kampung chicken rice

crepe suzette

Panic Manic Bruschetta

Scoring Brownie Points!!

why?

I love baking birthday cakes for my dearest friends. So it was Rosh's birthday and I wanted to do something special :) I read in Nigella's book that a quick and easy but absolutely stunning 'cake' for a birthday would be to stack on freshly baked brownies and candles all around!

success?

Gorgeous! And it went so well with my home-made vanilla pod ice-cream! Here's the recipe that I tweaked to suit the palates of Less-Sugar-Please and More-Dark-Chocolate people.

Birthday Brownie

Adapted from Nigella Lawson's FEAST

Makes about 24 huge slices

Ingredients

375g unsalted butter

375g at least 70% dark chocolate

6 eggs

275g castor sugar

1 tbsp real vanilla extract

225g plain flour, sifted

1 tsp salt

150g white chocolate buttons

200g dark chocolate buttons (at least 80%)

some icing sugar for dusting

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees cel and line a baking tin with baking parchment.

Melt the butter and dark chocolate over low heat. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.

Beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture and beat well.

Fold in the flour and salt and stir in the white and dark chocolate buttons.

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared tin and at this point, if you want, you can scatter some chopped walnuts to give the brownie more texture. I tried this one, but somehow, seem to prefer my brownies 'pure' :)

Bake for 25min. However, the baking time really depends on how you like your brownies. If you like them more gooey, take them out 5 min earlier. If you want them with a more cakey texture, leave in the oven for another 5 min. However, do keep in mind, if you intend to store them and heat them up in the microwave to serve them warm, you might not want to over bake the brownies.

Cool for about 10min, then cut into squares, stack them up and dust away!!

failure?

I would reduce the sugar even more if you want to coat instead of speckle the brownies with icing sugar. Blizzard versus snow dust. You decide!

Roasted Pomegranate Chicken

Sushi??

Bakwang Kepiting

Goreng Assam Prawn

Ayam Buah Keluak

Hands-on Vietnamese Fresh Spring Rolls

Why?
My mom bought these rice paper for me to re-create one of LR's favourite dishes. It's relatively healthy and super easy to make.

Failure:
The rice paper to wrap the spring rolls were too small, LR and myself went berserk adding A LOT of every ingredient into each spring roll which resulted in crazy clumsy eating and a very messy dining table.

* I found the bigger rice paper at Vivocity Cold storage*

Success:
But it was great fun, it's been a while since we have thread down the road of using hands to eat.

Rustic Fishcakes

Mexican Affair

why?
My best meal during my honeymoon was Mexican food at Lake Tahoe. I was blown away by the freshly baked warm tortillas, the combination of lucious gucamole, nachos dipped with tangy salsa and the most amazing fruit chutney with grilled meat. I lost count at the number of times I ate at a mexican joint during my honeymoon. I ate mexican for supper in LA and mexican again for quick bites at the airport during flight transfers. By the end of my honeymoon, I was already conspiring in my mind how I would be able to convice LR that the destination for our 2nd honeymoon MUST be Mexico!!

failure?
Haha.... I cheated. I bought this Tortilla pack from the supermarket to re-create my Mexican fest. The pack came with the tortillas, marinade and salsa. I had to buy the fresh ingredients like avocado, tomatoes, tasty cheese, chicken and lettuce.

success?
It brought back wonderful memories of my honeymoon and the mexican food. Of course, it was no where near what I had tasted in Lake Tahoe. But it really did not matter, to me the meal was as good as all the supposedly more authentic mexican restaurants I went to in Singapore.