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

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-

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 ^_^

My good friend D wrote to me some weeks ago about creating a set of desserts  and other baked goodies for her in-laws. I ended up making two desserts, one savoury, and three petite fours (I don’t know if scones qualify as one, but I did make them small!) In making these, I nearly went ‘mentalist’ (if there’s a word) due to anxiety, and because there was so much preparation to do for each of the components. Naturally, some dessert parts should be made in advance to give time for resting (pastries); and chill (mousses and creams). Mind you, as I have no  formal training whatsoever with pastry chef-ing, (or professional kitchen management for that matter),  I was very likely to be a difficult person to live with at that time, as I wanted everything to go well

I’ll have you know though, that I was simply elated with this bake request, because to be honest, I was getting sick of baking cupcakes that keep on pulling out of their liners (the fate of scrumptious, milky & buttery recipes)… and decorations that  remind me too much of my play-doh-playing youth. I thought, now’s the real dessert deal, with plenty of careful planning, and opportunities to learn. Thank you D, for trusting me with this project; it actually resuscitated me from all the monotonous work of my side business and reminded me why I enjoy baking as a hobby in the first place ^_^

So come, on with the gastroventure!

D gave me the liberty to choose desserts with the only prerequisite of making them ‘not too sweet’. Of course, this was a little bit difficult to achieve because I don’t really like tweaking recipes too much for fear of disrupting the chemical reaction between ingredients and resulting in a flop :-/.  It doesn’t help either that I am yet to sit for a Pastry 101. I wanted to make them as presentable as possible too, so I went over to Canelle et Vanille for inspiration. The author and ex-pastry chef  of that website, Aran Goyoaga, amongst others, is instrumental in shaping the way I look at food and food-styling. I picked a recipe that was to be an ode to her and followed it almost entirely (which I sort of regret because the recipe uses a glucose base to make a dry caramel, which resulted in an uber sweet ‘dish’). However, I picked this because of the simplicity and straightforwardness of the flavours, and Aran’s impeccable taste and neatness is reflected in the presentation. For her full recipe, click here.

Dessert 1 – Dark Chocolate Mousse with Banana Caramel, Honey Roasted Peanuts, and Caramel  Fleur De Sel Ganache. The components for this dessert are:

1) Chocolate tartelette cases (I used Pate Sucree, short, but not too crumbly. In fact the cocoa turned it a bit tough). I know I owe some people the recipe and method.. it will come! I promise. If you could find a good recipe online, then the only things I would pass on to you here is not to overwork the dough and to chill it for at least two hours before rolling.

Baking it blind:
After a couple of hours of resting in the chiller, flatten your dough but do not knead. Roll it to a reasonable thickness, and lift it with your rolling pin to line the mould/case. Press with a small piece of dough to create an even surface. Cut excess dough. Take a piece of parchment and cover the pastry case. Pop in the fridge for 10 minutes to chill again, then add rice or dried beans on the parchment to hold down the pastry while it is baked. You may also want to prick the bottom with a fork. Bottom of the tartelette cases, that is.

2) Banana Caramel. Here you make a dry caramel, which is essentially burnt sugar, and add bananas to it. C’est simple! But beware of the spitting and spluttering.

After the baked cases have cooled, add the banana caramel, then top off with some honey roasted peanuts! Non, zis is not fogh ze allerjhic pipew.

