D e l i s i o u c i t y

Often times I wonder if I cook/bake food only because of the photographic opportunities they present. Maybe it’s not all true, because that same wonderment quickly gets brushed off because I do enjoy being in the kitchen. Does that happen to you? Does cooking and baking make you happy?

Well, although I admit the joy of being in the kitchen can be very short-lived, it’s more than compensated by the fact that this blog is a place I can document what I love to do. In a way, it’s  almost like writing history… with photos! I hope you have enjoyed being in this journey of ‘gastroventures’ with me for the past year or so. There are a few changes that I had made recently, and you might have noticed: firstly, I’ve changed this website’s tagline to ‘Food & Photography‘. I think it suits the whole ambition that became  a reality when I invested in my DSLR camera. It certainly encapsulates what I had inadvertently made into a hobby… well, two hobbies rather, namely baking and photography.

Clockwise: Limes in tart pan holes; Organic Goats’ Cheese, chopped thyme, lime rind,  diagonally-cut asparagus

Secondly, you may have noticed (or have even joined) the Facebook page of this website. As of today, the page has gathered 389 ‘likes’, and already I feel mighty chuffed. Thank you ^_^ For those of you who have yet to get into the Facebook bandwagon, I must advice that you don’t! It is absolutely addictive ;p (and pretty much can take up your precious time). But…. if you insist.. (hehe)

Anyway, let’s talk about the recipe for the tarts in the photograph.. because that’s why we’re here! It is asparagus season in UK right now and these delicious stalks of greens pair very nicely with mushrooms. Here, the shiitake variety is used. These make very simple  starters and take no time at all. Except of course if you include the time taken in the treatment of the puff pastry (!) I would recommend that you buy the ready made rolled puff pastry from the freezer section of your local grocery store… because as exciting as making layers of flaky pastry is, it does take time and particularly cool hands and a cool counter (in which case, use a granite slab, and do it very early in the morning if you insist). Just roll the pastry, and use a 7.5” to 8” mousse ring or a round cookie cutter to make these cute tarts.

Shiitake and Asparagus Tarts
(adapted from Epicurious.com)

Ingredients

2 sheets of puff pastry
1/4 C unsalted butter
A handful of shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and cut into strips
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
A bunch of asparagus, cut diagonally (discard the tough end)
Chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lime peel
1/4 creme fraiche/fresh cream
100g organic goats cheese (you can replace with philly if that’s easier)
Fresh thyme sprigs for garnishing

Method

Roll out the pastry and cut circles with the mousse ring. Arrange on baking sheets and chill in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Melt the butter and saute the mushrooms. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and continue to saute until tender and lightly browned. Transfer into a bowl to cool, then add the rest of the ingredients in. Preheat oven to 400F, place the fillings onto the puff pastry and bake until the crusts are puffed and golden, and the filling cooked through. Garnish with thyme.

Have fun trying out the recipe, and hope you enjoy the photos ^_^

What do you do when you have a serious hankering for sweet things? Reach out for that bar of chocolate? A scoop of Ben and Jerry’s perhaps? I have a horrible tendency to go for really fatty rich things when it comes to satisfying my sweet tooth. Give me a ball of Gulab Jamun and I’m all set. The other day I was torn between a roll of ready-made puff pastry or heating up chocolate in a bain marie for a decadent chocolate cupcake. The only reasons why these Portuguese Custard Tarts won is because the recipe is so easy, and that it takes only slightly longer to bake than it is to prepare the ingredients. Also,… did I mention the puff pastry was ready-made?

The recipe comes from Not Quite Nigella who in turn adapted it from Bill Granger (Australian celebrity chef). The only things I’ll suggest to you is 1) to use pure vanilla beans scraped off from the pods (because nothing beats the awesome taste of it!) and 2) to constantly stir, scrape and watch over the custard whilst it is cooking.

Portuguese tarts

Ingredients

• 3 egg yolks (I prefer 2 egg yolks and 1 whole egg)
• 115g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp cornflour
• 230ml Cream
• 170ml Milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g rolled puff pastry

Method
1. Lightly grease a 12-hole 80ml muffin tray.

2. Put the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a pan and whisk together. Gradually whisk in the cream and milk until smooth.

3. Place the pan over a medium heat and cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens and comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Transfer the custard to a bowl, cover the surface with cling film to prevent a skin forming and leave to cool.

4. Preheat the oven to 200C.

5. Cut the pastry dough sheet in half, put one half on top of the other and set aside for 5 minutes. Roll up the pastry tightly from the short end and cut the pastry log into 12 x 1cm rounds. Lay each pastry round on a lightly floured surface and use a rolling pin to roll out until each is 10cm in diameter.

6. Press the pastry rounds into the muffin tin. Spoon the cooled custard into the pastry cases and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the pastry and custard are golden. Leave the tarts in the tin for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cute, sweet and full-fat goodness packed in a bite. Sweet cravings? Done.

