Dainty Bites

No Introduction Needed

2012-01-19T14:07:00.000+08:00

If you have been following me on this space for some time, you will know that this kind of pictures tend to come up during this season.

While I was packing these two little containers for my bosses, I was thinking that this year I needn't make any label for it as these needed no introductions. Whereas, last year I still had to tag my creation as it was just plain weird.

My mom had declared that this year we will not be buying any of those usual festive goodies as every year most of it goes into the trash bin. Well, that's good news for our waistlines and wallets but bad news for that itchy mouth like mine!

So I decided that if I make them myself, I won't be running afoul of her edict, will I? How very smart of me!

Though I have been making these tarts, I was never totally satisfied with the pastry crust I'd tried from various recipes. Either it was too cakey, or doughy, or dry, or something. And then there was the matter of the pineapple filling. As I bought them off the shelf, I had totally no control over the quality. My previous batches had filling that were always so tough and chewy that my brother complained that he is going to lose all his teeth eating my tarts and my sister couldn't open her mouth once after eating one cos her teeth were tightly gummed together. I have a knack for making things that people would remember for a long time. Even though usually for the wrong reasons.

This time round I happen to chance upon Bake King's pineapple filling while I was at NTUC and promptly picked one pack up. As a precaution against tough and chewy filling, I learnt from another blogger (whom I had forgotten exactly who; apologies!) to add the juice of a whole lemon to it before rolling them into balls. I think this gave the filling a more balanced taste than just cloying sweetness and also it adds more moisture to prevent the filling from drying out during baking.

For the pastry crust, I went back to Mrs Leong's recipe and was glad that I found it. The pastry was buttery yet light, but not overly crumbly. On its own, it is a good balance of sweet and savoury which goes well with the pineapple filling.

On the whole, I would say that I am really happy with this batch of pineapple tarts and looking back at all those previous batches, I think it probably qualifies as the better looking ones to have appeared here. (^.^)

Happy Chinese New Year to all my readers!

*********************************
Pastry Crust for Pineapple Tarts
(from Mrs Leong's Festive Cooking)
*********************************

560g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
340g chilled butter, cut into cubes
2 tbsp sugar
3 egg yolk, beaten lightly
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt
6 - 8 tbsp water

FOR PASTRY GLAZE:
1 egg yolk
1 egg
2 drops of water

1. Mix the plain flour and baking powder together in a mixing bowl.

2. Add the chill butter cubes into the flour mixture and rub them into the flour using your fingertips until they resemble the texture of coarse sandy breadcrumbs. Do not over-work the mixture.

3. Mix the sugar, egg yolks, vanilla essence and salt together and add to the flour mixture. Mix well.

4. Add 4 tbsp of water to the dough. Mix well. Progressively add another tbsp of water to the dough until the dough comes together. My dough required only 6 tbsp.

5. Chill the dough for 30 mins before using.

6. Roll the dough out on a floured surface to a thickness of no more than 0.5 cm. Stamp out the tarts with the appropriate cutter and add the rolled pineapple tart filling on.

7. Combine the pastry glaze in a small bowl. Brush the top of the pastry crust.

8. Bake for 175 degC for 10 min and then lower the heat to 150 degC and bake for further 15 - 20 mins until the tarts have turned golden brown.

Update on Primary 1

2012-01-06T15:16:00.000+08:00

Our little princess has been to school for three days and so far she seems to be enjoying it. In fact, she has been enjoying a little too much.

On the first day of school, I packed her favourite tonkatsu for her recess, but on the second day, she told me she wants to try buying her own food. So I took that as a good sign and obliged her with $2 in her pocket. Later that day, she told me she bought cha-siu rice during recess. In my reckoning, that was an acceptable choice. So when she asked to buy in own food from the canteen on the third day, I thought why not. And guess what that little rascal got? Twisties! So she had her first taste of spending at will, especially to get such criminal "luxury".

One of the million worries I have for her was handling money. She still hasn't quite grasp the concept of counting money yet and has no notion of the value of money. But I guess that she will acquire those eventually. I told her that when I was in Primary 1, I couldn't count money too. To pay for what I have ordered at the canteen, I basically emptied my purse on the counter and the canteen vendor took what was owed to him/her and returned the rest to me. How simple life is to a 6 year old.

Hmm ... I wonder what she will be getting today during recess?

On the academic front, she has received her timetable and her spelling list for this term. The time table is much simplier than mine when I was in Primary 1. A single subject now last as long as 1.5 hours. This make packing of the bag so much easier. Not that there are many things to pack since most books and files are kept in the school. Her spelling list is very manageable with only 5 single words each week. When our little princess saw it, she declared that she will definitely get full marks. As compared to her kindergarten where she was doing 10 sentences a week, it is easy to understand where her over-confidence came from.

While going every step of the way with her through these primary school days, I feel that I am reminded of what it was like when I attended primary school. What big differences! And I'm glad they are positive ones. So far.

Off To Primary School!

2012-01-04T14:23:00.000+08:00

This was what it looked like yesterday when we sent our little princess off to her first day in primary school.

She was steady and calm.

I was an emotional wreck! Running around, shouting orders, rampaging through things. My mind was in total chaos. Our little princess and Hubby looked at me with pity in their eyes. I told them to shut up.

We walked her into her school and then she saw her kindergarten friend. Zoom ... off she went with her friend together into the assembly area where parents were forbidden. Just like that. She was gone. My baby went off to primary school without tears or wanting another hug/kiss from her mummy dearest. She was gone. I was lost, for a moment.

In my mind, this is always what she looks like.

But it seems that I need to update that mental picture of her.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-23T14:48:00.001+08:00

December is definitely my favourite month of the year. The weather is just so pleasant and cool. The traffic is much more manageable. Everyone at work seems less tense. School work has been laid to rest. And most importantly, our annual Christmas dinner with my family is just round the corner!

So before I forget, here's wishing everyone Happy Holidays!

Good Read: The Burglar's Breakfast

2011-12-05T10:39:00.001+08:00

Today is the official start of the school holiday programme for our little princess at her kindergarten. It had been delayed by two weeks due to the halt for her school year-end concert rehearsals. With this, our little princess has completed her pre-school education and her teachers gave the thumbs-up that she is all ready to move on into formal schooling.

Except emotionally. The start of this year's school holiday programme is bitter-sweet for our little princess as it marks the last few days in the school which she has grown up with for the past 4 and a half years. I can already foresee that she will miss the place and teachers since she had asked if she could visit them from time to time.

I am still wrecking my brains how to help her overcome her reluctance to let go and anxiety of moving on to a new environment. Parenting is a treacherous path to thread.

As the first line of defense, I have piled on a series of books to keep her occupied and Hubby is upping her outdoor activities to expend her energy.

And for the second line of defense ... I don't quite know yet.

Anyway, yesterday we read this very interesting book, The Burglar's Breakfast, which I had thought that our little princess will be able to read without much difficult on her own. But as her ever pampering mother, I read the whole book to her. Sigh ... I can't help it. She is always my baby.

Our weekday breakfast is always touch and go affairs. Most of the time, we all head out of the door with an empty stomach. It is a deplorable condition, but I am just too lazy to do much about it. So with the help of this book, I hope to remedy the situation slightly by making it interesting at breakfast for our little princess. We are going to have the Alfie's favourite breakfast foods which the story basically revolve around.

And this morning, we had scrambled eggs! I think that's a promising start to eating breakfast.

Korean Seafood Scallion Pancakes & Kimchi Fried Rice

2011-11-20T10:00:00.000+08:00

I just found out first-hand that it is really hard to snap a photo with your iPhone in one hand and a pancake in another. This is one of the very rare instances that I which I look into human genetic modification with hope.

My mom carted over one scarily huge squid (what do they feed squids these days?) and two large bags of prawns yesterday afternoon. And she told me I could do whatever I want with them. That's what you get from your mom when you are an adult. Freedom. And the responsibility to produce dinner, of course.

I chopped up the seafood and loosely followed Mark Bittman's recipe for the batter and relinquished the task of frying to my mom. Before long, we had a batch of the crispiest savoury pancakes ever.

Between our little princess, my mom and me, we ate so many pancakes that we had to remind each other to keep some for the other dinner attendees. It was hard to do that, but we did manage to save each of them a piece.

Since we had too much seafood left, I also made Kimchi Fried Rice with the over-ripe kimchi sitting in my fridge.

I think I am falling in love with Korean food all over again.

Ice Cream Glee

2011-11-18T10:00:00.000+08:00

Me: "Do you like ice-cream?"

Princess: "Do you have to ask?"

Me: "Do you like this ice-cream?"

Princess: "This taste good." (Note: she had gummy bears and white chocolate bites mixed into it.)

Me: "Do you know how much this cup of ice-cream cost?" (Note: she has no concept of money.)

Princess: "Erm ... Anyway, Daddy is the one paying. You should ask him."

Me: "..."

The Need To Get Outdoors

2011-11-17T10:04:00.001+08:00

I don't think that I have ever mention here that during his younger days, Hubby was sort of a dare-devil. Together with his group of friends, they would do ridiculous things which until today, they would laugh at themselves whenever they talk fondly of the past. Some of the crazy things I heard them do were walking a round of Singapore on foot (!!), jumping off a cliff and into a pool of unknown depth at an old mining quarry at Pulau Ubin (!!!) and, of course, the infamous walk around the now-defunct Bidadari Cemetery at night (!!!!). What other stuff they had done? I could only guess and probably Hubby would have told his friends numerous times "Don't Tell My Mother ".

Now I look at my little princess, I can almost see some streaks of adventure seeking nature in her. There was once I caught her climbing out on the rail of our planter with her body half bent over looking 4 stories down to the ground floor. My knees nearly buckled. Another incident saw her balancing herself while standing on the seat of her kiddy tricycle while it was free wheeling. My heart was in my mouth.

But I was told that there are even more hair raising feats done by kids half her age. I don't know how to console those parents.

I had once read "You will never know that your heart can exist outside your body until you have a kid".

In my daily rush to get our little princess to do her homework, dinner ready, house decently clean, laundry put away, etc, I have neglected to bring her outdoors to expend some of her energy and for fresh air. I have forgotten the simple pleasure of exploring every nook and cranny of a playground or the glee when zooming down a slide. Bad mummy.

From these pictures, it is almost evident that a 15-minute session at a playground does brighten the kid's day, regardless of how hopeless the design may be.

Deepavali

2011-10-25T19:26:00.000+08:00

It was a mad dash around Little India yesterday look for a suitable costume for her school party today.

She chose this set herself even though it was for adults (or very petite ones). A quick alteration by her doting Grandma, she was all ready to go.

Happy Deepavali!

Cheese And Fruits

2011-10-19T22:10:00.003+08:00

Picture from the SodaHead forum

Apart from the skin care routine that I have picked up from my last trip, I had also picked up something else - eating of cheese with fruits and a glass of wine.

While in Penang, we put up at the G Hotel which I must say that we are certainly very happy with our accommodation. Because of our choice of room (a suite with two bedrooms), we were on the Executive Level which gave us the privilege to use their Executive Lounge.

The Lounge basically serves drinks free flow all-day and provides buffet breakfast and pre-dinner cocktails. Being the mountain tortoise that I am, I begged everyone to go check out what pre-dinner cocktails is all about on the first evening we were there.

It turned out that it was almost like a mini high-tea session. There were hot pastries, cold sandwiches, pasta, rice, small cakes, lots of chocolate pieces, variety of chips with salsa and also a big platter of fruits with many types of cheese on the cheese board. And all these to be washed down with your choice of wines, beers, sodas, coffees, teas, chocolate drinks, bottled sparkling water or juices. After sampling all these, we could hardly eat much for dinner.

But still we ate there every evening we were staying there. How can we not?

So now back at home, I though that maybe I could still have my cocktail session, albeit on a smaller scale. I got myself a good hunk of cheese, some dried fruits (prunes and apricots) and the best bottle of wine that my wallet permitted. It is a good mix of savoury (from cheese) and sweet (from dried fruit). Whoever thought of this combination must be a genius.

We have been having cheese munching sessions almost every week and are now working our way through a second hunk of cheese (I chose my favourite matured cheddar) and first bottle of wine (Wolf Blass 2009 Yellow Label Chardonnay). As written everywhere, these two do indeed pair well and complement each other. I have lined a hunk of Gouda cheese up as the next to try.

Life is good.

Except when you have too many prunes. Considered yourself warned.

What Are Colour Pencils Good For Too?

2011-10-15T11:00:00.000+08:00

Our little princess and I were sitting down for the daily homework session last night and when I turned to my eyes back to her from my computer, I saw her doing this.

Very gingerly piling up her colour pencils she recevied from her school as Children's Day gift.

I wondered what was she trying to build.

Then she told me it is her Stacked-Up-Tic-Tac-Toe.

Don't get it? Me neither.

Ever so often I find that in my single-mindedness to get things done, I lose sight of the bigger picture. My purpose of doing homework with her is to help her learn, but I forgot that the bigger picture is that learning comes in many forms and most importantly the ambers of interest in learning must be stoked slowly. Ever try building fire for a BBQ with charcoal? The principles are the same.

That little building exercise of colour pencils is learning as well. I remember when I was about her age, I would spend countless hours trying to build pyramids with decks of cards. I suppose this is just one of those sessions.

Books, Plants & Music

2011-10-13T10:08:00.000+08:00

The weather has been so wonderful these past days, except for the occasional strong gale of winds.

During those hot summer days, I complained that it was too hot to be standing in front of the stove. But now, I have to find another excuse to be lazy.

Now that I have skipping the kitchen duties, I have found more time to read books, tend to my plants and listen to music. I haven't managed to squeeze time to watch TV yet, but that is low on the priority right now.

I have so many interesting books to catch up on before the library start sending me fines. I picked up The Fortune Cookie Chronicle, A Slice Of Life, Choice Cuts, Kansha and Cook. I have dipped into some of them whenever I have pockets of free time and found very interesting articles in them.

Talking about listening to music, I am crazy about this song right now ever since I heard it on Perfect 10, together with another song of hers - Set Fire To The Rain. I love the way she sings and her lyrics are just so beautiful.

Someone Like You

I heard
That you're settled down
That you
Found a girl
And you're
Married now

I heard
That your dreams came true.
Guess she gave you things
I didn't give to you

Old friend
Why you so shy?
Ain't like you to hold back
Or hide from the light

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I hoped you'd see my face and be reminded
That for me it isn't over

Never mind
I'll find someone, like you
I wish nothing but the best for you, too
Don't forget me I beg
I remember you said
"Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead."
Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead,
Yeah.

You know how
The time flies
Only yesterday
It was the time of our lives
We were born and raised
In a summer haze
Bound by the surprise
Of our glory days

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited
But I couldn't stay away, I couldn't fight it.
I hoped you'd see my face and that you'd be reminded
That for me it isn't over.

Never mind
I'll find someone, like you
I wish nothing but the best for you, too
Don't forget me I beg
I remember you said
"Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead"

Nothing compares
No worries or cares
Regrets and mistakes
And memories made.
Who would have known
How bittersweet
This would taste?

Never mind
I'll find someone, like you
I wish nothing but the best for you, too
Don't forget me I beg
I remember you said
"Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead"

Never mind
I'll find someone, like you
I wish nothing but the best for you, too
Don't forget me I beg
I remember you said
"Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead"

Sometimes it lasts in love
But sometimes it hurts instead

****************************************************************
"Tis better to love and lost than never to have loved at all." - Alfred Lord Tennyson

Beauty And The (Lazy) Beast

2011-10-10T12:48:00.000+08:00

I recently learnt a very interesting thing about my brother. No doubt if he ever learn that I share this with you here, he would disown me immediately. So let's keep it a secret here, alright?

I found out, to my great surprise, that my brother is some sort of a beauty pro. He carries a stash of facial serum, toner, cleanser and moisturiser when he goes traveling. I had initially thought that the little neat pouch either belong to my sister or mom. But when I saw him sorting through the little vials and bottles, I shouted: "That's yours??!!"

Perhaps it shouldn't come as that much of a surprise if I had used my brains a little more. My brother has since puberty been struggling with acne outbreaks and probably still does to a lesser extend. Which probably had lead him to take more care with his skin than me. I have so far been blessed with clear skin and only have to deal with an occasional one-pimple-on-the-face situation during PMS. So what's my beauty routine? I only use a facial cleaner. Period.

When I told my brother that, his alarmed reply was: "You need to hydrate your skin! This is important!!" Then he told me to wash my face and shoved some sort of facial cleanser into my hands. So like a good girl that I was, I did as I was told (which was something of a rarity when we were young). Then he gave me a drenched cotton pad and told me to pat/swipe all over my face. I have no idea what that was except that it smelled nice. And before I knew it, I was on my back and my face was covered with a mask. After the iPhone alarm went off, he took the mask off and told me to wait (for what?). Then he came back with a little bottle with a squeeze pump much like a science lab equipment. He dripped a few drops on his palm and then begin to apply it to my face.

Brother: "What's this?"

Me: "What's what?"

Brother: "Dead skin."

Me: "Huh?"

Brother: "Its all over your forehead. Touch it! NO! Don't touch it with your dirty hands."

Me: "What's so bad about that?"

Brother: "You need to take care of your skin. Exfoliate and then moisturise it! Then new skin will grow and you will look nice. You need to take better care of your skin. Even J (our younger sister) takes better care than you do!"

I turned my face away in embarrassment and saw my mom nodding in agreement in the background.

After that he told me to clean my hands and apply moisturiser. While applying the moisturiser, I realised that my face had suddenly became soft and felt ultra clean for the first time in a very long time.

I had once told a friend that I will probably wait until I am 35 before I adopt any proper facial routine. I had said that because I am such a lazy bummer and live thinking I am a true utilitarian. Unfortunately, I had to fast forward that after a recent outbreak of acne. Actually, it was the appearance of a few pimple outside of PMS period that prompted me that perhaps my face needs more attention. So from what I have learnt from my brother, I have hastily put together a few basic items for my beauty routine now.

Step 1 - Cleanse: Nivea Visage Facial Wash Gel

I have been using this facial wash for more than 12 years. Love the blue colour and also the clean feel after washing. But Hubby complained that it is too dry for his skin.

Step 2 - Tone: Nivea Visage Toner

I've recently purchased this. I was surprised that the cotton pad is still so dirty after washing my face. Yikes!

Step 3 - Mask: Nature Republic Aqua Collagen Marine Hydro Gel Mask

This mask is not your usual paper mask drenched with serum. This mask is completely made of gel. Once on the face, the cooling effect is really nice. And the best part is that it fits really nicely on the face as compared to paper mask. We got this from Nature Republic in Penang for RM10.90 (S$4.40) a piece. I read that Nature Republic has quit Singapore, so there goes my hope of restocking.

I am doing mask once a week for now. Anyone knows how often this is to be done? I've read it should be done daily to once a week as the bare minimal.

Step 4 - Essence/Serum: SK II Facial Treatment Essence

I got this three days ago. Still waiting to see if this is really as good as all the raving about it. This burnt a hole in my credit card.

This was what my brother applied on my face. It really works wonder. My face felt really soft afterwards. I got a bottle of it yesterday from Sasa. Burnt another hole.

Step 5 - Moisturise: Avene Light Hydrating Cream with SPF 20

This cream is ultra light and not greasy at all. I hate greasy cream which leaves my face feeling like the surface of my skillet after frying.

Bought this together with the Facial Treatment Essence for night application. I find it too rich for me (i.e. woke up in the morning like I have just worked overtime at KFC). So this has been seconded to Hubby.

Step 6 - Cosmetics: Nature Republic BB Cream

This was on promotion when I was in Penang for RM11. It comes with sunblock and makes my face look really flawless. I haven't used this since I returned but will probably do so when I have more blemishes than I can handle. It is not greasy and feels light on the face.

I am still a lazy beast, and would do away with all these stuff if I could. But age is starting to show on my face. And just as my brother put it: "If you want to continue to have problem free skin, then you had better take care of it before it becomes a problem! By then it would be do late!" So my dear old brother still has a thing or two to teach me after all these years.

