Rich and Creamy Eggnog

Even living in Singapore, when December starts, I am ready for the comforting winter items of my childhood. Eggnog tops the list. (Further down the list are hot chocolate, warm apple cider, stews, and pumpkin dishes.)

Eggnog is not common in Singapore, though, so I have to make my own. And so I chose this eggnog recipe, from Mark's Daily Apple. It has less sugar (and hence tastes less sweet) than any commercial version. This means I can drink more of it - and with abandon - yippee! December beverages are sorted and lots of eggnog lattes are coming my way.

Pad Thai Salad

I like Thai food because of its fresh flavours. I love the zesty lime, crisp carrots and bean sprouts, and the crunchy peanuts.

As I was making this pad Thai salad I realised that it's actually quite similar to the coleslaw with which I grew up in Canada - the base is just shredded vegetables. Then there's a sauce and some add-ins. (And almost all of my cooking has a formula not unlike this.)

As I was slicing the mint and basil for the pad Thai, my mind was constructing this table. Suddenly the superiority of pad Thai salad over coleslaw became obvious!

Ratio by MIchael Ruhlman [book review]

Our April Kitchen Reader book is Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman. In it, he explains how many classic dishes can be described using a simple ratio. For example, bread doughs for loaves, pasta, pies, biscuits, and cookies have similar ratios of flour, water, and eggs or fat. How much of each in the ratio determines what kind of item you are making.

Besides doughs, Rulhman describes the ratios for batters (which make different cakes, muffins, and fritters), stocks, roux, meat mixtures (sausages, for example), fat-based sauces (such as mayonnaise and hollandaise), and custards. I am a grain-free cook, so I skipped over all the baked goods, but for those who make breads and cakes, I imagine this is the most useful part of the book. It's also extensive and detailed. This is a little ironic, since Ruhlman is trying to champion the idea that once you know the basic ratios you are freed from recipes and complications.

An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David [book review]

Elizabeth David was an English food writer after the Second World War who revolutionized food writing in the UK. She was highly opinionated and very judgemental of the British food of her time. She spent a lot of time in Europe and praised the ingredients and preparation of regular restaurants there as being far superior to that of the UK. She lauded the "peasant" food of the Mediterranean, and paid vast sums to have fresh produce imported from Europe; this wasn't a luxury available to ordinary British families. David was not interested in reaching ordinary families, though; she was focused on middle-class and upper middle-class audiences and was content being considered a snob.

For the Kitchen Reader book club in March, we were tasked with reading any work by or about Elizabeth David and I chose a collection of her published essays called An Omelette and a Glass of Wine. I was prepared to be entertained and to learn a lot about good, fresh food.

Asian Omelette Wrap

The "omelette wrap" idea is a revelation to me. Use eggs as a wrapper for food? Ingenious! Grain-free and nutritious and very easy indeed. And I love eggs in all forms.

This recipe caught my eye in a Donna Hay magazine. So I suggested it to the Wednesdays with Donna Hay group in which I participate. I was completely taken in by the caption in the magazine:

Ask Sarah: Nine Grain-Free Quiche Crusts

Ask Sarah is an occasional series answering readers' questions. This time it's actually a question from my sister-in-law! It's a question I have been pondering for some time, so I've shared it here as well.

Anna asked: "Hello lovely! I'm looking at quiche pie crust recipes so that I can make and freeze quiche now for Christmas. I know that you are restricting your wheat-flour intake, and I'm wondering if you've found a savoury pie crust recipe that I might use. ;) Let your Pinterest finger wander!"

Ah, Pinterest! It is so addictive. But actually a great way to save and organise great ideas. "Creative vegetables" is my favourite board to pin. Recently I have started whole separate boards for kitchen design and for home office ideas. Do you use Pinterest?

creative vegetables | healthy sweet stuff | food photo inspiration

And quiche! How wonderful that we can look forward to some at Christmas. Since going grain-free I have seen numerous good ideas for quiche that avoid wheat flour crusts. (Some are bizarre.) Which of these would you eat?

Banana Nut Porridge (grain-free)

I love sweet breakfast foods like pancakes, muffins, and porridge with fruit. But I am trying to eat less sugar and I have been mostly grain-free for about a year. As a result, I now have a good arsenal of low sugar (or sugar-free) and grain-free breakfast recipes. They still satisfy my sweetish tooth and give me the fat and protein I need at breakfast.

