I made this for my other half's parents 40th wedding anniversary canape party of 40 people. After cutting out all the rounded sides (which we kept for family enjoyment), there was enough perfect square pieces to go round the guest twice.
(enough for 30cm round cake tin and 20cm round cake tin)
380g dark chocolate buttons
8 eggs, yolks and whites separated
2 egg whites
1 cup almond meal (65g)
200g butter
160g castor sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp orange oil
20g cocoa powder. ( 1 tablespoon)
Preheat oven to 160C.
Melt chocolate and 50g butter in bain marie.
Separately, cream the butter and sugar in mixing bowl until fluffy, then whisk in egg yolk one by one till mixture turn almost creamy white.
Fold in melted chocolate, then almond meal, orange oil and salt.
In another clean separate mixing bowl, whisk all egg whites till become almost stiff peaks.
Progressively fold whites into rest of mixture.
Pour into large cake tray (about 2 cm high).
Bake for 30 minutes.
Pour balance into small tray only just before putting into oven to bake, giving it a stir to re-create air, before pouring. Bake for 20 minutes.
Cool for at least 1 hour before serving. Best served next day!
Sprinkle with cocoa powder before cutting to serve.
Cut into petite square pieces of about 2cm x 2cm and arrange on flat serving plate.
Bon Appetite!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Chocolate hazelnut or almond cupcakes
Makes 12 very light and crumbly cupcakes.
180g dark chocolate buttons ( I used Callebaut)
80g sugar
120g butter
2 XL eggs
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 cup milk (room temperature, luke warm)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cream of tartar
50g self raising cake flour (almost half a cup)
50g hazelnut meal or almond meal (half a cup)
2 tsp cornflour (10g)
A pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 160 deg fan force
Line baking tray of 12 with baking paper cups.
Melt chocolate and chopped butter over bain marie.
Mix salt, corn flour, SR flour, baking powder, cocoa and cinnamon powder together (dry content).
Separate egg yolks from white.
Whisk egg whites until slight bubbly, then add cream of tartar. Continue whisking till bubbles become slightly denser, then add 1/2 of the sugar slowly. Whisk till form soft peaks. Set aside.
Separately, whisk egg yolks and slowly add remaining 3 sugar while continuing to beat the yolk, until creamy and almost white.
Fold egg yolks into melted chocolate/butter in 3 batches. Do same with almond or hazelnut meal and milk.
Sift remaining dry content into wet content slowly in 3 batches. Do not overfold/stir to prevent gluten developing (from the flour).
Spoon mixture into baking tray and put into preheated oven.
Bake for 15-16 minutes, and remove from oven, let it cool in tray for about 10 minutes then, place on wire rack.
Optional: Slight press 1 chocolate button on top of each cooked muffin after about 10 minutes, for decoration.
Bon Appetite!
180g dark chocolate buttons ( I used Callebaut)80g sugar
120g butter
2 XL eggs
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 cup milk (room temperature, luke warm)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cream of tartar
50g self raising cake flour (almost half a cup)
50g hazelnut meal or almond meal (half a cup)
2 tsp cornflour (10g)
A pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 160 deg fan force
Line baking tray of 12 with baking paper cups.
Melt chocolate and chopped butter over bain marie.
Mix salt, corn flour, SR flour, baking powder, cocoa and cinnamon powder together (dry content).
Separate egg yolks from white.
Whisk egg whites until slight bubbly, then add cream of tartar. Continue whisking till bubbles become slightly denser, then add 1/2 of the sugar slowly. Whisk till form soft peaks. Set aside.
Separately, whisk egg yolks and slowly add remaining 3 sugar while continuing to beat the yolk, until creamy and almost white.
Fold egg yolks into melted chocolate/butter in 3 batches. Do same with almond or hazelnut meal and milk.
Sift remaining dry content into wet content slowly in 3 batches. Do not overfold/stir to prevent gluten developing (from the flour).
Spoon mixture into baking tray and put into preheated oven.
Bake for 15-16 minutes, and remove from oven, let it cool in tray for about 10 minutes then, place on wire rack.
Optional: Slight press 1 chocolate button on top of each cooked muffin after about 10 minutes, for decoration.
Bon Appetite!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Jamie Oliver's Portuguese Tarts
These are quite good I have to say.
Makes 6
Plain flour, for dusting
1 x 375g pack of prerolled puff pastry , or 2 piece Pampas Puff pastry
Ground cinnamon
125g (4½oz) créme fraîche or double cream
1tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract
5tbsp golden caster sugar
1 egg
1 orange
Turn the oven on to 200C/ gas 6.
Pastry
Dust a surface with flour.
Unroll the pastry, then cut it in half so you have two 20cm x 20cm (8in x 8in) squares. For pampas, just leave the 2 pieces as it is.
Sprinkle over a few pinches of ground cinnamon.
Roll the pastry into a Swiss-roll shape and cut into 6 rounds for the roll pasty, or 3 rounds for each Pampas slice.
Put these into 6 of the holes in a muffin tin.
Use your thumbs to mould the pastry into the holes, so the bottom is flat and the pastry comes up to the top.
Put on the top shelf of the oven and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly golden.
Filling
Spoon the créme fraîche or double cream into a small bowl.
Add the egg, vanilla paste or extract, 1tbsp golden caster sugar and the zest of 1 orange. Mix well.
Take the muffin tin out of the oven, and use a teaspoon to press the puffed-up pastry back to the sides and make room for the filling.
Spoon the créme fraîche mixture into the tart cases, and return to the top shelf of the oven. Set the timer for 8 minutes.
Put a small saucepan on a high heat. Squeeze in the juice from the zested orange and add 4tbsp golden caster sugar. Stir and keep a good eye on it, but remember caramel can burn badly so don't touch or taste.
Pour some caramel over each tart (they'll still be wobbly). Put aside to set.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1312958/Jamie-Olivers-30-minute-meals-Piri-Piri-chicken-rocket-salad-dressed-potatoes-quick-Portuguese-tarts.html#ixzz1ZpCKn7qB
Bon Appetite!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Little chocolate and almond cakes
Makes 6 - cupcake size.
120g dark chocolate buttons (I used Callebaut)
65g almond meal
120ml of milk (1/2 cup)
60g castor sugar
60g butter - chopped
1 XL egg
2 tbsp self raising flour
1 tsp cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder
Optional: Rasberry or blueberry for decorating.
Preheat oven to 170 deg.
Line muffin tray with baking paper cups.
Melt butter and chocolate on bain marie.
Lightly whisk in 3/4 of the sugar, and all the cinnamon, salt, cocoa powder.
Fold in almond meal and milk progressively in 3 batches.
Fold in SR flour, baking powder.
Separately, whisk egg till very pale yellow and creamy, to aerate the egg as much as possible, slowly adding in remaining sugar after egg turned creamy as you continue whisking.
Fold egg into cake mixture in 2 batches, until well incorporated.
Pour into baking paper cups in muffin tray.
Bake 15 minutes for a slightly goey middle, or 17 minutes for a very moist cake with crispy top.
Rest for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Bon Appetite!
Lemon & Lime Curd Tart
This is a Masterchef website recipe, tested with a 41/2 star rating. I like it because of its simple tart shell recipe and the lemon curd recipe seems right too. Have yet to test it for myself though.
Canola cooking spray oil
¾ cup desiccated coconut¼ cup caster sugar
1 egg white
100g butter
½ cup lemon juice
½ cup caster sugar
1 egg
3 egg yolks
Coulis
1 punnet raspberries
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons caster sugar
Sugar Raspeberries
½ cup raspberries
1 egg white
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 egg white
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1. Preheat oven to 150'C. Grease four 7cm non-stick loose base fluted tart tins.
2. Combine coconut, sugar and egg white in a bowl and mix to combine.
3. Press mixture into prepared tins and bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Remove and cool for 10 minutes.
4. Place butter and juice into a medium sauce pan over a low heat and gently mix until butter has melted.
5. Whisk together sugar, egg and egg yolks in a jug and gradually whisk into butter mixture. Stir continuously over a low heat for 4-5 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken. Divide mixture among cooked tart cases and refrigerate to cool.
6. For coulis, puree raspberries and sugar in the chopper attachment of a stick blender until smooth.
7. Brush raspberries with egg white and sprinkle with caster sugar.
8. Dress tarts with sugared raspberries and serve with raspberry coulis.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Lemon Curd, Buffalo Mozarella and Toasted Sesame Seeds Tart
If have ready made frozen puff pastry and lemon curd:
- Prep and cooking time: 30 minutes
If have ready made frozen puff pastry but making lemon curd from scratch:
- Prep and cooking time: 1 hour.
Serves 6
2 pieces ready made puff pastry ( I used Pampas).
120g fresh/buffalo mozarella - sliced thin (about 5 mm thick)
About 20g toasted sesame (small handful)
+ Lemon Curd ingredients
Juice of 2 Myer lemons (about 100ml)
90g butter - diced
80g sugar
3 L eggs (or 2 yolks plus 1 XL egg).
Preheat oven 180 deg.
1. Melt butter and sugar on medium heat on a small pot, add lemon juice, stir.
2. Remove pot from heat (for about 1 minute). Otherwise, eggs will scramble a bit as it hits super hot liquid.
3. Meanwhile keep heat on, place trivet. (Trivet makes it easier, less likely for egg to scramble. If you dont have a trivet, never mind, just stir more continuosly!)
4. Place pot on trivet and start adding egg one by one, continuosly stirring and whisking until egg is well combined into the mixture.
5. Continue stirring and whisking until thickens to curd consistency (this should take about 30-40 minutes). It is okay to take your eyes off the pot and stop whisking now and then to attend to other tasks, but do not leave unstirred/unwhisked for more than 1 minute at a time. Set aside when cooked.
6. While lemon curd is cooking, take pastry out of freezer to thaw. Usually takes about 10-15 minutes in winter, or 5 minutes in summer. Once pastry becomes soft and pliable it is ready. Arrange pastry to fully cover tart tin (25cm).
7. Poke holes evenly on pastry and blind bake. Follow instructions on pastry pack for blind baking. (10 minutes is about enough).
8. When baked pastry is cooled, spread lemon curd evenly onto pastry.
9. Arranged the mozarella pieces, on top of the lemon curd.
10. Sprinkle toasted sesame seed all over mozarella cheese.
11. Bake in oven for 5-7 minutes until cheese has melted.
12. Remove from oven, sprinkle pinchful of cinnamon powder all over tart.
Serve warm.
Note: Fresh Vanilla beans or cinnamon powder can be added onto lemon curd for a more fragrant curd.
Bon Appetite!
- Prep and cooking time: 30 minutes
If have ready made frozen puff pastry but making lemon curd from scratch:
- Prep and cooking time: 1 hour.
Serves 6
2 pieces ready made puff pastry ( I used Pampas).
120g fresh/buffalo mozarella - sliced thin (about 5 mm thick)
About 20g toasted sesame (small handful)
+ Lemon Curd ingredients
Juice of 2 Myer lemons (about 100ml)
90g butter - diced
80g sugar
3 L eggs (or 2 yolks plus 1 XL egg).
Preheat oven 180 deg.
1. Melt butter and sugar on medium heat on a small pot, add lemon juice, stir.
2. Remove pot from heat (for about 1 minute). Otherwise, eggs will scramble a bit as it hits super hot liquid.
3. Meanwhile keep heat on, place trivet. (Trivet makes it easier, less likely for egg to scramble. If you dont have a trivet, never mind, just stir more continuosly!)
4. Place pot on trivet and start adding egg one by one, continuosly stirring and whisking until egg is well combined into the mixture.
5. Continue stirring and whisking until thickens to curd consistency (this should take about 30-40 minutes). It is okay to take your eyes off the pot and stop whisking now and then to attend to other tasks, but do not leave unstirred/unwhisked for more than 1 minute at a time. Set aside when cooked.
6. While lemon curd is cooking, take pastry out of freezer to thaw. Usually takes about 10-15 minutes in winter, or 5 minutes in summer. Once pastry becomes soft and pliable it is ready. Arrange pastry to fully cover tart tin (25cm).
7. Poke holes evenly on pastry and blind bake. Follow instructions on pastry pack for blind baking. (10 minutes is about enough).
8. When baked pastry is cooled, spread lemon curd evenly onto pastry.
9. Arranged the mozarella pieces, on top of the lemon curd.
10. Sprinkle toasted sesame seed all over mozarella cheese.
11. Bake in oven for 5-7 minutes until cheese has melted.
12. Remove from oven, sprinkle pinchful of cinnamon powder all over tart.
Serve warm.
