Quick Fix Egg Tarts

With one piece of puff pastry left in the freezer, I was wondering how can I make use of it. Then Sonia from Nasi Lemak Lover posted her Egg Tart with Puff Pastry and I knew that I have found my answer.

Egg tarts has a special meaning for the two of us. When hubby asked me to be his girl friend, he took me to a lovely quiet spot near a river armed with an egg tart. I was still in university and he just started working. He picked me up after my late classes and told me he was worried that I would be hungry (as I usually am after my classes), hence the egg tart. We were good friends who went for a few dates before that evening and I thought nothing of it. When he did utter the question " I have been thinking, I really enjoy spending time with you and I know you like the time we have together too, so would you be my girlfriend?", I was just slightly surprised.

Two hours of questioning later, I agreed. Most of my friends still give me grieve that I  "tortured" him with my questions in our early stages of dating. While I was initially embarrassed, I was glad we clear up some expectations and thoughts early on, which probably helped us prepare our lives together. If you are wondering, these questions were about his future plans, career pathways, religion and beliefs and seriousness about the relationship. My line of thinking was, I'm not going to waste my time if he isn't serious!

Oh fun times indeed. So while I have not yet master the art of making proper egg tarts yet, I managed to surprise hubby with these little treats when he came home late from work one evening.

Quick Fix Egg Tarts  (makes 8 mini egg tarts)
1 piece of puff pastry cut into 8 pieces
3 eggs
40 grams of sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp of vinegar

Whisk eggs, sugar, vanilla and vinegar. Strain it twice. Place pastry into muffin or tart tin. Pour egg mixture into casing. Bake in a preheated 180C oven for around 25-30 minutes till golden brown.

Filling the Gaps

It seems like yesterday when we became a couple. Then we got engaged, married...and a blink of an eye, it has been two years.

The first year, it was a year of discovery. A steep learning curve where we learned how to live with each other. To communicate, to put us first when making decisions. It was bitter sweet.

The second year though, I'm learning how to relax. I'm slowly realising that God gave us different gifts for a reason. For example, he knows that I become anxious when it comes to household finances, so He sent you to calm me down and take control in that department. Oh, and He knows that I need someone to wake me up in the morning, keep warm when it's winter and wave your magic wand with excel file sheets (and all IT related situations).  Funny enough, you need me to provide you alternative perspectives, organise meals, connect with others and remember things (e.g. birthdays, things,..). 

 We are so different individuals. I like decisions to be made fast. You like to ponder. I'm anxious. You are calm. I grew up in a traditional Cantonese household. You grew up in a family rich in different cultures. I enjoy cooking in the kitchen. You prefer eating instead. I like the produce of the garden. You do the gardening. You literally planned all the electrical and data points of our future home. I prefer to look at the general layout, and how we are going to live there. I love eggplant. You want bittergourd.

And how we fight. Not in a bad way, but because we are different, we clash at times. Interestingly, it's never the big issues that we clash. It's the smaller, minute, day to day stuff. Like what time we are heading out to breakfast. Or whether or not we are heading out to groceries in the morning or afternoon. Those silly stuff that does not matter in the end. But I'm learning.

I'm learning that.. I have gaps. You have gaps. together we fill gaps.

At first these gaps were disturbing. You were quicker than me to accept that. I was perplexed and wondered how can we be so different? I had to resist the urge to impose me on you. 

I went back to our vows. And there it was. Would you believe it? We wrote our vows to complement each other. You said you will be the one to calm me down, to hold me... I said that I will fill you up, work together and encourage you regardless.

And because we fill each other gaps, we vowed to "Accomplish more than we ever could alone."

God Almighty is amazing. He said it in Genesis 2:18. It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.

And he gave me the privilege to do so.

I pray and hope that in the next year. I will have a thankful heart to appreciate and accept these differences.

To my dear husband. Happy 2 Year Anniversary.... and many more to come.

