26 December 2007

These are a few of my favourite things...


Before I left Singapore to study in UK for 3 years, I was a big fan of bread. Bread in sandwiches, croutons in salads, old bread in bread pudding, thinly sliced and toasted bread in crostinis etc...... I would gladly choose to dine in delicatessens over the restaurant next door or try the famous wanton noodles at the hawker centre down the road.


That I had forgotten my roots, was not an uncommon accusation tossed my way by friends who have been victim to my sandwich-craze. Foccacia, ciabatta, wholewheat, walnut, spinach and cheese, rye, oatmeal, multi-grain; ham, roast beef, slow-braised pork, pulled pork, roast chicken, pan-fried prawns, roasted vegetables; onion marmalade, wasabi aioli, avocado puree, mustard, tartare sauce, curried mayonnaise; iceberg lettuce, rocket, spinach, cucumber slices etc...... all the permutations and combinations were mind-boggling and extremely exciting.


Of course, all this was until I went to UK, the land of roast beef, yorkshire puddings, baked potatoes and sandwiches. For the first couple of weeks of course, I was over the moon with the variety of sandwiches there. But as you can imagine, I slowly got sick and tired of it all and started craving for Laksa, Mee Hoon Kuay, Ice Kacang and Muah Chee, among other things.

So when I came back home each holiday, I would not waste much time satisfying all my cravings, eating ONLY local grub for each meal.


Now that I've been back for a year and a half, I guess I'm no longer reeling from the thought of eating sandwiches for lunch anymore, and have started loving the smell of freshly baked bread again. I know I've recovered entirely when I walk into Culina at Dempsey, spot a gorgeous hunk of sundried tomato foccacia and grab it without a moment's hesitation.

I also got some camembert cheese from Culina to go with it. Now I don't like strong cheeses, and camembert falls into that category for me. But a life-changing experience with a truffle-infused camembert cheese during one of my visits to my aunt in Paris made me a different person. While I've been hunting for it in Singapore ever since, I've never gotten lucky. But combining a dollop of Tetsuya's black-truffle salsa (also from Culina) with some soft camembert cheese is as good as it gets.


With a scarily overwhelming stock of leftover ham from all the Christmas feasting, I took the opportunity to create a little supper platter by combining a few of my favourite things - black-truffle salsa with camembert cheese, a couple of slices of comforting ham, a small portion of leftover oven roasted cherry tomatoes kept in mandarin-orange infused olive oil, and a chunk of that flavourful sundried tomato foccacia bread.

I don't think I could have felt any happier enjoying every single morsel on that platter. It was a great post-christmas moment, and wrapped up my Christmas beautifully.

23 December 2007

The Wow Factor for Christmas

Some of you might be planning a dinner party for Christmas Day or Christmas Eve. Depending on how involved your other courses are, you might not intend for an elaborate dessert. Though understandable, since desserts are usually more fiddly and requires more precise measurements, I still try my best to make the dessert shine. Partly because I have a really sweet tooth, but also because being the last item of the night, it helps end the meal on a spectacularly high note.


So when I chance upon desserts which look like I took more time than I really spent to prepare it, I make sure I flag the pages with my bright yellow post-its that scream 'Make me again! Make me again!'





For the Christmas dinner that I spoke about in my previous post, I prepared 2 desserts. A Coffee Syrup Panna Cotta as well as a Pressed-Crust Apple Tart. The great thing about the Panna Cotta is that it can be made a day ahead, leaving you plenty of time to worry about other stuff like how the napkins don't really match the table cloth or how the centrepiece of the table could do with a few more candles.


The latter dessert is really a cheater's way out of making a tart. It doesn't exactly taste like a tart as the texture is more like a cake. It does however look like a tart, except the three components (crust, pastry cream, topping) are missing. Positively speaking, that means you don't have to make three different items just for one course! It's also gorgeous to look at, especially if you have a couple of those marvellous mini tart pans or beautiful rectangular tart pans to use.

It's really easy since it only requires a simple creamed batter that you spread in the tart pan, and some apples, peeled, cored and sliced into 1/6 segments. The batter will puff up beautifully in the welcoming warmth of the oven, while the apples will yield to the warmth and soften into tender chunks.

If you're looking for a dessert recipe that will wow your guests, yet you don't want something as time consuming as the tiny shots of Coffee Syrup Panna Cotta, this Pressed-Crust Apple Tart aka Cheater's Apple Tart would be it for you. And when you hear the moans of pleasure from your guests, you'll probably never look at baking desserts with the same phobia again.

