The Cooking Ninja

One of the things I missed while living in France is my mom's home cooked food. Although I managed to recreate some of her dishes like assam fish, chili prawns, white peppered pork slices etc, I never quite managed to get her Fried Bee Hoon right. Whenever I craved for fried bee hoon, I would hint to hubby 'love, how about I cook fried bee hoon today?' His reply usually was 'erhm...I prefer your Char Kway Teow'. Usually when I pressed him further for an answer why he always avoid my fried bee hoon, he would give elusive answers... However one day I cornered him and finally got the cold hard truth: my bee hoon doesn't taste good. *sigh* So now that I'm in Singapore, I asked my mom to show me her secret in cooking such delicious fried bee hoon.

Bee Hoon (as known in Singapore, Malaysia & Indonesia) are rice vermicelli or thin noodles made from rice. They should not be confused with cellophane noodles, which is another type of vermicelli. Fried bee hoon is another favourite local home dish although one can find this too in the local food court. This dish is a meal by itself and it consists of vegetables, meat and/or seafood. It's basically a bit like Fried Rice in the sense that it is a flexible dish which can accommodate many ingredients that happen to be arround your kitchen. Best of all, it is easy to dish it up (or it's supposed to, anyway...). On a lazy Saturday or Sunday, my mom usually cooks a big pot of Fried Bee Hoon for lunch and just leave it on the table. We help ourselves to it whenever we want - be it for lunch, after lunch, tea time hunger or just eating it out of gluttony.

Fried Bee Hoon

Ingredients

Serves : 6

• 1 packet Bee Hoon
• 2 tbsp minced garlic
• cabbage (shredded into bite size)
• a few stalks of kai lan (separate leaves & stalks)
• bean sprouts
• some prawns (peel & devein)
• slices of fresh red chili (optional)
• oil
• salt
• light soya sauce
• water

Directions

1. Soak the dry bee boon until it is soft (flexible). Drain and set aside.
2. Heat up a bit of oil and pan fried the bee hoon till it is a bit brown. Set aside.
3. Using the same wok, heat up some oil and stir fry minced garlic till slightly brown.
4. Add in the vegetable stalks first, stir fry it for a minute or two before stirring in the rest of the vegetables and bean sprouts. When the vegetables is about cooked, add in the prawns.
5. Season it with salt and light soya sauce. Stir fry it till they are cooked. Scoop it out and set it aside.
6. With the same wok, put in the bee hoon and add some water (enough water to cook it).
7. Once the bee hoon is cooked (water is more or less absorbed), add in the cooked vegetables, prawns and chili slices. Stir to mix it well.
8. Season it further with light soya sauce if the seasoning is not up to your taste.
9. Serve hot and enjoy.

The Verdict

I like the combination of the flavour of the fried bee hoon together with the vegetables and prawns. The bean sprouts give it a nice crunchy touch. The bee hoon is not too dry nor too wet - just right. The success of the fried bee hoon relies on the right amount of garlic - too much, it overwhelms the taste and aroma of everything, but too little, it becomes a bit bland.

Notes

This dish is very versatile - can be cooked with cabbage, cauliflower, carrot, bell peppers or french beans etc, seafood like squid or prawns, or pork, beef or chicken or sausages chunks. Some also add shredded omelette on top.

Alternatively, you can cook the bee hoon in hot water until it is cooked and then drain. Add it to the cooked vegetables.

We are back in Singapore. Woohoo! With the pandemic N1H1 flu, we did consider skipping Singapore this year if it got real bad... then again, it is a pandemic, so even if we stayed in France, we would still get it at some point. So we decided to just go ahead and not bother.

Flying back to Singapore via Singapore Airlines big jumbo plane - the A380 got hubby all excited like a little boy. To me, no big deal - just a bigger plane that can load more cattle in it, that's all. But I have to admit that the plane is indeed awesome to look at - big and beautiful. We chose the upper deck and hoped to get some empty seats around ours, hélas no such luck, it was fully seated. To top it off, passengers were coughing, blowing their nose left, right, front and back of us. My goodness, one would think in view of the pandemic flu, those who aren't feeling pink in health would either postpone their trip or wear a mask before coming on board. Sharing your germs is NOT the true spirit of sharing. Other than that, the flight went well, the Singapore Airlines service was excellent as usual and we got more leg room in this new plane. I liked their kids meal - Little One even got to keep her little red lunch box that came with it.