Baked Pandan and Coconut Milk Cake

A very belated post. Late January, it was hubby and granny's birthday. Turns out that this year, Granny's Chinese birthday (according to the lunar calender) is the same as hubby's English birthday!

On the day itself, hubby bought his own birthday cake. I felt so bad.. but work means that I did not get home till late that day. It was a sweet day though as granny waited till both hubby and I are back, staying up late to cut her birthday cake (Sharing with hubby of course). I rarely have the chance to celebrate granny's birthday-given that I'm not in Singapore often. I think she senses it too, that despite my working hours, we sincerely want to spend it with her.

To make it up, I decided to make a cake that I thought will make both of them happy. It has to be something slightly different since granny isn't a fan of sweet creamy cakes. I decided to adapt a Nyonya recipe from one of Andrew Kow's cookbook "Nyonya Kuih with Passion". It has coconut- so I know it will be a winner with hubby.

While I was making it, granny commented that it is unusual to be cooking the batter on the stove before baking it. Indeed. The batter will become very thick-like when one is making yam or radish cake.

The result is.... a happy granny and hubby. =)

Baked Pandan and Coconut Milk Cake

200 grams Rice Flour
80 grams mung bean flour
150 grams of sugar (reduced from 300 grams)
1400 ml of coconut milk (I used 1000 ml of coconut milk and 200 coconut cream)
20 grams of sago powder (omitted as I dont have it!)
pandan essence- around 2 tsp

Oil a square baking tin. Pre heat oven 180C.

Place all ingredients into a pot. Mix well and cook using medium heat. Keep stirring till the batter becomes thick. Bake for 30 minutes till it becomes golden brown on the top. Leave to cool. Cut into pieces and serve.

Chocolate Caramel Brownie Hearts

We never have any luck celebrating Valentine's Day. Perhaps it's the nature of our relationship-that we emphasized on they daily choices rather than a big celebration on one day of the year. Or perhaps I just cannot justify how much flowers costs and think it is much more worthy spending it on something else. In fact, AR bought me a swarovski crystal rose because he said given my practical nature, I would enjoy a rose that never die instead. Besides, he figured that he probably saved more from not buying me roses on Valentine's Day. He was right. A rose from the garden also suffice. In all honesty, to wake up smelling a fresh stalk of rose from our garden that he deliberately woke up earlier to cut was more meaningful than a big bulky bunch of store bought flowers.

I recalled when we first started dating, he gave me a puzzle mat for Valentine's Day. He was traveling then, and called me to tell me that there was a present hiding underneath his bed, and that I have to pulled it out. Not the most romantic because he forgot to clean the dust under his bed!!!! And I bet our housemates was wondering why I was in his room looking underneath his bed. How suspicious that must have looked. In later years, we seem to spend Valentine's Day separately due to different commitments like being overseas at the same time or having family members visiting. 


More recently, we opted to write each other cards and notes to remind ourselves how privileged is that to have one another. Even through arguing the little things like how busy our schedules are, how we manage our money to why we tend not to "listen" to each other-probably due to tiredness. Often, we learned the hard way that, regardless of whatever we said or did,  we do we have goodwill towards each other.  Valentine's Day is about us respecting and loving one another. The cycle that never should end.

 

Sweet Valentine's Day everyone!

Chocolate Caramel Brownie Hearts modified from Taste

80grams of butter (recipe called for 150grams)

150 grams of dark chocolate (I used a mixture of mint chocolate and chocolate with cherry liquor in them)

1/4 cup of caster sugar (recipe called for 

1 1/4 cup of plain flour 

2 eggs

2 tsp of cocoa powder 

220 grams of Cadbury Carmello chocolate blocked (I put it in the fridge for a few hours before chopping them into small pieces) 

Preheat oven 180C. Line a slice tray with baking paper. 

In a sauce pan, melt chocolate and butter. Fold in sugar when the mixture has been combined. Cool for a few minutes. 

Meanwhile, combine flour and cocoa powder together. 

