feed me! i'm hungry!!

Lemonicious feast

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 10:30:00 +0000

Ok, so lemonicious is not a word. Big deal!

It's the only word that comes to mind when explosions of lemon occured in my mouth from one bite of these lemon bars.

I had been craving lemon curd slices for a while. Whilst I'm usually satisfied by a slice of lemon tart, I'd been hunting around for a slice recipe for sometime now because sometimes, I just want it satisfied in the shortest amount of time possible - like 1 hour instead of 12+ hours (which incidentally is how long it takes to make my favourite Lemon Tart by Pierre Hermé)

Incidentally, I found this recipe when reading through my feed a few weeks ago and it ticked the box for:

shortcrust pastry
lemon curd filling
simplicity in ingredients
baked in under 1hr

Starred! on Google Reader for another day..

The "other day" arrived last Sunday using the 2 lemons that C brought back from work - gifted from a colleague's backyard tree.

I immediately thought of David's recipe though when I re-read the recipe, I realised that the recipe called for 1 whole organic lemon that would be pulverised along with other filing ingredients and forms part of the curd.

When I saw that, I hesitated... I wasn't so sure about the whole lemon thing. I had no idea whether the lemon I was using was 'organic' or not. Given the lack of history and the fact that what I had to work with was still rock hard, I had no choice but to improvise. So I zested the lemon and removed the pith, using the lemon segments and zest as a substitute instead.

All I can say after all that is that David Lebovitz sure doesn't disappoint when he claimed that these were good.

Once you start, you just can't stop!

Head over to David's to see how he came up with these delicious bars.

Lemon Bars
by David LeBovitz

Lemons vary in size David used lemons weighing around 175g (6oz).

Base
1 cup (140g) flour
1/4 cup (50g) sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (115g) melted unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Lemon Curd Topping
1 lemon, organic or unsprayed
1 cup (200g) sugar
3 tablespoons (45ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 large eggs, room temperature
4 teaspoons corn starch
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons (45g) melted unsalted butter

Optional: icing sugar, for serving

Method

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF).
Overturn an 8-inch square pan on the counter and wrap the outside snugly with foil, shiny side up. Remove the foil, turn the pan over, and fit the foil into the pan, pressing to nudge the foil into the corners. The smooth it as best you can.
In a medium bowl, mix the flour, sugar, salt, melted butter, and vanilla, stirring just until smooth.
Smooth the batter into the bottom of the pan, using your hands or a small offset spatula to get it as level as possible.
Bake the crust for 25 minutes, or until it’s deep-golden brown.
While the crust is cooking, cut the lemon in half, remove the seeds, and cut the lemon into chunks.
Put the chunks of lemon in a food processor or blender along with the sugar and lemon juice, and let it run until the lemon is completely broken up. Add the eggs, corn starch, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and 3 tablespoons (45g) melted butter, and blend until almost smooth. (A few tiny bits of lemon pieces are normal and encouraged.)
When the crust comes out of the oven, reduce the heat of the oven to 150º (300ºF) . Pour the lemon filling over the hot crust and bake for 25 minutes or just until the filling stops jiggling and is barely set.**
Remove from the oven and let cool completely. Once cool, carefully lift out the bars grasping the foil. Cut the bars into squares or rectangles. Sift powdered sugar over the top just before serving, if desired.

**Note:

It might be worth pouring the lemon filling through a sift as I ended up with a lot of bubbles on my curd after it's been cooked. Alternately, you could tap the tray or poke the bubbles so that the end result is a little more pleasing.. ;)

Storage:
The bars will keep in an airtight container at room temperature up to three days. You can freeze the lemon bars as well for up to one month, letting them come to room temperature before serving.

I can't remember...

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:44:00 +0000

... the last time I made these.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that it'd be about 2 years since I last made and ate these.

These and the originals from Amai Tea and Bake House.

Amai Tea and Bake house, as we all know closed almost 2 years ago - and that is (almost) how long it has been since I left London. 2009 seemed like it was only yesterday, when I left London for home with hopes of return that were never fulfilled. (Yes, I did go back to London last year, but it was regretfully more of a farewell visit than a return)

2009 was also the year I last visited New York and stepped into the quaint little store called Amai on 3rd Avenue and left with almost USD50 worth of goodies - cookies, cakes and the lot.

Let me just say that, the green tea brownie was worth the $$. Of the rest that I lugged back to London, only the memories of the Earl Grey and Cranberries cookies lingered in my mind. But anyway, that was a glimpse of the past.

Since the recipe for these famous cookies were made available online (in 2007), many a moons have tried it. This lot was my 2nd attempt, that was semi (ok, heavily!) modified in flavour.

I think I like mine better... LOL

Matcha (+ Kurogoma) Cookies
adapted from this recipe

Ingredients (for 1 flavour)

3/4 cup (2.25 oz) Icing sugar
5 oz Unsalted butter, cut into cubes (room temperature)
1 + 3/4 cup (8.5 oz) All-purpose flour
3 Large egg yolks
1 cup (8 oz) caster sugar (for coating)

1.5 tbsp Matcha OR 3 tbsp Roasted Ground Sesame*
1 cookie cutter (shape of your choice)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Whisk the icing sugar and green tea together in a bowl.
Add butter and green tea/sugar mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
Mix until smooth and light in color.
Add the flour and mix until well combined.
Add the egg yolks and mix just until the eggs are fully incorporated and the dough comes together.
Form the dough into a disk and chill in the refrigerator until firm (approximately 30 minutes).
Roll the dough out to roughly 1.25cm (1/2") thickness.
Cut the dough with a cookie cutter.
Toss each cut cookie in a bowl of granulated sugar to coat.
Place the sugar-coated cookie on a lined pan.
Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges.

