Pao di Queijo
No, these are not Madeleines. Believe it or not they are Pao di Queijo or Brazilian Cheese Bread. Made in madeleine moulds.
I can't remember when and where I first ate this bread, but it was certainly love at first bite. Apparently it is usually made with cheese from one part of Brazil, which is why many Brazilians would make it out of a mix - but substituting with parmesan and cheddar cheese works quite well as well.
Know why the bread is so chewy on the inside? Because it's made of cassava (aka tapioca) flour. And it will rise on its own steam so there is no need for yeast. Bread is crispy on the outside and soft/chewy on the inside. Colour should be just pale yellow (from the cheese and eggs).
Pao di Queijo (makes about 26 little bread) :
1 cup Tapioca or Cassava Flour
1 Egg
1/2 cup Milk
2/3 cup mix of Parmesan and Cheddar Cheeses
1/4 cup Vegetable oil
1/2 Tsp Salt
Bring the milk and oil to a boil. Set aside and let it cool a little.
Stir in the tapioca flour.
Add the egg, then the salt and grated cheeses.
Mix well and pour into small moulds.
Bake for 14-16 minutes in an oven heated to 180°C.
Ideally, the dough should be consistent enough to be kneaded so that you get nice little round pieces of bread. And this probably could be achieved by doubling the volume of flour used, maybe add in some wheat flour as well. But I'm quite pleased with the result of this batch of cheese bread (but 1 cup cheese was too much) though I wouldn't eat too many of them, it's too rich. Plus I am supposed to be intolerant towards parmesan cheese.
These cheese bread are best eaten freshly baked, but mine, I thought, were actually better the next day. Probably just needed to be heated up slightly.
Cocotte Staub
Cocotte ovale StaubIf MIL is not too broke this Christmas, she will normally offer me this beauty. This is the first time in more than a decade that I have blatantly asked for such an expensive gift.
Normally I am a Le Creuset fan, but since they are not replying to my email about the holes in the enamel of my current cocotte (and it is supposed to be under lifetime waranty), I am ready to embrace Staub.
This pot can feed 7-8 persons. 37cm, oval, blue, 8L. I may need a bigger stove for it.
Lychee Meatballs
Lychee MeatballsThe Teenager also has fever and was recalled from school. I now have 3 kids at home, I guess it's a question of time before I fall sick too. And who will look after me then?
They are all happy to have escaped the fish at the school's canteen today and since I have to feed 3 sick kids, I thought I'll make them Jaden's Lychee Meatballs. It's comforting, easy to make (slightly less work compared to what I usually do to make sweet and sour pork) and will please any sweet and sour sauce lover.
Anything sweet & sour has to come in a huge quantity in this family Lychee Meatballs :
1 can Lychees (drained and syrup reserved for the sauce)
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Zucchini
1 Red Onion
1 Garlic clove
1 Red Chilli
The meatballs :
500g Minced Pork
1 Egg
1/4 Tsp Salt
1 Tbsp Flour
The sauce :
100ml Lychee syrup
65ml White Wine Vinegar
3 Tbsp Brown Sugar
2 Tsp grated fresh Ginger
65ml Tomato Ketchup
1/4 Tsp Salt
Ground black pepper
Marinate the minced pork for an hour. Form into balls with your palm.
Mix the ingredients for the sauce and bring it to a boil stirring all the time. Then simmer for 5 minutes. Set aside.
Lightly oil a frying pan and grill your meatballs on all sides till they are browned. The inside could still be pink as you would finish cooking them in the sauce.
Heat some oil in the wok. Fry the onions, garlic, peppers, zucchini and red chilli. Add in the meatballs and stir-fry for a minute. Add in the lychees, then pour in the sauce, stirring well to coat the meatballs in the sauce, cover the wok and simmer for 4-5 minutes.
