Potato salad with a mint sour cream dressing

I get scared by potato salads that are heavy on the mayo dressing and each bite coats the inside of my mouth with an oily, mayo lining.  I wanted a non-mayo potato salad for a small barbeque I had organised, but still wanted something creamy-ish.  Thus, decided on sour cream, light sour cream if I must add.  It was well received and I've added it to my repertoire for future pot-lucks.

When I first made this, I had planned to just boil my potatoes, but after 2 lots of boiling, the inside was still uncooked but the outside was starting to break away.  Not wanting to be left with potato mash, I cut them into pieces and roasted them in the oven to cook.  The result was lovely roasted and cooked potatoes (plus proved to me that boiling the potatoes first before roasting makes crunchy roast potatoes!).  Of course, if you have much better luck I use a combination of boiling and roasting the potatoes

You can serve this warm or cold.  

Potato salad with a mint sour cream dressing

Serves 5-6

Ingredients

• 5-6 medium sized waxy (eg. Lady Christl) potatoes
• 2 slices of bacon, rind removed
  
• 200 g light sour cream
  
• 1/2 medium red onion, diced 
• A handful of mint leaves, sliced
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. First make the dressing by combining the sour cream, diced onion and sliced mint leaves in a bowl.  Add the lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, have a taste (you want a bit of tang and a bit of onion heat to come through but not too salty).  Adjust if necessary.  Place in the fridge to allow the flavours to develop.
   
2. Wash potatoes well.  Place in a saucepan of cold water (enough water to just cover them).  Add a teaspoon of salt and bring the water to a boil.  Once the water is boiling, boil the potatoes for about 8-10 minutes.  Drain and refresh under tap water.
   
3. Preheat oven to 180oC.  When potatoes are cold enough to handle, cut into 2 cm pieces and place on a lined baking tray.  Place in oven to roast until cooked through (about 20 minutes).
   
4. Meanwhile, dice bacon, and cook in a saucepan until crispy. Add to a large serving bowl.
5. Remove potatoes from oven, and place in the same bowl as the bacon.  Toss.  Allow to cool to lukewarm, and once cool, add about a third of the sour cream dressing tossing so that it's coated evenly on all the potatoes.  
6. If you are serving warm, add the rest of the dressing and allow to coat well. If you want to serve it cold, place the dressing and the potato salad back in the fridge to cool for a few hours and just before serving, mix the rest of the dressing through the salad. 
   

Green chicken curry

When I first started cooking for myself, I used to make curries quite frequently using Mr Lee (Kum Kee's) Portugese curry sauce that came in a glass jar.  I learnt it from my mum, who'd been making it from the days before we came to Australia and I absolutely loved it.  When production stopped in Australia (for whatever reason, I don't know, and can't see why), I also stopped making curries as frequently -- LKK's Portugese curry sauce was the curry sauce I had literally grown up with and had to find other ways to satsify curry cravings.  This is a green curry that I now make relatively regularly, using a Thai green curry paste.  It's flavoursome and has become my standard recipe for a quick midweek curry and usually makes enough to last me for 3-4 meals.  Like all curries and foods packed with a myriad of flavours, with each day, the dish becomes more flavoursome.  The photo doesn't do it justice to the intensity of flavour this dish has -- when I go around to making it again, I might take another photograph of it.

The purpose of frying off the curry paste is so that the fat from the paste is separated and floats to the top (which I learnt off watching too many episodes of Ready, Steady, Cook), thereby allowing the spices that are in the paste to get cooked and therefore to really come out with a punch.  As with the sugar, I've always been told by my mum that sugar enhances and complements a curry, I've never asked why ... maybe I'll find out one day

Green chicken curry

Serves 2-4



Ingredients

• 400g chicken thigh, cut into roughly 2cm pieces
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch, optional
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium brown onion, sliced
• 2 potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1.5 cm pieces
• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoon green curry paste
• 300 mL coconut milk
• 100 mL chicken stock
• bit of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of chilli oil or chilli flakes (as I like a bit more kick in my curries)