Whisk 2 eggs, Slowly whisk 2 eggs into the sauce pan to chocolate mixture. Then fold in the combine flour/cocoa powder. Fold in carmello chocolate bits. Pour into prepared tray and bake for 15-20 minutes till top is set. 

Cool. Cut using heart shape cutters and dust with cocoa powder. Resist munching on the leftover bits! Caution, despite this recipe saying that it is a brownie, I think it resembles a truffle instead and is quite rich.

Sending my love to Aspiring Bakes #4 Love Is In The Air Series!  The host is Ellena this month, with a theme of "Heart Shape".

Thai Inspired Spicy Noodle Salad

I'm backkkk! The highlight of the trip is of course being part of the bridal party of my best friend's wedding. My gorgeous friend is married!! All those primary and secondary school days memories flooded back as I watched her walk down the aisle. She was brave, she allocated the task of being an emcee in her dinner banquet. I was emotional, as I saw those photos in Peg's childhood slideshow, it struck me how much we have grown (alas, not in height, I meant wisdom and age....).I recall those study days, sleep overs, singing KTV none stop for 6 hrs. Ah... and now both of us are married.

Congratulations Rane and Peggy! 

Before I left for Singapore, hubby and I were invited to a last minute pot luck gathering. I arrived home from work at 6pm and was ready to leave home with our dish by 6:35pm. Glad I did bring something because turned out that everyone brought either pizza or kfc-neither dishes would have sat well with my stomach (or weight!).

This dish isn't anything fancy. In fact, I was trying to do a salad but everyone at the gathering thought it was a stir fry noodle dish. Oops. I didn't even correct them! I just smile and nod.Oh well, they finished the bowl which is the main thing.

I was trying to be real quick and cooked some pork mince with chili, fish sauce, sugar and soy. The result was a tangy mixture! I tossed it through some mung bean vermicelli. However, I did a taste test then, and it was blend. So I mixed some lemon juice, fish sauce, sugar and some stock in a jar. Stir it, pour it over the noodles, toss, added some fried shallots and viola, it tasted much better then!

So I'm still not sure if this is a salad? or?? Can someone suggest a new name perhaps? Whatever it was, it was quick, easy and beats fast food any day.

Thai Inspired Spicy Noodle Salad (Serves a party of 8-10 people or feeds 4-5 for a meal)
300 grams of pork mince
around 100 grams roast pork (left overs)
1 tablespoon of garlic 
1 cup of snow peas peeled
2 carrot shredded
2-3 sprigs of spring onions chopped
1 red chili chopped

2 tablespoons of fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
2 tablespoon of soya sauce
1 tablespoon of plum sauce 
1/4 cup of water

"Dressing"
1/4 cup of lemon juice
2 tsp of fish sauce
1/2 tsp of sugar


1 medium bunch of mung bean vermicelli quickly blanched with hot water and drained. Mean while, saute garlic and chili and add pork mince and cook till it is done. Pour all sauces, water and sugar over the mixture. Simmer. Add veges. Cook for 1 min. Pour mixture to noodles and toss. Do a taste test and adjust "dressing". Pour dressing over it. Serve with some fried shallots.

Marriage and Gifts

I have been thinking of writing more thoughts about marriage- simply because I think that we experience and learn so much from it on a very day basis, and it will be a waste not to pen it down. Abit of it is humour, and abit of is just pure fun and frustration. Just to add a dash of sweetness and kindness to the mix as well.

Marriage is like a book of good recipes. You want to keep the good ones and learn from the mistakes/challenges. There is no such thing as a bad recipe isn't? There is always something to learn from.

It's funny. This blog has followed through on my journey in my studies all the way to us getting married. It has also followed through quite a few of my birthdays too. Since I was 21 actually. Which make it.... a decent amount of time!

Which brings me to my birthday that happened about a month ago. The day went really sweet. Hubby made me breakfast in bed, brought me a bunch of flowers and we had the most awesome Jap buffet dinner ever.

