Delivery

Finally! YAY!

But GOSH! The armchair was already a tight fit but the sofa was a struggle to get in through the entry door, lift, another door and finally my door. There was only one guy delivering and so, I had to act as the second delivery man. I still have sore biceps from all the manoeuvering and lifting.

Anyway... took this picture yesterday. Figgy already claimed the sofa as his. Please come by visit me and Figaro, now that you wouldn't have to stand around... waiting for me to offer you water. Sorry T and C! Next time, there might be a treat.

So exciting that now I have a fridge with a freezer! I made some ice cream last week. It lasted a week. Well the magazine did say the texture might deteriorate and it's best to be consumed within one week of being made.

Vanilla bean ice-cream
makes 1 litre
(Delicious magazine, Nov'03 p.134)

Step 1
6 egg yolks
125 gr caster sugar
400 ml milk
1 vanilla bean, split
300 ml thick cream (48% fat content)

Step 2
Place the egg yolks and sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with electric hand beater until thick and pale. Place the milk in a saucepan, scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add to the milk with the pod, then heat over medium heat until scalding point. Remove from heat and set aside to infuse for 10 minutes. Discard pod and reheat milk to scalding point, then strain over the egg mixture and beat until just combined. Return the mixture to a clean saucepan and place over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon - don't allow it to boil (this can take up to 20 minutes).

Step 3
Pour the custard into a bowl and sit over a bowl of ice, stirring until cool. Cover the surface of the custard with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and place in the fridge to chill completely. Whisk the cream into the cold custard until well combined, then pour into a shallow plastic container, cover and freeze until frozen at the edges (this can take up to 1 1/2 - 2 hours).

Step 4
Remove the ice-cream from the freezer, beat with an electric hand beater until smooth, then return to the freezer. Repeat this step 2 or 3 more times (beating the ice-cream prevents the formation of ice crystals). Alternatively, churn the mixture in an ice-cream machine to manufacturer's instructions.

Note :
1. I added a packet of oreo biscuits (sans the white cream filling) towards the end of the churning.
2. I must say that I felt mighty fat the following week.
3. Have sneaked a peek at this month's daring bakers challenge, and it's a good one, I'm in!

Q: Panna cotta ?

A: No thanks.

I bring stuff to work to share all the time and most often than not I am able to get people to eat it. Strangely, the boy with healthiest of appetite, a most oft recipient of my baking, who'd happily tuck into my crème brulée and crème caramel, declined my offer of panna cotta. Several times. Evvverrry time. (Not offended, just a tad suspicious. Perhaps a traumatic panna cotta incident. Dunno.)

I took a day off work last Thursday, in the morning I had this for breakfast (I subbed double cream with fresh cream, hmmm so it's almost guiltless really), lazed around at home for awhile. Friend cancelled lunch last minute, impromptu I caught a bus towards a beach where I lied on soft warm sand, sunnies on and a good book in my hand to occasionally distract me from the view. Was really delightful!

Panna cotta
From Silver Spoon, p.1030
Serves 6
10 gr gelatine leaves
100 ml milk
500 ml double cream
100 gr caster sugar
1 vanilla pod, slit

Fill a small bowl with water, add the gelatine and leave to soak. Pour the milk into a saucepan and bring to just below simmering point, then remove from the heat. Do not allow it to boil. Drain and squeeze out the gelatine and add to the milk.

Pour the cream into another saucepan, add the sugar and vanilla pod and bring to the boil over a low heat, stirring constantly. Immediately remove the pan from the heat, remove the vanilla pod and stir in the milk mixture.

Pour into ramekins or panna cotta moulds or as per the book, it recommends a rectangular cake tin. Chill in the refrigerator for several hours until set. Turn out on a serving dish and serve.

I like to have mine with raspberry coulis... compliments the richness nicely. I normally use frozen raspberries, the food processor would turn it into an almost sorbet like concoction. Quite luvly.... see ?



