14 Jun 2013
Mixed Berry Bar with Sour Apple Sauce - Randomness
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| Yesterday was my bake for health exam and 19 of us (my class) had to create our own healthy recipe. It was really challenging and fun at the same time as we could freely express our creativity, exploring into our own choice of either to create a baked or chilled dessert. My lousy phone camera did not show much justice to my dessert, not that my dessert looked picture pretty anyway. It was my first time making this mixed berry bar which I got the recipe from Clean Eating magazine (and I am using it for exam!). I customised and adjusted the recipe based on nutritional value of an individual serving. Made with whole wheat flour and rolled oats that has high fibre, it gave the bar a slightly dense and chewy texture. The dried blueberries, dried apricots and dried wolfberries added a punch of vitamins, minerals as well as antioxidant. The eggs (mainly egg white), some apple sauce and honey acts as a binder as well as natural flavouring. Silvered almonds was for added crunch too. Basically like an all-in-one food that is low fat, low cholesterol and extremely high energy! My applesauce is made by stewing apples with apple cider and a pinch of cinnamon. I found such a cute little pot to place my sour dip in, and to compliment the unappetising bite-size bars that is eaten with a toothpick. |
25 May 2013
Tonkotsu Kazan Ramen - A little crampy
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| I have been wanting to include Japanese restaurants into this supposedly dessert blog of mine ever since I changed my blog focus from cravescraze.blogspot.com to dessertingbeauty. I felt that it was quite a waste if I just left these pictures to rot in my hard disk, without sharing my personal opinions of my dining experiences. I shall only include Japanese cuisine since I am a fan of it and I find it closely related to beauty and zen which is still part of my blog focus. I shall start with Tonkotsu Kazan Ramen which is located at Novena Square 2, cramped into a small outlet space. Just like a small typical Japanese restaurant with the right ambiance where the voices of staff kept booming throughout. I felt slightly irritated by the noise level in this squeezy restaurant at first but my irritation was quickly dismissed upon the arrival of my food. |
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| I ordered the Karamiso Ramen with gyoza set and the ramen can be easily defined by the little molehill of blended spicy miso paste. After a thorough mix of the paste with my soup, I found the soup broth spot on with my taste buds, although the spiciness level was not there. I can say that it was fortunate for me as I have really low tolerance for spiciness. Sadly, the flavoured egg was slightly overcooked and the yolk was only semi molten. As for the pork belly, it was definitely not the melt-in-the-mouth type and it required some chewing to be done. Overall, I still wiped the entire content in my bowl clean. |
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| I shared the gyoza with my friend and it was rather decent. Although slightly oily, the gyoza skin was really thin, resulting in it being less filling and more meaty. |
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| My friend ordered a different set so that we could explore more from its menu. His Shoyu Ramen which was with soy sauce paste, had a rather mild soy sauce taste and would be really suitable for people who were afraid of having too much sodium intake. |
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| The fried rice which was part of my friend's ramen set came in this really hot stone pot. My friend began his mixing as soon as the pot hits the table to prevent the base from being burnt. While he mixed, I felt that the sizzling sound was instigating us to dig right into the piping hot fried rice. Look at that amount of spring onions which my friend went to remove bit by bit as he disliked them. The egg was the one that enhanced the taste of the fried rice, giving the dish its fragrance as well as a slightly charred taste. |
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| Just like the flavoured eggs from the ramen, these add-on eggs were also slightly over cooked. My friend and I should have waited for our ramen to arrive first, checked out the eggs before ordering extras. |
11 May 2013
Dolce Tokyo Japanese . Italian Cafe - Satisfying Meal
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| After dumbly going up the escalators for a couple of floors instead of just taking the lift, I finally found Dolce Tokyo among the many apparel outlets. After waiting a couple of minutes without anyone coming to lead me to my seat, I took my initiative to walk in and choose my own preferable spot. The place was kind of dim and rather cramp and I was glad that it was still too early to crash with the dinner crowd. |
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| Here is my complimentary set meal voucher which I was lucky enough to win from a blog's giveaway and I decided to try out the food. By the way, I am that type of assholes who love to near the walkway where people walking past could peek and have a glimpse of the yummy food that I was about to be served. |
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| My matcha latte arrived first and I was glad it did as I was getting thirsty. Taking a sip, I felt a rush of sweetness spreading across my mouth rapidly before the green tea taste actually surface. I understand that not many people would appreciate the bitter taste of green tea itself, or was it a sugar syrup overshot? The latte felt musty and diluted with plenty of ice which I did not quite like as I would normally opt for a hot one if I had a choice. I still finish it up though. |
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| My curry omelette rice with pork belly skewers and other sides arrived shortly and I was amazed to see such large portion, awaiting me to indulge in. However, I resisted my barbaric urge to start gobbling bites of everything within mere seconds. The omelette rice was mediocre to me while the sides were awesome. I did a really stupid mistake by taking in a mouthful of unchewable jellyfish and I had to swallow the entire mouthful down my throat. The cold potato salad had apple slices in them and they were all gone in a big spoonfuls. The baby octopus was in dismembered form except of its head and they tasted just like those usual ones. The best which I kept for the finale was the pork belly skewer. Tender, delicious and FATTY which I tried not to mind due to the word collagen spinning in my head, distracting myself from thinking too much. |
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| Another picture of the side dishes! I really love the pork belly and I foresee myself coming back again for their desserts if I had the chance and the company. |
5 May 2013
Ladyfingers and Tiramisu!
