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.