sookie's cookie: October 2006

a kinda apple pie

I had all these apples sitting around from the pre exams period that I bought before I discovered that I couldn't tolerate them. I've been wanting to cook with them for sometime so that, that way, its easier to give them away *grin*

I tried a recipe from the newspaper...didn't quite turn out the way I expected. The crust was nice- more like a shortbread as you actually cream the
butter and sugar together first. It was the filling that tripped me over. It said to cook it over the fire with butter (A LOT OF BUTTER), sugar, cloves & cinnamon unti the apples softened. I did that and there was just so much butter still drowning the apples. So, I cooked them up again, and then turned down the heat & left them to take a quick shower. The apples basically caramelised themselves. So, if you look carefully, all the brown bits are the cooked apples. There are some white bits of apple because i thought the caramelised bit plus the crust would be very 'jelak'. So i just put sliced pieces of another (uncooked) apple on the top before baking. I got a mixed reaction to it- some thought super nice, some said too rich, some just didn't like it. Me? I didn't each much but ...i do prefer 'original' apple pie. Just feels like you can eat more of that and somehow feels justified that it's mostly fruits and therefore healthy for you. haha.

several days ago...

i can't remember when.
oh i do. on tuesday night - i asked cheche what should i make? i had some pears and apples i wanted to use. i was going to make apple pie but mommy said - what?? are you going to eat everything by yourself. i said : no lahh. give to classmates as well. mommy: oh. make muffins lah. easier. i said: oh yeah. ok.
recipe from: http://creampuffsinvenice.typepad.com/cream_puffs_in_venice/2006/05/the_best_muffin.html

this is impressive. try peeling a fruit with a big knife. that's right. :)
i don't have a scraper..or whatever you call that.

after making the muffins..i had extra apples. so i made gateau au yaourt.

i made the batter, poured it out into the pan, layered it with apples and dumped some apricot jam on top. :)

http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2005/10/gateau_au_yaourt.php

CHECK THE POST I MADE ABOUT JULIA'S 2ND RECIPE - BAGUETTE. UPDATED!! :D

donuts, beignets

http://www.nordljus.co.uk/en/index.php?showimage=124
did it turn out like hers? NOPES!
haha. but fried dough and custard - ..does it really matter whether it looks beauuutiful?
nopes.
*>_<*

lesson in bread making - papa - which one is the wrong dough??

:) click on the picture and take a closer look.

well, the left one didn't rise. so after 1 hour..the dough was dense, clammy, and..yeah. so i made another batch. this time i deliberately kept the dough a little wet and added flour as i kneeded. voila. little donuts made with the 2nd batch of dough.

frying - i don't have a fryer - and i don't want to use a lot of oil.

ok. so the middle didn't cook properly. hehe. but it's ok. because i can't pipe in the custard either. so i sliced the donut in half and fried it again for a short while.

there ya go. donut and custard. mm. :)

BIrthday breakfast

So, The Exam is finally over!!!! *CHEERS* I really am so grateful though that God was really with me thoughout the whole time, in this very real way. I just had Him there....

Anyway, the day before The Exam was my birthday. Thank you very much for the presents!! I can't post them up because my connection is soooo slow. Just not going to work. Mummy gave me a nice black embroided bag with leather straps and Sook Ning sent me a Veggie Tales dvd, a cd and a A.W Tozer book. VERY NICE *beams*

Some of my old OCF friends surprised me at midnight with a cake which was really nice of them. They didn't stay long either cause I needed to get back to studying. It was kinda funny really, cause they called JJ(who had nothing to do with it), and she answered the call so loudly & then she's so bad at lying that I kinda figured it out but let them surprise me. haha..it was just funny cause after that she confessed to answering the call loudly & being a bad liar..but i didn't call the bluff larr...just let her believe that I didn't know anything about it *grin*

I had an early morning start at the gym & then breakfast with Fiona as follows:

Pikelets with maple syrup and berries-Nice but not spetacular

Omelette with feta cheese, olives and sundried tomatoes- Egg was nice and fluffy but somewhat lacking in flavour.

It was the perfect day with perfect weather though. Fi and I got so fidgity in the house that we moved outside to study near the tennis courts. We went through so much...until 5.30pm. Then it was church, back home, nap & back to studying.

