Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year!

I was not able to celebrate the Chinese New Year with my friends and family back in Singapore - for what, the 11th year? And have once again missed out on all those delicious lucky dishes, the endless visiting and snacking, giving out red packets (yes, I wouldn't mind doing that 'coz I have 3 kids so I normally wouldn't lougi* ha ha), catching up with the relatives and especially the cousins etc etc. As it was, I spent the last weekend in France, with my MIL and SIL and Hubby's best friend the Banfields...

We had to visit MIL principally because I had been buying like crazy on a few France-based websites and have had my purchases delivered to her house. Apparently my stuff were piling up really badly in one of her rooms and she was getting mad about it. I must say that when I entered the room I had quite the shock of my life (couldn't remember that I even ordered half of the stuff) and started worrying that Hubby would freak out once he saw the boxes.

To his credit, he had been strong, just shook his head and muttered that I must be quite mad to have bought so much. I worked really hard and fast to get rid of the wrappings and to try to reduce the pile and even then it filled up the entire car boot (and we have a Monospace for a car so try to imagine the generous boot space). I promised myself that I would stop this buying craziness and for the past 48 hours indeed I have not bought a single thing. :-)

The kids were happy though. They were entitled to a few different costumes and wasted no time in trying them out on the spot. Quite the Fantastic Three, I must say.

We were lucky SIL was there 'coz for once we didn't have to cook every single meal (MIL refuses to cook or do anything for that matter nowadays, she is in her I-rebel-against-domesticity phase). She made us Skate with butter-capers sauce on Friday evening and Couscous for Saturday lunch. They were very good.

We provided dinner (raw oysters, smoked salmon on toasts, seafood platter with prawns, shrimps, crab...) on Saturday and lunch (Rocket Salad with Prawns, Grapefruit and Parmesan Cheese, Roast Leg of Lamb with Sauteed Potatoes and White Beans) on Sunday. The Banfields brought a dessert with them - a delicious Macaron with Pistaccio Cream and Berries.

The Banfield best friend is French, but the family are cousins a few times removed of the current English Queen. He looks like Brad Pitt, is smart, intelligent, witty and takes great photos. But he also smokes like a chimney and drinks like there is a hole in his stomach. A pity, don't you think so? But well, if you do not have to live with him, he is wonderful company and so we had a good time.

MIL was quite a sight, since she just had her eyelids stretched surgically in the name of beauty. Well, at least she did look like she was really going to recover and look younger, compared to the first days after the surgery, when she looked like a Panda Bear, Battered Woman etc all mixed up. I told her that now that the eyelids no longer droop, it made her droopy chin look even more droopy. Is she going to stretch her chin too? Believe it or not, she is actually considering it.

At the dinner table, we did the usual French thing - laugh at a few common friends, and we also discussed Politics, as in who-we-were-going-to-vote-for in the coming Presidential Elections. I was the only Foreigner at the table and it looked like I'm the only person who would not vote for the Socialists. I am the only person who would not make my children and grandchildren reimburse my debts. All this over the very last bottle of champagne from our wedding.

This evening I warmed up a packet of fish soup for the kids and gave them a few crabmeat sticks to go with it. Hubby as usual has flown off on some business trip. For myself, I made something special since it's the Chinese New Year : Mini Buddha Jump Over The Wall (courtesy of my mom) and Crab Claws in Tomato-Chilli-Egg Sauce. I also spent 40 minutes on the phone with my mom and had her describe to me the 8-course dinner I paid for but was unable to taste. I thought of throwing a CNY party for the Singaporean and Malaysian friends I have here, but we would be going away to ski on Thursday and I didn't have the courage to cook and entertain in between.

Well, have a Happy and Lucky Year of the Pig, everyone!

And especially my dada as he is one old pig!

*Lose out

Fasching (Carnival) and Mini Nutella Waffles

Dressing up in costumes and pretending to be someone else is not my thing at all. Not that I wouldn't love to do it, but just haven't the imagination to carry it out with grace. In my dreams I would dress up as a Gypsy and dance the Flamenco, but in reality, I would probably dress up like a potato and not know where to rest my butt. It is therefore with much apprehension that I watch Fasching or Carnival time approach, and I always keep my fingers crossed that we would not be invited to some costume party that we wouldn't be able to refuse.

However, the kids look forward to it. And unless I choose to keep them away from school on Faschingstag, I will have to dress them up.

Actually, I look forward to dressing them up. It is just that my lack of sewing/couture talents mean that the costumes would have to be bought. And when you look at the variety/quality (or lack of) and the price (quite a rip-off), it is not a pleasant entreprise. I don't want my kids to look like another clown or cowboy in school, but neither would I be able to call Armani up and have him make something unique for them.

But the fact that we move every 2 years or so is actually an advantage. This means that I can buy good quality stuff and recycle them. And I try to make it a point not to buy the costume in the country we live in, in the hope of not having the kids wear the same thing as everybody else.

2 years ago, I bought a really beautiful bear costume from Moulin Roty, a French Teddy Bear maker. Very soft material, lovely design and not the kind of costume that you can find in most departmental stores. I intend to keep it for my grandchildren if it would keep that long.

Then when I was last in Singapore, I bought a Tigger costume at a discount though of course that is something you can find anywhere in this world where Disney is known, and as it was, there were 2 Tiggers in Baby Girl's class this morning (she was one of them). Baby Boy wore the Teddy Bear costume and he was the sweetest, cutest and most cuddly baby bear on earth...As for Eldest Son, he turned up in his red Gong Fu suit and probably spent the morning pretending to be Bruce Lee. I shudder to think about it...

As for myself, I was in Metzingen (again) yesterday and for the first time shopped at Pepe Jeans. I came across this black dress with a square collar, round sleeves and white skirt trimmings - which reminded me lots of a French Chambermaid. I bought it on a whim, thinking that Hubby would probably be more than interested to see me in it. We could have our own private costume party...:-).

