Scotland

Scotland - Short break with Pat and children and grandson

This holiday was a Christmas present from Katrina. When the children were younger, we had 2 time shares in lodges in Scotland. One at Balmoral and one at Craigendarroch - pronounced Cragendarrick. So anyway Katrina got was the one at Cragendarroch which is now run by the Hilton. Had a good time/break there.






See the pole with the red marker on it. When snow falls, this acts as a marker for the sides of the road.



Picture taken from the lodge


Our lodge




This is the church that the Queen and family go to when they are in Scotland

Paris

Paris with Liana and Mum

This is such a belated post but I thought I had better do it for posterity sake and for my friends.

Mum and Liana came over during the Easter break when Prince William and Kate had their wedding as well, so because of that by just taking 3 days holiday, my holidays turned out to be 11 days!

As Liana was working and did not have too many days to spare, they only had slightly more than a week here, so we took the opportunity to go to Paris as that was what Mum always wanted to go.

We took the Eurostar over to Paris and after weeks of choosing, booked a family room at the Crowne Plaza Republique which was only 3 stops away from Gare du Nord. I was a bit apprehensive as I had never been to Paris (yeah, 10 years in London, and never been there!)but the subway was so easy to take and only cost €1.60 each trip!

Our big room at Crowne Plaza Republique


Booked a bus tour so we could see Paris easier as I did not think Mum could walk so much.

View of the Eiffel Tower from the bus.






Notre Dame






Night view of Eiffel Tower


River cruise on The Seine


Next day - Versailles



Although we bought tickets, we still had to queque about 1 1/2 hours before we got to the entrance.

Heritage Food Trail - Apom Bokwa

Heritage Food Trail - Apom Bokwa
I am late in submitting this but anyways, here it is.

This is a Peranakan dessert called Apom Bokwa. It is not very well known so I thought it would be good to post this dessert to tell people about it.

I have copied this recipe from Kuali.com - Amy Beh. My mum has her own recipe and I did not have time to get it from her, hence from Kuali. The recipe is ok, although on cooling the apom gets a bit hard, so when I do get the recipe from my mum, I will make it again and know that it will be as soft as I remember it to be.

When I was about to start making it on Saturday, there was a bit of a panic as I knew my mum had bought 2 apom bokwa pans but I searched high and low and could not find them, but luckily remembered where I put them.

Ingredients
(A) - Mix these ingredients together and leave aside to soak for 10 minutes:

500g rice flour
25g glutinous rice
300ml coconut water
(B) - Mix these ingredients, leave aside for 15 minutes. Cook over low flame until it turns gluey to make "Ebu":

50g rice flour
150ml water
(C) - Mix these ingredients and leave aside to froth:

1/4 cup lukewarm water
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp instant yeast
(D):

160ml pati santan
Sauce: (A):

75g brown sugar
50g gula melaka
175ml water
3 pandan leaves
(B) - Mix these ingredients together and allow the rice to expand:

2 tbsp glutinous rice flour
25ml water
(C):

50ml pati santan
1/4 tsp salt
Method
Blend ingredients (a) and (b) together. Mixin 1/2 tsp salt and stir well with a hand whisk. Add in (c) and set aside for 30 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth for it to rise to double its size. Blend in (d) and proof for another 50 minutes. Heat a brass apom mould and grease lightly with corn oil.

Pour in enough batter to fill the mould three-quarters full and cook over medium heat. Cook till bubbles appear. Cover mould with a lid till the top part of the apom is cooked. Touch centre of apom with finger - if it is firm and not sticky, the apom is ready.

To make sauce: Bring (a) to a boil, strain the hot syrup into (b). Stir well and transfer to a saucepan and cook over medium low flame. Add in (c) and stir well till sauce thickens. Pour sauce into a small bowl and serve with apom bokwa.
Note 1: I made half the batter and got around 18 apoms.
Note 2: I added sliced bananas to the sauce as this is what my mum used to do.

I am submitting this post to Heritage Food Trail hosted by Edith of Precious Moments

Thanks Edith for giving us a chance to learn about each other's food cultures.