Method

1. Marinade chicken in soy sauce, salt and pepper for about 15-20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, fill a medium pot with cold water and place potatoes and carrots into the pot.  Bring the pot to a boil and turn the heat down so that it is just simmering.  Stir occasionally to ensure even cooking.  Simmer for 15 minutes, drain and set aside.
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan on med-high heat, add the oil and swirl around to coat the pan.
4. (Add the cornstarch, if using, to the chicken)
5. Add the curry paste, being careful as it can splatter, and cook for about 30 seconds.  Add the chicken and let it seal on both sides.
6. Add the onions, and once the onions have softened slightly, add the coconut milk and stock.
7. Add the drained potatoes and carrots, and bring to a simmer.  Add about a teaspoon of sugar and the chilli oil or chilli flakes.
8. Cooking for another 10-15 minutes to allow the flavours to develop.  Serve with steamed rice.

Pistachio, fig and lemon biscotti

Baking isn't something that is automatically considered to be healthy, and generally speaking, it isn't.  I mean, who are we kidding when we know exactly how much butter, sugar, flour went into making that cake.  But over the last couple of years where people have become more health conscious, I think baking has become healthier -- there are recipes that have less sugar, less fat, use whole wheat flour or try substitute ingredients to deliver the cake, muffin or cookie as we know it but healthier.   I think it's amazing -- not only in the 'progression' of baking sense but the fact that everyone can still enjoy baked treats a bit more freely.

I was trying to find something to bake for someone who was diabetic, and there are certainly a lot of desserts out there.  However, a lot of them suggested using Splenda in replace of normal sugar.  After researching a few reviews for these recipes, I was a bit skeptical of how it would turn out as most of them talked about an odd aftertaste with Splenda and I had never cooked with Splenda before.  In the end, I went to my trusty recipe source (Taste.com) and found this recipe under a diabetic friendly recipe collection -- a pistachio, fig and lemon biscotti.   The bonus with this is that I didn't have to use butter!

Shelling the pistachios was awfully tedious, but worth it for the bright green colours dotted in the biscotti.  They didn't turn out as crisp as I like my biscotti, but they still tasted pretty nice, and the natural sugar of the figs gave the biscotti enough sweetness.  Having it with a nice pot of herbal tea made it a great afternoon snack.

Pistachio, fig and lemon biscotti

Makes about 30



Ingredients

• 1/3 cup pistachio kernels
• 3 egg whites
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 tbs finely grated lemon rind
• 3/4 cup plain flour, sifted
• 1/3 cup finely chopped dried figs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.  Brush a 7 x 25cm (base measurement) bar pan with melted butter to lightly grease.  Line the base and 2 long sides with non-stick baking paper, allowing it to overhang.
2. Place pistachios in a heatproof bowl.  Cover with boiling water and set aside for 5 minutes or until skins soften. Drain.  Peel off skins and dry on paper towel.
3. Meanwhile, use an electric beater to whisk the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until soft peaks form.  Add the sugar, one spoonful at a time, whisking well after each addition, until sugar dissolves.  Add the lemon rind and whisk until combined.
4. Combine flour and figs in a bowl. Use your fingers to separate figs and coat in flour. Fold fig mixture and pistachios into egg-white mixture until just combined.
5. Spoon mixture into prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until cooked through. Turn onto a wire rack and set aside for 1 hour or until cooled to room temperature.
6. Preheat oven to 160°C. Use a serrated knife to cut loaf crossways into 5mm-thick slices. Place in a single layer on a baking tray. Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until crisp and golden. Cool on tray.

Spicy tomato and capsicum chutney

I always am inspired on a spur of the moment to cook a particular thing.  I would then happily spend the next couple of hours trying to research as much as possible on whatever I intend on making, deciding on a recipe and getting the relevant ingredients.  I love it, and sometimes I wish I could spend more days doing that, and having a kitchen and ingredients at my disposal. One morning I woke up, looked in my fridge and saw tomatoes.  I didn't want to eat them in a salad, nor cook it with pasta so I decided that I wanted to make a tomato chutney / relish.  The rest of my morning went to Googling recipes and poring with the few cookbooks that I had brought down from home.

