I find baking really a therapeutic process. I was really tired and a bit upset over the job interview on Friday. It went OK, but I know I could have done and explained myself better! There is no point in dwelling on the past..

When I was making this cake, I was really relaxed and focused, because I know one hour or so later, I will have a delicious cake to enjoy! All the upset will just evaporated away!

I have made the same cake but with thinly sliced satsuma topping for my friend, Chris, few weeks ago, He seemed to enjoy it. His comment was: "NICE CAKE  Moist, not too sweet, very subtle flavour. WE LIKE."

I think the dark chocolate and marmalade icing toppings are good improvement from the previous cake. The satsuma marmalade's citrusy note complement very nicely with dark chocolate. I can not really remember the the process and the exact ingredients for making the marmalade, as I was mainly experimenting with some of the leftover satsuma's skin few weeks ago! I will make more of these satsuma marmalade for Christmas.

For the cake, you will need the following ingredients:

1. 175g butter at room temperature
2. 175g unrefined golden caster sugar
3. 2 satsumas 
4. 3 large eggs
5. 2 1/2 generous tbsp satsuma marmalade (or other shop-bought flavours)
6. 175g self-raising flour (sifted twice)

First pre-heat the oven to 180'C.
Grease a loaf tin generously and then line it with baking paper. Grease generously again on the baking paper.

In a large mixing bowl, add the butter and sugar and beat them until pale and fluffy. Grate the satsumas and mix the zest to the butter mixture. Break the eggs in a bowl, and lightly beat them with a fork. Pour the egg to the butter mixture in 3 patches. Beating throughly between each addition. Finally, beat in the marmalade.

Sift the flour twice. With a large metal spoon, fold in the flour gently and carefully but firmly until there is no sign of any flour. It should take less than a minute to completely mixed in the flour. 

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin, and lightly smoothen the top. Bake for 40 minutes, check the cake at around 35 minutes with a skewer. Insert the skewer to the centre of the cake,If it comes out clean, the cake is almost done.

Once ready, remove the cake from the oven. Prick all over the cake with the sweker. Squeeze one juice of the satsuma, and spoon the juice all over the cake and  set aside to let it cool down in the tin. After that, remove it from the tin and let it cool down completely on a wire rack.

For the topping 1: (Marmalade icing)

1. 2 generous tbsp icing sugar
2. 1 generous tbsp satsuma marmalade
3. water

Mix all icing ingredients to form a thick but slightly runny paste. Drizzle the mixture all over the cooled cake. Let it run down the sides.

For the topping 2: (Dark Chocolate drizzle)

1. 50g dark chocolate
2. a knob of butter

Melt the chocolate on a double boiler and add the knob of butter and stir well. While it is still hot, drizzle the melted chocolate over the cake. Set aside the cake to let cool.

Done!

I think the fragrance of the almond extract complement nicely with the soy milk. You can get the ready-mixed almond flavoured agar-agar packages from the shop but it is quite simple to make from just with some basic ingredients.

Ingredients:

1. Approximate 900ml sweetened soy milk
2. 2 tbsp almond extract or essence (to taste)
3. 4 tbsp sugar (to taste0
4. 10g of plain agar-agar (pre-soak for 20 mins) or 2 tsp of plain agar-agar powder
5. Few sliced peaches for decoration

Slowly heat the soy milk and then add the almond extract and sugar, stir to dissolve. Bring the mixture to boil. Add agar-agar and stir well until fully dissolved. Pour into a square container or mould. Leave to cool until set and keep it cold in the fridge.

Serves the almond bean curd cold and cut to diamond shapes and decorated it with the peaches.

Something simple for the summer? But the Summer days are now far gone..The weather is turning cold and wet....and grey...However, we can always make our food look summery..

The last "harvest" from this year's vegetable "garden"..well actually it is the "thining-out"of the salad leaves seedlings from the various pots by the window sill. Nothing beats the fresh "spring" vegetable....

The mongo relish compliment very well with the roast.

For the mango relish, I shredded half of an unripe mango. Mix it well with 1 tbsp black pepper syrup, and home-made rose hip chilli jelly. Keep it in the fridge for later.

