Tagged again...

I've been tagged for another meme and this time I've been tagged by my friend Dolores whom I Always have to think of whenever I eat Nutella!!

This meme is a series of Questions, much like a chat show or one of those questionaires in fancy magazines...

But first the rules: Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

And now the Q&A:

What was I doing ten years ago?
10 years ago, I was busy planning my wedding! We got married in September 1998 so 10 years ago in June, we were thinking about invitation cards, reception places, the church programme...all the things that needed to be done!

What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today?
1. Try and get some blog posts scheduled
2. It's Sunday so it's having fun with kids day!
3. Think about this months Daring Bakers Challenge
4. Think about the new Lens I want for my DSLR
5. General weekend cleanups - ho hum!

5 Snacks I enjoy:
1. Chocolate
2. Potato Chips
3. Nutella
4. Biscuits/Cookies
5. Fried Banana Chips

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Quit my job and open a restaurant - it wouldnt matter if it didn't do well coz I'm a Billionaire!
2. Buy a Merc for me and a Beamer for the Wife
3. Buy a few houses and earn rental income - so that even if the restaurant didn't earn me a decent income, at least I wont go bankrupt!
4. Donate a couple of million to a noble cause
5. Take the wife and kids on a long holiday that would include Disneyland!

Places I have lived:
1. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2. Virginia, USA
3. Melbourne, Australia


Jobs I have had:
1. Dishwasher during student days
2. Petrol Station Cashier during student days
3. Production Engineer at a Manufacturing Company
4. various Engineering positions at Malaysia Airlines
5. IT Manager at General Electric Aircraft Engines
6. Head of Quality and Safety at Maxis (a Telecommunications Company)

Sharing the love... (Tag, you're it)
I'm not really one to pass on Meme's so whoever would like to participate, please feel free to do so and consider yourself tagged from me...!
1. anyone who feels like it

Chicken Curry

To me, there is nothing quite as satisfying as a fiery curry with rice. Yes, Rice and Curry would definitely have to rank right up there as superb comfort food. When I first started to cook regularly, as a Uni student in Australia, a good curry always brought back images and tastes of home.


I remember sitting with my housemates, watching TV in the lounge, with our plates piled high with steaming rice and hot and spicy chicken curry. It didn't matter how cold it was cold outside nor did it matter that we were in the middle of exams. All that mattered at that moment was how good the rice and curry tasted and how much it reminded all of us of home!

This is my recipe for Chicken Curry.

1 Whole Chicken
1/2 inch ginger
1 tsp Turmeric
1 Large Onion
handful of curry leaves
3 Tbsp Curry Powder
1 Tbsp Chilli Powder
¼ tsp cumin
¼ tsp fennel
4 cloves
3 Tomatoes
2 potatoes
½ Cup Fresh Milk
2 tbsp Cooking Oil
Salt to taste


Wash and cut chicken into medium pieces. Rub chicken with turmeric and ginger, salt and pepper. Remove skin if desired
Heat oil in deep pan or wok. Fry onions and curry leaves
Add in curry powder, fennel, cumin and cloves and lightly fry till fragrant. Take care not to burn the onions. Add in the sliced tomatoes and then toss in the chicken and potatoes. Mix well.

Pour in a little water if too dry. Allow the chicken to cook and then simmer until liquid is reduced. Add the milk and cook until mixture is thick.

If you like a 'richer' curry, use freshly squeezed Coconut Milk (or the canned variety) instead of fresh milk. I try and stay away from Coconut Milk in my curries as it is rather fatty albeit delicious!

Some people prefer their curry with more gravy. I like mine thick and with the curry coating the chicken in all its gooey goodness. If you like your curry with more gravy, just add in more water or milk. Simple as that!

When my mom used to make curry for all of us, she had a little trick to make sure that none of the 'gooey goodness' was wasted. After spooning the curry into a serving dish, she would scoop a spoon of rice into the wok or saucepan and mop up all the leftover curry. We would all then fight for that bit of rice!

Opera Cake without terrorists....

After succesfully completing what I called the Albino Opera Cake. for the May Daring Bakers Challenge, I decided to make the traditional Opera Cake. For those of you that read my DB post, you'd know that my son thinks our Daring Bakers logo looks like a bunch of terrorists attacking a town. So, since this post doesn't really involve the Daring Bakers, no terrorists were involved in the making of this cake - and hence the title!




A Traditional Opera Cake is full of flavours from the Dark Side - coffee soaked Joconde, layers of coffee buttercream and chocolate mousse and finally covered with a chocolate glaze. Yoda will definitely not be happy.

Hmmmm... Evil the Dark Side is....

I made a small rectangle Opera rather than the large square Opera. So does that make my Opera an Operetta?!! I'll try to stop being funny...



