Christmas Gingerbread Frappe | Starbucks Style

Christmas is almost upon us and it means that it is about time that we start getting excited for the holiday season. This means nice spicy smelling foods. But the problem is that Australia is starting to warm up for the summer so it's hard for us to have the traditional warm spicy food smells. Instead I've come up with a cold option and hopefully you will like it.

Gingerbread is something that we associate with Christmas, we make ginger bread cookies as a family and the smell of the cookies baking in the oven is enough to tell you that Christmas is around the corner.

So today we are going to mix the flavours of gingerbread and summer together to bring you the taste of a gingerbread frappe. You've probably tried this drink before at Starbucks if you are lucky enough to have one near you. I recently tried this drink, about a month ago to be exact and it is DELISH. It tasted like gingerbread a lot, and I'm happy to be able to present to you a pretty similar drink for the summer.

There isn't much to tell you about this drink other than that it is amazing everyone should try it and there is no reason why it should be restricted for drinking in the summer. And I'll also provide an easy way for you to make this drink, without all the hassle that goes on behind the Starbucks counter.

And with that, let's get started.

Ingredients
2 cups coffee flavoured milk frozen
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger powder
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp mixed spice
whipped cream, to garnish
extra cinnamon, to garnish

Method
1. Put everything into a blender apart from garnish. Blend till smooth.
2. Pour into a serving glass, top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

And there you have it, Starbuck's seasonal drink at the comfort of your own home for next to nothing. This is the perfect summer drink for those of us with summery Christmas's but there is no reason for you to only drink this at Christmas, feel free to whip it out all year long.

I hope that you'll enjoy the gingerbread goodness, and I'll try and post more recipes soon seeing as I'm now on holidays for 3 months. Woooooooh. Remember to stay healthy, happy and safe over the holiday season!

Chai Tea Frappe

Hey everyone, I can't believe that tomorrow will be the last day of this blogging week. I can't believe that a week has gone by so quickly. WOW, I was planning to get so much done in this week but most of it just hasn't happened.

Anyways I've been getting this blogging week done which has been good :)

I hope that you like me putting more substantial food on the blog yesterday, although today I've converted back to posting about a drink. I only tried this drink out about 6 months ago, but I have been hooked and I will order it whenever I see it on the menu at a cafe. So I thought that it would only be right for me to share it with you guys as well, especially since it is snack week.

It's the chai tea frappe, or smoothie as it is also known. It's the refreshing hot drink that we all know and love transformed into a cool refreshing version for the summer months. It's got tea goodness, along with the hint of spices and the nice refreshing hit of ice to keep you cool, calm and collected through the heat.

Ingredients
2 cups of chai tea, brewed and cooled
1 cup of almond milk or full cream milk
1 scoop vanilla ice cream
4 cups of ice cubes
1 tbsp of honey or sweetener
1 tsp vanilla extract
whipped cream
cinnamon to garnish

Method 
1. Pour the milk, tea, ice, honey, ice cream and vanilla into a blender.
2. Blend until the mixture is smooth.
3. Pour the drink into serving glasses and top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon to garnish.

And you are DONE. A simple chai tea frappe at home.

I hope that you enjoyed today's recipe. It was more simple than all the others so far, but it is still as good and delicious because it is so simple. Stay tuned for the last installment of snack week tomorrow. 

Thai Iced Tea

Hey peoples. 

It is ridiculously hot today. Probably because it is currently 1pm, and I woke up about 11am.... It's still hot. I hope that yesterdays recipe was good. Because today I'm coming back with something that will be perfect to sip on today and it is just a skip over from the pond. 

Today I'm going to post up a recipe for Thai iced tea. This stuff is amazing, just as sweet and refreshing but no where near as huge of a caffeine hit. Which could be a good thing if you are worried about lying wide awake at 3am in the morning. 

The drink is similar to the Vietnamese coffee from yesterday because it is also chilled with lots of ice and sweetened with condensed milk, milk and coconut milk for extra flavour and depth. There isn't much to the recipe once again, but let's get started. 

Ingredients

100g thai tea mix (OR 4 black tea bags)

60g sugar

1 L boiling water

A LOT of ice cubes 

100ml condensed milk

100ml coconut milk

100ml evaporated milk

Method

1. Boil water in a saucepan and place in the tea and sugar. 

2. Boil for 3 minutes before letting the tea steep for 40 minutes off the heat. 

3. Strain tea into a bowl and dispose of tea leaves. 

4. Fill your serving glasses with ice

5. Mix various milks together

6. Fill glasses 3/4 up with tea

7. Fill up the rest of the glasses with the milk mixture

Serve ice cold

And there you have it, another ice cold drink to sip on in this 30 degree weather. It is supposed to only be spring, what is this? 

