nodesserts

Not-Bacon Breakfast Muffins

2012-02-26T11:23:00.000+08:00

I love Sunday mornings. There's a distinct feel about Sunday mornings, don't you think, that just isn't present any other morning of the week. It's ok to be lazy on Sunday mornings. You can sleep in, not brush your teeth till noon, stay in your pajamas, read a book in bed or bake something special that's loaded with flavour and calories, hips and waist be dammed.

As much as I like to roll around in bed, my internal alarm clock wakes me up at 5am everyday, completely oblivious to how special Sundays are. I stopped fighting it years ago.

And, when I get up, Mojo (my adorable but spoilt dog) gets up too. So this Sunday morning, after playing with Mojo for a bit (yeah, the neighbours must hate me for throwing a bone for Mojo to fetch at 6am) I decided to bake.

Hot out of the oven.

On the menu this Sunday morning was a savoury breakfast muffin I adapted from a recipe from Dine & Dish. The original is a bacon (yes, real bacon of the pork variety) and cheese muffin. It looked appetizing. Naturally, I had to adapt it to make it vegetarian.

Now as it turns out I bought a packet of vegetarian bacon when I was in New York City last week. Yup. It was in Chinatown (where I swear you can find anything). I usually am not a big fan of fake-meats but vegetarian bacon — this one I could not resist. I had to try it.

When I became a vegetarian 23 years ago, the hardest thing for me to give up was bacon. I loved my bacon. But, I'd made a choice that I was sure of and I gave it up.

Don't get me wrong, I have no misgivings. I don't have any desire to eat bacon although when I watch chefs/cooks using it in the recipes and extolling the taste it brings to a dish, I understand. So to have a vegetarian version of bacon in front of me... well, I was skeptical. The person who could replicate the taste of bacon using purely vegetarian ingredients must surely be a genius.

Seriously? Vegetarian bacon?

Visually, the vegetarian bacon looks somewhat like real bacon. A little paler, perhaps. There is even that layer of fat as you can see in the pictures above. But taste-wise? Well, it really tastes nothing like the bacon I remember eating years ago.

Not bacon and eggs. Nah...

What did I make with the vegetarian bacon? Well (fake) bacon and eggs, of course. The eggs were good. The bacon ... well, it was ok. It was tasty but not tasty enough to be eaten on it's own like this. I wouldn't make this again but what I thought I would do was use the fake bacon to add flavour to other recipe or to add texture to a sandwich, maybe (for it crisps up well).

I decided to use it also to add a little something to these breakfast muffins.

The bacon was the star ingredient in the original recipe on Dine & Dish but not in mine. I added mushrooms, chopped and sauteed in garlic oil. I added herbs (basil and chives) and I added something else I bought in NYC: Sriracha hot sauce (see pic below).

I know, I know. Who goes to NYC and comes back with chilli sauce? Seriously it's amazing. Have you ever tried it? It's bloody good. Spicy and tangy, it's the real deal. Not half-assed at all. I brought a bottle home but how I wish I'd brought three or four.

So, yeah. Forget about the fake bacon. Go for Sriracha. Originally a Thai Chilli dipping sauce, this bottled Sriracha sauce is actually produced in the US by Huy Foong Foods (founded by Davin Tran, a Chinese Vietnamese who came to the US in 1980) since 1990.

Of course, you can substitute this with any hot sauce you have (the Tabasco jalapeno hot sauce is a close second) or you can add chilli flakes. But if you can, try Sriracha.

Mushroom and Cheese Breakfast Muffins (with fake bacon and Sriracha)

2 cups all purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 egg

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup milk

2 tsp Sriracha chilli sauce (or any hot sauce) or 1 tsp chilli flakes

1/2 cup chopped mushrooms, lightly sauteed in garlic oil/olive oil

8 strips fake bacon, crisped and crumbled (optional)

1 cup cheddar cheese (I used mozzarella as that was all I had)

1 tsp chopped chives

3 basil leaves, chopped

Preheat oven to 200C.

Whisk the egg, milk, oil and chilli sauce. Add the cheese, mushrooms, fake bacon and herbs and stir to combine.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt and mix in the black pepper. Add to the egg mixture and stir to combine.

Spoon the batter into greased muffin cups and bake for 15-20 mins or till tops and slightly golden and a knife inserted comes out clean.

Eggless Lemon Cupcakes

2012-02-23T21:23:00.001+08:00

Lemons remind me of spring.

If you love lemon desserts, this cupcake is for you. Most lemon desserts use the juice and/or the zest f a lemon. This one uses the juice, zest AND the peel. There is lemon in the cake, in the glaze and in the garnish of lemon peel, candied of course. Oh!

There's another thing that's special about this cake: it's eggless AND it can easily be adjusted to be vegan too.

That this is an eggless cake is relevant to me because many of my family members are vegetarians who unlike me, don't eat eggs. Some are vegan too. As a result, I often can't share my cakes with them which is a darn shame.

No need for fussy icing. Just a tangy glaze and some candied lemon jewels.

So yeah, there are no eggs, no butter and the milk and heavy cream which I used can be easily substituted with soya bean milk or almond milk if you want it strictly vegan.

There is also no need to whisk or beat; just mix with a wooden spoon.

The only extra mile you have to go is in making the candied peel for the garnish. This isn't difficult but it takes time. But, the garnish is optional of course.

Bright, tart and tangy.

Eggless Lemon Cake

11/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup milk/soya bean milk/almond milk

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup heavy cream (for vegans, omit this and double the soya milk/almond milk)

2/3 cup sugar (more if you prefer your cake sweet)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tbsp lemon zest

Zest and my brand new grater. Love.

Lemon glaze

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup powdered/icing sugar, sifted

Candied lemon peel

Skin from 1 lemon (unzested)

1 cup water

1 cup + 2 tbsp sugar

Add the apple cider to the milk and let the mixture sit for 5 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

In another large bowl, mix the oil, milk, cream, vanilla, zest, lemon juice and mix till incorporated.

Add the flour mixture to the batter in three batches and mix till smooth.

Line a cupcake tin with liners and spoon the batter to fill 3/4 of the liners. Bake for 15-20 mins or till a tester comes out clean.

To make the glaze, simply mix the powdered sugar with the lemon juice till smooth. Once the cakes come out of the oven, let them cool a little before you pour the glaze over. Simply drop one spoonful of the glaze over the centre of each cupcake and watch it spread.

Candied peel.

To make the candied peel, cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice out. Using a sharp knife, carefully scrape out the flesh, leaving the white pith inside the skin. Cut the skin into thin strips.

Put a pan of water to boil and add the strips. When the water comes to a boil, drain the skin and repeat the process twice more.

Drain once more.

Mix one cup water and one cup sugar in a pot and put to boil. Once the sugar dissolves and the syrup comes to a boil, add the skins in. Let the strips cook in the syrup until soft and transparent, about 20 mins. Remove and roll in the remaining 2 tbsp sugar.

Place the sugared strips on a baking sheet and leave over night to dry or bake in an oven (100F) for about an hour (keeping an eye on them midway and three-quarter way through to make sure they don't burn).

Garnish.

Tom Colicchio's Game of Throne's Lemon Cake

2012-02-19T07:23:00.000+08:00

So, I've been in New York City for a week. I came for work (well, that is if you consider covering the Michael Kors fall show at New York Fashion Week work) but once that was done, I hung out with friends, visited a lot of restaurants that I'd read about, ate a lot of good food, visited (and spent an insane amount of money at) baking supply stores and sourced some priced items (like a vintage set of cutlery) at Goodwill Stores in the city (thanks Jane for the idea).

My friends (thanks Parmilla, Daniel and Yvette) have been super accommodating during my trip -- putting me up, taking me places, finding the shops that I wanted to go to (I actually emailed them a list) and cooking me dinner.

I am grateful. And so thankful for good friends. I love NYC and I'd be happy to wander the city on my own but it's always nicer to have friends to hang out with. Always.

Don't be alarmed by the batter that looks curdled. It's supposed to be that way.

So anyway, I wanted to repay their kindness the only way I know how. I baked them a cake and what better cake to make than NYC chef Tom Colicchio's Lemon Cake, that was inspired by the HBO series Game of Thrones.

I've made this cake countless times. It's honestly THE BEST lemon cake I've ever tasted. EVER. It's ah-may-zing. So tangy and sweet, so soft that it melts in the mouth. And, the best part? The film of lemon curd that settles at the bottom of the pan. This becomes the top of the cake when you invert it after baking. Gorgeous. Really.

Ramekins are best but when you don't have them, a muffin or cupcake pan is fine.

The curd forms because of the way the cakes are boiled/baked: they are baked in a water bath. It is also a result of how the eggs are separated and then mixed into the batter. The yolks are beaten with the lemon and buttermilk and then the flour while the whites are whipped to form peaks and folded in at the very end. When the cakes are cooking, the eggs separate again -- the whites rise with the cake and the yolks settle at the bottom to form the curd. I think. I haven't been able to find an explanation from Chef Colicchio online and I was unsuccessful in my attempts to bump into him in NYC (I went to his restaurants here and hung around in vain).

Bake them in a water bath. And, cover the pan with foil, at first.

The cakes are best baked in ramekins but since Parmilla didn't have any, we used a cupcake pan instead. It was fine. The cakes turned out great even though inverting them proved to be a challenge and some of the cakes look a little worse for wear.

Parmilla and Daniel didn't mind, especially once they ate the cakes.

They agreed. Tom Colicchio's cakes were the bomb!

Voila! The tops are actually the bottoms. You have to invert the cakes to see the film of curd.

Game of Thrones' Lemon Cake

(created by Tom Colicchio)

2 eggs (separated)

2/3 cup buttermilk

21/2 tbsp lemon juice

zest of 2 lemons (I just used the zest from one large lemon)

3 tbsp + 1 tsp all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of salt

icing sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 150C.

Soft flour and salt into a bowl. Add sugar and whisk together.

Whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks.

Beat the egg yolks, lemon juice, buttermilk and lemon zest until well combined. Gently fold in the flour mixture. When combined, fold in the whites. Don't be alarmed if the batter is lumpy and looks curdled. It is supposed to look this way.

Dust your ramekins (4 large or 6 medium) with icing sugar and spoon the batter in (you can almost fill them to the brim). Place the ramekins/pan in a water bath (in a larger pan with at least 2 inches water) and cover with foil. Bake for 25 mins. Remove foil and bake for another 15 mins.

Let the cakes cool before inverting them.

Carrot Ginger Cupcakes

2012-02-12T19:54:00.001+08:00

This was my first time playing with Marzipan. Yes, playing. Shaping the soft almond paste into tiny little carrots was fun (even though some of my carrots looked like chillies!). So there you have it, the real reason I made these Carrot and Ginger cupcakes, courtesy of Miss Martha Stewart, was because it gave me an excuse to make the tiny carrot garnish: Martha's were a lot more 'real' as she dunked them briefly in a bowl of chocolate cookie crumbs to give them the gritty texture and look of real carrots, fresh from the soil.

But, as great as an idea that was, I wasn't too keen on adding soil on these beauties, even if the soil was really cookies. Delicious cookies. Nah. I thought it a better idea to eat the cookies while I shaped the marzipan.

Marzipan can be bought in cake supply stores or your regular grocer. It comes in a 500g packet and is unchilled (but once you open the pack, it's best to keep it in the refrigerator. It can keep for up to a month).

The paste has to be kneaded slightly to make it pliable enough to be shaped (like play-doh); add the colour while kneading so it's evenly spread. I didn't have orange food colouring so I mixed a drop of red into the yellow colouring. And a small batch of green for the leaves. Once the colour has been added, pinch bits of the marzipan and roll into balls and then shape into carrots. Score the carrots with a knife if you want to replicate the slight cuts that appear on the carrot.

Martha's carrot cupcake recipe has more or less all the ingredients you'd find in any carrot cake recipe: grated fresh carrots, flour, sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

And then, there's that other ingredient she slips in: grated ginger. Fresh ginger, thank you very much. Not the crystallised pieces I often dump in cakes. Nope, grated FRESH ginger.

The addition of fresh ginger into the cake batter gives the cake a very welcome zing which I really liked.

A note on ginger: I usually buy more ginger than I use and so I store them for up to five or six months in my freezer. Just cut the ginger into 3cm pieces (that's about the amount I use each time), skin them and freeze them. This recipe calls for just 1 tablespoon of grated ginger so I took out just one piece and grated it while frozen — it's actually easier to grate ginger when it's fresh!

And then there are the nuts. I usually use walnuts but Martha uses pecans. A cupful of pecans. I only had about a handful of pecans at home — not even close to 1/4 cup and so I added to the meagre portion the only other kind of nut I had: pistachios. Sightly roasted and chopped.

The topping is your regular cream cheese topping (butter, cream cheese and icing sugar). Martha adds some grated orange zest into hers but I substituted this with lemon zest as that was all I had. You can also add finely grated ginger (again fresh) as well though just a tiny bit.

If you're not a fan of cream cheese topping (or any topping), the cakes are delicious enough to be eaten naked, fresh from the oven. But, forgoing the frosting would mean forgoing the cute carrots on top! What a shame that would be!

Martha Stewart's Carrot and Ginger Cupcakes
(My substitutions are in red)

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups sugar (I used 1.5 cups)
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
450g carrots, finely grated
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup roasted and chopped pecan halves (I used pistachios and pecans)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line your cupcake trays with liners.
Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
Whisk the eggs, oil, sugar, carrots and vanilla till incorporated. Fold in the flour in batches. Add the nuts.
Fill the cupcake liners with batter (3/4 full). Bake for 20-23 mins or till a tester comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Frosting (You can get Martha's recipe for Orange-Ginger Frosting here)
60g butter, unsalted, at room temperature
250g cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup icing sugar

Beat the butter in a mixer till fluffy. Add the cream cheese and beat till pale and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for another 3-5 mins. Chill for about 15 mins.

Rainbow Cupcakes

2012-01-29T19:13:00.000+08:00

I know what you're thinking. This looks nothing like a rainbow cupcake! Well, you're right. But beneath the white and yellow butter cream frosting is a burst of colour that's so absolutely vibrant, you're gonna need to prepare yourself.

You ready? You sure?

Well, alright now. No reason to dally.

I present to you ...<grab your shades> ... the brightest batch of cupcakes I've ever seen.

Woah. Inspired by the famous rainbow cakes, these cupcakes are a festival of colour just exploding everywhere.

The best part? They taste fantastic. This was a surprise to me. I expected them to taste ok but look fabulous. Turns out, they taste fabulous and look ... well, garishly gorgeous.

I love em!

So why did I decide ok making a rainbow cupcake? Well, ever since I laid my eyes on Martha Stewart's rainbow cake on her website, I've been itching to make it. Martha's cake comprises six (yeah, she's one colour short but who cares, right?) layers of colour layered and topped with a lemon meringue butter cream topping. It really is a beautiful cake. I have to post you a picture.

Martha Stewart's Rainbow Cake

See? Perfect! As much as I loved looking at it though, I didn't quite fancy the idea of making a 6-layer cake much less storing it in my fridge. I find any more than two layers in a cake too much to handle. So instead, I figured I'd make a cupcake version of the gorgeous cake.

Now Martha divides her batter into six portions, colours them and then bakes each coloured layer separately before assembling the cake. Good idea but impossible to execute in a cupcake.

So what I did was pour one layer of coloured batter (I only had five colours) upon another. The layers naturally bled into each other a little and so I didn't achieve the layered effect. What I ended up with was a burst of colours melding into each other.

I like it. I do. OK, now onto the recipe. And really, the cake tastes good. Soft, moist, buttery. Yum!

Rainbow (almost) Cupcakes

(Not Martha's Recipe)

For the cake

1 cup all purpose flour

11/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup butter milk (or milk + 1tsp vinegar)

1 tsp vanilla extract

colouring: blue, yellow, red, green, etc

For Butter cream frosting

60g butter, softened

3 tbsp milk

2 cups icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a cupcake tray with cupcake liner and grease them lightly with some butter.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

Whisk together the butter, buttermilk, sugar, eggs and vanilla till well Incorporated. Stir in and mix the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Mix only till well incorporated. No lumps.

Divide the batter into five bowls and colour them respectively to your liking. Note: you can mix blue and red to get purple, etc.

Start with one colour. Fill a heaped teaspoonful of batter into each cupcake liner. The portion should be just right for 10 cupcakes. Repeat with the other colours. NOTE: Do not spread the batter with your spoon. Once you drop the second colour onto the first (right in the middle), the bottom layer will spread out to fill the cupcake liner by itself.

Magic? No! Science, yeah I guess.

Repeat till the last colour has been added.

Bake for 15 mins or until a tester comes out clean.

Meanwhile, prepare the frosting.

Beat the butter, sugar, milk and extract together until pale and fluffy, about 5 mins. Remove and chill frosting for at least 30 mins.

When they cakes are ready, remove them and cool them on a rack. Once they're COMPLETELY cook, remove the frosting (if it has hardened, whisk it with a fork a little) and start frosting!

Enjoy!

My sister's Raita

2012-01-27T10:47:00.002+08:00

If you could turn back time, what would you do? Me? I'd learn to cook.... from my mother and both my grandmothers, all of whom were terrific cooks. But, you know, when I was young, I had more important things to do (NOT!) ... like talk about boys, clothes, boys and movie stars.

Sigh.

I swear, if I have a daughter I would get her interested in cooking ... whether or not she wanted to learn. Chain her to the stove I will (NO, I WON'T) or lock her in the kitchen (No, I REALLY WON'T). I'll just sit her in front of the TV with me as I watch episodes of Junior Masterchef and Top Chef ... am sure she'd be inspired.

Or, I could chain her ... NO! I AM KIDDING.

So anyways, because I never spent much time in the kitchen growing up, I have no idea how to make many of my favourite dishes. I've tried to re-create them based on how I remember them to be but they always fall short.

