Master Prince's 2008 – some reflections

Just running down a few milestone achievements for Master Prince for the Year 2008:

* Stopped drinking milk from the bottle (I know that some mothers would be shocked horror on this especially in the West where most toddlers stop drinking milk from the bottle by 1 year old. I allowed this exception and was glad he finally dropped it at his own time).

* Stopped wearing pampers (We had long battles with this, plenty of soiled beds to go with it, tears, frustrations and not to mention lack of sleep. MP is getting better though if he got his way, he would probably prefer to keep his pampers, such a lazy boy! Some days he would put them on himself without us knowing! The only plus side is that he changes his soiled clothes by himself (without waking us) and put all the soiled things to one side for laundry.)

* More willing to sleep on this own. Some days, he doesn’t come into our room anymore in the wee-hours of the morning. He only does so when he has to change his clothes.

Lost 2 baby teeth (bottom front teeth). His permanent teeth are a little big so he’d probably need braces when he is bigger.

* Can do multiplication though must constantly keep it up otherwise will forget easily.

* Likes to read English books and can read fairly well on his own.

* Still accepts cuddles but not too much – sob, my big baby is growing up :(

* Loves to swim – well more playing with water than anything.

* Less resistance communicating in Chinese. Now to work on his BM!

* Take less afternoon naps (think we adults need them more!!). Its funny how they want to sleep in during school days but are wide awake early during non-school days!! They really got their bio-clocks well tuned.

Next year will be interesting as he begins school....

Happy New Year Everybody!

Easy Wholemeal Red Wine Walnut Bread

Initially spied this beautiful reddish bread pictured at Susan's YeastSpotting.

Fell in love with the unique and wonderful colour. Though the entire post including recipe was in French, Sandra was kind enough to let me know that she adapted her recipe from this webpage.

Been waiting for an opportunity to try this. So FINALLY, we had some leftover red wine (which is not so often these days) *I quickly grabbed some and set it aside for this recipe!!*.

This bread has "a big walnut flavour. The bread is moist, tender, purple crumb studded with walnut and encased in a tender crust." With such an enticing opening by Dan Leopard, what are you waiting for? Ha ha

Original recipe

200g strong white flour
100g strong wholemeal flour
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 sachet easy-blend yeast
1 glass red wine (125ml), plus water to make 200ml [can substitute for ribena] I suppose you can substitute with white wine too but you'll miss out on the unique purple crumb then!]
50g whole toasted walnuts, plus 100g coarsely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil

1. Mix all ingredients together except the nuts and salt.


2. Knead for a few minute until the mixture comes together before adding the salt.


3. Knead dough for about 15 min or until dough is pliable. Mix in nuts.
   
4. Cover and proof for 1 hour.
   
   
5. Shape dough into a bartard and rest for 1.5 hour or until double in size.
   
   


6. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees for 40 min. Note that you may have to don a tent especially if the bread browns too fast.


7. Leave on rack to cool for about 2 hours.
   
   

M really loves this bread and can practically finish the whole loaf by herself. In her own words, the bread is very 'comforting' and addictive!!

The bread is nice eaten unadulterated with butter or any spreads. While resting and proofing the dough, the smell of red wine was rather strong but don't worry, it will almost dissipate as the bread bakes. The walnuts adds a lovely light texture to the bread.

Since I've tried this bread twice with success, I'll post it for yeast spotting @ WildYeast. Tks again to Sandra for introducing this wonderful recipe and intoxicating bread!

If you have any leftover red wine from the festive celebrations, why don't you give this ago - its a fairly simple bread with a BIG nutty flavour.

Bentos # 60-62

Bento #60

Breakfast bento - Shaped man chocolate sandwich, heart filled jam sandwich, fruit loops and some grapes.

MP has half a day orientation today. Probably to pay school fees and get the school timetable.

Bento #61

Dinner bento - Another attempt at Totoro - belly made of plain rice and rest of body mix with a purple tea furikake served with broccoli, stewed chicken feet and mushroom and chinese sausage.

Bento #60

MP's dinner bento - Since I wasn't sure whether MP would like the taste of the purple tea furikake, decided on another Santa bento using Sakura Denbu which I finally managed to get at Plaza Damas. Looks better but I agree with bento pet that the brand (without the sakura picture on the package) does not taste as good. :( Fortunately MP doesn't mind it.
Santa bento with broccoli, stewed mushrooms and some chinese sausages.

*Both the Santa and Totoro bento are inspired from karenmama.

Trip down south #2

DH and I haven't been in Singapore for a number of years even though we have stopped over at Changi Airport at various occassion but that doesn't count does it?? Needless to say things have changed. In fact we got a little lost at times!!! We bunked in with DH's friend, the Chua family (thanks so much for your hospitality and generosity). It was great as we were able to catch up and chat with them more leisurely and in less time constraint manner. Usually when they are down visiting in KL, it is always time pressed since they also have to spend time with their families.

