A very short week

This week is really short working week. The kids actually go to school for one day and that's that, it will be a week of school holiday. I am definitely not complaining as there won't be a 6 am alarm.

Unfortunately life is not so, we have already gotten a memo from the principal to urge us to start revision with our kids, in preparation for the final exam!

Haiz... that is the set back of staying in Singapore. It is a clean and safe city with great infra structure and politically stable. Standard of living though is getting tough but still it is manageable but I just wish that they will be a little less hard on the kids. Let them have some childhood please.

I am sure this one week holiday will fly past easily. Initially I wanted to bring my girl to get her tested. I was worried that she might have some learning disability but on Sat, I met someone in church and she gives me a light of hope. She is a chiropractor and she did a brief examination on my daughter. She felt that my daughter's neck is not aligned and thus resulted in poor blood flow and she suspected more but I will need to bring her to further assessed.

Now I hope she will have a free slot for me.

I made some fruit tarts for tea. I was first captivated by the name of the recipe, Tender Pie Dough. This new recipe is extremely easy to handle, though there seems to be considerable shrinkage. I am not too sure how to solve this, perhaps you do.



This crust is well received by my family as well and if it is not that my son is on diet, I am sure he will have many. As for the pastry cream, I used the same recipe as here.

I am submitting the cherry pie to Aspiring Bakers #10: Easy As Pie ( August 2011) hosted by Janine of Not The Kitchen Sink

Source: Sarabeth's Bakery

Tender Pie Crust

What you need:

158g unsalted butter
356g plain flour
1/3 cup milk
1 tbsp + 1 tsp castor sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Method:

Beat butter till smooth about 2 mins.

Drizzle in milk. The mixture should be fluffy and smooth.

Mix the flour, sugar and salt together.

Add in the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix till the dough come together.

Turn it out onto a floured surface and knead a few times till it is smooth and supple.

Divide the dough in half and shape into a disc of 1" thick. Chill.

Thaw a little before roll to the required thickness and shaping into a pie mould.

Hurry! Still not too late

The long weekend flew past just so quickly. Having hubby home for the long weekend was awesome but unfortunately, I have too many things to accomplish that it is a pity that we can't go away for a short break.

On Sat, it was my daughter's First Reconciliation Day. A total waste of time to request the parent to be with the kid. Unlike my son's, we get to do some craft together and that piece of work was then offered as offering on his First Holy Communion. For my daughter's, there isn't any contact at all. We were asked to follow our kids through one activity and the rest of the day, we were practically glued to the chair or listening to some video that had already done so during the last compulsory meeting. Lunch was also pathetic, so many kids were complaining of hunger when they were waiting for their confession.

I went home feeling so tired after that. Imagine doing nothing yet feeling tired. Strange isn't it?

My rambling aside, now let's talk about food.

For Cantonese, we can't do without soup for our daily meal. When we are young, my mom will brewed a big pot enough for lunch and dinner.

We love double boiled or brewed soup whereas my brother loves boiled vegetable soup. As he has G6PD deficiency, he can’t take many of those delicious broth as there are a lot of herbs which Cantonese soup is famous.

When I set up my own family, I lacked the skill to prepare good soup and being married to a Teochew, didn't help with my consistency in making soup at all. Thus I am often being nagged by my mom for not preparing this on a daily basis.

My children grew up loving grandma's soup and there are times they will compare mine with their grandma's. Of course, I failed miserably.

I wanted to use up the last ginseng roots, and I decided to prepare Chicken Ginseng Soup (人参鸡汤). This time round, I used the slow cooker to brew this and it came out beautifuly.



Now kids, grade me.

You are still not too late to join us. There is still ONE more day to the Heritage Food Trail event. Hurry!

I am submitting this for the Heritage Food Trail.

What you need:

4 bowl of water
1/2 chicken (I forgotten to remove the skin)
6 red dates with seed remove

Method

Put everything in the slow cooker and let it boil 5 hours.

Season with salt and pepper.

Not again?

After making the banana cream pie, there were still some bananas left. Didn't want to throw it out and was a little too ripe too eat it raw (my family prefers a firmer texture). I turned them into Roasted Banana Ice Cream.

I chose this recipe because I like Roasted Banana so I was curious whether it will be equally delicious.

This recipe is taken from The Perfect Scoop, I seriously don't know why Mr David Lebrovitz named it ice cream instead of sherbet for there isn't any cream in it. I only realised it when I was making it! Yah yah, didn't read my recipe 3 times as the golden rule.

Though it lacks the creamy texture but the taste was good. Hubby asked me whether it has alcohol in it which I don't know why. Could it be the combination of banana and the brown sugar?

I seriously think that if this is converted to an ice cream recipe, it will be just heavenly!



Tomorrow we will be electing a new President. I already decided what about you?

I doubt I can post anything up tomorrow as my girl and I are attending the 1st Reconciliation Day camp. Unlike during my son's time, we were brief on the agenda. Thus we got everything ready for the activities and that was fun. This church operates differently, so we are really clueless as to what to expect. Let’s hope it is not dry and boring.

It is going to be a long day and already I know what I am going to cook for this week. Yes last chance to submit for the Heritage Food Trail.

If you are cooking this weekend, give it some thoughts. Perhaps you want to cook a dish or prepare a dessert that originates from your roots.

