Peanut Butter Brownie

Sigh... if only every failure looked this good!

You may not believe it... but I failed this brownie recipe. This was my second attempt and I still failed.

Sobs. But at least I ended up with......this beautiful failure.
In my first attempt, I mistakenly melted dark chocolate chips into the batter, and ended up with burnt top + jiggly bottom.

In this second attempt, I carefully followed the recipe, covered the baking tray with aluminium foil to prevent from burning. The top's done beautifully, but the bottom was never set no matter how long I baked it for. 

I really don't know what I did wrong...

But rich melted chocolate + savory peanut butter?

Failure or not, still tasted pretty bloody amazing.

Here's the recipe if you wanted to give it a try, many have succeeded, I am sure I failed because of my own stupidity. Thanks Mrs Ergul for sharing the recipe with me. I still licked the tray clean :)

Nutella Cheesecake with Peanut Butter Crust FAIL

Failure is merely a delayed success.
That's what I keep telling myself every time.

The idea is not too bad, but the execution is crap. I made too much crust (I used only half of the whole thing I made, and look at it, it's half of the whole cheesecake!) and it falls apart even after a night of staying in the fridge. Ugh. And I didn't put enough Nutella in the cheesecake batter. Sigh...

Ah well...better luck next time ^_^

The Making & Behind the Scene - Hello Kitty Food Blogger Sausage Sculpture for the Cock Up

All the mess and madness before the cocktail sausage cook up.

I didn't plan to make a sausage sculpture before, I knew cutetifying food isn't my forte.


What did I plan to make?
Welcome to my Hall of FAILURES.

Cocktail Sausage Savoury Cheesecake. 
The idea sounded good in my head, I used Maid brand's honey cocktail sausages, they're a bit sweet, so I thought they would work. I thought of making tarts instead of a huge cake, topped with glazed apples, peaches, or grapes, or a mix of fruits...maybe garnished with a piece of thinly sliced, deep fried crispy cocktail sausage.

Wow. Ambitious, wasn't I?

Well, obviously, I failed. Hard.

I food processed the cocktail sausages into the cheesecake batter. The cheesecake ended up fluffy, more Japan than New York, which was fine, but the tiny bits of sausage made the cake super weird, and not in a good way. I probably should've left them sliced to give the cake bits of bite. You can see that I've failed the cream cracker crust too. I was too impatient waiting for it to set. Oppps.
I'll do better next time...


Apple, Pear & Cocktail Sausage Savoury Crumble
Again, the idea sounded good in my head, but the whole thing tasted so damn weird. I should've probably leave the fruits uncooked or pickled. Crisp the sausages and make the crumble separately and assemble them together in small shot glasses or something. This crumble topping was savoury, maybe I should've made the crumble topping sweet? I dunno, but I'll explore this idea and try again.

I realized I should stick to what I know instead of trying to be a smart ass, I'm a one trick pony after all. Heheheh. That's how I ended up with my dishes, sweet & sour sausages and the Indonesian sate sosis.

As for the Hello Kitty craziness...
I just wanted to have fun and create something mad for the event, instead of just bringing dishes.
I thought of making a whole table of food bloggers, most of them would resemble the bloggers who would attend the event, but OK, that's too damn ambitious, there's no way I could do that.

Then I thought of creating a mini me (a food blogger) out of cocktail sausages, but ok that's so damn narcissistic, I feel disgusted even as I am typing this up. Ugh.

So what's cute, somewhat relevant to Hong Kong, and relevant to the event?
Uh huh! Hello Kitty food blogger, my friend.

I used these light colored small sausages. A tanned Hello Kitty would be cute too, but I tried to be as close as its original colors.

I bought a variety of stuff to realize my Kitty ambition.

Seaweed and seaweed strands for the eyes and whiskers, cheese for the nose, maybe add some food coloring for the red bow. Crackers and cracker sticks in case I need to build a table...


I had to make a lot of plan Bs...it's hard to stick anything to the sausages as they're oily! Everything slides down and fall off when touched, especially after the oil's dried out. I ended up using rice for the nose, stuck it to the face using a toothpick. I used honey as glue, small sharp scissors and tweezers helped a lot!


What's a food blogger without food? This was pretty straight forward. Rice, seaweed strands, toothpicks and sliced cocktail sausages to resemble luncheon meat. Very Hong Kong la!

