He took a bunch of Kai Lan.
He snapped the stalks off and washed each leaf under gently running water.
He shook off the excess water, tore the leaves, snapped the stalks.
He lifted up the hydrated mushrooms with the cup of his hand.
He let the water trickle down between his fingers.
He sliced the mushrooms diagonally - thick, chunky pieces.
He smashed the garlic, releasing the pungent aroma.
He tossed the skin and minced the garlic.
The large fresh prawns - he shelled and de-veined.
Ready, set, cook!
He turned up the fire and heat the wok.
He swirled the oil around the wok.
The oil was smoking hot.
He tossed in the mushrooms - they sizzled and danced.
He fried them on both sides till deeply golden; the caramelized fragrance filled the kitchen.
He set them aside on a plate.
Into the smoking wok, he cast the prawns and garlic - sizzling, stirring, clink, clank.
A symphony of tantalizing colour and aroma.
The prawns were almost cooked - fiery orange with hints of grey.
He set them aside with the mushrooms.
He added more oil into the wok. He waited till it was smoking hot.
He added more garlic and fried till it was golden.
Then he threw in all the Kai Lan.
He stirred rapidly - the Kai Lan crackled, sputtered, sizzled.
He added a dollop of oyster sauce. A splash of soy sauce. A dash of pepper.
He stirred in the mushrooms and prawns.
Done.
The fire was off.
The hot fluffy rice ready in bowls.
The Kai Lan, mushrooms and prawns on a plate - glistening, smoky, inviting.
-------
In memory of Papa
Tuesday 3 December 2013
Deco Rolls - The Anti-Rainbow Cake
Rainbow cakes.
Rainbow Swiss rolls.
These bakes are all the rage right now.
Just what is it about these rainbow-type cakes that draw so many like moths to a flame? Is it just the colours? That wow factor? Or can it be the flavour? Isn't it just layers of intensely coloured, ordinary sponge sandwiched and frosted with freakishly white non-dairy whipped cream?
I wouldn't know, not having tasted any, or harbouring any intention to. I am seriously repulsed by all that colour. Consuming a slice of Rainbow cake seems to be more about eating food colouring rather than the cake.
A few weeks ago, I was searching through YouTube when I chanced upon another type of cakes - deco rolls. Apparently these rolls are immensely popular in Japan where one can even purchase deco roll kits that come with templates and designs for the rolls.
I was stoked. The possibilities for design and colour palettes for these rolls are only limited by the imagination, and definitely not confined to the seven colours of the rainbow. Think of all the secondary and tertiary colour schemes that can be employed, the patterns and pictures that can be drawn on the roll!
Yes, this is the perfect Anti-Rainbow Cake. You will be eating real cake, unadulterated by excessive colouring. The food colours would only be in a thin layer on the surface of the roll where the pattern/design/drawing is.
There were only several You Tube videos on the making of these rolls though. But they gave me sufficient information to experiment with.
My first roll was a Hello Kitty roll, using a vanilla sponge and cream cheese filling:
For the second roll, I decided on a coffee sponge with Irish whipped cream filling, and went with some lettering, just for practice:
As you can see, Kitty is missing part of her face and some of the dots didn't turn out on the roll. For the coffee roll, a few of the circles were stuck to the baking paper instead of the roll.
Time for a closer scrutiny of what went wrong. Both designs were drawn on grease-proof paper - my non-stick baking paper had run out. Could that be the problem? Only one of the videos mentioned the type of paper used - parchment paper, which I have never come across here.
For the third attempt, I used non-stick baking paper:
This time, it was a Hello Kitty roll again, but with a lemon sponge:
Now Kitty is almost all there, the missing line being both too thin in width and depth to stick to the cake. Along the way, the sponge recipe was tweaked for a softer, lighter texture. The lemon definitely kicked the flavour up several notches, together with strawberries and pineapple in the chantilly cream filling.
Emboldened by this almost-success, i decided that the next deco roll would push the boundaries of simplicity in terms of design. Nothing cutsie.
Graffiti - loud and colourful, but not in a rainbowesque way, would be the way to go. A yellow sponge background wouldn't work though - too dainty. Graffiti needs something dark to showcase it - a dark chocolate sponge would be ideal, complemented with a whipped cream cheese filling studded with little morsels of oreo cookies:
Yes, about Nick. He's my nephew whom I owed a birthday gift - an especially teenagy teenager who does hip hop and loves cookies-and-cream type cakes. I think this graffiti cake would be right up his alley.
