Tuesday, October 19, 2010

thank you :)


i slept at 4am. woke up at 6am. at the office at 7am. 815am at TPM bukit jalil.
1pm, i drove home. 130pm sharp i safely arrived home.

ate my lunch. need to finish packing things up.

mama abah. thank u 4 a small slice of choc cheese cake. and a ferrero rocher.
it's cute, a slice and only one ferrero rocher. but it is so sweet.
no birthday cards from both of u, *for the 1st time in my life*
but those 2 inspirational, motivation books with a note, are great. :)

thanks for those who love. baby. bestie. BFF. friends.
sorry if ade SMS yg ta reply lg. shooting td, hp totally silent.
will do, later on. thanks again!


p/s: sape yg bet RM5 utk 30 org ke atas yg akan wish sy bday tuh,
sila2 lah sediakan RM5 ye. cuz it is less than that :P


Pancetta and Herb Frittata

 


We all find comfort in our routines.  Part of why we get into ruts is because they are comfortable.  One habit I am in which makes me very happy is my weekend breakfast schedule.  I love a big breakfast, and I love breakfast food.  I’m talking eggs and bacon, but also hash browns, even a bowl of cereal.  I go salty and savory on Saturdays, and then Sundays I go sweet with pancakes or waffles.  So it was when disaster hit last weekend.  I realized, Saturday morning, that I was out of both bacon and hash brown potatoes.  I know I could have made hash brown cut potatoes from scratch, but the frozen kind is fine with me and saves a lot of time and trouble.  A similar option however does not exist for me and bacon.  I love bacon.  It may very well be my favorite food.  For me it is also a key component of my scrambled eggs recipe.  I first fry the bacon, and then after pouring off the rendered fat, cook the eggs in the remaining bacon film and bits.  No butter for my eggs.  Just like the French say duck fat makes the best pomme frites, I think a little bacon fat makes the best scrambled eggs. 
    
What to do?  On this morning, a switched courses and went with a pancetta and herb frittata.  Now it may seem odd to you that I had pancetta and not bacon.  It is true that I like to keep pancetta on hand and I recommend you do as well.  It is a frequent component of many of the Italian dishes I prepare.  However, my recipes seem to result in never quite using all of the pancetta I buy, so I usually seem to have at least a little bit of it in the fridge.  Likewise, I think every pantry should include potatoes somewhere down in its deep, dark recesses.  Similarly, every self-respecting home cook should keep basic herbs including thyme, rosemary, basil and parsley, but also chives and dill.  I try always to keep fresh parsley, but it’s easy to also keep a dried amount for those just in case moments.  Thus, there is always the opportunity to whip up a frittata.  It may sound fancy, but it’s really quite easy.  Dice the potatoes small and cook them first, then when soft add the eggs and whatever else you like.  Finish under the broiler and you have a complete breakfast in a single dish.  Serves 4.
   
Ingredients:
2 tbsp vegetable oil
4 potatoes, peeled and diced to ¼” pieces
6 oz. pancetta, diced
6 eggs, beaten
Salt/pepper
1 tbsp fresh, chopped or 2 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp fresh chopped or ½ tsp dried dill
1 tsp fresh, chopped or ½ tsp dried chives
Salt/pepper

Directions:
Turn on the oven broiler to preheat.  In a large non-stick sauté pan over medium heat, add the oil.  When hot, add the potatoes.  Stir to coat and cover.  Cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add the pancetta and cook a further 4 or 5 minutes to brown.  In a bowl, combine the eggs, herbs and salt and pepper to taste.  Add the cooked potatoes and pancetta mixture, stir and return to the pan.  Cook the frittata until the bottom is browned and the top is almost set.  Place the pan under the broiler to finish cooking the top of the frittata and brown.  When done, slide the frittata off the pan onto a plate and serve.
   
  

Omg the kitchen smells AMAZING


Ok so maybe I'm like, three weeks late but Laura you can make these into muffins! Make pumpkin muffins! You did just make a turkey so maybe it fits into the whole post-Thanksgiving meal mood.

Anyway, we've finally run out of turkey leftovers (seriously we ate it for lunch AND dinner for an entire week) but lo and behold, I look in the cupboard yesterday and see a can of pumpkin from last year when I stocked up panicked about the pumpkin shortage! Luckily I had been wanting to try a pumpkin loaf recipe for awhile (I'm so addicted to the Starbucks one...mmm). I used one from Epicurious and added a few things...some orange zest and juice, and pumpkin seeds since they taste good and look pretty too.