Note: Fresh Vanilla beans or cinnamon powder can be added onto lemon curd for a more fragrant curd.
Bon Appetite!
Slow cooked beef in red wine with mash potatoes and yorkshire pudding
This recipe is just for the slow cooked beef. The recipe for yorkshire pudding is labelled under "cakes and pastries".
This is not hard to make, the prep work is just a bit time consuming. Best cooked over 2 days, to allow the beef to marinate overnight in red wine. I have divided up the recipe into 2 parts, i.e for day 1 and for day 2.
Day 1 - 1/2 hour prepping and marinating beef .
Day 2 - 40 minutes prepping, 3 hours for slow cooking beef.
I took about 6 hours altogether for Day 2, to make a whole meal of :-
- red wine beef stew,
- yorkshire pudding,
- mashed potatoes,
- 2 types of sousvide greens :-)
(1. fennel with crushed toasted mustard seed, olive oil, orange juice, zest of 1 orange and zest of 1/2 a lemon), 1 tsp of honey, salt and pepper.
2. green bak choy with slightly burnt garlic, olive oil, Braggs soy sauce, 1/4 tsp of sugar), and
- a dessert (puff pastry tart of lemon curd and melted buffalo mozarella, with toasted sesame seeds)
For 5p
DAY 1
1.2 kg of gravy beef or chuck steak or wagyu beef cheeks
Beef Marinade
1/2 bottle of red wine (500ml)
A handful of herbs (e.g 1 sprig of rosemary OR bunch of thyme, AND 3 bay leaves)
Pinch of salt (1/2 tsp)
Pinch of cracked pepper (1/2 tsp)
Swirl of olive oil (1 tbsp)
Remove any "fat" or "membrane" from the beef.
Cut the beef to slightly larger than 2 x 1 inch. It will melt and reduce in size when cooking.
Put beef into a large mixing bowl.
Add all the beef marinade ingredients except the red wine, and gently massage it into the beef.
Pour marinated beef into a 1 gallon ziplock bag.
Pour red wine into the ziplock bag.
Try and press out all the air before zipping the bag.
Leave in fridge to marinate overnight.
DAY 2 - steps written in order of prep and cooking
Preheat oven to 150 deg (fan force)
Remove marinated beef from fridge.
Use thongs to pick up the pieces of beef and place on a strainer, sitting on top of a plate. This is to "dry" the beef so that it will brown and crisp up with flour when searing.
Pour marinate juice from the ziplock bag and those collected at the bottom of the plate, into a pot and boil to burn off the alcohol. Skim and throw away the layer of "foam" that bubbles up. Set aside the red wine.
You can pat dry with paper towel but will waste all the marinate juice.
While beef is dripping dry, prep the rest below.
Other ingredients
1 1/2 large pieces of bacon (or speck) - about 200g
3 spanish onion or 6 shallots - peeled and finely diced
3 cloves of garlic - peeled, crushed and chopped
1 stalk of celery - finely diced
3 carrots - peeled and finely diced.
Herb and Spice Bouquet garni (1 small sprig of rosemary, 6 bay leaves, 1/2 stick cinnamon, 1 star anise)
A bunch of parsley, chopped.
2 tbsp of flour - spread over a large plate - for coating beef before searing.
Olive oil - 1 tbsp.
1 tsp salt
1 cup of beef stock.
1 cup of red wine.
About 20 button mushroom - cleaned, left whole.
About 25g of butter (the French would put 50g if not more!)
About 15g of chopped dark chocolate
Chop up bacon.
Fry the bacon in medium heat in a good cast iron stew pot e.g. Le Creuset/Chasseur etc, till golden brown/most fat rendered. Everything else after this step will be cooked in the same pot - more layering of flavours, less washing up !
Remove fried bacon - set aside.
Keep heat on. Add olive oil.
Prepare for searing beef.
By now, the beef should be pretty drip dried. Divide for searing in 2 batches. Do not pile up all the beef on top of each other in one big batch or it would end up braising in its own juice instead of browning.
One by one lightly powder the pieces of beef with flour, and sear evenly on both sides till golden brown, sprinkling a pinch of salt all over the beef for seasoning in the process.
When beef are seared, remove beef onto a bowl/plate and set aside. Keep heat on the pot.
Into the pot, add the garlic and onions, sautee/sweat, then add carrots and celery, saute/sweat (about 1 or 2 minutes).
Add the bouquet garni and half the parsley. Pour in red wine and deglaze pot/burnt alcohol off.
Return the seared beef and juices that oozed out back into the pot.
Make sure there are enough liquids to just cover the beef, if not add a little beef stock.
Cut aluminium foil into round shape - slightly bigger than the circumference of the pot by about 1 cm.
Gently depressed foil to sit just on top of the ingredients and cover it, there will be a bit extra sticking up the sides of the inside of the pot - covering with the foil helps to prevent burning while slow cooking in the oven.
Cook in preheated oven for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, remove pot from oven. Set aside foil. Give it a gentle stir to prevent/remove sticking ingredients.
Add the mushrooms and remaining stock, making sure meat just covered by liquid.
Cover with foil again.
Return to oven, cook for 1 more hour.
Remove from oven and heat.
Let it rest and cool for about 1 hour - to allow excess oil to separate for easy removal.
Remove foil.
Slowly remove excess oil from the pot using a spoon. (I removed almost 1 cup of oil). Put oil and keep in fridge for use another day - this beef "dripping" is great to simply stir through noodles/pasta for a easy lunch! I used some to make the yorkshire pudding as well)
Reheat pot on low heat, add butter and dark chocolate, and stir through to melt and combine.
Just before serving, sprinkle the remaining parsley onto beef.
Serve on top of mash potatoes.
Bon Appetite!
This is not hard to make, the prep work is just a bit time consuming. Best cooked over 2 days, to allow the beef to marinate overnight in red wine. I have divided up the recipe into 2 parts, i.e for day 1 and for day 2.
Day 1 - 1/2 hour prepping and marinating beef .
Day 2 - 40 minutes prepping, 3 hours for slow cooking beef.
I took about 6 hours altogether for Day 2, to make a whole meal of :-
- red wine beef stew,
- yorkshire pudding,
- mashed potatoes,
- 2 types of sousvide greens :-)
(1. fennel with crushed toasted mustard seed, olive oil, orange juice, zest of 1 orange and zest of 1/2 a lemon), 1 tsp of honey, salt and pepper.
2. green bak choy with slightly burnt garlic, olive oil, Braggs soy sauce, 1/4 tsp of sugar), and
- a dessert (puff pastry tart of lemon curd and melted buffalo mozarella, with toasted sesame seeds)
For 5p
DAY 1
1.2 kg of gravy beef or chuck steak or wagyu beef cheeks
Beef Marinade
1/2 bottle of red wine (500ml)
A handful of herbs (e.g 1 sprig of rosemary OR bunch of thyme, AND 3 bay leaves)
Pinch of salt (1/2 tsp)
Pinch of cracked pepper (1/2 tsp)
Swirl of olive oil (1 tbsp)
Remove any "fat" or "membrane" from the beef.
Cut the beef to slightly larger than 2 x 1 inch. It will melt and reduce in size when cooking.
Put beef into a large mixing bowl.
Add all the beef marinade ingredients except the red wine, and gently massage it into the beef.
Pour marinated beef into a 1 gallon ziplock bag.
Pour red wine into the ziplock bag.
Try and press out all the air before zipping the bag.
Leave in fridge to marinate overnight.
DAY 2 - steps written in order of prep and cooking
Preheat oven to 150 deg (fan force)
Remove marinated beef from fridge.
Use thongs to pick up the pieces of beef and place on a strainer, sitting on top of a plate. This is to "dry" the beef so that it will brown and crisp up with flour when searing.
Pour marinate juice from the ziplock bag and those collected at the bottom of the plate, into a pot and boil to burn off the alcohol. Skim and throw away the layer of "foam" that bubbles up. Set aside the red wine.
You can pat dry with paper towel but will waste all the marinate juice.
While beef is dripping dry, prep the rest below.
Other ingredients
1 1/2 large pieces of bacon (or speck) - about 200g
3 spanish onion or 6 shallots - peeled and finely diced
3 cloves of garlic - peeled, crushed and chopped
1 stalk of celery - finely diced
3 carrots - peeled and finely diced.
Herb and Spice Bouquet garni (1 small sprig of rosemary, 6 bay leaves, 1/2 stick cinnamon, 1 star anise)
A bunch of parsley, chopped.
2 tbsp of flour - spread over a large plate - for coating beef before searing.
Olive oil - 1 tbsp.
1 tsp salt
1 cup of beef stock.
1 cup of red wine.
About 20 button mushroom - cleaned, left whole.
About 25g of butter (the French would put 50g if not more!)
About 15g of chopped dark chocolate
Chop up bacon.
Fry the bacon in medium heat in a good cast iron stew pot e.g. Le Creuset/Chasseur etc, till golden brown/most fat rendered. Everything else after this step will be cooked in the same pot - more layering of flavours, less washing up !
Remove fried bacon - set aside.
Keep heat on. Add olive oil.
Prepare for searing beef.
By now, the beef should be pretty drip dried. Divide for searing in 2 batches. Do not pile up all the beef on top of each other in one big batch or it would end up braising in its own juice instead of browning.
One by one lightly powder the pieces of beef with flour, and sear evenly on both sides till golden brown, sprinkling a pinch of salt all over the beef for seasoning in the process.
When beef are seared, remove beef onto a bowl/plate and set aside. Keep heat on the pot.
Into the pot, add the garlic and onions, sautee/sweat, then add carrots and celery, saute/sweat (about 1 or 2 minutes).
Add the bouquet garni and half the parsley. Pour in red wine and deglaze pot/burnt alcohol off.
Return the seared beef and juices that oozed out back into the pot.
Make sure there are enough liquids to just cover the beef, if not add a little beef stock.
Cut aluminium foil into round shape - slightly bigger than the circumference of the pot by about 1 cm.
Gently depressed foil to sit just on top of the ingredients and cover it, there will be a bit extra sticking up the sides of the inside of the pot - covering with the foil helps to prevent burning while slow cooking in the oven.
Cook in preheated oven for 2 hours.
After 2 hours, remove pot from oven. Set aside foil. Give it a gentle stir to prevent/remove sticking ingredients.
Add the mushrooms and remaining stock, making sure meat just covered by liquid.
Cover with foil again.
Return to oven, cook for 1 more hour.
Remove from oven and heat.
Let it rest and cool for about 1 hour - to allow excess oil to separate for easy removal.
Remove foil.
Slowly remove excess oil from the pot using a spoon. (I removed almost 1 cup of oil). Put oil and keep in fridge for use another day - this beef "dripping" is great to simply stir through noodles/pasta for a easy lunch! I used some to make the yorkshire pudding as well)
Reheat pot on low heat, add butter and dark chocolate, and stir through to melt and combine.
Just before serving, sprinkle the remaining parsley onto beef.
Serve on top of mash potatoes.
Bon Appetite!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Yorkshire Pudding
I had no intention of making this when I started to roast beef today. But as I was looking at recipes for roast beef, the recipe for yorkshire pudding was there and it had so few ingredients and was easy. And its a perfect complement to roast beef as I can bake it while the beef is resting, and it will be cooked and still warm by the time dinner is served! So, before I knew it I was on the way to making it. I looked up more yorkshire pudding recipes to get a better understanding - Encyclopedia and Food of Cookery (Margaret Fulton), In the Kitchen (Allan Campion and Michele Curtis), The Butcher (Leanne Kitchen).
The resulting yorkshire pudding I made had crispy skin, and moist, light, fluffy and tasty on the inside.
Makes 6 (double the volume if for 12)
1 cup self raising cakeflour (125g)
Less than 1 cup milk (roughly 200ml)
A pinch of salt
1XL large egg
A tbsp of olive oil for the batter
A full tsp of olive oil for each of the muffin holes
1/3 tsp cream of tartar
Preheat oven to 210C (fan force)
Batter
Whisk egg till bubbly, then add cream of tartar and continue whisking till creamy and pale yellow.
Gently drizzle milk around edges of whisked eggs and fold gently.
Repeat same with the olive oil.
Then sift 1/3 flour and salt, and fold, then another 1/3 and fold and finally, the balance till well combined.
Baking
Pour olive oil into muffin moulds
Heat in preheated oven for 5-6 minutes.
Remove from oven. Pour the batter into moulds - roughly each about 2/3 full.
Bake in oven for 15-16 minutes till golden brown.
Puddings will rise and puff up.