This recipe is slightly adapted from "Real Simple", one of my favourite magazines. It calls for peeled, cored and halved pears and they do look fantastic when presented with halved pears. Unfortunately, the only pears I could find were humungous conference pears that were too big for my tart pan, and which I eventually used for the jams instead.

If you however, cannot be arsed about how your dessert looks as long as your guests enjoy it, I've earmarked another recipe that I know never fail to please the palate. Jane Lawson's Cocina Nueva has a great, moist and tasty recipe for an Almond Cake that I've used time and again, and that keeps extremely well. Though, I must admit I always use either another variety of nut to replace the almond, or add another nut to the recipe. The combination of almond and peanut worked well the first time I used the recipe. I recently attempted the recipe again, and used almost equal portions of ground peanut and hazelnut, and whaddaya know, I had a mooncake-cake that wasn't a mooncake! It's really amazing.

Pressed-Crust Apple Tart
Adapted from Real Simple, Nov 2007

Ingredients
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temp
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar, plus 1 1/2 tbspns
1 large egg
2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into sixths each
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup apricot jam (I used the homemade Spiced Pear Jam)
1 tbspn fresh lemon juice
whipped cream (optional)

Special equipment: 14 inch rectangular tart pan

Method
Combine flour and baking powder in medium bowl, set aside.
Cream butter and 1/2 cup sugar at high speed in large bowl of electric mixer.
Lower speed to medium, add egg and beat until incorporated.
Gradually add flour mixture until fully incorporated - dough will be very soft (almost like tomato paste).
Push (or in my case, spread) dough into the pan to form an even crust.
Arrange apples on top, sprinkle with cinnamon and remaining sugar.
Bake in a buttered tart pan in oven at 180 degrees celcius (350 degrees farenheit).
Bake until crust is golden brown, about 45 mins.
Let cool.
Heat jam and lemon juice in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, mixing until combined.
Remove from heat and brush gently over the entire tart.
Serve with the whipped cream, if desired.

22 December 2007

Gift from the heart

Oogling over the gift guide over at CH's, I've already picked out a couple of items to get as presents for myself since I've been an obedient girl (for most part of) this year. Some, especially a certain pale blue beauty featured in the post, require a great deal of saving up for. For the not-so-well-endowed, the spatula, plastic cocktail shaker, teastick, teas and the books would make great gifts for foodies like me *hint*.

Among the range of books, I had a chance to get my hands on San San's book - Ashley. I scanned through the book really briefly at first, as I was concurrently trying to sustain a conversation without being too rudely distracted. With the little snippets of what I caught, it seemed like a pretty touching story. When I slowly thumbed through the pages during a leisurely bus ride later on, there was little I could do to stop my tears. It may not be as festive as Christmas gifts usually are, but it is most meaningful. If you'd like to get a copy for yourself, please email San San at
bookashley@gmail.com.

Meaningful gifts come in many forms. Through a book with a simple but great message. Through the Black Cocktail Shaker you know your friend has been eyeing. Or through a beautifully quaint and extremely fragile perfume bottle that comes with a scent that you think matches her personality best.

But if you're really dry on inspiration, nothing says 'I'm glad to have you as a friend' like a simple homemade gift.


I had a simple Christmas gathering yesterday, where I invited a big bunch of friends over to my place and prepared a buffet spread. As little take home gifts, I decide to prepare some Spiced Conference Pear Jam that seemed suitable for the occasion. These Conference Pears I bought in Cold Storage were astoundingly huge, juicy and sweet.

My usual partner-in-crime, Addy, came over to help out and it was the first thing we got started on. 6 big pears yielded about 1800ml of jam. Using a ratio of 1 (sugar): 2 (fruit), and some lemon juice (I added the juice of 1 lemon in total) I threw the sugar into a big, heavy pot together with the lemon juice and the peeled, cored and roughly chopped fruit. After boiling and slow simmering with some added spices (cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg), I added about a tablespoon of gelatine for good measure. It was taken off the heat when the concoction turned slightly syrupy, but the jam could probably afford a little more gelatine for something more firm. Once the jam cooled, they were poured into clean glass jars and tied with ribbons.

Seeing their faces as I handed out the little bottles of pear jam was priceless. Even if the jam/cookie/muffin/cupcake doesn't turn out well, present it anyway and I'm sure the gesture would be appreciated.