This drink is delectable throughout the year but hits all the right spots in summer, so go for it and make a huge batch at home and leave it chilling in the fridge to enjoy at your own discretion.

I hope that you have liked the recipe because I'll be back with more tomorrow. I can't believe it's already been 3 days :/

육개장 YukGaeJang

Heyyyy dere sexy peoples.

It's been a really long time since I have posted a blog :/ I have been busy with finals for uni and completing assignments so there hasn't been any post for a really long time :( BUT I finished all of my exams yesterday, so I'm not back with a recipe. I'm going to be on break until August so I'll probably try and do a post a week, possible more sometimes.

I hope that you have all been well ~~~

Let's see how we are going in terms of seasons, it's now summer in Korea, so we probably want some summer food right? Even though it is not the hottest time of the year just yet, this dish can still be something that you can enjoy to help cool you down. And it is also great for the colder countries in the southern hemisphere where it is winter at the moment,

The dish for today is called yukgaejang (육개장). It is a spicy soup-like dish that is made with beef and scallions as well as other ingredients such as bean sprouts (kong namuel), bracken, taro stem, onion and dangmyeon (sweet potato noodles). It is usually served with rice and kimchi.

The dish can also be made using chicken, and in that case it could be called dak yukgaejang.

This is a hot spicy dish so you may be confused about why it would be eaten in the summer. Western cultures tend to eat cold foods to cool down in the summer, this cools you down from the inside. However in Korea, they also like to cool themselves down from the outside by eating hot spicy foods to sweat more and thus also be cooled that way.

Ingredients
600g beef brisket
1 small onion
100g bean sprouts
50g taro stem (found dried in Asian marts)
50g bracken (found dried in Asian marts)
3 green onions
1/2 korean radish
3 tbs chilli flakes (gochugaru)
2 tbs minced garlic
3tbs soy sauce
60ml sesame oil
60ml vegetable oil
3tbs salt
1tbs pepper
4L water

Method
1. Soak the taro stem and bracken in warm water for an hour.
2. In a large pot add beef, onion, green onions and all the water. Boil it for 30min on a medium heat with the lid on.
3. Blanch the soaked taro stems and bracken in water for about 10 minutes. Squeeze all the water out and then cut into 10cm pieces.
4. Cut the radish into 1cm pieces
5. Remove the cooked beef from the broth and let it cool for 30 min. After that, tear the beef into small strips.
6. In a bowl mix half the chilli flakes, with 3 tbs sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, 1tbs salt and the pepper. If you want you can add more chilli flakes.
7. Add the bracken, taro stem and meat in a bowl with half of the sauce and let it sit for 10 minutes.
8. Add the sauce mixture into the broth with the radish and boil it for 40min on a medium heat.
9. In a small pot add all the remaining oil and chilli flakes and stir fry for 2 minutes, constantly stirring to prevent burning.
10. Strain the chilli oil through a cheesecloth.
11. Add some more green onions, bean sprouts, rest of the spicy sauce and chilli oil to the broth and salt to season. Boil for another 10 minutes.
12. Serve with rice and kimchi.

And there you have it, a nutritious dish to eat in summer or winter to cool you down or to warm you up. Either way it is bound to satisfy you.

I hope that you like that dish because it is certainly what I'm going to have for dinner tonight as it is super-duper cold and rainy at the moment. Have a try of it when it is super hot or cold and you will feel the heat of the dish radiate throughout the rest of your body.

I'm going to post more in the coming days, and until then remember to keep warm, safe, healthy and happy!

Ginger Tea 생강차 Saenggang Cha

Hey guys, so it has been a while since I last posted. Maybe you guys have finished going through my week of recipes so you have come back looking for more...hopefully. But I have finished all my school exams so I am sort of free until the actual exams that I need to to. So I'll probably be posting more for the next two months, but it also depends on whether or not I am bothered ^^

To ease my way back into blogging I am just going to be posting up a simple recipe for ginger tea 생강차 (saenggang cha) that you can make to drink anytime that you want. It will be nice to cool you down by adding a few ice cubes in, or you can just add more cold water.

