I think from now on, every Valentine's Day I'm going to make some tiramisu, just to remind myself of how love tastes like.
Making Tiramisu
Ingredients
5 egg yolks
5 heaped tablespoons sugar
5 tablespoons full Amaretto, almond liqueur
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
500g mascarpone
10 Italian boudoir biscuits, lady's fingers
250ml espresso coffee
Dusting of cocoa powder
Method
While the sobering glass
Of espresso gently cools,
Take a risk, with two
Tablespoons of Amaretto
In the glass, swirl. Leave.
Melt overt sweetness with
Empty promises of fertility,
As the even hint of posh vanilla whisks,
Three more swags of Amaretto, and a taste:
Almond nights warm the throat, becoming
A light, frothy cream,
Almost needing substance.
As the pale scent of Amaretto fades, commit
Mascarpone into the bowl, sense
Solid cream folding into being, except
Unevenly, like so many imperfections
Sensed in a lover. This is a practice
In patience, glossing over lumpy bits,
Until the length of repetition blends
Into a habit of cream and cheese.
You are now ready. Lay gentle fingers
Into cold coffee, bed into glass, spoon
Cream mixture in gentle sequence, careful
Not to jolt the delicate cushion. Repeat
Until the lips of glass almost kiss
The outline of cream, complete.
Leave, in the cool hours of refrigeration.
Better yet, forget your effort overnight.
Tomorrow pretend to discover a new
Fondness for trifle, dusted over
With cocoa powder. Serve.
Showing posts with label food; recipe. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food; recipe. Show all posts
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
New Year's Resolutions and the Ministry of Food
The new year has got me cooking from the Ministry of Food, Jamie Oliver’s new cookbook. I’ve never been much of a Jamie fan, but I must say that having tried the Italian based recipes from the latest cookbook, he’s got something good going on there with the easy to make, train the idiot style of food that actually tastes halfway decent and relatively similar to what you might get at a restaurant for slightly less trouble but a lot more spend.
I’m actually quite impressed by the shortcut aglio olio'esque recipe, and it’s a great book to start with if you’re not really familiar with cooking, or if you are and just wanted to know a quicker way of doing things without compromising tastes.
Foolproof Aglio Olio (as adapted from Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food)
Ingredients:
Olive Oil
Butter [Ed: apparently a North Italian trick, and it's one that works! Whatever you do, do not skip the butter!]
Loads of garlic, sliced
Balsamic vinegar or lemon juice
Pasta
Water & Pinch of Salt
Method:
- Put a pan of water to boil with a pinch of salt for the pasta. Add the pasta and cook per pasta's instructions until al dente.
- Put another large pan on medium heat. Note the medium heat is important, err on the low side as you don't want to burn the oils. Glug olive oil, garlic, and a spoonful of butter per person to melt on the pan. [Ed: On the heat, it should take a couple of minutes to sizzle the garlic, I've found that by soaking the garlic in the oil, the garlic takes longer to release it's fragrance, giving you more time to transfer the fragrance from the garlic into the pasta where you want it to be.]
- When you start to smell the garlic, pour balsamic vinegar or lemon juice in about equal proportion to the oil used into the pan. Stir in the pasta. [Ed: One of the tricks I've found out to avoid that oily taste that usually turns up in an aglio olio done badly is to put equal parts of acid (lemon juice or balsamic vinegar) to the oil. Jamie did a very good trick using cherry tomatoes - slightly out of season ones with extra zing work especially well - and balsamic vinegar to get just that right combination of creamy/sour in the sauce.]
- Add a little of the water from boiling the pasta to cream the sauce. Stir, taste and add a bit of crushed black pepper if needed.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
I have switched to free-range chicks!
On the telly recently, to much controversial discussion, was a free-range bird movement, jointly supported by Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay. Particularly by the former two, through two broadcast mini-series on the life of a broiler hen, Hugh's Chicken Run and Jamie's Fowl Dinners put a stark contrast to the lives of battery hens and free-range birds.
I met Hugh's Chicken Run with a bit of scepticism, but follow up Chicken Run with Jamie's Fowl Dinners, and it almost became too much. I've switched, to eating only free-range chickens and now, my next step, buying free-range and organic eggs from the Farmer's Market, up from the Tesco's Value Eggs.
