tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-353459042024-03-13T22:07:02.656+08:00Small Talkevinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.comBlogger214125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-74683888137822937622012-12-24T23:26:00.003+08:002012-12-24T23:26:53.658+08:00Joyeux Noel<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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Hello dearies!<br />
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It's been a loooooong time, I know. Well, to cut the long story short, I got lazy. But look! It's less than a week left to the end of the year and you'll cut me some slack, right? I won't be writing lots since I'm running out of time, but here's two "recipes" for you, if you're up for some last minute Christmas baking. Here's wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!<br />
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<b>++Christmas wreath breads</b></div>
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When I saw the picture of the gorgeous wreath bread in the latest issue of Donna Hay Magazine (the Christmas one of course), I knew I wanted to make it. The original version in the magazine was made with raspberry jam which was beautiful with the red jam peeking out from the braids. I didn't have raspberry jam and settled with homemade chestnut paste (just boiled chestnuts cooked in milk and sugar with a splash of rum for good measure and then pureed) for the filling. An egg wash and sprinkling of pearl sugar and chopped dried cranberries adds a festive touch! I've also thought of using marmalade which I would probably do soon!<br />
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I used half the dough from <a href="http://www.maameemoomoo.com/blog/2011/04/12/black-sesame-bread-with-cranberry-water-roux-method-tangzhong/" target="_blank">this </a>recipe which I adapted into a plain dough, or you could use your favourite dough. Prepare bread dough as per instructions right up till the first rising. When the dough has doubled, punch down the dough and divide it into 2. With one half of the dough, divide further into 3 portions and let rest for 15-20mins. Roll each of the 3 portions into rectangles, about 20x30cm. On one rectangle, spread 2-3 tbsp of chestnut paste evenly and cover with a second rectangle. Repeat the same with the second layer and cover with the third sheet of dough. Pinch the sides of the rectangles lightly to seal. Slice, lengthwise, the dough into strips of about 2 - 3cm wide each. With each of the strips, further slice in half, leaving about 1cm at the top, still attached. Twist the two strips together like a braid and then shape into a wreath by twisting the ends together. Repeat with all the strips of dough. Brush with egg and sprinkle with chopped cranberries and pearl sugar and bake in an oven, preheated to 190degC, for 12-15mins. Makes 6.<br />
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<b>**Coffee Bundt Cake</b><br />
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The cake itself, though not exactly special, is a pretty darn good cake. I baked it thrice, slightly different every time, and the results are always moist, fine crumbs which are not overly cloying. The original recipe is <a href="http://call-me-cupcake.blogspot.se/2012/08/a-summer-cake.html" target="_blank">here</a> from Linda of <a href="http://call-me-cupcake.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Call Me Cupcake</a>. Of course, baking it in a bundt tin makes it more than just a coffee cake. Stick on some cake flags and you're ready for a party! It'll look impressive, without all the work and calories of an icing/whipping cream.<br />
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Prepare a concentrated coffee milk by dissolving 2-3tbsp instant coffee in 120ml hot milk and set aside to cool. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat 85g softened butter and 175g fine sugar until pale and fluffy. Sift together 190g all-purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt and set aside. When the butter and sugar is fluffy, gradually add in 1 lightly beaten egg, mixing well between each addition. Scrape the seeds from half a vanilla bean pod and add it to the egg and butter mixture. Gradually add the coffee milk to the egg and butter mixture while mixing. Fold in the flour, in 3 additions, and mix until just combined with a spatula. Pour the batter into a well-greased and well-floured 3-cup bundt tin. Bake in a preheated oven at 180degC for 10mins before lowering the temperature to 150degC and bake for a further 50-60mins or until a testing skewer comes out clean. After baking, let the cake rest in the tin for at least 15mins before unmoulding.<span style="color: #0000ee;"><span style="color: #0000ee;"> You could also bake the batter in small <span style="color: #0000ee;">aluminium jelly moulds<span style="color: #0000ee;"> for <span style="color: #0000ee;">party finger<span style="color: #0000ee;"> food.</span></span></span></span></span><u><br /></u></span><br />
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evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-45023695871944137772012-10-28T16:58:00.000+08:002012-10-28T16:58:06.533+08:00Just so you know...<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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...that I haven't been idling around! It's been 6 months (almost 7!) since I last posted and so many things have been happening. Work has been keeping me really busy and now I'll be having to move on to look for another one... made a trip to Tokyo at the beginning of the month and had a great time... and obviously been busying myself in the kitchen too! Let's hope I get around to post about some of these things. </div>
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Have a great week ahead!<br />
And Happy Halloween :)evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-14672082893961929792012-04-17T00:08:00.002+08:002012-04-19T21:36:06.979+08:00Bread Making II<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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<i style="color: #e69138;">Apple and mozzarella loaf</i></div>
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Taking advantage of my available weekends, I've been making bread every Saturday ever since I got hooked on kneading bread by hand. I've been trying my hands on different recipes to build up my experience in working with yeast and it's been somewhat of a roller coaster ride. After my sweet success at bread making baking the <a href="http://mylife-therainbow.blogspot.com/2011/12/pumpkin-marble-bread.html" target="_blank">pumpkin marble bread</a>, I think I got a little too proud of myself. Because right after that, my subsequent bread attempts yielded quite disappointing results.</div>
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I wanted to try my hands at making pizza again, since I had somewhat gotten the hang of baking bread, or so I thought. So I happily shopped for my pizza ingredients and intended to whip up a storm in the kitchen. Maybe a storm did pass through, judging from the mess I had in the kitchen, but my pizza was far from what I had expected.</div>
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The dough didn't quite rise as much as it needed to, even after giving it more than double the time recipes usually give. So there goes my hopes of a fluffy, puffy pizza. Actually, it was flat and chewy, more like <i>roti prata</i>.</div>
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Still, I had enough dough for 2 pizzas which I divided and used one week apart (I had half rolled out between baking paper and frozen). I topped each pizza with different toppings each time, the first Hawaiian style a la Pizza Hut, with sausages, mozzarella and pieces of juicy pineapple and the second, more sophisticated with homemade rosemary meatballs and homegrown basil.</div>
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Of course, I also made the pizza sauce myself. And although the pizza dough wasn't as desirable, I personally think the pizza sauce and meatballs are definitely keepers. So, just in case you're interested:</div>
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*pizza sauce (makes 2-3 cups)</div>
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In a small saucepan, heat some oil and saute a smallish, minced onion. When the onion turns translucent, grate in 1 clove (or 2) of garlic. When the garlic has turned fragrant and the onions slightly caramelised, add in a can (170g) of tomato puree together with 400ml of water. Stir well and bring to a boil over low heat. Season with dried herbs, I used about 1/2 tsp each of mixed Italian herbs and dried basil, sea salt and black pepper. Add more water if necessary and continue to stir over low heat. Stir in 1tbsp of honey and grate in a wedge of pineapple. Continue stirring until it comes to a boil and turn off the heat. While still hot, stir in a handful of grated parmesan cheese, about 2 tbsp. If you like, you can also stir in a pinch of red chilli flakes for a bit of heat.</div>
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*rosemary meatballs (makes about 40)</div>
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In a large mixing bowl, add 2-3 tbsp of milk to 1/4 cup panko (dried breadcrumbs). Alternatively, you can use 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs. To the breadcrumbs, add 500g ground beef, 1 large potato that has been boiled, peeled and mashed, 1 small, minced onion and 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, also finely minced. Season the mixture with sea salt and black pepper, 1 tbsp barbecue sauce and 1 tbsp maple syrup. Mix until well incorporated, adding some corn or potato starch if the meatball mixture doesn't come together. Shape tablespoonfuls of the meat mixture into balls and fry with vegetable oil in a frying pan until cooked through. The meatballs can be frozen in ziplock bags for further use. I've since used them in wraps, pasta or torn up to be topped on pizzas.</div>
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As I wondered to myself why my two consecutive attempts at working with yeast had such different results, I found myself working on another "yeasty" project again and made sweet potato wreath buns. It's just sooo like me to want to try something new (and complicated) right after suffering a defeat making the pizza dough. Following <a href="http://pan-recipe.net//000130.php" target="_blank">this recipe</a> (in Japanese), I made a simple bread dough (read: no <i>yu-tane</i>), sandwiched mashed sweet potatoes, further sweetened with honey, between two halves of the bread dough rolled into rectangles, then cut them into strips to shape into wreaths.</div>
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Without any idea what actually went wrong in my pizza dough, of course my sweet potato wreaths turn out to be a flop. Again, the dough had refused to rise even though I've given it more time than required. The buns came out really dense, and really reminded me of <a href="http://www.mykitchensnippets.com/2009/07/crispy-bbq-bunssiew-bao.html" target="_blank"><i>siew bao</i></a>. They weren't inedible, but...</div>
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Maybe the dough wasn't hydrated enough. Hrm... I turned to <a href="http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/asai-tool/recipe-note/t-34.htm" target="_blank">this recipe</a> (in Japanese) for yogurt bread which seemed promising.</div>
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I had used berry-flavoured yogurt and made small buns with a cream cheese and blueberry filling. This time, it was much much better than my sweet potato wreaths but still far from the fluffy, soft bread I wanted to achieve. I even made the recipe twice just to make sure.</div>
