Planning

My helper was telling me about Tau Suan this week. Since I am going to the supermarket yesterday, I grabbed a bag of green bean split beans. Was looking for a smaller bag but it wasn't available. To be honest, though I like this but I am not sure how my kids will take to it.

My helper helped to soak the beans last night and by this morning, it was all steamed and ready for me to prepared this in the morning.

I knew that there is a You Tiao store near my place, unfortunately, our timing is too perfect. The store was CLOSED today. Strange because it is a Sunday, business should be good. Perhaps some family problem that they are unable to open the store.

So there you go, our breakfast of Tau Suan. I had a strong hunch if I added the You Tiao, my kids will at least try it. Now we have a pot of it, seems like we are going to have this as tea snack again later on.

Home made stuff is so much better, we can control the sweetness to our liking. Great.



What you need:

250g Split mung bean (easily avail in supermarket)
Sugar to taste
1.5 cup Water
Potato starch
Yu Tiao

Method

Soak mung bean overnight. Drained and then steam till it is soft. Set aside.

Boil water and add in sugar to taste.

Thicken syrup with potato starch, you can start off with 2 tbsp and progress from there till it thickens.

Add in cooked mung bean, stir and served hot with yu tiao.

Flaky

Recently I borrowed a very good book from the library. As it is a new book, I was made to count the pages before I am allowed to loan it. Goodness, it was a tough job as I have left my reading glasses at home and reading fine print these days is like blindfolding me and asking me to walk on the road.

Anyway, it took me ages to go through those 200 odd pages but it was all worthwhile. I only had those IDIOTIC selfish people who ripped off pages of library books to blame for this policy.

If they have been a nicer people or less cheapo and just photocopied those recipes that they liked, and thinks about others who borrowed the books, returning home thinking that they will have a good read but to their dismay, found many recipes being torn out. The upset feelings and a sense of pity that many pages are missing from a good book, I believe this policy will never be in placed.

Okay enough of my rambling about self centred Singaporeans. Better channel my energy into this wonderful recipe that I wanted to share with you all before this page get ripped off again and you don't get a chance to try it when you managed to get your hand on this book.

As the author raved about, it is truly the best Flaky Biscuits ever. Only thing was that I didn't have the patience to read through the methods thoroughly before proceeding. If I recalled correctly, I didn't do that 4 times fold and I didn't use a pizza cutter to cut. Should have done that so that my biscuits can rise nicely and the layers will be more profound.

Next round, I will add in some dried fruits to add some sweetness to it.



Highly recommend this if you are a biscuits or scone lovers.

Source: Artisan Breads Every Day

Ingredients

2 tbsp white vinegar or apple cider vinegar
227g cold heavy cream
113g cold unsalted butter
128g plain flour
99g pastry flour (I used cake flour)
1 tbsp sugar (if not using dried fruits, I suggest add another 1 tbsp)
2¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

Method

Stir in the vinegar into the cream to acidify it, chill it to keep it cold.

Place the butter in the freezer for at least ½ hour to harden.

Whisk the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.

Using a cheese grater, grate the harden butter into the bowl of flours. Toss the floured butter bits once in a while and then continue to grate the butter to distribute it evenly with the flour mixture.

Using your fingertips, lightly distribute the butter pieces evenly with the flour. Breaking up clumps lightly.

Add in the cream mixture and stir with a large spoon till all the flour is hydrated and form a coarse ball of dough. Add a little more cream if necessary to bring the dough together.

Transfer the dough to a generously floured surface and dust the top of the dough with flour.

With floured hands, use your palm and press the dough into a square about ¾ inch thick. Lift the dough and dust more flour onto the table. Dust the top with flour and roll it to a square of ½ inch thick.

Next fold the dough into three sections. Rotate to 90˚, dust flour and roll out again to a square with ½ inch thickness and fold into three sections again.

Give it a quarter turn and repeat the folding. (FOUR roll out in all).

After the forth folding, dust under and top of dough and roll the dough out to ½ inch thick. Cut into squares or whatever shapes you want.

Transfer onto an ungreased pan and let it REST for 15 – 30 mins for the gluten to relax before baking. (This will create a more even rise).

Preheat oven for 20 mins at 260˚C as the oven needs to be very hot.