My only lifeline is my older sister. She got with the programme early and so she has learnt how to cook a variety of Indian curries and dishes from not just our mother but other people's mothers too. Every time I need a recipe, I call her. Repeatedly.

Recently we had a small family reunion luncheon (it being Chinese New Year and all, we decided to have our own reunion) and my sister made Raita, a North Indian condiment/dip/sauce that is made with yoghurt, spices and a range of vegetables, mostly raw. Hers was made with lady's finger/okra and it was meant to accompany the briyani rice I made.

It was delicious.

The Raita was a hit and had everyone on the table asking for the recipe. It was supposed to be eaten with he rice but I found myself eating spoonfuls of it by itself (stealthily, of course), growing increasingly anxious as I saw it diminishing.

And this for a person (ME) who doesn't particularly like lady's finger.

I got the recipe off my sister the very next day and bought a bag of lady's finger from the grocer. And some yoghurt. Plain, unflavoured. (My sister makes her own curd but that's a lesson I'll have to learn another day).

Lady's Finger Raita

Ingredients

3 cups plain yoghurt

10 lady's fingers, sliced thin

1 large onion, chopped fine

2 tsp mustard seeds

1-2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

oil for frying

1 tbsp ghee

Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the lady's finger slices till crisp. It's ok if they get brown; just as long as they're crunchy. Don't let them get black though!

Heat the ghee in saucepan and fry the mustard seeds until the pop.

Combine all the ingredients together (including the ghee from the pan) and mix. Season with salt and sugar (adjust to taste).

Goes well with briyani, rice pilaf or just on it's own!

Cream Cheese-Filled Buns

2012-01-23T16:28:00.001+08:00

About six months into sixth form (this was some 20 plus years ago), I realised I'd made a huge mistake signing up for the Accounting paper. It was hard and I wasn't very good at it. Furthermore, it wasn't a subject that was taught in school and so we (me and some of my fellow classmates) had to go for private tuition after school — two hours, once a week. Despite the tuition, I still sucked at the subject. Mistake. Big mistake as my results later confirmed.

What's the point of this story?

Well, one of the highlights of the weekly tuition classes was the visit to the small bakery that was located almost directly beneath the tuition centre. Well, it was about four doors down. Every week, before, after or sometimes during class, we'd run down to the bakery to buy ourselves some treats. My favourite? A cream cheese bun that was soft, sweet and deliciously nourishing. I'd buy two. On the days the bakery ran out of the buns (they were hot items apparently), I'd be miserable all throughout class. More miserable than usual, that is.

For some reason, I thought of those buns today.

I am not sure if that tiny bakery is still in business or not but even if it was, I was certain it would be shut today, it being the first day of the lunar New Year and all. Damn the timing of these cravings!

Well, I decided to try and recreate the buns at home since I had plenty of flour and some cream cheese. I couldn't find a recipe online that fit the buns that I remembered and so I made do. I used a recipe for sweet buns and made my own cream cheese filling to stuff the buns with, crossing my fingers all the while (not while I kneaded but otherwise).

The buns turned out great. In fact, they tasted quite close to the buns I'd had all those years ago. The only fault was in my execution of re-sealing the buns once I filled them with the cheese. I was remiss in making sure the buns were 100% sealed and as a result, some of the filling oozed out while the buns were baking.

Eeeks. No matter. A slight oversight. We live and learn, right? The buns came out of the oven an hour ago and so far, I've gobbled down two already. That's it. I have to do about 1,000 jumping jacks once I'm done with this post. Onto the recipe now...

Cream Cheese-filled Buns

For the buns

1/4 cup tepid water

21/4 tsp instant yeast

2 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar

4 cups all purpose flour

11/4 tsp salt

30g butter, softened

11/4 cups milk + 2 tbsp

1 egg

4 cups all purpose flour

For the Cream Cheese Filling

100g cream cheese, softened

50g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Dissolve the yeast and 1 tsp sugar in the 1/4 cup tepid water. Set aside till mixture becomes frothy.

Using your mixer (or by hand) beat the butter, salt and 2 tbsp sugar till light and fluffy. Add the 11/4 cups milk, egg and the yeast mixture and mix to incorporate. Add the flour (switch mixer to low speed if using) and mix to form a dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured work surface and knead for about five minutes or till the dough is smooth and elastic (you can do the window pane test by pinching a small amount of dough and stretching it to form a pane. If it stretches easily without breaking, you're done).

Transfer dough into an oiled bowl. Cover with a clean dish cloth and let it rise for about an hour.

Make the filling. Beat the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla till light and fluffy. Chill for at least 30 mins.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

When the dough has risen, lightly punch it down with your fingers to release the gas. Weigh (or estimate) about 40g dough and form small balls of dough, slightly bigger than a golf ball.

Once the balls have been formed (you should get about 14-16), flatten each one gently with your fingers and fill them with a heaped tsp of the chilled cheese filling. Seal the buns by pulling together the sides and pressing them shut and re-roll them into balls.

Place them about 2 cm apart on a baking tray (with an edge) and leave them to rise for about 20 mins. Cover with the dish cloth again.

Brush the tops with the 2 tbsp milk.

Bake for 20-25 mins.

Citrus Flavoured Butter Cake

2012-01-22T18:53:00.001+08:00

My quest, for as long as I can remember, has been to make a perfect butter cake.

I love butter cakes more than any other cake on the planet. A simple butter cake — you know, the kind you have at birthday parties, iced with a delicious buttercream topping that's sweet and uncomplicated? A butter cake that is tender and moist?

Yup, butter cakes make me happy. It reminds me of my childhood, of family, of close friends and of happy occasions. No one mourns or sulks with butter cake. Nope, that's what ice cream and chocolate is for. Butter cakes are celebratory.

I've tried a number of recipes and while always tasty, they were never perfect. The texture was never just right, you know? A little dry, a little dense. A crumb that was too thick or not apparent enough. It was frustrating, to say the least.

Then I stumbled upon a recipe for Trish Boyle's Plainly Perfect Pound Cake. Now, I've never quite understood the difference between the two (the pound cake and butter cake). To my understanding, the difference is that a pound cake is supposed to be made with a pound of each of the main ingredients: flour, butter, sugar and eggs and if you adjust the quantities, you have to adjust them equally). Taste wise, I'd say the two are very similar, except that the pound cake is perhaps a little denser.

Trish Boyle's Plainly Perfect Pound Cake is kinda like a pound cake (the measurements for all four ingredients are equal, almost) but it sure tastes like the butter cakes I grew up eating and still love to eat so much. If someone else has a better distinction between the two I'd be indebted to learn. :)

Apart from the four essential ingredients (flour, butter, sugar and eggs) and the leavening agent (baking powder), she also adds a small measure of heavy cream which gives the cake an obvious rich and creamy texture which I really adored.

The citrus accents from the zests of both oranges and lemons added a freshness to the cake that I welcomes.

Hers came plain, without any frosting which is fine but I decided to slather on a thin layer of butter cream frosting, also flavoured with the citrus zest.

Trish Boyle's Plainly Perfect Pound Cake
(adapted from Shirley of Kokken69)

200g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
226g butter (softened)
226g sugar (you don't have to be so precise; 200 or 250 is fine)
4 eggs
80ml heavy cream
1 tsp orange zest, or slightly more if desired
1 tsp lemon zest, or slightly more if desired
1 tsp vanilla essence

Topping (enough for only the top of the cake)
50g butter, softened
100g icing sugar, sieved

Preheat the oven to 170C

Sieve the flour, salt and baking powder. Set aside.

Cream the butter until light and pale. Add the sugar and beat till light and fluffy, about 3 mins.

Add the eggs, one at a time and mix till well incorporated. Add the vanilla and the zests.

Lower the speed of the mixer and add the flour in three installments, alternating with the cream.

Pour batter into a greased/lined/greased and lined loaf pan.

Reduce the heat to 160C and bake for 60-70 mins or till a tester inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Let cool completely before frosting.

For the frosting, cream butter until light and add the sugar. Beat till fluffy. Chill for at least 30 mins. Remove and beat till soft (about 2 mins) and spread on the cake once it has cooled.

Coconut and Almond loaf

2012-01-20T17:43:00.002+08:00

Seven minutes. That's all it took for this potentially moist cake to go dry. I dozed off in front of the TV (serves me right for baking at midnight I guess) and woke up to realise that I'd left the cake in the oven a little too long. Arrrrgh. I rushed into the kitchen, expecting to see a loaf of charcoal.

God musta been looking out for me, I guess.

The cake was, thank goodness, salvageable. Just a little browner than I would have liked on top and a tad dry. Nothing that a little syrup infusion would not fix (more on this later).

The star ingredient of this cake is coconut oil.

Coconut oil has featured prominently in my life, all my life. As a child, I remembered the people around me -- aunts, cousins, family friends -- who had thick, lovely hair that was neatly plaited or pulled into a tight pony tail. Their hair had a nice, healthy sheen to it which mine lacked and I later learnt that the sheen was thanks to a daily (almost) coat of coconut oil. At the time, I couldn't imagine putting oil on my hair and so my hair was never magnificent.

Years later, when my mother grew ill and her skin became dry, she used to rub fresh, home-made coconut oil on her arms, elbows and legs. This time around, I follow suit.I even applied it onto my hair. It was the best moisturiser I'd even tried.

And, it smelt wonderful..

But I never, ever considered cooking or baking with coconut oil. Until I read an article in The New York Times last March about the benefits of cooking with coconut oil.

"... virgin coconut oil has a haunting, nutty, vanilla flavor," wrote Melissa Clarke of the NYT. "It’s even milder and richer tasting than butter, sweeter and lighter textured than lard, and without any of the bitterness you sometimes get in olive oil."

Seriously? I was interested. Very interested. I went out and bought myself a bottle of organic virgin coconut oil.

That was four months ago. I kept getting side-tracked and never got around to testing out Clarke's assertions.

Until last week that is. I decided to make a version of the Almond and Lime Zest Pound Cake that accompanied Clarke's article. The cake was tasty. And, true to the article, nutty too. And the smell. Oh my!

Next time though, I will not fall asleep and so the cake will be super moist and that would make it perfect.

Almond and Coconut Pound Cake

(adapted from the NYT)

1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup, plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
3/4 cup milk
3 eggs
Zest of 1 lemon
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 tsps baking powder
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt.
1/3 cup grated, sweetened coconut flakes /dessicated coconut

Lemon Syrup (to rescue the dry cake)
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

For the topping, mix the almonds, 2 tbsp of of sugar and 1 tbsp water and set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

Whisk together the oil, sugar, eggs, milk and the remaining sugar in a bowl until well incorporated.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Add the lime zest and the coconut flakes to the mixture.

Grease and line a loaf pan. Pour the batter into the greased pan. Sprinkle the topping all over the top and bake for 50 mins.

ONLY if you let your cake over bake, here's a quick lemon-syrup infusion to help moisten it.
Heat the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Keep on the stove for 2-3 mins. Invert the cake from the loaf pan onto a baking sheet. Using a toothpick, poke holes in the top and sides of the cake and drizzle the syrup over and let it seep into the cake (a couple of hours or overnight) before cutting/serving.

Cinnamon Choc-Chip Scones

2012-01-15T20:00:00.002+08:00

Scones are delicious but these Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Scones are just tooooooo delicious to describe. They're like a mix between a scone and a cookie — light, crunchy with a chewy centre, sweet and buttery, these scones are NOT to be eaten with butter, jam or clotted cream.

No, these beauties have to be enjoyed on their own with a steaming cup of tea (spiced tea would be the perfect companion) or coffee.

The recipe for these Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Scones are adapted from The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. A big thank you to her for my wonderful Sunday tea time treat. The Pioneer Woman's recipe has no chocolate chips. She uses cinnamon chips which, hard as I looked, are not available in any of the three grocers I visited. Since I had a half-used bag of chocolate chips at home, I went with them. Chocolate and cinnamon do go together well, after all.

They may be hybrid scones but all the rules of a traditional scone apply here: sift the flour to incorporate more air (hence a lighter texture) and don't overwork the dough. Keep your rolling pins away; just shape the wettish dough with your bare (slightly floured) hands.

That's it.

Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Scones

3 cups all purpose flour, sifted

5 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

226g butter, cold and cubed

33/4 cups heavy cream

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2-3/4 cup Chocolate Chips

Topping

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

11/2 tsp heavy cream

Sift the flour (yes, the already sifted flour), baking powder, cinnamon and salt together and mix in the sugar. Add the cubed butter and using a knife or a pastry cutter (or your mixer/food processor) and mix them together till you get what appears to be coarse breadcrumbs. Add the egg, vanilla, choc chips and the cream and mix until a dough forms. Don't worry, it is supposed to be a little wet.

Transfer the dough onto your lightly floured work surface and gently pat it into a rectangle, about 1cm thick.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

It's time to make the topping: just combine the cinnamon and the sugar and the cream together.

Rub the topping all over the surface of the dough.

Using a lightly floured knife, cut the dough into squares, rectangles or triangles — the shape is up to you.

Transfer the shapes onto a lines baking sheet and bake for 18-20 mins.

Pear and Almond Tart

2012-01-15T08:03:00.000+08:00

Imagine my shock when I read an article that describe the pear as a fruit with an elegant shape. Elegant shape? The Pear? Seriously?

Now, pears are actually one of my favourite fruits, especially when they've ripened nicely and are creamy (almost buttery) and sweet. But I've never looked at them as being particularly elegant.

Why?

Well, maybe it's because my pear-shape body looks nothing close to elegant. No, really! Nothing close. Not by a mile. Sigh.

But, we're here to talk food. So let's talk about the pear. Elegance aside, the pear is a fruit that I've never cooked/baked with before. Why? Well, I guess I like to eat them raw; as a fruit not as an ingredient in a dish.

What changed? December turned out to be a particularly eventful month for me and I found myself eating out a lot more than usual. The result? A bag of pears that was left uneaten in my fridge for three weeks.

Three weeks! Well, maybe four. Eeks.

As a rule, pears are best plucked from the tree just before they are ripe and are left to ripen in room temperature. When I bought the pears, they were about three or four days (my estimate) short of being perfectly ripe. But three/four weeks? I was, quite frankly, afraid to touch them for fear they may be overripe, squishy and bruised. What a waste, right?

Well, as it turns out, they weren't too bad. Just barely over ripe and just a wee bit discoloured. I ate one but decided to bake the other three ... in a tart. Typically, it is better to bake a pear when it is slightly under ripe rather than over ripe. But I had confidence in these babies.

I paired it with some shaved almonds (another ingredient I had sitting in my fridge for a good while) and a basic custard and it turned out pretty good.

Pear and Almond Cream Tart
(Adapted from Food & Wine magazine)

For the pastry
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
130g butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup ice water

Whisk the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the butter and, using a mixer or your fingers, work it into the flour till you get what resembles coarse bread crumbs. Add the egg and mix it into the crumbly flour till it begins to stick together. Add the water, a little at a time, until a dough forms. You may not need to use all the water, so make sure you don't pour the entire amount at one go.
Shape the dough into a disc, wrap and chill for at least 30 mins.

For the filling
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp corn starch
3 eggs
pinch of salt
140g butter, softened
11/4 cups icing sugar
2 cups shave almonds, lightly toasted
4-5 ripe pears, peeled, cored and quartered

Pour the milk in a saucepan and bring it to a simmer.
Whisk the sugar with just 1 tbsp of the corn starch and the salt. Whisk in 1 egg. Pour the milk into the mixture and whisk to mix. Pour the mixture into the saucepan and heat, whisking all the while, until it begins to thicken and bubble at the sides (about 3 mins). Remove, strain into a bowl and whisk in just 2 tbsp of the butter. Leave to cool.

Add the remaining butter and almonds in the bowl of your mixer and beat it gently to incorporate the two. The almonds will break in pieces but that's ok. Add the sugar, the remaining 2 tbsp corn starch and 2 eggs and the custard beat till mixed together perfectly, about 2 mins.

Preheat the oven to 350C.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll it to meet a 10-inch tart tin. It should be 1/4 cm thick; transfer into the tart dish, pressing it close to the edges.

Pour the cream into the pastry shell and arrange the quartered pears into the custard. Top with more shaved almonds (if you wish).

Bake for 80 mins or until the custard is set.

Instant Mash Dinner Rolls

2012-01-11T21:13:00.001+08:00

Do you get excited when, at a restaurant, the waiter brings the bread basket to table? I do. I love bread rolls and usually I can't wait to sample the varieties of rolls that are presented before a meal. They arrive nice and warm and I just love to watch the butter (I usually cut a nice chunk of butter for my rolls) melt as I slather it on the hot rolls. Even better? Biting into the warm buttered roll. Simple pleasures, eh?

Usually, this leaves me quite full before the main meal arrives. Which is fine because most times, I am content to just order a soup (I am a cheap date) and soak it up with the left over bread rolls.

Here's what I love in my dinner roll;

1. They have to be soft. Pillowy soft. Yeah, I've slept on some stone-hard pillows but I'm talking down-feather softness. So soft you bite into it and get lost.

2. There's a difference between being soft and pillowy and being like cotton candy. I don't want rolls that are like cotton candy. Why? Because when you bit into cotton candy, it feels like your eating nothing. Sweet nothing. I like to chew my bread. I like to taste my bread. Soft but tasty and slightly chewy is what I want.

3. The rolls have to be sweetish. Not sweet, god forbid. Just sweetish. So good you almost don't need the butter. Almost but you'd be a fool to forgo the butter. Seriously.

4. They have to be served hot. Well, not piping hot. But almost. Warm isn't good enough because the butter won't just melt in the bread which, I can't emphasise enough, is crucial.

5. Enough. You don't eat one dinner roll. You don't even eat two. If there is a bread basket, there has to be an abundant supply of bread. There has to be bread left over.

The good news is, it's not too difficult to make dinner rolls at home. Which is great for me because I don't have to wait for the occasional (did I say occasional? I meant very rare) date night to feast on dinner rolls.

