Food & Travel with Maria

Checking in (and a tuna Niçoise recipe)

2011-08-02T19:50:00.000+08:00

I'm alive! *dusts off blog* Whew, it's been a while since I've posted, hasn't it?

Fried cheese curds at Bastille Days in Milwaukee

Work and a lot of travel has kept me crazy-busy. Since my last post, I went to New York for a week and a half, Vancouver for a few days (including a crazy YVR-San Francisco - Tokyo - HK return flight due to the Fly America Act and missing my flight because of delays), Bangkok again in June, and Jon and I just returned a few days ago from three weeks in the US. (It looks like there's going to be another New York trip as well as Shanghai trip in early September too -- I like NY, but I'm at the point where I just want to stay home for now and don't want to travel for work!)

We went on a pilgrimage to New Glarus Brewing Co in New Glarus, Wisconsin (which is a mock-Swiss chalet town)

But let me think about happier things - like the great vacation I just had :). We spent three weeks visiting Jon's family and friends in Madison & Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (or, to be more accurate, Jon was the one who drove), where we eat a lot of good fresh food and drank even more fantastic craft beer (we squeezed in trips to two breweries - New Glarus and Lakefront). We also went to the Packers Hall of Fame at Lambeau Field in Green Bay (it's an NFL American football thing, but it was pretty neat to see the Lombardi Trophy and Aaron Rodger's Superbowl ring).

It's funny, because I used to be such a geographical snob -- growing up, my family lived in Vancouver (Pacific Northwest) and I went to college in upstate New York, or having a transfer flight at O'hare airport, I didn't know much about the mid-West ("the fly-over" states?!) The only time I had been in the Mid-West was during a crazy 3-week road trip from Vancouver to Prince Edward Island and back (West to East Coast was through Canada; East to West was through the US on the I-90), where we ate Chinese food almost every night, thanks to my dad's need to eat rice with every meal. But that's another story for another time.

Cattle prices on the Agricultural reports on the TV news

What I want to say was I found myself really, really liking Wisconsin and the U.P. -- the commitment to sustainable local produce, the appreciation for the good things in life (cheese curds, sausages, beers, frozen custard!) and the friendliness and lack of pretentiousness that people had. It's very different from big-city Hong Kong or New York city, where I get tired about all the prattling about brand names and money and showing off.

Jesse works for Alterra Coffee, which has awesome coffee and baked yummies. Their graphic designer is really talented - I love my Alterra T-shirts! :)

Here's one meal that Jon's sister Jesse and I made one sweaty evening in Milwaukee during that heat wave where it was in the 90s (Fahrenheit, which is about 32 C or so -- but in a place where they don't have air cons!).

Tuna Niçoise

Jesse bought the tuna steak from Trader Joe's. The fingerling potatoes and green beans we bought from the local farmer's market (not really a market, more like a cluster of stands on a street corner) in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee where she lives. The lettuce were grown by Jesse in planter pots on her deck. It was one of the best meals I've had in a long time -- the potatoes were fresh and sweet, and the beans were crisp and tasted of sunshine and good things.

Tuna Niçoise Salad

Tuna steak in chunks
Whatever lettuce you have handy
Green beans
Waxy new or fingerling potatoes
Olives
Eggs

I don't give quantities here as it's really up to you how much you want to include of each item.

Defrost tuna. Marinate for an hour in soy sauce and ground black pepper (put it in a Tupperware container or bowl).
Top and tail the green beans; remove the "string" down the middle.
Boil a large saucepan of salted water.
Boil potatoes until tender when pierced with a fork. Remove, drain and set aside.
Using the same pot of water, add in the green beans. Boil for only 1 minute or so. Remove, drain and set aside.
Using the same pot of water (water is a scarce natural resource, after all!), boil the eggs. Remove them and IMMEDIATELY run them under cold running water (this makes the yolks stay yellow and prevents that nasty greenish tinge that sometimes forms). Set aside to cool, then peel and slice.
Toss some sesame seeds into the tuna (optional).
Heat a lightly-oiled cast iron skillet. When it's very hot, put the tuna on and sear both sides of the chunks/steak. You want to leave the middle of the tuna a bit rare inside, as it continues to cook after you remove it from the heat; so no more than 1-2 minutes total for 1-2 inch-thick pieces.
Assemble all the ingredients and serve. We felt the salad didn't need dressing, but you could add a balsamic, miso or other light dressing of your choice. Enjoy!

Travels near and far

2011-05-08T23:01:00.001+08:00

It's been rather quiet around here lately. As well as starting a new job (chaotic!), I've been hopping around Asia too. So please forgive me if my updates are a bit sparse. First, we went to Cebu in the Philippines for the Easter weekend, where we lazed around and went island hopping and I ordered at least six green mango smoothies (much tangier and tastier than regular ripe yellow mangoes).

Then it was back to HK and work. I saw some pretty Japanese candies at the local supermarket. I had to get a smartphone for work (urgh! I have a terrible, compulsive email-checking habit) so I got an iPhone 4 and have been playing around with the Instagram app.

This weekend, I hopped on a plane and visited an old college friend for her birthday. She runs a chocolate and confectionery factory near Xiamen, in Fujian province. Here's a photo of the sea there, in Zhangzhou. Xiamen was prettier and the air was cleaner than I expected. It's a fast-developing middle-tier city, but it's also a relatively nice beach town with some good boutique shopping and an appreciation of music and arts culture.

I've got three more cities to visit before the end of May: next week I'm headed to Bangkok for work, then to New York the week after (also for meetings) and then a couple days' layover in Vancouver so I can renew my driver's license. Then it's back to Hong Kong and hopefully no more travel until July when Jon and I head to Wisconsin and the UP (Michigan) to visit family.

Pineapple almond upside-down cake

2011-05-01T12:12:00.000+08:00

I'm normally a huge fan of pineapple (my mother always soaked fresh pineapple in brine "to get the dirt out" before serving it to us as children, which I absolutely hated and left me with a lifelong wariness of the fruit), but I confess I do have a soft spot for sweet, sticky, caramel classic - pineapple upside down cake.

Here's an adaption of a great recipe that I tested out from the BBC Good Food Cookbook which gives you a simple soft sponge cake topped with crunchy caramel, sweet-tart pineapple, and nutty roasted almonds. I've adjusted the recipe to fit a 8"/20cm square pan, but if you want to make a slightly larger, taller, cake , simply double and bake in a 22cm square or 20cm round baking pan.

I also got rid of the maraschino/glacé cherries as a topping, as I've always been slightly grossed out by their glaringly gaudy artificial redness and their cloying sweetness. But of course, each to his/her own, so feel free to add them if you like. Just don't tell me. :)

Ingredients:

Toppings

40g butter, softened/room temperature
40g soft brown sugar (muscavado)
40g toasted almonds
enough pineapple slices or chunks to decorate the base of your baking pan (round slices are traditional and more presentable, but I had some pineapple chunks left over from making carrot cake so I used those instead)

Sponge cake batter

125g butter, softened/room temperature
100g brown sugar (muscavado)
2 eggs
100g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
30g ground almonds
1 tbsp pineapple juice (or juices from the can)

Oven: Preheated at 190C(375F)/170C (155F) fan

First, preheat your oven as specified above and prepare the topping. The topping will go into the pan first.

Cream the butter and brown sugar. Spread it liberally on the bottom and sides of your pan. No nonstick spray or baking paper needed - the butter mixture here will ensure that your cake does not stick to the pan.
Distribute your flaked almonds evenly on the bottom and sides of the pan. The almonds should stick to the brown sugar-butter mixture.
Put your pineapple slices/bits in the pan. Place the bits carefully as this will be the top part of your cake after you invert it after baking.
Put the prepared pan in the fridge to chill while you prepare the sponge cake batter. This is so the sugar-butter mixture does not melt and the almonds stuck on the sides do not slide back down into a lump at the bottom of your pan.

Next, prepare your sponge cake batter. This is simple. Just dump all the ingredients listed above for the batter, and mix until combined (and no lumps of butter are visible).

Third step is easy too. Just spread the batter on top of your prepared pan.

It should look something like this - a bit sludgy, but trust me, it will turn from the ugly duckling into a beautiful swan after baking in the oven for about 50min - 1 hour. Check on the cake after 35-40 minutes to make sure it isn't too hot and to avoid any burnt bits. Lower the temp slightly if necessary.

After you take it out the oven, let rest for a few minutes and then invert. The edges should have crispy butter caramel crunch and your pineapple should be soft and sweetly tart. The sponge cake should also be soft and mild.

Serve warm with plain/Greek yoghurt, ice cream or custard.

Birthday Cake (Nutty carrot cake with dark chocolate and almond decoration)

2011-04-17T18:28:00.003+08:00

Mom's birthday falls on Easter weekend this year but I'm going to be in Cebu, Philippines, so we celebrated the weekend before. I started a new job this week and didn't have much prep time (well, actually, I'm just not that artistically endowed), so this Easter-themed birthday cake has that "home-made" touch for sure!

It's a 2-layer carrot cake. The cake layers have carrots, pineapple, almonds, coconut, and golden raisins. I used my standard recipe and added extra nuts, raisins and 1/4 more pureed pineapple. Oh, and I also used grated fresh ginger this time as I ran out of the dried stuff (living in Asia, it's much easier to find fresh ginger than the powder). This resulted in a slightly more dense & moist cake, but luckily not too dense. It's up to your personal preference whether you prefer a drier and finer cake or a more moist, richer cake.

Sandwiched between the two layers is a mix of the lemon cream cheese frosting + raspberry jam. The remaining lemon cream cheese frosting was used to frost the top and sides of the cake.

Decorations:

Cadbury's Mini Eggs (for Easter);
chocolate letters (you can pipe your own on baking paper with melted chocolate in a pastry bag; I cheated and used ready-made Dr Oetker chocolate letters); and
dark chocolate shavings (bar of dark chocolate + vegetable peeler is all you need).

Flaked almonds on the sides of the cake covered up the results of my uneven frosting skills.

Cake decorating/frosting tips:

For layer cakes, I recommend following Deb of Smitten Kitchen's guide.
I mainly recommend that you make as much as you can ahead. In this case, I baked the cakes and made the lemon cream cheese frosting the night before (put it in fridge overnight), and then assembled and decorated the cake in the morning.
Also, in warmer climates like Hong Kong, it's extremely important to keep things cool. The subtropics are not exactly friendly to frosting, icing and other delicate, heat-sensitive food items. You might not be able to frost/decorate the entire cake in one go, as the frosting may melt and slide downwards if you let it warm up too much. Gravity is not your friend! Pop the cake back into the fridge for 10 minutes if you feel the frosting's getting too soft.
Try not to touch chocolate with your bare hands - it WILL melt.
Before using, chill your frosting beforehand but give it a good mix so it's easily spreadable.
After you finish decorating, chill the finished cake in the fridge for at least 20 minutes before putting in the box; then chill the entire box (with cake inside) for at least 30 minutes, if possible, to ensure the cake is surrounded with cool air during transport.

First foray into bento (lunch box) making

2011-04-11T23:06:00.004+08:00

Now, I'm not artistic or creative like some people, so you will never find me making patterns or beautiful cartoons with my food, but recently Jon and I have tried to eat healthier, and to exercise greater control over what, as well as how much, we eat.

To try to achieve this, we decided to eat out less, especially for lunch - and so we bought two sets of stackable bento containers (black and white) from Muji. One added bonus of bringing your lunch to work is that you can save money too!

In Hong Kong, lunch tends to be greasy/heavy Chinese/Asian or sandwiches, with little in between, so hopefully making our own lunch will help us strike a better balance.

A quick, personal, note about bento (the Japanese kind): my favourite bento are the ekiben, or railway station bento lunchboxes, which are sold in (you guessed it) JR train stations across Japan. They're packed lunches which you take with you when going on the shinkansen or other long-distance trips. They're often elaborately packaged and/or laid out, with all kinds of yummy things like sushi, sashimi, roasted eel, noodles, and pickles - opening each ekiben gives me a little of the same anticipation and excitement that you get when opening a Christmas present. I have very fond memories of riding between Osaka and Tokyo on the shinkansen and eating eki-ben, while looking through the window at the countless tidy little towns flying past. 懐かしいね！Japan has been on my mind quite a bit lately, as I'm sure it has for many of us. Here in Hong Kong, people have also been quite concerned (hopefully needlessly) about nuclear radiation from Fukushima coming thousands of miles to our little corner of the world.

But anyway, back to the topic of bento. Here's tomorrow's lunch, from top to bottom:

Jon's:
- Mini zucchini cheese fritters, mini Korean BBQ sausages
- Milano chocolate cookies, homemade apple/carrot/bean slaw with homemade mustard mayo

Mine:
- Mini zucchini cheese fritters, mini Korean BBQ sausage, cube of Pont-l'Évêque cheese
- Mini dorayaki (Japanese sweet red bean pancake), homemade apple/carrot/bean slaw with homemade mustard mayo

The recipes for the zucchini cheese fritters, the slaw (greatly mutated as I didn't have cabbage or onion handy) and the mayo all came from Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie which Jon gave me as a Christmas present three years ago. It might not be very trendy to like Jamie Oliver but I find his recipes to be relatively accessible and reliable.

Raspberry panna cotta

2011-04-08T19:37:00.000+08:00

Panna cotta (Italian for "cooked cream") is one of my favourite desserts - lighter than a crême brulée, yet still creamy and milky-rich in your mouth. Basically it is an Italian-style milk custard jelly, yet it's so hard to find good panna cotta when eating out as most places make their panna cotta too firm. Great panna cotta should be wobbly and soft, with a very luxurious and yielding mouthfeel, it should be rich yet light at the same time. Too often when eating out you get panna cotta that's nothing more than milky Jell-O, and that's just not good.

I've recently purchased a copy of the BBC Good Food Cookbook; it's got some interesting ideas for different dishes which I plan to test soon. This is the first recipe I've made from this dish (albeit with some major alterations/improvisations due to not having double cream or lemons and having leftover sour cream at home)*. I haven't made jelly in a long time; I think the last time was making Jell-O gummy worm vodka shots several years ago for a X'mas party (long story, don't ask!).

*The original Good Food Cookbook recipe was for lemon pannacotta with blackberries.This is a simple vanilla panna cotta with raspberry/blueberry topping.

Raspberry panna cotta
First make your panna cotta and then your raspberry layer. Or if you plan to invert the puddings out of the ramekin onto a plate for serving, do the raspberry topping first and use it as the "bottom" layer of your ramekin (it will become the "top" when you turn it upside down and out of the mould). Whichever layer you do, make sure you let the first layer set before pouring on the second layer as you're basically just making a 2-layer jelly.

Please note that regular gelatine is not vegetarian; if you want a vegetarian substitute you can try to find agar agar in your supermarket.

Makes 8 small ramekins or 6 small ramekins and 2 martini glasses.

Panna cotta Ingredients:

4 gelatine leaves (or 1 tablespoon granulated/powder gelatin)
450ml milk OR 400ml full-fat milk + 50ml sour cream, stirred/beaten until soft
400ml whipping cream (or fresh double cream if available)
100g vanilla sugar OR 100g sugar + 1tsp vanilla extract

Panna cotta Method:

Soak gelatine leaves in ice cold water for 5-10 minutes to soften. Set aside.
In a saucepan, add milk, cream, sour cream (if using), and sugar. Heat until you see bubbles but it's not quite boiling (a very very gentle simmer), about 2-3 minutes.
Take saucepan off heat. Take the gelatin leaves and squeeze gently to expel excess water, then add to your milk/cream mixture. Stir until dissolved.
Let cool slightly, then pour into your ramekins/little cups. I've also used martini glasses to good effect (being able to see the layers through the glass gives your panna cotta an extra "wow" factor), and I don't see why you can't use shot glasses, small teacups etc.
Put your ramekins with the panna cotta in the fridge to chill for 2-3 hours or overnight.

