Procrastinate.

That’s one word that fits me to a TEE. And so apologies to Deeba for delaying the reply to her tag from a million lightyears ago.

Tags are fun and perfect for linking foodblogs together, and thereafter making foodie friends. Deeba from Passionate About Baking tagged me for a MEME, which is one interesting, slightly egotistic (but ah I love!) tag. It involves answering 30 questions (about yourself).

Awesome! Kinda makes me feel a little like a star being interviewed for a cheesy magazine. I can dream.

1) LAST MOVIE U SAW IN A THEATRE?
The Incredible Hulk

2) WHAT BOOK ARE U READING?
Written On The Body by Jeanette Winterson; there are many others on my shelf lined up to be read (bad habit of going on a book spree just so I remember to read them and keep up with up and rising authors but the rate of reading is slower than the rate of purchase)

3) FAVOURITE BOARD GAME?
Monopoly

4) FAVOURITE MAGAZINE?
VOGUE

5) FAVOURITE SMELLS?
Melting chocolate and cooking garlic, not together of course.

6) FAVOURITE SOUNDS?
Electric guitar; drum & bass; Hansie’s voice.

7) WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?
Hangover. I think it’s a whole lot worse than heartbreak.

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN U WAKE?
Food.

9) FAVOURITE FAST FOOD PLACE?
I don’t eat fast food.

10) FUTURE CHILD’S NAME?
Sloane; Sage; really don’t know about boys but they’ll have to begin with J. Haven’t thought about middle names but then again, I DON’T LIKE CHILDREN. So I’ll think about it later.

11) FINISH THIS STATEMENT—’IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I’D’
Invest a part of it, and use the rest to open my dream brasserie/bar/restaurant; when the investment brings better returns, I’ll use that to work on my novel. O yea, and give some to the parents of course.

12) DO U DRIVE FAST?
I have yet to go for driving lessons but yes, I do like speed.

13) DO U SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?
One at the bottom of my bed and a stuffed spider under the covers. They’re really there because I can’t be bothered to put them away.

14) STORMS–COOL OR SCARY?
They’re f-ing A!

15) WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?
Not there yet, but I’ll start with a lil Peugot city car.

16) FAVOURITE DRINK?
If it’s non-alcoholic, water.

17) FINISH THIS STATEMENT-IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD…
Sort my life out.

18) DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?
Course I do! It’s the best bit. Crunchy as hell.

19) IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?
I’ve done purple, red, blue and ginger bits in it before. So that leaves me with shocking pink??? Maybe green???

20) NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS U HAVE LIVED IN?
Singapore; Oxford; Reading; Fleet; Birmingham; Johor Bahru. The jungle. I’m a poor chick, I don’t go anywhere.

21) FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH?
Rugby/Gymnastics

22) ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU?
She’s a baking genius. I could marry her.

23) WHATS UNDER YOUR BED?
Giant suitcases, loads of bags and my favourite paper bags that I’ve saved from some designer shops. I’m sad I know.

24) WOULD U LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN??
One go at Life is enough for me, otherwise it wouldn’t mean as much the second time round. But yea, definitely, I wouldn’t wanna be anyone else.

25) MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL?
Night owl. Mornings are evil.

26) OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP?
Well that’s tough. I can’t decide. As long as it’s cooked, whack it on my plate I’m not bothered.

27) FAVOURITE PLACE TO RELAX?
By the sea. Or on someone’s lap with my hair being brushed.

28) FAVOURITE PIE?
Banofee pie! HA, TAKE THAT!

29) FAVOURITE ICECREAM FLAVOUR?
This is a very difficult one since I can’t live without ice cream and I’m a sucker for all flavours. But always always, PISTACHIO.

30) OF ALL THE PEOPLE U HAVE TAGGED, WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?
Don’t know really.
Again, I’m not bothered with such a question.

I’m not very sure about what this MEME tag entails thereafter but I’m assuming I forward the tag to another 5 foodbloggers. The owners of these 5 blogs endure my harrassment (through comments) and are an utter joy and inspiration to read.

1. Ann of Velvet Lava

2. Farida of AZ Cookbook

3. Sharon of Culinary Adventures of a New Wife

4. Toontz of Okara Mountain

5. Dee of Choos and Chews

Hopefully, they won’t be annoyed with my tag harrassment and I can’t wait to read the answers to these MEME questions. Oh what fun.

P/S. TASTESPOTTING is back. JOY!

Summer is SWEET.

Get out your kaftans, maxi dresses, flip flops, tank tops, shades and straw hats. You know the drill.
Look sweet and feel sweet.

Once you’ve done that — focus on the real thing; the thing you can actually taste. It’s time for sugar, sweet and everything nice now that university term has come to its close. It really isn’t as if I’ve been staying off it to be honest and it’s not like there is never a time or reason to avoid sweets but I figured the blog has lacked a little sugary-ness for a while now so it’s only apt to post something that actually would relate to the title of the blog itself.

