Say "Apple Cheese"!

Another bake before i leave for Bali. This is quite a peculiar recipe to me at first- Apple Cheese Pie. As much as i wanted to try to bake that cheesy pie, I was worried that instead of a yummy old cottage style, it would turn out to be a RUINED apple pie. So when in doubt, search Wiki! Yes, i totally dig that website, it brings forth everything you need to know! who needs an encyclopedia? But a friend of mine, i forgot who, told me that the website has some false information regarding I-can't-remember. Hee:)

Anyways, a click on Wikipedia, shows that cheesy pie is actually a very very old recipe! And Apple Cheese Pie a has a proper name-Yorkshire Apple Pie (just Like apple pie with ice-cream is called apple pie ala mode.) Cool! So even if i didn't like the weird cheese with apple combination, i know, somewhere in the world, the English, would like those pies! Heehee! so excited (btw, i'm blogging while my pie is burning in the oven. good use of waiting time i would say)

Digressing. I tried baking chiffon cake yesterday. But it didn't turn out the way i expected.. it's short and stout. and it's so densed that i thought i'm eating sponge cake rather than chiffon.. Any tips?! Maybe i should try again when i'm back. NEVER SAY DIE!

And finally, (drumrolls please..)

The pie turns out quite flavourful. It certainly doesn't taste like the traditional apple pie.. it's good! This recipe is worth a try. It's tedious and simple at the same time.. it requires a couple of bakes(blind-baking, bake with filling, final crust bake) that's the tedious part. Other than that, the ingredients are easy to find and prepare! just make the dough and lay the flan a day before and everything will be done in an hour the next day. :) Bali! Saya akan datang!

Heartiest of Appetites-Minestrone

Invasion of the veges!

Minestrone was traditionally known to be a very humble dish -- a dish for the poor in medieval ITALY. It fills the stomach and the ingredients could be anything from fresh legumes of the season to leftovers in your fridge. That's why there's no such a thing as a fixed minestrone recipe. It's simply a rojak of vege, pastas and sometimes meat cooked together in a tomato based liquid. While some likes their minestrone brothy and some prefers a heavier consistency. I like my minestrone somewhere in between the two.

I cut all this, Because my maid was hiding somewhere and i couldn't find her! arghhh~

Meat-based broth such as chicken/beef stock can be used to prepare Minestrone zuppe. But i'm using vege stock (or rather vege stock cubes) for this receipe. And these are not any stock cubes that u can find in any mamashops/supermarkets... It was flown all the way from FRANCE OKAY!(or i assume, since it has french written all over it) hehe:) Lovely Huifang got it for me from Europe! Although she went to Germany first, i theorize it's from France lah huh.. makes no sense to sell something in french in Germany when they don't speak or understands french right...or do they?

Anyways.. it's none of my business..

On the right: vege stock cubes Hf got me. On the left: smart tomato paste packaging from cold storage.

Like I've mentioned earlier, the box has french written all over it. I took it out when i reached home after blowing a goodbye kiss to Huifang. I was studying the box for a whole minute and then.... I looked down on it with an air of smug self-satisfaction. Muhahaha! I understand 90% of those font size 10 words! Muahaha~ a year of french studying followed by 3 years of rusting hasn't left me to be a french illiterate! I'm ecstatic!

It's no way i'm going to let it sit in my cupboard since it made me flushed with excitement! I'm goin cook it! Or snack on it if i could. keke.. Thanks Huifang! You've made Mengni a very happy girl! Btw, I found this box of tomato paste packed in sachets of about 50g/2tbsp each.. so cool lor.. i won't have to worry about wasting ingredients this way.

Ingredients

80g macaroni
1tbsp olive oil
1 leek, cubed
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 carrot, cubed
2 potatoes, cubed
1 courgette, cubed
2 celery stalks, cubed
100g green beans, cut into short lengths
400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 litres vegetable stock
2 tablespoons tomato paste
400g tin cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
shaved Parmesan cheese, to serve

Method

1. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil, add macaroni and cook for 10-12 minutes, or until tender. Drain. Sink into ice water for a few seconds. Drain again.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large heavy-based saucepan, add the leek and garlic and cook over medium heat ofr 3-4 minutes.
3. Add the carrot, potato, courgette, celery, green beans, tomato, stock and tomato paste. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.
4.Stir in the cooked pasta and cannellini beans and heat through. Spoon into warmed serving bowls and garnish with parsley and shaved Parmesan.

Deb's Cookhouse ♨

♨ Deborah(newly known as bobo) texts to invite all of us to her ۩ cos she's cooking!!!

♨10/08/2008: All of us charged to bobo's cookhouse...heehee...

