Easy As Pie

My mother wanted to send an apple pie over to a friend's place as a get well soon token, so decided to make an extra one for family dinner.

There are countless recipes for apple pie, so this particular recipe here is a bit of mish mash, bits taken from here and there. Does that make it original, or just blatant plagiarism? However, it IS through trial and error over the years that I've finally arrived at this recipe, which I now use.

Pastry - (enough for a 9" pie pan, base and top)

2¾ cup flour
200 gm butter
1 cup icing sugar (sifted)
1 egg beaten

1. Do the usual, yada yada, fold in the butter into the flour and icing sugar mixture until resembles breadcrumbs. The shortcut of course, is to blitz it in a food processor, or cake mixer with K paddle, until breadcrumbs.
2. Add the egg (if using hand) and knead till it comes together. Don't overknead, or pastry will be hard. If using machine, just pulse in the egg until forms a ball.
3. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare your apple filling:

8-9 apples, granny smiths, or combo, peeled, cored and sliced, either into 1/8ths, or sliced thinly
4 table spoons sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon clove powder
(Optional : 1 cup raisins)

Cook the above mixture for about 8 minutes until apples are tender. If sliced thinly, 6 minutes would do.

Roll out just over half of the pastry on a floured surface, and line the base of a pie tin with it.

Place the apples in the pie. Depending on what a neatness freak you are... I just dump all mine in and spread it out as best I can.

Roll remaining pastry to cover the top. Ensure the sides are sealed, but do cut some steam holes for steam to escape. Glaze with egg wash to brown.

Bake in preheated oven 180C for 30 minutes until brown.

Serve warm, with Vanilla Ice cream, custard or pure cream.


If too lazy to make, just order from me at RM60 per pie.

Abridged Dim Sum

I always look forward to receiving the monthly schedule from the Cooking House, my favourite cooking school (a bit biased I suppose, but its closeby to where I live, easy to park, reasonably priced, and run by my ex classmate and her sister), and when I saw that they were offering tidbits of dim sum (literally), I immediately signed up. Added to that, the instructress was Gina, the super evangelist of the Magimix Food Processor.

I got there at 3 sharp, but it was like one of those movie theatres that have no trailers in the beginning, and you walk in and the movie has begun. Really annoying. She was already sieving the egg mixture for the egg tarts, as I plonked myself beside 3 familiar faces. The 3 divas of the food blogging world, ie, Boolicious, Lemongrass and Precious Pea. The first two were a surprise, as I only expected Pea there. I asked Lemongrass under my breath if she was going to teach us how to make the flaky pastry, and LL confidently said, no, the pastry is pre-prepared. I was ready at this point to jump up and create a scene, coz the flaky pastry was the main reason I signed up. Fortunately, patience has its benefits, for it really was part of the syllabus.

While some may have found her teaching a bit haphazard, I found it suprisingly organised, because stuff that had to be pre-prepared, such as dough that needed proofing, were done before hand, and so she was able to demonstrate lots of concurrent activity, and backtracking later on to show how the particular dough was made.

ie, we started off at say, Step 3 for a particular dough....since steps 1 & 2 require lots of waiting time, but she would later on demonstrate steps 1&2. Good thing, or we'd have been stuck there for hours.

We have above the various demonstrations on making flaky pastry and Bao dough.



The completed egg tarts, which were a bit overcooked, and the pastry had hardened from the melted grease.



This is a charsiu sou wrapped in hong kong style. The Singapore style is the pillow style, an oblong shape.






Straight Dough vs Gay/Happy Dough

The charsiu baos, pre-prepared by the si fu, which fart. Fart (Fatt) refers to the way the bao opens up in four directions. Fart (prosperity) baos can only be obtained using the Starter Dough, which we will call the Gay/Happy Dough (because it makes the baos burst open in smile), because the other Dough she demonstrated is the Straight Dough, that doesn't need proofing and can be used instantly.







The pillow cased charsiu sous.



