My Gastronomical Adventures

God's Greatest Gift

2007-05-02T16:17:00.000+08:00

I think pandan leaves are one of God's greatest gifts to man!It's like the coolest plant lar! You can use it in savoury dishes or desserts. You can even use it as a 'cupboard freshener' to chase the cockroaches away! Where can you find such stuff man! Chicken rice, nasi lemak, curries, tong sui, red bean soup... you name it... pandan can do it!Maybe cos i'm southeast asain, so i'm really into this fragrant green plant.

Made some pandan muffins on labour day. I used a recipe from Aunt Yochana again. However, i decided to give it a little twist. Instead of putting macadamia nuts into the muffin, i scooped at teaspoon of kaya in between the batter and baked it. Came out really good!! Smelling nice and all. But i tot i could have added some more kaya, nevertheless, i love the pandany and coconuty fragrence. Jeannie, Seng and pig pig had some too!!

They came out with the 'star' shape on top of the muffins cos the kaya broke through as the muffin was rising and created a sort of shape. Really cool.

Emmmmmmmm... will definately try again. with more kaya and coconut milk.

Strawberry Siao!

2007-04-23T16:33:00.000+08:00

Okie okie, i've got the strawberry craze. But don't you love them? They are so cute and colourful. Bright red with a burst of green at the top. Emmm... and have you eaten the korean ones?? They are like HEAVEN lar!!!!

Okie, so i bot another pack of strawberries(USA) and made this wonderful muffin that i saw on Sweet Decadence. Easy peasy. This time, i really did it the muffin way. I didn't cream the sugar with butter but instead followed the instructions to put the wet ingredients together and later the dry ones. The sprinkle of sugar on the top was just nice cos it mixed with the sour strawberries.

Yummm it was really fragrent when i took it out of the oven. Popped one into my mouth as soon as i could. The strawberries retained their flavour and the sugar gives the top a nice caramlised look. Sweet!

Noodles Oodles

2007-04-23T16:28:00.000+08:00

If you have read last Sunday's Lifestyle, you would have seen the 50 different ways to cook instant noodles. Well, piggy being a great fan of instant noodles insisted that i try some of the recipes. Okie, so i made this Mushroom noodles with hot sauce. But cos piggy dosen't take spicy stuff, i decided to replace the hot sauce with oyster sauce and throw in some chicken meat. Well, it tasted really good. Could have done with more mushrooms though. Slurp!

One of piggy, one for angie and one for me!

Yummie.. will definately cook this again! Easy peasy, just fry the chicken, mushrooms, capsicum, beansprouts with garlic. Add soya sauce and oyster sauce, pop in the boiled nooodles and stir. Then add some shallots and spring onions.

Keep Moving Forward

2007-04-23T16:14:00.000+08:00

Okie.. i named this post the name as well, you'll find out soon.
Set out to make my much awaited Heart Jelly Cheesecake. See, it's supposed to be a normal cheesecake with jelly on top of it. If you go to Aunt Yochana's blog, you'll see a very very well done cake.
It was a pretty easy cake to make.No baking required, so not much fuss. All went well until i started putting the jelly on. I did not wait for the cheese to set before putting it on so well, it kinda spilled over. And it didn't help that i used a spring form pan (so geh kiang). I wanted to throw the whole thing away when i tot of the movie 'Meet the Robinsons'. If you haven't watched it... go.. very very good. So i tot, nope! I shall make the best of it. I have spent so much money so i try and make it as good as i can. So i took out some of the water, swirled the jelly into the cheese and hid the strawberries inside. Popped it back into the fridge and crossed my fingers.

Later in the evening, i was supposed to cook for piggy. Wanted to try out a version of his favourite Din Tai Fund fried rice. Used 4 eggs, pork shreds, lotsa garlic and spring onions. I tot it'll be good but............ the very first step of cooking the rice was all wrong!!!! I added too much water!!!!!!!! arghhhhhhhhh.... it turned out to be fried porridge lar!!! Siannnnnnnnnnn.. But piggy was very nice, he ate everything i gave him and said it was nice and he liked it. So sweet rite?! Again, i remembered the slogon for the movie 'Keep Moving Forward!' and decided that i shall try it again!!!

Doesn't look too bad rite?? But taste wise... emmmmmmmmmm....

Okie.. back to the cheesecake. Fingers still crossed, i took out the cake and sliced a piece and well well well... it wasn't so bad!! the cake part was a little too stiff though, maybe because of the jelly. But piggy liked the crust. Even my mom liked it!!! She seldom eats such stuff. Take a look!

Not bad rite?? heh heh

So folks!! Don't give up on something cos you've failed!! Dosen't matter man, just keep moving forward!! Yeah!!

Mini CupCakes

2007-04-13T14:27:00.000+08:00

Saw this recipe in the Sunday Times on Sunday and wanted to make it straight away. It was an interesting recipe where there was no creaming needed, only the melting of butter with water and coco powder. It was really easy to make but taste wise, alright only. Next time i make this, i'll put real chocolate in to melt with the butter instead of water, might bring out a more chocolatey flavour. It was pretty cute though cos it was so small...

All the cupcakes fitted nicely on the tray

Smaller than my palm!!

Simply Good

2007-04-07T17:15:00.000+08:00

Was craving for some baking action again this morning. I wanted to try out this carrot cake (ang mo style) i saw in the newspaper but getting the ingredients was too much of a hassle. After looking thru my recipe files and some blogs, i decided to go for one of the simplest thing to bake, a butter cake. Wanted to use a recipe i found somewhere sometime ago, but i chanced upon one good one on Aunt Yochana's blog.

The cake may seem simple but the process of making it was a little tricky. The tricky part was actually the measuring of egg yolks and whites.The recipe did not give how many egg yolks and whites but more like how heavy it should be. So i was like cracking and measuring eggs and it came up to 4 egg yolks and a little less egg white. Then there was the part of whisking the egg whites. I tot the electric beater would do the job but no....... it was still in it's liquid form after so much time of beating. I gave up and added the egg whites in that form.

The cake came out not too bad!! A little brown but that's how i like my cakes!!

And inside... oooo.. nice buttery yellow!!! Aunt Yochana said that it will actually taste better after a day but it tastes really good already!!!

That's what i had for today... Simple and good. Yum yum!!

Pizza House

2007-04-04T16:36:00.000+08:00

Made pizza with some of my friends the other day. I did most of the dough making process. It's quite easy actually but the waiting time is killer. 2 hours just for the dough to set. But the recipe, which was taken from baking sheet, was really good. The dough turned out nice and bouncy. Sharon and Seng helped with putting on the toppings. Shall let the pics do the talking!!

This is the only 'before' picture we managed to take. Sharon's humble pizza with not too much topping was, i tot, the best cos it brought out the flavours of all the ingredients.

An 'after' pic. Looks humble but tastes really good!

Decided to name this 'cheezy seng'. He added cheese to the sides of the pizza t
o create a stuffed crust effect.

Here's mine. Overloaded with toppings cos i wanted to finish them off.

M&Ms AGAIN....

2007-03-31T16:17:00.000+08:00

Okie.. dun worry, i'm not making something out of M&Ms again. Just doing a post on my crazy stint i did with the chocolate.

See, piggy was busy studying

Awwwww... isn't he cute??

Where was i? Oh yes, he was busy studying. I wanted to mark my compos but, well, it's a long story. So i took the M&Ms he bought and started to do this.

He saw me doing it and was trying to mess it up.But i managed to get this done.

Awww.... isn't it sweet?? Okie, you can stop saying i'm mushy!

The Legend of the Donuts

2007-03-31T16:09:00.000+08:00

Okie okie, i've been thinking about these donuts since the day i saw the shop. Was fortunate enough to have two friends who were having school holidays to go down and queue for THREE HOURS just to get the donuts. Cool. Ple can actaully start a donut buying business. Stand in line and queue and then sell them at killer prices later. Huhuhu. Anyway, angie ordered the donuts so i'm not sure what we got but this pic will show you i will never see at least 2 of them again.

She ate 2!!!!!!!!!!!

I took the one with nuts around it. As i only ate it the day after it was bot, i had to pop it into the toaster. Okayyyyyyyyyyyy larrrrrrrrrrr...... not bad larrrrrrrrrr... Still quite normal. Not really justifying why ple queue up for hours to buy it. Maybe cos they have quirky flavours like cheese and wasabi. Ewwwww... but some might like it...

The verdict: Not as yummy as i tot it was. The legend of the donut in raffles city shopping centre is, well, not as 'dunkin' as i hope it would be.

