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Of Food and perhaps a little about me
Archive for December, 2007
December 31, 2007 at 6:26 pm · Filed under Bread, Recipes: Baking
“Bagel, bagel, yum yum bagel, yum yum pumpernickel, pumpernickel bread! I have a bagel and it’s delicious. Would you like a bite?” I came to know of this song from the popular kid’s show, Barney. Although I have no kids, but I am quite familiar with the songs in the show, singing along and dancing around with my nieces.
Mini bagels is what I made some time back. My first try handling dough and yeast. These bagels are really small, only 5cm in diameter. I made them plain as I forgot to buy seasame seeds for the toppings. The first time I saw these cute little bagels at Evan’s blog, I thought they were donuts. Haha..
Bagels are know to be hard, dense and chewy. It is a popular choice of bread in the US. You can add various types of toppings such as poppy seeds, seasame seeds, onions, cheese, garlic, etc. When making bagels, you need to bathe them in boiling water. Depending on how hard or soft you want your bagels to be, the time they spent bathing in the water is varied. Want them harder, longer in the boiling water. Prefer them softer, reduce the water bath duration.
As the bagels I made are really small, they were very chewy even though I followed the recipe. The next time I make them, I will either reduce the time further, or make bigger bagels! Plain bagels are so versatile, eat them with cream cheese, cheese, or the blt way. I had mine with ham, cucumber and tomatoes for breakfast. 3 of them and I’m stuffed!
I am somewhat satisfied with my first experience handling dough although there were some hiccups during the process. My dough didn’t seemed to doubled in size and I kept peeping. Haha.. I realized that I should make them during the day where temperature is higher and warm, as the dough needs to be in a warm area to be able to rise nicely. But it’s nice to have fresh homemade bagels for breakfast the next day.
This is the last day of year. I hope 2007 was a good one for you. Let’s look forward to 2008 together! See you soon and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
December 8, 2007 at 5:52 pm · Filed under Recipes: Dessert, Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Baking
How often does one consume fresh blueberries in Singapore? Not very often, I would say, at least for me. These berries don’t come cheap here in Singapore. One small punnet sets you back by $6.50. The organic ones cost about $10.50 per punnet. By the way, this post is way overdue. About half a year back, the cost of fresh blueberries was reduced to almost half their usual price, $3.20 per punnet! I was an elated woman when I saw the price tag. My initial thought was, my hamsters were in for a treat. They love these mildly sweet blueberries! Lucky little rodents. Without further hesitation, I quickly grabbed 2 punnets home.
Since I can’t keep these berries for long and my hamsters won’t be able to eat much, I surfed around looking for some nice recipes where I could make use of them. What a coincidence when I went to Cherly’s food blog, her latest post was on Blueberry Muffins! Woooh, the way she described how the blueberries burst in the muffin, the thought of it made me drooled. Alright then, the remaining berries would all go into my blueberry muffins.
As I wanted these muffins bursting with the flavour of blueberries, I reduced the amount of sugar slightly. The word ‘streusel’ for this muffin simply means toppings that form a crumbly top on the muffin. Muffins are one of the easiest to make but make sure that you don’t overmix the batter, else you won’t get the dense texture a muffin should be. Prepare the toppings after you’ve prepared the batter. I made a mistake preparing the toppings first and the butter had already melted a abit, resulting in the not so crumbly, but lumpy look. When preparing the toppings using the rubbing-in method, you have to really do it quickly using only your fingertips(heat from the palm will melt the butter).
The aroma in the kitchen when the muffins were baking in the oven was wonderful. Eat them fresh on it’s own, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a glass of milk. Perfect for breakfast or tea.
Blueberries are low in calories and packed with anti-oxidants. They are a very good source of vitamin C, manganese, and both soluble and insoluble fiber like pectin. Blueberries are also a good source of vitamin E.
How to Select and Store
Choose blueberries that are firm and have a lively, uniform hue coloured with a whitish bloom. Avoid berries that look dull in color or are soft and watery in texture. They should be free from moisture since the presence of water will cause the berries to decay. Ripe blueberries should be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator where they will keep for about a week. They will be freshest if consumed within a few days. Always check berries before storing and remove any damaged berries to prevent the spread of mold. But don’t wash berries until right before eating as washing will remove the bloom that protects the berries’ skins from degradation. If kept out at room temperature for more than a day, the berries may spoil.
Tips on preparing blueberries
Fresh berries are very fragile and should be washed briefly and carefully and then gently patted dry if they are not organic. Wash berries just prior to use to not prematurely remove the protective bloom that resides on the skin’s surface.
There are many ways to enjoy blueberries other than eating on it’s own. Add them to your breakfast cereals. Use them in your cheesecake, pies, tarts and muffins. Or you can make blueberry pancakes and waffles.
I wonder if the price of fresh blueberries will drop again. Hee.
