Feed Me! I'm Hungry!!

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. :)

Merry Christmas 2007

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 17:45:00 +0000

It's 6pm (London Time) on Christmas Day and we've just finished our Christmas lunch for 2007.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

London, thus far...

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:44:00 +0000

Dear Diary,

It's been over a month since we arrived in London and how quick time has flown! We haven't done as much as we'd thought we would've but it just seems like after the first week, days just seem to go by and sometimes we feel a little uninspired and lack luster?

Days are shorter here too. The sun sets early here. Before you know it, the room becomes dark and the lights all come on and you start thinking it's night 7pm at night when it's only 4pm in the afternoon.

We're staying with friends at the moment, in Central London. Free loading is great, except you feel bad so you start cooking (actually that was a requirement for free loading here) and cleaning and doing the laundry for them. Before you know it, you're someone's full-on maid! Hey isn't that great, your best friend is also your maid. Ah.. I digress.. life's too short to complain about that.

Did you know the Brits love their sandwiches? There is a sandwich bar/pattiserie-cum-sandwich bar at almost every corner offering sandwiches (duhh..), pannini and baguette rolls for breakfast, lunch and dinner. According to one of our friends, most Brits grab a sandwich for lunch and a packet of crisps (English for Chips!). No wonder subway does so well here and get this, you know those subway meals that we used to get with a cookie and a drink? The meal deals offered here are with cookie or crisps. Wow! It must be true!

So what have we done in the last 4 weeks? Umm... not much London wide - strolled across the London Millenium Bridge and Hyde Park, did some window shopping from Oxford Street down to Piccadilly Circus, stopped by Leicester Square and had dinner in Covent Garden. We also took a trip down to 2 of the most famous London Markets - Borough and Portobello in our first 2 weeks and since then we've also made our first 2 trips to Europe! Yay... We spent the weekend (just past) in Bremen, Germany and the weekend prior in Luxembourg.

Will write about Bremen and Luxembourg at a later time, for now here's a peek of some of our London photos.

Portobello Markets:

1. Hummingbird Bakery

2. Cakes, Olives and Bread

3. Others

Borough Market

Ok. Gotta go. I'm so buggered. Am sick again (2nd time now) and have been baking christmas cookies all day. Til next time..

xx iL

Menu for Hope IV 2007

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:11:00 +0000

Have you been a naughty blogger this year?

Why not get into Santa's good books this year by doing your good deed and supporting Menu for Hope?

Give a gift this Christmas, buy a raffle ticket and support "Menu for Hope IV ", the Annual World Food Blogging Event started by Chez Pim. Last year, Menu for Hope III raised US$60,925.12 for the UN World Food Programme.

This year, donations raised will again support the UN World Food Programme specifically the school lunch program in Lesotho, Africa.

What is 'A Menu for Hope'?

A Menu for Hope is an online non-profit Food Blogger fundraiser organised by Chez Pim. This is the 4th year for the fundraiser which started in 2004.

What do I get for a raffle ticket?

Food bloggers worldwide have sponsored a number of gifts to encourage and entice you to participate. A list of gifts can be found here on Pim's website. You may select which prizes you are interested in. (Don't forget to write down the code of the prizes that you are interested in! Eg. EU 07, or AP09)

You can also view prizes from specific regions:

US: East Coast - Adam Cuban, Serious Eats
US: West Coast - Bee, Rasa Malaysia
US: everywhere else - Kalyn Denny, Kalyn's Kitchen
UK - Jeanne Horak of Cooksister and Johanna Wagner, The Passionate Cook
Europe - Fanny Zanotti, Foodbeam
Canada - Jennifer Hamilton, The Domestic Goddess
Asia Pacific/Australia/New Zealand - Grab Your Fork
Special Host, Wine Blogs - Alder Yarrow, Vinography

How much is a raffle ticket?

Raffle tickets are US$10 per ticket and and each ticket gives you one entry into the draw for the prize of your choice. Your $10 will feed more mouths than one - so do it!

How can I help?

