A Girl Who Can't Cook

Twists and Turns

2009-12-02T15:51:00.000-08:00

Girl originally started this blog as a document of her journey towards culinary-literacy. However, she has come to realise that she has not written a post on cooking in ages but has devoted screeds to her other passions in life...gardening and cute animals. Is this for the better or worse? Should Girl strive every muscle to keep all other encroaching subjects out of her ~foodie~ blog or should she abandon herself to complete freedom of expression and go with the flow...?

In The Beginning...

2009-09-20T04:52:00.000-07:00

Take one weed-ridden plot of earth...

Banish weeds to that big compost heap in the sky...

Here as you can see, Girl has removed most of the worst weeds and covered the cleared vege plot with weedmat and planks while waiting for the weather to settle down...

Plant seedlings in neat rows...

The plants are nestled into the pea straw mulch that was spread on the vege patch in autumn to discourage weeds. The plot was also generously fertilised with chook droppings and other organic matter throughout autumn and winter.

Plant count: 3 courgettes, 17 lettuces of different varieties, 5 broccolini plants, 6 silverbeets and numerous spinach plants that were sown way back in autumn

Water industriously throughout summer...

Eat enthusiastically when ready...

Pan fried salmon fillet and fresh spinach and garlic shoots from Girl's garden.

The salmon was marinaded in soy sauce, sesame oil and worcestershire sauce and then pan-fried.

The fresh spinach (the first harvest of the year, BTW!!) was blanched in hot water and seasoned with soy sauce, sesame oil and finely chopped garlic shoots. Brilliant!

Nostalgia

2009-09-17T04:57:00.000-07:00

Girl has recently been experiencing cravings for the foods of her childhood...she is currently in the process of hunting down recipes for the cookies her mother used to make for Chinese New Year when she was little-er...baking Quaker Oat Cookies and Cornflake Cookies would send the fragrance of butter and sugar wafting through the whole house...

Things that make girls go awwwww.....

2009-09-17T00:26:00.000-07:00

Well, at least makes this Girl go awwww...

This is Sophie the Spoodle who is 7 years old and still charges about like a 7 month old puppy...It took Girl awhile to get Sophie to calm down enough to pose for these photos *grin*

She's really into cuddles and it would only be a stony-hearted grouch who could resist those pathetic eyes...

But don't be fooled by Sophie's seemingly pathetic demeanour...Sophie's owner takes very good care of her pets...and if she was not a very good friend to Girl, she might well have woken up one day and found herself one dog short... *innocent smile*

Down in my hood

2009-09-15T01:59:00.000-07:00

Evidence of warmer weather in and around my neighbourhood...

A puzzling array...

2009-09-15T01:22:00.000-07:00

Whole kernel corn plus creamy evaporated milk...

...equals a childhood treat!

When Girl was even younger than she is now, she attended a school opposite the Museum in her hometown. Despite the beautiful historical building the Museum was housed in, interesting artifacts and displays and a fine collection of aquatic life, the real attraction of the Museum was its Summerhouse...a place where three energetic sisters dispensed icy treats and other foodstuffs to the weary, thirsty and hungry and demanded only a modest sum in recompense...

In addition to the foodstuffs, there was also a little store room that one had to pass to get to the tables and it was rumoured that someone had been murdered and robbed in there...which always caused a shiver to run down Girl's spine...

Twenty odd years later and thousands of miles away from home...Girl felt a sudden craving for the iced corn that she invariably ordered at the Summerhouse to combat the warm weather. Most fellow Malaysians would probably scorn Girl's choice as being the blandest item on the menu** but Girl is staunch in her love of this icy treat...plump kernels of corn, shaved ice, evaporated milk and syrup in a bowl is and will be Girl's choice of sweet on a Summer's day...

**in addition to iced corn, the Sisters also served Ais Kacang or Air Batu Campur (Mixed Ice) and Cendol (which has no translation)

Oak Tree Cottage Lemon Slice

2009-09-11T20:52:00.000-07:00

This lemon slice was strongly recommended by a colleague of Girl's...recipe courtesy of Cuisine Magazine.

Ingredients

*base

125g flour
90g sugar
75g cold butter, chopped into small pieces
1 teaspoon lemon zest

*filling

4 eggs
225g sugar
1/2 - 3/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons flour

Method

*base

To make the base, place the flour and sugar in a food processor. Add the butter and zest and mix until the mixture forms a ball. Roll out or press into the base of a 23cm buttered springform baking tin. Bake for 20 minutes at 180ºC until just turning golden.

*filling

Meanwhile, beat together the eggs and sugar until creamy. Fold in the lemon juice and flour. Pour this mixture over the crust and bake at 180ºC for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 150ºC and bake a further 30 minutes or until the lemon mixture is set. Cool and cut into 6-8 wedges.To serve, dust with icing sugar and spoon whipped cream on the side. Serves 6-8.

Source: Recipe at Cuisine Magazine

Fried Noodles and Yummy Pork Ribs...

2009-09-07T17:37:00.001-07:00

Fried Noodles with carrots, mung bean sprouts, garlic shoots and fish balls and Fried Pork Ribs.

You Shameless Hussy!

2009-09-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

Girl must admit that she has a fit of the giggles everytime she sees this in the refrigerator of her local Chinese grocer's. Admittedly, the sight of a grown person having an attack of the giggles for no (seemingly) apparent reason in front of an open refrigerator must provide entertainment to the other shoppers around her...however!

The word "Wanton" according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary...

1 a archaic : hard to control : undisciplined, unruly b : playfully mean or cruel : mischievous

2 a : lewd, bawdy b : causing sexual excitement : lustful, sensual

3 a : merciless, inhumane b : having no just foundation or provocation : malicious

4 : being without check or limitation: as a : luxuriantly rank b : unduly lavish : extravagant

So if Girl wanted to overindulge in a substance that would corrupt her decorous self and cause her to abandon her morals and transform into a self-indulgent, dissipated and debauched woman of disrepute, she would have to look no further than her nearest Chinese grocer's....in which case, this seemingly innocent concatenation of flour and water is surely Asia's best kept secret...

오래 간만 입니다...

2009-08-27T05:32:00.000-07:00

Hello again after an incredibly long hiatus...

Girl's apologies to her lone reader out there for abruptly halting her updates of her blog. Things have been hectic, to say the least!

But to briefly bring things up to date, Girl has sold her chooks as she found she could not cope with some of the other issues she had going and caring for two chooks...so off they went to another caring home...she does miss the large brown eggs they used to pop out on a regular basis but then again, she does not miss the weekly chook house mucking-out.

However, on the other hand, Girl has found a new hobby...knitting! and recently (with the aid of a friend) produced the following knitted blankie...woot! woot! The plan was to do the cream squares in plain garter stitch and then do the coloured squares in different stitches. Girl used a basket stitch for some of the squares and a couple of other stitches that she cannot remember the names of...

On to the next project then!

은주야, 영주야, 잘가라...

2009-05-04T14:52:00.000-07:00

So, Girl having acquired two shaver hens that regularly lay large size seven eggs, Eun Ju and Yeong Ju kinda became superfluous to the whole enterprise. Therefore, they were sold off for a modest sum to an eager buyer and have since gone off to a new home...

아름다운 풍경

2009-04-29T18:10:00.000-07:00

Yo...Jealous, much?

2009-04-29T18:03:00.000-07:00

What would you give to be able to grow a giant like this broad beauty...? Someone Girl knows grew it. Not Girl.

Chicken Pics...

2009-04-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

Pics of "the girls"...

계란 있네...

2009-04-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

Girl totally did not expect to find eggs so soon...Yeong Ju had only been in her new home for a day and was still looking a little freaked out from the whole transition from huge chicken run to smelly cardboard box in jolty car to new chicken house. But lo and behold, there, in her nest of peastraw, lay a smooth small brown egg! She took a rest from laying the day after that and this morning, produced another (slightly bigger) brown egg. Now if only Eun Ju would do the same...