Ugly Muffy

2007-03-27T16:20:00.000+08:00

Okie, okie, i've been watching too many episodes of ugly betty. Remember i was going to bake something for Aaron's friends? Yeah, decided to try out the Mocha Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe. Instead of putting choco chips as garnish, i used my remainder M&Ms . The first batch looked like this...

Yes... all thanks to lack of talent in phototaking, it made the muffin look even more ugly. It's supposed to be a face. The green one is the nose.

So i tot, okie.. no more faces, i'll just dump some on top randomly and it came out like that..

Even uglier!! The colour from the MNMs was everywhere!!

Well, the taste was there. Nice and moist with lotsa banana and chips. Well, to make it look a tad better, i wrap them in nice little bags.

Well, i guess that's comparable to make up to spruce up the look!! Darn... another Ugly Betty theme.

M&Ms Cookie

2007-03-24T12:12:00.000+08:00

After being in the morning session for 3 mths, i can no longer sleep in. Sob.. even though i only slept at 2am yesterday (becos of watching Ugly Bettey, tink i'm hooked).
So i got up at 9am and decided to make some cookies for my collegues who were demanding for some food from me last week. Heh heh. Had 3 pkts of mini M&Ms so i baked a whole batch of cookies. Took the recipe off the back of the pkt. Not bad, except some of it got a bit burnt. Hope the guys in school like it!!

Pre cooked cookies

Cooked cookies

Cookies in tub!! Will be in their mouths on Monday!

Next bake will be for piggy's friends. One of them just got a baby girl. Something to celebrate!

Long Long Post

2007-03-21T11:34:00.000+08:00

To everyone who has been looking out for my posts: Really grateful for the support. It's not that i have stopped cooking (or eating), but i have been cooking the same stuff so dun wanna bore you all with it. And plus, i have misplaced my gadget for uploading the photos. So now, i will present to you SOME of the food that i have cooked during this 3 month hiatus.

1)M&Ms Sponge Cake

Angie and I wanted to do a swiss roll, but the batter turned out too thick!! Ahh.... the recipe was good but i think we first timers of swiss roll did not know how to handle the batter properly. So we ended up putting chocolate frosting on it and adding mini MnMs to the cake. Angie brought it to the youth so i did not get to try it. But at least i have some pictures!!

Ooo.. so colourful! Especially against the chocolate!

2) Cream Puffs (Actually it's jam puffs)

We are going to use this recipe for a community work in church so i had to try it out first. I did try eclairs once but the pastry was too watery. So i looked up another recipe and found it on Aunt Yochana's food blog. It worked out really good. As i did not have any ingredients to make the cream, i had to settle for jam. Piggy liked it very much and i'm gonna try the one with the cream soon.

Look at those puffs.. Pretty rite?

Jam Puffs.(Raspberry jam)

3) Onde Onde

I tried my hand at this one a few weeks ago but added too little sweet potato. The directions given by 'The Bake Who Cooks' had lesser sweet potato so on the advice of my mum, i decided to change the portion. At first i tot that i ruined it becos it felt so soft. But when aunt nelly tried it, she said it was better than the previous batch cos they are ment to be soft. Phew..... Cos there would be about 10 ple eating the dessert and i didn't want to ruin it for them. Everyone loved it and pastor asked me to make it for the church sometime. I guess i'm really into 'kuih' making which is quite fun too.

The colour is different from the ones sold outside as they normally use only sweet potato flour and do not put the real sweet potato which gives the onde onde it's orangey colour. The burst of gula melaka when you put it into your mouth is priceless!

4) Oranges
I guess everyone was busy gorging on good food and oranges for the chinese new year season. A pupil gave me this pair of perfectly packaged oranges. It was so perfect that i could not bring myself to eat them. However, i did not want it to go to waste so after the CNY season, i took a pic of it and ate the oranges.

So cute rite??????? Tell me, how to eat? How to eat?!?!? But greedy me ate them in the end. Thanks Pi Yun! My sweet monitor!

Okie folks, hope you enojyed the posts. And i hope to keep posting too. He he.

Delayed Birthday Post

2006-12-19T23:40:00.000+08:00

Well.. this is a little late but wanna show some pics of what i made piggy for this birthday. Being the nice and totful girlfriend, i decided to give him a birthday breakfast suprise!Woke up at 630am to bake him his favourite banana chocolate chip cupcakes. Tot it would be good as a mini birthday cake. Popped in the bacon, sauages and tomatoes into the oven after that to grill. Packed everything and went off for the suprise.

Reached his place and quickly prepared the cake at the corridor....

I know... the candle a bit oversized!

Called him on his mobile. The groggy birthday boy picked up the phone

Me: Happy birthday!! Wake up wake up!!
Piggy: Huh?? But i wanna sleeeeeep.....
Me: It's your birthday! Wake up! I'm just outside ur house.
Piggy: No way!
Me: Yes!
Piggy: Cannot be...
Me: Yes!
Piggy: Okie.. prove it!
Me: (Rings the doorbell)
Piggy:!?!?!?!?

Sang him the birthday song as he smiled in his pyjamas.. looking so good. Blew off his candles. then said...

Piggy: So sweet... Eh.. but can i eat later? I wanna sleep samore.
Me:?!?!?!?!?!?

This was the breakfast. Really simple, especailly if you have an oven. Just need to pop them in and add some herbs to the tomatoes. They'll cook in the fat of the bacon and taste really awesome.

This breakfast kept him full all the way to lunch. Even though we were at the posh nosh Lawry's for dinner, i still felt that my breakfast was the best.. He he..

A totally different post

2006-12-19T01:04:00.000+08:00

Okie this post will be a little different cos i've been arrowed to do it and will not bother putting it in my other blog. So here it goes... Oh! Btw... angie's one is below

4 Things that I... (taken by Jas)

4 names pple call you:

Jasmine
Jas
Dear
Ah jie

4 things that scare you:

Horror movies!!
Sticky parents (as bad as horror movies)
Spinster principals(sian.. getting one next year)
Being strangled

4 things you are wearing right now:

T-Shirt
Shorts
Undergarments
My new bangs!

4 things you want in a relationship (other than real love):

God
Trust
Commitment
Give and take

4 truths:

God loves us ALL
We ALL need Jesus
ALL the world is a stage
ALL of us are the actors

4 physical things that appeal to you (in the opposite sex):

Smile
Big brown Puppy Dog Eyes
Haircut
clothes

4 of your favourite hobbies:

Cooking
Baking
Reading
Hanging out

4 things you want really badly:

For Aaron and sis to be healed of eczema
A new mixer
Have the discipline to exercise
To go to cooking school

4 places you want to go on vacation:

Manchester(watch them play)
Hawaii
Maldives
New Zealand

4 things you want to do before you die:

Bungee jump
scuba dive
Watch Man U play
Score a 'good goal'!

4 stuff u hadn't try out and really wanna try it out:

Go to the army
Work in food & beverage front line like Mac or starbucks
Being a bug
Sky diving

4 things you are thinking about now:

Why is angie still singing that darn song?!?
I need to pee
It's raining cats and dogs! Weeee!!!!!!!!!
I wanna sleep

4 stores you shop at:

Phoon Huat (to get stuff to bake)
ANY supermarket
Mustard Seed ( i love their clothes!)
Any major shopping centres

4 people who should do this quiz:

Matthew
Moses
JJ
Yili

4 Things that I... (taken by angela)

4 names pple call you:
Angela
Lala (poly)
angie (ah jie)
ah gu/Angel (mummy) (daddy)

4 things that scare you:
Alone in the dark/ alone in the world with nobody around at all!
Ghost, or thinking that a ghost might just be beside me looking at me
Seeing people drown (hear my story and you’ll know)
Seeing my love one pass on

4 things you are wearing right now:
A nicer word: night gown (my fave too!)
Bracelet on left hand
Undergarment (being very open here)
No 4th one…

4 things you want in a relationship (other than real love):
Honesty
Trust
Commitment
Understanding

4 truths:
Emmanuel
Honesty is the best policy
Good friends say things you want to hear, best friends say things you don’t want to hear
er…Britney Spears divorced K.Fed…

4 physical things that appeal to you (in the opposite sex):
Smile
Eyes
Short and Tidy Fingernails (believe it or not)
Build

4 of your favourite hobbies:
Watching Movie
Watching favourite movie multiple times
Reading & searching about things that interest me
Hanging out

4 things you want really badly:
To be healed of eczema
To know what God’s plan for me is
To experience a life or period of time that I never knew existed
To be learn how to guard my heart

4 places you want to go on vacation:
EGYPT!!!!
Hawaii
Maldives
Ireland

4 things you want to do before you die:
Pilot a plane
Do an excavation
See all the 7 wonders of the world
Kiss my husband goodbye & sing him our song

4 stuff u hadn't try out and really wanna try it out:
Go to the army and be a high ranking officer
Work in food & beverage front line like Mac
Being a beggar for 1 day
Take a plane by myself

4 things you are thinking about now:
I wanna sleep!!!!!
Why in the world did aaron ask me to take this quiz?!!?!?! Think I so free ah! Hee..but I am now…
Does NR 6 goes to Dhoby then to Hougang?
Should I change HP? I have a love hate relationship with my hp now

4 stores you shop at:
Music Junction
HMV
Giodarno
Mama shop
*…. I have no shopping life man…*

4 people who should do this quiz:
seriously man..don’t do this quiz…

Daddy Made Breakfast

2006-12-11T10:51:00.000+08:00

Everyone in my home likes to cook. Even angie will do the occasional egg frying and cake baking. To be honest, i cook like my dad. He loves to explore new stuff and takes old recipes and revamps them. Not that they turn out great all the time but he has a nack for cooking.

