Matcha Sugee Cookies

Matcha Sugee Cookies

Sugee Cookies are among the many things that I gorge myself on during the Chinese New Year. And they were also one of the first cookies that we learnt how to make during Home Economics (but the no-semolina flour sort). Very easy, melt-in-the-mouth and fattening stuff.

Today, I sent off the Teenager on his school trip to Munich, but am grounded for the week as Baby Boy had taken a turn for the worse this morning after seemingly having recovered from his flu over the weekend. He seems to be down with a bacterial infection that usually occurs after recovery from influenza and truth be told I'm quite nervous as I've read that this is what usually kills after a flu. I believe that my neighbour in Singapore died from it at the age of 35.

To take my mind off this for a while and calm down, I decided to make a batch of Matcha Sugee Cookies as the boy took his nap. I love green tea and this recipe that requires little manoeuvre and cooking brings out the refreshing taste of the powdered green Matcha tea. Zen...and you either like it or you don't. My children don't. Matcha is an acquired taste.

Matcha Sugee Cookies (makes 50) :

200g Plain Flour (sifted)

100g Icing Sugar (sifted)

100g Powdered Matcha

1/2 Tsp Baking soda

1/4 Tsp Salt

130ml Vegetable Oil or Ghee (clarified butter)

Preheat oven to 150°C.

Mix the flour, icing sugar, baking soda, salt and matcha powder together. Pour in the vegetable oil or ghee (ghee would be richer and tastier and one can simmer butter to obtain the ghee if you cannot find it in your local store) and knead e.g. with your hand till you get a uniform paste which is almost instantly. Once the oil touches the flour mixture, the green intensifies, it's quite lovely to watch.

Before baking

Roll the dough into small balls and bake in the oven (at the lower shelf) for 15 minutes. I love the powdery green colour of the matcha cookies and also the cracks that appear in them when they are baked. But the light of sunset didn't do it justice.

After baking

Cool before storing in airtight jars.

It is the time of the year when I go around asking the other moms for food donations to the Winter Fair buffet. One has to be quite thick-skinned about it, though I am lucky that the majority of moms usually quite nicely reply that of course they would love to make something for the buffet. Then I have those precious wonderful few who actually contacted me before I even contacted them, asking if they could make me a dish or 2! Finally, there is that minority who actually rolled their eyes or shudder when I approached them, though they usually wouldn't say no either, so I'm still grateful, I guess. I will probably make at least 2-3 dishes as usual. One has to lead by example.

SQUID * INK & PASTA

Spaghetti alla Seppia Nera

We stopped going to Modena centro to shop at the covered market and lunch at Aldina when the kids were having golf lessons on Saturdays. Then the lessons stopped when the weather turned cold and we found ourselves driving into town yesterday like before.

Almost everywhere you turn you see bottles of expensive balsamic vinegar on display. Christmas is round the corner and I suppose they imagined that we would want to be giving those away as presents.

At the market, we shopped for organic bread, beef, cheese, vegetables...and then I saw the seppia (squid). If you remember, just last Saturday I was at Margi's in Bologna and she cooked me Spaghetti alla seppia nera. I toured the 3 stalls selling seafood a few times and finally decided to buy 2 seppias, Hub not being too keen on them.

My 2 squids were white. Margi's were covered with black ink. But the Chinese girl selling them told me they contained ink. I started cleaning them and they were still white. Hub said I should never have trusted the Chinese girl. That she would tell me anything to sell me her squids. I didn't bother to answer him.

Then I saw that one of them had a little round pocket that looked as if it had something black inside. I put it aside and started to prepare my dish.

Squid, Ink and Pasta :

Spaghetti for 1 or 2 persons

Olive Oil

2 Squids (about 250g each, with their ink)

3-4 large Garlic cloves (diced)

4-5 Cherry Tomatoes (quartered)

A handful of fresh Parsley (chopped)

Red Chilli (optional)

White wine

Salt and Pepper

Margi's Hub Enea was the one who taught her how to make this dish and she has been cooking it for them since. I saw her posting pictures of her dish in Facebook and drove all the way to Bologna insisting that she cooked it for me. Very thick-skinned as usual.

