I love to finish my day with something sweet. Instead of reaching for something bad I make myself a cup of delicious cinnamon coconut milk. It’s very satisfying when I’m having a sweet craving.
Combine unsweetened coconut milk, dash of cinnamon (I love cinnamon, so lots of dashes for me), and a spoon full of maple syrup or agave to give it some sweetness. Bring to boil and WALLA – a perfect yet healthy dessert!
Posted in Nosh Time
Tagged agave, cinnamon, coconut milk, cravings, curb cravings, dairy free, dessert, healthy dessert, late night craving, maple syrup, non-dairy milk, sugar, sweet, unsweetened coconut milk
Moon festival is my favorite cultural holiday. My mom and dad call it Chinese Valentine’s Day. Every year we get to play with lanterns, drink tea, eat mooncakes, and listen to my parents tell us these amazing stories. There’s a love story behind this holiday, but I can write an entire essay on this so here’s a link if you’re interested. It’s such a powerful story to my parents that they decided to get married on this holiday, so every year we are also celebrating their anniversary. The best part about this festival is eating mooncakes. These delights are sold once a year in decorative tin boxes and they can range anywhere from $20-$50 for a box of four. The reason why these are so expensive is the fact that it’s hard to make. Also, there is an ingredient that needs to be prepared a year in advance. Don’t fret! I found another method around this. For this year’s anniversary, I decided to surprise my parents with homemade mooncakes but with a classy and fit twist. Mooncakes are not healthy. Think donuts or heavy pastries. What I did in my recipe was cut the sugar and oil significantly, made it vegan, and I tried to keep majority of my ingredients organic. Also, I wanted to bring a Filipino flare to my recipe, so I made an ube (aka purple yam) mooncake. Since the process was long I thought if it doesn’t work out I don’t want to make them again. Mama Chiang never made mooncakes, so I had to put this to the ultimate test by sending it to Pao Pao (grandma). I was nervous. If anyone’s been around longer to know supreme Chinese mooncakes it’s my Pao Pao. Guess what? Looks like I’ll be making more of these. It was a perfect anniversary gift. My parents loved it! They were surprised how an ABC (yes, my parents often stereotype me as “American Born Chinese”) is able to make this. I experimented to make a healthier recipe, so here I present my masterful ABC Mooncakes.
By Shelly Chiang, Makes about 8 mooncakes (considering one serving of the outer dough)
Tools
Mooncake mold – I got this from Brown Cookie
Outer Cake Ingredients
(Note: I made the outer dough 3 times to use up the lotus and ube paste below. It’s better to make it in small portions because it will make it easier for you to knead the dough. The outer dough is what makes the mooncake.)
Outer Cake Instructions (Preparation takes 24-48 hours)
1. Sift cake flour into a large bowl. Make a crater in the middle of the flour.
2. Pour golden syrup, potassium carbonate, and peanut oil in the crater.
3. Carefully take a rubber spatula and pour the flour from the sides into the middle of the crater.
4. Keep pouring the sides until the dough is formed.
5. Rub some flour on the cutting board and transfer the dough from the bowl.
6. Now knead the dough until its smooth.
7. Roll it into a log and wrap it with plastic wrap. It’s difficult to form the filling in the dough within a day (texture is not there yet), so you want to place it in the fridge overnight. For best results, leave it in the fridge for 2 days.
Lotus Paste Ingredients
Lotus Paste Instructions (Preparation takes 24-48 hours)
1. While you are waiting for your dough, you want to make your Lotus Paste because this takes time to make. First, soak the dried lotus seeds. I would say soak it over 24-48 hours for best results.
2. Now you want to remove the green root in the middle of the seeds because it’s bitter. You may need a partner for this. Simply pinch the seed and you’ll see the green root. Remove and keep the halves of the seeds.
3. Place seeds in a pot and fill with water. You want to boil the seeds on high. Once it boils, lower the heat to medium. Since I started in the evening, before I went to sleep I had the stove on low overnight. You may want to start in the morning or use a crock pot.
