Music
I am totally having movie OSTs crush moment!
The Dark Knight OST is so awesome and intense <3 I wish I have a surround sound system at home...doing art to this music would be an interesting experience.
On the side note, came home yesterday after working on my psych lab report. After 2 weeks of school-side unproductiveness, I decided to roll up my sleeves and indulge in culinary therapy. Defrosted some bak kut teh for late dinner, then made spiced meat patties and a prune cake after.
Spiced mini-patties
Cumin (lots of)
Parsley (some)
Coriander seeds (some)
Paprika (some)
Thmye (a dash)
Pepper (enough)
Oyster sauce (1 tbs)
cornflour (1 tbs)
Shao Xing (2-3 tbs)
Egg (1)
Minced pork (200-300g)
Mix them all together with hands, better mixed that way (yay!squishy). Grab tbsfulls of the mix, roll into balls and then flatten slightly. Heat up pan with generous amt of oil. Dip the mini-patties into flour and fry in pan when oil is hot. Turn down the heat and cook, turning the patties over when a deep brown. Remove to plate covered with paper napkin (to absorb the oil) when cooked. The reason for why the patties are mini is so that I didn't have to worry about the insides being uncooked while the outside got burnt.
It was pretty funny though when the smoke alarm came on because I forgot to switch on the stove exhaust fan and open the balcony door for circulation. My sister ran around the apartment opening all the doors and windows and was NOT AMUSED though easily placated as she worked her way through the patties, leaving only 6 for me (I made around 20).
Prune cake (adapted from Ree Drummond's recipe)
1 cup prunes
¾ cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup canola oil (i used olive)
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dry:
1 ½ cups flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 160C.
Cover prunes with water in pot, bring to a boil and cook until soft and mashable (10 mins or so?).
Remove from heat, drain water and mash. Set aside.
Sift together dry ingredients, mix well (I actually added more of each spice because I'm a cinnamon nut and nutmeg smells heavenly).
In a separate bowl, beat eggs then add sugar and oil (don't have to use a mixer -joy!- just do it by hand, when it's sorta heavier and almost creamy you're done. Probably takes a few mins at most).
Combine wet and dry ingredients, add buttermilk, and stir gently until just combined, don't overstir.
Throw in the mashed pruned and stir gently to spread it around. The final mixture will be quite wet. Oil your baking pans (this filled up a square pan and a round cake pan), pour the mixture in and pop it in the oven for 40 mins. About 10 mins before the cake's done, start on the glaze.
Icing/Glaze (while the cake's ingredients are more measured accurately, I didn't want too much icing so I sort of added everything to taste)
butter (3-4 tbs)
sugar (abt 1/2 cup or less?)
baking soda (1/2 tsp)
buttermilk (1/4 cup)
vanilla extract (abt 2 tbs, put less if you're not a big fan)
Combine all into a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a gentle boil. Probably a good idea to make sure the buttermilk is not too cold or it'll curdle (can heat up the milk first slowly then add the rest). Ree said something about not stirring so I waved the pot over the fire when it seemed to bubble too vigorously. Icing should be caramel in colour, slightly dense but easily pourable.
Yay! Cake done! Pour the glaze over the top and spread evenly. Leave to stand for a couple of mins so that the glaze soaks into the cake (since I reduced the sugar content). Enjoy!
The prune cake was DIVINE when glazed and hot out of the oven. Supposedly, we don't have to worry about laxative effect of prunes for this cake. I didn't have a problem but my sister told me she got up at 4am in the morning to attend to it. It could be because I've been eating prunes pretty regularly while my sister hasn't...a sort of desensitising effect perhaps, if you will. But even so, I think the cake's worth it!
The Dark Knight OST is so awesome and intense <3 I wish I have a surround sound system at home...doing art to this music would be an interesting experience.
On the side note, came home yesterday after working on my psych lab report. After 2 weeks of school-side unproductiveness, I decided to roll up my sleeves and indulge in culinary therapy. Defrosted some bak kut teh for late dinner, then made spiced meat patties and a prune cake after.
Spiced mini-patties
Cumin (lots of)
Parsley (some)
Coriander seeds (some)
Paprika (some)
Thmye (a dash)
Pepper (enough)
Oyster sauce (1 tbs)
cornflour (1 tbs)
Shao Xing (2-3 tbs)
Egg (1)
Minced pork (200-300g)
Mix them all together with hands, better mixed that way (yay!squishy). Grab tbsfulls of the mix, roll into balls and then flatten slightly. Heat up pan with generous amt of oil. Dip the mini-patties into flour and fry in pan when oil is hot. Turn down the heat and cook, turning the patties over when a deep brown. Remove to plate covered with paper napkin (to absorb the oil) when cooked. The reason for why the patties are mini is so that I didn't have to worry about the insides being uncooked while the outside got burnt.
It was pretty funny though when the smoke alarm came on because I forgot to switch on the stove exhaust fan and open the balcony door for circulation. My sister ran around the apartment opening all the doors and windows and was NOT AMUSED though easily placated as she worked her way through the patties, leaving only 6 for me (I made around 20).
Prune cake (adapted from Ree Drummond's recipe)
1 cup prunes
¾ cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup canola oil (i used olive)
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dry:
1 ½ cups flour, sifted
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 160C.
Cover prunes with water in pot, bring to a boil and cook until soft and mashable (10 mins or so?).
Remove from heat, drain water and mash. Set aside.
Sift together dry ingredients, mix well (I actually added more of each spice because I'm a cinnamon nut and nutmeg smells heavenly).
In a separate bowl, beat eggs then add sugar and oil (don't have to use a mixer -joy!- just do it by hand, when it's sorta heavier and almost creamy you're done. Probably takes a few mins at most).
Combine wet and dry ingredients, add buttermilk, and stir gently until just combined, don't overstir.
Throw in the mashed pruned and stir gently to spread it around. The final mixture will be quite wet. Oil your baking pans (this filled up a square pan and a round cake pan), pour the mixture in and pop it in the oven for 40 mins. About 10 mins before the cake's done, start on the glaze.
Icing/Glaze (while the cake's ingredients are more measured accurately, I didn't want too much icing so I sort of added everything to taste)
butter (3-4 tbs)
sugar (abt 1/2 cup or less?)
baking soda (1/2 tsp)
buttermilk (1/4 cup)
vanilla extract (abt 2 tbs, put less if you're not a big fan)
Combine all into a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a gentle boil. Probably a good idea to make sure the buttermilk is not too cold or it'll curdle (can heat up the milk first slowly then add the rest). Ree said something about not stirring so I waved the pot over the fire when it seemed to bubble too vigorously. Icing should be caramel in colour, slightly dense but easily pourable.
Yay! Cake done! Pour the glaze over the top and spread evenly. Leave to stand for a couple of mins so that the glaze soaks into the cake (since I reduced the sugar content). Enjoy!
The prune cake was DIVINE when glazed and hot out of the oven. Supposedly, we don't have to worry about laxative effect of prunes for this cake. I didn't have a problem but my sister told me she got up at 4am in the morning to attend to it. It could be because I've been eating prunes pretty regularly while my sister hasn't...a sort of desensitising effect perhaps, if you will. But even so, I think the cake's worth it!