My Baking Journal

1095 days
259 blog posts
210 recipes
58 cakes
53 breads
35 simple dishes
22 cookies
21 muffins and quickbreads
11 chiffons
....
....
....

I am two days behind my 3rd blog anniversary.

I spent the past two days putting together my favourite recipes and photos into a book. Yes, I created my own cookbook, sort of ;)

This book will remain in a digital form, as I will be adding in recipes every now and then, plus, it will be too expensive to get it printed!

To thank all of you who have been spending your time reading about my baking adventures, and for leaving encouraging comments and very kind words on this humble blog, I will like to share this collection of my past baking and cooking repertoire with you. I do hope you enjoy flipping through the pages :D

Happy 2010!

Beijing by Foot

It was love at first sight when I first set foot on Shicha Hai (什刹海) early autumn this year. I did the touristy thing...a rickshaw hutong tour. I didn't particular enjoy the ride as I prefer to take my time walking along the banks of the lakes. So, I made a promise to myself that I would revisit this scenic spot again, by foot.

Located in the north of central Beijing city, the Shicha Hai area is made up of 3 man-made lakes - Qian Hai (前海, Front Lake), Hou Hai (后海, Back Lake) and Xi Hai (西海, West Lake). During the imperial eras, these lakes were part of a system used to transport grain by barge from the Grand Canal to the Forbidden City. In recent years it has become famous for its nightlife as many popular restaurants, bars, and cafes now lined the shores of Hou Hai.

After a late lunch at the QuanJuDe (famous for it's Peking roast duck), we took a slow stroll from Qian Hai, before heading north to Hou Hai and back to our starting point at Qian Hai.


Picturesque Qian Hai (前海) in winter...I am no good with words, all I could say is, this place has transformed from a gorgeous young lady in autumn to an elegant ice beauty in winter. (这里的风景有如从一位娥娜多姿的少女演变成一位优雅的冰山美人, 个有个的美!)


Sugar blower at Qian Hai, blowing animal figurines with caramel sugar. It took him less than 2 minutes to blow a tiger and about 1 minute for a snake figurine. We were very impressed with this traditional handcraft. I first saw this art from a travel documentary, it is never the same when you see it with your own eyes. I bought two Chinese zodiac signs from this sugar blower, later that day I noticed others are selling at half the price I paid.


Someone has left a fresh stalk of rose on the frozen lake...I wonder why?


Seeing double? The reflection on the lake was more vivid than the real scenery.





Hou Hai in the afternoon...


endless row of willow trees along the shore...


My kids were very amused when they saw this half-naked man jogging along Hou Hai.


At this recreational area, residences are either kicking colourful shuttlecocks...or


having a friendly game of table tennis...


and the few brave ones, taking a dip in the icy lake...






Many small booths and cafes offer yoghurt served in traditional ceramic bottles...and yes, with a straw.



This signboard at a tiny shop says "Number One Smelly in the World"...


people are queuing up its stinky or smelly tofu...


deep fried fermented tofu, which didn't taste as smelly as I had expected.


It was only four in the afternoon but the sun was calling it a day.


We were greeted with a beautiful sun set. Before the night fell, we took refuge at a nearby Starbucks from the cold, before heading out for more street food at the night markets at Wangfujing. It was a leisurely 2 hours walk along the lakeside, and I have to declare that it was the best walk we took in Beijing.

Quick Fix Meals - Simple and yet Delicious

There are not many eating places within close proximity to this apartment that we are staying here in Beijing. Even though there are a couple of local fast food joints in the neighbourhood, we rather stay indoor than to walk in the cold just to get our daily meals settled. So I ended up having to prepare home cook meals every single weekday even though I'm suppose to be on vacation.

Since we would only be here for a few weeks, I could not bring myself to stock up too many ingredients. Hence, fixing 2 meals a day proofs to be quite a challenging task especially for someone who is not a good cook to start with.

With a rather empty pantry, I could only prepare very simple meals using minimal ingredients, seasonings and utensils. There is no wok in the kitchen, so I can't even cook fried rice as the frying pan that's available is too small and shallow for any serious stir frying!


Thank goodness my kids don't mind having porridge for their lunch here. Back at home, they would definitely prefer having their favourite takeaway food from the hawker centre than to eat the usual porridge I prepare for them. Only barely two weeks, they already miss their laksa, nasi lemak, chicken rice, fried carrot cake, char kway teow and roti prata!


This bowl of porridge is cooked with short-grain rice or what the locals refer to as "大米". Unlike long grains, it is quite sticky and I had to keep adding water to the pot of bubbling porridge. Yet, I still ended up with very thick and gooey porridge, very much like the baby food which I used to prepare for my kids when they were still toddlers.