After the panna cotta is set, then prepare the next layer (raspberry topping). I just prepared the mixtures for both milk and fruit layers at the same time but you can stagger the process so that you make the first layer on one day and the second layer 2-24 hours afterwards.

Raspberry layer ingredients:

2 tablespoons good raspberry jam + 1 tablespoon blueberry jam (or really, 3 tablespoons of whatever good fruit jam you have in your fridge)
1 gelatine leaf OR 1 tsp powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons of crème de framboise (raspberry liquor) or any other appropriate fruit liquor (you can also substitute water)

Soak gelatine leaf in ice cold water for 5-10 minutes to soften. Set aside. I did this with the 4 other gelatine leaves for the panna cotta layer as I wanted to do both layers of the dessert after each other.
In a small saucepan, gently heat the jam and the crème de framboise/water/etc until the mixture becomes runny. Stir regularly to make sure it doesn't burn/boil. If it bubbles over it's too hot: take it off the heat.
Squeeze the gelatine leaf to remove excess water, then add to your jam/fruit mixture and stir until melted.
Set aside on your countertop to cool. If you are doing this layer second, you can let it cool on your countertop (not in the fridge) while the first layer (the panna cotta) is setting in the fridge.
When your first layer is set (the panna cotta should wobble but the surface should not ripple), gently pour the raspberry layer on top. Return to fridge until set (another 3 hours but best to wait overnight if you can if you're doing both layers in the same day).
Serve in the ramekins themselves, or if you're feeling brave, run a thin-bladed knife around the walls of the ramekins to loosen, then tip upside down on a plate. I've had problems with this as the top of my pannacotta stuck to the moulds, so I think that I'll serve these little puddings in the ramekins until I get the hang of plating them properly.

Basic vanilla Victoria sponge cake

2011-04-03T18:50:00.003+08:00

How many things that you learn in school are actually useful and delicious? At my high school in England, we all had to take two years of home economics (aka cooking) lessons. An elderly lady with a bouffant white hairdo oversaw my very first attempt at making Victoria sponge in a large lab kitchen. I remembered liking home ec lessons a lot - too bad there wasn't an option to continue them for GCSE!

I don't make plain vanilla sponge very often and have gone through a period of not being able to make a light airy sponge for the past few years. I blamed the humidity in Hong Kong for turning my attempts at sponge cake into dense bricks, but honestly, I think it was because I was trying to be too fancy and relied on complicated recipes. I've finally come full circle and accepted that there are some things in life you just shouldn't mess with, and Victoria sponge is one of them.

This sponge cake recipe is a good base for cakes and cupcakes.

I adapted my Victoria sponge recipe from Nigella's How to be a domestic goddess, but added extra ground almonds and cornstarch/cornflour for a finer, more tender crumb.

Basic Vanilla Victoria Sponge

Ingredients:

225g unsalted butter, room temperature
225g vanilla sugar (or 225g regular sugar + 1 tsp vanilla extract)
4 large eggs
200g plain flour + 1 tsp baking powder, sifted & combined together (or 200g self-raising/rising flour)
10g cornstarch/cornflour
15g ground almonds/almond powder*
3-4 tbsp milk
icing sugar for dusting (optional)

*If you don't have almonds handy, you can just up the cornstarch to 25g instead. It will still be OK but will lack that little extra special almond fragrance. If you're really desperate you can omit the cornstarch entirely and just use 225g flour instead, but I can't vouch for how your cake turns out - the cornstarch and almonds really make the cake more tender and fine.

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C.
Grease and line 2 x round baking tins (about 21cm/8").
Sift together flour, baking powder (if using), cornstarch/flour and almonds in a separate bowl. Stir it around a bit to combine. SIFT AGAIN.
Cream butter and sugar in another bowl until pale and fluffy.
Beat in vanilla (if using) and eggs one at a time until incorporated. Add in a heaping spoonful of flour between eggs.
Fold in the rest of the flour, mix until combined. Add a few tablespoons of milk - only add enough so that the batter has a dropping consistency (i.e. it should drop easily off your spoon).
Pour into the prepared cake tins and bake for 25 minutes or until springy to the touch, golden brown and a cake tester/wooden toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake. It should also pull away a little from the edges of the cake pan.
Cool in pan on a cooling rack for 15 minutes, then remove from pan and let cool entirely on rack.
To get a flatter sponge (if your cake has a huge dome on top), turn the cake upside down and press gently. This is a helpful tip if you're planning to frost the cake and want even cake layers.
Choose the "uglier" cake and place it with the flatter side facing up. Spread whipped cream/cream cheese frosting/your preferred filling and ripe fruit over the cake.
Place the second cake on top of your bottom layer and gently press down to "sandwich" your cake. Don't squeeze too hard or your filling will ooze out and create a lava effect.
Dust the top with icing sugar, if desired.

Notes:

I use 15cm/6" round pans and got a higher cake, or you can halve the recipe, or use cupcake liners if you want cupcakes/fairycakes - it's a very flexible recipe. I use the baking pans with the removable disc bottoms (not springform, which would be even better).
The classic filling is lightly whipped cream and fresh English strawberries, but this proved hard to transport (especially in a warmer climate like Hong Kong's) so for this cake, I used leftover lemon cream cheese frosting that I made for my carrot cupcakes (recipe here). It worked quite well as the lemon helped cut through the sweetness of the sponge cake.
If you want to go all-out, then you can use a thicker frosting to cover the entire cake to make a traditional layer cake.
Once you've nailed the sponge cake, then feel free to go wild with variations - chocolate sponge, Nutella fillings, mango coconut fillings, banana -choc fillings, ...the possibilities are endless.

Carrot cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting and toasted coconut-almond garnish

2011-03-29T14:36:00.012+08:00

Easter coconut carrot cupcakes (with chocolate Mini Eggs), with mini strawberry cheesecakes in the background.

A simple, grown-up (?) version of carrot cupcakes.

For me, there are three cardinal rules of carrot cakes:

Moistness: The cake has to be moist but not dense/heavy/greasy, with a coarse but soft crumb.
Nuts (pecans, walnuts - take your pick): These can go on top as a garnish to add crunch and flavour but never inside the batter. I hate those soft mushy greasy lumps of nuts in some carrot cakes. I might consider adding raisins in the cake if I'm having that kind of a day.
Frosting: It's all about the cream cheese frosting.
The third rule is so important, it's worth repeating: it's all about the frosting.

This carrot cupcake looks melancholy without the frosting.

Here's my recipe for carrot cake (or cupcakes). It's cobbled together from several different sources. This was my first time making carrot cake, so I did quite a bit of online research (thanks Google!) before deciding on a recipe.

Here are a few tips/notes from online & my own experience:

You don't really need that much oil. You can replace some of it with pureed pineapple or applesauce.
The main problem that people encounter when making carrot cake is adding too much oil or too much liquid (in the form of your carrots or pineapple). Squeeze the grated carrots and gently to drain off excess liquid. Drain canned pineapple to remove the extra liquid/syrup. This stops your cake from becoming dense and soggy.
I don't like how sweet most American cake/dessert recipes usually turn out so I almost always reduce the sugar by 1/2 to 2/3 the original amount. For carrot cake, I find the carrots and pineapple are already quite sweet. And then you've got the decadent frosting to consider as well...
The amount of spices is quite flexible and you can adjust the amounts to your own personal preference (I like to add extra cinnamon and ginger sometimes). Same goes for nuts and fruit (I've also added raisins and flaked almonds into the batter as well, but add them to the flour mixture first to coat; otherwise they may sink to the bottom of your cake due to their weight.)

Without further ado, here's my take on carrot cake:

****

Carrot cupcakes with honey lemon cream cheese frosting & toasted coconut-almond garnish (makes about 18 regular-sized cupcakes or 2x 15cm/6 inch round cakes)

Cupcakes

2-3 medium carrots, peeled (enough to make 2 cups grated carrots)
1 1/2 cups / 190g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp dry ground ginger (or 2 tsp fresh ground ginger)
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves (optional)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup / 125g (120ml) roughly pureed pineapple
3 large eggs
3/4 cup / 160g light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Put your muffin pans (with paper liners) [about 18 muffin/cupcake cups] on a baking sheet. Set aside. Pre-heat oven to 350F/180C.
Grate your peeled carrots using the large holes of your grater. Squeeze them gently to drain off excess liquid before putting them into your measuring cup. Press on them slightly to pack them tightly into the cup (don't overdo it!). Make 2 cups of grated carrots; then set aside.
Drain canned pineapple to remove the syrup/liquid (this is important to avoid a soggy cake). Using a blender or food processor, roughly puree enough of your canned pineapple to make 1/2 cup. It should not look like baby food - leave little bits of pineapple as they will add texture to your cake. Don't over-puree it. Set aside.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and all your spices in one bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, pureed pineapple, eggs, carrots and vanilla.
Add dry (flour) mixture to wet (carrot) mixture. Stir until combined and you don't see any more white streaks of flour.
Divide batter into the lined muffin cups (I got 12 regular sized and 9 mini cupcakes out of this amount). Fill the liners about 2/3 way up.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes. Check to see that the cupcakes are golden and a cake tester/toothpick comes out dry when inserted into the middle of a cupcake.
Take out and cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan (I just tipped them out slowly, since they're like little muffins they should not break that easily) and cool completely for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Frost using recipe below or your favourite frosting/icing recipe.

***

Honey lemon cream cheese frosting

140g/5oz cream cheese
35g/2 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
80g icing/powdered/confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons honey (I used honey I bought back from Greece but you can also use any other honey or even maple syrup or NOTHING at all if you want your frosting to be firmer and less sweet)
Juice of 1/4 lemon
Grated lemon zest (1/4 to 1/2 lemon, amount is flexible)

Method:

Beat together cream cheese and butter in an electronic mixer (handheld or bowl mixer is fine) until light and fluffy.
Add in lemon zest and juice and mix until combined.
Add icing sugar and mix at low speed until combined (i.e. you should see no streaks of white sugar).
Add in honey and mix until combined.
Chill in fridge until firm enough to spread, at least 1 hour and preferably overnight.
Spread over cupcakes with a spatula.*

*I tried piping it using a pastry bag but I've come to the conclusion that cream cheese frosting is not meant to be piped into fancy swirls! (It's too soft.) If you want fancy piping please using a buttercream frosting instead which should hold its shape better.

***

Toasted coconut - almond garnish

Unsweetened dried/dessicated coconut flakes
Almond flakes

Method:

The easiest method is to sprinkle the coconut flakes and then insert an almond flake into the center of the frosted cupcakes.
I decided to toast the coconut for this recipe to add some colour contrast because otherwise the white coconut would not show up against the white frosting! I liked how the golden-brown coconut & almond complemented the white frosting and the darker brown cake.

How to toast your dessicated coconut flakes:

Another option that is very easy and gives the coconut an extra "je ne sais quoi" factor and delicious fragrance is to gently heat your coconut in an ungreased non-stick frying pan over low heat. Be careful, because the coconut burns easily. After a minute or less, your white coconut flakes should start to turn golden brown. When you have about 50:50 ratio of brown - white coconuts, turn off the heat and remove the pan from the heat to avoid burning the coconut. Let cool before sprinkling over the cupcakes.

These will keep about 3-4 days in the fridge. Unfrosted cupcakes will keep up to one month in the freezer but it's best to use them as soon as possible to avoid freezer burn or the risk of the cakes absorbing other smells/flavours from other freezer items.

Miffy in Chocolate Pinwheel land

2011-03-26T12:54:00.008+08:00

Miffy likes chocolate pinwheels too

Chocolate pinwheel cookies

115g unsalted butter, room temperature
100g caster sugar + 2 tsp vanilla extract OR 100g vanilla sugar
2 eggs
300g sifted plain flour
25g cornflour/cornstarch/ground almonds (I prefer almonds but cornstarch is cheaper)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
100g dark chocolate, chopped

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, set aside.
Cream butter and sugar in a separate bowl until pale and fluffy; add eggs (and vanilla extract, if using).
Sift in dry ingredients into the wet mixture, combine until no traces of flour are left and you have a smooth paste/dough.
Divide mixture into two bowls.
Melt chocolate (using microwave or a metal bowl over a pot of simmering water [bain marie]), let cool slightly before mixing into one half of the dough.
Wrap with clingfilm and chill in fridge until firm, at least one hour and could be overnight.
Roll out the plain dough on a lightly floured surface (I use a pastry mat so that my countertop doesn't get too dirty/sticky). It should be in a rough rectangular shape and quite thin, maybe 1cm thick? The best way to judge is to roll it out until it's thin but you can still handle it without it breaking into little pieces.
Then roll out the chocolate dough in the same way on a separate part of the floured surface.
Brush off excess flour, then transfer chocolate dough rectangle on top of the vanilla dough rectangle. Trim any overhanging edges. You should have a large rectangle with two layers (one vanilla, one choc).
Gently roll up the rectangle along the longer length. I find it easier to roll towards me so in step 9 I place the long side of the rectangle facing/parallel to me.
Wrap in parchment/baking paper, then chill in the fridge at least another hour or overnight. Chilling the dough helps the butter set and avoids the disaster of having your cookies melt and spread in the oven.
Slice the log of cookie dough into thin coins and place on lined baking sheet.
Bake in preheated oven at 190C for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Let cool, then store in airtight container for up to a week. (You can also freeze these.)

Gluten-free vanilla cupcakes with berry cream cheese frosting

2011-03-21T18:19:00.009+08:00

A co-worker recently was diagnosed with gluten intolerance and has been having trouble finding gluten-free food (not just baked goods, but also a lot of Chinese food, as soy sauce contains wheat), so I decided to bake some gluten-free cupcakes to cheer her up.

I've never baked gluten-free before (besides some meringues), so I did some Googling and was initially a bit intimidated by the recipes I found, which all seemed to require unfamiliar and exotic-sounding ingredients like xanthan and guar gum. Luckily I found a gluten-free plain white flour mix by Dove's Farm (UK) at the supermarket, which can be used in place of regular wheat flour in most recipes.

Here's the recipe for the gluten-free cupcakes that I made. They came out lighter and looser than regular cupcakes, but I think my coworker will be happy to have these baked goods as they're equally tasty, even without the denser crumb of cakes made with regular wheat flour.

Cupcake base

150g softened room temperature butter
150g vanilla sugar* (or 150g sugar + 1 tsp vanilla extract)
2 eggs (take out of fridge ahead of time so it's room temperature)
1 tsp baking powder
150g gluten-free white flour
3 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 190C or 170C if you have a fan/convection oven.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs one at a time.
Add in the baking powder, flour and milk.
Pour into cupcake liners in a cupcake tin and bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on top and a cake tester comes out clean.
Let cool and then frost with your preferred frosting. I used the one below.

*Vanilla sugar: I made homemade vanilla sugar by adding a left over vanilla pod (from making ice cream) into a container of caster sugar. I top up the sugar as it's used so I have a constant supply of vanilla sugar. I've used the same pod for about six months now and it still infuses the sugar with a strong vanilla flavour. It's important to make sure the pod is covered with sugar to avoid it going bad. (The sugar absorbs any moisture.)

Berry cream cheese frosting

150g cream cheese
150g softened butter
1 cup (110g) icing sugar
3 tbsp good quality jam (I used a mix of strawberry, blueberry and apricot as that was what I had on hand, but I might use raspberry next time. Please do not use Smuckers or other cheap jam with high fructose corn syrup. I used Bonne Maman which is a good, widely-available French jam that is not ridiculously expensive - it's a good mid-priced choice.)

Mix together cream cheese and butter until combined.
Strain jam through a sieve to remove seeds and other bits, then add to the cream cheese-butter mixture.
Sift in the icing sugar and mix with a spatula.
Spread on top of cupcakes with the spatula* and chill in fridge for at least one hour until set.