Korean Words (Phrases):

계란 (gye ran) egg

은주와 영주
(Eun Ju wa Yeong Ju)
Eun Ju and Yeong Ju

The latest addition to Girl's suburban backyard

2009-04-13T17:16:00.000-07:00

Introducing Yeong Ju and Eun Ju...Girl's two bantam hens...

Eun Ju is the darker coloured one and Yeong Ju is the lighter coloured one with a bit of a comb. Yeong Ju (who also happens to be the prettier one) is a real bitch to Eun Ju, pecking her and generally tyrannising over her. But while Yeong Ju does a runner when the cat comes a-prowling, Eun Ju stands her ground and gives him the eye...quite a profound lesson to be learnt indeed...

Chja popochka...?

한국 음식을 정말 좋아해요.

2009-04-10T02:33:00.000-07:00

Girl has been on a mission to learn how to cook some basic Korean dishes as Korean cuisine features a wide range of vegetables. Girl thinks that this will help her lose a couple of pounds and get that cholesterol count down!!

Common condiments used in cooking are sesame seed oil (used in just about every dish), the ubiquitious hot red pepper paste and soy sauce.

If you would like to learn how to make dishes such as sigeumchi namul (spinach) and gaji namul (eggplant) and (Girl's favourite) bibim naeng myeon (cold spicy mixed noodles), head right over to maangchi.com for a wide range of recipes, video demonstrations and more!!

Korean words and phrases:

참기름 (cham gi reum) sesame seed oil
간장 (kan jang) soy sauce
고추장 (go chu jang) hot pepper paste
시금치 나물 (si geum chi na mul) spinach side dish
가지 나물 (ga ji na mul) eggplant side dish
비빔 냉면 (bi bim naeng myeon) cold spicy mixed noodles

한국 음식을 정말 맛있어요!!
(Han guk eum shil eul jeong mal mat-iss-eo yo)
Korean food is really delicious!!

제가 한국 음식을 정말 좋아해요.
(Jey ga han guk eum shil eul jeong mal joh-a-hae yo)
I really like Korean food.

잘 먹겠습니다.
(Jal meok-kess seum ni da)
A polite phrase you say to the person who prepared the meal before you begin eating. Literally translated, it means "I will eat well", implying that the food will be delicious because of the skill and care taken by the person who prepared it.

잘 먹었습니다
(Jal meok-keoss seum ni da)
A polite phrase said at the end of the meal to inform the cook that you have enjoyed the meal he/she prepared and to thank them for the delicious food.

The Return of Girl to the Land of the Living...

2009-04-10T02:03:00.000-07:00

Girl is officially on holiday!

This means that Girl can once more join the throngs of people who have lives apart from their work...

And since it is now Autumn where Girl is, it is harvest time!

Proof that Girl's attempt at planting cherry tomatoes was a success and one which will hopefully be repeated next year...

And to remind Girl of the hot summer past...a picture of Girl's collection of succulents in various pots and containers picked up from various garage sales and op shops.

It is now time for Girl to tidy up her garden and to make plans for next year...

Girl will definitely have...

cherry tomatoes
spinach (and more spinach!)
lettuces
capsicums
zuchini
garlic shoots and spring onions

Girl will pass on patty pan squash next year, cute though they may look on the labels, since they were a resounding failure this year...

Now onto the flower garden...

Silence is Golden...

2009-02-06T02:16:00.000-08:00

But in Girl's little corner of this world, things have undoubtedly not been silent...which, in an ironic way, is the reason for Girl's failure to post anything on this blog for about 2 weeks. But despite Girl's seeming taciturnity, there were certainly still crumpets and tea...well, not exactly crumpets... but there certainly were crusty loaves of bread for dunking into soup and for mopping up hearty stews and a pillow soft loaf, sweetly studded with sultanas...

Yes! Girl, in her quest for the perfect loaf, finally stumbled on the reasons why her loaves were not turning out as well as they should have....they are listed below in no particular order...

1. Girl was not kneading her loaves enough before the first proving...

2. Girl was not letting her loaves prove for long enough...

3. Girl was kneading her loaves too much after knocking back the dough (after the first prove)...

4. Girl was not letting her loaves prove for long enough before baking...

5. Girl was not using a loaf tin to bake her loaves in...thereby resulting in foccacia-type loaves (the recipe that Girl used produced quite a wet dough) when what she really wanted was an up-right loaf that she could slice and pop in the toaster...

This is a sultana loaf that Girl made by tweaking the basic white loaf recipe that she had. She added 3 handfuls of sultanas, 25 grams of butter and a tablespoon of honey and substituted some of the water for milk. The loaf was baked in a 200c oven for fifteen minutes then was removed and the top covered with tin foil to stop it burning. This loaf took about an hour to be cooked to perfection. But whether the extra time needed was due to the higher fat content in the loaf or the tin-foil cover, Girl does not quite know. Girl's self-control was tested severely as she waited for the loaf to cool sufficiently for it to be cut. When she finally cut the loaf, she had three slices straight away, to make up for lost time...

Basic Chocolate Cake

2009-01-21T18:59:00.000-08:00

This recipe was adapted from Sue Lawrence's Chocolate Meringue Cake recipe but it produces a lovely, moist and light chocolate cake. Girl baked this recipe in cupcake-sized silicone baking cups and it also produced lovely little cakelets, all ready to be iced.

Ingredients:
115gms butter (softened), ½ cup caster sugar, 3 eggs, 50ml milk, 100gms self-raising flour, cocoa powder

Method:
1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes usingan electric hand-mixer)
2. Add the eggs one at the time to the mixture and beat well after each addition.
3. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the mixture.
4. Add the milk to the mixture.
5. Stir gently to combine everything.
6. Pour into a greased or lined cake tin or little cupcake papers or a muffin tray...in short, whatever you want!
7. Bake at about 160 degrees until a cake tester comes out clean when pushed into the middle of the cake.**

**Girl baked the cakes at about 160 degrees (instead of the usual 180) in a fan-forced oven because the recipe produced quite a wet batter. This way, the insides got a chance to cook while the outsides didn't burn...

Variations:
1. Add chocolate chips to the batter before baking to make a choc-chip cake.
2. Leave out the cocoa powder and substitute vanilla essence to make a plain butter cake.

Girl Gets All Tarted Up

2009-01-20T00:33:00.000-08:00

Strawberries Fair....

2009-01-18T22:11:00.000-08:00

Chocolate Meringue Cake

2009-01-17T00:25:00.001-08:00

Girl was flipping idly through Sue Lawrence's Book of Baking when her eye fell on a recipe for Chocolate Meringue cake. Instantly intrigued, Girl read on and upon discovering that she had almost all the ingredients in her store cupboard, she immediately started making this decadent-looking cake...

The basic idea was to make a chocolate cake batter with egg yolks and then a meringue with the egg whites. The chocolate cake batter was poured into two cake tins and the meringue was spread on the chocolate batter. The two cakes were baked for about 30 minutes. The two layers were then assembled, sandwiched with whipped cream (Sue Lawrence suggested a lemon curd filling but Girl took the short cut).

To see a slightly different recipe for this cake...go over to Joy Of Baking...

Food Photography...

2009-01-16T00:29:00.000-08:00

Girl was admiring the photographs and food styling on some of the many food blogs out there...and thus a desire was birthed in her to not only be able to make luscious food but also to take a photo of it that conveyed its lusciousness to all viewers!

And so...behold!

Want to know more? Click here: Introduction to Food Photography

God's Green Earth...

2009-01-14T15:23:00.000-08:00

There is nothing like a bountiful harvest from Girl's miniscule kitchen garden to make her feel all smugly self-sufficient *giggle*

Here we have a cos lettuce and a frilly/loose leaf lettuce which would do in a salad dressed with balsamic vinegar and a veritable mountain of spinach which Girl plans to convert into either a lasagne or possibly try using to stuff cannelloni...oh, ambitions!

How to win friends and influence people...

2009-01-14T14:17:00.000-08:00

It is said that everyone has their price. Mine could very well be this lemon meringue pie which consists of a crisp gingernut base, goey lemoney custard filling and a chewey marshmallow topping, all produced in only an hour. This bronzed specimen was made by a friend and scoffed by three people overnight...not that lemon meringue pie keeps very well...by most accounts, it should be eaten on the day it is made.

