As young children, we (and I highly suspect, the adults too) would be more interested in the plates of goodies around the urn rather than the centerpiece itself. There were mooncakes obviously, though much lesser in variety compared to these days; as well as peanuts, ‘lotus horns’, poached baby yams, pomelos and savory glutinous rice fried with dried prawns and shallots. Drool!
This Mid Autumn must be the quietest by far for I had no plans at all, no fancy dinners, no invites nor mass gatherings. And I had only received three mooncakes, two baked type from Marriot Hotel courtesy of a client, and a snowskin type which the lady in the office made. But I was determined to not let this year go by unremembered.
It wasn’t difficult to turn dinner into something different. All one needs is the correct pairings. The packet of fried rice from a nearby coffeeshop washed down nicely with my half bottle of leftover Sauvignon Blanc. And the mooncakes were fabulous with Muscat. On the whim, paper lanterns from a nearby provision shop completed the MidAutumn look.
This is what the Kaffir Lime plant looked like, dressed up with paper lanterns.
Sauvignon Blanc, mooncakes and Muscat
And today I toasted some cereal. I’ve always been particular when it comes to cereal. So I mix my own and here’s the recipe.
- 300 g rolled oats
- 300 g raw almonds
- 100 g sunflower seeds
- 100 g pine nuts
- 200 g dried apricots
- 200 g dried figs
- 100 g dried blackcurrants (or raisins or sultanas)
- Jasons Supermarket stocks most the above.
Clockwise from the left: dried apricots, figs, sunflower seeds, blackcurrants and finally all in the pan; pine nuts and almonds on a bed of rolled oats.
Some tips on buying dried fruit.
- If you want preservative free dried fruits, pick the dried apricots that are dark brownish in colour. The nice-looking orange ones have sulphur dioxide, which keeps the colour in the fruit. It’s the same case for sultanas, the ones without sulphur dioxide would turn brown and not retain that golden hue.
- Before you start chopping dried fruit and adding it to your cereal mix, check to see if they’re mouldy. Yup, horrifying isn’t it? But such things do happen and I almost stirred in a batch of mouldy figs today.
- If you’re particular about added sugar in free dried fruits, forget about cranberries, preserved pawpaws or mangos too.
Method:
Toast rolled oats in a dry pan under slow heat, turning continuously with a spatula until lightly browned. I find this by far the most laborious task. One easy out would to get ready toasted oats, but I’ve yet to see any in the market which has no added sugar or honey. 300 g would take roughly 15 to 20 minutes to toast depending on how crisp you want your oats to be. Just be careful not to burn them.
Similarly, toast the sunflower seeds and pine nuts. For the almonds, roast them in the oven for about 7 to 10 minutes. I took about 10 minutes at 180 deg Celsius in my fan assisted convection oven.
If you’re lazy and want to buy ready toasted nuts, just be sure to taste them before you stir them into the cereal mix, to be sure that you didn’t inadvertently get salted ones meant for snacking. That’d ruin your cereal.
Cool to room temperature, mix well and store in airtight containers away from humidity and heat. I usually put my cereal mix into jars and stuff them into the freezer. That way, they keep for months and I’ve got no qualms about eating frozen cereal (milk’s cold anyway!)
You may need to mix the stuff in batches if they're too much to go into the pan at one go.
All mixed up finally
This is the view from the river on my way back from the bank
Wild yam plant which caught my eye. When planted in the ground (as opposed to container gardening) they do so well , don't they?
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