Happy Problems

2011-10-01T10:00:00.000+08:00

It has become a routine for me to tend to my plants when I get back home in the afternoon. A few snips here, a trim there and lots of watering. Occasionally, I will go hunting for little bugs with a toothpick.

So one afternoon, I found that my precious basil was badly in need of a trim. The top section has grown too heavy and the stems were starting to tilt slightly.

*Snip, snip*

And I ended up with a few young stems for transplant and ended up with a handful of basil trimmings. What a happy problem to have!

Yummy basil

But of course, I had anticipated this little problem which led me to stock up a small bag of pine nuts earlier. Now I have half a bag remaining, hopefully for another batch of pesto if my basil plant is coorperative.

Mise en place for my first homemade pesto

And also, I found a bag of frozen grated Parmesan cheese lying around.

Creamy and aromatic homemade pesto

The recipe came from my new Joy of Cooking (75th anniversary ed.). Although I was suppose to mix these all up in a food processor but I was just too lazy to pull it out from the cabinet below. So instead I reached for my blender and pesto turned out more like basil smoothie. Since this is my first time making it, I was perhaps too accustomed to the store-bought versions which are chunkier. But then again those are mostly made with cashew nuts instead.

Now, the next happy problem to have is what I should do with this pesto!

Not Much Of A Gardener

2011-09-29T12:33:00.002+08:00

I had never believed for a moment that I am a novice gardener. There must be a more junior category than that, but I just can't find it.

A month after I brought those little plants into my planter, they have already thrown a few roadblocks my way. Or rather, they were trying to show me how inadequate a gardener I am.

Hello there, Miss Rosemary!

First up, was Rosemary. She sported a good head of healthy green shoots and smelled absolutely wonderful. Then two weeks later, she looked gaunt and tired. Her leaves shriveled to almost needle-like. I'm sure my needles in my sewing kit was broader than that.

Miss Rosemary in her former glory.

Then I found out that I was not watering her correctly. Apparently her soil was so dry that it had caked up and needed a bit of coaxing by flooding it with more water to make it absorb. Much like a ultra dried sponge that is unable to absorb water initially.

After a round of proper watering, Rosemary came back to life again. But she didn't forgive me for my negligence and showed me her scars (browned leaves) everyday when we meeting in the mornings. I assured her that she will be back to her former glory in no time at all. Though I don't know how I am going to make good that promise.

I realised that I am starting to talk to my plants. Is this normal?

It's okay, I don't want to know.

Miss Pinky Torenia

Although I had mentioned earlier that I did not intend to buy this plant and its siblings, I was glad that they did come home with me. They added so much colour to my life and planter.

Miss Pinky Torenia is now in trouble. She is covered with powdery mildew and her leaves have turned yellow. I tried spraying a homemade baking soda fungicide on it two days ago but it is not making much progress. I am contemplating to bathe it with soap water. I wonder if that will work.

Even though Miss Pinky Torenia and her two other siblings cost me only S$10, I would hate to lose them.

That's me stooping near the vanity top for a closer shot.

This is Miss Purple Torenia. She was not as healthy as her other two siblings when she first came. Upon closer inspection, I found many mealy bugs parking themselves in little corners. They were the biggest mealy bugs I have seen in my life!

I've trimmed a few branches off the plant as they were badly infested and painstakingly cleaned up the mealy bugs with a toothpick and wet tissue to wipe off the white cottony stuff.

Now, Miss Purple Torenia greets me every morning with lots of dainty purple blooms. Gardening needs time and effort, but it is also greatly satisfying.

Here's fuzzy Mr. Thyme.

Mr. Thyme here proved to be a test on my patience. It sulks at being over-watered and wilts when under-watered.

Mr. Thyme now needs to go visit a trichologist if he wants to look like this again.

I refused to have a civilised conversation with him until he behaves. Or I have found a way to make him behave.

My precious

Here's my precious Miss Italian Basil. By far, she has been most agreeable and productive. I picked her up for S$7 and now I have a few transplants from it. So far I have made Garlic-ky Basil Shrimps and real home-made Pesto. More of that in another post.

I have always said that I wanted a garden in my home, but the reality of it is that I am not much of a gardener. I still have much to learn and with each pot of plant that I kill, I hope that I learn something new.

Of Taste And Facial Mask

2011-09-20T13:28:00.000+08:00

Not too long ago I had mentioned here that dining out is always a challenge for me. And it still is. I don't know if there is a cure for this ... this ... challenge.

It is bad. Really bad.

To the point that Hubby now fears bringing my Mum and me out to eat. He once drove us to Old Airport Road (a.k.a the foodie paradise) hawker centre and we came out declaring that there was nothing to eat there. He was totally exasperated.

Hubby: "Almost all the stalls are open today! What you mean that there is nothing to eat?"

Me: "There is nothing to eat here. Nothing takes my fancy."

My Mum: "Yeah, nothing much."

Hubby: "Okay, then do you want to buy something back to cook instead?" Shaking his head and rolling his eyes. At this point he was willing to do anything to get out of this gridlock.

But before you read further, I just want to say that the Old Airport Road hawker do serve a wide variety of foods and many of them are great nosh. Everyone who has been to that place would agree. Our isolated incident probably happened on a day when our usual stalls were not opened or were otherwise with long queues. If I were to have overseas visitors eager to taste local hawker fare, this is the place I will send them straight from the airport.

So when it came down to dine-in restaurants, I thought that perhaps I could rely on reviews. Surely there are discerning people out there who knows a good nosh. But, have you ever went into an eatery with good reviews and came out feeling disappointed? That was how I felt recently when I left the tables at two eateries.

The first was when my Mum called me to ask me if I know of any place that serves good Vietnamese Pho. I told her that the shop near my place, Le Viet, does a decent job with the stock. However, she said that she had tried that before and would like another place for a change. So I Googled "Vietnamese Pho Singapore" and landed on LadyIronChef's website on Madam Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant Singapore. According to LadyIronChef, "Madam Saigon's rendition was not too bad".

I should have read that as not too good either. Because that is what it is. The deciding factor of a good Pho is down to just one thing - the stock. And that was my problem with Madam Saigon's Pho. It was not beefy enough. Nothing is worse than having neutrally bland tasting rice noodles with nothing to back it up except the watered down stock. The condiments were generous but that was besides the point. The meal came with a tab of $96 for 4 persons.

The second restaurant came about when my Mum was feeling adventurous (again) to try something new. So I suggested to her that perhaps we try a Spanish restaurant since we have never been to one before. So again I Googled "Spanish restaurant Singapore" and a few names came up. One of it which was near where we were at that time was Bilbao Restaurant and Gastrobar located at TripleOne Somerset.

We went on a tapas ordering spree and ended up with 6 different kinds of tapas. We had squid cooked in its own ink, roasted suckling pig, some sort of ham croquette, and some other unmemorable ones which I had apparently forgotten. The supposedly must-try paella that came later was soggy and tasted like ketchup rice with seafood on it. The Sangria was good though. It was almost good enough to wash away the disappointment of the meal. We paid $199 for 5 persons, which included a pitcher of Sangria.

I realised that perhaps I was a tad too trusting on those reviews. I walked into these restaurants thinking that all my expectations of a good meal will be met by these restaurants which supposed have served up these dishes to many before me and yet they are still in this cut-throat business should mean they are good.

So this lead me to three conclusions. One, most diners here are not a discerning lot. Two, taste is highly subjective. And three, never bring company to an untested eatery unless you don't mind an egg facial mask.

Keen On Quinoa

2011-09-13T10:00:00.001+08:00

I'm not too sure what's gotten into me these days, but I found myself doing something strange the past few weekday mornings. I have been tuning my car radio to 98.7 FM. In case you are not clued in, this (I think) is the hippy-est radio station on our small island of Singapore.

Initially it felt weird. I felt disconnected. I don't know who are current bunch of DJs. I have never heard of the songs they are airing. This station was life support system plugged through my ears. It sustained me through my secondary school years. But somehow along the way, I ditched it together with my school uniform and moved on to the more matured Class 95, where I have been since. It made me wonder if this is how it would feel if I get back together with an ex-boyfriend.

So anyway, I heard this on the radio this morning and thought that it had some element of truth to it. It goes something like "The secret to keeping your health is eat what you don't like, drink what you won't drink and do what you'd rather not."

Sounds terrible. And depressing. It gives the impression that eating healthy meant eating cardboard.

For a non-health food person, I would want to shout a loud "Yes!". But I can't in good conscience do that because I know that there is at least one healthy food that is good for you and it tastes absolutely wonderful.

I'm sure you have, at some points in your life, been exposed to this boringly illustrated picture which (I think) is trying to do its best to relay some very important information to you.

I had probably seen this Healthy Diet Pyramid during some health talks in my primary school but I don't remember much of what it was all about. Or maybe I was daydreaming. By the way, they have a slightly more visually attractive picture on their "A Healthy Food Foundation - for Kids and Teens" page, but is still basically the same thing.

Okay, back to my proclamation that there is one good thing that taste good and is actually good for you ... I want you to look at that exceedingly boring pyramid above, and look under "Rice and Alternatives". See the little note there that says "2-3 servings should be whole-grain products"? Well, that's what I want to tell you about. A whole-grain known as quinoa (read as "keen-wah") that is really tasty and it is actually recommended for daily consumption.

Feeling that I need to eat healthier, I went through the list of whole-grains one day and realised that there are many different types of food that I have not even heard of. Heard of millet? Wheat berries? Amaranth? I don't know about yours, but my head is already spinning.

Our Health Promotion Board did come up with some suggestions from a narrower list of whole-grains familiar to our palate, but I've tried all those and their taste didn't convince me to eat more of them. Ever tried wholemeal pasta? Don't. It changes you. In a negative sort of way.

I was still holding on to my skepticism when I opened up the small bag of quinoa which I picked up from the organic section at NTUC Fairprice. Did a thorough wash and then cooked it as instructed by FoodNetwork star Giada de Laurentiis' Herbed Quinoa. I didn't even bother with the dressing because once the quinoa was done, I just can't stop eating it straight out of the pot. Just 3 ingredients and 10 minutes. I usually cheat and use Heinz Chicken Broth from the carton to cook it. So this is almost like making instant noodles. Except you drop in a splash of lemon juice into it and that it is a wholesome food. How often can you say the same thing of instant noodles?

The Accidental Laksa

2011-09-06T13:31:00.003+08:00

It was not my intention to make laksa at all, but somehow life has other plans.

While standing over the sink filling up my kettle for my morning tea, I heard the door opened. Hubby was out to market and just got back. I was thinking, "What should I make for breakfast? Maybe French Toast? Maybe ..."

*clang*

"Sh*t!"

*shuffle, shuffle*

Then I turned around and saw him walking into the kitchen with a plastic bag partially filled with black soy sauce. He broke the glass bottle and had the sticky dark soy sauce coating all the other stuff that were in the same bag. The dried shiitake mushrooms and dried shrimps were stained black. If I wasn't so angry with him for creating such a mess on the floor, I would have laughed at the sight of these black UFOs (Unidentified Floating Objects).

Anyway, the long story short, I had to think of a way to use up the no-longer-dried dried shrimps. And the very first idea that hit me was to make laksa. A quick dig into my fridge for the chilli paste and a phone call to my mom on where to find freshly grated coconut, I was all set to make laksa.

I can't claim that I made the laksa since the all-important chilli paste came from my mom. Though I did help her in the making of the chilli paste, I don't exactly know what goes into it and how much of each item. So I jokingly told her that she is just like the motto of those Chinese chefs teaching their apprentice - teach only 9 out of 10 steps.

While I haven't a recipe to share for this laksa (a situation which I intend to rectify ASAP), I have a few notes on making laksa:

1. Reliable coconut seller a must. Don't want to end up with a pot of gravy with a sourish tang. Especially in our hot weather, coconuts tend to go bad very quickly. And don't want to even consider those supermarket pre-packed coconut milk.

2. Laksa leaves (or Vietnamese coriander) is a must. You can't have laksa without it. By the way, I've dropped two stems of the laksa plant into water and they have started to root. Hope to have a pot of the plant going soon. *crossing my black fingers*

3. Cleaned bean sprouts is a must. Unless you have nothing better to occupy yourself for 30 minutes of your life.

4. Use "old" eggs. I have not read much into the science of boiling and peeling eggs, but I have seen somewhere that the key to have easy and nicely peeled hard boiled eggs is not to use eggs that are very fresh. In my haste to feed, I made hard boiled eggs with the tray I just bought from the supermarket and prayed that their supply chain is not really very efficient so that these eggs are "old". Then I thought myself weird to be praying that I had paid good money for "old" eggs.

5. Geylang Serai Market is the one-stop-shop for all the ingredients to make laksa. I'm sure it is the place to get ingredients for many of the other Malay or Nonya dishes. And no, you don't need to speak Malay. There are many Chinese shop vendors there.

In the meantime, I am going to do some homework on laksa recipes.

Post edit: Found a laksa recipe at Serious Eats. The slide show of the process of making the laksa is a must watch.

It Ain't No Famous Amos

2011-09-05T15:02:00.003+08:00

Warning: This is another butter-laden post. If you have hit your pre-set quota for butter consumption for this year after the Sun-dried Tomato Butter, proceed at your own risk.

This was the little treat which I made for our little princess to bring for her teachers. Though I had thought that these Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies were on the plain and boring side, our little princess feedback that her teachers were happily munching on them during their snack time. It ain't no Famous Amos, but it was good enough for her wonderful teachers.

These chocolate chip cookies taste best when they had firmed up after being out of the oven and still slightly warm. And don't forget your cup of milk.

The recipe is from Joy of Cooking and can be found on Culinate.

Butter And Bread

2011-09-03T09:00:00.002+08:00

This smudge of speckled orangey clump is the only reason to eat bread.

I have to believe that because I had scarfed down two thick slices for the past few mornings.

Salty, creamy, tangy and rich, I can't imagine a more delicious spread.

This sun-dried tomato butter only needed 3 ingredients - sun-dried tomatoes, butter and lemon juice. Of course, you can throw in salt and black pepper, provided the butter is unsalted.

For more detailed explanation on how to make this sinful indulgence, click over to my older post on this Sun-dried Tomato Butter where it all started.

Instead of pulling my food processor out from it comfortable resting place in the kitchen cabinet, I decided that I will mix this compound butter by hand. But please soften the butter first. It makes all the difference.

So chop, chop, chop (the sun-dried tomatoes) and mash, mash, mash (the butter with the sun-dried tomatoes thrown in) ... and then dollop it on a cling wrap and roll it up. After rolling, place it in a container of any shape you want the butter to turn out. I am utilitarian, so I go for the nearest clean Tupperware available. Then enjoy in moderation!

Priority Shipment Next Time, Okay?

2011-08-30T09:00:00.000+08:00

Somewhere between the time from clicking the "Order" button at the Amazon website to the time when I hold the last shipment of my previous orders in my hands, I will swear to myself that the next order with Amazon will be on Priority Shipment.

But after waiting for five weeks of waiting for my latest order, instead of a DHL courier man knocking on my door, I found myself queuing up at my local post office with a "Notice To Take Delivery" card in my hand.

So much for trying to save that additional U$25.00.

And the other lesson that I learnt was never collect bulky book orders on my way to work. These hardcovers provided real challenge for my nonexistant arm muscles and good entertainment for the few workers sitting by the roadside for a mid-morning break as I struggle all the way from the post office to the car on my heels.

Next time, I will order on Priority Shipment!

More From My Mailbox

2011-08-27T09:00:00.000+08:00

In case you have not seen this ...

There was this guy from some country who we will not mention, who applied to a medical school to become a doctor, but did not make it.

Here's why...

These were the answers he wrote in his entrance exam.

Antibody - against everyone

Artery - The study of the paintings.

Bacteria - back door to a cafeteria.

Caesarean section - a district in Rome.

Cardiology - advance study of poker playing.

Cat scan - searching for lost kitty.

Chronic - neck of a crow.

Coma - punctuation mark.

Cortisone - area around local court.

Cyst - short for sister.

Diagnosis - person with slanted nose.

Dilate - the late British Princess Diana.

Dislocation - in this place.

Duodenum - couple in blue jeans.

nema - not a friend.

Fake labour - pretending to work.

Genes - blue denim.

Hernia - she is close by.

Impotent - distinguished/ well known.

Labour pain - hurt at work.

Lactose - people without toes.

Lymph - walk unsteadily.

Microbes - small dressing gown.

Obesity - city of Obe.

Pacemaker - winner of Nobel peace prize.

Proteins - in favor of teens.

Pulse - grain.

Pus - small cat.

Red blood count - Dracula.

Secretion - hiding anything.

Tablet - small table.

Ultrasound - radical noise.

Perhaps you can guess where he is from?

From My Mailbox

2011-08-26T09:00:00.000+08:00

While cleaning up my mailbox, I found this email in it. I have no idea who sent it on to me but I sure found myself laughing when I read it.

1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.

"If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning."

2. My mother taught me RELIGION.

"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.

"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

4. My mother taught me LOGIC.

"Because I said so, that's why."

5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.

"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."

6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.

"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."

7. My mother taught me IRONY.

"Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about."

8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.

"Shut your mouth and eat your supper."

9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.

"Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!"

10. My mother taught me about STAMINA.

"You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone."

11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.

"This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it."

12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.

"If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!"

13. My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.

"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out."

14. My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.

"Stop acting like your father!"

15 My mother taught me about ENVY.

"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do."

16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.

"Just wait until we get home"

17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING.

"You are going to get it when you get home!"

18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.

"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."

19. My mother taught me ESP.

"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?"

20. My mother taught me HUMOR.

"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT.

"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

22. My mother taught me GENETICS.

"You're just like your father."

23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.

"Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?"

24. My mother taught me WISDOM.

"When you get to be my age, you'll understand."

25. And my favorite: - My mother taught me about JUSTICE.

"One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you!"

New Plants For The Planter

2011-08-25T10:00:00.001+08:00

It has been a long time since my planter had some decent looking plants. Most of the previous batches are either dead or half dead. My planter is just too hot for most plants. Even the rosemary which I had thought would not mind the heat.

When I got to the nursery, I had initially wanted to pick up a pot of Thai basil for cooking. That's it. Just a pot of Thai basil. Seriously. And then they placed these beautiful pots of little flowers just at the entrance and they were so pretty that I couldn't stop myself. I know I will surely kill them within the month, but Hubby said that it is still cheaper than buying me a bouquet of flowers. Sigh ... So these fellows came home with me.

Just look at the bunch of them! They simply brighten up the whole planter and makes me smile every morning when I water them before heading out of the door.

I am still no wiser about how to take care of these plants except that I need to water it twice a day cos they are very heavy drinker. So I will have to learn as I go along.

Sunset

2011-08-22T11:00:00.000+08:00

This is one of my favourite time of the day.

At sunset, the wind feels cooler and that makes me feel much better about the world.

At sunset, I know that I can put off till tomorrow doing anything that takes too long.

At sunset, I look forward to diving into bed soon to rest my tired bones.

The other is at sunrise, but I don't usually wake up early enough to catch it. For that I am thankful. But I can already foresee that it will soon come to an end when our little princess heads off for formal schooling.

Tuna Sandwich With Pesto And Avocado

2011-08-20T13:25:00.006+08:00

I know this looks more like a lunch sandwich than a breakfast sandwich.

But I didn't really feel like eating another cloyingly jam sandwich for another day. Work day morning rush calls for whatever that is expeditious. So weekend morning breakfasts are merely a function of how hard you want to work to make your breakfast an exceptional one.

And this morning, I decided that I will work that teeny bit harder by standing another 10 minutes in the kitchen assembling these sandwiches.

The bread was from the leftover of the manic/panic bread making session. The high butter content really comes through now that is toasted. It turns into this delicious golden brown without the need to apply butter to it. I like bread that saves me the hassle of buttering. I don't like to butter anybody's bread. Literally and figuratively speaking.

