Milo and Nutella

Three soups

2012-01-24T19:40:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year and to celebrate I prepared three soups: Creamless Creamy Tomato Soup shown above (Cook's Illustrated recipe), Garlic Soup (The Moro Cookbook), and Lentil Cumin Spinach (also from The Moro Cookbook) both show below. All were easy to prepare and satisfying to eat!

Cream cheese pound cake with tangelo zest

2011-09-29T20:42:00.001-04:00

Check out at Smitten Kitchen's recipe and photos of this amazing cake! Easy to make with few ingredients. I added zest of one tangelo, used 2t of vanilla instead of 1t vanilla and 1t almond, and substituted 1C agave syrup for 3C sugar. Mother, husband, and toddler gave thumbs up! Try it!!!

Before we eat all of it -- and we are trying not to because the recipe includes 3 sticks of butter and 6 eggs and 1 pack of cream cheese -- I will take a photo and post it later.

Eid Mubarak

2011-09-04T01:33:00.005-04:00

In Malaysia, there is a tradition of having "open houses" in celebration of certain holidays such as Eid, Chinese New Year and Deepavali. As my family and I celebrate Eidil Fitri which marks the end of the month-long fast during the month of Ramadan. This year we had our an "open house" on the first day of Eid and had many friends and family come and visit. However, the tradition of visiting friends and family for Eid is not just limited to one day, our extended family and friends continue to visit our home throughout the month to wish us Selamat Hari Raya. It is a particularly special time of the year to catch up with cousins, aunties and uncles whom we may not be able to see regularly throughout the year (with people living in different parts of the country).

This year, for the first day, I made several types of cupcakes, a coffee cake and a cookie. My two eldest nieces made 8 different types of cookies! Here are some pictures of the food served at our Eid open house. Eid Mubarak, everyone!

Savory Corn Fritters a la The Garden of Eatin'

2011-08-26T11:52:00.000-04:00

I have no photos of these delicious fritters. Make them if you have corn! Here is the link to the recipe: http://gardenofeatingblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/savory-corn-fritters.html.

Zucchini bread

2011-08-10T07:19:00.001-04:00

My birthday cake to Robert made from Smitten Kitchen's recipe here which I halved and modified for less sugar.

Dumplings and sesame pancakes

2011-08-08T19:17:00.002-04:00

From Prosperity Dumplings in Chinatown, NYC.

Vegetable dumplings

Sesame seed pancake with vegetables and egg

Almost vegan delicious truffles

2011-07-17T21:39:00.001-04:00

Vegan + delicious, it's true! I used Amy Eddings's recipe for a date-pecan truffle and we have been eating at least three per day, each. The recipe is almost vegan because I toasted my pecans in butter. Also, I added cinnamon and two pinches of (rose) sea salt instead of one pinch and dusted the truffles with cacao powder before freezing them. Best eaten a day later.

Meatless BBQ sandwich

2011-07-06T11:31:00.000-04:00

We prepared a meatless BBQ sandwich using a recipe from GOOD Food online. The BBQ sandwich was developed by Alex Filipkowski and is made of grated tofu soaked in BBQ sauce and a cabbage-red onion-jalapeno slaw. Our pronouncement: we will eat this burger again!

Dolsot Bi Bim Bap

2011-05-24T22:40:00.003-04:00

I am a big fan of Bi Bim Bap... but I am an even BIGGER fan of Dolsot Bi Bim Bap. It is the same dish, but in Dolsot Bi Bim Bap, you put the dish in a hot stone bowl, so hot that the rice develop nice crackly crust. Due to my dietary restrictions, I can't simply go to a Korean restaurant if and when I crave for DBBB, thus I ended up buying my own stone bowl to make DBBB at home when the whims come. It does help that we have an amazing Korean super market on Telegraph and 27th that sells ready made vegetables for DBBB. It cuts down the prep time by an hour or so.... :). They're not cheap, but hey..... if it makes life easier, why not? :).

Tortillas!

2011-05-13T19:11:00.000-04:00

An easy and delicious meal: toasted corn tortillas, avocado, tomatoes, grated cheese, and hummus dressed with olive oil and S&P. We enjoyed it!

Marjolaine Cake

2011-04-21T17:27:00.008-04:00

I became more intrigue with delicate cakes after my last adventure with Spiced Chocolate cake a'la Bon Appetite. As I mentioned in the blog post, I did not quite enjoy the flavor of the cake; I realized I like light, airy cakes with delightful surprise among its layers. Having checked Joepastry.com posts, I figured out I should try making Marjolaine Cake. But I needed an occasion to justify spending hours on it.....

It turned out that March was not only my birth month, but also the birth month of three baristas at Guerilla around the corner. Not only that, they have consistently made me perfect lattes! (If it wasn't up to my standard, I sent it back :P). So, I promised them I would make a cake for all four of us.

As other delicate cakes, I spread the baking/making process over three days. The first evening, I made the praline: caramelized sugar poured on top of roasted hazelnuts and sliced almonds, cooled, and then ground. I also made the chocolate ganache with creme fraiche (joepastry's idea!). The second day, I baked the cake... uhm, meringue to be exact. This meringue is better known among bakers as Dacquoise cake: Stiff egg whites mixed with ground nuts (i.e. almonds and hazelnut), sugar, and a little bit of flour. The third day, I made the Italian butter cream before I assembled the cake. For Marjolaine cake, the butter cream is divided into two: one portion was mixed with the praline, and the other was mixed with vanilla pods. The layer starts with meringue, followed by ganache, meringue, praline butter cream, meringue, vanilla butter cream, meringue, and topped off with ganache as finishing cover. I still find it difficult doing a proper finishing touches. The cake did not look overly impressive.... To let the flavor settled, I kept it in the fridge overnight.

Did I say the cake did not look overly impressive? It didn't. Mainly because I still need to improve my decorating skills. But flavor-wise, it was heaven on earth. (Masha Allah!!). The light Italian butter cream (yes, it is considered "light" because no egg yolks were in the cream) complemented the airy meringue very nicely. Not only that, the caramel/hazelnut/almond praline introduced a complex flavor to the whole experience; its gritty texture added a punch to the smooth, soft, silky cream.

Now I can't really decide if I like Marjolaine better than Opera Cake. However, making the dacquoise was much easier than gioconda because it doesn't require fat (butter) which is always problematic as it fat flattens the aired egg whites.....

Here's a picture of my half-eaten cake. M. did the strawberry rose. I'm waiting for a better picture from S.'s hi-tech camera.

Cheese crackers and a stir fry

2011-04-08T19:37:00.001-04:00

I've been cooking and baking, hardly photographing or posting. I only have two photographs to share today. One photograph of cheese "crackers" baked from Joe Pastry's cheese wafers recipe (they tasted better than they photographed) and another of a stir fry of portobello mushrooms and a red bell pepper. The vegetables were seasoned with rice wine and ume plum vinegars, green chile soy sauce, garlic, and ginger.

Pumpernickle bread

2011-02-28T10:20:00.014-05:00

Hello people, I don't usually declare myself genius to the world but after taking a bite of this bread fresh out of the oven, I clapped my hands and declared myself genius and did a happy dance! ( I wanted to declare a national holiday too, but that would be going a tad bit overboard).

Well, actually, it is the authors of the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes that are geniuses. As I had mentioned in earlier postings, I love, love, love this book. Last week I made their deli rye bread and this weekend I decided to make their Pumpernickle bread with the lovely organic rye flour I had on hand. I modified the recipe by adding whole wheat and increasing the amount of rye (I just cant bring myself to make breads which has more than half white flour ratio--just seems wrong, if you going to be making home made bread may as well use the more interesting textured flours). I also added fennel seeds into the bread mixture (the recipe called for a sprinkle of caraway seeds to scatter on top). Now the most wonderful and exciting thing for me about this recipe was that I got to use coffee and cocoa in the batter. You can tell how excited I was to mix this batter when I readily gave up (sacrifice, really) my morning coffee (that I brewed with a french press) to go into this mix before I had some myself (I had to brew a second batch). I was that eager to get the bread mixed and rising! It was worth it!

I have been enjoying this hearty and fragrant bread with slices of avocado and tomato drizzled with olive oil.

Rye bread

2011-02-24T08:27:00.008-05:00

Baking bread always makes me happy. I found some organic rye flour recently and could not wait to make rye bread. I made two loaves here using a recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I did not have any caraway seeds on hand so used fennel instead. There's a recipe for dark rye bread in the book which uses coffee and cocoa powder, can't wait to try that next and maybe make a swirl (dark and light) rye bread.

I am in a pickle

2011-02-10T06:01:00.004-05:00

I was in a pickling mood last week and prepared two types of pickles: pickled red onion and pickled garlic. For the first, I sliced a couple of red onions, placed them in my plastic pickle maker (an awesomely practical gift), and added black peppercorns, garlic (a little), and white vinegar to cover. I refrigerated overnight then stored one-half in a sterilized jar. The other half is being eaten down!

Three years ago I read Margo True's pickled garlic recipe on the Sunset magazine blog One-block diet. I had prepared a lemon pickle recipe from the blog, this one Nepalese lemon pickle by Elaine Johnson. Delicious! Back to the Sally True's pickled garlic recipe. I peeled two large cloves and covered them with a mixture of cider and white vinegar and added 1/4 teaspoon of black peppercorns, about 1/8 cup of brown sugar, a pinch or so of salt, 1 bay leaf, and 2 cloves. I boiled the ingredients for three minutes then poured them into a sterilized jar which I covered and heat sealed. This pickle, too, is delicious! Tangy, a bit sweet from the sugar, but mostly from the clove, with a hint of Bermudan lime from the bay leaf.

Balinese Lawar and Sate Lilit

2011-02-08T20:01:00.015-05:00

Lawar and Sate Lilit:

A couple of years ago, Lin, Shim and I went for a vacation in Bali. It was a truly truly wonderful experience. One of the highlights was the local cuisine (the other white water rafting, yet another a lush, affordable cottage overlooking the Ayung River in Sayan), and we were lucky to find a halal Balinese canteen somewhere in Denpasar. I remember we ended up eating rice and several traditcional dishes such as Ayam Plecing (shredded chicken mixed with special chili concotion), Lawar (Balinese style salad), and for sure Sate Lilit (meat/chicken/fish mixed with shredded coconut and spices in thick bamboo skewer).