Here are some of my sweet breakfast ideas:

• this banana nut porridge (pictured above, recipe below) has a whole egg whisked in the near the end of cooking, plus it is grain-free and has no sugar added
• these banana coconut flour pancakes, the recipe for which is given as a formula based on how many ripe bananas you have on hand
• these pumpkin and cranberry muffins, which are made with fresh or frozen cranberries and coconut flour, with pumpkin puree for moisture
• this apple and cinnamon mini cake, which is made in the microwave and takes about five minutes including the preparation
• this mango, banana, and coconut loaf, which introduced me to the idea of sugar-free eating (not grain-free)

Weekend Links #36

Weekend Links is a way of sharing all the engrossing things I see around the internet. I publish Weekend Links approximately every month. As usual, I welcome your ideas and feedback.

food reading links:
--Saveur's Best Food Blogs Awards highlight some incredible blogs. There are plenty of new-to-me reads here as well as many old favourites.

recipe links:
--How ingenious is this? A porridge recipe that has a blended egg whisked in during cooking. That sounds like a great way to add protein to your breakfast (from Natural Kitchen Adventures).
--I like the idea of a corn and parmesan cheese creme brûlée (from Tasty Kitchen).
--You can make your own electrolyte energy cubes for endurance sports like long distance running (from Healthful Pursuit).
--My friend at work made fermented ginger ale (from Wellness Mama). I want to make some too. I also really want to buy some nice flip-top bottles; hee hee!
--Also on my list of fermented foods to make: easy peasy probiotic pickles (from Sarah Ramsden).
--And finally, I should go back to making yogurt at home (pictured above).

books I'm reading:
--Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H Pink
--A History of the World in Six Glasses by Tom Standage

Shiitake Mushroom and Ginger Omelette

I was reminded this week that cooking is more an art than a science. I was making this mushroom omelette using a Donna Hay recipe online. It turned out very nice looking and it tasted great. But it was totally stuck to the pan. How frustrating.

The omelette was finished in the oven, as per the recipe. For this reason, you can't use a non-stick pan or any pan with a plastic handle. I don't own a cast iron pan, just the stainless steel one you see pictured. It's actually a great quality wedding gift with copper in the base, etc, etc. But sadly, there's no use touting its quality when half the egg is falling out of the pan in large, jagged bits and the rest is still stuck inside. Sigh.

Baked Pear Custard

Aren't these little pears beautiful? I found them recently at our grocery store. They are called Honey Belles, from New Zealand. They are in season now in New Zealand.

Here in Singapore, we are half a degree above the equator, so there are no seasons. How can I eat seasonally? Is it even worth it?

Four Ways to Eat Mushrooms for Dinner

Next time you see a punnet of mushrooms in the fridge you know you can make dinner. Here are four brilliant ideas.

1. The new idea for me this week is leek and mushroom fritatta, pictured above. It is a Donna Hay recipe that I tried this week.

Weekend Links #29

Weekend Links is a way of sharing all the engrossing things I see around the internet. I publish Weekend Links approximately every two weeks. As usual, I welcome your ideas and feedback.

food reading links:
--A review of an article from The New England Journal of Medicine about seven myths of weight loss (from Weighty Matters). Number one myth: "Small sustained changes in energy intake or expenditure will produce large, long-term weight changes." Big changes are needed to turn your health around.
--On the other hand, here's an article about how recognising and celebrating small food wins can lead you to bigger ones (from Mark's Daily Apple).
--A blogger talks about oil pulling as a technique for oral health and overall health (from Kitchen Stewardship).

Fried Egg Accompaniment?

Now that I try not to eat wheat, what should I eat with my fried eggs?

I have been trying to avoid wheat and sugar recently, as I have become convinced that these are things that our bodies, and mine in particular, are not meant to process. I've started reading some paleo and primal websites and blogs. (Have a look at Mark's Daily Apple for one example.) But now I need to think of some ways to replace bread at breakfast.

Veggie and Egg Cakes

These little veggie and egg bites pack well for lunch. Or they make a pretty appetizer or brunch item. I used choi sum as the green vegetable here. My recipe is adapted from a spinach-based recipe. And I would like to try them with watercress. So use any green, leafy vegetable you have on hand.