A generous spread of pesto, top with preferred greens, dollop a huge scoop of tuna (I had mixed it with some of the vinaigrette for Nicoise Salad) and add shredded carrots as well as sliced cucumbers. Then for the final topping, add as much avocado as you can pile on the sandwich. And that's it.

Washed down with a large mug of my morning tea, I think I am off to a good start for the weekend.

Have a good weekend!

The Need To Proof

2011-08-17T18:23:00.005+08:00

I think I don't handle failure easily.

After chucking the brick of bread away, I stormed off to the nearest supermarket to pick up a new bag of flour and a new bottle of yeast. I need to prove to myself that I have lost the "brick touch". I am competitive in that sense, I suppose.

And I am happy to say here that I can still turn out decent soft and edible bread. The problem seems to be the flour. I had changed my bread flour previously. So much for premium bread flour. I think I will stick to the non-premium brand that I have been working with, thank you very much.

This sturdy loaf came from Sarabeth's Bakery - my latest Amazon purchase. Usually I am quite skeptical about Western breads as they tend to be too sturdy for my taste. I prefer the soft Asian bread, especially Japanese breads. But this Pain de Mie had a soft crust and an even softer crumb. I should be making this more often.

You can find the recipe for the Pain de Mie here at Bake for Happy Kids.

Now, I just need to work on getting the right quantity to fill that Pullman loaf tin. The shape looks kinda odd.

A Brick Of Bread

2011-08-16T09:14:00.002+08:00

That was what I turned out from my oven last night.

A brick of bread! Can you imagine that? I can't, but I am looking at it.

I thought that I had lost the "brick touch", but apparently I haven't.

My best friend used to joke that such bread if hurled against a wall, it will undoubtedly gouge a hole in it. And I think she was talking about the brick that is sitting on my table now.

I'm in disbelief.

I'm in shock.

I'm insulted by my own baking skills.

I'm reminded that bread making remains challenging in its own ways.

Pancakes On Sunday

2011-07-25T14:10:00.005+08:00

Photo from FoodNetworkAsia

While it has been mentioned many times on this blog that I love breakfast, I just couldn't get around to making it in the mornings. Every ounce of bones in my body is lazy, and I am 33 years too late in changing that.

However, maternal instincts proves there is hope yet.

Our little princess woke up on Sunday morning and asked what are we going to have for breakfast. I cracked open one eye to assess her seriousness in getting breakfast and also to rule out the possibility that she asked the question for the sake of striking up a conversation in the morning to wake me up. Yes, she does that some times. Her hungry eyes told me that she was ready for pancakes and her first taste of maple syrup.

After a rather large cup of my soul sustaining morning tea, I was torn between flipping pancakes and trying to pry the maple syrup bottle away from her sticky fingers.

I love the Joy of Cooking pancake recipe which makes thick, soft and fluffy pancakes. Seriously good stuff I would pay good money to eat.

To Be Loved

2011-07-23T10:00:00.000+08:00

The house is usually stuffy and warm in the late afternoon. Our fans and aircons are working overtime. And the other day our little princess had just about enough of doing problem sums with me and was begging for a break. Since I had some work to finish up, I let her off the hook.

Shortly after, or maybe many minutes later, I saw a grubby little hand pushing a note like this towards me.

I was quite surprised by the note. But before I could say anything, our little princess pulled out another hand from behind her with this note in it.

Then I forgot what I had wanted to say. When I looked over to where I thought she was seating watching her TV, I saw another little note lying on the floor with her scissors, pencils and papers.

My heart beat painfully for a minute and it felt like what the song Butterfly Kisses meant.

"Oh, with all that I've done wrong, I must have done something right.
To deserve her love every morning and butterfly kisses at night." -Butterfly Kisses (Collin Raye)

Thank you, too, Princess!

And we need to work on your spelling and punctuation.

Back To Rice Cooker

2011-07-21T19:25:00.007+08:00

I think I might have just found a nice solution for hot weather cooking.

I mean, this isn't something new on this blog, but it just didn't strike me as hot weather cooking until the other day when I was at my wits end trying to come up with something to feed our little princess. She was fed up with all the weird food coming out of my kitchen and I was fed up with the crazy weather.

Cooking everything in rice cooker does not generate much heat in the kitchen and also it is really just one-pot cooking. No fuss, no clean-up. Only happiness in a bowl.

When it comes to rice, I will always turn to my Japanese cookbooks first. So far, I have managed to dissect the rice section into 9 parts: takikomi gohan (炊き込みご飯), maze gohan (まぜご飯), okowa (おこわ), sushi (寿司), donburi (どんぶり), omu rice (オムライス), curry rice (カレー), onigiri (おにぎり), and ochazuke (お茶漬け).

And if you frequent Japanese food establishment often enough, you will no doubt find most of them familiar, with the exception of the first three.

The rice in the picture belongs to the first category of takikomi gohan, which basically involve cooking all ingredients together with the rice in a rice cooker. Here I cooked the thinly sliced beef, carrots and shiitake mushrooms with the rice. The combination is endless and it is a whatever-that-takes-your-fancy kind of cooking. So I try to incorporate a balance of vegetables and meat to make it a standalone dish. Unfortunately, I don't have a recipe for this since I made it based on pure estimation.

If you interested to see an example of how takikomi gohan is made, check out this video by cookingwithdog.

This is a frugal dish as it requires small amounts of ingredients to go with a big pot of rice. I used to buy 250g of sliced beef to cook the usual beef bowl for our little princess which she will finish most of it in one seating. For the same amount of beef, I cooked a whole pot of rice which gave us a big bowl each for dinner and many rice balls for lunch the next day.

While Driving, I Think About ...

2011-07-20T09:19:00.003+08:00

While driving, I think about ...

... whether my favourite parking lot at the office carpark has been taken.

... what songs are playing in the car waiting beside me at the traffic junction.

... what are the people thinking while waiting at the bus-stop.

... how hot it is going to get today, judging by the intensity of the morning sun at 8 a.m.

... what I need to get done when I get into my office.

... when Friday is coming.

... why the couple on the motorcycle beside seems so chatty early in the morning.

... why the couple in the luxurious car beside me are so silent.

... what made the jogger choose to run on the pavement along a congested road.

... whether they teach bus drivers aggressive driving techniques in driving school or they picked that up along the way.

... why almost half the songs on my car play list are in foreign languages.

... what to cook for dinner tonight.

... whether it will rain today.

... whether our little princess is late for school again.

... what terrible parents we are.

... why everybody seems to like my favourite parking lot.

And before walking away from the car, I counted four wheels and two side view mirrors.

Life is good.

Melting In The Heat

2011-07-14T19:53:00.004+08:00

Whenever Hubby asked me to avoid walking in the rain, I would remind him that I am neither made of salt nor sugar and therefore will not melt in a slight drizzle. He'd roll his eyes on that reply.

But today I would like to add on to that statement: "Except in blazing heat."

I really really detest these unbearably hot days. It saps my energy. It saps my inspirations. It saps the life out of me. And I am staying away from the stove, oven and any other cook appliance that generates heat.

However, I've been reading everywhere on the internet space that everyone is welcoming summer with picnics and bountiful farmers' market trips. I wish I could share their positive attitude. By the way, I have just found out that there is a farmers' market here in Singapore but it is only up on the first Saturday morning of each month. I learnt of it too late for this month, so I will probably try again next month (Aug. 6). Click over to The Pantry for more details on their farmers' market.

Anyway, while I am shifting down a few gears in my cooking, I am taking the opportunity to clear up my fridge and freezer. For now I am re-stocking my fridge mostly with drinks and fruits.

Since school semester has re-started, I have been kept busy sitting down with our princess to do home revision as well as reading story books. She has already completed her compulsory story book reading in school and her reading skills has sort of turned rusty from lack of practice during the June holidays. So now, instead of me doing the reading, she would read to me. My little girl is growing up fast. Just yesterday she washed up her own milk bottles. Yes, she is still on milk bottle at this grand old age of 6. Don't tell her I told you that. You didn't read this here.

Princess: "Mummy, how do you get the teat out?" Her little fingers struggling to pull the teat out of the milk bottle.

Me: "What are you doing?"

Princess: "I want to wash my own milk bottles."

Me: "It's okay. Just leave them there and I will wash them later. The detergent is very harsh on your hands."

Princess: "No! I really really want to learn how to wash my own milk bottles. Will you please show me?"

Talk about scarcity value. She thinks it is all great fun to play with soapy water and brushes. Well, I am not about to correct her thinking so long as she doesn't waste too much water having fun while I lounge on the sofa with my book.

Supermarkets Shopping

2011-06-22T23:17:00.004+08:00

I love supermarkets. Whenever I have time to kill, I will find the nearest supermarket and get myself lost in them. Whenever I am overseas, I would want to know where is the nearest supermarket from wherever we are putting up. It does matter whether I am cooking or not since supermarkets these days sell more than just foodstuff. Some days I walk out of supermarkets with magazines, on others I can be spotted munching on baked goods from the deli.

Unfortunately, it is hard to find someone who are as supermarket crazy. My mom and Hubby excluded, since they are being dragged there by me. To most, supermarkets exist for a specific purpose, much like toilets, and that purpose is definitely not even remotely associated with recreation.

Recently, I started noticing full-page coloured advertisement up by our local supermarkets. Although is is nice to know what items are on promotion, the selection of items which appears on the ad makes me wonder who are the supermarkets trying to reach out to.

As I start to take note of the items, it seems to me that there is some sort of checklist of the types of items to be advertised for whoever is the target audience.

Here's what the table tells me. Most people don't cook or don't know how to cook at home hence turing to processed foods rather than fresh produce. Eating at home seems to be limited to fruits only. For those people who cook, they definitely cook with rice and oil. And when they are home, they are cleaning zealots and busy feeding milk to kids. For relaxation, they will drink something alcoholic and munch on snacks.

This is a vast contrast from what I saw at a neighbourhood supermarket in Tokyo. They offer mostly fresh food despite being a country that offers tons and tons of snacks. From what I see, I could only hazard a guess that Japanese families cook more than our families here. Good for them, and woe to us.

A Foodie For A Partner

2011-06-21T13:05:00.000+08:00

As much as I would like to think of myself as a beauty that most men would love to spend the rest of their lives looking at, I am not. That’s the truth. It is staring back at me in the mirror everyday. Mirrors are cruel. I wonder how Snow White’s step-mother could live with one. Much less one that talks.

So, if beauty is not on my resume, it makes me wonder why on earth my easy-going, shoot-from-the-hip Hubby would choose to spend the rest of his life looking at me. I am uptight, over-cautious, chaotic, demanding and temperamental. I once laughed to my former beau that he definitely got a better deal with his wife than he would from me. His coffee nearly came back out through his nostrils. Then he excused himself to the washroom to clean up, but I suspect that he probably went to call his wife to thank her for saving him from a life of untold misery.

As if those qualities aren’t enough, I had to throw “being a foodie” into the equation. Being food-obsessed and discerning in taste makes me an even harder person to put up with. I can’t abide eating anything just so to fill the stomach, which results in hours of agonizing over where and what to eat. I am very specific about what I cook and what I cook with. A wrong type of soy sauce picked up by Hubby would result in a mega kitchen tantrum meltdown. I have always wondered if I am going overboard by being so fastidious in the name of being a foodie. But after reading this article by Sanura Weathers from My Life Runs On Food, I know I am not alone.

I can only hope that Hubby continues to enjoy the food that I put on his table enough to suffer this kind of abusive relationship.

It Can Only Spell Trouble

2011-06-19T12:45:00.002+08:00

The world must be crazy. It must be! If not, how does one explain the following madness:

Madness #1: Existence of dairy cows which produce human breast milk

Watching the interview of the scientist discussing how science and technology should be harnessed to feed the 1.5 billion hungry people in the world, I couldn’t help but feel skeptical about the real reason(s) for such un-natural creation. Did the scientist mean that human breast milk will be able to feed these hungry people while cow’s milk can not? When he spoke about the 1.5 billion hungry people, is his concern about world hunger or market share for his new product? And I’m sure that the Hippocratic Oath, which is taken by doctors, doesn’t apply to him.

When a scientist thinks like a businessman, it can only spell trouble.

Madness #2: Plastic softener in “bubbles/pearls” for bubble tea

As a former big time bubble tea drinker, I am shell-shocked. Of course I have heard about the obscene amount of sugar that goes into make the bubble tea (it is real sugar, right?), not to mention artificial flavourings, but this takes the cake. Plastic softener to make the “bubbles/pearls” more chewy? Thank you very much, I don’t need plastic IN my drink.

When a chemist thinks like a businessman, it can only spell trouble.

Madness #3: Growing cucumbers in space

Why did anyone think that we would need to try growing cucumbers in space? Something to keep green-fingered astronauts occupied during the long space missions? Or that growing cucumbers on earth is too dangerous as proven by the recent Europe E. Coli outbreak (although the outbreak at this point of writing seems to be traced to sprouts)?

When an astronaut thinks like a gardener, it can only spell trouble.

Zucchini and Mushrooms with Parmesan Risotto

2011-05-25T17:00:00.001+08:00

Okay, this is certainly NOT a dish for these too-hot-to-stand-in-front-of-the-stove days. Risotto needs tender loving care like a infant. It needs constant stirring and watching. For at least 20 minutes at the stove from start to stop. If not for my ridiculous craving, it would be crazy to sweat together with the onions.

Many years ago while working at an Italian restaurant, I had often seen risotto being served. Unfortunately, the feedback from the diners and kitchen was that this dish was unpopular because the Singaporean diners do no know what to make of it. Remember that was like fifteen years ago when most people were still not well travelled nor well informed. It was a pity that I didn't have the money to dine at the said Italian restaurant before it closed for good when Shangri-la did their major renovations.

In the years since, I didn't encounter risotto again until the other day we ate at Bonta, where we had Barolo Braised Milk Fed Veal Shank served with parmigiano risotto. The risotto was creamy and flavourful. To think of it as a thick version of our Cantonese rice porridge, does not justice to it because the rice grains will not yield when you push it up to the roof of your mouth with your tongue. The creaminess from the starch as well as the cheese makes the combination a heady one on the tongue. Maybe only the rice eaters can relate to this. To be more specific, maybe only rice eaters who eat cheese can relate to this.

Risotto requires minimal ingredients - olive oil, onions, rice, stock, parmesan cheese. So with such simple ingredients, to make a decent risotto, I reckon it has everything to do with the process. So I tried my darnest not to go off at a tangent with the recipe as I usually would. Following the recipe meant that I had to stir, stir and stir in front of the hot stove.

It was hellish!

It was terrible!

It was unthinkable in these hot days!

It made good risotto.

Risotto makes a satisfying meal. Good on its own, good as a side.

Here I made the same combo of zucchini and mushrooms which I made for the tagliatelle. I can think of so many other things I can do with this combo. Maybe I'll try it with omelette.

Why didn't I have cravings for it when the weather was cooler? Life's little mysteries.

Zucchini & Mushroom Tagliatelle

2011-05-21T20:44:00.003+08:00

The weather is just too hot to slave away in front of a hot stove still!! Arghhh ...

Dinner options were kept extremely simple with minimal preparations. I'm looking at one skillet or one pot or one dish meals as cleaning up after dinner is also unpleasant. Everything must be simple!

This pasta was just that. Minimal knife-work, one pasta pot + one skillet, serving plates and forks. Dinner is served.

I love pasta. Because it is a respectable lazy man dish. Because it is satisfying yet easy. Because I have too many pasta to clear out of my pantry!

Tonight's dinner was born out of sheer laziness to leave the comfort of our air-conditioned house. The aircon has been working overtime these few days and no doubt we can look forward to an eye-popping utilities bill by end of the month. Hopefully the coins we have saved from dining out will be enough to pay for it.

The zucchini has been sitting in the fridge for the past two weeks. I was pleasantly surprised when I found they were still in the same condition as the day I had picked them up. Digging around the fridge, I found white button mushrooms and I knew dinner is secured.

A quick chop of the vegetables, onions and garlic and I was all set. 15 mins and we were slurping up our noodles.

This is definitely a logistically less challenging option than dining out. And of course, with the whole house being air-conditioned the whole time, who needs to go a restaurant?

Skillet Apple Crisp

2011-05-18T09:57:00.001+08:00

It is hard to know when Spring ends and when Summer starts here in Singapore. But I will take the recent heat waves as a sign that Summer is here and we are in for hotter days yet. Since I missed the boat for Spring cleaning, I might as well hop onto Summer cleaning, if there is such a thing.

But let it be said first that I hate cleaning. And I hate the hot days in Summer even more. My lifelong wish is to move to a place where the weather is more amiable than our insufferably hot and humid one. Preferable one with a housekeeper.

Since I hate cleaning, I won't be doing anything too major except to tackle those raging hotspots around the house. Ironically, our fridge is classified as a raging hotspot with too much stuff chucked into it. Just the other day when I was trying to search for some ginger, I found that I have lots of apples in the vegetable drawer. No wonder all my other vegetable and fruits in the fridge are spoiling as a fast forward speed. That's when I thought of making an apple pie.

But wait, I don't want to be melting in the kitchen at the same rate as the butter in those finicky pie pastry. I want something faster and fuss-free.

So I went clicking on the Internet, waiting for an idea to drop from the sky.

*click, click*

And it did. Dropped from the sky/cloud/web or wherever the Internet is.

... in the form of Cook's Illustrated Skillet Apple Crisp. For their amazing recipe, please check out First Look, Then Cook.

Crunchy cinnamon scented oat topping with warm tender apple chunks bathed with a syrupy cinnamon slurry. I can't remember what I was doing from the time I finished reading the recipe to the time when I was scrapping my fourth helping of apple crisp into the bowl and had this conversation at the table.

Hubby: "The apple crisp is nice."

Me: "Mmm-hmm ..."

Hubby: "I'll keep the rest when it has cooled down."

Me: "Mmm-hmm ..."

Hubby: "You really do like the apple crisp."

Me: "Mmm-mmm ..."

Hubby: "Is there something that you want to tell me?"

Me: "Hmm ...?"

Hubby: "Something like ... you pregnant?"

Me: "What??!!"

Hubby: "Oh, you do talk!"

I haven't touched the remaining apple crisp since.

It has been two days.

And I think that's long enough as a show of my protest against his verbal abuse. I'm going to dig it out for tea later.

It's all part of the fridge clearing. Really!

Tuscan White Bean Soup

2011-05-11T10:38:00.002+08:00

The last beans still in its original bag which I picked up from FoodXervices is the Great Northern Beans. I can't remember why I had picked it up in the first place other than the fact that these beans are hard to find in supermarkets without costing you an arm or a leg. Think: beans from Bob's Red Mill. I had recently paid S$12+ for their packet of French green lentils. Erm ... why did I pick up those French green lentils?

Anyway, back to these jelly bean-size white beans which I had to justify their presence in my pantry. I looked up the index of cookbooks and was disappointed to find that there were only a handful of recipes which this Tuscan White Bean Soup was one of them.

The recipe has been adapted from The Best International Recipe which featured selected popular recipes from the Italian cuisine. Their version will have you soak toasted bread cubes in the soup, which didn't fly with me. I prefer dunking crunchy cubes into hot soup while I eat. My dentist won't like the damage she will have to repair.

The recipe calls for 2 cans of beans which I thought could be easily be replaced with 2 cups of dried beans. So wrong! It should have been roughly about 1 1/4 cups. Live and learn, my friends. My soup was literally chocking with beans. It was so thick that I had to add more chicken stock (this is where I deviate from the recipe, again) to it, after which I ended up with a huge pot of soup. Well, not that I mind a big pot of soup which gave us more than 8 - 10 big bowls.

I learnt a few things making this soup.
(1) 1 can of beans should be substituted with only 3/4 cup dried beans.
(2) Toasted bread cubes is a must for soup!
(3) Thick soups make good lunches.

Given that Soup Spoon serves soups at range of S$5.60 - S$8.20, I can't help think how much profit each pot will rake in for them. Maybe a second career?

