A Berry Simple Lunch

After a dose of healthy smoothies in the morning, I decided to have something light for lunch. The smoothies is so filling that I didn't feel hungry comes lunch time. But my biological clock sent a signal to my mouth, and told her to munch something eventhough the stomach protested that she was feeling pretty ok and didn't need to be fed yet. Rather than reaching for potato chips or something equally unhealthy, I made myself a simple fruit salad. It's actually the leftover salad from last night with a few strawberries thrown in for color. Surprisely, it was pretty tasty.

I would have added some raspberries if I had gotten them from the farmer market last weekend. But we went a bit late, so there wasn't a single punnet left. What a disappointment! We bought a lot of strawberries though. So much that I have enough to eat for breakfast, lunch, snack and desserts. In as short as three days, three pounds of strawberries are gone. Most of them went into the dessert, which I will blog about shortly in another entry.

This post is about the berry simple salad. It is basically a combination of romaine lettuce, tomatoes and sliced strawberries. I mixed a teaspoon of raspberry perserve and a few dashes of balsamic vinegar to make a simple dressing for the salad. The dressing is pretty much up to personal taste. But I like the interplay of something sweet and something tangy in my salad. I am sure any balsamic vinaigrette will work here too . Also, any mixed salad green can substitute the romaine lettuce.
A figure friendly salad that will surely help my thighs and hips. This berry simple salad will be my entry for Lisa and Kelly's Salad Stravaganza. Do check out the roundup on July 1st for other yummy salad ideas!

A Berry Simple Salad

1 1/2 cups of chopped romaine lettuce
1/2 cup hulled, sliced strawberries
1 roma tomato, chopped

dressing:
1 teaspoon raspberry preserves
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Whisk together the dressing ingredients and pour over the salad.

Serves one girl who needs to lose weight.

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A Berry Good Morning!

I was awakened early by OCT today on his way out to work and couldn't get back to sleep after that. Eventhough it's early in the day, I found myself sweating. It was the heat from the merciless sun this time of the year! Eventhough I could turn on the air-conditioner and cool myself down, I opted for some fresh morning air. Which comes with the warm wind unfortunately.

I remember when I was a kid, I used to go to the refrigerator and opened the fridge wide open to let the cold air blow on me. Until my mum found me and reprimanded my silly act. While I was older and tall enough to open the freezer, I pretend to find something from the freezer whenever the weather got unbearably hot.

Today's weather reminds me of my little game with the refrigerator. Instead of trying to "look for something" from the freezer, I reached out for the tub of ice cream. I almost wanted to eat ice cream for breakfast!!! Well, I know I am capable of doing that eventhough I haven't done so..Luckily, I was saved by the frozen raspberries and mango that were tucked behind the ice cream. For they screamed "choose me, eat me!" So loud that I had to cover my ears with both hands and let the ice cream idea dropped to the floor.

You know how people tell you that "life is about making choices and you are what you eat?" I couldn't agree more. And for today, I am proud that I made a conscious, healthy choice to start my day. I made myself a cup of berries smoothies. Not only has it cooled me down, it has also packed with lots of "good for me", anti-oxidant rich ingredients. I must also add that the purplish pink hue of the smoothies is really pleasing to the eye. I am submitting this smoothies to Sweetnick's ARF/5-A-Day Tuesday. Check out her blog later for more ARF ideas!


Berries Smoothies

A handful of frozen raspberries and mango
A few ice cubes
A few hulled, sliced strawberries
6 oz non-fat plain yogurt
A dash of orange juice
1 ripe banana

Blend everything together in the blender and pour into a cup. Enjoy!

I usually just put whatever berries I can find into the smoothies, but banana is always included for sweetness.

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When the going get tough, make cake!

For the past two days, I have been obsessed with changing the layout of my blog. I wanted to make it into three columns instead of two, and added in other interesting stuffs. Something that I believe some people can do within half an hour (or shorter?) with one eye close.

Not for me. I spent two days to research on various options and finally come up with the layout you now see. Eventhough I wanted to add more fancy stuffs to my sidebars, I guess I have to settle with what I have now. I am exhausted. I need to do something relaxing.

Like baking. Something I can definitely do better than modifying CSS codes. Moreover, there's treats for OCT Friday lab meeting and a friend's birthday cake to think about. There are several recipes in my consideration, and I finally settled on the Black and White Angel Food Cake. I have been wanting to make it since it appeared on Cookinglight's May 2007 cover.

