confused...again.

Hi there,

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been quite busy. Short semesters and moving will do that to you.

Yes, my landlord decided to sell the place and now I'm stuck in someone else's house, having to share bathrooms and internet connection. Die. Okay, that last thing I can control. Being able to allocate bandwidth is a privilege I've earned as an IT student.  

Also, people are funny.

Not good. Not bad. Just funny (more on this in my next post).

It's also funny how truth are revealed in times of insanity.

Being on the fast track to graduation is not a walk in the park. It requires commitment and focus. And well, my second natures they are not. My enthusiasm comes in burst of temporary obsessions. Like holiday crackers, they burn bright and fast. 

And so far, this semester has been a blast. I had a few electives I needed to take as a condition for graduation and I've saved them all for now. Psychology, American Literature and English. This is what liberal arts feel like. I'm not gonna lie, they're probably useless for like, making money and shit, but damn they're fun. Reading novels and having deep, profound discussions about the human condition, like, that, is totally my jam bro.

However, it is making me question my choices in life. 

It's not good timing, I admit. I mean with 6 months to go? Never a good idea. It's just I can't help but wonder if software engineering is what I want to be doing with my life. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I suck at it. I don't suck at it.  

Am I challenged? stimulated? Yes. 

Am I fulfilled? content? well, that's a different story. 

Anyways, this is a food blog. Let's talk about food. 

Actually, I think this one speaks for itself.

500 gr of Australian Rib-Eye

Perfectly Medium Rare

Served w/ pasta pesto

Mushroom Sauce

I'm not going to lie, there's hardly a recipe here. The rib eye is unseasoned, although perfectly executed, if I do say so myself. See, I've been busy on google lately. You know, research on how to cook the perfect steak. It was a one-shot deal for me cos, come on, this shit ain't cheap so I gather as many information as I can before I even bought the meat. Here's what I got.

• To get that perfect medium rare-ness, you need a decent size steak. Ask the butcher to cut you a new slice, measure thickness with your fingers, that rib eye is 3-fingers thick.
• Make sure the steak is at room temperature and patted dry before it hits the grill.
• Grill the steak as is. No seasoning until after it's been cooked. The reason for this is salt draws out moisture. We want the juice to stay inside the steak.
• Get your pan/grill as hot as you possibly can (smoking). Pour a little olive oil to grease the pan.
• Cook the steak about 4 minutes each side, flipping it only once. More than that and you're done (no pun intended).
• After each side is done, cook the edges as well.
• Turn the heat to medium. Add a knob of butter and bask the steak for 30-45 seconds.
• Take the steak out. Cover with tin foil and let rest for AT LEAST 5 minutes.
• Put some mushrooms, shallots and cream in the pan along with the remaining juices to make the sauce.
• Season the steak and serve.

Have fun, carnivores.

how you like them apples..

I am currently on break.

Officially anyways.

Mentally, I'm still in that weird in-between phase where my mind is adjusting to a  much slower pace.

I can't wait until we fully transitioned.

This is my contribution to that process..



That is my apple cake. Did I tell you that apples are my favourite fruit to bake with? I haven't? Well, apples are my favourite fruit to bake with. Way ahead on berries or citruses.

Since I'm not feeling the least bit chatty today, lets get to it, shall we?



I got this recipe from David Lebovitz's site. My favourite part of this one is that it calls for different types of apples. As many as you can find and whatever you can find. I have there some cherry apples, local "manalagi" apples, granny smiths and the red USA crisp apples. Coincidentally, these are all quite sour apples, which I think balances the sweetness of the cake perfectly.

 

French Apple Cake

French Apple Cake
Adapted from davidlebovitz.com

• 110 gr flour
• pinch of salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 100 gr butter (room temperature)
• 150 gr sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  Rum

Firstly, peel and core the apples, then dice them into 1-inch pieces.

Secondly, preheat your oven to 180 Celcius.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs until foamy then add the sugar, vanilla and rum. The amount of rum is entirely dependent on your preference but if you want to leave it out completely, double or triple the amount of vanilla.