We landed on time and were greeted by my sister. My parents were waiting patiently for us at home and our dogs barked excitedly upon our arrival and Little One, for a moment, got all distracted by the dogs... but when she saw her 'ma ma' (or Ah Ma - "grandma" in dialect), she shouted out loud, jumped with joy and ran up excitedly to my mom with her arms wide open to hug her. The weather was very hot when we arrived but luckily for us, there were some rain to cool the hot weather off a little. Everything was going well till my family got a call from the Ministry of Health on Monday night informing us that I was quarantined due to a person sitting behind our row that had N1H1. So a nurse and a security guard, all masked up, came to my home, gave me some papers to sign, gave me instructions to isolate myself from my family members to avoid risk of contamination and take my temperature 3x a day. If everything goes well, I'm officially off quarantine as of Saturday 8 am. One more day to go... Hubby is dying to dine at his favourite Indian restaurant on Saturday as soon as my quarantine is over.

In the meantime, I got to indulge myself with my mom's delicious cuisine. Besides being treated with the freshly made lemon juice and other fruit juices every day, I also get to eat her yummy deep-fried chicken wings, curry fish, seafood curry, stir-fried sambal long beans (snake beans) and today's featured recipe: Stir-Fried Prawns with Salted Soy Bean. Boy, am I pampered.

Stir-Fried Prawns with Salted Soy Bean

Ingredients

• Prawns (peel and devein)
• 3 garlic
• 15 shallots
• 2 cm ginger
• 1 candle nut
• 4 or 5 curry leaves , finely cut (optional)
• 1 tsp salted soya bean (big lump)
• 1 tsp chili or sambal belachan (optional)
• A bit of oyster sauce (optional)
• oil

Directions

1. Grind garlic, shallots, ginger, candle nut, curry leaves, salted soya bean paste and chili in a food processor till it is a paste.
2. Heat up some oil in wok till it is hot. Add in the paste and stir fry it at medium heat till it is fragrant and the colour of the paste changed.
3. Stir in the prawns and a bit of oyster sauce.
4. Serve it with plain rice.

The Verdict

You know I mostly blog about successful recipes, so yes, this one is delicious. Taste wise, it's quite similar to my mom's chili prawns however the taste and fragrance of the salted soya bean is more prominent.

Notes

The nice part about this dish is that even if you don't add curry leaves or chili or oyster sauce, it will still taste wonderful.

Summer is finally here - hot blazing sun that can burn your skin if you aren't careful and gives you a headache if you stay outside too long without your hat. Up at the mountain lodge, we get to enjoy the nice sunny weather with nice cool breeze. The bright morning sun warms up the house pretty fast... lucky for us, the old thick walls of the house keep us cool.

Summer season also means bountiful harvest of fresh fruits like cherries, raspberries, prunes, figs, strawberries etc. Knowing that Little One loves strawberries, the ever dotting grandparents bought several packets of local strawberries - very fragrant, juicy and sweet for her. Little did they know that I baked a huge coffee cake for everyone while I didn't realized that they had baked several Cherry Clafouti (my parents-in-law bought 10 kg of black cherries from a local farmer). In the end there were lots of left-overs that nobody could finish. The poor strawberries were starting to look very tired and we needed to salvage them. We toyed with several ideas and in the end the hot day won its way - a sorbet they shall become. We initially thought of making just plain old strawberry sorbet but the basket of black cherries on the table kept teasing us - so we twisted the idea and decided to try a Strawberry-Black Cherry Sorbet. Should be a delicious combination!