Use a tsp to lift muffins from the hot mould. Place a paper towel on top of wire rack, and place the puddings on it, to soak up any excess oil off the puddings.
I wished I had taken the pictures, they looked pretty good.
Tip: As I tasted my puddings and its teture, I can't help but imagined making yorkshire puddings for dessert or tea i.e. as sweet puddings using this method. Next time, I will add sugar and cinnamon, and then coat with cinnamon when cooked - it may taste as good if not even better than cinnamon doughnuts! And when bananas are cheap again, to add some bananas in as well! And for an indulging dessert, to have it with good vanilla bean ice cream.
Bon Appetite!
The resulting yorkshire pudding I made had crispy skin, and moist, light, fluffy and tasty on the inside.
Makes 6 (double the volume if for 12)
1 cup self raising cakeflour (125g)
Less than 1 cup milk (roughly 200ml)
A pinch of salt
1XL large egg
A tbsp of olive oil for the batter
A full tsp of olive oil for each of the muffin holes
1/3 tsp cream of tartar
Preheat oven to 210C (fan force)
Batter
Whisk egg till bubbly, then add cream of tartar and continue whisking till creamy and pale yellow.
Gently drizzle milk around edges of whisked eggs and fold gently.
Repeat same with the olive oil.
Then sift 1/3 flour and salt, and fold, then another 1/3 and fold and finally, the balance till well combined.
Baking
Pour olive oil into muffin moulds
Heat in preheated oven for 5-6 minutes.
Remove from oven. Pour the batter into moulds - roughly each about 2/3 full.
Bake in oven for 15-16 minutes till golden brown.
Puddings will rise and puff up.
Use a tsp to lift muffins from the hot mould. Place a paper towel on top of wire rack, and place the puddings on it, to soak up any excess oil off the puddings.
I wished I had taken the pictures, they looked pretty good.
Tip: As I tasted my puddings and its teture, I can't help but imagined making yorkshire puddings for dessert or tea i.e. as sweet puddings using this method. Next time, I will add sugar and cinnamon, and then coat with cinnamon when cooked - it may taste as good if not even better than cinnamon doughnuts! And when bananas are cheap again, to add some bananas in as well! And for an indulging dessert, to have it with good vanilla bean ice cream.
Bon Appetite!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Apple Frangipani Tart
Andrew's sister and family from Melbourne are in Sydney for a visit. I made this tart for 12 people for the dinner which we had tonite at his parent's place. I researched a few recipes for frangipani filling, including that of Guillame Brahimi's, Nick Nairn's and Allison Thompson's. The shortcrust pastry is essentially adapted from Maggie Beer's pastry recipe which I love, it has a lovely crumbly melt in the mouth texture, simple to make. I have adapted all these recipes essentially reducing sugar, and substituting some butter and fat content (for eg extra egg yolks) with yoghurt. The tart was well liked and I am very happy about it. The frangipani texture was nice and moist without being overwhelmingly buttery rich as is sold in most cafes.
Ingredients - 12p
Shortcrust Pastry
250g flour
150g butter
125g sour cream (about 1/2 cup)
A pinch of salt
Frangipani Filling
225g of almond meal
150g butter
4 eggs
25g flour
1/2 cup of vanilla bean yoghurt
110g castor sugar
1 tsp of seasalt
2 tbsp of contreau
Apple topping
2 pink lady apples, sliced thinly
30g castor sugar
2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp of ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 200 deg (fan force)
Pastry
Put the flour and butter and 1/2 of the sour cream into a food processor.
Pulse until light breadcrumb texture.
Add remaining sour cream and pulse till mixture comes together in few clumps (you will know it is ready, when it starts to come off the sides of the processor).
Lay a large sheet of cling film on clean table.
Pour the mixture onto the cling film, and lightly knead to form a rectangle. Dont overwork the dough if you want a light crumbly texture pastry.
Wrap the mixture and rest in fridge for 20 minutes.
Once rested, rub some flour onto large rolling pin and kneading surface, and roll pastry in one direction, about 2mm thick.
Pastry should be large enough to fill tart dish and overflowing on sides by at least 1 cm extra, to allow for shrinkage.
Using the rolling pin, lift the pastry, and work into tart dish.
Using a fork, prick all over the top of the pastry ( this tiny holes helps to prevent "bubbles" forming as the pastry is being baked).
Cover the top of pastry with baking paper, and fill top of baking paper with either baking beads or rice. (to stop it from rising).
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Take out of oven, remove baking beads/rice and baking paper. Bake for another 5 minutes. (till slightly golden).
Set aside.
Reduce oven temperature to 170deg.
Frangipani filing
Cut butter into squares and place into a hot bowl (place in toaster oven at say 120deg for 10 minutes). The heat will melt the butter gently. Leave to cool.
Mix almond meal, flour, sea salt and 30g of the sugar in a large mixing bowl.
Whisk eggs till creamy and very pale yellow, adding in remaining sugar, slowly and progressively.
Add butter, yoghurt, contreau and then finally egg mixture into flour mixture, and fold till combined.
Spread the mixture evenly onto pastry.
Apples
Peel the apples.
Cut the apples in halve and soak in salted water (to prevent from browning/oxidation)
Thinly sliced the apples.
Dip apples into sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon mix.
Lay apples, slightly overlapping each other, on top of frangipani mixture. Press the apples down into the mixture, without submerging them.
Cut a long thin strip of aluminium foil and cover the sides of the pastry, to prevent it from burning.
Bake at 170 for 40 minutes. Then turn off heat, leave in oven for 5 minutes.
Sprinkle cinnamon powder all over top of apples while semi warm.
Leave to rest at least 30 minutes, preferably 1 hour, before slicing and serving.
Its delicious on its own, but can also be served with cream or vanilla ice-cream.
Note:
In Maggie Beer's pastry recipe, she would use 200g butter, you will have a very rich buttery pastry. I find 150g is good enough for a nice crumbly pastry.
Bon Appetite!
Ingredients - 12p
Shortcrust Pastry
250g flour
150g butter
125g sour cream (about 1/2 cup)
A pinch of salt
Frangipani Filling
225g of almond meal
150g butter
4 eggs
25g flour
1/2 cup of vanilla bean yoghurt
110g castor sugar
1 tsp of seasalt
2 tbsp of contreau
Apple topping
2 pink lady apples, sliced thinly
30g castor sugar
2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp of ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 200 deg (fan force)
Pastry
Put the flour and butter and 1/2 of the sour cream into a food processor.
Pulse until light breadcrumb texture.
Add remaining sour cream and pulse till mixture comes together in few clumps (you will know it is ready, when it starts to come off the sides of the processor).
Lay a large sheet of cling film on clean table.
Pour the mixture onto the cling film, and lightly knead to form a rectangle. Dont overwork the dough if you want a light crumbly texture pastry.
Wrap the mixture and rest in fridge for 20 minutes.
Once rested, rub some flour onto large rolling pin and kneading surface, and roll pastry in one direction, about 2mm thick.
Pastry should be large enough to fill tart dish and overflowing on sides by at least 1 cm extra, to allow for shrinkage.
Using the rolling pin, lift the pastry, and work into tart dish.
Using a fork, prick all over the top of the pastry ( this tiny holes helps to prevent "bubbles" forming as the pastry is being baked).
Cover the top of pastry with baking paper, and fill top of baking paper with either baking beads or rice. (to stop it from rising).
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Take out of oven, remove baking beads/rice and baking paper. Bake for another 5 minutes. (till slightly golden).
Set aside.
Reduce oven temperature to 170deg.
Frangipani filing
Cut butter into squares and place into a hot bowl (place in toaster oven at say 120deg for 10 minutes). The heat will melt the butter gently. Leave to cool.
Mix almond meal, flour, sea salt and 30g of the sugar in a large mixing bowl.
Whisk eggs till creamy and very pale yellow, adding in remaining sugar, slowly and progressively.
Add butter, yoghurt, contreau and then finally egg mixture into flour mixture, and fold till combined.
Spread the mixture evenly onto pastry.
Apples
Peel the apples.
Cut the apples in halve and soak in salted water (to prevent from browning/oxidation)
Thinly sliced the apples.
Dip apples into sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon mix.
Lay apples, slightly overlapping each other, on top of frangipani mixture. Press the apples down into the mixture, without submerging them.
Cut a long thin strip of aluminium foil and cover the sides of the pastry, to prevent it from burning.
Bake at 170 for 40 minutes. Then turn off heat, leave in oven for 5 minutes.
Sprinkle cinnamon powder all over top of apples while semi warm.
Leave to rest at least 30 minutes, preferably 1 hour, before slicing and serving.
Its delicious on its own, but can also be served with cream or vanilla ice-cream.
Note:
In Maggie Beer's pastry recipe, she would use 200g butter, you will have a very rich buttery pastry. I find 150g is good enough for a nice crumbly pastry.
Bon Appetite!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Tiramisu
I made this today for Andrew's sister's son, Alex's 18th birthday dinner party. The theme of the party was "Little Italy". I adapted a recipe from the "Italian Food Safari". The tiramisu turned out to be nicely creamy but yet light in texture. Everyone at the dinner party, liked it. I am not a fan of rich tiramisu, and I must say even I liked this one. :-). Very happy indeed with it.
Ingredients - Serves 10-12p
3 egg yolks
40g caster sugar
500g mascarpone
50ml Masala
1 tsp whisky
30 savoiardi biscuits
1 large hot coffee
4 tbsp organic cocoa
4 tbsp freshly ground coffee
Zest of 1 orange
50g hazelnut chocolate, grated finely (dark chocolate preferred, but I ran out of it today).
Italian meringue
45ml water
110g caster sugar
125ml egg whites (whites of 4 large eggs)
Place the egg yolks and caster sugar in a mixing bowl, and whisk on high speed until pale to almost white and fluffy. Add the mascarpone and, on a medium speed, whisk until it starts to thicken but smooth. Be sure not to overmix as you may split the mascarpone.
Add the liqueurs and mix until just combined. (You may adjust the quantity of liqueur according to personal taste.) Place to one side and make the Italian meringue.
Add the water to a clean, grease-free saucepan, then slowly add the sugar, making sure that all the grains get wet. Place over a medium heat and bring to soft ball stage. ( you can see lots of "bubbles" at this stage)
Making sure that your mixing bowl is completely grease-free, add in your egg whites and whisk on high speed until white and fluffy. As your egg whites reach medium peak, start to slowly add your hot sugar. Do not add sugar any sooner. ( A chef told me this would not overcook the egg whites, the sugar can go up to 120 deg and the egg whites would be fine). Once all the sugar has been added, continue to whisk until the Italian meringue has completely cooled. It would have stiffened such that when you turn the bowl upside down, the meringue would not fall. The meringue would start to look nice and glossy by this stage. Italian meringues are very stable and hold its form for a long time. Note: Use castor sugar otherwise you may get a grainy meringue instead of a smooth one.
Take your Italian meringue, and carefully fold into the mascarpone mix. Feel the mix "airing" as you fold. Taste and adjust the amount of liqueur if necessary.
Take your sponge finger biscuits, and soak in the coffee (add with 20ml of the masala) quickly, one at a time. Give the biscuits a light squeeze to remove any excess coffee. (Do not soak the biscuits all the way through. There should still be a little portion in the middle that has not been soaked in the coffee so that there is still a little texture to the bite.)
Line the bottom of a serving dish packed with the biscuits. (I used a large pyrex round bowl, as I wanted the lid to cover for "transporting" the tiramisu). Sprinkle the top of the biscuits with cocoa evenly.
Using a large spatula, spoon in 1/2 of the mascarpone mix and level. Sprinkle with the ground coffee evenly.
Add another layer of coffee-soaked sponge finger biscuits. Sprinkle again cocoa. Spoon in remaining mascarpone mix and level.
Cover the bowl tightly with cling film. Place in the fridge, and allow the tiramisu to become firm enough to cut, minimum 4 hours. ( I was told it is even better if left overnight to allow the flavours to develop)
Just before serving, sprinkle evenly with orange zest, then grated hazelnut chocolate and finally, the freshly ground coffee.
Note: In future, I will add lemon zest to the mascaporne/meringue filling. And try using sambuca/strega instead of masala.
Tip: For achieving light meringue and mascaporne mix, use stainless steel mixing bowls. Or glass, but not plastic. The steel bowls helps the "airation" process.
Bon Appetite!
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Apple, Raisins and Spice Slice
I adapted this recipe from "BAKE Essential Companion" by Allison Thompson. I essentially replaced butter with olive oil. We enjoyed the resulting slice! It has a crunchy crust and very moist content. The olive oil maintain the moisture but not the rich buttery "after eat" feeling. Great for snacks and dessert. And so little prep work required.