There’s this Thai food restaurant at Jalan Jerudong in Bandar that delivers absolutely delicious dishes time after time. In my humble opinion, so far there has not been any other that can substitute their chef’s expertise. But that’s just me… I’m sure you have your own favourite Thai food places as there are quite a number in Brunei (or yours is even in Thailand itself!) Anyhow, I miss their green curry chicken, which is a delightful hot and sweet dish, again quite unlike those in other places that I’ve tried. Husby and I absolutely adore this dish and often ordered it for takeaway to gobble up at home (yes, we even takeaway their rice to eat with the chicken. Don’t judge :p). The restaurant, Aqil Shafie, (which does not sound remotely Thai at all by the way), also boasts excellent services – they are quick (and relatively quick during peak hours) that you can actually spend your lunch time on a working day there. I am forever their fan. Trying to whip up this dish similar to theirs seemed like a monumental task…. especially since I wasn’t sure I could get hold of the ingredients. Alas, people sell all sorts of stuff online these days. Check out this website if you are in UK (or anywhere in the EU) – they delivered my ingredients within two days of placing an order. Bless!

What you need: Lemongrass, sweet basil, coriander, palm sugar, kaffir lime leaves, coconut milk

Of course, if you are in Brunei or anywhere else in Asia.. then you probably don’t have to search further than your mother-in-law’s herb garden in pursuit of these ingredients. Oh and you don’t really need to hack open a coconut for the milk – that one up there is just a picture I took for a different project (which I will post up soon enough). Once all the ingredients are amassed, this dish is very quick and easy to make that you could cry. What is the mystery then? I suppose it boils down to your green curry paste.. and of course, the all-time secret weapon: kaffir lime leaves. You probably remember that I am quite the smitten-kitten when it comes to these leaves; having to have combined them with a scallop dish I made in an earlier post.

With many dishes, I believe we can substitute some ingredients but it does mean losing out on the original flavour intended by the recipe-maker/cook/chef. My point is that having all the ingredients for a particular dish is absolutely crucial;  even if  it takes a far lesser time to cook the ultimate dish compared to climbing a coconut tree for that precious genuine santan (which again, you don’t have to do!!) You can of course make do with some things missing, but try to substitute where you can. The palm sugar, for instance, can be substituted with a nice earthy and warm sugar like demerara or muscovado.

Thai Green Chicken Curry (Gaeng Khiao Wan Gai)

Source: Thai food Online
Ingredients (Serves 4):

• 500g skinless, boneless chicken (in bite sized pieces)
• 1 tablespoon Vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons Green curry paste
• 1 tablespoon Palm sugar
• 1-2 stalks Thai Lemongrass
• 6-8 Fresh Kaffir lime leaves, torn into pieces
• 200g Thai Eggplant
• 400ml (1 can) Coconut milk
• 2 tablespoon of Thai fish sauce
• Small handful of Thai Coriander, roughly chopped
• Thai Basil and Thai Red Chillies (optional)

Note:
These are the recommended amounts required for a meal for four people. Please adjust the amounts accordingly for more or less people. Also you might already have some of these Thai food ingredients in your larder, so please set the quantity to zero for any ingredients that you already have.
Also please be aware that any order containing fresh Thai products will be dispatched on a Tuesday or Wednesday (This is because all our fresh Thai products are flown in direct from Thailand once a week, ensuring you get the best quality fresh Thai food products). Using fresh Thai produce will ensure you get an authentic taste.

Cooking Time: 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Method:

1. Cut the chicken up into smallish bite size pieces (Tip: try and use breast or leg meat).
2. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan. Add the green curry paste and sugar and cook over a fairly high heat for about a minute, stirring with the lemongrass.
3. Add the coconut milk slowly, and continue to stir while cooking until a thin film of oil appears on the surface.
4. Reduce the heat slightly and stir in the chicken and other ingredients except the eggplant. Bring to a boil and cook until the chicken begins to change colour. Adjust the flavours to suit yourself.
5. When it is at a boil again add the eggplant and continue till the chicken is cooked through.
6. The curry is now best left to sit for a few minutes so the sauce becomes creamier. You will also taste the true flavours of the curry paste ingredients when it’s slightly cooler
7. Garnish with Thai basil and chopped Thai red chilli. Serve with lots of fragrant Thai jasmine rice.

I wasn’t quite sure anymore if the resulting dish was any better than the one that I crave from that restaurant… because you always tend to have a personal touch with things you make with your own hands anyway. In effect, though the difference might be subtle, the end result just won’t be the same. For instance, I forgot to order the tiny eggplants to add to this dish and that, I thought, changed the ensemble. But… pedantic detailing aside, I truly enjoyed the hot meal. Happy cooking (or uncooking) to you.

