taste goblet

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2006-10-03T20:17:00.000+08:00

kesari...a couple of ways

2006-08-31T11:27:00.000+08:00

Kesari is probably the fastest Indian dessert to make. Just be prepareds for some fast and furious stirring. Nonetheless it requires very basic simple ingredients, is fast to make and can be served immedaitely without needing much standing time...which is why many a time, when unexpected guests sudedenly pop by, kesari is always the fist treat to be whipped up. It makes us look like fabulous hosts when actually, it takes little more than fifteen minutes to serve up a bowl of the sweet, richly flavored confection.
After a request from mariya, I looked through my Indian cookbooks -and a few websites- for kesari recipes and to my surprise, discovered that there were actually various versions of this South Indian dessert. I decided to try out two...the first the kesari we are familiar with in Singapore: made with roasted semolina (rava), sugar, liberal lashings of ghee and studded with raisins and cashews.... and the second, a rather unique recipe that uses flattened rice (aval), jaggery (vellam) and ground cardamon.

While both tasted good, I must say the orange semolina version was much more well received by everyone at home. The smooth almost meltin richness of the semolina won everyone over while nobody really could identify with the broken rice version as kesari...although I got a few comments that it tasted a bit like vajay---that Malayan glutinous rice dessert..

Semolina Kesari (makes 4 servings)

55g semolina (rava)*

1/4 cup melted ghee

5/8 cup boiling water

a pinch of kesari colour powder or orange coloring+

50g sugar

3 cardamons, pounded

a pinch of ground nutmeg

a handful of cashews, halved

a handful of golden rasins

1 tbsp of ghee, extra

1. Heat a tablespoonful of ghee in a small saucepan and fry cashews and raisins till golden brown. Set aside.
2. Heat the 1/4 cup of ghee in a wok over medium-low heat and fry semolina until fragrant and it darkens slightly... this would take about 3-5 minutes.
3. Pour in water and stir vigorously. When it is cooked and thick, add sugar, coloring, cardamon, nutmeg, fried cashews and raisins. Cook, stirring all the while over gentle heat till it thickens.
4. Pour into a tray and cut into squares, or press into small bowls and unmould on a plate to serve.

*The semolina best for making kesari is the coarse kind, very easily found in Indian grocery stores. Just ask for a small packet of rava.
+While food coloring works just as well, kesari powder is what makes the confection have a gorgeous deep reddish orange hue. The powder is sold in Indian grocery shops as well, and a small bottle costs only 80 cents! Just ask for orange kesari powder.

Frying cashews and raisins in ghee...how decadent, not to mention unhealthy, is that?

Roasting semolina in ghee

Cheap but powerful kesari powder

Aval Kesari (makes about 10-12 squares)

200g beaten rice (aval), soaked for 25 minutes and drained

125g golden jaggery (vellam)

70ml water

2tbsp sugar

50g ghee

5 cardamons, pounded

a small pinch of salt

1. Boil together jaggery, sugar and water until sugars are dissolved. Strain syrup into a wok.

2. Over low heat, add beaten rice and ghee and cook until all the syrup is absorbed and the rice is cooked. Add cardamon and salt and mix well.

3. Pour into a small tray, flatten surface and cut into small squares to serve.

Golden jaggery...nature's sweetener

Beaten rice, otherwise known as aval. Easy to prepare-just soak for at most 30 minutes- and much fluffier than regular rice.

Cooking the aval with ghee and syrup.

Poured into a tin and flattened...waiting to be cut into squares.

toffee almond fudge

2006-08-23T19:15:00.000+08:00

Again with my fascination for indian sweets, here was my attempt at toffee almond fudge, a recipe I got from an Indian vegetarian cookbook that my aunt had sent me from the States. But strangely enough, the end product doesn't taste like an indian sweet at all...there was no ghee, or spice. I guess this was something taking from the Western style of fudge making, cos it tasted remarkbly like a nutty version of caramel fudge. Don't get me wrong, it was quite nice...milky and with a lovely toffee flavour..but ultimately very American fudge-like. And another thing was with our weather, I couldn't leave the tray of fudge to sit out in the open..it refused to set. So it had to be popped into the fridge, where it thankfully did not harden immensely. It still has the requisite fudginess that is so important for chewy sweets. Combined with the crunch of toasted almond chunks and the milky caramel sweetness of the fudge, I was quite pleased with the end result. The only thing I guess is important is to have really fresh milk powder available so that you get the best taste outta each slice of fudge.

Ingredients. Not too many but all quite luxe. Almonds, danish butter, demerara sugar, cream...

Sugar and butter boiling away to make the caramel

Poured into a lightly greased tray...

...and sprinkled with toasted almonds

Toffee Almond Fudge (makes about 50 pieces of fudge)

recipe from Cooking With Kurma, Chakra Press

250g unsalted butter

1 1/2 cup raw or demerara sugar

1 cup pouring consistency pure cream

1 cup whole almonds, roasted and chopped coarsely

3 3/4 cups full cream powdered milk

extra toasted flaked almonds for decoration

Melt butter over low flame in a heavy saucepan. Add sugar, and stir constantly over moderate heat until sugar dissolves.
Cook for another 5-10 minutes until the mixture develops a light caramel color. You should be able to detect a slight toffee fragrance.
Remove the pan from heat and allow to cool for 5minutes. Stir in the cream and nuts. Using a wire whisk, gradually mix in the powdered milk, 1/2 a cup at a time, stirring vigorously to remove any lumps. When the mixture is very thick and just hangs on the whisk, it is ready.
Scrape the mixture into a lightly greased 25 by 30cm tin. Smooth out the top and sprinkle over with toasted almond flakes. Allow to cool completely, slice into 1 inch squares or other shapes and store in the refridgerator.

Slices of quite decadent toffee almond fudge

lemon cupcakes

2006-08-19T23:14:00.000+08:00

I was inspired by another food blogger's entry on lemon cupcakes to try out this recipe. And for a very long time, I've always wanted to try my hand at cupcakes that have fillings. It's alot more work but I'd always thought the end product would be worth it...a crumbly rich cake, a sweet filling that just gives that unexpected jolt of flavour when you bite in, and a mound of lovely frosting. This particular recipe seemed to be perfect...a citrus flavoured cupcake and a tart lemon curd filling. Though it orginally calls for a meringue topping, I decided to go with the lemon buttercream that the "food whore" used.

Unfortunatly, the original recipe for the cupcakes did not turn out AT ALL *sniff*. Perhaps I did something wrong but there just seemed to be too much liquid in the batter and the cupcakes turned out hard and dense. Completely different from the reviews that describe them as light and fluffy... guess something went off somewhere. It was quite heartbreaking to throw an entire batch of cakes down the rubbish chute.

But I still wanted to make these cupcakes so I went back to a tried and true recipe for vanilla cupcakes and added a tablespoon of lemon zest to it. And glad to say it turned out lovely, buttery and not too sweet either. Along with the tangy lemon curd filling and sweet buttercream, it really was a great amalgamation of flavors. And just because, I toasted a handful of almond flakes and sprinkled them over the swirls of yellow and ivory frosting. Definitely something to make again, the next time I have some time on my hands..

Lemon cupcakes

(adapted from the Magnolia Bakery's vanilla cupcake recipe)

1/4 cup butter, softened

slightly less than 1/2 cup vanilla sugar

1 tbsp lemon zest

1 egg, at room temperature

2/3 cup plain flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Cream butter, sugar and zest till pale.

2. Beat in egg and vanilla. Continue to beat for 1 minute.

3. Whisk together the flour, baking soda and baking powder.

4. Alternating with the milk and vanilla, beat in flour mixture into the creamed butter-egg mixture.

5. Divide batter amongst cupcake holders (I managed to fill 10) and bake at 175 degree C for 20 minutes.

Lemon curd (to fill 10 cupcakes)

1/6 cup lemon juice

1/2 tsp lemon zest

2 1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 egg, at room temperature

1/4 tsp vanilla

1. Over a low heat in a small saucepan, dissolve sugar in juice. Mix in zest.

2. Beat egg in a small bowl. Whisking continously, pour juice-sugar syrup in a slow steady stream into the egg. Beat for two minutes and transfer back into saucepan.

3. Heat over a small flame, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the curd mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Let cool and store in fridge.

Lemon buttercream

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 3/4 cup icing sugar, sifted

3 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

1. Cream all ingredients on low speed until combined. Continue beating on high speed for five minutes until thick and fluffy.

To assemble:

1. Even off the domes of cupcakes with a sharp knife. Cut out a cone from the top of each cupcake and fill the hole with 1/2 tsp- 1 tsp of lemon curd. Replace cut out cone.

2. Frost with buttercream. Sprinkle with toasted almonds if desired.

vanilla sponge with berry everything

2006-08-19T20:38:00.000+08:00

Me thinks this is the most beautiful dessert I've ever made. I know it sounds awfully pretentious to say so but I actually find it very hard to admire what I cook/bake/decorate. But this time, I can honestly say that I'm proud of my work. A dear friend was throwing her sister a surprise birthday party and asked me to bake a cake. It was so far the largest cake I've ever made for an order. 2 kilos. That's like, the weight of a sizeable dumbell. Carrying the cake to the delivery point was terrifying cos I had to maneuver through hoardes of people carrying something so heavy and at the same time try my best not to jostle the cake box least the cream smears. But thankfully, all went well and the massive cake was delivered to the party intact.

The cake itself was a vanilla sponge...sandwiched with blueberry pie filling...

Then frosted with slightly sweetened whipped cream, with buttercream rosettes piped as a border. Went on to decorate with fresh strawberries, silver dragees, pastillege hearts, chocolate vanilla wafer rolls and to top it all off, a fine dusting of pure cocoa.

No wonder it weighed 2 kilos. haha.

But I'm so happy with how it turned out. My brother took a look at it and didn't believe that I made it myself so that say alot! *grin*

I like.

Hope the birthday girl enjoys it too...

btw, am glad to say the nurses loved all the sweet goodies I baked for their Nurses' Day celebrations. In fact, a few days after their party, I got an order for 2 strawberry sponges from one of them. Yay for me! *smile*

My baby... I actually was kinda sad to deliver it cos I wanted to keep it at home a little while longer. Haha! Serious psycho baker tendencies showing themselves here...

sweet

2006-08-15T11:34:00.000+08:00

Am in the mood to make indian sweets... and the difficult ones at that. Those that involve boiling sugar syrups, stirring candy mixtures for hours and pounding all kind of spices before the confections can even set.

Latest attempt was at mysore pak, a sinfully rich golden fudge of south indian origin made of besan flour (ground chickpeas), sugar, pure ghee and freshly ground cardamon. And because there are so few ingredients, it becomes really important to make sure they are all uber-fresh, well measured out and added/mixed/stirred at just the right amounts... I mean, sometimes with cakes and cookies that call for eight or ten different things, you can afford to skimp on this or add a litte more of that in the hope that the other ingredients will make up for the one screwup. This unfortunately was not so...everything had to be just right. And the thing with fudge mixtures lik this one...it helps ALOT if you have a candy thermometer to figure out the different stages the sugar syrup goes through. Which predictably, I don't.

So there I was, with a dish of ice-cold water, dropping in bits of sugar syrup to test if it could be moulded into malleable spherical shapes i.e. the soft-ball stage essential for fudge to set. And somehow, I was lucky enough to get there without too much mishap. Of course I managed to burn the inside of my wrist on the very hot burner, but a little bloodshed is to be expected in my kitchen adventures. Life wouldn't be exciting enough if I didn't burn a finger or nick a bit of skin every now and then. My battle scars. =)

So anyways, here's my version of the sweet. It's really yummy--melts in your mouth and mysteriously milky even though there is no dairy in it. I poured everything into a 8" square tin and could cut out about 36 pieces of pak. Too much for the five of us at home so I did a little good natured distribution to my cousins...Why settle for just one diabetic in the family when you can drag them all down with ya eh? *grin*

Mysore pak (makes 30-36 diamonds)

1 1/2 cups besan flour

2 tbsp ghee (to roast the flour)

1 1/2 cups ghee, melted and cooled

1 1/2 cups coarse sugar

1 3/4 cups water

4 cardamon pods

Melt 2 tbsp ghee in a wok. Roast flour until the raw smell of besan is gone.
Lightly pound the cardamon pods open, scrape out the seeds and pound into a fine powder.
Stir the melted ghee into the roasted besan and pour into a measuring jug. I only did this cos of the narrow mouth of the jug. Really helped to pour the flour mixture in a steady stream into the sugar syrup later without losing control.
Meanwhile, boil the sugar and water in a heavy bottomed pot and continue to boil until syrup reaches a softball stage. This is when a teaspoon of syrup droppd into really cold water can be easily gathered into a soft ball in the water itself. If you take the ball out of the water, it should flatten within a few seconds.
At this point, pour the besan mixture into the sugar syrup in a steady stream, stirring continously. I stirred with my right and poured in the mixture with my left. Of course, a MUCH easier way to go would be to get someone to help. But I love challenges you see. haha.
Continue to stir the mixture vigorously until it thickens and leaves the sides of the pot. Switch of the flame, quickly stir in the cardamon and pour out into a 8" tray greased lightly with ghee.
Level out the surface and let cool for about 3 minutes before cutting into diamonds/squares. Cool completely and serve. (Fyi, it tastes better the day after once the flavours have a chance to merge and mellow)

liberte. and yet pressed for time.

2006-08-09T13:54:00.000+08:00

Job contract's over. Theoretically, you would think that meant I was free. But nope. Still busy. But at least busy doing stuff I like. Marketing. Cooking. Cleaning. A regular stepford wife- minus the spiffy clothes and accessories.

Anyways, been cooking everyday. And trying my best to take pictures of everything but often, I'm rushed for time, since lunch is served so early in my house that I just can't stop to snap photos. But I did manage a few...

These were my going away cupcakes for everyone at work. Varlhona chocolate batter, with chocolate chuncks folded through, and buttercream flower-tips. Very well-received. But then, when can you go wrong with chocolate? =) Right after my last day, I worked all night and day, preparing 2 trays of brownies, 2 trays of triple-layer fudge slices, 100 mini cupcakes and 4 strawberry sponge cakes for a nurse's day party. I was so exhausted I tell ya....I didn't even have the energy to take a single shot of anything. It was like mix-bake-cool-pack-mix-bake-cool-pack for 3 whole days! But I hope the nurses enjoyed everything.. I've yet to ask how everything tasted.