Strawberry-Black Cherry Sorbet

Ingredients

• 550 g strawberries
• 480 g black cherries (pitted)
• 300 g brown sugar
• juice of half a lemon
• juice of 1 orange

Directions

1. Puree the strawberries and cherries together with sugar in 2 batches in a food processor.
2. Pour the fruit puree in a big container, stir in the lemon and orange juice.
3. Put in the freezer to chill for 30 minutes or 1 hour. Take it out, it should be slightly frozen (but not totally). Fork or scrape the mixture up. Put the sorbet back into the freezer to freeze until it is ready to be served.
4. Profit!!! ...I mean, enjoy this delicious combination!

The Verdict

What a refreshing dessert to have right after lunch. I love the combination flavour and taste of strawberries and black cherries. However I find that this sorbet is a bit too sweet for my liking but the rest of the family seems to like it just fine. I think the sweetness comes from the fact that the black cherries are well riped and are a lot sweeter than the normal red cherries. Something to think about in my next attempt.

Notes

Note that your sorbet might taste sweeter when frozen, so adjust the acidity and sweetness of your sorbet to your taste.

This year we decided to do an impromptu birthday celebration of 3 generations - Grandpa Patrick - 66, Aunt Irène - big 30 and Little V - 3. Come to think of it, everyone got a gift that day: my sis-in-law who is back on vacation for a month or two brought with her gifts for all the birthdays that she missed out this year. No prize for guessing who got the most presents on this day.

As it was an impromptu affair, we had to decide on a cake that is easy to make and doesn't take up much to prepare and bake. Not an easy task when you are short of time. Since it's strawberry season, we decided to make a strawberry cake - that got all of us drooling... until we realized that we didn't have any grounded almonds for it. As we still had plenty of black cherries left over (we baked a lot of cherries clafouti a few days ago), my mother-in-law and I decided to go for a 'Black Forest Cake' - according to her, it's my hubby's childhood favourite cake. Technically speaking, one should be able to do this whole cake by himeself sans problem. It's not difficult at all, it just needs a bit of time to put it together. However as we were running out of time, 3 chefs got to work on it - me, in charge of mixing and baking the cakes; Hubby, made the syrup and poached the cherries while my mother-in-law took care of the cream. Little V was of course over excited by this big event... kept coming into the kitchen checking on the progress of the birthday cake. Me, I had to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn't sneakily poked and pinched the cakes as they cooled down.

This day was the occasion for Little V to learn riding on her first bike. Once she nearly got it right, she was impatient to show off her newly acquired skill to us - shouting for us to come and watch her pedal off. Half an hour later, she was off like a little champion - we even had a hard time getting her to stop biking and sit down for her lunch. Even bribing her with singing birthday songs, blowing-off candles and opening presents was a hard sell. Oh yeah .... this little girl of mine understands the importance of wearing a head gear while riding a bike. We forgot all about it, it was she who insisted on putting on her headgear before she started riding her bike.

Immediately after blowing-off the candles, she asked 'Tante Irène, can we go biking now?'

Black Forest Cake

Ingredients

• 150 g butter
• 6 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract or essence
• 240 g sugar
• 60 g flour (sieved)
• 75 g cacao (cocoa) powder (unsweetened)
• 1½ tsp baking powder

Syrup

• 180 g sugar
• 250 ml cold water
• 1 small glass of kirsch

Fillings

• ¾ litre heavy crème fraîche
• 80 g powdered sugar
• 4 tbsp kirsch
• 500 g fresh cherries (pitted)

Directions

1. Preheat oven at 190°C (375°F - gas mark 5).
2. Butter 2 round cake pan.
3. Melt butter slowly and set aside to cool down.
4. In a big bowl, whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla extract at high speed with an electric beater until it is thick and frothy.
5. Mix the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder together in a bowl and then add in small quantity at a time into the egg batter.
6. Using a spatula, incorporate 2 tbsp of cooled down melted butter at a time delicately by lifting up your spatula and turning (as you would with stiff egg white). Do not over mix it.
7. Distribute the batter equally into the prepared 2 round cake pan.
8. Bake it for about 15 minutes or until the tooth pick comes out clean. Let it cool down for 5 minutes before turning it out of the pan.