And surprisingly, like the song goes, "It's no sacrifice... no sacrifice. It's no sacrifice at all!" Admittedly, free-range costs more than value chicken. But it's not twice the price, it's two quid more for 4 chicken breasts (and they are larger). The main difference would probably be in the eggs, 1.10 for 6 large eggs, compared to 0.79 for 6 unevenly sized ones. Slightly almost twice the price, but my bet in quality is on the free-range, organic variety.
So while the three chefs are trying to change Britain's eating habits from fast to freedom, I thought about how affordable the luxury of eating conscience is here, compared to the organic awareness back in Singapore.
Despite the various food/health awareness campaigns going on, Singapore hasn't quite adopted the free-range, organic movement quite as readily as consumers have in European countries. The sensitivity factor is price. Unlike a small step up in price which still falls within my buying power, organic and free-range costs exhorbitant amounts compared to the usual standard-of-living fare that we're used to, and while the brown-rice stigma is fading, a shadow still lingers over many products.
Can money buy conscience? Can we honestly grow to believe that our dollar can save the world, prevent global warming, help chickens lead a better life and make us lose weight and gain back taste and experience?
Perhaps. But in the meantime, tune in to 3 meals for a chicken recipes proudly sponsored on Hugh's River Cottage site:
3 Meals from one bird
Meal one: Roast chicken
Serve this with nothing more than a green salad to mop up all the herby, buttery juices.
Serves 4–5
1 plump free range chicken, weighing 1.5-2kg
25g soft butter
a couple of generous handfuls of fresh herbs, such as parsley, chives and marjoram, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 glass of white wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 220C/gas 7. Remove the bird from the fridge at least an hour before cooking it. Take off any trussing from the chicken and remove the giblets if they’re inside (keep them in the fridge and use them for the stock, see below). Put the bird in a roasting tin and spread out its legs from the body. Enlarge the opening of the cavity with your fingers, so hot air can circulate inside the bird.
Put the butter in a bowl, throw in the herbs and the garlic and season well with salt and pepper. Mix together with your fingers, then smear all over the chicken, outside and in. Place in the centre of the hot oven and leave for 25-30 minutes.
Then baste the chicken, turn the oven down to 180°C/gas 4, pour the wine into the tin (not over the bird) and roast the bird for another 40–60 minutes, depending on its size. You can tell when it’s done by poking a knife into the part of the bird where the thigh joins the breast; the juices released should run clear.
Open the oven door, turn the oven off and leave the bird for 15–20 minutes to rest before carving. Carve the bird in the tin, as untidily as you like, letting the slices fall into the buttery juices, then take the whole thing to the table so people can help themselves.
Chicken stock
After eating your roast, let the chicken go cold then slice, pick and tease every last scrap of remaining meat from the bones. Set this aside.
The carcass that’s left can now be used to make a rich, savoury stock – a potential base for any number of soups, stews, risottos or gravies. Makes 1-1.5 litres
1 cooked chicken carcass
the neck and giblets from the chicken, if you have them, but not the liver
1-2 onions, roughly chopped
1-2 large carrots, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
a few black peppercorns
3-4 celery sticks, roughly chopped
½ a large leek, roughly chopped
a few chunks of peeled celeriac or parsnip (optional)
1 sprig of thyme (optional)
a few parsley stalks (optional)
Tear the carcass into fairly small pieces and cram them, along with any skin, bones, fat, jelly or burnt bits from the roasting tin, into a saucepan that will take them snugly. If you have the fresh giblets, add these too (minus the liver, which can make the stock bitter Рsave it for saut̩ing).
Add the vegetables and herbs, packing them in as snugly as you can so that you need no more than 1.5 litres of cold water to just cover everything. Bring the pan to a tremulous simmer and let it cook, uncovered, for at least three hours – up to five. Top up the water once or twice, if necessary. Strain the stock through a fine sieve, leave it to cool, then chill it. A layer of fat will solidify on the top, which you can scrape off – but I don’t usually bother unless it’s excessive.
Meal two: chicken risotto
If you use a good, tasty chicken stock to make a risotto, you need very few other ingredients to make a meal of it.
