I love scones. I mean, who doesn’t right? (Okay, I can think of one person who doesn’t. But nevermind.) I stumbled upon some (Australian style) clotted cream in the supermarket a couple of days ago, and while I’ve since been told that it’s easily available at Cold Storage Jelita, I got super excited, bought a tub and set off for home to make scones. Now, while I also understand that “Australian style” clotted cream isn’t the same as the authentic stuff from Devon, I will take what I can get. And, believe me, it’s miiiiles better than say, Starbucks where I once was stupid enough to order a cranberry scone, onto have it served with a pile of synthetic whipped cream on the side of the plate. That’s right - the stuff they aerosol out of a can with a star-shaped nozzle. Ugh.

I like my scones buttery, with flaky insides and a crisp, firm crust that encases layers of its tender crumb. I actually like them best plain - as in, no raisins, no currants, no chocolate, nothing. Just a plain scone, with a dollop of clotted cream smothering a dab of strawberry preserve. And this recipe, based on one I found in Baking Illustrated, gave me just that.

By the way, I’m off to Sydney for a week with the bunny. There was a bit of stress with the hotel situation since the APEC Summit is happening around this time, so we didn’t get our room in the Park Hyatt :( but all’s well with the Shangri-La, and I’m also really excited ‘cos I get to see Pei, and we’ll be gorging on all the seafood we can get our grubby paws on. I would let you guys in on the line-up, restaurant wise, but I think it’s more fun to keep you waaaiting and anticipaaaating. Look out for food photos from the road, and I’ll be back next weekend.

Till then, do try this recipe - it’s dead simple, and ridiculously tasty. And hopefully it’ll stave off the hunger pangs when you next check back and browse through all the food photos on my flickr.

Cream Scones
(based on Cream Scones with Currants from Baking Illustrated)

10 oz unbleached unbleached all-purpose flour (I use Gold Medal)
1 tbsp baking powder
3 heaped tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
90g cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 cup heavy cream, plus extra 2 tbsp
2 tbsp caster sugar to sprinkle

Preheat the oven to 220C. Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in the workbowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, or in a large shallow pan. If using the food processor, process with six 1-second pulses, otherwise whisk lightly with a fork.

If making by hand, use two pastry cutters, two knives, or a pastry blender and quickly cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal with a few slightly larger butter lumps. (This is my favourite part of making scones.) If using a food processor, distribute the butter evenly over the dry ingredients and process with 10-15 1-second pulses. Transfer the dough to a large bowl; it should look quite dry at this point.

Stir 1 cup heavy cream with a fork until the dough begins to form, about 30 seconds. Transfer the dough and all the dry flour to a countertop and knead by hand just until it comes together into a rough, slightly sticky ball; 5-10 seconds.

For wedges, pat the dough into an 8 or 9 inch cake pan, invert onto a lightly floured surface, and cut into 8 wedges. Otherwise, pat the dough out on a lightly floured surface so that it is roughly 1 inch thick, and use a 2-3 inch pastry cutter to cut out rounds. Pat the remaining dough together and flatten into a 1 inch thick disc again, then cut out rounds again. Repeat one last time, then discard the scraps. (I couldn’t bring myself to throw away one last potential scone so I just made it into an ugly, misshapen one.)

Place the scones on an ungreased baking sheet. (The baking sheet can be wrapped in clingfilm and refrigerated for up to 2 hours at this point.) When ready to bake, brush the tops of the scones with the extra cream and sprinkle lightly with caster sugar. Bake the scones until golden brown, 12-15 minutes, rotating the pan once during the baking. When ready, cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, then serve warm or at room temperature with plenty of strawberry preserve and clotted cream.

Yield 8 wedges, or 10-15 round scones (as pictured), depending on the size of your cutter.

It’s like I’m rabidly cooking and writing posts with the burning fever of someone whose life may end at any moment. Already, I’ve been told that I’m behaving like I’m going to prison (or going to die) instead of starting work. Well, “seize the day” has always been a governing principle in how I live my life, whether my seizing lies in frenetically cooking and filling my days with activity or laying back and watching episode after episode of Boston Legal.

