GINGKO NUT CHICKEN SOUP

Pour kicap (soy sauce) into the milk to turn it into soy milk to feed  it to the chicken that plays with onions and rolls in rolled oats.

Which translates to :

Kicap (soy sauce)
Milk
Soy milk
Chicken
Onion
Rolled oats

That was my grocery list memorized according to Kevin Trudeau's mega memorizng method that I learnt years ago when I thought I still had one (a memory).

It took me a good 3 minutes of hard concentration to come up with that useful utter nonsense. It's hard work.

Which translates to :

I have very little willing memory.

So when Terri of Hunger hunger had so generously given me some gingko nuts when we met on her way home from China I thought they would make lovely plugs for all those holes that my brain has been complaining about.

I have made the soup three times since. It is simply chicken broth cooked with some ginger, any kind of vegetable, some tofu and of course the memory enhancing gingko nuts. A simple, light and healthy soup with a slight bitter undertone from the gingko nuts. All in all quite lovely. And I have finished the batch of nuts that Terri had given me.

When I first began cracking the shell, ejecting the nutmeat, blanching the nutmeat in hot boiling water to ease the skinning of the thin brown skin, splitting the nuts length wise to remove the bitter young shoot within, I found it more fiddly then I had expected. But I was determined to make it.

Eventually, as the following batch of nuts sat and waited their turn over the next few days, ejecting and peeling them became much easier. Terri had also told me that it was not necessary to rid it of the bitter shoot within. But being rather bitter intolerant I thought it would be better if I did.

The gingko nuts were very tender when cooked. They were rather creamy and soft and rather bland with a slight bitter edge to it.

The soup was very easy to make. I have adapted it from a recipe for a lovely clear chicken soup with leeks from a Vogue Travel and Entertainment magazine.

Please note that the gingko nut is toxic if eaten raw. It must be cooked.

The recipe................ serves about 4

1 medium free range chicken (kampung chicken), whole
3 slices ginger
leeks, white part trimmed to 1 cm lengths and green part just cut roughly, washed and rinsed well

1 large onion, peeled
1 small carrot

1 cake tofu, cut into 1 inch cubes
10 -12 gingko nuts, shell cracked, brown skin peeled and bitter shoot removed, if preferred

Place whole chicken into a pot large enough for it. Cover with water. Put in the ginger, whole onion, and washed green part of the leeks and a carrot.


Bring to a boil and then simmer for 40 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Add salt. Remove scum, the green leeks, carrot and onion.

You have basically made a chicken broth.

Remove the chicken, drain well and keep it aside on a board.


Add tofu, the chopped white part of the leeks, prepared gingko nuts and bring the broth to a boil and then simmer very gently for about 10 to 15 minutes. 


Meanwhile, the chicken may be deboned and the meat removed in shreds or it may be cut up into its parts with a pair of kitchen scissors at the leg joints, wing joints and the breasts cut into 2 or 3 parts with a knife. Arrange in serving bowls and pour the soup over the chicken to serve, dividing the tofu, leeks and gingko nuts between the individual bowls.


Serve hot. Food for the brain.

CANDIED KUMQUATS ON AN ORANGE CHEESECAKE

Kumquats are citrus fruits that are as deliciously sweet as they are sweetly fragrant.

They look very much like over ripe kalamansi limes. And that's what I thought they were when Terri of Hunger Hunger first introduced them to me.

As soon as I got home from meeting Terri I ate a ripened one and allowed the rest to shed their last tinge of green over the next few days before I turned them into candied fruit. Because, as delicious as they were, I felt they were deserving of being displayed and admired in the form of an elegant dessert.

 

It was in a beautiful blog by Vera of Baking Obsession where I saw this beautifully elegant cheesecake topped with a kumquat jewelled crown. It sang to me......so I yielded. 

The cheesecake was creamy, dense and rich with only a slight orange flavour since I had omitted using the rind of an orange as stated for in the recipe. But it was delicious nevertheless. And the kumquats? They topped it all.

Candied kumquats are ridiculously easy to make especially since I relented to Simply Recipes' version because it required less boiling time.

Unfortunately, when the 10 minutes of boiling was up the kumquats were not yet as translucent as I had hoped they would be. I faltered. But not trustung my own instincts I took them off the heat and drained them of the syrup. I bottled them and chilled them in the refrigerator while I made the cake.