A night shot from Raffle City, near the infamous Flyer Farris Wheel (which broke down and people were stuck in the capsule for more than 6 hours!!)

The trip was especially rewarding for DH who finally got to eat his Kway Chap which I was told is a dish unique to Singapore. I'm not a fan of innards so it was not as exciting for me as it was for DH!!

On a PLUS side, I finally got to try a commercially made panettone and also ciabatta. The latter was rather disappointing as the crumbs were close! It was like eating normal bread. MW told me that I should have bought the bread from another bakery which was better. Another time perhaps.

A fruit panettone - soft and fluffy and filled with lots of raisins. It was nice and apparently can be kept for a while and makes great bread pudding!! Surprisingly not as dry as I thought it would be.

I also got my first macaroon taste. Nice but very sweet. I thought the flower and fruit flavoured ones were very colourful but wasn't keen on their taste.

Got my fill at Canele cafe - tried the violet, hazelnut, chocolate, coffee and caramel. Yep...really got an overdose on macaroons!!! Needless to say MP enjoyed them since they were sweet!! Now that I have an idea of their texture and how macaroons are suppose to taste, I hope to experiment some soon in my kitchen. Fingers crossed for some 'feet'!!

Also got my first taste of Canelés. MW introduced them to me. She told me that they were her favorite. Curious, I just had to try them. See the white spot on the top? Its bee wax. Traditionally, they are made in small, specially-shaped copper molds but since they are so EXPANSIVE, most other bakers opt for silicon molds which does the job but doesn't produce a nice even dark exterior.

Cross section of a Canelés.

Canelés (alternate spelling: cannelés) are made from a batter that resembles a crepe batter. It is poured into copper molds of a special cylinder shape (sort of like a short section of a Roman tower) and baked at a high temperature until a very caramelized dark crust develops, hiding and protecting a moist, tender and slightly chewy and custardy centre. The batter also calls for vanilla and rum, so canelés are intensely flavored but not too sweet.

Best to eat these treats with a good cup of STRONG coffee!!

Overall a great trip. Pity we had to give the Night Safari a miss as it was shockingly jam PACKED with people. Guess we will have to make another trip though I am not sure when!!

Trip down south #1

I’m back but a little hung over from the festivity and holidays, not to mention the sore feet and shoulders! Not complaining as it is a sign that I enjoyed myself – clothes are tighter, brain is somewhat slower that even after a cup of coffee can’t shake, mind is not motivated, pocket is lighter, cupboard space is fuller (in fact my kitchen stuff are still in bags in the hallway waiting for me to find some space for them), stacks of laundry waiting to be unpacked and washed etc.

My trip was a success as I was able to go too all the shops (and even more) than planned. After months of pimping and looking longingly at other bento bloggers, I finally made my trip to Daiso Singapore and was able to take stock. I agree that the Daiso Singapore is so much bigger than the outlet at The Curve and the stock variety greater. I visited both outlets at Vivo City and also Plaza Singapura. Needless to say I am extremely happy with my haul!

I was thinking twice about posting pictures of the bento accessories I bought especially since most of the seasoned bento bloggers such here have already posted them in their blogs. But then I was reminded that had not it been for the other bento bloggers sharing pictures of their tools and equipment (which I find very interesting), I would not have been able to visualize what they were referring to. So I'm posting here for those interested especially those who are new to bento-ing or just curious.

Some craft cutters, Hello Kitty and Cinnamonroll cutlery box.

Disposable muffin cups, food picks and some food serving bags.

Some belts and furoshiki.

Variety of cookie cutters.
Got the Miffy, Alley Cat and Chipmunks from Takashimaya.

Towel cases, food scraper and some containers.

Baran (aka food dividers), lots of them. I had a hard time choosing so decided to grab them all!!

Food dividers and sauce containers.

Cute flexi cutting boards and a bread knife.

Also managed to make a trip to Kai Kai @ Chinatown Point which sells lots of Hello Kitty stuff. Got a few sets - Hello Kitty, Car/Transportation, Pooh Bear and Thomas the Train Engine. Wish they had the wheel cutters and food picks. Apparently they have a thick magazine filled with all sorts of things which they can order in for you. Since 'boys' were waiting impatiently for me to finish up, I quickly made my purchase. Next time, best to leave the boys at home!! ;)

Its funny that even though I started bento-ing with basic containers, its amazing how much accessories I have accumulated within the month!!! On reflection, even though now I have bags and bags of new bento stuff, I can't help myself but porn for more!! Ha ha....I haven't even unpacked the new bento accessories yet as I need to sort out the storage issue first. Already DH is shaking his head and rolling his eyes!! Oh well, go so far might as well get them right rather than regret later (don't you hate that feeling)? *grin grin*

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Side post - this picture is for Arlene - available at Uptown & SS2 100Yen shop (until stock last??)

