A great end to a weird day

Today was somewhat of a weird day. I was trying to think of a good term to describe my weird day - I think I shall call it the "spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" day. I journeyed to work, well aware of the multitude of work to be accomplished, but somehow after setting foot into the office, I switched on my monitor and simply slumped onto my chair. I felt so lethargic, I had to drag my feet to the coffee machine to fix myself a macchiato. And it's not as though I had a full-on weekend. In fact, we had a really slow weekend. Alvin and I woke up at noon on Saturday (something which does not happen very often) and after lunch, I went back to bed and napped for 2 more hours. It definitely had something to do with the hectic pace at work the week before.

So anyway, 2 huge deals amounting to several millions of dollars were closed today. When the first email came, I didn't quite know how to react. In fact, it was rather anti-climatic. The team had been working painstakingly on this deal for the past 2 years and quite out of the blue, we received a sign-off today. Okay, so I kind of exclaimed loudly to my teammates that the deal was closed. There were gasps and some cheers, but in general, just pretty low energy celebration. And then at 1711hrs, another email came. I was working on something else and because the subject header was such a non-event kind of header, I left it for another 30 minutes before clicking on it. Then I exclaimed loudly again. No screaming, no cartwheels, just a congregation of folks crowding around my PC reading and re-reading that email to make sure our eyes weren't playing tricks on us. We had closed yet another deal.

  

I came home after work and I baked. It was extremely therapeutic. And it was extremely fruitful. I usually hate working with pastry (because I'm bad at it), but tonight, the pastry must have taken pity on me because it was a breeze to roll. I made beautiful quiche tarts for Alvin's and my breakfast and I was mighty pleased with the end result.

It's finally starting to sink in. I feel so blessed. I'm working in one of the biggest and most successful media conglomerates in the world and I love what I do. Today was a good day.

Bacon, Onion and Asparagus Quiche Tarts

Adapted from Helen Dujardin

Makes 3 3-inch tarts


For the crust:

3/5 cup all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

2 1/2 tablespoon butter, cold and cut into small slices

2 to 3 tablespoon ice cold water

Prepare the crust:

Mix together the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or a fork until the mixture forms pea-sized pieces. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of water over the flour mixture and toss with fork until moistened. Repeat with the remaining water, one tablespoon at a time and gather the dough into a ball with your hand. Do not handle the dough too long. Wrap into a sheet of plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. This will allow the dough to relax and make it easier to roll, keeping it from becoming tough. Roll dough on a lightly floured surface, applying pressure from the center to the edges until it is about 12 inches in diameter. Cut out six 4 inch circles onto the dough and press them into the tartlet pans (or one 9 inch pan if making a larger tart). Refrigerate while you prepare the filling.

For the filling:

3 slices bacon

1/4 green onion, diced

3 stalks asparagus, cut into pieces

2 eggs, slightly beaten

3/4 cup milk

Pinch of salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1/3 cup shredded Swiss cheese

Prepare the filling:

Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. In a medium sauté pan set over medium heat, cook the bacon slices until crispy brown. Drain them on a paper towel. Crumble them and set aside. Wipe the pan of the bacon dripping with a paper towel and place it back over medium heat and cook the onions and asparagus for a couple of minutes. Divide the bacon, onion and asparagus evenly among the tartlets and place them on an oiled baking sheet.

In a bowl whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and pepper until combined and slowly pour the mixture over the tartlets. Divide the cheese evenly in between the tarts and bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool before unmolding and serving.

