My 1st Croissant! :)

I have always love to eat croissant its one of my old time favourite. The problem with me is that, i love to eat my croissant with butter and thats sinfully rich in everything particularly fats. So i have been toying with the idea of making my own "guilt-free croissant" for i have done a few recipes of my own through trial and error for my butter free bread or organic wholemeal bread as well as guilt-free Brioches as well. So i was thinking why not make my croissant less oilly and less butter and make it as healthy as possible so i came up with my own recipe for this and so this is my first procuce. Raymond was my tester person for he is french and so he should know better on how a croissant should taste and he is very particular with breads and pastries and particularly croissant. So this morning i suprised him with my mini croissant as well as mini croissant breads and he loved it! Especially when its not oilly at all and its very crispy and crunchy he said to me you must have put in tonnes of burre but i told him just the normal then less amount of butter and unsalted and just play around with the texture for the mixture for the dough so voilà! a healthy croissant!


The process of making the croissant

And the final product...voilà! Clarity's mini croissant :)


clarity me!

Recette : Eggplant Lasagne

here's the recipe Norma! Actually i never liked eggplants before because of how it looks like after they are cooked or whatever but somehow i made this dish coz i wanted something that will use a lot of vegetables in it and just toss it in the dish and bake and i also wanted it to be low on callories so i tried to get the cheeze to be the lowest amount of calories so choosing the types of cheese thats low on calories they have a lot at the supermarket these days but it should be a balanced so that the food wont compromised too much on the taste. Also by using the browned eggplants as the lasagna sheets cuts off a lot of calories already :)) anyhow here is eggplant lasagna :) hope you have a success trying it out Norma :)

Ingredients:

3 Large eggplant, (thinly sliced)
vegetable spray
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
16 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 cup of diced capsicum red/green and yellow

¼ cup of diced tomatoes

8 pieces of sun dried cherry tomatoes (halved)
1 jar (16 ounce size) spaghetti sauce with vegetables or White lasagne sauce
1 can of Chunky Tuna (drained)

8 ounces ricotta cheese, part-skim
4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

White sauce ingredients

250ml skimmed milk

4 slices of kraft cheddar cheese

2 tsp corn starch

salt and pepper

chopped dried basil leaves

Directions:

In large non-stick skillet sprayed with vegetable spray, quickly brown eggplant slices; set aside. In the same skillet in hot olive oil, cook onion for about 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until tender.

Add mushrooms and capsicum, dried tomatoes and tomatoes cook, stirring frequently, about 5 minutes or until they are tender then finally bring in the Tuna chunks stir softly for 2 more minutes add salt and pepper to taste transfer to a dish and set aside.

White Sauce

bring the skimmed milk to boil then add in the cheddar cheese until they are melted and blended with milk add salt and pepper. Take off heat and put in the dissolved cornstarch and let it thickens by stirring rapidly and forms a nice sauce texture then add in the chopped dried basil leaves and set aside.

Into an 11x7-inch baking dish, spoon about 1/4 of the sauce (i.e. Either White sauce or spaghetti sauce) Arrange three alternate layers of the (1) browned eggplant slices , (2) vegetables & Tuna mixture, (3) ricotta, mozzarella cheese, and Parmesan cheese alternately ending with the top layer with the cheese topping. Bake eggplant lasagne at 350F for 30 to 40 minutes.

Have a go N!

Clarity

Mengada-ngada time...

Usually when i'm not feeling well or just on "mintak-puji" mode i will crave for food that i know i will not get like my mom's curry fish for example....So what to do..i was thinking..... i have some nice fish in the fridge and i have just bought some curry powder so i did it my way and make my own curry fish...this just shows i miss home and i miss my mom's cooking...huhuhu :((

so here is my own way of making....

"Chindika Fish Curry"

lots and lots of veggies just how i like it :)

Simmering .....

And....finally, Chindika Fish Curry!

mon coeur: A little bit spicy but still ok :)


Well at least i get to satisfy my curry cravings hehehe...thats all that really matters. Thanks mom for the tips on making the fish curry :) and can anyone guess what does "chindika" means? heheheheh......



Chindika me:)
Clarity!

