Welcome our guests

I am delighted that my aunts came for a visit. I love having them around. My youngest aunt is only two years my senior and thus we are close. In the past, whenever I visited Hong Kong, she will be the one bringing me to eat the best dim sum or to the latest eating house. Sometime, just to accompany me for shopping when she has her day off.

I hardly get to see my older aunt as she lives further away. She was an awesome knitter, unfortunately she has stopped knitting. I still remembered her knitting me a sweater many years ago, all done in one night. Talking about this, I think I better ask her whether she knows how to knit socks. LOLz.

I decided to cook Penang Laska for them.

Talking about this dish, I had a hard time putting the ingredients together. Well I have to be blame because I didn’t plan it well. The regular supermarket that I go to on Sunday, didn’t carry those herbs needed and on Monday, it is a bad day to go to the wet market as most stalls are closed.

I was desperate, in fact, I ran around at least 3 markets before I managed to put the stock and garnishes together just in time for our dinner.

I am glad that my mom takes a second helping and even my fussy sister gave an A for this. Everyone enjoyed it so much.

Do try it!

Talking about mom, she seems so much better these days. Put on weight and her appetites seem to be improving. Thanks to my sister in law who found her the RIGHT doctor. She is now diagnosed with Bronchiectasis and it seems that the medication she is taking is finally effective.

A hectic week ahead

Since the takeover, my hubby is working really hard. He has been going out of town much more often than before. This time, it is not controllable by him and thus we see him lesser and lesser.

In fact, ever since he acquired a Blackberry phone (instruction from his new boss), he is not 100% with us, even though he is home. It pissed me off big time especially when we were holidaying!!! Come on, it is a family holiday!!!

I am learning to ignore this but somehow, it gets on my nerve and I wonder how long more before I explode.

Anyway, I bought some Dried Bok Choy weeks ago. First I was thinking of Dried Bok Choy with Salted Fish head Soup (咸鱼头菜干汤) as Dodol & Mochi bought some salted fish head for me during her last visit. Then I decided that I should just make a simple Dried Bok Choy Soup with dates (双枣菜干汤) instead.



Dried bok choy is sweet in taste, it helps to relieve heatiness, moistens the intestines as well as aid with bowel movement. Thinking of hubby's busy travel schedules, I think this is the best option.

What you need:

80g dried bok choy
500g pork ribs
2 slices ginger
dash of salt
5 red dates
2 honey dates
15g sweet almonds
6g bitter almonds
1 piece fruit peel

Method

Soak dried bok choy in water. Rinse and drain well.

Rinse and drain the herbs. Set aside.

Scald pork ribs briefly in boiling water. Remove and drain.

Put all the ingredients into a soup pot, add 10 cups of water. Bring to boil over high heat, them simmer over low heat for 2 hours.

Season with salt.

Note: Dried bok choy usually contain quite a bit of sand. Be sure to rinse over several times before using.

I started my checks round the house and reposition items back to its original place. Though I am absent minded but trust me, I know my stuff at home. Right down to the exact position in its respective position in the drawer or cupboard. I find it extremely irritating when their position is changed and I can’t find them and have to depend on the helper. Perhaps that is why she rearranged my house, so that she is dependable?

Anyway since I am at it and got my momentum going, I went ahead to try out a recipe from my mini library.

At least sometime different from the deep fried items that served on the table when I don't manned the kitchen.

The original recipe is supposed to be beef but I changed it to Chicken instead. So let's enjoy this Greek Style Chicken with piping hot Jasmine rice. Yummy!



You have a good week ahead for I am sure I will. My aunties are coming to town. Yea!

What you need:

3 Chicken Tighs (you can use chicken breast or beef steak (455g)
Black Pepper
5cm Cinnamon Stick
2 med onion, cut into rings
85g butter

Sauce
55ml orange juice
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste
1 tsp lemon juice or vinegar
1/2 tsp corn flour

Method

Mix the ingredient for sauce and set aside.

Rub black pepper on both sides of the chicken.

Heat a frying pan. Add cooking oil and cinnamon stick, onion. Stir fry till onion is soft. Remove from pan.

Add half of the butter and fry the chicken till golden brown on both sides.

Add the onion and the sauce and remaining butter. Cook till sauce thickens. Add more salt if you find it not salty.

Serve with rice.

Steamed or steaming

We woke up really late this morning. If not for a phone call, I doubt I even wanted to get out of bed. If I can have my way, I don't even want to come home.

