New Year's eve for two

I've decided to go for Americano this time.

To start: Oysters and freshly squeezed lemon juice

Bistro burger (I know. It has got to have style even if it's Americano), caramelized shallots and Parmasan shavings on toasted sesame buns
Broad beans and artichoke salad
Grilled stuffed Jalapeño peppers
Pickles and vegetable crisps on the side

To drink: bubbly of your favorite kind (beer, champagne, cava, Coke or my favorite soda water with apple juice!)

To finish: rhubarb tart tatin and rum raisin ice cream

Madrid 2011

Right before Christmas, we spent a long weekend in Madrid, a city of color, art and vitality. The air is cold but our hearts are warm when looking at people packed streets talking animatedly, kissing amorously and hugging adorably. We had a wonderful time.

I wish it was us!

First meal at Museo del Jamon

Madrid, City of light!

Rest in Parque de El Retiro after the visit to Prado

Crystal palace in Parque de El Retiro

Lovely dinner in La Chata (our favorite of this trip!)

Chocolateria San Gines (you have to visit!!) 

Chocolate con churros (wonderful!)

2010 Christmas eve for two

You don't think I would let the night pass without sharing with you our dinner, right? Here is to you who for whatever reason have to spend the night alone.

Cheers.

Rib roast with red wine jus

Grilled chestnut mushrooms

Honey glazed carrots

Green beans with browned butter and toasted almond flakes

Roasted chestnuts

Chestnut tiramisu to finish

Silent night, happy night.

O Holy Night

As a non-religious person, I welcome Christmas every year nonetheless and always use this opportunity to show gratitude and love to people I care. In this unpredictable life journey, brave faces are needed to go through the tough time. Music is one of the few venues where I can remove the hardy façade and just dwell cozily, relax mindlessly, having my thoughts being led into another dimension.

This is my favorite favorite carol. Let it comfort your worn heart and soul. May everyone I know have a warm and safe night.

Do you hear what I hear?

We don't have to bring Him silver and gold. Just some warmth and hellos to people we know. That's the spirit of Christmas.

Christmas eve is tomorrow.



Let us bring goodness and light.

Deprived?

Who? Me?

Not after this baby: chocolate con churros

I should be on my way back from Madrid. Stay tuned.

Keep warm, everybody.

Winter wonderland

Are you ready?

Oh yeah.

I cook - laid-back fish pie

Traditional fish pie has mashed potato topping the creamy seafood mixture. When I am pressed by time or lack of energy, slightly crushed potato chunks work equally well. Dill is not a traditional ingredient in fish pie but we like the green and the refreshing note it brings to this creamy dish from the ocean. Besides, it makes the whole dish look very pretty, like the tinsel on a Christmas tree.

My laid-back fish pie

250 g smoked white fish (can be substituted with fresh white fish)
2 bay leaves
1 cup of milk
250 g shrimp
3-4 potatoes, peeled and quartered
2 boiled eggs
2 tbsps of butter
1 onion, skinned and diced
1 leek, thinly sliced
3 tbsps of flour
1/2 cup of cream
1 tbsp of dill
1/2 cup grated cheese

Heat the milk with the bay leaves on the stove. When small bubbles start to rise from the side of the pan, put the smoked fish in. Turn off the heat. Let the smoked fish poach until the flesh is heated through. After 30 minutes of so, lift the fish out of milk. Remove the flesh from the skin and separate them into medium chunks. Strain the milk and reserve the liquid to make the white sauce.

In another pot, boil the potatoes in slightly salted water for 20 minutes. Potatoes are ready when a knife can easily go through. Remove the potato chunks and put them on a 20x20cm square glass pan. Flatten them a bit with a fork. Nestle the boiled eggs in between the potatoes.

Now it's time to make the white sauce. In a pot, melt the butter and fry the onion and leek gently. Once the vegetables are softened, sprinkle the flour in. Mix the flour with the softened vegetables thoroughly and cook for a minute. Lower the heat to the minimum (or just turn off the heat). Pour in the reserved poaching liquid, in two batches, mixing well before adding more milk. I found that a wooden ladle spoon works much better than a stick spoon when making the white sauce in pot. Turn the heat back to medium. Stir regularly as the white sauce cooks and thickens. When the white sauce is fully thickened and bubbles occasionally, add in cream and grated cheese. Mix in dill. Stir to combine all ingredients. Taste before you season with salt and pepper.

In a pan of boiled potatoes, scatter the raw shrimps on top. Pour some white sauce to cover the top of the shrimp. Layer the poached fish chunks in and top it with the remaining white sauce. Bake it in an oven at 200 C degrees for 40 minutes or until it is heated through.

Serve with lemon wedges and steamed green beans on the side.

I like - Morita Douji (森田童子)

I discovered Douji san in early 90s, a Japanese music artist and song writer. There is not much known about her, if you don't read Japanese. Even if you read Japanese, there is not much. Douji san released her first album in 1975 and a few more 10 years after. There is nothing after 1983, no news, no music, as if she has disappeared from the earth.