This is not the first time he made breakfast for us. He really loves french toast and would get up as early as 530am to make them before he goes off to the courts. I found the toasts really beautiful today so i decided to feature them on my blog. Used some straberries and added golden syrup. Wa Lah! I got a healthy 'daddy made' breakfast!!

Simple but satisfying

Emmmm... i love strawberries in my breakfast!!

Vanilla Cream Cheese Panna Cotta w/ Coffee Gelee

2006-12-08T10:57:00.000+08:00

What a long name! It fits the long hours that i put into this 'ai4 xing1' dessert i made for piggy. He simply LOVES panna cotta (i tink he'd sell me for one... hehe.. just joking). But seriously, i started at 11pm(yes, in the dead of the night again) and finished at 230am. Phew! But it felt so good to see it turn out great!I think i was too kan qiong that the thing would not stay so i put extra gelatine. Turned out to be a tad too hard.

Think he was too eager to eat it. Pic turned out blur.

Piggy really loved it!! Out of the 5 cups that i made, he ate 3!! Wee.. and i tink dad ate one too. Well, i guess the last one is for me then. Will definately make again, but not in the dead of the night again......

Look at those beautiful layers!!

Vanilla Cream Cheese Panna Cotta w/ Coffee Gelee (Eva's Kitchen)
Rating: 4/5

Ingredients (serves 6) :

for the vanilla cream cheese panna cotta :

1 1/4 tbsp gelatine powder

45ml water

200g cream cheese, room temperature

50g caster sugar

160ml milk

80ml whipping cream

1/2 vanilla bean, split or 2/3 tsp vanilla extract/essence

for the coffee gelee :

1 1/2 tbsp gelatine powder

50ml + 150ml water

2 1/2 tsp instant coffee granules

75ml warm water

75g light brown sugar

Directions :

1. for the panna cotta, double-boil gelatine with 45ml water. keep warm.

2. whisk cream cheese & sugar until smooth. set aside.

3. heat milk & whipping cream over medium heat until about to boil. remove from heat & stir in cream cheese. stir in gelatine and vanilla. strain mixture & leave to cool.

4. for the coffee gelee, double boil gelatine with 50ml water.

5. dissolve coffee granules in 75ml warm water. set aside.

6. in a medium saucepan, boil brown sugar & 150ml water until sugar dissolves. remove from heat and stir in coffee & gelatine mixture. leave to cool.

7. to assemble, spoon 1.5 tbsp cream cheese mixture (or the thickness you desire) into each glass. refrigerate for 30 mins, or to speed up the process, freeze instead. the cream cheese should be quite firm before pouring in the coffee mixture.

8. spoon coffee mixture over cream cheese and refrigerate/freeze for another 30 mins. repeat process until all mixture is used up, ending with the coffee mixture as the top layer.

9. refrigerate for 3 hours before serving.ingredients (serves 6) :

Portugese Egg Tarts

2006-11-27T11:22:00.000+08:00

It's been a long time since i updated the blog. Well, with of all the end year stuff going on in school, i really had no time to bake or cook much. Last week, i finally had a little time to do what i've always wanted to try,portugese egg tarts.

I found the recipe on Food Whore. Looked really great and so i decided to KIV til i had the time. This is the first time i'm doing pastry so i was pretty nervous. It was a good recipe so it turned out really well and moreover, i used pre-made pastry puff so i kinda 'cheated' a little. I learnt that the thickness of the pastry is really impt cos some of the puffs were too thick at the bottom. Shall definately try again another time!!

I love how ugly they look!! Haha

Mr Sun, sun, Mr golden sun!

Portugese Egg Tart(Food Whore)
Rating: 4/5

500g of ready-made puff pastry
200g whipping cream
300ml full cream milk
80g sugar
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

1. divide pastry into 20g portions, roll out to about 3mm thickness. if pastry starts to get sticky, put some flour on your rolling pin/board. press onto tart moulds.
2. combine whipping cream, milk and sugar and cook just until sugar dissolves.
3. add into beaten eggs and yolks.
4. mix well and bring it to a minimal boil.
5. add in vanilla essence, and then set aside to cool.
6. pour filling into pastry tart, bake at 220ºC for about 20-25 mins.

All the best 4 ur exams!

2006-11-07T21:42:00.000+08:00

Baked some cookies for Aaron's friends yesterday night (i know some of them so i consider them my friends too. Used Hershey's Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe. Maybe my expectations were too high but this recipe was not as good as i expected it to be. However, it gave me about almost 80 cookies and i packed them all into nice little packets for them. Tot of adding a personal touch so i wrote them a note wishing them all the best for their exams.

To be honest,these are not one of my best cookies but they are the ones which i really put a lot of effort into. Woke up early to get the chips from ntuc and after a tiring day of work, i made them and packed them. But it's worth it. Anything for friends! I'm glad that they enojoyed it too. Next time, gonna make them something better... maybe a muffin... or maybe a tart. He he....

Oreo Cheesecake

2006-11-01T14:27:00.000+08:00

Oooo lala... did you see the blue moon shining high in the sky last night? Someone was working in the kitchen with me to make this cheesecake. It was a really impromto thing cos my honored guest cook had leave the next day and was in the mood for some baking. We went to NTUC at 9 plus to get the stuff WITHOUT the actual list of ingredients on hand. Had to go by faith so we bot wat we tot we needed. Thank God it was what we needed. Used Evan's brilliant recipe to make this cheesecake. She used whipping cream but we used thickend cream. Worked out perfect. We had fun in the kitchen too. My very first cheesecake... ooooooooooo

Nice and creamy.. shiok!!

Oreo Cheesecake (Evan's Kitchen)
Rating:4.5/5

ingredients (base) :

110g digestive biscuits, chopped into fine crumbs
40g melted butter

(filling) :

250g cream cheese, room temperature
45ml milk
50g icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla essence or rum
8 oreo cookies (coarsly chopped)
4 oreo cookies (finely chopped)
250ml whipping cream
1tbsp gelatine powder
10ml lemon juice
3 tbsp boiling water

method :

1. mix biscuit crumbs & melted butter together and press firmly onto the base of cake tin. chill for 30 minutes.
2. beat whipping cream with electric beaters until 70% stiff or until mousse-like.
3. double-boil gelatine, lemon juice & boiling water until totally dissolved. keep warm. (to double-boil, heat a pot filled with water and place another bowl inside the pot & gelatine, lemon juice & boiling water into the bowl).
4. beat cream cheese, icing sugar, milk and vanilla essence until smooth & creamy. blend in gelatine solution.
5. blend in whipping cream.
6. pour 1/2 the cheese mixture onto the base. chill for another 15 minutes.
7. stir in finely chopped cookies into the other 1/2 of the mixture. mix well.
8. sprinkle coarsely chopped cookies on top of the first half of cheese mixture.
9. pour in the other half of the cheese mixture.
10. chill for 3 to 4 hours before serving. decorate as desired

Orange Chocolate Cookies

2006-11-01T14:20:00.000+08:00

Still had two oranges in the fridge so i was itching to make more orangy stuff. Saw this really interesting mix of both orange and chocolate and immediately wanted to try it. Turned out well but it lacked that chocolatey taste. Must add more chocolate to the mix next time. Wrapped up a bag for the ladies in the church office.

Orange Chocolate Cookies(All Recipes)
Rating:3.5/5

INGREDIENTS
-28 g unsweetened chocolate
-170 g butter
-150 g white sugar
-1 egg
-5 ml vanilla extract
-190 g all-purpose flour
-5 g baking powder
-1 g salt
-6 g orange zest

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a microwave-safe dish, melt the unsweetened chocolate, stirring frequently until smooth. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir into the creamed mixture.

