Tag: sortedfood

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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Blueberry Oat Breakfast Crumble

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The forgotten satisfaction of a textural orchestra first thing in the morning.

A crisp blueberry oat breakfast crumble. A warm middle, roasted and earthy, bleeding with blueberries, crying golden, glistening. 

Different mornings must heed to different needs. It’s like lunchtimes away from the office, discovering the magical brilliance about the combination of eggplant (qie zi), lotus root (lian ou), overcooked white rice, tofu (dou fu) and broccoli (xi lan hua). But mornings are the best. Sometimes it’s a dripping bowl of warm oats with a cold splash of almond milk. Other times it must be crunch-and-cream action, like crispy brown toast dipped into thick coconut yoghurt, opaque and lustful. Just this morning I indulged in the simple pleasure of crispy brown toast topped with tahini and marmalade. Nowadays I’ve tended to be more inclined to a scene of willing sogginess, dipping toast into coffee or letting my cereal and granola soak for a little too long in milk, sugars seeping out to sheen the white pool.

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It bubbles and glistens. This crumble offers it all. There is no need for time to drag crunch to sog like in the case of morning cereal.

As I dug into the gooey bottomed crumbled with a crisp, sugared top, creamy coconut yoghurt glazing all edges of my spoon and crumble, it occurred to me once again how much I adore the solitude and satisfaction of breakfast.

When I know breakfasts like these are good for me and the planet, there is simply no loss. It’s good to be a little aware, you know, of what you put inside yourself and how you feel about every bite. I used to think it so stupid and time-wasting to care so much. But you only start to care when you question. Which is more eco-friendly– the paper towel or blast dryer? These are actually very important questions.

I therefore take no shame in vaunting this one.

Blueberry Oat Breakfast Crumble (makes one or two small servings)

Ingredients 

3.5 tbsp coconut/oat/plain flour

3.5 tbsp whole rolled oats

pinch salt

1.5 tbsp maple syrup

120ml plant milk of choice (almond/rice/coconut/hemp etc, I used almond!)

handful of fresh blueberries

 

Directions

Preheat your oven to 180C. In a large ramekin (or two smaller ones), mix all the crumble ingredients together with a fork. Bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes. Once out let cool a while before digging in with some coconut yoghurt or ice cream!!

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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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Kaya Apple Cake

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These patches of bright light on my desk are rare, taking on sharp edges, hurting and twisting against the grim dark wall that is my computer screen shadow. A rare occasion, this sunlight. Its splendour screams safe but isn’t as unassuming and comforting as the 8am spillover of soft winter light, which funnily enough I do miss. Soft and unassuming. Just like the pot of homemade kaya sent all the way from Singapore. I can imagine my grandmother churning away with those pandan leaves on the weekend, thinking about how I would find her new recipe, sugar ratios in tow.

With school inevitably comes times of doubt and stress. I carefully pulled apart the bubble wrap neatly taped around the large tub of green. The smell of home propped my spirit on an invisible high horse and sent me straight to her kitchen thousands of miles away for a good 30 seconds. School didn’t exist for a good 30 seconds, too. Just standing there, one could believe nothing more than the present and past. Let the worries fade, let the senses of Now take over, and bake a cake.

There would seem to be a worrying mildness about kaya, yet when put together in a sea of cake batter and soft apple, its head pops out above the rest, an unmistakable coconutty hit serving well to blunt this seed of nonchalance.

A soft, cinnamony kaya apple cake, sandwiched with kaya, to be eaten only with something deliciously cold and creamy, as per pretty much everything I make. 

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This is an incredibly soft cake, more so than any of my other previous recipes. I suggest upping the amount of sugar by a few tablespoons for a more robust edge and crust, and feel free to use any sort of kaya; it need not be your traditional green kaya, for I envision the brown Hainanese sort works just as well, tailing along a more honeyed depth of sweet. And of course, the raisins are not de rigueur..

As usual, all substitutions are optional and vegan.

Kaya Apple Cake (makes one 9 inch cake)

Ingredients

200g plain flour

125g applesauce

60g butter (sub: flavourless oil or vegan butter)

100g kaya+ 100g for the fun sandwiching bit

1 egg (sub: one banana)

200g sugar

pinch salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda (eliminate if using self-raising flour)

1 tsp vanilla extract

100g raisins (optional)

190g chopped apple, peeled and cored (around 1 1/2 apples)

 

Directions

Preheat your oven to 177C and grease a 9-inch pan.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, sugar and salt. In a separate heat-safe bowl, heat the applesauce and butter together, either in a microwave or on a stove. Whisk in the egg, 100g of kaya and vanilla. Tip your raisins and chopped apple into the dry mix, before tipping in the wet applesauce mix. Mix everything together until just combined, then pour into your pan and bake for 35 minutes.

Once out, let cool for at least 10 minutes and ready the extra kaya. Cut the cake down the middle of the pan. Spread the remaining kaya onto the first half, sandwich with the second half, then cut everything into bars. Serve á la mode!

 

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