4. Once the seeds are soft place this in a food processor. Blend until it becomes a paste-like texture.
5. Put the paste in a non-stick pot on medium heat and mix half of the sugar and peanut oil. You want to evenly distribute the sugar and oil, so once it’s blended you want to put the other half of sugar and oil to mix.
6. Once it’s blended mix brown syrup until smooth.
7. Put the lotus paste in a container. Feel free to add nuts to some of the lotus paste. I made a few nut mooncakes mixing in almonds, pumpkin seeds, and walnuts as a separate filling.
Ube Paste
Ube Paste Instructions
I made this paste to create a Chinese-Filipino fusion mooncake. My husband introduced me to Filipino ube desserts in the past and I absolutely love them, so I thought why not make this into a mooncake.
1. Peel the purple yams.
2. Cut purple yams in squares.
3. Boil purple yams on high and then to medium low heat for about one hour.
4. Blend the purple yams in a food processor until it becomes a paste-like texture.
5. Put the paste in a non-stick pot on medium heat and mix half of the sugar and coconut oil. You want to evenly distribute the sugar and oil, so once it’s blended you want to put the other half of sugar and oil to mix.
6. Once it’s blended mix brown syrup and coconut milk until smooth. Place the paste in a container.
Mooncake Technique – Now let’s put the two together
1. Before you start, dust your cutting board and the mooncake mold with flour. Also, spray or oil your baking pan.
2. Use an ice cream scooper to scoop your paste. Two small scoops should do it. Form the filling into a compact ball and set aside.
3. Now for the outer dough. Cut about 2 inches from your roll.
4. Flatten the dough on the palm of your hand. If needed, flatten further with your fingertips. The trick is to keep your hands moist, because you don’t want it to stick on your hand.
5. Place the filling in the center of your outer dough and carefully wrap the filling with your fingertips.
6. Dust the filled dough.
7. Carefully place your filled dough in your mooncake mold. Then use your fingers to evenly press your dough around the mold.
8. Now gently press the mooncake out of the mold.
9. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
10. Bake mooncakes for 10 minutes.
11. In the meantime, melt some vegan Earth Balance Butter.
12. Take the mooncakes out and brush them with melted vegan butter.
13. Bake mooncakes for another 10 minutes.
14. Ideally the mooncakes should be consumed in 24-48 hours.
15. Enjoy your mooncakes with jasmine tea. My favorite brand is Pearl Queen of Jasmine Tea.
DIY Mooncake Packaging
I wrapped my cakes in pretty red tissue paper and raffia ribbon to make it more decorative. Then I placed my mooncakes in the tin boxes I saved from the last year’s moon festival. It was a perfect way to package my parent’s anniversary gift.
Posted in Nosh Time
Tagged ABC, almonds, American Born Chinese, asian market, cake flour, China, Chinese, Chinese-Filipino fusion, coconut milk, coconut oil, container, DIY, dough, dried lotus seeds, Filipino, gift wrap moon cakes, healthy, holiday, homemade, ice cream scoop, ingredient, jasmine tea, lanterns, less oil, less sugar, lotus seeds, love story, lyle's golden syrup, moon cakes, moon festival, mooncake mold, mooncakes, nuts, organic, organic brown syrup, packaging, peanut oil, potassium carbonate, pumpkin seeds, purple yam, soak, sugar, technique, tin boxes, ube, ube mooncake, vegan, walnuts, world market
Tuesday was a very exciting day because I met my idol, Brendan Brazier. For those who don’t know him, he is a Ironman triathlete, a two-time Canadian 50k ultra-marathon champion, and **drum roll** practices 100% plant-based diet. I signed up immediately once I found out he was hosting a seminar at the Whole Foods in Arlington. As you can see in the picture, I was super stoked and of course I sat in the front with my googly eyes.