3. Divide dough in two. Mix orange zest into one half, and melted chocolate into the other half. Use a bit of each mixture to form a ball about 1 inch in diameter.

4. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until center is set. Cool on wire racks.

Amici Bar & Restaurant

2006-11-01T13:53:00.000+08:00

24 Tanjong Pagar Rd

Bread, Appetiser, Main Course, Dessert, Coffee/Tea for $69.90+++/head

A-la carte prices in parentheses

Bread

Bruchetta - Garlic toast topped with fresh tomatoes and basil ($7)

Garlic cheese toast - Oven-naked garlic bread with melted mozzarella and cheddar cheese ($8)

Appetiser

Prociutto melon - Parma ham served on a melon boat ($15)Sauteed mushrooms -

Portobello and wild mushrooms tossed in a light tomato base ($12)

Main Course

Scaloppina - Thinly-sliced beef tenderloin in marsala and red wine sauce ($29)

Tagliata firenze - Sliced tender beef in balsamico and olive oil topped with fresh parmesan cheese and rocquette salad ($30)

Dessert

Tiramisu ($9)

Cointreau bombes - orange ice cream with a flambe! ($9)

Aaron: Remember Capella? This is right up there with it. I'm really beginning to like Italian food, and I don't mean pizza and pasta.

Food: 4 stars
Ambience: 3 stars
Service: 4 stars (just for the battery-operated black pepper crusher-cum-flashlight alone)

Orange Butter Muffins

2006-10-23T14:26:00.000+08:00

This is the first time that I immediately use the recipe upon chancing on it. It was just too good to be true!! I had 4 big beautiful oranges in my fridge and was thinking of making something orangey. When I saw this recipe on Evan’s blog, I just printed it out and started making it on the spot. And it was delicious!!

Evan’s advice was to grate 2 large oranges into the mixing bowl that you’ll be creaming your butter and sugar in. Fantastic! The aromatic oils from the orange gave the bright colour to the muffins and the sweet taste of fresh oranges. I had the privilege of working with wonderfully sweet oranges too. I only had to use 4 teaspoon of juice so I gave piggy the rest to drink.

Emm.... one of my favourite fruit.

The results?

One of the best muffins I have ever made!

Orange Butter Muffins (Evan’s Kitchen)
Rating: 5/5

Ingredients (makes 12) :
175g butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cup plain flour
3 eggs
2 tsps baking powder
finely grated rind of 1 orange
2 tsps orange juice

Directions :
place butter, caster sugar and grated orange rind in a mixing bowl and whisk mixture until light and fluffy.
add in eggs, one at a time and whisk until well combined between each addition.
sift together flour and baking powder over the butter mixture then fold in lightly using a metal spoon. add in orange juice and mix well.
spoon mixture into muffin cases until about 3/4 full and bake in a preheated oven of 160 deg c for 25 mins until skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
let cool completely before frosting or storing.

New York New York

2006-10-23T14:18:00.000+08:00

Another trip to this cafe. Had good food again.

Hot 'Virgin' Mary Soup - No vodka and only the freshest tomatoes in this concoction ($4.90)

This was my favourite! The soup was thick and even a little crunchy.

Lover's Sunset - Orange juice and cranberry mingle to recreate a beautiful sunset ($5.90)Beautiful!

Mind you, it was freshly squeezed orange!

Latino Chicken Escalope - Tender Cuban chicken thigh with superb gravy! Another Latino contribution to New York ($12.90)

Piggy had the chicken which was really well marinated. I loved the wedges!

Philly Cheese Steak Pizza - Sliced beef, capsicum, onion, cheese sauce, brown sauce, mozzarella ($13.90)

I had this. The beef was gooooooooood....

Hope to go back another time.

Pizza

2006-10-17T10:35:00.000+08:00

I always wanted to try making pizza. I know that the dough itself is quite a tricky thing to make. Hence, Betty Crocker's Pizza Crust. Saw this at The Market Place in Raffles City and took it off the shelf without a second thought.

It's as simple as just adding hot water. However, my hands got sticky and gooey with the dough. The package says to let it rest for about 5 minutes but i suggest a little longer. Maybe 15.

I went according to Betty's tip and used 1 cup of pasta sauce, 1 cup of toppings and 1 cup of cheese. I think there was a little too much sauce. Shall use 3/4 cup next time. But it turned out beautiful.

The pizza wasn't very big. Enough for about 3 ple.

Emmmmmmmmmm.......... look at the cheeseeeee.......

Piggy and I ate it when it was cold.. Kinda yucky. Cos the crust was hard and the toppings were cold. So everyone, eat pizza fresh from the oven okie!

Betty Crocker's Pizza Crust(avaliable @ The Market Place Raffles City)
Rating:4/5

Successful Kueh!!!

2006-10-14T16:00:00.000+08:00

Yay!! I finally succeeded in making my first good batch of kueh ko swee. This time i was less kan chiong and more aware of the texture of the mixture. It's a pretty tricky kueh and you've got to do some of your own 'agarration'. The recipe said to use only 240ml of the syrup but after consulting the guru (aunt nelly), i can put any amt of the syrup or water but i need to end up with 960ml of liquid in total at the end of the mixing.If I used 350ml of syrup and 610ml of water, how much liquid did i use altogether? Ooops.. occupational hazzard.

Heading the guru's advice, i seperated some of the coconut and steamed about 3/4 of the rest. The fresh coconut was BAGUS! So nice and chewy and juicy. Not that the steamed ones are not nice but the fresh ones add the coconut aroma to the kueh. Must use fresh coconut instead the next time. The down side is that it has to be kept refrigerated all the time and must be consumed within 12 hours.

Looks like a whole lot of coconut on some brown paper eh..

Got into trouble trying to take this photo. I spilled some coconut.. okie... a lot of coconut onto the floor..

Kueh Koswee(Aunt Nelly)
Rating:5/5

For the syrup:
240ml of water
200g of gula melaka, broken into pieces
70g of sugar
3 pandan leaves

For the batter
1 grated coconut, brown skin removed
A pinch of salt
110g of rice flour
90g of tapioca flour
720ml of water
4 tablespoons of alkaline water

Syrup:
1. In a pan, boil together water, gula melaka, sugar and pandan leaves
2. Strain the syrup and leave to cool. Measure only 240ml of the syrup for use

Batter:
1. Mix the grated coconut and a pinch of salt and steam for 5 mins. Set aside.
2. Grease a 20cm x 15cm shallow cake tin
3. Blend the rice flour and tapioca flour, with the syrup and a pinch of salt
4. Gradually stir in the water and the alkaline water. Combine well.
5. Then place the mixture over a pot of hot water. Cook the mixture by stirring gently continuously with a hand whisk until it thickens
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Steam over boiling water for about 20 mins
7. Leave to cool completely before cutting into slices. Roll the slices in grated coconut to serve.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

2006-10-14T14:39:00.000+08:00

Had itchy fingers again and decided to make something on Wednesday night. However, i was too tired out from life group and just wanted to sleep more. The itch didn't go away. The next morning, i decided to try out this recipe from Diana's Desserts. The reviews were really good so i decided to give it a try. Really good! I brought the whole batch of 20 muffins to school and it was wiped out by everyone! Wanted to leave some for my guinea piggy but it was too late! I used up all the bananas at home. My poor dad didn't get to eat them. Nvm.. shall bake another batch for my famuly and piggy another time.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. (Diana's Dessert)
Rating: 4.5/5

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips
2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (about 4 large)
1/2 cup (1 stick/4oz/113g) butter or stick margarine, melted
1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease 12 large muffin cups.

In large bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chips.

In small bowl, blend bananas, melted margarine, milk, eggs and vanilla. Add to flour mixture, stirring only until just blended (do not over mix). Fill muffin cups.

Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until golden brown and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Let stand several minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool.

Makes 12 large muffins.

Tip: Use a spring-release ice cream scoop to spoon batter into muffin cups.

Spizza at Harbourfront

2006-10-08T22:32:00.000+08:00

This time, we went with 3 other people for out weekend dinner. Had a difficult time trying to find food at the newly opened Vivocity and so we settled for dinner at this restaurant at harbour front. Italian food again. What's cool about this place is that they have individual female names for the different pastas. There are even names for the appitisers and desserts.

Salad

Titus - salad with chicken pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, parmesan

Appitiser

Caligola - crispy calimari with pizzaiola sauce

Pizza

Katerina - tomato, mozzarella, beef carpaccio, rucola, shaved parmesan

Tara - tomato, mozzarella, egg, bacon, button mushrooms

Personally, i enjoyed Tara. Sadly, it only reminds me of Terrible Tara in my class. The ever complaining, ever whining, ever not handing up work Tara. But it tastes so good here. Life is just so full of paradoxes.