These were the baos made by the students. Various degrees of fartness. She taught us two methods of folding the dough, ie, the housewife method, and the sifu method, (similar to wrapping a siu long bao)



We have here the 3 Flogger Divas posing for the camera with their various buns, (featured below)





Lemongrass miraculously managed to get a smooth bald texture on her second bun, and named it in honor of Bald Eagle.



The one above was my 2nd attempt, by which time, the dough for that round all didn't fart very well. I gobbled up my first one forgetting to take a picture.








Her charsiu recipe is surprisingly simple and PRETTY GOOD!!!! Of course, since it was chicken char siu, there was no basis for comparison with the other artery clogging stuff we've been eating at places like FSF, but even on its own, the marinade made the meat most delicious, and call it whatever you want, it's great.



I was most fascinated by the longevity peach that Gina was demonstrating. My favourite part of this entire exercise would be inserting the a** slit onto the bao.

I heard Lemongrass was SOOO inspired that she immediately headed off to the village grocer, and bought all the ingredients for the charsiu. As of press time yesterday, the meats were still having their spa in the marinade.

More Home Cooked Meals

Since I go out to eat with the rarity that the Irrawady Bottlenosed Dolphin mates, I can no longer keep up with the myriad write ups by my other esteemed fellow floggers. Coupled with the fact that I am getting lazy to photograph food, although they are quite patient models, unlike children, who fidget too much, there doesn't seem to be much to write about at all these days. Anyway, this started off as a recipe blog originally.

Last Wednesday night, New Year's Eve (of the Muslim Calendar), I decided to host a simple dinner for some friends, old and new, to reciprocate a friend's hospitality recently. Anyway, the menu was as follows:

Homemade Chicken and Mushroom Pizzas on A Duet of Base Sauces, Pesto and Tomato
Smoked Salmon & Avocado, Sour Cream, Cream Cheese Dip
Assorted Cheese Platter
Pumpkin Soup Garnished With Roasted Capsicum

Roast Beef In Red Wine & Mushroom Sauce
Chillied Linguine With Pan Seared Scallops
Aragula & Leafy Greens With Anjou Pear, Quails Eggs and Walnuts

Christmas Cake (courtesy of one of the guests)
Flourless Chocolate Cake With Molten Centres

There seems to be a nationwide shortage of the Pure Bulla Cream that I normally serve desserts with. Anyway, as I said, it completely slipped my mind to even blog about the dinner, so there are no proper pictures of the first few courses. Which is a pity, coz the chicken pizza did look rather good.



I picked up the tip of serving some roasted capsicum garnish from the previous dinner hosted by another friend who cooks. It complements the pumpkin soup well. Leon Lai, who was present at the dinner, complimented it by saying he doesn't usually like pumpkin soup, but this was good coz it wasn't so sweet and cloy. Actually, wife made the soup.



Chillied Linguine With Scallops. These days, I'm getting increasingly cooler when it comes to hosting dinners. Started slaving over the stove only at 5.30pm, and the scallops were freshly seared just before serving. I think the pasta wasn't bad.






It's always tricky when you serve aragula aka rocket, coz its a bit of hit and miss. I know some people who are averse to rocket as vegetarians are to steak, so I am wary when a recipe consists MAINLY of rocket. So I modified the recipe for the rocket & pear salad, to incorporate other greens, and added quails eggs. The fact that one quail's egg apparently contains 10 times more cholesterol than 1 chicken's egg.....wasn't really a deterrent.




I've dabbled in several roast beef recipes, with various levels of wearisomeness of seasoning. Some call for red wine, seeded mustard, thyme, ....heck, the seasoning is almost as expensive as the meat. Anyway, I decided that beef, if its a good cut, is best eaten without any seasoning. Very primal, but to get the succulent bovine juices tickling your palate, yum. Alas, this particular slab of rib eye seemed a bit bland. Ah, for the first time, I actually made my own gravy from the start. Red Wine Sauce. Rather simple.

