May Daring Baker's Challenge

I am really really sorry that I couldn't enjoy this challenge as much as I'm sure I would if I only had the time. This has been a hell of a month. First, a very very long exam period, and next, a scant 5 days after my last paper, a backpacking trip to Taiwan. While very exciting, I am by nature a person who likes her appointments spaced out, and not all crammed together. So suffice it to say, this is not the best month for a delicate, time-consuming, elaborate, elegant cake, irregardless of how much I would have liked to take the time to really savour the baking process. Nontheless, I must thank our lovely hostesses, Ivonne, Lis, Fran and Shea, for introducing me to this fabulous cake that I didn't even knew existed!

Another thing to be sorry for: I have no time to really write a post worthy of this epic cake, which I made all in one day, and trust me when I say it took me all day. And so, I'll just have to post the pictures in a chronological fashion, and hope it makes sense!

My secret and not-so-common ingredient: Durian! So I guess I made a Durian Opera Cake...

My fantastic buttercream; finally got it to whipped cream consistency, avenging my failure at it the first time =P I had to beat the cream for so long I thought my little handheld mixer was going to explode.

Unfortunately, durian doesn't slice so well...

So basically, I skipped the glaze and piled on the durian pulp, and after that its alternating durian pulp and buttercream. I love this picture =)

Operation Orange Cranberry White Chocolate Cookie, M&S style

Attempt: 1

Nickname: Operation Procrastination

Comment: More like a biscotti than a cookie, but tastes quite nice. For some reason the white chocolate chips bubbled out of the cookie and formed those bumps on the cookie

Baked potato chips a la amelia

Just recently, I met Pei Lin, a fellow Singaporean Daring Baker! It was really really amazing, finding another daring baker on our tiny island! As I was browsing through her lively blog, I came across her recipe for The Perfect Potato Chip. That of cause made me very very hungry, and today I decided to come up with my own chips. These give a reaaally nice crunchy outside, and the inside, if not fluffy, is soft enough to satisfy =D

INGREDIENTS

Potatoes [I can't tell which is which; just use whatever kind you want]

salt

Seasoning [you can basically use any dry seasoning--herbs, pre-mixed spices, or leave it plain, with only salt. Whatever you like =P I used cajun spice mix because I just happen to have a bottle sitting in my cupboard]

Oil

Pei Lin's recipe calls for deep frying, and as I already mentioned in my prawn post, I live in a strictly no deep frying household, and so mine will be baked chips!

First, peel and cut up the potatoes into desired shape. Generally they should be cut into a shape with the maximum exposed surface so as to maximise the 'crunchy' surface. But again, do them anyway you like them. I like mine in wedges. Or in whatever shape they end up when I randomly slash them with my knife =P

Once cut, thrown the potatoes into cold and very well salted water and boil away [use a pot with a lid]. From the few websites I consulted, they all say to cook only till the outside is soft, but to leave the inside still firm. I tried that today, and the inside stayed a little too firm for my liking, even after a long time baking. So, if you like your potatoes melty inside, as I do, I would suggest cooking them well, if not until completely cooked through, because it does soften up a little in the oven

Once cooked to desired softness, drain the potatoes very well. Drizzle over with just enough oil to coat first. You can always add more if its not enough. Then throw into the cooking pot whatever seasoning you are using and the salt as well. Cover with the lid and shake the pot with all your might. Very good for de-stressing. This is to cover the potatoes in the oil and seasoning, and also to bruise the potatoes a little at the same time, so that the outside crisp up easier.

After everything is nice and coated, tumble wedges [or cubes/strips/chunks] onto a baking pan, and bake at the highest temperature your oven has. After roughly 15 minutes, turn the potato wedges so that the other side has a chance to brown. If you have the time, you can turn it onto all four sides, if not one turn should be enough. Once the potatoes are brown enough for your liking, its done! Taste and season to your liking, then tuck in =D

P.S. These have to be eaten hot, or they lose their crunch =)

A quick glance will show that this is almost primarily, if not totally, a food blog.

