Video Essay 1: On Claude Chabrol's Les Bonnes femmes

Mystery Man in Les Bonnes femmes (1960)

It's a really B I G D A Y here at Film Studies For Free. But do, please, be gentle...

This posting brings you the first ever little video essay about a film studies topic (in this case, a single film) produced by this blog's author: Unsentimental Education: On Claude Chabrol's Les Bonnes femmes.

The exercise probably only shows that there's a mighty long way to go with this format for this author before anything near full proficiency in it can be claimed (for example, the voiceover commentary would have sounded a lot better had the person delivering it not been quite so nervous/terrified during the recording). But it's a good enough beginning for what FSFF sincerely hopes will go on to be a regular, if occasional, feature.

The essay has been produced, as previously promised, to coincide with, and thus to contribute to, the final day of the wonderful Chabrol blogathon hosted by Flickhead's blog (see HERE for a list of all the fantastic contributions, so far, to the event).

Some supplementary material about this strange, beguiling film Les Bonnes femmes/The Good Time Girls (France/Italy, 1960, directed by Chabrol), together with a link to a full transcript of the video essay's commentary and some pedagogical and critical reflections on the process of making it, wlll be added to this post as soon as possible. So, do please come back for that. (Updated July 8, 2009: transcript accessible HERE).

But, time was of the essence to join in with the blogathon. So all else can wait. Here below, then, is the essay, archived at FSFF's new supplementary site, for related videos, at Vimeo. It contains a few significant plot spoilers (as few as possible...). Also, please note that, for the purposes of its critical-scholarly analysis and commentary, the essay transforms many of the original elements of the film that it 'quotes', employing newly created still images (and new sounds), slowed motion, and quite heavy (at times) re-editing (including reordering) of image and sound/music.

In other words, you must see the original film, if you haven't done so already. Les Bonnes femmes is currently available on DVD thanks to Kino Video (Region 1 only). It can be ordered from that company's website HERE, or from Amazon.com HERE

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Happy Birthday!

Time has zoomed passed so fast that unknowingly, another year has gone by. It seems like my son has grown up at such a tremendous speed that I have no choice but to accept that he is a big kid now. Looks like I have only a few more years to have him all for myself before he spreads his wings and embraces his own world.

To celebrate his birthday, I baked him a special cake which is a combination of both his all-time favourites...oreo cookies and durian! Even though my younger boy protested...he won't eat any durians, I still went ahead to make it as the rest of us are all durian lovers ;)


As I was expecting a crowd, I made an 8" cake by adapting my favourite 7" sponge cake recipe. I was glad that the sponge cake turned out well as I was really just trying my luck to meddle with the ingredient amount! I whipped up some non-dairy cream and added in some durian pulp. It tasted yummy! Then I sliced the sponge cake into three layers and sandwiched each layer with some non-dairy whipped cream followed by a layer of fresh durian pulp. The cake was then covered with the left over durian whipped cream mixture before it was covered generously with lots of oreo cookie crumbs.


Except for a couple of kids who are non-durian lovers, all the guests enjoyed the cake. The durain was really good...it was very creamy and came with very thick flesh and had got a bitter sweet taste. An excellent choice to please both 'camps' of durian lovers...those who prefer sweet durians vs those who just love a stronger bitter taste. It's a pity I didn't have the chance to take a photo of a slice of cake. Even though I love the cake, I doubt I would make it again any sooner as I really couldn't stand the stinky fridge after having this durian cake sitting in it all night!

I will post the recipe unless there are many requests for it since not everyone likes durian ;)

(As there are a number of requests, I have posted the recipe here.)

Ingredients:
(makes one 20cm cake)

Ingredients A:
130g cake flour
4 eggs, room temperature
120g caster sugar
30g unsalted butter, melted
40ml fresh milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients B:
50g durian flesh (pureed)
300ml non-dairy whipping cream

Ingredients C:
150g durian flesh (pureed)

Ingredients D:
1 tablespoon sugar
60ml (4 tablespoons) hot water

Method:

To make the sponge cake:

1. Sift cake flour, set aside. Line the sides and bottom of a 20cm (8 inches) round pan with parchment paper, set aside. Pre-heat oven to 170degC. Position rack at the lower bottom of the oven.
2. With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar on HIGH speed for about 5 to 7 mins, until the batter double in volume and is ribbon-like (the beater should leave a ribbon-like trail when the batter is lifted up). Turn to LOW speed and whisk for another 1 to 2 mins. Whisking at low speed helps to stabilise the air bubbles in the batter.
3. Add sifted cake flour into the batter in 3 separate additions. Gently fold in the flour with a spatula each time the flour is added. Take care not to deflate the batter.
4. Add the melted butter, fold with spatula until well blended
5. Add in fresh milk, vanilla extract and fold in gently with spatula.
6. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30~35 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Unmold and invert onto cooling rack, remove parchment paper and let cool completely.
   
   To make the filling:
7. Blend durian flesh (Ingredient B) until the pulp becomes smooth*. (As the durian flesh is quite thick, the blade of your blender may not work properly, stir the mixture with a spoon or add one or two teaspoons of water to get it going. *Depending on preference, blend the durian flesh to the desired consistency, I didn't blend it till very smooth, there were still tiny chunks of durian pulp/fibre.) Do the same for Ingredient C.
8. With an electric mixer, whisk non-dairy whipping cream till stiff. Add the 50g of durian puree to the whipped cream. Fold in with a spatula, blend thoroughly. (Depending on the consistency of the durian puree, tiny bits of durian fibre would be visible in the whipped cream mixture.)
   
