Dainty Chocolate Truffles

There is absolutely no resistence

especially since they are made with 100% pure dark Valrhona chocolates (tks MW!!).
Yes please use high quality dark chocolate otherwise....well, there really is just no substitute with this recipe.

WAIT - before you rush off and start making this, do note that it gets a little messy which is expected since we are dealing with chocolate. Making the ganache is the easy part, rolling them was, well as I said earlier, just messy especially since we naturally have hot hands and also live in a warmer country.

Anyway, this is the recipe used:

Ingredients
150g heavy cream
400g dark good quality chocolate
20g butter
3-4 tbsp frangelico or any other liquor of your choice (*optional)
some cocoa powder for dusting

Method:

1. Melt chocolate with warmed heavy cream and butter.

2. Add liquor if using and stir to combine properly.

3. Refrigerate for about 1 hour, stirring the mixture every 15min to check on the consistency you want before you roll them into balls.

4. Using a small cookie scoop or melon baller, scoop small balls onto parchment paper.

5. Dust and roll balls in cocoa powder. Alternatively you can also roll them on roasted crushed nuts or dip them in melted chocolate (again) to get a smoother finish.

6. Store them in refrigerator. Bring to room temperature for at least 15-20min before consuming as they are nicer to eat them soft rather than hard straight from the fridge. Oh, and most importantly, consume them with a strong hot cuppa - O.o the pairing is just decadent and absolutely heavenly.

Brussels sprouts

Everyone I came across while preparing this dish starting from the supermarket were giving me the 'eye' - that look of you do not know what you are in for !! Then again they'd probably in for a pleasant surprise as this was yummy, if not really tasty.

Yes, Brussels sprouts taste good!!

Contrary to what you are thinking right not - No, it is NOT bitter at all.

The tip for tasty Brussels sprouts is to remember these simple golden rules - you must firstly be generous and secondly do not over cook them!

Be generous. What do I mean?? You need to peel back a feel layers - get rid of the initial not so nice looking outer leaves and then be generous by peeling back a two or three more layers. This will ensure that you've taken out all/most of the bitter leaves, leaving behind the young sweet part of the vegetable.

Avoid overcooking. Blanched the sprouts in hot boiling water no more than 1 minute. Do not boil away until they get all soft, mushy and yucky. Everyone who declare that they 'hate Brussels sprouts' complaining that it just doesn't taste nice (I'm sure there are a few heads nodding in agreement here) - well one of the main reason is that it is usually overcooked.

This is how I cooked mine. In a saucepan or wok, cook some bits of bacon and fry it for a few minutes (depending how 'char' or brown you like your bacon), then toss in some garlic and continue frying until the garlic just start to colour. Throw in your blanched Brussels sprouts, fry for less than 1 minute with a little salt (to taste). Turn off the fire and plate it. Can be served warm or at room temperature.

Snapshot

If you follow annathered's blog you'll know that she recently made a trip to Tokyo and visited Studio Ghibli's museum. At her blog here she mentioned about this particular box of milk caramel candy which you should get before watching Mei and the Kittenbus at Studio Ghibli.

Chance upon it at a Japanese food shop here and before I knew it I grabbed one to the counter without hesitating - well only perhaps deciding which flavour: milk caramel (yellow box) or brown sugar caramel (brown box). haha

tiny box of candy - about the size of a cigarette box, if not slightly smaller.

inside.....12 small cubes of tasty soft sweet fudge. Looks similar to a seasoning cube right? But at almost 70cents per tiny piece, I'm really tempted to make my own!

Found this on youtube - am wondering if it is the same 'exclusive' show you will only get to see at Ghibli Museum.

Classic Lamb Stew - Another Julia

This Christmas eve dinner, decided to keep things 'tasteful & appreciative' and so we celebrated with a classic dish - Julia Child's Lamb Stew. Used same recipe as per Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon; substituted with lamb instead of beef so M could also eat this dish. Also added extra herbs rosemary and thyme.



It was every bit as heavenly as the boeuf bourguignon made earlier. Had good feedback from everyone who tasted this.

What's special about it this time was the way it was cooked *grins*. The meat took much quicker getting to 'melt in the mouth' tender stage. All thanks with the help of the trusty pressure cooker. So easy :) Not to say cooking with the oven was any much harder but the latter just took a lot longer that's all. The other method of cooking if you do not own a pressure cooker or an oven is to cook this using a slow cooker overnight.

As you guessed, the leftovers tasted even better. Only regret was I should have cooked more as there were no left overs, sob - note to self for next time!! Looks like stews will be making a regular feature for 2011.

Box full of adorable Totoro

Are you a fan of animaes by Miyazaki?

