Chocolate BlackBerry Cupcakes

Adapted from the book "500 cupcakes & muffins" by Fergal Connolly.

I made this last weekend in honor of Father's Day. Yummy cake, 'nuff said!

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
100g blackberries, fresh or thawed frozen (see my notes below)
3 tbsp water
225g caster sugar
100g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g soft margarine (I used butter)
2 eggs
1 tbsp cocoa powder

For the ganache:
150g plain dark chocolate, broken
150g double cream
12 blackberries

Method:
This recipe will only yield 1 dozen small cupcakes.
1. Preheat the oven to 175C. Place 12 paper baking cases in a muffin tin.
2. Place the blackberries, water and 115g sugar in a small saucepan over low heat. Simmer for about 5 minutes, until the fruit starts to release its juices. Set aside to cool. (MY NOTE: I really don't think this step is necessary, I don't really see the purpose of it and is actually wasteful because you don't use up all of the mixture. I think just use the blackberries in its normal form unless you're very afraid of sour fruits, Just push the fruit inside the batter once you've spooned them into the cases).
3. Combine the rest of the cupcake ingredients in a medium bowl and beat with an electric whisk until pale and creamy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Spoon the batter into the cases. Spoon a little of the fruit on top (again I say a better method would be to just push the fruit into the batter. Bake until brown and cooked through. Remove the tin and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on rack.

To make the ganache: melt the chocolate and cream in a medium bowl over a pan of simmering water, until glossy and smooth. Dollop a spoonful of ganache onto each cooled cupcake, and top with a blackerry. (MY NOTE: I only used 100g of chocolate and 100 of whipping cream - couldn't find double cream - and it was more than enough, even had leftover).

Thai Express Lunch Pics

Tom Yam Soup with Crayfish and Glass Noodles

Lemon Drummettes

Black Pepper Glass Noodles with Soft Shell Crab

Tomato & Olive Muffin

Recipe adapted from the book "500 cupcakes & muffins" by fergal connolly. Original recipe was for Tomato & Basil Muffins. They were a bit dry and lacked flavour. Although it was supposed to be a savoury muffin, I think a little sugar would have gone a long way. It tasted a lot like a foccacia tho so would make a good breakfast muffin.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
320g plain flour
2 tbsp baking powder
pinch of salt
4 lightly beaten eggs
125ml olive oil
320g tin condensed tomato soup
3 tbsp sun-dried tomatoes

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 175C. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin.
2. In a medium bowl, mix the basil, flour, baking powder and salt with a spoon.
3. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, olive oil, soup and sun-dried tomatoes with an electric whisk until well combined. Mix the flour mixture into the soup mixture until just combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for 20 minutes or until brown and cooked through.

My Notes:
I didn't have any sun dried tomatoes or basil, so I substituted with chopped olives and dried thyme. I also used mini muffin pans and it yielded about 30 of these babies.

Bacon Carbonara Recipe

I don't know why I never tried making Bacon Carbonara before. It's so simple and delish!

Whip some eggs in a bowl, add some cream or evaporated milk, grated Parmesan Cheese, lots of black pepper and salt. While the pasta is cooking, snip some bacon into small pieces and pan fry till crispy. Once the pasta is al dente, drain and add to the egg mixture and toss to coat. Sprinkle the bacon pieces on top and tuck in!

My Version of delectable Butter Crab

So this is my version of the delectable Butter Crab we oft see in restaurant menus. The first time I tried it was at the Mellba Seafood Restaurant. I tried to 'recreate' it as best as I could. Ingredients included Evaporated Milk, Chopped Chilli, Curry Leaves and Butter. I think I should've added more water to the sauce, cos it was really rich. The sauce is really nice with some crusty bread too.

We bought the crabs from Pasar (wet market) and our seller is great, they'll even kill, clean and chop the crabs for you. Definitely saves u A LOT of trouble!

Question of the Day

So amidst all the panic of the swine flu and it being called a pandemic, I want to find out what people think about traveling.

1) Has it stopped you from traveling?

2) If no, would you stay away from traveling to higher risk places like Melbourne, New York, etc?

I wonder how long this swine flu will stick around for? My answers to the questions above are a little undecided. I think I wouldn't mind traveling, but I know the in laws might have something to say to that, then begs the question of should we listen if they disapprove? :p And as far as traveling to more higher risk places, well I don't know. I would love to go to North America. Should ppl worry about traveling? The news had a segment about traveling and how holiday bookings are still going strong despite the 'pandemic'.

