Eggs-tacy

A tribute to the humble yet versatile life-giving force of nature in a shell.

This is gonna be the first entry for a weekly project in my "favourite ingredients" series on my foodie blog.

Ah, the amazing egg.
Chicken, duck or quail (I don't know what other eggs people eat).
Sweet or savoury.
Raw, pickled, preserved, salted, half-boiled, hard-boiled or fried.
In omelette, meringue, souffle, pudding, custard, creme caramel, creme brulee, tart, cake, biscuits, or even a sauce (think Carbonara).
How art thou fair?

Not so fair, it seems.
Eggs have been getting some bad rep for its high cholesterol, although debates are still going on about this matter. And funnily enough, cooking actually oxidises the cholesterol in the yolk, and this is what increases the risk of heart disease.

That said, I don't avoid my yolks (they're the best part!), though in my opinion, moderation is the key. However, I close one eye when I eat my umpteenth slice of Indonesian layer cake (7-9 yolks in the recipe) or when I reach out for another helping of custard.

The other option, eating eggs raw, is more scary with a capital S for Salmonella. But sometimes, when I'm too caught up in the 'moment', I throw caution in the wind. In a few lapses of rational judgement, I've eaten raw eggs many times (usually cracked over a steaming hot plate of Hokkien mee or in hot steaming rice) and I lived to drool about it. Hey, tiramisu uses raw eggs anyway. Even Ben and Jerry's, and I'm quite sure, Haagen Daz too! These days, it's hard to say when you'll get lucked out, but if some people are willing to die by the sword (or bullets, in this time and day), why not by the spoon? Heh!

Anyway, here are my egg-ceptional favourites when it comes to all things eggy.

Favourite egg
Chicken, preferably free range.

You like your breakfast eggs...
Sunny-side up, with the yolks still runny.
I like them soft-boiled too, with buttered toast. Yummm...
Decisions, decisions.

Favourite dessert with eggs as main ingredient
This is a long list, but here are my top 3:
- Indonesian layer cake
- Flourless chocolate cake
- Creme brulee
- Chinese egg tarts
(oops, that's four)

Favourite savoury dishes with eggs as main ingredient
My top 3:
- Steamed 3-eggs (chopped century egg and salted egg in egg custard)
- Ham & Cheese & Mushroom omellete
- Fried sunny-side up, on top of fried rice or maggi / indo mee goreng

Century Egg or Salted Egg
I love both! The former on its own with pickled ginger, and the latter with plain rice and ulam.
(Never had century eggs or salted eggsbefore? Click on them to find out more)

Egg pet peeve
Raw quail's egg with soba. Euwww...

Eggiest memory
My dad used to make this really delicious and lemak rice dish.

Hot steaming rice on a plate. Make a well in the middle. Put in a generous knob of butter (salted). Crack in a raw egg. Mix immediately to let the heat semi-cook the egg. Add thick soy sauce to taste and a sprinkling of pepper.

I loved this when I was little, and although I haven't eaten it in a while, I know the taste will always bring back memories of childhood.

Now, egg lovers, consider yourselves tagged!

Father time

I enjoy hanging out with my dad.
Not that I'm a daddy's girl or anything, but we get along very well these days. One upon a time when he was younger and of better health, he had quite a nasty temper. Age and Parkinson's have slowed him down considerably. But despite all that, he laughs and jokes alot more now. And he sends me the funniest SMSes - mostly reports on Sunshine's antics and complaints about mom's super healthy (read: bland) cooking. He'd conspire with me to buy home some Hokkien Fry for supper. Bad for him, but I indulge the old man sometimes.

On Friday, I was on leave. Dad had to get his meds from both UH (now UMMC) and IJN (National Heart Institute). IJN was smack in town, near some of the more interesting old eating joints. I read about a Mushroom Pan Mee stall on Lorong Haji Taib 5 (a notorious red light district by night) on eatingasia.typead.com. Dad being a greedy foodie like me, despite his stomach not being able to digest as well as it used to, was more than eager to try it out. It was nice and mushroomy, though I felt the soup was rather bland. Read EatingAsia's article for a full description.

