The Sugar Bar

I’m a fruit junkie. The 5 a day deal doesn’t work for me because it’s more like 7-8 a day. Fruit is simply too amazing to have anything else. Now that the sun’s come out from it’s shitty home from behind a grey cloud more often than it used to (although it bloody seems like this month’s gonna be one grey month yet again, what’s new really) – I couldn’t let that seafood-lover island girl within me stay shut in anymore. So “to market, to market” it was.

The marketplace is always my favourite place to be in. It’s just awesome. All that hustle and bustle, busy wet exchange of produce and money. The shouting, the casual greeting of ‘alrite love’ and the occasional stern look from a geez!-he’s-well-huge and very hairy butcher. It’s a beehive of hungry foodies and devoted sellers. Wet, messy and smelly or not, I adore the handwritten, marker-pen scribbled price labels as well. Something about that personal attention and careful thought gets to me more than anything else. Not even my beloved Marks&Spenser could hold a finger up to the treasure trove I believe is the food market. Reminds me a lot of the tiny market that used to be (and probably still is) situated close to my old home. The butcher, grocer, fish monger, etc. – all of them were like my family and they too, in their own closeknit group were like family. I remember the fish being thrown about from person to person, seemed like so much fun but it was really tough work. Choosing the best fish available and satisfying the customers at the same time. The large (why are they always big burly men?) but jovial butcher sold some pretty amazing meats under that red glowing light of his. The days when I was sent off by mum to pick up some char siew pork from him were one of the best days of my childhood too! With each downward slice of his butcher knife, the pool of saliva in my mouth grew a little larger and more uncontrollable. The vegetable grocer next door wasn’t too friendly with me and her vegetables often looked a little sad and muddy. But her sister did make one of the best green tea mooncakes for 50 cents each so she scored a point in my good books I suppose, and that made me score a helluva lot of points with the classmates too – what with all my goodies and truly, just my pleasant being. Jokes.

Those were indeed some good times. And thinking on that, I couldn’t help but miss good fish and seafood. Got a little carried away with my shopping today. Tore my Bag for Life (forgot to take the M&S Organic Cotton bag I have with me, it’s adorable and lime green so that means LOOK AT ME! i’m cool) with all that shopping I had. However, couldn’t be any happier with all that glorious food and specifically – fresh squid, ‘lobster’ tails (these are tails using lobster meat and not fresh lobster – I had to go for the cheap option) and some really good Wild Alaskan salmon steaks. Although I couldn’t afford real lobster this time – I no longer have the backing of my parents who once shipped fresh lobster from Australia – this salad will be amazing with the real deal. Right now I can only work with what I have unless I sell my clothes and shoes!

Recipe was adapted from Rasa Malaysia‘s Tropical Fruit Salad with Baby Shrimps and Toasted Coconut which I would really want to do in the future when I can pull together all the ingredients because it sounds absolutely gorgeous. I couldn’t get any canned mandarins or mandarins for that matter so this is going back on my list of to-dos. Here’s my cheaptrick, haha, spin on this beautiful salad. It’s great for 2.

Lobster Fruit Salad
Ingredients

1 large orange, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup fresh mango, cubed
2 lobster tails, sliced
juice of 1 lime
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs honey
1/4 tsp grated garlic flakes
good handful of basil leaves, chopped
1/4 of a small red onion, chopped
1/4 cup sultanas

Put everything in a salad bowl. Drizzle the honey over, followed by the juices. Give everything a good, energetic toss. Cover with clingwrap and leave in the fridge to chill for at least an hour. Then when ready, serve and garnish with lime wedge and some basil leaves. Quick & easy.

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And guess what came through the post this morning? My love treats. Little apron gifts for the girls, personalized according to favourite drinks and courtesy of The Sugar Bar. Indeed, my skin is thick enough to do some blatant plugging but these were just the perfect things for our upcoming Summer BBQ House Party. Although these can never replace my Laura Ashley apron, a gift from the ever-lovely Kate, I can’t help but say their simplicity and ‘The Sugar Bar’ emblazoned across the chest sure make me almost teary to see my little blog come thus far.

vodka shot, gin&tonic, snakebite, tequila sunrise

Black aprons made with quality cotton. Durable and easy to wash. The words have been printed using a Flex Print technique in white and cream.

