A Mouthful of Muses

The Satisfied Customers & The Disgruntled Chef

2010-10-20T22:45:00.008+08:00

When my friend L first told me where she wanted to go for dinner to celebrate her birthday, I was amused by her choice and I thought it was a joke! She wanted to visit The Disgruntled Chef .. and I thought it was a strange name for a place and just the name of the place itself made me want to visit this restaurant.

The concept of this place is a little different from the rest... like the way tapas is served up, but this wasn't Spanish food. Here's what we tried:

1) Crispy Lamb Shortribs - these were fantastic! Spiced with some cumin(I think), these were some of the best lamb ribs I'd ever tasted. Crispy and fragrant on the outside, moist and tender on the inside, no strong muttony flavour that a lot of the lamb in Singapore has.
2) Baked Sea Scallops - Lovely, huge, fresh and if you drizzle anything with truffle oil, I'd gobble it up!
3) Tomato & Mozzarella Salad - this was rather disappointing. Nothing out of the ordinary about this salad, and I am not convinced of the combination of olives in this salad.
4) Baby Spinach Salad - again, not terribly exciting, and I didn't enjoy the bits of eggplant which tasted uncooked in this salad.
5) Scotched Quail Eggs - as with all things deep fried, this was a popular dish.
6) Crackling Suckling Pig - the bestest dish of the night...I am glad it didn't turn out to be as crackling as crackling pork (chinese style). I liked the tenderness and moistness of the meat, and the skin was very well done. Also liked how the peppers it came it complemented the flavours very well. We only ordered the small serving of pork this time because we were trying many dishes. The next time I go back there, I am going to insist on the big plate!
7) Sticky Toffee Pudding - we ordered this for L's birthday cake... this certainly was the grand finale to our dinner... the toffee was divine - it was not too sweet and full of flavour. The pudding was perfect (and I am not a fan of sticky toffee pudding myself), and whoever said that the vanilla ice cream was nothing interesting must have had a bad day... the ice cream was lovely! It tasted like it was homemade with real vanilla essence... yum!
8) Baked Ice Cream - now this was a nice and refreshing one after the rich sticky toffee pudding, but it didn't blow us away. Interesting enough though. It seemed like a little scoop of ice cream on a bed of sponge cake and wrapped in a baked meringue. Accompanied by raspberry/strawberry sauce.

We went to this place on a Thursday night and it was packed. The table next to us, with 2 different customers seemed to have some problems with their orders, but luckily for us, there were no hitches with ours. The surprise birthday cheer from the restaurant staff was also timed very well!

My verdict: Loved the food, love the decor, service was pretty good, but as with a lot of new establishments these days, the din from the diners echoed through the place. I found it a little noisy, but not unbearable. I think if it was a cool night, I'd have preferred to sit outside. This place is a must try for those who love roasted suckling pig!

The Disgruntled Chef
26B Dempsey Road

Peck and Grom

2010-05-24T21:30:00.006+08:00

On a recent trip to the Italian part of Switzerland and Italy, I had a wonderful opportunity to taste authentic Italian food once again. The pastas and pizzas were amazing, although the portions were still something I struggled with; by the time I finished my primi piatti, I was just about full!

When I stopped over in Milan, I managed to drop into Peck (Milan's answer to Harrod's Foodhall, in my opinion) for lunch. It was packed, and an Italian waiter brushed past me as if I was invisible. I tried to get his attention, and finally after walking past me about the hundredth time, this grumpy waiter stops and talks to me in Italian. Thankfully the restaurant manager notices my predicament and takes over. Service was smooth and great thereafter. Upon reflection, I do not think my perseverance paid off at this restaurant. Food was ok, nothing to shout about as it was mostly bistro type of food. But it was nice to walk around and examine the racks at the foodhall later. I didn't buy anything there though. [Interestingly, I did a little more research on this place, Peck, after writing this paragraph and have found that this establishment was founded by a Czech delicatessen owner... .. and I thought Peck was more related to the English word peck!]

I also got the chance to try my favourite gelato flavour, Pistacchio too while I was in Milan. While searching around for dinner, I stumbled upon Grom, which was touted by my Lonely Planet guide as a must-try. I had a generous scoop of the stuff -it was lovely - all natural, no unnaturally green colour, it was not too sweet, and had a little bite with the little chopped bits of Pistacchio in it.... Mmmm!

Cugini Trattoria & Le Patissier

2010-05-11T16:48:00.004+08:00

Amidst running our errands for our new home today, MrBoxes and I stopped at Cugini Trattoria Pizzeria for lunch at Club Street. The decor was inviting, with turqoise-blue chairs and tables. I tried the Burrata cheese from Puglia with rocket and tomato salad, which was a refreshing change from the caprese mozzarella that I love. The cheese was much creamier than a mozzarella, nice for a change, but I am still a big fan of the caprese. For the soup of the day, I tried their carrot soup, which was good - hearty, with what I thought had bits of mozzarella cheese in it for some bite.

MrBoxes had one of their pizzas, which by the way, looked so tempting. I wasn't sure if I could finish off one of their pizzas so I gave it a miss. MrBoxes had the Salsiccia, which had tomatoes, mozzarella and italian sausages. With such simple ingredients, it's pretty easy to overlook this one, but it tasted amazing. The pizza base was perfetto - not too thick, not too thin... and the flavour from the sausages was fantastic! The sausages weren't sliced, but removed from their casings, and broken into bite-sized pieces and spread all over the pizza. Delish!!

And later on after running more errands, we stopped by at The Patissier to pick up some cakes for teatime. Now I've heard so much about this place, but I have never tried their cakes before. We picked the Strawberry Cognac - a sponge cake soaked with Cognac, & strawberries and had layers of mascarpone mousse. This one was pretty nice, but nothing out of this world, I have to say. It tasted just like a strawberry sponge cake with alcohol. The next cake was the Chai. I am a sucker for earl grey and had to try this one... now this was something unique. Despite having chocolate on this cake, the earl grey flavour was still strong enough in this cake. The chocolate and earl grey combi was a surprisingly nice flavour. Was it worth the average $6.50 for a piece? I'd have to say probably not. I am still a much bigger fan of Canele....

Cugini Trattoria Pizzeria
87 Club Street
Tel: +65 6221 3791
Open for Lunch & Dinner daily
http://www.cugini.com.sg

Le Patissier
Mohd Sultan Road & Ann Siang Road
http://www.thepatissier.com

Pork Ball noodles at Shuang Yuan

2010-04-09T22:47:00.000+08:00

I read so much about this place on HGW, and about it being a place for home-cooked Japanese Taiwanese food. Again, since it was a HGW rave review, I had my doubts. Since it is near to my office, I managed to persuade my friend D to join me there for lunch.

I thought it was a nicely decorated little joint... amidst the so many dessert shops on Liang Seah Street, it was definitely a fresh welcome.
I went for the lunch set menu which offered a fruit juice at a reasonable price, together with the Shuang Yuan pork ball noodles and the crispy agedashi tofu. A set lunch there costs about $13.90 or so, I can't really remember the price. I liked the tofu - perfectly done and crispy. The noodles were nice and springy, and the pork balls definitely homemade. The 3-layer pork slices were interesting, but again, I'm not fond of those. And the thing is, I'm not a fan of sweet sauces, which is probably more of a taiwanese thing. So I didn't really enjoy the overall flavour of the dry pork ball noodles. Perhaps I'll try them as soup the next time round.
Not too bad, but then again nothing much to rave about, in my opinion. It's alright for lunchtime...

Shuang Yuan
1 Liang Seah Street
Sun - Thu : 11.30 - 3pm; 6.30 - 11pm
Fri : 11.30 - 3pm; 6.30 - 1am
Sun : 5pm - 1am
Tel: +65 6336 9338

Beef Wellington

2010-04-04T18:39:00.000+08:00

I’m finally catching up on all this blogging I have to do… since my last post, I have eaten and taken so many pictures and just haven’t had the chance to post all of my food adventures up.

My first food adventure for April was the class I attended at Shermay’s – roasted and braised meats. It was more of a demo and we were taught how to make slow roasted beef, braised kurobuta pork cheeks, roasted kurobuta pork neck and … Beef Wellington. I was most curious about how Beef Wellington was done and was pretty amazed at how many steps there were in doing the Beef Wellington. I didn’t know that even before you put the beef into the pastry, you have to wrap it in a crepe to keep the moisture in.

We had a tasting session after the class, and I was stuffed by the end of it and didn’t have any space left for dinner! The verdict? The meats turned out lovely... especially the beef wellington, which was done to perfection - not underdone, and still really juicy... yum!!

L'Angelus

2010-04-03T17:57:00.001+08:00

MrBoxes and I just finished a meeting with our interior designer and decided to try one of the restaurants on Club Street. Since our designer was raving about the wonderful melted chocolate cake, we walked into L’Angelus. Stepping into this place reminded me of the cafes in Paris… all the way down to the attitude of the owner of this place – he refused to speak in English and had a certain attitude about him. Not that it really bothered us… to me it kind of brought a little more authenticity to this place, haha. MrBoxes went for the weekday set menu (at a very reasonable price of $49++), while I went for the Blue Cheese Salad. Very much like any other French establishment, bread came free flow and in generous portions. MrBoxes enjoyed his Chicken Liver Pate Starter and was probably more than half full by the end of it. The dish came with a generous portion of salad and all the gherkins MrBoxes could help himself to!