My attempt at gulabjamun- fried milk pastry balls soaked in a cardamon and clove infused rosewater syrup. I followed the recipe to a T but the end product was not what I was going for... although the syrup was lovely. Sigh.. I am thinking of popping my my favorite Indian eatery one day and asking them for their recipe. Think they will be kind enough to share??

Fresh Bing cherries. Tried them in two desserts. One a cherry clafoutis and the other cherry friands. The friands won hands down. The yummiest batter I've tasted in a long long while. Almost like a buttery almond cake and so easy to put together. Definitely a must-try.... and you dun even need the cherries. Im perfectly certain it'll be amazing with blueberries, strawberries or even plain... Really yummy.

Cherry friands (from Best Food)

3/4 cup icing sugar

1/4 cup plain flour

90g butter, melted

3 egg whites

1/2 cup ground almonds

125g fresh cherries, pitted and chopped

(or any other fruit- or none at all)

Preheat oven to 170 degree C.
Sift icing sugar and flour into bowl. Whisk egg whites till foamy. Add butter, egg whites and almond meal into flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir until just combined.
Divide mixture amongst cupcake holders. Top with cherries.
Bake for about 25mins.

joyous days are a-coming!

2006-07-30T11:41:00.000+08:00

Monday's my last day at work! I've been rifling through my cookbooks for the past week, my fingers itching to reclaim the lost territory known as my kitchen. Already, I've gotten an order for 6 trays of desserts to be delivered on Tues for a Nurse's Day party, my largest order yet.
The countdown has begun.
Come August 1st, watch this space.
=)

I brought this strawberry sponge to work last week.... even though I'm not particularly fond of the strawberries we get in Singapore, pairing them with sweet buttercream and sponge cake is great cos all the sugar detracts from the often tart fruit. And I'm glad to say everybody at work thought the pairing was yummy too.

coconut candy

2006-07-15T23:42:00.000+08:00

Local sweets 101.

Coconut candy:- Much loved, tropical treat that originated from Malaysia. Freshly grated white coconut flesh, truckloads of granulated sugar and liberal lashings of full-fat evaporated milk. To up the decadence quotient, a 'healthy' knob of butter. Extremely popular during Hari Raya and Deepavali, in a mindboggling array of colors. Semi-hard upon biting into a cube of this heavenly-smelling dessert, it almost instantanously dissolves in your mouth, spreading into a sugary coconut-ty molten mass. Only for those who like their coconut and their sugar though, cos that's all this candy is about.

Coconut candy (recipe courtesy of Letchmi aunty)

3 cups freshly grated white coconut flesh, packed down

3 1/4 cups coarse white sugar

3/4 tin evaporated milk

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

desired food coloring

Grease a 9" tray with butter
Dry roast the coconut in a non-stick wok over medium heat until most of the moisture evaporates and the coconut is slightly dry.
Pour in 3 cups of sugar and all the evaporated milk. Stir well. Add extra sugar to taste.
Stir stir stir. Continously. Until the mixture thickens and slightly comes off the edges of the wok. Will take up to 1/2 hour.
Add softened butter and continue to stir.
When the mixture is really thick, quickly add in vanilla essence and coloring.
Continue to cook over medium heat, stirring all the time. The candy is ready when the mixture leaves the sides of the wok, almost like a lump. Also, the mixture will lose some of its shine, almost going matte.
Working quickly, pour out the mixture into the greased tin and flatten top with the back of a clean spoon.
Let cool ten minutes and cut into squares whilst warm. Let cool completely before breaking off into tiny brightly-colored squares and serving. Store in an air-tight container.

browned butter crisps

2006-06-27T19:13:00.000+08:00

Bless the soul who left a pot of butter on the stove a tad too long and after seeing it turn brown, still decided to use it to bake off a batch of cookies. I'm certain that's how browned butter cookies were born. Cos, honestly, when my melting butter turned from rich golden to a nutty brown, I was certain I had ruined a perfectly good stick of fat. But apparently, that's exactly what this recipe calls for. Browned butter. I wish I had taken photos of the process but I was a little panicky about how long I should leave the butter on the heat so I didn't dare fiddle with getting a camera during the cooking process. But I think it suffices to say the butter has to become brown...not a golden brown, but brown. Like sand. It'll give off a heady, almost nutty scent. Really the most intriguing thing.

As are the baked cookies. I think I added a pinch more cardamon than the recipe called for and I'm so glad I did. It was a lovely note of sweet spice to the buttery crisps. So much more delicate than the usual run of cinnamon or cloves in cookies and cakes. If I closed my eyes, I almost felt as if I was biting into an Indian or Middle-eastern dessert, laced with butter and cardamon it was. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Browned Butter Crisps

(recipe from Egullet)

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar (the original recipe called for 1 cup-way too sweet)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon cardamom (I must have added close to 1/2 tsp)

1/8 tsp salt

In a small heavy saucepan, melt the butter and continue to cook until it browns. Watch carefully to make sure it doesn't burn. Let cool slightly.
In a large bowl, mix browned butter, sugar and vanilla. Add the egg and mix until smooth.
Stir the flour and spices until spices are distributed evenly; add to butter mixture and mix until blended thoroughly.
Drop by teaspoonfuls on parchment lined cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes, or until edges are turning golden and the tops have begun to crinkle.
Let cool on the sheets for a few seconds, then remove and cool completely.

recipes from work...

2006-06-18T10:37:00.000+08:00

(Over dinner last night)

Mom: So, how's work?

Me: Ugh, dun ask. Can't wait to stop.

Mom: Why, is it that bad?

Me: There's just something worng with the way things are done there. I dunno. I think I'll do better somewhere else.

Mom: Yah, of course. If you're not happy, better not continue.

(My mom takes a bite of the chapathis I cooked)

Mom: Wow, this is good! Ummm, really. Who taught you how to make this?

Me: A colleague at work. Alot of them are from India they cook all kinds of great North Indian food. One of the ladies gave me this recipe last week.

Mom: Oh wow. That's great. I think you should continue at this job.

(I'm stunned)

Me: Uh? I thought you said it was better I stop since I'm not happy?

Mom: Ya, but you can learn so many new things to cook! And you're not getting any younger you know. Better start earning your CPF. And this is good, you can work and also learn to make different kinds of Indian food!

Me: uhhh...okaay. I'm still quitting.

Isn't it hilarious that my mom thinks I should continue at a job I dislike because I can learn new recipes from my colleagues? I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when she started on about how old I am to persuade me to stay on.

But I must admit, these chapathis present a pretty strong argument for not leaving the bank. The ladies I work with are amazing. They wake up at 4.30 in the morning to cook for their families and during lunch hour, they take out their gorgeous-smelling parcels of homemade goodness which they so willingly share with everyone. Every day is a new culinary adventure with these people. From idlis to parothas to lentil stir-fries, their food is impeccable. And they are so eager to share their knowledge.

It was from one such person that I got this recipe. Such a lovely change from the usual plain chapathis, and chock-ful of spinachy goodness. Really one of the best ways to get your greens if you ask me.

But I'm still leaving work. My mom will just have to contend with my evidently below-par cooking for now =)

Palak (Spinach) Chapathis

4-5 sprigs spinach, leaves torn and rinsed (discard the stalks)

3-4 sprigs coriander, rinsed (do use the stems as well as the leaves)

a thumb sized knob of ginger

2 garlic cloves

2 small red onions, quartered

2 green chillies, sliced

2 red chillies, sliced

1/2 tall glass of warm milk

atta/chapathi flour, about 2-3 cups

salt, as needed

2 tsp ground turmeric

1 heaped tablespoon ghee

Dump the spinach and coriander leaves, ginger, garlic, onions, red and green chillies into the food processor and blitz away until a green herby pulpish mass is formed. Do not add water cos it's meant to be a little dry, almost like a very fine salsa. This is one of those moments where you would willingly to go on sell-a-vison to proclaim to the world the wonders of a food processor and how it cuts down your food prep time to almost nothing. Really. Chopping all this by hand would have killed me. Also, call 1900-845-6000 NOW to order your very own Blade-away at only $59.99!
Pour about 2 cups of atta/chapathi flour into a large bowl. Sprinkle in salt as needed, normally I do about 1 1/2 tsp. Spoon in the ghee and rub in the fat with your fingertips. Dump the leafy mass into the flour and sprinkle turmeric over it.
Now's the time for a really good upper-arm workout. Mush all the flour, spice and spinach mixture together. Pour in all the milk and get everything to come together as a slightly soft but not sticky dough. Add more milk or flour as needed, but do so sparingly and cautiously... knead the dough well and only add when you're certain its too dry/wet. When it comes together in a lump, turn the mass out onto a well-floured surface and knead until the dough is relatively smooth. It will look like a hulking sphere of yellow-green, spiked with leavefy and chilly bits but don't be alarmed.
Leave the dough in a clean bowl, covered for about an hour to rest.
After an houe or so, heat up a flat griddle over a medium flame. I used my dosa tawa, but I'm certain a large saucepan would do. I've tried that before and my chapathis turn out well. Just try to get the non-stick variety and do remember that the heat has to be turned up to medium-high so the chapathis puff up nicely.
While the griddle heats up, pinch of lime-sized globs of dough and roll flat on a well floured surface. Gently place the dough on the heated griddle and cook about 2 minutes each side. People have all kind of tricks to make chapathis puff up but I find if you're really lucky, they do so all by themselves in the griddle. But sometimes, when the universe just isn't right, I use two knives to lift the chapathi off the griddle and place them directly over a low flame for a few seconds. The intense heat puffs them up nicely, but be careful you don't burn the chapathis.
As soon as you take the cooked chapathis off the griddle/flame, spread a little ghee over the top, just to give it a decadent rich flavour. Serve hot with dhall or any other curry. I plated mine with a ladyfinger gravy spiced with tamarind. A really good combi.

tri-berry coffeecake

2006-06-18T10:31:00.000+08:00

So, this was an interesting weekend. Alot of cooking, baking and running around. Nowhere near as recuperative as last Sunday but interesting nonetheless. I popped by Carrefour on Thursday and summer produce all but bitch-slapped me in the face. Berries of evey hue and shape lined the shelves, fresh greens and all kinds of ripe fruit tumbling off baskets. How could I not succumb to all that? I came home $30 poorer and 3 tubs of berries richer. A little steep for fruit I know but honestly, I can't remember the last time I cooked with fresh blackberries, blueberries and rasberries, always having to contend with the frozed variety. I say the experience is worth the money paid. Thanks to cold-chain management and international trade routes, I can now happily bake off fresh berry cakes, even if only for a select season of the year and at very steep prices.

A tumbling of summer fruit. The rasberries were my favourite...

I scoured the net for a recipe to use my newly acquired berries in the best possible way. I didn't want something that completely overpowered their taste, but neither did I want something too simple to make. I was feeling a little adventurous, what can I say *grin* I settled on a cream cheese berry cheesecake, because somewhere at the back of my mind, I'd pictured the sweet berries paired with the tangy taste of cream cheese. I followed the recipe to the most part, except for some minor alterations, being the meddlesome little troll that I am:

Though the recipe only called for blackberries I wanted to use all that I bought so I used 1/3cup of blackberries, blueberries and rasberries each. I found the berries just a little tart so I sprinkled a tablespoon of vanilla sugar over them and let them steep in the sugary goodness for about 20minutes before using them.
I used an 8" tin instead of 9" cos I wanted my cake to have a little height.
I added 1/2 cup of sugar to the cream cheese instead of 1/4 cup cos that just seemed too little. Also, I used orange peel instead of lemon, simply cos I forgot to buy lemons! It still turned out great though.

The recipe seemed a little daunting at first, involving weird manipulations of the cake batter so that it forms a cusp to hold in the cream cheese and berries. But really, its not that difficult, as I found out:

First, you have to spread the batter slightly up the sides of the tin, almost like a pie crust. A litte tricky but manageable with a few deft swirls with a plastic spatula.

Next, pour in the citrus-scented cream cheese filling. You see, the cake batter acts lika a well, holding in the cheese. Again, it miraculously just worked out, even though I was afraid my batter "well" would overflow. The baking gods were clearly in a good mood.

Tumble in the sugar-syrup coated berries. My favourite part. I wanted to tuck in, right there and then!

Sprinkle the cinnamon-scented streusel topping over everything. This was shaping up to be a gorgeous cake. Rich cake batter, a creamy cheese filling, sweet berries and a buttery cinnamon streusel. Too many good things to be true?

Thankfully no! The cake was lovely, lusciously smooth and creamy and with the lovely taste of berries. The recipe calls for it to be served warm but personally, I thought it best when chilled. It was almost like eating a gourmet scoop of berry-cheesecake ice-cream rippled with chunks of cake.

Maybe I'll spend another $30 on fruit just to make this again next week. It was worth every cent.

chapathis, coriander chicken and a perfect sunday

2006-06-11T20:44:00.000+08:00

As much as I want to apologise for neglecting this blog, I shall not cos I think I may just burst into tears if I start relating how little time I have to cook...much less do anything...these days. And fitful wails are not gonna help me much here. It shall suffice to let everyone know that my I've given my last day at work as 31st of July and that I'm gonna reclaim my kitchen the day after. Gosh, I dun think I ever wanna work if this is what its like.

But after a month of icky commuting on the train and putting up with coporate bullshit in the office, I finally had a perfect Sunday. I didn't step out of my house at all today, except to go to the market in the morning. Talking to the friendly chicken stall uncle, rinsing stalks of fresh coriander, slicing violet-hued onions, and rolling out chapathis -all the while listening to old punjabi songs streaming from the radio- I hadn't felt this alive and content in months.

And it helped that the coriander chicken curry I was making was a recipe from my tailor who's from Bombay. She really is the sweetest lady and in the midst of tucking in the hems of my sari blouse she told me all about a chicken recipe that was famous in her homeland. How was I to resist the temptation of trying the dish out then? You know I love these pass-down-from-generation-to-generation recipes that are replete with personal anecdotes. I swear thers' something special in the flavor of these foods, something that has nothing to do with the ingredients and all to do with the history behind the recipe, the people and circumstances that have made the dish what it is.

