Santa has arrived!

Finallyyyy, Santa (aka Mr.Mailman) arrived at my house this morning! We all have to understand that he has been working hard for all of us. He had to fly all the way from "the almost north pole country" (aka Canada) to Bangkok, Thailand. So, we have to forgive him for his delay. :D

I have been looking forward to getting my sister's Christmas package! Thank you, Sis! xoxo We all love the presents that you sent, especially your homemade christmas cards! I felt like a little kid when I was opening the hugh DHL box. hahaha

Well, now it's time to tell you what I got! 

First, a lovely beautiful card that is made by my sister! I wish I know how to use illustrator as good as her! My sister specially made a card for each of us. So, the first one (below) is for me, the second is for my dad, and the third is for my mom. Since I love baking, she made a gingerbread house for me! :D I think she should start making cards and sell them on Etsy!

 

My second present is Starbucks's nesting tea cups. They only have this in States and Canada, I believe. Starbucks's Christmas merchandises here in Bangkok is totally different from North America. So, I'm happy to get these lovely tea cups! New props for my photos!

My third present is the cake tester from Crate and Barrel. The top of the tester is in the shape of cupcake. It's so cute. I wanted this for while now. So, I finally get it! Now, I don't have to use little toothpicks that never long enough to test the cake. hahaha. Sweeeet!

Last but not least is the candy & deep fryer thermometer. I'm so excited to use this to make some homemade salted caramel, peanut brittle, pates de fruits, and many more! Stay tuned. I will make them soon!

After all, I have to give a biggest thank you to my beloved sister! xoxo

Happy Holiday!

Happy Holiday to you all. I wish you all have a wonderful

holiday filled with love and sweetness!

Canadian Butter Tarts

" Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer

had a very shiny nose.

And if you ever saw him,

you would even say it glows.... " 

Oh, Christmas is almost here. Can you believe that? I'm still remember this time last year I was baking orange and pecan rugalach and nanaimo bars for my school's Christmas party. A year has gone by so fast!! It's scary to think about it.

Since it's holiday shopping time of the year, there are different events happened around Bangkok. Couple weeks ago, there was a shopping fair at a mall near my house. They had booths held by different countries around the world. Each of them sell food and products from their country. And of course, I had to stop by the Canadian booth! The booth was quite small compared to States and UK, unfortunately. They had the good old Canadian maple syrup and some baked goods. And they even had the Canadian butter tarts. It was so tempting to buy, but I didn't because I knew I can bake them easily.

My first time eating these lovely butter tarts was probably 10 years ago when I first moved to Canada for high school. I lived with a lovely host family for 3 years before I moved to Kingston, ON for the university. They are pretty much my "Canadian" parents. My host mother who is such a good cook and also the best baker made these butter tarts for Christmas.

This year, I'm sharing this lovely Canadian butter tart recipe to you all. I hope you enjoy my special hand-drawn recipe too. For those of you who never have the butter tarts before, I hope you enjoy them.

Happy whisking holiday, Everyone!   

Strawberry Shortcake

Sometimes, life can be so chaotic. Everyone do deserve a break. So, today I have a quick dessert idea that all of you will love it. Who like Strawberry Shortcake put your hand(s) up? Yes, I am one of them!

I am not sure whether I can say it is Winter in Thailand now even though it is still 30C in Bangkok, lol. But, the weather in the northern of Thailand is much cooler (maybe around 17C and even cooler if you go up on the top of the mountains). We start to see some fresh strawberries from Chiang Mai, and I am excited to see them.  I have to buy them!

Here is some notes I have for the recipe. The recipe I gave below has no measurement in it. Since we want something easy and fast, why bother mearsure out all the ingredients. Right? If you like lots of strawberries, go ahead buy a lot and cut in halves a lot. If you are a big fan of whipped cream, just keep whipping it!

I hope this will be one of the perfect ways to end your day. Hope you all enjoy the recipe!







