Tag: writing

Thick and Creamy Oatmeal

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Ok first off, I know the picture above does not match my ‘thick and creamy’ description well, but I swear it’s the case underneath that thin blanket of granola. Looks, my friend, are all too deceiving.

When I was younger, my mum would make oatmeal at least twice a week. She chopped up some bananas and plopped them on top, and the whole bowl was lovingly drizzled with honey. I love my mother very much, but sometimes the mush , what I typically called it, just wasn’t endearing enough. I tolerated the placid, pale blobs, stuck in this one-dimensional oatmeal paradigm of mush and banana and milk. That was all to it, right? There was one point in my life when I just stopped making the stuff altogether. But over the years I’ve learnt a myriad tips and tricks on how to get the best out of your oatmeal. I remember first starting out, all gleeful with my little bowl of instant mix and water. Goodness, have I grown. Oh, the oat experiments I undertook. From the overnight health indulgences to lavish peanut butter and jelly variations, topped with banana, granola and more honey. You know, just for the heck of it. Now, I make it practically every morning, if those french toast and egg cravings are slightly subdued.

Mango and chia, topped with peanut butter, smothered in granola and lightly doused in whole milk
Mango and chia, topped with peanut butter, smothered in granola and lightly doused in whole milk
Almond butter and grapes
Almond butter and grapes (snack portion)

Nourishing, almost spiritually fulfilling. So easily, ridiculously adaptable. You can do anything with these bowls of utter heaven. I bathe my mornings in sacred rituals of sorts, with English Breakfast tea and hardy toast, sourdough if possible, but sometimes, all I need is a big bowl of Thick and Creamy for happiness to ensue. Equipped with the right ingredients and just 10 minutes hovering over the stove, I doubt any of you will look back. Honest to God. The texture this recipe yields is divine, almost pudding-like, so the reduced liquid is thicker than what you would get if you just plopped the bowl into the microwave for a few minutes (and no, the microwave never yields quite the same desirable consistency). I can’t love the stuff enough.

peanut butter, blueberries and maple syrup
peanut butter, blueberries, maple syrup and whole milk

Thick and Creamy Oatmeal (serves 1)

Ingredients

1/3 heaping cup (around 40g) of rolled oats– I use Bob’s Red Mill Rolled Oats

one cup (240ml) almond milk/ any milk of your choice, or just half that amount, with half a cup of water. Have some extra milk on hand.

half a mashed banana (preferably ripe; this is the key ingredient! It acts as a natural sweetener and adds to the whole wholesome effect of divinity in a bowl)

*optional: one egg white and/or a heaped teaspoon of chia seeds

Desirable toppings: Peanut butter, almond butter, cold whole milk or heavy cream, the rest of that poor banana, chopped apple/ blueberries/ whatever fruit you like, really.

Sweeteners: Maple syrup, thick honey (I typically use either manuka or this lovely truffle one from our trip to Rome last year), agave syrup (though I find that its flavour doesn’t quite live up to the other two), crumbly brown sugar

Grab a small saucepan and dump in your rolled oats, milk and water mixture, and mashed banana. Turn the heat to medium-high and let it come to a rolling boil. This takes a few minutes on my stove, so during this time, I go make a cup of tea and ready the papers or something. Prepare your toppings. Cool, relaxed, oat-minded. Once it has come to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer. Take a wooden spoon or just your normal metal spoon and start stirring. Stir it every once in a while, and you will see the mixture thicken as it continues to bubble and boil.

As it thickens, the bubbles will become fatter and look as if they are trying to force their way through the surface, as the oats lose their rigidity and try to absorb all the available liquid. At this point, you may wish to add an egg white and chia seeds, but do so quickly! They both add wonderful thickness to the oats, in such a short amount of time. Talk about some protein package, too. Once it looks as if all the liquid has absorbed, add more milk and continue to stir. If they already look creamy enough, remove the saucepan from the heat and pour into your bowl to initiate the cooling process. They should eventually look pale and thick, the oats broken down significantly, yet retain a slight chew if you take a small nibble. When you pour the mixture into your bowl, they will continue to cook and thicken a little more. After waiting around 5 minutes, feel free to add more milk. I like to add whole milk; I find it so much more luxurious and delicious compared to soy or any other alternative. Once it’s fully cooled (if you can wait that long), add a dash of cold cream or whole milk, and top with your desired toppings and sweeteners.