Bunny and I moving to our current apartment at the beginning of the year coincided with the suddenly boom in cookbooks that I own. In a valiant attempt to placate her protests of “not another cookbook?!!!!”, I started a little routine whenever I got one. After I flipped through it quickly the first time, I’d go over each new addition to my stash with her slowly, letting her pick out whichever recipes she wanted me to make for her. I saw it as a way of paying tax on the space in the shelf it was taking, and she saw it as a considerably cheaper way to get whatever dishes she desired, as compared to hunting down restaurants that served those particular dishes - if any at all in Singapore.

As the number of cookbooks in the now-sagging shelf grew, the list of on-demand dishes increased in length exponentially. Having spent over a decade living in London, my bunny - although inclined to belittle British fare as overcooked, grey, stodgy and tasteless (at least when referring to the canteen/pub versions) - has grown fond of England’s food, and - dare I say - misses it. While each book would typically have at least 10 recipes flagged for bunny-consumption, and some of the bigger ones (or those that contained many recipes for British fare) have lists of more than 50 dishes. It’s really not surprising, then, that the few recipes she campaigns for tend towards that cuisine. Roast Beef with Yorkshire Puds, Jam Rolly-Polly, Bakewell Tart, Crumpets, Roast Chicken or Roast Pork (with Crackling) served with Roast Potatoes and gravy, and so on. While I’ve tried my best to accommodate her requests, the unfortunate fact remains that many of the dishes she’s craving are difficult to make for just two. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, my birthday’s coming (again, I know - it seems like I was just shamelessly begging for presents yesterday!) soon, in 9 days to be exact. Oh shit that reminds me, it’s my ex’s birthday today. Okay getting sidetracked. Anyhoo, I’m not allowed to ask for anymore cookbooks (because I already just got one from smiao - though that was fairly self-serving, but hey I’M NOT COMPLAINING thankyouverymuchsmiao, lovement!) so I really don’t know what to ask for! I also have too many teeshirts (booooo) and my kitchen has no more space for gadgets. Actually, even if it did have space left, I don’t know what else I would get since I’m pretty much kitted out to open a boutique restaurant already. Maybe an ice cream cone maker. Hrm. Okay no one’s allowed to tell bunny I said that.

Anyway. The one thing that’s available is my flickr pro account. I generally like reserving this for my friends who are overseas since….. it makes sense, but since I (for once) don’t have a ridiculously long list of things I’m coveting roundabout mid/end September, that’s up for grabs. I was actually contemplating not renewing it since I don’t think I’ll be shooting as much, but I want to keep all my photos archived properly.

OH I THOUGHT OF SOMETHING! My favourite boy who was so freaking sweet as to think of getting me Guitar Hero 3 has since discovered the joys of Rock Band and its kickass soundtrack. However, that’s going to be priced at about US$200 which is a ridiculous amount of money for A) a video game (although it does come with all the controllers!!!) and B) for one person to spend on me, so I’m going to share it with him. Yes, as a (belated) birthday present for myself. If anyone wants to pitch in and share it with us, let me know, or give him a ring, or ask me for his email address. Oh I should mention I’m talking about Jon. Not that I have any other favourite boys. :)

Ummmmm. Okay that’s it. Stick around, maybe I’ll think of something else.

As you can see from the picture, mine’s french toast. When I was a kid, I used to badger my mom into making french toast for me every weekend - to the point that my poor brother started refusing to eat it. Soft pillow-y bread, soaked in a milky egg wash, fried to crisp perfection and served piping hot with maple syrup (or kaya, as I’ve now learnt to get my fix in Ya Kun and Killiney) - what’s not to love? I’ve always had a gigantic sweet tooth, and to be honest my love for french toast probably stemmed from my love for maple syrup.

French toast, or pain perdu (literally “lost bread”) as it is known in France and Belgium, which apparently may not even be French in origin, originated as a way to save stale bread. Bread is sliced on a bias off the hardening loaf before being dipped into the eggy mixture to soften it. I personally love using brioche, but the version that really sends me flying back to my formative years is made with thick sliced white bread, particularly Milk Bread. And instead of waiting for bread to go stale, I’ve often made trips to the convenience store for the sole purpose of buying bread to satisfy my french toast craving.

