Revisit Georgraphy Class

Last November when I came back to Bangkok from Singapore, a Irish man came to my class. I didn't pay much attention to him more than I would to any first-timer to my class. At the end of the practice this man came and introduced himself as Grant. We chatted a little bit, and he invited me to teach at where he lived. "Muscat". Sure, I'll go. He had a look at my face and offered "it's in Oman." Great. Whatever. I'll go anywhere in the world. HAHA!

So that's how the story unfold. I had absolutely no clue where Oman, or Muscat was. Neither did many people I talked to. So, here it is, once and for all - it's neighboring Saudi Arabia and UAE. The next question is: what the heck am I going to do there? Well, my cooking skill is not yet Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Olivier famous, but I have Yoga. "To who?" Good question. According to Grant, he felt he had benefited much from Yoga. He's an old man (his own words), who wished to contribute something to the Yoga community in Muscat, however small. And that's what he does, aside from his full time job with the highway company, - to bring good Yoga teachers (*ahem*) to Muscat. "I've been to all the big and small yoga studios in Bangkok and you are the only person I approached." *AHEM*

We have been in talk through emails for a few months since. Adrian did not hesitate to make it clear that he's coming with me, and so he is. This is indeed a great opportunity - we probably would never think of visiting Oman if it's not for this offer. A well-traveled friend of ours, Bill, showed us beautiful pictures he took in Oman, and from what little we gathered, it's a jewel tucked in the middle east. How exciting! Think about this: 2 days of teaching, 5 days of sightseeing! WOOHOO!!

We'll be back to Bangkok for Songkran, on the 13th and 14th May, after which we fly to Kuala Lumpur to fulfill the promise I gave to my parents - I skipped Chinese New Year Reunion, and negotiated with my mother to go back in April during Thai New Year when Yoga Elements Studio will be closed. Apart from the two-day rest stop in between Muscat and KL, I'm going to be away from home for three weeks. That means time to clean out the fridge.

I had two eggs, some greens, a few connoisseur-grade French cheeses, some homemade condiments, and a piece of puff pastry sheet. Here's what I put together:

1. Pinto beans + Cheddar cheese + spring onions = Refried beans
2. Rocket leaves + cherry tomatoes + Feta cheese + lettuce + olive oil + balsamic vinegar = salad
3. Put together 1 + 2 + sunny-side up + Portobello mushroom = Vegetarian Big Breakfast

I thought the Portobello mushroom looks rather like a piece of steak

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For some reason unbeknown to me, the pastry didn't hold up the filling very well. A big chunk of the cheeses was lost during baking. Still good though.

Breakfast is not complete without something sweet in this house. I divided the puff pastry sheet into two for Sweet Baked Turnovers:

1. Homemade mulberry jam + "strong cheese" + almond
2. Dried figs + blue cheese

Bon Appetite!

Mascarpone Pancake with Grapes and Blue Cheese Sauce

Our neighbor, Pi Soo, gave us 4 blocks of cheeses her husband brought back from France. Apart from the blue cheese and goat cheese, which I'm familiar with and distinctive enough to distinguish, I have no idea what the other two blocks are. Pi Soo, too, has no idea what they are besides "this one is the strongest". Thanks.

Today's pancake is yet another showcase of putting what's available to the table. I vaguely remembered making some blue cheese grapes salad some time ago - I knew this sweet fruit and acquired cheese will work in compliment. But it somehow didn't seem right to have blue cheese salad for breakfast.

Then my thought wandered into ricotta pancake, sour cream pancake, cream cheese pancake.... etc. What about blue cheese pancake? I don't see why it wouldn't work. But I wasn't going to risk the most important meal of the day on my experiment and decided mascarpone pancake would be more of a sound thing to do.

Since Adrian was making a savory omelet with the "strongest cheese", it seemed gastronomically correct to balance it out with a little more sweet. Hence the addition of honey, which went surprisingly great with the blue cheese sauce.

Ingredients:
(serve 2)
Blue Cheese Sauce

• Blue Cheese
• Cream cheese (soften at room temperature)

I didn't measure the amount used. The cheeses were more or less in equal part. You may add a splash of whole milk to thin it out if necessary. Blend the ingredients to a smooth consistency.

Roasted Maple Pecan

• Pecan nuts, roughly chopped
• Coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon Real Maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon natural cane sugar

Use just enough coconut oil to coat pecan nuts evenly. Toss the nuts with maple syrup and sugar. Bake in the oven at 150C for 10 - 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool.

