Christmas Lunch

A hot bowl of clam chowder on a cold Dezember Christmas afternoon after opening presents. Elijah, my new toy penguin felt the cold too. =D

I think I may want to make German onion bread next week. Yes I know I can get the generic Gardenia bread at S$2.00 but what is the fun in that? I love pounding and kneading the hell of the dough while thinking "very fondly" of a few people.

白萝卜汤

Clockwise from left to right. Tomato with minced pork quick stir fry, radish and carrot soup, thai-style fish and turnip rice.

I think that 白萝卜 tastes best with the rich flavors of dried seafood (so I chucked in some baby dried scallops, which I bought a box of at S$12.60, and dried cuttlefish, but B1 complained that he missed the flavor of pork ribs. Some people just cannot be satisfied.

I think the sour mango added a nice contrast to the fish, because one would expect those green slices to be salted pickle, but it turned out to be the tangy green mangoes. I also swapped out yam for turnip in the "yam" rice. Usually the way Chinese do it would be to fry the ingredients then pour it onto cooked rice before mixing and eating. My style is more paella-like, which is to fry the rice together with the rest of the ingredients then pour in the stock and cover till cooked.

白萝卜汤 is considered a "cooling" soup because of the white radish which can also improve your appetite, digestion and prevent coughs. So technically this soup was better drunk during the hot summer months. Haha. OOpz.

Quick Snapshot of Boxing Day Brunch

I made my own coleslaw. It wasn't a very good idea to add vinegar (I only use apple vinegar) to the coleslaw. It made it taste kind of strange... different from how KFC would serve it.

You won't be able to see them but there is fried bacon and tomatoes under the eggs and my lovely toasted bread.

Created a new blog - The Yum Yum Enabler

I wanted to create a new blog to showcase all the funky food I am cooking at the new house. Besides it's time. Even though nibblezware was created with the intention to write about food and technology, I have been focusing too much on the food side, and it is becoming a very personal blog. 

The entries on recipes and food that I make will be moved to the new blog, but restaurant reviews will remain here. However I will post some of the interesting entries over here as well. 

Brot - In search of a crusty French loaf

I wanted to make a crusty french bread ala those books I read , so I used this recipe.

Here are the photos I took at the different stages. I skipped out on the first step, because I wasn't sure it would be successful, but it turned out not too bad, though it was more crumbly than crusty. For crusty I had to toast them in my frying pan (I had forgotten the microwave oven again)

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, oil, salt and 2 cups flour. Beat until blended. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a stiff dough.

 

Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down; return to bowl. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. 

Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into a loaf 16 in. long x 2-1/2 in. wide with tapered ends. Sprinkle a greased baking sheet with cornmeal; place loaf on baking sheet. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 25 minutes. 

 

Beat egg white and cold water; brush over dough. With a sharp knife, make diagonal slashes 2 in. apart across top of loaf. Bake at 375 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool. 

Updated!!! I gave Mutter 3 slices, asking her to try. She told me later that she steamed it for lunch because she found the bread to be quite hard... winz. But that is the whole point.

Pipping Hot Remedy for a Cold Dezember Afternoon

I wanted to make chicken pot pie. I reminded B1 to remind me to take the readymade puff pastry from Phoon Huat's cold food section when it was time to leave. I remembered that the pastry thawed very quickly and it would be a nasty problem trying to separate the sheets. 

  

In the end both of us forgot, until we were at the Night Market and already too far from the supermarket (I did a lot of shopping yesterday for presents, including Kari's *winks*). So I went back today and got it myself together with cornmeal which I needed to bake my crusty french bread.

Hmm I did not know what was the temperature I should set for the oven. I almost forgot that this was my new microwave and not the temperamental bitch of an electric oven we have at home. So in the end I set the oven too high and too long. oopz. We do have a microwave at home but for some reason the electric one gives a better crust so I often have to suffer its idiosyncrasies.

Luckily for some reason I decided to check the baking process and thankfully I did, as you can see, it was slightly burnt on the top. Sigh. Reminder to self: 10 min is fine. 

西洋菜汤

Yet another "it's Sunday, we must finish whatever is in the fridge day". I realize a complication in my "no repeat receipe" motto. Now when will I ever get to drink lotus root soup again...zzz. Obviously didn't think this one through. 

Deep-fried the stinky Norwegian salmon in a cornflour-salt-pepper mixture, and tried to disguise the stench (well it was thawed and not exactly freshly dead) with the Peppercorn sauce I bought from Ikea. Interesting taste, but the bloody fish stank up my beloved, pristine white kitchen. I am also seriously rethinking my position on having a white house. I wanted it mostly white so that my art and food can be showcased more visibly, but damn the house is a bitch to maintain.

The two lazy creatures finally tore themselves from their BF3 and artwork to go downstairs to buy the dried Chinese herbs. So that's why there are some dates and wolfberries floating in the soup, unlike last week's 莲藕汤. I also bought some green beans and mung beans, so we can look forward to some Chinese desserts during the cold December. B1 also bought chrysanthemum which I detest because the bloody petals will be clinging to the teapot and be very hard to clean off. But he won me over with the reminder that he does the washing. =D