I have also spent last evening making quite a number of mini Nutella waffles for Eldest Son's class party. Simple recipe :

100g Salted butter
300g Flour
1 Pkt Rising Agent
70g Brown Sugar
500ml Milk
2 Eggs
Nutella

Microwave the butter. Remove the foam and set aside.

Mix the flour and rising agent and make a well in the middle. Add in the sugar, eggs and butter. Slowly mix in the milk. Mix in the Nutella (quantity is as you wish). Leave the mixture to rest for at least one hour before using it.

You can omit the Nutella and make plain waffles to be garnished as you wish later on, replace it with a glass of beer etc etc.

So What's Up?

Last Friday, Hubby came back from his business trip to Penang with a few goodies (e.g. Kueh Lapis and Pineapple Tarts from the Bengawan Solo and Curry Puffs from the Polar Café at Singapore's Changi Airport where he transited, Prima Taste Mee Rebus from my good friend PL and Shark's fin from my mom - though he kept grumbling about sharks getting extinct because of our soup frenzy etc). I ate up 3 curry puffs in more or less 3 large bites and half the Kueh Lapis and then we went out to look at cars.

I mentioned a few posts ago that Hubby could not decide between the AR (Alfa Romeo) Brera and AR Spider, and that he was thinking of getting me the AR 159 Sportwagon. Well, we arrived at the car dealer's and started helping ourselves to the cars on display. I looked at the Brera and then called the salesman over. "Are those seats behind really for sitting on?" As I had suspected, he shook his head and said no.

To sit on those passenger seats in the AR Brera, you'll need to either not have legs or have really short ones. There is no leg room. Full stop.

I turned to Hubby with a sigh and told him that since this was the case, he might as well make himself happy and get that AR Spider two-seater convertible, the kind of car for selfish people who would not be able to help bring the kids to school or fetch them back. Though I also added that he had better not forget himself too much in that car and come back with speeding fines, in which case the next year (we get to change our cars every year) he'll have to content himself with a FIAT Punto. Let all my readers be witnesses to this pact.

Speaking of speeding fines, I had yet to pay off the last one and he got himself flashed at in the tunnel between the car dealer's showroom and Stuttgart City Centre on our way back! That's another pair of Hugo Boss pumps, damn it.

Then we opened the door to the AR 159 SW and I entered the car. How in the world could people get all excited about cars that make you drive almost lying down? I felt closed in. Kind of like I risk having the head knock on the car ceiling each time I fidget in the seat. And there is leg room behind, but not too much. You can imagine the kids sitting behind and complaining about it after 30 minutes. If it takes us 6 hours to drive to the Alps, that would be 5h 30 mins too long.

So we must look for another alternative. Less sexy, but surely more practical. Besides, if we have family over, we could avoid driving 2 cars each time we go out, him so cool in his convertible (cannot take passengers, cannot take luggage), while I have to lug around everybody plus the luggage. No way, man. Plus think of the extra petrol and the environmental pollution.

We will probably get the LANCIA Phedra (http://www.lanciaphedra.it/phedra/ita/main.html). It is like the RENAULT Espace that we are currently driving, only less powerful but more chic. 7-seater, enough leg room etc. Difficult to park, but if you give me automatic gears, GPS and rear parking radars, I'll survive. I hope.

Then we spent the weekend looking at Baby Girl's head, she has crusts on it. It's weird. And we also debated long and hard about whether to write a letter to Eldest Boy's teacher and school Principal - and try to meet and get them to change the lousy grades and nasty remarks on his report card. The boy has a concentration problem and daydreams on his feet, but he doesn't deserve to have the teacher write it down so nastily the way she did. Also, he has been bringing back excellent grades (interspersed with mediocre ones) in the past 2 months, but none of that was reflected in the report card. Just bad grades. Something's not right there. I am the last person to challenge a teacher's judgement, but honestly this time around I can't sit around and let it pass. It would be unfair to the boy. Most kids are already mean to him because he is so out-of-this-world, he shouldn't have to harvest mean remarks and lousy grades just because the teacher too has a bone against him. Assez!

Otherwise I am pretty happy today. I cooked my Mee Rebus and ate it all up myself. Such satisfaction. The children get to eat the usual Papa-is-away stuff like Minced Pork and Shrimp Congee, Fried Wantons and yesterday I had to cook Salmon in 2 different ways i.e. just pan-grilled with olive oil and lemon juice and served with grilled zucchini and potatoes, and also cooked in a curry and served with rice - because Eldest Son likes it done European style and the other 2 prefer it the Asian way.

On Saturday Hubby made us a lovely dessert - Banane Flambée au Rhum served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream that we ate in front of the TV (the Samsung DVD player is kaput, by the way, it's relatively new so it's a pain).

Last week, I had a craving for sardines. But it has since been satisfied and I won't go near any for quite a while. If you had to remove scales and innards from a dozen fishy sardines with your fingers, you'll understand why. The whole kitchen stank for 2 days at least. But they were good, lightly coated with ground turmeric, corn flour and salt and fried. Served with fries and a squeeze of lemon.

To celebrate Hubby's promotion we had dinner 2 Fridays ago at this nice restaurant Landgasthaus zur Linde recommended by the Gault et Millau Guide. The wines were good and the food too and the bill came up to a reasonable 170 Euros for 2. We both had the Octopus Salad to start with, followed by a Herb Soup with Scampi and then Beef Rolls in Balsamic Sauce (the potato purée was too salty though). And we shared a chocolate dessert that was nicely done. More importantly, it was nice having some couple time together and be able to carry out a discussion without a few kids screaming around us.

