Financier in Madeleine Mould

My latest dessert/baking craze - financier (small french almond cake), saw it on the fb page of a cafe (Chapter 1 I think) and after checking online for recipe and steps, decided that it's worth a try. Been baking it continuously for 3 weekends now, and still loving them. Burnt butter made the whole thing smells so good. 

A hit especially with Ai Ling's furry son due to the butter.

Decided on the recipe from Joybaking with my own tweak.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter
1/4 cup (30 grams) all purpose flour
1/2 cup (55 grams) ground almonds (can use almond meal/flour)
75 grams confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted (*60g is sweet enough)
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large (90 grams) egg whites, lightly beaten

Instructions:
Financiers: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) - convection mode.
Place the butter in a small light colored saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter has melted let it come to a boil, swirling the pan occasionally. As it boils you will notice that a foam will appear on the butter's surface. Continue to cook the butter until it looks clear and the milk solids have dropped to the bottom of the pan and have turned golden brown. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a cheesecloth-lined strainer. Let cool to room temperature. You will need 1/3 cup (80 ml) of brown butter. Use the leftover brown butter to butter the molds (use a pastry brush).
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, ground almonds, confectioners sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center and fold in the lightly beaten egg whites and the brown butter.
Fill each mold (only have silicone madeleine mould) almost to the rim and bake in the middle rack for about 10 minutes, move tray to the bottom, set to bottom broil (3mins) then move to top and set to top broil (3mins)
Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. These are best eaten warm from the oven, but they can be covered and stored for a few days at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
Makes about 15 Financiers in Madeleine Mould

Read more: https://www.joyofbaking.com/Financiers.html

Laksam at home

Got leftover kembung from online purchase last week, used up 500g for nasi kerabu, decided to attempt laksa next.

Suppose to make it last Tuesday on my last day WFH, but too lazy so dragged on to weekend and since Chun Li is here, I think why not.

Followed mum's recipe from before with some changes as below :

- Got only 500g of fish (Deboning is really no fun)

- Lost my lengkuas due to hole in shopping bag, oh well. - Noticed that no quantity mentioned for shallots, decided to use 3 small ones, halved and throw in with the fish

- No qty mentioned for red chillies, I got 2, so all in.

As for laksam, copied a recipe from a site, all measurement in cups (hemnnn), so I used the cup for rice and then weigh each ingredients (except for water, forgot to weigh). Chun Li is in charge of the laksam and ulam cutting (long beans, cucumber and miserable amount of daun kesum) while I prep the rest.

Whole process took us 2hrs before we could sit down and eat, but it's all worth it, it's yummy, taste almost like home.

Mum's Laksa Kelantan/Siam
Ingredients
-1kg fish
-Asam keping
-Lengkuas
-Bawang merah - blend after cook with fish
-Serai x 2
-Santan (Pour warm water enough to cover the grated coconut from 1 coconut)
-Big Red cili - blend (for laksa siam, for laksa kelantan use black pepper)
-Kunyit
-Belacan/budu - small amount

1.Cook fish together with asam keping, bawang merah, serai and lengkuas, use the water just enough to cover the fish
2.Once cooked, remove from heat, peel fish flesh and pounce fish meat in mortar
3.Use water for boiling fish (sift if required to ensure no fish scales or bones), add in blended cili and shallot, add in santan and keep stirring, do not let it boil too long. Add in fish. Seasoned to taste with budu.

Resepi laksam (6 gulung)
Bahan 
2 cawan tepung beras (96g/cup)
Tpg gandum (32g)
sedikit garam
3 cawan air suam
2 sudu besar minyak masak

Langkah

1. Campur semua bahan2 diatas sehingga sebati...ketepikan sebentar
2. panaskan periuk kukusan..sediakan loyang atau penutup periuk aluminium yang disapu dengan minyak masak (I use stainless steel plate)

3. Masukkan bancuhan tpg tadi dlm loyang atau tudung periuk ...jgn tebal jgn
nipis...agak2 la ye..kalau saya guna 3 senduk setiap adunan ...kukus dlm 5 minit.. Steam for 8 minutes
4. angkat loyang/penutup periuk dan alirkan bawah dgn air paip supaya sejuk..
5. guna hujung sudu atau bende yang boleh cungkil laksam ni kluar dr loyang...terus gulung dr loyang tersebut hingga habis..
6. kukus lagi adunan laksam tadi sehingga habis..

一个人 = 寂寞？

总是看到不少网上文提到孤独终老，独居老人死在家里，然后把那老人形容得很惨，就只因为他一个人住。

我们真正知道的是什么？他死了，可是他可能活出了最精彩的人生，然后老来选择独居，在家里死了，就这样。

难道他的人生因为他老来一个人就表示他很可怜？社会一直在变，一个人住没什么不好，两个人住也可以，不过是一种选择。