Yesterday, in response to a sudden craving for rolls, I decided to make a batch for myself. And, I decided to experiment a little with flavour. I used olive oil instead of butter, mixed some parsley into the dough and some instant mash (as in instant mash potatoes — the kind that comes in a box).

A while ago, I read in Donna Currie's Cookistry that adding instant mash (or actual mashed potatoes) helps make bread soft and fluffy. She's right. And it adds flavour too.

These parsley flavoured rolls were tasty and certainly satisfied my criteria for a satisfying roll. Heck, they were more than satisfying. They were yummy.

Sweet Baklava

2012-01-08T18:39:00.002+08:00

I've wanted to make Baklava for a very long time. I love nuts and though I am not a fan of terribly sweet desserts (and the Baklava is achingly sweet, make no mistake), the idea of layers and layers of rich cinnamon coated nuts set in between buttered sheets of filo pastry baked and soaked with a sweet cardamom flavoured syrup just hooked me.

Rich? Hell, yeah and not just in flavour. It is believed that until the mid 19th century, the Turkish dessert Baklava was a dessert of the rich (because of the amount of nuts used) and that Turkish sultans favoured the Baklava because the pistachios and spices (cinnamon and cardamom) were powerful aphrodisiacs. Hmmm.

There are slight variations with regards to how Baklava is made just as there are many theories about the origins of the dish. Here are some of the variations you may find when you go in search of a recipe for Baklava:

Choice of nuts: Some cooks use just pistachios while others use a combination of nuts — pistachio, pecans, almonds and walnuts are commonly used too. I like a combination of pistachios, pecans and walnuts.

Spices: Some recipes use ground cinnamon, some use ground cinnamon and clove and some ground cinnamon and cardamom. Some don't used spices at all. I favour cinnamon and cardamom as I am not a huge fan of cloves.

The syrup: you can use a simple sugar syrup, a honey-infused syrup that's spiked with rose water, a orange flavoured syrup ... they're all quite good but also all very sweet.

The pastry: Nope, this is one thing that is consistent in every recipe — you use phyllo pastry that's coated generously with melted butter.

Baklava
1 pack frozen phyllo pastry (you will probably need about 20-25 sheets)
4 cups chopped nuts (I used lightly roasted pistachios, pecans and walnuts)
1 tsp cinnamon
160g butter, melted
1cup honey
1/4 cup water
2 tsp rose water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cardamom

Thaw your phyllo pastry as per the directions on the box. Usually, it takes about 2 hours to thaw in room temperature or overnight in the fridge. Once thawed, keep them covered between two sheets of damp kitchen cloths as you work on the Baklava.

Get your baking pan ready: a 8 or 9 inch square pan is ideal.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Coat the chopped nuts with cinnamon. Set aside.

Brush the base of your baking pan generously with some melted butter.

Make sure your phyllo pastry is the same size as your pan. If it's too big, trim it to fit.

Remove two sheets of the phyllo pastry from the pile and place on your counter. Brush the top layer with melted butter and then transfer into the baking pan, buttered side down. Repeat twice so you have six sheets of pastry as your base.

Spread a layer of nuts on the phyllo sheet until the pastry is covered with nuts.

Remove another two sheets of pastry from the pile and once again brush the top sheet with butter. Place the buttered side onto the nuts. Repeat with another two sheets. Add more nuts to form another layer and then layer another two sheets of pastry as before. If there are enough nuts, do another layer. The top layer of pastry should, like the base, comprise of six sheets of phyllo layered the same way as the base.

Brush the top layer generously with butter and make sure the sides are sealed well to the edge of the pan.

Use a sharp knife and cut the baklava into diagonal diamond shapes or squares.

Bake for 30-40 mins or until golden.

While the baklava is baking, make the syrup.

Pour the melted butter you have remaining into a saucepan and add the honey, water, cardamom, rose water and sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring occasionally and reduce the heat to let the syrup simmer for a few minutes.

When the Baklava is ready, remove from the oven and drizzle half the syrup all over the pastry. Let the syrup soak into the pastry and after 10 mins or so, pour the remaining syrup all over the Baklava. Let it cool completely before serving.

Best eaten with a hot cup of spiced tea or coffee.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake

2012-01-08T18:38:00.000+08:00

The problem with having a hot-headed oven? Your cakes always end up browner on top than intended... especially if you're as forgetful as me and forget to shift your oven rack a notch or two below the middle.

Do you see the brownness? Sigh.

Oh well.

Actually, despite the dark brown top, this olive oil lemon cake (taken from Gourmet magazine, 2006) turned out superbly. Wonderfully soft, remarkably light, deliciously lemony, gorgeously moist and delightfully bright ... ok, enough with the superlatives. It's tasty. And really soft. And lemony. You like? I do.

As the name suggests, the cake uses olive oil instead of butter. Extra virgin olive oil if you prefer a more profound taste of olive oil. I opted for regular olive oil as I craved the texture the product brought to the cake, not so much the taste (though I do love the flavour of olive oil).

Though olive oil helps keep this cake moist, unlike butter (butter when creamed with the sugar) the oil does not have any properties of a leaven. As a result, this cake gets it's rise from carefully whipped egg whites. Just an extra step, not much of a bother and well worth the result

Lemon Olive Oil Cake

3/4 cup Olive Oil

1 cup superfine flour (or measure 1 cup all purpose flour, then take away 2 tbsp of it and replace with corn flour)

1 large lemon

5 eggs (separated; reserve 1 egg white for some other use — like an egg white omelet, maybe?)

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar + 11/2 tbsp to be kept aside

Preheat the oven to 180C with the rack in the middle. Unless your oven is like mine and is extremely hot on top — in which case adjust the rack one notch below the middle.

Grease a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with baking paper. Grease the paper lightly.

Zest the lemon and add 1/2 tsp (or 3/4 tsp if you really like a lemon flavour in your cake) and add it to the flour. Cut the lemon and squeeze 11/2 tbsp juice for the cake. Set aside.

Beat the egg yolks and the 1/2 cup sugar (yes, just 1/2 cup from the 3/4 cup you measured) on high speed until thick and pale. Reduce to medium speed and add the olive oil and lemon juice and mix till all the ingredients are incorporated well. Remove bowl from the mixer and fold in the flour using a wooden spoon. You should have a thick batter. Set aside.

Whisk the egg whites and salt on medium speed until foamy. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and whisk on high speed until the whites hold soft peaks (3-5 mins).

Add 1/3 of the whites into the batter, folding in gently with a spatula. Add the remaining whites, once again being gentle when folding them in.

Transfer the batter (now quite light) into the greased springform pan. Gently tap the pan on your counter/table to even the batter out. Sprinkle the 11/2 tbsp sugar on the surface of the cake. Bake for 35-40 mins or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Chocolate Cake with Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting

2012-01-07T08:19:00.003+08:00

Do you have a favourite chocolate cake? I don't. Well, not particularly. I like chocolate cakes that are really, really chocolaty and very, very moist. As long as these two requirements are met, I'm not fussy.

And usually, I like my chocolate cake with a purely chocolate ganache or frosting. Nothing fancy. Nothing too experimental. But, when I came across a recipe for a Nutella Cream frosting, I was tempted. I was even tempted to add Nutella inside my cupcakes but I chickened out at the last minute and added chocolate chunks inside instead.

See how dark the cake is? Rich! Chocolaty! Moist! Yay.

The method for making this cake is real simple — it's a one-bowl cake that's perfect for slacker Sundays. What the heck is a one-bowl cake? It means you simply mix all the ingredients in one bowl at one go (almost) and voila, you're done. No need to cream the butter and sugar first. No need to melt any chocolate. A real time saver with guaranteed results.

That's the cake. The frosting? Just as easy. Also one-bowl ... one mixer bowl, that is. Unless you feel like hand whisking.

The result? The cake was nice and chocolaty and the frosting? If you like Nutella, you'll love it. Me? I like it but I'd revert to pure chocolate frosting next time. I'm just boring that way.

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes
3/4 cup cocoa
11/2 cups all purpose flour
11/4 cup sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
11/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup warm water
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cups chunks of chocolate (dark or milky, it's your choice)

Preheat oven to 180C.
Sift flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda into a large bowl. Mix in sugar. Add the eggs, water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla and mix till smooth with a wooden spoon. Fold in the chips.
Fill cupcake liners with batter (only 2/3 full) and bake for 20 mins or till cake tester comes out clean. Cool cakes completely before frosting.

Nutella Cream Cheese Frosting
226g cream cheese
50g softened butter
50g nutella
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted

Cream the cheese and butter till smooth. Add sugar and nutella and mix until well incorporated.

Tempeh and Tofu Sambal

2012-01-04T11:30:00.000+08:00

I’ve got a sore throat. Blast! Blast! Blast. Can’t go to the gym, can’t down an iced drink, can’t eat my Tempeh and Tofu Sambal, a dish I’ve been craving for the past week.

Can you tell I’m not happy?

I love tempeh, particularly when it’s cooked sambal-style (with plenty of onions and a few tablespoons of hot, hot pure red chilli paste). Oh Lordy. It's one of my favorite dishes.

I hardly ever make the dish myself because there’s a lady who makes the best tempeh sambal I’ve ever tasted at a restaurant near my workplace. I simply buy two-ringgit’s worth (that's a lot for she is a generous woman) for my dinner three times a week.

Pure heaven. Honestly, it’s out-of-this-world tasty. I don’t eat it with rice. I eat it on it’s own, from a bowl, in front of the TV.

Yes, I have terrible habits. But to my defence, my husband works the night shift leaving me all alone with my dog five nights a week. I don’t go out much and Mojo (he’s the mutt) appreciates me eating my dinner by him in the living room. So you see, it’s circumstances that have made me develop these habits.

Back to the food.

I’ve tried in vain to get the recipe from the lady (I have been remiss in getting her name; I just refer to her as Adik) who sells the delicious tempeh but to no avail. She’s more than willing to share but she says she doesn’t have a recipe. Instead, she’s invited into her kitchen to watch her cook. One day I will but until then, and since I'm on leave and unwilling to drive all the way to the office just for the tempeh, I’ve to be content with my own version which is tasty but not heavenly like the one the nice lady at work makes.

Still, beggars can't be choosers. I must find time to take her up on her offer. I must learn the recipe from her. I must. Till then, here's my version.

Plain tempe/tofu + Fire = Awesome sambal

Tempeh and Taufu Sambal
4 blocks tempeh, halved lengthwise and sliced.
1 block firm tofu, halved lengthwise and crosswise
4 shallots, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2cm piece galangal, roughly chopped
2 dried chillies, blanched and roughly chopped
2 tbsp (heaped) red chilli paste
1/4 cup vegetable stock/water
salt and white pepper

Deep fry the tempeh and the taufu (separately) until firm and golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towels.
Pound/blend the shallots, garlic and galangal.
Heat about 2-3 tbsp oil in a wok. Add the blended onions/garlic/galangal and the chilli paste and fry till fragrant. Add the tempeh/taufu and mix to coat with the chilli. Add the stock and the dried chillies and cook over high heat till the water evaporates. Season to taste.

Checkmate!

2012-01-02T09:07:00.003+08:00

This was my first attempt at making checkerboard cookies and as you can see, they're far from perfect, appearance-wise. I certainly wasn't going to serves them to anyone other than my husband, who is often the unsuspecting victim to my kitchen foibles. This time though he surprised me by gobbling up much of the cookies at one go. I guess he isn't one who goes for appearances ... err, good to know but what does that say about me? Hmmmm...

Back to the cookies. What you need is precision and attention to detail, two things I sorely lack. What you need to do is make a basic cookie dough, divide it in half, flavour one with cocoa powder and toll them both out into identical 7-inch squares (identical in size and thickness) and then cut the squares into exact strips, about 1/2 cm wide (or slightly less). Here's where I failed. I didn't roll my chocolate dough thin enough and my strips weren't all 1/2 cm wide. The result? Imperfect squares in the checkerboard.

But all is well. I've resolved to be less uptight this year (one of my many new year resolutions that I intend to keep) and I'm not hung up over the aesthetic imperfections of my cookies. They're homemade not gourmet, and therefore it's fine that they're rustic (that's what I'm calling them, ok).

The appeal of the cookies isn't just aesthetic. The combination of vanilla and chocolate is a winner and, if you add finely chopped nuts into the dough, you're in for a treat.

Martha's Checkerboard Cookies

225g butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp lemon extract (optional)

21/2 cups all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp cocoa

1 egg beaten + 1 tbsp water

Cream the butter and sugar till incorporated. Add the vanilla and lemon extracts and mix. Turn the mixer to a slow speed and gradually add in the flour (mix in the salt to the flour first).

When the dough comes together, gently knead it for about 3-5 mins and then divide the dough into two equal halves.

Mix in the cocoa to one half of the dough until it's well incorporated.

Roll each ball of dough in between two sheets of plastic into two identical 7-inch squares (thickness of about 1/2 cm thick). Using a sharp knife, slice each square into 1/4 cm wide strips.

Whisk the egg and water and keep aside.

Cover your work surface with plastic. Place three strips of dough on the plastic, close together (white, chocolate, white). Brush the top of the strips with the egg wash and repeat this time starting with the chocolate strip (chocolate, white, chocolate). Brush the top with egg again and repeat (white, chocolate, white).

Wrap the block (with the three layers) with the plastic and refrigerate.

Repeat with the remaining dough.

Chill the blocks for 30 mins. Preheat the oven to 180. Bake for 10-12 mins.

Thyme-Parmesan Focaccia

2011-12-25T10:20:00.000+08:00

I am a reconvert ... to the old fashioned way of kneading bread by hand.

I must admit that since I bought my gorgeous red Kenwood Patissier a couple of years back, I've been a lazy bread maker, using my dough hook to knead my dough for me. I love my Patissier but honestly, I recently realised that it doesn't really do justice to the bread.

So here's the story.

Last week, I went over to a good friend's house to show her how I make my Focaccia, following a basic recipe by wunderkid Jamie Oliver. She didn't have a mixer so we kneaded by hand. Like I said, it's been a while since I'd done it and the moment I felt the dough beneath my fingers, transforming from a slightly sticky, stiff mass to a pliable and smooth ball, I knew that I'd be using my Patissier a lot less. Well, at least not for bread making.

There are many reasons I opted for the machine method in the first place but I've come to realise how flimsy these reasons really are. Maybe you have the same reservations but here's why I think they aren't really valid. Well, that is if you consider the end result: a gorgeous loaf of bread you've created literally by hand.

Messy? Perhaps because as you knead, fold and slap the dough on the floured surface, you're bound to get flour all over your hands, shirt and perhaps even your floor. Or maybe that's just me.

Dough sticking to your hand? Well, yeah but this isn't catastrophic and if you flour or oil your hands (I prefer oiling as it doesn't make the dough too dry and adds flavour to the bread. Just don't be over enthusiastic with the oil!), the problem is no longer a problem.

Time consuming? Well, it only takes about 10 minutes longer. The machine kneading time is usually between 5 to 7 minutes. With your hands, you'd probably take 10-12 minutes. Plus, you work your biceps (even if it's just on one arm). Plus, there is a much lesser chance of over-kneading your dough because the ache in your arm will prevent you from kneading longer that necessary. I didn't realise this but I think I've been over-kneading a little with my mixer. Though my bread always rises and turns out fine, the difference with the hand-kneaded breads (I've made a couple more since my session with my mate) is that the latter rises quicker and the texture and quality of the bread is a lot nicer: it's even, more fluffy and has a nice chew to it.

How do you know when the dough is ready? Pinch a bit of the dough off, gently stretch it with your fingers until the dough is pliable enough that it stretches to a thin, opaque layer without tearing. This is call the window-pane test. It's pretty cool — check it out here.

Lastly, kneading the dough by hand can be extremely therapeutic. No matter what method of kneading you choose, you can wither work you aggression out on your dough (though you may be eating all that bad energy later on, be forewarned) or be calmed by the action of pushing, pressing and folding. Try it. The latter works better for me because I seriously don't want any negative energy flavouring my loaf.

For more on kneading dough, check this article by master baker Dan Lepard published in the Guardian.

Thyme and Parmesan Focaccia
500g bread flour
pinch of salt
1 tbsp instant yeast
1 tbsp honey
325ml tepid water (a bit more if necessary)
olive oil
1 tbsp minced thyme
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

Whisk the salt and flour together.
In a bowl, dissolve the yeast in half the water and honey. Let it sit until the mixture starts foaming.
Create a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the foamy yeast mixture. Using your fingers and working from the middle (from the liquid) mix in the flour and liquid.
Add more water gradually as you mix the flour into a ball of dough. The dough should be a little sticky.

Oil (or flour) your hands and work surface lightly and then transfer the ball of dough onto the surface and start kneading. It should take about 10 mins.

Transfer the dough into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover and leave to rise until double its size (about an hour).

Once rise, lightly punch out the dough to release the gasses (press down with your fingers or knuckles). Gently knead in the chopped thyme and Parmesan: not too much, just so that the ingredients get into the dough a little.

Transfer to your baking tray and gently stretch it to fit the pan. If it's difficult to stretch, don't force it. Let it rest for 5 to 10 mins and resume.

Dimple the bread with your finger tips (press your finger through the dough till it reaches the pan and move it to form a dimple) and pour some olive oil on the surface (about 2-3 tbsp). Some of the oil should collect in the dimples. You can

Leave the bread to rise one last time, about 10-15 mins.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Bake for 20 mins or until the tops and nice and golden brown. Remove and drizzle with more olive oil (1-2 tbsp).

Chocolate Spritz Cookies

2011-12-23T08:45:00.000+08:00

How does one misplace an ingredient? Well, these chocolate cookies were supposed to be green — as in flavoured with green tea powder. But, for the life of me, I couldn't find the tin of matcha green tea powder I had purchased in Japan some time ago. I literally cleaned out my kitchen shelves looking for the darn thing. Where'd it go? If I didn't know better, I'd think my kitchen pantry was haunted. Oh well.