*Notes
I used roasted ground black sesame purchased from a japanese supermarket.
I also used 3 tbsp as the flavour didn't quite come out with 1.5 tbsp - yep, I tasted the cookie dough.

In 2011..

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:39:00 +0000

I vow to...

I think I'd better not vow to do anything just yet...

maybe just work-life-balance..

(Photo from Central Park, NY taken on 1.1.2009)

Next stop.....

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:13:00 +0000

was suppose to have been KL

for some ab-fab hawker food!!

Instead, I'm still here, in London, like the rest of travellers in Europe who are stranded as a result of the Iceland volcanic explosions and closure of the London Heathrow airport.

It's not a bad thing. A few days ago, when I was on the last leg of my London trip, I was lamenting to friends of how I wish I had a few extra days to spend in London, to see a few more things, enjoy the lovely spring weather and revisit places that I've often walked past but never gave a moment of thought to..

Look at how things have turned out. I got my wish! and because it would be extremely unfair if one had everything go in one's favour, I am on an extended stay in London on the expense of my long overdue catch up with the cousins in Malaysia (and friends in both Singapore and Malaysia). It's a little sad, I was really looking forward to catching up with the cousins. We haven't seen each other for 3 years now and I had missed one of their weddings; but.. I digress..

So, what does one do when one has some extra days to spend in London? One spends the first day outside on this lovely spring Saturday. =)

We began the day with a late lunch at Necco, in Exmouth Market. A little Japanese diner decorated in shades of pink and yellow, colourful knitted drinks placemats, kitty motifs and tiny little tables and chairs. The menu was extensive, from ippin ryori to the usual omakase sushi/sashimi platters, donburi and udons. The food was along the lines of home made japanese mum cooking. It was tasty, hearty, MSG free and relatively cheap.

We wolfed down a plate of omakase sushi, tori kara age (coz who doesn't love a good fried chicken), sunomono (a cucumber and wakame seaweed salad), nasu dengaku (broiled miso eggplant) and a spicy salmon donburi and sipped on sencha and yuzu tea in between dishes. Between the 2 of us we spent about £40 worth of food and drinks (plus desserts to go). Hmm, not sure how that happened...what pigs we are!!!

As we left Necco, we walked past a crowd gathered in front of Brill, a music shop that offers cds, coffee as well as entertainment. Entertainment, came in the form of a man with his guitar and a harmonica playing country tunes. I thought the singing was a little soft, considering he had a big crowd and it was a little noisy. But the atmosphere was great and all those who gathered seems to be enjoying music under the sun.

Leaving Exmouth market, we decided to spend the rest of the lovely day somewhere outdoorsy for a bit of alfresco dining with the takeaway desserts we purchased from Necco. So, we took a long and leisurely stroll towards Regent's Park via King's Cross.

(The Oysterhouse Lighthouse, on the intersection

corner of Pentonville Rd, Euston Rd and Gray's Inn Rd in King's Cross)

(Regent's Park, BT Tower in the background)

Regent's Park was buzzing with activity - families with their prams and kids in tow and couples with their picnic rugs laid out on the grass; everyone was out to enjoy the lovely spring sunshine.

When we finally settled down on a spot, we took some time chatting and absorbing our fair share of the sun before digging into our deserts.

The first dessert we got suckered into was a Green Tea tiramisu, a rich layer of mascarpone, followed by tsubu-an (red bean paste) and green tea sponge topped with a love shape sprinkling of matcha.

The second dessert, was a Green Tea tower, layers of whipped cream, green tea sponge, tsubu-an and matcha jelly, topped with a light sprinkling of matcha.

Now, if only we were enjoying the same delicacies under the beautiful cherry blossoms in Japan...

Ah well, if we can't go to Japan, we can just pretend that Japan is right here in the heart of Regent's Park...

Guess where I've been...

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 23:06:00 +0000

Easter in ...

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:02:00 +0000

coming to town...

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:44:00 +0000

Leaving.. on a jet plane..

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:20:00 +0000

...don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go....

Don't you just love that famous song? Everytime I'm excited about going on a trip somewhere that song goes on repeat in my head. Well, the first line anyway, I can never remember the rest of it.. hahaha..

Did I hear you ask where am I heading off to again? I'm heading to this skyline..

to a place call HOME.

I should be in the air right about now, as this post goes live. The next time I sign on, it'll be from Melbourne.

Good bye London, for now anyway...

I'm off again .... =)

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 17:48:00 +0000

as when this post went live, I am on my way to one of the most frequented cities in the world ...
this may be my last European trip for a while.....but I'm going to enjoy every minute of it! at the expense of 2 days salary...

A whim..playing with photoshop

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 19:43:00 +0000

I'm on one of those "whims" again.

Lately it's playing with photoshop. I cannot remember loading up photoshop as many times as I've ever had this week.. ever..!

I'm not even sure how or when it started. Just that lately my mouse pointer has been heading straight for the Ps icon on the quick launch bar within 20mins of booting up - it's like that, every single time I'm 'online'. Instinctively, almost like a predator hunting for it's nextmeal.. uhm..ok.. I've gone off on a tangent again..

The above photo, was taken back in 2007 on my first trip to Japan. It was taken at the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. The original photo has a more subtle orangey red gates. (See original photo here)

But I think it looks a whole lot better in a deeper red, might have something to do with a photo I remember seeing on my Lonely Planet Japan guide a while back. So I cropped the original photo, because I wanted something in a landscape form, cranked up the red, fiddled with the saturation and exposure and stuck some words at a random spot.

The end result is as above. I thought it looked kinda cool, so I thought I'd share :)

Part of my playing with ps whim photo-set.

Going bananas! well.. not really..

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:44:00 +0000

Wow! I can't believe it's already the end of Feb! The first 2 months of 2009 has rocketed past and I feel like I have just watched the days gone by and that's it really.. haven't achieved or done anything memorable this year and it'll be March in 3 days. Crap!

