Still Mad Over Cream Puffs.

My third consective weekend spent making these little babies (recipe here) at the mother’s request, you would think I would be sick of making them by now.

On the contrary actually, I’ve been having fun making them and playing around with flavouring the pastry cream. So far, we’ve had plain old vanilla, chocolate and durian.

Now, I’m dreaming of matcha and hazelnut cream puffs.

A First with Sushi.

Seeing as how I pack everything from pasta to potatoes and everything else non Japanese in my bento boxes, it’s with a certain sense of irony that the one time I actually bring sushi- something so intrisically Japanese- I had to use my Lock&lock box as my bento boxes were too small.

Inspired by some sushi I had for dinner the other night, I decided to try my hand at making sushi for lunch the following day. A quick rummage through the pantry  revealed I didn’t really have much of a choice in ingredients. While tuna handrolls rarely ever are my first choice at sushi bars, canned tunas are the one staple I always have, thanks of a habit of picking them up every time I’m at the supermarket I can’t seem to break.

I never quite got how these were rolled and was always quite happy to leave them up to the experts and just do the eating. So when it came down to making my own sushi, winging it really was the way to go.

As it turns out, rolling the sushi was the easy part (although on hindsight it would have been much smarter to put the cucumber sticks closer to the centre of the filling than the edge of the nori sheet but hey, it was early in the morning when I made it). Picking them up with my chopsticks was a completely different story.

But now that I’ve rolled my first handroll, I can’t wait to start putting everything I can find in them.

California maki or tamagoyaki, anyone?

Of Cookies and Memories.

Back when I was in Melbourne, I had a particular fondness for chocolate mint cookies.

The cookies didn’t come from a fancy bakery or in a nice box. In fact, they came in the most unassuming packaging that you would have been forgiven for walking right past them in the supermarket aisle withiout a second glance. But they were good. Crisp chocolate cookies topped with a thick layer of mint cream and coated in thick dark chocolate- they were really, really good.

But delicious as they were, there is another reason why I had such an affinity with those cookies.

Back in my first year in Melbourne, a close friend who dropped by my apartment one weekend with a tray of these cookies. We spent the better part of the weekend playing pool and video games and chatting over these mint chocolate cookies. It really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary and of course over the years, I’ve had countless of visits from friends but something about that particular visit and the fact that he actually went out of his way to come by with cookies has always stuck with me.

These chocolate mint cookies I made were  slightly different from the store brought cookies I was so fond of but no less delicious. Dipped in a thin mint-piked chocolate glaze, these chocolate mint cookies were all chocolate goodness with minty undertones. One bite and I was swooning and transported right back to the carefree days I lived in Melbourne.

One day, I’ll be back in Melbourne walking down the familiar streets and people watching at my favourite cafes.

But for now, these cookies are enough to keep me dreaming.

Chocolate-Covered Chocolate Mint Cookies [adapted from Sherry Yard's Desserts By the Yard]

Ingredients
3/4 cup plain flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
90g unsalted butter, cubed
1 egg yolk
3/4 tsp mint oil
1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Glaze
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips
1 tsp vegetable oil
Few drops of mint oil

1. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt in a food processor. Add the butter and pulse to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. Add the egg yolk, mint oil and vanilla extract and pulse till a soft dough forms.
2. Turn the dough out into a piece of plastic wrap. Shape into a 2 inch thick log, wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
3. Preheat the oven at 175 C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper and set aside.
4. Cut the dough into 1/4 inch thick disks and place them 1/2 inch apart on the baking trays. Bake for 12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are firm. Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool completely on the trays. The cookies will firm up as they cool.
5. To make the chocolate glaze Put the chocolate chips in a bowl and nuke them in the microwave in 30 seconds intervals, stirring after each interval, until the chocolate melts. Add the vegetable oil and mint oil and stir to combine.
6. Dip each cookie into the chocolate glaze, making sure to coat each side well. Place the cookies on a baking rack to allow the excess chocolate glaze to drip off. Makes about 20 cookies

Craving, Satisfied.

One of the best things about preparing your own lunch is that you get to make whatever you wanna eat, within culinary skills and time limitations.

So when I got back from work last night craving some crisp roast potatoes and sausages, that was exactly what I set out to make for lunch today.

Since I did most of the heavy lifting (ie the boiling and roasting the potatoes and sausages) the night before, all that was left to do this morning was to blanche my asparagus, unmold my molten chocolate cake (if there was one day I was in bad need of comfort food, today was the day) and slice up a couple of strawberries and I was good to go.

I truly felt like I was eating a lunch fit for a queen.