030. Leafy salad with vinaigrette

(Date: 26-Feb-2013. The 30th recipe in 2013)

I'm never a salad girl. Grown up in Asia, I am too used to stir-fry vegetables or leafy veggie soup. However I am eager to do a meatless day once or twice a week - to eat further down the food chain and live lighter on the earth once in a while. I think salad is a good point to start with (and less dishes to wash too).

Vinaigrette, also known as French Dressing, is probably the easiest salad dressing. Despite of its fancy name, it is just an emulsion made with 1 part of vinegar with 3 parts of oil. Most regular home cook should have heaps of both already sitting in the pantry, so there is definitely no need to pay an extra two pounds to buy a bottle. It feels more natural to DIY at home too. I can hardly believe oil and vinegar (think about oil & water) can form stable emulsion without separating apart for the whole shelf life without a bit of help of chemical or additives.

029. Cantonese ginger milk pudding

(Date: 24-26 Feb 2013. The 29th recipe in 2013)

I found the following few recipes online but what I found really useful is a science project. A group of secondary students in Hong Kong had investigated the optimal temperature, ph level (aciditiy) and other factors for making this traditional dessert. To me, it's like a myth buster and truly enlightening. The pdf file can be found here. Other recipes I found online include: Magic ginger milk pudding, Ginger Milk Pudding, a Natural Custard by Taste Hong Kong, Ginger Milk Pudding by Kitchentigress, Wikipedia: Ginger milk curd

I have then experienced a bit to find the optimal temperature & ingredient ratios via 4 different attempts (using same kind of milk, sugar & the same knob of ginger).

[supermarket finds] Gail's San Francisco Style Sourdough

I chanced upon Gail's Bakery near Tottenham Court Road a few months ago. The window display was fabulously festive. Rustic-looking loaves, delicate cupcakes and a reindeer made with light bulbs were all very inviting. One afternoon in November, I decided to check out its croissant and cappuccino. I was, and still am, on a quest to look for the best croissant in the town. I wished Gail's was the right place to answer my prayer to the Almighty Croissant heaven.

Unfortunately it wasn't. I left with huge disappointment.

028. chicken wings with lemon & black pepper

(Date: 19 Feb 2013. The 28th recipe in 2013)

This is from Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries: A Year in the Kitchen. I think I almost followed the recipe to word except 2 adjustments: (1) I left the tray of wings in fridge for 6 hours before baking, hoping to deepen the flavour by a prolonged marination, and (2) I used 1.5 kg of wings instead of 1 kg. And the wings I used did not have the tips - not sure if it's just some urban myth or old wife tale, but there have been lots of talks about how grown hormone might have accumulated in chicken tips and that could be really bad to health. Anyway that's not the particularly meaty part. And Halal counter in supermarkets do sell wings without tips. Why not?

Genoise (sponge cake)

(Date: 9 January 2013. The 5th recipe in 2013)

This is a belated birthday cake for my husband. My first attempt to make a Genoise sponge cake with cream frosting as I made several mistakes - cutting the cake too early, whipping the double cream too much, not leaving it long enough in fridge before serving. But I think the genoise recipe itself is terrific. It makes the English Victorian Sponge look as heavy as a stone. It's not difficult neither. I'll certainly make it again. That's why I finally decided to write this post for my future reference even I wasn't entirely happy with what I did.

chocolate bark

(Date: 6 Feb 2013. The 26th recipe in 2013)

The idea of making chocolate bars/barks is inspired from "How to make chocolate bars" by David Lebovitz. I also tried to follow his chocolate tempering tutorial to temper the chocolate before molding. Although the tempering was not quite successful, it's mainly because I didn't keep an close eye on the thermometer (and my thermometer seems inaccurate). I've used several of his recipes in the past, either from his website and his excellent book "Ready for Dessert". Most yield very satisfactory results. Hence I believe my failure in tempering the chocolate doesn't reflect the reliability of the original recipe/tutorial.

