Homemade Matcha (Green Tea) Pocky 自家製抹茶百力滋

Still remember the Homemade Strawberry Pocky recipe that I shared with you not long ago?  If you’ve missed that post for any reason, simply click here to check out the recipe and video tutorial.  My kids and I love Pocky!  I pretty much grew up with having Pocky as school snacks quite often.   



As I shared with you from the Homemade Strawberry Pocky post, the store bought Matcha Pocky contains artificial flavoring (and coloring).  That’s the main reason why I made my own.  Not only the Homemade version tastes way better than the packaged ones, you also know what goes into them.  Plus, you can add all kinds of sprinkles on them to add more flavors and make them more unique. 



Check out the video tutorial below to see how I made them.




I hope you enjoyed watching my video tutorial.  If you haven’t done so, please subscribe to my Youtube channel here.  You’ll be the first to know when I have new video tutorials published.




As you can see from the video and the picture below, I made a few variations on these Matcha Pocky.  I left some of them as is, some I sprinkle with more matcha powder on top, some are with toasted sesame seeds, and last but not least, some with crushed freeze dried strawberries for contrast of color and flavor.  I think my favorite ones are the one with toasted black sesame seeds.  The sesame seeds add a wonderful earthy and nutty flavors, which contrast really well with the sweetness from the white chocolate and slightly bitter matcha.  The one with freeze dried strawberry is very unique as the strawberry adds a nice tartness to the pocky.  Not to mention, the color is amazing too.




I hope you like today’s recipe and video tutorial.  Hope you’re inspired to make you own Pocky at home.
P.S. If you haven’t done so, there’s still time to enter the $100 Visa Gift Card giveaway on my blog (U.S. only).  Click here to enter on the giveaway post.  Good Luck!

Stay tuned for more fun recipe and giveaways in the near future!

Cafe Spice Cookbook Review and Giveaway

I adore Indian cuisine and I am so excited to have the opportunity to review the Café Spice Cookbook.  The author of the book, Chef Hari Nayak, is on a mission to spread the enjoyment of Indian cuisine to everyone he meets.  The Café Spice Cookbook is a wonderful book that is perfect for today’s health-conscious home cooks to prepare light and fresh version of classic Indian dishes, most of which are naturally vegetarian and gluten free recipes.



There are 84 quick and easy Indian recipes to choose from.  I also love the fact that most of the recipes are ready in 30 minutes.  Chef Nayak covered recipes on Chutneys and Accompaniments, Vegetables and Cheese, Fish and Seafood, Poultry and Meat, Breads, Rice and Grains, to Desserts and Drinks.  For sure, you’re going to find something that you would like to prepare and learn more about in this wonderful book.  There are many recipes from the book that I can’t wait to try, such as Dried Bombay Beef, Spiced Crab Cakes, Coconut Rice and Mango Lassi.



This Café Spice Cookbook will also walk you through some simple techniques such as browning, deep-frying, roasting and grinding of spices, which are all essentials to the success of Indian cooking.   He also explain some helpful tips and tools he used in the recipe, along with a detail list of Indian Ingredients.  I am surprised that I already have most of the spices and ingredients in my pantry.  I guess the Chinese cuisine and Indian cuisine do share some similarity in the spices we use.



Interested to own a copy of Café Spice Cookbook and start making these healthy and flavorful dishes?  You’re in luck today.  I am giving away one Café Spice Cookbook to a lucky uTry.it reader, courtesy of Tuttle Publishing.

Here are the details on how to enter.
One lucky uTry.it reader (open to my worldwide readers) will win a copy of “Café Spice Cookbook ”.


To enter, simply leave a comment on this post and tell me what is your favorite Indian dish.  Deadline to enter is May 31st, 2015 by mid-night PST.  Winner will be selected through Random.org and announce shortly after the giveaway is closed.

For extra entries, do any or all of the following (leave a separate comment for each extra entry):
1)  Add me to your Google+ circle here
2) "Like" uTry.it's Facebook Page, click here.
3) Pin a picture from this post onto Pinterest.
4) Share this giveaway on Facebook (with a link back to this post please)
5) Share this giveaway on Twitter (with a link back to this post please)

That’s all and Good Luck everyone!

Homemade Strawberry Pocky 自家製草莓百力滋 with Video Tutorial

Do you love Pocky?  I am a big fan since I was little and I’ve tried many of their available flavors.  Pocky is a Japanese snack. It’s a slightly sweet pretzel/biscuit stick covered with different chocolate or flavoring coatings.  The most popular ones are chocolate, strawberry, and matcha, etc.    As you can see from the picture below, which I took from the supermarket shelves.  This market always have these three basic flavors available. 



