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

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.

Figs are gorgeous little things. Up until now I’ve only had access to the dried ones. When I first saw South African air-flown baby figs about a month ago at my favourite grocery store, I knew I was in for a treat. Now there’s figs galore everywhere and I still can’t get enough of them. Often I just eat them for breakfast with a few dollops of nonfat natural greek yoghurt, with some honey and a sprinkling of oats. Gorgeous. Then I’m all set for a morning cycle (or walk; either way I’d end up getting a workout!) to the library or somewhere else rather nerdish ^_^

Since it’s well and truly fig season now, I thought let’s try cooking them next! The thing is though, I don’t have much baking paraphernalia here, including my tart pans (which is great excuse to procure some new ones heheh). But I refrained so far… besides, who’s to say you can’t make a free-form tart instead? Here’s a beautiful galette expressing that very idea, and what’s great is that it has the easiest filling ever – soft vanilla and almond frangipane, topped with quartered figs and fresh blueberries, partially encased in a freely formed golden crusty pastry dough. I got the idea from Chez Pim who writes The Foodie Handbook; you should definitely head over to her site for a look at the delightful things she whips up. The recipe that I follow here are from a different source though, a website called frenchfood.com. This link will take you to the frangipane recipe (which I tweaked a little by replacing the granulated sugar with demerara, and using pure vanilla beans instead of extract); and this link will take you to the pastry dough recipe (or pate brisee). If you have been reading my blog for a while, I think you will find that I can get a bit OCD about reminding people to have cold fingers when working with pastries ;p Also, remember to pop the pastry dough in the fridge after it comes together, at least for an hour, before rolling.

Place the frangipane ‘paste’ in the middle of the rolled pastry, and top with figs & blueberries. Fold the edges of the
pastry in towards the centre, and brush with eggwash.

This dessert, I must say, was amazing. It was sort of an ‘unchartered palatial territory’ for me in the beginning (having  been the first time eating baked figs). But when the smooth frangipane hits your tongue, melts and fuses with the mellow roasted taste of the fruits, and combined with the buttery crunch of the pastry, you are left with a certain something-something defined by a flurry of tasty dimensions. I believe my tasters loved it too; this was brought to our Wednesday Coffee & Cake session this week  at the Institute and it went down quite well ^_^ I suppose you can try topping the galette with other fruits too if figs aren’t available.

Both science and religion have stressed the benefits of the fig whether these fruits are fresh or dried, and you can read all about it here.

Later alligator!
xoxo

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

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!

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.

The event covered in this post happened yonks ago and I’ve finally finished editing the draft after so much procrastination ^_^ Happy reading, and glad to have met you that day!

Oh the sparkle in his eyes! What a stick of Cuppiepop can do to a boy.

It was the 6th anniversary celebration of ranoadidas.com on Friday 12th June, and I was very excited to have been invited by Rano himself to participate in one of the booths there. Actually that’s quite understated. I was over the moon, and simply couldn’t contain myself, as witnessed by my much understanding and extremely supportive husby ^_^ So on we went! We planned and we planned for the official debut of Delisioucity’s fine desserts and patisseries, and yet we still found there was SO much to learn out of the whole experience. Customer preferences, logistics, product testing… oh just to name a few. We did get a few things right though, exemplified by the 100+% turnover that I got out of sales. At the end of the day, it’s great to have been given such an opportunity, which is why I want to thank you, Rano! It helps a lot too that www.ranoadidas.com is the 3rd most visited site in Brunei, and not surprisingly, its author  is one the most popular figures in local innovative entrepreneurship in the country.

But most importantly, if you came to the soiree and ate from my booth, thank you too! Even if you just dropped by to say hello; I really enjoyed talking to all of you ^_^ I hope you liked the food… because some of you actually looked like you did (hehe). So here Im showing some pictures that husby took of everyone who seemed delighted with Delisioucity! Bless

Simply delighted with the Banana Crumble Tartelettes

Personally,  the event gave me an advantageous platform to gauge the market; albeit a small one. It was really my first time, proper, in running my own business unaided by the Internet. In making a presence in the blossoming local food industry, I feel slightly triumphant that day, because always in my mind since I opened up this blog, there is this desire to own a share of that lucrative food-industry pie. Besides, I’m known to easily tire of monotonous routines from work etc., and I think the food-blogging/business thing is taking my attention away quite successfully It’s sort of my take on balancing my life with reasonable doses of diversions and occasional difference… with the hope that I later get tired of it, and spring back to normality with much needed energy and inspiration.

Her daughter’s face tells it all!

You can’t fake a candid & genuine reaction to deliciousness!