Blueberry Streusel Muffins
Recipe from Williams-Sonoma Muffins
Makes 12 muffins.
For the muffins:
7 tablespoons (3½ oz/ 105g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup (6oz/185g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2¼ cups (11½ oz/ 360g) all-purpose (plain)flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (8 fl oz/ 250ml) milk
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract (essence)
1½ cups (6 oz/ 185g) fresh blueberries or frozen unsweetened blueberries, unthawed.
For the topping:
¼ cup (1½ oz/ 45g) all-purpose (plain) flour
2 tablespoons each granulated sugar and firmly packed light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces.
Preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit (190 degree celcius). Grease 12 standard muffin cups with butter or butter-flavoured nonstick cooking spray.
To make the topping, stir together the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut or rub the butter into the dry ingredients just until coarse crumbs form. Alternatively, combine the dry ingredients and the butter in a food processor and pulse just until coarse crumbs form.
To make the muffins, in a bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each edition until blended into the butter mixture.
In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in 2 increments, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Stir just until evenly moistened. The batter will be slightly lumpy. Using a large rubber spatula, gently fold in the blueberries just until evenly distributed, no more than a few strokes. Take care not to break up the fruit. Do not overmix.
Spoon the batter into each muffin cup, filling it level with the rim of the cup. Sprinkle each muffin with some topping.
Bake until golden, dry, and springy to the touch, 20-25 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin should come out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the muffins. Serve warm or at room temperature.
December 1, 2007 at 11:10 pm · Filed under Food Reviews
Donuts, donuts everywhere! Gosh, they are everywhere now. The bubble’s gonna burst sooner or later. Till then, I shall indulge in them now. Yes, donuts are deep fried and unhealthy. But I always believe in eating everything in moderation, be it the good stuffs or the bad ones.
If you remember, I blogged about J.Co donuts I brought back from Batam a few months ago. They tasted quite good, but we didn’t like the rancid taste of the oil they use. A couple of weeks ago, I passed by Donut Factory at Velocity@Novena Square. They have a sit-in café where you can enjoy a cuppa or coffee with your favourite donuts just like J.Co in Batam. I like the idea, simply because I wouldn’t indulge too much by buying half a dozen or more donuts home and get too fat. Must control you know, haha…
This is my first time eating their donuts and I really like it. It’s nice, soft and fluffy. As it was newly opened, we got 2 complimentary glazed donuts to bring home. The Double Chocolate was good! Woo, bite into it and taste more of the dark chocolate filling inside. Yum, yum! Okay, I admit that I may be biased because I love, love, love chocolate. The Orange White Chocolate was nice too. The chocolate coating was sweet, but not overly sweet. It’s after all a dessert (as I would call it, instead of a snack).
I’m glad they opened more outlets and you don’t need to queue that long for the donuts (I wouldn’t queue more than 20 mins for that). Try their donuts at the café, it’s really nice and relaxed (depends on the crowd though).
December 1, 2007 at 2:52 am · Filed under Food Reviews
Astons Specialties. Does that ring a bell? You might have read about this popular restaurant at East Coast Road from local food blogs. A place that serves good western food at a very reasonable price. You may think that it’s just like any other western food stalls at the foodcourt or hawker centre, but Astons offers a lot more choices, with more sides to choose from as well.. A new outlet was opened at Serangoon Gardens and I’ve been wanting to try their food for the longest time. Every time I am there, I see a long queue. In fact, all the tables at the coffeeshop are occupied by their customers in the evening. I get turned off by the queue of course and that is why I didn’t had a chance to taste their food till recently.
You have to get there early if you’re going on weekends. Be prepared to wait for your food. If you are not going to spend about 15 minutes queuing to order your food and another 20 to 25 minutes before your food is served to you, then forget it.
We ordered a soup and 2 mains. The mushroom soup was served hot with very nice crusty garlic bread (although they’re a bit charred). I like the soup, neither too bland or too salty, just nice. B finds it ok only. Well, perhaps I was too hungry?
B had his Pork Chop and it didn’t pass the test. The meat was kind of tough. Not many places have nice tender pork chops. But a new stall near our place has their pork chop nice and tender. Most importantly, it’s cheap. So, too bad for Astons.
I had the Hickory BBQ Chicken. It’s basically chicken chop with bbq sauce. The chicken was tender and juicy but the bbq sauce is too sweet for my liking. The sides we chose were not too bad, coleslaw, onion rings and pasta salad. I like the pasta salad. You can choose 2 sides of your choice such as baked potatoes, potato salad, fries, mashed potatoes, salad. There are a few more to choose from, but I can’t remember all of them. Other than the chops, they have other standard mains like pasta, burgers and steaks.
So is it worth the time queuing? B says no. He doesn’t like to queue. Oh well.. I was hoping to try their lamb chops.