And the coriander chicken I cooked together was no different. Intensely flavored, it was like a sensory hit of the herb in every mouthful. And yet the taste was layered, thanks to the heady spice mix which also included coriander seeds. The heat of the dried seeds combined with the freshness of the leaves really lifted the taste of the gravy. And it was cool that it was green... so different from the normal red or brown associated with many an Indian curry. I accompanied it with freshly made chapathis, and to give it a little more substance as a sauce, I added a few tablespoons of cream even though it wasn't called for it the recipe. Other than taking the unhealthiness factor up a few notches, it also gave the dish more of a North Indian flavor than I could hope for. Tucking into hot chapathis and tender chicken pieces coated in an aromatic gravy, this really was a Sunday badly needed.

Coriander Chicken

5 cloves

1 stick cinnamon

3 cardamons

7 peppercorns

3/4 tsp coriander seeds

1 bunch of fresh coriander (I bought it for 60cents, it came to about 10 sprigs)

5 green chillies, sliced into thirds

2 cloves garlic

1 thumb-sized knob of ginger

2 onions, quartered

1/4 tsp chilli powder

2 onions, sliced

2 tomatoes, quartered

2 tbsp cream

1/2 kilo chicken, cut into large pieces

salt, as needed

-Roast the spices in a wok until fragrant. This will take about 3-4 minutes. Remove them to a plate and let cool. Grind in a spice/coffee grinder and set aside. This spice mix is also known as garam masala and it's intoxicating. I kept on sticking my head into the grinder and inhaling for all it's worth :)

Roasted spices

Garam masala- my cocaine of choice

-Place quatered onions, coriander leaves (roughly torn up), sliced green chillies, garlic and ginger in blender and pulse until a smooth green masala paste forms. You may need to add about a 1/4- 1/2 cup of water to get the action going. Add in spice mix and chilli powder and blend for another 3 minutes. Pour the masala out into a bowl.

-Marinate the chicken pieces for an hour in a little masala, about 1/4 cup and reserve the rest.

-Heat 2 tablspoons of oil. Fry sliced until they are brown. Pour in the reserved green masala paste and cook for about 5 minutes until it turns darker. This ensures that all the spices are cooked and don't give off a raw smell and taste.

-Throw in the quartered tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes, covered. Place in the chicken pieces and cook for 20 minutes, covered, and for 5 without a lid or until the chicken is cooked.

Fresh, mindbogglingly ripe tomatoes- gives the gravy that requisite tang

-Lower the heat and stir in the cream if desired. Season with salt and serve hot with rice or chapathis.

A stack of freshly made chapathis- the perfect accompaniment to the perfect gravy on a perfect Sunday. aaah...life can be bliss.

blueberry sponge, caramel buttercream and a mango tart

2006-05-20T17:43:00.000+08:00

Normally I wouldn't suggest any sort of a baking mix, as I always pride myself on my made-from scratch cakes, cookies and pastries. But making this sponge cake involves so many steps that I don't think you can rightfully call it a mix-cake, even if it does use a special flour. None of the one bowl mixing you normally expect from cake mixes. And to be fair, it completely deviates from the recipe printed on the flour bag.

I saved this recipe from my Secondary Three home economics textbook...it was the only cake I truly loved baking in class. The buttery smell that emanated from the ovens was enough to make me forget the trials and tribulations that had to be endured in that awful class- at least for a bit. And its really the perfect sponge cake...light and yet, with enough texture to chew through. I love making it... and this time I frosted it with the buttercream recipe from last week's cupcakes, except that I modified it a little to make it caramel flavored. I substituted teh white sugar with brown to give a earthy-caramel taste, and also reduced the butter by half, just cos I thought adding the entire amount too cloying. And I also had a small tub of blueberry filling sitting in the fridge so decided to sandwhich the sponge halves with it. The result was a really delicious, almost sinfully creamy dessert. I made the cake today morning, and already half has dissapeared...with only my dad and I in the house! haha. We're so gonna fall over with coronary disorders..

So here it is, the famous Optima Sponge Cake from my good 'ol home economics teachers. The Optima and Hongkong flours can be gotten from Cold Storage, and the butter oil from Phoon Huat, fyi.

Blueberry Sponge Cake (makes one 8" cake)

4 eggs, seperated

75ml corn oil

50ml water

3/4 tsp butter oil

50g Hongkong flour

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g Optima flour

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

50g caster sugar

- Grease and line the base and sides of a deep 8" round tin
- Preheat the oven to 170 degree C
- Mix together the eg yolks, oil, water and butter oil in a small bowl
- Sift the Hongkong flour and bicarbonate of soda together. Stir in the Optima flour, without sifting it. Mix the wet ingredients into the flour mixture until a thick batter forms.
- Whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Add the sugar by tablespoonfuls, whisking well after each addition to ensure the sugar is dissolved.
- Fold the stiff meringue into the batter gently and pour the batter into the tin. Bang the tin once on the edge of a counter to remove any big air bubbles.
- Bake for 35-40 mins, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in tin for fifteen minutes before turing out and peeling off the paper.

Caramel Buttercream

2 egg whites

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup + 1 tbsp butter, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla

- Whisk egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is warm, about 2-3 minutes
- Beat mixture with electric beaters until stiff. Add butter in tablespoonfuls until combined. Add vanilla and beat on low speed until it thickens up...about 5-10 minutes.

Assembly:
- Slice cooled cake in half. Sandwich with blueberry filling.
- Frost top and sides of cake with buttercream. Pipe rossetes along the edge of the cake and fill centre with bueberry filling if desired.

sans blueberry topping

On another note, I also made a mango custard tart last week. I did not fancy the flavor much, so I'm not inclined to talk much about it. Although, it did look nice, so I'm just putting up the pictures. Testament that one should not judge by appearance. My morality contribution of the day. *grin*

mothers' day cupcakes

2006-05-14T12:58:00.000+08:00

So, its mothers' day. Was I being cheap, baking off cupcakes instead of buying mom a present? Sometimes I think because friends and family know I love to bake, presenting them with cakes and pastries somehow just doesn't cut it. Like if somebody who doesn't bake at all suddenly decides to roll up his/her sleeves and create a cake for a special occassion, people tend to be really appreciative of the effort. But when I do it, I sometimes feel I should do more you know? Something that takes more effort from me. It's like getting a crate of fruit from your neighborhood produce store owner. I'd feel he's just passing me some of his surplus supplies. Now, if he were to give me a drill set, I'd know he went out of his way to do something special.

Maybe next year I should get mom a basket of freshly caught fish. God knows that would have taken a gargantum effort on my part =)

But to redeem myself, I did buy a gorgeous bunch of champagne roses and green chrysanthemums for the occassion and even arranged them in a vase for mom. Hope she liked it...I personally thought they were beautiful. haha.

But these chocolate cupcakes were meant to be the highlight of the day. I used Martha Stewart's chocolate cupcake recip and a Swiss meringue buttercream recipe found on the same site (Something's wrong with the link today and I can't seem to open the page so I'll just reproduce the recipe below).

My brother had a taste today and proclaimed them good but I didn't really care so much for them. The cupcakes were not as chocolatey as I wanted them to be...a little dry even. I still think my previous chocoate cupcake recipe was the best. Will just stick with that from now on..

But the buttercream was a pleasant surprise. This is the first time I'm making Swiss buttercream, which is meringue-based. It wasn't too sweet -sometimes a problem with American buttercream- and really really creamy. This is the buttercream I remember from my childhood, the one that all the small local confectioneries used to sandwhich their sponge cakes. It's delicious but I think it would be yummier on a cake rather than on cupcakes. The high cake-frosting ratio of tiny cupcakes means you get quite a bit of frosting in every bite and the buttery taste can get cloying after a while. As I was licking off the buttercream after lightly frosting the cupcakes, I made plans to bake a sponge cake next week and frost it with this cream... watch this space for it! *smile*

But anyways, even if my mother' day cupcakes were not my favorite recipe, my family seems to like it. And that's all that matters no?

Tiny baked cupcakes cooling in their trays

I love the gold liners...they give the entire efforst a dash of decadence

Dappled with the early morning sunlight

Chocolate Cupcakes

(according to the Martha Stewart site, this makes 8 regular cupcakes, but I think its actually alot more. I got 70 mini cupcakes from the batter..so I think it'd make about 14 regular sized)

1/2 cup cocoa

1/2 cup flour

1/3 tsp baking powder

1/6 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2/3 tsp vanilla

1/3 cup sour cream

1/2 cup good-quality chocolate chunks or chips (if so desired)

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

(makes enough to lightly frost 70 mini cupcakes)

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg white

1/3 cup butter, softened to room temperature

1/3 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 dregree F or 175 degree C.
Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
Cream butter and sugar. Add in eggs one at a time, beating a minute after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Using electric beaters, beat in one-third of the flour mixture on low speed. Add in one-third of the sour cream and beat till combines. Alternately add the flour and sour cream, ending with the flour mixture, beating continously.
Spoon batter into cupcake holders, filling halfway. Push in a chocolate chip/chunk if using and top with some more batter.
Bake for 20 minutes for regular sized and 15-17 minutes for mini cupcakes. Frost only when completely cooled.
For frosting, in a heatproof bowl over simmering water, whisk sugar and eggs until warm and sugar is dissolved (about 3 mins). Remove from heat. Beat on medium speed until completely cold and it forms stiff peaks. This would take about 7 minutes. Add soft butter, a few tablespoons at a time, until combined. Add vanilla and salt, beat on low speed until smooth, about 5 minutes. The frosting will look disastrously watery when you first add the butter but don't worry, it stiffens up as you continue to beat it. I almost threw it out cos I thought it was ruined but luckily I continued. I really need to be more patient in the kitchen...

cupcakes that prove a point

2006-05-10T22:02:00.000+08:00

I started my first day of at work yesterday and I'm exhausted to the bone. I just can't seem to wake up! The morning sun is not a good friend of mine - I always was of the belief that the sun had to come out before I came out of my bedroom. But no more. The powers that be have decreed that my days of sloth and lazing are over. I am now to squash nose to elbow with the millions other rude and irritatable Sinagporeans who travel on the MRT each morning. I'm allergic to those crowds, really. I break out in hives just thinking about the invasion of personal space I have to endure everyday.

And at work, while frantically trying to remember how sub-account transfers are paid and what I need to do to process international checking couriers (amongst other mind-numbingly complicated banking terminology), I kept fearing that this would be the end of my baking and cooking. *sobz*

And so I came home after my first day, exhausted but determined to prove to the world that I shall not be stopped. I took out some butter, eggs and flour and proceeded to bake off a batch of cupcakes and frost them with buttercream....still wearing my office clothes, mind you. haha. Very dramatic I know, but it was a serious moment. I had alot to lose here...my interests, my passion, my reputation (hmm...okay maybe not the last one. God knows if I actually have a reputation to be staked. But the rest still count!). These cupcakes then, were charged. Every fold of the batter, piping of cream and bite of sugary goodness made a point.

Damn these early mornings, gross train rides, and tired feet.

I shall not be stopped.

The pink and white comrades of the one-woman proletariat revolution. Armed with sprinkles and dragees to boot!

celebration tarts

2006-05-05T10:43:00.000+08:00

Any idea what these are? They look like eerily uniform rasberries or cherries no? But they are actually hand-rolled gobules of sweet pineapple jam. And what purpose do they serve in their spherical state? Delicious fillers for pineapple tarts of course, the quintessential festival treat in Singapore! The pineapple tart really is the holiday biscuit/cookie/kueh for us. Come Chinese New Year, Hari Raya or Deepavali, these sweet confections always occupy prime space in the household treat tray. I love them, as does my entire family. When we were younger, my mother never made pineapple tarts from scratch, cos it took so much time. So every Deepavali, she'd order 50 tarts from this middle-aged Malay lady who'd deliver the bottle of tarts to our house a week before the festival. Having got her hands on it, mom would promptly hide the precious hoard high up in the kitchen cabinets so that my brother and I wouldn't be able to find it. But come Deepavali morning, a few tarts will magically appear on a plate in the living room and we would stuff our faces silly with the buttery pastry and sweet, fibrous jam. BUT then we'd realise we only had 50 pieces to split between us both... actually less, cos they are also meant for the guests (damnned guests, we would say). So then, we'd slowly savor each tart, restraining our baser instincts and somehow make the bottle last for a week before its all finished and we have to wait a whole year before enjoying the taste of those lovely tarts again.

But now, I laugh in the face of my mother's unyielding hand. I tracked down a lady whose pinapple tart I love and she graciously gave me her recipe. And for the past three Deepavalis, I've made my own tarts...hundreds and hundreds of them. No need to hide them from our greedy little paws. Or ration them out. And now, I've taken things one step further. I'm not even limiting these tarts to Deepavali! I can make them anytime I want! *mwhahaha*

But of course, these babies take an ungodly amount of time to make. First there's the pinapples, which you need to skin, cut, grate and drain. Then comes the jam, which takes at least an hour to make, with continous stirring. An excruciating arm workout if I ever saw one. Then, you chill the jam overnight and roll into small balls. The there's the pastry, which you need to knead, rest, roll out and stamp (which is the most time-consuming thing). The you finally get to fill the tarts and bake them.

This ardous process is what relegates these pastries to celebrations I think, for events that deserve all that work. Which is why they are are most apt for festivals like Deepavali and Chinese New Year. It's simply too much to make a batch of these for normal munching.

But even though I believe our elders knew what they were saying when they declared pineapple tarts the doyen of ethnic and religious festivals, I do suspect graduating from university could count as a valid exception. I just finished my last ever university exam two days ago *claps hands in glee* and these tarts were my reward. (A weird reward you may say, since I spent an entire day slogging away just to make them in the first palce. But this is just me.)

So now, I have a gorgeous bottle of freshly baked tarts in my kitchen cabinet which I can pop into my mouth everytime I feel a burst of self-congratulation is due :)

Pineapple Jam Tarts (makes about 80)

For the jam:

2 small pinapples, not too ripe*

1 stick cinnamon

2 cloves

a condensed milk tin-full of coarse sugar+

2 tsp dark red food coloring

For the pastry:

500g plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

300g butter, softened

1 tbsp ghee

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp ice-cold water

*Just inform the fruit stall auntie or uncle that you're making pinapple tarts and ask them to choose semi-ripe fruit for you. You can even ask them to remove the skin and cut out the eyes if they're really nice. That'll save you so much time.

