The Sugar Bar

It’s funny how sometimes you’ll find my friends and I standing about in a straight line, frozen stiff when there appears a swarm of squealing toddlers running zig zag about you or between your legs. It’s terrifying, absolute pandemonium unfolding before your eyes. A dear friend of mine even confessed this most ridiculous line: ‘I am allergic to two things; one of which is children.’ I don’t think I’m particularly allergic and I don’t really believe he meant what he said. Call it the heat of the moment. It’s perfectly logical in my opinion, however, that some people find children annoying, judging that the we’ve witnessed some which are just nightmares. But I have to admit that majority of the little buddies that I’ve met or spotted at work around the baby section are just truly adorable. And don’t get me wrong, I am in no way anti-children and I do want children in the future. Just a warning to my future kids though: discipline discipline discipline and then sweet treats on Sunday if you’re good otherwise you’re getting shoved under the stairs with no tea (your Mama Diva here’s giving you this headstart years in advance).

Nevertheless, when my soft spot for children goes away, I’ve been known to be a real mean dick – I’ve stolen candy from a kid before. So sue me. Who was that poor sucker? My sister. I stole her candy. I stole her whatever that thing is that babies suck on when they’re teething. I stole it right and good and it even waved it in her face, laughing.

I am mean and I ain’t gonna deny that. And oh yea, I’m greedy like that.

Maybe it’s because I’m still a child at heart. But humanity has got the better of me, civilization has socialized me and so I’ve stopped doing dumb things like that. If you can’t have what they have, make it for yourself. And so I did. My little sis C texted me to say Mum was making a lovely spread for breakfast Saturday morning. I wasn’t gonna lose at breakfast half a world away and if my mama can’t make it for me, suppose I’ve two hands, a pathetic kitchen but a brain nevertheless. The plan? To self-indulge in the kiddiest, cutest breakfast ever. And if mini-anything is not simply the cutest, I don’t know what is.

Catty has been tweeting about this – Matcha Madness. Matcha – one of the four foods I love most in the world (mushrooms, berries, matcha and black sesame seeds – they drive me wild). What is it about? You like matcha? You eat matcha? You want MORE matcha (from Teapigs)? Then head on over via the link and take part. Stop procrastinating. Go paint the town green.

So. I basically agreed to get involved, partly because I love to win things. Who doesn’t, right?? My post for it, however, is definitely not the most creative. And compared to the other things I’ve made before using matcha, this certainly pales in comparison so bad I probably shouldn’t have even bothered. And here comes the BUT. I gotta say the simple combination of flavours in this reminds me of Japanese Christmas Cake – strawberries, fluffy light sponge and whipped cream. This is quite perfect for the summer heat especially when British strawberries are at their best now, all red ripe and fat. Simply use your favourite pancake recipe (I’ve used one meant for dorayaki actually, recipe over here), whip up some double cream with matcha and a touch of icing sugar if needed. Put everything together including the ripest sweetest fat strawberries you can find and drizzle golden syrup over.

When I was a kid, I used to make up combinations of fruit and biscuit as dessert for my parents. After a meal, my mama would clear away the dishes and I’d be busy in the kitchen hacking away (alright, actually nimbly slicing away) at whatever fruit was available, banging together some biscuits, chocolate squares that sorta thing together and putting it all nicely on a plate a la smiley faces, concentric circles, towers, etc.

Some kids had Lego. I had fruit and biscuits.

This childish pancake stack is really a tribute to that little kid me. The cherry on top? Those broken bits of matcha biscuits I stabbed into the matcha whipped cream. I have so much class, now don’t I?

Genmaicha in teacup & saucer? Why not.

There’s a street in London called Pudding Lane. That always tickles my funny bone. The word pudding. It makes me grin, it makes me laugh, it sends excited shivers down my spine, gives my sweet tooth a massive itch and also, activates my drool reflexes. And just a bit of trivia: did you know that there’s a breed of hamsters known as ‘Pudding’? That’s slightly weird but suppose that’s kinda cute. My kid sister’s got one of those. Quite adorable, if a little fat, lazy and greedy.

