Chouquettes

This is one of my favourite.



Line up choux pastry in a small choux shape.

Brush with egg wash (egg and salt to break down protein in egg so that its not too thick) and sprinkle with pearl sugar.

Bake at 170C. The interesting thing that I learned yesterday is if we line a baking sheet on baking tray, the base of dough once baked will be roundish and not flatten.

The pastry will go through a few process:

1. Development stage - dough will rise
2. Drying process - dough will set
3. Open and close oven door to let steam out, reduce temperature - dough will dry
   

The pearl sugar is half the sweetness of normal sugar and it adds flavour and taste to the choux.

Cream Puff Delights ... Churros

The first pastry that we learned is Churros.

One thing that I like about this "Cream Puff Delights" workshop is the same churros dough/pastry can be made into 5 varieties.

Add in egg one by one and mix until fully absorbed by the dough and mix well.



The dough should be smooth and shining.

Line up the choux pastry with a star shape nozzle into long strips and set in freezer for a few hours overnight until the pastry is hard.

Immediately out from freezer, without defrosing, cut the dough into shorter length and deep fry.

Roll into orange or cinnamon flavoured sugar before serving.

The dough can be prepared in advance ie pipe the dough, freeze it, cut it and store in container. To serve, just deep fry and roll into sugar.

Cream Puff Delights by The French Culinary School in Asia

Hubby forwarded me an email "Upcoming workshops in Cuisine Studio". This time round, they had very interesting workshops. I particularly like the "Exclusive canapes for your cocktail parties" and "Sweet Saturday - Cream puff delights".

The good news is Cuisine Studio is having Mother's Day Special gift vouchers with 5 cooking classes at RM500 only for workshops between 15 Apr 09 till 15 Jul 09. That is 50% discount off their normal fee of RM200 per workshop.

I registered with Cuisine Studio and asked the friendly staff, Aida if I need to bring any thing for the workshop. She said "Absolutely nothing, just bring yourself". That's easy and very convenient.

I like the setting of the workshop area and the workshop arrangement. Each participant was given this folder and pen, with recipe, instructions and note space.

As the workshop began, we were served with coffee or tea. That's great! I love coffee and it really boost up my energy and concentration to the workshop. We were also given mineral water.

The chef, Bruno and his 2 assistants. Bruno had his coffee before the workshop start.

The workshop was conducted by a professional in a professional manner. We learned 5 different delights, had hands-on experience in piping and taste as and when pastries were ready for us to taste. We were even given container to pack some home.

I packed these to show and thanks Hubby for forwarding Cuisine Studio's email to me.

1. Churros (bottom middle)


2. Chouquettes (top left)


3. Chocolate Eclair (top right)


4. Profiteroles (bottom right); and


5. Choux a la Creme (bottom left).

All these at RM100 joining fee. It is really worth it. I met a few participants who bought 2 set of the Mother's Day gift vouchers.

Cuisine studio does sell baking utensils and ingredients. I will try making some of these delights at home while the learning is still fresh in my head. As some of the ingredients are not easily found elsewhere, I bought 100g of pearl sugar (RM3), 100g of fondant (RM3.50), 75g of cocoa paste (RM5.60) and 1 packet of vanilla pod (RM20) from there.

Cuisine Studio Restaurant

Tropicana Golf & Country Resort,

Jalan Kelab Tropicana

47410 Petaling Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan

Tel: 03 7805 3088 (dine-in reservations)

Tel: 03 2078 7969 (culinary workshops)

Fax: 03 2026 4188

E-mail: french_culinary_school@htcinasia.com

Another Gathering and Farewell

After Fei Yin and I hosted lunches at home, we volunteered Chin Ying to host the next gathering, before she leaves us for her new job. Chin Ying claimed that she cant cook.

Fei Yin did a check on Chin Ying's dinner menu. Chin Ying told them that she would be preparing sausages, nuggets and jelly. There were instant complaint on the menu and all claimed that they have to have own dinner prior to going to Chin Ying's house for gathering.

When we reached Chin Ying's house, we saw a table full with food, nicely and elegantly presented.

Delifrance's mini tarts and nachos with salsa sauce.


Top hat (recipe from Chin Ying's mother in-law), nuggets, french fries and sausages.




