Hearty Breakfast From Coffee Bean And Tea Leaf

Breakfast is my most favorite meal of the day. I love the smell of scrambled eggs and bacon whenever these two are served on our weekend breakfast. As you know staying in food paradise like Singapore we are all pamper with wide varieties of breakfast choices range from either the traditional Fried/Steamed Carrot Cake, Century Egg Porridge, Fried Fritters(you tiao) with Kopi or more westernize choice like Oat Porridge, Bacon and Sausage.

Sometime it might be good idea to pamper yourself with a cup of freshly brewed coffee/tea, served together with a set of hearty breakfast without you sweating in your own kitchen. Usually I would like to ordered Brek 'O' Day which served with scrambled eggs, toasts, sausage and salad.

I love their freshly made salad with crisp lettuce, generous amount of flake almond and cranberries served; with sourish and sweet tangy dressing that perk up my day.
Pricing: S$7.70(include a cup of freshly brewed coffee/tea that is FREE to refill daily till 11.00am)

Above shows the range of Breakfast Menu items from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf which I am sure you will find something your preference.

New Zealand Natural $1 OFF Hot And Cold Lunch Treat plus "The Launch"

Apart from my recent post about New Zealand Natural(NZN) promotion on their FREE 1 PINT Ice-Cream(read more HERE) there is another new promotion for the month of JULY (01 July - 31 July 2011) which I saw from their Facebook page. This promotion is ONLY at their HarbourFront outlet which is great for those who work or hang around HarbourFront Shopping Mall

As you can see from the promotion leaflet above there will be a S$1.00 OFF when you make any purchase of hot food such as pasta, pizza or hotdogs (including a Free cup of either hot of ice coffee) OR regular-sized ice-cream which makes it a perfect deal for your lunch/tea break.

Furthermore I heard from a few friends who loves NZN ice-cream, there will be a GREAT LAUNCH on their 6 Most Popular Flavour ice-cream from this July onwards at appointed supermarket outlets. With this launch it means we can easily purchase NZN Ice-cream at a more convenient locations spreading across Singapore other than their 9 ice-cream parlous(location HERE).

SIX MOST POPULAR FLAVOURS

New Zealand Natural Ice-Cream

These premium no artificial flavouring and colouring ice-cream which from New Zealand comes in 473ml tubs with new packaging distinct from those available at the local ice-cream parlours.

Forest Berry:
~ 97% Fat free yogurt made with real boysen berries and 3 other berries

Hokey Pokey:
~ Crunchy butterscotch balls, folded into creamy honey-combed ice-cream

Classic Vanilla:
~ Smooth vanilla ice cream made with fresh cream

Mango Sorbet:
99% fat free, non-dairy luscious mango sorbet, made with real mango

Cookies and Cream:
~ Crushed chocolate cookies dunked in creamy vanilla ice-cream

Chocolate Ecstasy:
~ Rich chocolate fudge, swirled through NZN’s famous chocolate ice-cream

For your information these NZN ice-creams are "EXCLUSIVELY" available ONLY at Cold Storage Supermarket's 40 over outlets island wide at S$12++ per 473ml tub. So start to spot and grab a tub or two of these new eye-catching New Zealand Natural premium ice-creams on your next visit to Cold Storage. Now I am excited to try out one of their 6 Most Popular Flavour like Hokey Pokey.

[Durian Feast] Durian Pancake vs Durian Steamed Cake vs Steamed Durian Egg Custard

Despite of the hot and terrible humid weather going on for the past weeks I am still craving for these "Durian Treats" instead of some cooling stuffs like herbal jelly, ice kacang or cheng teng. Durian is one of my favourite fruit since childhood and I have use it to create many different recipes in this blog such as Durian Fried Rice, Double-boiled Durian Chicken Soup, Durian Chocolate Chiffon Cake and etc.

And in this post I will be sharing 3 quick and easy recipes on snack and dessert using Durian as one of the key ingredients. Do let me know which your favourite Durian Dessert!!!!

I am sure most of you love the Durian Pancake from either Four Seasons, Emicakes, Teng Yu (鼎优) or etc. To be honest I am also one of the fans from Four Seasons who loves their Durian Pancake and Durian Puffs. Here I would like to share a simple recipe where you can either make a thin and crispy or thick and fluffy pancake wrapper for your durian pancake.