My favourite ritual involves stirring in a tablespoon or so of lush, natural peanut butter or almond butter right after the cooking, since it adds the most decadent creaminess and depth of flavour to your already creamy bowl of oats. I highly, highly recommend this step. Please, I implore you. Then add the aforementioned dash of cold milk. Go on. Do it. I then stir in a tablespoon of honey, and add a handful of fresh blueberries and raspberries, if I have any of those in the fridge.

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Truly the queen of Thick and Creamy. Truly makes my mornings. 

 

 

Posted on by alexcrumb 0

15-minute French Toast Casserole

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This is for anyone who finds pleasure in breakfast bread pudding.

This is for anyone who, like me, thinks french toast makes the perfect pre-study whip-up.

This is for anyone who delights in obtaining 100% satisfaction with a dash of rustic decadence after a mere 15-20 minutes.

Ok, it’s for anyone. Make it. It’s just so dead easy. My sisters thanked me, and they’re pretty picky eaters.

I was thinking of what to make this morning with the leftover brioche we had– no, not the good, grand sort found in artisan bakeries, but the pre-sliced, white-as-ice, chemically-laden stuff (I’m cringing as I type) from the cheap side of Cold Storage. Yes. My friends, work with what you have. I did just that. No regrets whatsoever. Of course, use the good sort if you have it. You’ll probably get less of the ‘wobbliness’ post-bake, a less sloppy (though I enjoy the wild messiness of a lovely pudding consistency) underneath, with better form and a crust which doesn’t burn as easily as the one I made. It just so happens that the brioche I used was slightly stale after being left in our Cold Room for quite a bit, so it was the perfect alternative for something all lush and fluffy and swanky, or a day-old French loaf or baguette. Make do. Happiness awaits.

This french toast casserole is chimerical and childlike in flavour, bearing a modern sweetness with the addition of good quality maple syrup at the bottom of the pan, and a thick, swelling custard which renders the bread all nice and gooey after a generous soak and bake. Plump, fluffy, sweet and magnificently soft. Sweet eggy clouds hiding beneath a brown sugar-crusted toasty top. Topped with more maple syrup, double cream and berries. Oh, that glorious crust. I mentioned this is only 15 minutes right?

What I like about this is that it’s more of a base recipe than anything. Appropriate toppings cover a wide range– caramelised bananas, pineapple and blackberries, orange/lemon zest, apple chunks coated in cinnamon, and if you want, sprinkle on a good handful of small cream cheese cubes to add a little more zing and a dash of creaminess between each bite. The sole reason for my happiness right now is this french toast right here. No kidding.

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French Toast Casserole (serves 4-5)

Ingredients

3 and a half large, torn-up slices of brioche/ 2.5 cups of cubed bread of choice (sliced white/challah/French or Italian loaf/baguette)

3 eggs

1.5 cups whole milk

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp white sugar

2 tbsp light brown/ demerara sugar

1/3 cup good quality maple syrup (not Aunt Jemima’s this time)

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees C (that’s 428 degrees F), and grease an 8×8 inch pyrex dish, or any square brownie pan you have, with cooking spray. Pour the maple syrup into the dish and move it around a bit so it’s coated nicely on the bottom. For the custard, in a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, white sugar, salt, vanilla, cinnamon.

Place your bread into the dish with maple syrup. It can be random or if you’re one of those neat freaks, go ahead and place your neat little cubes in pretty little layers. Pour the custard on top and press the bread down so all surface area, including the top, is in contact with the egg mixture. The very top would not be soaking in the custard, though.

Sprinkle the two tablespoons of light brown/demerara sugar evenly over the top, to yield the wonderful, crisp top after baking. Place the pyrex dish into the middle of the preheated oven and set the timer for 15 minutes. Serve the casserole hot, drizzled with cold double cream, more maple syrup and berries. If it’s a dessert, please take out the best vanilla ice cream you have!

