Tag: personal

Chocolate Chip Waffles

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Things to note this past week:

My class’s Friday book/film club is adorable and is the perfect excuse to bake every Thursday night if not being lazy.

The National Gallery is an underrated treasure here in London.

Another underrated food is caramelised banana.

Learning is the right balance of acceptance and curiosity.

The bright and vivid, dark ink of a new pen is almost orgasmic.

I picked at a mostly dry stack of buckwheat pancakes the other Saturday and am now afraid of ordering pancakes or waffles somewhere ever again. Today’s post is thus born out of a love for the neglected kitchen, a strong tribute to the homemakers of the century– who needs waffles outside when you can make amazing ones within the warm comfort of your home, to accompany a freshly brewed Nespresso cuppa, a book or probing documentary, and mountains of whatever toppings you would like?

Now that the first huge set of assignments are done, I’m relaxing with my waffles, already on my second cup of coffee. As I type, some doughnuts hibernate behind me. A free Wednesday is therapeutic and needed, sometimes. I think I spend all my money on flour and nothing else. Flour, frozen berries, bread and veggies. Those top the list. What else is required for a happy life; what else is needed to dedicate concentration to the hours that don’t make up breakfast, lunch and dinner?

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These waffles. They’re thick. They burst and bubble with specks of chocolate, all crisp round the edges and mildly chewy everywhere else. The rims and ridges are sharp and taut, ravines ready to catch your lashings of maple syrup (didn’t have any syrup this time sadly, so used blackstrap molasses which did the trick anyway). You probably can’t tell, but the first picture shows a plain version, the second is chocolate chip-stuffed. Depending on your mood, make either, but at your own caution, for chocolate, melting and caught between each crevice, really makes all the difference.

Vegan Chocolate Chip Waffles For One (scale up for more people as needed)

Ingredients

25g rolled oats

120g plain flour (or whole-wheat if you prefer)

35-40g chopped dark chocolate

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

120ml (1/2 cup) almond milk, or any other plant milk (soy/coconut/oat) you have

3 tbsp olive/coconut oil/vegan butter (doesn’t have to be melted, as long as it’s soft or at room temperature)

3 tbsp maple syrup/blackstrap molasses/rice syrup (use honey if you’re not vegan)

 

Directions

Tip all ingredients into a bowl and mix until all is well combined. The mixture should be like a thick cake batter; add more flour if it isn’t. You could do this the night before and pop the bowl into your fridge so you save a little time in the morning when you make it!

Preheat your waffle iron according to its instructions, grease with whatever fat you used in the batter itself (in this case I used coconut oil) and pour the batter in, making sure not to exceed the tips of the iron ridges. Cook until the surfaces are lightly browned. My waffle iron doesn’t require me to flip the waffles over, but if you feel the heating is uneven, go ahead and do just that after 3-4 minutes, depending on how fast and strong your iron is. This recipe makes about 2 thick waffles, a generous serving for one person, but sharing with someone else works too. Freeze any extras and toast in your toaster when you want to have them again. Soooo good with thick and creamy soy yoghurt, berries, caramelised banana (see above) and maple syrup.

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Apple Crumble Cereal

The past week was spruced up with a read I have long meant to get around to digging in to, but put it off for too long in the name of all the fiction that I listed down first before my exams even started before June (exhale). Namely, it’s How Not To Die by Dr. Michael Gregor, which unveils a flurry of fact-based nutrition evidence supporting a whole foods, plant-based diet. Funny how just a year ago, or less even, I could never see myself buying into what initially seemed like pure trend. If the keto/HCLF/paleo diets all have their downsides, then why should I give two hoots about being a vegan? What’s the truth behind this ‘restriction’?

The answer, as we all swim in this vitriolic field of nutrition, would have to lie in the overlaps of the gargantuan venn diagram encompassing the evidence-based medicine and science, ethics and environment. Documentaries like Earthlings, Land of Hope and Glory (a new and wonderfully constructed documentary on the reality of the meat and dairy industries, like Earthlings 2.0), Forks Over Knives, and many Youtube videos on veganism illuminate a painful truth and cognitive dissonance most of us unconsciously drown in.