Making the syrup

1. While the cake is baking, bring a pot of water with sugar to boil.
2. Once the sugar is dissolved, add in the seedless cherries and let it poach gently for 5 minutes.
3. Strain the cherries, saving the syrup in a bowl. Let both syrup and cherries cooled down before adding the kirsch.
4. Lightly forked the surface of the cakes, with a big spoon, spread syrup equally onto the surface of the 2 cakes, letting it soak in.

Making the Fillings

1. Beat the cold heavy crème fraîche in a big bowl until it is thick and light. Add in the sieved powdered sugar.
2. Whisk until the cream becomes consistent, then add in the kirsch. Be careful not to over whisk the cream or else it will turned into sweet butter.
3. Keep the cream chill in the fridge until it is ready to decorate the cake.

Putting the cake together

1. Place the first cake on a nice big service plate, spread some cream covering the whole surface and sprinkle some cherries on top of it.
2. Gently place the 2nd cake on top of it. Spread the rest of the cream all over the cake and sprinkle the rest of the cherries on top of the cake.
3. Serve the cake immediately or keep it in the refrigerator till it is ready to serve.

The Verdict

I love this version very much - a mix taste of bitter chocolate, sweetness of the cherry syrup with a tint of cherry taste and the cream makes for a great combination. The syrup and cream makes the cake moist and easy to eat, and the kirsch gives it the extra oumph that is missing in the non-alcoholic version.

Notes

This recipe is for a small 3 layered cake of 15 cm in diameter. For a bigger 3 layered cake, please double the quantity.

For the cream, I let it chill in the fridge and it gives a nice thick consistent.

Time flies so fast... another year gone by in a blink of an eye... Little One is 3 already. As she has been going to the daycare centre 3 times a week to play with other children, I thought it would be a great idea to celebrate her birthday with her little friends and the adults there.

This year I decided to try my hands at making a layered Chocolate Cake. Never done it before so I was kinda stressed and excited about doing it. Woke up at 8.30 am on Tuesday morning, plunged straight in getting the cake ready by lunch time - didn't even have my breakfast. The first cake turned out perfect as I expected. As I only have one 9" cake mold, I had to wait for the first cake to cool down before baking the 2^nd one. Impatient me couldn't wait for it to cool down completely and thought it would be alright to unmold the cake after 10 minutes (forgetting that the weather isn't winter anymore but summer climate). Aaaahhhhhh! No! No! No! ... Top half of the cake turned out on the wire rack while the other half stayed stuck onto the mold. What a disaster! Little One heard me screaming and cursing... came running into the kitchen, saw her birthday cake and said: 'oh no, mommy, my cake is broken. Never mind mommy. We can still eat it.' Awww... isn't she such a little sweetheart. Yes we'll eat this broken cake at home.

So I just told myself 'Don't panic. We still got time to do another one'. I had to check the fridge to see if we had enough butter and eggs to make another one. Phew! We did. So off goes my 2^nd cake into the oven. Timer went off, took the cake out and saw that the cake didn't rise as much as it should. I was so totally disappointed. Oh no! Not another run of bad luck. Not today of all days, for goodness sake. I just wanted to cry. Sometimes the more we want everything to be perfect, the worst it turned out to be.

It was about an hour later before I got over my disappointment and got myself busy baking the last cake. While the cake was baking, I realized why my 2^nd cake didn't rise as much. I left the batter sitting on the counter top way too long waiting for the cake mold to cool down. I forgot that chemical reaction of the baking powder in a wet batter. Anyway, the 2^nd cake still tasted as great. Off I went about making my chocolate icing. This time around, I left it in the fridge for a longer time and got the consistency I wanted.