Marinade ingredients for the Pork Belly (One generous slab):

1. Caraway seeds
2. 1 juice of lemon
3. 1 zest of lemon
4. Salt & pepper (to taste)
5. 1-2 tbsp olive oil
6. Few sage leaves

Break the caraway seeds in a mortar and pestle. Mixed all ingredients together and marinate the pork for at least 1 hr.

Pre-heat the oven to 180'C. Once the pork is ready, roast it on a roasting tin with wire rack for around 90 minutes (or until the pork is cooked, depends on your oven!)

At the last 10 minutes, brush generous amount of rose hip chilli jelly (or honey) on the skin of the pork, and roast for  10 minutes. When ready, remove from oven and wrap with foil and set to stand for 15 mins.

Serves the pork with cold mongo relish and spring vegetable salad...Nice summery and colourful dish for winter!

I have not been very well disciplined lately with myself to eat sensibly and healthily. I can feel that I am gaining a couple of pounds. It is time to eat well and lose some weight!

When I was in Malaysia about a years ago, I bought a book about vegetable and fruit enzymes; a rather popular and trendy home-made health food supplement. It claims that:

   "enzymes provide energy, improve the ability of self-discovery and acts as a health wizard that manages your health"  
     excerpted from Active Vegetable and Fruit Enzymes by Anna Phua. 

How vegetable and fruit enzymes "improve the ability of self-discovery" is rather questionable. But I think to replenish enzymes and eat a lot of vegetables and fruits shouldn't cause any harm to our body! The enzymes will act as a cleanser to expels toxins in the body, accelerate digestion/ metabolism, strengthens the immune system and promote blood circulations etc etc....All sounds rather good, especially if you consumed too much artificial and chemically-produced food.

This Korean cucumber pickles is one of the easiest recipes in the book. It is crunchy and delicious, especially tasty with some grilled oily fish such as mackerel! I mixed the cucumber pickles with the juices to some couscous and Quinoa to make rather nice and health meal out of it!

For my version, I replaced the organic brown rice vinegar stated in the recipe book with the apple cider vinegar.

Ingredients: (enough for 2 portions)

1. A whole organic cucumber (washed throughly, deseeded and thinly sliced)
2. 2 tbsp salt salt

Seasonings:

1. 1 fresh chilli (washed throughly, deseeded and finely chopped)
2. 2 cloves of garlic (minced)
3. about 5 tbs apple cider vinegar
4. 2 tbsp Demerara sugar
5. 2 tbsp lemon juice
6. 1 tbsp light soy sauce
7. 3 tbsp diced spring onions

Marinate the cucumber slices with the salt in a large glass bowl and set aside for 30 mins. After that, rinse with mineral water and drain. Press firmly to remove any excess water from the cucumber.

Mix the seasoning ingredients with the cucumber. Place in cold storage for a day then it is ready to be served.

Never thought sago pearls have other usages other than to make honey dew and sago dessert! I came across some Nyonya recipe books in Malaysia last time when I was there visiting my family. Some of the recipes call for sago pearls to make Malay kuih (cake/snacks in Malay language). Here I am testing some of the kuih recipes!

I wish I made the sticky palm sugar coconut sauce when I served it to a friend, Steven. It makes a lot of different to the kuih...Quite unusual texture and quite springy to chew, the sticky palm sugar coconut sauce make the kuih more flavoursome and really add further taste depth to the kuih too, I think!

Ingredients: (For the kuih)

1. 350g Sago (Pandan flavour) - soak in cold water for 15 minutes and drain.
2. 50g Black sago (optional- to give colour to the kuih). Boil in water until soft. Drain
3. 150g Sugar
4. 1 tsp Salt
5. 1 tbsp Pandan essence
6. 1 tbsp Vanilla essence
7. Approximate 200ml Thick coconut milk (1/2 a can)
8. Freshly grated coconut for garnish (or desiccated coconut)

Mix all ingredients in a big bowl and then pour the mixture into a greased glass baking tray, steam the mixture until cooked through (the sago should be transparent in appearance). Remove from the heat and set aside to cool down completely.

Meanwhile, in a pan, heat the remaining coconut milk and 1 log of the palm sugar until the sugar completely dissolved and thicken.

Cut the kuih into bite-size rectangular shapes and serves it warm or at room temperature with the sticky sauce...

