Instead of baking it on the oven, I use my 24cm Staub cast iron pot.

And, I made a few adjustment on the receipe based on our taste preference.

For the custard,

• ½ cup              Caster Sugar
• ¼ cup              water
• 1 tbsp              butter
• 250ml              Cream
• 250ml              fresh milk
• 5 nos               eggs
• 1 tsp                vanilla essence
• Pinch of salt to taste.

Boil the water and sugar till it turn golden. Turn off the heat and whisk in butter till all melt. Next, whisk in the cream, fresh milk, vanilla essence, eggs and pinch of salt to give it a little contrast. I continue to whisk until everything it mixed well and forms a very nice custard-like colour. 

Next, I lightly spray my pot with canola oil. Heat up the pot and start tearing in big chucks of stale croissant. I let the croissant fry a little in the pot before I pour in the custard sauce. I used about 6 pieces of croissant here. I fold and press each piece to make sure the sauce soaks thru. After about 2-3 minutes, I turn off the fire. 

Cover the pot with the staub lid (which i think is the same weight we the pot !!!! so heavy…) and continue to let the pot do its job while I ran off to shower. 

When all of us head down for breakfast (about 15-20 mins later), the pudding is cook perfectly and still hot! (the recipe can easily feed 4-5 people)

It’s such a great and wonderful recipe for lazy-me. And hubby thinks I’m amazing for whipping something like this up for breakfast !!! MUAHHAHAHAHHA….and all this is Thanks to Nigella (One of my many favourite TV chef).

Normally, I will have some leftover which I just keep in a tupperware. It will still taste amazing the next day after reheating in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes. OR, just have it cold with some ice cream ! yummmzzz….

That was after some calls to TNB, Topping up the deposit and paying of some outstanding amounts.

Despite the long wait (almost one month plus), I would have to say I did have a rather comfortable experienced with TNB shah alam. We went to their office on weekend and was pleasantly surprise that the team there are very friendly and smiley people.

I’m so happy this is out of the way….

With so much fresh paprika, I decided to cook Hungarian Chicken Paprikash and invite our friend Mr.F over for dinner with us.  

Ingredients I used

• 4          Drumsticks
• 4          Paprikas ( I used 2 red and 2 yellow – thinly sliced)
• 1          Carrot (thinly sliced)
• 1          Onions (thinly sliced)
• 2          fresh Tomato diced
• 1 tbsp  finely chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp  Tomato paste
• 1 tbsp Hungarian sweet paprika (you can grab them from any dry herbs rack)
• 3 cups Chicken Stock Water (I just throw in one chicken stock cube in hot water)
• 100gm Crème fraîche
• 2 cups  Risotto rice
• 2pcs     Bay Leaves

Melt some duck fat (which I had left over from my duck confit), and sauté my drumsticks till they are golden brown. Next, in goes my onions until soft, then, the garlic.

Throw in the tomato paste and hungarian sweet paprika. Fry till fragrant. Once this is done, I add my drumsticks, chicken stock water, carrots and paprikas. Tuck in the 2 bay leaves. Bring all these to boil and Cover the pan and allow the whole thing to simmer in low heat for about 20-25 minutes. Lid up, add salt and pepper to taste. (Being Chinese, I can resist adding a touch of Soya sauce and oyster sauce) 

Next, in another pan, I sauté some risotto rice with butter and olive oil. Once each grain is well coated with fats, I slowly transfer the paprikas stock ladle by ladle and cook till the rice soaked all these flavours. Transfer the drumsticks and all the vegetable over to the risotto.   

Sprinkle tomatoes over the top. Stir in the crème fraîche and watch the viscosity thickens. Yummm…. Absolutely delicious.

sorry – I was so hungry by then I didn’t take a picture of the finish product. aih….  ;p

When I took the first snap, he was shocked. You can see how his eyes got big and wide staring at me.

Ignoring him,

I continue to snap away testing the camera’s functions, zoom and auto focus abilities. (I was quite impressed with the Samsung Note’s camera). After finish playing around, I checked on the pictures and to my surprise, I found Rabbit giving me the ‘beh-song’ (not happy) face. Sort of a cross between irritated and angry. hehehehe… poor thing. He must have been irritated because I disturbed his peaceful rest. ;p

** Fukuharu won the Best Japanese Restaurant category of the Time Out KL Food Awards in 2010 ** This was partly the reason why he chooses this restaurant. 