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Maybe it was the <i>yu-tane</i>, I thought. It definitely has to be the <i>yu-tane</i>! After a large detour (doh), I decided to go back to making the basic <i>yu-tane</i> loaf (ahem, just a little of dried cranberries kneaded in).</div>
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Incidentally, I had my last bit of instant yeast left, enough for just one more loaf before I run out to buy another bottle. It had to go well this time... but it didn't. As far as I could remember, I tried to recreate the steps and procedures I did with my pumpkin marble bread. The dough still rose really slowly, and the resulting loaf was dry and reminded me more of stale bread. And it was surprisingly much sweeter than before, despite having not changed the amount of sugar added.</div>
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I was really getting frustrated, but wasn't about to give up. Since I had reached the bottom of my bottle of instant yeast, and my emotions also about to hit rock bottom, I got a new bottle of yeast and drew up a new plan to start all over.</div>
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I sat myself down, thinking, thinking and rethinking about what, where, when, whatever went wrong during my bread making. I decided to go through the recipes that I've tried, perhaps I had missed out something or did something wrongly. Then I realised that wasn't going to work if I don't actually remember what I had did correctly when my bread turn out well.</div>
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Alright, so I was going to practise and take down notes which I can refer back to every time anything went wrong, or right. I don't think I was ever so zealous in school. So off I went kneading up a new batch of <i>yu-tane</i> dough with my new bottle of yeast, weighing every single ingredient as accurately as I could, following every step of instructions as well as I knew. Since the dough wasn't rising well the previous times I made them, this time I tried something slightly different. Instead of warmed milk (which might have been too hot and killed the yeast) I used just lukewarm milk in the dough and had the dough rise over a water bath in the microwave (not in use of course).</div>
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And it worked! Just 30mins after letting the dough rise, it had almost tripled in size. Wow. I used the dough to bake up 2 separate loaves, one of apple and mozzarella and another a chocolate marble. The loaves rose beautifully (and quickly) and baked up soft and fluffy.</div>
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I've since resorted to taking down notes for almost every try I take at making bread and it's been coming out well. Besides what I do, I also note down the results of my "taste tests". Maybe I kinda miss being a student...</div>
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This definitely isn't the end of my bread baking frenzy, but it should relent a little since I've somehow gotten to know some tricks myself. Meanwhile, I'll be mixing it up with other baking and cooking that I've been wanting to try, so please look forward to it!</div>
</div>evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-53387499843688227672012-03-22T11:53:00.001+08:002012-03-22T11:56:06.170+08:00When Life Gives You Lemons<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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When life gives me lemons, I think I'd prefer to make lemon cake. Well, so life didn't actually give me lemons, I got them the very un-supernatural way at the supermarket, way too many of them. I've been craving for lemon cake for the longest time, specifically the lemon cake from <a href="http://www.dempseyhouse.com/">House @ Dempsey</a>. I think I started missing the marvellous cake just as I was leaving the restaurant. Come to think of it, I don't exactly remember how exactly it tasted except that it was wonderfully sour and tangy. I never got around to satisfying my craving because it's just darn hard to get to House, and I wasn't sure if the more accessible Skinny Pizza outlets offered desserts (and I always neglected to investigate).<br />
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Fast forward several months from my brief acquaintance with the aforementioned lemon cake and I chanced upon <a href="http://citified.blogspot.com/2011/03/table-for-two-meringue-encased-lemon.html#axzz1HUIHMic5">this gorgeous-looking thing</a> while blog-surfing in the office (I swear I was doing work-related research). Good things have to be shared, so after gasping silently at my table, I sent the link to my colleague at the next table. It wasn't long before we started talking about lemon cake and I just had to rave about the version at House and she promised to check it out.<br />
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The long story short, we discovered that the best cake I've ever had in Singapore had been removed from House's menu. Of course, my Singapore cake directory is quite sparse because I don't order cakes often. But this cake is about the only cake I'd actually crave for, and it's now gone! Horror! Alright, so life is definitely asking me to make lemon cake.<br />
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Armed with a bag of lemons and the recipe, I started my lemony kitchen adventure. As I wanted to replicate my lemon cake experience at House, I decided to use lemon curd as a filling instead of ice cream. Lemon cake, lemon curd and a meringue topping, much like a lemon meringue pie with cake instead of a pastry case. I split the process into 3 days, partly because of undesirable photographing conditions and mainly because I was feeling a little lazy and dilly-dallied around.<br />
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I started with the lemon curd since the yield would be much greater than required and set aside a small portion while bottling the rest. The last time I made passionfruit curd, I used a double-boiler method. This time round I mastered enough courage to cook the curd directly in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. It's very easy to make and although I've always encountered slight problems of little bits of egg white, it doesn't bother me that much.<br />
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The lemon cake recipe was pretty standard, similar to what I usually do for my white cupcakes. Although I wanted to follow the recipe exactly, I think it is quite impossible for a baker with itchy fingers like me. I decreased the amount of sugar, upped the amount of lemon juice and added some honey at the very end when I thought it might be a little too sour. The cupcakes baked up beautifully with a moist crumb and a delicate tang of the lemons.<br />
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Fast forward again several months and I would have baked the cake for a Christmas party with my friends and even received "pre-orders". Wow. Then came my birthday. So to humour myself, I thought I would bake it for my birthday cake and take it as an opportunity to familiarise myself with baking a cake and decorating it.<br />
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Things just have to go wrong when you least want it to. My first cake came out of the oven undercooked in the center and I just had to realise it AFTER I had flipped it out of its pan. It crumbled and collapsed when I tried my best to flip it back onto a tray to shove it back into the oven and looked like an earthquake had struck. After ranting to a friend over MSN at around 1am on a Sunday morning, I decided to bake it again. Just so I wouldn't sulk the whole week (it was supposed to be MY birthday cake!). All the details aside, I finally managed to finish baking the cake, sandwich it with a lemon curd cream and a feeble attempt to decorate it with meringues (that I couldn't pipe properly) and whipped cream. It tasted not bad, and I especially like the lemon curd cream.<br />
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/evinrude/6860880361/" title="photo sharing"><img alt="" border="0" class="flickr-photo" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7198/6860880361_5e44b6b4d1_b.jpg" width="500" /></a> </div>
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After so many attempts at trying to replicate THE lemon cake, I'm still nowhere close. I guess the problem lies in the fact that the cake is after all a butter cake recipe rather than a sponge which I think would be more suitable for sandwich cakes. Now, off to find the perfect sponge cake recipe!evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-32881248824827852042012-03-11T12:12:00.001+08:002012-03-11T12:12:11.034+08:00***<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: 0px; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"><center> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/evinrude/6971319231/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7190/6971319231_cefe942a48.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" width="300px"/></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/evinrude/6971319231/">***</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/evinrude/">Ms_evinrude</a>.</span></center></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> 頑張れ日本</p>evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-18554037248888941532012-01-23T00:16:00.002+08:002012-01-23T00:16:48.807+08:00The Year of the Dragon<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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Happy Chinese New Year everyone!<br />
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It's the year of the "water dragon" for 2012 and let's hope the rain brings with it showers of blessings. I don't think I've ever remembered a Chinese New Year that rained though. Here's some mandarin oranges (albeit teeny weeny ones) for luck, leeks to bring in lots of money for you to count and a pink <i>ang-bao</i> for good wishes and blessings.<br />
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Happy Holidays!evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-14158415695804779292012-01-11T00:00:00.000+08:002012-01-11T00:00:15.348+08:0025!<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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It's my birthday today and I've baked myself a birthday cake! Lemon cake layers sandwiched with lemon curd cream, slathered with fresh whipped cream all over and topped with baked meringues. Totally not the perfect cake but it still makes me happy! Took me twice to get the cake done, because I ruined the first. It's a long story but that shall come later.<br />
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In in meantime, happy birthday to me!evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-89237776544387616872011-12-31T21:27:00.000+08:002011-12-31T21:27:21.066+08:002011<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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2011 has passed in the blink of an eye and 2012 is nearing upon us! Have you made your New Year resolutions yet? Hope you had an awesome 2011 and here's to an even greater 2012!<br />
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<b>Happy New Year 2012!</b><br />
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<br />evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-86916690095686738942011-12-24T23:03:00.000+08:002011-12-24T23:17:16.250+08:00T'is the Season to be Jolly<div class="flickr-frame">
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They say Christmas is the season of giving though it's probably more true that it's also the season of buying (I've done so much shopping!). This year, I made my gifts instead of buying them for my colleagues in the office. Of course that involves a lot of kitchen action but it couldn't be merrier.<br />