Every day is a choice, and I’ve made mine with conviction and confidence. This of course does not mean I am above anything or anyone, for to be human is to make mistakes. I’m happy to be the underdog, or just a friend. I type furiously as I think about how, sometimes, people talk without speaking, going in circles around moot points. But I am grateful for people who listen, feel uncomfortable, but try and understand. Life is a beautiful debate. It has taken me a while, especially regarding family, to admit to being preachy, or unnecessarily churlish, therefore sometimes, no matter how hard one may try to put forward a fact, the best option is to bow your head and accept that only time, and example, are the best ways forward.

As much as we are what we eat, we are also more than the sum of our parts. And there’s many a thing in our daily lives that can help us realise and appreciate this. Like yoga, intense work, a great book, poetry, nourishing food, people who can hold you accountable for things, and call you out when need be.

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Now to be a fangirl over THIS apple crumble cereal that will dissolve your maelstrom of discontent. I can dump anything, literally anything into a cereal bowl, douse with milk and call it a day. You name it, and I will soak. Banana bread, chunks of a pumpkin tart, lemon meringue pie… oh and cereal, perhaps. Anything but something savoury, I guess. Kimchi and almond milk… maybe not so much. God forbid I will ever only be able toe at those two together.

Made with coconut and almond flour, coconut sugar and plenty of apple, I do wish I had a proper picture of the apple crumble itself, however I designed it to be perfect in the context of cereal– fluffy and crumbly, with hearty, soft chunks of apple to break through all that marshmallowy loveliness, perfect to dissolve at the right rate upon pouring in a river of creamy plant milk (whichever one you prefer, I’m partial to soy, oat or almond). Mildly sweet clusters of fluff, soft and cinnamony fruit.

Apple Crumble Cereal

Ingredients (enough for 4-5 bowls, store the rest in the fridge)

1.5 large or 2 small apples chopped into large chunks

100g rolled oats

40g almond flour

60g coconut flour (or use 100g total of either almond or coconut flour)

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves (optional)

1 tbsp soy yogurt or any other non-dairy yoghurt of your choice

60ml maple syrup

3.5 tbsp coconut oil

Directions

Preheat your oven to 162C and lightly grease a 9×9-inch pan. In a bowl, whisk together all ingredients except for the apples and cinnamon. Add the yogurt, maple syrup and coconut oil to this dry mixture. It may look dry especially if you’re using the coconut flour, but the mixture should stick and clump together together nicely when squeezed with your hands.

In a bowl, toss the apples and cinnamon together and dump it into the pan. Put the crumble on top, press down lightly, then sprinkle on more oats and cinnamon on top. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, no more and no less.

Once done, take the pan out of the oven, scoop as much as you want into a bowl and douse with whatever plant milk you like. I like to add more fruit, soy yogurt and tahini.

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No-bake Chocolate Coconut Bars

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Treats. They right a lot of wrong in the world.

Exactly this time last week I had the privilege of eating alone during my lunch break in between working hours, and I wrote down a few realisations:

  • Eating alone is a thing to be celebrated
  • Korean is possibly favourite cuisine (this may change in a couple of weeks)
  • I need to travel more when its pretty parts and cultures still exist
  • Talks with old friends who still ride on the same wavelength, energy and compassion are incredibly underrated and never dull. These are the occasions which one should be happy to steal away time. The world needs more Real People Conversations. This world should thrive on that bravery,
  • At the lab where I’m undertaking an internship, it is invigorating to tend to the invisible. To pipette precisely, up and down, take exact volumes. This precision forces me to think about things in detail, making me aware of my surroundings and in awe of the big picture that is the Earth’s beauty and mysteries. Detail is a meditation.
  • Some people never go through an awkward tween phase
  • Some pairings like coconut and chocolate are meant to be, like the zip on my Laurice pencil case and removable cap of an ink pen.

To accompany solitude and writing is my iced black cuppa, the one thing that has stayed true to my lifelong affair with breakfast, foam from Nespresso dispensing interrupted by crushed ice.

