A Few Of My Favourite Things (1)

I have been contemplating the inclusion of a new segment called 'A Few of My Favourite Things' on the blog for over a year now. I kept procrastinating all this while but finally decided it was time to set things in motion. 

Being a perpetually hungry girl living in a big city, what I plan to do in this segment is list out five things that I love and deem worthy of sharing. I am going to limit the category to food and beverages considering the fact that I am primarily a food blogger. This is going to be a continuing segment which I plan to feature every few months or so.

Singapore being a multicultural & multi-racial kaleidoscope is a food-lover's paradise. Home to a multitude of hawker centers, food courts, kopitiams, local bakeries, fine dining restaurants and more, there are no dearth of joints to be explored in this country with a voracious appetite. Singaporeans will willingly traverse the island in the quest for good food. As for me, even after living here for close to a decade, I haven't even scratched the surface but I still have a whole list of favourite things. Some of the dishes in this post may look familiar to you as I have already covered them in one of my restaurant reviews.

So, let's get the wheels turning, shall we?

Note that these listings are in no particular order of preference

Baker's Corner: Quick and Easy Bread Bowls

I am all fired up about this recipe because it was one of those kitchen experiments that I thought would end in disaster but then unexpectedly turned out fabulous. I just love when that happens 😊

I never thought I would make bread bowls at home....like never ever. Who does that right? Well clearly, this post indicates otherwise but it was never my intent in the first place. It all started when I was browsing through my recipe index and discovered that I'd never featured a soup on my blog. The horror! I am an ardent soup lover (always have been) and although I don't make soup regularly at home, I do order soup, first thing at any restaurant without fail. I mean, give me a nice big bowl of thick creamy soup and that is my meal right there. I prefer cream-based soups over the clear kind (no surprises there!) with cream of mushroom soup topping the list for me. Note to self: the next soup on the blog has to be just that. 

Anyway, during the time I stayed in the US for two months, we used to frequent the popular café-restaurant chain Panera Bread. It was there that I tried their famed cheddar broccoli soup served in crusty bread bowls and it was instant love. The luscious soup had chopped broccoli, shredded carrots and select seasonings simmered in a velvety smooth cheese sauce. Served within the crusty sourdough bread that was the perfect vehicle to soak up all that lovely hot soup....aah! heaven in a bite. The portion was ginormous but I would manage not only to gobble up all that soup but also demolish that insanely large bread bowl as well (and after that feel like a complete pig 😆). I probably had eaten broccoli soup before that (or maybe not I don't really remember) but never like the one I had at Panera Bread. That soup left such a lasting mark on my taste buds that the next time I went to the US which was more than a year later, I made sure I stopped by Panera Bread to get my soup fix.

So, getting back to the point, I was browsing the internet for some tried and tested soup recipes to feature on my blog and I came across a 'Panera Bread Cheddar Broccoli Soup Copycat recipe'. That sure did pique my interest as you can imagine. I checked out the recipe and instinctively felt that it would be a winner. It was there that I saw the recipe for the bread bowls which looked fairly easy so I thought why not be all fancy and serve the soup in a homemade bread bowl rather than a plain old boring soup bowl. I'm so glad I decided to do that.

So, the reason I said that I thought the recipe would end in disaster was because my dough ended up being quite sticky even though I followed the instructions precisely. I didn't add in any extra flour.....I just greased my palms with olive oil and kneaded the dough like the recipe said while simultaneously saying a silent little prayer. The dough did rise which was very reassuring but I didn't manage to get the kind of smooth finish on the buns that was in the original source of the recipe. Well, never mind. The bread bowls turned out great anyway. They were crusty on the outside; soft and fluffy on the inside. They held the soup exceptionally well too.

I will be featuring the Panera Bread Cheddar Broccoli Soup Copycat recipe next on the blog so stay tuned. This is one hearty comfort meal that you have to treat your family to because it is just that good  😊

Recipe of the month: Lasooni Methi Paneer

I have enough errands to run today to make my head spin so I'm not going to ramble. Instead, I'm going to cut to the chase and tell you how I came about making this curry.

Me and a few of my cousins are part of a WhatsApp group called 'Masterchefs'. Pompous eh? Well, we figured, since no one else is going to bestow that title on us in the foreseeable future, we might as well do it ourselves 😂 We are a bunch of women and (a few) men from my mum's side of the family who are passionate about cooking, share tried and tested recipes and useful kitchen tips, discuss our culinary successes/failures and basically bond over everything food-related.

So one day, a recipe for this Lasooni Methi Paneer was given the thumbs up by one member of our group. I don't know if you have noticed but I already have a legit Methi Paneer recipe on my blog which happens to be my mum's version. I tried this one out anyway. Why you ask? (I'd tell you even if you didn't ask 😝). Three reasons folks - 1. Everyone got busy trying it out and posting their results to the effect that my curiosity got the better of me 2. I happened to have a bunch of fresh methi leaves in the fridge at the time 3.The methi paneer on my blog consists of a delicate cashew and cream based gravy with the predominant flavour of methi as opposed to this curry which is a coconut milk-based gravy with the predominant flavour of garlic and subtle hints of methi. I figured both versions were quite different from each other so no harm done checking it out.

I modified the recipe from the original source a wee bit since I felt the amount of garlic in the recipe was too much. Yeah I know the word  'lasooni' refers to garlic and believe me, I'm all for garlic but I was slightly worried that it would get too overpowering (and cause our neighbors might think we were under attack from an army of vampires). I also added some sweetness to balance the flavour of the gravy. The outcome was pretty good and I would definitely be making this curry again. But to state the obvious - if you are not big on garlic then this recipe is not for you. 

That's all you lot will be hearing from me today. Go on scoot...check out the recipe below 😊

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Snapshots of my India trip 2015

It's been more than a month since I got back from India and I finally found made time to put down my thoughts on a wonderful holiday that was both eventful and fulfilling. 

This holiday was also uniquely memorable because it marked the maiden International trip for my little ones. The very idea of travelling with a child is something many new mothers find nerve-wracking so you can imagine my plight with two. You can probably tell if a woman is travelling with a child or not just by the look of sheer exhaustion and worry-lines etched on her face.

On the bright side, nowadays, with much better means of communication, far more comfortable modes of transport, advanced facilities and a newer generation of parents who do a lot of research beforehand and are prepared for any eventuality, travelling with a child (or children for that matter) doesn't have to be stressful. 

In our case, we did the required groundwork and preparation before the trip such as making a detailed list of all the items to be packed, completing the babies scheduled vaccinations, requesting for double bassinet seats on the International flight, doing online check-ins, booking domestic flights/taxis/hotel accommodation in India well in advance, getting cartons of diapers, wet wipes, tissues and baby bath essentials delivered to my parents and in-laws homes, getting their cribs ready in both houses, sourcing baby-friendly natural means of repelling mosquitos and so on. Looking back, it was considerable work but the effort paid off  😊

I am now much more confident of traveling with the twins and though I'm sure that they will have their bad days where I will regret that I ever left the house, I will take comfort in the fact that exposing them to new situations and people will help them learn more about the world and adapt quickly to unfamiliar situations.

So here is a write-up of our escapades in India....