jeudi, février 03, 2011 Love Letters on CNY day 1 (recipe for love letters aka kueh belandah) After a very, very hurried spring cleaning yesterday, there were some kitchen equipment that I found that I wanted to try out. The most exciting one was the love letter maker. But I think my maid was more excited than me.I went out to buy some ingredients, and thanks to continuity of business, my local Shop N Save was still open. Here's my recipe for Chinese New Year Love Letters aka kueh belandah 1. 3-4 eggs (depends on your "feeling"), add 2. 150-200g sugar (depends on your preference. Mix well. 3. Add 500ml coconut milk. Mix. 4. Sift in 100g plain flour and 5. Sift in another 100g glutinous rice flour You may need a mixer for the flour to really get mixed well. Then you use a love-letter maker to bake the mixture. If you don't have one... then you can't make this :) For people who've baked/cooked before: you don't have to worry about introducing air into the mixture, just mix everything into one happy mess (this is good for parents with kids who want to "help" since they can't screw it up... too badly.) And of course, here are my pictures.  Get everything together...  Mix like mad  It will look like this (my sugar jar is empty!)  Start the cooking! The only way to know whereto place the dollop of mix, and how much to use isby trial and error - no other way, sorry!  Close the cover. Yes.  My first attempt. In the bin.  My second attempt. Not too bad.  Roll roll roll. It takes quite a long timeto cookand rolland cooland packthese love letters, soI can appreciate why it's so expensive. (and I also see why automation is so attractive.)  Perfection!  Trying other shapes. [Love Letters on CNY day 1 (recipe for love letters aka kueh belandah)] |
vendredi, décembre 24, 2010 Cooking Class at Coriander Leaf The company tries to do something fun and team building each year. The year before this was prawning, last year it was paintball (I had an emergency wisdom tooth extraction and missed this), and this year, we headed to Coriander Leaf restaurant in Clark Quay for a cooking class. It's a fun class - pricey, but fun. Your staff is broken up into teams, which contribute to lunch by making parts of the meal. I'm thinking of replicating it in my house for new years'.  Here's the pristine kitchen before we wreaked havoc  The island counter top with vent and stoves - note another one in background, plus oven  We got there at 1030am and had a quick round of photos and drinks first  The CEM team  The Finance/Admin team  The Policy Research team  Putting on the plastic apron  Finally everyone's in and ready to go!  This was our team "Sure Win" (named by C! I told her she condemned our team to hubris with that name) We made three dishes - minced kebab (more like a patty, really):  We also made a Vietnamese prawn roll, with the "Marina Bay Sands" gardens by the bay.  What did I make? If you squint carefully enough, you'll see this small cup of peanut paste: that's what I made. I know, I know, it's puny - but not that I can't cook; that's just what I got when we drew for the recipes!  Chick Peas  Banana Crepe Roll (this was seriously delicious)  Duck rolls  Samosa  Having a well-deserved meal  The winning team "The Expendibles" - or "The Expandables", depending on your waistline  Here's my team, with me in the hat - yes, I got an award: Sexiest Chef, for apparently rolling the Vietnamese rolls "lovingly" (I'm fairly sure it was a consolation prize -it replaced the "Don't Quit Your Day Job" prize, which was deemed too demotivational)  Here's everyone, with the Best Chef, Serial Killer Chef and Sexiest Chef from left to right (we're all holding decorated paper chef hats Libellés : food, working life [Cooking Class at Coriander Leaf] |