Girl's friend made this pie in a springform tin, which made it easy to release the pie from its confines. However, the crust was a little fragile and Girl's clumsy knife-work resulted in a layer of biscuit crumbs on the kitchen bench. Completely undeterred by this minor mishap, Girl and friend demolished a quarter of the delectable pie for afternoon tea.

If you would also like to make this pie and be seduced by its intense lemoney goodness and convert others as well, click here to see the recipe...however, Girl's friend uttered a word of caution, not to bring this pie to your workplace as a treat for your colleagues without counting the cost...because forever-after, you will be responsible for bringing this lemon meringue pie to every single work-do until you retire or are fired...but then again, who would fire you if you brought them lemon-meringue pie regularly? It's a vicious circle it is...

**UPDATE

Girl tried making the lemon meringue pie in her cupcake-sized silicone baking cups and this was the result...this time, only half a recipe was used.

The little pies were a little difficult to de-mould and the crust came apart at the slightest provocation. The taste was completely unimpaired, however, and Girl ate them with a teaspoon out of the baking cups. Girl had a few left over the next day and these unmoulded much more easily than the ones the previous day just because the crust was better consolidated.

Basic White Loaf

2009-01-11T04:26:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:
3 cups plain flour; 1⅛ cups tepid water; 1 tsp salt; ½ Tbsp sugar; 1 pkt (8gms) instant yeast

Method:
1. Put all the dry ingredients (except the yeast) into a big bowl
2. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour the water and yeast into the well
3. Mix the ingredients together until a dough forms
4. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured flat surface and knead the dough for about 10 minutes (time yourself if you have to...this step is crucial)
5. Put the kneaded dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover the bowl with clingform. Let the dough rise in a warm place for about 1-2 hours [apparently, the dough can be left to rise in the refrigerator for about 12 hours]
6. After 1-2 hours, the dough should be twice its original size. Knock it back to its original size and shape into either a rectangle or a round shape and lay the dough on a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray. You can also put the dough into loaf tins...whatever you fancy
7. Leave the dough to double in size again (should take ½-1 hour but don't rush it...)
8. Bake at 230c for about 35-45 minutes. If you take the oaf out of the oven and tap the bottom and it sounds hollow, it should be done
9. Let the loaf cool before cutting into it

Afterword...Eat as it is (the way I do sometimes!) or slather with butter, jam or cream cheese or sandwich strips of crispy bacon and fresh lettuce and juicy tomatoes straight out of your vege garden between two slices of the fresh bread

Basic Icing

2009-01-10T01:27:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:
50gms butter; Tons of icing sugar; 2 Tbsp warm water

Method:
1. Melt butter in warm water and stir until the butter is all melted
2. Sift in as much icing sugar as needed to make icing to the consistency you want

Basic Cookie Recipe

2009-01-10T01:06:00.000-08:00

Ingredients

125gms butter; 125gms sugar; 225gms flour; baking powder; vanilla essence; 1 egg

Method:
1. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
2. Add the egg and vanilla essence and mix thoroughly
3. Sift the flour and baking powder into the wet ingredients and mix thoroghly
4. Shape dough using cookie cutters and place on oven tray
5. Bake at 180c for about 10-15 minutes (bake longer if necessary)

Variations:
1. Add a teaspoonful of ground ginger to the mixture along with the egg and vanilla essence
2. Add lemon juice into the mixture
3. Make a batch of simple butter icing and ice the cookies

Using My Loaf...

2009-01-10T00:51:00.000-08:00

Girl has finally produced a loaf of white bread worthy of being called a loaf...All others she produced before were imposters, mere lumps of yeasty flour masquerading as loaves of bread...Girl's transformation secret?

It's all in the kneading...ten minutes of firm massaging had Girl's loaf of bread rising in ecstasy...

Pretty in Red...

2009-01-09T05:04:00.000-08:00

Girl's latest acquisition...a set of weighing scales that looked like the ones her grandpa used to use when Girl was a littler girl...

Girl isn't, as a rule, in favour of commercialised nostalgia but she espied this red, shiny

contraption in a shop-window...and fell in love...

Birthday Cookies

2009-01-09T04:30:00.000-08:00

The Cookie Results Are In!!!

2009-01-09T03:25:00.000-08:00

But the jury is still out on this lot...

Here are the cookies that Girl and Friend made today. The whole process took about 5 and a half hours long and Girl can only be thankful that the weather wasn't quite as blistering hot today as it was yesterday...The cookies were a simple butter cookie and the icing was butter, icing sugar and water combined and tinted with food colouring.

There was only one piping bag and even that sprang a leak after awhile...so we were down to using plastic bags with the corners cut off. Girl was not enamoured of the recycled plastic bag method of piping icing as she felt that it did not give her enough control over the icing...and being a real novice, this lack of control had disastrous results...

Girl thinks that Friend definitely did a better job on the cookies...the white icing base she used really made the colours pop!

On the way home, Girl went to a supermarket and purchased 5 cheap piping bags...she was taking no chances with the cookies she planned to make for her friend's birthday...

Tenaciousness

2009-01-07T06:53:00.001-08:00

Girl's second attempt at baking a loaf of bread...

The funny round loaf owes its shape to a springform cake tin. It reminds Girl of the loaves of potbrood she used to produce in a saucepan on a gas stove!

A snippet of bread with a hunk of cheddar cheese...yumminess!

Some you win...

2009-01-07T03:15:00.000-08:00

...and some you don't...

It's kinda a little hard to put a finger on just what's wrong with this loaf of bread, isn't it...

Perhaps its the unusual shape of the loaf...?

Or perhaps the dimpled crust...so horribly reminiscent of cellulite!

Anyhow...all that Girl knows is that somewhere along the line, she made a boo-boo while making this loaf of bread...

Here's what Girl put intothe loaf of bread...

3 cups of strong flour; 16gms of instant yeast; approximately 300mls of warm water; half a tablespoon of sugar; a pinch of salt

And here is what Girl did...
The warm water and sugar and yeast were mixed together first and left for about 5 minutes. Girl then put all the flour into a large mixing bowl and made a well in the middle of the bowl. The sugar water and yeast mixture was then poured into the middle of the well and then the flour was mixed into the liquid to form a dough. The dough was kneaded and then placed into a well-oiled bowl to prove. When the dough was twice its original size, it was knocked down and kneaded again...

...and Girl thinks that it was at this stage that she made the fatal mistake by not being organised with her baking tins...by the time Girl had found her baking tins, the dough had started to prove again and when Girl tried to transfer the dough to the baking tins, she found herself with sticky handfuls of dough mixture...the resultant mess was then transferred to an *ahem* baking tray...

...the dough was then left to prove on the baking tray and when it was pouffed up, it was put into an oven and baked at 200 degrees for about half an hour...

Girl dislikes being bested by anything...even bread dough! She is resolved to try again tomorrow...

Girl's Baking Weekend...

2009-01-06T23:52:00.000-08:00

Girl is going to a friend's house on Friday afternoon to bake cookies and then try and ice them using royal icing. Given the fact that Girl has never done royal icing before, Girl is feeling extremly apprehensive that the whole project will come a cropper....

Sweet dreams are made of these...

...but how will Girl's cookies turn out...??

Girl has a birthday to attend on Saturday afternoon and she is planning to spend Saturday morning making pear and ginger muffins and icing them with either a lemon buttercream frosting or creamcheese frosting and decorating them with either fondant cutout flowers or royal icing butterflies...

...or if she is feeling very demoralised by the previous day's results, she may not bother at all, but instead, lie down in a darkened room with a load of aspirin and a bottle of rum!

Disclaimer:
The incredibly sweet and pretty cookies in the picture above were made by Louise over at cakejournal.com...Read it and be inspired!

Chocolate Porn...

2009-01-06T17:00:00.001-08:00

If chocolate be the food of the gods...

...eat on

Faff 'n Palaver...

