Salmon in a Tomato and Basil Purée

Having salmon as dinner has been the easiest, no fuss fish meal been made in the house of Netley, and today I brought one of my salmon recipes to Bath on my visit to A.

I can't believe how quickly this term has gone by. Autumn term is supposed to drag on, supposed to make people feel like they can't wait to go home, feel like Christmas is never going to come soon enough.

And yet, this year before I know it it's December. Before I know it there are Christmas advertisements everywhere (please see John Lewis' Christmas ad) excuses can now be evoked for watching movies like Four Christmases and Love Actually (the ultimate must-watch festive movie of the year). And of course Christmas markets.

One of the reasons why I shamelessly made my third train journey this term, to go to the Bath Christmas market. Hot mulled wine, steak burgers, hot chocolate with Baileys shot, first mince pie of the year with hot custard.

I feel so fat.

And purchases, pomegranate and blackcurrant balsamic vinegar, and truffle oil. A 'flying' cow to hang in the corridor of Netley. Early Christmas presents whee.

For the few times in my life this year I am actually feeling the festivity in the air and actually looking forward to a warm, happy Christmas.

Ants On Sticks

I am blaming T, my amazing flatmate, for my belly and the fat I must be carting around on my body each day. My amazing flatmate who came back from LA laden with edible goods, including:

All hail the massive Costco size Skippy Peanut. I also have a packet of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups a day. And nope my body won't tell lies for me. So I dragged myself off to the gym tonight after a binge-eating weekend and came home to have a bowl of soup, spinach, and Ants on Sticks.

My rule of eating Ants on Sticks: I only eat one raisin at a time. One bite for each raisin. I know, OCD.

I don't really remember eating them as a child, probably because I did use to be one of the pickiest eaters and would refuse to eat both peanut butter and celery. Good thing I realised I was missing out before too late. I am now officially addicted to this snack, and the feeling that I am consuming "negative calories" thus being really healthy and all that.

Not.

P.S. My Lemon whatever it was below actually received positive responses from my flatmates, and one Saturday evening, for reasons that will not be mentioned, we dipped it all in condensed milk and at it all up, every single slice. Guess it didn't turn out too bad after all.


Not like you'd really need one, but 

Lemon I-Don't-Know-What-It-Is

You know when something just goes wrong with your baking and you can't stop poking at it, tasting it, chopping off bits to taste it, eat a whole chunk to see if that makes any difference, add stuff to it, pop it back in the oven, then keep opening and closing the oven door and still not be able make it better?

That's what happened to me today.

I don't really know what went wrong. If I did it wouldn't have done would it. The only reason could be that I forgot to add in eggs and poured the batter back out to add the eggs before putting it back in. But I don't know, surely it wouldn't have made that much of a difference.

Brown sugar and butter creamed together is heaven. The taste, the smell, the sight of it. If you heat this and add condensed milk you get toffee.

Batter. Oh gosh I hate my crappy camera, I wish wish wish I hadn't left my G10 at home in Hong Kong. I'll be back in less than a month. In less than a month it will be Christmas eve. In 6 months I will be done with University. #scarythoughts

Have been cooking to destress. I made a Salmon Quiche / Pie the day before yesterday which luckily had better results than this. And for dinner today: N, who used to never be able to cook anything in his life except a cheese omelete, made a huge pot of Japanese curry. I stole some, poached an egg and added some celery (I was originally going to have "ants on sticks", that plan went out of the window).

So no recipe since "Lemon and Honey Bread" turned into "Lemon Whatever", but instead here are two HIMYM Season 7 Episode 10 lines which have been looping in my head: Just because something has to be said, doesn't mean something has to be heard. Just because you did bad things, doesn't mean you're a bad person. I wonder how many hearts these two lines have touched.

Wisdom Teeth and After

I had my wisdom teeth taken out today. Two. If you don't want to know the gory details skip the rest and go onto the next paragraph. What hurt most during it was actually the four massive anaesthetic needles that got stuck into my gums, the rest was okay, just a lot of drilling and whirring etc involved. The one on the top was simple enough but the one on the bottom jaw was kind of at a 60 degree angle to upright, and part of its roots were embedded in my jawbone. Basically what happened next was part of my gum was cut through so my dentist could chisel off a bit of bone to take the tooth out. Okay enough of that.

I have top-up analgesic (ooh that's a cool word, basically it means to stop the pain) pills which had to be taken before 1.30pm otherwise my wound (which is still bleeding) would hurt like hell, and I was told I had to have food before. So I threw together the quickest yet most edible food in my disabled state in record time. I found some cooked leftover rice in the fridge, and along with that some chicken stock pots. I boiled some water, threw everything into a saucepan, stirred, stirred and stirred and half an hour later I had congee ready to eat.

I used to hate plain congee when I was a kid. And to this day I'm still quite picky about congee - if it's literally just rice and water i will refuse to eat it. The chicken stock added some flavour into it without actually having to chop up a whole chicken, plus I wouldn't have been able to bite into any meat anyway.

