Baked Banana

When I first saw this recipe in Chef Gregoire Michaud's Never Skip Dessert last year, I had eagerly bookmarked it. I remember thinking to myself, this is like a creme brulee in a banana - as opposed to the banana in creme brulee which I had made before... :)  The clever quirkiness of this dish appeals to me and the recipe seems easy enough. Chef Michaud had included a Yuzu Thyme Ice Cream as a second component to this dish. I decided I can cut myself some slack and serve it with a store bought vanilla ice cream. Easy peasy, no?



But little had I expected to work through a whole bunch of bananas and still not get a decent shot at this.... Don't get me wrong, the preparation of the baked banana was simple enough and it tasted delicious with a crispy crust of caramelised sugar on top.
What stumped me was that wretched scoop of ice cream! Getting the ice cream to thaw to just the right texture to get a perfect quenelle proved to be especially tricky! By the time I got the ice cream to thaw / freeze right, the bananas had wilted out on me. Then, by the time I baked a second batch of bananas, the sky turned impossibly dark as stormy weather set in.... I had no choice but to do this again the next day and this time round, I decided to just skip the scoop of ice cream altogether.

This is a great great way to serve a tropical dessert. If you like bananas, the sweetness of the fruit pairs really well with the vanilla custard.
Be sure to use a ripe banana to ensure the best flavour and do not get alarmed when your banana turns black in the oven. I actually find it quite cool to plate a charcoal black banana.... :)

Baked Banana

Recipe : (from Never Skip Dessert by Gregoire Michaud)

3 pcs         Large curved bananas

150gm      Milk
150gm      Cream
40g           Sugar
1.5pc        Eggs
1 pc          Vanilla pod (scraped to get vanilla beans)

Method : 
1. Boil milk, cream, sugar and vanilla beans.
2. Strain this into eggs and mix well
3. Preheat oven to 190C.
4. Slice the banana length wise in half.
5. Remove the pulp from the banana. Chop up the pulp and lay a few pieces in the banana skin.
6. Place the banana on a baking tray and fill it with the custard cream.
7. Bake at 190C for 20mins.
8. Remove from oven and sprinkle with sugar. Using a blow torch, caramelise the sugar.

Lemon Souffle Pancakes

Post Christmas, for me, is a time to chill, to lounge around the couch watching TV and contemplating when is a good time to check out the post Christmas sales in town.... Heaven forbid that I should have to mess up my kitchen again with ambitious cooking... I am still reeling from the Christmas Day dinner I hosted. It was literally Masterchef Challenge mode the whole day, prepping and cooking one dish after another... all the while consciously trying to keep things neat in the kitchen while I worked... I almost succeeded until guests decided to saunter into the kitchen to 'help' and I had to cook while 'baby sitting'  them.... It had just dawned on me that I am truly the mistress of my kitchen. Only I know how to groove around my kitchen, how to put things away, where to reach for my tools....

So after a feast of Laksa, Ayam Goreng, Tauhu Tek, Morimoto Tuna pizza, Hawaiian Pizza( for the kids)  and Ondeh Ondeh... post Christmas breakfast is best kept light and simple. These feather-light, citrus flavoured pancakes from Bill Granger's Bills Sydney Food are just the perfect way to greet a cool breezy morning. Paired with strawberries left over from Christmas Day's Summer Sangria, I am almost tempted to embark on a low fat detox program... maybe after New Year...or more realistically, after Chinese New Year... :)

Hail The Holidays! Enjoy!
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Lemon Souffle Panckes
Recipe :
3/4 cup                   Buttermilk (I used normal milk)
2                             Egg yolks
3 tsp                       Grated Lemon zest
2 tbsp                     Lemon Juice
1 tsp                       Vanilla Extract
25g                         Butter (melted)
3/4 cup                   All purpose flour
1 tsp                       Baking powder
3 tbsp                     Castor sugar
A pinch                  Salt
2                            Egg whites

To serve
Strawberries, halved
1 tbsp            Honey
Icing sugar for dusting

Method :

1. Mix egg yolks, milk, vanilla essence, lemon juice and lemon zest together in a bowl. Add melted butter and mix well.

2. Sift flour, baking powder, caster sugar and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the center of the  flour mixture and pour in (1) gradually and mix flour with milk mixture until the dry ingredients are moistened. Be careful not to overmix.

