Goodbye 2008

Status Report for 2008 - Out of 3 attempts:

• 2 Successful endeavours!!!
  Mango Sticky Rice from http://chezchristine.typepad.com/chez_christine/2006/04/coconut_sticky_.html
  Mom's Apple Cake - makes one juicy apple cake, do cut down on the sugar to maybe 1 and a 1/2 cups if you don't like your desserts too sweet!
  http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/moms-apple-cake/
• 1 big Botch-UP :{
  This came out sticky sweet soft like a nutty brownie gone high on CRYSTAL(Sugar)!!! It seems like the recipe could've done with more flour and don't forget to grind your nuts before folding them in... http://dubdew.com/2008/10/30/pistachio-love

Yes, 2008 is officially over, looking back, I'm pleasantly proud of all I have managed to get done so far. Learning belly dancing, experimenting in the kitchen, picking up new friends, reviving old friendships, painting my room on my own, dancing up a storm {: the list goes on

So importantly now, what can 2009 lead on to? I just came away from watching the Episode 6 of Iconoclast Season 2 on Channel News Asia and wowee. Maya Angelou is one grand dame. And it just made my insides thrum and sing with a happy song. I hope 2009 is a year where myself and everyone I know can have the courage to live and love just like she says...

{ Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtues consistently. You see? You can't be consistently kind or fair or humane or generous, not without courage, because if you don't have it, sooner or later you will stop and say, "Eh, the threat is too much. The difficulty is too high. The challenge is too great." }
Dr Maya Angelou

And lastly,

maggie and milly and molly and may

10

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea

E.E.cummings

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year~~

The Jelly Mongers

Jelly on the plate

Jelly on the plate
Jelly on the plate
Wibble Wobble
WiBBle WoBBle
Jelly on the plate

Crazy, beautiful gelatinous structures took main stage earlier this year at the Lodon Festival of Architecture. Argh I wish I had been invited to attend INAUGURAL Architectural Jelly Competition! A sweet idea from Bompas & Parr i.e the Jellymongers!

But big girls musn't cry.. I suppose I could create a Jelly Party of my own. Especially since they included a recipe for glow-in-the-dark absinthe jelly in Singapore's October 2008 issue of Home Concepts. *woohoo* All I need now is a fantastic jelly mould.... And would someone please help me get some absinthe?

Jelly Ronson Recipe
For the jelly
200ml absinthe (bohemian absinthe preferred)
200ml Indian tonic water
100ml water
100g caster sugar
8 leaves gelatine

For the raspberry coulis
55g raspberries
1/2 lemon, juice only
5g icing sugar

For the glow
Blacklight

Method

1. Combine the absinthe and Indian tonic water in a jug and set aside
2. Cut the leaf gelatine into fine pieces and place in a heatproof bowl with enough water to cover. Leave until soft (~ 5 minutes)
3. When the gelatine has softened, melt it in the heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.
4. Melt the caster sugar in 100ml of water and add to melted gelatine mix. Then combine this with the absinthe/tonic water mix in the jug and stir.
5. Place in fridge for 2-3 days. For every day in the fridge, the jelly will grow structurally stronger.
   
   To make the Coulis
   
6. Place raspberries, lemon juice into food processor and blend until smooth.
7. Strain the coulis into a small jug and anoint jelly with coulis.
   
   To unmould the jelly, briefly immerse the jelly in a bowl of hot water and invert onto the presentation plate. Tip: Wet the surface of the presentation plate before unmoulding the jelly. That way, you may slide the jelly into position if it is not in the right place. Switch off all lights to achieve total darkness and serve the glowing jelly with the black light.

And why does the jelly glow?
Elementary watson! The quinine in the tonic water is UV-active. When the blacklight is switched on it will fluoresce beautifully {:

Newest additions to my library!!!

