Assam Stingray, Ginger Pork Liver and Bean Sprouts and Other Goodies

Mom came to visit me for a few weeks last month. As she's not fond of European food in general, I endeavoured to cook her Singaporean dishes wherever possible.

One of them was an Assam Stingray with Green Beans (Assam Kuah Pedas being a Tamarind and Ginger Flower-based sauce. Ladies' Fingers would have been better than green beans, but I couldn't get any then). I didn't make the gravy myself as I was really busy just back from our holiday in Tuscany and was fortunate to have a pack of Brahim's on hand. As it was, we went on a day trip to Strasbourg and were able to get hold of some fresh stingrays, so voilà the dish.

Another dish that I made was what I like to call the "ABC Chicken Wings" - in memory of the honey and black soya sauce wings that I used to buy from a food stall in Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre named ABC on an almost daily basis when I was a teenager. Out of a desperate desire to taste the dish again, I managed to cook the chicken wings out of pure memory of its taste and they tasted just like those that I used to buy nearly 2 decades ago!

What I did was to marinate the wings for a few hours in honey, dark soy sauce, sugar, oyster sauce, sesame oil, salt, pepper, ground paprika and a touch of sherry. Then I heated up some sesame oil in a non-stick frying pan and browned a generous amount of sliced ginger and crushed garlic. When everything was fragrant, I added in the marinated chicken wings (without their sauce) and grilled them in the fragrant oil. In the bowl that used to contain the wings, I added some water to the remaining marinade and stirred in 2 Tsps of corn starch. When the wings were nicely grilled, I stirred in the mixture to make a sauce and the chicken wings turned out moist and tender. They go quite well served on a bed of crispy Iceberg lettuce.

With the Agar-agar Tupperware mould that I've inherited from mom, I also made a traditional Almond Jelly with Longans. Could have used ground almonds, sugar and agar agar strips to make the jelly, but I took the easy way out and just used a packet of Asian Home Gourmet mix to do it.

Hubby and the kids are not at all into pork liver which I adore so mom's visit was a good occasion to prepare a dish with it. I therefore made Pork Liver with Ginger, Spring Onions and Bean Sprouts - a délice. The recipe is similar to my Chicken with Ginger and Spring Onion stir-fry.

The following are a few other simple dishes that mom likes, but I don't suppose that they will be popular with the rest of the world so I won't bother to post the recipes.

Pork with Iceberg Lettuce and Mushrooms

Sambal Prawns

Fishball, Meatball, Tofu and Chinese Cabbage Stir-fry

Preserved Sichuan Vegetable Soup with Fishballs, Meatballs and Chinese Mushrooms

Oven-baked Codfish with Vegetables

Codfish is about the best fish that we can find here in Stuttgart. As such, I try to cook it at least once a week. And with my super porcelain casserole meant for oven-cooking, making a delicious and nutritious Oven-baked Codfish with Vegetables is but a simple gesture.

I basically just pour a generous amount of olive oil in my casserole and place my codfish filets in it. Next, I would throw in vegetables (all sliced up, their thickness etc depending on how long each type of veggie would take to cook) like red onions, celery, zucchini, carrots, potatoes, red peppers, cocktail tomatoes, different types of mushrooms, some crushed garlic, herbs like thyme, fennel seeds, dill, parsley...Salt and pepper to taste, half a cup of white wine and then cover the casserole with its lid and put it in a hot oven (200ºC) and bake for 40-60 minutes. As simple as that! Bon appétit.

PS : This was how my casserole looked like before I covered it and put it in the oven.

Spaghetti alle Vongole

I must have eaten this everyday when I was in Tuscany. Simple but tasty dish. Found some vongole at Markthalle in Stuttgart yesterday and just had to make the dish. Turned out really great.















400g of Vongole (Venus Clams)
2 huge cloves of fresh Garlic
8 Cocktail Tomatoes (cut into half)
Chilli (optional)
Olive Oil
White Wine
Salt and Pepper to taste
Parsley

Lemon juice
Freshly grated Parmesan

Spaghetti for 2

Heat up a generous amount of olive oil in a frying pan. Brown the finely-sliced garlic. Add in the cocktail tomatoes and the chilli. Stir a little and then add in the washed and drained fresh vongole. Pour in some of the wine and then cover the pan. When the clams are all opened up (do not overcook), remove the cover, add salt and pepper to taste, add in the chopped parsley, squeeze in the lemon juice, serve hot over a bed of spaghetti and do not forget the parmesan cheese (but not too much or it'll kill the subtle taste of the vongole).

Seafood Paella

Seafood Paella

I have picked up Spanish cooking while living in Andalusia. The food is simple but good, though after a while it got a little boring and we were happy to move on. I guess that once you're exposed to French and Singaporean cuisines, you can no longer accept less. Anyway, most of the Spanish dishes are easy to make and leave enough room for further improvement which suits me just fine.

Last night, I made the famous Spanish dish from Valencia - Seafood Paella. Spending my day bringing the kids to school (3 different ones) and back, cooking 3 meals, going through the eldest's schoolwork etc means not wanting to spend hours making a meal like I used to. I try to make just one dish and it has to be simple but good and balanced.

Paella :

300g italian arborio rice or valenciana paella rice

6 chicken drumsticks marinated with ground turmeric, paprika, salt, pepper

4 chorizo, chipolata or merguez sausages

8 big tiger prawns

2 calamari/squid sliced

a few mussles, clams and/or scampi

lots of olive oil

1l of chicken or seafood stock with some Jerez/Sherry added

1 bay leaf

1 big (red) onion sliced finely

5 cloves garlic ditto

1 red pepper roughly sliced

8 cocktail plum tomatoes halved

1 cup of sweet peas

a few safran threads

fresh parsley

lemons

I have a paellera (the pan with 2 handles for making paella) but it's not non-stick, has no cover and has not the right fire to go with (I'm on electric). So I opted for a big non-stick frying pan that looks like a paellera instead.