It felt like it was only yesterday when I came back from New York, went back and got stuck into work. Had my days off, bummed around, watched episodes of my favourite shows, went to work, got stuck in the snow storm, went home, went to work... it's like I've been living in a vicious repeat of a really awful soap opera.. and snap.. omg.. this is my life..

hmm.. starting to feel a little pathetic.. hah! *snap*

Well enough moaning bout nothing really.

A couple of things to share today:

1. Booked my airfare home to Melbourne - wooohoo!
It costed a bomb and I was living in a pinch for a few weeks (still am!) since I had to pay for the fare not long after the "big-spend-all" in New York last month.

2. I've been baking!
Woohoo! Haven't really been posting which is the sad bit, but I have been baking. Made my first ever Caramel Slice two weeks ago. Big success, will be redoing it again this weekend for a special occasion next week - this time I will be blogging about it.

So, apart from the boring soap opera called life, it looks like my baking's picking up a fair bit. It's turning into a bit of a competition at work too - if you listen to the trouble makers at work that is. I've been baking and bringing in the goodies to work on average once a month since the year started. We had a newbie come in at the end of Jan and ever since she started at work, she's been bringing some baking goods into work too! We had Flapjacks first week, my caramel slice two weeks after and then a lemon drizzle cake this week. (Lucky I didn't make anything last weekend!)

So the trouble makers are now saying that it's a competition and debating on who's better... *rolled eyes* I hate to say it but things like this makes me want to shirk even more from baking and bringing it into work. To me, baking and sharing is all part of the whole reason I bake*. It's all about sharing the love of food and the last thing I need is someone to make comparisons between what I bake and what someone else bakes..we are two different bakers!

Starting to sound like I'm afraid of losing doesn't it? Well, I am not (afraid of losing)... least I don't think I am, but it's not about who makes the better goods is it? Baking is about sharing.. it should just be that.. THE END

Anyways, something from the vault to share with y'all. Good old fashion Banana Muffin with a bit of oats - coz I can. I made this well over a year ago, looking at the photos brings back memories.. "Oh my tart pans, cooling tray, chopping block, my bed.... uh.. ahem.. never mind."

Banana and Oat muffin
adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients

3 or 4 ripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 + 1/2 cup of flour
1/2 cup of oats
1/2 cup of milk

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 12 piece muffin tray.
2. Pour oats and milk in a bowl and let it soak until all the milk is absorbed
3. With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.
4. Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla.
5. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the batter and combine well.
6. Add the flour, mix until just combined. (do not over mix)
7. Fold in the oat and milk mixture.
7. Pour batter into a prepared muffin tin.
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a test skewer comes out clean.
9. Cool on a rack.

Verdict:
From memory, the muffins were slightly dense but moist because of the addition of the oats and milk. I think I should've put in more oats because the oaty texture and taste were not very pronounced. Makes a very tasty breakfast!

*OK! OK! you got me there, so maybe I don't just bring my fruits of labour to work just to share. I kinda need someone to help me...finish it - so really it is SHARING!

EDIT: Yes... I know, it's just a joke and I'm being sensitive stupid things. I know they appreciate the effort because they do tell me that they love it, but it kinda does make me feel a bit small when I get compared that way....

Blogging could be..

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 21:09:00 +0000

Blogging could be addictive or it could be a drag...............

Having not blogged for a while, I must say I am slowly getting addicted to it again.. slowly, probably not fast enough for my usual impulsive standards - not that I am a very impulsive person.

maybe.. just a little, when I get addicted to a particular ds game (not since Crosswords and Cooking Mama!), series or book that has got me so hooked and on my toes that I just can't let go and I would drag out every/any excuse I could to stay home just so I could keep reading/watching or playing whatever game it was that I was playing. Lately, it's been Neves and Mario Kart that has been occupying my spare time.

Photography is/was also very addictive....

I first bought a dslr almost 2 years ago, I remember snapping every Tom, Dick and Harry; every damn building street and what not that I came across. As a result, I would end up filling up my SD card with 300+ photos in the span of 5 hours.

I remembered when I went on my trip to Japan in 2007 I took about 300 photos (on my then 2gb Extreme II SD), the first day I was in Osaka. 300! Like geez, what was I snapping? Can't remember now. Sure enough, I ended up having to cut down the amount I took and made a point of culling down all the photos I took that day before bedtime every night just so I would have enough memory left to take more photos the next day. Suffice to say, I ended up burning some onto a DVD half way through our trip just so I could take more photos for the remainder of our trip.

So what's this gotta do with blogging? Well, part of the reason why I've not blogged about any of my European trips was because of the same reason. I lost interest. I took over 1000 shots on my first 2 trips (Luxembourg and Bremen) after arriving in London. It's taken me a whole week (approx 3hrs a night) to sift through the Luxembourg photos and come up with the condensed amount on a previous post.

I'm a lot better now and a lot less trigger happy than I was when I first started traveling. I no longer snap at every damn thing I come across in my trips. If anything, I found that as the number of trips increased, I got a better understanding of what I actually enjoy doing on each trip and made better use of the time in the city (that we were visiting) rather than spend the whole time trying to record what we visited/saw on each trip.

I've discovered that I loathe tours to cathedrals (though I do like their stain glass windows) and castles and I would rather spend the day walking the streets or markets and dining out alfresco style while watching the locals pass by.

I've discovered that I am a very visual person, weird and colourful things catch my eyes more often than anything else and people. One other thing that I've also discovered is that I am camera shy! I often miss a photo opportunity because I am too embarrassed to point my camera at a person if he/she is looking at me.

Argh! well, maybe not. I'd rather be safe than sorry, the last thing I want to do while traveling is get chased or beat up by some local dude because he didn't like/want me taking a snap of him.