At the very least, they would say 'I may not know how to make cupcakes, but for you my dear friend, I tried.'

16 December 2007

The Whirlwind of Insanity

Claypot Fishhead at Bukit Timah Market
This picture sort of says it all. A little crazy and a ton of damn good food, is how I would describe the last 2 weeks when Stella visited. My roomie in my third year of Uni and the one who shared much of my joy, and brought me so much comfort when I was down. When she decided to visit 2 months ago, I was over the moon!

I had been busy in the weeks leading up to her arrival but took the spare minutes in bus rides on the way to work or on the way home, to plan for places I had to bring her to. Over lunches and dinners with friends or colleagues, I would also consult them and seek their suggestions to make sure I would not leave out any part of Singapore.

From the touristy - Duck Tour, Hippo Tour, Esplanade, Geylang, Chinatown, to the less popular - Bukit Timah Market, Haji Lane, we walked and walked and walked. It helped keep the spare pounds at bay, but also meant that at the end of each day, Stella and I were thoroughly worn out.

Unfortunately, we still didn't get to visit some places. The National Museum, Dempsey Road, St. James, and most unfortunately, the DHL balloon. By the time I got my hands on the tickets, it rained every other day! Perhaps it was a blessing since she did have a height phobia ( you should have seen her clinging to my arm going up escalators in big shopping malls like Central Mall and Wisma Atria).

Thankfully though, she enjoyed her time here. As long as there was a constant supply of Ice Kacang, she was happy. After the countless orders of Ice Kacang at various places, we're convinced that one of the best servings of Ice Kacang can be gotten from one of the most unlikely places - Bukit Panjang Plaza. They're generous with their ingredients and do not add anything fancy or unnecessary, unlike the equivalents of Ice Kacang that we had in KL that oddly included peanuts. Plus, we both love red bean and the extra dollop of red bean on top was a big bonus.
Everynight, we'd shower immediately after reaching home and turn on our laptops to upload photos, relive the day, and laugh about things happening in Facebook. We'd turn in late, wake up relatively early and plan the rest of the day according to the weather. Very unsurprisingly, I planned our menu first, then let that dictate where we would end up.
I also arranged for old friends from Warwick to meet her as well, and a regular during these gatherings was Fel of course. She was the perennial fellow potluck-er at Warwick and a bundle of joy.


During one felicitous night, my brother joined us for dinner at Brewerkz over ribs and salad (the Soba Noodle Salad is tremendously yummy and you haven't lived till you tried it). I loved how things worked out that night, and the chemistry that flowed around the table. My brother, being his usual comic self, was entertaining. Having three people I adore and love so much sharing a meal together was a mind-blowing experience. It felt surreal and I couldn't have asked for more.
Now Stella has left and gone home. The send off at the airport was, fortunately, not a tearful one. As usual, Fel was there with her laughter and jokes to lighten the mood and make her departure a happy one. But I cannot help missing her oodles.
Her smell still lingers in my room, and I've pinned down the smell to the moisturizer she slathers onto her skin generously. She also left that moisturizer behind, among other things, to make space in her luggage. Yes, she bought THAT much.
She also left behind many thoughtful gifts for my family and I. I wish I could have taken the sight of my bed the first night she arrived and unpacked her luggage, half of which was of gifts which I unwrapped on my bed. A beautiful handsewn tablecloth with matching napkins, a cookbook from Mauritius (Thank You Aunty!), a container full of tiny green chillis, and my favourite, 4 packs of tapioca biscuits in Milk, Custard and Coconut flavours.

She brought these biscuits from Mauritius back to Warwick after one summer holiday and I fell in love. They were incredibly dry, like Weetabix, and just the way I like it. I was touched that she never forgot that and brought me not one, nor two, but four packs of that lovely stuff. I resolved to ration this stash, to last me for at least a couple of months. But tough luck. She has been gone for less than a week and half of it is gone! Ah, what determination or lack thereof.

The many days of leave I took to spend with her was worth it down to the minute. It was such a good break and now I'm reeling from the many emails that greeted me when I returned to work. Already, I cannot wait to visit her in Mauritius. I also cannot wait to try the recipes in the cookbook her mum got for me! Stella! Wait for me! I will be there one day!

06 December 2007

A Hiatus Haiku



She's in Singapore,
And I've taken a week's leave!
Need I explain more?