The most important thing for me in making paella is to give flavour to the rice. So this means pouring a generous amount of olive oil in the pan and basically cooking the prawns, squid, chicken, shellfish (except the clams and mussles) and sausages in it and then removing them and setting them aside after that. Do not overcook, of course.

Cook the clams/mussles separately in a pot with a bit of olive oil, garlic and Jerez. When the clams have opened up, remove them from the pot and side aside. Strain the juice and add it to the stock. Put in the strands of Safran.

Next, add more olive oil if necessary to the fragrant oil in the pan and brown the onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes. Spread them out evenly over the pan, add in the peas and the rice (usually we do not stir the rice during the cooking when making a paella so spread it out evenly from the start and make sure the grains are nicely coated in the oil). Followed by the stock and the bay leaf. Then place the chicken, prawns, squid, shellfish, sausages etc on top of the rice as tastefully as you can manage. Cover tightly with aluminium foil and cook till the stock is fully absorbed by the rice (about 15-20 minutes).

Serve hot with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Beef Horfun (Flat Rice Noodles with Beef)

I am going to start blogging anew by posting a few dishes made before I left for Tuscany. One of them was Beef Horfun, a simple but tasty dish. Hubby prefers the version just with tiger prawns and beaten egg but that will have to be for another time.

The beef horfun comes in different versions e.g. dry-fry or with sauce (simple or bean) and the one I made was with bean sauce. I would have preferred the thicker flat rice noodles but couldn't find them here in Stuttgart so had to make do with the slimmer ones. I should also have been a little more hard-working and fry the rice noodles once over with dark soya sauce before using them for the dish but well, I was lazy.

Otherwise it wasn't complicated to make. First marinate for at least an hour 300g of beef slices (which I should have sliced thinner) with 2 Tbsps of Preserved Black and Brown Soy Beans, 1 Tbsp each of Oyster Sauce, Light Soya Sauce and Dark Soya Sauce. 2 Tbsps of Sherry, 1 Tsp of sugar, a touch of Sesame Oil, 1 Tsp of Corn Starch, salt and pepper.

Next, prepare 350ml of chicken or beef stock, a small cup of water with 2 Tsps of Corn Starch and 1 Tsp of Light Soy Sauce stirred in, another bowl with 2 beaten eggs (optional).

In a frying pan, brown 3 cloves of diced garlic, 2 sliced shallots, a small piece of ginger and a stalk of celery (peeled and sliced) in some vegetable oil. Add in half a red pepper (sliced). Depending on how you like your beef (we like it rare), add the meat with its marinade into the pan bearing in mind the amount of time you want it to stay in the pan. Stir fry and mix well with the garlic etc. Then add in the (preferably once-cooked with dark soya sauce) flat rice noodles, the chicken stock and the corn starch mixture. Stir well. If you wish to add the beaten egg, do so when the sauce starts to thicken. Serve hot with sliced red chilli and fresh coriander leaves.

PS : You could also remove the beef from the pan before adding in the rice noodles and then putting everything together just before serving to avoid over-cooking the beef.

Wisdom Teeth

I've put off having my 4 badly turned-out wisdom teeth removed for as long as I could. Because I believed that they were there for a purpose i.e. replacing bad molars (mine are all patched up with grey filling - metal smile) and any tooth is better than none, nobody in their right mind should have theirs removed if they're not decayed.

But it is difficult meeting every dentist in the eye, for every different one I've been to in the different countries I've lived in believed that these 4 teeth were causing my other teeth to decay. So when my mom came over to stay for a few weeks recently and could help with the kids, I decided to go ahead and have all four removed at the same time. Too smart for my own good.

Boy was it painful. One of them was extracted normally and the other 3 drilled out. The surgeon sewed the holes up with one end of the thread through my inner cheeks and it was horrible. I had a bloated face for 3 days and a gnawing ache for 2 weeks. It gets especially bad in the late afternoon. Even as I am writing this, the mouth is still aching and I spend ALL my time tongueing the 4 holes, it's really tiring. And I do not dare to brush my molars (fearing pain to the holes), so if this continues it wouldn't be good for the remaining old big teeth.

Cooking and eating is therefore not a very exciting entreprise for the moment. And school starts next week for my kids. So when things are a little more settled, I'll be back to blog. There's my 3 weeks in Tuscany to blog about and all the dishes I've been making aching teeth or not. And tomorrow we'll be dining in the only Michelin 2-star restaurant in Stuttgart. Lots of backblog...

À bientôt. Hasta Luego.

Away in Florence

Well, Summer’s here and with the eldest under compulsory schooling, we’re obliged to travel during his school holidays. Hubby’s off to Florence in Italy for an intensive Italian language course and we’re going to tag along, grandmothers included.

So I’ll be away starting Saturday 05/08 for 3 weeks. Happy Summer Hols everybody!

Learn more about beaulotus

Little Pleasures : Fusion Samoussas (Curried Potatoes & Egg), Moroccan Briouates (Spiced Minced Meat) and Mini Tartelets (Tomatoes, Cheese, Bacon...)

By popular demand, I have decided to blog my recipes for 3 titbits that I've made recently for 3 different parties (2 for mothers and 1 for my son's class) : 1) Moroccan Briouates with Minced Meat, Spices and Herbs, 2) Mini Tartelets with Cherry Tomatoes, Cheese, Bacon and Onions and 3) Fusion Samoussas with Curried Potatoes and Eggs.