Strawberry Shortcake
Strawberries, halved
honey
Balsamic vinegar
Whipped cream
Store-bought pound cake, sliced

In a medium bowl, cut strawberries in halves. Add a little of honey and balsamic vinegar; 1-2 tsp is just fine for 10-12 strawberries. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 30 mins. This allows strawberries to release all the yummy juice. To serve, place a piece (or more) of the pound cake on dessert plate. Top with strawberries and whipped cream. Don't forget the juice!

Homemade Granola

My morning hardly starts with a bowl of cereal anymore. There are so many options for breakfast that I can choose here in Bangkok. I can say that typical thai breakfasts always involve with rice. You can have congee with ground pork and ginger, sticky rice with bbq pork or chicken, or even a bowl of rice with curry for breakfast. That's why I barely touch cereal at all. So, this morning I decided to come back to my good old homemade granola. My favourite way to eat granola is just to simply topped on a plain natural yoghurt. That's is how I started my day. Have a good day everyone!

Homemade Granola
(my baking without a recipe!)

1 C Quick cooking oats, toasted
2/3 C Almonds, coursely chopped and toasted
2/3 C Unsweetened coconut flakes, toasted
1/3 C Sunflower seeds, toasted
1 C Mixed dried fruits (your choice; I used dried strawberry, apple, mango, and banana)
1/4 C honey
1/4 C brown sugar
3 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven at 325F.

In a large bowl, combine oats, almonds, coconut flakes, sunflower seeds, and mixed dried fruits. Set aside. In a small sauce pan, combine honey, brown sugar, butter, and salt. Bring the honey mixture to a boil over the medium-low heat. Stir. Let it simmer for 1-2 minutes or until all the butter and sugar are melted. Remove from the heat. Pour the honey mixture over the oats mixture. Mix well. Spread the granola on a baking sheet. Bake for 10-15 mins or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow it to cool completely.

Tea Time @ Lenotre, Bangkok

After spending the whole afternoon checking out furniture stores with my mom around Bangkok's downtown area, we decided to stop at Lenotre at Siam Paragon for our tea break. It was my first time here. I didn't know that there is a Lenotre store existing in Thailand until my previous visiting at Siam Paragon. The place is nice, not too many people at the time.  There aren't many tables offered in the store which might be bad for the weekend traffic. But, I'm glad that I visited on the weekdays, so I can just sit and enjoy the cakes with pots of tea with my mom, without feeling rushed. 

There are so many cake selections. It was hard to decide what I want, believe me. The only negative comment that I have is that there should be a desciption for each cake. It was hard to know what it is inside by just looking at the cake and its name. I did ask the server to explain couple of them to me. Just feel a little bit bad if I have to ask for all of them (lol). So, I ended up ordering the cake called "Emeraude" which is layers of pistachio cake with vanilla bavarian cream in between. At the center of the cake, there is raspberry gelee which is quite tangy refreshing and works very well with the sweet pistachio cake and vanilla bavarian cream.  On the top, they decorated with raspberry coulits, half raspberry macaron and a small piece of chocolate with their signature. For my mom, she ordered this tasty peach tart which is also very good. I also ordered a pot of vanilla rose tea for myself and hers is mint green tea.

Last but not least, I came home with a box of macarons. The flavours are chocolate, pistachio, raspberry, vanilla, and coffee. Surprisingly, it cost 3$ (CAD) for the box! That's pretty good deal!

PS. I can't wait for my next visit!

Tong the stray cat

It has been a while now since my last post. I have been pretty busy with many stuff but one of them is trying to find a job! Anyway, today I have a cute photo of Tong and his story for you. I hope you enjoy with this little change!

Tong the stray cat

His name is "Tong" meaning "Gold" in Thai. Since my parents' husky died for almost a year now, Tong has been visiting us more often. He is a stray cat that comes and goes. Tong is the name that my parents gave to him because of his golden color. My parents feed him whenever he comes to visit. Usually, he comes once or twice a week. We have no commitment to each other but Tong knows that when he comes here, there will be food for him. I always wonder what he has done...where he has been. Sometimes, we don't see him for a week or more, but at the end he always comes back to visit us!