So ladies and gentlemen, I look forward to your submission.

Bus rides

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Do join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.

This applies to both your own dialect or your spouse's.

Closing date: 31 August 2011

Entries should be at least based on this month posting.

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I think a month or two ago, PW, CY and myself agreed to meet up for luncheon as it had been a long time since we last met. Should not be a problem because my girl was finishing school at 3:30pm.

Then, last night my girl told me that there won’t be any remedial! I panic because I can't possibly disappoint the girls, after all we had waited so long for this date.

With reservation made at one of the bistro in MBS, it makes me even harder to cancel this meeting.

Back up plan was then to have my helper taking a train down and bringing her home but I was really sceptical about it because she had never done this before.

Luckily for me, I did a check with JY this morning and she was free to bring my princess home. Phew. I am so happy, now everything is back as planned.

I had a really good lunch with great company. We ended about half hour later as my daughter was really home, fed and showered. So I didn't think I had to rush home to bring her for her 4:30pm tuition.

I was darn wrong. Waited for 10 mins for the first bus, along the way, I saw that I could take a direct bus #2 home, waited and waited and waited.

I even called up the bus company to see whether I got it wrong. The operator told me that it does have a service to my place.

By now, I noticed that another lady was also waiting. She later confirmed that we were taking the same bus. Guess what, after numerous calls, finally someone is giving the real information. The bus service only operates on weekends!

By then I really was fuming. I tried many times to flag down a taxi but without success. In the end, I took bus #3 and later switch to bus #4. At last I was home.

Pick up my girl and rush to her tuition centre.

What a day isn't it?

Well, hubby is coming home today. Yea, and I had prepared a Banana Cream Pie to welcome him home.



According to this recipe, it is supposedly to be lighter than the norm and I totally agree with the author. I used the left over dough crust that I made for my Cherry Pie and it blends in so well.



Love it! It is really delicious! I strongly urge you to try.

I am submitting the cherry pie to Aspiring Bakers #10: Easy As Pie ( August 2011) hosted by Janine of Not The Kitchen Sink

Source: Sarabeth's Bakery

Banana Cream

What you need
2 tsp gelatine powder
2 tbsp cold water
4 large egg yolks
72g castor sugar
12g cornstarch
1.5 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
3 ripe banana, cut
3/4 cup heavy cream

Method

Sprinkle gelatine over water and let it bloom.

Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornstarch.

Heat milk in a saucepan until very hot.

Slowly drizzle the hot milk over the yolks mixture stirring continously as you drizzle.

Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and slowly stir on low heat till the custard thickens.

Pour into a bowl, place a cling wrap over the custard sealing off the air. Set aside to cool.

Fold in the cut bananas and pour into the baked pie crust.

Set to chill.

Whip the cream with sugar till stiff peak. Spread over the pie. Either garnish with cocoa powder or almond slices.

A sweet thought

My dear fellow bloggers, do take this as a personal invitation to join me in the Heritage Food Trail event. Pardon me as I don’t have the time to personally invite you all as I had tried but because I am not well read in the blogging world, I am sure I missed out some great cooks or bakers out there.

By now, you might have already read some of the wonderful stories from fellow bloggers who is participating in this event.

Even if you think you can’t write as well as those already posted, have no worry, for I am also in the same boat.

As long as this dish is either from your own dialect group or from your spouse's, it is fine. A dish that your granny cooked for you is even better!

I am already enjoying their write up and it is definitely opening up my world.

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JM know that I enjoyed baking and cooking. I was surprised to find a recipe posted to me in my mailbox.

The feeling inside me overwhelmed with sweetness as I was reading it. Knowing that my friend despite doing their own activities actually have me in thoughts really touched me.

I love pumpkin dishes but never venture as far as savoury. Thus this is quite exciting to incorporate into pumpkin ice cream and guess what, I love the taste but I think the texture needs some improvement or was it because I added in another egg yolk too much? Will reattempt this again and this time round, I better don't mis read the recipe.



So J, this is for you. Sorry, was just too lazy to prepare the honeycomb to go with it.

I love the hint of spices as well as the maple syrup in it. Shiok!

Source: Unknown

What you need:

500g butternut pumpkin (peeled and cut in 1 cm pieces). Steamed and remove flesh.
300ml milk
300ml whipping cream
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
110g castor sugar
5 egg yolks
60g maple syrup

Method

Puree the steamed pumpkin in a blender. Remove 200g. Set aside.

Heat milk, cream and spices.

Whisk egg yolks with sugar till light and fluffy.

Slowly drizzling in the hot milk mixture while the mixer is on med speed.

Return the milk mixture into the sauce pan and slowly cook till it thickens (approx 8 mins) to be able to coat a spoon.

Stain into a bowl.

Stir the maple syrup and pumpkin into the custard.

Leave to cool before transfering to chill.

Churn in an ice cream machine.

Happy Birthday!!!!

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Do join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.

This applies to both your own dialect or your spouse's.

Closing date: 31 August 2011

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Today, my two babies turned 9 and 14 respectively. It seems like just yesterday they were still snuggling comfortably in my arms. They were totally dependent on me.

Looking at them now really make me missed those nappy and feeding times. Crazy isn't it but it is so true.

