10 Scotts, Grand Hyatt

Whenever I'm looking for a place to spend a slow lazy afternoon, 10 Scotts would usually be top of mind. 

The high tea spread is not huge by any standard. But the quality is really good. Although the tea starts at 12noon and you can technically lunch there, there aren't many staples on the buffet. What you get is a pleasant light lunch. 

There's a nice cheese and cold cut station to start with. The staff will then serve you an elegant two-tier caddy with yummy canapes and the fabulous crab cakes. And I must add that the ice cream is usually served in very pretty presentations! There's also free flow gourmet coffees, teas, juices, etc. So can't complain really. 

There are two seatings for tea: 12 noon to 2.30pm and 2.30pm to 5pm. For weekdays, the tea starts at $38++ and for weekends $48++, depending on whether you choose to have champagne with it. 

I'm not able to share many photos though as I was stopped from taking photos due to "copyright issues", according to the manager/supervisor. Strange in this day and age of social media... In any case, many others before me have posted photos on review and blog sites. So here are the photos I did manage to take ;-) 

The selection of canapes changes regularly.

This is actually ice-cream!

10 Scotts
Lobby Level, Grand Hyatt
www.singapore.grand.hyattrestaurants.com

Princess Cupcake Gifts

So it's Children's Day and I decided I'd surprise Annette by baking cupcakes for her to bring to her school party.

Since hers is an all-girls school, I settled on princess cupcakes with daisy and pearl sprinkles. Only question was how to pack them individually so she could gift them to her classmates and teachers.

Going online, I came upon a great idea to place the cupcakes into a clear plastic cup and then bagging them into treat bags with a twist/ribbon tie. See http://www.cookiemadness.net/2011/04/packaging-cupcakes/. I bought pretty treat bags and twist ties easily. But for the life of me, I couldn't find the right size cups! The ones in Cold Storage were too big. And the ones in Phoon Huat were too small. I almost gave up as I dwelled on mental images of my precious cupcakes being smashed up in transit.

As I despaired over what should have been a very easy part of the cupcake process, I decided to make another trip to Phoon Huat, this time to the Clementi store. And somehow I was guided to this rack where lo and behold right at the top shelf was the most perfect cupcake packaging ever ;--)

The best part is: the delighted squeals of my girls when they saw the final cupcake gifts!

One-dish wonders: Cajun Seafood Conchiglie

Sunday nights are mainly a family affair, with moi at the helm planning and cooking (mostly supervising) dinner. This is the night I'd experiment with new recipes. I'd spend the day browsing through recipe books or www.allrecipes.com for ideas, and make special effort to go to the supermarket to select the ingredients (even though I'd have to sometimes will myself away from an afternoon nap!).

I found a super easy one-dish recipe for a warm homey dinner - Cajun Shrimp Orecchiette - through the allrecipes app, but I've made some changes based on personal preferences. Also, although the original recipe described how spicy the dish would be, my Asian tastebuds didn't quite think so, so I've increased the amount of Cajun spice ;-)  But it really is up to each individual...  

Here are the photo and recipe.

 Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups conchiglie pasta

3 tbsp butter

4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup shallots, chopped

1/3 cup onion, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil   

2 tsp Cajun seasoning (adjust to taste)

1 tsp cracked black pepper

1 tsp white vinegar

1/2 cup tomato paste

3 tomatoes, diced

12 medium prawns, shelled

1 squid, sliced into rings
1 cup baby spinach

Optional:
1/2 cup dry white wine (exclude vinegar if adding wine)

Directions:
1. Cook the pasta in lightly salted boiling water for 8-10 minutes, until almost al dente. Drain and set aside.
2. Melt butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add garlic, shallots and onion, and saute for about 1-2 mins.
3. Add olive oil, Cajun seasoning and black pepper, and stir for another 2 mins.
4. Add in vinegar (or white wine), tomato paste, tomatoes and seafood. Cook and stir till seafood is almost cooked.
5. Mix in pasta and spinach. Cover and simmer for 3-5 minutes until pasta is al dente.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

It's my birthday! And dear hubby organized dinner with my gal pals to celebrate... and to get together to bemoan our advancing years ;-)

Since all of us had recently gotten our RWS Invites membership, we decided to have dinner at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon. Posh enough for the not-so-young us, but still casual enough to have a lively in-denial dinner.

The restaurant ambience is really nice. Bar-height tables, plush seats, lighting that's just right and attentive servers who make good eye contact (in part because of table height) provide a great setting for a wonderful experience. Unfortunately, the menu offered by RWS Invites was disappointing.

