How to Make: Japanese Strawberry Almond Tart (Sugar-Free)

 

Hello, long time no posts... I've finally have had time to make something again, and this time, I made a Strawberry Almond Tart, a recipe that I stole from Ochikeron, on Youtube.   It is ridiculously easy to make and it looks like a patisserie made it at the end.  I used coconut oil, but use butter instead if you prefer.  You can use whatever fruits you have, strawberries, blueberries, kiwis, mangoes...

How to Make: Steamed Red Bean Tapioca Jelly Cake (Hong Kong Bakery Sweet)

''Steamed Red Bean Tapioca Jelly Cake.''  Sounds like an interesting combination of words?  Well it is a delicious common item to see in Hong Kong Asian Bakeries.  It is also always sold in bakeries in Vancouver, Canada for about $1.29 a piece.  Not only do they look beautiful but they are so delicious.  The tapioca turns clear when it is finished cooking and has an incredibly gooey- chewy-ness to them.  You can use tapioca or sago pearls, they both work here. Tapioca pearls are made with tapioca starch and sago is made with potato starch.  Traditionally, they are filled with Red Bean Paste but you could try it with other pastes such as lotus, taro etc.  It is incredibly easy to make, and the end result is almost like a not-so stringy Japanese daifuku mochi, with half the mess. I made mine in a 16.5 cm by 7 cm square baking tin but an 8 inch tin will do too.  You can put it in any moulds you want, even muffin tins, but the times will vary depending on the thickness of the pearls. Give it a try, you'll impress your taste buds and your guests!  This recipe is adapted from Christine's Recipes of Steamed Tapioca Red Bean Cake.  Be sure to check out Christine's Recipe Blog! Click Here.

How to Make: Red Bean Paste (Anko) used in Chinese, Japanese and Korean sweets.

Red bean paste is a sweet bean paste that is commonly in East Asian sweets. Red beans have a slight sweet taste even without having sugar added to it.  However, it is most commonly sweetened, and used to flavour, fill or as a base for sweets.  It is used to make Japanese jelly (Yokan), to fill Korean doughnuts and Chinese pineapple buns, as a topping of the Malaysian Ice Kacang and many, many more.  There are 3 main types red bean pastes.  There are the whole, the chunky and the smooth.  The whole one consists of the red beans being whole which is all slicked in a sugary syrup.  The chunky one has the beans mashed with the skins on with a few addition of whole beans for texture. The smooth one is the most common one to be filled in pastries, and cakes.  It is completely mashed and have been strained through a sieve to remove the skins leaving a satiny smooth dark paste.  

   Red bean paste is extremely easy to make, and it can flavour almost any sweets and desserts like red bean cake, red bean pie, red bean pancakes, or just on top of vanilla ice cream.  The best ratio I've found to make red bean anko paste is 1:4 (red beans to water, respectively).  So please multiply or divide according to the amount you require. Both metric (left side) and imperial measurements (right side) are listed.
    Red beans (commonly labelled, ''Anko'') are very easy to get at any Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Malaysian, almost all East Asian markets.  They are in packets and usually inexpensive, perhaps $1.29-$2.50 CAD a packet.  There are pre-tinned and pre-made pastes available as well, but you can't control the sugar content and the addition of preservatives.  I think it's best to make your own, and it's easy too!