My french Bun bread :)

I saw this technique of twisting two pieces of dough together and make it like a knot and so here is the end result of it :) Mon coeur said it's yummy :)

I'm also trying to improve my food photography skill...playing with the lightings and all....and i have another toy to play with too it's mon coeur's digital camera so we have two cameras to play with now :)

Soup + warm wholemeal bread = cosy dinner for two :)

not forgetting the loafy bread i make every once in a week for our supply of wholemeal bread for the whole week.


bready bunch!
Clarity!

Dinner for Two :)

i can never do a good soup and it happens to be my favourite food for dinner its not only filling but also healthy. Usually mon coeur will prepare this and i just watch and observe for its facinating how its been done and surely the end results is surely yummiest too. This particular soup, mon coeur cut up some pumpkin, potatoes , brocolli and some carrots and place them in a large bowl pour some water and off they go in the microwave. Then after several minutes all the veges are soft and mushy he then use the food processor to make pureee of the the whole vege mix; After that he adds some creame cheese and process the food again until it looks really really creamy and soft and then finally season it with pepper and salt and finally the finished product!

fruits & Vege salad + mixzd vege soup

yummieeee....

cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, green leafy salad & apples + mon coeur's own salad mix dressing

The supy soup!

here is our dinner :)


C & R

No Class but I was hungry....

So i was all excited to go to my class today and was told it's not until tomorrow....so i was suddenly left with a time gap of nothing-ness so thought i'd do someting creative so i tried my own smoked salmon in dil Pizza;

so here is the Smoked Salmon in Dill Pizza :)

ingredients :
Pizza Dough = multipurpose flour+instant yeast+a pinch of salt+ 1 tbs of granulated sugar + 3/4 of warm water
mixed all to form a dough and set aside

Base for the pizza = 1 big round tomato + 2 green onions + 2 garlic clove + fresh ground pepper
put all in a food processor and grind away to form a paste
Use this paste to coat the base of your pizza;

flatten your dough and make whatever shape you like then apply the paste you just made and sprinkled grated cheddar or mozzarella cheese which ever you like and put in the oven for at least 12 minutes

then take out from the oven, then arranged the bite sized smoked salmon in dill over the pizza then arrange the veges and pineapple strips then springkled some cheese on top of it and some ground peeper for some flavour an taste and finally pop it back into the oven for another 5 to 7 minutes then your pizza is ready to be served :)


deliciously yummmy!!

have a go peeps!

Bon appétit!

Clarity!

Mackerell in Herb Sauce :)

Well, once again mon coeur was inspired to make something really quick for dinner and he send me this pics for me to blog about coz he really made an effort to make it since its really a quick dish so mom was really impressed by it heheheh...

The funny skype conversation we had wt moncoeur and my parents is when my mom said this...

mom: so this dish really looks delishes..so does it taste delicious to? and then she laugh (hahaha)

Mon Coeur: Oh yes its sweet and the vegetables just add colour and flavour to the fish .

mom: good job :)

SO my mom dont believe that he can actually cook something hahaha,...anyhow, it was a good practice for my mom to use skype call in the new future as when i do move to KL i will be communicating with her regularly with skype so it would be some of the new things that my mom will have to learn about the internet and soon i think she will be doing her own blog! hahahaha

so here is the picture of the food mon coeur prepared for dinner last night!

Bonne Appetite!

Mon Coeur & Clarity!

something extra wonderful :)

Mon coeur suprised me with something he did at his place last night he cook a fish dish with white wine which look really yummy. I remember we bought the Argentinian White Wine @ the Bangsar Village Grocer and they let us taste the wine before we purchased it and it was a nice and sweet one. The wine is called "Trapiche" - Sauvignon Blanc. So , mon coeur was using this wine to create this recipe...Ermnnn about the recipe...hmn..well I dont know what its called and neither did mon coeur (hahaha) so we just call it Ray's Fish in white sauce and White Wine recipe :) ..he told me that when he got back from work yesterday, suddenly he was inspired to cook something special and would show it to me. I guess this food picture taking phenomenon is catching up and certainly mon couer is having the effect of it from me :) I told him before that this picture taking thingy has its way of creeping into one skin and before too long you are hooked with the sensation of taking beautiful and drooling food pictures.....and it certainly catch up on my darling mon coeur :) here's the picture that he gave copy rights for me to blog about it :) Merci Beaucoup mon coeur, et gros bisous pour toi!

