Apple oatmeal muffin

Was inspired by the recipe that I came across while reading Chicken Soup for the Soul book.

Changes made to recipe:
3 tiny apples, diced and mixed with a but of flour. Tossed into final mixture at the end.

Apple sauce reduced to 1 cup. Forgot I used apples, so tossed in half cup rolled oats to soak the apple juice.

Ran out of wholewheat atta flour, mixed 1 cup of plain flour to make the required two cups.

Used shorter rack and 200 deg celsius  for microwave convection oven. Baked 20-25 min.

Homemade Galbi

Made homemade galbi. I replaced the pear in the recipe, which is required to soften the meat, with kiwi instead. Worked the same, and I cut the sugar in the recipe. Too bad it was much too little... *sobs*. Bobo and I fought over the meat. Next time I will buy two bags of ribs. 

饺子 steamed dumplings

I had the craving for some steamed dumplings. Of course my mother helped by giving me a lot of chives, a typical filling.

I had bought some dumplings from the supermarket, but it wasn't as fun (ok it was fun for the first few dumplings). I made my own dough with plain flour, salt, cold water, and let it rest in the fridge. I fried some julienned chives + mushrooms + sukiyaki belly for 1 version of filling, and julienned chives + minced meat for another.

BiBimBap (비빔밥) v2

I made this bimbimbap with brown rice, carrots, mushrooms, sunflower sprouts (my latest fav) and a fried sunny side up egg on top. Yumz. Mixed with gochujang, it is a healthy meal which I accompanied with avocado salad.

Kimchi making season again

Gebraten hähnchen mit Kartoffeln

Welche aßen wir am Kleinmarkthalle. Es legt in Frankfurt, Deutschland. Die Hähnchen war das Tagesgericht. Ich fand es ein bißchen trocken sein aber schmeckt gut.

Easy Apple Cake

175g self raising flour
175g soft butter
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs beaten
1. 5 medium sized cooking apples peeled and cubed
1 level teaspoon cinnamon
grated rind of 1 lemon
60g raisins
Icing sugar to dust
18cm square baking tin

Set oven to 180 degree celsius.
Put sugar, butter,  and flour in a bowl.  Add eggs and beat well. Stir in apples cinnamon, lemon rind and sultanas.

Bake in oven for forty to fifty minutes until cake has risen and feels firm to touch in the centre and a skewer comes out clean after insertion into the cake.

Leave to cool in tin for ten minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool.  Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Basic Pancake Recipe

125g plain flour
1/2 level tsp salt
1 large egg
300ml milk
oil
15cm pancake pan

To make the Batter
Put flour and salt in a large bowl,. Add the egg and half the milk and mix well with an electric hand-mixer for a minute or two until it is really bubbly. Stir in the rest of the milk and pour into a jug and leave for about 20 minutes.

To make the Pancakes
Heat the pan and add some drops of oil. When it starts to smoke, pour in enough batter, tilting the pan to coat the base evenly. Cook until the pancake edges start to curl away from the pan and it browns underneath. Use a palette knife to flip it over and cook for another 30-45 seconds, and slide it out onto the plate. Make the rest of the pancakes, oiling the pan as necessary. Separate pancakes with kitchen or greaseproof paper.

To Freeze
Cool, put in a food bag or wrap in foil, seal and label. Use within three months.

Rich Chocolate Torte

250g dark chocolate
175g soft butter
125g caster sugar
200g packed ground almonds
4 separated large eggs
4 teaspoon apricot jam
23cm buttered tin

Set oven to 180 degrees celsius.
Melt 175g chocolate.  Cream 125g butter with sugar until light and stir in almonds egg yolks and melted chocolate and beat well.

Whisk egg white till stiff and fold into mixture.  Pour into tin and bake 50 to onehour until firm to touch.

Remove from oven and rest for five minutes then turn onto rack.  Warm jam and spread on cake. Melt chocolate and butter and spread over cake.

Beef Bier Stew and chestnuts

The veggie uncle had chestnuts for sale. What was interesting was that the nuts came half-shelled. I'd prefer if they had been fully de-shelled. Still, it had been a long time since I last had any, and a bag of butter roasted chestnuts is dreadfully expensive, even those sold by the illegal hawkers.