Problems With Blogger

2011-05-11T10:25:00.002+08:00

I have been having problems adding new posts on Blogger for the past few days and there seems to be no resolution in sight!

Aaarrghhhhh ...

In the meanwhile, I will to rely on Email Posting to get new post up.

Blogger, please resolve this problem ASAP!

Spinach Gnocchi

2011-05-04T11:00:00.000+08:00

I once had this conversation with a close friend:

Friend: "... During my off days, I'm my son's care-giver. We would go down for breakfast, lunch and dinner at coffeeshops nearby. And then, we would ..."

Me: "WHAT??!! All 3 meals??!!"

Friend: "Yeah, cos my wife doesn't cook and I find it too much of a hassle to ..." (He misunderstood my wide-eyed expression as one that was judging him as a bad parent for not providing home cooked food.)

Me: "No, no ... I mean, how could you decide what to eat?"

Friend: "???" (He gave me a blank look.)

Me: "It always takes me at least 2 hours to decide on what to eat when we are eating out."

Friend: "Girl, you need help."

This is the same friend (it is a miracle that he still considers me his friend) whom I had this conversation with about make decisions.

When meal time hits, I would panic and chew my nails. What to eat??!! Dining out is always a challenge for me. On such occassions, Hubby would start me thinking hours ahead and I would invariably reply "I'll think about it". He would check for progress update every hour or so until I get so annoyed and would retort "Fine, why don't you decide!". By which time, he would probably have either finished a DVD or caught a broken nap.

On good days, we would eventually get out of house and eat. Otherwise, we would end up raiding the fridge and pantry instead.

This happened to be the case last Saturday when we were deciding what/where to have our dinner. After hours of tossing the question to each other numerous times, it was obvious to me that we were just N.A.T.O. (No Action, Talk Only). So I threw my mom the suggestion of making gnocchi which she was eager to buy frozen from the supermarket earlier the day. Within minutes, we were boiling potatoes and blending spinach.

Photo taken from Taste Magazine

I happen to have Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics lying on the couch, and conveniently has a recipe for Spinach Gnocchi.

Though the recipe looks lengthy, the steps were quite simple really. Boil whole potatoes, peel and mash. Add blended spinach. Add beaten eggs and flour, then season it. Roll into thin logs and cut into bite size. The dough was sticky but with floured hands and work surface, they were manageable. With less flour, these gnocchi were soft and taste of potatoes and spinach. While waiting for them to boil, I sauteed some chicken,zucchini and carrots. In less than 2 hours since we started boiling potatoes, we were back to our game of Scrabble with happy tummies.

And all this while, I didn't even have to change out of my comfy faded T-shirt and shorts.

Eye Candy Cupcakes

2011-04-27T10:00:00.006+08:00

Photo are from The Sweet Life Begins

I have been staring at these photos for so long and still I don't know what to write about them. I mean, just look at how cute and loveable these are! What's there to write?

Photo are from The Sweet Life Begins

These were lovingly made by my best friend for her daughter's second birthday party. I can't bear to tell my princess that. Her mommy can't even manage to roll decent looking lion cookies!

That's just one of the stark differences between my best friend and I. Oh yes, we have many differences but that doesn't stop us from being best of friends. She is just so blessed with delicate finger that could do the most intricate work. When we used to make pineapple tarts for Chinese New Year, I would gladly leave the shaping of the dough to her. I'm quite sure no one would appreciate a flying saucer-shaped pineapple tart.

Now, I need to go ponder on what I am blessed with and work on it. I will have to think long and hard.

Photos and Memories

2011-04-24T22:21:00.002+08:00

Photo of the view from my office "pick-up point".

I love looking at photos and that's perhaps the reason why I love snapping them. They remind us of the things that we might have otherwise forgotten.

Yesterday while waiting for my mom leave with me for breakfast, I browsed through my old cupboards which my sister had taken over management. In a corner, I saw a few pretty flora-framed photo albums. Randomly, I picked one from them and flipped it open. In it were photos of my sister's university graduation day and also some photos of our beloved pet hamsters (R.I.P). Looking at the photos, the sense of lost and longing to hold them hit me. I have not thought much about them since their deaths, but now I realised how I stll missed them. I could almost still remember how their small bodies feel in my palms. And how they always peed on our hands when they were still young and didn't have much control of their small bladders. And of course, the photos of my kid sister who seem to have grown up despite her life-long wish of being Peter Pan. But she is still our baby sister. Sometimes I would call our little princess by my sister's name by accident. I don't know why.

By the time I had put the album away, I knew that I must take more photos now. To remind ourselves of happeir time past.

Japanese Steamed Pork Buns - Nikuman (肉まん)

2011-03-31T01:00:00.001+08:00

I am totally stepping out of my comfort zone with this recipe. I have never ever made steamed buns before in my life.

Talking about steamed buns, I remember too well the one time I tried to steam those commercial frozen char-siu buns for breakfast. Instead of feeding my stomach, I fed the thrash bin. Long story short: I placed the buns directly on the perforated layer of the steamer with too much water boiling below. I ended up with soggy buns.

My mom didn't know whether to shout at me or laugh when she saw the soggy mess in my hands. She did neither, perhaps too distraught by the thought of having produced such bird-brained daughter.

That was two decades ago and many char-siu buns later. But it still make me want to slap my forehead whenever I think about it.

I don't know for sure what is the proper way to use those steamer but I know my best protection against my own stupidity is to put whatever I am steaming in a plate first and then place it onto the perforated layer. Come hell or high water boiling below, I know the food won't be soggy.

The idea of making these steamed buns came to me from a very delicious looking post on Nikuman by La Fuji Mama.

While doing research into making nikuman, I found this very useful video by CookingWithDog. Especially the part on how to seal the buns.

According to the video and Wikipedia, it seems that nikuman is something typically eaten during colder days. Since we don't have seasons here, I cannot understand why it should not be eaten year round. At least that's what we do here, especially at dim sum places.

Well, cool weather or not, I just want some steamed pork buns. Flipping through my Chinese cookbooks helps to give me a photo walk-through, but I was totally lost on the instructions. It might as well have been written in Korean or Arabic. I think I can understand Japanese cookbooks better. I was about to give up on my cookbooks until I saw a very promising recipe. In fact, two very promising recipes. Thank you Mr. Mark Bittman.

Here I'd used a meat and Chinese chives filling meant for wontons, but I am sure that the buns can be filled with anything that takes your fancy. Also I'd used a combination of yeast and baking powder instead of one which relies on baking powder solely.

The buns came out soft and springy, but Hubby complained that I was such a miser with the filling. I had two very good reasons to err on the side of caution. Firstly, I wasn't quite sure how to estimate the dough and filling ratio per bun yet, but I think this comes with pratice. And secondly, I don't know how to seal the buns properly. I just watched the video once and winged it. Of the 16 buns I made, the last 3 looked at least more like steamed buns. The rest are ... distant relatives.

Meat and Chinese Chives Filling
(adapted from The Best Recipes In The World)

Ingredients
500g ground pork
2 cups chopped Chinese Chives
1 heapful finely chopped fresh ginger
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1/2 tsp salt
White peper

Directions
Mix everything together in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.

Dough for Chinese Steam Buns
(adapted from The Best Recipes In The World)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups Hongkong flour (a bleached soft flour specially made for steamed buns; can be replaced by cake flour)
1 1/2 cups plain/all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup warm water

Directions
1. Combine all the ingredients in the mixing bowl of the standing mixer.

2. Mix with dough hook until the mixture forms a ball. Continue to knead until the dough is smooth and even mixed.

3. With your hands, roughly shape the dough into a ball and put it back into the mixing bowl to rise until double in bulk, about 2 - 2.5 hours.

4. In the meanwhile, cut 18 pieces of baking paper (I had a hard time peeling it off the steamed buns and will look for those waxy types next time) and set aside.

5. Deflate the dough and roughly shape into an even log. Divide the dough into 18 pieces.

6. Roll each piece into a thin disc and scoop about 1 tbsp of meat filling onto the disc. For details on how to seal the buns, please refer to the video for visual guide.

7. Cover the buns with a loose plastic wrap and let it rise for 20 minutes. Then steam the buns over medium-low heat for about 12 minutes.

Braised Short Ribs

2011-03-26T09:00:00.000+08:00

It all started when I saw the Short Ribs in Tomato Sauce on Pioneer Woman. I was drooling all over when I saw her cooking it. I knew I needed beef on my plate ASAP. More precisely, I needed short ribs on my plate.

For some strange reasons, I found myself driving out at 7.30pm to Carrefour @ Plaza Singapura. Usually if I wanted to get anything, it would have been Great World City. It felt strange to be driving out during the evening peak hour, but since I was on the opposite direction of the jam, I guess I could afford to wear that gleefuly smirk on my face.

I picked up a few cuts of beef cos they were quite cheap and also tons of dried pasta in so many shapes and sizes that I lost count. And amongst them was two huge rectangular blocks of short ribs. Initially, I hesistated. It wasn't exactly in the cut as you would see in Pioneer Woman. It was a whole slab of short ribs that is as long as your Starhub cable tv remote controller with a single bone running length-wise. But it is still short ribs, right? Function over form, no?

That explains why I had to shred it before dishing it out. A slab of the short rib would have been too much and overwhelming for one person. Not to mention that it might make your guest feel like a dog being given a bone.

The recipe came from Joy of Cooking ('97 ed.) which was quite simple, except for the browning of the short ribs prior to braising it. I hate browning! I wish there is an easier way to get it done without the drama and mess. Since the short ribs were quite sizable, I had to steal my mom's extra large WMF oven-safe casserole. I had no idea that braising in the oven is so easy. No need to worry that the braising liquid might dry up. Just chuck the pot into the oven and find a movie to keep yourself occupied for the next 2 hours. Either that, or you could be like me who spend the time cleaning up the aftermath of the browning. Or you could make yourself a big bowl of mashed potatoes to go with the short ribs.

The tender braised short ribs eaten together with the mashed potatoes, is comforting to my stomach and soul. I think I could eat this even when all my teeth are weak and falling out. Of course, don't have to wait until then to eat it.

Braised Short Ribs
(from Joy of Cooking '97 ed.)

Ingredients
3 pounds beef short ribs, excess fats trimmed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp dried herb (I used Master Food Mixed Herbs)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrots
3 tbsp chopped garlic
1 1/2 tsp pepper
Pinch of dried herb
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 bay leaves

Directions
1. Season the short ribs with salt and pepper. Heat an oven-safe pot with the vegetable oil. Brown the short ribs and set aside.

2. Pour off all but 2 tbsp of fats from the pot. Add the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, salt, pepper and dried herb. Cook until they begin to colour. Add the chicken stock and bay leaves. Bring to a boil

3. Bake, covered, until the ribs are tender and the meat pulls away easily from the bone, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

A Quick Update

2011-03-24T20:04:00.003+08:00

My life with a young child is about routine, routine and routine. And I am glad to say that we have come to some sort of routine which we (little princess and me) both agree that will work for us during the weekdays. We are still in the process of fine tuning, but I think we should be on the right track.

Our little princess is now more receptive to sitting down in the afternoons to do some homework. She breezes through a 6-page piece (in font size 24) less than 20 minutes. I have also found a way to do her school spelling with her which has so far worked well. The trick I observed after a few run-ins seems to be that so long as I wrap all these up in 30 minutes, she is happy to do this on a daily basis. After this 30-minute stint, she goes back to do what she usually does everyday after school - couch potato with eyes glued on the tv.

Since our little princess has dropped her afternoon naps, it leaves me lesser time to cook/photograph/blog. I found that whenever I am going through a transition or in crisis mode, I will fall back into survival cooking which are essentially some basic stir fries, soups and whatever else that is in the fridge.

I did some follow-a-recipe cooking like crepes, rice burgers, Japanese hot-pots, 2 wonderful roast chicken, wraps, braised short ribs and also a beef daube but I just had no more energy nor the motivation to photograph and write. Now I am nursing a bad throat and possibly the whole works of the flu virus to follow shortly. I hope to jump back on the band-wagon soon.

ROAR ... It Is Only A Memoir!

2011-03-02T09:17:00.008+08:00

Just yesterday I had mentioned on this space that I am planning on picking up the book Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother and this morning the newspaper ran an article about the backlash that the author, Amy Chua, has been receiving since the much talked about article on The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 8 (presumably a promotional tie-in for the book release) and the subsequent release of the book on Jan. 11.

Even without opening up a page of her book, which I can't wait to do, I would say to anyone who hates the book to remember that this is a memoir. Here's the definition of a memoir: "an account of the author's personal experiences". No doubt that parenting is a debatable topic, much like immigration policy, it amazes me that people go to such lengths to show their disagreement on her methods.

By the way, are all these people who disagreed so vehemently parenting experts? Is there such thing as a parenting expert? Can someone be an expert at parenting? If there are such experts in parenting, why haven't they come up with idiot-proof parenting formulae for all parents of the world much like a formula to calculate the area or the circumference of a circle? Can parenting be made into a formula? If there is such a formula, how would a parent know if it is the right one? A right formula for themselves or for their kids? Is there a right or wrong way to parent? Am I reading too much of The Interrogative Mood?

My take is this:
~ anyone who has lived life long enough can write a memoir (but not everyone should);
~ anyone who has been a parent has enough credit to talk about their preferred parenting method; and
~ there is no right or wrong way to parent because every child and every parent is different.

When I do pick up her book, I would want to find out what is her formula to parenting and what exactly is she trying to achieve for her girls and/or for herself. And I do hope that there will be a sequel to this book which documents her girls' lives from where this current book left off so that we could all see for ourselves if her formula is indeed superior.

Anywhere But The Kitchen

2011-03-01T12:54:00.007+08:00

Since our little princess started Kindergarten 2, her folder is always packed when I picked her up on Friday. We will usually hop into the car and open her folder to weed out the homework from work that she had done in school. Doing this helps me plan our afternoon and let me go through with her in the car what she needs to get done when we are home. On top of this, she now has weekly spelling lists for both English and Chinese.

Most of our afternoons now are spent going through her school work. Yesterday, we did telling time. I was told by the teachers that this is actually part of her school work which they will go through in a few months' time, but she is having problems telling time to watch her favourite cartoons and was growing frustrated. So I risked pulling out all my hair and went through some basics with her.

As a result of all these, I haven't had much time to hang around in the kitchen. Our meals are just some one-pot dinners. Quick but fall short of being blog material. While we are going through an adjustment period with dropping her afternoon naps and her increasing work, I will have to come up with strategies of how to incorporate cooking into the picture.

On the subject of parenting, I am thinking of picking up The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua which had caused much ra-ra in the West after The Wall Street Journal ran her article. Waiting for the next Kinokuniya sale.

Parmesan Chicken

2011-02-26T09:00:00.001+08:00

Despite my massive collection of cookbooks, I still do visit the libraries to check out their cookbooks. I will always walk out of the place with a book or two in hand. Sometimes even more.

Just the other day I spotted this book at my nearest library.

If you have been following me on this blog, you will know that I use many America's Test Kitchen/Cook's Illustrated recipes. So when I saw this book in the library, I was so surprised that the library was able to get such a newly released book and just had to bring it home to have a closer look.

But before I was able to flip through it, my mom spotted it lying on my table that night and she said she feel like having the breadcumb crusted thingy on the cover page for dinner. I thought that if ATK put this dish on its cover page, it must be good and simple to prepare. Perfect recipe to test the worth of the book. And that's what we had for dinner.

To shorten the cooking time and stretch the little amount of chicken breast I had for everyone, I cut the chicken into smaller strips. Almost on the brink of being a finger food rather than main dish.

This is my first attempt at making Parmesan Chicken and we all like having cheese in the breadcrumb coating. It adds extra saltiness and crunch to the crust.

While my mom and I were busy frying up the second batch, our little princess was quietly sitting outside devouring the first. When we came out with the second batch, she declared she was done with dinner and the plate was empty. And while she was wiping the corners of her mouth, she said: "Good choice. I like the chicken. Can you please make it again tomorrow?" As if bestowing some favour to her serf.

The tomato salad was unmemorable except I remembered longing for a salsa instead when eating it.

I would say that this recipe from The Best Simple Recipes was definitely a keeper. Parmesan cheese is gaining popularity in my household. As for the rest of the recipes in the book, I didn't have time to try them before returning the book. Will probably pick it up again the next time I see it.

I didn't write down the exact recipe cos I didn't follow the recipe (what's new?). But here is a similar recipe from Cook's Illustrated found at browneyedbaker.

Kinpira-Gobo (きんぴらごぼう)

2011-02-24T09:00:00.002+08:00

This is a two-vegetable dish of burdock and carrot stir-fried with the usual Japanese seasoning trio of soy sauce, sake and mirin.

When I was in Tokyo, this crunchy and sweet side dish appear often in bentos we ate. And true enough according to The Japanese Kitchen, "The dish tastes better after a few hours, and can be kept in the refrigerator, covered, for a day." So that and the lack of messy sauce make it a perfect bento complement.

The burdock I bought from NTUC was almost as tall as our little princess. I snapped them into half for cooking miso soup and had been thinking of what to do with the remaining half. I love this root vegetable but our little princess has made known that she doesn't care for it. Sigh ...

In case you have never encountered the burdock, this is how it looks like out of the ground. They are slender, astonishingly long, look almost bark-like and usually encrusted with dirt. Once you scrape the tough skin off, the exposed burdock is beige and brown, which discolours quickly. Almost immediately the air will be permeated with its earthy fragrance. Burdock is high in fibre and other nutrients. As well as some medicinal value.

Kinpira-Gobo (きんぴらごぼう)
(from The Japanese Kitchen)

Ingredients
2 tbsp oil
2 cups of gobo (burdock), cut into matchsticks
2/3 cup of carrots, cut into matchsticks
2 tbsp sake
1 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp white sesame seeds
shichimi togarashi (seven-spice powder), to taste

Directions
1. Heat oil in skillet. Add the burdock and cook until well coated with oil. Add the carrot and cook 2 mins.

2. Add 3 tbsp water, sake, mirin and sugar. Cook until almost all the liquid is absorbed. Add the soy sauce and cook for further 30 sec. Turn off heat. Add sesame seeds and shichimi togarashi. Stir well to combine.

Main Course Salad: How To Make Ahead

2011-02-22T09:00:00.000+08:00

I am still very into salad these days and probably will start to turn various shades of green soon at this rate we are chomping them down.

After making and eating quite a number of salads, I've came away with some notes on how to get a head start in making salads.

Size - Cut it down
I just came across an article from The Kitchn asking if there is a way to eat salad gracefully. I didn't think that there was much hope in that direction until I had the Wafu Salad from Tonkichi that made me realise that it is possible to eat salads gracefully - cut everything into bite-size.

Prep ahead
Although salads needs minimal cooking, it involves lots of knife-work. Slicing, dicing, chopping all take time. But as I've mentioned earlier, most ingredients of a salad can be prepared in advance, but not all. Cut avocados will turn black, apples brown, and so forth. So if you are considering these items for your salad, either wait until just before serving to dice them up or leave them out. This is espcially true when packing the leftovers for lunch the following day.

Let's de-construct this Chicken and Avocado Salad as an example of how to make ahead.

1. Dressing
I've used the same vinaigrette from Salade Nicoise, which most ingredients are pantry staples. Make the dressing ahead and store it in a screw-top glass bottle in the fridge. So far the longest that I have kept the dressing in the fridge was for 3 days. Beyond that, it is uncharted teritory for me. I use recycled jam jars or pasta sauce jars. To pack for lunch, I would use St. Dalfour mini jam jars. Liquid tight and just the right amount to dress a single serving of salad.

2. Protein
In my opinion, leftovers from a roast or grilled chicken make the best salads. If you have neither, which is usually the case for me, I would just poach chicken breasts in water until the thickest part is no longer pink (note: tough chicken breast can result easily from overcooking!) and shred when cooled enough to handle. Hard-boiled eggs can also boiled and peeled in advance, but leave as whole. When both cooled completely, I store them into a container with divider lest I leave one out. That happens to me all the time. Just as in any cooked food, I consider them inedible if they have sat in the fridge for more than 7 days.

