grub-town

tell her i made cake

2012-02-02T20:01:00.001+11:00

I can't believe how fast the first month of the year passed by! One evening I was sipping teh ais and eating sate ayam in a mamak store in Kajang and the next thing you know, I was plane bound back to my humble abode.

After figuring out where things were located in my grandma's kitchen (sugar and flour were under her gardening hat!), I found myself in a pickle when I went home to mine. I must have walked in and out of the pantry quite a few times just to find some flour!

She acquired one of those fancy thermomixers and used it like a blender for her lui cha (blends faster she says). Following the recipe book, I started making batches of steamed buns and lemonade. I made stir fry ginger garlic chicken too, but we thought that stir frying it with a wok would be more efficient and tasty. Too many things to wash too.

Before flying there, I asked if she could teach me how to make a sponge cake after my many failures (really!). In the end we ended up consulting the thermomix recipe book and taught me the correct technique to fold the flour in. The sponge rose a great deal in the oven, but we came to a conclusion that it was rather dry. It was time to look for a different recipe.

The recipe which I currently use can be found on this blog post.

she's looking at you

2012-01-16T01:36:00.000+11:00

A couple of cats came into the garden to say hello. Meow meow!

baking away

2012-01-11T02:27:00.004+11:00

We spent the past few days churning out the last batches of cookies ready for the year of the dragon! Little jobs of rolling, cutting, brushing and careful handling of fragile dough.

I tried the beef prosperity burger set (Malaysian McDonald's limited?) yesterday and found the sauce too peppery for my liking. It was an alright meal, even though the prosperity mcfizz was 90% Sprite and 10% orange juice. It occurred to me that I should take a photo after I have eaten half my meal.

the snow country

2012-01-04T16:21:00.001+11:00

I spent the year end in the snow and the new year on a flight back to my grandma's. Speaking the local language made the trip more fulfilling and enjoyable. I would love to go to Hokkaido again when I save up enough money. Hopefully by then I will be able to speak Japanese like a native! Let this be an incentive to work harder and study more.

① Taken in Hotel Mahoroba, Noboribetsu

②→⑧ Small shopping strip near the hotel

⑨→⑫ Jigokudani (Hell Valley)

we all scream for ice cream!

2011-12-20T00:19:00.000+11:00

An overcast day spent accompanying the Sydney-sider MC and The Kiwi. We stopped at Harbour Town for lunch and of course, a trip to Dairy Bell for some yummy ice cream! The rest of the afternoon was spent attempting jump shots and doing all kinds of silly things!

oh honey honey

2011-11-28T23:11:00.000+11:00

I saw this tweet on my feed this morning and noticed there were only five weeks left in the year. Instantly, I asked myself, what had I done this past year. It seems a long time ago but I can still remember the days of laughter and yelling with my sister, MC and four monkeys over our summer break. Wii battles with aching hands and feet and throats sore from yelling. MC's "dancing" were recorded are still laughed at today.

I contributed (just a little) to the Tohoku earthquake charity organised by a friend. It was a windy day and rained a bit, but it made my day that people came to support by contributing what they had. Children donating their pocket money and many enjoying the fresh brew and baked goods.

Making my first batch of croissants (the frustration!) and appreciating art made with food scraps. Oh, and spending lots of time cramped in a tiny car for photography camp! It was worth it though as I reached the peak of Mt. Buffalo, saw spectacular scenery and met great people.

What summer brings this time round I can only wonder. But I can foresee many serves of french toast now that I found a yummier way to prepare them. Must remember to finish going through dad's amazing collection of CD's from the 80s and 90s as well! My all time favourite is and forever will be Elton John's Love Songs followed by Jorge Rico's Magic of the Panpipes series.

butter fingers

2011-11-15T16:12:00.001+11:00

My camera has been gathering dust and will go moldy if I don't use it! I have disappeared off to Animal Village and somewhat studying for my exams. My last exam concludes before the end of the week and so I have started to take baking trays out of the box.

The recipe originates from LCB Biscuits but it was a bit soft for my liking. I used the same recipe to make four batches of these cookies (not on the same day!), changing the flour quantities each time. I found the addition of corn flour makes the finished cookie firmer and slightly crunchier. However, too much and the texture becomes too sandy for my liking. The recipe notes show my experiments so feel free to adjust to your preferences.

I dipped my previous batch in melted dark chocolate and they were quite good. If you are in Melbourne, make sure to eat them quickly or the chocolate starts to melt and becomes bleh.

a short lived summer

2011-10-23T01:27:00.002+11:00

Spring weather came to Melbourne and went in flash! It felt more like a summer than a spring to me though. However, it's has now reverted back to it's gloomy, rainy state. The heat wasn't too bad as long as there were cool breezes, but I find it more tolerable with the current weather. Here's hoping it will hold out for just a few more weeks! (Surely summer loving folks will be charging at me now.)

At least I made some lemonade (a few weeks ago...)! I remember my dad making a tart lemonade back in our old kitchen. The child me would always tell him to add more sugar. But he never did, saying it was enough. Nowadays, I prefer it towards the tart side.

Recipe yields around one litre worth of strong tart lemonade. Please use the above as a guideline only. Feel free to adjust the ingredients to suit your tastes.

good morning, breakfast

2011-10-01T14:55:00.001+10:00

Lots of rain, thunder and cloudy weather in Melbourne this week. Not that I mind, since I very much prefer the cold weather. Decided to try something different from the usual scone mixture again. To me, these ones were fluffy and less floury. When in the oven, the spices in the dough make your kitchen smell really good too!

Looking forward to chop in a block of my favourite chocolate next time. The zest of an whole orange won't hurt either. Oh, and that egg yolk part, skip it (or brush with milk) if you want, since it just makes the tops more golden and shiny.

when life gives you lemons

2011-09-14T22:06:00.001+10:00

...you squirt the juice ~~into your enemy's eye and make them cry in agony!~~ into your cake batter!

Mid-semester break starts next week, but I have assignments due at the start and end (what excellent timing!). Just letting you guys know, I won't be able to post in a while.

The cake above, is a vegan recipe from Thom, one of my favourite film photographers on flickr. Only I forgot to add the vegetable oil and used strawberry flavoured dairy yogurt instead. I still liked it though. It came out dense, sticky and very lemon-y! I'll make it properly (with dairy yogurt) next time :D

tourist

2011-09-02T23:15:00.003+10:00

① View on top of the steps - Southern Cross Train Station

② Polly Woodside & Maritime Museum - South Wharf

③ Walk, ride a bike, or catch our (unreliable) public transport

My grand uncle and aunt came to visit Melbourne exactly a week ago. It was fun being both a tour guide and tourist for a day. Lots of walking from Victoria Market to South Wharf :)

sugar-high school days

2011-08-23T23:30:00.006+10:00

I was having a conversation (more like exchanging HAHAs and LOLs) with Mrs.Roddick last night. It was a decent conversation and we ended up talking about these brownies again! She would always say how a "light dusting of icing sugar" as stated on the recipe became "filling our containers with icing sugar". Our food tech classes ended just as lunch time started so we became sugar-high from eating these sugar-coated brownies for lunch. Um...good times?

The ingredients are pretty similar to the original, however the method is quite different. Texture wise, the original was more cake-like whereas these ones I would describe as dense.

P.S. Dear students running Average Joe's this year. I am not sure if one of you reads my blog, but according to my sister, one of my old food photos was used in your ad :) It was an ugly photo haha! Good luck with business!

more dairy and more strawberries

2011-08-15T21:52:00.002+10:00

Huzzah! I have been way too engrossed in the VW, busy chatting on an online forum and playing games with my fellow net buddies. Not to worry, I have not forgotten this RL space of mine on the internet :)

Recently, I used the blender that came in a set with the food processor I received from grandma a while ago. It is an awesome piece of equipment. You should really dig yours out and make some frothy smoothies and milkshakes!

pancakes for the weekend

2011-08-03T20:59:00.000+10:00

Aside from scones, I like pancakes too! Not only are they easy to whip up, but they are also my all time favourite food to photograph. They are very photogenic, no?

strawberries and cream

2011-07-16T07:15:00.005+10:00

I am proud to say scones changed my life! The first scones I ever made was way back in year eight. They were cheese and onion flavoured and came out rather successfully on a first attempt as a no0b attempt. From that experience and the teacher's guidance, it gave me the confidence to cook every week at school alongside my friends. Throughout the years, we went through both successes and failures.

The 120 minutes of prac each week then, donned in a bright blue apron who needed a friend to tie my apron at the back when I was a junior. Slowly upgraded to a senior wearing a striped black and red apron with a compulsory hideous white cooking-apprentice-styled hat. I slowly began to apply my knowledge learnt in class and "upgrade" the recipes I learnt at school to recreate them at home. Then the blog started as a way of procrastination in VCE and I've grown to love photography as well.

Three cheers to scones!

I made strawberry (and walnut) scones almost a year ago, but I wanted something different this time. Using a cream scone base, I decided to replace part of the cream mixture with strawberry puree which gave the scones a light pink hue (doesn't show in the photos) and a lovely strawberry scent. Instead of being crumbly, these were kind of softer. They taste rather refreshing with honey sweetened whipped cream with chopped strawberries.

○○○

strawberry + cream scones

ingredients:

makes 20 x 5cm diameter scones

3 cups self-raising flour, sifted
4 Tb caster sugar
200 g strawberries, washed and hulled
2 Tb lemon juice
150 mL thickened cream + 50 mL if dough is dry
1 egg, beaten
zest of 1/2 lemon
milk, for brushing

method:

Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Combine the flour and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir to combine. Make a well in the centre.

Puree the strawberries and lemon juice in a food processor. Stir in the thickened cream, egg and lemon zest. Pour the cream mixture into the flour. Stir until nearly combined and add remaining cream if dough is dry or add some sifted flour if dough is too wet.

Empty contents onto a lightly floured surface and gently knead the dough until it comes together. Pat down the dough to about 5-6 cm thick.Using a floured cutter, cut dough and place onto the baking tray. Combine the remaining dough (do not knead) and continue to cut dough until there is no more.

Brush tops with milk. Bake for 15 minutes. Scones should be light golden.

For the cream: Whip cream in a food processor until soft peaks form. Add 1 Tb of yellow box honey (or caster sugar) at a time and pulse until the cream reaches your desired sweetness. Just before serving, finely chop strawberries and gently fold through.

○○○

Enjoy them in the late morning or early afternoon, preferably near a window with the warm winter sun shining through.

coming back for some more

2011-07-08T07:15:00.007+10:00

I don't particularly like eating brownies in general. Every time I bake a batch, I end up eating one piece, passing the duty to my brownie-fan sister to polish them off. :)

These ones were more firm towards the sides becoming dense and gooey in the middle when warm from the oven. Though I felt they were so much sweeter when warm from the oven. Perfect when cooled.

I liked these ones. I even ate more than one.

***

chocolate coconut brownies

note: play around with the sugar and chocolates. add/reduce sugar depending on the amount and type of chocolate you use

ingredients:
makes a 18x18 cm square tin, I cut them into 6x6 cm squares

120g unsalted butter, melted
170g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
30g dutch cocoa powder
40g plain flour
pinch salt
130g milk chocolate, chopped into small bits
50g desiccated coconut, toasted*

* to toast coconut, just pan fry over a medium-low heat, stirring constantly until it is golden. you may want to reduce the heat lower when it starts to turn golden.

method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 18x18 cm tin with baking paper.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the butter and sugar. Add the beaten eggs to the butter and sugar mixture. Sift in the cocoa and flour. Add salt and mix. Fold in the chopped chocolates and toasted coconut.

Pour into a prepared tin. Bake approximately 25-35 minutes. Allow to cool in the tin.

a favourite

2011-07-01T13:06:00.003+10:00

Pandan and coconut, probably the favourite food combination in the household (though I prefer chocolate and coconut over it). I usually make waffles using pandan paste and a combination of dried coconut, so I decided to make some minor changes to Bill Granger's coconut bread recipe. Speaking of Bill Granger, I am loving his simple recipes more and more!

We bought a classic Monopoly game board just yesterday and I have been playing with my sister. It reminds me of my last year of high school when my friends and I would run to the library to take out the board during our study sessions and lunch time to play. Fast paced and somewhat nosily with certain disagreements and trying to contain our laughter.

I bought all the properties and built houses on the high-end street and my sister threatened to "typhoon" my houses away because rent was so expensive! I cracked up laughing in the middle of the game!

Until then, the board game awaits!

***

pandan and coconut loaf
adapted from Bill Granger's coconut bread via The Accidental Foodie by Neale Whitaker

Crumbly and slightly drier than a cake, I think this taste bests toasted and eaten warm. I particularly like the crisp golden edges and top!

ingredients:
makes a 21x10 cm loaf (8-10 thick slices)

2 eggs
300 ml milk (I replaced this with coconut milk)
1 tsp vanilla essence (I replaced this with 1/2 tsp of pandan paste*)
310 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon (I omitted this)
230 g (1 cup) caster sugar (I used just a bit more than 1/2 cup)
150 g shredded coconut
(I used 100 g shredded coconut and 25 g desiccated coconut)
75 g unsalted butter, melted (I used vegetable oil)

* pandan paste can be bought in small plastic bottles at Asian grocery stores

to serve:

butter
icing sugar

method:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly whisk eggs, milk and vanilla together.

Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, add the sugar and coconut and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and gradually stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and gradually in the egg mixture until just combined. Add the melted butter and stir until the mixture is just smooth, being careful not to over-mix.

Pour into the greased and floured 21x10 cm loaf tin and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, or until bread is cooked when tested with a skewer. (Mine took 50 minutes to bake and I had to tent the loaf with foil halfway through baking)

Leave in the tin to cool for 5 minutes, then remove to cool further on a wire rack. Serve in thick slices, toasted, buttered and dusted with icing sugar.

pulp fiction by chaco kato

2011-06-09T10:41:00.004+10:00

Quick post before I go back to studying!

I read Nobika's tweet about her friend's exhibit a while ago and I've been meaning to go. I had some time after my first exam so I went with Iris (my lunch break friend turned good friend) to check it out. Since it wasn't very far, we braved the cold and walked there from the exam hall.

We found it really fascinating and interesting that Chaco Kato's exhibit was environmentally friendly and the majority of the models used food items! Made from dried out melon husks, orange peels, passion fruit shells, stone fruit seeds, rice, shiitake mushrooms, herbs, all we were thinking was about food haha!

The exhibit closes on June 11, so if you are in the metropolitian Melbourne area, please do check it out!

More information can be found at:

Craft Victoria (Lily Feng's photos of the exhibit are much better than mine, so do look at those too)
The Age - featuring a feature article on Chaco Kato and her exhibit

morning shortcuts

2011-05-29T07:15:00.005+10:00

Remember those homemade croissants that nearly drove me nuts? Well, I baked these a while later but just never got around posting them. I wanted to try Emmanuel Mollois' recipe, featured on Poh's Kitchen, but when I saw it I opted for the easy way out and made my own filling :) It was too early in the morning to make so many different components, and it looked too sweet for my liking.

On a note, I have been getting rather annoyed with the blog layout, so I decided to revamp it. The new design is purely inspired by artist + designer Sun Wahyu (his blog and works) and Japanese food stylist and bread baking instructor Niwa Akiko (her blog and website). I really hope I didn't copy too much :(

Another thing, pretty much the same reason as Lalarhs (except I'm not a science student), I will be going on a hiatus for one month. SWOT VAC and exams are just around the corner, so priority goes to studying. I am not going to post anything here until I hit the holidays, but I will probably be making small updates on twitter and klippity klop.

Over and out.

