Sweet Summer - How To Make Cherry Clafoutis

Saw the recipe on Gary's blog and I just had to make it! It's my favorite kind of recipe. Minimal, simple ingredients and the dish sounds and looks absolutely divine. I went to buy fresh cherries right away and got it done. If only I'd stop procrastinating things other than food...


Very easy to make!
Recipe (literally taken from Gary's blog. I followed every step!)
(serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pounds of red cherries, stem removed, pitted (alternatively you can add blueberries, strawberries or even apricots or pears)
• 0.5 cup of flour
• 0.5 cup caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup of milk
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• powdered sugar

Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 180C, lightly butter baking pan. Set aside.

2. Warm the milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to simmer (do not boil) and set aside.

3. Combine eggs, flour, sugar, vanilla extract and salt in a mixing bowl. Whisk by hand or by food processor until smooth. Gradually add in warm milk. Continue to whisk until thoroughly combined. The batter will be a little watery - even more watery than whipping cream - but that's how it's supposed to be, so don't worry! 

4. Pour the batter into baking pan. Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes until slightly set. Remove pan from oven - do not turn it off!

5. Put cherries into the batter in single layer. Put baking pan back into the oven and continue to bake for an additional 40-45 minutes. Surface should be brown and batter set. 

6. Take the pan out of the oven. Let cool slightly, and run a knife along the sides of the pan to loosen up the clafoutis.

7. You can serve it immediately or let cool to lukewarm/room temperature. Before serving, dust with powdered sugar, cut into wedges or squares, and optionally put a scoop of ice cream on top (preferably homemade - that's Gary. For me... I'd totally buy since I haven't tried making ice cream before heheheh).


Halfway done. How gorgeous are those cherries!

And...

The beauty.

Dig in! I had it for tea time and breakfast the next day. I absolutely ADORE the flavor of baked cherries.

Thanks for the recipe & inspiration to bake again, Gary!

A Night In Cuba - Sugar, East Hotel, Hong Kong

Need somewhere to go to celebrate hump day? Try out Sugar's A Night In Cuba - it's on every Wednesday from 5pm til late. Enjoy your choices of mojito, snacks, the company of your friends/favorite coworkers...

... and don't forget to show off THIS AMAZING VIEW of Hong Kong to your visiting foreign colleagues  or friends or those smug relatives of yours or work frenemies & enjoy looking at how their jaws drop in unison before they mumbled the word "WOW".

Breath-taking.

Enjoy some Cuban inspired snacks...






Enjoy the music and the beautiful people.


And most importantly, enjoy this.

Thanks for the invite, East Hotel.
Advance booking is highly recommended.
Call +852 3968 3738
Visit their website for more info.

How To Make Easy No Bake Chocolate Pots de Creme with Fresh Berries And Fruit Compote

A super duper easy dessert to make. Totally right up my alley.

Luscious chocolate, a kick of tartness from the compote and fresh summer berries.

Perfect.
Recipe
(adapted from May's recipes Chocolate Pot De Creme)
Serves 6 (but I made this into 4 bigger portions)
The chocolate
- 100g dark chocolate
- 1/2 tsp instant coffee
- 250 ml cream
- 30g white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tsp whiskey (omit if making for kids)
- a pinch of sea salt

Chop chocolate, place into mixing bowl.
Put cream and sugar into saucepan, add vanilla and salt. Bring to almost boil.
Pour into chopped chocolate, add instant coffee & whiskey. Set for 1 minute, beat until smooth and shiny.
Pour into ramekins, let cool, chill for at least 5 hours.

The fruit compote (optional)
- a handful of berries (I used 3 strawberries and 7 blueberries)
- a tbsp of water
- 1 tsp sugar
Chop berries, place in sauce pan, cook using low heat. Keep cooking until fruit became softened and produced some liquid. Add a bit of water if needed. Add sugar bit by bit until you achieve balance between tartness and sweetness. Let cool, add into chocolate pot de creme with fresh fruits...

...or eat with toasts, or croissants, or bacon... the sky is the limit really.

Now... dig into that luscious pot of chocolatey fruity goodness.

Happy summer!

Happy Father's Day Homemade Dinner

We had a simple dinner at home celebrating Father's Day. I didn't make that cake. It's a black and white chocolate mousse cake from Arome bakery, costs about HK$160 (credit card discount) with a free pack of "Japanese" cookies. Good deal!

The dinner prep was really a father-son bonding session. What on earth were they trying to make?


This. Homemade roast pork - the recipe comes with the halogen cooking pot.


Did it work?

We love how it is transparent and we can all argue about the state of the food in the cooking pot. Perfect ice breaker for family gathering!

The father-son bonding only got stronger from there.

Proven by how SC and his dad collaborated plucking out remnants of pig hair...

...and after 15+30 minutes... voila!

Tasty roast pork! The meat's tender enough. The skin could use a little more poking, but not bad at all!

Here's MIL whacking away the siu yuk. She looked damn cool doing it. Don't mess with her.

Tasted AMAZING with rice. Not advisable for those on low carb diet :D

We also had beef curry. Very spicy.


And fish wrapped mangoes FIL learnt from TV.

If I could ever find that TV chef who taught this, Imma have to whack him/her with a cutting board. What a waste of beautiful fresh mangoes!

The cake has tool box shaped chocolate. Everybody loved it.

I grew up without a dad, but I love celebrating father's day with SC's family :)

Happy belated father's day, y'all. Hope you had a fantastic father's day celebration :)

Easy French Onion Soup Recipe

I am not a big fan of French Onion Soup. The ones that I've tried were all too sweet for my taste. But when my friend suggested that we make our own version together, we instantly agreed. I figured that if we are making it ourselves, we could definitely adjust the flavors to suit my savoury taste ;) and we did just that.

We adapted a recipe posted on Jamie Oliver's website by a member, and we love how easy it is.

Here's the recipe.
Our adaptation:
- we omitted the egg yolks
- we used red wine
- we used gruyere and cheddar
- we seasoned with salt and white pepper until we achieved the perfect balance of sweet and savory, but bearing in mind that cheese will be added
- we added grated cheese, then croutons, then grated cheese again on top
- we'd consider adding mozzarella into the cheese mix next to add that "stringy melty" quality to it


The recipe mentioned that using croutons isn't convenient, but we did it and it was easy and yummy. We'd use croutons again.


Grilling in the oven.


Perfectly golden brown.


Out of this world.