So there, now that I've got Luxembourg up, I only have 26,260 photos (RAW + JPEGs) to catch up to my most recent trip, New York....*chuckle*

ps. Baking and cooking wise, I really haven't made anything worth blogging about lately. Most of my baking and cooking these days are repetition of previously made recipes. Mostly, it's been done as more of a last minute potluck dish than the desire to try something new. Other times, it's when I'm assisting with a friend's baking whim. Not having all my baking equipment in London, really takes the fun out of trying something new. I know it sounds like another excuse for not blogging, but reality is, it really sucks when I want to make mini tarts and haven't got even a muffin tin to use as a substitute for the tart shells. Sure, I can always go out and buy one, but considering we're not sure of how long we're staying in London for, it's probably not a good idea to start collecting stuff for a new kitchen, particularly where budgeting is concern.. :P

Well, the good thing is, I'll be heading home (Melbourne) soon in a few months. Though we're still not certain whether it will be temporary or for good, at least then there will be no more excuse for me to not try out something new or old like this: =)

It's snowing.. on New Year's Eve!

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:02:00 +0000

in New York....

It's not quite 2009 in NY yet, but it will be soon enough!

Happy New Year everyone!

psst.. Can you see the snowflakes falling down....?

More here

Today, I...

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:56:00 +0000

..am friggen tired.

It's been a while since I slogged so much in the kitchen on a SUNDAY. It's SUNDAY, people should be relaxing, putting their feet up on a SUNDAY. But.. no.. somehow, inspired by some unknown factor, I set out and did all these things today:

Brunch: Ricotta Hotcakes

...followed by

Afternoon baking session of: Butterscotch banana cake

...followed by

Dinner: Lasagna (click here to see my dinner)

and to top it off. I blogged... not only once! but twice today(!)

Heck that's heaps more in one day than I have done in the 6 months!

What's wrong with me???? could I be sick?? *places palm on forehead*
No, I don't have a fever....

Perhaps.. it is a start of something... or could it be.. the return of...INSPIRATION?

A bit premature maybe... but... one can hope.. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Nevertheless, I am very proud of myself today. I made some thing old and some thing new. *nod nod*

Me old boss has been down with the cold/flu for the last few weeks now and the poor guy's a wreck. When I saw him last week he asked when I was baking for him again. I said "sure... How about Monday? Tell me what you feel like eating and I'll make it for ya."

After some deliberation, he said "Banana cake. I like banana cakes."

I said: "Ok. No problem boss. Banana cake it is."

Now here, lies my problem. I'm not a big fan of the 'nanas unless it was a deep fried and dripping with oil. (read: banana fritter) I've only baked something 'banana-y' once and it was a "Banana and oat muffin" that's in my blog archive somewhere. One of those, I made last year and should've been posted over a year ago but hasn't surfaced the blogosphere. (What to do? What to do?) One of my girl friends swears by the combination of bananas and blueberries. I've had the loaf that she bakes fairly often. It's not bad. But it's a bit sweet for my taste. I could ask her for the recipe...

But then I figured, if I was P and I've been hankering from some good old banana cake, I'm not sure I'd be very happy it was 'contaminated' with some blueberries, no matter how good they (the cake) are. I thought it was best to look for something a little more old fashion.

So I went and looked up friend google. Trolled through tons of recipes but found that most of them were a bit.. umm... lacking. I envisioned my banana cake to be.. caramelly, with a soft and moist texture, a little bit of nuts on the top and fragrant - banana fragrant that is.

Only one problem. I saw P on Friday, I said I'd deliver on Monday. 2 days is not enough to ripen the bananas to the ripe and sweet banana-y fragrant that I was after. (Read: London doesn't do (sell) ripe bananas at the shops.) There was no way I was going to get sweet ripen bananas and I was going to have to compensate it someHOW..

The HOW came in the form of this recipe.

Butterscotch Banana cake
adapted from this recipe here

Ingredients:

Butterscotch Bananas:
150g caster sugar
250g banana flesh, chopped into 2cm pieces
1 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
25ml water

Cake:
100g caster sugar
175ml sunflower oil (I used Rice Bran Oil instead)
2 large eggs
150g plain flour
75g spelt, rye or wholemeal flour (I used wholemeal flour)
2 level tsp mixed spice (I used all spice)
2 level tsp baking powder
½ level tsp bicarbonate of soda
50ml plain yoghurt

a handful of walnuts (optional)

Butterscotch bananas

Peel and cut bananas into 1 or 2 cm slices.
In a saucepan, bring to boil caster sugar and water.
Cook over high heat until the sugar turns to a dark/red caramel.
Add the bananas, butter and vanilla, and simmer until the bananas become soft, mushy and becomes a part of the caramel. The mixture should be thick now.
Remove from stove and set aside to cool.

Cake

Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan-forced oven)
Grease and line a loaf tin. Approx 20cm long.
In a mixing bowl, beat sugar, oil and eggs until mixture is thick and airy.
Mix in the bananas and the yoghurt.
Sift the flours, spice, baking powder and soda together (two or three times)*
Fold flour into the banana mixture.
Pour into tin.
Top with chopped walnuts.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

*The recipe suggests that the bran should be poured back into the flour mixture at the end the sift. I found out the hard way that this may or may not be a good idea. Depending on whether you like finding bits of wheat in your cake or not.

The verdict:
Soft, moist and slightly fragrant banana cake. Just how I imagined it to be. The butterscotch/caramel flavour makes up for the lack of fragrant as the bananas were not as ripe as I'd wanted them to be.
A traditional yet slightly special banana cake.
I might just grow to like this banana cake thing. =)

Some things never change...

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:01:00 +0000

...like my love for Ricotta Hotcakes, Bill's Ricotta Hotcakes to be specific.