3. Place egg white in a clean bowl and beat until soft peaks are formed.  Fold in egg white into (2).

4. Melt a small portion of butter in a heated non-stick frying pan.  Place 2 tbsp of the batter from (3) into the pan. Cook until the cake turns golden brown on the underside and looking dry on the edges. Flip over and continue to cook the other side.  transfer to a plate and keep warm while cooking remaining batter.

5. Toss fresh strawberries with honey and a light dusting of icing sugar.  Dust pancakes with icing sugar and serve immediately.

Pate de Fruits Cassis - Cassis Fruit Jelly Candy

My parents were strict with us when we were growing up. I don't recall ever vehemently demanding for anything when we were young. We would gladly take whatever my parents would give us, be it sweet treats, stationery, books or clothes. If anything we set our eyes on were deemed expensive by our parents, we learnt to let go and make do with cheaper alternatives. We did not whine or throw tantrums, we just learnt to enjoy and made the best out of what we had... When it came to candies and sweet treats, Cadbury chocolates were not heard of within our households. The best we would see were Van Houten almond chocolate ovals that came in oval shaped tin cans or long rectangular tin boxes.
For Candies, my mother would always get us Polo mints - possibly the most unpopular and the most boring candy for a kid. Second to the Polo mints, our other favourite would be the Rowntree Fruit Gums.
They were fruity and sweet and for a long time, these were my favourite. The only cons about this candy were possibly that they were hard (which made them last forever to chew) and had the tendency to stick on to the teeth. Following the Rowntree fruit gum came something which has remained my firm favourite till today - the Rowntree Blackcurrant / Tropical Fruits pastilles. These were soft, tangy and had a more natural fruity taste compared to the gums. These were a little more expensive compared to the fruit gums and the polo mints (polo mints were the cheapest) but whenever we went grocery shopping at the supermarket then, we would always look out for the typical special offers that would come as 3 tubes in a pack.

My love for fruit pastilles continues till today - I can at any time, finish up a whole tube of Rowntree (now owned by Nestle) Blackcurrant Fruit pastilles faster than you can finish sucking your Polo Mint!
Hence, it comes as no suprise that I have always been tempted to make Pate de Fruits - a little sweet treat often served as petit fours with other sweet treats.
This is not the first time I have attempted a Pate de Fruit. I recall trying to make these with Mango puree but for some reason, it just would not gel... it could have been the fact that I had tried to reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe or it could have been due to the pectin I was using at the time....


The recipe I am using today is taken from Le Cordon Bleu "De la Cueillette, a la Recette"  - an illustrative Le Cordon Bleu French Pastry Training Manual  which I find rather useful. The recipe combines the mildness of pear puree with Casis to soften the tartness. The amount of sugar used in the recipe is still maddeningly huge but I refrained from tweaking the recipe for fear that it will not gel again. In addition to pectin, this recipe also calls for the addition of citric acid. ( the recipe I tried before used lemon juice) The citric acid was added at the end of the cooking process and was the critical component that ensured problem-free gelling of the cooked jam.

Verdict- the fruit jelly was bursting with rich fruity flavours - The tartness and sweetness were so intense that I could not really decide if it was more tart or more sweet. I definitely feel more encouraged this time and am looking forward to work with other fruits and ... yes, I am still adamant on tweaking the sugar level !


Recipe :

Cassis Puree                   200g
Pear Puree                      150g
Pectin                              8g
Castor sugar  A               38g (mix pectin and sugar A together)
Castor sugar  B               375g
Glucose                           75g
Citric Acid                       8g
Coarse Sugar                  For coating

Method :
1. In a copper pot, heat Casis Puree and Pear Puree until 40-45C. Add  Pectin and sugar A mixture slowly into the puree mixture.
2. Add glucose and continue to stir and heat until puree starts to bubble.
3. Add the rest of the castor sugar in 3 additions. Stirring well to dissolve after each addition.
4. Continue to stir and heat until temperature reaches 107C.
5. Remove from heat. Add in citric acid and stir well to dissolve.
6. Pour jam into an 18x18cm square ring. (place square ring on a tray lined with silpat mat/ baking sheet.
7. Leave to cool and set at room temperature for 12 hours. (note, once citric acid is added, puree will gel quite quickly, so work quickly to pour into mold)
8. Dust with coarse sugar and cut to size.