But today, for these three:

And, especially for him:

I'm going to make an exception, and blog about an event that not only rocked my world, but for which I have waited for almost 8 years. Stereophonics LIVE in Singapore, Pull The Pin! Tour. [28th April, 2008...one of the greatest day of my life =D]

There's really nothing much I can say about it. Rant on about how freaking awesome I think Stereophonics is? As if there's any doubt. Talk about how PERFECT the concert was? Well, that sums it up, it was out of this world. And yes, Kelly, you do have a lot of loyal fans who can sing your songs right here in Singapore, who will stand by you and buy your cds even when they don't particularly like the direction you've been taking lately. And I will hold you to your promise to come back to Singapore.

Truth be told, I'm still shocked that they were here, and I was right there in front of Kelly Jones, who has got to be one of the sexiest AND most talented man alive today, with a to-die-for voice.

Ok then, that sums up all I have to say, I'll just leave you with a couple of videos I took, and some photos. Feast your eyes, fans and non-fans, coz Stereophonics ROCKS.

Sexy new drummer, Javier Weyler, who looks like a younger and slimmer Hugh Grant :

Javier, sans shirt =P If only Kelly had done the same....heh heh:

My sis and I took the following videos, much much more from the same concert and others available on youtube =)

Mr Writer:



Maybe Tomorrow [Kelly Jones solo!]:

Finally, THANK YOU Stereophonics! You guys did a great job, I hope you had a great time, and COME BACK AGAIN!!!

April Daring Baker's Challenge

This month's challenge is Cheesecake Pops, and the hosts are Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms and Deborah of Taste and Tell. My verdict on this month's challenge: Very fun to make, got to try out a few cool and new things, but I can't say I like the end product.

Firstly, I'm not a fan of cheesecakes [I can almost hear the gasp of horror of all readers]. They are wayy too rich for my taste, and I just don't like them. This recipe produced an extra creamy cheesecake, which of course means that I extra dislike them. But cream cheese is one of the most luscious ingredients to work with, and its a delight to bake with. Just the look of it feels sensuous =)

Secondly, its a frozen dessert, which means I can't bring it anywhere more than 5 mins away, which means that I'm stuck with a whole batch of cheesecake. Which I dislike. You can see the problem, even if my Mom and sis do like cheesecake better than I.

Now, on to the cool stuff. I have always had a kind of phobia for shortening, probably because they look like wax, but people tell me its actually food. Not to mention all that stuff about transfats, which is just scary. However, for this challenge, I did some research on shortening, and found that they now have transfats-free shortening! So I plucked up my courage and bought a whole packet of shortening, even if its not completely necessary and I only needed a tablespoon [I halved the recipe]. And it turned out to be fine. No weird oily taste, as some bakers worried about, though it did felt a little heavier than pure chocolate when I licked up the leftover dipping.

Then, my favorite part, the actual dipping! Because the cheesecake balls were frozen, the chocolate hardened over the pops immediately, which was amazing to see and oh so fun to play with. However, when I tried dipping with some room temperature oreos with the leftover chocolate, I found that the shortening really didn't help that much with the setting =(

I couldn't find lollipop sticks, so I bought lollipops and knocked off the sweets with a hammer. Very fun, did a lot of good for my stress level.

My cheesecake, fresh out of the oven. Good thing I used a disposable baking dish, would have been a nightmare to wash all the cheese off.

When I tried to make balls out of the frozen cheesecake with a melon scooper, the cheesecake clumped together and refused to scoop nicely; so I resorted to forming the balls with two spoons, which turned out to be rather fun as well.

The balls, nicely formed, with their lollipop sticks. Is it just me, or did anyone else noticed that the cheesecake doesn't freeze very well? It never got very firm, and stayed kinda soft, even when I left it overnight in the freezer.

The final product, sans wrapper. Looks darling, doesn't it?

Click here to check out how other daring bakers made their cheesecake pops!

