My New Baby's Tricks

Well, so far I have to say, the new baby hasn't been as exciting as I thought it would be. Firstly, I am not used to to the settings, ie, control not every good yet. Secondly, it is a royal pain to screw, unscrew, lodge, dislodge, the bowl. Thirdly, it's mainly good for one bowl mixes, ie, you don't require something ELSE that mixed from another bowl, eg, say if you needed to beat some egg white, and incorporate it into your cake batter......how??? You still have to fall back onto your trusty hand held mixer, because, you'd need to scrape the bowl clean, wash it, wash the beaters, and start all over again. Whereas with the handheld beaters, all you need is different mixing bowls, and move the beater from bowl to bowl. (and just wash the beaters).

On Sunday, the day after Deepavali, I had to make 3 carrot cakes, 2 brownies, and 2 tiramisus. So, I had to do it in the following sequence. The brownies first, coz they're basically one bowl mix. It was my first time making brownies with the baby, and the texture looked fine, initially. It wasn't until I was pouring the batter into the pans that I realised a lot of gunk at the bottom wasn't mixed properly. I made a feeble attempt to restir the gunk back into the remaining batter, but that might not have worked, because, the most awful thing happened while the brownies were baking. There appeared on the surface of the brownie a gurgling, boiling oil kinda texture. Which really alarmed me. Miraculously, it disappeared the minute I took it out of the oven. However, the brownie looked darker and harder than I was used to, so I honestly don't know if they were dry and hard as rock. For the next brownie order on Tuesday, I stuck with the old handbeater, and it was perfect.

For the 3 carrot cakes, I used the Kenwood to mix the cake batter, but had to mix the carrots, walnuts and raisins in another bowl. I guess that was coz of the sheer volume of it. Whipping of cream was easy enough, but I reckon it would be QUITE easy to overbeat cream in this baby. But again, I had to mix the mascarporne in another bowl, WITH another mixer. The cream cheese frosting for the carrot cakes, and buttercream for daughter's birthday cake, were done in the kenwood, and yes, it is great for that.

I am sooo exhausted, in addition to having been sick since Sunday. I want a refund on my public holiday.

One of the many Raya carrot cakes. Okay, granted, the Deepavali colors may have rendered it a bit gaudy, but hey, I was in a chirpy mood.

I ran out of steam halfway, for these freebies, and only managed to slap on some cream cheese frosting onto the cupcakes as a background for the lettering. As you can see, the yellow letters can't be seen clearly coz of the frosting. Next time I might just try an icing sugar glaze.

More sugarpaste letters....No prizes for guessing what they spell.

Tiramisu torte, with almonds and cocoa as opposed to caramelised nuts.

Another new item I tried was a Walnut Coffee Sour Cream Cake, fulfilling a last minute order by Mr Cambridge, who told me to "surprise" him.

I was very pleasantly surprised by this sms I received from No1 in Tianjin yesterday.

My Baby Has Arrived

After much scouting around, I decided that the "SPECIAL BUY" from Southern Bank's Direct Access was the best deal. RM1599 for this baby, at interest free instalments of RM133 per month. Now the problem is looking for a place to house this baby, considering the kitchen is more congested than a Singaporean HDB.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that you can fit all kinds of trendy attachments, from sausage maker to blender to processor. Of course, the attachments probably cost an arm and a leg. Now, if anyone can enlighten me, when we beat normal cake batter, which do we use? The K beater, the balloon whisk, or the dough hook? (obviously not the latter la). In Alex Goh's creative cake mixing, he uses the balloon whisk to mix the sponge mix. How? This is more exciting than getting a new car, and is singularly one of the most expensive appliances I've ever purchased. Heck, my TV is 11 years old, my dvd is the chiplak RM119 one. My stereo (or amp), is also 10 years old, and is falling apart. I use the chiplak dvd player as a cd player....


Godma unloaded a tonne of very ripe bananas on me yesterday, so I decided to try out a new banana cake recipe, ie, the Chocolate Banana Cake from AWW. However, after mixing the milk & lemon juice mixture, (I guess this is a form of buttermilk), I FORGOT to add it into the final batter. Anyway, it turned out okay, sans chocolate icing, coz brought it to in-laws place and no time to cool the cake.


These mini loaf pans I bought from Carrefour are a real boon. Now I can have a few experimental loafs on the side, by making extra batter. And they're non stick, so only need to grease a little bit, and they plop out easier than a baby from a woman who's had 6 kids.