I almost went gaga at the Border's 11th Anniversary sale - 20% off virtually storewide. Basically an invitation for MAD shopping spree, almost. But luckily I kept my purchases to a modest two books:Vietnamese cooking made easy and Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking. Ultimately, I reasoned that after buying these babies, it was imperative that I make full use of them and so, better to stick to 2 so that I can pay them my fullest attention.

But first, back to my latest library find Feast Bazaar! And I was so happy to find a recipe for Masala Tea (Chai) in it! A few years back, I made a trip down to india, and I fell in love with their masala tea there. It was so incredibe! They handed you these tiny metal shot glasses of Spicy Masala Tea which was Robust without being too Strong and Sweet without being Saccharine. I suppose having fresh milk plays a BIG factor in this one -given that cows are revered by the Hindu religion in india, they are treated fairly good which makes for tasty milk.

I know that there are instant chai mixes available in the market. But its so much more fun to make your own! Personally, I think it will take me a few more tries before I get my masala tea right. Partly because I need more practise in order to master the Art of dry roasting spices without burning them and releasing their flavours to their FULLEST potential.

Spice Mix for Chai

1. 1 1/4 cinammon sticks
2. 6 cloves
3. 4 black peppercorns
4. 6 green cardamon pods
5. 1 teaspoon fennel(anise) seeds
6. 1 teaspoon ground ginger powder

• Dry roast items 1-5 till fragrant and remove from heat.
• Add in ground ginger and grind. AND Voila! Your very own Masala Chai Mix.
• TO drink: Simply heat up a cup milk - be careful not to burn it, add a teaspoon or two of the mix and then dip in the tea bags (preferably strong black tea e.g. assam).

I substituted the ground ginger powder for a knob of crushed yellow ginger for mine and added separately into the milk. And I left fennel seeds out because I didnt manage to get the ingredient. But I'm glad to say it still tasted fairly good! Except that my tea wasnt very fragrant.. SOmething that I think can be resolved with a more thorough dry roasting in future attempts.

Other links for Masala tea include http://lushdesi.wordpress.com/2008/03/07/chai-me-out-drink-with-lush/ , http://www.chai-tea.org/ and http://cumicori.blogspot.com/2006/02/masala-chai.html

As for my newest babies: Harumi and Vietnamese cooking, I will be slowly trying out the recipes - using them as inspiration for my office lunch bentoes! I may just share my food if I likes you [:

The Weepies

Gray, quiet and tired and mean
Picking at a worried seam
I try to make you mad at me over the phone.R
ed eyes and fire and signsI'm taken by a nursery rhyme
I want to make a ray of sunshine and never leave home

No amount of coffee, no amount of crying
No amount of whiskey, no amount of wine
No, no, no, no, no, nothing else will do
I've gotta have you, I've gotta have you.

Hola!!!!

A great way to learn Spanish menus, by Julia Kuo. She makes me want to read children's books all over again. *siiigh*

Onde You.

You just can't stop at one! Imagine poppin' these cute little furry coconut-covered green little kueh gems AND squishing them between your teeth, releasing a flurry of sweet syrupy gula melaka goodness into your mouth. Yum!

Mum just brought back some homemade ondeonde for me. Perfect for a midnight snack. And I just can't wait to attempt making my own -I plan to be trying out the recipe from Irene's Peranakan recipes. Do let me know if youve tried it before and how it turned out! Especially since Irene's recipe is a tad tricky calling for sweet potatoes as one of its ingredients.

If you, like me, have grown up with the epinymous Bengawan solo versions made from rice-flour. This MAY come as a surprise for you that there actually are receipes for ondeonde which call for sweet potato. While rice flour typically gives ondeonde balls that *bouncey* quality to them. Ondeondes made from sweet potatoes are softer in nature and more frangrant. Overall though, it has to be agreed that it doesnt matter what the ondeonde skin is made from as long as it's nice and thin just like xiaolongbao....

How about the filling? I think the PERFECT ondeonde has to have syrupy gulamelaka filling, studded with a few crunchy crytals of gulamelaka for that extra crunch. Those extra crystals just add to the fun!

