the water is boiling, add the spaghetti and stir the pasta constantly.

3. In a large bowl, pour some sea-salt, brown sugar and sunflower oil.

4. Once the spaghetti has softened, scoop it up immediately into the large bowl.

5. Stir the spaghetti until the sea-salt, brown sugar and sunflower oil are mixed evenly with the spaghetti.

6. Garnish with some fried garlic/shallots.

Bon appétit!

I was too hungry and only remembered to take a picture after eating a few mouthfuls! Thus, the disappearance of the garnishing! Hehe....

The whole process roughly takes about 1/2 hour. And that is INSTANT to someone like me!!! Happy experimenting with this dish!

Salicylate-Free Organic Wholemeal+Buckwheat Bread

Ingredients:

1. 300gm organic wholemeal flour
2. 250gm organic buckwheat flour
3. 1 1/2 tablespoons of active dry yeast
4. A teaspoon of sea-salt
5. A teaspoon of soft, brown sugar
6. 1 1/2 cups of warm water
7. 1/4 cup of sunflower oil

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1. Sieve the wholemeal flour and the buckwheat flour into a very large mixing bowl.

2. Add the yeast, sea-salt, sugar, sunflower oil and water to the sieved flour.

3. Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

4. Knead the dough until it is smooth. If it is too soft, add some flour and knead until it is smooth. If it is too dry, add some warm water and knead until smooth.
(*Buckwheat flour is more sticky than the normal bread flour)

5. Cover the bowl with a cling-wrap or a damp towel for about 2 hours until the dough has doubled in size.

6. Knock the dough back down and knead it again for about 20 minutes.

7. Divide the dough into half and allow it to rise again for about 1 hour.

8. Preheat oven at 190C.

9. Grease 2 loaf tins with some sunflower oil.

10. Put the dough into the loaf tins and bake for about 45 minutes or until slightly browned.

11. Allow to cool

Bon appétit!

Note: The usual buckwheat bread recipes use milk. I substituted milk with sunflower oil instead as I have lactose intolerance and am somewhat sensitive to something in the fresh milk. Salicylate is negligible in sunflower oil.