The blessing of my brother and sister...

I'm reflecting on the year that has just gone by. Even though my family is far from perfect, and the Veterans have the typical dysfunctionalities of person their generation, I'm very thankful that I also have two very great siblings who have been the source of many blessings to me.

Amongst all my friends, it seems few, or none of them are actually close to their siblings. So I don't take it for granted that I can talk to Cosmo about anything under the sun (especially those gross things like what happens when you get L.S.), and call her up at crazy hours (and vice versa) and that Airport is always so kind with little favours and lending a hand with everything - from babysitting Little Pixie so that we could go have a foot reflexology session, watch a midnight movie, and buying groceries, and most recently, letting us take a holiday to visit Cosmo with his free air miles.

And without Airport, I could not have come up with the most recent cheesecake "creations".

Take this wonderful oven. I only realised after recent trips to the shops that at 42L, it's almost twice as large as most of the ovens on sale now.

Cosmo bought it for me as a wedding gift 5 years ago. I had no idea then what a good deal it was, seeing that we had ordered it in some sleazy neighbourhood shop on the recommendations of an "auntie" friend. What's more, I didn't even know a thing about baking 5 years ago, and didn't know a cupcake from a muffin, or flour from cornstarch.

5 years down, and a Little Pixie later, it has become one of the things I absolutely can't live without in my kitchen - next to the washing machine. It is THE most important kitchen cooking tool for a lazy, smoke-averse cook who also happens to hang her laundry in the kitchen! And I am not the only fan of the oven. So is Little Pixie who runs to the kitchen each time something edible comes out of the oven.

Thank you Cosmo and Airport!

My Cheesecake Cracked & Cheese Cupcakes Exploded!!

It was Little Pixie's 2nd birthday. I had wanted to make little muffin-sized cheesecakes with an Oreo cookie each for the base - using a no-bake recipe by Annabel Karmel (and inspired by some suggestion in David Tutera's Party Planner on Discovery Travel & Living), and the classic New York-style (this is my 5th run) to give away.

Airport was kind enough to help me out as the cleaner lady was coming and unlike half a year ago, Little Pixie is now old enough to be interested in a career as a baking assistant. She watches and tries to get involved as much as she can.

So Airport did all the mixing, pouring, and cleaning up - all I did was interprete the recipe & give out instructions.

Unfortunately, I made a crucial error in the no-bake version - as you can see. After many hours, it had still not set - and in desperation, I put one of the 3 trays I made into the oven. Well, the cheese-cupcakes-with-Oreo-base puffed up nicely, exploded and then collapsed all over my oven!!

A separate version had all the Oreos floating up into the cheese batter!

Of all the cheesecakes I have made, only the first one seems to be crack-free. And get this: I baked the first one in a blur, before consulting all those expert books on how to get the perfect crack-free cheesecake and baking the subsequent ones.

I am still mystified as to what caused all my subsequent attempts to crack!

Kitchen Horrors!

Not sure how many of you read this, but I wish they'd publish the names of the offending restaurants! Now I'm filled with these horrid thoughts whenever we eat out thanks to this article!

And I think I can guess at least one restaurant that's guilty. Check out the highlighted description (in red):
One 20-year-old, who used to work in the kitchen of an American chain of restaurants, said he would go to work in the morning to find cockroaches inside the giant mixer that the restaurant used to mix batter for its muffins. Hardly surprising, then, that at least three customers have returned with half-eaten food with feelers hanging out.

There are only that many American chains here, and there could only be two possibilities. One is predominantly dessert-based. The other one stands out for its famous YUMMY MUFFINS (comes in only one flavour) !!! Which Tin Hang Zai and I love!!!

When I related the story to Tin Hang Zai this morning (he hadn't read the article), the first thing he said was "XXXXX" and he guessed it right!

I'm going to start making my own now. Urgh!!

Sunday Times 16 December 2007
Kitchen Horrors
More food outlets have been fined this year - and the unsavoury items served up in eateries include cockroaches in muffins and dental floss in kaya toast

LACK OF HYGIENE is a major problem in food kitchens, with more outlets being fined this year by the National Environment Agency for filthy premises, rodent infestation and contaminated food. And to add to the mix, food is sometimes salvaged from the floor and thawed meat is put back in the freezer.

