Jelly Fish

Posted by eirene83 at 03:41 PM on January 1, 2007 in Recipes.

First recipe of 2007! A change from all my usual baking, this time I made jelly! Or agar-agar really. I guess to me, jelly brings to mind konyaku and all that whereas agar-agar involves coconut milk. Properly, it should be Fish agar-agar but I couldn't resist the title. Plus it looks so bright and pretty for the new year!

Ingredients:

Transparent layer:
1 tbsp agar-agar powder
600ml water
2 blades screw pine leaves
115g sugar
Food colouring

1. Boil above ingredients except the food colouring until dissolved. Discard the screwpine leaves.
2. Divide hot solution into portions and colour them. Choice of colours depend on what sort of moulding you're using. I had a carp moulding, so I used only yellow and orange along with the coconut milk layer.
   

Coconut Milk layer:
1 tbsp agar-agar powder
200ml coconut milk
400ml water
100g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 blades screw pine leaves

1. Boil the ingredients until dissolved. Sieve mixture and divide into portions.
2. Pour mixture into the mould and leave to set.
3. Repeat process with the other portions, layering them according to colour.
4. Leave jelly to set before chilling in the fridge

It's was actually quite fun making this... Though I wouldn't recommend it for the impatient because of the waiting time between each layer to set. Also because it was my first time ever using food colouring, my mom had no idea how much to use and I kinda slipped up and added 1 tsp of colouring... >.< The colours came out really really intense... Next time, I'll know better. Lol, luckily it wasn't such a huge mess-up.

The agar-agar had a nice firm texture and wasn't overly sweet... so next time I might need to reduce the amount of agar-agar powder used, because I don't really like it that firm... and increase the amount of sugar and coconut milk. But still, it looks so pretty and tastes so good!

2 onigiri

HP Fic of the Week

Posted by eirene83 at 04:37 PM on January 1, 2007 in HP.

The Voice
By: Beren

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Densha Otoko

Posted by eirene83 at 07:45 PM on January 2, 2007 in Library.

I'm pretty sure most people into manga/anime have heard about the Densha Otoko: An otaku who stops this guy bothering female passengers in a train, and somehow ended up dating one of them (and if you aren't one of them, you can Google or Wiki it. There's loads of links out there ). Me, I think the first I came across it was sometime middle of last year when I read how anyone who claimed to be an otaku got a discount for a movie.

And now, there's I think 4 or 5 manga versions of the story as well as the compilation of the forum threads. While in Borders on New Year's eve, I came across one manga version of it, and while it was funny, I wanted to read the forum threads compilation first. I guess I just wanted to interpret it my own way before reading another person's interpretation of it. And besides, reading the threads make it seem more real.

And so I read the forum threads... and I really like the story. Sure it's the typical happy ending to a tale of an ugly duckling becoming a swan... in this case, an otaku becoming 'a god' in the words of the 2ch posters but it was really sweet reading how nervous he was at the beginning and gradually changing through the 2 months he dated Hermes. I couldn't help but root for him as he learned about fashion, conversation, food and how to date a woman... right up to the point he contemplated giving up anime. (Major sacrifice!!) So yea... go read about Densha Otoko!

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Yummy...

Posted by eirene83 at 01:47 AM on January 4, 2007 in Food, snacks & restaurants.

I was clearing photos from my camera when I came across this. Hahaha, no I didn't make it... It was an appetiser my family had at a restaurant during Christmas dinner. It was pretty expensive, RM20 per pax but oh so worth it!

From the right, was some sort of vegetable spring roll with chicken floss and mayonaise topping and I think, plum sauce. Hot, crunchy, absolutely tasty.

In the centre was a single prawn with mango mayonaise. Deliciously cold and tangy... the prawn was fresh and the mango mayonaise delightful.

Furthest away, was a bit of bacon wrapped around a scallop with garlic sauce on a single leave with deep fried lotus root. Nicely chewy and tender and the strongest in flavour what with the bacon and garlic sauce.

Ahhh, it was sooo good... Each morsel had a different taste and texture, each mouthful was delicious and they all balanced each other out nicely with their contrasting flavour and temperature. Man, I would go back just for this!

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Categories!

Posted by eirene83 at 03:20 AM on January 4, 2007.

Urgh... I just cleared up and re-did some of my category posts...

So now, all my culinary attempts are solely under Recipes, while Food, snacks & restaurants are just that: Food but nothing related to my culinary attempts. I have yet to rework the Library which is right now, mainly song lyrics, things I wrote and books/movies reviews. 

