It's been a long while

Hello my blog! It's been a while since I posted - not to say I haven't been cooking, I have! It's been a fantastic vacation time for the last couple of months. And I LOVE being idle...

Another love is Pinterest... i really like the concept. So I'll try to be posting lots more, now that the vacations are over and I'm back in the normal routine of things. 

Clean & Simple

Sometimes I feel like my body is just in need of something clean and simple. Minimal ingredients, minimal cooking, minimal fuss. So all I did was sprinkle some grated garlic, shoyu and mirin over a piece of salmon, stuck it to bake in the oven for about 10 min. Boiled up some kailan, then placed the fish and all pan juices  on top of that. A quick grinding of black pepper and scattter of sea salt flakes.

Clean and simple. And my system was glad for that break from heavy digestive work.

Mary Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?




Tomato (45 days)

The veggies seem to be flourishing! I am so pleased (though i haven't the heart to eat my Kangkong and Kai Lan, they look so cute) 

Hot Peppers (7 days)



Dill (7 Days - already we see some natural selection at work)



Madelaines

Such a pretty name for a little cake.
Never successfully finished reading Proust's In Search of Lost Time (Come on, admit it, you are not part of the 5% of world population who successfully read that tome of all tomes..) But I can surely relate to the famous Proust line of the smell of Madelaines bringing back all sorts of memories.

The entire kitchen was bathed in the scent of soft warm honey and fragrant butter. What i love about this recipe from Eric Lanlard is that it is not too sweet. Just warm, homey and fragrant. A bit like getting bundled in a huggy quilt that smells of sunshine.

My pan was a mini one, so the batter yielded almost 2 batches. It should make about 28 minis and 18 full sized ones.




*Preheat your oven to 180*c. And prepare your Madelaine pan by brushing with melted butter and sifting plain flour over the grooves of the mould. Tap off any excess.
Ingredients

40gm Icing Sugar

90 gm Plain Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder
*Sift the powder ingredients together.
90 gm Butter - very soft

2 tbsp Honey - very runny

*Stir well to combine

2 Eggs

Beat the honey butter mixture into the powder ingredients. Just as it's coming together, add the eggs, one at a time. Mix well. The golden malty batter should be a ribbony texture. Gently spoon (or pipe if you are meticulous) the batter into your tin. Wiping off any stray smears as you go. Bake for 10 mins. Remove and cool for a few minutes in the tin, then invert onto a wire rack. Enjoy the smells...

Spicy Baked Eggs

 Come to think of it, I never buy eggs for the sake of cooking an egg dish - it's usually eggs left over from some rare baking experiment (which happens increasingly these days).

So I had 3 eggs knocking about in the refridgerator door along with some ready to wilt rocket leaves. To make the eggs go further to feed two, this is a supreme pantry/ fridge clearing move, a frittata of sorts.

Baked Spicy Eggs (for 2)
Beat up 3 eggs and season generously with salt and pepper
Saute a small onion diced, with 2 tbsp curry paste (tomato paste would work fine too). When cool, mix well into the eggs.

Grease 2 ramekins with oliver oil. Pre-heat oven to 180*C. Bring a pot of water to boil and fill up your baking tray 1/4 way. Set the ramekins with egg mixture into the baking tray. Bake for 15 mins.

Eat with whatever else your fridge or pantry yields.. am thinking this would be great with bacon and baked beans.