Adult Rating

A much awaited return! At least to the few who drop by now and then. Honestly, if not for those nudges for me to start blogging again, I would have been too lazy to. Bad me. So far, I've also yet to pick up my camera and cooking utensils, but hopefully I will do so a couple of times before I set off on my holiday to Japan.

I left before truly finishing my strawberry phase so I really have just this one recipe left. As a warm up to my return to the blogosphere, it's really quite short and easy. Despite that, I do think it results in a very pretty and classy outcome, good for entertaining!

Because the whole recipe barely uses any sugar, it's quite adult and probably won't go very well with the sweet tooth. And because it's so simple, it's important to use sweet strawberries and good chocolate if you have access to them, or at least those you think are good. The tart pastry recipe yields much more than required for 2 individual tarts, but you can freeze the extra till you decide to make more tarts again.

Bitter Chocolate and Strawberry Tart
Makes 2 4" tarts

Chocolate Tart Pastry
240g flour
25g sugar
2tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
125g butter, chopped and chilled
1 egg yolk
40ml ice cold water

- Sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder and salt into a large bowl. Stir to combine.
- Using the fingertips, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse oatmeal. While incorporating the butter, lift up your hand slightly and let the flour fall back into the bowl.
- When no big pieces of butter is left, mix the egg yolk and water in a small bowl and pour it over the flour mixture.
- Knead gently with fingertips until the dough comes together in a ball. Work lightly and as little as possible so that the pastry will be flaky when baked.
- Divide the dough into 3 portions, wrap each portion in cling wrap and chill for 30 mins or until ready to use. I like to wrap each portion into individual plastic bags and then pop all into a Ziploc bag if I'm freezing them.

- Preheat oven to 180 degC. Lightly butter and flour 2 4" tart moulds.
- Take out 1 portion (out of 3) of the chilled dough, roll out to 1/8" - 1/4" thick and fit into tart moulds.
- Trim off the excess from the edges and prick the base with a fork. Chill again for another 30 mins.
- Bake the tart pastry for 20 - 30mins until cooked through.
- Let chill before assembling the tarts.


Ganache
100g dark chocolate
80ml cream
2 tbsp milk (optional)

Topping
10 - 12 smallish strawberries

- Put the chocolate, into a large bowl. I use chocolate pallets, but if yours comes in a block, chop into smaller pieces to facilitate melting.
- In a small pot over medium heat, cook cream and milk until small bubbles form around the sides and then remove from heat.
- Add the cream to the chocolate and stir occasionally until all the chocolate has melted. Let cool before assembling the tarts.
- Divide the cooled ganache into the baked tart crusts. Let chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve before proceeding to the next step. If you cut the strawberries too early, they'll dry out when you chill the tart.
- 15mins before serving, wash and hull the strawberries. I cut the tops off so that it's easier to slice them.
- Place strawberries, cut side (top) down, and cut into thin slices.
- Finish the tart by arranging the strawberries on top in a flower-like pattern. Work from the outermost towards the center.

Lost and Found

Doudou's been found! He was sent to the AVA on Tuesday and we just got him back today. His flying licence has since been suspended until further notice. Thank you all for your well wishes and help.

this goes out to all those who happen to live around the old airport road area (guillemard road, mountbatten, pine close, cassia cresent).

my pet parrot (african grey), doudou, is missing. the last we saw of him was when he flew out our bedroom window in pine close towards cassia cresent at 7pm on 10 nov (mon). he needs to be fed special bird feed twice a day by syringe. we're very worried for his safety and well-being.

if you find him, or any parrot that looks like him roaming in the area, pls contact me at melon_tea[at]hotmail[dot]com.

i'd greatly appreciate your help. thanks

Hiatus

I'm taking a break from blogging and flickr-ing to concentrate on school work and sleep.
See you soon!

Strawberry Cream Scones

I love scones. Don't you? But I never thought scones could taste so good! I've always been eating scones bought from bakeries like Sweet Secrets and Four Leaf because they're not expensive to get, and taste, well, really quite good. But that was all before I decided to have some scones bake in my oven. I'm not boasting about my baking or whatsoever. Most definitely not. Rather I'm just so glad I found such a good recipe!

I was searching for scone recipes online, when I saw this recipe on Lara's blog. Reading through the post, Lara had nothing but praise for the recipe (like "nearly fell on the floor after I tasted them" and "simply amazing"). Running through the ingredients list, I was a little reluctant as it asked for really quite "an epic amount of cream". But I still decided to give it a go. And I'm so glad I did! It was just as what Lara had said, very moist and light and just oh-so good. Stand aside, you dry and dense store-bought scones! Whipping the cream created such a fluffy texture for a scone that I never knew could or should be in a scone.