Dammit, I need more categories, but Tabulas only limits me to 3, unless I upgrade my account. Urgh

And now I'm hungry after looking at so many pictures of food. 

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Really Cheap Flights to London?

Posted by eirene83 at 05:28 AM on January 4, 2007.

So finally... AirAsia, or rather FAX, a franchise from AirAsia, has been given rights to operate long-haul flights, which will probably start around July.

Who wouldn't want to fly to London from as low as RM9.99, with stopovers right? Of course, knowing marketing gimmicks, RM9.99 will probably be once-in-a-blue-moon kinda fare, and usual rates will probably be close to RM300+ or so, or even more? But still, compared to what MAS is charging, it's still a great bargain.

So who cares if I have to pay for in-flight entertainment and food? I can always bring a book to read and my own water to drink right? I mean, honestly, the one time I spent the entire flight watching the movies was when I got a free upgrade to Business class. Otherwise I'm usually asleep.

I'm just wondering if there's some other sort of catch there... 

2 onigiri

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Posted by eirene83 at 05:32 AM on January 4, 2007.

Wow, I've looked at so many different designs of wings already... and I still can't decide.

Butterfly, dragon, angel?

Spread open, closed, profile?

Outline, tribal, solid?

Black and white, colour?

But I'm starting to narrow it down to the few that I like... or rather, certain aspects about the few that I like.

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Posted by eirene83 at 02:57 PM on January 5, 2007.

I just spent the last 4 hours going through my mp3 list, deleting and editing my playlist. I've got so many songs that I never managed to finish listening to them all (isn't that the case for us all anyway? )

But I was just thinking today, the only time I actually listen to songs while on my laptop is when I'm actually depressed... and when I'm depressed, there's only a few songs that I would want to listen to. So I decided to just narrow down my collection to those songs...

So yay... here's to depressing the hell out of myself the next time! 

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Herbed Focaccia

Posted by eirene83 at 03:16 PM on January 5, 2007 in Recipes.

Ingredients:

2 tsp active dry yeast
250ml lukewarm water
385g flour
2 tsp salt
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
12 sage leaves, chopped (but as we all know, I can't seem to follow recipes so, or any herbs you like )

1. Mix the yeast and water and leave for 15 minutes to allow yeast to dissolve.
2. Combine flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the centre.
3. Pour in yeast mixture and 4 tbsp olive oil and stir in the flour with each turn until it forms a rough dough.
4. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Leave to rise in a lightly oiled bowl for about 2 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 200^oC and place a baking sheet on the tray.
6. Punch down the dough and knead in the sage.
7. Roll out dough into a 12 inch circle and dimple surface with your finger (or chopstick). Drizzle remaining oil over the surface and transfer dough onto the baking sheet.
8. Bake for about 35 minutes.

Okay, so the bread turned out looking a little... weird... but hey, gimme a break here! Not only was it my first time making focaccia.. it was also my first time playing with yeast! Yep, my very first attempt at making yeasted bread!

Frankly? It was a very messy process kneading the dough and trying to shape it into a ball and then rekneading it. I know I didn't knead it as much as I should have the first time and maybe I chose a bad day; gloomy and cold; so the dough didn't rise as much as it should... Kinda looking like this:

But well... I'm pretty used to my stuff coming out not looking good. Important thing here was: the focaccia tasted fantastic! It was nicely chewy but crunchy-crisp where I flattened the dough way too much; the olive oil and herbs flavour came out really great without being too strong and it was just salty enough! Even my mom who can't take bread agrees it was good.

Not too bad for a first attempt, if I may say so. Next time I'll keep in mind about the weather as well as remembering to knead it enough to get it smooth and elastic. And maybe trying it with rosemary and tomatoes with a sprinkling of sea-salt!

1 onigiri

Achievement of the Day!

Posted by eirene83 at 03:33 PM on January 5, 2007.

Whee! After a (great) 2 month sabbatical from CLP, finally went back to class today.

'twas a much needed break which re motivated me and got me back on track for studying.

Well, I've missed quite a few topics already, but it's still cool since there's the revision classes coming soon so I can catch up there... Plus besides, we'll be combining with the first-timers too so it'll be nice seeing the 'juniors'...

Oh, and my achievement of the day?

I only fell asleep during the last 15 minutes of class.  

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Orange and Honey Tea Bread

Posted by eirene83 at 03:34 PM on January 5, 2007 in Recipes.