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I made <a href="http://www.giverslog.com/?p=3290">hot chocolate sticks</a> (dark chocolate with orange and caramelised white chocolate with orange and sea salt), had them individually wrapped and popped them into brown paper bags decorated with a <a href="http://knitting.about.com/od/learntoknit/ss/pom_poms.htm">pompom</a>.</div>
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A handwritten tag and instructions for using the hot chocolate completes the set! Although it isn't winter here, but the perpetual rain has made a hot
chocolate seem appropriate, especially in the igloo of my office.<br />
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I have the mind to bake <a href="http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/sugar-cookies-recipe/index.html">Christmas cookies</a> and try more flavours for the hot chocolate for another party I have coming up on the 30th. Sugar cookies with hot chocolate, perfect for a relaxing Christmas week, don't you think? Maybe you should make your gifts next year, too!</div>
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Here's wishing you a joyous festive season filled with love.<br />
Enjoy the partying and have a very merry Christmas!<br />
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<br />evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-64921128648133576022011-12-17T20:58:00.000+08:002011-12-17T20:59:40.182+08:00Pumpkin Marble Bread<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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Like a steam engine that has built up enough energy to charge, I was so excited with my new found interest that I looked up books that were reccomended for bread-making beginners like me. I almost bought a book but decided against it because while spending about 1 hour browsing through 3 or 4 Japanese bread books at Kinokuniya, I realised the techniques and recipes were quite similar from what I could find on the web.<br />
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Well, instead of adding yet again to my ever expanding library of magazines and recipe books, I decided to save the money and spend it on ingredients for more experimentation! But of course the long browsing time wasn't in vain either. I finally realised what it meant to "throw the dough against the table". Incidentally, this <a href="http://www.gourmet.com/magazine/video/2008/03/bertinet_sweetdough">video</a> (via <a href="http://www.likeastrawberrymilk.com/">comme un lait fraises</a>) that I chanced upon also helped in my understanding of the "kneading" technique.I also saw a marble bread recipe that made me want to immediately go home and try it out. The recipe in the book was for a loaf bread, but I knew it was the same as the wassant that Provence is very popular for.<br />
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Because the book was published by a baking supplies shop in Japan, Cuoca, the marble bread actually called for a house-brand product, a 折込みシート (<i>orikomi-sheet</i>), which is a chocolate sheet for making marble bread. Another <a href="http://cookpad.com/%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%94/%E6%8A%98%E8%BE%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88?order=date&page=9&quick=1&recipe_hit=98">quick search in Cookpad</a> yielded many many recipes for making the sheet itself and making marble bread and it made me secretly happy (okay, maybe not secretly) that I didn't buy the book. I was especially attracted to a pumpkin sheet recipe and made it the very next day to freeze, in preparation for my very first marble bread.<br />
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I used the recipe for the <i>yu-tane</i> bread <a href="http://mylife-therainbow.blogspot.com/2011/12/bread-making.html">I made previously</a> as the base recipe, omitting the cranberries and black sesame paste. I tried the new technique of "throwing the dough" instead of kneading, adding as little flour as possible when working dough, and just repeated the "throwing" till the dough was not sticky.<br />
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Achieving the marble effect was easier than I thought. It's the same way as you would incorporate butter into croissants, just that you work with a flavoured sheet instead of butter. The dough is then braided and left to rise for the second time before baking. Of course, wanting to recreate the Provence wassants at home, I tried shaping them into petite croissants with half of the dough. Unfortunately, the dough was a little too wet for me to handle, because of the pumpkin sheet and I ended up baking the wassants in cupcake cups. They were just too ugly to go bare. A little piped cream cheese frosting and sprinkling of chopped pecans and nutmeg made it look almost perfect.<br />
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Anyhow, it was time for the taste test! The individual buns were a little dry, probably because I over baked them a little, but I think hit jackpot with the loaf. Okay, maybe I missed a tiny little bit because the center was a little undercooked, but the rest of the loaf was so soft and fluffy! All the effort I put into making my own <i>orikomi-sheet</i> from scratch and throwing the dough about was all worth it! The taste of pumpkin wasn't very pronounced, but it was good nonetheless. I don't know if using canned pumpkin puree would up the pumpkin flavour, but I think a can would be too much puree for me to use up.<br />
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I won't be writing the recipe for the base dough in this post, but you can check it out <a href="http://www.maameemoomoo.com/blog/2011/04/12/black-sesame-bread-with-cranberry-water-roux-method-tangzhong/">here</a>. Just leave out the sesame to get a plain dough. I used 3/4 of the bread recipe for 1 portion of the <i>orikomi-sheet</i>. Below is the recipe I translated (as closely as I can) for the <i>orikomi-sheet</i> but you can also check out the Japanese version <a href="http://cookpad.com/recipe/665611">here,</a> complete with pictures. I've also included the method for incorporating the sheet into the base dough, which I mainly referenced from <a href="http://cookpad.com/recipe/1107478">here</a> (in Japanese with pictures).<br />
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<b>Pumpkin <i>Orikomi-Sheet</i> </b><br />
<i>(Makes about 200g)</i><br />
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150g pumpkin, seeds removed and sliced<br />
Some vegetable oil <br />
30g sugar<br />
1Tbsp milk<br />
10g potato starch<br />
10g butter or vegetable oil<br />
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- Preheat oven to 200degC.<br />
- Lightly oil a baking sheet with vegetable oil and arrange pumpkin slices on top.<br />
- Roast for 20-30mins or until fork tender. Let cool.<br />
- Mash the pumpkin in a microwavable bowl, keeping only the flesh and discarding the skins for a nicer colour.<br />
- Using the microwave, heat the mashed pumpkin flesh until steaming and relatively hot. I like to use short time settings of about 30-40secs each when heating up the pumpkin, checking in between to see if it's ready, adding 10-20secs each time after that. Eg. 40sec-30sec-10sec-10sec.<br />
- When the pumpkin is hot, add the sugar, milk and potato starch and mix well.<br />
- Heat the pumpkin mixture in the microwave for about 10-20secs each time, stirring and mixing well in between each round. The mixture is ready when it has become sticky and <i>mochi</i>-like. <br />
- Stir in the butter or vegetable oil until well incorporated.<br />
- Roll out the mixture between cling wrap or a ziplock bag until it is about a 15x15cm square. Let cool or freeze until ready to use. If freezing, thaw at room temperature for about 30mins before using.<br />
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<b><u>To make a marble bread loaf</u></b><br />
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- Prepare the bread dough as per recipe instructions up until after the first rising and punching down of the dough. Let the dough rest for 15-20mins before proceeding to incorporate the orikomi-sheet.<br />
- Roll out the bread dough, to about the size of a 20x20cm square.<br />
- Wrap the orikomi-sheet with the bread dough, making sure it is not exposed.<br />
- Roll the dough out again and do a letter fold, or the Japanese calls it <i>mitsu-ori</i>.<br />
- Repeat the rolling and letter fold 3 to 4 times, letting the dough rest in the fridge for about 20 minutes between each repeat. For each rolling out and folding, turn the dough 90deg clockwise so that you roll and fold it in a different direction each time. Let the dough rest in the fridge for 30mins after the last letter fold.<br />
- Lastly, cut the dough in 2, leaving it attached 1cm at the top. Twist the 2 parts of dough to create a braid and let rise for the second time in a lightly buttered loaf pan.<br />
- Bake as per instructions for your bread recipe.<br />
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<br />evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-84028762332449310622011-12-04T00:08:00.000+08:002011-12-04T00:28:47.917+08:00Bread Making<div style="text-align: center;">
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Right after the failure of my <a href="http://mylife-therainbow.blogspot.com/2011/11/my-acquaintance-with-figs.html">first collaborative kitchen project with Mr. Instant Yeast</a>, I decided to give my first time partner and myself a second chance. I mean, I wasn't expecting a super wonderful pizza crust, but I didn't expect it to be that bad. I think if I tried to bite anymore of the brick hard pizza crust, my teeth would start chipping. So, picking myself up, I rolled up my sleeves and made myself some dough to knead.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Now, I always thought making bread was best left to the experts and it was truly a little daunting for this amateur baker. There were those stories I read about failed attempts at making bread and how tricky it was to work with yeast. But I didn't want to just surrender at my first try! And I'm very glad I didn't! Because I'm just so addicted to making my own bread right now (read: many many more bread related posts coming up!). <br />
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The first bread recipe (not pictured) I tried was a very simple and basic one that I googled. No butter, no milk, no eggs. It even uses only all-purpose flour instead of bread flour. It was just yeast, flour, sugar and water. Honestly, I don't remember the recipe at all, nor do I actually remember how the bread tasted. But I remember it being a more <i>angmoh</i> bread: quite dense and compact, something close to what Carrefour calls "rustic loaf".<br />
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I don't think Mr. Instant Yeast fully exhibited his capabilities in this second collaborative effort, but at least it was quite successful in comparison to my poor pizzas. I vaguely recall slathering homemade lemon curd on some toasty slices of soft white bread. This could really work out! So I set out on making bread every week, trying different recipes and from various sources, just to find the perfect go-to recipe and to get the hang of making bread.<br />