Take solace

One of my regular reads is Tea's poetic blog, tea & cookies. Its usually about Tea's life and her kitchen adventures. I like it because Tea somehow have this peaceful quality to her, as if even if she doesn't have all of life's answer, she's happy to contemplate them quietly. Besides which, she's an amazing writer, cook and photographer.

But today, her latest post, No words, gave me pause, and also prompted a response in me.
While not denying the seriousness of such issues, I truely feel that one should never allow oneself to wallow in them. I am not saying that Tea is wallowing, or negating how spot on she is about the issue.

But sadness paralyses. I think food blogging brings out all that is good and worthy in this world, and good things should not be stopped just because tragic and horrifying things are happening elsewhere.

So take solace, Tea. Food blogging brings appreciation to food. It brings the understanding that its quality, not quantity that counts. Most of all, it brings respect to food. Each and everyone of the food bloggers' esteem for food grows with every single post, and hopefully it grows in their readers as well. We are a positive force for this terrible problem, and we should all fight on.

Pasta Casserole with Red Wine Meat Sauce

While I believe that a 750ml bottle of red wine is a thing of beauty, finishing the bottle is another matter altogether, particularly with a small family like mine. So, today, since I have half a bottle of red wine in my fridge, I decided to make a meat sauce out of it.

Meat sauce is really a thing of wonder. I don't know why its called a sauce, it more like a stew to me. There is not much need to strict proportions, and though time consuming, much of the time is spent on simmering the sauce, with minimal attention needed, except for the occasional stir. I had a bit of problem with the bottom burning, and my mom said its because I didn't use the heavy bottom pot...not really sure if that's the case, if you know anything about this, please leave a comment, I'll really appreciate a heads up!

The wine I used is really quite bad, which is why there was half a bottle left =P I would say its borderline drinkable. A quick search online about cooking with wine, and you'll find that they all say to cook only with wine you will drink. Well, today's sauce received mixed responses; my mom and I found it to be quite delicious, while my dad and sis thought that, while tasty, the sauce had a slight bitter taste, probably imparted by the wine. Personally, I say that if you have a not-so-good bottle of wine on your hands, use it. The sauce tasted soooooo much better with the wine, even a lousy wine, then without. Its hard to describe the taste, just meatier, and a lot more aromatic. But, if you don't mind paying a little more for better quality, I'm sure the sauce will be even more amazing =)

INGREDIENTS

Celery

Carrots

Yellow Onions

* these 3 vegs are known as the aromatic 3, and is the usual base for most soups, sauces and stews. I like it not just for the taste, which is great, but also because I like lots of vegs in my sauce. So the amount is really up to your liking.

Minced meat, amount up to preference [pork, mutton, beef, chicken, whatever you want]

Lots of garlic [unless you hate them]

Some tomato paste/canned tomatos [doesn't really matter which or how much, as long as you have some; use the most convenient amount for you, like the can size your grocery shop stocks]

Red wine [use whatever you have, from 1/2 cup to half bottle. Just make sure that altogether, the liquid covers the ingredients by around an inch]

Salt

Sugar

Oregano, or whatever herb you want

Some oil

First, in a heavy bottom pot, fry up your roughly chopped garlic in cold oil, followed by the minced meat and the herb[s]. Once mostly cooked, set aside, and in the same pan, with a little more oil, stir fry the cubed vegetables until roughly softened. Pour meat mixture back into pot, and add in the tomatos and wine. Make sure that the liquid only comes up to around an inch above the other ingredients, topping up with water or stock if not enough. And then, just let it simmer away, stirring occasionally to make sure it doesn't burn at the bottom. If it does burn, switch off the fire, stop stirring, and skim off the top, un-burnt portions into another pot to continue cooking, discarding the charred ingredients at the bottom. Simmer for as long as you have time for, up to 3 hours if you want, or just until the vegetables are soften, and you are good to go!

As for the casserole, its just one way of eating the sauce. I basically piled cooked spaghetti tossed in the meat sauce into a baking dish, cover with grated cheese, and baked til the cheese is brown.