The Great Chef

The mysteries encapsulated in my brain connectivity determine that I remain disturbingly idle during the few periods along the year when stress drops to bearable levels. And so, every beginning of year I see the days before returning to the inhuman demands of my academic duties passing by at the speed of light, while I linger over thoughts of going back to writing, reading one thousand books that I declared overdue, or trying the recipes that pop-up once in a while. It almost feels like a tradition, in which case should be observed. And, although the recipe I am about to share with you might not be closely followed by the dozens I have tried, since the last post, I can assure you it will be worth it. I have been thinking about making vol-au-vent  for quite some time. But the process is time consuming: cutting all the puff-pastry circles, stack them perfectly together making sure they stick together as well, so they do not separate when baked... It is one of those things that can be set

In another two more weeks we will be welcoming the "Monkey" for the coming Chinese New Year .   I am sure those who are celebrating the Chinese New Year, will be busying themselves baking all sorts of cookies. And my first bake for the CNY cookies is Peanut Cookies.  Though it is quite laborious to make this, I guess it is worth it.  So fragrant and nutty flavour!   PEANUT COOKIES Recipe sourced from Food-4Tots   Ingredients   300g raw peanuts 250g plain flour 130g icing sugar 135ml peanut cooking oil 15g butter (softened – optional) Pinch of salt   Egg Wash   1 egg yolk (from 1 large size egg; lightly beaten and diluted with 1 tsp milk   Preparing the peanuts   Rinse the raw peanuts and pat dry with kitchen paper. Dry fry the raw peanuts in a big wok or frying pan under medium heat; stir frying from time t o time till golden brown. Remove and set to cool before removing the skin. Grind the  peanuts till fine or  superfine (to your preference) in a food processor.   Making t