Since I'd taken out my butter to cool and measured all the other ingredients for these cookies, I decided to replace the green tea powder with cocoa powder instead — at least I knew where the cocoa was.

Scatterbrain, you say? Well, you're absolutely right. Still, the cocoa was a good substitute and these spritz cookies — made with my mum's old cookie press — turned out well.

The recipe is courtesy of Martha Stewart — she has a basic dough recipe for spritz cookies and also variations depending on the flavour you hope to achieve: citrus, chocolate, spiced or just plain vanilla. She also suggests various glazes for the cookies which I chose to forgo the glaze time around — the stress of hunting down the green tea powder left me a little winded. Yes, of course I am exaggerating.

A spritz cookie is ultimately a butter cookie that's made using a cookie press. The term 'spritz' comes from the German word 'spritzen' which is to squirt. well, the cookie press doesn't exactly squirt out cookies but you get the idea, right?

A cookie press (see pic above) is a cylindrical device made of stainless steel (the more modern ones come in plastic). It comprises a barrel to hold the dough, a stainless steel lever/trigger that 'squirts' out the dough and a set of shape-discs that determine what shape your cookies take: the shapes include pretty wreaths, flowers, trees, rosettes, stars, and stripes, hears and many more. Pretty neat!

For the dough to go through the discs, the consistency has to be a little softer than the dough you use for cut-out cookies. And, it has to be chilled first.

I had a blast playing with the different shapes and decided to garnish them with desiccated coconut because I love coconut.

FYI: If you don't have a spritzer, just add 1 tsp baking powder and scant 1/3 cup four to the the same recipe and you can make cut-out cookies with them.

Chocolate Spritz Cookies

22/3 cups all purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa

1/2 tsp salt

228g unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

Whisk the flour, cocoa and salt in a large bowl.

Beat the butter and sugar in a mixer (medium-high speed) until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until well incorporated. Reduce speed to low and add the flour gradually and beat till combined.

Refrigerate dough for at least 20 minutes before filling the spritzer with dough. Spritz the cookies straight onto a lined baking sheet, about an inch apart, and bake for 12-14 mins. Let cool completely before storing (or eating) them!

Spaghetti Not-Bolognaise

2011-12-21T20:13:00.000+08:00

The Bolognaise or Bolognese sauce is a beef-based sauce (some variations use pork, chicken or turkey much to the displeasure of gourmands) that originates from Bologna, Italy. The sauce dates back to sometime before the 5th century. Italian chefs have dubbed the spaghetti Bolognaise to be the most abused Italian dish in history. In the first place, they say, the Bolognaise was supposed to be eaten not with spaghetti but tagliatelle. Also, the many variations to the sauce itself — the use of anything other than beef mince as well as the addition of alien ingredients like cream or butter — has made the original Bolognaise sauce a real rarity.

As a result, although my mushroom sauce was made to look like the Bolognaise, I wouldn't dare to deem it a mushroom Bolognaise. No, that would be ridiculous and unacceptable. So instead, let's just call this a mushroom sauce or, if you want some comparison to the original from which it is inspired, a mushroom not-Bolognaise sauce.

Nah, I think I prefer to call it a mushroom sauce.

The base ingredients of this mushroom sauce are similar to the Bolognaise: finely chopped onions, celery stalk and carrots. Of course, since this is a vegetarian sauce, there is no pancetta or minced beef. Instead, I used minced mushrooms: shitake and portobello.

Also, instead of beef stock, I used vegetable stock — homemade for the absolute fullness of flavour.

Add to that some tomato paste.

Simple but delicious. The sauce tastes good warm but, to me, it tastes a whole lot better after it has rested for a couple of hours. So let your pasta be hot and your sauce cool. And this you must not forget: serve with a generous portion of grated fresh parmesan.

Rich Mushroom sauce

(adapted from the Los Angeles Times)

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup finely chopped celery stalk

1/3 cup finely chopped carrots

1/3 cup finely chopped red onions

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cup minced shitake mushrooms

1 cup minced portobello mushrooms

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 cup vegetable stock

1/4 cup red wine

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper for seasoning

Head the olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the onion, garlic, celery and carrots and cook until the onions start to caramelise, about 8 mins. Keep the heat low.

Add the mushrooms and stir together with the rest of the ingredients. Cook until the mushrooms sweat and start to get brown, about 5-7 mins.

Add the tomato paste and stir well. Cook until a thin layer of tomato begins to appear at the base of the pan, mixed with the oil.

Add the stock, the red wine and the bay leaves and cook (low to medium heat) until the sauce thickens. Season and remove from the heat. Allow to cool.

Serve generously on pasta with a huge portion of parmesan. No compromises there!

Choc-onut candy?

2011-12-08T22:04:00.001+08:00

That chocolate and coconut go together wondrously is no secret. All you gotta do is gnaw at (or chomp down, if you are like me) a Bounty bar or have at a lamington (squares of chocolate-coated sponge cake rolled in dessicated/flaked sweetened coconut) to realise that chocolate and coconut, when combined, is just divine.

So, on a particularly restless evening some weeks ago, I decided to try and determine if the choc-onut pairing would work also work in a favourite Malaysian dessert: coconut candy. Now I was aware that I was treading into dangerous waters because a true fan of the classic Malayisan (yes, I am claiming it to be Malaysian) coconut candy doesn't tolerate the bastardisation of the classic recipe.

As a rule, coconut candy must be either pink or green: the more garish the colours the better (see below). Also, the flavour should be pure coconut enhanced only with vanilla or rose essence.

So, seriously, I was a little nervous about messing with a classic. But curiosity always gets the better of me and so I pressed on.

I didn't have a recipe to go by and so, it took some experimenting to find the right amount of cocoa for the candy to be just right.

The first batch I made was weak. I was too stingy with the cocoa and as a result the chocolate flavour wasn't apparent at all and the colour was unappealing too; kinda sandy brown. Unacceptable!

I decided to be bold with the second batch and doubled the amount of cocoa I used. It worked. The taste of chocolate was very apparent and the candy looked like a brownie. Well, kinda.

The verdict? I loved the choc-onut candy as did many of my friends whom I made sample it. Would I try it again? Yeah! Would they try it again? Well, yes but only if I also serve them the original.

"It's lovely but I will always feel a little unfulfilled unless I have a garishly pink or green piece along with this one," was the consensus.

Choc-onut candy

3 cups grated coconut

450g castor sugar

170g evaporated milk

40g butter

1/4 cup cocoa

pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Grease a small baking tray with butter.

Place the coconut, sugar, salt and milk in a wok over low heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. Add the butter and then the cocoa. Stir to incorporate both ingredients and then keep stirring as the mixture thickens so that the bottom doesn't get burnt.

The tricky [art about candy is knowing when to take it off the heat. Take it off too early and your candy will be damp and maybe even a little soggy. Leave it on too long and the candy crumbles. The secret is to watch closely and remove it once the candy starts to stick together and when you stir it with a wooden spoon, it comes together in a ball. Well, sort off. It will be a little wettish still but don't fret, it will harden as it sets.

When the texture is right, remove the candy from the heat onto the greased tray. Using a sheet of foil, press it into a flat layer about 1 inch thick. Compress it well and level the top with a bowl or the palm of your hand.

Leave it to set for an hour or longer. If you want, you may serrate the block of candy by gently running a knife through the wettish layer (so it will be easier to break up or cut up later) but this isn't necessary.

You're so very cheesy, cracker!

2011-11-28T07:53:00.001+08:00

I love cheese crackers, cheese-flavoured pretzels, cheese straws, cheese puffs, cheese anythings. I even love cheese-flavoured Twisties! And Cheezels. Cheetos? Oooooh, yeah. The key word, as you may have already figured it out, is cheese.

So, when I found this recipe for homemade Goldfish crackers (you've seen them in the grocer, surely, right?) in Tasty Kitchen, I was delighted. What? Make my own Goldfish crackers? Dozens of crackers for myself? Yay!

The problem? I didn't have a cookie cutter in the shape of a goldfish. Or any fish for that matter. Drats. What did I do? I tried to improvise. Didn't work. My fishes looked like mutated whales. Moby Dick wouldn't be pleased. they looked like tadpoles, almost. Urrgh.

So, I gave up and made crackers in all shapes. I had a fish platter though, as if that helped.

After I got over the initial disappointment of not being able to make actual goldfish crackers (I know, I am quite ridiculous), I got on with the job, all the while waiting in anticipation to eat the cheesy crackers while watching the latest episode of TV series, Homeland.

Turns out, the crackers are easier to make than I imagined. Mix grated cheese, flour, salt and butter together an add some ice cold water and voila — rows of deliciously orange crackers that are cheesy, puffy and crunchy all at once. It's definitely a snack I will be making over and over again. And again. And again. Get the picture?

Not Goldfish Crackers

225 g cheddar cheese (sharp or mild, it's up to you), grated
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt

60g cold butter, cut into cubes

2 tbsp cold water

Whisk together the cheese, flour and salt till incorporated. Add the butter and pulse (in your food processor or mixer) till it resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water one tbsp at a time till the crumbs come together. Use your hands to bring the dough together. Wrap in cling film and chill for at least 20 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Once the dough is chilled, remove and roll out and cut into shapes. Gather the scraps and roll again. And cut. Arrange the shapes on a lined baking sheet and bake for 15 mins or till the crackers have puffed up and crispy.

Parsnip Perfection

2011-11-21T18:07:00.001+08:00

So, I've heard about parsnips and I've read about parsnips but I've never been quite inclined to try them because, well, they don't look very appetising — kinda like a radish which not really my favourite vegetable (unless it's nicely disguised in the steamed-and-then-fried lobak kueh or, further disguised in kueh kak). On its own, I find radish to be quite vile: not much taste to it and a bite that's quite severe even minutes after.

Naturally, I assumed the same of parsnips.

But, after watching many episodes of Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen — Top Chef season one winner Harold's parsnip puree (which he served with prime New York Strip steaks) looked soooo good — I felt compelled to give parsnips a go. Even if it didn't taste good, at least I'd know what it tasted like, right? So, I went shopping.

Now parsnips aren't so easily available here. And, they're costly. An average sized parsnip costs about RM6. I bought two large ones as I wanted to try roasting them as well as pureeing them, Harold style.

The verdict: I love parsnips! they're nothing like radish. Sweet and creamy when roasted, they're now my favourite root vegetable. Top of the list!! I loved the puree but I think my favourite way to eat parsnip is to simple roast them.

Parsnip Puree

1 tbsp unsalted butter

1 parsnip, peeled and cubed

1 small shallot, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 cup vegetable stock

thyme, just a bit

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and add the parsnips, shallots and garlic and saute until the shallots are translucent, about 8 mins (medium heat). Add the cream and enough stock to cover the parsnips and thyme and allow to simmer till the parsnips get soft, about 10 mins. Transfer to a blender/food processor and puree till smooth.

WowWee! The puree was delicious. Better than mashed potatoes — a little sweeter and less starchy. One tip: adjust the stock; 1/4 cup may be too much if your parsnip is tiny in which case your puree may be a little too thin.

Next up: roasting

Roasted Parsnips

1 medium parsnip, cut to look like fried or wedges, as you please

11/2-2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp butter

pinch of salt

black pepper

chopped parsley (optional)

Heat the oven to 200C.

Place the butter in a roasting pan (a small one) and put it in the oven.

Toss the parsnips in the oil and salt. When the butter is melted and is bubbling, remove pan and add the parsnips.

Bake for about 15-20 mins. Remove, turn the parsnips over and roast for another 15 mins or until golden brown (but still soft). Remove and toss in chopped parsley.

Roasted parsnips? Hell, yeah. Way better than potatoes fries, and I suspect healthier too. I tried another batch (yes, I went out and bought more parsnip the day after) with a little horseradish and they were super.

Project Shortbread (Part II)

2011-11-13T02:31:00.001+08:00

You know the saying "Stop looking for love; let love find you"? No? Well, in my teenage years when I was desperate for a date (its a long story, this isn't the place for it), I got that advice quite a bit. I thought it was just hogwash at the time but now I am not so sure.

I stopped looking and I found love.

No, this isn't a soppy account of how I met my husband. It's a soppy account of how I finally found the perfect shortbread.

You see, about two weeks ago, I went on a frenzied quest to find the perfect recipe for the perfect shortbread. I searched for and tried a dozen (well, not quite but close) different recipes. I don't think I found the perfect recipe for the perfect shortbread but I twas pretty happy with the results of Project Shortbread.

Then, when I wasn't looking, I found this recipe for Polvorones (Spanish shortbread). Or rather, it found me. I was doing my regular food blog rounds when I came across a recipe for Pistachio Polvorones on sophisticatedgourmet.com. It was love at first sight. The perfect little round sugar-coated cookies were so beautiful, so perfect. Actually, they reminded me of an Indian dessert I love — ghee balls —and I think that's what attracted me first.

I had to make these. I had no choice. It was fate.

Made of sugar, flour, butter and nuts, Polvorones are traditionally made around Christmas time. They're sometimes called "Wedding Cookies" (maybe its the dusting of powdered sugar that gives it a "wedding feel" — you know, white wedding and all that?) and can be found, individually wrapped kinda like a sweet — quite commonly in Spain, Mexico, the Philippines and America (well not exclusively in these places but especially so).

Now, let me tell you why I love these cookies. They are deliciously nutty ground almond and chopped pistachios — imagine that; they're fantastically soft and delightfully crumbly. The icing sugar on top adds to the allure of the cookie that, on its own, isn't terribly sweet.

It is my favourite shortbread... of the moment.

Pistachio Polvorones
(adapted from sophisticatedgourmet.com)

11/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
226g butter, softened
3/4 cup icing sugar (and more for dusting)
11/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional)
3/4 cup chopped pistachios
1/4 cup ground almond

Whisk together the flours, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
Using a mixer, cream the butter until fluffy. Add the sugar in gradually and continue mixing until the mixture becomes light and fluffy (about 3 mins). Add the vanilla and almond extracts.
With a spatula, fold in the flour. Add the ground almonds and pistachios and mix till a dough forms. Don't over mix the dough. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 mins or till the dough (which is very soft at this point) firms up a little.

Once firm, remove the dough from the refrigerator and form little balls (between the size of a 10sen and 20sen coin) and place them an inch apart on a line baking sheet.

Place the tray of dough balls in the freezer for 15 mins.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Bake the cookies for about 15-18 mins or until the sides begin to get golden. Remove and let cool on the tray for 10-15 mins.

Coat with powdered sugar. Eat. Wow.

Pie-crazy weekend

2011-11-06T18:07:00.002+08:00

Pie. Just the thought of pie, sweet or savoury, makes me smile.

A pie is like a present: you get through the lovely wrapper (which is the crust) to get to the treat (the filling). At the end of it all, you're just so happy.

Pie makes me happy. And, I think I love making them more than I love eating them.

So, this weekend I made two pies. The first was a Strawberry and Apple pie with a lattice crust and the second, a Buttermilk Pie with Pine Nuts. I had no qualms making two pies at one go because pies freeze extremely well. In fact, I kinda like the taste of frozen pied that have been reheated.

The first thing to focus on is the crust. I used the same crust for both pies were the same: a basic pie crust from Martha Stewart (though most recipes are similar) that combines 11/4 cups all-purpose flour + 1/2 tsp salt + 1/2 tsp sugar, 113g butter and 4 tbsp ice cold water.

Using your hands, rub the butter into the flour (whisk in the salt and sugar into the flour first) and when it resembles coarse bread crumbs, add the water, 2 tbsp at a time and gently mix to form a dough. Shape dough into a disc, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour. (The dough is enough for ONE 23cm pie dish).

Now, let's move on to the filling. The Apple and Strawberry Pie, I made on a whim, without a recipe to guide me. I'd made apple pies before and I figured I could just wing it.

Apple and Strawberry Pie
2 cups chopped apples (I used Fuji reds, peel off the skin!)
2 cups roughly cut strawberries.
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
pinch of salt
1/4 cup corn starch
2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 egg yolk, beaten (for the finish).

Keep aside 1/5 of the dough for the lattice. Roll the remainder of the dough so that its big enough to cover the base of your pie dish. Gently transfer and mould it onto the pie dish. Refrigerate it for about 30 mins. Roll the dough you kept aside and then cut about 10 strips, about 20 cm in length.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

To prepare the filling, simply mix all the ingredients together.
Once the crust is chilled, transfer the filling onto the crust. Now, lay the strips over the filling to form a lattice. Seal the edges together. Brush with the beaten yolk.

Bake for 20 mins and then remove it, cover the top with foil, reduce the temperature of the oven to 160C and bake for a further 15-25 mins.

Buttermilk Pie
From marthastewart .com

3 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tbsp all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
11/2 cup buttermilk
113 gm unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the eggs, sugar and flour together. Add the butter and the buttermilk, alternately, in four installments. Whisk in the vanilla, lightly.

Roll the (chilled) dough till it's big enough to cover the base of your pie dish. Gently transfer and mould it onto the pie dish. Refrigerate it for about 30 mins.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Pour the custard into the crust and bake for 15 mins.

Cover the pie with foil, reduce the heat to 160C and continue baking for 25-30 mins or till the custard sets.

Shortbread Mania

2011-10-31T13:43:00.002+08:00

I don’t normally dream of food. I think about food a lot sometimes (presently I have tempeh on my mind, almost constantly) and I often have cravings (mostly for calorific food like cheese pretzels or corn nuts); but I dare say I have never dreamt of food. But last week, I dreamt of shortbread. How random is that? Shortbread!