Spizza
Harbourfront
Food:4/5
Service:4/5(mind you, they were very shorthanded and the ever smiling manager had to handle a very unreasonable customer. Best man!)
Location: 4/5 (actaully 3/5 for some ple who said that it's less accessible compared to Suntec... excuses... humph!)
Cost: $11/pax

Brownfins

2006-10-07T13:37:00.000+08:00

Was intending to make brownies for the starlight cinema event we were going to. The blue moon rose again and angela decided to help out. She made a suggestion to make the brownies in muffin cups for easy eating. Well, worth a shot. Used the Hersheys's Best Brownies recipe and turned out fantastic! The chocolate was so rich and heavenly!!

Mmmmmm. However, we only managed to eat one each as we were so full with teck seng's wonderful pasta salad and sandwich. He's such a brilliant cook you noe. He suggested mashing up some strawberries and putting them in sprite. It's more for champange but it was a blast! So nice and refreshing!

Brought the remaining brownfins to school and gave some to Edwin and LinTze. Edwin really loved it. Even ordred a batch from me!!! My first customer!!!! So exciting!!! I hope i won't let you down brother....

HERSHEY'S Best Brownies
Rating: 5/5

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa or HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Cocoa
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped nuts(optional)
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking pan.

2. Place butter in large microwave-safe bowl. Microwave at HIGH (100%) 2 to 2-1/2 minutes or until melted. Stir in sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well with spoon after each addition. Add cocoa; beat until well blended. Add flour, baking powder and salt; beat well. Stir in nuts, if desired. Pour batter into prepared pan.

3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until brownies begin to pull away from sides of pan. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Frost if desired. Cut into bars. About 36 brownies.

New York, New York at Citylink Mall

2006-10-03T19:44:00.000+08:00

Cost: $48.94

Soup:
Roasted mushroom cappuccino - Cream of roasted mushrooms with frothed milk. Topped with a sprinkle of cocoa powder. The perfect pick-me-up!

Main course:

Juicy burger supreme - A killer burger with a pure beef patty served real juicy. Roll up your sleeves now!

Brats wrapped in bacon & cheese - Bratwurst sausages (brats) tightly wrapped with bacon and grilled with loads of cheese!

Beverages:

Iced ultra-rich chocolate velvet
Dark strawberry quencher

Conclusion:

This could become one of my favourite places. Pricing remains a little steep but genuinely worth it. Main courses were typically American - hearty and sinful. The dark strawberry smoothie was wonderfully smooth and rich. The soup was a big disappointment though, probably cos I don't like mushrooms.
Jas: I love the soup! I love mushrooms! I prefered the dark strawberry quencher though. Less like milkshake.

Food: 4/5
Drinks: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Ambience: 3.5/5

Late Night Baking with Jasmine Tang

2006-10-03T00:53:00.000+08:00

Yes, i just finished baking some apple cinnamon muffins. Was quite nervous about it beocs it was the first time i tried out the recipe from AllRecipes. Went out really well even though i was shuffling between the kitchen and the computer. Wanted to make the muffins for dear Yili who's down with chicken pox. She loves apples so i decided to give it a try too. Hope she likes it. It turned out really well. No burning or cracking and smells heavenly!

I can imagine myself hosting a graveyard shift talk show. Baking and viewers/listeners calling in to talk about life and all that. Sounds cool..

Okie.. feel a bit tired now. Think i better sleep soon or else i wont be able to wake up to cook lunch for yili!

Apple Strudel Muffins
AllRecipes.com
Rating: 4/5

INGREDIENTS:
• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 3 g baking powder
• 2 g baking soda
• 3 g salt
• 115 g butter
• 200 g white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 5 ml vanilla
• 190 g chopped apples
•
• 75 g packed brown sugar
• 10 g all-purpose flour
• 0.3 g ground cinnamon
• 15 g butter
________________________________________
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 12 cup muffin pan.
2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Mix in vanilla. Stir in apples, and gradually blend in the flour mixture. Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin pan.
4. In a small bowl, mix brown sugar, flour and cinnamon. Cut in butter until mixture is like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle over tops of mixture in muffin pan.
5. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow to sit 5 minutes before removing muffins from pan. Cool on a wire rack.

Pierside Kitchen & Bar, One Fullerton

2006-10-02T12:21:00.000+08:00

Cost: $100.25 after discount
Fully paid by the very generous Mr Wong. Thanks sweetheart.: >

Appetizer:
Seared Maine scallop carpaccio with Granny Smith, asparagus, mint & matsuhisa dressing - $18+++
The scallops were fresh and succulent. What a savoury start to the evening!

Soup:
Vichyssoise of celeriac, leek and potato, smoked salmon & chive bruschetta - $12+++
This cold soup took me by surprise because, well, it was cold. It was rather bland and disappointing.
Jas: I witnessed a very shocked expression on another diner when he tried the soup. So i guess we were not the only ones.

Main course:

Pan roasted rockfish with dukkah, quinoa tabouli, salsa verde & beurre blanc - $28+++
This was really disappointing. The fish and garnishing was quite limpid, probaably because I didn't know half the ingredients.

Oven roasted miso cod, new potatoes & sweet peas - $28+++
This was on the other end of the scale. It was overpoweringly rich and infused with miso; the whole dish left me hankering for water to wash it down. A few bites of the fish tasted really good, but after that it was a little too much. Best shared.

Dessert:

Valrhona dark chocolate fondant & vanilla bean ice cream - $14+++
Jasmine was waxing lyrical about it and I can't understand why. This was hot chocolate fudge ensconsed in chocolate sponge, but isn't that just a high-class microwaved Twiggie/Twinkie?
Jas: Hey, i'm a big big chocolate fan okie! It looks so plain boring on the outside but inside, it's oozing with dark high class chocolate. Hey Mr Wong, don't deny that your eyes were tightly shut when you put that spoonful of rich chocolate and ice cream into your mouth okie!!

White coffee pannacotta, Bailey's Irish cream & toffee ice cream - $14+++
This was the better of the desserts, I found. My only complaint was that the portion was a wee bit small.

Conclusion:
Food: 3.5/5
Service: 4/5
Location: 4/5

I agreed with Jasmine when she said we shouldn't have gone to Capella first; the rest are paling in comparison. And they almost let me go without paying for dessert. Had to point it out to them. Bloody $32.65 chivalry. =[
Jas: My HERO!!! My honest hero.

Next stop: Olive Ristorante, Labrador Park (al-fresco only; hope it'll be a cool night =])
Jas: This time, it's my treat. Mr Wong is going to ke tok me man!!! : /

pictures by Jasmine
words by Aaron

Fast Cupcakes

2006-09-29T20:28:00.000+08:00

Okie... may seem like i haven't blogged here in a long time. But does not mean that i've not been baking!! Haha.. did midnight baking again. This time, i tried using Betty Crocker's Blueberry Muffins. Started at 1230am.. ended at 115. Including cleaning!! Of cos, they came out good. Okie, now that i know what they should be like, i'll try making them from scratch one day.

Capella: Modern Italian at CHIJMES

2006-09-29T19:43:00.000+08:00

Went to the very romantic CHIJMES for a nice romantic dinner with mr wong. We were a little taken aback by how classy the place is. Felt kinda under dressed. Most of the diners were in shirts and nice dresses but that did not make any difference to the service that we recieved. From the time we were shown our table to the last goodbye, service was impecable. Well the food was just as good, if not, better. Once again, i'll let the pictures do the talking.

Appetisers

Carpaccio di Bue: Thin sliced raw beef with arugala, silver parmesan cheese & virgin olive oil
The beef was 'oh so tender' and the olive oil dressing was fresh and aromatic!

Zuppe del Giorno: Tomato soup
Thick tomato soup. Nothing like your cambell one. Slurp!

Sorbetti: Homemade wildberry sorbet
We were wondering why they would serve sorbet as a starter but what the heck.. it was brilliant. Totally melt in your mouth with an explosion of flavours.Emm emm!

Main Course

Suprema di Pollo: Free range chicken breast stuffed with black truffle accompanied by wilted baby spinach laced with red wine prune glaze

Simply gorgeous. The baby spinich was infused with a right amount of red wine glaze so that it does not steal the flavour from both the tender chicken and the crunchy spinich. The truffle was interesting too. I think it's a kind of olive.

Cernia al Asparagi e Funghi: Sea bass fillet on a bed of asparagus and mushroom salsa accompanied by scallion and vegetable salad, lemon butter sauce

I was wondering where the asparagus and mushrooms were. They were actaully cleverly ground and packed tightly together to form a base for the fish. Fantastic! Such creativity!