Mascarpone Pancake

• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 - 2 Tablespoons natural cane sugar
• 1/4 cup homemade mascarpone (soften at room temperature)
  
• 1/4 cup whole milk
  
• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

To serve

• Seedless green grapes and black grapes, halved
• Nectarine, cut into wedges
• Blue cheese sauce
  
• Honey
• Roasted Maple Pecan
  
• Mint leaves
  

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, and sugar. Set aside.
2. Whisk together mascarpone, milk, egg and vanilla essence.
3. Fold the mascarpone mixture to flour mixture. You may add more milk to desired consistency. Stir in lemon zest to combine.
4. Coat and heat a 8" saucepan with coconut oil. Pour 1/2 of the batter to the heated pan and fry until the surface is bubbly. Flip and fry the other side till lightly browned. Repeat with the remaining batter.
5. Serve with fresh fruits and blue cheese sauce. Sprinkle with pecan nuts and drizzle honey around. Garnish with mint leaves.
   

Grape, Celery and Blue Cheese Salad with Toasted Walnuts

What is it with celery that I always need to use up the extra? Looking back, there have been more than once occasions where a recipe calls for little or not enough to use up the big bunch that they sell at the store. This is just another one of them.

This recipe uses grapes as its main ingredient and celery as a companion for a twist on the classic Waldorf. Fennel, endive or arugula also pair nicely with the grapes if you happen to have any of those on hand. Any of these will make a tasty substitute for the celery. For color and flavor variety, I used different green and red seedless grapes. Do not fool by this seemingly unassuming salad - wait till the blue cheese kicks in. "You redefine fruit salad"; "Extraordinary" YUM~

Ingredients:

For the dressing:

• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 2 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 7 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  
• sea salt and black pepper to taste

Whisk ingredients together and keep in refrigerator until ready to use. This recipe makes enough for 4 - 6 servings. You can keep the extra dressing in refrigerator for future use.

For the salad:

• seedless grapes, halved or quartered
• ribs of celery, sliced
  
• walnuts, toasted and chopped
• blue cheese, crumbled

Toss all the ingredients together in a salad bowl. Pour dressing over to serve.

Blue Cheese Potatoes au Gratin

I ran out of cream and so used 1 cup of sour cream with splashes of milk. The gratin turned out to the soupy side. It still taste very good - we were drinking it as if it's some thick cream soup.

Ingredients:
(serves 2)

• 1 kg potatoes, sliced into 1/4" coins
  
• 1 teaspoons sea salt
  
• 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced
• 1 teaspoons fresh sage, minced
  
• 50gram crumbled blue cheese
• 50 gram grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup sour cream (lemon juice + cream)
  
• 1 cups cream
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Lightly grease a baking 8" pie pan.
2. In a bowl, toss together sliced potatoes, salt, pepper and fresh herbs. Layer 1/2 the potatoes to the bottom of pie pan.
   
3. Mix together blue cheese and Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle 1/2 of the cheese mixture over the potatoes layer. Top with remaining potato slices.
4. Whisk together sour cream , cream and salt. Pour over the pie pan. Tap the pan to release trapped bubbles. Top it with remaining cheese mixture.
   
5. Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes or until potatoes are thoroughly cooked.
   

Camembert and Blue Cheese Turnover

I'm going to be teaching Yoga at Cocoa Island in Maldives for the month of July and August. That's a total of 7 weeks away from my husband. Big Deal! What's he going to do with food? I've got to make sure there's 'something' in the fridge for him. Here's two easy to make sweet turnovers. They are perfect for breakfast with a cup of espresso (Adrian's take).
Despite the incessant assurance and encouragement from Divya (my Canadian Indian neighbour), I'm still hesitant about making my own dough. Hence, I took the easy way buying the ready made puff pastry from the store. I have to say they are really good. I just don't like waiting to defrost.

Sweet Baked Camembert
Ingredients:
Puff pastry sheet
Homemade raspberry jam
Dried cranberry
Almond slivers
Camembert
Maple syrup
Ground cinnamon

1. Prepare puff pastry sheet as instructed. I divided one sheet into four quarters and used a quarter of a round camembert for each quarter of the pastry sheet.
2. Sprinkle each quarter with dried cranberry (or raisins) and a couple tablespoons of raspberry jam. Top with slivers of almond.
3. Fold the pastry into desired shape. If you are not baking them yet, wrap each pastry with plastic or cling film and store in zip lock bag in the freezer.
4. To serve, preheat oven to 180C. Defrost the pastry at room temperature.
5. Make a few small holes on the pastry using a fork. Drizzle the top with maple syrup and sprinkle with ground cinnamon.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool slightly before serving.

It's the same steps for the blue cheese turnover except it's paired with chopped pecan and dried figs.

Sweet Baked Blue Cheese
Ingredients
Puff pastry sheet
blue cheese
chopped pecan nuts (or walnuts)
4 Dried Figs, quartered
Maple syrup
Ground cinnamon