Inspired to make your very own ondeonde yet? I am especially gobsmacked by Shebakesandshecooks brilliant idea of using PURPLE SWEET POTATOES in her version of ondeonde. [: And Look here if you'd like to try making ondeonde from rice flour. Or try out this one with coconut fried with gula melaka as filling instead. Don't hesitate; just go and make!

p.s: The origins of this great dessert may be hazy- but I'd like to think that maybe it was invented by some adventourous Chinese who with access to wonderful ingredients like coconut and gula melaka in South East Asia decided to reinvent their own glutinous rice balls a.k.a tang yuan into what is known today as onde onde.

Green and Black

With all the furore over tainted milk products worldwide due to melamine edified milk. I smack my lips together and thank my lucky stars for Green and Black orga(sm)nic chocolate. Teehee and Jason's over at Paragon hosts a good range of their chocolate bars flavours namely: Milk, Butter Scotch, Maya Gold, Ginger, Ginger, Cherry, Mint and Dark.

I am no real expert of chocolate products but one of the few rules I've come across is that good chocolate sound snap crisply when you break off a piece. *Disclaimer: Heavenly Royce chocolates do not fit into this category* And you should be able to pair a good chocolate with wine and/or liquors. Sounds like a great excuse for a girly get together *woohoo*

I guess the next thing to put up on on my list of things to do is going to be Attending a Chocolate Tasting. argh,, shouldnt have missed the talk on the History of Chocolate at national Museum organised by Valrohna. But oh well, there's always next time at least I have my newlyacquired bar of Green and Black Cherry Chocolate by my sideto comfort me. mmM.

Pho better or Pho worse

After a fun F1 race potluck dinner featuring yummy Vietnamese ricepaper rolls/Gỏi cuốn, I was really excited to try cooking a few Vietnamese recipes on my own. So I made my way down on monday and found this really lovely book: Vietnamese cooking made easy in Toapayoh Library. As well as a copy of Harumi's Japaese cooking.

The Vietnamese cookbook rocks because:it has a sprial bound spine which makes a breeze to flip(even with messy hands) I love the introduction and how it includes information on basic vietnamese ingredients(with pictures!) and covers a good range of recipes. It has the dips/sauces, appetisers, salads, noodles/soups, the meats and desserts.



Right off I picked the stuffed tomatoes dish to try first, it was too adorable to resist! Figured, if I mastered it and it was good, it'd be a definite crowd pleaser for future potlucks/or when meeting the in-laws *heh* Preparation was pretty easy, only work involved was prepping the ingredients for seasoning; easily solved with a mini food chopping device. THE tricky part was cooking the stuffed tomatoes, I had to cook mine twice, cos the first time they were still a little rare in the middle. so Tip of the Day is: brown them on the top in the pan then tuck them in a preheated oven to slow roast.





Ingredients:
4 large tomatoes
2 tablespoons oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
Coriander leaves to garnish


Filling:
200g ground pork
2 large dried chinese mushrooms, soaked in hot water till soft, stems discarded, caps minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 shallots,minced
1 spring onion, minced
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper


Sauce
2 teasppons water
1/2 tablespoon fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sugar

1. Make the Filling first by combining all the ingredient and mixing well. Set aside for 20 minutes.
2. Using a sharp knife, slice off about 1cm of the top of each tomato, scoop out the pulp to form the tomato cups. Reserve the pulp for the Sauce and invert the cups on a plate to drain off excess liquid.
3. Dry the inside of each tomato cup with a paper towel. Fill each cup with a portion of the Filling. Heat oil in a wok/skillet over medium heat and panfry the stuffed tomatoes with the opened end facing down for 3-5minutes. Turn the stuffed tomatoes right side up and panfry the bottoms for 3-5mintues until cooked. Remove from pan and place on serving dish.
4. To make the sauce, mince the reserved tomato pulp and mix with the water, fish sauce, oyster sauce and sugar till well combined. Then reheat the remaining oil in the pain over medium heat and stir fry the minced garlic for 1-2 minutes until fragrant and golden brown. Add the prepared Sauce mix well and bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Remove sauce from heat and pour over the stuffed tomatoes. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with steamed rice or toast.