On the same foodie blog, there was a post about an old Chinese pastry shop nearby called Sin Wah Bee. They are famous for their Tau Sar Pneah (mung bean biscuits - ground mung beans in a flaky lard-y pastry). My dad loves Tau Sar Pneah and gets cravings for them. So we took a short walk along the backroads of Chow Kit to find that shop. And it was there. Just like in the picture on EatingAsia's blog, the old Chinese lady was at the back, making the little biscuits. A big mound of mung bean paste in front of her. Little circles of pastry shaped into coins on her side. A big wooden tray was filled with freshly baked biscuits. The place looked like nothing was changed since decades ago. Check out EatingAsia's pictures of this little shop. Very interesting. Taste-wise, cannot beat Penang's Ghee Hiang Tau Sar Pneah though. Hehe.

As we were walking back to the car I spotted a Bake With Yen baking supplies shop. I went nuts. LITERALLY. There's just something about baking supplies shops (and supermarkets) that makes me deliriously happy :D.

Back to the nuts. Chinese New Year's coming and I'm thinking of making more biscotti. Different flavours. So I bought a pack each of crystallised ginger, almonds, pistachios and pecans. Dad went on to take a handful of each nut to roast for snacking in front of the TV. Bwahahahaha!

Tragedy

My biscotti batter was resting in the fridge (1 hour, the recipe said), waiting to be baked.

The baking tray was lined and buttered.

I was having a nice cold glass of water after some washing up.

Then it started.

Dit-dit-dit-dit-dit-dit-dit-dit.

"Who's messing with the oven?!"

Dit-dit-dit-dit-dit-dit-dit-dit.

No one was. But numbers kept appearing on the screen.
Like an invisible finger was poking at the function buttons.

FREAKING HELL!

I switched the power off and on again.

Dit-dit-dit-dit-dit-dit-dit-dit.

It went on merrily.
Eerily merrily.
Defiantly merrily.

I tried desperately to press the other buttons.
Nothing.

I opened the oven door.
Ok. The noise stopped.

Then it dawned on me that my oven's not possessed.
It's simply f@#ked.

This only means two things.
1. I have to bake the biscotti tomorrow morning at LY's sister's place. SY & DL bought a kick-ass gourmet coffeemaker recently and I wanted to make some homemade biscotti to go with their homemade brew.
2. I HAVE to buy a new oven after all. *sob* I need to start a Wandernut New Oven Fund (WNOF). When it went out of order the first time, it was just a broken door key. I painstakingly hunted for the spare part and got it fixed. Now it's an electronical problem. And the model's too old to be salvaged.

Sigh. I can only afford a new oven maybe next year.
Meanwhile, I'll have to look for surrogate ovens.
*waves at Snowie*

Anyway.
The batter is lonely and cold in the fridge as I type.
It's for Italian Biscotti (from a recipe online).
Almonds, orange extract (which I replaced with freshly grated orange rind - don't like 'flavourings' from a bottle) and aniseed. I've never used aniseed in baking before. The spice smells of licorice. Nice. I can't wait to find out what it'll taste like. Look out for it in my foodie blog a few days from now.

A Tribute.

My dear microwave oven,
You have served my family well for almost 20 years.

Although my mom always misunderstood you,
You were steadfast and loyal.
She would never stand in front of you for fear of radiation.
She disliked you. Yet she needed you.

You must have felt so hurt.
But you reheated our meals lovingly.
You warmed my cold coffee in 30 seconds flat on High.
You made leftovers edible again.

My dear microwave oven,
You were so versatile.
With your convection function, I could bake and grill.
My first batch of cookies came out from you in 1994
(I was trying to impress a boy then).
And the first roast turkey in 2001 for Christmas
(I was trying to show mom that you're more than a food reheater).

You've been resilient, strong and steady.
Until now.

It is time you rest, my friend.
I thank you for the good times.

R.I.P.

Stinkbomb

My colleague JL is leaving the company for LB (the agency I came from before I joined this present agency). To send him off, I made a durian cake.

JL is a Chinese bloke who's a machan-wannabe (if you want to know what it means, I'll have to tell you in private for fear of being thrown into prison).