But…the thing the word originally refers to is much more fun, so much more decadent, truly inspiring, and gloriously delicious. I’m sure you’ll agree. No? Who loves pudding, hands up. If you don’t, I’m sorry I think you’re crazy.

SNOG froyo

As you might know, I’m guiltily taking a holiday. My kid sister is here for a short visit and so we’re visiting places in London/England she’s not seen before and eating the city over. Or sorta, as much as my wallet can afford. How ironic that after my wallet was stolen a few months ago, it hasn’t yet been replaced and my credit cards, ID cards, notes and change are all messily plopped together in an ugly pewter-coloured snake-scaled decorated freebie cosmetic pouch from Lancome. Oh dear.

Alright then, enough dallying about. Let me leave you with some pictures of sweet yummies and pudding. It’s nearly 11am, the sister is still concussed in bed like a sleeping dragon, the weather’s so horrid I simply can’t be bothered but things need to be done, and the day needs to go on! Keep safe in this gross weather and let’s hope for more sun this weekend. Until then….. eat pudding.

Hampton Court Palace Foodies Festival

LOVE Red Velvet in a Whoopie Pie

Angel Food Bakery in Brighton

Might get your daily dose of dopamine here in cupcake heaven

Greenwich

Down in the Greenwich Market

Melt-in-your-mouth apple pie in Biscuit Ceramic Café

Ottolenghi – A Necessary Pleasure

In addition to my fav Lemon Polenta Cake, we tried this Chocolate & Rum Fondant bad boy

Afternoon Tea at Sketch with Pam
The Parlour tearoom at Sketch is a wonderfully eclectic and stylish place for tea. To find out more, check out my first post on it here.

Bloody Praline

A Pink Paradise – delicate flavours of raspberry and lime

Olde Sweet Shoppe in Cambridge
Not sure if this counts as pudding, but it’s sugary. So I’m throwing this into the mix too!

More sweet secrets to come. We descend further into pudding underworld.

You know, ninjas are like fairies. You don’t see them. But they exist, mostly in the shadows and the cracks between their underworld and ours. Somewhere between my bed and the wall that its pressed up against, a ninja lives in that shadowy crack. No idea why he/she’s spying on me but I’m happy tucking myself deep under the duvet, watching Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape in India and feeding this ninja of the dark (who’s tucked in somewhere as well under my bed probably) some of these truffles. My alter ego? A figment of my imagination? Or just plain excuse to make these black/white babies for me to eat? The latter seems most likely and I totally agree. I am a bit of nutter and I love chatting crap like this. Call me overworked, imaginative or plain crazy. I really don’t mind. I’ve got truffles.

The week has passed quite slow with horrible weather for most of it. Although today’s ridiculously sunny, bright and worm it feels like the world’s played a hoax upon us. But I’m not complaining. In fact, I totally rejoiced, ditched the essay that is begging to be written before I get chucked out of college, and ventured into the kitchen to make these.

I blame Catty. Oh my dear, in a good way. She made the scrummiest matcha & lemon truffles for Easter and was so generous to pass me some to taste. I was really stingy with myself, rationing it carefully and only caring to nibble it. Talk about waste of effort. They were gone by the next morning. I found myself mourning its bittersweet flavours so quick, I might’ve given myself heartburn (heartache?) pining away for it.

So of course I had to have more truffles about the house.

Now I’m wondering why I didn’t just begin the post that way. More respectable and, sane of course. Why on earth did I resort to pseudo mythmaking and one about a non-existence ninja-who-lives-in-the-shadows-of-my-bedroom? Not so sure. I think I munched on one too many squares of chocolate whilst waiting for these to set. The caffeine fried away my logic and the cocoa butter greased everything up in my brain, it turned to a squishy mess. No use to me at all.

