healthy blueberry clafouti

my Valentine treat...

BLUEBERRY CLAFOUTI...
my HEALTHY VERSION..

sugar free and low carb. i used almond flour, baking splenda and yolk-eggbeaters....i think i i liked it better that the real one...yummy breakfast treat !

cinnamon pecan pinwheels

CINNAMON PECAN PINWHEELS...

bluberry clafouti

Dad's Valentine card

BLUEBERRY CLAFOUTI

this one was full fat, full carb...full GOOD !

my first ever! flourless chocolate cake

Mom's Valentine card

FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE

DARK CHOCOLATE WAFERS w/MILK CHOCOLATE FILLING

DARK CHOCOLATE COOKIES starting with Martha Stewart's recipe...i used whole wheat flour instead and they came out great.

Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream

There are lots of things you simply must eat when you come to San Francisco, the latest is ice cream at Humphry Slocombe. It's located in the Mission just off of 24th street, a neighborhood more known for Mexican food, but perhaps becoming ice cream central. Back in the 80's gelato was all the rage, but sadly the fad seemed to die out. For years my pick for interesting flavors was Bombay Bazar, an Indian shop on Valencia street in the Mission district that offers flavors like fig, cardamom and chai. Thankfully over the past couple of years ice cream shops like Sketch, Bi-Rite Creamery (on 18th street in the Mission) and Ici have opened up reintroducing the idea of high quality ice cream with fresh and unique flavors. Suddenly it seems the Bay Area is becoming an ice cream mecca.

Humphry Slocombe might just be my favorite ice cream ever. The flavors are sophisticated and not too sweet. It's a cute and retro looking shop with bright red bar stools that face the street. The friendly staff is more than happy to offer you tastes, not that it will help you make up your mind. The flavors are so good and the texture so luscious one bite is not enough. I literally found myself wanting a scoop of every flavor available. Rich and creamy but not cloying, each flavor varies in intensity but is balanced and satisfying. They also offer nibbles of bacon brittle. Yes, bacon brittle.

The flavors rotate and they have about 10-12 everyday. I had Maple Walnut and Balsamic Caramel but equally scrumptious were Rose Petal Creme Fraiche, and a smoky Pistachio Bacon. They also offer wonderfully chewy chocolate chip cookies and sundaes that I have yet to try. But not for long. By the way there is no "Humphry Slocombe" it's just a name that pays homage to characters on the British sitcom, Are You Being Served?

Humphry Slocombe
2790 Harrison St @ 24th
San Francisco
415.550.6971

Tuesday - Sunday Noon - 8 pm

Here are some more enlightening Humphry Slocombe blog reviews, reports and interviews:

7x7-Ice Cream for Adults

Bunrabs

DeFabulous Food

The Kitchn

A Mouthful of Twisted Goodness

The Roti Prata House ........... For Your Crispy Prata

It was a recent Saturday morning that HY got an appointment with a friend to do brisk walking at the HSBC Treetop walk. Well they did the whole 12km! I decided to play the nice husband and send her to the start point .......... but only with a hidden agenda .........

After dropping HY, I immediately drove to the Roti Prata House.  This is where one of the crispiest roti prata in Singapore can be found (my ulterior motive). This morning I had two pratas, one with egg and one, "kosong", plain. To compliment the "shiokness" of the crispy roti pratas, I down one glass of teh halia, ginger tea. This made my GOOD morning.

I think the crispy prata looks delicious. Don't you think so?

Address : 246M/246K Upper Thomson Road. Shophouses betwee Jalan Todak and Jalan Keli.

Tel : 64595260

Country : Singapore

Chatmasala ......... Good Indian Food in Greenwood Avenue

It was the 14th day of the Chinese New Year. I was set to go for a Chinese dinner with my parents for a "Lou Hei" but the Chinese dinner became an Indian one and a good one by the name of Chatmasala.

We drove into Greenwood Avenue and HY suggested that we walk into this cosy and very unassuming restaurant. She had a business meal here before and was impressed. I'll trust my wife when she says it's good. She's the picky one.

While at the door, Dhershini (proprietor of chatmasala) ushered us into her restaurant and quickly impressed us with her hospitality. She asked about our taste preference and then recommended the dishes that will most suit our palate.