2009-01-05T22:11:00.000-08:00

Girl swung up on the back of the Bakerella bandwagon as it trundled past her...that is she decided to have a go at making the famous cake pops. The basic idea seemed straight forward enough...chocolate (or butter or yellow or red velvet etc...) cake mixed with frosting to form a paste-like substance which is then shaped and coated with chocolate before being decorated.

Well, in cake-land, things are never quite so straight forward...

Girl baked a chocolate cake yesterday (click here for the fuss-free recipe) and kept it uncovered in the fridge overnight to cool down completely...

Mistake number 1: Always keep cakes covered...or else they become as dry as a baby in a disposable diaper...

The cake was crumbled into a bowl and a whole 250gm block of cream cheese was beaten into the cake crumbs...

Mistake number 2: Never underestimate the amount of cream cheese needed...

The mixture was then shaped into hearts (using a cookie cutter) and balls and then put into the fridge. After 20 minutes or so, the hearts were dipped into melted white chocolate...

...and then promptly disintegrated as they had not been refrigerated long enough...

Mistake number 3: PATIENCE~~!! Or suffer the later consequences of the lack of it...and oh, by the way, make ABSOLUTELY sure that no water gets into the melted chocolate

The rest of the hearts and balls were then dipped into melted dark chocolate and decorated...

And yes, Girl's cake pops were stuck into oranges as she did not have styrofoam blocks...far more environmentally friendly and healthy as the oranges were eaten up once they were no longer required as a baking aid *giggle*

The end result? Three and a half hours of work for 20 cake pops...Too much faff and palaver? You decide... *grin*

A Belated Christmas Present~!

2009-01-05T13:24:00.000-08:00

With The Girls...

2009-01-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

Girl's sister and friend and Girl went out to a big hotel for ice-cream and cake one night. We were going to order lemongrass and ginger ice-cream but ended up getting a cake and tea combo instead...two slices of cake and a choice of either tea or coffee. We chose a slice of the cheesecake and black forest cake and a little pot of Turkish Apple tea and another pot of Berrylicious tea...

The cheesecake was definitely the better of the two cakes, although the topping was a little too sweet for Girl. The black forest cake, however, was a little disappointing for Girl, who cherishes in her memory the rememberance of a particular black forest gateau assembled with light sponge cake and soft, sweet cream studded with slightly sourish cherries. The ganache frosting on this particular cake seemed to be a little on the heavy side and the taste of which almost overpowered everything else...the "cream" layers looked to be a mousse-like concoction and the sponge cake seemed to be on the dry side. However, it was a decent enough chocolate-type cake and was eaten rapidly...as the pictures of the two ravaged slices show...

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words...

2009-01-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

So this post should be worth a couple of thousand words at least...Girl decided to try making an almond, pistachio and honey puff...

Melted butter and honey, ground almonds and chopped up pistachios stirred together and used to fill the ubiquitious white rectangles of puff pastry Girl is so fond off...

Novice blogger...

2008-12-31T13:35:00.000-08:00

Girl has to confess that she is still a novice blogger...whenever she sees or does something remotely out of the ordinary, her first instinct is not to grab her camera and take a picture of it to be posted on her blog...

That is how half a grilled salmon (marinaded in ginger wine and wasabi and soy sauce), 300gms of lamb chops, a Vietnamese inspired vermicelli salad and half of the chocolate mousse Girl made was consumed before Girl thought to take a single photo of anything that she served at New Year's dinner last night!

However, Girl did manage to regain her wits by the time she served dessert and managed to get a picture of the Nigella-inspired instant chocolate mousse...The making of it was rather easy...marshmallows, butter, water and chocolate melted in a saucepan, cream (and baileys) whipped up and then added to the chocolate mixture. But the eating of it lay rather heavy on our stomachs...the mousse was so very rich! But Girl and other diners somehow managed to choke down the velvety smooth mousse...the sacrifices that one makes!

There is a gouge in the surface of the mousse as a diner was about to dig in to the mousse but was stopped by Girl so she could take this photo...

Nigella...

2008-12-30T02:20:00.000-08:00

Girl spent a blissful day poring over the colourful and lusciously illustrated pages of Nigella's latest cookbook. She earmarked two recipes to try...Ginger and Pear Muffin and Instant Chocolate Mousse...

Girl has planned for New Year's Eve dinner tomorrow night to be...salmon with fresh herbs and garlic; vermicelli, tomato and cucumber salad; grilled lamb chops accompanied by fresh greens from the garden and instant chocolate mousse for dessert...a dinner worthy of the true domestic diety herself? Perhaps Girl is getting a little ahead of herself here...

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T19:45:00.001-08:00

Girl received a set of silicone baking cups from a friend for Christmas...yay!

So, being an energetic individual, Girl made Lemon yoghurt muffins for breakfast *wink*

And Banana yoghurt muffins for afternoon tea...

The Banana yoghurt muffins were just a tweak of the basic yoghurt cake recipe found on Chocolate & Zuchini. Girl substituted two mashed bananas for one pottle of 125mL yoghurt and the muffins turned out great! (If Girl had had walnuts, they would have been chopped up and bunged into the mixture as well) Another great thing about using the bananas was that they made the muffins quite sweet, thereby reducing the amount of sugar needed...

All in all, Girl is pleased with how her experiment turned out...

Best Wishes for the New Year!

새해 북 많이 받으세요!

Cheesecakes...

2008-12-20T16:33:00.000-08:00

Remember how someone had asked Girl to make a birthday cake for a friend's birthday party? After having decided on various cakes and then discarded the ideas as being too elaborate (Girl only had about three hours to make the cake) and an undue strain on Girl's almost non-existent baking abilities, Girl finally settled on a cheesecake flavoured with Baileys and topped with chocolate ganache...

On the day of the party, Girl decided to make the cheesecake in small little cupcake papers as they seemed to make the task more manageable...especially after a 600km journey back from another town!

First of all, Girl lined a 12-hole muffin tray with cupcake papers...Girl then bashed up a packet of vanilla super wine biscuits with a rollingpin and added 125gms melted butter. Girl mixed the biscuit crumbs and butter together and pressed the mixture into the bottom of the cupcake papers. The whole tray was put into the fridge to chill for half an hour or so...In the meantime, Girl added gelatine to some hot water and stirred it until it was dissolved. The gelatine mixture was then left to cool while Girl got on with other things..Girl beat cream cheese, lemon juice and icing sugar in a bowl with a hand-mixer. To this, Girl added 60mL of Baileys and 240mL of cream in batches and the mixture was beaten some more until smooth. The gelatine was then added to the mixture and the mixture was then spooned into the cupcake papers and once more replaced into the fridge to chill. When the mixture was reasonably chilled, chocolate ganache was poured over the top of the cheesecakes...Yumminess!

There were so many cheesecake cups that not all were eaten that night and the cakes tasted even better the following day when they had had time to set properly! Loverly! <3

Eureka! Eureka!

2008-12-10T12:43:00.000-08:00

Girl feels about the same way that Archimedes must have done when he discovered the way to determine the volume of an object with an irregular shape...

For days now, Girl has been racking her brains to come up with a solution to her cake problem...namely, how to avoid using fondant (which hates refrigeration) to decorate a cake with ganache icing on it (which requires refrigeration, in Girl's estimate, if it is to be kept for a few days).

The answers to all of Girl's problems lay on one website...this one!

The most exciting excerpt from this exemplary webpage...

Ganache is very versatile stuff! You can take the remainder that has fallen onto the baking sheet, form it into a ball, roll it between your palms into a long snake, then roll it flat (or not) and form all kinds of freeform shapes to go on top of the cake. Or you can roll the ball flat (no thinner than 3/8 of an inch, though) and use cookie cutters to cut out shapes like stars, ornaments, etc. You can make a “white chocolate” ganache and pour it into cake pans to cool, then cut into ribbons, rounds, the sky’s the limit! And white chocolate is stunning against dark chocolate. You can, of course, also paint the ganache onto washed and dried mint leaves to make chocolate leaves that can be shaped to stand up from the cake. And you can form those ribbons into individual “loops” to make a full bow for the top of a cake.

Oh, Girl is ecstatic!

Continuation of the cupcake story...