Loaf tin size
110g self raising flour
55g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
100g muscovado sugar
1/2 tsp of sea/river salt
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil (100g)
1 large egg
1tbsp of milk
150g dried raisins
1 pink lady apple, cut into 1cmx1cm squares
2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp nutmeg powder
Line loaf tin with baking paper.
Preheat oven to 180 deg (fan force).
Mix apples with 1 tsp cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder, and 20g of the sugar. Add raisins and mix.
Separately in a mixing bowl, mix all the remaining dry ingredients together.
Create a well in the middle, pour in olive oil, then milk and combine the ingredients together with the fruit mix.
Whisk eggs till pale yellow.
Fold eggs into the mixture.
Spread mixture into loaf tin.
Bake for about 23-25 minutes.
Bon Appetite!
Loaf tin size
110g self raising flour
55g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
100g muscovado sugar
1/2 tsp of sea/river salt
1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil (100g)
1 large egg
1tbsp of milk
150g dried raisins
1 pink lady apple, cut into 1cmx1cm squares
2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp nutmeg powder
Line loaf tin with baking paper.
Preheat oven to 180 deg (fan force).
Mix apples with 1 tsp cinnamon powder, nutmeg powder, and 20g of the sugar. Add raisins and mix.
Separately in a mixing bowl, mix all the remaining dry ingredients together.
Create a well in the middle, pour in olive oil, then milk and combine the ingredients together with the fruit mix.
Whisk eggs till pale yellow.
Fold eggs into the mixture.
Spread mixture into loaf tin.
Bake for about 23-25 minutes.
Bon Appetite!
Friday, June 24, 2011
George's mum's authentic Greek moussaka
George Colambaris's mum made this on Masterclass Masterchef today. It seemed really easy, delicious and wholesome, a 1 dish wonder, great for having guests. I am writing from memory so that I remember all the tips, and have to look up on Masterchef's recipe to complete the portions required for some of the ingredients. Will update soon!
Serve 6p
Bechamel
100g butter
100g flour
600ml milk, warm
100g Greek "head" cheese, or parmesan as substitute
1 egg
Filling:-)
Vege Layers
1 large eggplant
2 large potatoes
Meat Layer
mince beef
mince veal
mince pork
chopped oregano
chopped rosemary
chopped parsley/thyme?
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
chopped tomato
tomato puree
tomato paste
Preheat oven to 180 deg
Peel eggplant in stripes ie leave some skin on.
Spread eggplant on a large baking tray, and salt. This takes away the bitterness.
Cover eggplant with teacloth, and leave for 20-25 minutes. This also helps to draw out the bitter juice. You will see the eggplant has sweated.
Using the teacloth, wipe off the moisture. Do not wash, as eggplant will absorb the water like sponge!
Fry the eggplant lightly with olive oil, to partly cook. Do not cook through or it will become mushy after complete cooking in oven. This way, there will still be some texture.
Leave aside.
Peel potatoes, sliced, fry lightly, to partly cook.
Leave aside.
In a pot, line with olive oil, heat up.
Sautee the mince meat. When turn colour, add in all the rest of the "mince layer" ingredients.
When all the layers are ready, line a large baking dish as follows:-
- thin layer of mince
- potatoes
- eggplant and potatoes
- layer of mince
- eggplant and potatoes
- layer of mince
-bechamel sauce.
Grate cheese over the top of the bechamel sauce.
Bake in oven for 45 minutes, put on grill in last 2 minutes.
Bechamel sauce
Melt butter in a pot
Add flour, stir, add milk, and stir - till smooth silken mash potato consistency.
Add cheese, stir.
Break in an egg, to stir, this gives flavour and a gloss, and "roast" beautiful.
Bon Appetite!
Serve 6p
Bechamel
100g butter
100g flour
600ml milk, warm
100g Greek "head" cheese, or parmesan as substitute
1 egg
Filling:-)
Vege Layers
1 large eggplant
2 large potatoes
Meat Layer
mince beef
mince veal
mince pork
chopped oregano
chopped rosemary
chopped parsley/thyme?
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
chopped tomato
tomato puree
tomato paste
Preheat oven to 180 deg
Peel eggplant in stripes ie leave some skin on.
Spread eggplant on a large baking tray, and salt. This takes away the bitterness.
Cover eggplant with teacloth, and leave for 20-25 minutes. This also helps to draw out the bitter juice. You will see the eggplant has sweated.
Using the teacloth, wipe off the moisture. Do not wash, as eggplant will absorb the water like sponge!
Fry the eggplant lightly with olive oil, to partly cook. Do not cook through or it will become mushy after complete cooking in oven. This way, there will still be some texture.
Leave aside.
Peel potatoes, sliced, fry lightly, to partly cook.
Leave aside.
In a pot, line with olive oil, heat up.
Sautee the mince meat. When turn colour, add in all the rest of the "mince layer" ingredients.
When all the layers are ready, line a large baking dish as follows:-
- thin layer of mince
- potatoes
- eggplant and potatoes
- layer of mince
- eggplant and potatoes
- layer of mince
-bechamel sauce.
Grate cheese over the top of the bechamel sauce.
Bake in oven for 45 minutes, put on grill in last 2 minutes.
Bechamel sauce
Melt butter in a pot
Add flour, stir, add milk, and stir - till smooth silken mash potato consistency.
Add cheese, stir.
Break in an egg, to stir, this gives flavour and a gloss, and "roast" beautiful.
Bon Appetite!
Braised lamb shanks in white wine, with thyme, fennel, orange, cinnamon, butter beans
This is a slow cooked lamb shank, which when cooked, is very tender and falls off the bone, with rich hearty flavours of citrus, herbs and spices.
I cooked this for Andrew and his parents last night. Andrew gave me a brief for this lamb shank, ie no tomatoes, no red wine. Little did I know he was trying to relive his memories of a french braised lamb shanks with white beans that he had in a french restaurant some years back. So, I made it with white wine, and because I wanted to use up my fresh fennel and leftover orange (from zesting for a chocolate cake), I started thinking more moorish instead of french, with cinnamon and spices. Had I thought french, I would not have included the coriander and cumin! Overall, everyone enjoyed it. We had it with fresh fennel, grapefruit salad, and turkish bread with homemade hummus.
(Note: My original recipe had freshly grounded coriander and cumin, but I have removed it from here, as the spices, white nice, overpowered the fresh herbs.)
Preheat oven to 180deg fan force.
Wash and pat dry lamb shanks with paper towel.
Remove fats and sinews from lamb shanks.
Meanwhile, medium heat up a thick based pot that can also cook in the oven, with a dash of olive oil.
Pour a cup of flour onto a large plate. Lightly coat lamb shanks in flour.
Evenly sear all sides of lamb shanks in the heated oil, heat should be hot enough such that it should brown within a minute or 2.
Remove shanks and put aside.
Saute garlic and onion in the pot till softened.
Then, add all the other vegetables, spice and herbs, and saute.
Deglaze pot with a few splashes of white wine.
Pour in remaining bottle of white wine, and boil on high heat to evaporate the alcohol (or alternatively light a fire above the surface of the liquid for the same purpose)
Immerse the shanks into the pot.
Add cup of chicken stock.
Liquid should preferably cover the shanks, if not press a piece of aluminium foil over the top of the meat, before closing the lid, to protect the top part from drying out.
Cook in oven for 1 hour.
Add beans, and continue cooking for 1 1/2 hours.
Rest for at least 15 minutes before serving.
Bon Appetite!
I cooked this for Andrew and his parents last night. Andrew gave me a brief for this lamb shank, ie no tomatoes, no red wine. Little did I know he was trying to relive his memories of a french braised lamb shanks with white beans that he had in a french restaurant some years back. So, I made it with white wine, and because I wanted to use up my fresh fennel and leftover orange (from zesting for a chocolate cake), I started thinking more moorish instead of french, with cinnamon and spices. Had I thought french, I would not have included the coriander and cumin! Overall, everyone enjoyed it. We had it with fresh fennel, grapefruit salad, and turkish bread with homemade hummus.
Prep time 30 minutes. Cooking time 2 1/2 hours. Resting time 15-30 minutes.
Ingredients
4 large lamb shanks
1 cup flour
A bouquet gani (I used a handful of fresh thyme and bay leaves)
2 red onions, cut in squares.
1 carrot, cut into squares/quarters.
1 stalk of celery
All end stalks of one large fennel.
2 cloves of garlic
1 cinnamon stalk
1 can of butter beans
Juice of 1 orange ( I used whole orange, and the rind created some bitterness)
1 whole bottle of white wine
1 cup chicken stock.
(Note: My original recipe had freshly grounded coriander and cumin, but I have removed it from here, as the spices, white nice, overpowered the fresh herbs.)
Preheat oven to 180deg fan force.
Wash and pat dry lamb shanks with paper towel.
Remove fats and sinews from lamb shanks.
Meanwhile, medium heat up a thick based pot that can also cook in the oven, with a dash of olive oil.
Pour a cup of flour onto a large plate. Lightly coat lamb shanks in flour.
Evenly sear all sides of lamb shanks in the heated oil, heat should be hot enough such that it should brown within a minute or 2.
Remove shanks and put aside.
Saute garlic and onion in the pot till softened.
Then, add all the other vegetables, spice and herbs, and saute.
Deglaze pot with a few splashes of white wine.
Pour in remaining bottle of white wine, and boil on high heat to evaporate the alcohol (or alternatively light a fire above the surface of the liquid for the same purpose)
Immerse the shanks into the pot.
Add cup of chicken stock.
Liquid should preferably cover the shanks, if not press a piece of aluminium foil over the top of the meat, before closing the lid, to protect the top part from drying out.
Cook in oven for 1 hour.
Add beans, and continue cooking for 1 1/2 hours.
Rest for at least 15 minutes before serving.
Bon Appetite!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Orange Lemon Apricot Slice
I wanted a small cake, and to make use of the citrus fruits I have in the fridge. This turned out to be a very moist cake, probably a little richer than I would like. A tad too much butter and egg. Next time, I will reduce butter to 90g and just have 2 eggs for a "healthier" cake.
For size of 1 loaf pan
Juice of 1 large orange and 1 lemon (roughly 2/3 cup full)
Zest of the orange and lemon
110 g self raising flour
55g almond meal
1/3 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp thickened cream
110g chilled butter
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 eggs and 1 egg yolk
12 dried apricots, diced up.
Preheat oven to 170 deg fan force.
Line bottom of a loaf pan with baking paper, and grease the sides.
Soak the zest and apricot into the juice.
Add 1/3 sugar into the juice.
Separately, add 4 tsp of the juice and mix with the milk.
Mixed up all the dry ingredients, and 1/3 of the sugar.
Using your fingers, rub the cold butter into dry ingredients, till breadcrumb texture. Create a "well" in the middle.
Whisk the eggs till creamy, add milk, whisk till frothy, then add 1/3 sugar to stabilise air bubbles.
Pour juice and fruit into the well, immediately followed by whisked eggs.
Mix to combine, try not to over stir, to prevent gluten developing.
Pour into loaf pan and bake in oven immediately.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Rest and cool cake for at least 1 hour before serving.
Bon Appetite!
For size of 1 loaf pan
Juice of 1 large orange and 1 lemon (roughly 2/3 cup full)
Zest of the orange and lemon
110 g self raising flour
55g almond meal
1/3 cup castor sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp thickened cream
110g chilled butter
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 eggs and 1 egg yolk
12 dried apricots, diced up.
Preheat oven to 170 deg fan force.
Line bottom of a loaf pan with baking paper, and grease the sides.
Soak the zest and apricot into the juice.
Add 1/3 sugar into the juice.
Separately, add 4 tsp of the juice and mix with the milk.
Mixed up all the dry ingredients, and 1/3 of the sugar.
Using your fingers, rub the cold butter into dry ingredients, till breadcrumb texture. Create a "well" in the middle.
Whisk the eggs till creamy, add milk, whisk till frothy, then add 1/3 sugar to stabilise air bubbles.
Pour juice and fruit into the well, immediately followed by whisked eggs.
Mix to combine, try not to over stir, to prevent gluten developing.
Pour into loaf pan and bake in oven immediately.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Rest and cool cake for at least 1 hour before serving.
Bon Appetite!
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Gary Mehigan's Veal Osso Bucco with Canelloni Beans
Ossobuco or osso buco is Italian for "bone with a hole" (osso bone, buco hole), a reference to the marrow hole at the center of the cross-cut veal shank.