On a roll (pun fully intended) now, I knew I wanted to do one with a pandan-coconut sponge and coconut whipped cream filling. But what kind of design would complement a green cake with these Asian flavours?
Epiphany struck a few days later - a batik motif with all the charms of our local Malay and Peranakan heritage would be the consummate accessory to the cake. And here it is:
Sadly, my camera and photography did not do justice to the actual colous of the cake. The cake looked so stunning I was hesitant to slice it up.
Now that I've nailed the technique, it is time to up the ante. In terms of flavour, sponge cake is a poor cousin of the butter cake. Hmm, the next bake......
Rainbow Swiss rolls.
These bakes are all the rage right now.
Just what is it about these rainbow-type cakes that draw so many like moths to a flame? Is it just the colours? That wow factor? Or can it be the flavour? Isn't it just layers of intensely coloured, ordinary sponge sandwiched and frosted with freakishly white non-dairy whipped cream?
I wouldn't know, not having tasted any, or harbouring any intention to. I am seriously repulsed by all that colour. Consuming a slice of Rainbow cake seems to be more about eating food colouring rather than the cake.
A few weeks ago, I was searching through YouTube when I chanced upon another type of cakes - deco rolls. Apparently these rolls are immensely popular in Japan where one can even purchase deco roll kits that come with templates and designs for the rolls.
I was stoked. The possibilities for design and colour palettes for these rolls are only limited by the imagination, and definitely not confined to the seven colours of the rainbow. Think of all the secondary and tertiary colour schemes that can be employed, the patterns and pictures that can be drawn on the roll!
Yes, this is the perfect Anti-Rainbow Cake. You will be eating real cake, unadulterated by excessive colouring. The food colours would only be in a thin layer on the surface of the roll where the pattern/design/drawing is.
There were only several You Tube videos on the making of these rolls though. But they gave me sufficient information to experiment with.
My first roll was a Hello Kitty roll, using a vanilla sponge and cream cheese filling:
For the second roll, I decided on a coffee sponge with Irish whipped cream filling, and went with some lettering, just for practice:
As you can see, Kitty is missing part of her face and some of the dots didn't turn out on the roll. For the coffee roll, a few of the circles were stuck to the baking paper instead of the roll.
Time for a closer scrutiny of what went wrong. Both designs were drawn on grease-proof paper - my non-stick baking paper had run out. Could that be the problem? Only one of the videos mentioned the type of paper used - parchment paper, which I have never come across here.
For the third attempt, I used non-stick baking paper:
This time, it was a Hello Kitty roll again, but with a lemon sponge:
Now Kitty is almost all there, the missing line being both too thin in width and depth to stick to the cake. Along the way, the sponge recipe was tweaked for a softer, lighter texture. The lemon definitely kicked the flavour up several notches, together with strawberries and pineapple in the chantilly cream filling.
Emboldened by this almost-success, i decided that the next deco roll would push the boundaries of simplicity in terms of design. Nothing cutsie.
Graffiti - loud and colourful, but not in a rainbowesque way, would be the way to go. A yellow sponge background wouldn't work though - too dainty. Graffiti needs something dark to showcase it - a dark chocolate sponge would be ideal, complemented with a whipped cream cheese filling studded with little morsels of oreo cookies:
Yes, about Nick. He's my nephew whom I owed a birthday gift - an especially teenagy teenager who does hip hop and loves cookies-and-cream type cakes. I think this graffiti cake would be right up his alley.
On a roll (pun fully intended) now, I knew I wanted to do one with a pandan-coconut sponge and coconut whipped cream filling. But what kind of design would complement a green cake with these Asian flavours?
Epiphany struck a few days later - a batik motif with all the charms of our local Malay and Peranakan heritage would be the consummate accessory to the cake. And here it is:
Sadly, my camera and photography did not do justice to the actual colous of the cake. The cake looked so stunning I was hesitant to slice it up.
Now that I've nailed the technique, it is time to up the ante. In terms of flavour, sponge cake is a poor cousin of the butter cake. Hmm, the next bake......
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