Sunday, February 10, 2008

"When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion." - C. P. Snow

***

Most of the stuff I made while home alone over CNY:



Raw Fried Dough. This was actually my second batch, made with baking powder. My first batch was made with yeast, and since the milk was cold, I thought: why not help my yeast do the job, and popped the dough into the microwave on full power, promptly nuking them.


I see the advantages of using a wok instead of a flat-bottomed pot to deep-fry.


Unfortunately my camera sucks at close range, but in short turned out alright.

The clincher:


REAL maple syrup. I hadn't had real maple syrup for more than 2.5 years (basically since the maple syrup from Vermont ran out). Real maple syrup is light, delicate and not overly sweet, unlike the maple-flavoured crap you always get in Singapore (even when they proclaim 'maple syrup'), but then again I don't blame them - it was $10.40 for 250ml at NTUC.


Fried Dough with maple syrup. I ended up consuming maybe $0.50 worth. I should make pancakes for the remaining 2.


Crumb



Miso-stewed pork, based on this, but with chicken stock powder, onions, carrot, courgette, shitake mushrooms and a dash of sesame oil thrown in. The last time I didn't realise the recipe didn't scale down properly, and ended up with a dry pot and cremated pork, half of which had to be thrown away, but I was more circumspect this time round.


Currywurst, with fresh bratwurst from Giant and curry-ketchup from the German Supermarket at Bukit Timah. They didn't have the right taste and texture, but oh well. I also didn't bother parboiling them, so they're quite dark on the outside.


Something I whipped up when MFM came over. Unfortunately it was below my standards. Perhaps the MSG in chicken stock powder goes well with Chinese food, but not Western food. And that salad doesn't need that much dressing.


Fresh garlic and herb and BBQ cocktail sausages from Giant that I bothered to parboil before grilling. They look much nicer.