He's over 40, but could easily pass off as someone ten years younger. That is, until his bad eyesight gives him away. He's a walking encyclopedia, quietly observing and commenting on social and religious issues. And once upon a time, he would've been a priest. A good friend to all, he will be missed.

Bye, bye, JL!
All the best on the other side.

Good gawd, why does this sound like an obituary!

Anyway, the cake.
It's a basic butter cake recipe with durian flesh mixed in, covered in freshly whipped durian cream, made with whipping cream and more durian.


Naked cake with stinky durian cream

It is quite strange how anything durian can be detected by the nose from a mile away, despite efforts to keep the cake in its box, and in a plastic bag.


The stinkbomb

Looks innocent enough.
More on my foodie blog.

Cold-blooded housewarming

D recently moved into his new apartment, two floors up from his rented place. It looked exactly the same, but with a fresh coat of paint, nicer furniture and five air conditioners (wow).

Anyhoo, it was his housewarming recently, and he invited some friends over. One of which was a reptile fanatic, who brought his beautiful pet rainbow boa constrictor along.

I'm not one to be squeamish about reptiles, so I loved holding it and letting it coil around my neck and arms. In fact, I was so charmed by it, its owner was worried I'd traumatise the poor thing. I guess he got worried when I said his snake felt just like a leather handbag. With a pulse.


See its rainbow sheen? So pretty huh?


Feels just like snake-skin.

Reptiles aside, I made a tiramisu for the little party.
Read about it in my foodie blog. ;)

Who's for tarts?

The weekend was a good one.

Managed to run on Saturday morning, although I didn't last very long.
But at least I got my butt out there for awhile.
Then I met up with MT and Box for breakfast, visited MT's new house and saw her kids, my how they've grown.

Then I got started on my pineapple tarts, which didn't take very long as I prepared the jam the night before. Read all about it here.



On Sunday, D and I went to Restoran Wong Poh near Dataran Prima for some really amazing Cheese Crabs. The sauce was creamy, but not too 'jelak'. With a hint of curry leaves and enough sweetness to complement the crab meat but not cloyingly so (unlike this other seafood place next to the Tropicana fishpond). Unfortunately, no pictures because it was a last minute decision, and it would've been way too messy to take any anyway. Haha. We also ordered Mantis Prawns in Marmite sauce. These came in generous big and juicy quantities, unlike the skinny ones at most restaurants. Thumbs up for this too. And surprise, surprise, D even liked the vegetables we ordered - Yau Mak with garlic.

I haven't been to this restaurant in a long time, and I've forgotten how good the food here can be. Slurp slurp. It was a cool breezy night too and we sat outside. Breaking the rather quiet evening with the sound of pounding hammers and cracking crab shells.

Bliss, I tell ya.

Christmas Feast 2005

The menu:
~ Fresh Mushroom Soup
~ Mesclun Salad with Roasted Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette
~ Garlic Mashed Potatoes
~ Roast Turkey with Sausage, Sage & Onion Stuffing
~ Chocolate Volcano with Vanilla Ice Cream
~ Cranberry Cooler
~ Shiraz, Wyndham Estate Bin 555 2002


Kinda early for a Christmas dinner, but necessary knowing how insanely hectic Christmas Day itself could be.

Even yesterday (Sunday), I was running behind schedule with the food. We only started eating at 8.30pm (dinner was planned for 7.30).

It's the TURKEY's fault.
I saw the frozen birds at Carrefour, Midvalley going at RM12.90 per kg, two weeks ago. But guess what, they were all sold out when I went there on Saturday. And at most places, the birds were too big (above 6kg). I wanted a 3-4kg bird.

So yesterday morning, I went on a mad turkey chase and finally found a place with smaller birds. But the smallest were at least 5kg or just slightly under. And at RM15.90 per kg too. Oh well. Not like I had a choice. So I bought two (one of last night, and one for JH's party coming Friday).

From 11.00am:

1. The turkey. It took several hours in a water bath to defrost it.

2. The stuffing. Because I was running late, I had to cook the turkey sans stuffing (which saved me an hour). So I cooked this separately, and gave it some turkey flavour with stock made by boiling the bird's giblets and neck.

3. The roasting. I read that covering the breast with bacon keeps the breast moist. So I tried that and it made the bird look rather interesting. Into the oven it went for 4 hours. Did that tip work? More on that later.