Well, I had no problem in spreading some chocolate icing on the first cake... now how to flip the 2^nd cake on top of it without getting it broken into pieces? This chocolate cake is soft, moist and delicate... Holding my breathe, I turned the 2^nd cake slowly and gently out onto my right hand. Placing it as delicately onto the first cake as possible without messing the icing on the bottom cake. Phew! I did it... quite pleased with myself actually. Looking at the cake, I realized that the 2 cakes although they were baked with the same mold, didn't turn out to be the same size. The top one was slightly larger than the bottom one. Arrggh! For a while, I toyed with the idea of slicing some bits here and there to make the cake look perfect like the ones from the bakery... in the end, I decided against it. As the saying goes: if it isn't broken, don't try to fix it. Glad I heeded that advice for once. Spreaded the rest of the icing around the cake, topped it up with fresh strawberries. It looked PERFECT. Off it went into the fridge to keep the icing cool until it's time to bring it to the daycare centre. Little One kept coming to the kitchen asking if we can put the candles on her cake now so that she can sing her birthday song and blow out the candles.

Brought my beautiful chocolate cake to the centre... only to be told this: 'What a beautiful cake! Did you made this yourself, mdm?' 'Oh, I'm so terrible sorry, mdm but we can't distribute this cake to the other children in case of any food poisoning arising from it. We will celebrate and blow out the candle, your child will have a slice of her cake and the rest of us adults will take a slice of it too but we can't share it with the other kids. I'm not saying that your cake isn't good or properly done, it's just the rules. We can only share cake with the other kids if the cake is bought sealed in a package from a factory.' Bon! If only I knew this bit of the rules. I guess gone were the good old days when our mother would bake cakes, cookies etc and bring them to our school to share it with our friends and teachers.

Carrots - so many kids hate them with a passion. Even my hubby won't touch that stuff no matter how deliciously it has been cooked or presented to him. I think I know why. When Little One started on her first solid food - guess what was the first most recommended food to introduce to a baby? Carrots. Since they are sweet, babies love them and as it is full of nutrients it's a baby's classic along with other infamous spinach. Unfortunately my baby didn't get to eat much either because of digestion issues. Oh well!

Thankfully there are a few ways to serve carrots to people who don't enjoy them so much. Carrot cake is one. Another one is Carottes Râpées (Grated Carrot Salad) that I'm going to introduce today. It is a very popular side French dish that my mom-in-law often prepares at home. It's available at many café and bistro menus, even at charcuteries and supermarkets where it is often sold in small plastic boxes ready to go. It's pretty easily done, requires very little time to prepare and the best of all: it's healthy, fresh and delicious. This is perfect for those who are trying to get kids or adults to eat carrot, because the lemon flavor is dominant over the carrot one. A ninja got to be sneaky

Carottes Râpées (Grated Carrot Salad)

Ingredients

• 5 fresh carrot (medium size)
• 1/2 organic lemon (home grown)
• 1 clove garlic (chopped)
• parsley (chopped)
• salt & pepper
• 5 tbsp olive oil (approx.)

Directions

1. Grate the carrots and lemon together and put it in a big salad bowl.
2. Throw in the chopped garlic and parsley. Season it with salt and pepper.
3. Pour in about 5 tbsp olive oil, mix until everything is combined.
4. Serve cold.

The Verdict

I'm so surprised by the taste and aroma of this simple salad. The fragrant lemon skin and juice dominates but doesn't overwhelm the sweet taste of the carrots, in fact the combination brings out the best of both fruit and vegetable. I'm not a big fan of carrots but this is really good. I went for a 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th helping without any guilt, as its so low in calories.

Notes

Home-grown lemon has very thick skin which gives this salad a fantastic aroma and taste. If you are using a lemon from supermarket (it's preferable to buy an organic one as the skin is non-treated), use only 1/3 of it if the lemon is very juicy.

A beignet (French word for doughnut) is a pastry made from deep-fried dough sprinkled with icing sugar, sort of like doughnut, however in France they exist in sweet (plain or with fruit filling) and savory form (serves as entree with filling like mushrooms, potato or meat etc). From what I can gather, sweet beignets version dates back to Roman period. Beignets are popular and widespread in France with each region having its own specialty with its own local name: Bottereaux (Nantes' region), Chichi Frégi (Provence), Craquelins (Savoie), Corvechets (Lorraine), Bugnes (Bourgogne, Lyon) etc.

