tori's fans are deluded!

yesterday, i was recounting my experiences at the tori amos concert, hoping it was a nightmare created by my own senses... and then, i found out bjork will be coming over in january! (so will have to queue up on Nov 2)

after the bad tori experience just a few days ago, i am starting to have reservations about another concert of another well-loved artist of mine...

would this future encounter tarnish my good "childhood" musical memories like it did for me at the recent tori's?

back to tori - or should i say clyde (one of the doll posses)...

the Sept 24 at the SOH was a disaster (for me) - contrary to reviews of other fans on"undented"... <-- i was really surprised! not a negative review in sight!

well... here is mine ((slightly?) negative reveiw)...

the acoustics were unsatisfactory - soooooo loud... this wasn't helped by clyde / tori's delivery either, cos all the songs have absolutely no variations in volume (where are the pp and the ff???) ... all songs with no discrimiation were belted out hard!

this included the beloved "cloud on my tongue" - why was it sung at the same tempo all the way through??? v disappointed... at the moment i thought it might have been the bad acoustics... but i didn't think so now...

the song choices were not my fave either... may be because i am not accustomed to her american doll posse pieces... but i was not the biggest fan of the bee keeper either...

the last concert i went was tori's hammersmith appollo original sinsulaity concert... and boy, that was way better... (i don't think she had the band there... i can't remb) ... the thing i remb was that "silent all these years" ( couldn't believe she played that for encore!) nearly moved me to tears...

i wish her band would take a backseat and let her and her Bo shine!

** i was sad to say that tori didn't do a fan's request segment or a "covers" segment!!! this should be compulsory!**

Mooncake Making Episode 3: Traditional MC - putting it together!

this year is my 1st year of homemade mooncakes... traditional mooncake making surely has been v time consuming... the whole process started with the salted eggs a month ago (actually not lengthy enough, and next year i'll have to start 2-3 months b4 so that the yokes would have matured on time)...

mooncake syrup making could be started well in advanced too... according to some websites, it could be made 1 year in advance! for the syrupy taste to develope!
this is my batch of mooncake syrup - the bottle is enough for 4 batches of MC!! (18 large MC each batch)

mooncake syrup recipe (with my own modifications, makes about 800g syrup)
600g raw sugar (gives nice brown colour)
400g water
juice of 1/2 lemon
2-3 tbsp treacle (gives even darker, nicer brown colour)
heat all and reduce to syrupy consistency
add treacle near the end

after making 3 batches / 47 mooncakes i still have enough syrup for another batch (of 18)!!

mooncake fillings too could be made in advanced and keep in fridge or even freezer... this time around i went abit overboard and made 4 kinds of filling (doubling the measurements of the recipes)...
here i have (clockwise) - lotus seed paste, mungbean paste, yam paste, chestnut paste...

mooncake filling / paste recipe (makes enough for 16-18 mooncakes)
500g dried beans or dried lotus seeds or dried chestnuts soaked overnight
raw sugar - 130g - 400g
peanut oil - 170-350 mL
microwave or boil dried stuff in water until tender so that it could be mashed - in food processor or ricer
mix in raw sugar and peanut oil - amount depends on the ingredient (can be found on cooking websites or just adjust according to one's gut feeling)
fry in wok until water has evaporated and filling / paste thickens (judge consistency according to gut feeling as well)

now it is time to do the portion that cannot be done in advance...
mooncake dough is v hard to make!! slight changes in portions of ingredients could turn a perfect batch into a disaster!

mooncake skin recipe (recipe modified by me, enough to make 18 large mooncakes)
350g plain flour (low gluten)
60 g - 80g peanut oil
1 1/4 tsp lye water or alkaline water (could be found in only some chinese groceries, it's actually illegal as a retail food additive in south australia, lucky i found it in NSW)
230g mooncake syrup
mix all the wet ingredients together
mix in flour
knead dough, should be just slightly sticky
cover with clingwrap and rest for 1-2 hours before using

when the dough is ready, it should be pliable but not sticky to your hands or latex gloves
a note on using latex gloves - they expand!!! after contacting oily stuff... don't be alarm that one's hands appeared to be shrinking in the gloves while slaving away kneading mooncake dough...

... must keep x-s dough under clingwrap at all times, a dried out piece of dough gives flaky mooncake skins... and wet dough sticks to MC mold like no tomorrow! don't do it!

roll it flat...

add a homemade salted egg yoke in the middle of a ball of filling (eg lotus seed paste here)

salted egg update

after a month of waiting, the homemade salted eggs were crack-opened... about 1/2 were nice a matured with hard golden yokes, but the other 1/2 were still abit runny!

the moral of the story is to start salting eggs at least 2 months b4 and don't be light-handed on the salt!

... it is time to roll the filling ball inside the MC dough...

you know your dough is good when this step takes no time at all... but when it starts to break everywhere...

