| Saturday, May 27, 2006 |
This is a late entry...because i was too busy blogging. Well, not that i am very free now but let's just make this a short one. A cake from me to swee..Happy 21st~
Its a strawberry chocolate mousse...
monster-looking ya?
and the birthday girl...
*recipe to be updated soon~
***************Edited Post********************* Now, here's the recipe.. Strawberry Chocolate Mousse (i sort of manipulated my own recipe) Ingredients 3 eggs, 1tsp cornflour, 4 tbps caster sugar, 300ml milk, 1 sachet powdered gelatine, 3tbps water, 300ml double cream, 225g strawberry flavoured chocolate bar Directions First, u separate the eggs - egg yolk and egg whites into different bowls.Then, whisk the egg yolks + sugar in a large mixing bowl until well combined. Place milk in saucepan, heat gently, still till almost boiling. Pour milk into egg yolks, whisking. Next, set the bowl containing the egg yolk/sugar/milk mixture over the saucepan of gently simmering water and cook, stirring until mixture thickens enough to thinly coat the back of the wooden spoon. Then, sprinkle gelatine over water, let it go spongy and subsequently, set over a saucepan of hot water and stir until dissolved. Stir into hot custard. Leave to cool. Whip cream until stiff. Fold into egg custard. Melt chocolate in saucepan of gently simmering water and fold the chocolate into egg custard. Next, whisk egg whites until soft peaks form and fold into choc custard. Pour into mould and chill till set for approximately 2 hours. Finally, decorate to serve. ************* Happy Trying Out *******************
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weeks ago, I joined Nora's Forum - noraskitchen.com. If you watch Jamie Oliver's revolutionary show - Jamies School DInners / Feed Me Better Campaign - then u'd probably know who she is. Oh well, nevermind, I'll say again. She's a dinner lady in Kidbrooke School in Greenwich. She's Jamie O's right hand lady who helped him sorta succeed in the campaign to change the food served in British Schools. So, that's how she became famous! OK, their forum is quite new, I joined and.. just so coincidentally Nora was giving away 5 of her new cookbooks - Nora's DInners and breakfast, lunches and snacks for you to cook at home. I guess Lady luck was on my side, I was one of the winner.  this is the book. Ok, so the book's really simple and the recipes' really easy. step by step illustrated. lotsa kids photos.. packed with fun, good for beginners. There's even a few pages on photos of Herbs & Spices, Veges, etc. Cause it's a kids cookbook !! I decided to make lasagne. Ok, true enough this is my first time making lasagne because I thought it was hard.. Haha.. ok, IT ACTUALLY WAS pretty damn easy! Ok, first, make some bolognaise sauce. THe recipe was in Nora's book, but I didn't have all the ingredients she listed. So, basically my version is - 1 onion 1 carrot 1 stick celery button mushrooms, sliced (optional) 350g minced pork 1 tbsp butter 2 ripe tomatos, chopped into small pieces 1 bottle of tomato sauce (not ketchup! those for pasta.. u know, ready made ones) salt & pepper Heat the frying pan over medium heat and add the butter. Then add the chopped onions, carrots and celery, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. When the veg have softened, add the minced meat and mushrooms and stir slowly for 3 minutes Stir in the chopped tomatos, then add in the tomato sauce (not ketchup!). Add a pinch of salt and peppet. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to low, put a lit on and simmer for 15 minutes.  If you use tomato puree, add chicken stock + water into the sauce. If u use ready-made tomato sauce, u dont need any stock + water Ok, when the bolognaise sauce is simmering, you can prepare the cheese sauce. So for cheese sauce, it's pretty much simple. 50g butter 50g plain flour 850ml milk 100g grated cheese, parmesan or cheddar salt n pepper To make the cheese sauce, melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat, add the plain flour and stir with your wooden sppon until it becomes light, sandy colour. Gradually add the milk, stirring all the time to make a smoothm thick sauve. If you pour in the milk too quickly you may end up with lumps. If so, give it a good beat with a whisk to break them up. Leave to cook for a couple of minute4s, then add half the cheese and a little salt and pepper.  Line the bottom of the baking dish with half of the bolognaise sauce u made earlier. Top with a third of the cheese sauce. Lay the pasta sheets over the sauce in one layer. Pour the other half of the bolognaise sauce over the pasta, then another third layer of the cheese sauve. Add another layer of pasta sheets, then the rest of the cheese sauce. Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese. Bake in oven for 40 minutes. The sauces whould be bubbling and there will be some nice crispy bits.   thats a souffle bowl.. haha Oh yah! remember to buy those NO PRE-COOKING REQUIRED lasagne pasta. and thats about it.    could have added more milk to the cheese sauce.. haha (oh btw, mum said that..) have a great weekend all 