3) Salted Caramel (Caremel Fleur De Sel) Ganache. I love this the most! Imagine salty chocolate.. with a distinctive taste of warm, burnt sugar. I know you can’t really see the layer in this picture, but it’s there ^_^

4) Dark Chocolate Mousse. Now I wish I had just made this using my usual mousse recipe. This was a tad too sweet even for fat old me. Anyhow, just use a round tip and a piping bag to get the effect, then sprinkle some chopped roasted peanuts. Finally, make curliques from tempered chocolate and place on top with a good dusting of cocoa. Or, just scrape a block of chocolate with a knife (hehe… cos either way, I’m not good at this). Observe/:

Dessert 2 – Summer Berry Charlotte with Fresh Berries and Italian Savoiardi fingers

I think Charlottes are the most aesthetically pleasing desserts on the face of this earth. You often end up wondering what is inside that wall surrounding the innards of a Charlotte- a mousse? what kind? what flavour? And what’s up with the wall? I opted to make this up as I went. The ‘wall’ was made of Savoiardi cookie fingers, straight from Italy, which are quite an upscale type compared to the generic “sponge fingers” you might find at Supasave. Inside was a Summer Berry Bavarian Cream, which is a mellow but subtley zesty, summer-fruity concoction that could only be described as perfectly heavenly and refreshing. Ok, I realise that’s a bit of a tongue-twister. Nyaman wah! I am confident of it because I made a tarte version and presented that to my family and everyone was craving for more (that I ended up buying loads of berries lately). If you can fork up for the expenzive berries, I would make them everyday Now why can’t berries be grown in Brunei?! Note to the Department of Agriculture.

Whilst the frozen mixed berries are perfectly fine for the bavarian cream (since you pulverize them into pulp anyway), you’d definitely need fresh berries for decoration.. which is why I love this time of the year!  It’s summer in the northern hemisphere and the chilled aisles are packed full of beautiful harvests, and I wish I just had the time and energy to make proper patisseries out of them.

To make the berry Bavarian cream, you’d need egg yolks, heavy cream, sugar, gelatine (of course I use the Halal ones), milk, and a bit of lemon juice. A lot of people have been requesting for this dessert lately (since I loaded up the pictures on FaceBook), and have subsequently been shocked to discover how much I charge for them ‘per charlotte’. Cutting the story short, let me just clear the air and say that these berries are seasonal and they’re imported and they are extremely expensive! A punnet of blueberries? $11 to $12.  And strawberries? $5-$6. What about cherries? $4-$6. I find it awefully distasteful that sometimes people do not appreciate how much actually goes into making food from imported items. Unless you have a secret berry garden tucked in your backyard, and you eat the harvest all the time, paying premium price for imported goods seems to be the only option for non-producers like us in this country ^_^ Big sigh.

Since this post is becoming too long,  and I’ve edited this draft more than 20 times (no joke!), I’m just going to post the pictures of the rest of the spread and possibly write about them when I have the energy next time ^_^ So do visit again for updates… as I understand that some of you actually do read my posts and not just come here and copy/paste my designs without acknowledging my work ^_^ (yes, it has happened, and it is very uncool to plagiarize ;p).

No. 3 – Macarons Assortement.

If you have been following my blog, you’d notice how big my macarons have become. I suppose my only explanation is that I have broken even from my initial investments and can now offer these temperemental gems at your money’s-worth. It’s also a result of  the fact that my batches turn out well after baking and I get little or none of the cracked dome/feetless effect. This has certainly helped in minimizing my losses. I can also assure you that my macarons are, though not consistently porcelain-perfect on the surface, are relatively superior than the alternative ones you may find here. I am confident of my product because I make them individually out of passion and that I do not sacrifice taste for branding. Mind you, I researched and trained myself to make these diva of a petit four for at least 6 months.. and have finally perfected them in a year’s time. Finicky little things.

No. 4 - Another berry entree; Fresh Blueberry Honey Scone. The recipe for this is beautiful in all its simplicity, in that it uses honey and buttermilk which gives a nice balanced taste. I packed them with fresh blueberries and served with a jar of German wild berry conserve. To make fluffy yet flaky scones, reserve the batter for about half an hour and also do not overwork/overknead the dough.

Again, if you need the recipe, I am more than willing to share Just write me a note in the comment box and I’ll make sure I post up the recipe as soon as I find the time.