Serve hot on steamed Jasmine rice.
jeudi, novembre 19, 2009
Tomato Bufala Tartlets
Indonesian Layer Cake (Kueh Lapis)
Indonesian Layer CakeIt is Baby Boy's turn to have fever today. Now I have 2 kids at home and had to cancel today's Grade 1 lunch. Can only cross the fingers that the Teenager doesn't catch the fever as he will be going to Munich next week.
Baby Boy loves Kueh Lapis, so I've decided to bake him one today when he's feeling miserable - from not being with his friends and from having to endure the suppositories for the fever. I felt quite queasy whenever I gave him a suppository, couldn't help thinking of how horrible it must be for those children who were sexually abused. I do not know about other children, but mine really hate having the suppository stuffed into their rectums. But they do not know how to swallow a pill and dislike swallowing syrup either. Meanwhile, I find the suppositories quite effective in reducing fever quickly.
Kueh Lapis :
10 Egg yolks
190g Sugar
1 Tsp Vanilla essence
220g Butter (softened at room temperature and beaten)
1 Tbsp Brandy or Rum
2 Tbsp sweetened Condensed Milk
130g plain Flour to sift together with
1 Tsp Mixed Spice (ground cinnamon, cloves, cumin, coriander, nutmeg & allspice)
6 Egg whites
Grease springform pan and line with greaseproof paper.
Heat oven to 175°C.
Whisk egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla essence till creamy. Beat in the butter and brandy, then stir in the condensed milk followed by the sifted flour and mixed spice.
Whisk egg whites until just stiff. Pour egg yolk mixture into the egg whites and fold gently.
I heated my grill to moderate with fan when the oven is hot and placed my empty tin under it for 1 minute. Then I removed it, pour in a ladleful of batter and spread the batter evenly by tilting the tin. Grill for 5 minutes, remove tin and repeat operation until the batter is used up. Then return to bake mode and bake at 160°C for 10 minutes. Cool before eating.
As usual, whatever I bake or cook doesn't ever come out looking remotely nice. And from the look of things I can't even cut straight either. But this cake is quite edible and will require more adjustment to the oven settings, probably I will also cut down on the number of egg whites, use something to press down on the cake and remove the bubbles, and use a smaller cake pan (so that I can have more layers). In any case I'm on kueh lapis overdose. Have experimented with 2 lapis in 4 days...
mercredi, novembre 18, 2009
Silken Tofu and Cauliflower Egg Hor Fun
Silken Tofu and Cauliflower Egg Hor FunWhen I left London a few weeks ago, I had in my luggage 2 precious packets of silken tofu. Made in Singapore. Stuff that I took for granted when I was living in Singapore and that I hoard preciously today because I cannot find them where I live. I took out one packet and made myself a plate of Silken Tofu and Cauliflower Egg Hor Fun for lunch. Bliss.
This morning I paid 25 euros for a test at the pharmacy to check what intolerance I have towards food. A Swedish mom had hers for free, but I, of course, had to turn up after the promotion. Anyway, apparently I can tolerate most food, except hazelnuts, walnuts, cucumber, coffee, alcohol, parmesan and pecorino cheese.
This is good to know, except that it doesn't help explain the buttons that I am currently having all over my person and I can't really eliminate food from my diet that could have made me fat because of intolerance. I suppose that I had better go see my doctor.
Harumi's Baked Cheesecake
Harumi's Baked CheesecakeFor Christmas last year, MIL offered me the cookbook Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking. I am normally not hot about Japanese cooking, though I make Japanese dishes occasionally for the family, especially Hub and the Teenager who love sushi, tempura, yakitori, miso and udon soup. This morning, stuck at home with Baby Girl and having entered all my cactuses and other plants from the cold, I decided to bake a non-Japanese cheesecake using her recipe. To warm up the kitchen.
I like the idea of baking cheesecake, and I do it from time to time for the Hub, but somehow I never eat it. It's one of those things. This one turned out well, with a fine biscuit base and dense, creamy interior. Foolproof, like she claimed it would be.