Since the success of the lamb shank experiment posted here some weeks ago, I’ve been patiently waiting for another moment of craving for red meat.  It doesn’t come very quickly, I must admit, and maybe it’s a good thing since red meats (let alone lamb) are the very definition of calorific monstrosity. At long last, the frozen lamb shanks I have stashed away for such moments of hankering have finally been devoured. It doesn’t take too much effort to make this resulting dish, in fact the only trouble is to be patient about the wonderful smell of slow oven braising.

Braised Lamb Shanks with Sweet Potatoes
By Nikki A.
www.delisioucity.com

2 pieces lamb shanks, cleaned
4 Tbspn olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1.5 cm fresh ginger
3 Cups beef stock
2 medium sweet potatoes, diced
1/2 potato, diced
1 carrot, diced

Method
Heat the olive oil and fry the shanks until browned on most parts. Remove the shanks and place on a plate. Using the same oil, sautee the onions, ginger and garlic until translucent. Add the potatoes and carrots and continue to cook on medium heat. Add beef stock and let simmer until slightly reduced. Add the shanks to the gravy, and put in oven at 220C for 2 to 3 hours.

Penne Al’ arrabiata

1 Cup penne, cooked to aldente
2 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
2 Tbspn oliver oil
4 to 5 Tbspn tomato puree/chopped tomato/tomato sauce
3 thinly sliced chilli (I used the green chilli variety – which is why you can’t see it in the picture)
1 stalk of fresh cilantro, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil, then fry in the garlic. Add the chillies and tomato, then pieces of lamb shank and don’t forget the tender sweet potatoes and carrots from the braise. Sautee, and add the penne. Incorporate well and serve with chopped cilantro as topping. Add parmesan if you like.

Some notes I thought you might like to know:

• Arrabiata means tomato and chilli sauce. Remember, the chillies I used here are the green variety… so you can’t really see them but they’re there! I wish I had put in some more chillies though.
• I used much lesser tomato in this recipe because I wanted the taste of the braised lamb and sweet potato to predominantly come through.
• Why cilantro? Well you can replace that with fresh basil if you like for a more authentic Italian dish. I just happened to have cilantro in the fridge, waiting to be used and eager to rot ^_^

Selamat mencuba !

-nix-

I’ve been dreaming of making macarons with pink peppercorns for ages. Here it is, married with a smooth, silky mascarpone filling that is just too simple to create that I wonder why I had not been using mascarpone for fillings all this time! (Oh wait a minute… I remember. They’re pretty useless as they don’t hold their shape in hot climates) :p These were made over the weekend and if you’re wondering what’s up with the sudden surge of posts and food extravaganza, I’ve got plenty of reason. A couple of projects in the pipeline and I’m just testing out recipes I’ve never done before. For now, it’s hush-hush!

Pink Peppercorn with Strawberry Mascarpone Macaron
By Nikki A. , www.delisioucity.com

110g almond powder
200g confectioner’s sugar
A handful of peppercorn, rubbed to obtain the pink shell
100g egg whites (aged for 24 to 48 hrs)
25g caster sugar
A pinch of salt
Some red food colouring

Sift the almond powder and confectioner’s sugar together, making sure you push the larger particles through the sifter using a rubber spatula. Set aside. In a mixer, beat the egg whites with salt until foamy. Add the caster sugar little by little and continue to beat the egg whites until it forms a soft peak when lifted with your finger. You may add the colouring during this process. Then combine the dry ingredients together with the whipped egg white, and fold the two together in a scooping motion. Scrape the sides of your bowl as you scoop and fold, making sure that you don’t over-macaronnage. Once your batter starts to form a ‘ribbon’ or have the consistency of flowing magma, stop folding. Prepare a piping bag with a round tip. Insert the batter in the piping bag, and start piping the batter onto parchment-lined baking sheets. Sprinkle some of the peppercorn skin onto the macaron shells. Let the piped batter rest for about 20 minutes (or longer, depending on the humidity of the day), and once they form a ’skin’ or are dry when you touch them with your finger tip, you can pop them in a preheated oven. Bake at 175C for 15 minutes. Once done, leave them to cool before taking them off the parchment.

Strawberry Mascarpone filling

250gm mascarpone
A handful of fresh strawberries

Beat the mascarpone with a hand-held mixer. Chop the strawberries and add a little at a time to the mascarpone. Incorporate and ensure that the strawberries are pulverized. Fill in the centre of a macaron shell, and cover with another piece of shell. Refrigerate for 24 hours to enhance the taste of the macaron.

Just a word of wisdom about macaron textures: I believe that some people have been misled to think that macarons are these hardy, tough, crunchy things that are (god forbid!!) made of coconuts. Those are macaroons! Yes, yes of course some patisseries and patissiers insist on calling macarons macaroons, and that’s their prerogative (read here to know when a macaron really is a macaron). The point is not to mistaken these beautiful delicate things for the coconut cookie version ;p And worst still, there are macarons out there that have this awful chunky skin that crunches as you bite them and you’re left with a dry crumble that is absolutely traumatizing to the palate – especially for people who experience their first macarons. They’re not meant to be that way, I can assure you. And the insides should be a little bit cakey and semi-wet; not dry and unappetizing. It’s awful that some patisseries taunt their colourful macarons in their posh glass cabinet and you find that they’ve done it all wrong: from the shell to the filling. I am no expert but I know that it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that appearances alone just don’t cut it – no matter how smooth, and cute the tiny gerbets look.

