Singapore Mei Fun

Singapore Mai/Mei Fun

I really love Singapore Mei/Mai Fun (depending) because it's light with small noodles, vegetables, a little spiciness, color and seafood.  This recipe I learned to make while I was in Hong Kong with my mom but I think you can find something similar all over the Internet.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pk or 6 oz dry rice noodle (mei fun)
• 1.5 tbsp curry powder
• 2 egg
• 1/2 large onion
• 2 celery rib
• ½ large green pepper
• ½ large yellow pepper
• ½ large orange pepper
• 6 oz napa or cabbage
• 1 cup scallions, thinly sliced
• 2 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 Scallion, cut to 2 inch pieces
• ½lb of shrimp
• Soak the rice noodle in cold water until softened . About 30 minutes
• In the meantime, sliced the onion, celery, pepper, and napa
• Add 2 tbsp of oil in a wok or frying pan, Add egg and scramble until set. Remove and set aside
• Drizzle another 2 tbsp of oil in a wok, add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add sliced onion, pepper, celery, and napa. Stir fry over high heat for 2 minutes
• Add blanched noodles and stir to mix
• Add curry powder. Continue to stir until the curry powder is well incorporated , about 30 sec
• Add egg and scallion and stir fry for another minute. Transfer to a plate and serve hot.
  
  
  
  

  

  My finished product

  
  This recipe is quite easy, quick and I love it. I always tell myself that it is also healthy due to the vegetables and only being stir fried.
  
  
  

Paris Brest

Paris Brest

I first got introduced with a Paris Brest through the Japanese bakery chain, Beard Papa.  It was really delicious that I sort of became addicted to having a least one everyday. But because I didn't have a lot of money, I could not continue buying Paris Brest everyday.  so I wanted to try making them at least once. So I pinned a recipe from cake duchess , which had a lot of nice pictures to follow along with. 

Her recipe also had raspberry filling which I like.  

Recipe:

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup water

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 large eggs, room temperature

Raspberry Whipped Cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 1/4 cup whipped cream

1 cup fresh raspberries

Raspberry Whipped Cream Directions:

Puree the raspberries in a mixer. Strain the raspberries through a fine sieve and set aside (you need to remove the seeds from raspberries).

If you like your cream sweeter, add a little more powdered sugar. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the cream with the powdered sugar until soft peaks form. Slowly add in the raspberry coulis and beat on low speed until combined. Set in refrigerator to chill while you prepare the dough.

To make the Pâte a Choux-Cream Puff Dough:

In a heavy sauce pan, combine the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to a boil. Add the flour and stir until smooth with a heavy wooden spoon.

Turn the heat up to high and cook the flour mixture stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon. The flour will be cooked when a thin film forms on on the bottom. You are essentially drying out the dough and the process should take about 4-5 minutes.

Transfer the dough to the bowl of a mixer (I used a stand mixer) and let the dough rest a minute or two. Add the eggs to the dough one at at time on medium speed until the dough is thick and smooth.

The dough needs to be used as soon as it’s made. It can’t be put in the refrigerator to use later, so make sure you are ready to go when it’s done.)

*You could draw with a  pencil 8 circles on your parchment paper lining your baking pans to help you follow the design and make them evenly shaped. Place the dough in a pastry bag using a star tip (or plain round) 1/2 –inch tip and pipe onto parchment lined baking sheets forming 8 circles.

Bake at 375 F for about 22-26 minutes (omit the almonds if you need to. still will be wonderful!). If you open the door, the puffs may deflate. The dough should be golden colored. Allow the puffs to rest on the baking sheet.

Assembling the Paris Brest:

After the dough has cooled, carefully slice in half the pastry rings. Pipe the chilled whipped cream on the bottom layer of the rings. Top with the other halves and dust with powdered sugar.

My Paris Brest turned out well, though somewhat misshapen and thin due to the pastry tip I used. Also I still need to practice my technique with the pastry bag.

Because of the size I needed up eating 3 Paris Brest each time. 

Galette des Rois

Galette des Rois

I have a love for Galette des Rois especially when you get the fèves inside.  Fèves are little charms, usually one is placed inside a galette and whoever gets the piece of galette with the charm gets to wear the crown and be king or queen for the day.  They also get a wish.  