+I know this probably is the weirdest specification ever but this is what I got from the original recipe! I use an empty condensed milk tin to measure out the sugar... But for those who don't have empty tins lying around, I'll go weigh it out and update this with the exact metric measurement soon, promise!

Remove the skin of the pineapple and cut out all those black 'eyes' cos they can sting the tongue badly. Chop the fruit into quarters and grate them into a large bowl. Traditionally this is done with a steel spiked grater that is attached to a block of wood but I betcha can't find it in Singapore anymore. A standard vegetable grater should do...jus make sure the strands are fine. Do not grate the really hard pith, although the first few bits of pith can be grated in to give the jam a fibrous texture. Just stay away from the really hard core bits.
Pour the grated fruit into a sieve and allow the juice to drain off into a bowl for about 15 minutes (Reserve about a 1/4 cup of this juice. You can drink the rest, sweetened with a little castor sugar).
Heat a non-stick wok or saucepan and pour the drained fruit into it. Add a stick of cinnamon and two cloves and cook over low heat, stirring.

Add in the sugar and stir until the sugar dissolves. The fruit will sweat and there'll be alot of liquid now. Stir constantly to prevent the sticky syrup from solidifying onto the sides of the pan.

Stir. Stir. Stir. Over low heat until the jam thickens and caramelizes slightly to darken from a striking yellow to a deep golden. This will take about an hour at least. (I admit, however, to cheating a bit. Sometimes its just impossible to be stirring all the time, so I take short breaks and just let the jam boil away on its own, and give it a good stir every three minutes or so)

After the jam is thick, stir in the red food coloring to turn the jam into a rich rasberry hue. This is entirely optional though...you may prefer your jam to remain golden. Personally, I adore the contrast of crimson jam and blond pastry.
Cool the jam completely and refridgerate overnight. In the morning, roll out teaspoonfuls of the jam into balls. If you find the jam too hard to roll out, stir in a teaspoon of the reserved pineapple juice to loosen the jam, adding in small increments as you go along. Don't forget to remove the spices from the jam before rolling it out!
For the pastry, cut in the butter and ghee into the flour and baking powder. Stir in the ice water and vanilla with a fork. Knead lightly until the dough is smooth. Shape the dough into two fat discs and wrap in clingfilm. Leave to rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180 degree C.
Set up your work area, cos the assembling is gonna take time and space. Have ungreased baking trays, rolling pins, tart cutters, flour for dusting, the pastry discs, jam balls and a rolling pin on the table.

Roll out dough to about 1cm thickness on a well floured sheet of greaseproof paper. Stamp out dough with tart cutter and place on ungreased baking trays. Fill the center with a jam ball and flatten slightly. Place a macaroni shape or bit of pastry dough on the jam if desired.
Bake for 15 minutes, until the pastry is colored ever so slightly.
Cool and store in between sheets of greaseproof paper.

self-loathing

2006-05-01T19:19:00.000+08:00

How disgusted would you be if I admitted to eating this entire pavlova all by myself in one sitting? I hang my head down in shame. And am feeling slightly queasy after my bout of gluttony too...all that sugar, chocolate, strawberries and cream have definitely wrecked havoc with my tummy. Just rewards I say.
Nigella’s chocolate pav recipe is quite good. I substituted the rasberries with strawberries simply cos its difficult to find good sweet rasberries here. But I'm sure any fruit would work well with this creation. I can't wait to try out her non-chocolate version...and I think I'd actually prefer that 'cos I'm more of a plain-vanilla-jane kinda person anyways. But this time, I promise to share. Swear!

mango ice cream

2006-05-01T13:28:00.000+08:00

Mango season's here! Never a better time than now to stroll through little india, where the fragrance of ripe golden mangoes hits you everytime you turn a corner. I know modern farming technology has made it possible for us to get mangoes anytime of the year, but still, seasonal fruit holds a far superior flavor...and it's worth it, you know, to wait months for that special time of the year when the fruit tastes as how it should.

My dad and I were so excited when we saw the cartons of mangoes from India stacked along the fruit stalls of little india. It was like, a rush, you know....that the day is finally here! *grin* We promptly bought eight fruit, and went home to devour the juicy, ripe flesh in the privacy of our kitchen, where we could savor the heavenly taste without having to feel concious of the juices streaming down our chin and the slurping noises that escaped from our mouths. ha.

After I had my fill of fresh fruit, I decided to make something mango-based for dessert. And with the searing heat we've been getting the past weeks, and my new birthday gift, I thought, what better than ice cream? I wanted something that was rich and creamy with an intense mango flavor. I surfed around and decided on a recipe from another Singaporean blogger, Mediasushi.

I did tweak the recipe a little, reducing the sugar to 50g because the mangoes were more than sweet enough. And I substituted the lemon juice and zest with lime just to get a more tropical flavor (I used the juice of one lime, and zested about have the lime's rind). Oh, and I also strained the cooked custard before letting it cool to remove the little bits of skin that had formed while I was heating the milk. A bit kan cheong la, cos I really wanted a smooth custard to churn later.

Pouring the hot custard into a bowl to cool

Mangoes! I used 1 1/2 of these to make up 200g of mango flesh

Golden, juicy flesh tipped into the blender with a sprinkling of lime zest

Deliciously smooth mango puree

The result? Creamy and just the right amount of sweetness, but I would have preferred a much more mango-y flavor. Maybe next time I should increase the amount of mango pulp to 300g. And throw in a few golden cubes of mango flesh as well. I was aiming for an intense mango explosion as the ice cream melts on the tongue.... don't get me wrong, the recipe did give a good ice cream and the flavor of the fruit was unmistakably there. But I guess I wanted a much more robust taste. But for now, I'm still happily tucking away into my tub of feshly-churned mango cream!

jumbo cookie

2006-04-28T16:19:00.000+08:00

People who like cookies can generally be divided into two camps: those who like their bites to be crisp and pop-in-the-mouth small, and those who like their cookies upsized to jumbo, chewy and soft. Oh. I forgot, some also like it wincingly sweet while others like a reduced-sugar version (WHy??). And a few prefer a cake-like texture. So, okay, maybe there are more than two camps. But still, crisp vs chewy is probably the most contested field in cookie-making.
Being the greedy, forever-changing-her-mind goose that I am, I don't take any sides in this debate. I love both types, it really does depend on my mood. Tiny, crisp nibbles are perfect for snacking after a heavy meal but on days where dessert IS my meal, I love piling a few soothingly chewy giant chocolate studded cookies on a plate and finishing them off with a tall glass of cold milk. And this recipe is the quintessential soft jumbo cookie. It just doesn't work any other way...I've tried making smaller cookies with this recipe but there's something in its gargantous size that adds exponentially to the childlike glee I feel everytime I take a batch out of the oven. It's like a winning the baking lottery or something.

In conclusion, I've given up on small cookies when making these chocolate chip cookies. I use a soup ladle to scoop mounds of the dough onto my baking sheets, they are that big. And a little salty- a perfect contrast to all the sugar and chocolate. Really, I think the importance of salt has been much overlooked in desserts...the subtle briny taste of a pinch of salt flecks makes such a difference, creating an intriguing medly of texture and taste. But enough deconstruction of flavor. Lets get on with these amazing babies of mine. They are huge, sweet and chocolatey. And I've added butterscotch chips to the dough as well, just because. *grin*

Do try making them, they are the best. Only remember to watch the baking time carefully. The cookies need to be taken out after the sides are slightly browned and the top cracks. It'll look a little undercooked but it'll continue to bake even once it's out of the oven, and result in the perfect amount of chewiness in the middle, with slightly crisp sides.

I don't remember where I got the recipe, some website I think...but its been fiddled with so much that it doesn't resemble the original in any way. I've used a substitution for the egg so the cookie is suitable for vegetarians, and I've replaced half of the butter with shortening so that the cookie doesn't spread too much while baking. And really, the substitutions lend to a much yummier cookie than the original. Some things are just meant to be mucked around with in the kitchen.

Giant Chocolate and Butterscotch Chip Cookies

(makes 15 jumbo cookies-DO NOT make these smaller, it'll be awful, trust me)

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 1/2 tsp water

1/4 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar, packed down

1 1/4 tsp vanilla

egg substitute*: 2 tbsp plain flour

1/2 tbsp shortening

1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp water

1 1/4 cup flour

3/8 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup good quality chocolate chips

1/2 cup butterscotch chips+

Preheat oven to 175 degree C
Cream butter, shortening, 1 1/2 tsp water with sugars until light and fluffy. Add in all ingredients for the egg substitue and vanilla and beat for 30 seconds until combined.
Sift in flours, baking powder and baking soda. Sprinkle in the salt and stir everything together until combined. Stir in chocolate and butterscotch chips
Mound ladle-full portions of dough onto ungreased baking sheets. If you don't have a ladle, it's about two slightly heaped tablespoonfuls of dough per cookie. Roll into a ball and flatten ever so slightly.
Bake for 9-10 minutes, until the edges are slightly browned and the top cracks. Remove from the oven and cool on the baking sheet itself. The cookies will be very soft so don't attempt to transfer them to a wire rack until they have had a chance to firm up a bit.

*If you really are not keen on using the egg substitute (although it works wonders) just use a lightly beaten egg in its place

+I love the taste of butterscotch so I use them liberally in this recipe. But if you don't like them, just replace with chocolate chips. Actually, you could do all kinds of variations using this recipe. White chocolate chips, macademia nuts, walnuts, pecans, milk chocolate chunks, peanut butter chips, raisins....just as long as you stay away from chopped garlic bits... or not, if your tastes are more eclectic :)

of nigella, mushrooms and ladyfingers

2006-04-27T19:35:00.000+08:00

Be warned. Various disparate threads of thought are gonna appear in this post. I do not claim some overarching sublime semblance of connection between all the stuff I'm gonna say so don't try to find one. Today was a weird taste day, where I craved for creamy comforting pasta in the afternoon and spicy deep-fried vegetables in the evening. But before I go to the cooked food, could I please unbashedly show off my latest birthday present...

AHhhH! I love cookbooks. Not the flimsy little books that just have a series of recipes. I'm talking thick, heavy tomes. Hundreds of pages of words that transport you to the origins of the food, the nitty gritty details of cooking it, gorgeous pictures, lovely, rambly recipes that make you want to run out to the kitchen and start creating your own culinary works of art. And Feast is all that and more. I love watching Nigella Lawson's television shows...(I'm watching an episode of 'forever summer' right now actually!) ...She's so put-together, and yet earthy and real. Even when she's elbow-deep in flour or marinade, she still looks like the perfect kitchen goddess. And yet, she's messing her hands, which gives her more than a few points in the 'real woman' department. And her food looks scrumptious always. So when I was at Kinokuniya a couple of days ago with my aunt, I immediately headed to the food section. Seeing me admire the selection of Nigella's books, my aunt told me to choose one as a birthday gift. Isn't she just amazing? Anyway, I know its a little -okay, very- childish to choose the biggest thing one sees, but what can I say? Size does matter...a little. *grin* This book was lovely, a gorgeous cover, an author who I know won't let me down, and as thick as an encyclopedia with almost 500 pages. So I picked it up and literally skipped (although my prances were slightly impeded by the weight of the book) all the way to the cashier. In fact, I was so excited that I actually waited in line at the information counter for a full three minutes before realising I was in the wrong queue. *slaps her forehead*

And though I told myself I won't open the book until my exams are over, that resolve lasted all of four hours after I got home. Before I went to bed, I gently tore open the plastic wrap, just for a peek. And I only putted the book down two hours later. haha. It's a gorgeous book, really. So many stories, so many enticing recipes that seem amazingly do-able. mmmm, can't wait to start some Nigella-style cooking next week.

But today, I made pasta. Simple, no recipe pasta that just involved throwing things together. Garlic, black pepper, nutmeg, mushrooms, cream, parsley and some fusilli. A yummy, creamy pasta that was so soothingly calm to the tummy.

Chopping parsley and slicing shitake

Sauteing mushrooms in butter with crushed black pepper and salt

A fast delicious lunch: fusilli enveloped in a fragrant cream sauce studded with chopped garlic, mushrooms and parsley

Then, two hours after my satisfying meal of meltingly rich and thick pasta, I had a craving for spiced fried ladyfingers. Really, c'mon, that was just weird. What kind of stomach pairs cream pasta with fiery hot grease? sigh. apparently mine does. So anyway, I went to the market and bought a packet of veges (On a sidenote, I love my market auntie who stays open till 5pm everyday just so weird people who are struck by sudden dinner cravings can get fresh produce anytime).

This is a recipe given to me by another aunt of mine, who's currently in Dallas with her family. She's a fantastic cook. She's a vegetarian, but the variety of food she comes up with is mindblowing. And every one of them is lip-smackingly delicious. This snack was made for me by her, given my love for ladyfingers and a general boredom with curry-like sauces and stirfries. So she thought, why not fry sliced ladyfingers till they get crisp? Almost like a crunchy vege-chip. And seasoned with a tonne of spices, it's mmmm. Last year, when I went over to my cousin's house for a dinner party, I offered to make these as a side-dish for the largely meat-based dinner. it was a hit. And I ended up giving the recipe to my cousin. Isn't it surreal, the way family food traditions are so lovingly passed from one person to the next, securing their existence for generations to come? And today, I present this crazily simple and addictive recipe to you. Perhaps some traditions will transcend familial links?

Fried spiced ladyfingers

(I guess this would probably serve 3-4 persons but honestly, I eat all of this in one sitting. And I don't share.)

1 packet lady fingers, about 12-13

1 1/2 tsp chilli powder

3/4 tsp ground turmeric

3/4 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp salt

vegetable oil, to fry

Heat oil in a wok or frying pan.
Lop off the stems and ends of the ladyfingers and wash them well. Slice into 1-inch slices and throw into a bowl.
Sprinkle in salt and spices. It looks alot, and it is...I love the flavor burst when you crunch into one of these. But if you're afraid the fiery heat is too much, just reduce the chilli powder to about a teaspoon and it should still be good.