I ended up sleeping at 3.30am and...that was my birthday

It's over now though.....Thank God. And thanks guys

PS:

These are the sulphur free dried peaches I discovered in my search for the perfect studying snack that will neither make me fat nor bloated. These were really quite nice. Much more chewy than the normal ones though

French bread

2nd Julia Child's recipe.
a bit of a disappointment really.
It's more Au Pain Dore then Premiere Moisson. It's still nice, but not as sinewy and as chewy as a baguette should be.
the other recipe i used before is nicer. granted, it's fresh out of the oven and needs to rest for 2-3 hours to complete the baking process, but i can never resist fresh baked bread!
it's strange that Julia Child has only one french bread recipe which she uses for a variety of things. or..she just shapes it differently and calls it something else. but if my memory serves me right, a baguette is VERY different from a miche.

mommy: you will like this one i think. crusty and light inside.

HI! back again.
so step 1
dough.

you mix flour, some salt, water and yeast. then after you collect all the crumbly stuff, you turn everything out on to a flat surface. you don't start kneeding first. you take a spade? no..a flat dough thing..and keep lifting and flipping, lift and flip, lift and flip..etc until everything comes together. then you start kneeding.

after kneeding, you leave it for about 3 hours - till about 3 times the size.

julia specifically mentions that bubbles on the surface of the dough is a good sign. so - see the bubble?

you then flatten it - not too much. and then do a funny lift thing. you take the nearest side to you, and bring it over to the farthest side. tuck that in. then repeat with your left side, right side and again your nearest side. then you let rise again this time not so long maybe about twice the size. then you slice the dough to 3 portions. see how fluffy it is?

french people have this batonette thing - wher eyou can place the dough in each area so that it can keep its shape. but i don't have that. so you take a piece of cloth, prop it up with a wine bottle/rolling pin..and bunch up the sections. so after you slice your dough into 3 portions. you take the first portion and flatten it out a little more until it's like a rectangle. you take the farthest side, and fold it towards you. flatten it again and fold it again. then you roll it to elongate the dough. you leave it for the 3rd rising which is about 11/2 hours.

then you make 3 cuts on the surface of the dough.

ok. then it goes into the oven for about 25 minutes. you aren't suppose to eat it straight out of the oven as i said before. let the bread rest to complete the baking process. but i don't. :)

so i tore it open - you can see the steam coming out.

all the best

che-che dumsi dums!
God be with you.

korean restaurant

i went to the market today..

had lunch at a korean restaurant opposite new city asian market in kitchener. it's called Korean B.B.Q.
my meal was 6.99 ++
i give it an 8/10

ok. what did i have?
complementary tea. :)

Then i asked the proprieter to recommend a dish - he said pork stew.
i said ok!
*wow. check out the steam from the stew!

the stew came with rice and 4 side dishes - potatoes, tao geh, kim chi and fish cake (if i'm not mistaken).
the stew was kao kao! none of those weak MSG stuff, the pork bones had been boiled for a long time.
so the liew was pork..on bones :), the meat came off easily. mm. i found 1/2 potato and cabbage inside.

as i've been taught by my korean friends in the movies (thank you kim rae won! hah) - i dumped my rice into the stew. i don't think everyone does that though.

i will definitely go back again!

*side stories
i finally went to a bagel store i found sometime ago.
disappointment. it's on bridgeport off king st.
it's ny bagels not montreal ones. i guess it's pretty good. but i want fairmount bagels.

i had to take the picture this way because i took a bite of the bagel before i thought of taking a picture. :)

*am making tongsui - ginger and sweet potato that i bought from the UW market. am also making the glutinous rice balls with peanuts (to eat with the tongsui mar). but i can't remember whether i mix rice flour with glutinous rice flour or just the latter? anyway, the peanuts are happily roasting on the stove.

*i've updated the post entitled pumpkinness..

Happy birthday che!!!

went for jazz yesterday. the bistro manager knows me now. :)

food was much better than the tasteless lamb shank. i skipped desert.
so i had cornish hen with wild rice and some sort of veg. the sauce was a little on the salty side but when eaten with the hen and rice was perfect. it's like soya sauce and a hint of orange. not just that lah. but i don't know what else they put in it. :)

bernie senesky was playing. wow. very good. incredibly interesting. not keeping with some standard routine. he did a classical+jazz combo - i later found out that he has classical training. makes sense. but he was weak at some parts. not technically, but it seemed like he was tired or something so the playing wasn't as clean as it could have been.

all in all, a nice evening.

a record time

! 30 minutes!
plus my dishes are done
and cookies.
only mistake was using salted butter on top of cookies..
which is alright...
since i didn't add salt to the flour..
:)

pictures...

my dishes washed and dried. i don't have a dish rack so i have to towel dry everything. :)

Table wiped. ingredients packed away.