Dessert

Pannacotta: Almond-infused cook cream with bitter chocolate sause, seasonal berries compote

They sure kept the best for last. Aaron's eyes were either wide open or tightly shut when eating this dessert. Too much for him to take. The sweet cream was heavenly and with the combination of the bitter chocolate and sour berries. Oooooooooooo........

Coffee/Tea

Well, don't need much explanation. However, they had really good coffee as it was blended from fresh coffee beans. Not the usual 3 in 1 type.

Well folks, what can i say. It was Assolutamente Delizioso

Capella: Modern Italian at CHIJMES
Service: 5/5
Food:4.5/5
Location:5/5
Price: This dinner set cost $60++ per pax. The normal main course menu's range is from about $25-$40

Food Fellowship

2006-09-21T10:26:00.000+08:00

If you guys did not notice, the blue moon rose on tuesday night. Why? Bcos angie COOKED! Yeah, she cooked her favourite bacon aglio and invited Yili and teck seng, along with me and aaron. The pic is pretty blur but i guess u noe what pasta looks like.

Simple meal made of pasta, olive oil, garlic and bacon.I tot it was real good. Well done angie!

Us eating over the counter. Can't be bothered to sit down. Found it more fun to eat like that.

Had Ben's and Jerry's Chocolate cookie dough for dessert. Forgot to take a pic as we were all rushing to finish the tub. Slurp.....

Oreo Cupcakes

2006-09-20T10:28:00.001+08:00

Okie.. had the urge to bake again. I wanted to bake on monday night at 1130pm but decided to do it in the morning instead. Kinda regretted it. I don't know why but i bake better at night.Okie, more like in the dead of the night. The recipe was taken from sweet decadanze and it's really good. However, i geh kiang and took out 30g of sugar cos i thought the oreos in themselves would be too sweet. The cupcakes were good but not too sweet. Will try again another time with the frosting too.

But seriously, muffins taste better when they are piping hot. They taste ewwwww when eaten cold.

Oreo Cupcakes(Sweet Decadanze)
Rating:3.5/5

Oreo Cupcakes
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg whites, room temperature
3/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cups crushed oreo cookies (10 cookies)

Preheat oven to 175°C.
1.Line 12 muffin tins with cupcake or muffin liners.
2.Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Leave aside.
3.In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
4.Add in the vanilla extract.
5.Add in the egg whites one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated before adding the next.
6.Working in 4 or 5 additions, alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk to the wet ingredients. Keep the mixer on low speed while doing so.
7.When just combined, stir in the crushed oreos.
8.Spoon batter evenly into liners, filling each about 2/3 full.
9.Bake for 15-18 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
10.Remove individual cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack before storing in air-tight container if not serving.

Yield : 24 cupcakes

Crispy Chocolate Cornflakes!

2006-09-18T11:41:00.000+08:00

So say my kids who made this easy peasy snack with me. Of cos, i did most of the dirty job. Heating the chocolate, bringing it up to the third floor, cleaning up their mess. Thankfully, i had the idea of doing it in the art room instead of my own classroom. Saved me a whole lot of cleaning up. Took the recipe from the lazy chef.

Topic: All about food
Subjects: English, Math, Health Ed, Home econs,Art (All in one lesson)
Time: 2 hours
Learning objectives: Pupils will be able to:-

(1) Follow a recipe and make chocolate cornflakes

(2) Work in groups to come up with a poster to sell their finished product.

Okie kids... back to work... photo taking session over.

So.... here are their ads.

Slytherin

Check out their " buy 1 get 3 free' promotion! The other kids were like " wah.. so good ah?"

Hufflepuff

They won best ad. What to do, popular with their classmates lar..

Griffyndor

Forgot to pay their printers money. Their work was unfinished.

Ravenclaw

I thought they had the best ad. They were the most organised and really did good planning before drawing. This one is teacher's choice.

Well, i hope they enjoyed themselves! I sure did. Hoping to make more of these simple snacks for post exam activities.

Breakfast

2006-09-13T14:09:00.000+08:00

As the saying goes,

"Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a paupper"

I actaully wanted to make this cheese omelette long ago when i saw it on another food blog (she bakes and she cooks). Looked really good there. Well, i was going to have a long meeting in the morning so i decided to give myself a good, filling breakfast. I'll copy the recipe from the other blog as it has clearer instructions.

Ooooo... freshly cooked egg with melted cheese folded on the inside

Just pop it in between toasts. You can add some tomatoes if you like.

Look at the cheese!!!!!!!!!!! Wooooo hoooo!!

PS: Sorry for the not so good photos. Took them in the morning while i was trying to eat, bathe, change and watch tv all at the same time.

Cheese Omelette (She bakes and she cooks)
Rating: 4.5/5

Beat the eggs and pour it into a non-stick pan and let it cook a while, making sure the egg spreads evenly around the pan.

Then place a slice of cheese right smack in the middle, allowing it to melt a little, then folding the omelette around it via the 4 sides. Think of it as folding a present. Let it cook for a while and then take it off the pan. Add pepper if desired.

Kueh

2006-09-06T20:05:00.000+08:00

Well, I basically love all food. I don't really have a special thing that I enjoy the most. But when it comes to desserts, Thai desserts and nonya kuehs are my favourite. Actually, they are basically the same, sweet and coconutty. So I tried my hand at Kueh Ko Swee. Used aunt Nelly's recipe and was pretty stressed at trying to match up to her standard. I think i can't work very well under stress cos i messed it up. As usual, i had problems following instrucitons. It turned out horrible. So i decided to use the coconut ingredients to make another kueh instead. Kueh Dadar. I helped aunt Nelly make these before so i agar agar know what i'm doing. It's quite a lot of work cos you need to make inti, or coconut filling. Well, it turned out great!! Instead of the usual way of making pandan juice by pulverising pandan leaves with water, i used pandan paste from bake king. The fragrance was great!

The recipe said that it'll make 25 kuehs but i only managed 13 small ones. Maybe i'll double the recipe next time.

Okie... going to have a crash course with aunt Nelly to make kueh ko swee. My mom loves it so i wanna make one batch for her before she goes on holiday to Ireland.

Kueh Dadar (Periplus Mini Cookbooks)
Rating: 4/5

Ingredients:
150g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 small eggs, beaten
150ml of thin coconut milk(or plain milk)
100ml of pandan juice
(just mix 100ml of water with 1 teaspoon of pandan paste)
65ml of water
1 tablespoon of light vegetable oil
1 1/2 portions of inti (see below)
Oil for greesing pan

Method:
1. Sift flour and salt into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and into this, pour in the eggs, coconut milk and pandan juice. Using a wooden spoon or a balloon whisk, gradually incorporate the flour into the liquid, making a smooth batter free of lumps. (If there are lumps, just strain mixture through a sieve)

2. Thin the batter down with the additional 65 ml of water ad stir in the oil. Mix well. Cover the bowl and allow batter to stand for 20-30 mins.

3. Make inti

4. To fry pancakes, heat a small frying pan over medium heat. Brush the pan with a little oil. Ensure the pan is sufficiently hot before frying.

5. Stir the batter. Pour a tablespoon (or ladle) ful of batter into the pan. Allow batter to set but not brown (aunt Nelly's method). Once air bubbles pop up, turn over and cook the other side.

6. Turn pancake out onto a plate. Continue making pancakes and at the same time, place a spoonful of filling in the centre of the pancake.

7. Fold both sides towards the middle and roll the pancake away from you, neatly enclosing the filling. (It would be better if you did it while it's still hot cos it sticks easier)

How to make inti

Ingredients:
100g of gula melaka, roughly chopped
75ml of water
1 pandan leaf, knotted
100g of grated coconut

Makes 1 cup

Method

1. Place gula melaka and water in a pan and cook until sugar dissolves. Simmer for 10 mins until liquid starts to thicken and become syrupy

2. Add the pandan leaf and grated coconut and continue cooking over low heat for 10 to 15 mins until the coconut filling is thick and glossy. Most of the liquid should have evaporated. Cool and use as desired. Keeps well if stored in a covered container in the fridge.

Muffins!!!

2006-09-05T21:41:00.000+08:00

Baked nutella muffins for aaron's mom today. She gave me my first muffin tray so thought i should give her my first batch of muffins. Nice recipe from Evan's Kitchen again. Her suggestion of sifting the flour 3 times before using is pretty good. Gets rid of almost all the impurities and the flour is nice and soft.

Nice eh... samore pics of the finished muffins

He he... a nice little muffin

Which one of these muffins do not belong?? Make a guess...

And the answer is...... this one!!