WHEN Ms Carol Yap ordered a kaya toast and coffee combo at a cafe recently, she wasn't counting on biting into anything more than hot kaya spread and a slab of butter on crispy bread.
There was something chewy and stringy in her mouth - it was a piece of dental floss and it wasn't hers.

This wasn't the first time the 36-year-old has made an unsavoury discovery in her food. A few years earlier, she thought her noodles at a Chinese restaurant might have been overdone until she spat out a 1.5cm piece of wire.

'Luckily I didn't cut myself or break a tooth,' said the shocked secretary.

Most people could probably cite at least one encounter with foreign matter in their food - maybe a strand of hair or a small dead bug.

The recent PrimaDeli food poisoning case, when more than 100 people became ill after eating the bakery's cakes, has put food hygiene in the spotlight.

In fact, more eateries and hawker stalls have landed themselves in the soup this year than the past three years, mostly for filthy premises, rodent infestation and contaminated food.

Offending food outlets fined by the National Environment Agency (NEA) so far this year numbered 2,148. This is up from 1,307 last year, 1,524 in 2005 and 1,857 in 2004.

NEA puts the high number down to stepped-up checks and more tip-offs from the public.

But just what goes on behind kitchen doors? Heard those stories about underpaid, overworked chefs spitting into your food? That's not an urban myth.

Although kitchen staff say it hardly happens now, waitresses at one Japanese food chain were known to have done that to picky customers.

But the most common transgression, it seems, is not washing hands after a visit to the loo.

Lack of hygiene
FOOD handlers say that in their rush to get orders out, they sometimes forget to soap up. And even though gloves are a must when it comes to handling cooked food, not all use them.
A chef who has been in the business for more than 20 years says he has seen it all: from the spitting to the scratching to the sneezing.

'When I catch them scratching their oily scalps and go back to preparing the food, I'll scold them and ask them: will you eat this food yourself?' he said.

Chef Ang Song Kang of Canton Wok by Chef Kang said: 'It's about personal hygiene. If you can't even be clean with yourself, how can you expect to serve others?'

Cooks in Chinese kitchens, especially, think nothing of handling raw and cooked food with the same set of bare hands.

One 50-year-old waitress, who has done the rounds in Chinese restaurants, readily admits she and her colleagues sometimes use their bare hands to arrange food on a plate, such as the cold dish served at wedding dinners.

At a top-end popular Chinese restaurant here, tea leaves are left exposed and vulnerable to cockroaches.

Another waitress said: 'When we're busy, we just use our hands to grab the tea leaves. Or if a plate is stained, we just wipe it with our fingers.'

A part-time kitchen helper at an American-style cafe said her manager even told her not to wear gloves when dishing out food, as it was easier and faster to work with bare hands.

'All the food got embedded in my nails. It was disgusting,' said the 18-year-old polytechnic student.

Food suppliers are just as culpable when it comes to lack of cleanliness. They are known to drop their uncovered fresh produce deliveries such as meat and vegetables on the greasy kitchen floor.

But sometimes, the problem has less to do with sloppy humans than pesky insects.

One 20-year-old, who used to work in the kitchen of an American chain of restaurants, said he would go to work in the morning to find cockroaches inside the giant mixer that the restaurant used to mix batter for its muffins.

Hardly surprising, then, that at least three customers have returned with half-eaten food with feelers hanging out.

The culinary misadventures of Singapore's kitchen keepers also extend to the all-important E word: ethics - or the lack of.
Don't expect cooks to throw out food articles past their expiry date. The rule, it seems, is: it's still good for another six months.
'As long as they don't smell bad, the expiry date can always be prolonged,' said one kitchen helper about sauces, seasoning and canned food which routinely get a new lease of life.

And just because your fruit tartlet doesn't look mouldy doesn't mean it wasn't before.

A caterer says it's not uncommon for food handlers to slice off mouldy bits on these tarts and continue to serve them as if they were fresh out of the oven.

Unwashed vegetables, food that is salvaged from the kitchen floor, thawed meat that gets absent-mindedly stuck back into the freezer: when the going gets tough, so do frazzled kitchen staff.