The other experimentation was using fondant/sugarpaste icing to make lettering. I bought the lettering set from Pasaraya Bagus, in Shah Alam. I haven't touched fondant since the wedding cake episode, and it was with trepidation that I tried. Anyway, I intend to do what everyone's doing with cupcakes, and using these banana cupcakes below, putting a letter of the alphabet on each, to form the words HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILIE.



These are the colors of the fondant that I made. I discovered that one batch of 500gm can probably go a LONG LONG way as far as lettering goes. Can probably write a short essay with it.

Further to the comment by Snowdrop in the previous post, regarding auctioning cookie cutters, well, keep your eyes peeled, I have been known to lose interest in certain hobbies, ...... like guitar lessons, so if that day comes, EVERYTHING, from cookbooks, to baking pans, will be on sale.

Enough Cookie Cutters For Now

Thanks to Spot, or was it Snowie, who directed me to that marvellous baking decoration heaven, called Wilton, in Section 14. Of course, don't expect to pay your average Bake With Yen prices for any of the merchandise. But hey, yutt fun cheen yutt fun for. I think Venetia had earlier on directed me to that site as well, but I had deleted her comment in haste cos it revealed my name, and it aint Rumpelstiltskin.

Check out my latest purchase....what got me was the T-Rex cutter. But after buying it, I remembered that 3rd kid, ie, boy no 2, is no longer into dinosaurs, but more into Ultraman and Power Rangers..... oh well, Christmas is around the corner, so I guess they (the cutters) can be used for a whole gingerbread zoo, though I have no idea how gingerbread is related to the birth of Jesus Christ in any way.





Anyway, I also enrolled for the Level 1 Cake Decorating course. The lady there asked me at least twice if I was registering for myself. It wasn't until I announced that I was bored with my day job, did they believe me. I very foolishly showed one of them my attempt at my first wedding cake, and she almost condescendingly said, "hmm, not a bad effort for first time"... and proceeded to show me a styrofoam coated with fondant cake by one of the students, proudly telling me, oh, this was done by a guy, first timer with no experience. I have to say the fondant was exceedingly smooth.

Meanwhile, this morning, to my horror, I discovered that two lemon meringue pies I had made for a delivery today had gone partially soggy in one section. (ie, the crust). I'm not sure why this is so, probably the meringue leaked or something. And what is with the bleeding of the meringue? Can anyone enlighten me? (usually when I ask these kind of culinary question, it's directed at Boo_licious)

Caramel Banana Pie

Got my last of the 4 books that I ordered from Amazon. I don't understand how the postal service here works. The first parcel had to be picked up from Chan Sow Lin area, and the 2nd parcel, in the Pantai Dalam area. Important thing is, they all arrived safely.

It's been a phenomenal week last week, with 15 orders. Well, 4 were complimentary, 11 were commercial. An old recipe I dug up, that haven't used in awhile, was the Caramel Banana Tart, which is something like a Banoffee Pie, except the latter usually required boiling condensed milk for 2 hours, and I can't get myself to waste that kind of electricity, unless I have 10 orders of banoffee. My alternative recipe has all the goodness of milk and sugar, without having to make TNB happy. Alas, I didn't take any decent pictures of the pie, so I only have this to show:


If you're interested in trying it out, the recipe is as follows:

Filling:

1 cup milk with 1/2 cup corn flour, mixed
100 gm butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1½ cups whipping cream
3 bananas
chocolate sauce

Pie case : Well, you should know how to make it by now, so no need to explain here

1. Melt the butter and sugar in a saucepan until all melted. It should form a lovely brown-ish golden caramel.

2. Add the milk and cornflour mixture until the whole thing thickens. My boy calls it Taffy. Donno WHEERE he learnt that from.

3. Remove from heat, and stir in the egg y0lks and vanilla essence. When it is cooled, spoon into the tart shell, top with bananas, and a layer of whipped cream, and just before serving, place some banana slices on the top, and drizzle with chocolate sauce. Refrigeration is of UTMOST importance. The colder the pie the better.

In fact, it tastes better after overnight in the fridge.

Is Semolina/Sugee Considered Flour?

I just had lunch with "Tan Sri", at Delicious, upon my suggestion, as we were trying to decide where to eat at Bangsar Village.

The place is a success story, and sticks to the simple formula of fairly good food at fairly affordable prices in fairly nice surroundings, with fairly easy parking. My nasi kerabu was fairly good, not the best, but certainly not the worst. "Tan Sri"'s mushroom soup looked thick and mushroomy, with evidence of shitake mushrooms swimming about.