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I did lots of reading on bread making, looking at recipes and tips and tricks of making bread by hand. Probably the most I've studied in quite some time. Since I frequent the Japanese bakery, <a href="http://www.provence.com.sg/">Provence</a> quite often and cannot get enough of their pillowy soft buns and breads, I decided to turn to Japanese sources for guidance. A quick search on <a href="http://cookpad.com/%E3%83%AC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%94/%E6%89%8B%E6%8D%8F%E3%81%AD%E3%83%91%E3%83%B3">Cookpad (in Japanese)</a> yielded numerous recipes that promised fluffy, soft white bread and I also chanced upon <a href="http://pan-recipe.net/">a site that provided detailed step-by-step instructions</a> to making all sorts of bread by hand, accompanied by pictures no less.<br />
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The <a href="http://cookpad.com/recipe/1231287">first Japanese recipe</a> I turned to was from Cookpad, though I actually used the step-by-step instructions <a href="http://pan-recipe.net//000019.php">here</a> to create a 山形 (<i>yama-gata</i>) or mountain-shape loaf. It is so named because the dough is divided into (most commonly, but not limiting to) 3 portions while shaping and then put side by side to let rise in a loaf pan. The resulting 3 mounds are thus thought to resemble mountain ranges and more specifically (I think) the Chinese character or <i>kanji</i>, 山 (<i>yama</i>).<br />
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The loaf in the picture is only two-thirds of the "mountain" as one part of it has been pinched by my uncle before I took the picture. It was better than my very very first loaf of bread, but well, still not enough.<br />
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Then, I chanced upon the 湯種 (<i>yu-tane</i>) or <i>tangzhong</i> or water roux method. <a href="http://www.maameemoomoo.com/blog/2011/04/12/black-sesame-bread-with-cranberry-water-roux-method-tangzhong/">This</a> particular <i>yu-tane</i> recipe involves cooking some flour with water into a roux and adding it into the dough. Weirdly enough, although the link mentions the method to be "Japanese", most Japanese <i>yu-tane</i> bread recipes I found simply add hot water to flour at a much higher flour to water ratio to make a "cooked dough" (<a href="http://pan-recipe.net//000055.php">like this one</a>) instead of <a href="http://www.maameemoomoo.com/blog/2011/04/12/tangzhong-starter-water-roux/">cooking a roux</a>. In the spirit of experimentation, I tried both types of <i>yu-tane</i> methods, just to make a comparison.<br />
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I tried <a href="http://pan-recipe.net//000055.php">this</a> recipe first and literally "spiced" things up a bit by using half the dough to make cinnamon pull-apart buns. Although texture wise, it was better than the <i>yama-gata</i> loaf bread, it could still be a bit fluffier, methinks. The cinnamon buns were great when warmed and toasty as that's when the bread is the softest. Otherwise, the "crust" was a little more chewy and slightly hard, a little like a soft pretzel.<br />
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The other <i>yu-tane </i>method however, was quite brilliant. Of all the recipes I've tried (which is only about 5), it yielded the softest and fluffiest result. The bread also stayed soft for the longest period of time (also because there was more bread to begin with). <br />
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The recipe is for a cranberry, black sesame bread, which I think is a really nice combination. I especially love the fragrance of the black sesame when the loaf was baking. I had my bread with a slathering of cream cheese and a drizzle of honey but the bread is good on its own or just with some butter.<br />
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Of course I couldn't resist mixing things up a bit by using a portion of the dough to make a black sesame swirl bread. All I did was to roll out the dough and spread on some black sesame paste and then rolling it and putting it in the loaf pan to let rise the second time.<br />
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It's been 2 months since my first "successful" attempt at baking bread, I've come to realise making bread is not the hardest thing in the world to do, so if I could do it, you should be able to too.<br />
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I (seem to) have gotten the hang of working with Mr. Instant Yeast, knowing his working temperaments and his working temperatures little by little. Now I just have to work on my consistency and our chemistry. More baking to go!<br />
<br />evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-15327973643585668312011-11-17T22:52:00.001+08:002011-11-21T11:34:30.612+08:00My Acquaintance with Figs<div style="text-align: left;">
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Figs! Such an elusive fruit in Singapore! I've always seen them in food magazines, on food blogs and in restaurant menus, but seldom in supermarkets. Maybe except the really up-market ones. So imagine my surprise when I saw them in the small and sometimes badly stocked, 24-hour NTUC branch in my neighbourhood! There they were, sitting in the corner of the fruit chiller waiting to be picked up by someone who knew what they exactly were (the aunties and ah-mas around the neighbourhood probably thought they were kindaweird). I was mumbling to myself in excitement while choosing carefully which box of 4 figs I should get and resisted the urge to put 2 boxesinto my shopping basket. Although I'm a self-proclaimed bargain hunter and <i>auntie</i> when buying groceries, the figs unfortunately came with a rather hefty tag of $4.95 for 4. Well, if this <i>auntie</i> could only be a spendthrift just once, it would be a box of 4 figs.</div>
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I've never known figs to be a summer fruit. Maybe it was its more common rich, dark purple colour that reminded me of fall rather than summer, but I've never seen fresh figs for myself while growing up. In childhood, figs came in the form of preserved little brownish strips in vinyl bags. When I got a little older, I was eating dried baby figs as a snack during one of my many diet days. Fresh figs only came under my radar when I started getting interested in food blogging. I remember seeing them only this once in Carrefour years ago, where you could pick and choose, but walked away thinking they were too expensive. Then earlier this year, I tasted my first fresh fig at <a href="http://www.dempseyhouse.com/">House, Barracks Cafe</a> in the form of a pizza. So what was I going to do with this precious box of figs, I thought. While I pondered on my options, the figs waited patiently in the fridge.<br />
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There was <a href="http://shewhoeats.blogspot.com/2009/09/month-of-figs.html">this post</a> on Chika's blog that left me with so much inspiration. In the midst of my ice cream-making craze, I had very much wanted to try Chika's rendition of <a href="http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/ISABELLAS-APHRODISIAC-ICE-CREAM-102830">this recipe</a>, but decided against it since I wanted to milk the most out of the 4 little figs and it called for, erm, much more than what I had. <br />
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Since it was the first time I was cooking with figs, I decided to go with something simple so that I could familiarise myself with and appreciate how figs tasted without too much fuss. I also wanted to try figs in both sweet and savoury recipes, just to see how it paired with other ingredients. I also just realised that the 2 ways I used my figs both used balsamic vinegar which was newly acquired (a little before the figs) and one of my (many) new obsessions.<br />
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The first thing I made was a simple fig tart. 1 fig tart and 1 fig and plum tart to be exact. Using one portion of the leftover pastry from <a href="http://mylife-therainbow.blogspot.com/2011/11/plum-galette.html">this recipe</a>, I simply filled the tarts with sliced figs and plums and brushed the fruit with a syrup of balsamic vinegar and sugar. Pop them into the oven at 180 degC and they're done within 20 minutes. How wrong can you go with that? Although the figs tasted mellow and mildly sweet when raw, their flavour concentrated with baking and with the addition of balsamic. Baking with the figs also released their brilliant, intoxicating perfume that I can't quite find any other word to describe except "musky" (in perfume terms I think it's like a base note component). The tarts were great warm, and of course I had to have them with my homemade chocolate sorbet (recipe on its way, I swear). I think a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream should also do the trick.<br />
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I also remembered there was a feature on figs in issue #43 of Donna Hay magazine and everything looked so good! Especially a fig and goat cheese tart and creamy fig and chilli pappardelle. I went with a pizza recipe in the same feature, just because I wanted to try making pizza and my mother had very weirdly bought some yeast a while ago even though I've never baked bread. I only followed the recipe for the dough and just used whatever I had in the fridge for toppings.<br />
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My first time working with yeast was a big flop: the dough refused to rise (it wasn't warm enough) and the pizza was brick hard. The edges were almost inedible but at least the center was less dry with the moisture from the toppings. Oh wells, back to the figs. Basically, I worked the pizza toppings around the basis of balsamic caramelised onions paired with figs, which was what was in DHM. I varied the toppings slightly for each of the two "no-rise" pizzas I made; the "autumn" style one with blue cheese and deeper flavours, and the other one with orange and parmesan crisps which is supposedly more "summery" and inspired from the skinny pizza I had at House, Barracks Cafe. No rocket leaves, so I tore up some spinach leaves I had left, and used sausages instead of proscuitto. I love how the flavour of the figs develop and deepen upon baking and the sweetness went well with the salt in the sausages. I liked the blue cheese one but the oranges in the other one brightened up the palette and was good too.<br />
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Anyhow, I had fun experimenting with the figs and was quite glad the results turned out relatively good tasting, except the pizza dough. Let's hope the next time fresh figs come on the shelf in supermarkets their prices would be a little less ridiculous and this bargain hunter can happily tote more home.evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-27290749956417315502011-11-02T22:59:00.000+08:002011-11-02T22:59:22.815+08:00Plum Galette<div style="text-align: center;">
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I don't think I've ever been a huge fan of plums. It wasn't that I hated them, I just didn't LOVE them. Maybe it was the fact that they were quite easily available since I was a kid and it didn't seem exotic enough. Now that the markets here have begun to stock seasonal produce, I've learnt to appreciate all the seasonal fruits more and of course plums were one of them.<br />
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So, as you know, I've been heading straight for anything (almost anything) on sale on the aisle of the supermarkets recently, and these plums were no exception. I bought 10 plums for less than 2 dollars and I don't think I've ever gotten such a steal. They were sweet and ripe, a little tangy around the skin and still retained a slight crunch. I can't stand mushy and over-ripened plums, or persimmons, or anything else in fact. It was such a good deal that my mother bought another 10 the very next day.<br />
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Though we enjoyed them just as they were, I wanted to try cooking with plums.
