Giant Choc Chip Cookie Dessert

Mothers day 2015 was celebrated on the 10 May and The Lovely Wife asked if I could make her a trifle. Sure! Why not! While the kids liked the idea of a trifle, they wondered if I could make something else as well. You see, I havent been baking too much new stuff off late and I guess the kids just wanted to try something new. I said I'd make them whatever they wanted but they retorted by asking me for suggestions. The trifle was being made on Saturday for Sunday as it needed time to set. So, since the inlaws were coming over on Saturday night, I decided I'd make something for dessert. I suggested a lemon cake but while my daughter thought that was a good idea, my son didnt seem to keen. I went through a few possibilities while searching the internet but most elicited looks of boredom and disinterest.

I had seen a Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Sunday offered as dessert at some restaurant, I can't quite remember which one though. So I threw the idea to the kids about a giant choc chip cookie like dessert that you could eat with ice cream. The looks of boredom immediately turned to interest. Deep interest! I surfed the web for a few recipes and settled on this Choc Chip Cookie Cake from Sallys Baking Addiction.

A New Way to Prepare Eggs - I call it Snow Eggs

I first saw this on a video that was in Russian or some Eastern European language. Basically what the video showed was separating eggs, whipping the egg whites, shaping the egg whites into a kind of volcano shape, placing the egg yolk into the centre and then baking it.

Looked fabulous and I couldnt get it out of my head. I wanted to make it for a while but each time I suggested it, I was met with doubt and resistance. Finally, I decided I would just make it. Two weekends ago, (14th March) Michael was away at band camp and so I persuaded my little princess to try these eggs for breakfast and let me make it for her.

I used three eggs and separated them, placing each yolk into an individual dish. Then I whisked the egg whites with a little salt until it was thick - like a meringue. Then I dolloped a batch of egg white on parchment paper and shaped it, making a hollow in the centre. The egg yolk was poured into the hollow.





I then baked it for around 15 minutes in a 180C oven.

Once it game out I placed it on a plate and sprinkled some pepper on the eggs and also a little more salt.  I served it with some lightly toasted bread as well.







I call this Snow Eggs coz it looks like pillows of snow.

The Snow Egg was really interesting. Sort of like a savoury pavlova and the egg yolk was a little runny once broken. The crust was a little rubbery as it cooled so you need to eat this fresh out of the oven and not let it cool too much. My princess thought it was interesting too. It was certainly a new way to enjoy eggs!

When I make this again, I will make the base a little flatter so that it cooks faster. As I said, indeed a new and interesting way to serve eggs!

11 year old Princess with a Salted Caramel Chocolate Mousse Cake

So my princess turned 11 today, the 17th of February 2015! As per the practice over the years, we placed her presents under the bed and then woke her up.



It was a school day for her today while her brother Michael started the school break for Chinese New Year. She gets tomorrow until the end of the week and also the next Monday off.

She got a few presents from us starting with an Adidas T-shirt. My princess loves games that you play together and with that in mind we got her a board game called You are Sentenced, a small dice game and finally an Electronics Lab that lets you build 130 different circuits to build timers, make make sounds, flashing lights and other electronic gizmos - supposedly even an AM Radio!

She seemed quite please with the presents and with the presents out of the way, she got ready and went off to school. I had to go to work but after school she was taken for lunch at Chillis with Mummy, Mike and Amma. My wife's brother and family went for lunch too.


Later in the evening, my parents visited and we went out for dinner. Sarah wanted Japanese so we went to Rakuzen at Sri Hartamas. She enjoyed a Sushi and Tempura bento while Michael went for the Unagi Rice Bento. Mummy had a Teriyaki Cod while my parents shared a Beef dish. I had a Beef Teppanyaki and we all shared a Grilled Salmon head. I had told the restaurant manager that we were celebrating Sarahs birthday and they gave us a complimentary dessert - Japanese ice cream wrapped in some kind of waffle covering. Rather tasty!

After dinner we returned home to cut her cake that I had made the night before.

Souvlaki

When I was a student in Melbourne, one of my favourite foods was Souvlaki. There were plenty of greek cafes dotted around Melbourne and I was partial to the souvlaki where the meat was in cubes and grilled on a hot plate rather than the kebab kind where it was sliced off a spit.

When we visited the Gold Coast late last year, I was quite disappointed to find that Souvlaki wasn't as readily available as it was in Melbourne. However, I was really thrilled to be able to find a shop selling souvlaki and to introduce my children to it. They really loved it and I decided I would need to try and make it one day.
One of the things that has stopped my from making Souvlaki is that we dont seem to have souvlaki bread available her in KL. The use of pita bread was never a consideration as the pita we get is somehow to thick. Of late however, I have noticed that the Mission brand has different types of breads - Pita, Naan and also Wraps. The wraps look like kind of a thinner version of a souvlaki bread and so I reckoned I would try it out. In my minds eye, I would use lamb chunks for the meat, make a yoghurt garlic sauce and throw in a bunch of chopped tomatoes and lettuce all wrapped up with the flatbread.

Goulash

One of my Christmas presents last year from The Lovely Wife and the kids was a Le Creuset oval pot. Le Creuset is super expensive in this part of the world and for a long time, both TLW and I have gazed longingly at the Le Creuset displays in the shops.

I used the Le Creuset immediately on Christmas Day 2014 for a casserole and found that leaving meat to slow cook in the oven delivered super soft, tender and tasty meat. So when we were shopping for groceries, I saw some nice cuts of beef and I suggested that I would make Goulash.


"Will it be nice Dads" piped up my princess. "What exactly is goulash?"

I explained that Goulash was a meat stew, generally using beef or lamb in a tomato based sauce with loads of paprika for flavour. The kids had seen a shop in Publika, one of the nearby shopping centres, that served Goulash and they made a reference to that, asking if mine would be better.

"I really dont know coz we haven't tried their Goulash have we?"

The kids proceeded to 'interrogate' me further on when I had last made Goulash, was it nice, if I really knew how to make it, was it nice, why hadn't I made it for them before, was it nice....

Christmas 2014

Christmas this year was a very quiet affair. We contemplated having an open house but decided instead that we would just celebrate it quietly with the family over a nice lunch. The Lovely Wife wanted a nice sit down lunch and asked if she could invite over two of her dearest friends, Lynn and Tina. I decided to make a leg of lamb, a simple citrus salad and a chicken casserole. I would get some pita bread to eat with the lamb, make a little rice and of course potatoes to finish everything off. I contemplated making dessert but since I had made the obligatory chocolate cake, I reckoned that would be enough for dessert.

Usually at Christmas Eve, we host dinner for the extended family where we also open all our presents. However, this year, we celebrated Christmas Eve at my Mom-in-Laws house and my parents joined us there too. Both my brothers had plans of their own so again it was a quiet affair.