It's a simple, ugly but delicious pasta, though watch out for the black mouth that you'll get at the end of your meal. And it's a fishy dish, you have to like the smell and taste of fish to go for it.

Heat up a generous amount of olive oil in the frying pan and fry the garlic till fragrant. Add in the diced chilli and chopped tomatoes and squish them a little with the spatula.

At this point I added the squids and coated them with the fragrant oil. Poured in some white wine and then the ink from the little round pocket. Then I added in the parsley and the cooked spaghetti (al dente, of course), gave everything a good stir and ate it for dinner.

Black is beautiful, it is amazing how much black ink that little round pocket contained, I was really happy.

Pao di Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread)

Pao di Queijo

No, these are not Madeleines. Believe it or not they are Pao di Queijo or Brazilian Cheese Bread. Made in madeleine moulds.

I can't remember when and where I first ate this bread, but it was certainly love at first bite. Apparently it is usually made with cheese from one part of Brazil, which is why many Brazilians would make it out of a mix - but substituting with parmesan and cheddar cheese works quite well as well.

Know why the bread is so chewy on the inside? Because it's made of cassava (aka tapioca) flour. And it will rise on its own steam so there is no need for yeast. Bread is crispy on the outside and soft/chewy on the inside. Colour should be just pale yellow (from the cheese and eggs).

Pao di Queijo (makes about 26 little bread) :

1 cup Tapioca or Cassava Flour

1 Egg

1/2 cup Milk

2/3 cup mix of Parmesan and sharp Cheddar Cheeses

1/4 cup Vegetable oil

1/2 Tsp Salt

Bring the milk and oil to a boil. Set aside and let it cool a little.

Stir in the tapioca flour.

Add the egg, then the salt and grated cheeses.

Mix well and pour into small moulds.

Bake for 14-16 minutes in an oven heated to 180°C.

Ideally, the dough should be consistent enough to be kneaded so that you get nice little round pieces of bread. And this probably could be achieved by doubling the volume of flour used, maybe add in some wheat flour as well. But I'm quite pleased with the result of this batch of cheese bread (but 1 cup cheese was too much) though I wouldn't eat too many of them, it's too rich. Plus I am supposed to be intolerant towards parmesan cheese.

These cheese bread are best eaten freshly baked, but mine, I thought, were actually better the next day. Probably just needed to be heated up slightly.

Cocotte Staub

Cocotte ovale Staub

If MIL is not too broke this Christmas, she will normally offer me this beauty. This is the first time in more than a decade that I have blatantly asked for such an expensive gift.

Normally I am a Le Creuset fan, but since they are not replying to my email about the holes in the enamel of my current cocotte (and it is supposed to be under lifetime waranty), I am ready to embrace Staub.

This pot can feed 7-8 persons. 37cm, oval, blue, 8L. I may need a bigger stove for it.

Lychee Meatballs

Lychee Meatballs

The Teenager also has fever and was recalled from school. I now have 3 kids at home, I guess it's a question of time before I fall sick too. And who will look after me then?

They are all happy to have escaped the fish at the school's canteen today and since I have to feed 3 sick kids, I thought I'll make them Jaden's Lychee Meatballs. It's comforting, easy to make (slightly less work compared to what I usually do to make sweet and sour pork) and will please any sweet and sour sauce lover.

Anything sweet & sour has to come in a huge quantity in this family

Lychee Meatballs :

1 can Lychees (drained and syrup reserved for the sauce)

1 Red Bell Pepper

1 Zucchini

1 Red Onion

1 Garlic clove

1 Red Chilli

The meatballs :

500g Minced Pork

1 Egg

1/4 Tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Flour

The sauce :

100ml Lychee syrup

65ml White Wine Vinegar

3 Tbsp Brown Sugar

2 Tsp grated fresh Ginger

65ml Tomato Ketchup

1/4 Tsp Salt

Ground black pepper

Marinate the minced pork for an hour. Form into balls with your palm.

Mix the ingredients for the sauce and bring it to a boil stirring all the time. Then simmer for 5 minutes. Set aside.

Lightly oil a frying pan and grill your meatballs on all sides till they are browned. The inside could still be pink as you would finish cooking them in the sauce.