Lower oven temperature to 232 ˚C and bake for 8 mins. Rotate and bake for another 10 mins till it is golden brown.

Place baking pan on cooling rack for 3 mins before transferring.

Best served warm with jam or clotted cream

Placements

Beginning of the year, I tried baking Crackle cookies as one of the item for my Lunar New Year goodies. Though it was nice, but I did encounter some problem moulding these. It just melts too fast in my hands. I don't know whether it is because of my body temperature (my body temperature is generally hotter than most people).

Anyway, met up with three bloggers, Shirley from Kokken, ZY, from Baking Libraryy and Jo from Sugar and Everything Nice)on Tuesday for a discussion of a forthcoming event. During our meal cum chatting session, Jo was telling me her success with this cookies.

I was very keen as the way she described really entice me to try again. Finally she posted up her recipe and I went about to it almost immediately.

Everything went really smoothly. I got all my ingredients measured and was in the midst of playing with my dough when the phone rang. Somehow I got distracted, and absentmindedly pick up a bottle out of my drawer. Without checking, I started pouring it into a plate, then scooping the dough and dropping them onto the plate.

By the time I realised, I was already almost done with my first tray. Darn, I actually rolled them in Tapioca flour! My helper while cleaning the drawer has shifted the positioning of the bottle of icing sugar.

Yes, I can remember all the positioning of my stuff. Even if I go blind, I know which corner, which row or which side my stuff are placed in.

Luckily for me, the cookies didn't turn out badly. In fact, it looks much prettier than my second batch of cookies.

Thanks Jo, this is so deliciously good. The texture is crisp on the outside and yet not hard in the inside. Truly addictive. Like what you said, definitely a keeper.



Happy TGIF everyone. I am looking forward to a night of relaxing and catching up with a group of friends over a glass(s) of drinks.

This weekend will be busy as I have to craft out sugar toppers for Teachers' Day. Hope I have enough energy to bake a pie that I have been eyeing on.

Such hard find

Two weeks ago, I was wondering how to make my boobs' cake as I don't own bowl shaped cake pan. I wasn't sure whether for just ONE cake, I should run out and buy myself one. Will you do that?

Remembering two years ago, I helped my long time friend, CL to frost a cake for her 11 year old daughter's birthday and she has this 6" bowl shaped pan. I borrowed from her since she told me that she hardly bake these days.

In the end, I didn't use it as it was way too big for my tiny cake. I went round again searching for two bowl shaped pans that fit. You won't believe that it is so difficult to find bowl shaped pan. I ended up buying two stainless bowls and it didn't have a round bottom. So if you are reading this and know where I can buy small bowl shaped pan, do buzz me.

Initially I wanted to bake a Castle cake for my princess but when she saw a book that I was browsing; my little one decided that she wanted a puppy cake instead. Since I am still holding on to the "loan" pan, it was a perfect timing. The cake needed two different size bowl pans. Once again, I went in search of a 8" bowl pan and again, it was a failed mission.

In the end, I needed to bake normal round cakes and shaved off to size. Of course, alot of wastage but what to do. Now I know why sculptured cakes are so expensive.

My son, like all boys is a soccer craze. Sometime people mistaken him as non Chinese as he is extremely tanned due to the twice a week training in school.

He wanted to celebrate his birthday later and wanted a football cake. I readily agree to make a soccer ball thinking that it should be easy. This is great because then I can use the pan again. Unfortunately I couldn't hold on to the "loan" pan for long as CL needed it back.

Since I promised my son, with the pan returned, the more I found a reason not to hesitate anymore. Sometime borrowing stuff can be inconvenient. Now it is something that I can call my own! So more bowl shaped cakes to come. Yea!

I didn't know forming a soccer ball is so hard. I had a hard time making it round despite having the pans. I simply don't understand, the only conclusion I had was that my cakes were domed shaped after baked and I needed to shave up the top to bind the two sides together. Also, I experimented with a different cake recipe and perhaps it was too soft to hold the shape.

Second blunder was that I got the colour in the opposite direction. Should be more white than black but I really got distracted by many phone calls today ..... so here is my deflated soccer ball and I believe this is the ugliest soccer ball cake you witness.

Sorry big man, your ball needs some air.

Happy Birthday sweet.

Do you know ?

This post was long overdue.