Fukuharu is located inside Terrace @ Hock Choon. Once you are inside, the restaurant gives off a peaceful vibe. We were shown to our table and immediately placed our orders as we were very hungry. They recommended we try their Fukuharu Zen lunch special which was priced at RM 38++.

We were quite attracted to the Zen set. So, we ended up ordering 3 out of the 5 variety they had. (Chicken Teriyaki /Saba Shioyaki and Beef Teppanyaki). The set comes with a mini kaiseki appetizer platter, Salad, Chawan mushi, rice and dessert.

I love the kaiseki they offer. It is nothing spectacular. But, each ingredient is fresh and the variety served was more than I had expected. Mom especially loves the slice of smoke duck. The Kaiseki is the same for all the sets. Follow by a salad, Chawan Mushi and then your main set.

Personally, I like the beef set the most. Chicken was quite so-so. The Saba set was ok but I feel that the serving was a little on the small side.

On top of that, we ordered the Edamame, Mentai Sushi, Erringi Yaki and Avocado Tempura.

The Mentai Sushi was basically Tamago sushi (egg) with a layer of grilled creamy mentaiko (fish roe) on top. It was really yummy. I love the taste of the still warm mentaiko together with the creamy sauce. It was definitely an interesting combination. Next, we had the avocado tempura. It was not really impressive. Unfortunately, I forgotten all about snapping picture by then. So, I can’t show you what the 2 dishes looks like. GOMEN !!!

I did however manage to get the Erringi Yaki after hub remind me about it. Hehehe.. This was done really well. I love what they did with the Erringi (a type of mushroom – mom called it chicken drumstick mushroom, hehehee… not sure if she made it up or it’s true). It was sliced in nice ‘chips’ size and grilled lightly with very minimal oil.  

We end the meal with Vanilla ice-cream draped with black sesame sauce. I definitely prefer this to a pure black sesame ice cream. I always find that a bit too over powering. This is just nice; simple and flavorful. Love it when I end a meal with good dessert. 

 Address:

Terrace@Hock Choon, 241-B Lorong Nibong, off Jalan Ampang, KL.

Tel: 017 209 8477

Opening times: Open daily, 12noon-2.30pm, 6pm-10.30pm

I have one duck leg left. And some of my sides from previous night. It is not possible to prepare dinner for 3. So, I rummage thru my fridge and found 2 heads of romaine lettuce. Nice… very nice.

Since we had such heavy dinner last night, I decided to make something light tonight.

I tear up the lettuce,  shredded the duck (heat it in the microwave). Then, sprinkle it around the salad. Next, in goes the shredded carrot and caramelised onion. The result? FANTASTIC. it was the best salad I have ever eaten. seriously. Even my mom who was a little skeptical at first fight us for the last bite. hehehee… All the different element merge so well together, especially with the fresh cripsy lettuce.

Simple and delicious.

** No – that was not all we had. Mom had a craving for Ramli burger (typical local burger – usually found on road side). So, we had to ‘tapau’ (take-away) some back.

Oh yes – for those who are not familiar, Confit de canard is preserved duck (the French method). It is basically duck legs which were salted with some herbs and then later slow cook with its own fat for a long time. Then, the finish product can be kept for months. It is very similar to the Chinese wax meat, except the Chinese version is dry whereas the French versions are soaked in duck fat.

So for Christmas / hubby’s birthday celebration 2011, I decided to try my hand on cooking these babies. Upon opening the can, I try my best to scoop the solidified duck fat into a jar (these are liquid gold!!!). Try not to separate the legs as the legs are very tender and will fall apart easily.

 I used bain-marie (with very low fire) to slowly let the remaining fat melt away. It looks amazing already.

After that, I heat up the sauté pan and place the skin side up. Fry it on slow heat until the skin turn crispy. Once the skin is crispy, you can lift them up. There is no need to fry on the other side as the meat is actually already cooked. Commonly, confit de canard is served in like this with a bit of roast potatoes and salad on the side. But, I find it a bit too dry for my liking.

Hence, I prepare some orange sauce to go with it.