Give this recipe a try! I didnt regret it and Im sure you won't either [: And let me know if you think the sauce in this recipe tastes like ketchup!

p.s: This book also has a recipe for Pork Pate which I'm dying to try soon. Let's hope it turns out great too

p.p.s: Harumi's recipes are a bit more daunting I feel. Although I tried her Sweetpotato Montblanc recipe with disastrous results because I tried to substitute sweet potatoes with pumpkin and heavy cream with normal cream. Its back to the cooking pot and trying it out again on another day!

The Omnivore's Hundred

Lots of good fun! I came across this list from http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/uncategorised/the-omnivores-hundred/ Basically it contains 100 things that VGT thinks every omnivore should have tried at least once in their lifetime. And you can join in the fun by:

1) Copying this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk/ linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle : Does truffle oil count?
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes: Apple Cider?
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine: French fries topped with fresh cheese curds, sounds yummy...
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst: just a BIG wurst in ketchup sprinkled with curry powder
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs: once in a lifetime is good enough
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain: Goreng pisang @ Toapayoh
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette or kway chap!!!
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost; brown cheese
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam: Will we ever have Ma-ling luncheon meat again?
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

I got 50 out of a 100. And here I was all confident that I'd get at least a 70. And someday, Someday I'll get my hands on that tasting menu at a three-star Michelin restaurant... In the meantime, I;m going to set my goals a little lower. Anyone up for salted lassi?

Some like it cold. Some like it hot. Some like it in a pot, 9 days old.

(c) Timeout Singapore

I like books and I like cooks. And I love to eat what they cook. So of course I couldn't resist paying a visit to 25'C! A paper feast for the senses. 25'C at Keong Saik Road contains shelves and shelves of culinary books about food and eating and everything in between. No more disorganised cookbook aisles for us when we've got http://www.25degreec.com/

Kudos to 25'C who not only bring to the table a wide selection of food books galore, they also test out a new cookbook recipe every 2 weeks. So one can have their cake(book) and eat it too. During my visit to 25'C I was lucky to try out the Miso steak taken from Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking. For once you can actually see how a recipe turns out before buying the book, which totally adds to the shopping experience [:

Now, if only I can convince them to try out those sweet snacks from the Cookie Sutra...

Marshmallows

I haven't eaten marshmallows for a while. But I just couldnt resist when I spotted Darjeeling tea marshmallows and Coffee marshmallows at Meidiya Supermarket in Liang Court last Saturday.

Mum and I decided to buy the Coffee marshmallows to try. These kiddos smell just like regular kopi at the neighbourhood coffeeshops. Yum! Tastewise, the coffee flavours is quite light just nice for the faint-hearted. Great for those who tend to break into tachycardia with a normal cuppa java.


Don't try these if you're looking for your daily wake me up caffeine shot. But I'd definitely recommend these babies for a tea party on a lazy saturday afternoon or simply tossed into a warm cup of hot chocolate for that little extra zing.

Or if you really want to go the extra mile, you can try out this recipe, taken off the Meidi-ya website, translated courtesy of google [;

http://www.meidi-ya.co.jp/merchandise/recipe/bavarois.html

MY Darjeeling tea marshmallows 1 bag 袋（120g）
Milk 牛乳 300cc
powdered gelatin 2g

1. Place marshmallows and milk into pan and stir over low heat until the marshmallows are melted.


2. Remove pan from heat and slowly add in powdered gelatin and stir mixture till uniform.


3. Pour mixture into a glass bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours until firm. Voila! Your bavarois is done! Add fresh fruits and whipped cream as desired.