This was my first time making angel food cake, so I was a bit apprehensive. Adhering closely to the recipe (but not completely), I was relieved that my angel food cake turned out the way it should.

After waiting impatiently for it to cool down slightly, I poured the chocolate gananche, leftover from making chocolate tarts onto the cake. Before the gananche has time to harden, I couldn't wait another second to cut into the cake. This was the usual "quality control" I practiced before anything goes to OCT's lab. And intuitively, I cut a larger slice than my usual "QC" slice. Perhaps, it's love at first sight. The second I saw the cake when it was turned out onto the cooling rack, I know I have fallen in love with it.
After my first bite, this love feeling is rightly confirmed. The cotton candy like texture, so light and yet flavorful. I added an additional tablespoon of cocoa powder, so the chocolate layer has a distinct contrast to the vanilla layer. The original recipe used chocolate and cream cheese icing, but I was too tired to make the icings and used the leftover gananche. It's serendipity. I believe the cake tasted better with gananche than the icings.

I can't believe I have waited so long to make an angel food cake! And why didn't I buy the angel food pan before all the other baking pans! The only downside though, is the leftover of 10 eggyolks. They are waiting to be transformed into some high colesterol, bad for you dessert.

p/s: Among some of the things I added to my sidebar, allow me to draw your attention to the Foodie Blogroll, a blogroll created by The Leftover Queen especially for foodies! Check out the list of the food blogs that's getting longer and longer each day!

Black and White Angel Food Cake
adapted from Cookinglight May2007

Cake:
1 cup cake flour (about 4 ounces)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 large egg whites (I used 10 extra large whites)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsweetened dark cocoa (such as Hershey's Special Dark) *I used 3 tbsps of Dutch processed cocoa*

Glaze: (omited and used leftover chocolate gananche from here
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons tub light cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon 1% low-fat milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon unsweetened dark cocoa (such as Hershey's Special Dark)

Topping:
Sliced strawberries (optional)


Preheat oven to 325°.
To prepare cake, lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and 3/4 cup granulated sugar, stirring with a whisk; set aside.

Place cream of tartar, salt, and egg whites in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until foamy. Add remaining 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form. Beat in juice and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Sift flour mixture over egg white mixture, 1/4 cup at a time; fold in after each addition.

Spoon half of batter into an ungreased 10-inch tube pan, spreading evenly. Break air pockets by cutting through batter with a knife. Sift 2 tablespoons cocoa over remaining batter; fold in. Spoon cocoa batter evenly over top of vanilla batter; break air pockets by cutting through cocoa layer with a knife. Bake at 325° for 55 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched. Invert pan; cool completely. Loosen cake from sides of pan using a narrow metal spatula. Invert cake onto a plate.

To prepare glaze, place powdered sugar, cream cheese, milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Drizzle half of glaze over cake.

Add 3/4 teaspoon cocoa to remaining glaze; stir well to combine. Drizzle cocoa glaze over cake. Refrigerate 5 minutes or until glaze is set. Garnish with strawberries, if desired.

Yield
12 servings (serving size: 1 slice)

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Farewell Chocolate Tarts

Before we went to Phoenix, I was on a mission to use up some of the expiring whipping cream. I was thinking of making a frosted cake initially, but thought that would not be realistic. Instead, I went to Pierre Herme's Chocolate Desserts for inspiration.

There are so many chocolate tarts recipes I have intended to try from this amazing book. But due to time constraint, I settled on the simple chocolate gananche, which could also be used as filling in tarts. Since I still have some leftover dough from the Chocolate Hazelnut Sables, I used them to make the mini tart shells. That way, I only needed to make the ganache and poured them into the baked shells. It's the simplest and fastest way to use up the whipping cream.

I also added some chopped hazelnuts to the baked tart shells before pouring in the chocolate ganache. For some reasons, I simply love the combination of hazelnut and chocolate since young. Maybe it reminds me of nutella. I have never heard of anybody who doesn't like nutella!

So this is my simple chocolate tart before we embarked on our journey to the desert. We gave away most tarts to friends and keep just two for ourselves. This is my sweet way to say "Goodbye!"

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Red Hot Summer

If I have to choose one colour to represent summer, that would undoubtedly be RED. The reason is obvious. Summer is always red hot. More so now than ever, because we are in the desert. To be precise, we are in Phoenix visiting OCT's friend now. While we are here, we also visited the Grand Canyon and Zion Valley National Park. My skin tone must have been darken by more than 3 shades after exposing myself long hours under the sun.