Hubby came home from Jakarta and brought back two boxes of this Rum Roll that L claimed was really nice. His son, alone can eat up the whole roll which is about 30cm long.

When I opened up the box, it has this lovely rum smell. I can't say that the roll is nice. Though soft, the cake was too moist and the custard wasn't something that I will rave about. Though I can smell strong rum but I couldn't really taste it in the cake.

But I must say, this cake definitely keeps well. After a week, it is still soft. Now it gets me thinking about what kind of preservative is being used.

Anyway, I am sure I can make improvement to it, at least to our liking. Has anyone eaten this before and has a similar recipe that I can experiment?

Just in time

I fell ill on Saturday. First started off with a bad running nose and then I could feel the pain enveloping my body. I knew straight away that I am falling sick.

That one and half hour sitting there waiting for my girl to be done with her Speech and Drama class was still bearable but after lunch, I knew it is going to be bad. We waited another one hour for the kids to finish with their Sunday school lesson. Lucky thing, the kids start their taekwondo lesson earlier than usual. So I was able to swing back home and rest.

I spent the remaining Sat and Sun in bed. I couldn't get myself up to bake a cake for my daughter. By night fall, I knew I have to do it no matter what because I already promised her. Summon just enough energy to put three cakes into the oven and have my helper monitor for me.

This morning, hubby was kind to ferry both kids to school. Thus at least I got an half an hour extra to rest and with two hours left, I managed to dress the birthday cake.

It was such a sloppy job but I couldn't ask for more.

Little one was disappointed as she wanted a white and black puppy. I couldn't get hold of black fondant and simply has no energy to blend and knead black into my white fondant.

Sorry baby, I promised next year Mommy will do a better job.

Happy 8th Birthday sweet heart.

In no mood to ....

I have not been “talking” in my blog for nearly a week! Besides being busy with the day to day routine with the kids, I was also confided in with some very sad happenings about a friend. I was helpless and I didn't know how to help. The day received the call, I lost a sense of direction for the whole day. I couldn’t eat, I could function. I felt so lousy.

To make matter worse, the whole life experience 7 years ago came flashing back. I was afraid things will repeat it self considering both stories have so much similarities. I was so afraid to feel that same pain once again.

My heart was so heavy that I myself was in a daze.

Lucky for me, I have someone to turn to and they gave me so much encouragement to help this person. I am happy to say that at least for now, I am happy to know that I can provide some comfort for this friend. I really pray hard that she is able to see hope and light and not complete darkness. She will, definitely, not be alone to face up to this challenge.

My hubby in the meantime came to know about this and he has been phoning back daily to check on me. Ensuring me and supporting me. I felt so blessed.

Thus I have been spending time with her and hopefully rubbing some good vibes onto her and I am glad that she seems better now. Let’s hope with a clearer mind, she can find a purpose in life.

I am also pleased that I ended this work week with a gathering among some classmates of mine. AC will be leaving for France and she wanted very much to catch up with some old mates before her departure. Of course, being a social butterfly I am delighted to welcome all of them for dinner.

Decided to do Asian this time round and the girls were okay with it.

Kung Po Chicken which I have been craving for as well.



Mixed Vegetables



Tofu stuffed minced meat



Bergedil



We ended the dinner with Double boiled pear with almond as desserts.



After the hot dessert, we rested a while before proceeding onto a Strawberry Ice Cream cake that AC bought.

Sorry folks, I realised my photos are out of focus. Well, when one is not focussing even photos are out of focus.

I am so glad weekend is here and we are spending time once again as a family.

Bon Appétit and AC, have a safe journey home. See you next year with your wine and Foie Gras.

My new chef

My boy has been taking Home Economic for this second half of the year. Though nothing was left to be brought home to showcase, he was eager to test out his new found knowledge.

So I gotten him some potatoes, minced beef and other ingredients he listed. Yes, he is very keen on this recipe as it is his favourite. He came home and told me that our Sherperd pie is really different from what he learnt in school. That is because mom loaded it with cheeses and the school don't. I told him that it is different because it is home made. We can adjust according to our liking. In a way, I am teaching him to be innovative. You don't have to go by the book all the time.

We were trying so hard to encourage him to prepare the meal solely by himself without asking for the helper's help.