Moroccan Briouates

Filo pastry sheets (easily found in Greek groceries)

Melted Butter and Kitchen Brush

400g Minced Meat (Beef or Lamb)

1 Onion chopped

Fresh Coriander Leaves

Fresh Mint Leaves

Fresh Parsley Leaves

Raisins or Sultanas

1 Tsp Ground Cinnamon

1 Tsp Ground Coriander

1 Tsp Ground Cumin

1/2 Tsp Ground Ginger

1/2 Tsp Ground Paprika

2 Eggs beaten

Lime Juice

Icing Sugar and Ground Cinnamon mixed together (for icing the pastries)

First prepare the meat filling. In a hot pan, brown some chopped onions and the chopped herbs (coriander, mint and parsley), then add in the minced meat. Stir frequently to brown the meat evenly. Stir in the spices, raisins and cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the beaten eggs, stirring all the time. Squeeze some lime juice over it and set aside.

I usually make my pastries in cigar shapes as they are easier to handle. Triangles are easier with crescent-shaped pastry sheets but to save time I usually just use square ones.

Prepare the filo pastry sheets by cutting them up into e.g. 12 x 12 cm squares. With a brush, butter the surface of one sheet and then place another sheet over it. Place a little bit of the meat filling at the bottom part of the sheet, fold in the left and right sides of the sheet (over the meat) and just roll the whole thing from the bottom all the way to the top.

You could fry the pastries in hot oil to have a crispier shell, but I usually just put them in a hot oven (200ºC) for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle the icing sugar and ground cinnamon mix over them before serving.

Mini Tartelets

Puff Pastry

Grated Cheese (e.g. Emmental, Gruyere, Comte, Cheddar...)

Cherry Tomatoes cut into halves

Red Onions finely sliced

Bacon 3cm slices

Fresh Basilic Leaves

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil

Mini Tartelet baking tray and round biscuit cutter

Heat up the oven to 190ºC. Roll out some puff pastry and cut them with a round biscuit cutter (e.g. 8cm in diam.). Place each pastry sheet on a buttered mold. Fill it first with the cheese, then the bacon, place 2-3 cherry tomato halves on it, some of the sliced onions, a small Basilic leaf, a pinch of salt and pepper and finally pour some olive oil over it all. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Samoussas

Filo pastry sheets

Onions diced

Potatoes cubed and cooked in boiling water

Eggs hard boiled

Fresh Coriander Leaves

Fresh Mint Leaves

Curry powder (e.g. with ground turmeric, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, garam masala, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, black onion seeds...)

Curry Leaves

Green Peas

Coconut cream

I would start by browning some diced onions in some oil in a frying pan. Followed by the curry spices (the 1st 4 are the most important, the rest is optional) and the herbes (chopped finely). Then add in the cooked potato cubes, give everything a good stir for a few minutes, add in some coconut cream (we're not making a curry, it's just to make sure that the potatoes are not too dry), the peas and the curry leaves.

When the potatoes are well-curried and just nicely moist, remove from the fire and fish out the curry leaves. Remove from the pan and put the potato filling in a mixing bowl. Add in the hard boiled eggs (roughly sliced) and mash up everything roughly. Roughly because we're not making a puree here, just a chunky mash with the pieces of potatoes, peas and eggs still visible.

I call this Fusion Samoussas because I have chosen to use filo pastry and will bake them in the oven instead of the traditional thicker pastry that goes into the oil for frying. The latter is tastier, but the former finer (and less oily). The filo sheets are prepared as for the Briouates above, filled the same way (just make sure that there are potatoes, eggs and peas in each portion) and goes into the oven for a similar amount of time. And as the result will be drier than the traditional fried samoussas, I have also decided to go the Moroccan way and sprinkle an icing sugar-ground cinammon mix over them before serving. A chilli sweet and sour dip could also be made to go with the Fusion Samoussas. The result was surprisingly tasty.

I have quite a bit of backlog where blogging my recipes is concerned and will have to try to catch up after my return from Florence. In the meantime, happy Summer holidays!

@Sunrice Culinary Academy in Singapore : Thai Cooking

Eating is what we do lots of in Singapore, but before there is anything to eat, someone has to do the cooking. Cuisine is therefore big on the island and they are finally going to capitalise on it, coming up with a few culinary institutes, teaching not only local fare, but also cuisines from our neighbours, the usual French, Italian etc. At @Sunrice Culinary Academy, we met a French Chef who has worked with a few big names in France now here in Singapore to help the cooking school acquire Fusion Cooking instruction expertise. This is all so exciting.

So one morning when we were last in Singapore, Hubby and I decided to sign up for a Thai Cooking class at @Sunrice Culinary Academy situated in a restored old colonial building at Fort Canning Hill, surrounded by forests, a beautiful spice garden, a royal Malay tomb, an archeological excavation site...all in the heart of town, believe it or not.

We were 8 in the class that morning. When we arrived for Part 2 (it was held in 3 parts), the 2 women (Australian and Russian) before us had already visited the Spice Garden, had lemongrass tea and a few savory snacks and were learning how to pound spices to make a paste. A pungent, delicious and eye-watering aroma filled the air as we joined the class.

We watched a cooking demonstration of 2 dishes (Roasted Duck Red Curry and Pandan Chicken) in Part 2 of the class and then prepared 3 dishes (Green Papaya Salad, Hot Basil Stir Fry Noodle, Crispy Ruby) on our own. In Part 3, we ate everything for lunch :-).

