Île flottante

Île flottante，浮島，floating island是也，有時亦稱為œufs à la neige (雪中蛋)，是傳統法國甜品。蛋白加糖打至企身，在加入了雲呢拿的奶煮熟，待涼後浮在crème anglaise上，再淋上焦糖汁。

每次見到餐牌有île flottante，我都必定會叫來吃。

 

於某年夏天，在巴黎碰上了你。

有一晚你帶我到十三區一間小餐廳。那是我第一次知道Le Pays Basque和那兒的菜式是怎樣的。餐廳的氣氛熱鬧友善，食物也很不錯。最重要的是，和你談得很開心。

吃完主菜，侍應遞上餐牌問我們要不要甜品。我實在太飽，再也吃不下。你努力嘗試叫我陪你吃，我還是十分不解溫柔的拒絕了。

你想吃的就是île flottante。

數年後，和你相處下來，才發現原來甜品是你的Archilles’ heel。

始終沒有和你一起吃這個。

 

我喜歡的，原來你不

久違了的香氛，讓我又想起他。因為他說過不喜歡它。最初我也不以為然，直至有次他終於（在半醉下）忍不住跟我說很討厭這氣味。

於是，它從此被我打落冷宮。

昨天早上，忽然心血來潮，跟這香氛來個久別重逢。才發現我真的很喜歡這特別的氣味。

我實在是不應該因為一個人而改變。

Moving on?

I'm moving, again. Rents are going crazy. Landlords getting greedy. 

Well it's actually not new to me. 

As much as I like the new place I'm moving to, I really still don't like moving. The physical part - packing, going through stuff, throwing stuff, unpacking... The going through stuff part is the most annoying. Often it unleashes a few monsters. 

Albeit the small size of my current flat, I managed to put away a few things, totally hidden for the past two years. 

While frantically packing this afternoon, I found some hidden "treasure". Not. 

Some old candles and candle holders. Not a big deal really and I may as well just throw them away.  Wait... What are these? 

Right. 

Two candles and a flower thingy. Shite. He sent those to me. Five years ago. I was so happy when I opened the parcel. I wanted to light the candles at once but didn't as I didn't want them to vanish with the flames. I couldn't see him as often as we wished and so I wanted to hang on to every little thing that has to do with him. 

But like any candles and flames, we didn't last. We still exchange news from time to time though. 

The last time I moved, he was asking me how it all went etc. This time around, I don't think I'll be getting a word from him. He just seemed to have disappeared. 

Then I started to pack my CDs. And there they were, the two CDs I had been listening to non-stop that year. 

Sigh...

Panic Birthday Dinner

My mom’s birthday was early October so obviously this is a very late post…

The whole family already had the birthday dinner the weekend before the actual date and I thought I could just give her the tiramisu on the day. That afternoon, I called to say happy birthday and then I realised dad wouldn’t be coming home for dinner. So I told mom I would cook for her. 

After I hung up, major panic kicked in. I had no idea what to cook. And I didn’t have much time to shop and actually cook!!! Should I do pasta? Boring. Steak? Nah, she doesn’t like it that much. What does she like to eat? Well, pizza… but how the hell was I gonna make a pizza?! Oh, wait, she likes tabouleh! 

I wouldn’t have the time to chop all those tomatoes and cucumber and parsley. Plus I would have to think of another hot / meat dish to go with the salad. So, no tabouleh. Instead, I’d make a simple one pot dinner with couscous.

Couscous with Chorizo and Chickpeas

Ingredients

• 1 cup couscous
• olive oil 
• chorizo, sliced 
• 1 tsp paprika  
• 1 can chickpeas, drained 
• 425ml chicken stock
• chopped parsley, to serve

Method

1. Prepare couscous according to the packet’s instructions.
2. Heat olive oil in a large pan and stir fry the chorizo for 3-4 mins. 
3. Stir in the paprika, then tip in the chickpeas and the chicken stock. 
4. Simmer for 2 mins. Spoon over the couscous and scatter with chopped parsley.
5. Serve with a mixed leaf salad with lemon olive oil dressing. 

