Recipe: Winter Melon Dessert ()

"Hey tom felton will be in town on d 9-10th"

The above was a text from a close friend. I had to reread the message twice, googled it thrice, to double confirm that the actor who played Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter films is coming to Melbourne, and to be exact, at the Melbourne Showgrounds! You have no idea how near is me place from Melbourne Showgrounds is!! I WAS SQUEALING IN DELIGHT because the fangirl in me is.

However, it requires one to pay to get an autograph and picture, which according to my friend, and according to me, really dodgy. Sucks when you have to pay your way to get an autograph. When I was in Hong Kong, I met superstars on the streets. Why the hell should I pay to get an autograph? Doesn't make any hell sense to me.

Also, I'm broke (not broke but using money hurts my dad's wallet) from my salicylic peel and blue light therapy at a skin clinic and my latest purchase of hyaluronic acid and glycolic acid skin products for my mom. So, I decided to say no to seeing Tom Felton in person.

Sorry Tom Felton, my skin is more important to me. I think a lot of people know about this.

Speaking of good skin, I shall introduce you this amazing Chinese dessert that nourishes from inside out. :) According to my skin nurse, what you eat really SHOWS on your skin. So, if you've got crappy, bumpy skin like mine, you know your diet's screwed.

For those of you who do not know what a winter melon looks like:

From here, you will have an idea on how I cut my winter melon!

You can get this from Victo! ria Mark et! I used to not be able to find it but for god knows what reason, one can easily obtain winter melon these days. :) You just need to go to the area next to the organic section of the market. The stall is located two stalls (to the left) away from the stall selling nuts and dried fruit.

My mom used to make this for me every morning before I go to school. Especially when I was 17. That year, I was really stressed and very unhealthy. Canteen food was horrible so I rarely eat lunch. Lunch was mostly a pear or an apple. The worried her decided that I should not have just a bowl of muesli and milk for breakfast. So, she usually prepare some Chinese soup or dessert to nourish my pallor self. Usually, it is winter melon dessert because I love the light sweetness offered by the winter melon. Apart from making desserts, one can use winter melon for preparing soup, stock or stir fry.

Desserts from the heart


Recipe:Winter Melon Dessert () - serves 10

Ingredients:

-2 winter melons (About 2 kilos), skin peeled, core removed and cut into 2 cm (length) by 1 cm (thickness) strips
-2 honey dates
-A handful of premium dried longans
-A handful of dried lotus seeds
-2 dry white fungus, soaked in warm water for 30 minutes and rinsed twice. Cut into tiny pieces
-1 to 1 and a half block of cane sugar ()
-Half cup of barley, rinsed
-10 cups of filtered water

Instructions:

1. In a large pot (I used a 8 L pot), add water, sugar, longans, honey dates, and barley. Bring to boil and then simmer at low heat for 30 minutes.
2. Then, add in winter melon and lotus seeds. Bring to boil. And set to simmer for 1 hour. Test for sweetness. If it is not sweet enough,! add som e rock sugar. Do remember that the winter melon has its own natural sweetness. Adding too much of sugar will kill its unique taste.
3. After an hour, add in white fungus. Simmer for 10 more minutes.
4. Serve hot or cold. Dessert can be kept refrigerated for up to three days.



If you are curious about where I did my peeling, you can always drop me an email. :) Also, if you are wondering if I died from my peel, no I did not. In fact, my skin became super fair and the blemishes are miraculously zapped off from my skin. That was just one 8 percent peel.

I am not alien to skin peels. In fact, I did them when I was 15, when puberty throughly hit me in full force. I did not have the nicest skin that time. I had tonnes of open comedones and all that gunk. I had about 10 peels and then, my skin became very smooth and nice for the next four years. :)

I stopped going for peels for two years. Now, I'm going back to doing them because I feel that this might be a solution apart from having balanced diet, keeping emotions in check and having exactly 8 hours of sleep every single night.