ayonecan-cook

There is something about a crimson coloured drink that makes it desirable and irresistible.  I knew I had to make this when I saw it on The Hungry Caterpillar. The Roselle cordial is made from th e sepals of the Roselle flower . A species of the hibiscus which is a plant native to the Old World tropics. It is of a deep plum colour, fleshy and crisp in texture, bizarre, kinky, alien-like, seemingly ready to scamper, creep, plunge, squeak, squeal and rule the world through my poor little chocolate addicted body. H thought they looked weird, and winced when I offered him the cordial. I looked at him as adamantly as I was allowed to and, to my surprise, he relented and took a sip. Then he waved the half full glass of roselle out of my reach. I smacked his arm with my paw. As hard as I was allowed to. We grappled. We drank. We were in ecstasy and in joyful worship. Of Rosella. (Dionysus... move over) Obviously it passed the test. So now it's bottled. Like a Genie. It has a l...

I am not the only one who has been puzzling over the difference between a banana bread and a banana cake. Even David Lebovitz is as perplexed as I am. Yes I have, in total, spent between 1800-2100 seconds over the past ten years trying to sort out the difference between the two.  An American friend of mine had offered me a slice of "banana 'bread' " one morning. I studied it and it seemed to me, in all its look and texture, a banana cake. At the time I didn't give it much thought. A shrug was all the puzzle had got out of me. But since I started this blog the question has become more immediate and urgent. I feel stupid. I feel shallow. I feel I should know.  But then I thought, surely, it cannot be as perplexing as confronting the fifth dimension of wormholes and parallel universes or, at the least, cataloging the properties of subatomic particles such as quarks and gluons. Then.... Why?... People?. ... Have I not found the answer? Help. Michio Kaku? Einstien?...

I wish this house was constructed of grilled meat, roast chicken , steamed red snappers, cemented with s ambal belacan , furnished with rice and it's roof tiled with pop tarts. So that Starvers wil l be distracted while The Starvee photo shoots. Pop tarts are what I made. And as a Malaysian , tarts only make sense when paired with pineapple jam. These........they were very good. The crust was crusty and buttery. And the jam.... it was obligingly sticky and subtly sweet. And the whole...it was out of this world.  This just cannot be a breakfast food. I refuse to serve it for breakfast. I would probably refuse to share these next time too. I checked out the recipe for the pop tart crust on Smitten Kitchen and then at Joy the Baker and realized that they were exactly the same. So the credits go to two of my favourite blogs. Because I live in a green house it was very difficult to keep the dough cool and firm while rolling, filling and sealing it with jam. Constant refrigeration ...

I know....... summer in some parts of foodie world is over. But in my world ~  summer is forever.  So there is nothing like an ice cold headache-inducing water melon granita to keep those heat waves at bay. This was just so refreshing that when my daughter and I mouthed the first few scoops of ice cold crystallized melon juice aka as granita while watching tv the heat outside just seemed to dissipate into a mirage-y blur and I felt transported to several degrees below 100.  It was a continuous effort between cooling down and an ice cold headache. At times it was like my brain was being flashed frozen and the next minute relieved of it. It was a foodie's fight against nature. As hard as that may sound I would do granita again and again if the heat keeps up. Rain? Come again? Pretty please? Of course granita turned to pleasant slush afterwards and I wished I had one of those big fat drain pipe straws then. Slurpy slurp. I used red and yellow seedless water melon for these ...

Rachel Allen made this. Yes the pretty Rachel Allen, with the charming unplace-able accent, whom I always associate with  cakes, pies, cookies, pastry and all things sweet, nice and dainty. And with daisies. Whom I would never place on the same page as fish sauce. Then one day I caught her making a grilled chicken dish. What a surprise. It was an Asian inspired grilled/roasted chicken dish too. With fish sauce. It was very, very good. FM (Family Members) thought it was sedaaaaap and they kept requesting me to make it again and again. And again. Which is a treat because the aroma of the coriander, lime, lemon grass, ginger, garlic just floated, flirted and flounced with me all around the house. As fragrant as a field of breeze blowin' daisies. So, my friends, bookmark this grilled/roasted chicken recipe. It'll make us all breeze blowin' happy. What I found different about this grilled/roasted chicken was that the chicken pieces were slashed at intervals before marinating....

I had a moment of alarm when I got up two mornings after I had made butter ~ and buttermilk. I had the need to make something out of it quickly. I knew the feeling of regret that would sink in if I finished the butter before it had a chance to be a part of something bigger. So off I went in raid of Smitten Kitchen's kitchen in search of a buttermilk cake. And I found it ~ a  raspberry buttermilk or 'any fruit' cake . I decided to add a generous cup of ground almonds to Deb's recipe. I loved the way it turned out.  Over the years I have come to learn to decipher recipes. I know a cake is moist by looking at the proportion of sugar in regards to the rest of the ingredients, particularly flour. The more sugar there is in the recipe the more moist the cake will be because as the cake bakes the sugar turns to syrup. Unfortunately that also leads to teeth rot. Too much butter, on the other hand, makes the cake greasy (denser and heavier) rather than moist so that you swiv...

This is a truly inspired post. Inspired by the talented Quinn of  Quinn's Baking Diary. Quinn has not blogged about this yet but she had facebooked it.  I was smitten and so were many of her facebook friends. And I promised her I would make this since over beating is in my nature. Indeed if there is anything that I will over beat to a hilt and without a quiver of guilt in the future it will surely be cream. Yes Ma'am. When I had created the butter I felt like a little Miss Dairy Queen who had just milked a cow and who lives on a farm with plenty of know-how. Some of us, like me, after some googling, will know that cream is the butterfat-rich part that rises to the top of non homogenized cow's milk. It is not made. It is, in the words of www.ochef.com , "an ur -ingredient if you will." "It is not the product of another recipe, it is a naturally occurring food that you cannot make yourself." Like chicken livers, salt and apples" says he. But butter ...

 What would we do without passion? I suppose we would exist simply because we do. What kind of persons would we become? Without passion, without desire, without wants that rise above needs and necessities? What kind of persons would we become if we denied ourselves some space and self interest? What kind of persons would we be if we exist wholly for the service and for the pleasure of others or of something? What kind of persons would we be if everything we feel, think and do becomes a duty? Becomes controlled? We would be persons without passion. We would be mechanical. We would be essentially in human. We would live a life devoid of desire, a life lacking of love, an existence empty of empathy and most of all we would be creatures without quirks and impulses, without intuition, without sensibilities, without meaning and without life. Therefore I quirk. Therefore I make no excuses for impulses that make me do or say or write nonsensical things at nonsensical moments with nonsensic...

My apologies for the gaping silence since my last post. I offer no excuses because there are simply too many. And too much excitement too. I have been doing things. Some of which I have not been doing since some thirty odd years ago. Because.... I have been doing things with my grandchildren. The list is long ~ ~ Shopping ~ Cuddling ~ Cuddling ~ Cuddling ~ a whole day's ride and fright at the amusement park  ~ cuddling ~ bowling ~ cuddling ~ ice skating ~ cuddling And......... before they leave next week we plan another hair raising afternoon at an indoor amusement park. Yes... days have been filled with much amusement and it has been a hands on affair. And in the words of my 11 year old granddaughter N, "It was horribly fun". But thank god they have uncles too.  I will be back soon. Promise. I have some great recipes that I can't wait to share and perhaps a giveaway too.  Thank you to those of you who have commented and emailed to ask after me. You know who you are. ...