2008-12-09T01:21:00.000-08:00

Girl was a bit disappointed tonight when she ate the cupcakes she made yesterday as they were quite dry! *sob* There are several possible reasons for this...a) Girl left the babycakes in the oven for too long...b) refrigerated cake=dry cake...hmm...

The fondant cutouts definitely weren't great today after having spent a day in the fridge...but Girl already knew they wouldn't be...they go all soggy and drippy-looking when left in the fridge...but since Girl had iced the cupcakes with ganache, she wasn't sure if ganache would be alright if left out of the fridge...

When Girl started this whole cake making gaff, her general attitude was *phff* what's so hard about making and decorating cakes? Nothing, if they are eaten straight away...but if the cakes are to be decorated and stored for awhile, Girl finds that keeping them at optimum freshness can be a bit of a juggling act...

Anyway...enough reflection...Girl has had her first "commission" for a friend's birthday...

And since Girl has to make the cakes before she goes away on holiday and has quite a limited amount of time in which to do it, she has to plan the whole mission in rigorous detail...

Girl has settled on a moist chocolate cake, covered with a white ganache icing tinted with just the smallest hint of pink and decorated with butterflies and baby roses. But now, Girl has to figure out if she can make the butterflies and roses with something other than fondant as the cakes have to be stored in a refridgerator for a day or two. At this stage, royal icing is probably the other best option that Girl has.

Coffee & Walnut muffins

2008-12-08T02:07:00.000-08:00

Girl racked her brain for a witty title for this post but came up with nothing...after all, what witticisms can one utter about a batch of coffee walnut muffins slathered in chocolate ganache-type icing and bedecked with green fondant butterflies and flowers...?

The Coffee and Walnut muffin recipe was actually meant to be baked as a cake but Girl decided to use cupcake papers...it was a spur of the moment decision with Girl to slather ganache icing on top and from there, it was a short step to rolling out some fondant and making flower and butterfly cutouts to adorn the muffins...Girl found the fondant to be easier to work with today; it seemed to be firmer and held its shape better. Girl found that her cutouts came away far more cleanly today than they did when the fondant was freshly made...

**Note: The fondant was only made last Thursday

I've got my heart set on [CENSORED]...

2008-12-07T01:18:00.000-08:00

Girl spent Friday and most of the weekend in bed recovering from one too many late nights and a mild case of the sniffles...

Girl has a strange dislike of sleeping...She hates to go to bed! Sometimes, she has to literally force herself to go to sleep at night (especially if she has to work the next day) or to sleep in when she's feeling exhausted...The reason for this really strange behaviour? Sleeping is boring as hell!

Girl would so much rather be reading cookbooks and getting ideas for cakes and cupcakes or "admiring" the vegetables in her garden and cursing the slugs that ruin her otherwise beautiful cos lettuces or poring over gardening books, trying to glean ideas for her flower garden or trying to think of new ways to use/cook the abundance of plants in her garden or blogging...Girl hates to sleep when there are so many, many interesting things to do!

But sooner or later, it all catches up with Girl and then flash! Girl is left holding the remains of a candle, burnt out at both ends. Good thing for Girl that she has quite a robust constitution and a weekend in bed is usually sufficient to get her back on track...

Girl now feels like a million dollars after her enforced bed-rest..What will Girl's next project be...? Girl has a definite idea in mind but is going to keep it under wraps at present as she wants it to be a surprise for someone close to her (hence the somewhat obscure title of this post)*chuckles*

Hint: It involves this little tyke...

Girl didn't manage to make the two cakes that she wanted to make this weekend but she did make a drink using mint and lavender and lemon juice in her efforts to try and combat the searing summer heat...(a hint as to Girl's whereabouts, perhaps?) *LOL*

Girl put torn up mint leaves in a cup along with some lavender flowers and sugar...Boiling water was poured into the cup and then the whole concoction was poured into some lemon juice...Water and ice was added to the mix and Girl drank it all up through a pink straw...happiness...

Cupcakes...

2008-12-05T15:28:00.000-08:00

Behold...cupcakes Girl baked from scratch and decorated with cutouts of homemade marshmallow fondant...

The whole process took a few days...the cupcakes were made one night after work and then stored away to be decorated when cool...the fondant was made yet another night and then stored away in a plastic bag in the fridge...

Girl thinks she finally gets how to make MMF, although hers tends to be a little on the dry side. However, it doesn't seem to be anything that a little Crisco can't fix...

Girl spent a therepeutic evening rolling out fondant with a glass (use glass to roll out fondant...it lessens dramatically the 'stick to the rollingpin' factor!) and cutting out shapes with a combination of cookie cutters...

Girl now needs to figure out how to 'dispose' of 10 sugary sweet cupcakes...

And as for the left-over fondant in the fridge...Girl definitely needs more practice producing flowers and leaves etc...

Drought...

2008-12-03T00:09:00.001-08:00

...not in the literal sense...but Girl seems to be undergoing some sort of mental, creative and emotional drought wherein she walks about hazily, trying to conjure up enough willpower to organise herself and her work!

Anyway, enough of Girl's senseless rantings...Girl decided that she would make two cakes during the weekend for her friends and try decorating them with marshmallow icing and fondant cutout shapes...

Girl is still trying to decide on the theme of the cakes...there is a very real danger of ending up in Barbie-land as she still hasn't figured out a way to colour rolled fondant evenly and at the moment, is limited to either white or pink...

Here are the products of Girl's experiments with fondant...and yes, Girl does know they look sh*tty...*LOL Back to the drawing board! Girl is allergic to failure >o<

Girl made another batch of Honey Hazelnut muffins and this time, Girl ensured that she put plenty of sugar into the recipe and voila! Beautiful muffins ensued...

Exhaustion...

2008-12-01T02:02:00.000-08:00

Girl is feeling strangely exhausted these few days...this ill-timed fatigue is incredibly frustrating as Girl has things to do and places to be...!! Not to mention cakes to make and cookies to try!

Girl tried to muster up some enthusiasm and make her beloved honey hazelnut muffins this evening but all she got were these little hard discs that could probably have passed as mill-stones...!

Compared to the muffins from the first attempt at this recipe...

The reason for the vast difference in result? Girl isn't quite sure...but this time, she omitted the sugar from the recipe and did not beat the mixture quite as thoroughly. Girl also did not sift the flour and baking powder and swapped the hazelnuts for walnuts. Moral of the story? Never bake when tired...it is merely a waste of ingredients...

Oh...and another thing...read recipe carefully (do not confuse with recipe for another cake) and don't tinker with it too much!

PS: Experienced bakers out there...lets hear from you!! T_T

Mouldy and Moth-eaten...

2008-11-29T03:24:00.000-08:00

It had been a day of mild successes for Girl...

Girl had a friend come over for dinner tonight and was told that the dishes she had made (fried eggplant with dried shrimp and shrimp paste and lemongrass chicken) was delicious.

Score: Girl 1: Blah 0

Girl had, in the course of the last 24 hours, made a pear cake, honey & hazelnut muffins and banana muffins with walnuts...Girl's friend loved the pear cake that she was served and did not complain when Girl packed away a substantial amount for her to take home along with some muffins

Score: Girl 2: Blah 0

When Girl's friend got home, she tried a honey hazelnut muffin and used the words 'superb' and 'so good' to describe it

Score: Girl 3: Blah 0

Girl had minor success with making fondant this afternoon...

Score: Girl 3½: Blah 0

Girl tried to make fondant animals and produced these mouldy looking beasties...

Score: Girl 3½: Blah 367

T.K.O.

Girl retires for the night...she knows when she's defeated...

Do You Know The Muffin (Wo)Man...?

2008-11-28T15:39:00.000-08:00

This morning, Girl's flatmate was awakened at some ungodly hour to the clatter of Girl's whisk against the sides of her metal mixing bowl once again as Girl whisked eggs in her quest for light and fluffy muffins.

That in itself would not be anything extraordinary as some beings do take delight in rising early on a weekend and cooking a luxurious breakfast for themselves.

However, the last thing that Girl's flatmate heard last night was probably the clatter of Girl's whisk against the sides of her metal mixing bowl as she made more muffins...