Sometime, having a stranger living in your house is really a challenge. You have to pray and hope that they will behave and respect your home and your house rules. That they will put in their best effort to fulfil their role for the next two years. Unfortunately, usually after clearing their loans, their true character shows. They started to rearrange your house as if it is their own, they started to cut corners, and the list goes on and on.

What I don't like is the way they talked back as if they have done nothing wrong when they are confronted with an issue. Personally I prefer them to just admit their mistake and move on. The more they denied the worst I feel. I begin to lose that trust.

The saddest part is that I have got no choice but to depend on them. Now I only have to wait till my kids are older to help out with the household duties and then I am able to break free. Will I?

It might be just a dream as hubby still prefers to have one at home to help out. At this point I am might be viewed as an ungrateful person but the mental stress is really hard to take especially I have not one but two at home. (the other is my teenage son).

After seeing Do What I Like's Chicken Pau. I am tempted as not too long ago, I had the worst pau eaten from one those coffee shop kiok.

It is full of fats and it tasted horribly wrong. So when she offers a quick and easy method to prepare, I am sold!

It was indeed soft and fluffy. The preparation was also easy. As it is a warm day, I can easily find a spot to proof the dough. Yea….



As I was trying to accomplish this before sending the kids to Sunday School. I didn't have time to soak the mushroom. Also I have done the base a little too thin but overall, we like it. Next time, will incorporate hard boiled egg.



I am going to make Char Siew Bun next!

Go give it a try! You won’t regret it!

What you need:

180g cake flour
20g corn starch
5g double action baking powder
100ml warm water
4g instant yeast (dry yeast)
18g sunflower seed oil or corn oil
30g-35g sugar

Method:

Mix everything together and knead till you get a smooth and pliable dough.

Prove or rest dough in a covered and warm place for 50 minutes.

Punch air out of dough and divide into 8 equal pieces of about 43g each.

Shape the pieces round, cover it with a wet towel and rest them for 5 minutes.

Flatten the dough piece and shape it into a round disc about 8 or 9 cm in diameter with the center thicker then the rim.

Wrap in 25 -35g of filling and pleat the dough into pau shape. Put the pau on a piece of grease-proof paper and line them in the steamer. Rest the pieces for 15 minutes.

Steam on high heat for 15 minutes. Serve them piping hot!!!

Our favourite

Next week, I will be really busy as I have guests in town and will be balancing my routine and spending time with them. Also I have once again taking in enquiries for Cupcake Fantasies. I decided it is long enough break for me and I better start my craft again. If not, I might loose touch with it.

Anyway, my girl was yearning for sweet corn. Sweet corn is a hot favourite for both my kids. Usually I will just steam it and coat it with butter and have it as snacks. Sometime I will just cut out the corn niblet and add them to porridge. Alternatively, I also prepare them in soup form and that makes a lovely and tasty soup.

Whenever we were down in Singapore Expo, my kids without fail will want a cup of those steamed corn. I also requested that they add just a pinch of salt.

Since I needed to clear my fridge to reload new supplies, I better make them a bowl of Sweet Corn Soup for this erratic weather. One minute is burning hot and the next min it started to rain.



The additional of carrots further enhance the sweetness of this soup.

Life is like a roller coaster when you have a teen

My life these days are like sitting on a roller coaster. Why so? Well dealing with my teenage son can be a mental and physical challenge. There are days I seriously question why I decided to become a mother or even moments when I doubted myself as a failure being a mother.

Actually I was warned about this phrase of life but I never imagine it to be so difficult. The blessing comes from friends who been through it and gives me encouragement to hang on there. It only takes TWO years for this period to go through, I was told. After that, I can enjoy the fruit of my labour.

Sounded so easy but in reality, I seriously have to put in tons of effort to make this works.

Anyway, I am thankful that the Monday's blue is far away and I am motivated once more to continue my parenting role. Hopefully I can see the light after this dark tunnel in two years’ time.

With two not so successful attempts in the past on macaroons baking, I decided to attempt macaroons again as my boy loves these. He didn’t have enough from our recent blogger’s party so here I am trying it out once more.

As usual, it didn’t turn out beautiful like many bloggers’. Mine though have feet are not quite flat as it should be.



Also because I ran out of extra fine almond meal, I had to substitute half of the required amount with hazelnut meals. Perhaps that explains the not so shiny and smooth top.



Done some in heart shaped but it was a total failure. Although the macaroons are not so pretty macaroons but my son is a happy “man” now and that matters most.



Note: I finally found that I actually had the recipe for this one.