I had the blue cheese salad, which was a pretty generous serving with blue cheese of course. Nothing out of the ordinary to me, and it was just a regular salad.

Next, MrBoxes had his main course, which was the traditional beef stew served on a bed of fettucine, which we both thought was a little strange, given that it was a french restaurant. The beef stew was great anyway.... .. definitely a keeper... hearty, meaty portions and it had a strong taste of red wine.For dessert, the both of us went for the molten chocolate cake. Looked great, tasted pretty average. For me, it was a little too much molten chocolate for my liking - more chocolate sauce than chocolate cake. The vanilla ice cream that came with the cake was great though.
We'd definitely go to L'Angelus again ... probably not for its dessert but for its value for money menus and the nice and quiet ambience. It seems to be more common these days that restaurants end up having a really dinny and noisy ambience these days, almost to the extent that I can't hear my date.. pity. I wish they'd bring back those soundproof places.

L'Angelus
85 Club Street
Tel: +65 6225 6897
Mon - Fri : 12-2pm; 7-10.30pm
Sat : 7-10.30pm

MrBoxes Favourite Choc Chip Cookies

2010-03-28T19:36:00.005+08:00

I've been in a baking mood this weekend... other than the Matcha Shortbread Cookies below, I also tried these Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies... Seems to have been a big hit with MrBoxes and his colleagues too... not my kind, as I prefer them crunchy like Famous Amos Cookies. Nonetheless these ones also taste pretty good; a strong vanilla flavour, and smells similar to maple syrup, which actually comes from the pecans in the cookies. I got this recipe off allrecipes.com, my favourite source for good recipes. Thing is, since it is more of an american website, I've had to tone down the sugar levels. One other thing I've learnt as well is that brown sugar increases the chewiness and white sugar makes cookies more crispy.

(makes about 40 cookies)
Ingredients
225g butter, softened
100g fine white sugar
220g brown sugar
2 eggs
10ml (2 teaspoons) vanilla extract
375g plain flour
5g (1 teaspoon) baking soda
10ml (2 teaspoons) hot water
1/4 teaspoon salt
340g semi-sweet chocolate chips (I prefer Ghiradelli brand)
65g chopped macadamia nuts
65g chopped pecans
Method
1. Cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.
3. Dissolve the baking soda and salt in hot water. Add to batter.
4. Stir in flour, chocolate chips, and nuts to the batter. I've used the dough hook that came along with my Kitchenaid mixer - makes it a little easier to mix than the normal flat beater.
5. Put the dough into the freezer to harden for approx 20-30 minutes. In our hot weather, it just makes it easier to scoop the dough out later.
6. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celcius.
7. When the dough has hardened, use a teaspoon to scoop out the dough into the lined baking tray.
8. Bake cookies in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the edges are nicely browned. Don't overbake them, or they'll end up crispy all round.
9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Shortbread Cookie Fever

2010-03-28T19:21:00.005+08:00

For the past few weeks, I seem to have been in the mood for shortbread cookies, I love that rich, sinful buttery flavour, and the texture so melt-in-your mouth! I used Clotilde's recipe from Chocolate & Zucchini and have adapted it. The first time, I used Earl Grey tea and dried lavender instead of the green tea. Was a great hit in the office! And this weekend I decided to stick closely with the recipe and try the matcha... I thought that the matcha would go well with rose petals, so I whizzed up some rose petals that I bought this weekend, and added them to the recipe. Here it goes...

(enough for about 20 cookies)
Ingredients
100g unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
50g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
90g plain flour
40g finely ground almonds
2 teaspoons matcha powder
2 tablespoons course sugar (for sugar coating)
2 teaspoons finely chopped dried rose petals (optional)

Method
1. In a medium mixing-bowl, cream together the butter and icing sugar. Add the egg yolk and mix it in thoroughly.
2. In another bowl, combine the flour, ground almonds, matcha, and dried rose petals, and stir with a whisk to remove any lumps. Add to the first bowl and stir it in until the mixture comes together to form a ball; don't overwork the dough.
3. Roll the dough into a log with a circular section, about 4-cm (1 1/2-inch) in width. Wrap in cling film and place in the freezer to firm up for 40 minutes (or in the fridge for 2 hours).
4. Preheat the oven to 180° C and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
5. Sprinkle the sugar on a plate and roll the log in it to coat on all sides, pressing it down a bit into the sugar if necessary.
6. Using a sharp knife, cut the log into 1-cm slices and arrange on the prepared baking sheet.
7. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the cookies just begin to turn golden at the edges. Let rest for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a rack to cool completely.

*fingers crossed* I do hope the office likes this one!

Sunday lunch at Dim Joy

2010-03-21T17:05:00.006+08:00

Apparently Dim Joy means a place to gather... and gather we did - with my bro and his family - at this nice little all day Dim Sum place. After reading many reviews about this place, and reading the especially bad reviews it had on HGW (HungryGoWhere.com), I was really keen to try this place out. Thing about HGW for me seems to be that when the reviews are bad, the establishment is more than likely to be better than average in my opinion when I try it out, and the total opposite when the reviews are good on HGW. Despite being so similar in culture, I must say that there is a huge difference in tastebuds between Malaysians and Singaporeans.

My sis in law made the reservation for the place, received email confirmation and yet, when they arrived, the wait staff told them there was no such reservation! Thank goodness there were still enough seats left for us though.

I found the establishment a little crampy, and wondered if the airconditioning was working, because all of us felt extremely stuffy last Sunday.

So we took the menu and ordered a mix of some regular favourites (char siew bao, har gao, etc) and some unfamiliar dishes. It took the kitchen awhile to prepare our orders, but when the arrived, they certainly managed to satisfy our appetites!

King Shrimp Har Gao was very fresh and the skin not too thick. It was gone in a few minutes since all of us hungry souls had been waiting awhile for our food. The Char Siew So was also very good - had a sweet filling, with a lovely crumbly pastry, not dissimilar to a flaky pineapple tart.

The Honey-Syrup Char Siew Baos were dainty.... didn't taste all that much of honey in them (as one of the bloggers put it - not as sweet as expected), but it tasted really unique The fluffliness of the bao was perfect; and the filling was amazing - it had a hint of peanut oil in it, which I thought was something different! You'd be disappointed if you were expecting the usual Char Siew Bao with heavy dark brown sweet sauce. The filling of this Char Siew Bao was light in flavour, slightly sweet, and had a fragance of peanuts in it! Dee-lish!

Another interesting one we had was the Claypot Sweet Sauce Rice Rolls (Chee Cheong Fun). Again, I thought it might be a tad sweet for my Malaysian tastebuds, but it wasn't so - the Rice Rolls were coated in this wonderfully fragrant sauce of onion, garlic, chives and its base was a bean-flavoured sauce... The Rice Rolls were thin and smooth, and the whole dish was a big hit at our table. I was trying to figure out what was in the sauce but didn't manage to. Definitely a must-try if you like chinese bean-based sauces.

The more conventional Shrimp and Chives Rice Rolls were also good - very fresh shrimp - although I didn't try them. I think my bro liked it a lot though - he's a big fan of the Chee Cheong Fun.

The Pan Fried Radish Cake was pretty amazing too. Crispy and fragrant on the outside, and still soft, moist, and melt-in-your-mouth consistency on the inside... It is such a simple dish, and yet it was done just right.

We had the Savoury Beancurd Rolls, which were lovely when they were piping hot. And the filling on the inside (mushrooms, turnips) were pretty surprising too. Not what I expected from a Beancurd roll. The usual ones you get in the restaurant have shrimp in them and the filling is dry. This one had a strong flavour of chinese mushrooms and the filling was a little saucy. Very interesting. Very yummy too. Same for the Prosperity Pouches. Although the filling was similar, it what was amazing was the skill involved in making an egg skin so thin, and yet still strong enough that you can pick one of these pouches up without breaking the skin. Absolutely divine...!

The major highlight of our visit was the Pork and Chive Wor Tip, which was apparently presented in a much more japanese way, like a gyoza is presented sometimes. Each of the dumplings was joined together by a very delicately thin netting of batter. And this dish was just so irresistible for everyone. The dumpling's skin was just the right thickness. It was crispy on the outside, not soaked in oil at all, and when I bit into it, I got to the juiciness of the filling on the inside. Definitely a big hit for me, and everyone else with me... I'm definitely coming back for more Wor Tip!

For dessert, we had the Red Bean Pancake, which was nice - very thin skin which was crispy, the crispy pumpkin balls, and the Traditional Layer Cake with egg custard. The Crispy Pumpkin Balls were great - almost like eating deep fried custard balls. The filling inside was not heavy on the pumpkin flavour, but much more delicate. And it had a thick crispy and chewy crust to it. Very very good! The Traditional Layer Cake was definitely the grand finale for me... not put together delicately like most Chinese restaurants do, but in flavour, it was amazing. The egg custard filling was slightly sweet, a little powdery, and had a twist of something citrusy in it. Not something that was in your face, but very, ever so slightly subtle. I loved it!

We also tried something else which looked really good - the Crisp Skin Double Boiled Milk. Very much like a soybean taufoo, but done with milk. And this little bowl was topped with a very thin crispy layer of pastry.. not something I'd eat again, but was certainly worth the try. Perhaps Hong Kongers might like this one a little more.