Tell your friends, in fact tell everyone you know and buy a raffle ticket! In fact buy two or three, even four raffle tickets .. the more the better. Not only are you helping your chances to win! You are helping raise money for the UN WFP and more importantly you are helping to fight the war on hunger.

Where can I buy raffle tickets?

Go to: http://www.firstgiving.com/menuforhopeIV

Don't forget to select a prize and write down the code in the personal message section.

Donations are accepted until Friday, 21 December 2007. And the prize winners will be announced on Chez Pim's blog on 9th January 2008.

Need more information? Visit ChezPim.com for updates on this years Menu for Hope or any of the above regional organisers.

So, have you done any good deeds this year? :)

A blondie for all occasions

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:52:00 +0000

There was a time (before I started paying attention to what I ate) that the word "Blondie" conjurs up only 2 images in my mind.

Tsk! She's such a blondie! - ie. a clueless blonde person.
And so I wake in the morning and I step outside... to the tune of "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes. (not to be confused with the Blondies)

That, fortunately was many moons ago. Nowadays, there are 3 things that come to mind when someone utters the word "Blondie". At the top of the list, is:

"A white chocolate Brownie" :)

I have to say, it took a while for me to start appreciating the quality of white chocolates. I've always avoided white chocolates not because I'm a chocolate purist and don't think they "count" as chocolate, but more for the taste or sweetness of it. It used to give me toothaches for days on end whenever I have a piece of white chocolate - the bigger it is, the longer the ache lingers.

So imagine my own surprise when I found myself craving for this creamy confection one day after listening to my boss/colleague Kathy's weekend dinner party stories about the white chocolate and mascarpone cheesecake she had served up to her dinner guests. I remember her telling me that it was superb and it was the only cheesecake that her daughter (who is a little bit of a fussy eater) would ever eat. It contained a large amount of white chocolate, loads of double cream and mascarpone cheese. It was full of cheesey and creamy goodness and so rich that she had to serve it with a raspberry compote to tone things down a little.

To this day, I do not recall what was going through my mind that day, but I remember stopping by the supermarket for those 4 items (white chocolate, double cream, mascarpone cheese and frozen raspberries) on the way home that day with grand ideas of making that same cheesecake that very night.

With all the ingredients stacked up in the fridge I was confident of reaching the doorsteps of cheesecake heaven that night until I couldn't find the recipe for it! :( It was one of Bill Granger's recipes and I have almost every single publication that he had ever released... except for one. It turned out that the recipe was in THAT VERY BOOK that I didn't have. Boo... I lost interest after that, the whole cheesecake craving went straight out the window and the white chocolate and raspberries sat forgotten in the pantry and freezer.

Until one day when it was announced we were having a social function at work and everyone was to bring a dish to share. I had left it to the very last minute and a quick survey of the pantry the night before revealed the white chocolates I had bought a few months ago. The white chocolate brought back memories of the frozen raspberries and little bit of digging later I found some macadamia nuts and the idea came to me that I should whip up some sort of blondie/brownie with the ingredients.

So I turned to my then new acquisition Donna Hay's chocolate book and this was the result of that little pantry-digging/recipe-searching expedition.

Blondie
adapted from Donna Hay chocolate

180g white chocolate
125g butter
385g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
250g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 punnet of raspberries
100g macadamia nuts

Preheat oven to 160 deg C.
Melt butter and chocolate in a small saucepan and stir until smooth.
Place in a bowl with the sugar, vanilla and eggs.
Sift over flour and baking powder and mix to combine.
Fold in macadamia nuts.
Pour mixture into a 22cm square tin (I used a rectangular sized slice tin) lined with non-stick baking paper.
Lightly stud the top of the mixture with the raspberries (click here to see example).
Bake for 1 hour or so until set.
Remove from oven and set aside.

Serve by either: cutting into small bite sized squares using the raspberries as guide or into bigger slices if serving as a dessert.

Optional: dust with icing sugar before serving.