Drizzle about a tsp of water just to get the spices wet enough to stick to the sliced vegs.
Stir everything together, kinda evenly coating the vegs. I say kinda cos this really is a fail-proof dish that doesn't require one to fret over specific details. Just a few stirs with a large spoon is perfect.
Deep fry in batches for about 5-7 minutes, until they are brown and crinkly. Dish out onto a paper towel-lined plate and let the oil drain off for a little while. As soon as you've waited a reasonably decent amount of time -I'm thinking a minute- crunch into them whilst they are still hot! Enjoy.

Note: This is not at all healthy but you could try convincing yourself all that vegetables -although fried- provide your body with much-needed fibre and vitamins, as I often do.

caramel mud cake

2006-04-21T10:05:00.000+08:00

A three-hour old cake and a three-year old honey. Both delish and sweet

Mud cake. What an unappetizing name for a cake you are actually expected to eat. How could you associate something fluffy, buttery and light with brown sludge? But then, mud cakes are NOT fluffy, buttery and light. The godawful name actually derives from the cake's dense and thick texture- a far cry from any soft sponge cake. But again, does that justify a comparison with mud? Why couldn't they just call it dense cake....or even heavy cake? Mud is just so...so...eew.

But bad marketing aside, it really is quite a nice cake. Mud cakes are chewy almost, being so heavy. And also, I think their texture calls for thin serving slices. A huge chunk would really weigh you down. Most of the mud cakes I've come across are of the chocolate variety, so it was cool to discover this recipe for a caramel version in Australian Women's Weekly's Best Food cookbook. They ask you to "use a large bowl". But they do not say exactly how large. What they mean is HUGE. The most gargantous bowl you have in your house. I started with what I thought was "a large bowl". But halfway through, I had to change to a huge metal basin 'cos my poor bowl couldn't possibly handle all the batter. And even then, my basin was filled almost all the way. It was scary. I was picturing an "attack-of-the-mud cake"style implosion in my oven, with sticky brown batter escaping from the too-small tin and spewing all over the place. Thankfully, the cake baked well with no incident.

To be honest, I didn't really care for the cake when it came out of the oven. It was too sticky and looked underbaked. I contemplated throwing the whole thing out. Thankfully, I waited a day and went back for another taste. And it was good! It's one of those baking x-files...why do some cakes and cookies just taste better a few days after they are baked? Shouldn't "freshly-baked" give the best taste? The mystery of it all... So anyways, the moral of the story is never to give up on your food. Sometimes, they just need to day or two to get their act together. *smile*

But one thing that didn't need time to shine was the caramel frosting. It really was yummy, and with the disntinct taste of caramel and butterscotch. My brother even requested thicker lashings of the sugary topping the next time I baked this cake.

The caramel has to be cooked first before you stir in the icing sugar. Great smells waft through the kitchen when you do this. Totally worth making the frosting just for this!

Caramel Mud Cake (bakes a 9" round cake)

250g butter, chopped

200g white chocolate

450g brown sugar

375ml water

300g plain flour

100g self-raising flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 eggs, beaten lightly

Preheat oven to 150 degree C. Grease a deep 9" round tin and line both the base and sides with greaseproof paper. Lightly grease the paper.
Combine butter, chocolate, sugar and water in a large -huge- bowl/saucepan and melt over very low heat until the mixture is smooth. This will take about 15-20 minutes.
Cool the mixture for 15 minutes and then whisk in the flours, then the essence and eggs.
Pour into the tin and bake for 2 hours, until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Check on the cake after about 1 1/2 hours...if the top begins to overbrown, just cover the tin loosely with aluminium foil and continue baking.
Let the cake stand in the tin for about 10 minutes and turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

Caramel Frosting

125g butter, chopped

200g brown sugar

80ml milk

240g icing sugar, sifted

Melt butter in a bowl/saucepan. Stir in brown sugar and milk, bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 3 minutes. Cool the mixture.
Gradually stir in the sifted icing sugar and frost immediately. This frosting does not keep well so use it as soon as you make it.

comfort food 101

2006-04-20T13:25:00.000+08:00

Chunky fudge brownies, sensuous custard ice-cream speckled with vanilla seeds, and topped with a crisp meringue kiss

I'm back. A 70-page thesis, three 10,000 word essays, a crashed PC, a fritzed laptop, two breakdowns and countless panic attacks later, I'm still standing. miraculously. sigh... It's been the worst semester ever...whoever said school gets better with time clearly has had their brains mucked with. But it's over and I've never been more relieved.
Yesterday morning was the first day in months that I woke up and didn't have anything to be read, printed or handed in. Ya, technically I still have an exam in two weeks..but its TWO weeks away! Doesn't count. Gawd, but it was such a rush! I got a bit mad, called a girlfriend over and promptly baked a batch of walnut-white chocolate chunk brownies and meringues.
And tried out my spanking new Kenwood ice-cream maker.... a sweet-in-a-weird-way birthday present from D. haha. My dad took one look at it and proclaimed that I really must be getting old to get household appliances as birthday gifts. haha. But then, I am the girl who received a food processor from her college mates for her 18th. So....maybe it's just me. *grin*
Anyways, I made custard-based vanilla ice cream. It was rich and creamy. very rich. Not the kind of ice-cream you could gorge yourself on. A scoop was more than enough...I couldn't imagine having more than that. Having made it from scratch, I really think the shops sometimes cheat their customers by diluting their desserts with too much milk or water.. really. Freshly made ice-cream has such a distinctly luxurious taste. I'm never buying commercial again.

So there we were, two girls digging into brownies, waiting for the cream to churn and meringues to bake. Simple pleasures. Comfort food. Can't believe we're all grown up....graduating in two months and entering the big bad world of work and bitchy office politics. It seemed like just a few weeks ago we were dumbass 13 year olds starting secondary school and trying to act cool by wearing our uniform belts at our asses. haha. But as the world is, we had no choice but to grow old... and I'd not have chosen anyone else to do it with. Love you pbai. Muacks. Here's to many more afternoons of gossip and bonding over brownies, meringues and ice-cream!

gingerbread cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting

2006-04-09T16:34:00.000+08:00

Can gingerbread be considered cake? just wondering....

Anyway, I accidentally baked gingerbread today. I wanted to alter a basic vanilla cupcake recip by adding molasses cane sugar and spices. Fifteen minutes after I popped them in the oven, I started smelling gingerbread. Guessed I should have seen that one coming. haha.

The magic ingredients that made gingerbread out of a vanilla cake recipe.

Family portrait. A highly reproductive mom and dad with their offspring. It's like the cupcake version of rabbits! haha.

Anyway, they tasted great and the frosting complimented them perfectly. Learnt from my previous attempt at miniature cupcakes and didn't frost too much either, and each bite turned out with just the right proportion of cake and cream. Can't wait to bring some to campus tomorrow and pass them around... I love feeding people. Some kinda primitive maternal instinct I suppose *grin*

And FYI, molasses are really the most intriguing thing. They are so sticky and moist...you feel like you're making sandcastles when you pack them into measuring cups. And the smell...it's something wonderfully weird. Very "natural" and raw, you can actually detect the unprocessed-ness from the smell alone! Am I making any sense here? Haha. Just buy a packet or bottle of the stuff and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Gingerbread cupcakes with Vanilla buttercream frosting

(makes about 60 miniature cupcakes)

For the cupcakes:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup packed molasses cane sugar

1/4 cup white caster sugar

2 large eggs, at room temp

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/3 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground allspice

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 cup milk

For the frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened

3 cups icing sugar, sifted

1/8 cup cream

1 tsp vanilla

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 4-5 mins. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition for about a minute. Beat in vanilla.
Whisk together all the dry ingredients and fold into the creamed mixture, alternating with the milk.
Spoon into cupcake holders and bake at 170 degree C for about 15-20 minutes, till a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
For frosting, beat butter until creamy, about 30 seconds. Spoon in half the sifted icing sugar and best till combines. Add the cream and beat for about 2 minutes until light. Add the remaining sugar and beat until fluffy, about 5-6 minutes (Add more sugar/cream to get desired consistency). The recipe makes quite a bit if you're frosting only small stars like I did. I stored the extra in the fridge, it can keep for abour two weeks. Also, the weather here really makes the buttecream soft very quickly so you may have to keep on putting the cream in the fridge to harden a little before piping.

tiny orange butter cupcakes with chocolate glaze and chocolate buttercream

2006-04-05T11:56:00.000+08:00

I made orange cupcakes last night, and decided to pair them with something chocolate. I made two frostings, one a chocolate glaze, the other a chocolate buttercream.
The verdict: Though the buttercream piped beautifully and made for a lovely presentation, taste-wise, it was too rich for the already buttery cake. And because I made really tiny cupcakes, it just seemed like too much frosting for too little cake. Maybe a citrus cream cheese frosting would have been much better. The cupcakes with the chocolate glaze icing on the other hand, were much tastier, since the icing was just drizzled, instead of piped on...which meant that there was alot more cake than icing. Really allowed for the flavor of the orange to come through.

I love zesting oranges. Such a sharp, citrus tang. And your hands smell so good after that :)

I dug up these really cute moulds from my kitchen cupboards. I think I used them to make tiny fruit tartlets many many years ago.

And they are perfect to bake cupcakes too!

See how pretty they turned out...like miniature bundt cakes. Just make sure you grease and flour the tins so that the cakes don't stick to the sides.

I decided to use chocolate glace for these bite-sized cakes, with a sprinkling of icing sugar on top. Definitely the winner.

The second place goes to the cupcakes baked in these lovely green holders. Normally, I use these to make cornflake cookies..and I was a little worried if the thin paper could hold the heavy cake batter without collapsing. But I doubled the paper cases for each cupcake and it was fine.

There we go. Lovely-looking tiny cupcakes frosted with chocolate buttercream. But still, second to chocolate glazed orange butter cupcakes! *smile*

perfect alchemy

2006-04-01T17:27:00.000+08:00

It's been a while since I worked with chocolate and I sensed a craving attack coming along- so it was really best that I prepared something utterly and completely filled with the dark, sweet confection in preparation of the 'I need chocolate!' storm. God, I so am gonna die if/when I ever get pregnant. If my cravings so incomprehendable and sudden now, imagine what's gonna happen when pregnancy hormones kick in. My poor kitchen...I feel sorry for it already. But for now, all I could think of was getting something chocolatey outta its bowls, spatulas and oven.

Have I become a food snob? I couldn't think of using any other chocolate except Varlhona to satiate my by-now slightly obsessive need for the brown stuff. Though I did have a pack of partially used coverture chocolate from Phoon Huat that I really needed to finish -and I did intend to use it- when it came to measuring out the ingredients, somehow, it was the Varlhona that came out of the fridge, not the Phoon Huat. Hmmm... Me thinks me has become a bad bad girl. I've always hated people who get all hoity about food. But...but... the best ingredients really DO make the best food! hmph.

Argh. The rejected Phoon Huat chocolate is very hurt, I can tell. I promise I'll use it the next time I make something. Maybe chop it up to use in cookies.

But back to my baking yesterday. I decided upon a decadent dark chocolate cake recipe from The Complete Cake Decorator. Really realy decadent. There's not even any flour in this cake, it's all about the chocolate, the butter, the eggs and the almonds. This is perfect alchemy. Simple, everyday ingredients. A combination so flawless, so precise that somehow, when everything's mixed together in just the right proportions, can produce a dessert so rich and lip-smackingly good.

Bleargh. Mixing together creamed butter with almonds, chocolate and egg yolks. Not too appetizing.

All mixed in. Looking better, but still too gunky to believe this is gonna make a good cake.

Whisked egg whites, gunky chocolate mixture and melted icing. Ivory, tan and ebony. Would folding everything with one another ReaLLy produce a yummy dessert? *skeptical look*

Gasp! It worked! Somehow, someone discovered what they had to throw into the cauldron to create the magic potion. And was kind enough to publish the recipe so that lesser mortals like us could emulate their genius.

Gorgeous Dark Chocolate Cake

(makes one 8" round cake, serves 8-10)

For the cake:

115g butter, softened

115g caster sugar (+ an additional 1/4 cup for the egg whites)

170g best quality dark chocolate, chopped

200g ground almonds

4 eggs

For the chocolate icing:

60g butter, chopped into cubes

80g best quality dark chocolate, chopped

half a pinch of salt

1/2 tbsp white chocolate melts, to decorate

Seperate all four eggs carefully, making sure no shell or yolk gets into the whites. Cover with cling wrap and let whites come to room temperature, about 30-40mins.
Meanwhile, grease and line the bottom and sides of a 8" round cake tin with greaseproof paper. Grease the paper too.
Melt 80g chocolate and 60g butter for icing atop a double boiler. Just before removing melted chocolate and butter from heat, sift in the salt. I know, a little unconvential to add salt to icing. But I find that a little saltiness actually brings out the nuances of the chocolate's flavor. Try it. You're in for a pleasant surprise, really. Just make sure you sift the salt so no really large crystals gte into the mixture and mar the texture of the icing. After stirring in the salt, set icing aside to cool.
Preheat oven to 180 degree C.
Melt chocolate for cake atop the double boiler and set aside to cool.
Cream butter and 115g sugar with elelctric beaters until light and fluffy. Add melted chocolate, egg yolks and ground almonds. Stir to combine and then beat with elctric beaters until evenly blended.
Now, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. You need to use a very very clean whisk/electric beaters for this 'cos any grease would prevent the whites from whipping to it's fullest volume. Sprinkle in 1/4 cup caster sugar and continue whisking until stiff peaks form when you lift the whisk/beaters up.
Fold a bit of the whisked egg whites into the chocolate-almond mixture to loosen it up. Then carefully fold in the rest of the egg whites, till evenly blended.
Spoon into cake tin and smooth surface. Bake for 45-50mins till a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
Rest in the tin for about 15mins before turning out to cool on a wire rack.
Once cake is completely cool, smooth over chocolate icing. If it seems too runny, place it in the fridge for about 20mins, stirring once in between, to thicken it.
If desired, melt some white chocolate, spoon into a piping bag and pipe designs onto icing. I did some simple squiggles.