That's it...the story of Tong

Apple Tarts with Vanilla Ice Cream

Yesterday, I went to a fresh market and found apples that are imported from New Zealand. Too bad, I forgot to take a picture of the apples before it got chopped. I'm not sure what type they are, but they have a lovely vibrant red color which reminds me of Fall season. Unfortunately, we don't have 4 seasons in Thailand. This is one of the things that I'm missing about Canada. But at least, I can still make these yummy apple tarts with vanilla ice cream, turn on an air condition to a very low setting, close my eyes and imagine that I'm in Canada eating these yummy apple tarts. Enjoy!

Apple Tart with Vanilla Ice Cream

(Make: 10 mini tarts)

PASTRY

(Pastry recipe from La Fuji Mama)

2 C all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp granulated sugar

1 C cold butter, cubed, chilled

1 tbsp cider vinegar

1/2 C milk

APPLE FILLING

1/4-1/2 stick of butter

6 apples

1/2 C firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

In a large bowl, whisk flour, salt and granulated sugar. Chill the flour mixture in the freezer for 15 minutes. Cut in the cold butter until the mixture forms coarse crumbs. Add in the cider vinegar. Gradually add the milk. Mix the mixture with pastry cutter until the dough stick together.  Form a ball and divided the dough into 10 pieces. Wrap each one with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

While the dough is chilling, peel, core and cube apples. In a large frying pan over medium heat, melt butter. Add in the cubed apples. Stir often for 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle brown sugar and nutmeg over the apple. Continue stirring about 5 minutes or until the sugar is melted and bubbled. Remove from heat and let it cool.

Preheat at 375 F

After 1 hour of chilling the dough in refrigerator, remove one of the dough ball at a time. Roll out the ball into a circle that a little bit larger than the tart shell. Place it over the tart shell and fit the dough inside with your fingertips. Trim the edges by rolling the rolling pin over the tart shell. Repeat the steps for the remaining balls.

Fill each tart with apple filling. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Remove from the oven. Let it cool slightly. Remove the tart shell. Place the baked apple tart on a small dish and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Things iLove - Rice Field & Dragon Fruit Farm Edition

Yesterday, my parents and I took a drive to Ratchaburi Province which is 2 hours drive from Bangkok. There are many rice fields along the way, so we stopped to take some photos. We also stopped by at dragon fruit farm too.

Enjoy!

Rice field and a Cow
(We found two cows standing on the sideroad eating grass. He was looking at me like 'why you are calling me and taking my picture?')

Rice field and Another Cow

Closed Up Rice Plants

(Harvest time is almost here. The color of the rice plants is starting to change from green to golden yellow. Lovely!)

Egret

(standing at the top of the tree protecting the nest)

Dragon Fruit Farm

Red & White Dragon Fruit at Farmer's Stand
(There are two types of dargon fruit. The white one is sweeter and the red one has a little bit of tartness.)

Apricot Jam Thumbprints & Carrot Cake Cookies

Sorry for my disappearing for couple weeks. However, I'm back with 2 yummy recipes for you!

Baking cookies is my most favorite thing to bake and also eat. After looking at my recipe index, I feel I haven't posted much of cookie recipes on here. So today I have two yummy cookie recipes for you.

First one is Apricot Jam Thumbprints. These thumbprints cookies are a little bit different from the normal thumbprints that I made before. It's dipped in egg white and rolled in ground almond-sugar mixture. So, the cookies have crunchy texture on the outside. I like this version of thumbprints better because of the crunchy almond.

The second recipe is Carrot Cake Cookies. If you like carrot cake with yummy cream cheese frosting, you will love this recipe. This Martha's carrot cake cookie recipe has carrots, oats, spices, and raisin in it. I think the recipe is already great and the cookies do taste like carrot cake. However, I might add shredded coconut and some nuts when I make this again next time. I think they will be even better.

Hope you all enjoy them!

Things iLove - Home Edition

Galangal Honey Almond Biscotti

It is not always a bad thing when things turn out to be different from what you planned. This is one of the examples. 