Sometime last year, I had the urge to remake Lawar and Fish Sate Lilit (best with King Mackerel or Spanish Mackerel). I had to scour the internet for Lawar Recipe and found something here and for another version of Sambal Sere Tabia, Base Be Siap and Sambal Matah by Murni's warung, a famous eatery in Ubud, here. Scroll down until you find the recipe among other authentic Balinese recipes.

It is said that Lawar is usually made for Balinese festive days by the patriarch of the family. It requires myriad of ingredients that demand almost a whole day preparation. A blog here by Michael Tenzer shows you how it is "properly" done. The pictures there are luxuriant! I ended up using Murni's recipe and Tenzer's step-by-step direction. There's also a simpler way to do it, as shown here. But then again, I like to torture myself for good food....

Dinner on the floor, with Lawar, Sate Lilit and coconut rice in lotus leaf (for lack of banana leaf):

Mushroom quiche

2011-02-05T12:09:00.006-05:00

I made this mushroom quiche for brunch a couple of weekends ago. I love brunch --it is a great excuse to make (and eat!) breads and pastries. I made two types of breads--multigrain with cranberries--using the 5-minute artisan bread method, and a wholewheat boule using the famous Jim Lahey recipe--both of the no-knead school but with varying proofing time. My guests brought some lovely apple-pumpkin-ginger marmalade from Germany which went really well with the breads. I also had two types of cheese laid out --Parmesan and Scottish Cheddar. Along with the bread, I made this quiche above and got to try out my new removable-bottom pie tin. The crust for the quiche turned out well, the quiche was tasty but could have used more salt and maybe something else punchier in it--maybe some roasted red peppers, or cherry tomatoes, or even some salmon for a meatier version. A fruit salad marinated with mint sugar served alongside some Greek yogurt made for a refreshing rejoinder to the breads and pastries. Of course, plenty of coffee and tea to go around makes for a happy brunch crowd. Looking forward to having friends over for brunch again soon.

Vietnamese salad a la Gwenyth

2011-02-04T14:37:00.002-05:00

Yes, Gwenyth Paltrow has a Vietnamese salad recipe, here. And, I prepared last year.

Cottage pie for baby

2011-02-03T14:37:00.002-05:00

Lin's link to a baby cakes recipe reminded me that I had photographed a recent meal I prepared for my baby, a vegetarian cottage pie adapted from Annabel Karmel's The Healthy Baby Meal Planner.

carrot - potato mash

Tea party with Bon Appetit's Chocolate Spiced Torte

2011-01-29T13:39:00.021-05:00

That magnificent cake in Bon Appetit's cover stared at me as I was getting ready to pay my groceries. My heart sank. This was a challenge I could not resist. It took me a while to find strong justification to bake that cake: a dear friend is leaving for a five-month out-of-the-country adventure, my husband's dear friend recently got married and I wanted to introduce her to my circle, and we haven't had tea party for a while (which I have promised ES since last year's World Cup!). So, I began the three-day adventure in making this cake:

I baked the cake on Wednesday evening, made the buttercream and spread it on the cake Thursday evening, and did the ganache glace and ribbon on Friday several hours before the tea party. I've learned from my opera cake adventure that it is wise to spread the gargantuan task over several days to keep one's sanity and to prevent making rushed decision that may ruin the cake when fatigue descents.

The cake was the highlight for the tea party, but other things that we made were also turned out really good. A friend bought a bowl of salad with intriguing mixed of texture (crunchy, velvety, crackling). A and I made a sandwich from whatever we have in the fridge (Lebne, cranberry chutney C's friend gave her as a Fall-season gift and which she shared with a number of us, shaved parmesan and thinly-sliced cucumber), and a last-minute orange-cardamom scones from Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything" book (375F is a better temp than his recommended 450F). L brought creme fraiche and mascarpone for the scone (BBowl no longer stock Devonshire Cream. BAD DECISION, BBOWL!! :), E brought raspberry jam to go with it. We had Twining Earl Grey and Lady Grey that C's husband brought as a gift from his recent trip to the UK (US version is too weak to my taste.... And I am not going to be apologetic about my Earl Grey snob... ;)), and for the last round of tea, we had Orange Rooiboos from Simon Levelt in Leiden.

Salad by F:

The tea spread out:

The cake, sliced:

Additional notes for the cake making:
1. For the cake, I used only 1.3 cups of sugar instead of 2 suggested.
2. I did not use Bon Appetit's glaze recipe. Instead I used suggested ganache recipe and step-by-step process from Joepastry's blog: 12oz chocolate chip, 12 oz of cream, 2 TB honey, 3/4 ts instant coffee (per BA's ingredients)
3. I followed the step-by-step chocolate tempering from About.com, and then continue with Joepastry's procedure (it calls for "room-temperature tempered chocolate").
4. I also follow Joepastry's procedure for making buttercream: sugar and corn syrup needs to boil to 250F (instead of BA's less exact 1 minute boil).
5. For the ribbon, BA's direction is pretty clear. I was able to do everything with rolling pin and a help of a plastic ruler :):

6. If I ever have a Kitchenaid Stand Up mixer (the current one is loaned by dear B), I will get a second bowl to ease switching between batter.
7. I find out that I like spongy layered cake better than dense cake like this torte. My favorite so far is still Opera Cake with joconda/gioconda as its base. My next adventure will probably revolves around joconda-base or genoise-base cake. What with the loaned Kitchenaid, I don't need to train my biceps muscle using my old (but surprisingly reliable) hamilton beach hand mixer to beat the egg whites. Heh heh.. :).

It was a marvelous adventure. I am grateful for friends who were there for the party. The hikma (wisdom) for this occasion: One need a regular heartwarming tea party to recharge in order to face the bittersweet world out there.

Carrot muffin with Nutella frosting

2011-01-26T06:20:00.010-05:00

Georgia told me last night about the post over at Smitten Kitchen for a peanut-chocolate Nutella-inspired spread: peanutella! So today I took a peek at the wonderful blog and OMG! Oh it looks soooo good and got me immediately searching the pantry for my bottle of Nutella. I was so happy that I had a bottle--in goes a spoon--hmmm hmm. I wanted to spread it on bread too (just like the Smitten Kitchen's post) but I finished all the homemade bread yesterday..... but I did have some carrot muffins that I baked last night.... hmmm carrot muffins and nutella? Could this work? Of course, anything slathered with Nutella has a high probability of being yummy, but it was superbly yummy! The Nutella did not mask the spicy muffin (as I had expected) but complemented it well. For the muffins, I used Ina Garten's carrot cupcake recipe cut in half (and added 1/2 tsp powdered ginger and zest of half a lemon).

Skillet pizza

2011-01-16T10:11:00.002-05:00

Sunset magazine has really simple and delicious recipes. I baked a broccoli bell pepper pizza twice after the Broccoli rabe skillet pizza.

All you need is dough (I used frozen), broccoli or broccoli rabe and your favorite type of bell pepper, red pepper flakes, and mozzarella. Prepare the dough in the skillet, remove and prepare your vegetables, remove and return the dough the skillet, then add your cooked vegetables and pizza. Bakes for about 15 minutes. Enjoy! The original recipe can be found here.

Vegetarian laksa

2011-01-06T20:25:00.000-05:00

I prepared laksa tonight and it was a hit. Spouse and baby liked the soup. The soup was restorative for me; I have a cough.

The original Chicken laksa recipe is from Sunset magazine (Jan. 2011). I took some liberties with the recipe in terms of ingredients and measurements, largely cooking a non-meat and non-fish soup. I could only find lite coconut milk at the grocery store so the broth was a bit thin. Whole Foods shoppers in the neighborhood must have read the same recipe! I used bean noodles instead of rice, red pepper flakes instead of dried arbol chiles, and Sri Lankan flavored salt instead of kosher salt. Also, I used a yellow onion not shallots and added a clove of garlic (minced) where none was called for.

Here are my before and after photos.

French Laundry Lemon Tart

2011-01-04T10:36:00.006-05:00

My favorite lemon tart recipe is this one from Epicurious.com: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Lemon-Tart-231349. I have made it many times now and can attest it is smackelicious! Making the sabayon may seem intimidating but it is really easy, just takes some patience (and faith) waiting for it to thickened up. I highly recommend some berries on top (blueberries are best, raspberries are good too) and and oh, a side of homemade whipped cream won't be awful either. Bon Appétit!

Chicken Bao

2011-01-03T06:18:00.019-05:00

Image from Amazon.com (source)

In our recent travel to Hong Kong we had the rare opportunity to try halal Hong Kong Dim Sum in Masjid Ammar. I was smitten..... I suddenly had the urge to master all the popular Dim Sum selection I could lay my hands on, like Chicken Bun, Har Gao, Tofu sheet dim sum, glutinous rice in lotus leaves, different kinds of shiu mai.... Upon arriving back to CA, I razed our local library and found several books on dim sum, and after several tests, my favorite one is Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's. I had the mistake of doubting her bao recipe to my detriment.

My obsession with chicken bao led me to try several recipes for the bun, including one from Yin-Fei Lo's and another from Rasa Malaysia blog. I decided I prefer the Cantonese style by Yin-Fei Lo's that relies only on baking powder to rise the dough than the other style that requires some yeast. The Cantonese style resulted in very soft, cake-like bun, while the other turned more chewy. And they say one of the secret of soft bao is to use a mixture of all purpose and cake flour.

Here's my bao

Here's my bao, too

and here is my Har Gao

Sweet potato cupcakes

2010-12-27T09:31:00.000-05:00

Sweet potato cupcakes on Boxing Day! A new tradition? Perhaps. Craving cupcakes and sweet potato, I searched the internet for recipes and chose bakerella's "Not your kid's cupcake" recipe, prepared without the bourbon.

I halved the recipe which yielded nine medium-sized cupcakes. Also, I used canned sweet potato puree (organic) instead of whole potatoes. I used 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of ginger, and about 1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg as I did not have pumpkin spice. I topped them with a frosting of equal parts cream cheese (2 oz) and butter sweetened with about a 1/4 teaspoon of brown sugar. No pretty pictures to share with you, sorry, but the cupcakes are delicious!

Pumpkin bread pudding

2010-12-25T13:25:00.004-05:00

In the spirit of Christmas I made this pumpkin bread pudding. I used croissants as the base making it super rich--I did omit the melted butter that was in the recipes that inspired this dish and used evaporated milk instead of cream.