You know how some people joke about having to go for supper after a posh meal because of the pretty but tiny portions? Well, it's the case here. I can't fault the presentation, flavors and quality, and in fact the chocolate sphere dessert was tres magnifique! But oh, we were still hungry after dessert so we had to go to St James to sup and party... and we aren't exactly teenagers on a growth spurt ;-)

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

Hotel Michael, Resorts World Sentosa

Tel: +65 65777888

www.rwsentosa.com

Thick Fudgey Brownies

So now that I've got more time to indulge in my passion for baking, I decided to volunteer to bake brownies and cupcakes for a church fundraiser to benefit Cambodian kids ;-)

Thanks to my generous friends, I got myself committed to baking 16 slabs of 8" x 8" brownies. It was my first attempt to bake on such a major scale...

Three trips to Fairprice Finest, two trips to Phoon Huat, three rounds of experiments and hours upon hours of baking later, here are the final photos and recipe.

After the initial anxiety, I'm happy to report that all the brownies and cupcakes were sold out during this morning's CK4CK food fair. I'm indeed thankful to Him for the opportunity to contribute in a small way. 

But proud as I am to have achieved the production target (with some help from foreign talent and a bit of child labour), I have concluded that the possibility of me converting this hobby into a business has become extremely remote.

Ingredients:

225g unsalted butter

340g fine sugar

4 eggs (or 3 large ones)

1½ tsp vanilla extract

150g unsweetened cocoa powder

225g all-purpose flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

¼ cup Hershey’s chocolate syrup

¼ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Frosting:

3 tbsp butter

3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

160g icing sugar

1-2 tbsp milk

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 175 deg Celsius (350 deg Fahrenheit). Grease an 8” x 8” pan.
2.  Warm butter in microwave for approx 60 secs until fully melted. Pour into large mixing bowl. 
3.  Stir in sugar, eggs and vanilla extract.
4.  Beat in cocoa, flour, salt and baking powder. Mix in Hershey's chocolate syrup. Add walnuts if desired.
5.  Spread batter into prepared pan. 
6.  Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Do not overcook.


To make frosting:
1.  Combine butter, cocoa, honey, vanilla extract and icing sugar. Add 1-2 tbsp milk to smoothen frosting mix.
2.  Frost brownies while they are still warm.

Note: I highly recommend Hershey’s cocoa powder for the frosting as you get a nice sleek chocolate frosting that’s not too dark.   

100% home-made Creme Brulee

The first time I made creme brûlée, I used a pack of Elle et Vire creme brûlée mix. I innocently thought what's really important is the caramelized sugar and final presentation. That's where the skills are needed right?

Boy, was I wrong. After the usual oohing and aahing over how nice my creme brûlée was in terms of taste and presentation, my dear purist girlfriends looked downright disappointed, no make that cheated, when they realized the custard came from a pack. I am after all an honest person. And having done time in a food corporation, I really didn't see anything wrong with taking one or two short cuts. Like whoever bothers to make chicken rice chilli from scratch these days right? ;-)

Anyway, I finally decided I'd make a creme brûlée from scratch. And here it is: my 100% home-made creme brûlée ;-) The verdict from my friends? Yummy!

Ingredients:

6 egg yolks

4 tbsp white sugar (more if you want it sweeter)

1/2 tsp vanilla essence (or up to 1 tsp)

2 1/2 cups whipping cream

Approx 2-3 tbsp brown sugar

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 175 deg Celsius.

2. Beat the egg yolks, white sugar and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl till thick and creamy.

2. Warm the cream in a saucepan over low heat, stirring continuously until it almost comes to a boil.

3. Mix a little of the hot cream into the egg mixture. Then whisk the egg mixture into the rest of the cream.

4. The mix will be foamy. Strain the mix to remove the foam. Scoop off remaining bubbles or use a torch to remove bubbles.

5. Pour mix into ramekins placed on a baking tray. Place tray in oven and fill tray with hot water till midway up sides of the ramekins. Be careful not to pour water into the ramekins.

6. Bake for about 20-30 mins till the custard takes on a jiggly but not liquid consistency. Remove from oven and leave ramekins to cool in water bath for about 15 mins.

7. Place ramekins in refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

8. When ready to serve, sprinkle a fine layer of brown sugar over the top of custard. Caramelise the sugar with a torch.

9. Serve with vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries!

Hokkaido Sushi Restaurant - Groupon dinner

I've always been a little skeptical of Groupon offers. Deals that sound just too good to be true, would turn out so right? But I've got Groupon junkies as good friends, so it was inevitable that I'd succumb ;-)

When the Hokkaido Sushi offer came along, I decided to purchase a 9-course omakase for two worth $306 for just $97.60. The discount was delicious already. But as it turned out, the dinner was not quite.

The courses included sashimi (reasonable enough), chawan mushi topped with ikura (nice), grilled salmon (okay), wagyu beef (disappointing bite-sized pieces; where's the meat?), and Hokkaido Maki (nice). Oh, I didn't bother taking photos as the presentation was really just average. I guess with two full seatings at 6pm and 8pm, they had to dispense with the pretty presentations you'd expect at top Japanese restaurants.

Was the dinner worth $97.60? Sure. Was it worth $306? Certainly not...