I was planning to bake gingerbread biscotti for my mom. She asked me to make any kind of 'gingerbread' type of baked goods. To be honest, gingerbread is not a common type of cookies that you can find in Bangkok's bakeries. It may be because of the molasses which is a rare ingredient over here. Lucky me. My sister brought some back for my mom when she visited home last time.

When I started prepping, I realized that we didn't have ground ginger. Oops! However, we do have ground galangal. So, I decided to use that instead.   

So, what is 'galangal'?

Well, galangal is similar to typical ginger that you find in grocery store. However, it is whiter in color and has more peppery taste than ginger. Galangal root is often used in Thai cuisine. If you have Thai Tom Yum soup before, this is one of the ingredients that they used to make the Tom Yum broth. Where to find this ground galangal? You should be able to find it at your local Asian grocery store. It is easier to find the dried version than the fresh one in North America. 
  

So, this is how the plan was changed. The recipe that I adapted from is from Anja's Food 4 Thought. There are couple things that I changed. I used ground galangal instead of ground ginger, and also used honey instead of agave syrup. I got my honey from my grandma who happens to make her own honey from the bees in her longon farm.  I recommended you to use a good quality honey that you can find in your local store or farmer market.

Final result?

My Galangal Honey Almond Biscotti turned out to have a wonderful honey flavor with a hint of galangal. My mom enjoyed it even though it's not gingerbread biscotti that she expected. The biscotti would go very well with spiced type of tea such as chai tea. I hope you enjoy!

Orange and Almond Cake

It has been a month since my last post. Now, I'm back at home in Bangkok, Thailand. It's nice to be back here. I feel like a foreigner in my own homeland since I haven't been living here for the past ten years.  It will take me quite sometimes to get used to the buzzing and the hot weather again! During the last two weeks since I've been back, I have been running around and doing lots of thing with my parents. I went up to Chiang Mai which is a city that locates at the northern of Thailand to visit my grandma for a week. I visited many temples in Chiang Mai. I posted some of the pictures in my 365-days project. Feel free to drop by!

When I was in Chiang Mai, my mom took me to a baking-supplies store. I bought couple ingredients and cake pans, so I can start baking again when I came back in Bangkok. To be honest, I never ever bake when I'm back at home in Thailand. It will take me sometimes to know where would be the best places to buy my baking supplies. However, what I found the most challenging is to trust someone else's oven. I tried not to judge the look of my parents' oven. LOL. Somehow, I just do not trust it. Before I left Toronto, I decided to buy an oven thermometer. So, this way I know that at least I will get a right temperature and everything should turn out okay...and it did! 

The first recipe that I make is Orange and Almond Cake. Couple days before I arrived, my mom boiled some oranges and froze them in the freezer. So, she was asking me whether I can make something out of it. So, I went on TasteSpotting and found an orange cake recipe from Peter at Souvlaki For the Soul which uses boiled oranges. I love this recipe because there is no use of flour, butter, or oil. I would say it's pretty healthy kind of cake. It's moist, dense and not too sweet. Everyone in the family loves it. So, thumbs up for the cake and for the oven too!

Deconstructed Rhubarb White Chocolate Ginger Cheeesecake

On the weekend, I made my last visit to St. Lawrence Market before I fly back home next Thursday. Spring is here and there were many spring vegetable at the market. I was planning to get some fresh spring vegetable that will last during my last week here.  Lucky me, I got there just in the right time and finally found fiddleheads. I have heard about it quite sometimes, but I haven't seen them around before. So, I bought them back and made a quick sauteed with ginger, garlic and balsamic for the dinner. My first experience  with fiddleheads was great. I like them. They do taste like asparagus. There were a lot of rhubarb at the market. Since this will be hard to find in the future, I decided to buy some back home. I was confused by the two different looks of the rhubarbs ( Forced vs. Field ). I ended up bought the normal one since that was the type that I used when I made strawberry-rhubarb pie last year with my best friends using their home grown rhubarb.