Saenggang cha (생강차) is a tea made from ginger root. The ginger root is washed and sliced without peeling. The sliced ginger root is stored with honey for a few weeks. To make tea the mixed honey and ginger root is added to hot water.

Efficacy in Traditional Korean Beliefs: Some believe that Saenggang Cha is useful to prevent colds and to aid digestion. It also has a remedial effect on diarrhea and stomachache due to low body temperature. It helps someone who has a low body temperature due to bad circulation. However, neither belief has been shown in independent scientific evaluations.

This is an extremely good remedy for a sore throat and runny/blocked nose because of the ginger working wonders to the body's immune system. Although the taste may be a bit strong, it is still extremely good for your health, especially for when the days are getting chilly. Which is perfect for where I am now which has become cold again.

Ingredients
Fresh ginger – 80 g
Fresh cinnamon pieces- 20 g
Water – 8 cups
Optional - 4 to 5 pine nuts, 1 tsp of honey

Method
1. Clean the ginger well (peel the skin off as well). – I scrubbed it with rough cloth first then used a spoon to scrub off the skin
2. Rinse the cinnamon in cold water. (You don’t need to cut them into small pieces, mine was already in small pieces.)
3. Thin slice the ginger.
4. Put the ginger, cinnamon, and water into a pot.
5. Boil it on medium heat for about 25-30 minutes.
6. Sieve the ginger and cinnamon. (Use a white straining cloth if you can, to catch the small dirt from the cinnamon)
7. Serve it in a tea cup. (You can also add some pine nuts and honey)

And there you have it, a hot cup of goodness to protect you from the cold, perfect for the weather now which has returned to being cold.





So that it it from me today. I'll try my best to post another recipe again in the next few days, provided that I don't procrastinate too much. And remember that until next time to keep safe, healthy and happy!!

Spicy Cold Noodles with Kimchi 김치 비빔국수 Kimchi Bibim Guksu

So today is the last day that I need to be posting for a whole week. I'm a bit sad that the time has flown by, but there are lots of things that I need to do, such as school, exams and think about a whole lot of other stuff as well.

Anyways to end the week I am going to introduce you to another summer favourite. It is very somilar to another dish that I have done before, but this is has some extra ingredients. Kimchi Bibim Guksu (김치 비빔국수) is a twist on the bibim guksu that I talked about last time. If you haven't read the recipe before you can click on the link to check it out.

To save time I'm not going to talk about the history of bibim guksu again, you can check it out on the other page. Instead I am going to go straight into the recipe for kimchi bibim guksu.

Ingredients
8 - 10 ounces somyeon (somen) noodles
1 cup thinly sliced kimchi (fully fermented)
1/4 cup juice from kimchi (use a little more soy sauce and vinegar if unavailable)
1 tablespoon Korean red chili pepper paste, gochujang (adjust to taste)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon corn syrup (use honey or more sugar if unavailable)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons rice or apple vinegar
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Optional garnish
4 perilla leaves, kkaennip, thinly sliced
(or cucumber or lettuce, thinly sliced)

Method
1. Bring a medium pot of water to a boil while preparing the kimchi sauce.
2. Thinly slice the kimchi and place it in a medium size bowl. Add the remaining sauce ingredients and mix well.
3. Add the noodles to the pot of boiling water. Cook the noodles according to the package instructions (3 - 4 minutes). Drain quickly and shock in cold water to stop cooking. Drain and rinse in cold water again. Repeat until the noodles become cold. Drain well.
4. Combine the noodles with the kimchi sauce, and toss everything until the noodles are evenly coated with the sauce.
5. Taste and adjust the seasoning to taste, if necessary.
6. Garnish with your choice of the optional vegetables and serve cold.

And there you have it, a simple dish to serve for lunch or dinner in the summer heat.




That is it from me for this week. It may be a while until I post again because things are starting to get hectic. I will try and keep on posting but don't expect too much yet. There are a number of recipe that you can try out on my site if you don't know what to cook for dinner, lunch or breakfast. So remember to stay happy, healthy and safe.

Hobaktteok (호박떡)

I'm kinda in a crappy mood at the moment, and the only thing that I think can calm me down slightly is if I write up a blog post. Since I can't access my other bog for some reason, I will just post up a food blog.

The past couple of days have been cold in the morning but warmish in the afternoon so I thought that I would introduce you to a dessert that is perfect for weather like this. Hobaktteok (호박떡) is just pumpkin rice cake. This is a perfect way to enjoy the winter warmer like a dessert.

