The Sugar Bar

I know I’m not putting up posts for my Kyoto Snaps series fast enough and hope that isn’t disappointing or frustrating anyone too much. Too many things to do too little time running around like a busy White Rabbit with a stopwatch running to and fro back and forth on unending run-on sentences. YIKES. In the meantime, here’s a post I’ve wanted to share for some time too even before I flew off to Kyoto. Talk about taking backward steps.

I was invited to brunch at Brasserie Wolf which had newly opened a weekend brunch menu since a change in their head chef. I’d never been but from the pictures of its interiors, I was going ‘yes yes yes!’ in my head. Almost baroque, decadent with plush interiors and soft lighting, dark woods brought to life with white tablecloths, glistening table setting and pneumatic powdery peach-coloured leather seats – this looked and smelt every bit of Frenchness. A splattering of casualness amidst a canvas of elegance, even the waiting staff were long-limbed and modelesque, serving food with measured steps and gestures and definitely not without an extension of some friendly banter. You were just completely swallowed into their seemingly pretentious interiors but welcomed with warm smiles and attentiveness. I really loved the leather seats, especially these that extended far larger than your body. It makes me feel like royalty. And you sorta do a little in Brasserie Wolf. Even the al fresco seats are quite lush with cushions with an almost Moroccan feel to it, facing the river and such.

On to the food, I was quite impressed. The servings were just right for ladies although if you were hungrier, you might’ve had to order more. These dishes also came after a coffee that was very flavourful. I was very pleased to have sweetened it with a brown sugar cube. You know I have a thing for sugar cubes. They are just so much more quaint!

What came first was the Croque Monsieur. I sometimes have the cheap renditions of this French deliciousness from local bakeries – yellow with heavy fat which can sometimes make me feel just a bit sick to the stomach. Or back in my college days, I never went a week without a grilled cheese sandwich made glorious in a dirty (doubt this was cleaned in years) banged up toastie-maker. So of course, the French know how to make the simplest of things the most royal and give it funky names like Croque Monsiuer oh that’s just precious! This was light, savoury, crispy and almost disappeared on your tongue, disintegrating into a melted mass of ham, emmental cheese and buttery fried bread. It went so quick, I could’ve easily swallowed another. Whole.

A croque monsieur with a fried or poached egg on the top, by the way, is quirkily known as a Croque Madame. I wonder if that had anything to do with the fertility of females. Nonetheless, Brasserie Wolf serves them too and here, they look quite pretty don’t they?

There is not a brunch that goes without Eggs Benedict or some variation, at least for me. I say eggs benedict, we eat benedict. Here, we have Eggs Royale for a change. And I do love the names of these dishes. It just makes me think of similar sounding phrases like Battle Royale and Blood Royale. I mean, that’s just cool. Right? Delicious this was, with a fantastic hollandaise garnished with shaved black truffle. Casual.

On the sweet end of things, we spooned up some Bircher Muesli into our mouths. It never seems quite worth it to order bircher muesli for brunch when you can make this stuff (sometimes tasting even better and fresher) than that you get from bistros and cafés. But something in me just needs to taste the bircher of others, kinda like a self-induced competition I’ve got going on. I quite liked Brasserie Wolf’s bircher muesli although it was a tad too sweet for my liking. Nonetheless, it was impressive and generous with their ingredients!

We also had the Brioche Toast which was lovely, thick and sweet. Although I didn’t get a photograph of the Charcuterie Platter, it is well worth a mention. I was quite addicted to it as there was lamb prosciutto, air-dried beef, chorizo (lovely!), bayonne ham and saucisson on there. Lots of flavour and so moreish and nicely alternated with salad leaves, olives and sundried tomatoes.

This was probably one of the more stylish brunches I’ve had. Although it was still a very casual weekend setting, there was just something about the food, the decor and the service that upped this a tiny bit. Kinda like a touch of gold and that will be yet another story to tell in a few posts to come.