I like the tinge of folk style in her music. She sings as if she is reading a story, slowly, quietly and attentively. I am ambivalent about the fact that I don't understand Japanese. True, if I had read Japanese, I may understand her music completely different. However, I quite like the fact that her music directly talks to me, touches me and communicates with me in anything other than words.

I don't know why she stopped so suddenly, with just six albums. I know I would have liked to follow her music development, but I understand sometimes we prefer doing things on our own.

Our failure (ぼくたちの失敗)


The Last Waltz (ラスト・ワルツ)

Dîner chez moi - 11-17 December

Saturday: Laid-back fish pie, boiled green beans, apple and blueberry pie

Sunday: Beef sirloin, tagliatelle with butter, steamed mange-tout, garlic chestnut mushrooms, sweet buttered carrots and lemon tart ( you can see I am trying to spoil hubby, can't you?)

Monday: Smoked salmon, tagliatelle with caper, tomatoes and mushroom, lemon tart.

Tuesday: Pork cooked in fermented red-rice sauce (紅糟), garlic sugar snap pea, steamed rice

Wednesday: Creamy seafood stew with pan-roasted gnocchi (yes! it's great).

Thursday: Ground pork braised with shitaki mushroom, tomato omelette, garlic greens, steamed rice

Friday: Indian chicken curry

I bake - Chocolate hazelnut cake

This is adapted from French Yogurt Cake recipe. The flavor is not overly intense, just the right amount of chocolate to put a smile on my face. The crumb is distinctively tender, thanks to the yogurt. Perfect for breakfast or as afternoon tea cake.

Chocolate hazelnut cake

1/2 cup of oil of your choice (e.g. melted butter or walnut oil)
3 eggs
1 cup of caster sugar
1/4 cup Hazelnut liquor (I use Bailey's Irish cream in Hazelnut flavor)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup ground hazelnut or almond (can be replaced with the equal amount of flour)
1 and 1/4 cup of plain flour, sifted
2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
walnut pieces (optional)

Mix oil, eggs and sugar in a bowl. Add in hazelnut liquor, vanilla extract, cocoa powder and ground nut, mixing well after adding each ingredient. Alternate the flour and yogurt when incorporating them into the egg mixture. Stir to mix until no flour can be seen. Avoid over mixing. You don't want a chewy cake.

Pour the batter in a loaf tin or cake round. Scatter the walnuts on top of the cake (if using). Bake at 200C for 50 minutes. Let cool before slicing.

ps. Yes, it is my holiday chemistry session.

I bake - French Yogurt Cake

I had not realised that weekly baking has become a habit of mine until one day Hubby commented how nice it is to have homemade cakes every weekend for breakfast. "People who come to our house always ask my mom why she has cakes in the house all the time.", said Hubby. She always replies, "isn't that the case in every household?"

Not knowingly, I have taken up this family tradition. Even though there are only two of us, I still bake a loaf of cake once a week whenever I can. I like the smell when the cake is about to get ready in the oven, and the surprise to find a better taste when allowing to rest for a day. I adore the tender crunch when I bite into it and the smile from Hubby's face across the breakfast without a single word said. I know we are both happy in our quiet breakfast routine.

Yogurt cake has become my basic cake recipe. So easy and so versatile. I use the recipe by Ms Greenspan. It is a fairly standard recipe, frequently known as Gâteau au yaourt. Ms Greenspan has shown us a couple tricks to elevate the common cake to a true classic. One of them is to rub the citrus zest into sugar before mixing with the eggs. That was a pure genius. I do think that this rubbing process does bring out lots of essential oil from the citrus fruit and the whole cake is more fragrant because of that.

The recipe calls for plain yogurt and let's keep it like that. Plain yogurt works the best, simple, pure and uncomplicated. The flavor should come from the chosen citrus fruit, natural and authentic, not from the flavored yogurt. In terms of flavors, I prefer lemon to brighten my morning and orange to lift up my afternoon spirit.

As for the option of oil, using olive oil makes me feel virtuous. If I want to feel indulged, I use melted butter. When I am bored with the standard recipe, I sometimes replace some flour with ground almond or add some cocoa powder to create a quick chocolate cake. Depends on what you fancy, chopped chocolate chunks, dried fruits, chopped waltnuts mixed in or almond flakes on top. It's such a flexible recipe. But don't take my words for it, give it a try and find out your killer combination.

Lemon yogurt cake

The Me time, starts now

Life would not have been fun if I get Me time all the time.

Right at this moment, the Me time of the year, begins.

Mua mua

Dîner chez moi - 4-10 December

Saturday: Chicken stew with tomatoes, onions, a head of garlic and hericot beans, potatoes with broad beans, tarte tatin

Sunday: same as above, too late/lazy to cook

Monday: pasta Bolognese and blanched green beans

Tuesday: Pork cutlet, steamed rice and blanched sugar snap peas

Wednesday: Pasta Bolognese

Thursday: Potato and cauliflower soup, grilled cheese sandwich with bacon

Friday: Indian takeaway

I cook - Chicken soup with ginger and shitaki mushroom

In many Chinese families, every dinner comes with a soup. Chinese soup is frequently served towards the end of a meal, never in the beginning. This is because some believe too much liquid in-take at the beginning or during a meal is not good for digestion. The clear broth type of soup is also more common and perhaps more preferred to the creamy type of soup. Soup is never a meal on its own in Chinese culture, unlike here. Chinese soup is something you finish a meal with, to round a dinner up with a nice savory note and to cleanse your palate. Western soup tends to be richer and more substantial which can stand on its own as a meal.