Maybe I’m a tad too harsh here. After all, the Italian meringue technique does indeed yield a ‘tougher cookie’. It does yield a crunchier skin but not to the extent of utter dryness that you can here a snap when biting through. I used to adore the Italian meringue method, and whenever I made them, the shell was always a lot less moist (hence more robust and won’t crack as easy). But I have to confess that the French meringue method is simply a forte I have learned to claim – perhaps more than anything because of its simplicity, and secondly the resulting ’shine’ on the shell left by the sugar. Haha that’s a bit of a tongue twister. Anyway, I’m not one to kiss and tell; but the macaron on the left above is a raspberry mini mac that just won’t tear off upon biting that nothing but crummies fell into my mouth! It came from a renowned French pastry chef’s cafe et patisserie right here in Oxford. Enough said ^_^

Hands down, my favourite flavour to date.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that because I wasn’t brave enough, the taste of pink peppercorn in this macaron wasn’t overpowering in any sense. In fact I wish I had put in some of the crushed pepper in the mascarpone filling. Contrasts are wonderful when done right ^_^ (enter Pierre Herme!)

That’s it from me for now, see you again soon!
xoxo

Distance truly does make the heart grow fonder! Nowadays I’m constantly looking for any glint of home comfort food without having to make them myself. Does that make sense? I mean I am simply craving for anything hot, spicy, sour, and probably more predominantly, fried, fried, FRIED! Do you notice how many foods from our part of the world are fried? Fried fish.. fried chicken.. cucurs (fritters), you name it, we fry it! And although currypuffs can technically be baked, who on earth finds that yummy? ;p The point is, we know it’s unhealthy but we continue to love fried food. And that’s precisely what I’ve been looking for (and I won’t care if you judge me). The closest things to fried currypuff here are the Indian samosa and the Cornish pasty, but they don’t quite cut it for me, at least not when the mood is there to whip up your own food! Sometimes comfort food is just that: it has to be home made.

Snacks like popia (springrolls) and currypuffs can be found in many parts of Southeast Asia, and I am not sure who ought to claim it as theirs. In Singapore, you can easily find these in those Old Chang Kee carts dotted all over Orchard Road.. and in both Malaysia and Brunei, you only need to drive a little to the nearest pasar malam (night market) till you stumble upon fried food heaven; and in no way is the karipap elusive. Apparently Thais have a version of the karipap too.. called kalipap (?) and of course, the Philippino version exists, called panada. I can only imagine that this came from the Spanish version of the empanada/impanada, which makes sense since the Philippines was colonized by the Spanish. I do tend to go off a tangent.  Anyway, wherever it originated from is not much of an issue – there’s plenty of variety in terms of what can constitute as  the filling for currypuffs and that simply leaves a lot of room for people to claim as their own. Here’s a recipe which I borrowed from this wonderful Malaysian website which takes you through the step-by-step process of making our much loved karipap ^_^ It’s for the specific swirly/shell pastry and it is fun to make. There is something about the repetitive work of pastry-making that’s simply intoxicating and this was such a stress-buster for me last weekend!

(Remember, you can click on the link where the original recipe is and pictures of the techniques involved)

Karipap Pusing/Karipap Putar
Source: website

Pastry ‘A’
300gm all purpose flour
1/4 Cup vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
Pinch of salt
1/2 Cup water

Add salt to flour, then pour the oil into the flour and combine using the tips of your fingers. Add water a little at a time until all is incorporated and forms a dough.

Pastry ‘B’
150gm all purpose flour
100gm unsalted butter (the original recipe called for margarine)

Combine the butter and flour together to form a dough.

Filling

2 sweet potatoes, diced finely
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
2 (or more) Tbspns of curry
1 Tbspn cinnamon powder
Salt and sugar to taste
Some oil
1 cup water

Fry up the onions in oil until they are translucent. Add the potato and the rest of the ingredients. Let simmer in water and keep on topping up until all the moisture is reduced. Mash the potato to get a smooth filling (optional, of course). You may add chicken or beef to this recipe.