The camera's made of sausage wrapped with seaweed. This failed in the end, after a while, the seaweed peeled off..and I had a bit of a disaster with the bow too...the cheese melted. I was so upset. I tried to keep everything savoury, as if we're going to end up eating the whole thing (warning, food poisoning?), but in the end I gave up and made the bow and camera out of pink Sugus candies.

The slogan "my blog is cuter than yours" was made out of alphabet pasta and changed the banner to resemble a talk icon.

Whew! It's been so long since I've been so mad.
It felt so good, I look forward to more madness.

More pics are posted on my Facebook Page.

Ham & Cheese Chicken Roulade FAIL 失敗的芝士火腿雞肉卷

Look it in the eye.
The face of (another) failure.
一睇就知係失敗之作..

One day, I saw Athena's ham and cheese chicken roulade, I love the idea and decided that I was going to make it.
有日我見到Athena整芝士火腿雞肉卷, 見佢整得咁靚, 我就試吓啦


I am very bad at following recipes, I pretty much just looked at the pictures briefly and I was convinced that I could do it. I was wrong.
其實我唔係好識睇食譜, 多數都係睇住張相就黎整..

I used a slice of ham and a slice of cheese for half a chicken thigh, so I didn't have enough chicken to cover the filling, I couldn't seal the chicken properly and the cheese leaked all over the place...
整整吓先發現件雞唔夠大件...包唔埋..

Yikes! Taste-wise, it was delicious, since I seasoned the chicken really generously, and the skin turned nicely golden. Anyway, I will try again, I will succeed, and I will post the recipe.
可惜, D埳溜晒出黎, 雖然唔好睇, 但係食起上黎又好好食喎!

What a determination. Atta girl.

Have a delicious weekend la!
大家如果想試整就去Athena個blog睇吓啦

Chicken & Shrimp Balls FAIL

Another FAIL.
I've been missing bakso goreng (fried pork & shrimp balls) from my hometown so much, I tried to recreate it, but it didn't work out. I've tried twice, and I've failed both attempts miserably.
Mine turned out too...fluffy. They resemble mini fritters more than the dense and slightly chewy fried balls with chunky bits.
Argh!

This is what I've done:
- 1 chicken thigh fillet
- a cup of shrimps
- a chunk of jicama (bengkoang)
- 1 small clove garlic
- 1 shallot
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1 tbsp corn flour
- 1 tsp baking powder (I dunno why I added this? Maybe this is the thing that makes the balls too fluffy?)
- salt, pepper, sugar, oyster sauce
- 1 egg
- a bit of oil (I dunno why I added this too)
I minced and mixed everything in food processor, not too fine, leaving some chunky bits, scoop a bit of the mixture at a time using two teaspoon and deep fry in hot oil.

The taste was ok, but let's face it, the above flavors could hardly go wrong. But the texture...it's just...not it!
Clearly I must have done something really wrong. What did I do to ruin it?

Does anyone have good bakso goreng recipe? Do share. Please, pretty please? T_T

I'm desperate.

Homemade Siomay Wannabe

Why did I even try? Why didn't I just settle with eating Hong Kong style siu mai (fish or pork & shrimp)? Was I mad?

Yes, I think I was a little mad...I wanna blame the heat and being too tired from walking around shopping for a nice strap for my new toy.

But apart from being mad, I really craved Indonesian style siomay, especially siomay Bandung, and attempted to make some, driven by pure desperation.

What's the difference between Indonesian siomay and Hong Kong pork & shrimp siumai you get when you go for dimsums? The Indonesian ones generally don't have chunks of shrimp meat, pork or pork fat, everything kinda blend in together and they're more...fluffy from the jicama or chayote content, plus they are generally topped with shaved carrot instead of fish roe.

How about Indonesian siomay bandung vs Hong Kong fish siumai? They're both made of fish and they're both chewy, but the Indonesian ones have even less fish and garlic flavor, and they are a lot more chewy, especially the ones you get from street vendors, served with peanut sauce, chilli sauce, sweet soy sauce, crispy shallot, and a good squeeze of lime.

Why am I discussing four different kinds of siomay? Which one did I end up trying to make?
Ahem.
I was trying to make siomay bandung, but I think I ended up making regular siomay, but serving them ala siomay Bandung instead...what a frigging disaster.