No. 5 – Cannele Bourdelais. These are amazingly familiar to our tastebuds, surprisingly. I have always wanted to make these french petite fours, which originated from the region of Bourdeux in France. Reading through some blogs, I realise that they are quite difficult to make too, despite the fact that the ingredients are simple. The original recipe contains a good amount of rum; of which we cannot consume as Muslims so I replaced that with vanilla. I suppose I can never attain the authentic taste because of this replacement ^_^ The traditional way of making canneles (pronounced Ka-na-Lay) is by using copper moulds and brushing the insides with beeswax for easy release. They also take a loooong time to bake.. traditionally 3 hours. But nowadays, you can use those nifty silicon moulds (I got myself a couple of Gugelhopfs) which may be cheaper where you are (they certainly are not where I am!) and make way without the beeswax. I also read somewhere that it makes no difference when you bake these with the absence of beeswax – which may be difficult to obtain in the first place.

Cannele purists will argue that these petite fours should have a burnt look on the surface, which is like eating the edges of our local Bingka. Very nice.

No. 6 – Smoked Salmon and Spinach Petite Quiche with Fresh Ricotta and Poppy Seed. This was the one savoury dish that had the potential to overtake the sweetness of the other items in the spread. Mainly because it’s fish ;p Not too bad either. I loved the crust the most though, because it is not a ‘proper’ pastry, rather it is made from cream cheese combined with other things. The marriage of flavours is intoxicatingly pleasant, and this one fills you up rather easily too. Finally, this was the one item that I had some a little help from the husby, and subsequently had him enjoy eating ^_^

If I may repeat myself, I had so much enjoyment and gained plenty of experience with this project. I’d have to say I’m better now with kitchen management. Sans the help, washing, cleaning, and getting on with the baking and final touches with la presentation can be all a tad too overwhelming. Perhaps my Monica Geller-esque, obsessive-compulsive, anally organising type of behaviour might have come in handy after all.

I have a particular penchant for shellfishes and crustaceans. I know that in some cultures, such multiple-habitat organisms aren’t allowed or encouraged to be eaten, of course for their respective reasons. But pour moi, it is the excitement and lure of a ‘fun meal’ that keeps me hung up on things with shells. It reminds me of the good old days when, during family dinners, you can spot me and my father, the only ones left at the table, still digging in the innards of a crab or two. It was like a race to see who could outlast the other (haha)… though we never really put it that way. My mum makes the meanest coconut curry crab by the way, and just weeks ago we sampled this during a family lunch. This time around, it was me and my sister, N, who were left at the end of the meal, both eyeing on that last piece of crab. I think I ate that one, being the glutton of the two… and she conceded to slurping the milky and spicy coconut gravy to contentment ^_^

I also always ensure that I order the seafood teppanyaki when I eat out at a sushi place. It really is just for the scallop, to be honest, but less for the oyster.. as I have a slight aversion to their sandy insides. Scallops on the other hand, are extremely delicious and does not need much in terms of preparation and cooking. You do have to watch it though, because you don’t want the meat to overcook and harden. The meat is actually quite bland (though a ’sweetness’ may emerge out of any fresh seafood harvest), and I wanted to pair that with a slightly edgy and fragrant flavour. What better way than to try the secret ingredient to Catherine Zeta Jones’ scallops in the movie No Reservation: i.e. Kaffir Lime leaves?

I’ve written sometime last year how I try to incorporate kaffir lime leaves as much as I can in almost anything I cook (which soounds weird and psychotic), but trust me, it is a very precious and fragrant ingredient. It feels twice as good to be validated that it is as much a secret ingredient to me as it is in that fictional movie (though I know the recipes  were actually developed by a real chef). Though I don’t always remember that I have kaffir lime leaves stored in the freezer, this time around the scallops seemed the perfect opportunity for reacquaintance. I’ll also have you know that my second favourite fragrant in the world is that of the ginger flower bud (or Bunga Kantan), which you may be familiar with from Thai cuisine.

