Tea Cafe @ Seah Street

French Rose tea served with almond cookies

Long Jing tea served with candied lotus seeds

A very delectable tea egg

Japanese Snack Set - konnyaku jellies, savoury rice crackers & surprises

Tadah...the surprises: candied yuzu skin and coloured candies

Lemon Biscotti

Decided to bake some biscotti since I'm meeting my godson's mum for tea tomorrow. Yay! We're going to the Tea Cafe at Seah Street. Too bad the little fellow will be in school. Hopefully my lemon biscotti and chocolate cupcakes can be some form of compensation for him.

I can't say I've fully perfected the art of baking biscotti as yet but it's the one that all my friends would request. To date, I've managed to add lemon, orange and lavender flavoured biscotti to my repertoire. Freshly baked biscotti and chai latte....sounds heavenly!

Quest for the Perfect Cupcake

For those who are puzzled about my sporadic postings and wondering what I've been busy with, I'm up to my neck in baking cupcakes.

Been testing out many new cake recipes and tweaking those I loved. I always believe for a cake to be a success, there must be a match between the frosting or cream to the cake base. You can't seperate one from another. Am too brushing up with my piping skills.

Many thanks to all the wonderful people who have been helping with the taste testing and relieving my overworked fridge of cupcakes. Arigato!

Korean Dish: Jap Chae

Enough for 2 - 3 people

Ingredients:

• 50g carrots, julienned


• 50g red capsicum, deseeded and julienned


• 50g soaked shitake mushrooms, julienned


• 50g spring onions, cut into 5 cm strips


• 100g zucchini, julienned


• 1 egg, beaten with a tsp of water


• 150g sweet potato noodle


• canola oil spray

Sauce for julienned shitake mushrooms:

• 1 1/2 tsp soy sauce


• 1/4 tsp sugar


• 2 Tbsp water

Jap Chae Sauce:

• 1 Tbsp korean hot chilli paste (Gochujang)


• 2 Tbsp soy sauce


• 1 clove garlic, finely minced


• 1 1/2 Tbsp sesame oil


• 2 1/2 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Method:

1. Soak noodle in tap water for 20 mins. Cook the soaked noodle in a pot of boiling water for 3 - 5 mins. When cooked, drain off the water and rinse the noodles in running tap water. Place cooled noodles in a colander or sieve to drain off excess water. Set aside.

2. Pre-heat the frying pan for about 20s & spray some canola oil. Fry the egg mixture into thin sheets. When cooled, cut the egg sheets into thin strips.

3. Saute the zucchini, spring onions, carrots, red capsicum seperately in a little canola oil. Sprinkle a little salt to taste. Set aside.

4. Pour sauce for julienned shitake mushrooms into the frying pan. Add the mushrooms. Cook till the sauce is reduced. Set aside.

5. In a big mixing bowl, put together the hot chilli paste, soy sauce and garlic. Add in the cooled sweet potato noodle and mix well. At this point, add in the sesame oil and mix.

6. Add in all the sauteed vegetables and 2 tsp of sesame seeds. Toss well. Top off with the egg strips and toss. Transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 tsp of sesame seeds. Enjoy!

Note:

1. You can use other types of vegetables to replace any of those used in this dish. I've cooked this dish with spinach and chives with great success. This is the recipe I often turn to whenever I want to clear up the vegetable compartment in the fridge.

2. Sauteing the vegetables starting from the light-coloured to the dark-coloured will save you from washing the frying pan in-between the sauteing process. I'd used a canola oil spray in order to reduce the amount of oil used in this recipe.

3. I usually soak the shitake mushrooms overnight and reserve 2 Tbsp of the water to make the sauce used in sauteing the mushrooms. Always give the dry mushrooms a good rinse to wash off any dirt before proceeding with the soaking.

4. You can adjust the spiciness of this dish by increasing or decreasing the amount of hot chilli paste used. If more hot chilli paste is used, do reduce the amount of soy sauce as the hot chilli paste is salted. When in doubt taste the noodle as you mix it. Feel free to adjust the amount of seasonings used to suit your palate.