Bentos # 55-59

Bento #59 - Surprise xmas bento

This is a Xmas gift for my GF.

The entire bag comes with a bento box and cutlery. She was thrilled with the gift as she is keen on doing her small part for the environment by relying less on styrofoam and plastic bags. In fact she told me that she keeps a tiffin carrier in her car boot just in case she wants to ta-pow (take-away) any food. Good idea huh?

GF's breakfast bento - Ham sandwich, Alley cat shaped jam sandwich, quail egg, endamame, strawberry and grapes. My GF was very surprised with our breakfast. At first she didn't know that there was any food in the box and had to prompt her to open the furoshiki bag and then the bento containers. You see, I had invited her over to my office for 'breakfast' and bought us some coffee from Starbucks. She kept exclaiming how cute everything looked and said it seemed a pity to consume them!!

I got a convert!!

Bento #58

MP's breakfast bento - Since I had spent a lot of time fussing with my GF's bento (think I am still recovering from the holidays, was in a total daze this morning), I had little time for MP's box and threw it together as fast as I could with the leftover bread cut-outs, ham, sausages, endamame, strawberries including a chocolate treat!

Bento #57

DH's breakfast bento - Some simple ham sandwich and an apple.

Bento #56

J's breakfast bento - Ham and egg sandwich with some shaped apples.

Bento #55

MP's breakfast bento - 'Alien' sandwich, some fruit loops and apple.

Lemon cheesecake slice

We celebrated M's birthday over the weekend. Since I had some cream cheese sitting in the refrigerator, I thought I use it to make a cheesecake.

I was a little undecided on which recipe to use but since Agnes' been really hardworking baking this cake like 3 or 4 times, I thought why not give it a go especially since it doesn't look too difficult. The original recipe is from joyofbaking which is also my favourite inspiration for recipes and sweets!!

Adapted recipe

For base
200g digestive biscuit, crushed
113g butter, melted

Mix ingredients together and press into lined cake tin.

Bake at 150 degrees for 10 min. Set aside to cool.

For filling
470g cream cheese, softened
80g caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs

1. Cream cheese and sugar together until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in eggs, vanilla and lemon juice.
3. Pour into prepared tin and bake in pre-heated oven at 180 degrees for 20 min.
4. Cool the cake in room temperature before refrigerating it overnight.

Bench notes - Note that the cake surface may crack a little. Recommend leaving the cake to cool in the oven with the door open.

This was a really rich slice of cheesecake. Best savoured with a good hot cup of black coffee and if possible, a small side serving of strawberries, raspberries or blueberries.

Side track a little....
For birthday lunch, we had Japanese Buffet. Master Prince was very excited at the spread and also the choice. Its been a while since I've been there too and I also felt overwhelmed by the choice of Japanese food available, ha ha. Master Prince was also elated with the fact that he could independently choose what he wanted to eat! Needless to say, he was captivated by the dessert section especially the marshmallow, candied bears and of course ice cream!!! He kept telling us that he is in heaven especially since we assured him that he could eat whatever he wanted. This boy was grinning from ear to ear the entire time.

Candyland...this picture also put a big smile on my face!

Master Prince loved the fact that he could cook his own Udon and Soba noodles. He ate about 5 or 6 bowls of this. The bowls were not that big so that is why he could have so many servings. After that he declared that he will move on to dessert and just indulged himself with ice cream, marshmallows, gummy bears and pancakes!! After lunch and pumped full of sugar he was running around the Xmas train decorations at the lobby 'chasing' the green train he says. He did this for like 10 min, round and round and round. We were exhausted and giddy just watching him burn up his energy!!

Happy Misu Everybody!!

Just to wish everyone a Merry Xmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays.

Its amazing that the year 2008 is almost over!

A 'play' with a simple tiramisu using some xmas ornaments. They are very handy for a quick 'professional' decoration job to lift any plain looking cake, if I do say so myself!!

Assorted Soft Dinner Rolls

Saw this soft dinner rolls here. I've tested it earlier before and they were well received by my family. A friend invited me over to her place for Xmas eve dinner and I told her I'll bring some dinner rolls to accompany her roast!!

These buns are soft and indeed 'light as a feather' with a slight hint of honey.

