May Meringue

I have quite a peculiar feeling about / relationship with baking sweets.  There is always that nagging voice in my head asking 'who will eat all that cake?'.  

Funny that voice never questions savory dishes.  I can cook a whole leg of lamb and not feel guilty or worry that it will go to waste.

The thing is, THE THING IS, I don't really like sweets.  I'd put a forkful of cake in my mouth and I can sincerely say that I've had enough.

My husband is pretty much the same.  So the idea of HAVING to eat an entire cake sends shivers down my spine.  TOO HARD.

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On the flip side, I love watching baking shows and as I watch I become curious and I want to bake.  I want to learn the techniques, I am curious.  I WANT TO BAKE.  I WANT TO BAKE.

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MERINGUE.  Just eggs & sugar.  Lovely.

I decided to try my hand on Italian Meringue and French Meringue. 

For both meringues, I used ratios rather than recipes--only because I have no idea whether the eggs I had on had were 'medium' or 'large'.

They say the Italian Meringue is the most stable of them all, and great for those who worry about eating raw eggs.  So it only made sense that I tried that first.

FRENCH MERINGUE

Ratio in weight is 1 egg white : 1 water : 2.5 caster sugar

Three egg whites weighed 90 grams, this meant that I needed 90 grams of water and 90 x 2.5 grams sugar.

It also required cream of tartar, that I did not have.  However I had some lemon on hand so I just used it as the substitute.  I lined my mixing bowl with lemon juice by squeezing while running 1/8 of a lemon wedge along the inner area of the bowl.

Mix like crazy (thank you mixer, I don't think I will ever do this if I had to do it by hand), in the meantime I heated the sugar and water up to 240F.

Then slowly transfer the sugar syrup to the mixing bowl and continue mixing.

At some point it will become super silky and shiny--about the same time the bowl would no longer feel warm.

Transfer into a piping bag and you are all set.  The GREAT thing about this is that it keeps it shape.  And with egg whites effectively cooked through, no salmonella!  

I piped mine on top of a Calamansi Pie.  My heart can only stand so much sweetness, I was in desperate need of something to cut through all that meringue.

pure white.  simple.  beautiful.

Next was the French Meringue, why?  In my mind, this is the quintessential meringue--probably because in my childhood this was what I had known to be 'meringue'.

there is beauty in diversity

FRENCH MERINGUE

Ratio in weight is 3 egg white : 5 caster sugar

Two egg whites weighed 60 grams, this meant that I needed 100 grams sugar.

Again, no cream of tartar, so the whole lemon thing.

I also added 1/4 teaspoon of Vanilla and 1/8 teaspoon Orange Essence.

And a drop of pink, yellow and red icing colours.  I intentionally left that at the very last minute because I wanted random streaks of colour.

Mix everything till until it can hold its shape, place in a piping bag and go crazy making whatever shape you like.

I baked these in the oven for 1 1/2 hours at 100C.  

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There as still so many baking techniques that I need to learn, practice and perfect.  

Not sure when the next blog entry would be, I tend to be super engrossed in the process that I forget to take photos--perfectly understandable when you have your hands covered with flour, eggs and all things that make wishes come true.

the longest break

I can't believe my last entry was October of last year.  

What happened?

Nothing, really.  I guess I was so caught up with other things that I neither found nor made time to write.  

Some Bread

Hours were spent bread making--whilst exploring a classic bread  book.  Though yet to bake every bread featured, I have done my 'favourite' bread types.

Today, it is more subdued.  I would bake maybe once a week or every couple of weeks.  

I just made white cob last weekend--which was fast turned to bruschetta otherwise, rotten tomatoes.  Horrible.

Breathing

On Yoga, I had gone through all the pre-paid classes I signed up for and now I had gone back to basics practicing with a volunteer group referred by a friend.  

Today, I am a quarter through the programme and pretty happy as it had helped me to finally develop a daily practice--something studio work somehow didn't encourage enough for me.

I was also pleasantly surprised to be suddenly capable to do some poses, just like that.  

Cooking

Still mad about cooking.  

I am consciously grocery shopping for unfamiliar ingredients to expand our menu.  I feel very lucky to live in a country where I am spoilt with the range of fruits and vegetables available!

Just the other day, my husband--the carnivore told me that his eating habits had changed.  He said, he used to think that he can't properly eat if the dishes are without meat/fish/chicken, but he is now finding that he can't properly eat if the food is no good.

He had been 'approving' vegetarian dishes more and more these days.

Channeling Mari

Much stuff had been let go the past couple of months.  Yey!  

This really started when we were moving to our new flat.  While waiting for the movers, I started to think about how ALL OUR STUFF were in the truck, if they decide to make a run for it, I would not know what to do.

I did some mental calculation on the cost of those items, and while modest (in my opinion), it was seriously dizzying for me.

I thought that maybe if we had less stuff, I wouldn't have been feeling anxious.

Material possessions can give us comfort, convenience and entertainment, however these can also give us stress and even deplete our time and resources. 

It is crazy how it is so easy to overlook associated costs.  

This made me consider...

MAYBE, I can own less. 

And so, I (somewhat unknowingly) started on the path to owning only things I love and things that are useful to me.  I feel that this is a lifelong process, of assessing what you have on hand and of  evaluating--scrutinising any purchase.  

My better quality (not bigger quantity) closet really caught me by surprise.  Last Saturday, I wore a top I bought eleven years ago.  And it is a top that I love to this day.

Sometimes treasures are hidden literally under a pile, heap, stack of your clothes.

100 Day Challenge

I thought I would expand the latter by doing a 100-day challenge.  

It is still a toss for me which one would be harder:

(a) no online shopping (not even groceries!)
(b) no buying of Shoes, Clothes & Accessories, Kitchen Gadget (online and offline)

Maybe on the 100th day from this post, I will make an entry :)