Curry chicken cooked by Chin Ying's mother.

Yong Tau Foo by Chin Ying's mother too. This Yong Tau Foo is delicious, especially the meat filing.

Fried meehoon by Chin Ying's maid and chicken cooked with chicken wine by Chin Ying's mother.

Kids, young and old, playing Play Doh.






Ladies admiring the young, thin, youthful Chin Ying's old photos.








Boy and Guys and PS2 game, brought by Kenny.

Chin Ying was reluctant to have us at home as she always claim that her house is small. Look how spacious the house is.

I made bull eye's cheese cake and this frame for Chin Ying.

Chin Ying will be leaving our company next week. Over the last 1.5 years, the relationship has developed from colleagues to friends. She is a happy go lucky, helpful, nice and sweet girl. We'll surely miss her, especially during lunch time as she's our driver for lunch out.

Another group photo for the album and memories.

Area of a circle

I have a recipe to make a 9 inch cheese cake. Usually, people do not eat a lot of cheese cake due to the cheesiness of the cake and I always left with half cut cake, which is not as nice or presentable.

I wanted to make 2 smaller cakes out of the recipe so that I can bring one to a friend’s house and one for afternoon tea with guests at home. But I’m not sure what cake tray dimension that I should use.

I goggled on the website and found this MathGoodies which is very useful.

A = Pi. r. r

Area of a circle = 3.14 x Radius x Radius, where radius is half the length of the diameter of a circle (Radius = Diameter / 2)

Area of a 10 inch cake tray = 3.14 x 5.0 x 5.0 = 78.5 inch2

Area of a 9 inch cake tray = 3.14 x 4.5 x 4.5 = 63.6 inch2

Area of a 8 inch cake tray = 3.14 x 4.0 x 4.0 = 50.2 inch2

Area of a 6 inch cake tray = 3.14 x 3.0 x 3.0 = 28.3 inch2

Yeah, now I can have 2 mini cakes for 2 different functions. It’s much nicer and presentable than having a half cut cake.

Google Maps

We will be going to Chin Ying's house for dinner gathering. She was trying to draw maps to her house for us, from 1 Utama and Kepong directions.

She told us that she's not good in drawing maps but yet she tried her best. After drawing about 3 maps which were not according to scale, I suggested Google Maps. She had not heard about Goggle Maps and asked "What is it?"

We logged into Google Maps and key-in her house address and walla ... the map from my house to her house was displayed with detail driving directions, distance and approximate time to reach the destination. She was so amazed by it.

Thereafter, she scolded us for not telling her earlier to save her the trouble and struggle drawing out the map for us :)

Income Tax e-filing

I am very proud of myself!

For a change, I didn’t submit my income tax return on the last day of deadline. This year, I filed my tax return online on 21 Apr 09. Hooray! This is my 2nd year using the online submission. It’s so convenient and easy to use.

I used to file my tax return online at the last minute and as the Inland Revenue Board’s (IRB) computer servers jam up, it was very frustrating. It is also unnecessary stress when we do things last minutes. I used to search for documents i.e. dividend warrants, insurance statements, donation receipts, mom’s medical bill, magazines/books receipts, etc.

Currently, I store all these documents required for tax submission in one folder. Once the tax return is completed, I filed the tax return and documents together in a booklet form. Now I have a booklet for each year of assessment. It’s nice to see everything is in place and easily accessible and found.

We need to make adjustment to our tax for income received in arrears. The tax difference is due to bonus income (for 2007) received in arrears (received in 2008), which was added in to YA 2007 chargeable income. I’ve confirmed with IRD officer that the tax deduction on the bonus in arrears is not to be included in the total amount of PCB deduction for the year 2008 and this will result in under-payment of tax. I intend to go to IRD office to settle my tax for the last few year of assessment.

Today, I read on The Star that “IRB servers overwhelmed”.

Due to last minute filing of tax returns and the computer servers jam up, IRB advised that the best time to access the e-Filing system is between 1am and 7am.
About 1.2 million people – almost half of the 2.5 million taxpayers in the country – used the e-Filing system last year, from 187,000 taxpayers when the system was first introduced in 2006 and the number grew by more than 350% in 2007, with 876,000 e-filers.