Snow Skin Mooncake

I have been trying for a few years now to find or make the toasted glutinous rice for snow skin mooncake without any success. I finally decided to cook the dough/skin on the stove and it actually works. The skin is soft and easy to use. I don't really mind the additional step. The mooncakes are great but I still prefer the baked ones because of their soft cake-y shells.

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Crispy Sauerkraut Fritters

At last, after 1 month of waiting, my lacto fermented sauerkraut is ready and it is delicious, crunchy, and sour. I rarely eat sauerkraut and never knew homemade could be so yummy. Adding it into crispy fritters with smoked sausage and bacon makes it extra scrumptious. Although I might have lost some of the lacto fermentation beneficial nutrients, the fritters are worth the loss. They are crispy and tangy, and with the honey mustard sauce, they're quite addicting. I could easily scarf down half a dozen, maybe more, in one sitting.

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Golden Syrup

the recipe for the dark thick syrup in the middle is provided below

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is 35 days from today, on September 27, 2015, which means plenty of time to make delicious mooncakes. I use Lyle's Golden Syrup which is too expensive, about $7.00 for an 11-ounce jar, so I looked online for homemade golden syrup so I can make lots of mooncakes. Golden syrup is an invert sugar syrup that needs acid to prevent crystallization.

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Sourdough Barley Bread

I borrowed from our library a German cookbook titled NEW GERMAN COOKING by Jeremy and Jessica Nolen, published in January 2015. I was not planning to cook German food; I was just curious and because I love reading cookbooks. Two recipes caught my eye: Crispy Sauerkraut Fritters and Sourdough Barley Bread. My sauerkraut still needs a week to ferment, so bread it is. I'll make the fritters next week. The store-bought sauerkraut won't do.

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Lacto Fermented Vegetables

Supercrispilicious!

Fermenting with sea salt brine called buro in Tagalog language has been a Philippine method of preserving vegetables for as long as I can remember. I specially like the spicy mustard greens bought from the wet market. My mother added them to sour soups. I really love burong mustasa with the Chinese-Filipino steamed bun sandwich, cua pao. Another favorite of mine is green mango. I have made both several times but with a shorter period of fermentation and never used the airlock system.

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