Besides, a little sweetness in preparation for some serious office work, more research for my dissertation and time spent on my novel-in-construction wouldn’t hurt. Instead, it should give me a boost of courage to take on the summer holidays. Don’t ask me why but I always feel oddly nervous when I’m not at uni. Not wanting to use up all my energy today (since it’s been sapped up by this oppressive equator heat) on some fancy sweet, I went back to my all-time favourite Marmorkuchen recipe.

I insisted on using matcha so that recipe had to be put aside for something that didn’t use extra virgin olive oil (wouldn’t that be too clashing with matcha?) — something that went further back to basics: the most basic of basics of marble cake recipes.

This was awesome. Smelt so great and it just filled up the kitchen with this matcha-ey perfume and it was wonderful with vanilla. There’s something fantastic about the smell of eggs cooking with sugar as well. So homey and comforting.

Just a while ago, I was told Mum went to a posh bakery and purchased a 550g Matcha Loaf. Being all posh and unique, it was sort of soaked and coated in a matcha glaze and the whole loaf was a gorgeous green with an apparently pretty sugar crust. Not one to really pay attention to price tags I reckon, Mum by some misconception of sorts thought she’d paid S$5.50 for that beautiful loaf cake (which wasn’t very large at all and produced 4 humble slices for the 4 family members — this happened when I was still up in England). She must’ve also thought ‘What a buy!’ and eagerly driven home to share it with the family. It was only later that Abz thought to enlighten Mum (after further study of the cake wrapper) as to the true price of the cake — S$12. We had a good laugh about that at the dinner table yesterday and I was reticent about my baking plans for the next day, thinking that I could surprise and blow my Mum away with this matcha cake of mine. You know…daughter makes mother proud…daughter shines brighter than the stars and both strong women bond over a bloody cake in the kitchen.

I can safely tell you that fantasy of mine was shot to hell. All bollocks.

Although I’m impressed with the flavour of this loaf cake, Mum (even though she gobbled up half a slice in 2 bites) insists it’s nothing like her posh loaf. I suppose that is true enough but oh did it ruffle a few of my feathers. Abz was quick to smooth down these feathers, insisting that it’s different but still good.

Oh what a laugh. All I want now is to have a taste of that dastard posh loaf!

This recipe has been adapted from a basic Marble Cake recipe off the BBC Goodfood website. It yields one regular-sized loaf cake.

Matcha Marble Cake
Ingredients

225g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup golden caster sugar
1 3/4 cup self-raising flour, sifted
4 eggs
3 tbs semi-skimmed milk
1/2 tbs vanilla essence
1 1/2 tsp matcha powder

Preheat oven to 180d Celsius.

In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Next, add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Fold in the flour, milk and vanilla till smooth.

Split the batter into two bowls (either 2/3 and 1/3 for the matcha batter or 1/2 and 1/2 depending on what you want the outcome to look like). In one bowl designated for the matcha batter, add the matcha 1/2 tsp by 1/2 tsp. Mix carefully with a wooden spoon.

This batter is less runny than that of my Marmorkuchen recipe. Hence, spoon in the vanilla batter as the bottom layer in a greased loaf pan. Follow this with a layer of matcha batter and alternate it till you end with vanilla batter. You can smooth the tops with a spatula and be careful to fill any holes on the surface, especially in the corners of the pan.
Lightly tap the work surface that the pan is sat on to get rid of any air pockets within the batter.

As this batter is more firm, it is recommended to swirl the batters together with a skewer to achieve a marble effect.

*Note: this recipe will produce a cake with a browned outer surface so do not worry too much about the marble effect on the outside.

God bless the freezer.

As just about everyone’s moved out of the grey and grim Selly Oak, the ones left behind aren’t forsaken but presented with leftover food and freezable/perishable products. You wouldn’t believe the amount of food that everyone stores in their freezer and then, just forget about. It’s awesome. Of course, just about everything’s still within date and what with the number of pals who are heading home for mum’s homecooked food, you get a lovely range of goodies. Coming my way was a pack of Aberdeen Angus Beef Sausages and king prawns. No way was I passing up on that. Spending my last night as a second year in this damp, cosy house of mine, this dish is the product of an equation of donations from fellow friends and my leftovers. Hence, please forgive the very lack of any sort of fresh herbs. I was particularly intent on adding lemon zest and juice to the pasta, ala Ina Garten’s Linguine with Shrimp Scampi which I saw on the Barefoot Contessa. But I’d packed almost all my clothes (rolled them up tight) into my suitcase and wasn’t suitably dressed (really, I just couldn’t be arsed) to head to the off license for a lemon. Sue me for lack of dedication.

Sausages and shrimp are quite the combination. It may not be very flavourful a pasta dish but the mascarpone was so comforting and the sausages packed quite the oomph. Ben and I were happy with the results. It did drive away the post end of term sulkiness. Plus, we can’t complain with food given to us.

Cheers to good English sausages and pasta.

Cheers to the goodwill of friends.

Depending on the amount of pasta you use, this recipe yields quite a lot — it fed the bottomless pit we know as Ben Brown and I.