Ingredients:

385g flour
2 ¹/₂ tsp baking powder
¹/₂ tsp baking soda
¹/₂ tsp salt
30g margarine
250ml honey
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 ¹/₂ tbsp orange zest
175ml fresh orange juice
115g walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 175^oC. Line and grease a 9 x 3 inch loaf pan.
   
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl.
3. Cream the margarine until soft, stir in the honey until blended, then stir in the egg. Add the orange zest and combine thoroughly.
4.  Fold the flour mixture into the honey and egg mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the orange juice.
5. Stir in the chopped walnuts.
6. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 60 - 70 minutes.

Lol, no, there's actually no 'tea' in tea breads, also called quick bread...  It's actually so named because it's something you can prepare for tea time without needing to wait for the dough to rise since there's no yeast used.

But anyway, I'm pretty angry at myself actually. No, the bread turned out fine but see, the thing is, I have still have a lot of self-raising flour left so I made a mental note to myself to substitute self raising flour in the recipe instead. Except obviously, I forgot. (I got this tip from a baking site: If you need self-raising flour but have none, combine 8oz of plain flour + 2 tsp of baking powder + ¹/₂ tsp salt) Aih, so I still have lots of self-raising flour left.

Anyway, annoyance aside! As mentioned the bread turned out fine... Wonderfully honey-fragrant, orange tangy... Texture was nicely chewy. It was great toasted with a light spread of butter... though uh, if you actually prefer a more bread texture rather than pure chewiness, don't do what I did and put in the pulp after juicing the orange, kay? Baaadddd mistake... LOL

So a round-up: great(!) flavour, texture's not too bad once you toast it, very moist and is lovely buttered and toasted... Though I would also omit the walnuts since it lent a rather herbal taste to it which I didn't like though the wonderful orange-honey after-taste was great! Worth keeping! Will redo this recipe... WITHOUT the pulp.

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Posted by eirene83 at 03:36 PM on January 5, 2007.

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Patron Account

Posted by eirene83 at 03:36 PM on January 5, 2007.

OMG, OMG, this is so fricking incredible!!!

I've got a fricking patron account!!!

WOOOTTT!!!!

*Hearts Roy for giving out free 3 month patron accounts* 

I'm gonna see what features patrons have that free users don't and if I really really like it, I'm going to treat myself to a present of a year-long patron account.

Woot!

Edit:
OMFG, patron account allows 32... read that, 32!! categories!! As opposed to the measly 3 I have now!
Lets me check hit loggings... view all tags on my shoutbox... upload media... upload over a thousand images... create 16 different templates as opposed to one...

I think I'm in lovee.... *swooonn* 

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HP Fic of the Week

Posted by eirene83 at 04:52 AM on January 8, 2007 in HP.

Beautiful World
By: Cinnamon

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YES!

Posted by eirene83 at 03:21 AM on January 11, 2007.

WOOT!

No backing out now! Everything's already been paid for and confirmed.

I'm going to Hong Kong in August... and flying for free (not including airport taxes), thanks to AirAsia!

YES!!! TAKE THAT! FREEE!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOT!!!!

*happy happy bounce bounce bounce bounce happy happy*

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Vanity Vault

Posted by eirene83 at 03:39 AM on January 11, 2007.

Just got back from meeting April, of Vanity Vault...

And currently RM80 poorer and the proud owner of 2 gorgeous necklaces and a ring... Money well spent (from a female's perspective) because for one, these are handmade, one-of-a-kind... and well, dammit... they're unique! I haven't had any sort of accessories catch my eye while out shopping so am very happy now.

Go check out her shop (link's over there on the right, along with all the others...) Seriously, you won't regret it! 

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Posted by eirene83 at 05:14 AM on January 11, 2007.

Why is it that even when you can see something coming... you're powerless to stop it? Isn't that what experience is for? So you learn about it and try to make sure things don't happen that way again?

And dammit, why is it that when it does happen, it throws this fricking huge spanner and just spoils absolutely everything?

And dammit, why am I contemplating whether it actually might be worth it??

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Cheese Muffins

Posted by eirene83 at 04:03 AM on January 13, 2007 in Recipes.

