端午节 (dumpling festival)

端午节 (dumpling festival) beckons. And it’s time like this memories of mom come flashing back. Mom used to make delicious bak zhang. She taught the art of wrapping the zhang. But the silly me didn’t even think of jotting down her recipe!!

I went ahead and made them anyway – my first attempt, thanks to the many recipes found in YouTube. And I even went a bit further – I also made a handful of the sweet nyonya zhang, though I much prefer the savory Hokkien zhang. H said I was overly ambitious. 😂 

Years ago, I was privileged enough to be given a nyonya zhang by an office colleague. That zhang was yummilicious. What intrigued me was the hue of blue on one side of the zhang, something I’ve never seen from those sold at the markets. The color does nothing to the taste of the zhang, but I subsequently learned that the bluish hue was something a truly authentic nyonya zhang should have. I googled further, and learned that the blue coloring was obtained from the butterfly pea flowers (bunga telang). 

So fascinated with the nyonya zhang was I that I decided I had to make them. But it must have the bluish hue – or nothing. So I went around asking the florist and the storekeepers in the markets if they had bunga telang. But I met with little success. The florist told me I should have ordered a pot from her in advance. One shopkeeper told me I could pluck some from the nearby CC. I went, I looked, and I returned home empty-handed. 

Then I tried Carousell, and lo and behold, the flowers, both fresh and dried are readily available! I wasted no time and met the seller for 10g of dried pea flower at $1.50. 

Then today, as I was on my way to the market, I noticed some blue flowers growing in the fences around my neighborhood. On close inspection, I discovered that those flowers are non other than BUTTERFLY PEA FLOWERS which I had been searching for!! And they are right there under my block, and under my nose!!! 

Ok, so I didn’t know pea flowers are actually creepers. But than, if I had been more observant, I probably would have noticed them earlier, and making the nyonya chang would have been a sweeter experience! 

Ah, the power of observation (or the lack of it)…

Oh, the nyonya zhang turned out overly spicy! I doubled the portions of the ingredients in the recipe and I guess I probably overestimated the spices. H said there were not fit for human consumption. Sigh. 

The bak zhang fared slightly better; but they could do with a little more salt 😜

It’s a learning process. I think my mom would have been proud. The next attempt would be better 🙃

Berry Frozen Yoghurt

Recently, I bought myself a new toy – an ice-cream making machine.
And this is one of the recipes I tried – Raspberry Yoghurt ice-cream.  It tastes more like sorbet then ice-cream – kinda sour which appeals more to Slim Lady.   I prefer ice-cream which is thicker and creamier.

Oh well, I’d have many opportunities to try making those. 😉🙃

 

Red velvet cupcakes

I’m not really into cakes. My interest has always been macarons, macarons and macarons. And this is quite evident in my blog. I have more posts on macarons than anything else. Which explains why I choose to have MACARON as the central theme of my blog. 

But I made a discovery recently. Having tasted one such cupcake from 12 Cupcakes the other day, I realized cupcakes are pretty scrumptious, if not more so than macarons. Macarons are just too sweet. As I’ve mentioned before, I enjoy making macarons. I find it challenging and therapeutic. But eating them is another thing. They are just too sweet for my liking. 

Let’s come back to cupcakes, the topic of this post. Like macarons, there’re 101 flavors of cupcakes. And they just look as pretty and tasted just as delicious.  I went hunting for the red velvet cupcakes recipe, and found one from the Net and here’s the result! 

The cupcakes are light and fluffy, and I’m surprised at how easy it was to bake these.  😋🙃

XO Sauce Angel Hair Pasta

It took me only 15 minutes to whip up this variation of Aglio Olio for dinner. First time using the XO sauce, and it gave the dish an Asian twist. The capellini pasta, also known as Angel Hair pasta, is just like our local “mee kia”, but it is surprisingly more springy in texture. The bonito flakes add a nice touch to the dish. 2 serving is too little for us. Next time will cook more 🙃🙃

You twist, lick, and then dunk!