But he didn't get me a birthday present.

He tried. He really tried very hard.He wanted to get me a car charger massager thing to help with my bad back while driving. Apparently it doesn't deliver to Australia. And while that thought was sweet AND practical, I was actually thankful that he didn't get me a gadget that may not work......

Then he tried looking for a bag, nothing that caught his fancy.(he bought me a beautiful Oroton bag last birthday! and a little clutch a few years back and it was the most successful gifts ever!)

He tried thinking outside of the box, he tried to ask me. But I joked around and said "Tiffany, or anything belonging to the apple range of products" (which I know it is out of our household budget at the moment. given that we are building and wanting to save those shiny new products for our new home). So that was out as well.

He tried to hint at getting a ice cream maker or hair straighter or something to that effect. I said we are only married for 17 months hon, not 17 years! Couldn't you leave appliances out? So that was out of his list too. 

So I became the not so grateful wife who said no to any suggestion.. and ended up with..

no gift. 

Which surprisingly, I was quite ok about. In fact, I think he was more upset that he didn't get me anything. I, on the other hand, didn't put too much emphasis on it because he chose to spend the day with me and he respected me enough to give me what i want..which was...rest. 

But I got really nucky when he suggested using funds from my birthday gift to buy a coffee machine for the household... I was really really angry!

Which means I was fine with no gift, but not ok if the same funds are directed to elsewhere-no matter how practical it is.

My poor confused husband.

And I admit that even I think it looks confusing after re reading this post. But it is the principle isn't it? He did get it in the end and I explained to him by saying...

"How would you feel if I saved up the money to buy you a brand new computer, but you didn't want it so asked me to wait for a while until something interesting/new came up. So instead, I suggested taking the money and using it for a spa retreat. For myself. I will bring home a small bottle of vanilla massage oil for you"

He got it. ;P

No gifts aside. He got me this awesome durian cake. It's not quite the same as the one my parents used to bring back for my grandmother's birthday. But it will do..because it is in PERTH and beggars should not be fussy.

Picnic Fun- Smoked Salmon and Garlic Teriyaki Chicken Sushi

So AR realized that I have been really tense recently. Work was getting waay into me. He suggested that we head to rural Western Australia, around 45 minutes drive from the city for a picnic. He even offered to make sushi and prepare dip and carrot sticks for the trip! He knows that sushi is my comfort food. I can have it any time of the day! How impressed I was!!

Except that it took him 30 minutes to cut the vegetables up.

And I got impatient.


So I got my hands into rolling the sushi, thinking that he will be done soon and will take over.

But I ended up rolling them all!!!

He was sweet though. And even packed a magazine for me to read during the picnic. Did you notice that he even packed soya sauce? He took the WHOLE bottle! =)

And all the lovely vegetables that he cut up for me to munch on (he also cut the veges for the sushi).

And the wonderful waterfall that we saw. 

I am very blessed with a caring and loving hubby (just not when he spent 30 minutes cutting vegetables!!!! ;P)

Sushi (I think we made more than 60 small size sushi-around 5 rolls. It was our lunch the next day too!)
3 cups of sushi rice (cooked using the instructions on the packet)
around 1 tablespoon of sugar
2-3 tablespoon of rice vinegar
150 grams of smoked salmon 
1 cucumber, 1 carrot and 1 avocado sliced longitudinally.
2-3 crab sticks defrosted
wasabi!
you can use mayo but I am on a health kick so no mayo for us.
5 pieces of sushi grade seaweed 

Garlic teriyaki chicken- cooked 100 grams of chopped chicken thigh with garlic and teriyaki sauce.

Season rice with sugar and rice vinegar. Taste to check seasoning. 

Place seaweed on sushi mat. Place around 2-3 tablespoon of rice on it. Flatten it using wet hands. It should fill around 3/4 of the seaweed. Swipe wasabi longitudinally. Place veges and smoked salmon/chicken on it. Roll sushi up. Making sure to tighten the roll as you go along. Cut sushi using a sharp knife. Serve with wasabi and soy sauce.