Roasted Duck Red Curry

Pandan Chicken (our instructor who's from China)

Green Papaya Salad

Hot Basil Stir Fry Noodle

Crispy Ruby

The dishes were really quite simple to prepare. But we were interested in learning better cooking techniques and in gaining a better understanding of the ingredients used in Thai cooking - which explained why we attended the class. We will certainly attend another cooking class the next time we return to Singapore. The class was well-organised, the facilities good and the surroundings were just lovely. We were pleasantly surprised by what Fort Canning Park had to offer.

Singapore : Makan Makan

I mentioned in an earlier posting that I would be publishing a few pictures of food that I've eaten on my last trip to Singapore. I have not been able to download my photos onto Blogger from my computer for more than a month now and have just discovered that I could do so from a friend's computer (all the way in Singapore), so that's the way my photos are getting onto my Blog for now. And thanks to YL for the help!

Singapore is Makan City (Makan = Eat in the Malay language). Forget the Lion, we do not even know for sure if it ever existed on the island before they bought a few of them for our world-class zoo :-).

In 3 weeks, I had of course eaten more dishes than I could ever post. Not forgetting the fact that 90% of the time, I was so excited seeing the food that I usually forgot to take a picture of it and would have gobbled it up before I remembered. As such, you wouldn't get to see the delicious White Pepper Crabs at No Signboard Seafood Restaurant in Geylang, the Peking Duck and Sharks Fin Soup in some kind of Chinese wine at LaoBeijing Chinese Restaurant at Plaza Singapura, the Fried Sotong Mee people queue up hours for at the new foodcourt in Wisma Atria (I was the 1st customer on the day I was there so heh heh), the Beef Rendang at Rendezvous Nasi Padang Restaurant, the Samsui Chicken at the Soup Restaurant, the Spinach Tofu at Club Chinois, alamak the list goes on. Then of course there are those photos that I had taken badly and couldn't post e.g. Rahim's Bee Hoon Soto and Mixed Satay (the very best), the Seafood Yam Pot at Lai Wah Chinese Restaurant...

But I was lucky that my delicious Nonya dinner at the Straits Inn and another (this time vegetarian) one at Greenland Buddhist Vegetarian Restaurant (both at Upper Serangoon Rd) turned out a few decent photos. So here goes :

Straits Chinese Satay Chicken

Assam Fish Head Curry

Tofu with "Salted Fish"

Vege-tarian Crispy "Fish" in Soya Sauce

"Spare Rib" King

Kangkong Belachan (real veggie :-) )

Hong Kong-style "Roast Meats"

Sweet and Sour "Pork"

I love Buddhist Vegetarian food in Singapore. They are very good, not cheap, taste like the real thing (e.g. meat), does not contain garlic and onions and you can't find it in Europe. So Vegetarians elsewhere just eat vegetables, but in Singapore (and in Taiwan, Hong Kong...), they get to eat "fish" and "meat" too without offending the Goddess of Mercy :-).

Nonya food too is one of my favourites. Hot, sour, sweet, spicy...so shiok and sublime when downed with a few glasses of freshly-squeezed lime juice. I managed only to take 2 pictures from the meal because I had gobbled up the rest before I remembered that I have a blog...

To end this posting, here are pictures of 2 classic hawker fare - Roast chicken rice and another one with char siu and sauce added.

Sigh, feel like returning home again...

Singapore Laksa

A few months ago, I went to lunch at a nice Singapore girl's place here in Stuttgart. And came home with a branch from her laksa plant.

Being a plant killer, I wasn't too convinced that this branch would survive. But it did. It's now a big plant, with lots of branches. It must be one of those hard-to-die kind of plant. And I have so many laksa leaves I do not know if I'll ever be able to eat them all.

Last night I made a Singapore Laksa with the leaves from MY plant :-). Needless to say, it was good. (All measurements aga-aga kind, I'm a feeling kind of cook...)

The spice paste :

1 thumb-sized Turmeric

3-4 pieces Galangal

1 stalk Lemongrass

Lots of Laksa leaves

10 Dried chillies

2 Red chillies

2 Candlenuts

2 Tbsp Shrimp paste

5-6 Shallots

4 Garlic cloves

1 Tbsp ground Coriander seeds

1 Tbsp Palm sugar

Pound or ground all of the above into a fine paste.

In a pot, brown some sliced onions, a fistfull of pounded dried shrimps and heads from about 20 raw and fresh Tiger prawns. Fry the paste till fragrant. Add in 6-10 laksa leaves shredded. Stir in 1 can of Coconut milk. Stir in 3 cups of chicken or seafood stock. Add salt and pepper to taste. Adjust liquid amount before serving (I usually add more milk to have more soup).

Serve the soup piping hot with fresh coriander leaves, slices of fish cake, tau pok, thick rice vermicelli and thick yellow noodles (or like in my case, Spaghetti), bean sprouts, more chilli and of course the prawns. These prawns can be cooked in the soup just before being served (so as not to overcook them), or you could do it like me, I had them grilled in my heavy-iron grill with olive oil, salt and pepper because I like to lick the salt off the shells before I peel them :-).

PS : This is an improved version I made a few weeks later with pan-seared scallops, codfish, tiger prawns, zucchini...

Navarin d'agneau, Tarte Tatin

I am a com-pulsive buyer, this is no secret to those who know me (and some of those who don't :-)). One of my recent acquisitions was a set of expensive porcelain oven cookware from Emile Henry. And with it I have also acquired a desire for pot-cooking in the oven :-).

So this morning I hunted high and low for my kg of leg of lamb, a few types of mushrooms, NEW onions, garlic and potatoes, sweet peas, Dutch peas (haricots mange-tout), baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, red peppers, fresh thyme...

