All This Happiness, How Can I Contain Thee?

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I abandoned my day job and started dabbling in the kitchen only 15 months ago. But at times it felt as if I've been cooking forever.. Especially during those days where my fingers go numb over julienning carrots to painful feet. As if it has lost its charm and I'm just stuck doing chores.

But here's a toast to a year that is soon going to pass me by. A year full of cooking, at times with failure, and even more stubbornness to try again. 
Here's a toast to a year of being a grown woman, a wife and a chef in the making. A year that's full of hardships, but more laughters than I could ever imagine. 

Here's a toast to a year that taught me not to plan anything, because nothing ever run its proper course here, a year that forced me to embrace patience, no matter how much it eludes me. 

Looking back, I have come a long way from one who knows nothing about cooking to one who purposely ignores a good recipe. Pride always comes first before a downfall, so they say. But hey, as long as H doesn't complain.. I don't complain. 

Here are the highlights of my culinary journey.. the skills, tricks and secrets I've gathered along the way.

* The art of making the perfect caramel. Thanks to David Leibovitz's extensive notes, I've come a long way and make chocolate caramel tart and flan. Merci David! 

* The much loved butter chicken from Bee Yinn Low. It's Indian yet reminded me of my Singapore home. No one has ever complained about it. In fact, a copy of her book is en route to Toulouse as I type this, one of many presents from H. After all, if I'm going to educate my in laws about my heritage this coming Lunar New Year, I need all the help I can get! 

* The tricks of trussing chicken artfully, thanks to foul-mouthed Anthony Bourdain.

* He also taught me how to make garlic confit, that to this day become the ubiquitous ingredient in my fridge. It has oomph and sweetness and depth that raw garlic can't do. From slabbing that over toast bread to marinating meat to making a dip. Muchos gracias!


* The secret of yellow-ing the egg yolk. The egg yolk in Angola can never serve as a proper eggwash. I learn that all you need to do is add a little white vinegar to remedy that.

* After trying so many cake recipes, I learn that yogurt makes a very moist cake. Much preferred to substituting eggs with vegetable oil. And I hate icing, but the moment I heard about streusel, I fell in love. Yogurt muffin + streusel topping = bestfriends. Thanks K!

* I got my hands on herbs. Thyme on roast chicken, cilantro over ham and cheese toast, mint on cucumber salad, sage on pizza and pasta, bouquet garni on french stews. I love you herbs!

* The tricks of smooth baby bottoms egg. I watched many video tutorials over this but first of all, I learn to make a properly boiled egg from Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa. Grey ringed yolks, be gone! I also learn that a room-temperature eggs that are few days old make the best hard-boiled eggs. 10 mins is all you need.

* The secret of making the perfect poached eggs, our most favorite egg-do, every single time. Vinegar and shallow pan with cover. Thanks to Simply Recipes.

* Flour and butter as the most basic thickener, also known as roux. 

* I have kneaded many doughs this year: pizza dough, short pastry dough, bread dough, chinese pancake dough, and all sorts of dough. My proudest moments are one where my dough turns well. The ingredients seem to know whether they are going to love each other or hate each other. My palm and fingers learn to recognize when to stop and when you need to knead the dough a little bit more, and more.. I hope I've picked up that graceful twist of wrist that a seasoned kneader always do, unconsciously. At the very least, I've surprised my Tia who's the family bread maker. This Asian girl has a pair of strong arms and even stronger back bone.

* And the best part, I experiment cooking with alcohol. Baileys cake, cognac truffles, rum raisin cake, beer can chicken, roast chicken with rum, fish scampi with white wine sauce, coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon, and many more. Rum is unobtrusive, beer adds weight and wine carries that nice tang saltiness (hold the salt, please). I can't wait to get into stout, port and mixing cocktails in my kitchen. My guests need drinks too, don't they? 

That's all folks. 12 worth keeping secrets, one for each month. 
I am giddy for 2012 and a whole new bag of tricks I shall unearth. 

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Cheers to the future.

Be Still My Heart

This deserves an immediate entry although I can do laundry, wash dishes and return to the computer and still the photo is uploading. Anyway.. I am short of opening the door and screaming to the world about my wonderful, creamy, smooth flan.

I never realize it, but hey, I'm good. I'm that good. Ahem.

