Thou Shalt Love Pie

I am not a fantastic cook. I would say I am a decent one but I lack the intuition, guts and creativity that my husband has. That is the reason why he looks way more convincing with the chef’s hat on while I look sexier brandishing…an egg whisk.

But there are a few dishes that M would trust me to cook. One of these is the beef pie, which is a full-bodied, savoury beef stew topped with a flaky, buttery puff pastry beret in our household.

Don’t get me wrong. M breathes life into beef stews! But he now snubs frozen ready-to-roll puff pastry for the one I make ever since I fed him with homemade no-fry chicken curry puffs and beautifully flaky Portuguese egg tarts. So naturally, the task of making beef pies has fallen into my hands.

There was much to be excited about as I hadn’t made puff pastry in a looooong time (my last attempt was made in London); I was hoping to nail it in the tropical heat but of course, I had to cheat with air-conditioning. I was also particularly keen on breaking in some of our very cute Le Creuset mini cocottes. I mean, puff pastry berets on colourful mini cocottes?! Wouldn’t YOU hyperventilate at the thought of that, too?

I spent all day in the kitchen to make these pies. It was back-breaking work but I was delighted to see my husband happily tuck into the pies. You see, he always does it with dramatic flair, by hitting the puff pastry beret ever so gently with a spoon to reveals most satisfying ‘crack!’ that hints at its flakiness, before letting a wide grin of approval spread across his face and digging deep into the pot for liquid gold. It is strangely satisfying to watch. Now, your turn.

Beef stew

Makes one 8-inch and two 4-inch (diameter) pots of stew

1kg stewing beef tenderised and cut into 2cm by 2cm by 2cm cubes
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
3 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1.5cm by 1.5cm by 1.5cm cubes
7 sticks celery stalks, leaves removed and cut into 1.5cm by 1.5cm by 1.5cm cubes
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1.5cm by 1.5cm by 1.5cm cubes
450g portobello mushrooms, sliced thickly
Few sprigs of rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped
Salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
600ml beef stock
2 heaped tablespoons plain flour
5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Hot water on standby to add to stew

1. Preheat oven to 170 Celsius.

2. Add olive oil to Dutch oven over medium high heat and sear beef cubes. Once golden brown, remove beef from Dutch oven and set aside.

3. Lower to medium heat and add onions and garlic to Dutch oven. Fry for 10min until onions are soft and very lightly browned.

4. Add carrots, celery, potatoes and cook for 5min. Add mushrooms and rosemary, give it a quick stir and then add the beef. Pour in the hot beef stock and add balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste and stir in plain flour to thicken gravy.

5. Place Dutch oven into preheated oven, with lid on and leave the stew in there for 1.5 hours. Give it a stir every half hour and top up with some hot water if gravy dries up too much. Always add the water such that the liquid barely covers the ingredients in the stew. Cook for a further 1.5 hours or until beef is tender and bring Dutch oven out onto the stove to further simmer (with lid off) if you would like a thicker gravy. For pies, I would suggest a very thick gravy so that the pies don’t turn out too wet.

6. Spoon out some stew into ovenproof pots or baking dish, and cover the top with the uncooked puff pastry. Make sure that puff pastry isn’t directly in contact with the stew as the pastry will be wet and soggy. Bake at 210 Celsius for 20-25 minutes till pastry is puffed up and golden. Serve with salad or your favourite sides.

Puff pastry

Makes one 8-inch and two 4-inch (diameter) pie berets

250g unsalted butter, very cold, sliced to 2cm by 2cm by 2cm cubes
250g strong white bread flour, sifted, plus extra for dusting
Pinch of salt
125ml ice-cold water
1 egg, beaten for egg wash

1. Freeze butter cubes for half an hour.

2. Pulse butter, flour and salt in food processor for one second. Mix things up in the processor and pulse again. Do this for a few times till mixture is combined and resembles rough cornmeal.

3. Add water and pulse briefly till water is just incorporated. This will not form a ball of dough just yet and will still resemble rough cornmeal.