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| Thursday, May 25, 2006 |
eating out alone.. as I stroll around Pyramid, I was thinking "die lah die lah" cause I keep seeing college-girls.. who are, well, if i were to compare, pretty also prettier than me, hair.. also longer than mine, body also thinner than mine.. make up also thicker, eyes also bigger.. skirts also shorter.. HAHA.. ok... while me.. nothing to shout about, just a year or two elder than them. boo hoo.. Anyway, I love Manhattan Fish Market. I Love seafood. (but not squids). I so needed to have some better food after the visit to Jack's Place which was quite disappointing. and also, after spending almost 2 hours on cardio machines (cause watched American Idol Results show In Gym from 8.30am) and also Yoga class, I'm pretty much.. as hungry as a cow.. Again, they had some Set Lunches to choose from, Garden Salad with Fish, Grilled Norweigan Salmon, Baked Fish and NZ Mussels, etc etc.. So I got the Baked Dory fish with mussels served with Garlic Butter Sauce .. with chips or rice. Lunch Sets of course.. has a soup to start with
Minestrone Soup.. yahoo.. nice !! I got to peep the SEafood Chowder on my next table.. thats cause I overheard them.. haha.. it looks so much better than Jack's Place soup..
Yummyy.. garlic butter sauce rocks!! only thing is, if u're out on a date or something, dont eat this (or any garlic butter sauce based dishes), cause when u burp, u taste like garlic.. And that's gross. All for RM 25 + tax... pretty much expensive since it's only DORY fish, which u can get in Giant or Tesco or Jusco or other co.. Might be the mussel then.. But, I love it! haha.. I Will Be Back For More !!! Plus, their service's quite good.. The manager (or higher waitress position) went around table to table to ask how's the food.. blablabla.. u know all that kinda stuffs. Mmmm, satisfied..
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While shopping the other day, I just had to go for lunch, even if it was alone. haha. Hungry lah! Anyway, eating alone is a pathetic thing, I walked around 1-U's new wing figuring out, what should I eat. Peeped into the cafes, there's no one, cause it was still half an hour to lunch time.. It's so hard to decided a place to eat. But alas, I went into Jack's Place. They were offering a Set Lunch for only Rm13.90 (excl tax). Set lunch always make things easier.. be it the chef, or the diner (if u have a fickled mind..) So, I ordered the Chicken Chop in Plum Sauce..Let me tell u my honest opinions, I thought that Jack's Place's ambience would be abit more jazzy, cafe-ish, modern kinda thing (well, as to observing from outside). But it wasn't as jazzy or cafe-ish.. To me, it kinda felt like a 80s style restaurant where they start serving western dishes because it was the IN thing (sorry man, just my opinion, no offence) It probably was because of the chequered multi-tone green 'laminated' table mat.. They could have been more creative in setting up the table.. the green mat thingy was a total turn off.. Ok, back to the food.. It was a full course meal, with Soup, main course and dessert. (once again, camera phone quality pics, sorry)  Garlic Bread was quite good. haha. and the seafood chowder soup. Ok, I dont think I'm much a fan of seafood soup. It tasted like corn soup to me with some fish meat and crab meat.. I think I'll stick to mushroom soup.. or onion..  Portion wise, it's actually quite huge. Oh yeah, because of the soup and bread i've eaten earlier, i couldnt finish the chips, carrots and peas.. PEAS !! once again, i'm not a pea-person.. OH, and the sauce.. It was FAR TOOOOO LITTLE !!!!! *shakes head* just too little.. I had to eat my chicken with ketchup...  Then they served Tea as well.. I didn't touch the milk, because it doenst look milky to me. Ice cream was just vanilla.. not too bad (how can u go wrong with ice cream right???) Apart from the not-so-nice ambience and the green table mat and the small serving of sauce, i think it's ok la.. at least their service is good.. But this place is famous for the steaks... maybe the steak could have more sauce.. =P *aiyo, suddenly miss eating in Danny's Cafe..* |