   To assemble:
9. Dissolve the sugar in hot water (Ingredients D). Let cool.
10. Slice the cake horizontally into 3 layers. Place one layer of the sponge cake on a 20cm cake board. Brush the surface of the sponge layer with the sugar syrup (this is to keep the sponge layers from drying out upon chilling).
11. Spread about 1.5 cups of filling evenly on the sponge layer. Spread half of the durian puree (Ingredient C) evenly over the filling.
12. Brush both sides of the second layer of sponge cake with the sugar syrup and place it over the first layer. Spread with 1.5 cups of filling followed by the remaining durian puree.
13. Brush both sides of the last layer of sponge cake with the sugar syrup and spread the remaining filling on the surface and sides evenly. Leave the cake to chill in the fridge for at least 3~4 hours.
14. Remove cake from fridge and cover the whole cake with crushed oreo cookie crumbs (remove the fillings between the cookies) and decorate as desired. Keep the cake in the fridge before serving.

More about → Happy Birthday!

CHRYSANTHEMUM POUND CAKE

To heck with editing pics in Blogger. It’s a pain. I still haven’t figured out why I can’t move pics around my post by right-clicking and dragging anymore. So I’m giving this Windows Live Writer a go today to see if it’s any easier. I am also trying out Windows Live Photo today for the first to see if it’s easier than Picasa. It seems to have more features and it’s quite easy to use.

The other day, while browsing around for bundt pans at the Cookshop in City Square, I saw these cool Nordicware pans. The one I chose was the 10 cup Chrysanthemum pan.

The pattern is intricate and the pan is hefty. I like!

The “petals” in the pattern create a lot of CRUST, and as you know from my sidebar’s ongoing “Who Love the Crusties” poll, a humongous majority of people are into the crusties and covet the brown bits. So this pan’s for you.

I chose a pound cake recipe from one of 5 new cookbooks I purchased recently. I really ought to take some pics of my bookshelf. It’s bursting with way too many fantastic cookbooks. I found this winner from Bakewise, by Shirley Corriher. The book is hugely thick but I soon found out that most of the pages were filled with “The Math” and explanations of formulas. Much of the explanations are redundant (extracts are repeated throughout the book). I could do with a lot less of the repetition and instead with more stories, recipes and illustrations. Despite the redundancies, so far I’m on board with Corriher’s excellent and in-depth knowledge. What’s important to me is whether the recipe works…and can be duplicated by the home baker.

I can honestly say that this is the best pound cake recipe I’ve ever baked. The staff at work concur when I brought them some leftovers and I received rave reviews. The crust was amazing. The interior crumb was moist. It was everything a pound cake should be. And more!

On the first day, fresh from the oven, the pound cake had a nutty aroma and flavour profile. I practically inhaled a quarter of the cake on my own and had to go on the treadmill and run for 90 minutes to alleviate my guilt. On the following day, the pound cake was just as moist and the crust was still crispy and delectably crunchy and crumbly. It was fabulous.

The only problem I encountered with the recipe was that it called for a 12 cup bundt pan. None are to be found nowadays in cookware stores in Canada. The staff at the Cookshop said they stopped making those a while ago. People use 10-cup bundt pans according to them. The store only carried 10-cup bundt pans but I know I could have used my angel food cake pan. That would have been boring though. So I bought the cute chrysanthemum pan.

btw, posting through Windows Live Writer--so far-- is easier than blogger. I like it. I’m going to keep using it until I find something better. This is so user-friendly I don’t know why I didn’t do this sooner! I guess I didn’t have problems before and I tend not to fix things unless they’re broke!

The most intriguing element to Corriher’s pound cake recipe was the addition of whipping cream beaten to the soft peak stage. What it adds to the cake is moistness and a dimension of nutty butteriness. She adds this whipping cream element to some of her other cakes too and I have a feeling those recipes will be winners as well. I’m going to try one of her other recipes for Bebe’s 6th birthday cake. No, I’m not going to outdo myself like I did last year with the Ariel Castle Cake. I don’t think I can top that. I’m just going to go girlie-girl and do a simple cake with flowers. She wants chocolate of course. I’m thinking white frosting. Maybe a really tall cake…taller than it is wide!

CHEF HEATHER HURLBERT’S MAGNIFICENT MOIST WHIPPED CREAM POUND CAKE

from BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking, by Shirley O. Corriher

Makes one large 12-cup (2.8 L) Bundt cake, of 24 small fluted cakes

• 2 T each butter and flour to prepare the pan or pans
• 2 cups (16 oz/454 g) unsalted butter, cut in 2 T (1 oz/28g) pieces
• 2 3/4 cups (19.3oz/546g) sugar
• 1 T (15 ml) pure vanilla extract
• 6 large eggs (10.5 oz/298 g) room temperature
• 2 3/4 cups (12.1 oz/343 g) spooned and levelled bleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (118 ml) heavy cream
• 2 cups (8 oz/227 g) fresh or frozen and thawed blueberries, optional

1. Generously butter a 12-cup (2.8L) Bundt pan or 24 fluted brioche tins. Add 2 tablespoons (0.5 oz/14 g) flour and rotate the pan to coat. Dump out any excess.
2. Arrange a shelf in the lower third of the oven, place a baking stone on it, and preheat the oven to 350degreesF/177degreesC.
3. With a mixer on medium speed, beat the butter to soften. Add the sugar and continue to beat (cream) until very light and fluffy, scraping down the sides and the bottom of the bowl at least once. While creaming, feel the bowl; if it does not feel cool, place in the freezer for 5 minutes and then continue creaming.
4. Beat in the vanilla. On the lowest speed, beat in the eggs one at a time.
5. Add the flour in several batches, and mix just until blended well.
6. Place a medium bowl with the beaters and the heavy cream in the freezer to chill for 5 minutes. Then with the cold bowl and cold beaters, whip the cream until soft peaks form when the beater is lifted. Whip just a little beyond the soft peak stage.
7. Stir about one-quarter of the whipped cream into the batter. Then gently fold the rest of the whipped cream into the batter. If using, fold in the blueberries. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
8. Place the cake in the oven on the stone and bake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out moist but without crumbs, 50-60 minutes for the Bundt pan, about 20 minutes for small tins. Place the cake in the pan on a rack to cool for 10 minutes. Loosen the cake from the pan by jarring it against the counter. Invert the cake onto the serving platter to finish cooling.