Well, i filled up all 12 holes in the tray and filled another 2 cups. So i decided to try baking without the tray. ONe was okay but the other turned out a bit.. eh... slanted. But well, it tasted just as good. So i packed all the muffins in a box and sent them over. Hope the family likes it!!!

Nutella Muffins (Evan's Kitchen)
Rating: 3.5/5

ingredients
180g butter
180g self-raising flour, sifted 3x
180g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
nutella hazelnut spread

method
1. preheat oven to 160 deg c.
2. soften butter. cream with sugar until creamy.
3. using electric beaters, cream further until pale & ivory in color.
4. add in eggs, one at a time and blend until well combined and sugar has almost dissolved.
5. add in vanilla essence.
6. fold in flour with metal spoon quickly.
7. line muffin tray with paper muffin cups, spoon 3/4 batter into cups.
8. scoop 1/2 tsp nutella onto batter and swirl with toothpick or bamboo skewer.
9. bake for 20 mins until cooked or golden brown in color.

Marble Cake 2

2006-09-01T10:18:00.000+08:00

Okie... i noe it's early in the morning. I didn't intend to bake this cake but on the way home from the mama shop, i decided to buy one of the missing ingredients. Oh what the heck... might as well do it rite?? So i got down to work at 2350, measuring out the ingredients. Thought i had all i needed when i found out i lacked 30g of sugar!!! Die die die.. well, decided to use the next best thing. Icing sugar.Boh bian leh.. This time, i made sure i creamed the mixture thoroughly til the sugar melted. Then i added the eggs and vanilla. Okie, i remembered to mix only 1/4 of the mixture with coco powder, but then again, hiaz... i used too much of the batter. So, i decided to just leave out the extra batter with coco powder and make something else. Just then, i came across some muffin cups!!! Didn't know i had them... so i happily emptied the remaining coco batter into 3 cups and kept my fingers crossed about it turning out alright. Guess what... the accidental muffins were a blast!!

Cool rite?? The muffins were not your usual ones though cos i used a cake mixture, which is thicker.. but it turned out okie.

Now.. for the big one. The instructions said to bake it for 45mins to 1 hour. Thank God i checked my oven within 25 mins cos it was done!! I'll let the pictures do the talking now...

Nice pattern at the top. Thought the chocolate was just nice...

However, the chocolate didn't get to the bottom of the cake!!! But still.. it tasted yummy!!!! My dad and mom really loved it. Dad even asked for a bigger slice!! Haha.. Okie.. going to take some for my piggy to try. He's not a cake lover though but hope he'll like it....

Chocolate Swirl Cake (Evan's Kitchen)
Ratin: 4/5

ingredients :
180g butter
180g self-raising flour, sifted 3 times
150g caster sugar
3 eggs
1.5 tbsps hershey's cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp milk

method :
1. bring a little water to a boil and mix in cocoa powder to form a diluted paste. set aside for later use
2. soften butter and sugar in a large whisking bowl. beat with electric beaters until mixture turns pale yellow or ivory in color
3. add in 1 egg at each time, beating well between each addition. beat until sugar has almost dissolved and mixture becomes almost white
4. fold in sifted flour quickly using a metal spoon
5. add in milk and vanilla essence
6. pour in cocoa powder onto the cake mixture and use a chopstick to swirl around
7. grease an 18cm round cake tin with butter or oil. pour mixture in & spread evenly, smoothing edges.
8. bake in a preheated oven of 180 deg. c for about 30 mins until wooden skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean and when cake comes off the edges.

tip : another method for making the marble effect is to separate out 1/4 of the cake mixture after milk & vanilla essence has been added. then add in cocoa powder into the 1/4 cake mixture, and pour back into the other 3/4 mixture. again use the chopstick to swirl around. by using this method, the cocoa is less concentrated & bitter. depending on how u want it, you can also add some sugar into the cocoa powder to further reduce bitterness.

Ee Fu Noodles

2006-08-29T10:49:00.000+08:00

Tried my hand at Aaron's fav Ee fu noodles. I saw this recipe in a cookbook in Cold Storage and immediately bought the book. Not bad. It has other recipes from Hong Kong and i've tried out one other noodle dish. Good and simple, like Hong Kong noodles.

There is no meat in the recipe but i decided to add some on my own. A bit weird lar.. no meat. Added some small pieces of pork. Aaron absolutely loved it but i tot it was okay only. My very efficient geunie piggy suggested that maybe i could change the type of mushrooms i used. The recipe said to add chinese mushrooms and button mushroom. Going to try and use straw mushies and shitake next time. Instead of mushroom water, i'm going to try and use chicken stock and chicken meat. I also want to try and retain the original Ee fu noodle taste as it adds flavour to the dish. Well, as we Asians know how to cook out type of food, it's a relatively easy dish that you can play with. Add your own veges or maybe even prawns.

Ee Fu Noodles (Hong Kong Food)
Rating: 3/5

Ingredients:
(serves 2)
-150g of Ee Fu Noodles(can be found in Cold Storage)
-90g of fresh chinese mushrooms
-90g of button mushrooms
-90g of meat(any kind)
-1/2 cup of water or chicken stock
-2 cloves of garlic(chopped)
-1 teaspoon of sugar
-2 teaspoon of oyster sauce
-2 teaspoon of soya sauce
-1 teaspoon of oil
-1 teaspoon of sesame oil
-1/4 teaspoon of white ground pepper

Directions:
-Blanch the noodles in boiling water until it losses it's crispiness. Drain and rinse with cold water
-In a hot wok, put in oil and saute the garlic. Add in the meat and stir fry for about 2 mins. Add in the mushrooms and stir fry for another 2 mins.
-Pour in the noodles and mix thoroughly. Add in the sugar, soya sauce, oyster sauce and stock and mix.Let the noodles simmer in the sauce until it sucks up all the water.
-Add in the sesame oil and pepper, stir and serve hot.

A Bottle Of Thanks

2006-08-25T09:00:00.000+08:00

Will you look at the time?! I'm at my last batch of chocolate chip cookies liaoz. It's actaully for a flen at work who helped me a lot during my absence. Really wanted to show my appreciation and thanks and so decided to make her a bottle of cookies to add on to a gift and card. Hope she enjoys them.

I like the little chipmunk. Soooo cute!

Emmm... smells good.. My very last batch of addictive chocolate chip cookies. Taken from a food blog, bakingsheet. It's nice and chewy cos it's got oats in it.

Here's the recipe.

Addictive Chocolate Chip Cookies
From www.bakingsheet.blogspot.com
Rating: 4/5 (you just can't stop!)

2 cups ap flour
½ cup quick cooking oats
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup white sugar
¾ cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F and line a few baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, oats, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Blend in vanilla extract and egg. Slowly add in the flour mixture until nearly combined. Add in chocolate chips and stir until dough is uniform in color and chip distribution.
Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets.
Bake at 350F for 11-13 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack to cool.
Makes 40 cookies.

To my photographer cum Guinea Piggy

2006-08-23T14:07:00.000+08:00

Thanks love, not only for the dinner, but also the wonderful day i had with you yesterday!!

PS: All photos from Giraffe were taken by him.

Happy Burpday to Me

2006-08-23T14:04:00.000+08:00

Well, as you can see, i spent my birthday eating. And eating lots of good food!! From homemade to classy restaurant. I daresay this is one of the best birthdays i've ever had. Maybe it's becos i'm on leave.. hehe.. But i've made an entry of all the stuff i ate and some recipes to go along. Really simple to do if you want a quick and healthy meal. Hope you enjoy this entry as much as i enojyed doing it.

Dinner at Giraffe

2006-08-23T11:23:00.000+08:00

Was really excited about dinner with Aaron here. Heard of the ambience and the food. As we walked into the restaurant through the bar, it's as though you've walked into another world. Streams of water flowing under your feet, tall safari like toy giraffes in some of the corners and the glass windows blend well with the woody frames.

"99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer...."

Even the menu was nice.Purple leather bound with safari themed paper on the inside. Couldn't decide on the main course so we had our drinks first. Orange juice for the ladies and ice latte for the gentleman.

After much deliberation, we decided to ask the helpful waitress for some recomendations. This was our meal for the evening.

For starters,

Giraffe Italian Salad- Marinated artichoke hearts with sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives & cucumber served on a bed of mixed lettuce with basil pesto vinaigrette & garlic crostini.

What a mouthful to say yeah? But i tell you this Italian salad is really good. Light and exotic, it's got all these flavours that burst in your mouth when you eat it. Loved the sun-dried tomatoes. Sweet.

Main Course

Seville Chicken with Paella & Chorizo- Tender chicken breast marinated in an orange essence served with saffron-infused paella rice & chorizo slices.