Originally, Ossobuco is a Milanese specialty of cross-cut veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine and broth. It is often garnished with gremolata and traditionally served with risotto alla milanese.
This dish's primary ingredient, veal shank, is common, relatively cheap and flavorful. Although tough, braising makes it tender. The cut traditionally used for this dish comes from the top of the thigh which has a higher proportion of meat to bone.[4] The shank is then cross-cut into sections about 3 cm thick.
The version below was cooked by Gary during Masterclass on Masterchef, I liked how it looked and tasted.
1.5kg bobby veal shin, cut 2.5cm thick (about 12 pieces)
1 cup plain flour
100ml olive oil
2 stalks celery, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
¼ bunch parsley stalks, leaves picked and roughly chopped, stalks reserved
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
250ml white wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs thyme
Zest of 1 lemon
400g tin crushed tomato
2 cups veal stock
100g dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight
To finish
Freshly cracked white pepper and sea salt
½ bunch parsley leaves, roughly chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
1 loaf crusty bread, thickly sliced
Preheat oven to 180⁰C.
Season meat with salt and white pepper and toss in flout to coat, shaking off excess. Heat oil in a frying pan, add meat and panfry until caramelized. Add celery, onion, carrot, reserved parsley stalks, garlic and cook10 minutes.
Add tomato paste and cook for 1-2 minutes and deglaze with wine.
Add remaining ingredients. Cover with a lid and cook for 1 ½-2 hours.
Remove lid, cook for 45 minutes until sauce has thickened.
Remove from oven, sprinkle with cracked pepper, sea salt, chopped parsley and lemon zest.
Serve with crusty bread.
Bon Appetite!
Originally, Ossobuco is a Milanese specialty of cross-cut veal shanks braised with vegetables, white wine and broth. It is often garnished with gremolata and traditionally served with risotto alla milanese.
This dish's primary ingredient, veal shank, is common, relatively cheap and flavorful. Although tough, braising makes it tender. The cut traditionally used for this dish comes from the top of the thigh which has a higher proportion of meat to bone.[4] The shank is then cross-cut into sections about 3 cm thick.
The version below was cooked by Gary during Masterclass on Masterchef, I liked how it looked and tasted.
1 cup plain flour
100ml olive oil
2 stalks celery, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
¼ bunch parsley stalks, leaves picked and roughly chopped, stalks reserved
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
250ml white wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs thyme
Zest of 1 lemon
400g tin crushed tomato
2 cups veal stock
100g dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight
To finish
Freshly cracked white pepper and sea salt
½ bunch parsley leaves, roughly chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
1 loaf crusty bread, thickly sliced
Preheat oven to 180⁰C.
Season meat with salt and white pepper and toss in flout to coat, shaking off excess. Heat oil in a frying pan, add meat and panfry until caramelized. Add celery, onion, carrot, reserved parsley stalks, garlic and cook10 minutes.
Add tomato paste and cook for 1-2 minutes and deglaze with wine.
Add remaining ingredients. Cover with a lid and cook for 1 ½-2 hours.
Remove lid, cook for 45 minutes until sauce has thickened.
Remove from oven, sprinkle with cracked pepper, sea salt, chopped parsley and lemon zest.
Serve with crusty bread.
Bon Appetite!
Malaysian Curry Laksa
Rick Stein is my favourite Chef. I love his cooking/travel shows, and his cooking - very local, fresh, yummy.
He made this during Masterclass last nite on Masterchef, in Kuala Lumpur! I have to say I was impressed. It is made from fresh local ingredients, and I would say more authentic than some. What strucked me most was that he fried up the heads and shells of the prawn to create the stock, something which I never imagined for laksa - yum yum! I can imagine, a real seafood taste in the laksa. So, this is a must try for me.
250g raw unpeeled prawns
Vegetable oil for frying
200g firm tofu, cut to 1cm thick slices
Laksa spice paste
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, for frying
20g piece ginger, chopped
3 fat garlic cloves
2 stalks lemongrass, chopped
75g shallots, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons dried shrimp, rehydrated in boiling water for 5 minutes and drained well
1.5 teaspoons shrimp paste
20g cashew/candle nuts
2 teaspoons fish curry spice
20g fresh turmeric
4 fresh long red finger chillies
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
SoupLaksa spice paste
Prawn stock
400ml coconut milk, fresh if available
1 tablespoon palm sugar
160g chicken breast, cut into 1cm slices
Reserved peeled prawns
2 tablespoons fish sauce
400g fresh egg noodles, loosened
To serve100g bean sprouts
100g cooked fine green beans, halved
3 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal, to serve
A handful of mixed mint and coriander leaves, to serve
Lime wedges, to serve
Sambal oelek, to serve
Peel prawns, reserving the heads and shells. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok or frying pan, add prawn heads and shells and stir-fry for a couple of minutes until they are crisp and golden.
Add 1 litre of water, bring to the boil, reduce heat and leave to simmer for 30 minutes. Strain liquid into a large jug and discard heads and shells.
Cut tofu into 1cm thick pieces and fry in hot oil until crisp, drain well on a paper towel-lined plate.
For laksa spice paste, place chillies into a mortar and pestle and pound into a paste. Add the remaining ingredients and pound to a smooth paste.
For soup, heat oil in a large frying pan or wok over a high heat, add all the spice paste and fry gently for 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously until mixture starts to smell fragrant and split. Add prawn stock, coconut milk and palm sugar and begin to reduce. Add chicken and prawns and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Pour in 1-2 tablespoons of fish sauce and stir to combine.
Drop in the fresh egg noodles and leave to heat through for a few seconds.
Taste Laksa and season with more sugar and fish sauce if desired.
To serve, arrange bean sprouts, cooked green beans, fried tofu and noodles in the bottom of a serving dish. Ladle over curry soup, trying to divide the prawns and chicken pieces equally between each bowl. Garnish with spring onions, mint, coriander and a squeeze of lime juice. Serve with a spoonful of sambal oelek.
Bon Appetite!
He made this during Masterclass last nite on Masterchef, in Kuala Lumpur! I have to say I was impressed. It is made from fresh local ingredients, and I would say more authentic than some. What strucked me most was that he fried up the heads and shells of the prawn to create the stock, something which I never imagined for laksa - yum yum! I can imagine, a real seafood taste in the laksa. So, this is a must try for me.
Vegetable oil for frying
200g firm tofu, cut to 1cm thick slices
Laksa spice paste
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, for frying
20g piece ginger, chopped
3 fat garlic cloves
2 stalks lemongrass, chopped
75g shallots, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons dried shrimp, rehydrated in boiling water for 5 minutes and drained well
1.5 teaspoons shrimp paste
20g cashew/candle nuts
2 teaspoons fish curry spice
20g fresh turmeric
4 fresh long red finger chillies
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
SoupLaksa spice paste
Prawn stock
400ml coconut milk, fresh if available
1 tablespoon palm sugar
160g chicken breast, cut into 1cm slices
Reserved peeled prawns
2 tablespoons fish sauce
400g fresh egg noodles, loosened
To serve100g bean sprouts
100g cooked fine green beans, halved
3 spring onions, trimmed and thinly sliced on the diagonal, to serve
A handful of mixed mint and coriander leaves, to serve
Lime wedges, to serve
Sambal oelek, to serve
Peel prawns, reserving the heads and shells. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a wok or frying pan, add prawn heads and shells and stir-fry for a couple of minutes until they are crisp and golden.
Add 1 litre of water, bring to the boil, reduce heat and leave to simmer for 30 minutes. Strain liquid into a large jug and discard heads and shells.
Cut tofu into 1cm thick pieces and fry in hot oil until crisp, drain well on a paper towel-lined plate.
For laksa spice paste, place chillies into a mortar and pestle and pound into a paste. Add the remaining ingredients and pound to a smooth paste.
For soup, heat oil in a large frying pan or wok over a high heat, add all the spice paste and fry gently for 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously until mixture starts to smell fragrant and split. Add prawn stock, coconut milk and palm sugar and begin to reduce. Add chicken and prawns and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Pour in 1-2 tablespoons of fish sauce and stir to combine.
Drop in the fresh egg noodles and leave to heat through for a few seconds.
Taste Laksa and season with more sugar and fish sauce if desired.
To serve, arrange bean sprouts, cooked green beans, fried tofu and noodles in the bottom of a serving dish. Ladle over curry soup, trying to divide the prawns and chicken pieces equally between each bowl. Garnish with spring onions, mint, coriander and a squeeze of lime juice. Serve with a spoonful of sambal oelek.
Bon Appetite!
Otak Otak Kukus
I watched Rick Stein made this in Kuala Lumpur on Masterclass. It looked yummy and very "local". Usually, I dont fancy otak-otak much, but I like the ingredients he used, all very fresh, and they seem to go very well together.
500g boneless fillet Spanish mackerel /ikan tenggiri
4 fresh long red chilies, halved
3 eschallots
2cm piece fresh turmeric
2 lemongrass stalks, thinly sliced
2cm young ginger
4 candlenuts
1 large clove garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1 small fresh turmeric leaf, chiffonade
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup fresh coconut cream
10 pieces of banana leaf the size of an A4 paper, gently heated over a naked flame to soften.
Chop the fish fillet very finely with a cleaver to form a paste and place in a bowl. Can use a food processor instead.
In a mortar and pestle pound fresh chilies to a pulp. Add eschallots, turmeric, lemon grass, candle nut, and garlic and pound into a fine paste for 10-15 minutes.
Add this paste to the fish paste with turmeric leaf, salt, sugar and coconut cream, mixing well to combine.
Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of mousse onto each sheet of banana leaf and fold the individual leaf up to make a parcel.
5. Place the parcels in a hot steamer and steam for 15 minutes until cooked through. Serve warm.
Bon Appetite!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Craig's Spanish Harissa
Today me and Andrew visited Craig's Cheese Shop, which is our favourite cafe and cheese shop (near our house). It serves the best pie in Sydney! Today we had the best sri lankan curry chicken pie I have ever eaten. It tasted like authentic curry, no wonder, as the Chef Craig, his grandmother is Sri Lankan. After the yummy pie, Craig let me taste his beautiful harissa and kindly provided me with the ingredients. When I tried it, I couldnt help imagining it going really well with hot roast chicken or any meat, or as a stew sauce. And for an added twist, add some lemon juice or maybe even some chopped fresh mint.
3 tsp heated caraway
3 tsp cumin
4 cloves garlic
100g pepper (the big red ones, that looks like giant chillies).
2 tsp tomato puree
2 tsp red wine vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp smoked paprika
Just toast/grill the pepper, remove chargrilled/burnt skin. Alternatively, used the chillies preserved in vinegar sold at deli etc. Blend all the ingredients together, and that is all to it!
Bon Appetite!
3 tsp heated caraway
3 tsp cumin
4 cloves garlic
100g pepper (the big red ones, that looks like giant chillies).
2 tsp tomato puree
2 tsp red wine vinegar
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp smoked paprika
Just toast/grill the pepper, remove chargrilled/burnt skin. Alternatively, used the chillies preserved in vinegar sold at deli etc. Blend all the ingredients together, and that is all to it!
Bon Appetite!
Wai Fun's Apple Crumble
My friend June (Wai Fun) made this for us during my recent visit to Melbourne. It was the best apple crumble I ever had. The apples were still mildly crunchy, ie not mashy soft, and it had a lovely rose fragrant, but there was actually no rose syrup, just the lovely scent from the Pink Lady apples. The crumble was crunchy and yummy. And it sounded real simple to make!
For 1 pyrex square bakingdish of roughly 25cm x 18cm:-
60g cold butter)
1/2 cup flour ) for the crumble
1/2 cup sugar )
6 small granny smith green apples
2 large pink lady apples
2 tbsp cinnamon
Sugar to taste, maybe 3-4 tbsp.
Additional 10g of butter. Chopped to bits.
Optional: Shortcrust pastry for base, if you want a pastry base
Preheat oven to 180 deg
Cut apples into bite size squares roughly 2cmx2cm.
Put apples into baking dish and toss with sugar and cinnamon
Cut the cold butter up into bits. Mix it using fingers, with flour and sugar, till breadcrumb texture for the crumble. (Can also use a food processor).
Note: Do not heat the butter to melt it. It would change the texture of the crumble!
Sprinkle crumble mix on top of the apples.
Sprinkle additional butter bits all over top of crumble.
Bake in oven for about 20 minutes or till golden brown.
Optional - Tuck shortcrust pastry at the bottom of the dish before adding apples, if you desire a base.
Serve with vanilla icecream or like me, I love it just on its own!