4. Turn out mixture onto lightly floured work surface, bring mixture together with lightly-floured hands to form a cylinder.

5. Roll cylinder out to form a rectangle with the shorter end facing you. It should look like a letter to you. Fold the dough as you would a business letter (into thirds). Rotate 90 degrees anti-clockwise such that the shorter end is facing you again and flip the dough such that the folded seams are facing downwards. Roll dough out again to a rectangle. Freeze between layers of baking parchment for 15-30min. Repeat such that you roll and fold for a total of four times each. Only very lightly dust work surface and rolling pin when the dough is sticky, although I would avoid this as much as possible.

6. The final rolled-out dough should be fairly elastic, smooth and about 4mm thick. Cut out desired shapes, apply a light layer of egg wash with a pastry brush, place pastry on top of cocottes/baking dish that are already filled with cooked stew and bake at 210 degree Celsius for 20-25 minutes till pastry berets are puffed up and golden brown.

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Almond, Cranberry & Flax Seed Granola Clusters

The beauty of making homemade granola is you can mix things up quite a bit without following a recipe to a T. I made this batch after polishing off the previous, with ingredients that are stocked in my pantry. I didn’t have enough honey and there wasn’t any maple syrup or apples at home, so I added more dark brown sugar. It may not be as healthy, but it’s a simple enough substitute to stave off that granola craving. Chuck out almonds if you hate them, and add your favourite nuts. Make it less sweet. Turn the sweetness up a notch. Switch out cranberries for raisins, dates or even figs. Add a little more salt for that savoury hit. Mix in a superfood such as flax seeds, like what I did. The possibilities are endless!

As we speak, this batch is fast disappearing from the granola pot, and my husband is already asking me to make more bars for work as he doesn’t have time to go for or even heat up packed meals during his crazy calls. I can’t think of a more delicious and versatile source of quick energy boost.

Hang on to your granola clusters, everyone, these will have people reaching into your stash more often than you wish for!

Check out what I have been baking in my own kitchen.

Almond, Cranberry & Flax Seed Granola Clusters

500g rolled oats
200g golden flax seeds
100g sesame seeds
250g whole unsalted almonds
2 tsp salt
300g dark brown sugar
50g honey
5 tbsp olive oil plus extra for greasing pan
250g dried cranberries

1. Preheat fan-assisted oven to 150 degrees Celsius.

2. Combine oats, flax seeds, sesame seeds, almonds and salt in a large bowl.

3. Warm brown sugar, honey, oil and purée, stirring constantly to combine over medium heat in a non-stick saucepan and slowly drizzle over dry mix whilst stirring the mix constantly to make sure all of the granola is coated.

4. Line jelly roll pan with baking parchment and generously grease the parchment with more olive oil. Be sure to grease things up properly because you wouldn’t want the granola to stick to the parchment. Add granola mix to the pan, spreading to form a layer.

5. Bake for 45 min, stirring every 10 min. Add cranberries at the 40-minute mark.

6. Once baked, let granola cool completely. Break into clusters or cut into bars before storing granola in a clean, airtight container for a month.

Lychee + Thoughts

I have been thinking a lot lately…about what I want to do.

I love to bake. I am that delirious, mad scientist who is in a very happy place whenever I step into the kitchen. I love stroking my cranberry KitchenAid when nobody is looking, devouring cookbooks, tweaking and making up my own recipes, making bakes look pretty, and I get such a rush from getting the thumbs up from family and friends.

Over the past months, my husband and father have been trying to talk me into selling my bakes. I did accept orders for my lychee chiffon cake not too long ago and I received pretty good feedback. But…I still lack confidence. An awful lot of it. I am terrified of putting myself, or rather, my bakes out there. The defeatist in me doesn’t think that I will ever be good enough to feed the masses, especially with so many stunning homemade treats that are available these days…I don’t think anything positive will come out of this.