And last Friday evening, we left the kids at home with a babysitter and turned up at Eldest Son's school for circus night. Every Friday afternoon, the boy learns circus tricks from this private circus school (Circus Circuli) in his own school. And to make us feel better about the huge amount we have paid for our kids' classes, I suspect that they had come up with an evening of letting the parents try their hands on the same tricks. We brought the finger food and they were supposed to provide the drinks, and when we were there, they said that we could contribute towards the drinks as we wished. Hmm...

Anyway, M and her hubby were there too so we were happy to be there. I arrived with my sport shoes, but didn't try anything once I was there (no wait, I touched the fire on the torch). Just didn't feel like breaking a bone. Besides, it's difficult jumping etc with my glasses on and I can't see a thing without them. Hubby tried the trampoline, the wheel and a few other things, he's a better sport, of course. M and her Hubby tried everything and they were quite good at them, I must say. We didn't stay too long as Hubby was tired after a whole night spent on the plane and I was a little worried about the babies who were a little off-colour. Also, I've eaten almost everything there was to eat and couldn't think of anything else to do.

PS : Most of the photos turned out blur, the camera must have been badly adjusted and nobody knows how to make it work normally again...

Foie Gras de Canard aux Pommes cuit en Terrine

I changed my mind about making more Foie Gras ravioles and made a Terrine de Foie Gras de Canard Mi-Cuit aux Pommes instead. I guess that I didn't feel like wrapping dozens of ravioles. Besides, Hubby the Perfectionist (who usually follows recipes quite religiously) wasn't around and I felt that it was the moment for me to make my Foie Gras alone and sans surveillance.

I'm the aga-aga (estimation) kind of cook. I like to cook by feeling and often improvise along the way. So far I've done quite well this way and see no reason to waste time measuring ingredients religiously when I could just get on with the cooking.

The French would tell you to treat the whole raw liver delicately and try not to break it or smash it too much when de-nerving it. I'm neither delicate nor patient, so I de-nerved it more or less by tugging at the main vein and seeing where it would lead me to, cutting up the liver into big chunks if it suited me to do so. Experience has taught me that once prepared, you wouldn't really be able to tell the difference between the more delicately and not so delicately treated liver.

The French would also tell you that you have to marinate your liver and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours before cooking it. I didn't feel like waiting as I wanted to cook something else the next day, so of course I didn't wait.

I lined half the liver (e.g. 300g/600g) in a porcelain terrine (better that it be too small than too big, don't squash the pieces, just put them in gently), added salt and pepper (you can't really add them once the liver's cooked so do know how much salt and pepper you would want in your foie gras at this point), very thin slices of Braeburn apple, sprinkled ground Cinnamon over them, added in the other half of the liver, added more salt and pepper, and then poured in a generous amount of Ice Wine (Muscat, Sauternes or Monbazillac would do just as nicely).

Then I started to heat up my oven to 80ºC and put in a baking tray filled with water to be heated up (or just add hot water). When the water in the tray and the temperature in the oven are both at 80ºC, put the terrine (covered) onto the baking tray (the water should cover the terrine up to about 1cm from its edge) and bake in the oven (we call it a Bain-Marie) for 20 minutes. Then turn up the heat to 190ºC and once the temperature's achieved, cook the terrine for another 10 minutes. This should give a half-cooked (mi-cuit) Foie Gras, so if you prefer it more cooked, increase the cooking time by another 5-10 minutes.

Hardworking cooks will then drain the liquid fat from the terrine and start to filter the floating bits of liver from the fat. Some will even start to heat up the fat so that they may clarify it, removing blood from it. Then return the fat to the liver in the terrine. Me, without Hubby watching, I just let the terrine cool for an hour and then dump the whole thing in the fridge. I didn't even bother to put a weight on my foie gras, because I know that if I let it sit for at least 24 hours (preferably more), it'll settle down just as well and not risk being dwarfed by the weight.

This evening, Hubby took the terrine out of the fridge and cut out a slice of the Foie Gras to see if it was ready. It was nicely pink, cut up cleanly (didn't fall apart) and tasted really good. Baby Girl was all excited about it as she just loves toast with Foie Gras. And I now have enough to make her toasts through the week.

PS : If you intend to keep the terrine for more than 5 days, you may wish to cook the apples first in a frying pan with just a bit of butter, sugar, salt and ground cinnamon. Fresh apples even cooked with the terrine may change colour and turn black after a few days, even though they are still perfectly edible (just not very appetizing).

Crepe Party at the Le Clercqs

Two of my favourite girls here in Stuttgart are Tiff and M. We all have our kids in the French Kindergarten. Tiff and I we are both English speakers, with M I speak French and share a love for all things French, and both Tiff and M are Mexicans (though Tiff is American first).

Last Saturday we were invited (with the kids and husbands) to Tiff's place for a crepe party. And achtung, the chef (her cute French Hubby P) is from Brittany where crepes were born, so expect only the very best of crepes to be fed into our stomachs.

P made crepes from two types of flour : Sarrazin (black wheat) and normal white flour. The former is great for making salty crepes and the latter sweet ones. We had a choice among 3 fillings (Ham and Cheese, Spinach and Goat Cheese, Mushroom and Bacon) for the salty ones, and for the sweet crepes we could have them with Nutella, dark chocolate, Cane Molasses Sirup, Fruit Jam and with or without sliced bananas, pears, almonds etc.

I was quite shameless, eating the left-overs from the kids (they were served first), screaming out for the first adult crepe and must have eaten at least 5 crepes in total. The problem with a crepe party is that the chef has to be at the crepe pan all the time and could usually serve only one person at a time. Luckily the Le Clercqs live in a small appartment with an American kitchen and we could at least watch P cook and talk with him at the same time.

We then walked up to a hill where we could have a view of Stuttgart (one of our last, I imagine). My Baby Boy peed in his pants in the playground at the bottom of the hill and stood there (not moving an inch, according to the men) for the whole of the 15 minutes or so it took Tiff and I to return to her flat to get him a change of clothes. We then climbed up the hill and on our way back, we drank coffee in a Tapas Bar. A really nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Otherwise, we do make crepes from time to time ourselves as the children love them. They are simple to make and one can have much fun filling them up in a hundred and one ways.