Most of the recipes I recall that involved plums were dessert recipes, with an occasional salad thrown into the mix. So well, I haven't made a dessert tart for quite some time and decided on a galette, or more free form and rustic looking tart. Galettes (I think it's crostata in Italian) seem to be surfacing on food blogs often, especially during the summer. Plums are merely tossed in a little sugar and flour, and spices if you like, pastry dough can be done fairly easily and there's no need to wash any tart moulds afterwards! I love an easy dessert.<br />
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I kept the amount of sugar I used to a minimum, since I wanted to keep as much of the natural flavour of the plums as possible. The tarts were good warm from the oven, and even better with an indulgent scoop of rich dark chocolate sorbet, which I promise to blog about soon. For now, let's focus on the galette.
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<b>
Plum Galette</b><br />
<i>(Makes 1 6-inch tart)</i><br />
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<b><u>Pastry</u></b><br />
250g flour<br />
2 Tbsp sugar<br />
1/4 tsp salt<br />
Zest of 1 lemon<br />
125g cold butter, cubed<br />
1 egg yolk<br />
40ml ice cold water<br />
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2 plums<br />
1 Tbsp sugar<br />
1 Tbps lemon juice<br />
1/2 tsp lemon zest<br />
1 Tbsp flour<br />
Milk, for brushing<br />
Sugar, to sprinkle<br />
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- In a large mixing bowl, put in the flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest and stir to combine.<br />
- Rub the cold butter into the flour mixture with finger tips, pinching the mixture and letting the flour fall back into the bowl, until the mixture resembles coarse oatmeal.<br />
- Add the egg yolk and mix briefly.<br />
- Add the ice cold water, a tablespoon at a time and incorporating the dry bits of the dough as you go. As soon as the dough is able to come together into a ball, stop adding the water. The dough might still seem crumbly but it's fine.<br />
- Divide the dough into 3 parts, roll each piece of dough into a ball and flatten slightly.Wrap each piece of tart dough in cling wrap or plastic and let rest in the refrigerator for at least 30mins. For a 6-inch galette, you will only need one part of the dough. You can also increase the ingredients for the filling accordingly and make one large galette or 3 small ones. If not using the rest of the dough, you can freeze the rest of the dough and save for other kitchen experiments!<br />
- Preheat oven to 180 degC.<br />
- For the filling, halve the plums and remove the pits. Slice each halve into 1/4-inch slices.<br />
- Place plums in a bowl and toss with sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and flour. Toss to coat well.<br />
- Roll out one part of the chilled tart dough into an 8-inch circle, about 1/4-inch thick.<br />
- Arrange the plum slices over the dough, leaving about 1 1/2-inch around the edge.<br />
- Fold the edge over to encase the plum filling. Brush the edge with milk and sprinkle with sugar.<br />
- Bake the tart in preheated oven for 20 - 25mins or until the tart crust is golden and the plums start to turn soft. Serve warm as it is or with a scoop of ice cream!<br />evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-47241743814603121232011-10-26T12:46:00.000+08:002011-10-26T13:27:52.770+08:00The Relish Burger<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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Am I getting repetitive? It was burgers, then ice cream and all the frozen yogurts and now I'm back to burgers again. But you know, I have this tendency to go through phases, don't you too? I'll be all mad about a certain food/ingredient and go crazy over it, and a while ago, it was burgers.<br />
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Like I mentioned in my previous post, this burger is the "something" that I tried replicating in my home kitchen from memory and isn't an original that I came up with. I actually first had this burger at <a href="http://www.wildrocket.com.sg/relish.htm">Relish</a> over last year's Christmas dinner with my colleagues. Although my colleagues felt their orders were just okay, I totally loved my "Blue Cheese Beef Burger with Rucola, Poached Pear & Walnut Butter". The only thing I would change was to have my patty done medium instead of medium well since it was a little on the dry side. I actually couldn't stop thinking about it for months on end and have just ended up calling it "The Relish Burger" to simplify things. I've been wanting to go back since, but kind of gave up since it was totally out of the way at Cluny Court (but not anymore with the <a href="http://www.asiaone.com/Motoring/News/Story/A1Story20111008-303910.html">fully operational Circle Line</a>!). Then, I was surfing the food blogosphere when I saw that <a href="http://bossacafez.blogspot.com/2009/07/blue-cheese-pear-burger-home.html">someone had tried replicating this particular burger at home</a>! Now, of course I had to try it for myself!<br />
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Basically, the name of the burger (not the one I gave it) speaks for itself: blue cheese, beef patty, rucola (also rocket or arugula), poached pear and walnut butter. Not the most creative but definitely informative! Although there are many different components, they all work really well together, especially the classic grouping of pear, blue cheese and walnut. For my burger at home, I wanted to be real particular and went through the process of making my own poached pears and walnut butter. You can also use canned pears (or just ripe pear slices, me thinks) which saves you the trouble and maybe skip the walnut butter or if you can find it, use store-bought. So, unless you want to bake your own burger buns (or your own blue cheese or plant your own rocket leaves), you really only have to make the beef patty! Which is actually what the recipe that follows is about. For my patties, I added potato starch as a binding agent since I didn't use any bread crumbs or egg.<br />
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All in all, I think my burgers turned out quite well! The only thing was the poached pear was a little too sweet (it was a dessert recipe anyway) and that the walnut butter didn't really shine through. So maybe it wasn't that worth the trouble making walnut butter anyway. I know blue cheese is really a love it or hate it thing, but I think the blue cheese-poached pear pairing really makes all the difference, to me at least. My parents had their burgers without blue cheese so I added some mayonnaise and the pears missed the salt the blue cheese had to offer, since the pears were already a little on the sweeter side to begin with. I also served my burgers with potato wedges, baked to a crisp, though you could also have them with fries or salad, which is the choice you get to have at Relish itself.<br />
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Although I'd probably declare my home kitchen experiment relatively successful and the flavour grouping a definite keeper, I don't think I will make this as often as my rustic salmon burgers. The leftover poached pear and rocket leaves have me wondering what I should do with them, and in that frame of time, they sort of die in my fridge, the rocket leaves at least. If I ever wanted a quick fix, once in a while, I think I should be better off hopping onto a Circle Line train and head to the Cluny Court branch (there's another at Serangoon Gardens) of Relish, with some good company no less. I've been wanting to try their <a href="http://bossacafez.blogspot.com/2009/05/relish-by-wild-rocket.html">black sesame dessert</a> anyway.
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<b>The Relish Burger (also Blue Cheese and Poached Pear Burgers)</b><br />
<i>(Makes 6 burgers)</i><br />
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<b><u>Beef Burger Patties</u> </b><br />
600g minced beef<br />
2 small onions, finely minced<br />
3 Tbsp barbeque sauce<br />
Salt and Black Pepper<br />
2 - 3 Tbsp potato starch<br />
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<b><u>To Assemble </u></b><br />
6 burger buns
Rocket (arugula) leaves<br />
1 poached pear, thinly sliced<br />
Walnut butter, if using<br />
Blue cheese<br />
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- Put all the ingredients for the beef patties in a large bowl and mix well. If the beef mixture seems to be dry and falling apart, add a bit more potato starch. You can also add a beaten egg to help with the binding.<br />
- Divide the beef into 6 and shape into patties.<br />
- Heat some oil in a frying pan and fry the patties till desired doneness. (I had mine well done since my family likes it that way and the beef I used was frozen beef, I'm thinking about 5 - 7mins on each side.)<br />
- To assemble the burgers, toast the burger buns slightly, spread some walnut butter on each half and pile on the rocket leaves, poached pear slices, beef patty and blue cheese. Enjoy with your side dishes of choice!evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-26790277176551553552011-10-15T20:11:00.000+08:002011-10-15T20:11:17.159+08:00Supporting Actors<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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Poached pears and walnut butter. I don't think I would really really really think of making them if for eating just as they are. But it's another story when I have an ulterior motive. There was this one dish that I really wanted to try replicating the taste at home and wanted to get as close to the original as possible. So, they're really things I made in order to make something else.