So this was it: I was at a garden party (actually I was the only one at the party), sitting at a table wearing a kilt. I was looking intently at a plate of pale, sugary shortbread that was placed in front of me. There was a huge tea pot beside the plate, but no cups (how rude!). I could hear a a horse somewhere in the background but there wasn’t any sign of a prince (again, how rude!).Quite bizarre and a little boring, given that nothing actually happened in the dream. No story. No plot. No drama. I woke up wondering (of all things) why I chose a grey kilt and not a red one! I am weird ... for choosing grey... I know.

I don’t interpret dreams but I’d say I have taken “craving” to a whole new level. My subconscious was craving shortbread ... and I was more than willing to comply.

I’ve made shortbread several times before so I could have easily dug out an old recipe but instead, I chose instead to trawl the net for something different. BIG MISTAKE. Well, not mistake exactly, but what should have been a quick and easy baking job became a week-long project.

Turns out there are more ways than one to make the classic shortbread and I was game to try a few recipes in search of my favourite.

There are three essential ingredients in all shortbreads — flour, butter and sugar (the ration between the three is usually 4-2-1) and the process of making shortbread is really quite straight-forward:

   Step1: Cream the butter and sugar. Most recipes call for softened butter but some use melted butter.
   Step 2: Fold in the flour, being careful not to over mix the dough (unless you like tough cookies!)
   Step 3: Bake.

That’s the standard recipe I’ve tried and my biscuits always turn out well: buttery, soft and crumbly. But in my search for something different, I stumbled on a recipe for a vegan shortbread that uses absolutely no butter.

No butter?

I put aside my skepticism — can you even call it shortbread without the butter? — and decided to give it a go.

Experiment One : Vegan Shortbread

No butter? No worries!

Instead of butter, the vegan shortbread uses canola oil. AND, apart from the sugar and the flour, the recipe also calls for baking powder and rice flour (which many cooks say enhances the texture of shortbread).

The recipe:

2/3 cup Oil
1/2 cup icing sugar
11/2 cups + 1 tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 cup + 1/4 tsp rice flour (I used tapioca flour instead)
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 tsp vanilla
granulated sugar for sprinkling (optional)

Preheat the oven to 160C. Line an 2ocm round pan with parchment paper. Mix all dry ingredients together. Make a well in the center and pour in the oil and mix with a wooden spoon. Add the vanilla and mix it in evenly. Transfer the dough (slightly sticky) onto the lined pan and press evenly with the back of the spoon or your hand. Poke holes with a fork and lightly score it into 8 wedges.Sprinkle with raw sugar and bake for 35-40 mins. Let it cool before cutting.

The result: It was pretty good actually. Way above my expectations. Soft, crumbly and very tasty. The only flaw: I kinda missed the butter. I like my shortbread really buttery and even though the vegan version was nice, I wanted a buttery biscuit.

The verdict: the vegan shortbread is a wonderful alternative for people who don’t eat butter. But since I do, I’ll stick to my standard recipe.

Experiment 2: Melted butter and twice the heat.

Are you (pine) nuts about shortbread ?

The second recipe uses butter. But it uses melted butter. And, it takes a while to make because once you mix the ingredients together (pretty much the same way you mix it in the vegan recipe), and after you've pressed it into the tray, you have to let it rest (and you thought bread was difficult) for two hours MINIMUM) before you bake it. And, after baking it for 30-odd mins, you have to take it out, let it rest AGAIN and then pop it back in the oven for 10 mins.

I wasn't sure what the "resting" was for so I baked a batch without resting it at all and another batch with the required 2-hour rest. Turns out, resting made the shortbread more tender. Still crunchy (thanks to the double baking) but nice and tender inside. Still crumbly, like a good shortbread should be. The double baking seems like an awful lot of work but if you like a nice crunch on the outside of your shortbread, you'll be willing to go the extra mile.

Twice-baked Shortbread

(from SmittenKitchen; adapted from Alice Medrich's Pure Dessert)

170g unsalted butter, melted and still warm
5 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Granulated sugar for sprinkling

Mix the sugar into the warm, melted butter and stir till combined. Add the vanilla and then fold in the flour (mix the salt in first), bit by bit.

Line your baking tray with foil (let the foil hang down the sides). Press the dough into the baking tray/pan. Flatten and let it rest for at least two hours.

Bake in a pre-heated oven (150C) for 30-40 mins (place it in the lower rack of your oven).
Remove and let it cool for about 10 mins. Remove the shortbread (lift the foil by the flaps) and gently cut it with a sharp knife into squares. Place the squares on a lined baking sheet and bake for another 10 - 15 mins.

Quiche it coming!

2011-10-10T06:51:00.001+08:00

What's quick to execute, amazingly tasty and unbelievably versatile? Quiche!

I decided to single out the quiche in this week's Don't Call Me Chef (Singled Out) — the link will be up asap — because, well, its a dish that deserves the spotlight.

I remember the first time I tasted quiche. I was 27 and my boss at the time took a group of us out for lunch at her favourite cafe. I scanned the menu and couldn't decide what I wanted. I then glanced at the array of tea time treats at the counter and this lovely tart caught my eye. I had no idea what it was. I spied mushrooms and onions and I saw the lovely crust. I wanted that! I ate that!

It was love at first bite. Not surprising since I love eggs and cheese and a nice, buttery crust!

I've loved quiche ever since. Love it so much, I was determined to learn to make quiche so that I could have it anytime a craving hit.

So anyway, in the name of research for my article, I rolled out a whole bunch of quiches. I wanted to experiment with crusts (I made a shortcrust, a rough puff pastry and thin breadcrumb crust as well — more on this later).

I also wanted to test the versatility of the quiche — using an array of ingredients not usually used like artichoke and beetroot. I also made a three-cheese quiche. And then I made a mushroom one, a broccoli quiche and finally one with tomatoes — oven roasted, of course.

I only had two pie dishes so I baked one in a rectangular cake dish. Turned out nice!

I didn't make it all at one go, of course.

Here's what I discovered in the process:

* Bake the quiche in the lower rack of your oven so the crust at the base can cook through without browning the top of your quiche.

* Beetroot is a delicious filling. Plus, the pink is so pretty, albeit a little unsettling at first!

* A shortcrust that combines both plain and wholemeal flours is really incomparable.

* When baking an all-cheese quiche, hold back on your seasoning as the cheese are salty enough. A little pepper is all you need. Also, I'd suggest Mozzarella or Gruyere as the primary cheese and Parmesan as the secondary one. (use 2/3 mozzarella/Gruyere and 1/3 Parmesan).

* Milk is a good substitute for cream.

Here's the basic recipe for the wholemeal shortcrust (my favourite) and one for the egg custard.

Shortcrust
300g flour (200g plain flour and 100g wholemeal)
150g cold butter
pinch of salt
4-5 tbsp ice cold water

Sift the flours and the salt. Using a knife, cut the butter into the flour into small pieces so that it is well coated with flour. Then using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

Add the water, a little at a time, until a dough forms. Be careful not to overwork the dough. Form into a disc, wrap with clingfilm and chill for at least 30 mins.

Remove the chilled dough from the fridge and using a rolling pin or your palms, flatten it into a circular sheet, about 1/2 cm thick. Transfer onto your fluted pie plate/dish and press the dough gently in. Trim the edges.

With a fork. puncture the base all over. Line the base with baking paper and then weigh it down with some uncooked beans or a oven proof dish.

Bake in a preheated oven (180C) for about 20 mins. Remove the beans/paper and bake for another 5-10 mins.

Egg Custard
5 eggs
1 cup milk/cream
1/2-3/4 cup cheese(mozzarella, Gruyere, emmentel, cheddar or a combination) + extra for garnish
filling

Beat the eggs with the milk/cream and add the cheese. Season.
Prepare the filling. If you're using a filling that is high in moisture like mushrooms or onions, it's better to cook them lightly on the stove top first to draw out the moisture a little.

Once the pastry has been blind baked, remove from the oven and arrange the filling in the shell. Pour the custard to cover the filling and garnish with cheese.

Bake for 35-50 mins (lower rack please!)

Crust Almighty!

2011-10-05T07:42:00.000+08:00

Do you see the crust? Do you?

I'm ecstatic! I've been kinda restless the past couple of days, anxious to see if my no-knead bread would turn out. Two days? Well, kinda. This is Jim Lahey's (of Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC) bread, baked his way — with very little yeast, absolutely no kneading and in a cast iron pot. Lahey's method is simple: you measure the ingredients, mix them together with your hands and then let the dough sit for a long, long time (12 − 18 hours!) and wait for the dough to develop organically. Uncomplicated, right?

Lahey's technique was featured in Mark Bittman in his column in the New York Times some years ago. What truly interested me about this method was how, despite the seemingly simple technique, Lahey was able to achieve an impressive crust on his loaf. A nice crispy, golden crust that envelopes the light, soft loaf.

I've never been able to get a crust on any of my loaves... well, except for the time when I leave them in the oven a tad too long and I end up with a super black crust. Yes, you may say I burnt my loaves more than a couple of times.

So, a crust? I was interested. So interested that I decided to take my gorgeous blue cast iron pot from hibernation. I bought this beauty a couple of years ago and I have to admit I haven't used quite so much. It's sits comfortably at the far end of my kitchen cupboard. Why? Well, it's really heavy! And I am too lazy to reach into the cupboard and heave it up.

But this bread got me excited enough to get the pot out (and dust it. And rinse it).

Ok. Enough talk. Let's get down to the recipe.

Jim Lahey's No-Knead Crusty Bread

3 cups bread flour (plus more for dusting)

1/4 tsp instant yeast

11/4 tsp salt

11/2 cup + 2 tbsp water

Mix all the ingredients together with your hands till a sticky dough forms. Cover the mixing bowl with cling film (I just slipped the bowl in a large plastic bag and clipped the edge together) and let it sit on your counter for 12 to 18 hours.

I am sorry, I didn't take pictures of the process but you can watch a video of Lahey mixing his dough here.

* If you make this at night, you can go to bed, wake up have breakfast, watch TV, run errands etc while the bread rises.

After 18 hours, you will get a dough that's double in size (at least), still sticky and bubbly. Perfect!

Flour your hands. Flour your work surface — you can also sprinkle some wheat bran on the flour to flavour your crust. Gently coax the dough out of the bowl and onto the floured work surface.

Don't knead. Really. It's a no-knead recipe, remember? Stretch the dough out to form a rough circle and fold in the sides. (left, right, top and bottom).

Cover with a towel and leave to rise for yet another 1-2 hours.

About 40 mins before the second rise is due to end, pre heat the oven to 225C and put your cast iron pot, covered, into the oven to heat it up.

The pot needs to be hot. Very hot.

After two hours, the dough should be nice and plump, still a little sticky. Just a little but the dusting of flour should make it easier to handle now.

Take the hot pot out of the oven. Wear your oven mitts because the pot will be very hot by now. Remove the cover and transfer the dough, seam side down into the pot.

Cover and bake for 30 mins. Then, remove the cover and bake for another 15-30 mins until your crust is nice and golden.

Voila. It's done!

Admire your crust. Isn't is lovely. Cut the bread and look at the lovely bubbles that have formed. Chemistry rocks!

Lemon Coconut Bars

2011-10-03T12:19:00.000+08:00

Lemon bars with a coconut crust and garnish. How's that sound to you?

Well, I went a little crazy in the supermarket last week and bought two bags of lemons. I love lemons but it was only when I got home when I realised that perhaps 20 was a little bit too much. I could make lemonade, I guess. I could make a lemon pound cake, I suppose. Who am I kidding, with 20 lemons, I could make lemonade, a pound cake and still have too many lemons left over.

Overzealous. Gotta have more restraint next time.

So, I made some lemonade (deliciously refreshing) but I axed the pound cake. I decided to make lemon bars instead. A tangy lemon bar with a shortbread crust. A sweet, citrus bar with a coconut, shortbread bar. Boy! I was getting quite excited.

Nevermind that the lemon bar would just use up one, maybe two lemons. I was already imagining how the bars would taste. Picture this: a sweet, sightly crumbly shortbread laced with coconut flakes, toasted of course + a tart, soft, lemon filling that was not quite custard and not quite cake. The sweet, salty and coco-nutty crust with the tangy, fresh citrus filling. Topped with a sprinkling of coconut flakes, untoasted.

I decided to make a simple sandwich for dinner just so I could get right to the bars as quickly as possible. A light sandwich so I had space in my tummy for the bars.

Best idea I had!

Lemon Coconut bars
For the crust
11/4 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup icing sugar
pinch of salt
113gms cold butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup desiccated coconut, toasted

For the filling
3/4 cup Castor sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp grated lemon zest
2 eggs
11/2 tsp all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Heat the oven to 180C.

Line a 20 X 20cm baking tray with aluminum foil with a overhang on two sides.

First the crust: Whisk together the flour, sugar and salt. Add the cold butter and coconut and mix it into the flour with your finger tips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs and it starts to clump together a bit.

Press the crumbs onto the baking tray evenly. Bake for about 20 mins or until the edges of the crust starts to brown.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Whisk all the ingredients together till smooth.

Pour the filling into the warm crust once it's ready and bake for about 20-25 minutes until the lemon filling begins to brown. It should be just set and feel springy.

Cool and then garnish with desiccated coconut or icing sugar or both.

Herbed 'Pot' Bread

2011-10-02T21:26:00.001+08:00

It t has been quite a while since I last made bread. I didn't realise how much I missed bread-making until I started work on this beautiful loaf here. As cliche as it sounds, making bread is therapeutic. The measuring, the kneading, watching a pile of dough rise and rise and rise, shaping dough into form, smelling the bread as it bakes, watching it rise ... man, what a trip.

I think I may be getting a tad emotional here. Give me a minute to compose myself. This is embarrassing.

Ok. I'm ready. So, after a short hiatus, today I decided to be ambitious. Why not bake two loafs simultaneously? I've got a three-day weekend, what better chance to experiment and go on a baking spree.

So the first loaf. It's a no-knead bread that uses very little yeast and hardly any technique and absolutely no kneading. It does however take a long time to make — try 20 hours, at least! But what you will get is a very light bread, tasty and, most importantly, with a delicious crust. An actual crust that you can crunch. Yowza. This bread belongs to Jim Lahey's (of Sullivan Street Bakery in New York City). It was featured by Mark Bittman in his column in the New York Times some time back and my colleague Marty Thyme pointed me to it last week — she;s made it more than once, successfully.

As I type, my loaf is currently under construction: I've mixed the ingredients to form a sticky dough which is sitting in a big bowl in a big garbage bag in the corner of my kitchen. It will sit there for about 12 −18 hours. (I made it! I made Jim Lahey's loaf. Read about it here!) ~~Until then, let me move onto~~ For now, let's focus on the second loaf — a herb-infused loaf that is baked in pot.

The original recipe which I found on thepioneerwoman.com suggests using a cast-iron pot. I have a cast-iron pot but chose to use my stainless steel saucepan instead because ... well, the cast-iron pot is soooo heavy and I was feeling a tad lazy. Imagine that!

This delicious thyme-infused loaf packs a punch. So flavourful is it that you can literally eat it straight out of the oven without any spreads (not even butter is necessary). You can toast it but really, it's not necessary. In fact, I'd advise you against it... at least the first slice because you really need to enjoy the flavour of the thyme and butter that permeates the soft, moist bread.

Ok, enough talk. Let's make bread.

Thyme Pot Bread

4 cups bread flour/all purpose flour

1 cup water

113g butter

3 tbsp chopped thyme

2 tsp salt

1 tsp instant yeast

Melt butter and add the thyme and let it stand for about 5 mins.

Mix the flour, yeast, salt and yeast together in a bowl. Add the water and then the butter (it should still be warm) and mix till a dough forms.

Knead the dough for about 15 mins by hand or 7 mins using your mixer (use the dough hook).

Place the kneaded dough in a bowl that's been greased with some olive oil. Cover with cling film and let it rise for about 2-3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 200C about 30 minutes before you are ready to start work on the risen dough.

Once the dough has risen to about double its size (mine took about 2.5 hours), knead it a couple more times to redistribute the yeast and then form it into a round mound (kinda like an anthill) and transfer it into your greased pot/saucepan.

Using a sharp paring knife/blade, cut a deep 'X' into the surface. Lightly rub some olive oil on the surface of the dough, sprinkle some salt and cover the pot.

Bake the bread in the covered pot for about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove the lid and continue baking for about 20-30 minutes.

Remove the bread from the oven, drizzle some olive oil on the loaf and cover with a damp cloth. Let the loaf cool a bit before you cut into it to enjoy the deliciously rich slices of warm, herby bread

Pesto Pasta: A Green Dream

2011-09-28T00:16:00.000+08:00

I recently visited a dear friend in Cham, Switzerland.

It was a dream vacation. Though only there for five days, I had a fantastic time. How could I not? Switzerland is postcard pretty and my friend JY, her husband R and their dog Umbria were the perfect hosts. And the weather was refreshing cool ... ok, cold at times but a welcome reprieve from the typical year-round heat here in Malaysia.

It was the perfect holiday. We roamed during the day and lazed at home in the evenings, after some very good home-cooked meals (accompanied by copious amounts of alcohol), of course. JY and R took turns cooking and I ... well, I scoffed down whatever was put before me, of course.

I've been back almost a week now and I've been craving pasta (we had that quite a bit) since. Particularly pesto pasta which J made to perfection one evening. It was well and good to load up on carbs in Cham (I rationalised that I needed carbs to help me deal with the cold; plus we walked a whole lot). Back home, I usually stay away from too much carbohydrates.

But, that pasta dish kept haunting me (thanks JY!). After fighting off the urge to carbo-load for a couple of days, I gave in tonight. I needed pasta. I needed pesto pasta.

What did I do? I bought a whole bunch of basil (unlike J who grows her own basil, I had to buy mine) and made myself a mother-load of pasta — I have foresight. I know that my craving won't be quelled so easily and so I made enough for a couple more meals.