The only problem I had was shaping these babies. Because the dough was so wet, I kinda gave up trying to shape and cut them and just dropped tablespoons of them onto the baking sheet for fear of destroying all the effort of incorporating whipped cream for a fluffy scone. The thing is, also because they're so wet, they spread a little too much and ended up quite thin and looked more like a cookie than a scone. Still, they tasted great warm from the oven! If it ever lasts till the next day, I always like to toast them for a while to warm them up and the outsides will get a little crisp while the inside is still fluffy and moist. A very flexible recipe, I substituted blueberries that Lara used to diced strawberries and made only 1/3 of the full recipe. While these scones are great on their own, I drizzled them with melted chocolate to dress them up a little and made them all the more delicious. I finished the baking and shooting late in the afternoon and by the next day, they were gone. Even though there was only 6 scones, considering the rate food disappears from my kitchen, it really is quite an amazing feat.

Strawberry Cream Scones
(Makes 6)

1 cup strawberries, hulled and diced
140g flour
50g sugar
2/3 tbsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
200ml whipping cream

Melted chocolate (optional)

- Preheat oven to 180 degC.
- Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Mix in the strawberries.
- Whip, with a standing mixer or a whisk, the cream until medium soft peaks form.
- Gently fold in the whipped cream into the flour and fruit mixture, taking care not squash the strawberries.
- To shape, turn the dough onto a floured working surface. With floured hands, shape the dough into 1" thick rectangle and fold it in half. If it is still too wet, dust with a little more flour and shape and fold again. Cut into triangles or squares and place on a lined baking sheet 1cm apart. This is so that they will hold their shape even if they spread.
- If like me, you're afraid of dealing with the mess and don't mind awkwardly-shaped scones, drop tablespoonfuls of the scone mixture onto a lined baking sheet.
- Bake the scones in preheated oven for 20 - 25mins or until browned on top.
- Let cool for 15 mins and drizzle with melted chocolate if desired.

Salad in a Cup

Seeing that more than a few days have passed since I posted my previous recipe and my pictures for this post on Flickr, I thought I had better get on with it. You know, in case I get all lazy and decide to procrastinate (again) and end up not posting it at all. I've decided to take a little break from strawberries but I do still have some strawberry recipes scheduled to be posted but that'll come later. School's been busy, even though it's only 2nd week of the term and semester. I've been wanting to pack lunch, but almost always too tired at night to prepare for the next day or that I have too many things to bring to class and don't want to add to the "luggage". Forgive me, I do rant a lot.

Now, about the recipe! I think I have already established the fact that I'm a salad girl. And I don't have to remind you how easy it is to throw together a salad! Since starting my low-carb diet years ago, I've been actively trying to cut down on my carb intake. So rice had to go, most potatoes too. But I really love noodles. Soba, glass noodles, udon, vermicelli, ban mian, etc. So sometimes for variation, I add noodles into my salad. This salad of udon and crab was very much inspired by Pepper Lunch! Udon makes a good addition to a salad because it's just a plain noodle, hence makes a good base and mingles with flavours well. Serving the salad in a cup/glass was very much triggered by the fact that Pepper Lunch served theirs in a plastic cup. Isn't it genius?! All you have to do is put the ingredients in the cup, drizzle the dressing and then give the cup a good shake (covered of course!) and there you go! No messy tossing with forks or spoons. And it's some exercise before you meal! All good things.

Black and White Sesame Seeds

For this recipe, I used Surimi crab, which basically is imitation crab meat. But instead of the crabsticks, I used those found at the sushi counters in Cold Storage. I find (ok, think) that it tastes more like crab meat. If you're feeling luxurious and hardworking, buy crabs, cook them and remove flesh from the shells! The dressing is again, something that I just threw together with the ingredients I had on hand and feel free to adjust the proportions to your likings.


Salad of Udon and Crab
(Serves 2)

Dressing
4 tbsp soba shoyu (or Japanese soy sauce)
1 tsp sesame seeds, toasted and crushed
1 tsp chili flakes
1 tsp honey
1/2 tsp sesame oil

100g fresh udon
1 egg, beaten
1 cucumber
1 medium-sized carrot
100g Surimi crab (or fresh crab meat)

- Combine all the ingredients for the dressing together in a bowl and mix well. Leave to sit while preparing the other ingredients.
- In a pot of boiling water, cook the udon for about 1 - 2mins. Drain and let cool.
- Heat 2 tsp of oil in a frying pan and fry the egg to make an omelette. Remove from frying pan and let cool before cutting into 1cm strips. I find it easier to cut the omelette into half, then roll each half to cut.
- Wash, peel (if desired) and cut off the tops and ends of the cucumber and carrot. Grate the vegetables to get thin strips. I like to use the largest grater for salads like this. Alternatively, you can julienne the vegetables with a knife. If you find the carrots too raw for your taste, you can blanch them in hot water for about 30secs.
- To assemble, layer the ingredients for the salad into 2 glasses for individual servings. First being the udon, then carrots, then cucumbers, crab meat and then the omelette. Garnish with spring onions or coriander if you wish to. Let chill for about 10mins in the refrigerator.
- When ready to eat, drizzle the dressing over the salad, cover the glass with a plate or saucer and shake! If presentation and playing with food isn't your thing, just toss everything in a bowl and enjoy, but it won't be so fun of course.