My 14 years old is seeking his independences now. I don't even need to send him to school anymore. When I offer to pick him up from school, he even question why. Gone are the days where there is so much hugging and kissing. Handling this teenage period caused me so much heart aches and tears. I am trying very hard not to get stressed out by him, yet sometime it is really a challenge.

Let's pray from now onwards, sensibility will hit and I don't have to worry over him as much as before.

Whereas for my 9 years old, she still cry when I leave home without her. She still yearns to sleep in our room with us even though I trained her since young to sleep on her own. Somehow, she will wonder into our room on the pretext that she had nightmares. With daddy not being around so often, she is like a little fixture in my room during bedtime. Little love notes that she left for us filled my treasure box.

Looking at her and remembering things that I never done as much as with my son, I learnt now that I must fully take advantage of this closeness. For they will become distance and it become very painful to deal with. At least during this teenage period I was told.

I can't imagine the day whereby both will leave us to seek their independence and discover the world. Let's hope our love for them will be enough to keep them returning back to this nest.

Happy Birthday my babies.



Thanks My sweet hut for this nice sponge. Unfortunately I can't leave a thank you note in your blog.

Source: My sweet hut

Basic Sponge Cake

What you need:

4 egg Yolks
40g caster sugar
2 tbsp milk
¼ cup (56g) Oil
½ tsp Vanilla Essence
80g Cake/ Top Flour } sifted
½ tsp Baking power }
4 egg whites
90g castor sugar (cut down to 35g)
¼ tsp cream of tartar (can omit)

Method

Mix egg yolks and sugar for 2 mins. Lighter in colour, pale yellow.

Microwave milk and oil for 20 sec and immediately stir into the egg yolk mixture (Step 1) with a hand whisk.

Add in vanilla essence and sifted flour. Stir till smooth.

In another mixing bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks formed. Add in the sugar and cream of tartar, beat until stiff. Fold in 1/2 portion of the egg whites into egg yolk mixture (step 3) and mix well. Repeat the same step for the remaining egg whites. Mix well.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in preheated oven at 160*C for 40 -50 mins.

Once bake, let it cool down.


Durian Cream

500g durian flesh
1 tbsp sugar
200g whipping cream
15g gelatine
3 tbsp boiling water

Method

Soak gelatine in boiling water and stir till it melts.

Whip the cream with sugar till stiff.

Fold the durian flesh.

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Curry Chicken (source: Nyona Kitchen - Florence Tan)

What you need:

1.5kg chicken, chopped to bite sized
3 tbsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp meat curry powder
565g coconut
5¼ cup water
¾ cup cooking oil
3” cinnamon stick
2 springs curry leaves
2 star anise
2” ginger, peeled and cut into thin strips
55g meat curry powder blended with 1/3 cup water to form a paste
4 potatoes, peeled and quartered
2¾ tsp salt

Ground into paste
6 dried chillies, soaked and deseed
22 shallots, peeled
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tsp crushed dried shrimp paste (you can omit)

Method

Marinate the chicken in soy sauce and curry powder for 30 mins.

Combined coconut with 1¼ cup water and squeeze out 1¼ cup thick coconut milk. Set aside.

Add remaining water to the coconut and squeeze out 4 cup of thin coconut milk. Set aside.

Heat oil and fry cinnamon stick, curry leaves and star anise. Add in ginger and finely grounded paste. Fry till fragrant.

Add in marinated chicken and fry for 4 mins on low heat.

Add in potatoes and thin coconut milk. Bring to a boil and lower the heat and simmer for 30 mins.

Add in thick coconut milk and season with salt.

Allow to boil further, approx 3 mins. Stir to prevent curdling. Remove from heat and serve with rice.

Cook and Share a Pot of Curry and a birthday celebration

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Do join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.

This applies to both your own dialect or your spouse's.

Closing date: 31 August 2011

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My parents came over for a visit today. Its sure been a while since they last visited.

The other day, when my daughter told her grand dad that there had been many kittens visiting us. Being an animal lover, my dad actually told us to adopt it.

Of course it is easier said than done. I have to consider the long term plan. Having a pet is like having a baby. You can't just refund it, it is a life long commitment. Having a constraint place didn't help at all with the decision. I also talk to my friend T who has 5 cats and she also told me to consider it very carefully. The commitment is no easy matter.

In the end, the reality over rides the wishes.

Today, we celebrated my kids' birthday since daddy is leaving town and won't be back in time for the actual day celebration.

To made it more meaningful, my parents were present as well. It is really nice to know that the grandparents took note of their birthdays.



I decided to cook another pot of curry to support the Cook and Share a Pot of Curry event. This time round, Chicken Curry, since it is very troublesome for my mom to cook this for just my dad and herself.



While I am at it, I also baked a Cherry Pie as it is in season and this batch really tasted so sweet. While my mom helped with the pitting, my daughter helped in arranging the cherries. This is what this team effort produced.



I didn't have time to chill it real well. Then again, we just couldn't wait to eat it. It is really good. My mom loved the Pate Brisee and I love the pastry cream. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

What is a birthday party without a birthday cake right? I have some leftover durian paste and I turned this into a Durian Cake as my kids’ birthday cake. Cheapo mommy you might say but having two kids with the same birthday, it does help with some work. hahaha



I definitely lost the piping skill that I learnt before. Somehow I fear I overwhipped the cream and my warm hard didn't help at all.