Great pesto is truly magical. Traditionally, pesto is made with basil, cheese, olive oil and pine nuts. Garlic is almost always used too, with restraint. Time has seen many variations of the original basil pesto — coriander, parsley, sun-dried tomatoes have been used as the base ingredient; walnuts are often used as an economical substitute for pine nuts and Parmesan isn't necessarily the only cheese used in pesto anymore. The ONE ingredient that is never tampered with is the olive oil.

I've made coriander and parsley pesto before — both delicious — but I wanted to do the original tonight. Basil. Pine nuts. Parmesan. Garlic. Olive Oil.

However you choose to make your pesto — blender/mortar and pestle; coarse/fine; garlic, no garlic; etc — you will undoubtedly end up with a winner. You may, however, want to read this article that appeared in the Guardian ... just for reference.

My dinner was so satisfying. And, I have lots of pesto in my fridge for the rest of the week. Haven't figured out what I'll do with it next but till then, here's the how to for this Pesto Pasta!

Pesto Pasta

For the pesto

2 handfuls fresh basil

50g pine nuts, toasted and lightly crushed

50g Parmesan, grated

1 garlic clove, roughly chopped

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil/olive oil

salt, pepper and a just a couple of drops of lemon juice

In your blender/processor, add the basil (you can roughly chop it) and pine nuts and blend in several short bursts till you have a thick paste. Add the cheese and garlic and gradually add in the oil through the feeder tube/hole as you blend. Add the seasoning and lemon juice just before you're ready to remove your pesto (you decide on the consistency)

Cook your pasta as per usual (boil in salted water till al dente), drain and toss with a little olive oil. Mix in the pesto. Garnish with some grated Parmesan.

Wholesome Mushroom Soup

2011-09-23T19:20:00.000+08:00

I think I started liking mushroom soup the minute I ate it. At the time — I musta been about 7 or so — my favourite mushroom soup came out of a can, a red and white iconic can (come on, you can guess which one I mean, right?). Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one in the family who loved mushroom soup and so any hope of a second helping was slim (and that's on a good day).

When I eat out and I spy soup on the menu, I usually order mushroom. Sometimes, I deviate when I spy another favourite on the menu — pumpkin. Oh my. Once, I decided to be adventurous and ordered a split pea soup and lived to regret it — it wasn't bad y any means but it didn't stroke my soul the way a good mushroom soup does.

I like my mushroom soup thick and dark, creamy and rich. I like it peppery. I like it slightly chewy. I like my mushroom soup with a little sour cream or yoghurt on top and croutons. Must have croutons. Parsley is good. Basil is nice. Garlic? Sure.

Making mushroom soup isn't complicated. You need mushrooms, some form of allium, liquid, cream/thickener and seasoning.

I like to use different types of mushrooms in my soup, and I often experiment with different combinations — just for fun. Yeah, I know I perhaps need to go out more if this constitutes fun for me, eh? Today I used three types: baby portobello, brown button mushrooms and white oyster mushrooms.

While mushrooms are naturally the star of the soup, an important ingredient is the allium. I often use a little garlic and red onions but today I went with leeks and a couple of cloves of garlic.

To dilute the soup, you can use water or stock. I used a combination of both, more stock than liquid though.

To thicken the soup and add an element of creaminess, I used milk this time around. Sometimes, I use a light cream. Some cooks use flour or a white sauce like the béchamel but I have yet to give that a go. I also added a tablespoon or so of plain yoghurt for a slightly sourish taste. You can omit the yoghurt, no problem.

A bay leaf adds flavour and fragrance and of course, seasoning of salt and black pepper.

To garnish, I used croutons, sauteed button mushrooms, chopped basil and some shredded cheese. Jamie Oliver adds a little lemon juice and zest which I've tried and quite like too.

Wholesome Mushroom Soup

600g mushrooms, roughly chopped (set aside some quartered buttons for garnish if you like)

1/3 cup sliced leeks

1 litre stock/water

1 cup milk (or 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 cup cream)

1 tbsp yoghurt (optional)

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper

olive oil/butter

a couple of basil leaves, chopped

Heat about 1 tbsp olive oil/butter in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the mushrooms and toss till they brown a little and then add the leeks. Let the two cook till soft and the moisture disappears and season with salt and pepper.

Add the stock/liquid and bring to a light boil.

Transfer soup to a blender and puree it roughly/to your satisfaction. I like my soup a little chunky so I just pulse it a few times in the blender.

Return the soup to the heat. If it's too thick, add some water. Add the bay leaved as when it starts to simmer add the milk/cream. Season and cook till it starts to boil.

For the garnish

Melt some butter in a saucepan and saute the mushrooms till nice and brown. Season lightly.

Cut bread into cubes and toast lightly in the same pan that was used to cook the mushroom garnish (this way the croutons will get some extra flavour.

Arrange the mushrooms, croutons and basil on your soup and, if you want, drizzle some olive oil or lemon juice on as well — don't overdo it though!

Tomato, Mozzarella and Basil Thin-Crust Pizza

2011-09-22T18:45:00.000+08:00

One of my absolute favourite salads is the Insalata Caprese, a simple Italian salad made from buffalo mozzarella, fresh tomatos and basil. Good buffalo mozzarella is a real treasure: silky and pale, rich but surprisingly light. It's tasty enough not to warrant much seasoning (just a little olive oil works wonders for me) and is great when paired with a nice, ripe but firm tomato and a leaf of basil. Wondrous indeed.

I was hankering for the flavour of an Insalata Caprese but wanted something a little more filling and so I decided on making a pizza using buffalo mozzarella, oven-dried tomatoes and basil. Kinda like a pizza margherita.

Step one: Oven roasting the tomatoes. Simple halve the tomatoes and lay them on a baking sheet, skin-side down. Drizzle some olive oil on the tomatoes and put them in the oven (200C) for about 45 mins.

Step two is making the pizza dough: I made a simple flat bread as I wanted a thin crusted pizza.

What you will need is:

13/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup water

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the water and oil and, using a wooden spoon, gently mix the flour and the liquid till a dough forms. Knead the dough a few times and then roll in on a lightly floured surface till you get a 1/2cm thin crush (you can roll it into a circle but if you, like me, like a rustic pizza, shape doesn't quite matter).

Transfer the dough onto a baking sheet and drizzle the top roughly with some olive oil (about 1 tbsp should do).

Step Three is assembling the pizza. You will need about 1 cup of basil leaves to be placed on the based of the dough. Now, arrange the oven-roasted tomatoes around the dough, on and in between the basil. Next dot the spaces between the tomatoes and basil with the buffalo mozzarella (which comes in rounds, usually).

Step Four: Season the pizza with salt and pepper.

Step Five: Bake in a preheated oven (220C) for about 10-15 mins or till the crust is cooked.

Step Six: Eat! Lick fingers! Eat some more!

(Not your ordinary) Chocolate Cake

2011-09-12T07:14:00.000+08:00

My husband loves his grandmother's cooking, particularly her nasi himpit (a traditional Malay dish where rice, cooked with more water than usual, flavoured with pandan and then compressed and cut into square cakes) and kuah kacang (peanut sauce) which she makes once a year. I've tried it; he's right. The rice cakes almost melt in your mouth and the peanut sauce has the perfect combination of flavour and texture — not too hot, not too sweet, not too oily. Perfect.

So, when he commented today that my dish tasted like his grandmother's nasi himpit, I should have been pleased, right?

Well, not quite since he was commenting on a chocolate cake I had baked. He assured me though that the cake was good, and the comparison was a compliment. Ok, then.

Actually, as strange as the comparison sounds, he may have been on to something since I made this chocolate cake in a rice cooker. Hell, yeah: A RICE COOKER! Not the fancy-schmancy computerized cookers. The generic basic model that has just two functions: cook and keep warm.

See.. I am not kidding. Just a regular rice cooker

So, what compelled me to bake a cake in a rice cooker? Well, for this week's Don't Call Me Chef (column in The Star), I decided to focus on the wondrous rice cooker (~~will add the link as soon as the article is published online~~). Everyone knows how to cook rice in the rice cooker but how about a cake? Or soup? Or a stew? What about bread? To accompany the article, I included recipes for two dishes I made in the cooker: a pineapple cake and macaroni and cheese. The cake was nice and moist (though it didn't rise quite as much as I would have liked it — turned out to be more of a pineapple slice) and the macaroni was scrumptious, complete with the crispy cheesy bits you get when you bake it.

Mac and Cheese and Pineaple cake/slice

I was happy but I wanted to have another go at making a cake in the cooker as I wanted my rice cooker cake to rise. And that, my friends, is how I ended up making this chocolate cake.

Don't le the craters on the surface scare you

I adapted this recipe from one I saw on joyofbaking.com. Of course, that cake went into the oven and not the rice cooker.

Here's what's so special about this cake (apart from the fact that it was made in a rice cooker — sorry to repeat this so many times but I am just amazed).

* it is an eggless cake. Most eggless cakes I've tried use condensed milk to replace the eggs so that the cake remains soft and moist. This recipe doesn't use condensed milk but instead, vegetable oil.

* the cake uses unsweetened cocoa, lemon juice and vinegar: a similar combination used in the red velvet cake. The chemical reaction between the cocoa, lemon juice/vinegar gives the cake a reddish hue.

So, don't get put off by one man's comparison of the cake to ... er... compressed rice. The cake turned out great. The rice cooker chocolate cake was dense but extremely moist; soft but not too spongy (come to think of it, that's somewhat similar to the compressed rice cakes). The texture is somewhat like that of the Honeycomb Cake (Bingkai Semut), a popular Malaysian cake that is steamed.

The chocolate cake is also extremely chocolatey...and it rose well and had height as well as depth of flavour. The crumb is soft; it doesn't have the slight crispy crumb of baked cakes.

You can eat the cake as is or you can slice the cake horizontally in half and make a sandwich cake with a simple chocolate frosting in between the layers. A recipe for the frosting follows. Enjoy!

Rice Cooker Chocolate Cake

11/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
3 tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp (heaped) baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup vegetable oil (plus a bit more for greasing)
1 tbsp vinegar
1 cup water

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda into a bowl and whisk them together with the salt and sugar, lightly. Add the oil, extract and vinegar and mix till well incorporated. Add the water, bit by bit, until a smooth batter emerges and then gently mix in the choc chips. Be careful not to over mix.

Grease the rice cooker pot with some oil and then pour the batter into the pot. Close the lid of the rice cooker and press the cook button down. The cooker should switch to the "keep warm" function after about 5 − 7 minutes even though the cake isn't done yet. Leave it on warm for about 10 minutes then press cook again.

After another 5-7 minutes, the cooker will once again switch to "warm". Leave it, this time for 30 mins before pressing cook one last time.

When the lever pops up this time, the cake should be done. Put a tester through the cake to make sure — the tester should come out clean. If it is still a little wet, let the cake warm in the cooker for another 10 mins. If the cake is done, remove the pot from the cooker and let it cool before your upturn it onto a plate.

That's ooozy frosting in the middle, not uncooked batter!

Optional Frosting
(for top of cake or, if you want a sandwich cake, in between the layers)

50g butter, melted
10 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
4 tbsp cocoa, sifted

Mix all ingredients together.

Vanilla Beetroot Cupcakes

2011-08-12T23:20:00.006+08:00

What I love about beetroot is its colour. A brilliant, deep crimson that instantly puts a smile on my face. The taste of beetroot? Well, I'm not a huge fan. Nevertheless, I make sure that I include beetroot in my diet from time to time because of its healthful properties.

So when I bought this month's quota of beetroot, I had a cake in mind. I had no recipe at hand but I was sure I could find one and improvise.

Using vegetables in cakes isn't such a radical idea. Take the most famous vegetable-based cake: the carrot cake. It is a much loved cake now but when it was first introduced in the US in the 1960s, it was very much a novelty. However because the cake is so flavourful, moist and delicious, it caught on pretty fast and is now pretty much a standard dessert fare. Carrot cake and cream cheese frosting can be found in almost every cake shop.

For some reason though, other vegetable cakes haven't quite become so popular. I can't understand why because I am a huge fan of vegetable cakes — I made a chocolate avocado cake some time ago that was just lovely and a couple of months ago I tried a zucchini and walnut cake that was also great.

This time around: a Vanilla Beetroot Cupcake. Beetroot in cake is usually paired with chocolate. Some bakers even substitute rhubarb with beetroot when making the infamous Red Velvet Cake. I didn't want to go the chocolate way and instead I chose to make a plain vanilla cake with the beets.

To be honest, I was hoping the crimson from the beetroot would make me a pretty pink cake. Didn't turn out that way though: apart from the little flecks of crimson here and there, the cake was a pale yellow that is typical of a vanilla cake. (I have since researched at length to find a way of keeping the pink of the beets and have learn that roasting the beets BEFORE pureeing them into the batter may help hold the colour in. Will try this the next time).

The texture however was not disappointing. Nice and moist (but not soggy or wet), with little chewy bits here and there courtesy of the grated beets.

The frosting for the beetroot cupcake is the standard cream cheese frosting but to add a light shade of pink, I added a tablespoonful or two of beet juice.

Vanilla Beetroot Cupcakes

175g Castor sugar
175g all purpose flour
11/4 tsp baking powder
175g unsalted butter, softened
175g beetroot, pureed (you can try roasting it first: wrap in foil, bake for 30-40 mins or until soft, peel and roughly puree).
3 eggs, separated

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the egg yolks, flour, beets and vanilla and mix till well incorporated (about 2 mins). Set aside.

Whisk the egg whites until it starts to form peaks. Using a metal spoon, fold in the egg whites into the batter.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for about 20 mins or until the cakes are firm to the touch and a tester comes out clean.

Set aside to cool on a rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting

150g cream cheese (at room temp)

75g butter, softened

2 cups icing sugar

1 tbsp beet juice

1 tsp rose water

Blend the cream cheese and butter till smooth and free of lumps. Add the sugar and mix till light and well incorporated. Add the beet juice and rose water and mix for a minute or two. Remove and refrigerate for at least 30 mins or until ready to frost.

Saganaki, sort of

2011-08-07T00:26:00.000+08:00

Cheese. That's all this post is about. Cheese.

Though it sounds Japanese, Saganaki Cheese is a Greek appetizer comprising a hard cheese — Feta, Kefalograviera or kasseri — that can be withstand the heat of a warm pan without getting all oozy and gooey. The only hard cheese I had was halloumi which I figured would do just as well.

If I were to describe Saganaki Cheese, I'd say it was flaming, drunken cheese. Seriously. There are basically just five steps to making Saganaki cheese.

Step 1: Cut the cheese into rectangles or squares or triangles. It's up to you.

Step 2: Coat the cheese in plain flour, dip it in egg and then flour again

Step 3: Heat up 3 tbsp olive oil in a skillet and sear the coated cheese in the oil till the cheese develops a nice, deep golden crust on both sides (flip over halfway)

Step 4: Once golden, transfer the cheese to a shallow bowl and pour the hot oil from the pan over it. Douse it with 2 tbsp brandy and set it on fire. Yes, fire!

Step 5. After about 30 seconds, douse the flames with a squirt of lemon juice.

Eat with bread or on its own.

Yummmmmm.

Because any of these hard cheeses are already quite salty, the only seasoning necessary is black pepper. Or not. It's up to you.

Cocktail Scones

2011-08-05T13:08:00.005+08:00

I miss being younger (for I am still young, dammit). I used be able to enjoy a half-dozen cocktails and still be able to sound coherent, walk a straight line and wake up the next morning without a hangover.

I even used to -- occasionally of course -- have a mid-afternoon cocktail (yes, on a work day) and still be able to go back to work with a clear-ish head.

Oh how I miss those days.

These days, a single glass of Amarula (on the rocks, mind you. And mixed with milk) will having me sprawled on the couch, laughing at nothing in particular.

If you are thinking, "wimp", I don't blame you.

So, these days I take my alcohol in my food.

Don't feel bad for me, it's not quite so sad. In fact it's pretty awesome and these rum-laced scones are proof of that. Now the 2 tbsp of rum will not make anyone drunk. But the rum sure gives these scones flavour and, I don't know if I am imagining it, they did put a little pep in my step.

Imagine this: rum (Captain Morgan, of course), coconut and pineapple. Does that sound like a vacation or what?

Told you not to feel sorry for me -- I'm having a party in my mouth and tummy.

Party-in-your-mouth Scones

2.5 cups plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

85gm unsalted butter, cold and cut in 1cm cubes

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup chopped pineapple (I used canned pineapple)

1/3 cup greek yoghurt

2 tbsp rum

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add the cold butter and using your fingertips mix it into the flour till the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. You can also use a mixer (with the paddle attachment) on low speed.

Add the pineapple and gently stir into the dough. Add the yoghurt and the rum and mix them in gently.

the dough should be sticky but you can add about 1/3 cup more flour if it is too wet.

Transfer the dough onto a well floured surface and shape it into a rectangle with your hands. Don't handle it too much. Divide and cut the rectangle into eight squares and transfer onto a lined baking sheet.

Bake for 15 mins or until lightly golden on top.

Cheesy Scallion Scones

2011-08-01T08:39:00.004+08:00

When you think of scones, it's only natural, I guess, to think of clotted cream and jam. Thick, sweet, strawberry jam. Drool, right?

But wait. These flavoured savoury scones are pretty good without the cream or jam. These scones — full of cheese (two types) and finely chopped scallions — are best eaten with just butter, fresh out of the oven of course.

Oh so good is what they are.

As you may have guessed, scones are my latest obsession. Since I made the strawberry and cream cheese scones a couple of weeks back, I have been having quite a bit of fun playing with different flavour combinations for scones, some savoury, some sweet. Raisins, mixed herbs, lemon and cheese, orange (and rum) and pineapple (and rum) were among the flavours I played with. While they were all tasty (the rum-flavoured scones are a work-in-progress and will be featured separately once perfected), these cheese and scallion scones were my absolute favourite.

Now scones don't take long to make. They may be in the bread family but they're quick breads which basically mean they don't use yeast. As a result, you don't need to wait for the dough to rise before you shape or bake them.

