Nama chocolate wannabe (ala Royce)

With a tub of valrhona chocolate and cocoa powder to clear, I decided to make Nama chocolate made popular by Royce. This one of course is far from the original but to me it is delicious enough and true bliss especially for chocolate lovers ! It wasn't difficult to make but you have to fast with the Singapore weather, otherwise you will get a pretty messy fingers. To me this chocolate is more like a chocolate truffle, main ingredients are chocolate (good quality please) and cream .. and this is the end product !!!

Pure indulgence !!!

Durian Puffs ... 2nd take (updated with choux pastry recipe)

My second attempt of durian puffs with a different choux pastry recipe. My first attempt was this one and I wasn't really satisfied with the choux pastry although it was ok. They kinda flattened on me after cooling :-( So I tried with another recipe taken from Small Cakes by Roger Pizey and it turned out great. The puffs kept their shape after cooling. I find the puffs are perfect with ice-cream fillings. Maybe I will do that once I can find some space in my freezer *LOL*

This time round, I didn't really have any particular recipe for the fillings. It was just plenty of durian pulp and some whipped cream. Mixed them together and chill it before serving. Make sure you get good grade durians. This is best served chilled also you can even drizzle some chocolate sauce or melted choc to go with it .. yumms

Here is the choux pastry recipe which I used for the durian puffs.

Profiteroles (Choux Pastry)
adapted from Small Cakes from Fondant Fancies to Florentines by Roger Pizey

Ingredients
150ml water
60g butter (I used salted butter)
2 tsp caster sugar
a good pinch of salt
100g bread flour
3 eggs, 55g each whisked - original stated 2-3 eggs, if you are using bigger eggs, you may need less than 3

Method
1. Place water, butter, sugar and salt in a pan and bring to boil making sure butter is melted
2. Add flour and stir with wooden spoon till the dough comes away easily from the side of the pan (you need to cook the flour fully, so try not to hurry)
3. Place dough in a mixer and while beating, add enough eggs slowly to make it suitable for piping
4. Cover dough with cling wrap and leave it to rest in the fridge till it cools
5. Fill piping bag fitted with a large nozzle with cooled dough
6. Preheat oven to 240C
7. Pipe a choux evenly on tray (size is up to you)
8. Place tray on the middle shelf of the oven and turn off the oven, leave it for 15mins
9. Turn oven back on at 180C and bake for about 20-30mins (Do not open the door untill nearly cooked or it will flatten - I took it out when the top turned brown)
10. Remove from the oven and turn out onto a wire rack to cool

Curry-in-a-hurry

Being a FTWM and having to prepare dinner on weekdays can be a real challenge sometimes. I am always open to recipes that are easy to prepare and fast. So by the recommendation from friends, I decided to get Rachael Ray's 365 book and this was the first dish that I made. To me it tasted very much like Japanese curry and very kids' friendly.

I used my trusty thermal pot and cooked this in the morning before I left for work and by the time I reached home, I had a piping hot dish waiting to be served ;-) I still have another 362 to try out ..(actually I have done some other dishes but didn't get a chance to take a picture of them) :-P and pretty happy that my kids are eating them with no complains !

Sardine with chillies

I don't know what to call this dish. This is my all-time favourite easy meal. However, I cannot make this very often because my hubby is prone to gout. My dad used to make this when we were young and I think his tastes better than my mom's *lol* We usually make this when we have plenty of bread (to get rid off) or when mom's not cooking. I love to have this with french loaves .. yummy.

I know that some people don't like sardines because of the smell. I love sardine including the smell *LOL* but adding freshly squeezed lime juice is a good way to get rid of it (be generous). Chillies are optional if you don't like spicy, but for me personally it will not taste as good without them.

Ingredients:
1 tall can sardines, mashed (I like Ayam brand)
1 japanese cucumber, cut into small cubes
1 medium red onion, sliced thinly or cut into small cubes
2 red fresh chillies, thinly sliced, remove seeds if don't want spicy (optionally)
juice from 10 small limes (or more)

Method:
1. Mix them all up

Dump everything on the mashed sardines

Lovely juicey limes

Serve this with hot french loaves .. or sliced bread if you like :-)

First fondant cakes ...

