我有汉字

after months of fartarsing around, i have finally worked out how to turn the characters on on my new PC.

if only my chinese were better and i really had something i could write about!

you have no idea how exciting this is for me. i really must get out more.

brown paper packages

not tied up with strings unfortunately, but can there be any greater happiness than coming home from work and finding a package waiting on the doorstep.

obviously when i was ordering my okervile river albums i wasn't paying too much attention, because two of them are vinyl. but this is OK, because my turntable is in the study, right next to my computer, so while i BHG (or write essays for uni) i can listen to these, and then have two for the CD player in the bedroom.

i have been spending far too much money on line recently. if this does not stop, i won't be able to afford my trip to turkey in september. this would be bad, real bad!

egg fried rice

mum came for lunch today and i made egg fried rice, which is ironic because my chinese lesson today was on expressing likes and dislikes and one of the people in the dialogue didn't like fried rice because it was too expensive (wo bu xihuan chi danchaofan, yinwei shi hen gui le)

i think it's cheap as chips. mine had egg in it (actually it was just the egg yolks left over from making marshmallow), but on the whole it was dumpling fried rice. when i was at the markets yesterday doing some food shopping i was in one of the chinese stores buying ginger and i had a sudden craving for chaofan - fried rice. i remembered i had some rice in the freezer. then when i got home i realised i had some dumpling filling too. jiaozi, or dumplings, are just one of my favourite things to eat, but i thought i'd put the filling in the rice.

really fried rice is just a good way to get rid of left overs, but here's a recipe anyway.

fried rice

• a quantity of left over rice, either from the fridge or freezer. freshly cooked rice won't work
• ginger and garlic finely chopped/grated
• spring onions finely sliced, with the white and green sections kept separately
• some sort of meat - left over dumpling filling (pork and cabbage), or bacon or ham or prawns or chicken or pork meat, or these things in any combination
• a selection of vegetables, beansprouts, carrot and capsicum are my favourite, evenly diced. frozen peas just left to defrost on the bench are really really good
• dried chinese mushrooms, soaked/cooked according to the instructions
• egg, beaten
• sauces/flavourings

cook the egg first. you'll need a hot wok (woks should always be hot), with a little vegetable oil in the bottom. pour in the beaten egg and swirl to cover the sides of the wok. it should then be thin enough that it cooks almost instantly. either remove as pancake and slice, or i just pull it down into the centre of the wok and cut it with my stiry-thing.

wipe the wok clean and re-oil. add the aromatics - ie the garlic, ginger and spring onions (white sections only). if you're using chili, this would be the place to put it in. i like to use a sauce that has beef flavours, blackbean and chili in it. my circle of friends call it stern lady sauce, because - well the lady on the label looks very stern
really i think it is some sort of 'auntie's home style cooking' type of brand. look for one's with stickers on the side in english because there are lots of different types. this one is normally called 'beef and blackbean'.

sorry, i'm getting distracted. you've cooked your egg, and now have your garlic, ginger, onion and stern lady in the wok. it should all sizzle and spit when you put them in, or you don't have the wok hot enough. once these have browned off a bit, add the meat that you're using and get it well cooked, because the rest will happen fairly quickly.

add your vegetables. they should be cut to an appropriate size so that they all cook at the same time (the beansprouts and peas will go in the end because they just need heating through). stir until these are cooked.

add the rice with some liquid. i tend to use a bit of shaoshing rice wine and a little soy. be careful not to make it too salty!!! once the rice has heated through and softened up a bit stir though the peas, sprouts and the cooked egg. use the green section of the spring onion raw, as a garnish. a little coriander would also be nice.

the total cooking time should be under 5 minutes, depending on the meat you've chosen (my was raw, if it's leftover cooked meat you could do this in about 3 minutes). the prep time is longer because you need to slice everything, but if you have it ready it's a good thing to make when you have people coming over because you only need to be away from the table for a few minutes. mmmmmm... danchaofan!