Harumi's Baked Cheesecake :
For an 18 cm springform tin
100g Digestive biscuits
40g unsalted butter
250g Cream cheese
90g Sugar
2 Eggs
200ml Double cream
3 Tbsp sifted plain Flour
1 Tbsp Lemon juice
The butter and cream cheese have to be at room temperature.
Line the cake tin with greaseproof paper.
Put the biscuits in a plastic bag and roughly crush with a rolling pin.
Mix the softened butter with the crushed biscuits.
Make the biscuit base. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
Beat the cream cheese till soft then add the rest of the ingredients, in order, mixing each one thoroughly first before adding the next.
When the mixture has thickened, pour into the cake tin on top of the biscuit base. Bake for 45-50 minutes.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool before removing from the tin.
mardi, novembre 17, 2009
Home-made Squid Ink Tagliatelle
Squid Ink TagliatelleSquid Ink Pasta is not something that you can easily find in the supermarket or in restaurants where we live. Now that I know how to make it myself, I can have it anytime I want it. Not that it's good news for the diet.
Will cook this batch with prawns this evening. Hub looked at the drying pasta (all over the kitchen) and said that he would like to learn how to make them too. Said it normally costs so much to buy them fresh, so it's really good that I know how to make it myself now.
Squid Ink Pasta in the makingAm stuck with Baby Girl, she has a fever and all. I think half the school is ill. We haven't heard anything about the flu vaccination in this country. But it's normal, we're in Italy.
Home-made Lasagna with Cepe/Porcini Mushrooms
Lasagna ai Funghi PorciniOne good way not to forget a cooking lesson is to try it out on one's own quickly. I therefore set out to knead and roll out some dough for lasagna and squid ink tagliatelle this morning. Dinner this evening was therefore Fresh Lasagna with Cepe/Porcini Mushrooms.
Lasagna al Ragu (with one stray mushroom)Actually it was Lasagna ai Funghi Porcini for the parents and Lasagna al ragu for the children. And I baked both in the same recipient.
2-in-1 LasagnaThere are 2 ways basically to cook lasagna using fresh pasta. The first and better way is to cook the pasta 30 seconds in salted boiling water, rinse it in a cold bath and dry it with kitchen towels; the second is to use it directly in making the lasagna (if it's thin enough). I took the easier way out this evening.
Pasta for lasagna in the makingThe bechamel I prepared myself (40g butter, 40g flour and 500ml milk) and hors feu I stirred in grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper for extra taste.
My lasagne is composed of a layer of bechamel followed by a layer of pasta, followed by a layer of the mushroom or meat filling, more bechamel, another layer of pasta and so on. The top-most layer was pasta and bechamel and some grated cheddar. 35 minutes in a hot oven pre-heated at 180°C.
lundi, novembre 16, 2009
Lamb Satay
Lamb SatayThey were selling plain lamb skewers at Esselunga today and that gave me the idea to buy them, marinate as I would meat for satay and grill them in the oven for dinner. Since I was at it, I marinated some chicken breasts at the same time so we had Lamb and Chicken Satay with peanut sauce, cucumber, red onions and Jasmine rice balls.
Marinating the lamb skewersThat's our fastfood. And to prevent the wooden skewers from burning I wet a piece of kitchen towel and placed it over them during the marinating. Takes less than 10 minutes under a hot grill to be cooked.
Chicken SatayThe lamb satay was the children's favourite. I've always had other moms asking me how I do lamb and telling me that it's not an easy meat to cook. On the contrary, I've always found lamb delicious and easy to cook. And when done properly, tastier than chicken or pork. The difficulty lies more in finding good cuts of the meat. If you want your children to like it, it is ideal to start them young. As far as I could remember, my mom often fed me lamb briyani and mutton soup and I just love the taste of the meat.
This morning I was at the school library watching the MYP kids working on their unit on the Holocaust and war. Read through a few books quickly myself including one by the Anne Frank Foundation and one written by a Jordanian woman about Honour Killings in her country.
