Last Of The Mooncakes...

I'd been busy these weeks... eating and delivering mooncakes to my family! Actually, shhhhh... most of time eating them! Burphhh! I just couldn't help it... hehehhehe... anyway, it's a once a year event that I always looked forward to. I know it's a very lame excuse but it works all the time Hah! Ok, I managed to took some photos before the last batch of mooncakes before they end up in my bottomless pit. This mooncakes are another interesting version because the outer layer is made from agar-agar with fillings of chocolate, durian (yep, that heavenly, spiky fruit that caused Andrew Zimmerman cringed!), coconut, dragon fruit (pithaya), etc, etc, etc.

This range has Sweet Corn, Pandan, Chocolate Mocha, Coconut, Durian, etc. The shape is oval with some chinese characters of 'Flower', 'Moon' and I couldn't remember the 3rd character :-P. The size is about W 4 cm x L 5.5 cm x 3.5 cm H... the weight? Goes in with just one gulp!

Here's how the Chocolate paste filling for the Mocha looked inside. Not as nice as the Traditional Mooncake with Salted Duck Egg yolk inside. The manufacturer firstly creates the base, add the filling and then fills up the mould with Agar-Agar - so the end result is like the pict! With this Agar-Agar mooncakes you need to consume them within 4 days, if not the product would turned stale or mouldy. So, it needs to be kept in refrigerator all time.

This is my new addition of mooncake containers. The outer cover is made of wood but the drawers were of thick boards. To stop the little drawers from falling out, a pair of longer than your usual chopsticks act as stopper. Cool eh? Overall, I like the unique Japanese concept for this year. I wanted to buy another set but it was no more available as the festival was coming to an end... :-( I wanted an extra because I'm thinking of converting the container into tea set keeper. Well, looks like I have to wait for next year then :-D

These are the drawers with the mooncakes inside. Since it's a limited edition, I can't choose mooncakes of my choice. Some edition comes with a container of chinese tea leaves - if not mistaken is oolong tea.

Well, until next year with another batch of new mooncakes. Now, I want to eat them before it's gone from the plate! I wonder if other foodie bloggers from other countries has such festival to honor the Moon? I would really love to know about it!

Cheers!

Cakes From The Moon!!!

Yes! It's that time of the month again each year according to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, the 8th Moon and 15 days of the Mooncake Festival! For 2008, this special date falls on 14, September, 2008 around Autumn Equinox or Mid-Autumn festival. This is the only time of the year I can taste lots of mooncakes that no longer made in rounds but in squares and other beautiful shapes with assorted flavours too. Besides the traditional flavours there are also Toffee, Black Sesame, Coconut, Mango, Dragon Fruit (Pithaya), Black Forest. Raspberry, Cheese, Lavender to Tiramisu! Goshhh, and the beautiful boxes that you have to put in those mooncakes as gifts to friends and families. For me, I like to collect the boxes or containers of this mooncakes as well. What I did with the tins and boxes? I kept my precious tea leaves like Pu Erh, Oolong, Gyokuro, Sencha and my teacups. Here's a little samples of the 2008 Mooncake collection available in my country and you can find more information about this festival celebrated by Asian Chinese wherever they are. These are baked mooncakes. I hope to post other types of mooncakes which made from Agar-Agar and Mochi, etc with mango, chocolate, litchee, yogurt fillings!

The boxes that came with the mooncakes.

This is Osmanthus Mooncake. Next to it is one of my Yixing Zhu Ni teapots, it's a special commemorative piece (I forgot what's the translation of the carvings of Calligraphy on its surface.) The size is for 2 people and as big as my clenched fist... I love having Green Tea and Oolongs in Red Clay teapots.

Side view of the mooncakes with ridges... behind the mooncake are 2 of my antique handmade and handpainted tea cups collection.

Inside of the Osmanthus Mooncake with single egg yolk (Salted Duck Egg), peeled melon seeds and osmanthus flowers mixed with Lotus Seed paste. The little streaks/dots are the flowers.

