AVOCADO-CHOCOLATE PUDDING

Recipe

Ingredients:

1 overripe avocado

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tablespoon of honey

1/4 cup of milk

Directions:

1. Slice your avocado, take out the pit, and place into blender

2. Pour in your cocoa powder, honey and milk

3. Blend all ingredients up

4. Scoop out thick paste and place into fridge to chill

5. Take out after 30 mins

6. Enjoy! :)

Optional;

> Adjust with a chopstick and blend multiple times to ensure consistency

Recipe inspired by: Tastemade https://www.tastemade.com

HOMEMADE LASAGNA

I love eating lasagna, so I thought why not make it at home. That way, I can eat it whenever I want to. :>

Recipe

Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil

1 onion finely chopped

1 carrot finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

250g minced pork

400g can chopped tomatoes

1 cup water

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon plain flour

1 cup milk

125g cheddar cheese

60g parmesan cheese, grated

210g of lasagna sheets

Directions:

Meat Sauce

1. Heat oil in a saucepan

2. Add onion, carrot, garlic and cook until soft.

3. Add beef mince and cook until brown.

4. Stir in canned tomatoes and water.

5. Season with salt and pepper

6. Cover and cook gently for 20 mins

Cheese Sauce

7. Melt butter in a separate saucepan

8. Stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes over gentle heat

9. Remove from heat, stir in milk

10. Return to heat, stir until thick and smooth

11. Season with salt, pepper, and add mozzarella or cheddar cheese, stirring over low heat until cheese melts.

Assembly

12. Preheat oven to 180°C

13. Pour 1/2 cup of the meat sauce into a lightly greased baking dish.

14. Alternate layers of lasagna, meat, and cheese sauces, ending with a cheese sauce layer (allow for 4 layers)

15. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese

16. Bake in oven for 35-40 minutes or until cooked through

17. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Optional;

> Make sure that the lasagna sheets are completely covered with sauce.

> Test if cooked by pricking with a fork.

Recipe inspired by: San Remo

kook's creamery

Having seen the unique lava cookie on Instagram, I was tempted to try it out. Hence I "googled" lava cookie and found out about kook's creamery where they sell it, before later "jioing" my friends to go to the cafe. :)

The cafe was relatively difficult to get to, by alighting at Serangoon MRT and then having to search for a connecting bus service, which we found. The wait for the bus was around 9 minutes and we had to cross an overhead bridge to the bus stop. After alighting from the bus, we had to cross yet another overhead bridge to get to our destination.

The cafe exterior was relatively nondescript, occupying a cute, cozy, and small space at the corner of the row of shops beneath Block 211. It had large floor to ceiling windows, so that people could look in, and was decorated in pastel colours.

There were several notices on the front door, giving instructions as what to do during covid period. We chose a table and sat ourselves before going in to order, as per instructions.

Inside, we were spoilt for choice. Specially coming for the lava cookie, that was our obvious choice. However, we were giving two variants of the lava cookie; normal chocolate, or matcha. They even had a choice of ice-cream to put on the cookie, and the option to purchase a mermaid tail.

Wanting to try both variants, I chose a matcha cookie with pistachio ice-cream, while my friends chose lemon with normal chocolate cookie, and spirulina ice-cream with matcha cookie and mermaid tail, respectively.

Hence we had the best of 3 worlds ;)

Serving the food, the servers made a show of taking the ice-cream from the ramekin and placing it strongly on the cookie, causing its contents to spill out. All of us angled for a good spot to capture the moment.

The chocolate in the cookie tasted thick without being too syrupy-sweet and had a relatively strong chocolate taste. The spirulina ice-cream tasted like a vegetable party, reminding one of kale smoothies and celery. The matcha cookie tasted sweet, with a strong matcha taste. The pairing with the cold and slightly savory pistachio was compatible, and overall, my favorite.

The mermaid tail was purportedly edible and my friend took a few bites of it before declaring it to have "no taste" or tasteless. Overall, it was an interesting experience.