Happy Lunar New Year! - Vietnamese sticky rice, coated in mung bean

Happy Lunar New Year, everyone! I hope this year will be a joyous one for all.

Today is the second day of Tết (Lunar New Year). If I were in Vietnam, we would spend today at my grandmother's house. She would cook this sticky rice dish again, and we would happily enjoy it with fried spring rolls (nem), pickles (đồ chua), poached chicken with lime leaves (gà luộc lá chanh) and many more delicacies.

Xôi vò (Viet sticky rice coated in mung bean) is not an easy dish to make. The final product requires each grain to be separated and coated nicely with mashed dried mung bean. My grandmother often makes it with chicken fat, making it extra tasty! 

(I am trying to get back to work even though my mind is in Vietnam, thinking of Tết! I hope those who celebrate it will have extra fun time with their families, since it is the most important thing, really.)

On another note, I have been featured in an article on Vietnamnet, one of the most popular Viet language news portal :). The post talked about the Hanoi cafe I took, and also my life as an expat in Australia. If you can understand Vietnamese, read it here! Thank you!

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Watermelon and rose granita - [summer]

After the weird cold days, summer is shining back again in Melbourne. The heat is on, and I find it enjoyable.

 Summer means stoned fruits, cherries, lighter meals, pretty blossoms and sunshine until late. I am so much in love with the light, and my gardens. We have so much basils, tomatoes and strawberries. And the most awesome crop is the 2 kilos of peaches from the miniature tree in a pot. Nothing beats fresh peaches/stoned fruits. They are slightly sour, and incredibly crunchy.

My home-grown peaches. So proud :>

 Summers also means icey, cold desserts. While I love ice-cream, I am not a big fan of making custard and cream based desserts often. Granita provides the perfect solution. Light, fresh and cold. We can use up a lot of good summer fruits. Since it is hot again this week, I am thinking of a chocolate granita. But for now, let's settle with my favourite combo this summer – Watermelon and rose! 

{Top photo by Mai Nguyen}

Watermelon and rose granita 

Ingredients

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
juice of one lemon
1 kg ripe watermelon (weight after remove rind)
Petals of one chemical-spray- free rose (do not use ones from nursery. Mine is home-grown)
½ teaspoon rose water

Method

First, make the simple syrup by boiling the water with sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Add in the lemon juice, and cool.

Coarsely chop up the watermelon and put it in a food processor. Add the rose petal. Process until fine. Pass the juice through a sieve.

 Mix together the simple syrup with the watermelon mixture, together with the rose water.

Pour the mixture into a metal tray and freeze for 3 hours or until partially set. Using a fork, break frozen mixture up until it is quite slushy. Return mixture to freezer and repeat flaking process after 2 hours (at this stage tiny ice flakes should have formed). Return to freezer for a further 2 hours then repeat flaking process. Just before serving, repeat flaking process for the final time.

Happy Summer!

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