The moon is made of cheese

I spent a Happy weekend with Mel, having a leisurely meal and snacking on these cheesy crescents of cheese. There are simply made with a short pastry and cheddar cheese incorporated into the flour. Then cut with a cookie cutter, brushed with egg yolk and topped with more grated cheddar cheese. They’re intensely savoury with a strong cheddar taste. The cheese give the biscuits a soft crumbly texture. We enjoyed these with sweet iced milk coffee and exchanged supplies. As you know, Mel is the creator of many beautiful creations of handmade cards which she lets go at reasonable prices. We had a fun time exchanging ribbons, techniques and materials. My sister also joined in the fun and made a card. Mel was also part of the creating team of happygrub and helped this technologically disabled person start this blog. For her sweet and generous nature, and also for being my most loyal and trusted friend since I was thirteen and an awkward teen, I present her with: TADA!! This is courtesy of the kind and talented ovenhaven who has given me my first virtual award!

Cheddar Biscuits

Courtesy of my mom 

Ingredients

250g plain flour

125g butter

1 egg yolk

3/4 cup cheddar cheese

1 egg yolk for brushing 

Method

Combine flour, butter, 1 egg yolk and 1.2 cup cheese till a soft pastry form. Roll out to 75mm thick and chill for half hour. Remove from chiller and cut with cookie cutter. Alternatively shape into logs and chill. Cut into 5 mm rounds and place on a baking tray. Brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 180C for 15 mins or till golden brown.

 My well worn baking sheet

Exchanging supplies on the floor

Hard at work

 Mel’s organized ribbon box

Mel’s even more organized box of trinketsMy first ever card sale!

Pandan tea for tea

Pandan grows wild, it needs no maintainence at all. It is a hardy shrub and will multiply like crazy if given the space. Pandan is used in all sorts of Asian cooking, sweet and savoury. I love my cup of pandan tea and the fragrance just drifts throughout the house when its being made. Besides being used to flavour food, it has wonderful properties like repelling insects. Its placed in larders and kitchen cupboards. Putting a bunch in the boot of the car is a natural air freshener as the leaves dry out and release their fragrance for quite some time. I had my pandan tea with pieces of “putri salat” a 2 layered malay cake of sticky glutinous rice cooked with coconut milk with a layer of custard infused with pandan.

 Pandan Tea

Serves one 

Ingredients

200 ml boiling water

2 teaspoons sugar

1 stalk pandan leaf cut into pieces

1 English breakfast tea bag

 Method

Pour boiling water over pandan and leave to steep 2-3 mins. Microwave on high for 1 min for a stronger pandan flavour. Add tea bag and leave according to your taste of strength. Remove tea bag, stir in sugar and enjoy!

You’re a sweettart!

Its great when you have a friend who owns a chocolate company. What more can a girl ask for? You’ve got a listening ear and a box of chocolates that come together in a cute white van. You get delivery of premium chocolates islandwide when you want to say “thank you” or “sorry” too a loved one, even at very short notice. Its that time of year again when the festivities are drawing close and these lovely tarts the size of your thumbnail (if u are a man with big hands) were made by Liz’s mom. And they are “utterly delicious”, let me borrow Martha’s favourite phrase. Mothers and grandmothers are going to be very busy brewing fragrant pineapple jam and encasing it in a buttery crust soon! This involves a labourious task of peeling pineapples, grating and cooking and stirring slowly with sugar till it becomes a sticky paste. Then into little moulds of a very short buttery pastry. A good pineapple jam tart should just have the right amount of pastry to melt in your mouth as a coating for the chewy jam.

The panna cotta that almost was..

What was originally planned as a panna cotta did not turn out as it is. I didn’t have any single cream but a whole jar of crème fraiche that was expiring soon. So I brought that to a boil and put in some chocolate and some gelatine and these chocolate pots came out. There were like eating truffles but smoother and softer. I took this picture at night so again I had the shadows that really bug me.  I am hoping to make a real panna cotta really soon, but here goes the recipe that I had planned to use.

Chocolate Panna Cotta

Adapted from Donna hay’s Chocolate 

2 tablespoons water

2 teaspoons powdered gelatine

500 ml single cream

100g dark chocolate

50g icing sugar 

Add water to gelatine in a small cup and let it swell. Bring cream and sugar to a boil and add chocolate to melt. Add gelatine and water mixture. Stir till mixture creamy and smooth. Pour into well oiled moulds, chill for at least 4-6 hours.  

A nostalgic breakfast spread

There are some things in life that brings back a flash of childhood memories. Like the food critic in Ratatoille after eating a bite of the colourful dish and was transported back to boyhood eating his mommy’s comforting dish. My attention was caught by this kaya (a popular local egg custard breakfast spread) due to its unusual packaging. It had no lid! Instead, a piece of plastic with the brand of the company was plastered onto its surface. H was excited when I picked it up from the dusty shelf and swore he had the exact same container and brand as a child. We picked it up and brought it home. I dubiously peeled back the plastic piece in the car looking for dirt. I asked H if the kaya was clean and he retorted “of course!”. Wonder how HE knew. Anywhere, hygiene issues aside, I mean we’ve got to leave a little dangerously sometimes, I had it for tea with crusty baguette. I was transported back to the time when the the old Indian man came around the neighbourhood on his bicycle and I bought kaya spread on soft buns for 30 cents each. What are your childhood food memories?

                                          

Easy peasey madelines

I finally made use of my silicon mould to make these madelines. Using the rubber silicon moulds for these madelines were tricky. Filling them with batter then trying to place them in the oven is difficult as the whole thing tends to bend and buckle and spill. The good thing is that they’re truly non stick and don’t require any buttering. Just flip and all the madelines pop out like magic. I’ve adapted the recipe from here, and its my lazy version. No chilling or waiting, just stir and you’ve got an easy cake for tea that won’t disappoint. They’re wonderful- moist, buttery wih the grittiness of the ground almond. H loves them so much I’ve made 3 batches in the last week. They’re possible to make even after work, to go with his late night cappuccino.  

Easy Peasey Madelines
100g granulated sugar
90g plain flour (sifted)
50g ground almonds

1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt
zest of 3 lemons (Better with, but I had no lemons..)

1tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
160g melted butter

Put all the dry ingredients into mixer, mix on low speed for 1 min. Add eggs one at a time. Add melted butter and beat well. Bake at 170 degrees C for 18-20 minutes. Transfer on to a wire tray to cool.

My new Nikon D40x

 

I’m really excited about our new purchase, the Nikon D40x. We’ve never owned an SLR so we’ve been trying to figure out how to use it with no knowledge in photography whatsoever! It’s been really fun though. I’ve been having problems with the size of the images, they’re huge. Being a tech dummy doesn’t help either but with my cousin C’s help (Thanks!), I’ve managed to upload my 1^st photo! Yay! This took me  days by the way and many unsuccessful uploads. This is the curry puff H bought for tea from the famous Onan Road bakery. I picked up an authentic old school kaya spread which I will put up a post on soon.