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| A couple of weeks ago I decided to prepare some tiramisu since my brother have a lovely bottle of Cafe Boheme standing stagnant in the refrigerator. Cafe Beheme is actually a coffee flavored alcohol which make a perfect refresher after adding a couple of ice cubes. I bet coffee and alcohol lovers would want to try it! Anyway, I baked some ladyfingers sponge first from the recipe below: 4 egg whites 78g caster sugar (A) 15g caster sugar (B) 3 egg yolks 60g cake flour
1) Egg whites and sugar (A) for meringue (Whisk till glossy and firm peak)
2) Egg yolk and sugar (B) (Well blend)
3) Fold egg yolk mixture into meringue (Gently)
4) Fold in cake flour (Gently)
5) Pipe into fingers and bake at about 180 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes
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| As for the tiramisu, I used 750g of mascarpone cheese which was a bit too much (I think 500g would do fine in future). I mixed coffee powder with the Cafe Boheme alcohol to increase the coffee flavor and then dipped the ladyfingers into the mixture. Lay the ladyfingers in any container/bowl, spread a layer of Cafe Boheme infused mascarpone on top and sieve an even coating of cocoa powder. (I repeated the process twice for more layers.) The above was about 8 servings size, so chill it and enjoy! I also want to thank my friends for the positive feedback!! |
7 Apr 2013
Custard Puffs
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| I decided to bake some choux pastry some time ago, hoping that my lousy oven would not fail me. These were unfilled puffs which I manged to bake and they were hollow and light. A couple of them did not raise well while 95% was enough to delight me. As for the filling, I was still deciding whether to fill them with pastry cream or custard. |
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| I made the custard cream the following day, and it turned out rather rich and had a creamy consistency. I felt that it was a little bit on the sweeter note that could easily be corrected next time. I was rather lucky that the amount of custard made was sufficient to pipe all the puffs. Sharing these little puffs with my family and friends was the best past of baking as they enjoyed biting into them, allowing the custard to ooze out slightly while savoring the sweetness that linger in their mouth. |
7 Feb 2013
Pineapple Tarts
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| Chinese New Year is just around the corner and nothing excites me more than collecting 'hong baos' (Red packets with notes inside)! I have seen many bombardment of pineapple tart recipes of different variation appearing in many baking blog posts and I was tempted to just follow the crowd. I am considered a baker anyway, a newbie one to be exact. I searched the web randomly and landed on a blog called foodismylifeand here is the link of the recipe which I had followed. It was my first attempt baking pineapple tarts and it was a success. The recipe as follows: 500g pineapple fillings (I used Poon Huat's) 400g plain flour 1/4 tsp salt 2 tbs corn flour 63g icing sugar 250g unsalted butter (room temperature) 2 no.s egg yolks (40g) + 1 no. egg yolk (egg wash) 1 pcs of pineapple tart has 6g filling and 11g dough Total amount of pineapple tarts I made: 67 pcs Oven temperature: 200 Degrees Duration: About 15 mins Soft, crumbly, melt-in-the-mouth, buttery, fragrant, a bit sweet, proportion just right. |