What’s your favourite comfort food? Here’s my recipe for mine. :)

French Toast

5 slices milk bread (or any other thick sliced soft white loaf)
2 large eggs
100ml full cream milk
pinch of salt
1 tbsp cinnamon sugar (or vanilla sugar)
butter for frying
maple syrup, icing sugar, kaya or jam to serve

Lightly whisk together the eggs, milk, salt and cinnamon sugar with a fork and set aside. Slice the bread diagonally into halves or quarters (I like slicing them into quarters so that I don’t need to cut them anymore after they’re cooked, and there’s more surface area for the bread to soak into).

Melt a good knob of butter into a non-stick pan over medium heat. When the butter has melted and started to froth, dip a piece of bread into the egg mixture and fry gently until golden brown, before flipping over and cooking until the other side is golden brown and crispy as well. Transfer onto a waiting plate lined with kitchen paper to drain. Repeat with remaining slices of bread, adding more butter as needed.

Once all the bread is cooked, arrange them on a plate and serve with syrup or jam on the side. You can also dust it with icing sugar. I particularly love eating this with a glass of cold milk or iced milo.

Serves 2 for breakfast, or 3-4 for a light snack.

I’m starting work soon, and as such I doubt there’ll be very much going on here. No, I’m not killing my blog off, but just warning you all of the changes to come. The main reason why I’m so sad about work starting is that I doubt I’ll have the time (nor inclination) to entertain as much as I have been for the past 8 months or so. Anyhoo, I also just threw what will probably be my last two dinner parties of the year.

The first was for one of the bunny’s very good friends’ belated birthday dinner/present, and I let her choose her menu for the evening, which was pretty fun. The dinner was started off with a bite-sized take on the Insalata Caprese, which is one of my favourite salads of all times (pictured at the start of the post). Following which, I made (much smaller versions of the) roast chicken caesar salad.

The two things that the birthday girl requested for were my burger, and my chocolate fondant (served with homemade vanilla bean ice cream). I attempted to make my own burger buns, and while they tasted pretty nice, the shape came out a little warped. I’m determined to crack the secret to burger buns before I start work! The homemade buns housed a doublecheese mini burger, which was served with a (not so) secret sauce made of japanese mayo, hot sauce, maggi chilli sauce, and some other things which I don’t really remember anymore. Oops.

Tonight, my favourite cat and S.B. came over for dinner. They had been badgering me to let on what I was preparing for the past few days, but I managed to hold out even when they arrived a couple of hours before dinner to play Wii and xbox while I finished up the preparations. The main course was a duck ragout pasta (which turned out a little watery, but still yummy), and I made double chocolate cakes for S.B. and myself, and apple crumble for the cat and the bunny; both served with my vanilla bean ice cream on the side.

So what was the big secret? Having recently watched Pixar’s Ratatouille, I’d been feeling a bit itchy finger to try out the titular dish. Otherwise known as Confit Byaldi, Thomas Keller’s rather fussy version of the hearty vegetable stew was the one solely vegetarian dish that really had me itching to try it out. Further, I hadn’t really seen any posts on the food blogs I lurk around on any successful (or otherwise) attempts.

As you can see, my plating skills still leave something to be desired, but other than that, it was successful! And pretty darned tasty too. All 4 of us gobbled it down, gawking at how flavourful a “plain vegetable dish” had turned out to be. (We all shy away from vegetarianism, if you haven’t guessed by now.) I can’t really be bothered to type out the recipe since it’s so bloody long, but it’s easy enough to find online. In fact, I’m gonna be really generous and provide you with a couple of links (more than one in case one stops working) so I hope you try it too! It was really, really fun to make, and the reaction on our guests’ faces when they saw me coming out of the kitchen was just insanely satisfying.

Recipes for Confit Byaldi by Thomas Keller, available on dailybulletin.com, NYTimes, LA Daily News, and one extra link to Smitten Kitchen’s interpretation. Enjoy!