Let's concentrate on the bugnes variant: a specialty from central eastern France (in particularly Lyon & St Eteinne). There are 2 types of bugnes: the soft ones (Oreillettes) - thicker dough (with yeast) and are rarely knotted while the others, Bugnes Lyonnaises, are a thinly spread out dough sans yeast, knotted once or twice. It's the latter that we are going to make.

Bugnes Lyonnaises

Ingredients

• 50 g butter (softened)
• 2 big eggs (beaten)
• 250 g plain flour (sieved)
• 30 g sugar
• salt (a pinch)
• 3 cl orange flower water
• oil for frying
• icing sugar

Directions

1. Put the flour in a big bowl and make a well. Mix in the softened butter, sugar, a pinch of salt, beaten eggs, and orange flower water.
2. Knead dough for quite a while like you would do for bread or brioche, until it comes together and is soft and elastic. Form a ball and let it rest for 3 hours in a cool place.
3. Roll the dough into a big rectangle form if possible - about 5 mm in thickness.
4. Cut the dough into rows of long rectangles (approx 10 cm long, 4 cm wide). With a sharp knife, make a 5 cm long cut in the middle of each rectangle.
5. Turn one end of the rectangle through the cut in the middle to make some sort of a knot.
6. Once all the rectangles are knotted, heat enough oil for frying in a pan.
7. Put les bugnes into the hot oil. Turn each of them over immediately after putting in the last rectangle. Don't wait for them to brown to turn.
8. Once they are golden brown, take them out at once with a slotted spoon and let them drain off oil on paper towels.
9. Arrange them on a plate and dust some icing sugar on top.

The Verdict

These bugnes sure smell good - cripsy, lightly flavoured, not very sweet (it all depends on how much sugar you sprinkle, obviously). Much like potato chips, they are simply irresistible: once you pop one in your mouth, it's hard to stop and you end up moving the plate out of your reach to make it stop! They make great tea time snacks.

Notes

You can replace the orange flower water with vanilla essence or rhum or brandy.

My hubby has always been a big lover of Indian cuisine - so much so that whenever we are back in Singapore, the very first restaurant he heads for is Shahi Maharani. We eat there so frequently that even the manager recognises us instantly whenever we are back in Singapore, never mind that he hasn't seen us for over a year.

Since we haven't been back to Singapore for almost a year and I haven't been cooking any Indian food for a long long time, he needed to satiate his cravings, and I gave in after a few days of bugging. Flipping through our favourite Indian cook book, of course, he had to pick THE dish that has an ingredient that not only I had no idea what it was nor where to find it: madras masala paste. The book did not say how to make it or what it's supposed to be like. The Internet came to the rescue, and once I got the paste made it was now time to do this Beef Madras, which according to the book is a popular South Indian curry prepared mainly by Muslims.

Beef Madras

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large onions (finely sliced)
• 4 cloves
• 4 green cardamon pods
• 2 whole star anise
• 4 fresh green chillies (chopped
• 2 red chillies (fresh or dried, chopped)
• 3 tbsp Madras masala paste
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 450 g lean beef (cubed)
• 4 tbsp tararmind juice
• salt & sugar

Directions

1. Heat oil in a wok and fry the sliced onions until golden brown.
2. Lower heat, add in the spices & paste and fry for a few minutes.
3. Add in the cubed beef and mix well. Cover and let it cook on low heat for about 2 1/2 hours or until beef is tender.
4. Once beef is tender, remove lid and cook uncovered on high heat for a few minutes to reduce any excess liquid.
5. Stir in the taramind juice, season it with salt and sugar according to your taste.
6. Serve it hot with rice.

The Verdict

It's very aromatic, delicious, tender and super spicy. I personally couldn't take the heat of this dish eventhough I was wise enough to put only 2 green chillies minus the red ones. Hubby loves it so much that he didn't even care if his taste buds were on fire. He had 2^nd and 3^rd helpings. I salute him for his bravery - not bad for a ang mo (a Singapore local word for 'Caucasian').