What I liked about this place was that it definitely isn't the conventional cantonese style dim dum like you'd get in a place like Wah Lok. The flavours are clean, and the twist in the dishes are all very, very subtle. Not for people who like their dim sum heavy, and dipped in chilli sauce (although I must add that the chilli sauce here was really good too). Come here with an open mind, and open to the little twists in these otherwise conventional dishes. You'll be pleasantly surprised!

Definitely coming back for more...

Dim Joy
80 Neil Road
Singapore 088842
Tel: +65 6220 6986
www.dimjoy.com
Open for lunch and dinner, closed Tuesdays

The Icing Room

2010-03-14T22:30:00.002+08:00

Have you ever wanted to try your hand at cake decorating without really having to invest in your own tools?? This is the chance for you to give it a try, see if you really enjoy it, or just have fun for a few hours with it! I chanced upon the stall when I decided to walk about the new shopping mall at Somerset. They provide you with all the tools and icings, plus a ready baked cake.

I'd take it one more step if I were BreadTalk - provide baking classes and recipes for people who might also want to try out baking. Provide the ingredients and tools for the participants, together with some guidance from the chefs and let you bake AND decorate your cake! Now how's that for an afternoon of fun??

The Icing Room

The Best Salad Stop

2010-03-13T23:56:00.006+08:00

If I had some money and more courage, one of my business ventures would have been a cafe, very much like this one I visited. My colleague was the one who told me about this place, and I decided to give it a try on my own one day at lunchtime. I'm a sucker for salads, after all. The ingredients at this place are truly fresh (no sightly rotting nor wilting veggies), and there's an amazing variety of ingredients to choose from - edamame beans, pomelo, apples, tandoori chicken just to name a few. I think there were probably 35 of the regular ingredients to choose from. And oh, the in-house salad dressings were just as amazing. I saw blue cheese, lemongrass, raspberry vinaigrette dressings, just to name a few.

My verdict: The best freshest salad place I've come across so far. The freshest ingredients, and the best salad dressings. Plus now that I've bought so many salads from them, I qualify as a salad stopper - unlimited 10% discounts on my food! The Salad Stop serves not only salads but sandwiches, wraps and soups too... and if you're worried about getting hungry, that one bowl of salad is going to be more than enough to fill you up for the afternoon, especially if you're a female. For the guys, add on one of their healthy soups and you'll be just fine!

Salad Stop
#02-06 Marina Square
Tel: +65 6720 8590
http://www.saladstop.com.sg/

Urban Bites

2010-03-13T23:08:00.008+08:00

Thing about this place, Urban Bites was that it was so new that it wasn't even listed in the telephone directory, and I couldn't find anything about it on the internet. Even better, the tv station airing the programme didn't have any website links or any information listed on its website on the places visited. Bummer. So I searched and search and finally decided to follow Jade Seah (show host) on Twitter, and there it was mentioned, the Urban Bites cafe. I still had no address for the place, so I decided to take a walk and find it myself. I found it without much difficulty actually, just diagonally opposite from the Thian Hock Keng Chinese Temple on Telok Ayer Street.

My friend and I met at the cafe for lunch today. Although we agreed that "Urban Bites" wasn't exactly the best name for an authentic Lebanese cafe, it was really a great experience for the both of us. I wish that it could have been "Lebanese bites" or something more representative of the fact that the food was authentic Lebanese cuisine.

We started off with the Zaatar, which was a thin crust pizza-like bread with a crust of dry thyme, olive oil and sesame seeds. Very interesting indeed! We loved the strong flavour from it and the crunchiness of the sesame seeds. I think that even long after the meal, the taste of the Zaatar was still lingering in my mouth. The Grilled Haloumi Cheese was the other appetizer - which tasted pretty much like a regular haloumi cheese. Nice, salty and slightly burnt. Yum!

For mains we had the Kubbida Kebab, which was a kebab of grilled minced lamb and beef. Highly recommended for anyone who likes lamb. Even though I'm not a huge fan of lamb, I still thought this was a pretty tasty dish though - the meat was moist and nicely done. And the other interesting main dish we had was the Epinard. This is a savoury crepe of spinach, cheese and bechamel sauce. It looked very much like a murtabak, but tasted nothing like it. The texture was interesting, but somehow that combination of spinach and cheese was just rather bland for us. I think that next time we'll try the sweet crepes instead. And then the finale ... baklawa with turkish coffee...and oh, a complimentary serving of some kind of almond pudding flavoured with rose water which was very refreshing too. The baklawa was nice, flaky and full of flavour, not sickly sweet ... and the coffee was very tasty too. Perhaps this was a chef who was more health-conscious.

All in all, the meal for the both of us came up to SGD42.50 for all of that, and drinks. Very much value for money and for its authenticity. I'm definitely coming back for another visit... perhaps to try the hummus and falafel! I like the laid backness of telok ayer street on a saturday afternoon. We spent a good two and a half hours there at least, chatting and eating this time... what a nice time we had!

Urban Bites
123 Telok Ayer Street
Singapore 068592
Tel: +65 6327 9460
Open daily 7:00am to 9:45pm

Lists

2010-03-11T22:43:00.003+08:00

Gosh, again it's been so long since I made my last post. I must must must try to do my postings more often! This pic I posted up was a shopping list that MrBoxes wrote quite awhile ago. I think it was so cute...

Speaking of lists, I've added one more to my blog too. Have you ever had this moment when someone asks you where you'd like to go for dinner/lunch, and suddenly your mind draws a blank? You probably know that somewhere in the back of your mind there are so so many places you wanted to try but just forgot what they were! That's been my dilemma lately.. So here's my list. I'll keep adding stuff to it as I go along. And if there are any takers, just let me know..

Have you ever tried Fei Fei wanton mee??

2010-01-02T16:01:00.004+08:00

This post is long overdue - so many times we've been to the Sin Wah coffeeshop and procrastinated putting up this one. Now, I don't care what anyone else says, but this to us is just about the best wanton mee in Singapore. The noodles are springy, with a little bite to it. Each bowl of noodles is small, but the flavour from the chilli sauce, coupled with the springiness of the noodles is amazing!!! Don't bother comparing the wantons with the ones you'll get in Hong Kong - you'll be sorely disappointed. Just enjoy the noodles for what they are ... mrBoxes and I certainly do! And I'm glad we're moving back to the east soon... more wanton mee again... *burp*

Fei fei wanton mee
Sin Wah coffeeshop
62 Joo Chiat Place
Singapore 427785

A really good English Breakfast

2010-01-02T15:22:00.004+08:00

Happy New Year everyone! How time flies.... we're into another new year already! I have to admit that I am getting old - I didn't even manage to stay awake for the 2010 countdown. At least we managed to wake up before the party goers and check out District 10 before the crowd came in. District 10 is situated in an unusual place... I've read that it was the premises of Monk's Hill secondary school.

There aren't enough places in Singapore (we feel) that serve up a good big breakfast, and we were thrilled to find this lovely place! mrBoxes had the super grease spoon District 10 big breakfast while I tried out the spanish omelette with chorizo sausage. Our verdict? Really really yummy - we'll be back again. Perhaps not so soon because the prices were rather high, but the breakfast is great!

mrBoxes had 2 kinds of sausages on his plate...

...and I thought the grilled tomato on my plate was divine - still juicy with a hint of the smoke from the grill...

We'll be back again, definitely...

District 10

10 Winstedt Road

#01-17

Tel: +65 6738 4788

www.district10.com.sg

Xmas Turkey & Trifle

2009-12-28T20:39:00.013+08:00

It's been such a long time since I logged in to put up my last post. So much has happened since then. I've been to a few places, and tried a few nice things but I just didn't have a nice camera to take pictures of the food I've tried. That's changed now that I've just received a cool xmas gift from mrBoxes - a brand new camera!

Well, Chef Shaw aka mrBoxes was in action again at my parents' place this year... another great turkey dinner which the whole family loved. The turkey was moist and full of flavour, the cranberry sauce was absolutely amazing , and the roast potatoes were a hit!

To finish off, I made the Trifle, which was well-received too. Both the lemon curd and raspberry jam were made from scratch so it was really yummy too. Here's the recipe :-

(serves approximately 8 - 10)

Ingredients

1 packet Italian Sponge Fingers (approx 500g)

Raspberry Jam (see recipe below)

100g fresh strawberries, sliced into chunks

100g fresh raspberries

100g fresh blueberries

1 green cooking apple, peeled, diced and slightly caramelized with some sugar in a pan

Lemon Curd (see recipe below)

400ml whipping cream (not light)

3 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Shortbread cookies, crumbled

Sherry or Grand Marnier

Individual serving glasses for the trifle

Method

1. In a mixing bowl, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla essence until the cream mixture forms stiff peaks. Do take care not to overbeat the mixture, or you'll get a lumpy cream mixture.

2. To assemble, break up the sponge fingers so that they fit into each of the serving glasses, filling up approximately 1/3 of each serving glass.

3. Pour a layer of the raspberry jam over the sponge fingers.

4. Spinkle a tablespoon of the Sherry or Grand Marnier over.

5. Next, layer on the fruits, a little of each of the raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and cooked apples.

6. Top with the lemon curd

7. And follow with the Whipped Cream.

8. Repeat steps 2 till 7 until you're done.

9. Sprinkle the crumbled shortbread on the top

10. Cover each of the glasses with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 to 24 hours to allow the flavours to mingle, and the sponge fingers to absorb the flavours as well.

