Kitchen Unplugged

Happy 2012

2012-01-22T15:15:00.000-08:00

I never forget my blog, and every of you! I did involve a couple of projects but that couldn't stop me... until the examination (of my language school) came. I have been in Spain long enough but I didn't put any effort to learn the language. I am really feeling ashamed. So unwillingly, I had to leave my blog for a while in order to focus my studies.

Long before the exam, once I worked as a food stylist to a photo-shooting. The work was intense, but it wasn't the hardest part. How to be a good team player is a challenging though, especially something about art... the people are usually very subjective; plus, 'idea' this thing is completely abstract, finding words to discuss it is painful. So after many moments of mind-bleeding, lip numbing and spirit-murdering, I tried to set out something, and finally heard the photographer said, 'Ahh! THAT's what I want!!!' ***Firework***

These two photos are the reject, but I really love them. Hope you enjoy these little pieces of 'me' here.

Happy 2012! And to all Chinese fellows, Happy Lunar New Year!

Pomegranate & Pearl Sago Dessert with Chewy Coconut

2011-10-09T09:05:00.000-07:00

It is the best time to enjoy fruit, so many choices, so many colors and so many flavors! If you get tired of having fruit cockfruit for dessert, this one with exotic pearl sago would be a nice surprise. I particularly make some chewy coconut cookies to go with it, use it instead of spoon to scoop that sticky yummy fruity sago to mouth ... sorry I can't talk now as am too busy in eating.

For the recipe I will post it on my Spanish blog.

Bread with Sardine & Garlic Spread

2011-09-24T06:21:00.000-07:00

I was reading the boxes of canned sardine. An old fellow came by, just like me, was looking for a good one. He probably lived alone, or had extra time to spend, so he started a long conversation about sardines ...

I suddenly remember my grandpa, who chose to live alone for many years. When I visited him, I also loved checking his cupboard to see any left-over food for me to pick :) :) They're usually a few anchovies or canned sardines. "Uh-ooooh..." people may give out a sympathetic sign once they hear the word "canned". But look at this way, it's reflecting his fuss-free life style. Canned sardine doesn't taste like the fresh one for sure, but it has its own taste and it can be absolutely delicious. Quite often I have a craving for that taste.

In this recipe, using canned sardine is certainly better!

We'll make some fresh sardines when we're ready for mingle next time, ok?!

To make Bread with Sardine & Garlic Spread, you will need:

Country bread, sliced, and slightly toasted
Slow-roasted garlic until the flesh is completely soft
Top quality canned sardine, drained well
optional: paprika/ red peppercorns/ spices

Remove the garlic skin, generously spread the flesh on a slice of bread. Then either you mash the sardine to paste, or use it as-is, put the fish on the top, sprinkle some spice to finish

Lemon Chickpea Pastry

2011-09-16T04:55:00.000-07:00

"Moon cake" (a molded pastry that we make/eat to celebrate the full moon in the mid-autumn in China), in general, has a tender crust with some moist and sweet filling. It is supposed to be rich; a small piece goes a long way, and the pastries aren't cheap anyway. In the old days, my family could only afford one or 2 boxes (four pastries per box) for us to eat, and a couple boxes more to give to our very close relatives.

Few days ago my friend put up some photos of mooncakes to Facebook. I gasped when I saw all that packaging... besides of the traditional plastic pack, wax paper and paper carton, an individual metal tin is made to just hold one pastry, then a few pastries/tins again are placed into a bigger tin. The tins are gold color, with sand-blashed mat finish and spectacular printing...

When the pastries gone, so as those tins (straight to the dumpster)... the earth is already beyond exhausted.

The food manufacturers probably add an extra dose of preservatives and additives in order to prolong the life span of the pastries, to go with the longer marketing campaign or whatsoever...

Can I just have one simple pastry? I don't eat metal, or plastic, or chemcial.

Want a beautiful pastry? You need nothing except your creativity, your hands and time. Additives-and preservatives-free. Environmental-friendly.

The crust intends to be buttery, using a top-quality of butter (Danish and Irish ones are my fav) is a must! Especially there is no egg in the recipe, the taste of butter is THE shinning star then. And about the filling, I used chickpea so as to mimic the texture of lotus seed paste (a popular filling for "moon cake") although its flavor is from cocina nova.

Recipe of the shortbread crust (for 10 tart shells) : 110g premium-quality of butter 150g regular flour a pinch of salt (if your butter has no salt) 1/4 cup powder sugar optional: cut fruit and egg wash

Soften the butter (not melting), beat it until it looks pale and fluffy, well combine with the powder sugar, flour and salt. You may add 1 tbp of flour if it looks too wet (but not too much otherwise the crust turns dry and brittle). Let it rest in fridge for a few hours so as to relax the gluten and also to ease the shaping since the dough is slightly firm.

Recipe of the chickpea filling: 200g cooked chickpeas (from jar with water, drained well), juice from half lemon, zest from 1 lemon, 1/4 - 1/2 cup powder sugar (sweetness to taste), 1/4 - 1/2 cup cream cheese.

Puree the chickpeas with the lemon juice, well combine with the lemon zest, powder sugar and the cream cheese.

To assemble the tarts:

Grease a tart shell and line it with a thin layer of dough, spoon in the chickpeas filling. If you make an open-face tart, arrange some cut fruit on top to avoid the filling dries up too quick during baking
If you want to make a molded pastry, you have to do more control on the (chill) temperature of the dough, because if the dough gets soft (as warm), it will stick to the mold. For molded pastry, please egg wash the pastries after unmolded.
Pre-heat oven to 325C. Bake the pastries about 25 minutes.

Fig & goat cheese filled sesame tartlet

2011-09-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

Fig + dairy, they fit to any meal in a day.

Fig and plain yoghurt for breakfast.

Fig and soft cheese on open-sandwich (like this) for lunch.

Fig and aged cheese for dessert ...

... how about some fig-n-cheese tarts for between-meal as well!

Even I only had less than an hour to make (and photo-shot) these tartlets, I know the method is fool-prove and the result's stunning. What you need:

Mini tart shell tray, pre-greased with butter
Rolling pin
Round cookie cutter
White sesame seeds
Sliced bread
Fresh fig, cut up
Aged goat cheese, premium quality is a must
Honey
Fresh herb

Sprinkle generous amount of sesame seeds on work table, roll a slice of bread on it. Cut out the bread to a circle and place it into a tart shell.
Bake the tart shells in a medium-hot oven for a minutes or two. Let the bread cools off inside the tray.
Assemble the tartlets only by the time when it's ready to serve. Fill the tarts with fig and cheese, drizzle some honey and place some herb to finish.

Lemon & Chrysanthemum Bars

2011-08-29T03:46:00.000-07:00

Chrysanthemum is widely used in Chinese cuisine. When I make tea I always add a small handful of dried one (the species C. morifolium ) in it. Besides of giving it a lovely aroma, chrysanthemum supposes to be able to subside the "heatingness" of body specially during the hot weather. Last week the weather in Barcelona was unbelievably hot and dry, pretty much like roasting myself in a hot oven. I felt a bit sick, but I knew that an extra vitamin C and chrysanthemum shall be doing me good. Then I was thinking of make this version of lemon bars.

I've tasted some other lemon bars whose top pudding is buttery (and soft), which is divine, but this time of the year I really want something much lighter. This version of mine is tart, refreshing and (slightly) firm (to touch). You can re-adjust the amount of sugar, the flour and baking time to suit your own liking.

Recipe of Lemon & Chrysanthemum Bars
For the bottom layer, you can use your favorite shortbread crust's recipe. I've added 1 Tbp of ground fresh ginger into it too.
For the top layer (for the pan size of 25 x 15 cm):

1/2 cup of regular white sugar
1/2 cup of powder sugar
2 eggs
160 ml of fresh lemon juice (2 - 3 lemons)
1 Tbp of lemon zest
3 Tbps of flour
3 dried chrysanthemum, use the petals only
1/2 cup of low-fat milk

After the crust's dough is made, roll/ press a thin layer in the (lined with baking paper and leave two sides overhang) pan. Bake for about 15 minutes in a pre-heat oven of 350C. Take out the pan and set aside while you're preparing the pudding. Leave the oven on but lower the temp to 325C.
Mix the eggs and the regular white sugar for a few minutes. Then add lemon juice, lemon zest, powder sugar and the flour. Stir well. In the very last minutes, stir in milk and the flower petals. Immediately pour the mixture into the pan.
Bake the pie in a medium hot oven (about 325C) for approx. 25 minutes or until it sets. I prefer mine slight firmer, so I turn off the oven and let it sit for another 5 minutes.
Remove the pie from the oven and let it completely cools off inside the pan. Carefully lift up the baking paper's overhang and remove the pie from the pan. Now you can cut it to your preferred size.
Feel free to decorate the lemon bars with more dried flowers and lemon zest. Sprinkle more powder sugar if you like it sweeter.

Cupcake with rose infused frosting

2011-08-20T04:43:00.000-07:00

I am terribly sorry not to inform you guys why I had been absent for so long. In mid June I took a trip to New Jersey but since I left in a such a hurry, I couldn't leave you a note...

Now I am seeing some comments from old friends and new visitors stuck in my Blogger account and not being published, apologize! And I will be reading each of them, one by one!

Many Chinese cooking, baking and beverage use flowers, which are mostly dried. I grew up with eating (or drinking) lily and chrysanthymum. I'd love to try fresh flowers more often if I had my own garden one day though... while I am still dreaming about it, let me present you these cupcakes, frosted with cream cheese and home-made rose syrup. (recipe to follow soon)

The Smallest Strawberry Shortcake

2011-05-26T05:04:00.000-07:00

This bamboo tube is very sturdy and can hold up quite many sticks, and the bamboo also give a natural look to the presentation.

... ... I've ever made.

I had been one party that the hotel's chefs made the desserts very very small. I guess since the desserts were served throughout the whole party time (love it!), they were considered as gourmet hors d'oeuvres as well, thus the tiny portion couldn't stuff us up too soon. Tiramisu, mousse or cheesecake was able to fit into a doll's cup; they all were so adorable that I almost couldn't bear to eat them.... almost!

Tomorrow I am hosting a gathering in my small apartment, so now am trying this teeny-weeny shortcake. Each cake is hold up by a long stick before putting into a bamboo tube. I can actually put quite many sticks into one tube, this way also solves the space problem. And to save time, just get store-bought mini cookies and use them as the shortcake (mine is mini Chips Ahoy! :) :)

To make my smallest strawberry shortcake, you will need:

mini cookies, like Chips Ahoy!
Whipped cream
strawberry
fresh herb for garnish
long sticks and a bamboo tube for presentation

First, freeze the mini cookies for a few hours. Use a very sharp knife (with a fine tip) to dig out a small hole from the cookies' bottom. Pipe the cream into the hole, top with diced strawberry, garnish with fresh herb. Gentle poke a stick to the top (now is bottom) of the cookie. Place quite a few of sticks into a tube and make it like a bouquet. Whipped cream may lose the stability in a hour. If you want to make the shortcake a few hours ahead, you can replace with cream cheese, and glaze the fruit with diluted apricot jam. Keep in fridge, uncover, until you serve.

The bamboo tubes are supplied by Restaurantware

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Tortilla (Home-made) Pizza Cone

2011-05-19T23:30:00.000-07:00

The pizzas are put inside pine wood cone/ bamboo cone, and set them up with a bamboo stand

Thanks to Facebook, I have a chance to see my good friend Anthony from the photos he posted. He has tons of cocktail parties to attend. Almost in every photo he is holding a glass of wine... I know him though, he doesn't drink.

And the kids, if they aren't not holding an ice-cream, then would be a plastic microphone... Maybe, we all love something in a cone shape?!?

How about in the next party we serve these mini pizza cones? I am sure from toddlers to adults no one can resist! And they won't make a mess like sliced pizza when people walk around with it at hand.

The pizza base/cone is actually a home-made tortilla bread. Once you taste the home-made, you won't go back to the commerically manufactured! The traditional/classic tortilla has lard or vegetable shortening in it, but since olive oil is so famous and superb in this country, I see why not to use it instead. The bread might lose the authenic fluffy texture, but use it as a pizza base I think it is absolutely acceptable. Making it to a cone isn't complicated at all, and I am showing you how we achieve it just with a couple of simple things.

Recipe of Home-made Tortilla Bread

(yield 12 tortillas, in a diameter of 7 inches/ 18 cm)

450g strong flour, premium quality
2 Tbps olive oil
1 - 2 tsp/s of salt
approx 180ml of water

Well combine all the above ingredients, knead about 3 minutes, the dough should feel moist but not sticky.
Divide the dough to 12 portions (each weights about 70g). Roll each to a circle with a thickness of 3 mm.
Pre-heat a large non-adhesive skillet, without adding oil, cook dough over medium to high heat for a minute, then cook the other side for a minute or less. Stack the cooked tortilla together in order to let the steam keep them moist. Serve warm.
They freeze well too. After they cool off, separate each tortilla with a piece of plastic film, seal the stack of bread tightly, go to the freezer.

Fasten the cone with a toothpick, remove it after baking

Place the cones on a rack. Like this rack is readily available at most Asian grocery stores (we normally use it for steaming).

To assemble the pizza cones, you will need:

some tortilla bread (one bread yields 3 to 4 cones)
thick pizza sauce
your favorite topping/s, e.g olive, onion, or ham
mozzarella
parmesan cheese and fresh herb for garnish
some toothpicks
a metal rack (see the photo above)

Cut a tortilla bread to 3 to 4 equal slices. Take one slice, close its two cut sides together and fasten with a toothpick, a cone is formed. Repeat to the rest.
Gently push little mozzarella to the cone's bottom (to stop the sauce leak too much during baking), then fill the pizza sauce and olive/onion/ham/etc to the top, sprinkle some mazzarella.
Place the cones between two wire of the rack. If the space is too large, you can push a long toothpick through the cone and let the both ends of the toothpick rest on the wire.
Bake the cones in a pre-heat oven 180C for 5 - 10 minutes.
Remove all the toothpicks, garnish with fresh herb and parmesan, serve immediately.

Pine wood/bamboo cones and the cone stand supplied by Restaurantware

Munchkin Devil Eggs (Guilt-free)

2011-05-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

Skewer the munchkin eggs with a braided pick and serve them on a bamboo canoe, they instantly bring an elegant style to your party table.

Egg is a very nutritional food, with its adorable appearance, devil egg becomes a popular appetiser. But the classic devil egg contains mayonnaise or salad dressing (usually more than 1 teaspoon in an half egg) which is entirely empty calorie, plus the cholesterol already inside the yolk, this appetiser can be a real devil.

Take it in moderation?... I wish I always could, especially in a party, the chat's so fun the wine's so lovely, can I just free myself and not to count how many eggs I ate?

So I've made this guilt-free version: the filling is chickpeas in spicy tomato sauce, with a touch of pomegranate. The (cooked) yolk won't go wasted, you can save them for making cookies, or add in a creamy sauce or in a cake batter.

I'm totally fond of the tiny size of quail egg, use it instead of classic chicken egg, stick a few together with a decorative pick, no party lover can stop at one!

Bamboo canoes and braided picks are supplied by restaurantware

To make the spicy tomato and pomegranate sauce:

(to me the sauce made from both fresh and canned tomatos is more delicious than that just entirely from fresh or canned)

This recipe yields close to 1 cup of sauce which should be more than you need for making the egg's filling, so you can freeze the left-over or combine it with your regular sauce for pasta or pizza)

2 fresh and ripped tomatos, peeled and diced
190 g tomatos in can, drained well
a tsp of onion, minced
1 - 2 Tbp/s of tomato paste
paprika
2 Tbps pomegranate juice
veg oil

Drizzle little oil in a skillet, saute the onion over low heat for a minute, raise the heat a bit and add fresh tomato, canned tomato and tomato paste. Once the content is boiling, brings it to simmer for 15 minutes, you can add the pomegranate juice if it is too dry (but it shouldn't be too liquid-ty)
Turn off the heat, paprika (and may be very little salt) to taste. Let it cool off

To assemble Minchkin Devil Eggs

2 dozens of quail eggs (good enough for 6 persons as starter)
a handful of cooked chickpeas in jar, drain very well
spoonsfuls of tomato and pomegranate sauce
for garnish: fresh/frozen pomegranate seeds, celery stalks and flat parsley leaves

Boil the quail eggs for 7 minutes. Once they're done, soak them in cold water for 2 miutes. Then remove the shell, use a very sharp knife to cut eggs into two halves, remove the yolks.
Puree the chickpeas very well.
Puree the tomato sauce very well too. (easy for piping)
Combine the chickpeas and tomato sauce, the ratio is totally up to you: more chickpea more creamier; more sauce more color more moist (my fav!).
Spoon/pipe the filling into the egg white.
Use a peeler to get very thin celery slices (soak them in lemon water until you're ready to assemble) . Put it through a decorative pick, then stick one munchkin devil egg or 2, top the eggs with parsely and pomegranate seed. Serve immediately

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Feta, Cumin, Pea-Pica

2011-05-07T04:28:00.000-07:00

Decorate the cakes with a ball skewer and serve them on a bamboo coupelle, the presentation gives a special touch to your theme party.

"Picar" means "to nibble" in Spanish, so "pica pica" means finger food. I just love the sound of it so I also add "pica" this word when I named this feta, cumin & pea mini cake.

Fresh green pea is available in spring and the beginning of summer. It is sweet, juicy and tender, is one of the most delicious food on earth! Although the frozen pea is a totally different animal, you won't make a long face if you add some creative juice to the recipe :)

In this cake I use frozen pea, combine with feta cheese, cumin and sesame seeds, the flavor turns out incredible! To garnish with orange/lemon zests to create a stronger color-contrast, these cake are screaming, "eat me!"

The ball skewers and the coupelles are supplied by restaurantware

Recipe of Feta, Cumin and Pea-Pica

(yield 20 mini cakes, each 3cm in diameter, enough for 4 persons as finger food)

*I'm inspired by the recipe of Polpette di piselli con feta, which is published in Grandi fritti all'italiana, il meglio di Sale & Pepe, passioni 9*

300 g frozen pea of high quality
2 Tbps of feta cheese, crumble up
1 1/2 Tbps flour
1/2 tsp cumin seeds, crush them up finely
some sesame seeds
zest from tangerine/orange/lemon

Bring a pot of water to boil, simmer the peas for 2 minutes. Drain well.
Puree the pea, stir in feta, a good pinch of cumin and the flour. The mixture is paste-like.
Pour some sesame seeds on a large plate. Use 2 spoons to help (and moist your hand if necessary) to drop some pea mixture on the plate, and shape it to a small ball.
Heat oil (3 - 4 cm deep) to medium hot, fry the pea cakes. In the first 2 minutes the cakes start floating, continue to fry them for a couple minutes more, or until before they turn brown.
Use a slot spoon to remove the cakes, and place them on kitchen paper towel to absorb the excess oil. Sprinkle some orange/lemon/tangerine zest over to finish.

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White Chocolate Cheesecake

2011-05-05T05:05:00.000-07:00

Do you like to have cheese (yes just cheese, not cake) for dessert? I do.

Many years ago, I had a neighbor who's from Belgium that we're friend with, she loved to use our big kitchen (as her mother-in-law converted the kitchen to three bedrooms...) to cook for party. Everytime she had cheese for dessert, but I hadn't ever been influenced, I was still faithful to ice-cream, cakes, pies, etc.

But it just happens suddenly in this year... after a lovely meal at restaurant, my stomach is comfortably full but not stuff, feeling fruit being too light and cake being too overwhelming to round up the meal, so I have little cheese (which is usually cut into very thin, and accompanied with mamarlade-alike topping). That's exactly hit the spot!

Maybe next time I'll take some photos to the local cheese... and for this time, absolutely without a fuss, let me make non-bake cheese(cake), still delightful and super-easy to do. The dessert has high calories though, so takes it moderately, a small portion can go a long way.

Recipe for White Chocolate Cheesecake

(yield 4 small cups)

150 g white chocolate
120 g Light cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup low fat milk
1 1/2 tsps agar-agar powder
some organic strawberry, thinly slice
option: home-made shortbread cookies for the base

Slowly heat the milk and dissolve the agar-agar powder
Finely chop the white chocolate, and melt it over the double-boiler. Once it melts, remove from the heat and let it cool off a little bit
Well combine the white chocolate, cheese and agar-mixture.
Line 4 tea/coffee cups with cling wrap, place the strawberry slices around the sides, spoon in the cheese mixture.
Chill them for 5 hours. Place a cookie on a serving place, unmold the cheesecake, remove the plastic and put it above the cookie, garnish with more strawberry.

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Soft mini hamburger bun

2011-04-28T06:05:00.000-07:00

To make home-made bread very soft, we may add more water, cream, butter and/or egg as "softener". But they (except the water) taste a bit sweet and rich, to make coffee roll they are absolutely fine. Since I wanted hamburger bun, I got to think other more suitable "softener".

What about (white) cheese slice?! Could the taste be alright?!?

The result turns out wonderful :) The bread is real soft, you might even confuse that it's from store.

This type of cheese has no flavor, ironically hamburger bun doesn't need any cheese flavor, so it fits. There is one drawback though, the cheese contains conservatives, but not sure it would be a consolation to you if I tell you that 4 cheese slices can make over 30 mini buns, so each bread isn't that unhealthy, I think?!

Last week was the Easter's holidays, I took some kids out a lot. To save little money we packed our snacks, one of them was this 2-bite-size bun (we sandwiched with ham or cheese or just salad). To see these mini buns, their cutie lunch boxes, their little hands... I was a big woman wearing a big wide smile.

Recipe for Soft mini hamburger bun (yield over 30 mini buns)

800 g strong flour
25 g fresh yeast
4 white cheese slices
1 1/2 tsps salt
1 tsp sugar
1 Tbp veg oil
390+ ml water, lukewarm (the dough has to be a bit moist)
for topping: white sesames or poppy seeds
a few ice cubes

Directions:

Well-combine all the ingredients. Knead dough until it's smooth and elastic. The dough must be a bit moist, although not sticky to hand. Place the dough in a pre-greased large bowl, cover, let it rest in fridge for a few hours. It should double its volume.
Lightly dust the work table with little flour (or none at all if your dough doesn't stick), knead the dough about 30 times. Divide it into small portions (each weights 40 g). Cover them with a moist towel and rest until they return to room temperature.
Shape the doughs into small balls, then sprinkle the toppings, place them on large baking trays. Cover them with moist towel, let them rest until they increase the volume to almost double.
Pre-heat the oven to 190C. Throw in three ice cubes at the bottom of the oven, and immediately place the baking tray (bake one tray at a time) to the middle rack. Baking time should be less than 10 minutes. Tape the bottom of the bread if it sounds hollow, the bread is done. Repeat the same process to the next trays.
The bread is still soft on the next day (keep them in refridge). But I'd suggest, after they cool off, just freeze all of the left-over.