He also mentioned to me that he will be cooking the same dish when we have our dinner for two again next :) looking forward to it already .....emuah!

It's really nice when two person share the same interest and in this case we are both into fine dining , cooking and wine and also photography. So, from time to time mon coeur will be one of the contributing author as well as photo provider to this blog so it's double the fun now :)

Anyhow, hope you guys enjoy the pics :) and...

passe une bonne journée!

Mon coeur & Clarity

Midnight Bottle

I came accross this song when mon coeur and i went to MPH to buy some books and we were both on the floor and was engrossed with our own book and this song "midnight bottle" was playing and i found myself ditching the book i was reading and trying hard to make up the lyrics in my head and finally when i understood the lyrics it kinda reminded me of our my first day @ maple when we had our romantic dinner for two and it made me smile and i was telling mon coeur that i like this song very much and with his smilling face, he said i'm sure you do and smiled but before too long i did find out who sang the song and the title of the song and here is the lyrics to it and also some pictures to illustrate what i was thinking about when i heard the song ...

Sole Meunière , some salsa and finally brocolli and pumpkin soup :)

The delicious white wine mon coeur brought from Paris :)

Some pressies for both of us :) from both of us :D

and not too long after some nice wine drinking...my eyes became blurry (hahaha) kidding :P

mon coeur..... emmuahhh! the wine was a fantastic choice indeed...looking forward to have more of this dinner for two evenings together :)

so here is the song i was talking about...

Song Name: Midnight Bottle
Artist: Colbie Caillat

Midnight bottle take me,
Come with few of my memories
And everything, well, come back to me
Midnight bottle make it real what feels like make believe
So, I can see a little more clearly

Like every single movement you make
Kissing me so carefully
On the corners of my dreaming eyes

I’ve got a midnight bottle,
Gonna drink it down
A one way ticket takes me to the times we had before
When everything felt so right
If only for tonight

A midnight bottle,
Gonna ease my pain
From all these feelings driving me insane
I think of you and every thing’s all right
If only for tonight

Got a midnight bottle,
Drifting off into the candlelight
Where I can find you in your time
A midnight bottle,
I forgot how good it felt to be in a dream
Just like you had me

‘Cuz lately, I'm stumbling
Feels like I’m recovering
But I think it’s only for tonight

I’ve got a midnight bottle,
Gonna drink it down
A one way ticket takes me to the times we had before
When everything felt so right
If only for tonight

Midnight bottle,
Take the time away...
From where we are

Dinner for two....

C&R

Clarity!

Japanese-style Curry

Curry is one of the most popular dishes in Japan. Japanese-style curry is usually thicker than curry found in other cuisines. I got interested to cook Japanese-style Curry when i read about Chicky egg's post on Japanese curry roux that i decided to make my own mixture of this so called "Curry Roux". I've got all the important ingredients to make curry roux but i dont know if its my 1/4 of indian blood or what..but i kept veering myself to make it taste like an indian curry...erghhhhhh! So...what i do is i combined a little bit of both so what i got is actually called "Japchidian" Curry :) hahaha....what a mixture :P

So the ingredients got close to the Japanese_styled Curry with all the ingredients particularly the vegetables. Typical Japanese curry includes vegetables, such as onion, carrots, and potatoes, and meat. But i didnt use meat for this one as i used Fish fillet instead. You guys must be wondering ....my cooking thesedays seemed to include a lot of vegetables and FISH or Chicken. Well thats because im preparing myself to be a Vegetarian. Well, a semi vegetarian at least for now for i still and wil only take Fish and white meat like chicken meat and veetables only now. So hopefully i will live healthily with eating good and nutritious food only :) Its one of my wish to better myself this year and thats healthier living :)

Ok here is the recipe i got from heltier living on how to make the basic curry roux from scratch.

INGREDIENTS:
1 tbsp curry powder
2 onion
2 tbsps flour
3 cups water
2 cubes soup bouillon
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp grated garlic
1/2 tsp garam masala
2 tbsps butter

PREPARATION:
Heat water in a pan and add soup bouillon to make soup. Slice onion thinly. Heat butter in a pan and saute onion slices slowly until they are brown for 15-20 minutes. Add garlic and ginger in the pan and saute well.