Well, either that or I'm armed with beginners luck! Wahooo.. Anyhoo, the result is the same.. teeheeee ;)

I have been bracing myself to make a flan. Afterall, my mom-in-law makes a really really wonderful creamy and smooth flan. Many people has tried making flan, but none that satisfied H. "I felt like I'm eating vanilla custard. Too much." or "The caramel is burnt" or "This is not flan. It doesn't move when you shake it.." Or in another words, his mom's is the best!

I learned to trust H's opinion, because (a) he practically grew up in the kitchen and (b) he has a very sensitive palate. He's one of those people who can tell the ingredients from just a teaspoon-ful. It's like watching the taste test in Masterchef kitchen. It's not easy to please (and fool) his tongue. And he's not hesitant to grow hungry rather than eating something that's distasteful. Imagine when I first brought him to meet my parents.. hah! even the full cream milk is too watery, not creamy at all.

But guess what he told me just now.. "I think yours is on the same level as my mom. It's really good, mon coeur" Wahoooo... Yippedeedoodah!!

Original recipe is from all recipe here and I upped the sugar, as per recommendation.

Creamy Caramel Flan (makes one 9-inch flan, but I used 10 inch mold here)

Ingredients:
* 1 cup sugar
* 4 eggs

* 1 can condensed milk

* 1 3/4 cup water
* 1/8 tsp salt
* 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

How to: 
* Pre-heat oven to 175 C.

* In a heavy bottom pan, over medium heat, spread the sugar evenly and let it caramelized. Do NOT disturb it until you've started to see them turning brown by the edges. You can see the full instruction with photo here.

* In a large bowl, whisk the eggs. Add in the water, condensed milk, salt & vanilla essence. Mix until well incorporate.

* Pour the caramel mixture into an unbuttered pan, followed by the egg-milk mixture. Lay the pan inside a larger pan/pyrex (i.e. stacking up the two pans) and pour some hot water into the larger pan till half-covering the inner pan.

* Bake for 50 mins or so, until knife inserted in the middle custard comes out clean. Take out and let it cool.

* Chill in fridge at least for 4 hrs before serving. Don't forget to turn it upside down! ;)

One Fine Day

This is what I do to make sure I got everything on my wish list! 

(1) Toasted bread with ham & cheese, sprinkled with cilantro

(2) Roast pork ribs with tamarind and rock sugar

(3) Fish Scampi with dill, over a bed of lemon & red chili aglio olio

(4) Herb Brown Rice with mints, coriander, shallots and toasted shredded coconuts

(5) Vietnamese Spring roll with Prawn, served with Nuoc Cham

(6) Fish & Prawn Tom Yum Soup

[n.b. the sketchy internet connection doesn't allow me to write a long post. So recipes to follow..]


[n.b.2. It worked!! Every single item.. :) ]

Chicken Empanadas

The chinese has dumplings, the Portuguese/Indonesians/Angolans have pastel. The Spaniards have empanadas.

I made this little cuties for Christmas entree and boy, were they delicious!!

It took quite a lot of work, nothing too difficult, and if you spread the work over few days, it is very doable.

Recipe courtesy of Crumbly Cookie.

Day 1: The filling
Ingredients:

* 3 large chicken thighs, 3 large chicken drumsticks. Skin on, pat dry.
* 1 tsp salt
* 1/4 tsp black pepper
* 1/4 tsp chilli powder
* 2 large onions, diced
* 2 large cloves garlic, minced
* 2 bay leaves
* 1/3 cup diced chorizo
* 1/4 cup raisins
* 1/2 cup dry white wine (I used chardonnay)
* 1/2 cup chicken broth

How to:
* Season the dried chicken with salt, pepper & chilli powder. Heat up oil in a deep skillet with cover, cook the chicken (skin side down). Do not disturb, touch & turn, until brown. Turn to other side. Once brown on both sides, set aside.

* Onto the same skillet, add the onion, garlic, bay leaves. Cook until onions are soft, before adding the chorizo. Let it cook for 1 min, then add the raisins, wine & chicken broth. Let it boil, while continuing to stir and scrapping the bottom. Add back the chicken and cover. Cook for 30 mins, and turn the chicken only once.

* After 30 mins, the juice of the chicken + broth + wine mixture should be thick and creamy. Turn off fire, and transfer chicken et all to a clean plate to cool down. Once it's cool enough to handle, peel off the chicken skin, de-bone and then roughly diced the meat.