She beamed when she saw it’s couscous and that meant a lot to me. It feels good to cook for my parents. They always tell me it’s nice (whether it’s true or not, I don’t really care). Whereas my various attempts to cook for someone else never yielded this kind of result. 

Birthday and Housewarming Tiramisu

In answer to my mom’s subtle (really?) request for a tiramisu (see the second last paragraph of this post), I decided to make one for her birthday last month.  

It was at least five years ago that I last made a tiramisu and I already lost the recipe. Well I do know what ingredients I’ll need and the steps are easy to remember but it was the quantity that I wasn’t sure of. So I searched the web and eventually combined a few recipes into this:

Tiramisu

Ingredients

• 3 eggs, separated
• 1.5 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 tub (approx. 455g) mascarpone cheese
• 1 tablespoons Baileys
• 1 tablespoon Cointreau
• 1 cups very strong coffee
• 12-15 ladyfinger cookies
• Cocoa powder to dust 

Method

1. Brew coffee. Let it cool to room temperature. Add half tablespoon Baileys and half tablespoon Cointreau. Set aside.
2. In large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar with electric mixer until light yellow, about 1 minute. Beat in mascarpone and the remaining Baileys and Cointreau until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Fold egg whites into mascarpone mixture.
4. Quickly dip ladyfingers, one at a time, in the coffee liqueur mixture and arrange them in a deep baking dish. Spread half the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfinger layer. Repeat the soaked ladyfingers and mascarpone layers.
5. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. 
6. When serving, divide portions of the tiramisu on plates. Don’t worry if it kind of falls apart a little. It’s meant to be a little sloppy. Dust cocoa powder over the tiramisu and serve. 

* You can substitute with other liqueurs. The original Tiramisu calls for Masala wine. But Kahlua, Tia Maria, Amaretto will work just fine. 

* You can use brewed coffee or instant ones. 

I’m sure if you try making one, you’ll never want to eat those served in restaurants. 

This surely is easy to make and will definitely impress your friends and family. Mom and dad both liked it and I couldn’t resist a second helping that night. 

I made this again last week for my friend’s house-warming party. It seemed to go down well. And the next day, my friend told me she saw some of the boys literally licked their plates clean. I was so proud of myself haha.

沉默的消夜時間

見到她，想起他。沒去找他，卻從他想到另一個他。這個他，更加找不得。

想著想著，又想哭了。

Late night baking

It was a Friday night. I had dinner with a friend who's just been back from a business trip. We were both stressed out from work and other stupid things in our lives and were seriously in need of a bitchy girly talk. After some delicious Thai food and a couple of drinks, we felt much better and headed home. 

By the time I got home, I wasn't dead tired or drunk as I normally would on a Friday night. So I decided to bake a simple chocolate cake. (or was I actually very drunk?)

Double chocolate loaf cake

Ingredients

• 175g butter
• 175g golden caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 140g self-raising flour
• Half tsp baking powder
• 100ml milk
• 85g ground almonds
• 4 tbsp cocoa powder
• 50g plain chocolate chips or chunks

Method

1. Heat oven to 160C
2. Line a loaf tin with baking parchment
3. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy
4. Beat in eggs, flour, almonds, baking powder, milk and cocoa powder until smooth
5. Stir in choc chips and scrape into the tin
6. Bake for 55-60 mins until golden and risen
7. Cool on a wire rack

It turned out nice, soft and light but I didn't take any photos. Well a chocolate cake is a chocolate cake...

Had a slice the next morning as breakfast. Brought some for the chef but he never told me whether he liked it. Did he even try it?

Brought some to my girlfriends on the next day when we went on a boat trip. I hope they liked it too. 

Gave the remaining to my parents when I went to have dinner with them. They both said it's better than the honeyed almond crunch cake I made last time. Then, two minutes later, mom said "Oh, you used to make tiramisu, right? Can you make that again some time?"

Sure. Mom, you're so cute.