No elaborate decoration as I was trying hard to get it back into the fridge for it to set as my parents were tired and have to leave.

Happy Birthday my babies. I hope you all are happy with your presents and may you be blessed with good health.

I am submitting the cherry pie to Aspiring Bakers #10: Easy As Pie ( August 2011) hosted by Janine of Not The Kitchen Sink!

Cherry Pie
What you need:

Pate Brisee (Crust) (Martha Stewart)

352g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
¼ ice water

Method

Whisk plain flour, salt and sugar well.

Add in the butter and rub till fine crumbs.

Slowly drizzle ice water and knead to a dough. If too dry, add a little by little to form a soft dough.

Divide into two and wrap them in plastic bag. Press each into a disc and chill until firm.

Roll them to the required thickness and fit into the pie dish.

Pastry Cream (Cesine Bullock-prado)

6 egg yolks
100g sugar
32g corn starch
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream

Method

Whisk egg yolks, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla and salt till light and fluffy.

In a heavy saucepan, bring milk and cream to a rolling boil.

Pour hot milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Drizzle slowly while mixer is on med speed. (to prevent scalding)

Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and continue cooking on low heat till it thickens and able to coat the spoon.

Sieve the custard into a bowl and put a cling wrap on it to prevent skin forming. Cool completely before chilling.

Assemble

Cherries, pitted
Pastry Cream
Pie crust

Method

Coat pie crust with melted chocolate.

Add in pastry cream and arrange cherries.

Served chilled.

Another surprise visitor

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Do join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.

Closing date: 31 August 2011

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Lately there was a big hype on this Cook and share a pot of Curry campaign. I briefly read about it. To sum it up, it all got started because a family from China complained about their Indian neighbour cooking curry.

Personally, I love the aroma of curry especially while it is cooking. If my kids are able to take spicy food, I am sure I will cook this on a weekly basis. After all, we can make it in so many hundreds of variety. You can never get sick of it, at least not for me.

My hubby is one that enjoys curries. He will like his, with rice swimming in sauces. For me, I love it with just a little to compliment my plain white rice. The main enjoyment will be the tender lovely chunk of spiced meat. ohhhh.... the melt in the mouth texture is just heavenly.

Anyway, I couldn't wait for another day to cook my pot of curry. So we did it today. I chose Beef Rendang as it is a hot favourite in my household. Now tell me how you enjoy eating your curry.



To those PRC who complains so much. A first step for you is perhaps to learn how not to spit in public and be mindful how loud you speak. In case you are not aware of, there is such thing as you queue for your turn. Please refrain from pulling down your kiddo's pant in public for a leak. We have a designated place for such private act and that is a toilet.

Let's not destroy the harmony that Singaporeans built in the last 46 years. Let's not discord the friendship between different races for we are as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion.

Let’s respect one another.

.... now guess what, we have got our third visitor yesterday and this time round is a boy!



By the time of this post, our dear neighbour ONCE again removed it before we even have time to decide whether we want to adopt it.

PSLE

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Do join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.

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This year's PSLE seems to be earlier than usual. It is also a time whereby, other levels of primary school kids are to stay home so that the 12 years old can take their examination in total peace.

I seriously can't imagine myself going through this in 3 years' time. I think the stress will be higher than that of my son's. For the 5 years difference, the level of difficulties has increased a lot. Even my son commented that his sister's work is much harder than during his time.

These two days will be delegated for e learning. That is to say that the kids complete their school work via the computer. I seriously wonder how much is being taught by this method or rather the kids are just simply going through the action. Well, as long as she completes them, I think all will be okay.

Our breakfast this morning is Glutinous Red Bean Cake (桂花糕), which actually make up of glutinous rice, red bean paste and osmanthus syrup. I usually don't take rice as breakfast but since this is sweet and I think we are going to have light lunch later on, this is a good choice to fill you up for the morning.



I decided to take some time out and went shopping with my girl. After all, her birthday is just round the corner and I think it is best to let her pick her own birthday present. A good chance to spend some fun time with her. These days, her life is practically filled with enrichment classes. Already I am making a mental note to throw some of the classes out by year end so that she has some breathing space to enjoy the process of learning. For in P4, she will be in for a more challenging year. I just don't want her to have a burnt out because of all these activities.

My skin has taken a toll because of the stress, thus I really needed to take more collagen related stuff. The natural way is to have some 翅群角茨實鸡脚汤. The last time I made this, I mis-read the recipe and added in chicken meat instead of chicken feet.

So now I am having the right version. hahaha... totally collagen loaded!



According to the recipe, it is supposedly to improved on 健脾, "temper"? and remove the dampness.

This is a picture of how this 翅群角 looks like. I seriously don't know what it is. Perhaps some sort of fish fin? But my cousin told my mom that it is very good for the skin.



I am looking forward to tonight for hubby will be home. Yea!

Day 3 - the end

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Do join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.

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I am so happy that Day 3 is coming to an end ... hold on .... I am not getting the morning to myself! because my princess will be home doing e learning. Well, having her home is perfectly okay because I don't have to be the CCTV and there isn't any stress parenting her.