Ingredients:

55g butter
200g flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp paprika
2 tbsp sugar
¹/₄ tsp salt
2 eggs
125ml milk
1 tsp thyme
55g cheddar cheese, cut into 1cm cubes

1. Melt the butter and set it aside.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, paprika, sugar and salt into a large bowl.
3. Mix together the eggs, milk, butter and thyme.
4. Stir in the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and combine until it just comes together, but not till smooth.
5. Drop a spoonful of batter into a greased muffin pan, add a few cubes of cheese and top up with remaining batter.
6. Bake for 25 minutes at 175^oC until puffed up and golden.
   

I got a little bored today and decided to bake some muffins... cheese muffins, to be specific. It's a pretty easy recipe, all things considered and baking time was pretty short.

What can I say? It was very yummy... not overly cheesy and the paprika gave it a nice touch without making it too overwhelmingly spicy. The cheese melted during the baking but didn't ooze out... instead it was like pockets of cheese in the dough... Hrmm, maybe I should make the cubes smaller next time and incorporate it into the dough. But anyhow! Pretty good for a snack or breakfast on the run... which I foresee will be what I'm going to have tomorrow.

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Stop Falling

Posted by eirene83 at 04:12 AM on January 14, 2007 in Music - Songs & Lyrics.

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Posted by eirene83 at 04:44 AM on January 14, 2007 in Thoughts, Personal.

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6 degrees of separation

Posted by eirene83 at 03:23 AM on January 16, 2007.

It just struck me that the world is really getting smaller... and that whole theory of six degrees of separation becoming increasingly real.

With each new person I met, it seems like there's one or usually more links between us. It's really rare that I meet a someone new... with absolutely no going, "Hey, you know so-and-so too?"

Conversations seem to be held on a global level now... with friends getting to know each other from half-way across the world and probably never meeting. I should know; I've got friends from Canada and Turkey that I met and talk to online, and I doubt I'll ever meet them in real life. Not to mention the blogging community.

It's just... wow... Man, the world is just getting so. Small. 

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HP Fic of the Week

Posted by eirene83 at 03:57 AM on January 16, 2007 in HP.

Seven Lines
By: Aja

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Easy Chocolate Fudge

Posted by eirene83 at 05:17 AM on January 16, 2007 in Recipes.

 Ingredients:

220ml condensed milk
60g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
100g chocolate
¹/₄ tsp salt

1. Line a 8" baking pan with foil or cling wrap and butter it.
2. In a heavy saucepan over low heat, combine all the ingredients and stir until smooth.
3. Boil for 5-10 minutes until mixture thickens, or it reaches the soft-ball stage (about 115^oC on a candy thermometer).
   
4. Pour into the baking pan and let set in the refrigerator.
   

Fudge is this dense, creamy, semi-soft sweet... I don't really have a thing for it. I've tried out some in UK and generally they were too sweet for me... Gave me a tooth-ache eating them. The best I ever had was from this shop in Greenwich; Death by Chocolate fudge... Dense, creamy but just chocolatey enough. Whereas Hemley's fudge is really soft, and altogether just too sweet although they sell a larger variety of flavours.

Anyway I kinda mashed a few recipes for fudge and came up with this. Bad idea, I know. Everyone keeps telling me I shouldn't substitute or play around the first time I try out a recipe... but I can't help it! I also spiked a small portion with curry powder and pepper flakes, just to see what it'd taste like.

Taste-wise, it was great. Not too sweet (in my opinion) and just chocolate-y enough... but I'll be honest here... and own up that I kinda over-boiled it... so I actually technically ended up with toffee instead of fudge. The chewy, stretchy kind of toffee... >.<

But it still tasted good!!! *pouts*

Dammit... I need a candy thermometer...

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Patience

Posted by eirene83 at 09:25 PM on January 17, 2007 in Music - Songs & Lyrics.

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Randomness

Posted by eirene83 at 08:03 PM on January 18, 2007.

Random stuff post... like:

I bumped into Lyn today at MV... I actually stared at her for a couple seconds before calling out because... dunno, didn't quite recognise her and it was so unexpected... and she in turn stared at me for a couple seconds while trying to remember my name.

The whole prepaid war thing is going insane... Today I found out Maxis dropped their prices for a starter pack from RM8.50 (2 days ago) to RM5!!! Bloody hell!!! Of course it only comes with RM2 credit, but still... this war is going nuts! For really great details, go check out Kenny Sia's posts about the Prepaid wars.

I spent 4 hours walking around looking for a pair of shoes... only to end up going back to Vincci because they had a really nice pair that everything else I tried couldn't match up to... Only to find out... size 5 were all sold out. In practically every store in KL... But thank god! Pyramid still has one pair left! *sents a prayer of thanks to whichever Goddess looks out for girls and shopping* Will be going there to get it. Regardless of the fact I already have too many shoes... and that it's in shiny bright red... and has heels of 4 inches... Because.. I like it.

