Going Mediterranean

Last night dinner was,

Grilled assorted vegetables

Half a ciabatta

And grilled lamb

Delishhhhhhhhh!

Backdated

I know I have been missing in action way too often but I c.a.n.t h.e.l.p. it :(

Anyways my brother is going through a speedy recovery and I'm back home :)
It was supery dupery busy 2 weeks though!

It all started with my 2nd brother throwing a thanksgiving. I cooked for 120 people. The crowd didn't even reach 100 people but I guess no complains coz it meant more food! I was too busy and tired that I didnt remember to take any pics!! Anyways, it also falls on my brother b'day so we had a "cake cutting ceremony" My sister in law and uncle b'day were 2 days later, so we celebrated their b'day too! I baked 2 cakes. The blueberry cake was meant for my brother and sister in law and the durian cake was for my uncle. Somehow, uncle came with a chocolate mousse cake from Carlton, so we ended up having 3 cakes! No 1 complained though ;) I received quite a number of compliment for the durian cake and I was obviously please despite the fact that I screwed up on a few things :p I wanted to top the cake with more durian but I didn't have enough durian! Sighs....another time I guess!

My brother is officially 40 now.

Congratulations Bro! How does it feel to be 40? :P

An order of 21 cupcakes for a 21st B'day

They wanted a pink and girly theme...

I had some extra cupcakes and I served it to guests who came over to visit my brother.

1 of the lucky guest was this little 1...

Full and happy! :p

There were of coz another order for 50 people. Lots of savouries and 6 different types of cupcakes. I didn't snap a single pic so I guess I shouldn't talk about it :p

Amidst all these busyness, we had a mini bbq at my 2nd bro's place.It was just basically me and the kids bbqing away on 1 fine evening. We barbequed tandoori chicken, prawn/sotong balls, potato wedges, sausages, shitake and peppers on sticks and prawns. Super simple yet fun.

Giving Feta a 2nd chance...

The 1st time I tasted feta was during my secondary school days. Back then, whenever I'm at the supermarket buying stuffs for mom, I would 1 or 2 ingredients tht brings out E curiosity in me. :p Most are ingredients used in western cuisines. French mustard, different types of pasta, salad dressings...etc2. I love cheese, so I gave feta a try and it was terrible! My niece would say it's "grosstique"! I tried a few other cheeses too but was disappointed most of the time, thus I stick to those few common ones. Mozzarella, cheddar, ricotta and Parmesan; just to name a few. It would be great if I can appreciate and enjoy all the cheese normally found on a cheese platter. Wouldn't it be lovely to sit in the front porch of your house, enjoying a cup of fruit flavoured tea with bread and a cheese platter? :D

Anyways, last week, I was shopping at Cold storage which is my favourite favourite supermarket btw! Somehow I was at the dairy products and a bottle of feta in olive oil caught my eye. I thought the taste would be disappointing again, so why bother? Then again, I remember Jamie Oliver crumbling the feta in his watermelon salad and there was also Nigella's feta in omelette. Possibilities were running in my head and I had to give feta a 2nd chance.

Back home, 1 took a bite of the salty, slightly bitter and I was disappointed again. I kept the whole bottle in the fridge and I didn't even remember about it!

So, the previous night I was clearing my fridge coz am going to my brother's place and would not be coming back for about 2 weeks. I wanted the fridge as empty as possible. Once it was almost empty. it was totally impossible to ignore poor little miss Feta! I went online and search for recipes using feta. There were lots of course but I decided on a simple 1 and best of all, I had almost all the ingredients.

Yes, this is E same Greek salad that turned me into a convert for life. The feta compliments the salad so so beautifully. E salad was so light, refreshing and aromatic! I loved it tremendously! It's just like a beautiful song...where both the music and lyrics are in harmony and compliments each other. I'm already planning to get more feta so that I can try different variations of this salad :)I have to let my family try this salad. Let's hope they too gonna demolish every bit of the feta, lettuce, tomato and olives!

