HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Dinner for Mom

This year i was finally able to celebrate mother's day with my mum. She was really excited and so was i. So we prepared .. yes we.. my mother likes to poke her nose into everything... one of the reasons why she's so adorable.. well the storey bagan like this. We were lying beside each other and i suggested High Tea at the Good Wood Park .. but no... then i said Sakae Sushi.. hmm .. okay.. not too bad.. then i said i wouldn't mind cooking for her and making a mushroom soup.. her eyes lit up instantly .. my mom loves the comfort of a homemade soup and so it was settled brunch and dinner with one exception.. a Hyatt Cheesecake...

So i started planning my menu. Honestly i did not really have that much time with work and all.. architecture demands most of your time .. so i finally decided on of course the mushroom soup, a vegetable tart and grilled lamb for main course.

Mother's Day for my mom started on Saturday.. i brought her to a jewelery shop and got her some gold earring.. she loves them.. then we went to an Indian restaurant and had some Indian food (much to my dismay) but Mom wanted it so Mom's the word..

The very next day, on Mother's Day .. i got up early, cleaned the house.. blew some balloons and wrapped her present. Even dad got up and helped .. i know i have the sweetest dad .. darn Father's Day is coming up. So anyway.. i started preparing breakfast and realised .. that there was no coffee !! the one thing my mom can't live without .. so i quickly rushed to the store to get some (i personally don't drink coffee)

Breakfast/Brunch

She was supposed to sleep a little while longer but got up at around 9 ish.. so i give her a big kiss and blew bubbles as she walked out of the room.. then she put on her present and they looked really good on her !!! Okay breakfast/brunch was huge ... there were pancakes, maple syrup, homemade strawberry and vanilla syrup, scrambled eggs, baked beans, dark rye bread ( mom's fav), cream cheese, butter, kaya and an assortment of fruits, orange juice and coffee. Woah .. what a mouth full.. okay 'line' full.. so anyway by the time we finished we were SO STUFFED !!! No one did the dishes .. ha ha ha .. which is really rare in our household as dishes always get done promptly rain or shine.

So then me and mom cuddled on the sofa with Josh .. our two year old Jack Russell Terrier whose more like my youngest brother than a pet... and soon Mom dozed off.. phew my cue to dash to Hyatt with Dad to pick up her cake.. you see i told her that i was too late and couldn't make the order so she thought i was making another dessert.

Josh

Came back and she was still asleep .. giggles .. she deserves it honestly.. so then Dad left for a little while and i started on dinner. Did the dishes and prepared my workstation. My ! it was overwhelming.. it has been a long time since i cooked dinner like this and i felt really out of place.. cue to start cooking more... so soup was done but i screwed it up !!! Too much salt ... wanhhhh... that is one problem that sucks ... next time i am not salting the soup .. i'll let them do it.. okay then the pastry.. darn cases didn't puff up .. the lamb was decent and my sauce was excellent .. that's one thing i can do without screwing it .. a good sauce .. not the ones in the packet but one that uses the pan dripping and so on.

After dinner, we all sang a Mother's Day song and cut the cake. She loved it and although i know in my heart dinner was not all that great .. she valued my effort and all the love i put into it. Love you mom.. always !

The homemade mushroom soup

The vegetable tart with a poached egg and herb vinaigrette

Roast lamb with roasted vegetables and mash

Strawberry Cheesecake

Pierre Herme in Singapore

Me and the Pierre Herme

Yes yes yes .. i got to see Pierre Herme , the fourth generation pastry chef from France. W and i really wanted to attend his masterclass that took place when he visited Singapore. It was really crowded but he was so cute !!! in a cuddly sort of way. He showed us two desserts, one was a tomato and strawberry concoction called the Revelation and the other was called Tart Mogador. He is really bold with his flavours and is not afraid to experiment.

Tart Mogador

The first dessert he showed us was the Tart Mogador in which a biscuit case is filled with passion fruit infused chocolate ganache and topped with grilled pineapples and macarons. The chocolate was placed over a bain marie and once it all melted, passion fruit juice and many other ingredients were added. Then the pineapples were steeped in syrup and baked in the oven. The smell that was coming out of the kitchen was YUM ..

The Revelation

While those were cooking, he moved on to the tomato and strawberry dessert called the Revelation. What a strange combination don't you think. He first made a tomato and strawberry jelly. Then a custard with three different types of vanilla , one was from Madagascar.. whoo.. then he mixed them with mascarpone and gelatine and left that to set. He then layered the jelly and cusard and topped them with cut tomato and strawberry pieces and tomato infused puff pastry strips.

Someone made a comment about using tomatoes and Pierre replied that tomatoes and strawberries are so similar that he has made pasta with strawberries instead of tomatoes before. Wow .. wonder what that would taste like...

