Post Christmas Feasts

After some Christmas Feasting at my mother's house - a yearly tradition for Christmas Day Turkey lunch and Boxing Day Chinese Feast (lobster/crab in Spring Onion and Ginger, Chinese Roast Duck, Roast Crispy Pork are definite contenders), we were lucky enough to be invited to two other feasts over the weekend.

I recently learned that one of my cousins will be going away to work in February and it's been long talked of having a Steamboat Feast.  One of our other cousins hosted the meal at their place and as I like to bring a little something along, I baked a Green Tea Chiffon for dessert.  Post for that one is here.  I have discovered that I omitted to take photos of our feast :(   But I will tease you by telling you that we had three different kinds of noodles; 3 different greens (pak choi/cos lettuce/chrysanthemum greens); 3 different meat balls (fish/pork and beef); thinly sliced beef rolls; fresh prawns; fresh clams; mushrooms (brown chestnut and golden needle-enoki).  The Steamboat pot was split in two compartments and we had two types of broth, one was a herbal tonic, the other plain.  The herbal one was delicately flavoured with nutmeg, cardamon, and dong quai.  It was a delicious and filling feast indeed!

Sunday, we went to visit Mr Leaf's family.  We went out for lunch at a Vietnamese Restaurant, Loong Kee on Kingsland Road, Hackney.  It's one of the few places that serve Steamed Rice Rolls Bánh cuốn which is a favourite with Mr Leaf.  They are similar to Cheung Fun but the rice skins are thinner, more translucent and not as soft.  The filling was a scarce scattering of minced pork and minced black wood ear fungus.  Was not very flavourful on its own and needed the Nước chấm sauce to give it some life.

Mr Leaf's brother likes Frog's Legs so we ordered a starter of Fried Frog's Leg's with Salt and Chilli.  The frog meat tastes between fish and chicken.  

Mr Leaf and his brother always eat this noodle salad dish Bún Thịt Nướng which is topped with grilled pork.  It's rice vermicelli with shredded salad, herbs and whatever topping you select and sprinkled with roasted crushed peanuts (which they did not have in this place.) You moisten it with Nước chấm  mix it up and chomp away.  This is not where we usually go for our Vietnamese meals and Mr Leaf reported the pork not the same cut and taste as his usual choice of restaurant.

I opted for stir-fried rice noodles with mixed meat.  Expecting Ho Fun wide, flat rice noodles like I would in a Chinese Restaurant I was surprised to get very thin rehydrated noodles.  It had a pleasant chew to them and I had all manner of different vegetables stir fried with it (no bad thing in my book).  Son managed to eat a few mouthfuls too so that was a bonus as he is a very discernible diner.

Sister in Law (Mrs Leaf) had Beef Phở.  Noodle Soup in a beef broth with sliced onion, herbs, thinly sliced beef.  It's served with a plate of accompaniments, herbs, raw beansprouts and a lemon wedge.  

In the evening we went to my SiL cousin's house for a pre-New Year Dinner.  We had Coquille St Jacques to start (oops - no photo) which is a French dish of scallops in a white wine sauce served in the half shell topped with mashed potato and grilled. Mains were Steak or Thai Chicken Curry.

Here are a few photos I did remember to take!

Pan-Fried Steak with mixed salad and mashed potato.

 

I had the Thai Curry, there was Red and Green Curry and I had a little of both.  The Green Curry was particularly fiery hot but wonderfully fragranced with kaffir lime leaves, I couldn't tell you how the Red Curry tasted as my mouth was on fire after that!

We had Christmas Cake for dessert (which I had made and decorated) as well as Strawberry Gateau (I believe it was a shop-bought frozen dessert).


I hope you all had a lovely time celebrating the festivities with your nearest and dearest!  

The hostess pictured with my son and his cousin. 

(Apologies for poor photo quality - my camera phone does not perform well.)