Blood Orange Chiffon Cake With Blood Orange Jelly

I was feeling ambitious when I finally managed to find some Blood Orange in Singapore. I dreamt about making one of those glorious Blood Orange desserts featured in Justin North's Becasse. Something gourmet enough to be served in a (dare I dream) hatted restaurant. Then, I dithered, procrastinated, went on to Korea for a business trip and by the time I got back, relented completely.
Not wanting to waste the hard to come by Blood Orange, I decided to revisit the Chiffon -my favourite cake genre. Chiffon, because it is light so I can dabble and serve it with a side accompaniment like a blood orange flavoured fresh cream or ice cream. In the end, I experimented with a Blood Orange Jelly.


The Blood Orange did not do much for the chiffon, not for the colour nor for the flavour. Although the juice is a dark bloody ruby red, it doesn't stain well (unlike the blueberries or the raspberries). The flavour is less vibrant than the normal orange, the zesty sprite very much mellowed by the slight bitterness of the blood orange. Hence I was glad that I had chosen to make a jelly with it - that at least allowed the true character of the fruit to manifest.


A couple more words about the Chiffon - I had said it before here and I will remain stubborn and maintain that I like my chiffon recipes, pure and simple - relying solely on a well beaten meringue sans leavening agents or stabilisers like cream of tartar. I went through the crazy phase of baking 1-2 chiffons every day just to practice and make sure that I get familiar with the right 'end point' for the meringue. A meringue that is a tad too stiff makes it difficult to fold evenly into the cake batter (symptoms include clumps of egg white spotting the cake) . On the other hand, a meringue that is too runny, would result in a sunken cake. The right consistency meringue (with a droopy peak) will deliver a cake that is fine, light and most important of all MOIST!
I am glad this cake turn out right and I have just reminded myself that I will have to do this often before I lose touch with it.

Recipe :
Chiffon
                                           17cm Pan         20cm Pan
Egg Yolk                             40g                  80g
Castor Sugar A                   40g                   80g
Salad Oil                             40ml                 80ml    (I use Canola Oil but corn oil, grapeseed oil are fine)
Top flour / All purpose         80g                  160g
Salt                                      1/8 tsp             1/4 tsp
Bld Orange Juice                  80ml                160ml  (you can replace with normal orange juice)
Grated orange peel               1/3 tsp             2/3 tsp
Contreau                              1 tbsp              2 tbsp
Egg white                             160g                280g
Sugar B                                30g                  60g

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Using a hand whisk, beat egg yolk with 1/3 of Sugar A until sugar completely dissolves. Add the remaining sugar in 2 portions and whisk until dissolved and egg yolk mixture becomes smooth.
3. Add oil and beat well with hand whisk. Add orange juice, contreau and orange peel. Mix well to combine.
4. Add sifted flour and salt and mix well to get a smooth batter.
5. In a clean mixing bowl, beat egg white until slightly foamy. Add sugar B in 3 additions. Beat until meringue forms a soft peak. The peak should be droopy and not stiff and pointy.
6. Fold 1/4 of (5) into (4) and mix thoroughly to combine.
7. Fold the rest of the egg white gently into (6) until batter is well incorporated. Take care not to deflate meringue too much.
8. Pour (7) into a chiffon cake mold and bake at 170C for 35mins.
9. Remove cake from oven and invert the cake pan to cool. (i normally slot the chimney through the neck of a long slender wine bottle.)
10. Leave to cool over night before unmolding.

Blood Orange Jelly
1. Mix 8g of gelatine with 50ml of water.
2. Pulp blood orange fruit in a blender to get 250ml of liquid pulp.
3. Place (2) in a saucepan. Add 25g of sugar and 1 tsp of lemon juice. Heat until just before boiling. Add (1) and stir until fully dissolved.
4. Cool down and refrigerate to set.