I spent the whole morning in school. Today's lesson is really enjoyable and the lecturer's voice is powerful enough to draw 90% attention, for the other 10%, I was wondering whether my son followed through his time table (why am I not surprise)! Needless to say, of course, he was in his pretending stage (according to my helper).

Breathe, and deep breath is what I was told to do. Should the stress level shoot, just retire to the room to recompose myself and this is what I am going to do from now onwards.

Done this little chives dumplings today. My last attempt, the recipe was lost but I remembered it has a softer skin than this one. The previous is vegetarian whereas this one, it is much nicer as there are meat and shrimps.



I read that if you are taking Chinese herbal medication, do refrain from eating chives. Other than that, eating chives brings many goodness to ones body. You can read more here.

I am glad that my kids like these. Next round, I will need to work on that dough to make it a little softer.

I am going to bring my little one out tomorrow to ease some saddness away. She actually cried herself to sleep last night, missing the kittens. Let's hope she will feel better after.

Day 2 - out of syn and uninvited guests

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Do join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.

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You might be wondering how I keep my dear boy busy right? Well, we had come to a compromise that he must follow his school time table. Right down to recess time, to computer lesson which I had to reluctantly allow him to have for 1 hour. Now I am wondering for 1.5 hours computer lesson, half hour is lesson time and the other one hour is gaming time? Am I getting it wrong or what? Anyway, yesterday he had home economics and thus I got him to help out with the pasta making.

Unfortunately by afternoon, all his schedules just went out the window. So today, I am trying again.

Today, everything seems horribly wrong. First he got up late, stating that it is PE time. Then he started his Maths late because he said that the teacher is always late. Only upon objecting strongly, he got started by staring at the book. I wonder how can we study Maths by staring at the book? Took him another 40 mins to settle down and too soon, he got started arguing with me that he can’t do his assessment test because the book wasn’t flat! This time I really lost it! I can feel my heat beat skipping so fast that I told myself that I got to walk away if not, I might have stroke or a heart attack!

I lock myself in the room and just refused to think about him. After an hour, he started knocking on my door. Told me he completed the assessment and asked what time we had to leave to pick my girl up from school. Gosh, why must be always do this to me? Why can’t he just take my advice in the first place? Geesh, I just couldn’t figure it out. Can you?

Enough of frustration, this morning, after I sent my girl to school, I came home to be welcome by two uninvited guests and they seems wanting to stay for the night because by evening time, when we came home after my girl’s tuition, they were obviously getting themselves comfortable.

My girl fell in love with it immediately and wanted to keep them but I know that my hubby will never allow it. True enough, after the phone call, daddy said they can only stay for a day or two till we find someone to adopt them.

Unfortunately, I think my neighbour didn’t like them and soon after, they were gone. My princess was so sad that she went to bed at 8pm! No heart even to do her revision.

Well, I can’t blame her as you can see how gorgeous they are?

Three days

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Do join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.

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For the next three days, my son will be home with me. He is supposedly to do reflection on himself but seriously I really can't see that. He behaves as if he is on holiday! It didn't help when the timing is so perfect that my hubby starts his travelling today.

I tried having a pep talk with him again today and am glad that at least he felt a tinge of regrets of what he had done.

Initially he said he will make an apology card, but once dad is out of the door, his story changed. Now he said he will apologise face to face which I really doubt it will happen.

Anyway, I am trying so hard to keep my cool. I have to shut both eyes if I want to survive these three days!



Over the weekend, Batter Baker helped me to buy Durum Flour. You see, the last I touched my pasta machine was last year March when I done a batch of Squid Ink Pasta.

Seeing her blog post once again reminded me of my pasta machine that I think badly needed to bring it out to dust off the cob web.

With the durum flour on hand and son's latest food crave for carbonara, I can longer find excuses not to make it.



It was also good for us as I got him to help with the pasta making. At least he has some ownership to tonight’s dinner.



I think it passed the test for he ate a big plate of it despite having to be on a diet to lose 1 kg for next month’s Taekwondo competition.

We ended the dinner with Chocolate Lychee Ice Cream. Yet, another task that he helped with. Unfortunately we were too eager to have it and didn’t allow it to chill long enough but it was so good that we will have to make another batch soon.



Daddy, we will get a tub ready for you when you come home. Hugs from all.

Basic Pasta Dough
Makes enough for 4
What you need:

280g durum wheat flour (or semolina flour)
2egg
2 tsp salt
drizzle of olive oil
2 - 3 tbsp water, as required

Method:

Make a well in the middle of your bowl of flour.

Crack an egg into the well. Add salt and olive oil.

Then slowly stir in the flour till a dough is formed. If it feels too dry, add water till you get a firm but smooth dough. Knead till it comes together.

Rest the dough for about 30 minutes.

Flatten or roll out the dough into a disc, then feed it through the rollers at the widest setting. Slowly work your way through the narrower settings till you get the thickness you desire, flouring the dough as required so it doesn't stick to the machine.

Then using the pasta machine to cut the type of pasta you want.

Bacon and mushroom Sauce - will post this up later.

Heritage Food Trail - 1st Submission

Do join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.



Last night, I was down at the library reading a book by Dr Leslie Tay. Coincidentally it was a dish that I contributed to yesterday's blogger party and it fits perfectly for this http://preciousmoments66.blogspot.com/2011/08/remember-heritage-food-trail-that-i.html. Thus I didn’t blog about it yesterday but only do so as an individual post. Did I cheat on this?