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I took a long hiatus from making macarons until recently.  I used to be pretty good at them. They turned out lovely, with well developed feet. Friends were amazed, and impressed.

But then suddenly, they started getting quirky.  They have underdeveloped feet. Or over developed feet which extends outward. In other occasions, they get to brown either on top or the bottom.  And sometimes, they are hollow inside!  Very frustrating and it drives me up the wall!

My love affair with these fellas goes years back.  I love making them; but not as much as eating them. I think they are too sweet and I have never had a sweet tooth.

These oreo macarons were made on a whim. This time, the feet raised too high and fast, and it extended out. Not very satisfied with the result. And the oreo?  Man, it tastes anything but oreo.  Next time, I’m gonna crush some orea biscuits and place it in the centre  of the buttercream.

I’m convinced macaron-baking is a science. You never get the same result each time you bake them.

Chocolate Truffles

This Christmas, instead of the usual macarons, I decided to make chocolate truffles to give away as presents.  It was a crazy thought.  My adventure with the truffles began when I caught sight of four little cute chocolate balls, all wrapped to the nigh, in a pretty little box in a picture posted by a Facebook friend.  They were pretty and made good Christmas gifts, I had dropped a comment.  And my friend told me those are chocolate truffles –  ganache-filled creamy chocolate candie.  Until then, I have had no idea what a truffle was!

I got the recipe from my dear friend, who also shared with me half of the ingredients needed to make the chocolate candies.  I must say  truffles-making ain’t that difficult, compared to macaron-making.  The only down-side is that it makes my kitchen pretty messy, with chocolate stains on the dinner table, on the sink, and even on my clothes!  But it’s a small price to pay, considering the whole of my kitchen were smelling like a chocolate factory!  What’s more, the truffles turned out not only looking good, but tasted yummilicious as well!

Most of my friends were pleasantly surprised when i gave them the candies.  Some asked if I had bought them, coz they looked so professional 😛

Oh…my sweet pretty macarons…

宫保虾仁 (gong bao xia ren)

It’s been a long time since I last updated the blog. I’d want to say I have been busy. The truth is, I’m just plain lazy. 😛

But I just have to put into writing the recent gem of a recipe I got from the Taiwanese programme, 吃饭皇帝大. I’ve no idea the 宫保虾仁 would taste so yummilicious good. Slim Lady, not one to rave about prawns, walloped up THREE in a row, and commented: “Woah, it tasted almost like those from a Chinese restaurant. I give you 99 marks!” 🙂

While I agree that the prawns tasted quite delicious, I was half expecting the 宫保 taste of the 宫保鸡丁 I’m more familiar with. There was none of such taste. In my opinion, this is even better than the 宫保 that I know. Maybe the taste-bud of the Taiwanese is just different from us Singaporeans.

Here’s the recipe.

Ingredients:

• Prawns (de-shelled and de-veined). Dry the prawns with paper towels (this is important coz it will ensure the crunchiness of the prawns). Marinate them with salt, pepper, egg whites and cornstarch.
• Dry chili
• garlic (sliced)
• ginger (sliced)
• spring onion (chopped)

Sauce (this should be prepared first)

• 1.5 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp rice wine
• 2 tsp vinegar
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tsp ketchup
• 2 tsp cornstarch water

Method

• Stir fry prawns in medium fire, turning them over once or twice.
• Pour a little water and cover the wok, but leave a little gap to allow the release of air with a chopstick. (If I remember correctly, this is to ensure that the prawns will not become too dry or hard, but will remain “Q-Q” and crunchy :P). Once this is done, keep the prawns aside.
• In a clean wok, put some oil, and before the oil becomes hot, throw in the dry chili (this is to prevent charring the dry chili).
• Throw in the garlic, ginger and the spring onion. Stir fry.
• Throw in the prawns. Stir fru.
• Pour in the prepared sauce, and fry for a minute or so (not too long or the prawns will “dry up” and become tough.
• Done.
• Eat 😛

It’s really quite easy to whip up this dish. And trust me, it tastes heavenly.