*The frosting was slightly softer than pure buttercream frosting; I didn't have very good results when I tried to pipe it with a nozzle. I would definitely recommend using a spatula instead.

Fresh fruit tart

2011-03-20T13:55:00.003+08:00

I've never had that much luck before with making pastry for tarts. I've tried various recipes, including a chocolate tart recipe (with chocolate pastry crust) from Jamie Oliver that came out too greasy and also too puffy, despite the blind baking.

This time, however, it went all quite smoothly. I made one big tart (8") and two mini (4") tarts.
Here's what I did:

Make the tart dough (pâte sucrée). I used this recipe, but with a few minor alterations:
- Instead of 100g flour, I used 70g flour and 30g cornstarch/cornflour. I'm not sure how big of a difference it made, but I like to add a bit of cornstarch as I think it makes cookies etc slightly more tender. I might try the original recipe next time (no corn starch) for comparison purposes.
- Almond powder = ground almonds. I used ready-ground almonds but I suppose it would be better to grind your own at home (add some sugar if doing so to avoid your almonds becoming almond butter instead of powder).
- You should really make this ahead but due to lack of time, I didn't leave the dough overnight to develop. Instead I let it chill 1.5 hours in the fridge before rolling out into the tart tins, then let it rest another 30 minutes in the fridge before baking.
- My major discovery/revelation was that you don't need to mess about with beans, rice or pie weights to blind-bake your tart case. I just followed the suggestion of pricking the dough with the tines of a fork multiple times (both on the sides and bottom). This technique is called docking, and the little holes created by the fork allow the steam to escape and stop the dough from rising too much. I think the end result was not as perfectly presentable as using beans or pie weights, but the convenience factor won me over.
Make your filling. I used a pastry cream/crème patissière recipe by Martha Stewart. The taste was good but the consistency/texture was a little too liquid/custardy for my liking. I might try a recipe with more cornstarch/flour next time to make a more solid filling.
Melt some chocolate to line the bottom of the tart. Dark chocolate is traditional, but I didn't have any so I melted some milk choc buttons in a metal bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. I then spread the melted chocolate into the tart case (which was already blind-baked and cooled to room temp.), then spread it around with a spatula to cover the entire base of the tart. Let stand until the chocolate has cooled and hardened. This serves two purposes: A) it's yummy chocolate! and B) the chocolate layer keeps the wet filling from making the tart case soggy and helps prevent any possible leaks from the little holes made by the docking process.
Once your filling is chilled enough, you are now ready to assemble your fruit tart.
- Pour the pasty cream onto your tart slowly - you don't want to add too much and risk a spill/overflow! Remember that your fruit will sink slightly and displace some of the filling, so don't fill it up too much, about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up the crust is about right.
- Add whatever mix of fruit you like. I made two kinds: strawberry-blueberry and mango-banana.
- Just before serving, dust with icing/confectioner's sugar or cocoa using a fine sieve.
As you can see, the tarts I made don't look beautifully perfect - the crust is a bit straggly and uneven, but the taste and texture got a thumbs up from everyone at work. The only thing I would focus on next time would be to improve the pastry cream which was a little too liquid.

Tea-time dimsum and steamed pot rice

2011-03-19T12:15:00.004+08:00

There's a cha chan teng (茶餐廳) [literally, "tea restaurant" but it means more of a Hong Kong-style diner or casual restaurant] near where I get off the bus in Wanchai. It's down an alley by an outdoor street market. It serves nothing but dim sum and steamed pot rice all day. It's a little family-run shop with simple tables and stools. The choices are listed on posters on the wall. There's a takeout counter at the entrance serving steamed buns and sticky glutinous rice with Chinese sausage.

During tea-time, they have tea sets. I ordered the steamed chicken pot rice, braised chicken feet and a hot lemon tea, all for HK$28 (about US$3.60).

This was a great find for me, because I love steamed pot rice (other versions include pork spare rib, egg and minced beef, fish, etc.).

Why I will be going back:

All day dim sum and steamed rice!
The people are quite friendly (at least during the afternoon tea period when it's not so busy)
It's not the best dim sum and rice I've ever had, but it is a decent choice in the area and really cheap, making it good value for the price

Kam Fai Dim Sum Restaurant
G/F, 49 Spring Garden Lane, Wan Chai
金輝點心茶餐廳
灣仔春園街49號地下舖

Lemon cake with caramelized lemon peel and almonds

2011-03-10T16:41:00.007+08:00

After succeeding with Tamami-san/Coco & Me's cheesecake recipe, I decided to try her famous lemon drizzle cake recipe. I'm a huge lemon fan but have had only mixed results with the other recipe that I've been using to date (the lemon syrup cake from Nigella Lawson's How to be a domestic goddess). (Tamami-san is also working on a Coco & Me cookbook so I am eagerly waiting its release since both recipes I have tried from her blog have turned out very well for me!)

Tamami's method is slightly unusual as it requires you to whisk the eggs and sugar into a foam in a simmering bain-marie (almost like making a sabayon), but it does result in a light but airy cake. I'm guessing that heating the eggs here has a similar effect as doing the "cooked dough" in choux pastry recipes - it forces the dough to rise due to the egg content and steam.

Recipe: Lemon Drizzle Cake from Tamami-san at Coco & Me.

Alterations/tips:

Stick to the recipe.
The recipe looks a bit fussy and overly detailed (rather than my usual "mix dry ingredients; mix wet ingredients; combine both; bake) but it makes a HUGE difference in what comes out of your oven. You get a proper delicious cake made with care and love instead of something that's too mushy, too dry or too tasteless!

Scale the amounts to fit your pan.
I scaled the ingredients to fit a Japanese no. 5 / 15 cm / 6" round cake pan. I also had enough batter and icing left over for two "tester" cupcakes (shown above).

Line both the sides and bottom of the cake tin.
Instead of just lining the bottom of the tin and flouring the sides, I lined both the bottom and the sides of the tin (I had some pre-cut tin liners that I bought from the Jusco $10 store here in Hong Kong. Side note: Jusco is seriously my favourite baking accessories shop as they sell cheap cake liners, tins, chocolate moulds, ribbons, trays, decorative bags/boxes and more. I highly recommend it if you happen to live in Hong Kong.)

Almond powder/ground almonds?
I substituted ground almonds for almond powder with excellent results.

Use an electric hand mixer.
Instead of whisking by hand, I used the electric mixer to whisk the eggs. I started off with a manual whisk but my wrist quickly started to hurt. So, make sure you use the electric mixer!

Cut off the muffin top.
The only thing is that my cake was not flat (it had a muffin top) so instead of turning it upside down as instructed in Tamami's recipe, I just lopped off the top. I found that removing the top actually made it easier for the lemon syrup to penetrate and soak the cake. Being a greedy pig, I then ate the top with a bit of leftover lemon syrup - the cook's privilege! I now feel a bit sick from eating a giant piece of cake, but I don't regret it for a second! :)

Try different kinds of garnish.
Instead of using chopped-up pistachio and sugared lemon peel as a garnish, I used flaked almonds and browned/caramelized lemon peel. (To make the caramelized lemon peel, carefully cook the lemon peel strips in sugar water in a saucepan on low heat until it turns brown and sticky. Then remove from heat and add warm water to "shock" and melt the caramel syrup. You should strain the peel (which should be caramel brown) in a sieve to remove excess water and de-tangle the lemon peel strips.

This also works for cupcakes as well as regular cakes.
The cupcakes turned out pretty cute. I think I'll use this recipe for little cupcakes to bring to the office next time.

Verdict:
I am so pleased with this recipe, even though it's more complicated, I think this will replace the Nigella Lawson one that I've been using for the past couple of years.

One-pot steamed Chinese chicken mushroom rice

2011-03-06T01:19:00.002+08:00

A classic Chinese comfort food is steamed chicken with winter/shiitake mushrooms (冬菇蒸雞飯). There are variations with dried lily flowers but I like the ones with mushrooms best. In Chinese cooking, shiitake/winter mushrooms are more commonly used dried than fresh. The dried ones have a stronger, more umami flavor to them that the fresh ones don't, and the best dried winter mushrooms can be quite expensive!

I adapted my recipe from this one I found online.

The only specialized equipment you will need is a rice cooker (found throughout Asia). Rice cookers are amazing things - see this blog post by Roger Ebert (yes, the film critic) if you need to be convinced of its usefulness.

Notes:

Rehydrated winter mushrooms (or you can use any fresh ones that you prefer. A "meatier" mushroom would probably work better here.
I used boneless chicken thigh, cut into small pieces, because my boyfriend doesn't like bones. In cheaper restaurants in Hong Kong, the chicken in this dish can have a lot of bone splinters :(
Didn't have spring onion so I substituted coriander/cilantro - not strictly traditional but I feel that you have a lot more flexibility for savory dishes than with baked desserts.
Rice + about 2/3 of the normal amount of water you would normally use in your cooker because the soy sauce marinade for the chicken will make up the remaining liquid.
If you don't have Shaoxing wine you can use cooking sake/mirin/pale dry sherry/gin. Not quite the same but close enough.
It's OK if your rice gets a slightly burnt and crispy crust - that's the BEST part!
The main point is, don't worry about following the recipe too strictly, play around with it depending on what ingredients you have on hand and ENJOY. It will be yummy.

Russian Twix: "Twixels"

2011-02-22T18:46:00.004+08:00

Found these today in my local supermarket: Orange and chocolate Twixels all the way from Moscow, Russia.

Twixels are basically small elongated Twix. They look more elegant (could pass as dinner party nibbles) and are less chewy due to their thinness. They tasted basically the same as regular Twix but with less caramel. OK, but not sure I would buy these again as I'm trying to cut down on candies and sweets (I prefer saving my calories and money for higher quality splurges).

Going bananas

2011-02-19T11:15:00.007+08:00

The supermarket here sells the usual Cavendish bananas but they occasionally stock other varieties, including the popular "emperor" bananas (small and sweet bananas with thin peel and little thready fibre) which you can find across Asia. Red bananas, on the other hand, are relatively more exotic (at least for me in Hong Kong). The supermarket here labels these as "Moroccan red bananas" but it seems that these are grown in Asia as well.

As for the flavor, they're a bit firmer and less mealy/mushy than regular Cavendishes. While they're still sweet and have the familar banana flavour, I thought the red ones had a little more tartness and complexity to them which I don't find in the normal yellow Cavendish.

Have you ever wondered why you can buy different kinds of apples, pears, potatoes and melons, but across the (developed) world, you usually can only buy one kind of banana (the Cavendish)? The reason for the domination of the Cavendish banana in supermarkets is mainly because of its hardiness/ability to withstand long-distance transport and ease of propagation. However, the whole banana issue is pretty complex - when you are dependent on only one single type of banana, you render the commercial crop vulnerable to pests/disease [viz. the Irish dependency on potatoes that caused the potato famine in the 1800s]). Also, the Cavendish is a relatively bland flavour, but it is popular because it is easy to ship and keeps for a long time. This means that consumers have sacrificed variety and taste in favour of convenience and mass production.

I find this kind of social info pretty fascinating because I believe that we take so many conveniences for granted in our 21st century lives.

For example, in Hong Kong, Sunkist oranges from California still dominate the market, even though it would probably be simpler and more cost-effective to buy fresh oranges grown in Asia/closer to home. Also, how can oranges/apples/strawberries shipped thousands of miles across the Pacific arrive in stores so fresh and sold at such a relatively low cost? Oranges from California at 40 US cents each? Apples from Washington state for US 30 cents each? I suspect that some of these costs, e.g. pollution and waste, is being passed on to the public and on to nature and is not being reflected in the supermarket sticker price.

And why doesn't China start growing high-quality perishable fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, and other "Western" fruit? I'm sure there is a huge market in Asia for reasonably priced "luxury" fruits. I would totally buy blueberries grown in the region rather than blueberries flown all the way from Chile (which is what you currently get in the stores here for US$0.60 - $1.20 per 125g carton - how can they sell them so cheap?!).

Actually there are many types of bananas: at my parents' home in Hong Kong, they grow the common banana (or "big banana" in Cantonese), which is fatter and shorter than the Cavendish. It's also tart with only a mild sweetness which I like as it's not overwhelming. The ones my parents grow also occasionally produce black seeds. When was the last time you saw seeds in your supermarket banana?

Confession: my parents merely tend the banana plants, which grow wild in many places in Hong Kong. It's mainly transplanting the offshoots [bananas can reproduce by seeds which are genetically different or by offshoots which are clones] to avoid overcrowding, harvesting bananas and chopping down the trunks/stems to make room for new plants once the fruit is harvested as each plant usually only produces a single hand of fruit.

If you're interested in reading more about the commercial banana and the current challenge to the global crop caused by an infectious fungus, I highly recommend a recent New Yorker article from January 2011 by Mike Peed: We Have No Bananas (Scientists fight a devastating banana blight) -- subscription might be required but you can see a related short video for free on the magazine's Tumblr site (also pretty interesting).

Stecca - Jim Lahey's little baguettes

2011-02-13T18:05:00.005+08:00

I used to be afraid of making bread, despite years of baking quick breads, cakes and cookies. The prospect of baking with yeast filled me with anxiety - what if the bread didn't rise? What if it just didn't taste right? I think the idea of working with a living organism was a tiny bit intimidating, to say the least.

Jim Lahey, via Mark Bittman, was the baker whose methods helped me lose my fear of working with yeast and making real bread. Now I've a convert and race through bags of flour and countless sachets of yeast. From pizzas to cinnamon rolls, Jim Lahey has opened up a whole new world of baking for me.

This is one of his easier no-knead bread recipes. As it's a essentially a small, flatter baguette with simple toppings, almost a cross between puffy breadstick and focaccia, there's much less anxiety about having the bread rise to the towering magnificence of the boule (round country loaf).

You can find the recipe at the blog Steamy Kitchen, which is where I first found the recipe. I've now bought Jim Lahey's My Bread book, which is the original source.

It makes an amazing country-style baguette (or giant breadstick, I guess you could call it) and is a good recipe to try if you're a relative beginner (like me) to baking with yeast. Actually it's good even if you are experienced with yeast, as it's an easy and tasty crusty bread that looks quite impressive and will awe your friends/family while the effort involved is quite minimal. Time does all the work for you.

PS As Jaden on Steamy Kitchen noted, this baguette might go soft relatively quickly after baking due to the sea salt and olive oil on top. To crisp it back up, put it in a toaster oven for 5-10 minutes. Perfect!

Here's the dough after the first rise.

Here's the dough on the baking sheet after the second rise, shaping, and adding toppings and olive oil.

Here's the dough after it comes out of the oven. The top one is garlic; the bottom is cherry tomato. Both are sprinkled with Maldon sea salt.

Door Door nougat - the best nougat I've ever had

2011-02-13T12:35:00.008+08:00

The above picture might not look like much, but the unassuming little piece of nougat you see before you is SERIOUSLY the best nougat I've ever eaten!

Chewy but yielding rather than jaw-breaking, sweet but not sickeningly so, with a light layer of chocolate on top, and crunchy but not overbearing peanuts....it all adds up to nougat perfection.

Let me add that normally, I'm not a nougat kind of gal. I was a nougat Goldilocks - the different brands I tried before were all either too chewy or too crunchy/splintery. Unexpectedly, I've discovered the nougat that was just right.

There is a little story behind my nougat revelation:

In December, a close friend from college held her wedding celebrations in Hong Kong. A few of our mutual friends (my group of girlfriends) came from China, US and Thailand to attend the wedding banquet. As I had some free time, I met up with the ladies to shop, eat and get our hair done. You know, the stereotypical things that women do when they get together.

A, who had flown in from Bangkok, asked if we could go to this bakery to buy nougat. Sure, we all said; as we are all Asians, we understand the foodie obsession and think nothing of traveling far for delicious eats.

A: "It's called Door Door and it's in Mei Foo."
The rest of us: "?"