11. Serve with a slice of fresh fruit to garnish, or like what I did, add a little festive decoration on the top!

Raspberry Jam

Ingredients

570g fresh raspberries

120g granulated sugar

Juice from 1 freshly squeezed lemon

Method

1. Heat the raspberries and sugar in a pan over a slow heat.

2. Allow the raspberries to disintegrate, and let the mixture thicken into a jam, whilst adding the lemon juice bit by bit, until you acheive your desired thickness.

3. Take the mixture off the heat, and allow to cool in the fridge until you need it for the trifle.

Lemon Curd

Ingredients

3 large eggs (or 4 small eggs)

Juice from 3 lemons

2 tablespoons lemon zest

120g granulated sugar

55g butter, thawed and cut into small pieces

Method

1. In a glass or stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water, whisk together the eggs, lemon juice and sugar.

2. Cook, stirring constantly to prevent the mixture from curdling, until it becomes thick like a sour cream or hollandaise sauce. This will take approximately 10 minutes.

3. Remove from the heat and immediately pour through a strainer to remove any lumps.

4. Add the thawed butter pieces to the mixture until the butter has melted.

5. Finally, add the lemon zest and allow the mixture to cool. The lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools.

6. Cover the lemon curd immediately (so that a skin doesn't form), and refrigerate. The mixture can be kept for up to a week.

A cosy affair...

2009-08-23T23:17:00.003+08:00

It was a rather last minute thing - My friend A had finally decided that her wedding day (ROM) should be a simple and cosy affair rather than a lavish one. She booked the lovely Swan Lake Gazebo for the solemnisation ceremony last Saturday and then we all adjourned to the couple's apartment for a poolside barbeque with their friends. Everything was home-made, with contributions from all their friends and we even had a real chef manning the BBQ.

Sp here was my contribution. I was happy that it turned out alright. Got the recipe off L, another colleague who is also an extremely good baker. The cake was good, the decor turned out pretty ok, although I must say I still need practice on how to get the icing for wordings right!

MrBoxes and I had a few more chocolate cupcakes left over so we ate them witn some limoncello cheesecake ice cream. Divine.... (sorry - due to copywright issues, I am unable to share the recipe for the Ultimate Fudge Chocolate Cake)

I have to ask if you have any requests at all for a small cake, do let me know - I need guinepigs to keep this going... I need all the practice I can get!

Zoe & Elmo Cake!

2009-06-09T21:06:00.002+08:00

After weeks and weeks of cake trials and playing around with fondant, here it is! So happy it turned out pretty well and I feel pleased with all the "ooohs and aaaahs" when i brought out the cake...

Will blog more later...

Fun with Fingers

2009-04-26T16:48:00.003+08:00

Now that I've got the chocolate cake recipe mastered (a really simple one which I will share with you soon), I'm starting with my hand at fondant figurines. J, my nephew loves quite a few characters, according to my sis-in-law. He loves Barney, Elmo and Dora (I think it's got more to do with the fact that his older sis loves these characters too). I decided to try my hand at making Barney and Elmo faces out of fondant. Elmo's actually pretty easy so he turned out pretty close to the real thing. But Barney - oh, the challenge of coming up with the right colour and the face - he's so simple yet so difficult! I think I'll need mrBoxes advice on this later on.... he's the artist after all.

Here's what I did in an afternoon...

... at least I've got Elmo right the first time round!! :o)

Yummy "Muffin" Brekkie

2009-04-25T13:11:00.005+08:00

I thought I'd try making the egg "muffins" again. Very simple recipe. 2 eggs and a dollop of milk beaten till bubbly. Season with salt and pepper. Chop a few florets of brocolli. Have some fresh thyme sprigs ready too. Slice and chop a few bits of your favourite cheese (I used french brie). Finely chop some garlic (I love garlic so I used 4 cloves).

Preheat your oven to around 200 degrees celcius. Fry garlic and olive oil until garlic is fragrant. Add chopped brocolli and thyme. And then the beaten eggs. Lastly the cheese. Cook over a low heat until the egg mixture thickens slightly (still watery consistency). Get ready your muffin cups and pour into the cups, making sure that there is still some room for when the egg rises in the oven. Sprinkle some grated parmesan or cheddar cheese on top of the eggs in their muffin cups. Leave to bake in the oven for 5 minutes. Keep watching them because they will rise pretty quickly. When they look almost cooked, switch your oven to grill function to give the cheese topping a little brown finish. (If your oven is a good one, you may not need to do this). When the muffins are a little brown, remove from the oven. Cool slightly and serve in their cups. So easy and yummy!

Birthday surprise...

2009-04-25T13:01:00.002+08:00

This was something which some of my ex-colleagues used to do at Amex. I miss the days when I was entertained by the witty banter of my colleagues and the days when they'd take turns to give each other a birthday surprise by decorating each others' cubicles on their birthdays. I thought I'd try and see what the reaction would be like to bring this "tradition" over. Happy Birthday, HH! Hope you had a good one!

Sacher disappointment!

2009-04-12T22:28:00.009+08:00

I'm giving myself just over a month to practise in time for my nephew's upcoming birthday. I offered my services because I need a challenge in both cake baking and decorating, so wish me luck! I had an idea for a praline layered chocolate cake with a lovely fudge filling, so I took bits and pieces off recipes off the internet. I took a Sachertorte recipe off Chubby Hubby's website, but alas it was such a disappointment. Not that I don't know how to bake cakes, but this one sounded different - the usual sponge recipe asks that you first whisk the egg whites into a stiff consistency befoe adding to the weeg yolks and sugar, then the flour. But this one had the whole eggs whisked together. To top it off, I didn't know any better than bittersweet chocolate was different from baking chocolate. So I probably ended up folding all the air out of the mixture while trying to stir the chocolate into it.

And the praline layer turned out to be equally disappointing. Off the famous allrecipes.com, it asked for me to add whipping cream (huh??) into the butter and sugar mixture. It tasted great but too soft and gooey. I think I'll stick to the classic recipe next time.

So it was an afternoon of disappointment after disappointment. But it was a nice end to the weekend. It's Easter after all, and mrBoxes gave me this lovely box of choccies and egg choccies to enjoy... Happy Easter, everyone!

Raves about Sage

2009-04-02T22:53:00.021+08:00

I first met A when I was placed next to her at my new workplace almost 6 months ago. I can finally say that I think I've met my perfect match for food. There are a couple of things which bring us both together : Our love for food and our weird excitement for the newest tricks we learn on a microsoft excel worksheet! :o)

Well A has just recently moved workstations so now I am the queen of my very quiet little corner. There's always lunchtime with A though... and so last week we decided to give the famous Sage, The Restaurant a try. We both have read so many of the raves about Sage, we just had to try it!

We went for the Executive Set Lunch menu... and we certainly weren't disappointed...

We had two of each of the appetizers, main course and desserts. The egg that came with the asparagus was deep fried and the asparagus went so nicely with the balsamic vinegar/pesto sauce combination. The Tuna Provencal was wonderful and melted in my mouth. I had the duck confit which had a wonderful crispy skin, and the flesh on the inside was lovely an moist... apart from a slightly overdone patch. The duck meat was served on top of a bed of cabbage, which was a lovely combination for the duck meat, and the sauce had a strong flavour of mustard in it... mmmm! A's Prosciutto Di Parma was a beautifully presented and had the perfect balance of sweet, sour and salty in a tomato-based pasta! We ended with a chocolate fantasy - a mix of sorbet on cream in a chocolate soup... which was divine.. I like how the sourness of the sorbet cut into the richness of the chocolate. And the cheeses were a good combi too - ranged from really strong blue cheese to milder brie/camembert (I can't really remember which one it was).

All in all, a wonderful visit to Sage and we're definitely going to come back if we can.

Sage, The Restaurant

No. 7 Mohamed Sultan Road

Singapore 238957

Tel: (65) 6333 8726

Fax: (65) 6836 3326

http://www.sagerestaurants.com.sg/

Operating Hours:

Lunch: 12noon – 2:30pm (Wednesday to Friday)

Dinner: 6:30pm – 10:30pm (Tuesday to Sunday)

Closed on Mondays & Public Holidays

Cran Orange & White Chocolate Cookies

2009-03-23T21:42:00.007+08:00

I've been trying a similar combination of dried cranberry and blueberry cookies for a few weekends now. I tried completely vegetarian recipes off the internet but was disappointed to see them "melt" once they went into the oven. Then I tried to refrigerate them with a slightly different recipe only to find them tasting a little more like dough! Finally I relented and made these off my favourite allrecipes.com website and made these ones with egg in them. I really think the egg helps a lot in keeping the cookie together.. these ones turned out lovely as they remained stable in the oven. I still have yet to find a crispy cookie recipe yet though - those are my favourite and I'd love to bake some that are as crispy as the Famous Amos Choc Chip Cookies... but these turned out lovely too... crispy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside... mmmmm!