A lot of the recipes I came across required the use of mustard seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and a whole bunch of other spices that I didn't have, nor could I be motivated enough to go out and buy.  Thankfully, I came across a couple of recipes that received good reviews sans spices.  Sweet.  After reading through a dozen recipes, and getting some idea of the ratio of sweet, salty, tangy and spicy, I decided to just wing the rest of it.  To my surprise, it turned out relatively decent.  There's certainly much room for improvement, say actually going to the effort of peeling the tomatoes (I was simply lazy), and peeling the capsicums if I were to use them again.  I'm guessing it would help to get that more 'paste'-like texture that I had visualised in my mind.  Nonetheless, it was great on crackers and went well with poached eggs on toast.

Spicy tomato and capsicum chutney

Makes ~1.5 cup



Ingredients

• 3 vine-ripened tomatoes, diced
• 2 capsicums, diced
• 1 brown onion, finely diced
• 2 tbspn of olive oil
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tspn chilli flakes
• 1/3 cup red wine (I'm thinking red wine vinegar could be a substitute)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• salt and pepper to taste
• (sterilised jar for storage)

Method

1. Combine the red wine and brown sugar.  Set aside
2. Heat a non-stick pan on med-heat.  Pour in the oil to coat the pan.  Add in the brown onions and cook until transparent (3-5 minutes) and starts to caramelise.
3. Add the capsicums and cook for a few minutes.  Add the tomatoes and cook for a few more minutes.  Throw in the crushed garlic and chilli flakes, and give everything a good stir.
4. Turn the heat to medium / med-low, and add in the red wine and brown sugar mixture.  Allow to simmer for 30-40 minutes, whereby the mixture should start to thicken up.  If during cooking, it looks a bit dry, add a bit of water.  Season to taste.
5. When the mixture is reasonably thickened, turn off the heat and allow it to sit in the hot pan for 5-10 minutes.
6. Pour the mixture into sterilised air-tight jars, and store in the fridge (can be stored for up to 2 weeks).

Yellow split pea 'pudding' (馬豆糕)

Something inspired me while I was in HK to venture into attempting to make Chinese desserts.  Perhaps it was knowing that I wouldn't have an oven for a good chunk of the year in the new place, or that it was simply because the recipes seemed simple, homely and tasty.  One of the things that used to make me less inclined to make tasty Asian things was partly because of the effort needed to actually get the things that were specified in the recipe as it would take a couple of visits to different Asian grocers to find the thing I want, and even if they did, the quality would be questionnable (I once saw packets of red beans with mould on them and they were still on the shelves!).

Anyway, with this new found inspiration, and a trusty Asian grocer, I gave another hand at making a popular Hong Kong dessert.  I came across this wandering the streets in HK and in their display cabinet, there were a variety of 'slices' for what equated to A$0.60 for 1.   They looked too good not to try, and afterwards, I was hooked on all things with that agar-agar / firm gelatinous texture.  This was the easiest to make, out of of all the ones I want to try, and I love it -- it isn't too sweet, I get a lot from not very much, and it lasts quite well in the fridge for over a week.

Yellow split pea 'pudding' (馬豆糕)

Makes 1 9 inch 'pudding'

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup yellow split peas
• 1 cup cornflour
• 3/4-1 cup caster sugar (personal preference)
• 2/3 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 4 cups water

Method

1. Rinse the yellow split peas until the water runs clear.  Place them in a pot of cold water and bring to the boil.  Make sure you watch it at this stage as it can boil over really quickly!  Lower the heat so that its inbetween simmering and boiling and wont' boil over.  Cook for 15-20 minutes.  Pop on the lid, remove from heat and let it stand for 10 minutes.   Drain and set aside.
2. Mix the cornstarch with 1 cup of water -- it feels like it'll never dissolve at the start, but keep going and it'll dissolve.  Set aside.
3. Put the remaining 3 cups of the water into a saucepan and add the sugar.  Bring to the boil.   Add the coconut milk and evaporated milk.  Bring to the boil again.  Add the cornflour mixture and stir vigourously.  The mixture will thicken up considerably at this stage, so it's important to keep stirring.  Do so for about 2 minutes.
4. Remove pot from heat and add the drained yellow split peas.  Stir for another minute.
5. Pour the mixture into a dish or moulds, and place into the fridge for 4-5 hours until set.