The last thing Girl remembered last night was ingesting a deliciously nutty muffin...

Girl's first batch of muffins was a close approximation of Clotilde's recipe for Honey Hazelnut Cake, which actually started out life as a muffin but got genetically re-engineered into a cake...Girl was merely returning it to what nature intended it to be...a light, deliciously nutty, honey-soaked muffin.

The second was a walnut banana muffin that Girl made up as she went along, incorporating some of the techniques she had used while making Clotilde's recipes...Girl was a little worried that the walnut banana muffins would be abject failures but they came out of the oven, looking plump and niely browned. Cautiously, Girl tried one...and then to make sure that the whole batch was alright and that the one she had just eaten was not merely a fluke, she proceeded to eat another two in quick succession...

Girl's Walnut Banana Muffin recipe...(Note: Girl used very imprecise measurements when making the muffins...feel free to alter if you think you have to!)

Ingredients:
2 eggs
honey
butter (50gms)
1 mashed up banana
70gms chopped walnuts
1½ cups flour
1½ teaspoon baking powder

Method:
Whip up the 2 eggs with either a hand-held mixer or a whisk. Whisk for as long as you like/can...
Add in the mashed banana and whisk again...
Melt the butter and the honey together in a bowl and add into the mixture...whisk again...
Add chopped walnuts and whisk...
Sift flour and baking powder into the mixtureand whisk again...
Spoon into muffin papers/a well-greased muffin tray and bake at 180c for about 15-20 minutes..

Honey Hazelnut Muffins and Banana Walnut Muffins

Pear Cake

2008-11-27T02:42:00.000-08:00

Girl was suffering from withdrawal symptoms. Girl was craving the hype of removing a perfectly baked, scrumptiously browned cake from the oven. Girl just had to have her cake-baking fix!

So even though it was getting late and she was a little tired after her jaunt to Red Square, Girl just had to try the Pear Cake recipe found on Chocolate and Zucchini.

Girl was a little concerned that the batter she produced by following the recipe (which seemed to be predominently butter and eggs and very little else!), seemed to be a little bit on the watery side...

However, having learnt from experience that one must follow the recipe despite some misgivings, Girl decided to put the cake into the oven and was rewarded with an aromatic, eggily custardy cake densely studded with tender pears...

Heavenly!

The grainy pictures do not do the least justice to the delectable Pear Cake...

Red Square

2008-11-27T01:25:00.000-08:00

Thanks to a generous family member, Girl got a bookful of restaurant and entertainment vouchers for her birthday and boy! has Girl been making use of it...!! ^_^ Girl and a friend decided to visit Red Square, a Russian restaurant, tonight and thoroughly enjoyed the experience...

The dramatic red and black decor of the restaurant appealed to Girl's aesthetic sense and the friendly and attentive Asian girl (who impressed Girl by speaking Russian or Ukrainian to the cooks) who manned the front of house and attended to customers' needs, made the atmosphere extremely warm and inviting.

In fact, the only grumble Girl had was that she was hungry and her food was awhile coming. However, when the dishes arrived, it was evident to Girl why they had taken so long in the making...

Girl's friend ordered a salmon and blini starter followed by the Chicken Kiev...Girl had refrained from ordering a starter due to financial constraints but she wished she had thrown financial constraints to the wind when the gorgeous plate of tender, almost melt-in-the-mouth blinis, generously filled with smoked salmon arrived at the table. Girl was hardly able to refrain from gazing enviously at her friend while he ate the starter with evident enjoyment...

The Chicken Kiev did turn out a little disappointing from Girl's point of view as it looked a little dry and came served only with peas and mashed potatoes. However, Girl's friend seemed to find nothing amiss and ate everything on his plate...

Girl had decided to take the plunge and ordered the Beef Shashlik, not quite knowing what to expect. A skewerful of chunks of perfectly grilled beef covered with an onion relish accompanied by a large helping of vegetables and a thin pancake was what it turned out to be...

Girl loved the combination of grilled meat, fresh veges and wafer-thin pancake...three of her favourite things all on one plate...Luxury!

Girl had been told by a family member that the honey cake had received glowing reviews from previous diners at the restaurant but Girl decided that she was, unfortunately, too stuffed to eat another thing...

...perhaps next time *^_^*

The Prerogative Of A Woman...

2008-11-25T00:41:00.000-08:00

One of the absolute prerogatives of being a woman is the right to change her mind without eliciting much surprise from the people around her...

Another is being able to own numerous pairs of shoes in varying shades and styles without inviting much ridicule...

Therefore, Girl invokes her ancient right to change her plan to make fondant covered cupcakes to trying out a tempting recipe for Honey Hazelnut Cake found on that delectably ravishing French food blog Chocolate & Zucchini. Girl is looking forward to Friday night when she will be left in solitude to bake delicious cakes to her heart's content...

In fact, Girl may not stop at one cake! Girl may try two, maybe even *gasp* three of the enchanting recipes found on Chocolate & Zucchini! At that point in time, intoxicated with her seeming prowess, Girl may just lose her tenuous grip on reality and begin living in a delicious fantasy of being a Domestic Goddess...

Let us leave Girl in her pleasurable illusion...Disillusionment comes, often far too soon, to all of us...

Marshmallow Fondant

2008-11-24T00:20:00.000-08:00

Girl has found a recipe for MMF that looks quite easy here!! :)

So that will be Girl's weekend project...

Friday Night: Go get ingredients for MMF; Bake a batch of plain cupcakes; make MMF...

Saturday Morning: Decorate cupcakes; Gobble down half the batch of cupcakes...

All Day Sunday: Regret rash and greedy actions the day before; Regret lack of self control; Eat more cupcakes to make self feel better...

Girl can't wait for the weekend! But now, Girl needs to go do her Korean homework or face the wrath of her Seon Sang-nim

An Nyeong-hi Ka Sey Yo!!

Pinky Boo!

2008-11-23T02:06:00.000-08:00

The mere sight of gorgeously pink cupcakes decorated with colourful bits and bobs are enough to gladden Girl's heart...

And this is even before the sugar rush from the marshmallow icing and the hundreds and thousands and chocolate shavings kick in... >o<

Pictures of Girl's incredibly amateurish attempts to liven up plain 'ole buttercake cupcakes...

Girl went out and got a packet of cake icing today from the supermarket...Girl isn't entirely sure whether it will pass off for fondant or can be used to sculpt things the way sugarpaste can...once more, only experience will tell!

Moussaka...

2008-11-22T13:29:00.000-08:00

Girl set out to make the Greek dish Moussaka, or rather, a bastardized version of it. She grilled eggplant steaks, cooked a mince sauce and...blanched spinach. The national dish of Greece had taken on a rather Italian flavour! Girl layered the eggplant, spinach and mince in a dish and covered it with feta cheese and then grilled it for a few minutes. Girl omitted the bechamel sauce, firstly because she didn't know how to make a bechamel sauce and secondly because she had heard rumours that it contained eggs, cream etc and she was just trying to watch calories...

The dish turned out OK for a home-made dish...no restaurant standard here; it was gobbled up by Girl, who absolutely adores eggplant, and a friend.

A portion of Girl's home-made Moussaka and a horiatiki salata sans olives, peppers etc...

Think Pink!

2008-11-21T22:31:00.001-08:00

Girl's first cupcake covered with marshmallow icing!

Girl actually meant to make marshmallow fondant but she found that if she melted the marshmallows and then covered the cupcakes with the liquidified marshmallows and waited for it to set, it formed a smooth, shiny layer on top of the cake...

Now it seems that all Girl has to do is figure out a way to make the fondant properly so she can decorate the cupcakes...However, Girl is slightly concerned that the marshmallow icing will not be strong enough to support the weight of any fondant decorations or other bits and bobbles that she may use to prettify the cakelets and that they will all collapse into a gooey mess. Only time and experience will tell! *Girl shrugs philosophically*

G.R.E.E.D

2008-11-21T15:58:00.000-08:00

Girl is thinking of renaming her blog G.R.E.E.D.

Whatsit stand for you ask? Girl Rapaciously Eats Every Day...That's what it stands for...