Speaking of summer, the hot and spicy Thailand cuisine comes to mind. Although I haven't been cooking these few days, I would like to share this sweet and sour pork dish that I made the day before we left for Phoenix. It's a Thai recipe that I made for the second time. Not only is it delicious, it is also fully packed with anti-oxidant rich ingredients. The combination of red peppers, tomatoes and pineapple produced a sweet and sour flavour, which is unmistakably unique to Southeast Asia dishes. Chilli is optional here though. If you prefer to have something spicy, feel free to add chilli or hot sauce. Or you can totally omit it without affecting the flavour of the dish.

This simple sweet and sour pork is an easy recipe to make at home while we have craving for Thai food. We find ourselves eating more than our usual share of rice whenever this dish is served for dinner! I am submitting this sweet and sour pork for my first ever ARF/5-A-Day. Be sure to check out Cate's lovely Sweetnicks on Tuesday for the round-up and other ARF ideas!

Sweet and Sour Pork (Moo Preow Waan)

10 oz trimmed pork tenderloin
1/2 tsp tomato paste (or 2 tbsp of ketchup dissolved in 1 tbsp water)
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp rice (or white) vinegar
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp chopped garlic
1/4 small onion, roughly chopped
1/3 medium red pepper, cut into 1 inch/2.5 cm squares
1/2 small tomato, cut into 1 inch/ 2.5cm chunks
1.5 inches english cucumber, cut into 1 inch/2.5 cm wedges
1 cup pineapple, cut into 1/2 inch/1 cm pieces
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1 tbsp water
pinch black pepper
strips of red pepper
fresh coriander leaves

Slice tenderloin into strips that are 1/4 inch/5mm thick, 2 inches/5cm long and about 1 inch/2.5cm wide. If you find it difficult to cut thinly through fresh meat, leave it in the freezer for 15-20 minutes to harden slightly, then slice. Reserve.

In a small bowl mix together tomato paste, water, fish sauce, vinegar, lime juice and sugar and beat until blended. Reserve.

Heat oil in a wok (or a large frying pan) until it is just about to smoke. Add garlic and stirfry for 30 second. Immediately add reserved pork and stirfry for 2-3 minutes until all th pork has fried in the oil and is turning white. Add onion, red pepper, tomato, cucumber and pineapple as well as soy sauce and black pepper and stirfry for 2 minutes, unitl all the vegetables have begun to wilt.

Add reserve sauce (tomato paste etc, stirfry for 1-2 minutes until everything is integrated and shiny. Dissolve cornstarch in water, add to work and stirfry for less than a minute, until the sauce has thickened somewhat. Take off heat.

Transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with black pepper. Top with stips o red pepper and coriander leaves. Serve immediately, accompanied by steamed rice.

serves 4.

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Low fat Chocolate Marble Cake

Back to the time when I didn't have an oven in my Singapore apartment, I used to buy Sara Lee's pound cake all the time. There was always at least one loaf in the fridge at anytime. It had became an habit to just grab a pack whenever I did grocery shopping. I particularly like their chocolate and chocolate swirl flavour. Eventhough these pound cakes are not freshly made, they have an irresistible appeal to me. Maybe it's the convenience these pound cakes offered. They could be kept in the fridge infinitely.


Recently, I found a recipe of chocolate marble cake from Alice Medrich's amazing book,Chocolate and The Art of Low Fat Desserts that reminds me of my old flame. Maybe they don't taste exactly the same, but I think they are pretty close. Alice Medrich's version is tender and flavourful. It is also not overly sweet and dry, like other low fat recipes. A welcome surprise to me, and I feel good to share this with friends.


Adorned with bing cherries and strawberries I bought from the farmer's market, it's a simple and healthy treats to eat anytime of the day!

Chocolate Marble Cake
adapted from Alice Medrich's Chocolate and The Art of Low Fat Desserts

2 cups cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant espresso or coffee powder
1/3 cup dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg white
6 Tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup nonfat yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Have all ingredients at room temp. Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in the lower third of the oven. Spray 8-10 cup tube pan with cooking spray.

Use a whisk to combine four, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sift together. Set aside. In a small bowl combine the espresso powder, cocoa and 1/3 cup of the sugar with 1/4 cup of water. Whisk until smooth. Set aside. In another small bowl, whisk whole egg with egg white. Set aside.