This brought me back to those years when I myself was a Teenager. As a kid, I've read The Diary of Anne Frank and I've studied the World Wars. It is still difficult trying to swallow the senseless atrocities committed against fellow humans. Pictures like the Jews being divided ito 2 queues - one for immediate extermination and the other for hard labour (aka slow death) - still haunt me. It must be horrible for mothers to see their children die and not be able to do anything to save them. Other pictures of Jews being brought to a shallow grave and shot just before it so that they could fall into it conveniently - that was just plain perversity. We also tend to ignore the hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers who dropped like flies on the beaches of Normandy as they landed. There are no winners in war as we've always been told.
During Political Theory and Philosophy classes at University, we spent alot of time debating on whether humans we were by nature good or bad - and came to no conclusion as far as I could remember. We live in pockets of peace and prosperity - but the zones of unrest and poverty are much larger and widespread when you think of it.
The book by the Jordanian woman reminded me that even though in Arab countries where they have wealth and claim to protect women, the reality is that the women could be killed anytime in the name of honour - a poor and cowardly excuse. What is honour and could it be justified by murder and especially murder usually committed by one's own family? Would their God sanction this? I don't think so.
I mean, you get killed because you talked to (strange) men on the phone; because you chose to marry someone you love; because they suspected that you had sex before you got married; because you were raped by your neighbour. It's a losing situation either way for the women. What kind of a shit society is that?
And they label any woman they consider loose to be "prostitutes" - who deserve to be killed. Hello, there wouldn't be prostitutes if there weren't men who use them. I have seen with my own eyes Arab men in a shopping centre in Bangkok approaching Thai transvestites for sex. How many societies in both the developed and developing world were widows, divorcees, poor women and even young girls forced or sold into prositution in order to survive? I am no Christian, but I have been marked by Jesus telling those who were ready to stone Mary Magdelena that "let him who has not sinned cast the first stone". At least in the New Testament, there were stories of forgiveness and even in the Old Testament, you had stories of incest and polygamy. Look at those Muslim suicide bombers who were brainwashed with stories of virgins waiting for them in heaven. What is this stupid obsession with virgins in their religion? Smart men will tell you that they would rather sleep with women with some experience than virgins. Bref.
The Teenager leaves next week for Munich. They are going to visit the Dachau concentration camp and the Jewish Museum. For me, closer to home, I would like to learn more about the Khmer Rouge Years in Cambodia, the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese perspective and the military juntas in Burma. We've touched on all that at school at some point (with Cambridge setting the papers), but doing it for an exam and doing it out of human interest is somehow not the same.
Finali Mondiali 2009
Finali Mondiali 2009Hub was away this weekend in Valencia for Ferrari's Finali Mondiali. We had to miss it since, exceptionally, it wasn't held in Italy. In hard times like these, we didn't feel up to paying 4 air tickets just for the weekend (especially when we were there just 2 weeks ago) and it wouldn't do to ask the company to pay for them either even though traditionally the family has always been invited to this event.
Hub's badgesHub wasn't keen to go there without us, but once he was there, he was really impressed by the whole event. Valencia, as you know, is a beautiful city. Holding a beautiful event in a beautiful city can only be a sure success.
Palau de las Artes Reina Sofia by nightOn Saturday evening, the gala dinner was held in the Palau de las Artes Reina Sofia. There was an open air concert (the weather was beautiful there unlike here) followed by an indoor orchestra cum flamenco musical performance. The City of the Arts and Sciences is impressive on its own. Add the Ferrari logo (flashed on the building) and a few Ferraris floating on the water surrounding it and it was magical.
Valencia's Symphonic Orchestra met the FlamencoYou get to rub shoulders with the rich and famous from all over the world. And also politicians and notables from Valencia.
Circuit Ricardo TormoThe races took place in the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo. Alonso was there (though not in Ferrari colours) and spent at least an hour signing autographs (no, don't expect Hub to get one for us). The Spaniards were crazy about him.