Anyway, I didn't know that Chwee Kueh is part of Teochew Cuisine. Chwee Kueh, in direct translation refers to water cake. Reason being that the recipe requires high water ratio to flour.



According to the book, the traditional one has a dimple in the centre and the fillings only consist of lard, radish and garlic.

For me, I like it with a dash of sesame seeds, a replicate from one of my favourite chwee kueh stall that no longer existed.

For the batch that I done for the party, it wasn't so smooth sailing. In fact, I threw away two batches of the batter before I succeeded to ease them out from their mould. Somehow I didn't quite like the texture, but my fellow blogger friends said otherwise. You might ask why didn’t I use the last attempt. You see, I find that texture a little too “tough” for that one.

For the ones that I served at the party, I prefer a firmer texture. Come to think about it, from my last attempt, J might have sent me a recipe but somehow I couldn’t find it. I guess it went up in smoke when my hard disk crashed the last time.

Anyway, I didn't want to give up, so today I sent time experimenting another two recipes that TM pointed me to. I wasn't satisfied as well.

So I created my own based on all those recipes that I tried. Here is my version. My helper said this was the best among the whole lab tests



Whatever, the combination of the cake with the fillings and not forgetting the chilli was enough to satisfy me for the time being.

I am submitting this for the Heritage Food Trail.

Note: A revised version that yield a much nicer texture. Please try the revised version.

What you need:

170g rice flour (revised: 150g)
15g wheat starch
20g corn starch (revised: 25g)
770ml water (revised: 725ml)

1 tsp salt
2 tsp oil

Method:

Greased the cups with oil.

Mix everything together till all the lumps are gone. Sieve through.

Pour into a pot and bring to a boil. Keep stirring till it become gluey.

Pour into the chwee kueh cup and steam on high heat for 15 mins.

Remove and serve with the radish fillings and chillis.

Radish Fillings

What you need:

1 big packet of radish (already diced)
1/2 cup of minced garlic
1/3 cup toasted white sesame seed
lard
sugar, salt and pepper to taste
a dash of dark soya sauce (Optional)
1/2 - 1 cup water

Method

Soaked minced radish for a few min and drain well. You can taste whether it is still saltish.

Using dry heated wok, pan fry the radish till it is dry. Remove.

Add lard and fry the garlic till fragrant. Add in the radish and sugar.

Sautee the radish till it caramelised. Add water and cook till it is soft.

Add in salt and pepper and a dash of dark soya sauce.

Once you are okay with the seasoning. Add in the toasted sesame seeds.

Mixed well.

Sambal

7 clove garlic
10 shallots
2 tomatoes
200g chilli padi
1/8 tsp red sugar
100g belachan
1 tbsp prawn paste
1 tsp salt

Method

Pound the ingredients together.

Heat wok and oil. Add in the pounded ingredients and cook till it turned dark and fragrant.

Remove to cool and store in air tight container and place in the fridge.

A breather

Some months ago, The Batter Baker and Passionate of baking talked about having a blogger's party so I was really looking forward to it. After all, its sure been a while since I last saw some of them. I think it was as far back as from the Charity Cook out we had.

Thanks to Sugar and Everything Nice, she offered her home as our meeting point. The table was quickly filled with all those yummilious homemade goodies.

We were saying out loud that it is simply just too much for just 10 of us as some contributed two items to the buffet table. Now let me share some of these awesome items that our fellow bloggers brought along.

Vegetable Fritters from Sugar and Everything Nice



Hawaiian Pizza from Honey Bee Sweet



Blondies and Chocolate Cake from Tested and Tasted




Portuguese Egg Tart and Durian Puff from Passionate About Baking





Madelines from J3ss Kitch3n



Salsa and Devil's Food Cake from Baking Library





Tau Suan from Baking on Cloud 9



While uploading these pictures, I realised that I missed out some.

The Batter Baker's Bread Pudding
Cathy's Joy's Red Velvet Cupcake
Kitchen Corner's Bailey Ice Cream, Chocolate Ice Cream and Tuna Patties.

Pardon me, I guess I was just too eager to dig in. I am sure you can visit their blog to see these wonderful contribution to this pot luck party.

As for mine, I will be sharing this tomorrow as part of my submission to the Heritage Food Trail. I need to work on this recipe further to bring out the texture that I am looking for.

Time also flies when we are having a good time. We are already talking about having another one. Next round, it might be a theme party instead. I just can't wait for another one.

Thanks for this wonderful party. I did take my mind off and it is definitely good for my soul.


Do join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.

Are you hearing me?

This morning, because I took an antihistamine pill, I slept late but was woken by a phone call.

The most dreaded call, from my son's school, breaking a really bad news to me.

I wanted to cry but there wasn't any more tears. I wanted to scream but there isn't any sound. I seriously don't know how to react. Luckily hubby is in town, so I picked up the phone and call him.

I went about the day with a heavy heart, a lump in my throat that failed to go away. I knew that I had to stay away and let my hubby handle it.

Yet, I was anxious to be home to understand the whole scenario. I really admire him for being so strong, so logical and so calm.

I pray that my son will learnt from this experience. I pray that he will take this weekend and the next following three days to self reflect, to repent and to made amend.