I used recipes from youtube in order to make mine using the ingredients above.     

Almond Filling

• 1 cup (200g) almond flour
• 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
• pinch salt
• 3 1/2 ounces (100g) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 teaspoon vanilla

1 pound (450g) puff pastry, divided in two pieces, chilled

A fève, or  whole almond or piece of candied fruit.

Glaze

1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon milk

1. To make the almond filling, in a medium bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the almond flour, sugar, salt, and orange zest. Mash in the butter until it’s completely incorporated. Stir in the eggs one at a time, along with the rum and almond extract. (The mixture may not look completely smooth, which is normal.) Cover and chill.

2. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. On lightly floured surface, roll one piece of puff pastry into a circle about 9 1/2-inches (23cm) round. Using a pot lid, plate, or bottom of springform pan as a template, trim the dough into neat circle. Place the dough on the baking sheet.

3. Cover it with a sheet of parchment paper or plastic film, then roll the other piece of dough into a circle, trim it, and lay it on top. Chill the dough for thirty minutes.

4. Remove the dough and almond filling from the refrigerator. Slide the second circle of dough and parchment or plastic from pan so that there is only one circle of dough on the parchment lined baking sheet. Spread the almond filling over the center of the dough, leaving a 1-inch (3cm) exposed border. Place an almond or piece of candied fruit to act as the fève (prize) somewhere in the almond filling, if you wish.

5. Brush water generously around the exposed perimeter of the dough then place the other circle of dough on top of the galette and press down to seal the edges very well. (At this point, you may wish to chill the galette since it’ll be a bit easier to finish and decorate, although it’s not necessary. It can be refrigerated overnight at this point, if you wish.)

6. To bake the galette, preheat the oven to 375ºF (180ºC.) Flute the sides of the dough (as shown in the photo) and use a paring knife to create a design on top. Stir together the egg yolk with the milk and brush it evenly over the top – avoid getting the glaze on the sides, which will inhibit the pastry from rising at the edges. Use a paring knife to poke 5 holes in the top, to allow steam escape while baking.

7. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the galette is browned on top and up the sides. (During baking, if the galette puffs up too dramatically in the oven, you may want to poke it once or twice again with a paring knife to release the steam.) Remove from the oven and slide the galette off the baking sheet and onto a cooling rack. The galette will deflate as it cools, which is normal. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Galette before baking

Before I baked my galette as I was trying to make the designs, the fillings started to spill out on one side.

Galette all baked

Above was my Galette after it finished baking. It continued to spill on one side as it baked.  However, the Galette was delicious.  I could not even wait to take a picture, I had to have a piece.

Baked Strawberry Cheesecake

Bake Cheesecake

This beautiful cheesecake is by Gordon Ramsay. I wanted to try it but did not have any raspberries, so I tried to use the small wild strawberries I had. 

Ignore the milk there is no end for. 

Ingredients

• Butter, for greasing
• 550g cream cheese, at room temperature
• 160g caster sugar
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 200g raspberries or Strawberries

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas 4. Butter a 23cm springform cake tin.
2. Beat together the cream cheese and sugar. Add the beaten eggs bit by bit until combined. Add the flour and lemon zest, then fold through the raspberries.
3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, tapping it against the work surface to remove any bubbles and help the raspberries rise up from the bottom. Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes until set on the edges but wobbling slightly in the middle.
4. Once cooled, remove from the tin, running a knife around the edges to loosen if necessary, and serve.

I decided to used muffin tins for mine, because one, I didn't have a cake tin and two it was a nice serving size.  Below is my outcome. It tasted great, not too sweet with a little sourness from the berries.  My oven is a bit testy, so the top did not brown as much as I wanted but that did not take away from the taste in anyway.

The Bride with White Hair (1993)

The Bride with White Hair

      The Bride with White Hair is a 1993 Hong Kong film by Ronny Wu loosely based on a wuxi a novel by Leung Yu-Sang.  The story is about the ill fated love between top assassin Lein Ni-Chang and swordsman Cho Yi-Hang from rival organizations.  