Ricotta hotcakes

I can't remember when or how the hype for ricotta hotcakes started.  It was as if one moment the perfect pancake had only flour, butter, milk (or buttermilk) and eggs, and the next, to be perfect, it had to have ricotta and egg whites beaten to stiff peaks.  And quite rightly so, because ricotta hotcakes are just so damn delicious!   If I didn't find the process a bit too much for when I'm still blurry eyed and I had the foresight to have a tub of ricotta on hand, I would make ricotta hotcakes everytime I went to make pancakes.  Though, making them only once in a while has its appeal too.  I've only tried Bill Granger's recipe for it seeing as his hotcakes are just as famous as his scrambled eggs, and also because I love the guy's cooking.

The batter can be kept for 24 hours in the fridge (covered with plastic wrap).   Bill serves them with a honeycomb butter, though of course, it'll go well with maple syrup or lemon and sugar, a dollop of strawberry conserve... This time when I made them, I really did plan in advance as I had made some lemon curd the day before, and the pairing was absolutely sublime. 

Ricotta hotcakes

From one of Bill Granger's cookbooks (I forget which one, sorry!)
Serves 4-6





Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups ricotta
• 3/4 cup milk
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 cup plain (all-purpose) flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 50g butter

Method

1. Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.  Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.
3. Place egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until stiff peaks form.  Fold egg whites through batter in 2 batches with a metal spoon
4. Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop 2 tablespoons of batter per hotcake into the pan (avoid overcrowding!)
5. Cook over low-med heat for 2 minutes or until hotcakes are golden.
6. Turn onto other side and cook until golden and cooked through.

Stir-fried spicy green beans

The first time that I remember having really good green beans was at a Malaysian restaurant where they cooked them with sambal and prawns.  That was also when I fell in love with a good plate of green beans.  I'm always sold by green beans with minced pork, green beans with char-siu, green beans with chicken or green beans by itself.  Cooked well, they are beautifully tender, crunchy and with that delicious vegetable sweetness.  For an unassuming slender green thing, it is pretty impressive.  I have tried replicating versions of this dish at home, and have never been able to get it right.  Having bought a bag of green beans on impulsive because it was on special and then, quite coincidentally, coming across this recipe, I decided to try again, and I think I have found the recipe.

Stir-fried spicy green beans 

Slightly adapted from Baking Addiction who slightly adapted hers from The Paupered Chef
Serves 2 as a side dish



Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli oil (or you could use chilli flakes)
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 350 grams green beans, topped and halved lengthwise
  
• 2 spring onions, sliced however way you want
  
• 2 medium cloves of garlic, minced
  

Method

1. Make sure everything is all prepared and ready to go before throwing things in the pan as it'll only take a few minutes to cook everything.
2. Combine the soy sauce, white vinegar, sugar and chilli oil or red pepper flakes in a small bowl and mix well
3. Place a non-stick pan or wok over high heat until it is nearly smoking.
4. Coat the bottom of the pan with the oil and add the green beans.  Cook until they are tender (about 4 minutes) stirring every 30 seconds or so.  They will get black dots all over them, and look like they're going to shrivel up and burn but be patient, they will cook and they won't burn.
5. Add the spring onions and toss everything around for a minute or two
6. Add the garlic and cook just until it becomes fragrant (few seconds)
   
7. Add the soy sauce mixture.  Cook for another half minute, tossing and stirring while doing so, turn off the heat, and serve.

Sago tongshui

This is one of the first Chinese desserts I learnt to make and which my Mum used to make on a regular basis while we were at school.  It's comfort food for me.  Its simple, quick and delicious hot or cold.  There are many variations to this and you can add sweet potato, mango, mung beans, taro, sweetened corn kernels.  I prefer mine with mung beans and lots and lots of sago.

Sago tong shui

Serves 4-6




Ingredients

• 100g sago
• 150-175g rock sugar (personal preference)
• 2.5 cups water
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup coconut milk

Method

1. Soak the sago in a saucepan of boiling water for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Drain the sago, return it to the saucepan and cover it with water.  Boil until it's almost cooked, stirring occasionally.  While cooking, the sago will go from white to clear.  Take it off the heat when there's only a small white dot in the sago, and drain while rinsing it under tap water -- this will complete the cooking process and make the sago completely clear.   Set sago aside.
3. Boil the 2.5 cups of water in a saucepan over high heat and add the rock sugar.  Cook until it dissolves.  Turn the heat down to medium and add the sago, stirring until it boils again
4. Remove from heat and stir in the evaporated milk and coconut milk.  Serve hot or refrigerate for 6 hours to serve it cold.