We got to taste his creations after the class ( of course ) and to be honest the revelation tasted like a really expensive and refined .. are you ready for this .. pineapple tart ! .. giggles.. i think there was too much pineapple so it was really overwhelming.

The other was really interesting, i have never tasted anything like that before. It was very foreign but very refreshing. Hmm .. now i really want to go to Pierre Herme's restaurant !!!

Les Macarons

Stack 'Em Up

It was one of those days when i decided to venture around Raffles City basement and what do i find ... Canele. It's a patisserie and they had a beautiful collection of macarons. I have been macaron crazy for the past week, trying to make them and reading about their history and dreaming about going to Laduree.. or Pierre Herme in France sigh.. so when i saw those colorful discs sitting in their glass thrones i just had to get them. I got one of everything they had, they must have had more in the morning but by the end of the day i think there were about seven or eight flavours left.

Quickly headed home carefully carrying my treasure and casting annoying glances at ignorant commuters that keep bumping my bag. Back home i put everything aside, took a large swig of water to prepare my mouth for the ecstasy that was beckoning.

Here are the flavours, i think...starting from the front moving into the background... Milk Chocolate, Violet, Rose, Coffee, Chocolate, Lemon, Salty Caramel ( MY FAVOURITE !!! )

Now put them in a row

The milk chocolate was good, it was delicious and it had ganache instead of the usual buttercream. Their macarons were not achingly sweet like mine, i really need to find an appropriate recipe. Anyhoo, i couldn't make out what the violet was .. it didn't taste much of lavender and i am pretty sure it is not yam .. probably came up with that because of the violet coloured yam ice cream sandwiched between wafers that we Singaporeans would have eaten during our youth.

The rose was nice with its raspberry jam filling. The coffee didn't really tickle my tongue because i don't drink coffee ... yes yes i am one of those proud wierdos' that don't drink coffee ... the chocolate .. well tasted like chocolate.. the lemon had lemon curd in it that my father did not enjoy.. or yes i shared the macarons with my family... then the beauty of them all.. the Salty Caramel... or my god it was SO SO SO GOOD ... i had never tasted them before and when i had them.. for some odd reason it brought back childhood memories.. i think food has never affected me like that before.. for those that watched the animated movie Ratatouille.. i felt exactly like the critique who was reminded of his childhood.. It was heaven... what a delight !

Bernard's Birthday at Pier Nine

Molten Lava Cake

Sometimes my uncle and aunt really pamper us too much. In just one year they have brought me to Pier Nine for dinner again. This time the occasion was B's birthday.

Initially, on the day of his birthday, that was the 1st of December, we were not able to make it to Pier Nine as my uncle and aunt now reside in Redcliffe. So we ended up patronizing one of the boat clubs on the peninsular. The setting was very informal and we were in our formal clothes so my aunt and I felt very out of place. My aunt was so unhappy with the ambiance that she insisted we go to Pier Nine the very next day.

In actuality, even though the ambiance wasn't all that great, the food was good and we even got a free plate of seafood risotto as it was our first time there.

So off to Pier Nine the next day and this time we were seated immediately. We had oysters and went to main course straight away. I ordered the quail, B the Asian noodles, K the lamb, Uncle Y the Atlantic salmon and Chitti the quail as well. In the end, K was not too happy with the lamb as it was sweet and so he switched with me and Chitti switched with B.

After main course, surprisingly everyone had dessert. It's surprising because only K and I are dessert crazy. So Bernard and I had the Valrhona molten chocolate cakes, K had cider jelly that looked like a pyramid, Chitti had the cheesecake and Uncle Yo a coffee inspired dessert.

Of course we had to do the sparkly thingy and so B's dessert came with a sparkle, song and smiles from everyone. Our molten cakes had an additional chocolate fudge sauce poured all over it and was accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was divinely rich and chocolaty. Look at how well Bernard cleared his plate. Giggles.

The family

It was a wonderful dinner and we had our usual walk by the Brisbane river. It was thoroughly enjoyed by all and thank you Chitti and Uncle Y !!!

March Babies' Treat at 61

The treats

Woo Hoo i love my office !!! Every month, babies of that month get some monetary allowance to treat other colleagues to a feast. ( Well that depends on how many babies there are that month ) So for March, there are 12 of us ( including me ) and we decided to get Singapore's latest craze Chewy Donuts, some éclairs and mufflins from Delifrance and some Chinese kueh.