Of course, since this is my first time trying this 15-minute wonder, I cannot guarantee a perfect bake after this period of time for everyone, due to different ovens, climates and the sort of bread you use. If the top is not golden and there is too obvious a wobble when you shake the dish a little, give it another 5-10 minutes. Most recipes actually require 30-40 minutes of baking, but the volume of bread and custard here is smaller than a typical serving for 6-8 people, and I’m only using an 8×8-inch pyrex dish.

That being said, this recipe is extremely versatile, so just keep an eye on the browning process and make sure everything in the dish is lovingly soaked. For french toast is love in itself, isn’t it?

Posted on by alexcrumb 1

Cinnamon Roll Blondies

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Post school, I experienced a humble but waking urge. The uzhe, I guess you could say, but I only  wanted to bake something simple; something well-loved and relatively straightforward. This recipe in particular is dedicated to my lovely Em, who I wish was here at the moment just to share some with me. I have a large family already, but having her around would definitely be the coolest.

I used my favourite chewy blondie recipe as a base, and a simple maple vanilla icing to round it off to add some disastrous sweetness. The final yield: thin, dense, firm little slabs of sticky chewiness, made all the more decadent by a sudden hit of maple and vanilla at the top of your palate. Not all too sinful, not all too modest either. I experimented a little with the icing and modified it from my previous icing recipe, in which I use a little more milk. To obtain a firmer yet moist and pliable consistency, I stuck to two tablespoons of rich, whole milk. As for those blondies, the outrageous chewiness (as how I quoted on my instagram), is achieved by the use of soft, sticky brown sugar, with a little of the normal white stuff as a less serious accompaniment.

Note: I use cup measurements here only because the base recipe I derived this from does the same, and the ratios work out perfectly. For accuracy’s sake, always use the the scoop-and-sweep method when measuring flour– scoop the flour (gently) into your cup measurement, then use the back of a knife to scrape off the excess on top. I also noted that you can do this with all white sugar, and you will get blondies just as extravagantly chewy, but there will be less depth of flavour and less cinnamon hints.

Ingredients

For blondies:

  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp fine salt
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (or fresh, if you have that wonderful sort of thing on hand. I didn’t, though of course fresh is always best)
  • 72g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1/2 cup white caster sugar
  • 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

For maple vanilla icing:

  • 3/4 cup icing sugar (being the sloth I am, I didn’t even sift mine, but a hard whisk is all you need to get those lumps out of the way. Really. Lazy? It’s ok. The world isn’t going to end.)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tsp maple syrup
  • 1-2 tbsp of milk, depending on your surrounding temperature or preference with regard to runniness of the icing. Yes, I just made up that word. You might even need more than 2! Once again, the world will not end. We are all human. Follow your heart.

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C (350F). Line and grease an 8-inch square pan. Alternatively you can do this in an 9×5-inch loaf pan, it just means you have to bake the blondies for longer, at least 25 minutes. Always check with a dry wooden skewer– if the batter is wet bake for 4-5 more minutes, if there are moist crumbs you’re good to go.
  2. In a medium bowl, briefly whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
  3. In a separate, larger bowl, whisk together both sugars and melted butter, then whisk in the egg and vanilla extract.
  4. Using a spatula, fold dry into wet ingredients, and you should get a relatively thick, grudgingly mousse-like batter. It will be a little hard to drop off the spatula.
  5. Pour into the square pan and bake in oven for 20-22 minutes (or as previously mentioned, 25 minutes if baking in a loaf pan). The golden-brown top should form a sugary crust and the edges should have started pulling away from the sides.
  6. Let cool completely in the tin. Whilst you tolerate the wait, make the icing. Whisk all the icing ingredients together in a small bowl, with a fork/whisk and generous dollop of bicep power. Add the milk drop by drop, not spoon after spoon. Careful now.
  7. Once the blondies have completely cooled, drizzle the icing in whatever patterns you desire all over the blondies.
  8. Cut into square pieces and enjoy a bit of chewy, crusty, cinnamon heaven.