These sourdough making processes really excites me at the moment. I can not help but obsessively checking the raise and fall of the dough during the last 24 hours. 

Compare to the first loaf of sourdough bread from the same starter, this second loaf looks and tastes a lot better! It raised quicker, the texture is very good with a lot of air holes in the bread, it is half the weight of the first loaf. 

So pleased with myself for experimenting making the bread. A new cookery skill acquired!

Nothing beats a freshly bake slice of bread with some fresh lightly seasoned avocado and tomato toppings...yummm...

My Italian boss bought me a piece of good quality parmesan cheese from Italy, and It has been a precious little thing for my pasta dishes lately. All good things must come to an end, instead of grating the last bit of the cheese to pasta, I want to give it a special end...A patch of savoury cheese scones topped with cayenne pepper powder.

Ingredients:

1. 50-75g grated parmesan cheese (keep 1-2 tbsp for topping)
2. 225g Self-rising flour (sifted) (extra to flour the rolling pin and surface)
3. 50g Butter (at room temperature)
4. 2 tbsp Sugar
5. A good pinch of salt and cayenne pepper powder
6. 1 tsp Baking powder
7. 3-4 tbsp Soy milk
8. 1 Egg

The Process

Preheat the oven to 180'C. Grease the baking sheet with butter.

Mix all dry ingredients together, and rub in the butter until it resembles a fine bread crumbs consistency.

Mix the egg to the dry ingredients, stir in the soy milk, and mix until the dough is well combined. (around  2 -3 minutes). If it is too sticky, add a little bit more flour to the dough.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough, and use a cookies cutter to cut out the shape, and arrange the scones on the baking tray. Brush the scones with some milk, top it with cheese and cayenne pepper.

Bake for around 15 minutes or until it is nicely risen (with some horizontal cracks at the middle of the scones) and the skin is crisp and  lightly golden.

Delicious...

This is the spin-off from the lime meringue pie I made previously. Using the leftover pastry, I managed to make 6 kiwi meringue tarts. I thought it would be quite nice to add some colours to the tarts, something vibrant! I always love the colour of the kiwi fruit. Unfortunately, when I follow the pie filling recipe for the lime meringue pie, under the heat, the lovely green colour of the Kiwi fruits started to turn into dull yellow. The easiest way to rescue the colour is to add natural food colourings! I added a teaspoonful of the mixture of green and yellow powder to the pie fillings.

Since completed these tarts, I have been thinking what is the best way to preserve the colour of the Kiwi fruits (without adding food colourings) for making these kiwi tarts. IF I managed to find a way, I think these tarts can be a very beautiful display.

Experiment continues...

ps. I replaced the lime zest and lime juice with 3 roughly chopped kiwi fruits to make the pie fillings

The basic of the recipe is from "Nigella Express" with a twist...

Ingredients: (make 12)

1. 3 large ripe banans
2. 125ml vegetable oil
3. 2 eggs (large) or 3 eggs (medium)
4. 250g plain flour
5. 100g sugar
6. 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
7. 1 tsp baking powder
8. homemade blackberry jam (or shop bought) (for the filling, "the surprise")

Preheat the oven to 200'C. Lined muffin tin with muffin papers. Mash the banans and set aside. Mix and beat oil and eggs in a separate bowl. Mix all dry ingredients and then pour the egg mixture in and mix well. Add the mashed bananas and combine well.

Place equal amount of the mixture to the muffin paper (half full), then spoon in 1 teaspoon of blackberry jam in the middle of the mixture and cover with the remaining muffin mixture.

Bake for around 20 mins. Quite simple but delicious as breakfast.

I used to make my own yoghurt at home, but I have not make any for a long time now. At the beginning, I always thought it must be a very difficult process to make it at home, I imagined one needs to have various sophisticated equipment for yoghurt making.

Only after a quick search online, I realised that it is really easy to make yoghurt at home with just some simple cooking equipment. So I thought I will give It a try and It has been a rather interesting process to learn more about yoghurt.

The word “yoghurt” is derived from Turkish word related to “yoğurmak”  - 'to knead' and “yoğun” -  "dense" or "thick".

