Agar Agar (Guest Post on Notabilia)

Posted on 9 March 2011 by mrsmultitasker

A few weeks ago I was invited by Notabilia to do a guest post on her excellent blog. I’m so thankful for the opportunity, and for the chance I’ve had to become friends with this lovely lady. Notabilia is a born-and-bred New Yorker currently residing in Singapore, who started her blog as a means of cataloguing her journey through this strange new land. Definitely check out her blog – she has an amazing eye for beautiful things!

I wasn’t given any specifications for my blog post, except that it be about something local. So I decided to write about my grandaunt’s agar agar. I know agar agar is a pretty generic sweet food in Singapore and Malaysia, but I thought it might be interesting for Notabilia’s many overseas readers. Plus my grandaunt’s version is a little crunchier than the usual agar, and she adds a few special flavourings to it. (I should point out, though, that my grandaunt adds a lot more colour to her agar than I did here. My agar turned out pretty faint =) I am just not a fan of food colouring…)

But enough from me here… go read my post on Notabilia!

Posted in Sweet | Tagged , , | 20 Comments

Oh What A Weekend!

Posted on 8 March 2011 by mrsmultitasker

What a weekend.

On Friday, I:

  • Helped package brownies for 170 people. Yes I know, I made brownies for 300 people (the number of guests increased at the last minute). But I had to leave the rest of the work to my cousins, because I had to rush off to Caldecott, where I…
  • Went on a radio talkshow. Pretty wild, huh? =) No I wasn’t on the show to talk about my blog or about cooking!

Then the next day I:

  • Attended a beautiful wedding service.
  • Spent five hours styling and shooting pictures for a cookbook project that I’m involved in.

Keep reading…

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Classic Brownies

Posted on 20 February 2011 by mrsmultitasker

*This post made it to the Foodbuzz Daily Top 9 on 22 Feb 2011!*

12 days, 540 brownies.

Yup, that’s the amount of time I have left to bake that many brownies. A couple of weeks ago, I was asked whether I would be willing to make something to give to 270 guests at a relative’s wedding, and in a moment of insanity, I said yes. Fortunately I did have enough good sense to wheedle my way out of baking and icing 270 cupcakes, and agreed instead to provide each of the guests with two brownies all nicely packaged.

Keep reading…

Posted in Sweet | Tagged , , | 27 Comments

Black Cod With Miso

Posted on 17 February 2011 by mrsmultitasker

In my weekly email from the NY Times, I spotted a link to an article by the Minimalist entitled, “The Minimalist Chooses 25 of His Favorites“. I clicked on it, and was delighted to find a convenient listing of 25 of Mark Bittman’s favourite recipes. I proceeded to click through a bunch of the linked recipes and print out a good number of them.

One of the recipes I printed was for Black Cod Broiled With Miso. The ingredients in the recipe look more or less the same as in most miso cod recipes, but what sets the recipe apart is that it does not call for any lengthy marination of the cod. (And this, of course, is consistent with Mark Bittman’s column, which promotes cooking simply and well. ) Most other recipes ask you to marinate the cod for a few hours or a few days before baking it.

Keep reading…

Posted in All Recipes, Savoury | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Chinese Cornflake Cookies

Posted on 29 January 2011 by mrsmultitasker

I am pleased as punch. I finally made a batch of cornflake cookies that I’m happy with after two failed attempts. Third time lucky, as they say. =)

I love cornflake cookies, and while they’re a fairly well-known Chinese New Year munchie, they aren’t as widely available as items like pineapple tarts, kueh bangkit, love letters or spicy shrimp rolls (see here for a 101 on popular Chinese New Year goodies in Singapore).

Keep reading…

Posted in All Recipes, Sweet, Sweet | Tagged , , , | 28 Comments

Grandma’s Glutinous Rice (Yu Png)

Posted on 27 January 2011 by mrsmultitasker

Hello world! I’ve been quiet, I know. I’ve been having a tough time getting myself to blog because my creative energy has been spent elsewhere lately… But yesterday night I made a very special dish – 0ne that reminded me of a very special woman, and I felt that I simply had to seize the opportunity to honour her on my blog.

So this one’s for you, granny…

Keep reading…

Posted in All Recipes, Savoury | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

Not Just Another Rising Sun

Posted on 12 January 2011 by mrsmultitasker

This is overdue-ish, and I do apologize. I’ve had major blogger inertia since the new year started, for several reasons:

  1. I’m starting on a new and important project, and that’s just zapping all my creative juices.
  2. My husband’s been away, and when he’s away, I just don’t feel much like cooking or baking…
  3. I’ve been re-thinking how I want to go about my blogging this year, and I still haven’t reached a decision.

But just when I was want of inspiration, I remembered that I had promised you guys a Japan post, and I hadn’t fulfilled my promise! The last time I did a travel post was almost a year ago, when I let you guys in on my trip to Australia, and that time too I was struggling with blogger inertia. Maybe it’s a start of year thing – wanting to start everything so well you just don’t dare start anything at all! =)

Keep reading…

Posted in Travels, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Yuletide Passing… (And a Christmas Salad!)

Posted on 31 December 2010 by mrsmultitasker

This post isn’t about food, specifically. It really isn’t about anything at all, specifically! I just wanted to share some shots of my Christmas season, and some reflections…

Keep reading…

Posted in All Recipes, Savoury, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Thai Laab (Leftover Turkey Idea #3)

Posted on 30 December 2010 by mrsmultitasker

Alrighty… here’s the 3rd and final turkey idea I have for you this year.

Actually this isn’t my idea, but my Thai relative’s genius brainwave. We were discussing turkey leftovers when she suggested using some to make a Thai dish called “Laab“. It’s something of a salad, only not much vegetable is involved… She said that the key ingredients were ground meat, lime, cilantro, toasted rice, fish sauce, chili pepper and mint, and when I googled for a recipe, I discovered that she was exactly right.

Keep reading…

Posted in All Recipes, Savoury, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

XO Noodles (Leftover Turkey Idea #2)

Posted on 28 December 2010 by mrsmultitasker

On to Turkey Idea #2!

I actually typed out this recipe sometime ago, but never posted it. Since I used it again tonight with more of the leftover turkey that was in my refrigerator and it turned out fine, I figured now would be a good time to post it.

Some of you outside of Asia must be wondering what in the world I mean by XO noodles. XO noodles are noodles fried in XO sauce. And what is XO sauce? It’s a spicy seafood sauce used often in Chinese cuisine, consisting primarily of dried scallop (a delicacy in Chinese cooking), dried shrimp, oil and various seasonings. (Read more here.)

Keep reading…

Posted in All Recipes, Savoury, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments