June 18, 2008

Sarah

I don't really know why but I seem to remember this friend of mine pretty well....not that its a bad thing but considering she moved to KL when she was in standard 3 (I think!)...its a bit of a surprise that I can actually remember her full name still...we've been quite good friends I think..even at that age. Sarah Judy Teo...haha...I hope I got that right! She lived somewhere near my house last time. Used to walk to her place to pass her stuff etc etc...and she had this HUGE dog...was quite...scary. This gal shares the same birthday with my dad (I'm pretty good with birthdates..haha)...and she was kind enough to invite me and a few others to her birthday party in McDonalds! I know I go McD pretty damn often nowadays..but back then as a kid...having a McValue/Happy Meal at McD was really...a happy thing! (These days happy meal is so goddamned expensive it makes the parent wanna cry...haha)...so back to what I was saying. To get invited to a party...IN McD...w/o parents!! ...it felt pretty damn special...and feels expensive! And we hardly do parties back then too....so yeah. It was pretty memorable...not much of the food though..but the games...and the small little Barbie doll that came with the Happy Meal...I still have it at home :P ... If that wasn't nice enough of her and her parents, she actually developed several copies of photograph taken during the party...and gave us kids a copy of them. I treasured those photos. (I'll post them one day if I remember..its back in SP).... Some time in Std 3...she said she had to move to KL cuz her dad was posted to his company's KL branch...I think...felt kinda :( to loose a good friend then but I didn't quite remember my feelings then...maybe didn't feel sad parting cuz we haven't known each other long enough...or maybe I DID feel sad...but I just cant remember now.... But I did remember feeling very happy when she sent me a mail...not email la...snail mail. Back then where go email and the sort? I wrote back....but damn I was lazy...letter-writing wasn't really my thing back then...mmm...even now I think...but email's much faster now so yeah... Some years back..she mailed me another letter. Saying something like she found my old letter while cleaning up her room and decided to post me a mail. It was so many years since we last wrote to each other so I was quite surprised! Awful of me tho. I can't remember if I wrote back to her. Maybe I emailed her or something. I think we exchange email addresses back then...and I found her on friendster later on....but I didn't really use frienster much so....yeah..you get the drift. Today...I suddenly felt kinda nostalgic. I sifted thru my facebook and searched my email address books for possible friends that I have still not added to my facebook. And then I thought about her. I didn't have her email on my gmail (I only started to use gmail as my default mail a few years ago)....so I went looking for it from my friendster...and thankfully..its there. Facebook Enter email address:.... Search Displaying the only result for:.....

...she's so pretty now. I guess both of us must have changed pretty drastically since 1995...
Add to friend *clicks* I have never met up with her ever since she moved away. I hope we'll keep in touch more often now since I use facebook more. Tho....it does bother me...if we ever DO meet up...what are we gonna talk about? Spending only 2-3 years out of our 13+ years studying...what do we still know of each other? I wonder. :D p/s: I have a few other friends...good friends that I've lost contact since school days. Particularly those close friends that have been 'very busy' since SPM results were released during my year...wish we'll meet up again some day....

Hotmail no more

HAHAHAHAHA MY HOTMAIL GOT WIPED!

I haven't checked it for a year or so already....so yeah. They wiped out every thing I had in there....some were pretty precious junks (mmm...you can either consider them junky stuff or precious memories...depending on how you put it...) but considering I hadn't bothered to login and check them out for the past...what....year or so...I guess I can live without it. :D

I still find it pretty damn funny tho...

/snigger

June 12, 2008

Mashing potatoes

After trying out the mashed potato recipe in one of my recent post, this is what I have to say...

1. Try only half of the recipe...heck just make quarter of it if you're making it for 2 ppl or something. I only made half recipe and my family cant finish it! (tho my family's not exactly fond of western food..haha)

2. Its a lil watery when you mix the milk/cream/butter into the mashed potatoes...but it'll thicken up after awhile.

3. I used about 100g butter for 500g potatoes....and it was so....creamy-buttery! It kinda scares me to see the amount of butter I'm using just for one recipe (about half a block) so....I guess you can minimize the butter if you wanna watch your diet.