Serves 6
1.5 litres chicken stock
80g butter
1 small onion, very finely diced
400g risotto rice
1 glass white wine
grated parmesan cheese and a little more butter, to finish
salt and freshly ground pepper
Other ingredients: choose fromabout 200g peas or petits pois (defrosted if frozen)
about 200g sweetcorn kernels
about 300g mushrooms (fresh, dried or a mixture)
100-150g bacon, cut into little scraps
anything else that takes your fancy – including chopped, leftover chicken
Bring the stock to a simmer in a pan, and keep it simmering while you cook the rice. Heat the butter in a large pan and add the onion (if you want to use bacon, add this along with the onion). Cook gently for 10 minutes or so until soft but not coloured.
Add the rice and cook for just a minute, stirring well to coat it in the butter. Add the wine and cook for a few minutes until it has been absorbed by the rice. Now start adding the hot stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring now and then and adding a fresh ladleful of stock once the last has been absorbed.
The rice should be cooked (tender but still just slightly al dente), and the risotto at the right soft, moist consistency after about 18 minutes. If you’re adding peas or sweetcorn, do so after the rice has been cooking for about 10 minutes. If you want to add mushrooms, sauté them in separate pan and add, with any juices, when the rice has almost finished cooking. Leftover chicken can go in just before the end too – just make sure it gets thoroughly reheated.
When the risotto is cooked, turn off the heat, dot a little butter all over the surface, and sprinkle with a little parmesan. Cover and leave for 2-3 minutes, then stir the melted butter and cheese into the rice. Season to taste then serve, in warmed dishes, with more parmesan.
Meal three: the leftovers
Here are just three of the ways you can use up the cold meat cut from the carcass after roasting. And if none of these take your fancy, never forget that a good chicken sandwich – with fresh bread, crisp salad and mayonnaise – is a thing of joy.
I met Hugh's Chicken Run with a bit of scepticism, but follow up Chicken Run with Jamie's Fowl Dinners, and it almost became too much. I've switched, to eating only free-range chickens and now, my next step, buying free-range and organic eggs from the Farmer's Market, up from the Tesco's Value Eggs.
And surprisingly, like the song goes, "It's no sacrifice... no sacrifice. It's no sacrifice at all!" Admittedly, free-range costs more than value chicken. But it's not twice the price, it's two quid more for 4 chicken breasts (and they are larger). The main difference would probably be in the eggs, 1.10 for 6 large eggs, compared to 0.79 for 6 unevenly sized ones. Slightly almost twice the price, but my bet in quality is on the free-range, organic variety.
So while the three chefs are trying to change Britain's eating habits from fast to freedom, I thought about how affordable the luxury of eating conscience is here, compared to the organic awareness back in Singapore.
Despite the various food/health awareness campaigns going on, Singapore hasn't quite adopted the free-range, organic movement quite as readily as consumers have in European countries. The sensitivity factor is price. Unlike a small step up in price which still falls within my buying power, organic and free-range costs exhorbitant amounts compared to the usual standard-of-living fare that we're used to, and while the brown-rice stigma is fading, a shadow still lingers over many products.
Can money buy conscience? Can we honestly grow to believe that our dollar can save the world, prevent global warming, help chickens lead a better life and make us lose weight and gain back taste and experience?
Perhaps. But in the meantime, tune in to 3 meals for a chicken recipes proudly sponsored on Hugh's River Cottage site:
3 Meals from one bird
Meal one: Roast chicken
Serve this with nothing more than a green salad to mop up all the herby, buttery juices.
Serves 4–5
1 plump free range chicken, weighing 1.5-2kg
25g soft butter
a couple of generous handfuls of fresh herbs, such as parsley, chives and marjoram, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 glass of white wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 220C/gas 7. Remove the bird from the fridge at least an hour before cooking it. Take off any trussing from the chicken and remove the giblets if they’re inside (keep them in the fridge and use them for the stock, see below). Put the bird in a roasting tin and spread out its legs from the body. Enlarge the opening of the cavity with your fingers, so hot air can circulate inside the bird.
Put the butter in a bowl, throw in the herbs and the garlic and season well with salt and pepper. Mix together with your fingers, then smear all over the chicken, outside and in. Place in the centre of the hot oven and leave for 25-30 minutes.