To make a simple minced beef porridge more appealing visually, I threw in some frozen vegetables to an otherwise plain, mono-tone meal. There were not a single word of complains when I served the porridge with lots of pork floss as toppings ^_^'


It turns up to be a good thing that I have to work within some constraints, otherwise I would never discover that I could actually make roast chicken with just salt, pepper and some butter! These delicious drumsticks were seasoned with a generous sprinkling of salt and black pepper. When the oven was preheated to 200 degC, I rubbed some butter all over and under the skin before popping them into the oven. Less than half an hour, I was rewarded with a tray of roast chicken drumsticks...with crispy skin and tender juicy meat. The trick to getting crispy skin? Just make sure that after cleaning the chicken, pat dry with paper towels...make sure it is very very dry before seasoning with salt and pepper as you do not want to create any steam in the oven.

Now, I am all set and ready to roast a chicken for our Christmas eve dinner ;)

Winter in Beijing

Although it may appear that we are on a long vacation here in Beijing, the fact is, we spend our weekdays carrying out activities just the way we would normally do when we are back home.

It is only during the weekends that we would do some sightseeing and tour around the city. This is partly because the cold weather has been keeping us indoor most of the time, (and it 'sgetting colder each day!), and partly because we have been to most of the 'must-see' spots in this ancient city when we were here during the autumn.

We went to the YiHeYuan or the Summer Palace two weeks ago, since I didn't have the chance to include this place in our itinerary during our last visit.


It was a bright and sunny day...this picture may give you the wrong impression that it must be quite warm. No, we are not looking out of the window from our flat back home in Singapore. This is Beijing, and it was freezing COLD. The temperature was below freezing point. Coupled with the breeze, it made us wondered why on earth we would go to a SUMMER resort for the emperors, during a cold WINTER day?!


The entire KunMing Lake was all frozen.


We took a long walk along the KunMing Lake...crossed the 17-Arch bridge (we counted the number of arches, and yes, there are 17 of them) to the Nanhu Island. Now, you may wonder why they built 17 and not 18 arches along the span of the bridge? We know that the number 8 is a homonym for luck or wealth in Chinese, but, the 9th arch in the centre, which is also the largest, is considered the number most auspicious for emperors. So the emperor or the 'Son of Heaven' (天子) is symbolically positioned in the middle with good fortune (8 arches) on both sides!


One of the four magnificent "guarding angels" at the ends of the bridge...


There are 544 stone lions (and a mysterious Bob) on the railings of the 17 Arches Bridge. No, we didn't count them, I got the number from the web ;)

We tried having a little picnic by the bench at the tiny Nanhu Island...but it was another great mistake we made! It was so cold to sit down to rest. We had to keep moving in order to stay warm, and the sandwiches I made turn dry and hard the moment the toast bread met the dry cold wind. It was a good thing that we brought along some chocolates, it gave us the necessary energy and brought us some cheery smiles from the kids. Well, for someone living in a tropical island, I also found it very amusing to discover that our haversack became a cooler bag!! Our drinks were icy cold, as though we have just taken them out from the fridge.

Despite the ammonia smell, I resort to seeking refuge in the warm public toilet ^.^" I wasn't alone, I found out later that my kids made clever use of the hand-blower in the gents...they managed to trap some warm air inside their gloves.

We would have walked along the Nanhu Lake if the weather was warmer. In the end, we didn't brave the cold and had to shorten the trip and made our way back to the palace area.


A colourful sight of hawkers, hawking their wares...

Even though it was too cold for comfort, the scenery was simply awesome.


I didn't take that many pictures because every now and then I had to thaw my frozen fingers inside my pockets, but I promise, there will be more pictures on my upcoming post.

A stroll...

There is this nice little park at the apartment we are staying. It is very well maintenance and has got a nice landscaping design. There are a couple of garden mazes, a small playground, pretty porches, several fountains (although they are not operating at this time of the year), beautiful pebbled paths and the park is dotted with many shrubs and trees. Whenever the weather is 'warm' enough, I will bring my two kids for a stroll.


Come, join me for a walk in the garden...


There were many pretty roses when we were here in autumn, now most of the flowering plants have been pruned down. It it inevitable for me to take notice of the evergreens instead. This close up picture reminds me very much of the tip of a milk bottle brush ;)


There are several species of pine trees in the garden. I spotted this one, which looks exactly like those artificial Christmas trees on sale at shopping malls back home. It is known as Pinus Armandii Franch or Armand Pine. This conifer has got leaves that grow in clusters and branches out to make them look like pom-poms. The tips of the needle-like leaves are tinted yellow...this makes the pom-poms appear to glitter and glow.