When I started a plant-based diet I discovered Brendan’s book, Thrive. Although I felt better and had more energy, I struggled with my long runs. I’m very adamant about this lifestyle, but I wanted to perform better and that’s when I found Brendan Brazier. How can a professional triathlete be vegan and win championships? He reveals his philosophy and secrets in Thrive. Essentially, the seminar was a short summary of his book plus a lot of great tips not in the book.
Not to worry I took notes from the seminar, but I highly recommend his book to anyone – athlete or non-athlete, omnivore or herbivore, anyone who is interested in improving their sleep, energy, and overall lifestyle.
Stress – We all have different types of stress that effects the body. Some are emotional, physical, and environmental. These stress factors increases cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone produced from your adrenal glands. A small release of cortisol can be beneficial to increase your immunity and energy. Your body is smart – it will trigger these hormones the moment it feels it needs to go in survival mode. Too much of cortisol can decrease bone density and muscle. It can eventually lower your immune system and cause blood sugar imbalances. It can also led to abdominal fat and high blood pressure. Wonder why there are people who workout everyday and don’t see results? I use to over exercise with no breaks in the week. I didn’t let my body heal or recover, so my body was freaking out and it created more cortisol hormones to protect myself. Like Brendan’s experience, I started to feel weak and actually gained weight, so I did something really stupid – I lowered my calorie intake. I damaged my body enough and now I’m depriving my body from nutrients. I gained the weight even faster. The key is RECOVER. My body was crying for this. It’s so important to rest. This will balance your stress levels, so you can perform better.
Balance – Remember in chemistry class when you had to test the pH (potential of hydrogen) with strips of paper – 1 being very acidic and 14 being very alkaline. Our body is neutral with a pH around 7, so it’s important to maintain this balance. I’m not saying to pull out a chemistry set to test everything you eat. There are a few foods you should try to stay away from or take in moderation. If the body is in a acidic state it prone to aliments. Here’s a great diagram that summarizes acidic and alkaline foods.
Energy – Brendan talks about two types of energy – short term energy from stimulants and long term nourishment for your body. Stimulants like coffee and sugars can give you a quick boost, but there’s a price to pay for this. Your body works harder to digest stimulants, so it’s using a lot of energy and causing stress to your body. Ever feel that afternoon crash? This is what caused it. Your body is working so hard it will result to fatigue, so you want more to get over that hump. I like Brendan’s analogy – “think of it as a credit card”. You can buy it now, but then .. you pay for it later. This made me think about what I should put in my body. Ever since I went on a plant-based diet I never get the afternoon crash. If I feel hungry around 3 or 4, I eat a fruit and it gives me the energy I need because it is nourishing my body.
Brendan is my inspiration. There was book signing after the seminar and I was able to speak to him for a couple minutes. The cool thing about Brendan is that he doesn’t push you to buy his products. He wants to help you. Brendan is the creator of Vega products. I will talk about Vega in another post because I actually use these before meeting Brendan. I’m hoping to run a full marathon this year and need to know how I can improve my performance on a plant-based diet. He gave me solid advice on what to eat and how to train. Not once did he mention his products to me. He is indeed a very classy and fit athlete.
I ended the night by picking up dinner from the Whole Foods salad bar, which by the way, is awesome. I love the brown paper boxes you pack your salad in. Here’s what I had: chard, lettuce, wheat berries, corn, radish, balsamic tofu and mushrooms, red cabbage, chick peas, tomato, kidney beans. I didn’t add any dressing because it’s already full of flavors. There’s no need to hinder the freshness. It was a delicious meal to end my evening.
Reference: Thrive by Brendan Brazier
Posted in Pump It
Tagged abdominal fat, acidic, adrenal glands, alkaline, athlete, balance, brendan brazier, coffee, cortisol, energy, exercise, high blood pressure, inspiration, ironman, marathon, ph, plant-based, salad bar, stimulants, stress, sugar, thrive, triathlete, vega, vegan, whole foods
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