Derwish
Last Saturday I made a trip to Derwish on 60 Bussorah Street with two friends. I was excited! In the latest issue of Her World magazine, there was an article on interesting shops and restaurants in Kampong Glam. One of the restaurants featured was Derwish. As I was still desperately seeking a good Turkish/ Middle Eastern restaurant in Singapore, the restaurant caught my attention and left me craving for grilled meat and hummus. I immediately grabbed my phone and messaged my two friends! Within a couple of days, I was sitting in the pretty restaurant. Derwish is located in front of the magnificent Sultan Mosque and directly opposite Deli Moroccan (one of my favourite budget eatery in Singapore.)
Food for Thought
Recently I had a really good brunch. Food for Thought serves up delicious and scrumptious all-day breakfast and after 12pm, lunch. There are pasta and risotto, all of which I have yet to try. The breakfast options are so yummy, I never bother looking past the second page. Breakfast options can be found here. I always have the Full Works. It is heart stopping, literally, with its buttery toasted brioche, deep fried chicken sausage, cute round harsh browns and others which I promise will leave any cardiologist wince in pain. Food for Thought also supports several causes. Sorry, the food is soo good, I never bother going to find out what they are and as along as the food remains good, I will be back often.
Red Velvet Cupcake Part 3
Here it is again. Another Red Velvet. However, this time I tweaked the recipe to suit what was left in my fridge and Billy’s Bakery one-bowl-method which I am so into right now. The colour of the cake was divine. Perfect. Vibrant and bright red. Texture wise, felt exactly like velvet. See for yourself.
I topped the cupcake with Peanut Butter Frosting. Leftover from my last baking adventure. The frosting is a little too rich for the cupcake so the next time I am going to use the traditional cream cheese frosting.
Recipe after the jump.
Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes
Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes (SCC) are everywhere and I decided to read up a bit and try it out. I was most inspired by Cupcake Royale in Settle, USA, and absolutely love their piping-bag-free frosting technique. For this cupcake, I used a combination of two recipes. Magnolia Bakery’s Chocolate cupcakes and a Salted Caramel Frosting recipe from Chow.com because it was the easiest and did not require eggs (I am all for low cost baking.) However, I did tweak the ingredients a bit as several were too expensive for me. Namely Buttermilk and Heavy Cream. Heavy Cream was way too costly for me and for the amounts I was using, it did not justify the price tag. Buttermilk is just a waste for money considering you can use milk and simply add lemon juice or white vinegar.
Also although I did use all the ingredients and amount set by Magnolia, I decided to try something new and used Billy Bakery’s one-bowl method. Watch the video on Martha Stewart and you will know what I mean. It is very different from Magnolia’s technique of first creaming the butter and sugar. What I like most about the Billy technique is that it minimized a lot of washing up for me to do. 
Texture wise the Billy method was not as moist but no fear, the cake was still moist and tasty. The cake was similarly delicious. I loved how velvety and soft it was. And I will definitely use this method for my future cupcakes. Furthermore, I left in some burnt caramel for some bite to the frosting. A delightful treat.
Recipe after the jump as well as my thoughts and feelings.
Momofuku’s Pan Roasted Dry Aged Steak
*Phew!* What a night. I made Momofuku’s Pan-Roasted Dry Aged Steak accompanied with Mac & Cheese for dinner. I am officially exhausted. Momofuku’s Dry Aged Steak was such a delight. A lot of effort but worth it. Before this, I believed in the simple salt and pepper seasoning, pan roasting and serve it straight with some Edmond Fallot French Dijon Mustard.
This recipe is a little different. At the end, the steak needs to be ‘bathed’ in butter, garlic, thyme and shallots. The sweetness of the shallot and garlic (one of my favourite) gave the steak a lot more depth and flavour. The recipe is simple. Although I greatly encourage decreasing the time in the oven if you have an extremely good quality pan (like mine.) I shortened my oven time to 5 minutes and it was still a bit too well done. Recipe after the jump.
My newest dream. First Lady of America.
Magnolia Bakery, NYC, closed its doors for Michelle Obama and her girls. I want to be First Lady of USA! Which then involves me marrying an American. Not just any American man, but an American politician. Cue Edwards, Spitzer. I think I rather not.
My recipe books. Still building.
Today, I decided to be closer to be babies and moved all my books from the hall into my room. I moved the unnecessary dictionaries out (who needs them when you have dictionary.com?) I reckon they look pretty handsome together. Also, I just bought a book online. Now I just have to wait 30 days whilst Amazon ships it from good ole America to me.
I have a wide range. Two from Jamie O. I brought them back from England. His recipes are simple and fun but taste wise, pretty weak. Not as flavourful as I hoped. However, his are great to learn basic cooking. Marie Claire Kitchen, a 5.1 pound giant I brought back from England. I tried several recipes. Hummus and Roast Chicken, which both turned out heavenly. Meat by Adrian Richardson is so educational. I bought it for work (I work in a supermarket) and it was filled with the most amazing meat recipes. As well as brilliant basic cooking instructions. It definitely led to me understand and appreciate meat more in depth. However there were several I am unable to cook due to the unavailability of rabbit in the shops here. There are also great side dishes recipes in there. Feast by Nigella, Dolce Vita by David Rocco and Cooking with Curtis given to me by my sis (she works for a travel & leisure network.)
Banana Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting
I am back! It has been a while my fellow readers. I have been a hermit the past few months and to be quite frank, I lost that spark in me when I first started this blog. But recently, I felt it come back. I feel rejuvenated and more than ever want to bake; which just what I did today. A delicious Banana Cupcake with Peanut Butter Frosting. I nicked this recipe off Bon Appetit. Ever since Hummingbird, banana-flavoured cakes have been a soft spot of mine. Then I saw this recipe and knew I wanted to make use of my (new) Kitchenaid to recreate it. The cake was moist and I love the sour cream addition. The frosting, on the other hand, I have only one word to describe it. Divine. It was so smooth, light and peanut butter taste so subtle. I topped it off with some roasted almonds and I can not be any happier with the results. Recipes and more pictures after the jump.