Now, understand that despite having been born, grown up and now returned to Hong Kong for 9 years, I had never heard of this place. In addition, Mei Foo is far off the usual tourist radar - it's a non-descript private housing estate about half an hour by MTR train from the usual shopping districts.

A then went on to explain that every time her Thai friends visit Hong Kong, they make a pilgrimage to this small family-owned bakery and cafe to buy the nougat. One of our group, Y, actually lived in Mei Foo but had never bought nougat at Door Door, so she offered to buy some and bring it over the next day.

The next day, Y came laden with heavy carrier bags of nougat. There were a few types:

1. Original peanut (shown in above picture)
2. Chocolate crispy (chocolate Rice Krispies sandwiched between original peanut nougat)
3. Coffee (a mocha style nougat with maple undertones)

The clear winner was the chocolate crispy nougat, as the crunchy chocolate krispies cut through the chewy sweetness of the nougat. It's incredibly more-ish - so much so that I went myself to Mei Foo the next week and bought 4 boxes of nougat to give to other friends, though unsurprisingly, I ended up eating a lot of them myself.

They also have a (healthier?) prune and cashew nougat which I haven't yet tried...not sure if it'll be a tad too healthy for my liking!

The moral of this little story is that if people from another country are willing to visit a previously-unheard-of little bakery out in the suburbs, then you would be a fool not to give it a try too!

Door Door Bakery (多多麵飽西餅)
G/F 65 Broadway Street
Mei Foo Sun Chuen
Kowloon, Hong Kong

Quest for home-made pizza

2011-02-05T15:04:00.007+08:00

February 4, 2011: tomato, basil, onion, sopressata pizza before it entered the oven

Until Paisano's came along last year, you could not, for love or money, get decent New York-style pizza in Hong Kong. If you've ever had proper New York-style pizza you'll understand how much of a tragedy this was. My pizza cravings went unsatisfied by the meagre local offerings: Pizza Hut (ick!), Spaghetti House (gross), Pepperonis (mediocre but better than nothing), and Pizza Express (nice UK/Continental thin crust, but not the same as a New York plain slice). Oh for a proper New York cheese pizza, or for the white pies of Connecticut. I still have fantasies over an Italian sausage & caramelized onion white pizza that I had several years ago at the Fat Cat Pie Co. in Norwalk, CT. Other girls might dream of Brad Pitt, but I can't get that memory of those perfectly browned onions on a light, thin, crispy crust, out of my mind. (Yes, I'm sick and have an addiction! I freely admit it!)

After experimenting with baking bread at home, I had a Eureka! moment when I realized that pizza is essentially just flat thin bread with toppings, which meant I could probably make it at home. This meant I could make white pizzas, plain cheese pizzas, margherita pizzas...the world was my ~~oyster~~ pizza.

For me, pizza is all about the crust and the dough. I like my crust to be light and airy, crispy but not too chewy. I can't bear spongy or soggy pizza bases. I tried a couple of dough recipes but was never satisfied with the results (too bready, too soft, too ....). Finally, I found the GOLD recipe for pizza dough and now that I've found it, I'm going to stick with it.

Unless you've been hiding under a metaphorical rock for the past few years, you've probably heard of Jim Lahey's no-knead bread recipe, made famous by Mark Bittman at the New York Times. It's not surprising then that the easiest and best recipe for pizza, which is at its most basic just a yeasted flat bread with toppings, also comes courtesy of Jim Lahey and his Sullivan Street Bakery.

I don't use a pizza stone or peel or any fancy equipment, just a baking sheet greased with olive oil. I never thought I could make decent pizza in a mini convection oven so I bow down and worship at Jim Lahey's feet. (OK, that might be overdoing it a bit but seriously, I am soooo happy to be able to make decent pizza at home and satisfy my pizza cravings!)

Here's a link to the recipe but I usually use my copy of Jim Lahey's book, My Bread, which gives slightly different instructions.

The base is essentially the same (the main difference is how thin or thick you stretch the base crust), so I've been playing around with different toppings.

May 26, 2010: Semi-white pizza with fresh tomatoes but no tomato sauce. I'm very partial to a good pizza bianca - it's less heavy than sauced pizzas.

December 21, 2010: Jon's favourite, with a LOT of cheese (mix of Cheddar, Parmesan, and Mozzarella) and tomato sauce. The uglier cousin due to the molten cheese and tomato that oozes everywhere, but undeniably finger-lickin' good. This one has portabello mushrooms and spicy Italian sausage.

I'm still experimenting with different toppings and crust thickness: these might not be true New York-style pizzas, but I find them pretty damn tasty. :)

Next post will be for another Jim Lahey recipe that's one of my favourite pot-luck and party standby: stecca with garlic and cherry tomatoes.

Kitto Katsu (Japanese Kit Kats)

2011-02-04T16:17:00.003+08:00

Japanese Kit Kats: (top to bottom)

- Blueberry cheesecake
- Wasabi
- Matcha green tea

Not pictured (already eaten!):
- Japanese red apple

In Japan, Kit Kats are given to students before they take exams, as the name Kit Kat is similar to the Japanese for "sure win" - きっと勝つ　"Kitto Katsu".

Thanks Mayumi-san for bringing these from Tokyo!

Shanghai, Zhujiajiao, Nanjing, Suzhou

2011-02-03T10:13:00.007+08:00

上海，朱家角，南京，蘇州之旅

My family is originally from Shanghai - Zhujiajiao (朱家角) water town in Qingpu (青浦) district to be precise. (Well, further back another few hundred years we are from Manchuria but for the past 700 years Shanghai has been the family "ancestral town".) My aunt and cousin still live in Shanghai, and my brother and his girlfriend were visiting from the US so we made a short trip up there to visit the old hometown.

Jon and I only went for two days because of work, but the others went for four days. They also went to Hangzhou to the West Lake, which I went to back in 2008, I think.

Anyway, not much to say about Shanghai - modern, polluted, expensive, lots of good food, and lots of photo-taking opportunities.

Here are the photos from Nanjing and Suzhou first as Blogger seems to have a photo limit:

Jon taking a photo of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Nanjing.

Sun Yat-sen is considered to be the father of modern-day China. Personally I find it a slightly creepy Communist propaganda tactic to put their embalmed leaders on display (Lenin, Stalin, Mao...). Sun Yat-sen's body is not on display but his marble sarcophagus is. I guess you never stop working in the service of the people, even after death!

The Nanjing massacre memorial. (An estimated 300,000 people were killed by the invading Japanese forces.)

KFC street advertising in Suzhou

Our gluttonous, gourmet banquet in Zhujiajiao. I love Shanghai food - my mom makes it sometimes at home. My favourites are the Dongbo pork belly and the bamboo, but frankly, I love it all!

You can rent these boats to go up and down the canals.

Making pork belly wrapped in bamboo leaf.

Despite it being a bit touristy these days with souvenir shops, new cafés and art galleries, Zhujiajiao is still home to quite a few people.

You can see many more photos here.

Gougères (Cheese puffs)

2011-02-02T22:06:00.005+08:00

I first had gougères at Caprice, the 3-star Michelin French restaurant at the Four Seasons hotel in Hong Kong (you can read my review of that meal here). My first bite of hot cheesy puffiness and I was in love...

I tried to recreate the same feelings at home, with some success. It's all about the cheesy puffy holes (like a cheesy savory choux puff). Best served warm.

This Alain Ducasse recipe works wonderfully - my local supermarket doesn't carry Gruyère so I used Parmesan instead, but otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. This type of pastry is called pâte à choux/choux pastry - similar to that used in éclairs, cream puffs, profiterôles, etc.

After making these a few times, I do have a few suggestions if you want to use this recipe:

Sift the flour before using (actually, do this for EVERY recipe that calls for flour)
Bring butter and eggs to room temperature before using. It really makes a difference.
Don't be tempted to use more cheese in the dough than the recipe calls for. (Otherwise your puffs may be a bit too heavy and the holes won't be nice and large and airy.)
I think any of your favourite semi-dry/firm cheeses would work here, not just Gruyère - I've used both Parmesan and Comté with success.

When heating the milk, butter and salt in the pan, dice the butter first so it melts quickly and evenly. Don't let the mixture foam up.
Dump the flour all in at once and stir with brisk motion until you don't see any white bits of flour any more and it becomes a drier dough in the shape of a ball (it comes away from the sides of the pan). There may be a white film on the bottom of the pan - don't scrape it in. The drier the dough, the puffier your gougères will be.
This cooked dough is called a panade.
When adding eggs, don't worry if it doesn't combine with the dough at first and looks like it "curdles" - just keep stirring.
From personal experience: do NOT hold pastry bag in one hand and try to transfer hot dough from bowl using spatula/spoon with other hand. Recipe for disaster: spillage of hot dough on countertop, fingers, etc. guaranteed. After losing a batch of dough this way (and almost breaking out in tears from trying to force the sticky dough into the bag), the magic of Google showed me that you can place the pastry bag upright in a tall glass and then spoon the dough in. Definitely going to try this next time! Also tying the other end of the bag is a MUST..
Careful cooling of the puffs is important otherwise they might deflate. I would open the oven door to let the moisture escape, then leave it open as you allow the puffs to cool slowly (the point is for any remaining moisture to dry off, otherwise you get an eggy, soggy interior).
Careful storing. If serving immediately, do NOT store in plastic/ziploc bags (it traps moisture and makes the puffs deflate/go soggy). Put in a paper bag. When completely cooled, you can store in fridge or freezer (plastic bags OK here): reheat before serving.

Baked Blueberry Cheesecake

2011-02-01T22:59:00.006+08:00

This was my second attempt at making cheesecake. The first time, I used a New York cheesecake recipe from the Joy of Baking website and while the results were OK, the cheesecake was more moussy and lacked the dense richness of true NY cheesecake.

This time, I decided to try a different recipe entirely and used the baked cheesecake recipe from Coco & Me, one of my favourite baking and all-round food blogs. My presentation's nowhere near as good as Tamami-san's, but not bad for an amateur, I guess :)

I added blueberries as they were very cheap and fresh(ly imported from Chile/USA) at my local market - HK$10 (about US$1.30) for two 125 punnets. It's a little disturbing how cheap they were but blueberries are usually quite hard to find here so I jumped at the opportunity to have some. (I'm determined not to feel tooooo guilty about the carbon footprint etc because I try to eat local/regional fruit & veg but they just don't grow berries in Asia yet!)

I made a couple of minor alterations to the cheesecake recipe:

I upped the lemon juice a bit to 20ml and reduced the sugar slightly as I don't like overly sweet cakes.
After baking it 30 minutes in the oven, I took it out to cool.
Then I spread on the sour cream topping (combined 150g sour cream, 2 tablespoons of vanilla sugar) and baked it a further 10 minutes in the oven.
Take out and let cool; decorate with blueberries and let stand overnight.

Unfortunately, I think I overbaked the cheesecake a little this time, as it was not quite wobbly enough when I took it out of the oven (cheesecake is very dense so it continues to cook for a bit after you take it out), but not bad for my second-ever attempt at cheesecake!

Post-script (the day after):
Finally cut into and tasted the cheesecake after a day of chilling and waiting. I was very nervous on account of having baked it for so long, and because I was bringing to a family dinner with lots of people on Lunar New Year Eve. The taste and texture was amazing (dense but not too heavy, not too sweet to obscure the fresh cream cheese taste) though I might bake it a few minutes less next time. I got rave reviews for the cheesecake, though I can't take that much of the credit: Thanks to Tamami for the cheesecake recipe, and to Joy of Baking for sour cream topping recipe!

Raisin braided bread (challah-inspired)

2011-01-27T18:23:00.005+08:00

I made this to satisfy a craving for raisin bread that I had had for a while. I adapted the challah recipe from the new Better Homes & Garden cookbook which I ordered from Amazon before Christmas. The recipe's no longer kosher due to the changes I've made but I think it's still delicious, even if my braiding technique needs a lot of work! Fresh from the oven, the bread was crusty on the outside and tender inside (a bit like a toasty brioche).

The changes I made were: substituting milk for water and butter for margarine, and substituting some of the liquid (milk) and flour for a watery mashed potato mixture (boiled potato mashed with the water used for cooking) that I had left over from making focaccia a few days before. I also dispensed with poppy seeds (not my favorite and also the local supermarket doesn't carry them) and the eggwash (1 egg yolk + 2 tsp water) because I didn't want to waste an egg white.

Ingredients

4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup potato mixture
1/2 cup milk
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup raisins, soaked for 5 minutes in warm water

In a large mixing bowl stir together 2 cups of the flour and the yeast; set aside.
In saucepan, heat milk, butter, sugar, salt and potato mixture until butter starts to melt. Make sure the mixture doesn't get too hot otherwise it will kill the yeast later. The original BHG recipe suggests heating to 120 F / 50 C.
Add milk/butter/potato mixture and eggs to the flour mixture. Stir with wooden spoon (I guess you could use a mixer but it's not really necessary) until smooth. The dough will be watery like pancake batter.
Add raisins and remaining 2-3 cups of flour gradually to mixture until the dough starts to form a large ball and you can manage it with your hands.
Turn out dough onto a generously floured surface, knead dough until it is no longer sticky. It should be smooth and elastic after 5-8 minutes. Shape into ball.
Place in a greased bowl, turn once to coat dough. Cover with plastic wrap (clingfilm) and tea towel, then place in warm place to rise until doubled (1-2 hours) and the dough springs back when you poke at it with your finger.
Punch dough down; turn out onto floured surface. Divide into 3 or 6 pieces. Cover and let rest for about 10 minutes.
Roll each piece into a long strand/rope. Place 3 strands side by side. Braid. If you have 6 pieces, you can make a second 3-strand braided bread or if you're up to the challenge you could try braiding a 6-strand bread. (See this site for step-by-step instructions on braiding bread. Don't worry if your braids aren't pefect...mine were a bit hideous but luckily this doesn't affect the taste one bit!)
Cover and let rise until doubled (about 1 hour). 15 minutes ahead of time, set your oven to 375 F/200 C.
Place in oven and bake until golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Bread is done when it sounds hollow when tapped.
Immediately remove bread from baking sheet and cool on wire rack.
EAT.

Fajitas for dinner

2011-01-27T18:19:00.005+08:00

Flour tortillas (store-bought)
Spiced sautéed chicken/mushroom/bell pepper
guacamole (avocado with cilantro, tomato, lime juice)
salsa (tomato, cilantro, onion)
rice cooked with tomato sauce, bell peppers and cilantro

Eating out in Taipei

2010-12-20T16:13:00.010+08:00

Jon and I visited Taipei this past weekend for a quick pre-Christmas getaway. The last time I visited Taipei, I was less than a year old, so this trip was essentially the first visit not only for Jon but for me as well.

We only had two and a half days, so we mainly wandered around the city, snacking and eating nonstop. Our hotel was in Ximending (West Gate), the main shopping and hangout spot for young people; the area reminded us of Shibuya in Tokyo. We also visited some other parts of the city, including Yongkang Street, Shilin Night Market, and Xinyi (for the giant Eslite 24-hr bookstore).

Overall, I enjoyed Taipei. I would definitely go back for the great food (especially local Taiwanese, eastern Chinese [i.e. Shanghai, Fujian, Chiuchow] and Japanese) and the relaxed café/coffee culture (local family-run cafés, not Starbucks, dominate). Shopping-wise, I can see why people love to go crazy in Taipei, but many of the home goods, tchotchkes, clothes and accessories can also be bought in Hong Kong for pretty much the same price. Chinese-language books are a bargain for Chinese readers (not me, unfortunately) while English-language books are at the same unfavourable rate Hong Kong bookstores use.