*NB: Cakebrain’s Chrysanthemum Bundt Pound Cake was made with a 10-cup Nordicware bundt pan sprayed with Pam. I poured in enough batter to reach about 1 1/2 inches from the rim and poured the remaining batter in a small 2-cup loaf pan. I adjusted baking time for the loaf pan to 50 minutes and the bundt for 65 minutes. I didn’t use a stone in my oven. My baking times were slightly longer than called for in the recipe as the tops still jiggled slightly.

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Adam Curtis Links

Image from Pandora's Box (Adam Curtis, 1992)

Film Studies For Free concurs with David Bordwell's recent assessment that Adam Curtis is one of the most remarkable documentarians working today ('Adam Curtis’s The Power of Nightmares, [is] one of the great docs of recent years').

If you haven't yet heard of him, Curtis is a British television documentary producer who has written and directed a number of hugely influential, multi-part, political film essays, including the award-winning Century of the Self, the aforementioned The Power of Nightmares, The Mayfair Set, Pandora's Box, The Trap and The Living Dead.

FSFF was really excited, therefore, to hear of Curtis's new blog hosted at the BBC website (news courtesy of David Hudson at The Daily and also from a nice post at the great Screen Research website, which FSFF promises to profile in more detail really soon).

Curtis's blog muses mostly about his new project which Charlie Brooker, writing for The Guardian, describes as follows:

He's made a new documentary called It Felt Like A Kiss. Except it isn't just a documentary. It's also a piece of interactive theatre, with music composed by Damon Albarn and performed by the Kronos Quartet. And it doesn't take place in a cinema or concert hall, but across five floors of a deserted office block in Manchester [as part of the Manchester International Festival]July 2-9, 2009]. [...]

In summary, from what I can gather, It Felt Like A Kiss is both the craziest yet crookedly rational project I've ever heard about. Hearing Curtis talk about that huge subject, that huge building, that brink-of-madness, reality-blurring feel, there are a few unmistakeable parallels with Synecdoche, New York, Charlie Kaufman's recent film, in which Philip Seymour Hoffman takes control of an infinitely huge Manhattan warehouse and attempts to stage a boundary-shattering show that will sum up the entirety of human experience. He over-reaches and winds up creating a work of ever-expanding fractal madness. Curtis, I think, has gone a bit mad, too - but to precisely the right degree.

Curtis himself wrote in a post on June 17 - which also carries a longish trailer for the project - that

It Felt Like a Kiss started life as an experimental film I made for the BBC last year. My aim was to try and find a more involving and emotional way of doing political journalism on TV. I decided to make a film about something that has always fascinated me - how power really works in the world. To show that power is exercised not just through politics and diplomacy - but flows through our feelings and emotions, and shapes the way we think of ourselves and the world.

Film Studies For Free will, in its downtime, fantasize about a little visit up to Manchester. Meanwhile, below are some of the most interesting, freely accessible, scholarly resources, websites, and online essays about Curtis's work and related matters:

• Adam Curtis films free to view or download from the Internet Archive (e.g. films either in the public domain or licensed under a license that allows redistribution, such as those offered by Creative Commons)

• The Mayfair Set (1999 - part 1 - end missing)
• The Mayfair Set (1999 - part 4)
• The Century of the Self (three parts - 2002)
• The Power of Nightmares (three parts 2005)
• The Trap: What happened to our idea of freedom - Part 1 (2007)
  

• Zygmunt Bauman, 'The Demons of an Open Society', London School of Economics, October 20, 2005
• Graham Coulter-Smith and Maurice Owen, 'Introduction', Art in the Age of Terrorism (Paul Holberton publishing/University of Washington Press, 2005)
• David Crawford, 'Realism vs. Reality TV in the War on Terror: Artworks as Models of Interpretation', Geometer, January 19, 2009
• Adam Curtis, Panel Discussion on'Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age' in association with Routledge and King's College London, and sponsored by the Body&Soul section of The Times, An Institute of Ideas symposium at King’s College London, 22 November 2003
• Mark Jensen, 'DOCUMENTARY: 'The Power of Nightmares' by Adam Curtis -- summary of argument ', United For Peace, September 11, 2005
• Jonathan Kahana, excerpt from Intelligence Work: The Politics of American Documentary (Columbia University Press, 2008)
• Peter Knight, 'Conspiracy Theories about 9/11', Centre for International Politics Working Paper Series, No. 34, August 2007
• Robert Koehler, 'Neo-Fantasies and Ancient Myths: Adam Curtis on The Power of Nightmares', Cinema Scope Issue 23, 2005
• Laurie A. Manwell, 'Faulty Towers of Belief: Part II. Rebuilding the Road to Freedom of Reason', Journal of 9/11 Studies, August 2007
• Sharon Lin Tay, (2008), long excerpt from ʻUndisclosed Recipients: documentary in an era of digital convergenceʼ, Studies in Documentary Film 2: 1, pp. 79–98

Also see: Erroll Morris's interview with Curtis HERE; Andrew Orlowski's recent article about Curtis for THE REGISTER HERE.

More about → Adam Curtis Links

Friday Round Up

Film Studies For Free brings you a little Friday round up of just-out-now scholarly links.

