~ Wholemeal Banana Cake

Taken from:
Happyhomebaking

Description:
Banana cake~

Ingredients:

70g unsalted butter, softened
30g brown sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
200 g mashed banana (2 large bananas)
1 tsp vanilla extract

45g wholemeal flour
135g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
Sliced banana

Granulated sugar

Directions

1) Sift together plain flour, baking powder and baking soda, set aside.
2) Whisk butter and sugar at low speed till the mixture turns pale and fluffy.
3) Dribble in beaten egg while whisking at low speed. (Add a little flour to the mixture if it appears to curdle.)
4) Stir in mashed banana and vanilla extract with a spatula.
5) Fold in wholemeal flour and the flour mixture and mix with spatula.
6) Spoon mixture into a greased and lined 3" x 7" loaf pan, and smooth the surface with the spatula.
7) Arrange banana slices on top and sprinkle with sugar.
8) Bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg for 45 mins or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. (Cover the top with foil if it start to get overly brown before the baking time is up.) Stand cake in pan for 5 min, unmold and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Remarks:
Despite occupying a small fraction of dry components, the wholewheat flour in the batter presented a distinctive nutty flavour, and this is without compromising much moisture in the cake. Since I didn't want to open another 500 g packet of wholewheat flour for just 45 g, I substituted with flour, which probably made the cake not as crumbly as that of what the source described.

While preparing the batter, I realised that the step to use flour to prevent curdling doesn't make sense. If the batter curdles, an emulsifying agent like milk should be added, is it not? Even so with my doubts, I continued using flour as instructed so any defect in the end-product is linked to the recipe and not my indiscriminate use of substitutions. Smart eh? =x

My acuity didn't last long when I placed the banana slices at the bottom of the pan instead of on top of the batter. What exactly was I thinking of then? An upside-down banana cake? That wasn't my intention, for I don't believe that the small number of mushy banana slices could hold the weight of the cake, and indeed, I was right. The cake around the banana was soggy too. (mouse over the pictures at top and bottom of this paragraph for comments from the horses' mouths)

I had baked the cake in a round bundt pan too:

The taste of bananas didn't stand out and it felt as though I was consuming a butter cake with minimal sweetness. I had to drizzle lemon glaze (milk, lemon juice and enough icing sugar to make a paste) over the cake to make it more palatable. Nevertheless, the cake being soft and and cake-like certainly hit me as a surprise.

Well all in all the cake wasn't impressive at all. And fortunately, it's not my fault this time!

~ Beetroot and Plum Salad

Tossed some pickled beetroot cubes, plum wedges, whole cherry tomatoes, sliced olives, grated carrot and torn lettuce together to yield this pretty roseate salad this morning! =) Fortunately, it didn't give me gas during the day.

Yesterday, I picked up a sample for ZA's new foundation which comes in 8 different shades to suit nearly all Asian skin colours. I haven't really tried it yet, but I'm impressed at the design and packaging a sample pack:

There's even a mini square sponge that comes with the sample!

Oh ya, I bet you can't find such signs anywhere in the world except for Singapore:

~ Sweet Breakfast Couscous

Taken from:
Wheatfoods.org

Description:
Sweet milky couscous with raisins and carrots~

Ingredients:

3/4 C milk

3 tbsp raisins (or 1 small pack 42.5g) 

1/2 C couscous

1/2 carrot, grated

Honey (optional)

Directions

1) Heat up milk with raisins, and pour over couscous in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap for 5 min, and fluff couscous with a fork.
2) Toss with carrots, and drizzle with honey.

Remarks:
When I first got my hands on a packet of couscous, I was at a loss.. what should I do with 500 g of couscous before the grains start betraying the fine print (dd/mm/yy) on the package? Apart from assembling salads, what else? I'm sure most of my Asian counterparts would be scratching their heads like I did. 

Never fear, the internet is here! The first few pages of search for "couscous recipes" would most probably compound to your headache like it did for me. I wanted a change from the usual savoury aspect of couscous, and one that would be apt for breakfast. So I tried some key words and wa-lah, I found what I needed - breakfast couscous!

The couscous presented with the richness of milk, and this was followed by a sweet touch  the raisins and carrots. Pretty much like oatmeal, what bliss~<3.

Since I was in the mood for food-whoring today, I made an effort to adorn my breakfast.

Wouldn't you stay for dessert mi lovely?

