Cooking Weekends! - Almond with Lemon Zest Madeleines.

Inspired by the tools at home, finally set myself to make some traditional french pastry, Madeleines! 

Madeleines are very small sponge cakes with a distinctive shell-like shape acquired from being baked in pans with shell-shaped depressions. Aside from the traditional moulded pan, commonly found in stores specialising in kitchen equipment and even hardware stores, no special tools are required to make madeleines.

A génoise cake batter is used. The flavour is similar to, but somewhat lighter than, sponge cake. Traditional recipes include very finely ground nuts, usually almonds and variation uses lemon zest, for a pronounced lemony taste, which are the ones I'm doing! 

Recipe
(adapted from Art of the Home & TheLittleTeochew)

Yields 24-30 madeleines

- 6 eggs
- 150 grams (about 10.5 Tbsp) of softened unsalted butter+extra to butter your madeleine moulds
- 170g caster sugar
- 170g flour, sifted
- 100 grams finely ground almonds (I used 120g)
- 1 tsp lemon zest (or more, if you like)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Confectioners sugar for dusting (optional)

1. Combine flour, baking powder and ground almonds in a bowl. Whisk to mix well and set aside.

2. In another bowl, beat soft butter and sugar until creamy.

3. Add in eggs one at a time at high speed. You want to get a pale yellow mixture. Add lemon zest.

4. Add flour-baking powder-ground almond mixture in 2 to 3 additions, folding gently with a spatula. It is important not to overmix. As long as the ingredients are combined, stop.

5. Using a spoon, carefully scoop batter onto greased madeleine moulds. Allow the madeleine batter to rest in the fridge (use a cling wrap for cover), as this will relax the gluten and give a light texture. Also, it helps in giving your madeleines those knobbly humps.

* Note: I was short of time, so I chilled the batter for only 20mins (and uncovered, at that!) but thankfully, the humps managed to appear, as you can see.

6. Pre-heat oven to 200°C (390°F) and bake for about 10 to 12 minutes or until golden yellow on the top and golden brown on the bottom. Start monitoring at the 10-minute mark, it can go fast and overcooked madeleines turn out dry instead of light and airy.

7. Gently loosen the madeleines using a small silicone spatula or a knife. This should be easy if you have greased the moulds. Place on cooling rack (hump facing up otherwise you’ll marks on your madeleines) or plate.

8. Dust with confectioner's sugar if desired. I skipped that and went straight to photography. :D

Food Places - Victor's Kitchen

Back to my Cantonese genes, I’m the kind of dude who always have a soft spot for Dimsums, in particular to those that closely resemble the ones found in Hong Kong. And thankful enough, a few years back a bro of mine, Suans, brought me to Victor’s Kitchen at Sunshine Plaza. Since then, it has become probably my favourite dimsum place, especially when the thought of dimsum strikes my head.

Ulu as it can be, I always remember Sunshine Plaza as a place where art students do their printing stuffs or just Parklane wanton mee, but never did I know about this special place where they served authentic Hong Kong Dimsum. Maybe not then, but now, it’s pretty obvious when you walk through the inside and you see a pretty long queue during lunch time.

Ah! Then you’re at the right place.

Being always squeezy during lunch peak,

Options you have –

1. Definitely better to go in smaller groups or else you gotta play the waiting game which really does take awhile unless you’re lucky!

2. Go around 2pm+ after the lunch crowd subsides, but risk being told that some of the items have run out.

Items you should try

Victor’s King Prawn Dumpling ($5 for 4), Har Kow for short, is still alright in my opinion, the skin was a little thick for my preference but prawns were indeed fresh and doesn’t have that sandy aftertaste that will linger in your mouth after eating.

Tasty Queen Size Siew Mai ($4 for 4) was pretty normal, slightly dry and certainly doesn’t look queen size in any way.

Tender as it is, the Steam Spare Ribs w/ Black Bean Sauce ($3) didn’t much wow me but was good for the size at the price.

The MUST Tries

Just like any typical Hong Kong Cafes found in Singapore, the H.K. Milk tea has always make its fame to the beverage menu.

But at Victor’s Kitchen (they call it the H.K. Summer Ice Tea ($3) ), I like the way they served it on the rocks literally. It makes the tea like really concentrated or what Singaporean call it “ gao gao”, bringing the 100% Hong Kong Taste out to you even after forgetting the drink while savouring the other delights on the table.

Quirky names they have for their food, this is the Phoenix Porridge ($4).

Because I’m not really a fan of porridges, I wasn’t keen to try it at the start. As I frequently visit them, I just had to try it.  

The porridge they whipped out was a fusion of the super sticky and the watery kind of porridge, slightly starchy but very smooth to be devour. Mixed with bits of tender chicken and century eggs, it falls to the saltier side of porridges and doesn’t require much seasoning that can be eaten straight when served!

Rosey Wine Yummy Char Siew Bun ($4 for 2), is probably one of the more expensive but better char siew bun that you can find locally. Filled with honey sweet chunky bits of char siew and shaoxing (or was it huatiao) wine in the interior while encased with powdery and soft steam bao on the outside. A perfect blend I would say!