Souvenir shopping tip: Taiwan pineapple pastries (fenglisu/鳳梨酥) are famous and crazy-good. The best place (recommended by bloggers and guidebooks alike) to buy these super-yummy little shortcakes is at Kong Kee in Ximending (opposite the East Dragon hotel). Staff here are friendly and speak English, Cantonese, Mandarin and Japanese. You can try before you buy, i.e. free samples. The fenglisu's shortcake-like crust is crumbly, buttery-rich but not too sweet, while the inside pineapple filling is light and slightly sticky. It's like a lighter, airier version of Fig Newtons. I never really liked pineapple pastry as the ones I had before were very dense and brick-like, so authentic Taiwanese fenglisu was a revelation. Beware though, good pineapple pastries are very addictive...

Some of our stops included:

Jolly Brewery and Restaurant - A Taiwan microbrewery (not brewed on site due to municipal restrictions) that doubles as a sports bar and Thai eatery. Their home-brewed beer are respectable and reasonably priced (a 6 x 100ml sampler of their six home brews was NT$240 [US$8] if I recall correctly). I liked the sweet malt of the Scotch Ale (7.2% a.c.) while Jon preferred the lighter Weizen and the Pale Ale. Worth a visit for beer-lovers: don't expect amazing beer but it's not bad compared to all the Heineken, Carlsberg, and other supermarket beers that are served almost everywhere else.

Shilin Night Market - The mother of all Asian night-markets. A must-visit for foodies and everyone else. The temporary market building opposite the Jiantan metro station mostly contains some food and a few desultory amusement stands/games such as shrimp fishing, balloon shooting, etc. Oyster omelettes are one of Taiwan's classic dishes but Jon and I much preferred the Chiuchow version - the Taiwanese version had some transparent gooey stuff which was a bit too slimy in texture for our liking. (I later found out that it was tapioca starch.)

While the Taiwanese share the same intense foodie mania with most of the rest of Asia, they really up the stakes in craziness. Famous street dishes included the small sausage in big sausage, small bun in big bun and giant fried chicken steak (a gargantuan breaded fried chicken meat steak that's famous for being bigger than one's face and ridiculously cheap at NT$50/US$1.50).

The "big sausage" is actually a delicious mixture of garlicky, spicy glutinous rice stuffed into a sausage casing. The "small sausage" is a sweet, porky Taiwanese sausage. A relish of Chinese pickles, cucumber and a spicy soy-based sauce combines to create an AMAZING street snack.

Delicious sausages...mmm...the neon sign says "Small sausage wrapped in big sausage"

A bunch of victorious food maniacs who have lined up to buy the Giant Chicken Steak! (Seriously, Jon and I wanted to get this but we were stuffed from Din Tai Fung and the line for this was at least 30 people long.)

Din Tai Fung @ Yongkang Street - While I've never been that impressed by Din Tai Fung's food (especially after being served a drunken-chicken dish that had actually gone bad/rotten at their Shanghai Xintiandi branch a few years back - an unpardonable offense that I have neither forgiven nor forgotten!), the restaurant's xiaolongbao does have a cult following throughout Asia (particularly China, Korea and Japan). So I was willing to give DTF another chance, especially as all reviews indicated that the original branch at Yongkang Street in Taipei was much better than the other. Verdict? The xiaolongbao was good, but nothing special. I've had way better xiaolongbao in Hong Kong at Faye's Nouvelle Cuisine (aka Xiaonanguo/小南國) and amazing xiaolongbao in Shanghai (particularly at the xlb ground zero aka Nanxiang Mantoudian/南翔饅頭店 where these buns were invented). Anyway, I guess the food there is OK but not worth the 30-minute wait (Japanese tours bring huge groups here a LOT so be prepared for a long wait and very antsy crowds)

Crowds at Din Tai Fung.

OMG! Buns! Xiaolongbao! Steaming pork juice spurting into your mouth!

My first-ever attempt at knitting

2010-12-15T16:49:00.001+08:00

So far, I only know how to knit straight lines. So a scarf it is!

Santorini, Greece

2010-12-15T16:30:00.000+08:00

Chicken pot pie

2010-12-15T16:08:00.004+08:00

Step 1: Make the filling. I used chopped pea shoots, carrots, potatoes, chicken breast, and onion in a bechamel sauce. I lightly cooked the vegetables in a saucepan until soft before adding to the filling.

Step 2: Make the shortcrust pastry ahead of time (you need to chill it before use) and place on top of the filling. Brush with beaten egg.

Step 3: Bake at 200°C for 50 - 60 minutes until golden brown.

Step 4: Serve hot and enjoy. It keeps for a couple of days in the fridge (just reheat in the oven or microwave before serving).

Shredded chicken, bok choi and Korean vermicelli in chicken broth

2010-11-07T11:16:00.003+08:00

雞絲白菜韓國粉絲（金華火腿瘦肉清雞湯）
Shredded chicken, bok choi with Korean potato vermicelli in a clear broth made from two whole chickens, lean pork, and salty Jinhua ham.

The fat is skimmed off the top of the soup so this dish is almost fat-free but still very flavorful. The soup is a simpler, homemade free-style adaptation of Chinese "superior stock" (上湯). This dish is all about the soup. Soup is important in Chinese culture - it's comfort, medicine, culture and history in one steaming pot.

While I don't cook traditional Chinese food often, sometimes I like to experiment. This noodle soup turned out very well: it's my own customized mix of Shanghai vegetable noodles and Cantonese/Hainan chicken soup. The great thing about this recipe is that you can add whatever toppings or accompaniments that you like. The only drawback is that making the soup requires time and patience, but you can make ahead and put it in the fridge or freezer.

Soup recipe:
1 x chicken carcass (old chicken)
1 x old chicken (for soup)
chunk of lean pork (about 200 g)
a few thick slices of Jinhua ham (more if you're splurging)
several sprigs of spring onions
3 to 4 inch-long chunk of fresh peeled ginger
sea salt or other good quality salt
shiitake mushrooms or oyster mushrooms (optional)

Rub in a good amount of salt into the chicken and pork (pretend you're exfoliating /giving it a facial). Rinse chicken and pork under running water briefly to get rid of any dirt and "frozen" flavor (you should be using fresh chicken too if possible but I am too cheap and lazy to get fresh sometimes and it works out ok, but if using formerly frozen then make sure you thoroughly rinse the meat so you don't get the "freezer chill" taste).
NB: For the chicken, you can remove the skin and most of the fat in advance (leave a few bits of fat to give the soup flavor). If possible, keep the (thoroughly cleaned) chicken feet and head/neck: the collagen/gelatin gives the soup more umami flavor and that lip-smacking unctuousness. I usually remove the skin and fat from the neck and the butt area, deskin most of the chicken torso, but leave the harder-to-remove skin on the wings and drumstick areas.
Chop chicken into bits so that both birds can comfortably fit into your pot. I get the butcher to do this; otherwise if you have whole birds, you can put one bird in at first, then put the other bird in at step 4. Using whole birds makes the removal process easier later.
Clean and slice spring onions in half. Remove any withered parts. You can remove the roots if it's easier than cleaning the bottom.
Put meat, ham, spring onions and ginger into pot. Salt generously, depending on how much of the salty Jinhua ham you put in. Bring to a boil, then turn to low heat and simmer until the meat and bones are almost falling apart. Skim off fat, scum and other stuff floating on the top at regular intervals.
When soup is done, remove as much of the bones and meat as you can with tongs/spoon and then pour through a large strainer into a large bowl or container.
This soup will freeze well or keep in fridge for a week or two. Once chilled and solidified, it's easier to remove the top layer of chicken fat. It should be a clear jelly once chilled due to the gelatin/collagen.

Chicken and bok choi noodle soup recipe
Shredded chicken meat
Fresh mushrooms (shiitake, oyster, shimeiji, etc.)
Bok choi or other vegetables (Napa cabbage, choi sum, spinach, etc. would be nice)
Chicken stock (see above recipe)
Korean vermicelli (or rice noodles, mung bean vermicelli, pho noodles....)
dash of salt/soy sauce/rice vinegar/lime juice

Put chicken stock in saucepan. I tend to stretch the use of the chicken stock by using a 50:50 chicken stock and water combo (in this case, add enough salt to make up the taste).
Add your chosen noodle and toppings. I used mushrooms and the leftover soup chicken meat, which was a bit tough but I didn't want to see it go to waste, together with bok choi. I used Korean potato vermicelli because I like its texture and taste but feel free to experiment.
If the soup is lacking a little je ne sais quoi, add the following to taste: salt, soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice. (I think the slight sourness of vinegar or citrus juice really helps this soup, though).
When toppings are cooked through, serve this dish in large bowl, piping hot.

Homemade vanilla gelato

2010-11-03T21:47:00.005+08:00

Two cups of milk,
one cup whipping cream,
the scrapings of a vanilla bean pod,
half a cup of sugar,
four sunset-orange egg yolks =
delicious, light, fluffy homemade gelato!

Here's how:

Split lengthways and scrape the black beans/dots from the pod and put into the milk/cream mixture.

Whisk together the egg yolks with the sugar until pale and fluffy (hand or electric mixer; the choice is yours). (Don't let the sugar sit too long on top of the egg yolks or else a "skin" will form.) I used fancy Japanese eggs, hence the beautiful orange color. You can use free range or organic eggs as well - I would recommend doing so for this gelato in order to do justice to the expensive vanilla bean!

Heat vanilla/milk/cream mixture gently in a saucepan until bubbles appear around the edges. Don't let it boil or curdle!

Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Pour carefully into the egg/sugar mixture, whisking all the while (you can use hand whisk or electric mixer). Don't worry if small lumps form - you can strain these out later.

Return the entire mixture to the saucepan and under a low heat, stir constantly until you get a custard sauce-like consistency (i.e. should be thick and viscose enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon). Take off heat immediately. Strain into a bowl (you want to keep the black vanilla bits but not any egg custard lumps/skin) and cover; chill until cool (2-3 hours or overnight).

Freeze in ice-cream maker, then place in freezer to harden. If the gelato is too hard, you can "ripen" or soften it slightly by placing it in the fridge for 30 minutes before serving.

Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com

Chong Fat Restaurant (Chiu Chow cuisine)

2010-09-10T18:19:00.002+08:00

A famous Chiuchow restaurant in Kowloon City, Hong Kong

Chocolate - vanilla marbled Madeira cake

2010-09-10T17:46:00.002+08:00

I'd been looking for a good basic sponge cake recipe for a while, and this one came out perfect (not too heavy/dense, not too dry, not too oily). I might try it in decorated layer cakes as the base sponge.

Recipe: http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/607037

Meringue

2010-09-08T16:05:00.001+08:00

Egg whites + sugar + heat. Simple is beautiful.

Dinner at Caprice, 3 Michelin starred French restaurant (Hong Kong)

2010-08-16T14:41:00.003+08:00

Jon and I had dinner at Caprice, the 3-star French restaurant at the Four Seasons Hong Kong on August 14 (this past Saturday). I didn't bring my camera so no photos of the food, so I'm listing the food below so that we remember what we ate! :)

Free amuse-bouche:
Baked cheese puffs (a bit like a round bite-sized cheesy eclair). It was so light it was like eating cheesy air. Really yummy. I also liked it how the server called them cheese puffs instead of going the French route (gougères au fromage).

Free appetizer
Trio plate: 1) jamon serrano with cantaloupe and crispy cracker, 2) I can't remember any more, and 3) a little cup with eggplant mousse and tomato granita on top. It was all good. I remember the crispy cracker and the eggplant mousse being especially good. The eggplant mousse was light and airy and flavorful - not salty but full of eggplant flavor. The granita was a bit too sweet to my liking, I would have preferred a stronger fresh tomato flavor.

Bread basket:
Normally there's not much to say about the bread basket but I had to make a special mention of their bread, which was fantastic. Best bread I've had in HK (not that that's saying much). But the sourdough mini-boule, the black olive bread and everything was so perfectly done I'd go back just for the bread.

Appetizers:
Jon had Vendéen Frog's Legs with Spanish Risotto and Iberico Ham in Chervil Sauce. It was amazing. Crispy coated frog's legs were like mini chicken drumsticks and the risotto was amazing.

I ordered the Steamed Duck Foie Gras with Saffron Fennel, Liquorice and Orange Blossom Foam. Very creative and interesting, the foie gras flavor was more smooth without the caramelized coating you get from the usual pan-searing treatment. Not sure I would order again though as I'm a huge fan of the crispy bits, but that's just a personal preference.

Main course

Jon ordered Poitou Lamb en Croûte de Sel with Black Olive Polenta and Vegetable Tian in Brown Nut Jus. The lamb fillet came to the table in a pastry crust (i.e. en croûte) and the server cut it out before serving. It was a substantial size and very tender. The polenta was delicious (not dry or mealy at all) and might have been chargrilled.

I ordered Suckling Pig Rack with Carbonara Conchiglie and Fondant Zucchini in Sage Jus. I think they had amazing gravy - not too salty and perfectly balanced thickness and flavors (or as my server called it "natural pig jus"). Jon was impressed by the quality of their pasta (it was rather good!) but I fell in love with their fondant zucchini. Think of a very light, cheesy creamed spinach but using perfectly-cooked, melt-in-your-mouth zucchini. Yum! The pork was also perfecty cooked, juicy and tender and lightly seasoned.

Apparently a lot of their meat is imported from France and elsewhere in Europe. It may not be environmentally responsible or supporting local producers etc, but it tasted really unique and delicious - you can't get it anywhere else in Hong Kong

Free dessert & chocolate plate:
The restaurant also provides free chocolate plate and desserts.

I'll start with the dessert: 1) peach jelly (with some alcohol?) with crushed biscuits and with some sort of sabayon (?) on top. Totally amazing. It came in a skinny shotglass in a small glass cup, which the server filled with dry ice. A bit 80s but the effect was cool and it kept the dish chilled.

The chocolate plate consisted of four different items: 1) milk chocolate square. Nice. 2) can't remember. 3) pistachio-encrusted marshmallow with a mango or something mousse on top, 4) dark chocolat square (Jon didn't like this one so much).

Desserts:
Jon ordered a peach dish that I can't find the description of on the restaurant website. It was pretty good though.

I had Marinated Raspberry with Pistachio Mousse, Light Génoise and Lemon Yoghurt Ice Cream. It was so good. I loved the giant fresh raspberries (I did wonder though if they were just Driscolls), and the pistachio mousse and lemon yoghurt ice cream was very well executed - not too sweet / sour, allowing the natural flavours to come through, and creamy without being heavy.

Wines:
2006 Côte Rôtie (not sure of which vineyard, Jon chose it); Jon also had a French dessert wine (forgot the name). The French sommelier was young but he was enthusiastic, chatty and definitely knew his stuff.

Comments:
The food is pretty amazing (especially for Hong Kong), and the staff are friendly but not intrusive. However some of them seemed a bit unsure of themselves at times (especially for a 3 Michelin star establishment!). Some of that may be due to the language barrier - the local staff, while bilingual in Chinese and English, can create unintended smiles (e.g. pig jus?). However everyone is smiling and sincere so that's just a minor note.

The food is creative and very well executed. The unlimited bread basket was also very good - difficult to stop ourselves from eating it all!

The open kitchen provides some entertainment as well. The temperature, music and lighting of the room is carefully managed - no air-con blasting here and the music is muted but audible, allowing conversation (bossa nova was playing the night we went). If you can get a window seat (which we did), it is definitely a treat to watch the sun go down on Victoria harbour.

http://www.fourseasons.com/hongkong/dining/caprice/

Shortbread/butter cookies

2010-06-06T01:04:00.002+08:00

Recipe adapted from several that I found online.