My Verdict:

Remember how I said I didn't like white chocolate?? Can a girl be fickle and change her mind?? Of course! What else is new!? I love this blondie recipe. The tartness in the raspberry helped cut the sweetness of the white chocolate whilst the macadamia nuts added a great texture to the dense slice.

At first, I was a little worried when I brought it to the social gathering because there were soo many desserts and mine was parked right at the corner out of line of sight. My worries were unfounded, because by the time I went back to the dessert table to collect my leftovers and plate more than 2/3 of the plate had disappeared! I almost had to scramble for the leftovers.

Not satisfied that I was left with so little to take home, I made another batch of it on the weekend and since we had visitors over, I cut up a bigger slice of the blondie and made some raspberry sauce to go with it. Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it turns a simple slice into a decadent and classy finish to a meal. :)

So, cut it into small squares to share or big slices for a simple dessert. Is this a blondie for all occasions or what? ;)

Edit: Doh! I was going to bring this to Peabody's House Warming Party. But since I was so disorganised, I missed the submission deadline yesterday. Bummer. Hope you have a fabulous party Peabody!

Waiter! There's some pears in my topless tart!

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:49:00 +0000

Have I told you how much I miss my kitchen back home? If I haven't,

"I MISS MY KITCHEN!"

I miss my kitchen full of gadgets. My favourite measuring cups, my favourite measuring spoons, my new electronic scales which measures liquid and dry ingredients with a single touch of a finger, my "on its last legs" Kambrook food processor, Alv's mum's Sunbeam mixmaster (which she has never used), all my baking tins and even the not so favourite temperamental gas oven.

What's that I hear you say?

"Chill out dude, it's not like they're irreplaceable?!"

Well, I know they're not irreplaceable. In fact, I did consider bringing some of my "I can't live without you" gadgets with me to keep me company. But I have sooo many of them, I didn't know where to begin and then there was also luggage space to consider. I mean really..it's not like it's forever...??

Sigh, I know I'm being really silly. But it's just that, I miss turning around knowing that I could just grab my Nuscup measuring cups stuck on the freezer door, rummaging through the utensil drawer for my favourite spatula and making tart pastry the quick and easy way. *sulk*

Now that I think about it, I can't believe how much kitchen gadgets I've accumulated since I moved out from home 5 years ago. (And this is from someone who has never cooked anything beyond instant noodles back when living at home with the parents!) They've all become a part of my kitchen routine - measuring spoons and pastry brush on the first drawer, Nuscup on the freezer door, the good spatula in the third drawer by the kitchen stove. I can almost recite the location of every piece of equipment that I have - except when it's been misplaced by someone...

Anyway, thank you for putting up with my kitchen rantings. With that out of the way, let us get down to some serious food talking. :)

So, HOW on earth did I make that tart pictured above if I haven't got my tart pans and my precious food processor?? Hehehe.. The real question should be WHEN?! I actually made this 7 weeks ago in the midst of the final weeks panic in Melbourne. What a surprise it was to find that Jeanne has actually picked "tarts" to be the theme for the monthly "Waiter! There's something in my.. " event. I for one am thankful, because it means that I can join in the fun!

The above tart is the Pear Bourdaloue from The Cook's Book. It's one of the few recipes that I tagged when I first bought the book all those moons ago. When we made the decision to relocate to London, I made a list of recipes that I had to try before I left and this was at the top of the list. So I made sure I cleared my schedule for one of the weekends before I left, just so I can make this. :)

When I first saw the original recipe in the book it was made using pear halves in a 22cm round pan. For some reason, whenever I think of this particular recipe, the image morphs into the shape of a rectangular sized tart and it is topped with pear slices instead of pear halves. Since pears aren't exactly at the top of my favourite fruits list, I decided to take the suggestion as a sign and went ahead and made it the way it appeared in my head.

The recipe below is for the original tart of 22cm round pan. So if you're thinking of trying a different sized pan, you might find that you'll end up with some extra pastry and pear slices at hand. (Sorry, it's been a while since I made it and I can't quite remember the exact measure of ingredients left to give you a guide to my rectangular sized tart.)

