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.