I had this main course. It was the first time i tried paella rice. It's Spanish and normally cooked with seafood. However, this was a good take by using chicken and chorizo, a kind of sausage. Loved the flavour of the rice and how the chicken mixed so well with it. A very filling dish.

Rib Eye with Gorgonzola butter- Austtalian grain-fed beef served with butter & crispy fries.

Now this was the best!! Look at that knob of butter slowly melting and mixing with the natural juices from the succulent steak. When you eat it, the whole piece just melts in your mouth. Emmmmmmmmm........ Only one word to describe it. Shiok!

Sweet Dessert

We were already so full with the main course and thought of skipping the desserts. But after a while, we felt better and decided to order the restaurant's signature dessert.

Malva Pudding-Traditional South African dessert infused with orange & Jack Daniels. Served with ice-cream & orange sauce.

I loved it!! Aaron thought it was pretty normal cos it really is just a sponge cake with ice cream on top. But being a cake person, I know how difficult it is to ensure the quality of a melt-in-your-mouth cake. And the adding of the orange sauce just brings out the flavour of the cake even more. Superb!

We're telling everyone how great the place is. It's a little steep though but fantastic for special occasions(like birthdays). I give it 4/5 for ambience and 4/5 for food. Oh, and on top of that, service was top notch!

Lunch With The Sister

2006-08-22T23:18:00.000+08:00

My sweet sister took half day off just to be with me... Soo sweeeeet. So, i decided to cook for her. Her fav, olive rice. But first, let me show you the spread for lunch.

Very Thai kinda food. Well, i love Thai food so this menu is great for me.

Firstly, the olive rice.

Got the menu from another food blogger, who got this one from Sylvia Tan from her book "Mad About Food". Good stuff man and easy to make. Here's the recipe.

Olive Rice

• saute some chopped garlic in hot oil before adding 300g of minced pork (recipe works just as well with minced chicken or minced beef, depending on your preference) and 3 tablespoons of the preserved olive vegetables (to reduce the oil in the dish, I try to drain away as much of the oil in which the olive vegetables are preserved in - which by the way, when stirred into the white rice, imparts a slightly light olive green hue to the rice)
• stir-fry the minced meat mixture and add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and a couple of heavy-handed shakes of white pepper
• you can serve the minced meat mixture over a bowl of white rice but I usually prefer to add my cooked white rice (about 3 to 4 bowls) into the wok with the minced meat mixture and stir the whole thing vigorously until well-mixed
• to serve: toss some roasted peanuts on top, garnish with mint leaves and if you prefer, a couple of lemon wedges

Tom Yum Soup

Look at the beautiful colours! Tasted okay only cos i have really high expectations for Tom Yum Soup. Took the paste from a packet but added stuff like ginger, onion and lemon grass before adding in the water to boil and the paste to taste. You can add any kind of ingredients to the soup. For this, i used prawns, fish slices and a little bit of meat. Oh, not forgetting my fav vege and tomato.

Lemonade

I halved the recipe for just 3. Love the strong sour taste with a tinge of sweetness. Good cooling drink.

Remember the starting proportions - 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of water, 1 cup of lemon juice.
The secret to perfect lemonade is to start by making sugar syrup, also known as "simple syrup". Dissolving the sugar in hot water effectively disperses the sugar in the lemonade, instead of having the sugar sink to the bottom.
In a small saucepan heat the sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved completely. While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice. Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add around 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes.
Serve with ice, sliced lemons.
Serves 6.

Birthday Breakfast

2006-08-22T23:08:00.000+08:00

They always say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I agree. So, i made these apple waffles. Really good. Sweet and sour at the same time and most importantly, healthy.

Nice eh, can use any apples, red or green.Don't need to use waffles, it's just as good on toasted bread.

Sauteed Apples (All Recipes)
Submitted by: Jenny

INGREDIENTS:
• 30 g butter
• 2 large tart apples - peeled, cored and sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 3 g cornstarch
• 60 ml cold water
• 35 g brown sugar
• 0.6 g ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a large skillet or saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; add apples. Cook, stirring constantly, until apples are almost tender, about 6 to 7 minutes.
2. Dissolve cornstarch in water; add to skillet. Stir in brown sugar and cinnamon. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and serve warm.

Oh yeah and.. An apple a day, keeps the doctor away!!

My Dream Cake

2006-08-22T10:15:00.000+08:00

I finally got my dream cake! An elmo cake. He's been my childhood idol and is still my fav sesame street character. My sweet sister got the cake for me. It's really nice! Royal chocolate from Polar Cakes and Puffs.

See! It even has the Ah Jie inside!! He he.. this is one of the few personalised cakes i've ever had. Angie and I had a tough time trying to cut elmo up so aaron did the 'murdering' for us. To be honest, elmo didn't taste all that good. But he sure looked nice!!

Sooooooooooo cute!! Thanks angie!! Muakzz!!

Homemade Brownie with Ice Cream

2006-08-21T08:52:00.000+08:00

I actaully made this brownie about a week ago. Still had some left overs and my guinea piggy was hungry even after 1 big box of fried rice. So i took it out of the fridge, popped it into the oven, and added some ice cream, rasins and chocolate sauce on top. Emmmmmmm.... Shiok.

The brownie texture is really good. Not too thick and sweet. Maybe cos i used dark chocolate baking powder instead. It's nicer and richer in the coco taste.

Oooooooooooo... looks so goooooodd.......

Best Brownies (All Recipes)
Submitted by: Angie
Personal Rating: 4/5

INGREDIENTS:
• 115 g butter
• 200 g white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 5 ml vanilla extract
• 30 g unsweetened cocoa powder
• 60 g all-purpose flour
• 2 g salt
• 1 g baking powder

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour an 8 inch square pan.
2. In a large saucepan, melt 1/2 cup butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, eggs, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/2 cup flour, salt, and baking powder. Spread batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overcook.

Marble Cake 1

2006-08-21T08:36:00.000+08:00

Had an urge to bake on sat so, i did it. Tried my hand at marble cake at 10pm. Horrible lar... think i didn't explore enough recipes to find a really good one. I just took one off All recipes. Didn't work out well.

Looks okay rite?? But on the inside, it's all mushy and gooey.. too heavy.. And i did a stupid thing. I used too little of the original batter for the base and mixed too much coco powder into the batter. I ended up gettting chocolate cake instead. Sian. Going to research on more marble cakes and going to try out a good recipe. When i do so, i'll post it up with the recipe.

Looks good? It's becos of my photographer lar...cum foodie guinea pig, Aaron.

Litlle Red Fruit.

2006-08-20T22:45:00.000+08:00

I have lots of friends who don't like this fruit. They say it's difficult to eat and they can't stand the barky taste of the seed that annoyingly attaches itself to the sweet, juicy fruit. But to me, it's shiok.

Look at that succulent white interior! I don't care much abt the barky part. To me, it's a all in the package.

My Fav Cook

2006-08-19T13:01:00.000+08:00

I actaully wanted to post up the lunch that i made myself yesterday. I took pictures of it on my camara but could not upload it as i (once again) lost the cable that is used to upload onto the com. So, i decided that i'll dedicate my first post to my fav cook. My mom. She the best! She's teochew so the stuff that she cooks has that teochew touch, that is, simple yet delicious. Today, it's prawns, the Lor Bak and Small Kai Lan. All my fav stuff. She said it was for my birthday. So sweeeeeeeet
rite??

Emmmm.. my fav.. kai lan.. simple and chewy. Just fry with garlic and oyster sauce

Lor Bak. It's better to leave it overnight after cooking so the meat gets all that wonderful black sauce. I love the egg!!!

Prawnnnnss... Steamed with white wine, some salt and pepper.

Food is a Universal Language

2006-08-16T17:46:00.000+08:00

Food, like football, is a universal language.

I don't know about you, but i love food. I love eating it and cooking it. Ever since i was young, my fav game was masak masak where i used different types of toys to pretend as food. I remember using some red beads and green beads and making red and green bean soup.

As i grew up, i would take left over food from dinner and make another dish. Something like a after dinner snack. My favourite was mashing up potatoes and add pepper and mayo to it to make it like mashed potatoes. Pretty cool.

So now, i'm into lotsa stuff. Whatever cooking methods. Boiling, steaming, blanching, grilling, frying and my pet cooking method, baking. I just love it!

But you know the best part of cooking? It's the part where you get to share the food with people you love. I love it when ple enjoy the food that i have cooked. My aim for my food?? That it not only fills the stomach, it also fills the heart. So guys, i may not be very very regular with this flog but the entries will be about the stuff that i cook and the recipes. So.... Bon Appetit!