Lady and Pups – Page 14 of 42 – Homecooking w extreme prejudice

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Dairy

LET’S CATCH-A-PURI

MY THOUGHTS STIRRED, AS THEY STIRRED,

INTO A TANGIBLE STRINGY MESS OF RESTLESSNESS.

I thought long and hard about how I should talk to you about this.

I thought about it when I saw it glaring at me, all too long ago, from Tasting Table on their grinning newsletter. I thought about it when I laid sleepless at night, combing through the mental steps of how, and when, I would realize this absurdity in my own kitchen. I auditioned my blunt vocabularies, while pushing the apathetic shopping cart through the even-less agreeable cheese-section in my grocery store… gruyere (gooey?), gouda (gooey-er)?… mozarella (gawh, fuck it…). And speaking of words, I ought to find out how this khachapuri is pronounced… catch-a-puri, catch-a-puri, kah-tch-a-puri? Georgian, is it? I thought I should probably google Georgia, right, I totally should, a place where I felt utterly disconnected from emotionally, and even more so, geographically, as I sank my palm over and over into the quiet, warm, springy dough. I thought, given that it was unquestionably non-traditional, about how I could explain the heightened savouriness and sharpness brought by the added black olive tapenade, as I smeared it across the supple dough. Oh people should definitely hear how tall these cheeses mounted, yes, definitely, how promisingly they talked back through the folded window… reassuring. Most of all, I for sure thought about it when I sagged myself over the hot vent of the oven by the handle, witnessing the yeasted dough puffed and browned, damming an increasingly fluid and active pool of melted cheese, I thought, and sagged, but I promise it was mostly thoughts. Then, when that raw glistening yolk, that damn raw and glistening yolk that slipped over the hot cheese, and touched the cheeks of a chunk of topping butter… my thoughts stirred, as the pool stirred, into a tangible stringy mess of happiness and restlessness.

How, do I talk to you about this…?

01.22.2015

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Sweets

CHOCO-COLATE MUFFIN TOPS

MOISTER THAN A COOKIE, CRISPIER THAN A MUFFIN, LARGER THAN THE FACE OF CHESHIRE CAT AND GOES DOWN FASTER THAN THE LONGEST SLEEP I’VE RECENTLY ENJOYED

OK… I who haven’t had more than 4 hours of continuous sleep for the past few weeks, am talking to you in between my loose grip of consciousness, and my looser grip of consciousness, and then… oh look! it’s my unicorn-pony who helps with my dishes~ Uh whadat? Oh yeah. I was saying, how about, we take these double chocolate-y muffin tops, yes, just the tops because I couldn’t even trust my hands-and-eyes coordination to drop the batter into the molds (but it’s really because I was never fond of the bottom half of a muffin so I thought why bother), and slip into The Lady’s Wonderland to catch up? These muffin tops are warm and melty, moister than a cookie, crispier than a muffin, larger than the face of Cheshire Cat, and goes faster than the longest sleep I’ve recently enjoyed.

So come, we could all use a fall down a tree-hole once in awhile. Tell me about that time when you showed up in school without pants and your braises fell off.

01.18.2015

In All recipes, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Seafood

MACAO’S PORTUGUESE FRIED RICE GRATIN

CAN’T-STOP-WON’T-STOP MESS-ON-A-PLATE,

WITH FLAVOURS THAT WELD PERFECTLY INTO YOUR NEXT WEEK-NIGHT REGULARS

macanese-rice-gratin01

There are some women, whose problem is that they never believe they have what it takes to put together an IKEA coffee table. Then, there are those such as myself. Who hold unexplained and relentless faith in their own physical strength. Who ask, how hard can it be? Who practically built every single bed-bath-and-beyond in her apartment, with chapped unpolished nails and a can of diet coke. And who, sometimes, get cocky.

If you ask me now, I would tell you I have absolutely no idea whatsoever, on why on earth did I think I had the same skills as a professional large-scale furniture builder/wood carpenter, which must be how I felt when I bought 3 colossally humongous, solid wood, antique courtyard doors that I thought I could turn into a dinning table with nothing but a mini screwdriver? Why… why did this feel a bit different from those IKEA bookshelves with their friendly pre-drilled holes? Why? I kept asking myself the same question when I dragged this bone-crushingly heavy thing into the shower, scrubbing and rinsing off its ancient dirt that ran into the drain as black as the humour I found in all of this self-inflicted pain. Today, I can’t feel my neck.