Green Tea Chiffon

We were invited to my cousin's for a Post-Christmas Steamboat/Hot Pot dinner so I thought I'd whip up a cake.  I decided on a chiffon cake as I wanted it to be light, fluffy and not overly sweet.  I decided on Japanese Green Tea as my flavouring and set to work on looking for a recipe.  I used this one here to base my recipe on.

Green Tea Chiffon Cake 

6 large free-range eggs (separated)

150g caster sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

60ml sunflower oil

30ml cold water

30ml milk

120g self-raising flour

3 level tsp ground green tea powder

Sift the flour and green tea powder together 3 times and set aside.  Weigh out 100g the caster sugar and place in a small dish/saucer.

Place the 6 eggs whites in a scrupulously clean, grease-free bowl and whisk until large bubbles form.  Sprinkle in the cream of tartar and continue to beat (I use the whisk attachment of my hand blender) until white and fluffy.


Add 100g of the caster sugar a quarter at a time into the whites and beat in fully before adding another quarter.  When the 100g sugar is added, continue to beat until the whites are glossy white and are fairly stiff. The whites need to be able to hold their shape and will not fall out of the bowl if the bowl is upturned.

Add the remaining 50g caster sugar to the 6 egg yolks and beat until thick.  Add in the oil and beat for a couple of minutes more until it is incorporated.  Add the milk and water and mix in (it does turn back to liquid.)  Sift in the flour and green tea powder and mix in until there are no traces of flour left.

Scoop a quarter of the egg white mix into the cake batter and mix in to loosen the batter.  Take another quarter and fold in lightly with a large metal spoon.  (I use a large plastic serving spoon.) Continue with the remaining egg whites folding in so that the whites mix into the batter but be careful not to knock the air out.

Pour the mixture into an ungreased chiffon tin (mine is 23cm wide at the top and 20cm wide at its base).
Bake at 170 C for 45-55 minutes.  The chiffon will be ready when a skewer poked into the cake comes out clean with not wet sticky mix on it.  If cake browns too quickly, lower the temperature slightly and continue to cook.

Invert the cake immediately to cool.  (I balanced the central tube of the pan on a small tin.) Remove the chiffon cake when it has fully cooled.

***Notes:
I would reduce the sugar next time to 130g and increase the green tea powder to 5 level teaspoons as although it looked nice, the taste was quite mild.

Happy 2013 !

A simple design of ice blue fondant and sparkly snowflakes.
(Photo does not reflect the true colour or the sparkly effect )

A fun snowball scene

Crikey! How time flies!

Three years ago I started this blog to record my odd ramblings, my son growing up, my baking endeavours and gardening adventures.  Garden hasn't had a lot of exposure on here - probably due to a lack of me being in it! Baking, well - I'm always in my kitchen baking away :p

Here's a look back at our Christmas 2012 seeing as I was too busy baking to stop and blog :(

No icing or marzipan for this one - dried fruit and nut topping

Gold Star Wreath

I made several Christmas Cakes this year to gift to friends and family. Each one has been decorated differently and it was a joy to do!

Home-made mincemeat and home-made gluten-free pastry

I had a pre-Christmas Meet with some of my Mummy friends - we met because we were expecting our little people 2 or so years ago and have stayed firm friends and our little ones play together too!  One of my friends is gluten intolerant and vegetarian so I made these Gluten-Free Mince Pies so she could indulge in the festive season!

The package on right is Gluten-Free Biscotti ~ Apricot and Almond

I do like to bake and share so I have been biscotti crazy again this Christmas concocting different combinations of fruits and nuts into biscotti so I can package and give to friends.  It certainly guarantees a smile on people's faces!

It was fun decorating these trees with my son 

I try not to leave the little people out where I can so I made some Gingerbread Trees and People for a few of my friends - oh and of course, for the little person here too :D  Although I secretly think my son enjoys the  "Smarties" (Chocolate Beans) more than the gingerbread itself! 

My personal project this Christmas was to create a Gingerbread Scene - 3D of course!

