one of my nieces specialises in pastry making, and right now she's in London for a few more months before her course is complete. before that she studied in KDU majoring in culinary arts. the rose decoration on the cake is her creation - in 20 minutes, when she entered a competition in paris. she grew up in an environment where entertaining and food blend together - especially since my family loves to eat. her mother, my sis in law, would do a lot of cooking, so we would have rich curry or big chunks of meat in our soup, or creamy lasagne or shepherd's pie...or her sinful durian mousse cake.
i often told my sis in law that i wished i could ask my intan a lot of questions, mostly relating to pastry and cake making, which i think i havent really mastered (thus, the adage the more you know, the more you dont know, is really true). so, last saturday, when intan was back for a week long holiday, i took the opportunity to fire questions as we had limited time... (as i was hogging on my kuey teow and she on her penang laksa). it's interesting to note that my italian country bread was hard as a rock not because i failed to knead well, but because the technique i used wasnt correct. she kept telling me about the steam oven, which all professional kitchens have, creating that crust on the outside and soft on the inside....and despite the malaysians' tendency to favour soft sponges (which means stabiliser is added), she said the chefs over there DO NOT use stabilisers and make fresh batches of sponges daily...i should think the malaysians too, like the british kids in jamie's school dinners should be re-trained to appreciate the basic ingredient foods instead of overly processed foods...
in the end, 1 hour isnt enough to berguru with intan.... i shall have to wait until she returns for good in july.
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