When I was at the market, I was really sure what I was going to make. Rhubarb-Strawberry Pie? Rhubarb-Strawberry Crisp? These sounds great, but I want to make something different this time. I have no oats and no flour, so a pie or a crisp is not one of the options for me. But then, I came across this no-baked white chocolate ginger cheesecake recipe from The Good Mood Food Blog. So, I thought this would go really well with my rhubarb! I played around with the plating of this deconstructed rhubarb white chocolate ginger cheesecake. You can serve them on a plate as I did the picture above or serve them in little gars or shot glasses. The white chocolate cheesecake is very rich. A small serving of this would be perfect at the end of the dinner. I love how the tartness of the rhubarb lightens up the whole dessert. Since no baking is involved, this is a perfect dessert to make during the hot summer days. I also recommended making each component ahead and assemble right before serving, so that the ginger crust would not get soggy.

Easy Blackberry Apple Galettes

Life can be too hectic and crazy. However, it is nice to start the day by making something simple and tasty for breakfast and hope the rest of the day is going to be just alright. This morning I decided to make these easy blackberry and apple galettes for my breakfast. As you know I pretty much have an empty pantry at the moment, I decided to use pre-made puff pastry that can be found in the frozen section at the grocery store for the crust. Thanks to Helen of Tartelette, I got this wonderfull blackberry apple filling recipe for my galettes. If you didn't have much time in the morning, you could make the filling the night before. All you need to do in the morning is to assemble it and bake!  

I'm also celebrating my 100th blip today! If you were interested on my 365 project, please drop by to check it out!

Chocolate Flaxseed Banana Bread

I haven't been baking much these days. It is a bit difficult at the moment because I'm in a transition of moving aboard. So, I have been starting to use up all stuff I have in my pantry. For my baking supplies, I pretty much have 2 cups of flour, less than a cup of sugar, a little bit of chocolate chips, a little bit of flaxseed, and some of margarine in the fridge. After searching for an easy, simple, low-budget recipe, I decided to make good old classic banana bread. I have been making banana breads so many times. However, I haven't found a recipe that makes me please with the final texture of the quick bread. When I discovered "jacked-up banana bread" recipe from Deb of Smitten Kitchen, I decided to give it a try, even dressed it up with a little bit of chocolate chips and some flaxseed that I have.

Final result was great! Thank you, Deb! The texture was great, soft and moist.  The sweetness was perfect for me. It's great for breakfast and any time snacks.

Chocolate "Chips" & Fruit "Salsa"

Who like to eat nacho put your hand up?

Well, I am one of them. Whenever I crave for junk food, I end up choosing to eat nacho. Recently, I discovered a modern healthy version of the “chips & salsa” that may satisfy my craving for junk food. It may not be the cheesy type of chips and salsa but it does make a great healthy snack or mini dessert. These chocolate ‘chips’ are made from wonton wrappers that are baked until it is crispy and are served with fresh fruit salsa.

Dominique and Cindy Duby are Canadian pastry chefs based in Vancouver, British Columbia. They own a fine chocolate boutique called DC Duby Wild Sweet in Vancouver. I came across their website while ago when I did a research on molecular gastronomy for my interior design project. They wrote several books, mostly relate to desserts and sweets. I found this healthy version of the “chips & salsa from one of their classic series called Chocolate. In this little book, it is packed with more than 50 classic chocolate related recipes from hot chocolate to delicate truffles. D & C did very well on giving unique spins on the classic recipes. I found there are some easy recipes in this book that can be easily made in a normal home kitchen. I recommend this book for those of you who want to learn more about chocolate. I think you will enjoy it!