But that courageous part of me wants to try. I am not sure if I have what it takes to make it work, or whether that faintest desire would blossom into something more tangible, but there is a tiny voice whispering to me, urging me to take a risk. That voice is so alluring, so persuasive, that I just might.

Just maybe.

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It’s Not So Bad If It’s Granola

I rarely have time to eat proper meals. Every morning, I wake up to a new day of same-old-non-stop action that comes with being Mama to Faith. Nurse, bathe, prepare and feed her breakfast, play, put her down for first nap, story time, give her a snack, play, nurse, second nap, prepare and feed her lunch, more play, nurse, third nap, play, give her another snack, play, prepare and feed her dinner, wipe her down, nurse and finally put her to bed. And then, there are the night feeds. I am bushed, even from reciting our daily routine but the point is there isn’t any time for a good meal until Faith is off to bed. Notice I don’t even need to worry about doing household chores and cooking my own meals…!

I have taken to shoving down food as quickly as I can and this isn’t exactly how I would like to chill. I end up feeling wound up from all that action, and munch on one too many chocolates to take the edge off. Besides, it’s an unbelievably efficient way to fill myself up. Just hold the baby in one arm and nom on chocolate with the other hand. This clearly isn’t healthy, and I would like to wean myself off the sugar, even if I don’t get enough time for a meal that lasts longer than three minutes!

What better way to do this, than to make myself a truckload of granola? Fortified with golden flax seeds, this granola is a superb source of vitamins, minerals, Omega-3 fatty acids and fiber. I have also very lightly sweetened it with honey, brown sugar and apple purée, and added some whole almonds and sesame seeds for that nutty kick, as well as dried cranberries for a tart lift in all that sweet-saltiness. I picked clusters right off the baking sheets, sprinkled them on yogurt with a healthy serving of berries, and even added tiny shards of dark chocolate whenever I craved for cocoa. Homemade granola is so very addictive and much healthier than the sugar-y treats I was constantly snacking on. I feel ‘cleaner’ already! Granola is also a quick and easy bite, perfect for busy folks who haven’t got the time to eat!

Now, my husband and I have hoovered the last of this batch. I am looking to tweak my recipe below to bake up granola bars next, which are perfect for when you don’t have any cutlery or serveware! Can’t wait!

Check out what I have been baking in my own kitchen.

Homemade Granola

450g rolled oats (I bought the wrong type so what you see in the pictures aren’t rolled oats, but either type will work! I just prefer the texture of rolled oats, that’s all.)
200g golden flax seeds
100g sesame seeds
250g whole unsalted almonds
2 tsp salt
120g dark brown sugar
200g honey
2 tbsp sunflower oil
100g apple purée (just blitz apples in a food processor)
250g dried cranberries

1. Preheat fan-assisted oven to 150 degrees Celsius.

2. Combine oats, flax seeds, sesame seeds, almonds and salt in a large bowl.

3. Warm brown sugar, honey, oil and purée, stirring constantly to combine over medium heat in a non-stick saucepan and slowly drizzle over dry mix whilst stirring the mix constantly to make sure all of the granola is coated.

4. Line jelly roll pan with baking parchment and lightly grease the parchment with oil. Add granola to the pan, spreading to form a layer.

5. Bake for 45 min, stirring every 10 min. Add cranberries at the 40-minute mark.

6. Once baked, let granola cool completely and store in a clean, airtight container for a month. The granola probably wouldn’t last that long.

What The Man Wants, The Man Gets

‘Red Velvet, please. And I want it tall.’

My husband, M, certainly wasn’t standing on ceremony when I asked him what cake he would like for his birthday.

Well, I love him very much, so much so that I attempted to bake my very first four-layer cake which weighed at least five kilograms when it was finally dressed in a decadent, slightly tart cream cheese frosting.

It took two days of back-breaking work to create this, the most professionally-finished cake that I’ve ever made, even if it didn’t look like it hit the gold standards of established bakeries out there. What mattered most was M loved it. He declared it my best act, and that was well-worth the effort.

Happy Birthday, love!