Ingredients:

A:
170g butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

B:
1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp salt

Method:

Measure out A in a bowl, cream together until combined.
Measure and sift together B.
Add B to A and mix until combined. Shape into a ball (don't overmix or the butter will melt and go all gross and greasy) and place in a generous square of clingfilm. Loosely fold over with clingfilm and then flatten the ball into a disk.
Freeze for 30 minutes (freezing it helps solidify the butter so that the cookie will keep its shape when baked).
Preheat oven to 180 C.
Take dough out of freezer; unwrap. Roll out so that it's about 1/2 inch thick or so. Cut out with cookie cutters or cut using knife into desired shape.
Place on ungreased baking sheet.
If your dough got soft and warm, it's better to chill the raw cookies in the fridge again if possible for a bit so that the cookies retain their shape when baked. Unfortunately my fridge wasn't bit enough so some of the later cookies lost their shape a bit. (My oven is also only 1/4 size of a conventional home oven so I had to do two batches.)
Bake for about 20 minutes or until edges of cookies start to go golden brown.
Take out and let cool on baking sheet. Remove and store in airtight container.

Wedding lunch at the Peninsula hotel

2010-05-30T19:37:00.005+08:00

The Peninsula Hotel is the oldest and most historic hotel in Hong Kong, dating back to the heyday of the British colonial era here. The British surrendered to the Japanese here in 1941. More recently, a scene from the Batman Dark Knight movie was filmed on the hotel's rooftop helicopter pad. Also, the Felix bar was designed by Philippe Starck and is famous for its men's bathroom which have ceiling-to-floor glass overlooking the harbour.

I attended the wedding and lunch reception of a Cornell classmate here today. The menu was pretty good. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (though I did not take a photo of the lobster consommé, it was excellent too):

Mulled wine pear chocolate tart

2010-05-22T23:29:00.006+08:00

This is a layered tart, only the second tart I've ever made (the first was a free-form French apple tart last week, post to come). It was inspired by a similar tart made by Tamami-san, an amazing Japanese lady baker in London (originally inspired by another tart in a book about chocolate).

The layers of this tart are:

pears poached in mulled red wine (sliced and arranged to look like a rose or chrysanthemum)
chocolate ganache
chocolate pie crust

Layer 1 - Mulled wine poached pear: 1 bottle of wine, 1 sachet of mulling spices, several medium to large-sized pears, halved and cored. Bring wine and mulling spices to a boil, then simmer pears for about 20-30 minutes depending on the size of your pears. Don't let your pears become mushy otherwise you'll have trouble slicing them thinly. Take out the pears and let cool. Reserve about a bit the mulled wine for making the glaze later (feel free to drink some hot too!). If you reduce the wine even further, it would make a fantastic sauce to pour over vanilla ice cream to eat with this tart :)

Layer 2 - chocolate ganache filling:

100g good dark chocolate (70% min. cacao solids) , break up the squares, don't put the whole bar in one huge chunk!
100ml cream (can use British double cream but I used Paul's Australian heavy UHT whipping cream but unwhipped, I heard you can use butter or condensed milk instead but the flavor won't be as complex)
a 2-inch square knob of butter (this makes the ganache more glossy)
tablespoon of Marsala wine (optional), I guess you could use sherry or other sweet alcohol if you wanted :)

Adapted from a recipe on the Scharffen Berger website. Melt all of this together in a small pan over a pot of simmering water. Mix until melted and combined (keep stirring! there will be a moment when the cream and choc suddenly come together and no longer be chocolate bits bobbing about in cream; it's a beautiful thing to behold)

Layer 3 - chocolate pie crust (makes 2)
I followed Nigella's chocolate tart crust in the raspberry chocolate tart recipe from How to be a domestic goddess but I was too lazy to bake blind or to bother with all that covering with tin foil and using baking beans, so my crust came out a little crumbly and graham-cracker crust like instead of smooth pastry, but that was OK with me. Still tasty! :)

175g plain flour
30g cocoa powder (I used Cadbury's in the orange tin, nothing fancy)
50g sugar (I used raw cane sugar instead of white because that's what I had on hand)
1/4 tsp salt
125g unsalted butter
1 large egg yolk
1 tbsp iced water

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cut up the butter into small cubes and add into the bowl until the mixture looks crumbly. I don't have a food processor so I rubbed in the butter as if I were making crumble topping. Beat the egg yolk and iced water together. Add to the bowl.

Turn out the mixture and form two flattish disks. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge until hard. Take out of fridge, roll out to slightly larger than the tart tin. Fit into tart tin (the ones with removable bases are great). Pastry dough is fragile but it's easy to patch up the holes!

Freeze the whole thing for at least 30 minutes until crust feels hard. Bake in a 180C oven for about 15 minutes. Take out and let cool completely before removing from tin (since the crust has so much butter, there's no need to grease the tin and it should come out easily).

Assembly: After baking the pie crust by itself in the oven, I poured in the cooled room-temp chocolate ganache and let it set in the fridge for a further hour or so (more won't hurt). When the ganache filling has hardened, take it back out. Slice the poached pears thinly and then arrange as desired on top.

Serve slightly chilled, with some good vanilla ice cream. Mulled wine sauce is also a distinct (and highly recommended) possibility.

Yaki-onigiri (Grilled rice balls) 焼きおにぎり

2010-02-21T19:50:00.004+08:00

Equipment: Short-grain Japanese rice (or risotto rice), soy sauce, non-stick pan, clingfilm/glad wrap, oil (may be optional), rice cooker (optional), mirin (optional), sesame seeds (optional)

More about yaki-onigiri at Momofuku for 2 or else you can Google it, there are plenty of sites out there discussing the various methods available.

Rice must be freshly made and warm so that it adheres and holds its structure when shaped.

Clingfilm is a great cheat, so the rice does not stick to your hands.

Lightly oil the plate, gently flip the onigiri so that it has a slight coating of oil. This will help when grilling the onigiri.

Only soy sauce is strictly necessary.

Grill lightly over low heat until a crust forms. Flip.

Brush the first (crispy) side with soy sauce. Be gentle so the onigiri does not fall apart.

Keep flipping, brushing and grilling until beautifully crispy and golden.

Eat. Goes well with beer or sake.

Bailey's chocolate raspberry torte

2010-02-21T16:14:00.004+08:00

This delicious torte was not made by me, but Jon on Valentine's day as part of a 4-course dinner (the other courses were wild mushroom salad, stuffed garlic spinach portobello mushrooms, and baked penne).

The torte was made in a 9-inch baking pan with Cadbury's cocoa powder, topped with fresh raspberries and mint, and then drenched in Bailey's mint Irish Cream. Just the thing to win a girl's heart! ;)

Here is a similar recipe (minus fresh mint leaves) for you to try.

Chicken marsala dinner with rosemary potatoes and Parmesan peas

2010-02-21T15:38:00.005+08:00

We stayed in last night for dinner. It was cold outside, and we didn't feel like moving much. I had bought a bottle of Marsala wine yesterday on an impulse, as I had seen it on a supermarket shelf, which is something I'd never seen before - Marsala seems to be quite hard to find here in Hong Kong. Anyway, I love the rich umami flavour that Marsala adds to meats, and I had some frozen boneless chicken thighs in the freezer, plus a few leftover mushrooms and shallots, so voila, chicken Marsala dinner. For the sides, we had leftover white rice, plus roasted potatoes and peas - i.e., the ingredients I had on hand in the kitchen!

Chicken Marsala recipe: I followed the Smitten Kitchen recipe but modified it. I didn't measure the ingredients exactly (just going by instinct instead) except for the Marsala as I didn't want it to end up too winey or too weak. Here's my shorthand instructions:

1. Defrost chicken in a bowl or Tupperware container, dump some salt and black pepper on and flip them until seasoning is coated. I used metal tongs (as in picture).
2. Melt butter to coat the bottom of your dish (I used the glass Pyrex dish for cooking and serving)
3. Brown chicken (don't cook all the way through, you will add the chicken back in later) and take back out. Set aside.
4. In the same pan, using the melted butter/chicken juices, fry sliced mushrooms (white or brown button is fine) and thinly sliced shallots (I used this instead of the onion called for in the SK recipe as I wanted to use up my shallots) until soft.
5. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup (or more depending on preference) of Marsala wine, stir into the onion-mushroom-butter sauce, and wait til it evaporates. Add back chicken and turn down heat slightly. Flip chicken occasionally until done, making sure it doesn't stick to bottom of the dish and burn.
6. Taste, adding more butter/salt/pepper as needed, and then serve immediately.

This is a rich and flavourful dish so best to serve it with some plain carbs to soak up the sauce. I used white rice, but crusty bread or plain pasta would go with this too.

Sides:

Potatoes
I diced one baking potato, skin-on, (we had a lot of chicken and also rice, so only one for 2 people, otherwise I would do one potato per person), and blanched the cubes in some boiling water for a couple of minutes to remove some of the starch. Then I put the cubes in the roasting pan and added extra virgin olive oil, rosemary, and teaspoon of salt. I tossed the mixture so that the potatoes were thoroughly coated, and then baked until golden crispy brown in a 220 Celcius oven.

Peas
I adapted this from a Jamie Oliver recipe. Basically I used frozen peas, heated until soft, tossed in good extra virgin olive oil, a little fresh mint, and then added shaved Parmesan and shredded Mozarella to the mixture. Before serving, sprinkle with some grated/cracked black pepper.

No-knead bread

2009-10-28T10:55:00.009+08:00

I finally got onto the no-knead bread bandwagon and made my first decent loaf of bread! It smelled a bit too yeasty for my liking, but I think that's because I left the dough for 24 hours instead of 12-18 as stipulated by the Jim Lahey recipe reported by Mark Bittman @ New York Times. In essence, though, I followed the Jim Lahey recipe.

It was an amazing loaf of bread for the minimal effort, though. It had nice holes, a great nutty-golden-brown crust, and that home-baked, country style aroma and texture to it. I'm going to practice this recipe and refine it so it's slightly less dense (wet) and less yeasty.

No kneading! No worrying about the rising! This is such a simple recipe.

Basically, you mix together flour, yeast, water and salt in a bowl (I used plastic).

Cover with clingfilm and put it in a warm dark area to sit for a while. I made this on a Monday night and put it overnight in my pantry, then as I left for work the next day I put it in the fridge so the rising process would slow down a bit (since I wouldn't get home 'til late Tuesday night).

When I got home Tuesday night, I pulled it out of the fridge and let it warm up a bit (to speed things up, I boiled some water in a kettle and put the bowl of dough next to it).

Then I floured the work surface, poured the dough onto it, and slapped it around for a few minutes, before transferring to a greased plastic bowl* to sit while preheating the oven to 450F/230C with the Le Creuset enamel ware pot that Jon bought as a birthday gift (thanks honey!). The Bittman recipe says to leave it for 2 hours for the second rise, but I was impatient and only waited 1/2 hour. The bread turned out OK but I think I'll try to leave for longer next time.

* NOT the floured dish towel that Lahey/Bittman specifies -- other people seem to have had problems with the dough sticking to the towel so I decided not to risk it. Using a towel doesn't seem to be strictly necessary for the recipe to work.

Then take the preheated pot out of the oven, remove lid, jiggle the dough into the pot, replace lid and place back in oven. Bake for 30 minutes with lid on, then another 20-30 minutes with lid off.

Take bread out of oven and let cool (this is important -- time is needed for the carbon dioxide caused by the yeast to escape)! I found that the bread came out of the enamel pot easily, it didn't need greasing, corn meal or other cheats.

Most important step: Eat with good butter and jam.

New York Cheesecake

2009-10-26T22:05:00.004+08:00

I've read many cheesecake recipes before and been intimidated by the idea of water baths, over-cooking, and various stories of woe, so it was only after much thought and trepidation, I finally made the leap and tried to make my very first cheesecake.

I followed Nigella Lawson's New York cheesecake recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess, combined with the Joy of Baking recipe. I whisked the egg whites as per Nigella's recipe, but the resulting cheesecake, while OK, was a bit too light and moussy for my liking (see above). I was looking for the wonderfully rich and dense texture of real New York cheesecake, so next time I think I'll try the Joy of Baking recipe which calls for whole eggs (i.e. without whisked whites).

The sides also stuck to the pan, and it was hard to get the cake out of the Springform tin. Nigella's recipe doesn't tell you to grease the pan, but I've seen others that do. I'm going to try greasing the pan next time.

My favourite places to eat in Hong Kong

2009-10-07T12:57:00.008+08:00

Here are some of my favourite places to eat in Hong Kong. It's a short list for now but I plan to add more once I decide which other places are worthy of recommendation. Suggestions also very welcome. You can probably tell from this list below that I'm quite a cheap person when it comes to food, except for occasional splurges. Actually, it's just that I'm not big into the expensive food in Hong Kong (shark fin, bird's nest, abalone) but I am crazy for street food and cheap eats.

(No photos here, but please click on the link to visit the restaurant's page on Openrice.com, where there are reviews and photos.)

Updated November 7, 2010

For a Special Occasion:

The Peak Lookout (The Peak) - A wonderful colonial-style restaurant with outdoor garden terrace with a nice view of the south side of Hong Kong Island. They have an international menu, with great BBQ/grilled items, Asian food, oysters/seafood, wines, desserts, and even cigars. A full 3-course dinner with wine/cigars comes to approximately US$100 per person. Don't get suckered into going to the much larger, noisier and equally pricey Cafe Deco across the road. The Peak Lookout is worth it because it's wonderfully romantic, the food and service are superb, and you can create lifelong memories here. Great to come here with that special someone. My boyfriend's still talking about the oysters one month after we ate there!
Caprice (Four Seasons Hotel, Central) - See this post for a review of our dinner at this 3-Michelin starred French restaurant.
Runner up: The Verandah (Repulse Bay) - Colonial style dining with fine food overlooking the beach.

For a real taste of Hong Kong:

Australia Dairy Company (Jordan) - Don't say I didn't warn you. This place is always packed, the lines are long (but move fast), the waiters are brisk almost to the point of rudeness, food comes within 60 seconds of ordering... definitely not a place to linger. However, it has the absolute best scrambled eggs that you'll ever have. Seriously. They are super fluffy and tasty on the cafe's thick white bread. Breakfast, all-day and tea sets include various combinations of fried/scrambled egg with toast, ham/BBQ pork with macaroni/spaghetti in soup, and tea/coffee/Horlicks/Ovaltine. You'll be in and out in less than 15 minutes and for under US$5.
Fantastic Ladies Cafe (Tuen Mun) - Fusion Italian place run by a local charity as a social enterprise. The restaurant and kitchen are staffed by workers both young and old who have difficulty finding gainful employment. The restaurant provides training and income to workers in this industrial, slightly run-down part of Hong Kong. It's way out in the suburbs but if you are in the area, make sure to check this place out, if only for the cute decor. The food is quite good too and reasonably priced, and very Hong Kong in taste (pork chop with tomato sauce and pasta; spicy seafood chili pasta stir-fry and more). Meals are about US$5-10 for pastas, rice dishes, etc.
Kau Kee (Central) - Famous beef brisket noodle place. Local celebrities come here. It (in)famously closes for cleaning and staff dinner every day during prime dinner time (7:15-8:30pm). Try the curry brisket and tendon with e-fu noodles, or the brisket in plain stock with noodles. About US$4.50 for brisket noodles and a soft drink/iced tea.

Favourite summer restaurant:

The Stoep (Cheung Sha, Lantau) - right next to beautiful, uncrowded Lower Cheung Sha Beach, this restaurant supposedly serves South African cuisine but really it's just a mix of good home-baked bread (try the Farmhouse loaf) and dips (eggplant and feta/dill dips are recommended), some BBQ/grilled items and pasta. Nothing too exciting and the price is not that cheap. However, with a wonderful view like that, it makes the food much better. Go there after swimming in the sea or lying on the beach. About US$20-30 per person for a full meal depending on what you order.