***

cheat's almond croissants

taste the filling as you go and feel free to use honey and icing sugar interchangeably. add more or less depending on your taste buds.

ingredients:
makes around 2/3 - 3/4 cup of almond butter filling

50 g unsalted butter, softened
50 g almond meal
1 1/2 Tb honey
25 g icing sugar, sifted
dash of vanilla essence (optional)
almond slices
homemade or store bought almond croissants
icing sugar for dusting, optional

method:

Mix butter until creamy. Add almond meal, honey, icing sugar, vanilla essence and mix until well combined.

Slice the croissants in half and generously spread almond butter filling on top. Sprinkle a pinch or two of almond slices on top and lightly press into the butter.

Toast in a moderately pre-heated oven until the croissant is warm, crispy and golden. Lightly dust with icing sugar before serving.

day 3: autumn camp

2011-05-21T07:15:00.006+10:00

Porepunkah Resort; Porepunkah

The last day of camp! Everyone wished they could stay longer! We had a fairly slow morning as people slowly filed in for an awesome breakfast. Before checking out, I took some shots of the accommodation; Porepunkah Resort. It was actually a caravan park, but there were 4-star cabins and houses inside. I recommend this place if anyone decides to visit Bright.

Canyon Walk; Bright

We departed for the Canyon Walk soon after. With the minimal gear I was carrying, it was an easy 3 km walk. It started off with a paved path, but it got rocky and kind of slippery with the mud trail. Luckily we were blessed with good weather and no rain, so the ground was rather firm.

Canyon Walk; Bright

Amazing Foliage, Canyon Walk; Bright

Apparently, only the European trees planted by the early settlers change colour during Autumn. The Australian trees (and pine trees) stay green all year around.

Livestock Paddock, Canyon Walk; Bright

I was so happy when we were able to pass a livestock paddock with cows! During the road trips, we passed so many livestock paddocks but we couldn't stop to take photographs :( The cows here were particularly friendly and we were able to get super close! I even got to see a cow with snot coming out of it's nose :P It was one big snot!

Canyon Walk; Bright

The Canyon Walk used to be a gold mining area. I was able to spot some locals trying their luck to pan some from the river.

Canyon Walk; Bright

Bright

Before heading back to Melbourne, we returned to Bright for lunch and more photographs! This is the last post for camp and I hope you guys have enjoyed "visiting" rural Victoria through my lens.

● Day 1

● Day 2

day 2: autumn camp

2011-05-15T07:15:00.001+10:00

Eurobin Falls Picnic Area, Mt Buffalo National Park

To burn off calories from day 1's BBQ dinner, we spent our time until sunset up in Mt Buffalo National Park (part of the Australian and Victorian alps). I thought we were going to walk on the nature trails but we ended up driving most of it!! But in the very end, we managed to drive up to the plateau and hike up 1.5 km to The Horn (the peak of Mt Buffalo).

We spent a while at Eurobins Falls Picnic Area finishing lunch and taking photographs of the waterfall. I forgot to take my tripod, but I think I got some decent shots of the waterfall.

Eurobin Falls Picnic Area, Mt Buffalo National Park

Bent's Lookout, Elevation 1300m; Mt Buffalo National Park

Before heading up to The Horn, we stopped at Bent's Lookout to see if we could spot any hang gliders. Unfortunately there wasn't otherwise there would be a photograph. It was also chillingly cold up there! From this point, one could walk to Lake Catani (I think it was around 1.2km), but we drove there instead.

Bent's Lookout, Elevation 1300m; Mt Buffalo National Park

The Chalet (currently closed), Elevation 1337m; Mt Buffalo National Park

The Chalet is a historic guest house, however it is currently closed. According to fellow camper L, who was also my driver for camp said that The Chalet is always saved at last minute when bush fires strike at Mt Buffalo.

The Chalet (currently closed), Elevation 1337m; Mt Buffalo National Park

Lake Catani; Mt Buffalo National Park

Plateau leading to The Horn Track; Mt Buffalo National Park

L: The Horn Track, R: View from The Horn, Elevation 1723m, Mt Buffalo National Park

To me, the view of the alps was pretty much the same, so I didn't take much shots from The Horn. The hike was pretty fun, though it was a bit hard to breathe (I was probably out of breath too :P)

For the photos at The Horn, I was able to borrow a plastic filter which helps darken the sky (not the ones at the plateau though).

View from The Horn, Elevation 1723m, Mt Buffalo National Park

Sunset @ the plateau; Mt Buffalo National Park

● Day 1

day 1: autumn camp

2011-05-07T07:15:00.015+10:00

Good ol' Days; Bertallis Alpine Breads Bakery, 51 Bridge St, Benalla, VIC 3673

Fotoholics's (photography club based at UoM) autumn camp group returned to Melbourne from Bright earlier this week in time for week 9 classes. The camp comprised of 3 days and 2 nights which were jam-packed full of activities and photography time. For me, the best thing about camp was that I felt comfortable carrying my camera around, taking photos and talking about photography without looking like a nerd. During outings, we could go at our own pace, so I felt I wasn't burdening people to wait for me or my friends complaining I was being like a tourist. Which is usually the case when I'm in Melbourne.

The first town stop we made for lunch was in Benalla. There was a lot of bakeries and cafes, so it was pretty hard to choose from. One disappointing thing about Benalla was that we encountered a bunch of teens who were being racist towards us on the streets and the same group at McDonald's...although we did meet a friendly couple in another cafe.

Boyntons Winery, Alpine Valleys North East Victoria

The last stop for the first day was at Boyntons Winery where the owners and their staff make private label Feathertop wines. Most campers didn't participate in the wine sampling so we hiked up the valley to take photos. Most unfortunate, the grapes had all been harvested so there were none to take photos of and taste.

We stayed at the winery until sunset (for photographs) before heading back to accommodation.

An Autumn Tale; Boyntons Winery, Alpine Valleys North East Victoria

Most of my scenic photos of the winery were pretty crap, but the above photograph was my favourite.

Boyntons Winery, Alpine Valleys North East Victoria

View from the top of the valley; Boyntons Winery, Alpine Valleys North East Victoria

Boyntons Winery, Alpine Valleys North East Victoria

Sunset; Boyntons Winery, Alpine Valleys North East Victoria

tea time snack

2011-04-26T07:15:00.003+10:00

With two of my cousins coming over during Easter, my mum made donuts again and filled them with some strawberry jam. Unlike last time when we had them for supper, she prepared them earlier and we had them with some tea.

***

I will be leaving for camp in a few days and won't be back until next month. Adios amigos and keep smiling! (Does anyone remember El Nombre?)

it's too bloody hard

2011-04-15T07:15:00.001+10:00

"Croissants are a pain in the bum to do...The best suggestion I could make about Croissants is to buy them from your baker; don't try to make them yourself. If it's too bloody hard, it's too bloody hard."

Tom O'Toole (founder of Beechworth Bakery) via MORE Secrets of the Beechworth Bakery

Perhaps I should have listened to Tom's advice before venturing out to make my own using a recipe found in Bourke Street Bakery's cookbook. Making it was pretty tiring as it does take a lot of time and effort to get to the finished result. From the hand kneading, 1/2 kilo butter bashing to all the rolling! No recipe posting as I think that most people wouldn't be interested in making their own. Like Tom said, just buy them from your baker!

My parents ought to be worried that I'd rather make croissants rather than study for university...well for that weekend anyway :)

***

Photos taken on the Nikon D5000, cross processed on instagr.am

footscray jumble sale

2011-04-09T07:15:00.023+10:00

I don't know if anyone caught my tweet or Norica's (Japanese tweet) last week, that we'd be at Footscray Primary School participating in the fundraising for Japan's Earthquake and Tsunami. Despite the cold and windy weather, it was good to see lots of people coming to participate in the event and enjoy Fairtrade coffee and tea.

During the jumble sale, we had three stalls donating all their proceeds to the Japan relief. In the end, the cake stall, pot plant stand and Norica and friend's origami workshop raised a total of over $1000! To be exact, $1250.85! Despite not doing much at the event, I was happy I was able to contribute in some way by baking some chocolate muffins (using Nigella Lawson's recipe) and doing some photography over the day.

I was also able to meet a handful of people whom I talked to sometime during the day, one of them even completed the same degree in the same university as the one I'm studying now!

Many thanks to the parents who donated home baked goods, the mothers who helped with the origami workshop and the lovely girls (below) who volunteered to run the pot plant stand. And a BIG thank you to Norica of Burning Books for inviting me to this event :)

If you guys have time, please hope over to Norica's blog to check out her post (in Japanese).
もし時間があったら、バーニングブックスの店長、のりかさんのポストも見て下さい。

thursday's lunch break

2011-04-02T07:15:00.008+11:00

This Thursday's lunch break involved my new found university friend Iris, eating frozen yogurt on the streets of Swanston, watching the world go by in Melbourne Central's "indoor garden", exploring the new food court and snapping photos with her Casio EX-FC100.

The above photos are mine whereas the ones down below are hers. I like how there's two different perspectives of the same thing. I think she like shooting portrait with different angles, while I prefer landscape and straight lines. I like her shots so hopefully more of these lunch breaks in the future :)

tiny tropical explosions

2011-03-27T07:15:00.016+11:00

A simple weekend was well spent with mini friands filled with flavour. Filled friands, inspired by hot jam doughnuts and a sponge muffin filled with orange cream from a street bakery savoured while walking through the bustling streets in Malaysia's pasar malam.

I'm at home celebrating (although stuck with a few university assignments due the coming week) a cloudy and windy day with a summery feel bake. Just to bring back a little colour and warmth to a dull coloured day.

The friand itself has three components; the white chocolate and coconut friand itself, a tangy tart passion fruit gel and a sweet passion fruit cream on top. The friand eaten by itself is like eating a cake like moist coconut macaroon; the passion fruit gel a tad sour to enjoy itself and the cream perhaps a tad to sweet to eat alone. However, paired together, it creates a delectable experience, a tiny explosion of tropical flavours!

***

passion fruit friands

friand recipe adapted from Julie Le Clerc's white chocolate, coconut and peach friands

via more simple cafe food

ingredients:

makes 20 mini muffin sized friands

50 g unsalted butter
50 g white chocolate
1/2 cup fine desiccated coconut
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/4 cup plain flour
3 egg whites
1 Tb passion fruit pulp, strained

method:

Heat the oven to 180°C. Grease 20 mini muffin holes or place mini muffin cups into the holes.

Gently melt the unsalted butter and white chocolate together. Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl. Stir until just combined. Pour mixture into prepared pans - they should be about just more than 3/4 full. Bake for 15 minutes or until pale gold and skewer comes out clean when inserted.

Allow to stand in pans for 5 minutes before turning out on to a cooling rack.

passion fruit gel

1/4 cup passion fruit juice*
1 1/2 tsp potato starch
3 tsp water

note: to get passion fruit juice, strain passion fruit pulp in a fine sieve

method:

Dissolve the potato starch in the water and mix it into the strained passion fruit pulp.

Cook over over low heat until the liquid becomes thick and gelatinous. Cool before placing it into a piping bag with a 1.5 mm round piping tip.

passion fruit cream

I suggest halving the recipe as it does create a surplus

200 ml cold thickened cream
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 Tb passion fruit juice*

note: to get passion fruit juice, strain passion fruit pulp in a fine sieve

method:

Whip cream until soft peaks stage, gradually add the caster sugar and passion fruit juice while beating until the cream is stiff and stays in shape when piped. Refrigerate cream until slightly firmer before placing it into a piping bag with a tip of your choice. (I used a 6 mm star tip)

to assemble:

cooled passion fruit friands
passion fruit gel
passion fruit cream
poppy seeds (optional)

Prick a hole in the friand with the tip of the piping tip, then pipe a small amount of passion fruit gel into each one. (It doesn't matter if it comes out over the top as the cream can cover it)

Pipe a small dollop of passion fruit cream on top of the passion fruit gel and sprinkle poppy seeds if you desire.

here's hoping for a better future

2011-03-19T07:15:00.014+11:00

A little late into this, but I'm sure all, if not, most of you have heard the news of the recent natural disasters that are occurring in Japan right now. I have friends in Japan who I have gotten to know throughout my high school years and some recently through blogs. Unfortunately, some of them live in the affected areas and knowing I can't physically do anything to help, makes me feel helpless.

I wish I could do more to help, but I can only offer support to my friends, pray for Japan and its people whilst they conquer the crisis and slowly rebuild and of course, through voluntary donations.

A few days into the crisis, a well respected photographer on flickr, Hideaki Hamada has started a project called "Please Donate For Japan Earthquake" in order to spread the donation links through uploaded photographs. In a short period of time, there have been more than 1000 photos uploaded into the group from people around the world.

I hope you can also join the group and help Japan and its people.

Donate links to various organisations
募金先一覧（nanapi[ナナピ]）
7 simple ways to help via mashable

There have been also some bloggers who are raising money to support the cause. The list does not include all the bloggers, but a few that I have been able to source.

If you prefer not to donate via internet, I have found two places in Melbourne that you will be able to make cash donations.

Tokuya is donating 10 cents of every product sold and have a cash donation box on the counter
University of Melbourne's Japanese Club fundraiser - see details here

On a side note, these portuguese tarts are one of my grandma's favourite bakes! When I was holiday-ing in Malaysia last year, my cousin and I made at least a batch of these a week and then we eventually got sick of them! That time, we used grandma's homemade shortcrust pastry, but this time round I made my own rough puff pastry (which tastes as good as the real deal!) It was kind of a like a baked creme patisserie and egg tart pastry fusion, only my pastry was thinner.

Making your own rough puff pastry beats buying the frozen pastry sheets as it smells better, crisper and lighter too! Plus it's easier than making real puff pastry :)

***

pasteis de nata (portuguese tarts)

rough puff pastry

from only the best by Michel Roux

ingredients:

makes 300g, enough for 4 x 12 cm diameter tart tins

I have quartered the amount of ingredients in the original recipe

125 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
125 g well-chilled butter, cut into small cubes (I used unsalted butter)
1/4 tsp salt
50 ml iced water

yolk cream

adapted from the Cooking Guide DS

ingredients:

4 egg yolks
120 g sugar (reduced to 100 g)
4 tsp cornflour, sifted
200 ml milk
100 ml double cream (I used thickened cream)
dash of vanilla essence

to make pastry:

Put the flour in a mound on the work surface, make a well in the centre and add the cubes of butter and salt. using your fingertips, work the butter and flour together, gradually drawing the flour into the middle.

When the butter cubes are half-squashed and the dough is becoming grainy, pour in the iced water in a steady stream, mixing with your other hand.

Continue to mix the dough with your fingertips until all the water is incorporated.

Then gather the dough and knead it several times by pushing it away from you with the heel of your hand. It should be fairly smooth, but you will still see some small particles of butter. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 15 minutes.

Lightly flour the work surface and roll out the pastry into a 30 x 15 cm rectangle. Fold this rectangle into three. This is called the first turn.

Give the block of pastry a quarter-turn, roll it out as before and fold into three. This is the second turn. Lightly press two fingertips into the block to remind yourself that you have made two turns. Wrap the pastry in cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Give the chilled pastry two more turns, rolling and folding as before. Wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 3 days until ready to use.

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces.

to make custard filling:

First, put the egg yolks in the mixing bowl and add sugar, beat well.
Add cornflour to the beaten egg yolks, mix well. Stir in the milk.

Strain and transfer the mixture into a small saucepan and place it over a low heat. Stir with the wooden spatula while gently heating the mixture until it thickens.

Remove the pan from the heat and place it on a wet tea towel. I just put the saucepan over a bowl of cold water.

Stir in a dash of vanilla essence, then let the mixture cool until it reaches room temperature. Mix the cream into the cooled yolk cream.

to assemble pasteis de nata:

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Dust the chopping board and tart tin lightly with flour.

Roll out the pastry with a rolling pin until it is 3 mm thick and big enough to fit over tin with excess dough hanging out. Push the pastry in the tart tin, pressing the pastry against the edges and bottoms of the tins. Roll the pin over the tin to cut the dough and remove excess.