The recipe I used was adapted from Dorie Greenspans Paris Sweets. I halved the recipe and rather than using Dorie's recipe for Coffee Buttercream, I made my own. This is the halved recipe together with my coffee buttercream

Joconde
- 2 tbsps (30g) unsalted butter, melted
- 3 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 1 tbsps granulated sugar
- 1 cups (110) almond flour or finely ground almonds
- 1 cups icing sugar, sifted
- 3 large eggs
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
Preheat the oven to 425F (220C). Line jelly-roll pan with parchment paper, and coat parchment with 1 tbsp of the melted butter.
In a clean, dry mixer bowl fitted with the whisk attachment, whip on low speed until the whites become foamy, then whip on medium-high speed until the whites reach soft peaks. Add granulated sugar, and whip on high speed until the whites are stiff and glossy.
In a separate mixer bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, beat almond flour, icing sugar, and eggs on medium speed for 3 minutes or until light and voluminous. Add flour and beat at low speed until it disappears. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold meringue into the almond mixture, then fold in the remaining melted butter until just combined. Spread mixture into pan and spread evenly.
Bake cake for 5 to 7 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from the pan and let cool to room temperature.

Coffee Syrup
- ¼ cup water
- 1/6 cup granulated sugar (half of 1/3)
- ¾ tbsps (7g) instant coffee powder
In a small saucepan, combine water, sugar and coffee powder, and bring to a boil, while stirring to dissolve ingredients. Remove from heat and allow syrup to cool.

Coffee Buttercream
- 3oz butter
- 2 tbsps instant coffee powder
- 2 tbsps (15g) boiling water
- 3 oz Icing Sugar

In small bowl, combine coffee powder and boiling water and stir until dissolved.
In a mixer bowl, beat butter and sugar till light and fluggy. Slowly add the coffee mixture while beating.

Ganache
- 4oz (120g) bittersweet chocolate (70% +), finely chopped
- ½ cup (60g) heavy cream

Put the chocolate in a medium bowl. In a saucepan, bring milk and cream to a boil, and pour over the chocolate. Let the chocolate melt for 30 seconds, then gently stir the mixture until smooth and fully combined.. Beat till thick

Assembly
On a cutting board, measure joconde into three.
Place one piece on cake pan and moisten with 3 tablespoons of coffee syrup. Use an offset spatula to evenly spread half of the buttercream over the joconde. Freeze the cake for 10 minutes to allow it to firm.
On top of the buttercream, place another sheet of joconde. Moisten with 3 tablespoons of coffee syrup and use and offset spatula to evenly spread the ganache/mousse over the joconde. Place the last joconde piece on top of the ganache, and moisten with the remaining coffee syrup. Freeze the cake for 10 minutes to allow it to firm.
Use an offset spatula to evenly spread the remaining buttercream over the joconde. Make sure the surface is very smooth and even. freeze the cake for 20 minutes.

Chocolate Glaze
- 4 tbsps (60g) unsalted butter
- 3oz bittersweet chocolate (70% +), finely chopped

Transfer the cake to a rack on a level surface.
Melt butter and chocolate over double boiler.
Working quickly, pour the glaze onto the cake and use an offset spatula to smooth the glaze evenly across the top, allowing the glaze to drip off the sides. If more than one minute has elapsed, do not return to fix any small imperfections, as the buttercream underneath the glaze may have melted, and smoothing the surface may mix the buttercream with the glaze. Refrigerate the cake for about 30 minutes, or until the glaze has hardened.

I decided to cover the tops and sides with chocolate to make it more decadent. I served this for dessert one night and our guests couldn't quite believe that it was home made.


I absolutely love this dessert and it's really not that difficult to make although there are quite a few steps to it. The Lovely Wife and the Kids loved it too. I much prefer the chocolate/coffee version to the "albino" version. The Opera Cake is truly a very spectacular and yummy dessert to serve as well as eat!

Chicken Pie

One of the Lovely Wife's favourite dishes is Chicken Pie. In fact, it was a challenge from her that spurred me to make my own Chicken Pie. Most of the restaurants we have eaten at serve Chicken Pot Pies where the pie is served in a bowl and covered with puff pastry on top. My wife prefers a complete pie with pastry at the bottom as well. Not one to resist a challenge, I came up with this recipe and she now rates this as one of her favourites.


A couple of weeks ago, we invited her cousin and his wife over for dinner. She suggested that I make Chicken Pie as she was sure that it would be something that would be well liked. Whenever I make pie, I usually make enough for two 9" pies, as Chicken Pie is lovely eaten as leftovers.

All went well when suddenly we realised that one of my pie plates was in my Mother-in-Laws house. I quickly decided that I would try and make mini Chicken Pies using ramekins. That actually turned out quite nicely as now each person had his own personal pie. The kids loved that they had their own individual pies too!



