the Nom Lab.

.:.

So I know that with all the Twilight cult, vampires should be Halloween's main theme this year, but hey... I go for the werewolf team ;)

.

.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!

.

Ahhh, I'm sosoSO happy to finally have an excuse to bake.
My hands have been itching to flour and get messy with icing in the middle of midterms these last weeks.

I was about to try a pumpkin cream cake but... I accidentally fell on one, two, maybe three spoonfuls (ok, fine... scoops) of Ben and Jerry's Chunky Monkey and suddenly craved for banana muffins.
So I thought oh hey, why not a moist, pillow-fluff banana cake?
What's the difference between a banana muffin and a banana cake anyway?

A jolt of espresso, semisweet cacao bursts in the midst of each bite and an explosion of banana flavour...

Black sesame mochi

I swung by the library last tuesday and was delighted to find my faithful cooking aisle replenished with plenty of new recipe books. It had been so long since I last set foot in there!
.
Amongst the collections of turkish, portuguese, greek and italian cuisine... I fell on a cute japanese bento book featuring, on its cover, cute piles of pastel-colored mochi aligned like good as gold little munchkins on their first day of kindergarden. (oh. right. I like to call kids munchkins :) Just thought I should clarify that )
.It reminded me of how awful my first try at mochi turned out. However, browsing through the recipes, the quick-stir-microwave method seemed pretty easy so I figured I should give those japanese rice cakes a second try.
.

1rst dusting: sesame seeds
2nd: cocoa powder

3rd: tapioca starch

.

Not too bad huh? :) Since i've recently converted into a big fan of black sesame (and that i

think with hungry eyes instead of a wise stomach) I bought an industrial load of black sesame lotus paste which I ultimately had to use all by stuffing the heck out of those mochis.

They don't beat the store kind (yet), but i'm hoping that they'll have developed a more intricate flavour after a few days' stay in the fridge.

I'll have to try doing them the traditional way next time (pounding and pounding mounds of fuming steamed glutinous rice) instead of using the sweet rice flour and a radioactive cooking machine. Maybe it'll give a fresher and more authentic flavour.

.

Black Sesame Mochi

.

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup black sesame powder

2 tbsp sugar

3/4 cup + 1 non-packed tbsp sweet rice flour (Mochiko)

Black sesame lotus past

Tapioca starch/sesame seeds/cocoa powder to dust

.

1) Make small balls with the black sesame lotus paste. The size of the balls will depend on how big you want your mochis to be. Those will be the fillings. I like to place them on a plate and stick it into the freezer while I work on the mochi skin to firm them up.

.

2) In a fairly large bowl that goes to the microwave, combine all the dry ingredients together and mixt well to get a greyish powdery mixture.

.

3) Add water. Mixt until you get a light grey paste spotted with dark grey speckles.

.

4) Put the bowl into the microwave and bip-set it to 2 minutes on high heat.

.

5) Take the bowl out to churn the paste a bit. The mixture should be less gluish-white than 2 minutes ago.

.

6) Put the bowl back and microwave it 1min15. This time, the mixture shouldn't be white at all anymore. It should be a shiny black with eeny black sesame spots. Churn it to make sure that the paste is uniformely black shiny. If you find some pale whiteish blot, just squish it into the black mixture until it combines with it.

.

7) Work fast while it's still hot! Once the paste cools it'll be much chewier and harder to handle.

Take a piece out of the mochi skin paste (I usually fill up to half the inside of my wooden spatula's bowl) and flatten it on your palm. Put a black sesame filling ball in its center and close up the mochi. Roll it between your palms to create a smooth sphere. Set aside on a pre-dusted dish of the components you want to cover your mochis with (that's to dust the mochis' butts to prevent them from sticking to the plate)

.

8) When you're completely done shaping, you can dust the mochis at your liking (it'll stick less to your fingers and be less messy if you don't do this step while shaping and filling your mochi)

.

9) Cool your mochis in the fridge (I put them in an airtight sandwich box to keep their humidity and restore the softness that they might have lost by staying exposed to the air for too long)

.

Strawbemon mini mousse cake

At the count of three... altogether: Yuumm :)

A touch of delish Photoshop

CREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&
GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACK
ERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEE
SE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRA
CKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSihatecheeseCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERS
CREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&
GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACK
ERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEE
SE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRA
CKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHEESE&GRAHAMCRACKERSCREAMCHE
ESE&GRAHAMCRACKERS

Did you spot the odd one?

Let's take a closer look at the intruder.
ihatecheese.

And it's purple. That can't be good. Ever heard of the mushroom picking rule? Brights and neons can only mean danger.


Don't you already feel more purified?

Then, thirdly
bjlgmdnguisagoehgkd. Whu, wha? What just happened?

As I was saying, thirdly...
you will be lured into the sneakiest sly bakreature alive. Oho, yes. As alluring as it is dangerous, it'll know exactly all the right spots to hit on.



All. The. Right. Spots.

I began to bake from scratch around my 14 years old, which is about when I started to see those "friends" I wanted to hang out every-so-often for movies (Nope, your imagination hasn't gone wacko. There is a little, obscure indirect allusion here. You'll eventually find out what as we learn to know each other ;] ) They were my excuse to take out my wooden spatula and baking bowls and
WATTAWONKA
I loved it.
Not sure if they did as much, though. Heh. New bakers always freak out their surroundings a bit, the first and prior victims being our dear mom 'n dad right? (Or was I the only one in that sad situation?) Sounds a teensy bit familiar? (Yes. Please do say yes. My ego is a fragile wobbler.)

Before that, cake mixes and cupcake liners were my best friend. Ah, that faithful Betty Crocker Super Moist Lemon Cake mix. Good days, good days.

One of the craziest things I've ever done was to cradle a tarantula in my hands. No idea where my arachnophobia went toddling when the Petland technician offered me his baby with all the tenderness of the world and lovey-dovey eyes, but it sure sprinted back quickly. As a result, his baby went flying to the tropical fish tank where it got lovestruck with a Guppy sucking him an amorous kiss through the aquarium glass. ...I dooon't know how they do that.

One of the scariest things I've ever done was to go midnight skinny dipping. Now, before I hear scandalized gasps or scandalized ovations (I won't judge if you applause and do the Jellybean dance, promise), let me precise that I was 7 years old (not sure if I improved my case here). See, I happen to have a papier de soie skin type that picks up sunburns in a WHOOF-kind-of-fire-taking. Consequently, going to the beach was either at dawn or after sunset. ..And, well, we've all had loose swimsuits at least once in our lifetime. I happen to have a collection of them and, er... let's say that one of my one-piece collectibles is now a two-piece with a missing half. Yes, my friends: it ripped off. The bottom just got washed away after a wave splashed in. The top followed in the next seconds but I pretty much swam-race after that one.

Between those two extremes now, there's blogging. With the tarantula, at least, I knew what would happen : as soon as panic hit I would jerk the fuzzy thing as far from me as possible (Ouh, don't call me Cupid yet though. I did not plan the fishy lovestruck part). And the unintentional skinny dipping? Well it was midnight! We all know that Mr.Sea has a naughty naughty side at night right? No voyeurism surprise of course?

Blogging? OMGWTFBBQ.

You'll see how clueless I am with blogs. It took me 15 minutes to find the posting section. Hi, hi. Erm.
Now through this blog you guys might go through OMG moments. Some WTF moments (if that did not already happen while reading my oh-so-casual introduction). And the best part, BBQ moments.

Please don't judge me yet.
Here's a pre-taste of a BBQ moment. Allow me to try a feeble attempt to redeem myself for this first impression.