Recipe (I kinda made my own combining several of the recipes I read online--including from Smitten Kitchen and Epicurious).
8 cups croissants cubes (if you use a less rich bread, like italian or white bread, you may want to toss in some melted butter over the bread)
1 can pumpkin puree
1 can evaporated milk + 1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup brown sugar (loosely packed)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1tsp cinnamon powder
1.5tsp ginger powder
1/8 tsp nutmeg powder
1/8 tsp allspice
3 medium sized eggs

Mix all of the above and pour over bread cubes. Leave for 15 minutes and pour into a buttered baking dish. Bake about 40 minutes in 180 C oven or until puffy and golden brown. Enjoy warm with some vanilla ice cream. Please do have it with the ice cream--it makes a great combination!

Happy holidays!

One of my favorite oolongs

2010-12-23T21:01:00.000-05:00

I have been cooking, most recently Madhur Jaffrey's Potatoes with Yoghurt and Chickpeas, Delhi style, but I do not have photos to share. I would like to share a photo of one my new favorite oolongs -- from In Pursuit of Tea -- which I tasted at a Tea & Cheese Pairing (yumminess x 2).

Ina Garten's Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

2010-12-22T00:47:00.003-05:00

Made these cupcakes twice and I can vouch for their yumminess, in particular, the peanut butter frosting. Do let the cupcakes set in the fridge for at least 15 minutes as the frosting is better cool (important if you live in the tropics). The ones in the picture above I made a few months ago. Looking at those cupcakes makes me want to make them again, now!

Here is the link to Ina's recipe (love her!) : http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/chocolate-cupcakes-and-peanut-butter-icing-recipe/index.html

I am contemplating next time I make them, I may try to use Nigella's moist chocolate cake recipe but keep to Ina's peanut butter frosting. Will post when I do (though I think it will be awhile before I have time to bake them).

Olives and grapes pizza

2010-12-19T02:00:00.002-05:00

A week-day pizza utilizing leftovers I had hiding in the fridge-- kalamata olives, cherry tomatoes, pumpkin seeds and grapes! It was a yummy combination.

Munich's take on "mac and cheese"

2010-11-13T15:00:00.000-05:00

Kaesespaetzle or spaetzle with cheese and onions. Here's a recipe from About.com: German Food.

Banana fritters

2010-11-04T05:16:00.003-04:00

Vegetarian savory pie

2010-11-04T05:08:00.003-04:00

To join in the casserole theme: White-bean "Shepperd's" pie.

Two casseroles from the Moosewood Cookbook

2010-10-24T20:40:00.000-04:00

It's easy to be a vegetarian home cook with this cookbook!

Mushroom Moussaka: eggplant, mushroom-tomato sauce, and a bechamel sauce

Broccoli Mushroom Noodle Casserole: like a mac & cheese

Thai berry pudding

2010-10-09T13:48:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've taken liberties with the name of this recipe. I found the recipe, named strawberry pudding, in Natural Health magazine. The recipe is vegan; it uses coconut milk (hence "Thai"). I substituted frozen blueberries for fresh strawberries frozen overnight and I used vanilla extract instead of a fresh vanilla bean. Also, I soaked raw almonds for six hours, not overnight. If I make this pudding again, I'll soak the nuts overnight for a smoother consistency. Otherwise, an easy and delicious dessert!

1/2 C coconut milk (I used lite milk), 3/4 C raw almonds, 1 pint (8 oz) frozen blueberries

Blend almonds and milk, then add vanilla (2-3 t) and blueberries

Potato mushroom frittata

2010-10-08T13:42:00.001-04:00

Two boiling potatoes sauteed with garlic instead of boiled and a pack of white mushrooms also sauteed submerged with four beaten eggs (to which paprika and cumin were added) then set on the stove for a few minutes and topped with aged cheddar then baked for several minutes (to melt the cheese) at 375-degrees F.

Jarring applesauce

2010-10-07T13:42:00.000-04:00

Who knew jarring was easy? If I had known earlier, I would have jarred peaches and nectarines and plums and berries. But I learned that jarring was easy after doing it myself. My family and I went apple picking last month and I made applesauce and jarred three pints, two of which I gave away. Thanks to two websites: wholesomebabyfood.com (the recipe) and homefedbaby.com (jarring instructions).

Here is applesauce jarring in pictures:

Apples -- peel, core, slice

Pot for cooking apples; pot for sterilizing jars and cooking jars filled with sauce

Cooked apples -- cinnamon and vanilla extract were added to taste

No-knead bread

2010-09-29T14:38:00.012-04:00

I could not sing enough praise for this wonderful, versatile bread recipe. It truly changed the way I make bread. Bread making becomes so easy and accessible. This recipe is from the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, a wonderful book by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. You can find the recipes online too. The recipes is so easy. Mix. Proof. Shape. Rise. Bake. Notice I did not say anything about kneading. This is the world's most amazing no-knead bread recipe. I adapted the Master Boule recipe by using my favorite grains and nuts for this wholesome bread.

Mix

Rise

Shape and Proof

Bake

Slice

Enjoy!

Eid Mubarak

2010-09-11T08:41:00.003-04:00

What a coincidence, speaking of cupcakes (in reference to Georgia's post), in celebration for Eidil Fitri (end of the fasting month of Ramadan) this year (which was yesterday), I made two types of cupcakes--both recipes from Ina Garten: Chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting and Carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. They were both excellent --the carrot cupcakes, in particular, was very popular with our guests ('tis the frosting!). I also made madeleines (recipe from Joy of Baking) and two types of cookies. The cookie recipes--lemon poppy seed and peanut butter, chocolate and cinnamon cookies-- were from a Martha Stewart cookbook. It was fun baking and having family and friends enjoy the goodies.
(sorry, I forgot to take pictures...but you can imagine them luscious and delicious!)
Eid Mubarak (Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri)!

Chocolate stuffed vanilla cupcake

2010-09-09T09:32:00.000-04:00

I baked four cupcakes yesterday, one of which was not stuffed. The plain cupcake was for Robert; his pediatrician said he can now eat anything except nuts and honey. I used this vanilla pound cake recipe halving everything except the sugar (Hawaiian sugar in the raw) which I quartered and doubling the amount of vanilla extract. I used white whole wheat flour and organic milk and eggs. Robert enjoyed his first cupcake!

12 top foods to try in 2010 (American Legacy magazine)

2010-08-22T12:10:00.002-04:00

An Eden Foods sponsored article in the Winter/Spring 2010 issue of American Legacy listed the following "12 top foods to try" this year:

Kale
Nuts (peanuts, pistachios, almonds, walnuts)
Quinoa
Berries
Plain, low-fat yogurt
Avocado
Beans (other legumes, lentils, peas)
Mushrooms
Fish (tuna, salmon, mackerel)
* beware of mercury levels
Flax
Oatmeal
Broccoli

I plan to prepare Sauteed Kale with Cumin and Smoked Paprika (by 64 sq ft kitchen) this week.

Meat without feet

2010-08-21T19:33:00.002-04:00

Organic black rice from the Borneo highland

2010-07-31T14:00:00.007-04:00

I bought this bag of black rice from the WWF-Borneo Highland Community craft stall at the World Rainforest Music Festival in Kuching, Sarawak. This rice is produced by the highland community of South Krayan in Kalimantan. This is a fair trade product with proceeds going back to support community based conversation projects in the area. I was glad at the time to buy this to show support for the project, but I was even more glad I did after I cooked it. The rice, which is organic by the way, is so tasty --it is nutty and chewy and has a great aroma. And I love the color. Here is how it looks like after it has been cooked (used my trusty rice cooker).

I had some for dinner with a side of stir fried greens (called chye sim here in Singapore; I stir fried it with garlic and egg and sprinkled on top with sesame seeds). It was delicious!

Poppy seed lemon cake

2010-07-29T20:05:00.001-04:00

The name of this cake should have been a sign of too much poppy seed! Certainly when I added 1/2 cup of it to the batter, I knew. If you like poppy seed, fine, but I recommend less, maybe 1/4 cup. The recipe -- from a Smitten Kitchen adaptation of a recipe from Kurt Gutenbrunner -- also called for 1/2 cup cornstarch (I used tapioca), but again, too much. I recommend, less, maybe 1/4 cup. Also, don't bake for 50 minutes; you'll have a dry cake. I would bake this cake again with modifications. I served the cake to two men and both really like it! The cake keeps well in the fridge and is complimented by (black) tea, milk, or vanilla ice cream.

Proud of my yolk-sugar base (8 minutes of mixing!)

Lovely lemon zest

2 sticks of butter for the cake (very Ina Garten)

The best chocolate chip cookies recipe

2010-07-21T10:42:00.009-04:00

Chocolate Chip Cookies
From The New York Times, David Leite, and Jacques Torres

2 cups minus 2 Tbsp. (8 ½ oz.) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 ½ oz.) bread flour
1 ¼ tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. coarse salt, such as kosher
2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups; 10 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¼ cups (10 oz.) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. (8 oz.) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ¼ pounds bittersweet chocolate chips or chunks, preferably about 60% cacao content
Sea salt, such as Maldon

Combine flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a bowl. Whisk well; then set aside.

Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars until very light and fluffy, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Reduce the mixer speed to low; then add dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. (Unless you have a plastic guard that sits around the rim of the bowl, this will make a big mess at first, with flour flying everywhere. I found that carefully holding a dish towel around the top of the bowl helped a lot.) Add the chocolate chips, and mix briefly to incorporate. Press plastic wrap against the dough, and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. The dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Remove the bowl of dough from the refrigerator, and allow it to soften slightly. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat.

Using a standard-size ice cream scoop – mine holds about 3 fluid ounces, or about 1/3 cup – scoop six mounds of dough onto the baking sheet, making sure to space them evenly. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt, and bake until golden brown but still soft, 15 to 20 minutes. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies onto the rack to cool a bit more.

Repeat with remaining dough.

Yield: About 24 (5-inch) cookies.

Salad for the heat wave

2010-07-19T09:34:00.000-04:00

When it's between 90 and 100 degrees F with comparable humidity, you don't want to use the stove or the oven! Here's a quick, cool, tasty option. A basil, tomato, mozzarella, and olive salad, also known as Salate Bene Bella at Silver Spurs Diner. Dressed with extra virgin olive oil and Flor de Sal d'Es Trenc Olivas Negras (black olive salt from Mallorca, Spain).

