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Farfalle Bake

6/14/2013

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This is one of our all-time favourites at home. If you haven't been cooking for a while, you may want to get yourself warmed up with this because it is a very forgiving dish. It cannot go wrong and easily feeds four starving adults as a single-dish meal. All you need is bow-tie pasta, a thick slice of ham, one or two zucchinis depending on the size, a small tub of cream and some mozzarella.

As with most of my French (home-)cooking repertoire, I learned it from JL's mother. The only difference is the choice of pasta. She uses mini ravioli stuffed with cheese that would be so cute for kids, but unfortunately, I have yet to see it here in Kuala Lumpur. Thus the next best thing: bow-tie pasta, or farfalle (butterflies in Italian) as it is also called. 

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The No-Brainer Coleslaw

5/30/2013

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Growing up in a small town where the "town center" is basically a grid of five vertical streets with six streets cutting across, I remember when Kentucky Fried Chicken opened its doors here. Prior to that, we had at best, Chicken Delight, a lesser known franchise for fried chicken. And no, McDonald's was at least ten years away from setting up shop because the building it occupied had yet to even exist.

Back in the early eighties, all our birthday celebrations were dinner prepared by my mother, depending on whose birthday it was, with all the birthday kid's favourite dishes. The week before our birthdays, my mother would ask for our wish-list, not for presents, but what we'd like to have for our birthday dinner. Can you imagine what happens when you have six children? My mum sure has a wide repertoire of dishes off her fingertips!

But for my birthday that year, my parents decided to take all of us out for dinner. Where else but the Kentucky Fried Chicken in town. So it was really BIG DEAL for me - I think I was turning eight. So off we went - wide-eyed and all - getting excited at the slightest details. It was nothing like the KFC we know today for back then, disposable wares were considered luxurious. So we still had our chicken, coleslaw and whipped potato all served in plastic plates and bowls, with stainless steel cutlery.

The fried chicken was so-so. My mum could easily make the same with a box of Kentucky Fried Chicken powder. It was the coleslaw and whipped potato that caught my attention. How could someone make vegetables so creamy and delicious? Vegetable dishes at home had always been stir-fried or cooked in curry gravy. I'd never knew that vegetables can be so creamy yet non-spicy. And that bowl of potato covered in brown sauce, why can't they use larger scoops?

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Savoury Cake

5/27/2013

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My mother-in-law sent me a cookbook by postal mail when we were living in the States. All because her son expressed his love for savoury cakes that he could only have back in his parents' home. The book, small and slim, has no less than seventy recipes for cakes both savoury and sweet. Not that I am supposed to make every single one of them but rather, for me to look through and compare variations of savoury cakes, so that I could come up with one I could claim ownership of.

In general, to compare making a savoury cake to that of a sweet one, there is only one phrase to sum it all up: same-same but different. Obviously there is no sugar in the former, while butter makes way for olive oil, sunflower oil or even white wine. Instead of chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruits, ingredients such as ham, sausage, shrimp, cheese, olives, capsicum, zucchini are used. There is even one recipe in the book with chicken gizzard. 

But thank God my husband prefers simple combinations of ham, cheese, olives for the cakes, just so he could pair it with something else on the side. Just a few suggestions here: lightly tossed greens, chopped salad like tabbouleh, coleslaw, warm tender carrots for a light dinner, or rock melon with prosciutto on a super-hot day. 

I will be lying if I tell you it is easy to make these. (I will share with you my mistakes at the end of this post.) But they are nonetheless edible as long as you pop a nice homogenous batter into the oven. It can be done with a balloon whisk or wooden spoon - you just need to work your arm muscles crazily for some ten seconds when incorporating the oil. Remember to hug the mixing bowl with your left arm to keep the bowl still while stirring with your right hand, and then repeat the process changing arms. Crazy, I know, but it costs nothing.

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Easy Roast Chicken in Herbed Butter

5/7/2013

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The word "easy" has different meanings. It largely depends on the person saying it. If Heston Blumenthal says it's easy, you might still need a blow torch, candy thermometer, syringe or some dry ice. When Anthony Bourdain says it's easy, you should read his recipe carefully and then read some more on the key techniques that he has mentioned. When Jamie Oliver says it's easy, it is likely that you are able to improvise his recipe. After all, that's his style.

When I say it's easy, it is easy. And I'll try to share as much details with you so that you are confident of pulling it off, even if your stove had not been lit for months, or in some extraordinary cases, since the day you moved in.

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Of Accidents and Happiness

2/12/2011

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Since my earlier post was about kitchen "mishaps", I might as well keep to the theme of "edible mistakes". Besides, this one particularly suits the ocassion all because of how the strawberries are cut. Yup, this is how I usually do it: cut a V-shaped indent and half the strawberry.

How this strawberry tart came about I can't quite remember. I think it was based on a recipe in Everyday Food. 

But my store-bought pie crust couldn't hold its shape when baked blind. The edges just fell inwards in the oven, thus the thicker "folded" look. I spread an entire block of lemon-flavoured cream cheese on it and arranged the strawberries towards the center. They look shiny because of mandarin preserves that was brushed on them.

Happiness is not all about making the right choices and doing the right things every time. Sometimes, happiness occur through the little "accidents" in everyday life. So here's to a lovely Valentine's and a lifetime of happiness, although accidents are not pre-requisites.  
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Sticky Puff Pastry Rolls

2/12/2011

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Confession: what you see above was a mistake. Due to the sudden demise of my five-year-old laptop (I'm still grieving now and then), I thought I'd just go ahead and make some sticky rolls by intuition. No need for looking up ideas on the internet. I'm not a huge fan of cinnamon to be honest, but with the cinnamon swirls which I love from Peet's in mind, I took out the last box of Pepperidge Farm puff pastry sheets and there's no turning back. 

Here's what I did, in brief:
1. Roll pastry sheets to slightly bigger than the size of a laptop.
2. Spread fig jam over both sheets. Lightly sprinkle castor sugar over the area.
3. Roll up the sheets loosely. Cut each sheet into 6 wheels. Reshape them a little.
4. Sitting them cut-side up, stuff as much dried cranberries inside the wheels (between layers). 
5. Top with torn-up pieces of figs from the jam. Do an eggwash on top and around the wheels.
6. Arrange the wheels on baking tray and sprinkle castor sugar over. Bake 25-30 minutes at 400F.

On hindsight, I should have sprinkled the dried cranberries in step 2, after the jam, before the sugar. 

I suppose it all turned out well - I managed to finish the jam that's been sitting in the fridge for months (neither of us liked it enough...). Edible mistakes - what more to ask for?
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    briefly

    JL and S grew up in France and Malaysia respectively. They met while living in Singapore, stayed a year in the USA (Cambridge, MA) then the south of France, Malaysia, and are back again in the USA (New York, NY). 

    frenchinos at home is where we share some of our stories with friends, much like the living room, dine-in kitchen, or the timber-deck balcony which we've always wanted to have, which sounds most impossible where we live now. 

    Welcome and we're happy to have you here :)

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