Throw in the flour mixture and mix well before adding the butter.

Now the batter is ready. Get some parchment paper and line your cake pan. Pop the apples into the batter and fold them until they're nice and covered. Spoon the cake mixture into the pan. Use the remaining batter to make sure the apples are covered and the cake is somewhat flat on top.

Bake for 55 minutes- 1 hour. Additionally, when the cake is done, turn on the broiler to brown the top of the cake for around 5 minutes.

Dust cake with some powder sugar and serve with custard.



Use this recipe to make the custard but instead of 1 2/3 cups of heavy cream, do 2 cups instead since a  runnier custard complements the apple cake perfectly.

Yield: 8 Serving

out to sea..

Happiness is a word not easily defined. There is no universal identifier, no single, agreed-upon meaning, something along the lines of subjectivity and open interpretations. Me, I'm quite convinced otherwise.

hap·pi·ness 

 [hap-ee-nis] 

–noun1. A day spent by the sea.2. Good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy.

They say I exaggerate.

My mum and I, decided to spend the day together last Tuesday. It's been a while, I'm not going to lie. The usual excuses; she's been difficult, I've been difficult, things've been difficult, et cetera, et cetera. The point is we did and man, was it glorious.

We got there quite late. Very late, in fact, the sun was all but gone when we arrived. It didn't matter, to be honest, the sun and sand has never been my favourite thing about the sea. I'm not being silly I swear. It's just that I prefer the wind and the water. Both were, as always, perfectly present that evening.

The next day, inspired by our trip, I decided to make fish soup. I also decided, since I didn't have any recipe for this particular dish, that I'm just going do this one by gut (pun intended).

Ok, that's not entirely true I just have to get that out. I watched an episode of Jamie Oliver's cooking show the other day. He was sitting in a small row boat trying to cook a soup not unlike this one. He used fresh fish which he had just "caught" right before taping and sea water. Yes, THAT sea water. Do you love it or do you love it?

Now I know some people doesn't share my love for mr. Oliver, but how could you not love a guy who makes the simplest dish worthy of rooftop shouting? Or has such passion for olive oil? Oh and did I mention, cooks with sea water?

Rockstar.

Anyways, I don't have a photographic memory, or a very good one at that, but this is soup we're talking about. The only thing you need for certain is your taste buds. Trust.

Mediterranean-style Fish Soup 

Tomato Fish Soup

inspired by Jamie Oliver

• 6 - 7 tomatoes
• 1 large onion, diced
• Whole fish, gutted and cleaned (You can use fillets but it won't taste as good, I promise. Alternatively, you can use only fish heads and make a fish head soup)
• Sea salt
• Olive Oil
• Lemon
• Black Pepper
• Dill & Parsley

Now, you're wondering why those ingredients list doesn't include exact measurements, that's because there is none. Just keep tasting the whole thing throughout and add the ingredients accordingly.

Firstly, remove the skin from the tomatoes, now there's a lot of ways to do this but I like to scar the tomatoes with a knife and roll them around in a pan of olive oil over medium heat. It's fast and flavours the oil in the process.

Diced the skinless tomatoes and throw them back onto the pan along with the onion. Make sure you use plenty of olive oil. Cook for a little while then put in the fish along with the herbs. Season well and mix.

To get maximum flavour, and to show off, I season with these. Call me a snob, but fleur de sel is definitely superior than your everyday kitchen salt, flavour-wise and health-wise. Plus they're completely affordable so there are literally no excuse not to convert to natural sea salt, people.

Kusamba Fleur de Sel

Where were we?

Ok, next just pour in some water and let the whole thing simmer for an hour or two. When it's done, taste and season some more. Spoon into a bowl and squeeze half a lemon over individual serving.

Soup simmering with parsley stalks.

what life? what life? what life?

When I was young, I used to think that your life begins in your twenties. I used to picture myself living in condo by the beach while people in roller skates whizzed by my front door only slowing down to admire my shiny mini cooper. Now you might think that these are the absurd delusions of a 12 year-old girl but I can honestly tell you that these thoughts lingered until at least the last year of high school. I blame Will Smith of course, as you do. Specifically that one song in which he says miami a lot.

