The Week end of Asunción - 21st May 2009

Its Asunción Day and since a couple of the family members are heading this way i decided to make some Brioche and also bread while maman made "Clafootis" for dessert :)

I made two things at one time the bread and the brioche and of course brioche needs a lot more labour then making the bread so anyhow the pictures will show the finished product and tiny bits of the process :) And unlike back in Malaysia, waiting time for the dough to rise is much faster and indoors too but somehow... eventhough its spring here, the wind is still blowing hard and so a bit cool so i had to put them outside for some sunbathing process hehehe :)

cute aren't they hehehe...actually while waiting i managed to play soccer wt my little nephew and niece and we won!!!!!! hehehehe

after raised up to the level i wanted its time to bake it and brush it with some egg yolk + milk and you get that brown crusty look like that :)

nice and smells nice too :) managed to perfumerised the whole house hehehe

thanks to my phone camera can zoom zoom so can take this pic to show slightly the inside which is nothing its just like roti butter kosong very delicious to eat with cafe :) and and and usually the recipe is with pure butter, but hmn...dont want to feel too guilty to eat it later so i used demi-sel which means semi salted.

voila! my very own Brioche from the Vendée Region:)

This is maman's fruit tart or rather they call it "Clafootis" here yummy too made from Cassis berries :)

and here is the bread...

closer look at and can you imagine i used a rice cooker to bake this :)

and finally the two yummies :)

anyways have a great weekend everyone and take care!

À bientôt!

Clarity!

Joyeux Anniversaire pour Maman :)

Today is Maman's birthday and i decided to give her a treat so she was banished from the kitchen today for i prepared for the family this dish which i adopted from my beloved niece in La Rochelle (Elisa) for showing to me how you did the Stuffed Round Zucchini "Corzet" is what they call them in france but i dont know how to spell it hehehe

Anyhow it was not so easy to make a suprise gift as well as cook at the same time, BUT with the help from Papa, i managed perfectly :)

My preparation started one day before, had to wait until maman went to her room for some rest then i went to "Inter marché" to get all the ingredients i need for the next day and at the same time i managed to get her a gift (cadéau) and had to hide in my backpack :)

The next day i had ample time to go again to "Intermaché" to get me some fish and some vegetables for the lunch and dinner i'm making for one very special Lady :)

Lunch time went by quickly with some Steamed fish using a lot of spices and particularly cumin and ginger and onions and carrots and mushrooms, place all of it in a alluminium foil seasoned it with some nem sauce and some soya sauce a dash of pepper and salt its off to the rice cooker for some serious vapourising 30 minutes, and then made some fried Rice. You must be wondering why no pics?? because simply i forgot and also i was running out of time hehehenext time lah hehehe

The by mid day, once again had to wait till maman goes to rest in the room then i could start anything so pick up some stuffs to make the cake which is the hand mixer , the cake mold and the ingredients . While doing that i had the round Zuchini ready for steaming to make it softer so again I used my microcomputer rice cooker to do it :)

My ever so charming utensils for the cake making :) very portable indeed. havent yet unpacked our stuffs from Malaysia, i had to hunt for these things and it was.....ermmmn..hard. but finally got them in one piece and of i go making the cake which is a very simple cake recipe i just made up as i go and again i was using the rice cooker to cook it too. Anyhow will put in the recipe later :)

and here are the zuchini placed and ready for some major steaming with the rice cooker :)

Steaming Process in progresss

done with the steaming nd now off to do the fillings :)

for the fillings i just add brown onions, carrots chicken or turkey in this case i had some turkey scallops they call it here so i used that and some small pieces of potatoes. cooked it with light soya sauce or whatever sauce you like some pepper and salt and its ready for stuffing the Zuchini :)


so here is the stuffed zuchini and on the top you can add any type of cheeze you like i used some tiny pieces of comte cheeze and cover it up and placed it again in the steamer for another 10 minutes and finally just click on the keep warm button until you are ready for dinner time :)