Adapted recipe
(Yields 18 rolls, weighing at 54g each)

340g cold milk
30g shortening
30g butter
30g honey
564g bread flour
4g instant yeast
1 tsp salt (scant)
Toppings (optional) – sesame seeds, Parmesan cheese or poppy seeds

1. Knead everything together until you get a soft pliable dough which passes the window pane test.
2. Rest covered dough for 60 min.
3. Divide dough into 54g (or such other portion, depending on the size required). Rest dough for 20 min before rolling and shaping to desired shapes.
   
   
   Here are some of the shapes made - star shaped buns, mini cluster balls, S-snails and knots.
   
   

   More S-snails and a simple 'dimple' bun made with an aid of a chopstick.
   

   
   

More mini cluster balls and knots.

4. Proof shaped bread for 1 – 1.5 hour or double in volume.
5. Just before baking, spray with a little water or brush with some beaten egg white and then sprinkle as topping with some sesame seeds (white or black), poppy seeds or Parmesan cheese.

6. Bake in preheated oven at 170 degrees for 12 – 14 min.

   

Bench notes - Interesting to note that the baked rolls sprayed with water had a darker shade of brown than the ones brushed with egg whites. Next time, I'll save the egg and just use water!! :)

Bento # 53-54

Bento #54

Breakfast bento - Heart shaped bread with some rolled flower ham, eggs and some endamame.

Bento #54

Dinner bento - Santa shaped onigri. Wished I had some sakura denbura then I think I could make the face more contrasting (inspiration from karenmama). Served with leftover nuggets, stewed mushroom and chicken and some stir fried vegetables.

Winter Solstice or Dongzhi

Technically it occurs when the sunshine is the weakest and daylight is the shortest.

Symbolically for Asians it signifies:
- being a year older in the Chinese calendar;
- reunion and get together with family where tong yuen are made and eaten;
- mark of the end of the year, that one month later it will be Chinese New Year.

This year I had many tong yuen sessions – one on Sunday night itself with my inlaws and then at my parents place on Monday night but that turned out to be a disaster because we bought commercial ones and it was hard as rocks even though we boiled them quite long (until all the fillings came out). We couldn’t make our own as we ran out of glutinous rice flour and so postponed it to another session yesterday.


Homemade ones are SO MUCH BETTER and reliable in terms of taste and quality. Not only that, it is also fun and easy to make. We will not be buying anymore commercial ones (even though we had great success previously, not sure what is wrong with the quality of the recent ones!!). Also they are not cheap either!

I really enjoyed my inlaw’s version of tong yuen and my MIL gave me a few leftover brown slab nuggets which she cut into small little chunks. Also decided to experiment with M&Ms recommended by Kel!! They were nice and added a chocolate or peanut filling to the tong yuen balls. Be warned that the M&M melts (not in your hand) but inside the dough so I recommend that you cook this as soon as you finish rolling them up to avoid a meltdown with the balls and the fillings oozing out!! That is what happen to some of mine since I had prepared them earlier and only cooked them after dinner :(

Needless to say, since Master Prince discovered the sweet filled ones, its no surprise that he prefers them to the plain rainbow coloured ones (which he used to like). His current favourites are the chocolate and sweet filled balls!

Here is the recipe which is very easy. Unfortunately no exact measurements, sorry. I hate ‘feel-recipes’ as I am such a paper-cook but believe me, it is hard to mess this one up.

For the dough balls
Glutinous rice flour (amount as required)
Tepid water (room temperature, no exact measure here, just enough to make a pliable dough)
Food colouring (optional)
Fillings (optional) – The filling can be sweet or savoury. Some ideas are M&Ms plain or with peanut, red bean, peanut, sesame seed, lotus paste or brown slab sugar. Note that traditional ones are served plain without fillings and usually coloured pink and white only.

I left the white plain, orange balls filled with M&M chocolates, green balls filled with the brown sugar nuggets and the pink balls filled with the M&M peanuts. This way my family could track and choose what fillings they prefer.

1. Mix rice flour with water until you have a soft pliable dough. If too soft, add more flour and if too hard, add more water. For coloured dough, mix in food colouring as desired.
2. Pinch off some dough and roll into little balls. Continue until you have finished all the dough.
3. Boil water in a pot and drop balls into boiling water. The balls will sink to the bottom of the pot.
4. Continue to boil until the balls float up or are slightly translucent or soft and chewy.
5. Scoop balls and place them into a bowl of cool water until ready to use.

For the sweet spicy fragrant soup
4 cups water
3-4 pandan leaves, washed and tied into a knot
4-8 slices of old ginger (more if you like yours spicy)
Gula Melaka or palm sugar shavings (no exact measurement here, depends on how sweet you like yours. You can substitute with brown sugar or rock sugar but it will not be as fragrant)

Place all ingredients into pot and boil for 30-40 min or until fragrant. Add more sugar or ginger to your taste.

To serve, place a few cooked balls into a bowl and pour some soup/syrup. Serve hot.