The only other change I made to the recipe was to use the remainder of my cloudberry jam as the glaze instead of apricot jam.

Pear Tart Bourdaloue
adapted from this book.

Original recipe makes a 22cm tart

Pre-preparation required for:-
1. Pears
2. Pâte Brisée or your favourite shortcrust pastry recipe

Ingredients
1.1kg firm, ripe pear
6 tbsp lemon juice
1 litre water
1/2 vanilla pod, halved and grated
300g quantity of Pâte Brisée
280g quantity of Almond cream
1/2 pot of Apricot/Quince jam (I used cloudberry jam)

Day 1: Pre-preparing the pears

Peel pears and remove cores.
Place the pears in a non-metallic bowl and coat them with 3 tbsp of lemon juice.
In a large saucepan, bring to boil 1 litre water, 3 tbsp lemon juice and vanilla.
Add in pears and place a cartouche on top.
Simmer for 10 - 15mins.
Cover and let cool/infuse over night.

Day 2: Pâte Brisée & Almond Cream

Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
Roll out pastry 3mm thick and line pan.
Spread almond cream evenly onto the tart shell and place strained pears* on top.
Bake tart for 30mins.
Allow tart to cool to lukewarm and the remove from tart pan and let cool on rack.
Before serving, warm jam in a pan or microwave and brush surface of tart with melted jam.

*I sliced my pears before placing them on top of the almond cream

Pâte Brisée
Makes 1 kg of pastry

375g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
2 scant tsp salt
1 egg yolk
2 scant tsp caster sugar
100ml full-fat milk, (at room temperature)
500g plain flour, sifted.
plus extra for dusting.

Using a food processor:

Place butter, salt, egg yolk, sugar and milk into the food processor and process until the mixture becomes a smooth and cream like.
Add the sifted flour into the mixture.
Pulse until the mixture just starts to come together.
Stop pulsing as soon as the pastry has formed a ball.
Remove the mixture from the processor and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Almond Cream
makes 800g

135g butter
165g icing sugar
10g cornflour
165g ground almonds
2 eggs
1 tbsp dark rum (I used cognac)
200ml creme fraiche

Cut butter into pieces and place in a bowl.
Cream butter with with spatula to soften.
Combine icing sugar, corn flour, almond in a bowl and sift into butter mixture and mix well
Add the eggs into the mixture one at a time, ensuring that the first egg is well mixed before adding in the remaining egg.
Add in the rum and creme fraiche and combine until smooth.
Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate. If not using within 36 - 48hrs freeze until required.

My verdict:

The recipe is a tiny bit complicated but it's do-able with good time management. The strangest thing was that this recipe did not require the tart shell to be blind baked. I was very intrigued by this as I have never made/eaten tarts that have never been blind baked. In fact the main reason tarts appeal to me is because of the crispy tart shell!

The pears were soft from poaching but it wasn't mushy after being baked which was good. Taste wise it had a hint of vanilla but other than that the pear taste remains and the cloudberry jam glaze didn't really over power the taste of the pear.

The pastry itself wasn't as crispy as your blind baked tarts, but as you can see from the photos the top was still quite crumbly and because it wasn't blind baked, the almond cream and the pastry sort of melted together (as it cooked in the oven) and so the first bite was as though the pastry and almond cream was the one layer.

I had a cold slice of the tart but I reckon if you actually warm it up a little before serving, it might just melt in your mouth!

Has this tart changed my perception of tarts with non-blind baked shells?

You bet!

New York City, USA

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 18:12:00 +0000

It is said that Americans love New York so much that they name the city and state twice - New York, New York or so says one of the many travel shows I remember watching during the 20+ hour the flight from Melbourne to New York.

I can’t quite remember the name of the show, but a little bit of googling later I found out that the famous New York, New York phrase was actually coined from a song by singer, song writer, composer Gerard Kenny who was born and raised in New York. So good, they named it twice. And they’re right about that. I love New York!