Source: (adapted from Carol 烘焙新手必备的第一本书)
Yield 20 macaroon shells

What you need:

45g egg whites (aged for 2-3 days)
50g castor sugar
1/4 tsp lemon juice
65g almond meal
60g icing sugar
1/2 tsp green tea powder

Method

Combine almond meal, icing sugar and green tea powder in a bowl and lightly whisk to mix, mill the mixture in a food processor until it represent flour or even finer

(this step helps to make your shells top look smoother you can omit this step if you do not have a food processor). Pour the milled mixture into a bowl, set aside.

Whisk egg white until foamy, add in lemon juice and half of the castor sugar and whisk until soft peaks forms, add in remaining castor sugar and whisk until the egg white mixture is shiny and stiff peaks form.

Fold in half of the milled dry ingredients into the egg whites batter until just combined, fold in the remaining milled dry ingredients until thoroughly combined, be careful not to over mix the mixture.

Pour the batter into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle, pipe the batter into 3cm circles and space 3cm apart.

Rap the baking pan, around, a few times on the counter top to flatten the macaroons, set it aside to for the shells' surface to dry up around 20-30mins.

Preheat oven to 200C, once preheated slide the tray of dried macaroons into the oven, off the heat immediately and keep the oven door ajar with a thick glove placed in between, for 6mins.

Once the 6mins is up, close the oven door and bake the macaroons at 140C until the macaroons are puffed up and the feet has appear on each and every shell, lower the heat immediately to 120C and bake for 3mins, then lower the heat to 100C for 5mins, then off the heat and let the macaroons sit in the oven to "simmer" for 8mins.

Remove from oven and let it cool completely before removing from the parchment paper.

Fill with fillings of your own choice and keep in airtight containers inside the refrigerator for 1 day before serving.

Time to socialise

When J wrote and invited me to a blogger's get-together, I was delighted. Afterall, though the blogging world is humongous but my contact is limited as my blog is not those high traffic flow type and I really know only limited bloggers.

So when J created an opportunity for me to meet new bloggers, I gladly took up her invitation.

Though I only know two out of the 8 bloggers that were invited, I warmed up to the rest quickly. After all, we all have something in common and that is the passion to bake or cook.

With Lunar New Year festival over, I had a few days to think what I wanted to contribute to this little party of ours.

I flipped through books that I loaned from the library and my own mini collection. There are just too many to choose from that I don't even know what to bake.

In the end, I opted for these Kokken’s Sweet Crust Pie and since I had a bottle of lemon curd, I might as well use it. I also wanted to attempt on blow torching meringue as C had given me this blow torch as Christmas present many years ago but I never really gotten to use it.

So tada …. Here is my Lemon Curd Meringue Tart.



It was a huge success as it was all eaten or brought home by fellow bloggers. I managed to savour one and thus this explains why this picture is so “lonely”.

Next is a Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake. As it looks so pretty in the book, I just got to try it. This recipe is another keeper.



We chatted the evening away and enjoying each and everyone's company and food contribution. Now, let's take a glimpse on our feast.

Baking Library

Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes


Brownies



The Sweetylicious

Mango Cheesecake



Fried Nian Gao Spring Rolls



Jelly Hearts



Sugar and Everything Sweet


Pomelo Salad



Nom I Must


MeatBalls



Wen's Delight

Durian Swiss Rolls



Durian Chiffon



J3SS's Kitchen


Lemon Bars



Cathy's Joy

Chocolate Madelines



Macaroons



DDL Cupcakes



Thanks all for a wonderful evening. It was a pleasure knowing you.

Sweet Crust Pastry

What you need:

400g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1.5cm cubes
20ml vinegar, chilled (used up all) – but I didn’t on first attempt
100g caster sugar, chilled
170ml water, chilled
665g plain flour, chilled
5g salt

Method :

Mix vinegar and sugar in a bowl. Add water stirring well until sugar dissolves.

Mix salt with flour. Toss butter through flour. Use fingertips to rub the butter into the flour to partly combine.

Turn out floury mix onto a a clean work surface. Sprinkle vinegar/sugar/water mixture over the dough. Use the palm of your hand to smear this mixture away from you across the work surface. Gather into a ball again and repeat the smearing process 2 more times.

Divide dough into 2 and flatten into a thick disc and chill in refrigerator for at least 1 hour. (I left it overnight)

Remove dough from fridge and on a lightly floured board, roll out dough to about 3mm thick. Using a 11cm round cutter, cut rolled dough into individual circles to fit over a 8cm tart case.

Line (5) onto a buttered 8 cam tart case and chill in the fridge for about 20mins.

Blind bake (6) at 200C for 25mins.