Before we decide the dishes, we were recommended lassi (Indian's version of the yogurt drink). I went for the ginger lassi which I took to a liking very quickly. There are mango and strawberry flavoured ones too.

Ginger Lassi (S$6.50)





Dhershini introduced us to some of the popular dishes in her restaurants. Here's those that I had tried would recommend.


Naan ....... Garlic (S$2.50), Cheese (S$3.20), Butter (S$2.40). The garlic one is my favourite. It's HY's favourite as well.





Starter Platter (S$28.80) ....... Tofu, Fish Paste Cake, Basmati rice, papadum

Fish Paste Cake

Fried Tofu ..........

Basmati rice stuffed inside a papadum.

Keeala Fish Curry (S$15.80). The fish is fried and then dunked into the curry. However, the fish doesn't seem to be soaked in the curry for very long so its not mushy. Good stuff!

Fried fish inside the curry.

Kasturi Kebab (S$16.80). This is a chicken kebab and this taste really nice and tender. Must try!

Eggplant strips (S$10.80). This is good but very spicy hot!

For desert, we shared the Crispy Banana Roll (S$6.00)

Cost : about S$42 per person

Address : 18 Greenwood Avenue, Hillcrest Park,

Tel : +65 67622133

Country : Singapore

Holy Cannoli!

I thought that this would make a pretty appropriate Valentine's post. Cannoli are so pretty and amazingly easy to make, you could get the stuff today, and have them made tonight in a snap! This recipe was provided by Paula Deen, who, as far as I'm aware, is not Italian at all! She does make a great cannoli though!

Ingredients

3 tablespoons amaretto (I could not find this anywhere, so I used almond extract and it was heaven!)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2/3 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup unsalted chopped pistachios (I didn't use these)
1 cup ricotta cheese
12 prepared cannoli shells (I got mine at the bakery in Superfresh)
1/2 cup melted chocolate

Directions

In a large bowl, whip together amaretto, cinnamon, heavy cream and confectioners' sugar until soft peaks form.

In a medium bowl, combine the pistachios and ricotta and stir in half of the whipped cream. Gently fold in the remaining whipped cream. Fill a pastry bag with no tip with the mixture to fill the cannoli shells.

Dip the tips of the cannoli into the melted chocolate. Place the sheet tray in the refrigerator for 2 hours or until filling and chocolate is set. I drizzled and dipped, you really can't have too much chocolate!

*I discovered disposable pastry bags last Christmas and LOVE them! You can clip the tip off to whatever size you want and then throw it away when you're done!

Chicken Roasted in a Pot Recipe

Last month it seemed everyone was roasting a chicken. Perhaps the chill in the air inspired a desire for something comforting and familiar. I couldn't watch a cooking show on television, read a newspaper online or food magazine without staring at yet another roast chicken. And blogs! It seems just about every food blogger was roasting chicken. I think it was the steady stream of breathtaking photos that finally got to me.

This is a "poulet en cocotte" recipe that I modified. I saw it on a certain television program and decided I would make it a little differently. It was moist but didn't yield crispy skin. Fresh out of the oven, I particularly enjoy roast chicken with roasted root vegetables or a big green salad and boiled potatoes all slathered with vinaigrette. The next day I shred the leftover chicken and use it in something else like enchiladas, another excellent comfort food.

The liquid from the chicken was very rich and flavorful and I had so much of it leftover, I used it to make grits. Let me tell you, the next time you have any kind of au jus or gravy, use it as part of the cooking liquid in grits and stir in some cheese after taking the pot off the stove. This makes the most amazingly delicious side dish or breakfast. It's perfect on cold mornings when you want something as warm and filling as hot cereal but prefer savory rather than sweet flavors. Honestly, I would make this chicken again just so I had the juice to make grits!