I have decided to make a Navarin d'agneau. It's a kind of lamb pot with vegetables. Something you put into an Emile Henry pot and cook for 2 hours in an oven :-).

As usual, it's a simple dish. Just heat up some olive oil in a frying pan and brown the lamb cut into big cubes in it. As the meat is browning, add in the chopped new onions, garlic and thyme. Cook for another 10 minutes and then sprinkle in 2 Tbsps of flour. Stir and let it brown a little.

Pour everything into a pot with a cover that can go into an oven. Add in about 3/4 l of chicken stock, a bay leaf and the tomatoes, cover the pot, put it into the oven and cook for 1h30 at 180ºC.

At the end of the 1.5 hours, add in everything else, cover and cook for another 30 minutes. As you like it, you can make it very saucy or with thicker gravy. Serve hot with rice, fresh tagliatelles, or if you didn't add in potatoes in the first place, with some pan-fried potatoes. This kind of dishes are often even better heated up again the next day. So I've made a big pot to last 2-3 days (to be served to different audience, of course).

So this dish I'll be serving first of all to my Colombian girlfriend and a new French friend I've recently made through her for lunch. And for dessert, I'll follow through with a Tarte Tartin, having seen lovely apples for sale in the open market in Stuttgart this morning. It would have been ideal if I could find la Reine des Reinettes, but having failed to do so, a few Braeburns will do quite nicely.

It would be adviseable to make the puff pastry oneself, but since I'm quite lazy and as I would already have hosted 10 women and their assorted offspring from my German class for tea in the morning (it's our last class, we're having an International tea party), I'm going to use ready-made puff pastry from the supermarket.

First peel and cut about 3-4 apples into slices (thickness etc as you wish). Heat up the oven to 180ºC. Put 4-5 Tbsps of sugar and 2 Tbsps of water into a pie baking tin and when the oven is hot, put it in near the grill to make a caramel. Watch over it to make sure that it does not burn. When the caramel is ready, take the tin out of the oven, spread the apple slices nicely all over, sprinkle in some ground cinnamon, more sugar (to taste), a few slices of butter (normal or salted). Put the tin back into the oven for 10 minutes. Take it out and let the apples cool for a few minutes.



Cover the apples with the puff pastry (use a fork to poke some holes in it so that it doesn't fluff up weirdly) and put the tin back into the oven (middle shelf). It should cook for between 20 and 30 minutes.

When the tart is ready, take it out of the oven, let it cool for a little while and then flip it over with the help of a big plate. The caramelised apples are on top of the puff pastry. Serve it hot with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream and why not both?

Tiramisu

They say that a picture speaks a thousand words. When I made my Tiramisu a few weeks back I was therefore counting on a few photos to explain the process and save me some typing. As it is, I am still having no success publishing my photos in the Blog :-(.

In any case, in anticipation of our coming trip to Florence in Italy, I have been working up an Italian appetite, unfortunately a little marred by France's loss to Italy in the World Cup and the ensuing hear-say that many Italians are not very happy with the French and will be giving them a hard time if ever they should come across any (according to a few crazy Italians on the forum I was participating in). We'll be spending 3 weeks there in August, of which 2 weeks will include my MIL and one week my own dear mother. Would that still be a holiday? I'll let you know.

The Tiramisu is a really simple dessert, I made it in under 30 minutes, though to have it really good, one'll need to refrigerate it for a few hours if not overnight. You'll just need to get all your ingredients ready, keeping the milk products cold and the cake mixer on the table top.

Enough Sponge Fingers/Boudoirs to make up 2 layers of a square cake tin or any other container

Strong Expresso coffee with sugar added

Italian Marsala wine (or rhum or cognac if you don't have any)

2 tubs (400g) of Mascarpone cheese

1 tub (200g) of Crème fraîche

Half a bottle (250g) of ready-to-whip Cream (crème chantilly)

Sugar (to add in the cream)

Dehydrated Espresso (to add in the cream)

Unsweetened chocolate powder (e.g. Van Houten's)

First, prepare the coffee and add sugar to taste plus 2-3 Tbsps of Marsala wine. Then prepare the filling by whipping up the liquid cream till it's stiff, adding in the mascarpone, crème fraîche, 2 Tsps of dehydrated Expresso, sugar to taste and a touch of marsala wine at the end and giving the all a quick whip (too much whipping will cause the cream mixture to lose its stiffness and volume). Set aside.

Dip the boudoirs in the coffee and wine mixture and coat both sides quickly with the liquid (too much time in the liquid will cause the sponge fingers to disintegrate). Line the cake tin with one layer of the coffee boudoirs.

Spread a generous amount of the cream filling over the layer of boudoirs and sprinkle the unsweetened chocolate powder over it. Repeat the operation so that you have 2 layers of boudoir-cream filling-chocolate powder.

Cover with a plastic food film and keep the dessert refrigerated for a few hours. Easy, n'est-ce pas?

A few modern cooks have come up with Tiramisu with its different ingredients served separately e.g. coffee-dipped boudoir, mascarpone-marsala cream, chocolate served in a cocktail glass...It's not too bad, and you can also play around with the dessert by adding fruits etc.

(PS : Though with a friend's help, I just managed to publish the photos today 21/07/06)

Racism in FIFA 2006

Yes, we all know that France lost the Final match of FIFA 2006. A pity since they dominated the second half of the match. But congratulations to Italy for their 4th victory!

But the worse thing to have happened as far as I’m concerned is Zidane’s headbutting Mazeratti and earning himself a red card for that. Such a horrible way to end his international career.