Now, many many years ago, King of the Chinese used to lug back a Flourless Lemon Cake from Daimaru, Melbourne, for us everytime he came back. Not into baking yet at the time, I was intrigued by the term flourless, just like most of the non cake laity out there, (FLOURLESS? REALLY AH? HOW LIKE THAT? WHAT DO YOU USE?) but never really pursued the matter beyond going ooh and aah. Fast forward, many many years down the line, I wish I had done SOMETHING about obtaining the recipe back then.

So, I've been meaning to try the flourless orange cake in Delicious. Tan Sri and I dissected the cake, and tried using our tongues and imagination to decipher the composition. I told him that most flourless cakes have almond and egg, which was when he commented, it tastes like sugee. Now, sugee seems to be known as sugee only in this country, otherwise it is known as semolina. (Not salmonella, which is the poisoning from raw egg). From an internet search, I found that

Semolina flour;

Typically hard durum wheat which has been ground into flour. The resulting product is high in gluten and is used for making pasta and breads. Semolina is available in coarse or fine texture flour.
(courtesy of http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/)

Which begs the question. Is it a flour? If not, then an orange sugee cake can be classified as a flourless cake.

But back to the more important point, anyone out there has a recipe for flourless orange/lemon cake? (not from the internet la, must be tried and tested)

Carrot Cake With Frosting

Another cake on the "for sale" list recently has been the carrot cake. Aitelyu in this life, you REALLY cannot please everyone. Some say its too dense, they prefer it more cakey, fluffy, ....but when you make it lighter, some say they prefer it dense.

So, for the ease of future ordering, you may follow this guide for lemon and carrot cakes. No point doing one for durians, because, 1. the cliparts of durians aren't available on Microsoft, 2. if you are ordering durian cake, in all likelihood, you'd want DURIAN. Very little room for grey area with durian. You either like it, or you don't. So even a hint of it can make a person sick, if inclination is of the latter.


During a recent dinner, a friend's friend from Ipoh suggested I try making a cempedak cake. She has childhood memories of eating it, and remembers it being divine. Anyone got a recipe to share?

Off the top of my head, this is how I would make it, if I were try.

400gms of cempedak flesh, pureed, with some milk.

250gms butter
3/4 cup sugar

5 eggs

2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup custard powder

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I wonder why this isnt a more popular snack. Butter and sugar on its own, is divine. Recently, I found out that some friends think BUTTERCUP is butter. Hallo, please read your contents list. If its too cheap to be butter, it ain't!!!

2. Add in the eggs one by one. My favourite cooking eggs are Seri Murni, large. They separate easily too, and are reasonably priced. Who cares about low cholestrol eggs if you are whacking 250gm of butter.

3. Stir in sifted flours in two batches. Add the cempedak puree. Bake in preheated 180C oven for an hour.

Anyone game to try? I am dying to try, but haven't seen any cempedaks on the road yet. Oh, cannot replace with jackfruit, I'm pretty sure. The cempedak needs to be ripe too.

I've got a friend, Woman I am Scared Of, who recoils in horror at the sight of jackfruit and cempedak. Some childhood related trauma. Dunno if it fell on her head or something.

Martha Has Arrived

Sorry for the long hiatus. I haven't been experimenting on anything new in the last few weeks, and all the dessert orders have been stuff that has already been featured, so nothing to blog about. Lately the lemon meringue pie has been getting a lot of exposure, and is becoming increasingly popular. As I predicted, people's SOURNESS TOLERANCE LEVEL varies, so I get comments like, Ah, just right, not sour enough, or EEUGHHHH, tooo sour. I shall incorporate a lemon scale for future orders.

Last birthday, late 2005, dear friend Jays from NY gave me a USD50 Amazon gift voucher. Recently I realised I should use it before it expires. After numerous attempts, at ordering 2nd hand books, baking utensils, all which can't be delivered to out of America, I finally settled for new books, and of course, what kinda books, but cookbooks. For all the variety you can get here, there are surprisingly few Martha Stewart books available locally. Maybe she's a convicted felon, and our censorship board does not allow works by authors like that. Then again, you can buy Jeffrey Archer's stuff quite readily.

Anyway, the problem with ordering from Amazon is the exorbitant postage cost, and basically, you need to buy more than one book to get some sort of economy of scale for postage. So, I ended up buying 4 books, way exceeding the USD50 gift voucher. Today, 3 out of the 4 books arrived!!!!

To my delight, one of the recipes had what looks like something VERY close to Alexis' Pear and Ginger Upside Down Pudding.



My quest for that recipe (apart from the one Boolicious of Masak Masak gave me a few months back) has been like the quest for the holy grail. The other thing that is almost impossible to find is a SQUARE pie tin with a removable base and corrugated pie sides. Unfortunately, the pear ginger cake calls for golden molasses, which I think is quite expensive. I just gonna hantam golden syrup.

