NOCTURNES by Kazuo Ishiguro – My ''Read & Raise' Book Review-by Kat Ngoi

NOCTURNES – Read & Raise
Nocturnes, internationally-acclaimed writer Kazuo Ishiguro’s (best known for his masterpiece The Remains of the Day) first collection of short stories after volumes of award-winning novels, leaves you pining like a lost lover for what you wish were happier endings and perhaps most of all--closure. However, the style and prose which the familiar single narration weaves each poignant story is typical Ishiguro—rich and rewarding, masterful storytelling at its best.


Each deliberately short lived tale is threaded with the same theme of heartache, regret and disappointment of promises receded, the continuous strife of holding on to life’s hopes and lost dreams. The result is a play of romance, marital love and discord, and the inevitable regrets that lie await in the passage of time. These interwoven subjects pepper the five stories that unfortunately, either purely due to their short length or lack of a satisfying finish, fail to live up to their initial premise as paralleled by the dashed or unfulfilled dreams of the characters.

In CROONER, the first story, a jazz guitarist from a café band in Venice chances upon his late mother’s music idol Tony Gardner and his courage to extend acquaintance with the fading star is rewarded subsequently with a romantic assignment to play aside the aging crooner in a moonlight serenade to his wife steered in a gondola. The guitarist Janeck soon realizes that beneath the romantic gesture lies a grim truth: their marriage has ended and that was an unrequited Gardner’s romantic farewell to his best friend and soon-to-be-divorced wife, Lindy.

The same wife makes a return in another quite unrelated tale NOCTURNE, of her chance meeting and brief friendship with an undiscovered musician with all talent and no looks—just the reverse is true for Lindy Gardner herself. The unlikely pair strike up a memorable episode of nightly escapades in the same hotel they are holed up in while healing from their cosmetic surgical scars. Turns out that they each have hearts as bandaged as their faces, and both require deep healing of the emotional kind.


Having Nocturnes for company is like taking a slow, pensive stroll by the moonlight while a string quartet’s faint music is resonating either in your imagination or in the faraway distance. While you long for daylight to break the melancholy, alas, time seems to stand still, dusk remains and so does your shattered heart.

Red Bean/ Tou Sha/Japanese An Pan Buns

Choosing to migrate to Brisbane and not glorious Sydney with its ample supply of Asian eateries and chinese bakeries meant I've had to learn to bake and cook everything I miss, especially my favourite Tou Sha red bean buns--they sell for an arm and a leg here and yet taste rather like leather purses.  You know what I'm talking about--we want our buns like back in Singapore: soft and spongy, sweet to the bite and just that teensy bit of crustiness to the surface for extra texture.

I went through great pains to fine-tune this recipe, pinching bits from many recipes until I managed to perfect the ultimate An Pan red bean bun I so adore. I hope you'll try it and tell me how you went. After you've mastered the dough recipe you could virtually add any type of filling to your buns...I've even made kaya, tuna and custard ones. Just YUMMMMYYY.


KAT'S RED BEAN / ‘TOU SHA’ AN PAN JAPANESE BUNS – makes 12 small buns

Ingredients:
125g Full Cream Milk (warmed slightly), less than ½ C
75g heavy cream (warmed), less than 1/3 C
½ tsp + ¼ tsp salt
1 large egg (room temp)
40g sugar
300g plain flour (+ 1 C plain flour during middle of cycle)
1 tsp yeast
3 tsp milk powder


Method:


1. Load all the ingredients into your bread machine (liquids before dry ingredients), set it to the dough cycle.
2. When dough is ready, remove from the machine and punch down to release air.
3. Divide dough into 12 pieces, roll into balls and flatten.
4. Add filling to middle of flattened piece, then seal with fingers and roll into a bun shape.
5. Transfer buns into lined muffin tray and proof for further 25 min with a spritz of water in the oven for 30 min till doubled in size.
6. Bake at 170 degrees for 15 min.


Glaze for bun:
Mix 2 T melted butter with 1 T sugar till dissolved, brush on tops of buns.
Sprinkle sesame seeds.