Method

Roll both types of pastries into balls, ensuring that the ones from Pastry ‘A’ are slightly larger than ‘B’. Using a rolling pin, flatten a ball from Pastry ‘A’ and place a dough ball from Pastry ‘B’ in the centre of it, enclosing it to form a larger ball. Repeat with all of the balls. Take one and roll with the pin, to form a pastry sheet. Now roll one edge of the sheet towards the other, just as you would a swiss roll cake. Then roll again with the pin, now forming a sheet with a narrower width. Roll once again from one edge towards the other. Take a knife and cut this roll of pastry into a few slices about 1cm thick each. For each of these slices, roll again with the pin to obtain a circular sheet. You can see from here the beautiful swirly pattern on each sheet. Insert fillings (about one teaspoon is often enough) and enclose into a half-moon shape. Pinch the edges and twist to form the familiar looking currypuff. Fry in hot oil in a deep frier or a wok.

Comfort food currypuffs? Done. If you’re like me, enjoy this with an awesome dipping of chilli sauce (sweet thai chilli is good too). Fantastic.

I must say, kudos to the creator of this recipe! This is such a beautiful, flaky pastry that has a ’short’ texture and simply crumbles and melts in your mouth. The intricate layers and swirling effect are gorgeous, and they may look complicated but they are far from that. Mine here are sooo imperfect but take a gander at the pictures from the website where the recipe came from! Beautiful, no?? The filling is awesome too, I must add! But a wee warning though: this  karipap has a high potency… for fat deposits to settle straight to your hips!

And that’s the way the cookie crumbles karipap krumbles ^_^

xoxo

Oh dear,… I’ve been so busy with studies life that I’ve completely forgotten to edit and publish the draft of this post!  It has been sitting in my drafts dashboard for at least three weeks now. My sincerest apologies to friends who have been asking about waiting for the recipe of this dish on facebook – all I can say is, better late than never (*sheepish smile*). I also realize that as we are approaching the season of spring and gradually waving goodbye to the wretched cold and frosty winter madness, this lamb shank looks a little bit out of place. But I won’t feel too embarrassed yet, as winter is going away very very slowly at a rate worth being impatient about. Heck, I have been missing the sun so much, and the dreadful cold has certainly been affecting my mood and pace of work lately >_< But not to worry, I am very happy that the past couple of days has seen some glorious sunshine warming its way through the naked tree branches and cutting the nevertheless icy air. That’ll do it for now, I reckon. Anyway… back in Brunei and other hot places, people eat lamb regardless of the weather, so here you are, my personal take on the braised lamb shank ^_^

(apologies if u are a vegetarian or dislike red meat :-/)

Nikki’s Braised Lamb Shanks
www.delisioucity.com

2 pcs of lamb shank, cleaned and lean (!)
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
some olive oil
1 carrot – diced
1 large potato – diced
1 stalk fresh rosemary
2.5 cups water
1 cup beef stock
3 to 5 Tbspn oyster sauce (careful, salty!)
Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 200C. In a stock pot or dutch oven, heat the olive oil and add onions and garlic until fragrant and slightly caramelized. Add the shanks in and cook until slightly browned throughout. Take off from the heat. With the leftover olive oil, add the potato and carrot, oyster sauce, and beef stock. Let simmer and then add the shanks back in. Add the rosemary, and top up with water. Bring to the boil and then pop the stock pot, with lid, into your oven. You may cover the pot with aluminium foil too if the cover is missing. Set the oven to 3 – 3.5 hrs. Check every hour to stir the gravy and shift the lamb shanks about so that they get cooked nicely. By the end of 3.5 hrs you will get a beautiful fall-off-the-bone meat! Serve with toasted loaf slices, or yorkshire pudding.

Now you may notice the addition of the oyster sauce in the recipe. It is of course entirely up to you on that., but I can assure you it will not allude to the taste of bak choy in oyster sauce at all! I honestly didn’t have a clue how to make brown sauce and didn’t bother checking as this dish was made late on Saturday night on a whim, so I grabbed the next best thing (hehe) and it turned out to be a fluke. Was half dead by the time 3.5 hours was up. Oh but what a sensational way to enjoy Sunday lunch this was! Anyhow, I am very certain that there are a million other lamb shank recipes out there (most using alcohol though….) and perhaps most importantly, more traditional ways of making them. If you do get to try them or indeed have your own recipe, I’d love to know! For an absolutely professional take on brown sauce and other herbed things for example, you can look at our wonderful local talents from the brigade of Empire Hotel & Country Club at Chef Nash’s wesbite.

I really do appreciate you dropping by to this website despite the stalls and stagnations. Yes, all of you! Thank you!for your continuing support! ^_^

And happy gastroventuring! xxx

Before you think I make my own bread or have a stone or brick oven (like our friend here), let me just stop you by saying one thing: Online  grocery shopping. I simply love the fact that over on this side of the world, all you have to do pertaining to grocery shopping is go online, pick your orders, choose your date and time of delivery, and voila! Groceries will miraculously be delivered in a box right at your doorstep. Can life get any easier? The only possible flaw about this system is that sometimes, you can’t put the image of the item you want in your head: dimensions-wise, weight-wise, volume-wise… especially if you can’t be bothered. I suppose it’s different if the stuff is right there in your hands and you can feel or touch it. As a result, my order of a loaf of stonebaked bread very much surprised me when it came, as it was massive! As in 800 grams massive. Now how could one person possibly finish this loaf of bread before it goes stale and only good as a decorative element on the window of a bakery? I started with sawing the loaf, into 5 reasonably chunky portions and froze 2 of them. The other 3? Well, various things really, including simply toasting slices of them in olive oil. Here are three ways I enjoyed the bread the past weeks, and trust me, there’s still one chunk left in the freezer!