The first time I made this was over 2 years ago. Pretty much, not long after I started this blog. Check out the before and after shots eh?

It was like, I found my first love.. all over again...... except this time it's with ricotta (cheese). Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but you know what I mean. The first time I tried ricotta cheese, I turned my nose up and bah humbugged it. It was a baked ricotta with cumin and some salt and pepper.. I think.

Of course, that was many moons ago, when I was none the wiser.

After the hotcakes discovery, I went ricotta mad for a bit:

Ricotta on toast with honey
Ricotta on toasted bagel
Ricotta on toasted raisin bread
Ricotta cheesecake
Ricotta and spinach cannelloni
Ricotta this,
Ricotta that....

... I think you get the picture.

The last time these fluffy hotcakes lined my plates were over a year ago right, just before we left Melbourne for London. Ironically, it was only this week that I started craving for them again.

Ricotta Hotcakes

Ingredients:
1 1/3 cups ricotta
3/4 cup milk
4 eggs separated
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
50g of butter

Combine ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a bowl (mix well).
Sift flour, baking powder and salt until just combined.
Beat eggs white in another bowl until light and fluffy.
Combine flour mix and ricotta mix.
Fold in egg white into batter in two separate lots.
Heat some butter in the pan and place 2 tbsp of batter onto the pan.
Cook until the top of the mix starts to bubble and flip over gently.

*Should make about 8 or 9 hotcakes depending on the size.

Oh, in case you're wondering, that blob on top of the hotcakes is actually Honeycomb Butter topped with more Honeycomb. Extravagant... but overrated. The butter bit was nice but I'm not sure I like the honeycombs. They tasted kinda... waxy.. haha. Maybe.. it's just me... ;)

Luxembourg

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:08:00 +0000

The famous Stain glass window at Gare de Luxembourg

Luxembourg, better known to the locals as Grand Duche De Luxembourg is a small country snuggled in between 3 of Western Europe's famous countries: Belgium, Germany and France. It is the worlds sole remaining Grand Duchy - ruled by a Grand Duke. Luxembourg's population ranges in the half a million mark but every day at least 200,000 more people enter the country from the borders of Belgium, Germany and France on a daily basis for employment purposes. Most Luxembourg natives speak at least 3 languages, French, German and Luxembourgish, it's official language. Luxembourg is also....... .

Umm... Eh... what am I doing? It's starting to feel like I'm writing an essay on Luxembourg. Really...? What was I thinking? If you really want to know about Luxembourg, you should just do what everyone does, Google or Wiki it =)

Of course, I did that too... when I went there last November.. hehe.

Luxembourg was pretty much the first European country we visited after we arrived in London last year. Usually, one would be visiting one of it's more famous cities such as: Barcelona, Paris or Rome. But not moi, considering we hitched onto a trip that one of our friends organised, I don't think we're in any place to complain *grin*

So what did we do in Luxembourg? I won't bore you with the details but in short, we hitched on a walking tour, feasted at the xmas market tents, did a bit of window shopping and took one last stroll by ourselves on the Sunday before heading back to London.

Luxembourg Town Square

One of the many paths in Luxembourg's Old town.

Grund

Top - Bottom: Pont Adolphe and Rout Bréck (Grand Duchess Charlotte - Red Bridge)

From Top L-R: Statue of Grand Duchess Charlotte,
Giant Bell in the Notre Dame church compound,
Notre Dame Cathedral spires and a laneway in Luxembourg New Town.

Top to Bottom: Houses in a valley, Old house in Old Town,
Window with Xmas decoration.

Top L-R: Some photos during our walkabouts.

Schloss Erhaut Bruecke,

An old building in Old Town

Luxembourg Christmas Market

Christmassy decorations around town and at the Xmas Market.

Top to Bottom, L-R: Toy Soldiers, Candle Holders, Christmas Trees around town.

Top to Bottom: Children art and Artwork at the Luxembourg Centre for Arts

Puppets at the xmas market.

Raclette!

Candy!

Me!

More photos on Flickr.

WTSIM - Baked Raspberry and Nectarine (pan)cake

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:10:00 +0000

Oh hello there. I bet you're wondering which hole I just crawled out from? ;) I must be a very rare species to be coming out of hibernation so late in the northern hemisphere summer.

Please, allow me to introduce myself. I am from the 'lost my blogging mojo' species. Have you ever heard of us? We hide behinds our (notebook/pc) screens daily, pondering on what we should post on, while stalking everyone elses blog for inspiration. What do you mean you've never heard of us? You mean I'm the only one of a kind????? ........

Hmm.. it is rather pathetic isn't it? Can't believe it's been over 2 months since I blogged and I even missed my own blog anniversary - 2nd one too, I might add. My only saving grace is that I have been planning a big long post about what I've been up to. However, that isn't quite ready to be published yet. So you'll have to be content with this for now...

I also realised that I've not participated in any blog events since Menu for Hope, Peabody's House Warming Party and WTSIM back in November when I arrived in London. Not sure I could even call this a food blog anymore. :P

I think that it's only fair that my first post in a while be something that is food related. After all, it's been a freakin long time since any food related posts graced this blog. So, for now, please accept my humble offering of an adaptation from Bill Granger's latest cook book, Holiday.

Bill made a Baked Apple Cake by caramalising some apples with butter and brown sugar in a oven proof pan and then adding the batter onto the pan and baking the whole thing (fruit/cake/pan and all!) in the oven.

I didn't have any apples around but had some pretty ripe nectarines and threw in some rapsberries for a good measure. I also didn't have an oven proof pan so this went in an oven proof dish instead.

