Of tables and breakfasts

All I can think about is our new apartment. I spent the whole day while on call dreaming about my new flat. At least while walking in between the wards. We bought a coffee table last weekend but have not made any other major purchases. I called my father’s cousin who is a contractor to come and fix up the lights after we get the key. Speaking to him is like talking to my father, he’s warm and really caring. The flat is in move in condition with all the finishes done including cupboards, cabinets and air conditioners. We are just going to do the lights, fix the fans (u know how it feels to live in a tropical country) and put in some floor to ceiling full length mirrors to give the illusion of space! The curtain guy will come soon to fix up the blinds in the bedrooms and simple full length curtains in the living room. We are lucky enough to have a few offers from family to fix up the place. My parents are going to buy my living room carpet, I love Persian rugs. Grandma will get our fridge and dining set and mom in law our bed. You can check out the other blog for updates.

I want my dining table to be the color of driftwood like the one above from simply breakfast. I was really sad to hear that the blog will end at the end of the year! On a happier note, chockylit of cupcake bakeshop is back with a new blog!

I’m off work on New Year’s Day and Eve! I’ll be haing breakfast at Jones the Grocer with Quizas tomorrow, she’s off after working the night shift at the Children’s Emergency tonight.

Shots of the weekend

The last time I was on an airplane was to Kerala, India.

There is a sense of peace when you’re in the air looking at the sun’s rays over the clouds

We are celebrating our 3rd year wedding anniversary and Valentine’s Day in Borneo soon. Can’t wait.

In the meantime.. Here’s more love..

Christmas dinner.. We had non alchoholic sparkling champagne from yup, you guessed it, Mustafa. We didn’t bring out SLR and the Samsung did not take any forgiving pictures of the poor turkey so I shall just leave you with a glimpse of the table.

I rushed to see Zhimin and Lincoln exchange marriage vows before our cousin’s solemnization at the other end of Singapore. I’m definitely someone who doesn’t cry easily, I think I got it from my mom, but I couldn’t help tearing when they exchanged their vows. It was wonderful seeing this couple get together in medical school and the romance ad love shared between them.

We all graduated in the same year, it was nice to see all the boys after years spent working in different hospitals (can’t believe how time flies) together and in uniform.

Zhimin looked gorgeous, and the gown she designed herself was beautiful.

Quizas, you looked stunning too! And I’m a sucker for dresses with big fat bows.

Congratulations again Zhimin and Lincoln, our cousin Idris and Haza (photos coming soon..) and Elia and Ridwan. I’ve been to more weddings this weekend than the entire year! It was exciting and really fun. Now it’ll be your turn next Mel.. Thanks for the little congratulatory note and the sweet gift.

 

On a separate and equally exciting note, I’m getting the keys of our new flat on the 9th of January! We’ve been blessed with a truly good year with H’s recent promotion, my offer for traineeship, clearing both Part 1 and 2 of the exam in May and in December, the new house.. I feel incredibly lucky, 2008 would be a year I would remember and I hope that 2009 would be even better for all of us! Can’t wait for all your 2008 round up posts..Remember to link it here if you do, I’ll love to hear how your year went!

Some things..

I got to know today that I passed the MRCP Part 2 written examination. What better way to let my friends, family and all of you who left me such sweet comments know than announce it right here! Now I have the last and final leg (and most daunting!) of the exam which is the clinical part to clear. I’m not looking forward to examining a patient than presenting and discussing with 3 pairs of eyes on me. But oh well.. I just want to get out of this whole studying rut. I’m tired of studying! I want to come home from work and do absolutely nothing. Anyway I’ll probably take the exam in November earliest but realistically I’m thinking January 2010. Which sounds far away but its only in a year.