Lemon lavender tart with Earl Grey ice cream

2010-07-04T21:15:00.000-04:00

Lemon lavender tart with Earl Grey ice cream eaten at Salt in NYC.

Frozen yogurt with foraged serviceberries

2010-06-24T11:57:00.000-04:00

Haagen-Dazs vanilla raspberry frozen yogurt topped with serviceberries picked from public trees in the neighborhood. Delicious!

Banana Bread

2010-06-02T14:15:00.006-04:00

Great use for those over-ripe bananas. Got this recipe from the internet but it wasn't quite as bananaey (I am sure that is a word) as I would have liked my banana bread to be. Still looking for a good banana bread recipe.....anybody has a good recipe to share?

Biscuits and cheesecake

2010-05-20T20:53:00.000-04:00

The photographs below are of biscuits and a cheesecake (well, of the crust) baked before January 2010.

The biscuits were prepared from a modified version of Smitten Kitchen's cream biscuits recipe and the cheesecake recipe is from an online Cooks Illustrated recipe (via subscription only -- sorry).

Veggie pizza

2010-05-15T14:32:00.003-04:00

Pesto, grilled portobello mushroom, roasted red peppers,
ricotta cheese and parmesan pizza

Labor day brunch

2010-05-01T11:31:00.005-04:00

Labor day in Singapore falls on May 1st. This morning I caught up with a friend over brunch at a lovely bakery restaurant overlooking a private marina. I had 'eggs royale' which was poached eggs and smoked salmon over english muffins with hollandaise sauce. The food, the view: I felt like I away on vacation.

The view:

The yummy food:

Can you tell that I enjoyed my 'eggs royale' :)

Middle Eastern Beet Salad

2010-04-10T11:05:00.005-04:00

The recipe for this vibrant salad was from a book called Saha: A Chef's Journey Through Lebanon and Syria by Greg Malouf and Lucy Malouf. I borrowed this wonderful recipe book cum travelogue from the public library and spent many hours pouring over the recipes and reading the vivid descriptions of the streets and sounds of Lebanon and Syria. I made several of the dips and salads dishes from the book, and they were all lovely. Be ready to squeeze lots of lemon and drizzle out lots of olive oil. How can you go wrong, right?

This beet salad was a hit with my walking buddies as part of a healthy all-salad dinner I prepared (the other salads I made that day was a quinoa taboulleh and a cucumber raita) before we went for our weekly power walk.

Unfortunately I forgot to write down the recipes before I had to return the library book, but you really should check out this book for yourself. Next time you are at the bookstore or library look out for it.

This yummy salad has roasted beet roots marinated with a lemon-garlic vinaigrette, with some chunks of peeled orange and lemon wedges thrown in. All this goodness tossed over spring mix leaves and sprinkled over with some roasted pistachio.

I do remember what was interesting in making the vinaigrette was that the garlic had to be slow cooked in a little olive oil until a little golden on the outside but soft on the inside, then mushed up with some salt ( I used my mortar and pestle). Once the garlic was all mushy, lemon juice and olive oil was added to the mix. I am guessing you can also use (pre-)roasted garlic for this dressing.

Lemon Yoghurt Muffins

2010-04-10T10:13:00.002-04:00

This recipe is from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. They are called Baby Bundts in the book as Ms. Lawson used cute mini-Bundt molds. I did not have any bundt molds so I used good old muffin trays which worked just as well. These muffins were very quick to make and tasted light and healthy. Great with a cup of tea. The lemony icing on top makes them luscious and feels like a special treat.

Recipe (adapted from How to be a Domestic Goddess):
Cake:
125 ml natural yoghurt
75gm butter, melted
2 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon
150gm plain flour
1/2tsp bicarbonate soda
pinch of salt
125gm caster sugar

Icing:
200gm icing sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Preheat oven 170 C
Mix yoghurt, melted butter, eggs and lemon zest. Put all the dry ingredient in a dry bowl. Fold dry ingredients with wet ingredients. Fill the muffin tin and bake for 20-25 mins. To make icing, add enough icing sugar to the juice of 1 lemon to get a condense-milk like consistency. Drizzle on the cooled muffins.

Enjoy!

Picnic spread

2010-04-07T10:21:00.005-04:00

Tzatziki, hummus, and fruit salad; a spread for a picnic at the botanical garden listening to swing music on a lazy Sunday afternoon in Singapore.

Spinach & Cheese Strata

2010-03-24T09:15:00.000-04:00

Delicious. So delicious that I forgot to photograph the finished product. I used Garden of Eating's recipe which is based on Smitten Kitchen's recipe. I made a few changes to the list of ingredients and to the preparation:

5 oz fresh spinach
1/2 large yellow onion
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 loaf French bread
4 oz smoked cheddar
1 oz grated Parmesan
1 cup reduced fat milk (2%)
3 medium eggs
no Worcestershire sauce
I did not chill the ingredients before baking and only baked the dish for 30 minutes.

Pittsburgh food blog

2010-02-22T10:10:00.002-05:00

Burghilicious - Pittsburgh Food Blog by blogger Lauren at http://www.burghilicious.com.

Glorious food in Japan

2010-01-02T10:39:00.032-05:00

I visited Tokyo, Japan for the first time last month and I absolutely loved it! The people were so nice, the sights amazing, and the food, oh the food almost made me cry with joy. It was a short visit but I managed to try a variety of foods. The most wonderful part about my trip was that I had the opportunity to meet up with old friends. They were all wonderful hosts and introduced me to wonderful foods. Having good friends to share meals with make the dining experiences more memorable. Thank you very much to Juita, Tomomi and Juntaro, and Noriko (FES '01).

Here is my food diary for the 2.5 days in Japan:

Sushi dinner in Yanaka with Juita who impressed me with her Japanese. The sushi looks almost like plastic in this picture, don't they? They are so perfectly shaped. Well, they definitely did not taste plastic; so amazingly delicious!

Traditional rice set at the Bamboo Restaurant near Ueno Park. Lovely lunch with Tomomi, her husband, Juntaro and their adorable children, Koreto and Miyu. So many different dishes that were all sooooo good. My favorite was the mackerel stewed in miso (at 2 o'clock in picture).

Dessert that came with the meal. A tea infused milk pudding with a thick honey/caramel topping. Smooth and creamy.

A pit stop for some homemade crunchy rice cracker snacks while exploring Yanaka (old part of Tokyo)

Late night dinner in Shibuya. It was raining outside and a hot bowl of udon was just perfect. Udon with mix tempura (vegetables and shrimp).

Some green tea and giant fruits for dessert back at the ryokan (inn). Local grapes, pear and orange from the friendly local grocer.

Early morning steaming bowls of matcha with sugar-coated rice crackers in Kamakura with Nori. We sat by a ridge overlooking a beautiful view of fall colors while sipping our strong matcha.

Giant rice cracker snack while walking through Kamakura.

Did I mention the rice crackers were freshly grilled and then dipped into a tub of sweet sticky soy sauce? Very addictive. Though I have to say, they were so huge that I had to save half of mine for later.

Mushroom soba for lunch in Kamakura. There must have been at least 6 different types of mushrooms in this dish. This one is for you, Jo (the mushroom hunter) :)

Tea time with Nori in Ginza Shopping district. Very elaborate tea service at the Shiseido cafe. We sat amongst lovely ladies wearing silk kimonos and pearls.

Matcha cake to have along with tea. A medley of light white cake layered with matcha with fresh cream and chocolate ganache. Heavenly.

For dinner my last night in Tokyo, Nori took me too this super cool, jazz, sake bar/ cafe near Shinjuku. We had a medley of "small bites" that were all so good. Above is a salad with tofu and lots of shaved bonito. I have to try making this soon. So refreshing and tasty.

Shishamo "pregnant" fish. I know that sounds awful, but they were very tasty. The fish all had roe inside their bellies.

Konyaku and eggy tofu. Interesting textures. Nice and comforting.

Fish cakes. I do not usually like fish cakes but this was delicious. It actually taste of fish rather than stodgy dough (the ones I usual encounter here).

Eggs! I love omelets but this was exceptional. Who knew eggs can be so deliciously savory, moist and fluffy. Looking forward to buying one of those square pans (not pants) to make these. Nori gave me pointers how to make them fluffy.

And finally-- sashimi: octopus, sea urchin and tuna (I think). Yes, folks, the last 6 pictures were all part of one meal!

Aahh, Japan.... I wish I had more days and more meals. I can't wait to go back!

Sunday afternoon dessert

2009-12-21T06:00:00.002-05:00

The warm chocolate cake on the Lure menu was accompanied by salted caramel ice cream, popcorn brittle, and chocolate pudding. Lure is known for its fish and seafood offerings (hence the name - Lure.)

We ordered this dessert after our Sunday brunch and were not disappointed. It made for a festive Sunday meal. In order, we liked the cake, ice cream, and pudding. The cake was moist and the interior nicely warm. The ice cream was a perfect blend of cream, salt, and caramel. The pudding was not outstanding but it would be great if store-bought puddings tasted like this one.

After brunch we enjoyed a long walk through the Soho neighborhood of New York City. A long walk is a great non-alcoholic digestif and it was pretty cool to trump through the snow.

Banana walnut muffins

2009-12-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

Banana walnut muffins

Based on the banana nut muffins recipe at Simply Recipes. Definitely add the tablespoon of espresso and you can reduce the amount of sugar from 3/4 to 1/2 cup.

Opera Cake

2009-11-27T00:23:00.012-05:00

Thanksgiving is a worthy event to attempt an epic project. So I thought I should make an Opera cake to bring to a Thanksgiving dinner our friends hosted.

This was my first ever Opera cake, and I was nervous. The recipe I found at the Splendid Table looked intimidating. Four pages of directions! Adapted from Dorrie Greenspan's book, this recipe dominates the culinary blogdom: numerous google returns on "opera cake recipe" refers back to this master recipe. Wanting to bake enough for a crowd, I resort to it (other recipes cater for 8 people). I had to read it thoroughly several times before the direction sinked in.

Essentially, classic Opera cake consists of layers of almond sponge cake (joconde/gioconda) drizzled with coffee syrup and slathered alternatively with french-style coffee butter cream and chocolate ganache. Although seemingly complicated, there are only two elements of the cake that one has to pay close attention to: the sponge cake and the french style butter cream. The other are simply chocolate ganache and sugared espresso (chocolate ganache is simply chocolate chips and cream melted in your humble microwave, and espresso... well... how can one simplify espresso?). Aside of coffee-chocolate classic, I've found many other variations online, such as the enticing Green Tea Opeara cake!

