A reminder that i once had a blog

I can't remember when exactly this blog came to a .

It's time to scribble again.

kudos

Not well...

Not feeling too well today.

The air-condition in the office is extremely cold today(no, i wasn't working in the server room) and it's true because i wasn't the only one that think so.

I went out for some fresh air and stood under the sun for 10 mins but it still wasn't satisfying.When i went back into the office, I sneezed about 10 times! It was freezing!

It made me crave for something warm and soupy...

So right after work,I went to PASTEUR PHO on George Street for a small bowl of Pho Ga (chicken pho).

Ah... I feel much better now! :) weeeeeeee!

Hands down, soup (any, be it pho,dashi,ikan bilis soup) is the best natural remedy. If anyone makes you chicken soup or any sort of heart warming soup. Be very grateful :)

Naww... now i wish i had taken a picture of Pho Ga

Turn over a new leaf

I know this has been awhile but i'm going to continue.

Inspiration...

Angela Aki
Susur Lee
KKW
Hayao Miyazaki

I've started knitting.
The home oven's broken, an element fell off. Caused by someone's carelessness and a sweet potatoe.

Peanut Butter Goodness

Awhile ago...say 2 months back? i stumble across these mini muffin silicone moulds in K-mart and they were on sales! 40% off.. i couldn't resist because they look really cute.

I've been always curious how these little plastic-like things can be baked in oven at such high temperature, as i was telling my housemate and he says glass are made out of silicones and that make sense to me.

I coulnd't wait to try them out so i baked peanut butter mini muffins! I love peanut butter and been thinking about them for sometime now...

Recipe for peanut butter mini muffins:

I made 12 mini ones as i've only got 12 muffin moulds.

Ingredients:
-110gram all purpose flour
-60g sugar(i used brown sugar)

-1 teaspoon baking powder

-a pinch of salt

-1/2 egg

-90ml milk

-85g peanut butter (i used chunky ones because i love the nut texture)

-30ml vegetable oil

-few drops of vanilla extract

-50g chocolate chips (adjust according to taste)

Method:

Preheat the oven at 350F or 170 Degree Celcius.

1)Combine AP flour,sugar,baking powder and salt in a bowl.

2) Combine egg,milk,peanut butter and vegetable oil in another bowl. (make sure the eggs are in room temperature and melt the peanut butter first in microwave for about 10-20 seconds as it'll make it easier to combine).

3)Pour wet ingredients into the bowl with dry ingredients and stir until moistened. Becareful not to overmix.

4)Fold in the chocolate chips
5)Scoop batter into the muffin moulds, fill up about 2/3 of the cup.

6)Throw them into oven with the adjusted temperature and bake for 15 mins- 17 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The end result....surprisingly good! These silicone moulds are quite trustable. I remember the kitchen smells like peanut butter..oh soo good. Offered my housemates some and he really liked it too.

[Crunchy crust outside and moist inside]

I chucked the leftovers in an airtight container and put them in the fridge.The cold ones weren't as good as when they were fresh out of the oven but i still enjoy eating them.

Double CREAM OVERDOSE

What to do when you have too much double cream left? umm... u turn them into wonderful things ^___^

a) the baby quiche...just when i was about to take some nice shot of them..the camera died on me

nawww... look how oily they are muahah

and YES! all consumed by me :P

[filling :ham+cheese+thyme+garlic+onion]

b) Truffles...

I've read blogs on them and all i read is how easy it is to make them...

but it wasn't that easy.. quite tedious actually.

It was a lazy weekend for me, so i just used whatever ingredients i have at home.

Green tea powder + valrhona white chocolate center filling ( this is strictly for the green tea lovers)

for outer layer there's combinition of :

milka chocolate + hazelnut

green tea powder + hazelnut

cocoa powder

black sesame seeds

milka chocolate + black sesame seeds

green and black dark 70% chocolate + hazelnut

My housemate didn't like the greentea ones he said it's got too much of the tea leaf taste in it.But i love it though cuz i love greentea! I personally like the ones with hazelnut coating cuz it's got a nice crunch to it :)

The center's just soo soft too, melts just right in your mouth mm...i'm done making these!can't wait to try other combination next time.