Chocolate Mayonnaise Cupcakes with Caramel-butterscotch Buttercream

What you need:

260g plain flour
75g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
200g castor sugar
2 large eggs
226g mayonnaise
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup boiling water

Caramel butterscotch buttercream

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degree celcius. Line muffin trays.

Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Combine sugar and eggs and beat until light and fluffy.

Beat in the mayonnaise and vanilla.

Beat in half the flour mixture until combined.

Add half of the boiling water and beat till batter is smooth.

Add remaining flour and beat till combined.

Beat in the remaining water.

Divide batter and bake for 18 – 22 mins.

Cool and frost with buttercream.

Let's have dim sum

I love dim sum. During my last trip to Hong Kong, my aunt brought us to this place that serves really awesome ones and my friends all love it. In fact, I think D even brought her parents in law back to the same restaurant when they visited HK in Dec.

When comes to dim sum, nothing really beats Hong Kong version. Somehow, I can't get the same quality and creation in Singapore. I always ended drinking plenty of water when I go back home.

When a fast food join introduced their Portuguese Egg Tart, I didn’t rush to buy them though I heard good review about it. Finally I got to eat them when hubby brought home some. The crust is flaky though but personally I find it too sweet. The regular egg tart shop that I patronised near Maxwell Market is my favourite but they have since raised their prices that I felt that it ridiculous.

Thus, with my success that last round, I wanted to attempt the Flaky Egg Tart. Been browsing many versions over the internet and I finally settle for Corner's café with a little modification.

I didn’t do a good job on the folding part, as part of the lard oozed out of the water dough. I had to chill it twice before I finally get to roll it out.

The texture is flaky but I wasn’t able to see the layers as I over filled the egg custard.

Overall, my family said it is close to the original. Next round, I will reduce the sugar level for the egg custard and I definitely need more practise on the dough.

Thanks SD for sharing this great recipe for my family likes it.



What you need:

Filling:

100g fine sugar
200ml water
2 eggs
50ml evaporated milk

Method:

Bring water to boil. Add in sugar and mix until dissolved, leave to cool.

Combine 150ml of the cooled syrup, beaten eggs and evaporated milk.

Sieve into a pitcher and set aside.

Water Dough

80g plain flour
5g milk powder
6g custard powder
1 egg yolk
10g lard
12g icing sugar
~40g water
1/2 tsp baking powder

Oil Dough

100g plain flour
100g lard
1 tsp baking powder

Method:

Mix all the dry ingredients of the water dough and then slowly add water until a soft but not sticky dough is formed.

Knead in the lard. Cover with cling wrap and chill in fridge for 20 mins.

Mix the flour and the lard for the oil dough. It will be sticky. Cover and refrigerate this too, for around 20 minutes until it has hardened. (I had problem with this as it was way too fluid)

Preheat oven to the highest temperature your oven can take. Approx 240 - 250 degrees.

Roll the pastry into roughly a 30cmx35cm rectangle. Using 11 cm round cutters cut round circles large enough to fit into the egg tart moulds.

Method of incorporating the oil dough to water dough (please refer to Corner's Cafe).

Put the fluted tart moulds onto a baking sheet. Line each mould with the pastry and fill up to 80% full with the custard filling.

Put the egg tarts in the oven and turn the temperature down to 200 degrees and bake for 10 minutes.

Turn the temperature down to 180 degrees and bake for a further 10 minutes or until it is golden brown.

Are we losing it?

Will dialect goes extinct with the next generation?

Though my son can't speak fluent Cantonese but he is able to comprehend. My daughter, whom she didn't stay long enough with my parents, can't comprehend but I suspect she did pick up a word here and there.

My husband who grew up in a Malay village is able to speak fluent Malay. In fact, he is such a linguist that he can speak 7 languages including dialects. Smart isn't he?

For me, I am the hopeless one at home. Besides Cantonese, English and Mandarin, I am clueless with other dialects. I think I am the only one that can't understand Hokkien nor Teochew in my family. Even more hopeless is that I actually married a Teochew but my father in law speaks to me in Cantonese or English and my mother in law to me in Mandarin.

During the Lunar New Year visiting, a hot topic that popped out was dialect. For this generation of mine, we are still able to converse in our own dialect but for our next generation, they know nothing about this dialect.

I think eventually our dialect will die with us as our next generation no longer speaks a word.

To think about this, it is actually sad, isn’t it?

The weather is getting hotter by the day. Today is also the last day of a 15 days celebration. I think we had enough of munching on all those Lunar New Year goodies that are loaded with tons of calories. I am sure our yin and yang elements in our body are totally off balance.

