backdated stuff

Giant beef pide my mom made and brought over for lunch. She’s the source of a lot of our meals lately as we’ve been busy, then sick, then tired in that order.

I promised Damien Pignolet’s recipe for roast chicken, but its really really long, so here’s an alternative tutorial

I didn’t have cooking twine and obviously not an expert at trussing chicken as can be told from the bird above. I dug into my craft box, I can’t remember the last time I did any craft, and pulled this out.

The mess in my tiny kitchen post roast chicken.

No roasting tray so I used a rack suspended above a baking tray. My oven was in a mess though with lots of splaterring and spluttering

Remember that Sherry Yard chocolate pudding cake?

This is how it looked like inside. Leave me a comment if you’re dying for the recipe and I’ll try to slowly type it out. Its 3 pages long! And I can’t seem to find it anywhere on the net.. The cake itself is nothing special, it was a little dry to me. The pudding filling was quite delicious and a nice change from the usual ganache or butercream frosting.

Ugly banana cake

Its 8.22pm and there’s still a load of dishes in the sink from dinner, our new favourite: seafood black pepper spagetti, dark from oyster sauce, slurpy with al dente noodles and peppered very generously with black pepper. I have it with a sauce of light soy and bird’s eyes chilli, sliced.

Still, I couldn’t wait to share this ugly banana cake with you. I went slightly over the top, dotting the top with bananas. Moist and fluffy and screaming bananas, this cake is among my favourite, totally fool proof recipes. 

I’ve made this a couple of times, you can check the recipe out here. I tweaked it a little this time, by using a whole block of butter, 250g instead of the 240g. I used Dole bananas, large. 3 1/2 bananas weighed about 400g. I baked it in 2 loaf pans, my Ikea ones seen here. I topped it with the remaining 2 1/2 bananas left in the comb that I bought. I used a different method of combining the ingredients. After creaming the butter and sugar till white and fluffy, I beat in the eggs well one at a time. I mixed the mashed bananas in a separate bowl with the milk and vanilla essence. I then sifted the flour with the baking powder and baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. I then added the banana-milk mixture and the flour mixture alternating in thirds. The science behind this is explained here. I baked it for 50 mins at 180C.

The end result was the best cake I’ve ever baked. I’m not sure where the magic was, was it in the increased butter? The load of bananas? The method? The loaf pan? The baking time? That it was made for my dad on father’s day? Whatever it was, it was way too little to go around and it left me dreaming of mmm.. banana cake.. till another sunny weekend.

Sunny sunny madelines

I realize that when life doesn’t meet expectations, disappointment is often the end product. I had expected two things from my new rotation, one was a lighter workload and the other was less weekends at work. When I learnt to let go of both expectations, I started to cope a lot better. I only have one day off in 3 whole weeks so will be going to work again tomorrow (it’ll be a Sunday), my only day off this month of May would be next Saturday. Then again, work is a 3 minute drive and the patient load isn’t so bad so I shouldn’t be complaining. I’ve been trying to teach my new house officer the ropes so the first week has been a bit of a struggle but I’m happy to report that he’s improving a lot so the days have become better.

I had an unexpected visitor which is really the type of visitor I like because there’s no fuss in what to cook or serve but rather I just hunt around the kitchen and try to whip something up based on whatever is around. I keep a few staples at hand and there really are a lot of possibilities. I dusted off my silicon madeline pan and pulled out my 1 kg bag of ground almonds which I’m still slowly using up (I don’t think I’ll buy another kg of almond flour in a while) and decided that madelines it would be. My madeline pan had survived the packing and the move but had unfortunately developed a hole in one of the shell shaped hollows. I suspect it was a roach from our previous home. So far no household pests in my new kitchen I really hope it stays that way! I was then down to 8 madelines per pan instead of 9 and having just one mold, it took 3 batches to bake this batch. I think I need another madeline mould and this time I’ll make sure I’ll protect it well.

