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

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

In case you were wondering (though I’m sure nobody was, as I am just perasaan that I have lurking readers out there apart from bots who spam me), I am still obsessed with macarons. I still get thrills out of staring at the rise of their dainty little collar (a.k.a “feet”) in the first 7 minutes of baking in the oven. Yes, I still do sit on a tiny stool in front of my Ariston and stare at the macarons in their process of either blooming to wondrous joy, or exploding/cracking much to my utter demoralization. When the latter happens, and believe you me, they do (even after a year of *ehem* ‘cracking’ my way to finally be able to make them), I get quite a bit of loss. Let me indulge you in the following: Almond meals are not precisely cheap. They are $20 for a kilo. Meanwhile, icing sugar vary in prices, some shops sell them for nearly $2 for 500g, while others, selling the less-than-pure mixture of icing sugar + corn flour (= confectionary sugar), will cost less than a dollar. Next, the eggs. Eggs are fine but their prices do fluctuate as any home-economist will know.  The loss really, is in terms of wastage of the egg whites in which had to be separated from yolks. Subsequently I never know what to do with the tonnes of yolks I get as a result of macaronventuring. Not that I have an ice cream truck in which I could churn ice cream and sell them to kids. Or maybe that’s an investment worth looking into, one wonders?

In the next post I will show you what I did attempt with some leftover egg yolks, though. But let me move on with more macaron stories. I had made quite a bit in the past weeks, and the Italian meringue (au sucre cuit) method seemed to please. Perhaps it was the weather that day or maybe I macaronaged (folded) the batter with near-precision (*koff koff*), which led to nicely domed shells and no cracking at all. But when I tried this method again the next day, it all went down the bin. I still don’t know what it was  that went wrong, and I can’t even bother to speculate anymore other than the fact that sometimes you get plain jinxed for being so kambang (joyous, over the moon). They all failed miserably. So later, on I went with the au blanc monte method, or also known as the simple meringue, or French method. I concede to this: the simpler method is better. (As with all simple things, I suppose). *eye roll*

It is quite ironic though, because in all my research and reading, everybody seems to say that the Italian method will produce more consistent and reliable yields! ARGH! I know I have delved into this subject before, and some of you may find this a bit too repetitive on my side. But you see, I am at an utter loss as to why I can’t seem to master “the more reliable recipe”! *Pulling hair* The thing is yea, I would be more than happy to resort to only using the French method if it weren’t much sweeter than the Italian method. For some God-given reason, that’s the way it is. Some clients don’t mind it, but others cringe with a full glass of water on their other hand. Upon wallowing to some of my favourite bloggers who make beautiful macarons to no end (tartelette; madbaker; mercotte; veron) , I have been adviced (1) to take no heed to such complaints,  (2) learn and educate the fact that the French really do eat only one of these at a time, and (3) that Americans, at least, love things sweet. Now I know we are not USA, or Paris, but the one thing I do want to share with everyone is that like in all things in pastry, there is much chemistry between ingredients to be respected. No, I cannot tweak

I do try to balance the sweetness with fillings that aren’t designed “for the kill” though. But still, I suppose this petit four still remains a foreign culture to many who have really yet to taste the real deal in the likes of Pierre Herme, Laduree, or Cristophe Michalak (yummy bloke, by the way). Till then, I remain your humble purveyor of macarons, who will use the French method for as long they don’t jinx me instead (in which if they do, I will proabably retire from this obsession at last).

The French Method macaron recipe:

100g almond meal
90g aged egg whites
190g icing sugar
25g castor sugar
Pinch of salt
A few drops of food colouring