Bourke Street Bakery on a Sunday

It was bright and sunny outside today but somehow i felt really cold staying in my room. Always feel like i've got the air-cond turned on, wonder if it'll be like this in summer.

Couldn't stand the cold so i got up and went for a walk outside.
Walked all the way to fox-studios,saw small stalls and mini markets at the center area. Nothing appealing so i continue walking to Surry Hills. Visited Bourke St Bakery. There was a queue but i joined in :P just to get ....

Flourless Chocolate Cake

I haven't tried yet...Saving that for dessert later.

Rhubarb and Almond Tart.

Had it with a cup of Green tea ,in the lovely cup made by T.Y from her pottery class.Such a treat!

I also had the Lamb harrisa and almond sausage roll on my way to Surry Hill's Coles. (Didn't manage to take a pic of it).

As i don't really fancy lamb, was thinking twice if i should try it but I remember TY telling me it's really good .The harrisa went very well with the lamb meat, it didn't have the strong gamy smell. Although.. i think it was a little bit oily for me.


Did some cooking yesterday as well.

Made some braised peanuts with a few types of herbs (i went searching for the herbs around china town few weeks back). On top of that, i've also made chicken,mushroom and carrot congee to go with the peanuts! So good to have on a cold winter's night.

For Braised Peanuts, i followed the recipe from Kuali :
http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=2346














Ingredients :
200g peanuts (use the bigger type), preferably soaked overnight
3g tong kwai
2g liquorice stick (kam chou)
1g mandarin peel
1 star anise
3cm cinnamon stick
3g chuen koong
1 tsp chopped garlic

Good Living Growers' Market, Pyrmont

Went to the Good Living Grower's Market on Saturday. Got a few items and went straight home after since i had to keep certain things in the fridge.

1) Pooh's Goo, it's got a goo-ey texture and taste abit like chocolate. I think kids will love this one.


"A special honey ideal for Pooh & Rabbit to share at tea."

Would you like a cup of tea??

2) La Tartine's Spelt Sourdough Bread

My first time trying the sourdough bread. A friend recommended, and it is quite heavy, like she said "as heavy as a brick". Not easy to slice the bread.

Had two slices as soon as i got home,it tases really good.


3) Peel Valley's strawberry flavoured milk



I wanted to get the one without flavour but they don't have it in small size so i had to go with the flavoured ones. My brain was telling me to pick strawberry flavoured over chocolate at that time.

Bought some other stuff too like the Angus steaks, beef sausages and some veggies. Dumped them all into the fridge already.

The weekly big lunch

A group of my uni friends have been organising their so called "weekly big lunch" for at least a month or so now. The "weekly big lunch" is the day where they pick a place to pig out! I've heard it's something along those lines about eating a big family feast from KFC and then to Maccus for a Sundae.

Today, the selected spot for the weekly big lunch was Yum Cha at Bondi Junction. I was the lucky guest of the week to join them(Aidan, Michael, Brian and Sam).
I got in the car, the conversation was purely "boys talk". Got me thinking, yeah i used to hang out with these guys and it has always been like that,it felt like i havent hang out with these people for a long time that i was getting not used to the conversation. Heh...
None of them were really looking forward to it except for 3 of us. One was just really obssesed with KFC while one other person was just "yeah...whatever".

We got to Westfield at 1-ish. Went up to lvl 6..."Ahh! There it is!! Whao shit! it looks Aussie-fied". The diners were mostly well-dressed, middle-aged australians with friends and family.We seem to be the only uni students there. Unlike the yum cha places in China Town,packed with old folks, chinese family, youngsters...
First thing that popped on my mind was "This place is too grand! i wouldn't go to a place like this on a Wednesday for lunch".

So we took our seats, 5 of us sitting in really big comfortable chairs, started our first round. Me and Sam stopped after the 2nd round, and 3 of them just kept going like they were deprived of food. Two more "har gow", two more "siew mai", two more "dan tart"...and they call it quits.

The bill came up to $25 per person. Well i wasn't surprised. I guess the service was allright, at least it wasn't the usual people pushing the trolley with bad attitude, the food was allright as well but just abit overpriced. Don't think i'd ever go back for yum cha though :P