Alonso being interviewed
Cheese, it's Alonso!!! (Lai & Domenicali were behind)The President's Lunch was held in a special room as usual and it was the same guy from Florence who did the catering. I've asked Hub to try getting the chocolate cake recipe from him, but of course Hub pretended that he hadn't heard me. But he did sweetly offer to take a few pictures, "I know that you would want to blog about them..."
President's LunchI certainly wished I were there. Then the car wouldn't be scratched.
dimanche, novembre 15, 2009
Yet Another Orange Cake
Orange CakeI had a restless night as you could well imagine and needed a booster. Decided to bake a cake for the sugar and fat. And the way it generated warmth in the kitchen as I waited for Hub's return. When I had him on the phone, he was in a good mood though - for this year's Finali Mondiali in Valencia had apparently been quite an impressive spectacle. He was among the handful who made their way there to attend the event.
I have brought back an old yellowed cookbook from Singapore and it was published in 1981 : "Asian High Tea Favourites" by Betty Yew. Another antique. But the cake turned out quite well.
Orange Chiffon Cake (for small cake pan) :
140ml Corn Oil
170g Castor Sugar
4 Egg yolks
2 Oranges (zest from orange-coloured part of the peel)
100ml Orange Juice
1 Tsp Grand Marnier (optional)
1 Tsp Grand Marnier (optional)
140g Self-raising Flour (sifted)
1/4 Tsp Salt
4 Egg whites
1/4 Tsp Cream of tartar
Grease Tube pan. Heat oven to 165°C.
Beat corn oil with sugar and add egg yolks. Beat till smooth.
Add orange zest and juice. Fold in sifted flour quickly together with the salt.
Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar till stiff but not dry. Gently and gradually add egg yolk mixture and mix evenly.
Bake for 75 minutes or till springy to the touch. I stopped at 60 minutes as I wanted my cake moist. But it would have been lighter and spongier 15 minutes more.
Saturday 14 is my Friday 13
Because I am Chinese. 13 doesn't do anything to me, but 14 does.
Dent and scratches
Went to Bologna (yesterday) to catch the Jimmy Choo for H&M collection. But it was sold out by the time I arrived. In any case, whatever little that was left looked horribly ugly and cheap, but of course was expensive (for H&M).
Margi prepared and cooked the dish
Good thing though is that I had a good time catching up with Margi and she cooked me a delicious plate of Squid Pasta even though she was sick and suffering. The kids played with her step-daughter and Hub and had a good time.
Seppia Pasta
On the way back to Modena, I passed by McDonald's. Could not resist the idea of having some fries and drove into McDrive just for that. They were having renovations and the whole driveway was covered with scaffolding. I should have trusted my instincts and backed out like I wanted to, but I didn't.
My Phedra is long. And I was not careful enough. Dented and scratched the whole left side of my brand new car.
And if that was not enough, I must have stepped on chewing gum when I came out of the car to inspect the damage. Now my clutch pedal is covered with unremovable chewing gum.
Hub is away in Valencia for Ferrari's Finali Mondiali. When he comes back this evening, he will surely kill me.
This is going to be a very long night.
vendredi, novembre 13, 2009
TaylorMade Golf Burner TP Driver
The Teenager is in 7th Heaven since yesterday. His Christmas gift arrived early and since we no longer have to feed him the Santa story, we needn't wait till Christmas to give him his present either. This year, he wanted a top-class golf driver. We got him a TaylorMade Burner TP driver.
"SuperFast Technology reduces total club weight to 299 grams from average of 320 and promotes faster swing speed for added drive-crushing distance.
Advanced bullet-shaped clubhead incorporates far-back CG location to launch the ball high and super-deep.
Massive 460 cc clubhead combined with TaylorMade's Inverted Cone Technology produces an extremely-high eMOI that exceeds 5800 (USGA conforming)."
Men's right-hand, 8.5°, Fujikura RE*AX TP stiff shaft. All Greek to me, but the boy seems to understand the language.