Lien Ni-Chang at the beginning

Before I ever saw the Bride with White Hair, I had zero knowledge of China, it's people and culture. At that point my only exposure had been Jackie Chan in the Drunken Master movie.  All I knew was of that funny humorous idea.  All I had been expose to in terms of attraction and love between Asian people and in this particular case Chinese was that they only went as far as holding one hand and the side hug where the woman placed her head on the man's shoulder.  So, the Bride with White Hair was quite a surprise and in a great way. 

Cho Yi-Hang

The Bride with White Hair is told in flashbacks, and we start the story with Cho Yi-Hang played by Leslie Cheung waiting a top a snow covered mountain waiting for a magical flower that only blooms every 20 years.  He then starts to tell his story to envoys who were sent to collect the flower for the dying emperor.  Cho was raised by a Taoist priest to be a swordsman.  Cho meets Lien Ni-Chang played by Brigitte Lin when she is killing these soldiers that are attacking a village.  Cho begins to fall for Lein, who was sent to kill him by her master the Siamese twin Chi Wu-Suang played by Francis Ng and Elaine Lui.  However, Lien finds herself also falling for Cho.   Both Cho and Lien decided to put aside their duties to both their cults and live a normal life together.    Lien suffers through great hardships but succeeds in leaving the cult.  Cho on the other end returns to the coalition to find many of his comrades murdered, all telling him that Lien was responsible.  The film concludes in a bloody finally with the question of "who do you trust?" at the very heart of it. 

Lien and Cho

Watching the Bride with White was an amazing experience.  For the first time I was seeing Chinese people in a light I did not even image was possible.  Here we had characters that questioned whatever code of conduct or way of being and seeing the world they had been fed.  I too was just starting to just be exposed to a bigger world in seeing the movie.  We had Lien who was labeled as evil yet she was the one defending this people who were helpless against these soldiers.  She even helps that woman give birth.  On the other hand we have Cho female comrade from the sect who kills the man to retrieve the jade that Cho gives him so he and his child maybe able to eat.  

The other thing i was exposed to was a world where anyone other then the macho Caucasian was attraction, sensual and sexual.  The Bride with White Hair portrayed people, Chinese at that as being sensual beings.  We have Lien (Brigitte Lin) who is attractive and mesmerizing at every level.  She is shown as being aware that she had as body and is appreciative off it.  There is a party scene where people are drinking, there's music and even naked bodies but none of it is made to be vulgar or shameful.

Lien are Cho are shown falling for each other and not just by throwing a few warm glances.  They like each other and want to give each other pleasure and share it.  They are intimate with each other. 

I think my favorite scene is when Lien's hair turns white. I think Brigitte Lin played it just beautifully.   Lien comes to find Cho after successfully leaving the cult thought she had to pretty literally walk through hell to do it.  Lien asks Cho to leave with her like they promised but the question of whether he trusts her drops over them like a grenade and everything gets obliterated.   

Siamese Twin

Even though I always had a tendency toward fantasy, in terms of cinema in general the Bride with White Hair solidified by love for wuxia.  Even if there are good movies I will automatically lean towards ancient Chinese wuxia related films and series.  

Catching Fire Book and Movie

Catching Fire

Katniss and Peeta are the winners of the 74th annual Hunger Games.  Before embarking on the 'victory tour', President Snow pays Katniss a private visit.



Catching Fire, for me seemed to be a copy of the Hunger Games in terms that some of the things that happened in the Hunger Games seems to get repeated here again. District, train travel, another Hunger games.  One thing I really didn't understand even after finishing the book was how the world worked.  I am not sure I even was certain of how Panem was physically structured and how it made sense that if it's North America geographically more than one district should be able to have a fishing, or mining industry.   The way the world seemed to run just made little sense to me.  How was Snow in power the length that they seemed to allude that he had been in power.  At times President Snow seemed quite incompetent.

From the start of the book, why would Snow not just kill Katniss and Peeta, instead playing this whole idea of love which was false to begin with? Why not just kill the rebellion before it really formed if that was the case instead of everything that happened.    Also the whole idea of Katniss and Peeta's romance being portrayed as if it was a form of rebellion itself.

