醉雞

I know drunken chicken looks presentable and impressive but turns out it is pretty easy to make. I remember I was in awe when my very good friend S told me that she made this with her sister back in hm.. say Form 4. This dish goes really well with the Shanghainese vegetable rice, recipe of which will be shared in the next post. 

I managed to find all the ingredients in just one street of the YauMaTei market. Very amused and really enjoyed the process. Will share with you more about my market experience later. Have to get back to revision, bye!

蔥油伴麵

First of all, my apologies to my faithful readers, if there are any. To redeem myself, I promise to put up at least 1 post every week until the end of the year, except 3-9th December, when I have my exams. I did not make any posts in October as the PCLL got a little intense and my sister had to march down the aisle. For those who are interested, you may catch a glimpse of the gorgeous bride and the dashing groom on this photography blog created by my cousin Brian Ting. 

It took me days to recover from my sister's wedding. I lost interest in everything and all I cared about was my bed. I finally crawled out of my cocoon last week and started cooking again. Ahh, my long lost happiness and sense of satisfaction. 

Every member of my family loves this. We order this every time we go to 夏麵館. It is very simple to make, very cheap, and you can make the sauce in advance, keep it in the fridge and every time you want something to eat, you can go grab the sauce, reheat it, cook the noodles and in only 3 minutes, any lazy bum get the taste of heaven. Trust me.

Summer Pasta

Most of the classes which I am taking are held in the morning. I love this because that means that I get to go home and make lunch for myself!

I headed to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, hmm thinking what I could make out of the things in hand. The weather was too hot for something too heavy. I needed something light, fresh, sharp and colorful. So there, I picked up some cherry tomatoes, lemon and basil leaves, closed the refrigerator, hesitated, opened it again and grabbed my block of parmesan cheese. A little cheese won't hurt!

Hazelnut Macarons with Chocolate Filling

Knowing that my best girl friends were coming over, I made macarons again last week.

One of them, H, is surely a macaron expert, she has tasted huuuuge amount of macarons from the most renowned pastry shops around the world! She told me about all the interesting flavors a macaron can carry, say olive, champagne, passion fruit with chocolate which turns out great but tastes like our 薑蔥白切雞 (steamed chicken with ginger and spring onion)! Hm. Maybe I should make some and verify this.

So, I was very inspired and motivated to play with the macaron flavours! I am planning to give my macarons an Asian twist! Goji berries, ginger, dates, lotus seeds, and all sorts of Chinese tea! So please bear with me, I will be making quite a number of posts on macarons in the very near future.

This time I made hazelnut macarons with chocolate cream cheese filling. Love the combination. For those who are planning to make these, do pay attention to the amount of ground hazelnut you put in along with the ground almond. The two nuts have different moisture content, so my suggestion would be to keep them in the ratio of 1:3.

Getting Married!

Sister's getting married! My brother-in-law-to-be and his band brought us all these earlier this week. There was more, a lot more in fact, they invaded and conquered most of our land in the living room! We have so much food at home now and for the last few days, we had 嫁女餅, the colorful Chinese wedding pastries and cakes, for breakfast, tea and late night snack!

My best wishes to the extremely cute, happy and handsome couple! And especially to the bride, I wish that you can eat a lot of 嫁女餅 and still be able to fit into your wedding dress and gowns!

Matcha Macarons

Macarons! Macarons! We were in a love-hate relationship. It took me so long to be able to make them well! Mastering the macaron technique is more difficult than taking a law exam. Seriously.

Failed 3 times, frustrated, persisted, searched the web, and realized that macarons had been harsh on others too! The macaron shell is the source of all troubles, the common problems include, no "feet" (the tiny ruffles along the circumference), soggy crust, cracks on crust, or they just turn out to be extremely sweet almond cookies.

The first time I had macarons was very unpleasant (that patisserie makes really bad macarons). I was so turned off by its excessive sweetness and hard crust which stuck to my teeth that I stayed away from it for a number of years. Macarons and I finally crossed paths again when my sister made me try one from the Island Shangri-la, telling me that it's really good. So I tried, very unwillingly, and then taking another bite, willingly this time, admitted that the macaron did taste great!

The perfect macaron shell should have two layers, a very thin, smooth, egg shell-like crust and beneath it is the soft, slightly chewy, meringue-like texture. It took me three failing attempts to finally get the macaron technique and make decent, "legit" macarons. I will share with you all the "secrets" to making macarons, however, it is inevitable to experience some flops before you truly grasp the technique. Meanwhile, you may also read "Demystifying Macarons" by Helene Dujardin for inspiration. Have fun experimenting!

Tips for making nice macaron shells:
1. Use aged egg whites (48-72 hours).
2. Beat the egg whites until they stand.
3. Mix in the dry ingredients (almond power and sugar and any other flavouring  e.g. matcha powder) into the beaten egg whites with a few very quick strokes and then slow down for a few more strokes until all the ingredients are well combined and form a slightly runny but also a little thick batter. Do not over mix. 
4. When you're done piping out the small rounds on the baking paper, leave it there for 45-60 minutes before shoving it into the oven. This process and the aged egg whites are crucial for creating the "feet".
Please click read more for the recipe.

Grilled Mackerel with Couscous & Rocket and Spinach Salad

My Saturday night supper. Extremely satisfying.

I received a text from my friend, K, that morning, telling me how good rocket salad is. As if I needed any reminder of my admiration for rockets, that message prompted me to immediately hit CitySuper and swing my arms around the fresh rockets! Some baby spinach and herbs managed to squeeze their way into my arms too! Glad they did that, they came in really handy later that evening.

Rocket, also known as arugula, has a strong, distinct, peppery taste, with a slight hint of bitterness. Generally used in salads and sandwiches. Take it literally, rocket really does shape like a rocket, long and lean. Not everyone can stand its taste, people either hate it or love it.

Another ingredient I would like to introduce to you is Couscous. It is made out of semolina and water, rolled by hand to form small pellets and subsequently dried with flour and sieved to separate. Very popular in Morocco, Middle East, France and Turkey etc. I first tasted couscous in a Middle Eastern restaurant, it was served with a generous spoon of lamb stew, so good! Couscous itself does not have a lot of flavour, it is like rice, so to spice it up, I mixed in chopped mint, parsley and lemon juice.

I have received requests to include recipes here, so there you go! Please click Read More.