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Cheesecake in Chocolate Egg Shell

2011-04-15T04:48:00.000-07:00

I hope these photos give you a chuckle :):)

But in fact these days I feel very down. For those who have child/ren not sure if you feel the same way as me... when my kid is cheated by her friend, plus received some unfair comments from another mean kid, I rather is the one who gets hurt. I feel I am so helpless ... although she behave so calmly seems able to comfort to me a bit, or maybe, she doesn't feel as sad as me???

Then I opened her collection box and saw all these fluffy chicks, I laughed. Inspired by the soulful saying about turning lemon to lemonade, I decided to make these cheesecake "eggs".

What you need:

- Store-bought hollow chocolate eggs (an example)

- any of your favorite cheesecake recipe... we only do the filling part

- mini cupcake/muffin

Use a very sharp serrate knife to cut off the chocolate shell's top (empty the toy), spoon in some cheese pudding, drop the cake/muffin in the center. Decorate with tiny fluffy chickens.

Choco-jam-n-nut cookies

2011-04-06T03:16:00.000-07:00

Recently I prepared some theater costumes for kids. The theme was mix-n-match, something very colorful and overwhelming. In the beginning I wasn't sure if I could enjoy doing it as something too colorful isn't my style. After the job was done (there were many other people involved the work), in fact, that numerous colors, bold and contrast, seemed to be mindlessly put together but turned out to be very cheerful and pleasing.

Now I look at these colorful place mats which I never used, wouldn't be a good idea to put them together?! :)

I also made these cookies... the texture supposes to be crumbly (due to a high proportion of chopped nuts). There are many things going on here too: the dough is chocolate-y and super-nutty (I used three types of nuts), the filling is a little bit of fruit preserve. I don't create my own recipe, I searched a few of them from internet, then combined and improvise according to my liking.

Have fun!

Lots, & lots of breads...

2011-03-30T03:29:00.000-07:00

Front: Mediterrean rolls Left: Hongkong rolls

The dough requires longer time (and lower temperature) in fermentation actually giving me more flexibility.

One pair of hand. One oven. One morning. I have made lots and lots of bread for 45 people. I would like to share my experience in planning:

Days ahead I already did one dough (enough for half of the people), then freeze it. This bread should have high moisture (good for baking ahead and reheating), so I suggest focaccia or my "friday rolls".
The day before the "big" day, I defrozed the dough and baked the bread. After they completely cooled off, sealed them well and kept at fridge.
The night before the "big" morning, I did another dough but it was no-knead bread. I have to free myself more time for more important work instead of spending time on kneading. The dough was rest in fridge overnigh.
One the "big" day's morning, I baked the no-knead bread, reheated the rolls, (took photos :):) and packed.
One key, made all the bread into tiny rolls. For home oven, always bake one tray at a time, but the rolls are so small so take less than 10 minutes, therefore the next tray can go in quick.

I have made mediterrean rolls (with different flavors) and Hongkong green onion-n-ham rolls. You guess which the people like the best?

Weekend Delight - Assorted Macarons

2011-03-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

Macaron probably is the most favorite topic for food bloggers. May be it is so French... or so cute... or so challenging to make it perfect, it just gives us a lot to talk about.

But oh no, I don't make these. I am still worrying how I make bread for 50 persons in one morning (you know I don't have a mixer or bread machine). I will update you on that later.

This macaron comes with a flavor of: chocolate, coffee, strawberry, lemon and pistachio, made by Paul's, a popular French bakery in Barcelona.

Have a stress-free weekend!

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Basic Orange Sponge Cake

2011-03-11T03:42:00.000-08:00

Before I start, please note that I haven't made the cake perfect. I've missed out a step that caused lumps in my cake. However, the recipe is definitely a keeper as it's DELICIOUS.

I always like to observe what little kids like to eat. Their palates haven't spoiled yet. For cupcake, they actually scape out all gooey sugary frosty and only go for the cake. By the way, their little tongue can also detect if the eggs you used are fresh enough.

With this picture in my mind, I began to search for a recipe of an oldie-but-goodie Hongkong cake, it's called paper-cup (shape) sponge cake. All kids love it. Due to our eating culture, this sponge cake is more rich than that of European style. I'd say, ours is fairy similar to chiffon cake. For sure, it tastes beautifully and good enough to be a star of its own.

Last but not the least, only use super-fresh eggs for this recipe... your kids can tell :):)

Recipe of Basic Orange Sponge Cake

(yield 6 - 9 small cakes depending the size of your coffee/tea cup)

The originial recipe is called Hongkong Cupcake, written by Christine

5 super-fresh eggs, medium-sized
50 g butter, of premium quality
70 g sugar
130 ml fresh orange juice
optional: a tiny spoonful of (organic) orange zest
100 g cake flour
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Steps:

Boil the orange juice in a small pot, then simmer it for about 30 minutes until it comes down to 60 ml. Set aside.
Sift the flour twice (it is very important but I forgot to do it, my batter ended up with some lumps)
Melt the butter, set side.
Separate the egg whites from the yolks placing them into two different large bowls
Beat the egg yolks until it looks pale.
Well-combine the flour with orange juice, orange zest, melted butter and the yolks, set aside, and so let the flour have time to absorb the liquid. (my mistake, I did this step at the last minutes)
Line your coffee cup/ tea cup with baking paper. Pre-heat oven to 180 C
Beat the egg white with a pinch of salt and cream of tartar until it reachs soft-peak, gradually add sugar and continue to beat until it just before reaches stiff form.
Gently fold in the egg white into the flour mixture. Spoon the batter into the lined cups.
Bake cakes, depending their size, 20 - 25 minutes, or test with a toothpick, if it comes out clean the cakes are done then.

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Ricotta Tortellini & Brussels Sprout in Garlic Oil

2011-03-03T05:21:00.000-08:00

Bamboo boat and bamboo skewer & fork supplied by Restaurantware.com

Garlic, lots of garlic :)

My pantry always runs out of garlic. Local people always buy garlic. Bless me, so far I haven't attacked by a garlic-breath when I talk to anybody here.

Drizzle some oil in a skillet, throw in a lot of fresh garlic slices, now turn on the heat but keep it very low, saute the garlic for 2 minutes. Raise up the heat a little bit, saute the Brussels sprouts for 3 minutes, discard any garlic which got burnt. Add little vegetable stock and cook the Brussels sprout at medium heat for 2 minutes. Toss in cooked ricotta tortellini and cook for another minute. Sprinkle some chopped parsley leaves and grate hard cheese to finish.

Rose Chocolate Ganache

2011-03-01T04:31:00.000-08:00

I love chocolate: receiving it, eating it, and collecting it.

When I was a kid, I saved the chocolate wrapping foils that I ate and kept them in my books. There wasn't really a lot as back then food didn't come plentiful. And the most fancy chocolate I had probably was Ferrero Rocher.

Recently I like to collect flower-infused chocolates, like lavender, sumbucus and rose. Sometimes I'd wrap it with hand-made flower petal paper, place a small dried flower bouquet on top, give it to my best friends as a gift.

But more often the chocolate goes straight to my tummy :) :) Today I have time to elaborate it to an elegant petit four. I cooked the rose-infused chocolate with cream and butter, then poured into (store-bought) dark chocolate cups, topped with chocolate shavings, dried roses and almond chocolate stick to finish.

White plastic plate supplied by Restaurantware

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Chocolate-coated puffed rice

2011-02-27T09:17:00.000-08:00

Sharing runs in my family. Not just a nibble, if we get a sandwich, we happily give an half to our brothers or sisters.

So when I first knew my little niece who wouldn't share, I didn't know what to say. 'It's mine. You can get your own,' she said.

'If you share it, it tastes better!', I suggested. It's true to me.

She gave me some from hers. She probably did it to please me. I hope somedays she really finds it taste better :)

Bamboo cones supplied by Restaurantware.com

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Sun-dried Tomato, Onion & Olive Foccacia

2011-02-18T05:49:00.000-08:00

cut-up foccacia topped with cheese, tomato sauce and quail egg

When I first started making breads, to learn which and which requiring more/fewer proofings wasn't too confusing, but to accomplish a specific one did give me a headache.

During winter the daytime is short and cold. To make some easy buns (with one time proofing only) wasn't that easy though. In order to create an ideal temperature of 25 degrees for proofing, I had tried warming up an oven or placing a big bowl of hot water inside. Everything is do-able, but double the work wasn't fun.

Now I realize that the breads can be coming seasonal, yes, pretty much like fruit, good melon is found in summer and good tangerine in winter. For those easy buns or any others just requiring one quick shot of proofing, I do them in the summer then.

Now is in winter, my house isn't effectively heated, so is always staying cold, around 10 to 15 degrees, which is ideal for proofing various European style of loaves and this foccacia! Their doughs are fermented under a lower temperature for a longer time, some need more than 2 proofings. It could easily be a 2-day work, but in fact I have not much to do except ooh-aahing to see my bread slowly born.

One thing about foccacia, I used to wonder why only this bread has "dimples". After I made it many times, I know the dough generally very high in water content, therefore, it is too sticky and lumpy to shape. The best thing to do is just flopping it into a tray, use our moist fingers to press it flatter until it reaches the corners of the tray, so our fingers leave the dimple marks. Then the last question, to knead such a sticky dough by hand is easy or not? My answer can be yes since the dough is very tender, and can be no as we are very tempted to add too much flour. In the recipe I will share one trick or two on how to avoid the dough sticking to our hands.

If you are not making plain foccacia but adding some extra ingredients like mine, you may give extra time to proof the dough

Recipe of sun dried tomato, onion & black olive foccacia (yield two 13 x 8-inch-trays, or 16 servings)

200 g flour
170 ml water
5 g fresh yeast
820 + 100 g flour
20 g fresh yeast
2 tsp salt
20 ml extra virgin olive oil
30ml vegetable oil
430 ml water, lukewarm
for flavoring the bread, I used: 10 pcs of sun dried tomato, 3 tsps of black olive paste, 1/4 onion, and 2 tsps of dried oregano

Direction:

In a large bowl, stir to combine 200 g flour, 170 ml water and 5 g yeast. Cover, leave it in a very cool place (or the lowest shelf of refrigerator) for half day. It should almost triple to its volume.
In another very large bowl, use a wooden spoon stir to combine the yeast mixture from point 1, 820 g flour, 20 g yeast, 430 ml water, salt and the two oils. Place the 100 g of flour aside, you'll use it to dust the hands and table during kneading. Turn the dough on the table, knead it about 10 minutes. The dough is very soft and sticky. In order not to be tempted to add excessive flour (more flour, less moist interior of the bread), scrap the work table and your hands clean from time to time, and lightly dust the table and your hands often. Grease a very large bowl and a piece of plastic film, place the dough inside the bowl, cover with the plastic, proof in a cold place for a few hours.
Soak the dried tomatos until soft, then finely dice them. Dusk the work table, turn the dough out, add in tomato, finely diced onion, olive paste and oregano, knead a few times. Return the dough to the bowl (pre-greased), proof it overnight in the fridge.
Next morning, turn the dough out and divide into two portions (or any numbers that fit your tray's size). We don't need to knead the dough, in fact, we have to save as many air bubbles as we can. Grease your baking trays, add some fine cornmeal to the bottom as optional, put the dough inside. Dip your finger to the oil, then press the dough until it reachs the corners of the tray (which can't be achieved at once as the dough is still cold and stiff, but just keep doing it every 5 minutes or so, and remember to cover the dough whenever you aren't working on it). Once the dough spreads out to the corners, let it proof until it looks very puffy.
Bake the bread in (pre-heat) hot oven 180 - 190 degrees for 25 minutes.
After the foccacia completely cools off, you can cut some up to single serving portions and freeze them for future consumption

Braided bamboo picks supplied by Restaurantware.com

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Olives

2011-02-10T02:24:00.000-08:00

As for the stuffed olives, anchovy filled green olive is almost the type that's enjoyed by everyone in this city.

It's taken me a while to get use to the combined flavor even I am an anchovy-lover. In fact, some of their packs/cans just say stuffed olive and don't bother to mention anchovy at all as if everyone has already expected it.

Now, I am loving it!

The olives have a more profound taste that go very well with table red wine.

Have a happy weekend!

Bamboo picks and mini pinewood cup supplied by Restaurantware.com

Lime and rose drink

2011-02-08T20:18:00.000-08:00

While some folks in other countries are clutching a TV remote, following every detail on a coming snow storm, we here in Barcelona start seeing some flower buds on trees. The morning air definitely smells like Spring! However, flu bugs also exponentially multiply during the season changing. In this city almost everybody is getting sick. I don't want to receive Kleenex on Valentine's Day, so I am taking more natural food that enrichs in vitamin C.

Try this romantic and delightful lime-n-rose drink, it can either serve cold (as follows) or hot (use hot water instead of club soda). To make the drink, you will need:

small amount of dried rose
rock sugar/candy to taste
water
lime juice to taste
club soda
Slices of lime and rose buds for garnish

First to make rose syrup, boil water with dried rose and rock sugar for a few minutes. Let cool.

Stir to combine lime juice, rose syrup and club soda. Garnish with lime and rose.

Inclined Shot Glass supplied by Restaurantware.com

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

2011-02-06T22:42:00.000-08:00

Stiletto appetizer spoon supplied by: Restaurantware.com

I can't recall if I've seen a salad called "Mediterranean Pasta Salad" on the menu when I eat at neighborhood restaurants in Barcelona, nor a salad that includes cooked pasta. Not matter what it is called, with or without pasta, the base (high quality olive oil and seasonal fresh vegetables) makes an excellent sense for pursuing good eating habit, and is easy enough for us to it at home all the time.

This time my salad incorporates some tiny pasta... the locals normally prefer putting it into soup though... because it can turn to be a meal itself. This tiny pasta is called Maravilla, which is just slightly bigger than couscous. For vegetables, I'd suggest to use raw, chop them to as small as the pasta, the texture is truly fantastic!

To make the Mediterranean Pasta Salad, you will need:

Seasonal and super-fresh vegetable, e.g. red bell pepper and carrot are a good choice as they give an excellent crunchy texture to the salad, diced
A little bit of onion, finely diced
A little black olive, pitted, diced
Fresh parsly leaves, finely chopped
Some tiny-sized pasta (e.g. couscous), cooked
Highly quality of olive oil
A small dash of limon juice or vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Simply combine the above ingredients together, best to consume in the same day.

Vegetarian Egg & Caviar

2011-02-04T04:07:00.000-08:00

Ok, you know they are not real egg and caviar. So this dish isn't savory at all, I am making one of the popular Asian desserts.

The yolk is mango jelly. I used 100% veg agar-agar instead of gelatin.

The egg white is coconut cream.

The caviar is pearl-shaped tapioca. All these ingredients are easily found at any Asian store.

Valentine's Day is coming. So I molded the jelly into a heart shape, spooned the dessert into many amuse bouche's plastic plates... so everybody can be in love!

plastic plates supplied by: Restaurantware.com

3-Cheese crackers

2011-01-23T03:14:00.000-08:00

Regular chedder, extra-sharp chedder and parmesan cheese.

Some kids from America told me that they miss Goldfish cheese crackers a lot. American or not, kids or not, who don't like cheese crackers?

I can't reproduce the commercial crackers as they have some artifical flavorings and/or colors which I am unable to get, and I won't use anyway, but I can make these still-delicious and chemical-free crackers, with not only one, but three cheeses. You can use other types of cheese, but avoid the soft and creamy type, semi-aged or aged cheese is ideal for making these crackers.

Recipe of 3-Cheese Crackers

(yield single layer of crackers for 2 baking trays)

200 g plain flour
5 g fresh yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp herb salt (mine with dried garlic, parsley and basil)
1 small egg
1 Tbp cold butter
3 tsps veg oil
4 (but not more) tsps water
60 g grate cheese (mine are 15 g chedder, 20 g extra sharp chedder and 25 g parmesan)

Directions:

Put the flour, the fresh yeast and the cold butter in a large bowl. Use finger tips to break up the butter and yeast and mix with the flour. Then stir in the salt, the herb salt, egg, veg oil and the cheese. Little by little, add the water and knead the dough. The dough should not be too moist, but you can add some oil if it is too dry to form a dough. Wrap the dough and let it rest in fridge for at least an hour.
Line a baking paper on a large baking tray (you will need 2 trays). Sprinkle some salt on on the paper (the salt adheres to the dough better in this way).
Divide the dough into 2 equal portions. Lightly brush oil on the work table. Roll the dough to very thin (remember let it rest 2 or 3 times in between rollings so that the gluten can relax and the dough can be rolled to extend easily). Cut the dough with a knife or a small cookie cutter, and use a toothpick to prick some holes on each piece of small dough. Place them on the tray. Repeat the work to the second dough.
Pre-heat the oven to 170C, one tray at a time, bake the crackers 6 - 8 minutes.
After completely cool off, put the crackers in a air-tight container, which store well for one week.

Friday Rolls

2011-01-21T02:29:00.000-08:00

Why do I call them Friday Rolls? It's because my family doesn't eat meat on Friday, so I have to think of some rolls that go well with cheese, egg or tuna.

I've took the reference of artisna bread making, like this beautiful farmer bread from Cooking Bread, which means the fermentation undergone for a long period of time at least twice. Usually such bread would require 2 days to make, but we city people (and hungry people) can't wait, so I cut it to one day, the result is still beautiful - these rolls have a porous interior and a light crisp crust, reminiscent of Italian bread ciabatta.

I flavor the dough with some aromatic ingredients, like dried oragano, onion and sun-dried tomato, which I think go very well with non-meat filling. You may like bacon then.

Thanks goodness it's Friday!!!

Recipe of Friday Rolls (low salt)

(yield 6 - 7 fist-size rolls)

150 g + 380 g flour (for bread)
130 ml + 220 ml water, lukewarm
5.5 g dried yeast
1 pinch of sugar
1 1/2 tsps salt
1 Tbp extra-virgin olive oil
To flavor the dough, I used: 1/8 onion finely diced onion, 1 tsp dried oregano, 2 pcs of sun-dried tomato, soften with water and finely diced
2 ice cubes

Directions (suggest to start in the morning):

In a bowl, mix 150 g flour, 130 ml water, some (e.g 2 g) of the yeast and a pinch of sugar until everything well-combines. The dough looks like a thick paste. Cover and let in rise in a room temp for 1 - 2 hours
In a large mixing bowl, combine the 380g flour, 220 ml water, the rest of the yeast, the salt, the oil, and the yeast mixture from the point 1, knead to form a smooth and elastic dough. In the last 5 minutes of kneading, add oregano and sun-dried tomato. The dough should be moist but doesn't stick to hand. Grease a large mixing bowl, place the dough in, scatter the onion on the top, cover with a (greased as well) plastic film. Let it rise in the lowest shelf of the fridge for a half day. The dough will double its volume.
Take the dough out and knead about 20 times to re-distribute the yeast bubbles. Divide the dough into 6 - 7 portions. Let them rest for 20 - 30 minutes (covered with moist tea towel) in room temperature.
Take out one portions, gently rock it back and forth to form an oval shape. Use a very small rolling pin to roll half of the oval (long side) flat, lift up this flap and cover the round half. You may like to check with CookingBread's Farmer Bread for his splendid step-by-step photos, but I'd suggest to skip brushing oil on the flap, because in my case, the oil prevented the flap to stick on the dough, as a result, it stood up during baking. Place each roll on a large baking tray which is line with baking paper, cover with a plastic wrap and rest for 1 hour in the room temp of 27C.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C (my oven has a turbo function, adjust yours accordingly).
Send the tray to oven, immediately throw in 2 ice cubes to the bottom (to create steam) and shut the door right away. Bake the rolls for 15 minutes, check the doneness by tapping roll's bottom, if it sounds hollow it's done then.
If you want to freeze some rolls for future consumption, take the rolls out from the oven 3 minutes earlier. Please thaw the frozen rolls inside a plastic bag, bake them in a medium-hot oven for a few minutes.

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Mediterranean Almond-Shape Cookie

2011-01-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

Identity crisis.

Take this examples. For those kids whose parents are Chinese (or Japanes or Indian, etc) born and raise in the States, growing up with eating charcoal-grilled burger and reading Highlights, they see themselves as American. Still, some people can't not to say, 'You're (and you can speak) Chinese/Japanese/Indian, eh?!'. The kiddio-innocent eyes meet such comment with frustration.

I have this Finnish cookie's recipe Lusikkaleivat, written by my favorite baker Beatrice Ojkangas. Probably due to our flours or weathers being so different, quite a few ingredients don't work out like the specifications and needed adjustment. Since the changes are already there, I might as well throw in some olive oil, lemon zest and almond meringue as well. This supposed Lusikkaleivat is beaming the Mediterranean rays after being "adopted" to my kitchen. So I hope Beatrice wouldn't mind me changing the name and identity.

I meet more and more "international" people since I live overseas ... an American girl has never lived in America. Another girl has an English-speaking Indian mom and a Spanish-speaking Indian dad while her own native tongue is one dialect of this region. Idenity? Let the kids define themselves :)

Recipe of Mediterrean Cookie Nuts

(yield about 40 almond-shaped cookies, before being filled)

The original recipe is called Finnish Teaspoon Cookies (Lusikkaleivat), written by Beatrice Ojakangas, published in her book "The Great Scandinavian Baking Book" 1988. Her recipe calls for 210g butter, more sugar and baking soda (not requiring olive oil, egg white and lemon zest).

110 g butter (top quality is a must)
3 Tbsps (or more) olive oil, not extra virgin
70 g sugar
seeds from one vanilla bean
zest from 1 small lemon
1 small egg
300 g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
a good pinch of salt
for the filling: you can use high-quality marmalade, or nutella. I used meringue + ground almond

Direction

In a medium-small heavy skillet, cook the butter over medium/ medium-low heat for 2 minutes or until the butter turns pale tan color. After it cools to lukewarm, stir in olive oil, the sugar, the vanilla, lemon zest and the egg.
In a big mixing bowl, whisk to combine the flour, the salt and the baking soda, then stir in the butter mixture and form a dough. Knead a few time, add a little more olive oil if necessary The dough should be smooth but not oily.
Line a large baking tray with baking paper. Pinch out a tiny dough and press it into a teaspoon (see the photo above), then lay the shaped dough (flat-side down) on the baking tray. Repeat the work to the rest.
Bake the cookies in a pre-heat oven 170C for about 8 minutes, take them out before they start turning too brown.
After the cookies cool off, take one cookie and spread some filling on the flat side, cover it with another cookie, now an almond-shape is formed. But if you want to store the cookies for futher consumption, skip the filling, and only fill them before it's to be served.