And while I am aware that the grammar of that sentence may be somewhat iffy, it is an unescapably accurate description of Girl's almost constant intake of edible foodstuffs at the moment...

Today for breakfast, Girl had leftovers from dinner, a few chicken puffs that Girl had whipped up first thing in the morning and a few muffins which were meant for the neighbours and friends...

Actually, the last was an act of pure altruism...

Girl was merely checking to see if the condition of the muffins had deteriorated overnight and whether they were still fit to be given away as presents to Girl's nearest & dearest. Girl does not want to poison her friends...oh no!

When Girl came back from doing a few chores at about 11am, she was assailed by a sudden craving for banana muffins...so she just had to whip up a batch! She found a jar of aromatic coffee and was overwhelmed by a curiosity to see what would happen if she added it into the batch of banana muffins...

An hour later, Girl's kitchen was filled with the aroma of baking muffins and when the little beauties came out of the oven, Girl just HAD to try one to see if the addition of coffee had completely ruined her muffins! So Girl had one (ahem! two)...

Now, feeling incredibly bloated and uncomfortably like a satiated python, Girl will now take a N.A.P. *nana style*

A few hours later...

Instead of taking a Nana Nap, Girl went out and got herself a block of Philly Cream Cheese *drools* and made Cream Cheese Frosting (sans butter) for her Banana Coffee cupcakes...

Here they are..

The Visitors...

2008-11-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

Girl had visitors for a few days this week...

Witness the dinner one of the visitors casually whipped up for us one night!

Left to Right: Rendang, Fried Asparagus with dried shrimp and Shrimp Paste, Thai Vermicelli Salad with Cucumber.

Steamed Broccoli

Salmon in a Tamarind sauce; the fattiness of the fish is complemented beautifully by the sourness of the sauce...

Ironical situation...

2008-11-19T11:26:00.000-08:00

OK...so Girl decided to start learning how to cook so she would eat healthier and also save money...

The truth of the matter is that Girl is now so obsessed with cooking that she spends all her free time (and money!) on her new hobby and even worse, has to eat up all the fruits of her labour! Girl is starting to feel the pinch!

Yoghurt Cake...

2008-11-19T02:54:00.000-08:00

Girl was re-reading the blog post for the Lemon Yoghurt cake that had been such a disaster for her the last three times she made it (burnt outside, oozy insides and funky texture) and decided (in her pigheaded, bull-doggish way) to attempt it one more time, since far more accomplished bakers that herself had used the recipe and produced fantatic cakes...

So, this time, she was extremely careful to measure all the ingredients out accurately, to omit the Limoncello that had been added in the last three times she made the cake, and to lower the oven temperature to 160c instead of the recommended 180c, with the intention of baking the cake for a longer time.

This time, having carefully combined all the wet ingredients with a hand mixer and sifted in the flour and baking powder and baking soda and then combined them gently by hand, she poured the mixture into a 23cm baking tin and baked it at 160c for about 40 minutes. It was then that things started to get a little tense...

The outside of the cake was starting to brown and yet tester after tester that was pushed into the belly of the cake came up still showing traces of cake batter. In addition to that, it was getting quite late and Girl was getting decidedly cranky as she had counted on getting a lemony slice of yoghurt cake before bed. She cranked the temperature up to 180c. The outside of the cake got browner. Girl decided that she would bake the cake for 15 more minutes and if it still wasn't done then, she would give it up for lost.

...

But lo and behold! At the end of the 15 minutes, there reposed, in the depths of the hot oven, a beautifully browned cake. But the hardest test was yet to come...Girl tremblingly inserted a tester into the centre of the cake and when it was removed, it was magically clean!

Success!

Girl was so excited, she cut a slice of the cake straight away and devoured the tender morsel within minutes. She then fell asleep, savouring the sweet taste of victory...

PS/ Girl decided that the next time she made this cake, she would also make a glaze of Limoncello, sugar, lemon juice and grated lemon rind...yumminess! Au revoir!

Messy, Gooey Chocolate Cake...

2008-11-18T19:28:00.000-08:00

Girl was in need of a decadent dessert...and, as usual, was broke...

So she turned to her only true friend in such times of need...

Who, as expected, rose to the occasion...to produce such a messily, gooey chocolatey cake as would satisfy the cravings of the most hardened chocoholic and at the same time, still the protests of the stingiest misers...

For $1.99, Girl purchased an Edmonds "Sure To Rise" pre-mixed chocolate cake and voila!

Vermicelli Salad

2008-11-15T20:50:00.000-08:00

It was one of those scorching hot summer days...Girl felt in need of sustenance but could but bear the prospect of eating anything hot and heavy. A pantry raid revealed a packet of vermicelli squirreled away behind the pasta and egg noodles and so Vermicelli Salad was had by all for dinner that night...

Vermicelli Salad
Ingredients: (Amounts are very dependent on how many people you are wanting to feed or how hungry they are *^_^*)
Vermicelli, Cucumber, Tomatoes, Carrots, Turnip (raw), Garlic shoots/ Chives/ Spring onion...plus whatever vegetables you fancy!

Dressing Ingedients: (Make the dressing to taste)
Vinegar, Soy sauce or salt, Sugar, Sesame seed oil, Lemon juice & Chillies (last two are optional)

Boil some water and soak the vermicelli in a large bowl. While it is soaking, chop or dice or grate or slice up the vegetables however you fancy. Mix the vinegar, soy sauce and other dressing ingredients in a bowl and pour over veges. When vermicelli is soft, mix in with the veges...Eat!

Girl served the scrummily sourish salad with grilled chicken breast meat that had been coated with a salt, cumin and sesame seed oil marinade. Girl loves her George Foreman grill!

Iffy pictures!

2008-11-14T16:52:00.000-08:00

Girl apologises to the handful of friends that may be reading this blog for the iffy pictures. All pictures on this blog are taken with Girl's 1.3megapixel camera on her cellphone and Girl cannot admit to being the world's greatest photographer either!

Saturday Lunch

2008-11-14T16:41:00.000-08:00

Girl loves sitting out in her sunny garden with a lovely lunch. Today's lunch was quite a heavy one for a summer's day but Girl was feeling more than a little peckish. And greed did play more than a small part in the decision to make pork chop with a fresh salsa on the side.

Grilled pork chop with tomato, cucumber and avocado salsa and salad leaves.

The pork chop was coated with cumin, curry powder, salt, sugar, sesame oil and the smallest splosh of black vinegar. (Girl does not know where she picked up this penchant for adding black vinegar to her dishes...) The lovely, juicy chop was then grilled in Girl's George Foreman grill. Lovely...

While the pork chop was grilling away, Girl chopped up tomatoes, half an avocado and some cucumber into a bowl and seasoned it with lemon juice and a little salt. Yumminess!

Eureka!

2008-11-13T14:03:00.001-08:00

As stated in a previous post, Girl googled a new recipe for yoghurt cake...and this time, Girl's efforts produced a beautifully golden loaf that had no icky, oozy insides.

(Lemon) Yoghurt Cake
Ingredients:

1/2 c plain yogurt

1 c sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup canola or olive oil

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat oven to 350º. Butter your cake pan well. Mix the yogurt, eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla in a medium mixing bowl. Add the flour and baking powder and mix well. Pour into the pan, and bake for 25 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Let it cool for 10 minutes and then turn out of the pan. Let it cool more before slicing.

(Source: What Geeks Eat)

Girl would have sploshed in some Limoncello (as usual) or squeezed in some lemon juice and grated in some lemon rind if she had had some. Oh well...there's always next time...

This morning, Girl woke up early, went to the supermarket to buy a few ingredients and came back to make chocolate puffs and chicken puffs.

Girl used a packet of defrosted puff pastry for the chocolate puffs and cut rounds out of the pastry with an old jar. Girl put two squares of chocolate in between the pastry rounds and squeezed the edges together. As usual, the puffs were baked at 180c until brown. Choice!

Innocuous looking puffs full of devilishly delish chocolate *evil chuckle*

Chicken puff recipe courtesy of Su Yin over at The Journal of a Girl who Loves to Cook. Marvellous!

