"Double-ginger" biscotti

I'm currently obsessed with Tish Boyle's The Good Cookie, a well-reviewed cookbook that's been languishing in my bookshelf for close to 2 years now. With the holidays coming, I felt compelled to try out a few cookie recipes--and what could be better than Triple-Ginger Pecan Biscotti, which combines three gorgeous elements: ginger, ginger, and more ginger. I didn't have any crystallized ginger to hand, so compensated by adding the equivalent volume of freshly grated ginger--hence 'double-ginger'. Also had no vanilla extract (scoured both Oliver's and Park & Shops in vain) so made do with almond extract, and added a touch more freshly ground black pepper.

What the recipe didn't say, but other recipes generally do, is that it helps tremendously to freeze the dough for 30 minutes before working it. Otherwise you would have reallly sticky fingers (I did).

How the cauliflower turned out

It's always a challenge retaining the natural colors of food after cooking. So it was relief to find that the adorable cauliflower head I bought a few days ago stayed purple after parboiling, and even after its transformation into a gratin. Can you see the little florets peeking out from under their jacket of cheese and breadcrumbs?

I found this recipe at Epicurious.com and loosely adapted it for my dish. No cheddar in the fridge so I made do with an obsidian-hard chunk of Parmesan (15 minutes of hard grating!) combining it with my last slice of havarti dill--a mild and creamy cheese originally from Denmark. Substituted plain bread crumbs from Park n Shop for the saltines.

I think I might have put in a teaspoonful of sugar instead of salt (not my fault! the jars looked alike!). But still.....YUM!

Beer Bread II, The Sequel

Starring:

Date jam from Dubai

Vicky's old steak knife

French marmalade

Home-baked beer bread, fragrant with L'Eau d' Tsingtao.

Not in picture, but played supporting roles:

One kitchen-stained, dog-eared copy of Joy of Cooking (open to page 775)

One very hungry blogger

Purple cloud

Purples and lavenders are absolutely some of the most gorgeous colors ever and so when I saw this neat bunch of purple cauliflower heads at city'super the other day I just couldn't resist popping one into my shopping basket. I might just whip up a gratin, perhaps with a touch of curry, especially since my new Tefal tabletop oven is to be delivered midweek and--be still my beating heart--I can bake again!

Loot from Graham Street, Central

Wandered over to Central this morning and over to the Graham Street open-air wet market. Had a grand time ogling the luscious fruit and vegetables on display. It was past noon so I guess the vendors were kind of mellow and the whole place had a postprandial air. Despite having lived in HK for eight years I've seldom shopped at the local wet markets since few of the shopkeepers speak English (and I've just been too damned lazy to learn Cantonese) and signlanguage has always struck me as a bit of a hassle! But my love for food--and the total bareness of my fridge--drove me to pick up, very quickly, the ingredients for this evening's Thai shrimp curry supper: a bunch of cilantro, limes, about 2 pounds of jumbo prawn, a couple handfuls of cherry tomatoes (the recipe said plum tomatoes but for some reason I always mistake cherry tomatoes for the plum toms). All for HK$55 (about US$7). I already had the curry mix and coconut milk at home. Also picked up a juicy, fragrant yellow Philippine mango for dessert--NOT a steal at HK$9, but what can you do?

You can find a basic recipe for Thai shrimp curry here.

Excerpt from a letter to P

I suppose it is night where you are, Patricia. Yesterday from 8 to 9:30 in the evening--your Sunday afternoon, a Monday here in Asia--I attended the first of 30 sessions in general French for complete beginners. Our teacher is a mid-40s genial Frenchwoman named Isabelle; our class of 20 consists of local Hong Kongers, most of them professional people, probably mid-20s to mid-30s with a very few younger ones. I expect the teenagers are in Alliance's teen classes. There were three couples in the class.

I enjoyed the first lesson! I try not to be overwhelmed by the fact that there is so much to learn, and instead think of myself like a child taking her first steps in a new language. That way it's so much more fun. Already I'm amazed that I recognize and understand (or can make a pretty good guess of the meaning of) many of the terms in the lesson books. It's the spoken part that is much more difficult, and no doubt the grammar part. At one point Isabelle had everyone speak aloud some French terms they knew, and of course everyone knew something--bonjour (also the name of a local shop), vin, bon appetit, paris, je't aime (sp?), le rose noire (a local bakeshop), bonsoir.

The French "R" stumps me. It seems to involve some vibration inside the mouth that not even Tagalog has. Or at least not the citified Tagalog that I know. I am practicing at home with the CD they provided. Fell asleep on the sofa last night listening to these wonderfully exotic sounds coming off the CD player.

Also some of the U and E vowel sounds are close to the way the Chinese pronounce some of their vowel sounds, so that is another thing I do not have the advantage of knowing.

I am beginning to 'devour' this language much as I soaked up English--that is, with a lot of enthusiam--back in our grade school days. As though I were six again and finding out what "bottle" means, learning how to say "Look, there's Spot", how to count from one to ten, how to say good morning and good afternoon.

Abangan ang susunod na kabanata. Till then, bonne nuit!


Postscripts

Remember this pair of horses that we befriended in Seraincourt? (The secret was in the apple and bits of bread)



...and the duck in the pond and your About a Boy moment?



I hope you're not throwing any more melon at those poor feathered creatures!

Travel thoughts on a Sunday

Tuscany, September 16, 2005

I suspect it's impossible for some people to stay in one place for good, once they've left the city of their childhood.
- Stephen Vizinczey


I would like to spend my whole life traveling, if I could borrow another life to spend at home.
- William Hazlitt

Pumpkin time

"All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous unpremeditated act without the benefit of experience."

– Henry Miller

To know another language is to have a second soul.

- Charlemagne, King of the Franks (742-814)

I start beginner French class on Monday at the local Alliance Francaise. I'm both dreading it and looking forward to it. I want to do well and I'm determined to do well. My slight trepidation comes from the fact that I have to manage the twice a week classes with my 9-to-5 job, a blog, and regular visits to the gym (to reduce a cholesterol count that's in the high-risk range, thanks to all the good cheese I regularly consume.)

Why learn a new language at this [busy] time of my life? Reason #1: I need a new challenge. #2: Several very good friends speak French. #3: Many culinary terms, references and techniques are French. #4: I want to spend more time in Europe in the near future. And, of course, #5: The French instructors might be hunks! Hahahahaha.

PS Photo above is there to remind me WHY I am studying this foreign language. It was taken at Le Marche de Caroline (Caroline's Market) near my friends' place in Avernes in the Val D'Oise departement in France. The shop sells locally made jams, honeys, pates, deli meats, tisanes, mustards and other specialities. A farm is attached to the shop, where you can pick your own tomatoes, rhubarb, courgettes, strawberries, beans, etc.

Cafe au lait: The conversion

I'm a coffee addict. In my younger brasher years (I sound like a granny hahahah) I generally took my coffee black. When asked, I would always say that sugar and cream only dilute the pure rush of all that caffeine.

I've converted. During my weeklong stay in France I woke up every day to a large bowl of milky coffee: equal portions hot milk and hot brewed coffee. What a gentle way to start the morning...a warming bowl of a friendly brew, thick baguette slices toasted golden, good French butter, and a choice of luscious fig jam, tart rhubarb preserves and a deeply sweet, seductive date jam.