Boston Part I: The Randomities

I’m backkk! My trip to the US was sooo much fun!

If i didn’t already have plans to hit Shanghai and Melbourne next month, i would definitely have stayed longer and bugged the hell of my best friend and her sister till they kick me out Just uploading and looking at all the photos is making me wish i was back there this instant although i could do without the twenty odd hours on the plane.

Anyway, getting on with reality, Boston was just gorgeous- pink blossom trees, daffodils and tulips lining the streets everywhere. The people were friendly, there were plenty of huge supermarkets, even the buildings had beautiful detailing- what not to love? New york, oh new york- for all the hype about it, sure didn’t disappoint. There was so much to see and do. Our five days there, although way too short, was so much fun. I had such an incredible trip i really couldn’t ask for more (okay maybe more strawberries, blueberries and dulce de leche ice cream).

So anyway i figure- since i’m gonna be up till wee hours of the mornings for the next couple of days as i am now at 5 in the morning (Boston and New York’s twelve hours behind Singapore) and so that my photos don’t sit around in my hard drive and collect dust, i shall do up posts of my trip, starting with of course the picturesque Boston.

I left Singapore, full with anticipation and excitement for my almost month long trip. I knew it was gonna be such a great trip but first, i had to get through the horrendously long hours on the plane.

Salmon and Tuna Onigiri

Beautifully packaged cakes and Hello Kitty everything

The food served on board, as always, wasn’t much to rave about so i was starving
by the time i arrived at the Narita airport. Despite my hopes and best efforts, i couldn’t find any decently priced sushi and had to settle for a salmon and tuna oniginis- both of which were pretty good. Narita airport was pretty fun to explore- every shop had everything Hello Kitty from stationary to cookies and such beautifully packaged chocolates and biscuits- my three hours there just flew by.

Soon, it was back onto the plane for me, with a 14 hour flight ahead of me, followed by four hours to kill at the JFK airport before my (thankfully short) flight to Boston. I was so glad when i finally arrived at the Logan International Airport in the late afternoon and was met at the airport by my best friend, J and her sister.

J’s apartment

PJ lazing around in the living room and the gorgeous Mia peering at me in the kitchen

Waiting at home (okay not really, they were more just lounging at home in typical cat fashion) were the two most adorable cats, PJ and Mia. I’m not a cat person but these two were so adorable! They took a couple of days to stop scrambling back to the room every time they caught sight of me but soon enough, they were coming up to me, purring and nudging me to stroke them.

One of the things that i cannot go past mentioning was the bountiful supply of berries available at the supermarkets with the summer approaching. There was always a punnet of blueberries or strawberries in the fridge just begging to be eaten. The blueberries, as you can see here, were plump and ripe to perfection with a refreshing burst of sourness. They weren’t all that cheap but these little babies were worth every penny.

Gorgeous pink blossom trees and tulips by the streets

A beautiful brick building on Newbury Street, Boston’s equivalent of Singapore’s Orchard Road or Melbourne’s Chapel Street and ducks by the street

Like i mentioned before, the streets have such gorgeous blooming tulips, daffodils pretty pink blossoms, beautiful buildings, even cute little ducks strolling leisurely along the road. It really did feel a lot like spring although the pink blossom trees made me feel a little like i was in Japan.

I had a couple hours to myself the first few days i arrived as J still had classes on going and her sis had work. So i spent it exploring Coolidge Corner, a little couple of blocks housing supermarkets, eateries, a couple of shops and even a pet shop- a little like Singapore’s Holland Village i suppose.

Bruegger’s Bagel and a Roadhouse Chicken on Pumpernickel bagel

I stumbled upon a bagel place and decided to walk in for lunch. The Roadhouse Chicken on a pumpernickle bagel was so damned good. The bagel was chewy and flavourful and the saltish bacon and sweet honey mustard lent a really nice touch.

Now before i left the US, i wrote up a list of places i just had to go to and one of the places i had to visit in Boston was. So imagine my excitement when i found out that Trader Joe’s was right in Coolidge Corner.

I was just blown away by the store the first time i entered it. They did have all the products you would imagine a grocery store would have but their items weren’t of conventional brands. So they didn’t, for example, have bags of Lay chips or Sunchips- instead they had Trader Joe’s Sour Cream and French Onions crisps and Trader Joe’s Corn Chips. They had such interesting and unique products- i must have spent hours just slowly browsing through every aisle. And of course, as with all supermarkets, i just could not leave empty handed.

As i was walking through the aisles, i could smell the fragrant, heavenly aroma that could come only from strawberries. True enough, as i approached the end of the aisle, there right before the row of cashiers were boxes and boxes of ruby red strawberries, all neatly stacked up and attracting a lot of attention. These strawberries and those i’ve had throughout the trip were sooo good! Sweet, juicy with an attractive glossy sheen, i just could’t get enough of them.

Toffuti Cuties!

