zucchini cupcakes by fluke

i brought out all the ingredients to make the zucchini cupcakes i learnt from uncle j the last time i visited. birdbrain me forgot the walnuts and mixed fruit (a variation from the original recipe) so i hurriedly took the tray out of the oven and stirred them in. man, they turned out looking good! by mistake!

and look what i experimented with the phool makhana! i fried them lightly with garlic salt and pepper. kick ass.

phool makhana

I had my first taste of phool makhana during my stint at Icon, when an ex-colleague brought a lunchboxful of this savoury snack to share. They are similar to popcorn in texture but slightly larger in size. She must have fried them in some pepper and spice because when I opened up the pack I had bought at Sydney Road some days ago, they tasted awful. I've just posted an entry in the LJ Cooking Community and hopefully someone can enlighten me!

I have tons to update especially on my wine tours. Will do them soon!

Pumpkin Soup

The only reason why I have been procrastinating about making pumpkin soup is the preparation. I am however, ready to admit that it is the lamest excuse because the result is so rewarding especially when you need something hearty for a cold winter afternoon.

I gobbled it up too quickly so there are no pictures but you can be sure that I will be making it some time son. I am heading to Frankston again and am going to pick up more pointers from Auntie Charlotte, who so kindly told me how to do it.

If you would like to try it out, have the following:

1/2 butternut/japanese pumpkin, mashed
1 medium sized sweet potato, mashed
1/2 cup yellow split peas, soaked
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp oil
3 cups chicken stock

*Note: Cooking the root vegetable in the microwave saves you a
lot of time, so does soaking the yellow split peas overnight.

1. Heat oil in a pot and fry chopped garlic till fragrant. Place mashed root vegetables into pot and fry for another five minutes.
2. Slowly pour in chicken stock and yellow split peas. Allow to boil for about ten minutes. Season with salt and pepper, and mix herbs if you like. I experimented with a little garlic salt and loved how fragrant the soup instantly became.
3. Serve with cracked pepper and toasted Lebanese bread.

Wine-ing

A trip to the Grampians, Great Western is not complete, if you haven't visited the wineries, namely Seppelt and Best's. Thought I should have this down for those who are intending to tour some wineries in Victoria, and for my own reference.

The Seppelt wine tour, which covers the famous "Drives" and cellar door, was indeed an eye-opener. Built 3km underground, the drives house Seppelt's collection of wines including their award winning Sparkling Shiraz - the next one slated to be ready by 2013. The conducive environment of the drives is further complemented by the carpet of black french mould on their walls. They are soft to the touch and slightly damp from absorbing the moisture in the air. I was careful not to bring back any on my clothes. The guide also introduced the different tools of trade that workers in the early days had used; cementing the fact that wine-making is a tedious process and remains so, even with the introduction of technology today. I got a little restless halfway through the tour because I couldn't take any photos with the bad lighting. Thankfully we were quickly brought up to the bar for some wine tasting, where we were offered the Seppelt Original Sparkling Shiraz 2005 and Seppelt Salinger 2003. I'm just growing to like my reds, particularly the Shiraz so I felt my taste buds were a little intimidated by the fizziness in the Sparkling Shiraz. I'd have my reds flat, please. As for the Salinger, which is made up of different grape varieties, it had a slightly high tannine level so the after taste was bitter in the mouth. Other than that, this white sparkling wine has a very welcoming bouquet; full of fruit and flowers, but still in my opinion, is just another bubbly you can get at a waterhole in the city.

Moving away from the more commercialised and overrated Seppelt, I headed to Best's - a small, humble establishment but definitely has a lot to be proud about. Unfortunately, I picked up the Chardonnay 2001 instead of the Riesling which I had tried at the Federation Square Wine Showcase and really, really liked. The Late Muscat 2006 was absolutely refreshing without being too overpowering. However, we were warned of its high alcohol level and to drink it sparingly.

I would have loved to visit The Gap, among other up and coming wineries in the region but of course with limited time, these two were and are the must-visits.

Reminiscing (the rest of) Semester One

Adapted from Jamie Oliver's basic muffin base recipe, which calls for sugar but i forgot to leave it out so the muffins turned out a tad sweet.



because boon forgot that it was a public holiday the day before; queen's birthday, he couldn't get to jaspers on time to buy some coffee back to singapore. so i recommended st ali, told him ill pass it to a mutual friend who's heading back too, and i think he's going to be so convinced that he needs to check out this little south melbourne secret soon!

I bought Espresso and Sihereni.




:)

Crock Pot Super Garlic Chicken Legs
From Recipezaar.com

6 chicken legs (more or less as needed)
20 garlic cloves (skins left on)
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/3 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons oil

1. Place garlic cloves in crock pot.
2. Mix spices together in med bowl.
3. Pour oil into separate med bowl.
4. Dip chicken legs in oil, then roll around in spice bowl, until chicken is nicely coated in
spices.
5. Place chicken legs in crock pot with garlic cloves surrounding it.
6. Pour chicken broth over all ingredients.
7. Cook on Low for 8 hours.

jemput jemput

jemput jemput is a local favourite back home and mum usually makes them with overripe bananas, which is what you really need for a good batch of these fritters. i googled for a recipe online, first beginning with "asian banana desserts", then to kuih kodok or kuih toad because they resemble toads! haha... and then finally got to jemput jemput which looked a tad more familiar than the former. but okay, they all mean the same oily thing ;p

what you will need:

three ripe bananas
dash of salt
1/2 tsp of baking soda
30g sugar
15g cornflour
30g self-raising flour


what you will need to do:
heat a wok of oil.
mash the bananas, mix everything together till well blended. it must be of a thick consistency otherwise they will just spread into a splatter in the oil. drop spoonfuls of mixture into wok and fry at medium heat, till golden brown.
serve warm!