I liked the Hunger Games more than Catching Fire and despite it's flaws the books are not that bad.  One thing I liked and hoped would have appeared more was Katniss's first person narrative and assumptions that she feed to us as facts being challenged.  One particular example is that Katniss always states that District 12 is the poorest and worst district and at time Suzanne Collins has other characters repeat that.  However, when we meet some of the other victors we discover that it's not completely true and the only reason that we have that idea is because Katniss knows nothing of the other districts and she never makes any effort to find out.  I also liked Joanna, because when they group she's actually a vital part to the group. However at a point, Katniss just wants to kill her and it's because Joanna actually has a come back against her demands.  Finnick was also interesting but I did not like how Katniss kept thinking about ways to kill him but not wanting to do it herself she was trying to figure out who else would be able to do it.

I really did not understand the point of having a game winner. What is the purpose? I mean what we learn about the older victors is that their lives are in no way better for having won the game. Seriously, the game winners and their families are shunned, abused, they ended up becoming addicted to alcohol, drugs or others things.  In Finnick's case the moment he won he ended out being pimped out.  That's just horrid and he was a kid.

I really don't understand how the author created it so that the rebellion seem to center just around one person, Katniss.  Because if that really true then that rebellion is weak beyond measure.  The rebellion should be based on people wanting to overthrow the government to better their very existence and not because Katniss said they should.

Catching Fire in some ways was a better movie then Hunger Games. The movie was brighter and seemed to be on a grandeur scale.  I believe that many people prefer this movie to the Hunger Games in some parts there was no shaky camera work and many felt they understood the that Panem was run by a totalitarian government.  

        For me having read the books and seen the movies I still don't have so many questions that were not answered. For one how the government or Panem runs and how Snow is in power? How do people get to live in the capital as suppose to the district? What is it based on, wealth, lineage, job, geography? Is you earn a dollar less than a certain amount do you get sent to a district? If so what district? Can people travel and choose a district? Can you live in district 1 but making cloths is your calling can you move to district 8? Can people not travel to the capital or other districts even if they don't live there? Do people not take vacations?

The above pictures are three different maps of what Panem is suppose to look like that I found online. Just looking at them I wondered how were the district numbers designated? I mean district 4 is closer to 11 and 12 than it is to 5.  What happened to Hawaii, Florida and Alaska? If they are all under water, why is it that only district 4 has a fishing industry? Wouldn't there be multiple fishing industries in other districts near a coast thus having more food for people?

    To move on to the movie, these questions arose as I was watching.  I still don't understand why President Snow as powerful as he seemed would want to support the fake love story?   Also were all the victors being watched or was that done just to Katniss? It was always portrayed that Katniss was so dangerous but I only ever remember her killing one person in the Hunger Games.  Peeta killed no one.  Also during the Hunger Games and the victory tours things were always being broadcasted, especially Katniss's fake love story that was suppose to be a form of rebellion in itself and the protests.  I just had me wondering did editing no longer exist? What about the districts on different coasts?  Media is such a powerful tool that can be used to educate or mislead people. This had me wondering, is everything in Panem broadcast live everywhere all the time? Because if the goal especially in the Hunger Games was to have one victor, why did the game maker not just tell Katniss and Peeta they were both victors, but the killed one and then edited and broadcast a video showing only one victor? What could the victor possible do or say about that? Problem solved.  Which just made me think that however powerful President Snow is, he was probably incompetent.  Even that why would something like that demand his personal attention? Doesn't he have anyone he can delegate to that can do their job? 

      I was upset when they went back to the whole idea that Peeta had to be the one to survive the games in Catching Fire.  The Hunger Games made it so that to survive you had to kill, did not matter if the person was from your own district. Peeta did nothing to contribute to their survival in the Hunger Games, the bread thing doesn't matter nor the fake love story.  I did not understand nor like the constant forced idea that Peeta was too good for Katniss and that she owed him. 

      Even in this hunger games I did not understand the need for the volunteer rule to remain intact, because why couldn't Hyamitch just re-volunteer to go in if he wanted to save Peeta so much. If your chosen and someone volunteers for you, what's to stop you from saying no and still take your place?

      Hyamitch talks about how the Quarter Quell was that much more difficult because all the previous victors knew each other, but how? We got no evidence or mention of victors meeting or really interacting besides the previous victors being mentors to those in their district.  Even during the victory tour Katniss and Peeta never see, let alone meet any other victors.    Also the Quarter Quell had male and female victors from each district from different years. Wouldn't have there been a district without any victors at all?  We learn that most of the recent games have all been held in forested areas. So what about people from districts that are completely urban and know nothing about surviving in the wild like the two women that Katniss meets in the woods.  The few days they would spend during the evaluation in the capital would not be able to repair them to find water, food and shelter let alone learn to kill.  I mean the survival skills that the books portray that Katniss had as a hunter, she should be dead already.   