A handy kitchen tool which I’ve been dying to share with you is this digital weighing scale I bought from Phoon Huat. It has a button that says “tare” meaning that whenever you press it, the scale reads zero no matter what’s on it. This makes baking really easy as everything can be measured and stirred in a bowl. First I put the bowl on the weighing scale. Lets say it weighs 200g, I then press “tare” and the scale reads zero again. I then shake in some sugar from my sugar jar till it reads 100g, I press “tare” again and it read zero. I then do the same thing to put in 50g almond flour, 90 g of cake flour and thats all the measuring I do. A teaspoon of vanilla, a teaspoon of baking powder, 3 eggs stirred in and half a 250g block of melted buter (thats 125 g melted in another bowl in the microwave) later, its a one bowl easy batter (actually two, plus the melted butter bowl to wash but I guess that’s still an ok amount to wash). Recipe here, just with a little less butter, 125g instead of 160g as I wanted to use up whatever I had without unwrapping another block.

You can stir everything with a spoon. I use these great mixing bowls from Ikea which I love as they have lids. So I rest my batter covered in the fridge when I make it in advance. I find it good for marinating meats then keeping it in the fridge as the lid is airtight so the smells of the meat and marinade don’t float thru the fridge.

The guest was my talented Quizas with an early birthday gift. Let’s play guess what’s in the box again!

 

Thanks Wen, you really made my day sunny.

More from last weekend

This is what it means by bake till a crust forms

Deceptively neat squares that don’t really separate that well becuase though the edges were set, the middle was incredibly fudgey! Which are fine if you like fudgey brownies. I think the cause of the uneven making is that my oven can’t be set at 175C which is the set temperature. I baked these at 180C. Watch them well cos overbaking will give you a super dry brownie.

 Notice the different textures, the brownie in the second row and to the right was from the edge so it baked up almost cake like while the middle brownies were noticeably fudgier. Since the recipe is right over her in Laureen’s blog, I shall not retype it. The only changes I made to the recipe was halving the sugar and using all bittersweet chocolate. I used Phoon Huat’s dark couveture because I’ll can’t afford to bake with Valrhona yet. Its a little wasteful I think, I’m saving it for truffles! Hopefully this weekend.. My dad’s coming back from the Middle East soon so I can’t wait for the pistachios and walnuts and dates.

The last of daylight on my now dead orchids. They lasted a good 3 weeks, outliving their cut flower counterparts by a good 2 weeks!

I’ll give you this look too,

If you glugged my Thai chilli sauce out of the bottle causing an avalanche over my vegetable spring rolls (thanks Mama!) H made the exact same mistake. Now why does Thai chilli sauce come in such a wide necked bottle and refuse to come out with a gentle shake then decide to totally empty on a harder shake?

Seth was in a sleepy mood.

The recipe

The texture of this cake was moist, buttery and coarse crumbed with the grit of the ground almonds. Its got a high ratio of fat (butter) to flour so it has a moist heavy texture with a loose crumb rather than a tight crumbed pound cake which has milk or other liquid in. Its good on its own and would be great for a packed lunch or picnic.

Brown sugar and almond cakes

100g brown sugar

90g self raising flour (sifted)

50g ground almonds

1/2 tsp baking powder

1tsp vanilla essence

3 eggs

160g melted butter

Put all the dry ingredients into mixer, mix on low speed for 1 min or by hand in a bowl. Add eggs one at a time and continue to mix to combine. Add melted butter and mix. Bake at 170 degrees C for 35-40 minutes in small mini loaf pans (mine were roughly 8×3in) or as little cupcakes for 25-30 mins. Transfer on to a wire tray to cool.

