Do we really know about FOOD?

Food,INC. (毒食難肥)
(A film by Robert Kenner, Fortissimofilms)

i haven't seen this movie at HKFF'09, but there are disks now.it is very important to know what is behind 'FOOD' and vote for what we want to put into our mouths EVERYDAY.

P.S. where to find 'grass-feed' beef in HK? i have some experiences:

at Citysuper,there are 'grass-feed' beef steak (labelled) at the very bottom rack, don't miss it.

at Oliver, they don't label it and the butcher doesn't understand 'grass-feed' but he/she does understand 'organic beef steak'. (some days ago, i went there shopping as usual, i asked about it and the lady butcher got a funny look at me and answered: 'grass-feed??? humm... we have 'organic' here.' after i turned back, i heard she gossiped to her colleague aside: 'ha! grass-feed beef??? brabrabra... . ' obviously, she never thinks about what the cows are eating nowadays. or may be she still believes cow certainly eats grass as the textbook said 40 years ago? )

at Sogo, well, i don't think there is grass-feed beef but you can ask. i only found that there are beef steak labelled 'grain-feed' in the fringe and the packing even lets the stick marks look like that 'grain-feed' beef is a luxury and a very good stuff.

(no hope at Taste/Welcome, don't waste your time....wait!... i'm thinking, in the other hand, if we, the customers, ask for grass-feed beef again and again, may be those HK food markert monopolies will import some for the demand, may be. who knows? no harm to try.)

finally, there's one more thing i have to mention.the texture of grass-feed beef (i found in HK) is lean and a bit harder than grain-feed beef. but the price is cheaper and makes me feel worry less about the food security. i'll support it all my heart.

'We are what we eat.' so cliche but so god damn right.

Cast Iron pan from Ikea.cheap and fab!

My new cast iron pan is fab!!!

i brought this pan to the cashier in Ikea yesterday, bcoz the code was blurred, the cashier rogerred her onsite colleague to look at the code on rack, she spoke to the walkie talkie: pls check for me a plain black, 'damn heavy' pan. i urged to correct her: it is a 'cast iron fry pan' for good. of coz, she didn't care what i said, just like these pans are treated in Ikea as no one cares they can be sold or not for ages.

anyway, these 'damn heavy' pans only cost $79 HKD each. no matter what, it is a good bargain to have this pan at home even though for frying steaks only. 79 dollars!! what can i say?

i cooked a small portion of non-expensive beef steak to check how the pan worked. the steak was from SOGO supermarket around dozens dollars only. since it was not at the top quality, i prefered to make it well-done. i heated the pan and put a half table spoon ghee inside and then the steak. i loved the ziiiiiiii sound while my steak was frying. it came out brown and crispy. although it was well-done, the meat was still tender enough. after the meal, the pan was still a bit warm, i cleaned it under running water. it didn't stick at all. it was so easy to rub the grease and remains off. i didn't use cleaning agent at all. then i put it on the stove and reheated it for 1 minutes until it was completely dry. not much work to do actually. brilliant cast iron pan!

(P.S. cast iron pan needs to be seasoned before use. the method is as similar as chinese wok.)

Peaches Cardinal

i bought 2 peaches this evening. after dinner,i started to make a simple french dessert 'Peaches Cardinal'. it should be simple: just pour sugary raspberry purée onto the very ripe peaches. although the original recipe suggested 'raspberry puree' but i only had frozen 'mixed berries' in my fridge. i thought that raspberry anyway was among those mixed berries. the taste and the colour would be a little bit different but it made no harm. i decided to use the substitution.

everything was ready. there was no possibility to be wrong, well,well, you know, life always has something else ahead. and this time was: my peaches were totally NOT ripe, not ripe at all !

i changed my mind and got the peaches cooked with the mixed berry purée. as a result, it came out quite delicious. well, well, life always has something else ahead and it might be not bad at all.

Veggi lunch with Beetroot & lentils

It is good to have some Vegan meals among our meaty meals sometimes. today i've made my lunch with fresh beetroot and lentils, plus some olives and a piece of homemade malted bread, oh and a half glass of causal but good 'vino rosso' from Frescobaldi, why not? today is sunday, come on!

the plate is a bit messy coz i forgot to take photos until i started chewing for a few bites already. anyway, i still love the colour, it brings out an 'autumn' mood to me.