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Bread Nuggets

2011-01-13T03:19:00.000-08:00

I remember before the Christmas' holidays started, the weather in many European countries were very bad. Everyone told me how many hours or even a day they got stuck at the airports, or how worry they were as their plan for vacation might be cancelled anytime.

After we came back, the people told me that they had so much fun during the holidays, even their bone got frozen in the snow.

We are well adapted, aren't we?!

These bread nuggets are very adaptable also. You can add hard cheese or herb to vary the flavor, or make them long like breadsticks, or bake a longer time for crunchy interior.

Recipe for basic bread stick/nugget

(yield 40 nuggets)

300 g flour (for bread)
5.5 g dry yeast
3 slices of wrapped cheese (e.g Kraft American cheese), soften in room temp
1 egg (whisk, but spoon out a bit for eggwash)
100 ml milk, lukewarm
25 ml water (add little bit more or less according to the dough's consistency)
a pinch of salt
1/2 Tbp of sugar
(optional: coarse salt, or dry herbs, or grate hard cheese for topping)

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, dry yeast, the cheese, the milk, the water, the egg, the salt and the sugar until a dough is formed. Knead the dough on the work surface until it's smooth and elastic. The dough shouldn't be too wet.
Pre-grease a large bowl and place the dough inside, cover with a plastic wrap. Rest the dough in the fridge for half-day or overnight.
In a room temp of 25 - 27C, take the dough out and knead it a few minutes. Divide it into 8 equal portions. Roll each one to a long log (the same length as your large baking pan). Remember to let the dough rest 3 or 4 times (cover) during rolling, so that the gluten can relax and you will find shaping much more easier.
Line the baking pan with a baking paper, place the eight logs on the pan, use a scissor to cut each one to 5 equal pieces. Cover, and let them rest for 10 minutes while the oven is pre-heating to 170C.
Eggwash (a bit of egg + a bit of water) the dough, sprinkle coarse salt or other topping of your liking, bake the nuggets for 15 minutes or until they're golden brown. Loosely cover with a piece of foil if they turn brown too soon.

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Weekend Delight - Montserrat

2011-01-09T00:53:00.000-08:00

This time instead of talking about food, I want to tell you my weekend-trip to a mountain chain near Barcelona - Montserrat. The name means serrated mountain in the local dialect. It took me 90 minutes (train) plus 15 minutes (tram) from Barcelona city to get to the mountain.

The rocks are in striking pink color with increditable exquisite formation. People can ride another tram to reach the peaks.

In the central area, there are a basilica and monestery, a hotel, an apartment block, musemums, gift shops, a tiny bar and some cafeterias. For details you can click on the official web site.

(a corner of the basilica)

(heading to shops and apartments from the basilica)

(front of the musemum)

I stayed overnight at the hotel. A bit after 8 I still could catch the sunrise.

Fennel, spice, walnut & date whole wheat bread

2010-12-30T02:22:00.000-08:00

You won't find bits of date in the bread. The dried dates are pureed and used as natural sweetener.

You won't find any siliver coin or ring inside neither. (Some cultures hide a valuable item inside food as a celebration to a festival)

What inside is really special to me ... licorice nuances with hints of clove and citrus (from clementine's zest). None of the scent is striking, just lingering nicely on the palate. The texture is meant to be dense, that's why I used whole wheat flour all the way. Cut a thin slice, it's served good with swiss cheese.

May the new year enrich your life!

Although whole wheat flour yields a denser bread than that from a mixture of whole wheat and normal flour, if we knead the dough a bit more, and let it rise a longer time (which also results a more profund flavor), both will help the crumb turn out nicer.

Fennel, spice, walnut-n-date wheat loaf

(yield one 12 x 16cm loaf)

1/4 cup boiling water
5 dates, stoned, finely diced
5.5 g dry yeast
370 g whole wheat flour
170 ml whole milk, lukewarm (prepare a little more as whole wheat absorbs well)
1 Tbp butter, soft
1/2 tsp raw brown sugar (I added extra sugar as the dates I used not very sweet)
a pinch of salt
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 whole cloves, ground
zest from 2 clementine
nuts from 5 walnuts, shelled, finely chopped

Direction

Soak the dried dates in the boiling water for 5 minutes, puree.
Combine the flour, the date liquid, the yeast, milk, butter, raw brown sugar, salt, fennel seeds, ground cloves and clementine's zest, form a very moist dough, cover and rest for 10 minutes so give time for the flour to absorb the liquid.
Knead the dough until it's smooth. It won't feel very elastic like a dough with normal flour, and it won't be that easy to knead. Just give it extra time in kneading, it will soften finally. Grease a bowl, place the dough inside, cover with plastic film, let it rise overnight (or 12 hours) in the lowest shelf of the fridge.
Next day, in room temperature, add the chopped walnut to the dough, knead it again, probably you need to knead 20 minutes in order to turn the dough soft again. Shape it to a loaf. To create the two-tone crust, cut out two long strips from a piece of foil, lay them on the dough, tuck the ends under the dough. Place the dough into a 11 x 15cm pre-grease pan, cover with moist towel, let it rise in room temperature of 25 - 27 C for an hour, or until the dough looks very puffy.
Pre-heat the oven to 170C (mine has a turbo function, adjust yours accordingly). Brush milk on the top of the dough, bake it for 25 minutes, loosely cover with a piece of foil if the bread browns too quick. Tap the base if it sounds hollow, the bread is done then.
Remove the alum strips. After cool off, cut the loaf to thin slices, top with good quality swiss cheese. The wheat bread stores well in fridge 3 days. If you think you won't finish the bread by then, I advise you to freeze it (cut into smaller portions first so you just thaw what you need).

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Saffron & Candied Orange Bread

2010-12-24T02:00:00.000-08:00

Instead of cakes or sugared cookies, I actually enjoy making (and eating) special bread more during the Christmas' season. Since home-made bread usually is very low in fat, it also can't store that long. The best way is, freeze some for futher consumption. Just sprinkle little water on the bread, bake in a medium hot oven for a few minutes, it turns out as good as fresh baked.

Saffron-n-candied orange bread sounds beautiful, so as the taste too. I found this recipe at all.recipe.com whose reviews are mostly very positive. Since the original US recipe yields a lot of bread, and the yeast packs sold in Spain weights differently, so I went to scale it down, but still, my recipe makes enough bread for giving some away to my friends.

As much as I like the spices used in the recipe, I'd love it mellowing the flavor into the dough, so I let the dough ferment for a longer time. The result? Be prepared to be thrilled by your friends' and families' compliments :) :)

Recipe of Saffron & Candied Orange Bread

courtesy recipe GODGIFU 'English Saffron Bread' published at all.recipe.com

(yield 8 candy-cane-shaped loaves, each 1-foot-long, one loaf good enough for 2 persons)

1 tsp saffron strands (not powder)
100 ml very hot water
210 ml whole milk (approx only, adjust the amount according to the wetness of the dough)
85 g butter
100 g sugar
11 g dry yeast
720 g flour (the one for bread)
2 Tbps candied orange, finely diced
2 eggs (but reserve half an egg for egg wash)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
some sugared cherry for decoration

Directions:

Soak the saffron strands in very hot water for 10 minutes. Discard the flower but reserve the liquid.
Slightly warm the milk together with sugar and butter. Once the butter almost dissolves, remove the pot from the heat.
In a very large mixing bowl, combine the flour, dry yeast, candied orange, salt and cinnamon. Stir in 1 1/2 eggs, saffron water and milk mixture (make sure all the liquid is lukewarm) until a dough is formed. Knead the dough until it appears smooth and elastic. The dough should feel slightly wet, but not sticky. Grease a large bowl, place the dough in, cover with a plastic wrap. Proof the dough overnigh in the lowest shelf of the fridge.
Next day, take the dough out and knead a few minutes (to release the air and re-distribute the air bubbles).... In the following shaping process, please give many resting times in between, and cover the doughs with a wet towel while resting... First, line two large baking pans with baking paper. Divide the dough into 16 portions. Shape each into a 45 - 50 cm long strand. Take two strands, wet their both ends with little water and stick them together, then start twisting and shaping into a candy cane. Lay the cane on a baking pan, place a few sliced sugared cherry on top of the bread. Repeat to the rest of the dough. Cover the doughs with slight wet towel, let proof in a 25 - 27C room temperature for about 45 minutes or until the dough looks puffy.
Pre-heat the oven to 175 - 180 C. Egg wash (dilute the half egg with 1 o 2 teaspoons water) the dough. Check the canes' shape, you might need to insert an aluminum "guard" (from folding up a small piece of aluminum foil) in the curve to keep a better shape. Bake one tray at a time for 15 minutes. Loosely cover with aluminum foil if the bread turns brown to quick.
The bread goes very well with European-style ham or fresh cheese. For a sweet version, simply dust some powered sugar on.

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Red Wine Fruit Cake

2010-12-20T03:07:00.000-08:00

I love fruit cake, all sorts, of any origin, from sticky English X'mas pudding, easy peasy American fruitcake, choke-full of fig Spanish pan de higo, bread-like Italian panettone. I can care less for any corny joke about fruit cake, those comedians just don't know what they've missed :) :)

When I lived in the states, I used to make panettone at home, but my cakes were far from satisfactory. It's probably because my experience was limited, plus many of those recipes written in English weren't well tested before published. I could have made other types, but I wasn't happy with the quality and the price of candied fruits at the stores I found, I ended up buying a fruit cake from a monastery in Virginia, fortunately, it's beyond awesome.

I am very lucky now, as the candied fruits are plentiful in Barcelona. They are superb, and they are inexpensive. Taking a reference of a German Stollen recipe, I created this red wine fruit cake. If pay attention to the sugar content in the candied fruits, just take it moderately, the cake itself is light and fairy low in fat.

No holiday season can be that joyful if without a fruitcake!

Avocado Chilli Pepper Spread on Pumpernickel Bread

2010-12-14T02:11:00.000-08:00

What is your unforgettable sandwich?

Mine is avocado slices and pine nuts on whole grain bread.

I had it in front of a harbour during a sunset, everything seemed lightly covered with gold dust, including my sandwich.

The sandwich had a natural nutty flavor and the most beautiful texture. I would never forget the taste.

Today I don't intend of making the same sandwich, although I'm still longing for something very natural and nutty, so I use pumpernickel bread and add macadamia nuts for the topping. This avocado spread, suprisingly, tastes quite light. I'd love to make it over and over again.

To made the Avocado Chilli Pepper Spread, combine and puree the following ingredients :

1 avocado, totally ripe
1 green chilli pepper, with very mild hotness
wine vinegar
garlic and celery salt

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Weekend Delight - White Chocolate Strawberry

2010-12-10T03:37:00.000-08:00

Some strawberries from Morocco just arrived at stores. The fruit maynot at the peak season, I'm still happy to have them for adding more variety for food choice.

This week the weather has turned warm and humid; I am not ready for any rich dessert. So the strawberries coated white chocolate seem perfect to this weather.

Red wine fig cookies

2010-12-03T04:33:00.000-08:00

Oldies but goodies!

Shaping the fig filled-cookie to the letter "X" (stands for X'mas) had drawn big oooh-aaahs from many readers of internet or cookbook years ago. Nick Malgieri, an incredibly professional chef in US, also demonstrated making the X cookies on TV.

Nowadays that Christmas-sy X cookies seem disappearing from all medias, although I believe, most Italian mamas' from Paterson and Totowa (the district I lived when I was in US) still make them every Christmas, just as what their moms or grandmas did generations ago.

I love having the fig cookies for holiday's season too. This time, I've varied the Christmas-sy outlook so that it crosses over the boundary and now is able to celebrate every holiday. For the filling, considering my modern pantry is probably very different from that of old time... I don't stock up raisin or candied orange peels or even apricot preserve (which called by the original recipe), for sure a bottle of red wine is always available though... therefore, I have skipped quite a few items but the filling still tastes superb, by doing this I simply poached the dried figs in spice-infused red wine. The result turns out very satisfactory, and I am happy to show you how I did it.

Red Win Fig Cookies

(yield 16 cigar-shaped cookies plus 10 star cookies)

recipe courtesy X Cookies by Nick Malgieri

(the following version of mine doesn't include any sugar in the dough, the sweetness would be coming from the fig filling and sugar sprinkle outside)

To make the cookie dough:

300 g plain flour (the one for making bread not suitable)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
110 salted butter, cold, cut into small cubes
2 very large eggs
(sugar for sprinkling on top)
(1 extra egg for egg wash)

In a large bowl, well combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Drop in the cold butter cubes, use a pastry cutter to further break up the butters while mixing them with the flour until the size of the butter is similar to very coarse cornmeal. Add the eggs and mix, knead briefly if necessary, then you would get a tender and soft (but not sticky) dough.

Divid the dough into three portions. Wrap them well and place them in the lowest shelf of the fridge, rest for a half day. Then roll them into a flat disk, wrap them up again, rest for another 2 hours (at least) in fridge. After that it's ready to use.

To make the filling

2 cup of spice-infused red wine (mine is saved from after poaching the pears)
400 g dried figs *
30 almonds, ground them
a big handful of finely chopped milk chocolate
1 tsp instant coffee granules, crushed into powder

* select the figs a bit dried which are more suitable for poaching. If yours already moist enough, you can follow Nick's ingredient list then.

Bring the spice-infused red wine to boil, add the dried figs, lower the heat and let the liquid simmers for 15 minutes or before the figs are turning too soft. Drain the figs very well. Process them into a paste. Then combine it with ground almond, chocolate and coffee powder. Taste and adjust the texture/ flavor by adding a bit more fig or chocolate or almond if necessary.

To assemble the cookies

To make the cigars - Roll one portion of doughs to 2 mm thick, try to roll it to a rectangle shape. Then refrer the step-by-step photos of my previous post for wrapping in the filling. The difference is, this time I made the log bigger, and with a help of very sharp razor blaze I made 2 slits on top of each cigar. Egg wash and sprinkle sugar allover the top of the cookies.

To make the star cookies: Roll one portion of doughs to 2 mm thick. Use a cookie cutter to cut out 20 pieces of dough. Spoon the fig filling on 10 of the pieces, cover the top with another plain piece. Egg wash, and generously sprinkle sugar on top (please note this type of cookies is not able to hold a lot of filling like cigar cookies do, so it's better to sprinkle more sugar outside)

Pre-head the oven to 170F.

Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes, you can lower the heat to 165 F in the last 7 minutes if the cookies turn brown too quick.

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Weekend Delight - Spanish Shortcake

2010-11-18T03:29:00.000-08:00

To greet the holiday's season, many stores start putting out the shortcakes, which are mainly made out of flour, sugar, lard/butter and ground nuts, varied by adding cinnamom, coco, red wine, olive oil, sesame seeds, or etc. They can be called polvorones or mantecados, depending some differences in the flour's proportion and so the texture. The shortcakes are very crumble and melt-in-the-mouth.

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Poached Pear with Spice-infused wine

2010-11-17T08:51:00.000-08:00

Thank you for continuing visiting my blog even while I was away, especially for those of you who left the comments, your encouraging words really mean a lot to me!

The trip was to visit my mother-in-law. She is over 70 and these days she frequently recalls her childhood. Her family didn't have money in the old days. Her dad, an Italian, used to make wine in the basement and grew vegetable and fruit in the yard. One dessert her dad always made to the children was home-grown apple slices dipped into home-made red wine. It isn't the type of dessert that would ever come across my mind, nor the type most kids would dream for. But in those days foods weren't abundant, so merely the scene of "having" something regardless what it's was already a blessing to her family.

I see poached pear sprouting all over new cookbooks, it somehow connects me to my mother-in-law's red wine apple, although her "poor" version contrasts the sophisticated image of the pear projected from the cookbooks. Anyway, I am so blessed with living in Barcelona since fruits and red wine are always abundant, and inexpensive. There are many ideas of making it fancier or laboring into a gorgeous tart, I still go for the basic, as it has a completed story to tell, and an ultimate taste to deliver.

To make the spice-infused red wine: bring 3/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of water, a big cinnamon stick and three cloves to boil, then stir in 1 1/2 cups of your favorite red wine. Simmer for half an hour.

To poach the pears: Select the pears which are ripe but firm, peal the skin, and cut into a half if they're big. Soak them in the spice-infused wine (all covered) overnight. Next day, bring the wine and the pears to boil, continue to simmer for 15 minutes or so, turn off the heat and let the pears sit for an hour if they aren't soft enough to you. Drain the wine before the pears get too soft.

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Smoked salmon & apple salad

2010-10-26T03:21:00.000-07:00

I am going to the States to visit my mother-in-law, will be back in mid-November. Before I go, I've made this smoked salmon & apple salad. Maybe due to the cooler weather, these days I keep thinking of German herring salad... longing for something rich (in taste only but not the fat content). Therefore, my salad quits the carb and mayo but still chokes full with flavors.

The salad includes: smoked salmon, green apple, onion, celery, pomegranate seeds and tiny ginger bits.

The salad dressing is made out of: fresh pomegranate juice, ginger juice, red wine vineger, sugar, paprika and very little extra virgin olive oil.

Hope you enjoy this salad, and happy Halloween!

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Brown sugar cinnamon ginger cookies

2010-10-24T04:20:00.000-07:00

I bake cookies every weekend, one of the ways to express my gratitude to my husband to support the family. Those tense work situations and difficult people constantly challenge his spirit which is pretty much all beaten up before Friday. So on Saturday and Sunday mornings, he longs for some fresh, warm, home-made cookies to first revives his soul.

So you can tell, the cookies I make got to be timeless, and simply delicious. XL-chocolate chips cookies and Swedish fried cookies are the staple on our breakfast table. But these days I'm always thinking of cinnamon and ginger... maybe due to the cooler weather.

The texture of these ginger cookies is crispy and delicate, while the ginger flavor isn't overwhelming (using fresh ginger is recommended though) so that we can taste everything.

Recipe of Brown Sugar Cinnamon Ginger Cookies (less sweet version)

(yield a few dozens)

11o g butter (with an excellent flavor is a must)
1/2 cup of light corn syrup
fresh ginger, a thumb size, finely minced
1 egg, beaten
370 g flour
a good pinch of salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
for coating: 2 TB brown sugar + 2 TB white sugar + 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Melt the butter in a small pot over medium-low heat. Once it's done, remove from the heat. Stir in corn syrup and ginger.
In a large mixing bowl, combine well the flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. Then mix in the egg and the butter mixture until a tender dough is formed (don't knead). Divide the dough into two pieces, shape each one into a log, wrap with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 2 hours (we don't want them too hard though).
Pre-heat the oven to 170F
Unwrap the doughs, slice dough between 0.3 - o.4 cm thick (this thickness yielding a more delicate cookie, remember, the thicker the slice, the thicker the cookies). Press the slice dough down into the sugar coating mixture (one side only), then place the dough (can be close to each other since they don't expand much) on a large baking pan. Bake the cookies for 7 - 8 minutes or until they appear slight golden-brown. Transfer the cookies on a rack to cool off completely.
Please note that these cookies the taste continue to "mature" day after day, best to consumer them on the 3rd day or so. They keep well too, I kept mine up to a week (the cookies all gone by then).
The last note, my cookies aren't over-sweet since there's sugar coating outside, therefore, I don't add additional sugar (except for the syrup) in the dough. If you have a sweet-tooth, you can add sugar (e.g. 1/4 cup) to the butter when you cook them. Then follow the rest of the step.

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Ground almond balls with pine nuts

2010-10-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

In this week, my facebook account everyday pops up one birthday's reminder. Then I realize that all my closest friends are born in October (me too). I've just received a big box of "pinyoles", the name is in catalan (a dialect in the region I live) which actually are baked sweetened ground almond balls with pine nuts. Local bakeries start making them in fall and throughout the winter. Pinyols are very dense but moist, kind of similar to marzipan but more flavorful to me (probably due to the golden pine nut and egg wash).

These pinyoles, to anyone having a birthday in October or liking almond confection!

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Coconut Truffles

2010-10-13T09:32:00.000-07:00

Sprinkle some ground cardamom in this sweet, the flavor turns out as magical as the aurora!

When I first started blogging was in 2006. I wasn't (even now) that active, but I've made a few friends that nowadays we still contact to each other from time to time. But many more bloggers no long stay around. I keep a couple of them bookmarked though as their blogs are really superb, like Saffron Hut her recipes and photos never failed to impress me.

Saffron Hut found a coconut fudge's recipe from Chicago Tribune, which doesn't call for a huge amount of sugar/grease like most others do, probably due to this reason or some handling just being different, the authentic texture no longer exists, and it has to stay chilled all the time otherwise it gets very soft. But don't get me wrong, this sweet is still highly addictive and charming.

I've made this confectionery twice, in the last time I've adjusted the flavor and the style a lot, what it finally come out is exactly what I love. I've renamed it to "truffle" as it is what it's like anyway, and decided to participate a recipe competition which is organized by Apicius. The prizes are many and splendid, please check the detail from his blog (which provides translation although I believe your recipe has to be written in Spanish). If you're interested in my improvised version of Saffron's fudge, you can look it up from my Spanish blog.

Try to make the morsels tiny as they're very rich, a small piece can go a long way. They surely will give me a lot of good time, at the same time, I wish that Saffron Hut has moved on to a more beauitful life.

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Mini cupcake decorated with artisan chocolate

2010-10-06T04:54:00.000-07:00

There are many artisan chocolate & candy stores in Barcelona. Their quailty generally is very high while the price isn't killing at all. I've just received some dark chocolate coated toasty coffee beans and white chocolate "cups" as a gift.

Something great about the "cups" I want to tell you more... the "cup" is made out of white chocolate, which is more sensitive to the a warmer temperature, but it also means that it will melt in your mouth instantly. The "cup" is filled with mocha cream and topped with hazlnut flavored chocolate "foam". The whole chocolate so rich and creamy makes it also very suitable to pair with cake. So there they are, petit four for tea :)

The chocolate "cups" are available at Salón del Chocolate while the chocolate coffee beans are from Italy.

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Kaki Persimmon 柿子

2010-10-05T03:23:00.000-07:00

This morning I started a free-lance work very early so I didn't take a breakfast. I was so starved in the middle of the work, a chef handed me a caqui (persimmon in Spanish). Oh mine! I heart persimmon!!!

"Toma, toma!" (take! take some more!) the chef's probably so amused by my drools so she handed me a few more caqui.

They're at the peak of the ripeness, I carefully wrapped them up... almost treated 'em like new-born... This autumn is already starting so beautifully!

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Weekend Delight - Green Tea Soy Milk

2010-10-02T04:15:00.000-07:00

A very adventurous recipe for me - in the sense of combining two old traditional drinks to form a new flavor. I didn't make it, it's bought from my favorite tofu store, where always use organic soybeans in their products.

