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.

hot cross buns

Why?

I spent 11 years of my schooling days in an all-girls catholic mission school so subconciously, I've always known at the back of my mind that these buns were eaten sometime during Good Friday and Easter. Then, being young and greedy of course, I was only interested in the eating! Almost 10 years on, am still greedy, but thankfully, I've matured to baking and more importantly, made the choice to follow Jesus.

I spent a good 2 weeks sourcing for the 'best' recipe and those two weeks were also spent reflecting on the significance of the history of these buns.

According to wikipedia, these buns are eaten on Good friday with the cross standing as a symbol of the cruxifiction.

What does the cruxifiction mean to me?

1. I am a precious child of God that is so deeply loved. I ball my eyes out each time I watch The Passion of Christ. I simply cannot fathom how much He was willing to suffer for me!
2.I am a sinner. I needed and will always need the cross to remind me to repent and ask for His forgiveness because I have fallen short.
3.I have a purpose and mission in life. My purpose is to glorify Him and because of that, my mission is to lead a life that would be an example of Christ and to go to the ends of the earth with His gospel to make Him known widely and deeply to the nations.

Success:
The very first bread I made that rose. Thank God for that because He reminded me that while He was cruxified on Good Friday, He rose again on the third day, Easter day!

Failure:
Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:8

pandan cake

Why?
1.LR doesn't really like cupcakes or muffins. He prefers airy cakes like pandan cakes.
2.I spotted some un-used pandan leaves in my fridge.
3.Green is my favourite colour!

Any excuse to bake in my kitchen :)

Failure:
In the midst of weighing, mixing and stirring, I couldn't find my pandan essence. It was an optional item on the recipe, but it did say that it would result in a very pale green colour(mine came out just yellow, as seen from above). I also killed my food processor. I was blending my pandan leaves with the tool and it suddenly 'smoked' and died. Thank God it managed to cough up 2 pathetic tsp of pandan juice. Honestly in the end, the pandan in the cake was almost non-existent. I, in fact made a butter sponge cake.

P/S: My pandan essence was found in my mom's place. We did grocery shopping together and it was left in her bags.

Success:
It had an almost 'juicy' but not wet bite to the cake. Somehow, it was still air-y and light. I liked it alot. Most pandan cakes that are sold commercially tend to be very dry. So I was pleasantly surprised by the contrast.

mushroom soup with country rolls

Why?
A few weeks back, there was this Border's 40% discount voucher circulating and I managed to convince LR that it would be such a waste not to use it to extend the library in my kitchen :) I decided that if I do want to master the art of baking bread, I need a book JUST devoted to bread making and nothing else.
Of course, soups are the perfect complement to bread. I decided to try making mushroom soup(Jamie Oliver's book - Dinners).

Success:
Sigh... not much :( But it's a pretty picture eh?

Failure:
The soup was too oily. The problem is when I cook from Jamie's book, sometimes the ingredients measurements are too vague for my liking. Exactly what is a good knob of butter? So anyway, my version of 'a good knob of butter' resulted in the soup being too oily, I was also overly generous with the lemon juice to 'kick up the flavour' as quoted from the book. My soup ended up sour and oily. Miles from what a mushroom soup should be. I also couldn't puree my mushroom soup as my food processer 'died' on me :(

The country rolls were a tragedy too... hard and totally inedible. I discovered it was because my yeast 'died'. I came to that conclusion from a side experiment I performed. I took a little of yeast from the same bottle that I used and added tepid water and sugar. If the yeast was alive, it would bubble and look sponge-y. But it didn't!! I checked the expiry date, and there was still about a year left. Not trusting this brand anymore.... Also am totally dejected on bread making.

Medley of CNY goodies

Why?
I'm not young anymore, and I have to admit that I would eventually become an 'auntie'...Sigh. Yes, so a huge part of adopting that title, is to participate in the annual frenzy of Chinese New Year (CNY) by baking pineapple tarts, giving out ang pows and marketing for food early to avoid the ridiculous price increase of fresh produce etc. To prepare myself for 'auntie-hood', I should and MUST master the art of tackling CNY. My medley of CNY goodies included Chocolate Chip cookies( from She bakes and she cooks), pineapple tarts( from another blogger, but forgot whom) and finally Mars cornflakes( Nigella's FEAST book).

Success:
The Mars cornflakes were a huge hit with everyone and it was so easy to make. But making them really tested my speed in the kitchen. I had to spoon all the goo-ey cornflakes into the individual paper mouldings fast before it hardens up. These fabulous goodies had the most fantastic combination of chewy-ness and crunchy-ness. I would definitely be making these again.