(serves about 48 cookies)

Ingredients
225 g butter, softened
100 g packed brown sugar
200 g white sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp (30 ml) Cointreau (orange liqueur)
375 g all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 pinches of salt
200 g white chocolate chips
250 g dried cranberries, pistachios and blueberries
30 g hazelnuts
Grated orange rind from 1 orange

Method
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C)
2. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt together into a separate bowl.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth.
4. Add the orange rind to the creamy mixture.
5. Beat in the eggs slowly, in small portions, otherwise the mixture might curdle.
6. Add the flour, baking soda and salt into the creamed butter and sugar.
7. Mix in the rest of the dry ingredients into the mixture.
8. Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.
(Optionally you may want to refridgerate the cookie mixture for half and hour before baking - this makes the cookies a little firmer and they will hold up a little more when put into the hot oven).
9. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, depending on how crispy you like your cookies. The longer they are in the oven, the crispier they are on the outside.
10. Remove from oven and leave to cool before storing.

Nanny Curd's Peanut Treats

2009-03-01T21:36:00.003+08:00

MrBoxes finally got this recipe off his mum. These treats remind him of his visits to see his Nanny Curd in Brighton when we was young. It was what he called his favourite flapjacks, although it isn't technically a flapjack. I'm no expert on these things but whatever they were he made today, they were delish! Sweet, chewy and sooo more-ish!

We are officially naming them "Nanny Curd's Peanut Treats"

Ingredients

5oz. butter

1 dessertspoon (slightly smaller than a tablespoon) syrup (our favourite Tate & Lyle's syrup is highly recommended!)

1 cup self-raising flour, sifted

1 cup Rice Krispies

1 cup dessicated coconut

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup raw peanuts

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius

2. Melt butter and syrup together in a saucepan

3. Mix together the flour, Rice Krispies, coconut, sugar and peanuts.

4. Then pour the butter and syrup mixture over and fold well.

5. Press the mixture into a greased baking tray (at least 1.5 inches in height) and bake for 18 minutes.

6. Remove and allow to cool for 1 hour before cutting into individual portions.

7. Enjoy!

Detox

2009-02-25T22:26:00.006+08:00

My colleagues introduced me to their weekly detox sessions, and I have to say this one tasted unexpectedly great! One day I was asked if I might be interested in joining the ladies for their Thunder Tea Rice session and I gladly took up the invitation. I remember trying this Hakka dish once as a kid, but not enjoying it.

The ingredients of this dish are a tonne of veggies and other condiments mixed with rice, and served with a very green sauce. The secret to detox lies in this weird looking broth - a combination of green tea, basil, and othe herbs that i can't pronouce or spell! Anyway it's good for your overall health and digestion, and that's all I needed to know. This sauce is mixed with a little hot water before you pour it all in and mix it with the rice and condiments. It has a hint of liquorice and basil in it, but isn't overpowering.

I ask for extra cut chillies when I order this dish. And this combination of rice and veggies reminds me very much of the malay dish called 'Nasi Ulam', which is a mixture or red rice and very finely chopped veggies. Each mouthful is a surprise and a different combination of flavours and textures... And healthy too.

The Thunder Tea Rice has a few locations but the Lau Pa Sat one is closest to me at work. Another really great thing about this stall is the option of brown rice! Healthy!

Go check it out.... lots more on this website about the ingredients of the food...

http://www.sbestfood.com/thundertearice

Tea smoked chicken

2009-01-11T22:18:00.014+08:00

Recently I was asked by my mum to cook something for the upcoming Chinese New Year reunion dinner ... and I've almost always been at a loss when it comes to Asian cooking. There are so many good Asian restaurants out there that frankly I've felt it rather pointless for me to cook Asian dishes because they are so abundant here. So I'll take this as a challenge for me. I wanted to come up with something fusion so I surfed the web and took a look at the website of restaurant XiYan. Tea-smoked chicken was on their menu and I'll bet it was yummy.

Well I found the recipe for tea-smoked chicken below on epicurious.com and gave it a try. I think the steaming made the chicken nice and moist, but at the same time it was kind of weird because the chicken skin wasn't crispy and dry like I'd normally expect from a tea-smoked duck or chicken. The flavour was definitely there from the tea, but next time, I'll try roasting the chicken first. Chinese New Year, here I come!!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns
2 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
a 3- to 3 1/2-pound chicken
1/4 cup loose Lapsang souchong tea or tea removed from 11 tea bags
2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons uncooked long grain rice
Asian sesame oil for brushing chicken

Method:

In a dry, small, heavy skillet toast peppercorns over moderate heat, shaking skillet, 5 minutes. Cool peppercorns and with a mortar and pestle or in an electric coffee/spice grinder coarsely grind.
Pat chicken dry and rub inside and out with peppercorn mixture. Let the chicken marinate overnight in the fridge.
Transfer chicken, breast side up, to a steamer and steam over boiling water, covered, 25 minutes, or until chicken is just cooked through.
While chicken is steaming, line bottom and lid of a wok with heavy-duty foil. In wok stir together loose tea and brown sugar until combined well.
Arrange a steamer rack about 2 inches above tea mixture and transfer chicken, breast side up, to rack in wok. Heat wok, covered, over moderately high heat until wisps of smoke begin to appear, 2 to 3 minutes, and smoke chicken, covered for about 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave chicken to smoke for another 15 minutes.
Transfer chicken to a chopping board, brush with sesame oil before chopping and serving.

Chicken Roulade

2009-01-04T15:55:00.006+08:00

This has got to be one of the best Chicken Roulade recipes I've tried before! I have to give credit to the Simply Recipes blog for this one as I followed it almost to the tee... plus I'm feeling a little too lazy to modify this recipe so here's the link : Stuffed Herbed Chicken.

I used Boursin garlic flavour for the cheese, and lined the pounded chicken breasts with very thinly sliced ham before spreading the mixed cheese on the ham and rolling the breasts up. We bought japanese tempura type breadcrumbs which are my favourite, and I shallow-fried the breaded breast rolls in oil for a few minutes on all sides to seal in the juices before putting them into the oven to cook. On hindsight, I think I will skip blanching the basil in hot water as it changes its original flavour which I love. MrBoxes and I enjoyed this one with our leftover homemade cranberry sauce from the Xmas dinner ... yum!

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T15:17:00.002+08:00

Wow, time flies and it's already 2009! Happy New Year everyone! Just thought I'd put a picture of the tree up too - took me a few times before I could get it right. It was our first Xmas together as a couple and we ended up celebrating in KL with the parents again. MrBoxes became Chef Shaw for two days and it was a success. The roast turkey was yummy and so was the dessert (my modified Xmas trifle with homemade raspberry jam and lemon curd). We forgot to bring the camera along though so I'll have to wait until the next time I do this dessert.

Egg-white "muffins"

2008-11-25T22:35:00.004+08:00

We've been on this healthy binge for the last 3 - 4 weeks and so far so good... but I must admit that the only thing that I enjoy about this low carb diet is breakfast. I've been looking out for new healthy recipes, especially for breakfast. MrBoxes used to take charge in the kitchen on Sunday and Saturday mornings - our standard fare consisted of scrambled eggs, pan-fried sausages, crispy bacon, mushrooms in bacon juice laced with tabasco sauce, tomatoes, and toast! What a feast eh?

Since I took over in the mornings, we've tried veggie frittata (Italian version of spanish omelette), vegetarian sausages that taste very much like cardboard, and this cute little one below.. It's my favourite because it's healthy, balanced and looks good too.

The orignal recipe called for whole eggs but just cutting out the egg yolks lowers your calorie intake a whole lot more too. Here's what went into the dish:-

Chopped garlic
Chopped bits of back bacon, fat trimmed away
Chopped spinach
Chopped asparagus

I stir fried all the chopped up stuff in a pan until cooked. Then beat up some egg-whites and a dash of skimmed milk. I put the egg-white mixture into a few muffin cups, and added a sprinkling of the bacon-veggie mix to each cup. I then threw the muffin cups into the oven and baked them for about 15 minutes at 200 degrees celcius. Took them out and sprinkled some low fat cheddar cheese and put the muffins back in the oven to heat until the cheese melted and turned brown.

I served up these babies with some cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and boiled chicken chipolatas. Unfortunately I didn't remember what the measurements were for ingredients because I normally cook just like that. I knew the ingredients, but just went along with the quantities. Sorry!

Another healthy dinner...

2008-10-28T23:23:00.008+08:00

MrBoxes and I decided to go for more healthy eating and living (yes, yes, not even eating much of the cakes I bake!), so we bought the South Beach Diet book. I can't tell the difference between South Beach and the Dr. Atkins diets, but from what I remember, the Dr. Atkins Diet probably tells you to eat more animal protein or tofu than the South Beach diet tells you to. The both are the same in terms of eliminating all the 'bad' carbohydrates in the first 2 weeks. So no potato chips and no rice for us. Not at least for dinner... it is difficult to manage at lunchtime because there are carbs in virtually everything at the hawker stalls!

MrBoxes loved the "pie"!!! He said it was yummy and he loved the fact that it probably had far less calories than a burger... and has absolutely no potatoes in it!

Serves 3 - 4

Ingredients

500g cauliflower florets, chopped into small pieces

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

5 cloves fresh garlic, finely chopped

500g lean minced chicken

300g japanese edamame beans, boiled/steamed

1 tbsp Worcerstershire sauce

2 red chillies, chopped

200g fresh button mushrooms, chopped

1 handful of fresh thyme leaves

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

120g low-fat cheddar cheese, grated

pepper and salt to taste

Method

1. Boil the cauliflower florets in water for about 20-25 mins, or until soft and easily mushed.

2. At the same time, heat the olive oil in a pan. When the oil is hot, throw in the chopped garlic and stir for 1 minute. Add in the chopped onions and fry until the onions are soft.