White Flour Crepe :

250g Plain Flour
500ml Milk
2 Eggs
1 Tbsp Oil
A pinch of Salt
A touch of Rum, Fleur d'oranger etc

Make a well in the middle of the flour, add in the eggs, oil, salt, alcohol etc and a little of the milk. Mix well, adding more milk as you stir. Leave the crepe mixture to stand for an hour before using it.

Char Siu (Barbecued Pork) Noodles

I saw REWE selling filet mignon (pork filet) at a pretty decent price the other day and told myself that I had to make a pork dish. But it would be a pity to cut it up since it was quite nice looking as it was and the idea of making Char Siu (Barbecued Pork) was thus born. And I had a craving for thin egg noodles so I made Char Siu Noodles for dinner.

Pork Filet mignon (make a few cross cuts on the surface of the meat)
Minced Garlic
1 Tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 Tsp Ground Cinnamon
A pinch of Ground Cloves
Half a Star Anise
1 Tsp Oyster Sauce
1 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
1 Tsp Dark Soya Sauce
1 Tbsp Honey
1 Tsp Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Sesame Oil
1 Tsp Fermented Beans or Peanut Butter
Salt and Pepper
Red or white wine or dry Sherry
Red Food Colouring (optional)

Spice and sauce the pork and leave it to marinate for a few hours. Heat an oven to 200ºC. Grill the filet in it for 20 minutes (I leave it in its marinade, but adding in some wine and water to keep it from drying out. Otherwise, grill it without the marinade, but will have to brush it with it from time to time). Take it out of the oven to turn it over onto its other side. If you want the surface of the meat to burn, add some honey to it. Put it back into the oven for another 20 minutes. If cooking with the marinade, adjust the liquid level to make sure that the sauce will not dry out and burn. I served slices of the pork on thin egg noodles and poured some of the sauce over it.

PS : You can see peanuts on the meat as I used Chunky Peanut Butter :-).

Little Fried Fish

When we were living in Andalusia, we would often go to this little restaurant (Gamba del Oro) in the heart of Jaén for seafood. Gambas à la plancha, chanquetes/boquerones/calamar fritos etc. A few times we were at the beach at Jerez de la Frontera and we would always visit the famous local hawker stall for some fried fish and grilled seafood that you would pay for according to its weight.

The other day I had a sudden craving for little fried fish. So I made my way to the Markthalle in Stuttgart City Centre and bought myself half a kilo of expensive little fish.

I mixed some corn flour with normal plain flour, added some salt and pepper and coated my little fish in it. Then I fried them in olive oil, drained them on kitchen paper and squeezed some lemon juice over them. They are delicious eaten hot and crispy. The best thing about them is that the kids love them too and they can be eaten entirely, flesh, bones, head and all.

Ravioles de Foie Gras, Consommé au Vin Rouge et Ice Wine

This week I have been pretty inspired with my cooking and it had probably to do with the fact that Hubby would be away the whole of next week, and that we would be back to snacking and eating rice porridge then.

This evening I took out the lobe of raw duck liver that we bought in Strasbourg 2 weeks ago and which Hubby had been saving for another foie gras terrine (but was too busy to make it), and decided to make Ravioles de Foie Gras served in a Red Wine and Ice Wine Consommé.

The Ice Wine was procured a few weeks ago when I had a craving for sweet white wine and had been waiting nice and cold in the fridge to be uncorked. It wasn't Canadian for once, but actually German. And not too bad at all. I used it to marinate the liver, cook the soup and accompany my meal.

The recipe is simple and the result really very delicious. I am very pleased with my soup and will be making another batch of ravioles tomorrow (to finish up the liver and the wonton skins)and freezing them for future use.

Fresh raw Duck Liver (de-nerved and sliced into small pieces)
Ice Wine (2004 Rheinhessen, usually I would use a Sauternes, Muscat de Rivesaltes or Monbazillac)
Salt and Pepper

Wonton or Gyoza skins
Black Truffles (optional)

Red Wine (I used a 2003 Mouton Cadet)
Ice Wine

Onion
Leek (julienned)
Chicken or Fish/Seafood Stock
Salt and Pepper
A pinch of ground red chilli

Carrot (julienned)
Zucchini (julienned)
Red Pepper (julienned)

Turnip (julienned)

Marinate the foie gras with the Ice Wine, add salt and pepper to taste. Wrap a piece of foie gras with or without a thin slice of black truffle in a wonton skin (or between 2 wonton skins like an Italian raviole). Seal with a constarch and hot water paste and make sure that there are not too many air pockets or the ravioles will burst open during the cooking.

In a casserole, heat up a little bit of olive oil and brown the finely sliced onion. Reduce the red and ice wines. Add in the julienned leeks. And the stock.

Only about 5 minutes before you are ready to serve the soup should you then add in the zucchini, carrots etc. The idea is to keep them a little crunchy.

And be careful with the ravioles as you poach them, they take really very little time to cook and are best eaten slightly rare. I would leave them in just the time it would take for the wonton skins to turn transparent and then fish them out quickly. In fact, use a separate pot, let the water boil, put in the ravioles, do not cover the pot and make sure the water doesn't boil again.

This dish is really yummy and is a delicate way to eat duck liver, everyone I've made it for loved it.

Lamb Tagine with Dried Apricots

In Paris, it is difficult not to rub shoulders with the huge Chinese, Indo-chinese, North African, Black African etc communities living in the city (making it one of the most wonderful in the world). We have as such also been exposed to these different cuisines and occasionally would have the craving for...a Moroccan Lamb Tagine with Dried Apricots, for example.

