My domestic side

I have never taken an interest in baking all this while. Even though I have helped Mrs R Senior with her x'mas baking or some other confections on several occasions, baking still doesn't appeal to me. Trying to motivate me, she kindly offers to get me a professional mixer. Besides, her son has a sweet tooth. Hence her eagerness for me to take up baking. I didn't take up her offer of the mixer. Yet. Though I wonder if she would change her mind when I ask for the expensive Kitchen Aid Mixer. Hehehe...

Once I needed my fix of curry puffs badly. I searched on the net for recipes and most ask for the curry puffs to be deep fried which I try to avoid at all costs. Deep frying means splattering oil all over the kitchen which also means I have to clean up after that. Too much work for a lazy pig like me. Eventually I found one which uses puff pastry. 'Cool, I can just stick them in the oven, no sweat at all,' I thought. How wrong was I... I discovered I had to make a dough, leave it in the fridge for several hours, take it out, roll out the dough, fold it back into a square, roll out and repeat the whole process again for, like, 7 or 8 times. The repeated rolling out and folding in result in wafer thin, crisp and flaky pastry. At once, I regretted taking up the challenge. Doubtless, the end products were some fairly tasty curry puffs. But again too much work. I am just too spoilt by the readily avaliable curry puffs back in Singapore. Afterwards, stupid me found out I can buy ready-made puff pastry in the supermarkets. From then on, my rolling pin is collecting spider-webs in my kitchen drawer. That is the furthest I went in terms of baking.

Few days ago, someone wrote in her blog about her attempt in tiramisu. Ever since I have been craving for it and was actually toying with the idea of making one myself. A german friend who is famed for her tiramisu claims that it is an extremely easy dessert to prepare. Though she didn't share her recipe when I asked how she did hers.. Oh well, who needs her when I have the net. Anyhow, taking her word, I made up my mind to embark on the tiramisu task today. The recipe I decided on requires everything to be, basically, mixed together. How hard can that be, right? Especially when no dough and baking are involved. Well, wrong again. I realised with exasperation that I had to beat (with my bare hands!) the egg yolks and then the cheese cream until the mixture has a smooth texture. (Where is my Kitchen Aid??!!) Then I had to 'beat the egg whites until stiff'. Huh? What? How to beat egg whites till stiff? I had to stop in between and google what that meant. It means, in essence, till the egg whites become white and foamy. Why can't they use simple, layman terms? Next I had to 'fold' the egg whites into the cream mixture. How do you 'fold'? Folding is a gentle mixing method. You use the folding technique to gently combine light and airy mixtures, like beaten egg whites with a heavier mixture, such as whipped cream into a batter. For example, when beaten egg whites are folded into a batter, it is done so they will retain as much of their volume as possible. Folding also traps extra air in the batter blah blah blah.. Sigh... Okay, at least I learned something there.

Anyways, to cut long story short, I churned out a mixture which resembled very much of tiramisu. Verdict from Mr R: A tad too much cognac and espresso, otherwise it is very palatable. My verdict? I think I did pretty well for my first effort. I am going to have some of it again before hitting the sack. Absolutely sinful but who cares.