And when, later, I read Vera's version of candied kumquats it made me wish that I had done as she did. Boiled them for 30 minutes instead of 10 until they turned truly translucent, looked preciously fragile with a sparkling crystal-like quality to it. 

But it was done. So I proceeded and, as you can see, it is not as translucently beautiful as it could have been. But please........ do imagine it to be. 

I may also mention that I halved the recipe, it being very rich, and divided the halved mixture between 2 4 inch pans so that I could give one away to avoid the family consuming too much cake.

The recipe...........by Vera of Baking Obsession

For the candied kumquats

2 cupswater

2 cups sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

9 oz kumquats, or 25 medium, thinly sliced crosswise and seeds removed (I used a toothpick to push the seeds out)

Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean. Add the bean. (I used vanilla extract). Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and then add the kumquats and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 30 to 35 minutes until the slices are translucent. Drain, place kumquats in a bowl and add 1/4 cup of the syrup to it.Keep aside.

Return the remaining syrup to a medium heat and let it simmer until it reduces to about 1/4 cup. About 8 minutes.

The Crust ......( I had made my own without measurements but this is Vera's recipe.......

2 cups vanilla wafer cookie crumbs (from about 9 oz cookies and finely ground in a food processor)

1/3 cup packed golden brown sugar

7 T butter, melted

Set the oven ad 170 C. Line a 9 inch spring form pan with parchment paper. The pan should have 23/4 inch high sides.

Combine all above ingredient for crust. Mix well with fingers and pat and press into pan and up the sides about an inch. Bake for about 20 minutes until the crust is golden brown and set. 

Wrap the bottom half of the pan well with heavy duty aluminium foil so that water from the water bath does not leak in when baking. 

(I did not use a water bath and the cheesecake turned out perfectly baked).

(I used 2, 4 inch removable bottom pans, unlined and pressed the crumb crust only on the bottom and did not bake them). I may, also, have omitted to mention that lazy is my middle name.

The Cheesecake............

1 cup fresh orange juice 

1 cup sugar, divided

2 T finely grated orange peel (please do add for beter flavour)

4 8 oz packages cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup sour cream

3 T all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

Combine 1/4 of the sugar and orange peel in the saucepan. Rub with your fingers until the sugar is moist and aromatic. (I wished I had an unwaxed orange so I could have done this. I suggest that you do not omit this step at all). 

Add orange juice and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat and simmer about 8 minutes until the syrup is reduced to 3/4 cup. Cool completely.

With an electric mixer beat cream cheese, remaining 3/4 cup sugar until creamy and smooth. Add in flour, salt and eggs one at a time. Combine well. Finally add cooled orange syrup/juice. Stir well to combine.

Assemble........

Pour the cheesecake batter over  the crumb bottom. Place the pan in a roasting pan and fill with hot water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until softly set about for 1 to 11/4. When baked leave the cake in the oven for an hour to cool down and to prevent cracking the top. Chill overnight and loosen the edges with a knife the next day and unmould.

Arrange the candied kumquats in circular rows on the top. Serve.

 

MEETING UP

It was probably like a blind date. I can't say because I had never been on one before. But I imagine that that was how one would feel. Excited, anxious, anticipating, 'imagining', and somewhat unsure. I felt quite silly too. For being excited, anxious, anticipating, 'imagining', and somewhat unsure.

I turned and saw Terri, from Hunger Hunger, an authority on Chinese cooking, stride up to me with a big smile on her face while I had my mobile still glued to my ear. It was all I could do to smile broadly back. I can't quite recall exactly what went through my mind at the time but I knew almost at once what went through Terri's.


"I thought you would be fat!" she beamed and we laughed while I made a mental note to check my blog for possible mis-impressions.

We hugged. She was as lovely as I had imagined her to be because I had seen some photos of her on her blog. Only very much prettier. But as vivacious in person as in writing.


And that was how we met, Terri and I, after almost a year of commenting on each other's blogs as one foodie to another and with some email exchanges in between. And when she arrived in KL, a few calls, some dialing of wrong numbers on my part and some texting we finally met in person. Terri was on transit on her way back to Sabah, The Land Below the Wind, in East Malaysia, after a holiday in Guilin, China.