Heat some oil in the wok. Fry the onions, garlic, peppers, zucchini and red chilli. Add in the meatballs and stir-fry for a minute. Add in the lychees, then pour in the sauce, stirring well to coat the meatballs in the sauce, cover the wok and simmer for 4-5 minutes.

Serve hot on steamed Jasmine rice.

Tomato Bufala Tartlets

Tomato Bufala Tartlets

Brisée pastry dough, Cherry Tomatoes (ripe), Mozzarella di Bufala (good quality), Sage or Basil Leaves. Olive Oil, salt and pepper. 200°C, 20 minutes. Yummy.

Indonesian Layer Cake (Kueh Lapis)

Indonesian Layer Cake

It is Baby Boy's turn to have fever today. Now I have 2 kids at home and had to cancel today's Grade 1 lunch. Can only cross the fingers that the Teenager doesn't catch the fever as he will be going to Munich next week.

Baby Boy loves Kueh Lapis, so I've decided to bake him one today when he's feeling miserable - from not being with his friends and from having to endure the suppositories for the fever. I felt quite queasy whenever I gave him a suppository, couldn't help thinking of how horrible it must be for those children who were sexually abused. I do not know about other children, but mine really hate having the suppository stuffed into their rectums. But they do not know how to swallow a pill and dislike swallowing syrup either. Meanwhile, I find the suppositories quite effective in reducing fever quickly.

Kueh Lapis :

10 Egg yolks

190g Sugar

1 Tsp Vanilla essence

220g Butter (softened at room temperature and beaten)

1 Tbsp Brandy or Rum

2 Tbsp sweetened Condensed Milk

130g plain Flour to sift together with

1 Tsp Mixed Spice (ground cinnamon, cloves, cumin, coriander, nutmeg & allspice)

6 Egg whites

Grease springform pan and line with greaseproof paper.

Heat oven to 175°C.

Whisk egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla essence till creamy. Beat in the butter and brandy, then stir in the condensed milk followed by the sifted flour and mixed spice.

Whisk egg whites until just stiff. Pour egg yolk mixture into the egg whites and fold gently.

I heated my grill to moderate with fan when the oven is hot and placed my empty tin under it for 1 minute. Then I removed it, pour in a ladleful of batter and spread the batter evenly by tilting the tin. Grill for 5 minutes, remove tin and repeat operation until the batter is used up. Then return to bake mode and bake at 160°C for 10 minutes. Cool before eating.

As usual, whatever I bake or cook doesn't ever come out looking remotely nice. And from the look of things I can't even cut straight either. But this cake is quite edible and will require more adjustment to the oven settings, probably I will also cut down on the number of egg whites, use something to press down on the cake and remove the bubbles, and use a smaller cake pan (so that I can have more layers). In any case I'm on kueh lapis overdose. Have experimented with 2 lapis in 4 days...

Silken Tofu and Cauliflower Egg Hor Fun

Silken Tofu and Cauliflower Egg Hor Fun

When I left London a few weeks ago, I had in my luggage 2 precious packets of silken tofu. Made in Singapore. Stuff that I took for granted when I was living in Singapore and that I hoard preciously today because I cannot find them where I live. I took out one packet and made myself a plate of Silken Tofu and Cauliflower Egg Hor Fun for lunch. Bliss.

This morning I paid 25 euros for a test at the pharmacy to check what intolerance I have towards food. A Swedish mom had hers for free, but I, of course, had to turn up after the promotion. Anyway, apparently I can tolerate most food, except hazelnuts, walnuts, cucumber, coffee, alcohol, parmesan and pecorino cheese.

This is good to know, except that it doesn't help explain the buttons that I am currently having all over my person and I can't really eliminate food from my diet that could have made me fat because of intolerance. I suppose that I had better go see my doctor.

Harumi's Baked Cheesecake

Harumi's Baked Cheesecake

For Christmas last year, MIL offered me the cookbook Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking. I am normally not hot about Japanese cooking, though I make Japanese dishes occasionally for the family, especially Hub and the Teenager who love sushi, tempura, yakitori, miso and udon soup. This morning, stuck at home with Baby Girl and having entered all my cactuses and other plants from the cold, I decided to bake a non-Japanese cheesecake using her recipe. To warm up the kitchen.