Note: this is how much types of flour i have.

top shelf - multigrain bread flour; plain bread flour

second shelf: multipurpose flour; pastry flour, small bag of cake flour

cannot see.

3rd shelf - extra pack of bread flour.

and finally...!! cookies. ..well, they aren't really cookies cookie. i dont' remember what they are called. :) but quite nice.

what???

TWO IN A DAY!
http://www.amateurgourmet.com/the_amateur_gourmet/2004/06/impulsive_late_.html

ok- it's 10pm. i can't make this right now since the pumpkin bread is baking in the oven and its a little late. i need soft butter..oh i don't!
hahah
but anyway - it's late. have to wake up tomorrow morning. can't wait for the bread. smells great. hopefully it'll be better then the fake pumpkin muffins and scones. :S

edit
2 minutes later..
looked at the recipe again - it's suppose to be a late night impulsive thing..it only takes 1 hour to make..:(
oh dear. dear dear. er...
hm..
mm..
heehee.
resist!
grr..
it'll be tomorrow's late night snack i guess. sigh.

3rd post -
just to get you thinking
i need to bake a cake for monday - someone's birthday. well, i can buy one.
but i'm thinking of this one - i don't have a bundt pan though..
http://zutalors.typepad.com/zut_alors_/2006/04/swirly_chocolat.html
if not - find another cake that you think i can make. :)
don't be changgih changgih ar! simple bimple. hehe

pumpkinness

hello -
wait for it..
mm.
pumpkin bread.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pumpkinbread
except i'm not going to put chocolate chips.

i bought sweet potato and ..erm..the long white root - but its not lobak - oh ok. parsnip! google does the trick. :)
so i think tomorrow i'll do roast vegetables - potatoes, carrots, sweet potato and parsnip - mix herbs+white wine+chicken stock.
sounds good - anything else i should add? quick, tell me now!

will let you know how pumpkin bread turns out.

have to proctor a midterm exam tomorrow. then after that, i'll have to mark the midterm. so i'll finally be busy.

me: so, er..should i just wait for a reply?
J: oh right. sorry about that. yeah, just wait a couple of days and then send off another email setting up a meeting.
me: o_O
ok. cool. thanks.
thinking: wah liao. no wonder everyone thinks i'm a slacker. :(

had a short but conversation with G. no bad vibe. thank God.

edit
pumpkin bread - taste is nice. but the texture isn't there. not as light as it could be. it's a little dense in the middle. but i think this is my fault not the recipes'.

just some food

hi ko,
pictures of the lasagna

look at that cheese! i used the same ol' recipe except i mixed baby spinach in with the white sauce. i chopped the spinach up since i didnt' have a blender.

& i went pumpkin crazy
so pumpkin scones and muffins - except i didn't have a muffin pan. so it's pumpkin cake. haha.
still have some pumpkin left - any suggestions? (ma - don't worry. i didn't buy a pumpkin - i just bought a can of pure pumpkin puree. :D )

flo's pumpkin scones - you can google the recipe. i found that i don't really like this sort of scones. it's a little too wet for me, i prefer the traditional scones which is bread/biscuity rich mix. it crumbles in your mouth. mmm.
and some potatoes. golden/yellow potatoes are the nicest.
i find that they cook really well - good for mash, fries and baked. :)

a really nice hash brown recipe - not really recipe but just put mix spice, salt and pepper, and fry under low heat. you have to fry for very long though. but in the end, its really good.
i got impatient and turned the heat up in the middle..mistake. heh.
you can just leave it on the pan to cook slowly.

it's my party...

...and i'll cry if i want to!

the strangest thing. 5 minutes before midnight, i thought to myself - God, you satisfy me. life is empty and meaningless without you.
3 minutes before midnight cheche called. excited about presents
midnight - presents! hah. presents satisfy too.
lol.

but i think slowly, i'm shifting away from material goods. i still like the good life. haha. but it really is meaningless without God. if you only have material stuff, at the end of the day, you feel so empty. emptier than you began. perhaps this is what is hinted at when Christ said: the little they have will be taken away from them.

anyway, pictures from my midnight runway. :D
thanks family for love, support and presents. heh.