With hubby just came home last night from a cooler climate, I thought it will be a perfect timing for us to have a bowl of Green Bean Soup with Rue (臭草) to balance back the chi in our body.



Rue is commonly used to flavour green bean soup. It is botanically known as Ruta graveolens. Many years ago, I did try to grow it but being a temperamental plant, it didn’t survived.



This plant is not commonly found in wet market and thus many vendors do not use this herb in their green bean soup. I have to go down to Chinatown to look for it and it is not cheap either. I guess because it is hard to cultivate.

Adding Rue to Green Bean Soup somehow make it taste better. Then again, it is very subjective, just like cheese and durian. I suspect some day, Green Bean Soup with Rue will also died with me.



To add some romance to this simple dessert and hopefully to catch a glimpse of the first full moon of the New Year (Chinese's Valentine's Day). I created a heart with some coconut milk for hubby's serving.

Happy Valentine's day dear.

I am also submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #4: Love In The Air (Feb 2011) hosted by Cuisine Paradise.

What you need:

250g Green Bean
1 stalk of Rue (throw away the stem)
40g sago (optional), soak for 10 mins and drain
Sugar to taste (I used thai palm sugar)
500ml + 250ml Water
4 stalks of pandan leaves
Coconut cream (optional)

Method:

Add green bean, pandan leave and water. Brisk boil for 20 mins.

Add in the other part of water and continue boiling till beans are "open".

Add in sago and continue to boil till sago is done.

Add sugar to taste and coconut cream.

Love is in the air and an announcement

Can love be still in the air when you are married for nearly 20 years?

As you might recall, I am now attending a parenting course and one of the topic touched on couple's relationship. The speaker was saying that if a couple's relationship is not strong, the kids can feel it. According to the speaker, it takes 1 bad : 5 good for a healthy relationship. If you find it takes 1 bad : 8 good, then RED ALERT.

There is no such thing as a PERFECT relationship. It is okay to quarrel but at the end of the day, our kids must be able to see their parents make up and be friends again.

Thus it is important for us, dad and mom to stay close. One point the speaker stressed is that holding hands is important in a couple’s life.

In my opinion, getting married is an easy task but staying married required lots of effort from both parties. Especially stay home mother, very often we are the neglected lot. We are neglected by the society, neglected by our family and neglected even by ourselves.

Thus before others can love us, we need to love ourselves more. We need to doll up as often as possible. We need to change our status from being homemaker to perhaps Internal Domestic Director? Give yourself a fancy title if it makes you feel good. We need to make our self worth much more.

With love being in the air, for my hubby, kids, family and friends who don’t judge me for who I am and accepted the way I am. I love you all.

Since hubby is out of town, yes what perfect timing. Not that we are doing a big bash on this occasion but at least a nice dinner together will be fun.

Whatever it is, though disappointed, I have learnt to carry on life as per normal.

Over the weekend, my failed cupcakes were too embarrassing to serve; for being a silly me, I didn't follow the golden rule of baking. That is to read the recipe THREE times. Apparently, one step was missing.

So I tell myself I will have to do it again especially when my goal now is to finish up the tub of egg whites.

These little cuppies are nice and soft. It is very much like the Japanese Cheese Cake that I baked before. So if you like that kind of texture, do give this a try. You might like it especially when you ran out of idea on how to use up your egg whites. A pity if you throw them away.



I am submitting it to Aspiring Bakers #4 Love is in the air (Feb 2011) hosted by Ellena of Cuisine Paradise.

Hahaha... my heart cuppies look like all have broken hearts!

Happy Valentine's everyone.

ANNOUNCEMENT

I can't revive my old email account!!! And I am truly sorry if it spammed your mail box.

If you are trying to reach me by email, buzz me over at Facebook.

In the meantime, I hope Yahoo can help me to reactivate the account. I will totally break my heart if they can’t do that.

Source: Life is like a long Journey blog.

What you need:

60g Cream Cheese
100g milk
30g butter
80g cake flour
20g corn flour
200g egg white (room temperature)
1/4 tsp salt
80g sugar
1.5tsp of Chocolate emulco (I added this to create some flavour)

Method

Preheat oven to 160 - 170 degree.

In a saucepan, heat cream cheese, butter and milk on low heat till cheese and butter melted. Sieve and cool.

In a bowl, add salt to egg white and whisk till frothy. Add in sugar in 3 additions and beat till stiff peak.

Add flour to cool cream cheese mixture and mix well.

Add in chocolate emulco and blend well.