It is a pretty dessert so I guess that you can use it for special occasions by decorating it up once you have finished making it.

There isn't much to say about it so I guess that I will just move on to the recipe:

Ingredients
500 g short-grain rice powder
½ tablespoons) salt
100 g sugar
250 g sweet pumpkin (or normal pumpkin and sugar, about 50g sugar)
8 g (2 ea) jujube
8 g (16 ea) pumpkin seeds

Method
1. Scrape out the inside of the pumpkin.
2. Sprinkle salt on the rice powder and sieve.
3. Wipe the jujube with damp cotton cloths. Cut the flesh around seed and cut into flower shape. Wipe the pumpkin seeds with dry cotton cloths.
4. Boil water for steaming. Put the pumpkin, steam it for 15 minutes.
5. Scrape the flesh from the pumpkin.
6. Add pumpkin flesh and sugar into the rice powder. Mix thoroughly by rubbing, then sieve.
7. Boil water for steaming. When it boils, layer damp cotton (cheese) cloths on the bottom of the pot.
8. Put the put the mixture of rice and pumpkin into the mold, smooth the surface.
9. Make a slight criss crossing patterns with knife. Garnish with jujube and pumpkin seeds.
10. Steam for about 15 minutes.





And there you have it, quite a simple traditional Korean dessert that you can eat in Winter to warm you up.

Chilled Soy Milk Noodle Soup Kong Guksu (콩국수)

It's been another while hasn't it? I'm sorry, but the school term is starting to get hectic again, there are assessments and other things going on. There is only another 5 weeks until the end of the school term D: And then next term things are seriously going to be hectic. Anyways, enough with my school angst.

I have got another recipe today. Since I assume that it is getting really hot in the northern hemisphere these days since it is just about summer. I have decided that I should do a dish for the summer, to help you guys all refresh. It doesn't help me since it is almost winter for me, but hopefully this will save you from the sky rocking temperatures.

Since my last post, I have had a thing for noodles. So today's post is also a dish that has noodles, but they are prefect for the summer. Although it has not started getting humid yet in SK, it will sooner or later so it is best to be prepared with a cool refreshing dish. The dish today is called black Kong Guksu, which is a variety of Kong Guksu.

Kongguksu is a seasonal Korean noodle dish served in a cold soy milk broth. It is compromised of noodles made with wheat flour and a soup made from ground soybeans. It is unknown when Korean people started eating kongguksu; however, in accordance with the mention of the dish along with kaeguksu (깨국수, sesame noodle soup) in Siui jeonseo, a Joseon cookbook published around the late 19th century, it is presumed to have originated at least as early as the 19th century.

This dish is nice and refreshing and is a good way to up your calcium intake in the summer. It is super duper easy to make this dish, after all who want to be moving around in the summer heat? Anyways, to the recipe:

Ingredients
2 cups unsweetened soy milk or milk
1 cup black beans, cooked
1/4 cup black sesame seeds
1/4-1/2 ts salt
Noodles – somyeon or memil myeon (see below)
Optional) a few slices of cucumber for garnish, ice cubes

Method
1. Toast black sesame seeds on a dry pan over low heat until you hear the popping sound and start smelling nutty aroma. Stir occasionally for even toasting.
2. Blend soy milk, beans, black sesame seeds and salt until smooth. Keep in the refrigerator to keep cold.
3. Cook noodles according to the package instruction.
*Note: Somyeon (소면), white wheat noodles is the most common kind used for kong guksu, but memil myeon (메밀면), brown colored buckwheat noodles, work great for this dish not only for its slightly chewy texture and added nutritional value from buckwheat, but also for keeping the color theme of the dish.*
4. Rinse the cooked noodles in cold water and drain.
5. To serve, place the noodles in a bowl and pour the chilled black bean soup in the bowl. If you’d like, add ice cubes to keep the noodle soup chilled longer.
6. Place thinly sliced or julienned cucumber pieces on top for color and crunch bites.
7. Serve cold





And there you have it, a simple meal you can serve on a hot day. Also if you want to just have normal kong guksu, you can leave out the sesame seeds and black bean. I know that this is a favourite childhood dish for many Koreans, may this dish bring back many memories from your childhood.

This is it from me today, until next time remember to keep safe, healthy and happy. For those of you in the southern hemisphere remember to keep warm, and those in the southern hemisphere remember to keep cool and hydrated.

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