My first paid job

I was first introduced to Earl Grey tea when I was waitressing in Coffee Club Singapore - the branch at Holland Village. I had then just completed my GCE 'A' levels exam and was waiting to enter university in Sydney. That is an experience I relish tremendously. Somehow, I enjoyed waiting on tables, taking orders, serving food and ringing tills. Somehow, being around food and people gave me alot of joy. I also loved to people watch. At Coffee Club, I witnessed first dates and break ups; I observed how certain male customers would walk into the joint hand in hand with a different girl each time; I overheard conversations whereby women of a certain nationality plotted to cheat male retirees of their CPF savings. At Coffee Club, I met with some total nut cases from hell, and also some very nice folks who eventually became my friends. I still remember my biggest tip was SGD5 - very small compared to servers at high end restaurant, but it made my day nevertheless. OK. So back to Earl Grey tea. Coffee Club's best seller was Iced Earl Vanilla - essentially, a blend of iced earl grey tea, sugar syrup and vanilla ice cream. Or so I suspect. I never did quite witness the preparation of this beverage, but it is not a difficult guess. Since then, Earl Grey has been my favourite tea blend. It has a distinct aroma derived from the addition of oil extracted from the rind of the bergamot orange. I know not everyone fancies Earl Grey - it's an acquired taste.

My parents visited over the weekend. Alvin and I had good, wholesome fun hanging out with them. They are such conversational and interested (and interesting) people, I love spending time with them. I wish they had stayed longer. They left back for Singapore on Sunday morning, and then my baking itch started. Because I was too lazy to make a trip to the supermarket, I tried to make do with whatever raw ingredients I had in the pantry. Inspired by my new Valentine's Day present from Alvin and love for Earl Grey tea, I decided to whip up an Earl Grey panna cotta to take to the office today. On hind sight, I should have used less gelatine and sugar and also applied normal cream and not thick cream, so I have corrected the recipe here so that you get better results than I did.

Earl Grey Panna Cotta

Adapted from Anna Hansen's recipe in Coco

Makes 6 small glasses

150ml milk

300ml cream

50g sugar

3 gelatin leaves

1 tablespoon Earl Grey tea leaves 

Pinch of salt

Bring the milk, cream and sugar to boil in a pan.

Add the tea leaves to the boiling mixture. Remove from heat and let steep for 30 minutes.

Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and heat to a boil again. Once mixture reaches a boil, remove from heat.

Separately, soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for a minute or two to soften. Remove excess water from gelatin leaves.

Add gelatin leaves to hot mixture. Stir till gelatin leaves dissolve completely.

Fill molds with panna cotta. Be careful not to stain the sides. If this happens, wipe the spillage with a wet tissue immediately.

Cool the glass containers uncovered at room temperature. When cool, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight before serving. 

Better Than Coco Chanel Whatever!

This is what I got for Valentine's Day from my darling husband - Coco, a 440 page book about the new culinary vanguard shaping the cuisine of the 21st century. This book presents 100 of the best emerging contemporary chefs from all corners of the globe as selected by 10 culinary icons: Ferran Adrià, Mario Batali, Shannon Bennett, Alain Ducasse, Fergus Henderson, Yoshihiro Murata, Gordon Ramsay, René Redzepi, Alice Waters and Jacky Yu.

Main reason why Alvin bought this particular book? It contemplates the humble beginnings of these emerging chefs and narrates the journey each took in order to be where they are today. He wanted it to be an inspiration to me - to achieve my dream of one day starting my own underground restaurant.

Thanks to the riot of glorious information — narrative, visual, and technical, this is a book that I am going to enjoy leafing through. This is better than Coco Chanel bag!

Finally, A Successful Bake

I went on a baking binge this weekend. I made 2 batches of macarons (unsuccessfully), laid the ground work for ginger brulee tartlets and whipped up 2 souffles in 30 minutes. On top of that, I spent almost every waking moment thinking of what to bake next and how to style the finished product for documentation on The Rolling Pin. I think the baking bug has really caught on.

This week is going to be a busy week. My cousin, KJ, was in town for the weekend, so we hung out over a couple of meals. Another cousin will be here for work on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, I have my parents visiting. The great thing about living in Hong Kong is its close proximity to Singapore. We've been here for only half a year, but have had more than 15 mutually exclusive sets of friends from back home come visit already. 

It so happened that today was a cold and rainy day, so I thought my warm cuppa milk would be best accompanied by a warm delectable dessert. I must confess that due to the macaron mishaps yesterday and the day before, I was in no mood for another misadventure, so I wanted to do something relatively safe and quick. I was in the need for instant (well, almost) gratification. 

