Slow day is the best.

Alright, today's a day off, and I'm loving it. I made green tea jelly, topped with red bean paste *leftover from green tea swiss roll and red bean rice balls*. Turns out nice and wiggly and bouncy, a tad bitter tho *read tips below*. I'm feeling nice today so I'm sharing the recipe :D

green tea jelly with red bean paste

from Okashi by Keiko Ishida

Ingridients:
15g Kuzu powder*
200g Room temperature water
100g Hot water
8g Green tea powder
200g Soy bean milk
4g Agar-agar powder
90g Agave syrup**

Red bean paste****:
100g Red beans (azuki), washed and drained
50g Beet sugar***
A pinch salt

1. Combine kuzu powder and 2 tbsp water in a small bowl and mix well. In a separate bowl, gradually add hot water to green tea powder white stirring until completely dissolver.
2. Combine soy bean milk, remaining room temperature water, agar-agar powder and kuzu mixture in a small saucepan and bring to a complete boil while stirring continuously. Add agave syrup and green tea mixture and mix well. Remove from heat and strain.
3. Pour mixture into jelly moulds and chill in the refrigerator until jelly has set.
4. Make red bean paste. Boil red beans in a pot of water, then drain and transfer to a saucepan.
5. Pour enough water to cover beans. Simmer over low heat for about 1 hour, skimming off scum that rises to the surface. When beans are soft, remove from heat and drain.
6. Return beans to saucepan and add beet sugar. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes. Add salt and mix well. Remove from heat and spread paste on a tray to cool.
7. If you're having hard time unmoulding the jelly, place some hot water in a bowl. Put jelly mould into hot water, then remove immediately and unmould jelly onto a serving plate. I used a silicone 12-cup muffin mould and unmoulding the jelly was easy-peasy. Serve, with red bean paste on the side.

Notes
* I had no luck finding kuzu powder, so I used cornstarch instead. I believe kuzu powder is superior for this recipe but I also heard that it's more pricey, and hard to find here. Some sites said you can substitute it with arrow root or potato starch.
** Agave syrup is thinner and sweeter than honey. I used honey, which makes my jelly a tad too bitter. You can try adding sugar.
*** I used castor sugar instead. Worked fine.
**** Red bean paste takes long to make, but it's a must in this recipe. The bitterness and smoothness of the green tea jelly and the sweetness, nuttiness and creaminess of red bean paste complements each other! You can make red bean paste ahead of time. Store it in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks in the fridge or up to 2 months in the freezer
Another important note; don't use only a chunk of red bean paste like shown in my photos. Use a spoonful, or two spoonful. You want more, trust me.

Now, what are you waiting for? Dig right in!
Oh I forgot, you're still preparing your red bean paste and waiting for the jelly to set! Muahahaha omnomnomnom

Happy birthday to the Queen! Yep, the Australians are celebrating the Queen's birthday, and even tho I don't, I'm happy that today is a public holiday.

So you might notice that I've revamped my blog! I loved the previous template, but I wanted a more personalized one, so here we are! I spent the whole afternoon doodling and resizing pics o.O

Other than sitting in front of my laptop, I managed to make some red bean rice balls...I'm sure most of you won't have any idea, so here's a photo:

They look and taste like mochi! Why only 5, you ask? Because it's hard to mold this thing! The dough sticks to my finger and quite hard to wash off, so I gave up at 5.

I got the recipe from Okashi, my favorite baking book to date :)

I have a lot of red bean paste leftover from another recipe, I don't know what to do with it! I will make a batch of green tea jelly *which calls for red bean paste for a side* but I doubt it will need that much red bean paste. Humm.

Aah but I'll have to wait until Wednesday until I can bake or cook something else. Holiday's over! :(

Anyway, Nadia asked me to draw a character for my church's news, so I came up with this. She's to be called Joy. My church is Place of Joy (POJ) and the newsletter's called Joy Cast. Joyjoyjoy. People, meet Joy! xD Funny cos I have a niece named Joy :p

It was a really quick drawing, and I haven't managed to color her. The news is BW so this will do for now hey.