Jazzing Up Breakfast.

My weekday breakfast has- dare I say it- started to turn into quite a bore. Much as I love creamy, smooth peanut butter with a drizzle of honey on a lightly toasted slice of bread, well, there’s really only so much of that I can take day after day, week after week.

Add that on to my feeling like I haven’t been in the kitchen for eons, I really didn’t need much more of a reason to make something a little different for breakfast, in the form of Nigella’s granola.

While this was incredibly simple to make, I simplified things a little more by pouring everything straight into my baking tray and mixing them all up in that rather than mixing them in a separate bowl than pouring them into the baking tray as Nigella suggests. I also plumped up the raisins by soaking them in a bit of hot water and drained them before adding them into the baking tray halfway through baking.

Such is the beauty of homemade granola that I left out everything I hate in my granola like dried fruits of any sorts and sunflower seeds and put in what I love (hazelnuts and flaxseed) and it turned out way better than any store-brought granola I’ve ever had.

Inspite of my absolute detest of drinking cow’s milk, I found myself either having to have my granola dry or tipping my cup of black Pu’erh tea into the bowl, both of which not sounding like very appealing ideas at half past seven in the morning the next day. So I ended up having it with just a bit of milk but I must say it really was quite a delicious way to start the day.

So for now, I guess it’s goodbye toast with peanut butter and honey, hell000o granola! Until I start running out of granola that is.

Andy’s Fairfield Granola [adapted from Nigella Lawson's Feast]

Ingredients
225g rolled oats
1 tbsp white sesame seeds
1 tbsp flaxseed
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
60g golden syrup
2 tbsp honey
50g caster sugar
1/4 tsp molasses
75g almonds
75g hazelnuts
1/2 tsp Maldon salt
1 tbsp sunflower oil
85g raisins

1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Soak the raisins in just enough hot water to cover them for 5 minutes. Drain them and set aside.
2. In a baking tray, mix everything but the raisins together. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring the granola halfway through. Add the raisins in and bake the granola for another 10 minutes or until golden brown and crunchy. Let cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Happy Lunar New Year!

Here’s wishing you one and all a happy lunar new year! May the year of the Ox bring you prosperity and good health!

Now, let the gambling begin!

† Gong xi fa cai loosely translates to wishes that you’ll strike it big. And in case you’re wondering, those are some cashew and almond cookies and a pineapple tart.

The One That Sparked Off An Island Wide Search.

When I first stepped foot in Melbourne six years ago, one of the things I couldn’t get over was how they only sold salted popcorn at the cinemas. I mean really, there was a whole variety of gummies, chips and even ice cream that you could choose from but when it came to popcorn, it was salted or naught.

Now I wasn’t a huge popcorn person then- I wouldn’t have missed it if they stopped selling it at the cinemas but when that choice of having caramel popcorn was just not an option, somehow popcorn- caramelized ones in particular- became my thing. Every time I stepped into a cinema while back in Singapore for the holidays, I would be armed with a bucket of sweet, sticky popcorn.

Despite having permanent access to caramel popcorn now that I’m back in Singapore for good, I was still delighted all the same when I stumbled upon a recipe for it on a food forum, sworn by the orginal poster and many others who subsequently tried it to be really, really good. Of course I just had to try it out- something, I suspect- to do with my just having to try make everything myself at least once compulsion- and when better time than the start of a fantastically long weekend.

I had all the ingredients I needed on hand except the corn kernels. I had just bought my last bag at a supermarket barely a month ago and there were plenty lying around so I fully expected to be in and out the supermarket and back in my kitchen in less than an hour.

As you can probably guess, that did not happen. The supermarket I went to had not a single bag of corn kernels in sight. A quick enquiry with the staff revealed that the it had been pulled off the shelves as it was not selling well- something I was repeatedly told at the various supermarkets I later visited. Finally, after a good hour and a half of running around, I found them selling at the Gourmet Cold Storage on Fifth Avenue. They were a little more pricey than the ones I usually get but I was just happy to finally have found them and could start on my popcorn making adventure.

I must say they really were a lot of fun to make. From popping the corn over the stove to stirring the sticky caramel through the popcorn, it was hard not to feel a little gleeful about making my very own caramel popcorn. The popcorn smelt heavenly as it did its thing in the oven and my little sister who’s finally back from Milan couldn’t stop picking hardened bits of caramel off the pan which I took to be a good indication of how the popcorn was gonna turn out.

We had the popcorn that night while watching Bolt on DVD. Thankfully, it got both my sister’s and GT’s nods of approval, as it did mine. It tasted a lot like the Poppycock popcorn I used to eat occasionally as a kid.

