After making my first batch of tomato and salted plum granita, I've been thinking of making this refreshing dessert again but with different flavour combo. It's really nice having granita especially when the weather has been so hot these days.

I thought of combining nectarine and oolong tea in granita when I was in my yoga class. I'm supposed to concentrate, I know, but I just can't get granita out of my mind! ;-)


I used sugarless bottled oolong tea, and so I cooked some syrup and added to the nectarine mixture. If you are using sweetened oolong tea, you can adjust the amount of sugar to your liking or omit the syrup from the recipe completely.

Nectarine and Oolong Tea Granita Recipe

Ingredients:
500ml sugarless oolong tea
5 nectarines
100ml water
50g sugar

Method:
1) Put water and sugar in a saucepan, cook until sugar dissolve. Turn off heat and then leave to cool.
2) In the mean time, peel off the skins of nectarines, and then roughly chop into small pieces.
3) Put nectarines, oolong tea and syrup into a blender. Blend to a pulp.
4) Pour the mixture into a shallow container. Freeze for two hours, or until partially frozen. Remove from freezer, use a fork to break the frozen pieces into smaller pieces and mix well into the liquid.
5) Continue to freeze. Stir the mixture every 30 minutes until there's no liquid left in the mixture.
6) To serve, scrape shavings off from the frozen block of granita with a spoon. Serve immediately.

Nicole of Cookies on Friday has chosen chewy, chunky blondies for TWD this week. This is my first time making blondies and it certainly won't be my last. This particular recipe is loaded with lots of chunky goodness - coconut, chocolate chips, walnuts and toffee bits, it's simply yummy!

If you want to give the recipe a try, hop over to Nicole's blog!

Recently hubby and I went to a Japanese restaurant that serves an awesome array of sashimi and sushi. At the end of the meal, we were served with granita as dessert. The flavour was interesting, and I knew that it's made of ingredients that I'm familiar with, but I just couldn't figure out what went into the granita. It took me a few nights of tossing and turning in bed, recalling the flavour over and over again, and I finally realised that it's made of tomato and salted plum!

I bought some tomatoes and a pack of dried plums the next day and try to make my own granita. I experimented by slowing adding the amount needed for each ingredient until I get the right combination. Here's the recipe, give it a try and I hope you will like it too!

Tomato and Salted Plum Granita Recipe

Ingredients:
8 salted plum
4-5 tomatoes
500ml water
3 teaspoons sugar (add more if you want your granita sweeter)

Method:
1) Cook salted plums, sugar and water for about 20 minutes. Turn off heat, discard the salted plum and leave to cool.
2) In the mean time, roughly chop the tomatoes.
3) Put the tomatoes and salted plum syrup into a blender. Blend to a pulp.
4) Pour the mixture into a shallow container. Freeze for two hours, or until partially frozen. Remove from freezer, use a fork to break the frozen pieces into smaller pieces and mix well into the liquid.
5) Continue to freeze. Stir the mixture every 30 minutes until there's no liquid left in the mixture.
6) To serve, scrape shavings off from the frozen block of granita with a spoon. Serve immediately.

As mentioned in the book, the recipe chosen for TWD this week is supposed to be versatile, hence the name lots of ways banana cake. Other than the main ingredients-banana and shredded coconut, you can play around with the recipe, depending on your preference, or what you have in your pantry!


I made 1/3 of the recipe in a 3X7-inch rectangular pan, using dessicated coconut, milk and raisins in the batter and also skipped the frosting. I like how the cake turned out, dense and not too sweet. Just like some other cake recipes in the book, the banana cake develops a richer flavour over time and it actually tastes better the next day!

If you want to give the recipe a try, head over to Kimberly's blog!

With the summer in full swing at the moment, the last thing that I want to do is to spend too much time in the kitchen. Well, if you ask me, I'd rather lie flat on the floor all day long with a fan blowing on my face, and stare blankly at the ceiling, instead of slogging in the kitchen. ;-)

Simple dishes like cold noodles or salads have become my regular meals these days. But when I crave for something different in my diet, I'd try out some new recipes which do not require lengthy preparations and one such dish that I cooked recently was a tomato and mozzarella tart. The recipe calls for a few simple ingredients and the preparation is straightforward and simple too. Serve the yummy tart with a glass of icy cold drink and the combo is absolutely perfect for summer days!

