dccokinn

I've just came back from a one-week holiday in Hong Kong and the post-trip depression is setting in. Doesn't help that the weather is super hot and humid, as compared to the cool 15-20C I was enjoying :( To cheer myself up, I decided to make some saccharine sweet-looking waffle cookies! Spent quite some time trying to compose the photo because I wasn't in the mood (in fact more time than making these cookies). But in the end, I love how the photos turned out, exactly what I wanted, saccharine sweet!  Couldn't decide whether I like the top view shot or 30 degree view shot. Maybe both :p Making these waffle cookies was very quick and easy, didn't even require mixer or oven. Basically whisk softened unsalted butter together with sugar till well-mixed, add egg and vanilla extract and once again whisked till well-mixed. Next, add sifted cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and mix till dough forms. Divide into 4 portions, and add flavours of choice. I added c...

Some time ago, I dined at this gourmet burger joint, Omakase Burger and went away slightly dissatisfied. I mean, the burger itself was great, very yummy, just that the fries was totally off and overall I thought the meal was overpriced. While I could accept that the burger was about $15, the fries which was worse off than McDonalds cost almost $4 and the iced lemon tea was close to $5! Although $2 was taken off the bill since it was a set, I still thought the meal to be expensive. That inspired me to come up with my own gourmet burgers at home :D First up, Hawaiian Teriyaki Burger, with homemade burger bun, teriyaki sauce and iced lemon tea. I remember McDonald's used to have this periodically, and I loved it then! Now, there's also similar version like Samurai burger but I found the quality lacking and worse, the whole burger seemed to be drenched in sauce! Next, Fish Fillet Burger, with homemade burger bun, tartar sauce and Yuzu Mint Soda. Both burger and drink are inspired b...

After making the Yuzu Curd Tart with my homemade Yuzu Curd , I was left with 2 small bottles of curd, had to use them up quickly since shelf life of curd is short even though it was chilled. I knew I wanted to bake a cupcake filled with yuzu curd, but for the cupcake base, what should I do? Should I go for a richer yuzu marmalade butter cake, or just a plain simple one with some zest and extract? And then what about the topping, yuzu curd, yuzu marmalade or yuzu buttercream frosting or something else? Decisions decisions. After browsing many instagram photos, food blogs etc, finally decided on a simple yuzu cupcake filled with yuzu curd in the centre, and topped with golden meringue frosting! In fact, it's the same combination for lemon curd or orange curd meringue cupcake. I reckon since the highlight is yuzu curd, the cake and topping should be more subtle in taste and not overwhelm the luscious curd. Basically,  there are 3 components to the cupcake, the cupcake itself, the cur...

This is going to be a random post about my birthday, cake and just ramblings :p Yesterday was my birthday!! The final year that I can still declare myself officially as 30s! Don't know why I'm becoming more afraid of aging now? I must treasure my time this year and enjoy fully, partly because somehow stepping into the big 4 scares me, and partly because the kiddo is entering Primary School, a new milestone for both of us. Anyways, went for a long spa therapy, followed by Korean BBQ dinner with the hb and kiddo, and finally birthday cake at home. It was simple, but lovely and I felt happy and blessed. Yep, that's how I feel so far this year, somehow I'm feeling quite high with generally good moods, different from last year where I was grumpy, grouchy and moody. I remember last birthday was quite bad, I was feeling totally lousy. Worst, after looking at my birthday photo, my self-esteem dropped to an all-time low, I was overweight and looked haggard and ugly. Therefore,...

Recently I bought a packet of Nestum cereal because I wanted to cook Cereal Prawns. The thing is, it's sold only in 500g pack and only a small amount is used to cook the Cereal Prawns. Our family doesn't eat cereal, so I've been thinking of ways to use them up. My picky rascal doesn't like chicken breast (tried making nuggets with minced chicken breast meat but he didn't like it); he loves fries and fried food, so I thought making chicken strips to look like fries might appeal to him.  I bought a whole piece of deboned fresh chicken breast from the wet market (wanted the chicken fillet but not available). To make the meat more tender, I marinated the chicken strips in buttermilk overnight. For the coating mixture, I used Japanese panko (for the crispiness), Nestum cereal (for the fragrance) and parmesan cheese powder (for the taste). As the chicken strips were cut thinly, they cooked very quickly (not necessary to use a lot of oil to deep-fry, just pan-fry will do),...

After making yuzu curd from the precious yuzu brought back from Kyoto, I proceeded to make yuzu tarts the next day, because the yuzu curd should preferably be used up within a week. In my mind, I kept thinking about a French-style tart, the French tarte au citron aka lemon tart because I thought it looks so tantalizing. LOL! Frankly, I've not eaten a lemon tart before because I'm not a big fan of lemon curd and there are always other more appealing pastry choices available. But yuzu curd is different, personally I feel that it doesn't have that sharp tangy taste of lemon curd; instead, it's mild with a unique fragrance that makes me want to go for seconds. Initially I thought it would be manageable, since I've had different tart making experiences like Hong Kong Flaky Egg Tart , Hokkaido Bake Cheese Tart , Mini Egg Tarts etc etc... But instead of my usual tart pastry recipe, I went for another recipe which has a higher butter content. And so, tart pastry nightmare...

Brought back 6 yuzu from my vacation to Kyoto last month (gotta blog about the trip soon!), and I've been deliberating on how to utilise it fully because this fruit is so precious, well at least to me. This time, I only bought 6, partly because it was early part of the journey, and partly because I was distracted by the white strawberry (equally precious). After Kyoto, I proceeded to Osaka but couldn't find nice looking yuzu and at reasonable prices anymore. Really wanted to kick myself for not getting at least a dozen back in Kyoto. Oh well... In order to preserve the yuzu as long as possible, I decided to use 4 of them to make marmalade using my previous recipe . I guess with marmalade, I could have more choices subsequently, like eating it as jam with bread, drinking it as yujacha, and making cakes with it (I thinking about Yuzu Butter Cake!). And then, the remaining 2. Both sat in the box they came with for sometime; every other day I would open the box, take them out an...