• 2 Oranges’ zest (bring to boil frmo cold water at least 3 times to rid the bitter taste)
• 1 Orange’s meat 
• 1 Orange’s juice
• 1 shot whisky
• 2 tbsp sugar
• Salt and pepper to taste

 Using the same pan, I pour in all the ingredients and bring to boil. Once it is boiling, I continue to let it simmer until the sauce reduces to the consistency I like.

I got a little greedy and prepared 3 side dishes. Roast Potatoes, Caramelized Onion and Carrot Salad with raisins and balsamic vinaigrette dressing.  

Et Voilà !

Dinner is served. Confit de canard à l’orange.

It was dinner  only serving for 3, so, there was one leg left over… I wonder what should I do with it… ?!!

Even after checking up and down. Looking at the house original print and also asking the developer. We still ended up with a HUGE column where we least expected it. sighhh….

We had expected that there would be one column on this wall and it was the column 1. However, to our SURPRISE, there’s a column numero 2 !!! AND look at the SIZE of this column… sigh. ALL the previous pain-staking design, calculation and layout is throw to the bin. It’s back to square one again.

A word of advice for future house owner. If you are planning on doing alot of extension, it might be better to get your contractor to punch a whole thru the wall on specific places to acertain before you do your layout. 

Sob. sob. sob.

Our first cat. Before this, we only had dogs. Pumpkin was a huge thing weighting at about 9-10kg. Our vet used to call him Garfield. heheh… Pumpkin got along really well with our 2 dogs, Mary and Jess. (epsecially Mary). They always play together and sleep together. When Mary pass away of old age, we can see that pumpkin was really depress. This little fellow would lie down on the mat which Mary use to lie down. One month later, he pass away too.

Sob sob…sob. My little sister was hardest hit as she love pumpkin to pieces. I miss you pumpkin. Rest in peace in kitty heaven.

During one of my trip to Paris, I saw that the line in front of Ladurée was short and quickly took the decision to queue up for these scrumptious babies… it took about 30 minutes before I got to my turn (YES – even short queue takes 30mins). After selecting some of their popular flavors, I ran out of the shop gleefully and took my first bite. It was a disappointing experience for me. Perhaps it was my first time trying macarons and I had really high expectation or not knowing what to expect. It was extremely sweet to the point that I felt like I got sugar shocked or something. The following bites were with less enthusiasm.  So, that was the last time I bother with macarons. I think that was about 4 – 5 years back. 

This year, a good friend (Ms. J) asks if I could bring back some Ladurée for her to try. So, I told her I’ll try to make my best effort to make time (business trip = no time for shopping). Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to find the time.

But, when I come across Pierre Hermé’s shop and no queue, I ran in to buy 14 pieces. I know it was not what she wanted, but, I thought better than none. And, I did hear a lot of this chef, especially from some of my clients.

In the world of macarons, Pierre Hermé needs no further introduction. He was the youngest to be ever named theFrance’s Pastry Chef of the year and also the ONLY pastry chef to be awarded ‘Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’. Interestingly, he didn’t start his first shop in France but in Japan. His first pastry boutique is in Tokyo on the year 2000. He only opens his first shop in Paris in 2002. The reason was supposedly due to his contract with Ladurée as he used to work there. I guess it’s only fair.

I knew it is not easy to carry these delicate pastry and they have the tenancy to get crushed or too moist over time. So, I was very careful to pack them in a Tupperware (YES – I carry Tupperware with me when I travel especially for business trip) and lo and behold ! I manage to bring back macarons which are still fresh looking and Not crushed !!! bear in mind that I bought it one day before I flight + afternoon flight the next day + 13 hours flight + one more day before I eat them = at least 64 hours. Amazing right?

I invited some close friends over to enjoy it together. By the end of the night, we manage to slowly polished off all these babies and M. Hermé convinced me to fall in love with macarons !!! Many people say he doesn’t stick to the original tradition and some of his flavours are too bold and quirky compared to Ladurée. But then, if you think about it, Ladurée also moved away from the original macaron to create what it is today. So, maybe it’s about time it got re-invented?

My Favourites that night? (not in particular order)

Crème Brûlée / Infiniment Vanille / Infiniment Caramel / Truffe Blanche & Noisette / Mogador