I like the idea of baking cheesecake, and I do it from time to time for the Hub, but somehow I never eat it. It's one of those things. This one turned out well, with a fine biscuit base and dense, creamy interior. Foolproof, like she claimed it would be.

Harumi's Baked Cheesecake :

For an 18 cm springform tin

100g Digestive biscuits

40g unsalted butter

250g Cream cheese

90g Sugar

2 Eggs

200ml Double cream

3 Tbsp sifted plain Flour

1 Tbsp Lemon juice

The butter and cream cheese have to be at room temperature.

Line the cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Put the biscuits in a plastic bag and roughly crush with a rolling pin.

Mix the softened butter with the crushed biscuits.

Make the biscuit base. Preheat the oven to 170°C.

Beat the cream cheese till soft then add the rest of the ingredients, in order, mixing each one thoroughly first before adding the next.

When the mixture has thickened, pour into the cake tin on top of the biscuit base. Bake for 45-50 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool before removing from the tin.

Home-made Squid Ink Tagliatelle

Squid Ink Tagliatelle

Squid Ink Pasta is not something that you can easily find in the supermarket or in restaurants where we live. Now that I know how to make it myself, I can have it anytime I want it. Not that it's good news for the diet.

Will cook this batch with prawns this evening. Hub looked at the drying pasta (all over the kitchen) and said that he would like to learn how to make them too. Said it normally costs so much to buy them fresh, so it's really good that I know how to make it myself now.

Squid Ink Pasta in the making

Am stuck with Baby Girl, she has a fever and all. I think half the school is ill. We haven't heard anything about the flu vaccination in this country. But it's normal, we're in Italy.

Home-made Lasagna with Cepe/Porcini Mushrooms

Lasagna ai Funghi Porcini

One good way not to forget a cooking lesson is to try it out on one's own quickly. I therefore set out to knead and roll out some dough for lasagna and squid ink tagliatelle this morning. Dinner this evening was therefore Fresh Lasagna with Cepe/Porcini Mushrooms.

Lasagna al Ragu (with one stray mushroom)

Actually it was Lasagna ai Funghi Porcini for the parents and Lasagna al ragu for the children. And I baked both in the same recipient.

2-in-1 Lasagna

There are 2 ways basically to cook lasagna using fresh pasta. The first and better way is to cook the pasta 30 seconds in salted boiling water, rinse it in a cold bath and dry it with kitchen towels; the second is to use it directly in making the lasagna (if it's thin enough). I took the easier way out this evening.

Pasta for lasagna in the making

The bechamel I prepared myself (40g butter, 40g flour and 500ml milk) and hors feu I stirred in grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper for extra taste.

My lasagne is composed of a layer of bechamel followed by a layer of pasta, followed by a layer of the mushroom or meat filling, more bechamel, another layer of pasta and so on. The top-most layer was pasta and bechamel and some grated cheddar. 35 minutes in a hot oven pre-heated at 180°C.

Lamb Satay

Lamb Satay

They were selling plain lamb skewers at Esselunga today and that gave me the idea to buy them, marinate as I would meat for satay and grill them in the oven for dinner. Since I was at it, I marinated some chicken breasts at the same time so we had Lamb and Chicken Satay with peanut sauce, cucumber, red onions and Jasmine rice balls.

Marinating the lamb skewers

That's our fastfood. And to prevent the wooden skewers from burning I wet a piece of kitchen towel and placed it over them during the marinating. Takes less than 10 minutes under a hot grill to be cooked.

Chicken Satay

The lamb satay was the children's favourite. I've always had other moms asking me how I do lamb and telling me that it's not an easy meat to cook. On the contrary, I've always found lamb delicious and easy to cook. And when done properly, tastier than chicken or pork. The difficulty lies more in finding good cuts of the meat. If you want your children to like it, it is ideal to start them young. As far as I could remember, my mom often fed me lamb briyani and mutton soup and I just love the taste of the meat.

This morning I was at the school library watching the MYP kids working on their unit on the Holocaust and war. Read through a few books quickly myself including one by the Anne Frank Foundation and one written by a Jordanian woman about Honour Killings in her country.