I finally took up a challenge to do a large fondant cake (large as in anything bigger than 6inch in size :-P) for my baby brother's engagement. Time is always an issue for me, after coming back from the holidays, I had very little time to prepare - either I was bogged down with work or simply too tired. Initially, I was very sure that I will have enough time to prepare marshmallow fondant, but deep inside I know I need some contingency plan and true enough the store bought fondant saved me. Another issue was with the flowers that I ordered for one of the cake. Unfortunately, I underestimated the time and was not able to get them in time, so took out my backup design and came out with this. This cake was a gift from the guy side to the girl. Pretty couple aren't they :-)

And another one, which the girl ordered for me *LOL* Where's the surprise huh ..

Personally, I like the lilies better :-) On top of the cakes, he also requested for a cuppy set .. well this was easy to make. I used my usually American Chocolate Cake for the cuppies and vanilla frosting .. the flowers again were store bought.

Overall, I enjoyed making them although the rolling and covering the cake with fondant was full of stress .. I was soo scared that the fondant will tear during the transfer, but fortunately that didn't happen. I am now more confident handling it and maybe who knows, I will be a bit more adventurous with it.

Happy viewing !

Hot hot dish .. from Urumqi

These are some old food photos that I took during my work trip to Xinjiang. That time, my photo taking skill was still in infancy stage and I managed to took some photos of the food I had. This is only like half of it. There were alot of other stuffs that I did not take because I was just too shy *LOL* The best thing about the food there is the hot pepper that they use, man ..it's hot hot hot but best thing is that it doesn't burn your tummy but more of your lips. The red pepper if I am not wrong is know as 'mala' it is a bit like sichuan pepper but the taste is not exactly the sichuan pepper that I get here. It's different.

We had the pilaf, hand made noodles and kebab for one of our lunch in a local food stall. This is very middle eastern influenced as the owners are khasgar descendants. Loaded with lamb.

This is delicious and spicy. It's fish and we get to choose fresh from the restaurant.

these were taken from street eating place. It's clean of course and they have a fantastic array of food

Grilled sotong

I love this chicken dish. This is hardcore mala peppers. It's just shredded steamed chicken with the hot sauce. Yummy but have to bear with the heat for awhile *LOL* Any kind soul out there who knows how to make this??
This is at a restaurant. My lychee dish in my earlier entry was actually inspired from this place.

I love xinjiang. There are soo many places that I can eat because majority of them are Muslims. I also had a chance to eat Peking duck there. It was really lovely. If you are a fruit lover, there are soo many lovely fruits like donut peach, hami melons, watermelons .. lots and lots of them. I wish that I day I can bring my family there for a holiday but I have to pick up speaking Mandarin first *LOL*

Easy crab meat patties

I got a pack of 500g crab meat in my freezer and it has been sitting there for quite a while. Inspired by a suggestion by a mom from a forum that I frequent about making patties with fish paste as finger food, I decided to give it a shot with crab meat instead. This is a simple dish with very minimal ingredients. You can use your favourite seafood meat and add more ingredients like mix vege to make it more wholesome.

I wasn't sure whether my kids would like it but surprisingly they finished it all :-) If you want a thicker coating, coat the patty with egg and breadcrumbs 2x before frying it. This will give the patty a nice thick, even coating that looks like those frozen patties you get at the supermarket. Do give it a try.

Ingredients
500g crab meat (you can use fish or cuttlefish paste or a mix of each of them)
2 medium potatoes, steam and mashed
1 egg, lightly beaten
1-2T corn flour or AP flour
salt & pepper to taste
enough oil for frying

(Coating)
enough breadcrumbs
egg, lightly beaten
flour

Method
1. Mix crab meat and mashed potatoes throughly
2. Season with salt & pepper to taste
3. Add egg and flour and mix till well blended
4. Shape into lemon size balls and flatten it to patties
5. Chill patties in the refrigerator for about 2hrs
6. Place breadcrumbs, egg and flour each into 3 individual plates
7. Heat up oil in the pan
8. Coat patty with flour, followed by dipping into the lightly beaten egg
9. Coat with breadcrumbs, dip into egg again and coat with breadcrumbs a second time
10.Fry patty till golden brown
11.Serve hot with lemon wedges

Enjoy !!