Usually, I use shortcrust pastry for the base and Puff Pastry for the top. However, this time, as a cost saving measure, I just used Puff pastry for the base and top. It turned out well!



This is my recipe for Chicken Pie


Pastry
1 sheet frozen Puff Pastry
1 sheet frozen Shortcrust Pastry
1 Egg

Filling
400 gm Boneless Chicken Breast
250 gm Fresh Button Mushrooms
2 Cloves Garlic
2 Large Carrots
3 Potatoes
250 gm fresh Spinach (or use frozen if you like)
200 ml Cream
½ Tsp Black Pepper
½ tbsp Corn Flour
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp Oregano
2 Bay Leaves
½ tsp Rosemary
8 Rashers Bacon (optional)

Method
Line bottom of 9” pie dish with shortcrust pastry. Trim edges and use to cover open areas of dish and line edges of dish. Bake Blind in pre-heated 190oC Oven for about 15 minutes. (Baking Blind means covering the pastry with baking parchment / greaseproff paper and filling the shell with rice or beans to prevent the pastry from rising. Baking blind ensures that the bottom layer stays firm and doesn’t get soggy once the filling is put in.) Remove and let cool.

While shell is baking, Cut chicken into small squares. Mix 1/2 tbsp corn flour with pepper and salt. Add in Chicken and mix well so that chicken pieces are coated. Let rest.
Meanwhile, slice mushrooms thinly, cut carrots and potatoes into squares. Heat oil in pan. Add in chopped garlic, Oregano, Bay leaves and Rosemary and fry lightly till fragrant. Add in Chicken and cook well. Add in bacon if using and cook well.
Add in Mushroom and cook till mushrooms are tender. Add in Potatoes and Carrots and simmer. Add in Cream. Mix well and simmer uncovered. Add in chopped spinach and mix well. Continue to simmer until mixture is thick and potatoes, carrots and spinach are all cooked. Mix a little corn flour with water and add to the mixture (if required) to make it thicker. Allow to cool.
Fill shell with Chicken filling, taking care to fill evenly to corners and sides. Ensure that filling is COOL before filling pie. Cover with sheet of Puff Pastry. Moisten edges of pastry with water and press down firmly. Using a butter knife, trim the sides, cutting upwards. This helps the pastry from separating while baking.
Using left over pastry, decorate top of pie with pastry shapes. Beat the egg lightly and brush top and edges of pie. Bake in a Pre-Heated 220C Oven on the middle tray for at least 20 minutes or until pastry has risen and is golden brown.
Serve Hot and Enjoy!

Daily Tiffin - The GirEleCroc

It's time for another post at the Daily Tiffin. This time, I talk a little about the creativity of kids and how imaginative they can be. That's somehow so very different from when I was a kid where we were expected to conform to certain norms.

Read the full article over at The Daily Tiffin

Corn Bread with Whipped Herb Butter

Back in the days when I was scared of yeast, actually terrified would be a better word, I longed to make bread. How though to make bread when you are terrified of yeast? Well, I happened to come across an old, old recipe book at my mom's house that had a few recipes for 'yeast-less' Bread in it. The book in question is the Australian Women's Weekly New Cookbook. Obviously not so new now since the book is dated 1978.

I tried quite a few of these 'yeast-less' breads including Beer Bread and even Coke Bread - the kind of Coke you drink and not the kind you sniff. Although sometimes when you drink it really fast, it goes up your nose and you can always say that your snorting coke...? Ha Ha. I used to tell that joke many years ago. I was young - so shoot me!

Anyway, after many abject failures, I tried the Corn Bread recipe. It turned out really nice although it didn't rise quite as much as I thought it would. I reckon it you wanted a higher bread, you'd just need to double the recipe.

This recipe soon became a favourite of mine and I've made it quite a few times.


Corn Bread
60g Butter
1 Cup Cornmeal / Polenta
1 Cup Self Raising Flour
1 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Cup Milk
1 Egg
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt

Method
Put Cornmeal in a large mixing bowl. Sift Flour and baking powder together into the bowl. Mix all dry ingredients together. Heat milk and butter together in a pan until butter melts. Pour into flour and mix well. Add in egg and mix the whole mixture well. Pour into a greased loaf pan and bake in a pre-heated 220oC oven for 25 minutes or till done.




I like to serve the Corn Bread with whipped herb butter. This is how I make my herbed butter.

Whipped Herb Butter
100 g Butter
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Rosemary
1 tsp basil
Olive Oil

Method
Pound or grind the spices till fine and set aside. Beat Butter on high speed until light and creamy. Add in the spices and continue beating together. Slowly drizzle in some olive oil while beating. This makes the butter light and more flavourful
Pipe onto serving bowls.