To be honest i was not expecting so much food to be there. Just look at the spread. The winners were definitely the chocolate mufflins and the éclairs. The chewy donuts were okay. I mean those in Australia would know of Dreamy Donuts and oh my god their Raspberry Dream, which is a raspberry filled donut coated with Lindt white chocolate ... oh my god i' m moaning now... sigh .. well i haven't tried Krispy Kremes , so i'll evaluate those donuts later. So back to the chewy ones, i think the only appeal was its variety. There was chocolate, oreos, nuts, plain cream cheese (unsweetened), blueberry, strawberry, apples, kaya and the list goes on. But they sure look good don't they.

Look at everyone indulging themselves. Ha ha ha ... t'was a delightful display !

The office

Daddy's 49th

The Cake

Daddy turned 49 last Sunday and i made him a chocolate cake. Phew ! Thank god it turned out good. I had to go through a whole other cake before this one. I started planning what to make him about a week in advance. Just sitting in the office and thinking. Even Yiwen helped me out by sending me a picture of the cake she did. Thanks gerl ! Then i decided on a vanilla blueberry cake since he liked blueberries. So i bought a box of vanilla cake mix (big mistake) and the blueberries, marshmallows , cream and gelatine.

I had planned to bake the cake on a Friday and frost it the following Saturday, but i got busy with tuition and ended up baking it Saturday. To my utmost horror the cake had this very artificial smell, not the buttery goodness that cakes usually emanate. This smell just made me sick to my stomach. Then i stopped and made the blueberry filling which was another disaster. I think i added too much sugar and so the filling was ruined !!! The consistency was perfect but it was too SWEET !!! Sigh i was really annoyed and frustrated, Even the cream that i whipped started to curdle.

That was it, i never wanted to bake again ( not really ) but i was seriously thinking of buying a store bought cake and just shoving everything i had done into the rubbish bin. But i really wanted to bake something for m y dad. Baking something for someone is an intimate and fulfilling endeavor. Well at least i think so.

So i turned to plan C (honestly i had no plans) i made a chocolate truffle cake with my trusted recipe that i have used many times. I made two layers individually because the batter yields too much for one tin. Then i mixed my almost curdling cream with melted chocolate to make ganache. I sandwiched the cakes with a generous amount of ganache and finished the decoration with whipped cream and silver dots. ( The store didn't have cherries )

My family enjoyed the cake and even complimented me for controlling the sugar in the cream as (i anticipated) the cake was sweet. Yay ! A wonderful and sweet finish to a disasterous beginning.

Macarons

Pink Shells

I have been wanting to do Macaroons eversince i tried a bag from Bakerzin. The smooth top, the crispy shell, the moist and and oh so heavenly almond centre... oooohhh.. indulgence to the max !

The other night .. late late night i was watching Joan Cusack's show on the TraveI and Living channel. This episode showed her touring France and visitng all the delighful culinary havens. Once such place was Laduree, the first house of gastronomy.And there was Chef Phillipe talking about making of all things MACAROONS.. and there were pistachio flavoured green ones, passionfruit favoured yellow ones and of course the chocolate flavoured brown ones !!! That was it .. i was making Macaroons ..

I had a recipe in one of my French recipe books My Vue. I also chanced upon another recipe from a friend that was in french. So it was time to seek the help of my trustful computer and soon i had deciphered the recipe.The french recipe called for 125g of icing sugar whilst the one in My Vue called for 225g. So naturally i went with the former.

I did the almond paste, and the italian meringue ( without a sugar thermometer i must add ) and voila there were sweet smelling strawberry flavoured pink macaroons neatly piped onto my baking tray simply because i had no other flavouring or colouring.

I watched them bake in the oven and i was really nervous. Because i was so afraid the shell would crinkle or collapse or just turn into something other than the smooth silky top that it was supposed to be. After ten minutes i peeked .. YEAH .. they were perfect ( well almost .. good enough for me ) smooth and shiny on the top and crinkly at the bottom edges.

I filled them with strawberry jam and oh ... well the plate says the rest....

The lone ranger

Life in a Box

Life is like a box of chocolates… you never know what you’re going to get … Cadbury’s selections have always been a favourite of mine. It all started when my Aunt would buy a box for Christmas and on Christmas day all of us cousins would circle her and we would get to choose one. I remember one particular year when I took the strawberry shaped one with obviously strawberry cream inside and my cousin took a strange looking one with a ruby coloured jelly like filling which I liked as well ( we shared bites ) I have now found out that it was Turkish Delight. It’s sad that Singapore does not have Fry’s Turkish Delights like those in Australia. But in some kebab shops Turkish delights are intolerably sweet. Back to the box now. I’m not a big fan of chocolates with nuts in it. I think the only exception is Van Houten’s assorted nut selection especially those with the raisins in it .. I know I know.. its not a nut but hey they’re in the box. Hmm… I feel like having some now… better wait for Chinese New Year to pass first before I get some…