Life and death in my kitchen sink.

I cried the last time I walked in on my mom while she was killing crabs for our dinner. No, I'm not some squeamish vegan, but I admit I'm waaay more comfortable cooking dead animals. Delusional, I know. I wish I could be one of those gung-ho farm chicks who raise and slaughter their dinner but no, I definitely have a long way to go before I can, if ever, embrace the whole farm to table lifestyle.

The womenfolk in my house have never cooked with frozen crabs and after I mentioned that I had to test a crab recipe for work, I returned home today to find a pail of live crabs waiting for me. Thankfully, my dad was on standby and all I had to do was to nod my head.

I felt like an executioner, and my heart broke a little when I peered over his shoulder and saw the twitching pincers. It's ironic really, as I am technically fueling the slaughterers each time I bite into a piece of fish or meat. My aunt's convinced that this streak of compassion may just lead me to become a vegetarian one day. Maybe. But for now, I'm gonna be sticking to supermarket meats, and crossing my fingers that there won't be another crab recipe to test. Loser.

Naked gypsies.

I've reignited my love affair with cookbooks, and I've taken to reading, not skimming through, them on the couch on weekends. It's incredibly therapeutic and also very inspiring! And as part of recent my Aussie food rampage, I singled out this beauty of a cookbook by Rachel Grisewood, founder of Manna from Heaven bakery in Sydney.

click here for Amazon details

Rachel's got a bit of a boho vibe going on, and while my beach hippie days are over (I think), I was instantly drawn to this freewheeling flower child of a cook. And is it any wonder that her recipe for Gypsy Creams leaped out at me? Her description all but kicked me out of the couch and into the kitchen. "For me, these biscuits are excellent for gypsies who like to sail, but just as suited to people who like to sit on couches and simply dream about sailing around the world."

I must confess that until yesterday, I'd never heard of Manna on Heaven, before which I'd never heard of Gypsy Creams. According to Google, these are cookies (usually ginger flavoured) sandwiched with chocolate buttercream. Rachel's version is scented with orange zest, and features, quite simply, melted dark chocolate in place of buttercream.

I measured, whipped and mixed, and in typical curiosity-never-kills-the-cat fashion, flavoured half the cookie dough with crushed cardamom instead of orange zest. The scent of cardamom immediately transports me back to those hot Indian summer days I spent nursing many an ice-cold kulfi, and honestly, if I had to choose a spice to encapsulate the essence of gypsy, it'll be cardamom. But I digress. All I can say is this: the orange-scented cookies were delicious, but the cardamom babies were divine. So divine I didn't bother with the chocolate filling. Poor, naked gypsies.

Cardamom gypsies
Makes about 20 cookies

75g butter (I used salted), softened
65g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
120g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
seeds from 1 vanilla pod (or 1 tsp essence/paste)
1 tsp cardamom seeds, crushed (I podded my cardamom and crushed the seeds but I imagine the equivalent in cardamom powder will work, too)
pinch of raw sugar (optional)

1. Cream butter and sugar until thick and pale. Use an electric mixer; don't break your arms.
2. Beat in the egg yolk. Fold in the plain flour, baking powder, vanilla and cardamom. Mix well. The dough will be rather stiff.
3. Shape the dough into a log, about 3cm in diameter. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for an hour or 2 until the dough is very firm. (The colder your dough, the less likely your cookies will spread.)
4. Preheat oven to 150C and line a baking tray (or two) with baking paper. Cut the dough into ½cm-thick slices and arrange them on the tray(s). The cookies may spread a tad so leave a little space between them. Sprinkle a pinch of raw sugar on top of each cookie and pop the tray(s) into the oven for about 15 mins, until the cookies are lightly golden.
5. Serve with a pot of masala chai.