French Style Chicken Roasted in a Pot

Ingredients

4 1/2 to 5 pound roasting chicken
3 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon butter
1 small onion, roughly chopped
1 small stalk celery, roughly chopped
1 small carrot, roughly chopped
5 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

Instructions

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Pat chicken dry and season with salt. Melt butter in large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add chicken breast-side down. Cook until breast is darkly browned, about 8 minutes. Using a wooden spoon or tongs inserted into cavity of bird, flip chicken and add the vegetables, continue cooking another 6 minutes. Remove Dutch oven from heat; place large sheet of foil over pot and cover tightly with lid. Transfer pot to oven and cook until thermometer registers 160 degrees when inserted in thickest part of breast and 175 degrees in thickest part of thigh, this will take somewhere around an hour and 20 minutes.

Transfer chicken to carving board, tent with foil, and rest a full 20 minutes. Carve chicken, serve with juices from the pot (and carving of the bird).

Enjoy!

Here are just a sampling of January 2009, roast chicken posts. Try visiting a few and see if you don't find yourself planning a chicken dinner...

Last Night's Dinner Roast Chicken 3 Ways

Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy blog's Roast Chicken with Pancetta & Olives

For The Love of Cooking Lemon, Garlic & Basil Slow Roasted Chicken

Whisk blog's Poulet en Cocotte Grand Mere

Thursday Night Smackdown Chicken with 50 Cloves of Garlic

Serious Eats Paprika Roast Chicken

White Winter Vegetable Stew

This was another gem I found in Cooking Light (best cooking magazine in the WORLD). When I first saw it, I was a little hesitant and wondered if it would have much flavor or richness. I hesitate no longer! This soup was delicious and if you never told me that it was light, then I would think that I was completely indulging. It's creamy, it's hearty and packed with flavor, perfect for a bitter cold winter day. If you like potato chowder, you'll love this as a healthy substitute. As a side I toasted a baguette topped with tomato slices and mozzarella cheese. If I had fresh basil in my fridge, it would have gone on there too, but alas...

White Winter Vegetable Soup

Found in Cooking Light Jan/Feb 2009 edition

Ingredients

1 baking potato, cut into (1/2 inch) cubes
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
3 cups thinly sliced leeks (about three large)
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 turnips peeled and cut into (1/2 inch) cubes
1 small celery root, peeled and cut into (1/2 inch) cubes
2 cups water
2 cups whole milk

Directions

1. Place potato in a medium bowl; cover with cold water to 1 inch above potato. Set aside.
2. Melt butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion to pan, and cook 7minutes or until soft but not browned, stirring occasionally. Add leek and the next 4 ingredients (through celery root) to pan. Place a sheet of aluminum foil directly over vegetable mixture. Cover, reduce heat to low and cook 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
3. Drain potatoes; add to pan. Stir in 2 cups water. Cover and simmer 20 minutes or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.
4. Heat milk in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat to 180, or until small bubbles form around the edges (do not boil). Gradually stir hot milk into vegetable mixture, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Taste and adjust seasoning if desired.

Serves 8: One serving is 1 1/4 cups soup

Per Serving: 311 calories, 10.5g fat, 12g protein, 43.6g carbs, 4.9g fiber, 299mg chol, 640mg sodium

Points Per Serving: 6

Brown Butter Gnocchi with Spinach and Pine Nuts

A few weeks ago I tried a dish with gnocchi that ended up being N-A-S-T-Y! I don't necessarily think that it was the gnocchi, it was just a bad combination of food all around. However, I did have to tell myself not to blame the gnocchi and give it another chance. Gnocchi COMPLETELY redeemed itself with this dish. It was so simple (which I think it how gnocchi was intended to be prepared), light and delicious. My whole family loved it, especially my kids who snarfed down their fat pasta and green spinach (does a mommy proud!). We didn't have the pine nuts in ours due to allergy, but I have no doubt that it's a delicious addition. If you like gnocchi, you must try this dish!





Brown Butter Gnocchi with Spinach and Pine Nuts


Recipe found in Cooking Light Jan/Feb 2009 edition




Ingredients

1 (16 oz) package vacuum-packed gnocchi
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (10-oz) package spinach, torn
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

1. Cook gnocchi according to package directions, omitting salt and fat, drain.
2. Heat butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add pine nuts to pan; cook three minutes, or until butter and nuts are lightly browned, stirring constantly. Add garlic to pan; cook 1 minute. Add gnocchi and spinach to pan; cook 1 minute, or until spinach wilts, stirring constantly. Stir in salt and pepper. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4: 1 serving is 1 cup gnocchi and 1 TB cheese

Per Serving: 289cal, 10.8g fat, 9.5g prot, 40.3g carb, 1.8g fiber, 20mg chol, 2.2mg iron

Points per Serving: 6



I was also lucky enough to receive a couple of cute awards from Melissa at Schweet N Savory, a blog that I love to visit...


