Bryony gave us some fresh asparagus from her allotment, and it was very nice of her Dad to bring it in to London for us. =) I'm not sure if I have had asparagus before, the only thing that comes to mind is the name of our group during the RGPS P5 camp. Anyhow, it was nice to have some fresh spring produce and I decided to cook it with risotto!
My first attempt at risotto was 2 'christmas-es' ago which wasn't very successful at all due to my failure to cook rice in a pot. This time, I used a non-stick wok which makes it much easier. I don't really know what the white wine does as I can hardly taste it so am not sure if it warrants me going out to buy a whole bottle of wine! I used one whole lemon which was definitely too sour but other than that, the risotto turned out pretty good although ZW insists it's not much different from porridge. I blanched the asparagus separately so it was crunchy and I could also reserve the tips for decorating!
During the week, ZW acquired this box i.e. FAT TRAP. Apparently you are not meant to pour hot oil/fats down the sink cos it will clog it up. Not sure if we will see the effects of using this 'trap' on the sink but maybe once we've filled it up... we'll rethink our own oil consumption?
It's bank holiday weekend so I went out to chinatown to get some groceries. I always find it very hard to browse the shelves of the 'supermarket' as the variety is just overwhelming! However, there weren't many people that day so I took my time to look carefully for anything that might interest me and I found: dessicated coconut, pandan essence, palm sugar and pandan flavoured glutinous rice flour! Recipe for onde-onde!
Not too bad for a first attempt I'll say. Not bengawan solo quality but can still pass off. ZW made some suggestions so I'm going to try to make smaller 'balls' tonight with more gula melaka and with coconut pre-soaked with evaporated milk for a fresher taste.
Lastly, I tried to make kaya since the ingredients are really basic (but high in cholesterol!). Unfortunately, I didn't have a breadmaker and blender to make the process easy and ended up having to do it the hard way. Apparently there are two kinds of kaya. 1)the custard textured one and 2) the smooth brown one. I tried to make both. Although it doesn't look great in the pictures, they still taste like kaya, really!
I think the secret to having really good kaya is to stir it constantly for long hours!
Obviously I got distracted and wasn't as dilligent as I had hoped to be. Lapses in concentration resulted in bits of lumps which thankfully isn't detectable on toast. =)
Not too bad for a first attempt I'll say. Not bengawan solo quality but can still pass off. ZW made some suggestions so I'm going to try to make smaller 'balls' tonight with more gula melaka and with coconut pre-soaked with evaporated milk for a fresher taste.
Lastly, I tried to make kaya since the ingredients are really basic (but high in cholesterol!). Unfortunately, I didn't have a breadmaker and blender to make the process easy and ended up having to do it the hard way. Apparently there are two kinds of kaya. 1)the custard textured one and 2) the smooth brown one. I tried to make both. Although it doesn't look great in the pictures, they still taste like kaya, really!
I think the secret to having really good kaya is to stir it constantly for long hours!
Obviously I got distracted and wasn't as dilligent as I had hoped to be. Lapses in concentration resulted in bits of lumps which thankfully isn't detectable on toast. =)
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