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An old friend returned from studying overseas and, upon sampling one, two and three, could not believe they were vegan. The chocolate mousse layer is of the perfect consistency- a small finger press gives way to a tender indent, holding firm without being flimsy. These bars are sticky, sweet and devilishly good, but the opaque richness of the coconut cream provides a slight bitterness to offset and ripen the other flavours instantaneously on your tongue.

No-bake Chocolate Coconut Bars (Adapted from this delightful raw tiramisu recipe)

Ingredients

For the base:

8 pitted dates (medjool dates are ideal; I typically freeze a stock and microwave the necessary amount when needed)

210g cashew nuts

pinch of salt

3 tbsp water

4 tbsp liquid/melted coconut oil

1/2 tsp instant espresso powder

For the chocolate mousse layer:

420g cashews, pre-soaked and strained (simply soak them the night before in enough water to cover them in a bowl)

8 pitted dates

120ml almond/cashew milk

100ml maple syrup

7 tbsp cacao powder

7 tbsp liquid /melted coconut oil

2 tbsp white tahini

2 tbsp instant espresso powder

pinch of salt

For the coconut cream:

2 cans coconut cream, left in the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight

Directions

In a food processor, blend together the ingredients for the base. Line a 9×9-inch pan with parchment paper and press the mix down with your knuckles until you get an even layer. Place the pan in the fridge to stiffen while you make the chocolate mousse filling.

Make sure the food processor has all the remnants scraped out, but you don’t have to clean it. Put the ingredients for the chocolate mousse layer into the processor and blend until you get a smooth and even filling. Take out your pan from the fridge and smooth the mousse layer on top. Take your cans of coconut cream and open them– there should be thick, spoonable white cream on top. Take it and spread a thin layer on top of the coconut mousse layer. Save the liquid left behind for things like curries! Put the pan in the freezer to stiffen.

Put the pan in the fridge an hour before serving to soften the layers a little and to make it easier to cut.

 

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Lebkuchen-spiced Orange Marmalade Pudding Loaf Cake (+travel update!)

Thought I’d put in little tidbits from my personal journal, which I hauled along with me to document almost every day of the past 3 weeks. Starting end of March, it was a whirlwind of everything. Of food, friends, laughter and love. Of things forgotten, of a life well-lived.

27 March

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Café Camelot. Krakow, Poland. 6.47pm.

And now for more food, some sort of uplifting sustenance after a bit of sour at Auschwitz.  I wonder at the inhumanity that still prevails in this century. Is mankind still reverting, backwarding?

30th March

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Warsaw, Poland. 10.03am.

As I eat Green and Black’s 70% I am savouring all the elements of the world. I was stopped in my previous entry by all the starters and gorgeous food and faces. Right there. We have basically been eating, sleeping and walking non-stop, and now we will visit the Chopin Museum before trying out a Michelin Star restaurant at which 6 courses cost like 20?? Billie’s (was referring to Billie Holiday here) voice is calming, her swing’s injecting new life and groove into this plaintful morning. Time to rouse myself to the day and delight in its offerings.

1st April

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Berlin. 6.47pm.

ICE. Berlin is done! Now for the train to where half my heart is. I have just eaten the most delicious plum (bakewell) tart. This morning in our stunning, white-clad Airbnb, I awoke with a different conscience, to light that heightened my reason for existing. The plush, take-to-any-form German pillow absorbed all my shallow measurements of being human. Straight from the head. Maybe youth is to balance all this adventure with careful steps. Plus I need to be as neat as the dude who owns this place…

7th April

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Firenze (Florence). 3.13pm.

Jesus this brass head is shaky. What does it want from me?

Outside there is a mad bustling, 15th century flourish adsorbed onto the refurbished Tuscan brown walls laden with history and emotion. Here there is such exuberance, passion and fire in every movement of wind. We are in search of culture, gelato (had the best one ever at Vivoli!!) and endless leg trails. I look quite the Asian stereotype. Between us there is a blank, poised honesty.