This one is Chestnut With Jingsa...

The brownish part is Chestnut puree/paste with melon seeds. The centre is mashed egg yolk from Salted Duck Egg. This mashed method is called 'Jingsa'.

There are many choices of mooncakes available until I got confused! You can read the following links here and here - you will see what I meant :-D Oh, also the colorful lanterns made of papers or plastic. I also like the Mooncake Moulds used. The intricate patterns of the moulds were carved out from a block of wood that made each mould an art itself! I'm going to get some and frame it up! Antique Mooncake Mould are expensive due to it's handmade process. Nowadays, I'm not sure if it's hand carved or machine carved but there are many choice of moulds available. You can even find plastic moulds, great for Mooncake Jellies and comes in shapes of Hello Kitty, Mickey Mouse and Winnie The Pooh! Surprisingly, Malaysia has been noted as largest variety of mooncakes supplier. For this year, this company is my favourite!

Tuna Steaks on Soba Noodles

Few days ago, I bought a piece of Tuna steak Sashimi grade quality. Lean and not sinewy at all which is fantastic. It's been quite awhile I didn't cook tuna but I ate a lot when I'm at Japanese Restaurants or any of those Kaiten style or fast sushi franchisees. Back home in my country, I used to frequent one called Sushi King but since few years ago they no longer serve Tuna dishes on their Kaiten and also their menu. I assumed it's the price of tuna that Sushi King discontinued it from their menus (?) So, now I'm a regular customer at Sakae Sushi. Tuna, unlike Salmon can't be farm bred... well, almost. They need to move about constantly even with their massive weight in the sea to have that lean and myoglobin enriched tissue muscles which were highly sought after. Most of this Tuna available in Europe supermarkets came from Indonesia. Sometimes, if lucky you can get air-flown tuna which is more expensive than frozen ones. This applied to air-flown Salmons as well. For Salmons, my preference is from Norway... of course, best if you can get genuine wild salmons! Now, we have major problems of overfishing tunas as well as other species of marine life... :-( It's not a joke or prediction. I think those inland lakes suffered the most from human exploitations. I haven't tasted farm-bred tunas even though there are farmers who bred bluefin tunas out there. For sure, the taste would be different and like farm bred salmons there would be health problems. Anyway, let's be prepared to taste farmed tunas which could be around the corner... :-|

In the mean time, here's a dish I cooked using the tuna chunk I bought from the wholesaler who had some left from a buyer because they need only some amount for their restaurant. 

Tuna Steaks On Soba Noodles

300 g Tuna Steak

200 g Soba Noodles (Buckwheat Noodle) 

6 stalks Spring Onions, sliced thinly

1 clove Garlic, crushed or finely chopped

3-4 tbl Fish Sauce

2 tbl Sweet Chilli Sauce

2 tsp Palm Sugar, grated or Soft Brown Sugar

1 tsp Sesame Oil

4 tbl Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 nos Lime- only for juice

20-30 g Coriander, chopped or Flat Parsley

Method:

1. To make dressing, place the lime juice, fish sauce, chili sauce, sugar, sesame oil and garlic in a small bowl. Mix well.

2. Heat olive oil in a griddle pan. Add the tuna steak and cook over high heat for 2-3 minutes on each side or to your preferences. Remove and keep warm.

3. Cooked noodles according to manufacturer's instructions or boil it until softens. Drain well. In another bowl, add half of the dressing. half of spring onion  and coriander to the noodles and gently toss together.

4. Cut the tuna steaks into even cubes, slice it or roughly shred the steaks using  a fork like I did.

5. Place noodles in serving plates and top with tuna. Mix the remaining dressing with balance of spring onion and coriander. Drizzle over tuna and noodles. Garnish with lime wedges.

Note: If you prefer, you can serve the tuna steaks whole with noodles of your choice on the side. Besides using soba noodles, you can try other noodles as well like thin wheat noodles, egg noodles or pastas...

Enjoy!