3. Greens
Wash and cut the vegetables down to bite size. For tomatoes, I have switched to cherry tomatoes in case I am too lazy to cut. If you have extra minutes on hand, like I did that day when I made the salad, half them for better asethetics. Whole cherry tomatoes can be washed and added at the last minute. If you are like me who do not own a salad spinner, just put the cut greens into a colander to drip dry and give it a good shake every few minutes to get rid of excess water clinging on to the greens. Then the challenging part comes as you will have to look for a container big enough to pack the greens in without crushing/bruising them. Do note that pre-cut vegetables will lose nutrients while sitting in the fridge, so pre-cut these in your latest convenient time possible.

Once you are ready to eat, just pull these separate ingredients out from the fridge and layer them on the plate. And this is where you add those avocados, apples, eggs and the likes. Give the dressing in the jar a good shake (please check the top is screwed tight, if not you are screwed) before using.

Our weather is starting to turn sickeningly hot again and I would be keeping this time saver for those too-hot-to-stand-in-front-of-the-stove days.

Mommy, I Will Follow You

2011-02-20T09:00:00.002+08:00

It seems to me that it was just yesterday when she was still in diapers and drinking from milk bottles.

Erm ... In fact she was still in a diaper when she woke up and drank milk from her milk bottle this morning.

She is six this year, why did you ask?

I snapped this photo last Sunday when we were running to Mediya (running cos I left the car with the smart-key in my bag and Hubby was sort of stranded in the car, so had to run back to pass him the smart-key; smart indeed) . I just couldn't resist when I saw how pretty she looked. She still likes boys stuff, but was willing to oblige her manupulative mother by wearing this.

These days when I go out with her in my hand, I have the odd thinking that I am too young to have a daughter this old. I am in denial. On some days, I'd wish she would grow up quickly but on others I wish she would stay this way forever. On most days, I will just marvel at how much she has grown.

Last Friday after doing her homework, she decided she didn't want to nap and that she wanted to dine out. And that's what we did. By the time we finished dinner, I was ready to hit the sack right at the restaurant chair but I still had to drive home after dropping Hubby off at his office carpark to pick up his car. So we had this conversation:

Me: "Darling, I think you better follow Daddy to his car. I'm worried that I might crash the car if I fall asleep while driving."

Princess: "Noooo!!! I want to stay with mommy."

Me: "No, darling, you better go with Daddy, in case I crash the car and die, you are with him."

Princess: "No, I want to stay with mommy and if you die I want to follow you."

Now, how to argue with that?

Main Course Salad: Salade Nicoise

2011-02-18T09:00:00.002+08:00

My motivation for looking into main course salad was born out of sheer laziness. I was looking for a one-dish meal (less plates) that requires minimal cooking (less pots/pans) and packs lots of veggies as well as being filling. No skimpy wimpy diet salads for this gal.

So if I have to put this into a checklist of evaluating a salad, it would probably look like this.

Salade Nicoise has all the ticks in the check-boxes. Everything in this salad can be made ahead of time. Right down to the proteins of eggs and fish (either canned tuna or leftover grilled salmon). Now, isn't this dish time friendly?

The dressing for Salade Nicoise is just a simple olive oil and acid mix (ratio is 1 : 1.5)with shallots and herbs thrown in together with Dijon mustard. The recipe for the vinaigrette I used came from The New Best Recipe which you will be able to find it on Simply Recipe. I haven't had many main course salads in restaurants, but from the very few that I had eaten, the dressings were pungent, vinegarish or even biting to the tongue. So such experience taught me to be wary of vinaigrettes. However, when this vinaigrette came out, I was pleasantly surprised that it taste so smooth and had a good balance between oil and acid.

Boiled red potatoes, buttercup lettuce, cherry tomatoes, olives (I prefer those canned black pitted olives), hard-boiled eggs and blanched green beans. Forget about the canned tuna, just bring me the salad as is. I was all set for dinner. Which by the way, I did forget to add the tuna. Who can blame me when even these supporting cast is already good enough on their own?

I had packed this for lunch the following day for Hubby. The vinaigrettes went into a screw-top bottle and I packed a can of tuna into his bag to top it on the salad. Now how convenient is that?

Kimchi Tofu Don

2011-02-16T09:00:00.001+08:00

There are always days when the idea of cooking dinner throws up much frustration in me. When cooking for myself, I know exactly what I would want everyday - buttery mashed potatoes and sauteed zucchini. But cooking for others, I would have more to consider apart from my own freakish taste buds. Hubby will eat anything that I put on the table. That's great support from him but he is eating too much. Princess is still a kid with limited tolerance for any exotic foods. So everyday I will have to thread on that fine line that meets all these considerations.

And then there are days when I am just too lazy to cook. Just the thought of prep, cook and clean is enough to send me back to my sofa for another hour of mindless tv watching. When such days do occur, I would usually resort to one-pan meals (i.e. fried rice, fried noodles, hotpot, etc.).

So the other day I piece this together with whatever that I have in the fridge.

Stir fried pork with tofu and kimchi.

Princess' version was essentially the same except that I had to portion hers out before adding the kimchi.

From prep, cook, clean and to table, it took me about 40 mins. Which is still much shorter a time than it takes for me to decide where to eat out. Serious. Hubby often was able to finish watching some tv programme while I contemplate our dining venue.

I don't have an exact recipe for this but I've provided a broad outline to give you a general idea.

Heat oil in a frying pan. Add garlic and fry until it start to turn brown. Add pork slices (I used thinly sliced pork belly) and cook until they are no longer pink. Add sliced zucchini and stir. Cook until the zucchini is almost tender. Add cut firm tofu and stir until it is heated through.

For non spicy version: Add soy sauce to taste and serve over hot rice.

For kimchi version: Add chopped kimchi as well as the kimchi liquid that comes in the bag. Stir until it is heated through. Adjust seasoning, if necessary, and serve over hot rice.

Animal Cookies

2011-02-14T16:28:00.004+08:00

Usually Hubby is quite indulgent in most things that I do or want to do. But today, he drew the line at this.

What's wrong, you ask?

Cos he deems this as overly tedious and serves no purpose. But I beg to differ. The decorations do serve a purpose. They make me happy. And I am quite sure that our princess' friends and teachers were as well when she passed them around during the snack time.

Look that them and tell me that it doesn't bring a smile to your face.

Oh ... They don't?

I'm just going to pretend that I didn't hear you say that.

When I saw the cute Lion Cookies from Diamonds For Dessert, I thought they were ultra cute and that our little princess would like it. But when our princess saw them, she wanted me to bake some for her school on Valentine's Day! She said that she was wanted to bring something special for her special friend on Valentine's Day. I wasn't quite sure how to respond to that but I agreed.

After leaving school and getting married, I had forgotten what it was like on Valentine's Day. All the anticipation and guess work of whether some guy (hopefully the one you have your eyes on) will gather enough guts to come forward to ask you out for a date or maybe send a gift to you. Ahh ... puppy love. Those were the days.

Me: "I am making cookies for her (our princess) to bring to school on Valentine's Day."

Hubby: "Valentine's Day??!! Isn't it a bit too early for her to be concerned with Valentine's Day?"

Me: "Well, she must have heard it from her teachers maybe. Since she wants to give her friends something, I'll just bake something."

Hubby: "Bake something easy."

Me: "I had forgotten how much fun it was to celebrate Valentine's Day in school."

Hubby: "It is only the pretty girls who has all the fun."

Me: "You are saying that I am pretty?"

Hubby: "I'm logging off." We were on IM.

This was the first time I am making freeze-and-cut cookies and have no idea how to go about it. But I came away with a few notes. The weather here is just too hot to be making cookies. The butter in the cookies melt too fast and the dough becomes too soft to handle. I would hate to think how it would go for making pie crusts. The cling film is your best friend when making such cookies. You wrap the dough in it to freeze and you roll the dough in between the sheets. Also, I have concluded that I have no creativity and that I can't do anything decorative. It feels too painful even for me to try. But given that our princess loves the cookies, I think I will still use the recipe again but just not for cutting shapes. I've used the recipe from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book Vanilla Ice Box Cookies.

Generally, I think I would give myself a pass since princess said her friends love it and that she had eaten 3 pieces herself. (^.^)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Chawanmushi (茶碗蒸し)

2011-02-12T09:00:00.000+08:00

Whenever we ask our little princess what she would like to have for dinner, the answer will invariably come back (a) Tonkichi; (b) duck rice; or (c) any rice-veg-meat combo. I think you can see the trend. She is definitely a rice eater.

We have been visiting Tonkichi so often that the staff could recognise us immediately and know what is our usual. Good or bad? So far it has been more good than bad. Let's hope it stays this way.

At Tonkichi, our little princess has learnt to partake her meal with more fanciful add-ons. She would ask for an upgrade of her soup from plain miso to tonjiru (basically miso soup still but with added gobo (burdock), carrots, raddish, konnyaku (taro gelatin) and pork slices thrown in) as well as adding a serving of chawanmushi. I am eyeing the situation carefully and suspecting that she will probably eat us out of our house when she hits another growth spurt. Child rearing is expensive business.

In theory, chawanmushi is simply an easy dish to prepare. In practice, chawanmushi is simply an easy dish to prepare, too. So, what's the catch?

The catch: control of the steam.

Now, if you had been following me for a long time, four years to be exact, you would know that this is my second attempt at making chawanmushi. My first try produced horribly pock-marked custards. I remember they were slightly tough and rubbery too. So I was quite apprehensive to try again since.

But somehow, I don't quite know when, my culinary mental block started to clear. Something akin to one with a blocked artery and had undergone a stent procedure. I start to get better results on what I make. Maybe it comes with more hands-on cooking? Or maybe part of the Malcom Gladwell's 10,000-hour-to-be-good-at-something theory? Maybe it was as simple as being able to follow instructions more closely? Whatever it is, keep it coming.

I kept the flame down to medium-low to produce steady gently steam. As the chawanmushi cooks, it transformed from watery looking to a silken tofu-like surface. No bubbles. No pock-marks. Happiness.

The recipe is the same as my first attempt from The Japanese Kitchen.

Can I consider myself redeemed as far as making of chawanmushi is concerned?

Spanish-Style Braised Lentils with Sausage

2011-02-10T09:00:00.001+08:00

Whenever lentils appears on the table, our little princess would eye it warily. She doesn't like lentils, even when they are cooked with her most favourite thing in the world: sausages.

But being the story monster that she is, she is always hungry for a good story. In a bid to get her to try the lentils, I had sort of made one up about lentils.

Long ago in India, there was a widespread famine which lasted for three years due to the lack of rain. Crops fail and livestock died. People were dying of starvation and they were very sad. They prayed to Buddha for salvation. Buddha heard the prayers of the people and gifted them with a strange plant called lentils which grew easily even in poor weather. Soon lentils began growing in the abandoned farm lands. Many people started eating lentils and were saved from hunger and starvation. Even after the end of the famine, the people of India continued to eat lentils together with their rice because it is highly nutritious and keeps them healthy. The end.

The recipe from Cook's Illustrated's Cover & Bake recommended the use of tiny French green lentils, but since I had some difficulty sourcing it, I had replaced it with the regular brown lentils. Ditto for the sausage. I replaced it for the regular Spanish Chorizo which is available here.

Apart from the browning of the sausages, which causes splatters, the dish is easy to put together. No pre-soaking of the lentils is required. Everything is cooked in just one skillet. The leftover lentils keep well in fridge and can be reheated without any lost in flavour.

If you are interested to find out more about lentils, hop over to The World's Healthiest Foods for the nutritional values and health benefits.

A Different Chinese New Year

2011-02-08T17:46:00.001+08:00

This year's Chinese New Year felt somewhat ... different.

Change #1 - A lighter dinner

The festive celebration kicked off with our reunion dinner at my mom's place. Throughout dinner my brother and sister shot daggers at me from their eyes for my faux Yu-sheng. I did tell them I would bring something over in place of the usual Yu-sheng. Guess they really wanted Yu-sheng to feel festive.

Usually reunion dinner is a big affair in my mom's place. We used to have eight- or nine-dish extravaganza year after year. But this year, after many years of persuasion by us, my mom relented and agreed to tone down for this year's meal.

Our dinner menu
- fish maw abalone soup
- stewed medley of dried oysters, dried scallops and some sort of black weed that looks like dried hair
- my mom's signature meat roll
- steamed fish
- a cold-dish entree, which much resembled what we used to get when we go for wedding dinners made up seasoned jellyfish, seasoned scallops, century eggs, top shell, prawns salad
- roast pork
- roast chicken
- faux yu-sheng
- glutinous rice balls (tang yuan 汤圆) for dessert, this was bought by my brother on impulse during the last time trip to the supermarket, but we were all glad to have something sweet to round up the dinner

As usual with such gathering, I was elbow deep in grease with the preparations and brought no camera. I was glad to have come out of the dinner without much of a oil splatter on my clothes.

We had fewer dishes but we all agreed that it was the best dinner yet. As a result we had a less harassed mom and more enjoyable dinner. We even had time for a pre-dinner game of Scrabble and post-dinner games of car racing on PS2.

Change #2 - Red packet-less

Since Hubby's grandma passed away recently, we had to observe the customary mourning period which meant no exchange of well wishes during the Chinese New Year and, therefore, no exchange of red packets. Our little princess was kind of disappointed as she was looking forward to collecting red packets. I am wondering if we had over-drilled her with all the materialistic goals.

Change #3 - A studying holiday

Last week, our little princess came back with her Maths Assessment with a score of 35.5 out of 50 points. When I first saw her results, I started laughing. I laughed cos I had finally produced a daughter who is definitely smarter than me, at least academically. My results are usually in the range of 60-65%.

I was surprised that the format of the assessment was almost like a test I had taken in primary school and that our princess took four days to complete the nine-page assessment (!!??). The assessment revealed that our princess has not quite grasp some of the math concepts yet. So when her school was closed since Tuesday, ahead of the Chinese New Year, we sat down every morning to work on her school work. I lost more hair recently. It is not fun to be a pre-schooler these days, or the mother of a pre-schooler.

Change is the only constant in life.

Now, I will have to convince the whole gang to have another dinner again on the fifteenth day of the lunar new year.

Spinach & Gruyere Cheese Strata

2011-02-03T09:00:00.002+08:00

I woke up early on one Saturday morning, which is a rare occurance. Deciding not to climb back to bed, I went about making my morning tea. It is always nice to enjoy a cup of tea at home. But I decided to make it even better by waking everyone up with the smell of warm baked eggs.

Not long after I pushed the skillet into the oven, I could hear shuffling feet coming my way. If only someone would make egg for me in the mornings, I will dump Hubby at the drop of a hat and elope with him at once. Until that someone comes along, I guess I will have to make do with Hubby.

Well, I'm not alone. Even Lady Gaga's song tells of how much we love being pampered.

"I'm not loose, I like to party
Let's get lost in your Ferrari
Not psychotic or dramatic
I like boys and that is that
Love it when you call me legs
In the morning buy me eggs
Watch your heart when we're together
Boys like you love me forever"
- Boys Boys Boys by Lady Gaga

If you like quiche, you will like an egg strata. Except that in an egg strata you don't have a fiddly crust to contend with. Instead, leftover bread is added to the mix to give the dish body.

I made this once for our brunch, which I had to weigh the bread down to soak in the egg and milk mixture overnight. But not today.

This strata is made up of bread that has been cubed into smaller pieces to hasten the absorption of the egg and milk mixture. The shortcut recipe can be found here at BakerBites.

Egg stratas can be flavoured with anything that takes your fancy or whatever that is in your fridge.

Sitting down to eat a hearty egg breakfast in the morning is such a bliss.

Count Our Blessings

2011-02-01T12:52:00.004+08:00

~ Please note that this post has nothing to do with food. ~

Do you read the obituary section in the papers?

I do, almost every time I open the papers. And today, I came across this beautiful obituary dedicated to a Ms Dora Tay from her family.

We think of you in silence and often speak your name,
But all that's left to answer is your picture in a frame,

If we could have one lifetime wish, one dream that would come true,
We would wish with all our hearts for yesterday and you.

If tears could build a stairway, and heartache make a lane,
We would walk to anywhere to be with you again.

I could feel tears welling up in my eyes as I imagine the loss and longings of the family.

Often I could be heard saying "We are all waiting to die." I can't remember where I had picked that phrase up from but I know it resonates with my outlook of life. To acknowledge our mortality is to acknowledge our shortness of life. It is a grim reminder that we should cherish the people around us and make the most of the brief time we have on our hands.

It is with this mentality and our Buddhist belief that nothing lasts forever that Hubby was able to bid farewell to his maternal grandma, who passed on recently, without being overcome by emotions.

I know it is a taboo to be speaking of death with Chinese New Year just round the corner, but I thought it would be an opportune time to count our blessings of being able to celebrate the festivity with our families and friends.

For my literary inclined readers, I recommend Senaca's On The Shortness of Life as something to meditate on during the coming long weekend.

Main Course Salads: Grilled Ribeye Steak Salad

2011-02-01T09:00:00.000+08:00

I made this salad the other day.

The good news is that we love having steak and salad in one plate. It packs more fibre and colours than the usual steak and potatoes combo.

The bad news is that there is no recipe to share cos I just toss together the odds and ends I found in my fridge.

But ... I will not leave you out cold without a recipe. Actually, I had my inspiration of making a grilled steak salad from The Pioneer Woman's Big Steak Salad. Head over and drool at her photos.

I grilled 2 slabs of ribeye steaks seasoned with Cajun Seasoning and I could have eaten them hot off the grill while standing in the kitchen. The anticipation that built up while dicing them up for the salad was almost unbearable. I did snitch a bite though.

The salad was dressed with my usual dipping sauce for Vietnamese Rice-Paper Roll. This is my favourite sauce for something salty and spicy. However, do note the high salt content in the fish sauce. Dressings are usual the black sheep of an otherwise healthy salad.

Decisions and Indecision

2011-01-30T09:00:00.003+08:00

We are faced with choices that we will have to make each day. Turn left or right? Wear dress or pants (applicable to females only)? Handbag or clutch bag (again applicable to females only)? Eat this or that? Black tea or green tea?

There was once I had this conversation with a close friend:

Me: "So have you decided?"

Friend: "Nah, I'm still sitting on the fence."

Me: "You know what happens when you sit on the fence too long?"

Friend: "Should I?"

Me: "Your a** gets skewered."

From the above, one might think that I am a decisive person. Well, I thought I was. Until I was faced with 5 different variations on a single recipe. My decision making process went out of the windows.

Should I make Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies? Date Oatmeal Cookies? Ginger Oatmeal Cookies? Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies? Nut Oatmeal Cookies? Orange and Almond Oatmeal Cookies?

Decisions, decisions.

And as if there wasn't enough choices already, I had to switch to my Google Reader and see these cuties from Blessed Homemaker.

After that, it was down to either Chewy Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies or these Matcha Oatmeal Cookies.

When I was preparing the ingredients, I was still sitting on the fence. Then it finally came down to ground cinnamon for Oatmeal-Raisins or matcha powder for Matcha Oatmeal.

I still couldn't decide. Maybe I was too disturbed after watching Hannibal while I had my dinner. Note to self: NEVER eat dinner while watching gory movies.

Then I do what I always do when I can't decide. I just run with both. So in went the ground cinnamon and the matcha powder to the mixing bowl.

By the time I realised what I had done, I was horrified. The marriage between green tea and red bean is legendary, but one with green tea and cinnamon is unheard of. I tried to scoop out as much of the ground cinnamon as I could from the mixing bowl and realised shortly that it is futile. Exasperated, I dumped the ground cinnamon back in.

So here are my Matcha Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies, all packed and ready to be sent.

The cookies actually turned out quite well. The matcha taste was more dominion while the cinnamon was somehow muted but played well in the background. Surprise, surprise!

So the moral of the story: Toss that bottle of ground cinnamon which has probably lost its potency.