What happened?
From recent news, I heard that most fish found in Hong Kong major supermarkets are contaminated with something, therefore, I tried to avoid fish altogether. I went with pork and shrimps instead. Since I didn't buy any jicama or chayote, I added grated carrot into the mix in my desperate attempt to make them "fluffy".
I didn't do a thorough research on recipes, and kinda mixing my own stuff, unmeasured :D
Plus, since I didn't buy some wonton wrappers in the morning, I ended up trying to make my own dumpling skin from scratch...silly me.

How was the result?
Actually it wasn't as bad as I expected...the flavors were ok...it was just pretty...dense. Not as fluffy as I wanted them to be, and the skin could really be a lot thinner.

Since they are not a success, I won't share an exact recipe, I'll just describe what went into these siomay wannabes.

The skin:
I mixed all purpose flour, a bit of corn flour and adding water bit by bit until the dough is kneadable. I kneaded the dough until it's no longer sticky and let it rest while I prepared the siomay filling.

The filling:
I mixed half a pound of minced pork, about 10 shrimps, half a carrot (chopped thinly), corn flour, flour, chicken stock powder, fish sauce, 1 clove garlic, 1 small shallot, a pinch of salt, some white pepper, and water. I pulsed them in a food processor until everything is combined, and refrigerated it while I roll the dumpling skin

Rolling dumpling skin:
On a lightly floured surface, I grabbed a small ball of dough (about 1.5-2cm diameter) and roll them thin, I used a rolling pin and didn't bother rolling a perfect circle, anyway they were gonna be folded. I dusted every sheet of dumpling skin with corn flour to prevent them from sticking to each other when stacking them.

Once all skin's rolled, I scooped a tbsp filling and just shaped the siomay using hands, getting them ready for steaming. I steamed the siomay for 30 minutes, and served them ala siomay Bandung...topped with peanut sauce, kecap manis, sambal ABC, crispy shallot, and a squeeze of lemon.

Not too bad...but since they were so dense, we were full only after a serving (about 4) of these.
Ugh...better luck next time! :(

Insanely Easy - Two Tone Chocolate Popsicles

In summer, I often have "emergencies".
The emergencies, so far (luckily), did not require any CPR action by ___________(Insert name of your current crush here. No, mine isn't Rob Pattinson), but they often require something cold and sweet.

Something fruity or chocolatey.

Couldn't I simply take an elevator downstairs to get some "chocolatey/fruity emergency fixes" from 7-11?
No. Because that would require me to put on my pants/shorts.
In summer, I don't do pants *grin*
Plus, I don't wanna scare my doorman, who was probably daydreaming about _____________(He can insert his current crush here. I bet it's not Megan Fox).

There's an Indonesian saying "sedia payung sebelum hujan" = prepare your umbrella before it rains.
So I am preparing my "umbrella", in case of "emergencies".

It's insanely easy.
Thus, calling it a recipe would be...well, insane.
I simply poured a bit of store bought chocolate syrup into my popsicle mould and top it off with chocolate milk from a box, and pop it into the freezer.

That's that. Insane!

They're not perfect (not sweet enough and the chocolate tip melts way to quickly), just good enough for last night's "emergency".

To make a better version, next time I'll add more sugar into the chocolate milk and use melted chocolate instead of syrup.

But since that will require me to work behind a stove, melting chocolate, boiling milk, stirring, washing.....
Forget it! I'll just put on some pants and go to 7-11 instead.

Baked Pasta with Fish, Bacon and Cheddar - Too Much isn't Always Wonderful

It's been a while since I made pasta.

Why?
Ask me questions!
- Are you too loyal to rice, so that eating pasta makes me feel guilty? Nope, I love almost all food almost equally. HAHA
- Do you just hate pasta? Of course not! (who can possibly hate pasta, btw?)
- Are you on low carb diet? Bah! I am on high everything diet.

You're never gonna get it right.

- Are you too lazy to cook pasta?....

Hmmm...this question is rather difficult to answer...

- Are you crap at cooking pasta?

Errr....can I say "no comment"?

I know that most people find cooking pasta "quick and easy".
I still remember a friend's answer to "what do you cook for your husband every day?". She said "Easy. Pasta."