Divide and scoop the cooled yolk cream into the pastry in each pie tin.

Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until the pastry and yolk cream is puffed and is slightly golden. Increase the temperature to 250°C and bake for a few minutes until tops are slightly darker than golden brown. Watch carefully as they tend to burn easily!

mister tamago

2011-02-19T07:15:00.005+11:00

a little place i found interesting

2011-02-12T07:15:00.000+11:00

Nestled in between or behind commercial buildings and tall office blocks in Melbourne are woven through with designer boutiques, coffee shops, florists and a French creperie. A charming sub-culture which is filled with excitement and mystery with every turn in the winding maze.

Hidden away in one of the lane ways in the cafe and restaurant filled Little Collins Street, was once a truck rental garage now transformed into a bakery that you have to keep your eyes peeled for!

Looking into the pastry window to view the freshly baked breads and pastries, you will witness tongs continuously clipping away at the bakery items. Walking inside you will smell freshly toasted ham and cheese croissants whilst hearing the whirring and clunking of the coffee machines. Admire the simple decor of colourful tiles adjourned to the wall. Sit on the high-perched stools looking out through the "hole in the wall" whilst waiting for your baguette filled with all sorts to be toasted.

If you think the window filled goodies is all they sell, head inside, take a deep breath, enjoy the air perfumed by coffee and yeast and take a browse at the menu. If bakery items are not your thing, come back for lunch in the connecting Gills Diner down the back.

I just discovered this neat cafe last month and I love it!

***

Commercial Bakery
Rear 360 Little Collins Street, Melbourne 3000
Phone: (03) 8631 5900

third day of celebrating

2011-02-06T07:15:00.007+11:00

Into the third day of Chinese New Year. Another twelve days of celebrating, visiting relatives and eating like no tomorrow. And for us kids, making sure we do our annual money hoarding from lucky red packets :)

It was a great night with the family and everyone was able to choose something off the menu. To top things up, I liked the bright lighting.

To all celebrating, wishing you a Happy Chinese New Year!
兔年快乐！

***

Kum Den (old)

(chocolate) digestives

2011-02-03T07:15:00.015+11:00

Digestive biscuits; probably the worst sounding name for a great biscuit. I never bought them until a few Christmases ago when I saw this Homer Simpson cup. His head was sliced off on the top, brains and skulls hollowed out for your drink. Whereas his open mouth was a biscuit holder for two packaged chocolate digestive biscuits.

Pretty awesome cup right? Too bad I didn't get it, but I bought a whole packet of chocolate digestives at the supermarket :)

I recently I found out about King Arthur Flour's recipes from Xiaolu's recent post. There are lots of recipes that use wholemeal flour and lots of recipes I'd like to try out, but the digestive biscuits was a first choice for me.

These were super easy to mix in the processor and makes lots and lots of crunchy biscuits. Even better with a thick coating of dark chocolate at the bottom!

Oh by the way, for those celebrating, Happy Chinese New Year!
新年快乐，恭喜发财，万事如意，身体健康，年年有余，红包到来！

***

(chocolate) digestives
adapted from king arthur's english digestive biscuits

ingredients:
I didn't count them but it makes lots and lots of biscuits

1/2 cup plain flour
1 1/2 cups wholemeal plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup caster sugar (the original recipe uses icing sugar)
1/4 cup cold milk
dark chocolate (optional)

method:

Preheat your oven to 180°C.

Measure the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. With a pastry blender, two knives, or your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour mixture. Toss in the sugar and enough milk to make a stiff dough.

Knead this mixture on a floured surface until smooth. (All this can be done almost instantly in a food processor.) Roll the dough out to a bit more than 3 mm thick and cut into any desired shape. Traditionally, digestive biscuits are round and about 6.35 cm in diameter. Place on greased cookie sheets, prick evenly with a fork, and bake until pale gold, between 15 and 20 minutes.

* For chocolate digestives, melt dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) in a double boiler or microwave and dip the bottom of the biscuit in the chocolate. Munch away ~~when the chocolate is set~~...!

teppanyaki

2011-01-22T07:15:00.002+11:00

3 weeks just went like that! Before the Sydney-sider relatives returned to their homeland, we indulged in a grand feast for dinner at a teppanyaki house in a private room. Luxurious seafood, game, wagyu, fried rice catching, entertaining chefs! One of the best meals I've had this year!

I personally recommend the black cod fish and duck breast.

"Garlic butter is the secret to teppanyaki.", is what two chefs told me.

The cousin and aunt will be missed by all. But we will party again, once HSC ends.

***

Burwood Teppanyaki House

a day off

2011-01-15T07:15:00.006+11:00

Slept until the afternoon was going to arrive! Munched on vanilla ice cream cones with homemade caramel cream sauce (my phobia of making caramel has gone!) for lunch and played Wii with the cousin and sister until dinner time.

Remember those pizza nights that you share with friends during camp and talk about everything? We had one at the local pizzeria with us 3 kids and 2 adults last night.

Fun times.

***

homemade caramel cream sauce

ingredients:makes approx. 1 cup (250 ml)

200 g caster sugar
1/4 cup water
300 ml thickened cream

method:

Boil cream in a small saucepan and retain heat.
In another saucepan, dissolve sugar and caster sugar over low heat, stirring gradually.
When the sugar crystals has dissolved, switch the high heat and let it bubble until part of it begins to change into a golden colour.
Gently move the saucepan up and down to even the colour of the sugar syrup.
When it reaches an amber, dark golden brown colour, slowly pour in the warm cream (be careful of splatter!)
Stir the cream and the caramel together until the two have combined. Simmer until the liquids has reduced by half.
Cool before pouring it into a glass jar. Serve with ice cream, pancakes, waffles etc.

point nepean

2011-01-11T07:15:00.016+11:00

Spent the Sunday with the family and relatives roaming coastal Victoria. The (apparently 8 km return) hike from Gunner's Cottage to Fort Nepean via various pit stops such as (Observatory Point, Cheviot Hill, Harold Holt Memorial, Fort Pearce etc.) was one of the highlights! Luckily the weather was cloudy and cool.

Family bonding and sightseeing (rocks).

Although cooped in a sedan throughout the day, us kids drifted off to sleep despite full of energy after the hike.

fun in the park

2011-01-04T07:15:00.002+11:00

So it seems my food blog has turned into a photo blog recently. Not to worry, it will revert itself eventually when I get the kitchen back :)

twenty eleven

2011-01-01T07:15:00.006+11:00

For those who commented in the previous post, thank you for taking the time to do so :)

Like every other year, the new year starts off with a bang! Fortunately for me this year, there were people lighting fireworks on my street, so I was able to capture some interesting shots. Couldn't see the ones from the city that much this year from the balcony :(

I never knew shooting fireworks was so difficult. Thing is, you have to be fast and focus in the dark.

I had my Nikon on the tripod attached with the 55-200mm lens with manual focusing and had lief92's Mamiya film camera around my neck. While the shutter was going off, I was busy winding the film like crazy! Hopefully when developed, they turn out ok.

Too bad the digital shots didn't turn out that well, there were many blank shots or fireworks that were too much on the side (therefore the necessity to crop). But, there's always next year to further improve my skills.

Thank you for reading in 2010. Looking forward to bring more food and photos in the new year :)

a year in review

2010-12-31T07:15:00.001+11:00

2010. So another year has gone by like that. I'm sure this year has been eventful and busy for everyone, because it certainly has been for me.

Highlights (good and bad) of the year (in no particular order) would include:

Crappy university camp. The event overall was not very good, but I liked the food. And how a roast lamb dinner turned out to be a beef (but I chose the fish dinner that day).
The time Eira cooked lamb steaks at my place and how Thangstahh and I were worried if it was edible. Eira wearing an apron was hilarious XD (I can't find the post on my blog, but Eira has it posted with photos here).
Worried about getting kicked out of further maths class because I really wasn't up to standard during the first half of the year. But turns out our "strict" teacher was pretty cool and cut us some slack as time passed. But completion of sixty practise exams is an achievement (I'm pretty sure I skipped at least ten).

Rushing food tech portfolio on the deadline. So I decided to start two weeks before the deadline and was all-night-ing nearly almost every night. Worst experience ever. Ended up fluking? the graded score. Big thanks to Mrs Roddick and friends in the library for helping me stick and cut the stuff or else I'd never finish it.
Award night ceremony held before exams. Wearing the graduation gown is the most annoying thing ever. I thought the event was pretty good especially the slide show at the end; made people laugh and cry. Took home two awards that night alongside my medal with someone else's name printed on it too...typo error?

Thank you to Noriko-san from Burning Books for giving me the shiso (right)

Relieved that I finished Thangstahh's birthday cake on time! The chocolate ring cake was a tad dry, but apparently the crepe cake was a winner and was branded the "orgasmic cake". Sounds pretty weird to me, but I think it's a good thing. The recipe for the crepes can be found here, I replaced the cocoa powder with custard powder that day.
Meeting two pretty cool Japanese high school students that live in the countryside at the Japanese seminar. We talked quite a bit whilst waiting to complete out oral SACs. Congratulations for getting a 40+ study score :) Too bad I forgot to ask for their email.

Practising my Japanese oral with different teachers everyday two weeks before the exam and unlike my Chinese oral exam, none of the questions and answers I prepared was asked :( Thankfully you can make up stuff and the examiners won't even know :) Also surprised that one of the two examiners was non-Japanese.
The day of my Japanese written exam, Eira's friend said she was a big fan of my blog (I thought that was kinda weird haha! Sorry!) I was expecting the speakers on the CD for the listening component to be speaking lightning fast like it was for the past three years, but was very surprised that they were speaking slower than usual. I thought the female voice sounded like an older version of Fumi in Mainichi Kaasan. Also that day was the last of my exams, so it was pretty cool :D
Having my first article published on crunchyroll! You can read all about it here.

The morning when ATAR scores were released. When I logged into MSN that morning, there were six people immediately chatting to me about their results - excitement and nervous-ness! At first I wanted to wait for the statement of results to arrive the following day, but I decided to check online after I asked a friend of mine to check a particular score for me haha. Didn't hit my targeted score and missed by a few marks, but very happy with the result!
And of course, ownership of my first dslr camera, the Nikon D5000. I'm still learning how to use it, but I hope to capture some amazing stuff over the next year or so :D Really need to finish two rolls of film too!

And that's all I can think of right now at time of writing. New year resolutions? I never stick to them so I don't think there is a point of making a list except I want to keep a cash book.

Happy new year! All the best for 2011!

toasted muesli

2010-12-21T07:15:00.002+11:00

Pretty funny weather we have here in Melbourne right now. Summer is miraculously not in the scorching 30°C - 40°C, but windy, rainy and cool. You know, I think I can get used to this right now :)

Despite the cool weather, it doesn't stop me from eating ice cream. So it will definitely not deter me from having cereal or muesli with cold milk from the fridge in the morning. I've only bought Vogel's toasted muesli once from the supermarket and was pretty happy with it, until I decided to make my very own batch. Crunching and chewing through honey coated oats and my favourite dried fruits and nuts with a few slices of banana makes my mornings.

You should try some too.

Less than 4 days until Christmas and I still haven't baked anything yet! Thinking about mini gingerbread houses as gifts for now...but might change my mind since I need to become an architect with fine mathematical skills ahem, skills that I do not possess.

Well if I do end up with something, you'll see it here first :)

***

toasted muesli
adapted from Epicure via The Age

ingredients:
makes around 4-5 cups

2 cups wholegrain rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut flakes (I used shredded coconut)
1/2 cup natural almonds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
(I used 1/4 cup of each: whole almonds, almond flakes, pepitas, pistachios, walnuts)
1 tsp ground ginger (omitted)
1 tsp ground cinnamon (omitted)
1/2 cup maple syrup (I used warmed honey)
1 Tb vegetable oil
1 cup mixed dried fruits of your choice (sultanas, cranberries, apricots - chopped etc.)

method:

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Mix the oats, coconut, nuts and seeds and spices, syrup and oil in a large bowl.
Spread mixture out on a large baking tray.

Bake in oven for about 25 minutes, stirring to redistribute after about 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cool on tray.

Mix together with your choice of dried fruits.
Store in airtight jar. (I put my in the fridge to retain crispiness.)

update

2010-12-15T07:15:00.000+11:00

Haven't blogged in ages! Actually, I haven't updated anything aside from twitter really. I recently got a part time job and when I'm done with work it's been pretty much just kick back and chillax at home, playing games (Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days on Nintendo DS if you were curious) or catching up with friends via msn.

Pretty much been doing kitchen hand stuff; prepping, cleaning, assembling the dishes etc. but nothing in relation to cooking really. Tiring since I'm on my feet all day, but I guess it helps kill time. And seeing food all day makes me kind of sick of eating or even

Just recently, all year twelve students in Victoria received their ATAR which pretty much determines future education and institution in which they'll be studying at. I made it to the clearly in rank of my initial first preference (now second preference), but since I changed it last night, I'm close to the clearly in rank of my current first preference. In other words, in middle band status at the moment. Worse comes to worse, I'll just go for the second preference :)

Peace of mind.

creamy pasta bake

2010-12-03T07:15:00.002+11:00

One of my friends, Doug asked me to make some sort of creamy pasta, so he could make it himself. I've never made creamy pasta before (Continental pasta sauce packets, white sauce, cheese sauce don't count) except maybe the time I tried to make carbonara and this creamy mushroom sauce for a pie...it didn't work that well...

Anyway, there was this new Philadelphia product that I wanted to try since it claimed it could withstand heat and won't curdle, which I was the problem when I used thickened cream. Plus since it was a cream substitute, it's much healthier than using cream.

The cream substitute looked and felt like spreadable cream cheese and it did in fact work, and really well too! Only one crap photo because baked pasta should be eaten piping hot :) No time for styling ;D ~~haha what an excuse!~~

***

creamy pasta bake

ingredients:
serves 2 - 4

1 cup short length pasta (I used elbow pasta)
3 stalks asparagus, cut into smallish pieces and blanched
1 onion, sliced
3 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked overnight, excess water squeezed out and sliced
3 slices short cut bacon, cut into smallish squares
1 cup (250 ml) Philadelphia cream for cooking (or thickened cream)
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
(I bought a block of parmesan and grated it myself, I didn't use the powdery parmesan sold in packets)
salt and pepper
oil
extra grated parmesan and mozzarella cheese

Note: I used asparagus, onion, shiitake mushrooms, and bacon as the fillings as they were the ingredients I had on hand. Use your favourite ingredients that's suitable for this dish :)

method:

Cook the pasta according to the packet's instructions.
Rinse in cold water and drain.
Heat a little bit of oil in a non stick pan and saute onions until lightly brown and soft.
Add the bacon and saute until lightly brown.
Add the asparagus and shiitake and saute for approxiamately 1 minute.

Add the cream and cheese and stir though to combine.
Add the pasta and coat the pasta with the creamy sauce.
Season well with salt and pepper.

Transfer pasta to a baking dish, top with grated cheese and bake in the oven at 200°C until cheese has melted and turned golden brown (about 15 minutes).

how to update: choux a la creme

2010-11-30T07:15:00.002+11:00

Baking cream puffs was once a very intimidating thing for me to do. The most frustrating thing I found about making the choux pastry is probably when the choux has risen in the oven, only to find them deflating when taking them out to cool.

After more than half a year of baking them, they're not so hard to make after all! When I made them at school, they were pretty popular and every time friends come over, I end up baking a batch to share. Though, Mrs Roddick always seems to enjoy eating the creme patisserie more :P Just waiting for Mrs Roddick and Doodie to have time to come over to bake a croquembouche!

I've come up with another set of mumble jumbo notes (improved version) for my self reference. If you're interested, my first set of notes can be found here.