 

Foodwise, I’m still dreaming of the dinner I had last night which was really really great. Thank you to Aunty Faridah for the hard work, the turkey was fabulous. The turkey with the morrel  cream sauce, roast potaotes, baby onions and steamed greens. Yums. H brought our panasonic instead of the SLR so the photos weren’t great, I’ll see what I can dig up when I’m home (yup, I’m sleeping in a hospital bed tonight, at work that is). I made a starter of crostini with smoked salmon, Boursin garlic cream cheese and smoked mussels. Shopping for ther dinner was hell though, the crowds in town were ridiculous. And I did not manage to get my ingredients at one place so we were bouncing from Carrefour in town to the Cold Storage and was tempted to go down to Takashimaya but we were greatly deterred by the traffic. I couldn’t find the sponge fingeres for the tiramisu, I think they were sold out in Carrefour so we had to move on to plan 2 for dessert. We had Christmas stollen with vanilla ice cream and toasted almondsand my brother brought along a blueberry cheesecake which he made. I love men who cook.

 

I also made the Caeser salad with Thomas Keller’s Anchovy Dressing from his French Laundry Cookbook. It was simple and delicious. It split when I left the dressing to stand though, I’m not sure why it happened, but on the dressed salad I guess no one could tell. I’ve never had a Caeser’s till I met H, I’m just not a salad kind of person, but well Caaser’s salad is a super unhealthy salad so we became friends pretty fast. I made the croutons by tossing cubed Delifrance baguettes with olive oil, salt, pepper, dried oregano flakes and pecorino cheese. Is it just me or is the parmesan you’ve been getting lately tasting completely bland. I think I will go for the pecorino from now on. Anyway the salad was made of the croutons, Romaine lettuce, more shaved pecorino and pan seared Hokkaido scallops.

 

I will share the recipe for the dressing soon, along with the banana cake that I’ve promised and will bake soon enough! Counting down till the new year.. In the mean time, just one more call after tonight and 3 weddings over the weekend. I’m totally exhausted. But happy. And really grateful, that I passed!

Nectarie

Things have been busy with 3 calls, 3 weddings and lots of cooking this week till the new year. I just want to say a huge thank you for all the little thoughtful gifts I’ve received. Sheerin, thanks for the sweets from India, you know the way to my heart. Mel, thank you for the Indonesian coffee and my staple: teh prendjak! I can’t live without it. Quizas for the thoughtful Christmas card and always making me feel that we’re close though we always struggle to find a time to meet! Its hard we both have crazy schedules. Mama, for good stuff from Saudi Arabia: olives, feta, dates, figs, pistachios, you’re the best! I know you struggled to hand carry the load on the plane! Mama (mom in law) for the loot from Vietnam: rice paper, vietnamese coffee, custard apples, the coasters, the kitchen accessories, the scarves, the silk.. Thank you for everything! With all the nights I’ve been working, days are merging into each other and I feel like I’ve been working continuously for days. I feel that Sturday night with H and Mel at Marrakesh for moroccan food and Nectarie for coffee and dessert and loads of people watching was just yesterday.

Photo and text from hungrygowhere.com: …

“..Caramelized bananas with chocolate (S$7.50) here is good. In fact, it ranked among the top 50 cakes by Sunday Times. Undoubtedly the best cake Nectarie has to offer, the banana and white chocolate mousse was velvety and rich. But that wasn’t the best part, eaten together with the crunchy base, the taste was divine. And all of us unanimously agreed it was the star.”

Its a good thing I passed over all my pita during dinner for H to finish. That left me lots of room for dessert. The caramelized bananas in the mousse layer of the cake was a local banana so it held its shape beautifully and were really banana-y in flavor. I found the scribbling on the plate a little strange because it didn’t taste raspberry coulis but more like a waterred down strawberry jam.. For drinks, please have the tea that Mel had, peony jade tea which was served in a beautiful press with white tea leaves and peony flowers floating at the botom. Sugarless and hot, it went perfectly with the sweet cakes and the cool night air. Next Saturday night Mel?

Good things come in small packages

Looked to Martha for packaging inspiration. I envy Quizas and her little crafty projects. Somehow, I’ve not done much crafting lately. I blame it on our home situation where my stuff is divided in two, most of my “non essentials” are at my mom’s. I have only my books and my baking tools in Changi where I stay with H’s family.  I’m really looking forward to my new home, which is taking way longer than anticipated.