The Sachertorte recipe in the Green & Blacks Chocolate Recipes looks to die for. Oh well, lots of new things to try, so keep your eyes peeled in the future.

For a semi food related tale and friend's 40th, do check out the story at limiteditions.

Lemon Cheese Cake Virgin No More, and Duck Pasta

When I got a request from now 8 year old friend, and recent baker, to make a lemon cheese cake for her birthday I was hesitant because, 1. lemon is not a universally adored fruit, unlike its rounder sibling, the orange, 2. I have never attempted a lemon cheese cake, 3. now that I am getting paid for these things, there's a whole lot more stressed involved.

Fortunately, I have like 200 cookbooks at my disposal, so finding a recipe for lemon cheesecake was as easy as looking for news on snatch thieves in the local papers. But I think we all gravitate to our roots eventually, and I found myself using Catherine Lau's recipe from Cheese cake seduction. What I like about her recipes is that they are quite easy to follow.


Fortunately, it turned out quite well. It was fairly light, not too sour, just the right amount of zest, and well, a few of my friends had seconds, and since they were paying for it, I guess I could have relied on them for brutal honesty if the cake stank.

I originally wanted to add a layer of chocolate in between the biscuit base and the cheese filling, but completely forgot. Last Friday, I was doing some "market research" and had a slice of lemon cheesecake in Chinoz on the Park, which had chocolate glaze. But that was a baked cheese cake. This particular one, as you can see, is the chilled variety.


The other thing I tried over the weekend, which was inspired by the Duck Pasta in Delicious, was Roast Duck Pasta. Too lazy to cook the duck myself, I bought some roast duck.

Although none of my guest raved about this, I personally liked it very much, and even had the leftovers for lunch the next day. This is how I went about it.

Some diced raw garlic (about 1 bulb, I guess)
Oyster Mushrooms, sliced finely (about 300gms)
Half a Roast Duck, deboned, and sliced finely
Generous amount of coriander, finely chopped
10 basil leaves, finely chopped
250ml olive oil
4 red chillies, diced

500gms vermicelli pasta

1. Heat a little bit of the olive oil, or grapeseed oil, fry a small portion of the garlic until fragrant, and fry the roast duck together with the oyster mushrooms, to impart a lovely garlicky ducky flavour to the mushrooms. Set aside

2. Using rest of olive oil, slowly fry the garlic, and diced chilli. It should give a lovely aroma.

3. Boil the pasta to al dente.

4. Toss all the ingredients together, and sprinkle chopped herbs to incorporate.

5. Serve with parmesan if desired.

SERVES 14.

Culinary CPR

I have to say that the response to my semi commercial venture has been very encouraging. Now, the proof of the pudding is in the eating as the old adage goes, so, it remains to be seen how many repeat orders I have. Last week I've had to cater the following: Apple Pie, Tiramisu Cake, Tiramisu in A Tray, Peach and Banana Crumble, Scones, Chocolate Tart, Lemon Pistachio Sour Cream Cake, Banana Walnut Loaf, plus a side "encore" of a butter cake for Evil Twin's wife's birthday during bible study, but she no show, so the cake went to my mother's cell group.

A Chocolate Brownie That Doubled Up as a Birthday cake on Thursday night, for Toekneetoe

The major bulk of orders were for pickup on Saturday afternoon. I had premade the chocolate tart the night before, and plonked it in the fridge. Honestly, I don't know if it was the domestic help's fault, or my own, but to my abject horror, the next day, when we took it out, the whole tart pastry had turned soggy from water accumulated in condensation of sorts. Now, if I had been serving friends, it wouldn't have bothered me too much, but as this was a first time sale, I had to make a proper first impression, so desperately tried to dehydrate the tart, by placing it on a perforated pizza pan, and warming in on a low heat.

Can you see the soggy pastry?

But after half an hour, I gave up the CPR, and thankfully, had a spare pie tart casing, so after informing the buyer that I need some extra time, managed to whip up a new chocolate tart.

I subsequently froze the old tart, (no, I am not referring to cryogenically freezing some woman), which was subsequently served to the other cell group as well. I had a taste of it, and actually, it wasn't bad. However, if you are a not a chocaholic, I think this is way too rich for the average person, and can only be taken in small doses. Slithers of it. And even then, this recipe is not 100% solid chocolate, unlike some other recipes. Half of it is actually baked, with eggs, cream, cocoa, etc....