***

1 egg (+ 1 egg yolk, if needed) per batch
Right consistency - firm, does not fall off the spoon
Pipe dough "tall", approx. 3 cm strip / diameter
Bake in the oven for 200°C for 20 minutes, lower temperate to 150°C and further bake for another 20 minutes
Creme patisserie; 2 yolk custard and 150 ml cream, whipped

maple syrup pancakes + mixed berry compote

2010-11-19T18:02:00.006+11:00

[Scroll down for recipe if you don't want to read useless rambles]

Graduated. Exams finished; Monday actually. The time of our lives and yet everyone I know is busy doing nothing or being unsuccessful in part time job hunting, including me.

But I haven't been exactly doing nothing. I've returned to school a few times this week distributing appreciation gifts, hassling Year 11s to buy my text books (and made $65 today) and catching up with fellow Year 12s who drop in.

Going to school is actually more interesting than staying home actually. Fairly interesting reactions from the juniors when Murasaki and I barricaded the study room to set up a "store".

Hrm, so what's with the pancakes and compote? They're nothing new really, but I procrastinated and made a ton of pancakes during my exam period :D And now I'm too lazy to bake or cook anything at the moment.

Who knew having the time of our lives would be so boring. I need something to do.

***

mixed berry compote

ingredients:makes 2 small servings

1 packet (75 g) frozen mixed berries
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 - 2 Tb water

method:

Place all the ingredients into a small pot.
Stir constantly for 8 - 10 minutes on low heat.
When the berries are soft, and when liquids are slightly thick, the compote is ready.
Cool and refrigerate for later use.

* Mix with plain yogurt and freeze for a frozen treat.
***
maple syrup pancakes
ingredients:
makes 10 mini pancakes

1 egg
3 Tb maple flavoured syrup
75 ml milk
1/2 Tb unsalted butter, melted
75 g self raising flour, sifted
3/4 tsp baking powder
vanilla ice cream and mixed berry compote, to serve

method:

Using a whisk, beat the egg and maple syrup until frothy.
Whisk while adding the milk and melted butter / margarine.
Add the sifted flour, baking powder and whisk to make a smooth and runny batter.
Heat a non stick frying pan and add a small piece of butter / drizzle of oil.
Wipe fat off with kitchen paper and reserve. Turn heat to a medium high*.
Add 1/4 cup of batter and flip with a spatula when many bubbles appear on the surface.
Cook other side until golden.
Wipe the frying pan with the kitchen paper and repeat step 4 until there is no more batter.
To serve, add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some mixed berry compote.

* For the heat use, I generally start of using a medium high heat and lowering it each time as the pan gets hotter.
* To make even coloured pancakes, turn heat to medium high then to low. Cook pancakes slowly over low heat.

food for thought: ohagi

2010-11-13T18:39:00.005+11:00

Crunchyroll is an online video service and community that offers full-length episodes and movies of the very best in Japanese anime and Asian entertainment. Crunchyroll's content is provided by Asian media leaders including TV TOKYO, Shueisha, Fuji Creative Corporation, Pony Canyon, Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation, Toei Animation, Gonzo, Munhwa Broadcasting of America, and many others. Extract from Crunchyroll's about page.

My ultimate goal of this blog is to inspire and motivate teenagers to take up cooking as a hobby.

Crunchyroll has a huge online teenage demographic base as well younger and older viewers, so since August, I've been submitting in articles to Crunchyroll in relation to 2D food. Basically, I write about food that appears in anime, manga and games and provide a recipe for it in the end.

The first article I submitted way back in August has received the thumbs up and green light to be published in the Crunchyroll newsletter!

If you're interested from the preview screen shot, click here to read more!

* Clicking on any of the links will redirect you to a section of Crunchyroll

pumpkin + cheese scones

2010-11-02T16:00:00.003+11:00

Recently, one of my Japanese pen friends asked if I was doing anything for Halloween. I did say I was planning to make pumpkin pudding to "celebrate" Halloween, but exam study caught up so I had to ditch the idea :( There's always next year!
I gave candy to trick-or-treaters, but when I tried to give them more they ran away XD Which reminds me of the time when these two Asian guys told my friends and I to take more freebies at UoM's open day - we bolted!
Because I woke up early on a Melbourne Cup public holiday, I felt like experimenting and baked scones. If you ever make these, you have to eat them straight from the oven or at the very least while they are still warm! They are light and fluffy :)
Back to study. Tomorrow, after my maths exam, I shall ~~make a bonfire and burn~~ recycle all maths related work!!!
***
pumpkin + cheese scones

ingredients:makes 9

1 1/2 cups self raising flour, sifted
50 g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup sultanas (optional)
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
3/4 cup pumpkin, steamed or boiled until soft and roughly mashed
milk
grated cheese (I used mozzarella)
salt and pepper, to taste

method:

Preheat oven to 200°C conventional.
Line a baking tray with grease proof paper.

Put sifted flour into a bowl, add the butter cubes and rub butter with fingertips until they resemble fine crumbs.

Add sultanas, walnut pieces and a handful of cheese.
Mix through flour.

Add the mashed pumpkin and using your hands, gently bring together to form a dough.
If the mixture is dry, add 2 Tb of milk at a time and stir through with a knife to make a soft dough.

Transfer to a lightly floured plate / chopping board and gently knead so the dough comes together.
Pat dough to approx. 5 cm thick and cut rounds using a floured cutter.
Gather off cuts and gently press them together and to combine and cut more rounds using a floured cutter.

Place them fairly close on a lined baking tray and top with extra cheese.

Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese has melted and is golden.

cheat's chocolate croissants

2010-10-29T07:15:00.005+11:00

Inspired by the chocolate croissants in the bakeries I made a cheat's version of one on the weekend for my study snack.

The method I typed out is how I did it, but you can always skip step 2 and place the liquefied ganache into the toasted croissant.

***

cheat's chocolate croissants

ingredients:
serves 1-2

2 store bought croissants
100 g chocolate (I used a mix of milk and dark chocolate)
100 ml cream (I used thickened cream)

Note: You will end up with more ganache than you need, so keep it chilled.

method:

Making the ganache:
Put chocolate in a dry heat proof bowl.
Bring cream to the boil in a small saucepan and pour immediately into the bowl with chocolate.
Stir until chocolate has melted.*
Pour in a heat proof container and cool in the fridge until hardened.
Scoop small pieces of the ganache.
Cut the croissants in half and place the ganache inside.
Toast in a small oven toaster until ganache has melted.

* If the chocolate has not fully melted, place over a bain marie and stir until melted.

banana quatre-quarts

2010-10-07T07:15:00.003+11:00

A relatively simple cake to make, quarte-quarts is a French pound cake that means "four quarters" which comes from the fact that the four main ingredients (butter, sugar, flour and eggs) are added in to a 1:1:1:1 ratio.

And because I had some ripe bananas sitting on the bench top, I added in the same ratio of mashed bananas. So technically, it's not a traditional quatre-quarts. Probably along the lines of a banana pound cake or banana cake.
P.S This will be the last post until after exams (mine finishes on the 15th November). I have an oral exam exactly 1 week away from today and written exams start in 1 1/2 weeks after that D: Whether you have been a reader from the beginning, a recent reader, or even a silent reader, thank you for your support :) By the way, a few photos here :D
試験 ( の勉強 ) のために今日から１１月１５日までブログ更新がありません。
今まで、ありがとうございました。
***
banana quatre-quarts
adapted from Cooking Guide DS
ingredients:
makes 3 mini loaves

130 g unsalted butter, softened
100 g caster sugar (original was 130 g)
130 g eggs, beaten (I used 2 large eggs weighing 120 g)
130 g plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder, sifted
dash of vanilla essence
130 g mashed bananas (approximately 2 small bananas)
1/2 Tb lemon juice, mixed into the mashed bananas

- If you want to make the original quatre-quarts, omit the bananas and lemon juice
oven:
175°C conventional
method:

Preheat oven.
Grease or line baking tins with greaseproof paper.
Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
Gradually add in the beaten eggs and vanilla.
Beat well to combine.
Fold in the sifted flour and baking powder.
Fold in the mashed bananas and lemon juice.
Transfer batter to greased / lined baking tins and smooth tops.
Add walnut pieces on top if desired.
Bake for 25 minutes or until cake is golden and skewer comes out clean when inserted.

quanjude + teriyaki sauce

2010-09-27T07:15:00.007+10:00

Earlier last month, my family and I dined at Melbourne's Quanjude (the main branch is in China) for dinner. Actually the main purpose was to try their Peking duck, since they are famously known as "the duck specialist".
It was a tasty experience despite staff calling us at 10 PM confirming the reservations. I've also eaten this dish in Malaysia and Taiwan. From my experience in Malaysia they only slice the crispy skin for the wrapping. The other part of the duck is usually deboned and mixed with stir fry noodles and chopped up. Same with the roast pig, only the crispy skin is served.

The chef thinly slicing a freshly roasted Peking duck

We also tried some prawn, wagyu, hot pot dishes as well and one of the dishes that caught my uncle and dad's eye was the thinly sliced wagyu wrapped around enoki mushrooms which were priced at around $4~$5 per roll. Dad remade this ate home with scotch fillet (seen above) whilst my uncle and I had a teriyaki sauce cook off.
Apparently my sauce was better because it was sweeter which matched the flavour at the restaurant, but Uncle's sauce was good too. I reckon they tasted pretty similar except Uncle's sauce had a dash of chili powder added to it. I don't know his secret recipe but I'll post my not so secret recipe :P
***
teriyaki sauce
ingredients:

100 ml mirin
100 ml cooking sake
100 ml soy sauce (Kikkoman)
25 grams sugar

method:

Place all ingredients into a small saucepan and bring to a boil stirring so the sugar dissolves. Lower the heat to simmer and let it reduce by a quarter.
To thicken, dissolve 1 tsp of potato starch into 2 tsp of water and add it to the boiling liquid.
Stir until thickens.

***
Note: Uncle said it will taste better if I add a tad more sake to it. Will do more experimenting on it. But for now, this sauce is good enough for me to eat it with plain rice :D

strawberry compote

2010-09-22T07:15:00.006+10:00

Ah! Photos look so much better without shadows :)

Compared to other months, sales of strawberries have peaked! Currently, we buy around 3 -5 punnets of strawberries each week because they are so sweet now :D Did I mention they're also cheaper? Well, that's the only perk in the upcoming Spring. Definitely not looking forward to the heat!

The idea of creme brulee french toast was stuck in my head since Christine mentioned it a while back. Instead of the usual mix I dip the thick sandwich slices in, I tried to dipping it in raw creme brulee mix instead. The result? There wasn't really a difference except that the cream flavour was more prominent (even though I did a 50% cream and milk ratio).

But never mind that, it was still a good snack to the point where my sister wanted a slice o_o Now that's RARE!

The recipe for this week is the strawberry compote that went with the french toast. Nothing too hard and doesn't take too long to make a small batch and add it to your favourite sweet breakfast or brunch!

***

strawberry compote

ingredients:
makes 2 small servings (about 125 ml)

1/2 punnet strawberries, hulls removed and quartered
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

method:

Place all the ingredients into a small pot.
Stir constantly for 8 - 10 minutes on low heat.
When the strawberries are soft, squash them roughly with a wooden spoon.
When the liquids are slightly thick, the compote is ready.
Cool and refrigerate for later use.

* Mix with plain yogurt and freeze for a frozen treat.

caramelized almonds + nut and crunch brownies

2010-09-17T07:15:00.008+10:00

I do feel I have an attachment to the melt and mix method whether for cookies, muffins and cakes and making scones with either the rubbing in method or "whisking" method (for cream scones). Reason being, scones were the very, very first baked food I made by myself at school, 4 years ago. As for the melt and mix method? was because of this very brownie recipe.

All I can remember is that this brownie "cake" we made at school won the hearts of many, that day. Even the guys like it! I wouldn't see why we didn't. The cake had a crunchy crust, a moist and soft innards. Dusted with unlimited amount of icing sugar, we became sugar-high after a first bite. Good times!
I recently asked Heolin for the recipe (because I lost mine, very organised I know :P) and 4 years later, it's still a winner in my books.

This time round, I tweaked the recipe just a bit!

Unfortunately I did not have any walnuts in the pantry, and didn't like the idea of almonds in the brownies so I decided to roast some almonds. I was thinking of caramelizing them with hard caramel, but decided not to as making hard caramel is the most disastrous thing that can possibly ruin my mood and leave me with a pot hardened with caramel. Fortunately, I came across two recipes which saved me from chaos :)

Dagmar's recipe was another winner! The almonds were crunchy and slightly sweet. It reminded me of the warm honey roasted cashews and peanuts my dad used to buy. I loved them, but always ended up with a coughing fit eating them as they got stuck and irritated my throat. These almonds were no exception, but I had a mug of water in one hand and a small plate of these in another hand ;)

***

caramelised almonds
adapted from A cat in the kitchen

***

nut and crunch brownies
adapted from food tech class and Heolin's email

oven:190°C conventional

ingredients:
makes a 20 cm cake

1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup dutch processed cocoa
3/4 cup self raising flour
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, optional

method:

Preheat oven to 190°C. Grease a cake tin with butter or line with baking paper.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and brown sugar.
Leave to cool. Meanwhile sift the flour and cocoa powder.
When the melted mixture is cool, whisk in the eggs and vanilla essence.
Add the sifted flour and cocoa powder and mix to combine.
Add in the chopped walnuts, if using. Mix well.
Pour the contents of the pot into the greased or lined tin.
Bake for 20 minutes or until skewer comes out clean when inserted.
(If baking time increases, tent (cover) cake with aluminium foil if necessary)
Invert cake and cool.

Happy 18th Birthday Thangstahh!!

strawberry shortcake

2010-09-10T07:15:00.007+10:00

The last of my eight items for my food tech folio. Now that the fun part is over, I have to continue the boring theory component. If only the food tech exam was a practical...now that would be FUN! Too bad my cake got slightly squished from the transportation process :(

By the way, I will be decorating more cakes, so watch this space :)

Random fact for the day: I rarely listen to English songs, but I discovered ELLEGARDEN yesterday! They're a Japanese rock band that sings in English. Unfortunately they're on hiatus at the moment. One of their songs, [Salamander] describes how I feel right now about the upcoming exams...

how I feel inside
losing my concentration
now I need more time, somehow I'll make it through
I just need more time

hiatus

2010-08-31T07:15:00.014+10:00

recipe: one pot moist chocolate muffins inspired by Christine's blog post and flickr photo

Check out h.tea's muffins too :)

I thought about putting my blog on hold for a period of two and a half months due to upcoming exam revision and exams, but because it has become a habit of mine to bake / cook every weekend, I've decided to minimise that time to compensate for some blogging. From now, blog posts will be limited to around once a week.

And I'm back on twitter! yay!

sultana oat cookies

2010-08-25T07:15:00.012+10:00

I was cleaning out my room a few weekends ago and found a folder of ripped out recipes from supermarket recipes. There weren't a lot, so I decided to make what seemed the easiest of them all. Cookies that require only a melt and mix method (like this, this and this) are by far my favourite because they are EASY! I don't even know how long I've been without creaming any butter and sugar :D

Aside from the butter content, I would say these cookies are quite healthy in terms of the amount and variety of wheat products. I like these cookies and would make them again :D
***
sultana oat cookies
recipe adapted from a 2009 Coles magazine
ingredients:

makes 18 (I made around 40, 1 Tb cookies)

1 cup self-raising flour
(I used self-raising wholemeal flour)
1 cup Carman's Toasted Muesli
(I used Vogel's premium oven crisp fruit and nut muesli)
1 tsp of ground cinnamon (if not using Carman's toasted muesli)
1 cup Sunbeam Sultanas
(I used golden sultanas)
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
125 g butter, melted
(I used unsalted butter)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 Tb honey

method:

Preheat oven to 190°C or 170°C fan.
Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Place dry ingredients in a large bowl and toss to combine.
Combine butter, egg and honey and add to dry ingredients.
Mix well.

