Charlotte Rampling is a fine actor who I admire. Her recent interview by the Guardian has completely taken me over. With brutal honesty and crystal clear understanding about herself, I feel the wisdom is just oozing out of the screen and splatters me all over.
Here are a few parts which particularly resonate with me.
“Pinging is when you’re at the right place at the right time, and you know you can just make magic happen everywhere.”
“When you think you’re riding on a good wave, you’re pretty sure the next one is going to be shite. We function through contrast.” What would life be like without the shite? “Really dull.”
“Because I am prickly. Dad so got it.” What did he mean? “Well, what do you think? If you say prickly, what do you think of?” Not somebody you would want to cuddle? “Exactly. Somebody who kept you away – keeps you away. You can approach, but you really need to know how.” Somebody who could hurt you? “Yes, of course. You have to be very wary with them. People who are prickly can’t be hurt any more. They’ve had it. So we just have to be prickly to make sure nobody’s going to come in and grab us.”
“Remember, I’m not only prickly, I’m distant. I only keep a distance so I can get as much understanding of the situation without being on top of it. And it works.”
“You can see I’ve done quite a lot of work to get somewhere in a more or less OK state. There’s more meaning to things, there’s something more loving. Perhaps old prickly me is finally finding a few better things in herself. And once you love yourself a bit more, you can love others more. So it all works together.”
I seem to be on a lucky streak with brownies lately. Two recipes I tried recently have been a big hit, both taste and texture. They are exactly what I've dreaming but had failed to reproduce until this year. There is something special in Year 2021.
Both superb brownies recipes came from Katarina Cermelj, the author behind the brilliant blog The Loopy Whisk. I wrote about her Vegan Brownies previously. I thought no other recipes could top this one but I was wrong. Then Katarina published her book in March and her salted caramel brownies was show cased by Nigella Lawson. What can I say, both Nigella and Katarina have never led me wrong so I decided to give it a go.
Wow, this one is special, a celebration worthy brownies. The taste is just wonderful, chocolaty with molasses undertone. The texture is fudgy and chewy, and with the gooey salted caramel in the middle. It's a bit more fiddly than the vegan brownies but it's perfectly manageable. Now I've gone through the process once, I am less intimated next time.
I am glad that I and Brownies now finally became friends.
Salted-Caramel-Stuffed Brownies
BROWNIESMETHOD
BROWNIES
Line a 20cm square baking tin with a piece of baking paper cut large enough to overhang the sides of the tin (to help you remove the baked brownies). Note: I will use a smaller tin next time to have thicker brownies.
In a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt the dark chocolate, butter and coffee granules together. Set aside to cool until warm.
Using a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or a hand mixer fitted with the double beaters, whisk the eggs and sugar on medium–high speed for 5–7 minutes until pale, fluffy and about tripled in volume. The mixture should briefly pile on top of itself as it falls off the whisk.
Fold in the melted chocolate.
Sift in the gluten-free flour blend, xanthan gum if using, cocoa powder and salt, and use a spatula to gently fold in until no flour clumps remain.
Pour half the brownie batter (about 400g) into the lined baking tin, smooth it out and refrigerate until needed. ➀ Set aside the other half at room temperature.
CARAMEL LAYER + ASSEMBLING THE BROWNIES
Adjust the oven shelf to the middle position and preheat the oven to 160°C.
In a saucepan, bring the double cream and 15g of the butter to the boil. Remove from the heat and set aside until needed, making sure the mixture stays warm.
In a clean saucepan, combine the golden syrup and sugar, and cook over a medium–high heat, stirring frequently, until it reaches 145°C. Remove from the heat, add the cream mixture and mix until combined, then heat again, stirring continuously, to 112–116°C. ➁ Immediately remove from the heat and stir in the salt and the remaining butter.
Stirring occasionally, cool the caramel to 80°C – at this temperature, it’s unlikely to melt the bottom brownie layer while still being pourable and spreadable. Pour this over the chilled brownie layer in the baking tin and spread it out, leaving about a 1cm border around the edges (to prevent the caramel from leaking out too much during baking).
Spoon the other half of the brownie batter over the caramel and gently spread it out to completely cover the caramel layer.
Bake for about 30–35 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out covered in half-baked batter or with a few moist crumbs attached. Note: my oven takes about 28-30 minutes.
Cool the brownies completely to room temperature before taking hold of the baking paper and removing them from the tin. Use a sharp knife to slice into portions. (Cooling first allows the crumb to set to give you neat slices with clean edges. Although these brownies, served warm from the oven, will have caramel invitingly oozing out of them, without cooling they are a nightmare to cut.)
If you want to serve the brownies warm (for example, with a scoop of ice cream), reheat them in the microwave for about 5–10 seconds to make the caramel soft again.
STORAGE:
3–4 days in a closed container at room temperature.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Notes:
➀ Chilling the bottom brownie layer makes it sturdier and less likely to melt or displace as you pour the caramel on top. The other half of the brownie batter should remain runny enough at room temperature so that you can easily spread it on top of the caramel layer.
➁ Between 112 and 116°C, the caramel is in the so-called ‘softball’ stage. This is the optimal temperature range to give a caramel layer that, despite being heat-treated again during baking, is luxuriously soft even once the finished brownies have cooled completely. To test for the softball stage, drop a small amount of the caramel into a glass of cold water and then scoop it out – it should hold its shape but be very soft when squeezed. (You don’t need to do this if you’re using a sugar or digital thermometer.)
As cliché as it may sound, I've done lots of soul searching since I broke my ankle and the pandemic.
Going to work (or logging in these days) has become quite a mental will exercise for me. For several years, the only time I was happy at work was my lunch break at the gym when I only needed to concentrate on my body coordination.