Cut the butter into pieces and place in an electric mixing bowl. Beat for 1 minute to soften. Gradually add remaining 1 cup of sugar and beat at high speed for about 3 minutes. Dribble eggs in slowly, about 1 T at a time, beating constantly for about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in a third of the flour mixture. On medium-high speed, beat in half of the yogurt. On low speed, beat in half of the remaining flour. On high speed, beat in the rest of the yogurt and the vanilla. On low speed, beat in the remaining flour.

Measure out 1 1/2 cups of yogurt batter and mix into the cocoa mixture. Set aside.

Use a large spoon to fill the bottom of the pan with about three quarters of the white batter placed in dollops. Cover the white batter with dollops of chocolate batter. Top the chocolate batter with small dollops of white batter spaced so that the chocolate batter shows through. Use a table knife to marble the batters together with a circular or zigzag motion; be careful not to blend them too much. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted in comes out clean.

Cool for 10-15 minutes on a rack. Unmold the cake. Cool completely before serving or storing.

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A light summer lunch

As much as I love to eat, I find myself skipping lunch most of the days. Not that I am trying to go on a diet, although I probably should, judging from my escalating weights. The actual reason though, is because I snack all the time! There's always cookies, muffins, tarts or cakes lying around. There's no real incentive to make lunch for myself. Not even a simple sandwich.

I am simply too lazy to make myself lunch. Last week however, after flipping through the April 2007 Gourmet magazine, I found myself craving for one of the recipe - the shrimp and mango salad with glass noodles. Other than the basil that the recipe required, I had everything on hand. So, I got up and make myself this light summer lunch. Obviously, I have a soft spot for anything that has mango and shrimp in it.

After making the salad exactly the way the recipe described (except that I replaced flat leaves parsley for basil), I find it to be unbearably pungent and soury. Too much vinegar! Some adjustment was required. I added sugar, but it didn't help much. Perhaps I could add the avocado that had been sitting forlornly in the fridge for a long time? With a stroke of luck, the creaminess of the avocado saved the fate of the miserable salad. At least it was edible after that. And I happily devoured my plate of summer salad in front of other yummy blogs. Secretly hoping that I could sneak into their kitchen and steal some of the fantastic leftover for lunch instead....



Shrimps and Mango Salad with Glass Noodles
adapted from Gourmet April 2007

4 ounces very thin bean thread noodles (also known as cellophane, glass, or mung bean noodles)
1 pound cooked, peeled, and deveined medium or large shrimp
1 large mango (1 pound), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 scallions, thinly sliced crosswise
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil (I used chopped flat leaf parsley)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh serrano or jalapeño chile, including seeds, or to taste
1/3 cup rice vinegar (not seasoned)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Cover noodles with boiling-hot water in a large bowl and let stand 8 minutes.
Drain noodles in a colander and rinse with cold running water. Drain well, then return to bowl.

While noodles are soaking, combine shrimp, mango, scallions, basil, and chile in another large bowl.

Stir together vinegar, sugar, and salt in a measuring cup until sugar is dissolved, then toss half of sauce with noodles and half with shrimp salad.

Serve noodles topped with shrimp salad.

Note: I add one chopped avocado to the salad.

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Change is in the Air....

Indeed. Change is inevitable, and hopefully for the better. If you have been here before, you would remember me as the "novice baker". That was my identity when I started this blog almost 2 years ago. The time when I knew zero about baking, and cautiously taking my baby steps to learn to bake and cook in a foreign land.

Two years has passed. It wasn't a long time, but it was neither a short time. I made some silly mistakes and threw away some inedible concortions along the way, but more importantly I learned not to do things in certain ways. Like whisking cold egg white in the mixer? No, it will not rise, and certainly it will never triple in volume.

I love to eat. I am constantly hunting for good food. And when I am not eating, I am probably dreaming or thinking of what to eat the next second. But I wasn't a cook, neither was I a baker. When I was staying in the food paradise where good foods are abundant and affordable, cooking was the last thing I wanted to do. The pleasure of eating good food the moment you craved for it is immensely gratifying.

I learned to cook and bake when I first moved to St Louis, to join my husband (aka OCT) in his last year of grad school. Leaving a corporate job and having all the time that I once lacked, I started to discover the pleasure of cooking and baking. A craft that I never had the chance to learn as a kid. Actually the opportunity was always there, since my mum was a good baker herself. But I chose to chase after other frivolous pursuits.