Ruby red strawberries and trail mix

I first heard about Toffuti Cuties a couple of years ago through the Internet and i have been dying to try them since. So in they went into my basket along with a bag of Trail Mix. Much as J and her sis label them as “a waste of time”, i really enjoyed my ice cream sandwich. If i didn’t already know, i would never have guessed that they were made without dairy. Much like how i had to run to the freezer to check its box after finding out the chicken patty i wasn’t eating wasn’t actually chicken but mock meat. It’s amazing what they come up with these days but you can’t help but wonder what kind of chemicals and preservatives go into it. That aside, the trail mix- just an assortment of nuts, dried cranberries, chocolate and peanut butter chips thrown together- were such a good mix of sweet and salty, they were seriously insanely addictive.

One of the many things we did over the three weeks was ate ice cream like it was going out of fashion. One of my favourites was Haagen Dazs’ Dulce De Leche ice cream which is essentially just caramel. It was sooo good! Subtly sweet caramel ice cream with more caramel swirled in. So so good! It’s probably a good thing they don’t carry the flavour in Singapore or it’ll probably be all i’ll ever eat.

So that’s pretty much about it for this part. Next to come- attractions, all things touristy and New York!

For Love Of Bread.

When i think of banana bread, a cake-like quickbread, moistened and speckled with mashed bananas, that can only be made more perfect with a cup of tea springs to mind. So when i came across this recipe for a loaf of banana feather bread which Rose describes to be a “real” loaf of bread, as opposed to the conventional banana bread, and the lightest of all her bread, i just had to try it. Besides, what could be more perfect with our usual slather of peanut butter than a slice of banana bread?

The dough for this bread came together rather quickly and fuss free, although a dough started is required for this bread. And because there’s all that banana to moisten the dough, only a tiny bit of butter is called for. This makes a rather small loaf, compared to the ones i usually make, so i used a tiny 8 by 4 inches loaf pan i had recently acquired.

Of all the breads i’ve made from the book, this loaf took the quickest to bake- at just half an hour, at varying temperatures. The bread is first baked at a really high temperature of 275C before the heat is turned down to 190C and then finally 175C.

Surprisingly though, the bread barely hints of banana although it is really light and soft much like the Soft White Sandwich Loaf i made a couple of weeks back. I’ve yet to try it toasted, which Rose says will bring out the flavour of the banana, but i have enjoyed it tremendously with peanut butter.

So if and when you’re craving for some home made carbs, do try this loaf out. It makes such a wonderful loaf and your house will just smell heavenly while it’s doing its thing in the oven. I don’t know about you but as a huge incentive, nothing gets me out of bed faster in the morning than a slice of freshly baked bread with a generous lashing of glorious, sticky, nutty peanut butter.

Banana Feather Loaf [taken from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Bread Bible]

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups of unbleached plain flour (Rose recommands using Gold Medal, King Arthur or Pillsbury)
3/4 tsp instant yeast
2 tbsp dry milk
4 tsp or 18.5g unsalted butter, softened
1 very ripe banana, about 110g, lightly mashed
1 tsp salt

Dough Starter
1 cup + 1 tbsp unbleached plain flour
Scant 1/2 cup water
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp salt

1. To make dough starter Whisk all ingredients together in a large bowl till smooth for about 2 minutes.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, yeast and dry milk together. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the dough starter. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to ferment for 1 to 4 hours at room temperature.
3. Add the butter, banana and salt to the starter, mixing well with a wooden spoon. Knead dough in the bowl till it comes together before turning it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, adding a little extra flour if and as needed. Cover the dough with an inverted bowl and leave to rest for 20 minutes- this will make the dough less sticky.
4. Knead the dough for another 5 minutes till smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, pushing it down and oiling the top of the dough slightly. Mark the side of the bowl at approximately double the height of the dough and leave to rise at room temperature for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours or till dough doubles in height.
5. Scrape dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pressing down on it gently, form a rectangle. Fold the dough from all four sides to form a tight package and return it to bowl, leaving it to rise again till doubled in height.
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into a loaf. Place it in a lightly greased 8 by 4 inch loaf pan and covering it with plastic wrap, allow it to rise for about an hour.
7. Preheat the oven to 275C for an hour before baking, placing the baking sheet at the lowest rack and sheet pan on the floor of the oven.
8. Place the loaf pan on the hot baking sheet, tossing in 1/2 cup of ice into the pan beneath and shutting the door immediately. Bake for 5 minutes before turning heat down to 190C, baking for another 15 minutes. Finally, turn the heat down to 175C and bake the loaf for another 10 minutes or till the loaf is golden brown. Remove loaf pan from oven, unmould it and let cool completely on wire rack before slicing it. Makes about 12 slices

Between Naans and Papadums.

NB: Zhu? I know you probably have Indian food coming out of your ears by now and this is the last thing you want to see on my site. But this dish is too good for me not to share the recipe. So skip this and come back to this post in 2 years or something- you might want to make this for lunch some day when you’re not so sick of Indian food. XXOO

Much as i love the whole Indian cuisine, the richness of the food prohibits me from eating it too frequently. So over the years, i’ve kinda developed a cycle that goes something like this-

1. Make plans to have Indian food with a friend or two or ten (most commonly GT)
2. Watch what i eat in the few days leading up to the day so as to maximise food intake during the meal and spread the calories consumption out
3. Gorge myself silly on curries of all sorts, naans, papadums, dahls, tandori chicken- basically anything i can lay my hands on- till i’m practically bursting before proceeding to swear myself off the cuisine for the next year.
4. Repeat

It’s horrid, this whole binging and starving (off Indian food) cycle. I had to find a middle ground somewhere- indulging in moderation and being able to have it as often as i would like- and i think with this butter chicken, i’ve found it.