I don't get it. To me, cooking a good pasta dish is challenging. It involves a lot more steps that how I normally cook. But, knowing me, I was probably making things difficult for myself. It could never be "simply cook the pasta and mix with the sauce" for me. Purely because I don't know how to achieve a good pasta dish that way...yet. I always felt obligated to do too much, and too much isn't always wonderful.

Baked Pasta with Fish, Bacon and Cheddar

This dish photographed like a sweet dream.
Golden, glistening, glorious, gorgeous.
Too bad it doesn't taste as amazing as it looks.

I baked this pasta dish to get a crunchy top with a creamy bottom.

The top was great. The bacon's tasty (as if bacon could ever taste bad), the fish pieces were succulent, the scorched cheese layer with bits of herbs and black pepper flakes was delicious, and the pasta has a touch of wonderful crunchiness to it.

But the bottom was not too great. The bottom part of the pasta turned dry and it didn't get most of the good parts from the top, and it went too hard to mix. I should've added more sauce to keep the pasta creamy at the bottom next time (if there's gonna be a next time).

Although the dish wasn't a success, let me still share what I did for this dish:
- Pasta for two, boiled and drained
- Fish fillet, seasoned with salt and pepper, seared just a little bit, not completely cooked
- Bacon bits, pan fried without oil until shrunk and cripsy
- Sauce: oil from the bacon, finely chopped garlic, dried herbs (rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage), salt, pepper and cream, sauteed and cooked in a fry pan
- grated cheddar cheese, black pepper and dried herbs topping

Preheat oven to 250C, assemble pasta in an oven proof dish, pasta, fish fillet, pour sauce, add grated cheese on top, bake until golden brown, add bacon bits.

It's more like a savoury pasta cake than a creamy pasta dish.
Sigh.

Sharing this failure with Presto Pasta Nights gang (Gosh, it's been a while, and I wonder if sharing failure is allowed. Oppps), hosted this week by Equal Opportunity Kitchen

I promise that I'll share something that isn't a food disaster in my next post, guys. Wish me luck. I need it so.

Earl Grey Milk Tea...Sherbet Turned Slurpee

It all started with a hot, sticky, balmy, and hazy weekend.

I looked out my window and there seemed to be a layer of white with 80% opacity (my first photoshop "talk"...oh my!)

Roaming around outdoors for a mere 5 minutes felt unbearable...so I made a swift decision to abandon all of my weekend plans (window shopping, trying out new lenses, picnic in a park, cooking an elaborate weekend feast? Nonono...NO) and decided to stick my ass to my bed watching bad TV.

Initially, I had no intention to go anywhere near my stove or oven, and planned to survive the day by simply sucking on ice cubes. However, my itchy hands and my sudden sweet tooth failed me, I'd blame it on the memory of Hungry Monkey Sherbet I've made before.

Spending a few minutes on the stove and mixing some frozen liquid every hour in an air conditioned flat...sounds like an exciting way to spend this hot weekend (my super boring life - pity or envy? ^_^). At least I could feel like I've achieved something other than finishing another batch of sappy drama and growing my ass a few centimeters wider. HAHA!

Since I've done chocolate before, this time I wanted to experiment with something else.

Earl Grey Milk Tea Sherbet Slurpee

I thought I could simply remove the chocolate component of Dave's chocolate sherbet recipe and replaced it with earl grey tea. I was (again, as always) wrong.

To get enough earl grey tea flavor, I've added too much water. It took forever to freeze the mixture...and after a few hours of mixing, it became a slurpee instead of a sherbet.

Sigh....

Fortunately, slurpee is fantastic for summer, and earl grey is just the perfect tea for this, with a touch of fragrant bergamot...it gave the slurpee almost a minty quality to it.

Recipe
- 1 cup milk
- 5 cups hot water
- 8 bags of earl grey tea
- 2 pinches of salt
- 2/3 cup sugar

Brew tea with the hot water in a pot on a stove, add sugar, add salt, mix until dissolved, add milk, pour into a freezer safe container (I used a plastic container), and let cool. Once the mixture is cool, put in the freezer for one hour, use a hand mixer to mix the liquid, and put it back into the freezer, repeat this step until you get a smooth and fluffy texture. The slurpee can be served immediately after the last mixing (no further freezing required).