Seriously, I forgot just HOW good baked pumpkin smells. I was literally drooling as it baked in the oven. So good that I was concerned that it couldn't possibly taste as good as it smelled. I hate it when an recipe underwhelms. Fortunately, that didn't happen this time. It was SO good, and eating it just made me want more. And I think it's one of those things that's going to taste better with time, so I can't wait to try it tomorrow.


Pumpkin Spice Loaf

adapted from Epicurious

1 cup white sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 orange, zested and juiced
1/2 cup vegetable oil (or enough to make 1 cup liquid with the juiced orange)
3 large eggs
16 oz pure pumpkin (this is a small can, or half-ish a large can)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 tsp pumpkin pie spice, or 1 tsp each cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup lightly toasted pepitas (raw pumpkin seeds)

Preheat oven to 350°F, 190 degrees Celsius

1. Butter two loaf pans. Beat sugar, orange zest, orange juice and oil in a large bowl to blend.

2. Mix in eggs and pumpkin. Add salt, spices, baking soda and baking powder. Stir flour into pumpkin mixture slowly (try not to get flour all over yourself - I always do). Add in most of the toasted pumpkin seeds, leave about 2 tbsp worth for garnish.

3. Divide batter equally between the two pans. Sprinkle remaining pumpkin seeds over the loaves. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Using a sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves. Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely.

Venison

October 19

I wanted to comment about a tweet I made the other day: “Venison two nights in a row. Is it the protein of this fall?”

It occurred to me that maybe you thought I was weird, that just because I had chosen to eat venison two nights in a row didn’t mean everyone else was eating it. Who was I, some genius so plugged into the Zeitgeist of the modern American dining world that, if I was eating something, so was everyone else?

And you’d have a point, except that I often don’t choose what I eat. At the sort of dinner’s I’m often invited to, they don’t give you a choice. You show up, sit down, and they bring you whatever they’re showcasing. They generally provide you with a printed menu of what you’ll be eating, but you don’t get to pick anything, you just eat it.

That’s probably my third favorite way to eat in restaurants, because I don't have to think about anything. I can just sit there and let the whole experience wash over me.

My second favorite way to eat is alone in a nice restaurant, off the clock, without having to talk to anybody or meet anyone’s expectations. That approach might drop in my esteem if I did it very often, but I don’t.

My favorite way is a Maryland-style crab boil, with newspapers on the table, a mallet, and crab juice dripping down my arm.

Anyway, I made that tweet from The Four Seasons restaurant, where I was having dinner at a 10-top in the pool room with my friend Jennifer Watson. It was, believe it or not, The Four Seasons’ first-ever Spanish wine dinner. It’s 2010 already, and that landmark restaurant has wine dinners all the time, but I guess they’ve mostly been focused on French and Italian wines.

But The Four Seasons isn’t known as being super-progressive. It sails its own course and does just fine with that. It did try to get a bit more hip late last year when it hired celebrity-ish chef Fabio Trabocchi as its executive chef, but that only lasted for about three months.

That’s not to say that the food at the restaurant is boring or bad, but you don’t go there to be cutting-edge, you go there, well, for a lot of reasons.

Back in 2007, when Frank Bruni reviewed the restaurant for The New York Times and demoted it from three stars to two, I remember talking to eater.com founder Ben Leventhal about it. This was actually right before the review came out, but Ben, a native New Yorker (Upper East Side, I’m pretty sure), who knows perfectly well what places like The Four Seasons are all about, said the newspaper was wasting its time reviewing the place. A Times review can put a restaurant on the map, and it can damage the prestige of many restaurants, but The Four Seasons is The Four Seasons. People eat there to have power lunches or to enjoy the setting or to say they’ve eaten there or because they always have eaten there. What the Times says about it doesn’t make a lick of difference, Ben said. And I think he was right.

So the main course during the Spanish dinner, paired with a big, lusty 2005 Clos L'Obac Priorat, was roasted venison loin with huckleberries — a classic combination, although it would have been considered trendy in 1999, which was The Year of the Huckleberry.

Indeed, back at the turn of the century venison was all over fall menus, but you just don’t see it much these days.

Then on the following night, I had dinner at the James Beard House, where the featured chef was Ty Thoren of the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Dallas (where MUFSO is being held next year). Ty might live in Texas now, but he’s originally from Ithaca, N.Y., and talks faster than your average downstater. I’m not sure what his hurry was, but we sat down to dinner at around 7:45 and were out of there before 10.