• There's a truly bumper new issue of the journal JUMP CUT: A Review of Contemporary Media (issue 51), with 45 new freely accessible articles, including the following:
  

Imagining torture by Chuck Kleinhans; Torture documentaries by Julia Lesage; A Simple Case for Torture, redux by Martha Rosler; The Wire and the world: narrative and metanarrative by Helena Sheehan and Sheamus Sweeney; “Don’t Just Watch It, Live It:” technology, corporate partnerships, and The Hills by Elizabeth Affuso; Postmodern marketing, Generation Y and the multiplatform viewing experience of MTV’s The Hills by Amanda Klein; The past isn't what it used to be: the troubled homes of Mad Men by Mark Taylor; Cylons in America: Critical Studies in Battlestar Galactica reviewed by David Greven; Global formats, gender and identity: the search for The Perfect Bride on Italian television by Michela Ardizzoni; A nightmare of capitalist Japan: Spirited Away by Ayumi Suzuki; The curious cases of Salma, Siti, and Ming:representations of Indonesia’s polygamous life in Love for Share by Ekky Imanjaya; Gender and class in the Singaporean film 881 by Brenda Chan; Cinenumerology: interview with Royston Tan, one of Singapore’s most versatile filmmakers by Anne Ciecko; Visible “waves”: notes on Koreanness, pan-Asianness, and some recent Southeast Asian art films by Anne Ciecko and Hunju Lee; Asia’s beloved sassy girl: Jun Ji-Hyun’s star image and her transnational stardom by JaeYoon Park; Pornography and its critical reception: toward a theory of masturbation by Magnus Ullén; Real sex: the aesthetics and economics of art-house porn by Jon Lewis; Documentary and the anamnesis of queer space: The Polymath, or, The Life and Opinions of Samuel R. Delany, Gentleman by Nicholas de Villiers; Documentary investigations and the female porn star by Belinda Smaill; The Hypersexuality of Race: Performing Asian/American Women on Screen and Scene reviewed by Catherine Clepper; Documenting and denial: discourses of sexual self-exploitation by Leigh Goldstein; Children of Men and I Am Legend: the disaster-capitalism complex hits Hollywood by Kirk Boyle; The exceptional darkness of The Dark Knight by Todd McGowan; The Dark Knight of American empire by Randolph Lewis; Post-Iraq cinema: the veteran hero in The Jacket and Harsh Times by Justin Vicari; WALL-E: from environmental adaptation to sentimental nostalgia by Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann; Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino: the death of America’s hero by Robert Alpert; Interpreting revolution: Che: Part I and Part II by Victor Wallis; The cold world behind the window: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Romanian cinema’s return to real-existing communism by Constantin Parvulescu; Retrieving Emir Kusturica’s Underground as a critique of ethnic nationalism by Sean Homer; Dimensions of exile in the videos of Silvia Malagrino by Ilene S. Goldman; No parking between signs: on Sadie Benning's Flat is Beautiful and early works by Burlin Barr; Sex versus the small screen: home video censorship and Alfonso Cuarón’s Y tu mamá también by Caetlin Benson-Allott; Torture, maternity, and truth in Jasmila Zbanic’s Grbavica: Land of My Dreams by Caroline Koebel; Culture wars: some new trends in art horror by Joan Hawkins; Misogyny as radical commentary: Rashomon retold in Takashi Miike’s Masters of Horror: Imprint by William Leung; The dangers of biosecurity: The Host and the geopolitics of outbreak by Hsuan L. Hsu; The return of horror to Chinese cinema: an aesthetic of restraint and space of horror by Li Zeng; Cross cultural disgust: some problems in the analysis of contemporary horror cinema by Chuck Kleinhans; Media salad by Chuck Kleinhans; Racing into the Obama era by the editors; Remembrance against manufactured amnesia: on the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Incident by David Leiwei Li. Plus several book reviews.

• The new issue of Flow: A Critical Forum on Television and Media Culture is available, including the following articles:

'Gypsy Stars in the New Europe' by Aniko Imre; 'When Satellites Fall: On the Trails of Cosmos 954 and USA 193' by Lisa Parks; 'Towards a Typology of Dance TV Contestants' by Christine Quail; 'No Rerun Nation: Canadian Television and Cultural Amnesia' by Serra Tinic; 'And the winner of Britain's Got Talent is . . .' by Lisa W. Kelly.

• The summer 2009 issue of the high quality journal Film Quarterly (Vol. 62, No. 4) has just come out, offering the following freely accessible columns:

Rob White, 'Editor's Notebook: Heaven Knows We're Digital Now' ; Joshua Clover, 'Marx and Coca-Cola: Cinema for a New Grand Game'; Laura Mulvey, 'Reconsideration: The Earrings of Madame de . . . ; Michael Colvino, 'Ecosystem: La malavita: Gomorrah and Naples'. As it is celebrating its 50th anniversary, it is also still offering free access to 'Da Capo,' a history of FQ written by founding editor Ernest Callenbach.

• The UK Film Council today launches its detailed research report Stories We Tell Ourselves: The Cultural Impact of UK Film 1946-2006 (also see HERE).

[According to its press release,] it’s a timely and stimulating report, confirming that film has been one of the most powerful cultural and social agents of the last 100 years. Taking 200 iconic films from the past six decades, it traces how British cinema has upheld some traditional British values – and mocked, challenged and undermined others. It shows how important film has been in sustaining and developing the identity of the UK’s nations and regions, and in reflecting the changing face of Britain’s different communities. And it charts the extraordinary power British film can wield at home and abroad – even more so with the massive economic and technological evolution film has experienced in recent years. This study highlights the cultural impact of British film. It calls on us to acknowledge and appreciate the strength, the diversity and the rude health of our film heritage and to acknowledge its increasingly vital role in contemporary culture.

More about → Friday Round Up

from Ice Cream to Cake

Just like the fast few years, I made a cake to celebrate this year's Father's Day, last Sunday.


It was only two days ago that I realised that Father's Day falls on this Sunday, I got it mixed up with Mother's Day...which is the second Sunday in May. I kept thinking that it is also the same for Father's Day :')

Anyway, it was a good thing that we celebrated the occasion one week earlier, as we will be celebrating another occasion this coming weekend.


I am no good at frosting a cake, so I always have to rely on other ingredients to make the cake 'presentable'. Canned peaches happen to be one of the few fool-proof ingredients I have been using on countless occasions.


Although I have made a mango yoghurt cake, my lack of skills have prompted me to fall back on peach slices...again!



