The BBQ of Awesomeness - The Menu

Hello world!

And so the QP organised a barbecue on 29 September to celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival with our junior college band mates.

We'll be sharing the recipes with you in the following few posts (oh Gwee already has posted his tiramisu recipe).

Here's what we had:

• Hotdog Buns (spiral-cut sausages + mango salsa + homemade buns)
• Chicken kebabs 
• Pork Chops
• Pan-fried zucchini, carrots, Portobello mushrooms - Eriko brought pans
• Burgers (five-spice pork patties + homemade wholewheat buns) 
• Rack of pork ribs
• Sea bass
• Grilled Pineapples
• Mooncakes from 大中国, a well-known local bakery that churns out yummy and not as expensive mooncakes in the days leading up to Mid Autumn, as well as delicious snacks for Chinese New Year
• Tiramisu
• Pomelos
• Yuzu soda

We will be sharing recipes wherever possible.

Do hang around! ♥

erina x

tira-misu

Let me start the ball rolling with the easiest dish that virtually doesn't require any cooking.

Ingredients:

450g mascarpone

4 eggs

1 teaspoon dark rum

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 tablespoon sugar

Lady fingers (1 pack)

Cocoa Powder

Expresso Coffee

How to cook:

Prepare two separate bowls, one for the egg yolk with mascarpone and the other for the egg white.

In one bowl add in 4 egg yolks and 2 tablespoon of sugar, whisk till the sugar is completely dissolved. Add in the mascarpone and whisk till completely blended.

In the second bowl, mix the separated egg white with 2 tablespoon of sugar and whisk thoroughly till, the egg white becomes stiff and fluffy white.

Add the egg white mixture into the first bowl and fold till the mixture blends perfectly. Add in 1 teaspoon of dark rum and vanilla extract respectively.

For the lady fingers, dip each finger one by one into a concentrated coffee brew, after which lay them onto a baking pan or tray.

After the first layer is properly laid, spread a layer of the custard evenly and dust with a layer of cocoa powder.

Repeat the process till the desired thickness is attained. Chill and keep refrigerated for a few hours before serving.

Things to take note: 

1) do not dip lady fingers for too long as it will almost soften immediately

2) feel free to add till up to 5 or 6 tablespoon of sugar (depending on personal preference)

3) one packet of lady fingers and mascarpone makes up to two aluminium trays (it's just the size of sara lee's pound cake)

PS: Erina time to share your awesome bread recipes

food beast recipes

After my failure with cheesecakes and cookies, I think it's time to savage my baking, all in once.

Here's a short recipe I found online: http://foodbeast.com/content/2012/09/13/heres-how-to-make-oreo-cheesecake-cookies/

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies - Yields about 30 small cookies

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup (4.8 ounces) all-purpose flour
• ½ cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 cup oreo cookie sandwich crumbs (about 8 oreos)

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, beat the butter, cream cheese and salt on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Beat in the vanilla, and then add the flour and mix on low just until combined. Mix in the chocolate chips.

3. Roll or scoop the dough into 1-inch balls. Drop the dough balls into a bowl of oreo cookie crumbs and roll to coat. Arrange the dough balls 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

4. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes, until the edges just start to brown and the tops are set. Cool for a minute or two on the sheets, then transfer the cookies to wire racks and cool completely.

Tiong Bahru Bakery by Gontran Cherrier

Hello world!

#1

Visited Tiong Bahru Bakery for the first time with Eriko in July.

Aunties may be misled into thinking that this place sells kueh, loaves and swiss rolls

We were there for the sweets that day....

Choices, choices

....and decided on the lemon tart and apple crumble.

Apple Crumble

The apple crumble was too sweet for my liking, but it hit off well with Eriko! To each his own I guess. However I like the crust.

(Pretty) Lemon Tart

Was told beforehand by the crew that the tart crust was supposed to be very hard therefore I should not be surprised.

I still am alarmed by how hard the crust was. lol.

The filling of the lemon tart was very sour, however, there was a complex taste to it. There was a pomelo-y aftertaste.

Me?

In conclusion, I think I'm just not the sweets kind of person. Noticed that they had squid ink burgers (one of their specialty buns) but it was sold out.

I later learnt that I was supposed to go there for their croissants. -_-

---

#2

Made another trip to the bakery a second time after a museum outing with some friends, and there were no squid ink burgers again. Appreciate that I managed to have the croissants though! (I assume they make sure the croissants are in constant supply)

The croissants were probably the best I've ever had. Layers of crust, not too oily, and extremely fragrant. Very much my kind of thing.

On top of that I had the mixed berry crumble which I really like (which is rare since I usually prefer apples to berries), focaccia with tuna topping (the bread was good on its own) and an herbed bun topped with pumpkin seeds (you can skip that).

I want my squid ink burgers! That means, another trip. This time, probably in the morning.

---

#3

Therefore I did a third trip, at the new branch in Raffles City (after yet another museum trip haha) . I would like to highlight that TBB food is quite pricey. Oh my wallet :(

TBB Raffles City

Anyway I managed to try the squid ink burger!!!

And boy was I disappointed.

To do justice to the bakery, the squid ink buns were good, there was a light 'flavour of the ocean' in it. However the combination of smoked salmon and arugula was a bit too heavy for my tastebuds. Next time I'll just have the bun itself :)

The Raffles City branch was also brighter and more spacious, whereas the first was small, cramped, and noisy. I probably will continue going to the Raffles City branch for my TBB fix. 

Tiong Bahru Bakery

56 Eng Hoon Street 

-or-

Raffles City Shopping Centre

in Singapore

erina x

Hungry

Hello world

Just wanna share with you my recent favourite food channel on YouTube - Hungry.

They feature Laura Vitale, the Casserole Queens, The Brothers Green etc., and recently Nathan Lippy and the Fung Brothers jumped on the bandwagon too.

The content is varied to suit different people's taste buds; they execute quality productions, not something you easily get out of YouTube, but I'm happy that these guys are committed to giving viewers a good time just watching. (then getting hungry, duh)

Looking forward to what else is coming up.

I secretly hope the Casserole Queens will feature a casserole recipe soon.

erina x

Happy Birthday!

How can we not mention our dearest female chef's 100th birthday?

I love her attitude towards food, with passion, hearty and sincere.Guess most of us know her better after the movie Julie and Julia, which i thought was a very good rendition. To be honest, Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a tough book. No nice photography but just words and descriptions which I hardly could make out how the dish really looked like. But again, that kind of information was very wholesome and it brought American food a step closer to French cuisine.

Oh yes forgot to mention, I love her height of 1.88m too!
Bon Appetit.

ajitsuke tamago

I will attempt to share a simple recipe on ajitsuke tamago or japanese soft boiled seasoned egg i observed from work. I would refer them as the ramen eggs we commonly eat at any authentic japanese restaurant.

Ingredients:

- Eggs

- Soya sauce

Preparation:

1) Boil a pot of water (no specific amount but enough to cover your eggs)

2) Simmer the boiling water on small fire.

3) Add in your eggs and leave it for 5mins30s

4) Remove the eggs and leave it a bowl of ice water or water that is cold enough (the idea is to stop the heat from cooking the eggs further) 

5) Leave it for 4-5 mins before peeling the shell (adding salt helps in peeling apparently)

6) Soak the almost finished eggs for 2-3 hours in your soya sauce marinate (no specific recipe, strictly your own palate)