Three soups

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

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

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'

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

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

Dumplings and sesame pancakes

From Prosperity Dumplings in Chinatown, NYC.

Vegetable dumplings

Sesame seed pancake with vegetables and egg

Almost vegan delicious truffles

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Cottage pie for baby

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

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.