Baked Raspberry and Nectarine (pan)cake
adapted from Bill Granger's Holiday

Ingredients:

1 large knob of butter
2 tbsp of brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 nectarines, cut into 1/8th
1 punnet of raspberries
1 tbsp flour (for dusting)

3 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
3/4 cup of flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp of caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
Sift baking powder, salt and flour together into a large mixing bowl.
Add in the caster sugar.
Using a whisk, slowly mix in milk and one egg at a time until the mixture is just combined (do not over mix). Once combined. Set aside.
Melt butter and brown sugar in an oven proof pan.
Once butter is melted, add in the the nectarines and cook for approximately 5 minutes.
Add in 1/3 of the raspberries towards the end of the cooking time and turn off the flame.
Toss the remainder of the raspberries in the flour.
At this stage, if you are using an oven proof pan; scatter the remainder of the raspberries into the pan and pour the batter on top of the fruits. If using oven proof dish, transfer the nectarines and berries into the dish before pouring in the batter.
Bake in the oven for 15 - 20mins until set.
Serve with vanilla ice cream or for a breakfast/healthy option, serve with greek yoghurt drizzled with honey.

The verdict:

For various reasons, this didn't come out the way I thought it was going to/should taste:-
Perhaps the oven dish didn't conduct the heat as well, because I ended up having to increase the cooking time as the middle of the cake wasn't quite cooked.

I didn't have enough nectarines so it ended up being a bit on the tart side because of the raspberries.
At first it tasted almost pudding like, but later on the batter tasted like a thick gooey pancake - not very nice...
It looks heaps better than it tasted.
Overall, the berries and nectarines tasted really good and both fruit and cake went well with vanilla ice cream but I must admit I was a little disappointed. Bill's recipes are generally well liked (by this household) and usually turn out quite well so I am quite surprised at the outcome of this. I must try this again to make up for the disappointment....

perhaps.. the failure was just my own self justification for being out of practise in the kitchen.... ?

For a late entry to Waiter, there's something in my berries... this month hosted by the up and coming media star - Cooksister, Jeanne.

Hello World! I'm off again! & A Meme

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Hello! You must be sick off hearing me apologise (again) for the lack of food related content here lately. We've had Alv's mum visiting the last two weeks (she leaves today) and with me playing tour guide and our weekend traveling, there has barely been anytime for me to bake let alone blog. I'm off to Salzburg today, I really should be sleeping since I'll need to be awake in less than 3 hours to catch the bus to Stanstead Airport for a 6:30am flight. I promise to be up and baking again next week and have some fruits of my baking on by the start of next week. For now, I will have to leave you with this meme that Cooksister, Jeanne tagged me for a few weeks ago.

Oh, before I forget, today's trip breakfast is Banana and Nut bread from Epicurious. I'll have to blog about that another day =) Meanwhile, the above photo are some daffodils photographed earlier in March on a stroll through St James Park in London.

Have a good weekend everyone :)

What were you doing 10 years ago?

10 years ago, I was repeating my final year of high school. *pause*

Ah Hah....I bet you thought I was a high school drop out!

Actually no, I don't think my parents would've let me live through til now if I had dropped out of high school. I had just finished high school in Malaysia at the end of '96, but since we emigrated to Australia straight after that, I had to start high school again (boo!). I was in the final year of completing my Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) which is an essential University entrance exam in Melbourne, Victoria.

What were you doing 1 year ago?

A year ago today, I was in Tokyo on the last leg of my whirlwind trip through Japan. For the 18 days that we were there, we crammed in visits to some of the top visitor attractions in Japan: Nara, Himeji, Kyoto, Kobe, Hiroshima, Osaka, Fukushima (just outside of Tokyo) and Tokyo. We savoured as much japanese cuisine we could and overdosed on onigiri because we could not get the little buggers back home. My only regret was that I didn't spend more time in Tokyo and we weren't able to fit in Kyuushu into our schedule. I suspect falling ill in Japan contributed the shortened schedule. We lost 2 days from me being sick in bed with some nasty flu. I was so sick (coughing repeatedly) that upon arriving back at Melbourne I went straight to the doctors who pronounced that I had picked up a chest and throat infection and placed me on the antibiotics straight away. Nevertheless, it was the best trip ever and with now being spring and all, I am reminded of the time we spent in Japan every time I see a tree blossoming, getting ready for summer. sigh.....

Five snacks you enjoy

Strawberries
Chocolate - especially truffles!
Potato chips/crisps
KFC chips & gravy
Magnum almond ice cream

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire

Buy a nice house with a nice and fully equipped kitchen for me :)
Renovate my mum's kitchen because she desperately needs a new one.
Buy a dishwasher - my current one (Alv) sucks!
Support the Australian Cancer Research Program and Oxfam. - It's easy to say that I want to support a charity and I'd like to think that my little yearly donation counts towards something but sometimes I do wish that I am little less selfish and careless with my spending and have a little more to give.
Invest the rest and go on a holiday every year with what I earn from the interest.

Five bad habits

"I'll do it later"
Snoozing for 40minutes.
Sleeping in the shower in the mornings - one of the main reasons why I am always late!
Over eating - I have a habit of finishing everything on my plate because I don't want it to go to waste. This always leads me to feeling sick after a meal because I've over stuffed my stomach.
Pretending to 'still' be asleep when Alv is trying to wake me up.

Five things you like doing

Sleeping. =)
Playing netball - I miss netball =(
Going on walks with my camera.
Cooking. (I like cooking more than baking)
Reading whilst listening to my favourite tunes on my ipod.

Five things you would never wear again

Bike shorts*
Mini skirts
3/4 skinny jeans
Black tights with an oversized top - 80's flashdance style
White pants*

*because they make my butt look huuugee!

Five favorite toys

My Nikon D80
2nd generation mini ipod
Asus W7 notebook
My Fossil watch
My Panasonic lumix DMC-LX2

And, finally, five bloggers to tag for this:

I woke up to..