Chicken soup with ginger slices and dried shitaki mushroom is very common in Taiwan and is a dish on our dining table a lot when I was at home. Since I started living on my own, I rarely make Chinese soup. I am not sure why, maybe because I stubbornly believe that a good pot of soup can only be made with sufficient quantities of ingredients which will then take me too long to finish. Or perhaps I still have this image stuck in my mind that Chinese soup is meant to be shared from a capacious communal bowl and cooking it just for  myself is really missing the point. Like this classic chicken soup which I love so much, the number of times I have made on my own, I can count with one hand.

Twenty minutes after I put all ingredients in a pot tonight, a familiar, serene, reassuringly gentle smell has started to tiptoe upon me. I was fed countless time with this soup before leaving home, in a period and a place when love was not spoken out loud but to be disguised in numerous forms, to be felt with heart. This is such a strange feeling to smell again this once accustomed but yet almost forgotten soup. It only took me a second to be reacquainted. It must have been more than ten years since I made this soup. I asked myself: what took me so long?

I guess I am a bit homesick tonight.

Chicken soup with ginger slices and shitaki mushroom

2 chicken drum sticks
a good knob of ginger, sliced
four dried shitaki mushroom
1 tbsp of rice wine
1.5 liter of water
Salt to taste

Put everything in a pot. Bring the pot to boil. Turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 40 minutes (or until chicken is tender). Season with salt to taste.

I bake - Tarte tatin

I like apples a lot in cooking and baking, more than eating them straight. I think that cooking them with a little bit heat softens their bright but perhaps slightly too sharp flavor and smell. I like its mellowness but still with distinct freshness after cooking.

In savory dishes, I have eaten apples with boudin blanc/noir (type of french sausages), with grilled pork chops, or as part of the latkes. In desserts, it may not be too bold to call apples the king of fruit in dessert. When it comes to baking, it's a truly versatile fruit. Cakes, muffins, pies, tarts, Viennoiseries, you name it. One of the easiest and my favorites is Tarte Tatin. It is not a complicated recipe, with just a handful of ingredients which you probably have most of them in the house. What you need is a non-stick pan suitable for oven and the patience (and the will power) to leave the apples alone in the pan of caramel syrup for 40 minutes. Desserts are about indulgence, pampering yourself. So don't be skimp on all the essentials (sugar and butter, that is). I have tried several versions of Tarte Tatin and this is probably the best version I have made so far.

My tarte tatin

Puff pastry, rolled out to 3mm thick
6 Braeburn apples,* peeled, cored and halved
50g butter
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 tbsp of Calvados (optional)
a non-stick pan which can be used in the oven

Melt the butter in a non-stick pan on the stove with a gas dial set to medium. When the butter is all melted, put in the sugar. Stir lightly to mix both ingredients with a wooden spoon.

When the butter-sugar mixture changes its color to light caramel, splash in vanilla and distribute it around in the pan. Arrange the apple halves (with the cut-side facing up) in the pan.

Cook the apples patiently for 40 minutes. Flip the apple halves a few time so that you get nice caramel all around them. Refrain from turning them too often. Halfway through, add in Calvados (if used). Make sure that apple halves still have their cut-side up at the end of the cooking stage.

When the apples are ready, cover them with puff pastry. Pierce a few times on the puff pastry so that steam can escape. Put the whole pan in the oven at 200C for 30 minutes. When it's done, remove it from the oven. Cover the pan with a plate bigger than the diameter of your pan. Hold the plate tightly against the pan (with oven gloves, of course), flip the pan over decisively and quickly. Your tarte tatin should come out easily and with luscious caramel flowing.

Bon appetit!

*Any type of tangy apples which hold the shape well under heat would do. Braeburn is easily accessible to me here. The actual number of apples required will depend on the size of the apple and the diameter of your pan. I use small apples, about my fist size. My pan is about 24-cm in diameter.

Dîner chez moi - 27 November to 3 December

Saturday: fried panko-coated shrimps with chilli dip, crudités platter (carrots and bell peppers), raclette with an assortment of continental ham slices, boiled potatoes, and steamed Brussels sprouts, surprise dessert from a friend (tarte aux abricots).

Sunday: split-pea and mixed vegetable soup, grilled cheese sandwich

Monday: tomato rice with filini pasta, baked basa with chilli caper sauce, cauliflower with anchovies and garlic

Tuesday: fried panko-coated pork cutlet, tomato rice with filini pasta, carliflowers

Wednesday: roasted chicken leg, tomato rice with filini pasta, stir-fried cabbage

Thursday: split-pea and mixed vegetable soup, grilled cheese and ham sandwich

Friday: pasta carbonara