summer treats

honey semi-freddo
semi-freddo - semi-freeze

300ml double cream - whip till slightly "raised"
100ml honey, 1 egg, 4 yolks - mix these together into a bowl. put bowl on top of a pot of water, height of water is such that it does not touch the bowl. the idea is to warm the mixture in the bowl as you whisk it, and not cook scrambled eggs.

once the honey and egg mixture is homogeneous yellow and aerated, looks vouptuously swelling, then pour it into the whipped double cream. "fold in" the mixture with a scraper or spoon.
put a layer of plastic wrapper on the sides of a square/round/whatever-shape container and pour the mixture into it. put into fridge for the mixture to set. you can remove once it solidifies.
to serve, drizzle the semi-freddo with honey and add a dash of almonds or any other nuts.

cucumber salad

ingredients: yoghurt, chopped cucumber, dried mint, finely chopped mint leaves, some finely grated garlic.
put all ingredients in a bowl n mix well. serve with pita bread

yoghurt chicken rice
(the twist to this one lies in its marinate)

first, marinate the chicken fillet with yoghurt, lemon juice, and ground cinnamon. chill in fridge for 1 hour.

next, get ready the shredded saffron and chicken stock
then, heat some oil with butter in a pot. about 1:1 ratio... not too much of each.
after that, add 500g of bismati rice(some sort of fragrant rice) and pour in the chicken stock with the saffron. also add a dash of lemon zest and the juice of a whole lemon. cover the pot and allow the rice to cook for 10-15 minutes.

in the meantime, roast a mixture of cashewnuts, almonds, etc on the pan. this will be mixed together with the rice. also, lightly fry the marinated chicken fillet.

finally, mix the rice with the chicken and the nuts. garnish with a hearty sprinkle of pistachios (do not roast these)

bon appetit!

cool desserts

here's two ideas i picked up today.

BERRIES with WHITE CHOCOLATE SAUCE

first, to prepare the white chocolate sauce.
1. you'll need 250ml of cream and roughly 250g of white chocolate (1:1 ratio), and also some vanilla sticks.
2. warm the cream together with the vanilla in a pot. put the white chocolate in a bowl and pour the heated cream with the vanilla over it. stir the contents of the bowl till homogeneous (minus the vanilla, that is) as the chocolate will melt.
3. after this, pour the contents back into the pot and warm slightly. be careful not to overheat of the chocolate might 'split'.
4. arrange the berries (raspberry, blueberry, straberry...anything!) on a plate.
5. pour the white chocolate sauce on the berries.
6. serve immediately

second, just a simple concept. you may consider preparing mousse with a jelly base. that'll give the dessert a whole new dimension. i shall try to work out the recipe for lemon mousse.

a day at Suiss

Croissants! they smell so lovely just after baking.
clockwise from top: glazing the croissants, "the croissant", "dare to be different"




bread avenue

rows of small loaf white bread arranged for cooling

















streets of rotimania

roti (malay) - bread
















eggtarts! yummy!

this is the dry form of baker's yeast, for those of you out there who are still curious.