Aberdeen Angus Beef Sausage & Shrimp Scampi Fiorelli Pasta
Ingredients

250g fiorelli pasta (this is about 2-3 servings)
4 Aberdeen Angus Beef sausages
250g king prawns, shelled and de-veined
3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
3-4 tbs mascarpone cheese
a good knob (think Jamie Oliver’s cooking measurements) of butter
3 tbs olive oil, for cooking
1/2 tsp dill
generous sprinkling of hot chili powder
1 tbs kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Get the grill ready in your oven. Place sausages in a deep dish filled with water up to a centimeter from the bottom of the dish. Do not prick sausages as you want to keep all the juices within the sausages.

Place under grill to cook about 20min or so. Halfway through, turn the sausages so it browns on the other side. When the water has evaporated completely, it’s roughly about time your sausages would have cooked through completely.

Remove and when it’s cool to touch, slice into 1.5cm thick pieces. Be sure to save the juices and not chuck them away when slicing up the sausages.

Cook pasta in hot water.

For shrimp scampi: In a large frying pan, heat some olive oil. Add the chopped garlic. When golden brown, add the prawns and sautée. Add the butter and let it melt into the oil. Give it a good stir.

Once pasta is al dente, drain and return to pot. Add the shrimp scampi (all of the olive oil buttery goodness), sausages and a little more olive oil to loosen up the pasta. Stir through the dill, chili powder and mascarpone. Mix through well. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.

mixed-coloured maggots for bait

3 days ago, we went fishing in Maidenhead, Cookham. A fishing rod, 2 reels of fishing line, hooks, a box of wriggling mixed-coloured maggots, a variety of snacks and a lovely packed (choice of) smoked salmon or chorizo sandwich lunch (provided by Alex’s mum); Thus was 4 fresh-faced youths all set to trek through tall grass down a meandering stream Ray Mears-style in search of the perfect fishing spot. What spurred us on, always in the back of our minds, was the tantalizing thought of fish and chips, of really good fish.

Personally, I was thinking of beer batter too.

Despite the preparations and that anticipation of a grand epic moment, we caught ZILCH.

NADA.

We stopped off first at a fishing gear and materials shop near Odney to pick up some bait. Both Alexes were really into it. Anna was on the phone and I merely hung around, feeling slightly inadequate and touristy with my camera since I was obviously intent on documenting this whole day. Thereafter, we jumped back into the car towards our main destination.

We had a little trouble finding the perfect spot. Alex found it odd that there weren’t any fishes to be seen either (when there usually were loads which you could easily spot in the past). We could hardly coax a shadow of a fish from the waters with our can of Green Giant Sweet Corn. Finally, we settled midway between a group of noisy sunbathing kids and a fellow bloke who was — surprise surprise — also out for a little fishing action.

In summary, we had a great time getting hooks caught on hoodies (that was Mrs Alex) and my new white linen shirt (that was yours truly), catching weed, slurping up a quick-melting 99flake, shouting obscenities at fishes, watching a professional (I say professional because he had all the right gear, a burger, a lit cigarette and a fold-up chair which he was comfortably sat on the whole while) reel in fish after fish — including a large, gorgeous pike. After bringing in that pike, he got awfully chatty with us lot and offered us advice on how to gently remove the hook from the fish and also how to treat the fish with respect before letting it back into the water. He was a good chap and let me take pictures of it all too.

What a beauty don’t you think? It was quite an experience to watch him pull this fierce beauty out of the water and lay it out on the black cushion. Scales glistening, the gills rising up and down with so much force, the eyes glowing under the scorching sun. What a sight! I was blown away by this pike. As it struggled and bucked against the restraining human hands, this pike had so much energy and life, I almost was inspired by it to go do something with myself.

I think I was quite child-like in my excitement but hey, it was my first time going fishing really since I never bothered to go with my dad in the past. One day, I will go proper fishing — on a boat hopefully. Maybe even with real fishermen. Attempt at crabs??? I suppose my closest I ever got to fishing was staying on a oyster farm and watching the man-in-charge bring in the freshly caught oysters. Also, did visit a lobster fishing place in Aus. And hmmm…also did use a net to fish out my goldfish,etc. out of the tank when I cleaned it.

We moved off to a different spot onto a bridge later in the afternoon after spotting quite a lot of fishes in the river below. But no matter what we did, (I resorted to marinating maggots in some sort of fish bait pellets) we pulled back only empty hooks. Good try though. And yea, great smelling hands too. I even got maggot juice squirted onto my face whilst baiting Alex.

Back at Alex’s, Alex’s mum had prepared a dinner of roast vine tomatoes, garlic, red onions, baked potato wedges and harissa lamb. The lamb was so tender and tasty. Alex’s mum — what a woman! She sure knows her food and she fed us well. Despite coming back empty handed, it couldn’t have been any more wonderful and rewarding a day! Fishing. Lamb. Häagen Dazs to end the meal, followed by Gordon Ramsay’s The F Word on telly and a cup of tea.

Sorted.

Talk about getting a Surf ‘n’ Turf, a looking after by a mother figure, a slight tan (and a burn for Mrs Alex) and some extra loving by the ever hankered-after Mr Ramsay.