He goes to the Golf Club at least 3 times a week now to practise. There is a group of teenagers (but the very rich, trolley full of Callaway and TaylorMade clubs, iPhone in hand, only dressed in Burberry sort) who are there almost everyday and he sort of hangs out with them. I'm not so sure that it's a good idea. Not at all.
He goes to the Golf Club at least 3 times a week now to practise. There is a group of teenagers (but the very rich, trolley full of Callaway and TaylorMade clubs, iPhone in hand, only dressed in Burberry sort) who are there almost everyday and he sort of hangs out with them. I'm not so sure that it's a good idea. Not at all.
Har Gow (Steamed Prawn Dumplings)
Har Gow (Steamed Prawn Dumplings)I noticed that a number of food blogs have been doing their own David Letterman and Oprah shows inviting other bloggers to guest post on their blogs. It is interesting of course to discover another blog through this and see the host and guest compete to make each other the best compliments.
I toyed with the idea of searching through the African blogosphere to find myself one such guest, or to ask the Dutchess if she wouldn't want to guest star in my blog (but maybe not about food as she cooks way better than I do - a piece on her red bolero would do), but figured that it would cause her to trip on her new Ferragamo heels and roll on the parquet. And I can't afford to replace those heels especially not in these hard times.
Tham Yui Kai CookbookThen I thought of Tham Yui Kai and figured that I could post one of his recipes in my blog today. You wouldn't want him to write on my blog though, I do not know if the guy is still alive, he's probably as antique as the farmhouse I'm living in now. Well, for those of you who do not know him, while Hong Kong had their 4 Heavenly Canto-Pop Kings in the 1990s, Singapore had her 4 Heavenly Canto-Cuisine Kings in the 1960s/70s and he was one of them. Mom passed me his cookbook recently and I'm not surprised that she would have it - dad threw all his banquets and dinners at either the Lai Wah or Sin Leong restaurants in the days when he still had money and those restaurants were operated by one or more of the Heavenly Kings.
Having said that, I only inspired myself from his recipe because I think it needed updating. The cookbook was written in the 1980s and that's quite a while ago.
SteamedHar Gow (recipe adapted from "The Cookbook of Tham Yui Kai") :
The har gow skins :
100g Strong White Flour (if you cannot find Wheat Starch)
2 Tbsp Tapioca Starch
1 Tsp Salt
100ml Boiling water
1 Tbsp Lard or Oil
The filling :
300g Prawns (cooked and peeled)
70g Pork Fat (boiled and chopped)
50g Carrots, Bamboo Shoots or Water Chestnut (julienned or chopped)
1 Cabbage leaf (blanched and chopped)
1 Tbsp Spring Onions (chopped)
2 Tsp Sugar
2 Tsp Light Soy Sauce or 1/2 Tsp Salt
2 Tsp Sesame Oil
1 Tsp Ginger (minced)
2 Tbsp Chinese cooking wine or Dry Sherry
4 Tsp Cornstarch
1 Egg white
White Pepper
Mix the 2 starches and salt together and pour boiling water into the bowl. Mix quickly with a pair of chopsticks then form into a ball and start to knead. Finally add in the oil, knead again and pinch small balls from it to be flattened into round wrappers. I rolled out the dough as thinly as I could and used biscuit cutters to make my flat rounds.
The prawn meat can be used in small pieces or pounded/blended into a rough paste. Put all the ingredients together, mix well and leave in the fridge to set for a while before using.
I used organic strong white flour because I do not have wheat starch (tung mein fun), and I do not think that it is white enough and probably contained too much gluten and wouldn't allow the skin to be more transparent. I didn't bother to pinch the wrapper the traditional way, it is already painful enough that it takes so much time to make the dumplings and so little time to eat them. Wrapped them up as quickly as I could.
Before being steamedAnyway, it takes about 8 minutes to steam the har gow. I added oil in the boiling water and on the cabbage leaves before putting the dumplings in for steaming. The result wasn't too bad and I will endeavour to find a packet of wheat starch and try to make a better skin.
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