Fold in 1/3 of the egg white to the cream cheese mixture. Blend well.

Gently fold in the remaining egg white to the cheese mixture. DO NOT OVER MIX.

Pour the batter to nearly the brim of the cupcake cups. The cake will shrink upon cool.

Place the cupcake in tray and filled it with hot water to the half mark of the cup.

Bake for 20 - 25 mins.

Last weekend to celebrate

This group of college mates of mine had been meeting up yearly for many years. We witness our kids from toddler to primary school, to secondary school and now some already in poly. Time really flies and aren't we aging as well?

After we moved out of Seletar, I recalled we spent one gathering at LS’s new house, and then next year was in CH’s new house. So it is about time to visit mine. Even though we have been staying here for nearly 3 years, they have yet to visit our little home.

So for tonight's potluck gathering, I had prepared Mutton Curry. I have done this before but somehow no recollection that it looks like this. Nevertheless, this is delicious as the mutton smell is not obvious at all.



A cross culture menu and I know it is so mismatched but I was so eager to retry this Luo Hon Chai recipe as the first attempt during the First Day of Lunar New Year was not up to my expectation. I think this time round, I fare much better. At least it is closer to how my mom done hers. This is one of my favourite dishes. I can have this just with plain rice.



Apparently, I was told by LS that his mom cook it in a different way. So I am actually eager to learn the Teochew version. LS, please remember to ask your mom to teach me.

I saw some really cute Agar Agar Goldfish in Anncoo's Journal. They were so lively and cute and I think the kids in my party will loved it and they did!



Adding to the menu, I baked a batch of Egg White Cheesecake but it flopped so badly that I felt shy to have it served.

So instead, I baked a Banana Cake with Hazelnut and chocolate chips. Since my last bake with banana, I had been thinking about this cake for the last few days. Perfect timing when I saw it in Honey Bee Sweets'. She had modified the recipe that I shared with DG. So I decided to give hers a try since I have ground hazelnut and chocolate chips on hand.

By the way, you might be wondering how can my banana be kept for so long, well I actually froze them. Easy easy especially when I craved for banana bakes.

I strongly suggest that you try this if you like Banana Cake for both version are AWESOME.





This year we are missing many as some are away for work commitment. Let's hope next year, we can have everyone around.

Source: Home Sweet Bee

What you need:

3 to 4 medium size ripen bananas, peeled and mashed
225g unsalted butter (room temperature)
280g caster sugar
75g hazelnut meal
3 large eggs
265g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1&1/2 tsp baking powder
200g sour cream
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
100g chopped semisweet chocolate

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 10 cups bundt pan or two 8X4.5 loaf pans and lined.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, salt and caster sugar together till light and fluffy.

Add in the ground hazelnut and mix well. Then add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Add sour cream into the mixture and stir well.

Sift in the flour, baking powder and baking soda into the batter and stir well but not over mix.

Lastly add in the mashed banana, chocolate chunks and pure vanilla extract and stir till just combined.

Pour batter into prepared cake pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes till tester comes our clean.

How is my luck?

I guess, for year 2011, it all started with the wrong footing.

Health wise it is terribly bad.
Passion wise, totally no mood, even my bakes seems all horribly wrong.

To make matter worse, my yahoo got spammed. Sorry folks for causing all those troubles.

The worse didn't end here. I found out that I am unable to log onto my yahoo mails, especially when I decided to transfer all my contacts from hotmail to yahoo mail. Now I can't access my account at all! My password didn't work, and now it has affected my ID! My problem continues as I can't recall my security answer. So now I am TOTALLY doomed.

All the recipes that friends forwarded to me and which I stored inside Yahoo for fear of my hard disk crashed again, now disappeared into thin air. Arrggghhh!

Haiz.... I just had to take it that piece of me died and I shouldn't dwell on it further. I should start life afresh.... life is such I guess. I might just absent myself from the cyber world.

Enough of my ranting....

I spotted some Thyme in a supermarket and I was delighted! For not too long ago, HN was just telling me how Thyme and Honey works for bad cough. Coincidentally, I am also reading on a book about Healing drinks and they have these components as one of their recipe. Bravo .... so here is a Thyme Syrup that is from Greece origin and it is supposedly to make an excellent remedy for all kinds of coughs.

Thyme is highly antiseptic and with its expectorant action, chases away infection and clears congestion from the chest.

A perfect syrup for children with its smooth, velvety texture and delicious taste.



So let's see whether it will help.