I shall update the recipe tomorrow :)

Caramel-y Creamy

Ingredients:

2 cups of heavy cream
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 cup of milk
1 cup of white sugar and another 1/2 cup for the caramel sauce
3 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
A pinch of salt

Method:
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Heat the heavy cream and milk in a saucepan on medium heat until you see small bubbles on the sides of the pan.
Whisk 1/2 a cup of the sugar, egg yolks and eggs together in a medium bowl.
Whisk the hot cream and milk into the sugar and egg mixture.
Pass the mixture through a sieve and into a measuring cup. Stir in the salt and vanilla extract.
Place six 6-oz. ramekins in a deep baking dish and keep to one side.
Pour 1/2 cup sugar into a clean saucepan.
Add enough water to dissolve the sugar, and put the pot over high heat. Stir for one minute.
Mix the caramel around to ensure caramelization is even.

Pour the caramel into the ramekins

Divide the mixture so that the bottom of each ramekin is covered with a thin coat of the caramel. Pour the custard into the caramel-bottomed ramekins, and fill the baking dish with water so that the bottom halves of the ramekins are under water; cover the dish with foil.
Bake until the custard is set, which should take around 20 to 45 minutes.
Let the custards cool down in the water bath. After they've cooled down, remove the ramekins from the baking dish, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or up to 2 days.
After the custard has been refrigerated, run a knife around the edge of each ramekin and invert the custard onto a nice plate, making sure you get all of the caramel out.

Note: Alternatively, you can bake the custards and pour some caramel over it.

Nk came over on Tuesday for a very much needed baking session. Half of her holidays are gone! Let's hope we make good use of E remaining 1.5months Nk! We should do more sweet treats. Vanilla ice cream with triple chocolate chip cookie dough next on E list! :)

Anyways, we made Martha's chewy old fashion oats cookies (I didn't remember to take pics!) which smelled incredible coz of the maple syrup and cinnamon. An encore should be coming up soon!

We also made sugar cookies. We decorated the cookies with some royal icing. We definitely had lotsa fun! :D

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

100g Butter

200g sugar

400g all purpose flour

1 egg

1tsp vanilla

Method:

Cream butter and sugar till creamy.

Add in egg and vanilla

Mix in flour.

Wrap in cling film and chill for at least an hour.
Roll out dough and cut into shapes.

Line on a baking tray and chill it for 20-30mins.
Bake for 15mins.

Royal icing:

2 large egg whites
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
3 cups (330 grams) confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla

Method:

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the egg whites with the lemon juice. Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth. Add in vanilla and your preferred colouring. The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

:)

My last post was about a month ago. U.N.B.E.L.I.E.V.E.A.B.L.E I have to say. It all started with my eldest brother being hospitalized. A month had past....he is still in there. He is recovering though. Due to this swine flu thingy, visiting was such a chore. I pity some of his friends who came all the way to SGH to visit him but ended up leaving the hospital without even getting a glimpse of their friend aka my brother. Sighs....I can go on and on, but I shall put a full-stop for now :P I didn't bake for quite some time coz I spent more than 2 weeks at my brother's place. Now that I am home and every1 in the family is happy again to see my brother recovering rapidly, my spirits are back. I baked these over E weekend for an order...

These are actually chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache. I had to top it off with some cream coz the customer wanted a pink and red theme.

Definitely not blue

2 layered sponge cupcakes layers with blueberry filling and topped with whipped cream and more blueberry filling. I loved it! It was really delicious yet so simple :)

The Soup-aholic

Although I come from an Indian family, me and my family basically eat food from different cuisines everyday. Indian food is only a once a week kinda affair. As a kid, it was a different story though. My late Dad had an Indian taste-bud though. His daily meals consists of curries, dhals...etc2. Sambal was ok but plain soups were a no2. On the other hand, E little 1 in the family aka me only eat rice with soups! E funny thing was, I referred soups as "kuah itik" which literally translates as "duck's gravy" I think it just have to do with E fact tht I'd seen some ducks swimming ard and I was comparing E water to soups. I don't really remember! Anyways, at times mom was too tired and I still insist that I want my "duck gravy". She would pour some hot water, add a dash of salt in my rice and I would happily eat that with my fried chicken or fish. Back then I obviously didn't know about it! She only confessed about this a few years back!!! Come to think of it, it wasn't a confession. It started like this...

One fine day, a few years ago....