Thus, he was dicing and slicing on his own. Then mom found out that he gotten the helper to help to cook the filling which is a no no for us. He was already whining about how tough to prepare a meal all by himself.

Dad took the chance to comment that thus it is always disheartened for the cook if one is picky with food that was served on the table because cooking a meal for a family is not as easy as it seems. He is only cooking one dish unlike our day to day meal. So now that he knows it is tough, he should be more appreciative of whatever food served at the table.

Let's hope he learnt something from today's lunch and in the meantime, let me present our lunch for the day.

A very first meal, that my son prepared out of our kitchen. Tada... and I am so proud of him.

Temptation

My hubby is a 100% Teochew but unfortunately, I don't get to eat any authentic Teochew cuisine in his household as his mom is better in cooking Malay cuisine. If it is not by blood, they can be mistaken as Peranakan as his family is well versed with Malay rather than Mandarin.

Anyway, though I am not a Teochew, I enjoy Or Nee very much. Perhaps it has got to do with my sweet tooth.

I always wanted to attempt this dessert but because I heard so much about the tedious preparation, I held back. Thus we only eat this when we visit a Teochew Restaurant. Yes sometime, you can find this in dessert stall at Food Court but those are really crappy stuff.

Once I chanced upon a factory in Woodlands selling it in pre packed form. The quality is good but just to drive up North to get a few tubs is not cost effective and I don't have enough freezer space to freeze up more.

Thus when I saw Kokken's doing it, I just couldn't resist the temptation any longer. Coincidentally, I saw some fresh looking yam at a mini mart near my place. I was too excited that I didn’t even bother to check whether it is from Thailand or Malaysia. At S$4/kg, I seriously don't know whether this is costly or not. Since I couldn’t remember how much she used, I got a kilo half. Just in case, didn’t want to risk driving out and get caught with the morning traffic.

After skinning and dicing, I steamed the yam instead of boiling it and the result it yield about 1300g. Getting it mashed and blended with the rest of the ingredients was easy. Now the hard part, I didn't have a potato ricer or a mouli grater (gosh, where can I buy one). Get the mashed yam to go through a fine sieve was so hard. Blessed that my new helper is really efficient. She took over after seeing me struggling with it.

Luckily it rained and change the whole weather completely. If not, I cannot guarantee my sweat will not "accidentally" be added into this wonderful or nee.

I swear that I will need to desperately source for that potato ricer, afterall, we ate potato mash really frequently so I am darn sure it won't be an white elephant item. Talking about it, I think Seadragon mentioned this gadget and I did tried looking for it but with no luck. So friends out there, if you know where I can get one in Singapore, please buzz me.

Tonight hubby is coming home and I think he will be pleased to have this before his bedtime. LOLz. No worries, this is controlled oil and controlled fat. I know it will taste far better with 100% coconut cream but since I am not big fan of it and now that I can control the recipe, I deducted it by 50% and top the rest with milk.

Nevertheless, thanks Shirley, more Or Nee from this household from now on.



What you need:

600g Yam (boiled and mashed*)
100g Canola Oil
100g Coconut Cream (I used milk)
60g Sugar
Pinch Salt

Method :

1. Steam yam until soft. Mashed this up coarsely with a fork then proceeded to grind it further with a blender or mouli grater. Measure out 600g of this grated mashed yam.

2. Place (1) in a mixer fitted with a paddle mixer. Start mixing the mashed yam at medium speed. Slowly drizzle in Canola oil until smooth and well incorporated.

3. Transfer (2) into a saucepan and start heating over low heat. Add milk in 5 additions. Stirring well to incorporate totally after each addition.

4. Add in a pinch of salt. Lastly, add in sugar and continue to stir over fire until all sugar dissolves.

5. Push (4) through a fine sieve to get the final smooth creamy yam paste.

6. Serve with syrup marinated gingko nuts.

A short week

Due to the National Day holiday, the school is getting an additional one day break from school. That makes a total of 4 non working days. If we were still childless, we would already up in Malaysia diving away. Unfortunately we are not anymore, the kids have to go back to fulfil their YOG duties as both their schools are chosen as the venue for the torch relay on a Sat and Sun respectively.