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{The Pleasure Monger x Linsiwolsie} Cherry & Almond Granola Bars

 

Keen on preparing tasty and nutritious food for toddlers to munch on during long and short travels, my friend, Pooja of Linsiwolsie - mother to a beautiful girl and seasoned traveller – invites me over to her home to join in the fun. I am reminded of how wonderful it is to return to the kitchen after a long hiatus, and to be back styling and shooting to my heart’s content. I can’t wait to share these treats with my daughter, as she moves on to the wonderful world of chow!

Come on over and have a look at the second in this series of toddler-friendly recipes – one of my favourite power snacks to nibble on, cherry & almond granola bars.

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Read on for my new journey as a mother and check out what I’ve been cooking and baking in my kitchen.

A Sweet Farewell to London…and Some News

I’ve procrastinated long enough on this teeny announcement. Or two teeny announcements, if you will. Some of you, whom I know personally, are already in the loop but I thought eight months is a long time to go on the blog without actually talking about it even in the most cryptic manner, so it is time to spill the beans. I had wanted to protect my privacy and keep the news all to my selfish self. The last I heard though, some naysayers have already caught wind of this anyway and I’ve been told by my loved ones that I should share the news because readers (who are still sticking around…I’m very happy to know you are, given that I barely wrote anything in the first three-quarter of 2012) would want to know, so here goes…

…I’ve moved back from London to Singapore for good, since eight months ago…and…I’m pregnant!

After five long years in London, I’m finally back home. Suffice to say that everything and yet nothing has changed since 2007. Suffice to say that I’ve done a whole lot of growing up in the UK, seen countless beautiful sceneries whilst travelling, made the most wonderful friends in the five years, tasted a decent portion of good food, started a blog that I thought no one would want to read, cooked/baked/photographed/styled my way from complete noob to amateur-amateur, interacted with the most amazing chefs, built a home from scratch (literally) and learnt a hell lot on ‘How to Live Life to the Fullest, Responsibly So 101′. I also found time to fall deeper in love with my best friend, get married, graduate with a doctorate and have a baby.

London is a big part of my life.

When it came down to the last second, to leave my home of five bittersweet years, I was devastated. The exit from London was pretty hasty. I quit my job, found out I was expecting (and hence decided that I should return to Singapore prematurely to prepare for delivery, I was supposed to leave London only in the summer of 2012), moved to Boston for six weeks as M was posted to Harvard, flew back to London for a night, switched my bags out for summer clothing and everything that I might need back home before speeding back to Singapore the next day. I didn’t really have time to say goodbye. To-date, I still keep the bucket list I had drafted for London and I hope that I will be able to return to the city one day to check the items off the list. I couldn’t even attend the Olympics events that I had bought tickets for.

The next months went by in a blur. There was so much to do with my relocation. I had to get my accounts, documents and life in order. I missed M terribly when he returned to London to finish up his studies. I went through pregnancy alone, save for support from my family and in-laws. None of the relocation bit, physical or emotional, was easy. The days started looking brighter when M came back, triumphant as a fully-qualified doctor after five gruelling years in med school. He packed up our flat in London as hastily as I had left UK, attended his graduation ceremony with his parents but without a very pregnant me, flew back to my arms in Singapore, sorted out whatever I couldn’t handle and supported me through the last trimester.

We had a heart-to-heart talk yesterday night before we fell asleep at 3.30am. It’s been a while since we chatted this much, for four hours in fact. And we both realised how different life is in Singapore. London was a dream. We lived life to the fullest, laughed and cried the hardest, seen the best and went through the worst. It was a city where we grew up the most as individuals and as a couple. It was our first real home together. Coming back to Singapore makes for an almost surreal dive back into reality, where we are suddenly challenged with obligations and responsibilities to others other than two of us, issues to do with fitting into the local culture and soon-to-be parenthood. Even though Singapore is our home, we haven’t got the slightest inkling as to what lies ahead and we will need to do to rise up to the challenges. One thing’s for sure; we are back now and we will make our lives here work. We will carve out new memories, strive towards new goals and conjure new dreams.