BTW, i prefer the fresh beetroot than the canned ones, the fresh ones are more chewy and taste much better. actually, i planed this lunch yesterday, so i boiled the beetroot yesterday night and let it cool down during the night. while we boil beetroot, we have to cook it in a whole piece, that means no peeling, no cutting before hand. we just need to wash off the dirt on the skin, that's it. otherwise, we have to deal with a horrible red color mess in our kitchen, no kidding. and eveytime when i cut the root, i do lay a piece of plastic wrap or a used clean plastic bag on the cut board and wear a plastic gloves. it's not a must but if i were you, i'll do the same. well, you will see.

Lentils is easy to deal with. the most simple way is just wash the amount of them you need, then boiled them in salted water until they are soft and then add them into anything you want, a soup, a salad etc. easy job.

one more thing i want to say: my dearest friends, please don't try to order a chinese dish "羅漢齋" for me when i say i need to have a vegan's day at the dinner table. sorry, my friend, that thing is the most horrible dish in the chinese veggi's world. for god sake, who wants a dark, oily, soybean-sauce-taste-only dish? my goddness, we have a lot of good things to eat from our mother nature and they are totally fresh, colourful, tasty and healthy.

enjoy vegan's meals!

Potato chips cookies

It's inspired by a youtube video that a lady who made cookies with potato chips! I love salty and sweet sparkling in my mouth at the same time. The concept of "potato chips + cookies" really hits me.

I just did my version as the normal cookies way but reduced flour and replaced it with smashed potato chips (honestly speaking, i used the left-over potato chips, well ok, be frankly, it was a more-than-a-few-days-leftover.)

I could't believe the result. It was soooo good. while i was dealing with the batter, i could feel that it was going to be perfectly right. I just fell in love with it at the first bite. I used the "70% less saturated fat & 100% less cholesterol" margarine and that "lightly salted & reduced fat" potato chips, i keep telling myself that it's ok to eat one more, or may be another more.

Now, it has been 3 days since i've made those cookies. They're still crispy. i definitely will do it again and again (when i have potato chips left-over every time).

Chunks‧Chunks‧Chunks

It seems that Hongkongers don't like to eat big cookies as americans do. They prefer smaller and (of course) less sugar and butter version. Alors, i make my cookies into bite-size-chunks most of the time. It's kind of attractive to most of my colleagues (i mean those ladies), not some male colleagues, who don't mind sugar and butter, sometimes complain: not sweet enough! so, once a while i bake those sugary and buttery cookies to comfort their taste buds, but not today.

Here i attach some photos of the chunks i made today and some days before.

Grissini and bread (with Yogurt)

what a harvest night!

last night while i was preparing the ingredients to do grissini and bread again, i found that the milk spoiled (hey! the expiry date should be 13/8, how come?? ). ok, well, i replaced the milk with yogurt. i didn't know it was going to work or not, just tried an error. finally, the bread was soft, the grissini were crispy, the super small baguettes were soft inside and crispy outside. all of them were full of wheat and sesame favour. i was soooo happy.

P.S. i checked with some websites, the "sour milk" can be used as "soda bread", but the "spoiled milk" should be thrown away. my carton of milk didn't smell sour, it just turned "tofu-like". so, i decided to throw it away to avoid food poisoning.

簡單就是快樂的Bluette's Grissini

快樂可以用甚麼來衡量？一擲千金買來的LV，還是隨手拈來的一枝Grissini？我選擇我的Grissini。用600g麵粉，一匙Dried Active Yeast，一匙糖，大半杯水，一隻雞蛋，一盒鮮奶，一些Extra Virgin Olive Oil，一些塩巴和半天的時間，我的麵團做出了超過兩打的Grissini，一條小型吐司和一個Pizza。

搓Grissini時本想加進白芝麻，在廚房裡找翻天，還是不見那包白芝麻，應該是前幾個月搬家時，看見它過期，所以丟了吧。其實乾巴巴的芝麻過了期根本不礙事，怎麼把它丟了呢？反正當時我就是丟得性起，把所有過期產品都一概廢棄了吧。算了，不想為了一包白芝麻大費周章下樓去買，隨便加進粗塩巴，應該也很可口。出爐後才又想起，哎呀！冰箱裡不是有一塊Parmigiano Reggiano嗎？

生活不也是這樣嗎？後悔說如果當初可以這様那樣，事情應該會更好。其實那又有甚麼關係呢？當下我正啃著的Grissini，除了最基本的食材外，甚麼裝飾都沒有，但一樣好吃到翻了天。

手打Dough做法：
這個是最基本的麵團，可以做麵包，又可以作為Pizza的底皮，還可以把多出來的麵團做成Grissini。我都喜歡用手打，有拌麵機器的朋友一定都會做基本麵團，就不必往下看了。

