Mexican Fajitas

There's only one place I go to for Mexican food in Singapore because, not only is it good, it's 20 minutes away for me and most of my friends and that's Cha Cha Cha at holland village. Sadly however, they've reduced their portion sizes - especially apparent in terms of their guacamole servings - and charge a lot more for a dissatisfying extra portion. It was about time I took matters into my own hands and made my own fajitas, because when it comes down to the important things, like the sour cream to guacamole ratio or how many red peppers you want in your wrap, nobody knows you better than you know yourself. 

Fajitas are like angmoh popiahs, and I adore popiah. Last week I had Fajitas twice in three days. I made them with my friends first - a simple recipe with grilled chicken, panfried peppers, caramelized onions with home-made hummus and guacamole. Two days later, my mum one upped us and used an actual grill and a hot plate for the peppers, onions and marinated pork. Not that I'm complaining of course. 

My attempt with friends' help: dinner for 3

home-made hummus and guacamole, oven-baked chicken

oven-baked chicken marinated in greek yogurt with curry powder, chilli flakes, a dash of honey, salt and pepper 

My mum's attempt: dinner for 6 

Grilling the peppers and chopped onions

Grilled Pork

Guacamole: mashed avocado with lemon juice (optional: chilli flakes)

Shredded Romaine Lettuce

Salsa: diced tomatoes, onions and chopped red chilli tossed in olive oil and seasoned with pepper

Caramelized onions and grilled red pepper on a sizzling hot plate

wrap-style 

I suppose 15 years of cooking for a family of 6 fussy eaters teaches you a thing or two about how to make sure nobody leaves the table unsatisfied. 

Important tip! Heat the wraps individually on a pan and drizzle some shredded cheddar on top until it melts. Then pile all your favourite things in and fold taco style. These may not make for great pictures, but they taste a million times better than microwaves wraps.

pan-heated and taco-style 

Cha Cha Cha

32 Lorong Mambong

Holland Village

Singapore

Tel: +65 6462 1650

                         

SINGAPORE: Breakfast at Hediard

There's something alluring about the silent stillness of the night that draws me in, away from the abyss of sleep. As a result, I sleep late and rarely wake up to meet friends for breakfast. This time however, the food and, of course, company at Hediard was definitely worth having to drag myself out of bed at normal waking hours. 

I ordered the Hediard Breakfast set with brioche, a soft boiled egg and coffee, $19

Straight off the menu:

Hediard breakfast set 

- Madeleine blend coffee, chocolate or hediard blend tea

- orange juice freshly squeezed 

- choice of either croissant, brioche or pain au chocolat

- hediard country style toasted bread and butter 

- One 30 gr jar of home made jam and one 30 gr jar of honey 

What surprised me the most was the authenticity of the place. Stepping into Hediard along Tanglin Road was like stepping into a bakery-cafe in Paris - except this one is 20 minutes from home, air-conditioned and doesn't have Paris' charismatic peach coloured buildings and cobblestoned paths outside. 

The brioche here was startlingly fresh, soft and warm. It was a hundred times better than any I'd had at La Pain Quotidien in London and a close match to the one I had once from the Harrods bakery.  

Madeleine blend coffee 

Spoiled by the espresso machine at home and papapahelta cappuccinos, I didn't appreciate the Madeleine blend coffee here. Carmen-the-coffee-guru, however, assured me that this was exactly how coffee all over Paris tasted like and she much preferred Ya Kun Kaya Toast's coffee. Either way, you can't deny that the place is an honest to goodness paris bakery-cafe. 

Carmen's order: Hediard Breakfast set with a croissant, a hard boiled egg and coffee

Ian's order: his first ever Eggs Benedict - poached egg on toast with Parma ham, shaved parmesan and hollandaise sauce, $16

honey and apricot jam in tiny take-home jars

Hediard Boutique and Cafe-Restaurant

123-125 Tanglin Rd, 

Tudor Court (next to Tanglin Mall)

247921 Singapore

Information & Reservations:

T. 6333 6683, Everyday, 9.00am-8.00pm

"Chiffon" Blueberry Lemon Cake

Sometimes you can do everything right, but one tiny, fatal mistake can ruin everything and anything you try to do to salvage the situation just worsens it. In other words, I let the egg yolk contaminate the egg white when I was trying to make chiffon cake. 

Chiffon cake is essentially sponge cake and to achieve this consistency, you have to fold whipped egg whites into the mixture. I find whipped egg whites one of the most fascinating things about baking. If separated perfectly from their egg yolks, the gooey pale yellow egg white mixture can be whipped into a lusciously soft cream entirely puffed up with air. This is the idea behind meringues, souffles and alas, what was supposed to be my chiffon cake. 

In the end, my egg whites didn't stiffen because they were contaminated so when I mixed them into the batter, the whole thing was just a liquid mess. In a desperate effort to salvage my cake, I added a cup of flour, thus sealing my fate. Dramatics aside, the one good thing that came out of baking this cake was the time I spent with my friends throwing ingredients into the batter. 

separate the egg white and egg yolks: you can't see it in the picture, but this is where it all went wrong :(

pour in the greek yogurt

whip the egg whites until they form stiff peaks - though they should be stiffer than this

fresh out of the oven and pre-popped from its silicone mould

SINGAPORE: Privé Restaurant

If I were filthy rich and could choose to live anywhere in Singapore, I'd probably want to stay on a boat at Keppel Bay. Then I could live off Privé's food and become a fat but happy boatwife. 
Privé is split into three: the waterfront bar, the bakery cafe and the restaurant. The ingenuity and skill behind each dish at the restaurant is indisputable, but I have to say that what gives every dish that extra layer of intensely subtle flavour is where you eat it.  Being at Keppel Bay, Privé's tables are placed so every diner has a breathtaking view of the water and the pristine boats that skim its glittering surface. As if the mouthwatering food isn't enough, it's really because Privé takes me far away, both literally and metaphorically, from the burning heat of Singapore's roads and looming buildings that I'm drawn back every time. 