Add flour and curry powder and saute over low heat. Pour soup in the pan little by little, stirring quickly. Simmer the curry roux until thickened, and add garam masala at last.

Ok done with that and now to prepare our vegetables and fish fillet :)

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 Tbsp. plus 1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 large potatoes, peeled and cut intobite-size pieces (1 cup)

2 small green capsicum, cored and cut into bite-size pieces (1 cup)

2 small tomatoes cut into bite-size pieces (1 cup)

1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into bite-size pieces (1 cup)

2 pieces of fish fillet cut into bite-size pieces (1 cup)
Salt and pepper to season
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, sliced (1 cup)
4 cups water
Japanese curry roux mixture ( 1 cup)

PREPARATION:
Heat 1 1/2 Tbsp. of olive oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Saute potatoes, carrots and bell pepper for a few minutes, or until tender. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and set aside. Heat 1 Tbsp. of olive oil in large and deep pot over medium heat.

Saute garlic and onion until onion is tender, about a few minutes. Add fish fillet and stir-fry with onion for a minute. Add water, stir well, and simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes, or until carrot is tender. Add the Japanese curry roux mxture in the soup and stir lightly and add tomatoes let sit for 5 minutes. Serve curry with steamed rice.

All done and here are the finished product :)

The Pot

yummy :)

Vegetarian wannabe

Clarity!

Trade your Soul for Sole?

I was told that the most simple tasting French food is always the most difficult to prepare..well, before i made this attempt to cook the ever so popular dish in restaurants in France, i thought i'd do a research over its background of how it became a reknown dish and why is it expensive, even sometimes higher than filet mignon and always wads of euros more than salmon happens to be just a mere whole fish cooked in brown butter with a squeeze of lemon and some chopped parsley thrown in!

So I found out that....

1. why is it expensive...Just trying to skin sole fish will tell you why it's so darned expensive!

2. The ART of cooking the sole fish it self

3. And the story behind the dish itself, on how it took the soul of one of France's most revered cooks, Chef Vatel

let's chat a little about the no3 discovery why the sole fish is an expensive dish :)

"Taken from a literature article on the net regarding this particular story"

Before the Roi de Soleil's extravagant palace of Versailles was constructed in 1682, the King traveled around the country with his aristocracy. Wherever he went they were required to go too. In this way he kept an eye on his scheming court and also kept them in dept paying for their travel expenses and hosting lavish parties in his honor.

In 1671, the king traveled to Chantilly to meet with his commander, Prince Condé before waging war on Holland. A great feast was planned hosted by the Prince for the King and his court with the aid of his "Master of Cooks", François Vatel.

The first night of feasting, a light supper was provided of turtle soup, creamed chicken fried trout (whatever that is), and roast pheasant. Seventy-five extra guests attended the party. Vatel was horrified that some of the tables at his super did not receive enough pheasant roast. Although his staff assured him that he wasn't to blame for the shortage of food and unknown quantity of royal guests, he was humiliated by this blunder.

At four o'clock in the morning after what he considered to be a failed first diner, Vatel was still hard at work desperately trying to secure enough food for the next day's gala event, an even more extravagant and opulent menu of anchovies sevigne, melon with Parma ham, lobster quenelles with shrimp sauce, and filet of sole.

He met with a fish monger in the early hours of morning who arrived with an inadequate amount of fish. He asked the purveyor, "Is this all"? and the man replied back to him, "Yes sir" not knowing that Vatel had also ordered more from several seaport towns in France. Vatel waited hoping that more would arrive. Nothing came.

Exhausted from twelve sleepless nights of preparing for Prince Condé's feasts and unable to see a way out of total disgrace, he went to his room and fixed his sword to his door. He ran into it several times. The first two times only wounding himself, the third thrust he pierced his heart. Some say he ran upon it another five times.

Fifteen minutes after his suicide fish poured in to the royal household and assistants came running to find Vatel so that he could distribute it. Too late, Vatel lay dead in a pool of blood.The dinner went on as planned minus the filet of sole course, and all agreed – the Roi de Soleil included – that his death, although tragic, only proved Vatel's code of honor. Vatel traded his soul for sole.