This dish taste even better the next day.

Notes

I realised when preparing this dish the 3^rd time that how spicy this dish is depending on how spicy is your Madras Masala paste. If you reduced the spiciness in your paste, then you can add more fresh chillies (1 green & 1 red) or whatever combination you prefer. However if your paste is very spicy like mine (when I first did it), reduce the amount of paste added to the dish or simply leave the fresh chilies out.

Did you ever find yourself getting stuck with a recipe that list a paste or ingredient that you have no idea how to get or make? I often did and it is so annoying. Recently I was trying to making an Indian recipe and I stumbled upon Madras Masala Paste??? erhm... huh? What is that? I flipped through the whole book from back to cover... no mention of what this paste is nor how to make it. Thank goodness for the Internet, without it, I wouldn't be able to make this paste nor know what it is.

Ok, Confession time: when I made this paste the first time around, I didn't have exactly all the ingredients and I improvised a bit. I replaced the spices with ready-grounded spices. I replaced black mustard seeds (I didn't have them at hand) with wasabi (I know, the Indian chef would have a heart attack if he knew this) and I used balsamic vinegar instead of cider. On top of that, I absently added the oil into the paste mixture. I realised my mistake too late. Anyway I cooked the paste, curious to see how it would turn out - although the oil never separated from my paste, the paste was still delicious and very fragrant.

Coming soon, recipe that uses this paste. Do watch out for it.

Madras Masala Paste

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 4 tablespoons cumin seeds
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 tablespoon black mustard seeds
• 11 tablespoons ground turmeric
• 4 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 8 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 inches piece fresh ginger, peeled and shredded
• cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup sunflower oil

Directions

1. Heat up wok and dry stir-fry the coriander, cumin, and peppercorns for 1-2 minutes on medium-low heat, stirring constantly.
2. Add the black mustard seeds and toss constantly until they start to pop. Do watch the spices carefully that they don't get too dark or burnt.
3. Transfer the spices to cool on a plate. (The spices will continue to cook if you leave them in the wok to cool). Grind the cooled spices into a fine powder.
4. Add the turmeric, chili powder and salt, garlic, ginger and stir in enough vinegar to make a paste.
5. Heat the oil in a frying pan at medium heat, fry the paste, stirring constantly until the oil begins to separate.
6. Remove pan from heat and let the paste cool completely.
7. Keep the paste in a clean airtight container. Store in fridge and use it within 3 weeks.

Notes

As noted by one of my reader and confirmed by my friend from India, vinegar is not part of any traditional madras recipe. As far as my friend's knowledge goes, South Indians use tamarind juice wherever they need the sour taste and not vinegar. So I guess the vinegar is an improvised solution when one doesn't have tamarind on hand.

This paste is very aromatic and spicy - as it is really white-hot-fire-burning-inferno-from-hell. For those who can't take it very spicy, reduce the quantity of chili powder added to the paste. You have been warned!

This is one of my hubby's favourite desserts. When we used to live in Nantes, my mother-in-law would always bring one of these home whenever she returned from Auvergne. For those who haven't read my earlier posts, this brioche is a specialty of the French region of Auvergne. What makes it so special is not only the taste of the brioche but those lovely eye-catching bright red pralines in the brioche that captivate our attention, entice us and make us drool... and awfully sinful too - rich in butter and sugar - an ultimate comfort food.

I was immediately taken by it at the very first bite of this brioche, I was fascinated and interested to know how to make this awesome dessert. Then I was told that brioche is not easy to master... my enthusiasm got dampened. It wasn't until we moved to the Auvergne region that my fascination with this brioche renewed. Finding the red pralines on the supermarket shelf by chance was sort of a calling... Still, I hesitated, doubted about my baking skills... Could I do it? Hubby was confident that I could do it and told me 'What have you got to lose? If you don't try, you will never know.' With that in mind, one evening, I decided to just take the plunge, with hubby sitting opposite the dinning table surfing with his laptop while Little One did her colouring at the other end. My two favourite people in the same room to cheer me on. Every now and then while kneading the dough, doubts floated through my mind and I would ask hubby absently 'Do you think the consistency is correct? I think so, what do you think? Do you think it needs more flour? etc. Hubby naturally doesn't really know the answer to those questions but all the same, he tries to give me reassuring answers 'yes, dear, I think it's looking correct.' or 'yeah, perhaps a little bit more flour, what to do you think?'.