Drop 2 Tb (I did 1 Tb) of mixture onto prepared trays.
Press lightly with the back of a fork.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until golden.
Cool on trays before storing in an airtight container.

croquettes (コロッケ)

2010-08-13T07:15:00.005+10:00

Many thanks to Uncle E who helped with the vegetables arrangement :)
More than half a year ago, it took me a whole night and help from my parents to get these croquettes done. Now I can safely say I can make them all by myself :) Although the frying part ~~was quite scary...~~ still is!
Anyway, made these again at school and they were somehow a big hit among my friends...Old Biscuit had around three?! Mrs Roddick and Douglas suggested I add cheese in them next time. Next time...

mini strawberry pancakes

2010-08-10T07:15:00.010+10:00

A table for two, but no one to share with :( I'll invite someone over next time :)
Since I have already established I LOVE breakfasts in a previous post, I shall refrain from repeating myself.

Two weeks ago, the food tech students in my school have just started production in regards to the design folio. As I had time to spare, I was being a busy body looking at what kind of foods other people were making. They were busy making a variety of foods; exotic mango and coconut prawns, sweet and sour pork, turkish delight, honeycomb cake, cupcakes just to name a few. The girl who uses the stove top next to mine was making pancakes!

Seeing her make pancakes reminded me of ラブソーライフ, a manga chapter featured in the April 2009 花とゆめ; a birthday gift from my friends at Chinese school last year.
Anyway the chapter was about Shiharu, a 16 year old babysitter trying to make pancakes with the two two-year-old rascals Aoi and Akane. In one scene, Akane decides to make strawberry pancakes by throwing in whole strawberries inside -_-"
Although inspired by the idea of having strawberries inside pancakes, I did not add whole strawberries to the batter :P And I think these pancakes are the best ever!!
***

mini strawberry pancakesadapted from my previous recipe
ingredients:makes 10 ~ 12 mini pancakes

1 egg
2 1/2 Tb caster sugar
75 ml milk
1 1/2 Tb unsalted butter / margarine, melted
dash of vanilla essence
75 g self raising flour, sifted
3/4 tsp baking powder, sifted
4 strawberries, chopped into small pieces
unsalted butter / oil for frying

method:

Using a whisk, beat the egg and sugar until frothy.
Whisk while adding the milk, melted butter / margarine and vanilla essence.

Add the sifted flour, baking powder and strawberry pieces and whisk to make a smooth and runny batter.

Heat a non stick frying pan and add a small piece of butter / drizzle of oil.
Wipe fat off with kitchen paper and reserve. Turn heat to a medium high*.

Add 2 Tb of batter and flip with a spatula when many bubbles appear on the surface.
Cook other side until golden.

Wipe the frying pan with the kitchen paper and repeat step 4 until there is no more batter.

To serve, drizzle pancakes with honey and top with half a strawberry.

* For the heat use, I generally start of using a medium high heat and lowering it each time as the pan gets hotter.

シュークリーム

2010-07-23T07:15:00.000+10:00

悪いなったシュークリームのシーン・ rancid cream puffs scene

I started watching the Japanese movie ALWAYS 三丁目の夕日 (Always - Sunset on Third Street) last year and never got to finish it. I recently watched the remaining 15 minutes of it and it was an unbelivably touching movie!! The scene where Junnosuke and Chagawa reunite was very cliche, but I think it was my favourite scene in the movie!

What made this movie different to other movies was that it was set in the industrial period of Japan (construction of Tokyo Tower) which gives it a nostalgic feel to the people who grew up in that era. As for me, it's pretty obvious I didn't grow up in that era, nor was I born or brought up in Japan but I loved how everyone became satisfied with something very little.

Inspired by the rancid cream puffs scene, I set out on my assignment to make cream puffs! After the cream puff shells decided to deflate on me last time, I decided to use a different recipe and judge the baking time and temperature based on instinct. Like the first time I baked cream puffs using this method, my cream puffs did not deflate!

In my opinion, cream puffs are one of the easier bakes, but it is also one of those bakes that can fail quite easily.

Not sure if it's going to work out again though. But after the cream puff shells were golden and puffed to the maximum, I took them out and used a sharp knife to cut out a "top". I removed all the raw dough and put the cream puff shells and "tops" back in the oven to bake at a low temperature until the cream puff shells were dry.

The cream puffs shells are not completely, perfectly round yet, but I'm sure that has got to do with the way I pipe the pastry dough. More experimenting next week!

使ったレシピはこちらへどうぞ→
基本のシュー生地 by ゆきらいん

spaghetti and meatballs

2010-07-20T07:30:00.005+10:00

I tried to cover the burnt meatball with the rosemary...haha :)

Into the second week of school, term three, which is considered our last term of the year before five weeks of intense study (two weeks holidays, three weeks school) in preparation of the dreaded end of year examinations. Time flies doesn't it? Whoever said Year 12 was fun lied!
With upcoming SACS, tests, seminars and whatever else that's going to be thrown at us, year 12 students, I'm sure everyone is going all out to try to achieve their desired score to achieve their dream.

On to the food; this was a rather simple dish I made adapting two past recipes; frikadellen (german meat patties) and the tomato sauce from the chicken parmigiana.
On a slightly unrelated note, but exciting news, some of my recent photos have been selected to be published in the upcoming Tsunagaaru leaflet which is to be given out to students and teachers in photography clubs in the National High School Photo Event in Japan. I'm not sure how many are being used, but I post again when I receive the leaflets in the mail :)
***
ingredient list for the frikadellen recipe:makes approximately 12 patties

1 onion
1 clove garlic
1 Tb oil
2 slices of bread
water to soak bread
1 carrot, coarsely grated
350 g pork mince
250 g beef mince
salt and pepper, black pepper, seasoning
1 egg

Method is the same as the previous recipe, besides adding the coarsely grated carrot in step 3 and shaping the meat differently (cooking time varies as well).

hot chocolate + french toast

2010-07-18T07:08:00.001+10:00

Breakfast is no doubt my favourite meal of the day. I reckon a good breakfast is a good kick start to the day. Over the years, I have rarely skipped breakfast and over the years, the only thing that hasn't changed is breakfast ALWAYS includes a glass of milk or some other beverage depending on whatever breakfast is.

Today was indifferent.

I suppose today's breakfast of french toast isn't what I would usually eat or make because I wouldn't wake up on rushed weekday to make it and I'd be happy to eat eggs ~~on the weekends~~ every day!

Earliest memory of french toast would be in Malaysia. My uncle would just dip the bread slices in beaten eggs and fry them in a wok full of oil and us, kids would then eat them with sugar. I remember I had six at one time. Good ol' days.

Hot chocolate isn't really my thing, but I'm all in for the marshmallows :)

***

hot chocolate
simple essentials - chocolate by Donna Hay

If you're going to make it yourself, you might as well have the best, so it's important to use high-quality chocolate. Heat 1 cup (250 ml) milk per person in a small saucepan until it's warmed through and close to boiling. Then add 1 tablespoon grated chocolate for each serving to the saucepan. If you're making for one, you can pour the hot milk directly onto the chocolate in a cup and stir. Serve with marshmallows if desired.

I grated approxiamately 10 g of dark chocolate with 85% cocoa solids and added 1 tsp of kuromitsu into mine. Needs more chocolate :D

***

cinnamon and banana french toast
original recipe by me

ingredients:
serves 1 - 2; egg mixture is enough to coat 3 thick sandwich slices

1 egg
100 ml milk
1 1/2 Tb thick cream
1/4 - 1 tsp ground cinnamon
(I added 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and the flavour wasn't really there, so I will add more next time)
1 Tb brown sugar
3 thick sandwich slices
1 tsp unsalted butter
1 banana, peeled and sliced or mashed
icing sugar and honey

method:

Add egg, milk, cream, ground cinnamon and brown sugar into a mixing bowl. Whisk to combine.

Heat a non-stick frying pan and melt the butter. Wipe down the butter with kitchen paper and reserve it for later.

Dip a sandwich in the egg mixture and coat well on both sides.

Pan fry on the first side until golden brown and flip. Cook until the other side is golden.

Repeat steps 3 and 4 until there is no more egg mixture ensuring you wipe down the non-stick pan with the kitchen paper coated with butter each time you finish one toast.

Layer with sliced / mashed bananas, dust icing sugar on top and serve with honey.

cheat's chicken parmigiana

2010-07-14T07:45:00.003+10:00

Second to Asian cuisine, I love Italian food especially pasta! Great food, but I am no expert in making them. I remember eating chicken parmigiana earlier in the year at La Porchetta where it was around $20 for the whole meal. Supposedly pretty expensive as you can buy a filling meal somewhere else for half the price. But had a satisfying lunch that day.

During the holidays, mum usually prepares lunch of some sort where we just have to heat it up in the microwave. I did tell her several times not to make lunch for me since I was going to make it myself. On the day she fried chicken schnitzels, I didn't just want to eat schnitzels with tomato sauce so I decide to add something to it for a better meal :) Same thing when mum pan fried some dumplings, I just turned them into dumpling ramen (or soba in my case).

The chicken parmigiana is not very traditional or even close to authenic or restaurant quality by it does have the three main coponents of the crumbed chicken schnitzel, tomato sauce and melted cheese on top. But let's just call this a cheap knock-off from the original :D

Oh and the cheat's part, I used store-bought chicken schnitzels instead. Of course, you can crumb the chicken fillets yourself too :)

***
cheat's chicken parmigianaan original recipe by me
ingredients:makes 2 sides or 1 main course

2 small chicken schnitzels
(you can get them from the local butcher or supermarket)
oil for frying
100 g tinned tomatoes
1 tsp tomato paste
1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
(adding more sugar reduces the acidity of the tomatoes)
pinch of dried Italian herbs
grated pizza cheese
grated parmesan cheese, optional

oven:
200 degrees Celcius

method:
1. Heat oil in a pan and deep fry chicken schnitzels until crunchy and golden. Drain excess oil on kitchen paper. Transfer warm chicken schnitzels to a baking tray lined with foil and baking paper.

2. Heat a non stick frying pan and add the tinned tomatoes, tomato paste, brown sugar and dried Italian herbs. Cook over medium heat until sauce thickens. Transfer sauce to a bowl.

3. Spread the thick tomato sauce on top of the schnitzel ensuring that each schnitzel is covered with the sauce.

3. Top with some grated pizza cheese and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.

4. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 7 - 10 minutes or until cheese has melted. Serve hot!

みそ田楽 miso dengaku

2010-07-11T01:10:00.001+10:00

At first I called these miso yaki tofu, but a Japanese photographer, nasufumitaka on flickr also said they were known as miso dengaku. Further research shows they are also called tofu dengaku. Call them whatever you want :) But I don't have a griller, and I didn't want to bake the tofu so this is a less authentic miso dengaku. Nevertheless I think it tastes quite good!

For this recipe, I did not have a recipe I could refer too, but I had tried nasu dengaku (eggplant with sweet miso) earlier in the year in my uncle and aunt's restaurant so I had a good idea of what I wanted it to taste like and how it would look when finished.

Had a test run for the recipe on the Monday when the guys were over and ended up burning quite a few because of the level heat. Don't worry I did try it again with the remaining tofu and changed the method so your one shouldn't burn. Like Thangstahh said, tofu is tasteless (but I still love tofu's plain taste :D) and really depends on the sauce and toppings so you can add more toppings if you want :)

Notebook drawings inspired by awesome photographer and artist ^^ Christine check out her flickr page too!

If you can read and understand the scribbles in my notebook, I did make small adjustments to it.

***

みそ田楽 miso dengaku
original recipe by me

日本語ほんやくレシピ（下手の日本語のレシピです、すみません）

ingredients:
serves 2 - 4

500 g firm tofu
2 Tb shiro (white) miso
1 2/3 Tb konbu dashi / chicken stock
(Water is fine too)
5 tsp sugar (adjust to your own taste)
1 Tb mirin
katsuobushi (shaved bonito), optional
nori strips (cut dried seaweed), optional
sliced spring onion, optional
toasted white sesame seeds, optional

method:

Drain out the water in the tofu and cut into 12 equal sized pieces.

Put the tofu pieces in boiling water and boil for 5 minutes.
Drain water and place tofu on kitchen paper to soak up excess water.

Put the shiro miso, konbu dashi / chicken stock, sugar and mirin in a small saucepan.
Cook in a medium - low heat until sauce is smooth.
Transfer sauce to a small bowl.
(You might want to add more sugar if you want your tofu sweeter.)

Heat a non-stick frying pan add the drained tofu pieces and lightly brown them on high heat.

Change heat to medium - low.
Using a pastry brush, brush some miso sauce on top of the tofu and flip them.
It is important to use a medium - low heat as the sugar content in the sauce will burn easily if you use high heat.

Repeat step 5 until there is no more miso sauce.
Transfer tofu to a plate and sprinkle a combination of katsuobushi, nori strips, sliced spring onion and toasted white sesame seeds.

お好み焼き

2010-07-03T23:57:00.006+10:00

今冬休みです。たくさん宿題があるけど毎日料理しました。ダメな高校生だよね。（笑）最近、昼御飯のためにお好み焼きを作った。作り方は超簡単だと思った。

メルボルンでは長いもを買わないだから初めて作った時おろしポテトを加えた。お好み焼きはふわふわにならない。ニ回、作った時２大さじクリムコーンを加えたでも結果は同じだ。やっぱ、長いもは大切な材料だ！次回、おろしさつまいもを加えてみます☆

豚ばら肉の他にデリカテッセン買ったのサラミやスライスハムやベーコンを使った。それに、もしお好み焼きの生地には紅しょうがを加えて、お好み焼きはすげぇぇぇぇ美味しいになった！

使ったお好み焼きレシピはこちらへどうぞ。　
もし日本へ行って大阪でお好み焼きともんじゃ焼きを食べてみたい。そこで、有名な食べ物から。

もう、冬休みの一週間を終わった。早いだよね！宿題が…まだ…ああああ！！＞＿＜

月曜日に三人の仲いい友人と家で遊んだり、昼御飯を食べったりをしています。楽しみにしています！

roast chicken pasta bake

2010-06-10T16:18:00.003+10:00

Exam week is drawing to an end. Sat the 3 hour GAT today and have a 3 hour English practise exam tomorrow. Like last year, I did not end up staying for the whole 3 hours and 15 minutes of the GAT, but I left much later than last year. Actually most people stayed compared to last year. The MC questions were kind of fried XD

Came home through Doodie's "car pool" (THANKS FOR THE LIFT!) and decided to make some pasta with the roast chicken I bought after school yesterday.

The recipe itself is pretty versatile. You can make a white sauce, cheese sauce or use bottled pasta sauce instead of creamed corn and you can add whatever ingredient you want providing the flavour matches of course. You don't want to be putting gummy bears (or maybe you do) inside would you? And you can add more or less of a specific ingredient. Depends on what you feel like.

***
roast chicken pasta bake
original recipe by me

oven:
200 degrees Celsius
fan forced

ingredients:
serves 2 - 4

150 grams dried pasta
1/2 large carrot, julienned
1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
1/2 cup of grated pizza cheese + extra for topping
3/4 can cream of corn
1/4 roast chicken, deboned and shredded
salt, pepper, chicken stock powder

method:

Cook pasta according to instructions on the packet.
Add julienned carrots and peas in the last 4 minutes of the pasta's cooking time.
Drain the pasta and vegetables when the pasta is cooked. Transfer to a mixing bowl and immediately stir in the cheese, cream of corn and roast chicken.
Season with salt, pepper and chicken stock powder and stir thoroughly.
Spread out the pasta into a baking dish and sprinkle grated cheese on top.
Bake for at least 20 minutes or until cheese has melted and golden.

m&m's cookies

2010-06-06T16:31:00.005+10:00

There is nothing better than a melt and mix recipe especially for cookies. So often there is a craving for cookies but there is also a stream of laziness. Not that I am against biscuits and cookies that require me to cream the butter and sugar, but sometimes I feel there is no need to work so hard for that small craving.

