Edible Craft - Vanilla Almond Cookies

Can you smell it already?

I got this recipe off a German women's magazine while at the hairdresser's having a haircut (yes, very Desperate Hausfrau I know). But the kindergarten was having a bake sale for the Christmas market on the weekend and this was one of the simplest, most delicious cookies that I know and never mess up. And it was one of the classic German Chrismas cookies (kinda like Pineapple Tarts for Hari Raya/Chinese New Year in Singapore) so what better to sell at the Christmas Market? The only problem was stopping from popping one in my mouth (and my son's) every time we put the sugar topping on 5 cookies. But then again, that was merely quality control testing at its most efficient.
 
Usually, these cookies are crescent shaped. According to stories, these cookies were 'invented' in Vienna to commemorate the retreat of the Moors/Muslims from that area. Thus the crescent shape which, I suppose, represented Muslims. How it became popular for Christmas, I do not know. But they are crispy melt-in-yuor-mouth delicious. A note of warning though - this short-crust pastry dough can be tough to handle in a hot tropical climate. In this case, the fridge is your best friend. Put in the fridge whenever you think the dough is melting, ok?

Vanillakipferln (about 50-70 cookies, depending on size and shape)

200g all purpose flour
80 grams sugar
175 very cold butter, cut into small pieces
2 large egg yolks, beaten lightly
100g fine ground almonds
Extract from 1 vanilla pod
A pinch of salt
Icing sugar for dusting

Ready? Set. Go!

I have 2 secrets for this cookie - 1) frozen butter 2) food processor. If you don't have a food processor, you can just use a normal mixer with a kneading function or go old school all the way - use your hands (obviously butter cannot be frozen then). But the less you touch the dough with your warm hands, the better.

Food processor method

Put all ingredient EXCEPT the yolks in and mix until mixture represents dry breadcrumbs. Then add the beaten egg yolks a little at a time until the mixture kinda curdles. It will not form into a ball, but merely look like small dough balls. At this point, turn the machine off, (whole process takes about 5 minutes) take the dough out, form into rough log shapes, wrap it up in cling film and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes before moving on.

Mixer with kneading function


Pretty similar as above, but it will take slightly longer and the mixture will form into a ball. At which point you refrigerate as above.

Using hands.

Make sure you have cold hands by running under cold water and wiping them dry. Mix the dry ingredients until they form breadcrumbs (or use a pastry cutter). Then add the beaten egg yolks and knead until you can form a ball shape. Then refrigerate. The less you knead the dough, the better.

After 15 mins or so, roll out the dough between 2 sheets of greaseproof paper until about 2 cm thick. Cut into whatever shapes you fancy. Place in an oven at 160 degrees for about 15 minutes (they should remain fairly white/beige). Then take them out, and let them cool a little before turning them them onto another tray (be careful as they are crumbly when hot). Then dust the icing sugar on top while the cookies are still warm, to help the sugar stick to the cookies. Try not to eat all at one go.

These cookies keep well in an air-tight container for about 3 weeks. If they last that long. Enjoy!

A Wanton Char Kway Teow Story

Sometimes a Singapore girl just needs Singapore food. What is Singapore food, you may ask. Now that is not so easy to define. It is a reflection of our heritage and our culture that is based on the major immigrant groups back when Singapore was still a British colony pre-1965. Our forefathers back then came via ships from parts of the then 'Malay Archipelago' which included Indonesia and the Riau islands, India and China. And Singapore, being a busy trading port back then (and still is the biggest port in the world in terms of volume), attracted various traders and even more immigrants from other parts of the world. They came, they worked and they stayed and they interacted and even learnt each other's languages and cultures. Which led to the rise of 'Singlish' as a form of communication (a mixture of English, Hokkien and Malay slang which is now an integral part of our culture). Not only did the cultures and languages mingled, so did the food. And thus, you have situations like this where a Singaporean girl with a Malay cultural background living in Germany hankers for 'Chinese food'. Specifically Char Kway Teow and Wanton noodles. Oh Hawker Centre uncle, where are you?

Having no luck with finding someone to cook what I wanted for me, I had to go pick up the ingredients from the Asian Supermarket and cook it myself (story of my life!). Luckily all I needed were dried rice noodles, sweet and salty soy sauces, frozen seafood and dumplings, eggs and a bottle of (damn shiok!) sambal (Malay-style chilli paste) that luckily, I could buy from my neighbourhood Malaysian restaurant. Thus it was on that cold Sunday night that I rolled up my sleeves, took out my trusty frying pan, channelled a hawker centre uncle and set to wok (forgive me, but how could I resist that pun?)

