Doggy Treat! Lamb Biscotti with Black Pepper and Herbs

Charlotte : Aaah! It’s gay porn!!
Miranda : What was your first clue?
Charlotte : You said we were watching an independent film! I brought biscotti!

- Sex and the City

It all started when I found minced-lamb at the local butcher. Ha, who am I kidding. It was the local expat butcher... and it was wayyy too expensive. But I'm really at my wit's end - this product is unavailable even at Marketplace. I draw the line at braving cranky public transport, and Little India crowds just for a dog's homecooked lamb luxury.

Pringleman (the creative culinaire in our relationship) mentioned he wanted to bake biscotti last night, and his method was pretty unorthodox: "I've seen this on TV before! Damn easy one!! Just throw in flour and bake!! *tosses cooked meat in blender, then mixes in flour*". I stood aside for the first ten minutes, gleefully waiting for him to fail. But the flour and meat were really expensive, and I couldn't bear to see it go to waste! Hence I quickly adapted Smitten Kitchen's Parmesan Black Pepper Biscotti recipe (below). The good part about biscotti is.. it's supposed to be hard and crunchy - there's no specific texture (i.e., a macaron's brittle exterior and marshmallowy interior). No matter how you mess up, simply bake for every long time on low heat to dry it out --

Makes 5 to 6 dozen biscotti. 
Dry Ingredients (Mix all these together)
1 1/2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns (freshly ground)
4 cups pea/rye/barley flour plus additional for dusting
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt  - omit salt for doggy!

Wet Ingredients 
1/2 oz Parmigiano-Reggiano, finely grated
4 oz Minced Meat (we used lamb)
Spices

Others
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

The Egg Mixture (beat all of these together)
3 regular (in Singapore context) eggs
3/4 cup whole milk

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 180c

Make your meat mixture

1. Cook the minced meat  (i.e., put it on a pan and flip until it turns dark) 
2. Blend in a food processor with dog-friendly spices until it looks somewhat like pâté

Make the biscotti dough

1. Mix the meat into the dry ingredients together, then the cheese, then the butter
2. Mix the egg mixture in bit by bit until you get a consistently sticky batter
3. Shape these into logs
4. Brush the tops with remaining egg yolk, and pepper with pepper :b

Bake the Biscotti

1. Bake the logs for about 20 minutes, remove from oven
2. When you can touch the biscotti with your bare hands, slice the biscotti with a serrated knife. Thin slices end up crunchier
3. Bake at 150c for the next 15 minutes - take the cookies out halfway to flip them over and rotate the tray

Cool and store in an air-tight jar for up to two weeks!

Notes

• Pringleman didn't grind the peppercorns! D: He just tossed them in. How blasphemous. But this gave the biscotti much more flavor at the end
• Spices - We used parsley and turmeric
• We used a drizzling of olive oil instead of butter.. because I forgot to buy butter
• We didn't use cheese this time, but I expect it to taste much better with cheese
• I've decreased the egg and milk requirement from the original, because my batter for cheese biscotti ended up being wayyy too wet

Do try the recipe! Don't be put off by the double baking - It's really not daunting at all, even for first time bakers - oh and there's also lotsa joy in checking on the treats while they're baking too :) It's an exercise in patience for Mr. Paws :) He really enjoyed following us around!

Yeeees we could've bought his treats.. but the truth is.. I'm a Serial Nibbler. When preparing Pringles' food, I'm not above filching a choice piece of human-grade liver. Baking treats enables me to safely share his food :)

Use other types of flour if you can. It's healthier for you as well!

Serious faced baby^^

Modified: Jamie Oliver Meatballs

Easter's almost upon us, and I've been feeling the need to feel like a domestic goddie. In addition to a lunch for the mister (still a WIP), I wanted something cute and special for Pringlepaws (something along the lines of dog treats shaped like Easter eggs, and complete with icing), but he obviously can't eat chocolate... and what on earth is carob? Can totally imagine the fine folks at NTUC pointing me to the carrots if I should ask. In addition, the doggy recipes I've read tend to be painfully plain - these recipes constantly assume that the dog will consume EVERY MORSEL of their plain peanut butter/chicken stock/bacon recipes. Hello, not true. And they don't even look healthy.

So.. enter a modification of Jamie Oliver's meatballs! I've changed it a little to make it more dog friendly.. by removing the mustard. And YAY my brother (the food critic) said it was tasty! And he ate the doggy one > : )

Ingredients (should make 24 meatballs?)
4 sprigs fresh rosemary A handful of fresh Italian parsley
12 Jacob's cream crackers (Trusty old Khong Guan did the job for me..)
2 heaped teaspoons Dijon mustard turmeric (Cancer prevention anyone?)
500 g quality minced beef, higher-welfare pork, or a mixture of the two
1 heaped tablespoon dried oregano
1 heaped tablespoon dried rosemary
1 large free-range egg (oops no eggs at home - The egg is meant to bind the ingredients together.. Used a tbsp of Parmesan cheese and a tiny bit of honey instead)
sea salt - none for Pringles!
freshly ground black pepper

How To

1. Crush the crackers and chop the fresh parsley
2. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl using your hands
3. Pop it into the oven at 200 deg c, for about 15 minutes? Or until you hear sizzling (Jamie's recipe said to fry it using olive oil.. but I'm not a fan of washing up. So I baked!)
4. Got leftovers? I tossed in a pinch of Bacon Salt and the meatballs tasted even better! These will be for Pringles' humans ^^

Beyond Meatballs

Like I said.. I intended to bake him some Easter eggs, tastefully presented in a ferrero rocher tray......unfortunately, I followed a recipe by a doggy site for dog friendly yoghurt icing that hardens. And it obviously didn't work, and the icing went all over the place :( No more doggy recipes for me going forward.. haha.

The idea here was something like Moroccan Beef with Mint-Yoghurt icing. 

By the way, I visited LemonZest yesterday- it was their annual stock-take sale, and all manner of  colourful, functional cookware were on sale! With very shaky self-control, I made it out of the sale with 2 very reasonable silicon spatulas, and 3 even more reasonable baking trays/moulds... Yes I'm in denial mode here. I had to stop myself from getting the fruit-infuser bottle, potato masher... and a very well-made dog-bone baking tray, because my mom would probably flip. My colleague tried to convince me that by sectioning off one end of the bone, I could make it look phallic, and the dog-bone tray would have one more function.......sounded like a sure-fire way to get my mom to ban me from leaving the house...ever. They do have tons of doggy bakeware though - I saw many non-stick trays with bone molds, going at 50% off ($10?)! Oh and my colleagues left with their arms full too - I've signed up for their mailers, hopefully next year's sale will be as good :b LemonZest can be found at Chip Bee gardens (where all the Da Paolo restaurants are), or at Pasarbella.

LemonZest at Holland V (credits to their website for this photo)

Christmas at the Tans!

Christmas is all about caring and giving, and this year, we were incredibly blessed to have the newly minted Tan family open their home up to us! Including Pringles, that is. Okay that sounded like a charity, but hey, I needed a Christmassy way to start! :)

Happy Christmas, Pringlepaws!

XL had us over, together with TK and her toy poodle (Knuckles). Guess it was a good chance for us to catch up, and for XL (Mrs. Tan) and her Mister (Mr. Tan) to experience having a dog at home, and to just get a feel of whether a dog would fit in their lifestyles! 

More specifically, Mr. and Mrs. Tan have a collection of about a hundred (??!!!) toy robots (Mecha?) and half-naked schoolgirls sitting around the house, either poised for battle, or tantalizingly positioned to titillate The Old, The Lonely, and the Forever Alone. So yes, it would be pretty disastrous to have a dog ingest a silicone boob or a spikey robot head. Would post a photo here, but it's a private art collection. ;)

While Pringles expressed little interest in cartoon heads for dessert, I must say that it wouldn't be a good idea to leave him at home with the Japanese schoolgirls and their mecha boyfriends. If you've got such tiny bits lying within easy reach of your dog, it's better to restrict doggy's access to it when you aren't home :)

Amazingly, Pringles was such a little gentleman, strategically positioning himself in the middle of their home (as if to say "I belong here now"), did not shed (despite making the floor at home look like a hair salon), and kept smiling (he's usually SUCH A GROUCH AT HOME). Ooh, and he didn't chew on toys or cross boundaries.

Of course the Tans fell in love with him, and are now contemplating seeking a similar furry friend to elevate their lives.

Pringles: This is home now.

Anyhow, before Knuckie and his entourage arrived, we tried doing a boundary exercise of sorts. XL rolled open the great sliding doors separating the bedroom from the living area, revealing The Mother of All Mirrors - I swear, it was like 8 panels long. Floor to ceiling. Any girl would be proud. Pringles though, found his first experience with a mirror most interesting, and all but tried to scramble to make friends with his reflection. Yes. Tried.

Trainer Chen (Pringles' Owner/Manfriend/Alpha) would say "NO", and pushed him away at the muzzle with a vehement "SH" sound every time he tried to cross the line. Worked pretty well! We managed a room tour quite easily with the bewildered Golden Boy looking at his sympathizing reflection. Trainer Chen uses this technique everytime he wants Pringles to stop something. Very much like Cesar Millan. And interestingly, it works pretty well. Of course, constant reinforcement is important, as is being in a "calm, assertive state".

On Calm, Assertive States
If you're facing the same issue at home, perhaps it would be wise to consider if you're really feeling calm and assertive. Dogs, after all, are masters at reading nuanced body language (they communicate using it, after all), and will be able to see through your false sense of security immediately. I used to have the same issue with Pringlepaws. In fact, I still do. Sometimes, when I correct him half-heartedly, it just doesn't work, and simply undermines my dominant position. Takes some cognitive realignment of my mind to get him to listen.... and i guess in the long run.. makes me more assertive. 20 years from now, I will cross my dominatrix-heeled legs, reminisce about my time with Pringles, nod sagely, and say "Yes, this was the dog who got me started."

Okay kidding.

Things got a little challenging though, when Knuckles arrived.

Knuckles is TK's red toy poodle, and by her own description, a little Prince accustomed to reigning over the household. He didn't really like the idea of Pringles, and of course he sprinted into the bedroom, and of course Pringles followed because every dog loves someone who plays hard to get.. At which point, we just rolled the great doors shut.. and then started taking photos with the adorable little fur ball (he weighs just 5kg that little cutie pie!), and watching Trainer Chen attempt to dominate him into not entering the room.

Wasn't so easy though! Poodles are generally smarter than goldies. Heck they're smarter than two year olds, which just means that they could do with a little bit more training... and can be a little more thoughtful. Meaning we told Knuckles not to go into the room, but he would constantly try to get in. .... ..... that little boundary tester.

Anyhow, it was a great catch up for XL, TK and I! Its been 7 great years of friendship, and even though we're all in such different jobs/lives/ situations now, we still remain about as tight as peas in a pod. Well.. almost. And while some of our long married counterparts swaddle babies and discuss nappie rash, here we are, raising fur children....we are ..one of many female abominations of society. With willing wombs but unwilling hearts hahahahaha (well except for XL).

Till next Christmas! I cannot wait to go back to the lovely Tan home :) Mr. Tan's an architect by training, and he has fully reimagined his 4-room (or 3-room?), and converted it into a spacious little walk-up in a mature suburb in Singapore.