Anyway, the resulting chocolate barks are still very pretty. They may not possess the desirable property of tempered chocolates, but still absolutely gorgeous.

daikon turnip pudding

(Date: 5 Feb 2013)

The 25th recipe in 2013. This recipe is heavily adapted from "Savoury Kagoshima Thick Cut Daikon Turnip Pudding" from a cookery class organized by Intercontinental Hotel. I basically followed the ingredient ratios with some modifications. A very different method had been used to make the puddings though.

corn muffins

(Date: 5 Feb 2012)
The 24th recipe in 2013. It's also the second recipe I used from Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller. Again, it's a muffin recipe with the batter sitting overnight in order to hydrate the flour. I didn't control the temperature well -- my oven seems to be getting dodgier with more unstable temperature these days. Could be a sign of ageing? But the resulting muffins are still very moist and soft.

The original recipe is "Corn Muffins" from Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller. Basically I've followed the recipe quite closely except the following minor changes: (1) I only used two-thirds of the recipe and have made smaller muffin tin, (2) I've reduced the sugar amount from 90g to 75g, (3) Sea salt & sunflower oil had been used instead of kosher salt and canola oil, (4) I prepared the batter without using a hand mixer to prevent over-mixing.

cauliflower soup with roasted hazelnuts

(Date: 3 Feb 2012)

The 23nd recipe in 2013, the 10th recipe from Nigel Slater's. If you asked me again if I am trying to cook through the whole The Kitchen Diaries 2, my answer would still be no, that's not my intention to cook through any book or follow any celebrity chef. But at the moment I'd love to follow Nigel Slater's footsteps in exploring the world of (relatively) simple homey dishes with seasonal ingredients and local produce. Hopefully I'll become a more confident home cook and know more about cooking through using his recipes.

The recipe is from Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries 2. 

fish with lemon & brown butter sauce

(Date: 3 February 2013)

The 22th recipe in 2013. And the 3rd from Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen, followed by Pistou soupe and MacNcheese. I made her creme brulee during Xmas too but that was in 2012 so it didn't count. 

The original recipe is "Poisson meunière (fish with lemon & brown butter sauce)" from Rachel Khoo's Little Paris Kitchen. I closely followed the recipe except the fact that I couldn't find any lemon sole (apparently Waitrose only carries it's posher cousin Dover sole). Hence I got some cod fillet instead.

Chinese new year pudding

(Date 2 Feb 2013)

The 21st recipe in 2013! This recipe of Chinese new year pudding, a.k.a. Nin Go (年糕)  is from a fellow blogger Sally Ho, which can be found here (link). 

spaghetti bolognese

(Date: 29 January 2013)

The 19th recipe in 2013, the 9th from Nigel Slater's. Original recipe is "A really good spaghetti bolognese" from Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries. I think the title somehow has unnecessarily raised my expectation. While I think it's good -- indeed very good, I am a bit reluctant to say it's really really good.

Chinese greens with oyster & ginger

(Date: 27 January 2013)

The 18th recipe in 2013, and the 8th Nigel Slater's one. "Chinese greens with Oyster & Ginger" from Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries. Ok. I know it sounds weird for me, a native Chinese from Hong Kong, to use an Englishman's recipe to make Chinese greens in oyster sauce. But as part of my journey following Nigel Slater's footsteps in understanding more about food & cooking, why not? (I boiled the Choi Sum in a different way than suggested by Nigel Slater though...)

Instead of steamed rice, I serve it with plum-flavoured Japanese buckwheat soba noodle. The only reason to do so was the fact that the soba was expiring in March. The aesthetically appealing pink & green combo was a bit beyond my expectation.

Mac 'N' Cheese

Date: 26th January 2013 (Saturday)

The 16th recipe in 2013. It's from "The Little Paris Kitchen" by Rachel Khoo. I followed the recipe pretty closely but have made a few changes: (1) I didn't sift away the garlic & onion from the bechamel sauce. I feel a bad to chuck away edible good sauce of fibre/nutrients. Hence the finely chopped garlic & onion were poured onto the pasta together with the sauce. (2) I reduced the amount of gruyere cheese from the recommended 200g to 165g (already up from my original plan of using 120g only). 

anzac cookies

The 17th recipe in 2013.