My Gingerbread Display I made for my son and niece - we ate the gingerbread after Christmas!

Thank you to you all for reading!

May 2013 bring you much baking / cooking / crafting / gardening adventures!

Christmas Cakes

I haven't made Christmas cakes for a few years.  My family find them too rich, dense and sweet.  When I enquired whether Mr Leaf liked them he told me they were "too fruity".

I've been baking more this year and as a result of having this blog, taking pictures of my makes and bakes and sharing them (if not here, facebook).  I sometimes bake cakes and take them into work.  I like to try new recipes occasionally and when there's only me and Mr Leaf there's only so much cake two can eat.  We now have a Baby Leaf but there's no chance of him sampling cake for a while.

One of my work colleagues asked if I made Christmas Cakes and if so, would I make one for her.  (She insisted she pay so I wasn't to argue.)  I agreed and the above photo shows her finished cake. 

I enjoyed baking the cake, simmering the fruit in orange juice and brandy - it smelt sooo good!  I whipped up another batch (different recipe this time) and made one square cake and two smaller round cakes.  The square was halved to make two bar cakes.  The Frosted Holly Cake above is for one of our neighbours.

These two Polar Bears and Presents are for our neighbour on the other side of us.  They have two young children so I thought they'd like all the presents!

This cute scene, Snowball Fight with penguins and snowman was really fun to make!  I like the innocent penguin building his snowman unaware that his 'friend' is about to attack him with snowballs!  He eveb has a little supply of balled up snow ready as ammunition!

This little cake is for my friend who will be celebrating their first Christmas with their daughter who will be 10 months old.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all you lovely people a very happy Christmas however you choose to celebrate it!  Christmas doesn't have to mean turkey and the trimmings, exchanging gifts.  Celebrate how you choose to.  Eat great food, share laughter with family and friends and create happy memories to look back on.

Best wishes to you all and may the new year bring with it much happiness, peace and love to you all!

Snow, Snow Go Away, Come Back Another Day

Our front garden is a carpet of white snow!

Britain is covered under a blanket of snow.  It is causing havoc with transport in the country as airports are closed.  No flights landing and minimal flights leaving.  We don't cope very well with snow in this country and only a thin sprinkling of snow is enough to cause disruption to transport links.

I usually spend Monday's at my parent's home and we had planned to go to a Chinese Supermarket to stock up on goodies for Christmas.  Mum makes Chinese soup every week and at Christmas time she makes one with exotic roots and tubers.  Well, exotic to the natives here but I've grown up seeing them so not weird and wonderful to my eye!  This soup would have the following: 粉葛  Arrowroot or Kudzu (I would pronounce this 'fun goht' in Cantonese, I believe it may be known as 'fen ge' or 'ge gen' 葛根 in mandarin);

蓮藕 Lotus Root ('leen ngow')         

馬蹄 Water Chestnut ('mah tai')    

It would also have things like pork bones, carrots other goodies to make it flavoursome and sweet.  I had suggested we go buy these last week but noooooo parents wanted to leave it to the week before Christmas.  Personally, I though getting it two weeks before the event will hopefully mean less crowds.  Parents obviously wanted it last minute as possible so it would be fresher.  Well.  With the snow that we had and the chance of more in the afternoon it totally scuppered the idea of me leaving my house to get to them (they only live 25 miles away 35-45 minute drive normally).  So, Chinese supermarket trip has not been made and the likelihood of having this yummy soup is slim.  

Chickens are snowed in!

I am hoping that the weather doesn't worsen as we always spend Christmas with my family.  My older brother brings his family over and stays at my parent's house and the house is a hive of fun as me and my younger brother play and entertain my niece (she will be five soon!).  Was having depressing thoughts of being snowed in at home and spending a quiet time just me, Mr Leaf and the baby. 

Although I have some more material to blog and pics to show you (foodie ones too!), I'm going to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Festive Christmas - may it be merry and bright!  Best wishes for 2011!!!