Sift your almond meal and icing sugar together twice until you get a fine powder. In a clean mixer bowl, beat egg whites with salt till foamy. Then add castor sugar a little at a time. Continue to beat till glossy/satiny and the meringue should hold soft peaks. Add about 1/4 of this meringue into the dry mixture and beat rapidly to break the mass. Add food colouring at this point if you like. Then incorporate all of the meringue into the mixture and fold gently without deflating too much of the batter. Do not overfold (or over-macaronage). You should aim to achieve a texture that is often called ‘flowing like magma’. Though I have never really been to a live volcano spewing hot magma, I will tell you that what you need to look for is a batter that holds a little beak, when picked with a finger, and that which will then fall back to the batter with little reluctance. Spoon into a piping bag attached with a round tip, and pipe onto a baking parchment. If you can find a silicon baking parchment, that is even better. Let sit for a while for the macarons to form skin on the surface (around 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the humidity level of that day), then proceed to bake at a temperature that best suits your oven type. That means you have to experiment (gasp!) Mine works best at 165C for about 12 minutes. Some people will bake at 170C, then go down to 160C after 5 minutes. If your batter was macaronaged with care, they should form nicely domed shells with a collar around it, called ‘feet’. Let cool, and do not pry the shells off the parchment! They should come off easily after cooling. Then, pipe in a filling of your choice, which includes jams, buttercreams, mousses, and ganaches. Enjoy, and bonne chance!

*In the pictures above, the flavours are my signature whipped chocolat (with the cocoa dust), and coffee ganache. Bonne chance!

After attending a cousin’s wedding yesterday, it reminded me of my own  just a little over two years ago.  What can I say about the man who I can, at the very least, best describe as my best bud? He gives me such support that often I sit back and think, ‘can I not live on my own anymore?!’ or, ‘where’s that independent woman that I used to know?!’ That’s when red alert sirens go honking about in my head But for that matter also, I never fail to silently thank the Almighty for the love he gives me through my husband. Marriages are a true blessing; even in their darkest, more dramatic hues, they epitomize our will and ability to brave through any storm and emerge as wiser beings.  And for that we grow, we become sensitized to other people around us, and we offer our empathies to show that we too, can support. For the love and laughters that we all hope to last to eternity, a wedding truly only marks the beginning of a completely new and different life. Maybe it doesn’t for some, but it does beg the whole question of how much we reflect on each day, and to what extent our personal evaluations (Muhasabah) can come to any form of positive materialization. I do not think that there is such a thing as a perfect marriage or even a perfect couple, but I do believe that there are people who will go all their way out just to inch closer to that utopic notion. After all, perfection is only characterised and reserved for the eternal hereafter. And we strive to live for that.

This life, at least and so far for me, has been a sweet one, but never a life that is not punctuated with bits of drama You’d need that occassionally, I think. Let me indulge in a bit of metaphor: I like my omelletes with colourful tones of tomato, spinach, onion, cheese, mushroom… the works. You may call me a drama queen; and in fact at some point in the past, a colleague made sure she told my then future husband, that I was a lot to ‘maintain’. I wouldn’t so far as to go there, but I do know that some men enjoy ‘maintaining’ women. Whatever it is, and for whatever reason that that judgment was made pre-emptively  by an almost complete stranger to me, a marriage itself is often about maintenance work. You strive to uphold its  preciousness;  and I realise maybe that sentiment is a bit naive on my part. But when I silently watch my siblings’ marriages sometimes; the utter respect I pay to them who have lasted so long, is so tremendous that I can only hope to measure up. Let’s not even forget to mention our parents now, shall we? It is very possible that we learn from them, or from parents of others… of their mistakes and triumphs in many a challenge in life. Whether they faltered or not, I know that at least for my parents, they never lacked fogiveness and the hopes for better days. Marriage, my dear cousins and friends, is a little easier if both individuals make it that way And because we weren’t born with a “marriage manual” embedded in our heads, it also means that that new life after your wedding is all about learning, compromising and giving it your best shot. Cliche? I’d like to think not.

Anyhow, weddings are a downright joy and yesterday’s was no less. My cousin married a man from Tutong, a district in Brunei whose wedding culture is slightly more unique than others because of the feet-washing ceremony. It was quite exciting because this is the time when people who would pour water on the couples’ feet will hand some money to them. The amount received can be quite staggering at times ^_^  And whilst I was peering about amongst the many photographers trying to snap a decent picture of this ceremony, I got my shoes wet from stepping on the resulting splashes and puddles! No matter though, for the couple received quite a hefty amount yesterday despite being drenched on the feet I was happy for them (but felt quite small next to the heavy artilleries of the professional photographers!) haha.