And, because the secret to a soft and light scone is not to overwork the dough, you don't need to knead the dough. Less is more when it comes to handling the dough.

I used cheddar + cream cheese for these scones but I am going to try some other cheese combinations: feta would be good, I am sure, with the cream cheese. As would Swiss white cheese. Parmesan, yup. Gruyere, am sure would work too. The scallions can be replaced with chives or dill.

Cheesy Scallion Scones
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1 tbsp + 2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
1/3 −1/2 cup chopped scallions
1 egg
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 200C.

Whisk the flours, salt and baking powder together. Add the cheeses and gently stir with a fork so they are incorporated into the flour. Add the milk and eggs and again, gently stir with a fork till the mixture forms a soft dough. Add a couple of tbsp more flour if necessary (but bear in mind the flour must be soft and slightly sticky.

Transfer to a floured surface and shape into a circle, about 2 cm thick.

Don't overwork the flour.

Cut the circle into 8-10 segments/wedges.

Transfer onto a lined baking sheet and let it rest for 10 mins.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 mins or until the scones begin to get golden.

Remove and cool on a rack. Eat warm with butter.

Cheesy Strawberry Cup Cakes

2011-07-25T23:22:00.003+08:00

My husband thinks I am the world's biggest klutz. Whenever I trip over something (happens quite a bit) or topple a stack of baking trays (happens often enough) or slice my hand while cutting onions (happened just last month) he gives me "the look".

Tak lembut langsung (not at all gentle/feminine) is what he says I am. A bull in a china shop!

Hmmmph.

So, I baked these strawberry cupcakes and iced them as delicately as I could to show him that I can too be sweet and gentle, even girly.

Of course, I didn't tell him how I had to make two batches of batter because while making the first batch, I accidentally knocked the mixing bowl over, sending half the batter and the strawberries mixed into the it flying.

Batter on the floor, the counter tops, the island, the sink, the fridge, the oven ... all of which was mopped up swiftly while he was playing his guitar upstairs.

But, what he doesn't know, right? (He doesn't read this blog).

So yeah, strawberries. I have been on a strawberry-binge lately.

Last week I made some Strawberry Ricotta Yoghurt Scones. The strawberries that were baked into the scones were just so juicy, jammy, tasty and sweet, I couldn't help myself and went out and bought another tub of the stuff for these cupcakes.

The recipe for the cupcakes are simple which is important because this allows the strawberries to simply shine. The fruits also lend moisture to the cake so you get a really soft, most cake with tender, almost melting strawberries inside.

The cream cheese frosting is optional but because it's really light (in texture as well as favour), it complement the cake well. I added some chopped up strawberries in the frosting too just to add some colour (the icing has lovely pink accents) and fruity sweetness to it.

So, did the cupcakes change R's mind about my femininity (or the lack of)? Nope.

"It's really nice. Did you break anything?"

Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting.

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup castor sugar

11/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

40g unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup chopped strawberries.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a muffin/cupcake tray with liners.

Mix the flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and butter on low speed until it becomes sandy or resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add the milk and vanilla and mix till well combined. Add the egg and make sure it well incorporated into the batter.

Now with a spatula, fold in the strawberries.

Fill the cupcake liners till 2/3 full.

Bake for 20-25 min or till a tester comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for about 10 mins before placing them on a cake rack to let them cool some more. The cake will appear a little soft but will set while they cool.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Icing

2 cups icing sugar

40g unsalted butter, softened

110g cream cheese

5 strawberries, chopped small

1 tbsp milk

Mix the butter, cheese and sugar in an electric mixer till smooth and creamy. add the milk and then the strawberries. The paddle of the mixer will break the strawberries up but that's good because it makes the frosting look really pretty.

Cool in the fridge till the cakes are completely cook and ready to be iced.

Roasted Vegetable Puff

2011-07-24T17:38:00.007+08:00

Marty and I have been making sandwiches for sale for over a year. Every Monday for close to 16 months (save for the weeks we are both out of town), we deliver our Crazy Juliet sandwiches to our colleagues. It's been great. But lately we've been feeling a little sandwiched-out. We needed some time apart, us and our sandwiches. We needed something fresh. So, we started introducing pies, puffs and quiches to our weekly menus.

As such, I've been experimenting with various vegetarian puffs and pastries. It's been quite challenging, really. After all, how many types of vegetarian pies and puffs can there be? Pies and/or puffs that are substantial enough for lunch. Pies and puffs that won't go soggy by lunch time (we deliver them around mid morning). It's been a ride.

So my kitchen became a test kitchen for all kinds of vegetarian pies and puffs. The first one to graduate from the test kitchen is this Roasted Vegetable Puff. This is really a very basic vegetable puff. It has no exotic vegetables or cheese to boast off. In fact, as horrific as this may sound, I used processed mozzarella cheese. I don't usually buy processed cheese but I had a packet in my fridge from I can't remember when which I wanted to use up.

Still the puff was really good, proof that the simple things in life are usually very, very good.

The secret? Good puff pastry and roasted vegetables.

Puff pastry is rich, flaky, buttery and soft. It is good enough to be eaten on its own (think croissants) but is also lovely as a light crust to coat a pie, sweet or savoury. I tried making puff pastry once and it was awfully satisfying: I'm not gonna kid you and say it was easy. No, it was pretty laborious. The wonderful

flakiness of the pastry comes from the many layers of dough and butter that is folded and folded and folded some more (sometimes more than a hundred folds go into a block of puff pastry). I made it because I was curious about the process and I wanted to see how successful my home made puff pastry would turn out. It was, thankfully, a success. But, I never have made it again because it's so much easier to buy good pre-packed, ready-made all-butter puff pastry.

Now the other reason this vege puff is so tasty is because the vegetables were roasted. I don't know about you but I love the flavour of roasted vegetables. They taste sweeter as they caramelise so nicely in the oven. All you need is to coat them in olive oil and then season them with salt and pepper. That's it, really. That's all you need.

I selected my vegetables carefully. Potatoes would be an easy way to make the puff filling but I am not a huge fan of spuds and so I struck them off the list of possible ingredients. Spinach? Nah. Carrots? Next time. Red peppers? Nah.

Here's what I ended up with: eggplant, broccoli, pumpkin, cauliflower and mushrooms.

Oh! And the cheese, of course.

ROASTED VEGETABLE PUFF

Makes 4

2 cups broccoli florets

1 cup cauliflower florets

1 cup pumpkin, cut into 2cm cubes

1 cups mushrooms (shiitake, Swiss brown, button..) halved or quartered (size should match the pumpkin)

1 medium eggplant, sliced, salted and drained.

1 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese (or 4 slices of the processed stuff that I used)

Olive Oil

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup vegetable stock

1/2 tbsp corn starch diluted in 2 tbsp water.

1/4 cup milk

Puff pastry

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Mix all the vegetables in a bowl and coat them in about 2 tbsp of olive oil. (The vegetables should be cut around the same size so they cook equally.)

Transfer the vegetables to a rimmed baking tray: make sure they are laid out in one layer (to make sure they roast evenly). Season with salt and pepper.

Bake for about 40 mins, turning them over midway.

Let the vegetables cool.

Heat the stock in a small saucepan. Add the diluted corn starch and stir over low heat until the stock thickens — about 5-7 mins over low heat. Turn off the heat and add the vegetables into the thickened stock. Leave to soak/

Meanwhile, lightly flour your work surface and cut the puff pastry into 8 squares. My squares were about 8cm x 8cm.

Place one square on your floured work surface. Spread your cheese on the square ad then spoon the roasted vegetables onto the square (don't scoop out too much juice or the puff will get soggy), leaving about a 1/2 cm boarder on all four sides. Brush the boarder with milk.

Take another square and place it atop. You may need to gently (I stress, gently) stretch the pastry over the filling so that the top and bottom squares meet. Press the edges together and seal with a fork (this gives the puff a nice patterned edge).

Make a slit on the top of the puff for the steam to escape when baking. Now, brush the top of the puff with milk.

(If you want to decorate the puff, use a small biscuit cutter in any shape you like: 8 cut outs in total/ 2 per puff). Place the cutouts on the puff (how you arrange them is up to your artistic vision) and brush the shapes with milk as well.)

Repeat with the other 3 puffs.

Bake for 15 to 20 mins or till the the puffs and nice and golden and the flaky layers have risen.

Spanish-Style Omelette

2011-07-22T07:46:00.000+08:00

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Do a Google search for "Spanish Omelette" and "recipes" and you will find yourself looking at many, many ways of making the potato omelette (I ended up with 1.4 million hits!) It's pretty confusing. Some sites claim the authentic Spanish Omelette comprises just potatoes, onions and eggs seasoned with salt and cooked in olive oil. Not even pepper should be added. Others add pepper and along with it red peppers or tomatoes or cheese or mushrooms or a combination of these ingredients and then some.

Whaaat?

It's the same with the Spanish Omelettes I've eaten in restaurants: no two have been the same.

Whaaat?

Well, until a senora or senorita comes to me with an authentic recipe, I'm calling mine a Spanish-Styled Omelette, an omelette inspired by the tortilla de patatas.

(If you're perplexed like me, check out How To Make a Perfect Spanish Omelette in the Guardian. While it doesn't really answer the question of "What is an authentic Spanish Omelette", it does explain the different ways various chefs approach the dish. Renowned Spanish chef Ferran Adria apparently uses crisps (yes, potato chips) instead of sliced fresh potatoes! The article leaves off with a recipe for the "perfect" Spanish Omelette which you may want to try)

I stuck with the basics: potatoes, eggs, onions, chopped parsley; salt and pepper. I used olive oil, of course.

I did however add a garnish of grated Parmesan and red chilli flakes (definitely not authentic but I like chillies) right at the end.

The potatoes and the egg make the Spanish Omelette a perfect comfort-food dish. The layers of creamy, soft but not mushy potatoes and the lightly caramelised onions that are encased in an egg custard is just so simple but so fulfilling. It's a warm dish and I don't mean temperature. It warms you up.

Spanish-Style-Omelette

3 large potatoes, scrubbed and sliced thin
2 large onions (white or red) sliced
3 tbsp olive oil
4 eggs
1/3 cup milk (optional)
salt
pepper
red chilli flakes
1/4 cup chopped parsley
a handful of grated Parmesan

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Add the onions and potatoes and toss them in the oil. Turn the heat low and cover the pan to let the onions and potatoes stew slowly. Stir occasionally so they cook evenly. Cook for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft but not mushy; season lightly with salt.

Beat the eggs (and milk), season with salt and pepper. Add the potatoes and 3/4 the parsley and mix.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a skillet and when hot, pour the egg mixture into the skillet. Keep the heat moderate to low. Cover for about 5 mins and check if the bottom is browned. When it is, sprinkle the chilli flakes and Parmesan and pop the omelette under the grill for about 5-7 minutes to firm up and lightly brown the top.

Garnish with parsley.

Strawberry, Ricotta and Yoghurt Scones

2011-07-19T15:21:00.003+08:00

Pretty? Pretty darn good is what these scones are. I got them off Smitten Kitchen -- hers were Raspberry Ricotta Scones. I used strawberries instead because frozen raspberries cost a bomb-and-a-half here (and we hardly get them fresh).

I kinda feel like a stalker though as this is the second Smitten Kitchen recipe I've tried in a week: the first was a cheese, honey and sea-salt flat bread which was really to die for. And now, this. But, really, I am no stalker though I like the blog a lot.

Let me explain. I was out shopping. I saw this carton of strawberries -- imported from Driscolls in the United States -- for just RM10. I had to get it even though I had no idea what I would do with them. Maybe jam? Anyway, I bought them. They looked lovely. So bright, so juicy.

I went home and went on my daily blog patrol (I visit my favourite blog sites a couple of times each week) and I saw the raspberry scone post on SK. Sooooooo pretty. Oh my god. I had to make them. I'd use the strawberries I bought! (that was a light bulb moment, btw).

So you see. I am not a stalker. I had the strawberries already.

Scones.So quintessentially British, right? I've made scones a few times before and I have eaten them many, many times, mostly with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Am I tempting you yet? Well, with this scone, you don't need cream or jam. Just a little butter, perhaps.

Scones are quick breads. They're pretty straightforward to make, technique-wise that is unlike the French Macaron for which factors beyond your control like the temperature of your kitchen or the humidity in the air impact on the baked product. No, scones are less complicated to make. But, having said that, getting a light, fluffy and moist scone (the way I like them) isn't a sure thing. In fact, it's a lot easier to end up with a dry, heavy and flat baked piece of dough (I am unwilling to call these scones) that's more like a thick biscuit than anything. I'm not dissing; I'm sharing as I've been down that road before.

Check out this article in The Guardian on How To Make The Perfect Scone and you'll begin to understand the science behind this treat. And then there's this other article in the same publication about how you should eat your scones -- so you spread the jam first and only then add a dollop of cream or is it the other way around. The English do take their scones seriously.

Me, I just wanted a light, soft, fluffy and pretty scone.

Apart from swapping the raspberries for strawberries, I also made a few alterations to the original recipe from SK. I used Greek yoghurt instead of double cream and I changed the ratios between the whole wheat flour and plain flour indicated in the recipe. Minor changes and thankfully they didn't adversely affect the scone turn out. They were soft, light and the baked strawberries were jammy and nice. Perhaps, next time I will add a little more baking powder or as the Guardian article suggests, mix a little bicarbonate soda to the blend.

Next time. For now, I will leave you with the original recipe, indicating the changes I made.

Strawberry Ricotta Yoghurt Scones

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

1 cup whole wheat flour (I used 11/4 cups)

1 cup all purpose flour (I used 3/4 cup)

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cup granulated sugar

85g unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes

1 cup fresh strawberries, roughly chopped up

3/4 cup ricotta cheese

1/3 cup Greek yoghurt/double cream

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Whisk the flours, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Add the butter and using your finger tips, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the chopped strawberries and mix with a wooden spoon till the strawberries are well incorporated with the crumbly flour. It's fine if the strawberries get a little mushy and colour the flour. In fact, it kinda looks really pretty this way.

Add the ricotta and the yoghurt/cream and gently stir in with a spatula until the mixture comes together to form a dough. It will be a little wet and sticky, don't panic.

Generously flour your work surface and your hands, and gently move the dough from the bowl onto your work surface. You will need to flour your hands else the dough will stick to you.

Sprinkle some dough on the dough and gently press it into a 15-20cm square that's 1-1.5 cm high. Cut into nine small and equal squares and then transfer them one by one onto a lines baking sheet. Use a floured spatula/knife to do the transfer.

Bake for about 15 mins or till the sides start to get golden. The smell of the strawberries and the butter will be irresistible but take heed of the next step. Remove and let the scones cool before you eat them. They will set as they cool. But, don't let them get cold though cos scones are best eaten warm.

Battered cauliflower

2011-07-17T19:26:00.003+08:00

Don't you hate it when someone yanks the carpet from under you?

You see, I recently got crazy-addicted to a cauliflower side dish sold at an Indian restaurant near my workplace: spicy, lightly-battered and deep fried, I used to buy a couple portions of the cauliflower dish two or three times a week for dinner. It was sooo good. Crunchy on the outside, soft inside; spicy outside and deliciously mild inside.

Then last week, I noticed that the dish looked a little different. The batter was thicker and I could see that it was seasoned differently. I tried it. It was still tasty but it wasn't as good as the original. Too much batter. Not crunchy enough. Couldn't taste the cauliflower.

Sigh.

I consulted the proprietor and he explained that he had hired a new chef and this was his recipe. "Whhhyyyyyy," I cried. No really, I did.

Accck! Carpet. Pulled. From under me.

I was devastated. What was I to do now? Sulk, sulk, sulk.

I had no other choice but to try and make the dish myself. I knew it was a fairly common dish in Indian establishments and so I went online to see if I could find recipes for it. Basically, what I needed was a recipe for the batter.

Yup, there were many, many recipes online. I printed out a couple of recipes and bought 1kg of cauliflower on my way home from work.

First batch: batter was just too eggy.

The first recipe I picked looked great online. It was spicy (cardamom, cinnamon, cumin) and it was enhanced with some chopped parsley and chilli. Sounded promising. But, there were some problems:

* The recipe for the batter also called for six eggs. SIX eggs for a large head of cauliflower (unfortunately the recipe didn't indicate how many grams a 'large' head of cauliflower was). Six eggs sounded too much and so I reduced it by half and added some light stock to keep the consistency of the batter. Despite cutting down the eggs by half, the batter was still very eggy. No go!

* The recipe also called for a teaspoon of baking powder into the batter: this made the batter kind of fluffy instead of crispy. No go!

I didn't think I could finish the entire bowl of the eggy-battered veg as is and so I made myself a healthy yoghurt dip to go with it. It was slightly better but still eggy.

I decided that the next batch of batter I made would not have a single egg. I settled on a recipe from Jamie Oliver. His batter was akin to that used in Japanese tempura: light and crispy.

Yes! I decided to go with it, adding a little more spice to suit my palette.

The result: SUCCESS. It didn't taste like the dish I bought from the shop but it was so terribly tasty that I didn't care.

The beer makes the batter light and crunchy (some use sparkling water) and it also gives it a really nice colour -- a vibrant yellow.

The secret ingredient

I followed Jamie's advice and included some other vegetables as well: flat-leaf parsley (isn't the green so lovely) and some carrots too.

I was happy. I still intend to recreate the dish from the restaurant but until then, this would more than suffice.

The good and the not so good: Jamie's beer batter (left) was light and bright; see the contrast with the too-eggy batter?

Cauliflower, battered and fried.

450 g cauliflower, cut into florets
1 cup flat-leaf parsley, leaves only
11/2 cup all purpose flour and 2 tbsp more for dusting

200 ml ice-cold beer

1 tsp roasted ground cumin

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp salt

5 whole black peppercorns, crushed and pounded

Steam cauliflower florets for about 10 mins or until slightly tender (till you can poke a fork through them).