Matcha Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
(adapted from Baking Illustrated)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp matcha powder
227g butter, softened
2/3 cup caster sugar (1 cup sugar if cranberry is unsweetened)
2 large eggs
3 cups old fashion steel cut oats
1 1/2 cups cranberry

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 180 degC and line baking sheet with baking paper.

2. Combine flour, salt, baking powder and matcha powder in a bowl.

3. Beat the butter until creamy. Add sugar and continue to beat until fluffy. Add eggs in one at a time.

4. Stir in the flour mixture in. Follow by the oats and cranberry.

5. Scoop dough out with a teaspoon for bite-size cookies and place on baking sheet, leaving at least 3 cm apart.

6. Bake until edges of cookie turn golden brown. About 12 to 15 minutes.

Main Course Salad: Soba Salad with Soy Sauce Dressing

2011-01-28T09:00:00.004+08:00

While tossing up this salad in the bowl, I realised the colours of this salad much resembled that of the Yu-sheng (鱼生) we would eat every year during Chinese New Year with all the bright colours.

But this salad has none of those sugar soaked, artificial colour coated bits of who-knows-what in it.

I was intrigued by the delicate lightness and well balanced flavour of the Wafu Salad I had at Tonkichi. We eat there at least once a month and had never noticed this salad.

When I got back from dinner that night, I reached for The Japanese Kitchen to check up the recipe for this Japanese vinaigrette. According to the author, Hiroko Shimbo, salad is a recent addition to the Japanese diet and this recipe for soy sauce salad dressing was always popular among her students.

Unfortunately, this soy sauce salad dressing was not quite the dressing used in the Tonkichi Wafu Salad. But it is a great dressing in its own right. I made it twice in two days, and on both occasions I had to increase the amount of soy sauce used to achieve the right level of saltiness. Perhaps this was because I was tossing it with the soba noodles whereas I suppose the recipe had intended it to be for dressing normal salads.

I tossed this salad with the following, but I am sure that the anything-goes motto works well here too.

Soba, cooked and tossed with sesame oil
Iceberg lettuce, cut into bite size
Japanese cucumbers, sliced thinly
Red cabbage, shredded
Carrots, peeled and shredded
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Coriander
Prepared jellyfish (those sold chilled in packets at supermarkets)
Sesame seed

Maybe for a change, I would volunteer to make this Soba Salad in place of the usual Yu-Sheng that I am in-charge of buying for the reunion dinner.

Soy Sauce Dressing

(adapted from The Japanese Kitchen)

Ingredients

1 tsp Djion mustard
1 small garlic clove, halved
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tbsp finely grated carrot
1 1/2 tsp finely grated onion
1 tsp ginger juice
6 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil (which I had added into the soba to toss)

Directions

Combine in a screw cap bottle and shake well. Remove the garlic before use.

Do You Know What Is Making You Fat?

2011-01-27T14:31:00.003+08:00

Do you know what you don't know? Test your knowledge and see if you are sabotaging your own health.

Q1. Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. True or False?

Q2. Fats = death plague. Avoid at all cost. True or False?

Q3. "Low-fat" or "Fat-free" products are healthier. True or False?

Q4. Carbs make you fat. True or False?

Q5. We should regularly detox our bodies. True or False?

Q6. Late night eating will make you fat. True or False

For answers to the above questions, go to the article from The Independent.

I had flagged the above six points because these are the advice/wisdom that people rattle all the time. Now we know better.

"Quick Bread": Loaf "Bread" - Cake Salé

2011-01-26T09:00:00.000+08:00

When I was still a primary school girl, a walk before or after class was always punctuated by a stop at our favourite bakery, Katong Sin Chew Cake Shop. (Photos of Katong Sin Chew Cake Shop from Camemberu). It would be impossible not to stop by. The wonderful smell of baking bread and cakes, would lure a dead from its grave. Back in those days, a simple buttercream cake would have brought a smile to any birthday kid. Not a day went by without people collecting their order of birthday cakes from them. My mom would be one of them on our birthdays.

I used to wander into the baking area pretending to look for a trash bin or linger at the doorway pretending to choose something delicious from the myriad of baked goods. There would always be decks of buns and bread on the cooling racks, rows of butter cakes in disposal aluminmum tins cooling on the shelves in the shop and a refrigerated display cabinet filled with buttercream-covered cakes and swiss rolls. In those days when money was tight, it was truely agonising to pick just one treat from the bakery a day. It almost felt like a crime to inflict such torture on a glutton like me.

Whenever I pass by bakeries these days, the sight of those butter cakes sitting in aluminmum tins would invariable remind me of the bakery. Every time when I pull a loaf tin out of my oven, I would ask myself if it is good enough to be sold at the bakery. Some times I give myself a yes, and some times not.

Today, I pulled out this from the oven.

And wondered what would the bakers at the bakery think.

I imagine the conversation will go like this:

Me: "So what do you think of this ... erm, loaf?" Looking hopeful for an approval.

Baker: "What'd ya call this?" Eyeing my loaf tin with septical eyes.

Me: "Cake Salé."

Baker: "Cake see mee (Hokkien: what)?" The creases on his forehead formed suddenly and now resembled the cross section of a lapis kueh.

Me: "Cake sal-a." Pronoucing it more slowly as my hope plummets.

Baker: "Can eat or not?"

Me: "..."

Anyway, that is just all in my imagination. I doubt any self respecting baker will entertain me at all.

Under the loaf "bread" catagory, you can either have them sweet or savoury. The banana bread I made would fall into the sweet loaf section while this Cake Salé, with all the chunky ham and cheese cubes, will be the savoury.

The first time I stumbled into this kind of baking was in a cookbook I bought from Tokyo. I had thought it was just some fancy Japanese creation until I finally made the connection when I came across the article and recipe ran by The New York Times last July. I had made this based on their recipe and found that it was quite good. But I would reckon that it is much like a muffin where anything goes once you have the basic ratio of flour, olive oil/butter and eggs nailed down.

When I unmolded it from the loaf tin, it looked more like some sort of butter cake than a loaf of bread. Pockets of cheese and studs of diced ham make nibbling through a still-warm slice a satisfying snack.

Main Course Salads

2011-01-24T11:05:00.000+08:00

Since my last post about salads, I have been diving into my books searching for salads that pack a bit more heft. And there are lots to choose from!

Someone asked on Yahoo! Answer "What are the components of a main course salad?" Unfortunately, there were only 2 replies to the question and neither one, in my opinion, provide a complete picture. One was whatever takes your fancy goes into the salad bowl, the other gave a list of a rather limited list of possible salad candidates.

Apart from being able substantial, a main course salad should also be a visual candy. A riot of colours, texture and taste. The last thing any hungry diner would wish for is a huge pile of bland and limp salad tossed together from tired looking leftovers placed in front them.

To my reckoning, main course salad should be (a) hearty and filling; (b) a one-dish meal; and (c) a feel-good meal. And the components of a main course salad should include (but not limited to):

~ Greens ~
Except for maybe carrot and raisin salad, I put greens in the salad bowl, both main course and side. Isn't eating more greens the real reason behind eating a salad? Besides, looking at a big plate pile high with bright greens tells me my toilet break will be a short one. There are basically 3 main catagories of salad greens: bitter, tender and crisp. I tend to go for the neutral tasting and crisp lettuce. I've seen supermarket sell bags of salad green pre-washed. Maybe I should pick up a bag to try.

~ Meat ~
The thought of going meat-less makes me feel deprived even though I do go meat-less unconciously most weekdays during lunch. But just like breathing, it feels ardurous when you are doing it conciously. So in order for my main course salad to be a feel-good salad, I need meat in it. Grilled or roasted leftovers are prefect for the job. Alternatively, this can be replaced with mushrooms, beans or tofu.

~ Filler ~
To be promoted to a main course status, a salad must be hearty and filling on its own. I usually look at additions such as pasta, noodles, potatoes, hard boiled eggs, etc. Basically this is where the carbo loading will come in.

~ Dressing ~
Basically there are 2 broad types of dressing: creamy or vinaigrette. I am so over mayonnaise, except in potato and egg salad. The last time I was in a bit of a rush to get dinner to the table and used ready-made mayo on for my prawns and avocado salad. I fed 80% of it to the bin. There are many types of dressings out there which I am looking to explore.

I have put together a list of them to try out and hope they are good enough to share them here.

Here's a quick run-down of those that I have already tried:

Thai-style Tomato and Shrimp Salad

Chicken Salad with Mango, Avocado and Citrus dressing

Nicoise Salad

Pasta Salad with Grilled Chicken and Avocado

Grilled Lemongrass Beef and Noodle Salad

Sauteed peppers with feta cheese, olives, tomatoes and cucumber dressed with lemon caper vinaigrette

Some of them may not have recipes or links to recipe included in the post. If you are interested in any of the recipes here, do drop me a line.

Beef Chili with Pinto Beans

2011-01-21T09:00:00.003+08:00

Writing a post on chili is always challenging.

There is no turing back. Often by the time I am ready to sit down to the task, the pot of the said stew has long been emptied and left out to dry. I can't go back and re-sample the chili for a quick refresh of the taste.

There is no cross reference with anyone around me. I have yet heard of someone who eats chili here, much less about someone who knows who to cook a pot of it. Maybe some eatery do serve chili, but I doubt many try or take them seriously.

Except for someone.

And, strangely, that someone is my brother. He is definitely not a big foodie as I am, but he knows how to enjoy his food.

So it happened that there was once he popped into my place to have dinner and I gave him a bowl of chili. He eyed it skeptically and then upon recognising what it was, smiled happily.

He didn't explain why he was smiling when he tucked into the bowl of beef chili. He didn't have to. It took me a while and then I had this flashback of him coming home from school carrying a paper box gingerly. When he opened it up, it was a chili dog from A&W. He loved the chili topping. It was the only reason why he could suffer the hotdog.

My previous batches of chili have always been made with canned kidney beans, which appear in most recipes. Of all the beans that I picked up from FoodXervices, I didn't think to pick up kidney beans as it is quite easily available in supermarkets. So when I wanted to cook chili, I had none to add in. I am such a planner, isn't it?

Luckily for me, listed as a variation to the Classic Beef Chili was the Beef Chili with Bacon and Pinto Beans in The Best Slow and Easy Recipes. I offered up a quick prayer. And I thought that I am not a religious person. Perhaps cooking does that to a person.

Now I have a three-quarters of a kilo bag of pinto beans to cook.

The recipe for Cook's Illustrated Basic Beef Chili can be found here at Taste Book, I swapped the 2 cans of kidney beans for 1-1/4 cups dried pinto beans which have been picked over and soaked.

Paying Up For Non-Generic Food ... For Now

2011-01-19T09:00:00.000+08:00

Just after picking up our little princess from her class the other day, we headed over to the Cold Storage at Great World City to pick up some grocery.

I have been clearing out the fridge of all the remenants, as well as many science projects, for the past week. But before I could pare the contents of my fridge further down, we ran out of milk. Running out of milk is an unacceptable situation in our household. Our little princess goes amok, and I can't bake (and go amok as well).

Since making the decision to give our little princess organic milk, we have been picking up cartons of them whenever and wherever we see them. Due to the much higher pricing, they are stocked only at selected supermarkets which are located in premium neighbourhoods with high disposable income. Great World City define their target market as being made up of families "with a monthly household income above S$10,000". Don't be surprised that Cold Storage at Ngee Ann City doesn't carry organic milk but Cold Storage at Greenwood (a primarily landed residential belt in Bedok South) do.

Isn't it ironic that people not from such premium neighbourhoods are the ones who could least afford to be sick but yet they are the very ones who are not even given the benefit of a choice by these supermarkets to feed their bodies better.

But then again, the economics behind the decision of the supermarkets not to stock these supposedly healthier, and inevitably pricier, choices and their customers not buying them are no rocket science.

Just take a look at my bill.

If I re-organise it and compare some of the items, the differences will be more noticeable.

If you read carefully, you will notice that the non-generic beef and pork are in fact cheaper than the usual ones. By non-generic in this instance, I mean they are free range beef and pork. Why the price difference? I can only speculate that cattle feed is more expensive these days as compared to putting the cattle out on the pasture to feed on free grass. Good news for free range meat supporters! Please note that free range doesn't not mean organic.

For the remaining items, the price difference remains quite wide for now. But I have been reading good news that organic sales are shifting to regular grocery stores and that organic farming are growing fast. Hopefully these would all point to cheaper organic food options in the future.

Would you pay more for non-generic food?

Chicken Ratatouille with Garlic Roasted Potatoes

2011-01-17T09:00:00.000+08:00

Our last trip to Hong Kong last November was ... unmemorable.

However, I did remember something delicious I ate onboard. I remembered because I snitched it from our little princess. I had to snitch because we were told that that particular meal option was no longer available. It was no longer available because the other option was dog food. Okay, too harsh on our national carrier. It was a terrible combination of something and something else, which I would rather forget. And it seems like I have.

While I had to endure looking at our princess enjoying her meal, I resolved that I will make something similar for myself once I returned to my kitchen.

When the stewardess came bearing a tray of what she said was "Chicken with potatoes", I eyed the covered dish suspiciously. Since kids get served first onboard, our little princess dug into it while we looked on curiously.

The name chicken and potatoes hardly do justice to the dish which came with a serving of ratatouille as well. I know meals onboard are NOT suppose to taste good, but the combination of roasted chicken and potatoes with stewed vegetables can hardly go wrong in my reckoning. Maybe I was hungry.

Instead of roasting the chicken and potatoes, I did a shortcut when I found a recipe for Chicken Ratatouille in The Silver Spoon. It was the first time I am using this book. This huge tome of Italian cooking contains so many dishes that I have never ever seen before in Italian restaurants here. Perhaps the supposedly "Italian dishes" that we are fed here are the same phenomenal creation as the Singapore Noodles which is so popular overseas?

The recipe can be found at Transon Nguyen's food blog with step-by-step pictures.

The cubes of roasted potatoes came from The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2007. They were easy to make. I prep these while waiting for the ratatouille to simmer. Great side dish to add on the last minute if you have a well stocked pantry which must have garlic powder. I bought it specially for this recipe. The potatoes tasted wonderfully garlicky without the harsh or burnt garlic.

I'm glad that the onboard meal ran out. Otherwise, I wouldn't have made this dish.

Portion Control

2011-01-15T09:00:00.000+08:00

Whenever I hear of words such as "dieting", "lose weight", "eat less", "less fats" and their likes, it makes me sad, even when I am not the person in the subject matter.

I enjoy eating and there are only three oppportunities in a day for such activities. Most times just two, in fact. I'm talking about meals, not snacks.

Imagine yourself enclosed in a dark cave all the time and you were only given three chances to exit the cave into the sunlight. Would you:

(a) slather yourself with sunblock, top your head with a hat and shield your eyes with sunglasses before stepping out?

(b) bring a timer to ensure you get a even tan front and back?

(c) run right out to see the world and the sky above for all that it is?

(d) stay in the cave?

If you want to make my day, just drop me your choice in the comment section.

I would definitely choose (c). Life is too short as it is.

However, I don't mean to say that everyone should not take necessary precaution against possible risks. If there is a lightning storm outside the cave, please DO NOT run right out to see the world and sky above. In the same light, if calculating your B.M.I. makes you depressed, please do not over-enjoy food when given the two/three opportunities a day.

Note that I used the word "over-enjoy". I believe that regardless of your B.M.I., you still can enjoy food but with sensible portion control.

At the mention of portion control, images of typical Japanese food trays come to mind. See some of these delicious trays here and here both from Blue Lotus - one of my favourite sites to feed my craving for Japanese food.

Here's an interesting picture that I found from AsiaRecipe.com.

It seems to me that the Japanese have perfected the art of portion control by filling up every possible space of the tray with beautifully crafted mismatched tableware which are filled only sufficiently to still be able to allow the display of print on the receptacle. Plentiful but yet sparse. Clever, aren't they?

Anyone eating on portions such as those of the photos earlier on a daily basis should be able to lose weight, right? Well, I devoutly hope so. Because that is what I am betting on to get the scales down on Hubby's weight.

Hubby's weight is at all time high and Princess needs more vegetables in her in diet. All these shout Japanese food, which leftovers make nice bentos the next day.

We had Chicken Stew with Root Vegetables, Rolled Pork Belly with Vegetables (not pictured here), sauteed mushrooms and stir-fried vegetables. Not even remotely close to resembling those photos, but we left the table with happy tummies.

Note to self: Buy more Japanese tableware.

Hoppin' John

2011-01-13T09:37:00.000+08:00

A few months ago I found foodXervices online and had gone to their warehouse to check out their wares. And it was certainly well worth the trip.

I came back carting bags of beans of almost every colour, pastas of almost every shape, pasta flour, exotic seasonings and many other this-and-that. It is almost like a cook's paradise, except that it is a warehouse and hence not as comfortable and glamorous as Cold Storage or even our local NTUC.

The pricing of their wares are at wholesale rate and they stock so many items that are hard to find in our supermarkets. Try looking for dried pinto beans or pappardelle pasta. They have both! Wholesale rate but retail size packaging. Best of both worlds.

However, a word of caution: Check the packaging of the food stuff for rice weevil. I found some of them in their dried pasta.

With so many beans in my pantry, I am digging for recipes on how to cook them. In my search, this dish of Hoppin' John came up since it was associated with been eaten during new year's day. I saw many versions of it as we head into the new year and it calls for the use of black-eyed peas.

As I have never eaten this dish before, I couldn't really reconcile it with anything that I have eaten before. All I know is that it is a popular bean and rice dish which is good for incorporating leftovers.

When the pot was boiling with so much liquid, I concluded that this Hoppin' John must be a stew.

But by the time I stirred the cooked rice in and set the table for dinner. All that liquid has being absorbed by the rice. So I concluded that it is some sort of rice porridge dish.

In truth, both my conclusions are right and wrong.

Some versions serve this as a stew and the accompanying rice is cooked separately. Look at this version from Michael Ruhlman.

Neither is it a rice porridge. I had used the recipe from the Joy of Cooking ('97 ed.) and only realised I made a fatal mistake halfway through the cooking. The rice is suppose to be uncooked, raw rice. Well, you already know that I can't follow instructions, right?

The only saving grace I had was that the particular leftover rice which I dumped in was slightly undercooked and dry. So it absorbed the stock well but turned slightly mushy. I used leftover honey baked ham from Christmas which works well to flavour the dish.

Yes, I'm still clearing Christmas stuff from my fridge. The last bit of turkey was cleared today in the form of a turkey pot pie. My fridge can breathe easy now. I can almost hear it sigh contentedly. I wonder if it is normal to hear voice of my fridge in my head.

Does the dish look better in green plate?

Or brown?

Or neither??!!

Red Bean in Green Tea Buns - Matcha Anpan (抹茶あんぱん)

2011-01-12T13:10:00.001+08:00

At recent trip to Mediya, I stumbled upon packets of prepared red bean paste sold alongside bags of mochi rice cakes that look and feel like tiny bars or discs of white soap. But they taste better than soap, of course! Once at a yakitori place, I had a small bowl of cold red bean served with just a single snowy white ball of mochi rice cake sitting right in the centre. Thinking to re-create the dessert, I grabbed 2 packets of the prepared red bean paste and a bag of the mochi rice cakes.

But today's post is not about that dessert, since I didn't take any photos of it as I hurriedly gobbled it down. Next time, okay?

The reason I grabbed 2 packets of the prepared red bean paste was that one was the coarse grain type while the other was the smooth paste version. Typical of me when I can't decide, I just got both.

I made dessert with the coarse grain version and it came close to what I had in the restaurant. I was so happy, until I realised I am missing the yakitori. Dang!

Anyway, today's post is not about the dessert. Oh, I said that already? Sorry.

After deciding that coarse grainy version goes well with mochi rice cakes, I had to think of what to do with the other packet of smooth red bean paste.

Then I recalled reading about red bean buns from Cherie's Red Bean Bun and me commenting that I will someday try it for breakfast. Yes, I am a procrastinator. How did you know?

