kaeng

i spent the entire day preparing my croissant dough. i think it's a lot better this time - definitely more well-defined layers. not that i spent the entire day, it's just a few hours' work spread out over the whole day, because in between was refrigeration time. but alas, at the last rolling out, the dough burst at a few spots, leaking butter out. but at least i don't have blocks of butter after doing two double turns like last time. photos tomorrow.

it's going to be 8th november soon, and the weather this weekend is like december again. the sky was so overcast just now, with a mother-big storm and some power lightning and thunder.

there are a few options now: i can prematurely bake my croissants, eat the mango sago my sister made, or bake some soufflé because i still have a lot of batter. everything, it seems, revolves around eating. but then again, it's sustenance; it's what keeps us alive.

weiyang is inspiring me to go on a cooking project. i think i need to start learning how to cook; pick a book, and cook through it.

risque

this will just be a long post of photos, because i'm so sleepy now. it rained in the morning, then in the evening, and now it's raining again. today's baking with jinquan:
it's nice and it's magical when things come together to become something quite different from the original components. and then i realised maybe in very invisible ways, i take in a lot of butter, sugar and eggs. (but i'm proud to say i'm not obese.) anyhow, croissants coming soon.

lack of an audience

last weekend i made pierre hermé's french lemon cream tart again.
the cream begins with rubbing your fingers in the sugar with the zest to get it all moist and aromatic. then mix with the eggs and lemon juice, cooking in a double boiler. this time i followed the instructions completely for the cream, including using a thermometer to cook the cream. (the thermometer is expensive.) after the tedious process of straining the cream to remove the zest and curdled egg bits, comes the blending with a hell lot of butter. done in a food processor, the butter emulsifies and lightens the cream to a pale yellow. then, the cream is packed away to chill overnight.
i'm getting better with dorie's tart dough. it still sticks a little to the foil during blind baking, but i'm less flustered when i patch it up now. it doesn't matter that the unfilled shell is hideous, because the cream will go in, and everything will be perfect.
i like filling the tart with the cream. the cream is so... seductively creamy. it flops out of the jar, and piles onto the tart shell without flowing all over, just spreading slowly, thick and steady.
so many people say it's too sour, but i think it's the wrong word. it's like saying a mango is sweet; a honeydew is sweet; a watermelon is sweet: yes, they are all sweet, but they taste differently sweet. anyhow, i think the lemon cream is puckery-sour. and i like it. it's refreshing.

you know that feeling - when you stare out of a train window blankly at the outside, and it goes underground, and you realise you're looking at your own reflection in the glass, against the dark tunnel zooming past in horizontal streaks?

and that feeling - your earphones are very loud, but the noise around you on the road, the cars, the train, the people, it keeps drowning out your music?

it's time to think of playing puzzle fighter.

licensed to whine

i don't have much time tonight, but here is a nice song.

dream too far

the overdue photos from making vanilla ice cream.
these are the two madagascar bourbon vanilla beans which cost $15. they do smell very intense, and very wild/raw, almost alcoholic. (maybe that's why it's bourbon?) anyhow, we had to split the beans a scrape out the seeds from the insides.
boiling the milk and cream, and infusing them with the vanilla seeds. after cooling, the skin formed on top traps a lot of the seeds. then when you boil it again, the skin ruptures, bringing all the seeds down again.
anyhow, no photos of tempering the egg yolks, because there were no free hands. so after cooking the custard, we strained it into a cute looking big pot.
i brought home my own share to churn. you can see the vanilla seeds left behind in the bottles when i poured the custard out.
this ice cream turned out very crunchy-icy. i don't know if it's my bad churning, or there's just more water in this custard than the chocolate ganache ice cream one.
so, this ice cream is very icy, and melts very easily. but i love the vanilla scent and the sweetness.

and then i made another attempt at dorie's cornmeal shortbread cookies.
they still puffed and flattened during baking. maybe i'll never get them right. i even overbaked some trays, and baked some at the wrong temperature.

on other news, sonya's package arrived! it's two bottles of vanilla: one extract, one paste.
i think it holds many exciting possibilities, one of which could be nigella's doughnut french toast.

today when i came home, i bought a doughnut. then i ate my ice cream, the durian in the refrigerator, and the durian pudding my mother made. i gotta climb like a monkey, soar like an eagle. but i saw a single flower on a dying tree. it's sweet and beautiful but a little sad.

it's time to try defying gravity

accepting limits

it's another late night. i'm churning my vanilla ice cream, made using madagascar bourbon vanilla beans. (omg!) i was over at benji's house making the custard base, so i brought home my share to churn myself. i was also testing out my new meat/candy thermometer, though the custard didn't thicken by the time the maximum temperature was reached.

dinner was excellent, courtesy of benji's sister+boyfriend. and i got my fingers into my first crab. not that i've never eaten crabs; i've just never had to shell them myself. the burgers with bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and improvised mushroom-swiss mix - omg.

i'm listening to a broadway soundtrack of wicked. ugly betty inspired me to listen to it. it's so lovely.

something has changed within me
something is not the same
i'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game
too late for second guessing
too late to go back to sleep
it's time to trust my instincts
close my eyes and leap
it's time to try defying gravity
i think i'll try defying gravity
and you can't pull me down

shower baby

i made a some lemon meringue pie to clear stock, again.
the crust is completely wholemeal, for no other reason than that i have too much of it. the lemon curd calls for three eggs, but one of them had two yolks! this time i strained the curd to remove all the zest. the meringue was nice and fluffy.
but the curd didn't set during the baking. i think the first time i made it the curd set nicely because i was timid and cooked the curd very long. this might be a mistake, but if i made the pie again, i'll cook the curd longer again so that it can set during baking.

then i made apple pie with jinquan yesterday. it's a recipe from the art and soul of baking by cindy mushet.
granny smith apples. i never took note of what apples i used, except i only used red apples, and not fuji apples. but recipes have called for specifically granny smith apples, and jinquan pointed to these green ones.
i think this photo is cute. it looks like a cooked egg, but it's just a raw egg yolk in a pool of milk.
i'm eating too much pie. but there's really nothing else much i can do now.