| Wednesday, May 24, 2006 |
Hi all, I've people telling me that they have only a measuring scale, and some of the recipes uses 'cups' .. But no worries, to convert those, all u need is ... A Calculator Ok. To convert litres to cups, multiply the number of litres by 4.224 (1 litre = about 4 1/2 cups; 2 litres = about 8 1/2 cups), and to convert cups to litres, multiply the number of cups by 0.237. Litres are the same as kilograms.. then u'll just need to do some mathematics and it's done.. 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoon = 1/2 fluid ounce = 14.8 ml 1/4 cup = 4 tbsp = 2 fluid ounces = 59.2 ml 1 cup = 16 tbsp = 8 fluid ounces = 236.8 ml Means, if u need 2 cups of flour and u dont have a measuring cup, just multiply 2 to 0.237 and u get 0.474 Litre.. which means, 474 gm of flour. And to convert grams to ounces, divide grams by 28.35 grams to pounds, divide grams by 453.6 To convert them the other way round, just multiply the number 1 pound = 16 ounces = 453.6 gm 2.2 pounds = 1kg I hope that helps P/s : remember to write the conversion at the recipe book / paper. So if you need to bake it again, you'll save the hassle of calculating them again Have a nice day |
| Tuesday, May 23, 2006 |
I was just thinking if I need to bake my own Birthday cake or not. that would sound sad if no one buys one for me.. Haha. And, so, I decided to make one for myself, just incase i really didn't have any. (and also to finish off the cream cheese + cream) Ok, cheesecakes has gotta be my favourite among other cakes (that I've eaten). So, Birthday = cheesecake = Nigella This one's baked in water bath, and trust me, the texture was superbly soft! It really is better than the non-baked cheesecakes. Plus, it's not that hard after all. you just wrap 2 large layers of aluminium foil around your tin. So, firstly, prepare the base. 150g of digestive biscuits processed till theyre like crumbs, mixed with 75g of melter butter. The ratio is 2 : 1. But 150g of biscuits would give u a just-thin base. I settled for 200g biscuits 100g butter. Press the biscuits onto the base of a Springform tin, put in the fridge to set. Beat 250g cream cheese gently till it's smooth, then add 75g caster sugar. beat in 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk, then finally vanilla extract and some lemon juice. ( I secretly added 1/2 cup of whipping cream, ha) Line the outside of the tin with strong foiled so that it covers the bottom and sides in one large piece ( you might wanna get the extra-large foil) then do it again. Then put it into a roasting dish (should be larger and deep in depth). Pour in the cheesecake to the Springform, then pour in boiling water into the roasing dish, about halfway. Remember not to overfill, u don't wanna risk burning your feet with HOT WATER while lifting it up.. Put into the oven and cook for 40 minutes at 180 C. When it's done, it should feel set but not rigidly so. Whisk in 1 tub of sour cream, 1tbsp caster sugar and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract till smooth and pour over cheesecake. Put it back into the oven for another 10 minutes. When it's done, take the roasting tin out from the over, gently remove the SPringform and put on a rack to cool. When it's cooled completely, put it into the fridge (yes, still with the tin). Bring it out 20 minutes before serving. Plunge a knife into hot water before cutting it. And you get.. this
If you want to double the amount of cheese, make do with 600gm of cream cheese, 3 eggs and 3 egg yolks, and double the rest (sugar, vanilla, lemon juice)
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| Saturday, May 20, 2006 |
Went to Desa Sri Hartamas to pick up flowers for a pre-wedding shoot this sunday (i'm not getting married lah...) then, had lunch next door at Fong Lye Restaurant. They serve Chinese / Taiwanese cuisine. *photos from camera-phone. 0.3 mp. what to do...* *hint hint*  It's just next to As You Like It Flowers. It's behind Fondue House  Knowing that everyone would call tea, they already have mini tea pots fill with tea leavevs and hot water. Before they even take your order, it's on the table already  The cute chopstick holder.  em... not nice.. It was said to be abit spicy. but I can't taste any, I'm sure it's not because of my running nose.. I could still taste other food.  Ok, this one, the sauce is some kinda tomato sauce. the oyster was in moderate size.. New style of oyster omelette I guess, tasted not bad well, I think their dishes should taste better. We ordered noodles cause there were only 2, and we're kinda rushing for time. |