For the Love of Quails.

Much as I love the idea of cooking over the weekends, it very rarely ever translates into a reality.

My typical week goes something like this- I start the week dreaming of having the luxury of sleeping in over the weekend, rolling out of bed and into the kitchen where I spend a couple of hours chopping and stirring before sitting down to a nice, relaxing lunch. All sounds really good and optimistic right?

As the week progresses, I find my energy level sapping so much so that by the time the weekend actually arrives, that dream becomes a very distant, hazy dream that takes a backseat of my other pressing priorities like sleeping and hitting the books for my looming examination that I’m nowhere near prepared for. Before I even realize it, the weekend has flown by and it’s back to work.

Reality, pfft, what a killjoy.

But last week, oh I knew last week was gonna be different from the moment I laid eyes on this site (thanks to the magical wizard that is Google and seriously, have you seen the daylight robbery prices the local butcheries are charging for the tiniest of quails?). I knew come hell or high water, I was gonna be cooking that weekend.

So last weekend found GT and I in the kitchen.

Within an hour- most of it roasting time- we had ourselves rosemary (fresh from the garden!) and garlic marinated roast quails (with the pan deglazed with white wine to make a sauce), crisp roast potatoes  and a salad of sorts (basil, carrots, cucumber, lettuce and cherry tomatoes, tossed in a light vinaigrette) ready for lunch.

It really wasn’t much and certainly didn’t require much effort but with the clean, simple flavours and my sweetheart for company, it sure made for a really nice weekend lunch.

And hell, it really did feel good to be back cooking in the kitchen.

Next up? I’ve got my eye on that Japanese cookbook that has been by my bedside forever.

The Birthday Cake (Or How Plan A Isn’t Always The Best Plan).

When I thought about making an ice cream cake for my best friend’s birthday, one of my first thoughts I have to admit was that it didn’t seem so hard. I mean all there was to it was to make two cakes, sandwich them with ice cream and frosting. Really seems pretty easy doesn’t it?

Boy, is ignorance bliss.

What I completely didn’t factor in was the weather. I literally couldn’t take the filled ice cream cake out of the freezer two minutes before it melting over the sides of my cake and threatening to turn into an absolute mess on my hands. Long story short, a lot of cursing, swearing and wishing I had a walk in freezer later, I decided to just chuck it, run back to the supermarket to grab another tub of ice cream and fall back on Plan B.

Thankfully, Plan B- hollowing a sponge cake and filling it with ice cream before putting the top back on and frosting it-  was a lot easier and less painful- and really should have been Plan A had I been a little wiser. But that’s how we learn right? Or at least that’s what I tell myself to feel a little better.

So yeah the next ice cream cake I do (if ever), I’ll either have invested in that walk in freezer (and probably churning out ice cream cakes for a living) or go with Plan B. Plan A shall forever be damned in this weather.

In the meantime though, I’ll be enjoying what’s left of it in my freezer.

Happy birthday babe with tons and tons of love.

Waffles On the Weekend.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a morning person by any means. I’m more likely to be crawling into bed in the wee hours of the weekend than jumping out of it.

Lately however,  I have been all about slow leisure breakfasts on weekend mornings. Which I suppose should really be what the weekends are about- taking things slow, recharging and refuelling for the looming week.

So magical to me are the weekends that I often find myself starting to dream of the things I would accompolish over the weekend during the mid of the workweek.

This weekend, in particular, was a cause for celebration for two reasons- a. there was no need to go back to the office over the weekend like I initially planned to and b.  GT was finally back from the trip he took to Melbourne for his convocation. So waffles were naturally the order of the morning.

It was a first we were having waffles made with a yeast batter. I have heard good things about yeasted waffles but when I found a recipe in the Cake Bible, I knew it was time to get off the ledge and actually make the waffles.

In typical Rose Levy Beranbaum style, we weren’t let down. Even with our experimental issues with the new waffles machine, (the top of the waffles doesm’t crisp up as well as the bottom side does if there’s not enough batter), the waffles were really light and mostly crisp.

Much to my amazement, they stayed crisp throughout the good twenty minutes it took to cook all the waffles and even while drenched in maple syrup. If that isn’t a sign of a good solid waffle recipe, I really don’t know what is.

As icing on the cake, the recipe is incredibly simple. The batter (sans the egg and baking soda) has to be mixed up the night before and left to rest overnight. So come morning, all you really have to do is whisk the egg and baking soda in and you’re good to go. It doesn’t get much easier than that, does it?

So here’s introducing my new favourite waffles recipe.

There are no prizes for guessing what I’ll be making for weekends to come (hey after all, someone has to kink out our batter issues right?).

Yeasted Waffles [adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible]

Ingredients
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/8 tsp active dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
60g butter, melted and cooled slightly
Pinch of salt
1 cup plain flour
1 large egg
1/8 tsp baking soda

1. To be done the night before Combine the warm water, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Whisk in the milk, melted butter, salt and plain flour. The batter will be very thin. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the batter rest in the fridge overnight.
2. The morning itself Whisk the egg and baking soda into the batter. The batter will be very thin.
3. Preheat your waffles maker till it’s hot enough to sizzle a drop of water. Pour the batter onto the centre of the waffle plate and cook till golden brown. Makes about 7 five inch square waffles

Granola Love #143.

The best kind of weekends, if you ask me, are the kind you stumble out of bed bright and early, head down to the nearby reserviour for a gruelling walk and jump into the pool the instant you get home before settling down for light brunch with the morning papers.

Brunch for me came in the form of homemade granola (a slight variation of the recipe can be found here) thrown together with some Greek yogurt and sliced bananas. The thick, tangy yogurt complemently the crunchy, wholesome granola  and soft, sweet banana slices perfectly.

Simple, fuss-free and everything the weekend should be about.