We only spent 4.5 days in New York, but in the short time that we were there, we managed to cover a fair bit of New York. Amongst the places that we visited were: Central Park, 5th Avenue and walked from Brooklyn Bridge all the way to (the wrong side of) the former World Trade Centre site to pay our respects. We also made a side trip to do some shopping at Woodbury Common Premium Shopping, walked the streets of SoHo, Times Square and did some last minute shopping at Macy’s.

Central Park
Top, Left to Right: Strawberry Fields, View from Lake, Autumn in Central Park,
Bethesda Fountain and Terrace and Tricycle rides throughout Central Park.

Top, Left to Right: 5th Avenue, Atlas Statue at the Rockefeller Centre,
The Apple Store and New York City Times Square

If you ever visit New York, you must make a trip to the Empire State Building. The New York city view from the top of the Empire State Building is amazing. A friend suggested that we go in the day and at night, unfortunately, due to time constrains we only manage a visit in the night time. We still managed to get some really great shots but I so wish I had my tripod with me that day..

Top, Left to Right: New York City Skyline from
Empire State Building, GE Building at the Rockefeller Centre and M&M's World

When we told our friends that we would be stopping by New York on the way to London, we received loads of suggestions from friends who had been there about places to eat, places to visit etc. Seeing that it was our first trip to New York, we decided against packing our schedule with touristy things that everyone suggested and instead took an easy approach and just went with the flow.

I did manage to tick off a few things off my “To Eat” list:

Blueberry Bagels (From H&H Bagels)
Hot Dog from the street vendor
Pretzel from Auntie Anne’s

I know I know… it’s a pretty lame “To Eat” list, but I love bagels and fresh blueberry bagels with pinkish hue on the bread, not purply grey hue due to the use of frozen blueberries and I can't go past a street side hot dog that seems to make an appearance in every cop series on tv that is based in New York. ;)

I even managed to convince Alv that we should have Bagels for breakfast twice during our stay in New York, so I got my Blueberry Bagels TWICE! :D

We mostly ate on the go during our trip but we did make sure we ate a proper dinner. W took us to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant called Celeste on Amsterdam where Alv ‘reckons’ we saw Milena Govich from Law & Order a few tables from us.

The menu suggests traditional Italian fare where the pasta sauces are primarily tomato based sauces with a rare creamy sauce on the daily special. If I remembered correctly, Alv had their mussels and tagliatelle special with a creamy tomato based sauce, W had their ribbon pasta with a ricotta and tomato sauce and I had the Penne with a classic tomato sauce and little chunks of torn fresh mozzarella. (I got suckered in by the mozzarella). One thing I did notice was that if you asked for parmesan cheese, they would bring out the knob of cheese and freshly grate it on the spot! How awesome is that! Not the stinky parmesan powder that you get at some of the restaurants in Melbourne. Eech!

Anyway, it’s an excellent little spot that is always packed with customers queuing for a table even at 9:30pm – which I’ve been told is quite standard for dinner time in New York. Service wise, it was a little rushed, almost as if they are trying to turnover as many table as they could in the hour and we did have to wait for a while for table service but other than that it was a nice meal.

That unfortunately, was pretty much the highlight of our meals in New York. On the other nights, when we were exhausted from a big day of walking, we dragged ourselves home and ordered take-out (delivered) Thai from Land Thai Kitchen and a huge medium sized pizza delivered from Caesar’s Palace pizza.

For our last dinner in New York, on W’s recommendation, we took a quick stroll in the rain to the nearby Vietnamese joint, Saigon Grill. The eatery proved quite popular with the locals too as the restaurant was packed! Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long to be seated. Saigon Grill has an extensive menu ranging from your favourite little spring roll and pork kebab appetisers to your favourite fried rice and main dishes. I can’t quite remember what we ordered, according to Alv, he thinks we shared an appetiser for one between the two of us and ordered a stir fried prawns and lemon grass pork chop for mains.

And what would travel eating be if we did not indulge in some junk food eating at McDonald's and Subway. Yep, my junk food junkie boy even wanted his dose of KFC but unfortunately, we ran out of time.