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Basically.

Posted on by alexcrumb 4

Oz Specialty Coffee

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I sincerely enjoy  and relish the sight of empty coffee canisters and roasters and pressers and whatnot greeting me after a draining day at school. Liz and I tirelessly searched high and low for the place, and were immensely grateful at the first sight of a gleaming black sign plastered on a glass window, the outside neatly littered with a couple of quaint, white, wooden chairs and tables. They had the pseudo-Alice-in-Wonderland thing going on. Extraordinarily tiny area, though.

Iced Mocha– $4.50
Iced Mocha– $4.50

I guess you could say there is a reason why this iced mocha is cheaper than those other crazy $8 ones you would get at the more pretentious titles around town. This one was around the length of that between my wrist and knuckles. It came with glorious streaks, a pool of rich chocolate stuck to the bottom. What I enjoyed about this iced mocha in particular is firstly, the quality of the coffee beans used. The aroma is simple; not nutty or exotic but perfect for this sort of milk-based, sweet and whimsical drink. Secondly, it was not overly sweet, drenched excessively in cheap chocolate syrup and then quickly covered up with cold whole milk to make visually appealing to the masses. No, this one is a delicate, miniature mocha. I would have perhaps preferred it a little colder, and with espresso cubes instead of the normal ones, though of course I now sound like a spoilt little coffee brat, don’t I. Keep it up, Oz. I like you already.

Salted caramel belgian Liege waffles– $7.50
Salted caramel Belgian Liege waffles– $7.50

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And I promise you it’s worth every cent. I guess you could go somewhere such as Assembly Coffee or Stranger’s Reunion for your waffle fix, though it’s most likely frustratingly crowded and you might have to force open the door to get a little fresh air amongst the clatter and chatter. This was an utterly, outrageously delectable change. They have a whole darn Belgian Liege series, for goodness’ sake, and you get two beautiful little Belgian babies in less than 15 minutes with a appropriately-sized scoop of above-average vanilla ice cream. Belgian Liege waffles are essentially the brioche of waffles– thick and sensual, thicker and chewier. You can’t not have these. Can’t. I mean, you can see the vanilla speckles, right? I wouldn’t say it’s as devilish and heat-tolerant as the ice cream at Habitat’s, which really was an unexpected dream. The ice cream here melted in heart-stopping time, and we were sitting indoors. They also offer options such as waffles with summer berries or with scrambled eggs and bacon, if you’re more of a savoury soul. The next time I pop by, I’m going to give their affogato version a try. Drizzle of espresso over thick, moist, slightly sweet and chewy 4-inch waffles. I saw pictures, ok. The dream is alive, just a few bus stops away.

Each bite was satisfying and yet not overly indulgent. The portion size is perfect, the flavours meld together beautifully. But watch out. They said salted caramel, but sadly that wasn’t what I got. One may detect traces of salt in the thick sauce, however it’s not as prominent or outstanding as what you would probably get at say, Assembly Coffee. They need to turn up the salt notch and use more authentic salted caramel, for although this was thick and lovingly true to my childhood idea of the BEST caramel sauce ever, it rendered a less sophisticated vibe with its gloopy sweetness.

Best bit: Crisp exterior and dense, mildly sweet, true-to-brioche interior.

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Raspberry cheesecake– $6

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We gave in. Ordered this.

This expensive slice has a moist and dark base, with a creamy, lightly aerated interior, though I still prefer a more buttery, tangy and coronary heart disease-inducing white filling. It’s on the sweeter side, which made it enjoyable but nothing special. That being said, I liked how it wasn’t too muggy whilst still retaining a good level of indulgence within that whipped and cheesy body. The top is raspberry jam, which yielded a sweet and tart finish.

 

Oz Specialty Coffee

#01-13, Thomson V Two, 11 Sin Ming Road

Posted on by alexcrumb 0

14?