Yoghurt is believed to have been around for 4,500 years. Basically yoghurt is a semi-solid dairy product produced by the process of fermentation of milk. It is a process of transforming the lac-tose presence in the milk to produce lactic acid which acts on milk protein to give yoghurt its taste and texture.

In 1919, Issac Carasso , an entreprenuer from Barcelona started a small Yoghurt business. He industrialised the production of yoghurt and named the business after his son “little Daniel” - Danone. I am sure everyone heard of this brand, and it is now a leading producer of dairy products in the market.

We all know the health benefits of yoghurt. The live cultures present in yoghurt have various beneficial effects on our digestive systems. Regular intakes of yoghurt containing live cultures such as Lactobacillus Bulgaricus will help strengthens and stabilize our immune system. Lactic acid of yoghurt maximise calcium absorption. Not only that, yoghurt is rich in potassium, calcium, protein, and B-vitamins (B-12) riboflavin.

Do you know that only yoghurt that contains live cultures can be considered as a health food? If you look closely at most yoghurt packaging, it often stated that the yoghurt is made from live cultures, but the reality is, ALL yoghurt is made with live cultures at the beginning of the process, but many yoghurt products are heat-treated after the fermentation of the milk. This is to prolong shelf life of the product, so it can be kept in the supermarket for a longer period of time. During the process of heating, though, most of the bacterial in the yoghurt will be killed with the result that, what we actually eat is basically a flavoured and sweet dessert that have very LITTLE health benefits.
So, do look out for yoghurt that contains  live cultures if you are looking for a healthy version.

The equipment you need to make yoghurt at home are:

1. Pot to boil the milk
2. Empty jam jars or plastic containers to keep the milk mixture
3. Cooler box to store the jars/ plastic containers.

You will need milk and a small tub of store-bought plain yoghurt (make sure to check the label that it contains live or active cultures). To make 1 kg of plain yoghurt, you need to get 2 pints of milk, and 2 or 3 tablespoonful of the yoghurt starter.

1. Heat the milk in a pot for around 10 min until foam is starting to appear around the pot. (stir regularly to prevent burn at the bottom of the pot)
2. Remove the pot from the heat immediately once foaming (if you want a fruity flavoured yoghurt, at this stage, you can add some crushed fruits such as strawberries, peach or anything that takes your fancy!)
3. Let the milk cool down for about 30 mins. The milk should be lukewarm but not hot, as hot milk will kill the live cultures!
4. When the milk is ready, add 2 to 3 big tablespoonful of the store-bought yoghurt and stir well.
5. Pour the milk mixture to the empty jam jars or plastic containers. Put the lids on and close it tightly
6. Boil some water from the kettle.
7. Arrange the jars in the cooler box, find something to lift the jars from the bottom of the cooler box (this is to make sure the hot water is not in direct contact with the jars) and pour in the hot water.
8. Cover the cooler box and leave it undisturbed for at least 7 hours. The longer the better, this allows the active bacterial to develop fully. Most commercially produced yoghurt do not allow the bacteria to multiply to the extent that you can when you make it at home. The longer you let the yogurt to sit in a room temperature before refrigerating, the stronger the bacteria cultures will become.
9. Check after 7 hours. Once the milk become semi-solid, the yogurt is ready to be served!
10. Keep the yoghurt in the fridge to slow down the fermentation process. You can keep some of these yoghurt for your next batch of fresh yoghurt.

That are the simple 10 steps of making yoghurt at home!

You can also freeze the yoghurt and serves it like ice-cream.

As long as the yoghurt is made by properly fermenting the milk before freezing, the freezing process will not kill any significant amount of the cultures. During the freezing process, the cultures go into a dormant state, but when eaten and returned to a warm temperature within the body, it will become active again to provide all the benefit of normal yoghurt.

Imagine, wouldn’t it be nice to start a day by eating the yoghurt you made for yourself? Knowing that there are no added preservatives, colouring or large amount of sugar in the yoghurt?

Nowadays, if you labelled any food products with a specific region or area of production, wild or organic ingredients, people will thick they are good product and willing pay a bit more for it....

A loaf of bread using natural wild yeasts from Westcliff(on-sea) sounds rather authentic! The amount of days I spent to make this loaf is another special selling points for this bread - slow-raised home-made natural wild yeasts sourdough bread...:) JUST total 6 days from making of the starter to the final bake to make JUST ONE loaf, time well spent!