lundi, août 23, 2010 To thank Andy for finishing our study of Acts (six months!) I decided to make something for the class on Sunday. A slow watch, a new sewing class, and slow traffic created the impetus for this little experiment. And so, I give you this exciting little ditty...Trial and error method of making a tiramisu ice-cream cake: attempt to make a tiramisu cake, accidentally buy too much cream, AND buy the WRONG kind of cream, then decide to freeze the whole wobbly, drippy mess. WIN! Ingredients: - 500g mascapone cheese (approx $11.50 from Phoon Huat, also available at Cold Storage and Jason's Supermarket, maybe at NTUC Gourmet) - 1000g whipping cream (approx $4.50 from Phoon Huat, CS/JS/NTUCg also have) - make sure you buy WHIPPING cream, NOT cooking cream like I did) - 6 tablespoons of sugar - or to taste - 3 eggs - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract - 1 roll of MacVites digestive biscuits (optional) - 1 double-pack of ladies' fingers sponge biscuits (impt that you get this; I have not found a suitable substitute in all my years of making tiramisu) - 1 cup of coffee (you can make it as thick as you want - I used six packets of IndoCafe in one very large mug) - some liquor (I used a tablespoon of rum, but you can also use Bailey's Irish Cream, Contrieau, or any other sweet liquor - try not to use hard types, like whiskey etc... unless you want your tiramisu with a bit of bite) Equipment you will need: 1. electric mixer (if you don't have this, I strongly recommend you forget this experiment) 2. a big large bowl that can fit ALL your liquid stuff (it should be able to hold your cream container, the mascapone container, and 3 eggs WITH ROOM TO SPARE. If your large bowl cannot fit all this, you have to find one that does, or you have to halve your ingredients so that you know, you have SPACE for it all) 3. Spoons, mugs, hot water 4. Cake tin/container that you want to assemble the cake in Instructions: The overall sequence is: make the creamy stuff, then assemble and freeze. This process should NOT be a messy one. Before you start: make sure that your freezer doesn't smell bad, and has enough space for your creation (or make sure you make a small enough creation that can fit into your freezer!) 1. Whip the cream using the electric mixer until it has changed from being milky to creamy. 2. Add the eggs in one at a time, and mix (either by hand or by machine) until the colour is even. 3. Add the sugar, vanilla extract and mix well (either by hand or machine). 4. Add the cheese and mix well. 5. Leave the mixture in the fridge, as you start preparing for the assembly. I left the mixture overnight. 6. Get your container (mine was 11" by 11") and line it with aluminium foil if you want to re-use it. Lay out the sponge cake along the base, then "fill in" the gaps with crushed digestive biscuits. 7. Make the thickest cup of coffee you like, add the liquor to it, then use a spoon and drizzle/spread the coffee mixture across the cake and biscuits. 8. Once this is done, use a large spoon and carefully distribute the cream across this first layer of sponge (take it out of the fridge first of course). 9. Lay the 2nd layer of ladies fingers, and repeat the same process with the digestive biscuits and the coffee. 10. Spread the remaining cheese mixture on the top of the platter. 11. Put it into the freezer to freeze. 12. After it's frozen, take it out of the freezer, then sprinkle cocoa power through a sieve for the perfect tiramisu cake. 13. Serves 20-25 pax. .JPG) .JPG) Left pic: equipment table with crushed digestive biscuits in red bowl, thick coffee in the mug, first layer of sponge half-drizzled with coffee, and the ice cream mix. Right pic: crushing the digestive biscuits in 5 mins with a plastic bowl and a ceramic mug. .JPG) .JPG) Left pic: Assembling the 2nd layer of ladies fingers (seen on left) Right pic: smoothening the top layer of digestive biscuits for a smooth finish. .JPG) .JPG) Left pic: cutting out the cocoa stencil with a penknife Right pic: sprinkling cocoa powder through the map of ancient Europe .JPG) Left pic: the wasted cocoa!!! But yum. Right pic: the finished product
[Tiramisu Ice-Cream Cake] |
lundi, mai 25, 2009 $5 is a lot of money in schools CK came by my office for lunch before she left for HK last month, and as I had requested St. Nicks orange bowl fishball noodles (锅条，干的，不要辣，加豆芽！), she kindly went and 打包ed from school for me! And we ate like kings... apparently she had given the uncle $5 per packet, and he kept on going back for more 料, maybe because he felt that it really wasn't worthy of a $5 price!Considering that he normally sells his food for a max of $2.50, I think he was a little out of his element... not that I'm complaining! Yum. .jpg) 