Ingredients: (makes 6, 12cm diameter pancakes)
100g Plain Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Double Acting Baking Powder
200ml Thick Coconut Milk/Fresh Milk
1 Egg, 60g
70g Caster Sugar
Pinch of Salt

Filling:
200g Fresh Durian Pulp, seeds removed

Method:-

1. Sift plain flour and double acting baking powder together.

2. Beat egg and sugar until creamy and fluffy (about 3 - 4 minutes) before stirring in the flour mixture.

3. Next add in remaining ingredients, mix well to form a smooth batter.

4. Set batter aside in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

5. Heat up a non-stick pan, lightly grease it with cooking oil and add in 1 1/2 tablespoon of batter, swirl pan and cook the pancake skin over medium low heat. (for thin and crispy wrapper reduce to 3/4 tablespoon and swirl it as thin as possible)

6. Turn the pancake over when you see large air holes appearing on it(refer to the photo above) and cook for another 1 minutes or less depend on its thickness.

7. To serve, scoop some mashed Durian pulp onto pancake skin and fold into half to form semi-circle. Serve immediately or keep in the fridge for cold version.

*Note:-

~ If using Fresh Milk, reduce the amount to 150 - 180ml and stir in slowly to achieve pancake batter consistency.

~ You can prepare the batter the night before and use it for breakfast with other fillings such as jam, honey, peanut butter and etc.

Durian Pancake

On the other hand if you want something more filling for tea-time or morning breakfast perhaps you could consider making some of these Durian Steamed Cake using a packet of instant pancake flour mixture to whip up these soft and fluffy steamed cake in 15 minutes.

A few weeks back while looking around the food section at Daiso, I happened to see one of it's Japanese Recipe Books featured a similar steamed cake that I would to try using Japanese Pancake flour. So with my limited knowledge on Japanese words and the help of some photos illustration I managed try out the recipe translated before with this pancake flour shown above.

Ingredients: (makes 4)
100g Pancake Flour
1 Large Egg
3 Tablespoon Caster Sugar
2 Tablespoon Corn Oil
50ml Fresh Milk
Fresh Durian Pulp, toppings

The end result of these steamed cake are very close to FourLeaves, Japanese Steamed Cake texture which is light, soft and fluffy. And you can always mix and match with different ingredients such as Matcha, Cocoa Powder, Orange and etc.

Method:-

1. Using a balloon whisk, beat egg and sugar till foamy and pale (about 3 minutes).

2. Stir in Oil and Fresh Milk in sequence then follow by the pancake flour till well combined.

3. Lastly toss in 1 tablespoon of durian pulp, mix well. Spoon mixture into prepared foil/ramekins cups that are lined with paper liners.

4. Top each cup batter with some durian pulp and place the cups in steamer/wok(with boiling water in it), cover and steam over high heat for about 10 - 12 minutes(depending on the size) or until a skewer inserted into one of the cake and comes out clean.

5. Alternatively, you can add some corn kernels together with durian pulp as topping too.

Finally for something smooth and creamy, if remember a few months ago I have shared a recipe on the "Steamed Milk With Egg Whites"(recipe HERE) with toppings such as Purple Sweet Potatoes and Pumpkin. For this post I will be using a similar recipe to make a Durian version for all the Durian fans.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
200ml Fresh Milk
2 Large Egg White, (60g egg)
2 Tablespoons Sugar
100g Fresh Durian pulp
Extra Durian Pulp, for topping

Method:-

1. Add milk in a microwave safe bowl, heat on HIGH powder for 60 - 90 seconds (depend on microwave voltage) till milk is warm. Add in sugar and stir till dissolved. Set aside

2. Gently beat the egg whites till a bit frosty. Sieved it over a fine sieve into the milk mixture.

3. Give it a few stir using a fork or chopstick to mix well.

4. Place 1 to 1.5 tablespoon of fresh durian pulp into each rice bowl (size about 250 - 300ml) and use the back of a spoon gently press and spread out the durian pulp evenly in the bowl.

5. Next slowly sift in the milk mixture into each bowl. Wrapped it with microwave safe cling-wrap.

6. Steam over medium heat for 8 minutes, open the clear wrap, add extra durian pulp as topping then continue to steam on medium heat for another 1 - 1 1/2 minutes till slightly firm.

7. Remove from heat and serve warm or cold.

Above photo shows are my collection of recipes using Durian as one of the Main Ingredients. If you are interested to read more about it, you can click on the related link HERE. Lastly I hope you would like the 3 NEW Durian recipes above and do share with me your feedback if you try.