Real life is much more mundane, yes? Two years into my twenties, I've yet to graduate from college, find a job that doesn't require me to drink 10 cups of coffee just to get through, or be in possession of a mini cooper. NO MINI COOPER. Where did I go wrong? Why do I have so little to lose? In the quest of having it all, I really have nothing at all. If I die tomorrow, the only thing I'd be remembered as is as my parent's smart ass daughter. Which is not a lot, since being that is practically a birthright. See ma, I know my impudence doesn't amount to anything.

I sound like I'm complaining again. Well, I'm not. In the likely scenario that I'd be alive tomorrow, life would actually be pretty good. It's getting there. Not that I know where there is, but it's like when you're going down a really long country road, let's say on a bike. It's hilly and quite bumpy, but as you go along the view gets nicer and nicer. So by inductive logic, however frowned upon by your team-deductive college professors, you can only assume that you're going somewhere awesome. And you don't even mind the bike, cos you know your ass will be nice and sculpted by the time you get there. This is how I choose to see it. 80 percent of the time. The other 20 percent I'm not going to mention, since it's quite dreary, but lets just say it involves a very large and constantly swirling black hole.

Anyways, poorly constructed analogy aside, why the sudden cognizance of things impending you ask, my dear imaginary friends? Well, I just turned 22 a couple weeks ago. It was a good one. We had mexican. I saw some people I haven't seen in a while, some longer than others, overall a nostalgic week. I've come to realized though, now that I'm older,not having expectations for birthdays, makes it extra nice when they turned out to be good.

my partners in crimes and me

And this one reminded me, maybe my life haven't quite turned out the way I expected but maybe that's not a bad thing? I mean, I used to love S Club 7 and mcDonalds ice cream. What the hell did I know?

a little relapse..

Okay. I'm afraid I've been a little reluctant about writing here today. See, I know the only recipe I have up my sleeve this week directly contradicts my last post (scroll down for a reminder). I know this. But I just can't help myself. It's like they say, once you go black you never go back. But like, replace black with desserts and you'll have a much more diplomatic, albeit less catchy, sentence.

Will you hear me out anyway?

You will?

Thanks.

So I set out looking for a great steak & kidney pie recipe just because I use to love them as a child and you know I have that thing for nostalgia and childhood longings, but as it happens, this recipe, like all things great and urgent, came through one of my rss feed. It was of the very humble and sorely underrated crumble. 

It came courtesy of one of my favourite british food writer, Mr. Nigel Slater. If you love heartfelt cooking and childhood memoirs, you will adore him as much as I do. Trust.

Strawberry Apple Crumble served w/ Cold Vanilla Custard

I decided to do this recipe in two parts. One for the crumble another for the custard. I know a custard recipe seems a bit redundant at this point, but this one sets just a touch firmer than your usual pudding.

Strawberry Apple Crumble

adapted from Tender Volume II by Nigel Slater

Obviously you're going to have to make the custard beforehand to have it ready when the crumble's done. So lets start with that.

Vanilla custard:

• 1 vanilla pod, scraped
• 1 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 3 egg yolks
• 4-5 Tbsp sugar, depending on how big of a sweet tooth you have of course.

Firstly, heat the cream in a pan, per usual do not let it boil or bubble in any way. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks along with the sugar and vanilla until all are well incorporated. This might take longer than you'd think. Pour the hot cream into the yolks in a slow steady stream, all while still whisking the yolks. When all the cream is well mixed into the yolks and sugar mixture, pour them back into the pan and heat once again.

Now this is where you need to be careful, use super low heat and just keep stirring until it starts to thicken. If you see the mixture starts to separate, it means you've left them on the heat for too long or the whole thing is too hot. If this happens, don't fret. Just pour the mixture in a food processor and blitz until they're silky smooth. Pour them in a bowl and let them cool before popping them in the fridge.