13th April

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Schladming, Austria. 5 10pm.

I may not be skiing, but as I sit as this pink-clothed doll’s table with matching doll chairs and the laughter of young ones staining my mind, I realise this is living in a dream I wish not to wake up from, and I’ve never laughed or smiled this much in a long time.

 

And nowwww for some foodie time. Because this is an exciting one (as it always is, but a pumping heart and nostalgic fondness amps it up all the more, smoke trailing in the wind). Once I left that whole parade of Europe I missed it so much I had to whip out something that mildly reminded me of Germany, or Poland, maybe even of the airport, ha. Found some lebkuchen spice from Christmas last year, and no it’s not Christmas, but the attached, sweetly-stinging memory of dark, cold, sparkling nights with a hot mulled something got me going.

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9.55am.

It’s hibernating in the oven as I speak. It’s bubbling with currants and Waitrose’s orange marmalade. Little stress, lots of goodness. Originally wanted to make eccles cake, but realised personal cravings for the simple stuff, like a simple, well-formed loaf cake, trumps any creativity attempt that does take more time but does not necessarily satisfy me physically or mentally so much more. It will be drizzled with something incredulously, deliciously regal.

This cake! Down below you will find what I truly think is the most perfect icing ratio! Really really. And I could go on about the ease– in my little book of recipes the directions bit for this has pretty much just one step. Dry and wet, mix mix mix, done, eat, savour, fridge, next day comes and the cycle starts again. This is a delicious, devious cycle. I am glad to say that I am ridiculously healthy outside my Saturday baking shenanigans, these solo explosions of flour and sugar parties. And sometimes moderation must be in moderation.

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Why pudding?

Baked for a shorter duration than your typical loaf cake, this was the goal. Goo was the goal, for a slightly wobbly, underdone belly. Tremendous goo (I must stop), complemented by a robust, caramelised edge. Crowned with whatever you want– this time I chose chopped discs of nutty chocolate, a lemon drizzle and more nuts. This part is entirely up to you. This is your emotion on a canvas.

With no eggs in the fridge right after travelling, I made do with a couple of ripe bananas, and it couldn’t have turned out any better. This cake is 100% vegan, which is perfect for anyone who swings that way. No forgetting that all my recipes are veganisable anyway (look at my lovely English)! I find a strange solace in knowing that anyone, anywhere, will be able to whip up any of my creations with ease and grace. I am confident that any fine French patisserie creation can be modified, customised to taste and ethical/dietary preferences. This is your life, after all, and baking need not be outside you. Baking is always with you.

Ingredients

For the pudding cake:

250g plain flour

200g sugar

2 tbsp lebkuchen spice

2 tsp ground cinnamon

half tsp salt

250ml milk of choice (I used Rude Health’s deliciously rice-sweetened almond milk)

2 small bananas, mashed

100ml oil of choice (I used sunflower)

1 tsp vanilla extract

100g marmalade, preferably orange

150g currants (optional)

For the icing:

135g icing sugar

1 tbsp lemon juice

2-4 tbsp water (I needed 2.5)

Directions

Preheat your oven to 162C and grease your loaf pan. Sprinkle a tablespoon of sugar into the pan and tip the pan till the sugar is coated all around the edges and sides.

For the cake, mix together the dry ingredients, then add all the wet ingredients (mashed banana, milk, oil, marmalade and vanilla). The batter should be a light orange-brown and very wet. Pour into the pan and bake for 1 hour and 5 minutes. While it is baking, mix together the icing ingredients and set aside. Once baking time is up, test with a wooden skewer stabbed right in the middle of the loaf; remove the pan if there are moist crumbs clinging to the skewer.

Wait for the cake to cool in the pan for half an hour before removing and drizzling with the icing. Cut and serve on its own, though I have recently discovered the joy of each bite with a little fruit and coconut yoghurt.

 

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Arlette Biscuits

Awake, breathing arlettes. Pastry doesn’t have to be painful.