I have spent 24 hours on the Net trying to find out what different people in the world had to say about it. We all agree that it was wrong of him to give in to provocation no matter how bad it may be. And he has been punished for that, and will always be punished for it with no way to redeem himself.

What disheartened me though is to see, especially in American-dominated forums, the degradation of the discussion about the World Cup into French-bashing (needless to say, also soccer-bashing since most Americans do not like the sport :-)). Serves the “arrogant”, “cowardly”, "ungrateful" etc Frenchies right blah blah. Why these adjectives? Why bring national, racial and religious rivalries into a discussion about soccer?

However wrong his action, what Zidane did brought huge attention to the racism and other trash/foul talk that reigned in this World Cup and in those before it. FIFA 2006 had for goal that of overcoming racism, so if Mazeratti did provoke Zidane with racist slurs, then he had also broken the FIFA spirit and should be taken to task for it. Not Italy, just him. And what has foul talk to do with playing football? After all you play with your feet, not with your mouth.

But at the moment all is just speculation. Hopefully both will care to shed some light on the incident soon.

So I am quite surprised to see so much hatred for the French aboard. I am not French but I have lived in this country and I love it. And no matter how badly they have been fulfilling their principles of Liberté Egalité Fraternité, I know that most in the country hold them dear.

I have also come across many journalists and individuals around the world attempting to dissect Zidane’s Muslim origins (including his given name!), pretending that even though he is a non-practicing Muslim, he is a symbol for the Muslim world and that his action is therefore a shame to all Muslims!

That is horrifying. Zidane is French. Full stop. And it is pathetic trying to use him to make another slur against the Muslims.

Zidane has done much for French soccer, for young people living in sensitive neighbourhoods, for France rich, poor, white or coloured. And for me, one bad mistake among a few others will not erase all the far greater things that he had done.

And no, I do not see why all the time we have to turn the other cheek for someone who slapped us on the 1st one. But that’s just me.

Vive Zidane, you’re a hero!

PS : For those who are fans of Zidane, enjoy this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv4goM7IYY8&search=ZIDANE

Poulet à la Crème et aux Girolles, Lamb Biryani

Poulet aux Girolles

I have been a little demoralised lately being unable to download my photos to Blogger ever since I started using my new Sony Cybershot. My photography skills leave much to be desired but at least you'll be able to see the food I've been talking about.

Anyway, I've been really busy lately trying to clean up the house. The landlord is dropping by on Saturday afternoon to pay us a visit and we therefore have to at least clean the windows and shampoo the (formerly) white carpet in his honour. As it is, I really dislike doing housework, but to have the Hubby chicken out on me once the carpet-cleaning machine was rented was a pain : "I have to prepare a presentation for Monday..."

I spent the whole weekend shampooing the stupid carpet. And you've just finished one section when everybody turned up to leave black footprints on it. And it's really quite gross picking up spiders, dead flies and whatever here and there. It's a chore living in a house.

Not having much time, meals had to be simple. I made a Poulet à la Crème et aux Girolles one day and a Lamb Biryani on another. The Briyani on the evening France beat Brazil in the quarter finals of the World Cup :-).

In the pan

The chicken's really simple and very good. Just need a few chicken breasts (400g), 2-3 shallots (sliced), 1 garlic clove (bashed and sliced), 400g of Girolles (mushrooms) washed and sliced into 2, some white wine, 100ml of crème fraiche, salt, pepper (can use szechuan red peppercorns for deco), some herbs like thyme and estragon.

First, heat up some olive oil in a frying pan and grill the chicken breasts (that you have marinated in some salt, pepper, a pinch of ground turmeric and some lemon juice) till golden brown. Remove the chicken and set aside. In the same oil, fry the shallots. When they start turning translucent, add in the garlic. Add salt, pepper and the herbs. When garlic is fragrant but not brown (or it'll turn bitter), add in the girolles. Cook for 5 minutes, add in the wine and cover the pan and cook over medium heat for another 10 minutes. Uncover the pan, add in the grilled chicken breasts, stir in the crème fraiche and adjust the salt and pepper. Cover and let everything cook in its own steam for another 5 minutes. Before serving, squeeze in some lime or lemon juice if you like it a little more acidic. Serve hot with rice or pasta.

As for the Lamb Biryani, I had chosen to make the simple version as I had to get it out in under 1.5 hours so that hubby could eat it in front of the TV.

The important thing is to get the cubes of lamb well-marinated (at least 2 hours if not half a day) with a mixture of salt, pepper, ground ginger (2 Tsps), fresh garlic (minced, 5 cloves), mustard seeds (1 Tsp), yoghurt (1 cup), fresh green chillies, lime juice, fresh coriander and mint leaves.

I didn't want to risk my rice not being cooked so I washed it and then poured hot water over it and left it standing like that for about 30 minutes. Otherwise, half cook the rice.

In a heavy-bottomed pot, fry 5 sliced onions till they turn brown and then remove them from the oil and drain on some kitchen towel. Set aside. In the same oil, brown the meat with its marinade. Add in a cinnamon stick, a few whole cloves, some black cumin seeds, 1 Tsp of ground coriander, a pinch of nutmeg and a bay leaf. Then add in about 300ml of boiling water, half a cube of meat stock (optional), cover the pot and cook over medium heat till the meat is tender (about 30 minutes if it's young lamb).

When the meat is cooked, add in 1 Tbsp of Garam Masala and pour the rice over it. Add a few bashed cardamoms to the rice and dribble a milk and saffron mixture (just add saffron to about 50ml of milk) over it in such a way that only parts of the rice turn yellow. Cover and cook over low heat till rice is cooked (not overcooked or it'll become sticky). Add in a bit of butter, raisins and cashew nuts or sliced almonds, more fresh mint and coriander leaves and the fried onions and squeeze in some lemon juice before serving.