For the crumble top:

• 95 grams butter
• 150 grams all purpose 
• 45 grams sugar

For the fillings:

• 50 grams butter
• 75 grams sugar
• 3 Granny Smith apple peeled, chopped and seeded
• 200 grams fresh strawberries, chopped
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Put the butter in a hot pan until nice and melted before adding in the apples and the sugar. Stir and make sure the apples are all sitting in one layer. Turn the heat down to low and leave them to cook for a while. The juice from the apple should have the consistency of syrup and when your apple starts to color a little, you'd know its done.

Put the apples in a baking dish then place the strawberries right on top, nice and evenly. Sprinkle some sugar and squeeze your lemon over the whole thing.

To make the topping, put the butter and the flour in a medium bowl, and rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs (you could do this in a food processor, but be careful not to over blitz them).Distribute the topping evenly over the apples and strawberries. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until pale golden.

Yield: 1 9-inch pie plate

we have a winner..

I am happy to report that after consecutive weeks of disastrous Sundays we finally had a good one. The weather was nice, there were people, there were biscuits and crumbly deserts. All is right again. Of course it didn't hurt that my coursework was on track for once or that my boss has finally decided to cut me a break or the fact that my midterms score came out splendidly, oh and did I mention there were biscuits? and custard? and cakes?

Yes, cakes, in fact I was secretly hoping you'd notice the new addition by yourself, my dear imaginary friends, but in case you didn't, here it is. Not that you need any justification for adding cupcakey magic to anything but I've been baking them almost every week now that it'd just be a bit repetitive to post them on the main page every time.

Anyways, I've been thinking. This past few posts have all been about baked sweets of some kind and that was partly the reason I started this blog in the first place but you know there's only so much you can say about cakes right?.. wait what am I saying?? dear lord, such blasphemy. What I meant to say was I need to keep it fresh, for my sake, for your sake, for blood sugar's sake. So in that spirit, I present to you..

Bacon, Cheddar & Onion Biscuits

Okay, it's not a complete departure from my usual posts. Its baked, its brunch but baby steps people, baby steps.

Bacon Cheddar & Onion Biscuits

adapted from thepioneerwoman.com

• 2 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• ¾ teaspoons Salt
• ¼ cups Vegetable Shortening (crisco, Etc)
• 10 Tablespoons Milk (whole Milk Is Best)
• 4 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil
• 1 whole Egg
• 10 slices Thick Cut Bacon, Fried & Chopped into tiny little pieces
• 1 cup diced onion, sauteed.
• 1 cup Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Firstly, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt then using a pastry cutter, cut in shortening until all combined. If you don't have a pastry cutter, you can always use a fork. Just press the shortening bits into the flour repetitively until they're thoroughly combined.

Pour the milk, oil, and egg in a separate bowl and whisk it all together.  Combine flour mixture, milk mixture, bacon, onions, and cheddar cheese in a large bowl. Stir gently until all combined.

Spoon batter into greased muffin tins. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes on 190 C ( 375 Fahrenheit) until golden brown. Remove from pan and serve warm.

Yield: 12 biscuits.

to be or not to be..

Kids, stay in school. I mean it. Stay in school; as long as you possibly can. Because, trust me on this, when you get out you will be expected to get and keep a job which is hardly as glamourous as you might imagine and when I say you I mean me. Ok, I didn't mean to sound like Bob Saget prologue-ing an episode of How I Met Your Mother, but this whole having-a-job thing is really stressing me out. Specifically the part where I'm supposed to do university all at the same time. See, I have this new job. It involves a lot of web design and programming which I love so it's an awesome position. The pay is good. My boss is great. But, and that's a big but, the honeymoon phase has hardly began and already I'm faced with a dilemma. Midterms are coming up next week and I've just been informed that I will be working on a site which has to be up by the end of that same week. Whut?

Sigh. So that's that. I have no idea what I'm gonna do. Do you think sleep is a necessity or more like an optional kinda thing?

On a happier note, I've started getting orders for my cupcakes & cookies this past 2 weeks. So stoked about that. Maybe that's what I should do. Give up on this whole computer nerd thing and open myself a pretty little bakery or cupcakery. Is that a thing, cupcakery? it should be a thing.