Then baste the chicken, turn the oven down to 180°C/gas 4, pour the wine into the tin (not over the bird) and roast the bird for another 40–60 minutes, depending on its size. You can tell when it’s done by poking a knife into the part of the bird where the thigh joins the breast; the juices released should run clear.
Open the oven door, turn the oven off and leave the bird for 15–20 minutes to rest before carving. Carve the bird in the tin, as untidily as you like, letting the slices fall into the buttery juices, then take the whole thing to the table so people can help themselves.
Chicken stock
After eating your roast, let the chicken go cold then slice, pick and tease every last scrap of remaining meat from the bones. Set this aside.
The carcass that’s left can now be used to make a rich, savoury stock – a potential base for any number of soups, stews, risottos or gravies. Makes 1-1.5 litres
1 cooked chicken carcass
the neck and giblets from the chicken, if you have them, but not the liver
1-2 onions, roughly chopped
1-2 large carrots, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
a few black peppercorns
3-4 celery sticks, roughly chopped
½ a large leek, roughly chopped
a few chunks of peeled celeriac or parsnip (optional)
1 sprig of thyme (optional)
a few parsley stalks (optional)
Tear the carcass into fairly small pieces and cram them, along with any skin, bones, fat, jelly or burnt bits from the roasting tin, into a saucepan that will take them snugly. If you have the fresh giblets, add these too (minus the liver, which can make the stock bitter Рsave it for saut̩ing).
Add the vegetables and herbs, packing them in as snugly as you can so that you need no more than 1.5 litres of cold water to just cover everything. Bring the pan to a tremulous simmer and let it cook, uncovered, for at least three hours – up to five. Top up the water once or twice, if necessary. Strain the stock through a fine sieve, leave it to cool, then chill it. A layer of fat will solidify on the top, which you can scrape off – but I don’t usually bother unless it’s excessive.
Meal two: chicken risotto
If you use a good, tasty chicken stock to make a risotto, you need very few other ingredients to make a meal of it.
Serves 6
1.5 litres chicken stock
80g butter
1 small onion, very finely diced
400g risotto rice
1 glass white wine
grated parmesan cheese and a little more butter, to finish
salt and freshly ground pepper
Other ingredients: choose fromabout 200g peas or petits pois (defrosted if frozen)
about 200g sweetcorn kernels
about 300g mushrooms (fresh, dried or a mixture)
100-150g bacon, cut into little scraps
anything else that takes your fancy – including chopped, leftover chicken
Bring the stock to a simmer in a pan, and keep it simmering while you cook the rice. Heat the butter in a large pan and add the onion (if you want to use bacon, add this along with the onion). Cook gently for 10 minutes or so until soft but not coloured.
Add the rice and cook for just a minute, stirring well to coat it in the butter. Add the wine and cook for a few minutes until it has been absorbed by the rice. Now start adding the hot stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring now and then and adding a fresh ladleful of stock once the last has been absorbed.
The rice should be cooked (tender but still just slightly al dente), and the risotto at the right soft, moist consistency after about 18 minutes. If you’re adding peas or sweetcorn, do so after the rice has been cooking for about 10 minutes. If you want to add mushrooms, sauté them in separate pan and add, with any juices, when the rice has almost finished cooking. Leftover chicken can go in just before the end too – just make sure it gets thoroughly reheated.
When the risotto is cooked, turn off the heat, dot a little butter all over the surface, and sprinkle with a little parmesan. Cover and leave for 2-3 minutes, then stir the melted butter and cheese into the rice. Season to taste then serve, in warmed dishes, with more parmesan.
Meal three: the leftovers
Here are just three of the ways you can use up the cold meat cut from the carcass after roasting. And if none of these take your fancy, never forget that a good chicken sandwich – with fresh bread, crisp salad and mayonnaise – is a thing of joy.
Monday, December 17, 2007
The Season of Soups
January's BBC Good Food Guide finds one new year's resolution to always have home cooked soup sitting on the stove. I just realised this morning how easy it was to make, and how - given some time, mainly the chief ingredient of a good soup - this was one resolution that will keep one warm and toasty at home in the winter time.
For me, warm soups are comfort foods. Ever since I discovered Pret a Manger's soup collection, which started recently in autumn, I've been chasing up soups and soup recipes from all over.
