French Baguette

This is the recipe that I used and let me just say this....it is not as easy as following a recipe. It is difficult!

https://bakingamoment.com/crusty-french-baguette-recipe/


kneading the dough was difficult, the dough was very wet

molding it was difficult, as you can see in the pictures. The shape is weird.

The bread did not expand the way i expected

The crust was tough but it taste good

The crumb was okay

In other words, not good!

Carnitas Tacos

I made this a while ago and this is a repeat. The last adventure was documented here https://foodmolecule.blogspot.com/2017/01/pressure-cooked-deconstructed-carnitas.html

It is almost impossible to find soft taco wrap made with corn. The only corn tacos are the hard tacos which I was thankful for. I also bought some white cheese (paneer) to go with it. The closest thing to queso blanco

Tres Leches Cake (3 milk cake)

Make a sponge or chiffon cake, soak it in 3 kinds of milk and you get this cake.

Rather than making the sponge cake, I bought one instead, to save time and effort.

I mixed 1 can of evaporated milk, 1/2 can of sweetened condensed milk and 350ml of heavy cream and a splash of rum. Fast forward, I can actually reduce the amount of condensed milk to 1/4 can and it will still taste good. 

For the cream topping, i whipped 470ml of cream with 2 tablespoon of granulated sugar. 

I soaked the cake overnight; making sure I added enough milk mixture.

Ma Po Tou Fu 麻婆豆腐

I followed Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe found in her book titled "Every Grain of Rice". I followed the recipe very closely but, of course, introduced a bit of improvisation.

Since I can't find the internet link to her recipe, I will type it out here for those interested:

Ingredients (5 generous servings, if you have meat)

500-600g plain white tofu (I think she is referring to the semi-firm tofu but I used soft tofu - two packets)

4 baby leeks or spring onions, green parts only (I find it a bit wasteful to use green parts only so I used the entire spring onion)

2 1/2 tbsp Sichuan chilli bean paste (this is a must-have but I did not use 2.5 tbsp. You'll need to adjust it according to your own taste)

1 tbsp fermented black beans (this falls under the optional but nice-to-have category)

2 tsp ground red chillies (optional, I did not use this)

1 tbsp finely chopped ginger, 1 tbsp finely chopped garlic (this is just a rough estimation, I think I used a little more than that)

1/2 cup vegetarian stock or water (I added half a piece of chicken stock cube to my water since I do not have any vegetarian stock)

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

2 tsp potato flour mixed with 2 tbsp water (I used corn starch and it is all an estimation)

1/4-1/2 tsp ground roasted Sichuan pepper (any purist would say this is a must-have but I did not have any in my dish)

200 g of ground pork




Instructions:

1. The original recipe recommend to par-cooked the tofu but I did not since I am using soft tofu.  I can see how that is necessary if you are using semi-hard tofu.

2. I browned the ground pork first then take it out of the pan.

3. In a clean pan, I fried the chilli bean paste until fragrant, then added garlic and ginger. Next I added the fermented black beans.

4. As Fuchsia warned in her cookbook "take care not to overheat the seasonings; you want a thick, fragrant sauce and the secret of this is to let them sizzle gently, allowing the oil to coax out their flavors and aromas".

5. Next I added the browned ground pork into the pan and stir fry it a few times. This is also when I added 90% of my chopped spring onion.

6. Finally, I added the soft tofu in the pan. I stir fried all of these very carefully. I broke apart the tofu but I dont want it to turn mushy, or as Fuchsia says it "dont damage the tofu".

7. Season with salt and pepper

8. Add the cornstarch water to thicken the sauce until your desired thickness.

9. Sprinkle the remaining scallion and serve. 




I can't say I have tried the most authentic Ma Po Tofu in my life since I have not been to the motherland of Ma Po Tofu; but this dish is surprisingly delicious. All the flavors blended together seamlessly. The chilli bean paste brings the heat, which makes the dish especially appetising. 

Lemon Tart Round Two

Having made deconstructed lemon tart, now is the time to make a proper lemon tart with...a tart base.

So good!

Biscuit crumbs cannot compare with a proper tart base.

Lemon Spongecake with Lemon Icing

Continuing with exploring desserts with lemon, we've decided to make a simple lemon spongecake. We followed this recipe very closely to make the spongecake and kept a very close eye on the cake. I took the cake out after 35 minutes; I think I could have taken it out at the 30 minutes mark.

Next up, make the lemon icing. For that, I use this recipe. The lemon that I used was big so I added too much lemon juice. The better way to do it is to drizzle in the lemon juice slowly while stirring until you get the consistency right. I saved the lemon icing by adding a bit more butter and a whole lot more icing.

Creame caramel

When you tried once and it is a success, what's more to tweak?

The recipe that I used was this.

There wasn't any real trick in making this if you follow the recipe closely. I cooked the caramel under low heat and it took a while for it to turn to this maple colour. I am not sure if I can cook it at higher heat but I am okay with taking more time to let the colour develop.



One thing to note, when the caramel colour began to develop, it comes fast so you need to pay really close attention at the first sign of change in colour.

The next trick is to determine the doneness. Again, I have to rely on these words "until the custard has set". I am not sure what that means so I relied on my instinct. The custard was, how should I say, slightly jiggly when I took it out after checking it a few times and setting the timer for another 2 minutes, another 2 minutes, a another 2 minutes.



You would never know how it would turn out until you flip it over. The custard was smooth and the center was still custardy.

Now the real trick is to replicate this.