With this kind of weather, I am sure it'll be gone in no time.

In the end, I failed to finish another batch of sappy drama, but I think I still managed to grow my ass a little wider...thanks to this sweet treat.

Leftover Ham & Cheese Failure Pizza

There a pack of ham and a pack of cheddar cheese in my fridge.
Athena left the pack of beautiful ham when she made a refreshing appetizer of sweet melon and ham.

Seeing those two ingredients, I planned to just scatter them on pieces of fluffy bread and eat them as they were, and sing unto them, their glory (or something to that effect). Unfortunately, I had to have a pair of itchy hands who always wanted to try making my own pizza crust. I think you could probably smell a disaster coming your way.

I searched for a pizza crust recipe that sounds as doable as "pizza crust recipe for idiots" and found something that looked manageable.

Clearly, I overestimated myself.

Knowing me, it was probably not the recipe's problem, it should've been me.

The crust turned rock hard, you could hear us trying to bite into it.
Crackling doesn't even begin to describe how hard it was.
It was harder that sous chef's stubborn head, and was even harder than my feet's callouses.

Either my instant yeast wasn't bubbly enough or I must have overbaked my pizza as I waited for it to turn golden brown (it never did)....whatever happened, I shall try again with another recipe and try to do better at following directions. Meanwhile, let me put pizza hut on speed dial.

Pssst, the crust turned so hard...the phrase "between rock and a hard place", from now on shall be changed to "between rock and rita's pizza crust".

Indonesian Grilled Duck in Coconut Water and Spices - Bebek Kalasan

I've learnt a very important shopping lesson - the hard way:
"IF SOMETHING SEEMS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT PROBABLY IS"

That's right! Bold, italic, all caps!

I've always wanted to cook the perfect duck. Thus, I was always looking out for good duck deals, and I thought I saw one at Park'nShop's frozen meat section. US premium frozen duckling, ready to cook, and the price label said HK$24.90!!!

WOW! I had to look at the price label a few times! Normally, ducks at local frozen meat shops are sold at HK$39.90, I couldn't believe it! I just had to have it! I don't care if I couldn't find any ways to cook it, for HK$24.90, I could afford a failure, or so I thought.

I have a bad habit of not paying attention to prices at supermarket check outs (very bad habit) and hardly ever even look at the receipt. I knew I was buying quite a few items, but I was shocked by the total amount I had to pay. Wayyy more than what I expected. I checked the receipt, and found out that the duck costs me more than HK$120! Uh oh! They must have overcharged me, or displayed the wrong label. I was gonna go back to the cashier and ask. SC saved me from embarrassment by pointing out that the duck was sold at HK$24.90 PER 100 GRAMS, not for HK$24.90 for one whole duck!

Sigh...then and there, I felt burdened. HK$120 dramatically exceeded what I normally spend for meat, except for special occasions where I would buy pricey steaks. For HK$120, there's no way I could fail the duck. I'd better cook the duck's ass off and make sure it turned out bloody delicious....or so I hoped.

Indonesian Grilled Duck in Coconut Water and Spices - Bebek Kalasan

How the heck I should cook the duck? SC repeatedly reminded me (not gently) that I should NOT fail the duck. *Pressure pressure pressure*

I shouldn't cook the duck Chinese roast style, because you can get a Chinese style perfectly roasted duck here for just HK$88 (sobbing violently)...there's no way I could master that, in my home kitchen, at my first try. No. Freaking. Way.

So I was thinking...something Indonesian, something I haven't tried and I've missed for a long time. Bingo! Kalasan style!

Recipe
- half a duck (I used the legs and wings only, I wanted to try the other half in another style - making the most of it)
- 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
- 6 cloves of shallot, peeled
- 1 stalk lemongrass
- coconut water (not coconut milk, it's the juice that comes out of the coconut) from 1-2 coconut (about 2 cups)
- 1 piece of palm sugar, dissolved in a bit of hot water
- salt, white pepper, olive oil

If you have a food processor, pulse garlic and shallot until fine. If not, use mortar and pestle, or simply finely chop them. Saute garlic and shallot in olive oil, add duck, add coconut water, add lemongrass, palm sugar syrup and season with salt and pepper. Add more hot water if you can't cover most parts of the duck. Cook until the juice is reduced and duck meat's tender. I used a pressure cooker and cooked the duck for 20 minutes. Once done, you can let it marinate or immediately grill/deep fry to brown the skin.