Very much inspired by Small Small Baker's mango yoghurt ice cream, I wasted no time to try making it once I got hold of all the necessary ingredients. Thanks to the blender which I have been hoarding, I was able to make my first homemade ice cream! It was so delicious and simple to prepare that I adapted the same ice cream recipe to make the fillings for this layered cake ;)


I liked the way the cake has turned out...the filling tasted almost similar to the ice cream version, light and refreshing! The layering was quite even as I was diligent enough to use a measuring cup to measure out equal amount of filling for each layer. I would have added chunks of fresh mangoes in between the fillings if I had any spare mangoes. I am sure it will make this cake even more delicious.




Peach & Mango Yoghurt Cake

Ingredients:
(makes one 18cm cake)

for the sponge cake:
100g cake flour
3 eggs, room temperature
90g caster sugar
20g unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons fresh milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


for the filling:
150g fresh mangoes
50g caster sugar
150g mango flavoured yoghurt (I used peach & mango flavour)
250g (250ml) non-dairy whipping cream
1 tablespoon gelatin powder
3 tablespoons (45ml) water

Method:
To make the sponge cake:

1. Sift cake flour, set aside. Line the sides and bottom of an 18cm (7 inches) round pan with parchment paper, set aside. Pre-heat oven to 170degC. Position rack at the lower bottom of the oven.
2. With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar on HIGH speed for about 5 to 7 mins, until the batter double in volume and is ribbon-like (the batter should leave a ribbon-like trail when the beater is lifted up). Turn to LOW speed and whisk for another 1 to 2 mins. Whisking at low speed helps to stabilise the air bubbles in the batter.
3. Add sifted cake flour into the batter in 3 separate additions. Gently fold in the flour with a spatula each time the flour is added. Take care not to deflate the batter.
4. Add the melted butter, fold with spatula until well blended
5. Add in fresh milk, vanilla extract and fold in gently with spatula.
6. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 30~35 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Unmold and invert onto cooling rack, remove parchment paper and let cool completely.
   
   To make the filling:
7. Measure water into a bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin (without stirring with a spoon). Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to swell (10 mins) before setting the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Stir with a spoon and once the gelatin melts, remove the bowl from the pot and set aside to cool to room temperature.
8. Blend mangoes, sugar, yoghurt until the mixture becomes smooth.
9. With an electric mixer, whisk non-dairy whipping cream till stiff. Fold in the whipped cream to the mango mixture. Blend thoroughly.
10. If desired, remove about 1 cup of the above mixture, set aside to use for piping.
11. Add in the gelatin solution to the remaining mixture, mix well.
    
    To assemble:
12. Slice the cake horizontally into 3 layers. For each layer, trim away the sides by about 2~3mm, so that the resulting layers are slightly smaller than 18cm. (This is to make sure the mango filling can cover the sides of the sponge layer.)
13. Place one layer of the sponge cake in an 18cm round pan with a removable base (or use a cake ring or springform pan). Spread about 1.5 cups of mango filling on the sponge layer. Repeat with the second layer of sponge cake, followed by the filling. Place the last layer of sponge cake and spread the remaining filling on the surface evenly. Gently tap/bang the pan on the table to remove any empty air pockets in between the sponge layers and the filling. Leave the cake to chill in the fridge for at least 3 ~4 hours.
14. Remove cake from fridge, unmold and decorate as desired (pipe rosettes or borders using the reserved mango filling in step 10). Keep the cake in the fridge before serving.

(Note:
*This cake can be made with a 20cm (8") pan, the resulting cake will be slightly shorter.
**To arrange the peach slices as what I have done, start by arranging the outer ring of peach slices. To make the rosette in the middle, slice peach slices till very thin. Arrange these thinly sliced peaches in concentric circles...work from the outside towards the inside. The outermost peaches will provide support for the inner ones to prevent it from sliding. Hope I am clear with my description.)

More about → from Ice Cream to Cake

TESTING, TESTING...MINI BLACK SESAME CHEESECAKES

Mini Black Sesame Cheesecake with Oreo Cookie Crust

How fortunate I am to be able to do some product testing and recipe experiments! It's a whole lot of fun (when stuff turns out beautifully delicious!) and quite hilarious when it doesn't too. My colleagues at work have been more than willing to taste-test my recipes and they are on the whole, quite honest. There are those that will hoover up anything and everything I give them, but they're just being kind I know because they don't want the stream of food to stop. They gave this cheesecake the thumbs up, and I think it's quite good too.

For this test recipe, incorporating "The Product"...an instant Black Sesame Dessert mix (it's a dessert soup), I decided to go the cheesecake route. The chiffon cake I made was a flop because the dessert mix threw off the delicately precise proportions of ingredients required to produce a proper cake. So, having a sort of black sesame epiphany, instead of cake, I made no-bake mini black sesame cheesecakes with oreo crumb crusts. They were smooth, creamy and delicious.

I began by pressing my cookie crumb crusts into my cheesecake molds

This is the product I have been testing. It makes my mom's favourite convenient dessert soup! What a coincidence...she's been buying it forever! If you're not Asian, you may not be familiar with dessert soups. It's somewhat akin to instant jello pudding mix. Except it isn't.

I looked on the side of the package to try to figure out the proportions of "other ingredients" aside from the black sesame. The starches and sugar that were in the mix were problematic for baked cakes, but should be okay for some of my other ideas...

Here's the cream cheese and sesame batter...

...and the whipped cream that'll lighten the texture of the cheesecake. The cheesecake is "Asian" in flavour and in it's tendency to be lighter in texture and less sweet than western cheesecakes.
I decorated the mini cheesecakes with some toasted whole black sesame seeds to indicate the flavour of the cute little grey desserts (important if you don't want to explain why your cheesecake is grey!)

Ta-da! They popped out of their molds perfectly!
The oreo crumb crust can be substituted with a graham cracker crust or even a cake crust

The texture is smooth, silky and creamy. You are hit with the black sesame flavour first, and then you experience the creaminess and the contrasting chocolatey oreo crunch
I'll be developing another recipe with this product soon. Stay tuned!
*****
Update: July 23, 2009 Recipe
MINI BLACK SESAME CHEESECAKES WITH OREO COOKIE CRUST
(recipe created by http://cakeonthebrain.blogspot.com/)

NB: this recipe can be easily adapted to make a Peanut-flavoured Cheesecake, using the Torto Peanut Dessert Mix.