So that part of our life is no longer applicable. Being a parent is really tough. On National Day, I had a huge fall out with my son. Can't imagine how crude and how hurtful kids these days are. I can't imagine myself talking back to my parents like that. I am damn sure I will get a slap across the face if I ever talked to my parents this way. I was totally hurt by his remarks and his feeling towards me. I just couldn't get over it. In fact, I cried the whole day. Yes this is how bad it gotten to. My heart was broken into million pieces.

My hubby told me that I shouldn't hold it against a young boy but I just couldn't help it. After all, for the last 4 years, it was no easy task taking care of him. I guess I am at my breaking point.

I kept thinking about his first 8 years of his life. How easy it was and what about the next 8 years? Is this going to get harder and worse? Am I going to subject myself with such a life?

PB ever told me that her brother was very much worse off than my son. Her mom was afraid to have him at home.

I seriously don't know. I am lost and I am torn. Luckily my daughter is very sweet. She stood quietly by my side, hugging me, holding my hand. At least it balances off between the pain and the comfort.

Haiz.... I lost my appetite for the day. I found some jelly in the fridge that was leftover from the Bloggers' Party. It tasted so good that I got to make more. Sure been a long time since I tasted Konnyaku jelly.

I didn't bother to open a can of mixed fruits. Since I have punnets of blueberries in the fridge and a sachet of instant Konnyaku powder (my first). I used to buy the Konnyaku powder and citric acid separately but after I tried this. It doesn't seems any different with this instant powder. Now I am a convert.

Okay finally this Blueberry Konnyaku jelly is able to calm my raw nerve and with his apologies, I hope to get a good night sleep holding on to my daughter's hand.

I pray it will be a better tomorrow.

My first bloggers' party

Have you ever wonder how does your favourite blog writer looks like? Well I do. The thought of putting a face to the blog writer has always been nice.

Thus, I always been keen to have a bloggers' party but yet I have a fear that no one will come as Singaporeans are the shy type.

When Pei Lin from Dodol and Mochi said that she will be heading for Singapore during the National Day weekend, I was excited. Next, she planned to organise a bloggers' gathering and that excites me further.

I was already thinking which venue we can choose that allow us to chat and don’t feel bad occupying seats in a restaurant or café if we stay too long. I am sure the restaurateur will chase us away.

Thus I volunteered to have it hosted at my place. It was a good decision because we started at 12 noon and didn't end till 6pm! You won't believe we can talk for that long.

Time flew past just like that. It is amazing how a stranger can become friend just like that. I guess we all have the same passion and that explains why.

As it is a potluck party, everyone get to bring something. Here is just a glimpse of some of the items. Compared to my fellow bloggers, I can only offer Bundung Drink. :) Terrible me. Couldn't do more as I was suffering from a hangover.

Sorry folks, I was just too busy eating Mee Rebus that those dishes like Almond Cream, Agar Agar and Mango with Pomelo that were served later didn’t get a shot.



This is really good. A change from the heavy and starchy version.



This is good, not too spicy and very aromatic. I have two servings of bread to dunk into that lovely curry.



This swiss roll is very interesting. It has sweet and yet salty taste to it. Love it.



These are good. Love the nuttiness and the crunch even though I prefer chewy cookies but this is nice.



I didn’t get to eat this as I was already filled up.



Though green tea is my favourite but white chocolate is not. I managed to try the Rum and Raisin and I can only tell you this. Shiok. A pity I didn't get a chance to sample the rest as I was busy chatting away.



I didn’t get to eat this too.



The texture of this tart is awesome. I like the texture and it is not overly sweet.



I have never tasted Durian Tart thus this is something special. Now I need to ask Pei Lin how to do this.

Next time I know that if there is a bloggers' party, I have to skip breakfast and yak less. LOLz.

So let's hope my blogger friends enjoyed themselves as much as I. Let's do it again soon.

Thanks Pei Lin for organising it and that Salted Fish head!

Thanks Shirley for that lovely thought and that bag. Definitely useful.

For a friend

I got to know SH via SY for quite awhile. Back then, she was still a young girl just entered into the work force.

Among the group, she was youngest and because of her bubbly charisma, I was "attracted" to her personality. She has no air about her background. She is humble and sweet. She doesn't display a spoilt brat attitude at all.