Failure:
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the easiest/fastest to make and 10 being insanely difficult/longest to make. Pineapple tarts registers with a score of 1 million!!! I am not joking! These goodies are just pure madness to craft. Making the homemade pineapple jam, requires leg and arm strength of an army. I am already exhausted recalling the hardwork in the kitchen to come up with them. Possibly the journey for pineapple tarts has ended in year 2007. I will gladly disqualify myself from 'auntie-hood' if making pineapple tarts is a major criterion.
Ok, moving on to the cookies. They came out rock hard!! Gosh..I don't know what happened! But I was just too tired to care after the pineapple tarts! Haha....

CNY or auntie-hood.... I am just not ready for it.

Angelhair pasta with Seafood in Prawn bisque

Why?
I had the most delicious Crayfish pasta at Miss Clarity Cafe, that greatly inspired me to whip up a similiar dish in my own kitchen. There was this distinct sweetness from the broth that the pasta was soaked in that really got me all excited. I just had to experiment as to whether the sweetness came from the prawn bisque or the cream or both!

Success:
I didn't use Crayfish, and bought huge scallops, prawns and fish fillet instead. I also opted to use Angelhair pasta, as it would be perfect to 'soak' up the flavours from the broth . I will include the receipe, since it's my very own and there would be absolutely no 'plagarism' here :) But I have to clarify, that I cook absolutely by instincts when I don't have a receipe. So you have to bear with me, if I just simply state - to taste!

Ingredients:
Garlic - 5 cloves
Onion - 1 medium
Bacon -2 streaks
Scallops
Prawns with shells on
Fish fillet
fresh tomotoes -2
canned whole tomatoes - 1 can
tomato paste - to taste
double cream - to taste
salt, pepper and sugar - to taste

Prepare some prawn bisque by de-shelling the prawns(including head) and boil in some water till reduced to this bright orange colour that usually at the same time fills my entire house with prawn vapour.

Fry the thinly sliced garlic, onion and bacon till fragrant. Add in the tomatoes(canned, paste and fresh) and prawn bisque to boil. Simmer for about 1/2hr and then add in the seafood with all the seasoning to taste with the double cream.

Only stir in the pasta when you are absolutely sure you're going to eat it within the next 5 min, or you would end up with mee sua pasta :)

Simply divine.........

Failure:
I tried this receipe twice. The first time, I added some herbs(basil) and it did snatch away the sweetness of the pasta. Maybe I'm a purist in my flavour. The 2nd time when I tried, I held back the herbs, and in my opinion, it was a more focused and distinct flavour of sweetness from the seafood...

Fresh Pasta

Why?
LR gave me a pasta machine as a Christmas present last year and of course I have to put it to good use :) And one of my occasional nothing-better-to-do-but-just-go-to-Phoon Huat- trips, I saw Semolina flour and bought a packet of it as I sort of remembered reading from somewhere that it makes yummy fresh pasta, so just bought it for an in- case- I-am -in-the-mood- to make pasta moment in the kitchen.

Success:
It was so much fun!!! I searched the internet for usage of Semolina flour and pasta, found a receipe for Ravioli, but I didn't have any stuffing, so decided to just make simple Fetcuccine. I am definitely getting my girfriends over to make some fresh pasta in future.

Failure:
I think the Semolina flour I bought was a quite coarse. I might need to stick to Italian 00 flour or hunt for a finer semolina flour.

lavender cupcakes

why?
To use the lavender I bought from the States of course! It was so exciting to see lavender sold at the herbs section in the supermarket in the midst of all the other usual suspects like thyme, basil etc. I wished lavender was as common in the States as it was in Singapore!

Success:
I had to store my lavender with sugar days in advance to use the sugar to make the cupcakes. The recipe only requires lavender sugar and it is optional to use the actual herbs for decorations. So honestly, if I wanted to 'milk' the lavender, I would just keep making lavender sugar! A marvelous investment. The fragrance from the herbs infused into the sugar so easily and I insisted that visitors to my kitchen must not leave without getting a whiff of the subtle aroma. The taste of lavender in cupcakes really draws you away from the thought of eating the sinful cupcakes and convince you that you've entered into an aromatherapy and health nut zone.

Failure:
I got too excited with mixing in my icing colour. So instead of a pale lilac for my frosting, I ended up with a Barney looking colour! Hahaa... Ok, ALOT less colouring in future.

stuff baked onions

why?:

I asked myself the same question as to why I want to make this dish when I totally detest onions! The thing is, I do use them quite extensively in my cooking, but I would only eat the the onions when are out of sight or cooked so long that they have become almost transparent and have already lost their taste. I know... the taste was just transfered into the dish right? I don't know, that's just me and onions. Yeah, it's a complicated relationship. I would definitely call it a love-hate relationship with onions. But anyway back to the dish..I made it because simply because LR loves onions and so does his mom. I was really happy that I could actually get excited making it because it just shows that my love for cooking is greater than eating. That revelation was important as if cooking is a huge part of my life, it should be align to my values. I believe in a community and we don't exist just for ourselves. And cooking doesn't just involve me! It includes the people I'm cooking for as well. If the focus was just eating, it would be too much of a self activity and where's the joy there?