Chicken & Sausage in Glutionous Rice ($5), upon serving this dish, the whole table was empowered by the lotus leaf fragrance. Especially love it when I split it open to see a nice cut sized lap qiong instead of normal sausage served in mainstream HK restaurants. But again, famous for its HK authenticity, of course it was lap qiong, what was I thinking. Rice was moist and chicken chunks nicely done.

Overall this dish is really well portioned!

 

Now you must be thinking this is either Tauhuay (Beancurd) or Almond Paste right? Well, you’re only a fraction right!

Takes awhile (20mins) for the chef to prepare the Double Boiled Egg White w Fresh Milk and Almond Juice ($3.50), while it really let you experience the meaning of why they have this phrase imprinted on all their menu paper slips. “WE SERVE THE BEST FOODS, BUT NOT FAST FOODS”. This is really the best dessert dish I’ve eaten especially with almond going along.

Not gonna be long winded like the name of this dessert, so I’m going to describe it with just 4 words!

Tasty, Milky, Soft, Smooth

Saving the best for the last, the Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun ($4 for 3) is really one of the best custard buns I have tasted by far. Victor's Kitchen have turned this simple bun dish into a sophisticated bun of enjoyment.

While you first admire the steaming hot bun, the lava would follow nicely as you tear the softness open,  initial taste would be creamy, silky, buttery while slightly oily. As the taste lingers, it doesn't real feel like you had enough. 

You just gotta try it out yourself for I count this as one of my guilty pleasures! So remember to save some space for this!

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Ways I eat my custard buns.

Whole, love how the custard explodes in my mouth when I decided to eat it whole which is a pretty insane and unglam move to do when it’s hot

or

Halved, tear it in half and let the “lava” flow out. Remember to have a spoon below to avoid wasting the yellow goodness!

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Feel like eating Dimsum already? 

This place might need to take some good walking distance from Dhoby Ghaut Mrt or Bugis Mrt but it’s always better to exercise a little, for you might feel sinful as you will just order too much!

P.s : Oh yes, people! Please try their Chee Cheong Fun as well. They are really really good, just that it was sold out already when I was there!

Victor’s Kitchen

91 Bencoolen Street, Sunshine Plaza 

#01-49

Singapore 189652

Phone:  +65 9838 - 1761     

Food Places - Alkaff Mansion Cafe

Remembered watching the show The Game Plan on Channel 8 which ended recently? Then you probably might have a slight retention of this place from watching one of the episodes. And yes, it’s located in Singapore.

This is, the Alkaff Mansion.

Situated at the top of Telok Blangah Green, this old colonial building was previously owned by the Arab families, underwent a whopping 5 million dollar revamp to become what it is now, a combination of Italian restaurant, café and bar by the people who brought you Spruce!

As a result of being located along the Southern Ridges, you would definitely find yourself doing some sort of unexpected hiking to this place, be it from under the Henderson Wave Bridge or Hort Park if you’re taking a public transport. A wiser choice would doubtlessly be taking a cab or driving up.

Nevertheless, despite all the hassle to getting there, the scenic view upon reaching the mansion makes it all worthwhile. Its like what I would say hike out of Singapore. All the lush greenery, benches, water features and the architecture itself that makes you have a feeling that you’re overseas is already enough to blow you away!

As you can see, the seats were sheltered all around the alfresco area, but the heat was proven too much to handle and we opt to be shifted to the inside. Although small in the inside, the interior is decorated in a way it looks posh and classy.

Serving from all day breakfast to sandwiches to main courses, we settled with the above four eventually. Pretty appealing to the eyes isn’t it?

And so we heard so much about the Banana Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce ($12.8) being really awesome, it was of slight disappointment when it came to the table. 

Although the pancake was moist and nice, there wasn’t really enough blueberry sauce to dip, it’s just weird to be eating nice pancakes but no sauce to go with it. However, the biscuit crumbs were commendable as they give a bite to the touch!

Nope, you’re not seeing it wrong. That the Eggs Benny on Waffles ($12.8).

YES. WAFFLES.

Weird as it seems, but you’ll be amazed at how egg benny goes well with waffle! Waffles were soft, light and fluffy quite something you would expect from an ice cream parlor just that in this case, with eggs, bacon and mushroom!

 Alkaff Breaky Set ($14.8) is not amazing but kind of not bad in the sense that they include a hash brown and asparagus which makes it slightly different from the typical breakfast out there. Eggs are down to your personal preference because they let you have it your way.

The most zero wow-ed in this trip to Alkaff Mansion would definitely be The Club Sandwich ($14), it’s really just ham, greens and sunny side up stacked in between toasted bread with fries at the side, probably something you can make even without stepping into your kitchen.

Wrapping up, the Alkaff Mansion Café is definitely a place value for the money. Probably give you a hearty meal at less than $20 and worth going at least once, be it the food or scenery. But take note that the breakfast/brunch menu ends at 4pm!

So what are you waiting for!

Alkaff Mansion Café

10 Telok Blangah Green, 

Singapore 109178

Phone:  +65 6510-3068     

Website: www.alkaff.com.sg