Pair these two together, and  you will have a tiny explosion in your palate that you will swear never again to eat fast food.  So here you are, my take on a wonderfully fragrant and flavourful dish:

Panfried Scallop with Mushroom, in Kaffir Lime Leaves and Ginger Flower Creme Sauce
By Nikki. A @ delisioucity.com

10 pieces of fresh scallops, cleaned and patted dry
3 pcs kaffir lime, shredded thinly
1 inch ginger flower bud, sliced thinly
1 stalk of leek, chopped thinly
A handful of fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
3 Tbspn heavy cream or whipping cream
2 Tbspn chicken stock
Spray of extra virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Ensure that your scallops have been patted dry. In a pan, spray some olive oil and heat for 2 minutes. Make sure it is hot enough for a quick pan-sear of the scallops. Add scallops, sear for 2 minutes each on both surfaces, and no longer. Remove from heat. in the same pan, sautee the garlic until fragrant. Add the mushrooms and sautee further. Add leaves and flower, and cook further. Add cream and chicken stock, and the leeks. Finally incorporate with the cooked scallops and season to taste.

*Tears of joy ensue.

Dessert First! Blueberry-Lemon Tartelette

Somewhere in the cesspits of my exhausted cerebrum there lies a reminder that did not sound its alarm when it was supposed to. I had forgotten to “celebrate” Delisioucity’s first year anniversary! I knew the first time I published on blogspot was a year ago in May, but somehow I assumed it was somewhere mid-month… when it’s actually early May! Nevermind that, yes. Besides, when I moved to my own dot com, I vouched to celebrate that migration instead Nonetheless, who says you need to have a reason just to whip up some dessert? (And a whole dinner party for four!) BUT, the food needs to be eaten of course,.. so I thought it would be apt to call a couple of friends for a small din-din and a celebratory post.

We don’t often have people come around the house, other than my nephews and nieces who occassioanally come by to play the Wii and finish my baking surpluses. Dinners with family and friends, I can count. I am  therefore making it a point from now on to have more dinner parties (ok, eating fest?) when I can manage it. Reason? Because hosting can be so much fun. And because it makes my day to see satisfied faces and hear the sounds of “mmmmm~ it feels yummy in my tummy!” In fact, I have a new-found source of satisfaction: the heavy, drooping eyelids of a friend, ready to roll into bed, two minutes after finishing his main course. Pure joy that was. But let me start with the dessert first (as usual)

Blueberry and Lemon Tartelettes
(adapted from Desserts, Murdoch Books Test Kitchen)

375g ready-made sweet shortcrust pastry (I made my own pate sucree – mail me if you need the recipe and method)
125g caster sugar
3 eggs
3 Tbspns buttermilk
1 Tbspn lemon juice
2 tspns grated lemon zest
2.5 Tbspns custard powder
250g blueberries
Icing sugar for dusting

Roll out pastry, and press into tartelette moulds. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes, then bake blind. Remember that if you are making your own pastry, do not overhandle or knead (just roll it out); and when baking blind, ensure that you put in a layer of parchment on the pastry, held down with rice or beans. Baking blind should take about 10 minutes at 200c. Remove parchment, and reduce heat to 180C and proceed to bake for another 5   minutes just to dry out the bottom of the pastry case. I somehow did not manage to do this still, so perhaps to start with 200C may be a bit too much. As a result the custard filling seeped through the casing and you can see the dried mixture at the bottom in the picture above! Remove the cases from the oven, and make the filling.