But basically, this is just a loaf of bread naturally fermented without package yeast. Yeasts naturally present in the air.
The process of making just one loaf of the bread is very slow, 3 days for the starter to ferment, half a day for the second stage and another half a day for the final stage and then the final bake...It is quite satisfying though to make food with just few simple basic ingredients - flour, water, salt and "the air"!

I always thought to make sourdough bread required a lot of bread making skills and it must be very difficult...But now that I have "successfully" (I think!) made a loaf of sourdough bread, I think it is not at all daunting if you break the process down to stages, and there isn't really skill required but a lot of patience and obsessively checking...

This recipe is based on a recipe from my baking bible - The Complete Bread & Baking Book by Linda Collister and Antony Blake. The original recipe is French sourdough loaf. But since it is made in Westcliff-on-sea, Essex, It is no longer a French sourdough, but Westcliff! 

In the book, the author said, "This is my version of the delicious, thick-crusted, chewy loaf made popular by the Poilane family in Paris"  I think, the loaf I made fitted the description rather well..thick -hard -crusted, chewy...So I must did the right thing!

The following is my simplified version of the process of making the sourdough...

Stage 1 - Starter

Ingredients:

1. 230g whole wheat bread flour
   
2. 1 cup lukewarm water
   

Mix together the ingredients in a large bowl to make a very thick batter. Cover with damp cloth and let it stand at room temperature, away from drafts, for three days. Note: I read, it shouldn't be covered with cling film. At day 3 the mixture should be smelly (yeasty), slightly bubbly. Your room will smell yeasty too (in a nice way!)

Stage 2 - Sponge

Ingredients:

1.  2/3 cup lukewarm water
   
2. 20g grounded sea salt (This is alarmingly a lot of salt if you compare to the volume of the Starter!)
3. 230g strong white bread flour

Add the water and salt in the bowl with the Starter, stir to dissolve any lumps in the Starter. Then add flour and beat with your hand for about 1 minute to make a thick batter. Cover with damp cloths and set aside to let stand at room temperature for 24 to 36 hours. The mixture will be spongy and slightly bubbly after 24 hours. The longer you left it, the more pronounced the sour taste it will be.

The room will still smell yeasty - maybe a bit like the smell of some soaking wet news papers!

Stage 3 - Dough
(OOPS! I just realised while writing down the recipe that I shoudn't have put the salt at the stage 2, the salt should be added at stage 3 instead as stated in the original recipe from the book!!)

So officially, this is MY original version then! I think the bread is still very similar to the original recipe..so I guess may be it doesn't really matter!

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 cup lukewarm water
2. 230g strong white bread flour (extra if the dough is too soft and sticky)

Beat down the sponge and add in the water, and mix to combine the water with sponge. Then mix in the flour, a handful at a time, to make a soft, but not sticky dough.

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead it for 10 minutes until firm, smooth and elastic. Add more flour as needed. (if the dough is too soft, it will not retain the shape while raising in the baking sheet. It will be a big flat disk!). Return the dough to the same bowl (no need to wash or oil). Cover it with damp cloth and let rise at room temperature until almost doubled in size for about 8-12 hours.

Punch down the dough, and keep about 1 cup of the dough for making the next starter. Shape the dough into a ball and put in on a greased baking sheet. Dust the top of the dough with generous amount of flour, to prevent the dough from sticking to the damp cloth. Cover it with damp cloth and let rise at room temperature until almost doubled in size for about 8 hours.

Stage 4 - Bake

Preheat the oven to around 220"c. 

Using a sharp knife, slash the top of the dough 4 times (to make a square configuration). Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, and then lower the oven to 190'C and bake for further 35mins or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath. Transfer the loaf to a wire rack and set aside to let it cool completely.

To keep the starter, in the recipe book, it stated the followings:
Put the reserved 1 cup portion of dough into a greased plastic bag and store in the refrigerator for up to three days. Or place the dough in a small bowl, covered with damp dish towel, and let stand at room temperature, away from drafts, for up to two days. To use for making a loaf, start at the sponging stage and beat in a little lukewarm water to make a thick batter. Proceed with the recipe.