For the pears, I poached Forelle pears with lemon rind, cinnamon, nutmeg and crushed black peppercorns based loosely on <a href="http://bossacafez.blogspot.com/2010/05/vanilla-spiced-poached-pears.html">this method</a> while a Google search led me to <a href="http://glutenfreegirl.com/homemade-walnut-butter/">this recipe</a> for walnut butter. I imagine the walnut butter would be nice on some toast (though I haven't tried it myself and I really should), while the poached pears are good as they are or with cereal and milk or yogurt. So while you wait for the REAL post in which I used the poached pears and walnut butter, maybe you could try making some yourself.evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-79898290362996922072011-10-08T21:22:00.000+08:002011-10-09T00:45:06.855+08:00Berry-Good Fro-yo<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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I guess I really could have combined this post with the previous one,
but I'm really trying to erm, stretch my "dollar" here. I realise I
haven't posted anything about blueberries here before even though I've
been buying loads when they go on sale (I'm becoming such a sucker for
sales!) and freezing them for the "rainy days". Berries can be so
overpriced in Singapore (like raspberries!) so the squirrel in me has me
hoarding them when they become really cheap; also stretching my dollar.<br />
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Blueberries are amongst the most affordable berries in Singapore, together with strawberries and have become really quite easy to find in supermarkets during the summer months (not Singapore's), and that makes me happy. I thought it time to use up some of my frozen blueberry stash (to make way for new ones) so I decided upon making blueberry frozen yogurt. I also had a tub of plain yogurt on hand which I bought, you guessed it, on sale! So, armed with all the sale goods, I set out to strain, blend, freeze and blend my way to blueberry frozen yogurt heaven.<br />
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In retrospect, I think I should have tried the other recipe that I found for frozen yogurt in my ice cream book so that I could make a comparison on the 2 different recipes. But I was lazy, what's new? Anyhow, the recipe did yield a berry-good frozen yogurt of a deep, luscious purple. This time round, I filled the frozen yogurt into glass yogurt bottles (flown all the way back from Paris!) which makes more easier serving. Just take out one bottle when you feel like it. No more scooping. I've also recently found out that frozen yogurt has been very much simplified to fro-yo nowadays, although I still very much prefer to say frozen yogurt. More sophisticated don't you think?<br />
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<b>Blueberry Frozen Yogurt</b><i> </i><br />
<i>(Makes about 800ml)</i><br />
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500g plain yogurt<br />
2 1/4cup blueberries (frozen or fresh is fine)<br />
5 tbsp honey<br />
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- Strain plain yogurt in a sieve lined with double layers of kitchen paper or muslin. Set the strainer over a bowl and leave in the refrigerator overnight to get 2 cups of Greek-style yogurt.<br />
- Process the Greek-style yogurt, blueberries and honey in a blender until smooth and well mixed. If using frozen blueberries, let thaw slightly before blending.<br />
- Pour into a freezer-safe container and freeze until almost firm, about 4 hours. Process again until smooth and freeze again before serving. At this point, if you like, you can fill little cups or yogurt bottles with the frozen yogurt mixture for an easy serving option. You might have to repeat the freezing and blending process a couple more times if the ice crystals are still too large after the second round of processing.
evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-67211001516062424372011-10-01T11:13:00.000+08:002011-10-09T00:43:47.893+08:00Peaches I Had This Year<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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When June came, I was already starting to dream about the seasonal produce summer would bring. All the lovely berries and stone fruits especially: strawberries, blueberries, apricots, nectarines... and peaches. After I started making my first homemade ice cream, I was hooked. Not so much of the eating part, but the making part. Well, ok, of course I enjoyed eating the ice cream too.<br />
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So I was getting ready for my repertoire of ice creams, bookmarking recipes from books, magazines and other food blogs, and I found myself returning to <a href="http://shewhoeats.blogspot.com/2009/09/sweet-and-icy-and-little-bit-tangy.html">this post</a> by Chika, a lot. Looking at the beautiful photographs and thinking of white peaches that the Japanese affectionately call <i>momo</i>. So much so that I actually started dreaming of peaches, literally. <br />
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You can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was to find white peaches on sale in July. Yes! I thought, I could finally get my hands on some white peaches, albeit from China. Nevertheless, I was happy to be able to tot the punnet back home. They didn't taste all so good though, probably the first of the peaches to be available, undersized and under-ripened. Although not quite sweet, they were quite juicy and had the light, refreshing fragrance of peaches. Since I didn't plan on eating them as they were, it was good enough for me.<br />
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Although the ice cream book I had also had a recipe for frozen yogurt, I decided to give Chika's method a try first since it used less ingredients and I thought was more straightforward. Basically, it was just yogurt and whatever you wanted to flavour it with and in this case I used peaches, honey and a peach-flavoured liquor or <i>momo-shu</i> that I bought some time ago and had wanted very much to try using it in a dessert.<br />
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The result: a light and refreshing frozen yogurt that actually showed the tang of the yogurt, flavour of the peaches, the floral notes of the honey with slight aftertaste of the liquor. Not bad! My mother commented that it was a little bland but considering the very not flavourful peaches I had, I was happy. I would have added more honey, but then again, the honey I had on had had quite a strong flavour and would probably have masked any of the faint peach fragrance present. I had mine with more peaches, peeled and sliced, to further assert the presence of peaches, but it was also good as it is. Now, maybe one day I will decide to burn a large hole in my pocket and fork out a premium for some <i>momo</i> to try this again.<br />
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<b>White Peach Frozen Yogurt (adapted from Chika's recipe at SheWhoEats)</b><br />
<i>(Makes about 350ml)</i><br />
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250g plain yogurt<br />
300-400g white peaches (about 4-5 smallish ones)<br />
3 tbsp honey<br />
4 tbsp peach-flavoured wine (optional)<br />
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- Line a fine meshed sieve with double layers of paper towel or muslin and set it over a bowl. Pour in the yogurt to strain and leave overnight in the refrigerator to make Greek-style yogurt. For me, 500g of plain yogurt gave me 2 cups of Greek-style yogurt, of which I used 1 cup for this recipe.*<br />
- Peel (optional) and remove the pits of the peaches and quarter them. Puree the peaches in a blender and add the honey and wine if using. Mix well and freeze the peach puree mixture.*<br />
- Break the frozen peach puree into small pieces and process in the blender. Add the Greek-style yogurt and process until smooth.<br />
- Pour into a freezer-safe container (I usually use a metal loaf tin so that it freezes more quickly) and freeze until almost firm, about 4 hours. Process again until smooth and freeze once more before serving. You might have to repeat the process a couple more times if the ice crystals are still too large after processing the second time. <br />
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* The process is ideally split into at least 2 days, and the frozen
yogurt should be ready to serve the earliest by the evening of Day 2.
The first 2 steps should be done the night before, so that you have both
puree and Greek-style yogurt the next day. evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-81972196354668416382011-09-20T23:11:00.000+08:002011-10-09T00:43:36.351+08:00Summer<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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Summer's about over in the Northern hemisphere and I'm just about starting to blog about my misadventures with making ice cream. But hey, over here on the equator, summer's never ever over. It's summer 365 days a year, and you think 100 days of hot, humid weather was more than enough. (Warning! This post is heavily loaded with photos under the cut!)<br />
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A couple of months back, I very luckily chanced upon fresh raspberries on sale at Carrefour and happily totted 2 punnets back home. Fresh raspberries are one of those things that I always wanted to buy but just too stingy to fork out a premium for. I ran through a list of recipes I thought I could try with them and thought an Ispahan-inspired cake would be great since my uncle had bought a basket of lychees as well. A lychee pound cake didn't turn out all that well, so that plan fell through. Then I turned to making ice cream.<br />
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Even though I bought <a href="http://www.amazon.co.jp/%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0%E3%81%AE%E6%9C%AC%E2%80%95%E3%81%AA%E3%82%81%E3%82%89%E3%81%8B%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B9%E3%80%82%E3%81%B2%E3%82%93%E3%82%84%E3%82%8A%E3%82%BD%E3%83%AB%E3%83%99%E3%80%82-72recipes-%E3%83%9E%E3%82%A4%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%95%E3%82%B7%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA-704-%E7%89%B9%E9%9B%86%E7%89%88/dp/476621157X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316444035&sr=8-1">this ice cream recipe book</a> about 2 years (or was it 3) ago, it was the first time I looked at it seriously and tried a recipe from it. Partly because it was in Japanese and 2 years ago, my Japanese was just about kindergarten level. So this year, I finally picked up on the homemade ice cream bug (I think I go through phases of wanting to make different things), especially after looking at <a href="http://shewhoeats.blogspot.com/">Chika's</a> ice cream adventures.<br />
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Anyhow, my first attempt at making my own ice cream from scratch wasn't as successful as I had hoped for. Even up till now, I've still no idea what exactly was the problem(s) since there were many points where I sort of messed up. I don't know if it was the fact that I didn't cook/cool my custard enough, or was it the plastic container I stupidly use to freeze the ice cream, or was it the fact that my fridge was on the verge of a "meltdown". On the whole, the taste of the ice cream was quite good, though it just wouldn't freeze properly and the ice crystals were quite large. So, we'll all notice that the pictures aren't so pretty, but let's just not talk about that.<br />
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The recipe I followed was originally for a strawberry ice cream, which I simply substituted strawberries for raspberries. Because whipping cream that I got came in 200ml packages, I upped the quantities of the other ingredients so that I could use the whole pack of cream. I'd probably down the quantity of fresh raspberries a little if I ever made it again (which I doubt since raspberries cost a fortune) because raspberries have a stronger flavour than strawberries.<br />
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I don't have a recipe this time round because 1) I'm not very confident to translate detailed Japanese instructions into English, 2) I don't have an ice cream maker and the instructions for making an ice cream without it is horrendously long and 3) ok, I'll admit that I'm just lazy. I'll so much rather be eating the ice cream.<br />
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In place of the recipe, I shall leave you with some of the photos I took during my recent trip to Korea in August. These are just a tiny fraction of the collection and are all shot old-style, in film. The digital ones should, hopefully, come in a while. The coloured ones were taken with my very own Gakkenflex (which I have JUST thought I would name gakki) and the B/W ones with Popeye Camera Mint Cyan (which is actually a Vivitar Slim x Wide).<br />
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Enjoy! <br />
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Yongin Everland Theme Park</div>
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Yongpyong Dragon Valley</div>
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On the cable car to Seorak-san</div>
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Almost at the peak!</div>
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Oak and maple</div>
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Calves at Yasan Farm</div>
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Tangerine orchard</div>
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Super windy day at Seongsan Sunrise Peak in Jeju</div>
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The view from my hotel in Jeju</div>
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Yongduam Dragon Rock</div>
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evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-28549779029875054192011-09-04T20:03:00.001+08:002011-10-09T00:44:03.762+08:00Rustic Salmon Burgers<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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Burgers get the bad rep for being junk food, no thanks to fast food chains that serve burgers by the thousands everyday. Though I'm not a serious fan of fast food chains (definitely less than 10 visits per year), I find myself drawn to burgers on restaurant menus quite often. Maybe it's the allure of the fanciful pairings and condiments of these "gourmet burgers", or maybe it's just simply because I like burgers.