My patience in scouring the internet for better direction was rewarded with joepastry.com, a no-fuss, non-pretentious blog that guides me with step-by-step photograph on opera cake assembling (there are other baking techniques, too). Joe also gives me direction on how to make the french style butter cream, cake syrup, and joconde cake (and believe me you, he ALSO uses the Splendid Table recipe!). I followed his 4 layer instead of Greenspan's 3 layer cake. Thanks to Joe (whoever you are!), for a novice, I managed to pull a respectable Opera cake.

Some lesson learned:
1. For the cake, I cut down the sugar from 2 to 1.5 cups, because there would be coffee syrup to moist the cake.
2. At 425F, my oven was to hot and almost burned the bottom of my cake. I still need to calibrate the temperature and baking time to make the cake.
3. I should try to make thinner sponge cake to create more dramatic layers.
4. I would use more espresso and less sugar for the coffee syrup, and drench the cake more in the espresso next time.
5. After putting the butter cream on the cake, I put the cake in the fridge for 10 minutes to let the butter cream harden, enough to withstand the weight of the next layer. But...
6. I should not do so for the ganache layer, because it hardened and the next cake layer did not stick to the ganache. I only found out when I sliced the cake.
7. I put the chocolate glaze topping after I let the cake chill overnight in the fridge. This help the cake to stabilize.
8. My glace was not liquid enough to be poured, I ended up spreading it with a knife. So my topping was not smooth. It requires equal weight of chocolate chip and cream to make liquid glaze.
9. I let the glaze solidified before slicing the cake, and I used knife heated with hot tap water to make a clean slice.
10. I need to buy a decent kitchen scale.

The cake was a hit. I am encouraged to make it again, now that the steps have been demystified. (Thanks, Joe!)

Galette for Brunch

2009-11-18T10:22:00.004-05:00

I had posted the link to the Tomato, Corn and Cheese Galette in an earlier posting. Here are some pictures of my attempt last Sunday. I was rushing to get this done to take to a friend's house for brunch that I forgot to pictures after taking it out from the oven. But I did remember to take a picture of the leftover slice.

Before putting it in the oven

I do like the combo of the corn, caramelized onions and tomatoes, though next time I think I will try other combination for the filling. Perhaps spinach and feta, mushrooms and thyme, or roasted squash, caramelized onion and ricotta.

Nom, nom, nom!

Lemon-yoghurt custard topped with walnuts

2009-11-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

A tip via @yougrowgirl led me to Mercer Street Books where I purchased a hardcover copy of Moro, The Cookbook for less than $10. Moro was written by Sam and Sam Clark. After looking at all the recipes, I marked several soups, vegetable starters, and most of the desserts, including the Yoghurt Cake with Pistachios. The custard I baked is a modified version of the yoghurt cake. The Clarks described the cake's consistency as "a light sponge on top with a wet custard below."

It's really important to read the directions, carefully! Instead of separating 3 eggs, I whisked 3 eggs - yolks and whites. Other substitutions: 1/4 cup dark brown sugar for 70g caster sugar; 1T vanilla extract for 2 vanilla pods; almost 160z of Greek yoghurt for 350g yoghurt; and a generous handful of walnuts for 30g pistachios.

Despite not incorporating softly whipped, sugared whites, the resulting custard was light. The dominant taste was lemon with a nice back note of vanilla and tangy yoghurt. Read the L.A. Times review of the cookbook. Read yougrowgirl's review of Moro East.

Tomato, Corn and Cheddar Pizza

2009-11-14T11:00:00.002-05:00

Hello, people! I am excited! I now have an oven! Not just a toaster oven (though I love my toaster oven too), but a real oven. Well, it is a mini-table-top oven but it is a great oven! Even has a rotisserie function (which comes with something that looks like a devil's pitchfork--a little scary!). But yay! I am now baking-empowered. I can now bake, roast, toast and grill to my hearts content. That over-ripe banana will now make its way to becoming a muffin, instead of being thrown in the freezer for future smoothies (also a great use of over -ripe banana, by the way). I can now finally bake that sour cream chocolate cake that I have been dreaming about. I can bake my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I can bake bread. I can roast chicken....ahh...the possibilities. Stay tuned, my friends....

Today for lunch, in honor of my new oven ( I may have to give oven a name soon), I decided that I just have to bake something. I decided a quick pizza will satisfy my sense of urgency in testing out the oven, while fast enough to make that I can actually have lunch, at lunch time. While I hope to bake homemade pizza soon enough with my new oven, today, I opted to use wholemeal pita bread as the base for my quick pizza.

So basically, slice pita open into two. Top with available toppings (rumage through fridge). Drizzle with olive oil. Salt. pepper. Bake in hot oven (260 C) for 10 minutes. Today, my pizza topping is inspired by this galette recipe from Alexandra's Kitchen, a food blog that I just discovered. It is a beautiful blog. So inspiring! Do check it out. The original recipe typed out generously here by Alexandra (I am so lazy about these things and am always delighted to be able to provide a link instead) is from Fine Cooking Magazine (August 2000).

I plan to make the galette tomorrow for a brunch get-together. Will report back on that. As for this pizza, I absolutely loved the combination of fresh corn, onions, cheddar chesse and ripe tomatoes. I used cheddar cheese bc that was what I had in the fridge. The original recipe uses gruyere.

Before

After

Ready to eat. Chomp!

Non-food post :P

2009-11-11T19:46:00.004-05:00

A while ago, I went through a "theoretical constipation." I tried to approach my topic from the vantage point of "subjectivity formation." It didn't work. With the data I have, it can't work. I had a panic attack; I had to distract myself.

So I jumped into a project that resulted in this:

Fish Croquette

2009-11-11T19:18:00.005-05:00

I have had this Tapas recipe book for a while and I have been drooling over their seafood tapas. I found myself with healthy stock of frozen cod recently, and I thought I'd try the Fish Croquette recipe.

In simple terms, fish croquette consists of rather thick bechamel sauce (that uses the milk used to boil the cod), flaked boiled cod, enough capers to create the tangy flavor, paprika, salt, pepper and chopped parsley (I didn't have it on hand, so I skipped that). The trick of making croquette from this rather gooey substance is to cool it in the fridge twice. The first takes 2-3 hours or overnight, to enable slicing the paste; and the second takes about 1 hour after the sliced paste is breaded with Panko (my favorite) and black sesame seed.

I keep my breaded croquette overnight in the fridge when I am too lazy to fry it right away. Such a delight to bite into the cruncy texture, and met with smooth, fishy, creamy and tangy core. Heavenly. I consider this a treat, due to the sinful amount of calories it contains.

Carrot-cornmeal-ginger muffins with sour cream frosting

2009-11-01T15:07:00.004-05:00

I had five, skinny carrots left from a bunch which I bought to re-create the carrot-tahini salad dressing served at Dojo in Greenwich Village (NYC). I juiced the carrots with a small Gala apple and used the mash in the muffin preparation. The muffin recipe is from Coconut & Lime and the frosting recipe is from Smitten Kitchen (both have been modified). Muffins modified: white cornmeal; milk not buttermilk; mashed carrots and apple filling. My large muffins baked for 20-25 minutes (I used a silicone 6-muffin pan). Frosting modified: 4 oz sour cream with vanilla extract and honey to taste The muffin mix yielded six (6) large muffins and five (5) small muffins.

From mash to mix:

From mix to muffins, small and large:

The sour cream frosting - not too sweet - is a perfect complement. The carrot-apple mash filling created a moist muffin. The cornmeal added a slight texture and the ginger and nutmeg added warmth. Perfect for a slightly overcast day.

Pad Thai for dinner

2009-10-28T10:49:00.005-04:00

I had a friend over for dinner today and since I did not have that much time between the time I am back from work and dinner time I was trying to figure out that would be fast to make but also interesting for me to try. I was getting bored of making the same things when I have friends over. I know they say not to try something new when having guest over, but I get bored with the same go-to recipes.

So today I decided to try my hand at making pad thai. I went to Chez Pim's website where there is a step by step pad thai tutorial. I found this very helpful, in particular, the instructions in making the sweet-sour-salty-spicy sauce which gives pad thai its distinctive taste. The trick is balancing the different flavors and I like Chez Pim's description of how to know when the sauce is just right. She writes, "I like my sauce to lead with a salty flavor, follow by a mild sourness, then just a gentle sweetness and a soft caress from the chilli at the back of my throat at the very end." I kept this in mind as I was tasting the sauce and I thought my pad thai turned out delicious. My guest concurred! We both had second helpings (I am still feeling so stuffed from dinner). Mmmm.

The nice thing about making pad thai is that you just need to prep the veggies and prawns before your guest arrives, and you can fry it up just minutes before it is time to eat. I had all the ingredients laid out pretty (my guest called it "Food Network ready prep"), but alas I forgot to take pictures! Darn! Forgot to take picture of the wok action and the finished product too. When I finally remembered the camera, we had finished the meal and I was putting away leftovers. Oooh, the leftovers! So here is what is left folks. A picture of my lunch for tomorrow.

And here is the link to Chez Pim's Pad Thai for Beginners guide:
http://chezpim.typepad.com/blogs/2007/01/pad_thai_for_be.html

note: In my version, at the recommendation of my friend, IJ, who makes excellent Thai food, I added minced shallots with the garlic. I omitted the dried prawns and pickled turnip and used large shrimps in mine. I did not have Thai Chili powder handy, my friend suggested substituting this with dried chillies grounded up into a fine-coarse texture(that is coarser than powder form, but finer than chilli flakes you get with pizza). That worked really well. (Regular chilli/ cayenne powder is too fine, a coarser texture works better somehow). And oh, the ground peanuts is a must!

I am looking forward to lunch t'row!

What's for lunch?

2009-10-26T12:15:00.002-04:00

Wholewheat bread + Mix greens + Sardines + Avocado + Sea salt + Freshly-cracked black pepper = Quick, yummy, healthy, lunch. Enjoy!

Apple Pie

2009-10-21T10:40:00.005-04:00

I made apple pie when I was home in KL during the eid holidays. Not exactly your traditional Eidilfitri dessert but it proved to be popular and was gone within a day. And it was just the family. I used Mark Bittman's pastry recipe (from online and from Jo's recommendation) and it was good, but I have to say the the recipe from the America's Test Kitchen which uses scary amount of butter and shortening (yes, shortening) has a flakier and fluffier texture. I will write out the recipe below.

