Homemade pizza

Recipe for pizza crust (thick crust)

Ingredients:

225g plain flour

1/4 tsp of salt

2.5 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp sugar

150ml of milk

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Simple one step move, just mix and knead until smooth and elastic. Then set aside for 10 mins.

I found this recipe in my own compiled recipe book and do not remember where I got it from. Anyway it was successful As I paired with the toppings I wanted and I baked it for 20 mins at 200degree Celsius. I will however add butter to the pizza crust the next time I try. Next pizza flavours to try: black pepper chicken and of course Hawaiian pizza! 

Mini chiffon cream cheese cake

I tried making these cream cheese mini chiffon cakes. They turned out nice but I felt they lacked the cream cheese taste. Colour was nice though. Texture was soft even when I did not manage to separate the egg yolks and egg whites properly. (Daiso's egg separator did not work!) Anyway here is the recipe...

Ingredients:
2 egg yolks
1.5 tablespoon brown sugar
A little less than 1 tablespoon olive oil
A little more than 4 tablespoon of milk
2 tablespoon of cake flour
A little less than 3 tablespoon of cream cheese
One fifth of a teaspoon baking powder
2 egg whites
1.5 tablespoon brown sugar

Steps
1. Combine 1.5 tablespoon brown sugar and egg yolks with egg whisk
2. Heat cream cheese and milk and stir to mix well to get a smooth batter texture. Let cool a little.
3. Pour into egg yolk batter together with oil. Mix well.
4. Add sifted powdered ingredients. Mix well.
5. Whisk egg whites until foamy and add 1.5 tablespoon brown sugar little by little. Whisk until stiff. Scrape out 1/3 egg white with spatula and combine with egg yolk batter.
6. Pour egg yolk batter in 3 smaller portions into whisked egg whites. Mix swiftly with spatula. Pour into aluminium moulds until 80% full.
7. Gently tap a few times to release air within the batter. Bake in preheated oven at 170 degree celsius for 30 mins. (if surface of cakes have turned brown before 30 mins, put aluminium sheets on top to prevent burning.)

Rate: 5.5/10
It is worth a try but my chiffon cake making skills is not good so it is a low rating. Will do more research and improve!

Dining at TCC

TCC has made a major menu revamp since the last time I went there. The menu now is awesome. I had dinner with my friends at the Citylink branch beacuse my friend, being a member, had a special 50% discount for all ala carte items on the menu. So it was basically a buffet style dinner for us, at a really really cheap price. 

Here are the snacks combined together in a plate! On top right and going in a clockwise direction, mozzy sticks, wedges that came with nacho cheese dip and mushroom puffs! I really enjoyed the mushroom puffs, they are definitely worth a try! The mozzarella sticks and wedges were nothing fantastic. 

As mentioned, the menu was so awesome that the desserts all looked appetising to us. We finally settled on three after a long long time of decision making.

Puffy triplets - Sink your sweet tooth into three profiteroles with rich chocolate ice cream atop a fine almond espresso financier, spectacularly indulgent!

The puff and chocolate ice cream were good but the espresso financier was kind of bitter. Not recommended for someone who isn't a coffee fan. Rate: 7/10

Perfect Pairing - A gorgeous frozen parfait laced with raspberry swirl and complemented with tantalising home cooked berries, compote and free raspberries.

This tasted like cheesecake icecream and didn't pair well with the other desserts we had because the rest which were too chocolatey made it seem quite tasteless. Rate: 6/10

Cappuccino Cheesecake Dream - This heavenly cappuccino cheesecake is beautifully presented with decadent double chocolate ice cream and cocoa streusel.

Quite a decent dessert, especially when paired with the ice cream. The whipped cream was kind of fattening though. Rate: 7/10

Loved the ambience, decorations of the food. I will definitely go back for more! :D

Nutty cheesy Scones

Filled with crunchy walnuts and cheese to give that slightly salted taste, these scones are baked to perfection with the inside being soft and fluffy.

Recipe: (makes 9 scones)
150g plain flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
40g butter
25g brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
100 or lesser milk (depends on your mixture)
Chopped walnuts
Grated cheese

Steps:
1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
2. Add butter and cut into small pieces in the flour. Use fingertips to rub in the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Add in sugar, walnuts and cheese and mix well.
4. Add in vanilla essence and milk just enough to knead into a smooth and soft dough.
5. Roll out dough with rolling pin and cut out scones using a cookie cutter.
6. Place on lined baking tin and brush scones with milk.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 220 Degree Celsius for 15 minutes until well risen and golden brown.

Note:
Butter must be chilled to ease rubbing and avoid melting too easily in the rubbing process.