Raspberry Coulis
Larousse des desserts p.102
Makes 500 ml
Juice of 1 lemon
750 gr raspberries
80 gr sugar
100 ml water
Puree everything with a food processor. (I can't be bothered to follow the instructions)

Nothing to note really.
*kisses*

The one that ticks all the boxes

I'm happy to say that in recent years I've found the one I'm settling down with for the rest of my life. Monsieur Hermé's recipe for crème caramel, mais oui! Not too eggy, nor too firm, and very vanilla-y. Tick tick BIG tick.

My first bake of the year... thought I'd start gently with something nice and simple. Part of my répertoire. Definitely doesn't count towards achieving my resolution.

Crème caramel
pour 4 personnes

1 litre full cream milk
4 eggs
3 egg yolks
3 vanilla beans
350 gr sugar
60 gr water



The night before, scrape the inside of vanilla bean into a pot, add milk and bring to boil. Leave to infuse overnight in the fridge. The next day, take out the beans and reboil milk.

In another bowl, whisk eggs with 200 gr of the sugar for about 30 seconds and pour in the hot milk whilst whisking non stop. Sieve into a clean bowl and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Remove the bubbles that may appear on top and set aside.

Cook the rest of the sugar with the water until you obtain caramel of a beautiful shade of dark amber and at once stop cooking, remove from heat and immerse the pot in a bowl filled with ice water. Pour into ramekins whilst caramel are still liquid, and move it all around the ramekin to line the sides. Pour in the milk.

Cook in a 150°C oven for 2 hours over a wired rack on a bain marie. Afterwards leave to cool then store in the fridge covered overnight.

To remove from the mould, use a knife gently along the sides of ramekin and tap the bottom gently. Serve very cold.

Note : I'm a recipe rebel, sorry Pierre... but I made several minor adjustments.
1. I halve the recipe and normally use 6 x 125ml ramekins. Everything in moderation... it's a new year after all.
2. 2 hours??? Pierre you must be joking! That's way too long. 45 minutes top for me, otherwise they'd be too firm.
3. I really like the consistency of the caramel syrup from the caramel cake I made for November's daring bakers. I used that recipe (halved) for my last batch and the result was very pleasing.
4. Otherwise, for 1/2 litre of milk I use 75 gr of sugar.


Gone in 360 seconds. (Cos I ain't no pig)

Vogue E+T vs me

Vogue Entertaining and Travel, mid-winter'01. Photography by Ben Dearnley

Yes, I know that I was setting myself a crazy challenge... but I really thought that I could take a decent picture of a chocolate pudding, not unlike above. Therefore this morning I baked with a mission, i.e. to photograph the pudding just as they came out of the oven all puffed and lovely with a dollop of cream on top and a drizzle of hot chocolate sauce. I had made it on two occasions, so I knew that after awhile the lovely pudding that had risen just slightly off the brim would shrivel and sink. I had only one chance, one pudding to play with. I was to bring the rest (yes, in their deflated condition) to lunch at T+C's place.

For the sake of self improvement, I noted some things I would have done otherwise next time : I should have heated the chocolate sauce a bit more to thin it out a bit, and it would help the cream to loosen up (first mistake). Second mistake was that I poured too much sauce and the weight of it flattened the top.

Fatal mistake, I then decided to take the pudding out of the ramekin, hoping that I would get it out intact, but neeeeoooww it was a rather awkward affair. So yeah, the result was an easy victory to Vogue E+T and a rematch between me and Ben has already been scheduled for sometime this week before I leave for holidays. Hopefully next time my pudding will look rather sophisticated and delicate and not so rustic.


Pink table, this morning at approximately 10 am. Photography by yours truly

Creamy chocolate puddings with chocolate sauce
(serves 8)

1 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
60 gr butter
35 gr plain flour
175 gr dark chocolate
5 egg yolks
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp Grand Marnier
6 eggwhites
a pinch of salt

Chocolate sauce:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup cream
40 gr butter
180 gr good quality cooking chocolate, grated
To serve : thick cream

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Butter 8 x 250ml soufflé dishes and set aside.
Bring the milk to the boil in a saucepan with the vanilla bean, then remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a separate heavy-based saucepan, stir in the flour, mixing well to incorporate and cook for a few seconds. Add the chocolate and stir until melted.