My latest treat to myself, Jamie Oliver's new book. I am not really a JO fan, but I got a 20% discount plus free brolly, so I am a reallll sucker for these things.


Had a glance through, it's typical Jamie Oliver, simplicity is its trademark. However the dessert section is disappointingly short. I think there are only about 20 types of desserts featured. One or two do look rather delectable, but the rest...hmmmmm......

Anyone want to buy it off me???

Weekend Travails

Yikes!!! I've been baking everyday since Friday. On Friday, it was the birthday cake for friend's birthday party, (no cell group), who requested the flourless chocolate cakes. Again, let me reiterate that decoration is not my forte. I really need to attend some cake decoration class, so if any of you have any pointers as to who conducts these classes, without making it like a diploma course with commensurate pricing, do let me know.



Starting with Friday night, this was the outcome of 34 pieces of flourless chocolate cakes piled together. The problem with this cake was the stress involved in getting it to the destination without it toppling. Of course, I had structurally enforced with with skewers, but you never know, it's like the equivalent of 10 on a Richter Scale when the car goes over some potholes in KL!!

On Friday night itself, I get an order from Datin, asking for passion fruit cheesecake, lemon meringue pie and scones. Aiyo, wheeeeeere to find passion fruit at such last minute. Hardly something I can buy in the wet market, or even cold storage. After much objection, she resigned herself to any cheesecake. I asked if she wanted the chilled variety or baked. Fortunately, it was the former, so she got an orange cheesecake. I have NOOO idea how this one tasted. Lemon Meringue Pie, now becoming a standard order, wasn't much of a problem.

Fellow gym member had ordered a Durian Poppy Seed Cake as well. (all this was for Sunday morning pick up). So on Saturday night, before going off to join my pals for a spot of Pok Kuat (Dead Gin), I had to basically make, the cheesecake, the lemon meringue pie, the durian poppy seed cake, and the sponge base for Baby Boy's 4th birthday on Sunday.

On Sunday, after church, and after a nap, had to prepare Scones, Chicken Pies and assemble the chocolate oreo cake for the birthday party.

The chocolate oreo cake, which in my opinion, tasted better than it looked. I had just plonked on some power ranger toys as decoration, coz that's what the kid wanted. Then again, I spent all of 15 minutes icing it, with ganache.

These chicken pies sold out like hotcakes at the tea party. It was a last minute inclusion in the menu. Quite handy albeit a bit more costly to use the disposal tin foil pie containers.

The scones which were also popular, but not as popular as the pies.

Although I did get the following compliments for the scones:

wendy says:
oi! your scones were lovely...

datin says:
Scones r crazy! We went berserk. Orga*****.

HOW FLATTERING!!!!!!! WOO HOOO!!!!

All Kinds Of New Experiments

I've been dying to try these Mini Beef Pies In Guinness (Stout) that I saw in AWW. It's meant to be finger food, and are bite sized, the size of the mini muffins....which in my opinion, is too small, and too much work. The ingredients call for beef, guinness stout, beef stock etc...and ready rolled shortcrust pastry.

Mid valley megamall at the moment is quite an exasperating place to do grocery shopping, coz both Carrefour and Jusco are undergoing renovation, and half the stuff is not available, which includes, PASTRY. So I am combing the mall on Thursday night is a futile quest for ready made shortcrust.

Conclusion : The supermarket that sells the most variety of ready pastry, is Village Grocer, Bangsar Village. You can get Pampas Puff Pastry, Shortcrust, Borg Puff Pastry, Canola Pastry, Filo, etc etc...Not even cold storage has that variety.

I decided to experiment on my cell group first, on Friday night. Beef in guinness stout is not everyone's cup of tea, or stout, or beer. Anyway, I decided on an assortment of puff and shortcrust pastry. Now, since I couldnt find ready rolled shortcrust, I had to contend with the block of shortcrust, which you have to roll yourself. And as I forgot to defrost it early enough, it was still too hard. After zapping in microwave, it was too soft. Looked like a disaster from +the word go

Muffin Sized (not mini muffin) Beef Pies in Guinness

For my main event on Saturday, I got lazy, and made just one big pie

Also made cream puffs,


with very badly made custard, that turned out looking like scrambled eggs.



I must try to make a creme patisserie from scratch.

Friend ordered a durian cake, which I had to make by Sunday night. As it is chock full of fresh cream, I hope that along the way, the cream doesn't melt, in transit. Unlike some commercial cakes, that use non dairy cream, which hold its form, fresh cream melts darn fast. Again, this is a guinea pig case.... It's my first attempt at this type of durian cake, inspired of course by my recent less than pleasant experience at the cafe mentioned in previous post.