A Simple Banoffee Pie

 I promised my parents I'd make dinner on Thursday. When I left work it was already 7pm (though I am loving everything I do on my internship) and as I walked through the aisles of the supermarket thoughts of this-is-going-to-be-me-in-five-years flashed through my head. Scary times.


I made Spaghetti with aubergine, cherry tomatoes and pork. In record time, dinner was served at 8.30pm. Scorrrreee. I also did the laundry, and got started on a Banoffee Pie to take to a house party the next day.

Boy did I have fun with this. Treating it as a particular person's face as all the stress that has gone on in my life for so long. It felt good.

Three simple steps. Good times.

Stormy - I mean Smoky - Earl Grey Tea Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes in such a temper that Julia Child definitely would not have approved. Hummingbird would definitely have not approved. Even a three-year-old would not have approved.

It's so difficult seeing others reap what they have sowed, rightfully, others achieving what I so ever wanted, with me still stuck in the gutter, failing to look at the stars. Do I even believe in what is coming out of my mouth. Do I even trust in my dreams anymore. Do I even dare to dream.

I was so frustrated I couldn't sit still. I had to, had to do something with myself. Work off the confusion, the frustration. And not for the first time, I pulled out the flour, sugar, raided the fridge for leftover unsalted butter from Father's Day and Lemon Meringue Cupcakes combined, and took out the pot of Smoky Earl Grey Loose Tea that I got Mum at Fortnum and Mason.

There's a musky scent to Smoky Earl Grey, reminded me of a barbecue, and there's a slightly bitter after taste to it. I like it though. It's almost as if you can smell the burnt scent even though it's the taste that is 'smoky'. The wonders of our five senses. Sometimes it gets blurred and I get confused.

Look at my mess. Flour everywhere. It always happens, so I always measure out a bit more than needed. Yet I can't deny how I love the way flour puffs up like a cloud. Up until it gets in your nose and then I regret.

And then I bit into one. The bitterness in my mouth matched the bitterness in my heart, I know I have more to be thankful for than to be bitter about but the bitter aftertaste cannot be ignored. The sponge was soft as I liked it, with slightly crusty bits because I had been so distracted I let the top brown more than it should. It was like drinking earl grey but with milk and sugar, not a way I normally like taking my tea (I prefer it black). My parents each had one too, they prefer cupcakes without the icing. And I bit into a tea leaf and reminded myself that there are things which are more bitter in life than I normally have to take it to be.

You don't have to promise me the moon and the stars...just promise that you'll stand under them with me.

A Father's Day Brunch

Happy Father's Day!

Most of the time the food at home is Chinese cuisine - I've grown up with it all my life. Dinner's normally an ordeal of two or three dishes plus a bowl of rice and soup/broth to finish off. I'm not complaining, I love Chinese food and I love the warm family dinners I enjoy at home. It's a rare occasion now that I get to stay home and spend time with my family.

I remember making Father's Day brunch last year too, as I am normally back at home for the summer. This year I decided to make a Tomato and Feta Cheese Tart, and a Warm Lamb and Courgette Salad.

This knife is amazing. Enough with the blunt kitchen knifes back in the Netley kitchen. Julia Child said that you know a knife is sharp when it slices through the skin of a tomato effortlessly. That can be said about this ceramic knife at home.

Into the miniature oven we have at home! It's about the size of a microwave. I miss the massive oven in Netley.

The Warm Lamb and Courgette Salad. I used a vegetable peeler for the courgette to shred it.

And gave everything a good stir-fry in the wok at home! All done during the baking time of the Tart. Quick and simple.

Dad loved it. He was happy. Made me happy too. Omnomnom.

Made with Love, Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

JH's girlfriend is interning in Guangzhou, and JH, over lunch, was pondering what to get her as a present when he went up to see her over the weekend.

JH: "I actually really want to make her something. Bake something. A cake. Cookies. I dunno," said JH. "Tiramisu? It means 'pick me up' literally...but it's what wives used to make for their husbands went off to the war..." I said.
"I don't think it'd survive the three hour train journey it's too hot in China," he said.
...

"You could look through my Hummingbird Cake Days recipe book and see what there is? There's a cupcake version of a tiramisu maybe that would last longer," I offered.

So that's what we did, and as we were deliberating betweenTiramisu Cupcakes and Lemon Meringue Cupcakes, my phone buzzed.

D: "I'm walking past by your house!"
"Come in! I'm there! Do you want to make cupcakes for your girlfriend too?" JH had already called him the minute I showed him the text.

And that's how I ended up giving two love-struck boys a cookery lesson, Lemon Meringue Cupcakes 101.

Trust guys with grocery shopping. They forgot baking powder. So we had to trek out in the rain to get baking powder since I'd run out at home. Oh well I guess turning up at mine at 11 in the morning with all ingredients except the baking powder was enough of an achievement for them.