The drink is supposed to keep frozen, and served as "slurpee" (slushed ice drink). It is very, VERY delicious.

Have a delish and healthy weekend!

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Extremaduran (western Spain) recipe competition

2010-09-28T03:57:00.000-07:00

If you can write Spanish, and more importantly, you live in Spain or Portugal (as the organizer would send the prizes to the winners to these countries only), you might like to look up this link for details for the Extremauran recipe competition. The prizes are awesome.

Even if you don't intent to take part, what about go taste some of their world-famous ham (Jamón Ibérico) or other pork products from the region if you have a chance? For me, it is the best! What impress me even more, the pigs are left to roam in relative freedom and their main diet is acorn falling from local oak tree.

I have just finished one entry, the idea of my dish is derived from potato skin this popular starter.

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Weekend's Delight - Peach Sorbet

2010-09-24T04:24:00.000-07:00

Yestersday a fruit lady gave me a bag of peaches for free.

Today I pureed them with a dash of maple syrup, freezed for a couple hours. Here guys, enjoy!

Recipe (yield about 4 scoops of sorbet)

3 very large peaches, very ripped
a good dash of maple syrup

Take the stones out and cut the peaches into pieces, add a dash of maple syrup and process. Pour the mixture into a dish.
Freeze the mixture for about 2 - 3 hours, but scrape the mixture and re-mix again every hour or 30 minutes.
In order to get a smoother texture, puree the mixture again right before serving.

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Weekend Delight - green fig

2010-09-16T02:06:00.000-07:00

Every weekend I'd try to write a post about a popular local snack or a seasonal fruit.

Ooh green fig ... its eventual arrival makes my bearing for months of summer heat just so worth it! Green fig has a very refine sweetness; and the velvety green skin is so tender so delicated that you'd enjoy eating it as well. I hope you can find green fig in your area... not many food stores in Barcelona carry green figs, and they don't come too many, once sold out, have to wait for next summer...

So here's my simple breakfast - a sweet bun spread with cream cheese, topped with green fig. Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Duo organic tofus salad

2010-09-09T03:57:00.000-07:00

Just read an interesting US article on internet about chefs' secrets, one of them is that many chefs are picky eaters, tofu usually is on their dislike list.

I've known quite a few westerners who don't eat tofu even they're healthy eaters themselves.

Personal taste... or have they ever had a chance to taste real fresh tofu? They can't be found in supermarkets.

In Hongkong, tofu is made daily, so no need for preservatives. The taste is pure and light; it may not be wrong to say that it doesn't have taste, that also mean, you shouldn't feel like eating soybean or peas neither.

Unfortunately, I could only buy tofu from supermarkets in overseas. Some of their taste is horrifying, probably due to adding too much preservative or additives, or the manufacturers don't bother to select good soybean? Tofus is almost entirely made out of soy and water, so the choice of ingredient is absolutely essential. It makes the taste whole-world different!

So do look for any store that makes fresh tofu in your area (or ask your Japanese/ Chinese neighbors :):) If you live in Barcelona, lucky you! Tofu Catalan sells organic preservative-free tofu. Their address is calle de Aribau 119. Go and discover the treasure!

Tofu comes in various textures, from silky to chewy, make use of this feature adding character to your dish. In my country we love to pair tofu with strongly flavored ingredients, like fried garlic, salty pork or anchovy. In my limited knowledge I know Japanese people normally just add a few green onion and a bit of soy sauce, solely pursuit the enjoyment of simplicity!

Recipe of duo organic tofus salad

(for 2 servings)

200g soft white tofu, fresh/organic, cut into small cubes
100g fried organic tofu puff, cut into stripes
100g smoke salmon, cut into small pieces
2 - 3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/4 onion, thinly sliced
a big handful of arugula
extra olive oil
sea salt

Add some oil in a very small pan, fry the garlic over medium-low heat, it only takes a minute or 2, don't burn the garlic.
Combine all the ingredients, drizzle a bit olive oil, add salt to taste. Enjoy!

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Braided Loaf (no-knead)

2010-06-12T13:51:00.000-07:00

I have made the no-kneaded bread. I don't want to sell you the idea of no-kneading (as most no-kneading doughs tend to be sticky, for novice bakers may feel intimiating to handle this dough), rather, is the tender and soft interior which I love the most!

I have posted the recipe in my spanish blog, please click here. Please note that I don't create this recipe, I've spotted it in a Taiwanese blog written by a wonderful lady called Ms Chow, every single recipe of hers always earn my respect and admiration. If you can read Chinese, worth to check it out!

Top two are cinnamom sweet bread, the bottom two fill with savory green onion & ham (which is very popular in Hongkong).

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Basic Dough for Festive Loaf

2010-05-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

The snail's shell is filled with pastry cream

Just a few days ago I saw some small rolls that were shaped as a snail display by a bakery shop's window. They made my heart chuckle, momentarily I didn't worry too much about a mountain of chores and a photo-shoot project.

Something about bread... if you've experienced making it, you'd know, that 'life' inside really can touch your heart. Saw it on tv, some bakers made a sign of a cross right after a tea towel was laid on a dough that was ready for proofing. In Barcelona, very often bread is used for celebrating.

The dough of festive loaf normally is enriched with egg, milk and butter. Although a local food culture may vary it by adding pastry cream or dried fruit or shaping it to a certain way, the flavor of the bread itself is not much different from any other sweet bread's ... like cinnamon rolls for an example. But since this dough includes a bit of lemon/orange zest, I find it taste more lovely after adding in some candied citrus fruit.

After got back home from that bakery, I felt like to slow down my pace, so made myself some snail bread ... :) :)

A dough was flatten and cut into 3 long strips, filled with custard, candied orange and dried berry, rolled the strips up from the longest sides. Braided with the 3 strips. After came out from oven and cooled off, dusted some powder sugar on the top

Recipe of Basic Dough for Festive Loaf

(enough for making one 20-cm long braided loaf as shown in the 2nd photo, plus 7 snail bread)

300g flour that is suitable for making bread
100 g milk (adjustable)
35 g butter (with a superb flavor is a must)
35 g sugar (the bread isn't notably sweet)
15 g fresh yeast
2 fresh egg yolks (no white)
zest from 1 orange or lemon
a pinch of salt

Step:

Warm up the milk, sugar and butter, take away from the heat source once the butter melts. Let the temperature cool off to reach lukewarm, add in fresh yeast to dissolve.
Combine the milk mixture with the flour, yolks, salt and orange zest. Knead the dough until elastic and smooth. The dough shouldn't feel dry, it maybe slightly wet, but not sticky to hand. Cover, and proof in a room temp of 75F and it doubles its volume, about 1 - 1 1/2 hours.
Knead the dough a few times, just enough to re-distribute the yeast cells more evenly. Then it is ready for cutting into smaller portions, rolling and shaping (in between giving it a plenty of time of resting in order to accomplish a 'relaxed' gluten). Since the bread itself isn't too sweet, it is ideal for filling with custard/cream/cinnamon sugar etc.
Rest the dough again after the shaping, in a room temp of 75F until it looks puffy, about an hour. Pre-heat the oven to 180F
Bake the bread, depending the size you made, until golden brown. The bread still tastes great on the next day, but still best to consume it within a day or 2.

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Weekend Delight

2010-05-22T00:53:00.000-07:00

cameralized apple topped with greek yogurt

2 flavored-custard - vanilla and chocolate

Just a chat... when I go out for lunch, for dessert can't expect something big nor elaborated, so, no 6-inch-tall layered cake nor a big wedge of apple pie with ice-cream on the side...

Very often fruit, especially pineapple, is on the menu. It is simply thinly sliced, browned with butter and sugar. At home apple this fruit is more readily available, so I did the same thing, plus a big dollop of greek yogurt.

Another popular dessert is milk-based custard. The one in the photo is store-bought (Danone), composed of 85% milk and only 3.5 % fat. If you google a homemade recipe, yours would be super healthy as it's addictive- and preservative- free.

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English Muffins

2010-05-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

I expect to see only a few items on an ingredient list for bread. Flour, water & yeast pretty much that's it.

But for a loaf of manufactured bread, the ingredients can take up 6 lines! Many of them even don't have a name, only some weird codes - E-282, E-200, E-481, E-471, E461ii.... (preservatives, stabilizer, emulsified agent, etc). One package even mentions that their bread doesn't require refrigerated once it's open, and is still good for half a month!

Some food manufacturers prolong the life span of their products but shorten mine...

To prolong the life span of my homemade bread, no need for 2 4 6 8 10... simply f.r.e.e.z.e.r. I've made 6 English muffins and already freezed some for breakfast during weekends.

I've tested 3 different recipes all of which yield delicious muffins, depending your personal taste, some tends to be bland (like American style since we sandwich them with salty ham and juicy egg) while some with milk flavor (perfect with jam). The following recipe inclines to American style. But the only thing is, I can't accomplish the very, VERY, porous interior like the manufacturer ones'. The problem shouldn't be from the ingredients, more due to the handling, I'd continue to look for other sources and keep trying... otherwise, the taste is great.

Ingredients (yields 6 muffins)

4 g of dry yeast dissolved in a small amount of water
1/2 cup of milk
1/2 cup of water
1 egg white, whisk until fluffy
2 cups of flour
a good pinch of baking soda
a good pinch of salt
fine corn meal

Combine all the above ingredients, knead until the dough is elastic and smooth. Rest until it doubles the volumn, fold a few times. Roll dough to 1/2-inch thick (sprinkle the table with corn meal), cut out the muffin, rest them until they look very puffy. Cook them on a skillet for about 15 minutes.

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Baked Donut (filled with jam)

2010-05-12T16:13:00.000-07:00

There are a few Dunkin' Donut (a big US chain that makes hot and fresh fried donut) in Barcelona. Besides of store, DD also opens tiny counter in subway. The DD stores that I have been, their donuts are delivered from somewhere instead of making at site.

Every local cafe sells donuts too, but only limited to the pre-packed manufactured stuff, which always reminds me of an exhibit from a wax museum. The people seem to be happy with it though...

If I want donuts, either I buy those in packs that pump with preservatives, or make a special trip to one DD store, just to get their donuts but which probably have been fried out since last night...

So I opt for home-made.

This donut's dough requires no kneading nor frying :) :) The interior still turns out very light and spongy. But I would like to mind you, no alternative, even including this recipe, can imitate the texture of the fried donut, as that light-ness and fluffy-ness are ultimate!!!

The recipe is from my very favorite cookbook - The Fannie Farmer's Cookbook, written by Marion Cunningham. The author suggests after the donuts coming out from oven, immediately dunking them in melted butter, then sprinkling cinnamon sugar to finish. I am sure they'd be splendid. But I would love to stay away from the extra fat; that's the reason why I 'bake'. Therefore, I filled the donuts with low-sugar jam (custard sounds great too), and outside dusted with powder sugar.

Recipe (yield 16 small-size donuts, 6 cm in diameter)

2 tsps dry yeast
a pinch of sugar
1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 1/4 cups plain flour (no need to go for bread flour)
a good pinch of salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbps butter, melted
3/4 cup milk, lukewarm
1 small egg
low-sugar jam for filling, and powder sugar for dusting

Steps:

In a small bowl, mix the yeast, a pinch of sugar and 1/4 cup water. Sit for 5 minutes, and you should see some bubbles on top.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt and 1/4 cup sugar. Pour in the yeast mixture, melted butter, egg and the milk, use a mixing spoon and keep stirring until everything well-combines, for about 5 minutes. The consistency is super sticky, similar to cake batter's. Cover the bowl, let it proof in room temp of about 75F for an hour or so, the volume should be double.
Since the dough is super-sticky, make sure the work table is well-floured, prepare a small bowl of flour aside for your hand/spatula. Carefully pour the dough on the table (with the help of spatula or hand.... everything dust with flour!), it would spread out by itself since it's very soft and lumpy. Do NOT knead or pat it too hard (as it will "kill" the air bubbles, your donuts won't be that airy then). Gental pet the dough until the thickness reaches about 2 cm. Dip the cookie cutter (mine is 6cm in dia) with flour first and cut the dough, may use a spatula to help you transferring the round doughs onto a large baking tray. Pre-grease a large piece of plastic wrap, cover the doughs and rest for 20 minutes.
After the first around of cut-out (those should fill up one tray), you still have quite a bit of dough left. Dust off the excessive flour, gently push them together (and a little folding job may need), pat it flat again, and do the second round of cut-out. These will be for the second tray, and which will go to the oven the second round (I don't recommend two trays together going into the oven) as these round doughs need more time to rest/ restore the bubbles.
Pre-heat the oven to 400C. After send in the first tray in oven, may lower the temp to 375F if the bread browns too soon. The total baking time is only about 7 minutes, and have to take them out just before they turn brown (brown crust is too tough for donut). Then go bake the second tray.
Cool the donuts on a rack. Fill them with jam, and dust the powder sugar outside.
The baked donuts freeze well too. Just take them out from oven a minute or 2 earlier. Don't fill anything, after they completely cool off, wrap well and freeze. When you want them, let them thaw a bit, and reheat in a medium-hot oven for 1 - 2 minutes, and continue the jam and powder sugar.

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Bread Pretzel

2010-05-08T03:55:00.000-07:00

I have already made these pretzels 3 times in this month! Their texture and flavor are very much like the New-York style pretzel, which is my family's favorite!

Many, many years ago my then boyfriend (now husband) and I were the regular customers of a bar in Stanford Hotel in Hongkong. At one time they hired a German guy to manage the bar. One of the very few good things :) :) he did was to add bread pretzel in the menu. Every time we visited, we must order a few of them. The waiters would first hang the pretzels on a tree-shape rack and deliver to our table. Their pretzels were bigger than my hand, one supposed to be able to stuff me up, but we just couldn't resist; so quite often our tree rack required "refill".

After we moved to Singapore we were very lucky and able to get (good!) bread pretzel from Paulaner Brauhaus restaurant. Yes, Auntie Anne's (a US chain that makes pretzel-shape baked goods) was popular in Singapore too, but we only loved the most basic lye's type, sadly AA couldn't make it any decent. Later on we lived in New Jersey, our appetite for pretzel eventually unleashed!!! Many malls, stores, supermarkets, and food vendors at parks, street fairs, bus stations, airports, and etc all sell pretzels! The quality can be very, very various though, still, considered how difficult for us to get it in Asia, we were happy to anything we had got.

In Barcelona, however, bread pretzel isn't that popular... maybe I should start thinking of taking a trip to Germany in order to have a real taste of it? Before I can do it, for now I am totally happy to make it at home :)

We can freeze the pretzels... by doing it, not to add salt on the dough and to bake them 90% done. To rehead them, no need to thaw, simply sprinkle some water on bread, then add salt, bake in medium hot oven for 3 - 5 minutes.

I took a reference of this (for shaping tips) this (for soda water bath and oven's temp) recipes, although I found their proportion of flour + water very different, anyway liquid is always subject to different flour, weather, and handling. I care more about how much yeast putting into the flour, since I always do the 1st proofing in fridge overnight, I always opt for little bit less yeast.

Recipe of Bread Pretzel (yield 10 hand-size big pretzels)

5.5 g dry yeast
a small cup of lukewarm water
a small tsp sugar
about 3.5 cups of flour (the one for making bread)
1 or 1 1/4 cups water (adjustable)
1 1/2 tsps salt
1 Tbp soft butter
large flaky salt (e.g. kosher)
6 cups of water + 6 Tbps baking soda

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar with a small cup of water. Wait 5 minutes, you should see some bubbles appear on the liquid.
Combine the yeast liquid, salt, 3 cups of flour and 1 cup of water, form a rough dough first. Rest dough for 5 - 10 minutes (it requires time to absorb the liquid). Then start kneading, add more flour (up to another 1/2 cup), the butter (and water if necessary). When the dough is well-kneaded, it is slightly wet (not sticky), velvety and very elastic.
Grease a big bowl and a large piece of plastic film, place the dough inside, cover with the plastic. proof in the 75C room temperature for an hour or so until it doubles the volumn. (but I proof my dough overnight in the fridge, the lowest shelf)
Turn the dough on a slightly floured work table, knead a few times, then divide into 10 small balls, cover again and rest for 15 minutes.
We aim to roll each dough to be a long strip (around 53 cm), but the dough usually can't accomplish in one rolling as the gluten requires time to relax and so to extend. Therefore, your doughs need a couple of resting time in between rolling. No need to cover the doughs during the resting. For how to shape into a pretzel, kindly take Jennifer's advise.
After the doughs are shaped, uncover, place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and rest (in room temp of 75F) for about 20 minutes or until they look very puffy. At the same time pre-heat oven 210C, and bring a big pot of water (6 cups) to boil.
Once the water boils, lower the heat a bit, carefully spoon in the soda powder (spilling!!!). Boil the prezel over the medium heat, one by one, for 10 seconds on each side. Return them back on the baking tray. Rest them for another 10 minutes or so. Sprinkle the salt.
Bake the pretzels until golden brown. May slightly lower the temp if they brown too quick. Baking time is about 10 minutes.
Best to consume the bread on the same day. If you intend to freeze some, just not to add any salt on the dough, and take them out from oven 2 minutes earlier. After they completely cool off, wrap well and freeze. To reheat, just to sprinkle some water on the surface, add the salt, and bake in medium hot oven for 3 minutes or so.

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Delicious Vietnam - Steamed Vegetable Roll

2010-04-19T05:56:00.000-07:00

When Anh of A Food Lover's Journey announces a monthly blog-event Delicious Vietnam for us to express our love, passion, knowledge or even curiosity to Vietnamese cuisine, I jump to join right away without hesitation! Even I am not Vietnamese, haven't been to the country, nor have much chance to taste many of their dishes, but just looking at what this cuisine always emphasizes: freshness of ingredients and eating a lot of vegetable, aren't they ones of the essential steps we love to follow in order to pursuit a healthy eating style? Besides, some of their ingredients are readily available overseas (like the rice roll paper I am using), so come and try your hand at cooking Vietnamese food!

These vegetable roll-ups are always a crowd-pleaser in my parties as they are healthy, delicious, great for picking and munching (those lettuce leaves never cooperate with my fork...). Besides, the rolls can be made ahead so that you won't be still slaving yourself in kitchen during the party. So I decide to send the recipe to Delicious Vietnam in May.

Anh of A Food Lover's Journey and Hong & Kim of Ravenous Couple are the founders of Delicious Vietnam. The May's DV Anh is our host, so please send your entry to her, the deadline is May 10 (Melbourne time).

I particularly chose a certain type of veg as its texture remains toothsome after cooking/steaming. Steaming at the end is sort of like re-heating, but I also find the flavor of the rice roll taste much better in this way.

Ingredients (for 2 persons, 3 rolls person person)

6 pcs Vietnam rice paper
1 small clove of garlic, finely diced
1/2 very small onion, thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, julienne
1 very small carrot, julienne
a few pieces of cloud ear fungus
a few agar-agar sticks (you can replace with cooked rice vermicelli)
1/2 cucumber, julienne
a small dash of chicken powder (you can skip it if you go for total vegetarian)
salt, pepper and oil

Procedures:

Soak the cloud ear fungus a few hours (or overnight if more convenient for you). Drain, thinly sliced. Set aside
Soak the agar-agar for 30 minutes, drain. Cut into finger-length. Set aside
Pre-heat a skillet with a bit oil, saute the onion over very low heat for 2 minutes. Then add garlic, celery, carrot and cloud ear fungus (no need to cook cucumber and agar-agar), chicken powder, pepper and salt to taste, saute for a minute or 2 (don't be too long). Scoop them on a plate and let cool completely. Then combine with agar-agar and cucumber. Set aside.
Lightly grease your work table ready for rolling. Fill a tray with tap water, dip in a piece of rice paper. When you see it just start turning soft (my case only take 30 seconds), remove it and lay it on the table. Arrange the veg in the centre, fold up the two sides then roll up from top to bottom. Repeat to the other 5 rolls. Place the roll-ups on a pre-greased plate.
If you are not going to steam the rolls right away, wrap the plate with plastic wrap and store in the fridge (up to a half day).
To steam the rolls: fill a large pot with water, about 5 cm deep, bring the water to boil. Place a steel rack in and sit the plate on. Lid on and steam for about 2 minutes (not need to be long). Serve immediately.

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Golden Plum Chocolate Tartlet

2010-04-16T02:08:00.000-07:00

I bought some golden plums at a neighborhood fruit store. When I checked out, the store lady asked me to take some strawberries... free.

Some fruit or vegetable isn't really turning bad but may have bruise or has been sitting for too long. Instead of throwing away the store people just give it away. Many time I have received artichoke, bell pepper or celery...

A recent news about a US strawberry farmer destroying his crops (selling price too low the cost couldn't cover...) is still echoing in my head.

Anyway go back to this tartlet... the crust is crunchy, not too sweet but very cocoa-y. It pairs particularly well with citrus fruit, mimicking the sentiment of dark-chocolate covered orange peel. I did two versions for the plums - slices and cubes - for the tartlets. The flesh turns soft after baking, so if you prefer some bite I suggest you going for the cubes.

Recipe for the chocolate tart crust:

please based on this recipe, replace the semolina flour with regular flour, add 1/8 cup cocoa powder, increase the butter (superb flavor is a must) to 70 g.

Once you form and roll out the dough, divide it to 5 circles. Spead some mermalade (I used plum's) in the center, arrange the cut plum on top, sprinkle sugar and dot with butter, wrap the edge up. Bake the tartlets in a (pre-heat) medium-hot oven for about 30 minutes.

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"Blanie" (white brownie) with Candied Mandarin/Orange Peels

2010-03-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

Blanie garnished with candied mandarin orange peel's rose and white chocolate curl

I have seen a couple of cooking contests on TV they put a model-like slender lady in the judge panel. Sorry, those gals don't eat for life. Get me a working man and a kid, from my experience they don't fake.

Back to this blanie ... yeah... I created the name, thinking of 'blanc' in French or 'blanco/a' in Spanish. The classic brownie is forever-good, but something seems the blanie doing better, like the flavor of citrus fruit stands out better, and, the white color is simply beautiful.

If your area can find various types of mandarin oranges, I highly recommend you to try making candied peel from their skin; the color is gorgeous and the aroma is fantastic (Chinese use dried mandarin orange in cooking). The only problem is, there is so much variety, like satsuma, clementine, etc, I can't tell which is better than which (some has more fragrance but basically look for the thin skin with prominent oil glands). So at store I picked a few of this and a few of that. After got back home I peeled them, gave the skin a good sniff and even a tiny bite (they ain't bitter). It was what my mom did when she chose better peels for drying.

When I was planning the ingredients I only thought of myself, what I like - white chocolate, candied clementine/satsuma peel, candied orange peel and hazelnut, So it was quite a surprise my blanie actually drew a crowd and well received compliments. Thanks Dudes, Thanks kids!