Me: Hmm wat gravy is this?
Mom: Why? Not nice?
Me: Taste weird...
Mom: So fussy!
Me: I'm not fussy but I don't like this.
Mom: It taste ok...you are fussy now. When you were small, water and salt also nice!!
Me: WATER N SALT?? EErks! I don't eat that!!
Mom: You did....whenever I was tired of cooking soups for you. I just add hot water and salt to your rice. (she said it so so casually without even a hint of guiltiness!!) :p
Me: What?!!! *Shocked mode*

You guys get E picture right? :P
I swear, I'm not gonna do this to my child. I might do it to my husband though!*Evil smile*

Anyways, I have not been making wantons for quite sometime now. I'd been wanting to make some but I can't seem to remember to buy some wanton wrappers! Finally mom got some 2 days back and I made wanton soup today. It was cozy and delicious. I think everyone should make their own wantons! Nothing beats freshly made wantons. Furthermore it's so simple!

Ingredients for Wanton

Wanton wrappers
200G prawns
150g chicken meat
1tbsp light soy sauce
pepper to taste
1/2 tsp cornflour
chopped scallion

Method

1. Mixed everything (except wanton wrappers) Make sure all are mixed thoroughly.
2. Place half a teaspoon of meat filling onto E center of each wrapper. Bring two of E corners of E wrapper together, sealing all edges with some water. I created a triangle out of each wrapper. Press E edges again a little to remove all trapped air.

Simple stock
2 chicken cubes
1L water
3 garlic crushed
pepper.

Boil the above ingredients to make stock.
Drop the wantons gently into it.
Within slightly under 5 minutes, your wanton soup is ready. Garnish with scallions, and if you like, a few drops of sesame oil.Yummy!

Easy Peasy

This is a super easy adaption of a non baked cheese cake. Making this might be a walk in the park but it is sure to impress your guests esp if it's served in pretty tall glasses! In my case, these always turn out to be a big hit among every1. :D

Basically you just base a glass/mould with some graham or muesli. I used muesli this time round. Of coz if your prefer, you can add sugar and butter to E base and keep it in the fridge for a while till base hardens. Cream 200g cream cheese, 50ml yogurt, 50ml cream and a few tbsp of icing sugar. Add 1 tbsp lemon juice. Pour creamed mixture into glasses. Top with another layer of graham/muesli and mixture. Chill for a few hours or better still, overnight. Top with your favourite fruits. In my case, Korean strawberries. Super delicious! (",)

Ps: Feel free to omit the cream if you prefer. :)

A new recipe...

Made these for my nieces and nephew when they slept over last weekend. Saw this on Martha's show. Recipe is from Candace Nelson of Sprinkles Cupcakes. E cupcakes were really soft and nice. E frosting is sweet though, despite E fact...I already reduced E sugar. Kids would love it though!
I used fresh strawberries for both E cupcakes and frosting.

Ingredients
(Makes 1 dozen)
2/3 cup whole fresh or frozen strawberries, thawed
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 large egg whites, room temperature

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners; set aside.
Place strawberries in a small food processor; process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree, add a few more strawberries if necessary or save any extra puree for frosting; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy.

Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.
With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.
Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups. Transfer muffin tin to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer muffin tin to a wire rack and let cupcakes cool completely in tin before icing.


Ingredients for frosting:

1/2 cup whole frozen strawberries, thawed
1 cup unsalted butter, firm and slightly cold
Pinch of coarse salt
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Directions
Place strawberries in the bowl of a small food processor; process until pureed.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce mixer speed and slowly add confectioners' sugar; beat until well combined.

Add vanilla and 3 tablespoons strawberry puree (save any remaining strawberry puree for another use); mix until just blended and frost cakes.

Elegant yet fuss free

I made Panna Cotta coz I had some cream in the fridge and I didn't want to "slog" much :P Another reason was, I wanted to use this little cuties!! Thanks to Nk for these moulds and all E "hard work" *wink2* I loveeeeeee loveeeee 'em! I promise an encore with these moulds.....specially for you!

Ingredients
1 cup (250 mL) whipping cream
7g gelatin + 1/4 cup water
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 cup fresh milk

Method:
Heat cream and milk and bring to a light boil
Whisk in maple syrup
Combine in the gelatine powder+water mixture and whisk till dissolved.
Once cool, pour into little glasses/moulds/shot-glass.
Chill for a couple of hours or overnight.
Drizzle with more maple syrup just before serving, if desired.