Success:

I had to rely on LR on the taste and he loved it! Of course it's onions, bacon and cheese. We can't really go wrong with that combo :)

Failure:

It looks like such a simply dish but it was tough to prepare. After boiling the onions, I had to remove the centre to stuff them with cheese and onions. However, the onions were quite soft and perhaps my knife wasn't sharp enough, but it was madness trying to remove the centre without yanking out the core of the onion to leave a hole at the bottom! I had 4 onions and it took me 10mins on each one! Wonder if I could remove the centre before boiling them? Oh the other thing was, I was too generous with my cheese and it looked like onion gratin.

what's left salad

why? :

The birth of this salad is the consequence of making the chocolate brulee (see last post). I had to use 16 egg yolks for the dessert and I didn't want to throw away all the egg white. So I decided to scramble the egg whites on top of the salad. The strips of meat were left over from yesterday's roast chicken dinner. Ok, least you start to think that the greens are left overs too and cheapen the dish through and through. I better qualify that the greens are bought the morning itself and it's a mix of spinach and rocket.

Success:

I didn't waste food!! You can't go wrong with salad and the thought of eating egg whites in such a huge quantity put me in this Hollywood mood. For those who don't know, many many celebs eat egg whites and swear by it in their diet :) So much for left overs!

Failures:

Can't think of any!

chocolate brulee

Why? : (decided that this is important too)

I'm not a fan of cream brulee, but after watching Jamie teach the kids how to make this dessert on one of his school dinners episode and how it made every child in the room laugh and smile to themselves and licking every bit of the dessert, I told myself 'I want to make people smile too!'

Success:

Looks like a giant cream brulee!

Failure:

I forgot to buy small individual glasses or containers and had to settle for a big Pyrex dish. So what happened was that while serving the dessert the middle part didn't firm up enough so it flowed... sigh. But thank God for microwaves as a few minutes in the amazing machine did it! Whew... However with this dish I'm not so sure if I want to make it again. Firstly, it's got gigantic amounts of sugar and egg yolks(16 in total). Secondly, if anything is chocolate, it has to be dark, but it's probably not possible with this dish as heart-stopping amount of double cream and yolks would make the darkest chocolate undark ...

flour crusted chicken

Success:

I love surprises! And watching people being surprised too.. LR and myself invited some guest over for dinner and what better way to begin the evening than with a surprise? To be honest, I was quite worried myself when the ugly block of baked flour sat in the middle of the table. Even though I knew what was inside, the anxiety of what it would actually look like and whether it would be cooked developed into a suspense building surprise for me too. When the chicken was let loose..my sense of smell was gently tickled by the steamy aroma of sage and lemon. The meat was so tender and I loved the texture of the meat which reminded me of stewed chicken without the thick gravy.

Failure:

The taste was very subtle and I actually did enjoy the change of not having flavours robbing of the natural taste of chicken meat. If I do decide to make this dish again, I would definitely season the bird with more salt or whip up a complementary gravy.

sunflower cookies

Success:
They are simply so gorgeous!! I just had to put the flower next to the cookies to snap a shot :) It was quite hard work with the mixing, rolling, cutting, putting the choc chips in the centre gingerly and finally slashing the dough to enhance the petals look.

Failure:
Taste wise, was just so-so and the cookie being quite thick and big reminded me of a hard cake.

ngoh hiang

Success:
It looks like the real deal! Actually I made the fillings and LR did the wrapping, and what a good job! The fillings were still juicy while the outside was crispy. The prawn, pork and chestnuts were left chunky due to laziness after the hard work of cleaning it, but surprisingly it added more texture and flavour as you can taste each individual ingredient rather than a paste.