Source: Healing Drinks

What you need:

50g Fresh or 25g dried thyme leaves
600ml boiling water
300g runny honey
300g sugar

Method

Place the thyme in a teapot. Pour on boiling water, cover and infuse for 10 - 15 mins.

Heat the infusion with the honey and sugar in a stainless steel saucepan.

Stir the mixture as it starts to thicken and skim off any scum from the surface.

Leave to cool.

Pour into a steralised bottle and store in the fridge.

Take 2 tsp, 3 times daily for chronic problems and every 2 hours for acute conditions in children.

Soupy

Gone were the nice, breezy and cool weather. The weather is getting hotter and hotter. Of course in Singapore, the humidity follows and that sucks. One moment, it can be scorching hot. Dark clouds might seems looming in the horizon but the rain never came. It didn't help at all when the potent viral bug is still loitering in the air.

I am trying to stay in bed indoor as much as possible but it isn't doing me a good deal as well. Hubby said I have to exercise to strengthen up my deteriorating body. Somehow I just can't will myself to do it.

Remember there was a period that I said I will be walking in East Coast Park after I dropped off my son in school. Well, I did but for a very short period. It was extremely boring walking alone even though lots of interesting things to watch out. So if you are living in Marine Parade and is seeking for an exercise buddy, please buzz me.

I also didn't like going to the club with hubby in the morning for swim or run on the treadmill. You see there is this bunch of bloody inconsiderate members. They were such selfish and arrogant idiots. I shall not talk about them because if not, my blood will boil.

I reckon that it is better I don't go than to work up my blood pressure and ruin my day with these people. Of course, hubby doesn’t know why. He only can conclude that I am lazy.

Enough said, today I prepared a 3 types carrot soups (三色蘿蔔湯) that my family always enjoys. I don't know what to call this in English, if you know, do let me know.



This soup has detoxifying properties. After all those high calories goodies that we had been munching during the Lunar New Year, this soup definitely helps.

Anyway, enough of being a slacker at home. I think I need to get myself out of the house besides sending and picking up kids or going to supermarkets. To shake off that "sick" feeling, thus today, I met up a friend who is a fellow blogger for lunch.

I had a great afternoon yakking with her over Thai lunch. It is good to be reconnected back to the world again.

How was your day?

Thinking about my mom's pot of soup

My mom makes the best soup in town. Our growing up years, soup is a compulsory item on our dinner menu.

Be it herbal or any rich broth, we always drink them up hungrily. Somehow, mommy dearest always gets it right. The intensity of the rich, wholesome flavourful all goes into that bowl of soup. If there is a second helping, all of us never denied one.

Anyway, my daughter was commenting that for a long time, she hasn't had a bowl of good soup at home.

Definitely I feel guilty as this mommy is really lazy, especially of late. With health like a roller coaster, I think it is about time that each of us gets a bowl of wholesome goodness to boost up our health.

Furthermore, my little one started to complain that her legs are feeling the pain again (the bone area). I noticed that she will usually complain about the pain after some exercises especially when she takes a break in exercising for some time, like in a school break.

What I understand is that her bones are growing. I used to have that when I was a young girl. The pain can be so intense that it will wakes me up and I only can be comforted when my parents rub ointment and then cover it with a blanket (like a heat treament), only then I can fall asleep again.

So when I saw some chicken feet while doing my grocery shopping. I immediately think of this Chicken Feet with peanut Soup （花生鸡脚汤).

Chicken feet contain a high level of collagen which is good for skin as it helps to retain moisture and maintain firmness. Sometime that is good for my daughter and I as we both have dry skins.

This soup helps to expel dampness and improve circulation in the limbs. So this soup will be the perfect choice for today.



Enjoy.

What you need:

100g Peanut
50g old ginger
300g pork ribs
20 chicken feets
10 cups of water

Method

Rinse beans, peanuts, and slice old ginger.

Scald porkj ribs and chicken feets in boiling water.

Put all ingredients in soup pot and add water.

Bring to a boil and then simmer over low heat for 3 hours.

Season with salt.

What to do if....

I am sure by now, a lot of you out there would have already accumulated tubs of egg whites and just like me doesn't know how else to work with these besides macaroons?

Well, I was happy to come across this recipe. Banana Cake with White Chocolate Ganache. At least it helps to solve a part of my problem.

With a bag of white chocolate sitting impatiently in my fridge, I thought this will be the perfect recipe for me. After all, I need to slowly use up those bags of chocolate that I had stocked up.

The recipe called for a 3 x 9" cake pans but my oven can only accommodate two. A blessing in disguise because the layers turned out to be not as tall or should it be otherwise? Perhaps next time, I will just bake it in 8" pans.