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Coming across this recipe just once in Waterstones the past weekend was enough to convince me that this was the one and only thing I had to play with and hopefully do justice. So the hands got down to it, butter greased my fingers, and more vanilla-cinnamon perfume filled the air and softened a week-hardened soul.

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A simple matter of roll (tight enough), cut (with a sharp enough knife), bake (and ok, with a watchful eye and well-greased pan). After the pastry mess, of course.

Using a rough puff, go ahead and call me the ersatz princess, but what you see is indeed what you get, with the subtracted effort proving efficient and definitely worthwhile. I modified mine from Gordon Ramsay’s signature rough puff recipe, and found that I did not need as much cold water at the end. I then used Michel Roux’s recipe for the filling, so the insides were well-pressed with plenty of flaked almonds and more sugar. You do need plenty of butter and icing sugar, and if you’re reluctant to get just those two things I have no idea what you’re doing here. I mean sometimes even I haven’t a clue why I channel all my effort into heated baking blabber, but this passion is heated, and I just want you guys to be similarly enthusiastic about it!

The edges, crisp and caramelised, are angry enough to cut through jaws and convince the sharpest of tongues that the language of sugar and butter must never be underestimated. The anger is nuanced, but still there. Each disc wants to be cracked, then dipped in a luxury pool of vanilla ice cream or cream. Your yoghurt can be saved for this too, just crumble each disc between your fingers for some unanticipated granola, and these are your saved mornings, packaged in an airtight containers for the remainder of the month, or at least the next few days.

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Arlettes (makes at least 20; you can bake half and store the rest in the freezer for whenever else you want the babies)

*=vegan substitutions

Ingredients

For the rough puff pastry:

250g flour

250g unsalted butter, reaching room temperature but not entirely soft, cut into cubes (*sub: vegan butter)

pinch salt

100-120ml cold water

For the filling:

30-40g flaked almonds

1 tablespoon cinnamon

300g icing sugar

1 egg yolk (*sub: more vegan butter)

Directions

In a large bowl, add the salt to the flour, then rub the butter into the flour. The cold butter will warm up overtime and the bits will meld easily into the flour. Once the butter has been rubbed fairly evenly into flour (there will still be chunks of butter streaked through the mixture), add a quarter cup of cold water and mix. Add tablespoons of cold water until the dough just comes together. Roll the pastry into a shape that somewhat resembles a sphere or ball, put into the bowl, cover the bowl with foil/cling film and leave in your fridge to rest for a half hour.

Take your dough and place it on a slightly floured work surface. Roll the dough until it’s roughly 20x50cm, then take the top third and fold it down to the centre, and do the same with the opposite third, so you end up with a book with three layers. Roll this out again until its three times the book’s original length. Then fold the same way as before, and put back into the fridge for another half hour.

During this time, preheat your oven to 177C (350F). Grease a large pan, then sprinkle over a small handful of icing sugar (part of the 300g), then shake the pan so it coats it. Put this aside.

Liberally dust your work surface with flour and icing sugar. Roll the refrigerated pastry out on this surface until it’s 4mm thick. Brush the top with egg yolk, followed by the flaked almonds, cinnamon, and half of the icing sugar. You will need the rest for later. Roll the pastry from the long edge until your get a swiss roll-like swirl. Cover and leave in the fridge for 10 minutes (you can cut the log into half or in thirds to fit your pan, or to stuff half in the freezer if you don’t want to bake a whole batch right there and then).

Take out the log and cut it into discs around 4mm thick. Dip your fingers in icing sugar and press the discs on your work surface until they’re around 1 mm thick, then place them onto your pan. Don’t worry if some parts are thinner than others, it just means they will be crisper and easier to break for a more pleasurable mouthful afterwards. Bake for 6-8 minutes, then flip over with a spatula (or something that resembles that particular shape) and bake for another 2 minutes, before removing. They should look outrageously crisp and golden-brown, especially around the edges.

Serve with ice cream and more flaked almonds. They would also, unsurprisingly, pair fantastically with coffee or tea, the bitterness of either allowing for enhanced savouring of the delicate sweetness, each mouth-coating bite of butter.

 

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