Guess who is driving us there *why so serious?*

i've always remembered deb's house to be one of the corner houses.. so right after i came out of the lift, i turned, dashed all the way to the end while crying out "YOKE! YOKE! BOBO!" at the same time... There i see a maid innocently sweeping the floor, while i continue to call out for bobo and peiyoke. I think the maid was terrified lah, and roy/eric mentioned that that may not be the right house because there's no shoes outside.. before i could calm down and asked if that was deb's house, I was greeted by this half naked man.. SAI LAH! definitely not deb's house! i wanted to just disappear, but since i'm not Hancock.. i couldn't.. i could only apologize and hope that i will never again see those nipples.. damn! If only peiyoke told me the floor level AND to turn to the other direction.. i wouldn't be so paiseh liao.. PEIYOKE! ALL YOUR FAULT!

anyways.. back to deb's food.. it's very nice lor.. but jeannie and peiyoke say i'm very fake... sai! what fake? fake is not in my dictionary! i put the food in my mouth, taste, chew liao then say nice what.. not like those makan shows.. food only stayed in their mouth for 0.00001s then they say "it's soooooo goooood!" <-- that is fake lor.. so... deborah.. with my deepest and beguiling tone ♪♫ your cooking is first-class! mine is second-lower.. i had NUS to print it on a piece of paper and the dean to sign it..

pictures of deb's table.. my motto is " zoom in! the food will look nice that way"

hehehe.. i liked it a lot.. roy says he'll be next.. and maybe i'll do a house warming soon too.. but let's pray hard that i get a job first.. ٭prays٭

Mediterranean Fish Soup

As requested by dear eric, this entry will be on SOUP! *He thinks he's in a restaurant and started ordering different kinds of soups* <-- SIAO! so we settled with Mediterranean fish soup (MFS) first. No butter/cream/milk was used in MFS, so i guess it's kinda healthy. Went to check online and yes.. a regular serving is less that 300kcal~ can act as a meal for me since i'm on a serious diet.

IMPT! I just found out that Ceasar salad is not as "low fat" as i think. Besides, i splash lots of dressing to my salads because it's impossible for me to choke down dry mélange... so, i'll order less of ceasar now~

Back to my soup, it's mediterranean.. duh!, so definitely not something my dad will like (he likes local stuff like wanton mee, bak kut teh, ..., ..., ...) but he still tried the soup

Dad: Good! very nice! will taste better with chilli! (it's a tomato based soup)

Me: *Runs to get sambal*

Dad:*Adds sambal* get me some limes

Me:*Runs to cut limes*

Dad:*Adds lime* wah! very nice! taste like thai soup!

Me:*faints*

Anyway.. taste good then okay lah.. be it mediterranean or thai~ nice can liao. hee:)

i can't wait for Beijing Olympics Open Ceremony to START!!

Hong Kong GO!GO!GO! - Ananas comosus.. what?

Yes.. I'm messy most of the time, but it's sparkling clean now!:D

More commonly known as PINEAPPLE (ananas comosus is it's binomial name). This fruit has more benefits than what the humbler potions of society (like me) knows. I had the most pineapple during my final year, all thanks to Huifang. "Pineapples can help to loose weight!" as i quote. What happens next is totally predictable. We had pineapples practically everyday during lunch, and they are all honey pineapples, the way the pineapple guru prefers!

And that's not all.. my second pineapple guru says that pineapple helps to ease cramps during girls' MC. She mentioned other "perks" but my brain retains information selectively. So if anyone is interested, go to christine.. she did a project on it. (the 2nd pineapple guru)

So much on pineapple but it wasn't brought into play today. HAHA! Perhaps the name? Polo bao otherwise known as pineapple buns don't seem to incorporate pineapple in its recipe in anyway. Conceivably it's called that way because it has the pattern of the pineapple peel? hmmm.. sounds convincing yah?

It doesn't look very nice yah? i should try harder next time!

If you haven't known, meng ni is back from hong kong! and brought back a few of the local cakes/desserts/dim sum recipe! And polo bao is the 1st. I'm not a big fan of polo bao until i tried the ones in sai kung! it's simply delicious!!!! The first bite is the crucial moment in time, your teeth will first break the crusty crust and starts sinking in to the fluffly bread.. and then u can just gobble everything down.. goes really well with their milk tea by the way.. HAHA! i didn't take any picture of the bakery, because i was busy queing for the bun obviously. Anyways, you won't miss it if you go to sai kung, it's the only bakery that has a que! there are 2 directions to sai kung. you can either take the mtr to caihong (rainbow station) and then take a minibus that has the saikung name on it to saikung. Or for my case, i took the minibus from mongkok near fife street, same thing, the minibus will have saikung on it so please use your eyeballs at all times and ask ard if you need to. *end*

Anyways, am back to Singapore and i have this long list of 'things to do'. Galdly, one of it is 25% done. it's always hard to plan a trip with Deuterated Tungsten and Tungphorus (a tungsten and phosphorus alloy that i made up).. names were kept secret to avoid conflicts hehehe.. anyways, it always start with everyone excited about the trip.. then somehow something happens, and the trip will look 90% dead. At this point, tocopherol and ascotrium (a drug that has L-ascorbate and Yttrium that i made up again) will jump in and do CPR to the 90% dead trip and make it breathing again! YAY! Meng ni is goin on a trip again!! ♪♫

Yah i know it doesn't make any sense, i'm bored and feeling lame...haha~ Ciao!

p/s: i just realized i left something with christine, something i hold very dear to me, something that is close to my heart...eeeee.. sounds lesbiany.. eh! give me back leh!

p/p/s: ONG LAI! may the polo bao bless my mj games to come.. pls pls pls pls pls