P/S I recently tried it with Williams pears and Granny Smith apples, I didnt like the combination as the pears turn mushy soft after baking. I will stick to Wai Fun's apple combination the next time, or as she suggested to me, we can use Fuji as substitutes for the Pink Lady.
Bon Appetite!
For 1 pyrex square bakingdish of roughly 25cm x 18cm:-
60g cold butter)
1/2 cup flour ) for the crumble
1/2 cup sugar )
6 small granny smith green apples
2 large pink lady apples
2 tbsp cinnamon
Sugar to taste, maybe 3-4 tbsp.
Additional 10g of butter. Chopped to bits.
Optional: Shortcrust pastry for base, if you want a pastry base
Preheat oven to 180 deg
Cut apples into bite size squares roughly 2cmx2cm.
Put apples into baking dish and toss with sugar and cinnamon
Cut the cold butter up into bits. Mix it using fingers, with flour and sugar, till breadcrumb texture for the crumble. (Can also use a food processor).
Note: Do not heat the butter to melt it. It would change the texture of the crumble!
Sprinkle crumble mix on top of the apples.
Sprinkle additional butter bits all over top of crumble.
Bake in oven for about 20 minutes or till golden brown.
Optional - Tuck shortcrust pastry at the bottom of the dish before adding apples, if you desire a base.
Serve with vanilla icecream or like me, I love it just on its own!
P/S I recently tried it with Williams pears and Granny Smith apples, I didnt like the combination as the pears turn mushy soft after baking. I will stick to Wai Fun's apple combination the next time, or as she suggested to me, we can use Fuji as substitutes for the Pink Lady.
Bon Appetite!
Friday, May 27, 2011
Donna Hay's lemon mascarpone cheesecake
1 cup (150g) plain (all-purpose) flour ½ teaspoon baking powder ¼ cup (55g) caster (superfine) sugar 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind 80g cold butter, chopped 2 egg yolks softened butter, for greasing double (thick) cream, to serve Mascarpone topping 2 cups (500g) mascarpone ⅓ cup (75g) caster (superfine) sugar 1 egg 1 tablespoon plain (all-purpose) flour 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind ½ teaspoon vanilla extract Preheat oven to 160ºC (320ºF). Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, lemon rind and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. With the motor running, add the egg yolks and process until well combined. Press into the base of a 20cm-square cake tin lightly greased with butter and bake for 20–25 minutes or until light golden and firm to the touch. To make the mascarpone topping, place the mascarpone, sugar, egg, flour, lemon rind and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor and process until just smooth. Spoon onto the base and bake for 30–35 minutes or until the edges are golden and the middle is just set. Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set. Slice and serve with double cream. Serves 8.  |
Braised cabbage in apple cider and balsamic vinegar
This is a great vegetable for a cold winter nite, and goes very well with meat, pies etc. I served this with a home made chicken paprika pie, it was great pairing - the acidity in this veg helped to cut through the fat from the super rich buttery shortcrust pastry I made for the pie.
Serve 6-8p
1/2 a cabbage (either red or normal), julienned.
2 medium red onion, or 2 to 3 shallots
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
50g of butter
3/4 cup of cranberries (or raisins)
1 tsp of sugar
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup of chicken stock (1 tsp of Vegeta and water will do)
This time, I used the normal green cabbage, and coloured the dish red by adding 1/2 a cup of beetroot juice which I had from boiling fresh beetroot to made an accompaniment beetroot salad.
Heat a heavy based pot with olive oil, and saute the onion and garlic till softened. Add cabbage. Saute the cabbage till soften, and melt butter on top of it. Add the salt and sugar for seasoning. When pot is hot enough, ie cabbage is "drying" out, add all the other "liquids to deglaze the pan and start to caramelise the cabbage. Cover with lid and simmer on low for 15-20 minutes. Switch heat off, and leave to rest for another hour an hour. When ready to serve, open lid, reheat and at same time reduce liquid, until rich caramlised texture. Crack some pepper over before serving.
The cabbage will be still slightly crunch, sweet and sour, very appetising.
Bon Appetite!
Serve 6-8p
1/2 a cabbage (either red or normal), julienned.
2 medium red onion, or 2 to 3 shallots
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
50g of butter
3/4 cup of cranberries (or raisins)
1 tsp of sugar
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup of chicken stock (1 tsp of Vegeta and water will do)
This time, I used the normal green cabbage, and coloured the dish red by adding 1/2 a cup of beetroot juice which I had from boiling fresh beetroot to made an accompaniment beetroot salad.
Heat a heavy based pot with olive oil, and saute the onion and garlic till softened. Add cabbage. Saute the cabbage till soften, and melt butter on top of it. Add the salt and sugar for seasoning. When pot is hot enough, ie cabbage is "drying" out, add all the other "liquids to deglaze the pan and start to caramelise the cabbage. Cover with lid and simmer on low for 15-20 minutes. Switch heat off, and leave to rest for another hour an hour. When ready to serve, open lid, reheat and at same time reduce liquid, until rich caramlised texture. Crack some pepper over before serving.
The cabbage will be still slightly crunch, sweet and sour, very appetising.
Bon Appetite!
Donna Hay's Baked Cheese Cake
Pastry (Base of Cake)
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup almond meal
90g chilled butter
1/4 cup sugar
Rub the butter into the flour/almond meal until it is like breadcrumbs. (My thoughts: can pulse this in a food processor for easy and even result). Pour onto a 20cm springform cake tin (Kaiser light colour tin). See tip below.
Press the pastry gently down and smoothen with the back of a spoon.
Tip: Flip the base of the tin over, ie bottom up. Line it with ovenbake paper, put back the sides of the tin and lock the tin. Cut off remaining paper sticking out. This way we dont have to dig down and along the sides to remove the cake! Brilliant!)
Baked at 150C for 15 minutes. Leave to cool, brush the sides of tin with butter to prevent cake sticking.
Meanwhile, prepare the cheesecake mixture.
Cheesecake mixture
500g fresh ricotta cheese (non smooth)
330g cream cheese - cut into squares
1 1/4 cup sugar ( I would reduce by half)
Zest of 1 lemon
4 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essense
1 tbsp corn flour mixed with 1 tbsp water (to bind all the protein together, and give it a nice gelatin shine).
Put all ingredients into a food processor. Blend until smooth. (The consistency is almost like pancake mixture). Note: Dont beat or whisk as it will create more air/bubbles.
Pour mixture into cake tin on top of pastry base. Get bubbles off by taking a spoon and pressing them off surface, so that we get a smooth surface.
Baked 150C for 1hour. Turn the oven off. Leave it in the oven for 1hour more. The residual heat will cook the cheesecake through and give it a golden colour. Then, leave it in the fridge for a 3 hours to set perfectly.
Serve it with some fresh berries.
Bon Appetite!
Monday, May 16, 2011
Lime and Pear Tart with Shortcrust Pastry
We baked this to bring over to Andrew's parents place, Annie, his mum, made super delicious pea soup and spicy beef casserole. The tart was a success, and I must say, I liked it too. The lime flavour came through, but yet not overly tangy, easy to the taste buds. And the thin shortbread pastry adds a nice crunch. Very moist, tangy, crumbly, melt in the mouth texture.
Juice and zest of 2 large limes.
1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with 3 tsp of lime juice)
75g unsalted butter, cut into small squares
75g raw/castor sugar (I used a mix of both)
75g (1 cup) almond meal (ground almonds)
3 large eggs
2 tbsp Contreau (or any orange liquer)
1 tbsp double cream
1 pear, thinly sliced, soak in lemon/salt water to prevent from turning brown, until ready to put into tart.
Preheat the oven to 180degC fan force
Grease a 9 inch round tart tin.
Ground 5 pieces of shortbread biscuits** in a processor till it is like breadcrumbs.
Pour it into tart tin to form pastry base. Compress the crumbs till it forms an evenly thin layer of pastry bottom and sides.
Put the juices, zest, butter, sugar, cream, into a heavy based pan, and heat gently stirring till thickened.
Separately whisk eggs till creamy, add slowly buttermilk, and whisk till creamy.
Very very slowly pour whisked eggs into juice pan, and stir as you are pouring, continue to stir till thickened.
(Note, heat must be gentle so as not to overcook/curdle the egg). Easy test: pan must not be too hot for the hand to touch.
Fold in almonds, liqueur.
Pour 3/4 mixture into the tart tin with shortbread pastry.
Arrange the slices of pear on top of the filling.
Place into oven. And pour in rest of mixture.
Note: Tart tins are usually not deep, so to prevent spillage as you put the tart into the oven, it is suggested to pour rest of mixture after tart tin is in the oven. Also, if you have one of those with removable bases, it can be fumbly.
Lower oven temperature to 160 degree.
Bake for 28 minutes.
** Tip: I used leftover shortcrust pastry from making another tart a few days ago, and baked into shortbread. And now, I am using the shortbread to make the biscuit base for this tart.
Bon Appetite!
Juice and zest of 2 large limes.
1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with 3 tsp of lime juice)
75g unsalted butter, cut into small squares
75g raw/castor sugar (I used a mix of both)
75g (1 cup) almond meal (ground almonds)
3 large eggs
2 tbsp Contreau (or any orange liquer)
1 tbsp double cream
1 pear, thinly sliced, soak in lemon/salt water to prevent from turning brown, until ready to put into tart.
Preheat the oven to 180degC fan force
Grease a 9 inch round tart tin.
Ground 5 pieces of shortbread biscuits** in a processor till it is like breadcrumbs.
Pour it into tart tin to form pastry base. Compress the crumbs till it forms an evenly thin layer of pastry bottom and sides.
Put the juices, zest, butter, sugar, cream, into a heavy based pan, and heat gently stirring till thickened.
Separately whisk eggs till creamy, add slowly buttermilk, and whisk till creamy.
Very very slowly pour whisked eggs into juice pan, and stir as you are pouring, continue to stir till thickened.
(Note, heat must be gentle so as not to overcook/curdle the egg). Easy test: pan must not be too hot for the hand to touch.
Fold in almonds, liqueur.
Pour 3/4 mixture into the tart tin with shortbread pastry.
Arrange the slices of pear on top of the filling.
Place into oven. And pour in rest of mixture.
Note: Tart tins are usually not deep, so to prevent spillage as you put the tart into the oven, it is suggested to pour rest of mixture after tart tin is in the oven. Also, if you have one of those with removable bases, it can be fumbly.
Lower oven temperature to 160 degree.
Bake for 28 minutes.
** Tip: I used leftover shortcrust pastry from making another tart a few days ago, and baked into shortbread. And now, I am using the shortbread to make the biscuit base for this tart.
Bon Appetite!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Maggie Beer's Quince Almond & Chocolate Tart
For 12 p
Pot Roasted Quinces750g Quinces, peeled, cored and cut into large wedges
Squeeze of lemon juice
300ml water
200ml verjuice
165g castor sugar
Chocolate and almond cream120g unsalted butter, softened
150g fine castor sugar
200g ground almond meal
2 free range eggs
1 free range egg yolk
80ml vino cotto
50g dark chocolate cocoa
Sour Cream Pastry200g Chilled unsalted butter
250g Plain flour
125ml Sour Cream
1 Pre-heat fan forced oven to 170c.
2 Once you have peeled and cored the quince place in pot of water with a squeeze of lemon and set aside, to help stop oxidising.
3 To pot roast the quinces, place the quinces, water, verjuice and sugar into a medium sized pot, place this over a high heat, bring to the boil, cover with a lid and place into the oven.
4 Cook for 1 hour, then give the quinces a very light toss making sure not to break up the wedges. Place back into the oven.
5 Check the quinces every 15 to 20 minutes to make sure that the liquid has not all evaporated, if it starts to and looking like that they will catch on the bottom and an extra 100mls of verjuice. They will take between 2 and 2 ½ hours to cook.
6 Once the quinces are cooked they should be a beautiful ruby red colour and a small amount of syrup left in the base of the pot. They should not be dry or the caught on the base of the pot. Remove the quinces from the pot and place onto a plate or tray and set aside to cool.
7 Increase the temperature oven to 200c
8 To make the almond cream, place the butter and castor sugar in to a food mixer, beat until light and creamy (approx 6 minutes).
9 Add the eggs and yolk (1 at a time) then cocoa, vino cotto and mix for further 1 minute.
10 Add the almond meal, mix until well combined. Set aside until ready to use.
11 To make the sour cream pastry, pulse butter and flour in a food processor until it looks like breadcrumbs.
12 Add ¾ the sour cream, pulse a couple of times then add the remaining sour cream and continue to pulse until the dough just starts to come together.