PS. you should never, ever clean a wok by putting in a sink full of water. wipe it down in a wet cloth, try to avoid detergent unless it really needs it (i cooked salt and pepper squid in my yesterday which required a little). use a brush for any stubborn bits. then dry it by placing it back on the heat. a good wok as the oil of all the dishes that have gone before coating it.

she knows my name

OMG! Joy the Baker left a comment on my site. it's just like being at high school and having the cute year 12 boy ask you what the time was, and all you could think was 'he noticed me'!

joy is a total legend. if you haven't checked out her site, you may very well die unfulfilled. and we're the same star sign.... oh my god, it is just like being at high school!!!!

mallow madness

this month the gang-of-three chose marshmallow as the theme for cupcake hero (hereafter known as CCH). from what i can gather marshmallow is very much associated with easter in the states. there also appear to be something called peeps. they look very..errrrr... wholesome.

when i was growing up, my mum's best friend's daughter was lactose intolerant, so she got marshmallow at easter. i remember one easter camping trip at loxton where she got a enormous marshmallow rabbit.

but really i don't think marshmallow is as popular in australia. i've certainly never even thought about making it before! so when marshmallow was announced i had a lot of trouble trying to come up with an idea. as you'll see below i had more than one shot at making the marshmallow, with varying degrees of success. my original idea was to do basically what i've done, but then make mini marshmallow balls to go on top and glue them together with dulce de leche. however i didn't cook the milk for long enough and it didn't thicken properly, and then my first batch of marshmallow didn't set properly and i threw my hands in the air.

these are actually better than i thought they would be. the gooiness of the marshmallow in the centre is a nice counter to these cakes which are quite rich. the cake recipe came from my own cupcake hero JC, who assures me that anyone who uses only cocoa in their cake batter, without actual chocolate, has no idea what they're talking about. JC is haigh's best customer and when she talks chocolate i listen, so i can but assume this advice is sound.

anyway, here is my entry, along with quite a few photos. i'm trying to get better at the picture taking, which i'm not that great at right now, compounded by the fact i have the darkest kitchen this side of hades. but i'm learning a few tricks.

i got the marshmallow recipe from the fantastic clotilde at chocolate and zucchini. clotilde posts in both french and english, because she is european and generally smarter than us anglophones. i try to read her posts in french as much as i can. i made the marshmallow (guimauve) according to her recipe last weekend and had a play around with it. the rose water once is very very nice, and i will be using it for something, somewhere, but it didn't have the right flavour for these cakes. the chocolate one was very nice too, but didn't quite set properly. maybe i used too much water. it'd be interesting to try this in vanilla cakes (maybe next weekend). today, this is how i did

guimauve a la clotilde
14g sheet gelatin
40g glucose or corn syrup
230g caster sugar
3 egg whites.

mix the syrup and sugar with about 90ml of water and put on the heat. once just boiled, reduce to a simmer and cook for about 8 minutes. while the sugars are cooking soak the gelatin in cold water. after the 8 minutes, remove the gelatin from the water, squeeze the suckers as dry as you can and stir into the hot sugar mix.


while all of this is cooling a little, whisk the egg whites to form soft peaks.

make sure that the sugar syrup has cooled a little, and slowly pour into the eggs in a constant stream, whilst whisking, and continue until the mix has cooled to about room temperature. i must admit i've never been very good at this kind of thing. i'm just not coordinated enough to pour and whisk at the same time, i just do as well as i can and hope for the best.

it looks very glossy and smooth at the end, but if you stick your finger in it to taste, which i would neeeeeever do, it's got the fluffy consistency of marshmallow.
i just left this in the bowl to cool. it started to set remarkably quickly (i have the air conditioning on high at the moment). so about 30 minutes after i started on the cakes.

chocolate cupcakes
100g dark chocolate
100ml milk
30g cocoa powder
100g butter at room temp
115g caster sugar
2 eggs
150g self raising flour

over a double boiler, heat the dark chocolate (i got some extra scrummy belgian chocolate from goodies and grains), cocoa powder and milk, not letting the top pan touch the water - i just use a pyrex jug over a saucepan. sir occasionally until the chocolate is completely melted.

now, this is a very important bit. without this the whole cake mixture will be a failure: do not eat the melted chocolate straight out of the jug. it is for the cake, not you! let it cool a little while you get on with the rest.