I bought  really really cute boxes from Phoon Huat recently, can’t wait to share them with you. They’re really pretty.

Individually wrapped cookies, I think this would work for a chewy cookie as it isn’t airtight.

Does anyone know a good place to buy cookie jars? I find the Ikea ones non airtight and with the humidity of Singapore, things go soft very quickly.

Its quite cool to have boxes shaped like little townhouses don’t you think?

Pretty green and yellows surrounding the lemon meltaway cookies.

I love anything with a stand. I’m still searching for that ideal cake stand.

Bollywood veggies part 2

I’ve sorted out more photos, I think there’ll still be a part 3 though.. Here is a little booklet about the Kranji countryside. Did you know there’s an eco farm resort in the area? With the rain, we didn’t get to explore much but its definitely mentally bookmarked.

 Spiky unknown fruit.

Banana flower in the cafe

Figs on the tree

And hanging off the trunk

It ended up in the fig tea I had. Home brewed and fruity

H and his cappucino

Pitcher plant and pandan bushes to take home.

Droplets everywhere

More droplets of rain

Don’t u feel lucky you live in the tropics?

A scent as a cure all

Burger King just released a cologne for the meat loving man. Flame grilled meat loving men to be specific. So its not a wierd thing that Elia wants to smell like fried onions.

I wanna smell like a fresh from the oven chocolatey chocolate swirled buttery yellow marble pound cake! What would you like to smell of? Marble cake courtesy of the guys at Da Paolo who are currently doing all the baking for me lately.

Today I realized something scary, when I looked at my pay slip, I realized that I had received a monthly payment called the “special allowance”. This is a little extra 5% of your base salary given to you for doing a rotation that is unpopular with other doctors usually because it is an extra busy or difficult rotation. The last time I received this special allowance for 6 months, it drove me out of clinical work and avoid hospitals and patients. I definitely need a break after this. At least in a quiet department like cardiology or neurology. This week was almost unbearable, I started counting down the days to the new year. At least there’ll be 4 more months till I’m out and I am taking a few blocks of leave because I think I need something to cling on to my sanity. Trust me, no money in the world is worth losing you sanity for! Its really really bad. I’m just gritting my teeth and bearing it for now. Count down with me will ya.

Bollywood veggies part 1

Soft fluffy warm tapioca cake

Vegetarian spring rolls with sweet Thai chilli sauce and cucumber pickle

 This looks so edible to me. And I’m not even hungry. They were all sorts of wild sprouting mushrooms, I think its got to do with the rain

Something brilliantly orange on the dark damp ground, it caught my eye

Nature’s artful display.

More stuff on the ground

The clouds and rain made some photos cool and some warm

A flower called cat’s whiskers.

That banana cake, with organic local tropical bananas, notice the banana pieces that look slightly purple with a yellow center? The great thing bout local bananas are that they don’t disintegrate when cooked so they fry beautifully and now I’ve discovered, bakes into beautiful cakes.

Quick update:

For those people asking me about the weight gain I’ve had recently, I weighed myself today, after 9 days of work and I’ve lost half a kilo. My next day off is the 31st of December, that’s 16 days of working straight including 3 30 hour shifts or night calls. I’ve started cutting back on eating after 8pm, started eating breakfast of fruit and oatmeal in a mug, squeezing in time in the morning by waking and sleeping earlier. My breakfast idea was inspired by little Arianne who eats her oatmeal by dipping apples into it. It makes oatmeal eating much yummier. Its ok, you can do it too and your age can be double digit in years and not in months. I’m going to toast some almond slivers and dice some dried apricot to make a breakfast fruit and nut mix so I don’t have to be sleepily cutting fruit in the morning. More breakfast ideas soon!

I have been cutting back on rice but with a little difficulty because the aunty in the hospital canteen refuses to halve my rice portion. I’ll ask her for less rice and she’ll say that its already too little and I should eat more, I’ll protest and SHE’ll protest, I explain and SHE explains how I need more for more energy for doctoring(?!). In order to not agitate the person behind me I exasperatedly give in, and when I have like a full plate of rice, I can’t bear to throw it away and I am quite hungry anyway. I went to another canteen today and the uncle also refused to half my rice. ??! And he threw in an extra side, for free. Its strange but I think being short makes people feel you should eat more, I’m not sure if they know that past puberty, these bones ain’t growing.