Speaking of inspiration, I believe I got plenty from that event. I think chefs and cooks have the most satisfying jobs  in the world – because judging from the looks on peoples’ faces, I feel thankful and positively overwhelmed with their acceptance of the kinds of treats that I make.  Of course, my regular job can be very rewarding too ^_^ (note to my colleagues who are reading this :p ) But I suppose this is somewhat different; when you bake something and it’s made out of passion and love (and a whole heap of OCB), then  it’s completely fullfilling to see the looks of joy and contentment when the food is eaten. It’s kind of touch and go, I realise that too. All is well nonetheless. Why? Because number one, I’ve been getting a steady stream of an average 100 unique visitors per day to this website since the event, and number two, a barrage of orders right into my inbox. Unfortunately, I just do not have the capacity to make so much (believe me, the past days I’ve been wishing I had octopus tentacles). So as much as I am uber greatful for the attention, I am also very humbled and wish to convey that the reason why I put up recipes in this blog is so that everyone can try a hand at baking themselves It’s very therapeutic, mind you!

Keeran & dad running an analysis of my goods ;p They ended up being our biggest buyers!

Finally, here’s a log of some of the items available that day. If you did eat from our booth, get ready for a jog down memory lane!

Banana Crumble Tartelettes

Macarons

Cuppiepops, with Cookies & Cream cake inside

Till next time! xoxo

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

“I imagine pastries that I would love to
eat myself. For me, the most important
thing is to please the palate”
- Pierre Herme -

The crisp, crunchy and crumbly shortbread biscuits known as ‘sable‘ (sandy) is an excellent pairing with a cup of coffee. It is also just too easy to make, but like many things in pastry, you have to pay attention to the process and the amount of ingredients that make for precise chemistry. The recipe here is derived from The Cook’s Book, edited by Jill Norman; and specifically from the section on Pastry & Sweet Doughs by monsieur Herme. I adjusted a few things, just because.

Sables Diamant Vanille
(Makes 50) adapted from Pierre Herme, The Cook’s Book

230g unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into pieces
105g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used Nielsen Massey’s Madagascar Bourbon pure vanilla beans)
1/4 tsp salt (fleur de sel)
330g all purpose flour
Sugar crystals, demerara sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder, colourful pearls (whatever you like)

Beat butter in a mixer until creamy. Add sugar, and continue to beat. Add extract, and salt. Then sift the flour and incorporate into the batter until you get a dough. Roll into a ball and refrigerate (preferably overnight, but one hour is good enough). Roll into a sausage with parchment paper, and once that is formed, spread some pearl sugar/ sugar crystals or whatever you desire and roll the dough on them so that the surface is coated fully. Wrap the sausages in parchment, and leave in the freezer for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, warm up the oven to 180C. Continue rolling the remaining dough, but do not knead or overwork them! Take the frozen sausage dough out and cut into coins with a sharp knife. Bake for 20-22 minutes and prepare your coffee! Boo ya.

Oh did I tell you that I am in absolute admiration for all things Pierre Herme? I suppose it all began with the macaron. Then I started reading on him and began to adore his generosity – both in the fact that he gives  macarons away on the annual Macaron Day (in France), and that he is never stingy in sharing his recipes and techniques. J’adore!! Ultimately, and the bottom line is: I love his work. His beautiful beautiful desserts, especially the Ispahan macaron spinoffs (desserts made with rose, lychee/litchi, and raspberries) – are works of art. I wish I could just eat them all without gaining the subsequent poundage

Nonetheless, desserts and patisseries can certainly be enjoyed sans the guilt, provided it is done in moderation. I have to say that this is easier said than done though. If you could just imagine that whilst these sables were cooling off, prying hands could be seen to land on one biscuit after another! hehe.  I suppose the butterfly (or is that a moth?) made its way into our kitchen possibly because of the sheer fragrant of the baking sables. This really is a simple, yet warm and delicious treat. And man, does it just melt in your mouth! I need to hand you down some tips when making these though, as you need to keep the dough “short” by working very minimally with it. So, if making these in the absence of a food processor or a mixer, ensure that you dont knead the batter too much. And if possible, cut the butter into the flour with a cold knife, or rub with cold fingers. Yes, you need them cold :p

For such a simple and quick recipe, and yet divine to the palate, I thank PH for ‘le inspirations’ that he gives me and many others. Of course, this is much a classic (or rather, ’stelama’) biscuit that all moms have in the their recipe books. In the middle of making these, I couldn’t help but recall the times when I was a little girl  – and amongst the many things we made for Eid celebrations. This was definitely one of them.  Food and fond memories? Priceless.

(if you are wondering what the clothes pincers are doing in the previous picture, I’ll put up in my next post their use with regards to the biscuits )