An all time favourite

An all time favourite in my family ....Never fail to win hearts :p

On cloud 9

I was never a fan of baked cheesecake. E 1st cheesecake I had was more than 5 years ago. It was baked by me! :p Although I was told that it's nice...I actually feel tht it was ok. E 2nd cheesecake was about a year later. It was from some bakery and I didn't like it. There were a few other occasions after that. Cheesecakes from Delifrance, secret recipe...etc2. Still, I wasn't in love until I tried making a non-baked cheesecake. I was head over heels with the rich and creamy dessert! Until quite recently, my cousin bought slices of cheesecake from Secret Recipe and I found those to be really lovely! I guess the 1st time when I had SR's cheesecakes...those were coffee/mocha flavored thus my dislike. (Tiramisu is an exception)

Anyways, my love for cheesecake kinda grew....(only those from secret recipe though) I decided that I should give baked cheesecake a 2Nd attempt. Furthermore, a few of my customers have been requesting that I should have baked cheesecakes on my list.

So I embarked on a "serious cheesecake baking session" :p I had cherries and strawberries, so It has to be a new york styled cheesecake with some topping. I took out my Martha baking handbook, Dorie's from my home to urs and Chef Wan's sweet treats. I read all the important notes by them and follow the do's and don t's closely. I freeze the base 1st, bake it for 10 mins and let it cool as per Dorie's instructions. I also baked the cheesecake in a water-bath, cool it in the oven for a few hours and let it chill overnight. Basically, I left no stone unturned. :)

Everything was so worth it coz I was rewarded with a crack-less, gorgeously yummy and creamy cheesecake. Shaf who doesn't take cheesecake actually liked it! My uncle ate 2 large pieces and my aunt said my cheesecake looked ike it was store bought! Even fussy me thought that E cheesecake was super delicious! I was in a state of blissful happiness. :)

Updated Recipe

I have been getting quite a lot of emails in my inbox requesting for this recipe. I'm sorry that it took me forever to post the recipe. Nevertheless, now tht I remembered, here is the recipe :)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cocoa powdered
1.5 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla

Method:
Cream butter until softened. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time.
Measure the flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder into a medium sized bowl and whisk to combine.
Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the butter/sugar and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk and beat to combine.
Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.
Mix in vanilla
Scoop batter into cupcake cups about 3/4’s full.
Bake at 170D for about 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

Frosting

5 oz chocolate
3 oz butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
5-7oz Icing sugar (start with 5 oz and add accordingly)

Method:

Melt butter and chocolate using a double boiler.
Once smooth and melted, gently whisk in vanilla.
Whisk in icing sugar, a little at a time.
Add in sour cream and cream till its satiny smooth.
Keep it aside for a while to thicken. Do give it a stir once in a while.

Enjoy!

Simple English Muffins

As promised, this is Alex Goh's super easy yet deliciously soft recipe for English muffins.

Ingredients:

(A)
1.5 tsp instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
0.5 tsp sugar
300 g bread flour
15 g milk powder

(B)
180 ml lukewarm water

(C)
0.5 tbsp butter

Semolina for dusting

Method :

Place ingredients A in a mixing bowl and give it a good mix.
Slowly pour in the lukewarm water, a little at a time until the flour sort of stick together.

Add in butter and continue kneading until a soft and smooth dough is formed. Add more water if necessary.
Place the dough into a bowl and wrap the bowl with a clean plastic bag.

Leave to prove till double the size.
Divide dough into 8 pieces and mould them into balls.

Coat them with semolina and arrange them on a baking tray.
Leave to prove for 20 minutes and cook them on a non stick skillet over medium heat for about 7 mins on each side.

McMaya

Most of us love easy yet yummy recipes which require minimum effort. Who wanna spend hours in the kitchen, slaving over E hot stove right??

As for myself, I do love express recipes for lazy or busy days. It has to taste good though!
Deep inside, E cook in me prefer to cook food right from scratch. Home-made sauce, seasoning food from scratch.....etc2. Home cooked food has become a scarcity in our diet, I think the satisfaction of serving home cooked food has enormously increase!

Yesterday was 1 such day. I made a hearty breakfast meal! It was served way after breakfast hours though! Well, thats E beauty of McMaya, you get to eat breakfast after 11am and everything is freshly made! You get salad too! *winks*




So, I made some beef patties, scrambled eggs, rosti, salad and English muffins. E star of the day were the English muffins! They were soft, tender and just wonderful! I didn't know it was that easy to make these muffins. I didn't even use the oven! Awesome isn't it? I shall share the recipe very very soon! :)
Oh btw, E rosti was very good too! I dare say that it taste better than mostly commercially made hash-brown. I don't really have a recipe for the rosti, but I'm planning to make it again soon. I shall make a mental note of the recipe then :)

By E way, if some of you are wondering what with E Logo on the table wares. No, I didn't steal those when I was in 1 of SQ flights :p My brother worked there and there was a time where they sold boxes of unused tableware. Got it? :p

Weekend Bakes...