The result is just like a Singaporean - a mashup of cultures on a plate. Happy tummy makes a happy mummy. And happy kids too :-)

Wanton Char Kway Teow aka Fried Flat Rice Noodles with Soya Sauce, Prawns and Chicken Dumpling Topped with a Generous Amount of Chilli Paste, Spring Onions and Fried Onions too!

1/2 packet of flat rice noodles (it was just me and the kids)
5 tablespoons of thick dark sweet soya sauce
3 tablespoons of light salty soya sauce
A handful of raw prawns
6 frozen dumplings of your choice
About 3 tablespoons of oil for frying
1 or 2 eggs
1 fat clove of garlic, minced

Chopped spring onions
Fried onions
Sambal

Prepare to wok!! (Ok, ok I'll stop!)

Prepare the noodles according to packet instructions. Mine said just soak in warm or cold water.

Heat the wok with the oil. Don't be afraid to crank up the heat. When the oil is hot, add the minced garlic. Then add the noodles and soya sauce in quick succession. Mix well. Add more or less of the soya sauces as your taste buds deem fit. Then add the prawns and the dumplings and a little bit of water to let everything meld together. Stir, while enjoying the smell. When the prawns and dumplings are cooked, make a hole in the centre of the noodles and drop an egg into it. Scramble and then cover it with a noodles. Wait for a few seconds and scrape the bottom of the wok and turn the noodles and the egg over and over again, moistening the noodles. Turn of heat, and let the leftover heat cook the egg while it clings onto the noodles. Note that all this should take about 10 minutes or slightly less, depending on how hot your stove gets. A slightly burnt flavour is actually rather desirable as it adds another depth to the taste sensation.

Pile the noodles on plates and garnish generously with chopped spring onions, fried onions and a BIG dollop of sambal (ok none for the kids), with a squeeze of lime. I actually closed my eyes, sighing with happiness when the sweet-salty silkiness of the noodles topped with the crunch of the onions, melded with the bite of the chilli paste in my mouth. Happiness is, finding the perfect antedote to the cold grey and rainy weather wíth a taste from home. Even though it was cooked far, far away.

Chocolate Muffin with Creamy Phily Cheese Filling

I hardly write about sweet things on this blog, but that does not mean that I hardly make them! When the cold and gray hits and the kids act up, I need major backup power and sustenance. In the form of choc.o.late. They mostly come in packs of ferrero rocher, but I do like something warm and chocolatey out of the oven. I've had variations of warm and chocolatey out of the oven - with no flour, with olive oil, with ground almonds, with creamy cheesy filling, with gooey chocolate filling, with something crusty at the bottom, with nuts...the list is endless. And since I am baking them anyway, why not share them with the world so that you all can enjoy my sustenance too? After all chocolate is so life-sustaining that even mountaineers carry them around. And we all know how much stamina being a busy woman needs. So here is one of the recipes of stamina-giving life sustenance that is not only delicious, but you can actually rope one of your toddlers to help you with (while the other, thankfully, naps). And it is worth every bite and the mess you may have to clean up afterwards. (Note to self and other unsuspecting mothers - do not let your son lift the mixer from the bowl while the whisks are still rotating. Nobody likes that much chocolate that they want to paint their kitchen walls with it!)

(Adapted from the Sarotti Cocoa Recipe)
For the Chocolate Muffins

• 125g soft butter
• 90g white sugar
• 30g brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

Beat  everything BUT the eggs together until it forms a light, whitish batter. And then add the eggs, one at a time and whisk for a few more minutes.

• 200g all purpose or cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 20g good quality cocoa (I used Sarotti Cocoa)

Mix the above dry ingredients together and sift them into another bowl.

Add the sifted dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix until the mixture becomes chocolatey. Resist dipping your fingers into them for a taste. Then add the final ingredient:

• 150ml milk (I used organic full-fat)

This should make the cake dough lighter with a dropping consistency. At this point, ok you or your child can dip your finger to the side of the bowl (I'm trying to be hygenic here) for a taste.

For the Philly Cream Cheese Filling

• 100 g Philadelphia Cream Cheese
• 25 g sour cream
• 1 teaspoon of milk
• 2 teaspoons of sugar

Whisk everything together to form a smooth creamy paste. But frankly, I have also used the cream cheese direct from the carton, with no complaints.

And Now, To Bake It!

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Meanwhile take out your muffin tray and fill them up with 12 muffin cups. Fill up each muffin cup halfway with the chocolate cake batter, then 1 teaspoon of the creamy cheese filling, and then top it up with more cake batter until about almost full. This batter usually leaves me with 2 more muffin portions, which I bake in 2 ramekins and gives me a delightful 14 muffins altogether, instead of just 12 (woohooo!)