     I thought Effie was more of a fleshed out character in the movie, but it was upsetting to see that while most of the characters going into the Quarter Quell actual said things about how they felt about having to be in another game, Katniss only used her dress.  Here Katniss used fashion to deliver a message yet she always seemed to be insulting Effie and everyone who used fashion.  Katniss was always making judgements about other participants and what they wore but she was doing the same thing. It was only that Cinna did not wear as much make up and was a better designer?

Participants of the Quarter Quell

    I tried to figure out why President Snow listened so much to Plutarch? It seemed to me that Plutarch had been a game maker before Senneca then comes back. In made me wonder as to why the rebellion did not have more Plutarchs infiltrate the capital change things from the inside maybe kill Snow or something instead of resting their hope on Katniss, who knows nothing about the rebellion and hardly initiate any action. 

     When we enter the games, why did it take so long for the cannon to go off after Peeta's heart stop? They waited and waited for the long minutes for Finnick to restart his heart.  Isn't there someone responsible for the cannon and don't they know their job? How come no one found this suspicious and reported to Snow? What about the person at fell in the water? His cannon went off immediately, countless people have been saved from drowning, but I guess he had no team mate or anyone who cared about him.  The fog was a interesting way to kill people but why would the fog be held back by a forcefield that Katniss could just walk through? Wouldn't having fog and killer monkey overlap but more efficient?  I understood what they were trying to do with the jabber jay but why would any of them fall for it?

So as a movie Catching Fire an okay movie, but because there were things I did not like from the books and questions I had, I also had them about the movie.  I have found that with the recent trend of young adult books to movies especially series there is a problem that I see that are not being addressed.  I understand that usually studios start with the first book of a series and then if it does well they do the following books.  Books and movies are different mediums, somethings that work in one does not always work in the other.  For me I have come to see that what seems to work is an adaptation from one to the other not a direct copy.  Usually in the book things can be revealed more slowly but in movies you don't usually have the time and seeing a picture of a scene is a bit different then reading about the scene.  One usually needs you to create the image out of your own imagination with the information given but the other you have the image is already there.   That is why I think in a movie the world and how things work need to be set up from the beginning so you know what kind of world it is and it's rules.  However, books can sometimes give you the sense of the world little by little.  I usually get upset when I am given a set of rules of how a world works in a movie but then in the second or third movie starts to throw in more rules that usually contradict or make no sense with the rules we already had.  So I think some of these movies need to set up the world completely in the first movie even if some of that information maybe from the second or third book of a series.  

Seafood Bouillabaisse

Seafood Bouillabaisse 

Bouillabaisse is a traditional Provencal fish stew dish originated from Marseille, France.  I really like seafood bouillabaisse, it has this warm and hearty taste chuck full of great stuff.  it has been a staple dish for me this wintery January 2014. Especially on days when it has been below 20 degrees and I just want to be warm and inside.  

A lot of the recipes for the bouillabaisse I found online usually included fennel, however I was not able to get fennel when my made my recipe.  I also used fish sauce instead of a seafood stock or cube because I could not get any at the time.  However, despite these two changes the seafood bouillabaisse tasted great.  

Ingredients:

2 pound of fish

1-2 pound of clams or mussels

1 pound of shrimp

1/2 cup olive oil

1 cup thinly sliced onion

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 can diced tomato

4 sprigs of thyme 

2 bay leaf 

pinch of saffron

1/2  cup fish sauce 

1- Saute. Saute leek, garlic and onion in olive oil for a few minutes until soft.
2- Herbs. Add in your thyme, bay leaves and saffron.
3- Stir. Add the diced tomatoes, water, fish sauce, potatoes and stir well. Once the potatoes are almost cook about 15-20 minutes.
4- Seafood.  Add all your seafood. Once the fish and shrimp are cooked and the clams have pooped opened.
5- Serve.  Serve the bouillabaisse with some baguette and enjoy. 

Seafood Bouillabaisse