These double and triple chocolate chip cookies were an order from a regular customer. These were supposed to be gifts for her friends.....


70 cups of talam lauk....

Chocolate Cupcakes

This sums up my Sunday bakes :)

I spent the day at my aunty's place yesterday. She cooked my favourite dishes and I wanted to reciprocate with the same. My aunty and family love to munch on cakes, donuts...etc.... so I made just tht.

I already blog about these soft yummy donuts before. You can get the recipe here. here

Mom bought some really ripe and super sweet mangoes which were cheap too!

E moment I saw E mangoes, I saw mango cupcakes, mango cheesecake n mango pudding all floating in E air...but mom felt that uncle would love the medley of 3 (sago, mango n pomelo dessert) as he love cold desserts. I obviously knew that she suggested this dessert coz she loved it lots too :p So, I ended up making this dessert. It is of coz super duper delicious.

I tried a new recipe for the cake. It's Almond cake. Taste-wise, it's in between a rich butter and sugee cake. It's rich and moist coz of the amount of butter used. Do give this simple yet delicious cake a try!

Ingredients:

150g brown sugar
140g self raising flour
80g almond meal
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
5 eggs
240g melted butter

Method:

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Add eggs one at a time and whisk to combine.

Add vanilla andmelted butter.

Mix till well combine. Pour in papercups or a greased baking pan.

Bake at 170 degrees C for 30-40 mins.

Ps: I didn't slice up the cake till I was at aunty's place, so I didn't manage to take a pic of the sliced up cake.

Tiramisu Cheesecake

I have been wanting to experiment making Tiramisu cheesecake. Finally, I managed to get it done. I received very positive feedback from my cousins and brother...so yeay! :)


Ingredients:
20 Sponge fingers
250g Cream cheese
150ml heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
1tsp vanilla

Coffee syrup
1 Tbsp espresso granules (Use any coffee you prefer)
1/2 cup hot water
1tbsp sugar

Cocoa powder for dusting
Chocolate shavings.

Method:
Dissolved coffee granules into hot water. Add sugar to taste and set aside.
Whip cream until soft peak, add in sugar and whip until stiff peak, set aside.
Cream cream cheese and vanilla till creamy and fold in cream.
Dip sponge fingers into coffee and lay on the base of dish or cupcake cases.
Sprinkle with cocoa powder.
Top with cream mixture.
Repeat with another layer of sponge fingers and cream mixture.
Chill for a few hours or overnight.
Top with cocoa powder and chocolate shavings just before serving.

Presenting..... Naan Pizza!

I have to admit that certain Express Recipes of Nigella's worked like a charm! I was browsing thru E pages of Nigella Express and I saw these. She used naan for the pizza crust! How come I never thought about that? I guess I so used to "slogging" in the kitchen :p

Anyways, I didn't follow her recipe coz it uses fontina. I had mozzarella and cheddar in the fridge and I'm sure it would work just as well. She used spinach wherelse I used whatever that were available in my fridge. It turned out to be awesomelicioussssssss! Mom was like "U said u baking naan...but this is pizza?" I'm like yeah...its naan pizza!! :p I knew that she enjoyed the naan pizza too coz she said "there isnt a need to order pizza anymore...don't have to bother to make/buy pizza crusts too...use naan can already..." Coming from some1 like mom, its a compliment that she said it! I do think that the brand of E naan play an important part too obviously. I used "Kawan" naan...it was good! Try it sometime!!!

Ingredients:

2 Naans

4 tbsp tomato pulp or any tomato sauce

Mushrooms - Sliced

2 tomatoes - Sliced

Shredded Mozzarella

Shredded Cheddar

Slices of chicken ham

Slices of bell peppers

Herbs (I used oregano)

Method:

Spread sauce over naan.

Top with half of the cheese

Arrange tomatoes, mushrooms, chicken ham and bell peppers.

Top with more cheese

Sprinkle with your favourite herb and bake in the oven for 15mins

Dig in!!

Cheezilicioussss!