Bruschetta
This is inspired by that bruschetta scene on the movie Julie & Julia!

Ingredients
Bread slices
Olive oil for frying the bread
Tomatoes, diced
Fresh Basil leaves
Fresh Garlic, chopped
Mozzarella cheese, grated

How to
Fry the bread slices until crispy on the outside but still soft inside. That means don’t overdo it. Place on the side and make the topping. Mix all the ingredients together and lay an appropriate amount on the bread. I didn’t bother mixing them, so I placed the mozzarella first on the bread, the layered on everything else. Enjoy!

Have you ever tried poaching an egg? Not as easy as I thought, but it might help if you have a slotted spoon and remember to use fresh eggs. This one isn’t perfect, but ooooh it’s so lovely to eat that I forgot to take a picture of the oozing egg yolk (which I normally detest). Changed my mind thanks to this!

Poached Egg on a bed of Spinach & Yellow Peppers, and Toast
Really good for breakfast!

Ingredients (for 1 serving)
One Egg
A handful of Baby Spinach, washed
A quarter of Yellow Pepper, diced
Small Onion, diced
1 clove of Garlic, pulverized
1 piece of toast
Some butter
Salt & pepper to taste

How to
Melt the butter in a pan and add the onions and garlic. Sautee until the onions have caramelized. Add the peppers, followed with spinach. Don’t overcook, and add salt and pepper to taste. For the poached egg, boil some water, and break the egg into the water. Immediately spoon the egg whites onto the centre so that it covers the yolk part. This involves constantly spooning the egg so it comes together nicely. Take it out of the water and place on top of the vegetables and toast. Enjoy!

Finally, everyone’s favourite, French toast. It’s so simple I am sure you won’t need the recipe ^_^ I grew up eating the sweet version of the French toast, but I have come to know from lots of people that the savoury version is more familiar. Whatever your take, this is definitely a comfort food I can never live without.

Powdered French Toast

If you’re a big fan of bread, you probably have some favourite recipes of your own, so please do drop us a message! Except of course if it’s just toast ^_^

At some point the past two years, baker-bloggers from all over the world started becoming more or less excited & obsessed about green tea powder, or Matcha, as they were about getting that macaron ‘feet’ to rise. You can see evidence of this here at Fanny’s, Kelli’s, Mandy’s, Inne’s, Aran’s, and oh dozens more websites you can just google off! There is an almost macaron-baking-like cult-following for matcha (I say almost because I’m biased as macarons are my first love – but they could be on par; what two things other than macarons and matcha can you see personal blogs being dedicated to?!) Of course, there are those bloggers who use matcha regularly, to make beautiful things for entremet components like genoise and mousses; or simply refreshing panna cottas; cupcakes and yes, macarons.  Do I need say more as to where this post is leading to? ^_^

I have to admit at the outset, I love green tea. It’s not just something to drink as you wash sushis and sashimis down your throat; for me it’s one of the things I can always  rely on if I need a detox. Sometimes I consume them to no end from breakfast to the last thing at night, whilst on other times they’re just a patch for some binge of a series of guilty pleasures – akin to the purpose of maintaining a balance in the world of sinful sweets. One of my colleagues drinks them like water – she brings them in a flask and sips on it all day. I am sure you too have read or heard from somewhere about the healthy benefits of green tea, so I won’t divulge any more here than the stuff you can already find on google or wiki. Although, if you’re not much of a tea fan, or don’t like things flat with no sugar, you may find green teas difficult to consume on a regular basis. Matcha has, after all, a peculiar taste, so if  you’re up for it, why not start with a matcha drink? Cooling, summer staples like frappes or just matcha in milk served with ice can be quite heavenly: I think it’s just the thing to drink as you kick back and unwind after a long day. I love Starbuck’s matcha drink, and Coffebean also has a version of this; so it shouldn’t surprise you by now that I am such a fool for trying to replicate the stuff that I love most, in my little kitchen. It’s like the whole Laduree ’s macarons story and the Pret a Manger’s tomato mozzarella croissant episode. When you can’t bring good  comfort food that you crave so much to home, the next best thing is to try making them! Lesser carbon footprint, too ^_^

Matcha Melon Frappe
by Nikki A., www.delisioucity.com

1/2 tspn matcha powder (more if you like)
2 Tbspn warm water (not boiling)
150 ml melon milk
(you may also use skimmed milk, and add instant melon powder; or substitute 100 ml milk + a few chunks of fresh melons)*
Lots of ice cubes!
*You may also like to use melon ice cream as a subsitute and adjust the milk accordingly. Add some sugar, or honey, or sugar substitute according to taste. You may not need this if you’re using the melon milk. Another alternative is to use fat-free yoghurt and be rid of the melons completely. The choices are endless ^_^

How to: Mix matcha powder in warm water until completely dissolved. Use a small whisk if you need to. Place milk, matcha paste, and ice into a blender and work it for 1 minute, or until you get the desirable foamy/slushy thick blend of an icy frappe. Enjoy!