This is the kind of day when I’m really grateful for awesome leftovers. I can only thank my foretelling self when I crawl to the fridge, dragging behind me a trail of defeat, and find a pure Macanese creation called “Portuguese sauce rice gratin”, a cheesy and bubbly seafood fried rice flooded with a light coconut milk curry and gruyere sauce then finished under the broiler, which I suspect, probably has nothing to do with Portugal. I came up with its recipe the other day, because I’ve long been curious of it. With its name being as confusing as its concept, this is one of those dishes that sounds weird but ultimately, defies all logics. It’s one of the classics on every menu of “tea restaurant” in Hong Kong, among with its peers that all came into existence under the great mashing of different cultures during colonial times. Without trying it before, you’d probably question… really? But yes. YES! The rice gratin stirs into kind of a cheesy, coconut-y, mildly curried risotto almost, and pleases all way from the taste buds down to a warmed tummy, and repeats. It is easily one of the most surprisingly delicious, can’t-stop-won’t-stop mess-on-a-plate I’ve cooked, with unlikely flavours that weld perfectly together into your next week-night regulars.

So I feed, heartily, staring into the wooden beasts with restored combativity. I will break you, I say, and sit a piping hot pan of Portuguese rice gratin on your face while I sip lemonade. You just watch…

01.14.2015

In All recipes, Condiments, Vegatables

MASHED POTATO BUTTER AIOLI W/ FRIED CAPERS

IS IT MASHED POTATO, OR IS IT A SAUCE? IT’S THE BEST OF TWO WORLDS.

In the past few days, I don’t know if you can tell, but my year-long travel-ban situation (recap: sick soupy Dumpling has been losing his juice) has advanced to some sorta voluntary house-arrest, and besides spending all my time migrating him in between the bed and the bathroom, I’m also doing everything I can to not make it too obvious, that I’m trying to live out of a single potato.

And now I’m doing it again. Guess I gave up.

But really though, am I the only one fascinated? I mean, what’s the one thing most feared, about an aioli or butter sauce? No, not that it’ll grow you an extra thigh, which it will and that’s that. But it’s actually, with radical willingness, that both itself and your heart, it’ll sadly break (so true, Yoda. so true). Which is what makes this recipe, a hybrid between mashed potato and butter aioli, so superbly amateur-friendly. We all know how the line between a “side-dish” and a “condiment” goes increasingly blurry for the most creamy and buttery “mashed potato” of its kind. So why not smudge the line even further? A smooth and silky butter aioli infused with Dijon mustard and fried capers, but with finely mashed potato as its solemn foundation. The starch acts as a buffer, a liaison let’s just say, between the good butter that wants you to be showered with compliment, and the bad butter that just wants your world to separate. And in the end, you’ll have a rich and indulging swirl that’s all the flavourful, and (sorta) (almost) (don’t tell me otherwise) half the calories.

Be warned that this is the kind of thing, an inconvenient happiness, that plays too well with others. Before you even realize, it’s already got its paws on all your favourite proteins (meant to be healthy) and veggies (meant to be healthier), which will no long be enough without it. One miserable night during my lock-down, a pan-fried piece of frozen salmon had never tasted so far far away from reality.

So is it mashed potato? Or is it a sauce? Who cares? It’s the best two worlds.

01.10.2015

In All recipes, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Poultry

BLACK SESAME AND GINGR CHICKEN NOODLE SALAD

ONCE YOU GO BLACK, YOU NEVER GO BACK.

01.07.2015

In All recipes, Snacks, Vegatables

POTATO CHIPS AND THAI HERBS SALAD

MORE REFRESHING THAN THE MORE COMMONLY PRACTICED CRISPY FRIED HERBS,

BUT FAR MORE ADDICTIVE…

MY relationship with dining-out for western cuisines in Beijing has been for the past 5 years, at best, a struggle of love and hate. The incentive for attempting such silly missions is simple. If you were living in Beijing, most of the times your best shot at some happiness at least is to make yourself feel like, you weren’t. And sometimes, you know, the right restaurants can do that.

But unfortunately, for far too many times, I’ve sat on a taxi-ride home fed with the fury of underwhelming meals, overcharged bills, and all together more often than not, a complementary cocktail of clueless and laughable services. In the end, I guess one could argue that all along, the true idiot had always been, perhaps, me. Because I was the one who’s been looking for cow’s milk in a rat’s asshole, trying to match the standard of what’s available here with that of New York.