On Saturday night, I got an emergency order from friend, for birthday cake with purple icing. Decorative cakes are not my forte, but since she wasn't in a position to be choosy, I relented. (which was a bad idea coz was up till 4am on Saturday partying, and was sleep deprived on Sunday). Forgot to take a picture of the purple cake.

As I was getting the cake ready, I get YET another SOS from friend, who said her restaurant had run out of dessert. It was 2.30pm, and she was picking up purple cake at 4.30pm, so the only dessert I could quickly whip up for her was the peach and banana crumble.

Why Do People Have To Be So Rude?

I do not usually blog about negative experiences, but since this is food related, I think I should relate my experience, so that whoever goes into the F&B business should not make the same mistake.

Fellow flogger (food blogger) and me went for coffee and cake at this cafe in the vicinity of Atria. The minute we entered, we were greeted by the aroma of durian, so I suspected they must have durian cake, which was good. We plonked ourselves at a cosy corner, only to be told, almost impolitely, by the proprietress, "oh, you're only having coffee and cake? Can you move to the smaller table as I'm expecting my lunchtime crowd". Fine, although a "please" or "do you mind" would have been welcome, I attributed the lack of manners to stress.

We had our cake, and coffee, which really, to her credit, was quite good. So good that my fellow flogger wanted to take away a piece of the durian cake for his mum. Then the waitress comes and says, very unconvincingly, oh, cannot pack, because it's too soft. Well, it's not like it was falling apart when they served us, and I didn't think it was THAT soft, so I casually enquired after the owner, "oh, you mean the durian cake can't be tah pau-ed?"

She literally snapped at me, "No, I am expecting a lot of walk in customers..... (and for good measure, threw in the excuse)...and its too soft to pack". Now this time I got really irate. There are many ways to skin a cat, there is no need to be rude. Anyway, I shouted to my friend, "I'm waiting outside, I can't take this".

Ah, it's good to get it off my chest.

Fiddling With the Same Old Stuff

Ever since my little venture into "commercialism", most of my exploits in the kitchen have been restricted to the same old stuff, hence, nothing much to update. The lemon tart and lemon meringue pies seem to be doing okay, with an average of 1 to 2 orders per week. Other stuff I have been "supplying" include the Orange Mocha Chocolate Brownie, Peach and Banana Crumble, Flourless Chocolate cakes......

In addition to the the commercial supply, of two lemon meringue pies, peach and banana crumble in separate containers which I had to get ready Friday evening, I also had to prepare a birthday cake for my other half as it was cell group night, so I also had to prepare supper, of puff pastry quiche with luncheon meat and mushrooms. The birthday cake was a Chocolate Mint Cake, different from the Chocolate Peppermint Cake which was featured in an earlier post. This was a serendipitous result of carelessless. Why? Well, I had set out to make the Chocolate Oreo Cake, actually, and asked my 6 yr old son, whilst in the supermarket, "Have we got any oreos at home", and he confidently replied, "Yes". Normally, I am very kiasu, and would have bought another one anyway, just in case, but not wanting to undermine his reply, I accepted it as gospel. Turns out, there was an Oreo box, but inside were ritz crackers. And I have actually started crushing the ritz crackers before realising what they were.

So, necessity being the mother of invention, I had to think how to best utilised the 3 cups of cream that had alread been whipped, and the chocolate that had been melted. Aha, then the brain wave struck, to flavour the chocalate cream with peppermint. Anyway, leaving it to the the forces that be, it turned out to be a hit with the cell group. Boy said it was like eating mint ice cream. And the mint cream is a lot lighter than the peppermint butter cream in the earlier post.





For the following night, celebrating with friends, I had the oreos, so made the oreo cake, which was also well received.





Last night, for family dinner with Singapore uncle, it was apple crumble, as all have health issues....

(pic courtesy of PA Khoo)

Tiramisu For Kung See Lai

Since Kung See Lai heard that I have started selling desserts, she has suddenly become very kan cheong (what's the english word for this? sense of urgency) to get all my recipes off me before err.....I become a celebrity chef!!!! HAHAHAAH!!! Yar, like that's gonna happen. Worry not, dear Kung See Lai.

Here's the tiramisu recipe you've been asking for:

Sponge fingers..... depending how much sponge you like in your thing.
Coffee and kahlua mixture ...i usually use two tablespoons coffee powder, 1/4 cup hot water to dissolve the coffee powder, and 3/4 cup cold water, & anywhere from 2-6 tablespoons kahlua.

