Bali part 3

 Spices packed neatly

 Market in the early morning

At Bedugul, a cold mountainous area by a huge volcanic crater lake. We had “mi bakso” of beef/chicken meatballs with noodles in a soup. It was 20 cents per bowl.

 Be prepared to bargain!

Kuala Lumpur in a whirlwind

We flew on jetstar for S$150 for a return ticket. It was a cool 50 mins, better than the 5 hour coach ride. We then took the KLIA express which is a 28 minute train ride to the city center from the airport, non stop. That costs RM$35 for each ride. It was a comfortable trip and we did what we had to do, sit for the 6 hour exam and flew back the next day. We had such a wonderful time, mostly because of a dear family who hosted us, kept us well fed and drove us around.

 

Our flight was delayed for 2 hours but we had a fun time walking around the not so new terminal 3, had a piece of cake and coffee with this guy above. Looks like H, but not H.  

 

This underwater creature at a chinese restaurant was begging for his shot to be taken.

 

 

 Lychees post exam on a wonderful outdoor deck.

 

 

Lychees are either incredibly sweet or incredibly sour. These were sweet, lucky us!

 

 

Cappucino number #1

 

 

Teddy bears at a cafe, can u guess where?

 

 

Cappucino number #2

 

 

At a beautiful English cafe, Harrods in KLIA. Our flight back was delayed too!

I didn’t take many shots of the food, I was in between feeling completely jittery before the exam, tired after the exam and really headache-y after the malls on the way back. H with his bubbling enthuisiasm that comes out forth in chorus of songs, dance and laughter whenever we travel was having a ball of a time trying to drive me up the wall.

More photos of our little trip here.

 

Craving for a famous amos cookie

I’m back, from Kuala Lumpur after a long long struggle studying and feeling totally bummed out. It was a coincidence that Quizas met my worn out face after a 3 hour paper, and anxiously awaiting another 3 hour paper. A 6 hour marathon, it wasn’t pleasant. Of course, Quizas looked fresh and fabulous, ready to jump into her 2 and half hour paper as eagerly as she has jumped and swam in a private pool the night before. Some people have all the luck It was so nice to see you, especially since its so hard to meet up here in Singapore. Why not in a dingy corridor in a university across the causeway!

 

I was under house arrest recently due to exam commitments, but really needed a famous amos cookie. Unfortunately for crunch, you can’t replace shortening. I used Crisco with 0% transfat, but honestly I would rather use butter any time. I adapted the recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s best ever chocolate chip cookie. The texture was great, it was super crunchy. In terms of the taste, it was good but not great. It didn’t have the great caramelly flavour of a famous amos cookie, nor any coconut or ground oats for flavour (which the cookie apparently has, if u had one, u know that there are chewy little bits at the end of a mouthful). Anyway, this recipe is still under development, if anyone has any tips on what goes into the cookie, I’ll be happy to receive some tips!

 

Crunchy chocolate chip cookies

Makes about 40 small cookies

1 cup flour

8 tablespoons shortening

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

3/4 cup chocolate chips, or more

 

Cream shortening and sugar. Add egg and beat well. Sift flour and bicarbonate of soda. Add chocolate chips and mix well. Place far apart on well greased baking sheet or silicon mat. Bake 15 mins at 180C.

 

 

TodaY’S Paper napkin: from Recaptured.

 

I’ll be back…

I will be gone for two weeks.. Sitting for exams, again, sighs. And experiencing a career rotation so lots of adjusting to do. Anyway, I will leave you with a photo of our chicken who has lain some eggs in a basket of onions. It looks patient and you’ll be too rite??

Favourite pastime: stalking chickens

 

And Mel: thanks for the photo tip

 

Quizas: When are you exams?? We’ll catch up soon ok? Enjoy your next posting. Guess who I’m working with next? The name starts with a C…….. The good news is I only have 2 calls. Yay.

Dorie’s vanilla cake

The thing that attracted me to this recipe was Dorie’s description of a perfect tightly knot crumb reminiscent of Sara Lee’s. The result was more like a butter cake than Sara Lee’s pound cake. This is not a light and feathery cake, but a serious butter cake that had weight. And like all butter cakes, it tasted a whole lot better the day after. It is a delicious cake, buttery and really good sliced with some yummy runny apricot jam that I had gotten as a gift from Yati from Morocco. I made the recipe in 4 small loaf pans. The cakes developed their characterisitic crack on top without any help from me. Apparently you can encourage the formation of this crack by running a butter knife across the top of the cakes after 5 mins of baking. A loaf was eaten for tea, another was sliced and wrapped into my mom’s lunchbox to be shared with the teachers in her school and another 2 were tightly wrapped and put in an airtight container in the freezer for the in laws. The cake can be stored in an airtight container (so it doesn’t absorb smells from your fridge) for up to 2 months. The original recipe had rum in it which I omitted.

ovenhaven asked about my serving plate in this post, I got the plate as a gift form Australia but had recently purchased an identical butter dish (seen in the background of the picture) with a pair of sugar and tea jars from Recaptured at Enterprise One. I have been avidly furniture shopping lately, and this place is a gem.. I love everything in it. I tried to look for a site, but I don’t think they exist online. I am eyeing a sofa in particular. Unfortunately, they only hold their one of a kind pieces for up to 3 months at their warehouse. And our apartment will only be ready at the end of the year.