On this (foodblog) note, Kyoto Foodie is currently holding a little survey to make its blog better. The good bit? Win Japanese treats! If you don’t already know, Japanese sweet treats or labelled ‘junk food’ by Kyoto Foodie (I would never go as far as to call them junk food because they are too amazing ) are one of the cutest and most awesome things to have around. They’re tasty, fun, some of them totally out of this world. So head on over to the survey page to help Kyoto Foodie out (you’ve only got to answer 4 simple questions) and try your luck at winning some fantastic yummies. Talking about this actually makes me wish I had a box of GALBO with me now.

Well then, y’all, diva out.

Before you say anything, here’s a spoiler: this is a failed attempt! I know…how can one ruin a crumble. Not to worry though, because I did it. I’ve been awarded the champion spaced-out idiot of the century; what a laugh.

Are you a crumble or cobbler person? Can’t decide? I know…the decision is always a tough one but I can safely say crumbles are the mighty winner most of the time.

Cobblers are an American fruit dessert, cooked in a deep-dish, it has a pie-crust top layer as opposed to a crumble layer. The pie-crust top can be cooked till it’s almost like a biscuit top, crispy and sweet or cakey like and it’s very easy for you to control the texture of this top layer. Crumbles are the British side of things and constitute a crumble topping, as the name suggests, usually made with graham biscuit or cookie crumbs, flour, nuts, oats, bread crumbs and even muesli. A very popular dish, it’s a slap and whack type of recipe and scores a 10 for its flexibility as well. Use any type of fruit you’ve got available because it still gives an awesome flavour. Also, this recipe is great for using brown sugar and lots of nuts and wholesome wheaty goodness.

Apples and summerberries are definitely a good, sweet combination. I’ve used a mix of raspberries, blackberries, black and red currants. Instead of using a mix, you can opt for your favourite fruit or combination of fruit. I added some sultanas as well to give it a warmer flavour, seems like it worked out well. Preparing this dish was a joy – easy to prepare and so colourful. A setback, however, was my topping – the key feature! Spacey as I was, I started pressing the topping down with the back of a spoon. It must have been the inner cobbler-girl calling out from within, thereby ruining my crumble topping completely. Tasted great but it just wasn’t quite the perfect crumble. I feel like I’ve shot myself in the foot somehow.

Nevertheless, this is once again another completed kitchen ‘adventure’ by diva, so let’s not be shy and file this in with the rest too.

I used to pester a good friend of mine in college for apple crumble every single week because she made this impeccably great apple filling. In exchange for her culinary delights, I baked her favourite M&M cookies and made sure I brought round a good supply of it for each council meeting. Good times those were. I still miss her apple crumble, as I’ve not kept in touch for about 2 years now. And everytime I think of crumble, I’ll think of her and that wicked crumble-skill of hers.

This recipe has been adapted from one of Delia Smith’s. It serves about 6 in one deep-dish.
Tip from Anna: be very careful when crumb topping starts to brown as the moment it has cooked and you are waiting for this to become the perfect brown, crispy, crumb topping, it can easily burn in a blink of an eye.

Apple & Summerberry Crumble
Ingredients

500g mixed berries
1 golden delicious apple, chopped
1/4 cup sultanas
1 tbs sugar
For the crumb topping:
225g plain flour
110g butter, cut into small cubes (I recommend using regular butter rather than unsalted)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
75g brown sugar (I’ve used demerera)

Preheat oven to 180d Celsius.
Arrange fruit in an oven deep-dish and sprinkle sugar over.
Rub butter into flour till crumb-like. Stir in sugar and cinnamon and pour over the fruit. Spread out with a FORK and do not press down with a SPOON. This is my queue for a shake of the head and a loud, regretful sigh.
Place on top shelf in oven and bake 40-50min.

Serve with pouring cream, ice cream or custard.