* Transfer meat, sauce et all into a container. Covered and store in fridge for the next day. Fight the temptation to eat it, I know it's really good.

Day 2: Doing the dough
Ingredients:
* 4.5 C all purp. flour
* 3 tsp salt
* 227 gr of butter, cold
* 2 large eggs
* 2/3 cup ice water
* 2 tbsp white vinegar

How to:
* In a large bowl, mix in the flour & salt. Using your hand, incorporate the butter until it turns crumbly (pea size).

* In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, water & vinegar. Add into the flour mixture until just incorporated. The mixture will be extremely wet.

* Onto a lightly floured surface, knead the dough a little. Gently. Cut into 4 of equal portion. Keep on freezer for at least 1 hour before you start working on it.

Day 2/3/4/ .. : after freezing the dough for at least 1 hour
* Preheat oven 200 C

* Prepare the egg wash: 1 egg + 1 tbsp water + a pinch of salt. Whisk in a small bowl.

* Work in batches. Take out 1/4 of the dough from your freezer. Mold into a ball and flatten it. Cut into 8 pieces of equal size. Flatten each piece, scoop 1.5 tsp of filling, and fold.

* Use back of fork to close it. And brush with egg wash.

* Bake for about 20-25 mins till golden brown.

See you next year!

Pardon for my absence. Internet is a bitch these days. It took me over an hour to post my gateau au citron. During that time, I played with my hair before my biannual trip to hair dresser. It's long enough to do a fishtail braid now.

The idea is very simple, really, but it requires very nimble fingers. My hair was so layered that I can't do a single braid. Two is needed, and now I look like that woman in asterix and obelix. Bummer!

Anyway, I suppose this will be my last post for 2011. I certainly welcome 2012!

I need sea, sand and salt in my hair pleaseee..

Gateau au Citron, ala Joy of Baking

The purest pleasure is one that is simple and without pretension. 

Gateau au Citron, with thanks to Joy of Baking

Ingredients:

* 1 cup (200 gr)  sugar

* 230 gr butter, room temperature

* 4 eggs

* lemon zest of a large lemon

* 1 tsp vanilla

* 2 C all purp. flour (T55)

* 2 tsp baking powder

* 1/4 tsp salt

* 1/4 C lemon juice

* 1 C icing sugar ~ I ran out of icing sugar and tried to made my own by grinding white sugar. Failed!!

* 2 tbsp lemon juice

How to:

* [Preparing the cake] Preheat oven to 175C. Butter a 9-inch round pan (I used a 10-inch) and line the bottom with parchment paper.

* In a bowl, whisk butter and sugar until the mixture turns pale. Add in the egg one by one, whisk well before adding the next egg. Add in the vanilla & the lemon zest.

* In a separate bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder, salt.

* Add in the dry ingredients into the wet mixture along with lemon juice. Mix only until it's incorporated.

* Bake for 30 mins or so, until toothpick comes out clean. Remove from oven and let it cool down.

* [Preparing the icing] mix all ingredients until it turns a smooth paste. Add in more lemon juice or water to your desired thickness.

Day 23: Tempe Goreng Manis Pedas

Nope, I did not forget this challenge.

This is my lunch today.
Ayam Suwir Cabe Ijo (green chilli shredded chicken), stir fry green beans and tempe goreng manis pedas (sweet spicy fried tempeh!). Yahooo.. 

Obviously H ate only 1 tempeh, but I can't be bothered. 

I can live with tahu and tempe (tofu and tempeh) alone! 

Tempe Goreng Manis Pedas (Sweet Spicy Fried Tempeh, serve 2)

Ingredients:

* 1 packet of tempeh, sliced the long way 1 cm thick. 

* oil to fry 

* 4 shallots, sliced thinly

* 1 clove garlic, minced

* 1 red chilli, deseed and sliced thinly

* 1/4 cup water

* 3 tsp sugar

* 1 tsp kecap manis (sweet soya sauce)

* salt

How to:

* Fry the tempeh sticks. Drain and set aside.

* Into a non stick pan, toss in the shallots, garlic & red chilli till fragrant. Add in the water, sugar, kecap manis and salt. Let it cook uncovered until it turn into a thick, sticky syrup. 

* Toss in the tempeh, making sure that all tempeh sticks are covered in the sticky syrup. Plate them and serve immediately.