The Anzac biscuits recipe is from BBC GoodFood. I misread the recipe and didn't realize I should dissolve the bicarbonate of soda to 2tbsp of boiling water. Therefore, I missed 2 tbsp of water at first and had difficulty in forming a dough. The mix was as dry as muesli and couldn't form a dough. I then re-read the recipe but for some reason I still didn't see the line about dissolving bicarb!! Luckily I looked up a few other Anzac cookie recipes written by Australians. I found their recipes seem to have an extra 1 or 2 tablespoon of water and syrup. Hence I added an extra tablespoon of golden syrup - which helped but it was still a bit crumbly. Then I added 2 tablespoons of water gradually which just did the magic and gave me one lump of workable dough. Turns out my dough has one extra tbsp of syrup compared with the original and has exactly the water content it calls for! What can I say? I think I was just very very lucky! And the cookies taste really good!

lemon poppy seed muffins

The 20th recipe in 2013. (The 16th-19th recipes will be posted later)

The original recipe is from Bouchon Bakery by Thomas Keller. I do not did not own this book when I tried this recipe (but now do! Yay!). I just googled some recipes reposted by a few American bloggers. Although the original book has metric measurements, but none had been reposted. Hence I just tried to work out my own conversion, which can be the main source of errors. I have also made some adjustments in the amount of sugar and lemon juice.

confit de canard (duck confit)

The 15th recipe I attempted in 2013 -- maybe not. I prepared it 5 weeks in on 20th December. Was supposed to be our Christmas or New Year's Eve dinner. But then everyone fell sick in turns and duck confit isn't exactly the healthier meal choice for patient I guess?

The duck confit recipe is "Confit de Canard" from "Ballymaloe Cookery Course" by Darina Allen. To those who doesn't know her yet, Darina Allen is said to be the Julia Child in Ireland. Her Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland is one of the top culinary institute in Europe. You may wonder if she's related to Rachel Allen, the Irish chef who has published a few popular cookbooks and had her own cooking series on BBC. Yes. Indeed they are related. Rachel Allen is Darina Allen's daughter-in-law and herself was a graduate from Ballymaloe Cookery School as well. I followed the recipe pretty closely except I preserved 6 instead of 4 duck legs.

broccoli & bacon soup

The 14th recipe I attempted in 2013. I kind of have lost count and not sure how many Nigel Slater's recipes I've done so far. (ok. I just counted. It's the 7th...)

The recipe is "a soup of broccoli and bacon" from Nigel Slater's "Tender Volume 1: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch". Or you can find the free version on The Telegraph website (link here). I followed the recipe almost to letter except (1) I used 6 baby new potatoes instead of 3 smallish potatoes (2) I replaced milk with double cream (solely the expiring cream would either go into the pot or the bin. it's not a difficult choice given I'm a tight-ass housewife)

japanese cheesecake

The 13th recipe I attempted in 2013.

I found the cake recipe from Just One Cookbook (link here) by Ms. Nami. She found the recipe from Cookpad, a Japanese cooking website and has modified it for a bigger size and to suit her oven. I have closely followed the recipe except (1) I halved the recipe and changed the baking time accordingly, (2) I used French T45 cake flour instead of plain flour, (3) I used castor sugar instead of granulated sugar when beating the egg whites, (4) I skipped the apricot jam glaze and (5) I didn't refrigerate the cake for a few hours (THE BIGGEST MISTAKE! MY BAD!).

bacon-wrapped salmon

The 12th recipe I attempted in 2013, and the 6th Nigel Slater's.

This recipe appeared as "Bacon-wrapped Salmon" in "The Kitchen Diaries 2" by Nigel Slater. You can also find it on The Guardian website (link here). I followed the recipe almost to word except (1) I made it for 3 instead of 2, (2) I put the thyme in before wrapping the bacon, instead of tucking it in after, (3) I doubled the bacon.

easy chicken curry

The 11th recipe in 2013 and the 5th Nigel Slater's one.

Adapted from Nigel Slater's Chicken Curry with a few modifications. The recipe was originally appeared on The Observer in 2011 (click here to see the full recipe on The Guardian website) and later published in Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food.