Married for 1 year!

It was exactly 1 year ago that AR and I had a blast celebrating our marriage with our closest friends and family members in Singapore. One year! Where did all the time went? It doesn't seem that long ago that we were dating then we got engaged, then there was the wedding planning and of course, the big days themselves.

I will never forget the moment when our pastor pronounced us husband and wife.  Or the beautiful Perth reception we held for 57 people closest to our hearts. Our two tier wedding cake-one Chocolate Mud and the other Carrot Cake. And why we chose those flavours. Chocolate because we love and Carrot because that is the one cake you ALWAYS buy for me when I am ill. Not forgetting our first dance, when we suddenly went into our own little world and cherish that 3 minutes when we danced together.

Nor can I ever forget our Singapore wedding celebrations. How intimate it was to share the moment with everyone. The joy that our families had as we served tea to our relatives. The emotional church ceremony where we gave thanks to God and to our parents for raising us. The fun we had at night, at our banquet and then partying in the bar till 2am in the morning.

How about the Malaysia leg of the celebrations. The grandness of it, the speeches and oh, not forgetting the warm welcome the family gave to us while we were there. 

So how is married life? friends asked...

In this one year, we learned so much about each other than we did dating. Perhaps like all couples, we thought we prepared well. After all, we attended way more than the required 3 sessions of pre marital counseling. We had countless chats about our direction in life. We spoke about our families, careers, children and of course finance.We prepared for the worse, we came out with scenarios and discussed what we will do if that happened.

Come the day when we call ourselves Husband and Wife, it was more than a name change. Yes, the above helped but the reality was much harder than what we anticipated. We learned that marriage is a choice. a DAILY choice. Where we choose our partners in life instead of consulting with them last.  We learned that it is so easy taking each other for granted just because we have signed on the dotted line- and we have to remind ourselves that we are very blessed to have each other. We learned that forgiveness is necessary and saying sorry is essential.We learned that love is to be shown in so many small ways. And yes, it does accumulate.

We fought, we cried, we laughed.

So we learn how to love.

Married life? Is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. It taught us how to grow up, to never take for granted how marriage is a gift. A gift for life. I enjoy having hubby having his arms around me in the morning just as I am waking up. The lunches that we have on Sunday afternoons. The walks we take. Decisions we made together. Celebrating each day as we have this gift that is worth us fighting for. This whole year, not only did we pull off the wedding celebrations, we planned the most awesome 3 weeks Europe honeymoon, traveled to Melbourne, road trip from Adel to Mel, renovated our home and worked hard.

In one year, we achieved so much-only because we are together with God. It's because we vowed that together we will achieve more. This coming year will be a bigger one. Because we are stronger, because we have the will to make it better.

Happy 1 year Wedding Anniversary AR- and many more to come!

The hubby's Birthday Adventure P3- Oreo Chocolate Cake

So I waited till the Friday (His Birthday was on Wednesday), and baked him a very very sinful chocolate cake. We were meeting a big group of friends, and what more of a celebration when we have groups of people sharing cake right?

I cheated with this recipe and used the Chocoholic's Chocolate cake recipe from The Women's Weekly. I crushed a packet of oreos (Sneaking a few in my mouth first), and added into the batter. The result was a smooth, chocolate cake with lots of bity bits.

Mini oreos were used to decorate the cake together with a packet of Maltesers! The crunch of the chocolate balls and tiny oreos makes it a delight!

The Oreos Chocolate Cake 

250 grams butter melted
1 tablespoon coffee granules
1 1/2 cups of water
1 tsp vanilla extract
200grms dark choc
2 eggs beaten lightly
1 1/2 cups of self raising flour
1 cup of plain flour
1/4 cup of cocoa powder
1/3 cup cream
1 packet of oreos cookies crushed
1/2 packet of mini oreos (for decorations)
1 packet of Matesers (for decorations)

Preheat oven to 150 C. Grease and lined 19cm square cake tn.