Urm... yeaa... Can't think of anything else... So much for randomness. 

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一生不变

Posted by eirene83 at 08:24 PM on January 18, 2007 in Music - Songs & Lyrics.

Finally!! I finally found the song from Revolving Doors of Vengence! It's a really old song by Hacken Lee, so it took quite some time... but I finally have it!

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Golden Kuih Bangkit

Posted by eirene83 at 04:06 AM on January 20, 2007 in Recipes.

Ingredients:

2 tins custard powder
280g sugar
2 eggs
Milk from 1 ¹/₂ coconuts (about 500ml?)

1. Fry the custard powder and leave to cool.
2. Beat the sugar and eggs until light and creamy.
3. Stir in the coconut milk.
4. Combine the flour with the milk mixture and knead into a dough.
5. Press dough into moulding or roll out and use a cookie cutter.
6. Bake at 170^oC for 20-25 minutes or until fragrant and golden.

This is a very labour-intensive product. Do it only if you have a lot of time on your hands or lots of helpers. But still, nothing beats the taste of home-made kuih bangkit fresh from the oven. Though it actually tastes better cooled.

My back and shoulders are aching from all the kneading and repetitiveness of flouring mould, pressing dough and knocking it out... and to show for it, I now have 2 medium containers full of crunchy, melf-in-your-mouth textured kuih bangkit. So it's all worth it... no complaints about this! But there's a couple of things I learnt today... look below at the tips, unless you're a pro at making kuih bangkit... in which case, please leave any handy tips you found useful!

Nicholas, I've got 3 words for you:

I.

Challenge.

You.

Tips:

Fry the custard powder at least a week in advance and let it cool. Yes, the flour may feel cool to you after just a night or so... but when you start adding the santan and kneading it, you can actually feel the dough become hot.
I looked around and most brands of custard powder seems to come in packs of 300g, but I bought more just in case. Better than running out mid-way through baking.
BUT 600g will be more than enough if you fry the flour the night before baking... because since the flour hasn't cooled down totally (see above), it'll absorp more moisture. My tip? Play it by ear and see how it goes as you're kneading. Which leads to the next tip.

Don't immediately dump all the santan mixture into the flour and make a huge lump of dough. Better to work in small batches as the dough will dry out towards the end. And also this will avoid situations where you've got too squishy/dry dough but no more flour/santan. Try to get a plasticine-like texture for the dough. Not too damp, or it'll stick to the moulding and definitely not too dry.

You can choose either to use a moulding or cookie cutters. Both have their advantages. With cookie cutters, you'll have the problem of rolling the dough to the same thickness with each batch, but it'll be much easier knocking out the dough compared to using mouldings. If you're using mouldings, flour it very. very. well.

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Chinese Whispers

Posted by eirene83 at 04:43 AM on January 20, 2007 in Thoughts, Personal.

I remember this one time in Lit class back in A-Levels where our teacher made us all sit down and play Chinese Whispers... It was pretty fun though we got the usual people who just downright ignored the sentence and came up with their own and passed that along instead...

I have no idea how it came to have that name... though apparently it's also known as the Telephone game. Basically it's just the process of one person repeating a phrase verbatim (or trying to) to another person and that person passing it along. Most often than not, the last person hears something totally skewed.

Lol... I guess it's a good example of how communication is like in real life eh? The last person never gets the real truth of what the first person said... 

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There's No Place Like Home

Posted by eirene83 at 10:37 PM on January 20, 2007 in .

Lol no, this isn't some crazy post about how great it is coming back home (Not that it's not great; I love my house... ) but more of a reference to Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and her ruby red shoes...

Ruby red shoes which I now own *cue evil maniacal laughter*

Yep, I drove all the way up to Pyramid just to get a pair of shoes...
Yes, it's patent-shiny, bright red and has heels all of 4 inches which will probably give me spinal injuries if I don't slip and break my neck first...
Yes, it'll probably hurt to walk in them for too long or too fast and downright impossible to run in...
Yes, it contributed to me being in great financial debt right now...
But y'know what? I don't care... It's just so pretty!!...

What's that? 

Yes, it does sound like a very female thing to do...

2 onigiri

Posted by eirene83 at 10:40 PM on January 20, 2007.

CNY is coming and my mom is complaining that we haven't started any sort of preparations...