4. I think I'm gonna freeze the leftovers. Don't think can finish... hee ^^;

5. It was kinda hard pressing the mash through the sieve. I did this after adding butter and milk/cream so it was kinda messy....prolly gonna try doing it before i mix them together...but it was worth it. Nice texture. I used pink potatoes because Tesco ran out of American potatoes...I think I'll try with the latter next time.

6. All that aside...it was delicious.

Gimme back my hall!

I haven't been home since the last sem break (cuz I went Langkawi during midterm break with my friends...wakakaka) so a lot must have changed here since I was last back here.....dad pasang the auto-close gadget on the door of the back room...bro's new office almost done renovation...there's a few new shelves in my room and my thing's been shifted around...a bunch of new shops near Tesco area...other than dat....

My house is still as messy as ever. My line's as sucky as ever. Fifi still stinks..but cute. The bloody pothole near the entrance to my lorong is STILL there...gawddamit. The garden's still flourishing. Hot shower still just as nice...hehe...food's good....bla bla bla....

I rarely go out town unless I have errands to run. Just the other day on the way back from the bus station, we drove past our local sports centre...where our local municipal hall is. To my surprise and utter shock....the ground was...flat. I mean...the hall wasn't where it was supposed to be! Wadafak! WHO THE HELL DEMOLISHED THE HALL?!!

I had fond memories of that place..beside the hall there's this small area where I trained Taekwondo intensely during my secondary school days. 2-3 times a week...felt so great then. And the hall was where I took many of my gradings....including my black belt grading. Sob ....gawddamit. Why the heck did they have to demolish such a useful building?

Apparently they wanted to build a stadium there. We already have a hockey field behind there and now they wanted a stadium....

HAHAHAHAHAHA....

Idiots. Don'cha think its a bit of an overkill to have a stadium in SP? There's a huge stadium in Alor Star. Wanna do football or watever...go there lerrr...sheesh.

Here's the best part. Apparently, the building was demolished 3 days before the March General Election....

BN Lost that area...and the state as well.

Sigh. My poor dewan. Stupid stupid ppl with stupid stupid agenda for their stupid stupid personal interest...grrr

June 7, 2008

Potatoes!

"...when I worked for Joel Robuchon he was famed for his pomme puree (French for potato puree), and it was only 30% potato." - Chef Gordon Ramsay

In one of the recipes found online of Robuchon's famous mash has a butter to potato ratio of 1:4....wow. No wonder they taste so nice...

In March-April 2008 issue of Flavours, there was a feature on mashed potatoes...and I'm loving it to bits. Among great tips that they offer is how to make silky smooth mashed potatoes: by passing your mash thru a fine wire mesh. I honestly never thought of that.

Also, always warm up milk or cream before adding to mashed potatoes. And for lighter texture, whip the cream untill stiff before folding gently into the mashed potatoes just before serving. Whipping cream adds richness to the mash.

Here are a few recipes I'd like to try out from this issue:


Basic mashed potatoes (6 servings)

1kg potatoes, unpeeled
100-250g cold butter, diced
150-250ml milk or UHT cream or combination, heated
salt and pepper to taste


Wash and place potatoes in saucepan with enough water to cover them. Add 1 tsp salt. Bring to boil and lower heat to simmer until tender. Drain and peel. Mash until desired texture is obtained (while hot).

Warm milk and cream but don't boilt them. Add butter and seasoning to the mlik. Add the hot liquid to the mash. Mash or whisk until smooth.

For silky texture, pass mash through fine sieve with help of pastry scraper while hot.


Croquette

flour for dusting
1 egg, beaten with 1 tsp oil
salt and pepper to taste
30g breadcrumbs
oil for deep frying

Dust worktop and coat hands with flour. Shape the potato duchesse into 5cm- length cylinders. Dip into beaten egg and then breadcrumbs. Deep fry until golden brown and crisp.



Potato duchesse (for croquettes)

1kg potatoes, washed
100g butter, softened
5-8 egg yolks
salt and pepper to taste


Place potatoes in saucepan and cover with water. Bring to simmer over medium heat and cook until tender.

Peel and mash potatoes while hot, adding butter and egg yolks and seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.