Ahhh, just thinking about it sets me back to an imaginary island with the calm blue sea and warm wind in my face. By the way, this drink would be a good base for a protein shake too, if you’re into that for breakfast. Add in a scoop (or according to your required caloric intake) of whey or soy powder and blitz away.

Now we go to our second green-tea-possessed being,

Matcha Sables Viennoise

The thing about the matcha ‘cult following’ in the blogosphere really stood out in 2007 when Kelli’s (now closed) bakery, Amai ’s recipe won the Golden Scoop Awards. Lots of bloggers have tried and tested this winning recipe,  and have sworn to it’s gorgeous taste. I knew I had to make the sables but decided that I was going to use Pierre Herme’s recipe for chocolate sable viennoise instead. The main reason for this is only because I want to ‘handle’ the batter as little as possible, to create a ’short’ texture, and also the fact that their recipes vary in their fat source choices: PH completely made do without the egg yolks, while Kelli’s used three. However, there’ much more butter in the former. There is also way much more cocoa powder (which I replaced with matcha, of course) in PH’s recipe, which resulted in an almost green tea overkill if you really dislike the stuff. I liked it though, but after about four pieces I was done for. It’s bittery undertones makes this a surefire dislike for children and tea-haters, hehe.

Finally, how could I speak of love for matcha when my true love for macarons way surpasses tea of any kind? I think I’ve made so much macarons this year last year it’s ridiculous. I only say this because you would have thought by now that my skills have been perfected and I am flawless with the macaronnage process – but I’m not! These petit fours are just so temperamental (no I will never stop saying that) and so dependent on various variables like the weather (humidity especially), the oven temperatures (too low? air pockets! too high? browned shells! undercooked!), and of course the ever elusive number of right turns & folds to create the perfect ‘flow like magma’ batter consistency. Yes, even pro pastry chefs mess it up sometimes, so apatah lagi kediaku?! Anyway, I am glad that I made this during my short trip back to Brunei last month, at least the oven is more predictable than the one I have in UK.

Matcha-Marron Macarons
by Nikki A., www.delisioucity.com

95g almond powder
200g confectioner’s sugar
15g matcha
100g egg whites (aged for 24 to 48 hrs)
25g caster sugar
pinch of salt

Sift the almond powder, confectioner’s sugar and matcha together, making sure you push the larger particles through the sifter using a rubber spatula. Set aside. In a mixer, beat the egg whites with salt until foamy. Add the caster sugar little by little and continue to beat the egg whites until it form a soft peak when lifted with your finger. Then combine the dry ingredients together with the whipped egg white, and fold the two together in a scooping motion. Scrape the sides of your bowl as you scoop and fold, making sure that you don’t over-macaronnage. Once your batter starts to form a ‘ribbon’ or have the consistency of flowing magma (you may want to check national geographic for how that actually looks like!), prepare a piping bag with a round tip. Insert the batter in the piping bag, and start piping the batter onto parchment-lined baking sheets. You may want to pipe big-sized macarons (like the ones you see here), or slightly smaller ones that are easier to bite (hehe). Let the piped batter rest for about 20 minutes (or longer, depending on the humidity of the day), and once they form a ’skin’ or are dry when you touch them with your finger tip, you can pop them in a preheated oven. Bake at 175C for 15 minutes. Once done, leave them to cool before taking them off the parchment. Fill with your favourite buttercream or ganache and enjoy at room temperature. I used some leftover marron (chestnut) filling from my last macaron project, using a white-chocolate base.

Happy gastroventuring in the new year! See you in my next post ^_^

I had quite forgotten that I have this food blog until I received two emails a  week ago.  One of them was the occasional bake request which I, almost by default nowadays, had to decline. The second email was a wonderful letter from a fellow baker, whose words reminded me of how much passion I have for baking and pastries. It was like a cold splash of water that woke me up to the fact that it has been at least three months since I baked anything worth blogging about – or anything sweet for that matter. Unless of course you don’t mind reading yet another recipe for lazy day, uninteresting but effortless, chicken roast. That, my friends, I have plenty of.

