Spice Project

Traditional Brownie

For Christmas, I got one of my favourite presents from my friend Annette - a cookbook!

This one was the hummingbird bakery cookbook full of yummy recipes for cupcakes, cookies etc.

So after months, I finally got down to making something from it. I chose the simplest of all recipes, the traditional brownie. How many of you actually make it from scrap? I know it is not the healthiest of sweets to have but with the availability of really cheap mixes, hardly anyone I know ever make it from scratch! But it is so easy!

All you need:-

200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

175g unsalted butter

325g caster sugar

130g plain flour

3 eggs

icing sugar to decorate (optional!)

a 33 x 23 x 5cm baking tray lines with greaseproof paper.

Here you go:-

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celcius.

2. Melt the chocolate and butter until smooth in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering

     water (do not let the base touch water!).

3. Remove from heat and add the sugar. Stir well.

4. Add the flour and still until well incorporated.

5. Finally stir in the eggs and mix until thick and smooth.

6. Spoon the mixture into the baking tray and bake for 30-35 minutes, until flaky on top but still soft in

     the centre (Careful not to overcook otherwise the edges will become hard and crunchy.)

7. Leave to cool completely before dusting the icing sugar, to decorate.

     Or, you could like me, use a cookie cutter and cut out different shapes while the brownie is still  

     warm.

8. Enjoy.

A Gourmet experience in Entlebuch

After a really long time, we had the pleasure of being invited to attend a gourmet lunch with a friend in Entlebuch. That, my friends, is actually really in the middle of nowhere(!!)....no, not true, it is smack in the middle of old Switzerland (Ur-Schweiz).

Believe it or not, after driving for more than an hour from Zurich, we ctually reached this quaint old town called Entlebuch and stopped at an unsuspecting restaurant called Gasthof Rössli. If you have lived in Switzerland for a while now, you will realize that there are probably thousands of restaurants named Rössli. So nothing spectacular. But we saw that there were people arriving for lunch in taxis all the way from Zürich!

So, the restaurant had two sections, a regular front section for sit down meals and a bar and a limited space at the back which was were we were led to, this was where one made reservations months in advance apparently, for our spectacular lunch that lasted almost 3 hours!!

Us being fidgety folks, anything longer than a 3 course meal would bore us like nothing else but Stefan Wiesner, introduced every course with his own style and of course the accompaniments, (for this particular meal event, it was an alphorn and haystacks....yes, you heard that right, hay!),  so unusual that one actually anticipated every course eagerly! 

Best of all, with every course, I think we almost had 7, I managed to get wonderful sips of 7 different types of syrups, all hand made at the Gasthof! Wonderful for me, a non alcoholic drinker who sometimes does feel left out when they bring out the wines!

Simply a wonderful experience to spice up our Gourmet palate.....once in a while!

Little Spicegirl!

If you have been wondering what has kept me away from blogging, it's no secret.....motherhood!

Yes, we have a little spicegirl who has kept us busy the past year. Everything that goes with early parenthood....gazillion nappy changes, late night/middle of the night/early morning/ANYTIME feeds, you name it! We are only now finally emerging from our sleep deprived misty state that has gone on for months. But I must say that our spicegirl has been kind to us generally and she is quite fuss free. We trained her early too....we take her with us everywhere. At a grand old age of 5 months, she travelled half way across the world with us so that she could get very early on acquainted with her Asian heritage. 

I shall try my best to keep blogging despite motherhood and everything that comes with it!

Shui Mei Tang

On a cold winter night, some yummy tea from Shui Mei Tang to cosy up with....mmmm....priceless!

(pictures courtesy of Shui Mei Tang)

Happy New Year!

This year has been a contemplative year for us and we were not really able to devote much time for the Spice Project. Nevertheless, we are hoping we can make up for the lost time in the new year. A year to start with a fresh new slate....with prospects of making new friends, going to new places, discovering old treasures and cooking up new flavours!

We wish you all a wonderful new year and all the best wishes for all your new ventures!