I didn't have a Tagine, but a normal casserole that doesn't lose moisture easily would do just as well and even better would be a porcelain cookware with cover like my Emile Henry cocotte that is meant for cooking in the oven. Just do not use a pressure cooker. I used a casserole the last time.

The dish is really simple to make and is best served with couscous grains/semolina.

1 Kg of Lamb (leg or shoulder cut into big cubes)
1 Tsp ground Paprika
2 Tsp ground Ginger
1 Tsp ground Coriander Seeds
2Tsp ground Cumin
2 Tsp ground Cinnamon
A pinch of ground Cloves
A pinch of ground Nutmeg
1 Tsp Mustard Seeds
A few Saffran strands

2 Onions (chopped)
A few cloves of Garlic (lightly bashed, but to be left in their shirts)
Coriander Leaves (finely chopped)

Fennel Bulb
Celery
Carrots
Potatoes
Turnips
Red or yellow Bell Peppers
Tomatoes (I used cherry tomatoes sliced into halves)
Sweet Peas

Meat Stock

Honey
Brown Sugar
Bay leaf
Salt and Pepper
Ground Almonds

Green Tea with Rose
250g of Dried Apricots

Couscous grains
Salted Butter
Olive Oil
Raisins
Sliced Almonds

Prepare a green tea (rose petals or essence add a nice touch) and put in the dried apricots to be infused for at least an hour. Marinate the lamb with the spices.

In a large casserole heat up a generous amount of olive oil and brown the marinated lamb cubes. Add in the onions and garlic. Now add in the brown sugar, honey, bay leaf and coriander leaves. Stir for a few minutes and then add in the roughly sliced vegetables. Pour in the meat stock. Arrange the dried apricots on top of the meat and vegetables, drain the tea onto it and cover the casserole. Cook over medium-low heat for at least an hour. Add salt and pepper to taste during the cooking and to thicken the sauce, one can stir in some ground almonds. I always adjust my spices etc during the cooking, so in the end I have no real idea how much of everything I've actually used. The meat should be tender, there should be plenty of sauce (sweet and spicy) and it should be neither watery nor too thick.

Prepare the couscous by pouring hot water onto the grains (just enough to cover them). Fork through with a fork to loosen the grains. Add in some salted butter. Put the bowl into the microwave and microwave for 2 minutes. Add in a generous amount of olive oil, salt and pepper and continue to fork through the grains. If you wish, add in some raisins and mix well. Serve with some sliced almonds (roasted or otherwise).

It wasn't too good for our diet as we were supposed to avoid eating carbo in the evening, but nobody complained about it when it was known that we would be having it for dinner...In fact, I left the lamb cooking on the stove and left for my Pilates class and almost had no dinner to eat upon my return!

Incidentally, I actually took out the fennel bulbs halfway through the cooking, drained them and then grilled them separately. To be served with a pinch of salt and lemon with the couscous and the lamb (but I forgot to put them on the plate when I had the picture taken).

La neige finalement est au rendez-vous! (Hot Chocolate with Cream)

For once in my life (really quite once, trust me), I have been efficient and had actually booked two ski holidays (Oberjoch and Flaine) for the winter season well in advance. So November came, but not the snow. Nada in December either. Oh oh...

Though I was really happy with the gentle winter, I must say that I was starting to panic as no snow = no ski. And what am I going to do with my ski reservations then?

Then on Tuesday morning, at around 10am (I remember that as I was driving to shop in Metzingen), the first flakes started to fall. It was -1ºC. It continued to snow and didn't stop till Wednesday evening. This meant that we woke up on Wednesday morning to more than 30cm of snow all of a sudden. It was -6ºC.

Panic aboard everywhere. It took me ages to drive the kids to school. Eldest Boy arrived in school 35 minutes late, Baby Girl nearly 2 hours. I got my car stuck in snow in a few places and couldn't enter Baby Girl's school's street, for example. On my way from lunch at Neuhausen to pick her up in Stuttgart, I had the shock of my life when I saw two eternal lanes of trucks ahead of me (it made it to the news on TV)...

As Hubby so conveniently found himself away in Italy this fateful week, it fell upon me to remove the snow in my driveway. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to drive my car into my garage. And if somebody should trip and fall in front of my house, apparently I would be liable for it.

It took me 3 hours to get the job done. And a good 20 minutes were en plus as I decided to shovel the snow in front of my elderly neighbours' garage as well. No, it wasn't so much out of goodwill as embarrassment - as I've been laughing at the Germans for being so precise about what is yours and mine, and I didn't want to be the butt of my own joke. They never thanked me for it, by the way.

The kids were ecstatic about the snow, of course. They got out all of their ski suits, gloves etc and went to school in really good spirits. We had 2 terraces and a big garden full of snow and I allowed them to make a snowman with the snow in the small terrace (didn't want water all over the house). Well, at least some people were happy.

On Sunday, Hubby took everyone to a small slope in the forest near our house to snow sled. They had great fun while we were stressed out keeping an eye out for the other sleds, going to the bottom of the slope to help the babies up etc. Then of course they kept fighting for the bigger sled and we had to manage that as well.

On our way back, Hubby said that it would be nice if we could have a hot chocolate and some cake and while it was too late to be baking then, I thought that I could certainly make some hot chocolate for the tribe.

Home-made Hot Chocolate :

250g of Dark Unsweetened Dessert Chocolate (broken up into pieces)
1 Tbsp of Fruit Sugar
3/4 litre of Fresh Milk

Heavy cream for whipping
Fruit Sugar
A touch of Rum
Van Houten's unsweetened chocolate powder
Ground Cinnamon (optional)

In a heavy-bottomed casserole pour in 100ml of water (to prevent burning) and milk. Melt the chocolate pieces in it, but do not let the liquid boil. Add in the sugar and the remaining milk and keep stirring over low-medium heat.

