Tomato Sorbet

Ever tried tomato sorbet? We know it may sound a little bit weird, just like when we first heard we were going to make tomato sorbet at the school our reaction was also HUH? But It was certainly a pleasant surprise that it turned out refreshing and special, without the overly-veggie taste we had been worried about. 

Who would've expected that tomatoes blended with water, sugar and a pinch of salt would become a healthy dessert! So we made it again at home, using our trusty Philips blender & Cuisinart ICE-100 gelato machine =)

We encourage all to give this a try, just remember to use cherry tomatoes which are sweeter! 

Gelato, Ice Cream, Sherbet, Sorbet???

I once asked a friend who self-proclaims to be an ice-cream lover, do you know what's the difference between ice-cream vs sorbet vs gelato? She just replied err no I simply judge a good ice dessert by texture and flavor, if both factors are great then it's a good 'ice-cream'!

But for the health-conscious or simply for general knowledge, we should be educated on the differences between our favorite ice desserts. They are definitely not just fanciful names given for the sake of it, there are in fact very specific scientific definitions to their composition.

Below table shows the key differences amongst them.

	Sorbet	Sherbet	Gelato	Ice Cream
Main Component	>70% Water	35% Water, 35% Dairy	>70% Dairy	>70% Dairy
Fat Content	0%	2 – 8%	5 – 10%	>10.8%

As you can see the composition is a key factor to the texture of the dessert, which is why most people like ice cream because it's creamy and smooth - a result of the fat content from dairy. 

So for the health-conscious, you can go for the sorbet or sherbet for a less sinful dessert option. There's also another element to the gelato vs ice cream difference, during the churn process more air is incorporated into ice-cream so it's fluffier compared to gelato which is denser. Last difference is storage temperature, gelato is stored at a slightly higher temperature than ice-cream.

Of course with the home machine, like our Cuisinart ICE-100 although it comes with a gelato and a ice-cream blade you will still have to vary the components of the dessert before being able to churn out what we call ice-cream or gelato. It doesn't happen simply just by switching the blades. 

Hopefully now we all understand the differences and we'll be able to make an informed decision of our dessert choice in the future!

Blueberry Smoothie!

Chillin boy loves blueberries. I mean what's not to love above them? High anti-oxidant, good for brain health and skin! So when we saw some great looking blueberries at Cold Storage, we can't resist buying them. But as that day we planned to make tomato gelato, blueberries had to be consumed some other way. So smoothie it shall be!

Recipe:

1 cup blueberries

2 cups milk

1 tablespoon honey

You can also replace 2 cups milk with 1 cup plain yogurt and 1 cup milk instead. Actually that's the more ideal combination, but unfortunately we didn't have yogurt at home.

Here's the lovely blueberries =)

Smoothie success with our trusty Philips blender. Easy and healthy option, you can make your own smoothie at home too!

Our Indulgences in Taiwan - Kao Hsiung highlights

This will conclude our Taiwan travel series, a post on our adventures in Kao Hsiung. We spent 4 days 3 nights in the city, the second most populated city in Taiwan after Taipei. Once we touched down in Taoyuan International aiport, we took a short bus ride of about 15 minutes to the High Speed Rail station. Do not be misled by the signs in the airport, the rail station is actually quite far away and not walk-able at all. Once we reached the station, we bought a train ticket which departs in about 30 minutes time. The journey is about 90 minutes, only made possible by the HSR and not the normal train.

We would say try not to have high expectations of the city, it is in fact very different from Taipei. It is much less developed, less crowded and things seem to move at a rather slow pace. You may come across many night market recommendations online but we think only Rui Feng Night Market 瑞豐夜市 is worth exploring.

Some quick bites: Stinky Tofu, Fried Squid, Mutton skewers and Ice-cream

Drinks to flush it down, white bittergourd juice with honey is an interesting and healthy drink to try!

We did some sightseeing, firstly at FoGuangShan Monastery. Most tourists who visit Kao Hsiung are likely to make their way here because this is a key scenic place with the largest Buddha statue in Asia.

Moving onto Cijin island, this is a near by island accessible by car or ferry. It has a very rustic old-school feel, with a beach view, if you get to the top of the hill you'll enjoy a great view and explore the lighthouse.