Guu Izakaya, Toronto, Ontario

Recently, I had a chance to visit this new Japanese restaurant called Guu Izakaya, opened back in mid December 2009. Guu offers tapas-styled menu which is different from other Japanese restaurants around here in Toronto. I recommended to go there before 5pm when the restaurant opens. If not, you might have to wait for awhile. The concept of the place is very casual, loud, and lots of energy. Every single time when someone walks into the restaurant, staffers shout out greetings. The atmosphere of the place is pretty busy and noisy. So, if you don't mind this, this might be a place for you to give it a try. The interior design of the restaurant is very nice. It does give the pub atmosphere with a hit of Asian influence. I was not surprised at all when later I found out it was designed by the firm that I did my internship! The restaurant offers long communal tables. However, they do have several two-persons tables available. I just want to mention that don’t forget to check out their washrooms too. They’re pretty nice!

Churros with Cinnamon Sugar

I remember my first time eating churros was at Disneyland in California back in 1992 when I was 7 years old. That was a very long time ago. My family and I spent a month travelling in the States. It is funny that I don't remember much about the trip. The only thing I remember is that I ate this 2-feet long crispy, deep fried, dough coated with sweet cinnamon sugar.  At that time, I didn't think I knew what it really was until these past several years. No Mickey Mouse, Peter Pan or Prince Charming...Just churros that is all I remember my first trip to Disneyland...

Making churros is easier than I thought. Things that look like they would be hard to make are not that hard once you try. Churros is definitely one of them. It's a perfect substitution when you have doughnuts craving because you don't need to wait for the dough to rise. No yeast in the recipe.

Soft Pretzels

After seeing many soft pretzels postings on TasteSpotting lately, I decided to give it another try.  My skills with yeast have been improved since I discovered a trick to make my bread dough rise. In the past, I always had troubles making my bread dough doubled its size because it is always cold inside the house especially in the winter. The trick that I found is to turn on the oven at the lowest temperature for 5 mins or so and turn the oven off to create a warm cozy little place for our yeast friend. You can do that while you knead the dough. So, by the time you're done with kneading...the oven will be nice and warm (not too hot) for our yeast friend. Now, we have became good friends, and I never have troubles with the dough anymore. After searching for a good soft pretzel recipe, I ended up with this recipe. Most of the comments that people left are positive, so I have a good feeling that I'll end up good, delicious soft pretzels. The final result turned out pretty well.

World Book Day

I discovered that yesterday, March 4, was World Book Day through Blipfoto, where I post my 365-days project. Since I'm a food lover, I love to read books that have stories related to food. However, I did really get into it until the beginning of the year. If you're interested to know the books that I have been reading so far, here is my compiling list. The books that I heart the most (so far) are The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones and A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg.

The Last Chinese Chef is a fiction story of widowed American food writer, Maggie McElroy, who finds out that someone in China has filed a paternity claim against her husband's estate after a year of her husband's death. Because of this, she asks her editor for time off to go to China and take care of this matter. However, her editor assigns her a project to profile rising cuilinary star Sam Liang, who is a half-Chinese American Chef living in Beijing. This is how the story of Maggie's charactoer developed . I love this book not only because it has a food-related story, but it also gives you an insight of Chinese's culinary and political history and culture. This book combines the stories of food, history, culture, love, and friendship into one. I think it's a well-written and well-researched fiction. I found that I became engaged in the story, and it was hard to put the book down.

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table is a non-fiction book that Molly Wizenberg shares her personal life stories, along with her recipes. It is fascinating to learn about her personal life stories and also the stories behind the recipes that she gives in the book. The book offers a wide range of flavors; sad, happy, funny, love...you name it, with variety of recipes. After I read through her book, I feel the need of trying the recipes that she shares. Molly also has a food blog called Orangette. So, if you're interested, feel free to drop by and check it out. I borrowed this book from a library, so I think I'll need to get my own copy of this. A paperback version is coming out at the end of the month, so I can't wait!

After finished Molly's book yesterday, I'm currently I love, I lost, I made Spaghetti by Giulia Melucci. Not much I can say about this book yet since I started last night. However, it is interesting to read and learn about food and culture...from Chinese to French...and now Italian...