~ Almond Biscuit Thins

Taken from:
Ellie's Kitchen Wench

Description:
Thin crispy cookies with almonds~

Ingredients:

100 g caster sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
150 g flour
75 g whole almonds

Directions

1) Beat sugar and egg till thick, creamy and pale. Stir in vanilla extract.
2) Add the flour and almonds and mix till well combined to get a dough.
3) Divide and shape dough into 2 logs. Place on a well-greased baking tin.
4) Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg for 20 - 25 min or till lightly coloured, firm to the touch and cooked through. Remove from the oven and completely cool down.
5) Using a serrated knife, slice the logs diagonally into 3mm thick slices. Place the slices in a single layer on a baking tray and bake for 15 - 20 mins at 140 deg, or till they are golden and crisp. Cool before storage.

Remarks:
It's my habit to just jot down the gist of each recipe, omitting loads of steps and using illegible shorthand language, and this holds true for this recipe too. After mixing in the flour and almonds, I was literally in a state of wonderment, thinking how the recipe owner managed to handle such a wet and sticky dough without oil or more flour. So without further-ado, I reached out for the vegetable oil to oil my hands, and shaped my wet dough into two amorphic logs.

As I sit back after placing the logs in the oven and review the site where the recipe originated from, I found the reason for my blunder experienced previously: "3) Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and knead till smooth." Oh dear, I had unknowingly filtered this important information out! 

Heart-racing, I went to take a look at the two petite (still amorphic though) logs basking in the moderately-heated oven, looking ever so innocent and chaste as any dough should be. *sigh* These biscuits would probably deal a great blow to my ego (battered and hurt by unkind remarks over and over again) again.

Fortunately, the cookies weren't that bad. Crunchy, sweet with a slight touch of almonds. The only qualms I have with them was that they tasted just like sugar cookies and couldn't be sliced to my desired thinness. It was quite tough to slice the logs diagonally since the crust of each log became too crusty to be sliced through easily, so I had opted the easier way out by slicing them vertically and thickly. Not so wafer-thin now! Those thicker ones were tough as rocks, but the thin ones were fantastic! I shall make a mental note to not over-bake the logs till golden-brown.

These biscotti-like biscuits make a great of accompaniment to hi-tea. Fill up a jar of them..

.. and soon, you'll be left with none:

Dad came home with a enchanting pack of artisan chocolates from Jewels. I really love their presentation:

And innovation in coming up with Chinese New Year-related versions of sweets (wintermelon seed rocher and orangette): 

I haven't really tried them since I was too saturated with my biscuits. I'm not sure if we share the same sentiments, but they sure seemed enticing to me.

~ Spicy Baked Breaded Chicken Fillets

Taken from:
-

Description:
Chicken fillets with a coat of crunch and spice~

Ingredients:

2 pieces of wholewheat bread

1 tsp chilli flakes

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground pepper

300 g chicken fillets (approximately 7 pieces)

1/2 C flour

1 egg 

Oil

Directions

1) Dry bread in the oven at 100 deg for 10 - 15 min each on both sides. Cool bread slices.
2) Place bread into a ziplock bag, squeeze out the air before sealing, and crumble with a rolling pin. Season with chilli flakes, salt and pepper.
3) Dry chicken fillet on kitchen towel, coat in flour and dip in egg. Coat the fillet with the breadcrumbs, and arrange onto a well-greased baking tin.
4) Bake at 200 deg for 35 - 40 min, or till browned.

Remarks:
"Oven-frying" is a better way to save calories, and spare yourself from harmful radicals caused by overheated oil. In this instance, chicken fillets are coated sequentially in flour, egg and seasoned bread crumbs, and then baked in an oven with minimal oil (relatively to deep-frying) to achieve a gastronomical dining experience. As you sink your teeth into each fillet, the tender white meat of chicken that lies below the crunchy coat of seasoned bread crumbs bursts with flavours, leaving you spellbound to its splendor.. Oh alright, I'm just being too dramatic.

Now back to Earth, the whole wheat bread crumbs added a robust taste to the chicken and yes, the fillets were really crunchy as I've described earlier on. However, I felt that the chicken fillet should have been marinated in some sauce before being coated and baked, as the meat was pretty bland. It just felt like all the flavours were concentrated on the exterior coat, and the interior meat was just.. chicken-y.

I find it interesting to see that various ways of food presentation can invoke different feelings. I would always try to make my food as appetizing as possible, but today, it seemed that I have taken a picture which didn't make me feel too anxious to have my chicken. Definitely not for the faint-hearted:

Does the next picture do kindness to your eyes more?