Remove the vanilla bean from the milk, pour in the chocolate mixture, and whisk well so there are no lumps.

Beat the egg yolks with half the sugar until the yolks are pale and thick. Add the cooked chocolate mixture and Grand Marnier, stirring well to combine.

Beat eggwhites with the salt until they hold soft peaks. Gradually add the remaining sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.Carefully fold the chocolate mixture into the eggwhites.

Spoon into the prepared dishes and bake on the centre shelf of the preheated oven for 16-18 minutes or until the puddings are well risen.

To make the chocolate sauce : while the puddings are cooking, put the brown sugar, cream and butter in a saucepan and heat until the sugar has dissolved, then add the grated chocolate. Stir until melted. The sauce should have pouring consistency.

To serve: pass the cream and hot chocolate sauce separately to spoon into the centre of each hot pudding.

Note : the pudding on its own is light and lovely, even when it has sunken... all the three times I made these, they went down very well. I pre-made the chocolate sauce a day earlier and stored it in the fridge, naturally I didn't use all of the 2 cups of brown sugar. Also because I only have little 125ml ramekins, I baked it for only about 12 minutes or so.

Nationwide best seller

French women don't get fat. The secret of eating for pleasure by Mireille Guiliano.

My copy was given by my sister S a few years ago, sitting pretty all this while on the bookshelf unread. Curiously, as I flipped the pages I noted that croissant and mousse au chocolat are on the recipe index. I am thinking that I should probably start reading it and learn the mastery because I'm not French = I get fat. Oh yes I do.

Alas! Crème brûlée I love! And I make it relatively frequent now that I have a mini blowtorch. In my humble opinion, it shouldn't be that bad for you. From time to time I have it in the morning in place of a pot of yoghurt actually...



Crème brûlée
(A few different CB recipes I have tried. Many a time I have made them that I came up with my own version)
Makes 4 servings

4 egg yolks
200 ml milk
200 ml cream
1 vanilla pod
60 gr sugar
extra sugar for top

As a rule I use 1 egg yolk and 15 gr of sugar for 100 ml of liquid (50:50 milk/cream). So depending on how many servings I want to make, I use the same ratio.

Use the freshest eggs you can find, and organic I believe is best. Once, I splurged on organic milk and cream. Super duper!

Scrape the inside of lovely vanilla pod into a saucepan, throw the pod in as well for good measure. Add to it, milk and cream.

Heat slowly and before it gets to boil, remove from heat. Leave to infuse for half an hour or so.

Heat oven to 120-130 degrees. Place in it a baking pan half filled with water for the bain marie.

In a big bowl, mix the egg yolks and sugar with a whisk until sugar dissolves. The mixture should feel quite creamy and light.

Add milk mixture to the egg yolk whilst whisking lest they curdle. (Chances are they won't because the milk should have cooled)

Sieve this mixture a few times before pouring into the ramekins (125ml ramekins are perfect). I recommend removing froth that appear on top.

I also recommend adding things such as raspberries or rhubarb compote for variation.

Place them in bain marie and bake for 40 minutes approximately or until they set but the tops should still be quite wobbly.

Leave to cool and store in refrigerator overnight or at least a few hours before serving.

If you have blowtorch, great! Easy peasy... sugar the top, cover everything so they caramelise evenly and fire away. I normally would return them to the fridge for 15-20 minutes before serving, though most sources say serve immediately.

If you don't own a blowtorch I'm afraid I am in no position to give you advice on how to use your oven griller to caramelise the top. (I'm sorry but I had rather disastrous result last time I tried) Please do your own google research.

Note : I figured out how I can insert accents. Yay!

Uh oh!

A few days ago I might have just committed one of the 7 deadly sins that is greed.

I went completely cuckoo and bought myself excessive amount of vanilla pods, one of my very favourite things... My only excuse is that it was an amazingly good buy... so good that I felt almost giddy with excitement.




Note: I have already given out some of my pods as penance... (I am still left with 58). My plan is also to share my vanilla laced creations with precious ones (enough virtue to let me off the hook I should hope).