Mine wasn't very pretty as hubby doesn't like his rice dry and so I made a saucy Biryani. The better compromise could be the bryanis served in Singapore where they make the rice with the lamb and then a curry separately, laddling the latter onto the rice when serving it. And better still, think of layering the dish, making a rice-meat-rice-meat-rice combination topping it with the fresh herbs and almonds before you finish off the cooking.

Do you believe in Ghosts?

My hubby freaks out whenever I start on my ramblings about ghosts. He is too Cartesian for his own good and is no fun for that. Instead of drinking lots, smoking pot and getting all stoned and stupid with his friends in a soirée, he would have done better doing what smart and interesting people do in Singapore - take turns telling ghost stories.

I miss the good clean fun we kids knew how to have back where I came from. Camp nights in school halls or public chalets often end up with a group of us sitting in a circle and exchanging ghost stories. They sometimes sent shivers up our spines and made us ultra-sensitive to our surroundings, but these stories helped boost our story-telling abilities, friendships and most important of all, helped perpetuate our beliefs and lores. Hours waiting for mom's hair to set at the hairdresser's also came to pass when everybody started exchanging such stories :-).

The stories could be first-hand accounts, or second-hand ones ("my mother once...") or beyond ("my mother said that someone told her..."). But nobody cared as long as they were good :-).

I started thinking about ghosts when my Colombian girlfriend took me aside yesterday to tell me that she had felt a presence in her house the night before. She was sleeping in her bed (her hubby was in another room) when she suddenly felt a cold hand creeping up her arm to her back and then pushing her head down really hard on her pillow. She awoke with a start but could neither move nor scream. It took quite a bit of struggling before she could finally call out to her hubby. He came rushing by, but of course they couldn't find anything.

I told her that I was surprised that as a fervent Catholic, she hadn't thought of inviting a priest to bless her flat before she moved in. Where I came from, whether you are Taoist, Buddhist or Christian, you usually prefer to have your dwelling blessed before you live in it. To different degrees, I think we all believe that we co-exist with the supernatural, only that usually we wouldn't be able to see them. You have to be born either with the "3rd Eye" or be a little unlucky to see spirits.

The one and only spirit that I have seen with my own eyes was in the 1st flat that I lived in with my family. I was a little girl then and slept with my parents on the same bed. I still remember the moment vividly. I was sleeping and felt a sudden presence near me. I opened my eyes and saw a big woman standing arms folded on the bed right over me. She was big and strong, but at the same time I could see through her to the windows behind...I had a moment of acute fear, but just turned over and went back to sleep.

Mom said that the block of flats where we lived in anyway was not very "clean". A nurse living a few doors along the corridor spent her evenings summoning spirits on her ouija board. Sometimes apparently the spirits she summoned refused to go away. I remember walking past some flats (usually dark with beams of red light) and feeling horrified because they contained altars filled to the bream with all kinds of Gods and Deities. Eerie...

Back to the idea that we co-exist with the supernatural, as a general rule as such, most if not all dwellings are haunted. But there should normally be no manifestations of any kind as spirits are said to fear humans 70% more than we fear them. So you usually have to be down on your luck to be able to see them; Or if the spirit wants you badly to see it; Or if you are a young child (you have a higher chance of seeing them); Or if you are born with the 3rd Eye.

Mom told me that when my grandmother died when she was still a teenager, they moved out of the flat and another family moved in. Later on, former neighbours told her that no Chinese or Christian family could stay in their former flat as it was badly haunted by my grandmother. Only an Indian Hindu family managed to stay in the flat finally without incident. Sets you thinking about how your religious beliefs could perhaps influence your interactions with the supernatural world.

She also told me how once a friend of my aunt's visited another friend's house and was puzzled when the hostess kept excusing herself (to nobody) when she was walking up or down the stairs. She later found out that the lady had the 3rd Eye (meaning she could see what we couldn't see all the time) and was aware that "another family" stayed in the house and decided that the polite thing to do was to co-exist peacefully with them.

My favourite remains the story of how a couple bought a new flat in Bukit Bartok (on land reclaimed from a cemetary) and would occasionally visit it when it was being renovated. One evening, they were in the lift of their block and 2 men rushed in just as the door was closing. Those men got off at the 5th story while the couple continued to the 9th. When they opened the door to their flat, they got the shock of their lives to find those 2 same men sitting in their living room! The wife fainted on the spot, the husband ran away. Malay neighbours later confirmed that they had seen the same men wandering in the block, but they were not afraid of them (which is why many keepers of cemetaries in Singapore are Malay).

Another story closer to us : Apparently patients of my dad's occasionally mentioned that they saw a little boy walking in and out of the only room in his clinic. But dad has never seen the boy himself :-).

One last story to close this post with. My paternal grandmother died in 1978 or thereabouts. The wake was held in my 3rd Uncle's terraced house. The coffin containing the body was displayed in the middle of the living room, with her picture in front of it. Visitors coming to pay their respects and the family staying to accompany the wake hung out in the front of the house just outside the living room.

I still remember the night it happened. I was sleeping on a mattress with a few other family members in the front of the house when we heard my grandmother's 2 dogs (locked up in a storeroom at the back of the house) howling and wailing. It was followed by crying, the sounds of grandma crying. It came from the area next to the coffin, where my 8th uncle (her youngest son and the only bachelor left at that time) sat sleeping on an armchair. Except that he was no longer sleeping, but was crying. We surrounded him and then he started talking (he looked like he was really suffering) - except that grandma's voice came out of his mouth :

"I want to see my sister." (5th grand-aunt came forward)

"You must all promise to take care of her...and see to it that Yau (the 8th Uncle) gets married..."