 

Autumn in Lake Como

Vietnamese Beef Curry

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil

750g thin cut fillet steak

1 onion, sliced thinly

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 chilli, sliced

2 star anise

1 teaspoon cardamom seeds, crushed

1 cinnamon stick

1 red pepper, cut into strips

2 spring onion stalks

2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce

2 tablespoons ground bean sauce

 

Heat half the oil in a wok and stir fry the beef in batches for 1-2 mins. Remove and keep warm.

Heat the remaining oil in the wok and stir fry the onion until softened. Add the garlic, chilli, the spices and the red pepper. Stir fry for about 5 minutes.

Return the beef to the wok with the fish sauce, the ground bean sauce and spring onion stalks. Stir fry for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat and serve hot.

A Swiss Frangipani

Friends of Alex gave us some plants 2 summers ago. One was a baby Frangipani. By now, we are fully aware of my luck with plants (a cherry blossom bonsai and a maple bonsai died while in my care....) and we weren't expecting the plants to last that long. Well, the tomato died but before it did, it did manage to grow quite a bit which encouraged me to grow tomatoes again this summer (I am happy to say, we managed to eat some very juicy and sweet cherry tomatoes as a result!). Now the Frangipani, nothing happened to it for the longest time. That is to say it didn't even seem to grow, it did shed some leaves but we were totally expecting it to die out on us. Amazingly, a couple of days ago, while the Autumn leaves are beginning to shade elsewhere, our Little Frangipani blossomed! We have a cluster of fragrant Frangipanis on our balcony now! Ah, that was enough to cheer me up the whole week!

How to spice up your Saturday!

The Gentlemen's Run was an event sponsored by the Gentlemen's Report, a new lifestyle magazine for men. Anyone who could bicycle could take part in it.....provided they were dressed up for it! Well, not actually having bicycles did not deter the two of us from participating. We simply borrowed one each from the Züri Velos and then we dandied up a little bit (yes, there were some women despite it being a Gentlemen's event!) and off we pedaled! It was truly a 'vintage' experience!

The collection of bicyclists could not have been more colourful! There were all age groups, different backgrounds, countries, and of course all sorts of of bicycle enthusiasts. There were some guys who had actually made their own bicycles! 

 
We started the Run from the Landesmuseum and made two pitstops for some refreshments and then ended up at the Hyatt to a rousing applause. And a fine young gentleman who had made his own bicycle won the award for being the best dressed!  Am sure his bicycle helped him win it too!

 

Chocolate Orange Cake

While I was in Malaysia, the only time we actually spent a lot of time in the kitchen was to bake. Food is sooooo cheap in Malaysia that it makes more sense to buy them rather than prepare them yourselves at home. And since I always crave for the local Malaysian fares while I am in Switzerland, I pretty much just ate out or got myself a 'tapau' (take-away) every chance I got. Yes, not very healthy. 

So we wanted to bake another cake, my sister and I, but this time we had a request from my Dad. He wanted to have an Orange cake. But the person whom we were actually baking this cake for is a hardcore Chocolate cake fan. As a compromise we decided on Nigella's Chocolate Orange cake. It was decadent!

Ingredients

2 oranges (weighing approximately 375g together)

6 eggs

1 heaped teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda

200g ground almonds

250g castor sugar

50g of good quality cocoa

 

Boil the oranges for 2 hours in a saucepan filled with water (or alternatively, pierce the oranges through at least 3 times each with a skewer and then boil them in a saucepan for 30 minutes until soft). Drain the water and set the oranges aside to cool.

When cool, cut the oranges in half and remove any large pips.

Grease a 20cm diameter baking pan and preheat the oven to 180°C.

Pulp the cooled oranges in a food processor before adding the eggs, baking powder, bicarbonate soda, almonds, sugar and cocoa. Process it all together to get a smooth batter. 

Pour the batter into the baking pan and bake for an hour. Check after 45 minutes as you may need to cover with a foil to prevent burning before the cake is cooked through 

Let the cake cool in the tin before removing.

 

For the glaze

1/4 cup margarine, melted

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups of confectioner's cugar

In a large bowl, beat the margarine and cocoa together until combined. Add milk and vanilla, beat until smooth. Gradually beat in the sugar until desired consistency is achieved. Adjust with more milk or sugar if necessary.