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 10:26:00 +0000

I opened my eyes this morning to large a storm of snow flakes peering through the venetian blinds in our bedroom. I was so shocked that I got out of bed and checked the time - it was only 8:30am and it was snowing. I quickly whipped out my camera and snapped a few shots and then went to our living area which faces a garden and stuck my head out the window for more shots. I sat by the window, completely mesmerised, taking in as much of the scenery as I could.

(a sudden drop in snow!)

(a little squirrel in the neighbour's backyard)

40 minutes later I found myself snuggling back into bed at 10 past 9 because the shock of seeing snow had dissipated and the drowsiness from waking up so early had crept up and taken over my body.

I'm just finishing off my breakfast by the window and I still can't believe it's snowing/ed. I was hoping it would snow all day but I doubt this will happen as the snow is starting to melt. (Golf) balls of snow drop are starting to drop off the branches. The snow storm stopped 1/2hr ago and the snow piles on the fence has all but disappeared.

I guess all good things must come to and end.

Incidentally, breakfast was Baked egg on toast and Greek Yoghurt with strawberries drizzled with honey. No egg on toast photo here as I had already scoffed it all before I decided to take a photo to share my experience.

(snowflakes)

A Service Interruption Announcement

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:40:00 +0000

Hello and Sorry for the lack of updates and unanswered comments. It's been 3 weeks since we moved into the new home and we're still without a phone line nor broadband for that matter - no home phone = no broadband since everyone's on adsl over here.

In the last 3 weeks I have been leeching internet wherever possible from friends - carrying my trustee laptop with me wherever/whenever I go over to someone's house and from the nice dude 2 floors down who offered and set us up with his wireless connection. Unfortunately, the problem with leeching is that you get access whenever the router was up and running or when you're at your friend's apartment. This has lead to a shorter presence in the www and I've not been able to actively visit all of my favourite blogs nor update this little blog.

I won't bore you to death with my frustration of trying to get a phone line activated in our apartment. To summarise, my frustration = "BT CUSTOMER SERVICE SUCKS" - except for the 2 kind ladies who work on the phones at BT who were my saviour when I was at the point of releasing a flowery splurge of message to the next person who would be at the receiving end of my phone call.

In the mean time, here are some of my favourite photos (from travels and miscellaneous things) to fill the emptiness....

A shiny new kitchen :)

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:38:00 +0000

I have a new kitchen! - and a new home :)

It's not much but it has a working oven and a decent size fridge (the grey thing peeking out from the bottom left corner). This will do nicely for the next 12 months. :)

I'm still under equipped compared to my previous place. We don't have any cutlery trays, so the utensils are every where and rattling about. I am still lacking a beater and food processor but I have a scale! Which means I can still make something :)

A new plant for a new home. A lovely and thoughtful gift from our friend Bonnie. Thanks Bonnie! :)

Muffin Madness 1 - A new travel ritual

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:06:00 +0000

It all started off innocently. We were all gathered around the dinner table one Friday evening having a great big ~~whinge~~ discussion over dinner about the 8am flight the next day to Luxembourg.

Me: "Oh crap! I haven't packed!"
B: "Hmm..We should sleep early tonight."
A: "What time are you waking up tomorrow?"
Me: "Who's going into the shower first?"
A: "What time is the cab coming?"
B: "Are we going to have time for breakfast?"

... were some of the questions that was flying around the dinner table.

Somehow or rather I arrived to a pathetic conclusion that we probably won't get fed until we arrive in Luxembourg.

A: "Not my problem, I don't eat breakfast."
B: "I don't need breakfast either, so I don't care."
Me: "But.. but.. I'm going to die.. and R is "difficult" when she's hungry!"
A & B: "You can wake up early and eat breakfast."
N: "Hehe, I'm not going, so have fun!"

Sigh. Some fine and caring friends I have huh? Knowing that my poor belly was not going to function very well on an empty stomach, I decided if I wanted breakfast then I would have to do something about it. Waking up at 4am was not an option, since I treasure my sleeping time the most out of everyone. There were no guarantees that anything would be opened at the airport at 7am in the morning, so breakfast on the run was the only way to go and the best breakfast on the run would have to be muffins.

To be honest, what I really wanted to make was cupcakes - I'm more of a cupcake girl than a muffin girl. But a cupcake for breakfast seems just a tad extravagant, especially with the frosting and all. So I settled for some blueberry muffins instead.

Blueberry Muffins
adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients:

3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/4 stick), softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used greek honey yoghurt)
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 1/2 cups blueberries
1 Tbsp flour (if using defrosted frozen berries)

Adjust the oven rack to the middle-lower part of the oven.
Preheat oven to 190°C (375°F).
Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together until fluffy.
Add in the eggs one at a time, beating until the eggs are well mixed.
Beat in the grated lemon peel.
At this point, you beat in the dry and wet ingredients in three batches. Firstly, beat in one third of the dry ingredients until just mixed through. Then, beat in one third of the yogurt also until just mixed through.
Follow with the remaining ingredients. Take care not to over beat it. Once the ingredients are mixed through, fold in the berries. (Note: If you are using frozen berries, defrost them first, drain the excess liquid, and then coat them in a light dusting of flour.)
Use a standard 12-muffin muffin pan. If not using muffin liners, grease muffin tins with a little bit of olive oil or melted butter.
Distribute the muffin dough equally among the cups.
Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Test with a long toothpick to make sure the center of the muffins are cooked through.
Allow to cool slightly before remove muffins from the tin. Serve slightly warm.

Note:

You'll notice from the instructions that this recipe uses a beater all the way from beating the butter through to mixing the dry and wet ingredients. It seems strange at the start as we all know you're suppose to just fold in the ingredients not beat them through with a beater as over beating would cause the muffins to be dense.

