I’d never tried consuming ginger as a crisp, however, until My Blue Tea sent me a jar of Borneo Dayak Ginger Crisps recently, with a challenge to see how many ways I can use it in my food.

Unfortunately for them, it was so addictive that I finished the entire jar before I had a chance to test it in recipes, so they had to send me some more.

So here are some suggestions I’ve come up with, on different ways to use Dayak Ginger Crisps:

1. As a topping on soups – Malaysians love a good bowl of ABC Soup (so-named, I’m told, because making it is as simple as ABC). I made a beef version of it (beef bones, meat, onion, tomato, pepper, seasoning) and served it up sprinkled with some ginger crisps, to give it that extra flavour boost.

2. With Hakka Confinement Chicken – I have to specify “Hakka” because our version is sweeter than normal (I thought that’s how they came until I ate a non-Hakka version as an adult). Hakka confinement chicken – so-named because it’s usually cooked for new mothers – is made with lots of fresh ginger, Chinese wine, sugar and salt (or chicken powder). Try serving it with an extra dose of crispy ginger.

3. On Congee – ginger and congee (aka savoury rice porridge) is a match made in heaven; add it as a garnish on your next bowl of congee.

4. On Chinese Greens – another no-brainer; poach some green leafy vegetables, toss with some oyster-soy-based sauce, add a dash of sesame oil, and top with some ginger crisps.

5. On Poached Asian Dumplings aka Sui Gow – wonton wrappers filled with minced chicken (I don’t eat pork), prawns, water chestnuts, spring onion and seasoning. I’d usually use fried crispy onions but these Dayak Ginger Crisps really helped bring out the flavour of these otherwise pretty subtle morsels.

6. Sprinked on Salads – in this case, my salad with home-cured salmon which I had for lunch today.

Other ways I’ve yet to try the ginger crisps with, but which I think would work really well, would be –

7. As a garnish on Stir-fried Cantonese Beef Noodles w/Ginger (Kon Chau Ngau Hor)

And if you have a sweet tooth –

8. As a topping on Apple Crumble
9. With Vanilla Ice Cream (why not)

So there you have it, my 9 suggestions on how to use Borneo Dayak Ginger Crisps, to get you inspired. If you’re anything like me though, you’ll be snacking on them straight out of the tub – but hey, at least they’re healthy.

(ps. if you want to get your hands on these ginger crisps, visit MyBlueTea.com.au)

(With thanks to Lenovo for the tech I use in my content creation; in this case, a Lenovo Legion 7 w/16GB RAM #LenovoIN)

The post Ginger Crisps – 9 Ways To Use Them In Your Dishes first appeared on Jackie M..

It never powered up again. 

I took it to the repair shop and they couldn’t fix it (to be fair, it was nearly five years old).

I’m not a gamer but this laptop was built for gaming, so it impacted me more than had it been one of my other laptops (I’m a former Microsoft Systems Engineer so yes, I like my tech).

You might ask – why would you need a gaming laptop to livestream cooking videos, especially in this day and age when you can go Live with the push of a button on your mobile phone? 

Well, it depends on what kind of live video setup you’re aiming for. I personally don’t like going Live from my mobile phone – apart from the small screen and having to squint to read the comments, and never being quite sure where to look when it’s on landscape layout – I also want the bells and whistles of using custom layouts, overlays and other branding elements as well as being able to broadcast simultaneously to multiple platforms and channels etc. etc. 

With the right laptop, I just need to plug in one or two external webcams (depending on how many angles I want to display when cooking) via USB and position them as needed.

Apart from doing Live cooking videos from my laptop using different tools including XSplit broadcaster (which is basically like OBS), I also do a fair bit of video editing, so all that put together means I do need a laptop with a fair bit of muscle. 

I was able to get my hands on a Legion 7 Super RTX 20280 gaming laptop – it’s not the latest model, but I needed one quickly to replace my old Ideapad, and this was what Lenovo could send out immediately for me to review.

Model: Legion 7 Super RTX 20280

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz   2.59 GHz

Installed RAM: 16.0 GB (15.8 GB usable)

System type: 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

I posted a photo of it on social media and it received a lot of interest, probably because people only ever get to see what’s on camera, not what it takes to run my livestreams.

To answer some questions that came up, yes the keyboard does light up with colourful lights – and not just the keyboard but also the ports, the vents and even the Legion logo. You can change it so it’s mono-coloured, but I prefer it the way it is.

I also like that the power outlet and most of the ports are at the back, because it helps with cable/cord management. 

The ports are as follows – 

Right Port:

USB 3.2 Gen 1*

Rear Ports:

2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2**

1 x HDMI 2.0

1 x RJ45 Ethernet

1 x Kensington® lock slot

1 x Power-in

Left Ports:

Thunderbolt 3 Type-C (Thunderbolt, DisplayPort, USB 3.2, HDMI)

USB-C (DisplayPort 1.4, USB 3.2 Gen 1*)

Headphone / mic combo

Other features I really like about the Legion 7 are that it comes with a comfortable tactile keyboard, it’s thin and light, and it stays cool and silent despite heavy use. Its 15-inch display is smaller than the 17-inch one it replaced, but performance-wise, this laptop is by far an improvement on the old unit.

More details and specs on the current model of the Legion 7 Super RTX 20280 can be found here – https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/legion-laptops/legion-7-series/Lenovo-Legion-7/p/81YT0006US

The post Live Cooking Videos From My Desktop (Lenovo Legion 7 Review) first appeared on Jackie M..