The thing about souffles is that they are pretty difficult to photograph. They often fall almost as quickly as they rise. They are whimsical and play tricks whenever they please. I can understand why some people find baking souffles nerve wrecking. Thankfully, these fellas behaved themselves today and gave me something to blog about. 

Bittersweet Chocolate Molten Souffle

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Makes 4

1/3 cup caster sugar, plus more for dusting ramekins

3 eggs, yolks and whites separated

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

140g bittersweet chocolate, melted (70% cocoa for dark chocolate lovers, 55% cocoa for those who don't quite like dark chocolate)

2/3 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon cornstarch

3 tablespoons yogurt or sour cream

Pinch of salt

Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C. Butter four 6-ounce ramekins. Dust with granulated sugar, and refrigerate, uncovered.

Whisk whites with a mixer until frothy, about 2 minutes. Add 1/3 cup caster sugar and whisk until medium peaks form, about 5 minutes.

Whisk milk into cornstarch and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring until thick, for about 1-2 minutes. Set melted chocolate in a bowl. Whisk cooked milk mixture into the melted chocolate. Whisk in yolks and yogurt. Gently fold in egg whites.

Fill ramekins evenly with batter. Bake on baking sheet, rotating halfway through, until souffles rise but centers are still liquid, about 14 minutes. Dust with confectioner's sugar. Serve immediately. When batter is mixed, do not refrigerate for long before baking because batter will not rise nicely. 

                

Unfulfilled. So unfulfilled.

I am feeling extremely, extremely unfulfilled. I just baked 2 batches of macarons - one last night, and another tonight. Both were unsuccessful. I just can't understand how they operate. Why are they so temperamental? I had intended to bring macarons to the office for Valentine's Day, but I guess I'll be going empty handed now. I am so discouraged and afraid to give it one last attempt tomorrow - I don't think I'd be able to take it if I'm 3 times unlucky. I'm so pissed.

A Strong, Strong Compulsion

I have somehow suddenly been overcome with a strong compulsion to create, to bake. My 2011 resolution is to try out and document 50 new recipes. This is Week 6 and I have only conquered 2 recipes, one successfully and the other, unfortunately not so successfully. So if you do the math, you would understand that I'm already lagging behind. Maybe this explains my crazy preoccupation with needing to bake.

Dad had bought for me a copy of my favourite magazine, Martha Stewart Living, from Houston, and as I was leafing through the pages, I came across a recipe for chocolate souffles. Seeing that the recipes I had worked on previously involved chocolate, I thought of trying something different and fruity, so I ended up working on a ginger grapefruit recipe which I adapted from the Martha Stewart website.

The first time I had ever tasted a souffle was way back at a bed and breakfast in Foster, Australia. Each morning, we would sit down to a 4 course meal. It wasn't an ordinary jam and toast, muesli and yogurt breakfast - we had blueberry pancakes, bacon and gruyere souffles, spinach and cheddar puffs. And the menu was revised each morning. The food was just impeccable.




Ginger and Grapefruit Souffle
Adapted from Martha Stewart

Makes 4

Unsalted butter, room temperature, for ramekins
1 cup grapefruit juice (from about 2 red grapefruits)
½ tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup granulated sugar, plus more for dusting
½ teaspoon finely grated red-grapefruit zest
2 large egg yolks, room temperature
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plain or Greek yogurt
4 large egg whites, room temperature
Pinch of coarse salt
Pinch of cream of tartar
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting


Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Butter three 6-ounce ramekins. Dust with granulated sugar, and refrigerate, uncovered.
Bring juice to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce heat, and simmer until reduced to ½ cup, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in ginger. Combine 1/2 cup granulated sugar and zest. Whisk in yolks, cornstarch, and flour, and then the juice mixture. Return to pan. Set over medium-high heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Let mixture cool, stirring occasionally, to room temperature. Stir in yogurt.
With a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Add salt and cream of tartar, and beat until soft peaks form. With machine running, gradually add remaining sugar, and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form. Gently fold in grapefruit mixture in 3 additions.
Divide mixture among prepared ramekins, and place them on a baking sheet. Bake until golden and puffed, 20 to 25 minutes. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve immediately. When batter is mixed, do not refrigerate for long before baking because batter will not rise nicely.