Pinning the responsibility
COOKS' greatest defence for most things unwashed and unclean: the heat from the stove will kill the germs anyway.
Serving and kitchen staff put the responsibility on their management. 'If they don't care, we don't care. If something goes wrong, it's their responsibility, not ours,' says one seasoned waitress.

At some kitchens, that responsibility is not taken lightly.
In the central kitchen of Bakerzin at Harper Road in MacPherson, a CCTV camera watches over food handlers. The company has three quality assurance officers who do daily rounds in the kitchen, said chief executive officer Daniel Tay.

It also routinely does hand, table and equipment swabs to test for cleanliness. Those who fail the hand swab test have their names pinned on a notice board.

'We want to build a culture of good, personal hygiene and that's not easy,' said Mr Tay, who hopes to model his kitchen after those in Japan where 'it's almost like a clean room'.

The same goes for Crystal Jade, which has 29 restaurants and 10 bakeries and one confectionery factory servicing the bakery outlets.

Workers caught flouting its hygiene policies are given a verbal, then a written, warning. Three strikes and you're out!

All unsold buns at its outlets are thrown out at the end of each day, while the shelf life of cakes is 24 hours.

The Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA), which regulates all food manufacturers, conducts surprise checks on these factories as often as twice a month.

It has imposed 42 fines - of between $300 and $1,000 - so far this year on manufacturers who used unapproved additives, sold mouldy food and had dirty premises.

But for all the unappetising culinary secrets this well-known food paradise keeps, you are still much less likely to need an iron stomach now, thanks to strict government regulations that require all food handlers to go for typhoid jabs, wear protective gear and attend a food hygiene course.

In fact, the number of food outlets that have earned an A cleanliness rating from the NEA has risen from 18 per cent five years ago to 33 per cent this year.

Even the nasty episodes that Ms Yap had to endure haven't put her off eating out, which she does at least five times a week.
'I'm too busy to cook so I have no choice,' she said.
'Just don't let me see it.'

The day I hurt a Brat...

I really regretted inviting Gremlin for a stayover. But I did learn a thing or two about humility and the power of saying sorry.

An excerpt from a 3D2N experience with a disengaged 8-year-old.

Gremlin: A. Pixie, what are you going to do for me? What programmes have you planned for me? How am I going to get entertained?

Canton Pixie: I thought we agreed that we'd do cookies & the icing thingy, and then after I finish my household chores we can do other things, if we still have time.

Gremlin: But I AM VERY BORED! I AM SO BORED! Don't you have any thing for me to play? What's there for me? What's there for me?

[CP does some work on her laptop, replies some email, then quickly rushes to kitchen to hang laundry]

Gremlin: What are you doing?

Canton Pixie: Hanging laundry

Gremlin: Why can't we go to West Mall NOW?

Canton Pixie: I need to finish hanging the laundry so that I can do the next load.

Gremlin: Why can't you do them after I am gone? Why were you on the computer just now? Why couldn't you work on your computer after I'm gone? Why do we have to wait for Little Pixie to have her nap? Why can't you take me to West Mall and leave Little Pixie at home to sleep alone? I want to go to West Mall NOW!

[CP: Gets really irritated]

Canton Pixie: Look, why don't YOU play your computer games after you go home? Why must you play them now?

[Gremlin falls silent, speechless].

Gremlin: A. Pixie, your house is very messy you know? Why don't you clean it up?

Canton Pixie: Have you ever wondered who is the one picking up after you when you eat, bake those cookies, drink water? If I have to choose between cleaning up the house till spick & span and spending time with Little Pixie, which do you think I'd rather do?

Gremlin: I have people to clean up after me - my grandma, my ma, my maid. I don't have to do all these things.

[CP rolls eyes]

This Gremlin has loads of dietary restrictions. The only vegetables he eats are canned mushrooms & potatoes (yes, I looked this horrified when I first found out).

Canton Pixie: I bought you carrot cake for breakfast.

Gremlin: Not eating

Canton Pixie: Why?

Gremlin: Cuz I don't like the garnishes on top.

Canton Pixie: So what do you want?