To celebrate the chapter that was London, and welcome the new that is Singapore, I prepared my very first dessert table before I left UK. I was challenged in every way, as I have been during my life in London. Different pastries and desserts to make on limited resources, thinking about what really mattered to me that would fit in with the theme, and putting it all together so it makes sense and gives heart. So there you have it, a blue-white-red presentation of a Victoria sponge, Marmite cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and macarons with rose buttercream, a true culmination of something that is quintessentially English, a little bit of what I have learnt to love and another that is a little cosmopolitan owing to the time I spent in Europe. I’ve also scattered the cards, letters, notes and gifts from family and friends around the entire dessert table just for…the two of us to enjoy. Shame I couldn’t offer the sweets to anyone else. Oh well, maybe next time.

Happy homecoming to us, and may we meet again, my fair London.

*Updated: This post is featured on Tastespotting. Check out my profile on  Tastespotting to see my other featured posts!

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A Call For Celebration: The {Red Velvet Cake} Edition

Boy meets girl. They kinda like each other. They like each other enough to want to get hitched. Wedding bells rang. Then there was one of us. And another. And another. Decades later, they welcomed a grandchild. 39 years on, the boy and girl still love each other very much. I don’t know what their secret is to a long, successful marriage, but I know we have lots to learn from them.

Said boy and girl are my dearest Dad and Mum. For decades, they have stood by each other and raised the three of us, my brother, sister and me. They taught us to respect people, love others, work hard towards our goals, do the best we can regardless of the outcome and be gracious towards those who are unkind to us.

In a society flecked by fleeting relationships and featherlight commitment to people, it is hard not to be astounded by a couple’s 39 years of love, sheer hard work and understanding (not to mention doing this with three impish children in tow). How can we not celebrate?

I couldn’t think of a better way to do so than with a Red Velvet Cake. It is something that my parents have not heard of, and I thought it would be lovely to surprise them with something novel, just as how they have taught me new things every day of my life. It doesn’t help that a Red Velvet Cake is a stunning cake to look at and an equally delicious one to have when done properly. I tried my best to do the cake justice and I’m glad that this version brought a sense of wonder and satisfaction to my parents with its perfectly moist crumb and tangy, fluffy frosting.

Happy Anniversary, Mum & Dad! You are our role models and we can only aspire to be half as awesome as both of you are.

P/S: Pardon the mismatched styling – all my props are still in transit…..

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*Updated: This post is featured on Tastespotting. Check out my profile on  Tastespotting to see my other featured posts!

Decorating at Bea’s of Bloomsbury

You know that I have a rather hefty backlog when I write about something that happened…(more than) a year ago. I’m truly embarrassed but erm, better late than never right? Right.

I have been rather busy, just not in the kitchen, unfortunately; for the record, I’ve only baked thrice this year, all for M’s birthday. Lately, a spin round the bakeries had me thinking about cakes again. Baking remains very much a passion of mine, and I do hope to do it on a more regular basis when I have the time and resources. Nailing recipes for the right taste and texture aside, I do love to try and churn out pretty treats, something that I don’t achieve very often with my meagre talent for craft. As such, I have always yearned to attend a decorating course to help me along but these are often costly ventures that add up and being a miserly self-taught baker, I dropped the idea very quickly.

I was thus absolutely delighted when E invited me for a cupcake decorating class at Bea’s of Bloomsbury. She had won four passes and thanks to her, I got to attend my very first decorating class! I made my way to the bakery at Holborn on a weekday, eagerly anticipating the lesson to come. We were going to learn all about buttercreams, ganaches, and decorating techniques; all these fitted perfectly into my agenda. I was also excited to get to see and work in a professional kitchen.