I hear the bride absolutely loved the cake I made for them, and didn’t want to cut it. The cake itself was spot on with the colours of the dias, which was white with bits of green foliage (and golden hues). I especially enjoyed the fact that my intended lone red flowers on the top that was meant to represent the bride and groom became a literal manifestation as they were indeed wearing red/white. Although, I was told by the bride’s sister that the theme for the family was brown and cream for yesterday’s ceremony, but all I could dare to use was cream for the cake’s ribbon and flower centres. Perhaps I’d be more comfortable to marry pink with brown, like Peggy Porschen’s signature cakes; which is much to the effect of utter girlishness ^_^ I also wanted to try the stems-all-over effect, and boy did that take the whole night to make! Quite satisfying at the end though, especially when everyone liked the overall look

Have a great week ahead!

p/s. And thank you to my sisters who gave a lot of constructive criticisms and suggestions with regards to the colours and pricing of my cakes, which I will of course, take on board ^_^

xoxo
nikkita

I saw this recipe in a magazine called ‘Prevention’ and thought I’d share with you an excellent source of daily fibre needs and amazing antioxidants. It’s a Corn, Mango and Edamame salad, but I also like you to know that there’s much more colourful foods that you can add into the original recipe. Seeing that lately my posts have been *ehem* unhealthily sweet and uber-decorative, it’s time to admit that dieting has not been easy in the house of Delisioucity. However, we’re taking things one at a time and I have been back on calorie-counting for now This recipe delivers a punch, and the flavours are exciting. The gorgeous hues means that you’re getting plenty of powerful age-fighting antioxidants, and according to the magazine, supplies more than 20% of your daily fibre needs. Yowzer!

Corn, Mango & Edamame Salad

2 cups frozen shelled edamame
1.5 cups fresh corn kernels (or use canned)
1.5 cups mango cubes (about one mango)
1 cup chopped tomato
0.5 cup chopped red onion (or any variety)
2 Tbspn chopped cilantro ( I skipped this)
1 Tbspn extra virgin olive oil (I used Italian)
1 Tbspn freshly squeezed lime juice (I used orange juice)
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tspn coarse black pepper

Method: Stir and toss everything in! Done in 15 minutes.

In addition to the recipe given, I added some chopped avocado (which I love to bits), and pieces of oranges (obviously that picture is a mango and not an orange… because I forgot to shoot it as I busily squeezed the  bejeebers out of the poor citrus). What an explosion of tastes and textures!  Definitely a keeper, this one is Oh and yes, the protein content of an estimated 9g is not too bad at all, seeing also that the salad is just 160 calories per serving! Not bad for a light lunch… and it’s quite filling too. I might just add some pine nuts next time.

Till our next gastroventure! xoxo.

Despite the rush of catching up the time before my sister flew back to London yesterday, I managed to make this after work. I’m still in disbelieve that it came out cute and all even if I was puffing and panting, running to and from the kitchen and the design table!

But more importantly, I realised that without the tools, it would’ve probably taken more time and hassle to make. So thank you, Wilton!

But of course, I didn’t use all of the tools in the picture. Certainly not for this tiny bear. But it’s quite exciting, the prospects of creating what have you with devices that look like they can gorge someone’s eyes out!

I hope you had a good flight, sis. And sorry you didn’t get to keep the bear (because it fell off and broke its leg as the cupcakes were still too hot fresh from the oven and melted the frosting – and the bear couldn’t sit still!) At least you get to keep the lip

Oh and thank you for the Anya Hindmarch! Big bear hugs!!

p/s: Bear, lip and letters all made of edible fondant. Cupcakes are miniaturised Death By Chocolate cake, with dark chocolate filling; and frosting is made of chocolate buttercream.

It’s weddings-galore for our family this year and what better way, at least for me that is, to give a gift other than a wedding cake! ^_^ I made this all night on Saturday after finishing and delivering my mother-in-law’s cake, and had no sleep at all. This cake itself was slightly impromptu – and even husby was surprised to wake up on Sunday morning to see flowers a-bloomin’ and his wife looking like a panda with a big grin on her face No sleep, but tonnes of joy. Just the perfect concoction for a relatively-costly, madness-driven hobby.