After only 20 minutes, take the muffins out of the oven and let them rest a while to cool for as long as you can smell without eating them. Then sit down with your little helper and watch his face light up as he eats the chocolate muffin he helped to bake. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is worth cleaning the chocolate splatter mess for. And the muffin is pretty darn delicious too!

Stuffed capsicum/bell peppers in creamy tomato sauce served with butter pillaf.

Whoopeedoo another entry! Sorry folks for the radio silence. My other job at the University of Heidelberg suddenly required me to conduct exams for German students who wanted placements in English-speaking countries, Singapore included, and I suddenly got swamped with work. That's right non-Singaporean folks! Singapore is an English-speaking country and noooooo we are not in China! And thankfully, not near the Phillippines or Vietnam though at this point, I just want to do my part in spreading the word that if you have not yet donated in some way or other to the efforts in aiding the people in need, this is a good time to do so.

So if you are thinking of making this meal today, do spare a thought for the unfortunate. I know I may seem to be paying only lip-service since I am sitting in my warm home, eating this warm meal with my family, but let's all do our part in trying to spread kindness and warmth, however little it may be. Even if it is just instilling in our children the thought that we have to help others in need.

For the Capsicum/Bell Peppers with Minced Meat Stuffing

• 500g minced meat and
• 1 onion chopped finely seasoned with 
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin powder
• Dashes of salt and pepper
• A few sprigs of fresh rosemary, finely chopped or 1/2 tsp of powdered version
• And an egg to bind the meat together
• (Add some breadcrumbs if you have any coz it will add to the texture)

Mix everything together and stuff as much meat as you can into 4 capsicums/bell peppers that have been halved and cored with the green stalks removed. Place them on a tray and slide them into the oven at 180 degrees for about 20-30 minutes or until the capsicum/peppers are kinda grilled with brown spots and the meat is well done (you can cut through one of the capsicum halves if you are not sure and want to check).


For the Creamy Tomato Sauce

• A clove of garlic, finely minced
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon of creme fraiche or single cream
• 1/4 cup of apple juice
• Salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon of butter
• 1 teaspoon of olive oil

Melt the butter and olive oil. Add the garlic and let it sizzle with a pinch of salt. Then add the tomato paste and creme fraiche/cream and let it meld together. Then add the apple juice to form a sauce to your liking. Feel free to add more or less of the ingredients to get the consistency that you like. Let the mixture boil for a little bit. Then check for seasoning and set aside. 

For the Butter Pillaf

• 1 cup of Thai Jasmine Rice
• 1 1/2 cups of water (read your packet instructions)
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 teaspoon of dried or fresh dill
• Salt and pepper for seasoning.

Add all ingredients together and place in a rice cooker. Or if you don't have one, then boil everything on medium heat. Stir the rice mixture once in a while.  Once there is no more water in the pot, turn down the heat to minimum (or even switch it off if your stove is really hot). Fluff it up with a fork and leave it for another 5 minutes with a half-covered lid. If heat is not already turned off, turn off heat now.

Now get your children to help with setting the table while you plate the food like this or in a similar meat-rice-sauce permutation. Who cares, they all land in the mouth and disappear within the next minute anyway. And then they will ask for seconds. (This is now my hubs' favourite meal)

Woohoo! Mission accomplished.

Chicken Cacciatore with Minimum Fuss

The good thing about renting an apartment when vacationing with 2 toddlers is that I still get to eat good food without having to stress about how they would behave in a restaurant, since I can cook the food myself. I have no problem bringing them out to restaurants most of the time back home, but I have some reservations about eating dinner out when in another country just because I don't know how the restaurants would react to food all over the floor. Plus I actually like buying local produce and recreating the food in my own rented kitchen. Well yes of course, it depends on which country I am in, but this time being in Italy and having eaten at many authentic Italian restaurants and Italian restaurants in Italy when I was sans kids, recreating certain dishes was actually fun for me. Kinda like playing the Italian mama (minus the big hips I hope!)

So this time, it was Chicken Cacciatore, or Hunter's Style Chicken Stew. There are uncountable variations of this classic, but mine is a minimum fuss, no alcohol style, adapted for the busy mom with 2 kids everywhere. Especially after a day out of sunny and windy fun in the mountains.