Bon appétit.

Liquored cherry macarons

The batch of macarons I made yesterday look very similar to those I made and blogged about it in my last post. However, the only similarity is the lack of artificial colouring in the shells. Yes, while I love my colourful macarons, I’m a quite concerned about the harm these colourings may cause to our health. This is not to say that I would no longer make eye-catching and colourful macarons. Seriously, what attracts me and many others to macarons are the array of colours and flavours offered by these French cookies. Macarons in its colourless shell are simply boring! But I just feel that it’s best to use the colours sparingly.

So, “native” shells aside, what’s the difference in this batch of macarons? Well, it’s filled with liquored cherry chocolate! A friend of mine was so smitten by the “brandied cherry” macarons from Artisan Sweet, and I had promised her that I would make the macarons for her if she could find the “brandied cherry”. Alas, her search was in vain. Then she chanced upon Café-Boutique in Tudor Court Shopping Gallery in Tanglin Road and discovered something quite similar – a bottle of liquor swimming with pieces of cherries! But my oh my! It didn’t come cheap. It costs her more than $30!

So here they are, Liquored Cherry Macarons. I can’t really taste the liquor. Maybe it’s because I only used about 1/3 of the bottle? That bottle is just too expensive! I’m also careful not to over use the liquor, lest I make my colleagues drunk and tipsy, and during office hours at that! 😛

Lychee buttercream macarons

Here they are, the lychee buttercream macarons I said I would try making weeks ago, following a link from a colleague of mine.

Come to think of it, this is the first time I tried using a buttercream filling  for the macarons.  Other than lemon-curd, most of the fillings for my macarons are chocolate-base.  Now I know why I love making macarons so much.  Much of the joy of making macarons is to come up with creative and “exotic” fillings.  And then juz watch the reactions of people you give the macarons to, the moment they take the first bite. Nice or tasty, weird or yummy, each person reacts differently to that little piece of  morsel of the french cookies in his mouth.  We have our unique taste bud. One man’s meat is another’s man poison, so the saying goes.

I thought lychee was pretty unique and, as my friend Debbie said “dainty”.  My friend Alex suggested bandung!  I don’t know what the French would think! (nor what Alex was thinking! hahah).  But that’s another reason why I like making macarons.  There’s juz no end to our imagination and creativity!

And the verdict of the lycee buttercream macarons?   Ladylove, by virtue of proximity, had the privilege (or misfortunte?) to sample the macaron before anyone else.  She took a bite,  and then, shoving the mac back to me, exclaimed:  “What flavour is that?!”

“Couldn’t you taste the little lychee bits in there?” I asked.

“No!” she said, and then ordered, “Quick go fetch me a class of water!”

Oh well, I guess the  butter is juz too overpowering for her. Actually, it didn’t go well for me, too.  I must confess I don’t like the buttercream very much.  The taste is just too “buttery”.  My confidence shattered, I brought only  3 of these macarons to the office to let my 3 “closest” colleagues (because they were sitting closest to me :P) to sample.  One said he thought the filling consisted of milk; another said it “tasted nice”‘; and yet another said “it was nice, but it’s quite “jelat” because of the butter; so can only eat one”. Surprisingly, none of them could tell they were supposed to  be lychee-flavour!  Urggh!

I subsequently googled for recipes of buttercream, and was surprised to learn that to whip up really good and tasty buttercream, there are actually techniques to look out for!

Well, well, at least the macarons look ok this time – the “feet” looks kinda prominent. 😛  As for the buttercream, there’s no reason why I couldn’t “tame” it.  The next one should be better.  Hmmm… let’s see what flavour I can come up next….  Wasabi macaron, anyone?  😛

Good grief!