Baked some gingernuts and whipped up some berry mousse on the Thursday for my food tech practical and just changed the cookie recipe to make an m&m's version.

On a note, let these chill for at least 1/2 - 1 hour so it has time to firm. If not, the cookies will spread too much when being baked.

Good luck to those who have mid years this week! Yes, you nerdy science students and future accountants :)

***
m&m's cookies
adapted from some food tech textbook

oven:
180 degrees Celsius conventional oven /
150 degrees fan forced

ingredients:
makes 26 cookies

60 grams unsalted butter
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 tsp golden syrup
1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda, dissolved in 2 tsp water
1 egg
1 cup self-raising flour
1 Tb dutch process cocoa
over 1/4 cup m&m's or your favourite chocolate roughly chopped
(add more if you like)

method:
1. Melt butter, sugar and golden syrup together in a small saucepan. Remove from the stove.

2. Add the dissolved bicarbonate of soda, mix well and allow to froth and then cool.

3. Sift the flour and cocoa. Add the m&m's and stir to combine the flour and cocoa.

4. Stir the beaten egg into the cooled butter mixture and pour into the flour to form a soft dough.
5. Refrigerate for about 1 hour or until the dough is firm to touch.

6. Roll into small balls (approx. 1 Tb of dough per ball). Place on lined trays, spacing them well and flatten with your index and middle finger.

7. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes. (Play with the baking times as each minute passes, the cookie becomes more crispy.)

8. Allow the biscuit to cool on the tray, remove carefully and store in an airtight container when completely cold.

bibimbap (비빔밥)

2010-06-05T15:35:00.011+10:00

In this week's Epicure; a weekly pull out food section in The Age on Tuesday, the recipe section featured Korean recipes by Jill Dupleix. To be honest, I am very much anti-Korean dramas / k-pop etc ~~just got killed by many Korean fangirls / fanboys~~ but definitely not the food (even though I can't handle hot foods).

I made a few changes to Dupleix's recipe though and made use of what I had at home. The best two moments I had when making this when I got the flavour I wanted for the vinegar in one shot I was literally laughing when I tasted it and of course, eating the finished product :P

Make sure to add the picked carrots with the rice bowl. The flavour is awesome!

***

pickled carrots my style
original recipe by me

ingredients:
makes 2 sides serving

1 large carrot
1 tsp salt
4 Tb mirin （味醂）
2 Tb white vinegar
2 tsp sake（酒）
1 Tb castor sugar

method:

Peel the carrot and julienne using a grater or knife. Sprinkle with salt and leave for 10 minutes. Rinse the carrots and squeeze dry. Leave aside.
Put the mirin, vinegar, sake and sugar into a small saucepan. Dissolve the sugar and bring to a brief boil. Add the carrots and turn off heat.
Leave carrots to soak in the liquid for a few hours to get rid of the raw carrot taste.
Refrigerate after liquids have cooled.

***
stir fried beef with onions and bok choy leaves
slightly adapted from Jill Dupleix - Bibimbap with beef and onions

Before making this, cook 1 cup of rice per two people using a rice cooker.

ingredients:
serves 2

100 g sliced beef
(marinated in salt, pepper, drizzle of sesame oil, 1 tsp oyster sauce, 1/2 tsp corn starch, 1 tsp vegetable oil)
1/4 of a large onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, diced finely
1/2 Tb raw sugar
1/2 Tb la dou ban jiang (辣豆瓣酱)
(I substituted kochujang with la dou ban jiang)
1 Tb soy sauce
Bok choy leaves from 1 bok choy, washed and cut into squares
(reserve the stems for something else)
vegetable oil for stir frying

1. Mix the marinated beef with sliced onions, garlic, sugar, la dou ban jiang and soy sauce. Leave for at least 30 minutes.

2. Heat a small wok and coat with oil. Pour the excess in a bowl. Add the marinated beef and onions and quickly stir. When the beef is half cooked, add the bok choy leaves and stir again. Cover for 1 minute or until bok choy leaves are wilted. Stir and turn off heat.

***

To assemble:

cooked rice
stir fried beef with onions and bok choy leaves
1 raw egg yolk

Fill a bowl with the amount of rice you will be eating, top with beef and egg yolk. Add picked carrots and stir with chopsticks or with a spoon. YUMMY!

If you are wondering why there are corn kernels in the rice, I added them in when I cooked the rice.

autumn harvest frittata

2010-05-17T15:30:00.000+10:00

Seasonal vegetables found in the pantry and fridge

Today marks the 100 days of success for the Year 11s at my school. Unfortunately the Year 12 food tech class did not follow the yearly tradition of catering for the event :( Had frees periods 3/4 and since there was no business class scheduled for the afternoon, I was free to go home at recess.

Instead of catering for the Year 11s, I returned home to cater for my own lunch and the leftovers as a side dish for dinner :D

Did not go to Coles on my way back so just made use of what I had in the house. Apparently the ingredients I used were seasonal vegetables for Autumn therefore the title I have given it.

***

autumn harvest frittata
an original recipe created by me, grub :)

oven:
170 - 180 degrees Celsius
fan forced

ingredients:
makes a half filled 20 cm diameter cake tin

slightly more than 1/8 of a small pumpkin
handful of french beans
4 baby chat potatoes
1 large onion
50 g tasty cheese
4 rashers bacon (omit for vegetarian option)
2 Tb vegetable oil
6 large eggs
1/3 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

method:

1. Wash all vegetables and prepare them.
- Peel the pumpkin skin and use a peeler to shave "ribbons".
- Snip off the ends of the french beans and dice into small bits.
- Peel potatoes and leave them in water.
- Dice onion.

2. Cut bacon into small squares and dice cheese into small cubes.

3. In a heated frying pan, add the oil and swirl it around the pan. Add the onion and fry until lightly browned and fragrant. Add the bacon,beans and seasoning and fry until bacon is lightly browned. Remove from heat and let the vegetable and bacon mix cool.

4. Beat 6 eggs, milk and seasoning together in a large mixing bowl.

5. Add the pumpkin "ribbons", grate potatoes over the mixture and add diced cheese cubes. Mix thoroughly before adding the cooled vegetable and bacon mix.

Note: The potato was not grated earlier since it will oxidise (discolour).

6. Line a 20 cm cake tin with foil and lightly grease foil with vegetable oil and pour eggs and vegetable mixture into the cake tin. Lightly season on top.

7. Bake in a pre-heated oven for 30 - 40 minutes or until the egg mixture is set and golden on top.

Can be eaten hot from the oven or cold. Hrm don't know if it was my blocked nose, but I couldn't really taste the vegetables. At least I know they are in there and I'm eating them :)

weekend bake & school project

2010-05-16T19:25:00.005+10:00

Heh. This is what happens when you substitute non stick baking paper with grease proof paper. Nevertheless, they were ~~picture perfect~~ somewhat well baked choux shells without the bottoms.

Oh well, at least I won't need to use the piping bag :D Plus I have a fair few frozen choux left.

***

Went to see "Top Designs" yesterday and checked out the pro food folios. I have some what of an idea of the folio work outline and have already chosen my theme; a pumpkin festival and 8 dishes that I'd like to make.

pumpkin soup
carrot bread with walnuts
roast seasonal vegetables with roast meat
browned butter pumpkin pasta
pumpkin pie with brown sugar and walnuts
pumpkin cupcakes with frosting
pumpkin cream cake
pumpkin butter with fruity pepita granola

Haven't finalised the list yet. Any ideas or thoughts?

autumn days

2010-05-15T17:56:00.004+10:00

カスタードクリム

2010-05-13T21:55:00.004+10:00

母の日のために、シュークリームを作った。

ニンテンドDSゲームの『DSお料理ナビまるごと帝国ホテル』のカスタードクリムのレシピを使った。クリムは美味しいと思うんだ! ゲームバンザイ!

カスタードクリム
『DSお料理ナビまるごと帝国ホテル』

材料

卵黄。。。。。。。。。。。 2 個
グランニュー糖。。。。。。 22 g
小麦粉。。。。。。。。。。 10 g
コーンスターチ。。。。。。 10 g
牛乳。。。。。。。。。。。 180 ml
バニラスティック。。。。。 1/4 本
無塩バター。。。。。。。。 7 g
生クリム（42%）。。。。。 3/4 カップ
グラニュー糖。。。。。。。 15 g

作り方

バニラスティク1/4本は縦中央に切れめを入れで種をとる。種も残しておく。
なべに牛乳１８０ｍｌとグラニュー糖の半量を入れる。
バニラスティクと種を加え、中火にかけ、わかしておく。
小麦粉１０ｇ、コーンスターチ１０ｇは、合わせて粉ふるい器などでふるう。
ボウルに卵黄２個を入れ、ぼぐす。
残りのグラニュウー糖を加え，泡立で器で混ぜ合わせる。
白っぽくなるまでかき混ぜ、ふるった小麦粉とコーンスターチを加え、さらに混ぜる。
わかした牛乳を２回に分けて加え、混ぜ合わせる。
万能こし器をのせたなべにそそぎ、こす。
バニラスティクをなべにもどし、弱火にかける。
とろみがすくまで泡立で器でかき混ぜる。
ゴムペラにかえて混ぜながらクリーム状になるまで、こがさないように煮る。
火からおろし無塩バター７ｇを加えて、溶かしながら混ぜる。
ラップをしいたバットに流す。クリームに密着させるようにラップをかける。
バットの底に氷水をあて、あら熱がとれるまで冷蔵庫に入れ完全に冷やす。
ボウルに生クリーム3/4 カップとグラニュー糖１５ｇを入れる。
ボウルの底を氷水にあてながら、泡立で器で７分立てにする。
冷やしたカスタードクリムからバニラスティクをとり出し、ボウルにうつす。
生クリームを２回分けて入れ、ゴムペラで切るように混ぜる。

Decided not to translate it, because I am not very sure of the exact method myself (I guessed most of the steps when I was making this :P)

today's breakfast

2010-05-10T22:11:00.002+10:00

Not even going to write anything as I'm not even obliged to, it's MY blog ok :) The heading tells all anyway.

time consuming - cookie crusted cream puffs

2010-05-08T23:13:00.004+10:00

Watch this space - going to replace this photo because I used flash and, I don't like it :P

Something I wanted to do in a long time but never had the time to. This was a three part recipe in which each part had a different recipe to it.

Choux pastry was from a previous combination I had made earlier in the year
Cookie dough was from Martha Stewart
Pastry cream was from a Japanese Nintendo DS game titled しゃべるDSお料理ナビまるごと帝国ホテル which I believe is "Talking DS Cooking Navigation - Imperial Hotel" if you do direct translation

The outcome of it wasn't what I had expected it to be. I think the time spent didn't justify the taste, but the pastry cream made up for the choux. At least the process of making it was fun :)

Don't know if it's suitable for my "Japanese" theme for my food tech folio, but I guess it should be okay, as シュウクリーム are popular? in Japan. Considering it at the moment.

On a note, I re-discovered my dad's old Canon film camera and I'll be using it when I do anything interesting (hrm wonder if I'm going to get any weird glances). Film processing seems expensive. Going to go price check soon.

This look pretty XD so I took a photo of it LOL

Combining the custard and whipped cream

It was challenging to clear this space just to put the baking tray in - before this, the whole rack was filled with frozen boxed food and frozen Japanese salads and salmon fillets

Sugar cookie crusted top

Frozen choux pastry topped with sugar cookie dough

frikadellen - german meatball patties

2010-04-28T22:30:00.000+10:00

After half a week of study cramming and sleepless nights (my fault really for procrastinating and leaving things to the last minute), I have finally finished most of the assessments for this week. What's left of this week is a furthers maths test and then cramming again for the assessments for next week...gah!

So I finally, decided to update my blog, since I believe I have somewhat done enough study to get me a pass (hopefully) in the furthers test...(it's an open book test too...so yeah...)

Tigger bread rolls :) available at your nearest Coles bakery

Actually made these on Sunday, but was cramming so I didn't bother to post.

***

frikadellen - german meatball patties

adapted from Cooking Guide DS

ingredients:

makes 6 patties

1/2 onion
1/2 clove of garlic
1 Tb cooking oil
1/4 loaf of bread
(I just used 1 crust slice of a sandwich loaf)
water for soaking bread
150 g beef mince
150 g pork mince
salt and pepper, as required
1/2 beaten egg
cooking oil

method:

Peel the onion and garlic and finely chop.
Heat oil in a frying pan over moderate heat and fry onion and garlic until browned and fragrant.
Leave to cool.
Soak bread in water. Once the bread swells, remove it and squeeze out water.
Put mince and seasoning in a bowl and knead thoroughly.
Add cooled onion and garlic.
Add bread, beaten egg.
Knead well until mixture becomes sticky.
Apply cooking oil to both hands and divide mixture into 6 equal sized balls.
Toss each meat patty between your hands to release trapped air.
Shape into ovals and use a finger to make an indention in the middle of each one.
Heat oil in a frying pan over a moderate heat.
Add the meat patty and fry until brown on one side.
Turn over and continue to fry.
Press fork against patties. If the juice runs clear, turn off heat and remove from pan.

We ate these for lunch in burger forms. The thick meat patty reminds me of the year 12 study camp earlier this year.

I really liked the burger and going to make them again some time. I'll probably add some grated vegetables in the meat patties and make a bit of chutney too, if I can be bothered.

There was also an accompanying sauce for the patties, but I didn't make it since we stuck to the good 'ol tomato sauce. But if you're interested here's the recipe.

***

sauce for frikadellen
adapted from Cooking Guide DS

ingredients:

1 tsp cornflour
1 tsp water
50 ml red wine
100 ml stock
1 Tb sugar
salt and black pepper, as required

method:

Dissolve the cornflour with water.
Put the red wine in the saucepan and bring it to the boil over a moderate heat.
Add the stock, sugar, salt and pepper and bring the mixture to the boil.
Gradually add the cornflour mixture, stirring it as you like.
Bring the sauce to a brief boil while stirring to thicken it, then turn off the heat

Was going to make beef ragu this weekend, but it's going to be changed to something else since my mum doesn't like the idea of simmering the beef gravy for 2 hours. I'm thinking Korean bimbap, but maybe something else would be better.

kartoffelsuppe - german soup

2010-04-18T20:49:00.008+10:00

I bought the game Cooking Guide DS a few years ago and when I looked through it one evening, the German food seemed very appealing and I said to myself that I will make them for dinner one day. A good few months passed and this soup is the I've made from the list.

***

kartoffelsuppe
adapted from Cooking Guide DS
later edited by me

ingredients:

300 g potatoes
200 g carrots
1 onion
2 slices bacon (the long types - fat removed)
15 g butter
800 mL fresh chicken stock
(put way more than this but don't have the actual measurements)
salt and pepper to season

ingredients left out from the original recipe:

1 bay leaf
nutmeg powder (as required)

method:

Peel the potatoes and dice into 1 cm cubes. (Leave to soak in water or it will oxidise)
Peel the carrots and dice into 1 cm cubes.
Peel the onion and dice finely.
Cut bacon into 1 cm squares.
Melt butter in a saucepan over moderate heat.
Add onion and fry until transparent.
Add the carrot and fry until tender.
Add potato and bacon and lightly fry them.
Add the stock to the fried ingredients and add the bay leaf.
Put the lid on and bring soup to the boil before turning to a low heat and simmering for approximately 20 - 30 minutes (or until vegetables are soft).
Whilst the soup is boiling, remove the foam and oil from the surface for a clearer coloured soup.
Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Turn off heat.