What do u all think?

Soto Betawi - Indonesian Beef Soup

Indonesia has a lot of different kinds of 'Soto' and they're all generally pretty good including this delicious one called Soto Betawi. It's a creamy soup made up of lots of spices (as most indonesian foods go), thickened or made creamy with the addition of coconut milk or for a healthier and just as good version Evaporated Milk. I have no idea how to make it from scratch altho I'm pretty sure I have it in one of my cookbooks. But why bother when I can just buy the premixed spice paste from Munik right? It's just like buying ready made Thai Curry Paste, makes life much easier for the busy cook :)

The meats in this soup are usually Tripe, Tendon, and Beef, all cut up in little pieces. To serve you add some spring onions, some diced tomatoes, kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), Fried Onions, some friend Emping (or Belinjo crackers), extra chilli, a dash of lime and rice on the side (or as I prefer it inside the soup).

Even Caelyn loves this and I also found out that she likes tripe!

Bay Leaves

Boiling the meats until tender. This step would be faster if you have a pressure or themal cooker.

Cycling at East Coast Park (2)

My bum was sooooo sore after this, but it was fun :) We rode tandem with Caelyn sitting behind. She had fun too. The scariest thing about riding tandem is trusting the person leading on the front seat, ie. hubby (hehehe). But after a while, we were pretty much in synch :)

A lot of ppl were fishing on this jetti.

Carnivore - Brazillian Churrascaria

The other day we had some vouchers for Vivocity so we used it to try a restaurant we hadn't been before called Carnivore. Carnivore is a Brazillian Churrascaria and in Portuguese churrascaria basically means bbq restaurant. The meats are skewered onto giant metal skewers which rotate on a hot fire. Once the meats are cooked, the passadors (meat waiters) come around your table with the giant metal skewer and a carving knife and slice the meat right onto your plate.

The meats are seasoned simply, often with just salt. Aside from meats there is also a cold buffet spread which included some marinated octopus (u know the red kind that they put on sushi?) and muscles on the shell. But it's not a lot of variety, and nothing impressive or worth mentioning.

I was glad that we had vouchers, because for this price I was severely disappointed and unlikely to go again unless I had some freebies. Tho the meats were good, they were extremely slow in coming around the tables and felt like we kept on getting just the same ones going round to us. The good meats like Beef Ribs hardly ever came out, between us we only had one piece of beef rib because the passador with the beef ribs kept running out of it. And unfortunately the beef ribs is the best meat there. It was tasty and tender and had a melt in your mouth feeling. Towards the end of our evening, I even noticed a few of the pasadors just standing around near the entrance to the kitchen, like they had nothing else to bring out to us or they were just surveying whether everyone still had some on their plates or not. I had imagined that the restaurant would've been more lively with lots of different passadors walking around the tables all at once. It was in fact rather 'quiet'. The passadors weren't that friendly either, supposedly they were directly employed from Brazil. Surprisingly the Singaporean local staff were more friendly. Drinks aren't included in the buffet price. And if you decide to order a juice drink (not those freshly blended ones) it is ridiculously overpriced at $8 and I think an alcoholic drink was about $14! Not bottomless either.

I have to admit, I am a carnivore by nature. I much prefer meat to veges. So I was really disappointed that I left unsatisfied from restaurant that called itself Carnivore. If you are a fan of Carnivore (the restaurant) I'm sorry if you disagree with me. This was just our experience, no harm intended :)

This was part of the yummy beef ribs.

Restaurant Hoshiogaoka at Isetan Scotts, Shaw House

We took our visiting friend for lunch here last week. The food was good and the service was good too.

Mellben Seafood Restaurant at Ang Mo Kio

My friends from overseas came back to Singapore for a short visit and we all had a get together dinner at Mellben Seafood Restaurant at Blk 232 Ang Mo Kio Ave 3. This place is famous for their Crab Bee Hoon soup. The Bee Hoon soups is delicious, it consists of a milky soup base with hints of curry leaves, melted better, thick bee hoon (rice vermicelli) and of course cracked crab.

Along with this, we also had a sweet and sour fish dish, crab cooked in butter sauce which was delish, crab cooked in pepper salt, prawns cooked in salted egg (yum yum), kangkong belachan, and a tofu claypot dish for the kids (all 7 of them)

This place is definitely a great alternative to eating seafood down at East Coast and is a great gem in the middle of the HDB heartlands. Great food great company! Miss you guys already A and J! And thanks for the dinner Y & YF!