Lunar Eclipse

Took this last night

You can see larger versions at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150419096294514.361601.620524513&type=1&l=10a4bd392d

This snake scared the hell out of me! I was walking down a flight of steps at Labrador park when I saw it in my path! Strangely, it doesn’t move. Is it dead?

After a week travelling in Taipei, I decided to buy a ceramic white Samsung Galaxy S II. White because my brother is using a black version. Didn’t want any chance of a mix-up.

Unlike the black version, the white version has a glossy back cover which is prone to scratches.

As a result, I went searching for a cover. This Cath Kidston phone cover was most lovely among other choices available. So, I got it for S$28.90 from NEX a few days ago. Love it for the non-slip material and prints. Goes well with my white phone, isn’t it?

Feelings, unlike phones, are hard to let go and trade in for the better. 

I think the Sony USB portable power supply unit comes charged already. I could use it to charge my handphone when I got home.

Sony USB Portable Power Supply

After 1 hour of charging, it’s 64% charged (up from 16%).

Sony USB Portable Power Supply

Before the phone is fully charged, the power supply is fully drained. Hehehe… at least it gave the handphone 94% battery life (in 2 hour 15min using they Sony unit out of the box without charging first) before it’s fully discharged.

Now, I’m charging the Sony unit for the first time

This is where I bought it. I’m not sure if they will give the same discount though.

Here’s my story.

My parcel was processed at their USA address. That means VPostUSA has received the parcel from Kitchenaid.

Then, I received another email on 13 August 2011 that my parcel has reached Singapore and I SHOULD receive my parcel within 3 working days. However, nothing was delivered even as of now as I type out this post!

I sent 2 feedback to VPOST and all I got was standard replies. I gave them 2 weeks and they still cannot locate my parcel????

Do you think I should send this to ST Online?

Update on 22 Sep 2011: They did not send me any status update of the parcel as I update this post

Update on 25 Sep 2011: Sigh…

Update on 28 Sep 2011: I’ve just ask for a status update. I wonder who really is following up on my case? Every time, I see a different person replying to me.

Side Note:

I can’t use my kitchenaid ice-cream maker (bought from Amazon) made for US market because of a safety ring that comes with the Kitchenaid mixer bought in Singapore. Why don’t I buy the ice-cream attachment from Mayer? The Singapore distributor does not stock the ice-cream maker for months already and they do not sell the adapter for use with this localized model.

After sending a feedback to Kitchenaid via Facebook, they offered to send me a free adapter to use with my standing mixer. But, a US address is required. So, I use VPOSTUSA’s. VPOST system was dumb enough. They required an amount. I told them it’s FOC and they replied that their system cannot process without a figure. Exasperatedly I told them it’s FOC, type “1″ if your system cannot accept any amount <= “0″.

Sigh… after all that trouble and wait, I’m still waiting for it to be found and delivered…

Ingredients:

2 slices of 224g pork loin (I managed to find 2 equal weight slices. But, it’s not easy to beat the meat to the same area…)
1 slice of ham
1 slice of cheese
Bread crumbs 1/2 cup
Bread flour 1 cup
1 egg (beaten)
Pepper and salt to marinate (according to your liking)

Method: 

1. Wash the pork loins and dry them with kitchen towel. Place a piece in a plastic bag and hammer the meat almost flat (about 3mm thickness) with a meat tenderizer. Do the same for the other piece. While hammering, try to make sure both pieces of meat will overlap each other nicely. Marinate both meat with pepper and salt.

2. Lay first slice of pork loin with cheese and ham on top, followed by the second slice of pork loin. Hammer the sides to seal the cheese and ham.

3. Coat both sides of the meat with some bread flour. Then, use a brush to coat the beaten eggs on both sides. Lastly, coat both sides of meat with bread crumbs.

4. Deep fry meat in a wok of oil at 160°C (medium heat). About 4min if oil covers the meat. If not, fry 4minutes on each side to get a golden brown colour.

5. When it’s cooled, slice… (it’s quite messy when I sliced mine straight after frying… cheese oozes out!)

This plate is with ham and cheese.