Chocolate Almond Lemon Meringue Tart

It is interesting how the weather can effect our mood. After I jinxed the weather last week, we got snow for couple days. However, the snow didn't stay that long, pretty much all gone by now. For the past couple days, the weather has been very nice, sunny. The temperature is above the zero. It feels like the day is longer. People are happy and alive. That's a very good sign telling me that Spring is coming soon!  

To celebrate the nice weather and the sign of the spring season, I decided to make these tangy, lip-smacking lemon meringue tarts. Playing around the the tart dough's recipe, I added cocoa powder and ground almond. The sweet nutty tart is well-balance with the tangy flavour of the lemon filling. Enjoy!

Molten Chocolate Cake

hmm...I just realized that 3 of the 5 posts that I have been posting so far are chocolate-related recipes. That is why they say that chocolate is a girl best friend. In fact, chocolate contains a chemical called phenylethylamine which is the same hormone that brain triggers when you fall in love. That's why we always cheer up ourselves with chocolate and feel happy when we eat it. Did you know that?

Another interesting story is that this molten chocolate cake is only 23 years old (hmm...couple years younger than me). It was claimed to be invented in 1987 by Jean-Georges Vongerichten in New York City. I'm glad that he discovered this irresistible cake that has a deep rich chocolate flavour with a warm gooey centre. So, thank you for that Mr. Vongerichten!

Japchae (whisk the pantry's version)

Today is one of those days that you prefer to stay inside. It is cold, wet, cloudy, and kind of snow outside. Well, maybe I shouldn't complain about it since we pretty much get less than half of snow this year(which  is weird because in the States, they get tons of snow and we get pretty much nothing up here). Still, I hope spring is coming soon!

Because of the weather, I feel like making something easy, simple and ,of course, fast.

When I was in university, my roommate always made Korean food. Her mom made lots of Bulgogi (marinated beef) for her. So, we always had tons of these in our freezer. Because of her, I fell in love with Korean food. I love Korean food because they use lots of vegetable in their dishes and also have so many numbers of side dishes. My favorite Korean dish is probably Bibimbap. This dish is served in a super hot stone bowl. Rice is placed in the bowl and topped with sautéed vegetable (including cucumber, zucchini, mushrooms, soybean sprouts, and spinach), beef bulgogi, and a raw egg. The way you eat this dish is you put the Korean chili pepper paste (gochujang) and mix everything together. Because of the bowl is super hot, anything that touches the bowl sizzles and gets golden and crispy. I love it when the chili paste get caramelize.

Another korean dish that I like is called Japchae. It’s a noodle dish that stir-fired in sesame oil with various vegetable. So, what I made today is my version of Japchae. I hope you like it.

Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops & Caramel-topped Flan

My best friend came to visit me from Edmonton for the last 5 days. We did a lot of cooking, baking, eating and Winter Olympic-watching which were very enjoyable and fun. It was very nice to be able to share this with her. On her last day here, we spend all day baking these goodies, so that she can bring some back and snack during her flight back to Edmonton. She picked out these two recipes from Baking From My Home to Yours which are Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops and Caramel-topped Flan. Both of the recipes turned out wonderful. No one can say no to these chocolaty cookies and this classic caramel custard!

Malted milk powder reminded me of my childhood. Grew up in South-East Asia, we were familar to malted milk powder especially Ovaltine and Milo. It is pretty much a substition for hot chocolate in North America. In my opinion, the best way to make this malted milk drink is to make it with the sweetended condensed milk, no sugar. The condensed milk makes the drink creamier and gives more depth to the drink. Another way that I liked to make when I was young was to mix the malted milk powder with the sweetended condensed milk without water added. So, you get this sweet chewy frosting-type dough or whatever you call this brown gooey thing. To be honest, it was really good!  

Linzer Heart Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day!

For those of you who might need a very last minute idea for Valentine's Day, here it is Linzer Heart Cookies. As you can see, my heart is orange, not red. (Oops! no raspberry jam in the fridge at the moment) Plus, I'm posting this on its acutal day. So, it's very last minute as it can be!

Even thought it's a last minute thing, but they were made from LOVE!

I use the recipe directly from Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. However, you can also get the recipe through Serious Eats.