If you wanna grill it (like I did, as I hate hate HATE deep frying), preheat oven to 220C. Place duck in a non stick baking pan and add a bit of the juices to keep the duck moist. Grill until golden brown.

If you wanna deep fry it, drain the duck, pat dry and deep fry until golden brown.

You can also brown the duck skin before cooking in coconut water, simply season with salt and pepper. After cooking, simply throw into oven for a few minutes to crisp the skin.

Fragrant, flavorful, with a subtle sweetness to it. Taste great with rice, especially with a killer chilli paste. This recipe can also be done with chicken. I used fresh coconut water, but if you can find the canned/boxed version, give it a go.

What did I do with the other half of the duck?
I didn't do a duck sashimi, that's for sure.
Stay tuned to find out ^_^

Baked Potato Cakes with Corned Beef - Perkedel Corned Panggang

Some experiences are bound to fail.

Yet, I was stubborn enough to still try them. Sometimes I fail the food, sometimes I fail the photography. This time, I record-breakingly failed both. Haha, this calls for a celebration.

I blamed these failures solely to my stubbornness:
- I knew I had to follow a true and tested recipe properly (I didn't plan to fail perkedel another time), yet I chose to deviate from it. Dammit
- I knew I should not have experimented taking photographs with harsh lighting and no light diffuser of any sort, but I bloody did it anyway

So, the results:
- Ugly looking perkedels
- Ugly pictures

So, guys, please do not try these at home.

Baked Potato Cakes with Corned Beef - Perkedel Corned Panggang

After failing perkedels (Indonesia potato cakes) a few times, I kinda gave up and almost vowed never to try making them again. But my good blogging pal, Lidia, encouraged me to try her fool-proof recipe, which sounded doable and her perkedels look incredible!

I should not have trusted my ability to follow recipes. Based on my chronic fear of deep frying, I insisted on microwaving the potatoes, which made turned them into a bowl of mushy mess. Furthermore, due to my pure greed, I added too much canned corned beef, thus when I was trying to pan fry the potato cakes...potato and beef bits and pieces floated everywhere...it was disastrous.

Finally, I decided to throw the rest of the dough into a lightly greased muffin mold and baked 'em. They tasted decent, but nothing like how perkedels should taste nor look like.

Since I don't want you to do what I did, I am not sharing my modification of the recipe. Please follow Lidia's recipes linked above...

...and 'til my next failure.....stay delicious ^_^

Banana, Rum and Raisins Cake - Help! Cake Storage Tips Wanted

If a cake could kill, I would've been killed by this loaf of cake. Why? Was it just too damn delicious?
I wish.

OK, it was delicious when it was freshly baked, cos let's face it. Banana + Rum + Raisins? It'd take a lot to ruin such a winning combo.

The disaster happened the day after. I baked this large loaf for my daily breakfast at the office. Two thick slices each morning with my hot coffee. Yum. At least, that was the plan.

Previously, I never stored any cake in the fridge, cos based on my experiences so far, nothing good came out of that. But in this summer heat, I thought I had to rescue the cake from getting ruined too quickly. The next day, I happily took out the cake out of the fridge, transferred two slices into a bento box, and carried it to work. Hopefully, all the initial deliciousness would be restored by the time I reach my office.

Unfortunately, they didn't recover.
They dried out and hardened. I mean ROCK HARD. I could kill being hit on the head by that loaf. Hmmm, maybe not exactly subdural hematoma lethal, but at least it could inflict some serious bruising and swelling.

I tried microwaving cakes before, and again, it could never recover anywhere close to when they were freshly baked. Is it just mission impossible, or am I doing it wrong?

When I got home, I took out the rest of the loaf, placed it on my kitchen table and wait for it to return to room temperature, as advised by some online resources. It did return to room temperature, but the texture never recovered. It stayed persistently hard.


The recipe is the same as my previous soft and moist banana cake, I just added 2 tsp of rum and a couple handful of raisins.

Guys, helppppp! I desperately need some true and tested cake storage and reheating tips T_T
Whatever it takes, I'll try it.
Hmm...as long as it doesn't involve storing the cake in my underwear drawer.