Favourite after-work dinner spot:

Cenacolo (SoHo) - solid, reasonably priced Italian restaurant with friendly (real friendly, not fake-friendly) staff. Their pastas are very good. Book ahead, especially weekday lunch and all day weekends. They have a 2 course lunch set w/coffee or tea for less than US$15 (including service). They are open until 11pm, so feel free to go for dinner late. Great if you have to work late!
Four Seasons Claypot Rice (Yaumatei) - Claypot rice is essentially rice with various toppings cooked in a clay casserole dish over an open flame. It's a staple winter dish but this place offers it all year round. You can choose various versions such as chicken with mushroom, preserved sausage and salted meat, pork ribs, etc. which come on top of the rice. Fried oyster pancakes are also available. No drinks are served, not even water, so remember to head over to the corner store to buy soft drinks/beer, etc. before you eat. About US$4 for a claypot rice dish.
Jun Yakitori (Tsimshatsui) - Best grilled onigiri in Hong Kong. Seriously. Also serves great grilled skewer items and home-style Japanese food (e.g. stewed beef and potatoes). Good place to hang out, drink beer/sake, and eat good food in a casual setting with friends. Note that this place is really small and seats are wooden. The walls also have 20+ years of customer graffiti in Sharpie pen.
Ishiyama (Causeway Bay) - Hidden in a nondescript commercial building, this is one of my favourite places in Hong Kong, not just Japanese places. A bit pricey but it has good, solid Japanese fare. Sashimi, nabes (hotpots), yaki-soba, grilled items, etc. Their cold marinated tofu is really good.
Akira Kushiyaki (Causeway Bay). Hidden down a side street, this Japanese skewer place does the traditional skewers done up with a contemporary flair and a light, sure touch. I recommend the kurobuta and negi (Japanese black pork and leek), the grilled cod skewers, and basically everything on their menu. :)

Favourite lunch spots:

Yachiyo Ramen (Central) - best shoyu ramen in town. Remember to order an extra side of soy sauce-marinated soft-boiled eggs. Ramen is about US$8.

Snacks and nibbles (Hong Kong is all about street food, so here are a few favorites):

Hot dogs @ Wing Lok Yuen (Central) - not US hot dogs. These are those skinny Dutch sausages (try the double dog - two dogs, one bun), placed inside a toasted white bun and slathered with a gallon of mayo. I exaggerate about the mayo, but not much. Cost: about US$1 for a hot dog.
Cart noodles @ Sun Kee Spicy Cart Noodles (Causeway Bay) - cart noodles are part of Hong Kong's cultural heritage. Originally they were sold by vendors pushing carts around the city. It is a pick-and-mix operation: you choose the type of noodle and the toppings you want. At Sun Kee, if you like spicy food, go for the spicy broth base, otherwise stick with plain. I like the plain noodles, but there are rice noodles and flat noodles too. As for toppings, Sun Kee's spicy and soy-sauce items are famous. I love the spicy pig's blood, chives, soy sauce pig intestine, soy sauce chicken wing, and others. If you're less adventurous, there are plenty of safer options such as fishballs, sliced beef, etc. Just under US$4 for a bowl of noodles and 3 toppings. US$0.90 per topping/noodle. (So noodle + 3 toppings is US$3.60)
Best US-style pizza in town @ Paisano's. Unfortunately this secret is no longer a secret, with Time Out calling it the best pizza in Hong Kong, which now means you have to endure lines, an hourlong wait for a pizza and sometimes even a slice, and hassled/bad service. Still, worth a try on weekends or during off-peak hours. Otherwise, call ahead and be prepared to wait (this applies for takeout too).

Honey roasted chicken with tomato, potato and onion

2009-09-28T22:19:00.006+08:00

I am sorry that I am continuing this photo-less streak but I was so hungry I ate a huge chunk of the chicken and Tupperwared the rest already by the time I remembered! Even with no photo, I wanted to record the recipe so I can file it away for future use. :)

During high school, there was a lot of absolutely scrumptious food in the school dining hall. It's funny to think that school food could be good, but my friends and I ate like elephants during those years in England. Bread and butter pudding, chicken and mushroom pie, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, chicken fricasée with rice, ratatouille with baked potato, smoked mackerel and salad – we ate it all. The dining hall cooks loved us, because we always went up for seconds.Now, over 10 years later, we just reminisce nostalgically about all the good food we used to eat back then.

I had a sudden urge to recreate a particular dish that I hadn't had in years, ever since I left Malvern. It was served back then as chicken legs roasted in a tray with a chunky tomato sauce that was chock-ful of tomatoes and onions. The chicken was always sweet and crispy with the taste of honey and butter, so when I recreated it last weekend, I used a healthy amount of honey to rub over the chicken and also mixed in the tomato sauce mix. It turned out amazing. I also added potatoes (not in the school version) and that was great too; however it is fine without potato and served with penne or rice.

The only thing you have to watch out for is for the chicken to blacken too soon due to the honey rub - but the crispy chicken skin (even when black) is pretty amazing stuff!

The great thing about this roast chicken is that it can serve 2 people nicely, or else you can reserve the chicken breasts and sauce to go with pasta the next day, and the leftovers (bones, neck, feet, any leftover tomatoes) will make a nice tomato chicken soup as well. It's pretty economical and efficient.

Ingredients

1 whole chicken (or legs, drumsticks, wings, etc.)
1 small can tomato paste
A large handful of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half (or else a couple of diced large tomatoes would work too)
1 large onion
4-5 cloves garlic (or more!)
3-4 (or more) par-boiled new potatoes, baking potatoes or any potatoes you have left over
Herbs and spices that you want (I put 2 bay leaves, a bit of oregano, rosemary, cumin, black pepper, sea salt)
Real butter or olive oil
Honey (cheap honey such as for BBQ is fine)

Preheat oven to about 220 Celcius (425 F).
Rinse and pat dry chicken. Rub all over with sea salt. Place a couple pats of butter inside skin underneath the chicken breast (this is optional if you have a good organic/free range chicken). Drizzle a light coating of honey over the chicken, rub in to make sure it evenly coats the chicken. Place in a roasting pan (make sure there's room to put all the other stuff) and set aside.
Chop up tomatoes, potatoes, onion, garlic (no need to peel garlic completely if you're lazy, the final silver layer of skin is fine to be kept on). In a large bowl, mix all these with the can of tomato paste (may need to add a bit of water), herbs, and at least 1/3 cup honey, if not more.
Spoon the tomato sauce mixture into the roasting pan around the chicken (or underneath the chicken if there's not enough room). Feel free to add an additional bay leaf inside the cavity of the chicken. Also, put a couple dabs of butter (or generous squirt of olive oil) on top of the tomato sauce mixture if you want.
Place the roasting pan into the oven, cook for about an hour, but check it every so often to see if it's done. Usually I find that the chicken is done in just over an hour depending on the size of the bird. (Use a meat thermometer or just poke it in the thigh to see if it's still red. I normally cook chicken for me and my boyfriend only, so presentation is not that important. I just cut open the chicken at the thigh joint to see if it's done there. If it is all white, then it's ready!)

RIP Keith Floyd, British TV chef and bon-vivant

2009-09-17T13:30:00.002+08:00

The Guardian newspaper remembers Keith Floyd's best TV moments

Keith Floyd was the flamboyant, charming gentleman who traversed the world, cooking weird and wonderful dishes in improbable outdoor settings - on a yacht, in a field, on a mountain. And all with his impeccable dry wit and never without a (very) generous glass of red wine in his hand. They don't make 'em like that any more.

Grilled Pineapple with cinnamon and honey

2009-09-16T17:16:00.004+08:00

A farewell to the summer of 2009. What a summer it's been, with junk (aka boat) trips, BBQs (indoor and outdoor), several beach trips, a road trip in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and last but most importantly, a lot of lovely warm sunny days spent outdoors.

On Monday there was a typhoon that swept through Hong Kong, shutting down offices and schools. I got off work early, and bought a pineapple at the supermarket below my house. It was the very first time that I had ever bought a whole pineapple in my life. I think it was a momentous occasion! :p

This is a very simple and popular recipe that was inspired by License to Grill with Robert Rainford on the Asian Food Channel.

Grilled Pineapples

Fresh whole pineapple (skin removed, cored and cut into large slices)
Honey (or you could use brown sugar or other sugar if you prefer)
Cinnamon (though I suppose you could also add other spices such as ginger, nutmeg, etc but I like to keep it simple)

Set the oven to its highest setting (grill).
Place pineapple chunks/slices onto a roasting tray (as if you were roasting potatoes: don't overlap the slices)
Drizzle honey all over; turn to coat.
Sprinkle cinnamon on top and use a wooden spoon or other utensil to flip the pineapple over so both sides have a good honey and cinnamon coating.
Place in oven. Check occasionally, it should take about 20 minutes for the pineapple to go golden and bubbly. Don't worry if there are some black "burnt" bits on the edges where the sugar has caramelized -- it will be nicely sweet and crunchy!
When the pineapple is golden brown, with a few dark edges, taken them out of the oven to cool slightly.
Eat as is (don't burn your tongue!) or with vanilla ice cream.

Yum!

Dinner for an invalid (Cream of leek & pancetta soup; mashed potatoes)

2009-07-15T00:01:00.003+08:00

Jon was not feeling well today, so after work, I went over to make a comfort food/easy-to-digest dinner. I had some vague idea of making a vegetable consommé, but after a quick check of the supermarket shelves to see what was on sale, I decided to make something else (also, it was a long day at work, I didn't feel up to waiting for the chicken/pork bones to turn into stock).

Unfortunately, I was already out when the brilliant idea of cooking dinner occurred to me, so I didn't have any recipes to refer to, but both dishes are pretty basic and don't really need a recipe, just guidelines so you are on the right track. I remembered vaguely how to make mashed potatoes and also how to make a cream soup from watching others or Internet, so decided to have a whack at making my own.

The beauty of the two dishes is that they can cook side by side, and also use many of the same ingredients. The disadvantage is that there may be a bit of taste "overlap" between the two dishes, but since it is comfort food, I guess it is OK if it's not a proper 3-course meal!

What I bought:

3 Japanese-style long leeks, sliced thinly at a slanted angle
2 organic tomatoes (unused in the end)
2 zucchini (unused in the end, will probably go into a pasta dish with the tomatoes in the near future)
1 packet of diced raw pancetta (Italian dry cured pork belly - on sale, it was cheaper than the bacon I had originally planned to get)
1 small carton of UHT cream
1 nylon string bag of new potatoes

What I made:

Cream of leek, pancetta and potato soup
- Heat the pancetta bits in a pot. When a bit of pork fat comes out, add in the sliced leeks. Sweat them until leeks are translucent (maybe 10 minutes). Add a bit of water if the leeks stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Add in water (eyeball it, if not sure, better to add in less and then add in more at the end to get the consistency and taste you want) and simmer until leeks are falling apart or as preferred (about 10 minutes?).
- Sprinkle in some herbs as desired, such as bay leaf or basil (optional)
- Add in most of the cream (set some aside for the mashed potatoes) and stir quickly; then turn off stove right away and let soup sit for a few minutes before serving.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Creamy mashed potatoes
- While leeks are sweating (above), put new potatoes in a pot of water, bring to a boil.
- Turn off stove, you can let the potatoes sit in the hot water for a bit if you are busy with making the soup.
- Drain most of the water from the pot, leave a bit to keep potatoes moist.
- Smash/Mash potatoes with a masher, add a bit of water if necessary to "unstick" potato bits from the masher (but be sparing, as the cream will be added later). I prefer slightly lumpy potatoes so I would never use a ricer, but be my guest.
- Throw in some chopped bits of the tops of the Japanese leek from the soup (finely, finely chopped) into the potato mash and stir.
- Add in cream until the mashed potato is as creamy as you like.
- Season with salt (and pepper if you want) to taste, and serve piping hot.

Note: The soup goes very well either by itself, with bread, or poured over the mashed potatoes. I mixed the leftover mashed potatoes into the soup so that the soup leftovers would be a thicker, more chowder-like soup rather than the original light cream soup (this was mainly because I was lazy and did not want to use additional Tupperware containers). You can refrigerate leftovers for several days, but I guess you could also stick it into the freezer for up to a month (if not more).

Macarons au Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon

2009-06-15T20:55:00.007+08:00

Jon was working late tonight, so I decided to treat myself to a picnic dinner from Le Salon de Thé de Joël Robuchon, the café/boulangerie/pâtisserie (i.e. cheaper version) of l'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. Robuchon is perhaps the most famous chef in the world, and the most Michelin-starred. I'm saving up and dreaming of a meal at l'Atelier*, but in the meantime, Le Salon de Thé will have to suffice. In truth, the prices at the Salon are very reasonable. HK$12 (US$1.5) for a croissant, HK$45 (US$5.75) for a ham and Emmental cheese baguette sandwich, HK$8 (US$1) per macaron.

Verdict?

Croissant was luxuriously buttery and flaky, but nothing special from other premium bakeries in town.

The sandwich could have benefitted from toasting, as the baguette was chewy rather than crusty, but the complex taste of the bread redeemed it. It might have been also because it was the end of the day, and the bread was not as fresh. I didn't mind too much, but I do wonder if Robuchon should be held to a higher standard due to his Michelin-starred reputation?

Macarons...oh, my, goodness. I fell in love with these at first bite. The outside shells are perfectly decent - full of almondy sweetness, but it is the filling where Robuchon excels. Instead of a heavy ganache, the macarons are filled with the lightest and most fragrant of buttercreams. The salted caramel macaron sent a shiver down my spine. It is so rare that food stops me in my tracks; it was like experiencing a religious revelation, - and I've had good macarons before, from many places, including Maison du Chocolat in Paris, and Pierre Hermé. This was something extraordinary. Amazing. My favourites were the passion fruit & chocolate, salted caramel, and rose flavoured ones. In my feeding frenzy, I only managed to take photos of the final two macarons (I ate 8 in one sitting. They're really bite-sized jewels.)

* Of the various celebrity chef restaurants in Hong Kong, Robuchon's is the only one which I am truly interested in (i.e. the only one I would save up to eat at; I wouldn't turn my nose up at invitations to the others, though!). Spoon by Alain Ducasse is a bit too avant-garde for me (I'm paying a premium for the chef's creativity and originality; I don't expect a pick-and-mix system) and Nobu, well, though I love Japanese cuisine, I'm not a big fan of fusion.

Sift dessert bar

2009-06-13T00:21:00.006+08:00

Sift is a popular dessert bar in SoHo, Hong Kong. It only serves desserts and drinks; its specialties are chocolate desserts. Pictured above is the Sift chocolate cake. It has chocolate ganache, chocolate sponge, dark chocolate coating, and crushed French crispy crepes (crêpes dentelles de Bretagne). It was so decadent, but it was so smooth that you savored every lingering taste on your tongue.

This was my second visit to Sift. I first visited about a year ago and was very impressed by the desserts. In particular, the Sift chocolate cake, with its delicious crushed crispy crepes dentelles had me dreaming for days afterwards...

I went back this week with some friends. We sat at the bar this time, where we could see the food being prepared (recommended as it's a fascinating process), but last time we sat outside, which is nice when the weather is cooler. It reminds me of New York.

The only question I would have is why the menu seemed almost exactly the same one year later. It would be good to keep the signature desserts (chocolate cake), but it would be nice to have some other choices beside chocolate and strawberries -- perhaps green tea, chestnuts, lavender, apricot, dates, almonds, pistachios...some more adventurous choices would be appreciated. Chocolate and berries are nice, but to be truly innovative! Sift has not yet shown that much creativity. Good presentation does not equal creativity.

Sift
46 Graham Street, Central, Hong Kong

Cinnamon rolls with cream cheese glaze

2009-05-13T22:56:00.006+08:00

When my family used to live in Vancouver, my father and brother adored Cinnabon. I also loved the warm, sweet delicious smells that came from the Cinnabon store whenever walking past it in the mall. The intimidating size - big as my two fists put together - and the sheer amount of frosting on each bun always overwhelmed me, and I never actually ate one. I was just content to sniff and inhale the warm, spicy-sweet smells of cinnamon and bread while the others would devour the giant buns.