You could of course replace the cardamom with the zest of a quarter of an orange, and melt about 50g dark chocolate for the filling. As much as I love these cardamom-kissed cookies, I know they're are not for everyone - I can imagine so many of my friends wrinkling their noses! But of course, I remain hopeful they'll come to love cardamom as much as I do, when their inner free spirits are awakened maybe. ;)

One day, some day, I really might succumb to my banked desire to run around the beach in jangly anklets and flowers in my hair. But for now, I'll content with baking and devouring these naked gypsy treats.

Warm weather food.

This fresh, zesty Asian salad makes an incredible hot weather meal. I first tasted a similar dish, made with ripe mangoes and grilled chicken, at a dinner party five years back, and while I've tried to recreate it a couple of times with varying degrees of success, it was only last month that I conjured up a mindblowingly fresh and appetising version.

I served it as a prelude to an awesome Moroccan roast chicken (more about that another time), but it was so good on its own I almost wish that was all I'd prepared. Almost.

I knew immediately what I wanted for lunch when I saw green mangoes for sale earlier. I chose chicken for my protein this time around, but shrimp really is the best. Or have it with chicken and shrimp, or neither! That's how versatile and forgiving this salad is.

Here's what I roughly used - a lot of it depends on the sweetness of your ripe mango and the tartness of the green, so adjust the ratio of lime juice to sugar accordingly.

Leigh's make it up as you go Thai mango salad
Serves 4

2 + 5 tbsp fish sauce
1 + 1 tbsp sugar (or equivalent in gula melaka syrup)12 prawns, shelled and deveined (or use 1 chicken breast, sliced)
juice of 1 large lime (not the tiny ones you have with belachan and hokkien noodles)
zest of 1/4 large lime
1 red chilli, sliced
1 tbsp cooking oil
1 sweet, ripe mango, cut into cubes
1 green mango, skinned and sliced into thin strips
handful of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
generous handful of roasted cashew nuts

1. Combine 2 tbsp fish sauce and 1 tbsp sugar. Add prawns, toss well to coat, then cover with cling film and marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hr.
2. In a bowl, combine lime juice and zest, remaining fish sauce and sugar, and the sliced chilli. Stir well and then taste and adjust the seasoning. Set aside until needed.
3. Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Add the prawns, in batches if necessary, and cook until pink and cooked through. Alternatively, cook the prawns on an oiled electric grill.
4. Tip ripe and green mango onto a serving plate. Throw in the cooked prawns and mint, and drizzle over the dressing. Toss well to combine.
5. Top with the roasted cashew nuts and tuck in!

Sweet & salty.

This caught my eye the second I walked into K ki on Saturday. What can I say, it combines two of my favourite things - salted caramel and polka dots. I suppose the latter is subjective, but is there anyone who doesn't like salted caramel?

Sweet. Salty. Sticky but not toffee-sticky. Rich but not cloying. Frivolously fun, yet so damn luxurious.

I've never been one to content with a single assault of my senses. White chocolate, in all its cloying sweetness, just doesn't do it for me. Give me dark, 90% cocoa chocolate, where the sweetness is but a whisper from under bitter overtones. Give me sweet and sour pork, pineapple slices with dark soy sauce and chilli padis (odd but so good), hot chocolate lava cake with a scoop of ice cream... give me sea salt caramel.

This tiny bottle of goodness certainly doesn't come cheap at S$16.50, and I've taken to stashing it in a pantry drawer that almost never sees the light of day. (Except when our family's desperate.) I've only slipped it out twice since - for tea the Saturday I bought it, and for breakfast the next morning. It's unsurprisingly delicious on toast and biscuits, but I think a homemade tart may be the best canvas for it yet. Imagine a buttery, crumbly crust with generous layers of caramel, homemade custard and bananas. And dark chocolate shavings. You gotta have dark chocolate shavings.

These two recipes look mighty fine, too.

Caramel pumpkin pie on spicy icecream

(I love pumpkin! It's my favourite squash.)

And these chocolate caramel slices from butter sugar flour

I'd really love to bake something with the caramel BUT that would make a serious dent in the already tiny jar. Gosh I'm horrid. I'll make something. Definitely. For when the girls come round on Saturday. Maybe.