Tianhou Temple is an old temple we found on our way down to the market area, many people still come here to worship the goddess for blessings.

Once we left Cijin island and back to main land, we took a train to Sizhwan station where the Takao Railway museum is. It is an old railway station with some well-preserved old trains.

Along the way, we also saw some old sugar cane warehouses now converted to venues for art exhibitions.

The biggest mall in Kao Hsiung - Dream Mall. You might have heard or seen this mall in some Taiwanese dramas and how romantic it is to take a ride on that ferris wheel on the roof of the mall. Well, the mall is huge but honestly nothing fantastic in terms of what it offers in retail. It might just be worth a look on the roof top, take some pictures of the ferris wheel and enjoy the burst of colors. Basically, that's about all we did at the mall and made our way back cos it was kind of boring.

Lastly, we took a walk along Love River. Although it has been portrayed as a scenic walk in most travel guides, actually it is just an old drain cleaned up and repackaged. Photos may be deceiving, just like the one we took!

Kao Hsiung was a city we chose to add on to the itinerary cos we have been to Taipei a few times, and thought it might be a good idea exploring somewhere else. Perhaps there are hidden gems in Kao Hsiung that we didn't manage to explore, but generally we still prefer the vibrancy and glorious food offered in Taipei!

We are back with Dragon Fruit Sorbet!

Bing Chillin is back with another successful recipe - Dragon Fruit Sorbet.

If you've been following us, we actually did a dragon fruit ice cream version before - reference here Dragon Fruit Ice Cream. But that time we felt the outcome was overly milky and perhaps dragon fruit flavor is better off as a sorbet (without milk or cream). Hence when we got some fresh dragon fruits from our Desaru fruit farm trip, we couldn't wait to experiment.

Sidetrack a little, here's the 7am fantastic view on our way to Desaru...

Here's what we got from the farm, amidst durians and mangoes...

 After washing the fruit, next steps:

*note that sugar syrup is a mixture of water and sugar

Again featuring our trusty Cuisinart ICE-100 ice cream maker, it's time to do some work again! 

The final product! Chillin boy and I both felt the sorbet version tastes much better than the ice cream version. It's less 'jelat' and tastes more refreshingly healthy. Considering the fruit wasn't that sweet by itself, we got the sweetness level quite balanced. The texture wasn't icy too, despite the absence of fats from milk/cream. In summary, this was a great experiment and dragon fruit sorbet is an absolutely fabulous dessert without any sinfulness!

Off to Hong Kong!

The Chillin team is off to Hong Kong for 4 days, we hope to bring back more insights of great food and shopping to share. We'll also be attending a coffee knowledge class, really excited about that! I hope to be able to master some basic coffee art as well, wish me success =)

Till we're back, cheers!

Milk Tea Gelato

Taking a break from our Taiwan posts, we'll still be writing maybe one or two more on Kao Hsiung once we are done editing the photos.

For now, back to ice-cream making...we've just experimented with Milk tea gelato yesterday! We are both regular tea drinkers, hence decided why not try something using our 3-in-1 milk tea sachets at home.

Here's the recipe:
Milk - 150g
Cream - 100g
Sugar - 100g
Water - 150g
Milk tea powder - 1 sachet of Old Town White Milk Tea 40g

First, mix the milk tea power with water just like how you will usually make milk tea. Then stir in the milk, heat the mixture slowly. Pour in the sugar while stirring continuously, bring temperature to 87 degrees. After that, cool down the mixture in a cold bath, then add the cream. Once it's cooled down, move it to the fridge. At this point in time, the mixture is like 'Teh Gao Gao'.

Usually we'll  leave it overnight and churn in the gelato maker the next day, with our trusty Cuisinart ICE-100.

The Process:

The Outcome:

The texture and sweetness turned out pretty ok, with very minor ice crystals but the disappointment was that the tea taste and smell did not come out strong enough. That sets us on a pursuit to look for a stronger tea flavour, definitely an improved version will be on the way!

To our readers: whoever knows where to get quality milk tea or tea flavours, do drop us a note. Will be greatly appreciated!