The very in front of you is candied orange peel, the one behind is candied clementine(not sure the variety) peel. The latter's aroma is much, much better, so the blanie won't be the same good if you just use orange's peel. Orange peel is more toothsome though.

For how to make candied mandarin/orange peel, I followed this recipe. After I completed boiling the peels in the syrup, I let them dry on a rack for half day.

Blanie' recipe (yield 8" or 9" square blanie, depending how thick you want)

150g flour
a pinch of salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
80g butter (a very flavorful butter is a must), soften
1/2 cup but minus 2 Tbp of sugar
2 egg whites from large egg
2 Tbp of light corn syrup
75g white chocolate, finely chopped
candied manderin orange peel from 1 fruit, plus 2 or 3 strips of candied orange peel. Cut into small pieces
35g hazelnut (no brown skin), slightly toasted, thinly sliced

Steps:

Pre-heat oven 325 F
Melt the white chocolate, let the bowl sit on mild warm water while you're doing the followings so that the chocolate won't solidify again.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
In another mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until it looks light and fluffy. Add egg whites and corn syrup and stir until well coporate.
Combine the flour mixture, the butter mixture and melted white chocolate. Stir in manderine &/orange peels and hazelnut. The consistency is lumpy. Spread the batter into the baking (pre-greased and pre-floured).
Bake the blanie for about 30 - 40 minutes, depending the size of your pan. If your blanie's top gets brown too soon, lightly lay a piece of alumn foil on top. Test the doneness by inserting a toothpick 1 or 1-1/2 inches away from the edge, if it comes out almost clean the blanie is done then.
After the blanie completely cools off, wrap it with plastic and store in fridge for a day, let the aroma further develops... it's really amasing! But remember to bring blanie back to room temperature (soften) before you eat.

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Clementine Black Olive Salad

2010-03-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I was called for a food styling job. Before it started, the photographer, a superb professional guy, had a meeting with a chef for deciding what dishes for the shooting. Since I couldn't go so he phoned me to tell me the detail afterwards.

One of the dishes they planned to do was orange & olive salad, recommended by the chef. Its ingredients? The name tells it all - orange and olive.

'....................' a long silent from me. No trendy pomegranate seeds? or exotic cumin? or yogurt from Greece? or an oriental touch from ginger? I mean, I was so used to hear/see something plenty and fancy.

The photographer helped me to call the chef to verify. He called me back and said, 'bascially just these two, with a bit of onion and mint.'

Oooooooookay...

I was very curious: what chemistry was the duo going to create? have enough 'weight' to seize a spotlight in public? why the chef recommended it?

One the shooting day, while Michelle, a very experienced chef, was making the salad, I cranked up my neck behind her back, thinking, maybe the dressing itself hiding a lot of ingredients (???)

'Noooo...' she told me softly. The dressing is simply the juice from the fruit, then a bit of oil, maybe some salt/sugar/pepper to adjust the taste.

I tasted her salad, I was totally blew away! After combining the sweet/tartness with saltiness the taste was very intriguing and unexpected. I ended up eating one more mouthful, then another and others, completely allured by the new flavor.

"Less is more", another wonderful simple recipe.

After the photographer's work gets published, I would let you guys go look at his original recipe and detail. For now here's my interpreation to the salad.

Ingredients (1 person)

2 small clementines, peel
a big handful of black olive (I prefer the fairy salty kind)
Green onion, the white part, finely sliced
Parsley, finely diced
some juice from clementine
a tiny dash olive oil (and a tiny bit of lemon juice/ sugar, depending the sweetness of your fruit)

Mix everything together, and I prefer letting it sit for half-day, sort of allow the flavor develop more.

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Mango Pudding Tart

2010-03-23T03:34:00.000-07:00

During my trip to Hongkong last summer, I was totally amased by how the bakers used mango (sliced) in cake deco - wrapping the whole cake, arranging the slices to form the most intriguing patterns, rolling up to creat the most stunning flowers! Seems that they've forgot what they're using supposed to be fragile and delicate...

As now many more different types of mangoes imported to the city, it's not difficult to get the right ones (e.g. firmer) to make the deco job right.

(a side note... their tastes are various, from as light as melon to as sweet as caramel, so there's no excuse for you not trying yet :) :)

You could understand why I felt my tart so, so childish once I thought about those cakes in Hk...

But I am still in love of my tart as it filled with baked mango pudding! In HK the pudding is baked in an individual serving bowl... now I give them a crust and so enlarge the portion. Good food is meant to share.

(recipe to be continued later)

Almond Milk Rice Roll with Fresh Mango and Kiwi Sauce

2010-03-17T01:07:00.000-07:00

Based on the taste of rice pudding giving it a little twist. The rice cook in almond milk but not too much liquid like we make pudding, so we can handle the rice and shape it into sushi roll. I also intentionally make the sauce from kiwi, the green color imitates wasabi's. The dessert would be fun to look at and fun to eat.

My American mother-in-law loves steam rice, but somehow she feels intimidating ... how many cup of rice I use? how many cup of water I should add? The rice cooker is packed in the attic... such and such questions so bothering that she's eventually back off.

So during my latest visit to her, we made steamed rice together. No need for a rice cooker nor measuring cup. Used a pot that's big enough to fit my hand in, poured in the rice (normally half a cup good for 1 person as a meal ... but due to the size of the pot we got to cook 1 cup at least), then laid my hand flat on the rice, added water until the level reached my fingers' middle join. Lid on, once the water boiled, lowered the heat to the lowest setting and kept simmering for 20 minutes. In the first 10 minutes you can open the lid once (only) and give the rice a quick stir. After 20 minutes, turned off the heat but the lid still on for another 10 minutes.

I am not sure if my m-i-l would follow my method after I left as she usually doesn't like to try anything new. Somehow the picture of her climbing to the attic comes to my mind :) :) :)

Cooking rice is our Asian's second nature, so we just eye-ball everything. I haven't had an measurement for this recipe. But I can explain what I have done...

Used 1 cup of sushi rice... as for a dessert it would be plenty, enough to make 2 - 3 sushi rolls or for 6 persons. The rice was cooked in almond milk and small spoonfuls of sugar. I intended not to make it sweet as I would have the sweet sauce.

Once the rice was done, gave it a good stir and let cool completely. Used a sushi mat, lined with a piece of plastic film. Slightly wet my hand/fingers, spread out a layer of rice, arranged mango strips in the middle, rolled up the rice. Unrolled the mat but let the plastic film wrap the rice log tightly for an half day, it'd be easier to slice for later.

Used a very small pot to boil some water and sugar, simmered for several minutes to make simple syrup. Added vanilla essence and diced kiwi. Pureed.

Sliced the rice rolls, kiwi sauce served on the side.

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Fruit Meringue Basket and 10-thing meme

2010-03-14T23:21:00.000-07:00

Only add the fresh fruit in when you are ready to serve. Small whole stawberry is always attractive, and the cut-up mango (the big stalky type) isn't over juicy makes a good choice too.

I am really very surprised so many kids crazy for meringue!!! I have seen them gobble it up like there's no tomorrow. My friend's kid always begs me to make a coconut meringue "tower" that I brought over three years ago... How can she still remember?! I thought kid's memory is only as good as Dory's (the blue fish in Nemo Disney movie... who only remembers things that happened half a second ago). I promise her I will make it for a next big fiesta (party), for now we would have these baskets as they're easy, pretty and healthy (with moderation).

Our happy foodie blogger Sophie just invited me to play 10-thing (from the past) meme. Now this would put my dory's brain to a real test ...

1. When I was very young (aged 6 to 10-ish), I hardly had any close friends, caused I spent all my free time working for my mom. No time for tv, radio, books or magazine. When friends chatted about those stuff I had no idea.

2. Had I ever felt deprived? Honestly no. Especially when I saw my neighbor (kid), one of her arms had been badly burned (she worked for her dad too), I felted I was very lucky.

3. There must be something I disliked about the work right? Sure. Like, I hated the job being so public, everyone in the whole town seemed knowing my mom (we had an open kitchen). Don't ask me why, at that age kids just felt so uncool when own's mom had such a public exposure. I always questioned in my head why my mom couldn't be a confined housewife :P :P :P

4. Once I entered middle school, my mom stopped me working because she wanted me to take school seriously, and to spend more time at school for some wholesome activities or something. I well remembered on the first day I "quited", I was very sad and worrying if mom could handle everything... (of course she can, mom is always supermom)

5. Could I take school seriously as what my mom wanted? sorry nope. But my social life was getting more normal though... btw pop culture wasn't a hard subject.

6. I am still not the type of person that can make many friends, but those few I have are very, very decent and good!

7. In middle school in the subject Home Economics, was I a shining star? Fat chance :P I made my apron looked like I had murdered it (pulled the threads way too hard); my teacher tasted my curry beef had to look for a fire extinguisher; and I turned the classroom to a Wonderful when I sieved the flour. But one thing though, any job that required shaping (like bread, pastry or tart) I was very good at.

8. At age 12 or 13, I made a big tray of sweet dumplings to sell. Sadly I couldn't get any customer as I was too shy to speak, but mom still felt so proud as she thought I had her business gene. Obviously she is wrong.

9. Ironically, I did a good job in helping my bro's business (direct selling) and in my other jobs after I graduated (client's servicing). I realize that as long as I am not the boss, I am relax and happy.

10. Can I stop at 9? Anyone want to do this meme? Please let me know!

For the recipe of meringue, please refer to this Waitrose's site. But I like to set the temperature lightly lower and baked the meringue up to 1 1/2 hours so that the inside is totally dry and light, which is what I prefer.

To make the basket: Drop some meringue with the help of a spoon, then flatten it a little bit with the help of the back of the spoon. Then pipe out the sides.

To make the mushroom: For the top, use a bigger hole to pipe out a blob, wet your finger and press down the pointy top. For the stem, use a medium hole to pipe out a vertical leg. Once they are baked and cool completely, cut off (if any) the pointy part of the stems, put some melted chocolate on, place the mushroom cap on. Dust coco powder on the top.

The meringue stores well for a few days in an air-tight container in a cool room.

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Lemon "circles"

2010-03-11T21:21:00.000-08:00

Say you're from L.A. or Miami or Philippines. Suddenly today s_n_o_w! I'd see your mind go blank and mouth drop open...

A few days ago it snowed in Barcelona, the last time was over 40 years ago (please correct me if the time's wrong)... but still this area is not supposed to have snow during winter.

The snow started at noon and stopped around late night. People were totally thrilled, everyone took out mobile (cell) phone to snap a pic to this wonderland...

However the snow fairy could also be a nightmare to many, many people in the city... we don't have experience and proper equipment in clearing up the road. Trees fell, cars stalled, traffic paralyzed, people in the cars got stuck many hours. No bus. No taxi. My friend and her kids who were driving back from France trapped on the road a whole night!

I walked home with my soaking wet jacket and pants. Luckily the temperature wasn't killing otherwise I would get sick. Now I just need an extra vitamin C to smooth my body and soul, so I made these these lemon tartlets ... talking about think outside the square, they were practically lemon squares :P

Hazelnut, chocolate & banana cake

2010-03-07T04:20:00.000-08:00

When I pre-grease the cupcake molds, instead of flour I added unsweetened desiccated coconut, so you'd see some of it stick on the cakes.

One banana.

Not a bunch, only a single one. I was in awe when I saw a lady buy one banana (that when I was still new in Barcelona).

In the countries that I used to live, we often buy a bunch or at least half a bunch of bananas, later on we stuff ourselves silly... So that moment my reaction from feeling odd was quickly turning into feeling appreciated, appreciate the fruit sellers in Barcelona are so flexible.

I only need one banana in this cake as this time I am not aiming for very banana-y and wet cake. I wanted my cake nutty, chocolate-y, moist (that's the banana for) and still spongy (that's one banana for). Right before serving drizzle some warm chocolate glaze, we all would forget to complain the still winter-y weather!

Recipe of Hazelnut, chocolate and banana cake (yield 5 - 6 cupcakes)

1 cup flour
1/2 cup of finely ground hazelnut
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 egg
100 g butter, soft
1 Tbp corn oil
1 medium/ medium-small banana, mashed
a small handful of chocolate chips, roughly chopped (if you don't add the glazing, you may add a bit more chocolate chips as the cake itself isn't too sweet)

For the chocolate glaze: 130g dark chocolate (finely chopped), 2 Tbsps butter, 2 - 3 Tbsps corn syrup

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 350F, pre-grease the cake molds with butter and flour (I used coconut), or simply line them with cupcake paper
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, hazelnut, baking powder and salt, set aside
In another mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light anf fluffy. Then coperate with the egg, corn oil and the mashed banana, set aside.
Combine the flour mixture, the butter mixture and the chocolate chips. The batter is soft and paste-like, fill the cake molds 3/4 full. Bake them ... sorry I forgot to check the time... but check the done-ness by inserting a toothpick in the center, if it comes out almost clean, the cake is done then.
Unmold the cakes, cool off completely on a rack. Wrap them well and keep in fridge overnight (the flavor would develop further). Since the cakes have a dome top, if you intend to present them more nicely or add the glazing, slice off the top, turn the bottom side up.
To make the glazing: melt the chocolate over the double-boiler, then add the butter and syrup until everything combines nicely. Pour the hot/warm glaze over the cakes.

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Lemon Cake

2010-03-05T05:02:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I went to a family's home to cook them a meal. The family had 4 or 5 children and one of them, a girl of about 9 years of age, was very curious about what I was cooking and so always made excuse to come in. She's particularly interested in one pot with bubbling yellow liquid.

'What is it?' she asked, with her big amber eyes and that flawless porcelain face facing to me, I really had no heart to send her away immediately (as the work zone could be dangerous to children).

'It is lemon sauce.' I cut my answer short, hoping that she'd go away but she didn't.

'Do you like lemon?' I continued while my head was actually figuring her favorite fruit either banana or apple.

'Yes I do! Really love it!' she said it without hesitation!

Good for her! Maybe if I eat more lemon, my skin would be rejuvenated and turning to be that smooth?!! Well well well, I do prefer lemon cake taste very lemon-y, and look yellow-ish. Therefore, I've included lemon pulps and turmeric in this recipe, then drizzled hot lemon glaze right before serving. Awww... her porcelain face appears in my mind again!

Recipe of Lemon Cake (yield one loaf)

1 1/2 cups cake flour
2/3 cup sugar (for less sweet)
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
150 g butter, soft
2 eggs
1 1/2 Tbps lemon zest
1/4 cup lemon juice (you may not use it all)
1 Tbp lemon pulps
1/8 cup Moscatel (sweet wine with flower's aroma)
a small pinch of turmeric (can't add too much as it has a strong wood-sy taste)

For the glazing: about tsps lemon juice + some powder sugar

Direction:

Pre-heat the oven to 350F, pre-grease a loaf pan
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda, set aside.
In another small bowl, combine the lemon juice and the wine, side aside.
In another mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add the eggs and a pinch of turmeric, well-combined.
Combine the flour mixture, the butter mixture, the lemon zest, the lemon pulps and the juice mixture (the latter one adjustable according to the final consistency). The batter is soft and paste-like, scoop it into the loaf pan, send to oven to bake about 40 - 45 minutes, test the done-ness by inserting a toothpick in the center, if it comes out almost clean, the cake is done.
Unmold the cake and let cool completely on a rack. Wrap it well and keep in the fridge for a day (as the taste further develops overnight). Since the cake has a dome top, if you want it flat for a nicer presentation and/or for glazing, slice the top off and turn the bottom side up before proceeding the following step.
For glazing (I prefer having it warm to suit this cold weather): warm the lemon juice, add the powder sugar (it still tasts very tart as which is what I like) until it reaches your desirable sweetness. Pour it over the cake and it's ready to serve.

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Potato topped with spicy sausage & garlic mayo

2010-02-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

Flashing back to 7 years ago... I was staring at alleys of various types of potatoes at supermarket (in US), trying to remember which type Dave (my Irish friend) wanted me to pick... Russet, Yukon Gold, white skin, red skin ... That dinner Dave simply boiled some potatoes to go with beef and cabbage, but the flavor and the texture of the potatoes were so incredible that totally kicked this rice-n-pasta-worshiper (me) to another new world...

"Señora, el precio está aquí (Lady, the price is here)." A soft voice from a store keeper suddenly woke me up from the day dreaming. How long have I been staring at the potatoes? But wow, only 1 euro and 20 cents for a 3 kg-bag?!!! Was I in the real world or still in my dream? My blank face probably made the store lady worry, so she pointed to the sacks, then pointed to the price tag just to ensure me again :)

3kg (close to 7 pounds) are a lot to a small family, especially nowaday we don't need to eat potato every meal. I imagine,in the old days, the peasants must always have some left-over (god bless!) too since they grew this crop. So here come a wonderful dish to use up the left-over: heat up a paella (a deep fryin pan), slowly saute some garlic and country-style sausage for a few minutes until most oil released from the sausage, then slice up the boiled potatoes (from yesterday) and drop them in the pan. Once the potatoes are heated through, remove the pan from the heat source, crack an egg (or two, lucky you!) on the top. The egg yolk would be kind of semi cooked from the reminding heat, and this thick liquid acts as a delicious sauce!

Actually this dish is on a menu of a restaurant in my town, I have it every week!

Today I make the same thing, but in a different presentation. Boiled potato is cut into a big cube, use a thin knife to make a hole on top. Fill the hole in garlic mayo (mayo mixed with finely mince garlic and a dash of paprika), top with cooked spicy country-style sausage and fried garlic. Aprovechate (you enjoy)!

Chocolate Milk Pudding Cake

2010-02-05T02:51:00.000-08:00

If you often buy dairy dessert from supermarket, Barcelona is a good place for you. Besides of many choices like pudding, custard, yogurt, yogurt drink, mousse, flavored milk, etc., a more important thing for me is the ingredient. Whole milk and skip milk are always the first ones you see on the list. If they are chocolate flavored, the cocoa butter is included. Although manufactured desserts aren't entirely addictive-free, at least the very major ingredients are good natural food.

It is not the scene I could find in the States. Sugar if not the 1st then would be the 2nd place on ingredient lists. What come next usually are vegetable fat plus a string of weird names which all refer to various processed sugar anyway. During my trip to NJ, I wanted to pick up a box of chocolate milk mix for my friend in Barcelona whose kids love this drink, but I just couldn't bear to see little children drinking vegetable fat, I had to pass it...

Today a few girl friends are coming to visit me. My fridge has Nestle chocolate milk pudding, but serving it in the original plastic tub looks kind of kiddi-o, so I mix the pudding with gelatin, a hour later cut out the pudding jello and place it on store-bought sponge cake. A few easy step can turn the original look a mile different,

Recipe of chocolate milk pudding-jello

(to make 22cm in diameter x 1.5 cm thickness jello sheet, enough to make four of the double-layer mini cakes, each is 5 cm in diameter)

10 g unflavored gelatin powder
100 ml water, room temperature
100 ml boiling water
240 g store-bought chocolate milk pudding (mine is Nestle Nesquik)
1 9-inch/ 22 cm aluminum round pan

Steps:

In a big bowl, combine 100 ml (room temperature) water with the gelatin, stir for 2 minutes
Add hot boiling water into the bowl, keep stirring until the gelatin totally dissolves.
In another bowl, scoop in a big spoonful (about 50g) of pudding and pour in a bit of gelatin water, keep stirring, and repeat the same steps (don't do it at once in order to avoid the milk pudding curdles) until everything well combine. Pour the mixture into the foil pan and send it to the fridge until the pudding sets. Mine takes about 1 hour.

To assemble the mini cakes

cut out the side of the foil pan, use a round cookie cutter - mine is 5 cm in diameter -to cut the pudding jello
use the same cookie cutter to cut the sponge cake.
Spread little raspberry jam on one side (the rough side) of the cake. Stake up two sponge cakes and two pudding-jellos, but in an alternate order, garnish with chocolate shavings.
For the sponge cake, I actually use "Pim's" cake (see the photo in the below) since it comes in the right size and already has raspberry jam (under the chocolate), I simple take out the chocolate top and replace with the jello.

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Fennel Cream Layered Rice "Lasagna" (non-baked)

2010-02-01T04:49:00.000-08:00

Soften the vietnamese rice paper with water first, then layer with fennel (bulb) cream and surround with saute asparagus, garnish with fennel leaves and red peppercorns

There are many Mainland Chinese immigrants living in Barcelona. For those who own a business would normally be running a store selling cheap household stuffs, or of course, Chinese restaurants that offer all-you-can-eat buffet for less than 9 dollars. Recently I've seen quite a few upscale European-style cafes owned by Chinese also.

Last week I had lunch at one of their beautiful cafes. The prices were surprisingly cheap though. I don't like to see that... I doubted how serious they were in getting the right/ good ingredients. For safe I ordered a vegetarian lasagna because I was thinking, even a raw celery stick could be that tasty, how could they possibly mess up the flavor?! Well you bet, my dish wasn't good. The filling tasted like pickles, it fitted better between two hamburger buns, but definitely not my lasagna!

I can't get any satisfaction from that lunch, so now make another one to compensate. Instead of the traditional lasagna sheet paste, I use Vietnamese rice paper because it doesn't require any cooking so that I don't need to slave myself in the kitchen. You don't need to make the dish so elaborated like mine, you can always just fill the rice paper with the fennel cream and any seasonal vegetable, simply roll it up and your lunch is all set!

Recipe of Fennel Cream (for 1 person)

1 medium fennel bulb, chop
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 stalk of leek, use the white part only
1 Tsp of butter
1/2 glass of white wine
some cream/ whole milk
a pinch of chicken powder
a big slice of orange peel, avoid the white part
salt and pepper

Saute the leek with the butter for 2 minutes, add garlic and fennel bulb and sautee for a few minutes more. Pour the wine in and continue to cook until the fennel looks slightly soften. Add in a small pinch of chicken powder, the orange peel and very little cream if the veg looks dry, cook until the fennel all soft. Salt and pepper to taste.

Discard the orange peel. Puree the fennel.

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Chard, Sausage, Egg & Potato Crisp in Paella

2010-01-30T09:47:00.000-08:00

"Paella" actually means a type of flat pan/ wok in spanish, so its name can be applied to any dish as long as the ingredients are cooked in this utensil. One of my favorite dishes I always order at a local restaurant is "farmer style potato & spicy sausage paella", for sure you won't see any saucey rice & seafood.

Sunday, late morning. I love being lazy; I don't want to fuss. But I want something fun to eat :)

I see a few Chard leaves, an egg, a spanish sausage, and potato chips... Chips?!

Adding potato chips into a dish isn't my original idea. A chef has demonstrated it on TV, I'm impressed, so I am going to have this fun and easy sunday's brunch!

