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.

World Foods Challenge #4 - Nasi Goreng

World Foods Challeng #4 - Nasi Goreng

Nasi Goreng or fried rice is a popular rice item in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the restaurants in Singapore, it is normally served with 2 or 3 sticks of satay, a fried egg and some prawn crackers!

I was so tempted to make some satay to go with the rice, but time was not on my side and then I remembered that I had some ayam percik marinating in the freezer. So here is my version of Nasi Goreng.

Indonesian Fried Rice 'Nasi Goreng'



Ingredients
4 tablespoons WORLDFOODS INDONESIAN NASI GORENG PASTE
2 eggs
3 tablespoons cooking oil
200g (7.1oz) boneless chicken breast, cut into strips
100g (3.5oz) raw prawns, shelled and deveined
300g (10.7oz) cooked rice, cooked as per pack instructions (preferably pre-cooked and left to cool; ideally the day before)

Cooking Instructions

1. Make an omelette with 2 eggs. Cool and shred it thinly.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a wok or frying pan and add 4 tablespoons of WORLDFOODS INDONESIAN NASI GORENG PASTE and cook for 1 minute until aromatic.
3. Add in chicken and prawns and fry for approximately 5 minutes.
4. Stir in rice and cook for a further 3-5 minutes or until heated through.
5. Garnish with shredded omelette

Serves 2-4

Apologies and WorldFoods Fusion Challenge #1 - #4

Apologies and WorldFoods Fusion Taste Team Challenge #1 - Pad Thai

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the lack of posting the past month. Firstly April has been a funny kind of month as it was such a short month with Good Friday being end of the month and the Royal Wedding, so I took 3 days hols to make it a long break as my mum and Liana came over (but that will be another post, another day)

As you know, I was contacted by World Foods to be part of their taste team and received a hamper with loads of wonderful stuff!

And our first challenge was to make a Pad Thai.




Ingredients

80g (2.8oz) rice sticks
1 tbsp oil
60g (2.1oz) prawns, shelled and deveined
10g (0.3oz) chives, cut into 2" lengths
100g (3.5oz) bean sprouts
1 bottle WORLDFOODS Thai ‘Pad Thai’ Noodle Sauce
** 20 gms dried radish (from Oriental shops)

Garnishing (optional)
1 egg
2 tbsp chopped unsalted roasted peanuts
Lime wedges
Fresh coriander leaves

Cooking Instruction


1. Place rice sticks in a pot of cold water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 3-5 minutes until just tender. Drain and set aside.
2. Make an omelette with the egg. Cool and shred it thinly.
3. Heat cooking oil in a wok or frying pan and pan-fry prawns until it turns pink.
4. Pour in WORLDFOODS Thai ‘Pad Thai’ Noodle Sauce and bring to a boil.
5. Add in rice sticks and bean sprouts. *Add dried radish (if using)Stir gently to a dry consistency.
6. Just before serving, add in chives and toss gently.
7. Remove onto plates. Garnish with shredded omelette, roasted peanuts and coriander leaves. Serve hot with lime wedges on the side.

This was good. I think it is only meant for 2 but I managed to cook for 3 (as in 2 for dinner and the other for lunch next day!) What was different with my Pai Thai compared to the rest of the group was that I used the dried rice sticks. Also I added in dried radish to the dish, so you get a bit of a different texture as well.

Challenge #2 - Ayam Percik



Ayam Percik

1 bottle WORLDFOODS MALAYSIAN CHILLI COCONUT MARINADE
6 chicken thighs
1 tablespoon cooking oil
2 tablespoon deep-fried shallots, finely chopped

Cooking Instructions

1. Marinate chicken with WORLDFOODS MALAYSIAN CHILLI COCONUT MARINADE for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat grill.
3. Cook meat on medium heat, turning occasionally until done and slightly charred, about 20-30 minutes depending on size. Optionally, spread on some more marinade.
4. Serve hot with white rice or bread.

Serves 4-6

This was good, not very spicy with a little kick from the chillis. As this was quite a big bottle, I used some of it to stir fry wing beans that I got from China town.



Challenge #3 - Tom Yum Fried Rice


1 tablespoon olive oil
300g (10.7 oz) cooked rice, cooked as per pack instructions
100g frozen mixed vegetables
6 fresh mushrooms (optional), halved
1 thin slice ginger, finely chopped
100g (3.5oz) raw prawns, shelled and deveined
1.5 tbsp WORLDFOODS THAI TOM YUM PASTE

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok. Add ginger and stir fry till fragrant.
2. Stir in the tom yum paste and fry for 1 minute until aromatic. Add mixed vegetables, mushrooms, prawns and stir for 2 minutes.
3. Stir in rice and cook for further 5 minutes until heated through.

I did make the soup as well, but my pictures did not turn out so well, hence no pictures. But maybe because I did not add enough paste, the soup did not taste like how I expected tom yam soup to taste like.

As for the fried rice, this too, could have been a little better if I had added more paste, but overall, it turned out fine.

Buckwheat cookies

Buckwheat cookies

On the tube back home this evening, I just managed to get a seat and sat down and then saw a pregnant lady. Asked her if she wanted a seat and she said yes. Was about to get up when the guy next to me said he would give her his seat! I thought how gallant of him - well partly so and partly because he got off at the next stop!

Anyways... seeing that my buckwheat pancakes tasted quite good, thought I would go I step further and try making cookies. Googled on the internet and still was not sure, so I decided to go with my shortbread cookies recipe and instead of using plain flour just change to buckwheat flour. Only thing I can advise is if you are going to try out this cookie, after mixing, the mixture might not seem to bind together, but as there is no gluten, there is no worry about overmixing. But mix into 2 batches and you will be ok. The what I did was roll out the dough and cut them out using cookie cutters. The result? Rob and I liked it, but Katrina and Pat were not sure about it.

Buckwheat Banana pancake

Buckwheat Banana pancake

Firstly, to explain what buckwheat is:

Buckwheat is an ancient seed which was first cultivated in Asia thousands of years ago and is ground and used in a very similar way to the more traditional wheat berries. Buckwheats name is quite confusing as it is nothing at all like our traditional wheat in any way. It is not a grain and it does not contain the same proteins and gluten. Buckwheat is naturally gluten and wheat free with a nutty taste. It is very nutty and pleasant when eaten roasted as a seed and makes a great flour when ground down. It can be used in a similar way to wheat flour for baking and thickening.

I just wanted to make buckwheat pancakes for the longest time, but could not find buckwheat flour anywhere until a couple of weeks ago when I found it at Sainsbury!

Made it for breakfast a couple of mornings ago and it tasted good, so here's the recipe for anyone wanting to have a go.

Note: The first time I made it, I used 1 egg but this morning I made it without egg but with milk. Both taste just as good, so it's up to you which you want to use!

Ingredients:
200 gms buckwheat flour
50 gms sugar
300 mls milk or 1 egg
1 banana mashed

Method:
1. Mash the banana in a bowl. Add the buckwheat flour, milk or egg and sugar. Stir until well mixed and mixture is soft like cake batter.
2. Heat a little oil in a fry pan and when hot, drop big spoonfuls of the batter into the pan. When bubbles appear on the surface, turn over and cook for about a minute, then dish out.