The accidental cake

The cake that was made with brown sugar because I was out of white and self raising flour because I was out of plain flour. It rose like a souffle and tasted like sugee cake. The elusive sugee cake I’ve been trying to master for the last few months. Did I accidentally create one in an series of accidental replacements? Was it the method? Its my first cake in 6 years without a kitchenaid since my machine is in the other house. Just a bowl and a wooden spoon were used to make this cake. But the washing up sure wasn’t fun.

I made this cake in mini aluminium disposable loaf pans, brought it to my mom’s for my brother’s birthday party, sliced it up and plated it with eggnog disguised as a creme anglaise. I cheat, I know. But you should have tried washing all the butter off the bowls and getting the butter out of the sink then scooping up the solidified bits because it occurs to you it may clog up the sink then TRY to get that buttery smell off yourself and your kitchen. You wouldn’t want to be slaving over the stove after that! Lucky for me my little cat who loves eggnog, H, bought tins and tins post Christmas and hoarded them in our kichen cupboards. Its a nifty little dessert treat.

Recipe to come.

I managed to squeeze a few last minute “kuih lapis” or layered cake from my Dad’s cousin who has been our supplier for years for the Chinese New Year. We gave some away to H’s bosses, the neighbours and my dear friend Quizas. Kuih lapis(lapis meaning layered in Malay) is a rich layered butter cake made of egg yolks, sugar, lots of butter and flour. Its then baked layer by layer and can be flavoured with fruit or spice. The plain cakes are usually spiced with “rempah kuih” or cake spice sold at specialty bake stores. The popular fruit cakes are prune, chempedak (a local fruit similar to jackfruit), durian and recently I discovered an apple kuih lapis. Homemade is definited superior to storebought because its rich in yolks and butter which is usually skimped on in storebought varieties.

Happy Chinese New Year to many of my dear friends!

 

..Image above from Flikr, a little too sick to take photos but seemingly well enough to blog..

Bananamama cake

Don’t you feel that time just flies by, its the 11th day of the year and the new year felt like it was just a couple of days ago. So little time and so much to do! After the rather depressing last post, I’m picking myself up, thanks for all the uplifting comments. I still don’t think I can do any other job, but this certain rotation is proving very taxing. A couple of people shared with me recently what was their ideal job and strangely I could really imagine them in those jobs. A fellow medical officer said that she wanted to own a pet shop, and I could soo imagine her doing it. My mom on the other hand who is a teacher, has always wanted to be an interior designer and thank god she’s around to help me with the house. I on the other hand, have imagined my dream job to be a doctor (yes, still) employed by a hotel chain as their in house resort doctor. They would rotate me to beautiful resorts all around the world where I would tend their medical center a few hours a day and spend the rest of my time soaking up the country and the people and the food.Every few months they would rotate me to another destination. In the meantime I will be tending to sunburns and minor coughs and colds. Perhaps jellystings occasionally, sometimes a dog bite, sometimes a weary mother who needs to get away from her active toddler and has a headache. I’m digressing.. These banana cakes were actually for my 2 mothers (mom and mom in law) for their patience in being dragged to countless showrooms and time spent at the flat.

Furnishing a house is quite expensive. I’m trying to keep things small and within budget but its really hard sometimes. Especially when there’s something really really nice that you’re absolutely in love with but just won’t pay the price. I love this certain fabric for my living room curtains and it costs as much as all my living set combined and more! Its ridiculous.. So we’ve decided, no curtains for now! We’ll just fix up the blinds in the rooms and leave the sliding doors which open to the balcony as it is. I’ve bought all my lights, the ceiling fans, the furniture for the dining and living except the dining chairs as well as the bed which is all that will go into one of the bedrooms. We’re leaving the rest of the rooms empty for now. We’ll probably be able to move in by Chinese New Year which is the 26th of January. Things are a little tricky in a way when all the furniture shops deliver only during office hours so I have to plan it according to our tight schedules. I’m also starting to lose track of the furniture delivery times because they keep on changing it and usually call me when I’m busiest at work. I will share some photos of the house when we finally move in and it looks decent.