If you want to add mung beans, cook the beans or peas for about 15-20 minutes while the sago is soaking and then add it in at the same time as adding the sago in Step 3.

Slice and bake cookies

Afer seeing the recipe for refrigerator cookies on Smitten Kitchen (one of my favourite food blogs), I had an urge to try it myself.  Usually, I give away most of the stuff I make or leave it for someone else to finish, namely my brother, but sometimes there are no other people to give it to and I end up finishing it to avoid it going to waste.  That said, a slice of cake or a couple of cookies in the afternoon after getting back from the hospital can be heavenly.  So these refrigerator cookies, also known as slice and bake cookies are perfect.  It gets shaped into a log, put in the freezer and taken out on a rainy day.  After baking, they are supposed to last 5 days (if they do last that long).

The recipe is perfect and can be adapted in many ways.  I decided on poppyseeds and lemon zest this time but I've also tried adding dried cranberries and some orange zest, earl Grey tea leaves (quite nice!), and swapping some of the flour for almond meal (which made the cookies a bit more crumbly but nutty) or dessicated coconut.  I've also added some chopped pistachios and walnuts which I thought turned out quite well.  They really are a versatile type of cookie!

Slice and bake cookies (with lemon zest and poppyseeds)

Makes 40-50 cookies



Ingredients

• 230 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup icing sugar, sifted
• 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoons vanilla or almond extract
• 2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
• Grated zest of 2 lemons
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds

Method

1. Put the butter in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat at medium speed until it is smooth.  Add the sifted confectioners’ sugar and beat again until the mixture is smooth and silky.
2. Beat in the egg yolks, followed by the salt and any dried fruits, zest, nuts or seeds.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, beating just until it disappears (better to underbeat than overbeat - just blend in whatever remaining flour needs blending with a spoon).
3. Turn the dough out onto a counter, gather it into a ball, and divide it in half. Wrap each piece of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
4. Working on a smooth surface, form each piece of dough into a log that is about 2.5 to 3.5 cm thick (no need to worry about the length).  Wrap the logs in plastic and chill for 2 hours.  (The dough can be wrapped airtight and kept refrigerated for up to 3 days or stored in the freezer for up to 1 month.)
5. Preheat the oven 180oC.  Line cookie trays.
6. While the oven is preheating, slice each log into cookies about 1cm thick with a sharp knife.  Place the cookies on the lined baking sheets, leaving about 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) space between them.
7. Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, or until they are set but not browned.  Cool on wire racks.

Tiramisu

Tiramisu possibly rates as one of my favourite desserts, though one that can only be eaten occasionally and in small amounts.  The best one I've tasted so far, in my opinion of course, is one at Starbucks in Hong Kong.  Funny that.  Even Greco here doesn't do it as well.  I've been having on and off cravings for tiramisu over the past couple of months, and I don't know why I've never actually tried to make it myself to cure those cravings -- preferring to just hold it out until it went away.

Last week was when the tiramisu desire hit, and hit hard.  I set about looking up recipes (probably well over a dozen), I compared them, I read about the difference between using Marsala and Kahlua (which is none - the former is cheaper), how much espresso is good, watched videos of it being made, then settled on one that had gotten some pretty good reviews.  I bought all the stuff - sponge fingers, eggs, mascarpone, cocoa powder, cream and marsala and did everything to the dot.  There was no instant gratification from it as I had to wait the next morning.  When I took off the foil on my dish, it was evident that I'd failed miserably.  For some reason, my mascarpone mixture didn't hold up and the next morning I ended up with a mascarpone, cream and egg yolk slurry with partially saturated lady fingers floating in it.  It looked pretty gross.

I still had half a packet of sponge fingers left, so I went out to get more mascarpone and decided to try again, and with a different recipe.  (Usually when I'm cooking, if one recipe doesn't work out right, I try something else -- I'm a bit impatient with trying to go through it again and figuring out what went wrong.)  And this time it was a success!  The sponge fingers were adequately saturated with the coffee, the mascarpone mixture held up, it had just the right amount of sweet to coffee and best of all, it satisifed my cravings.  Have included the recipe below (credits to Lisa) - it's not the 'traditional' recipe per se but what the heck!  It tasted good!