I asked him for some instructions. He directed me to just boil them as they were, and peel the shells 20 minutes later before eating. So I cooked some beef stew and made a salad. I was going to have the chestnuts to go with the salad.

Turns out Bobo doesn't like chestnuts, and I had such an awful time peeling them (I do not maintain long nails, so I scrapped my nails badly while trying to peel the stubborn shells off) that I was a bit sick of them by the time I ate them. After peeling the shells off, I fried the chestnuts in butter. They tasted quite yummy, but half a kilo by yourself is no joke. Sure cured me of my craving.''

I poured a whole can of Asahi bier in with the beef before dumping ketchup. Really easy dish to make, though Bobo was really angry when he found out his bier had gone into dinner.

Did you say "semen" cake?

I wanted to bake blueberry muffins on Sunday, but I was engrossed with delivering and helping to write Vater's rice dumplings. Fat bears do not do well on bicycles. Bobo said my wrestling with the foldable bike everytime is like watching a bear performing at a circus. I think wrestling with the bike made me so tired that was why I took an afternoon nap.

So I tried again yesterday evening except I was too lazy to refer to a recipe (I did google some, but decided to trial and error). I opened the can and poured half a can of blueberries, sans juice, into some butter which I mixed a bit too enthusiastically... until the whole mixture turned into a grey mixture. I just poured some milk, an egg, pinch of baking soda and sifted flour and mix the whole lot together. Still looked a bit grey, and I did not add much sugar (only like 20g, because I thought the syrup might be sweet), so I poured in the syrup.

Well, it still looked cement-like so I told Bobo, who came into the kitchen to make some honey lemon water, so. He said "what? Semen cake?"

>.<"

Anyway it came out pretty tasteless, even though it did rise a little in the oven.

Roasted and fried chicken dinner with boiled corn

I tried to confit the whole chicken for hours before frying it to seal in the juices and give it a nice sheen. But I didn't try to fry it at too high a heat because I had used olive chicken and not butter in the confit.  Thereafter I roasted it in the microwave oven so that it would cook properly. I also fried the veggies in the leftover oil and born some corn to go with the meat.

Vanilla cupcakes with loads of chocolate chips

Borrowed this book from the library, and the recipes looked easy enough to try. I chose to make "Our Favorite Vanilla Cake", except I halved the recipe, converted the recipe to metric and made cupcakes instead.

Original Recipe

Makes a double layer 9-inch round cake/ one 9 by 13 inch cake or 24 cupcakes

3/4 cup butter

1 cup + 2 tbsp sugar

4 eggs

2 1/4 cups flour

2 1/4 tsps baking powder

3/8 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Grease two 9 inch  pans or place cupcakes in a 24-cup cupcake pan.

2. In a large bowl or mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.

4. In a measuring cup, combine the milk and vanilla.

5. Add the flour mixture little by little to the butter mixture, alternating with the milk and vanilla and mixing as you go. Do not overmix.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 to 35 min (18 to 20 min for cupcakes) or until a toothpick comes out clean.

7. Cool the cake completely before removing from the pan. Run a butter knife along the edges to help ease the cake out of the pan. Ice with the frosting of your choice.

My attempt

Makes 12 cupcakes

115g butter

100g sugar

 2 eggs

150g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

400ml milk

1 pinch salt

1 tsp vanilla extract
Loads of chocolate chips (which I mix with a little bit of flour)

1. Preheat the microwave to 160 deg C (I may try 170 deg C next time). Prepare 12 paper cups.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and pale in color, then mix in the eggs one at a time.

3. Double sift the flour, baking powder and salt together. 

4. Beat the milk and vanilla extract.

5. Mix in the flour mixture and milk mixture into the butter and sugar mixture, alternating mixtures.

6. Pour in the chocolate chips and fill the cups. 

7. Bake for 20 minutes.

Almost vegetarian Kway Chap

I love the kway chap sold by the vegetarian stall at *censored*. I am trying to replicate this dish. This was attempt 1.

I was too lazy to buy all the spices needed for kway chap, so I tried to buy the ready made spice packet. Went to my favorite market stalls, but they only sold ba ku teh (pork rib tea) mix. Ok, I thought about it, it tasted close to the vegetarian stall's, which had a nice herby flavor (not like the actual kway chap), except that it had a lot more peppercorns in the sachet.