In Hong Kong, there is no Cinnabon, and as far as I know, no real place to get cinnamon rolls. After my so-so success with the bread rolls, I suddenly had a craving for cinnamon rolls. I spent an obscene amount of time looking at cinnamon roll recipes online. I even begged for one from an old high school classmate, Nadia, who got her aunt's "super-secret" recipe. In the end, I used a combination of Nadia's aunt's recipe and one by Molly Wizenberg (aka Orangette) in Bon Appétit magazine.

Also, this time I used instant yeast instead of active dry yeast, which I'd been using for my previous bread experiments. The taste is much better, less pungenty-yeasty, and more delicate and bread-fragrant.

The buns were accompanied by a cream cheese frosting, which was slightly tangier and more sour than sugar frosting, but I think it gave a richer, deeper flavour.

One point: I wouldn't recommend following the instruction in Molly Wizenberg's recipe to invert the rolls after baking onto a rack. I tried it, and the insides collapsed, and bits of cinnamon sugar fell out of my rolls. So just keep it in the pan until cool. No need for a cooling rack.

Here are some bits that fell out when I inverted the pan. They were still delicious!

Bread rolls

2009-04-29T23:15:00.008+08:00

I've recently finished a masters program (last week, to be exact), and one of the things on my "to do" list now that I've got more free time now was to get over my fear of baking things that involved yeast (i.e. bread). It sounds irrational, but the self-inflicted psychological pressure to make sure the bread rose seemed very challenging!

I took the plunge, and found out that actually the easiest thing about it is the rising - the yeast does the work for you! It's the kneading, the taste and inside crumb texture that are the harder things to tweak to one's satisfaction.

I have tried the French Bread Rolls to Die For recipe twice, with wildly different results each time.

The first time (also the very first time I'd ever cooked with yeast), the crumb was so dense, it was like eating a brick, or some very dry pumpernickel. I think I didn't knead it enough. :(

The second time, the results were much better, but the olive oil was still a bit overpowering and the sugar made the bread too sweet. I made sure to knead it for a full 10 minutes, so the crumb came out perfectly (I did it all by hand as I don't have a bread machine and I enjoy the feeling of kneading the dough, it's very therapeutic). However, the crust was still not crusty like proper French bread, even though I added a tray of water into the oven this time...maybe it's just the drawback of having a mini oven instead of a proper-sized one.

Anywhere, here are the results of my second attempt (I took photos of my first attempt, but can't seem to transfer files from my phone right now, so no joy):

Waiting for it to rise...

Rise, rise, little buns!

Turning a lovely golden brown~

Last bite.

It's got the lovely holes and lightness of texture that I'm looking for, but the taste was a bit off the mark. Still, not bad for my second-ever attempt at making bread. I think I am going on the hunt for a better recipe that makes less sweet and more crusty bread, though I'm not sure if I can achieve a French baguette with my small convection oven.

Trip to Hanoi, Vietnam

2009-02-24T22:54:00.011+08:00

I can't believe I forgot to post these photos earlier...they've been up on my Facebook for a while, though.

My boyfriend and I went to Hanoi for 4 nights over the Lunar New Year holiday in January. Unfortunately, what we didn't realize until after we booked the trip was that Vietnam also celebrates this holiday (called Tet over there) and that many stores would be shut...it was also bloody freezing, like 10-15 Celcius everyday, windy and grey.

I think we were a bit unprepared for the crazy traffic and incessant honking, too. Ah, well. We ate a lot of good food and walked around a lot. Hanoi is an amazing and beautiful city in terms of history, architecture, vibrancy and food. Next winter, it's definitely a bit of R-and-R at a nice sunny beach for us! Still, I'd like to go back to Vietnam sometime, visit Halong Bay and see the country when it's not half-shut-down for the annual vacances.

I took quite a lot of photos, and we did eat at a lot of places, but here are a few snapshots that I think turned out well. We had a drink at the bar in the Metropole (I had the Somerset Maugham cocktail, Jon had the Charlie Chaplin cocktail, but not the Graham Greene cocktail) and we also visited the famous Fanny's glacerie for some exotic ice cream (green tea, coconut, young rice..). We didn't visit the Beaulieu restaurant in the Metropole (too expensive) or the Bobby Chinn restaurant (heard mixed reviews).

Our first night in Hanoi. We arrived after dark, dishevelled and hungry. We had dinner at a streetside pho stand run by a taciturn middle-aged woman. Neither of us spoke Vietnamese, so we resorted to gestures and pointing. Cost of dinner? 20,000 dong for a fresh, steaming bowl of pho. (The going exchange rate was 17,000 dong to US$1 when we went.)

Jon's a real coffee addict, so in the morning, we went to try the real Vietnamese coffee. A bit gritty with coffee grounds, a bit too sweet with condensed milk - but boy, was it smooth and rich.

We ate a lot at streetside stands, squatting on tiny plastic stools that looked more for stepping on than sitting on. This lunch was from a restaurant in an alleyway near the big statue of Vladimir Lenin, and near the Hanoi Hilton.

Bánh cuốn (steamed rice rolls/crepes with pork, mushroom, spring onions) restaurant. It's like a variation of that staple Cantonese dim sum item, "cheung fun".

Close up of the Bánh cuốn. The one in the foreground had a whole steamed egg inside, silky and rich. It went well with the fish sauce, chili, lime and herbs. Yum.

We did try the infamous civet cat/weasel coffee. It was pretty strong and smooth, but cost about 40,000 dong (US$2.35) for a tiny cup of espresso, which is quite ridiculously expensive by Vietnamese standards (compared to 20,000 dong for a bowl of beef pho) - but in the US I heard it goes for US$30-60 a cup, a huge markup. To be honest, it tasted like a really smooth and rich espresso. Not poopy at all.

Using up leftovers for a weekday dinner

2009-02-22T14:40:00.008+08:00

2/19/2009 dinner.
Mission: use up left over wine, basil, grana padano cheese, squash, onion and garlic from 2/14 dinner.

I already had some arborio rice in my kitchen cupboard, so the only new item that I bought were the mussels from the supermarket below my apartment.

Nigella's risotto recipe from "How to Eat" inspired me, but I only used the liquid-rice ratios from it. I don't like to stick rigidly to recipe instructions, especially for non-baked dishes -- a bit of creativity makes cooking more exciting.

Round 1: Roasted butternut squash with honey and balsamic glaze

Round 2: Vegetable risotto, mushrooms, sugar snap peas

Round 3: New Zealand mussels with white wine, red onion, garlic, and basil.

Bananas Foster

2009-02-16T21:33:00.004+08:00

For Valentine's Day, my boyfriend cooked a 4-course dinner. :) We stayed at home this year, partly because we didn't want to deal with the crowds of people outside, and also because dinner at restaurants is always very expensive on Valentine's (and, in my opinion, a bit overpriced).

The menu:

Californian caponata (gorgonzola cheese eggplant dip)
Curried butternut squash soup
Mushroom eggplant lasagne
Bananas Foster

The other items didn't turn up too well on film, despite being yummy, so only I only uploaded the dessert photos. The bananas Foster were so simple, yet gorgeously rich and divine. Brown sugar, rum, cinnamon, banana liqueur, ripe bananas, paired with good vanilla ice cream. Delicious and simple. :)

Bananas Fosters recipe from Brennan's in New Orleans.

Roast chicken

2009-01-12T16:55:00.004+08:00

I was home sick today with the flu, so I decided to cook a nice lunch to cheer myself up. This is the first time I've roasted a whole chicken, and it turned out very well. I'm quite proud of myself :). It's so simple, I don't know why I was so intimidated by it before...

Organic local chicken rubbed with olive oil, salt, black pepper, dried rosemary (didn't have fresh on hand), and stuffed with half a lemon and several garlic cloves. Roasted in the oven at 190 Celcius for 50-60 minutes.

Served with honey roast parsnips and sage & onion stuffing (instant Paxo stuffing from the UK, just like I remember from boarding school! Yum!) & Bisto chicken gravy. This is really a nostalgia-inducing dish for me, as it is quite British.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

2009-01-10T23:11:00.003+08:00

I made these from a recipe I found online - they came out great! They're not too colorful in the photo (the pale lemon didn't really come out that well), but they're really delicious and addictive: very fragrant and moist, with a creamy lemon frosting. I'll definitely be making these again.

Lemon cupcake recipe
Lemon cream cheese frosting

Modern Toilet (a theme restaurant)

2008-12-22T13:49:00.003+08:00

The decor and utensils are all toilet-themed. Drinks come in urinals and food comes in toilet seats. Strictly for the young or adventurous.

Modern Toilet is a chain restaurant, originally from Taiwan. They have one franchised restaurant in Hong Kong.

Mongkok, Hong Kong

pinkberry frozen yoghurt (June 2008)

2008-12-22T13:46:00.004+08:00

pinkberry (original flavor)
There's nothing better on a hot summer's day!

2nd Avenue between 54th & 55th St
New York, USA

Ice cream desserts @ Rice Paper

2008-12-22T13:39:00.003+08:00

Clockwise from top left:
(1) sticky banana pudding with honeycomb ice cream and toffee sauce
(2) 3 scoops of homemade ice cream
(3) strawberry shortcake with strawberry sorbet

Desserts at Rice Paper (a contemporary Vietnamese restaurant)
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Glazed Krispy Kreme donuts

2008-12-22T13:37:00.003+08:00

RIP Krispy Kreme Hong Kong (2006-2008).
Where can I go now to eat artery-clogging, sickeningly-sweet fried goodness?

Garlic steamed shrimp

2008-12-22T13:33:00.003+08:00

Garlic and coriander steamed shrimp
Ming Yuen Restaurant
Sai Kung, Hong Kong

2008-12-22T13:32:00.002+08:00

Preserved pig's head
Nanjing Road, Shanghai, China

Sugar cane

2008-12-22T13:29:00.001+08:00

Raw chunks of sugar cane (chew them, suck the juice, and spit out the rest)
Shanghai, China

Burger and fries in China

2008-12-22T13:25:00.002+08:00

Room service at the Hilton Shanghai, China

Shanghai and Hangzhou (March 2008)

2008-11-29T10:17:00.005+08:00

My family's hometown is in Shanghai. Hangzhou is a daytrip by car away. It's one of the most beautiful cities in China, with the famous West Lake (of West Lake beef soup fame)

Cheung Chau Bun Festival (May 2007)

2008-11-29T10:12:00.005+08:00

More about the Cheung Chau Bun Festival here.

Cafe des Negociants (Geneva, Switzerland)

2007-06-19T08:01:00.002+08:00

Cafe des Negociants
Carouge, Geneva, Switzerland

Chocolate Pretz

2007-03-13T22:14:00.000+08:00

Bought at a convenience store in Guangzhou, China

Cocktail reception aboard the USS Ronald Reagan (March 7, 2007)

2007-03-13T21:56:00.000+08:00

Tea break

2007-03-13T21:41:00.000+08:00

Smoothie with rose petals

Steamed banana pudding with honeycomb ice cream and vanilla sauce

Rice Paper, a Vietnamese restaurant at Festival Walk mall, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong

Anmitsu

2007-01-13T21:50:00.000+08:00

December 26, 2006
Azabusabo Tokyo (Causeway Bay, Hong Kong)

Mos Burger

2006-12-24T08:50:00.001+08:00

Yakiniku (beef) rice burger
"Fresh" burger

Mos Burger official website

Family Dinner (Dec 23)

2006-12-24T08:42:00.001+08:00

Steamed white eel (Cantonese home-style)

Stir-fried pea shoots with garlic; cucumbers with sesame oil & soy sauce; poached white chicken

I <3 Cookies

2006-12-19T20:38:00.000+08:00

Chocolate Cranberry Shortbread

300g plain flour
200g butter (room temperature)
100g sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
pinch of salt
flavouring (3-4 tbsp cocoa powder, pinch of grated cinnamon & nutmeg)
cranberries for decoration

Preheat your oven to 190 Celcius. Prepare your cookie/baking sheet (line with baking paper).
Cream butter, sugar and salt in a bowl.
Sift flour into a separate bowl with cocoa powder, spices. Remove 1 tbsp flour and put back into box. Replace with 1 tbsp cornstarch.
Gently fold in dry ingredients (from step 3) into the wet ingredients (from step 2) until all the flour etc. is gone and you're left with a brown mixture. You will probably need to use your hands to knead the mixture into a dough.
Roll out on a floured surface and cut out shapes as desired using cookie cutters.
Place on tray. Decorate with cranberries.
Bake in oven for about 10 minutes (be careful because the chocolate colour makes it hard to see if the cookies are burning!!)

N.B. This recipe also works very well in a lemon-ginger varietion. Simply don't use cocoa powder and cinnamon/nutmeg -- substitute a dash of lemon juice and ginger powder. Use candied ginger in place of the cranberries. :) Bon Appétit et Joyeux Noël!

Christmas Shortbread Biscuits

2006-12-03T19:56:00.000+08:00

Christmas Shortbread Biscuits (Cranberry spiced shortbread) Recipe
(Makes approx. 12 cookies)

140g (1 cup) all-purpose flour
110g (1 stick) unsalted butter
40g (1/4 cup) icing sugar
1 rounded tsp cornstarch
2-3 drops almond essence
2-3 drops vanilla essence
1 pinch each of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, salt
dried cranberries (decoration)

Preheat oven to 260 Celcius
Cream butter, sugar and salt in one bowl. Add almond and vanilla essence.
In another bowl, sift flour, sugar, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
Fold dry mixture into wet until combined into a dough.
Roll out dough, use cookie cutter to cut out the shape you want. Place on lined baking sheet.
Decorate with cranberry on top.
Bake in oven (260 Celcius) for about 10 minutes or until golden.
Leave to cool. It should harden and become crunchy when cooled. Keeps for a couple of weeks in airtight container.

(American cup measurements are estimates only.)

Japan

2006-11-27T20:34:00.000+08:00

いただきます！ (Itadakimasu!)

A hot food vending machine (Shinjuku, Tokyo)

Japanese biscuits (Asakusa, Tokyo)

Mink whale meat (Tsukiji market, Tokyo)

"Toro" tuna (Tsujiki market, Tokyo)

Rice Pudding with Nutmeg, Lychees, Longans, Cinnamon and Graham Crackers

2006-11-26T15:45:00.000+08:00

Ingredients:

Carnoli or Arborio rice (i.e. the shortgrain kind used for paella/risotto)
Butter
Milk
Dried fruit (in this case I used dried Thai lychees and longans but I think figs, dates or apricots would work too)
Honey, nutmeg and cinnamon to taste
Graham cracker (store-bought)

Recipe:

Melt butter in pan over low heat.
Add rice (no need to wash or pre-soak); stir until coated in butter and semi-translucent (just as if you were making risotto).
Add milk until it covers the rice. Stir until liquid has been absorbed.
Repeat Step 3 until the rice is fluffy and looks like pudding (should take about 15-20 minutes).
If you're using fresh fruit, add it at the end; otherwise, if you're using dried, add it about 1/2-way through the cooking process.
When the rice is done and the dried fruit is plump and cooked, take it off the heat. Spoon into bowls, drizzle honey over it, grate some nutmeg and cinnamon as desired. Serve with graham crackers, ginger nut cookies, almond biscuits, or whatever takes your fancy. Best eaten curled up on a comfy sofa with a good book.

Roasted Chestnuts

2006-11-24T14:49:00.000+08:00

Salt Roasted Quail Eggs

2006-11-24T14:48:00.000+08:00

Lychees (Osmanthus Blossom type)

2006-11-24T14:44:00.000+08:00

Gummi Bears

2006-11-24T14:42:00.000+08:00

Giant Peach (from Japan)

2006-11-24T13:53:00.000+08:00

Chocolate Beads from La Maison de Chocolat (Paris)

2006-11-24T13:51:00.000+08:00

Fried Eggs and Baked Beans

2006-11-24T13:47:00.000+08:00