Very happy that I learnt something new this week! Bread making with machine sounds so boring now...:)

This was written during the summer when the lavender were in full bloom...

Lavender is one of my favourite plants, I love the fragrance but it is often be associated as a scent of feminine (except when it is combined with the scent of sandalwood..very masculine kind of fragrance.. 

I did two experiments with lavender flowers!

The lavender is in blossom at the moment, the garden fills with the hint of this lovely scent. I have never use lavender for cooking before. I love lavender scented soap, but not sure about using it for cooking, especially with pork! Scented lavender pork loin steak sounds a bit strange!

But I gave it a try...Twice!

I tested the lavender using 2 cooking methods, one is roast, and the other pan-fry.

Ingredients:

1. 2 Lion steaks
2. 5og butter
3. 2 tbsp olive oil
4. 1/2 tbsp Lavender flower (chopped finely)
5. Few stalks of Lavender flower
6. Salt and pepper (to taste)
7. 2 coves Garlic (sliced)
8. Fresh salad leaves garnish

Heat the butter and oil under low heat until hot. Stir in the chopped lavender and garlic, and fry gently for 2 minutes. Add in the loin steaks, and cook gently over low heat until lightly brown. Add salt and pepper to taste. When the steak is cooked, remove from heat and plate it with some fresh salad leaves.

Heat the same oil in medium heat, add the stalks of lavender flower and fry for less then 1 minutes. Garnish the pork with the lavender flower and serve hot.


1111

Ingredients:

1. 2 Pork  loin steaks
2. Handful of lavender flowers (with stalks)
3. Salt and pepper (to taste)
4. 2 tbsp Olive oil
5. 2 clove Garlic (sliced)

Pre-heat the oven to 180'C.
Marinate the steak with oil, salt and pepper for 30 minutes. In a roasting tin with wire rack, put the lavender flower under the wire rack, and place the steak on top of the rack, and roast them in the hot oven until cooked and lightly brown.

Serve the pork with the juices and the lavender...

Verdict:

For the whole duration of cooking and tasting of the steaks, I get hints of the scent of the lavender, the felt like dinning al fresco by the lavender bushes! The kitchen was filled with the scent of lavender when the pork was in the oven. I can not really taste the lavender in my mouth, but the scent lingering around...even after few hours of the dinner!

This is SO simple to make. Fresh and appetising!  If you have time and wanted the fish to "swim" in its own juice, you may want to spend a few minutes to butterfly the fish, so it stays flat on the serving plate. Otherwise, just put it on its side!

First arrange the fish to a plate deep enough for steaming (there will be a lot of juices when the fish is cooked!).

Slice a clove of garlic,  some tomatoes and scatter them around the fish. Drizzle some olive oil and light soy sauce all over. Pinch of salt and few squeezes of lemon juice.

Steam the fish for 10-15 minutes (or until the fish is just cooked!)

Garnish with red radish seedlings and chives. Serves hot with steamed rice....

So simple to make, there is no reason for Chinese takeaway!

I woke up with the strong desire to eat something cold for dinner today! Something require with very little or no heat to cook. With a Chinese leaves (cabbage) in the fridge, I thought a "kimchi" type of salad would be a very refreshing choice for a hot summer weekend! (the last weekend!)

So I made few different types of pickled vegetables to accompany my home-made sushi! I had my more then 5-a-day today with various range of colours on my plate. Very colourful, obviously! very healthy for sure!

To make the sushi rice, I put 1 cup of sushi rice (washed) in a pan and cover with enough water. Bring the water to boil over high heat, then turn to the lowest heat and leave it to cook until the water dry up. Remove from the heat and leave to cook for further 10-15mins. In a bowl, mix 1 juice of lemon, and 1 tbsp of sugar together. Scope the rice to a plate, and add the lemon juice mixture to the rice. Mix throughly. Leave to cool.
The pickled Chinese Leaves (cabbage) was inspired by Korean Kimchi recipe. Very crunchy salad. To make this, I sliced the cabbage thinly and marinate the cabbage with the followings:

1. 1 Chilli
2. About an inch of ginger
3. 1 Red onion
4. Small piece of lemon zest
5. 1 juice of lemon
6. Salt (to taste)

chop the ingredients finely in a blender and pour over the cabbage. Mix well and leave to marinate for few hours. This salad is really pretty with a hint of purple (colour from the red onion).To make the pickled mooli (Daikon), prepare the same ingredients as for the cabbage, but leave out the ginger and replace the red onion with a white onion. The salad has a hint of orange (from the colour of the chilli)Rice balls: Shape the cold sushi rice to a ball (or any shapes!), and roll it over with yukari or toasted sesame seed. You could also reverse the yukari or sesame seed to be the filling of  the rice balls. Alternatively, wrap the rice with Nori seaweed strips. Just make it colourful!