Burnt Beef Shin Stew - A Beautiful Disaster?

Let's take a break from the beautiful island and delicious food of Bali (I know you guys are probably sickkk of it), and get back to the normal disastrous reality *grin* (you know you miss it).

Here's another disaster, which happened quite a while ago. It was all drama drama drama. I was preparing the dish as we were expecting a friend to dine with us, and while the dish was cooking in a pressure cooker...due to its high sugar content, plus the way the meat absorb liquid...after about 15 minutes, I smelt something burning...and yep. The bottom of my almost brand new pressure cooker was pitch BLACK!!! My heart sank to my toes and I got all teary eyed seeing how my new HK$800 pressure cooker got ruined.

In between sobs, I scraped every bit and pieces of the burnt beef shin, and if you cut away the burnt parts, which was about 80% of it...it was actually tasty. Smoky (of course), savoury, sweet, and very tender.

Eventually, I tried making the dish again, making sure that I added enough liquid, and shortened the cooking time.

Beef Shin Stew

Recipe
(serves 4)
- 1 pound of beef shin
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 4 cm ginger, crushed, divided
- 1 small carrot, peeled, chopped into 5mm thick chunks
- Chinese 5 spice powder, pepper, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, brown sugar, sweet soy sauce, olive oil, hot water (the dominant flavors should be smoky and sweet)

Boil whole beef shin with some ginger, cut into 1-1.5cm thick chunks, set aside. Saute garlic, ginger, and onion, add beef shin, add seasoning, add hot water to cover the meat and cook. I used a pressure cooker, and cook it for about 15 minutes (first attempt was 25 minutes). Without a pressure cooker, simply cook in low heat until the meat is tender and all the spices and seasonings are absorbed well (about 1.5 hour minimum), check from time to time to make sure it isn't burnttttt. (Sob)


Is it just me, or the burnt version actually looks more beautiful than this boring, successful one?

Special thanks to SC, who scraped every bit of burnt parts off the pressure cooker, it is now all shiny and new. You're truly my hero!

Martabak Manis - My Tower of Shame

Imagine a Hollywood movie trilogy.
The Martabak Manis (Thick Indonesian Pancake) Disaster Series - by Mochachocolata-Rita
I. Martabak Manis: Thin & Burnt - yet Delicious (published and was quite a hit)
II. Martabak Manis the sequel: Thick, not Burnt - yet NOT yummy (not published, went straight to recycle bin)
III. Martabak Manis the triquel: My Tower of Shame (now showing)

My tower of shame? Why?

This is my third attempt, and I've been given the ultimate deliciousness martabak manis recipe, complete with tireless online guidance (thank you sooo much, Lidia! ^_^), and I still managed to f*cked it up. Un-freaking-believable!

Ehm well, I had only myself to blame. Let me summarize my failures:
First Attempt
What happened: did not follow recipe properly, set the heat too high, and left the pancake unattended (surely, a recipe for disaster)
Result: thin pancake, burnt bottom (doesn't look as sexy as it sounds)

Second Attempt
What happened: trying a good recipe, skipped hand mixer, just used a whisk to beat the heck outta the batter, frying was done using IKEA non stick pan
Result: batter didn't raise as high as it should've, texture was all wrong, disgustingly soft, tasted off

Third Attempt

What happened: trying the good recipe again, used a hand mixer, frying was done using IKEA non stick pan, I didn't know when I should stop cooking (!!!)
Result: the batter raised beautifully, towering all high and proud, the texture and taste wasn't bad (but not that good), and again, the ever so unsightly, unsexy burnt bottom!!!

What have I learnt from my multiple failures? What's my next action plan?
- Contemplate never to try making a martabak manis again. Like, ever
- Buy a proper pan with a thick bottom. That thin and cheap IKEA pan just won't work
- When back to Indonesia, get an internship with a martabak manis vendor
- Failing that, flirt outrageously with him to get the recipe
- Failing that, propose marriage to a martabak manis vendor
- Try to import a martabak manis vendor into Hong Kong
- Heck, just have Aphin Martabak Manis phone number on speed dial and order every night before going back to Hong Kong

I am anything but persistent, eh? Duh, this trilogy is so not a blockbuster material.