Moist and oh-so-decadent. Pure indulgence. Serve with rasberries to cut through the richness of the cake. Or not :)

MNC perks and sugee biscuits

2006-03-30T16:44:00.000+08:00

My dad got a casio exilim 6mega-pixel camera from work. Brand new. And free. It really does pay to work for a giant multi-national cooperation, which also happens to be in the multi-gazillion dollar petroleum industry. Free 6mega-pixel cameras I tell you! Soemehow, my holier-than-thou visions of spending my life in a voluntary aid organization are but a distant memory. The feeling of knowing that I've improved the life of someone disadvantaged, or expensive and gorgeous freebies? I'll take the digital camera, thank you very much. Oh, did I mention its free? *grin*

Anyway, I wanted to test it so decided to make something simple and take a few shots. Flipped through my recipe binder and settled on a basic sugee biscuit recipe, a staple in our cookie jars during Deepavali. I got this recipe from a dear friend's mother, who is simple, the definition of a supermom. She cooks three different meals EVERYDAY. There's lunch, tea and dinner. And if not for the fact that her kids skip breakfast, she'll probably be making that meal fresh as well. Also, she makes sure the food arrives on your plate piping hot everytime, no matter how early or late you come home. I've had the pleasure of staying over at my friend's place a few times and I always end up reluctantly dragging myself -and my stuffed tummy- home.

So when I had a chance to taste her Deepavali cookies, I promptly took the opportunity to ask her for some recipes. One of them was for this sugee biscuit. But you know these supermoms, they never remember recipe specifics. A lifetime of expertise means they just instinctively KNOW when the dough is soft/sweet/ crumbly enough. So her recipe was filled with phrases like "a little of this", "a pinch or two of that", "till its a bit soft, but not too soft". haha. But after many, many tries, I've managed to get a semblance of specificity to this recipe.

The ingredients are pretty basic, but do not be tempted to substitute the ghee for butter. Ghee imparts a lovely, luxurious fragrance to any Indian dessert and these bisuits are no different. I could spend all day sniffing a tin of ghee... I just love the rich scent. And also because it's fatty and unhealthy, as most delicious things are, in my family, it's an ingredient added to cooking only on special days. So its a yummy treat. But nobody said you can't open a tin and just smell it for kicks! haha.

Use Q.B.B ghee if possible, I think its got the best flavor, and can be found in any Indian grocery shop and even some supermarkets.

Sugee Biscuits

(makes about 60 tiny biscuits)

3/8 cup semolina (rava)+

3/8 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup icing sugar

the slightest pich of salt

3 tbsp of ghee, softened

Stir together the semolina and caster sugar in a large bowl. Sift the flour, icing sugar and salt into the bowl and stir everything until combined
Spoon in the ghee and stir lightly with a metal spoon until everything forms a soft dough. Scoop out half teaspoonfuls of dough, roll into small balls and place on ungreased cookie trays. Press ever so slightly with your fingers to flatten the balls of dough.
Bake at 170 degree C for about 15 minutes, until the biscuits look a little dried and have the tiniest cracks on the surface. Anyone's who's eaten sugee biscuits will know how yucky they can taste if they are overbrowned so make sure they are still beige when you take them out of the oven.

I suggest you really use a half-teaspoon measure for this dough to ensure uniformity in your biscuits. Because they are small, you have to take them all out of the oven at the same time. If they are unevenly sized, the larger biscuits will take a longer time to bake and the smaller ones will overbrown by that time. It's a little bit of a hassle, precisely measuring out the dough, but worth it.

This shot of a tiny mound of semolina is just to show off the new camera. Check out the detail...sigh. MNCs, here I come!

cheesecake

2006-03-24T21:45:00.000+08:00

If you're thinking that that's a pretty thick crust for a cheesecake, you're dang right. That's the great thing about baking your own desserts...you get to fiddle with the recipe any way you like. I love cheesecake but sometimes with the storebought varieties, the crust just ain't enuff for all that creamy, rich cheese. So when I make my own version, I always double the crust so that every mouthful of cake is accompanied by a large amount of buttery crumble. This time, it looked like it was a layer cake, the crust was almost as thick as the cake itself! Well....I'm not complaining! *grin*

This was a simple digestive biscuit crust, with lots of butter to hold the crushed bits together. I reckon you can use of your favorite biscuits or coookies, just make sure you add enough butter to bind the crumbs and freeze the crust at least a good half hour before pouring in the cream cheese to harden it up.

And also, watch your oven temperature, least your cheesecake cracks, or worse, overbrowns. Sometimes the recipe asks you to place the cake tin in a water bath, but I've found that pretty unneccesary. Just lower the temp, and cool your cheesecake completely in the oven itself after its baked. This will make sure your cake cools down gradually and doesn't get a temperature shock when it comes out of the oven (which is what makes it crack). And if all else fails and you still get unslightly cracks, that's what blueberry pie filling is there for! haha...just spoon it over the top and no one's the wiser!

Creamy Baked Cheesecake

(makes one 9" round cake)

10 regular sized Digetsive biscuits

120g butter, melted

500g Philadelphia cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup caster sugar (mine was scented with vanilla...a lovely decadent touch)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 eggs, room temperature

1/2 tsp grated lemon rind (optional)

Roughly break the biscuits into pieces, place in food processor and blitz till its all fine and crumbly
Pour out into a bowl, pour in melted butter and stir. Spoon into greased 9" springform tin and press down with the back of a metal spoon. It should all stick together and look like a pretty firm crust, like this:

Once you're satisfied with ya crust, put the tin in the freezer to firm it up. Now, preheat your oven to 160 degree C.
Beat the softened cream cheese (it has to be completely softened or else the cake will be lumpy. Leave your cheese to soften at room temp for about two hours) with electric beaters till its creamy. Beat in sugar till the mixture becomes fluffy. Gradually beat in both eggs, then vanilla and citrus rind, if using. Continue with the electric beaters for about 30 sec and then pour into the crust shell.
Bake at 160 degree C for ab0ut 35 minutes, till the center seems just a wee bit jiggly and unset. Off the oven, wedge a wooden spoon between the oven door and let the cheesecake cool completely, about two hours.
After the cake is cooled, run a sharp knife along the edge to loosen the cake from the tin and then bung it in the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours before serving. As you can see, it takes a bit of time to get cheesecake ready for the stuff-your-face stage so plan ahead if you want to indulge in a bit of creamy, moist and cheesey cake!

I dunno if you can see just how luscious the texture of this cake is, but trust me, it's like nothing you get with storebought cheesecake. It's really the very inspiration of the phrase 'melt in ya mouth'. Forgive the not so artistic picture though, it was a messy affair, trying to simultanously get half the slice onto the plate and the other half into my mouth :)

choc chip cereal cookies

2006-03-20T12:37:00.000+08:00

My deadlines are looming. I've got a paper due on the 6th of next month, THREE on the 10th, one on the 11th, and another two on the 17th. And exams in May. It's a surprise my body hasn't been found splattered at the foot of some HDB block yet. And as always, what happens when I'm stressed? My oven gets a tad overworked. haha. But this time, I needed more than just theraupeutic baking. I needed comfort food. You know, the kind of stuff that transports you back to your childhood; to a time when the only deadline you had to meet was to plonk yourself on the sofa before 6.30pm so you could catch captain planet. And your biggest worry was that you couldn't find your mind-numbingly tiny polly pocket dolls. Sigh. I miss those days.

Anyways, I rummaged through the kitchen cupboards and look what I found!

Who doesn't love the smell of Nestum? (I hope there aren't actually people who do 'cos that SO was a rhetorical question to which the answer is a resounding "no one!") But anyway, Nestum always was my favourite baby food. It has just a little crunch to it, but still comfortingly thick and creamy. aahh. I even remember how the old tin looked like, with the picture of a happy family, mommy, daddy, a little girl and boy, all holding their bowls and mugs filled with steaming cereal. The days of innocent advertising...*grin*

So, armed with my tin of Nestum -50g free somemore!- I took out a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that a friend from college shared with me. I figured I'd add Nestum to the dough and see how it turned out, since many American recipes call for oats (rolled or instant) in their cookies.

Verdict. Good. A sweet chocolate chip cookie with a slight taste of Nestum. And it also was more crumbly than most cookies, 'cos the rough cereal created tiny air pockets in the dough. Although, I think smaller, bite sized cookies would have been nicer and crisper. (Owing to my stressed out state of mind, I simply mounded heaped teaspoonfuls of dough onto the tray, which made rather large cookies as the dough spreads out quite abit in the oven) These cookies were crisp on the sides and just the slightest bit soft in the center, which is fine if that's the way you like it. But I think I'd like smaller cookies which I could easily pop into my mouth and munch on.

Hanis's Chocolate Chip Cookies with Nestum

(makes about 70 large cookies or 170 bite-sized)

190g brown sugar

190g flour

50g Nestum

175g butter, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp salt

1/2 egg (break an egg in a bowl, beat and use half)

1/2tsp baking powder

chocolate chips, an infinite amount

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt and baking powder and fold into butter and sugar mixture. Stir in Nestum and chocolate chips with a wooden spoon
Drop teaspoonfuls of dough onto ungreased trays and bake for 15-20mins at 180 degree C till slightly browned at the edges.

slightly off-white clouds of heaven

2006-03-15T17:23:00.000+08:00

With the leftover egg whites from the creme brulee recipe, I decided to make some meringue. Meringue really is quite the acquired taste, 'cos it doesn't have any of the usual stuff you associate with cookies. No butter, flour, nuts, chocolate chips or anything like that. Just plain 'ol egg whites and sugar. But it's simplicity is exactly what makes it so addictive. It just melts on contact with your tongue, and you're left with just a memory of a crisp, sweet taste. So you pop in another one, to recreate that flavor and accertain what you just ate. And another one. Before you know it, half the tin is empty, and you still haven't really figured out what makes the meringue such a deceptively yummy treat.

It's all in the whipping of the egg whites I think. It makes the finished product so light and almost feathery. It's quite a refreshing change from the rich cakes and cookies we're used too. But while the cookies are simple, making them so isn't quite so. Egg whites are notoriusly difficult to whip, cos even the slightest bit of fat, yolk or eggshell makes it impossible to get the whites to whip up to their maximum volume. So I browsed through the web and my cookbooks, gathering hints on making meringue. This is are the tried-and-tested tips I ended up with:

Do not use plastic bowls cos they retain grease. I used stainless steel ones with no problem
Wipe down your bowl and beaters with a small cut wedge of lemon to remove all lingering traces of grease. Wipe dry with a paper towel before adding egg whites
Supposedly, using week-old whites makes it easier to whip them up cos the cell structrue would have broken down by then. But I tried both week-old and fresh whites, and can't say I saw much of a difference
Add just a pich of cream of tartar to your whites before beating. It really works.
Allow egg whites to get to room temp before beating them...I just covered the bowl with cling wrap and left it in the kitchen for about 40mins
Add the sugar only after your egg whites have been beaten to stiff peaks. Any earlier and they may not reach their full volume
Never stop beating. Just keep on going. And use the meringue within ten minutes of whipping, 'cos any after, and it starts to disintegrate
Use icing sugar cos it dissolves faster, resulting in a smoother meringue. And more suger, means a crisper meringue, so if you want slightly chewy cookies, reduce the sugar amount by half

Anyway, what you wana get are really stiff, shiny peaks. And the ultimate test: hold the bowl upside down, and if your meringue doesn't land on your hair,

it's perfect. I was so happy mine stayed put like an obedient puppy. *grin*

Satiny sweet peaks on my eggbeaters

Swirls and clouds of pristine white. Next time, I'm gonna make a pavlova, with all these sinuous loops and twirls.. looks like one giant ice cream sundae!

Then, the baking is another step that really requires your attention. The recipes I checked all gave different oven temperatures and times, and I didn't know which one to follow. Some asked that you bake them for an hour or more, then switch off the oven and let them dry in there overnight. But what if you have more than one batch? Or dun wana wait the night? After much experimenting, I realised that with meringues, it's best that you make just enough to fit one or two trays, that can go into the oven at the same time. You can't work in batches like normal cookies cos a) the batter doesn't hold well outside; it needs to be baked asap and b) the meringues need to dry in the oven, if you bring them out to put in another batch, they get all chewy cos of the humidity.

So anyway, after two tries, I finally came up with a satisfactory recipe. BuT, my meringues did brown a tad more than I wanted it to, despite me setting my oven at 75 degree C, its lowest setting! sigh. But still, not too bad I guess. They were slighty off-white, tanned if you will. But yummy nonetheless. *smile*

French Meringues

2 egg whites

a pich of cream of tartar

1 cup icing sugar

(really, that's all!)

Using egg beaters, beat egg whites till foamy. Sprinkle in cream of tartar and continue beating till the whites increase in volume, and become stiff. This takes about 4-5mins.
Sprinkle in the sugar a little by little, without stopping the whipping. It's important to not add the sugar all at once cos it may cause the meringue to become grainy.
Beat, beat, beat until the mixture really poofs up. It'll be all shiny and satiny, and the swirls made by the beaters will hold their shape, and not disintegrate. After about 6-7mins of beating, its time for the no-fail meringue test. Slowly hold the bowl upside down. The meringue should not move at all, which means it's stiff enough
Spoon into a piping bag, cut off the tip, and pipe into small discs/swirls on a baking tray lined with foil.
Bake in a 75 degree C oven for 3 hours, until the meringues can be eaily peeled off the foil. Also, wedge a wooden spoon in between the oven door. It prevents the oven from becoming too warm.
After you peel off the meringues from the foil, immediately store them in an air tight container, or else they'll go soft.
I sandwiched some of them with melted chocolate, but really, I prefer them plain. Simple and sweet. And you can use any extra meringues as cake or cupcake decorations!

magnolia cupcakes

2006-03-07T18:38:00.000+08:00

So, if you're free, with a craving for saturated fats and the urge to put on a tonne of weight, try your hand at these cupcakes. They are hellishy sweet and yet, completely addictive. I now understand why they are so internationally loved.
These are the infamous magnolia cupcakes of sex and the city fame. Since Carrie and her gang took bites of these babies, the Magnolia bakery has been selling over 20,000 cupcakes every week. (!!!) But I must say, this is praise well-deserved. So simple yet utterly mouthwatering. It constantly amazes me, how the right proportions of basic ingredients like sugar, flour, butter and milk can come together to create delicious culinary wonders.