Thank you hubby for your confidence in me and your encouragement.

Brioche Aux Pralines

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 40 ml warm milk
• a packet of yeast (instant or normal)
• 250 g plain flour
• 45 g sugar
• vanilla essence
• 3 eggs
• 125 g salted butter (cut into cubes)
• 22 pralines (roughly break them with a hammer in a plastic bag)
• some melted butter mixed with some sugar (for coating)

Directions

1. Preheat oven at 160°C (325°F - gas mark 3). Line a 20 cm (dia) round baking pan, bottom and side with baking paper.
2. In a big bowl, combine warm milk, 1 tbsp flour and yeast together making sure it is well mixed. Leave it for 15 minutes.
3. Add in the rest of the flour, sugar, 1 egg and vanilla essence. Knead it with the dough hooks that comes with your electric beater. Mix till everything is combined.
4. Add in the rest of the eggs and continue kneading it. Continue kneading until the dough gives smooth, silky texture and slightly pale yellow. The dough will look a bit wet and glossy when you stop kneading it. It will also be slightly sticky to touch.
5. Knead in the butter until it is well worked into the dough - no butter lumps. The dough is done when it is smooth and elastic. It will still feels slightly sticky but it doesn't stick to your finger.
6. Cover it with a cloth and leave it to rise for an hour or until it doubles in size.
7. Stir it down and knead it a bit (with the dough hook), then cover it and leave the dough in a cool place to rise for 5 hours.
8. After 5 hours of rising, mix in the broken pralines. Knead it until it is well distributed in the dough.
9. Lightly flour your work surface, turn the dough out and lightly dust it with flour. Roll it out into a big rectangle.
10. Roll in from the longest side like a swiss roll. Cut it into 6 or 8 even slices and arrange them loosely in the prepared round baking pan.
11. Melt butter and sugar together in a small bowl. Brush this mixture on top of the brioche and let it rise for 1 hour.
12. Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
13. Coat the top with some melted buttery sugary mixture again and let it cool.
14. Serve it with a cup of tea. Savour it.

The Verdict

You know how we all have some "signature" dishes - things that we do so well people keep asking for us to make some more ? Well this is one of them. If you let me brag a little: it actually does taste better than the best ones I ever bought in a bakery. It's buttery, soft, sweet... Unlike some other brioches I've tried this one isn't dry and you don't need to drink anything with it to "get it down". It's also generously stuffed with pralines and they are well spread out everywhere. And the salted butter gives an extra kick to this brioche that isn't found in those sold in the bakeries. This brioche rocks!

Notes

Note that during winter period, I can make the dough at night and leave it to rise overnight at the coolest part of our house and bake it the next morning. However as the weather is warming up to summer, I would suggest not to leave it overnight or let it rise overly long as there is a risk of over fermentation, thus giving your brioche a funny taste and smell.

This recipe can also be done by hand but it will be a very sticky affair. At the beginning, it will feel like a lump of sticky mess but never mind that, continue kneading (dip your hand with a bit of flour now and then in between kneads). After a while, you will noticed that the dough is slowly coming together and stick less to your hands and bowl. The dough will be pale yellow, soft and elastic and slightly sticky. Knead in the butter, flour your hand a bit now and then a few times (but not too many) if it is too sticky. Dough will be become elastic and very gluey feeling and the dough should be able to stick off any sticky dough on your fingers cleaning. Continue to knead until dough becomes very smooth, elastic, pulls away from the bowl cleanly and you can lift it off with your hand. Once you got that, cover and leave it to rise and follow the rest of the instructions above.