I can't really remember the rest, but this lasted quite a few minutes and I remember my aunt (her only daughter) and a few other uncles telling her that she should go in peace as she was causing much suffering to her youngest son by possessing his body. So she left and the uncle in question slumped down in fatigue, not knowing what had happened to him just a few minutes before. It was quite a sight.

As I was growing up, I went to a Methodist school, I became more and more secular, I studied and lived/live in the enlightened West. I should not believe that ghosts exist, nor want to. But my instinct, my upbringing, my few experiences and especially the synthesis of the education that I have received in the East and in the West, told me that I must not be quick to reject the unknown, the unexplainable. There is so very much we do not know about our own world, so much that Science alone is incapable of explaining today, that I prefer to keep an open mind about certain things.

I try not to live by superstition, but I will always remember fondly the many stories of ghosts, pontianaks and other spirits that I have grown up with. And going by them makes me all the more aware of and humbled by the enormity and impossibility of all-encompassing knowledge, and makes me less likely to mock peoples and cultures who live by what I do not believe in. It is true that I am oft hurt by my hubby's mockery, incredulity and air of superiority when I mentioned ghosts. He doesn't know what he was missing. But I do and that's what matters :-).

Rôti de Canard de Barbarie aux Miel et aux Épices, Salade de Boeuf à la Citronelle : East meets West

I was in Singapore for 3 weeks. Coming back to Europe is a little depressing as usual, knowing that I would be away for at least another year from my family and friends and of course, my favourite foods.

While I was there, I noticed how Fusion Cooking seemed to be getting bigger in the country. What better place indeed than Singapore (where East meets West) to experiment with putting together Eastern and Western cooking techniques and ingredients ? As it is, Singapore food is mostly a mélange of S.E Asian cuisines (e.g. Indian, Chinese, Indonesian, Malay, Straits Chinese, Thai...) and add on our British Colonial legacy (English tea and what naught), you see that we are used to and highly enjoy experimenting with different foods.

And in the last few decades, an increasing number of Singaporeans have studied, worked and lived overseas, large numbers in Australia, the UK, USA, New Zealand, Canada etc. We have acquired a taste for certain Western foods and are more than happy to incorporate them into our daily eating. And eating is almost a religion in Singapore. No laughing matter.

I told myself thus that once I've gone through my repertoire of traditional Asian and Western European fare, I should start working on mixing techniques and ingredients from both and see what I can come up with. I am also quite interested in African cuisine (both Arab and Black) and am wondering quite a bit about how to make vegetarian dishes more interesting. It is a pity Hubby and myself we are so fat and so in need of a big diet. We should really just be eating soups and salads for the next few months.

Anyway, I was back Monday and was already entertaining on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and we ate out on the terrace. Hubby made a Lebanese Hoummous Dip and a Greek Red Pepper Dip. I prepared the Sangria, the Lemongrass Beef Salad, the Roast Duck with Honey and Spices, the Thai Pineapple Rice and Pommes de Terres à la Sarladaise.

The Salad was a mix of Vietnamese lemongrass marinade on French-grilled Beef and Western salad. I basically prepared a salad using salad leaves, cucumber, red onions, salt, pepper, lots of olive oil and lime juice and a touch of Balsamic vinegar. Then I heat up a very hot grill and grilled an Entrecôte steak on it with the usual salt, pepper and Herbes de Provence. The cuisson is rare when I took it off the grill and started to slice it. Then I marinated the beef slices in a marinade made of vegetable oil, fresh lemongrass, shallots, garlic, red chilli, light soya sauce, fish sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, lime zest, galanga and a touch of rice wine all mixed or pounded into a paste. Just before serving, place the marinated beef slices on top of the salad and garnish with some fresh coriander leaves. (Optional : bean or rice vermicelli)

We saw a 3kg Canard de Barbarie from France in the supermarket on Saturday and decided on the spot to go for it. To save time, I have decided to cook it the French way and not the Chinese (too much work) but using a Chinese marinade.

First of all, heat up the oven to 180ºC. Clean the duck and stuff it with some spring onions, bashed garlic, 2 star anises and a cinnamon stick. Rub salt, pepper, paprika, a bit of ground cloves and ground cinnamon on the duck. In a bowl, prepare a marinade using a generous amount of sherry, some honey, light soya sauce, sesame oil, wine vinegar, Hoisin or Plum sauce, chilli powder and ground ginger, pepper, cinnamon and cloves. Mix well. Brush the duck with the marinade, leaving enough to continue brushing the duck with from time to time in the course of the next 2 hours (20 minutes of cooking time for every 500g of duck).

Before serving, brush the roasted duck with one last layer of the marinade, let it cool for a few minutes and then carve it.

Whatever is left of the duck (meat, wings, bones, carcass...) can be used to make a soup the next day. I made one using cloves-studded onion, cinnamon stick, star anis, bashed garlic, fresh ginger, sugar, dark soya sauce, sherry, chicken stock, coriander leaves and lime juice.

I have taken a few pictures of some of the food I've eaten in Singapore and will put them up in another post. I've also attended a Thai cooking class when I was there and have improved my knowledge of how to make a few simple dishes. And this Summer we'll be holidaying in Florence, am looking forward to learning more about Italian cooking. Vive la bouffe!

A song I've learnt in school

I would be true
For there are those who trust me

I would be pure
For there are those who care

I would be strong
For there is much to suffer

I would be brave
For there is much to dare

I would be brave
For there is much to dare.

See more progress on: remember