Vanilla cake

Adapted from Dorie’s “Baking from My Home to Yours”

Ingredients

2 cups sugar (original recipe has 2 1/3)

6 eggs at room temperature

200g butter, melted and cooled

2 2/3 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

2 vanilla beans pulped

2/3 cup heavy cream (I used Bulla Pure Cream)

Method

Rub vanilla pulp and pods into sugar in a bowl till fragrant. Remove pods and store in your sugar jar for vanilla sugar to be used in future. Put sugar in a mixer and beat eggs in one at a time, giving at least 1 min for each egg to be incorporated. Beat till batter smooth and thick. Add in cream and whip for 1 min. Sift flour, baking powder and salt in separate bowl. Fold into batter in 2 or 3 additions with a gentle hand. Fold in melted butter. Flour and dust cake pans (mine were small, about 15X6 cm, I managed to fill 4 tins) fill about 3/4 way thru. Bake in oven at 170C for 35-40 mins. Leave to cool and invert onto cooling racks then turn it right side up and leave to cool completely.

I’ve noticed that after wordpress upgraded, my photos are looking rather grainy and low resolutioned. I wonder if anyone else is experiencing the same problem. Will appreciate any tips.

Breakfast is..

 

Eating steamed corn in the garden and chatting with mom-in-law.

 

 

A pineapple poking out from a bush in our garden. I love how the stem looks almost blue.

 

 

A jungle of pandan

 

 

Betel leaves creeping up our back wall

 

 

Our banana tree.. The stem of the flower looks a little extra terrestial don’t you think?

Meet me at the soda fountain

Singapore has been hit by a heat wave. Are you guys feeling it or is it just me?

To market to market..

 

I need a holiday.. These are photos taken in Balinese markets that I promised to upload months ago. most of the photos which are not of food that I’ve made are taken by H. All of the holiday photos are taken by him too as I’m always too busy taking in the sights to snap. For those who have asked about Changi, most of the photos are taken in our family home. The ones by the beach is at the Changi Broadwalk near the Changi Beach Club.

 

 

Busy market and sweltering heat

 

 

The main means of transporting items, on a basket on your head.

 

 

Gnarly carrots

 

 

Unidentified berries sold as a salad at a street stall. Does anyone know what this is? I have no idea. You guys are so smart, it seems like any unidentifiable fruit to me is easily recognized by all of you!  It tastes sour and its dressed in a sweet spicy sauce with other fruit.

 

 

At the market, these rabbits are not bought and kept as pets.. Well..

 

 

Top off a day sweating it out at the markets with a Sprite from a glass bottle.

Carrot Cupcakes with a Cream Cheese frosting

We came back from a short relaxing weekend, and what better way to spend an anniversary than sharing some cupcakes with friends and family. I have been raving about Dorie Greenspan’s Carrot cake and it translates really well to little cupcakes. I tweaked the recipe a little and cut down on the sugar. This time the frosting was perfect as I did not use a frozen block of cream cheese like the last time. I just noticed that there was a label on the packaging that says “do not freeze”. I’m just bad at using dairy products before the expiry date so I tend to store it in the freezer. Very bad idea especially for cream, whipping cream (the non dairy pour and whip is fine though) or cream cheese! What happens is that the fat gobules come together when u use it after freezing resulting in a lumpy, grainy mess.

 

Carrot Cupcakes

Adapted from Dorie’s Baking from My Home to Yours

Makes about 18 cupcakes

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (Bake King from Phoon Huat is really good, pure and strongly fragrant)

3 cups grated carrots (2-3 large carrots or about 9 small ones)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1 cup oil

1 cup sugar (the original recipe called for 2 cups, u can use 1 1/4 if u want it a little sweeter. I found that one cup worked well for a pleasantly sweet cake which paired well with the sweet frosting)

4eggs

Method

Preheat oven to 170C. The original recipe says 325F which translates to 165C but my oven bakes only at 160 or 170C.

Beat sugar and oil for 3 mins, add egg one at a time till smooth batter forms. Add in flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon,baking soda till flour just disappers. Fold in carrot, cranberries and nuts.

Scoop 2 tablespoons of mixture into each cupcake cup, till slightly less than half full for the flat topped cupcakes in the photo. Fill up to 3/4 for domed cakes. Bake 30-35 mins till a skewer comes out clean.

Beat 250g butter and 250g cream cheese till fluffy and gradually add 2 cups (original recipe used a pound of sugar)  of icing sugar. Add juice of half a lemon. Beat till light and fluffy and frost cakes when cool.

 

We love

If life was easy it would be completely boring wouldn’t it? I’ve been feeling quite mopey recently but I think I’m getting out of it! Thanks to all who have helped me cheer up and all your love If you’ve also noticed, I haven’t cooked or baked for the longest time! Been so busy and having a dip in appetite (surprise, surprise)

 

Anyway, H and I are celebrating our 2nd year wedding anniversary soon, it won’t be a big thing but we thought we would love to share some of our favourite things with you

1. Shared breakfasts, a weekend morning ritual. This is what screams WEEKEND! If nothing else does..

 

2. Hydrangeas.. The first bouquet H gave me. This was taken at a Balinese market.

 

3. Holidays.. Travel.. Sun on your face and sand beneath your feet.. Koh Samui, Bali..

 

4. Cambodia.. Our honeymoon at the Raffles Hotel D’Angkor. Colonial charm at its best. We were back again gritty and dirty this year helping out a charming village.

 

H with Nasseat, an English teacher in the Cambodian village

5.  cameras.. just driving out with our camera not really knowing what the day’s shots will be

 

6. Changi… where our other abode is.. sometimes just for a little getaway. I think its the most beautiful spot in Singapore with its beaches, sailing club, quiet kampong feel and huge trees.

7. Our silly little cats

 

8. Cappucinos, everywhere