Without further ado Terri opened up a plastic bag exposing some bright little kumquats, some gingko nuts, a much pined-for-by-me coconut shredder from the Philippines and finally, very unexpectedly, a gorgeous hand-painted miniature glass bottle from China.


We stood in the middle of the hotel lobby, our heads together, leaning over the circumference of a huge marble topped table, Terri giving me instructions on how to cook the gingko nuts and then pointing out the features of the exquisite hand-painted miniature and I, with pleasure, soaking it all in. She felt like an old friend whom I have not met in years.

Then I met her lovely family, a husband, 2 sons and a beautiful daughter and a family friend who was holidaying with them. I felt like I knew them so well because she talks constantly of her family in her blog with a deep and exasperating love that only mothers can understand.


We sat and talked for close to an hour. About our children, our blogging, our photography, our families, our mothers...... woman talk ...... I just wished we had had more time for some coffee and cake. And with each other.

Finally I felt that I couldn't keep her any longer. I knew her family were waiting to have her back. So we parted. Our voices trailing off with blogger chatter until finally I headed towards the towering hotel doors and she towards her family. A final wave and it was over.

For me, it was a great time. I hope we meet again. Thank you Terri for your friendship and warmth. :)

BLACK 'N WHITE SESAME SEED CRISPS

What do people do when they're hungry?

They come down the stairs with dangling arms, purposeful eyes and an expectant look. Then they make that penultimate sign for hunger. One palm flat over abs, moving in a circle. Over the spot within which that bottomless receptacle for food resides. That and a dopey smile.

Another might stomp down and announce his hunger. Sometimes with a guilty look.

All this can and may take place within 1 hour of a heavy meal.

What do I do? I pretend not to see all of this. I stare straight ahead into the computer screen and make a wish. A wish that I could climb into that other world to crouch and hide until all of this ferocious hunger subsides.


Another trick to do would be to pick at my brains and pull something out.

If I was lucky it would be edible, low in fat, simple, healthy, and as much as possible baked not fried, crisp, sugar free yet acceptable to these desperate creatures that I amass in my home.


So it was under all that duress that I came up with these sesame seed crisps. And to make it look a little funky (whatever that means) I made them black and white.

Sometimes miracles do happen.



These crisps were made from a tortilla recipe I had posted a while back. I made the tortillas as per the recipe. Then I snipped each tortilla up into triangles, getting 12 triangular pieces from each tortilla.

I placed them on a baking sheet in one layer, brushed them with egg white and sprinkled black and then white sesame seeds over them. I pushed them into the oven and baked them until they turned a light golden brown and were as crisp and brittle as dried bones.

Really great with the chutney below or any other dipping that you can conjure up.

This is open to endless possible combinations of toppings or seasonings. You could sprinkle salt and cayenne pepper on them or cinnamon and sugar or some cajun spice or even curry powder.

Run wild run free. Thats what I say.


The recipe........................makes 8 tortillas and 96 sesame seed crisps....

2 cups plain flour or whole wheat, sifted
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 T butter, softened
1/2 cup warm water

I egg, white only

some black and white sesame seeds

Rb in the butter into flour until like very fine breadcrumbs. Add warm water and stir with a fork to bring the dough together and hten use your fingers to knead until it becomes a smooth dough.

Divide into 8 pieces and let the dough rest covered with a clean dish cloth for at lest 10 to 15 minutes.

Once rested, take 1 piece and roll out into a ver very thin circle with a rolling pin. The circle should be about 8 - 9 inches in diameter. Cook the tortillas in a lightly oiled pan over a medium heat until light brown spots appear and the dough is cooked. Finish off all the 8 pieces of dough in this way.

Then take each piece and cut into half and then quarters and then cut each quarter into 3 pieces. Place in one layer on an ungreased and unlined baking tray.

Break and egg, and taking only the white, whisk teh egg white lightly to loosen it up. Using a brush, brush each triangle with egg white and then sprinkle the pieces with sesame seed, black and white or black OR white. Your choice.

Bake 10 to 15 minutes in 160 C oven. It doesnt take very long to brown so check after 5 minutes just in case your oven is too hot. They should be really nice and crisp!

Enjoy with a chutney or a spicy peanut butter dip or a babaganoush.