Filling: beat eggs and sugar till fluffy and pale. Addbuttermilk, juice, zest and custard powder. Fill in just enough into the pastry cases and bake at 165C for 15  minutes or until the  pastry is golden and the filling is set. Cool on a wire rack and top with blueberries. Dust the icing sugar when completely cool so you don’t get sugar melting into the tartelette, and just to ensure you get a nice snowy effect

This is a very simple recipe that requires little planning, except if you are making your own pastry crust.  The filling is made with custard powder. Since I am not a big fan of custards, the leftover tartelettes are testament to how some desserts can indeed be an acquired tase (gasp, i know). Next time, remind me to use a frangipane recipe instead..  personally this was uninteresting to my palate, but our guests enjoyed them, and that was all that mattered

Next, I’ll run you my own recipes for a chic appetizer, soup, and main course. Brace yourself for a long post and some food porn.

No, the leeks weren’t the appetizers. The pastry was. Like many things pastry, and I’ve said this before, they’re extremely easy to transform into wonderful pieces of artsy and chic food. This is provided that you make the pastry carefully (again, with cold fingers & plenty of ‘resting’) OR get them already made. The readily available puff pastries are pretty good, so don’t worry about making your own pate feuilletee, inversee or otherwise for this one. Lest you desire to stress yourself out

Mozarrella, Tomato and Capsicum with Poppy Seed Entree
(by Nikki. A @ delisioucity)

2 sheets puff pastry, cut into small squares
1 egg, beaten
120g mozarella cheese
1 tomato
1/2 yellow capsicum
Poppy seeds
Black pepper

Lightly brush one layer of pastry with egg, and place another layer on it. Brush the top layer again, and dump a tablespoon of shreaded mozarella on it. Cut the tomato and capsicum julienne, and place on top of the cheese. Sprinkle poppy seeds on top, and pepper to taste. Bake in oven for 10 to 15 minutes at 175C, or until the pastry puffs up adequately and turns golden. Serve immediately as an entree, on a fancy schmancy platter

Next, Creamy Pumpkin-Carrot Soup with Cumin and Cinnamon.

Now when I was calling H to invite him to the dinner, I told him what I was serving and immediately he said ‘MMmmmm! pumpkin soup!” I suppose the beauty of well-made pumpkin soup lies in the seasoning and the smoothness of the texture. I was floored when I tried Senor Pablo’s version at his abode, which is simple and healthy. This is my take on the soup that everyone loves, with the much added calories mind you

Creamy Pumpkin-Carrot Soup wih Cumin and Cinnamon
(By Nikki A. @ delisioucity)

Half a medium pumpkin, cubed
2 cups water
1 carrot, cubed
1.5 cup chicken stock (use the real thing by boiling chicken with onions, garlic, ginger, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom, salt and pepper)
2 Tbspn cumin powder
1 Tbspn cinnamon powder
3 Tbspn Olive oil
1 cup cream
1/2 Tbspn black pepper
Salt to taste

In a medium saucepan, boil the pumpkin and carrot together in water until soft. Drain away. Heat olive oil and add cumin and cinnamon powder. Gently stir till fragrant. Add chicken stock, pumpkin and carrot. Let simmer. Add cream and seasoning and let sit on the stove on low heat until the carrots are pulpy. Cool, and use an immersion blender to smoothen the texture of the soup. Serve with croutons.

Croutons
(By Nikki A. @ delisioucity)

Day-old bread of your choice (I used country grain)
3 Tbspn clarified butter

Cut the bread into small squares or diamonds. Heat a pan with the clarified butter and toast the bread. Make sure all of the bread is coated by gently stirring and tossing them about in the pan.

I have to admit, the soup definitely stole the night as everyone agreed that it was really good. This is one recipe I am soooo going to overuse. Husby, being the perfect gourmand, thought the soup + croutons tasted like murtabak. Geez. On the other hand, H thought it tasted authentically Moroccan, and both he and M were very happy to have second and third helpings and ate this with their main course.  I need to research on this: is pumpkin soup Moroccan in origin?? Or was it the cumin. Hmm, scratching head.

Let’s finally move on to the main course! This was a Roasted Chicken with Cumin, Maple Golden Syrup and Parsley.