That's a good thing.

What I ate and drank:

At The Four Seasons:

Fluke, tuna and mackerel carpaccio
2009 Albariño, La Cana

king salmon with roasted porcini mushrooms
2000 Bodegas Muga, Rioja, Prado Enea “Grand Reserva”
2001 Bodegas Muga, Rioja, Prado Enea “Grand Reserva”
2005 Bodegas Muga, Rioja, Torre Muga

Roasted duch breast with Hudson Valley foie gras
2005 Emilio Moro, Ribera del Duero, Malleollus
2006 Emilio Moro, Ribera del Duero, Valderramiro
2006 Emilio Moro, Ribera del Duero, Sancho Martin

Filet of lamb with black truffle
2007 Bodegas Alto Moncayo, Campo de Borja, Alto Moncayo
2006 Bodegas Alto Moncayo, Campo de Borja, Aquilon

Roasted venison loin with huckleberries
2005 Clos L’Obac, Priorato

Christopher’s Dream (that would be pastry chef Christopher Broberg)
2007 Victoria, Jorge Ordóñez, Malaga

(oh, and Four Seasons has two co-executive chefs these days, Pecko Zantilaveevan and Larry Finn)
  
At the Beard House with chef Ty Thoren:

Grilled Texas quail with jalapeño–bacon vinaigrette and butternut squash succotash
Veramonte Chardonnay Reserva 2008

Fire-roasted poblano soup with oven-dried tomatoes
Flowers Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2008

Cilantro and ancho–rubbed ahi tuna with chile–chipotle barbecue sauce and jícama slaw
Flowers Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2008

Mesquite-smoked venison chop with spicy pomegranate glaze, crispy cheese grit cake, and braised greens with tumbleweed onions
Faust Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

Caramelized apple lattice tart with white chocolate–cardamom sauce

Rencana Tuhan indah pada waktuNya

19 Oktober 2010, selasa

Mau crita soal job suami. Bulan July pertengahan, suami memutuskan buat berhenti kerja. Niat buat berhenti kerja uda dirundingkan bersama, konsekwensinya kita bakalan harus hemat2, sementara bayaran kredit rumah, bayaran asuransi, biaya pensiun, dll harus mengorek kocek sendiri.

Gw setuju niat dia berhenti kerja, salah satu alasannya jam kerjanya yang emang gila2an, bayangkan suami kadang pergi kerja jam 6 pagi , pulangnya bisa jam 11 malam?? cobaa apa ga gila?? kerja full rodi mpe segitunya. Kalo 1 ato 2 kali/bulan begitu si masih mending, ini bisa ? ga usah ditanya deh. Emang si kerja di supermarket berat, kadang libur juga mesti kerja juga, tapi ya ampun2 dah...Orang2 tanggal merah ato tahun baru pada libur, ini malah makin sibuk gila2an..uhh..pulang2 uda teler, makan malam bisa jam 11 ato 12 malam...apa badan ga rusak begitu??? Pokoknya uda kayak robot deh, bangun tidur, muka pucet uda kayak mayat hidup, tiduran di sofa sambil nunggu jam kerja yg shift2an, kalo pulang kerja uda ga ketemu gw n anak2. Kadang2 gw juga capee kalo harus nunggu begitu, jadi gw tinggal tidur aja...kecian si, tapiii gw juga harus bangun pagi buat siapin Mei sekolah kan??

Ortu gw pas banget memutuskan tahun ini mo datang berkunjung, setelah dipikir2, akhir bulan 7 aja, pas liburan Mei sekolah, jadi kan bisa pergi2. Suami agak kuatir juga, coz kan baru behenti kerja, ga enak gitu ma mertua. Tapi ortu gw pengertian, lah emang kerjaannya gila2an menonton, berhenti ya ga masalah lah, bisa cari2 kerja baru. Untung juga si suami berhenti, jadi kita punya waktu banyak buat ajak2 ortu jalan2 sono sini. Alhasil 2 bulan keliling trus deh.

Akhir bulan 8, suami memutuskan buat ikutan kursus yang diselenggarakan oleh Pemerintah buat orang2 yang berhenti kerja. Syaratnya harus ikutan test n interview. Ikutan kursus ini gratis, n dapet tunjangan hidup...kan lumayan, sambil kursus bisa sambil cari2 kerjaan gitu. Tapi ternyata rencana Tuhan lain, suami gagal test, padahal dia udah yakin banget diterima, walaupun yang ngikutan test itu ada 60an orang, sementara yang diterima cuman 15 orang.
Gagal test, jadi tujuan selanjutnya ya cari cari kerja.