Joining OCT in St Louis means we will have more quality time together, after going on a long distant relationship for 4 years. But it also means we have to live within a tight budget, since I no longer have the dispensable income. Naturally, eating out is no longer a luxury we can afford as frequent as we would love. But I. Love. To. Eat! So, in order to feed my eating enthusiasm, I started cooking and baking. I bake everything and anything I crave, from Chocolate Cake to Cheesecake, as long as I can find a reliable recipe.

So this is how it begins. A blog is started to record my adventure and misadventure in my tiny kitchen. The place where I spend my happiest time as well as the most frustrated time (when the white eggs didn't triple).

Novice baker was an anonymous identity I used for almost 2 years now. It was a perfect excuse I used when something didn't turn out the way it should. "Because, I am a novice baker". Two years of trials and errors and more bittersweet experiments in the kitchen later, I am a better cook and baker now. Though there are still a whole universe of culinary wisdom awaiting me. I will keep learning, cooking, baking and make mistakes if that's what it takes to make me a better cook. But for now, I just want to introduce myself.

My name is Mandy, and I will be your hostess here. I hope you will be entertained by my adventure in the kitchen, and I look forward to know you, my guest a little better. Comments and suggestions are always welcome.

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Triple S pasta

Friends, I have some good news to share! After enduring a long period of vacation-less time, we are finally going to visit OCT's friend in Phoenix end of this week! While we are there, we will be going on a little road trip to Grand Canyon too. But before we go, I need to clear the content of my fridge. There are too many fresh produce I bought on impulse in our last trip to the farmer's market. Which I optimistically thought we would be able to gobble down by this Thursday.

You know what, sometime a little stress is good. It makes me creative. Instead of searching through piles of recipes to see if there is one using all the produces I have, I simply fire up the stove and started cooking without a recipe.


And I must say both OCT and myself are pretty satisfied with the end result! Then again, with the freshest ingredients on hand, how wrong can a dish turned out?

I decided to jot down the recipe so that when I am strucked with the same fresh ingredients in the future, which is highly likely, I will know exactly what to do with them. If you happen to have the same stuff in your fridge right now and don't know what to do with them, I encourage you to give this a try. Not that I think this scenario is remotely likely, but here's the recipe anyway.

Quite pleased with my creation, I am also submitting my triple S pasta to Ruth's Presto Pasta Night #15. Check out Ruth's blog and the round-up of Presto Pasta Night #15 this Friday for more pasta ideas!

Spicy Sausage and Shrimp Pasta

Half pound of sausage, I happen to have some salsiccia, so that's what I used
10 medium size shrimps, shelled and deveined
1/2 vidalion onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 can(16oz) diced tomato
1/2 teaspoon sambal chilli (or any other hot sauce)
3 small sweet peppers, seeded and sliced
8 oz campanelle
1/2 cup of red wine
salt
pepper
brown sugar
1/2 cup grated pecorino cheese (you can use parmesan or Parmigiano- Reggiano )

Heat about 3 tablespoon of oil in a non-stick skillet, add in the onion and garlic. Stir and cook until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Next, add in the sliced sweet peppers and continue to cook for 2 minutes or until the peppers are soft.Then add the sausages,pinch them out from the casings to about 1-inch pieces, turn heat to medium high. Cook until the sausages are no longer pink. This will take another 5 to 7 minutes.

Meanwhile cook the campanelle according to the direction on box until al-dente and drain.

When the sausages are cooked, add in shrimps. Followed by the diced tomatoes and sambal chilli and bring it to a simmer. At this point, you can season the sauce with a teaspoon of brown sugar, salt and pepper. Taste the sauce, go easy with the salt. It's easier to adjust the saltiness later. Pour in the red wine. Again, it's to your taste. You can add more, or less, or omit it altogether. Give the sauce about 1 minute to boil off some of the alcohol.

Pour the cooked campanelle into the skillet and mix well with the sauce. Stir in the grated pecorino cheese.

Serves 3

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Friday Treats: Cold & Snowy Cupcakes

Summer hasn't officially begun, but the heat has already made me missing the cold winter and snow! Yes, I know I am weird. Maybe because I am never a sunny girl (I prefer to stay in shade whenever possible) and swimming is definitely not my thing (in fact, I am aqua-phobic), so I feel quite awkward when summer approaches. Especially so when shops start displaying bikinis on their windows, and people start talking about going to beaches more often than any other time of the year. I can only nod, but feel sorry that I can't share the same enthusiasm for summer. The only reason I like summer, I guess, is the arrival of juicy sweet summer fruits!!!!

