Captain Hastings: Is there anything in the English cuisine that you like, Poirot?
Hercule Poirot: The English, they do not have a cuisine, my friend, they have only food.
Captain Hastings: That's harsh.
Hercule Poirot: Like the meat - overcooked, the vegetables, too soft, the cheese, inedible. When the day the English create their own wines it is the day I return home to Belgium!
"Agatha Christie: Poirot" Yellow Iris (1993)
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Pumpkin part deux
Because a $15 pumpkin goes a long long way...I had to figure out a way to finish the other half (since the first half made enough soup for the party plus 2 meals after that for me and my folks) so I decided to make pumpkin cake as I had seen an article in the papers recently about using vegetables to make cake (have you heard of chocolate zucchini cake?!)
Before you make pumpkin cake (or in my case, I poured the mixture into soufflé cases and called them muffins!), you need to prepare the fresh pumpkin purée. All you need to do is to cut up the pumpkin into 4 or 5-inch pieces and slowly roast them in the oven (about 2 hours). Simple as that - the low heat will cause them to caramelise and taste really nice.
To make pumpkin muffins:
Sieve -
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons groundnutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
In a large mixing bowl, whisk -
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
Then whisk in -
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups fresh pumpkin purée
Add the dry mixture into the wet one and whisk until smooth. Pour into the cups and bake in a pre-heated (22o degrees Celsius) oven for 15-20 mins.
I brought these to work and people who don't usually eat pumpkin really liked it so it's a good way to get people to eat their veg!
And the sad news was I ran out of sugar to make a second round so I still had to figure out ways of finishing up the (now) roasted pumpkin. Which meant I ate pumpkin mash (just add butter and salt and pop in the microwave for 2 mins) the next day.
I think I'm staying off pumpkin for a while...
Reading Proust
makes you very pensive and conscious of your sensory memories.
watching Herbie Hancock perform live at Abbey Road with Corinne Bailey Rae triggered memories of sitting in a dark pub/bar, sipping rum and coke on the rocks and listening to jazz... the smells, the taste of rum and coke, the tinkering off keys, the full-bodied, smooth tone of the sax, the nifty brushwork on the drums, the lights refracting off the sax and the body of the bass guitar....
which in turn reminded me of a cold, brisk night in Coventry as we travel to Canal Basin and us standing in the car park unloading and loading equipment again at the end of the night... us in our black puffy-ish jackets and me with my pink scarf to keep me warm...
reading Proust also gives you the urge to buy madeleines whenever you see them just so that you can perhaps also partake of that magical moment when the the brain's memory meets that of the senses and both are reunited and even reinforced...
oh to have a madeleine softened with tea...
watching Herbie Hancock perform live at Abbey Road with Corinne Bailey Rae triggered memories of sitting in a dark pub/bar, sipping rum and coke on the rocks and listening to jazz... the smells, the taste of rum and coke, the tinkering off keys, the full-bodied, smooth tone of the sax, the nifty brushwork on the drums, the lights refracting off the sax and the body of the bass guitar....
which in turn reminded me of a cold, brisk night in Coventry as we travel to Canal Basin and us standing in the car park unloading and loading equipment again at the end of the night... us in our black puffy-ish jackets and me with my pink scarf to keep me warm...
*******
reading Proust also gives you the urge to buy madeleines whenever you see them just so that you can perhaps also partake of that magical moment when the the brain's memory meets that of the senses and both are reunited and even reinforced...
oh to have a madeleine softened with tea...
Soup, Salad and Sandwiches
a bit of a belated post
so I decided in a whim to throw a party to celebrate the fact that my favourite pescetarian* is back in town for the month (although, there hardly was a need for a reason to throw a party - I felt I really needed something to look forward to and a party was the perfect answer!).
This time, I thought a luncheon might be quite a lot of fun since most people have plans for the evening rather than in the day (yes yes, all these friends of mine that are attached...) and the theme of 'soup, salad and sandwiches' was perfect as most things could be prepared in advance (hence more time to entertain people when they arrive) and all the food, except the soups, could be served warm or cold.
I served 3 soups - pumpkin and leek, mushroom and onion. Of course, all the food served was completely pescetarian-friendly so I could not cheat with chicken stock and had to make vegetable stock by boiling soy beans with ikan billis.
For the salad portion there was stir-fried fresh corn with chilli and parsley (and loads of butter),
a delightfully summery mango salsa,
char grilled capsicum (conveniently nicknamed 'traffic light')
celery and carrot sticks (you can catch a glimpse of it in the top left corner) with hummus and a simple cucumber, cherry tomato and olive Mediterranean-inspired salad.
And fulfilling the sandwich component was tuna in olive oil (dolphin-friendly, I should emphasize), 
soft-boiled eggs with homemade mayonnaise,
teriyaki salmon and a cheese platter with Cornish chutney (sadly not pictured due to eagerness!). To go with all the food I served three types of bread (baguette, country-style walnut loaf and thin-cut white) for some variety.
Needless to say we were stuffed and what better way to burn all the calories than to engage in some friendly competition...
ahh... good times... and the irony of the day? the pescetarian could not make the party at the last minute!
*a vegetarian who will eat fish
Recipes
To make homemade mayonnaise, you need:
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of salt
pepper to taste
Whisk the above ingredients then slowly add 1 cup of olive oil while whisking. The mixture will emulsify and become a lovely yellow mayonnaise.