3. Add the minced chicken in, mashing up the meat, ensuring that the chicken doesn't form clumps.

4. Add in the chopped chillies, thyme and rosemary to the chicken mixture. Add in a couple of scoops of boiling water from the caulflower to moisten the chicken mixture.

5. Next, add the worcerstershire sauce, and add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Let the mixture simmer for about 10 minutes, and then add in the steamed/boiled edamame beans, and then finally the mushrooms. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

7. Strain the boiled cauliflower. Using the back of a fork, mash the cauliflower like you would mash potatoes. (the fragrance coming from the cauliflower is actually quite amazingly similar to a buttered mashed potato!). Add a little salt and pepper to season the mash. If you'd like (this is optional), add in some creme fraiche or sour cream to give the mash a slight creamy mixture. I didn't bother to do this because I thought it was just fine the way it was.

8.Dish out the chicken mixture into an oven proof dish. Top with the cauliflower mash, and sprinkle the low-fat cheddar cheese on top of the cauliflower.

9. Bake in the oven for about 20-30 mins, or until the top of the pie is nicely browned

10. Cool slightly and serve with some steamed broccolli florets. Enjoy!

Black Forest Gateau

2008-10-26T17:57:00.006+08:00

Saturday gave me yet another excuse to bake a cake. The Black Forest though isn't something which gives me too much to play around with, because it's such a classic cake and for me to change the way it looks like on the outside would have been totally wrong. Initially I toyed with the idea of a buttercream frosting so that I could do more, but it just doesn't seem right to put buttercream with the Black Forest, so I shelved the idea.

It was my girlfriend D's birthday sometime during the week and we girls decided to have a birthday get together on Saturday. I decided to try a recipe from the KitchenCapers.net forum, from Florence. The cake turned out nicely, with a very good soft sponge, and tasted good (enough cocoa), although I'm not too sure what caused the cake to have a slightly strange burnt corn and cocoa flavour. The recipe was a little odd to me, as it asked for me to mix warmed oil with the cocoa powder, and perhaps that was what caused it to taste a little strange. Thankfully the flavour was masked by the cherries and the kirsch.

D liked the cake although she wasn't much of a cake fan, and I wish I had more stomach space left to eat more of it. I'd definitely be making more of this cake again... it's so yummy! (without the burnt corn oil flavour, that is...)

Sugee Cake Trial

2008-10-18T18:44:00.004+08:00

I think we took this pic awhile ago. Thought it would be such a waste not to post MrBoxes work up, since he took this pic. This was the trial I did before I baked the actual birthday cake, just to see what putting berries into the sugee cake would turn out like. I think it looked nice, with a little berry surprise, although taste-wise, I'm not sure that the berries actually worked very well with sugee... perhaps it'll be better to leave the sugee with lemon and orange flavours alone...

My birthday guineapigs

2008-10-18T14:55:00.010+08:00

My ex-colleague and friend, Iris approached me awhile back for a double birthday celebration cake for her and her boyfriend Tommy. Initially she wanted a cake, and later changed her mind and asked me to do some strawberry cupcakes instead.

She gave me a free hand in coming up with the design. So I had some fun at the B-I-Y Shop (filled with Wilton cake decorating goodies) - I went on a shopping spree in there, and came up with these cupcakes. I also found a simple buttercake recipe and added in pieces of real strawberry, and inserted some good quality strawberry jam into the middle of each cupcake before baking them.

The main challenge I had was planning my time so that I had enough time to decorate the cupcakes without cooping myself up in the kitchen all day, while ensuring that the cakes were still fresh. Keeping the buttercakes fresh was a problem too - putting them in the fridge meant that they would lose their lovely soft and moist texture. So I kept them in my bedroom with the aircond on.

I enjoyed designing and making these pieces, but probably need to challenge myself a bit more to the next level.. I guess I was afraid of making a big mistake for Iris and Tommy's sake but I do realise that I will need to push myself if I want to improve. The cakes turned out really yummy though ... I gave them to MrBoxes before I decorated them and he'd like to have more of those cupcakes next time. Iris, any suggestions/feedback??

Any more orders, anyone??

Curried Carrot Soup

2008-10-13T21:45:00.001+08:00

It's been awhile since I made soup for a meal. MrBoxes and I have been buying our soups from The Soup Spoon, but since I had a nice break and some time on my hands, I made us a nice healthy homemade soup. I love carrot soup and found something similar on allrecipes.com, but adapted it to my tastebuds. The soup also goes well with the white bloomers from Cedele... a healthy, wholesome meal! Here's the recipe :-

Serves 2 – 3

Ingredients

650g Carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 medium yellow or white onion, roughly chopped
1 medium potato skinned and chopped (gives soup a smoother consistency)
1 tsp curry powder (I used Vindaloo curry powder)
1 medium tomato – roughly chopped
650 ml chicken / vegetable stock
1-2 tbsp. cooking oil
1 pinch of dried chilli flakes (you can skip this if you don’t like spicy)
2 – 3 tbsp. crème fraiche (or cream)

Method

Heat cooking oil in a deep pan or stockpot. I used my cast iron pan for this.

Throw in the chopped onions, making sure that they were well coated with oil and nicely softened.

Add the chopped carrots and potatoes. Mix well and cook over medium to low heat. Cover and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

With a fork, poke the carrots and potatoes to make sure they are soft and slightly mushy for easy blending.

Turn off the heat, and pour the ingredients into a blender. Blend batch by batch, ensuring that the ingredients are liquified.

Sieve the ingredients back into the pot, to make sure that the soup is smooth.

Stir well and add water to achieve your desired thickness. Season with salt, pepper and chilli flakes to your taste.

Add in the crème fraiche, stir and serve. To spice up your presentation, add in a teaspoon of crème fraiche for each serving and swirl around.

Serve with fresh slices of bread.... Enjoy!

Basil Alcove

2008-09-09T21:39:00.016+08:00

I wanted to post this one up a lot earlier but I got lazy. It was one of those days when I wanted to drop into Phoon Huat to get some cake making supplies. MrBoxes followed me and I suggested going to Basil Alcove again for lunch. It was already 2.30pm and this little stall on the ground floor of Fortune Centre was still open. I have to admit that it's probably an unlikely place to get nice good nosh, but MrBoxes and I were certainly impressed!

For starters we had the tomato bruschetta, which had a wonderfully spicy zing to it. I'm not sure if it was the garlic or something else but it certainly had a kick to it. We launched straight into our starters until we realised we hadn't taken a picture of it first!

MrBoxes chose the Seared tenderloin with mustard apple stew and micro greens. MrBoxes gobbled it up before I could blink my eyes and it certainly wasn't because he was hungry. The tenderloin was done just right to MrBoxes' preference. And it was a totally lean piece of meat - no grisly bits of fat. Perfect and juicy.

I chose the Basilico duck with anchovy olive tapenade. I'm not a huge fan of duck but this was recommended by the waiter. It was really nicely done too. Not too fatty, still juicy and the duck was coated in a lovely pesto sauce - my favourite!

I have to admit that it is rather odd to be sitting outdoors at little tables, watching the traffic on Bencoolen Street go by (a little extra flavour in our food, maybe?) but for a price tag of about $60, we're definitely coming back again! Oh, and they're open for breakfast too... they serve the works. I hope MrBoxes goes again to try it out and tell me all about it.

Basil Alcove

190 Middle Road

#01-12 Fortune Centre

Open Daily

Tel : +65 6333 1461

Birthday month!

2008-09-09T21:09:00.007+08:00

It's September again... birthday month for my family... we have four birthdays this month! We went out to celebrate our birthdays together last Saturday and I decided awhile back that I was going to make our birthday cake. I tried a Sugee Cake recipe off the internet but it ended up being too spicy (cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.) for my liking. So the next time I tried baking a lemony Sugee cake and dropped some fresh berries in it. I took a orange curd filling and cream cheese icing recipe off epicurious.com and everyone loved it!

It certainly wasn't a piece of cake decorating it though... took me the whole afternoon and evening to bake and decorate this cake. I didn't have much of it but it was enough satisfaction for me to see that the family enjoyed this cake.

Feeling like a kid again

2008-08-21T20:59:00.008+08:00

I chanced upon the Kitchen Capers website when I was looking for a chiffon cake recipe. Quite an interesting website because it's a website meant for kitchen novices.... perfect for someone like me, especially when it comes to baking. Also discovered that the website owner, Gina held classes on cooking, baking and cake decorating. I've always wanted to try fondant cake decorating because it looked like you could really do a lot with fondant. The other cake decorators that I've been inspired by also seem to love using fondant.

So I took a train all the way up to Hougang, which is where Gina's residence is, but that's also where she conducts her lessons. For $100, we had 3 hours of fun with her, as she took us through the basics of how to make your own marshmallow fondant and a few tips on how to make cupcake decorationgs with fondant. I felt like a kid again, playing with the fondant, because it has a consistency that's similar to playdoh. Gina also told us that the person who taught her how to make roses using fondant was actually someone who taught clay making! Quite amazing what the similarities are, and even some of the molds Gina was selling were originally for clay molding.

It was a fun afternoon for me, and definitely more worth it for me to go for Gina's class instead of spending another 4 weekends with BIY. I think once you learn the basics, it's really up to you to use your imagination and practice making your own designs. I doubt that BIY would have been able to stimulate my creative side - their classes are terribly structured. Gina also gave us some homemade strawberry wine, which was divine (I'm definitely going to try making it myself!) and homemade vanilla extract made from real vanilla pods. Definitely worth my time and money! :o)

Here are my two creations - made using some simple cookie cutters...