Lemon Curd Bites - Experimenting With Meyer Lemons

My business travels wreak havoc on my blogging activities but they also give me interesting new exposure to elements that very often turn into inspirational fodder for my blog.... provided if I find time to tap into those inspirations before they fade away in my memory....

I was back in the Big Apple region for almost 3 weeks, working on business plans. Between the cold rainy weathter, the floods in New Jersey and the first transfixing images of the engulfing tsunami in Japan, I was still fortunate enough to be blessed with 2 sunny, fair weathered weekends to roam the streets of New York. 

I saw these Meyer Lemons at Dean & Deluca on my first weekend in town. Fascinated by the collection of cross-bred citrus varieties available, I made a mental note to bring home some blood orange, meyer lemons and mandarinos... Unfortunately by the time I returned again on the weekend just before my departure, the stock has already dwindled to a haggard looking bundle, stripped of the barrels of sunshine I had seen a week earlier. I picked out half a dozen of the best looking Meyer Lemons I could find and hand carried them on my flight home.

Just a little bit of background on the Meyer Lemons for those who are interested - this citrus is a cross bred between a lemon and a mandarin orange. Believed to have been first bred in China for ornamental purposes, US started to consume this in the early 1900. However, I believe I have only become aware of this after I have seen this featured in gourmet magazines and Martha Stewart's recipes over the last 2 years.

Rounder than the ordinary lemon with a deeper orangey hue, the fruit smelt gorgeous like a sweet grapefruit with a mild hint of the lemony zest.  Taste wise, it is less tart than an ordinary lemon but with alot more tang than a sweet orange. I would think that the juice of the Meyer Lemon would be perfect as it is for a lemonade drink without the need for additional sugar.

I deliberated over what to do with the Meyer Lemons when I got back. Now, on hind sight, I have to admit that I had been too narrow minded and was too boxed in by my own pre-conception that to test a lemon,I would need to make a lemon curd. I played safe and fell back on Tish Boyle's Lemon Curd Bites from her The Good Cookie cookbook. 'The miniature tarts made with a tender cream cheese dough was filled with tangy lemon curd. Very posh, very sophisticated.' - I was sold.


These turned out to be pretty little things and yes, I could imagine them looking posh and sophisticated among a tea party spread but I have to admit that the Meyer Lemons did not quite give the right taste to the tarts. Lemon curd, I have come to conclude, should be smooth and tart. One expects the lemon curd to be bright and zesty. However, the subdued tartness of the Meyer Lemons was not enough to deliver the kick. With this recipe, I found that the curd was a little lost in its flavour. At one point, I think my disappointment even wryly hallucinated me into thinking that I was tasting Benadryl...  now I am really lost...

I have not lost heart. I still have 4 lemons in my fridge. I will think of something.....

After thought : I probably should have cut the sugar for the lemon curd by half and that would give me a more tart finish...


Recipe
Lemon Curd Bites (from Tish Boyles's The Good Cookie)

Cream Cheese Dough
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup confection sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter cut into tablespoons
3 oz Cream chees,cut into 1/2 inch chunks and frozen for 30mins
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon Curd
1 large egg
4 large egg yolks
1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp finely grated lemon zest
Pinch of salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter cut into tablespoons

Method:
Dough
1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, confectioners' sugar, baking powder, and salt and process for a few seconds, until blended. Sprinkle the butter and cream cheese pieces over the mixture and pulse about 18 times until the butter pieces are the size of peas and the mixtures resembles coarse meal. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolk and vanilla with a fork. Add the mixture to hte processor and pulse just until the dough starts to come together.

2. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and gently press it into a disk. Wrap the dough with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, until firm.

3. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400F (205C). Coat 2 12 cup miniature muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray. Cut out twenty-four 2-inch squares of aluminum foil.

4. Remove the dough from the fridg and divide it in half. Divide each half into 12 portions. Shape each piece of dough into a ball. Place one ball in each muffin cup and press down into the center of the ball with the knuckle of your index finger to form an indentation, then press the dough up the sides of the cup to its rim. The cups should be completely lined with dough. Prick the bottom of each crust with a fork. Line each crust with a alumninum foil and fill with a few pie weights, dried beans or rice.