The one from Mark Bittman can be found online (link below). As I said, also good, and and I will probably use it again as I like that it uses all butter and a reasonable amount. I suspect it was too hot of a day that day I made this to get the best result from this recipe, I look forward to trying it out again. http://www.howtocookeverything.tv/recipe.php%3Fnid=191.html

I did not use a specific recipe for the filing. I used about 5 small mix of apples, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, dash of cinnamon and a little lemon juice. I also added 1 tbspn of flour, should have added another tablespoon as the filling was a little runny. But it was tasty all the same.

Pie Crust (from The Best American Classics by America's Test Kitchen)
For one double-crust 9 inch pie

2.5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
8 tbspn all-vegetable shortening, chilled
12 tbspn unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1/4 inch pieces
6-8 tbspn ice water

methods (note: not verbatim from book, too lazy to type everything out)
1. pulse flour, salt, sugar in food processor. add shortening, pulse 10 seconds
2. scatter butter and cut into flour until resembles coarse crumb, butter bits no larger than small peas, about 10-1 second pulses.
3. turn mixture into bowl, sprinkle water, from dough.
4. divide into two balls, flatten into a 4-inch wide disk
5. wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour before rolling

Baking instructions: Preheat oven at 500 F, place filled pie on baking sheet and lower temperature to 425F. Bake until top is golden brown about 25 minutes, rotate pie and reduce temp to 375F, continue baking until deeply golden brown, 25-30 minutes. ( I would keep an eye out so that it doesnt get too burned, you may need to cover the edges with foil or pie edge cover along the way).

Vegetable dumplings and stir-fried bean sprouts

2009-10-15T09:07:00.004-04:00

I heart bean sprouts. I love this tasty, crunchy and extremely versatile vegetable. They are also so cheap and easy to cook, no messing with chopping and peeling. Just throw the content of the bag into a colander and rinse. Here I stir-fried bean sprouts with garlic and chives, seasoned with a dash of light soy sauce and sesame seed oil.

The vegetarian dumplings above is partially home-made. I bought the dumpling skins (usually near the tofu section in the supermarket fridge) and made a quick filling of what I had in my fridge that day which was cauliflower and dried shitake mushrooms. Cauliflower and the pre-soaked mushrooms were finally chopped and sauteed with olive oil and garlic. I added an egg to bind the filling.

Dumplings can be made in advance and kept frozen until ready to use. You can either steam, boil or pan fry the dumplings. Great to have in hand for a quick meal. Hmm, I think I will make more this weekend to keep for the week.

Pesto mac & cheese

2009-09-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

I love mac & cheese, especially my mother's from-scratch mac & cheese. Lately she's been baking it with three cheeses! Anyway, I was craving mac & cheese but wanted to be creative. Recently, I purchased some potted herbs including basil. Aha! Pesto mac & cheese. I searched the web for a recipe and combined two; one from Land O'Lakes (I know!) and the other from chez us.

Ingredients

1/2 medium red onion, chopped
about 4 oz cheddar cheese, grated (reserve some for crust)
parmesan for crust
about 2 cups pasta (your choice)
fresh oregano (to taste), chopped
1/4 cup half-and-half
pesto (homemade using basil, parmesan, olive oil, walnuts, garlic, salt and pepper)
buttered ramekins

Preparations

Prepare pesto (I used a blender). Boil pasta. Reserve some pasta water. Saute chopped onion in oil and butter. Add milk and the grated cheese to the onion. When cheese is melted, add cooked pasta and enough pasta water to achieve desired sauce consistency. Stir in oregano. Portion into buttered ramekins. Top with cheddar and parmesan. Bake for 15 minutes in a 350 F. oven.

Dinner party eggplant

2009-09-11T10:00:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday, I prepared soy-glazed eggplant modified from a recipe by Scott Lorenz published in Sunset magazine. The original recipe uses miso, not soy, but I did not want to purchase an entire package of miso. I always have soy in the pantry. Anyway, the dish was delicious, so much so that I prepared a few days later. I made a mistake during the second preparation: I used baby eggplant. Do not use baby eggplant; it's a thicker eggplant that will be bitter if not cooked long enough. Luckily, some slices were thinner than others so we were able to enjoy the redux. Stick with Japanese eggplant. My version of the recipe is below.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons peanut oil
4 Japanese eggplant (baby eggplant are shown in the photographs)
1 teaspoon soy, not miso (1/3 cup miso = 1 tablespoon miso = 1 teaspoon soy)
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
2 tablespoons sushi salad vinegar, not white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon (or more) chile flakes
basil instead of cilantro
no sesame seeds

Preparation: Follow instructions in the original recipe. Serve with rice pilaf.

Apple-walnut cobbler

2009-09-06T13:05:00.000-04:00

With only apples and walnuts in my pantry, I searched for an apple-walnut cobbler recipe. I found one here and the result was well-liked! The cobbler topping is so easy to make and requires few ingredients; the only thing I did not have was the half-and-half. Sorry, no photos.

Orange-carrot-walnut scones

2009-08-18T10:00:00.000-04:00

I bought a juicer and have been using almost every day. One of my favorite juice blends is carrot and orange juice. I use about 5-6 small carrots (I like to use carrots that are sold with their leaves) and 3-4 small oranges. My mum also juices and saves the mash from the juice to use in baked goods like muffins. I saved a batch of carrot mash to use in scones.

The original Strawberry and Rosemary Scones recipe is from Giada De Laurentiis of Food Network. To the original recipe I added the carrot mash (of course), 2-3 teaspoons orange zest, and 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts. I found that I needed to add more flour because of the addition of my "wet" ingredient - the carrot mash.

Cut to size, bake, and eat with Greek yogurt or ice cream.

Beets and greens

2009-08-14T12:16:00.000-04:00

I made a dinner of sea bass pan-fried with celery, onions and carrots, with sides of brown rice and a salad. The salad is a mix of my usual mix greens and mustard vinaigrette (olive oil, chunky dijon mustard, lemon juice, honey) and some fresh beets sauteed in the pan juices (after I transfered the fish into a plate) and a dash of olive oil. Before serving I added a squeeze of lemon. I have been enjoying fresh beets in salads these days, they seem to be in season here in the region.

Spinach, tomatoes, and feta salad

2009-08-14T10:00:00.000-04:00

My second Summer Salad Challenge salad was an ordinary spinach and tomato salad kicked up a notch with feta. Yes, I was on a feta cheese kick!

Melon, raspberries and feta salad

2009-08-13T10:00:00.000-04:00

My first salad for the Summer Salad Challenge was a fruit and cheese salad of cantaloupe, raspberries, and feta. I am not sure I would make this salad again though I was proud of myself for using the ingredients I had on hand.

Summer Salad Challenge!

2009-08-10T12:41:00.000-04:00

In a bid to eat healthier and to celebrate the summer months and really, for the love of salads (!), I made a call out to my blog buds for a summer salad challenge. The idea is to share pictures and recipes of salad we enjoyed this month.

Here is my first salad contribution for the month:

Pan-fried calamari with Moroccon spices, mix greens and avocado.

A good friend went to Morocco for vacation and brought back as gifts for me an authentic tagine (I know! I am excited to use it!) and some lovely local spices. I pan-fried squid (calamari) pieces with olive oil, minced garlic and a medley of the spices- harrisa powder, ras el honout (Moroccon garam masala), and another lovely spice that is suppose to be for a fish (I do not know the offical name for it). Placed the calamari over a bed of greens with some cheery tomatoes, and diced avacodo. I dressed the greens with a vinagretee made with olive oil, lemon juice, lemon pepper and Dijon mustard.

Apple pie and fruit salads

2009-08-07T10:00:00.000-04:00

I've been in the kitchen but have misplaced my camera charger so I don't have proof. Right now, I am waiting for my apple-vanilla pie to finish. The apartment smells like buttered toast, cinnamon, and vanilla. I used Mark Bittman's crust. The recipe is available here. I'm also taking part in Lin's Summer Salad Challenge. I've prepared three salads so far: two fruit and one vegetable.

French onion soup with homemade vegetable stock

2009-07-23T09:00:00.000-04:00

All the veggie odds and ends I saved for a year or so finally made it into a vegetable stock in June. And the vegetable stock was the base for a french onion soup. The stock was composed of carrots, celery, scallions, garlic, onions, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper (to taste).

The finished stock was portioned into 4-oz ramekins then each was topped with a slice of toast and a slice of cheese. These were then broiled until the cheese melted and served almost immediately. The verdict: quite tasty, but would use a firmer bread next time (e.g.: a baguette).

I made this!

2009-06-24T23:23:00.000-04:00

No recipes today. But I wanted to show off some of the mugs I made at pottery class. As you can tell, I am quite proud of them :) Many hours (weeks, in fact) went into making each one of them, and you never know how they will look like until they come out from the kiln. It is so nice to be able to have them in the kitchen. It is extremely gratifying to sip coffee from a mug you made yourself. I have also made bowls, but I have to say, I love making mugs. I am planning to make more so that I can give one to everyone in my family. I just signed up for more hours at the pottery studio. Last week, I gave one to my mom and one to my sister, which they both seem to appreciate. I will post pictures of my bowls next when I use them to serve my cooking.

Dakshin dinner

2009-06-04T13:21:00.001-04:00

I made a Dakshin (South Asian) inspired dinner a few months back and have been meaning to post the pictures. Here it is. An all vegetarian fare. All the recipes were from my favorite vegetarian Indian cookbook entitled: Dakshin Vegetarian Cuisine from the South India by Chandra Padmanabhan. Upik had recommended this book to me and I absolutely love it. The recipes are well-explained and there are wonderful pictures to inspire you in this book.

Here I made: Stuffed Eggplant Poriyal (pg. 38), Mashed Green Gram Dal (pg. 14) and cucumber raita and Bean Poriyal (pg 32, not in the picture above, forgot to serve it until halfway through dinner!). And I also made some chapatti to go with the dishes. Also to accompany the dishes a medley of pickles--manggo, chillie and lime.

The eggplant (Ennai Kathirikkai), I have to say, was the star of the show. Stuffed with grated coconut, chillies, tamarind, and dal, it was absolutely delicious, even if I have to say so myself.
If you like eggplants, I would highly recommend this dish. Lovely!