Dried Active Yeast 1 tsp
糖 1 tsp
水　150ml ※50ml熱水+100ml室溫水 (我是用tap water)
(把糖放水中，搞拌。加進yeast，搞拌至水變米黃色混濁狀，放溫暖處待15分鐘。Yeast會膨脹成兩倍那麼高。)

Unbleached White Flour/ AP Flour 600g
雞蛋 一隻
鮮奶 (236ml) 一盒 ※要稍為溫暖，並同時留一些作為掃光用。
Extra Virgin Olive Oil　2 tsps
塩巴少許
Melted Butter 1/4磚　(喜歡有butter香氣的可以加，怕變胖的話可以不加)

(1) 先做好Yeast
(2) 把麵粉倒入大碗，並撥成一個井／火山的模樣
(3) 在麵粉井口／火山口倒入整杯Yeast、雞蛋、鮮奶、Olive Oil、塩巴、butter(optional)
(4) 用木匙或叉子從中央開始搞拌，使濕料和麵粉拌和，最後略成球狀
(5) 在工作平面撒上麵粉，取出麵團搓成有筋性的平滑粉團 (搓10分鐘左右)，弄成圓形，放在抹了油的碗內，蓋上微濕布，待發酵10分鐘
(6) 取出已發大兩倍的麵團，略搓一次，再放回碗內待發酵1.5小時
(7) 取出麵團，切出你心目中的份量，做成麵包、Pizza底或Grissini即可

如要製作特別口味的Grissini，搓製時在平面上撒上喜歡的口味拌著搓，如芝麻、海塩等等

烤Grissini：

預熱烤箱180°C，在Grissini上掃牛奶，放入烤箱，大概烤個20分鐘，取出在網架上放涼即可食用。
(因Grissini比較快熟，各家烤箱熱度又略有不同，為免over-cooked，要經常察看進度喔。)

Nutella Muffins

Tea time到了。來個coffee muffin吧!因為冰箱裡剩下的orange muffins已不太新鮮, 不如動手做算了。只要把水/milk換成咖啡就變成coffee muffin 了。我深愛的 Nutella 簡直是人間美味, 也加到muffin裡吧, done! 就這樣放進已預熱的烤箱,15分鐘後的現在, 我又有新鮮的muffin 吃了!

Nutella Mufiins x 6

Wet ingredients:

Milk/Water/coffee half cups (60g)

Egg 1
vegetable oil 2 tsps

Essense oil 1 tsp

Dry ingredients:

Flour 1 cup

Sugar 5 tsps (or less)

Salt 1/4 tsp

Baking Powder 1 tsp

(1) 一個碗混合濕食材, 另一碗混合乾食材
(2) 濕食材混入乾食材中, 略拌, 不見乾乾的麵粉即成

(3) 用湯匙把混合物放入Muffin 盤中,每一個"洞"只放一半

(4) 用小湯匙把Nuella 舖放在每個"洞"的混合物上

(5) 在Nutella上添加餘下的混合物

(6) 整盤放進已預熱200°C烤箱,烤15分鐘

p.s.

--我試過用Self-raising flour代替All purpose flour, 用量一樣, 但不用加Baking Powder, 成品的口感都沒差。

--其實用現成的盒裝Muffin mixture 也成, 但我覺得自己mix這樣比較便宜, 而且Muffin真的很好做咧!

--還有, 把milk/water 換成coffee也成, Nutella配coffee口味真的很好吃啊!

--Essense oil 我是加了Vanilla口味, 家裡有甚麼口味就放甚麼吧。

我們常說人工食品不好, 可是有些人工食品我們總是捨不得放棄,因為味道其實是一種抽象的回憶, 優質人工食品的穩定口味為我們提供了回憶的渠道。

Nutella, 這個世界就是不能沒有你。

Nutella Fan Club: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/nutella

特價牛肉做Meat Ball

有時候到信譽好的超市殺到當天到期的特價好牛肉, 怎辦? Citysuper的肉類比一般超市有質素 (我覺得嘞), 也比較貴, 所以有時候我會把那裡的特價牛肉做成meatball, 然後冰起來, 每次要簡單做個meatball義大利麵之類的話, 很快就可以上桌了。 說真的, 不到250克的澳洲organic絞牛肉由港幣60多元減至50多元, 量不多, 其實沒幾天就吃完了, 唉, 雖說是減價品,還是很貴咧。