The work remains interesting but the place offers no chance of growth for me. While most people are courteous, there are always a few playing games. I tried to tough it out by keeping my eyes on the work but it didn't work. The stress and distraction from the environment was just too much for me. It took me a while before I recognized the signs that my body had been complaining all along. And I started to imagine if I were sick, maybe I didn't have to go to work. If this is not a warning sign, then I don't know what was.
Then, I chanced upon several life coaching podcasts and some career changing blog posts. I am completely enlightened in a way I couldn't have imagined. The only thing I can control is how my brain thinks and believes. Also, I've forgotten how important it was to highlight personal qualities during job hunting. All the external labels are meaningless and not useful to separate candidates apart. What makes me stand out is not my professional skills but how I am as a person.
And I learned to recognize the difference between resilience and obstinateness. Resilience is about the will to restart anywhere, and should not be confused with staying put. Sometimes status quo is more about being obstinate than resilient. Sometimes it takes more wisdom to move on or cut your losses. Once I figured this out, my vision is clear. I know exactly what I want and need to do.
And I can see my future self says this to the current one: Don't write yourself off so quickly. You alone decide how yourself should be judged.
So I decided to give myself another chance.
I changed my employer to give another shot in life. A new chapter is ahead of me. I can't wait!
14/03/2021, Sunday
I finally have a recipe of ginger biscuits I like. It's not like the Christmas biscuits, only gently spiced, just the way I like it. Definitely One of my favorites!
Oaty Ginger Biscuits, adapted from Coeliac.uk
250g gluten-free flour (your favorite blend*)Heat oven to 170°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3
Put all dry ingredients into large bowl and add the egg
Melt the butter and syrup in a pan and pour over dry ingredients. Mix well and leave until cool enough to handle. I chill the dough in the fridge for a few hours for flavor to develop.
Take teaspoons of the mixture and roll into a ball and place on baking sheet patting top slightly. Allow a little room to spread
Bake for 10-12 minutes or longer if you like them crispier.
*My blend is: 20% Buckwheat + 20% Cornmeal + 20% Oats + 20% Rice + 20% Tapioca
**Another flavor combination I like is: 1 tsp ground ginger + 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon + 1 tsp orange extract
This is a riff on the traditional Quiche Lorraine but what I want to tell you is the crust. Through experimentation, I managed to improve my gluten free pie crust even further, with protein powder! Just a tablespoon makes rolling like a dream. No more breakage, no more patch work. It's a complete piece of crust which can be molded into a pie dish. I feel so happy to be normal again at pastry baking.
Lardon and Leek Quiche
Pie crust
220 g gluten-free flour (your favorite blend*)Quiche Filling
250 g lardons
1 tbsp oil
1 leek, cleaned, wipe-dry and sliced
Freshly ground black pepper
3 eggs
200 ml double cream
pinch of ground nutmeg
50-80 g grated cheese
To make the crust, combine flour, salt, sugar and protein powder in a bowl. Mix to combine. Rub the butter into dry ingredients until they look like big crumbs. Stir in the beaten egg and 3 tablespoons of cold water. Mix until big clumps of dough start to form. I find a small rubber spatula handy for this job. If the dough is on the dry side, add more water until you can't find any powder at the bottom of the bowl. Knead the dough a few times and wrap it in clingfilm. Chill in the fridge for 2 hours or more.
To prepare the filling, fry the lardon strips in a skillet with 1 tablespoon of oil until all water evaporates. Add in sliced leek and cook them until soft but not colored. Season with some pepper. There is no need of salt as lardons are salty enough. Set aside to cool.
Preheat the oven at 180C. Lightly grease a 23-cm pie pan. Remove the well chilled dough from the fridge and lay it between two pieces of clingfilm. Roll out to a thickness of 3mm to cover the pie pan. You probably only need 3/4 of the dough to cover an 9-in/23-cm round pie dish. Save the pastry scrapes for jam tarts.
Blind bake the pie crust with baking beads at 180C for 15 minutes. Remove the baking beads and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven while you prepare the filling.
Beat eggs, cream and nutmeg together. Stir in the leek and lardon mixture and pour the whole filling unto the pie crust. Even out the lardon strips with a spatula. Scatter the grated cheese on top. Bake at 180C for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven to cool for 15 minutes before serving.
*My blend is: 25% White rice + 25% Buckwheat + 25% Oats + 20% Tapioca + 5% Sweet Rice
We were very pleased with this curry last night. Gently spiced, very tasty.
Homestyle Chicken Curry
1 kg skinless chicken thighs (6 boneless or 8 bone-in), cut into halvesFirst is to marinade the chicken pieces with yogurt, garam masala, paprika, garlic, ginger and salt, while you prepare the gravy. You could do this a day before but 30-minute marinade is enough.
In a large pot, heat 2 tbsps oil to fry the cumin seeds. When the seeds are popping, put in onions, garlic, fresh tomatoes and tomato paste. Cook on medium-low heat until onions are nicely brown and the whole mixture has cooked down by half. It may take 20 minutes. If it catches at the bottom, drizzle in some water to deglaze.
When the onion-tomato mixture has been cooked down to a paste, add in coriander, turmeric and Pasanda spice mix. Stir the chicken in along with the marinade and 1/2 cup of water. Stir to combine. Season with salt and sugar. Bring the pot to boil and reduce the heat to low. Let it simmer for 30 minutes with the lid on and remove the lid for another 15-20 minutes.
By now the chicken should be fork tender. Taste the gravy and adjust the seasoning. Turn the heat off for 10 minutes and scatter the coriander leaves on top before serving.
07/03/2021, Sunday
28/02/2021, Sunday