[$5 is a lot of money in schools] |
jeudi, avril 30, 2009 Endorsement Nostalgia: Beat That Duck! Because I've been taking some courses at the Baptist Theological Seminary, I've been eating some meals at this dingy hawker centre on Margaret Drive which serves so-so noodles, but awesome fishballs. I really like the header of the stall - it's one of those old header boards that aren't backlit; they're lit from external bulbs.Before endorsements from Makansutra or KF Seetoh were all the rage, there was another, much mightier endorsement that everyone could recognize:  This is the actual stall name board:  C'mon, what are you waiting for? The duck nevwer wies! [Endorsement Nostalgia: Beat That Duck!] |
mardi, décembre 09, 2008 Subway: Orchard Hotel has less calories than Novena  Novena - Turkey Breast has 280cal  Orchard Hotel - Turkey Breast and Veggie Delight have 10 cal less! I don't know if this is false advertising or not, but it sure is... something. Libellés : food [Subway: Orchard Hotel has less calories than Novena] |
lundi, juin 30, 2008  I don't really rave about food, but I must say something about a favourite childhoood food of mine - putu piring.It's basically rice flour with a bit of gula melaka inside, steamed. Like kueh tu-tu, except with the sugar. I used to stay with my grandma in Little India, and I remember walking over to KK Hawker Centre (zhu jiao hawker centre, or tekka, as it's now known), and buying this to eat. It disappeared from my food radar for a while, but now the pasar malams seem to carry them at 3 for $1, which completely rox my sox. I love putu piring :) Libellés : food [Putu Pirings and Pasar Malams] |
mardi, octobre 09, 2007 How to use up nearly-expired baking chocolate ... by making chocolate chip cookies.  .jpg) LEFT: Why does No Frills sell flour in such a weird grammage? 454g. Who bakes ANYTHING with 454g? RIGHT: The whole container was initially full of sugar. And now it's empty. Cookies are just made of pure sugar. It's scary. .jpg)  LEFT: ALL the chocolate chips were gone once I was done with my baking. RIGHT: The mix is four eggs, some vanilla essence, and A WHOLE LOAD OF SUGAR. .jpg) .jpg) LEFT: Adding the flour took forever, and I thought my arms never got such a good workout RIGHT: The finished product that had to be baked. Yum yum. Double chocolate chip cookie dough. Not made with any more love than what's inside "darn, I have to use the chocolate before it expires!" But still, yum yum. Libellés : food [How to use up nearly-expired baking chocolate] |
dimanche, août 05, 2007 My kidnapping: Buono's @ Serangoon Gardens  The loveliest little restaurant was sniffed out by Kris and Ron for my kidnap stage: Buono's Pizza Bar and Italian Restaurant at Serangoon Gardens. Mr. Salvatore Buono, the owner of the restaurant, greeted us as we came in, and was a wonderful host, checking in with us occasionally to find out how the food was, and apologising for the slow service.We ordered the chicken caesar salad, three main dishes: a pizza, the linguine, and the salmon special, and the chocolate lava cake. The food was cooked very well, but was very, very salty, which really marred the experience. Pizzas are assembled on the spot (with plenty of curious kids looking on), and cooked over a brick oven. I think part of the restaurant's charm (apart from the wine, which none of us ordered) is the novelty of seeing an open flame flickering at the back of the restaurant. I really like the place - it's a classy up-do in the middle of the heartland (or "heartland", if you really must make a distinction), it's got a nice laid-back feel to it, parking is free, and best of all - the airconditioning is NOT one which frosts over the glass windows. Instead, the restaurant is ventilated by overhead and floor-standing fans, which is much more refreshing than any energy-sucking sub-zero temperature air-conditioning. BUONO PIZZA BAR & RISTORANTE 27 Lichfield Road Tel: 6733-5646 [My kidnapping: Buono's @ Serangoon Gardens] |
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