A mad three-day weekend of eating... yaaaaaay! (There were also two, yes TWO meals of chilli crab at my favourite neighbourhood family restaurant, but alas, too busy eating to take photos.)
Brownie Pancackles Topped with Bacon and Slathered with Haxx Chocolate-Baileys Sauce
The chocolate-Baileys sauce sets off the brownie pancackles amazingly - somehow the chocolate sauce on top of the chocolate brownie pancackle doesn't result in an overwhelming sameness of chocolate. The zingy choccy-Baileys sauce makes the brownie pancackle taste even more decadently chocolatey, and it's somehow made even better by the savoury baconny goodness in the middle.
._. I don't have a recipe for this since I (lol) don't use recipes. But what I did take away from making brownie pancackles is that unsweetened chocolate requires roughly half its weight in sugar in order to make it barely sweet enough, more if you like it sweeter.
The chocolate-Baileys sauce is total haxx. It looks so difficult and restauranty and all that, but it actually takes no work at all. All you have to do is stir it for less than 30 seconds. Really! XD
Chocolate Baileys Haxx Sauce for Dummies
Dump this stuff in a bowl in a 1:1 ratio for everything
Sugar
Chocolate, unsweetened
Ghee (butter will do, who cares if it's salted or not)
- Plop bowl in rice cooker.
- Do not put ANYTHING else in the cooker. Not even water.
- Set cooker either to cook (one-button), or bake (if you have it).
- Ignore for 15-20 min.
- Take bowl out (carefully)!
- Whisk together the whole melty mess, don't worry if it isn't all melted, by the time you're done whisking, which should take less than 30 seconds, it'll be a nice smooth sauce.
- Add Baileys (or whatever alcohol) to taste, whisk. The alcohol should immediately turn your sauce much darker and gluey-er, don't worry about it.
- Add milk or cream, whisking until it's of a thinness/consistency you like. Go slow, it only needs a tiny bit.
- Go mad pouring it all over everything!
If you use good semi-sweet chocolate, you can omit the sugar. I'd advise using a good chocolate for this (I used Ghirardelli's the second time round), because you can really taste the difference. Using Ghirardelli's gave the sauce that luxurious zomg-I'm-paying-a-lot-for-this-meal-but-it's-worth-it kinda mouthfeel. XD
Pomegranate & Brandy-Butter Icecream Filled Lemon Peels
This was kinda hard to set up initially, the lemon halves kept falling over! (I cut them in half along the middle of the lemon). Then I figured out I could stand the pointy bottoms on an empty icecube tray, and it all went smashingly after that.
Very cute presentation-wise, but I was a bit unsatisfied by how the lemon peels weren't edible...
Fish-Head Curry of TASTY DOOM @ Segar Restaurant
Some of the best fish-head curry in Singapore, in the nugget's book. Before I discovered this place (so near my place yay), I had to go all the way down to Amoy Street to have something comparably good. I could drink this rich, tamarindy, creamy curry sauce in a glass. >.>
Jelly-Filled Candied Lemon Peels, Sprinkled with Sugar
Having been disappointed with the inedibility of the lemon peels in the icecream version of this, I decided to candy the things before filling them with jelly! I used some cheap brand from my childhood called Tortally, but really, any jelly will do.
I also discovered that ice-cream scoops make amazing juicers. cut the lemon in half, then abuse it with the icecream scoop, and all the juice squishes out wonderfully.
- Juice lemon (or as many lemons as you want to make).
- Stab lemons once on each of their four sides, between their pith and pulp.
- Insert thumb into the stab wounds, and yank on the pulp. It should all come out cleanly, and you should end up with neatly gutted lemons.
- Scrape the insides with a knife to remove as much pith as you can - but try not to make any holes!
- Boil the lemon halves 5 times, simmering for 10 minutes each time (total 50 minutes).
- Melt an equal portion of sugar in hot water, dump your lemon peels in the mixture.
- Put the bowl of lemon peels in sugar water in the rice cooker, add enough water OUTSIDE of the bowl, in the rice cooker pot itself, to cook for 1h45min.
- Fish out lemon peels, turn them hollow side down on a plate, plop in the fridge to dry for half a day or more.
- Make jelly mix.
- Stand lemon peels, pointy end down, in empty icecube tray.
- Put empty lemon peels in fridge.
- Ladle jelly mix into lemon peels. You have to do this in the fridge, otherwise it'll slosh and slop everywhere. XD Or maybe you just need more points in dexterity than me.
- Ignore for 2-3 hours / till jelly sets.
- Take lemon peels outta fridge, slice down the middle.
- Sprinkle liberally with white sugar.
- NOM!
In hindsight, I should have coated the lemon peels themselves in white sugar before they dried, THEN filled them with jelly for a better effect, but oh well. Next time!