Would you be shocked if I tell you I come from Sabah, a beautiful place surrounded by sea and beautiful islands? It is a secluded little place that not many tourists know. If you have been following The Survivor, one season was recorded in a place called Pulau Tiga, not too far from where I stay. Isn't that cool? The place was promptly turned into a tourist attraction. Despite of the abundance of beautiful beaches, I never picked up swimming, and would rather sit under a shady place to drink coconut juice and eat Satays while the rest of my friends went for a dip in the sea. That is my ideal of beach outings. I would kindly agree to look after their belongings.

Anyway, let's talk about the food-related stuff. While searching for ideas on what to make for OCT's Friday lab meeting, I decided to go back to my favorite "Barefoot Contessa" and make one recipe from it. I chose the coconut cupcakes, which Ina also included a large cake version in her latest book. I wanted to make cupcakes, because they are easier to eat in the meeting.


Like the rest of the Barefoot Contessa recipes, the coconut cupcakes are nice. But to be perfectly honest, I secretly hoped that the coconut flavor can be more distinct. Ina's coconut cupcakes get their coconut flavor solely from the shredded coconut, which I find not sufficient to impart the quintessential coconut taste I am after. Of course taste is something highly subjective. And people have different preference. OCT tried the coconut cupcakes and find the flavor to be perfectly balanced. The rest of his colleagues are divided into two camps. Those who tried like it, the one who didn't, refused to eat because there is no chocolate in it. And his name is Shaun. A funny guy that has been eating whatever I baked except this coconut cupcake. In the spirit of experiments, I may try to replace some of the buttermilk with coconut milk next time and see if the flavor can be further enhanced.


One of the reasons for making these cupcakes, is because they reminds me of the snow in winter! And the cold that follows. Maybe it's the heat, I wasn't my usual logical self the day I made these cupcakes. I started singing "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" while sprinkling the coconut flakes on the cupcakes.....


Coconut Cupcakes
adapted from Barefoot Contessa's Cookbook

3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 extra-large eggs at room temperature (I used 3 large eggs for a half recipe)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
14 ounces sweetened, shredded coconut

For the frosting:
1 pound cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioners' sugar, sifted

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In 3 parts, alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in 7 ounces of coconut.
Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Fill each liner to the top with batter. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a baking rack and cool completely.
Meanwhile, make the frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on low speed, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla and almond extracts. Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth.
Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with the remaining coconut.

Note: I halved the recipe, and made 13 stardard size cupcakes. The frosting eventhough halved was still aplenty. Consider halving the frosting even when you are making a full batch of cupcakes.They are more than enough)

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We eat dinner too!

I just realised that I haven't been posting our daily dinners for some time now. Well, in case you wonder, we eat dinner too! More often than not, they revolve around rice as the main source of carbohydrate.

I don't post about them nowaday simply because they are all simple dishes, and I wonder if people will cover their mouth to conceal a chuckle if I even post the recipe up. Anyway, I guess I will just upload some photos to record what we have been eating, without the recipes.

To a large extend, what we have for dinners depend on what are on sale at the grocery store for that particular week. I think it makes sense to buy pork tenderloin when it's three dollar per pound while on sale rather than five dollar per pound at other time. Same goes to chicken, beef and other stuff.

We also find that going to Chinese grocery store helps to stretch our money further. Fresh prawn for example, is two dollar cheaper per pound than the usual store we go to. So are some of the staples required in a Chinese pantry. Of course they also have the Pocky and prawn crackers that I can't find any where else.

There's one down side though. This means I seldom have the opportunity to try the more fanciful recipe. Well, theoretically I could, because cooking at home is still much cheaper than eating out. But I have enough recipes to keep me occupied than worry about the more exquisite recipes involving expensive ingredients.

Insteads of thinking about fanciful recipes, I am more interested to find ways to transform the leftovers into another meal. After a night of eating baked curry drumsticks with roasted veggies, I used the leftover chicken and rice to make curry baked rice. That is a balanced meal for the next night.

We even have enough as OCT next day's lunch!

Actually, it's enough as his lunch for two consecutive days. Luckily he isn't a picky eater and certainly won't complain about eating the same thing over and over again . Who knows a three dollar pack of drumsticks and some rice can stretch our meals so far?