Cream Cheese mixture:
250 g /1 cup/brick cream cheese, softened at room temperature [Philadelphia brand is best]
150 g/3/4 cup heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks
50 g/1 pkg Torto brand black sesame dessert mix
61 g/1/3 cup milk
61 g/1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon unflavoured powdered gelatine
53 g/1/4 cup water

Oreo Cookie crust mixture:
114 g/9 Oreo cookies, crushed (graham crackers or digestive biscuits could be used interchangeably with the Oreos)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Garnish: (optional)
Whole black sesame seeds

Procedure:
Crust:
Have ready a mini cheesecake pan (Williams Sonoma) or a muffin tin lined with 12 foil liners. Alternately, 12 small ring molds lined with plastic wrap on a sheet pan may be used.
In a small bowl, combine the crushed cookies and melted butter. Divide the crust mixture evenly between the 12 molds. Press gently into the bottoms to make an even base. Refrigerate until needed.
Cheesecake:

1. In a small bowl, sprinkle the powdered gelatine over the ¼ cup water to soften. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and the milk over med-low heat. Stir until sugar is dissolved completely. Do not boil. Add the black sesame dessert mix and stir until thoroughly combined. Add the softened gelatine. Stir completely to incorporate. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the beater attachment, beat the cream cheese until softened, smooth and free of lumps. Add the cooled black sesame mixture to the bowl and continue to beat on low speed until smooth, about 1 minute.
4. Using a rubber spatula or large balloon whisk, stir in a quarter of the whipped cream. Gently fold in the rest of the whipped cream until thoroughly mixed.
5. Divide the cheesecake mixture evenly between the molds, spooning it onto the prepared refrigerated crusts. Gently tap the molds on a counter to level the mixture or release any air pockets.
6. Decorate each mini cheesecake by sprinkling whole black sesame seeds on the surface. Refrigerate until set, about 2 hours.
7. Remove cheesecakes from the molds and serve with whipped cream.
   
   Makes 12 mini cheesecakes.

Torto products are available all around the world. If you're from Canada, all Torto Instant Dessert products can be purchased at your local chinese grocery store. If you can't find it, visit http://www.canroxy.com/ or call (416) 321 8521 to find the closest retail shop near you. For anyone outside Canada, you can find it at your local chinese grocery store or email ettason@ettason.com.hk for more info.

More about → TESTING, TESTING...MINI BLACK SESAME CHEESECAKES

A Little Tidbit

I'm gearing up for a new series of posts based on some fascinating reading I've been doing lately. I'm not going to spill the beans, but I will give you a little hint, from a paper written by Dr. Robert S. Corruccini, professor of anthropology at Southern Illinois university. I just came across this quote and it blew me away. It's so full of wisdom I can't even believe I just read it. The term "occlusion" refers to the way the upper and lower teeth come together, as in overbite or underbite.

Similar to heart disease and diabetes which are "diseases of civilization" or "Western diseases" (Trowell and Burkitt, 1981) that have attained high prevalence in urban society because of environmental factors rather than "genetic deterioration," an epidemiological transition (Omran, 1971) in occlusal health accompanies urbanization.

Western society has completely crossed this transition and now exists in a state of industrially buffered environmental homogeneity. The relatively constant environment both raises genetic variance estimates (since environmental variance is lessened) and renders epidemiological surveys largely meaningless because etiological factors are largely uniform. Nevertheless most occlusal epidemiology and heritability surveys are conducted in this population rather than in developing countries currently traversing the epidemiological transition.

In other words, the reason observational studies in affluent nations haven't been able to get to the bottom of dental/orthodontic problems and chronic disease is that everyone in their study population is doing the same thing! There isn't enough variability in the diets and lifestyles of modern populations to be able to determine what's causing the problem. So we study the genetics of problems that are not genetic in origin, and overestimate genetic contributions because we're studying populations whose diet and lifestyle are homogeneous. It's a wild goose chase.

That's why you have to study modernizing populations that are transitioning from good to poor health, which is exactly what Dr. Weston Price and many others have done. Only then can you see the true, non-genetic, nature of the problem.

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RICHMOND NIGHT MARKET

Richmond night market on a Sunday at dusk.

Oy. I have a new laptop. It's a Dell and it's red. My mouse is red too. It's purrrty...and faster and a whole bunch better.

Everything looks so wonderful but I have been having nothing but problems with Blogger because I can't click and drag my pictures in the Compose mode and I don't want to fiddle with it in html though I know how to cut and paste in it. I also am having a whole lot of aggravation with the sensitivity of the keyboard and the touchpad. Every now and then for some reason, my screen's view maximizes on its own or sometimes I accidentally open up a new tab.

Weird things are happening that I haven't seen before.

So, it's taken me about 8 times longer to post something than usual. I gave up trying to upload a bunch of pics because it was wearisome trying to reorganize them. I hate how blogger just spits them out wherever. So, I created collages first.

Hey! now for some reason, there's like circles showing up all over my screen. They're like water rings that move out from the centre and they also go from bottom to top of my screen. So weird.


a bonanza of cheapie toys, sunglasses, techno gadgets and even underwear and socks can be bought at the night market!

We headed out to the Richmond Night Market around 6:30pm on a Sunday. We found ample parking and walked the 10 minutes to the market from the parking lot. It was still warm and sunny and Bib was in her stroller. The market officially opens at 7pm, but many vendors were already set up. About half of the stalls were already set up at 6:30 and ready to sell their wares.