Our new arrival....

2008-08-18T22:18:00.005+08:00

It didn't take my mum much persuasion to agree that this was the right choice. Both my mum and pa were there with me when I made this decision. And MrBoxes was terribly supportive too..... and after a long two-week wait, it is finally here!!! I'm proud to announce the arrival of our beautiful big.... .. ..... La Germania Oven!!! (Incidentally, we also managed to find the little Elba oven a new home on the same day, courtesy of ebay singapore).

Healthy Food, anyone?

2008-08-17T00:20:00.015+08:00

My girlfriend D and I decided to catch up for dinner last friday night. Since she wanted to have something healthy for a change, I suggested 7 Sensations (formerly Yogihub). But she'd heard quite a few negative reviews about the place because the people who went to 7 Sensations had a point of reference : the old Yogihub. I guess it may have been slightly cheaper before, and the food healthier than it used to be, but if one hadn't tried Yogihub before, I don't think they would have known any better. I managed to persuade her to try it out anyway.

D ordered the Black Olive Brown Rice(right pic), while I ordered the Korean Brown Rice(left pic). Both were really healthy meals alright. I found both the dishes pretty tasty but slightly on the salty side, and D loved the olive rice. I liked my Korean rice because it was full of greens too.

We wanted to try the eggless creme brulee for dessert but it was not available that night. Would've been pretty interesting to taste it, but I guess we'll have to come back another time. So we tried the walnut cheese cake which was nice and light but there was nothing outstanding about it.

Service at the restaurant was pretty good, but like a lot of places, this restaurant's acoustics weren't too good. There were only a few tables when we first started our dinner but it was very echo-ey. Definitely not a place I'd bring MrBoxes to because of this. 7 Sensations is a pretty good place for a ladies' luncheon, or dinner with the girls - healthy yet yummy food. They have a pretty extensive menu of asian and western cuisine, just in case you think that there's nothing but brown rice on the menu. The couple at the next table ordered some pesto pasta (I think) and it's smell was wafting over to our table... I'm definitely going to give that dish a try the next time - it smelt so delicious!

7 Sensations
16 Madras Street
Singapore
Tel: +65 6298 8198

An Unexpected Discovery at Velocity

2008-08-12T21:47:00.013+08:00

It was lunchtime. MrBoxes and I were walking around Velocity@ Novena looking around for an alternative lunch place - Cedele had about 5 small tables which were all taken and the queue was too long for us. So we stumbled upon Mingles. What made us pick the place was just the fact that it served up some Western food and they had ample seats around, we hadn't really seen the menu until we sat down.

The menu looked really ordinary - the usual pastas, fish and chips and other familiar Western fare, but what really stood out to us was the bangers & mash and rosti & sausage dishes. They had a selection of probably 10 different sausages on a separate sausage menu, which was pretty impressive. Between the both of us, we sampled 4 sausage flavours : Veal (beef) sausage, Spicy Italian Pork sausage, Swiss Cheese Pork sausage and the Bratwurst Beer Pork Sausage. We were both very very impressed with the standard of both the sausages and the rosti. The rosti was done just right - crispy and slightly burnt on the outside and wonderfully yummy (not overdone and mashed up) on the inside! Those sausages were amazing too - our favourites were the juicy Spicy Italian Pork sausage and the Bratwurst Beer Sausage. The Veal sausage was alright, but I'm not a fan of a sausage which has the same consistency of a fishball. To us, the rosti and sausage that we discovered today was far better than the Marche ones, and that another bangers n mash place in Holland Village, Monster Mash.

Until I met MrBoxes, I'd never really been a great fan of sausages and couldn't really tell the difference between a fresh sausage and a processed sausage. Just in case you're not sure, processed sausages have a much smoother consistency, like fishballs, and are slightly chewier than fresh sausages. Fresh sausages have a very distinct "skin" and the meat from inside the sausage still looks like meat and is juicy. They have a nicer meaty-like texture.

So there's my mini sausage dissertation for you. If you're in the mood for a nice juicy sausage, give Mingles a try - definitely much much more authentic than a lot of other sausage places!

Oh, and the berry smoothie that's in the picture above was really great too - not too sweet, bursting full of fresh berry flavours.

Mingles has another outlet at the Playground @ Big Splash, East Coast Park. We'll definitely put another post up on that one when we get around to it.

Mingles @ Velocity

#02-78/79

Velocity @ Novena Square

Tel : +65 6253 0345

Sunday afternoon at The White Rabbit

2008-08-10T15:07:00.003+08:00

I came across Chubby Hubby's post on The White Rabbit recently and started to get really curious about how they turned a chapel into a restaurant. The pictures on his blog were so beautiful and simply because of that, I wanted to make it a point to try it out. Other than CHIJMES I had never come across a church that had been transformed into a restaurant. I also checked out hungrygowhere.com to get more reviews on the place and realised that I probably had to set my expectations lower on food and service. I told MrBoxes I wanted to go there solely for the ambience.

We managed to get a private little cosy area called The Sunday room, a little alcove away from the main area of the restaurant. I was told that the main area was on the noisy side. At least the staff taking my reservations got it right, unlike some other establishment at the National Museum. MrBoxes was satisfied because he could hear me, and we were totally alone there. Service was alright, I suppose. Here's more about the food...

For starters I had the Warm Spinach Salad, a nicely presented platter with two crispy pieces of bacon on top of a poached egg (runny inside - not exactly what I had imagined) on the side. The egg wasn't warm, and the spinach salad had onions in it (I'm guessing they were caramelised somewhat because the salad tasted very sweet). Not really to my taste because I like salads with a slightly sour tinge in them. This one was totally sweet. MrBoxes had the mushroom cappucino soup. Very pretty looking serving, but we were both a little disappointed because the saltiness of the soup overpowered the usual sweetness that you get in a mushroom soup.

MrBoxes chose the ribeye steak for his mains. It came with a side serving of big chunks of chips. While the steak was done very nicely and tender, the asparagus on the side was a tad bit old and stringy, and the black pepper sauce that came with the steak was again too salty. And so were the chips. Being a great fan of potato chips, I was so surprised that MrBoxes didn't even bother to finish his fries off.

I ordered an interesting main dish - the spaghetti with foie gras meatballs. While the tomato sauce tasted great, just like some wonderful homemade tomato sauce, the meatballs turned out to be a disappointment. If nobody said anything about foie gras, I'd have thought that these were overdone meatballs made from the more grisly parts of a cow. It seemed to have lots of tough bits in it, like bits of tendon. And the outside of these meatballs were hard, like they were grilled. I had difficulty finishing this meal because of the meatballs. Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea after all to make meatballs out of foie gras.

We had a nice surprise at the end though. The mars bar souffle turned out to be a very ordinary souffle. To me it had a very eggy flavour and MrBoxes was wondering where the mars bar was. I don't even think we managed to taste it in the souffle, if it was supposed to be in there. But The White Rabbit Black Forest Cake was something else. I expected a fully intact sponge layer cake but it came as a totally deconstructed black forest cake. A dollop of whipped cream and chocolate mousse/sauce on opposite ends of this chocolate mousse log which was placed on a bed of what tasted like oreo biscuit crumbs. and six brandied cherries. Yum! I'm not a huge fan of chocolate but this dessert had and amazing combination of taste and textures.

All in all, the bill came up to $166 for the two of us, including a rather weak pot of Earl Grey tea and a very very strong coffee. Our verdict : We've had better meals before, probably not at such a price, but it was a good experience all in all for a Sunday meal out. I probably won't go back there again for a full meal, but will consider going in for the desserts. Service was ok. Not outstanding but not bad either. I guess they have improved since the estabishment first opened because there were some really unhappy customers there a few months ago.

Go there if you'd like to dine in an unusual setting. Word of caution though - the main dining area can get a little noisy and echo-ey.

The most amazing Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar

2008-08-10T12:41:00.001+08:00

When MrBoxes and I went to Hong Kong in May this year, we discovered this amazing stall at The Great Food Hall at Pacific Place. The Great Food Hall is an amazing gourmet supermarket and I tried my luck looking around for truffle oil since I've never been able to find it at supermarkets in Singapore. Boy, was I amazed when I came across this stall where this lady was with barrels and barrels of olive oils and vinegars! She had a whole array of flavours to choose from - raspberry vinegar, 5 year old balsamic vinegar, basil oil, TRUFFLE oil, Pistachio oil and many many more! I got so excited and MrBoxes happily sampled everything there was on the table too. We brought back a few bottles and within a month I think we finished the whole bottle of raspberry balsamic vinegar.

I am happy to report that I found Crescendo again at the basement of Takashimaya last weekend! This time my parents with me and they too went on a tasting spree. Crescendo's philosophy is "look, taste, see and buy as much as you like" and I love this concept and I'm going to go back to refill my bottles when they're finished.

http://www.crescendo-world.com/

The Cookie Museum

2008-08-09T23:12:00.000+08:00

Earlier on last week I noticed a small crowd gathering around one of the little booths in Chevron House at lunchtime. The signage of this booth attracted me too so I decided to check it out. There were only 2 salespeople there serving a crowd of ladies so I didn't bother to stay but made a mental note to come back another time. All I knew was that they were selling cookies but didn't know what the fuss was about.