Heat butter, coffee, water, sugar, extrac and half of dark choc in saucepan till it melts. Transfer to big bowl and cool for 20 mins. Stir in egg and sifted dry ingredients.

Pour mixture in pan. Bake for 1 hour. Stand cake for 15 mins then turn top side up onto rack to cool.

Combine cream and dark choc in small sauce pan. Stir till the ganache is smooth. Refrigerate  for 1 hr till it becomes firm. Spread choc on cooked cake. Decorate with mini oreos and maltesers.

The Hubby's Birthday Adventure P1- Crispy Grilled Salmon on a bed of herb potatoes and prosciutto wrapped asparagus

Cooking for the hubby's birthday is a challenge-especially when it falls on a weekday. He requested for salmon and I know he wants it crispy skinned. A penchant for bacon, he has always wanted to try prosciutto but cringed at the price.

So arriving home after 07:15pm and started cooking within that 5mins-finishing up by 08:30pm is pretty decent don't you think? Not only that, we even managed to squeeze in the movie Avatar at 09:15pm! (Imagine 25 mins of scoffing down food that took me 1 hour and 15 mins to prepare!).

All worth it though. It's not my best but it was  good enough... (see P2 and P3)!

Crispy Grilled Salmon on a bed of herb potatoes and prosciutto wrapped asparagus 

2 portions of salmon

2 potatos chopped
olive oil
 1 knob of butter
herbs lots of mixed herbs

1 bunch of Asparagus
50 grams of prosciutto


Heat pan till hot with olive oil, grill salmon skin side down first till crisp. Lower heat and sear salmon. Once cook, rest aside.

In another pan, melt butter and olive oil together. Saute potatoes with herbs. Sprinkle with salt at the end.

Wash and prepare asparagus but shaving off the wooden tips. Wrap prosciutto around it. Grill it for around 5-10 mins.

Try juggling 3 pans at once and see what turns out! :P

I'm BACK!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! Hubby and I started the new year with a bang. Well, not exactly... we were in Paris and needing to take the flight back early next morning, we decided to spend the night in our little hotel room facing the Eiffel Tower of course.

Yes! We usher in the new year with Macarons and Isaphans from Laduree and Pierre Hermes. Not forgetting a mini bottle of champagne and mini croissant.

Our greatest find in Paris would be MACARONS. Gorgeous delicious little ones.

From a tea salon at Laduree to hard to find boutique of Pierre Hermes, we are proud to say we found it! And through walking along the streets of Paris.

My verdicit? Totally in love with Pierre Hermes. Hit and miss with Laduree. The unique flavours that Pierre Hermes carry is amazing- from white truffles to chestnuts- Texture of it has a crisp outer shell with very moist innards. Laduree is much sweeter and lesser innards.

What won me over, however was the way staff handled the macarons. I arrived on busy days- New Year's Eve and the day before that to both boutiques. The queues were long. I saw staff at Laduree handled macarons roughly- one staff broke 2 macarons in front of me. Same situation at Pierre Hermes, but all staff handled pastries gently.

On the flight back to Singapore, many Singaporeans were sighted carrying the famous LV paper bags... I proudly went up the plane with my Pierre Hermes paper back filled with treats!

Other treats in Paris include my all time favourite Chestnut filled Crepes. Wonderful  aroma filled the air of the streets of Paris- or in our case, we had ours near to the Lourve Museum and along the streets of St Michel.

Our last stop of our trip was Paris. All in all, we went to Copenhagen, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Koln (Cologne), Zurich and Bern for a stop over on our way to Interlaken, Geneva and to the full of surprises Paris.

We had the most amazing time ever- the only negative was when we had to cancel our trip to Amsterdam due to the snow storm-well we did pray for snow and boy did God deliver!

So back to work for me... but no fear, I have more food posts up my sleeves...and of course an update of our never ending kitchen renovations....