There seemed to be an inordinate number of stalls selling pretty much the same stuff: a whole bunch of sunglass stalls, dvd stalls, techno-gadget stalls and cheap jewelry stalls. I couldn't believe how many stalls sold underwear. Like how are you going to try on any of the bras out in the open? They also had stalls that sold just socks...hundreds of socks: Hello Kitty socks, Instant noodle socks, Pokemon socks etc. You could buy Chinese tea, plants, knick-knacks, kiddie toys and electronic games, purses, shoes, wallets, refurbished iPods and cell phone decor. I found a stall that sold fresh local berries. They were delicious. They sold a ready-to-eat fresh mix of them in individual plastic cups so you could grab, go and eat. And we did. Even that magical Shammy cloth was sold there.

the food stalls are the highlight of the Night Market

What do most people do at the Richmond Night Market ? Well, I didn't see too much buying going on in the retail section. People mostly walked around lookie-looing. However, the food section was bustling with activity. Huge lineups indicated that the stall was worthy. I noticed the takoyaki one was pretty long. The bubble tea and eggball stalls were pretty busy too.

Most items in the retail section were less than $20. Many of the items I looked at were around $10. At the food stalls, you could buy most items for under $5. Most people go to the market for the food. There's so much stuff to try out. They had Dragon's Beard candy, dim sum, takoyaki, bbq squid , corn, smokies, pizza, Japanese-styled hotdogs (think Asian condiments) and bubble tea. There was grilled squid and meat skewers, fresh juices, fruit, noodles, buns and though I didn't go looking for it, there's usually stinky tofu (yuck!) There was so much to try and so little room left in my tummy!

Bebe's got the Pearl Milk Tea and Bib fought her for it. Bebe's bigger (almost 6!) but Bib screams louder and fights dirty. We had to break it up by inserting another straw in the cup. Then, it was a sippy-contest to see who got more of those little carcinogenic bubbles they love so much! Yes, we love it; no we don't indulge too often fortunately!

Stomach was seduced by the huge grill with the little squid tentacles spilling across it. The little curly legs were calling him. He took off and came back with some grilled squid and fried tofu all smothered with sweet Thai chili sauce. Though I had no inclination to try it, he said it was good.

My favourite thing to eat at the food stalls is the tako yaki. It's a little savoury doughball with a chunk of octopus in the middle. It's topped with takoyaki sauce, mayo and bonito flakes and seaweed. It doesn't sound like it should be so good, but it is. You could also ask for shrimp or other fillings if you like. I never bother trying anything other than tako. I love watching them flip the little dough balls. They used a flick of their wrists and the skewers to rotate the balls to cook all over and make perfect balls. The texture is a little crispy outside; slightly chewy inside and the mayo and takoyaki sauce all brings it together. It's very Japanese and very good.

If you're looking for the Richmond Night Market, you turn right off of Bridgeport Road (that's where Ikea is) and drive past McDonalds and Home Depot. You'll see signs posted everywhere pointing you to parking. Parking is actually free and ample if you get there early like we did, but it's about $5 if you get there later or want to park close. It's $5 to park in the lot where the Night Market is. It's located on 10 acres of light industrial land amongst warehouses. The Night Market is open on Fri-Sun. Fri-Sat from 7-midnight; Sun from 7-11pm. Holidays are Sunday hours. It's on from May 15 to Oct 4, 2009.

12631 Vulcan WayRichmond, BC

It was another great day of eating and I will keep you posted of more places to have fun and eat in Vancouver this summer.

More about → RICHMOND NIGHT MARKET

Going the distance with Claude Chabrol

Film Studies For Free is rather partial to a good film blogathon and there's potentially a very good one coming up that FSFF readers absolutely must check out. In honour of Claude Chabrol's 79th birthday this June 24, Flickhead aka Ray Young is hosting Ten Days’ Wonder: The Claude Chabrol Blogathon from Sunday, June 21 through Tuesday, June 30.

To paraphrase the kind of clichéd British crime drama dialogue in which the classy Chabrol himself would never indulge, Young has 'plenty of previous' when it comes to the films of this near octogenarian: he is the author of the Claude Chabrol Project website which, among other great resources, hosts detailed interviews with and articles about Chabrol.

The Flickhead blogathon is sure to link to further comprehensive web resources on Chabrol, so below, just to flag up the e-event, is Film Studies For Free's little list of links to online scholarly highlights pertaining to this as yet most under-studied great director.

Film Studies For Free's author is aiming to join in with the Chabrol fest next week, so... à bientôt (s'il vous plaît...). [The link to FSFF's video essay - 'Unsentimental Education: On Claude Chabrol's Les Bonnes femmes' is HERE.]

• Acquarello, 'CLAUDE CHABROL: Le Boucher, The Story of Women, La Ceremonie, The Flower of Evil, The Bridesmaid, Bellamy', Strictly Film School, 2002
• Richard Armstrong, 'Claude Chabrol,' (Great Directors: A Critical Database) Senses of Cinema, September 2002
• David Cairns, 'Go Ask Alice', Shadowplay, August 8, 2008
  
• Claudette Charbonneau and Lucy Winer, 'Violette: Skilled, delicate, pernicious', from Jump Cut, no. 21, Nov. 1979, pp. 6-7
• Charles Derry, 'Claude Chabrol: A career overview', The Claude Chabrol Project
• dkaz, 'image series: Les Biches (Chabrol, France, 1968)', D+Kaz, Jan 29, 2007
• Mary Donaldson-Evans, 'A Medium of Exchange: The Madame Bovary film', Dix-Neuf, No. 4, April 2005
• Catherine Grant, 'Unsentimental Education: On Claude Chabrol's Les Bonnes femmes - a video essay', Film Studies For Free, June 30, 2009
  
• Stefan Gullatz, 'Exquisite Ex-timacy: Jacques Lacan vis-à-vis Contemporary Horror', Offscreen Journal, March 31, 2001
• Dan Harper, 'Claude Chabrol's Le Beau Serge', Senses of Cinema, March 2001
• Robert Kolker, The Altering Eye - Contemporary International Cinema (OUP, 1983) in: eLib, Hg. v. eLibrary Projekt, in: elib.at ( 16. Juni 2009 ) - numerous mentions of Chabrol - use 'find' in 'Edit'
• Julien Lapointe, 'La Cérémonie,' Senses of Cinema 13, 2001 Apr-May
• Kevin B Lee, 'Claude Chabrol: an online dossier', Shooting Down Pictures, March 27, 2008
• Peter Lev, 'Paul Gégauff', FilmReference.com, 2008
  