13 Tip the pastry out onto the bench, bring it together and form it in to a rectangle (approx 2cm thick) with your hands. Wrap in plastic film and refrigerate for 10 to 20 minutes to rest. No more than 20 minutes.
14 Roll out the sour cream pastry to 3mm thick.
15 Grease a flan tin (23cm x 2.5cm) and line with the pastry, cut off the excess pastry around the edge but allow the pastry to come above the fin tin by 5mm, this is due to the pastry shrinking during blind baking. Place in the fridge for 15 mins to chill.
16 Remove from the tart shell from the fridge, spike the bottom with a fork, line the top with bake well paper and place blind baking beans on the top.
17 Blind bake for 15 mins, then remove the beans and bake well paper, cook for a further 5 minutes then remove.
18 Reduce the oven temperature to 175c
19 Place one third of the chocolate and almond cream mix on the base of the tart shell. Top with cooked quince wedges and dot the remaining amount of chocolate almond cream on top of the quinces.
20 Return the tart to the oven and bake for 50 minutes to 1hr, this time will depend on the oven, but need to make sure that the almond cream is cooked in the centre.
21 Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Bon Appetite!
Maggie Beer's Roast Chicken with Garlic and Verjuice
Last Friday, (2.5.2011) Maggie Beer gave some MasterChef contestants a class on making roast chicken with roast garlic. It looked really good, nice golden brown, very moist and tender, melts in the mouth, including the chicken breast!. Here are the notes I took.
1 large size range free chicken (2kg)
50ml olive oil
About 30 cloves garlic unpeeled (4 cloves peeled and chopped, the rest blanch in boiling water for 4 minutes)
About 1 tsp sea salt and pepper
125ml verjuice
125ml water
1 cup chicken stock
3 rosemary sprig
1 lemon, cut into half
Preheat oven to 200deg
Prepare chicken to be at room temperature (so that it cooks evenly).
Place chicken on a trivet/rack sitting on top of a shallow oven baking tray (5cm deep). (a deep oven tray would trap some heat at the bottom of the tray, distorting heat circulation throughout the chicken)
Massage into the skin of the chicken the olive oil and the chopped garlic, sprinkle with sea salt.
Stuff the rosemary and squeeze the lemon juice into chicken cavity, leave lemon in
(Note: The chopped garlic is my personal choice/addition to the recipe.)
Tucked the wing tips under the chicken, for even cooking.
Place chicken, breast side up on the rack.
Cover breast (from neck to bottom) with foil, leaving only the legs exposed. This protects the breast from overcooking/drying.
Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes. remove chicken from the oven.
Pour verjuice all over chicken.
Baste the chicken with the juice in the tray.
Shift foil, so that it now exposes the breast, cover the legs.
Place blanced garlic onto the oven tray.
Pour water into base of tray to prevent garlic from burning.
Return to oven, cook for 20 minutes.
Remove immediately from oven to rest chicken.
Remove foil and turn chicken upside down, ie breast facing down.
This "returns" the moisture in the chicken back into the breast keeping it moist.
Loosely cover (not wrap) the chicken with foil.
Let chicken rest for at least 20 minutes (40minutes preferred) in room temperature. I guess it depends on the season!
Chicken will continue to cook in own heat while resting.
To make the jus, pour all the pan juices from the baking dish into a small saucepan and add 1 cup of warm chicken stock, pour into a narrow serving jug, then refrigerate this while the chicken is resting. Just before serving, scoop away the fat that has risen to the top, warm the remaining jus.
Carve the chook, then pour over the jus and serve accompanied by the roasted garlic, parsnip and pear mash and salad.
Bon Appetite!
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Annie's tomato tarte tatin
This is a great savoury tart for lunch or as a starter for dinner. The depth of the tomato flavour is simply delicious, well at least the one made by Annie. I havent yet tried to make it myself.
For 6-8p
15 medium size tomatoes (peeled and halved lenghtwise)
3/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
110g (1/2 cup) of sugar
1/4 cup water
30 shallots peeled and olive oil to fry
80g (1 cup) freshly grated parmesan cheese
Pastry
150g (1 cup) flour
50g butter, melted and cooled
Steps in order of preparation
1.Tomato preparation
Place tomato, cut side up, in a roasting pan.
Pour over oil & vinegar, sprinkle with garlic, season to taste.
Bake at 180deg fan oven for 1 hour.
Remove tomatoes, drain on absorbent paper for at least 10 minutes.
2. Pastry
Sift flour and 1/2 tsp salf into a bowl.
Add 1/3 cup water and mix with a wooden spoon to form a dough.
Turn out on a lightly floured sudface and knead lightly until smooth.
Roll into a circle and brush with half the butter.
Cut round into 6 wedges.
Stack wedges in a pile, wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
3. The Tart
Line shallow 28cm tin with baking paper
Combine sugar and water and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves.
Bring to the boil and cook, without stirring, until golden.
Pour immediately over base of tin.
Heat extra oil in frying pan and cook the shallots over medium heat until golden.
Firmly pad tomatoes, cut side down over base of prepared tin.
Fill gaps with shallots.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Knead pastry wedges together until smooth.
Floured surface to a 30 cm round.
Place over tomatoes, making folds in pastry to fit.
Brush with remaining butter.
4. Baking
Bake at 180deg for 30 minutes, draining any excess liquid during cooking if necessary, till golden brown.
Stand in tin for 5-10 minutes to cool slightly before inverting on a plate.
Remove paper and serve at room temperature.
Bon Appetite!
For 6-8p
15 medium size tomatoes (peeled and halved lenghtwise)
3/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
110g (1/2 cup) of sugar
1/4 cup water
30 shallots peeled and olive oil to fry
80g (1 cup) freshly grated parmesan cheese
Pastry
150g (1 cup) flour
50g butter, melted and cooled
Steps in order of preparation
1.Tomato preparation
Place tomato, cut side up, in a roasting pan.
Pour over oil & vinegar, sprinkle with garlic, season to taste.
Bake at 180deg fan oven for 1 hour.
Remove tomatoes, drain on absorbent paper for at least 10 minutes.
2. Pastry
Sift flour and 1/2 tsp salf into a bowl.
Add 1/3 cup water and mix with a wooden spoon to form a dough.
Turn out on a lightly floured sudface and knead lightly until smooth.
Roll into a circle and brush with half the butter.
Cut round into 6 wedges.
Stack wedges in a pile, wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
3. The Tart
Line shallow 28cm tin with baking paper
Combine sugar and water and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves.
Bring to the boil and cook, without stirring, until golden.
Pour immediately over base of tin.
Heat extra oil in frying pan and cook the shallots over medium heat until golden.
Firmly pad tomatoes, cut side down over base of prepared tin.
Fill gaps with shallots.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Knead pastry wedges together until smooth.
Floured surface to a 30 cm round.
Place over tomatoes, making folds in pastry to fit.
Brush with remaining butter.
4. Baking
Bake at 180deg for 30 minutes, draining any excess liquid during cooking if necessary, till golden brown.
Stand in tin for 5-10 minutes to cool slightly before inverting on a plate.
Remove paper and serve at room temperature.
Bon Appetite!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Ricotta Pancakes
I used to Buy the White Wings Pancake Mix to make pancakes, but a friend encouraged me to make it from scratch. I finally did. It was easy, and turned out just as well, or maybe slightly better even. The pancake turned out to be light but creamy.
Serves 2 - about 4 pieces each
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup buttermilk (or milk mixed with a tsp of lemon juice)
1 tbsp of raw sugar
A pinch of salt
1/4 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of nutmeg powder or cinnamon powder or vanilla
3 large tbsp of light ricotta cheese
1 egg
Whisk egg till foamy, then add flour and milk slowly, bit by bit, till mixture combines evenly.
Add rest of ingredients and combine.
Leave mixture to rest for 1/2 an hour.
Heat a pan to medium heat, then lower to low when pancake is being cooked.
Using a handtowel, lightly grease the pan with butter.
Pour mixture into pan. A large pan usually makes like 3 pancakes at one time.
When pancake bubbles, it is ready to be turned. The bottom is usually golden brown by now. It usually bubbles say in 2 minutes or so, if not, adjust heat accordingly.
After turning, cook for about 1 minute, ie till lightly golden brown.
Serve and eat immediately while it is still warm.
We love to have it with pan fried bacon, sausages, fresh fruits, and maple syrup.
Bon Appetite!
Serves 2 - about 4 pieces each
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup buttermilk (or milk mixed with a tsp of lemon juice)
1 tbsp of raw sugar
A pinch of salt
1/4 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of nutmeg powder or cinnamon powder or vanilla
3 large tbsp of light ricotta cheese
1 egg
Whisk egg till foamy, then add flour and milk slowly, bit by bit, till mixture combines evenly.
Add rest of ingredients and combine.
Leave mixture to rest for 1/2 an hour.
Heat a pan to medium heat, then lower to low when pancake is being cooked.
Using a handtowel, lightly grease the pan with butter.
Pour mixture into pan. A large pan usually makes like 3 pancakes at one time.
When pancake bubbles, it is ready to be turned. The bottom is usually golden brown by now. It usually bubbles say in 2 minutes or so, if not, adjust heat accordingly.
After turning, cook for about 1 minute, ie till lightly golden brown.
Serve and eat immediately while it is still warm.
We love to have it with pan fried bacon, sausages, fresh fruits, and maple syrup.
Bon Appetite!
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Pear Ricotta Muffins
We bought a whole bucket full of pears, and finally down to last 2, which have turned very soft and yellowy. It wasnt rotten yet, and since I also had ricotta cheese in the fridge I thought pear and ricotta might go pretty well together! It did, both taste and texture were very light and Andrew said it was one of my best!
For 6 muffins
Wet ingredients
2 very ripe (soft) peckham pears - skin off, core removed, and mashed up.
3/4 cup of light ricotta cheese
3/4 cup milk
2 tbsp of lemon juice (juice of a 1/4 of a lemon).
A handful of large dried golden raisins
A handful of dark cooking chocolate chips
Dry ingredients
1 3/4 cup self raising flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 full tsp cinnamon powder
1 full tsp nutmeg powder
1/3 cup raw sugar
pinch of salt
1 large egg
75g butter
Lightly grease 6 muffin ramekins with butter.
Lightly sift some flour onto the sides of the ramekin.
Line the bottom with baking paper.
Preheat oven to 200degC, fan forced.
Gently mix all the dry ingredients together. Create a well. Set aside.
Mix all the wet ingredients together. Set aside 1/4 cup of milk mixed with some lemon juice (buttermilk).
Pour melted butter into the well of dry ingredients, and combined till it turns into breadcrumbs like texture.
Whisk egg together with the buttered milk set aside, till foamy and airy.
Gently stir egg mixture and wet ingredients to combine with dried buttered ingredients. Do not overstir. It is ready once all flour is wet. Pour mixture into ramekins.
Bake in oven for 17.5 minutes.
When remove from oven, place ramekin on a rack to cool off for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Bon Appetite!
For 6 muffins
Wet ingredients
2 very ripe (soft) peckham pears - skin off, core removed, and mashed up.
3/4 cup of light ricotta cheese
3/4 cup milk
2 tbsp of lemon juice (juice of a 1/4 of a lemon).
A handful of large dried golden raisins
A handful of dark cooking chocolate chips
Dry ingredients
1 3/4 cup self raising flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 full tsp cinnamon powder
1 full tsp nutmeg powder
1/3 cup raw sugar
pinch of salt
1 large egg
75g butter
Lightly grease 6 muffin ramekins with butter.
Lightly sift some flour onto the sides of the ramekin.
Line the bottom with baking paper.
Preheat oven to 200degC, fan forced.
Gently mix all the dry ingredients together. Create a well. Set aside.
Mix all the wet ingredients together. Set aside 1/4 cup of milk mixed with some lemon juice (buttermilk).
Pour melted butter into the well of dry ingredients, and combined till it turns into breadcrumbs like texture.
Whisk egg together with the buttered milk set aside, till foamy and airy.
Gently stir egg mixture and wet ingredients to combine with dried buttered ingredients. Do not overstir. It is ready once all flour is wet. Pour mixture into ramekins.
Bake in oven for 17.5 minutes.
When remove from oven, place ramekin on a rack to cool off for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Bon Appetite!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Lemon Polenta/Semolina Cake
I tried to make this 2 days ago, it is quite nice. Zesty, quite fluffy and moist. I used a mix of fine semolina and course polenta - the rough polenta gave it a slightly rough texture. Next time, I will try using just super fine semolina.
Wet ingredients
Zest and juice of 1 large lemon.