I was inspired mostly by Japanese wagashi and more specifically, Minamoto Kitchoan’s Miyabiguruma. Of course, mine is nothing close and hardly as refined. Geez, it’s got Shreddies in there for crying out loud! But you can’t blame me for trying to recreate those flavours at home with what I had on hand. Not sure they looked very pretty but they were good. It really helps that I’m on a Shreddies craze as well. In my breakfast cereal, having it dry as a snack and now in chocolate truffles. I think I’m going slightly overboard. Who knows what I’ll be adding it to next. I fear to think it.

The concept to these truffles is similar to these Oreo truffles or Lemon Lime cream ones. Yes so they’re supposed to be pretty sweets. Pre-dipping in candy coating, however, my flatmate very eagerly exclaimed, ‘Oh you’re making meatballs!’. Uh oh. They really do look like meatballs, don’t they.

Types of anko:
(to make things easy, this is taken from Wikipedia)

Tsubuan (粒餡), whole red beans boiled with sugar but otherwise untreated
Tsubushian (潰し餡), where the beans are mashed after boiling
Koshian (漉し餡), which has been passed through a sieve to remove bean skins; the most common type
Sarashian (晒し餡), which has been dried and reconstituted with water

If you prefer to make your own anko, you can use this recipe here. I’ve never been too successful making my own because I’m too impatient to wait for it to soak overnight, and cook for hours til it’s soft enough to mash or pass through a sieve. So feel free to use canned anko. I’ve chosen a half mashed half whole bean anko from Meiji.

When it comes to truffles, I always use candy melts or coating chocolate, aka confectioner’s coating or bark. If you’re wondering whether this is chocolate, yes it is! But it’s chocolate for lazy bums like me. No tempering – only melt, mix, use, set. Its easier to control than regular chocolate, sets quick streak-free at room temperature, tastes great and doesn’t melt upon touching which I find happens a lot when using regular chocolate (which requires you sometimes to cool it in the fridge and then you get nasty sweating after when you take them out). Candy melts come in many colours. No fuss over what kind of colours to use (if you decide to use them) and whether oil, paste or powder or au naturel vegetable/fruit juice/dyes will affect it. I’ve used candy melts in Midnight Black and because I ran out of white melts, I’ve used Green & Blacks vanilla white chocolate.

I’m feeling a bit zen with the black and white colour combination. Time to whip out my teapot, sencha and ponder over something deep. Who knows, my shadow ninja might decide to join me for a cuppa.

Makes about 12-15 eyeball-sized truffles. (I would’ve said ping pong-sized but aren’t eyeballs a little smaller and heck, sounds more fun. No?)

Chestnut & Adzuki Bean Black/White Chocolate Truffles
Ingredients

1 can/210g anko (adzuki bean paste)
10-12 small cooked chestnuts, depending on how many you end up making
about 1/2 cup Shreddies, finely crushed
about 1/2 cup black chocolate candy melts
about 1/2 cup white chocolate candy melts
black sesame seeds, for garnish (optional)
white sesame seeds, for garnish (optional)

There isn’t really a recipe for this is there? It’s just banging ingredients together.

In a bowl, mash together crushed Shreddies and enough anko to get a cement-like consistency. You don’t want it too dry or it won’t hold together. But you need it wet enough to be able to seal itself around the chestnut. Play around with it until you feel confident of it holding up.

Take a chestnut and about 1/2 to 1 tbs of crushed Shreddies and anko mixture, press into it and start to carefully seal the chestnut into it. Gently press to smoothen out the surface like you would a rice ball, then lightly roll between palms to form balls. If the surface starts to gloss and smoothen itself out, that’s perfect. Repeat for the other chestnuts. Place on a plate covered with grease-proof parchment. Place in refrigerator to let the chestnut balls set a bit for about 3-4 minutes.

In small bowls, melt candy coating separately, following the directions written on the bag (it will differ slightly depending on their make but will normally require a 1 minute melt-time in microwave; mix; 10 second blasts and mixing until the coating is completely melted and smooth).

Drop chestnut balls in candy coating, coat and drop onto flat surface lined with grease-proof parchment. Garnish with a tiny sprinkling of sesame seeds of the opposite colour. Allow to set for about 2 minutes or so. Done.