5. Bake the crusts for 10mins. Transfer the muffin pans to a wire rack and reduce the oven temperature to 350F (175C). Remove the foil and weights from the crusts and bake the crusts for another 7 to 9 mins until golden brown around the edges. Cool down the muffin pans completely before removing tart cases from the pan.

Lemon Curd
1. Set a fine mesh sieve over a medium bowl and set aside. In a medium sized heavy nonreactive saucepan, whisk together the egg, yolks and sugar until blended. Stir in the lemon juice and zest, salt and butter and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens, 7-10mins. (do not let the mixture boil, or it will curdle). Immediately strain the mixture through the sieve, pressing it through with a rubber spatula. Cover the bowl and refrigerate the curd until chilled, about 1 hour.

Assembly

1. Placing the chilled lemon curd in a pastry bag fitted with a medium star tip, pipe a generous rosette of lemon curd into each crust.

Luxe Pound Cake With Kumquat Compote

The regulars who read my post would know that there are a few cookbooks that I tend to cook from alot. Bourke Street Bakery is my latest favourite and there is Keiko Ishida's Okashi which has inspired me again and again. For anyone who is interested in baking, Tish Boyle's classic duo, The Cake Book and The Good Cookie would probably be part of their baking bibilical collection. Her books are the type of rare classics which you know, just by reading the recipes, you can trust. The books have  a straight forward, down to earth quality which suggests 'tried & tested' - goodness and authenticity guaranteed.

Hence, when I decided to bake a simple, authentic pound cake to go with the Kumquat I lugged back from Korea, I knew I had to turn to Tish Boyle for inspiration. The Kumquat, macerated in a vanilla flavoured syrup has been known to pair well with a simple, buttery pound cake. When one returns to basic simplicity devoid of frou frou and destractions, you know you have nowhere to hide and have to make sure that the recipe delivers 100%.  A good example is the sponge cake. As basic as it appears to be, I am still afraid of making the genoise sponge. When technique is not on point, you risk ending up with a coarse, dry cake, but thankfully, most of the time, we dress up the cake with other frills such as frosting,fruits and chocolates, making the less than perfect cake less noticeable.

Tish Boyle's Luxe Pound Cake needs none of those frilly 'life-savers' . The combination of vanilla and almond extract gives this dense, moist cake an uncomparable flavour. If you've never tried combining vanilla and almond extract together, I strongly urge you to do so as this is possibly one of the best pairing I have worked with- especially for basic recipes such as butter cake, pound or sponge.
The Luxe Pound cake has a fine crumb and it was so delicious that when I tasted my first slice of  the freshly baked cake, I actually did a little dance.  So, instead of smothering the cake with the Kumquat compote, I decided to just leave it on the side as a garnish and a taste exciter.  I imagine the cake would taste equally good with orange flavoured fresh cream. Make yourself a nice cup of Darjeeling or Earl Grey, you would have the created for yourself, the perfect Luxe Afternoon Tea.



Recipe : (From The Cake Book by Tish Boyle)

Cake Flour           342g
Baking powder     1/4 tsp
Salt                       1 tsp
Unsalted butter      227g (softened at room temperature)
Castor sugar          600g (I used 360g)
Eggs                      7
Vanilla extract        1 tbsp
Almond extract      1.5 tsp
Heavy Cream         240ml

Kumquat Compote
Kumquat               100g
Castor Sugar         100g
Water                    100g
Vanilla paste          1tsp

Method :

Pound Cake
1. Preheat oven to 160C. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Set aside.
2. Place softened butter in a mixer fitted with a paddle fixture. Cream butter at medium low speed. Add sugar in 3 separate additions, allowing sugar to be incorporated with butter after each addition. The butter should be creamy and pale after all sugar has been well mixed.

3. Add eggs one at a time, allowing the egg to be mixed well with the butter after each addition.
4. Add vanilla and almond extract.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low and add flour mixture in 3 portions, alternating each addition with a portion of the heavy cream until all flour is added.
6. Pour batter into a lined/ buttered pound cake pan.
7. Bake at 160C for 50mins or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
8. Cool down cake to room temperature before turning out the cake carefully from the baking pan.
9. Serve with Kumquat Compote.