When I first saw these trees, I thought they were Pussy Willows, those decorating plants the Chinese love to deck their halls with during Chinese New Year.


Those flurry flowers? or buds? feel just like the catkins of the pussy willows, but they do not have long branches.


I have this habit of collecting pine cones whenever I go to temperate countries. I searched around, but there were none on the ground :(


So, I can only satisfy myself with pictures of these cones which are still pretty much attached to the branches. (Yes, I tried plucking it! I know, I am being very naughty ^_^")


This is part of a structure of a giant fountain...


filled with plenty of pebbles...I am sure this spot would look awesome during a summer night.


More trees along the way...





the leaves were all gone, I don't know what are these plant parts remaining on the branches...are they buds? fruits? or flowers?


Are you able to spot the strange 'claw-like' branch in this photo?


This is something interesting for us, since we don't own any pets. It's a trash bag dispenser, for pet owners to 'pick up' after their dogs.


Another interesting tree with unique patterns on the tree trunk, just like the prints on army uniforms!

At the end of our short walk, my hands were all frozen after exposing them in the cold for so long. I hope you have enjoyed this photographic 'stroll' as much as I do.

Beijing Revisted

This is the second time I am visiting Beijing. Unlike the previous trip in autumn, it is freezing cold during this time of the year. Temperatures can get below freezing point during the early mornings and late in the evenings.

While we enjoy the cool room temperature (not more than 22 degC, since I don't turn on the heater at all), it can be quite a daunting task just to step out of the apartment. It usually takes us 10mins to get dressed! Although I only need a sweater and a outer jacket (I have got an extra layer of fat to protect myself from the chilling wind!!!) , I still finds it very troublesome! I really appreciate how easy and quick for me to get out of the house back at home...in t-shirts and shorts and a pair of slippers ;) Over here, I wish I have a few extra pairs of hands just to juggle with the kids' gloves, hats and even scarves! It is just so 'lay-chay'(which means troublesome in Singlish)!

It is much 'warmer' (back home in Singapore, we won't call it 'warm' when the average outside temperature is 5 degC) during the early afternoons. So I plan our days such that we go for a stroll at the park after lunch, or go get groceries at the nearby local supermarket. It is really no joke having to lug bags of groceries and walk in the busy streets with two kids in tow, in the cold.


The service apartment that we are staying comes with a fully equipped kitchen. With my dream built-in oven, microwave oven, electric stove and even a dish washer. Just for the record, this is the first homemade lunch I made when we first arrived. It was just simple ham and egg sandwiches with some fruits and yoghurt. Incidentally, I noticed the people over here seems to like yoghurt a lot...I was very surprised to find so many different brands of yoghurt at the supermarket shelves.


The above photo was not taken at the supermarket...it was taken at the park. I wonder what's the name of this plant? It looks just like some cabbage to me. Don't you think so?!


There is also the red version...


Pretty isn't it? I wonder whether these are edible, I bet they will be really great for salad?!

This is a rather short post, will blog about a more decent home cooked meal soon.

J & J

No, I did not manage to bake or even cook since my last blog post. Yet, this post is some what related to cooking.

Ever since the children came along, I hardly have chance to catch any movies at the cinema. To me, Spiderman, Batman Forever, Star Wars, and even Narnia don't count. I consider myself to be a very lucky person to be able to go on movie marathons whenever we went on holidays. Despite being coop up in a cabin high up in the sky, I got my fair share of movie-indulgence, having watched some good movies, be it action-packed thrillers or romantic comedies. I even managed to catch a few good Japanese movies, like the 'The Professor and His Beloved Equations' and 'Kabei - My Mother'. Although they are not blockbusters but these are the kind of films which will give me lasting impressions, I will still be able to remember the stories years later.

This time I saw "Julie and Julia".

I only got to know Julia Child when I first attempted to make a sponge cake. In fact it was through this video clip of Alice Medrich's Chocolate Genoise Cake that I first saw Julia Child on video. Then I spotted her book "Baking with Julia", written by Dorie Greenspan, sitting on the library book shelf. No, I didn't borrow the book. Back then, when I was so new in baking and cooking, I was rather intimidated by the sheer volume of the book. I left Julia Child sitting at the back of my mind since then.

Early this year, I saw segments of the movie trailer on the 'Entertainment Tonight'...while commuting on a public bus. It was interesting to know that they are going to make a movie about Julia Child, and Meryl Streep, who happens to be one of my few favourite actress of all times, would be taking on the role as Julia. I told myself I should really make an effort to go watch the movie when it opens in the theater.