Whip the cream with the sugar and rum till stiff. Pour the chocolate into mugs and scoop some cream on top of it. Sprinkle the chocolate powder, and if you wish, ground cinnamon or even chocolate shavings over it.

It has stopped snowing since. I'm fine with it as I really find it a pain, but it would be nice if just before we leave for our 1st ski trip this season (to Oberjoch in Germany late-February), it should snow enough for us to be able to ski :-).

PS : Photo Snow 1 = My larger terrace and Photo Snow 2 = My driveway in front of the garage. The red Renault Espace stuck out on the pavement was my car. Really stuck.

Update

This post is to update friends and family about Hubby's next job move.

So I was saying the last time that Hubby had a few interviews with F*. It took the company less than a week from the day they first met him to decide to hire him, which was really fast for such an important position. We are all excited about it, especially Eldest Son. The boy is already dreaming about being given a special tour around and meeting a few personalities.

They wanted Hubby to start work in February, which would be impossible vis-à-vis his current position and the family. The two companies (they are from the same Group) are currently negotiating with each other for his departure/arrival date and we think that it'll most probably be in early March.

Which would mean separation for a few months, as the rest of the family will remain in Stuttgart till July, so that the children may finish school more or less normally. We'll have to take turns travelling between Germany and Italy in between (on weekends and during the school holidays). Nothing new, we've already done that on our last two expatriations. Though this time around it will be the longest.

The other decision that we've made is that we are going to give up the idea of living in Milan (where there is a French school). Living in Milan would entail living separately during the week. And Hubby told me the other day that he would really prefer to come home to us every day. I must say that I was really relieved to hear that, as I do not quite fancy being on my own so much after all.

So we are going to live in Bologna (the nearest big town). Where they have Europe's oldest University. Where spaghetti bolognesa came from. Next to Modena where we'll be able to buy excellent Balsamic vinegar from. Less than 2 hours from Milan, Venice, Rimini and Florence. Anyway, I digress.

We still have the schooling problem for Eldest Son (who incidentally got 20/20 for German and a super shameful 3.5/20 for Maths, which as you can imagine was so out-of-the-point and so get-my-blood-boiling). Then I came across a private school in the town. Swiss-style blah blah, bilingual education Italian-English, Italian-Spanish, Italian-French...

I jumped. It seemed so God-sent. The child will be able to follow a French school curriculum (via the French distance-learning organisation CNED) in the school thanks to a French teacher who would be specially hired to teach him. He'll also learn Italian, lunch in school and be able to take up activites like Judo, Football, Guitar lessons, swimming etc in the afternoon. Only catch - be prepared to fork out 1350 Euros per month per child. I sat down.

Oh but what the heck, I was thinking of doing the CNED programme with him myself and we all know that patience is not really one of my greater qualities. And my French is pretty good if I may say so, but it's still not my first language and will be tiring after a while. And I really have better things to do with my life. And the company may just pay for it.

Next, we have the housing issue. We hope to rent a big house with a swimming pool. Bologna was a Communist stronghold. So working class is more the thing. Nice houses for rent will be hard to come by. And the first indications show that we should expect to pay up to 5000 Euros per month for one if we should find it. That's double what we are paying now for our house in Stuttgart, and isn't that crazy for a country where the average income is much lower than its German neighbour? Catch no ball...

Anyway, like One Wheel said, must look on the bright side of things. With Hubby's new status, we'll be entitled to up to THREE company cars (one for the guy, one for his wife and one for his mistress ha ha). Though you'll have to pay your own petrol. I don't care much for cars, truth be told, I drive when I have no alternative. So to make sure that it'll be painless, I ask that my car be on automatic gears, have a GPS, 5 doors and enough space for two strollers.

Hubby, believe it or not, must have spent a total of at least 5 hours on the Internet today looking at cars (they have to be from the Group's brands though). Ahhh...hogging the computer all day long! And so you can imagine that I have not managed to invite people (to whom I've said that I'll be inviting them over for lunch etc) to the house...And soon Hubby will be away!

Anyway, he said that if I'm not going to freak out over the amount of money that we'll have to pay for petrol, he'll get me an Alfa Romeo 159 Sport Wagon. Whatever that is. I told him that I want it to be red, my favourite colour. For himself, despite all that time staring over cars, he still couldn't decide between the AR Brera and the AR Spider. The latter is a convertible and has 2 seats. I told him that that's a car for selfish people and that he should go for the one with at least 4 seats, right? What if I need him to help me pick up the kids from school?

Chances are that once I'm there, I'll end up walking or taking the bus. I've no talent for parking cars and I'm a cheapskate when it comes to paying for official parking lots. Besides, thieves are apparently everywhere in Italy, why risk having the car stolen in the streets, right?

Right now, I have other things to worry about, like Eldest Son's pathetic grades, the outbreak of red marks on his face this morning (doctor at the hospital said it was due to an insect bite, but what insect during this cold winter season?), his irritated scalp, the fungus growing in different parts of the house (due to the humidity), the tree that fell down in the terrace due to the wind and the snow, being alone for 4 months when Hubby starts work in Italy...

When Hubby is not around (sigh), I know that I'd be less motivated to cook. I'll just snack, eat junk food. He does bring out the better things in me, come to think of it. So now I have to psyche myself not to slack etc. I have to be so up to the mark as Northern Italy is chic and fashionable, I may be rubbing shoulders with personalities like Michelle Yeoh (but honestly I'm not the idol admiring sort, could never understand how teenagers could use their savings to buy presents for their Stars when by definition a Star is a million times richer than you and I and should be buying us presents instead...), and I'll need to not look like the hundreds of thousands of poor university students about town (have already had my share of looking it years ago). I think that as usual, I'll just lock myself up at home.

Will keep you folks updated if I get more concrete news.