But once again, I shall warn you of calories and sugar highs. These cupcakes are is the ultimate proof of how much Americans love their sugar. The recipe calls for one part butter to two parts sugar! Normally, I only use half of that for my cakes and some people consider ThaT too sweet. And I haven't even started on the frosting... *grin*

But fat-inducing sweetness aside, these really are the perfect vanilla cupcakes. The fragance that wafts through the kitchen as they are baking alone is good enough a reason to make them. And they are so fun to eat. After you savor the first bite, you no longer care about all the frosting that's smeared over your lips and fingers. You just try to lick it all off the best way you can as you reach for your next cupcake.

I'm gonna make another batch soon, this time with sprinkle and sparklers. Will post pictures as soon as I do! *gleefully rubs hands together*

p/s: clearly, all that sugar has begun to wrought its damage.

pimp my creme

2006-03-07T12:19:00.000+08:00

Came across a recipe for creme brulee that I had copied down from Gary Rhodes' Sweet Dreams and decided to try it out, even though I vaguely remember doing so years ago and not really liking the result. But why not, i thought. Maybe twice the charm. And Gary Rhode's desserts always look divine. Scrumptious works of art.
Also inspired by MTV and X-ibit, I attempted to pimp this creme a little. I cut the recipe by half, but still used an entire vanilla pod, to give the custard a really intense vanilla flavor. The lack of a blowtorch also dissed my hopes of making a good creme brulee with a crunchy sugar crust, so I decided to go the creme caramel way. I read somewhere that the custard for both are essentially the same, just that creme brulee meant 'burnt cream' in french, so you have to burn the sugar on the cream, while creme caramel means 'cream with caramel', so you must have a caramel sauce accompanying the dessert.

By the way, fancy french names don't sound so fancy when you hear the translation, do they? Next time you go to a restaurant, ask for burnt cream. See what they give you k? *grin*

Anyways, back to the pimping of ma cream:

Wanna feel good about yourself? Make some caramel. The scent of burnt sugar is lovely... like having your own cotton candy store in your house. I remember being introduced to the smell of it for the first time when I was in primary 5, and we were dissolving sugar for a science experiment (determining saturation points and all that). And I swear, my eyes glazed over when I took the first whiffs of the yummy steam that was coming out of the pot. mmmm.

Quickly divided the caramel amongst the ramkins and swirled to coat evenly. Gotta work fast 'cos it hardens really quickly.

Heating the cream, vanilla pod, egg yolks and sugar atop my homemade double-boiler.

Carefully strained the mixture and poured into ramkins. hmmm...looks suspiciously yellow. But the black flecks of vanilla seeds looked nice and the custard passed the sniff test. Now, onto the tricky part of placing the ramkins in a hot water bath and not spilling any water on myself while transferring the tray into the oven. Made it, but barely.

So, this is it. Baked, cooled and chilled, it's now time for the truth. Unmould the baby already!

Hmmm... A bit too flat. Maybe should have used smaller ramkins so that the custard would be thicker. And I didn't really care for the custard either. It did have a nice taste but was too creamy for me. Almost like baby food. It disintegrated almost the second I put a spoonful into my mouth. I think I prefer my custard to have a little more firmness. Dunno...maybe if you like the consistency of nestum or cerelac, this is for you. Or if you want to fatten up your little tots. haha.

Here's the original recipe, just in case you do:

Creme Brulee by Gary Rhodes (serves 6)

8 egg yolks

50g caster sugar

600ml double/pure cream

1 vanilla pod, split

icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180 degree Celcius.
Mix yolks and sugar in a bowl.
Bring cream with vanilla pod to a boil in a saucepan. Remove pod and scrape seeds into the cream.
Slowly whisk cream into eggs and sugar. Sit the bowl over a pan of lightly simmering water and heat until teh custard begins to thicken, stirring all the time. The custard should gain the consistency of single cream. Be careful not to keep on the heat too long or else you're gonna end up with scrambled eggs!
At this point, I strained the mixture into a jug so that the custard would be lump-free. It was not required in the recipe but generally I think it's a good idea to do so. Also makes it easier to pour the cream into the ramkins from a jug.
Divide the custard between the ramkins. Place in a roasting tin and pour warm water til it comes 3/4s of the way up the sides of the ramkins. Bake 20-30mins, just till the point of setting. There should still be a slight jiggle in the center when the mould is shaken gently. Cool.
Chill till just before serving.
Dust generously with icing sugar, wiping around the edges. Use a blowtorch to bubble the sugar. Redust and rebubble three times as the sugar begins to colour.

cake in a cup

2006-03-03T11:12:00.000+08:00

Frosted and topped with a little red heart. Sweeeet!

Bought my first one kilo block of varlhona (64%) a few days ago and I've been saving it for a good recipe.
this.was.it.

I've never really cared for cupcakes. They tend to be dry 'cos they're so easy to overbake; never as moist as slices of cakes. And sometimes they just don't puff up from their little paper holders prettily. It takes a deft hand to make cupcakes. But the pictures on chockylit's blog are just too pretty. I honestly couldn't tear my eyes away. And after she raved over and over again about her chocolate cupcake recipe, I had to try it, at least once.

And these were, essentially, tiny moist, dense chocolate cakes in cups! Almost a cross between brownies and cake, they were that rich. And I didn't have any cherries, so folded chunks of varlhona and white chocolate through the batter. Divine.

I dunno if it was the high quality dark chocolate or the recipe, but the cupcakes were delish. They even had a little bit of a crust on the top, which was truly lovely to bite through. Just how you would imagine miniature cakes to be.

Filled and waiting to be baked... I think I must have licked at least one cupcake holder worth of batter off the bowl! *makes slurping noises*

Cooling on the tray

OOps! haha..couldn't help myself

The only thing I had a problem with was the fennel frosting. Maybe it was the weather but it was kinda runny so I couldn't pipe out patterns. So I just smoothed it out and topped with little pastillage hearts I bought from Bake it Yourself (On an aside, B-I-Y is a lovely little shop and the counter lady was so nice. And you have to check out their rattan shopping baskets. Adorable!).

Boiling the fennel syrup. Who'd thought of using fennel seeds for frosting? Chocklit is a certified genius.

Pouring the fennel cream cheese frosting into a piping bag. It ShouLD have been spooned in. Wrong consistency. drats.

Evidently, I got a little over-excited with the pastillage hearts and my lilac sanding sugar...

3 hours and a 100 washed dishes later...

2006-02-27T17:38:00.000+08:00

Invited the girls for dinner over the weekend. And my parents were out holidaying in Penang, so it really was the perfect time to get together. Four chicks, an empty house, tonnes of food, the lovely sounds of jazz and some good gossip. What better way to spend a Saturday night?

Even IF it took three hours to wash up after that.

I would put up pictures of the piles and piles of dishes that I had to scrub, rinse and dry but I think such visual roadkill would put anyone off ever throwing a dinner party ever again. Or at least, convince them to use plastic disposable plates at their next gathering, which would be a huge no-no. Don’t want to be burning holes in the ozone now, do we? And anyway, how tacky are plastic plates?
So there I was at my sink, elbow deep in soapy gunk-water, wondering if slaves had it this hard.

But there was a reason for the mountains of china in my kitchen and dining room. Here’s the menu for the night:

Cream of mushroom
Garlic bread
Cranberry almond and spinach salad
Honey mustard chicken
Spaghetti with cream and shitake
Pan-fried asparagus with garlic and chilli flakes
Creamy mashed potatoes
Molten chocolate cake with raspberry coulis

Explains the three hours no?

Other than for a rather disappointing dessert (I should have tried out the recipe before deciding on it instead of relying on the reviews that accompanied it online), it was a good meal. The flavors were quite well-balanced and most importantly, I didn’t cook too much, which meant everybody could eat a little of everything without feeling the overwhelming urge to turn bulimic. I always have a habit of cooking as if I’m feeding a refugee camp, so it was with a lot of discipline that I managed to control my portions this time.

The only dish I made more of (and only because I wanted to have leftovers to stuff my face with the next day) was the salad. You know how sometimes, a dish is so beautifully presented that you just can’t wait to taste it? And when you do, you end up disappointed because you realize it’s all just surface gorgeousness? Well, this salad MORE than lives up to its beauty. With its golden brown almonds, juicy red cranberries and white sesame seeds resting on a bed of dark green spinach leaves, this is one salad that is as lovely to eat as it is to see. And it’s the perfect starter to a fancy dinner because it doubles up as table deco as well.

And just in case you think I’m being melodramatic, I’d have you know I hate salads. I believe raw greens are best left to rabbits, hamsters and other such rodents. Give me stir-fried, steamed or curried vegetables any day. But the great thing I discovered about raw spinach is that it doesn’t have any taste! No yucky vegetal-ness lingering on your tongue after eating this salad. And because they are virtually tasteless, the leaves take gorgeously to the sweet-tangy flavors of the dressing.

Cranberry almond and spinach salad
(recipe modified from original at www.allrecipes.com)

1/2 tablespoon butter
1/3 cup almonds, blanched and slivered
1 packet Chinese spinach, rinsed well and torn into bite-size pieces
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/8 cup distilled white vinegar
1/8 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Toast almonds in melted butter until golden brown. Set aside to cool
Place toasted sesame seeds, sugar, onion powder, paprika, vinegars and oil into a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Screw on the lid and shake well, until sugar is dissolved*
Arrange spinach leaves on serving plate. Sprinkle almonds and cranberries on top. Drizzle dressing over salad and serve. Serves 5.

*I made and stored the toasted almonds and dressing in the fridge a day before the actual dinner so that I wouldn’t be running around the kitchen like a hyperactive ostrich on the day itself. So when the girls arrived, we could concern ourselves with more important matters like how much chardonnay we could add to the punch before it no longer could be termed such, and my salad prep consisted only of sprinkling nuts, fruits and dressing onto arranged spinach leaves. Now, pass me that punch.

busy baker bee

2006-02-21T20:02:00.000+08:00

Okay, I'm not always such a crazy workhorse in the kitchen, but this is break week, and I have tonnes of assignments due. Which translates to a very stressed out me with lots of free time on ma hands. So of course, instead of pursuing the logical option of using all that time to get some schoolwork done, I typically choose to bake instead, thereby superficially quelling all that tension. Aah... I never learn.
Anyhows, met up with a couple of friends yesterday for tea and I volunteered to bring dessert...any excuse to bake. heh. Got a fantastic recipe for a caramel chocolate-chunk tart from feeding dexygus seconds. Okay, see, just the name gives you the shudders doesn't it? How could you/I possibly pass by without giving the recipe a try?? And so, despite my recent falling-out with all things caramel, I decided to give it a go. Afterall, the best way to overcome hurdles is to fight them straight on rite?
And I must say, victory was sweet, sacrilegiously so. Chunks of melty chocolate, smothered with a smooth caramel, on a sweet, crisp tart shell. Sin at its most delish! Ony wished we had some vanilla ice-cream to up the decadence quotient *grin*.

Look at all that chocolate! Found whatever chocolate I had on hand and broke them all into the tart shell. There's van houten extra cocoa milk, lindt 70%, and guylian 65% in there. A potent mix :)

Pour on the caramel-cream mixture, bake, slice, serve. Couldn't be bothered to take a nice picture even. Excuse the crumbs.

And then today afternoon, whilst catching up on my readings, my fingers started itching again. So I put down the incredibly boring The Hindu Diaspora: comparative patterns and very innocently started browsing through my recipe notebook. Before I knew it, I was in my kitchen, measuring out flour and sugar! I need help.

But in my defence, everybody needs a batch of freshly-baked gingernut biscuits in their cookie cupboard don't they??

See, aren't they pretty? And quite fast to whip up too. So TeCHniCaLLy, I didn't waste thaat much time in the kitchen. And when you calculate the utility a batch of yummy spice cookies give you, I practically didn't waste any "valuable time" at all.

Economically-sensible Gingernut Biscuits

(makes about 50)

1 cup plain flour

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp ground allspice

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 tbsp ground ginger

60g cold butter, diced

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/8 cup boiling water

1/2 tbsp golden syrup

Preheat your oven to 180 degree C.
Sift together flour, b.soda and spices into a large bowl. Using your fingers, rub in cold butter till the mixture is all crumbly. You gotta work fast, cos Mr.Humidity is NOT our friend here in Singapore, as my previous post so delicately explains.
Stir in the sugar. Dissolve the golden syrup into the boiling water and pour over the flour mixture. Mix to form a soft dough.
Pinch out small bits of dough and roll to form balls. I usually take about 1 1/2 tsps worth of dough for each ball. Place on ungreased baking trays, and flatten slightly with your fingers.
Bake till a nutty brown, about 12-15 minutes. These cookies burn quite easily so remember to check on them!

110% humidity and truffle-making do NOT mix

2006-02-18T23:42:00.000+08:00

I have complained against the weather we get here before. But now, it's different. I'm ranting. And raving. And this close to pulling my hair out at the roots.

I'm gonna migrate. Tell Mr. Lee and Mr. Goh that the brain drain this country is experiencing is not because of a lack of freedom or subtle dictatorial tendencies. It's 'cos of the frigging heat! For the next election year's budget, forget cash handouts. Get this island enclosed in a fibreglass dome and air-condition it. Please.

Why the meltdown? ...(pun intended).. Well, I tried my hand at making truffles today. And yesterday. Didn't go too well. Why? Because it's next to impossible to get your caramel or chocolate ganache to harden in these godforsaken humidity levels.

Here's my sugar syrup happily boiling away. Turned a beautiful caramel colour too, just the way I wanted it. Stirred in my roasted pecans and almonds and poured it out onto a lined tray to set. I waited. And waited. And waited somemore. Don't want to rush things now, do we? An hour later, the praline was cool to the touch and most importantly, hard. So I peeled off the lining paper. Or at least I tried to. Most of the paper did come off. But because the weather was so humid, the caramel was still the slightest bit sticky and there were bits of paper stuck to the bottom. So instead of getting a beautiful slab of golden brown praline, I had to resort to breaking the praline to little pieces and scraping off the paper with my nails, and then, a knife.

At this point, things got interesting. You see, the weather was very very warm, and the caramel was getting really quite sticky. As I was using the knife to cut out bits of the praline that wasn't stuck to the paper, the damn caramel slipped out of my fingers and the darn knife sliced into my flesh! And of course, I was using my sharpest knife, cos what else do you use to chop praline? And so there I was, bleeding all over my kitchen sink, cursing and swearing at the caramel, the knife, and above all, at the weather.