Brasserie Wolf
80 Mohamed Sultan Road
The Pier at Robertson #01-13
Singapore 239013
Tel: 6835 7818
brasserie@esmirada.com

Christmas kind of came and went real quick this year. The big ol’ traditional feast cook-up this time round was a little more stressful. For what reason I was so frazzled I know not, but in my book, the means justifies the end. And if the end is the pudding, then whatever comes before that is allowed to go by in a blur. I’d like to think I save my best card for last and I play that card best in sweet treats rather than the savoury. Just for the record, I can whip up a mean Christmas roast and yorkshire puddings. I just take more joy in beating up eggs, butter and flour.

Cherries mean big Christmas business for me. Of course, there’s the whole medley of dried fruit soaked in rum or brandy overnight and made into the usual fruit cake shebang schmang but sometimes that all gets a bit boring. Christmas pudding is a tad bit too stodgy for my liking and my all-time favourite bread and butter pudding probably would not have gone down well either with a weight-conscious family. The current monsoon season we’re experiencing has also resulted in extreme levels of humidity. The air is so thick its almost chewable! We’re pretty much live bread and butter puddings ourselves: thick, pneumatic, sticky piles of flesh which don’t sit too well in a steamy bubble of heat. Ew (in relation to ourselves and our general appearance). Delicious (this time, I refer to bread and butter pudding), but really just too hot to handle in this heat.

Something (deceivingly) light, something flavoursome and still a sweet round-off worth your calories was what I wanted. That of course is when Nigella comes in handy (not so much her love for big knobs, oh I meant slabs, of butter). Flipping through a cookbook of hers I received from girlfriends on my 21st, the page which had a recipe sporting dark natural-coloured juicy fat sweet cherries got me at first sight. Hello, goosebumps. And so my Christmas sweet was sorted. Just like that. You’d say this was more of an afternoon teacake and yes it is, but that works since the leftovers get gobbled up for breakfast and lunch on Boxing Day.

I have swapped a few ingredients (natural-coloured glacé cherries and almond essence – they’re not well-liked by the family) and added a granola crust just to pretty up the surface of the cake. Plus, I’ve always loved that gorgeous golden brown hue, the texture and rustic feel granola can give to a loaf cake. Can’t resist a bit of granola any day! And it seems neither can the hungry fools around the Christmas dinner table.

Hope everyone had a joyous holiday season. We’re stuffed Tellytubbies at the moment with barely enough time to recover before the Lunar New Year hits us right smack between the eyes. Oh geez. Time to brace ourselves.

Cherry Almond Loaf Cake
Recipe adapted from Nigella’s How to be a Domestic Goddess
Ingredients

200g dark pitted cherries
250g self-raising flour, sifted
225g unsalted butter, softened
175g caster sugar
3 large free-range eggs
2 drops of pure vanilla extract
100g ground almonds
6 tbs milk
about 1/4 cup mixed granola, for crust (optional)

Preheat oven to 170d Celsius. Grease and flour a long loaf tin.

Drain the juice of the pitted cherries in a sieve, halve them and pat dry a little with a kitchen paper towl. Toss them in some flour and shake well to get rid of the excess.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between each addition. Add the vanilla, beat.

Gently fold in the flour and ground almonds. Fold in the cherries and milk. You will get a thick and heavy batter. Spoon this into the prepared loaf tin and using a rubber spatula, even out the surface. Sprinkle the granola (use your favourite brand of granola, mine’s Dorsets Cereals, or homemade granola) over the surface and gently pat down into an even layer to secure the bits of oats, nuts, etc. to bake in the cake.

Bake loaf for 45mins-1 hr or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Mine took 1hr 5mins to cook perfectly.

When it is cooked, remove from the oven and let cook in its tin on a wire rack until completely cooled.