I’ve also come to  realize that my visitor counter has been clocking in even when I’ve been extremely quiet the past months, and I really hate to have disappointed everyone with the lack of updates. It came as no surprise that I felt the pressing need to start writing again – which literally means baking again. So here it is, my much too delayed post that I promise will be a delight to your eyes as it was to our noses and taste-buds; sweet shortcrust pastry with vanilla creme patissier (pastry cream) and fruits of the season, and of course, my part-time love, french macarons (or macaroons, as some may insist) – in the most scintillating floral scent of crushed sugared violets; Belgian dark chocolate, and marron (chestnut) paste, straight from France.

Sugared Violets

Actually, the emails I mentioned came in perfect timing. I thought, apart from updating my blog, it was a good opportunity to introduce some of the products of my baking obsession during my turn to co-host a weekly Coffee & Cake Wednesday event at the Institute where I now study. It’s simply fabulous to have these social and informal gatherings, where we would take turn to bring cakes, biscuits and other baked goodies (or non baked, in the case of chilled cheesecakes, fresh fruits and cheeses!)

I was very excited at the prospect of baking for this event, but knew that I had to plan.. because I simply did not have all my paraphernalia from home save my trusty spoonula, medium balloon whisk, small rolling pin and measuring spoons (all safely flown in by hitch-hiking my luggage bag). I purposely chose to co-host the event at the very last bit of the Michaelmas term, so I could amass my baking arsenal that is so absolutely crucial  for my bake projects, especially for the purpose of the perpetually temperamental macaron. Even so, the macarons still gave me trouble.. because now I was deprived of  the oven at home that I painstakingly learned to master over the past year. Ah well, at least about 100 macaron shells were the right texture, while the rest  were chucked into the bin, accompanied with swear words I’d rather not mention here! (but is featured here).

For the macarons, I’ve always been captivated by the sheer ‘prettiness’ of the violet scent and the nuances of floral sweetness it displays, ever since I tasted Canele’s version of the violet buttercream. Duncan of syrupandtang.com also wrote a post on using violet syrup and liquer but it can be quite tricky to capture the robustness of its flavour. Of course, I was more intrigued when Helene of mytartlette.com (yes, one of my many pastry idols!) used crushed sugared violets to merely top the shells. So when I saw some crushed violets on display at a cake shop in the Oxford Covered Market, I was simply elated…

…but only to discover that the shells didn’t work!! For some reason I thought coarser violet particles would lend more than mere subtlety in flavours to the macarons, which isn’t too much of a long shot.. but the violets sunk into the smooth batter (especially baked at low temperatures of 150C), even after the batter puffed up! So in the bin they went. Basically, learning the lingo of a completely different oven involves A LOT of experimentation. With the low temperatures that I started with, it meant that I had to increase the amount of time to bake the shells. This substantially and in effect ruined the shells because they would by then produce ‘tough cookies’ that crunch upon each bite. NO way, hozay! Macarons are supposed to be very delicate with a super-light crack and not crunchy by any means. I can only be thankful for the cheaper prices of almond meal in UK, compared to Brunei.

Apart from the largely failed (save 10 pieces?) violet macarons, I also made the usual chocolate ones with the dust of cocoa… only this time I used Belgian dark chocolate instead for the filling. French Valrhona can get very expensive and after spending a hefty sum on my new baking paraphernalia, I thought I’d just stick to Belgian from Tesco’s (ooooooh the shame!!) which firmed up too well thanks to the cold weather and/or possibly some steam escaping into the chocolate whilst I tampered it into a ganache. Still, nobody complained; instead the wonderful people from the Institute were only too kind to say the nicest things to me ^_^

For the third macaron flavour, I used chestnut paste that I found at this awesome delicatessen also at the Covered Market; a purveyor of fine foods and ingredients that is forever going to be bookmarked in my list of places to go.  Every winter that I was in London, I always always had roasted chestnuts by Oxford Street from the stocky man with the charcoal-dusted fingers, who sells them at a pound per (tiny) bag. So chestnuts have become a traditionally winter flavour in my book, and yes, I did make sure that  I bought some of the roasted ones from the very same man last week! For the macaron filling, you may find that it can be a bit watery so I thickened it with white chocolate (ganache) and a few grams of almond to lend some texture. If you’re in the mood to make your own paste, you can find some good pointers from my favourite Singaporean blogger, Karen.

Finally, the fruit tartelettes were really done on a whim so I must admit that I did not use my usual pastry recipe  (although I did find there was no trouble in having cold fingers to work the dough, thanks to the weather). I have no shame to admit that I used ready-to-roll sweet shortcrust pastry from Jus-Roll (they’re good); and here’s a recipe for creme patissier (pastry cream) that you may like to try for your mini tarts.  Simply top with any fruit you like, excluding durian, I should think:

Remember to not overwork your pastry; make sure your fingers are cold; and that the pastry cases are baked blind with parchment and pastry weight/beans/rice to hold them down.

Lastly, our little get together was co-hosted by my friend Francesca, who brought along a gorgeous semi-freddo and a block of authentic Italian Parmigiano!

See you in the next gastroventure, and do tell me what you’ve been up to!