DO NOT do what i have done and roll the MC ball into flour before molding... instead just lightly dust one's hands with flour and then pat the dough b4 molding... otherwise the finished MC will be flaky like shedding dandruff!

molding is another step that will let you know the dough is good or shite!

in order to avoid dough sticking into mold - try and oil the mold 1st with a little peanut oil everywhere... and lightly dust the MC ball with flour...

believe me... stuck MC ball in mold is no fun getting out! (plus the filling would be wasted in the process)

pressing and wacking! 1) press on top 2) wack once or twice on all sides... and then MC should come out...

this came out easy but too much flour!! don't do this! remember shedding dandruff - not a good look!

mooncake baking

180 celcius for 10 mins

rest for 10 mins outside oven

brush on egg wash (egg + water + oil)

bake at 150-160 celcius for 10-15 mins (or until skin a golden brown)

finished!! and have to be rested until room temp...

they have to be rested for 3 days for the oil to ooooooooze out

all labelled...

and wrapped... ready to be off loaded to good familys...

... close up on the flakiness...

mungbean with (squashed) egg yoke

47 mooncakes (some are given away already...)

nutritional facts

each mooncake contains approx 17mL peanut oil (i've used 1800mL for 47 mooncakes)

with yam filling being the most oily!!

and the best bargain kitchen gadgets around - lid-like ikea splatter guard, ikea mixing bowl (can double up as a singing bowl and has a good resonance and v pretty to look at too!)

what's for dindin at cafe LF?

at cafe LF, the following delish items have been recently served...
fresh organic veggies from our v own veggie patch 1...
turned into aromatic savoy cabbage & butter beans tomato stew...
... also stir-fry snow peas, radish, corn & german sausage & garlic pumpkin laced with almond and radish- leaves

for dessert... a second batch of homemade GTRB bing -pei mooncake...

Mooncake Making Episode 2: Bing Pei RBGT mooncake (red bean green tea)

snowflake has come back from her epic holiday, and she has brought back with her my long awaited mooncake mould (HKD $30, instead of AUD$25 here)... so i have ventured out into mooncake making mode - and began mooncake making mark II... i started off with home make red bean paste (yes! from scratch - using 450g red bean, 350g sugar, 240mL peanut oil). first, i soaked the red bean overnight, then soaked it more the next morning with hot water. then, i microwaved the beans in water just covering them for 10-min cycles. i did a cycle then rest, then another and rest again, allwoing the beans to soften. at the end of 2-3 cycles, the beans were soft but i had to pick out the non-soaked ones before i blended it with sugar and oil in the food processor. then, it was time to stir-fry on high heat. bubbling away was great gushes of steam and the red bean paste condensed and reduced in volume - it took me 15-20 mins of elbow grease... the yummy paste was left to cool down (and it hardened abit more)...

now... it was time for the "bing pei"... and to complement the red bean filling, i did a green tea bing pei. first it was rubbing 160g icing sugar with 25g soft butter to make it into bread crumb consistency... 2 tsp of green tea powder is then dissolved into 175mL warm water and filtered and added into the sugar mix. in another bowl, there was 110g kao fan (COOKED glutinous rice flour - not the standard g r flour!), milk powder 2-3 tbsp, 50g cornflour. the dry bits were mixed into the wet bit and a ball of green dough formed. this was let stand for 10 min, then microwaved in 1 min burst (and kneaded after each time) until cooked - took me 3 cycles...

then it is time to roll a small ball of green dough - less than 80g...

and a ball of red bean paste accompanying...

RBP was embedded into the green dough (v tricky to make it even!)... and coated with dry kao fan...

... before moulded into the wooden round mooncake mould... the trick to dislodge it was to wack it once on all sides and slowly slide it out without distorting the shape... but sometimes the mooncake decorative markings were not v distintive and cannot be seen easily... esp when the dough relaxed and the pattern flattened out... anyway it tasted the same though - yummy!!

the end of the session there were 8 RBGT mooncakes... yes the 8th one has already been...

cut and eaten (half of it anyway...) note: the bing pei = v uneven! and quite rustic! must try again to perfect the rolling dough technique...


lets cross-section another RBGT... and this one was more even...

considering these sell for up to $8-10 per mooncake in the shops... i was able to make $80-100 worth of mooncake with $6-8 (price of raw ingredients)... bargain!! and yummy!!

back to mooncake mark I: the salted eggs are still maturing, but i had to make another batch of dried pork (to put in with the 5-nut mooncake)... so here it goes, 3 kg of fatty pork...

yielded just under 2 kg of pork jerky (which retails for $40/kg in the shops)... and it costs $18 per 2kg home-made, and no MSG, no presevatives too! what a bargain! yum!! and here's the secret recipe...

spring breeze...

did i buy these from the shops to welcome spring?

freshly plucked from our garden of course!

there are plenty of them around...

a field of fragrant flowers... (enough to perfume our house for spring) the birds are out as well...

picking on the growing buds...

the moon too, took on a new look just b4 spring...

half empty or half full?

and the snowpeas are giving off little bursts of colour too - purple blooms and greeny pods...

toothy gnome is still overseeing patch-one...

and i have finally converted some radish and pods into a delish stir-fry... (more to come)