The little boy just graduated from Playgroup and went on to Nursery 1 this month. He didn’t take it too well though. I think he misses his Playground teachers very badly as well as the fact that he was able to play around and horse around a lot in Playgroup without having to do any proper tracing and craft work at all. He cried and cried a lot in school, so much so that I could sometimes see how swollen his eyes were when I went to pick him up from school at the end of the day.
After almost one and a half to two weeks of incessant crying and unreasonable demands, he finally decided that he was not going to get out of this situation with whatever he does. He stopped crying as much, but was still reluctant to join his peers in the various classroom activities. At home, he suddenly started to become very very chatty. He blabbered about everything that happened in school and mumbled about what his teachers said to him. He started to sing aloud the chorus of the national anthem at home. He articulated his wish for me to follow him so that I could help him take out his toys. He sang a lot of new songs which I’ve never heard of before.
Kids are really amazing. They adapt superbly quicky to their surroundings. I think there’s nothing more that I could wish to have for now, except to see him grow up day-by-day and grow stronger (physically, mentally and emotionally) year-by-year.
Ingredients (Roulade Batter):
- Grated parmesan cheese: 2 tbsp + 1 cup (75g) + 3 tbsp
- Breadcrumb: 2 tbsp
- Butter: 50g
- Leek: 2, thinly sliced
- Plain flour: 40g (1/3 cup)
- Milk: 250ml
- Dijon mustard: 1 tsp
- Nutmeg: 1/4 tsp
- Salt: 1/2 tsp
- Ground blackpepper: 1/2 tsp
- Egg yolk: 2
- Egg white: 3
- Cream of tartar: 1/2 tsp
Ingredients (Roulade Filling):
- Red bell pepper: 2, halved and deseeded
- Ricotta cheese: 350g
- Ground almond: 90g
- Spring onion: 4 stalks, finely chopped
- Basil: 1/4 cup + 1/4 cup, finely chopped
Method (Roulade Batter):
- Preheat oven at 190 degrees Celsius.
- Line baking tray (30 x 23 cm) with greased paper. Sprinkle with 2 tbsp parmesan cheese & breadcrumbs. Set aside.
- Melt butter in pan. Cook leeks till soft.
- Add flour. Stir for 2min.
- Add milk. Stir for 3min till thickened.
- Stir in dijon mustard, nutmeg, salt and blackpepper.
- Stir in 1 cup parmesan cheese. Leave to cool before beating in the egg yolks. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar till stiff.
- Spoon 3 tbsp of egg white into milk mixture. Fold in the rest with a spoon.
- Pour mixture into prepared baking tray. Bake 18min till risen and browned.
Method (Roulade Filling):
- Preheat grill. Grill red bell peppers for 20min till blackened. Cool, then peel off the skin and dice them.
- Mix in ricotta cheese, ground almond, spring onions and 1/4 cup basil.
- Sprinkle 3 tbsp parmesan cheese on a new baking paper sheet. Turn baked roulade onto it and strip off the previous paper to cool it.
- Spread ricotta cheese mixture onto it. Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup basil on it.
- Roll the roulade lengthwise with the help of the baking paper.
- Place onto baking tray. Bake 20min till cheese on top becomes golden brown.
- Serve hot with arugula salad and balsamic dressing.
Disclaimers:
- This recipe was kindly adapted from ‘The Complete Book of Party Food & Appetizers’ by Bridget Jones.
- I substituted ricotta cheese with cream cheese and it worked perfectly well too.
Serving:
6 persons as side dish