Work of the boys, and they kept bickering over who had spilt the most batter. Children nowadays...watching them slowly spoon the batter into each muffin tin was a teeny bit painful. I know I could have done that in half the time they did, yet at the same time it was so sweet to see the look of concentration on their face as they tried not to drip anything over the table or the edge of the muffin tin. Their girlfriends are so lucky to have them.

I tell them one tablespoon of baking powder, they put a heaped tablespoon instead of a level tablespoon (I guess to them it did not really make a difference) and cupcake batter kind of exploded out forming 'growths' onto these cupcakes...

Meet Ellie the Elephant. I found it really amusing that a cupcake would turn out with a trunk and proceeded to give her ears. Some people were less impressed. But I liked her.

JH even found cupcake boxes. They do look good enough to sell, and credits to the boys because all I did was just to instruct them what to do, plus boil the sugar to reach the soft boil stage when making the meringue. Oh and putting them into the mini-oven we have at home.

I later had tea with mum, one Lemon Meringue Cupcake each, with Fortnum and Mason Smoky Earl Grey. She loved it.

I'd never have thought Lemon Meringue Cupcakes would bring about so much love.

The Mad Hatter's Tea Party...

..and other afternoon tea experiences.

The Mad Hatter's Tea, at Sanderson with T, S and B. An afternoon tea which made me buy Alice in Wonderland just to watch again. I can't wait for the Tea Party scene. 

I loved how they made it as Alice-in-Wonderland-y as possible, there were rainbow coloured finger sandwiches, "Eat Me" - Queen of Hearts Strawberries and Cream mousse, Chocolate Opera Rabbit's Clock, Blueberry "Hot and Cold" lollipop Hazelnut Praline Ice-cream "Bursting" lollipop and "Drink Me", the queerest item on the menu. Basically it was a three-layered drink, and we were told to drink it with a straw in three goes: the first was Apple Pie (of which I tasted cumin?!), the second Lemon Curd and the third English Toffee. All in liquid form. Interesting.

Fashion Ladies Afternoon Tea, at The deVille Restaurant, Mandeville Hotel with C. Three hour ordeal of kiss and tell but at the same time I got a lot off my chest. A sense of relief. A different perspective on things. And we got extra scones for free.

Next to us sat two elderly couples. Is it truly possible to have love last so long? The two gentlemen had the Men's Afternoon Tea, which consisted of mini-burgers and no pink at all.

The Parlour, Sketch. Macarons on a floral cake stand makes me happy. A Friday afternoon escape amidst the rare Friday afternoons I have for myself to do whatever I want.

Robuchon. No scones but instead a very French afternoon tea. Macarons, cream puffs, canelé. And a lovely rose tea. And the bruschetta I ate for almost every meal in Malta.

St James, Fortnum & Mason, with E. Another three (and a half) hour session of sipping smoky earl grey and lapsang souchong with pinkies up and long deep chats about things I never have imagined we'd talk about, or that I would say. People-spotting in between refills of chocolate cake and mango macarons, admiring the old elderly couples coming into the restaurant hand in hand, sitting down and gazing each other with such tender looks that makes me wonder whether I, too, would be one of those lucky enough to be contented at old age. One of the most lovely afternoons I had with the most lovely person and I went home with an unexpected serenity, of reassurance, enlightenment. 

The Burnt Smiley English Muffin

I'm coming home, coming home, tell the world I'm coming home, let the rain, wash away, all the pain of yesterday.

Back at home in Hong Kong, less than 24 hours, one rainshower, one too many sighs.

So I made English Muffins.

The bubbling as a result of adding yeast to milk fascinates me. I am so easily amused.

And kneading dough is one of the most therapeutic activities in the world. All the suppressed emotions are kneaded out, into the dough, one good emotional outlet.

The Burnt Smiley English Muffin reminded me that happiness is everywhere, you just have to find it, and grab hold of it.

So SHHHMILEEEE.

I've made these twice; slice them open and put ham, cheese and egg* between and voilà, Ham & Egg McMuffin like those you get at good ol' McDs.

Strawberries and Cream Cheesecake

I still remember my very very first Strawberry Cheesecake. I was in Form 1 / Year 9 / Upper 3 and a few of us got together at my place to make my friend a birthday cake. And we used the wrong cream cheese, cheated and used those pre-made cheesecake bases, and it didn't set. But oh well. It (the cake base) was good. And we were only about 12 or 13, god I can't remember ever being so small. But there we go.

A, seeing how jobless I am every day and how I got a Hummingbird Cake Days cookbook for my birthday, suggested I make him a cake to take to work with so here we are: Strawberries and Cream Cheesecake.

I actually got excited over chopping strawberries. But seriously. I've never smelt such sweetness and freshness of strawberries as while I was chopping them up, inhaling in the summery fruitiness; normally the strawberry just goes into my mouth and down my throat and all is left is a satisfied smile and red-stained fingers.

The second layer of the cake, right out of the oven

one of the ramekins I devoured without even waiting for it to set properly, mm.

So there we go. Almost ten years later, the perfected strawberry cheesecake.