HomeMadeS Food Photography Highlights 2010

Photography has become a passion that goes on the same level as baking. It has characteristic and artistic sense that shows like a creation of dessert plating a master chef does. Only, you are working with your camera and lens. The skills should result on achievement of delicious looking food either on plate or on mat paper.  


I love photography but gadgets can be very expensive. I am not ready to take my photography skill up to huge commercial level just yet. I am not satisfied with what I've done in 2010. Although, I quite like to take an opportunity to work on some professionals, it won't happen sooner. I still am homebound, the priorities are there within. The children and homeschooling.


But anyway, I am looking forward for new light assignments to take up in 2011. I am interested in agriculture photography as well as outdoor wedding and engagement for I have suitable gears for the tasks. Yes, I am an outdoor person. 

I just looked back and found these photos I have or haven't posted on HomeMadeS. I hope I will have much more time to blog next year. I also hope you are still reading my post after post. And thank you so much for being with me over the year, comment or no comment, I know you are there. I do appreciate your visits on my blog and I hope you still will enjoy it.

Ngā mihi o te Tau Hou ki a koutou katoa. Happy New Year. Selamat Tahun Baru. Wish you all the best in 2011!

January

February

March

I did not have time to even write a post, let alone photograph any food I produced. This is the time we spent time holidaying in Bali. And I was 20 weeks.

April

I love spending time carving that watermelon. And I would share this photo below with you, just to let you know that people in Bali are hard workers!

May

June

Although it did not win any title of the competition, I just love this photo.

July

It is our busiest month of the year. The baby arrived and certainly was taken our all attention to her. But I managed to photograph this dish while waiting for the labour to start.

And Samantha was here.

August

September

October








November


We lost our cat. He went from home and did not come back, until today. We searched for him in the neighbourhood, and pasted his photo on some paper, but we haven't got him back just yet. Kids have been so devastated by losing him this way. We still put on hope that one day he'll come back.





This is the highlight I could only think is the most important, because Bibbie is a member of our family too. We adopted him since he was very little, so losing him is like losing a baby. 




December





Christmas photos:


 


 


I have been playing with iPhoneography, using my iPhone and its application Camera+. I tried to apply this on food photography. 





Awesome app! You should try if you have Apple iPhone and like food photography as well.

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2011.

Homemade Ferrero Rocher and Rum Balls

It is the luscious-looking Ferrero Rocher that gets me an idea what to make for a treat. I remember eat it once. Yes, only once. And it was a long time ago, but I still remember how sweet it was.


By judging on its appearance on the company website and by vaguely remembering its taste, I come to a decision that I must make the homemade version. My idea is to enclose roast hazelnuts in a 72% dark chocolate truffle, dip it in 50% chocolate, roll it on crumbed ricies, dip it again in 50% chocolate, roll it on finely chopped roast hazelnuts, and dip it again in 50% chocolate. 





But, you know things are happening rather differently. This is the stage I rolled the chocolate-ricies balls on to finely chopped hazelnuts. When I dip into the chocolate, the nuts started to fall into the mixture. 





Feeling all but despair, I mixed the chopped hazelnuts with the melted chocolate, and rolled the chocolate-ricies wrapped truffles into it. Then, the appearance started to come out closer from the original version. Although they do not come up as nicely round as they should be, the hazelnut-chocolate cover is definitely working!


So, yes. Here is the result:





There's roasted hazelnut, enclosed by chocolate truffle, chocolate-ricies, and then chocolate-nut cover. Not so perfecto, but it is close, I dare say to compare with its anatomy image (see here).






I love them, truly. I think they are just wonderful made fresh from scratch. I can taste nut, dark chocolate truffle, and milk chocolate in one bite. I should make more of those chocolate ricies, though, make it thicker. I think I'll do it next time.


While I am fiddling around with chocolate, I play more to make rum balls. Using 72% Whittaker's Dark Ghana, what could I do? They are just lovely. 





Have them with coffee? Wonderful all the same.





Or mingling them with red, juicy, sweet, and fresh homegrown strawberries? Hmmm...






Whatever you do, there's nothing less extraordinary. As chocolate always does make us extraordinary!


Enjoy your time!


P.S.: Dita and Pepy made these too!

Oishii Mochi

I just finished a DIY project. I made folded fabric roses to fill in the vase that my husband hand-made years ago. They are pretty easy to make and they turn really pretty to be used with your scraps. Of course, I am just a beginner, there are imperfect shapes, still I am pretty thrilled with the results. And I hope dear Santa will hear my whispered wish that I want a sewing machine (please) this year (and a box of Schoc chocolate for a bonus of me being a good person).