Kumquat Compote.
1. Clean Kumquat and slice each kumquat horizontally in half. Remove pits.
2.. Place sugar and water in a heavy saucepan. Heat up the saucepan until sugar dissolves and just begin to simmer. Add Kumquats and simmer for about 5 mins.
3. Cool down to room temperature. Place a round piece of baking paper over the kumquat to keep it submerged in the syrup. Leave this in the fridge overnight.
4. Strain kumquat from Syrup. Return syrup into saucepan. Heat up syrup to a low simmer. Add vanilla paste and let simmer for 3 minutes.
5. Remove from heat. Pour syrup over kumquats in a storage container. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Strawberry Soy Pudding

My first quarter of 2011 was already totally done in before 2010 could end. 2 months into the new year and I am already in a daze.... I can't imagine how I could have travelled to Bangkok, India, Australia, Shanghai, Korea, celebrated Chinese New Year and still blog in the last 2 months... Just 2 weeks ago, I had been given a new assignment by the Singapore office. With our office lease expiring this year, we are now evaluating our next office space option. I sit on the office project committee and have been given the enviable task of being responsible for the interior design of the office.

I love tasks that allow me to spend other people's money, especially one that lets me work with aesthetically pleasing items. I knew I wanted a clean and fun  modern decor for our office,inspired by the colourful and fun spirit I had seen once at the Google office. When CSN notified me that they had expanded yet again their sites to include AllModern.Com, I immediately went on-line to gather inspiration. So many things caught my eye but these bean bags, in particular were unforgettable. If CSN would ship these to Singapore, I would order these for the new office in a heartbeat!   

I imagine these bean bags going into our cosy corner where we can chill out and unwind - occasionally I can bring treats like these Strawberry Soy Pudding and have my colleagues be my taster.... Dreamy satisfaction.


These puddings were made with the remaining strawberries I had lugged back from Korea. No longer as fresh and luscious as they were last week, I decided to incorporate them into a strawberry mousse and marinated the sliced strawberries in a syrup for garnish.
To keep this a light dessert, I had also chosen to work with a soy pudding base - with a texture that is very similar to the soya bean curd.

When I distributed these little pudding jars over lunch at the office, everyone went... 'wah'.... and I beamed....


Recipe
Soy Pudding  (adapted from The Sweet Trick by ES Koyama)

Unsweetened Soya Milk            300g
Castor Sugar                             25g
Gelatine Sheet                           4g
Fresh Cream                             130g

Method :
1. Place sugar and soya milk in a saucepan and heat until sugar dissolves. Turn off heat. Add in softened gelatine sheet and stir until completely dissolved.
2. Run (1) through a fine sieve into a mixing bowl.
3. Cool down (2) over an ice bath and add in liquid fresh cream.
4. Fill half a glass/ jar with the soymilk pudding and refrigerate until set.

Strawberry Mousse
Strawberries              180g
Gelatine powder         8g
water                         50ml
Milk                          100ml
Castor sugar              30g
Lemon juice               1 tbsp
Fresh cream               100ml

Method :
1. Puree strawberries in a blender. Add lemon juice to Strawberry puree.
2. Mix gelatine powder with water until it turns transparent.
3. In a saucepan, heat milk and castor sugar until sugar dissolves. Turn off heat and add (2) and stir until dissolved.
4. Sieve (3) through a fine sieve and cool over an ice bath.
5. Add (1) to (4).
6. Whip fresh cream until soft peaks are formed. Fold the whipped cream into (5).
7. Scoop (6) into jars with set soymilk pudding. Refrigerate to set.

Marinated Strawberries
Strawberries         100g
Sugar                   100g
Water                   200g
Lemon juice          1 tbsp

1. Cut strawberries into slices or sections.
2. In a heavy saucepan, add water and sugar. Heat until sugar dissolves. Continue heating to reduce syrup until volume is halved.
3. Add lemon juice into (1). Add the hot syrup from (2) to the strawberries. Refrigerate and keep overnight.
4. Use marinated strawberries as garnish and scoop a little syrup over the set pudding.