When the movie was finally released in Singapore in October, I did contemplate whether it would be feasible for me to go catch it during the short 2 hours of my free time. Well, too many things happened, and my movie-outing didn't work out. I could only satisfy myself by reading the movie reviews by the local papers. It was only then that I learned that this movie is not just about Julia...there is this other lady, Julie Powell who started a project to challenge herself to cook 524 recipes from Julia's first cookbook in 365 days, and, blog about it. How interesting!

I am glad I was able to watch this movie eventually! I enjoyed every bits of it, especially whenever Meryl Streep appeared on the tiny screen in front of my seat. I think it was because of her that I tend to like the Julia-side of the story line. The Julie-side of the story did strike a chord though...especially the blogging part...when she received her first ever comment, and about her wondering whether anyone out there actually reads her blog. I have had the exact same sentiment when I first started this blog. At a certain point in time, Julie suffered for her blog, resulting several meltdowns along the way. I hope I will never ever land myself in the same frustrated situation. I would rather control my blog than to let it control my life.

If you like cooking and blogging just like me (and you don't have to be a fan of Meryl Streep your know), I hope you have already seen this wonderful movie, otherwise I wish you will be able to get to watch it somehow...

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

I have never thought that I would venture into making baked mooncakes. I chickened out after going through the ingredient list for making traditional baked mooncakes ^_^"


I was glad that I managed to get hold of this "Y3K cookbook, Mooncakes". Besides the snowskin mooncakes, I was happy to learn that I could actually try my hand at making mooncakes with flaky pastry! I nailed down this 'Apple Allure' flaky pastry mooncake recipe since I had all the ingredients on hand. Making the doughs was a breeze, but I had a hard time trying to figure out the correct way of wrapping/rolling the water dough with the coloured oil dough. Even though there are several photos to illustrate the steps, certain parts of the instructions is quite vague. In the end, I went about making it with my gut feel. I am not sure whether I did it right as the finished mooncakes appeared slightly different from those illustrated in the cookbook.


These tiny morsels are no bigger than 2", my tween is able to pop one into his mouth without getting choked. I used ready-made pandan lotus paste but I think it would taste better with yam paste. Since this is my maiden attempt, I am rather satisfied with the taste and texture. On the other hand, I think I could have done better. I probably didn't roll out the dough thin enough so the skin is not as flaky and definitely not comparable to those store-bought Teochew style mooncakes. Nevertheless, I felt a great sense of achievements when I left them to cool on the rack.

八月十五送你一個月饼
含量：100%祝福
配料：
100克快乐枣
兩把关心米
300cc友情水
作法：用幽默扎捆
保质期：一辈子
保存方法：珍惜

中秋节快乐!

Flakey Pastry Mooncakes

Ingredients (makes 16 pieces)

filling:
400g pandan lotus paste
80g melon seeds

water dough:
70g plain flour
5g icing sugar
25g shortening
35ml water

oil dough:
75g plain flour
40g shortening


Method:

1. Filling: Mix pandan lotus paste with melon seeds. Divide into 30g portions, shape into rounds and set aside.
2. Water Dough: sieve together flour and icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Rub in shortening with fingertips until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add in the water and mix to form a soft dough. Cover with cling wrap and set aside.
   
3. Oil Dough: Sieve plain flour into a mixing bowl. Add shortening and mix with hand to form a soft dough.
   
4. Divide oil dough into 3 portions. Add food colourings to each dough and knead to form pink, yellow and green doughs. Roll each dough into a square, about 5" by 5".
   
5. Roll the water dough into a square about 10" by 10". Place the oil doughs in the centre of the water dough. Start with pink, then place yellow dough over the pink dough, overlapping end bit of pink dough. Place green dough over the yellow dough, overlapping end bit of yellow dough. Refer photo no. 1 below.
6. Fold both sides of the water dough over the oil doughs. Cover and let rest for 20mins. Refer photo no. 2 and 3.
7. Flatten all sides and roll out the dough. Turn over and roll flat. Starting with the pink side of the dough(refer photo no. 4 above), roll up Swiss roll style to form a cylindrical log. Cut off excess parts from both ends and keep aside. Cut the dough into 16 equal portions.
   
8. For each portion, flatten to form a round disc. Roll to about 5cm in diameter.Wrap the filling with the dough, seal the seams and place it downwards on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
   
9. Add some green food colouring to the excess dough in step 7 and use it to make leaves. With the pointed end of a chopstick, press the top of the dough to create a slight dent that resembles the surface of an apple. Place the leaves over the dents. Bake at 180degC for 15-20 mins until baked through but not golden. As the finished mooncake will be very soft, let cool on the baking tray for about 5 ~ 10mins before transferring to a wire rack. Let cool completely.
   

Recipe source: adapted from Y3K cookbook - Mooncake.