Recipe of Chard, Sausage, Egg & Potato Crisp in Paella

(for 1 person... I use 16 cm pan which can go into oven)

1 clove of garlic, mince
a small section of onion, diced
3 big Chard leaves, chopped
a chunk of sausage (preferable fatty and spicy type), break it up
1 egg
a handful of potato chips (the thick cut)
some swiss cheese (I use baby bel), grated
salt, pepper
some parsley, diced

Steps:

Drizzle some oil on the pan, add onion and the sausage and start the heat (medium/low). Wait until more oil releases from the sausage, raise the heat to medium, add garlic, chard, salt and pepper, sautee for 2 or 3 minutes.
Remove the pan from the cooking range. Add chips, an egg and cheese. Broil it in oven for a minute or 2. Garnish with parsley. Enjoy!

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Almond Torte

2010-01-28T05:29:00.000-08:00

From my trip to the States of the last month, eventually I could take a glimpse of muffin's caps, actually a lot of supermarkets are carrying them them now.

Just in case you didn't know... for a whole muffin its widest part in the middle is what people like the most, so food manufacturers only make the top but not including the bottom "cup" in order to suit these people's liking. The muffin cap resembles a mushroom's cap or a flying saucer. In a lighter note, it is always referred to a person's flappy and expanding waistline, I'm sure most of us have heard of this joke.

I am wondering, when food manufacturers starts launching... rimless pizza? or bun-less hotdog? or skin only BBQ chicken wings?

I have seen a gorgeous European-style pie-alike torte in a food magazine: a butter-enriched crust enveloping a dense almond (almost) flour-less cake. In fact, just the inside can stand alone and be a star herself, that's why almond cake is always one of the most popluar desserts at restaurants. Almond, egg, and butter are in very high quality in Europe, without much technique except a few stirrings, I could also create a restaurant-standard's dessert at home.

That's why I let go the pie-crust... save it for next time, and will have it alone :)

I have baked this torte twice. After the big success of my first torte, in my second try I experimented adding coconut and increasing the amount of flour, but the cake didn't turn out as golden and moist as the first one. Please note that these photos showing here are from my second cake.

I also experimented one more element... lining the baking pan with vietnamese rice paper (intend to crisp up the sides, and to unmold the cake even earier). The result turned out great. But you always can skip it by simply pre-grease your pan.

Recipe of Almond Cake

the recipe is abstracted (and modified) from "Tarta de manzana y almendras" published in Comer Bien numero 171. The cake is rich just like any other european torte, so a small piece goes a long way.

Ingredient (one 17 cm round cake)

100 g butter, soft, in room temperature
70 g sugar
a pinch of salt
2 small eggs
125 g ground almond
2 - 3 Tbsps flour
1 firm apple
optional: one vietnamese rice paper
some more butter and ground almond for coating the baking pan
some more butter and sugar for apple

Steps:

Pre-heat the oven to medium high, mine's at 180C
Grease the baking pan with butter, and coat with ground almond. I used rice paper as well, first I soak it in water and remove it before it starts getting too soft, then line the pre-grease pan.
In a big mixing bowl, beat butter, salt and sugar until it looks fluffy and creamy. Add eggs and beat until they well combine, finally mixing in almond and flour. The consistency is paste-y. Spoon the mixture into the pan, slightly wet your finger or spoon with little water to avoid stickiness if necessary.
Peel the apple, remove the core and quarter into 4 sections. Slice the top but the cut isn't all the way down. Arrange the apple section on the batter and gentle press them down. Sprinkle some sugar and dot with butter on the apples.
Bake the torte for about 40 minutes, test the doness by inserting a toothpick into the center, if it comes out almost clean, the torte is done.

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Very "Reese" Peanut Butter Crunch filled Chocolate Balls

2010-01-21T07:19:00.000-08:00

They almost taste like Reese candy! And they can be done in a jiffy!

Quick and Tasty I didn't see them hand-in-hand before. I think deep-down I am snobbish when come to dessert, only attracted to complicated technique and fancy ingredients.

But I was so, so, so wrong. Well, it has taken me a few tasting to realize that.

First, one of our friends made Choco-Peanut-Rum Ball. They're done by crushing and mixing chocolate waffler, peanut and rum. "That" sound of it had horrified me. But once I tasted one, then went for another, and another... However, I was "still" skeptical with quick-n-tasty.

Another challenge was in Christmas. My niece made"Oreo Ball" - crushing Oreo, mixing with cream cheese, coating with chocolate. Absolutely tasty! I surrender!

I love peanut butter, I love chocolate, I love "Reese"... I just luuuuuve quick-n-easy!!!

Recipe of Peanut Butter Crunch filled Chocolate Balls (yield 9 balls)

120 g dark chocolate
30 g + 20 g milk chocolate
11 or 12 pieces Digestive biscuits (if it doesn't available, those cookies for tea which don't have much sweetness nor butter flavor, and are high in fiber, may be suitable, but I haven't tested it)
2 heap spoonfuls of peanut butter

Step:

Finely chop 20 g of milk chocolate, then crush it together with the Digestive biscuits until very fine, combine with spoonfuls of peanut butter until they can come together. Taste. Shape balls to a size of small whole walnut.
Finely chop the dark chocolate and the 30 g of milk chocolate, melt them over double-boiler or very mild heat, keep stir until they melt.
Line a tray with a piece of plastic wrap or wax paper. Dip the balls into melted chocolate, then place them on the tray. Sent them to fridge for 30 minutes or until the coating sets. Enjoy!

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(Shanghai) Stir-Fried Noodles with Julienne of Vegetables

2010-01-20T02:01:00.001-08:00

Stir-fried noodles in Shanghai-style have some features that are very different from Cantonese one - Shanghai style the noodles are bigger, the sauce is darker, it uses cabbage and a bit of sugar which both give out a very mild sweetness in taste. This style surely brings you a nice change from salty Cantonese noodles with bean sprouts.

It is sad that the family-run Shanghai restaurants are found less and less in Hongkong. Their dishes are hundred times tastier than the chain restaurants'. Besides, there could be many interesting things going on in a tiny restaurant, like, ladies and children (usually relatives of the owner) taking over the biggest table for making dumplings, or some 'clogging' sound - the chef wearing wooden clogs - was echoing around the tiled-walls... The owner and workers were always Shanghaiese, whether their cooking different from their home town's I couldn't tell, but their dishes were very shinny (as a lot of oil) and always carried some wine and sweet taste, I just love that!

Recipe of Stir-friend noodles in Shanghai-style:

(for 2 persons as one of the dishes in a meal)

150 g shanghai noodles (or Linguine as alternative)
some salt
a big pot of water

for the vegetable:

1 clove of garlic, minced
1 very small carrot
1/2 green bell pepper
cabbage, 4 - 5 big leaves,
1/4 tsp chicken powder
a half cup of water (adjustable)
oil and salt

for the sauce:

1/2 tsp dark soy sauce (or more)
1/2 tsp light soy sauce
1/8 or 1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp Chinese rice wine (or white table wine as alternative)
1/4 tsp sesame oil
salt (optional)
veg oil

Steps:

Bring a big pot of water to boil, add a pinch of salt and the noodles, cook until just right. Drain and rinse the noodles under the tap immediately, drain and set aside.
juilenne the carrot, green pepper and cabbage. Set aside
In a big skillet, pre-heat some oil and stir-fry the carrot and pepper with a pinch of salt for 2 minutes, scoop them on a plate and set aside.
Use th same skillet to stir-fry the garlic, cabbage, oil and a pinch of salt until the veg looks soften, then add a small cup of water and the chicken powder, cook the cabbage over medium-low heat until it cooked. Raise up the heat and stir in carrot, pepper, noodles and the sauce until everything heat through. Taste and re-season if necessary.
Serve hot, it goes well with any Chinese dishes.

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Stir-fried Chicken & Mushrooms with Teriyaki Sauce

2010-01-18T09:34:00.000-08:00

Another staple dish in overseas Chinese/Japanese restaurants, no one can resist its beautiful light taste and a hint of aroma from wine and ginger. This dish should be modified from something original, be it teriyaki this cooking technique or the seasonings used in teriyaki, for me I primarily care if it tastes good or not. Obviously the Asian immigrants did a wonderful job!

Allow me to trail away and talk about a dog breed... 'Tong' dogs (or back translation Chinese dog). They are the most common mix-bred in Hongkong. It is just impossible to trace the origin as their ancestors were already mega-mixed, some look like miniature German Sherpard though. We had one and he was black. And it's easy to spot another 5 of these blackies wandering in a street because they didn't see as valueable breed and so got abandoned. Ironically, our dog had attracted countless people in the States, one guy even requested a puppy of him.

Classic is good, but sometimes, good is simply good, regardless.

Recipe of stir-fried chicken & 2 mushrooms with teriyaki (style) sauce

(for 2 persons... but Chinese usually make 2 or 3 dishes in one meal, so its portion is small)

for the chicken and mushrooms:

180 g chicken breast
1/4 tsp soy sauce
1/8 tsp white wine
1/8 tsp white sugar
Shitaki mushroom (dried) 10 if small, 6 if big
10 button mushroom, cut in an half if they're big
1 slice of ginger
1 dash of white wine
veg oil

for the sauce:

2 Tbsps soy sauce
1 Tbsp white wine
3/4 tsp white sugar
3/4 tsp brown sugar
1 slice of ginger

Steps:

Soak the dried Shitaki mushroom in lukewarm water for a few hours, soften. Place them in a pot and fill up with water, bring to boil, then simmer for 30 minutes. Drain, and squeeze out the water of the mushroom.
Cut the chicken to 3cm x 2 cm chunks, marinate with soy sauce, white wine and sugar for 30 minutes.
In a skillet drizzle some oil, saute the shitaki mushroom with a slice of ginger for 2 minute over medium-low heat, then add button mushroom and continue cooking for another minute. Raise the heat to medium, stir in chicken and dash in a bit of white wine, keep stir until the meat are evenly brown. Now add the sauce and another slice of ginger, continue cooking for a few minutes over medium-low heat until the meat is done. Taste and season.

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Chinese Lemon Fish

2010-01-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

Deep-fried version

Of such dish the fish fillet is normally dipped with egg-flour mixture and deep-fried first. Since I intend to eat it on the next day and consider the crust turning soft, the fillet (lightly floured) is simply pan-fried. Honestly, it tastes superb.

Also, I used some flour to thicken the sauce so that the consistency is able to last longer.

Pan-fried version

Ingredients (2 servings)

2 fish fillets with firm flesh, I use hake/merluza
salt
flour
veg oil

for the sauce:

250 ml water
a small pinch of chicken powder
30 - 50 ml lemon juice
2 slice of lemon rind
a tiny slice of ginger
3 Tbsps white sugar
1/8 tsp margirine
2 Tsps flour, dissolved with spoonfuls of water
2 tsps cornstarch, dissolved with little water
(optional) a very small pinch of turmeric (Indian spice, just for coloring)

Steps:

Please do the sauce (as follow) before cooking the fish.
To make the sauce:
Bring a pot of water, sugar, lemon rind to boil, then add about 30 ml of lemon juice, lower to simmer. And a pinch of chicken powder, a tiny pinch of tumeric and the flour mixture into the sauce, taste and adjust the sweet/sour taste, simmer for 15 minutes.
Discard the lemon rind and ginger, keep the sauce simmering, add the conrstarch water until your desired consistency. Turn off the heat, stir in margirine until it's totally dissolved.
To cook the fish:
Spoon some flour in a wide-base bowl, add a pinch of salt. Set aside.
Pre-heat some oil in a skillet
Sprinkle a bit of salt over the fillets, roll them over the flour mixture. Pan-fry them over medium heat until they're done.
If consume the dish next day, store the fish and sauce seperately. After re-heating both, pour the sauce over the fish right before serving.

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Spicy Kung-pao Chicken Wings with Roasted Nuts - Hongkong version

2010-01-17T02:44:00.000-08:00

Kung-pao or Szechuan style chicken is hugely popular in Hongkong, and I am a big fan of its taste - chili-y, slightly tangy, and with a fainted aroma of wine. The US version or the one in Barcelona tends to be saucey, sweet and tomato-y. HK version would just have enough sauce to coat the meat, the flavor is fairy spicy and salty.

Long time ago I traveled with a friend to a Chinese province where is famous for its fiery hot dish. Even we both believed our tongues "coated with gold" (just a saying... as it takes strong fire to melt a gold...), but for safe, we had requested a chef in a local restaurant to take out all the hot taste. Not even a half way through of our meal, our sinus were pretty much flooded and our tongues almost melted away.

Now I am making some Chinese dishes that keep well for a day or 2, so in this dish I tried using wings (the skin protects the meat, good for reheating), and hazelnuts (its texture slightly better than peanut or cashew on the next day). So enjoy... even tomorrow!

Ingredients (6 middle wings... for 1 person)

6 middle wings
6 hazelnuts (or replace with raw peanut or cashew nuts)
1 stalk green onion, cut abt 3-inch in length
1 clove of garlic, sliced
1/8 - 1/4 tsp (prefer hotter go for higher) of dried red pepper, crushed
1 slice of ginger
1 Tbsp of Chinese rice vinegar
1 + 1 tsp of Chinese rice wine
1 Tbsp of light soy sauce
1/2 - 1 tsp of sugar (use the 1/2 tsp first, adjust later)
1/4 + 1/4 tsp sesame oil
1/4 - 1/2 tsp chili sauce (perfer hotter go for higher)
white pepper
peanut oil

Steps:

Marinate the wings with some white pepper, 1/4 tsp sesame oil and a pinch of sugar. Set aside.
Combine the vinegar, 1 tsp wine, soy sauce, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1/4 tsp sesame oil and chili sauce in a small bowl. Set aside.
In a small skillet, pour about 1 - 2 Tbsps of peanut oil, add nuts and roast them over medium/ medium-low heat until the nuts turn golden brown. Spoon the nuts on a plate and set aside.
In the same skillet, saute the garlic, red pepper, ginger, and green onion over low heat for about a minute or 2. Then add the chicken and 1 tsp wine, continue saute them over medium/ medium-low heat, until they are 80% done... that took me about 10 minutes. Raise the heat to medium (or slightly higher), stir in the sauce to cook until the meat is done. Taste and adjust the seasoning. In the last minute add in the nuts, stir well and scoop them on a serving plate.
The dish not supposes to have excessive sauce since it all sticks on the chicken. It still tastes great on the second day.

To replace with chicken dark meat (de-bone, cube), use 370 g which is enough for 4 persons as one of the dishes in a meal. Triple the amount of the seasoning. The meat may release too much liquid (or if you add some vegetable) that will dilute the flavor. Once the meat (and nut) is done, scoop them on a plate, and leave the sauce in skillet and continue to cook it until it's slightly thicken. Pour the sauce over the meat.

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Spicy & Crunchy Vegetable with Agar-agar (Chinese side dish)

2010-01-16T03:23:00.000-08:00

those white strands under the dishes are agar-agar strands which are completely vegetarian. The texture is slightly crunchy and chewy, and they are great in holding the sauce.

One time my Spanish teacher randomly turned to a page and asked me to read, just to practise my pronouncation. So there it went (in spanish...)

"On Sunday Tom usually wakes up very late. After breakfast, he watchs TV. By noon he starts cooking, and finishes it later afternoon..."

'A whole afternoon? What does he cook???' I questioned.

My teacher explained, since many local people bring their lunch to work, they normally prepare the whole-week lunch on Sunday. That's why taking them so long.

Besides of learning something new, I'm inspired and planning to do the same/ similar thing but for Chinese dishes. It is very challenging as many of our dishes won't taste good if cooking ahead. But still, let me try... here's the first one, more to come :)

The flavor of this dressing is very aromatic, spicy and tangy, it could be too powerful if used in salad. But for a side dish it is absolutely beautiful, sort of like, you could only bring one main dish for lunch (as two would be too much), but still you always look for something to pick or just to perk up the tastebuds; then here is the choice. If you a big fan of spicy food, please increase the amount of chili oil.

Ingredients (serving 3 - 4 persons, small portion only)

2 celery stalks
1 small carrot
just a few agar agar strands

for the dressing:

1/2 tsp chili oil *
1 stalk of cilantro, diced
1 1/2 tsps sugar
1/2 Tbsp dark soy sauce
2 Tbsps Chinese rice vinegar
1/2 Tbsp white wine
1/2 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp white sesame seeds, light toasted over a small pan
a small dash of veg oil if prefer more sheen in the dish

Steps:

soak the agar agar strands in tap water for 30 minutes, soft
in a mixing bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients, taste and adjust.
juilenne (fine) the celery and carrot
cut the agar agar strands, with the same length as the veg
combine the agar strands, veg and the salad dressing. Taste and adjust again. Keep it in a seal container and store in the fridge overnight, the taste would be better.

* In the section of chili sauce at Chinese supermarkets, there are always some in glass jar, sort of half chili flakes and half red chili oil. Use those.

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Season's Eatings - herb encrusted ocean fish

2009-12-06T01:13:00.000-08:00

Who don't think we the one who choose the best gift?

Who don't think we the one who receive the best gift?

Once again, Katie from Thyme for Cooking makes us believe from Season's Eatings ... you can find the event's detail here... or put in simple words, we exchange gifts, mainly herbs and spices.

Ideas are different, the result's the same: the best dish we'd finally make!

We love you Katie!

Plus, I love the dried herb mix fantastic fish blend (lemon basil, chives, dill, thyme, celery) given by Christine Cooks who lives in California.

The dried herbs are organically grown, made by Claudia's Herbs in Orleans in California. Seems that people always focus on the high price of organic food. But for sure, we won't spray chemical on our tongue, then I see no reason why we would put it into our stomach just because it's on food.

I have looked up an old interview on Claudia that has explained how the intense amount of manual labor goes into the production. Every cent we spend makes a perfect sense.

Thanks Christine for the best choice of gift! She doesn't stop at one; she also gave me organically grown solstice soup blend (dried celery, sage, rosemary, thyme), nothing better than a warm and healthy soup to fight the cold weather!

I cooked the dish based on Christine's herb encrusted pacific snapper. I, of course, have used her fantastic fish blend, and adopted a bit Chinese cooking method. Basically, we like to add (quite a lot) garlic while pre-heating the oil, sort of 'flavoring' the oil.

There will be many more bloggers receiving their best Season's Eatings' gifts, please swing by Katie's Thyme for Cooking from time to time, to enjoy her wicked writing and the Season's Eatings' round up by late December.

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Street Food of Hongkong: Vegetable-n-Fish Soup

2009-10-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

The food sold by streetside vendors usually is connected with junk food, fast food. Most of them are, but this one isn't.

When I was a kid my mom ran a tiny store selling some popular street food like soy pudding and chicken soup. Next to us there was a couple selling fish ball and lettuce soup.

Everyday after school I got to work at the store. One of the favorite parts of my job (it's soooo important to create fun from work :) :) was, going to the next store and looking into their soup's pot during the closing hours. All the soup was gone and left with a mountain of fish heads, fins and tails etc... why kid so amazed with such battlefield-like scene?... Those bones were never thrown out, the couple everytime just added in more new bits before making another batch of soup base. So every essence from old bones and a fresh taste from new bits all went into one soup pot!

Then the couple proceeded to washing and chopping the lettuce, mincing fish meat and checking every bottle of sesame oil. They prepared their soup exactly what every mama did at home except in a larger scale, so which never was junky nor fast.

Back then I could resist the calling from ice-cream truck and saved my money for their fish soup! With that light broth, tender fish balls, and peppery and sesame aroma, I almost quited from my mom to work for the couple :D

The street vendors don't really shape the fish paste into ball ... think of selling a hundred bowls a days it is just impossible to hand-make a thousand of fish balls. The vendors scrape a bit of fish paste into boiling soup with a wet spoon, so their fish balls are always irregular in shape. But just to cook to a few people, it really doesn't trouble me when I shaped the fish balls by hand.

The authentic version adds with a lot of white pepper and sesame oil, but now I'd like to try another version that skips the two, but put into arugula to maintain a peppery taste in soup.

Recipe of White Fish Ball, Lettuce and Arugula Soup (for 2 persons) To make the soup base, you will need:

fish bits (tails, fins, bones, heads, etc) of at least 3 fish
shrimp's shells and heads, a big handful
2 cloves of garlic, diced
1 small carrot
1 leek, or spring onion, white parts only
oil, salt and pepper
water

Pre-heat some oil in a pot, saute the garlic and leek/spring onion over very low heat for a minute, then add carrot and water. After the water boils, drop the fish's and shrimp's bits, continue to boil the soup over medium-low heat (with little bubbling is good) for 1 - 2 hours. Salt and pepper to taste.

Best to leave the soup base overnight.

To make the white fish balls, you will need:

meat from one whole fish (the meat preferably not firm and flaky, I used dory)
3 - 4 shrimps, shelled
spring onion, green parts only (or parsley if you prefer), finely diced
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon of oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mince the fish meat and shrimp until they turn into paste, combine with oil, corn starch, salt and pepper. Shape into small balls, about the size of hazelnut

To finish up the dish:

In a serving bowl, place some chopped lettuce in the bottom.

Bring the soup base to boil, drop the fish balls in and cook until they just cooked, probably only take you a minute (overcook will make the fish tough). Spoon the soup and fish balls into the serving bowl. Drop a handful of arugula on top. Serve immediately.

Parmigiano-Reggiano & Potato Scones topped with Green Fig

2009-10-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

Whenever I have a chance to talk to my mother-in-law who lives in NJ of America in the phone, I like to ask her about the price of fruit and vegetable over there.

It is because back then their prices always scared me. Okay, apples are cheap, but I couldn't just live on them. I loved apricot and fresh figs, but forget it since there's no way I could afford them. I even felt guilty if I bought more than 2 red bell peppers which cost 3.99 or up high to 4.99 per pound.

Now my mil asks me how much for this or that, I'd say I'm not sure... I only know they are all real cheap so I even don't bother to look for the price tags. When strawberries were in season, people actually carried a whole tray away. We don't pick a few red bell peppers, we fill them up a whole bag... such and such... I just feel that they are essential food, if the manufacturers are already able to make giant tub of junky snack or 2 liter of soft drink under 2 dollars, they should have a way to set an affordable price to most fruit and vegetable too.

Oh well... back to the lovely green figs, we don't stuff them in bag, vendors would gingerly place them in a nice plastic tray for us. The purple figs and the green figs are the same sweet, for me I find the latter more refreshing and I can eat the skin as well. Green figs only appear in market for a very very short time that makes me treasure them even more.

I am disappointed that these scones didn't rise as much as I anticipate, probably due to my handling or the type of potato I used. But apart from that, I am actually love the moist interior which matches perfectly with the tender figs. I cut the scones into bite-size and topped them with green figs, they are such a pleaser on a high-tea table :D

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How I do food styling when I'm in rush...