As with all my making of Japanese foods, my #1 source will be Cookpad.com. Anpan is such a big thing with them that they created a separate thread for all recipes related to its making. Makes the search all the more breezy.

If only all marriages in the world are as successful as that of the green tea and red beans, the world will be filled with more people who will enjoy these matcha anpan.

When I licked the red bean paste off the spoon, I was worried that I have filled the buns with too much of the paste which was excessively sweet. My mom always ask why do the Japs like their food so sweet? I could only answer that since they can't find sweetness in their lives (look at their two decades of lost years), they can only look towards it in their foods. I don't know exactly when I became a worry wart. But whenever I bake bread, I worry. It's becoming second nature.

My bun shaping skill is sorely lacking and therefore I can't bring myself to show you the cross-section of the bun. Apart from that, I am quite happy with them taste-wise, except maybe for asthetics the next time round I will top with the traditional black sesame instead.

Can someone please update me on what is the price of a smooth paste red bean bun which is sold the bakery at the basement of Isetan @ Scotts? The last time (three years ago?) I bought it was S$2.00.

Red Bean in Green Tea Buns
(Matcha Anpan - 抹茶あんぱん)

Ingredients
200g Bread flour
3g Instant yeast
3g Fine salt
5g Caster sugar (Take note the level of sweetness of the red bean filling)
4g Green tea powder
10g Unsalted butter, softened
140g Full cream milk (Warmed, if you want to shorten the proofing process)
180g Red bean paste

Directions
1. Combine the first five ingredients in the mixing bowl of the mixer.

2. Add in the milk and knead until the dough comes together.

3. Add the butter and continue to knead until it has been thoroughly worked into the dough.

4. Cover the dough with a cling film and let it rest until double in size.

5. Portion the dough into 8 equal pieces. Weigh it if you want to. I usually just eyeball it.

6. Roll each piece into a disc no larger than the palm of your hand.

7. Place the dough disc on your palm and scoop red bean paste onto it. Seal the bun and place it seam side down on a greased baking sheet.

8. Cover the buns on the baking sheet with a cling film and let it proof until double in size.

9. Remove the cling film and brush the tops of the buns with either egg wash or milk. Drop some sesame seeds on top and bake at 190 degC for 12 - 15 min.

Pasta with Chicken, Broccoli and Sun-dried Tomatoes

2011-01-10T20:40:00.002+08:00

Chicken, broccoli and pasta. It is the perfect one-dish meal one a weekday night. What's not to love about it?

Except that a jar of sun-dried tomatoes cost S$8.35 a 200g jar, which is as expensive as the pound of chicken breasts in the recipe. So would you rather buy another pound of chicken breast or the jar of sun-dried tomatoes?

Since my food resolution has been about eating more whole natural food, I should be picking up another pound of chicken. But because I was trying out this recipe for the first time, I wanted to know how it really taste like before I start messing around with it.

If you have been following my blog for some time, you would know that I am fearless when coming to messing around with recipes from Cook's Illustrated/America Test Kitchen. Just not this time.

The recipe for this easy pasta dish can be found at ~wingerz and I got mine from the Cook's Illustrated Annual 2005. I love their annuals.

In fact, pasta, broccoli and chicken seems to be such a perfect combination that dish is Cook's Illustrated/America Test Kitchen has another version of it in their The America Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook.

Any difference in the two versions? Being a healthy family cookbook, the butter had been dropped in favour of olive oil. This recipe should be cheaper since it only calls for half a jar of sun-dried tomatoes. But wait ... it added 2 anchovy fillets. So after making the pasta from this recipe, you will end up with half a jar of sun-dried tomatoes and half of the tinned anchovy. Great if you would consider making another batch.

As for the version I made, it is said to be able to serve four but we were fighting with spoons to dig into the skillet.

Hearty Vegetable Soup

2011-01-09T13:10:00.003+08:00

I love the weather at this time of the year. The sky looked overcast most mornings. And when I turned into our carpark in the late afternoons, there will always be a slight drizzle.

Rainy days give me the perfect excuse not to drive. Not that I ride without protection from the elements. Just that I need any excuse not to drive. I'm born to be driven and rue the day I decided to learn driving. What madness has possessed me?

Not driving out meant that I have to dig deep into the fridge and pantry. Actually, I don't have to dig very deep. These days my fridge is always filled to its brim. Hubby even joked that we don't need to paste anything on the fridge during Chinese New Year cos it is so full already. You see, during Chinese New Year people will usually paste the 满 word (Chinese: plentiful) on the rice bins to symbolise the hope that there will be plenty of food for the coming year. Guess I don't need that sticker.

Yes, I have the tendency to horde more food than we could eat. I just can't stand the sight of a barren fridge. It makes me feel sad and deprived. Or is that deprived and therefore sad? My mind is a bit warped today.

What's in my fridge? Erm ... I'm not too sure actually. But I did manage to dig out enough to cook this vegetable soup.

This vegetable soup came from The Best of America Test Kitchen 2007, which was the first book in my Cooking the Cookbook experiment. I wonder why I didn't make it that time. Anyway, I will just add this on to the list.

Since the first day I started cooking from Cook's Illustrated/America Test Kitchen books, none the dishes I cook ever resemble that of those big whole page pictures. Sometimes not even remotely. Cos I just can't follow instructions. But this photo came really close to the picture on the book. Take a look at it.

The recipe for this hearty vegetable soup can be found at What Did You Eat? and it is amazingly easy. Just stir in ingredients one after another in one pot, blend it for the smooth texture and then add in those last minute ingredients back to that same pot. How easy is that? Now I sound like Ina Garten.

However, please note that you do need a blender to puree a good portion of the soup to achieve the smooth texture. Puree all, and you have a hearty vegetable soup for baby food. The recipe is completely meatless and we didn't even crave for meat.

The soup is thick, rich, smooth and sweet. Most of all, it is filling. We ate this alone for dinner while the rain continued to fall quietly from the sky outside.

Roasted Tomatoes

2011-01-05T11:15:00.000+08:00

My mom has recently taken a fancy to eating foods that are definitely not native. But the irony is that she cooks typical local dishes for as long as I have eaten her cooking. And that's where I, her only gluttonous daugther, come in. Her other offsprings are foodies but not much of a cook.

During one of those afternoons when she came for a visit, she spied a book on my table and started flipping through it. And when she was done, she declared that she would love to visit Italy and eat Mediterranean foods.

Me: "What would you like on your pizza?"

Mom: "Artichokes."

Me: "What would you like in the pan sauce?"

Mom: "Capers."

Me: "What would you like in your pasta?"

Mom: "Olives."

So when we found we had too many cherry tomatoes in the fridge, I decided to roast them. Just tomatoes, garlic, olive oil and capers. And, of course, salt and pepper. Generous amounts of them.

After about 45 minutes of roasting in a 180 degC oven, the resulting tray of tomatoes is delicious enough to eat on its own.

I packed the leftovers into a container with all the oil and it kept well for 3 days. Top it over toast and enjoy!

Food Forecast for 2011

2011-01-03T10:58:00.004+08:00

Happy New Year to all my readers!

As always with the beginning of the year, it is a good time to lay down some food resolutions going forward.

2010 food resolutions were short and sweet. Simple but yet challenging in their own ways.

The year saw me buying lots of free range meats, organic milk, Omega-3 eggs and natural cheeses. They are definitely more costly, but being able to know for a fact that I am feeding our bodies with the most nutritious food available is worth it.

The manifesto of eating whole natural food is challenging when it comes to snacks and grains. I am still feeding our little princess lots of junk and also I can't seem to make a switch to whole grains. It is the wiring of this pair of brains I am carrying around. I'm still looking for a manual over-write.

While I have certainly been making more of my own foods than buying, there is still room for improvement.

Also in the year, I did the Cooking The Cookbook experiment. It was alot of fun and got to try out recipes which I wouldn't have otherwise attempted.

This year's food forecast will be similiar to the last, but with some new additions.

* Eat more whole natural food *

* Make, not buy*

* Doing another Cooking The Cookbook *

* Doing more mini food projects/themes *

Let's hope this year my foodie adventures will turn up more interesting than the last.

"Quick Bread": Pancakes

2010-12-30T11:03:00.003+08:00

I know. Since I had earlier denounced the use of the term "quick bread" in my earlier post, I really didn't want to use this misnomer. However, I realised that I need to keep this term for several reasons.

Firstly, the term is short and handy. Secondly, most of my books have a separate section entitled "quick bread" and if I start calling these baked goods by any other name, I might have problem tracing the original recipes later on. Thirdly, we time starved creatures like anything that is quick right?

Let's leave this confusing state of affairs to some other days when I can hear myself think.

After two years since I wrote the post about my love-hate relationship with buttermilk, the situation still has not changed much. But I attribute that to my own laziness and lack of organisation.

As you can see, I still love making and eating buttermilk pancakes. I just have to find a way to resolve this. For the sake of the carton of buttermilk sitting in the chiller now.

Maybe I should just take a piece of paper and list down recipes which calls specifically for buttermilk. Of course, buttermilk can be used in place of milk in any baking recipe, except that you will have to add a tinge of baking soda to neutralise the acidity.

Sitting down eating warm pancakes slathered with butter and dripping honey while sipping a mug of hot tea on a Saturday morning at my own dining table is indeed a luxury which I can only afford on a Saturday morning. Regretably, such mornings are far and few in between.

Method of combination: Muffin method
Mess factor: Low
Difficulty level: Ultra easy
Time from start to eat: 15 minutes (+ 15 minutes preferably, let the batter rest for airy texture)
Make in advance: Yes, prepare batter the night before and refrigerate

Buttermilk Pancakes
(from Joy of Cooking '97 ed.)

Ingredients
(Dry)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

(Wet)
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Combine the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Cook on hot pan and serve immediately.

What's A Quick Bread?

2010-12-29T11:13:00.000+08:00

If pulling out a mixer to cream the butter and sugar is someone's idea of quick, I won't mind having my forehead branded with the word "BUM". Sorry, overdose of Slave Hunter.

That is exactly where this banana bread recipe was listed in the "Quick Bread" section of Joy of Cooking '97 ed.

I can't claim that I was conned into making this thinking that it was quick since I have made this before. But, quick or not, this recipe is a keeper. Just remember to go easy on the sugar.

But I am curious to know what actually does "quick bread" mean and where do we draw the lines between this, the cake and the bread?

According to Epicurious food dictionary, it means "bread that is quick to make because it doesn't require kneading or rising time. That's because the leavener in such a bread is usually baking powder or baking soda, which, when combined with moisture, starts the rising process immediately. In the case of double-acting baking powder, oven heat causes a second burst of rising power. Eggs can also be used to leaven quick breads. This genre includes most biscuits, muffins, popovers and a wide variety of sweet and savory loaf breads."

Quick breads can be made by any of the following methods:

1. Muffin method. The easiest and has the lowest mess factor. Dry ingredients in a bowl and wet ones in another. When ready, just mix them up and stir until well combined. However, there is a cost to this, the texture of the bread will be dense and possibly squat looking.

2. Rubbing in method. I was taught this in home ec lesson, but I can't recall what I was making then. Anyway, this is another easy method, or they would not be teaching it in schools to hare-brained girls. Start with chilled cubed butter and rub them into a bowl of dry ingredients with your finger tips. But be forewarned that the mess factor can quickly escalate if you have too much fun and your fingers linger too long in the bowl. The mix is ready when it appears to be sandy or crumbly. This can be done in a food processor.

3. Creaming method. Typical method for making cakes whereby the butter and sugar are creamed before adding dry ingredients. If you want an arm workout, go ahead and do this by hand. If not, pull out your mixer. Because the air is beaten into the batter, the texture will be lighter and more cakelike.

In my books, I would draw the line for "quick bread" at Method #3, and at #2 as well if the recipe specifically calls for a food processor. As the name suggests, it is suppose to be quick, straight forward, accomodating (in terms of skill level and ingredients) and almost idiot proof. It shouldn't require a mixer nor food processor; if you have the use of your hands, you can make them too. Ultimately, it is suppose to be a good platform for a freshie baker to start dipping his or her toes in and building rapport with the oven.

And also in my books, you won't find the term "quick bread", it would be more accurately named "chemically leavened baked goods", which is what baking powder and baking soda really are, or "egg leavened baked goods".

So that we are all on the same page in my books, whenever the word "bread" appears on this site, it refers to the yeasted variant only.

After re-arranging this "quick bread" catagory into sub-catagories, I realised that so far I have only attempted six out of the eleven sub-catagories. And this could only mean more experimenting! Except waffles, which I wouldn't be able to make without an iron, I hope to work down the list for remaining sub-catagory and share them here.

All I Want For Christmas Is ... Another Christmas

2010-12-27T13:07:00.003+08:00

It is the 27th Dec 2010.

And I missed Christmas already. *sob*

I missed the festive mood, the feasting and most of all being able to spend time with the family.

But the part I don't miss: the post-feasting dilemma. My pants feels tight and my poor fridge is threatening loudly to self destruct if I don't cut down its load soon.

I am declaring the kitchen is still closed until we clear out the leftovers or I have finally gotten over the holiday blues, the earlier of whichever.

I need a piece of Christmas stollen now.

Days Leading to Christmas

2010-12-22T13:18:00.005+08:00

Just a quick update on what I have been up to these days since my posts are so infrequent.

(1) Days leading to Christmas are usually crazy. We will be having the usual Christmas dinner and apart from preparing food, I need to clean my house. Badly. We have ordered our festive goodies from Werner's Oven and fervently hope that this year's fare will be as good as the last. We do not have a Plan B.

(2) Flu bugs are upon us. We are dropping off like flies. Our holiday gifts? Flu virus.

(3) Running around. I have been shuttling between my place and my mom's. She's got it bad from the virus and needs lots of TLC. We even got her a fruit juicer to cheer her up. By the time I call it a night, I am better off dead than alive.

Our dinners these days look like this. Simple and easy on the stomach.

(4) Reading. Whenever I could manage to find pockets of free time, I sit down to Ruth Reichl's Not Becoming My Mother. Non food related. I got my copy from the library.

(5) New food forecast for this site. When I can hear myself think, which is not very often these days, I try to come up with the direction of this site for the coming year. I don't think I can beat 2010's direction in terms of simplicity but still I will try think of something.

So here's wishing all my readers a happy holiday!

Bread Making Notes - Flour, Yeast and Books

2010-12-17T15:00:00.004+08:00

Question: If you are making a loaf of bread, would you use self-raising flour?

(1) Yes. It is still flour, right?

(2) No. They sell bread flour for such stuff.

(3) Maybe. When I don't have anything else on hand.

(4) I don't make bread.

If your answer is (4), what are you waiting for? Start making already! Or bribe somebody to make it for you. For your info, I can be that somebody. Or get one of those bread maker machines, despite that they yield funnily shaped loaves.

The question seems like a no-brainer to me. Or maybe I am too simplistic. If I am making bread, I would go for bread flour. Ditto for cake, unless the recipe specifically calls for plain flour. The world is now so spoon fed, so don't fight it. Just go with the flow. You following me?

Now, I would like to point you to last Sunday's article which appeared on the "Ask The Foodie".

Perhaps due to space constrains the columnist was not able to write more on the subject. His article probably isn't as lucrative as advertisments from clients such as West Coast Plaza. So I want to share a few of my thoughts and notes on this matter.

I usually make a loaf of the so-called "Asian preferred bread" with only 7 ingredients: bread flour, plain flour, instant yeast, salt, sugar, milk, and butter. I knock out most of the Western breads and pizzas with bread flour as well.

Why? It is not just because the flour has been labelled so. It is because of the higher protein content in the flour that provides a better crumb structure for a well risen yeasted bread.

Here's a quick science lesson on bread making: "When water is added to flour, two proteins, glutenin and gliadin, combine to form gluten. Gluten forms a network of proteins that stretch through the dough like a web, trapping air bubbles that form as the yeast ferments. This creates the characteristic air holes of perfect bread." So obviously the higher the level of protein, the stronger the gluten network.

So let's compare the various types of white flour that are commonly used in general baking.

~ Plain Flour (aka All-purpose Flour) ~
This flour is a blend of hard and soft wheat, which may come bleached or unbleached. Protein levels range between 8% to 11%. Flour that is bleached naturally as it ages is labeled "unbleached," while chemically treated flour is labeled "bleached." Bleached flour has less protein than unbleached. Unfortunately, in this part of the world we are left to hazard a guess on whether our plain flour is bleached or not. Free chemicals with your flour? How nice.

~ Bread Flour ~
This flour is white flour made from hard, high-protein wheat. It has more gluten strength and protein content than plain flour. It is unbleached and sometimes conditioned with ascorbic acid, which increases volume and creates better texture. Protein levels range between 12% to 14%.

~ Self-rasing Flour ~
Self-rising flour, sometimes referred to as phosphated flour, is a low-protein flour with salt and leavening (baking powder) already added. It's most often recommended for biscuits and some quick breads, but never for yeast breads. Exact formulas, including the type of baking powder used, vary by manufacturer. Recipes that call for self-rising flour do not call for the addition of salt or leavening agents.

~ Cake Flour ~
Cake flour is a fine-textured, soft-wheat flour with a high starch content. It has the lowest protein content of any wheat flour, 8% to 10% protein. It is chlorinated by way of bleaching which leaves the flour slightly acidic, sets a cake faster and distributes fat more evenly through the batter to improve texture. When you're making baked goods with a high ratio of sugar to flour, this flour will be better able to hold its rise and will be less likely to collapse. This flour is excellent for baking fine-textured cakes with greater volume and is used in some quick breads, muffins and cookies.

In summary, when making bread go with bread flour, or plain flour if you are confident of the quality. Let's move on to the next ingredient mentioned in question - yeast.

I am just guessing that the lady asking the question must have been using active dry yeast since she added the yeast to a water and sugar solution. This step is unnecessary for instant yeast since it is genetically engineered from different strains of yeast tailored for bread making. I just add them to the flour directly in the mixing bowl. I love shortcuts. And since instant yeast is genetically engineered, it is more potent than other types of bread making yeast, hence you will need lesser amount (25% lesser than active dry yeast). Lesser yeast in the dough, lower chance of an overly yeasty smelling bread.

So how much yeast to use in a loaf?

The columnist pointed out that you will require 1.5g of yeast for every 100g of flour. That's 1.5% yeast-to-flour ratio.

By the way, for more serious bread making, I prefer to deal with metric measurements (e.g. grams or ounces) than volumetric (e.g. teaspoon or cups). Reason? The bread baker's ratio. For more info on this ratio, head over to Cookistry. But when I am in a casual mode, I'm not too bothered by this.

A quick comparison with my previous loaves, you will find that my Soft White Bread II formula calls for a 1.3% yeast-to-flour ratio while my Fluffy White Bread has a 1.2% ratio.

So my theory is that if you use the right flour, you will need less yeast to achive the aeration of a fluffy white bread and hence the lower chance of a yeasty smelling bread.

Other scrapes of notes

Yeast Still Alive? As I mentioned above, I use instant yeast which I add directly to the flour without proofing it in sugar solution. The downside of this shortcut is that you can't be entirely sure if the yeast is still alive until it is too late. So do check your yeast occasionally, especially if you haven't used it recently. Expiry dates aren't quite useful if the opened container of yeast haven't been stored properly. I use Bake King Instant Yeast and keep the opened bottle in the fridge.

Bread Flour. Not all bread flour are created equal. So the quality varies among manufacturers. I use Bake King Bread Flour with good results. I'm hoping to try other brands, if and when I do find them.

Wholemeal Flour. When adding wholemeal flour into dough, I tend to notice that the dough comes together more quickly and drier. This is a good addition to increase the nutrition level of the bread. I like to swap just a scant 10% of total flour used for wholemeal. I am still very much a white bread person. I use Prima Wholemeal Flour since it is the only wholemeal flour available at most supermarkets.