Gremlin: Instant noodles

[CP cooks instant noodles, trying not to recoil at the amount of junk that this little boy is feeding on]

Dinnertime
Canton Pixie creates some Thai-style fried kuay teow for all, and Airport bought some cereal prawns for everyone.

Tin Hang Zai: Why aren't you eating the prawns?

Gremlin: Because there is no one to peel the prawns for me.

[Stunned silence round the table]

Airport: Gosh! Welcome to Boot Camp.

[Tin Hang Zai patiently tries to teach Gremlin how to peel the prawn].

After 3D2N of this, I just about had enough. But I felt guilty too, because I had been harsh with my words. So this is what happened on the last morning:

[Gremlin wakes up]

Canton Pixie: I'm so sorry Gremlin.

Gremlin: For what?

Canton Pixie: For being so harsh with you.

[Gremlin bursts into tears and sobs and cries for what seems like half an hour, but is actually about 15 min. The awkward Pixie runs to the kitchen in between, checking on his instant noodle breakfast on the stove and giving him pieces of tissue paper, not knowing what to do or say]

Canton Pixie: Er, so what did I do that hurt you so much?

Gremlin: You told me not to touch anything at your mom's place.

[CP: Stunned. So the harsh words did nothing to him at all! Goes on to explain why Gremlin shouldn't be touching things without being asked at strangers' homes. Gremlin understands.]

[CP & G proceed to chat about baking, about ovens, about Gremlin's mom and grandma. Suddenly, Gremlin bursts into tears again]

Canton Pixie: Why don't you ask them to buy you an oven so that you can bake yourself at home?

Gremlin: *sob sob* They won't buy for me. They'll say 'no'. All they ever do is to say 'no'.

Canton Pixie: Have you asked them before?

Gremlin: I don't dare to ask them. But they will say no. All they care about is that the house is not messed up. Everything I do has to be done on newspapers laid across the table so that things are not messed up. *sob sob*.

[CP: Gulps. Recalls that everything that Gremlin had done had always been labelled as 'useless' by his caregivers]

[Gremlin's mom calls and CP is glad to end the episode on good terms with Gremlin].

The experience was thought-provoking for me.

Are these the inevitable products of the modern-day dual-income family that just wants the 'best' school, the 'best' tuition centre, the 'best' enrichment programme for their kids?

Demanding, self-centred kids who are always expecting things to be done for them?

Unable to sit still and be at peace with themselves, even for a while?

Unable to self-entertain, always expecting and waiting for TV programmes, computer games, etc to be downloaded into their otherwise-blank minds and idle bodies? (he gets tired after 10 mins at the playground, preferring instead to exercise his fingers on the joystick)

What will these kids become in future? Disengaged individuals lacking ambition, lacking even the desire to at least give their dreams a shot? Individuals destined for a life of mediocrity because they have never been given a chance to dream their own dreams?

Money can't buy everything. Certainly not fortitude of character, and certainly not values or life skills.

P.S. We made 2 batches of cookies - this batch (with icing) and Baking 911's Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. Gremlin refused to take any of the latter because "not crunchy". *roll eyes* I already SAID they were CHEWY cookies!!

Easy-Peasy Foccacia

You won't believe how easy this is. This is from Suzanne Dunaway's "No Need to Knead: Handmade Italian Breads in 90 minutes".

Ever since I'd had the allergy attack, I'd been unable to eat wheat, and resorted to using wholegrain spelt flour. Bakers will know that using wholegrain flours can make the end-products heavy and dense, but this was GOOD!!!

For every 2 cups of flour , do the following:

- Dissolve 1 tsp of active dry yeast in 1 cup of lukewarm water in a large mixing bowl (large enough for the total amount of flour you intend to use).

- Stir till completely dissolved.

- Add in half the amount of flour, plus 1 tsp of salt. Stir well, for 2 minutes.

- Add in the remaining flour, stir for at least two minutes, until the flour 'comes together' and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

- Cover bowl with cling wrap, and place into refrigerator overnight (for at least 8 hours). If you wish to skip this step, you could let it rise at room temperature, for a shorter time.

- 2 hrs before baking, take the bowl out, and let it double in size (the dough, I mean).

- Preheat the oven to 500 deg F.

