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.

Lazy sticky food

I was tempted to have pasta for dinner tonight, again. Not that I don't like pasta but I think I've had too much carbs lately. Also, my pasta repertoire is quite limited and I don't really want to eat the same thing again and again and again.

Obviously I wanted something easy to make. With the leftover honey from the cake I made earlier in the week and the lemons I bought (for salad dressing and as the fridge's odour-absorber), here's my lazy dish of the day.

Sticky lemon chicken

Ingredients

• 2 pieces of chicken fillet
• 1 lemon
• 1.5 tbsp honey
• Seasoning

Method

1. Preheat oven (about 160C)
2. Lightly brush oil on a baking dish
3. Place chicken on the dish, season with salt and pepper 
4. Bake for 6 minutes
5. Meanwhile, cut two slices of lemon
6. Take out the chicken, turn over and sprinkle with more seasoning. Put a slice of lemon on each of the fillet
7. Drizzle with honey and then squeeze over the juice of the remaining lemon
8. Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes until the chicken is golden and cooked through
9. Serve with a salad or steamed veggies. Or, if you don't mind the extra work and extra carbs, you can have rice or potatoes. 

Not so crazy and definitely not lazy food

As I mentioned in the previous post, I finally managed to try baking something new. 


Honey cake with honeyed almond crunch
I got the recipe from here.

When I first read the recipe, I thought it's very easy. But me being me, things always have to come with surprises. Right before I finished work in the office, I took one more look at the recipe and realized I missed out something very important. I needed to whisk egg whites. My arms are more Olive Oyl than Popeye, hm... And so i had to go buy an electric beater! Well I figured I'll need it for other cakes anyway but it's just annoying that I had to make a detour and stop by the department store... 


In the end the cake turned out ok although slightly burnt at the edges. Plus I managed to burn my thumb too. Typical me. 


Obviously I can't finish it all. Gave a few slices to my parents who were so happy to see that their daughter can and does actually cook. 


Also gave one slice to the chef, trying to kick away his blues. Glad that he said it's not bad. But maybe he's just saying. I still have the feeling that he really doesn't care. But like he said, the cake was not the point. 


Well, then what's the point then? If you would show me please...

Dizzy lazy food

I haven't been cooking much lately. For the past couple of weeks I've been thinking to start baking again but procrastination always wins...

Finally on Monday I decided to bake something simple, no matter what. So after work I quickly went to get everything that I needed and rushed home. Although the cake was simple enough to make, by the time I put it in the oven, it was already 10pm. As I was washing the messy bowls and stuff, I suddenly felt very dizzy. It was really quite bad. I almost fainted. It was then that I realized, oh right, I hadn't had dinner. No wonder. 

So after I regained my energy, I made a simple noodle. 



Cold soba noodle with crab meat

Ingredients

• Soba noodles
• Crab meat (crab leg actually. got from the supermarket when I did the shopping for the cake ingredients)
• Dipping sauce 
• Nori sesame mix

Method

1. Cook the noodles in boiling water for 5-6 minutes
2. Drain and rinse the noodles with cold water a few times (so that noodles are completely cold)
3. Put noodles in serving bowl. Place crab meat on top
4. Sprinkle with nori and sesame mix
5. Serve with dipping sauce

As you can see, it's really simple. But tasty and it definitely saved my life.