Lastly, the article refer readers to check out books from Peter Reinhart, which I would like to point to a specific book of his - The Bread Baker's Apprentice. Really excellent book and easy to understand. There even seems to be some sort of a cult following for the book which they have codenamed it BBA.

Other books I would recommend for understanding the breadmaking process: Baking Illustrated and Dough.

Baking Illustrated covers more than just breadmaking but the notes preceeding each bread recipe provide information to make a better bread. But do note that measurements for the ingredients here are volumetric and recipes are for Western breads.

My breadmaking finally made a breakthrough after I had read Dough and watched Richard Bertinet knead an ultra wet dough confidently on DVD. My view on breadmaking was radically changed. I used to think that baking a bread was almost equivalent to performing a pin-hole surgery - everything must be precise. If you ask me again today what I think of breadmaking. I will tell you this: it is VERY accomodating. No mixer? Just knead by hand. Dough too wet? Add more flour. Dough too dry? Add more liquid of your choice. Can't bake now? Let the dough sit out longer. This book contains many recipes for European style bread.

However, to make those fluffy and cottony white breads, I usually look to the Japanese website Cookpad for recipes. Even if you don't read Japanese, do check some of the recipes as they provide step-by-step photos. The measurements are mostly metric and they tend to bake smaller loaves. Most of my bread recipes come from there.

This is not a paid post for any of the brands nor books mentioned above. It is just my personal preference.

Eating On A Budget

2010-12-10T11:10:00.005+08:00

Last night I went to bed with Jeffrey Steingarten's wonderful book The Man Who Ate Everything. I consider myself lucky to be able to read TWO chapters before I had to go attend to our little princess's nightly sleeping ritual. Usually before I am able to warm my seat reading a book, our little princess will come and try to get my attention in the most unruly way possible in her books. We are working on this issue. But not getting anywhere, unfortunately.

Anyway, the first chapter last night was Staying Alive. A very interesting essay exploring the possibility of living on a subsistence budget without the sacrifice of good eating. (Subsistence: the means of support life, usually referring to food and other basic commodities.)

The essay reminded me of the article I wrote back in October 2008 about the S$36 a month in meal vouchers each of our needy folks receive here and ask if anyone can survive on it. Back then everyone was about belt tightening and bootstrapping. Now, as the queues outside restaurants snake longer than ever before, the plight of our less privileged comrades fades further into our mind's deep recesses.

After I put down the book, I couldn't help but wonder how and what do people on Public Assistance Scheme eat. How do they stay alive?

To answer that question, I followed Mr. Steingarten's lead and head over to our statistics department and look for some clues about how we much we spend on food each month. Thanks to the internet, research is just a few touches on the screen.

The average household spend about S$1,069^ a month on food, which works out to be S$305 per person (the average household size is 3.5* persons) or a daily S$10.18 per person.

To make a similar comparison with someone on Public Assistance, I looked at the spending pattern of a typical household from the lowest income quintile. Making a few adjustments, such as re-routing expenses from Education to Healthcare and also Communications to Food. I doubt education at this stage is critical nor will they reach for the handphone to call for home delivery. So for a person on Public Assistance, I estimate that he or she would probably have S$93 for food from the S$360 they receive each month. Add the additional $36 meal vouchers, it would translate to S$4.30 daily for a 30-day month.

I don't think anyone would be hard-pressed to find a S$3 meal of hot food from the 28 hawker centres throughout our tiny land. For the average person, he would still be able to enjoy a coffee or tea for S$0.90 after he had his 3 square meals for the day. With leftover. While the fella on S$4.30 budget would have to think carefully if he wants to go to bed with a full belly or start his day with one.

So I texted Hubby (The One would tell me to buy 3 plates of S$2 chicken rice rather than 2 plates of S$3) to ask him if he was given S$4.30 daily for food, how would he spend it.

Hubby: "U mean to buy cooked food or food to cook?"

Me: "Either."

Hubby: "Pool the money together for 7 days and buy ingredients from wet market. Buy 2 chickens for S$15, which is good for a week."

Me: "So u think the amount is decent?"

Hubby: "I think is a question of quality."

Me: "Or put the other way, will someone be able to survive on this amount?"

Hubby: "U can't expect beef or seafood. But, yes, I think S$4.30 is possible. Even if use to buy cooked food."

Me: "Remember it is a day, not a meal."

Hubby: "Probably have to eat 2 meals instead of 3. Then load up on carbo. Around my office, u can order 2 packets of S$2 veg and meat rice. One for lunch, another dinner. That's S$4."

Me: "Terrible thought."

Hubby: "Well, still a balanced meal."

Me: "Yes."

Hubby: "If not, order 2 veg and gravy for around S$1.30 - S$1.50. Then u can eat 3 meals."

Me: "Oh my!"

I doubt I am the kind of wife who will stick with him when he only has S$4.30 a day to feed me. Our princess, on the other hand, will gleefully lap up any assortment of veg-meat-rice combo.

So as you can see, here in Singapore it is possible to stay alive with a budget of S$4.30 eating at hawker centre every day. For this economic reason and other reasons such as convenience, eating out daily is a way of life. But even so, I would think that everyone who eats out, either by choice or otherwise, would yearn for a home-cooked meal occasionally.

Out of curiosity, I wonder if there is a way to feed yourself with a S$4.30 a day budget on home cooked food. Despite what many may think that home cooked food is healthier and cheaper, I chanced upon an article the other day with a heading that read “Feed four people for A$10? Tell ’em they’re dreaming” from The Sydney Morning Herald. The paper’s test chefs concluded that “it is virtually impossible to feed four people properly” if you are buying at retail prices. It went even further to say “if you’ve got a A$10 note, a pot and a bare cupboard, forget about it. The A$10 family meal is a thing of the past.” Now that’s heartening. At least these chefs have more financial sense of the real home cooking than those chefs that our own paper took on to cook a S$10 meal back in April 2008.

Assuming that over here we have the same purchasing power parity as in Australia, is it impossible to cook at home and eat properly for S$2.50 a meal per mouth? Now, if you will recall, our guy only has S$4.30 a day who possibly can get hold of a cooking vessel but has an empty cupboard. Does it mean that he or she can’t feed himself or herself with decent home cooked food?

A very disturbing thought at that.

By the way, I am assuming that you are not on the Public Assistance Scheme like budget, please consider getting yourself The Man Who Ate Everything and join me in laughing and thinking.

This is not a paid promotional post for the book.

Note:
^ figures taken from Report on the Household Expenditure Survey 2007/08 published by Singapore Department of Statistics
* figure taken from Population Trends 2010 published by Singapore Department of Statistics

Stewing Over iPhone Photos

2010-12-07T09:37:00.000+08:00

This hideous picture came out of my iPhone. I just can't make them come out any better than this. Arghh ... I give up.

Beef stew is something that I make often and it most probably is my holy grail of my cooking journey. The goal has always been the same - a bowl of thick stew laden with chunky vegetables and hunks of meat that yields to the slightest pressure from a spoon. A bowl of comfort and contentment in the hand.

But looking at the photo for this stew, it is anything but comfortable.

Soft Pretzels

2010-12-06T11:00:00.001+08:00

I came across an article from NY Times about making soft pretzels the old fashioned way and also another in Salon where they report that people are giving the pretzels a face-lift.

Just look at them. All bronze and prefectly shaped. Their look make me drool over my keyboard and filled me with envy.

I can't really recall where else on this island one would be able to see pretzels other than Auntie Anne's. And at Werner's Oven too, of course. I must confess that I am not much of a pretzel person even when there was a Auntie Anne just below my office for the past 9 years. I doubt I bought more than 5 pieces of anything from the little shop.

Pretzels are ... pretzels. They are nice but somehow taste foreign in my mouth. Much the same way I catagorise the chapati.

Then I gave it a try. Make my own, that is. Please excuse this food snob here. I still believe that if I want anything decent, I will have to make my own. Or that it has to be from a reputable establishment. Or something that is WAY beyond my megre culinary skills, which there are many that falls into this category if you are wondering.

If you are too polite to comment on it, I will. For both our sakes. My pretzels looked hideous.

Twisting pretzels is not a walk in the park. But then again it is no rocket science. It just needs a lot of practice. Which I haven't any.

These pretzels are soft and chewy. We ate it plain and with some cream cheese. They are dangerous. They encourage over-eating. So beware. Make them at your own risk.

All of these are all resting in a happy place - in our tummies. *lick fingers*

The recipe is from Baking Illustrated and can be found here.

Traditions

2010-12-03T12:00:00.003+08:00

From my window at dusk

"Traditions must evolve - otherwise they become acts without meaning, fossils from dead civilizations, relics of a past that remind us of where we were, not where we're going." - David Mas Masumoto, Holiday Meals.

I have been seeing pages after pages of articles about Thanksgiving and then suddenly at the flip of a certain switch now they are all talking about Christmas. It is quite baffling for me since Thanksgiving is not in my culture, the day (which falls on 25 Nov this year) was a non-event to me. However, any sort of celebration involving food is always interesting to me, and presumably you as well.

Celebrating Christmas is something that I can relate to. Not for any religious reasons though. We are Buddhist. But I rationalised that it doesn't preclude us from feasting with the family especially when good food establishments start pushing their Christmas catalog your way.

I can't exactly remember when I suggested to my mom that very thought of using Christmas as the perfect excuse to pig out. I guess she saw the glutton in me then. But my mom wasn't overly concerned about it. In fact, I suspect, she encouraged it. Year after year, she carted back whole turkeys, chucks of roast beef and hocks of ham. Now it has taken control over me. She smiled, feigning innocence. Now I know where it all started.

I have some half-formed romantic idea of starting a tradition of my own. Something like a proper sit down breakfast on Saturday morning or lunch on Sunday. But just thinking about what goes into the planning, logistics and cooking, I realise that I am just too disorganised for the job. It is one thing to suggest a tradition when the actual preparation is done by someone else, but a totally different matter when everything falls on your lap, or in this case your kitchen.

I wonder what tradition am I passing on to our little princess. What will she remember of our family life together when she reflect later on in her life?

Post edit: The New York Times ran an article about how people adapt their parent's traditions according to the changing time and their own lifestyle. It then dawn on me that I don't have to cook the same food that my mom cooks for our Chinese Reunion Dinner to give our little princess a tradition, what is more important at the end of the day is that the whole family is together and sharing a moment.

Carnivore Sauce

2010-11-30T10:29:00.006+08:00

(photo taken from Cook's Illustrated website)

What's not to love when you have a plate like this placed right in front of you?

Maybe the glaring fact that you WILL overeat will give you pause.

Even our little princess was lured to the table and ate an adult portion despite her dislike for anything with tomato in it. I told her that the sauce over the pasta is called Carnivore Sauce because the variety of meats that went into the pot. Her eyes lit up with a those meat-loving twinkle.

I was fully prepared to slave away at the stove just to find out what exactly is an Italian Sunday Gravy. When I read the recipe, I couldn't believe my eyes.

Firstly, I need 4 types of meat for this sauce. And secondly, I don't have to brown all the meats. I sent up a prayer silently. It is strange. I have never regard myself as a reglious person, but being in the kitchen seems to make me so.

The prep work took less than 15 minutes. I know cos our little princess popped into the kitchen every 5 minutes asking if I am done. 15 minutes for a pot of delicious-ness? It is my most well spent 15 minutes of my life.

By the way, I should really suggest to America's Test Kitchen to change the name of this sauce. It is really a carnivore sauce. There's tender, juicy and flavourful meat in every bite. You can't escape it. Not that you will want to.

Good Read: Walter The Baker

2010-11-29T10:16:00.000+08:00

I swear I will never be sick of children's books which has a theme revolving around food. And from what I have Googled, it seems like there is not lack of books in such catagory. *Grin*

I stumbled across this book when I was standing around at the very rowdy children's book section of Kinokuniya (I really pity those overworked shop assistants who would have to pack up that section at the end of the day! I wouldn't wish it on anyone.) while our little princess was busy picking out a book for herself. I was getting impatient and started pulling out books and shoving them in front of her face.

Me: "How about this?"

She: "No."

Me: "How about this? It looks ... interesting." I didn't think I sound very convincing.

She: "No thanks."

Me: "How about this one? Looks ... exciting." Yeah, I am that pushy.

She: "Nope."

Me: "Look, we haven't got all day here ... " My eyes roaming back to the bookshelf to recommend another book.
Then I saw it. She saw it at the same time too. We both reached for it at the same time. A quick flip of the book. I knew that I must get this book. For myself. For my sanity. Half dragging our little princess, we made beeline for the cashier.

If you are familiar with The Very Hungry Caterpillar, you will know what to expect of the illustration style in this book. Vivid colours and interesting storyline. Walter the Baker is simple enough for our little princess to understand and after the story we had many nights of discussion about what bakers do while we sleep. She seems to be fascinated about nocturnal aspect of the job. We even followed up with a visit to some of the traditional bakeries around Singapore one night after witching hour.

Traditional bakeries we visited:
(1) Jie Bakery & Confectionery - 123 Upper Paya Lebar Road; Open 24 hours
(2) Ghee Leong/Sin Hon Loong Bakery - 4 Whampoa Drive

Ice Box Loot

2010-11-28T20:51:00.006+08:00

Do you like pot luck gathering?

I do. I love it. As a guest at such gathering, you end up eating something which you do not expect or would not normally eat. As a host/hostess, it takes the whole load of stress of food preparation off your shoulder, except for some coordination of the food that your guests prepare to avoid duplication. It could get competitive. Possibly ugly. Men. *Roll eyes*

Anyway, during such gathering we always would volunteer to bring a cooler box loaded with chilled drinks. Trust me, most host/hostess would thank you for it. They might even kiss the ground you walk on, if they were desperate. Our cooler box is big enough for a toddler to sit in it and splash around with some ice cubes. One of best thing about bringing a cooler box? We usually end up bringing home a lot more than we had brought along. Sometimes we ended up with ice cream. During our Brunch, we ended up with yogurt.

The other day, we ended up with bottles of beer. I had devoutly prayed for some of those leftover caramel ice cream somone brought, but instead these bottles of beer turned up in the ice box. We don't drink much. The bottles of red and white wines in my fridge are strictly for cooking only. They stood around the fridge shelf looking sad and dejected and probably cursing their fate for having ended up in such unappreciative human's fridge. I even told Hubby about their plight. To which he asked me to cook something with them.

Off the bat, I could think of probably fish and chips. Beer batter for the fish is something which I had read about. Other than that? I am as lost in the time-space continuum theory.

Then a recipe caught my eye. Beer-Batter Cheese Bread. Is that possible? Does it taste good? There is only one way to find out. What's to lose? Maybe wasting a really good block of cheese stings but that's the usual cost of experiments.

This recipe is absurdly simple. And coming from The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2009, though they don't cut corners, it just made me feel suspicious. Are beer-batter bread that easy?

The crust was divine. Crunchy, cheesy and salty. Every time you bring your teeth down on it, you could hear the satisfying crackle of the crust to the last bite. The crumb was soft and surprising airy. This was perhaps the work of the gas in the beer. However, I detected a tinge of sweetness in the bread. It felt disconcerting. I guess it was the use of 3 tablespoons of sugars - it just feels like a lot for a savoury bread. The dough smells mostly of salty melted cheese, but if you really want to put it close to your nose, you would probably detect a hint of the beer.

I would be eyeing those bottles of beers next time at pot luck gatherings from now on.

*************************
Beer-Batter Cheese Bread
(from The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2009)
*************************

8 oz Gruyere cheese, 4 oz shredded and 4 oz cubed
3 cups plain flour
3 tbsp sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 pepper
1 12 oz bottle of light bodied beer
4 tbsp butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 180 degC. Butter a 9 x 5 inch loaf tin.

2. Mix all the ingredients, except the beer and butter, in a big mixing bowl.

3. Stir in the beer nd mix well. Pour the batter into the loaf tin. Spread evenly to all corners of the tin.

4. Pour the melted butter evely over the batter.

5. Bake for 55 mins.

Savoury Cheese Muffins

2010-11-22T12:31:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, I saw an article on The Sunday Times about more supermarkets here are offering a wider variety of cheese in response to the increasing local demand. I'd say it's about time!

I grew up on pale soft square slices of so-called cheddar cheese, often found on my breakfast plate in those ungodly morning hours during my school days. I was just too sleepy to even want to know what I was eating.

This was my only exposure to cheese until Pizza Hut came along with mozzarella cheese and wedges of Laughing Cow cream cheese started popping up in the supermarkets. It was pathetic.

Years later, I still buy those highly processed sliced cheese from time to time despite their almost barely there cheese taste, for our little princess' palate is simply too unaccustomed to the taste of real cheese.

And I thought that her immature palate was the only one I had to deal with. Until I met blue cheese.

If you Google blue cheese, you will most probably see words such as "pungent", "odour" or "ferociously overpowering" used to describe its smell. For me, I would best describe it a bad case of athlete's foot.

It was bad. Real bad. I got dirty looks from Hubby and our little princess pinched her nose while trying to focus on her cartoon.

But all that changed when this appeared out of the oven.

Smell of melted salty cheese drew everyone to the table to have a closer look. Can this really be made from those blue-veined crumbly stinky cheese?

It looked no different from my usual bakes with its slightly skewed cap top that reminds me of a beret.

Although anything eaten straight out of the oven is wonderful, I have to say that it was more so for these muffins. The smell became quite subdued, almost crossing over to lightly aromatic when warm. The pockets of slightly melted cheese in the salted soft fluffy crumb tasted tangy and sharp.

I highly doubt that I would ever want to buy blue cheese again. The scornful looks I had received from both of them warned me so.

This recipe came from The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2007. The very same book which I had put to test earlier the year. I thought that I was done with the book, but somehow, I just had to flip it again. And look what I've found.

Kimchi Fried Udon

2010-11-18T09:25:00.001+08:00

I've made kimchi fried rice, kimchi pancakes as well as kimchi stew and am still constantly looking out for more ways to cook with this fiery delectable stuff. I thought I saw somewhere that you can make kimchi gyoza too.

When I saw the bags of udon and kimchi sitting in the fridge, I thought might as well match-make them ala yaki udon style.

This is the perfect example of my home cooking style - unconventional fusion and unsystematic measurements.

Good Read: Bee-bim Bop

2010-11-17T10:11:00.001+08:00

Whenever I watch Korean drama, I will crave Korean food. Scenes of diners digging heartily into bowls of piping hot soups/stews, hungrily shoving white rice into their faces and the myriad colourful side dishes on the table. I am HUNGRY! I think there is some insidious subconsious brainwashing message embedded in each episode of those drama serials. Well, that's my conspiracy theory at least.

In hopes of our little princess joining us in our Korean food craze, I found Bee-bim Bop to be the perfect book to rope her in. She was so intrigued by all the ingredients that go into the dish and had asked me to prepare it for her.

Each flip has illustration that spread out over the 2 pages and the reading is simple enough for her to read by herself (with a little help of course). At the end of the book, there is also a recipe for making bee-bim bop.

I am always on a look out for food related storybooks which made Hubby to question my ulterior motive - was it really for our little princess or for my inner kiddy self?

I would think it is a little of both. *wink*

I Am Here But Not (Quite) Here

2010-11-16T10:00:00.005+08:00

What are my excuses for being missing for the past weeks?

(1) Just back from Hong Kong.
Disappointing trip. Air pollution, heavy human traffic EVERYWHERE, high cost of living, and most of all, food sucks. The Hong Kong I remembered had all these as well but to a lesser degree. The street food was really good then. Every corner we turn, we would find something interesting and yummy. On the plane there, I had hopes of recapturing those delicious days, but I was just plain wrong. 4 days there seemed like eternity.

(2) Been busy reading books.
The last trip to Kinokuniya saw me carting 11 books out of the store. That was last month when they had a sale. Tomorrow (17th Nov) they are having another sale and I have already made a list of books to pick up. Will someone please cut up my privilege and credit cards?

(3) Photos in camera and not in laptop.
Lamest of all excuses. Yes, I am that lazy. I have just managed to upload some food snaps. So do check back with me again.

These probably sum up about what I have been up to.