This brought me back to those years when I myself was a Teenager. As a kid, I've read The Diary of Anne Frank and I've studied the World Wars. It is still difficult trying to swallow the senseless atrocities committed against fellow humans. Pictures like the Jews being divided ito 2 queues - one for immediate extermination and the other for hard labour (aka slow death) - still haunt me. It must be horrible for mothers to see their children die and not be able to do anything to save them. Other pictures of Jews being brought to a shallow grave and shot just before it so that they could fall into it conveniently - that was just plain perversity. We also tend to ignore the hundreds of thousands of Allied soldiers who dropped like flies on the beaches of Normandy as they landed. There are no winners in war as we've always been told.

During Political Theory and Philosophy classes at University, we spent alot of time debating on whether humans we were by nature good or bad - and came to no conclusion as far as I could remember. We live in pockets of peace and prosperity - but the zones of unrest and poverty are much larger and widespread when you think of it.

The book by the Jordanian woman reminded me that even though in Arab countries where they have wealth and claim to protect women, the reality is that the women could be killed anytime in the name of honour - a poor and cowardly excuse. What is honour and could it be justified by murder and especially murder usually committed by one's own family? Would their God sanction this? I don't think so.

I mean, you get killed because you talked to (strange) men on the phone; because you chose to marry someone you love; because they suspected that you had sex before you got married; because you were raped by your neighbour. It's a losing situation either way for the women. What kind of a shit society is that?

And they label any woman they consider loose to be "prostitutes" - who deserve to be killed. Hello, there wouldn't be prostitutes if there weren't men who use them. I have seen with my own eyes Arab men in a shopping centre in Bangkok approaching Thai transvestites for sex. How many societies in both the developed and developing world were widows, divorcees, poor women and even young girls forced or sold into prositution in order to survive? I am no Christian, but I have been marked by Jesus telling those who were ready to stone Mary Magdelena that "let him who has not sinned cast the first stone". At least in the New Testament, there were stories of forgiveness and even in the Old Testament, you had stories of incest and polygamy. Look at those Muslim suicide bombers who were brainwashed with stories of virgins waiting for them in heaven. What is this stupid obsession with virgins in their religion? Smart men will tell you that they would rather sleep with women with some experience than virgins. Bref.

The Teenager leaves next week for Munich. They are going to visit the Dachau concentration camp and the Jewish Museum. For me, closer to home, I would like to learn more about the Khmer Rouge Years in Cambodia, the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese perspective and the military juntas in Burma. We've touched on all that at school at some point (with Cambridge setting the papers), but doing it for an exam and doing it out of human interest is somehow not the same.

Finali Mondiali 2009

Finali Mondiali 2009

Hub was away this weekend in Valencia for Ferrari's Finali Mondiali. We had to miss it since, exceptionally, it wasn't held in Italy. In hard times like these, we didn't feel up to paying 4 air tickets just for the weekend (especially when we were there just 2 weeks ago) and it wouldn't do to ask the company to pay for them either even though traditionally the family has always been invited to this event.

Hub's badges

Hub wasn't keen to go there without us, but once he was there, he was really impressed by the whole event. Valencia, as you know, is a beautiful city. Holding a beautiful event in a beautiful city can only be a sure success.

Palau de las Artes Reina Sofia by night

On Saturday evening, the gala dinner was held in the Palau de las Artes Reina Sofia. There was an open air concert (the weather was beautiful there unlike here) followed by an indoor orchestra cum flamenco musical performance. The City of the Arts and Sciences is impressive on its own. Add the Ferrari logo (flashed on the building) and a few Ferraris floating on the water surrounding it and it was magical.

Valencia's Symphonic Orchestra met the Flamenco

You get to rub shoulders with the rich and famous from all over the world. And also politicians and notables from Valencia.

Circuit Ricardo Tormo

The races took place in the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo. Alonso was there (though not in Ferrari colours) and spent at least an hour signing autographs (no, don't expect Hub to get one for us). The Spaniards were crazy about him.

Alonso being interviewed

Cheese, it's Alonso!!! (Lai & Domenicali were behind)

The President's Lunch was held in a special room as usual and it was the same guy from Florence who did the catering. I've asked Hub to try getting the chocolate cake recipe from him, but of course Hub pretended that he hadn't heard me. But he did sweetly offer to take a few pictures, "I know that you would want to blog about them..."

President's Lunch

I certainly wished I were there. Then the car wouldn't be scratched.