3 eggs
3/4 cup of vanilla yoghurt
1/2 cup buttermilk (milk added with a little lemon juice)
1/2 cup of canola/olive oil.
Dry ingredients
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup of extra fine semolina/polenta
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/3 cup castor sugar
A little pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 170 deg fan forced.
Lay a 15cm round cake tin with baking paper covering all sides.
Mix all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Creat a well in the middle.
Whisk the eggs, add the buttermilk and whisk till very foamy.
Separately combine the rest of the other wet ingredients.
Pour all the wet ingredients into the well of dry ingredients. Fold together gently.
Pour mixed ingredients into cake tin.
Bake for 47 minutes. Rest for 30 minutes before serving.
Bon Appetite!
Wet ingredients
Zest and juice of 1 large lemon.
3 eggs
3/4 cup of vanilla yoghurt
1/2 cup buttermilk (milk added with a little lemon juice)
1/2 cup of canola/olive oil.
Dry ingredients
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup of extra fine semolina/polenta
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/3 cup castor sugar
A little pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 170 deg fan forced.
Lay a 15cm round cake tin with baking paper covering all sides.
Mix all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Creat a well in the middle.
Whisk the eggs, add the buttermilk and whisk till very foamy.
Separately combine the rest of the other wet ingredients.
Pour all the wet ingredients into the well of dry ingredients. Fold together gently.
Pour mixed ingredients into cake tin.
Bake for 47 minutes. Rest for 30 minutes before serving.
Bon Appetite!
Friday, March 18, 2011
Grilled Eggplant Salad
This is very easy to make and great as a salad or to accompany any eastern or chinese meal, with rice, or with meat.
1 large eggplant
1 bunch of fresh parsley or coriander (the taste would be different depending on which)
1 small red onion, very finely sliced
2-3 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped.
Seasalt
Optional: 1 red chilli, finely chopped.
Dressing
Juice of 1/2 a lime
1 tbsp palm sugar
1 tsp fish sauce
Preheat oven to 200 deg.
Cut eggplants into small cubes of slightly smaller than 2cm x 2cm, place in a roasting tray
Sprinkle seasalt generously all over the egg plant, and rub them gently so that salt spreads evenly over the eggplant
Leave for at least 1/2 hour.
The eggplant will sweat a lot, removing bitter taste, if any.
Wash eggplant to remove salt, then pat dray.
Marinate it with the olive oil and garlic.
Place eggplant into oven, grill for 15 minutes, or till about golden.
Place eggplant into oven, grill for 15 minutes, or till about golden.
Take out and sprinkle red onions over it, mixed it, and grill for another 5 minutes.
Separately chop up the bunch of parsley or coriander.
Toss this with the grilled eggplant once immediately out of oven, while eggplant is very hot.
Sprinkle the dressing and toss all together.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Aunty Wan's Mango Swiss Roll
Cake Ingredients
4-5 eggs
60g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
80g castor sugar
100ml milk/juice
2 ounce (60ml) cooking oil
Cream Ingredients
1/2 gelatine teaspoon - add with 1 tbsp of warm water
Thickened cream
2-3 sugar teaspoon
Preheat oven to 180deg.
Sponge Cake
1. Mix flour and baking powder, sieve twice
2. Separate egg white and egg yolk
3. Add milk into egg yolk and beat then add cooking oil
4. Sieve flour into (3)
5. Add cream of tartar into egg whites and whip on high speed till become white stiffed foam.
6. Add sugar into egg whites progressively in 3 batches.
7. Fold egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture slowly.
8. Sieve combined mixture into cake tray lined with baking paper.
9. Bake for 18 minutes.
Tip: Sieving the combined mixture makes the cake texture silky smooth.
Cake cream
Whip the cream and watered gelatine
Before the cake turns cold, i.e. while it is warmish, spread cream onto cake and roll.
Option: Chop fresh mangoes and add onto cream.
Bon Appetite!
4-5 eggs
60g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
80g castor sugar
100ml milk/juice
2 ounce (60ml) cooking oil
Cream Ingredients
1/2 gelatine teaspoon - add with 1 tbsp of warm water
Thickened cream
2-3 sugar teaspoon
Preheat oven to 180deg.
Sponge Cake
1. Mix flour and baking powder, sieve twice
2. Separate egg white and egg yolk
3. Add milk into egg yolk and beat then add cooking oil
4. Sieve flour into (3)
5. Add cream of tartar into egg whites and whip on high speed till become white stiffed foam.
6. Add sugar into egg whites progressively in 3 batches.
7. Fold egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture slowly.
8. Sieve combined mixture into cake tray lined with baking paper.
9. Bake for 18 minutes.
Tip: Sieving the combined mixture makes the cake texture silky smooth.
Cake cream
Whip the cream and watered gelatine
Before the cake turns cold, i.e. while it is warmish, spread cream onto cake and roll.
Option: Chop fresh mangoes and add onto cream.
Bon Appetite!
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Banana + Pear Muffins
These muffins are moist and super light texture.
Ingredients - 5 large muffins
2 over ripened bananas
2 small over ripened pears (skin off)
1 x-large egg
70g butter
2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp nutmeg powder
Pinch of seasalt
1/4 cup raw/castor sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 cup self raising flour
1/3 cup milk
1/2 lemon - juice
Preparation
Butter sides and line 5 ramekins/muffin baking tray with baking paper.
Preheat oven to 200deg C (fan force).
Cut butter into small squares and place on a heated plate - this will warm up butter and melt nicely.
Mash bananas and pears, and mix with the lemon juice, a bit of cinnamon and sugar (fruit mixture).
(The lemon juice keeps the fruits looking fresh in colour)
Mix all the flour, seasalt, remaining cinnamon, nutmeg powder, with most of sugar (dry mixture).
Make a well in the dry mixture. Pour melted butter, and using a fork, gently combine the ingredients, until crumbly breadcrumbs like texture.
Whisk egg till pale yellow, add milk, whisk till foamy, then add sugar and whisk (egg mixture).
Pour fruit mixture and milk mixture into the buttered dry mixture.
Slowly stir with large metal spoon until flour evenly moistened. Do not over stir or whisk, to prevent flour from "glutenising".
Pour mixture into the ramekins.
Bake for 17 minutes.
Remove from over, and cool on rack for 1 hour before eating.
Options: Stir in a dozen or so of dark chocolate chips into the middle, and have melted choc chip banana muffin!
Bon Appetite!
Ingredients - 5 large muffins
2 over ripened bananas
2 small over ripened pears (skin off)
1 x-large egg
70g butter
2 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp nutmeg powder
Pinch of seasalt
1/4 cup raw/castor sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 3/4 cup self raising flour
1/3 cup milk
1/2 lemon - juice
Preparation
Butter sides and line 5 ramekins/muffin baking tray with baking paper.
Preheat oven to 200deg C (fan force).
Cut butter into small squares and place on a heated plate - this will warm up butter and melt nicely.
Mash bananas and pears, and mix with the lemon juice, a bit of cinnamon and sugar (fruit mixture).
(The lemon juice keeps the fruits looking fresh in colour)
Mix all the flour, seasalt, remaining cinnamon, nutmeg powder, with most of sugar (dry mixture).
Make a well in the dry mixture. Pour melted butter, and using a fork, gently combine the ingredients, until crumbly breadcrumbs like texture.
Whisk egg till pale yellow, add milk, whisk till foamy, then add sugar and whisk (egg mixture).
Pour fruit mixture and milk mixture into the buttered dry mixture.
Slowly stir with large metal spoon until flour evenly moistened. Do not over stir or whisk, to prevent flour from "glutenising".
Pour mixture into the ramekins.
Bake for 17 minutes.
Remove from over, and cool on rack for 1 hour before eating.
Options: Stir in a dozen or so of dark chocolate chips into the middle, and have melted choc chip banana muffin!
Bon Appetite!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Orange Apricot Cranberry Muffins
Ingredients - Makes 6 large muffins
4 fresh apricots stewed in sugar/honey - cut into chunks
2 tbsp of apricot juice
Juice and zest of 1 large orange
1/3 cup of cranberries
10ml of milk
1/3 cup of brown/castor sugar
1 3/4 cups of self raising flour
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 egg
90g of butter, just melted.
Prep work
Lightly coat muffin ramekins/pan with butter and dust with flour
Preheat oven to 200deg (fan force)
Cut butter into small squares and place onto a heated up plate - butter will melt itself.
Soak the dried cranberries into the apricot/orange juice.
Mix the dry ingredients ie flour, 2/3 of the sugar, baking powder, and cinnamon powder in a large mixing bowl.
Make a well into flour mixture, pour in melted butter, and mix - to like bread crumbs texture.
Mix the orange juice, zest, cranberries, apricots and juice together in a separate bowl.
Whisk the egg till frothy, add milk to become more frothy (ie creating air bubbles), then remaining sugar to stabilise the mixture.
Pour fruity mixture followed by egg mixture onto flour mixture and combine slowly till flour is evenly moisturised by the wet ingredients.
For fluffy muffins, DO NOT overmix. Minimum mixing is best.
Immediately cook in oven for 18 minutes.
Take out of oven, and place on top of a rack to cool for at least 40 minutes, before serving.
Bon Appetite!
Friday, January 14, 2011
Poached hainanese chicken with wine, served with chicken mushroom risotto
This technique creates super tender and moist chicken, even the breast is moist.
I make use of the stock from poaching the chicken to produce all the sides that complements this meal:-
- chicken mushroom risotto
- prawan chawan mushi (see recipe under "Label - Japanese").
Can be served with Asian salad of lebanese cucumber and mini roma tomatoes.
Ingredients for poaching the chicken
1 whole chicken
1 large onion - cut into small bits.
1 whole bulb of garlic - which usually have about 12 cloves of garlic. Smashed the garlic.
300ml (cc) cups of chinese cooking wine
2 tablespoon of palm sugar OR 1 tablespoon of normal sugar
4 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1 pot big enough to put the whole chicken in
About 2 litres of water (or enough just to cover slightly more than 1/2 of chicken).
Ingredients for making the risotto - 4 people
2 cups of arborio rice
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 big French shallot or a few small ones (the small red onions) - sliced finely, or chopped
2 large portobello mushrooms - cut into small 1cm cubes
30g butter
chicken stock made from poaching the chicken above (the usual amount that you would put for steaming rice)
chicken fat cut off the chicken
1/2 cup of chopped parsley
Ingredients for Salad
2 lebanese cucumber - each cut into half lenghtwise, then sliced up.
12 mini roma tomatoes - cut into 4 quarters
1 cup of fresh parsley chopped
Salad Dressing
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp Braggs soy protein (or light soy)
2 tbsp caramelised balsamic vinegar
Juice of 1/2 a lime
1 big tbsp palm sugar
Poaching Chicken
After washing the chicken, cut off the big lumps of fat near the chicken bottom and the neck. Keep the fat for making the rice.
Stuff 1/2 the garlic into the chicken stomach.
Pour cold water into the pot.
Put all the ingredients into the pot of water.
Put chicken into the cold water.
Turn on heat - slow simmer heat for 30 minutes. Do not put on high heat or boil. This way chicken will be very tender and soft. If on high heat, chicken become tough and dry.
After 30 minutes, turn the chicken upside down, and cook another 30 minutes. (As the chicken is only half in the water, we turn it at half time so that both sides get cooked in the water). Only half water is used, so that stock would have good chicken flavour and not too dilluted.
After cooking total of 1 hour, immediately take the chicken out of the stock, put into a big bowl ( I used a steel mixing bowl), cover with clingwrap, and put into fridge freezer! Leave in freezer for 45 minutes. This is to remove heat from the chicken and stop the cooking process.
After that, carve chicken and serve with some stock, garnish with coriander leaves.
Chicken Risotto
Sautee the chicken fat in a little bit of oil - to release the chicken flavour into the oil. When chicken fat turns golden, remove from pan.
Slightly fry garlic and shallots in the chicken fat oil.
Add mushrooms.
Add butter.
Add rice.
Fry for about 5 minutes to fragrant the rice.
Add about 2 cups of chicken stock into rice, or enough to just cover rice with stock. Stir. Cover for about 5 minutes on low heat, or until stock is mostly absorped into rice. Stir. Add stock to cover rice again. Cover for 5 minutes. Repeat process another time. (ie about 20 minutes process in total).
Leave rice cover with lid for another 10 minutes. Stir in parsley, and serve.
For time management, I would prepare the chawan mushi while cooking the risotto. Chawan mushi is ready to be steamed when I start serving the guests with the rice and chicken and salad. Guest get chawan mushi piping hot halfway through their meal.
Bon Appetite!
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