So I bought that, thinking that I will not steep the sachet into the soup too long, and add the other condiments necessary for kway chap (like soya sauce). While I got water boiling, I chucked in the ba ku teh sachet. Once I smelled the peppery fragrance, I poured in dark soya sauce (for color), and light soya sauce for taste. For ingredients, I put in squares of tofu, chinese yuba, tua pok (another kind of soy product), oyster mushrooms, and bumanji mushrooms. I initially wanted to make it a all vegetarian dish, then I thought about Bobo (who would complain that I am starving him), and put in some pork slices and meat balls.

I also put in some mirin and the rice noodles (I couldn't buy the big square kind, and ended up with kway tiao) towards the end. Ok, it didn't really taste much like the kway chap sold by the vegetarian stall but it still tasted pretty nice.

I can't remember when I made this?

That's the problem with being too  many things to think about. Took the photo, and forgot about it until such a long time later. Still it looked pretty yummy, so I decided to upload it still...

I really like roast chicken, especially since I only need to clean the microwave and not wipe down the whole fucking kitchen. Besides this is the only thing that my menopausal microwave can cook without burning the damn thing.

HamBagel

I bought some frozen bagels at ION's Jasons (I am still pretty shocked that Ms Bear told me that she has never gone to ION before. She said she is waiting for the hype to die down. Good luck with that, considering that the MRT is connected to the building. I must say most of the human traffic is underground though).

One lazy Saturday I took them out because I wanted a quick breakfast before heading to Mutter's garten. Zapped one, tasted eh... a little bit of salt. Bobo hated the taste, but I have like 4 more (I ended up chucking the last 2). So what did I do?

I made a hambagel, using minced pork. I shaped minced pork which has been marinated with mirin, sesame seeds and garlic, into patties before frying them. I really like to have eggs on my patties, so naturally I topped one on my patty. Accompanied the whole thing with some stir-fried duo miao with garlic, and lightly fried turnip squares. If not for the butter on the bagels, I would say it looked pretty healthy.

Breakfast at Pension Gerlinde

This was one of the fantastic breakfasts we had at Gerlinde. It came with our board, and because Onkel H is one of their regulars, we got to have a discount on our stay as well. Love Love. :)

I loved this bread the most. Unfortunately it isn't simple to make if not I would eat this every damn day. Onkel H said this bread is called vollkornbrot.

Frühstück at Gerlinde is awesome because they also operate as a cafe so some days they have cake slices leftover from yesterday's tea. Naturally greedy me will grab a slice, especially if it is blueberry tart!

Nakajima Suisan Grilled Fish

This is my favorite food at Takashimaya. Yes, it takes bloody long to wait, but I love to eat grilled fish, especially gindara (it's cod, for crying out loud, besides I am sick of salmon). I would go there to eat whenever I am in the area for buying art supplies at Art Friends or books at Kinokuniya. Read my book, swing my feet (I love to sit at the booth), chew away and appreciate how the salt bring out the sweetness of the meat *drool*. It is Forever Alone at its best.

It helps that I live somewhat near the place so it is easy for me to either bus or train down to the place .

Cold dish @ a Singaporean Chinese Wedding Banquet

Clockwise from top left: spring roll on top of kelp, jellyfish shot, suckling pig portion with hoisin sauce (worded in "joy"), prawn cocktail, and sauteed abalone clam.

Spring Onion Pajeon

This spring onion pajeon is made from spring onions that I grew from kitchen scraps.

It was very easy to make. I whisked 1/2 cup of plain flour, 1/2 cup of water, 1 tsp miso and 1 tsp sugar, before frying the spring onions in olive oil. I spread out the spring onions before pouring the batter on it. Unfortunately because the batter was so thick and my spring onions so spindly, they were pushed aside by the batter.

Clockwise from left: Mein Elterns homemade chilli, homemade samgyetang, homemade kimchi, spring onion pajeon, fried cherry tomatoes and egg tofu

I think next time I will use a bigger frying pan. The pajeon will taste nicer if it wasn't so thick.