And I'm wondering... what's there to prepare? It's not as though we usually decorate the house or something like that. The most we do is probably spring-clean the house... get some bamboo plants maybe... and, if we feel up to it, make little butterflies or cranes out of ang-pau wrappers...

Oh, not to mention the CNY baking... but that also... sometimes it's easier to just buy them. Hmmmm... curious indeed... 

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Traditional Kuih Bangkit

Posted by eirene83 at 03:54 PM on January 22, 2007 in Recipes.

Ingredients:

1kg arrowroot flour
100g cornflour
6 egg yolks
Milk from 1 ¹/₂ coconuts
9oz icing sugar

1. Fry both the flour and leave to cool.
2. Combine the egg yolks, santan and icing sugar till light and creamy.
3. Gradually add the santan mixture to the flour and knead into a dough.
4. Roll out into a dough about 0.5cm thickness and cut into shapes.
5. Bake for 175^oC for about 15 minutes.

This is the traditional kuih bangkit, using tapioca flour as compared to the previous batch I made using custard powder (which turned out golden kuih bangkit). LOL, my second attempt, so to speak...

Urgh, basically same method and same ingredients other than change in flour and amount of eggs used... But different moulding... A smaller one. So instead of making 250 cookies per batch... I ended up making close to 400... My shoulders are killing me T_T Plus do you know that having dough pushed deep into your fingernails really, really hurt?

I know it tastes good. I know they are utterly delicate and fragile the way they're supposed to be. I know they melt in the mouth. But I'm starting to question if it's really worth all this pain. T_T

Yeah, I use plastic moulds... Not very traditional I know, but those genuine wooden ones cost about 7 times more than the plastic ones, and it doesn't seem quite worth it to splurge on something that's only going to be used once or twice a year... Though I wouldn't say no to anyone who, out of the goodness of their hearts, decide to gift a pair to me!  

2 onigiri

Too Soft

Posted by eirene83 at 03:55 PM on January 22, 2007 in .

I can't believe I'm actually complaining about this but my current hair conditioner is actually too effective! My hair now is so incredibly soft to the point it has absolutely no volume!! Or style!! In fact, it looks practically shaggy after I just washed and dried it!!

Argh... I'm going to have to either start using styling products or get another conditioner so I can alternate usage... I can't believe I'm actually complaining my hair is too soft... -_-'

And on another random note. I was looking for parking during class tonight but all the spots were taken so I had to head over to the AsiaPark spot... And just as I paid the guy RM2, right in front of the my eyes, two, two cars pulled out! I hate it when that happens!

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Tomato Focaccia

Posted by eirene83 at 04:15 PM on January 22, 2007 in Recipes.

Ingredients:

2 tsp active dry yeast
250ml lukewarm water
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
400g flour
2 tsp salt
100g sun-dried tomatoes

Toppings:

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp sea salt
2 tbsp rosemary
¹/₄ tsp ground black pepper

1. Dissolve the yeast in the water and set aside until mixture is bubbly. Add the olive oil into the yeast mixture.
2. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the yeast mixture and tomatoes and mix well.
3. Knead until a soft dough is obtained and leave to proof in a lightly oiled bowl for an hour or until doubled in size.
4. Spread dough into a 7x13 inch baking pan and dimple with your fingers. Leave to proof for another hour.
   
5. Preheat oven to 200^oC.
6. Brush dough with olive oil, sprinkle with the salt, rosemary and black pepper.
7. Bake for about 20 minutes until golden brown.

I'll have to say this attempt turned out much much better. No comparision... It's light and fluffy, has chunks of tomatoes in it and great on it's own. Heck... I even managed to dimple it properly, and it came out with pockets of olive oil like it was supposed to! So yea... perfect...

So Nicholas, I totally forgive you now for outdoing me on focaccia... only because the elements were against me last time, and this attempt turned out exactly the way I wanted it to.

Lol... fastastic focaccia! *happy*

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HP Fic of the Week

Posted by eirene83 at 03:41 AM on January 23, 2007 in HP.

Harry Potter & The Daughter of Malfoy
By: Fyre

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Death Note Marathon

Posted by eirene83 at 04:10 PM on January 24, 2007.

Joy to Cathay Cineplex for holding a Death Note marathon! Very good, especially for people like me who hasn't watched the first one! And besides, there's just something about movie marathons that is so very very fun! Maybe it's that whole sitting in the dark for 4 hours and more, straight.