Fair Trade Fortnight '07

Trade has become an integral part in everyone's lives and it is easy to see what it has done for many of us, especially in the early beginnings of our respective home countries.

Fair Trade Fortnight is a two-week event that is organised by the Fair Trade Association of Australia and New Zealand,where i am currently serving my internship under the Political Science major at university. We have a string of events that will take place during Fair Trade Fortnight and this includes a Speaker Tour by a coffee farmer from Costa Rica. There will also be an exclusive screening of the movie, Black Gold, which outlines the ways that coffee producers and farmers are struggling to make ends meet, and this is to the sheer advantage of industralised countries like the U.S. and Australia which makes tons of money from buying the beans cheap and selling them at rocket-high prices. FTAANZ has held this event diligently every year and I believe that organisations in other countries are doing the same as well. If you don't know about it already, check out the Fair Trade Fortnight website for more details and perhaps show a little support by organising your own event in the same two weeks!

Beef and Veg

Xoi Pap

hanoi wow-ed me in so many ways, be it the people, culture or cut-throat traffic. with every overseas trip that i make, i try to bring back something that i can remember it by. being stuck in the hotel for two consecutive weeks was no joke and whenever i was tasked to go out to buy something with a colleague, i would get all excited (life/fresh air!!!). we were given a day to rest before we were due back in singapore and took the opportunity to hit the streets for proper, local food. well, quan anh non was the safest best because everything was under one roof - marche style. plus i was inclined to believe that the food was uhm, cleaner than those on the streets. our vietnamese friend, minh anh joined us and helped us with our food orders. of course i had to give the banh cuon tom thit a try but you know, it's actually better here in melbourne. the coffee was tops though!
anyway, here's what i "brought" back and it's become my new favourite - Xoi Pap. it is a traditional vietnamese meal of short-grain rice, hominy, mung beans, sesame seeds and fried shallots. i tried it out at nick's place some weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to prepare. the only hitch was finding hominy which i think is no different from polenta.

Here is the recipe for those who would like to try it out. This was taken from Andrea Nguyen's cookbook which I shamelessly took to a corner in Borders to copy. Kris, thank you for helping me with it too !

Ingredients -
1.5 cups short-grain sticky rice (glutinuous rice)
1 can white hominy, drained
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp of sesame seeds
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup ground steamed mung beans, room temperature
1/3 cup crispy shallots

Method:
1. Put the rice in a bowl and add water to cover by 1 inch. let stand for at least two hours or even longer.

2. Put the rice into a colander and rinse under cold running water. Shake the colander to expel extra water and return rice to the bowl. Add hominy, breaking it up into individual kernels. Toss the rice and hominy with 1/4 tsp of salt.
3. Fill the steamer pan halfway with water and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. If you are concerned about clean up, line the tray with a piece of parchment paper, leaving a few holes uncovered for heat circulation. Pour rice and hominy into the tray, keeping mixture 1 inch away from the edge.
4. Place tray in steamer, covere and steam for 20 minutes. Stir rice with chopsticks during steaming. Ensure no water drips onto rice. After stirring, gather grains back into centre, leaving a one inch border.
5. While the rice and hominy steam, put sesame seeds, remaining salt and 1 tbsp sugar in a mortar and crush.
6. To serve, mix rice and hominy. Sprinkle mung beans and shallots over.

cha ka la vong

for the fish fanatic fantabulous fi fie foe fan, cha ka la vong in hanoi is a must-go. walk right through the doors like you haven't had fish for the longest time, sit yourself down and let the experts feed you. i don't have much visual evidence except for the above picture. but here's how it works:

- waiter comes with charcoal stove ( the one mum still uses to boil soup on), plonks battered metal pan on top. pan is sizzling with oil and fish chunks.

- waiter returns with what looks like an amazon forest in a bowl of dill and other greens, few saucers of peanut halves, thin rice noodles and bowls of fish sauce.

- waiter demonstrates how you should eat the dish; shake greens into hot pan, toss well with fish chunks. put own portion of thin rice noodles into own bowl. scoop too much of fish into bowl till it almost over flows, sprinkle peanuts, pour a little fish sauce, mix more thoroughly and slurp it all up.

- waiter comes at regular intervals to top up your forest bowl, pours your hanoi beer, returns to table behind you, crosses and shakes his leg and smokes his local ciggie.

project kuih rose - fail :(

over the years, ive developed this strange habit of ransacking the kitchen in the middle of the night. dee can vouch for that, so can the family. and worst still i often leave trails of evidence *shifty eyes* so you know, old habits die hard; i went to look for the kuih rose mould that i bought at phoon huat the other day when i tagged along with mum to buy some baking supplies. i was dead beat from the whole day, having attended ryan's first birthday party, running around with my nieces and nephews and then scooting off to melt cafe for uncle william's birthday dinner. nevertheless i was determined to try making kuih rose and got rene to accompany me to the supermarket to buy a carton of coconut milk. got back, whisked the ingredients together, mixture smelled loooovely!

made sure oil was extremely hot... dipped mould into wok of oil...



and then into mixing bowl and back into the wok. fry, fry, fry. fatty, fatty, fatty.



then taking it out is another story altogether, lah :(



damn sad! i have to do a little research on the right techniques.

anyway mum's delivered all the orders to floral recipes who have been so supportive of our little start-up. we are working on our next collaboration now and hopefully it'd be even bigger, even better!