M is a super keen fan and since it was her birthday, decided to present her with her very special box full of Totoros.

Used a basic cookie recipe, and cut out all the characters by hand using a template. Took me much longer to bake these but am glad with the results, even more with the glowing & appreciative smile from M.

She didn’t know what to do with them – admire them or which to eat first! Hahaha

If you are a Totoro fan, here are more pictures of them.

Let's start from the basic.
Totoro is the ‘spirit of the forest’.

In the movie My Neighbour Totoro, there is a scene when one of the younger sister Mei spies upon a Chu-Totoro (Blue medium Totoro) and Chibi-Totoro (White little Totoro).

All the characters.


How many Totoros do you see?

5 you say. Are you sure???

Joined by Chu-Totoro



Enough Totoros for you??

Not for M - she literally went ga-ga over them!! hehe

The 3 sizes of Totoro.

Which ones to eat first - decision, decisions, decisions!!!



Totoro joined by Makkuro Kurosuke (Black Dust bunnies or soot mite). In the movie, they are little black fuzzy things, about the size of a golf ball and lurk in dark and unused spaces.


Notforgetting the plush Neko-Basu (Cat bus).
Literally, a bus which looks like a cat (or a cat who works as a bus). In the movie, the cat bus carried Mei and Satsuki to see their mother at a hospital located far away.


Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

So are you a fan yet??? ;)

Found this on youtube.

Merry Christmas

With all the commercialism and hard selling, its hard not to get distracted on what Christmas is really all about - Santa & his elves? Reindeer? Snowman? I too get caught up in all the 'good-feel' commercial hype & 'must-haves' items for the festivities with the public holiday, gifts, food (turkey, pudding) , christmas trees, catchy jingle tunes, lights, decorations etc.

Remembering the day Jesus was born. The real reason why we are celebrating & being thankful!

May God bless all, each and everyone of us.

One of the desserts we are having at our home gathering - A Traditional Tiramisu with full trimmings (aka brandy)! ;)

Crafty Felt Ideas

Its been a really long while (probably since high school days) that I've played with felt. Was reminded again of this craft (tks to elaine). It was good fun to be excite again over this craft. They are actually quite easy to make. All you need is some coloured felt, thread, needle and a good template :) Of course a little patience putting them together also helps but you can conveniently double up watching tv/soaps or even waiting at the airport longue!! hehe

Since its Xmas Season, made some gingerbread mans to be hung on the xmas tree as decorations. As you can tell they can make great xmas gifts too :)

The 'ball was rolling' and couldn't help myself from exploring other fun xmas decorative ideas. Though I confess there is one outstanding snowman yet to be made. Will get there soon - opps...maybe next year.

They are also great as a feature patch work on a favourite bag.

Poor M, couldn't say no when I asked her for a her favourite shopping bag. Fortunately this is a favourite character Totoro - so she finally gave in willingly!!

They also make great brooch pressies too!

opps, who's his brown friend?? Stay tuned for the next post! :)

Dōngzhì or Winter Solstice Festival 2010

Master Prince is all into this festival, but only because he loves eating tong yuen.

It was an eventful day for him....

He had to 'beg' M to make the gingery sweet syrup.
He had to waited patiently the whole day for me to came back, even then I was later than usual, to make the tong yuen balls.
Discovered there was plenty of flour in the kitchen - plain, self raising, tapioca, sago, wheat, corn but unfortunately no glutinous rice flour.
It was drizzling then.
So DH got roped into getting the right flour.
In the meantime experimented with the other flours - nope, can confirm they all do not work! :(
Finally, the right bag of flour arrive and immediately went to work. Master Prince was all happy to roll & shape them; gleefully he fished cook the cooked tong yuen out. Finally the got his wish.....

The long awaited and most wonderful tasty bowl of tong yuen in Christmas colours :)

Yes, after a whole day of major anticipation he had double helpings - two huge bowls of them!!! Does that mean his age doubles up too with each additional bowl consumed??? lolz

For more information on this festival, read more at wikipedia.

Recipe to make the tong yuen mosey here.

Gingerrific Christmas Goodies

During festive season, gingerbread man are a "must haves" for some homes. A long family tradition perhaps? For the rest of us its probably a xmas novelty item, something we all would love to receive - even the dormant inner child inside us :)

After Master Prince tasted Elaine's breadman, he asked for more. Good excuse for me to play with more sugar :) Perfect: win-win situation! hahaha, finally he cooperates!

Recipe adapted from here (also tested by Elaine)

Ingredients
125g butter, at room temperature
100g (1/2 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
125ml (1/2 cup) golden syrup
1 egg yolk
375g (2 1/2 cups) plain flour
1 tbs ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Plain flour, to dust

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush 2 baking trays with melted butter to lightly grease.