You might wonder why I made my own when they already have the packaged ones available, right?  As you can see from the packages, the strawberry and matcha Pocky are made with artificial flavorings (and colorings, since there’s no REAL ingredient in them).  That’s enough reason for me to make my own!  Plus, they are actually quite fun to make.  My kids had a blast in the kitchen as we dip away….    



For these Homemade Strawberry Pocky, I used freeze dried strawberries along with melted white chocolate to create the coating.  The freeze dried strawberries give these pocky a lovely hue of pink and a wonderful tartness that contrast wonderfully with the sweetness from the white chocolate.




Click on the video below to see how I (I should say we) made them!







I hope you enjoyed watching my video tutorial.  If you haven’t done so, please subscribe to my Youtube channel here.  You’ll be the first to know when I have new video tutorials published.




As you can see, I sprinkled some of the pocky with extra freeze dried strawberries powder before the chocolate dried.  The extra sprinkle on top simply added some extra tartness and deepened the flavors even further.  You can also sprinkle toasted white sesame seeds, or decorative sprinkles to make them more festive.  But I love these just the way they are.  I hope you’ll give this recipe a try and I’m sure you’re going to love them!




Stay tuned for more fun and yummy recipes and giveaways in the near future. 

P.S. If you haven’t done so, there’s still time to enter the $100 Visa Gift Card giveaway on my blog.  Click here to enter on the giveaway post.  Good Luck!

How to Make Sandwich Bread (TangZhong Method)--白方包 (湯種法) with Video Tutorial

The very first time that I shared my Sandwich Bread using the TangZhong Method (白方包湯種法) was when I first started blogging, you can see the post here.  Many years have gone by and there are also a few changes that I’ve made toward making this bread (wow, can’t believe I’ve been blogging and sharing my recipes for almost 5 years!)  The biggest change from the previous recipe is that the loaf pan size was too small for my family these days, as their consumption of sandwich bread grows.  



I know many of you have tried the previous recipe and loved this bread.  I can’t praise TangZhong Method (湯種法) enough as it yields the softest bread that you’ll ever feel.  Best of all, the softness lasts for a few days.  Yet, it’s all natural without using any weird ingredient that you cannot pronounce.  The secret is all in the method of how to make it.  I've shared a few videos in the past on how to shape different buns (see links at the bottom of this post) with fillings inside, using this basic bread dough.  Yet, I have not shared the process of making the dough.  Many of you emailed and messaged me to request a video tutorial with the step-by-steps on how to make this bread from start to finish.   So here we go....your wish is granted!



Ready to learn how to make this amazing sandwich bread?  Watch the video tutorial below.






I hope you enjoyed watching my video tutorial.  If you haven’t done so, please subscribe to my Youtube channel here.  You’ll be the first to know when I have new video tutorials published.

One thing I want to emphasize is that bread making is quite time consuming.  You have to set aside at least 3 1/2 hours from start to end.  However, all of the steps are easy to follow and there are many idling time.  You can work on other things while you wait, such as surfing the web, watching your favorite TV show, or answering emails, etc.  There’s just no short cut when it comes to bread making.  But, I can guaranteed that you and your family will fall in love with this bread once you’ve tried it.  You can definitely taste the love in this bread.  It's so soft and pillow-y that you want to snuggle it and take a nap!






If you have a recipe or certain dish that you would love to learn how to make, feel free to leave a message below to let me know.  I will try my best to make more wishes come true!


Tools used in this post:

1 1/2 Pound Pullman Sandwich Loaf Pan (Click here for more information)
Calphalon Baking Sheet Pans (Click here for more information)
Wood Print Photography Backdrop (Click here to see similar product)
KitchenAid Stand Mixer (Click here for more information)
Organic All-Purpose Flour (Click here for more information)
Active Dry Yeast (Click here for more information)

Click here for the Orange Marmalade Recipe
Click here for the Meyer Lemon Curd Recipe
Clicke here for Prosciutto di Parma with Smoke Gouda Crescent video
Click here for Hong Kong Bakery-Style Sausage Bun (腸仔包)
Click here for Pastrami and Muenster Cheese Blossom Buns

Summer Cocktails Giveaway Winner Announcement

Thank you everyone who participated in the Summer Cocktails Recipe Book giveaway.  Special thanks to Quirk Book for providing the prize.  We have selected a winner through Random.org!



The winner is Lok Man Fan who said,
“So refreshing! I agree we really need this as our temperatures are going up so fast! My favorite cocktail is pina colada!”
 
Congratulations, Lok Man Fan!  I’ll be in contact with you soon.

If you didn’t win the giveaway, you can still purchase a copy of the Summer Cocktails here.  It’s a must have for summer parties.  Your guests will be impressed if you prepare these wonderful cocktails and appetizers for them.

I still have another giveaway open on the Blog.  Check out this post here on how enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card!

Thank you all for reading.  Stay tuned for more fun recipes and giveaway soon.