Please provide some other special scone flavours! :D

Cafe Swiss @ Raffles City

The Cafe Swiss is quite a nice place to sit down and dine. The buffet is priced at $40++ but there is a special promotion for DBS and POSB cardholders where a 50% discount applies. The variety of food is quite limited and the food tastes normal. There wasn't any dish that was well cooked, maybe except for the beef. The sashimi wasn't As fresh and the only sushi served, the California maki, wasn't nice at all. I felt the octopus salad was quite refreshing but mummy couldn't bite it. The side dishes like the prawn salad and achar (pineapple and cucumber) was nice. They had this garlic cheese that was very special and the soup, tomato and butter something was quite tasty too. Their desserts are worth a try and they even have a chocolate fondue. I wouldn't recommend this buffet for taste buds sensitive people but if you want an inexpensive buffet where you can just sit in and dine slowly with your friends, this buffet will be to your liking. Another note, the service is excellent.

Operation Hours

Breakfast
Monday - Sunday: 6.00am - 11.00am

Lunch
Monday - Friday (buffet): 12.00pm - 2.30pm
Saturday (buffet) & Sunday (à la carte): 12.30pm - 2.30pm

Dinner
Sunday - Wednesday (à la carte): 6.30pm - 10.30pm
Thursday - Saturday (buffet): 6.30pm - 10.00pm

Location
Level 2, Swissôtel The Stamford

2 Stamford Road ▪ Singapore 178882 ▪ Singapore

Tel: +65 6338 8585 ▪ Fax: +65 6338 2862 ▪ singapore-stamford@swissotel.com

Pasta salad

Get your herbs ready! 

Pasta salad in olive oil and vinegar dressing:

Herbs of your choice

Vinegar

Olive oil

Tomatoes

Onions

Cucumbers

Cooked pasta

Pepper

I added a bit of mustard but I don't think it's necessary. It's easy to do and it tastes like Astons's. You can keep it overnight in the fridge.

Calories count: 250 per one cup serving

EWF - everything with fries

I had ewf on Sundays for two consecutive weeks. My very first time I ate ewf was at its fast food outlet at Orchard Central 1F. Because I had my braces on, I couldn't eat hard food like chips so when I tried the curry fries at ewf, I was hooked. It was like eating potato chips plus the portion was huge and the price was cheap. We ordered the strawberry and nutella milkshakes at $4.90. Both the milkshakes were nice. This led to my craving for ewf so I visited the Bugis outlet a few weeks later, hoping to try out the other fries.

$2.90 Curry Fries

Ewf's Bugis outlet is the cafe style, the difference is that there are more main courses and you have the option of having thick fries. The only downside is the price for fries is $4.90 and the milkshakes, $5.90, excluding 7% GST and 10% service charge. Again, I bought the strawberry milkshake but it was not as nice as the one I tasted at OC. In addition, I ordered the grilled pork chop (which was quite good) along with sour cream and onion fries (not much taste), garlic fries (thumbs up for the taste and presentation), vanilla malt milkshake (was nice) and nutella tart (really nice!). Overall experience was good, except mummy and I hated the huge menu because we both made the fork drop.

Grilled Chicken Chop

Sinful Nutella Tart

The following week, we brought bro to ewf again because they had this Steak Tulang which we wanted him to try (my bro is a mega fan of steak). It was quite disappointing because they didn't have steak so we opted for the next dish on the special menu which I couldn't remember the name but it was some kind of fish reared in Singapore. The dish was quite normal though, it was not worth the price. Meanwhile, Daddy ordered the lamb burger which he found it not very nice because he preferred lamb chop to lamb patty.

The other sides we ordered were butterscotch (was too sweet), vanilla malt (wasn't as nice as the one we tried before) and of course, nutella milkshake. The milkshakes will differ in taste depending on who is making it. Just to be on the safe side, order nutella milkshake if you do not want to be disappointed. We tried the truffle fries (comes only only with certain main courses) and the salt and vinegar fries. I personally liked the salt and vinegar fries.

Lastly, we had desserts because they had a special 50% off desserts if you order a main course promotion for POSB or DBS cardholders. We ordered the pandan tart and lemon yoghurt cake which came along with a scoop of icecream. The lemon yoghurt cake was recommended by the waitress and it was huge! I would not recommend it though, because it is not really that nice. I was thinking maybe, the huge size had made it a best seller. The pandan tart was fine, tasting like kaya and a bit too sweet though.

Main courses and milkshakes

Summarising, I would recommend the grilled pork chop, nutella milkshake, garlic/curry/salt and vinegar fries (I prefer thick fries) and nutella tart!
Note: If you want to eat the fries and milkshake only, go to their fast food outlet at Orchard Central! (No thick fries served though)

Glutinous rice

Second attempt at making glutinous rice. Mummy bought the toshiba rice cooker a long time ago and it came with a mini recipe. I have been wanting to try out one of its recipe - glutinous chicken rice. I tried out the recipe but it didn't turn out fantastic so under mummy's advice, I tried to make glutinous rice again.