We took down recipes on how to create the perfect frosting, made our own piping bags, practised writing with ganache, and of course, worked on perfecting rosettes and what-not on the cupcakes. I haven’t got the piping perfect, but oh well, I had loads of fun decorating my cupcakes! We even got to take two dozen of these babies home (vanilla and chocolate ones, smothered in an assortment of dark chocolate ganache, praline Italian buttercream and raspberry Italian buttercream). I particularly enjoyed the chocolate cupcakes, which were moist, very dark and chocolatey, yet fluffy. The frostings were wonderfully light and not the least bit cloying – my colleagues were a big fan of the raspberry buttercream, while I loved the praline.

Now, all this talk about baking and decorating is making my stomach groan. Excuse me while I go rummage in my kitchen for some emergency sweet treats, before somebody gets hurt.

*Updated: This post is featured on Tastespotting. Check out my profile on  Tastespotting to see my other featured posts!

Check out what I have been baking in my own kitchen.

Also check out my other food adventures.

Christmas Is Here: Dark Chocolate & Coconut Cookies

Christmas is just around the corner. Are you busy wrapping up your work to prepare for a week’s worth of feasting and gifting? Well, for me, I have finished work for the year and aside from packing, tying up loose ends, spring cleaning and cooking for dinner parties, I’m mostly relaxing in the apartment, idling when I can and savouring some me-time and time with my husband.

For five years now, Christmas has mostly been rather quiet for us. If we’re not back in Singapore to celebrate the season with our families, we spend the holidays all wrapped up in the freezing cold, with each other in our cosy home. The shops are almost always closed during Christmas Eve and Day in Europe, and unlike Singapore, there’s nowhere to go during the holidays. At first, this came as a bit of a shock, because we didn’t know where to get groceries, or even a bottle of mineral water if we happen to be travelling. Over the years, however, we have come to appreciate the quiet time that is Christmas.

When there is nothing else to distract us, we focus on being with people. I’m not just talking about merry-making, but we catch up, talk about hopes and dreams for the new year, learn more about each other or about our friends and families, and most importantly, we appreciate and give thanks for the wonderful people in our lives. It is afterall the season of Joy and Love.

What better way to spend quality time with people whom you love than to sit around on the floor, huddled together under thick duvets by the drafty windows, laughing over mugs of hot chocolate? What better way to say thank you to your loved ones with a cosy dinner at your home? And what better way to send them home with good memories of the night, each with a bag of warm cookies in hand? I honestly can’t think of better ways to celebrate the season than with good food and good times together, but that’s just me.

Wherever you are, whatever you do and whoever you are with, I hope you enjoy the holidays. And I wish that the new year will bring you love, happiness and good health.

Happy Christmas, everyone!

Here’s the recipe for my Dark Chocolate & Coconut Cookies, if you’re interested:

Dark Chocolate & Coconut Cookies:
(adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook)

230g unsalted butter, room temperature
300g soft light brown sugar
50g liquid glucose
2 medium eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
400g plain flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 and 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
200g 70% chocolate, roughly chopped (I used Lindt)
100g flaked coconut

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.

2. Beat butter, sugar and glucose on the stand mixer with a paddle attachment for about 8 minutes on medium speed till creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat at medium speed till combined (scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula after each addition to incorporate the unmixed parts). Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the vanilla extract.

4. Add flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda and mix until just incorporated. Stir in the roughly chopped chocolate chunks and flaked coconut.

5. Arrange 6 tablespoon-sized drops of cookie dough on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Ensure that these drops are spaced well apart (more than 2 inches apart) to allow for expansion. Bake in the preheated oven for 8-9 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges. At this point, the cookies will be quite flat, and frighteningly soft and pliable. Leave the cookies to cool slightly on the tray before transferring the cookies onto the cooling rack.

6. You can choose to eat them while they are warm (not hot!) and wash them  down with a glass of cold milk, or have them at room temperature. I like them warm. When the cookies have cooled completely, store them in an air-tight container. These cookies should remain slightly crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

Enjoy!

*Updated: This post is featured on Foodgawker and Tastespotting. Check out my profiles on Foodgawker and Tastespotting to see my other featured posts!

Check out what I have been baking in my own kitchen.

Also check out my other food adventures.