Gambas al Pil Pil ... & Updates!

Hello stranger.

You still there? I know, I know. I have been awfully quiet. Can't help it ... so many things to do, so much life to live. :)

I hope you've all been well. I've been really, really busy ... in a good way, if you know what I mean. If you have been following me on Twitter, you'd know that I was in Hong Kong recently to celebrate my birthday. It was a "milestone birthday" (ahem!), hence the need for a special celebration. After all, it's not everyday one turns 21, right? Haw haw haw. But boy, did I have a fantastic time! Absolutely loved every minute there. :)

It was also the day my blog turned 3. Yikes! I can't believe I've kept this going for 3 years now. I don't know how long I can keep this up, but I sure hope I'll be blogging for many more years to come ... for the single simple reason that I enjoy it.

In between all that, I managed to squeeze some time to take up elementary French! It was 2 months of fun, fun, fun. While I am not at all proficient yet, I can now order from a menu and not butcher the language. At least that's what I think. Do you believe me? *giggles*

As for my everyday life - of course I still have the daily ferrying and coaching, fussing and rushing to do. But that's part of being a hands-on mum, and I do love being one! At the end of every week though, I make it a point to have my night off, where I catch up with friends over dinner and drinks.

Unbeknownst to me, I have slowly morphed into the type of mum I used to envy - you know, the ones whose baby/toddler days are behind them? The ones who can get out of the house for a couple of hours alone, with nice hair and make-up on? The ones who actually have a life? Yeah, those.

Back then, when I was a harried, sleep-deprived young mother, all I yearned was for some precious me-time which I knew would one day come when the kids got older (although at that point, it did seem like there was no light at the end of the tunnel).

And then one evening, when I was out at dinner, it hit me hard: "It's here! The day has already come! OMG, I have my life back!" Inside, I gave a tiny yelp and did a happy dance. Kids do grow up - thank goodness - and it feels fantastic to move on to a new phase.

So, that's the update from me. What have you been doing? :)



Well, here's what's cookin' today: I wanted to share this Gambas al Pil Pil which I had when I visited Barcelona last December. It's a very common tapas dish which literally takes minutes to prepare. In fact, the "difficult" part about making this is the shelling and deveining of the prawns. It's true! And even better, there is no actual recipe because everything is eyeballed.

In many tapas bars all over Spain, you'd see food served in terracotta-coloured dishes (cerámica de barro, if I am not wrong). It's great, really, because you cook the food in the plate you are serving in and the heat gets retained within. In my case, I had to make do with a small frying pan (the type you'd fry an egg in) and then transfer the cooked prawns into a serving bowl.

So essentially, what you need for a 1-2 person serving are:
- 10 large fresh prawns, shelled and deveined (tails on)
- good quality extra virgin olive oil
- 1 or 2 cloves of garlic, sliced thickly
- 1 chilli (fresh or dried), sliced and deseeded
- a pinch of paprika
- a dash of salt
- a scatter of chopped parsley

1. Gently heat up a shallow earthern plate or frying pan. Pour a few glugs of olive oil (enough to submerge the prawns halfway).

2. Add in the garlic, followed by the prawns. Cook over a low-medium heat for 2mins. The oil should sizzle but the garlic should not brown.

3. Throw in the chilli slices and add a pinch of paprika. Let the prawns cook till they turn thoroughly orange, probably another 2mins. Add a dash of salt for taste.

4. Dish up onto a serving bowl or shallow plate and sprinkle with parsley. And seriously, that's it!

5. Serve with a Spanish red and some warm crusty bread (to mop up that glorious crustacean-flavoured oil).



How about that? Tapas in your own home, and since you're not going anywhere, you can drink as much rioja or sangria as you like. ;)

Till the next post ... eat well, live well, love well!

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake - Again!

You know me. When I like a particular cake, I will feature it again. It's clear from my archives which cakes I favour. :) This is one of them.

In my last post, I shared a Marble Cake recipe which I thought was absolutely delightful. I noticed though, that my children were fighting mainly for the chocolatey bits (good heavens!), and so I promised to bake them a chocolate cake next. Well, here it is today.

I wanted to make Tish Boyle's Chocolate Buttermilk Cake again, but this time in "whole cake" version. The last time I baked them, I used a Bundt-lette pan, just as she stated in her recipe, and got 6 mini loaves. I can now understand the rationale behind this.

This cake, when baked in a 7-inch pan, took double the baking time! I waited forever, while the cake took its own sweet time. Ah, the smell of a chocolate cake baking is pure heaven, and the waiting is sheer torture. My children came in and out of the kitchen countless times, harassing me for cake. Yes, harass.

Luckily, I had earlier saved some of the batter and poured them into 3 cupcake cups. So while the big cake was baking away, the smaller cupcakes were done in about 18mins, and I could throw them to my hungry mob and beg them to "please leave me alone now". True story.