The toshiba recipe:
Ingredients
1 cup glutinous rice (soaked in water for about 30 mins)
Water to cook glutinous rice (up to water level marked "1" for glutinous rice
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp cooking oil
350g boneless chicken meat (marinated)

Method
1. Press 'COOK' and pour cooking oil into the rice pot.
2. Drain the glutinous rice and place it into the rice cooker, add water to suitable water level and add dark soy sauce and salt.
3. Cover the rice cooker and bring rice and water to boil.
4. Open the rice cooker, stir the rice and water and bring it to simmer. Stir again.
5. Add marinated chicken, placing them evenly over rice and cover the rice cooker.
6. Press 'CANCEL' and restart the cooking process by pressing 'COOK' again.
7. Once rice is cooked, serve immediately with fried shallots and spring onions.

Following mummy's advice,
New recipe:
1.5 cups glutinous rice (soaked in water too)
Water level till below 2 (I poured to 2 and the rice was a bit wet)
Dark soy sauce
Light soy sauce
Cooking oil
Little shrimps
Mushrooms
2 Chinese sausage

Method
1. Cook the chopped little shrimps and mushroom together until you smell fragrance
2.  Press 'COOK' and pour cooking oil and the cooked shrimps and mushroom into the rice pot.
3. Drain the glutinous rice and place it into the rice cooker, add water to suitable water level and add dark soy sauce and light soy sauce. (amount depends on preference)

4. Cover the rice cooker and bring rice and water to boil.

5. Open the rice cooker, stir the rice and water and bring it to simmer. Stir again.

6. Add chinese sausage, placing them evenly over rice and cover the rice cooker.

7. Press 'CANCEL' and restart the cooking process by pressing 'COOK' again.

8. Once rice is cooked, serve immediately with fried shallots and spring onions

I would definitely make this again, adding lesser water the next time. It tastes just like the glutinous rice my family used to have from a particular dim sum stall near my house last time. But they have moved away. I remember them adding bits of fried eggs, maybe I will add some too next time.
Rate: 8/10

Pepper Lamb Chop

Today, I made lamb chops for the second time! The sides are pasta salad and sweet potato fries (recipes for pasta salad and sweet potato fries will be up soon). This recipe is really good and easy. I adapted it from a particular book and made a few changes to it.

Recipe
3 Lamb chops
1/4 cup plain yoghurt (supposedly for the tenderness)
2 tablespoon black pepper sauce
1 teaspoon crushed black peppercorn
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Pepper and salt

(I added a bit of roast lamb seasoning, some herbs, 1/2 tablespoon of black pepper sauce and more garlic.)

Just marinate it overnight for best flavour and use butter to grill it or if you want, you can bake it (200 Degree Celsius for 20 mins).

Fried salted egg custard buns

I have always been a fan of custard buns and the authentic custard buns are very hard to find! I am still on the search for these authentic custard buns. So what exactly is this authentic custard buns? Many (and I emphasize on this many), MANY people have this misunderstanding or misconception between custard buns and the salted egg custard buns (or more commonly known as liu sa bao) we see today.
Below is an attempt to differentiate the two

1. COLOUR. Custard bun's colour is a light yellow while liu sa bao's is a yellow-orange colour because of the salted egg yolk.
2. TASTE. Custard bun's taste is much sweeter compared to liu sa bao's.
3. TEXTURE OF THE FILLING. Custard bun's filling's texture is very smooth and nothing much like the little lumps you get in a liu sa bao.

Xin Wang Cafe had the real custard buns before (their steamed ones were bad but the fried ones were good). However, they had a change of menu and they removed the custard buns from their menu since then. I was so upset that I emailed them, asking for the reason and requesting them to use back their previous menu. Mega fan I was of them back then and now I am an anti xin wang person. Haha.

Anyway I tried googling for these custard buns and chanced upon a review, recommending Man Fu Yuan's custard buns. For the liu sa baos we normally don't have it fried so I was probably deceiving myself when I saw that they offered fried custard buns, thinking they weren't the liu sa kind. How wrong was I but I would give it a 6.5/10. 0.5 because it came in the fried version. 

Man Fu Yuan is located at Bugis Junction, Intercontinental Hotel. The outside of the Restaurant has a small counter, looks like a place for a high class security guard. It totally didn't look like a restaurant to me. They are sold at $12 for 6 with a 7% GST for takeaways. You have to get a minimum of 6 pieces (not able to mix steam and fried). The bag and card was quite nice though.

PS. Would love to hear from people who know places with the real custard buns! Till then, the hunt continues!

Purple noodles

Aglio olio purple instant noodles caught my attention so I decided to give it a try. I have always been a fan of aglio olio, loving the garlic taste especially with a touch of chilli. I will do up a aglio olio pasta soon! It's real easy to do! Anyway tried this noodles that day, wasn't that great. I just found it normal tasting. It's supposed to be healthy though so it may make up for the average taste? I won't buy this again.

Yummy grapes

These are really awesome mini grapes. They are really sweet and juicy, definitely worth a try! These can be bought at Ntuc Fairprice but they don't sell it often. It's priced at less than $6. My new favourite fruit now <3