Back to the banana cakes, recipe found here. It is a soft warm fluffy cake best eaten with a tall glass of cold milk served to you while watching BBC Top Gear, well at least thats how H has his.

A close up of the fluffy insides. With so much raising power, 2 tsp baking powder AND 2 tsp of baking soda, it doesn’t matter how much you mess up the batter, this cake will rise and make you seem like a domestic goddess. And with the whole block of butter and moistness from the bananas and the added milk, it will never ever be dry either. Try it, it won many hearts for me.

Recipe from chubbyhubby, one of the first food blogs I started to read way back in 2005. Its based in Singapore and a lovely read with great recipes and restaurant reviews.

Banana cake

Makes 20 to 24

21⁄4cups (295g) flour
2tsp baking powder
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
1⁄2tsp salt
1cup (210g) sugar
240g unsalted butter
4 eggs, beaten
4 bananas (roughly 375g), mashed
5Tbs milk
1tsp pure vanilla essence

Sift flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a medium bowl. Cream butter and sugar until creamy white. Add beaten eggs a little at a time. Beat well after each addition. Add vanilla, milk and mashed bananas. Fold in flour and blend well. Pour mixture into muffin cups and bake at 180˚C for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

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.

Yay it works!

Finally, I am able to post pics again.. So these cupcakes turned up here, go look at it for more pics. Yes I did use the same carrot cake recipe with some tweaking. I doubled the recipe to make 60 1.5 inch sized cupcakes for a party. I used cashews instead of walnuts and added coconut. I piped the icing which is something I’ve erm, I’ll admit I’ve never done before. Usually I just smooth on my frosting that’s why I always half fill my wrappers and make flat cupcakes. But this time I got a little more adventurous.

 

I am now on call(read: unable to go home, bed in a crummy room and have to keep my eyes peeled for 30 plus hours), and it is pretty quiet, I think partly as it is the eve of National Day where Singapore celebrates its independence. It funny, someone has been trying to sell to me the idea of moving to New Zealand lately, especially after I’ve finished my membership exams. I’m actually quite happy here. Of course things can be better, like the working hours. I would love a 5 day work week, I have a house officer who trained in the UK and he still can’t get that we all have to work the weekend. Honestly I’ve worked a couple of years and I still have not gotten over it. I don’t know how people nonchalantly go about it without that scream in their head “its a Sunday!”

 

Anyway dare I say that this night is quiet.. Shh.. I have just made the greatest sin among all doctors on call. Never make any comment on the nature of the call especially before 8 am (when its over). There are many “taboos” while on call, partly due to our Asian roots, we are a superstitious lot. I don’t comply to these rules and superstitions but some people are sticky about it, so for those who may find this useful, here are the rules to follow for a good call

-bathe, this is to “wash away bad luck”

-never take the “last lift” at any time of the day or the lift last on the corridor of lifts, this would indicate that u’ll have to walk a lot during the call

-never eat “pau” or steamed bun on the day of the call as “pau” sounds like the word “carry” in mandarin and this implies you’ll be carrying a heavy burden. A registrar in the hospital actually did a randomized control trial where he tracked 150 doctors and randomized them into 2 groups feeding half of them “pau” and the other half chocolate bars. So at 4 pm on the day of the call all the doctors on call would have either the pau or choc bar delivered to them. At the end of the call they were given a questionare asking if they ate it and how many hours they slept. Also the number of admission, ICU transfers and deaths were tracked and recorded based on the information from the computer system. At the end of the study, it was found that there was NO difference betweent the pau and non pau eating groups. this was actually published in the Singapore Medical Journal earlier this year. The registrar modestly said that it should have been in the Lancet or New England Journal or Medicine and that soon everyone will be talking about this study. He had to be gently reminded that the paper has been published for months and none of us have actually heard of it save for this time when he was explaining in great detail.

 

But why am I suddenly getting so many phone calls?? Got to go..