Failure:
The skin is really quite salty, and I would definitely not use any salt or soy for seasoning in the filling and the skin should be wiped off with a damp towel several times to get rid of the salt. Also it's not easy to wrap tightly these ngoh hiangs, and when frying the 'poofed' up like puffer fishes, though when cooled it went back to what it should look like, but I felt that perhaps not wrapping them tighter in could have compromised on the juiciness of the fillings. So my ngoh hiang could have been juicier!

lemon sponge cake

Success:
It was light and fluffy. Buttermilk in cakes is a MUST! The recipe yielded 2 cakes and I couldn't help but think about how huge Sara Lee's profits are! My ingredients costs are barely $5 for 2 cakes, but of course I am once again reminded by LR that my labour is not cheap (so sweet). But honestly, I wouldn't call it labour at all, more like a hobby or love for it :)

Failure:
I should reduce the sugar significantly and I would definitely whip in more lemon zest and juice. Perhaps I should even do a variety of citrus fruits ( orange, lemon.. can't think of any at this moment) I also wonder if I did put lemon slices at the bottom of the cake tin and bake would that be too wet? I'm always trying to improve on my presentation and progress from this home-made look where I can get away with anything ugly.

Reflections:
Interestingly enough, yesterday I was watching an episode of Jamie and there was this whole issue of simplicity and sometimes we complicate our cooking too much. Hopefully this principle of simplicity does not just translate into my cooking but with my life too that I can be simple and contented in Christ.

" I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound" Phillipians 4

honey wholemeal bread rolls

Success:
The first bread I baked, that is like bread! My previous attempts resulted in either too heavy, too yeasty tasting or didn't rise bread. I toasted the rolls for breakfast and smeared on cream chesse, and the honey from the bread and rustic texture of the oats and wholemeal made my breakfast this morning so special and gasp! Complete. I'm all ready to be geared up for work :)

Failure:
I didn't read the recipe clearly and I was actually suppose to let flour, yeast and honey to triple in size after proving before adding in all the other recipes. I will definitely attempt to bake this again and hope after this lesson there'll be more fluff in the rolls. Also, since the bread used very little oil, I should flour the baking sheet more as the rolls were quite reluctant to leave the sheet.

AM cake - banana chocolate cake

Success:
It was the day that I decided to take a step of faith - baking a birthday cake. Birthdays are funny, some people want to forget it others want to celebrate it. So baking a birthday cake for 2 friends and bringing the cake to a posh restaurant (in a plate and with a cake box that doesn't fit!), could be potentially setting myself up for a A LOT of trouble. But if you never step out of the boat, you would never know if you could walk on water. So what was the verdict from the 2 birthday babies? They loved it! They ate the left-overs 2 days later and SMSed me to tell me that it's as yummy. So sweet... think I scored! (one of them was watching soccer) My take? It was so moist and the freshness of the bananas(I decided against cooking them) with the chocolate was an absolute perfect match. I was totally clueless about how the cake would look, but I really just went 'bananas' with my sliced bananas.

Failure:
I was too eager to slap on the whip cream to sandwhich the cakes with bananas that I forgot to let the cake cool down significantly first. It was a rescue operation in the lab as the cream started to melt and pour down from the sides like rain. Panicking I began to soak up the cream with kitchen towels ( with LR's mom looking on with a very worried expression). Thank God I managed to stop the meltdown and it really was a blessing in disguised, as without the whip cream the cake was light and even after a hearty Italian dinner, everyone at the table finished their slice of the cake :) Hope it wasn't to be polite but that it was really worth putting on more calories.

watermelon salad

Success:
This is my 2nd time whipping up this yummy salad and again it turned out awesome. This is quick, easy and cheap (using my mint plant). This time round I decided to put in a bit of effort into the presentation as well and it looks gorgeous !

Failure:
Before I make this I should check if anyone doesn't eat feta, olives and even parsley! LR doesn't touch the feta and olives but it would compromise with the taste if I had ommited them out.

Here goes my bit of reflection -
For our plans to be fufilled or even turn out great, it doesn't mean that everything about the plans is according to our liking. Sometimes God has a funny way of fufilling His promises and making His plans great. It could that in the process of His will, we encounter some bumps and difficulties or even disgusting yucky moments(like feta or olives, for some) but if we trust in the end result and know it would be awesome (like yummy watermelon salad), why stumble over the little bit of moments? Another way of looking at it is, if we see feta and olives as inconviences and if these inconviences could make someone else happier (I have friends who are obessed with olives) that's love. I would want to be able to love above myself anyday.

peanut butter cupcakes

Success:
The use of yogurt in the cupcakes made them so fluffly and chomping them down while they were still warm was an absolute bliss.

Failure:
There was a nuclear explosion in my lab! The cupcakes flowed like larva crazily in the oven while baking. Each one turned out ugly and likened to a has-been volcano eruption. I really didn't want to take a picture, but thank God the middle ones in the tray had not much space to 'explode' except upwards, so I had 3 decently 'normal' ones to present them sheepishly here. Perhaps I was too generous and overly excited with the use of yogurt. So should I compromise with looks for fluff? I'll try again but this time using tall muffin cases to give the 'explosion' more direction. :)