375ml beef stock (buy the real beef stock cartons, not the cubes)
1/2 cup red wine
400gms button mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon oil
3 teaspoons cornflour
3 teaspoons water
3 sage leaves

Fry the garlic in the heated oil, chuck in the mushrooms.
When mushrooms are soft, throw in (not literally) the beef stock, and wine, sage and let simmer for 5 minutes or so
Add the cornflour as thickening agent
Continue simmering until thick-ish
Add any pan juices from the roast

Note : Let your roast sit in wrapped aluminium foil for 1/2 hour after roasting, before serving. This will generate lots of juices.



My original intention was to serve steaks, but I realised for a casual dinner with friends, in order to minimize wastage, its best that they carve out their own portions. I mean, this meat is like RM70 a kg, the last thing you want to see is people chucking away half a slab of steak.


The Christmas Cake brought by another friend, which I forgot to serve at an earlier party, was served this time. Very moist and fruity, without being overly rich. In fact, my son asked me to learn how to make this. And this is from a boy who shudders at the sight of fruit and vegetables.



The signature flourless chocolate cakes with molten chocolate centres. Pure bulla cream would have made it better, but had to settle for pouring cream, which I was too lazy to whip up, also because I dont really like the taste of whipped cream these days, not after eating pure cream.

Oh well.....

Are More Males Becoming Chefs?

Happy New Year dearly beloved. For those of you who have been enquiring after my MIA status, I thank you from the bottom of my cholesterol laden heart, it's nice to know that there are people out there who actually enjoy reading this waffle. Admittedly, I had voiced to Lemongrass that I woke up one morning and suddenly lost all interest in blogging. I've been to Penang and back, and didn't take any food pics, or even if I did, they were half hearted attempts. The entire month of December has been one orgiastic culinary debaucherous banquet, with more champagne imbibed that I think the last few years put together.

Resolutions for 08? Ah, resolutions are for the imperfect.

Anyway, what triggered off a sudden reignition of interest in blogging was this lovely homecooked dinner I was invited to recently.


Ya, well, the friend in question resides in Hong Kong, but keeps a pad for whence he returns every so often. I was treated to a rare glimpse into his prized equipment, a complete range of kitchen knives for every culinary purpose known to mankind, from chopping to sawing to carving to paring to filleting..... Not a good place to be when confronted with a serial killer.

Anyway, as I entered the hallowed halls, the scent of a divine beef stock wafted through the air. Saffron.... the package label was "a few strands of saffron", for some absurd amount of money. As I waited for the other guest, the host let me play with his aforementioned sharp tool, and let me chop up some cheese. I was impressed at the colorful array of his cheese platter. The frozen blueberries and raspberries were given a quick blast of flame with the blowtorch. I see I am not the only Asian to serve cheeses from the very onset. An Australian guest once commented that it was unheard of to serve a cheese platter at the beginning. Blah.

After the other guest arrived, we were promptly served the beef soup. The clear consomme was really divine, and apparently the stock took two days to prepare. From the notes from the chef, he used egg white to soak up all excess oil floating around. Well, I don't think I have had such a delicious consomme at a restaurant before.

The caesar salad dressing was made by the man himself, and it was delicious. Good enough to eat on its own. He can bottle it to sell it. Above are the semi dressed leaves, waiting for the next level of garnishing.

The finished product, complete with freshly grated parmigiano reggiano. Loved the freshly fried croutons, though they must be so terribly unhealthy. Always thought croutons were baked, but these were virtually deep fried.

The ravioli, homemade from scratch, was rather good, but the seafood bisque on which it floated was DEEEEEVINE. Freshly chopped chives as garnishing.....

Usually I would have offered to bring some dessert, but this was a rather last minute thing, and I wasn't even sure dinner was on, as the invite was sent out when I was in some stupor at a friend's 40th. The other guests however brought tiramisu, complete with stencils to make happy cocoa faces on the surface of the tiramisu. Yummy.