Hmmm, having never watched/read the anime/manga, I can't say I can understand why Steffi dear thought it was so shocking... but damn it was good! Of course, I also couldn't stop laughing at the parts of the people dying or all those face-slap moments...

I love L!! I love his whole drug-addict, too much eye-liner and face powder look and how his dumps too much sugar in his tea(?) and then stirs it with a lollipop!! Hahaha, and I especially love that scene where he was all morose and depressed... and stuffing his cheeks like a hamster! Too cute!!!!

Hehe, now I'm going to buy the DVD for my mom coz she was wondering what movie I went off to watch last night, and since I told her it was good, she's kinda intrigued... Though I think she'll probably just think it's a weird movie... But who cares, I'll get to see L stuff his cheeks like a hamster... Oh, oh... and fall off his chair!!!

ROFL!!!

P/S: Charl, ask and ye shall receive! Pictures of my new shoes uploaded!

Fruits Basket!

Candy Making

Posted by eirene83 at 02:22 AM on January 25, 2007.

I have never tried making any candy before. It just didn't seem like something worth doing, though I used to love to watch the workers at Suga (in Melbourne) working with the sweet or in Fudge Kitchen (UK) making well, fudge ()... But yeah, it never occurred to me to try and make candy. Too much trouble and work for something that would be easier to just buy from a shop.

But, still... It intrigued me. If anyone's ever read Laura Ingalls, I'm sure you'll remember the time she made candy by pouring molasses on snow. Sounds easy, didn't it? But apparently, candy-making is an extremely precise science... even more so than baking... and we all know how well I follow instructions!

There's so many different type of candy you can make: taffy, fudge, caramels, toffee... And it all follows roughly the same process, with the difference being the temperature you cook the candy to to determine the texture and firmness of the candy...

Wouldn't it be fun to make your own candy? I for one, would love to try some salt-water taffy!

1 onigiri

Cook Books

Posted by eirene83 at 08:46 PM on January 25, 2007.

I love reading recipes... I like going through the ingredients and method and picturing it in my mind... But I also don't own a lot of cook-books. In my house, there's probably a grand total of what, 10 or less, cook-books.

It's not that I don't want to buy them... but for one thing, they're expensive. There's this cook-book over at Kinokuniya for chewy cookies, and only chewy cookies, but it retails around RM50... Gak... Maybe I'm just a cheapskate... but then, what with the Internet and Google, you can probably turn up 50 different versions for the same thing.

But there's no point in having 50 different versions of something if you have no idea of what you want to make in the first place... and I guess this is where having a cook-book comes in handy. I like flipping through the pages and wait for something to catch my eye. After all, if I don't quite like the recipe featured, chances are there's probably another version out there that I'll like... Or I can just mess around again and substitute.

But then again, with the number of food blogs around, you could just surf around there and wait for something to catch your eye instead of flipping through pages...

I dunno... What do you think? Are cook-books any use nowadays or is it just pointless what with being able to get any recipes, from baklava to millefeuille, to la galette des rois within seconds online...?

3 onigiri

Yummy!

Posted by eirene83 at 01:45 AM on January 27, 2007 in Food, snacks & restaurants.

Tuna, egg and melted cheese on home-made focaccia.

One word: DELISH!

2 onigiri

A Puro Dolor

Posted by eirene83 at 02:35 AM on January 28, 2007 in Music - Songs & Lyrics.

Was quite happy and cheerful for the better part of today... Everything and anything made me laugh...

Well... I guess Newton's 3rd Law applies to everything eh? 

 Perdona si te estoy llamando en este momento 
   Pero me hacia falta escuchar de nuevo 
   Aunque sea un instante tu respiración 
   
   Disculpa se que estoy violando 
   Nuestro juramento 
   Se que estas con alguién, que no es el momento 
   Pero hay algo urgente que decirte hoy 
   
   Estoy muriendo, muriendo por verte 
   Agonizando muy lento y muy fuerte 
   
   Vida, devuelveme mis fantasias 
   Mis ganas de vivir la vida 
   Devuelveme el aire
   
   Cariño mio, sin tí yo me siento vacio 
   Las tardes son un laberinto 
   Y las noches me saben 
   A puro dolor
   
   Quisiera decirte que hoy estoy de maravilla 
   Que no me ha afectado lo de tu partida 
   Pero con un dedo no se tapa el sol

Fruits Basket!

What Tarot Card are You?

Posted by eirene83 at 03:17 AM on January 28, 2007 in Fun stuff.