The chicken is first marinated overnight in natural yogurt mixed with a handful of spices, resulting in tender, flavourful chicken pieces. It is then added to the makhani sauce, usually made out of tomatoes, butter, almond, spices and cream and left to simmer for a couple of minutes till the chicken is cooked through.

I made several changes to the original recipe. I didn’t have quite a few of the spices it called for so i used whatever i had on hand. Also, to make the dish less rich, i used natural yogurt, in place of cream, to thicken the sauce as well add a bit of tanginess.

The dish smelt amazing while it was cooking over the stove and it sure didn’t disappoint taste wise. Tender, fragrant pieces of chicken in smooth, silky sauce served on a bed of basmati rice and topped with slightly crunchy cashew nuts and chopped corriander leaves- i was soon spooning every last drop of sauce.

Now if only i had some poppadums and mango lassi to go with it.

Butter Chicken [adapted from delicious menus booklet]

Ingredients
300g chicken, cubed
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp corriander seeds
1/2 tbsp smoked paparika
1/4 cup natural yogurt (I used Paul’s)
1/4 cup tomato puree
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 small brown onion, diced
2 dried bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick, smashed lightly into pieces
6 cardamom pods, bruised
Pinch of salt
100g cashews, roasted
Corriander leaves, to serve
Cooked basmati rice, to serve

Marinade
1/4 cup natural yogurt
2 cardamom pods
3 garlic cloves
2 small knobs of ginger
A pinch of salt
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp corriander seed
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1. For the marinade, bash all the ingredients except the yogurt in a mortar and pestle. Stir the yogurt in before adding the chicken and tossing well to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 4 to 6 hours or preferably overnight.
2. Whiz three quarter of the nuts in a food processor till finely ground and set aside. Heat the butter and oil in a pan over medium heat. When butter has melted, add onion, bay leaves, cinnamon and cardamom pods into pan. When onions turn soft, add chicken stock, tomato puree, salt, chicken and all the spices into the pan. Stir well and let mixture simmer for about 10 minutes. Add yogurt to pan, stir well then taste and add more spices if needed. Serve butter chicken with basmati rice, scattering the remaining cashew nuts and torn corriander leaves on top. Serves 2

Indulging In Obsessions Part II: Mini Butter Cakes with Royal Icing

I’ve had my copy of Feast for almost a year now and while i’m always flipping through it and bookmarking recipes to try, I have never made anything from it. But when i saw the goddess making these simply gorgeous cupcakes on the latest episode of Nigella Feast that i caught, i just knew that i had to break into my book and make them.

The domestic snob in me simply refused to just chuck all the ingredients into a food processor, like Nigella suggests, and whiz away so i made them the usual way. In spite of that, these cupcakes, as most of Nigella’s recipes tend to be, were just a breeze to make.

I had never made or had royal icing prior to this recipe but was duly seduced by the gleamingly white and shiny smooth icing Nigella makes in the show. I drastically reduced the amount of icing sugar in the recipe though and up the amount of citrus juice as i didn’t want the icing to overwhelm the rich butterness of the little cakes. As a result, my royal icing never really got round to setting completely which was more than fine by me.

In an elaborate and totally unneccesary step, i made little pink roses as cake toppers. In doing that, i discovered that i was using the wrong piping tip the first time i made them Using the petal tip definitely made piping the flowers much easier although the humid weather was working highly against my advantage and my piping skills evidently need tons of work on.

I loved how the cupcakes turned out- both presentation and taste wise. The rich, slightly buttery little cake were perfect with the slightly sweet, runny icing boasting just a hint of lime.

A definite keeper, this one is.

Mini Butter Cakes with Royal Icing [adapted from Nigella Lawson's Feast]

Ingredients
250g unsalted butter, softened
250g caster sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp milk

Icing
120g egg whites
Juice of 1 small lime
3/4 cup icing sugar, sifted

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Line 2 muffin tins with muffin liners and set aside.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together till mixture is light, creamy and well combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir vanilla and milk in, mixing well. Sift flour, baking powder and soda into mixture and gently fold till mixture is well combined.
3. Spoon about 1 tbsp of batter into each muffin cup- fret not, there will be enough to go around and cupcakes will rise quite a bit when baked. Bake for about 15 to 20 minutes till cakes are golden. Remove them from oven and let cool in tin while you make icing.
4. To make icing Whisk egg whites with an electric mixer till frothy. Add about half the icing mixture, mixing well. Add lime juice and the remaining icing mixture, scrapping down the sides of the bowl. Add more icing sugar if you want icing with stiffer consistency. Makes 24