Filling:
4 yolks
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 cups whipping cream
250gm mascarporne

1. Whip up the whipped cream till fairly stiff. Don't over whip. Over whipped cream is like an abacus to an anglophile. Absolutely useless.

2. In a separate bowl, whip the egg yolks, with the caster sugar, until pale yellow. Stir in the mascarporne, and stir until well combined. It should be a lovely creamy light beige texture. Add in some kahlua, up to you how much, 2-6 tablespoons.... I love mine with more.

3. Combine together with the whipped cream, and stir. And run it through the electric beaters for a minute or so, to combine it nicely.

4. Dip the sponge fingers into the coffee mixture quickly. Its best to put the coffee mixture into a flat bowl, which allows maximum surface area for the sponge fingers. Line the bottom of a flat based bowl or dish with a layer or two of sponge fingers. Or individual cups.

5. Either top up with all the filling, or half, and place another layer of sponge fingers and top up with the rest. Sprinkle with cocoa powder or grated dark chocolate. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. The colder the better. Alternatively, sprinkle the cocoa/chocolate only just before serving.

Tips: Its imperative you do not oversoak or undersoak the sponges. Oversoaking will make it soggy, undersoaking leaves it hard.
And watch the beating of the cream. Overbeating will render the thing useless.

Food Exploits Of The Week

My landlady gave me a slice of this decadent Sticky Date Pudding With Toffee. Simply divine, albeit too sweet. She has offered to hook me up with the lady who makes these delicious treats, apparently she'd even be willing to teach me a thing or two. Yahoo!!! Free culinary lessons.



Leftover Lamb Wraps, from my Roast Leg of Lamb on Saturday. Plonked on top of a tortilla wrap, garnished with undressed salad, comprising lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, rocket leaves, it made a perfect Monday lunch. I should imagine it's quite healthy. Afterall, the lamb's lean, roasted, and there's no dressing on the salad.



Apple Pie With Pure Cream and A Scoop of Haagez Daz Vanilla ice cream, family dinner dessert on Tuesday night. Not good for the waistline, no matter how an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Full of cinnamon, strips of lemon zest, and a pastry that requires 4 different types of flour. A pain to make, but worth it.

Blog Friend

This is not a food posting per se. It is related to this food blog though. One of the interesting thing about blogging is meeting all the new people in this virtual blogosphere. It's the modern day equivalent of pen pals I guess. In a food blog such as this, the people all share a common interest, ie, food.

Anyway, I've occasionally wondered who all these people are, what they look like, whether or not masak masak will organise a blogosphere get together, so I get to meet the culinary luminaries like herself, and others....Well, as it turns out, yesterday I actually met up with a fellow blogger for lunch, and it was a rather pleasant experienced. The illustrious young chappie is in the process of setting up a restaurant.....how much more foodier can you get!!!!!

May I introduce you my first food blogging buddy who I've actually met:
http://jacksonkah.blogspot.com/

Young man, you can be rest assured that we will descend on your restaurant and scrutinise every dish.

Ironically, we didn't take any pictures of our meal, which was basically at the new outlet, Shanghai 10 in Bangsar Baru, (replacing the Only Mee outlet), and dessert at Bakerzin. I never knew that tapas dessert set was so palatable. RM15 for 3 dessert tapas, and coffee. We had Banana Pizza, Raspberry Panna Cotta and Vanilla Cream Brulee .... I think.

Quick Dinner For 15 Pax

I guess if your guests don't mind eating the same food everytime you host dinner, it can get progressively easier to prepare dinner... and considering the average time cycle that elapses before they get the eat this particular menu again would be anywhere from 6 months to a year, I guess memories should have been erased by then.

The good things about regurgitating the same menu is you become an expert and can get away with shorter and shorter time. Last Saturday's menu, for friend's farewell, comprised basically the following:

For Starters we had:

Fajitas; a medley of tortillas, honey roast chicken, avocado, caramelised sauteed onions, hot chilli jalapenos, and a mango tomato salsa..

This is really easy to prepare. Buy tortillas, they're cheapest at Carrefour, of various flavours. There's garlic, plain and potato. Roast your own chicken if you must, but with the abundance of roast chickens, very aromatic too, in various supermarkets, like Tesco, Giant, TMC, from as low as 5.99 per bird, heck, .....
I used two ripe plump Aussie avocadoes, removed the stone, and crushed it with some lemon. Onions were sauteed on a hot fire, with grape seed oil, and sea salt.
Mangos (chokanan) and tomatoes are finely diced, (cubed), and tossed in some lemon juice.
Sour cream from the tub.
Zap tortillas in microwave for 30 seconds before serving.