2009-10-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

I am going to draw the subject away from cooking this time :) Please let me state clear, I'm not any professional, but since we food bloggers probably have more or less the same limitation on equipment and resources, our experience in photo-taking could be more relevant to each other, I think ?!

How our photos coming out involve way too many topics, so this time I just limit to one area - food styling especially under the condition of no time.

Before I start, I already have the mood (of foto) set in my head. Like this one - very brown and warm; I got such feeling during the baking :D

I start taking photo before the sun is getting strong (harsh), for me usually at 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning.

The biggest enemy when we do thing in rush is stress. So here below I show you how I do it quick and how I deal with the stress...

Step 1 (left)

Work on a small table, like 50cm x 50cm. Bigger space requires more props, more planning on position, light source and such (meaning: time)

And use small plates (like saucers or decorative plates for candle are perfect), food got to be small as well.

Don't place all the garnish at once... do the basic/ minimum first (like my case just power sugar); as garnishing can be very tricky, what you think 'should be' can look like a road-kill in foto.

Position the food in the most safe/typical (or call it uncreative if you like) way, to let you have a few photos at least technically corrected. Later you can go crazy, if nothing works out you still have some decent photos on hand:D

Step 2 (right):

Then proceed more decoration to enrich the picture. I added one more spoon, and dropped the chocolate pudding on the brownies.

I wanted to focus on the second brownie, but that scoop looked so unattractive... so I either re-did the deco or swifted to focus to another brownie. I chose the latter

Step 3 (left): here I accomplished another batch of decent shots... up to here it had took me about 15 minutes. From now on my pressure was off, so I could play around the decoration, not to worry too much on ruinning it.

Step 4 (right): I tried placing a tiny, a very cute eating chocolate on the pudding... oops, it looked stupid :P

Step 5 (left): so I broke the chocolate, much better to me.

Step 6 (right): in between I also took some close-ups.

Step 7: Finale...

For me to make thing intricate or surprising got to be spontaneous. So I messed up that oh-so-predictable-straight-line-position, and causally dropped the spoons behind.

This shot turns out to be my favorite. All the food and the spoons are forming a circle, seemingly call me to 'dig in!!!' Hope you agree with me :D

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Cheese Cake with Fig and Pistachio

2009-09-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

One of my friends who is of Indian descent has been living in this region of Spain for 13 years.

After I moved here not for long, I called her for tea at 2:30 p.m.

'What?' her first response.

People don't start their lunch not until 2.

Since then I have lunch with her at 2:00. But when I'm at home, would stick to 'normal' hour.

Months go by a few more ladies join in. Most of them are local but have experience of living aboard. Yesterday we went to an Indian restaurant. This time one thing we talked about was the time for dinner.

One lady her and her son just moved to Switzerland. One day her son came home from a friend's (American) home with an unset stomach. He joined their dinner... the food wasn't the problem but the time, which was at 5 p.m. People in Barcelona have their dinner even later, at 10 p.m is pretty common.

My Dutch girlfriend when she was still at school in Holland, had dinner at 5, slept at 7:30. Now she asks us not to arrive her home before 10:00 (for dinner), then heads to the club at 2 a.m. Becomes one local...

Meal time in Hongkong is normal ... yes! I'm partial to it ... 12:30 - 2:00 for lunch while 7:00 - 9:00 for dinner. It is only in general, quite many restaurants open 24 hour (so as in the States too to be fair).

Anyone out there have the meal at an 'awkward' hour?

One more question, what can sooth an upset stomach after a spicy meal? I was told that milk or yogurt. So I have made this cheese cake (non-baked kind), topped with yogurt, for my friend yesterday.

Good to see you again!

2009-09-20T04:22:00.000-07:00

Canapé: (left) with hard swiss cheese and pickles (right) salmon mousse and roasted pepper and garlic

wow, I have been gone for 2 months. I didn't do much in Hongkong, I rather spent more time with my family. We ate out 1 or 2 times everyday, plus my mom always made something at home. Everyone and everything fought for the attention of my tastebuds...

Hongkong cuisine can be overwhelming (ingredients used) and complicated (cooking method). By the night time I felt the need to unwind myself so opted for the most simple food, like wine, oysters, bread. People from other tables were never able to sit still to enjoy their food, always jammed in some actions, like tossing dices, smoking turkish water pipes, pressing cell phones for sending sms or calls... but they didn't do each at different time, but all at the same time.

In the street I saw countless of ESO Canon camera (the high price-range ones) with an arm-length len. People struggled with snuggling their camera... and their young kids... and the melting ice-cream... and the flying away balloons...

Our life is frolicking confetti!

I wonder how they react when they sit in a tiny aeroplane seat for 12 hours...

... and when they see this sandwich: a lye roll with a slice of Gruyère and a bit of pickle.

Such roll was served to us during the flight to Zurich. It looked so 'sad' in the beginning, but no no no! I was so wrong; after one bite... heavenly!!! The simplest ingredients come together for a mighty favor!

Less is more.

I can't recreate lye roll at home, but I got some of the best artisan bread at local bakeries, starting from there I've done 2 types of canapé. Let this little fiesta continues in Barcelona :)

The ingredients for making the first canapes: You'll need good quality of artisan rolls, hard swiss cheese like Gruyere or Emmentaler and pickles

The ingredients for making the second canapes: You'll need salmon, milk, a yolk from salted duck egg, spice and cornstarch (all these for the mousse), roasted garlic, roasted red pepper and mint leaves.

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Peachsauce Muffins

2009-06-30T00:28:00.000-07:00

"Twinkie" (a long small cake in US) shape is also found in Barcelona. I baked the muffins in the paper moulds and found the texture pretty good.

Flat peaches have come to markets these weeks. They are very sweet and juicy.

There is a Chinese proverb, the back translation roughly is: Friends seeing each other once in a while, satisfied; but living under one roof; horrified.

Even the reason is just some little things, but two supposed-good friends once got to face it everyday, eventually it turns out to be nightmare.

It is so true, at least to one time which dated back to the last days of my college. School was just finished, my classmates, 4 or 5 buddy-buddies coming together formed a group, decided to take a trip to explore other countries. One group went to Eastern Europe, one to Western Europe, one to Silk Road, one to India, my group to Beijing, and many others...

As a result, for the "lucky" ones, those friends could just barely tolerate each other and waited until came back to Hongkong to breakup. For the "unlucky" ones, they splitted up in the middle of the trip.

There were only two groups still "intact" from start til' the end. The one to India, but one of the classmates was sick for 20 days during the trip, and the trip only lasted 21 days, what a bummer. And the other was my group.

Of course there were many time we argued, and so not talking to each other for a day. But everytime our team leader (we always put the blame on him...dear him) would come back with some cobs of corn (boy, they were bigger than my arm!) or a bag of juicy peaches to apologize.

Ahhh... that peaches! So good, so juicy, for days I wouldn't eat anything except peach!

Maybe, when two friends live together, just make sure the pantry filled with good food, probably that helps?!

Dried cherries were added in the batter. Personally I think they are too sweet, I'd prefer dried apricot next time.

I made these muffins simply because I have lots of peaches at home... the price now are real cheap (a euro or 2 for a big bag) and the taste is excellent... there were so many peaches left so I made some peachsauce (the same idea of making applesauce).

You may like to use any applesauce muffin's recipe you like, then replace the applesauce with the peachsauce. My muffins included semolina flour, poppyseeds and dried fruits in the batter.

To make the peach sauce, first peeled the peaches and removed the stones, sliced the flesh. Pre-heat a skillet, added a spoonful of butter, cooked the peaches over medium/medium-low heat with a spoonful of brown sugar. In a few minutes, more juice would be released and the flesh turned soft, used the back of a spoon to mesh the fruit, and continued simmering until the sauce thicken.

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Moist Coconut Tartlets (HK style)

2009-06-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

I am living in a business district in Barcelona. Besides of banks, lawyer offices and insurance companies, there are many cafes as well.

People come to office at 10. Around 10:30 they sneak out to have a cup of coffee, may or maynot have a mini sandwich but definitely some cigarettes, plus a long chat with their colleagues . At noon they'd have another coffee break since they have been "working" the whole morning. At 2:00 they're off for lunch, come back to office at 4:00. But an hour later ... oh you're so clever... yes, another coffee break! (A side note... the office hour in general is from 10 to 8, people do work for a very long hour, however their inefficiency is pretty well-known...)

I was half-joking to my husband, if I couldn't reach my bank officer/lawyer/insurance agent, I know where I could get them...

In conclusion, everyone loves cafe.

Hongkong people share a similar cafe culture... but minus the frequency... and we must eat, mostly sweet buns, pastries or tarts. In old time, these baked goods were loaded with butter, cream and eggs. This is the reason I think... back then the economy was kicking off, diversifed ingredients were imported, people were liberating their wallets, so as their stomach... So come to pastries and tarts, we like them very, very rich, from the inside filling through the outside crust.

Coconut tart is my all-time favorite. If you are a real coconut-lover, this HK-style tart is the ultimate! No no no, there is no custard inside, it is totally coconut-y! A couple of ingredients (like milk and butter) keep the filling soft, but leaving them overnight is the key to turn them moist.

(actually I made the tartlets weeks ago but couldn't post it as I had been sick. Now I am fanatically looking for the missing recipe ... please give me some time and I'd try to post it as soon as I can. Thank you)

Last but not the least, I am very happy to receive Beautiful Blog Award by Margot at Coffee and Vanilla. Being one of gorgeous blogs herself, Margot features delicious European and Caribbean cuisine, and actively promotes food blogging by organizing various events. So please check out the details of Beautiful Blog Award, you might like to nominate someone as well, or you would be the next one!

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Steamed Ginger Egg Custard, garnish with poached pears

2009-06-17T03:30:00.000-07:00

These two weeks my body has been fighting an infection (not serious), not sure because of it or the medicine I took, I just felt so weak. Some important emails are still pending, a trip should have been prepared but never start, house is dirty, family is lacking my care ... I even felt asleep on a dentist chair yesterday! Right away I told myself I couldn't live like this, I got to grab plenty of rest and eat something good. Last night I forced myself to sleep a few hours more (that makes a whole lot different!), then proceeded the latter... poaching pears in red wine, cooking ginger in milk, steaming it with eggs...

The pears I used for garnish are real tiny, the size is even smaller than a ping-pong ball's. They are just come out the market this week, vendors call them 'perita San Juan' (Sant Juan little pears). Actually many streets, places, schools, people and food are named after saints, some may have a story behind, some I really don't think so. (note later: I just realized June 23 night starts the traditional midsummer party, the celebration in honor of San Juan, St John the Baptist)

The whole dessert only takes minutes to prepare, most of the time is inactive anyway. Less work, more sleep and more nutrition make the best remedy :)

Recipe of Steamed Ginger Egg Custard

(yield: for 2 - 3 persons)

250ml milk
3 - 5 slices of fresh ginger (you can freeze the rest for next time or other use)
a pinch of salt
3 Tbps sugar
2 medium-size eggs

Use a big knife or the back of its handle to smack the ginger slices, place them together with sugar, salt and milk in a small pot. Slowly bring them to almost boil. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Whisk the eggs, just 30 seconds should be enough. Combine the eggs and the milk mixture.
Place a sieve under while pouring the milk into serving bowls.
Place a short rack inside a big pot, fill with water for 1 or 1 1/2 inches, bring the water to just about boiling. Place the bowls of custard on the rack, steam them with the lid close under very low heat... make sure the water is only simmering but not bubbling. Check the custard in the first 5 or 7 minutes ... make sure you dry all the water under the lid before you place it back on. My custards totally took less then 10 minutes to get done.
Serving the custard hot or cold.

Recipe of Poached Pears

Pears of your choice, preferably with firm texture after cooked. Mine are miniture so they don't need to cut, only peeled
Half glass of sweet red wine
1 cinnamom stick
1 slice of lemon
some sugar
some water

In a small pot, stir in wine, water, sugar, cinnamon and lemon, bring them to boil. Lower the heat, put the pears in, keep the liquid barely simmering for 30 minutes. I'd prefer soaking the pears overnight, but I run out of time so mine were soaked for 2 hours.

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Pumpkin & Nut Pastry

2009-05-31T10:14:00.000-07:00

Have you ever felt that there is another "you" living in another place or country? You and "You" aren't related although look identical. You two share the same thoughts, and seem to be aware of each other on some level .

For me the feeling can be creepy, so am very glad that it is only a plot for a foreign movie - la double vie de Veronique.

But in food, discovering its look-alike/ double in an entirely different country the experience is exciting though.

Louh-Pau Ban (back translation: wife's pastry) in Hongkong.

And Pastel Cabello in Barcelona.

LPB's filling has candied winter melon. Depending on how the bakers treat it, the texture can be gummy with crunchy bits. I thought very unique.

Until I tried pastel cabello. Probably there are various types, the one I had the filling was made out of pulp of pumpkin or gourd. The color appeared to be transparent and the texture was crispy also. I've definitely glimpsed a peripheral vision of candied melon!

Now I am not trying to recreate either of the pastries (candied winter melon isn't available in many stores, and I don't have a recipe for that store-bought pastel cabello), but the whole experience has just inspired me on making a pumpkin filling for a Chinese pastry crust. Is there someone else in somewhere doing the same thing?... mmm... ...

Recipe of Chinese Pastry Crust

(recipe courtesy Florence at Do What I like. I have changed a couple of things from the original recipe to suit my own taste

yield: 12 pastries

Dough A

100g flour
25g icing sugar
25g butter, cold, cut into cubes
30g water (adjusting it while forming a dough)

Dough B

100g flour
25g butter, very, very soft
20g corn oil (adjustable)
1 egg for egg wash

To form dough A - in a mixing bowl whisk to combine the flour and icing sugar. Drop in cold butter cubes, use finger or a pastry blender to further cut the cubes until the whole mixture has a texture of coarse cornmeal. Gradually mix in water and knead a few times until a soft dough is form. Divide into 12 small balls.

To form dough B- in a mixing bowl well combine the flour, very soft butter and the oil. The dough is tender and soft as well. Divide it into 12 small balls.

Roll Ball A to a flat circle, place Ball B in the center, wrap up and seal the circle, seal-side up.

Left photo - Roll the ball to a rectangle, from the short side roll it up. Up to this point the gluten in dough probably develops too tight, you may need to cover the roll-ups and rest them in fridge for 30 mins or so, therefore you will feel easier when you do the further rollings.

Right photo - Place the roll-up vertically, the seal-side faces up, roll it to a rectangle, and roll it up. Rest (cover and chill) the roll-ups for 30 mins again.

Roll a roll-up to a flat piece, you can use a mold or just create a free-form pastry, wrap into the filling. Egg wash each top. Since I wanted the pumpkin cook a bit longer, so I set my oven to 185C (Florence used 200C), bake pastries 30 minutes. Cool them off on rack.

Recipe for pumpkin and nut filling

yield: 12 small portions (a portion eqv to 1 tablespoon)

260g pumpkin, finely shredded
1/4 cup sugar
70g almond, blanced
20g unsweeten desiccated coconut
3 teaspoons poppy seeds
50g icing sugar

Mix the pumpkin with sugar, cover and stay overnigh in fridge. Place the pumpkin in a tea towel and squeeze out the liquid as much as possible.
Slightly toast the almond, then ground them.
Combine the pumpkin, almond, cocnut, poppy seeds and icing sugar. Mine the moisture is just perfect, in case of being too dry, I think it is possible to add some honey or maple syrup.
I chose to use a shallow mould, so the (raw) pumpkin is only spread to be a thin layer and able to cook through.

"Shanghai" scallion flat bread

2009-05-24T04:28:00.000-07:00

If the scallion bread is really from Shanghai, or what the one in Shanghai looks like, sorry I can't tell. But it is what Hongkong people like to call, and this is how the vendors like to make: a bit flaky, quite chewy, very aromatic and so highly addictive!

In the 80s and 90s in HK, vendors selling Shanghai/northern-style food were used to be everywhere, sort of like pizzerias in Roma or hotdog carts in NYC. But later, they one by one disappeared, is it due to the (bad) nature of HK people who always keep changing their taste, or due to the ridiculously high rent that killed their business? My husband and I are so sad that now we only find scallion bread at fancy restaurants. In order to charge a higher price, the bread is always overdone (creating excessive flaky layers and adding some lard bites), it is more like a pastry rather than a down-earth bread...

So a few years ago I decided to make my own... started from searching the recipes on internet, testing a few, improvised a bit here or there (no need for too much as the ingredients are so simple!). Since I have been making it many times, I can just estimate the amount. So when you make it based on my recipe, please do count on your eye-n-hand judgment as well.

You know how happy for a kid when the mom hands him/her a big lollipop? I saw the same happy face on my husband when I put down a plate of scallion bread :D

When I lived in US and now in Barcelona, there are not many local stores carrying scallion. They have something similar but that's from related onion family, however, in my opinion, they can't yield the best result (e.g. the green part is too fibery, tastes too dull... or too expensive). Scallion is available at all asian supermarket, and is very, very cheap :)

Ingredients (yield 12 - 13 bread, each about 9 cm in diameter x 1/2cm thick)

320g flour
1/4 tsp of baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt
2 tsp of vegetable oil (but not olive oil)
220 - 230 ml water, boiling hot
about 6 stalks (or more) of scallion
a small bowl of oil, set aside. With a brush
a small bowl of fine sea salt, set aside

Finely chop the scallion, I use the whole including the white part (but not the root though), but try to chop the white even finer as its taste is more pungent than the green part. Set aside.

Well combine the flour, 1/4 tsp salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl, set aside.

Boil the water, add in oil. Then pour most of the hot liquid into the flour mixture, stir very quickly and see how the texture goes, then pour the rest of hot liquid. The dough should be slightly sticky (it will dry up a bit when you work on it later), knead it a few minutes or until it looks smooth.

Place dough in a bowl, pre-greased, cover and rest for an hour.

Evenly divide the dough into 12 or 13 portions. Remember to cover those doughs that you are not working on.

Roll one ball of dough to a flat circle with a thickness of 0.2 or 0.3 cm thick. The dough is soft and tender, but shouldn't be sticky enough to require adding flour on work table.

Brush some oil, sprinkle a good pinch of sea salt and scallion. Check how much scallion I put on, it can go a little more, but not less.

Roll up the circle.

Coil the roll-up.

Gently press down the coil with your palm. Then roll it flatter to the thickness close to 1 cm.

Pre-heat a 9cm skillet, drizzle one teaspoon oil, place 3 slices of bread, cook for 3 or 4 minutes over medium heat. Then cook the other side for another 3 minutes.

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Vegetarian Gelatina, Medlar & Chrysanthemum Flavor

2009-05-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

Medlar only taste sweets after being bletted, so the skin wrinkles and turns dark brown. I placed those i-am-ugly-but-i-taste-good ripen medlar in the behind

In May while some fruit like cherry is swiftly arriving, some other sliently fading away from this city. But this fruit the local called níspero (medlar in English) has been steadily sitting on shelves throughout the whole month. Medlar is a little bit bigger than apricot with the same delicated golden hue. Once cut open, you'd see the seeds totally go wild though; they can be just three, or 6, or more, all tightly packed in the center, whick look so much alike to some tropical fruit in Asia. I was curious and so (... bought some, and ate some first :) :) looked up Wikipedia, and learnt that medlar is native to southwest Asia, like Iran. The flavor is claimed to be like applesauce, but to me more like plum, with a faint scent of parsimmon.

To produce the liquid for this gelatina, I boiled some medlar with dried chrysanthemum in water. I could have used dried rose in order to get a better look, but I gave up the idea as this flavor right now is so perfect! Very light, very delightful!

Next, to create jelly, instead of gelatin, I use a pure vegetarian option - agar-agar (see this previous post to see their difference).

You can replace medlar with other acid fruit, or simply puree the medlar to be more direct when you make the juice.

I took an extra step to cook the fruit all due to my allergy to most fruit... still not sure if to the fruit itself or to the pesticide that has been permeable into the fruit... but once the fruit cooked it won't cause me any allergic reaction. Anyone has similar experience like me?

We don't really eat the dried flower even it is edible as it is fibery. Agar-agar and dried chrysanthemum are widely distributed at Asian supermarket if you live overseas.

Recipe of vegetarian gelatin, medlar and chrysanthemum flavor

(for 4 persons)

7 very soft medlars, skin and stone taken out, sliced
500 ml water
1/4 cup sugar (or to taste)
1 tsp agar-agar powder
15 dried chrysanthemum

Bring the water and the medlars to boil, add (most of the) sugar and simmer for 15 minutes. Taste the sweetness, it requires slightly sweeter than you normally like as it will be just perfect after it's cold.
Once the liquid cools off, cover, keep (including the fruit) in fridge for one day.
Drain the fruit, I got 450 ml of liquid. Add in agar-agar and flower , bring the liquid to boil, keep stirring until agar-agar totally dissolved.
Drain out the flower, pour the liquid in molds. Drop in the flowers if desire for garnish. If the flower floats on the top, just wait when the gelatin 50% set, push down the flower with a toothpick.
Chill the gelatin in fridge until it totally sets, may take a couple of hours.

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Chocolate Spiral Pastry filled Chocolate Fudge

2009-05-14T05:15:00.000-07:00

East meets West... this pastry combines an Asian pastry crust and a western filling. In Hongkong, the pastry usually comes with white crust (no chocolate added) and fills with sweet paste that made from lotus seed or azuki (tiny red) bean.

My American husband likes Asian food, still (but it's very usual), he can care less about the sweet paste that I've described. How to make the pastry more appealing to him? The thought about it led me replace the filling; as a result I decided on chocolate fudge.

The pastry crust is very flaky. Making it is much less complicated than that of European pastry. I think it should have deserved much more attention/priase worldwide because it is pretty, unique, delicious and easy!

Whole-heartedly thank to my old blogging buddy Angie, who first introduced this pastry to me. Although now she is inactive in blogging, I will always remember all the food she made :)

Recipe for the chocolate spiral pastry (crust only) (yield 16 pcs more or less, the size of a ping-pong ball)

The orginial recipe is from Chinese Pastries III at the blog of My Kitchen:My Laboratory

Ingredients

Dough A (white)

100g flour
14 g powder sugar
40 g cold butter, cut into cubes
40 g water
a tiny pinch of salt

Dough B (chocolate color)

90g flour
45 g oil
1 tablespoon white sugar
2 tablespoons of coco powder
a tiny pinch of salt

For Dough A, well combine the flour, the salt and powder sugar. Drop in butter cubes and further cut them by a pastry blender until you got the texture similar to very coarse cornmeal. Add water and form a dough. Divide it into smaller balls, each weight 20g.