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Sable au Citron

Lemon is my second favorite food after chocolate. Tell me a good lemon recipe, I will surely replicate it in my kitchen the second I get off the chair. Such was the occasion when I came across this recipe from fellow lemon lover Mary's blog.

I initially saw a similar recipe also by the talented Dorie Greenspan, in her latest book, but have promptly forgotten about it after setting my mind on the Lemon Cream Tart. Now that I see it on Mary's blog again, I take it as a call from the meyer lemon goddess that this is where my precious meyer lemon zest should go.


Because the full recipe makes 50 cookies, I decided to make only a few pieces for myself, just to nibble with my cup of coffee in the afternoon, while keeping the rest of the dough in the freezer. For my future lemon crave attack.


These buttery cookies have lemon zest dispersed all over them are simply the best lemon cookies I have tasted. Eventhough this recipe isn't exactly light, one can easily been deceived by its delicate crumb. Feeling the melt in your mouth goodness, it is almost impossible to stop at one. Of course if you do not like lemon, that will be a different story. On the other hand, it may be a good way to introduce lemon to non-lemon eater. (anyone not liking lemon out there?) Though lemony, this cookie is not as tart as a lemon tart, which I know some people dislike.

I am glad that there's still a long dough of sable au citron tugged safely in my freezer.

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Ligurian Lemon Cake

Finally, I convinced myself to get up from the comfort of my little corner and start making something from Pierre Herme's book. Eventhough I would really love to eat the many luscious creations from this book, creating them myself is quite another thing. And not a small feat, I must add.

For instant, the Melody, which I flipped open randomly, requires a 24 hours preparation of apples as its first step. Not to mention that this is just one of its many components. "Can you do it?" "Are you sure you want to do it?" are the questions I keep asking myself. For the lack of skills and confidence, I keep putting off my plan to bake from this book.

What pulled me up from the same chair I am currently sitting was the bag of meyer lemon I bought 2 weeks ago. Some of them ended up in the form of my favorite scones, some in the amazingly tender Sable au Citron, some in the lemon cream and some in the madeleine. The final two looked a bit past their prime and threaten to rot if I still don't know what to do with them. Since I am not one of those who are lucky to have a Meyer lemon tree in the garden, nor have a grocery store that sell them all year round, it's not everyday that I can be so fortunate to have a bag of meyer lemon in my refrigerator. So, you must understand why I am being so prudent when it comes to using these little gems. Can you tell from my serious tone that I am a lemon lover?

Anyway, I digress. There's a recipe from Pierre Herme's book that involved lemon and easy to make. I decide to start my adventure of "Pierre Herme's Desserts" here. I even bought a tiny pint of fresh raspberries that was required in the recipe. A big deal, because it's an expensive ingredient after the cocoa powder and cocoa nibs.

Because of my mood of loving everything small at the moment, I decided to make them in my muffin pan rather than in a 10-inch springform pan as stated in the recipe, which I don't have anyway. Turned out that the recipe can make more than 12 little cake because mine came out half inch taller than the mold after baked.

The Ligurian Lemon Cake wasn't the most lemony cake I have tasted, but it was pretty good after resting overnight in the oven. A nice addition to the dessert tray when it's tea time. Although the Ligurian Lemon Cakes can be served unadorned, but I prefer the meringue topped version. It added an element of elegance to the little cakes, although mine didn't turn out the way they should.

A word of caution: Frost the cake on the day you intend to serve it (if you decided to give it a try). The frosting will soften after one day, because this is a moist cake. It will still taste nice, only not so appealing to the eyes.



Ligurian Lemon Cake
adapted from Desserts by Pierre Herme

For cake:
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more, room temperature, for pan
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup granulated sugar
Zest of 2 lemons, very finely chopped (I used meyer lemon)
4 large eggs, room temperature
3 tablespoons milk, room temperature (I used 2 tablespoons of cream and 1 tablespoon of water)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, (about 1/2 lemon)
2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 pint fresh raspberries

For Meringue (optional):
1 large egg white
1 cup granulated sugar
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Mixed berries, such as raspberries, strawberries, or blueberries (optional)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees; with rack in center. Butter a 10-inch round cake or springform pan, dust with flour, and tap out any excess. (I used a 12-cups muffin pan)

In a large bowl, sift flour and baking powder; set aside.Place sugar and lemon zest in the bowl of an electric mixer; rub the ingredients together between your fingers until the sugar is moist, grainy, and has absorbed as much of the zest as possible. Return bowl to mixer.