4. The mash. I boiled the potatoes and roasted a clove of garlic.
Then I mashed them with butter and cream before leaving it in the fridge (it was still early).

5. The soup. I sliced the mushrooms, cooked them in butter with chopped onions till soft, addded chicken stock and pureed half the pot in the blender (so that there were fine mushroom bits as well as juicy slices). A dash of cream and I left it to simmer.

6. Dessert. At this point, it was already 7pm. I quickly melted the chocolate in a bowl over a hot bath (the bowl, not me, though I desperately needed one at that point). Then I creamed the butter and sugar, added eggs and flour, a dash of rum, and folded them into the chocolate evenly. Then into the muffin tray it went (I wanted to get ramekin dishes but didn't have time!).

7. The salad. The pre-packed salad leaves went into my salad bowl with cherry tomatoes and sliced onions. For dressing, I mashed a clove of roasted garlic into olive oil and stirred in balsamic vinegar with a pinch of salt. My favourite vinaigrette.

8. The drinks. It was a very very hot day. And keeping with the festive season, I mixed half a jug each of cranberry juice and 7-up. Juice from half a lemon, ice and we had a jug of Cranberry Cooler (copied this from Dome's menu).

9. The gravy. When turkey was ready, it was placed on a serving dish and garnished, while the meat juices went to a saucepan, and thickened for gravy.





The verdict:

We were stuffed (though the turkey wasn't).

The soup was nicest, in my opinion. Maybe it's cos I love soup. And the fresh button and Swiss brown mushrooms made it really earthy and delicious.

The mash didn't turn out as smooth as I hoped it would. And it was perhaps too heavy on the garlic.

The salad was simple to eat. The way I like it.

The turkey and stuffing were okay. And the bit about bacon keeping the breast juicy - A LIE. The breast was like typical roast turkey breast - on the dry side. Maybe I should try roasting it breast down next time. The turkey was tasty though, and the stuffing quite unnecessary. I'd skip it next year.

The volcanoes exploded prematurely again - when I tipped them over. Upset. Even after baking it an extra 2 minutes. I really MUST MUST MUST get it right next time. And buy proper ramekin dishes for it too.

What a day. I was full and exhausted. But it was great fun.
I'm grateful it's only once a year.

A secret feast

My mom went away for the weekend.
Without her breathing down my neck I had the kitchen to myself! Whooopee!!

Saturday night's menu was quite a treat:
~ Stuffed Portabello Mushrooms
~ Mesclun Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette
~ Roast Chicken with Pesto, Sage and Onion
~ Walnut Bread
~ Chocolate Volcano with Vanilla Ice Cream





Read all about the secret feast.

The whole circus ended with a massive clean up.
And I had to destroy all evidence of culinary activity before mom got home the next day. Tee hee!

Me and My Chocolate Sunday

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is my favourite Roald Dahl story. Put it into Tim Burton's hands, and you get a wonderful movie.



Every scene is so beautiful to look at.
Johnny Depp looks like a girl.
And the Oompa-Loompas are hilarious.

I won't compare it to the movie made many years ago, because each has its own merits. But I enjoyed this version tremendously. Maybe it's because I love all things Tim Burton (ooooh, BIG FISH! I loved BIG FISH! And Nightmare Before Christmas!)

Inspired by the movie, I went home to bake a Flourless Chocolate Cake. The cake turned out yummy and I made extra creamy chocolate frosting to go with it.



I licked up all the raw batter in the mixing bowl after the cake went into the oven and my tummy went a-rumbling in a big way.

I guess raw eggs (albeit masked in chocolate) don't agree with me.

Blues for a blue sky

For the past two weeks, the haze got me feeling extremely blehhhh, teary eyes and an itchy throat not withstanding.

This is the suburb I live in, last Thursday evening.


And the KL Tower, taken from the carpark near my office.
Left, in the morning. Right, in the evening.


To deal with my terribly morbid mood, I went for drinks and a chocolate volcano with LY.

And on Sunday, some baking therapy.
A Ginger Bread & Butter Pudding.

The haze has lifted and the sky is bluer now.
But why do I feel a tad teal still?