I was the real joke.

01.04.2015

In All recipes, Dairy, Sweets

BRULEE FRENCH TOASTS STUFFED WITH CREAMY CHESTNUTS

(I KNOW HOW TO) LOOK FABULOUS IN SMUDGED MASCARA NOT SCHMALTZ, AND KNOWS THAT THIS GLITTERED PAPER-CONE WAS FOR MY HEAD, AND NOT POPCORNS…

01.01.2015

In All recipes, Poultry

MALAYSIAN MAMAK FRIED CHICKEN

INSIDE A RED PLASTIC BUCKET AND 2 GIANT ROARING WOKS BY THE HUSTLE AND BUSTLE ROADSIDE OF KUALA LUMPUR… NIRVANA

The best moment on a travel, for me at least, is when you’re already being in a place where you know you’d be drowned in delicious foods, standing at an unnamed corner in a lost moment, you still find yourself pleasantly overwhelmed. If that’s kinda your thing as well, then Malaysia is your kinda place, specifically, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

I have been longing to return for quite some time now. But since I’m currently under some sorta physical lock-down, you can tell evidently from my effort since – a full-blown laksa, a slack-off laksa, and these bag-loads of banana donuts – that this is not my first mental prison-break. I want to remind you now that none of them were actually the climatic screaming food-gasm of that trip, but you already knew that. I mean of course, naturally, one does not jump hastily to food-gasm at hello. How rude. Because one induces foreplay first. A little bit of teaser here, and a little bit of appetizer there. In a slow and respectful courtship, 2 whole damn years after we left the streets of Kuala Lumpur, one says, OK. I think I’m ready to re-create the best damn fried chicken I’ve ever lay my tongue on in my entire life.

The yo mamak’s fried chicken.

12.28.2014

In All recipes, Drinks

PASSIONED GREEN TEA WHISKEY

CHEERS, FRIENDS. HAPPY HOLIDAYS. I’LL SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE.

PASSIONED GREEN TEA WHISKEY

Serving Size: 2

Ingredients

3 passion fruits
3/4 cup unsweetened green tea, chilled
4 tbsp honey
4 ounces whiskey
Crushed ice

Instructions

Scoop out the flesh inside the passion fruits and add it to a shaker, along with green tea and honey. Shake until the honey has completely dissolved. Add the whiskey and shake to blend. Divide the mixture into two glasses filled with crushed ice. Drink up.

https://cj8.98d.mwp.accessdomain.com/2014/12/24/passioned-green-tea-whiskey/

12.24.2014

In All recipes, Bakery/Pastry, Dairy

MINI BRIE + JAM PIE EDIBLE GIFT

TO CLOSE FRIENDS, IN HEART, AND IN DISTANCE.

I guess it isn’t so out-of-place during the holiday season, but the other day, I started thinking about friendships.

Since the age of 17, I have been living in separations from all my best friends. Some, separated by lands, but most, by oceans. And even if when old ones came, or when new ones were made, soon after, was another almost destined departure. After a certain number of years, I got used to the danger of not having any, and the jealousy for those who do.

So this year, when the question of “edible gift” came, I started thinking about what I’d wish I could give. If you are one of those lucky humans who enjoys close proximity of friendships, I think you should tell them, “I’m so glad I’m not too far away to give you this”. Whole mini brie and jam wrapped in flaky, buttery pie-pastry. Just like and therefore perfect for those whom this is made for, it doesn’t travel far. It’s time and temperature-sensitive. It’s warm, sweet, gooey and most importantly, immediate.

To close friends, in heart, and in distance. Happy holidays.

12.21.2014

In All recipes, Meat, Noodle/Pasta/Rice, Soup, updated recipe

THE VAMPIRE SLAYER RAMEN-EXPRESS

CALL IT, THE RAMEN WITH 40 CLOVES OF GARLIC… WAIT. 44 CLOVES.

SOMETIMES, and for the sake of modesty not all the times, but sometimes, after I pasted every photos of a recipe in place and started to stare into space thinking about what I was gonna say… I thought to myself, seriously? You fucking need a reason to eat this?

Uhem, just sometimes.

But well, today, happens to be one of those times.