I pray that now after knowing his side of the story and his medical condition that they will not jump into conclusion that quickly and have a better understanding of my little boy.

I pray that there won't be any more such calls from the school for it makes me feel that I had failed so badly as a mother.

Now let's take this bowl of Sharken Melon Soup to nourish the broken spirit. Let it heal wounds and let's move on with life.





Do join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.

The day after

Do join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.





Today HN and L, along with their kids came over to play. Thus I prepared some Apple Cakes as snack for them. I had done this recipe many years ago, and I remembered that CL loved it. Unfortunately the post was part of the missing lots and thus it feels good to reattempt this recipe and have it in writing again.



As for the kids, they definitely remembered my son well. Despite only meeting once a year, they were already comfortable with each other right from the start. It was my daughter who felt left out, after all, how can her friend who shared the same birth date, birth month and birth year ignored her?

Well, it didn’t take long for my prince to get tired of the kiddish game and retired to his You Tube world. Now my princess was finally getting the attention.

By the time L and her kids arrived, the kids just gelled so nicely with each other. We, mommies took the opportunity to do a little shopping. A time out for ourselves, as HN knew of a place nearby that sells nice ribbons and craft stuff.

Despite staying here nearly 3 years, I am sure a green horn in my own territory! She was the one that navigate the short cuts and buildings! Of course they had a good laugh at my ignorance.

Though time spent was short as L needed to bring her boy for swimming class but am happy that I managed to spend some time with my buddies.

I am glad I baked the Apple Cakes in mini pop size, it was easy for the kids to pick and eat. From the repeated trips to the table, I know they love it.



Bon voyage ladies, and see you next year.

Source: DIY3 (Rachel Yau)

What you need:

2 pcs green apples (skinned and sliced)
2 tsp lemon juice
200g cake flour
125g butter (used the best)
125g castor sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2½ tbsp milk

Glaze

1½ tsp gelatin
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar

pinch of cinnamon (I omit)

Method

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Greased a mini muffin tray.

Mix apples with lemon juice and set aside.

Sift flour.

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add in one egg at a time.

Stir in vanilla and milk.

Fold in the flour.

Put batter into the muffin tray.

Arrange apples on top and bake for 15 – 20 mins.

Mix the glaze, brush it onto the hot bakes and dust with cinnamon powder.

Happy National Day

In order to distract myself from unnecessary stress, I literally buried myself in books the past week. I had a feeling that my hubby felt that I neglected him. Hahhaa…

Even though baking or cooking actually first started as a distraction from having the housewife’s stress. I found out that I still wasn’t able to detach myself wholeheartedly as I get from reading. It also took me away from the computer as well which explains the laziness of my blog update.

Hubby spent a solid 4 days with us, which is such a rare treat. Unfortunately, it was a last minute decision and my girl was already committed to a birthday party and she didn’t want to miss that. If not, I am sure that long weekend will be fully utilised as a family bonding time.

All is not lost, on Monday, after sending the kids off to school, we only took a morning walk together at the East Coast and watched the sun rise. I really enjoyed such time alone with him. You see, my hubby is a very lucky man, he has two women in his life that constantly fight for his attention. Of course, the princess always gets the first priority.

For National Day celebration, initially, I was thinking of holding a party at home but decided against it as that will take me away from my books. So instead, we cycle down to the Marina to watch the parade and of course the Fireworks which my hubby and girl love.

Since we got to be there early to find a good seat, we decided to have home made burgers. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get hold of any burger buns and I immediately get on to made some as I recalled that Kokken’s done a batch recently.

After all, I have not venture into this 65ºC 烫种 method. So this is a good start for me.

I was pretty afraid that I will burnt my dough so I took it really slowly and kept constantly checking on the temperature. I got a feeling that this recipe is rather forgiving for I think I hit 70ºC before I removed it from the heat.

I didn’t have enough time to proof that 40 + 10 + 40 mins but surprisingly it still turned out well.

See how nice and round it is.



And this is our dinner, Terriyaki Beef Burger. It was nice and juicy. Yum.



Okay, off we go to catch the fly past and fireworks.







Happy National Day.

BTW, please join me on this Heritage Food Trail if you have the time. I am sure it will be an opportunity to get to know other dialect food cuisine.

Heritage Food Trail

By the way, a few of you wrote to me that it wasn't "prominent" when I posted my Heritage Food Trail blog post that day. So I am attaching the information here.

Let's hope you will all join me for this event.

If you are keen, just sent in your submission by 27th August 2011.

Participate
Anyone

Criteria

Cook a dish or made a dessert based on your heritage. That is either your own dialect or your spouse's.

Post it on your blog within 27 July 2011 to 27 August 2011.

Your recipe chosen can either be from hand me down recipe or if you source from a book or internet, please give due credit and a link to it.

Where to sent to?

mythoughtsmyblog@yahoo.com.sg

Please indicate in your mail header: Heritage Food Trial.

The format:

Your name/dialect group: eg(edith/Cantonese)
Blog Name: Precious Moments
Name of the dish/dessert you are submitting:
URL of your post:
Your photo size should not more than 500k

Now let's have some fun and look forward to seeing your submission.

****************
Remember the Heritage Food Trail that I told you about? Well, I had been reading quite a fair bit on other’s dialect group food cuisine of late.