Dulu suami pernah kursus mandarin di China, so dia mulai cari cari kerja yang ada hubungannya dengan China, ternyata ada 1 perusahaan, tapi t4 kerjanya luar kota, sekitar 4 jam dari rumah. Pas mau daftar lewat internet, ternyata itu perusahaan uda ga buka lowongan lagi. ..ya batal deh. Mestinya banyak juga lowongan kerja yang ada hubungan dengan bahasa Chinese, tapiiii t4 kerjaannya itu jauhhh banget, kalo emang harus pindah, pasti repot, gimana dengan rumah, gimana dengan skolah anak2, pusing lagi...

Nyari2 lagi, akhirnya tanggal 12 kemarin, interview dengan 1 perusahaan. Interviewnya cuman 30 menit, sebentar banget, uda hopeless juga, niat cari2 lagi yang laen. Besoknya, pas kita mau pergi, ehhh tau2 ada telpon dari perusahaan itu, bosnya sendiri minta waktu buat interview ulang, ternyataaa diterimaaa... Kita ga kepikir interview sekali aja langsung bisa diterima kerja, padahal sekarang emang lagi susah bangettt cari kerja. Cari kerja lewat kantor tenaga kerja aja, yang apply tuh mpe ratusan oarang tiap hari datang ke situ..bener2 mujizat dari Tuhan.

Rencana Tuhan emang indah pada waktunya, coba kalo suami lulus test kursus itu, mungkin ga bisa masuk ke perusahaan ini, coba kalo suami masukin lamaran ke luar kota, mungkin hasilnya ga seperti ini. Gw bersyukur banget, suami bisa kembali bekerja setelah mpir 3 bulan istirahat di rumah n bersyukur banget t4 kerja yang baru tuh deketttt banget ma rumah, sepedaan cuman 10 menitan, ga kayak t4 kerjaan yang dulu, yang butuh 1 jam bermobil...hohoho.

Thx God for your everything

Palamut - Fish of the Month


Sunday by the Bosphorus in Kadıköy on the Asian side

It was a truly gorgeous Istanbul Sunday : blue sky, warm sun, the fishermen all out.  After dropping my airport-bound husband off at the seabus port in Kadıköy,  I dawdled along the sea  front enjoying  the people and the beautiful Bosphorus or Boğaz as it's called in Turkish, before going up into the colourful  çarşi or market area. It was almost too early for those little streets even though it was already 11.30. Weekdays or better still, Saturdays, when they are thronging with people and you are in the midst of the hustle and bustle, are fun.
The joy of this area is all the little speciality shops bursting with stuff both inside and out.
all sorts of goodies here
everything for a salad

dried tomatoes, aubergines, and peppers
Turkey is not a place where you will starve!  Here is a great place to buy fish and right now, it’s everywhere. This is very much the season for palamut or bonito,  a beautiful, shiny, firm-fleshed fish which comes in 3 sizes: small, medium, and large! I bought one small one for 13 TL which wasn't particularly cheap. Fish generally isn't cheap here. The fishmongers will prepare the fish for you in whatever way you want. I  asked for my fish to be cut into two fillets.
a sea of palamut
          
Method
§  Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F.
§  Lay the fish fillets on an ovenproof dish and drizzle a little olive oil and lemon juice over them. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add sliced lemons, tomatoes and onions as in the picture. Scatter a bit of dried thyme/kekik .
§  Cook for about 25 minutes depending on thickness.
§  Serve one half per person.  Having said that, my husband can eat a whole small palamut quite happily. Probably a medium too!
With a mixed green salad and maybe a few boiled potatoes, this is a great meal.

 
cooked and ready to eat!

Tips
1.       Cooking fish is really very easy especially as Turks don’t like their fish to be diluted by sauces. You can do what I did above with any fish. I like using the oven.
2.       This fish can also be cut into rounds and then fried. This is delicious. This shape isn't good for cooking in the oven as the bones are everywhere.
3.       Eating fresh fish is a big deal here: if Turkish friends say to you, you must come round, we’re having fish tonight, it is like bayram, there is something festive about the idea.  It also means that out comes the rakı, which is the natural accompaniment to fish, and of course mezes, so it becomes a feast.
There are tons of marvellous fish restaurants in the city, ranging from the pretty pricey to the cheap and cheerful. It’s really fun to go out for a fish meal here! Try it!