In a cafe in Nuits-St-Georges on a recent French trip, I discovered what would possibly be the warmest, nicest, easiest to make vegetable soup possible. The secret? A Marigold brand vegetable bouillon stock powder that I have sitting on a shelf at home, thanks to enuwy's lovely recommendation a while back.
So upon coming down with a bad cold and wanting to experiment with the warming qualities of vegetable soup, I've decided to make my own:
Vegetable Soup
3 carrots
2 parsnips
1/2 a floret of broccoli
handful of barley (optional)
2 tsp bouillon stock powder
750 ml water
pepper
1. Chop vegetables roughly and throw into pot.
2. Sprinkle over with the bouillon powder and some pepper to taste.
3. Cover with hot water and bring to a slow boil.
4. Allow to boil for at least 1-2 hours for the vegetable flavours to set.
5. With a stick blender, blend into a creamy soup. Serve.
The soup feeds about 2-3 and in reality, you can toss in any sort of vegetable you like. In fact, I have my suspicion that this is one soup you can keep boiling on the stove regularly, topping up with leftover vegetables and other unwanted odd ends. Just remember to toss in a hearty amount of bouillon powder for taste and blend before serving.
This is one soup I'm definitely going to keep on my stove all winter!
For me, warm soups are comfort foods. Ever since I discovered Pret a Manger's soup collection, which started recently in autumn, I've been chasing up soups and soup recipes from all over.
In a cafe in Nuits-St-Georges on a recent French trip, I discovered what would possibly be the warmest, nicest, easiest to make vegetable soup possible. The secret? A Marigold brand vegetable bouillon stock powder that I have sitting on a shelf at home, thanks to enuwy's lovely recommendation a while back.
So upon coming down with a bad cold and wanting to experiment with the warming qualities of vegetable soup, I've decided to make my own:
Vegetable Soup
3 carrots
2 parsnips
1/2 a floret of broccoli
handful of barley (optional)
2 tsp bouillon stock powder
750 ml water
pepper
1. Chop vegetables roughly and throw into pot.
2. Sprinkle over with the bouillon powder and some pepper to taste.
3. Cover with hot water and bring to a slow boil.
4. Allow to boil for at least 1-2 hours for the vegetable flavours to set.
5. With a stick blender, blend into a creamy soup. Serve.
The soup feeds about 2-3 and in reality, you can toss in any sort of vegetable you like. In fact, I have my suspicion that this is one soup you can keep boiling on the stove regularly, topping up with leftover vegetables and other unwanted odd ends. Just remember to toss in a hearty amount of bouillon powder for taste and blend before serving.
This is one soup I'm definitely going to keep on my stove all winter!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
The yummiest carbonated non-soft drink of summer
I think I've just discovered the yummiest carbonated non-soft drink for summer. Recently I've been into a sparkling water phase (I think it's summer) and been concocting all sorts of sparkling water drinks I can think of.
Elderflower and Apple Teaser
Ingredients:
Elderflower cordial
Apple juice concentrate/cordial
Sparkling water
Pour elderflower cordial to 1/4 glass. Top another 1/4 glass with apple cordial or concentrate. Fill up the rest with sparkling water.
It's delish!!
Elderflower and Apple Teaser
Ingredients:
Elderflower cordial
Apple juice concentrate/cordial
Sparkling water
Pour elderflower cordial to 1/4 glass. Top another 1/4 glass with apple cordial or concentrate. Fill up the rest with sparkling water.
It's delish!!
Sunday, July 22, 2007
The Perfect Summer Drink (Non-Alcoholic)
While browsing the BBC's Good Food Magazine, I've found what is probably the most perfect summer drink, and immediately available from the ingredients in my kitchen (how amazing is that?!)
Apple, Mint and Elderflower Spritzer
Ingredients:
1/4 glass cloudy apple juice
2 dashes elderflower cordial
sparkling water
sprig of mint (plucked from what remains of my mint plant - yes, i got one! perfect summer plant!)
Method:
In a glass, pour 1/4 cloudy apple juice. Throw in mint sprig, and top with 2 dashes of elderflower cordial to half glass. Top remainder of the glass with sparkling water.
The result is a fantastically refreshing, fragrant drink. Try it!
