December26
Yeah I know it’s a little too late but hey, some people love gingerbread so much they don’t wait for X’mas to savour them! I made this on Christmas eve and the house couldn’t have smelt more festive.
Ingredients (yield depends on your cookie cutter, I made about 32 trees)
110gm unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
110gm brown or muscavado sugar
1 large egg (about 60gm with shell)
2/3 cup full-flavour molasses
420gm plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Sift flour in a medium bowl and add salt, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until it turns into a light cream.
Add egg and molasses and beat till well blended.
At this point you might see curdles. Do not panic, it’s not the end of the world. Yet.
Gradually add flour mixture in 3 to 4 additions until all the ingredients are blended and the mixture turns into a sticky dough.
Divide dough into 3 portions, cling wrap them and chuck them into the chiller for 3-4 hours or better still, overnight, until the dough is firm enough to be manageable. Dividing the dough into many portions allows you to work in batches. Otherwise once out of the chiller, the dough softens and it will be much stickier and messier.
Now that the dough is firm, flour the work top generously and flatten the dough to about a quarter inch thickness, and (yes finally!) cut the dough with your Christmasy cookie cutter.
Line the deliciousness on baking paper with about 1 inch gap as they expand during baking.
Bake at 175 degrees Celsius in a preheated oven for 15-18 minutes (depending on the size of your cookies), or until the sides turn a little brown, or when the cookies are slightly firm at touch.
Decorate to your heart’s content or if you’re anything like me, pop them straight into your mouths.
December13
It’s the favourite gastronomical season of many. I love the warm woodiness of gingerbread spices and molasses. It’s a pity gingerbread is often revisited only during the year end holidays. Maybe I should get Mr Brer Rabbit out more often and not just once a year.
This, I promise you is a quick, easy and painfree Gingerbread cupcake recipe. The ingredient list may look long but that’s it. Throwing everything together is not difficult and the end product is definitely worth it if u live for gingerbread. Colleagues loved it so much they are asking if I take orders. If only I have kitchen elves helping me with the washing, then I won’t mind! Any volunteers?
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December2
This is an article about saving money on electricity. Question: How do you like
(a) the idea of having your food cooked while you’re sleeping/shopping/at work etc?
(b) Better still, how do you like idea of (a) above and at the same time incurring little/no electricity charges or gas usage while your food is being cooked?
Yeap, such a thing exists in real life. It’s called a thermal pot, and it basically works like a huge thermos flask.
Aunty Scroogey loves soups and frequently uses one to cook soup. All you need to do is put your ingredients into the pot, bring it to a boil and then put the whole pot into the thermal container (if you’re paranoid, you may want to simmer for another 10-20 mins before removing from fire). Soup is ready a few hours later; but I usually leave it to cook overnight. If you’re like me and like your soup piping hot, just bring it to a boil again before serving.
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November29
One of my favourite Nonya dessert. Its not sickeningly sweet and has a fragrant whiff of gula melaka (coconut palm sugar). Go wear your aprons right now!
Ingredients (makes a 8″ round deliciously sticky cake)
(bottom layer)
250gm grated tapioca
100gm gula melaka
100gm grated coconut, without skin
50gm tapioca starch, sifted
100ml water
pinch of salt
1 egg yolk
(top layer)
400ml coconut milk
50gm rice flour, sifted
pinch of salt
few drops of pandan essence (optional)
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November18
Use this pretty and easy to make ornaments to dress up your cakes, pastries and what not. Its very green, literally, and costs next to nothing.
Before using banana leaves, always scald them in boiling water to remove any bacteria or yucky stuff that you won’t want to go near. Wipe the leaves dry and air them a little before cutting them.
Start off by cutting a fairly square piece. You can estimate a square by folding a triangle from the edge.
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November3
If you love Thai/Laotian food and vegetables, you’ll find a little piece of healthy heaven in this one. I used fresh lettuce for this but you can also use “rice paper”, which are essentially spring roll skins made with rice flour.
Prepare the following vegetables and plain rice noodles.
Prepare the dipping sauce by mixing fish sauce, lime juice, chopped chillies, minced garlic, coriander, sugar, water and chopped peanuts.
Wash the lettuce without breaking it. You need a whole piece like this.
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October31
This is the Berlin’s version of MacDonald’s, a must try when you go to the biggest city of Germany. The legen-, wait for it, -dary Mr V. Braun says that if you don’t like currywurst, then you haven’t had one in Berlin!
My star of the wonderfully unhealthy but gratifying dish. If you had no such luck finding curry ketchup, simply improvise with tomato sauce and curry powder. You’ll need an extra dose of curry powder later anyway.
The traditional Berliner currywurst is made with knockwurst. But if you live in the tropics at 1°14′N 103°55′E of the world, I think its forgivable to use bratwurst like I had. This is so easy to make there won’t even be an ingredient list. All you need are the sausages, curry ketchup and curry powder. Some people also put chopped onions and paprika for their adventurous palate.
Currywurst is typically served with chips, but I am not in a hurry to put on some kilos yet. So I pan fry some baby potatoes with butter, garlic powder, sea salt and freshly ground pepper.
Grill, broil or cook the sausages anyway you like, pour on the tomato sauce and sprinkle lots of curry powder. Serve with potatoes, bread rolls and fresh salad to make it a full meal.
October27
If you missed going to BXG on Saturday, this is what you really missed. (you know who you are! *smirks*)
But don’t worry not one of them were wasted. :)
Ingredients (makes 16 cupcakes)
225gm unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
225gm brown sugar
225gm self-raising flour, sifted
1tsp baking powder
4 large eggs (about 65gm with shells on)
1tsp orange paste
zest of 2 oranges
120gm semi-sweet chocolate chips
For the topping
100gm plain dark chocolate chips
75gm whipping cream
1tsp orange paste
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October25
I hope you are not sick of Thai food recipes yet because I really like this curry in a hurry. D-man would starve an entire day for this too. I bought the vegetables from a Thai supermarket but if you have no such luck finding one, don’t be afraid to substitute the vegetables for whatever you can get. I know everyone has their own mantra to cooking and baking. Some people need to get the perfect ingredients in perfect quantities but for me, I take food preparation as an enjoyment and am pretty much relaxed about most things. That’s one of the reason why I always choose easy-to-make recipes that incorporates maximum impact with minimal fuss. (pretty good tagline for cleaning detergent?)
I looooove Thai vegetables. The Thais seem to have a stringent beauty contest which they put their vegetables through before being sold. Their vegetables are glossy, comes in cute little sizes and are always pack full of natural sweetness.
The Thai’s make their own green curry paste but if you’re not lucky enough to be one of those super Thai cooks, you can consider the easier alternative.
There you go. Thanks for viewing. Bye bye.
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