Black on Black Pierre Herme Truffles

 

I made a vow to myself to start baking from the books I currently have till I have mastered the recipes and techniques before buying another. There’s still that voice in me that’s screaming “I need another cookbook!!” But lucky for H, I surpress that monster. Though it still comes out once in a while especially when I feel the need of some cheering up. Cookbooks have it all, beautiful words that read like a novel, pretty photos, glossy pages, excellent design, hard covers, slippery jackets, big and heavy, and everything else I love in a book.

So anyway I am going to cook my way thru my cookbooks and what better way to begin than with the pastry master himself. I had some cream that was going to expire soon so these truffles were perfect. You need just 4 ingredients: chocolate, cream, butter and cocoa powder. I used Valrhona Equitoriale 55% which was S$9.50 for 300g at Sia Lik. I used only one container for the whole recipe so its quick and easy and not much cleaning is involved in making the ganache. The cocoa powder part is a little tricky though.

Black-on Black Truffles

Adapted from Chocolate Desserts By Pierre Herme

260g bittersweet chocolate

1 cup heavy cream (I used Bulla’s Pure Cream)

31/2 tablespoons butter

cocoa powder for dusting

How I did it:

Melt the chocolate in microwave on high for 40-60 seconds in a plastic container with a cover like an old plastic ice cream tub or tupperware, timing may vary according to your microwave. My chocolate was at room temperature and my microwave is quick so I had to watch it to make sure the chocolate didn’t burn. It took slightly under a minute. Add in the cream and stir to blend, then the butter a tablespoon at a time. Stir to melt. You may need another zap in the microwave if your cream was very cold to start with and the chocolate and cream mixture has become too cold to melt the butter. Leave the ganache to cool at room temperature for a couple of minutes. Cover the container with the lid and leave in the fridge to set(now u can make sense of the tupperware bit right, less washing up and the ganache is in an airtight container), about 3 hours or overnight if its convenient for you. Put your cocoa powder into a bowl and dust your hands with the powder. Scoop a tablespoon of the cold ganache onto your palm and roll to form a ball, this can get a little messy. Toss it back into the cocoa powder and gingerly toss it around to coat. Put straight onto serving plate or in a covered parchment lined airtight container and kept in the fridge for consumption later.The ganache itself is very yummy. But please let it set to let it live to its full potential as a fat round truffle.

Addition: I think the cream wasn’t such a good idea because of the high fat content (read:45% milk fat) the ganache ended up solidifying to quite a hard block,  akin butter. And I had one hell of a time rolling it into balls. In the end my truffles looked like chocolate rocks. Ugly chocolate rocks. I have to be brutally honest. I found it easier to roll when it rested a mere 2 hours in the fridge than when it rested overnight.

For help always turn to Martha. All photos courtesy of MarthaStewart, I gave away all the truffles before having the time to photograph them. And yes, they were VERY ugly.

 On a separate note, I have so many photos from the bolywood veggies outing, here’s a sneak:

Somehow snails move seem to move very fast when you’re trying to squat, adjust your manual focus, hold your umbrella and try not to get the camera wet.

Erm Shafia (my cousin), somehow your umbrella followed me to Kranji. I think you left it at my mom’s house and I somehow picked it up and brought it home with me then its sort of found its way to my car. I only looked at it at bollywood veggies and somehow figured out it belonged to you. Let me make it clear here: when I went to medical school, it WAS NOT called Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, it was called Faculty of Medicine.

Because wordpress doesn’t allow me to shrink my vertical photos without blurring it, here’s a gigantic photo of the kuih bingka. Oh the kuih bingka. If I can create an idiom today, it would be: “never trust a bingka with a flat top” Bingka is a Malay cake made of grated tapioca, coconut milk and sugar and it should definitely have a craggy crispy top! I also had a delicious, small overpriced loaf of banana cake that was oh so delicious, I’ll share my favourite recipe soon and more photos, including the “warriors” that run Bollywood veggies.