Strawberry Cream Puff

Strawberry Clan.... a term that is used in Taiwan to refer to those precious youth born in the 80's into small single child families. This is a generation that is born into a relatively affluent society where the pressure on survival and living is not as prevalent as during the more tumultous times experienced by our parents or grandparents. This generation generally demonstrates lower threshold for hardship and setbacks.. they bruise easily at the slightest pressure and wilt quickly in adverse conditions... fragile creatures that don't last well.... just like Strawberries!

I now fully appreciate the analogy. I had gushed about the strawberries I ate in Korea last week.... pretty, garnet ingots that were bursting with sweet flavours. When I raved about the strawberries to L over messenger, he was skeptical. I can't quite blame him, for indeed most of the imported strawberries we get in Singapore/ Malaysia are mild in taste at best and unappealingly sour as they get worse.... The Wednesday morning I was to leave for the airport, I bought 2 punnets of the ruby red fruit, taking care to choose the less ripened ones so that they would last a little longer. The store assistant was quite adamant that they wouldn't be able to last till Saturday - I foolishly chose to ignore her believing that my super intelligent Panasonic fridge would be able to preserve the fruits well. True enough, when I took them out today, I can already spot wilting signs on the pock-marked berries.... a touch of yellow on the calyx, a small smudgy bruise at the tip....
Now I understand why the strawberries we import are usually tasteless... to ensure that they travel well, they must have been harvested before they have a chance to fully develop the sweetness in them...

As I wondered what to do with the strawberries, I had been reluctant to pulp or puree these gorgeous fruits. I had wanted to keep the fruits intact without processing them too much. 2 options came into mind : a strawberry cheesecake topped with fresh strawberries and/or a strawberry choux cream puff. I woke up this morning knowing that I no longer have the luxury to dither and opted for the very basic choux puff pastry and vanilla pattiserie cream. The whole puff was light and refreshing. I had deliberately chosen the butter free pattiserie cream from Bourke Street Bakery's Berry Tart. This was easy to prepare and the simple vanilla custard allowed the strawberries to take center stage.


As I looked at the cream puff photos, I realised there was something 'bare' about them... then it hit me... I should have dusted a little powder sugar over the puffs... well, nothing's perfect but I am contented.


Recipe :

Choux Puff Pastry
All Purpose Flour                 30g
Bread Flour                         30g
Unsalted Butter                    40g (cubed)
Water                                 100ml
Castor Sugar                       2g
Salt                                     1g
Eggs                                    2

Pastry Cream (Please refer here)

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. In a heavy saucepan, place water, sugar, salt and butter. Heat until butter is melted and mixture just starts to boil.
3. Remove from heat and add flour. Using a spatula blend flour with butter liquid until a dough is formed and is well mixed.
4. Return dough in saucepan to heat. Continue heating and stirring dough to evaporate moisture.
5. Continue heating dough until dough becomes sticky and forms a thin membrane at the bottom of saucepan.
6. Remove from heat and bit by bit , add beaten eggs into warm dough and mix until well combined.
7. Using a piping bag fitted with a 1cm round piping tip, pipe 3 small rounds side by side on to a baking sheet.
8. Lightly brush the dough mounds with egg wash. (or mist lightly with water spray)
9. Bake at 200C for 30mins. Cool completely and split 'eclair puff ' horizontally.
10. Pipe in custard (pastry cream) and garnish with strawberries.

White Peaches In Rose-Water Syrup

Food blogging started out as a curious little hobby but it is morphing into a very timing consuming affair. The essential 3 components : cooking,photographing and writing can take up a inordinate amount of my time. I have to be honest and admit that I am truly struggling to sustain the momentum while continuing to complete my work datelines. (the one that pays the bills!!) I continue to marvel at prolific bloggers who demonstrate clock-work regularity in their posting - some of whom have chocked up an enviable stash of back log which allows them to do auto-scheduled posting.... One and half years into blogging and I am still at below 150 posts to date! Such snail pace!

Hence, it helps tremendously when once in a while a simple but pretty recipe like this pops up to offer a very welcome concession.


