Chocolate Sables

And so for Son1 who has a more sophisticated taste bud, won't be so impressed with Rainbow sprinklers anymore. C'mon Mom, he's a b-i-g boy. He likes cookies,... in fact, his first love would gladly be chocolate cookies. But tooooo bad, this boy has a sensitive throat, anything baked and dry and cookie-like will just send his throat red and sore.

Yet, he wanted something chocolatey but not cakes, nor brownies, nor muffins, nor bread-like. So I settled on this... Sables.

Ohhh... Chocolate Chocolatey Sables... how should I describe this cookie? This has to be the easiest cookie recipe that I have whipped.  It is amazing, you have got to try them yourself.

It is light, airy, delicate, and literally melts in your mouth, dissolving itself away, much like sand. It is sensational, chocolatey and not to say, addictive. Much of the addiction was trying to figure out how did it disappear so readily in your mouth! LOL!!

Here's what you'd need:

* 140gm Plain flour
* 20gm Cocoa powder
* 140gm Butter (room temperature, softened)
* 60gm Icing sugar
* Pinch of salt (omit this if you are using salted butter)
* 2tbsp egg white (lightly beaten)

This is what I did:

1. Preheat oven to 170degC. Line baking tray with greaseproof baking paper, set aside.

2. Prepare pasty bag fitted with large rose petal swirl tip, set aside.

3. Sieve dry ingredients together -- flour and cocoa powder. Set aside.

4. In a mixing bow, beat butter, sugar and salt at medium speed till light and fluffy.

5. Add in egg white and beat until well incorporated.

6. On low speed, slowly add in the dry ingredient. Mix until well combined and transfer dough into piping bag.

7. Pipe dough on baking paper, about 1inch apart. Bake for 12 minute. Tops. Not any longer!

8. Lift baked sables onto wire rack to cool completely. Store in air tight container (that is, if you have any left).


Psst psst... Sables is French for Sand. Ahhhhh... now you know! You can get creative, and pipe into other shapes -- Chocolate Sables was originally piped as a "W" to represent Wittamer pastry shop in Brussels. I managed to make about 40 sunflower-sables from this dough, largely dependent on how big you pipe them.  And you can also add in chocolate chip or raisins at the flower's eye. 

Hop over to Ann and see her beautiful Sables! Envious. (Recipe was loosely adapted from hers).

Chocolate Cupcakes

Can you believe it?! We are at the end of the school term!!!

It really seems like yesterday that I was psyching my Sons for their first day of school. Preparing them for a new year in a new environment. Son1 in his first formal education in Primary One, and Son2 officially donned on his uniform for Pre-Nursery, congratulating them for being b-i-g boys now, and getting all excited about their Orientations, and fretting over the fetching and picking logistics arrangement, and going through menus for best-for-lunchbox-packed-lunches...

Wow! 11 months have since passed. What have I done?!

Time to reflect for the year and collect my memories.

Each boy has their to-bring list of party items for that last day of school. Chocolates being their favorite were their natural request. Son2 was more precise. "Chocolate Cupcakes" and nothing else. In fact, Chocolate Cupcakes with Rainbow Sprinklers. So I did it just the way he wanted it.

Added about 35gm of natural unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Hershey's here) to the vanilla cupcake recipe, and to make up for the increased dry ingredient, I increased milk by a slight 1/4cup (loosely). And a scant 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to accompany the cocoa powder (omit this if you are using Dutch-processed cocoa powder. There is a Science to this, can't quite remember what I read, something to do with acidity and alkalinity).

End result? Very soft. Very spongy. Very fluffy. Very nice. Not cloyingly sweet. Tender, moist-ily spongy. This time I used only 120gm sugar. Think I have found my perfect combination. 120gm is the right sweetness for this Vanilla Cupcake recipe -- for me.

I attribute the softness and sponginess to the creaming of the butter and sugar. This time, I baked at night when my boys are soundly asleep (translated to mean, NO interruption!) and I had more time to pay attention to the beating process. Very important.