I can certainly see myself making this regularly, time permitting. All I need is for the supermarkets to start stocking them again and I’ll be one happy camper.

Caramel Popcorn [adapted from Egullet, courtesy of Jaymes]

Ingredients
2/3 cups raw corn kernels
3 tbsp corn oil
125g butter
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup corn syrup
1 cup caster sugar †
1 tbsp molasses †
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup almonds

1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add 3 kernels into the pan and put the lid on. When the kernels have popped, add the rest in. Put the lid back on and wait for the rest of the kernels to pop, shaking the pan occasionally so the popcorn at the bottom of the pan doesn’t burn. Once most of the kernels have popped, remove the pan from heat and transfer the popcorn to a large, wide stainless steel bowl.
2. Preheat the oven at 95C. In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, molasses, maple syrup, corn syrup, caster sugar and salt over medium heat. When the butter melts and the mixture comes together, bring the mixture to a boil and let it boil for 5 minutes.
3. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the baking soda, vanilla and almonds. Pour the caramel syrup over the popcorn, stirring till most of the popcorn’s coated in the syrup.
4. Bake the popcorn for 1 hour, stirring every ten minutes for the first half an hour, then every fifteen minutes after. Pour the popcorn onto a well greased aluminium tray to cool completely. Makes a generous amount of popcorn

† I used caster sugar with a little molasses in place of the light brown sugar the recipe called for. If you have brown sugar on hand, use 1 cup of brown sugar and omit the molasses.

Some Edamame Love.

Much as I have a particular soft spot for food magazines, I hardly ever buy them in Singapore partly because they cost an arm and a leg but also because I have issues of delicious and donna hay magazines delivered to my sister’s place in Melbourne on a regular basis.

When I do feel the rare urge to splurge on them however, I almost always find myself handing over a copy of bon appetit to the cashier before happily skipping home to devour it alongside a cup of tea. I can never resist their gorgeous covers-be it whether they feature a slice of cake, a juicy burger or generous scoops of ice cream complete with fudge sauce (oh, be still my heart)- the really well written and light hearted columns that sit within and the helpful prep school feature that covers tips and techniques pertaining to recipes in the issue.

But what I especially love about this magazine is the R.S.V.P section; a segment that features particular recipes from restaurants that the readers have wrote in to request for. You never really know what you’re gonna get with each issue and it never disappoints, always featuring such a unpredictable mix of recipes from a smorgasbord of restaurants.

It was in this particular feature of the December 2008 issue that I chanced upon a recipe for edamame pan fried with garlic, ginger, a soy mixture and chili. And given how much i adore edamame, I couldn’t go past it and had to whip it up mid day instead serving it as an appetitizer that it’s more apt for.

I must say I’m really glad I tried the recipe out although it took considerable more effort than the usual boiling, draining and salting act I do with my bag of frozen soy beans.

Lightly coated in a slightly salty and sweet sauce, it made for a really good albeit messy mid day snack, a really nice change from my usual fix of edamame. While I’m happy to go back to having my seemingly more boring way of cooking edamame for a really quick and fuss free nibble, I certainly wouldn’t pass this up alongside a bowl of steaming hot white rice.

So that’s one recipe that I’ve tabbed to try from my beloved stash of bon appetite down, just about thirty more to go!

Wok-Fried Edamame with Garlic and Chilies [adapted from bon appetit's December '08 issue]

Ingredients
250g unshelled frozen edamame
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp fish sauce †
1 chili padi, deseeded and thinly sliced ††
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp corn oil
1 small knob of ginger, peeled and minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
A bit of corn starch

1. Cook the edamame, still frozen, in a large pot of salted boiling water till tender, about 5 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, whisk the soy sauce, fish sauce, corn starch, chili and sesame oil together and set aside.
3. Heat the corn oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Fry the minced garlic and ginger till lightly browned and fragrant. Add the edamame and stir to heat through. Add the soy mixture, stirring to coat the edamame evenly and till heated through. Remove from heat and serve warm. Serves 2 for a light snack

† The original recipe called for 1 tsp of oyster sauce which I didn’t have. Shocking,  I know. So I used fish sauce instead and threw in a little corn starch to thicken the mixture up. The fish sauce worked really well with the other Asian flavours in this dish, giving it a slightly saltish tang.
†† I used a chili padi in place of the red jalapeno chile the recipe worked for. It gave the dish a slight hint of heat which I really liked. Just make sure you deseed the chili throughly or you’ll be crying into your food.