Tomato and Mozzarella Tart Recipe
Recipe adapted from タルト 私のとっておき

Ingredients:
1 sheet puff pastry, thawed

To saute the onion:
1 small onion, chopped
10g butter
salt and pepper, to taste

For the toppings:
2 tomatoes, slice thinly
150g mozzarella, cut into pieces
5 or 6 pieces (or more) of basil leaves, cut into thin slices
Salt, pepper and olive oil

Method:
1) Melt the butter in a heated frying pan, saute the onion until it turns light brown colour. Add salt and pepper, do a few quick stirs. Dish out the onions and set aside.
2) Preheat the oven to 200 deg C.
3) Roll out puff pastry on a floured surface, then cut into a circle with diameter of 20cm. Bake in the oven for about 10 mins.
4) Remove the puff pastry from the oven, spread out the onions on top, but leave 2cm of allowance at the edge.
5) Arrange tomato slices and mozzarella on top of the onion. Add 2 or 3 spoonfuls of olive oil on the tomato and mozzarella mixture, follow by salt and pepper. Then spread the basils on top of the tart.
6) Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the puff pastry turns golden brown.
7) Remove from oven, cut into slices and serve.

One of the cakes that I baked back in my high school days was a pound cake flavoured with peppermint essence. It tasted funny and none of my family members liked it. It has been almost twenty years since I last baked the cake but until now, my brother still jokes about the "toothpaste cake" that I forced him to eat.

Well, this Brrrr-ownies recipe certainly brings back fond memories of my "toothpaste cake". A large amount of chocolate mint (I used Andes) is added to the batter and the brownies are rich, moist and of course, it gives a cool blast of minty flavour too.

If you want to give the recipe a try, head over to Karen's blog!

Dhamagirl of bliss: towards a delicious life has chosen an easy-peasy recipe for TWD this week. I spent very little time preparing it as I already have some sweet tart dough in the freezer. I made 1/4 portion of the ganache and it was enough to fill two mini rectangular tart crusts. The tart noire were then decorated with whipped cream and candied orange slices. My hubby loves it so much that he asked for more, and so I plan to make the tart again this weekend.

If you want to give the recipe a try, head over to Dhamagirl's blog!

Wendy of Pink Stripes has chosen a great recipe for TWD this week. These little cakes may look simple but they're full of vanilla and rum flavours. I thought of making some homemade fruit compote to go with the cake but in the end, laziness got the better of me and I just had them plain, which I'm glad that I did. But I will definitely bake the cake again and try out different variations which are provided by Dorie in her book.

If you want to give the recipe a try, head over to Wendy's blog!

Dressy chocolate loaf cake is a recipe chosen by Amy Ruth Bakes for TWD this week. Sour cream is used in the cake as well as the frosting. Instead of baking a loaf of cake, I decided to cut the recipe in half and baked 6 cupcakes. The recipe also calls for jam to be sandwiched in between the cake, and then cover the cake with frosting. But I just went for the easy way out by smearing the top of the cupcakes with strawberry jam, and piped the frosting on top. As much as I dislike chocolate cake, this recipe actually works for me. The jam and sour cream definitely made the cake less heavy, and the texture of the cakes are soft and moist too.

If you want to give the recipe a try, head over to Amy's blog!

I've been told that summer in Taiwan usually starts right after Dragon boat festival. I was quite skeptical at first, and the constant raining for the past 2 weeks made me even more doubtful. But to my surprise, the rain really stopped on Thursday (Dragon boat festival occurred on Wednesday) and since then, the sun has been out in full force. The much dreaded summer has arrived, urgh!

As I always eat alone during in the afternoon, my lunch is usually quick and easy, and noodle soup is something that I cook almost everyday. But with such hot weather, a bowl of hot soup is not that appealing to me anymore and so I opt for cold noodle instead. Cold noodle, or 涼麵, is a dish that start to appear in hawker stalls since about a month back and so I reckon this is the kind of food which the locals go for in summer. So during my last trip to the book store, I grabbed a book on making cold noodle dishes and here's the first recipe that I've tried out - noodle with XO sauce and minced pork.

Noodle with XO Sauce and Minced Pork Recipe

Ingredients:
Yellow noodle (or any noodle of your choice) for two persons
200g minced pork
3 dried mushrooms, soaked until soft and then chopped
1 stalk spring onion, chopped

Seasoning:
1 teaspoon cornstarch
3 tablespoons XO sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Method:
1) Mix minced pork with cornstarch, set aside.
2) Cook noodle in a pot of boiling water. Dish out and place the noodle on two plates.
3) Heat up 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok. Saute mushrooms with a pinch of sugar until fragrant. Add minced pork and saute until it is half cooked.
4) Add soy sauce, make a few quick stirs and then add XO sauce and sugar. Continue to stir until the pork is thoroughly mixed with the seasonings and cooked.
5) Spoon the minced pork mixture on top of noodle, garnish with spring onion, serve.