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With simple, fresh ingredients, burgers can actually be a tasty all-in-one meal and be healthy all at once. This recipe is actually modified, quite heavily, from one I found in issue 44 of Donna Hay magazine.
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The original actually called for pickles, dill, fresh and dry breadcrumbs, etc etc, all of which I found a little too fussy since I wouldn't really be using them for anything else. I also used salmon instead of "firm white fish", since I'm not really sure which "white fish" would do the job here. The coriander, chilli and lime came in only the second time I made this recipe because I felt the burgers lacked flavour and was a little fishy the first time round. The burger buns I used are actually Pafu-Pafu (literally puff-puff) buns from Provence, which I think are made from rice flour, and are incredibly soft, with a slightly chewy crumb.
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I think this post should mark a break to the coriander, garlic, lime and chilli posts for the time being in case it becomes too repetitive. Anyhow, 3 posts should make a series right?
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Rustic Salmon Burgers</span>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">(Makes 4 burgers)</span>
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300g potatoes
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300g salmon fillet
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1 chili padi, seeds discarded and finely chopped
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1 bunch coriander, chopped finely (about 1 Tbsp)
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1/2 Tbsp lime juice
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2 Tbsp potato starch
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Salt and black pepper
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Lime Mayonnaise</span>
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1 Tbsp lime juice
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2 - 3 Tbsp mayonnaise
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1/4 tsp chili powder
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Salt and black pepper
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">To assemble</span>
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4 burger buns, halved and lightly toasted
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1/2 Japanese cucumber, sliced
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Fresh limes
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- To make lime mayonnaise, combine all ingredients and mix well to combine. Set aside.
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- Place washed potatoes in a saucepan of cold water and cook until fork tender. Drain and let cool before peeling and mash roughly with a fork in a large bowl.
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- Skin the salmon fillet and remove any small bones. Chop the fish into medium-sized chunks.
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- Add chopped fish, coriander, chilli, lime juice, potato starch and salt and pepper to the mashed potatoes and mix well.
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- Heat up 1 Tbsp of oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium flame.
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- Divide the mixture into 4 palm-sized patties and pan-fry them till they are golden and cooked through, about 3-4 mins each side.
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- Serve the patties on burger buns with cucumber slices and top with a big dollop of lime mayonnaise and a generous squeeze of fresh lime juice.
evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-2540033919947672352011-08-09T14:52:00.003+08:002011-09-24T21:14:00.836+08:00Aglio Olio e Peperoncino..?<div class="flickr-frame" style="text-align: center;">
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I was watching a Japanese chef specialising in Italian cook aglio olio e peperoncino on a Japanese variety show yesterday that I realised I should do this post soon, or the fantastic four series would probably be carried forward till next year.
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A quick chit-chat with your best friends Google and Wiki and you'll find that alio olio e peperoncino actually doesn't contain much else than, well, aglio (garlic), olio (oil) e peperoncini (chili peppers). And you will see that it's not really the case in my aglio olio e peperoncino. It's definitely not the authentic nor orthodox way to cook aglio olio e peperoncino, and actually, this was created from my extremely faint memory of aglio olio e peperoncino when I visited Italy some 5 years back. Maybe you could say the aglio olio e peperoncino served as the base of my "fancied-up" version. The recipe was first born out of desperation to finish a box of mixed fungi before they die out in the fridge and therefore the mushrooms. The sausages I added today are just a whim of fancy which happened to be in my freezer and add to a balanced, quick lunch. Of course, it wouldn't be a continuation of my pantry essentials series if I didn't use coriander, which is also an adaptation to my Chinese kitchen.
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By the way, you have no idea how tangled my brain is from "saying" aglio olio e peperoncino so many times.
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">Aglio Olio e Peperoncino..?</span>
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<span style="font-style: italic;">(Serves 2)</span>
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2 portions dried spaghetti
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2 Tbsp olive oil
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1 clove garlic, minced
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1 small chili padi, seeds discarded and finely sliced
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5 - 6 cocktail sausages (you could use whatever you like), sliced into rounds
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50g willow mushrooms, briefly rinsed and ends removed
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1 bunch coriander, finely chopped
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Pinch of salt
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Grated Parmesan cheese, to serve
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- Cook dried spaghetti in salted, boiling water until al dente.
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- While the spaghetti is cooking, in a shallow frying pan, saute minced garlic and chili with olive oil over medium heat.
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- When the garlic has turned golden brown and fragrant, add the sausages and mushrooms to pan and fry till cooked, about 3 - 4mins.
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- Take about 1/2cup of the liquid from cooking the spaghetti and add to the sauteed ingredients.
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- Add the chopped coriander and season with a pinch of salt.
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- Drain the cooked spaghetti and add to the pasta dressing. Turn off the heat and toss to coat evenly with the dressing.
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- Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese before serving.evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-71658641260274684902011-07-31T09:35:00.000+08:002011-07-31T09:32:21.671+08:00RefurbishingSmall Talk is undergoing a design revamp!<br />Since I'm not officially into my break yet, this might take awhile.<br />In the meantime, do pardon the awkwardness of the template-style designs.<br /><br />UPDATE<br />So, this is about it for now!<br />Hopefully the fresher outlook will inspire me to blog more often!<br />(I just realised I have only 5 blog posts this year. And I think only about half is food related.)evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-2419908259631947662011-07-24T17:49:00.005+08:002011-09-24T21:16:30.166+08:00Herb & Garlic Butter<div style="text-align: center;">
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I promised a few recipes as a follow-up to my pantry's essential four and seeing that I haven't posted a recipe in ages, I thought it was time to pull something out from my back log to update this poor, neglected space! There's actually a post about lemon cake somewhere in my drafts but that shall be for another time. I was food-blog surfing when I chanced upon <a href="http://www.deliciousdays.com/archives/2011/05/05/umami-butter-your-fridge-is-your-friend/">umami butter on Delicious:Days </a>and remembered I had wanted to do a post on herb and garlic butter.
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It all started with a barbecue last year around this time. (So you see how long I've been wanting to do this post now) Garlic bread is *almost* a must-have at our barbecues but is just too expensive to buy and tastes much better when homemade. I remembered seeing a recipe for herb butter on <a href="http://simplyrecipes.com/">Simply Recipes</a> and thought I would give it a try. As usual, I'm never one to follow recipes or really calculate the exact measurements of what I use, I just threw things I pulled out of my fridge and mixed them together. Judging from the "mmmmmm"-s I had when the garlic bread was served, I would consider my random blending a success. But it could also be the slow-roasted garlic which I promised was TONS better than normal garlic bread but nobody actually believed. I think it was both.
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Wrapped in plastic and kept in the fridge, this herb butter could serve a million purposes, well, maybe at least 4: a spread on toasted bread, for baking salmon, corn-on-the-cob or baked potatoes and a spaghetti that I cooked with almost the same ingredients and more.
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Herb Butter
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125g butter, room temperature
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1 single-clove garlic or about 5 small cloves, skins removed
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1 bunch fresh coriander (cilantro)
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1 chili padi (bird's eye chili), seeds removed
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Juice and zest of 1 lime (you can also use half a lemon)
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Pinch of salt
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- Finely chop garlic, coriander and chili padi. For the coriander, I use both the leaves and the stems and should come up to about 2 tbsp. Chili padi is an extra spicy chili commonly available in Southeast Asia. You can also use normal, large-sized chili that is less spicy if you prefer.
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- In a bowl, mix well the chopped herbs, lime zest and juice, butter and salt. It might take some time for the butter to come together due to the addition of lime juice.