I spent today moping bout my too short a weekend like a love lost.

A moussaka to use up leftovers

It Sunday! I had such a wonderful Saturday, having a good long night sleep then waking up and deciding to make the most of my Saturday since this is the first Saturday I’ve had off since mid October. When you’re deprived, everything tastes twice as sweet.  I’m weekend deprived! Let’s move on now, here at happygrub we focus on the present and never look back. Well actually, I was still moping about my ruined sugee cake recently and messed up another butter cake. I give up. I’m done with large cakes, my last few cakes just didn’t work out. So how I spent Saturday was having that breakfast, then this moussaka, then I spent last night planning the family dinner we’ll have on Christmas Eve with Aunty F. We don’t celebrate Christmas, just like we don’t celebrate the Lunar New Year but we always have a gathering and toss yu sheng. Let’s just say its a family tradition to find any oppurtunity to eat. So for Christmas, I’m in charge of the hors d’oevres or canapes as well as the petit fours for the coffee after. I’m also going to help make part of the salad. Aunty F will prepare her turkey, its really delicious, with the stuffing and the gravy with morrels. She’ll do the roast potato and brussel sprouts and tiramisu for dessert. More soon!

 

Back to the moussaka. No one seems to sure but it’s likely that the Greek moussaka is Arabian in its origins and related to the Levantine musakhkhan from which the word moussaka probably was derived. Moussaka is a casserole of baked lamb and eggplant or aubergine covered with a lovely thick layer of bechamel sauce that, when baked, becomes golden and crusty.

Remember I had made a large amount of bolognaise when I was sitting for the exam? I froze a batch and I recently had to clear space in the freezer so using up the bolognaise became top priority. I had already eaten it with pasta, baked it into a sheperd’s pie and was running out of ideas. Yup, I know that was just two ideas, but well, I ran out after two. While clearing the fridge, I found two lone round purple eggplants and one of them was having a mild case of frost bite. There was also half a block of Red Leceister which is a fatty bright orange cheddar. Fatty in a way that it exudes a lot of oil when grilled. Its a great tasting melting cheese.

So moussaka it was! I sliced the eggplants right into the pan with hot oil. Eggplants glug up oil so put a generous amount. I sprinkled some salt while they were in the pan. An important element in cooking is to season all the elements in the dish. For example, if you were making a pizza, you would add salt into the dough as well as the sauce that goes on top.

The eggplants are done when they turn from white to soft of a translucent grey. Layer onto an oven proof dish like Pyrex.

For the bechemal sauce, I’ve included the recipe below. Pour it over the eggplant in an even layer.

I sprinkled pepper and dried herbs. Zaatar would be good it u have any at hand. I used dried basil. Phoon Huat has good and cheap herbs and some spices.

It will look like this

We were a little impatient, I would have liked it to turn crispy and golden on top, but well, H was really hungry. I baked it at 200C for 15 mins, it should go for 25-30 mins. Serve hot with toasted pita to mop up the juices!

 

Easy bechamel sauce

1 tablespoon flour

1 tablespoon butter

1.5 cups milk

1 cup shredded cheese, I mixed cheddar and mozarella

Salt to taste

Method

Melt butter in saucepan. Add flour and stir vigourously with a wooden spoon to form a roux or flour paste. This will thickening agent of your sauce. Add milk and continue to stir till it comes to a boil and the roux has completely dissolved. Add in cheese and stir till all the cheese melts and you have a homogenous sauce. Season with salt. Use immediately. Makes over 2 cups.

I also made Pierre Herme’s truffles with my Valrhona chocolate and received an order to make half a kilo of truffles for a birthday present from the person I gave it to. I’m excited. I will post the recipe and more about the truffles soon.

I went to Bollywood Veggies today and we spent a good 3 hours there. It was really a surreal experience. I have so much to share with you.

 

What did you do this weekend?