For a hearty pumpkin and leek soup, simply finely chop up some leek and fry over low heat in a heavy-bottomed pan with some olive oil. Let the leek soften (do not brown) before adding in chunks of pumpkin (the rule of thumb is smaller is better). Add enough stock to cover the pumpkin and cook over a low fire with the lid half-covered. The pumpkin will release water and once the vegetables are soft, you can remove the lid to allow the soup to cook down. When the water level is down to the desired level (it depends on how thick you like your soup), remove from heat and blend to desired creaminess. The soup is now ready to be served!
For a delightful mushroom soup, melt 40g of butter in a large pot. Add 1 medium shallot, chopped, and cook till soft. Add the roughly chopped mushrooms (I used about 2 punnets-worth of white and brown in total) and slowly cook it till soft and browned. Add 600ml of stock, 1 diced potato and a sprig of chopped parsley, then add 60ml of white wine once the stock starts to boil. Let the soup cook down. Remove about 1/4 of the soup and puree the rest. This is so that when you return the separated soup, the end result has nice chunks of mushroom. Boil down to desired thickness before serving.
(If you do not have to cook a pescetarian-friendly version, fry some chopped bacon with the shallot at the beginning of the recipe as it will add a lovely smoky flavour and body to the soup)
The onion soup needs some tweaking so I'll post the recipe when I have figured out how to improve it. :)
so I decided in a whim to throw a party to celebrate the fact that my favourite pescetarian* is back in town for the month (although, there hardly was a need for a reason to throw a party - I felt I really needed something to look forward to and a party was the perfect answer!).
This time, I thought a luncheon might be quite a lot of fun since most people have plans for the evening rather than in the day (yes yes, all these friends of mine that are attached...) and the theme of 'soup, salad and sandwiches' was perfect as most things could be prepared in advance (hence more time to entertain people when they arrive) and all the food, except the soups, could be served warm or cold.
I served 3 soups - pumpkin and leek, mushroom and onion. Of course, all the food served was completely pescetarian-friendly so I could not cheat with chicken stock and had to make vegetable stock by boiling soy beans with ikan billis.For the salad portion there was stir-fried fresh corn with chilli and parsley (and loads of butter),
a delightfully summery mango salsa,
char grilled capsicum (conveniently nicknamed 'traffic light')
celery and carrot sticks (you can catch a glimpse of it in the top left corner) with hummus and a simple cucumber, cherry tomato and olive Mediterranean-inspired salad.
And fulfilling the sandwich component was tuna in olive oil (dolphin-friendly, I should emphasize), 
soft-boiled eggs with homemade mayonnaise,
teriyaki salmon and a cheese platter with Cornish chutney (sadly not pictured due to eagerness!). To go with all the food I served three types of bread (baguette, country-style walnut loaf and thin-cut white) for some variety.Needless to say we were stuffed and what better way to burn all the calories than to engage in some friendly competition...
ahh... good times... and the irony of the day? the pescetarian could not make the party at the last minute!
*a vegetarian who will eat fish
Recipes
To make homemade mayonnaise, you need:
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon of salt
pepper to taste
Whisk the above ingredients then slowly add 1 cup of olive oil while whisking. The mixture will emulsify and become a lovely yellow mayonnaise.
For a hearty pumpkin and leek soup, simply finely chop up some leek and fry over low heat in a heavy-bottomed pan with some olive oil. Let the leek soften (do not brown) before adding in chunks of pumpkin (the rule of thumb is smaller is better). Add enough stock to cover the pumpkin and cook over a low fire with the lid half-covered. The pumpkin will release water and once the vegetables are soft, you can remove the lid to allow the soup to cook down. When the water level is down to the desired level (it depends on how thick you like your soup), remove from heat and blend to desired creaminess. The soup is now ready to be served!
For a delightful mushroom soup, melt 40g of butter in a large pot. Add 1 medium shallot, chopped, and cook till soft. Add the roughly chopped mushrooms (I used about 2 punnets-worth of white and brown in total) and slowly cook it till soft and browned. Add 600ml of stock, 1 diced potato and a sprig of chopped parsley, then add 60ml of white wine once the stock starts to boil. Let the soup cook down. Remove about 1/4 of the soup and puree the rest. This is so that when you return the separated soup, the end result has nice chunks of mushroom. Boil down to desired thickness before serving.
(If you do not have to cook a pescetarian-friendly version, fry some chopped bacon with the shallot at the beginning of the recipe as it will add a lovely smoky flavour and body to the soup)
The onion soup needs some tweaking so I'll post the recipe when I have figured out how to improve it. :)
Friday, August 01, 2008
a catch-22 dilemma
in a bid to save the environment, one is encouraged not to use too many plastic bags. but are we kidding ourselves into thinking we are saving the environment by declining to take a plastic bag when purchasing books or magazines? doesn't reading books and magazines increase demand for such items and hence more paper is used to print them?
on the other hand, if we decide to save paper and make everyone read their material online, won't we contribute to an increase in electricity use (and by extension, a whole load of other forms of environmental destruction)?
perhaps the world would benefit from people being less intellectual. oh woe!
on the other hand, if we decide to save paper and make everyone read their material online, won't we contribute to an increase in electricity use (and by extension, a whole load of other forms of environmental destruction)?
perhaps the world would benefit from people being less intellectual. oh woe!
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