This plate is plainly fried, coated with bread flour, egg and bread crumbs. Goes well with any condiment that you like to pair with.

Compare mine to the book’s, I think the temperature used was probably too high? I didn’t bother to use a thermometer to check :p

Here’s my input to this experiment in making egg custard buns or 黄金流沙包 :)

Dough (360g)

Ingredients

52g Raisin Yeast Water Levain
200g HK Bun flour
2g Baking Powder
10g vegetable shortening
96g water (*Update* After eating the bun, I’m thinking of reducing water to 70g)

Method

Mix all together by hand (or wooden spoon if you don’t want to touch it at first. But, you’ll need to knead it once the mixture comes together…). It will be super sticky at first. Just continue to knead till you get a smooth and moldable dough. Rest the dough in the mixing bowl with a wet cloth over and rest it in a cool area at room temperature (around 28°C in Singapore) for 45min or double, whichever comes first

Egg Custard Mixture (240g)

2 salted egg yolks (Yolks remove from the eggs and steam yolks for 5 minutes.)

48g butter (Softened at room temperature)
60g Castor Sugar
20g White Chocolate (Melted with 40g warm milk)
32g Custard Powder
30g Milk Powder

Method

Stir the above mixture till it’s smooth. Chill it for at least 6 hours before using.

Making the buns:

1. Measure about 12 portions of 20g of egg custard mixture and 30g of dough.

2. Wrap the egg custard mixture with dough to get a 50g bun. Place a piece of parchment paper about 5cm x 5cm under the bun.

3. Rest the buns in a tart tin tray for another 30min.

4. Steam for 8-10min at medium heat. Make sure water is boiling before you place the buns into the steamer.

Some buns may explode if you didn’t seal properly or added too much egg custard. See mine… :p

3 nice ones for showcase

See how the molten like filling flows! So exciting

Compare mine to Mandarin Hotel Pine Court restaurant’s version below:

That’s all. Btw, buns are best eaten quickly after it’s steamed.

* My egg custard mixture is still in the freezer at this moment. I should have made the egg custard first and chill it in the fridge for 6 hours at least before making the bun dough. Too late… So, hoping the freezer can help to chill the egg custard mixture quicker! :p

* Update to the egg custard mixture. It became ice-cream like. So, using a scoop to measure the fillings is easier.

Well, before showing you the pictures, here’re the ingredients used…

Ingredients used

Levain 240g
Waitose Bread Flour 240g
Perrier Mineral Water 80g
Butter 30g
Salt 4g
Sugar 60g
Milk Powder 10g

Here’s the result

I didn’t expect the fermentation process to increase the temperature in an enclosed oven (which was cool and wasn’t switched on the whole night!)

The dough “exploded” in the sandwich tin probably due to higher temperature. Good thing I have a wet kitchen towel wrapping the tin the night before. So, it didn’t create a mess in my oven. But, it’s really tough removing the sticky dough from the kitchen towel.

After the dough exploded while I was sleeping, I guess the fermentation process kind of stopped and caused a depression in the dough.

Lesson to learn here is not to leave the bread in an enclosed oven overnight, especially using levain and gassy spring water. It was okay in the fridge for overnight dough method because the surrounding temperature was kept constant at 5ºC.

Yesterday, the dough was rising extremely slowly and I was wondering if tap water used was the reason.

So, I tried making sandwich bread again with the remaining levain and raisin yeast water, added Perrier Mineral water this time.

The dough rises much faster this time. Almost the same speed as instant yeast!

Dough size at 7:17pm

Dough size at 9:43pm

However, I was not hungry then for anything. Thus, I’m hoping the final fermentation of the dough in the sandwich tin, would last at least 10 hours in my cool oven wrapped in a wet cloth.

Smell

With Raisin Yeast Water and Bread flour, the levain smells heavenly. It doesn’t give off a strange yeasty smell like what instant yeast do. When baked, the bread somewhat smells like button mushrooms. hmmm… pretty weird and nice!

Amount of Levain

I’m not sure what should be the optimum ratio of levain to use with bread flour and water.

Yesterday, I tried Levain : Bread Flour : Water ratio is 7/8 : 1 : 1/3. The dough was wet and difficult to shape.