I've actually used this recipe twice, once beating the ingredients in with the beater and once folding it through with a spatula. I didn't notice much difference in the texture of the muffin whether folding and/or beating the ingredients in. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I was using the lowest speed on the beater so as not to over beat the muffin mix.

The verdict:

These were the best blueberry muffins I have ever had. As I said earlier, I'm not a big fan of muffins. My dislike for muffins stems from the fact that they're usually either too dense in texture, too sweet or too dry and they always leaves me with a heavy stomach after every meal. But these muffins are most certainly different! They are deliciously moist, light and fluffy! I discovered this recipe at Elise's blog, Simply Recipes. She has the best collection of muffin recipes ever. I've tried three of them so far and they all got the thumbs up from me!

So what does the muffin have to do with my travel ritual? Well, it all started with this blueberry muffin breakfast on our first trip out of London to Luxembourg. Ever since then, I've made a point of making us an afternoon tea snack for Friday evening departure (trips) and breakfast for all of our early morning flights. It's an effective way of keeping my stomach happy since I almost always suffer from indigestions due to irregular eating times particularly when we're flying out after work on a Friday night or first thing in the morning on a Saturday to make the most of the weekend.

I'm off again this weekend, this time to Krakow. I haven't quite worked out what I'll be making just yet, but you can be sure that I'll be sharing it with you..... when I get around to it ;)

Breakfast on Shrove Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:11:00 +0000

A little treat on Shrove Tuesday.

Ingredients:

1 batch of crepe batter (I used this recipe)
3 strawberries, halved
1 plum, halved
2 tbsp light brown sugar
1/4 lemon
(extra lemon wedges for serving)

Make crepes as per recipe.
Place brown sugar onto the pan and squeeze in lemon juice.
Do not stir, allow sugar to start caramelising before placing plums face down onto the pan.
Let it cook for about 5mins before adding in the strawberries (also face down).
Allow strawberries to cook for about 2mins, then remove from pan and serve.

Optional: serve with a dusting of icing sugar.

Happy Pancake Day :)

An overdue new year wishes

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:04:00 +0000

Hello everyone. It's well overdue but a belated Happy New Year to all and to all a good year!

Sorry for the absence but I sort of lost my blogging mojo for a bit after that long and exhaustive Christmas post. There has been a fair bit on my mind lately that came to a head since the 2008 rolled into place.

Being in a new country and starting everything from scratch is not as easy as everyone makes it out to be. We're knee deep at the moment looking for new employment and a place to call home. It's sort of a catch 22 - work and home. If you're not employed by the time you find a nice new pad, you're faced with the likelihood of having to dish out a minimum of 3 months deposit. If you 'are' employed before you find a new pad, then you find that you don't have any or enough time to find a place good enough to call home. Ahh how it sucks. I haven't had to go through unemployment and look for a home since 2002. =(

Anyway, please forgive the rant. Normal transmissions will resume soon. I do have lots of backlogged posts to share, like our trips to Luxembourg and Bremen, a tale about the chocolate creme de pot recipe that I made as part of our christmas lunch feast, muffins and loads more.

For now, I'd like to share with you some images from new years eve in London. From our "pre-new year" drinks at the Pizza Express in Lambeth (because our initial plan to queue up at Waggamama for a late dinner was foiled by crowd controllers who closed off access to South Bank at 7:30)....

to Waterloo Bridge where we waited, some-what patiently in the drizzling rain with hundreds of other Londoners for the new year to roll in.

We reminisced about how quick the year went by. The new friends that we've made and the old friends that we've caught up with again. The trips that we've been to and reminisced about our favourite singers and bands of the past like NKOTB, Backstreet Boys and Westlife.. amongst the many that we imitated and their hits that we sung to whilst keeping ourselves occupied until... 3 mins to midnight...

and before we knew it, the crowd was already counting down the seconds left of 2007.....28, 27, 26, 25....

10...

...3, 2, 1 and we all roared.. Happy New Year!!

and before we knew it, the fireworks displayed started to disappear and slowly became invisible because of the thick smoke that resulted from the rain drizzles touching the sparks from the fireworks display... and so because there was nothing else to see (although we could still hear the fireworks going off behind the smoke), we gave ourselves a pat on the back, a kiss on the cheek and then we all headed home...

I hope you all had a memorable new years eve celebration as we did and I wish you loads of yummy goodness and all the very best for 2008. =)

Cheers!

This Christmas...

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 01:06:00 +0000

Last Christmas, we had 2 separate christmas celebrations. We had an early christmas lunch on the 17th Dec and then a Christmas dinner with our friends on Christmas Day itself. This year, thankfully, we only had one Christmas celebration that lasted the whole day from 1pm to 11:30pm.

What a perfect way to celebrate Christmas away from home than with your second family - your friends. :)

1. Our posh Christmas set up - with plastic knives and forks to make up for the lack of serving ware

2. Our hosts this Christmas

3. The makeshift Christmas tree

(See that notebook there? It blared christmas carols throughout the whole day)

4. The grog

5. Food, Glorious Food!

Appetisers: Rosemary Infused "Pigs in Blanket" & Smoked Trout w/ Creme Fraiche on crackers (not pictured), Entree: Seared Scallops w/ Orange Butter Sauce, Main: Turkey w/ Wild Mushroom, Bacon and Sausage Meat stuffing, Hampshire Breed Pork Loin Joint w/ stuffing and all the trimmings.

6. What's a Christmas without some caroling?

7. and Kris Kringle

Photo courtesy of B.Wong

8. And last but not least

Dessert: A chocolate tasting plate -
A trio of chocolate delight - dark chocolate mousse, white chocolate and dark chocolate infused with orange and cointreau. Chocolate biscotti (with pistachios and cherries), Pistachio and cranberry biscuits and Matcha Truffles. (not in picture)

And that was our Christmas. :)