With Summer is getting rather hot, I am slightly behind blogging. I find it hard to sit and write when the garden is in need of attention. The ground is so dry and we have to pump the water for it from the creek. Lucky enough, we have nature water supply, that we do not need to buy water to water the garden. That'll be painful, money-wise. 

Thankfully, we had rain last night. It was just enough to wet the dusty ground. Save some time to water the garden for a few days, if we're lucky.

I made green tea ice cream, for my children start screaming for ice cream these days. Especially, it is water sports days. 

It is a very simple ice cream. I haven't got an ice cream machine, so I do the freezer method. I chilled a can of evaporated milk, a pot of heavy cream, and half can of condensed milk. Whisk the chilled evaporated milk until frothy and thick. Whisk 3 tsp matcha green tea powder with heavy cream after it is dissolved in a little warm water, beat until thick. Then whisk in the condensed milk. Fold in the whisked evaporated milk into the green tea cream, gently. Freeze for an hour, take out, whisked, freeze for another hour. Take out of the freezer, whisk again, and then pour into a deep ice-cream container and freeze until ready to serve.

It probably a totally different thing, but it is coming from the same country. Mochi is delicious, I just found out.

It is like Indonesian kelepon, with a read bean paste filling. I made everything from scratch, so it quite is taking a little bit of my time. But, I enjoyed the result. Here is what I do:

I measure 1 1/4 cups hot water, 1/4 cup caster sugar and a pinch of salt into a bowl. Mix well. Then pour in 1 - 1 3/4 cups glutinous rice flour. Mix well. The batter should be runny and thick. I microwave this for a good 1 minute. The mixture will be very, very, very sticky. So, gather the batter and mix well with your spatula. Microwave again for 20-30 seconds. Let cool, so you can handle it. Before I make this, I have got the red bean paste filling ready and have been rolled into balls, around 9-10 balls. I made a bigger version of those delicate dainty Japanese mochi. I divide the dough into 9-10 portions. Take one portion, thin it with your hands, that you put your thumb and finger to flatten it a bit. Add in the filling, then gather the dough to meet the other end, so your dough will enclose the filling ball. While I am doing this, I put a steamer ready on the stove, with water to boil. Grease the steamer with a little oil. Put the rolled mochi on to the steamer, and steam for about 3 minutes, just to warm the balls and make the dough wet to be able to be rolled into a plate of coconut thread. Remove them from the steamer, while still sticky and hot, roll mochi on to the coconut thread until all coated. Serve immediately.

Keen on Green

I've been wanting matcha green tea for such a long time. When I finally found way to purchase it, I become a crazy green tea drinker. Well, I've been a green tea drinker for years, but they are mostly brewed from bags. Matcha green tea powder comes in sealed packages and in the form of very fine powder which tastes so much fresher. I just love it.

Out of curiosity I am looking around for recipes of chocolate truffles using matcha green tea powder as the flavour, for I currently am craving for chocolate. And I found out that Food Channel has it. Take a look at the recipe here, and the step-by-step here.

I expected to taste an intense green tea in dark chocolate truffles mixture once I tried out, but I couldn't really find it. The flavour is so delicate to match with the darkness of dark chocolate. But then, the green tea powder coating answers more for what I'm looking for. I think to roll the dark chocolate truffles on to green tea powder is a smart move. Not only it is giving a fancy electric colour of truffles, but also lifts up your sense to another level of satisfaction. And perhaps, it is a healthier choice? Up to you.

Once you bite, your tongue will instantly be introduced by the bitterness of green tea powder, which then be dissolved by the heat of your mouth. As you go on, sinking your teeth deeper, you'll break the dark chocolate coat and meet the softness of green tea-infused dark chocolate ganache inside. Luscious, luxurious, and delicious!


While I am playing with green tea, I want to experience another version of matcha chocolate truffles. And so I whip up green tea white chocolate truffles.





I am not truly loving white chocolate for it is too sweet for my taste, but when it is mixed with green tea, it suddenly becomes appealing. I quite like it. The green tea flavour in white chocolate shouts more than it is in its dark companion. Here is my recipe:


200g white chocolate, thinly chopped
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp matcha green tea powder
50g grated white chocolate


Heat the cream until hot. Add in matcha green tea powder. Whisk while cooking to mix and dissolve green tea with cream. Removed from the stove top, then add in the chopped white chocolate. Whisking until well blended. Cool in the fridge until firm. Roll into balls and roll them onto a plate of grated white chocolate. Or if you want, you can freeze the balls until firm, and then dip them in melted white chocolate, let cool, and then roll on to the grated white chocolate. They'll be superb this way!


I also quite like to coat these little green chocolate balls with 50% dark chocolate like the photo below. I truly enjoy experiencing matcha green tea with chocolate, and I hope you will do too.