Today, I made the same mistake. This time, more Levain and using mineral water. Levain : Bread Flour : Water ratio is 1 : 1 : 1/3.

It was so sticky that it’s impossible to roll the dough like swissrolls before putting in the sandwich tin. As a result, it’s one lump into the tin like this…

Will post the results tomorrow…

Good night!

Recipe for making the sandwich bread using naturally grown fruit yeast in a pre-fermented dough mixture. 

Ingredients

A

Waitose Organic Bread Flour 240g
Anlene Milk Powder 10g
Sugar 40g
Sea Salt 8g
Raisin Yeast Water Levain 210g
Water 80g

B

Unsalted SCS Butter 42g

Method

1. Mix A together till a wet, messy and sticky dough is formed.

2. Knead by hand or using stand mixer till the dough becomes more stretchable and smooth. Add B.

3. Knead again till the dough is smoother and more stretchable.

4. Rest the dough for fermentation. As this is natural yeast, it takes a much longer time at room temperature to rise. Mine risen only by 1/6 of its original size after 2 hours. Had to use oven temperature at 50°C to speed up the process. Good thing the yeast survived. If you have time, it’s best to let it rise naturally at room temperature.

5. Test the risen dough. If the indentation holds the shape of your floured finger when you poke in, it’s ready to be punched down and divided into 3 equal portions.

6. Roll each portion long and flat. Roll it up like a cigar and place it in the sandwich tin. Do the same for all 3 portions.

7. Let the 3 portions proof in the greased tin (use butter unless you want your sandwich tastes like olive oil or whatever) till it’s 90% full. Cover with the sandwich tin lid. For me, I have no time to wait today. So, chuck it in the oven w/o preheating at 200°C for 45min when it has only risen till about 75% of the tin height. As a result, my sandwich is not a perfect square and has uneven holes too.

8. Remove from the tin immediately and let it cool.

Verdict: Super soft bread with crusty crust when freshly baked. After slicing and keeping the sliced sandwiches in a ziplock bag while it’s still hot maintains the softness. However, the crust will become softer. Overall, I find using natural yeast makes the bread softer and more fragrant compare to using instant yeast.

Try if you have time. Really fun!

Click to see a bigger graph. The levain tripled in volume within 3 hours. Mainly due to higher room temperature in the first 90min. Not sure if it will continue to grow. I’m going to bed now and see how is it tomorrow. It’s smelling good in front of me

The raisin water gave a “pop” sound when I open the air-tight container and it smells like beer today

All raisins have floated to the top. So, it’s time to discard the raisins and keep the raisin water in the fridge. To make the yeast, I added about 100g of this raisin water to approximately same weight of bread flour in the ratio of 1:1.

Let’s check its progress again tonight

* I forgot to weigh and used estimation for the ratio. Hope it works.

The levain (as it’s so called) has risen a bit after 38min.

Forgot to change the label text to 6pm. Transferred to a larger container in case the levain grow too big while I’m sleeping… Also tasted the levain when transferring. Slightly sweet

Follow-up on the levain here.

However, the post on growing yeast naturally looks interesting to try. I’ve filled a bottle of raisin water yesterday as instructed and here’s the results today.

Raisin Yeast Water - 2nd Day

Shaking it vigorously as some advised to achieve better results.

Raisin Yeast Water - 2nd Day

See the bubbling effects. I’ve opened the bottle and smelled only of diluted raisins scent. Looks okay. No mould

Raisin Yeast Water - 2nd Day

Hope it’s good for baking on Saturday. 3 days to grow yeast and another 3 days to feed and rest the yeast. Will post the progress in the next 1 week.

Kiwi Creme Fraiche Cheesecake

Adapted from Strawberry creme fraiche cheesecake. I have only 250g creme fraiche to start with.