Long Weekend

2008-11-12T16:54:00.000-08:00

This weekend will be a long weekend for Girl. Wonder what I should do...

The weather's looking pretty good at the moment...looks like perfect picnic weather!

Yoghurt Cake

2008-11-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

Girl was browing some food blogs and websites the other day and came across a recipe for Yoghurt cake from a website called Chocolate & Zucchini.com. The instructions looked pretty simple and Girl already had most of the ingredients in her cupboards, save for yoghurt. So she decided to try it...

The mixing of the wet ingredients went smoothly. Girl even managed to substitute the rum required in the recipe with a splash of Limoncello and a squeeze of lemon. However, doubts began to assaile Girl when the dry ingredients went in and the batter started looking a little thicker and doughier than expected. However, there was no help for it but to spoon the dough into two loaf tins and bake at 200c.

20 minutes later, Girl realised the importance of sticking to the exact temperature given in the recipe (180c for 30-35 minutes) as she stared at two well-browned loaves with squishy insides...ick! The two loaves were returned to the oven to be baked at 150c for awhile in the hopes of drying the insides out while not browning the crusts any further...

The cakes turned out OK...(despite the cock-up). They were light and not too sweet and most importantly, almost 100% fool-proof, now that Girl has learnt a valuable lesson about baking temperatures! This Yoghurt cake looks set to become the base recipe of many variations of cake in the future...

On a further note...Girl and Kalosha ate the two cakes up yesterday...actually Kalosha ate most of it. Girl thought the cakes were a little on the dry side (not surprising) while Kalosha thought they were OK. Kalosha suggested Girl put in carrots and sultanas into the cake in future. Bah! Philistine!

On an even further note...Girl has tried recreating the cake again and this time, had the same problem! Very brown outsides and damp inside! :( This time, Girl baked cake at 150c for longer. Maybe its not Girl's cooking abilities...maybe is recipe *frowns and rushes off to Google another recipe*

Puffing On...

2008-11-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients: One cubed chicken breast, one potato (peeled and cubed), one sliced onion, half a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, a packet of instant soup mix (Mushroom) and a sheet of puff pastry...

Girl started out by frying the onion in oil and then adding the chicken, potato and frozen mixed vegetables to the pot. While they were cooking away, she mixed the packet of instant soup mix with some water and whisked it to ensure that all lumps were eliminated. When the chicken was cooked, she added the soup mix to the pot and mixed all the ingredients together thoroughly. Salt, soy sauce and black vinegar was added to the pot to season the mixture. When the mixture was done, Girl filled up casserole dishes with it. Puff pastry was used to cover the casserole dishes and excess pastry was trimmed away. Holes were poked in the pastry and the pies were baked for about 15-20 minutes at 180c-200c.

No Pajeon Purist...

2008-11-06T22:49:00.000-08:00

In addition to learning how to cook, Girl is also trying to learn Korean in order to facilitate her Korean Drama watching habits...

Sometimes when Girl goes to the Korean restaurant near her house, she is served a crispy pancake with bits of squid, shrimp and veges in it as a side dish. Yumminess! So Girl decides to try to make Korean pancake (Pa Jeon 파전) herself. She gets herself a bag of pancake mix from the Korean shop (Buchimgaru 부침가루) and follows the instructions on the back of the bag religiously...

Her pancakes turn out awful...

Girl is deeply disappointed at her Pa Jeon making failure...She re-reads the instructions and yes, her Korean is crap, but they are accompanied by pictures and those she understands. Girl is a little puzzled and gives up making Pa Jeon, thinking them beyond her abilities. Until one day...she stumbles across a blog which features a Korean making Pa Jeon with...*gasp* eggs! Eureka!!! The mystery is solved! Eggs, Girl's Pa Jeon lacks! (BTW, eggs do not feature in the pictures on the back of the Buchimgaru packet)

Now, Girl chops up spring onion and garlic shoots with renewed zest, slices fish cake and sausages gleefully, grates carrot and cabbage and tosses them together in a bowl with some salt. She tips in some flour, cracks two eggs into the bowl and puts some water into the mixture. She stirs for a few minutes to combine the ingredients and then fries spoonfuls of it in a screaming hot frying pan.

The result? Pa Jeon that satisfies Girl's cravings for something oily and fried and yet is at least 50% vegetables to still her conscience.

Girl is no Pa Jeon Purist...

Approaching baking with trepidation...

2008-11-06T22:13:00.000-08:00

Girl is a hopeless baker...

Surrounded by people who churn out biscuits, pies, cakes shaped like Louis Vuitton purses and Mille-feuille in their sleep, Girl feels at a distinct disadvantage. Girl decides to rectify the situation and level the playing field...a little (i.e. so much so that only an ant would feel it).

So, when she spies pre-mixed cake mix at the supermarket on sale, she buys two boxes...a plain butter cake mix and a chocolate one with an icing pack included in it. She decides to save the chocolate one and use the butter cake mix to make little cupcakes.

She mixes the contents of the box with two eggs, 50gms of butter and three-quarters of a cup of soy-milk (not having any milk). She spoons the mixture into cupcake paper cases and tops off her babies with frozen berries (defrosted in the microwave) and chopped chocolate.

Berries for a luxurious touch...

...enjoy the sight of them while you can...

Girl anxiously watches her little babies as they rise and brown and drown their berry toppings...

The chocolate topping fares better, being not quite so plump and weighty. Girl later finds the berries at the bottom of the cupcake, their tartness a perfect foil to the shocking sweetness of the cake, although aesthetically, they are a failure...

However, there is always a silver lining in every cloud...

Enough cupcakes to last me a month of bad-weather weekends or when all I want to do is stay indoors, watch mind-numbing TV and eat junk food.

All Puffed Up

2008-11-06T21:45:00.000-08:00

Girl will begin by demonstrating the ways she has used a packet of basic puff pastry from the supermarket. For someone on a budget, there are an endless variety of puffs, sweet and savoury, that can be made with a sheet of pastry, imagination and a few other cheap ingredients.

PUFF 1: Apple Puffs

Ingredients: A packet of puff pastry and a can of diced apple.

If Girl had really been in full on Health-Nazi mode, she would have peeled, cored and cut up into chunks some apples and stewed it in a saucepan. But Girl was in Schultz mode and so, canned diced apple it was.

Girl thawed out puff pastry (always the hardest part), cut the white sheet into squares, placed a portion of apple in the middle of the pastry square, folded the pastry over and secured edges by pressing it together with a fork. Puffs were baked at about 180c for about 15-20 minutes (Girl checked every so often by peering into the oven) and when the puffs were deemed brown and crisp enough, the oven was turned off.

The end result...beautiful puffed pillows of appley goodness...

PUFF 2: Tuna Puffs

Ingredients: A packet of puff pastry and a can of tuna (sweet thai chilli).

As before, Girl thawed pastry, cut it into squares, placed tuna in the middle of the pastry squares, squeezed edges together and baked them. This time, the bottoms came out a little iffy (because of the liquid from the tuna, Girl suspects...). The choice of sweet thai chilli tuna could have turned out so bad but instead, Girl had savoury, triangular puffs of spicy tuna for dinner. Very filling and cheap!

And yes, this time, Girl screwed up the baking time a little...check it out...

In the beginning...

2008-11-06T21:14:00.000-08:00

...there was me... A chick who couldn't cook...

A Girl who survived on takeaways and eating out at restaurants and who consequently paid (is paying...) the price by ending up with a distended waistline and a depleted bank account.

So, said Girl decided that she would learn to cook! According to a celebrity chef, cooking at home and serving healthy dinners to captive children in educational facilities would solve Britain's growing problem of obesity. Why not then Girl's own growing problem? After all, not being able to fit into half the contents of one's wardrobe could not, surely, be shrugged away as water retention!

Surely cooking could not be that bad, Girl reasoned. After all, said celebrity chef made it look so easy! So, mind made up, armed with utensils and hazy recollections of a sultry brunette churning out chicken pot pies with languid, voluptous grace, Girl decided to dive into the world of simmering stews and sautéed shrimp. This is her journey...