Well didn't have any bay leaves or nutmeg powder so had to leave them out. Hopefully will attempt frikadellen - german meatball patties next Sunday :)

sunday lunch

2010-03-21T19:46:00.003+11:00

Slowly trying to convert my parents, especially my dad that Sunday lunch / dinner is not always pho. We wanted to eat Thai again, but the restaurant is not open until dinner, so we settled for Italian instead.

La Porchetta interior

Lemon sparking mineral water

I wanted to drink lemon granita, but the waitress said there was none. Settled for lemon sparkling mineral water instead. Tastes like Solo!

Rump Steak with mushroom sauce and chips

Chicken parmigiana with steamed vegetables

Ravioli carbonara

As the serving portions are quite large, we ordered 3 dishes to share among 4 people. Satisfying lunch, only downfall was that the waitress serving us wasn't so friendly :/

I still want to eat Thai food though :-P

chocolate scones

2010-03-20T17:31:00.004+11:00

I bought cream the other day supposedly for my Portuguese tart which I never ended up making because I got lazy. Instead of throwing the cream out, I decided to make a batch of cream scones - just changing the recipe for some chocolate ones :) Made the scones for supper therefore the photo quality isn't that great.

***

chocolate scones

oven:
200 degrees Celsius
fan forced

ingredients:
makes around 14, depending on size

3 cups self raising flour (minus 1 Tb), sifted
4 Tb brown sugar
1 Tb dutch cocoa powder, sifted
(I would put more cocoa next time, for the colour)
1 cup good quality chocolate chips
1 egg
150 mL cream
150 mL milk
extra flour, milk and sugar

method:

1. Combine the sifted flour, cocoa, brown sugar and chocolate chips in a mixing bowl. Stir to combine.

2. Whisk egg into cream and milk.

3. Pour the cream mixture into the flour.

4. Stir until nearly combined and empty contents to a flour dusted chopping board.

5. Gently knead the dough until it comes together and cut dough into desired size.

6. Place on a prepared baking tray, brush with milk and sprinkle a sugar (can use caster sugar too) on top.

7. Bake in a preheated oven for 15-20 minutes.

They taste best when slightly cooled from the oven. Melted chocolate, yum!

what's in the bag?

2010-03-19T22:35:00.004+11:00

Hehe! The bag is so cute already! Spent the whole day staring at it :D

Guess who received a bag full of goodies from Murasaki and Sars today. Me! :)

We met because of our stupidity; forgetting to bring our normal school uniform to change back from P.E class in year seven. We were so paranoid of getting detention back then! Although you didn't keep to this year's new year's resolution, have constant back/stomach/knee/leg cramps and pains when the lunch bell rings and make weird nicknames for the guys, thank you for being a great friend/ stalker companion. :-D

Sars on the other hand. Hrm I reckon our "goody-goody" nature bonded us together. I've seen you change from the extremely quiet girl in primary to the more open and pink-obsessed you now :) It's so great you not so quiet anymore, it was hard to communicate! You'll kill me for typing this (but since you haven't made an account, you won't see this...yet) but I'll always remember you as the nerd running happily in the library XD (even though you did see us in there).

And both of you, stop stressing :-D You can do that at the end of the year ;)

Goodies I received! Thank you very much :)

Friendship Voodoo! I'm the orange one (^___^)

"we are bonded by a metal thingy" So it seems out friendship is indeed bonded by a "metal thingy" and a green string and a leaf thing. "Extra strength!"

500 cupcakes!

You are so getting those cookies and cream cupcakes :) Come over during the next holidays and we can watch Ponyo too :) Sars wants cheesecake, definitely!

Kazuna "true friend" Kimmidoll keyring

Did you get yourself a matching purple/pink one?

Thank you very much Murasaki and Sars for the presents :-D I can't wait to dig around the garden for your present Murasaki XD Plastic pot alright yer? Hehe.

happy burp day

2010-03-12T19:30:00.007+11:00

The last few minutes of lunch time caught me by surprise. Doodie and Mrs.Roddick came back from their daily lunch trip and brought back a box of...cake!

Along with Murasaki, Doodie, Mrs Roddick and ~~most of her "clan"~~ the E.T. (Easy Targets) Clan sang me a very heartfelt birthday song as I blew out the candles :) I was very touched!

Chocolate mousse cake

Eeeek! Excuse the chipped off part of the cake, I fail in cutting cakes!

Unfortunately, we couldn't cut the cake as there was no knife set and the bell was going to ring any moment. It would've been nice to share a cake with friends :D

The cake was really yummy and the mousse was light and creamy. I'm just glad it didn't go off in the heat.

Thank you very much for the yummy cake!!! orz

The day went by better than alright. Birthday wishes throughout the whole day and most importantly, a passing mark on my further maths test (which raises my average to a pass)!

Dropped by at Burning Books after school to FINALLY pick up the book I had reserved last month. Received a discount which was good and placed an order for the two newer volumes for 「メイちゃんの執事」getting a new set of manga too「よつばと！」. If you've never read あずまきよひこ　の「よつばと！」you are missing out BIG TIME!

Yotsuba&! - Azuma Kiyohiko

Happy 17th ~~Burp~~ Birthday Day to me! :)

1 dough 4 flavours

2010-02-28T06:00:00.001+11:00

I've become very lazy or maybe exhausted from school? Friday afternoon I came home early with an intention to make some cake but I didn't. I made some pizza instead.

Borrowed this Taiwanese pizza recipe book from the library and tried to make a pizza dough. My Chinese skills aren't that great, so I after I guessed what the ingredients were, I followed the picture instructions on the page instead. The water I used was most likely too hot, so I guess I killed the yeast...thus why the crust is so flat.

Didn't stop by at Coles for some pizza ingredients, so I just made use of what I had at home.

Teriyaki chicken pizza

When I told my sister and dad I was making teriyaki chicken pizza, they cringed and gave me the most memorable expression ever. I wished I'd taken a photo after all, it lasts longer.

The flavour was alright, but the sauce was a bit strong for my liking.

Japanese curry beef pizza

Had some leftover curry from my uncle's place and I decided to use some for experiments sake. There was a mix of celery, potatoes, carrot and tender beef chunks. I really didn't think this one would work out as the fat of the curry was already seeping to the sides.

Fortunately for me, this pizza was the best of the four I made. Who knew curry and pizza were a match made in heaven.

Probably can't buy this anywhere in Australia XD Maybe it's a regular flavour in Japan?

Breakfast special pizza

As my sister and dad were already calling me crazy when I was making the first two, I decided to make a "normal" flavoured one. I had leftover frankfurters, pizza sauce and pineapple in the fridge so I just chucked everything in. I thought the eggs would taste rubbery, but it turned out great.

By the time this came out of the oven, the sun had already gone down :(

The last pizza was just cheese and more cheese. It looked really boring and wasn't as innovative as the other three, so I didn't take a photo. Besides the natural light had all gone and I am not a big fan of using flash in photography.

university camp

2010-02-17T06:00:00.001+11:00

My room

Earlier last week, the Year 12's in my school participated in the compulsory camp at University College near University of Melbourne. Apparently the camp was branded "life experience" I don't think it was...

FOB Key

Met up at UC at 0900 where we were went through the whole process of a welcome speech, room arrangements and unpacking. At around 10 we left for Princess Park to do sport activities which was very annoying as it was a hot day. As you can imagine, most of us were complaining and exhausted after 1 hour of exercise.

Day 1 Lunch - Pizza

Cleaned up ourselves when we returned to UC and headed to the dining hall for lunch. Pizza was served and I quite enjoyed it. I liked the pizza crust, it was soft :)

Reminds me of Sir Thomas More (A Man For All Seasons)

After our lunch break we had another place to go to! - University of Melbourne. We had a lecture and tour which was kinda repetitive as we had something similar the past year.

Something I was always curious about University of Melbourne was answered in the lecture though. I've heard that graduates from top universities in the states are guaranteed employment. Well, the theory applied to my cousin Yumi, who is a graduate from Univeristy of Sydney. Apparently UoM has a 4 out of 5 graduate employment rate.

Pretty good. I'm gonna work hard to get into their Arts course! I don't want to be travelling too far away from home.

Our dorm is behind Ormond College (the castle looking building in the back)

Returned for some free time and a motivational speech from Lorin Nicholson (The Blind Guitarist). He was pretty inspriring and played some awesome music :D

Day 1 Dinner - Fish and vegetables

We had a choice for dinner and it was either roast lamb or some kind of fish. Apparently the lamb turned out to be beef!

Dinner turned out to be interesting watching A stop Mrs. Roddick sprinkling salt on her potatoes. You'd stop her too if you saw how much she sprinkled on XD

Peach and apple crumble with vanilla ice cream

To me, crumbles look pretty disgusting and gross, but after hesitation I decided to get just some. I really like it and it paired up well with vanilla ice cream.

Another motivational speech by an interesting guy, Archie Fusillo. He was pretty intersting like last year's accounting teacher, he used language that clicked well with people our age, which made it fun. Humour helped.

We watched a film that gave us background information about Maestro but I didn't get the movie. I also found it too bloody and violent. Not an ideal movie to watch at night.

Had a good night's sleep but I was concerned about the brown patches on the linen on my bed. Not an attractive sight.

Day 2 Breakfast - Apple and custard danish, apricot yoghurt, peanut butter toast, orange juice
Day 2 started off with a very sweet breakfast :) I didn't want eggs and tomato so I got all these sweet foods instead :) Breakfast was great!

Had a workshop regarding Maestro and I was near falling asleep as the guy talking was really droning and I thought he went off topic too much.

Outside the dorm area

Day 2 Lunch - Burger

Everyone clapped exceptionally loud when the lecturer finished the speech and we rushed to the dining room for lunch. The burger was tasty, but because of it's size I had trouble eating it. I ended up cutting the burger in pieces.

After lunch was more repetitive lectures and workshops which ended at around 1500 where we were dismissed and left UC for home.

And here are the interesting things you find in rooms:

This was in my room

And lucky Murasaki had a fan in her room!

We loved it especially after the sport activites on Day 1

Home will always be the best place in the world!

新年快乐！

2010-02-14T06:00:00.000+11:00

Source: clipartof

恭喜发财！

希望大家的新年过的开开心心！

身体健康！

万事如意！

今年考 VCE 的学生一定要步步高升！

大朋友，小朋友记得去拜年拿你们的红包哦！:)

peanut butter cookies

2010-02-13T06:00:00.004+11:00

The combination of two of my favourite foods - cookies and peanut butter.

***
peanut butter cookies

oven:
150 degrees Celsius
fan forced

ingredients:
makes 40 cookies

1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder, sifted
pinch of salt
100 grams unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 heaped cup crunchy peanut butter
1 large egg
1/2 - 3/4 cups toasted peanuts, crushed

method:
1. Put oats, flour and baking powder in a small mixing bowl and leave aside. Cream the butter and sugars until pale in colour and turns light and fluffy.

2. Add in the peanut butter and beaten egg and stir until combined.

3. Add in the crushed peanuts and oats mixture. Stir to combine.

4. Roll 1 Tb of dough into a ball and flatten with your hand. Place cookies on a lined baking tray.

5. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown in colour.

grub in a newsletter

2010-02-12T06:00:00.000+11:00

Hate it when the mail gets all crinkly! Mail box is too small...

A fair few months ago, I was asked by Tsunagaaru staff if I could allow them to publish one of my articles I posted on the forum (which they will shorten) in a newsletter. It was nothing bad, and my net friend on Tsunagaaru had already said yes, I said yes immediately to stop any delays.

Saying yes, we both had to fill in a questionnaire and survey about our experiences of the forum. It was actually pretty easy to do.

Message - click to enlarge

I was really surprised to see a letter from The Japan Forum with a thank-you note attached to two copies of the newsletter. Actually, I was going to go online and have a look, but it was really nice that they sent me hard copies of the magazine.

Although has nothing to do with this blog, I hope it's a small step to future publications.

Part of my article - click to enlarge

My article was about Australian schools which my net friend found interest in and decided to post a comment, which followed a series of comments after.

Tsunagaaru is a really good place to study Japanese especially if you're in school (since you need to be a student to participate). You can read about Japanese student's lives, read about other students living in other countries and even post your own story! A bit like blogging, however there are a few rules to abide to.

I highly recommend you join this forum to learn Japanese :)

Grub was featured in The Japan Forum's 国際文化フォーラム通信 No. 85 2010 January Edition page 13. If you are interested, the newsletter can be found and read here.

coconut ice - coincidentally the italian flag

2010-02-09T06:00:00.002+11:00

It was a Friday afternoon, and I remembered I promised Magster that I'd bake her something from last year. Unfortunately exams and homework was in the way and never had the chance to do so.

I have free periods on a Friday afternoon which means I can go home during lunch. I didn't feel like baking, so I decided to make her coconut ice instead.

See the Italian flag? Hint: Look back right.

Coconut ice is like a 2 coloured layer confection consisting of desiccated coconut, icing sugar and condense milk as it's core ingredients. I didn't want to make the traditional 2 coloured layer coconut ice, so I made a 3 layered one! Coincidentally I only had pink and green food colouring, so the Italian flag it was (only the real Italian flag is red on the side and not pink).

I reduced the sugar by half as I thought it was too sweet if I added the whole amount in. Note that condense milk contains sugar as well. Also didn't want my friends to overdose on sugar and go hypo in class and I felt that it was sweet but not over whelming sweet. Feel free to adjust to your taste buds.

***
coconut ice
adapted from quick and easy coconut ice

ingredients:
makes 20 x 20 cm cake tin

1 cup icing sugar
(originally 2 cups)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
395 mL can condense milk
4 cups desiccated coconut
few drops of food colouring (optional)

method:

1. Put icing sugar, cream of tartar, vanilla essence in a mixing bowl. Add in condense milk and stir to combine. Add in the coconut and stir to form a ball.

2. Divide the mixture into 3 parts and knead in food colouring to your own liking. Knead until colour is evenly spread.

3. Line a 20 x 20 cm cake tin with baking paper and press one coloured mixture at the bottom until even. Repeat for the remaining colours.

4. Wrap and refrigerate until firm and cut into desired size.

***

Lizzie said the coconut ice looked like mini water melons.

What do you think? Italian flag or watermelons?

バーニングブックス - burning books

2010-02-06T06:00:00.003+11:00

音楽と人 August 2007 Ongaku to Hito - Mr.Children on the front cover @ $5.00

Ever since I have discovered Burning Books, run and owned by a lovely Japanese lady by the name of Noriko, I have been going there again and again.

I usually buy manga and secondhand magazines, but sometimes there are interesting things up for sale as well. As I am only buying these for reading material and practise recognizing kanji (and for entertainment), they need not to be expensive, unlike the ones I buy in Kanga Kanga for purely entertainment purposes.

Yep, I mostly only spend my money on books, Japanese magazines and manga :P What a nerd right?

香港　マカオ 2004-5 Hong Kong, Macau @ $3.00

Bought this as there is a slight chance I will be going to Hong Kong. Problem is it's an old edition and everything in there looks so old. Might get myself an updated version at the international airport...if I end up going. +1 for the map included. Hopefully the roads haven't changed much.

ヴァンパイア騎士 10 巻 Vampire Knight volume 1o @ $13.95

I think this is the only volume I have with the main girls on the front cover :) I want a Kain x Ruka cover xD

***

Burning Books
122A Buckley Street
Footscray VIC 3011
(1 minute walk from Middle Footscray Station)

Opening hours: Tuesdays and Fridays 10 AM - 5 PM or by appointment.

Telephone: 0412-283-060

Website: http://www.burningbooks.com.au/

Email: info@burningbooks.com.au

面煎粿 - just an asian peanut pancake

2010-02-05T06:00:00.003+11:00

A variety of names for this particular dessert? depending on where you live. If you are Singaporean you are most likely familiar with mee jian kuih, mian jian kuih, ban jian kueh etc. Whilst if you are Malaysian it's named something similar ; apom balek (balik?), ban chang kuih, man jian kuih, jin long bao (that's what I call it) etc. I reckon it's just how you pronounce the Chinese name 面煎粿, but to me it's just an Asian peanut pancake.