This dish is cooked twice. I boiled the chicken first (with the spices listed in the soup recipe before), and got a pretty good stock out of it. Then, marinate for two hours with the forthcoming concoction, and roast for an hour at 180C. The marinate nicely resonates the taste of the pumpkin soup.

Roasted Chicken Marinate
(By Nikki A. @ delisioucity)

For two chickens.

1 cup olive oil
Juice from half a lemon
2 Tbspns lemon zest
A bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
2 Tbspn cumin powder
1 Tbspn cinnamon posder
3 Tbspn Lyle’s Golden Syrup, maple flavour (or simply maple syrup or replace with honey)

Mix everything in and brush on the chicken. Leave for two hours in the fridge to marinate.

Make sure you include the spices from the boiling process into the roast. I also left the skin on this time so that it appears golden and he meat to cook nicely without drying too much.

Whew! What a way to “celebrate”. I wasn’t kidding when both my husby and our friend H started to look like a pair of sleepy snakes by the end of the meal. Finally, our two friends left with a favour: remember the sables that I made in the previous post? So plenty of people actually asked what the pegs were for. And no, I did not use them for kneading the dough :p Here they are, et simple too! Instead of ribbons, use tiny decorative pegs to secure your favour bags for a chic twist. I wouldv’e used a glassine paper bag but I just could not find one here other than make them myself. Ah well, perhaps next time! In the next years to come, hopefully I’ll develop more creative things to share

Note: This is a very sweet coincidence: a recipe win and my 100th post. I present to you now, macarons (yes, again!) and a report on the recent Foodie Bloggers’ Challenge, in celebration of my 100th blog entry!

Oui, ouui, absolutement! Troisieme place! These Pandan (pandanus plant) French-Malay dessert fusion were among the macaron flavours that I entered in the Foodie Bloggers’ Challenge on Sunday, 26th – and subsequently won third place for! I was so excited that I couldn’t stop grinning like a fool. It was like getting a healthy dose of endorphine (ok, sugar rush rather), especially after meeting up with people whose written words you read on a regular basis. These bloggers, amongst who I lurk/stalk in the comforts of cybertopia, are all the nicest and most generous people you could get possibly acquainted with! The amount of knowledge and information, food-wise, that was inherently part of the din yesterday, were all but not muted by the scraping off of Pablo’s pumpkin soup, Reeda’s champion lamb, and Eleanor’s roasted garlic & anchovies. Ouh my God, you know. The spread was amazing. I truly am very honoured to even achieve a third spot seeing that the competition was in effect a showdown of everyone’s culinary talents. And it was mixed genre too!

Here is a full list of the winners:

1) Quick & dirty lamb – Anak Brunei.
2) Roasted Garlic & Anchovies – Foodie Tales
3) Macarons – Delisioucity (Homygosh!)
4) Sea bass - Chef Pol of Self taught Chef
5) Lolita Macaroni – Hajah Zarinah
6) Cheesy Fruity Triffle – Hajah Tom
7) Tangy Prawn delight – Maria Rahimin
8)  Herbal Chili Chicken – Zulfadly of Soul Connection
9) Chinese Chicken Salad - Foodie Tales
10) Lamb Herb Jus - Creative Chefs
11) King prawn tomato – Hajah Sabtuyah
12) Red Snapper – Creative Chefs

As you can see from the list, only two were desserts! I am so tempted to have a desserts showdown in the future, and wonder if there would be many to participate? Other people who brought desserts that day included Maurina (lovely & funny girl!) with her chocolate pudding and some other entries that I was too busy going here and there that I didn’t get to taste them. In fact, I shamefully didn’t even get to eat the winner’s entry But no matter though. The book that is to be the result of this event will be available soon, and will be sold for charity Double excitement ^_^ A recipe for the French method macaron shell (au blanc monte) is going to be in the book, so I can finally sleep well at night with the thought that I at least have brought this piece of dessert to some well-deserved attention (hehe). I mean, many have called macarons “gifts from the Gods” on one end, and on the other, (especially those who have tried at least 7 times before they can get a perfectly domed and collared shell), often call these “divas” or even devil cookies. Sigh, such repute.