All the drama and all you need not trade your soul for the damn recipe hehehhe here is my version of the famous soul trader = Sole Meunière

Ingredients

2 (8 ounces) sole fillets
Salt and black pepper
8 Tablespoons butter
1 cup flour
4 tablespoons finely chopped Italian parsley
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 clove garlic
Lemon slices, for garnish

Instructions

1. Season fillets with salt and pepper.
2. Heat butter in a large sauté pans on medium high until butter is nut brown. Make sure your pans distribute heat evenly (very important).
3. Dredge fillets in flour, shaking off any excess flour. Do this step right before placing fillets in pans. This ensures a crisp crust.
4. Place fillets in hot saute pans and cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side, until golden brown and crispy.

5. Remove fillets from pans and transfer onto a platter.
6. Dump out butter from the saute pan. Don't rinse it! Add remaining butter and heat on medium high until golden brown. Take off the heat and add lemon juice and a big three finger pinch of chopped parsley.
7. Place fish on plates and spoon over nut butter lemon sauce.
8. Garnish with lemon slices

so here it is....

my version of the ever so expensive...

Sole Meunière

Soul for Sole?

hmnnn.....i dont think so :P

And this dish is best serve with a salsa salad which i've prepared in just a few mins...like my aunt Alys likes to say.."easy-peasy" ;)

my salsa toss out salad

the combo that ignites fire that brings your soul to search for sole :) fish that is...hahaha

and oh yes.....this is the famous "Master of Cooks", François Vatel

Bon appétit!

Clarity!

Bongawan's famous "Lamban"

Well...every now and then our neighbour which is aunty Marina who also happens to be mom's ex workmate when she was still working ans she hails from Bongawan and therefore she is an expert in making this glutoneous sticky rice called "Lamban" and to eat with the satay sauce (Peanut sauce) Anyhow...i was so delighted when we were given a tray of this "Lamban" as im a "Lamban" junkie eversince i was a little girl. Back then i use to eat it just like that without the sauce coz it was a bit spicey. BUT NOW...the peanut/satay sauce is a MUST! and its sooo scrumptiously glutaneously yummiest! heheheh

Well i just let the pictures tell the story coz i dont know how to make them realy..i only expertly know how to eat them :) yummy yumm indeed :)

The deadly duo!

The finger licking yummiest Lamban over Satay Sauce

yummmmm..

Clarity!

Mewot the Coconut Biscuit maker :)

My sister “Gothica Mewot” has a hidden talent She is actually a good cookie maker...hehehe Sheis really not a domestic kinda person but when she get s down to making cookies she knows her stuffs on this department. On boxing day she slave herself at the kitchen on her solo attempt from A-Z doing her coookie thingy and it turmed out to be a BOMB!

SO here are the pictures of her getting down to making the “Coconut Cookie” The reason she is bakin git is coz she is giving it to her japanese lecturer who was not feeling well and gonna vsit her and the cookies are like “get well soon” token from her J but she put a lot of effort to it and that's really nice and you dont get to see my sister slavering herself in the kitchen like that if its nothing to do with a good cause... so this is a good cause...

Ok check out the pics ;)

The main ingredient for her cookies which is coconut :)

Mewot the stirrer is hard at work with her cookies ;)

The dough mixed with coconut

The coconut cookie just before baking :)

So we should actually call it gothica coconut cookies for gothica gal is the one baking it hehehe :) it's the yummiest ;)

Coco-Nut!

Clarity!

Christmas Eve Delight 2007

Well i havent been doing any kind of baking for the longest of time i think so finally a few days back i have a visit from my favourite cousins the little ones like Bubu Ray, then the biggens like Dewi and Daffie and their mom started taling about cakes and suddenly all eyes were on me...and so dewi was saying that i owe them one orange peel cake which according to them they so love it coz i make special kind of topping that make kids go wild hahaaha..so i was telling them oklah..i will do something on christmas Eve and will make them happy for they have been waiting for it for ages :)

So here is my infamous Orange Peel Cake with Almond flakes Topping!

Merry Christmas veryone!!

As you can see im lousy at decoration so what you see is what you get ..hahaha so the Rita Geng this one is for you guys ;)

HoHoHo

Clarity!