I recalled when I was young, my Hainanese neighbour always make this little squarish kueh kueh filled with savory fillings. The dough is chewy and the filling is just delicious. When we shifted out, we lost contact with them.



Or when I was even younger, another Hainanese neighbour prepared this pig ear dish during Lunar New Year and it wasn’t the ang pow that I was looking forward to, it was this cold dish. Oh it was so good that even till to date, I still miss it.

Unfortunately, the old lady had since passed on and I seriously doubt her kids know how. Perhaps I have to get my mom to ask them but I heard that the main cook for this family now is suffering from some illness and she has since “retired” from her job.

I married a Teochew but my mother in law knows nothing except steam fish. She cooks Malay cuisine much better than Chinese.

Come to think about it, I don’t really know what is true blue Cantonese dish or dessert. I will have to stop checking out on others and do more research on this one.

In the meantime, I leave you with Fried Sweet Potato Rings which my son is crazy about. Guess what, it is the sugar coating that he was interested! LOLz.



Well this is nice to go with a cup of tea for our afternoon snack.

Now are you looking forward to this weekend? I am, because hubby has taken Monday off and it will be a long weekend for me. yea!

Source: Popular Kuih - Muih

What you need:

500g sweet potatoes - steamed and mashed
30g tapioca flour
50g plain flour
oil for frying

Glaze
200g sugar
70ml water

Method

Mix mashed sweet potatoes with tapioca flour and plain flour. Knead well to form a soft dough.

Divide dough into pieces and shape into a ball. Using your thumb make a hole in the centre.

Deep fry till golden brown. Set aside.

Boil sugar and water till it becomes thick. Drop in the potato rings, toss well in the syrup, remove and drain.

Serve hot.

To have or not to have

Generally primary school kids in Singapore sits for two small tests and two major exams. The small test is Continual Assessment (CA) 1 and CA 2 and the major exam are Semestral Assessment (SA) 1 and SA2.

I found out that my girl will not be taking her CA2 but will go straight into SA 2 and that is the final exam for the year.

With no CA 2, though it is less stressful at this moment, which usually takes place around August period before they go on a week long school holiday in September. I am actually worried about how her performances are. Her grading are like a roller coaster, some topic tests she done well and others not. I can't really assess her ability of comprehension at all.

You see, I am not expecting an A grade kid but rather her being lack of knowledge somehow dampened her confidence. After doing nearly 7 months of Maths tuition, I can start to see that she is enjoying lessons as well as home work. As for English, she is struggling badly still. I can't tell for Science at this moment as they just started it this year, but she is not showing good signs that she is understanding her work at this moment. Luckily, her interest in Chinese is still not too bad. If not, this poor girl really devotes her life to tuition centers.

For now, with no CA2, life is as usual. Only that I need to ensure that she is up to par in her understanding of what is being taught in school.

Went on to make another item on my to do list and that is Peng Kueh. Years ago, my mother in law will buy those with yam and it is really delicious. Been hunting a few places for this without success. So I need to make to do with normal ones.



Cooking the fillings is easy once I had everything. It is also very easy to adjust the taste with this recipe.

The dough is the difficult one. It was sticky and I had to rinse my hands and rolling pin several times. Pretty frustrating and I needed to get it done quickly so that I can go back to monitor my girl in her studies.

My hubby likes his pan fried, just like how my mother in law will usually does it.



Looking strange without that pink hue right? Nevertheless, it is not too bad. Just need to explore more on the dough.

So one item down, next!

Source: Agnes Chang (Delightful snacks and dim sum)

What you need:

Dough
250g rice flour
150g tapioca flour
1 tsp salt

450ml boiling water

3 tbsp fried shallot oil

Fillings

300g glutinous rice (Soaked overnight and drained)
150ml water
3 tbsp fried shallot oil
1 tbsp soya sauce
Salt to taste
3 tbsp oil
1 tbsp chopped shallots and garlic, minced
60g dried prawns, soaked and chopped
5 dried mushroom, soaked and diced.

50g peanuts, boil till soft and drained
1 tbsp dried sole fish, toasted and pound finely
pepper

Method

A)

Put rice, water and fried shallot oil and 1/2 tsp salt in a tray and steam over high heat for 45 mins till cooked. Fluff up the rice with a pair of chopsticks. Set aside.

Heat wok with 3 tbsp oil and saute garlic and shallots until fragrant.

Add in dried prawns and fry till aromatic.

Add in mushroom and cook further.

Add in peanuts, dried sole fish and pepper and stir till evenly mixed. Taste and season with salt and soya sauce if needed. Divide into 16 portions. Set aside.

Put flours and salt into a bowl. Mix well and then pour in the boiling watre. Mix quickly. Cover and let it stand for 10 min before add in the shallot oil and knead till it is soft and pliable. Divide into 16 portion. Set aside (cover loosely with a cloth)

Assemble

Roll the dough into a ball and flatten with either hand of rolling pin. (oil your hands or rolling pin)

Wrap one portion of fillings into the dough. Seal and put into a mould. Press close to the mould. Knock to get the dough out.

Steam on high heat for 10 mins. Brush with a layer of cooked oil while it is still hot.

Serve hot with dark sweet sauce and chilli sauce.