I witness her getting married and today she turned 30. Time really flies. LT, her good friend asked me to bake a cake for SH. Initially it was supposed to be an Underworld theme but when SH's mom came to know about it and was asked to dress as a Chinese vampire, she freaked out and thus SH has to change the theme to Masquerade. I was already mid way through the crafting, no choice, dumped the whole concept and went back to my drawing block.

Though I got many inspirations from the internet, I still wasn't sure where I was heading to when I started "dressing" up the cake. For this reason, it took me a long time to complete it.

I kept changing my mind but after a day and a half of hard work, this is my final piece.

Wanted to give it some shine but somehow my lustre dust don’t seems to distribute evenly and beside the white base that supported the numbers, it should have been black.

Overall, I was pleased with it. Are you?

Preserved food

I guess all cultures be it Western or Asian, there are plenty of preserved foods. We have preserved prunes, plums, tomatoes, seafood, vegetables and anything you think of, can be preserved.

I am actually not a vivid fan of such food. To me, I can get fresh food why would I want preserved food? Especially those preserved titbits! Gosh, there are so many varieties out there.

Having said that, I am not sure about Western culture's cuisine but for Asian, there are plenty of preserved foods. We have preserved prunes, plums, vegetables and anything you think of, can be preserved.

I am actually not a vivid fan of such food. To me, I can get fresh food why would I want preserved food? Especially those preserved titbits! Gosh, there are so many varieties out there.

Having said that, I was craving for one particular soup and that is Dried Vegetable with Salted fish head (醎鱼头菜干汤). I grabbed a packet of Dried Vegetable (白菜干) the other day and I didn't know it is so difficult to obtain the salted fish head. I gave up searching for it and was about to threw it away when I saw a recipe in a Japanese magazine that uses dried vegetable as well.

In the end, I substituted it with pork instead. It didn't satisfy my craving but at least I got rid of the packet of dried vegetable and it didn't taste that bad.

So here is my Dried Vegetable with pork Soup.



What you need:

Dried Vegetable (白菜干)
Pork Ribs (I used lean meat)
Honey dates (according to the sweetness you prefered)
Water

Method

Soak dried vegetable for 1 hour and wash thoroughly (especially between the leaves)

Blanched pork.

Boil water and add in the pork, dried vegetable and honey dates.

Bring to a brisk boil and lower heat and let it simmer for 1.5 hours.

Transfer to thermos pot to further cook it. If you don't have a thermos, continue for another 1/2 hour.

Slacking

Due to the weather, I have been slacking a lot at home. When it shone, my mood changed to frustrated, irritated and moody. When it rained, I become sleepy. Either way, I am doomed.

This one week wasn't easy as CA2 is fast approaching. I have been getting my girl to work diligently on all her assessment books. Poor child, yet what can I do? I sometime wished that it will be easier and the kid learnt through play but a pity that this system isn't like this.

As my son doesn't have CA2, it becomes worse for me to get him to revise diligently on each topic covered.

As this weekend, I am having a Blogger's Party at my place. A good excuse to spring cleaned my place. Thus, I am also trying to sieve those tons of newspaper cuttings featuring recipes. To throw or not to? It is never an easy decision. In the end, it ended up back into the box. Haiz... wondering when will I get that courage to just shut my eyes and dumped everything away. I don’t think another house move will changed a thing. I will still obediently carry the whole lot to the new place like what I done for the last. Sometime I wished I have a basement or an attic that I can hide all these away. Maybe before my death bed, I will have an excuse that I don't need these anymore. LOLz.

Have I been baking? Yes I did. I baked a sponge cake that I threw it away because it collapsed again. I reckoned that I didn't beat long enough. I wanted to replicate the Lychee Martini Cake that I had when I met up with my school buddies last Friday. Too bad, didn't go according to plan. Next I baked a chocolate cake. Yet it didn't turn out how I like it. I made another round of soya bean milk too but I am still feeling lost.

Maybe recently I kept having ulcers. Something that is new to me as I am not prone to it at all. I really sympathised with my hubby when he has them (which is often). This little sore really upsets me.

I am not sure whether it has to do with the B complex vitamin that I have been taking for my nerve problem. It seems so, perhaps I should wean it off for a week to see whether it is the source.

Then I remembered my mom’s remedy of healing ulcers, Tomatoes with sugar. She said to prepare some fresh tomatoes, sprinkle some sugar and eat it raw. It works on her, so now let’s see whether it works on me.