How to Cook Perfect Quail's Eggs

Quail's eggs are tiny, speckled beauties. They cook in a very short time, and make an elegant addition to a salad, soup, or appetizer tray. I bought a dozen at the Central wet market in Hong Kong and set about on an experiment to discover how to boil the perfect quail's egg.

 

I boiled the eggs above for different lengths of time to see how long it took to get a perfectly soft or hard boiled egg. The eggs above were cooked for 1 minute, 2 minutes, 2.5 minutes, 3 minutes, and 4 minutes.

Seven Foods for Healthy Hair

I don't know how to have a good hair day. I recently got a new hair cut and colour; sophisticated is going to be my style henceforth. However, "natural" (also known as "frizzy mess") has been my default hair style for many years. I had to go out and buy a hair dryer yesterday. And I am determined to have more good hair days.


I bought two "hair styling for dummies" books. Both contain a section about food for healthy hair. Of course, I gravitate to the food section in any book! (Plus, reading about food meant I could put off the nervous moment when I had to pick up my new hair dryer.)

Sunrise Breakfast

For my birthday this year I got the most amazing present - a sunrise breakfast with my husband as part of our holiday to Bali, Indoneisa. We were staying at a hotel with beautiful beach frontage, and he arranged for us to have a sunrise breakfast on the last day of our stay. The day before it happened, I found myself wondering, What would be served at an intimate table for two at sunrise?

The Daring Cooks - Recipes with Tea

I have been a proud Daring Cook for several years and it is my absolute pleasure to host the group this month! This month I challenged the Daring Cooks to make a savoury recipe with tea.

I have always enjoyed learning new skills and trying new recipes with the Daring Cooks. They are always so inventive, so I gave them free rein to make one of my three recipes (below) or cook any other recipe with tea. They were able to choose to use black, green, or herbal tea. And there were so many great ideas! I am very grateful for the chance to host the Cooks and thrilled to enjoy what they came up with.

Pan-Crisped Devilled Eggs

I really enjoy getting to know new bloggers. My favourite hobby is hopping around from food blog to food blog, leaving comments and looking at all the great recipes and photographs. This month I had the privilege of meeting Debbie from The Friday Friends as part of the Secret Recipe Club. Her food blog covers savoury and sweet recipes, with some books thrown in for good measure. I found this recipe for pan-crisped devilled egg salad on her blog and was intrigued.

Weekend Links #21

Weekend Links is a way of sharing all the engrossing things I see around the internet. I publish Weekend Links approximately every two weeks. As usual, I welcome your ideas and feedback. This time, the links are heavily recipe focused. What new recipes have caught your eye?

food reading links:
--Do you need to tweet, check the internet, and fiddle with your phone/computer/tablet while on holiday? Dianne Jacob offers some thoughts. (Bonus: baking tips and pictures from an amazing baker's kitchen.)
--An article about how to blog like a journalist, based on a talk given by Fiona Beckett at the UK Food Blogger Connect conference (from Food & Wine Finds).

recipe links:
--This tempeh stir-fry recipe looks easy and delicious. The post also explains why you should choose tempeh over tofu (from Healthy Green Kitchen).
--A recipe (a method, really) for dried cranberries (from About.com).
--Strawberry pizza with goats' cheese and walnuts (from Not Martha).
--MKF Fisher's instructions for how to fry the perfect egg: it's extremely easy to do (from The KitchenMaid).
--Pink and white marbled cupcakes, fittingly called "blushing beauties" (from Spoonful of Delight). There is a tiny bit of beetroot puree in the pink batter.
--This Indonesian shredded fruit salad is made with rose apples, jicama, pineapple, and green mangoes. The dressing is lime, sugar, tamarind, and chilli. I can't wait to try it (from Mochachoclata-Rita).
--Here's a video of 15 minute ice cream, made in a zip lock bag. (Have you seen this before? Am I slow?)

off-topic links:
--"How do I know if I have enough ideas for a blog?" Daniel at Quick Writing Tips gives a good answer and also some great advice for cranking out more content.

What engrossing things have you seen around the internet?

Or tell me... What is your best blog post these last two weeks?