Here are some pictures from the event itself, which includes the desserts entries, the main dishes, and a cooking demonstration from local chefs from the infamous Empire Hotel (omg, woooot!!) Flambe-d too, they did!

The host, Senor Pablo’s wife, Bunny, has a business selling all sorts of desserts. I absolutely loved her apple maple cakes (top left), they’re so gorgeous and classic. They just melt and melt in your mouth… *rolling in fields sensation* And it is no surprise she is also a sweet lady Just imagine the aromas coming out of Pablo’s house thanks to her!

The following are some main entrees, sans Reeds’s winning lamb. Sigh. Drool.

And finally, the Creative Chefs. Work it!

It was such a fun evening, and the weather was also simply beautiful. I’d like to thank Pablo for hosting this event and hope that the good deed of the charity recipe book sale will bring you and your team great blessings! A final shout out to Eleanor, Chef Pol (I had a good chat with this guy and thank you for putting my macarons on par with that of Laduree’s! I’m humbled), Maurina, Thanis (omg u are such a foodie!! fun talking to u), Hani, Azian, and Reeds’ lovely wife!

Oh and the local paper, the Borneo Bulletin also did a coverage (albeit an erronous one: apparently I am an  ingredient in Eleanor’s roasted anchovies dish!) Cheers for that.

P/s: Macaron flavours that day: Le Signature Chocolat (nude, cocoa-dusted shells), milk chocolate (pink shells), pandan (green, with painted shell), and a rather daring mango cinnamon in cream cheese base (dense yellow). This one went soggy fastest, and I have to say, needs terrible adjustments. Oh well, food is after all about experimentations too!

Have you ever heard of the infamous book called French Women Don’t Get Fat? Apparently this is a bestseller and has caused much hoohaa when it was released. Recently I purchased its sequel, French Women for All Seasons. I may indulge in telling you what I think of the book in another post in the future, especially if/when I try its most celebrated recipe-slash-detox-weekend-sole-nourishment, the Magical Leek Soup. (I know right?! Sounds gross indeed). Anyway, as I was wading through the monographic lengthiness/waffle of the French insider, I skimmed past the bit on alcoholic intakes, and set my eyes on the advice on pasta. She says that a person ought to have only 120 gm of pasta per serving, and the French woman is to not eat this too frequently (once a week is fine). But then there was also a long-winded bit on how Italians can stay well-shaped eating pasta everyday. Zut alors.

Seeing that I have not eaten pasta for about three weeks now (hehe), and when it comes to carbs I am not a fan of rice, I settled the business of lunch by getting us a bag of penne. You may try this recipe with other meats (cured or otherwise), and sliced pieces of black-pepper steak seems much warranted for a good din-din too. This isn’t an exclusive recipe either, pasta is possibly the most flexible and most-used carb base for any meat-pairing… so you may have actually seen something similar somewhere else, or have a recipe of your own (can we trade??); in essence you can tweak much of this one.

Penne with Caramelized Onions and Smoked Beef (2 servings)

160g Penne, boiled according to packet instructions
1 medium Red Onion (Bombay), diced
dash of extra virgin olive oil OR knob of butter
Diced green capsicum/bell pepper
1 packet of smoked beef
1 medium tomato, seeded & diced
Chopped leeks
Coarse black pepper to taste

Boil the penne and drain. Heat oil or butter, and cook the onions on medium heat till they are caramelized and fragrant. Add tomato, capsicum and beef slices. Stir in pasta, add leeks and pepper to taste.

Pasta dishes are very easy and quick… kind of an obvious thing to say really. Another thing to note is don’t eat breads with pasta or you’ll soon find yourself dozing off too bed, or working off a sweat at the gym