2. Use an electric beater to beat the butter and sugar in a bowl until pale and creamy. Add the golden syrup and egg yolk and beat until combined. Stir in the flour, ginger, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Press dough into a disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

3. Place the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until about 4mm thick. Use a 9cm gingerbread man cutter to cut out shapes. Place on trays about 3cm apart. Repeat with any excess dough.

4. Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until brown. Remove from oven. Transfer to a rack to cool before decorating.

Now for some introductions.....

The Minimalist - There are some who would not touch a cookie for fear of the high sugar content. Sugar issues?? Not asking you to consume a whole batch of cookies in one seating - moderation. Loosen up will ya, live a little. Have a small cookie with a hot cup of tea. You’d be surprise what a little sugar could do for you actually.

Ok ok, jokes aside this is for my dad or the (ahem) 'older folks' who need to be more careful with their sugar intake or just hate royal icing. But I forgot to imprint the faces until seconds out from the oven before the soft hot cookie harden. Wouldn't recommend this method to anyone.

Meet the rest of the gingerbread man family

the flamboyant gingieman...

the cold country white winter visiting cousins gingieman....

the serious business minded gingieman....

the classic bow-tiers gingieman...

Now the BIG QUESTION I have is - how do you eat your gingerbread?
**WARNING: The following story may contain graphic violence, not suitable for young children (without adult supervision), or those of you who may have a nervous disposition**

Run, run, run, as fast as you can! You can’t catch me for I am the gingerbread man!

oh no....

Too late, far too late….I’m caught!!! H-E-L-P…

The Nibbler? Looks like its gonna be a long slow drawn out t-0-r-t-u-r-e!!!

Head first? Oo u big meanie, sure BITE MY HEAD – I knew you’ve been just waiting all year to do so!! lolz

Arm first? Well now, you are just plain cruel & sadistic.

Leg first? aHem, getting kinky are we?

Both legs first? Really?? Your mouth is that big? Greedy pig!

S-T-O-P.
T-H-E.
M-U-N-C-H-I-N-G!!!

Yeah, pick on someone your own size!!

O.o....Here come the 'Marshalls'!

"Pray heroes...please save us defenseless gingies to The Human MuncherMonster!!!"

The ones in purple are suppose to be ninjas and the fierce-looking ones with the red headband are "Ninjabread Man". Hear of them before? It is actually a Wii game, believe it or not!

End of story - hope you enjoyed that! :)

As usual got a tad carried away having so much fun making these. Here are a few more that managed to stay on the table (as oppose to the tummy) :)

White gingerman with thick red lips - haha

Assorted xmas trees.

Assorted christmas 'gift' cookies.


Wishing those who celebrate :
A Very Merry Christmas.

This is Master Prince's favourite piece out of the whole pile of cookies.

Want to know something? Whether you decorate your gingerbread man cookie or not, I am sure they will look cute and taste great. Its something in the holiday festive air!! This ginger cookie (and there are so many versions & recipes out there) is really hard to mess up (honest) and a hot favourite with everybody - well I haven't met anyone who didn't like it!! Told ya its the holiday festive air. Have fun baking :)

Thoughtful gifts

Thank you fellow bloggers. Didn't expect anything in return so it was a lovely surprise to receive these :)

Look forward to another exciting year of blogging.

Tote bag from bentopet.

Homemade knited bookmark and stencil (which I had forgotten that I enquired about) from emily.

Gingerbread man cookies from elaine.

They were yummy - "better than the ones from Ikea", declares Master Prince and he usually enjoys the ones from Ikea so that's telling alot!!

Land of Smiles

Sawadee ka

Made a short trip up to Bangkok with Master Prince since he fell ill and couldn’t join us on the earlier trip to Macau/HK.

So this trip was specially catered more for him - so that means less interesting sights, less walking, less shopping, more western food, more air-conditioned places, more play at the hotel!!! 0_0

Before making this trip, I asked a lot of people whether it’d would be a good idea to go to Bangkok. Surprisingly I’ve never been there even though it is so near. The only part of Thailand place I’ve been to before a couple of times is the border town of Hat Yai. Anyway, was told by many that it is actually a good place for family and kids. (Btw was informed by friend that we made a good decision not to go visit Singapore during this time as it was really jam pack with people.)

Having visited BKK, I agree. Note that I was 'held back' and thus less adventurous since this trip was all for Master Prince. Otherwise I would have ventured to the night markets like Suan Luam or maybe catch a ‘show’ or two - think the tiger show sounds more interesting that the cabaret ones (hehe). Missed Chatuchack market too which is only opened on the weekend – next time when I got a baby-sitter, otherwise best just with GFs!!!