You are The High Priestess

Science, Wisdom, Knowledge, Education.

The High Priestess is the card of knowledge, instinctual, supernatural, secret knowledge. She holds scrolls of arcane information that she might, or might not reveal to you. The moon crown on her head as well as the crescent by her foot indicates her willingness to illuminate what you otherwise might not see, reveal the secrets you need to know. The High Priestess is also associated with the moon however and can also indicate change or fluxuation, particularily when it comes to your moods.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Slightly different test compared to the previous time...

1 onigiri

HP Fic of the Week

Posted by eirene83 at 03:57 AM on January 29, 2007 in HP.

Even Lovers Drown
By: Hijja

1 onigiri

Friendster...

Posted by eirene83 at 02:22 AM on January 30, 2007 as a favorite post.

I just logged into my Friendster account and holy crud... I think this month will forever go down in history as the month which racked up the most hits on my profile...

236 profile views...

What's going on here???

O.O

Edit: As at the end of January; 258 views. 

Fruits Basket!

Reload

Posted by eirene83 at 02:25 AM on January 30, 2007.

Oops, just got a text on my phone... My number's going to be barred from tomorrow onwards (which I'm hoping means Wednesday and not Tuesday) because I've reached the validity limit...

>.<

Dammit... I'm too broke to reload... So people, if you text/miss-called me and wondering why I'm not calling back, 'tis because I have no more time on my phone and am too poor to buy a reload card.

T_T 

Fruits Basket!

Posted by eirene83 at 02:42 AM on January 30, 2007.

Oh hey, my brother's back from his trip to Hanoi...

Apprently, it's 9^oC there at night... so he's seeeccck, the poor thing.

Brought back a lot of durian sweets... which actually just taste like dodol, but firmer... And has bits of coconut in them. Pretty good, actually... Though, no, I'm not pigging out on them. It's a bit rich, so I split each sweet into 2 helpings.

Fruits Basket!

Emotional Blackmail

Posted by eirene83 at 01:43 PM on January 30, 2007 in Thoughts as a favorite post.

Emotional abuse includes excessive demands, punishment for normal behavior, discouraging expressions of attachment (love) or self-respect, and withholding affection or care.

*~*~*

Disclaimer:
This is not based on my private life for anyone out there who might be harbouring any suspicions of that kind. This is purely and honestly just based on the plot in Fireworks, the Korean drama on NTV7.

*~*~*

It's horrible when someone is playing all passive-aggressive and manipulating you to be in relationship... Or makes you feel like you deserve to be hurt because of whatever... That's usually the form emotional blackmail takes, right?

But... what if you're the one who's blackmailing yourself to be in a relationship? And don't say it's impossible... In the series, the whole reason why he remained in a relationship with her was because he felt guilty of how long he had made her wait for him... and he just didn't want her to cry anymore because of him.

So it's like, you did something that made you feel guilty and bad... and so you stay in the relationship no matter what, just to make up for it... regardless of the fact that you're probably not happy... or she treats you badly... because you're probably telling yourself you deserve it because of whatever it was you did in the past.

And the truly ironic part of this is how it ends up in a vicious cycle:
You feel bad so you stay in the relationship... and because you're only in the relationship because of your guilt, you feel even worse, thus making you feel the need to make up for it... by trying to make the relationship work... and so the cycle continues...
Talk about adding to your own emotional blackmail... How on earth will you break out of the cycle?

And frankly, who among us would want to discover that our partner is only dating us because they feel sorry/pity/guilt or whatever? Unless of course, you're a manipulative person and knew about it and deliberately made your partner feel like crap thus increasing their feeling of needing to make it up to you. Then I'd probably say that you're the horrible person and hope your partner will be able to get away from you as soon as possible.

But seriously... emotional blackmail done to make you stay in a relationship is horrible and makes you feel like crap, and it's even worse when you're the one doing it to yourself...

Fruits Basket!

Snickers Ice-cream

Posted by eirene83 at 01:44 PM on January 30, 2007 in Food, snacks & restaurants.

Snickers: Peanut butter nougat topped with roasted peanuts and caramel, all coated with milk chocolate... Mmmm, one of my favourite candy bars... (Others would be... Twix, Bounty [and dark Bounty], mmm yummy )

Now imagine Snickers... the ice-cream version...

Watch it disappear...

MMMMmmmmmm!!!

Speaking of ice-cream... Elaine, Jamie, Kuan Eng... it was fun meeting you all today.

Fruits Basket!