So I went back there again in the evening when there was no crowd. Lo and behold, they had the most unusual cookie favours I'd ever heard of! Nasi Lemak, Hay Bee Hiam, Blueberry yoghurt, Cranberry Mango and many more that I just could not remember. I did try a few and decided to buy the Nasi Lemak for my girlfriend who loves spicy stuff (trust me, put this cookie into your mouth, and it'll taste just like ate a mouthful of the real stuff!!) Knowing that my hubby will probably not be able to appreciate that one (had two large deep fried anchovies on the top), I chose the wonderful CranMango flavour. The mango is tangy and the cranberry just gives it a berry lift... yummy!

Not cheap ($30++ for a nice tin of 24 cookies), but if you've had a bad day and need some cheering up, this ought to do the trick! I think I'll give it a try making something similar when the new oven arrives...

100% made in Singapore. Highly recommended!

The Cookie Museum
Esplanade Mall

8 Raffles Avenue

#01-02/04

Singapore 039802

Tel : +65 6333 1965

The Final Class

2008-07-27T13:33:00.001+08:00

Ah, the final class in Wilton Cake Decorating 1! What a relief this is. Not because I hate the cake decorating, it's all the homework and washing you have to do for this course! Every class requires you to bring along a baked cake with icing on it, and also make your own icings. Doesn't sound too difficult until you realise how many different colours and consistencies you have to bring. I do wish they'd make it a little easier by helping us to do the icings.... after all, it cost us $270 for this course.

Enough about the icing, this class today was tough. We finally learnt how to do the roses and were asked to decorate a cake with roses, a bow (i know, i know, mine was missing) and with a border decor. I had to attend a friend's baby 1-month shower right after class so I used this occasion as my theme. MrBoxes helped me to come up with this one. We first wanted to put a teddybear on the cake but decided that it was too tough to do within a 1 hour timeframe. My cake ended up being the odd one out in class again.

All in all, a good experience, but I do wish I had more time and more elbow space to do my stuff.. the icing turned dry and cracked (see pram wheels)... I need more celebration cake excuses to practice! In the meantime I need to look for a new oven... this little ELBA is driving me up the wall! I can't believe the Betty Crocker cake turned out a complete flop!!!

Now taking birthday cake orders.... heehee....

Crazy Cupcakes

2008-07-20T06:10:00.000+08:00

Wow, this class was tough for us. We all struggled with the seashell borders that we were taught, but we had a bit of fun with the cupcakes too. While the rest of the girls were doing their cupcake patterns based on the Wilton book, I deviated and did these funny ones. The ladybird didn't quite turn out right cos I was missing black colour piping and didn't get to draw it out properly. Working with very dry icing also made my patterns "crack". I still don't know how to get fantastic icing with Wilton's recipes. I think that there probably are much much better recipes out there....

All in all, had a bit of fun today. But next week is serious stuff. I need to practise doing my roses... failed miserably in class today... we'll be decorating a whole cake with roses, ribbons, wordings and borders. Just in time for my friend's baby's first month party!

*feeling the pressure now*

My First Cupcakes

2008-07-16T14:01:00.000+08:00

I just downloaded this orange cupcake recipe from another cake blogger. Recipe was lovely but I'm still probably undercooking my cupcakes - too damp despite the fact that the skewer test comes out clean.

This is practice for this Saturday's cake decorating class... I'm still thinking about the designs ... made it easy today and just found some cute things to put on top of these cupcakes...from Jason's at Raffles City. I love those little ice cream cones!

My First Decorated Cake at B-I-Y

2008-07-14T02:00:00.000+08:00

I've had this thing for learning cake decorating since I discovered vivcakes and bake-a-story, another cake blogger. I'd have to say that my wedding cake also played a big part in this too. So I signed up for a 4-week course at B-I-Y.com for the foundationclass of cake decorating. For the firstclass we learnt all about how to make your own buttercream icing. It's a very important one right, and even right now I still haven't managed to get my icing right. We also learnt how to ice a cake - looks easy but it's actually quite difficult and frustrating.

The second lesson last weekend was when it started to get interesting.... my first cake. I started to bake my cake on Friday night around 9pm. Took me some time to bake, cut and fill the cake with blueberry filling, and then ice it completely with the light blue background. I think I finally finished at around 1.30am! I took the cake in for class on the Saturday morning and there we learnt how to pipe little stars, some lines and wording. And this cake was the outcome of my couple of hours there... It is not easy and difficult for those with a weak grip. I thought that holding a tennis racket was difficult but this one really makes the muscles of your hands work!

If you look at this cake, you'll find that the consistency of the red and yellow icings are different from the green one. That's because we all shared our icings for various colours so they were made by different people. Apart from the green icings, we all still haven't managed to master the icing... which explains the unevenness of the blue icing on my cake. Plus my hands aren't strong enough to control the shape and size of the little stars... practice, practice, practice (owwww!!!)

Lovers' Lasagne

2007-08-14T13:03:00.001+08:00

I tried out this recipe a few months ago, and it was really a combination of Jamie Oliver's and someone else's... I kinda took the best of both worlds and combined it into this really, really yummy and juicy dish. Thumbs (and toes up) from MrBoxes! Yahoo! This is probably going to be one of my signature dishes if I ever set up a cafe...

Lovers' Lasagne
Serves 4 to 6

The Ingredients

300g good minced beef
4 cloves of garlic (or more!!), minced
1 green onion, finely chopped
1 large or 2 small carrots, grated (I like a finer texture of this so that it blends in well with the lasagne sauce)
2 large good quality raw sausages, meat extracted from the skins and ready to mix into meat sauce
5 rashers of smoked bacon (back bacon preferred for this recipe)
about 9 sheets of dried lasagne
1 tin of good Italian plum tomatoes, chopped
Handful of fresh cherry tomatoes
3 heaped tbsp tomato paste
½ a punnet of fresh button mushrooms, sliced into chunks
3-4 stalks of fresh rosemary, leaves plucked and stems discarded
3 -4 sprigs fresh oregano, leaves plucked
3-4 stalks of fresh thyme, leaves plucked and stems discarded
2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 wineglass full of dry white wine
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

For the white sauce

0.5 litre fresh milk
A pinch of nutmeg
½ an green onion, peeled and sliced
5 black peppercorns
40g/1oz butter, melted
30g/2oz flour
1 packet of 250g shredded mozzarella (the packeted stuff you find in the supermarket will do fine – fresh buffalo mozzarella might be a bit too watery for lasagne)
75g freshly grated parmesan cheese (if not, the readily grated kind is also ok)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Heat up a fairly large saucepan, and pour a good glug of olive oil in. Roughly chop up the bacon, and run your knife through the rosemary (just to chop it up a little, don't bother about getting it too fine). Bosh the bacon and rosemary into the pan, and let it colour slightly, giving it a stir every now and then.
Add in the chopped garlic and onions with the bacon and rosemary.
When the bacon has gone a little golden, whack the extracted sausage meat in and give it a good stir to break up the chunks.
When the sausage meat is about halfway cooked through, add in the minced beef. Keep it moving around the pan to make sure you don't get chunks that are too big, or it'll be difficult to assemble your lasagne later. When the beef is about 70% cooked, add in the wine, and turn the heat up on high and cook, stirring, until the wine has evaporated.
Add in the fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes, carrots, and tomato paste now, along with the oregano, thyme, nutmeg. Season well with salt and pepper (keep in mind that the bacon and sausage meat are already rather salty too). Give it a really good stir, bring the mixture up to a boil, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting, partially cover it, and simmer for about 45 minutes.
Somewhere in the middle of the 45 minutes, throw in the mushrooms. This will prevent them from shrinking too much because they cook relatively quickly.
While the sauce simmers, start preparing the white sauce. Put the milk, nutmeg, black peppercorns and onion into another pan and bring gently to a boil.
Melt the butter in another pan and add the flour gradually, stirring the butter while you add in the flour.
Strain the milk mixture and add it into the butter and flour mixture slowly, a ladle at a time, stirring it well until you have a thick smooth white sauce. Bring to the boil and simmer for a couple more minutes, then take it off the heat. Add in the parmesan cheese, but save some of the cheese for sprinkling on the top of the lasagne later. Season well.
Towards the end of the 45 minutes, bring a saucepan of salted water to a rapid boil, and preheat your oven to about 200°C.
Oil your baking dish for the lasagne. My original recipe fits snugly into an ovenproof dish that’s 13 inches by 8 inches.
Blanche the lasagne, 2 to 3 strips at a time in the boiling water, and line the bottom of the ovenproof dish with the lasagne. Top with a thin layer of the meat sauce, and then some white sauce (not too much, because otherwise your lasagne will not be able to hold itself and may collapse), followed by the mozzarella cheese to be sprinkled over the top of the white sauce to seal it in.
Repeat Step 12 until you reach almost the top of the ovenproof dish. For your final layer, sprinkle the balance of the parmesan cheese and the mozzarella cheese over the white sauce. I usually end up with 3 layers of meat sauce, but this really depends on the size of your baking dish too.
Bake, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes, or until the top is nicely golden brown and the pasta is fully cooked. Do note that ovens vary, so do keep watching your lasagne the first time you bake it, in case it burns or doesn’t cook fast enough. The oven temperature should be between 150 and 200°C.

Buon Appetito!