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- To store, wrap the butter in plastic wrap into the shape of a log and refrigerate.evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-22992822570010013932011-07-10T14:43:00.005+08:002011-07-27T00:16:53.933+08:00Pantry Essentials: The Fantastic Four<div style="text-align: center;" class="flickr-frame"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/evinrude/5919118224/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6145/5919118224_5fab901e13.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" width="400" border="0" /></a></div><br /><br />Although I haven't been blogging, I've been preparing lunchboxes for myself to bring to work the past few weeks as part of a diet plan that I have with a fellow colleague who's getting married. I've come to realise I almost cannot do without these fabulous herbs and spices in my cooking. Garlic is definitely a must have; love the punch a chili padi can add to anything; fresh and juicy homegrown limes are much better than the ones from the supermarket while fragrant coriander is my favourite herb to add in Asian-inspired dishes. I already have a few recipes that involve the fantastic four (maybe sometimes three) so, watch this space!<br /><br />So, what's in your pantry?evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-48120548415662963992011-03-31T23:57:00.002+08:002011-07-27T00:17:16.043+08:00Whatever You Like and a Hope for Goodness<div style="text-align: center;" class="flickr-frame"><a title="photo sharing" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/evinrude/5360372840/"><img class="flickr-photo" alt="" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5246/5360372840_60bd9efe92.jpg" width="400" border="0" /></a></div><br /><br />I think it's no secret that I'm a big fan of Japanese food, actually, almost everything that hails from the land of the rising sun. Most of the time, I make Japanese-inspired versions of various foods (like <a href="http://mylife-therainbow.blogspot.com/2010/11/food-blog-dilemma-with-green-tea-azuki.html">this</a>, <a href="http://mylife-therainbow.blogspot.com/2010/08/hot-pot-not.html">this</a>, <a href="http://mylife-therainbow.blogspot.com/2010/08/rice.html">this</a> and most of my bentos. So, it's natural that I have an almost constant stock of ingredients that are commonly found in Japanese food. I especially like vegetables, and more specifically root vegetables like sweet potatoes, carrots and what not. I've recently had a special affinity for 長いも or nagaimo (also called yamaimo or huai-shan and shan-yao in Mandarin). But of course, as with my family, a single nagaimo usually lasts too long, or should I say, doesn't keep long enough. A 4-inch long piece goes a long way, since I usually cook for myself, but supermarkets usually have them coming in about 16 inches.<br /><br />My family doesn't appreciate my cooking very much, so I typically cook for just myself. While I usually used nagaimo in soups, curry, takikomi-gohan and once in a stir-fry with pork and miso, I was really quite glad to find yet another way to finish up my nagaimo before it ended up in the bin. I was told by CY, friend and one of the few supporters of this blog that nagaimo was used in okonomiyaki.<br /><br />Okonomiyaki, literally a fried-something of whatever you like, is a savoury pancake of cabbage, batter and other ingredients. The best thing is, okonomiyaki was something that my whole family would really eat. For now, I have only a list of ingredients and a rough method since I seldom measure anything when cooking (it's probably best that I start soon, lest all my "recipes" turn out without measurements at all). It's as easy as a piece of pan-cake so basically you mix away with whatever you like! Here's what I use for mine.<br /><br />Ingredients<br /><br />Shredded cabbage (not too fine, I personally like the bit of crunch of partially uncooked cabbage)<br />Chopped spring onions (scallions)<br />Plain flour<br />Eggs<br />Water<br />Salt and pepper to season<br />Nagaimo<br />Bacon or ham<br /><br />- Mix flour, eggs and water in a large bowl to form a batter. I like to have it as a thinner batter than usual since addition of grated nagaimo would make it very thick and sticky.<br />- Stir in the shredded cabbage and spring onions. Season with a little salt and pepper.<br />- Peel the nagaimo and grate into the rest of the batter. Stir to mix well.<br />- In a frying pan with a little oil, ladle some batter and line pieces of bacon or ham on top of the pancake. Cover with a lid for awhile before flipping.<br /><br />Okonomiyaki is usually served with a generous brushing of okonomiyaki sauce, a good squeeze of mayonnaise and sprinklings of aonori (seaweed powder) and katsuobushi (bonito flakes). Well, in my kitchen, I improvised my own "okonomiyaki sauce" from oyster sauce, ketchup and sugar and replaced aonori with erm, shredded seaweed snacks. It isn't as authentic as the real okonomiyaki, but I think it's good enough. As an alternative to my very vague explanations, you can check out the recipe <a href="http://japanesefood.about.com/od/holidaytraditionalfood/r/okonomiyaki.htm">here</a>!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;" class="flickr-frame"><a title="photo sharing" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/evinrude/5360368330/"><img class="flickr-photo" alt="" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5005/5360368330_0a46500821.jpg" width="400" border="0" /></a></div><br /><br />***<br /><br />On the topic of Japan, it's been really saddening to watch the crisis unfold in Japan over the past few weeks. I've been to Japan thrice now, with the most recent just a month prior to the major earthquake that struck. It's heartbreaking therefore to witness the carnage and destruction unveil through Singapore's news and also live-streaming of Japanese news on the internet. More so, probably because of how the Japanese are coping with their utmost dignity and resilience.<br /><br />Published last week on The Straits Times' supplementary magazine of Digital Life, a translated tweet from @7474529 read:<br /><br />"A goth youth with white hair and body piercings walked into my store and shoved several hundred dollars (several tens of thousands of yen) into the disaster relief fund donation box. As he walked out, we heard him saying to his buddies: 'We can buy those games anytime!' ... ..."<br /><br />In such a crisis, there's not a lot that we can do to help personally. But in such times, we can hope for goodness.<br /><br /><br />If you'd like to give something for the people in Japan, here are some links where you can visit to donate monetarily. You can also contact your local Red Cross for details of other ways in which you can help.<br /><br />Japan Earthquake & Tsunami: 7 Simple Ways to Help<br /><a href="http://mashable.com/2011/03/13/japan-earthquake-tsunami-help-donate/">mashable.com/2011/03/13/japan-earthquake-tsunami-help-don...</a><br /><br />【Amazon.com】<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/b/?&node=2673660011&ref_=cm_sw_r_tw_arcjept">http://www.amazon.com/b/?&node=2673660011&ref_=cm_sw_r_tw_arcjept</a><br /><br />【Google Checkout】<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html">www.google.com/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html</a><br /><br />【Japanese Red Cross】<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html" rel="nofollow">www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html</a><br /><br />【American Red Cross】<br /><a href="https://american.redcross.org/site/SPageServer?s_subsrc=RCO_Donate_OnlineGiving&pagename=ntld_main&s_src=RSG000000000">american.redcross.org/site/SPageServer?s_subsrc=RCO_Donat...</a><br /><br />【International Medical Corps】<br /><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1970">www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1970</a><br /><br />【AmeriCares】<br /><a href="http://www.americares.org/whatwedo/emergency/japan/japan-earthquake-tsunami.html">http://www.americares.org/whatwedo/emergency/japan/japan-earthquake-tsunami.html</a><br /><br />【Donate with Paypal】<br /><a href="https://www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?cid=-12">www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?c... </a><br /><br />【causes.com】<br /><a href="http://www.causes.com/campaigns/154523">www.causes.com/campaigns/154523</a>evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35345904.post-3242007130470497972011-03-15T00:47:00.003+08:002011-03-15T01:18:16.041+08:00***<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: 0px; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"><center> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/evinrude/5526749926/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5177/5526749926_3c8b9334ec.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" width="350px" /></a><br /> <span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/evinrude/5526749926/">***</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/evinrude/">Ms_evinrude</a>.</span></center></div> <p class="flickr-yourcomment"> 日本、頑張れ!<br /><br />***<br /><br />Links<br /><br />Japan Earthquake & Tsunami: 7 Simple Ways to Help<br /><a href="http://mashable.com/2011/03/13/japan-earthquake-tsunami-help-donate/">mashable.com/2011/03/13/japan-earthquake-tsunami-help-don...</a><br /><br />【Amazon.com】<br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/b/?&node=2673660011&ref_=cm_sw_r_tw_arcjept">www.amazon.com/b/?&node=2673660011&ref_=cm_sw_r_t...</a><br /><br />【Google Checkout】<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html">www.google.com/intl/en/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html</a><br /><br />【Japanese Red Cross】<br /><a href="http://www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html" rel="nofollow">www.google.com/crisisresponse/japanquake2011.html</a><br /><br />【American Red Cross】<br /><a href="https://american.redcross.org/site/SPageServer?s_subsrc=RCO_Donate_OnlineGiving&pagename=ntld_main&s_src=RSG000000000">american.redcross.org/site/SPageServer?s_subsrc=RCO_Donat...</a><br /><br />【International Medical Corps】<br /><a href="http://www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1970">www.internationalmedicalcorps.org/Page.aspx?pid=1970</a><br /><br />【AmeriCares】<br /><a href="http://www.americares.org/whatwedo/emergency/japan/japan-earthquake-tsunami.html">www.americares.org/newsroom/news/massive-earthquake-tsuna...</a><br /><br />【Donate with Paypal】<br /><a href="https://www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?cid=-12">www.paypal-donations.com/pp-charity/web.us/campaign.jsp?c...<br /></a><br />【causes.com】<br /><a href="http://www.causes.com/campaigns/154523">www.causes.com/campaigns/154523</a><br /></p>evinrudehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12003282279029639879noreply@blogger.com0