Serve this dish with rainbow range of colourful vegetables that you can find from the market, it is very appealing and also very healthy to eat!A plateful of colours. I think colours do make eating enjoyable, just by looking at it make me feel the desire to just dine in!

Sometimes when the baking-drive is so high, I can hardly concentrate on doing other things, but to bake something!
After looking around my store cupboard, I found the following ingredients!

1. 2 medium limes
2. Plain flour
3. 3 eggs
4. 1 stick of butter
5. sugar
6. cornstarch

And after browsing some of my baking "bibles", I found a pie recipe that just might fit the bill for theses ingredients that I found -  A Lemon Meringue Pie. I was very pleased that I do not have to take another trip to the shops!
Since I do not have lemons at home, I decided to substitute it with limes instead. I used Delia's basic shortcrust recipe as reference for the pie shell.

So to make the lime meringue pie you will need the following ingredients:

Group A:  Pastry 

1. 110g plain flour (sifted)
2. 50g cold unsalted butter (cubed)
3. pinch of salt
4. cold water

Sift flour and salt in a big bowl, and add the cubed butter. Use your finger tips gently and quickly rub the butter into the flour. When the  mixture resemble fine breadcrumbs, sprinkle roughly 2 tablespoon cold water and mix it with a knife. Then bring together the mixture with your hands  to form a smooth ball of dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough thinly and line a pie dish. Prick the base all over with a fork.

Rest the uncooked pastry shell in the fridge for 20 min.

Pre-heat the oven to 190'C. After resting the pastry in the fridge for 20 minutes, line the pie shell with a crumpled wax paper and fill with pie weights and bake for 12 minutes. Remove the paper and weights. Brush the pie shell with egg white to seal the internal of the shell and return to the over to continue baking it for another 6 minutes until golden. Set aside to let cool.

Group B : Pie Filling 

1. Grated rind and juice of 2 medium limes
2. 1 cup water
3. 1/2 cup sugar
4. 2 tbsp butter
5. 3 tbsp cornstarch
6. 3 eggs (separated)

In a saucepan, bring to a boil the rind and juice of the limes, water, sugar and butter. Meanwhile, in a bowl dissolve the cornstarch and mix in the egg yolks. Once the sugar is dissolved in the lime juice mixture, remove the saucepan from the heat. Stir in the egg yolk mixture to the juice. Whisk rigourously. Return the mixture to the heat and stir continuously until the mixture thickens. Set side to let cool.

Group C: Meringue

1. 3 egg white
2. pinch of salt
3. pinch of cream of tartar
4. 6 tbsp sugar

In a clean grease-free big bowl, beat the egg white with cream of tartar and salt until they hold stiff peaks. Add the the sugar and beat until glossy.

Lower the oven to 180'C. To assemble the pie, spoon the lime mixture into the pie shell and spread level. Spoon the meringue on top, use a back of a metal spoon, gentle smoothing and lifting the meringue to form an random and rustic top. Cover the edge of the crust with the meringue to seal the pie.Bake the pie for 12 -15 minutes until the meringue starting to brown lightly at higher peaks. Removed the pie from the oven and set aside to let cool.

It can be served warm or cold.I think, the flavour of this pie develop if it is to allow to rest overnight in the fridge. Before serving, put the pie in a heated oven for 1-2 minutes to crisp up the outer skin of the meringue. Then you will have a crisp outer skin and squashy filling within the pie! The distinctive sharpness and sour lime mixture compliment nicely with the sweet meringue. Quite a elegant looking summer picnic pie!

Yum..

What a lovely and sunny the  last few days. The sea was calm and gentle breeze as I walked along the Thames Estuary.