Apple, Mint and Elderflower Spritzer
Ingredients:
1/4 glass cloudy apple juice
2 dashes elderflower cordial
sparkling water
sprig of mint (plucked from what remains of my mint plant - yes, i got one! perfect summer plant!)
Method:
In a glass, pour 1/4 cloudy apple juice. Throw in mint sprig, and top with 2 dashes of elderflower cordial to half glass. Top remainder of the glass with sparkling water.
The result is a fantastically refreshing, fragrant drink. Try it!
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Food Hack - Chinese Mushrooms in Water
For some reason I just thought to write this down before I forget: The food hack my dad taught me - soak Chinese mushrooms in water and keep them in a jam jar for future use.
I keep failing to use my mushrooms because every time I think of using them, they are still in their dessicated form for my lack of preparation. So what my dad does is to keep a jar of Chinese mushrooms pre-soaked in water, topping the jar up when they are used.
Presto, instant soft mushrooms.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Fridge Googling - I've never discovered this!
Gosh... one of those things I've frequently thought of doing but never quite actually got off my lazy bottom to put into action is fridge googling. In a nutshell, it is googling for recipes using keywords of what's leftover in your fridge as ingredients, thus hoping that the fabulous internet (tm) will come up with a useful suggestion of what you can cook in order to clear the fridge.
It has become a word - yes, not kidding, a new word/phrase in the Macmillan English Dictionary. [Click on the link to find out.]
Incidentally, even though I'm not going to ever have kids of my own (I stand by my words), I've included a new link on my blog called Parent Hack. It's a real world blog/online community for tips & tricks to raising kids. I figure it's so hard that it's about time an instruction manual was written. Who says the best household/raising children tips come from people who don't have them and well meaning aunts (like myself)??
It has become a word - yes, not kidding, a new word/phrase in the Macmillan English Dictionary. [Click on the link to find out.]
Incidentally, even though I'm not going to ever have kids of my own (I stand by my words), I've included a new link on my blog called Parent Hack. It's a real world blog/online community for tips & tricks to raising kids. I figure it's so hard that it's about time an instruction manual was written. Who says the best household/raising children tips come from people who don't have them and well meaning aunts (like myself)??
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Secrets of Domestic Bliss
Sambal Belacan
Simplest thing in the world to make, and yummy with... potato chips, roast chicken, stewed pork, tapioca chips, cucumbers...everything!
The trick is, you need a mortar and a pestle of the stone variety, which isn't exactly easy to find this side of England. Note to self: lugging it all the way from Mustafa in Singapore had better be worth it!!!
Ingredients
10 red chillies
4cm piece belacan, roast till fragrant - use a toaster, or a microwave
Pinch of salt
1 limau kasturi
Method
Pound chillies until rather coarse in texture. Break up roasted belacan and add into chilli mixture gradually. Continue to pound until texture is neither too smooth nor too coarse. Add pinch of salt. Put sambal in a bowl. Squeeze lime juice in and mix well. Serve sambal as an accompanying side dish.
Basic Muffins
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Method
Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine together egg, milk and oil, using a wire whisk. Add egg mixture at once to the dry ingredients. Stirring mixture only until the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter will be lumpy.
[Stir in any ingredients you want to add]
Spoon into prepared muffin tins, filling each cup half to two-thirds full.
Bake in 400*F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Let cool completely on wire rack.
Makes 1 dozen muffins.
I like my muffins savoury (apparently a very New Zealander thing) and my favourites are ham and cheese, or olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Currently wondering how nuts, shredded carrots and cinnamon would taste... kinda like a carrot cake variation?
Barley Water
This mum-says-it's-cooling drink is great for cold winter nights when hot, and refreshing enough with a touch of lemon in hot summer days. I like it this way, which isn't exactly how mum makes it...
I boil it at low eat on the stove after dinner when the stove is relatively empty.
Ingredients
5 handfuls of pearl barley (about 1/2 cup by standard measures)
1 handful of rock sugar (1 tbsp)
5 or 6 sticks of sugared winter melon (this little darling you mostly find in Singapore)
1 litre of water
Method
Boil all ingredients on low heat for about 30 minutes until water turns cloudy. Remove barley water and store/serve with sugared winter melon.