Cheese platter : I know ze cultured have cheeses AFTER dinner, but I find it suits my chinky palate to have cheeses as a starter. I served a block of Harvati Cheese, and Brandied Apricot Fruit Cheese, which some described as almost like eating ice cream. I suspect the true blue cheese connoiseurs would tut tut this as being an impostor cheese, but who cares, as long as the majority loves it. Served with Ritz Crackers. I find Water Table a bit overated.... I like the slight saltiness of Ritz crackers.

Freshly baked baguettes : Delifrance has these frozen baguettes, which you throw into an oven for about 20 minutes, and it's like eating freshly baked bread. Goes divinely with REAL butter.

Creamy Potato and Leek Soup : Deskin one whole chicken, and boil in a stock pot. (I used 15 cups of water, estimating 15 bowls of soup). Chuck in some onions, and whatever else you think will sweeten the stock. An hour before serving, chuck in the potatoes, (I used 8 large potatoes), 4 large leeks, 2 large onions, and chunks of thick bacon. It might be a good idea to remove the chicken (which should have disintergrated by now) before adding the potatoes and stuff. If not, you'll have to sift through a conglomeration of chicken, potatoes, leeks, onions...which you have to puree in a blender. After pureeing the concoction, put back into stock to boil. Actually, the soup is creamy on its own, but I added in some cream, and about 1/4 bottle of white wine, with sea salt. Goes brilliantly with the freshly baked baguettes.

MAINS

Roast Leg of Lamb With Rosemary, Garlic and Honey Mustard Glaze.

The night before, I seasoned the leg of lamb with the garlic and rosemary. Pierce the skin of the leg of lamb (mine was 2.3kg), and stuff with garlic...I used 2 garlic bulbs? cloves? Two whole garlic. Also pierce with rosemary sprigs. Put in plastic bag, and refrigerate overnight.

2 hours before dinner, place on roasting pan at 180C, and roast for 1 hour. Take out, glaze with honey mustard, (1/2 cup seeded mustard, 1/2 cup dijon, and 1/2 cup honey), and put back to bake for a further 20-30 minutes, until the meat thermometer shows your preferred doneness.

Serve with pan juices and mint jelly.

Zuchinni Mushroom Pie

Use ready made puff pastry, unless you have all the time in the world, and a cold kitchen.
Slice 1 pack of button mushroom and 2 zuchinni, into a large bowl. Toss in one cup of cream, 1 packet of instant mushroom soup, (mixed into a concentrated soup), and some grated cheddar, or sliced cheddar cheese torn into bits. Line bottom of pie plate with puff pastry, put in filling, close the top with more puff pastry, glaze with milk or egg, and bake until nice and brown, in the same oven with the lamb.

Salad With Quails Eggs

Salads have got to be the empty canvass equivalent for a cook. Really, possibilities are endless. This time I used two types of frisse lettuce, 2 yellow capsicum, a punnet of cherry tomatoes, 30 quails eggs, a handful of toasted pine nuts.
Dressing : 1/2 cup seeded mustard, 1/3rd cup honey, 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/2 cup olive oil.

Spaghetti With Aubergine and Oyster Mushroom

Have to ask the maid.

Dessert

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Warm Chocolate Sauce and Pure Cream
Lemon Meringue Pie

Both of which have been described in earlier posts. These can be made ahead, either day before, or morning of dinner.

Moist Moist Carrot Cake

If you're like me, and like moist cakes, moist, dense, wholesome, hearty cakes, then this has to be THE carrot cake recipe for you. Good enough to eat without frosting, and I daresay, fairly healthy, judging by the ingredients.

What To Put In

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger

1 cup brown sugar

4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
125ml sunflower oil

4 grated carrots, large-ish
10 prunes chopped
1 can pineapple, chopped and drained
handful of walnuts, chopped roughly

1. Sift together all the dry ingredients
2. Mix in a separate bowl the eggs, oil and vanilla, and chuck into the dry ingredients. Stir, (I use a whisk to stir), until all combined.
3. Chuck in all the other stuff, until all combined.
4. Pour into square 8" pan, lined and greased, and plonk into 180C oven for 45-50 minutes.

So easy!!!! Even better if you have domestic help to help grate the carrots. I'm not sure if food processors grate it too finely. Can someone tell me?

Anyway, I made this on Monday night, just before popping out to Zeta Bar for a friend's birthday. Served it on Tuesday night, and it was wonderfully moist. Sister said it could have done with a dollop of thick pure bulla cream, but ahem, I am into health food these days, so no cream. Okay, okay, that's rubbish, I forgot to stock up.