To end it, we had a christmas fruit cake, commercially bought. Alas, it looked better than it tasted, as it was a tad dry. But considering how we were stuffed anyway, it barely made a difference.

Okay, that's my first post for 2008.

How Will I Ever Host Dinner Again?

After this gastronomic dinner, courtesy of our friend, Sam, I seriously wonder how I shall ever dare host dinner again. It's like ....after you eat Haagen Daz, will any other brand ever be good enough, or more importantly, WOULD you want to waste your calorie allowance on anything BUT the best?

Anyway, fellow guest, Jamie (not Oliver), handled this mean looking syringe with the aplomb and casualness of ....hmmm, either a doctor, nurse or druggie. Apparently she used to inject her dog. The fluid injected was grand marnier. My first time trying this combination.


Grand Marnier Injected Strawberries

These plump juicy scallops were quickly poached in the same water used to cook the squid ink pasta.

Freshly Poached Scallops

How decadent is THIS?!!! Black truffles, which cost like RM250 for 2 biji, at Mr Ho's. Apparently it's a lot cheaper in Dubai Airport. Hallo, anyone headed there? You there in Abu Dhabi, is Abu Dhabi close to Dubai?

Freshly sliced truffles infused in truffle oil

Who, WHO unless you are a real gourmand and gourmet, I ask, would even dream of shrinking your own grapes??? These babies aren't your commercial raisins, they're actually grapes that have been dehydrated in a slow oven....and now swimming in muscat.

Home dried grapes in Muscat Sauce

Pre-grilled egg plant. According to chef, use the Japanese kind because they have less seeds.

Grilled Japanes Eggplant



Grilled Shitake Mushrooms


Two bottles of Prosecco between three people later, (we were saving the vintage Moet, Verve Cliqout and GRAND VINTAGE Moet for dinner), dinner was ready, ...... the eggplant with pesto was gobbled down so quickly, I completely forgot to take a picture. But it was GOOD.

This potted crab, lovingly steamed and peeled by chef, (I think peeling crab for someone is one of the greatest sacrifices in life), marinated in butter, lemon, etc etc....is absolutely DEEEVINE!!!! The slight tang, butteriness, argh, shivers down my spine just recollecting it.



Potted Crab on Toast


Not normally a fan of cold gazpacho type soups, I was really curious about the next offering, chilled moritomo tomatoes. Honestly, it was superb. Slightly tangy, sweet, savoury all at the same time, complemented by a light head induced by vintage champagne, it really was happy times.


Chilled Moritomo Tomato Soup

The next dish, I think speaks for itself. Perfect. Al dente squid ink ...errr....not sure if it was vermicelli or what, tossed in the fish roe with a juicy scallop. I could eat this as a whole main. Very light and refreshing.

Squid Ink Pasta with Ebiko and Poached Scallops

Well, DimSumintheCity, if you're reading this, guilty, on the charge of "eating oodles of this stuff". What to do, I don't seek it, it comes to me. Words can't even begin to describe one's happiness upon seeing a platter of these beauties.

But we weren't to gobble the platter like a flock of vultures. We were elegantly served individual portions on this stunning muscat sauce.

I don't even know when the chef had time to whip this up.

Left over Pan Seared Foie Gras On Roasted Potatoes

Finally, the risotto with creamed leeks, shitake and truffles. I doubt I would ever have the patience to whip up a risotto, let alone present it like this. The combination of flavours was superb. Creamy, rich, and the aroma from the truffles..... [dreamy gaze]

Risotto With Creamy Leeks, Shitake Mushroom and Truffles

And to finish it, and a perfect ending I might add, were these drunken strawberries. Any other dessert might actually have been too rich after this meal.

Dessert - Grand Marnier Strawberries

What can I say, but a big THANK YOU!!!!! You are the best. Really, great company, superb food, great alcohol, what more can a person ask for!!!!