Migas

2009-06-02T06:31:00.000-04:00

Hola! The dish above is called Migas--it is a Tex-Mex dish that is great for breakfast or brunch. I have little experience with Tex-Mex cuisine but I saw Rachael Ray make this one day in her show and it looked really yummy (anything with avocado seems yummy to me!). The next day I saw that I had the approximate ingredients in the fridge and decided to give it a go. I say approximate because I liberally substituted many of the ingredients, like pita bread for corn tortilla and brown lentils for refried beans. I also did not look up the recipe, just relying on memory, so it is Tex-Mex reintepreted.

Here is Rachael Ray's recipe. http://www.rachaelrayshow.com/food/recipes/mighty-migas/

My version is vegetarian, it has onions, garlic, cut up pita bread, cooked brown lentils, cherry tomatoes, fresh red chillies, cheddar cheese, avocado and eggs, and I topped it with some indian yogurt. As Rachael Ray would say: "Delish!"

Rainy season is fruit season in Bangladesh!

2009-05-16T12:43:00.000-04:00

So, we had this major storm the other day. Really dramatic and beautiful -- from the warmth of being indoors, that is. I would not have wanted to be stuck outside in that for long. I went out for a quick soak in the beginning -- it had been really hot before -- but I came back in as soon as I started to see hailstones. The neighborhood kids had a field day though, running out as soon as the rain started to subside to pick up all the fallen fruit. Pranto, my neighbour's son, was disappointed because all the older kids beat him to the ripe fruit, while he got stuck with the sour green mangoes! The rain started up again in a few hours, though, and went on all night. I had frogs swimming by my windows!

The day after, I opened up all my doors and windows and found this outside my step:

Well, not really. Actually it was this enormous whole jackfruit brought down by the wind. Gremlins ate my photos -- I just cannot find them -- but the way it was sitting, all cute and innocent, it looked just as if someone had put it there. So I left it for a little while, asked around, realized nobody had been picking jackfruit by my cottage that day, and as soon as I realized it was literally a windfall, I swooped in to claim it.

I'll post the jackfruit saga later, but we also had a ton of fallen mangoes to deal with, and the air was so fresh and light after the storm. So I sat outside with my neighbours and saw what they've been up to lately:

Peeling windfall mangoes with a boti -- a curved blade used in Bangladesh -- I know they use something similar somewhere in Polynesia, but I think it's an import there. Is this just a south asian thing?

Dried shredded green mango

Shredded onions, to be dried, mixed with the dried mango, bottled with plenty of mustard oil and stored in the sun. Makes a pungent pickle!

Homemade mango leather!! Even better than my grandma's... and prettier! The patterning is from the woven basket the fruit leather is dried on.

I decided to pitch in and make a mango salad. Adapted from something my friend D's mother makes round this time of year. Heaven on a plate.

Half-ripe mango: you want you want it tart and only a little sweet, neither hard and green, nor fully ripened.

Shredded chillies and lime leaf -- and no, I
did not use the boti for this. I'm too chicken
to use one!

add a little salt, a bit of sugar,
and just a tablespoon of milk

mix em up with clean hands,

mushing the mango a little.

ask Pranto if he wants more sugar

wash your hands, gather round, dig in!

Sunday dinner on the grill

2009-05-13T09:00:00.000-04:00

It is said that a picture speaks a thousand words. In this case the words are synonymous with delicious!

Sardines stuffed with bruised mint, from the garden

The fish after grilling:

The final product:

And again,

A delicious holiday in Yogkarta and Solo, Indonesia

2009-04-25T11:55:00.000-04:00

I had a wonderful holiday in Yogkarta (Jogja) and Solo, in central Java, Indonesia. I met up with (forestry school pal) M and her husband, R, in Jogja where we checked out the awe-inspring Borobudur temple which is a World Heritage site. We also visited several other ancient temples around the region. It was a lovely trip. Equally inspiring and awesome were the meals we had in Indonesia. Here is a sampler of the delicious food I enjoyed there. Ooh, looking at these pictures makes me want to go back there again soon. The food there were all sooooo good!

James McNair's Salmon Cookbook

2009-03-31T09:00:00.000-04:00

I love browsing people's bookshelves. This habit has led to good reads including the subject of this post, the Salmon Cookbook by James McNair. Since borrowing it from a local aunt-in-law, I've prepared two recipes: one with salmon and one with steelhead trout. Both recipes are based on sauces: (1) teriyaki sauce (the salmon) and (2) barbecue sauce (the steelhead). I won't share the original recipes here - please purchase the book or borrow a copy from a friend or the library.

Barbecue Salmon

Barbecue/ grill the fish skin side down basting with sauce composed of butter, garlic, soy sauce, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup.

Teriyaki Salmon

Marinade fish in teriyaki sauce in the refrigerator for 2 hours; broil for 3-5 minutes per side. To make the sauce, combine of soy sauce, sake or mirin or sherry, granulated sugar (I used brown), garlic, and minced or grated ginger.

Tabouleh

2009-03-15T10:38:00.000-04:00

I made this tabouleh salad for a picnic. I packed it along side some homemade hummus, falafel balls and pita bread. I made more than needed for the picnic and so stored some leftover in the fridge and had that for a couple of days after and it was still good. It is quick, easy and refreshing. Also a great way to use up leftover couscous, which was what I used here instead of bulgur wheat. Another satifying thing about making this salad was that I got to use my brand new mezza luna, my new weapon of choice (when dealing with herbs, that is).

I followed this recipe, more or less.

http://mideastfood.about.com/od/soupssalads/r/taboulehrecipe.htm

p/s: I am also showcasing in this post, my lovely, new, blue Bison mixing bowl (part of a set of two, the second, not in picture, is bigger and of deeper blue color). They are handcrafted pottery works that was sent to me all the way from Australia as a graduation gift. I absolutely love them and make good use of them all the time. Thanks, S and B!

Pantry-ready: Bell pepper and onion frittata

2009-03-08T19:25:00.000-04:00

Made with ingredients already in the "pantry": yellow bell pepper, half an onion, grated Parmesan, three eggs, olive oil.

Whole Lemon Tart a la Smitten Kitchen

2009-02-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

When modifying a recipe, i.e. halving a recipe, make sure to halve every ingredient! For Smitten Kitchen's Whole Lemon Tart, I used 1 egg instead of 1 egg + 1 egg yolk and 3/4 tablespoons cornstarch instead of 1.5 tablespoons of cornstarch. BUT, I used 1 stick of (unsalted, melted and cooled) butter instead of the half portion of 1/2 stick! The result: a very oily tart.

I did not realize my mistake until the tart had baked. I used paper towels to absorb as much butter-oil as possible. Given my mistake, the tart was tasty. Also, I added slices of mandarin - a sweet touch and the additional citrus helped to "cut" the butter-oil. I recommend this recipe but beware the butter.

The Bread Machine Is Back

2009-02-15T17:17:00.000-05:00

The last bread I baked was a failure - too moist and very uneven. My six-year old bread machine is very finicky. I did not closely watch the previous loaf during the kneading and rising process. In fact, I was out of the house. However, the machine redeemed itself this afternoon with an aromatic and delicious rosemary, thyme, dill loaf. I was at home the entire time. The rosemary is from my garden; I dried fresh dill purchased from the grocery store; and the thyme was purchased dry. The loaf has an airy and chewy center with a lightly crunchy crust.

The recipe is from the manual that came with the machine oh so many years ago. The recipe is a 1-1/2 lb. basic white/french loaf. I substituted 1 cup each of organic whole wheat pastry flour, organic fine whole wheat flour, and organic unbleached flour for 3 cups all purpose flour. I did not have all purpose flour. I had approximately 1 cup each of the afore-mentioned flours. Vegetable oil at 1-1/2 Tbl. is optional; I used about ~~1/4~~ 1/8 cup olive oil. I could have used apple sauce, a low-fat substitute for oil, but I did not have this either. For dinner, I plan to eat my bread (not all of it of course) with a bowl of cold mango soup or maybe a bowl of reheated coconut carrot onion soup.

The toaster oven that could

2009-02-08T07:55:00.000-05:00

Today, I had a lovely, satisfyingly exhausting day, exploring a beach park in Singapore. It was fun exploring a new place, and I had some wonderful company on this adventure. On the way back home, I dropped by my favorite grocery store (that also happens to be right next door to my flat) to pick up something easy to have for dinner. I wanted something quick to put together, in addition to being light and healthy (trying to be good since I had worked hard hiking/burning calories earlier today :) ).

I thought of getting some sashimi from the Japanese stall (satisfy protein crave), but I stumbled upon this fish which was on sale. It is called Japanese Sanma.

I know what you're thinking...buying discounted fish? Living dangerous, eh?

But you know what, it was $2.80 for two, and after poking and smelling them, I decided they were all right. Plus they cost a fraction of a small plate of sashimi. The grocery store also has a good reputation for fresh food, so I thought, hey why not!

I remember reading somewhere sanma is tasty grilled. That sounds perfect for me: a small salad and a simple grilled fish. This is where the toaster-oven-that-could comes in. It was my first time grilling fish in my toaster-oven and I am very glad to say it came out perfect.

I basically just cleaned the fish (yes, I had to gut it). I cut the heads off to reduce the 'food staring back at you' effect. Some salt for seasoning and then threw the fish in the toaster oven for about 10 minutes (flipping once halfway through). Sanma is an oily fish so I did not even need to drizzle oil on this. The fish grilled perfectly with a nice color.

While the fish was grilling way, I put together a simple salad of arugula (or rocket as they are known here) dressed with a dressing made of olive oil, Japanese rice vinegar, minced garlic and ginger, and a dash of sesame seed oil.

The sharp arugula and the oily fish (had one fish, the other in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch) made for a mighty tasty combination. I was very happy with my dinner which took less than 15 minutes to put together. It was delicious AND healthy! Hurray!

I am also now very excited of the expanded possibilities of my toaster oven. I don't have a real oven in my Singapore flat and have missed being able to to roast and bake. The capability of this small oven is still limited as it has only one temperature setting that makes for perfect toast, but too high a temperature for baking cakes or cookies. But now that I have discovered grilling, I feel inspired to try out other recipes in this micro-oven. Stay tuned for more toaster-oven food adventures in the future!

Quinoa for breakfast

2009-01-31T05:44:00.000-05:00

Just a quick entry today; my new found breakfast food: quinoa and almond porridge. I love quinoa but usually I cook it as a savory dish. A favorite way is to mix cooked quinoa with sautéed portobello mushrooms, broccoli and pine nuts (yum, that will have to be another blog entry).