So whilst I was quite happy with the resulting cake, my very anal nature told me that  I was, and should be, barely content with the overall aesthetics because the details weren’t perfect. Firstly, I had forgotten to draw a black line on the ladybugs to indicate wings (and hence they looked like a coupla big-eyed strawberries); secondly the flowers were a bit too thick and created a ‘heavy’ look on the what-should’ve-been very delicate and soft frilly petals; and thirdly, no matter how much I ironed out the fondant cover of the cake, it still had creases and tiny potholes! argh! Am I allowed to blame it all on the lack of sunlight whilst attempting to do all this? But you know, this was after all a first attempt, and we really shouldn’t be glass-half-empty all the time Lots learned that night, which is the most important part of the whole gastroventure

The cake itself was an experimental take on a proper wedding gateau; it was very small and short, and there were only two layers for the bottom cake and the smaller one was torted. Since it was a gift anyway, I suppose it wasn’t cost-effective to make a wedding grandeur out of a small amount of time, cake batter and fondant. My cousin had a tree-tier cake to do just the job ^_^, and standing tall next to my miniscule cake,  it does put things into perspective. First is that I still like my creation over the buttercream-slathered tiers. And secondly, the flowers (and ladybugs) popped out so much in terms of colour and dimensionality, that you couldn’t help but notice ‘that miniscule of a cake’

That’s the way we like it, aha aha.

Cake details, if you’re interested: Lemon & Buttermilk Cake with Lemon White Chocolate Cream Cheese Buttercream. All fondant decorations are edible as always ^_^

It was my mother in law’s birthday and seeing that she’s one to take humour pretty well, I decided to top her birthday cake with a garden theme, complete with a snail The garden wasn’t exactly an elaborate scene, it was just enough to adorn the otherwise bland cake (because I wasn’t feeling very creative until the last minute; and that’s when I remembered that she loves gardening ^_^) Anyway, I anticipate to make more of these fondant embellishments in the future; and hope that people will allow me freedom of humour in my creations

Please excuse the bad lighting (and thus poor image quality) here. I actually completed this cake at night because I started straight after work and there was no natural light to capture. Much a pet peeve to many photographers, I had to use the camera flash for some light source. Perhaps I also need to read that manual one of these days or invest in a lowel ego light. Or maybe just shine a white lamp on my food

The cake is my Death By Chocolate gateau, and the embellishments are all  made of fondant, brushed lightly with some edible lustre dusts. I think if I had more time I would’ve made a more elaborate garden scene… but then I didn’t like crowding the cake too much either. I loved the old fashioned record surface finish on the ganache glaze though, which I did with a large flat pastry brush. It kinda did the trick and made the garden ground look harden and like compacted soil rather than just a smooth shiny finish To achieve the brushed-on effect, wait till your ganache coat cools and hardens, and gently press a clean pastry brush against the surface of the cake while you  rotate the cake on a turntable.

I’m not too sure if these can technically be called jacket potatoes, but the concept does not digress too far off from the ones you find at boulangeries et al. One of my sisters taught me how to do this when I was a teen and we loved eating it for a snack. Yes, you read me right. Snack. I suppose it’s “alright” so long as your chosen tuber is not the size of a football And here, I used small potatoes indeed (of which I fail to know the type). The process is pretty straightforward, and the ingredients you can play with for variety. I opt to not tweak it at all when I make these, for madam-nostalgia’s sake

Cheesy Jackies Recipe

• 3 Potatoes – boiled and cored. Save the innards.
• 2 tbspns Cream Cheese spread (Not philly!) You may replace with riccotta, feta or mozzarella.
• 4 tbspns whole milk
• 1 stalk of cilantro, chopped
• 1 egg
• 1 tbspn butter or cooking spray

Method

When coring the potatoes, make sure that you leave some potato meat to line the skin. Then, mash the saved innards of the potatoes. In a pan, heat the butter and scramble the egg. Add the mashed potato and stir to combine. Add the cheese and pour in the milk. Cook till all the milk is reduced and you get a nice ol’ cheesy-eggy-mess. Add chopped cilantro for some fragrance. Scoop in about a tablespoon (or more, if needed) of the cooked potato into the potato shells and enjoy!