  

 And then we came back, all hungry and happy, to a warm comforting stew

 

 For the chicken

• 3 chicken legs (I prefer this to breasts as I find breasts too dry. Plus the bones in the chicken legs actually add to the flavour of the stew, without having to resort to additional broths or worse, glutamate-filled granules)
• Dried Italian herb seasoning 
• Salt and pepper 
• Garlic powder
• Salt
• 3 or more tablespoons of olive oil

Mix all ingredients together and season the chicken legs with it. This can be done the night before if you are one of those mommies who plan ahead what to cook. But if you are more like me and tend to cook at the spur of the moment, just leave it aside while the oven warms up to 180 degrees. Once the oven is heated, just slide the chicken pieces onto the middle shelf and let it cook until the skin is brown because white chicken skin is NOT pretty in a stew. Should take about 30 minutes, turned once.

In case you have no oven, which was exactly what happened to me in my rented apartment, you can fry the chicken pieces in some oil in a frying pan. For this method though, to make sure that that the chicken pieces cooked quickly, I bashed them unmercilessly flat. It did cook quicker, but there was a lot of wiping up of the oil splatters and the whole apartment smelt of chicken after that. But at least it was a delicious smell.

For the Gravy

• A can of Italian tomatoes or passata (pureed tomato)
• 1 onion, chopped roughly,
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 capsicums/bell peppers, chopped as roughly as the onions
• 1 zucchini (in keeping with the Italian vege theme) also chopped likewise
• 1 carrot, well ditto above
• Dried Italian herbs
• Shakes of salt and pepper
• 2 or 3 bay leaves
• 1 cup of apple or grape juice (both works for me, instead of wine)
• A handful of olives
• A dash of balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons or so of olive oil

Add olive oil to a heated pan. Add the garlic and onions and bay leaves with a pinch of salt to prevent them from burning. When the onions are transluscent, add the other chopped vegetables and slick them in the aromatic oil. Then add the juice and then the dried herbs and pepper, and more salt if needed. Let the stew boil merrily and then add the olives and balsamic vinegar to balance the salty sweetness.

When the chicken pieces are brown enough (they do not have to be completely cooked through), add them to the pot and put the lid on and let the flavours envelope and meld together. The longer, the better although I generally let them simmer for another 15 minutes, or until the chicken meat is tender enough to melt from the bone and the gravy has reduced and is slightly thickened. You can add more water or juice if you want more gravy, but also add some flour if you want your gravy thicker. Then let it simmer some more while you sort out your holiday pics or dance around with your kids.

Once the taste and the consistency are to your liking and the chicken flesh comes off easily from the bone, it is time to eat! I served mine over leftover boiled potatoes, but you can just as easily serve it with mashed potatoes or pasta. Yummyyumyum.

Buon Appetito!

Pasta Carbonara meets Mac & Cheese

 

It has been a rough and tumble few days with hyper kids, snotty noses and unintended playground tours when we actually wanted to do mountain walks and visit old towns and castles. But never mind, as parents, we have been getting more and more adept at combining what we want with what the kids want. So that afternoon, it was a walk around the Parcines town, with its quaint cobblestone streets and houses and old buildings, combined with a visit to a nearby playground under a 400-year-old Sequioh Redwood tree. Then when the kids were tired and hungry, we went back to the apartment for a quick cooking session (15 mins!) and a quick lunch, to be followed by a drive to the waterfalls up on the mountain. By that time, both kids have succumbed to exhaustion and we actually had a quiet couple time (albeit in the car) talking about love, life and the universe. Gotta love these stolen moments :-) 

Pasta Carbonara meets Mac & Cheese (for Mommy, Daddy and 2 hungry hyper toddlers)

250g Pappardelle (or any pasta that holds creamy sauces well)

1 egg

50g grated parmesan

100g grated cheddar

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 small zucchini or a handful of frozen peas

1 large sun-ripe tomato diced into pieces as small as the zucchini or the peas

Salt and pepper shakes

Dried Italian herbs seasoning (or whatever you like and have on hand)

Dashes of garlic powder

Ready? Set. Go

Boil the pappardelle according to packet instructions and reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water after draining the rest. Set aside.

While the pasta cooks, set out a big bowl and crack in the one egg. Add the grated cheeses and oil and season well with salt and pepper plus whatever dried or fresh herbs you have on hand. I used my handy Italian dried herbs mix and added powdered garlic as well. Stir the savoury cheesy mixture until everything is well-mixed.

Pour the boiled pappardelle back into the pot. Working quickly, stir the savoury cheesy mixture into the pasta, stirring constantly. Add the pasta water little by little to your desired cheesy consistency. Don't worry if it seems too wet intially as the starchy water will bind with the sauce and make the pasta even cheesier and silkier. And the vegetables and check for seasoning. 

If you want, you can even add bits of smokes salmon or sausages to this dish. But I decided to stick to the vegetarian version and and it was lapped up by adults and kids alike. Perhaps it was all the running around at the playground, or the sun warming our faces as we eat, but pasta always seemed to taste better in Italy.

Buon Appetito!