But back to breakfast, I have been looking to diversify my breakfast menu—I always have breakfast issues in the morning, many days start with my staring into my fridge trying to be inspired for something nutritious but quick and easy to kick start my day—I can only eat toast and granola so many days of the week.

I had seen recipes for quinoa porridge now and again (esp. since quinoa is the ‘in’ food these days) but the porridge bit did not quite appeal to me as I knew I did not like soggy quinoa (I know this because sometimes I add too much water when I cook my quinoa-- usually because I forget and I follow the box instruction (always too much water!)--I really don’t like it at all). I like the little crunch (or pop) that quinoa gives when you bite into a perfectly cooked morsel (well, perfectly cooked in Lin’s world).

Back to quinoa for breakfast; I had made a big batch of quinoa for dinner the night before in my rice cooker (1:1, quinoa: water ratio) and the leftovers was staring back at me when I opened the fridge the next morning, so I said hello and decided to give it try for breakfast. I mixed about a quarter of cup in a bowl with some milk, raw almond slivers, and a touch of brown sugar, and zapped this in the microwave for 1.5 minutes. Then I let it rest for another couple of minutes.

It turned out to be lovely, lovely. Nice and warm and comforting. The quinoa was not soggy, and the almond and milk made a nice medley of flavors to complement the earthy taste of the cereal (reminds me of badam khir—an Indian milk-almond drink). The hint of organic raw brown sugar (oh yes, baby!) lifted the dish to say Hello! Good morning! I love you too! I ate this for the next several days for breakfast (and sometimes late night snack) until I was out of leftover quinoa. I will have to make another batch soon for more quinoa breakfast love.

20-minutes Molten Lava Cake, Portion control, too!

2009-01-30T12:40:00.001-05:00

In the spirit of portion control (ahem!) and quick fix for certain craving, I modified a chocolate molten lava cake recipe I found on the internet (forgot which one, but I have found many, and they are more or less the same). The following recipe uses easy measurement, designed for two people, and you can make it in a hurry.... around 20 minutes, excluding cleaning up (sigh).

I've made this three times to make sure it works... and it has worked each time.

Ingredients:
1 Tbs butter
4 Tbs chocolate chip (I used Ghirardheli 60 percent chocolate. In one experiment, I used dark chocolate disks)
1 egg
1 Tbs granulated sugar
1 Tbs cocoa powder (I used Guittard)
1/2 Tbs flour (you can omit the flour for an experiment. The result is a fluffier cake)

Direction:
0. Turn on oven to 350 F
1. Melt chocolate chip in the microwave. Halfway through, add butter, and melt together
2. Beat egg and sugar with mixer until fluffy
3. Add melted chocolate chip and butter to egg
4. Sift cocoa powder and flour into egg mixture, fold with spatula
5. Pour into two well-buttered ramekin dishes
6. Bake in oven for 8 minutes until top is firm enough (don't over bake it, lest your lava won't ooze).
7. You could try baking it on the microwave for 2 minutes on high (check at 1.5 minutes), but I haven't tried that so I can't vouch for the result.

You can keep this cake in the fridge and serve later, but don't forget to warm it on the microwave for about 15-20 seconds.

Four Soups

2009-01-20T20:44:00.000-05:00

Three from the New York Times Bitten blog by Mark Bittman and one created by...me.

Pumpkin or Squash Soup (I used a sweet winter squash and vegetarian vegetable stock)

Curried Sweet Potato Soup With Apricots (I used vegetarian vegetable stock)

Creamy Broccoli Soup (I used vegetarian vegetable stock and nonfat plain yogurt)

Coconut Carrot Onion Soup (my recipe)

Ingredients: 4-5 medium carrots, peeled and chopped; 1 large yellow onion, sliced; 1 T butter and 1 T olive oil; 1 t cumin and 1/2 t chili powder; 1 C stock; 1 C water; 1/2 - 1 C coconut milk

Melt the butter and olive oil
Add the carrots and onion
Add 1 t cumin and 1/2 t chili powder
Cook and stir until carrots turn a bright orange
Add 1 C stock (I used vegetarian vegetable stock)
Simmer until the stock thickens
Add 1 C water (or stock)
Continue to simmer until the carrots soften (can be pierced with a fork)
Remove from the heat
Add 1 C coconut milk (I used light coconut milk)
Add the contents of the pot to the blender (blend to your preferred consistency and add pepper and salt to taste)
Serve and enjoy (3 generous servings!)

I wrote this recipe as I prepared this soup for the first time. It is creamy (carrots), warm (cumin and chili powder), savory (onions), and the (light) coconut milk integrated all the ingredients. Frankly, it is a delicious soup!

Martha's Carrot Cake Cookies

2009-01-08T12:09:00.000-05:00

My sister-in-law, T, received two baking books for Christmas: "Hello, Cupcake!: Irresistibly Playful Creations Anyone Can Make" by Alan Richardson and Karen Tack (website) and "Martha Stewart's Cookies." Our original intention was to bake "Rabbit in the Hole" cupcakes but the recipe requires two very special ingredients, not available at the grocery store: circus peanuts and chocolate-covered sunflower seeds! So, we looked to Martha's book and decided upon the Carrot Cake Cookies; carrot cake is T's favorite cake. The final products from the recipe are carrot cake sandwich cookies, but the cookies are good singly and without the cream cheese frosting.

T is very organized and prepared a mis-en-scene of ingredients.

We learned a few lessons from our baking: (1) Use cookie, not baking, sheets (the edges of the cookies burnt when baked on baking sheets); (2) Coarsely shredded carrots work well, adding festive bursts of color to the cookies (the recipe calls for finely grated carrots).

2009-01-02T06:40:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year 2009!

I have long given up on writing New Year’s resolutions after I realize they were beginning to sound the same year after year. I do aspire to make changes in my life and I think of new things to add to my list all the time (why wait once a year?). One that I have been thinking about a lot and trying to be better about is staying in touch with friends. Having lived in many different places and now recently moved back to Southeast Asia, I have friends in many a time zones and far-flung locations. I am trying hard to be better about staying in touch. This blog was created as one way to do that too. Most of my friends know me as someone who likes to cook. What I really *love* to do, is cook for them. So, in lieu of being there with my friends and family and making them meals, I send them instead these recipes (with love!). But in addition to this project, I do want to be better and make sure I write to my pals or call them; at least once in a while (it is a little harder with the 14-16 hours time difference!). I do miss the good old letter writing days. When was the last time you wrote a letter, not an email, but a real pen and paper letter? That might too ambitious but I would like to be better about sending postcards to my buddies (something I enjoy doing especially when I am traveling). So I guess this is one of my on-going resolutions: stay better in touch with good friends.

A friend, L, asked that I send her simple recipes that she can try at home. Another friend, M, always laughs when I tell her a dish is really simple to make but then list the 20 “exotic” ingredients that go into it (I guess it is really simple to make *if* you have all the spices on hand and they are not so exotic to you:)). Here is a favorite recipe of mine (it is not Malaysian but a Japanese dish) that is super yummy, and fast to make, and (this one for M) uses only five simple ingredients. Here is my dish for this week: Agedashi Tofu.

Agedashi tofu
1 block silk tofu
2-3 Tablespoon cornstarch or potato starch
1/4 cup tsuyu (from Japanese section at the grocery store, it looks like soy sauce)
2 Tbs green onion, chopped
1/2 tsp grated ginger

Drain tofu package and gently slide tofu onto several layers of paper towel (I usually place the paper towel on top of a clean kitchen towel). Place another layer of paper towel on top of tofu square. Now place a chopping board on top of the tofu parcel and something heavy on the chopping board (I usually put two cans of beans). Leave for 15-20 minutes. This is to press water out of the tofu.

Cut the tofu into eight pieces. Sprinkle half the flour into a shallow dish, gently place the tofu into the flour and sprinkle the other half of the flour on top of the tofu pieces. Dredge tofu in flour. Heat oil in a skillet (about half inch). When the oil is hot, put in the pieces of tofu and fry on all sides on medium heat, until just barely golden. Remove from the oil and put on a paper-towel-lined plate. Heat the tsuyu with the grated ginger (I usually just zap in microwave). Tranfer the tofu into a pretty bowl, top with tsuyu sauce and green onions. Done!

Singapore wet markets

2008-12-29T19:33:00.000-05:00

December in this part of Southeast Asia is usually gloomy with pregnant clouds hung heavily on one's head. Yet, it couldn't stop me from checking out local wet markets throughout Singapore. Each time, the riots of color, texture and shape shooed away the gloom.

Wet market is my favorite destination whenever I am in this part of the world. It reveals to me the secret of local cuisine (on a trip to a local wet market in Manado I figured out the nine herbs that make the base of North Sulawesi dishes) and tells me the important ingredients for everyday livelihood of the locals (apparently, small dried shrimps are essential for dishes in Singapore. I wonder what they are for. Laksa??).

But most of all, the promise of local fare after a visual feast is the biggest incentive of long walks in these wet markets.

To me, wet markets evoke fond memories of similar trips with my mother in my younger years. Where we lived, the ubiquity of "kangkung" signaled how it was an important vegetable for the population (the dish is known as "Pelecing Kangkung"). My patience in accompanying my mother doing her weekly chore was always rewarded with snacks or "kuih-muih" (see picture above as examples of the kind of "kuih-muih" I would get) and yellow rice with its accompaniments (deer sweetmeat, boiled egg and pieces of chicken in chili sauce known as "Pelecing Ayam"), folded in banana leaves. But perhaps for a Singaporean youngster, they'll get biryani rice such as the following picture.

What strikes me about Singapore's wet markets is the freshness and diversity of vegetables, seafood and poultry on offer. I wish we had similar fresh seafood here where I live....

* in this trip, I visited Westcoast Rd wet market (nearby Lin's apartment), Victoria whole sale market (next to Bugis Junction MRT stop), Little India, and Geylang Serai wet market (next to Paya Lebar MRT stop). My favorite spot is the Geylang Serai, mostly because all the food in the foodcourt is halal.

Nigella's Nutella Cake

2008-12-28T13:41:00.000-05:00

I made this for Eid last October. It is from Nigella Lawson’s The Domestic Goddess. For Nutella fans I would highly recommend giving this recipe a try. A whole jar of nutella went into this! Lovely! Here is a link to the recipe: http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=239