in a large mixing bowl cream the butter and the sugar. in a pique of disorganisation i failed to take the butter out of the fridge. luckily the extreme heat we've been experiencing recently made it soften easily when left on the outdoor table for 15 minutes. then add the eggs one at a time, combine each one as you go. add the chocolate mix and combine well before folding in the flour in two batches, using a metal spoon.


spoon the mix into a 12 hole cake tin lined with large papers. cook at 180 degrees for 15-20 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean. cool the cakes in the tray.

once they've cooled a little, cut a hole in the top of each cake, scoop out some of the cake and spoon in some of the marhsmallow mix. if you make the cake and the marshmallow all in one go, the marshmallow should be just the right consistency to spoon in. piping it would probably give a better result, but if you're like me you're too lazy to clean the bag twice in one day!
icing
200g icing sugar
100g cream cheese

no rocket science here folks, simply mix the sugar and the fat. i added a splash of vanilla essence to help it along.

needless to say there is a huge amount of sugar here, so one cake at a time is plenty. i unfortunately put the wrong nozzle in my piping bag and didn't realise until i'd filled it, so the icing looks a bit patchy.

overall i will forgive you ladies if i don't get the tshirt this month. but one day it will be mine, all mine (insert evil laugh here)

oh my sweet freaking lord

i know things have been a little sleepy on BHG recently. this is partly because of work, but also because of play. i've been out quite a bit recently doing things at the Adelaide Fringe. I have also been buying a ridiculous number of tshirts online.

it's an addiction, i need help!

speaking of which, it's currently 5.30 in the pm in my sleepy little home town. and no wonder it's sleepy, because it's still nearly 40 degrees outside. what else can you do but sleep?

for those from a slightly more northern orientation, this is nearly 105 degrees fahrenheit. and we've days of it to come yet. i get the impression that there are some northerners (it's grim oop north you know) read this, because i have that lovely little map on my site that lets me know where the clicks are coming from.

so, i'm dying to know: this site hasn't been around long - are you reading this, or do you click on some google result looking for something else and then navigate away quickly, thinking Oh my God, this woman is mad? either way, leave me a comment and let me know. i'm a gemini, i'm terribly curious you know.....

but of course what am i doing in the heat? i'm baking. this month's CCH challenge is marshmallow. this has flummoxed me a little and tonight i'm experimenting, so expect some results tomorrow.

restless

i am restless tonight. i wish i had a tv. then i could just watch something mindless. i could go out, but i have a tin of condensed milk simmering on my stove, and i'm guessing it wouldn't be a good idea to leave it.

at any rate, the event that is going to take place in my uterus very soon is making me rather grump and willing to eat ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING. i can not tell you how much i want icecream right now.

i did make myself kali dahl for dinner tonight, which was lovely and rich and creamy and smooth. i love dahl, it is one of life's ultimate comfort foods.

kali dahl
take 250g black urad beans and place them in a heavy based saucepan with 8 cups of water. bring to the boil, and then reduce to a simmer for 1 hour, or until beans feel soft when pressed between your fingers

drain the dahl, but retain the water

put a roughly chopped onion, 2 cloves of garlic and a 1cm piece of ginger into a food processor to make a paste (or if you're some weird stubborn tattooed chick who knows damn well that 21st century gadgets like this are all just part of some capitalist plot to make us all slaves to 'the man' and dominate our actions in order to further the aims of the world's oil cartels - ie you're me - and you don't have a food processor chop all vegetables finely with a sharp knife). good thing 'the man' isn't around, because my sharp knife is still on the bench. that'd show them. no good capitalist swines, i'll ...... sorry where was i? oh yes, the dahl.

anyhoo fry your vegetables in a little hot oil until they're golden and lovely. add 2 tspn of each ground cumin and coriander. add the beans back to the pan with about 1.5 cups of the water they were cooked in. stir through a teaspoon of garam masala and half a teaspoon of chili powder.

simmer for 10 minutes until thickened, then add about 100ml of cream and allow to heat through before serving with some bread or something, or meat or stuff. don't ask me complicated questions today!!!