Anyway, when the cake was finally done, it was dinner time, so I left it on a cooling rack at room temperature, until the next day. Then I sliced it and oohed at the sight of its velvety interior. Just take a closer look:


See what I mean? So soft and moist!

As I took photos, my children again circled me like vultures, asking for cake. My big boy said, "I tasted the cupcake yesterday and it was sooo delicious!" Special emphasis on the "sooo". Awwww! How sweet is that? Of course I hurried up and got my photos done so that they could eat. And eat we all did. It was the perfect chocolate cake ... and I am using the word "perfect" unabashedly. :)

I did not make changes to the recipe, save for 2 things: I chopped the chocolate a bit coarser, and cut down the sugar to 220g.

If you are using semi-sweet chocolate, I think you can further reduce the sugar by another 10 or 20g. I used Valrhona Caraïbe 66%, so I decided to err on the side of sweet, and it turned out to be just nice for us.

Oh, one other thing! If you intend to make a whole cake like I did, you need to adjust the temperature. I baked at 175°C for the first 30 minutes. After that, I lowered the temperature to 160°C for the next 40 minutes. Test with a skewer at round the 1 hour-mark. I also tented my cake throughout the entire baking time. This is important, because I can guarantee you a burnt top if you do not do this.


I managed to snap a photo of the batter! Gorgeous, isn't that? It reminded me of creamy melted ice cream. :) Fold in the chopped chocolate after this, and you're ready to bake!


Here's the reward for waiting. Enjoy!

Recipe can be found here. Please use good quality chocolate for the best results. For Singapore readers who want to know, I buy my Valrhona cocoa and chocolate from Sun Lik.

Old-fashioned Marble Cake

I love a good, simple cake. It is the true test of a recipe and the quality of the ingredients. A good cake does not need fancy frosting or gilded garnishing. It stands out on its own because of its taste and texture. Give me a good, simple cake any day, I say.

This old-fashioned Marble Cake is one such example, and it's no surprise that it's from one of those handwritten recipes that has been passed down from one generation to the next. Grandmother/Grandfather recipes are always the best. :)

I saw this cake at Pick Yin's lovely blog and was wowed by the beautiful, fine texture. I got even more excited when I saw that the recipe uses the "egg separation" method (beating yolks and whites separately, and then combining them). I had previously baked a Marble Cake using the "whole eggs" method but found the texture too blah.

So naturally, this joined my ever-growing list of "must-try" cakes, and I finally made it yesterday, all thanks to a sudden craving. You know the sad thing is, I realised the only way to have a real buttery, chocolatey marble cake is to bake it myself. Commercial ones seem to reek of margarine (or is it shortening?), which totally kills the cake. Honestly, I don't know of any bakery in Singapore which makes a good Marble Cake. Do you?

My word of caution is, the yolk/sugar/butter mixture is rather viscous, and you need to "loosen it up" with some egg whites before folding in the rest. There is also the challenge of making sure you fold thoroughly without overfolding in the process. A simple cake, no doubt, but one which does require some technique.

But do it right, and you'll get this:




A tender texture with just the right amount of bite AND it tastes even better on Day 2! I guarantee, you won't stop at one slice. I scarfed down 2 slices as I shared it on Twitter, and then climbed 70 flights of stairs as payback. Remember: a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips. You have been warned. ;)

Recipe
(from Life is Great - do hop over for a glimpse at the gorgeous Marble Cake!)

- 8 large eggs, separated
- 9 ozs (255g) castor sugar
- 12 ozs (340g) unsalted butter, softened
- 9 ozs (255g) all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsps baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsps pure vanilla extract
- 2 tbsps good quality cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven at 160°C (convection fan on) with a wire rack in the middle. Line an 8-inch round cake tin with parchment, butter and flour. Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

2. Cream butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment till light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar till light. Gradually add this into the butter and beat on medium speed till just incorporated. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites till stiff peaks form. With a spatula, fold in the meringue into the egg yolk mixture in 3-4 batches*. Add in the dry ingredients gradually until just incorporated.
* The first time I added the egg whites, it was impossible to fold. What I did was just mix it up with the thick yolk batter and "loosen up" the batter. The subsequent batches were much easier. I folded the whites in 3 batches.

3. Scoop out 1/4* of the batter in a separate bowl. Sieve cocoa powder over it and fold to mix well. Pour batters into tin, alternating between the two mixtures. Start with the yellow batter and end with the cocoa mixture. Rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. With a long skewer, swirl (sparingly) around the batter to create the marble effect. Bake for 40-55 minutes or until a tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
* This is somewhat arbitrary. A little more won't hurt, especially if you want a bit more chocolate in your cake! :)

4. Cool on wire rack completely before serving. Cake keeps at room temperature up to 3 days and can be frozen up to 3 months.