Aloe Vera

After cutting into cubes, wash with hot water to remove stickiness 

Boil 30 min. And throw the water away. 

Boil aloe Vera and rock sugar in enough water to cover the aloe Vera. When rock sugar dissolves, turn off fire. 

糖水 - 雪梨润肺汤

Xue Li Run Fei Tang

Dried figs

Dried pear

Snow fungus

Sha Shen

Nan Bei Xing, and Dried Pipa

Happy birthday

Another year older, another year.

A light fresh cream cake from our favorite cakery Prima Deli. The amount of sweetness is just right for those who do not have a very sweet tooth. 

Strawberry classic cream cake. 

Marmalade Pantry @ Stables

At 55 Fairways Drive. Nestled amongst stables and fields and riding schools. One can also see a couple of horses up close - white, black and brown beauties. 

The trip inwards to faraway Fairways Drive was interesting. The place pretty and that made up for the lacklustre but visually appealing afternoon tea. 

PS Cafe at Dempsey

A birthday lunch  

Great food and great ambience. 

We had,

- tomato soup with sheep feta cheese and pesto. 

- turkey cranberry sandwich that comes with a green salad with asparagus and beans. 

- BBQ chicken salad with cous cous in orange vinaigrette, wolf berries, chicory veg, kale

- double chocolate cake. 

Buttery sourdough rolls

Success at first try!

They were fluffy to boot. 

Recipe from King Arthur Flour makes good use of "unfed starter". 

Raspberry and white chocolate natural yeast bread

Success! My first wild yeast bread!

Making the sponge early in the morning at 8am:

L

After proofing in fridge for 7hrs. Folded in thirds and repeated :

After second proof for 3hrs at room temperature :

Into the oven :

How it looks once cooled down :

Texture improved by the next morning :

100g refreshed starter

100ml water

50ml water

10g sugar

25g veg oil (I prefer lesser than this)

5g salt

250g bread flour 

3/4 punnet of fresh raspberries

30g white chocolate

Mix wet ingredients, starter and flour. It will be sticky. Add raspberries and white chocolate chips and mix. Cover and let proof for 2-3 hrs at room temperature. Then cover and place into fridge for 7-10hrs. Remove from fridge and fold the dough into thirds, repeat thirds. Then shape and stretch sides of dough to form a ball to create surface tension. Then elongate it and place into a proofing basket and cover and proof for 2-3 hrs at room temperature. 

Preheat oven. 

Bake 220 degree Celsius for 15 min then lower temperature to 180 degree Celsius for 20 min till crust is golden brown. Let cool to room temperature before slicing. 

Natural starter - raisin yeast water

Sterilised jar 

Boiled then cooled down water, 250ml

Raisins, 100g

Every day, open the lid to let in air then close it and shake gently. 

Depending on room temperature, the yeast water should be ready in 3-7 days. 

Day 0

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Some fizz ...

Day 4

End of Day 5

Preparing the starter - 

Feed 1 : 

100g strained raisin yeast water

100g bread flour 

In 3 hrs

In another 4.5 hrs 

Once the mix has doubled or tripled in volume (at room temperature), you can start to do feed 2.

Feed 2 :

100g of the starter (discard the rest)

100ml water

100g bread flour

2g salt (I use slightly less)

Mix well and keep at room temperature till the starter doubles or triples in volume. And you can go for third feed. 

Feed 3:

Same steps as feed 2

Once the starter doubles or triples in volume, you can use 100g of it for baking   Most recipes using natural starters use 100g starter. 

Keep 100g of the remaining starter to sustain for future bakes. Same steps as feed 2. After two hrs or so (about double), you can keep in the fridge and feed it every week using the steps at feed 2. When you need to bake, you need to refresh it (feed it) and keep at room temperature to double/ triple it.