Red Bean Filling:
1 ½ C red kidney beans
4 C water
½ C oil/butter
1 C castor sugar


Method: Boil till beans are soft, drain, then puree. Transfer to medium bowl with oil and sugar to make a thick gooey paste. Cool before filling the buns.

CHOCOLATE CHIP-HONEY CINNAMON SCROLLS

These gooey yummy cinnamon buns or scrolls as they're widely called are just my favorite snack and breakfast...they make me the ultimate domestic goddess to my hubby, C.  He devours them faster than I can make them, really. I used to bake them as our cafe's special-homemade-dessert-of-the-day. They sell for way too much in the shops but few know how easy they are to make in your own kitchen especially if you invest in a bread machine!  Try this recipe--it never fails me, and you'll never have to pay for them again!

Kat's Chocolate Chip-Honey Cinnamon Scrolls

DOUGH for 1, 1 1/2, or 2 Ib
2 1/2 all-purpose flour
3/4 C milk
1 tsp yeast
2 T sugar
1 egg + water to fill 1/4 C
3 T butter


FILLING
1 tsp cinnamon ground
2 T melted butter to brush dough
1 egg, beaten
1/3 C brown sugar
1/4 C chopped raisins
*1/2 C chocolate chips
*4 T honey


VANILLA/ORANGE FROSTING
1/2 C confectioners' sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 tsp milk or: *Cointreau/ or Grand Marnier/ (any type of orange liquer)


1. Load bread pan with wet ingredients first, then the dry, and select dough cycle. When done, remove to greased bowl, cover and let rest for 30 min in fridge or overnight  if not using immediately. Otherwise, leave in machine for another 1 hour.


2. Roll out dough to 10x16 " rectangle. Spread melted butter, sprinkle with brown sugar,cinnamon, raisins and *choc chips. *Drizzle honey all over the top. Roll up like a jelly-roll to a 16" log. Seal with some beaten egg. Slice into 12 equal portions.


3. Place slices in 9x13" pan, ensure they are not touching. Spritz with some water, let rise in warm place for 30 min (nearly doubled). Brush with remaining beaten egg.


4. Bake in 180 degrees for 15-20 min, until lightly browned. Mix the icing ingredients together till dissolved. Drizzle or spread on scrolls.

I like to give credit to the original recipe writers, though I've created my own scrolls with the basic recipe I've used--you'll notice the *asterisk points are where I've customised these scrolls to make it my own.
But if you'd like to get hold of the book (I think it's a GREAT bread baking book for your library), here's the details: EASY BREAD MACHINE RECIPES by Rob Wanless

SEW EASY- Miss Polly the Dolly

Her original name's MISS POLLY, and actually she was the first I made for Baby B, out of scrap fabric from my other crafts. Her stripey rainbow legs were once my old pair of funky toe socks...

SEW EASY - Cosmonaut Devils, Solomon Owl Softies, T-shirt applique

The day I discovered a series of books called 'SOFTIES' I found my motivation to lug out my cob-webbed sewing machine. Stowed away in what I'd call the lowest depths of my craft studio, I found my familiar 'old friend', an old series BROTHER unit with its still trusty pedal foot.  My determination to create some of these adorable 'ugly monsters' (why they are called ugly I'll never know) had to be fuelled by my newfound motherhood--you see, I failed rather bitterly in my Home Economics sewing classes back in secondary school.

They are not as difficult to put together as I initially thought them to be. Actually, I had loads of fun!

Their original names are 'COSMONAUT DEVILS' but I don't fancy the devil bit so much as a bedtime companion for my baby, so I've inverted the ears to make them less 'devilish' and more like a cute monster.

Here's the matching T-shirt applique I sewed out of red felt to match the cosmonaut devil softie. Baby B is just fascinated by the two...

This owl is more like a little pillow. Every part of him is made of fabric except for the eyes and beak which I sewed from felt. I've named him SOLOMON, after King Solomon in the bible, the wisest man/king ever lived in his era.