Willow Mushrooms

with Truffle Poached Egg, Parma Ham & Shaved Aged Parmesan Cheese

I'm a mushroom person through and through, especially when it comes to truffles. Truffle oil is one of those magical ingredients that make anything and everything taste absolutely heavenly. A small bottle of it cost me £5 at Waitrose, but I put it on everything from pasta to scrambled eggs and I swear it practically makes my day. 
Of course, when I saw the word "truffle" on the menu at Privé, it was an easy choice to make. The starter was everything starters should be - delicate yet flavourful and light enough to trigger your cravings for the main dishes.

Large Grilled Asparagus

with Sauce Hollandaise

Potato Gratin 

Sautéed Mushrooms

French Young Quail

with Porcini Mushrooms, Streaky Bacon, Parsnip Purée & Jus de Poulet 

I'm not much of a meat eater, but the quail I ordered was amazingly tender and bursting with glorious smoky flavour. The accompanying parsnip purée melted like butter in my mouth. In fact, I actually thought it was overly buttered mash potato until the waitress told us it was parsnip purée.


Josper Grilled Steaks: 

The reason for the sudden urge to re-visit Privé is that their kitchen has recently been bestowed with a brand new Josper grill. What makes the Josper grill so exceptional is that it's completely enclosed with thick walls so that steak or vegetables being grilled retain their natural, juicy flavour and still manage to cook in half the time. It is, in the words of Jancis Robinson (a wine reviewer for the FT), "the hottest indoor barbecue available". 

Ribeye Cap 75 USDA Prime Angus (10oz/280g) Considered The Holy Grail of steaks by enthusiasts and the best part of the Ribeye. Extremely marbled and as tender as a Filet Mignon, but with the full flavour of a Ribeye.

Double Rib Lamb Rack 58 Australia, Hormone-free, Clover Pasture-fed (12oz/340g) Thick, juicy, tender and flavourful, with a fine texture that melts in your mouth.

Premium Black Angus Tenderloin 58 Tasmania, Hormone-free, Grass-Fed (8oz/225g) Succulent with fine-textured marbling from pasture-fed, hormone- and antibiotic-free Black Angus cows. 

Privé

No. 2 Keppel Bay Vista

Marina at Keppel Bay

Singapore 098382

For reservations:

+65 6776 0777

Banana Mango Bread

I'm terribly addicted to banana bread. It's moist and crumbly, the banana negates any need for butter and it doesn't line every afterthought with guilt. Whenever my supply of banana bread runs out, it isn't long before I buy another bunch of bananas, wait for them to become sweet and overripe, then think of ways to twist my original recipe for the next batch. 

When you're trying to be healthy, the ease of baking a simple banana bread is deceptive. I've tried so many variations - using plain yogurt and canola oil instead of butter, using half as much sugar and even using no oil or butter at all. In the end, I've conceded to the fact that any decent banana bread needs some oil and at least 1/2 a cup of sugar (though the canola oil and yogurt method actually works astoundingly well). Something my mother always says came to me as I was writing this: "if you want people to eat your cake, you have to add butter and sugar." Hopefully one day I'll prove her wrong! 

bananas, pre-mashed

raw sugar, egg, canola oil: the sin that any respectably good cake cannot live without

plain flour, wholemeal flour, rolled oats & cinnamon

fresh out of the oven!

Banana Mango Bread Recipe

Ingredients

3 large ripe bananas

1/4 cup vegetable oil 

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup wholemeal flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon fresh ginger, blended/finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 ripe mango, sliced into chunks

Method

Preheat the oven to 176 degrees C. Lightly grease and flour a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas well. Add the sugar, oil, ginger and vanilla extract, and whisk briskly to incorporate.

Sift in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Use a wooden spoon to mix until the wet and dry ingredients are just combined.  Fold in mango chunks.

Bake for 45 minutes. The top should be lightly browned and a knife inserted through the center should come out clean, or with just a few crumbs.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes before transferring out of a pan and onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Spinach & Cheese Muffins

Within walking distance of my campus at Waterloo is a cosy, friendly little cafe by the name of Konditor & Cook. Its counters are peppered with tempting, homemade-esque cakes and delightfully fat muffins exploding over their paper liners. I was inspired to attempt these muffins after trying Konditor & Cook's savoury spinach muffins. These were much too bland (an anomaly with Konditor & Cook), so I decided to make my own and stir my favourite ingredient into the batter - cheese.  

I couldn't resist sprinkling these with extra cheese before popping them into the oven

Treat these more like decadent bread than moist breakfast muffins and they would go perfectly with creamy soup for lunch. 

Spinach & Cheese Muffins Recipe

Adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook


Ingredients:
Canola oil
1 tbsp curry powder
Small red onion, finely chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup wholemeal flour and rolled oats (blended together until fine)
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella 
1 cup milk
1 egg
1/4 baby spinach, roughly chopped (I used 180g frozen spinach)

Directions:
1.              Preheat oven to 170°C. Meanwhile fry the onion with canola oil until cooked. Set aside.
2.              In a large bowl stir together flour, rolled oats, baking powder, curry powder and cheese. In a separate bowl, whisk the milk and egg together, then slowly pour into the flour mixture and beat with a hand mixer until too thick to mix.
3.              Stir in the onion and spinach with a wooden spoon until evenly dispersed.
4.              Spoon batter into muffin tins lined with paper liners. Fill about two thirds full. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place the muffins on a wire rack to cool.