Colomba Pasquale

I had been looking forward to making this cake (or is it  bread?) for a while now. I love panettone but I was waiting to make one later this year, closer to Christmas but a colomba is a similar confection to panettone adapted for Easter celebrations. Some Italians believe that the colomba (as we know it) is a recent addition to Italian Easter celebrations. It was created last century by Motta, an Italian company made famous by its panettone. I should know, hailing from...

Mum's Char Siu Bao or Pork Buns for Bread Baking Day  (BBD) # 28, hosted by Tangerine's Kitchen

You won't find these char siu bao in any Yum Cha joint as they are not very sweet nor is the killer homemade pork filling tinged with red dye. What they are not is what sets them apart. The filling is flavourful, savoury and slightly spicy. The skin is chewy but soft and not at all snow-white in colour (we used unbleached flour). Even though traditional char siu bao calls for super-white, bl...

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris. 

I have of late been reading Melissa Clark's archived articles from the NY Times. Her voice and tone resonate with my philosophy and style of cooking. There are dozens of pages worth of articles but, somehow, I very luckily stumbled on this little gem of a recipe. You might understand by now that I am not a huge fan of cutting corners or time-saving techniques. I tend to find those types of recipes disappointing, and, in the final review,  not worth making nor eating. Tough, aren't I? I...

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf. Thank you Eleanor and Jess for hosting this event!

I decided to adapt a recipe by Giorgio Locatelli whose book "Made in Italy" has been sitting on my shelf for a few months staring back a...