Note to self: the winter melon is what makes the barley water "cooling".
Simplest thing in the world to make, and yummy with... potato chips, roast chicken, stewed pork, tapioca chips, cucumbers...everything!
The trick is, you need a mortar and a pestle of the stone variety, which isn't exactly easy to find this side of England. Note to self: lugging it all the way from Mustafa in Singapore had better be worth it!!!
Ingredients
10 red chillies
4cm piece belacan, roast till fragrant - use a toaster, or a microwave
Pinch of salt
1 limau kasturi
Method
Pound chillies until rather coarse in texture. Break up roasted belacan and add into chilli mixture gradually. Continue to pound until texture is neither too smooth nor too coarse. Add pinch of salt. Put sambal in a bowl. Squeeze lime juice in and mix well. Serve sambal as an accompanying side dish.
Basic Muffins
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
Method
Sift together flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
In a small bowl, combine together egg, milk and oil, using a wire whisk. Add egg mixture at once to the dry ingredients. Stirring mixture only until the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter will be lumpy.
[Stir in any ingredients you want to add]
Spoon into prepared muffin tins, filling each cup half to two-thirds full.
Bake in 400*F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven. Let cool completely on wire rack.
Makes 1 dozen muffins.
I like my muffins savoury (apparently a very New Zealander thing) and my favourites are ham and cheese, or olives and sun-dried tomatoes. Currently wondering how nuts, shredded carrots and cinnamon would taste... kinda like a carrot cake variation?
Barley Water
This mum-says-it's-cooling drink is great for cold winter nights when hot, and refreshing enough with a touch of lemon in hot summer days. I like it this way, which isn't exactly how mum makes it...
I boil it at low eat on the stove after dinner when the stove is relatively empty.
Ingredients
5 handfuls of pearl barley (about 1/2 cup by standard measures)
1 handful of rock sugar (1 tbsp)
5 or 6 sticks of sugared winter melon (this little darling you mostly find in Singapore)
1 litre of water
Method
Boil all ingredients on low heat for about 30 minutes until water turns cloudy. Remove barley water and store/serve with sugared winter melon.
Note to self: the winter melon is what makes the barley water "cooling".
Monday, February 05, 2007
Tau Eu Bak Recipe
From Chris Ng on kuali.com - the Malaysian Tau Eu Bak recipe. I'm going to definitely be doing this when I finally get my hands on dark soy sauce!!
Ingredients
2 litres water
l kg ribs (pork or beef*), cut into pieces
500g lean meat (pork or beef*), cut into pieces
1 knob fresh ginger, lightly crushed
2 bulbs garlic
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
Salt to taste
8 hard-boiled eggs
20 pieces beancurd puffs (tau pok)* Or substitute with 1.5kg chickenpieces.
Method
Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil.
Add the meat, ginger and garlic.
Allow to boil for 10-15 minutes, regularly skimming the top to remove the scum.
When the soup is clear, add the dark and light soy sauce and salt.
Add hard boiled eggs and tau pok.
Bring the water down to a simmer and cook for about 45 minutes or until meat is tender. (This step can be prepared in a slow cooker once simmering has started.)
Tips
Make more to go with rice as this recipe together with sambal belachan can make a meal by itself... for several days.
Which reminds me... where to get sambal belachan!? *wails* I got no belachan!!!
Ingredients
2 litres water
l kg ribs (pork or beef*), cut into pieces
500g lean meat (pork or beef*), cut into pieces
1 knob fresh ginger, lightly crushed
2 bulbs garlic
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
Salt to taste
8 hard-boiled eggs
20 pieces beancurd puffs (tau pok)* Or substitute with 1.5kg chickenpieces.
Method
Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil.
Add the meat, ginger and garlic.
Allow to boil for 10-15 minutes, regularly skimming the top to remove the scum.
When the soup is clear, add the dark and light soy sauce and salt.
Add hard boiled eggs and tau pok.
Bring the water down to a simmer and cook for about 45 minutes or until meat is tender. (This step can be prepared in a slow cooker once simmering has started.)
Tips
Make more to go with rice as this recipe together with sambal belachan can make a meal by itself... for several days.
Which reminds me... where to get sambal belachan!? *wails* I got no belachan!!!
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