I lived in Malaysia when I was a kid for a year or so and fly there on a yearly basis. One of my favourite street hawker food was this peanut pancake. You can pretty much get them in any pasar malam (night markets). If you live in Malaysia, you should know that there is a famous peanut pancake stall on a Wednesday night? (I don't know if it's this night, but it's the biggest pasar malam of the week) It's so famous there's a massive queue every time! But the wait is worth it :D

Makes me await going to Malaysia in less than 2 months :)

When making local food from a particular country, I prefer to looking for the original recipe, meaning someone who lives in that country made it (does it make sense?) I stumbled across Piggy's Cooking Journal's recipe and decided to use her recipe.

It wasn't that hard after all and tastes almost like the real thing, just missing those crispy edges!

Adding the batter to the pan

I let the pancake set too much before adding the fillings in :(

Should be easy to flip if you greased the pan properly

Perfect for a family of 4 :)

I didn't have plain flour so I used self raising flour and added the raising agents which is probably why mine looks thicker that the one in Piggy's Cooking Journal. I reduced the sugar and didn't grind the peanuts that much.

Tastes almost like the real thing, highly recommend it and will most definitely will make this again and again and again! It's so yummy :D

Recipe used <- click!

cheesy vegetable and bacon slice

2010-02-01T06:00:00.002+11:00

This was one of the recipe featured in the leaflets available in Coles. As it is nearly back to school for Victorian students, Coles teamed up with Nutrition Australia (Not For Profit Organisation) to create healthy box lunches under $3.

Well, I had a look at the leaflet and had go at the cheesy vegetable and bacon slice which turned out quite nice, frittata like. I had all the ingredients on hand so I just mixed everything in. As it finished baking, I suddenly realised I forgot to add in two ingredients - milk and flour! I also halved the recipe, so the mixture was quite watery therefore not spoon-able like the recipe says.

But it still turned out edible which was all it mattered :) It was hearty eaten warm, but tastes just as good when it's cooled.

I should read the recipe more carefully, because I doubt the next time I will be lucky. But I don't think I am going to add in the ingredients I forgot for next time :P

Here's the original recipe, if you are interested:

Cheesy Vegetable and Bacon Slice
reproduced from the Coles recipes leaflet

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Delicious and easy, this recipe tastes even better the next day.

Ingredients:
serves 8

1 Tb oil (olive or canola)
1 medium brown onion
3 rashers bacon, chopped (fat removed)
1 1/2 cups frozen carrots, peas and corn
5 extra large eggs
1 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup light milk
1 cup light tasty cheddar cheese, grated

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius conventional/ 150 degrees Celsius fan forced.
Heat oil in a frying pan and cook onions and bacon for 3-4 minutes until softened and bacon is slightly crispy.
Add peas and corn and cook for 2 minutes, stirring to thaw. Remove mixture to a bowl.
Mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix in bacon/vegetable mixture.
Season with pepper and spoon into a greased and lined 28cm x 18cm brownie/slice pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden and puffed.
Remove gently and cool in fridge.
Cut into slices

melbourne hwaro korean bbq

2010-01-27T06:00:00.001+11:00

I was never one to be interested in Korean history, culture of even food. Heck, the only food I know Koreans eat is kimchi and bimbap (from tutor who speaks fondly of it). Since my friends have been eating Korean BBQ and I've seen blog posts for it, I decided to try Korean BBQ!

I txted Thangstahh and asked Murasaki about the Korean BBQ places they've ate it. Turns out the ones they've dined in were teppanyaki style. We have all the teppanyaki hot plates at home and my parents (who watch way too much Korean dramas) wanted to try the drama way - BBQ-ing the meats over coal or fire. I did a quick google search and Hungry Hamster did a review of a Korean BBQ restaurant which had what we all had in mind. I promptly made the bookings and Hwaro it is!

Interior

As my family eat dinner quite early, I booked at 5 PM which is the time they open for the dinner service. Don't know if it is because we were the first ones there, but we had TERRIFIC service. The waiters and waitresses were all professionals and knowledgeable! We weren't being hurried about what to order and they gave great suggestions.

Interior

The interior was extremely orderly, neat and clean. It gave me kind of a high class restaurant feel, especially the high chairs I was sitting on.

Each table has a wooden board (for the BBQ pot) and set out dishes and on top of each table was a ventilator (?) exhaust fan (?). The ventilator thing sucks up all the smoke, so the atmosphere won't be smoky and you won't leave the shop with BBQ scented clothing.

Buzzer

Each table also has one of these red buzzers. It's like the aeroplane staff assistance button. Click on it and a waiter or waitress will appear right before your very eyes (only the flight attendants are so damn slow). It makes a door bell ringing noise and it's pretty loud...a bit embarrassing.

Bong-bong @ $3

There was a selection of drinks from wine to cocktails to your average everyday drinks. I chose a Korean drink called Pear Punch at first however changed my mind when the waitress told me what a bong-bong was. Bong-bong is a sweet muscat (think grapes) flavoured drink with floating pieces of muscat. The taste is very familiar.

Korean dumplings @ $12

Unlike Chinese dumplings, Korean dumplings are flat. It had a vegetarian filling consisting mostly of cabbage. I liked the thin and crispy dumpling skin.

A slice of seafood pancake @ $15

All the bloggers who've been to Korean restaurant have suggested Korean pancakes are a must order, so we ordered one HAHA. Without the sauce, the pancake is rather doughy and tasteless, however once you dip it into the accompanied sweet sipping sauce, the whole flavour changes!

A selection of side dishes (included)

Didn't touch the kimchi or the spicy shredded lettuce, nor the blanched bean shoots. However I think I am strangely addicted to the fermented soy beans! I thought they were Japanese natto, but its not. The soy beans are sweet and chewy.

Scotch fillet @ $18.90, Mushrooms @ $5

The waitress bought out our ordered meat and started to BBQ it for us. We didn't have to a thing! Just sit and wait to be served. When the meat was cooked we were then asked to start eating. Felt so good to just sit there and wait to be served!

Thigh fillet (chicken) @ $15.90 (?)

Unlike the beef, the chicken was marinated. However when BBQ-ed, both have a tempting aroma and taste.

Walked out spending $100, although my dad complained about the 15 minute walk to and from and the small portioned food, I think he secretly liked it XD

Can't wait to the next visit! Although Korean BBQ over teppanyaki is slightly cheaper, I don't think it will be as tasty as flame grilled!

***

Melbourne Hwaro Korean BBQ

562 Little Bourke Street

Melbourne, VIC 3000

Phone: (03) 9642 5696

how to: choux a la creme

2010-01-25T06:00:00.009+11:00

Half a year of of through research on one particular recipe, the choux pastry and how to make a perfect cream puff. I bring you this un-professional commentary of my experience :) Sorry if you don't understand my notes...

Cream puffs have always been on my baking list. However I thought it was a lot of work making the pastry and custard. As I always seem to burn my custard, I didn't dare bake choux shells since I'll have no filling! Recently I had luck with custard, so I decided to finally give choux a go. To be honest, this time is my second time baking choux shells. The first time was a flop. The choux shells deflated upon cooling.

After that failure, I decided to research about choux pastry (wiki information) ; how it's made and the method to make a perfect choux shell. I combined the recipe, baking times and tips from Keiko, Matt Moran's new cook book "When I get home" and publisher Hamlyn's "How to cook".

I'm not going to post the ingredients, but only the method, because I'm not even sure if this is going to work out a second time. This is only going to be a guide and a personal reference.

***
choux a la creme guide

Melt butter and bring to a boil with the milk (butter and milk must be combined - not a layer of butter on top)
Turn of heat and add all the sifted flour
Stir until dough comes together and doesn't stick to the sides

Add beaten egg one at a time and beat hard to incorporate
The dough will break up, but keep stirring until it comes together
The dough will look something like this, beat in another egg until the dough reaches the correct consistency (3 small eggs)
the correct consistency - soft enough to fall of a wooden spoon

Put dough in a piping bag and pipe out 4-5 cm diameter rounds (15 on one tray) using a pastry brush, flick water droplets on the dough and tray
Bake: 180 degrees fan forced for 15 minutes, reduce temperature to 130 degrees fan forced for 8-10 minutes until dry
Take out of oven and prick a small hole at the bottom
Return to oven, door ajar and cool

Yummy, yummy choux a la creme :) Tastes best on the day made!

I've tried Puffy, which is a a cookie crust on top of a choux. Yet to try Beard Papa's cream puffs. Although Jun did say Beard Papa's were expensive and not as nice as Puffy...

where's the custard?!

2010-01-24T06:00:00.002+11:00

Ever since M told be about Mira's food blog (Japanese), I began to admire her baking, cooking and photography skills. It was just like WOW!! What a pro! Talk about being impressed! I've tried a few of her recipes and they always turn our better than I expected. The textures of the cakes are really fluffy and it's not dry or anything.

When she announced she was pregnant, I was really, really happy for her. But that meant her baking slowed down quite a bit. So it was pretty rare to see a new recipe out. However she did blog her progress and shared photos of her previous bakes and her cat :)

This time I chose to make a custard filled banana cake. Funny thing was when I was halfway, I noticed the bananas were not on the bench top. PANIC ATTACK! So I incorporated the flours in so the creamed mixture wouldn't curdle and left straight away to the green grocers.

I didn't even bother going to Coles because I don't think they will sell over riped bananas. Thankfully the green grocers had a whole lot and it didn't cost me that much too! I rushed back home and continued on.

I piped in custard in the middle of the cake before baking however, when the cake was done, the custard was no where to be seen. Which leaves me with the ultimate question, where's the custard?!

Probably evaporated of something...? I don't see the custard on Mira's photo either. Oh well, the cake was really fluffy and light :D

Edit: I found the custard in the later part of the cake XD

レシピはこちらです→

On a note, Happy 17th Birthday SARS :)

basic cut out cookies

2010-01-23T06:00:00.001+11:00

I've been trying to find the basic cut out cookies I made at school a few years ago. The recipe was so easy, that the teacher didn't give us a handout of the recipe as it was written up on the chalk board. I tried asking a friend from school, but he really helpful as he told me to mix up a bunch of ingredients together without any measurements... When the new school year starts, I'm going to ask for the same recipe :)

As a substitution, I made cut out cookies using HHB's recipe. Hers is much tastier, crunchier and looks better than mine, however takes more time than the one I used at school. I was thinking of frosting these, but I changed my mind. I like it plain and not so sweet.

***
basic cut out cookies
adapted from HHB's pooh and piglet cut out cookies
later edited by me

oven:
150 degrees Celsius
fan forced

ingredients:
makes approximately 35

100 grams unsalted butter
80 grams sugar
(it's more crunchy that using caster, I think)
1 egg yolk
180 grams plain flour, sifted
20 grams corn flour, sifted
water, if necessary

method:
1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Whisk in the egg yolk and mix well.

2. Add in the sifted flour and mix to form a dough. If the mixture is dry, add in water until you get a pliable dough. Wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Lightly flour a working surface, rolling pin and cookie cutter. Roll the dough until it's 0.5 cm thick. Cut dough with a cookie cutter.

Note: I re-rolled my dough 3-4 times. I had no problem with hard cookies.

4. Gently lift the cut out cookies with a flat bladed knife and move to a lined baking tray.

5. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden.

***

As I took them out from my oven, my sister and I engaged in the following conversation:

Sister: Are they cooked? They look so white.

Grub: Yeah they are, why?

Sister: I want them burnt!!

Grub: ...

- Transferring the biscuits from baking tray to cooling rack -

Sister: (checks the bottom of the biscuits) Dang! They're not burnt!

What a nice sister...

layered agar agar (燕菜糕)

2010-01-17T06:00:00.004+11:00

Layers and layers and layers

Agar agar, probably my most favourite type of jelly I've ever eaten. I have ate this year after year after year but never attempted to make it. I asked my mum for the recipe last Sunday and since it was so easy, I decided to layer it with two colours.

The recipe itself was passed down from my grandma to my mum and then to me, so it's probably a very reliable recipe :)

Coconut milk and agar agar powder

***

layered agar agar
(coconut and milo flavour)

ingredients:
makes around 2 litres
size depends on moulds

8 cups of water
1 can of coconut milk (400 mL)
white sugar, to taste
(I used around 1 cup)
1 packet of agar agar powder (25 g)
(agar agar is also known as kanten)
1/2 cup Milo powder

method:
1. Heat the water until boiling, stir in the agar agar powder. Stir until the agar agar is dissolved.
2. Pour in the coconut milk and stir consistently. When the liquid is at boiling point, turn off heat.
3. Divide liquid into half and add milo powder to one half. Stir until the colour is even.
4. Pour a thin layer of brown or white liquid into a few moulds and put into fridge to cool. In approximately 2 minutes, the liquid will set.
5. When the liquid becomes firm to the touch, pour in another thin layer of the other colour and place in the fridge to cool.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until there is no more liquid left.
One of the moulds I used

You can use any moulds you like, just make sure they can sustain heat.

konnyaku jelly on a 43 degree day

2010-01-14T06:00:00.005+11:00

Mission: Retrieve konnyaku jelly and shoot down the sun.

It's been hot...too hot for the past few days (it's cooled down now :D). Even so, the heat doesn't really stop me from venturing in the kitchen nor does it stop Eira from gaming in his 35 degree Celsius room. Call me crazy, but my hobby really doesn't get affected by the heat.

The other day I went to sleep in a sofa downstairs and I was deciding what to make, konnyaku or agar agar. Because I thought konnyaku was going to be faster than making agar agar, I decided to make konnyaku. After all, it only needs 10 minutes of stirring over high heat and 5 minutes of stirring over low heat. 15 minutes of hell.

Well it should be faster than boiling 2.5 litres of water. Konnyaku only has approximately 1.5 litres of water after mixing water with the jelly powder. Cooking instinct :P

Konnyaku jelly retrieved..now to shoot down the sun for good

The jelly set in no time and the next problem was fridge space. You see, one third of the fridge is occupied by water and the rest full of vegetables, defrosting meat, leftover dinners etc. So clearing space took more time, but I enjoyed the cool breeze on my face.

Shooting down the sun is impossible unless you're Houyi

Konnyaku is available at all good Asian stores in Melbourne. I've seen some on sale for about $3.50. If you can't find any, I suggest you ask a friend in Malaysia to send you some. If you have never eaten konnyaku before, it's like chewy jelly kinda like gummi. Tastes nothing like Aeroplane jelly.

Very, very, very HOT!

baking bread

2010-01-13T06:00:00.005+11:00

It was a hot day last Friday. I checked on iGoogle, and it said Melbourne was 34 degrees Celsius. As I am a person who hates the heat, I don't dare bake anything on hot days, as the oven makes the house more hotter. Friday was an exception. I wanted to bake bread and use the heat to make the dough rise.

I flicked through "Reader's Digest Bake with Love", a thick recipe book I received from Eira last year for my 16th birthday. I bookmarked about 15 recipes, but I never made anything from it until Friday because everything seemed so hard. That Friday I was determined to bake a loaf of bread and I did.

I halved the recipe because this was my first time baking bread and luckily I did because it turned out to be very big! I don't want to imagine how much bread I'll have if i didn't.

Turns out baking bread wasn't so hard. It just takes a long time for the dough to rise. The bread turned out a bit dry and hard because I probably over kneaded it because I forgot to add an ingredient (how shameful!) and slightly over baked it. But it's still edible and I like it toasted with jam or cream cheese.

I'm going to attempt bake another type of bread from the same recipe book and hopefully it's softer that this one.

Remember this book Eira? Thanks again! :)