Recent Eats

Hubby has been away quite a bit lately. And when he's not around I like to help myself to my simple Asian stuff, no need to put on the European Gourmet Act. Tomorrow he leaves for the week, so we'll be having rice porridge week-long with all kinds of different dishes (e.g. pork with black bean sauce, sambal prawns etc). The last time he was away, we had some of the following :

Char Siu Puffs (made the char siu myself but not the puff pastry)

Lemon Chicken

Pork Rib Udon Soup

with its garnishing

Cod Fish in Thai Green Curry (the filets were lightly battered)

Potato and Dal Curry (served with Dosai)

Hot and Sour Soup/Soupe Pékinoise/Suan La Tang

Baby Boy before he was even two, would tell us that he wanted to eat soupe pékinoise (Hot and Sour Soup). And whenever we ate in a Chinese restaurant, you can be sure that that's exactly what he would order for himself for his entrée.

Without fail, the waiter/waitress would inform us that the soup would be too hot for the child. They must be joking, calling the fadish soup you usually find here in Europe "hot". They do not know the real meaning of the word.

Actually, Big Boy and Baby Girl are fans of the soup too. Thanks to in vitro chilli and curry training. In Paris, we usually eat it chez Da Jia Le (one of these days I'll install a Chinese keyboard - if I manage to figure out One Wheel's Greek instructions...) in the 13e arrondissement. Not too bad. Could be very good or mediocre depending on the Cantonese chef's mood.

Well, the other day, I told myself, why not make it myself? They tend to slurp it up by the bowlfuls, it'll be cheaper this way. Besides I'm on a carbo (reduction) diet, over here in Germany, free-flow of rice comes with the (usually lousy) dishes in the Chinese restaurants and I'm the see-rice-eat-rice kind of person...So if I do not walk into a Chinese restaurant I will not be eating alot of rice!

I basically experimented quite a bit with the vinegar, pepper etc à mon goût, so measurements will not be exact.

Chinese dried mushrooms or fresh Shitake mushrooms (julienned)
Brown button mushrooms, black fungus (optional)
Spring Onions (julienned)
Ginger (julienned)
Garlic (diced)
Chicken filets (diced)
Cooked ham (julienned)
Carrots (diced or julienned)
Zucchini (julienned)
Bean curd (the medium-soft type)
Sherry
Chicken stock
Vinegar (White rice or Dark)
Soy Sauce
Fish sauce
Sesame oil
Chilli Padi
White pepper
Cornflour
Egg

I started by browning the chicken, ginger, spring onions and garlic (everything finely diced or julienned). Followed by the mushrooms, carrots and cooked ham. Next, I poured in some sherry, chicken stock and water. Followed by loads of white pepper (the heat of the soup comes from pepper rather than chilli), 1-2 Tbsps of soy sauce, fish sauce and black Chinese vinegar. A touch of sesame oil. 1 chilli padi (diced). The julienned zucchini (I dislike bamboo shoots so I used zucchini instead and it has to be added in quite towards the end so as to remain crunchy), and tofu. Then I stirred in cornflour mixed in water, as much as is needed to thicken the soup. Finally drizzled a beaten egg into the soup.

The soup turned out really great and the fun part is that we get to decide what veggie etc go into it. And no MSG.

Hubby said that I had gone a bit crazy with the chilli, which I found puzzling 'coz I was thinking as I was drinking it that I should have added more...

Mama I Love You!

Baby Girl came up from the Hobby Room in the basement one afternoon to inform me that Baby Boy had just peed on the carpet.

A few minutes later I heard Baby Boy climbing up the stairs. And singing at the same time, very loudly, the song that I've been singing him since he was born, "Armand baby, Mama loves Armand..."

He came into my office. Looking extremely nonchalant. Hard to imagine that this was the boy who just peed (once again) on my carpet and who was walking around with wet and stinking pants and all. I gave him a dirty look.

He started screaming at the top of his lungs, "MAMA I LOVE YOU!!! MAMA I LOOOVE YOU!!!"

Galette des Rois

January 6 (3 Kings' Day or Épiphanie) is not a public holiday in France. But everywhere in the country mothers, fathers and bakers would be busy baking Galette des rois, basically puff pastry filled with an almond paste (frangipane). It commerates the day Baby Jesus was presented to the 3 Kings Balthazar, Melchior and Gaspard.

Children especially like this occasion, as a porcelain figure would normally be hidden in the pastry before it was baked and the person finding it would be King. He/she gets to wear a crown, choose his/her Queen (and normally offer the next Galette to those around him/her).

I made four Galettes this year on three separate days. I was glad that they turned out really well and that I received plenty of compliments from my guests (and especially from Hubby - a frangipane lover).

The recipe :

2 round discs of Puff Pastry (for 6-8 persons)
125g of Butter (I used salted butter)
125g of Sugar (I used fruit sugar)
4 Eggs (one for brushing the galette with)

300g of ground Almonds
25g of Maizena

2 Tbsps of Rum
1 Tbsp of Fleur d'Oranger

Beat the melted butter (in pieces but not warm nor liquid) with the sugar till you get a creamy dough. Add 3 eggs, the ground almonds, Maizena, rum and fleur d'oranger extract. I like to leave the filling in the fridge for a few hours before using it.

Spread the frangipane/almond filling in the middle of one of the puff pastry discs, hide the porcelain figure in it, cover with the other disc. There should be a 2-3 cm border of empty space between the edge and the filling (so that the filling will not flow out of the pastry) and one must seal the edges firmly (but not too hard or we'll not see the different pastry layers) with cold water. Make patterns on the top disc with a knife and brush a beaten egg over it. Bake in a pre-heated 200ºC oven for 20-25 minutes.

The youngest person at the table normally gets to close his eyes and designate who gets a particular piece of the tart. Do not bite into your galette too hard or you may break your teeth if it happens to contain the porcelain figure.