• Tony McKibbin, 'Slow Burn Suspense: The Films of Claude Chabrol', Images, Issue 9, December 2000
• Vladislav Mijic, 'Les Biches,' Senses of Cinema 13, 2001 Apr-May
• Marie-Claire Ropars, 'A Cinematic Language', Rouge 11, 2007
• Dan Sallitt/Kevin B Lee, 'Two Films By Claude Chabrol (Le boucher (1970) and La femme infidele (1969)) - 3 video essays', Shooting Down Pictures, March 27, 2008
• Andrew Slade, 'Chabrol for Beginners (and Other Interested Parties)', Film-Philosophy, Vol. 5, No. 3, January 2001
• David Sterritt, 'Hitchcock, Hume, and the Matrix of Modern Cinema', Film-Philosophy, Vol. 11, No. 3, 2007
• Quentin Turnour, 'Que la bête meure', Senses of Cinema, March 2001
• Tony Williams, 'Relations Between the Sexes in the Cinema of the Nouvelle Vague', WELL Project, February 28, 2002
• Ray Young, 'Stéphane Audran', Cinema and the Female Star - A Symposium Part 1, Senses of Cinema, 2002

More about → Going the distance with Claude Chabrol

Great Food Fast

Another weekday lunch express meal:


baked potatoes with homemade creamy mushroom soup.


It was my maiden attempt at making creamy soup. I have always wanted to make cream of mushroom soup but most recipes would call for an electric food pureer, be it a food processor, a handheld pureer or a blender. I do not own any of these kitchen gadgets, and I don't have any intention to get any of them as I know I would probably use them once in a while. A couple of months ago, I borrowed a blender (on a long-term loan basis) so that I could make smoothies for the kids. It didn't occur to me until much later that I could actually use it to make creamy homemade soup.


To cut down on baking time, I boiled the Russet potatoes until they were fork-tender before wrapping them up with foil and baked in the oven for another 10 mins or so. I served the baked potatoes with some butter and tuna flakes sprinkled with black peppers and dried parsley.


This soup was also a short-cut version! I simply stir-fried some garlic and fresh button mushrooms with some salt and black pepper, then add cream and water and cooked the mixture for about 20mins. The mixture was then pureed in the blender before returning to the pot to bring it back to a boil. The consistency was not as thick as I would like, so I added in two slices of Emmental sandwich cheese...which was what I had in the fridge. It tasted good! The next time I were to make this again, I would have to use more mushrooms; and probably make some crusty buns to go with it. It was indeed a hearty lunch, most importantly, my kids enjoyed this simple meal as much as I did.

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Sunday Fun in Vancouver

Fisherman's Wharf in Vancouver, near Granville Island Public Market
there's the Burrard Street bridge in the background


I can feel that summer's here in Vancouver. I had a fantastic meal of local Spot Prawns twice already in the past week. Yum!

School's almost out; I'm finished all my marking and everything's winding down. Whoopee!

Today was such a fantastic day. It was warm and sunny but there was a definite strong sea breeze running through the city. We took the kids and headed to Granville Island public market. I wanted to see if any local Spot Prawns had arrived yet. Unfortunately, the sign on the dock said that the boats wouldn't be in until 1pm and we were there at 10 a.m.

ah well.

It was nice looking around the docks. There was fresh wild sockeye salmon, and a couple of tuna boats were docked too.
walk along the seawall...it's lovely!

Undeterred by the lack of local prawns at the dock, we headed off towards the Kids Market where I spent way too much money on scrapbooking supplies again at the I'm Impressed store. Then, we had a bite to eat at Sammy J Peppers since Bebe proclaimed she was starving. I wasn't wanting to fight the seagulls for a spot on the dock to eat so we opted for the restaurant setting on their patio. It was great because they're decked out for kids. They had crayons, paper placemats that they could colour and they even had a family room. I had no idea since I had never gone to this restaurant before. The meal was a success and the food was good. No one had any complaints...plus we had a great dockside view of the boats moored nearby.

fresh produce in the public market: Rainier and Byng cherries

We went to the public market to buy some food for the coming week. It's so great seeing all the fresh fish and produce and it inspires you to cook fantastic things.
I'm a sucker for cherries and there's nothing like sitting on your deck in the summer with a bowl full of 'em.
The girls never leave the public market without a bag full of donut holes from Lee's Donuts. Sometimes if you're lucky, you can see them through the big window out front making them fresh. We always buy 1/2 a dozen each of glazed plain and chocolate. mmmm! By the time we get home, most of the holes are gone! and I haven't even touched them yet!

Chocolate and Plain Donut Holes from Lee's Donuts in Granville Island public market.
Here's a pic of the huge planter full of flowers on my deck. The Nasturtiums are humungous!

On another note, the other day I received some samples of black sesame and peanut mix from a HK company that makes these dessert mixes. I received 2 boxes of each flavour so that I could test the products and create some recipes.

My mom took one look at the boxes and ripped one open, exclaiming that she loved the black sesame dessert soup and wanted a bowl right now. She just added hot water and then sat back and slurped one package down. Each box comes with 4 packages that makes 4 bowls.

I decided to make a chiffon cake with sesame swirl. Let's just say it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I think a cake is too unpredictable for this product because of the other added ingredients...sugar and starches etc. I wanted to give it a try anyway. In general, I prefer freshly ground black sesame that I grind myself. I've never used prepared dessert soup mix for baking. The other ingredients are proving to be a bit difficult so far. So, I'll try again in a few days. I haven't had a cake flop in ages and it was quite deflating! literally! I kind of had the feeling it wouldn't turn out but I crossed my fingers and tried it anyway. I'll be trying something less temperamental in a few days. I am not deterred!

this test cake was garbaged because it was such a flop! too dense and not too pretty either!

More about → Sunday Fun in Vancouver