Chilling Out with Tea

Since there's only 2 of us, and hubby is at work. I played with wii for a while (my form of exercise. :) before showering and preparing food.

Made myself a pot of Ceylon tea and finished off my butter pound cake.

I'm a sucker for tea, I don't drink coffee, so Tea is my caffein. Today, I had Ceylon tea that was given to me as a gift from a Sri Lankan. Sri Lanka is famous for their Ceylon Tea, it's handpicked and so nice. I remembered my mum used to give me Ceylon Tea when I was young and I didn't even like it. Maybe cos it wasn't my cup of tea back then.

That being said, our favourite tea (yes, hubby is a tea-drinker too, that's why I married him.) is Earl Grey Tea. I didn't dare to try other tea other than old boring English Breakfast Tea. Hubby was the one that intro-ed me to Earl Grey. I love its Bergamot aroma. Also, I love my tea with milk! :)

I have started to looking for cool cafes where I chill out with a nice pot of hot tea and some pies or cakes. Yesterday, we went to Octa Cafe at Parco after watching this Ch 8 show where they intro-ed the cafe. It was kind of disappointing, I was hoping that they serve my tea in nice chinaware. However, they only served it in glass cups. Can't say much about the food cos we ordered a blueberry pie lookalike. Atmosphere was good though, will consider going back with this friend of mine who loves such cafe.

Pardon the photo though, iPhone can't really function as well as a proper camera. :)

Whine

News of my friend is pregnant and due in Dec. Happy for her but can't help feeling whiny! :(
Sigh.

Unagi Bento (Japanese Eel)

My hubby requested for Japanese food last night since we still had Sushi Rice. Bought pre-cooked unagi and unagi sauce from cold storage and woke up at 7am to prepare. It was easy cos I had most of the ingredients, managed to get it done in 30 mins.

Unagi Bento:

Ingredients:
Pre-cooked Unagi
1 cup Shokaku No-Wash Sushi Rice (Saves time cos you don't need to wash them!)
2 Tbsp Mizkan Sushi Seasoning
2 Tsp of Raw Sesame Seeds
1 Egg
Small piece Nori (Seaweed)
Dash of Pepper
1 Tsp Soy Sauce
Unagi Sauce

Preparing the Sushi Rice - I love all my Japanese dish with Sushi Rice and loads of Vinegar. :p
This is the one I use.

1. Wash the rice, dispense with all usual sushi rice steps and cook in the rice cooker as per normal. Meanwhile, prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. Once the rice is cooked, let it warm in the cooker for about 5 mins.

3. Scoop out the rice, mix with a spoonful of vinegar and mix the rice by sliding the spatula across the rice to prevent the rice from breaking.

4. Leave it too cool.

Preparing the Fried Shredded Egg
 

1. Beat 1 egg with pepper and soy sauce.

2. Heat up the sauce pan with a wee bit of oil.

3. Pour the egg mixture in and turn the pan around to ensure that the mixture covers the base of the pan to get a round fried egg.

4. Leave for about 1 to 2 mins. I like mine brown, so I leave them on longer. Flip the egg with a turner and leave for another 1 to 1 mins.

5. Once it's done, use a pair of tongs, cut the egg into half with a pair of scissors. Take 1 half, cut them into shreds. Continue with the 2nd half.

Preparing the Roasted Sesame Seeds

1. Heat up the pan without oil.

2. Throw in about 2 teaspoons of Raw Seasame Seeds.

3. Flip the pan every minute.

4. Turn off heat once you smell the sesame aroma or when they turn brown.

Preparing the Nori Strips
1. Cut nori into thin strips. Leave aside.

Preparing the Unagi
1. Pre-cooked Unagi are easy to handle. Just pop them into the microwave for about 1 min.
Alternatively, you can pan fry them or bake them.

Lastly, put all the ingredients together!
I happen to have a cute Heart shape mould from Daiso. Pour loads of the Unagi sauce if you like!

Butter Pound Cake

Finally got down to updating my recipes. Now that I'm free at home at least for about 2 more weeks, I wanted to make Butter Pound Cake because:

1. When I tried to make French Apple Pie, I stupidly went to buy self raising flour.

2. I also bought Butter for my Apple Pie.

Turns out that the French Apple Pie I was making requires no flour cos I bought the ready made Pastry Puff from Cold Storage. Neither does it require that much Butter.

So, with Butter and Flour, I thought of Pound Cake.
I even bought a Pound Cake Pan from Daiso except that it was kinda of small, so you may want to split the baking into 2 rounds. I tried to bake everything together, my cake got overflowed. haha.

So, here comes the recipe adapted from Joy Of Baking. I follow a couple of her recipes before, she's good.
So since I already had the self raising flour, I omitted the baking powder. The recipe also called for Vanilla Extract, I substituted it with Vanilla Essence. Important to note: All ingredients need to be at room temperature before your mix them.

Pound Cake Recipe:

3 large eggs room temperature

45ml milk, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla essence

150 grams sifted Bake King Self Raising flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

150 grams SIS Castor white sugar

185 grams Golden Churn unsalted butter, room temperature

Pound Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 177 degrees C and place rack in center of oven. 

2. Butter or spray with a non stick vegetable spray, a 9 x 5 x 3 inch (23 x 13 x 8 cm) loaf pan. 

3. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and butter the paper. For me, I just took Reynolds wax paper and pile the mixture on top of the paper. They will sink in to the pan.

4. In a medium bowl lightly combine the eggs, milk, and vanilla essence.

5. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar) and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds or until blended. 

6. Add the butter and half of the egg mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. 

7. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for about one minute to aerate and develop the cake's structure. 

8. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Gradually add the remaining egg mixture, in 2 additions, beating about 30 seconds after each addition to incorporate the egg and strengthen the cake's structure.

9. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. 

10. Bake for about 55 to 65 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

11. If you find the cake browning too much as it bakes, cover with a piece of lightly buttered aluminum foil after about 30 minutes.

12. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 10 minutes. 

13. Remove the cake from the pan and cool completely on a lightly buttered wire rack.

14. Can be kepy when well wrapped for several days at room temperature, or about one week when refrigerated, or it can be frozen for two months.

15. Makes one 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf.

This recipe promises a texture that melts in your mouth, dense, moistured, and it's really true. I actually ate it hot out of the oven. Absolutely delicious, so I finished about a quarter of it on my own.

Enjoy!

22 June 2010

We just came back from Bali! It was kinda fun slacking around, being served. But 2 incidents really spoilt my day on the way back from Jakarta. The things people do to earn bucks. Anyway, I decided to continue slacking today. Wanted to swim but it was raining. Went coffeebean for lunch and started surfing on my netbook. Found out that Jamie Teo has gave birth. Set me thinking that if I was still pregnant how would I be? Definitely slogging my life off since I can't quit my job. God is fair I guess. Sometimes I feel that I think too much. Was worried about how the new company would be like if I joined for a few months and got pregnant. Have to keep telling myself to let things happen and fret later. Though I really wish that I don't have to work when pregnant. That's wat the tcm doctor suggested as well, for me to stop working so I can concentrate on getting pregnant. Can I?

Everyone likes to ask when we are having kids, till I feel so fed up at times. How am I supposed to answer? Not that I don't wanna plan but after what we have been through and with the new job it's going to take a while.

Finally the commencement of my tai tai life today! Swam, had breakfast and housework for the rest of the day!