Bistro Steak

It is not easy finding good beef for steak in Stuttgart. Beef usually comes in three basic forms : for steak (often badly cut), chopped or for goulash. They do not know how to cut up the carcass into lovely and distinct parts like the ribs (côte de boeuf), cheeks (joue), faux filet, entrecôte, bavette, rumpsteak, onglet etc etc. And when you found some supermarket selling entrecôte, it turned out to be the type of meat that gave out a lot of water when you started to cook it and that could never be grilled. And a few other French mothers here have told me the same thing, we were getting quite resigned to the whole thing.

Then I saw this big piece of vacuum-packed beef in the REWE supermarket near my house. From Brazil. I bought it, sliced it myself and grilled it and it was really quite delicious. I ignore if it contained any hormones, but it didn't give out water when cooked and was really quite tender and beggars can't be choosers so I'll live with the doubt.

We eat our steak rare. So basically just a few thick slices, and maximum 5 minutes on each side on a really hot grill, some olive oil, salt, pepper, Herbes de Provence.

I've also done a Roast Beef with the meat, most recently feeding 6 adults and 6 children with it. I heated up my porcelaine receptacle in the oven with some olive oil inside catching my meat on it as I put it into the oven. 20 minutes for a nicely rare Roast. It is true that the blood below the slices of beef looked a little gross in the picture, but it was great mixed with the red wine and shallot sauce that Hubby made to go with the roast. I served the meat with sauteed mushrooms, green beans and fried potatoes.

Sale Sale Sale!!!

January and July are two of my favourite months. I am at my most motivated and active in those months. There's nothing like a good Sale/ Soldes/ Saldi/ Rebajas/ Schlussverkauf to keep the adrenaline going, give meaning to life etc.

When I was living in Singapore, I used to consecrate a day or two to 8-hours-at-a-stretch Sale outings during THE Season. I would start at Palais Renaissance and finish at Plaza Singapura. And another day or two for the different neighbourhood malls. By the end of THE Season, I would more or less be able to look at whatever someone was wearing and guess where she had gotten her stuff from. And I wasn't rich. But window shopping needs no purse, just some stamina and lots of spirit. It's a free and healthy sport.

I sometimes wonder if I really needed to buy anything at all. I have to admit that the joy lies more in having fun trying on all sorts of clothes and accessories, and in finding a really good bargain. It's the Hunt. I almost never buy anything that is not on Sale. And pretty often I would discover (yet again) that I have no room in my wardrobe for more and would end up giving stuff away. Like this weekend. Invited 2 friends over and distributed some of the stuff. But the rest (some new and never worn) I usually just put them into the old-clothes box one finds here and there in the neighbourhood. Am trying to convince myself that I'm doing my little bit for charity this way.

Ever since I have a Hubby and a few kids, shopping has become even more wonderful and fun. Now I enlarge my repertoire and get to shop in the Men's and Kids' Departments. I have the excuse to spend more money, decide what they wear. It is like my paper dolls come to life. Of course as Hubby pointed out often enough, the problem is that I buy so much the children often do not really have the opportunity to wear their clothes/shoes more than a few times, if at all. And I tend to hide them so well (as I also tend to buy for like a season or 2 in advance) I often forget that I even have them and then it would be too late and they couldn't even wear them at all.

Then my sister has children. Also 3. And I can pass on some of the nicer clothes to my nieces and nephew :-).

Now my best friend just got pregnant :-) ;-). This is getting really interesting.

Actually outside Sale Season I also shop alot. If you think about it, I'm like Singapore, evergreen and equatorial, I buy all year round. I am a member of several Private Sales (vente privée) websites in France. It has become a career, if you wish. I like to say that both Hubby and myself we are Buyers. He spends his company's money and I spend his.

This Season I started out in Stuttgart City centre, chez Zara, Mango, Esprit, Oasis, H&M, the usual. Not too bad, there were not many shops, but there were not many shoppers either, so there were often still sizes etc up for grabs.

What is really exciting about Stuttgart though is the existence of Metzingen. More precisely, of Designer Factory outlets in Metzingen. A few years ago when Hubby first visited Metzingen, there was more or less only the Hugo Boss Factory Outlet in the town. A few years down the road, other brands have sprouted up like mushrooms around the historical Boss outlet and carloads of tourists turn up at 10 sharp every morning to hunt for bargains in the different shops : Polo Ralph Lauren, Esprit, Burberry, Nike, Hugo Boss, Bally, Puma, Escada, Marc O'Polo, Möve, Joop...to name but a few.

Metzingen's just 40 minutes by car from where I live. The only problem is that I do not have much time to myself everyday, so last week I actually went to shop there 4 mornings in a row (Wed - Sat), each time having only 2 hours to do so. And I'm still not done yet! I'll return next week when Hubby's in Mexico and I get the use of the car. I've stupidly given away two down jackets before I have bought a new one and we're still in the middle of winter...

Well, I am left with one Summer Sale before we leave for Italy. But Italy is second in Europe for Designer Outlet shopping (after the UK and just before France) and we'll be living 2 hours away from Milan. It looks promising for the continuation of my shopping career. Hooray!

But one thing I miss about shopping here in Europe is the lack of a decent place to lunch in. In Singapore, we would have been spoilt for choice. When I think of the lousy bakery between Esprit and Polo in Metzingen or McDonald's in the MacArthur Glen in Troyes...If only they knew how much more rewarding shopping would be if we could have something delicious to snack on in between digging through the clothes. Which is why I think I'll bring along my own foie gras sandwiches next week.

Conversation Between Two Babies

Overheard yesterday (in French) :

4 year old girl : "What is wrong with you baby cat?"

2 1/2 year old boy : "The doctor poked me with a needle..."

G : "Does it hurt, baby cat?"

B : "Of course. Miao..."

G : "OK, let's kill the doctor."

B : "With a pistol?"