Needless to say, it has everything to do with my long-awaited-much-drooled-on KITCHENAID!!!! Hip Hip Hurray!!! Amazing piece of machinery! *Smooch smooch kiss* (show you next time ;)

Chocolate Truffles

I'm posting this ONLY because it is pretty and sooooooooo happy looking. They are dying to be seen.

Other than its looks, really there was NOTHING worth mentioning about them. It borders between yucky and unthinkably distasteful. No good. In fact, lousy! I used the famous highly reputed French chocolate (without naming names; chocolate bakers, you must already know...) and I have NO clue why it turned out tasting weird!

I am resolute to try this again. Should try with a semi-sweet chocolate next time. Try a different grade. Coz these are really a breeze to make, what a waste!

Baby Spinach with Century Egg

Baby spinach... a staple in my family's fiber diet. The easiest to dish out. Is perfect as a soup or as a vegetable dish. And thankfully, is my Boys' favorite.

I am not talking about those Chinese Spinach, or those Rounded and Sharp Leaf Spinach (ya! there are many types of spinach... wonder which is Popeye's version...). I'm referring to Baby Spinach here. Its leaves are rounder and tinier.... hmmm... exactly like its baby.

This time, I tried it differently with a century egg. Exactly the way they do it in Zi Char store. Except I skipped the salted egg, which incidentally is a lot unhealthier than century egg. The lesser of the two evils, if you must have.

Needless to say, it is a lot better on its own. We should not compromise the spinach's goodness. If you absolutely must do something, like my itchy hands, throw in some wolfberry for color interest, also to enhance the dish's nutritional value.

Occasionally, I will deep fry some small bait fish to sprinkle on it. Else, baby spinach is good on its own.

Panini Sandwich

A toastedly, meltedly, crunchily, divine no-brainer.

Panini is an Italian pressed toast that's put together by any bread, typically Ciabatta. To it, one usually add prosciutto, ham or other deli, and cheese. It is served warm after toasting or pressing them together in a panini press (liken a sandwich toast).

In United States and UK, it's been adopted to be called "toasted sandwich". Ahhhh... doesn't it sound less foreign now?

Since I only have a grill pan, I improvised. Just two slices of bread of any kind, I would usually use ciabatta. Slice half horizontally. To it, spread your pesto, and some olive oil,add your vegetables, cheese and a meat. With a spatula, press them together and toast on your grill pan. Flip and toast it lightly on both sides.

Be sure that the meat is cooked before sandwiching it. Grill toasting does not cook the meat, it merely heat up to melt the cheese.

So what did I toast it with?
* Slices of honey baked ham
* Shredded chicken with mayonnaise
* Mushroom with cheese (resembling mushroom swiss)
* Sausage slices

So why ciabatta and not sandwich slices? Hmmm... I personally find ciabatta holds it together better without becoming overly soggy. When I pack this for my son's recess, the toast remain pretty fresh even after 3 hours. Quite unlike a normal sandwich bread.

But of course there are days when sandwich loaf is more readily available. So in a hurry to have my carb-fix, I make the simplest ever with sandwich bread -- as you can see from the picture, quite taken in a rush (hmmm... actually I have some tomato slices in it... can you spot them).

Simple, fast and easy. Even a boy can make this.

Milomisu

Kids friendly version of a caffeine-laden tiramisu.

An encore to the much raved Tiramisu. This time, I set aside some tiny portion for a non-alcoholic, non-caffeine version for my boys.

I replaced espresso with thick brew of Milo. And to 'compensate their motor-skill' or there lackof, I filled them in cups.

Da dah! Milo-misu is birthed.

Psst psst...
I like the custard tall and thick. It does magic to the tiramisu. Hence I find a tub of 500gm mascarpone portion just barely enough to fill 7 glasses or a 10" round tin. 

Crispy Prawns

"Gate crashed" at this year's National Day Rehearsals. On 3 consecutive Saturdays! Refused to buy tickets, nor book a room at the hotels nearby, so we lugged our boys, neighbors, friends and rough it out on the field at the rehearsals. Boys LOVED it, begging for an encore next year. Pant.

