Mango Cheese Cake

This cake cost HK$ 180. My brother bought it from a small cake shop located in the eastern part of HK island (Chai Wan). It is run by a pastry chef who worked with many famous hotels before.

It is costly as this cake only weights about 500gm or less, but my verdict: worth paying.

At first taste, it surprised me with its rich mango flavour and the very smooth texture. I thought it is a mango mousse cake because it is a non-baked cake with very yellowish colour. As you eat on, you'll think maybe they used mascarpone cheese as normal mousse cake never gives u this kind of silky texture. Its smooth texture really helps enhance the substance of the cake. Big mango cubes are used in the filling too. The decoration its simple and elegant too. It is a simple delight. Only one comment... I always like cakes with crust crispy texture but this is a little soggy.

I may try to make this cake. Let's see if I'm right about the ingredient...

Multi Tasked Baby

A the end of Jul, my no. 3 Shannea and I visited my family back in HK. I spent some quality time with my friends and my loved ones.

Shannea is a cheerful and playful baby. While we're there, she could skip her meals and focused on only 1 thing: PLAY. At times, she only took, say, 1 sausage for her dinner. As I knew she'd recuperate well when she's back home, so I took it easy and just gave her as much milk as she wanted.

Below is a video clip taken after a 2-hour swim when we had our afternoon tea. While my nephew helped to feed her, Shannea was so tired and hungry and she decided to meet both desires at the same time. She struggled to finish a bowl of noodle while she tried to catch some sleep. It was really funny but my hubby thought it kinda cruel... Oops!! Caught red handed in a child abuse case.

Bento Set Lunch

4 Bento Sets

A friend of mine ordered some bento lunch sets on 2 consecutive days. So I thought this would be a good opportunity to test out my process flow on how to produce 16 bento sets within 1 and half hour each day.

I proposed beef stew and chicken chop for day one. On day 2, they will have chicken stew and Pork chop. I cooked beef stew a day ahead. With some help from my helper like cutting potato, carrot, chopping garlic, I thought it would easy.

I discover that as I take on different assignments from friends, I learn different lessons along the way. One critical area is time management and planning skill. It is very important to set aside time to plan for your recipe and jot down ingredient and plan out exactly how you are going to execute each and every step involved. Without this, your time estimation to complete the task will go badly off target. This is especially critical if you need to adhere to fixed delivery time - for this case, lunch hour at 12.

Making money out of it is not the main concern for these assignments although I have to commit a lot of "overtime" in my kitchen and it is tough working in the kitchen. I never regret taking on any of these assignments. They help me discover my love for cooking and my passion towards cooking just grow stronger each time. Every new recipe has its own uniqueness and there is infinite creativity in exploring and presenting it.

I have one regret though: I discover this passion a little too late or I could have seriously thought of taking this as my profession and career.

Chocolate Macaroon (Attempt 1)

I have too much egg white stored in my fridge, left over from chiffon cake and mango pudding making. I usually have trouble making use of left over egg white and I feel very guilty if I just pour them into the sink.

So die die must make something out of it... Macaroon is the best choice as I have yet to try it out.

Look at the result of my first attempt and you'll know I have failed. I am kinda used to the feeling - this is a normal learning path. One of the distinctive feature of Macaroon is their frilly feet. Those are absent from mine. I'm not sure why. Also the surface is supposed to be smooth and flat and yet mine look like volcano after eruption. And the belly button makes it look like a hazel nut rather than a macaroon...

My first attempt is not all bad though as the chewy texture and the rich semi sweet dark chocolate filling helps bring out the great chocolate aroma. Taste not bad at all.

Never mind, I'm sure I'll always have egg white left over and I will try again. Meanwhile, need to ponder why my macaroon looks different from others.....

Egg Cheese Bacon Pasta

Learnt this from a Italian cook book and it is super easy to cook. The total process and cooking takes less than half an hour.

First, cook pasta with boiling water with some salt.

Next, use a big serving bowl, beat 3 eggs with lots of Parmesan cheese. If you prefer saucy pasta, add some fresh cream.

Then wash and cut some vegetables of your choice. My choice was mushroom and sweet pea. Sizzle veg, meat in a frying pan with olive oil. Do not forget to add some garlic too.

Lastly, toss the hot pasta into a big serving bowl with egg batter and cheese mixed well with fried bacon, pork and veg. Simple and easy!!