Here are some kid/family friendly activites.

Day 1 – Siam Underwater Ocean World.

We had a lot of fun on the glass floating boat ride, happy feet fishes (I'm ticklish so I was just screaming with the fishes smoothing my dead skin, MP kept cool with this smiles under control, almost!), looking at the sharks and string rays and shows. Unfortunately the touch and feel area and the 4D thrill ride was under maintenance that day otherwise think we would also have enjoyed that.

Interesting sights all around.
We enjoyed learning and looking at various sea creatures and fishes.

Master Prince wants to come back when he is 10 years old because he gets to dive with the fishes!!

silly boy wants to swim with the sharks but is afraid of snakes!!!

Day 2 – Safari Park.

Another fun place for kids with so many shows and attractions eg. orang utan show, seal show, dolphin show, stun man show etc. Basically spent the entire morning, walking from one show to another.

The zoo is actually not that big but they had a big safari backyard.

Lots of room for animals to roam around freely.

Enjoyed myself too, feeding the long-tongue giraffe. They were really tame and you could pet them too - cos all they want is food!!

....and hungry big tiger cubs.

For a price you could also take pictures with the seal, orang utan and snakes.

They had a special area for the meat eating animals - tigers and lions. For safety reasons, there were rangers stationed nearby the tigers/lions.

This zebra reminds me of Marty from Madagascar.

Day 3 – Floating market @ Damnoen Saduak.

Surprisingly, Master Prince picked this over the ‘boring’ temples even though it was about 2 hour road trip to get there.

He enjoyed the boat ride most. But eww…imagine the murky green dirty river water splashing in!!!

Plenty of small long boats around the river filled with food, fruits and novelty items would be peddled to you as you slowly float by.

Lots of shop set up specially at the side of the river banks - imagine, shopping from your boat - so not me thus just enjoyed taking pictures, lots of them.

Was so tempted to try some but didn't want to risk any tummy issues - think it'd probably looks better than it taste???

This was such super tourist-sy place. But couldn’t help looking around, it was really interesting and IMHO worth the long journey to get there.

Tour/tourist trap. We were brought to 5 other additional places other than the floating market that we paid for – coconut candy farm, elephant sanctuary, snake show, jewellery shop and wood carving place. Lucky you say? Not really as all they want is $$$ from you. Actually if I had the choice, we would have just skipped it all. Next time, should get a consensus vote with the other tour passengers whether they are interested or not and voice out whether or not to allow such things. The other thing I do not like is being pestered for TIPS. Hell-o if you did your job well, you will be rewarded. Otherwise if you did your ‘normal’ thing as you are expected to do, I am not sure that really qualifies as being entitled to extra TIPS.

Cooked coconut candy (on the left) using the sweet honey sap of the coconut flower (on the right).


Love the many creative uses of the used coconut shells for decorative purposes - a large variety of choice making it hard to decide.

Snake show. Master Prince was conflicted. He wanted to watch and yet he was scared so basically he stayed at the far side of the benches.


Elephant ride anyone??

Other miscellaneous pictures:

Kick boxing - drew a large crowd and no wonder since the ladies were in the ring!!

Noticed a lot of street vendors, peddling their sale.

Attractive mung bean shaped/filled fruits. Didn't get any - the artificial colouring just put me off.

Seems to be a popular local quick snack.

cute colourful shoes filled with buttons.

oooo, this was really good - Hokkaido ice cream, yum!

plump BBQ squid.

crispy sweet snack - not sure what they are called but similar to our local apam balik.

This Vietnamese roll looked better than it tasted.

Spicy Tom Yum Noodles - think mama tom yum instant noodles fared better. But can't expect too much since I got this at Siam Paragon.

Travel notes:
Can booked tours outside airport after getting out of customs. Have to bargain as I noted that there were some disparity in prices after comparing with other tour passengers. Eg. Safari world – paid Bhat1200/pax while another family paid Bhat 1300/pax. For floating market paid Bhat800/pax but another couple paid Bhat750/pax – so lesson is not to be afraid to voice out and ask for a discount, it helps :) Tell them, give you cheaper so that you can pay the tour guide and the van driver tips!!!

Quick & easy transportation. From the Suvarnabhumi Airport, take the airport trainto Makkasan or Phaya thai which takes only 30 min. Ticket cost Bhat15 and then change to MRT train or BTS to your hotel/destination. In total it cost me Bhat30 to get to my hotel compared to other passengers who said that they spent about Bhat500 from airport to hotel. Of course if you are carrying back the whole of Thailand, a taxi would be a wiser choice.

For network train map in Bangkok, click here.