The end product of it, the zuchini is so tender that you can easily sliced it open and eat the stuffings along with the zuchini and at the end you are only left with the lid uneaten :)


here is teh cake and here are the ingredients :-
Main Ingredients:
Sugar: 1 cup, Butter: 1 cup ,All-purpose Flour: 2 cups, Baking Powder: 4 tsp
Orange Juice: juice 1 cup, preferably freshly squeezed
Orange Zest ( just a little), Eggs: 3
Sauce Ingredients:
Orange Juice: 1/2 cup, Sugar: 2/3 cup
Directions:
Preheat the oven, Cream butter and sugar in a mixer.
Add eggs one at a time and mix. then slowly add sifted backing powder and flour.
Blend in orange juice and zest. Pour the mixture into a mold and bake for 40 min or till golden.
Let it cool down. Meanwhile prepare the sauce by boiling sauce ingredients for 5 min.
Let the sauce cool down and then pour over the cake. Cover and keep it refrigerated.

And and and...here is the finished cake :) Its a simple cake but according to maman and papa its del-ee-c-u !

and..here is the gift! i had to place it in the storage room for one night to hide it from maman heheh :)

in the storage room

i made this casing for the pot just the morning of the actual day a copule of days back i took pictures of her favourite flower which is a big rose flower just at the bottom of their room window so put some words in it printed it out and voila!

this is the actual picture :)

All in all we had a wonderful suprising day and laughter and smile all around us although its only 3 of use but our laughter seemed to make it seemed like there a lot of people in there hehehe...

Anyhow, to mama, happy birthday to you and hope to celebrate many many more beautiful birthdays to come again and its a pleasure for me to have the opportunity to spend this beautiful day with you and papa!

Love always,
Clarity!

p/s...pictures courtesy from my SEG900

Happy belated Mothers day to all :)

Ah well since mothers day is everyday so i cant be too late to wish all mothers out there and mom to be's a grand happy mom's day wish :) you guys are a gem! love all of you particularly my mom in KK and my mom in beauvoir! thank you both for being just the way you are :)

Actually in France they celebrat Mothers Day sometime in June 7th and so i felt strange for there is no gateau for maman on this day but finally i found out that in france it is celebrated on the 7th of June so Maman and papa in beauvoir got this rose for me instead..merci maman & papa :)

to both mom, I love you both!!


À bientôt!
Clarity!

Making bread from a microcomputer Rice Cooker :)

The dutifully rice cooker :)

Who says you need a proper oven to make a nice bread? well, since i,m moving around so much and going to picnics or staying over at relatives place i can easily make something up out of my rice cooker :) I bought 2 of this one for my parents in law in france hence this one manually translated into french as for the functions of it and secondly one is somewhere in africa now awaiting for me to work on it hehehe. Anyways, i have made cakes with it also as it has a cake funtion button as well, so i was thinking why not bread so i tried it and voila! a wonderful golden bread :)

here is the recipe, actually anykind of good bread recipe will do as this is just another mode of emploi for baking the bread. my bread recipe is really pretty easy to follow indeed :-

The bread starter

• 1 cups of warm water
• 1.5 Tablespoons of active dry yeast
• 1 cup of plain flour

¤ mixed all up and wait for about 30 minutes or less until it becomes frothy

The dough

• 1 cup of wholemeal plain flour
• 1 cup of plain flour
• 1 Tablespoon of salt
• 1 handfull of cereal
• extra flour (almost a cup)
• 1 cup of warm water
  

¤ mixed all the dry ingredients up and finally pour in the "bread starter" [pic 1] to the dough and mixed well adding every now and then extra flour until it forms a dough [pic 2] then let it rest for 1 hour

¤ after for about an hour the dough will resemble something shown on [pic 3] flatten out the dough [pic 4] and finally let it rest for about 3 to 4 more hours until it resembles the dough in [pic 5] the doubled now sized dough indicates that its ready to be baked

¤ baked in the oven for 45 minutes until its brown or golden on the top or if using the rice cooker for about 1 hour until it resembles like the picture on [pic 6]

a voila! my golden brown bread made from baking in the rice cooker :)

have a go everyone!

À bientôt!

Clarity!

my first JUKI experience :))

I have a few pants thats way to long for me to wear so what i did it i had to cut them and sew it up back again. Thats one thing about an asian buying clothes in europe or any western country the waistline could be good but its always the lenght that we have the most trouble as its always and always and always too long for our asian standards..ah well, so have to make use to what i have so JUKI came to the rescue :)

À bientôt!

Clarity!