For Dough B, well combine the flour, oil, sugar, coco powder and salt until a dough is formed. Divide it into smaller balls, each weight 15g.

Roll one white dough to a flat circle, wrap in a chocolate dough, close the circle. Seal side up.

Roll the ball to be a rectangle with the thickness near 5mm. I rolled it too thin and broke some laminates, ended up a less puffy pastry :( Roll up the rectangle.

Place the roll-up vertically as the photo shows, the seal-side faces up. Roll it again and form a rectangle, this time it turns out to be shorter and rounder. Use a very sharpe knife to cut it into two halves, cut-sides face up, chill them in fridge for at least 10 minutes.

Turn the roll-up's cut-side down, roll it flat with a thickness of 3 mm, place the filling in the center, wrap up the dough and seal it gently. Bake the pastries in a pre-heated oven with 185C temperature for 30 minutes. Depending the type of filling you use, otherwise the pastries store well for 4 or 5 days.

Recipe of Chcolate Fudgy Filling

note from me: I was aiming for a rather chewy texture similar to brownie, instead of bombons, so you'd find flour in my recipe. I don't totally satisfy with the result, need to work on it again. But the followings are what I did.

1/3 cup flour (thinking of cut it down further)
1 1/2 tablespoons coco powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
a tiny pinch of salt
6 oz good chocolate (I like milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet), finely chopped
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 egg yolk

In a mixing bowl, whisk to combine the flour, coco powder, baking soda, salt. Set aside.
Slowly melt the chocolate over a double-boiler. Once it turns smooth, remove from the heat, combine with corn syrup and the yolk (feel the temp of the chocolate which shouldn't be too warm). Then well-combine with the flour mixture.
Chill the fudge in fridge until it sets, scoop up a spoonful and roll into a ball.

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Another Danish Pastry Dough (light)

2009-05-05T04:31:00.000-07:00

Danish pastries are not supposed to be weight-watcher-friendly.

And they are not supposed to be easy to make.

However, this danish is light(er) and easy(ier). But if you know me, less fat or less work can't make me feel interested enough, unless the taste. Yes, it is very delicious.

I have been using this regular danish pastry dough, and always love it. Probably because of this tangy strawberry preserve I made, or this comfortable spring weather, I desired for a pastry that could be light on palate. So based on that original recipe, I reduced 30% of butter and quit the heavy cream totally, then replaced with little creme fraiche and lemon zest.

Technique-wise, the author breaks through the traditonal method - the dough wrapped with a big block of butter and being pounded to flat - which doesn't exist anymore. Instead, the flour is simply mixed with chunked butter. Even one (painful) step is omitted, good understanding on how gluten behaves and good rolling skill are still essential. If you are very good at making pie-crust, I believe this danish is a beeze to you.

Recipe of Danish Pastry Dough - light version

yield 10 - 12 pastries

the recipe is inspired by Beatrice Ojakangas, a professional baker in America, and her excellent book, The Great Scandinavian Baking Book.

25 g fresh yeast
520 g flour
220 g cold butter (I used Irish butter which I think has the best flavor)
1/2 + 1/4 cup skim milk, lukewarm
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg + 1 yolk
a pinch of salt
70g creme fraiche
zest from a half lemon

How-to:

In a small bowl, whisk milk, sugar, salt, egg & 1 yolk, cream franchie and lemon zest. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, carefully break the fresh yeast into the flour.
Preferably doing this step in a very cool room if you can't work fast and efficient... cut the butter into 2-cm-thick, drop them the flour. Use a pastry blender to further cut the butter cubes until they have the size of kindney bean. Then add milk mixture and stir to combine. The dough should be sticky and very thick. Cover, and refridgerate for 4 hours or overnight.
For the rest of steps and photos, please refer the original recipe's direction (starting from the 4th step)
After the last rolling and resting finished, roll the dough to your desired thickness, mine was about 1 cm. Divide to individual-serving portion, create some pattern if you wish, spoon in some fruit preserve (any of your favorite filling). Cover the pastries and rest them for an hour.
In the meantime, pre-heat oven to 210F
Bake the pastries in a 210F-overnfor 5 mintues, then lower to 190F until they turn golden brown.

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Almond Milk Pudding (vegetarian)

2009-04-29T05:26:00.000-07:00

Almond Milk Pudding, garnish with strawberries. The milk is from the first pressing, enriched with flavor and all-white color.

If you don't know what agar-agar is, think of gelatin but in a vegan-friendly form. Some gelatin can contain slaughter by-products but agar-agar is derived from seaweed.

This pudding is made out of dairy-free almond milk (home-made), thickened by agar-agar.

I remember agar-agar dessert was very, very popular in Singapore (and also its neighbor countries), not sure if it relates to the significant portion of population who don't consume a certain kind of animal meat. Anyway, they made amazing agar-agar desserts. Just for this already worth my staying.

We use gelatin and agar-agar the same way. Which is better? For me, I'm totally on agar-agar!

Agar-agar jelly is slightly firmer and gummier, it definitely gives out a better "mouth-feel".

Besides using with the traditional fruit juice like pineapple or orange, it goes particularly well with coconut milk. It doesn't limit itself in sweet treat, agar-agar strips are commonly added into (savory) salad because people simply enjoy the chrunchy texture.

About a month ago, markets in Barcelona started selling strawberries. They were a bit tasteless back then. Now another supply just arrived, maybe they are now in their peak (?), that's why they are so sweet... and inexpensive (for 2 euros I got a small wood case). Can't wait to use them in this dessert :) :)

The milk is made from the 2-nd pressing (repeating the process as followed), the flavor is just sufficient but it doesn't have much white color

Recipe of Almond Milk

(yield 1 1/2 cups)

1/2 cup of almond, blanched
2 cups of water
1/8 cup white sugar (for less sweet)
almond extract (optional... for more bold flavor)

Process the almond with the water, and soak overnight
On the next day, pour the almond mixture through a tea towel to another container. Sneeze the towel very tight and try to sneeze out all the milk.
Mix it with sugar and bring it to boil. Taste.

Recipe of Almond Milk Pudding

yield: 2 - 3 persons

1 1/2 cups almond milk
1 1/8 teaspoons agar-agar powder (for firmer texture, goes to 1 1/2 tsps)

In a small pot, whisk the almond milk and agar to combine, bring them to boil until the agar dissolves. Pour the mixture into containers, after they cool off, chill in the fridge until they set, that may take 1 or 2 hours.

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Simple cookies

2009-04-19T04:02:00.000-07:00

I come across a couple of cookies recipes, they call for hard-boiled egg yolks only.

Interesting. Why someone rather takes the fuss to fix one single ingredient? Isn't it more quick if we use raw yolk, just like most recipes do?

It is my thinking: some food is already there and it may go waste if we don't pay attention. Some recipes like this just put it to good use, at least it is my case.

I love hard-boiled egg, but still I'd throw out some yolk (for less cholestrol in-take) if I eat more than one egg. See? I have already had the ingredient readily available, no fuss, no being waste.

The yolk after cooked carries great flavor, could it be a reason to explain why these cookies are so tasty? Somehow they remind me of the delicious danish cookies that sold in a blue tin :)

Ingredients: (yield 18 cookies) The recipe originally is called Norwegian Butter Cookies, from "The Fannie Farmer Cookbook", written by Marion Cunningham,

4 oz good butter, soften but not melting
1 hard-boiled egg yolk
1/8 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
a pinch of salt (if your butter is not salted)

How-to:

Pre-heat oven to 375F
Whisk the butter, sugar and yolk until it is light and fluffy
Combine with the flour (and salt if used) and the yolk cream until a soft dough is formed
You can use a cookies presser. For me, I just divided the dough into 18 portions, place them on a baking tray, gently press each down a bit to form a disk before create a thrumb print. Bake them for 10 - 12 minutes.
Remove them from the tray, and let cool completely on the rack.
To garnish, I add cream cheese filling, topped with organic edible flowers and mint leaves.
Without any garnish/topping, the cookies keep well at least 3 days if keep in a air-tight container.

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Gold Potato & Spring Onion Focaccia (proofing in fridge)

2009-04-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

Just a thought... each post's heading and photo are going to mark with "by: gattina, posted in: gattinamia.blogspot.com" ... could it be effective to stop people lifting my materials?

Or... it just makes me look stupid?

A few weeks ago there's a storm in the food-blogsphere. A guy, without asking, blindly scrapped the posts from some bloggers and put them at his site. I say "blind" because, he even lifted the whole content of one blogge's post, but in which was actually complaining about his stealing.

My deepest impression on this incident is the kindness of the foodblog-community though. Lara, Mango Power Girl and one anonymous, even we may not have any contact to each other before, quickly informed me about my posted being stolen. Thank you all!

This focaccia is surely more than enough for four of us, so you come to join us too? :)

I have been liking the previous potato focaccia, since my taste and life style have changed (the former goes lighter, the latter goes laxer), this time I give it a couple of impoverishments.

First about potato. The previous recipe uses a rather large quantity of baking potato (e.g. russets). I cut it down to a half, aiming for a more spongy bread. But I specified Yukon Gold Potato since I totally adored its buttery-tasting flesh.

Second, I retarded the fermentation by proofing the dough in fridge overnigh. Two benefits here. The bread is tastier since those herbs, olive oil and potato are given more time to develop the flavor. Last but not the least, what is better than prepared everything a night before; next day I, literally effortlessly, can have a hot and fresh foccacia for brunch.

Ingredients: (yield: 9" x 13")

8 oz (about 2 medium-small of) gold potatos, or any type that yields a good flavor
f25g fresh yeast
3 cups flour (+ 1/4 cup for dusting)
1 cup whole milk, lukewarm
2 tsps sea salt (and extra for topping)
5 tsps corn oil
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil ( and extra for drizzling on top)
2 tsps dried crushed oregano
a little water (if the dough too dries)
a handful of spring onions, chopped, use the white and pale green parts
a little chilli flakes or red peppercons

How-to:

Boil the potatos until it's done, mash them right away while still hot (as easier). Let cool completely
In a large mixing bowl, combine fresh yeast, flour, potatos, oregano, two oils and salt. Add milk (most of it but not all... later during the kneading after you get a good feeling of its moisture, then to decide more milk or not)
Keep that 1/4 cup of flour handy, dust the work table with it. Knead the dough until elastic and smooth. Please note that the dough in the beginning feels a bit dry, but later turns sticky (so don't rush to add excessive liquid too soon). The dough should be slightly sticky.
Put the dough in a pre-grease (with e.v. olive oil) large bowl, cover with pre-greased cling wrap, place the bowl in the lowest shelf of the fridge, let it proof overnight.
Next day take the dough out and fold it (but not knead) a few times, just to re-distribute the yeast cells.
Grease the baking tray with olive oil, and your hands too; gently press the dough until it reachs the sides. If the glutin too tight the dough would refuse to spread, then, let it sit (cover with a damp towel) for 15 minutes and try again. Sprinkle the spring onions and a bit of chilli flakes. Cover with a plastic, let rise until it has a double of the volume.
In the meantime, pre-heat oven to 230 C
Bake the focaccia for 5 minutes, then lower to 200 C until it's done, it may take 20 - 25 mins in total. Unmold the bread and let it completely cool off on a rack.
The focaccia tastes best in the first 2 days.
Good enough to make 6 sandwiches, or simply to cut into chucks, accompanied with tomato sauce.

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Prawns in garlic-n-chilli olive oil

2009-03-25T02:10:00.000-07:00

It is a dish that I love to order in a restaurant in Barcelona, which is famous for Galicia cuisine (north-western Spain).

Slow-cook (so in a very low heat) lots of sliced garlic and one chilli in a generous amount of olive oil (not extra-virgin), then raise up the heat and saute some fresh prawns (pre-salted) until they're about half-way done. Put the prawns in a cray dish and carefully pour in the hot oil until it cover the prawns so that the heat continues do the cooking. By the time we dig in, the prawns will be perfectly done!

My dearest friends, I am now going to New Jersey and will be back after Easter. Happy Easter to you *hug*

Marmalade Tart

2009-03-19T01:28:00.000-07:00

The part of Barcelona I am living in is more built-up; really not much natural beauty left...

But the town authority is so thoughtful; almost all alleyways are planted with fruit trees, like tangerine, orange and lemon. The authority also makes sure that every single tree is well trimmed, and no single rotten fruit lays on the ground.

Many trees are so close to apartment blocks. Practically the residents can reach the fruit from balcony. I wonder if they would make their own marmalade then...

I live in a very high floor; I have to buy my own marmalade...

The crust is Italian-style crostata, supposed to be very sweet. For pursuing a healthier eating habbit, I have cut down the sugar. It is sweet enough, but is still rich due to a high portion of butter and eggs.

The dough is very tender; good thing is rolling becomes so easy. But the dough will turn sticky quick (due to a lot of butter), so please do the cutting and fitting fast. Always lightly floured your hands should help too.

Recipe of marmalade tart

yield two 8" standard tarts or approx. 10 small tartlets, lattice top included

superb quality of marmalade, made from organic fruit
for the crust:
300 g flour
160 g butter, cold, and cubed
90 g sugar
a small pinch of salt
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk (only)
1 Tbp cold water
a bit lemon zest

How-to

Pre-greased and lightly floured the pans. The 8" one should have a removable bottom.
Pre-heat oven to medium/medium-high, about 180
In a small bowl, whisk the egg, the yolk and a table spoon of water. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, salt, lemon zest and sugar.
Use a pastry blender, cut the butter cubes into the flour mixture until the whole content has a texture similar to very coarse corn meal. Combine with the egg mixture and form a smooth dough (Kneading briefly may be necessary, but must not over-do it otherwise the butter will start melting).
Divide into three doughs, wrap each with clingwrap and rest them in fridge for half day.
Roll out each dough to 1/4"-thick or less. Cut to fit your pan's size. If you make 8" tarts, two doughs go for the bottom crust. The last dough is for cutting to long strips.
Fit each pan with bottom crust, fill with a thin layer of marmalade, arrange long strips on top or create lattice top if you like.
Bake the tarts until they turn golden brown, time is various to the size. For the big one may take 30 mins, the small 20 mins.

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White Fish filled Roasted Red Pepper

2009-03-13T09:23:00.000-07:00

We make sure that we have something to eat before we go to pub in Barcelona.

Some pubs may have fries and cheese sandwich, but that's about it. Forget that buffalo wings, burgers, onion rings ...

There is one pub close to our house, and the owner makes his own beer. Very unusual, he also creates a few exquisite snacks, this pepper & fish is one of them.

The whole texture is so soft and creamy that reminds me of cloud, pillowing my tastebuds and delighting my soul.

Due to the very soft filling, the original pepper rolls look very sagging, taste-wise is superb though. When I re-created the dish, I attempted a better shape, so I formed a cone with a very thin slice of pineapple and inserted to the pepper. Although the authentic texture is changed, the pineapple does give the rolls a more interesting flavor.

Recipe of White Fish filled Roasted Red Pepper

yield: 3 rolls

100 g white ocean fish, preferably with soft texture, cubed
3 roasted red peppers in oil, store-bought
a small clove of garlic
1 - 2 Tbp(2) flour
1 Tbp butter
some milk
salt and pepper to taste
veg oil
very thin slices of pineapple (optional)

How-to

Pre-heat a skillet, drizzle veg oil, saute the garlic and fish until they are almost done, salt and pepper to taste. Puree.
Use the same skillet, add butter and flour, fry and keep stirring them over a very low heat for a minute or 2, gradually add milk and continue to stir very well until you get a thick sauce, simmer for 2 minutes more, salt and pepper to taste.
Combine the fish puree and the thick cream.
Pre-heat the oven to medium. Line a baking pan with foil.
Fill the peppers with the fish filling and pineapple (if use). Arrange the rolls on the pan, brush veg oil on top.
Place the pan on a higher shelf of the oven, bake until the rolls heat through, about 15 minutes. Serve hot.
The filling can also prepared a day ahead, then do the stuffing and baking on the next day.

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Coconut & cinnamom cookies

2009-03-04T23:56:00.000-08:00

Friends share... food, good time, or even shoes or bags :)

People in this city are simply gracious, sometimes, they share with everybody.

One time we flew from Switzerland to Barcelona. The flight was in the early morning and so short, just an hour; we were only served with a plain round bun ... err ... does your language use any creature to express boredom? Spanish uses oyster, Chinese uses bird... whatever it is, that bun surely puts everyone's taste buds to half-sleep. But what a nice thing happened: one Spanish guy shared a big block of chocolate with as many passengers as he (or it) could. We put it inside the bun, instantly, we got a chocolate roll, which actually is a popluar breakfast item in Barcelona.

Patricia at Technicolor Kitchen always shares wonderful recipes. Herself is an excellent baker, and her recipes are always good. Like this recipe of chocolate chip cookies, I have made it over 10 times. For the best recipes like this one, I'd never feel like to change anything. So I urge you to try it too :)

But I guess after 10 or 20 times, I'm confident enough to reform the recipe. My family and I love coconut, so based on Pat's recipe, these coconut cookies are born.

Recipe of Coconut and cinnamom cookies

the recipe is based on Chocolate Chips and Almond Cookies, published at Technicolor Kitchen by Patricia

(yield: est 45 cookies)

11o g butter, soft
70 g granuated sugar (white)
2 tablespoons of light corn syrup
1 very small egg
195g flour
40 g dessicated coconut, unsweetened
a pinch of salt
1/2 + 1/8 tsp of baking soda
for the outside coating: combining 1/3 cup unsweetened dessicated coconut + 1/8 cup Demerar sugar (I prefer it to regular brwon sugars as Demerar is more dry) + 1/4 cup granuated sugar + 3 tsps ground cinnamom

How-to

Pre-heat the oven to 375F
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, coconut, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
In another mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Add egg and syrup, continue to beat for another minute.
Combine the flour mixture with the butter mixture. The dough should be thick, soft, and sticky.
The size of this cookie shouldn't be too big (more crispy). Spoon out a bit of dough and drop it onto a plate of coconut coating mixture, roll the dough until it is fully coated. Then place the dough on a baking tray, gentle press it down into 4.5cm (diameter) x 0.5cm (thick) round disk. Contiue to the rest of the dough.
Bake the cookies until golden brown, about 15 minutes. After they are taken out from oven and all right to touch, remove them from the tray and place them on a rack to completely cool off.
Store the cookies in a air-tight container, they can keep well up to a week.

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Cardamom cakelets

2009-02-26T05:06:00.000-08:00

Back then ... when the weather was getting warmer in New Jersey (usually around May), some of my neighbors would have cafe/dining alfresco. What a beautiful picture I saw - a big family sat by a long wood table, grandma was busy in taking out the food and pouring everyone some wine, their laughs were mixed with the spring breeze ...

Ironically, my food was dotted with flies.

The February in Barcelona can be as warm as the May in NJ; I did my cafe alfresco yesterday!

With these wonderful tiny cakes ... enjoyed alone, without any company of fly... in the balcony.

Also glad that I made my alfresco on time... today my balcony's covered with an inch of dust; the neighbor above me has just started a big renovation work...

I would recommend only the mini size for this recipe.

The cakelets fill with the fragrance of cardamom and the tangy taste from creme fraiche. They in fact taste much better on the second day. Once coming out from oven, the texture is more similar to muffin's, a bit dry on the top. But after keeping them overnight, and letting the strawberry slices moist the crumb, they turn out to be lovely and tender cakelets on the next day.

Recipe of cardamom cakelets

yield : about 24 cakelets (I used 2" or 5cm tartlet pan)

1+ 1/2 cups flour
cardamom seeds from 3 green cardamom pots, finely crushed
100 g creme fraiche
55g butter, soft, room temperature... plus a bit extra for topping
1/2 + 1/4 cup sugar
egg white from one large egg
1/2 cup milk (or less)
lemon zest from one small lemon
6 or 7 strawberries, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt

How-to

Pre-greased and lightly floured the tartlet pans, set aside
Pre-heat the oven to 350F
In a large bowl, combine the flour, the cardamom, the salt, the baking powder, the baking soda and the lemon zest. Set aside.
In another mixing bowl, beat the butter with the sugar until very light and fluffy. Add egg white, continue to beat for another minute or 2. Incorporate with creme fraiche and the milk.
Well combine the flour mixture with the cream mixture. Spoon the batter (it is slightly thick) into the tartlet pan, about 3/4 full.
Top the batter with a slice of strawberry, dot with a tiny cube of butter, sprinkle a bit of sugar on top.
Bake the cakelets for 15 - 20 minutes, or until they just start turning pale golden.
Unmold the cakelets and let them cool off completely on a rack.
Keep them in a container, cover, and store in a cool room. Enjoy them on the next day.

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Hot Cocoa & Strawberry Chocolate Pudding

2009-02-22T19:12:00.001-08:00

Advertising people think quick, act quick. More and more food magazines feature special menus fighting against the economic crisis.

But food supposes to be the comfort zone ...

After slaving ourselves at office (or for kids, or any complicated inter-personal relationship), do we still have to put up with thinking about the crisis while chewing... Not me.

This pudding is served hot, I like that warmth enveloping the whole body. Instead of buying strawberries in big pack, I picked only a few from a vendor; I really can't eat that much, and of course, I can pay less.

Btw, when I worked in adverting, my companies either didn't eat, or they gulped.

The top pudding is made out of strawberry chocolate, it's a gift from my friend. A simple white chocolate surely is beautiful enough. Dip a strawberry in... warning, highly addictive!

Recipe of hot cocoa & strawberry chocolate pudding

(serving: 2 persons, or for 4 small champagne glasses)

500 ml whole/low-fat milk
3 tablespoons corn starch
2 + 2 tablespoons sugar (for low sugar)
30 g strawberry/ white chocolate, finely chopped
25 g cocoa powder
2 egg yolks
a dash of vanilla essence

How-to:

In a small bowl, whisk the yolks and 2 tablespoons of sugar until it looks light and pale. Combine with cocoa and vanilla. Set aside.
In a pot bring the milk, 2 tablespoons of sugar and the corn starch to boil. Remember to whisk constantly. After it boils, lower to simmer for 8 minutes or until the mixture thickens.
Melt the strawberry/white chocolate over double-boiler (it's very sensitive to heat, and so doesn't take long). Combine it with 1/3 of milk mixture. Set aside.
Now we have 2/3 milk mixture. Pour some of it into cocoa/yolk mixture and whisk quickly (tempering), and return the yolk mixture back to the pot and well combine all the left-over milk mixture. Continue to simmer for another 1 minute.
Pour the hot cocoa pudding into serving glasses, top with the strawberry/white chocolate pudding (if the latter sets/cools off too early, just let it set over the double-boiler for a minute it will soften again). Garnish with chocolate shavings, strawberry and mint leaves.

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