After about five minutes of holding wads of tissue to my finger, the bleeding finally stopped. Being the ever-determined heroine, I decided to continue my truffle adventure.

I placed the broken praline pieces into my food processor and blitzed it to get a gorgeous nutty caramel powder. It did smell lovely. So maybe I was ready to let go of the bleeding finger incident...
But no.
The tropics had more in store for me.

This is what I got after stirring the ground praline into the chocolate ganache (melted chocolate, butter, cream, egg yolks and a dash of kahlua). Now, according to the recipe, this mixture is to be shaped into small balls and rolled in cocoa. Pray tell me, how can sauce be shaped into balls?? Because that's what I got, as you can see above. Chocolate nut sauce. It refused to set!

But still, I fought on. I bunged the bowl into the fridge and went off for my dance class. Came back, almost 5 hours later, took out my truffle mixture and was glad to see it now looked like it could actually be rolled into balls.

It could be.

For the first two truffles.

Then, the by-now infamous humidity decided to announce its existence. The mixture started melting, I started getting more chocolate on my palms then onto the tray. It got impossible to roll the mushy mounds in cocoa. Even icing sugar did not work, as you can see from the picture below. The sugar/cocoa just dissolved into the condensation that formed on the melting truffles, leaving behind ugly brown patches.

I managed about 30 truffles before tiring of the endless running to and fro to the freezer every time I rolled out each ball. I tried again today, getting about 15 more before giving up.

Humidity: 1

Me: 0

Argh.

Yummy truffles.

Dumb weather.

And a still throbbing finger. pffth.

scottish shortbread

2006-02-17T19:44:00.000+08:00

It's been a long time since I made shortbread. It really is quite the perfect teatime treat. Not too sweet, but still rich and melt-in-the-mouth thanks to the liberal amount of butter added. And no need for eggs, which is great for days when I'm vegetarian. Flipped through me trusty periplus cookbooks and came across a recipe for Scottish Shortbread. Why scottish? Damn if I know! *grin* But it's different from the normal shortbread recipes...for one it calls for rice flour, and also, it bakes as a cake, and then you break it into wedges once its cooled.

But whatever the differece, the basic steps were the same. Chilled flour. Cold cubed butter, rubbed into the flour mixture, a sprinkling of sugar and then some light kneading. Therapy for the baker's soul.

The baked shortbread definitely passed the taste test. Buttery, flaky and with just the slightest bit of crisp, thanks to the rice flour. My dad took a bite of one of the cooling wedges, and it promptly crumbled into his mouth. He liked it so much, he packed four pieces to bring to work today morning. yay for me! :)

Scottish Shortbread

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup rice flour

150g cold, cubed butter

1/4 cup caster sugar

Sift flours into a large bowl. Rub in cold butter into flour until crumbly. Sprinkle in caster sugar. Mix until a soft dough forms.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly for about a minute, until dough is soft.
Press dough into a 8" disc on a baking tray. Flute the edges of the disc with fingers and score into 8 wedges using the tines of a fork.
Evenly sprinkle about 2 tsps of extra caster sugar onto the shortbread dough.
Bake at 160 degree C for 45 minutes. The shortbread will come out of the oven soft and harden upon cooling. Break into wedges once cool. Enjoy.

sedap!

2006-02-15T18:07:00.000+08:00

Had a can of italian plum tomatoes sitting in the cupboard so decided to make a pasta dish for lunch. However, not a big fan of tomato-based sauces so had to look for a recipe that balanced the tomato taste with other flavors. Came across one at www.allrecipes.com which called for cream and lots of red pepper. However, it also included crumbled sweet italian sausages, which isn't exactly widely available in your average Singaporean suburban neighborhood stores, so had to substitute the meat with chicken instead. Overall, quite tasty. And/but spicy, depending on whether you like your food fiery. My 3-year old cousin was gulping down water in between all the yummy noises. Really quite adorable to watch.

Bow ties with chicken and cream

(serves 2)

4 oz bow-tie pasta

splash of olive oil

4 oz boneless chicken meat (breast or fillet), diced*

3/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 cup diced onions

2 cloves garlic, minced

10 oz Italian plum tomatoes, pureed in a blender

1/2 cup single cream

pich of salt

pinch of brown sugar+

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

Cook pasta in a pot of salted boiling water. Drain and set aside.
Heat oil in pan. Cook chicken and red pepper till meat is evenly browned all over. Add diced onions and minced garlic. Cook until onions go limp.
Stir in tomatoes, cream, sugar and salt. Simmer, uncovered til sauce thickens. Sprinkle in parsley and some freshly grated parmesan cheese if desired.

*The original recipe calls for italian sausages, which have alot more flavor than plain chicken meat. So to pick up the taste, I sprinkled on some seasoning powder and allowed the meat to marinate for about half hour. My spice mix includes onion, garlic, paprika, chilli, marjoram, pepper and ginger, which gave it quite a bit of flavor. But of course, crumbled sausage would have been much tastier. Next time!

+The thing with red pasta sauces is that they tend to be a little sour if your tomatoes aren't fully ripe. Read somewhere that brown sugar works much better than white at neutralizing the natural sourness of tomatoes which is why I sprinkled in a pinch of it to the sauce. But of course, always taste before adding to make sure that you don't over-sweeten your sauce.

not so normal egg toast

2006-02-14T09:51:00.000+08:00

Read an article in the ST two weeks ago about slow-scrambled eggs and have been wanting to try it out ever since. Finally decided to get down to it yesterday...a late morning brunch if you will. Was going for a luscious curd-y egg mixture, almost like a jam spread rather than those tough bits of scrambled egg we are used to. According to the article, the trick is to stir very very slowly and patiently, over the lowest heat possible, till the eggs thicken ever so slightly.

So there I was, standing over my stove, stirring, stirring, and stirring some more. It took almost ten minutes for it to be ready, but it was worth it. The eggs were thick, almost like a sauce. Much better than the chewy stuff you get with a Big Breakfast. And richer too, thanks to the good knob of butter I threw into the pan, and added to the whisked eggs.

Toasted some bread, rubbed garlic over the toast to infuse a little flavor, spread a thin layer of butter, topped it with hot scrambled eggs, and sprinkled a bit of parsley over. Voila! Luxurious egg on toast.

Taste-wise, it was good. Can't go wrong with eggs. Especially when its combined with freshly ground black pepper. But wish I had used thicker bread, slices of crusty baguette would have been much yummier. Oh well, there's always next time..

Note: If trying this, remember that you can't stop the stirring for AnyThinG. It has to be continous or else the eggs will curdle faster than you can say 'icks'. Which led to a pretty amusing situation when I was stirring the eggs and my phone rang. I must have looked like a really bad impersonator of Mrs.Incredible, trying to reach out for the phone with one hand while still --barely-- moving my spoon over the pan with the other. Stretcchhhh! *grin*

orange cake wif homemade caramel frosting

2006-02-12T20:12:00.000+08:00

Still in a CNY mood... I guess all those red and orange decorations have embedded themselves into my subconcious and caused a vicious craving for citrus cake. Luckily had piles of fruit at home, so didn't have to run to the store. A perfect addition to a lazy Sunday afternoon: buttery orange cake with caramel frosting.

Would you believe that almost three whole oranges went into the cake? Hate how some recipes call for orange essence, fresh fruit always gives a waayy superior flavor. And the flecks of orange rind you get in every slice, mmm mmm... *grin*

I also decided to try something new with the frosting cos was beginning to get bored with the same ol glaze/buttercream routine. Attempted to make a caramel-ly icing using brown sugar. First step was figuring out how to make icing sugar from the brown stuff. Brought out the coffee grinder, spooned in some demerara sugar and blitzed everything. Ended up with a fine brown powder that I then sifted. Voila, brown icing sugar!

Creamed with butter, a drop of freshly squeezed orange juice and grated orange rind, it transformed into a perfect frosting ready to be slathered onto the cake. Actually, it would have been more perfect if I waited till the cake was completely cool before frosting it. But the buttery citrus smell wafting through the house was too much, and I caved in. Quickly slapped on the frosting, grabbed myself a fork and dug in. Quite the accomplishment that I managed to stop and take a picture of the slice, so yay for me :)

Buttery Orange Cake

225g butter, softened

250g caster sugar

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 large oranges

1 tsp baking powder

240g plain flour, sifted

Thoroughly wash fruit and dry well. Grate orange rind, careful to avoid the bitter white pith. After grating, squeeze out the juice and set aside.
Cream butter and sugar. Gradually beat in eggs annd vanilla. Stir in grated orange rind. Fold in flour and baking powder, alternating with the orange juice.
Pour batter into a greased and lined 8" round tin. Bake at 175 degree C for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cake and frost if desired.

Note: One should aLwAYs desire frosting, so here's the recipe...

Caramel Frosting

50g butter, softened

1/3 cup blitzed and sifted brown sugar

2tsp orange rind

1/8-1/4 tsp orange juice

Cream together butter and sugar. Beat in orange rind and add juice one drop at a time, mixing well until consistency is smooth and spreadable. Frost, frost frost!

not the same!

2006-02-05T10:43:00.000+08:00

Ever realise that everyone has that one quintessential recipe they are famous for? Like, when families gather together, or friends meet up for a chat and the conversation shifts to a particular individual, SomeOne will suddenly claim that you just HAVE to try *name of individual*'s *insert appropriate speciality dish*. And then, the word gets out, and that becomes the benchmark for all future evaluations of the dish.

I speak from personal experience cos I have an aunt whose coconut candy is so famous that whenever we eat candy made by anyone other than her, we always silently tsk and mumur amongst ourselves that it is 'just not the same'. So one day I decided to take up the challenge and attempt to recreate her famous sweet... thinking back, I don't know why I bothered. I followed her recipe to the provebial 't' and still, everytime my dad popped a piece into his mouth, he'll get ThAt look on his face, the one that shouts "Not the same! Not the same!". Some things are just better left to those who know what they're doing I guess *grin*.

So I gave up trying to usurp the hallmark recipes of others (in my defence, it was not so much an attempt to usurp as much as a try at recreating a piece of history) and decided to come up with a speciality of my very own:

...drumroll please....

fudgey wudgey pecan-walnut-chocolate chip brownies!

Okay, I know brownies are like, everywhere now. But I do think this recipe hits the spot flawlessly...and who doesn't want a bit of a chocolate fix every now and then? I even discovered a secret brownie-making weapon: white chocolate chips and toasted nuts (sound a bit like a military strategist, I know. Apologies.) The uneven surface and white specks you see above are the result of a chockful of toasted nuts and chocolate chips stirred through the batter. And the trick is to roast the nuts in the oven to golden brown perfection, and then add them into the batter whilst they are still hot, together with the chocolate chips. The heat will partially melt the chocolate, so you end up with delicious swirls of white chocolate throughout your batter. heaven i say.

Fudge brownies

(makes one 9" by 9" slice)

3/4 cup butter, melted

1 1/2 cup sugar*

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup cocoa

3/4 cup plain flour

white chocolate chips+

roasted, chopped walnuts and pecans+

- Grease and line bottom of a 9" square tray. Preheat oven to 165 degree C.

- Stir sugar into melted butter. Beat in eggs and vanilla, followed by flour and cocoa. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts simultanously. Beat vigorously with wooden spoon for 30 seconds. Pour into tin, smooth surface and bake for 25 minutes. Never ever EVER overbake brownies. What you want are moist, fudgey slices of chocolatey bliss, not crumbly, dry chocolate cake.

*I believe that one should always taste what one cooks so before I bung my tin into the oven, I'll have a taste of the batter. Often, I find it slightly bitter (due to the unsweetened cocoa) so I sprinkle in a little extra sugar, about 2tsps. Personally, the general guide is that the batter should taste a tad sweeter than you would like your finished cake to be, so that by the time it bakes, the sugar content adjusts itself nicely. Just a TAD though. It's a matter of personal preference, so feel free to work with the basic guide of 3/4 cup and adjust accordingly.

+Please add nuts and chocolate chips in proportion to how bad a day you've had.

So, that's my special brownie recipe. And though I've given it out to family and friends, I still get orders to bake it. Some people just don't have the time to do it themselves. But others tell me that no matter how much they try, they still can't get it exactly right. I see ThAt look in their eyes. And it says: "Not the same! Not the same!"

Me thinks I have found my famous dish.

embedded with roasted nuts; speckled with pure chocolate swirls:

Deep dark chocolately heaven.

the ubiquitous popiah...

2006-02-03T11:18:00.000+08:00

Walking by the neighborhood yesterday, realised that the 848 coffeeshop at Yishun just went through a major renovation. New black/beige tables and chairs, looking chic with more than a hint of art-deco influence. I miss the rickety plastic stools, the tables that tilt everytime the hawker uncle serves a plate of meepok, and the everpresent empty condensed milk tin-cum-ashtray. But some things never change: still in business were the huge metal fans that blast hot, stifling wind at your face, forcing you to hold up your hair least it flips into you food.

Poser renovations and sweltering wind aside, at least the food was good. The popiah uncle had his own glass pane window, so we could see him making his rolled radish creation. Soft rice wrappers, with just the right amount of crisp. Topped with sambal chilli, minced garlic, shredded hardboiled eggs, taugeh, crabmeat, peanuts, and of course, cooked radish. Something mysterious too, a powdery kinda floss, added before the radish. The ubiquitous "secret ingredient" every respectable hawker uncle and aunty possesses. Whatever it was, it made the difference. yum.

That's the great thing about layered food, you get to taste all the different flavors individually when you pop a piece into your mouth. A flavor explosion, if you will. Not like curries, where the spices and flavors mingle to create an unidentifiable bang on your tongue. Not that that isn't good, but clean, sharp flavors are such an experience, no?

Thanks to D for introducing popiah to me. My new favorite hawker snack.

2006-02-03T10:50:00.000+08:00

Figured i'm gonna share my irrepressible passion for all things yummy... Enough of fantasizing about food and simply thinking about how some little morsel of heaven tasted on my tongue. It's time that people get to read about it and hopefully, then go out and try to recreate the magic for themselves. Or maybe i just am bored outta my mind. So much for noble larger-than-life aspirations.