I want to pass these on to Priscilla at Priscilla's Baking Adventures, Sara, at Sara's Kitchen, ad Pam at For the Love of Cooking. They are all fun and delicious looking blogs that I enjoy visiting often. Congrats, and happy cooking!

Charles Pizza

We were at a BBQ all afternoon Sunday and due to decrepit Footscray Park BBQs didn't get our snag until 4.30pm! By 9pm we were hungry again and decided to go for pizza. Went for old fave Charles Pizza on Droop St, near the corner of Ballarat Rd (Footscray of course). I had Wendy's Special (hot salami, capsicum, olives) while Mr Baklover got Hawaiian. It was OK - the salami was so chewy though, if you bit into a piece you couldn't bite through it, you had to rip it with your hands if you wanted to distribute over two bites. The garlic bread wasn't the loaf type that is connected just along the bottom so you can rip it apart, it was single pieces, but I like the aforementioned sleazy sort!! We used to get pizza from here weekly and it was always a bit random, aside from the tough salami I do like their style with a good crust and not too much cheese. I just wish pizza was a "respected" foodstuff like it is in the USA, rather than just being "take-away" and made with as much care (or rather lack of) here in Australia.

Charles Pizza, 131 Droop St, Footscray (near cnr Ballarat Rd)

Triple Layer Bars

All I can say about these bars is WOW. They have everything you could ever want, chocolate, peanut butter, coconut...sweetened condensed milk (you know when a recipe calls for that, it's gonna be good). Anyway, you have a party, bbq, dinner plans, and don't know what to bring for dessert? Make these, they won't disappoint!

Triple-Layer Cookie Bars

From The Taste of Home Baking Book

Ingredients

1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cups sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cold butter
2 eggs
TOPPING:
1 pkge (7 oz) flaked coconut
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the first six ingredients. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add eggs; mix well. Spread into a greased 13x9 inch pan.

2. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Sprinkle coconut over crust; drizzle with milk. Bake 20-25 minutes longer, or until lightly browned. IN a heavy saucepan or microwave, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter; stir until smooth. Spread over top. Cool on a wire rack. Cut into bars.

Pontini for Italian cuisine .......... Good desert discovered

Pontini has been with the Grand Copthorne Hotel Waterfront ever since the hotel started business along the Singapore river. This is the second time that HY and I visited this Italian restaurant. Since my first visit, HY and I have been raving about Pontini's desert sampler to our close friends.

Here's the Pontini's desert platter (S$32) which includes their three signature deserts. they are also available seperately in the desert menu.

Creme Brulee topped with berries. The sour berries teams up nicely with the sweet mousse at the bottom. Yummy .......

Banana Parfait. The pieces of banana are imprehated into the parfait. A thin coconut crisp is placed on the parfait. ..........

Venetian Tiramisu. The cake is interlaced with the mousse ..........

Sorbet with fresh fruits .......

We did eat our dinner before the deserts .......

Here's the bread basket and sticks that was served before our orders ....... good stuff.

Soup of baby neck clams with assorted seafood served with garlic croutons. This an appetising soup with all the fresh goodness of the seas. We're wondering why there' no prawns tonight and we found out that the restaurat have returned the batch of prawn which were not fresh according to their standards. I like their attitude to maintain the standards ..........

This is what my friend had ordered ...... pan seared US beef. This proves to be the best of our mains. Everyone who've asked for a bite of this beef dish all nodded in approval.

Apart from my friend who ordered the beef dish with a stamp of everyone's approval, the rest of us unknowingly ordered their scallop squid ink linguine. None of u thinks that it's anything special.

Cost : about S$60 per person for dinner including desert.

Address : 392 Havelock Road, Grand Copthorne Hotel (Waterfront), 2nd floor

Country : Singapore

Website : http://www.millenniumhotels.com.sg/grandcopthornewaterfront/restaurant/pontini.html