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So I browsed a lot of blogs and websites on what we term the Meaning of Life. Poor, pathetic Alex, lost in this constant state of confusion and lack of self-assertion, the unbearable heaviness and drowsiness of ennui, of the gross grey state, of absolute insecurity. Hey, let me live my life. It’s fascinating alright. The fact that we all have such different ideals and notions and attitudes. We are freaking magnificent. 

Here’s one I particularly enjoyed by famed science writer Stephen Jay Gould:

“We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a ‘higher’ answer — but none exists. This explanation, though superficially troubling, if not terrifying, is ultimately liberating and exhilarating. We cannot read the meaning of life passively in the facts of nature. We must construct these answers ourselves — from our own wisdom and ethical sense. There is no other way.”

Guys, it’s 2014. I can say it out loud, though it’s a little hard. It’s hard for me to say things without fully coming to terms with its gargantuan impact. I have officially had this blog for (ok almost) a year now, and even though I still keep a diary for more personal recordings, for a more self-assured, sometimes hazardous and selfish reinforcing of a sense of self, I found that this online release has introduced me to so many amazing human beings, inspirations, really allowing me to delve further into my passions of food and science. 

I wrote down my resolutions in my diary, but then put down my pen. Continued the lazy browsing.

Four-teen. Two thousand and four-teen. Note the hyphen. The break for perfect pronounciation in normal conversation. It’s that nascent trembling again, that time when you’re supposed to make, what, a list? God I love making lists. I really do. It’s not banal, it’s not perfunctory. To me, a list is the epitome of organised thought, aside from some brilliant novel. As I said, something in me made me stop the recollection. In short, we should, no, need to, differentiate between recollection and appreciation. I’m currently reading a book about Proust and how in many of his novels and his own life (you can find it here), we may digest a tremendous amount of life lessons. Things like how to listen properly and how to take your time, the sort of self-help (goodness gracious what on earth) book I foresee myself purchasing when I’m 80 and grey and run out of excuses for a good life. But anyways, there are so many resources informing us on how to live, how to learn, how to see. How to pursue our passions and live in the most fulfilling way possible. Satisfying our inborn needs and letting our surroundings complete us somehow. Funny huh, how we strive for utmost perfection in our individual ways. In the book, I came across this particularly striking notion, the sort which actually relates to people on a mass scale.

You know how when you see something and just.. Like it? You just do. The shine on a pink apple, the drab but surreal and enlightening tones of a winter tree, maybe the sudden faint smell of tobacco and peppermint, for whatever odd reason that may be. That is because it provokes or stirs up an emotion in you, triggering a beautiful or old memory of some sort. Maybe you just like the aesthetic/visual/aural  appeal of that object. Whether you identify the psychological reason behind it or not, you like it. That is essentially a fraction of the explanation detailing what makes us who we are and well, the mistake we always tend to make. In our everyday lives, we cease to stop and look, and only really get hit by an object’s full impact when it’s separated from a particular context, when we look from the outside in. Sometimes the object is fully placed in its usual habitat, it’s just that this time our senses are so heightened that it is suddenly transformed into something so excruciatingly potent or beautiful. All the details of its beauty are caught out, which is why most of us get that sad nostalgia churning on the inside when we reach (again, again) the end of a year. We look at what we have done, what we have accomplished, what more we need to do to satisfy those inner needs or self-manifested benchmarks for worthiness and goodness. And then what happens? We want to put a label on the Meaning of Life so darn badly that we actually forget to live life. To appreciate. Live. I’m not going to resolve to ‘live life to the fullest’ or ‘be the best’- I’ve done that too many times and I bore myself with my pseudo-disciplinary methods. Oh, so bored. But I am going to be absolutely ridiculous this year. And what I mean by that is to really throw myself into the many factions of my life and all it has to offer, and handle things my way, be it intertwined with my weird study schedule, obsessive skincare routine or the way I make my coffee in the mornings. That may seem the same as living life to the fullest, but remember, I said ridiculous. Just as beauty to you is different than what it is to me, what I term ridiculous, or absurd, may be utterly different from your definition.

After all:

“We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”

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Happy New Year, you devils.

Posted on by alexcrumb 1