Using the whisk attachment, beat in eggs on medium high until the mixture is pale and thick, about 3 minutes. With the mixer on lowest speed, beat in milk. Add reserved flour mixture; beat until incorporated. Add lemon juice, melted butter, and olive oil; beat until blended.

Pour about one third of the batter into the prepared pan; there should be just enough batter to form a thin, even layer. Arrange the raspberries on top of the batter. Pour the remaining batter over the raspberries, and use a rubber spatula to gently spread batter so that it runs down between the berries and just covers them (you’ll have a very thin top layer of batter).

Bake cake until it’s golden and pulling away from the sides of the pan, and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 33 minutes. (about 20-25 minutes for small cakes)

Remove the cake from the oven, and immediately unmold it onto a wire rack. Invert cake so it is right side up, and allow to cool to room temperature. Once cooled, the cake is ready to serve or to decorate with meringue.

Meringue topping (optional):
Preheat oven to 475 degrees; with rack in the center. Place the cooled cake on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and set aside.

In the clean, dry bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg white until it holds soft peaks. Add granulated sugar in a slow, steady stream; continue beating until firm, glossy peaks form.

Using a metal icing spatula or a spoon, immediately spread the meringue over the top of the reserved cake. Dust the meringue with confectioners’ sugar.

Bake the cake until lightly browned, 4 to 6 minutes. Garnish the cake with the mixed berries, if desired, and serve.

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TGIF!

Yay! Thank God It's Friday. Although I no longer work now and can sleep till whatever time I want (theoretical, I normally wake up once OCT's up), I still look forward to weekends. We have been going to the cute Italian neighbourhood called The Hill for the past weeks, so it's very likely that we will make a trip there AGAIN tomorrow! Hooray to more toasted ravioli and cannoli! It has somehow become our weekend tradition now, taking over the picnic that we once love.

To spread my Friday happiness to people around me, I made a slightly more laborous cake for OCT's Friday lab meeting to wish his colleagues a "Happy Friday!" Although it's a bit silly, I can't content myself but to show the rest my enthusiasm about Friday!


I made a chocolate dacquoise cake that involved the making of a devil's food cake, 2 pieces of 9-inches chocolate meringue discs and a batch of chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. It could easily use up a whole day to put this cake together. Luckily for me, I had the meringue discs made few weeks ago. It was a Pierre Herme's recipe which I have initially intended to use for a mousse cake. But I change my mind on the last minute, like I always do. And make a Chocolate Dacquoise Cake from Tish Boyle's The Cake Book. So far, I only made a Cheesecake Brownie from this book since I got it as Christmas present.

Maybe this is not entirely Tish Boyle's recipe, because I made some modifications. It consists Pierre Herme's Chocolate meringue and Martha Stewart's chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. Confession time: I have always shy away from "temperature sensitive reaction'. Such as heating up eggwhite in a water bath until it reaches 160C. The temperature always hit 150C and refused to climb any further. Which made me mad and tired (from the constant whisking), and wonder if my thermometer is working. But once it gets past that stage, it's really satisfying to see the white being whisked magically into a pillowy marshmallow-like cream.

Oh I digress. I wanted to tell you about the chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. I used the recipe from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook simply because it yields lesser buttercream (4 cups of buttercream instead of 5 cups, as in The Cake Book). And used 1 stick of butter less. Still a total of 3 sticks of butter (almost a pound!!!) went into the buttercream which I later generouslly spread on the cake....I am all too glad to cut a tiny little piece to sample (aka quality control/assurance) before sending it off to OCT's lab.

ok, I know I should have cut an even smaller piece than this......

The cake has an intriguing texture, thanks to the 3 different components. The moist and intensely chocolate devil cake paired well with the chewy meringue and smooth buttercream. I especially like the devil's food cake, and wouldn't mind to make it again with other fillings. I think this is my favorite so far, after trying this and this.

Maybe it has been quite some time since I last made something nice for the lab, the cake was indeed very well received. A colleague asked OCT if he was going to bring the leftover home because she wanted to have a slice for dessert after dinner. Well, bless her! I can't be happier when people offered to polish up this cake!

What do you think of Chocolate Dacquoise Cake for breakfast? For me, I would rather choose bagel or scone or muffin or simply a cup of coffee........

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