To complete our eating experience in America we lunched on our last day at a little diner called the Three Star Coffee Shop. It’s a small little diner on Columbus between 86th and 87th Street in the Upper West. It’s what a diner should be, with small booths and classic diner décor – the blue (or was it red?) seats and brown/parquet walls. The menu is atypical of diner meals - burgers, salads, triple deckers, sandwiches, bagels, spaghetti, parmigiana, steaks and breakfast served all day.

For Alv’s benefit - because he loves "You've Got Mail" and "Serendipity", we were intending to try out Café Lalo and Serendipity 3 too! But unfortunately, due to renovations at Café Lalo and the lack of time, we had to give the 2 café’s a miss.

To summarise, New York, my favourite spot would have to be Central Park. I really enjoyed the walk we had through the park. It was serene amidst the chaos of New York City and I just love seeing autumn leaving its touch throughout the park.

I also really enjoyed our walk from Brooklyn Bridge back to Manhattan. It was just unfortunate that the day we chose to visit the Brooklyn Bridge was a rainy and over cast day, hence our terrible photos. Before getting there, I had this image of Brooklyn Bridge at sunset, with the orange blue sky in the background but alas, all I have to show is grossly grey skies which I turned into black and whites to suppress the gloominess of the entire experience. : (

Top, Left to Right: Manhattan Bridge, Staten Island Ferry and Brooklyn Bridge.

All in all, New York’s fantastic, we’ll definitely be back again next time for a better view of the Brooklyn Bridge if not just for the shopping!! :)

Top, Left to Right: Remnants of Halloween and M&M's! all 10,000 different colours of them!

Ed: OH! and I think we saw Seal at B&H. Could be wrong. But if it was him, we were only about 1m away!

Goodbye summer days and Hello Autumn in New York!

noreply@blogger.com (ilingc) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 02:57:00 +0000

Apologies for the severe lack of posts. We've had a fairly hectic schedule in the last 6 weeks: tidying up things at work - handover and all, baking and cooking all my favourite foods/recipes, catching up with friends, families and eating out at all our favourite places. It's not all done without reason (well, maybe the eating out bit), for you see, as I write this we are no longer in Melbourne and will be 'homeless' and living out of our suitcases for the next few months.

We're joining the flock of expat Aussies in London, trying to make do on a Working Holiday Maker visa and relishing the opportunity to travel around Europe for the next year or so. Hence, the post title, "Goodbye summer days" - for it is now approaching summer in the southern hemisphere and "Hello Autumn in New York!" - for we are now in New York, or will be until tomorrow anyway.

(Central Park, New York)

(The Rockefeller Centre, New York)

The last 2 months has been a race against time, documenting my job, organising our visas and tickets and me, baking/cooking all my favourite recipes from my large collection of cookbooks (all of which I will sorely miss) that won't be coming with me to London. The idea was that I would cook/bake them and then create a post for it on my blog for future references. The only problem with that now is that, I have cooked/baked them, photographed them and ate them. BUT forgot to type up the recipe for them. Argh... silly me.

I'm so going to miss summer. I love summer because it reminds me of my childhood home in Malaysia. Sure, summer in Melbourne is a bit harsher and dry compared to the sunny tropical weather in Malaysia, but it does have it's plusses - longer days, thongs/sandals, skirts, ice creams and my favourite part of summer - stone fruits. To cut a long story short, I found some early season peaches and apricots at the grocers the weekend before I left. I looovee stone fruits and couldn't resist snapping up a few of each even though I knew they were early season fruits.

I've never been a big fan of apricots but as a last summer hurrah, I convinced myself that I should give it another go since it will be at least another 6 months before I will be able to gorge on any stone fruits :(

With the pantry and fridge all cleared out for our impending departure, I decided against making anything fancy with them and just melted the remaining bars of chocolate that I had in the pantry. Served with some strawberries and melted dark chocolate, it was a perfect farewell to the upcoming summer... for me anyway. (The peaches, on the other hand, were far too ripe and didn't make it to the platter)