I don't know what went wrong too. Overbeating? The banana taste was there but it lacks the fluffiness of what I like my cake to be. The saving grace was the white chocolate ganache and the pecans.

Could it be that I reduce the sugar nearly by half, resulted in a slightly drier texture? I seriously don't know.

It is relatively an easy recipe except that I omit the step of sugar coating the pecans. I am not a fan of hard sugar coated nuts.


Anyway this cake will be for our dessert for tonight.

I am going to put down the recipe, should you decided to try and get a better result, please do share your thoughts.

Recipe source: Sky High, Irresistible Triple Layer Cakes

What you need:

397g cake flour
3.5 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
92g mashed ripe banana (for better flavour use well ripened banana)
226g unsalted butter
215g castor sugar (original called for 2 cups)
210g egg whites (7 egg whites)

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degree. Greased 3 X 9" pan (I will use 8" instead)

Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.

Puree the banana and the milk till smooth and light.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg whites 2 or 3 at a time until smooth. Scraping down the sides of the bowl between additions.

At low speed, add in dry ingredients and banana puree alternately in 2 or 3 additions, beating until just blended.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat on medium high speed for 1 min.

Pour into pans and bake for 20 - 25 mins.

Cool on rack.

What you need:

224g white chocolate button
2 1/2 cup heavy cream
1.5 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Put the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl.

Bring 1/2 cup of the cream to a boil and pour into the white chocolate. Let it stand for 1 min and whisk till smooth. Cool to room temperature.

In a chilled bowl and with chilled beater, beat the remaining cream and vanilla to soft peak. Stir in the white chocolate and beat until fairly stiff. DO NOT OVERBEAT.

Frost the banana cake.

Adding on more calories

With so much indulge on the Lunar New Year goodies these past few days, I am sure we have enough calories to last us for two weeks or even a month. I will definitely had a hard time shedding off those kilos but then again, I simply can't help it. I have been thinking about it since my hubby went to KL a week before Lunar New Year.

Thus, just before the vendor closed for the Lunar New Year, I went to the market and bought myself a slab of pork fats!!!

Luckily he taught me how to prepare the fats before frying, for I am clueless about it.

As you see, I am a die hard fan of KL Hokkien Mee aka Black Noodle. Recently I also watch a food program that talks about this dish. When my hubby went up to KL for a meeting, I can only envy him for he will have a chance to eat this. To curb my jealousy, I just had to fry myself a plate, don't you agree?

So here I am on a weekend, using just S$3 for a kilo of fats, I was able to churn out more than enough lard, the special weapon, to fried myself a nice plate of Black Noodle. A pity that I couldn't get prawns as it was sold out. I think there is still room for improvement but hubby commented that it was good.

Memory couldn’t hold well as I have forgotten whether there is egg or not. What the heck, it is good enough to make me a happy woman for now.

A long weekend

This year, because of the long weekend, it didn't feel as stress as other Lunar New Year. We were taking our time to visit our relatives and friends. Didn't have to feel like we were running from one household to the next, hoping to catch up with as many relatives and friends over a weekend.

Thus each visit, we were also able to stay longer and catch up on good old days. Especially with my relatives, talking to aunties and uncles is like we were kids again having story telling time. I truly enjoyed such sessions.

I hope my cousin, S will be able to publish a book that she is working on. With that, I believe our next generation will be able to understand what or how life was with their great grandparents. Good Luck S.

We had a late night, my kids were still sleeping when I was awake. Since I have way too many chocolate chip in the fridge. Decided to make some Chocolate Chip Cookies pancakes for breakfast.


This is very yummy and my family likes it alot.

Source: Lisa Yockelson, Chocolate Chocolate.

What you need:

200g plain flour
33g cake flour
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
large pinch of salt
2 large eggs
54g unsalted butter, melted and cooled to tepid
1 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Butter for skillet
Icing sugar for sprinkling (I omitted as chocolate is already sweet)

Method

Sift the flours, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl.

Whisk the eggs, melted butter, vanilla extract and milk.

Pour the egg mixture to the flour mixture. Add in chocolate chips and mix to form a smooth batter.

Let the batter stand for 3 - 5 mins.

Heat pan and swipe some butter.

Spoon two tbsp batter into the pan and cook till pancake set, flip over and do the same.

Serve hot.

Hippity Hippity Hop

Let's welcome the year of the Rabbit.

To all my fellow bloggers, readers, friends and family.

新年快乐
龙马精神
身体健康
万事如意
心想事成