Ingredients

• 100g McVities digestive biscuits
• 30g unsalted butter, melted
• 250g cream cheese
• 250g Crème Fraîche
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 50g caster sugar
• 2 Kiwis (slice / cube)

Method:

1. Crush the biscuits in a plastic bag using a rolling pin (I find this method easier, quieter and no clean-up needed ) and add melted butter until well combined. Pour into the base of a 8″ round, loose-bottomed cake tin (Using Kaiser Springform Pan), pressing down well. Allow to chill.
2. Meanwhile, whisk the cream cheese and Crème Fraîche until thick and smooth then whisk in the vanilla extract and sugar. Roughly chop the kiwis and stir in. Spoon over the biscuit base and chill well.
3. Slice the remaining kiwis and arrange on top. Serve chilled.

I ate 80% of this cheesecake already!

Here’re the ingredients and method for a 20×11.5×11.5cm loaf tin (Loaf tin, which can be bought at Phoon Huat in Singapore, must have a lid. Otherwise, you can’t get a squarish loaf.)

1 day before: Overnight Sponge Dough

Mix 30g water (about 28°C) and ¼tsp instant yeast till well blended. Add to 50g bread flour in a mixing bowl and knead to form a dough. Wrap the mixing bowl with cling wrap and let it rest for 40min at room temperature (about 28°C) before leaving it in the fridge overnight or up to 48 hours.

On the day itself: Making the dough for sandwich bread

Size of the overnight sponge dough the next day.

Mix these dry ingredients together.

275g bread flour, 40g sugar, 3g salt, 10g milk powder and 5g instant yeast.

Add overnight sponge dough, 1/2 of a cold egg and 135g cold water to the dry ingredients. Mix it till a wet sticky dough is formed. Add 35g soft butter to the dough and start kneading either manually (about 45min till it’s not wet / sticky and the dough is smooth and stretchable) or using a standmixer with a dough hook.

Cover it with cling wrap and proof for 50min at room temperature.

After 50min, it should have grown bigger like this.

Punch the dough and divide it into 3 equal portions. Roll each portion flat, roll it up like a swiss roll and place the three rolled up “swiss rolls” in a greased loaf tin like this.

Let them rest in the tin till they fill up 80% of the loaf tin. Then, cover the tin with its lid.

Preheat oven at 200°C. Bake it for 35mins at 200°C. Remove from tin immediately when 35min is up.

You should get something like this. Crusty soft bread!

Enjoy!

* Note. If you can’t finish the bread on the day of baking itself, keep the rest (in an air-tight container to prevent loss of moisture) in the fridge. Heat it up in oven before consumption.

Bought 2 fix-it-yourself bookshelves from MUJI and started this challenging mission of spring cleaning.

Now, the cookery books may have found a place on the new book shelves, my room is still cluttered after disposing some stuff. I have not thought of a good solution to “compress” all my favourite magazines, DVDs and VCDs bought over the years. That takes up much of my space. Not posting pictures of my messy room here.

I have simply too much stuff! :p

Don’t be sad Dr Tan.

I hope you will continue your good work for Singaporeans.

You are the best!

Fillings

2 tbsp soy sauce
2 1/2 tsp salt
450g minced meat (meaning you can use any meat that u like. I used pork. btw, I left half after finishing the dough. The recipe says makes 6 – 10. I made 17! Will try again with thinner skin.)
1/2 cup diced spring onions
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp Chinese Shaoxing wine
1/2 tsp sugar
1 egg
2 tsp chopped ginger
1/4 tsp pepper

Combine all above ingredients till mixture becomes sticky. Keep in the fridge.

For the dough, mix 3 cups of plain flour with 1 cup of boiling water, 1 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp cold water. Let it rest for 10min before kneading (cos it’s hot). You should get something like this.

Roll the dough and divide it into 30 equal portions (This is my guesstimate for thinner skin after completed 17). Round each portion of the dough and flatten it to make skin for the fillings. Wrap the fillings with the skin.

With some oil in a non-stick pan, brown these dumplings. Then, add 1 cup of water with 2 tsp of rice vinegar. Cover the pan and cook till water dries up. Serve with shredded ginger and black vinegar.

Just complaints of the Mastrad Macaroon mats. The silicon mat warped when it became hot in the oven. Frustrating… see it destroyed one of my macaroons

The mat was too large for my oven too…

However, I can’t do without this mat. It makes my macaroons consistently sized

I want to be in love too…

The original MV for this song