Easy to prepare and awfully practical. I don't know about the rest of you but I normally don't buy peaches in Singapore because very often the peaches I get here are not juicy or sweet. The only time I had a good peach was when I bought an air flown Japanese peach at $16/piece. Hence, poaching this in Rose Syrup helps to tenderise and sweeten the otherwise bland fruit- awfully practical! The dash of Rose Water and the sprinkle of chopped pistachios instantly transform this otherwise simple and uninteresting recipe into an exotic treat with a delicate middle eastern touch.
If you are looking for a break from stirring and mixing in the kitchen, this would be a sweet change.


Recipe
500g    castor sugar
1 tbsp rose-water
4 White peaches

To serve
plain yoghurt
90g chopped pistachios

Method
1. In a heavy saucepan, mix the sugar and rose water with 2000ml of water. Bring the water to boil.
2. Using a sharp knife, lightly draw a cross at the top of the peaches. Place the peaches in the boil water and simmer for 5-10mins or until softened.
3. Remove the peaches from the water and peel off the skin. Place the peeled skin back into the boiling water and continue to reduce the syrup until volume is reduced by half.
4. Toast some pistachios in the oven at 150C for about 5-10mins. Chop the pistachios into small pieces.
5. Serve the peaches by ladeling a little Rose Water Syrup over the peaches and sprinkle with pistachios.
6. Alternatively, the peaches can also be served with a scoop of yogurt.

Bourke Street Bakery's Berry Custard Tart

When delectable strawberries start to find their way into grocery stores, it is difficult to fend off their draw. Those little red gems are trickling in from the North - Japan and Korean. Albeit still a little pricey as it is still not the peak season for these strawberries but they are too alluring to ignore.

I think I will need to officially proclaim the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook as my favourite cookbook of 2010 moving into 2011. I find myself flipping through it every other day, drooling over the rustic,scrumptious treats.For the third time, I am drawn again to their tart recipe... yes, I am that boring but trust me, dear folks, they are truly delicious.

Less work than the Ginger Brulee Tart or the Passion Fruit Meringue tart, this one works with a classic creme patissiere filling. I, have, for some reason always feared the pastry cream. I have a tendency to either overcook or undercook it. Stirring the custard in the pot, I am always unsure if I have already reached the 'end point'.

Bourke Street Bakery handles the creme patissiere a little differently and for the first time, I feel that I have really achieved a successful custard! First whisking the sugar and plain flour into the egg yolks, a smooth base is already created before the warm milk was added. Cooking the custard without corn flour, allows it to thicken gradually, hence the custard continues to stay smooth and light. For this tart, the custard was further aerated with the addition of whipped cream. The overall texture was silky smooth,creamy yet light with just the right level of sweetness - a perfect combination with the tart pastry and the juicy berries.

I can't wait to use this custard again and again...!


Recipe :
1 quantity of short crust pastry (see here)
750g creme patissiere (see below for recipe)
20ml Grand Marnier
80ml Pouring (whipping) cream
500g Strawberries (original recipe features a mixture of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries)

Method :
1. Prepare tart cases as demonstrated here.
2. Whisk creme patissiere with Grand Marnier on high speed until smooth.
3. Whip whipping cream into soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream into (2) and place in the refrigerature for an hour to chill.
4. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the custard mixture into each tart case and arrange berries on top. Serve immediately.

Creme Patissiere (You need to triple this recipe for the above tart recipe)

250ml milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
50g castor sugar
3 egg yolks
15g all purpose flour

1. Into a saucepan add milk and vanilla seeds and bean. Heat up until just boiling point. Remove from heat and pour into a container to cool. Refrigerate at least 6 hours to allow vanilla to infuse.

2. Gently reheat milk over low heat. Put egg yolks in a metal mixing bowl. Gradually whisk sugar into egg yolks until completely combined. Continue whisking while adding flour until a smooth mixture is obtained.

3. Pour warm milk through a fine sieve into (2). Whisk until smooth.

4. Pour (3) back into saucepan and bring to boil. Stirring it continuously with a wooden spoon. Once the custard boils, reduce heat to a simmer for another 5 minutes. Stirring must be done throughout.

5. Cool down and refrigerate.