But it was fun. I had a immensely good time myself. There is something magical about sitting unassumingly on the ground in the public with everyone else.

On National Day itself, Aunt Eileen graciously fried a big tray of crispy battered prawns from home and pot-luck to the dinner at my in-law's.

Wow!!! How I love these prawns! It's my next true love after the cows. The crispy batter was fragrant and perfect! Swear I have to make the same at home too.

So I rather shamelessly begged for recipe and viola! Sometimes all you have to do is open your mouth and ASK!

Here's what you'd need

* 150gm self raising flour
* 30gm corn flour
* 230ml water
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 2 tbsp oil (best to use vegetable oil I heard, I used Canola)
* prawns (shelled, deveined, only with tail on, season lightly with s&p)

This is what I did:

1. Mix two flours and salt together.

2. Drizzle oil round the mixing bowl into the floor, and with a ballon whisk, stir it continuously.

3. Add in water slowly next. Continue to stir as you add till a smooth batter resembling milk shake is formed. Make sure there is no pocket of unmixed flour in batter. Batter is almost ribbon-state.

4. In a pot of deep frying oil, heat oil up in medium heat.

5. Drip in one tiny droplet of batter. It will sink to the bottom of the pot. The droplet of batter will float up once the oil is ready for frying. Reduce fire to small.

6. Coat your prawns generously with the batter, deep fry them till golden brown.

7. Dish up and drain off oil. Serve it warm. To heat up, you may do so in the microwave oven for a quick minute.

Psst psst...
* if your oil is too hot, the crust will turn golden brown too soon while the inside crust will appear undercooked. What you want is to deep fry them real slow and steady, to achieve consistent crust throughout. Hence always reduce fire to small once the oil is ready, this serves to maintain the temperature of the oil too.
* the batter can also be used for fish and chips
* I used Tiger Prawns, about 1kg.

Pork Ribs Pear Soup

It is the air we breathe!

Cracked my head for some g o o d soup for cough. Did a Pumpkin Pork Ribs with Apricot Seeds (ya, I should post this)... Done Lotus Roots Pork Ribs (ya, post this too...)... Tri-Colour Carrot Pork Ribs (alright, and this too...). What else can I do?

Then I saw some pears lying idle in my fridge, wasting its life away. Such a sin.

So I chopped the pear up in big chunks, and dump them in my pork ribs soup, throw in a honey date, and some apricot seeds. And viola! A soup is born. Headache solved.

Amazingly, Boys love it!! Including my not-so-enthusiastic eater, Son3.

The soup is very refreshing I must say. And it taste just slightly on the sweet side, possibly coz of the honey date.

What pear did I use? This time, I used this called Yuan Huang Li (its big like Fuji apple, brown skin, pearly white flesh, and it's said to be cooling). It is important to put in some dates I heard, as the pear is cooling. Red dates will serve to 'warm it up' a bit. To non-Chinese readers, I'm sorry if you are a bit lost here. Chinese cuisines are divided broadly into Heaty and Cooling... yay, I know I know... I should explain... Some day some day, when my cough is better and I find my vocal back.

Till then...

Here's what you'd need:

* Pork Ribs (blanched)
* 1 pear (I used Yuan Huang Li)
* 1 honey date (or 6-8 red dates; I used both)
* Apricot seeds (Nan Bei Xin; handful)
* Wolfberry

This is what I did:

1. Prepare your pork ribs soup. Let it simmer for a while and throw in the date.

2. Keep pot in Magic Cooker and let it self-cook for as long as you are happy... (or if you are not using Magic Cooker, let pork ribs soup simmer over low fire for 2 hours or so till porky is soft and tender).

3. Cut pear into chunks and remove core and seeds. Keep the skin on.

4. Add in pear and wolfberries and salt to taste (to totally infuse the flavors together, I added the pear 4 hrs before serving time).

5. Serve