- Once the dough has doubled in size, carefully pour the batter onto a non-stick, greased baking sheet.

- Use your fingers to make dents in the dough.

- Brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle with herbs and coarse salt.

- Place sheet into oven - and immediately turn down temperature to 450 deg F.

- Bake for 15-20 min, until golden brown.

YUMMY!!! (Tin Hang Zai and Little Pixie love this)

Dried Fig Muffins

I really have to thank Happy Home Baker for this recipe on her blog.

Ingredients:(makes 12 muffins)

• 375g dried figs
• 90g unsalted butter
• 250ml apple juice
• grated zest of 1 orange (omitted due to laziness)
• 315g plain flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 125g granulated sugar
• 60g dark brown sugar (simply used all demerara sugar, all that's left in my pantry)
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract/essence
  

Method:
Remove the stem and cut dried figs into quarters.
Heat apple juice and butter in a saucepan over low heat until the butter is melted.
Remove from heat and add in the figs and orange zest. Leave to cool until the figs are softened, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 190 degC. Grease muffin cups with butter or line with muffin liners.
In a mixing bowl, stir together the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugars, salt and baking powder.
Make a well in the centre and add the cooled fig mixture, eggs and vanilla. Stir until just combined. Do not overmix, the batter will be slightly lumpy.
Spoon batter into muffin cups, filling to the rim of the cup.
Bake for 20 ~ 25 mins, until golden, and toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer muffin pan to cooling rack and let cool for 5 mins. Unmold the muffins and let cool completely.

Verdict

The muffins taste extremely exquisite - Tin Hang Zai & Little Pixie & the Veterans finished the whole bunch, together with his colleague Flower - even though he's completely irked by the idea of eating these strange-looking things by themselves.

Cookie Making with Gremlin

It's been a long while since I've last blogged - lots have been happening on both sides of the extended family, and I've been sick with allergy for more than a month.

8-year-old Gremlin is here from yesterday (ok, sorry for the bad grammar) till tomorrow. (Phew!!!)


He belongs to the "me-me-me" generation. In his world, things get tidied up by invisible house-elves (you know, those things that wear pillow-cases in Harry Potter movies), and these are the ones that clear up after him when he eats, drinks or messes up the place, whatever.

I've realised that these "Me" kids really expect to be entertained all the time. And I mean, ALL.THE.TIME. They are quite incapable of self-entertainment. Then again, what do you expect, when they've been brought up on a daily diet of 8 hrs of TV, doing nothing but waiting for the next show to make them laugh??

I really believe that TV deadens the mind.


I have to say I wasn't too pleased about being his house-elf for these 2 days. Look at the products, and try to imagine the hours spent cleaning up.

P/S - besides those featured here, we made another batch of Baking 911's Chewy Chocolate Chip cookies which had me washing up till 11pm at night!

The recipes were from Nigella Feasts 'Fun Foods' episode. I must say, I was impressed by their simplicity and ease!

Cut-Out Cookies
Ingredients

• 1/3 cup / 90g butter
• 1/2 cup /100g sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cup / 200g flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• Pinch of salt

Instructions

• Cream the butter and sugar, adding the vanilla when fluffy.
• Add 1 tblspn of flour, before breaking the egg into the bowl.
• Continue the creaming, and gradually add in all the flour, a tablespoon at a time, baking powder and salt.
• Get the dough into a ball, add more flour if desired.
• Cover with cling wrap, and chill for half-hour. (I didn't bother sticking to the half-hour, I went jogging and then took a walk to West Mall before continuing).
• Preheat oven to 350 deg F / 180 deg C.
• Shape with cookie cutters.
• Bake for 10 min (I had to bake them for 15 min) to desired colour.

Tin Hang Zai preferred the more browned version (15 - 20 min) whilst Gremlin preferred the pale-looking cookies that were baked for only 12 min.

Icing

• 1 1/4 cup / 150 g icing sugar
• 2 tblspn hot water

Mix, and colour as desired. You need to buy only the primary colours (red, yellow, blue) - the rest can be made from these 3.

Creative Input

• Get from the gremlin or whoever you are baking with.
• Obviously if you are the house-elf, you are going to be too tired to have any creative juices flowing out of you at 11pm at night!