Make the batter: mix the flour, salt, pepper, spices together. Add the beer, a little at a time and stir till all ingredients are well incorporated. It doesn't matter if the batter is slightly lumpy. The consistency of the batter should be like that of double cream. Add more beer if necessary.

Lightly dab the cauliflower florets with a clean dishcloth and dust them with the 2 tbsp flour. Dust some flour on the parsley too.

Head about 2cm oil in a skillet. When hot, dip the cauliflower in the batter and then slide it into the oil. Keep the bowl with the batter close to the skillet so you don't drip the batter on your counter top.

Fry for about 2 mins or so per side or until the batter turns a lovely, golden yellow.

Drain on paper towels and repeat. Do the same with the parsley but be mindful that these cook quicker than the cauliflower.

Dust with some sea salt. Jamie squeezes a lemon over them but they taste great even without the lemon.

French Onion Soup

2011-07-13T18:22:00.000+08:00

This picture of a dark broth with pieces of sodden bread and clumpy cheese floating on top doesn't look like much but, take my word for it, this bowl of French Onion Soup is so, so good. It may well be the best French Onion Soup I have ever made.

The French Onion Soup is my perfect rainy-day soup. I've made it quite a few times and each time, I try a different recipe just out of curiousity. Most recipes are pretty standard (the standard ingredients are onions, stock, cheese and day-old bread) and often it is just the measurements that differ.

The process is always the same: you begin by caramelising of the onions.

I've always thought that I make a pretty decent French Onion Soup. I am generous with my cheese and sprinkle it liberally both inside the soup as well as on the pieces of french bread that lie atop the soup. Because I put quite a lot of cheese, my soup is often thick and where wonderfully chewy.

So, I've been pretty content with my soup .... UNTIL I came upon this article on crookrookery.com about caramelising onions as I was browsing some food sites. The article, titled Caramelising Onions: Three Ways, explains how to caramelise the onions to perfection, thereby getting the best out of them for a truly flavourful French Onion Soup.

The flavour of the soup, says the article (which quotes food writer John Thorne who wrote, among other things, a Treatise on Onion Soup) rests largely on the way the onions have been caramelised. The stock is important too but the onions are more important.

I smelt trouble. I read on and it didn't take long for me to realise that tasty though my French Onion Soups may be, I have not been caramelising my onions as they should be. My soup has been imperfect. Mediocre. Not done properly. Apparently I have not been doing the classic soup any justice! Grrrr....

Actually, I was not bummed out. Rather, I was quite excited. I wanted to rush right home (I was at work) so that I could make the soup as it should be made, according to Thorne. I wanted to taste how different the soup would be if I followed the proper process. I wanted to do it immediately but I I couldn't skive off work. I had to wait.

Later that night, I went at it.

I usually caramelise the onions required for the soup for about 45 minutes to an hour, from start to finish. This article recommends a slow, slow, caramelisation process that takes about two hours: and that's two hours of standing vigilantly by, stirring the onions so that they don't stick to the bottom of the pan or burn. A cast-iron pan or Dutch oven is recommended just so that the heat is distributed evenly and the onions cook down better. I had one. Yay.

So I grabbed my notebook computer and settled myself in the kitchen: I made sure I spent two hours on my onions (I stirred and I played online Scrabble at the same time. It's amazing how time flies when you're losing at Scrabble!).

Watching the onions transform, from white and crunchy to golden and chewy is actually quite magical. The smell of the caramelising onions is intoxicating and the anticipation of the soup that would come out of all this was huge.

The result: absolutely satisfying. The extra cooking time for the onions obviously paid off as the flavour was more intense, sweeter and richer. Who knew onions could have so many layers of flavour?

Here are a few tips from Daniel of cookrookery.com.

1. slice the onions thin.
2. salt them to take out as much moisture as possible before putting them on the heat.
3. Use really low heat. Really low.
4. Be patient. Be vigilant. Don't let the onions burns. A little bit of blackened onions is fine, not a whole pot full of charred onions.

French Onion Soup
350g sliced onions (yellow is good, red is fine too)
11/2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of sugar
1 litre vegetable stock (a mushroom-based stock is preferable)

1 cup grated cheese (Gruyere is great, parmesan is fine or you could use cheddar too)
1 baguette, cut into slices
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Toss the sliced onions in salt and let them rest for about 15 minutes for the moisture to ooze out. Drain and gently wipe down with a tea towel.

Melt the butter and oil in a dutch oven/cast iron pan. You can use a saucepan too but be careful the onions don't burn.

When the butter has just melted, add the onions into the pan and toss/mix so that they are evenly coated with the fat. Don't let the butter boil/heat up too much. You don't want a sizzle when you put in the onions. Keep the heat low.

Cover and let the onions cook uninterrupted for about 15 mins. Remember: low, low heat.

Remove the cover and stir the onions. The onions will continue to release moisture, keep stirring periodically so that those at the bottom don't burn.

The onions will soon wilt. Add a pinch of salt and sugar to help with the caramelising.

Keep vigilant and stir from time to time. The onions should start to brown. Keep them on a very low heat, stir more frequently now.

Keep this up until they turn reddish and reduce in volume by at least half. The entire process should take about 11/2 to 2 hours.

Once the onions are nicely caramelised, add the stock. The onions should plump up. Let it simmer for about 30 mins (still low heat), season. Add about 1/4 cup of white wine to the soup just before its ready to come off the stove.

While the stock is simmering,lightly toast your bread. Also, lay your soup bowls/ramekins on a baking sheet. Preheat the oven to 170C.

When the soup is ready (after 30 mins), take it off the heat and ladle it into the prepared bowls till it's almost full.

Add some cheese into the soup, stirring gently.

Float three or four slices of the toasted baguette on the soup and pile on the cheese. Let there be a mound, I say.

Transfer the tray to the oven and bake for about 20 mins. Preheat your broiler and place the soup bowls under the broiler for a few minutes for the cheese to brown a little.

Garnish with parsley and eat the soup while its warm.

Flatbread, sweet, salty and cheesy.

2011-07-11T21:52:00.003+08:00

]

Honey, salt. pepper, cheese and fresh herb — all come together on a crispy flatbread.

Aren't you curious? Well, I was when I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen. It was the honey and salt combination that hooked me. I never thought of mixing the two together but the more I thought about it the more I was sure it would taste fantastic.

I was right. The flatbread was fabulous. Perfect as a scrumptious snack or a delicious dessert or even dinner if you, like me, prefer to eat really light at night.

Flatbreads are mostly unleavened or made without yeast. It's a humble bread made with flour, salt and water. This flatbread from Deb of Smitten Kitchen is a little less humble as she uses olive oil (a fantastic flavour contributor) for the dough. And then there is the topping: cheese, honey, parsley (well, Deb used thyme but I had none) and sea salt.

The recipe makes four flatbreads, each the size of a sheet of A4 paper (or thereabouts, the pieces are irregularly shaped and so this is an estimation).

I decided to play around with the flavours: while they all had cheese on them (I love cheese and couldn't bear excluding the cheese from the recipe), I used the honey+salt+parsley combination for only one of the flatbread. For the second one, I topped the cheese with some caraway seeds and black pepper. for the third I paired the honey with some dried chilli and parsley and for the final piece, just cheese, parsley, chopped and toasted almonds and pepper.

They all tasted good but the stand-out was the honey+salt pairing simply because of the complexity of flavours on the crispy bread.

Flatbread with honey, cheese and parsley (and anything else you please)

13/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup water

Topping

1/2 cup grated cheese (I used cheddar)

1/4 cup chopped parsley

5 tbsp honey

sea salt

pepper

The flatbread is made completely by hand. Well, and a wooden spoon, briefly. It takes about 30 minutes to make, from start to finish.

First, pre-heat the oven to 220c and put a baking sheet in the middle rack to heat up.

Next, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl till well incorporated.

Make a well in the centre and pour in the water and the oil.

Using a wooden spoon, gently mix the liquid in with the flour mixture till a dough forms.

Use your hand and form the dough into a ball.

Transfer onto your work surface and knead the dough about four to five times. The dough will be slightly oily.

Divide the dough into four equal portions.

Roll one portion of the dough on a piece of parchment paper. Roll it very thin. Very, very thin: about 1 mm thin. Some portions will be slightly thinner or thicker: that's ok.

Remove the baking sheet from the oven (remember to use oven mitts!) and slide the parchment onto the sheet and transfer to the oven. Bake for 5 mins or till the bread is lightly golden.

Remove from over, sprinkle the grated cheese all over and return to the oven for 3-4 mins — the sides should be browned.

Remove and drizzle the honey all over (as much as you wish), sprinkle the sea salt and parsley.

Repeat with the other three pieces of dough. You can change the toppings at the end but you may want to add more cheese if you are omitting the honey or else your nuts/caraway/etc may not stick to the bread.

The flatbread is best eaten warm. If you want to save it for later, remove it from the oven a couple of minutes before it is ready and don't add the toppings yet. Just before it's time to eat them, pop them into a pre-heated oven for 3 mins and then add the toppings.

Leek, Potato and Zucchini Hot Cakes

2011-07-10T20:12:00.003+08:00

I love leeks. I only discovered the wonder of leeks about a year ago when I read a recipe for a leek and mushroom quiche in some recipe book. I regretfully failed to write down the source of the recipe and therefore cannot credit the source which led me to my now near obsession with the vegetable. My bad!

Since that first quiche, I realised that leeks are much more than an allium, certainly much more than a supporting ingredient. The leek more than deserves to be a star ingredient in quiches, pies, soups, curries ....

Leeks have given me so much satisfaction that I decided to single them out in Monday's Don't Call Me Chef: Singled Out column in The Star for which I made two dishes: a leek tart and a leek and potato soup (pictured below). I will add the link to the column and those recipes as soon as it is up tomorrow.

Leeks are also great with pasta. Simply saute some garlic and leek in butter for about 10 mins and then toss your cooked pasta in in, add some parsley and, if you want it a little spicy, some dried chilli flakes and there you have it. Season with salt and pepper, of course. Italian-born cook Marcella Hazan adds some cream to her leeks for a richer dish but I am not a fan of creamy pasta (though I am a fan of Ms Hazan).

These Leek, Potato and Zucchini hot cakes are a delicious snack that can be eaten on its own or with a simple dip — sour cream and dill/chive would be my recommended dip. I was making this for myself and so I omitted the dip. God knows, I don't need the extra calories!

Ingredients

I medium potato
2 cups sliced leeks (white and pale green parts only)
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 egg (I fried the other half, shredded it and used it as a garnish)
2 tbsp dried red chilli flakes
salt and pepper

Bake the potato until it's tender enough to pierce through with a fork, about 40-45 mins, 180C.

Boil a saucepan of salted water and add the sliced leeks and cook till tender, about 5 mins. Drain and wrap in a tea towel; wring out any extra moisture. Set aside.

Drain the shredded zucchini of it's moisture. Wrap in a tea towel and wring it as well. Set aside.

Once the potato is cooked, peel it and roughly mash it.

Mix all the ingredients together and season to taste.

Heat about 2 tbsp oil in a skillet. When hot, gently drop about 21/20inch patties of the leek-zucchini mixture into the oil (medium heat), flatten with a spatula and let it cook till it is nicely browned on both sides. Remove and drain on paper towels.

* You can also cook the patties it till they're just firm and only lightly brown and then pop it into the oven for about 7 mins to reduce the oiliness of the hot cakes.

Press One For A Cookie

2011-07-03T14:35:00.007+08:00

I was about to end my love affair with cookies when I came across my mother's cookie kit which I stowed away in a trunk I have of "precious hand-me-downs" from my father, mother and grandmother. The trunk is truly a treasure trove as it has, among other things, my mother's old gold wedding sari (from 1964), my dad's model trains (he was obsessed with his train sets) and my grandmother's beautiful crocheted table linen. I decided to clean out the trunk (actually I wanted to see if there was any 'vintage' clothing I could salvage — I've been feeling the vintage vibe lately) and I came across an old, almost rusty biscuit tin tucked in a corner.

Ooooh. I was excited wondering what it could be. I squealed as soon as I opened the tin and spied the gold gleaming from underneath the lid.

Not a necklace. Not a gold bar. It was my mum's old cookie press which I am quite sure is at least 40 years old. AMAZING. Why hadn't I looked for it earlier. I remember as a child of seven or eight, I'd watch as my mum made cookies using her press for our teatime treats. I used to badger her to let me try my hand at the press but she always kindly refused, allowing me to help fill it with the cookie dough instead.

Wow. This find was huge.

I abandoned my search for vintage wear, packed up the trunk and ran downstairs with the tin. My dog Mojo looked up, irritated at the noise I was making while he was trying to nap, I presume.

I told him of my plan to bake some more cookies and he seemed satisfied and went back to sleep.

I carefully took the cookie press — the brand was Sawa Deluxe 71 — out of the tin and inspected the condition of the gadget. It hadn't been used for at least ten years, I am sure and I hoped it was still functional.

Turns out, it was more than just functional. It was in mint condition. Old is gold.

The cookie press comes in four parts: a gold metal tube that holds the dough; a screw-on ring to hold the shape-discs, the plunger and lever that push the dough out through the discs. The tube still gleamed, the discs (that come in various cut-out patterns to determine the shape of the cookies) were also perfect. I tried the lever on top that pressed the dough out through the discs and it was good to go too. Fantastic. All it needed was a good wash.

I then began my search for a suitable recipe so that I could use my press immediately. Cookie press dough needs to be a little softer so that the dough can pass through the holes in the discs.

I settled on a recipe for Cream Cheese Cookies mostly because I had about 100g of cream cheese that had been sitting in my chiller for about a month.

Using the cookie press proved to be a challenge for me ... in the beginning. The problem was my dough: it was a little too soft. After I added a couple of tablespoons of flour though, it became firmer and the problem was solved.

I also had to get into the grove of using the press. There was a "switch" just beneath the lever that could adjust the thickness of the dough that comes out. My first few attempts yielded really skinny and thin cookies. I was so frustrated. Then I decided to do some research (as the manual for the press was missing) and I went online to look for a solution which is when I discovered the "switch".

Once that was settled, I was unstoppable. So excited was I that I took out my sugar sprinkles and went crazy on my cookies.

The Cream Cheese Cookies were tasty. It is a soft cookie, so don't hope for a crunch.

Cream Cheese Cookies

225g unsalted butter, softened

100g cream cheese

1 cup Castor sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg yolk

1 tsp lemon zest

21/2 cup all purpose flour, sifted

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream the butter and cream cheese in the electric mixer (paddle attachment) until soft. Add the sugar and mix till light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and egg yolk and mix till well incorporated. Add the zest and a couple of seconds later, the sifted flour and salt. Mix on low speed till evenly combined. The dough should resemble play-dough. If it's too soft, add a couple of tablespoons flour into the dough by hand.

Get the cookie press ready.

Screw on the rod/lever to the tube.

Take a portion of the dough and roughly shape it into a log and fit it into the tube from the bottom of the tube.

Choose a disc with a cut out pattern that you like and then place it on the bottom ring. Screw the ring on to the bottom of the tube.

Place the cookie press down on a flat surface and pump the lever a few times to push the dough to the bottom of the press. You should hear a loud clicking sound as so do this. You should be able to feel when the rod touches the dough indicating that the dough has reached the bottom and is ready to be pressed.

Have a trial run. Keeping the press flat on a baking tray (ungreased). Push the lever down once to push the dough through the disc. Lift the press straight up and you will be able to see the shaped cookie on the tray. Leave a 2cm gap between each cookie and repeat.

Bake the cookies for about 10 mins. You can decorate them with sprinkles or chopped cherries before you bake them or leave them plain.

Salty, Sweet Olive Cookies

2011-06-29T08:50:00.002+08:00

I was intrigued by Heidi Swanson's recipe for these Olive Biscuit Cookies from the get go.

Now, I've tasted savoury cookies before and they're a welcome respite from the usual sugary treats. Cheese and spices are nice in a cookie. Olives would be too, I'd imagine. But this recipe, well it is a sweet-savoury combination that's quite unique.

Heidi forewarns her readers that the salty-sweet flavour combination of this cookie (the salty olives + icing sugar dough) may be a turn off. For me, it was quite the opposite. It was a turn on. I was curious as hell.

Now, because I am such an impulsive shopper ("I'll get this, and this, and this. I could use this someday....") I had a jar of olives that had been sitting on the shelf for too long and so this was perfect. And, given my current fascination with cookies, I was off my seat just as soon as I finished reading through her recipe.

I excitedly laid out my cookie kit: damn! I really should invest in more cookie cutters. Mine were limited to a set of fluted round cutters and another set of gingerbread man cutters. Not much of a cookie kit now is it? That's ok. These cookies will be stand out enough because of the flavours and I'll pick up some interesting cutters over the weekend.

Olive cookies
130g unsalted butter, softened
85g icing sugar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
185g all-purpose flour
55g/1/2 cup pitted black olives, chopped small
2 pinches fine sea salt

Cream butter until soft and fluffy. Stir in the icing sugar until it's well combined. Drizzle the olive oil over and stir it in. Now, using a wooden spoon (it's sturdier than a spatula), gently mix in the flour to form a dough. Add the olives and salt until the olives are distributed kinda evenly throughout the dough.

Shape the dough into a thick disk and place in between two sheets of parchment paper. The dough will be sticky and the paper will make it easier to roll out.

Roll the dough till it's about .5 cm thick. Refrigerate for about 30 mins. The dough is soft and so it needs to be refrigerated to be firm enough to cut.

When you're ready to cut the cookies into shape, pre-heat the oven to 180C.

Cut out your shapes, place on a lined baking sheet and bake each batch for about 12 minutes, rotating midway. If your dough gets soft again mid-way through cutting, pop it in the fridge again for about 15 minutes and continue.