I always make sure that I have extra mashed potato filling so I can just pop that in the fridge and eat that for a snack instead of the whole jackie ensemble. It’s a very filling carb source, and G.I dieters would probably tell you to stay off it. Once every now and then is not too bad I should think So yes, eat the extra filling, or serve it as an appetizer, with water crackers.

I’ve got a confession to make. The past month and two weeks (in which I have done little or no baking) have led me to occasionally think about dreamy desserts that I’d long like to try. The one fixation that I have had for the longest time is for a taste of the fluffiest and moistest banana cake ever. Sure, there have been plenty of good ones found at bakeries… but most of the time they were dry, or too dense, or overcooked, and even at one time, didn’t taste too much of bananas. It was a weird cakey thing that probably had banana essence instead of real bananas (yish!)

Oh yes, before I forget to tell you, I absolutely love bananas! Yes, I am bananas about bananas (shamelessly cheesy pun begging to be said, i know i know). So at times when my husby was sleeping/went out, I’d sneak about websites to browse around for tried and tested banana cake/cupcake recipes to try. [By the way, sneaking? = not exaggeration. I was banned from blogging because I had "more important stuff to finish". Practically was nannied whenever I had my laptop on (which I am not complaining about! He does provide me the much-needed oversight sometimes )]

Anyhow, I found at least two recipes that promised the type of texture and taste that I wanted. It doesn’t take much searching anyway till you find a good recipe, and I am sure there are more sources out there with slightly different ingredients or proportions. However, I did add a few touches of my own to the recipe I used here: I added 1 tspn pure vanilla, and a handful of chocolate chips for some dimension. Also, I incorporated methods learned from last year from my baking class in Singapore. Probably not something completely unfamiliar to you (like creaming and gradually adding the sugar; temperatures and oven settings – I switched to fan-force; etcetc). I guess any amateur or professional baker will tell you that the techniques employed in preparation of the final product is just as important, if not slightly more, as the recipe itself

The results were a stunning and yes, dreamy taste and texture! Now how’s that for a simple cupcake? But like last time, as mentioned in my previous gastroventure post, I wonder what buttermilk will do to the overall texture and taste. I will have to try that next time As for the cupcake topping, I used a simple dark chocolate frosting and piped it much to the effect of a Monte Blanc dessert; and topped the cupcakes with fondant hearts, calla lillies, and yes, bananas.

Oh yes! I found these chic square cupcake liners at a pvc-container specialist store. And whilst they are uber-cool and quite non-conformist (I think, at least,) the cake proportion that can go into each case is a mere tablespoon’s worth. Not too bad depending on where you stand – it’s either a nice amount for dietiers, or you may think that it’s a tad too little. Either way, I assure you that eating just one of these will surely not suffice!

When your loved one writes you a recipe, then by all means, start heating up the pan!

It just so happens that this particular instruction produces the yummiest pancakes ever! So stay off those readily-mixed boxed flour that you just add water to; this is the pancake recipe you won’t want to miss

I replaced the white sugar with ‘cinnamon sugar’ instead, by the way.  You can just imagine the scents coming out of the kitchen right about now, can’t you?  Oh and the little specks you see there in the pancake picture below are pure vanilla beans. Absolutely divine!

These pancakes  are filling, moist, and dense – makes me wonder what buttermilk will do the recipe, actually! They also have the potential of getting even fluffier if it weren’t for my particular fear of bloating-effects of the baking powder towards my tummy (hehe). Also, I have a habit of patting the pancakes to flatten them out while they’re cooking on the pan… so you can see the thinner edges there. Next time I’ll just leave them alone because these actually remind me of the Japanese dorayaki :p But all in all, the results was a nice little homey breakfast.

Don’t forget the honey/maple syrup!

(and thanks to my husby for the recipe-writing!)