This time of the year, when the Christmas spirit is shining bright for everyone to see in our cities, in our homes, in our demeanor and smiles, we get out our mince pies and pass them round the table. Amidst the clinking of tea cups and teapots when girlfriends catch up and the men fuss about with carving the meats, playful banter and random storytelling fill the house like the scent of baking mince pies and mulling red wine. December is one of those months which makes one a little more pensive, a little more loving and invokes a great desire to be generous and to share.

Mince pies – an adorable tiny lil’ thing – always reminds me of this sharing spirit. A batch baked for all around the table with another rising in the oven to give away to friends or storebought for the housemates, neighbours and yours truly. They’re small, bite-sized but flavoursome and heartwarming when eaten lightly toasted. More often that not, lips and fingers are burned trying to get to the pies just out of the oven since they never stick around for long; that of course, is their one major flaw. They simply disappear too quick. A friend of mine who swears that she can bake nothing but that mysterious concoction out of a brownie mix box is actually pretty awesome with homebaked mince pies. Twice now in the past two Christmases have I had the honour of tasting her homebaked mince pies (in the comforts of her home, in front of the telly a la couch potato) which were always lightly dusted with icing sugar, made with champagne flavoured mincemeat and perfect to a T! And somehow, these were always more delicious and satisfying than the perfectly shaped, perfectly filled M&S Luxury Mince Pies.

Christmas food makes me realise how fortunate I am every year that we manage to celebrate it. When we were children, Christmas was all about setting up our plastic Christmas tree, decorating it with ribbons, bobbles, tinsel and fairy lights until the poor tree was absolutely weighted down with a heaving amount of Christmas accessories. The icing on the cake was finding the best ‘hiding spot’ within the tree to hide each others’ presents. As the years passed, our family upgraded ourselves and started faithfully purchasing imported live Christmas trees. It was wonderful. And ugh, was it expensive on our end of the globe! But Christmas time meant a mild sweet perfume of pine pervading our home and of course, that wonderful hassle of decorating it just perfectly. This year, we’ve done away with the tree with the realisation that Christmas isn’t centered around a tree. Rather, our Christmas means much to us like the Chinese Lunar New Year in which our focus lies upon the Christmas dinner, on our round dining table and in the reunion of our family. It’s the one event I never miss out on even when I’m half a world away from home. It forces me to acknowledge the fact that I have loving family members who treasure me despite my flaws, who accept everything about me and go out of the way to make sure that I am safe, happy and healthy. I count my blessings come December time, thank God for watching over me and look forward to new chapters of my life which are about to burst forth with the advent of the new year.

This year, I can definitely feel a new door opening in my life. One door has shut and although that was a terribly sad and nostalgic thing to experience, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t eager to see where this new door leads. A new year, a new journey, new people to meet and of course, new cuisines to experience. Let’s not forget that there’ll be more kitchen disasters occurring where I’m at. Nevertheless, 2011 is for me a time to kick myself into shape in all aspects of my life. That’s good news really! Expect some changes on this blog too. I hope to get it looking a little prettier, a little neater, a little better – version 2011 2.01 EX.

Meanwhile, we’re having lots of cake in the house celebrating my sister A’s 28th birthday. We have tonnes of food all ready for a big-ass barbecue – ribs, steak, chicken kebabs, etc. I’m sure the dogs will be going insane with the smell of ribs on the grill. On the sweet side of all things straight from the oven, we’ve some oddly shaped slightly awkward little mince pies lightly dusted with icing sugar. Spicy, sweet, tart, zesty and all encased in the best bit of all – the shortcrust pastry! The size of mince pies are too inviting, almost at the ready to be popped into your mouth. But try not to knock ‘em back too quick because there is much magic in mince pies. Bite into the crust and out will ooze delicious mincemeat, and a little taste of the home, the hearth, and love. Ok, now rub away those goosebumps I know I got a little cheesy, wash ‘em back with a frothy cappuccino, a chai latte or just a simple cuppa tea. And so, I’m outta here to go guard my share.

• Looking for the recipe? Recipe can be found from My Cooking Hut here who has a store of amazing recipes!