Tiramisu
Serves 6-8



Ingredients

• 3 eggs, separated
• 250 g mascarpone cheese at room temperature
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 3/4 cup cold strong black coffee -- I brewed mine in a plunger
• 1/4 cup Kahlua / Marsala.
• 9-12 Italian sponge fingers
• Sifted cocoa powder and grated bittersweet chocolate to decorate.

Method

1. Brew coffee.
2. In a bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar until the yolks turn more pale and the mixture is fluffy (aim for it to double in size, and it will).  Mix in the mascarpone and beat until evenly combined (2-3 minutes).
3. In a separate bowl (and also after cleaning your beaters), beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Fold in the egg whites into the mascarpone mixture
4. Spread a spoonful of the mixture in the bottom of a serving dish / bowl evenly.
5. Mix together the coffee and Kahlua/Marsala in a shallow dish. Dip one sponge fingers into the mixture, turn it quickly so that it's saturated but does not disintegrate.  Place on top of the mascarpone mixture in the bowl.  Add additional sponge fingers this way placing side by side.
6. (Optional) Sift cocoa powder on top of sponge finger layer
7. Spoon about half of the remaining mixture on top of the sponge fingers and spread it out evenly.  Make another layer with sponge fingers, and then another with mascarpone (it doesn't really matter how many layers you make as long as you finish up with mascarpone.
8. Level surface and sift the cocoa powder on top.
9. Cover with foil and chill overnight.
10. Sift more cooca powder and sprinkle grated chocolate on top before serving the next day.

Carrot muffins with cream cheese frosting

I read a number of food blogs, and when all of them post up a recipe, there is always a story behind the creation - let it be a memory that particular recipe reminds them of, or it's the first recipe they've been successful at, what inspired them to make it that day ... etc.  Unfortunately, if I were to do that - it would be very boring indeed.  I bake for a couple of reasons - because I'm bored, stressed, wanting to try out a new recipe, have things to use up in my pantry ... and at any one time it would be all of them, or just one of them.

For the carrot muffins I made the other day, I really wanted to test out a much-raved about recipe, and the half jar of applesauce sitting in the fridge needed to be used up before mould started growing.  They turned out amazing!  I got a lot of comments about how delicious they were from unexpected people, and even person telling me that I had gotten into the wrong career.  In case this blog somehow finds its way in the prying eyes of my parents, I assure you (and them) I have no intentions of quitting med as yet - to bake on a commercial scale seems to defeat the purpose of home-based baking.

Carrot muffins with cream cheese frosting

Makes 18 muffins or 1 cake




Ingredients

Carrot muffins

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup unsweetend applesauce
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3 cups shredded carrots (3-4 medium carrots)
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans, and extra to top

Cream cheese frosting

• 115g unsalted butter, softened
• 225g light cream cheese, room temperature
• 2 cups icing sugar, sifted

Method

For the carrot muffins

1. Preheat oven to 175oC.  Grease and flour muffin pan and line with muffin papers (if preferred)
   
2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, applesauce, brown and white sugars and vanilla until well combined.
   
3. Mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon in another bowl.  Stir in carrots and pecans.  All the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.  Pour into muffin tins - filling them to about 3/4 full.
   
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into comes out clean.  Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.  Alternatively bake in a cake tin for 50-55 minutes. 

For the cream cheese frosting

1. Beat butter and cream cheese on low speed for 5-7 minutes or until there are no lumps.  With mixer still running, slowly add sifted icing sugar and beat until mixture is light and creamy.  
2. Pipe or spread onto cooled muffins and top with the extra chopped toasted pecans.

One bowl chocolate chip cookies

While every chocolate chip recipe that I come across, it is always prefaced with 'perfect', or 'the best', regardless whether it's the Toll House , the NY Times, The Neiman Marcus, The Martha Stewart, David Lebowitz's, the ones on the back of packets of choc-chip pieces, America's Test Kitchen, Alton Brown's, and the list goes on.  It seems, therefore, that every chocolate chip recipe is the perfect one.  I can't disagree, after all, everyone has their own preferences when it comes to their perfect choc-chip cookie.  I, for instance, like mine soft, chewy, not too flat nor too thick, without an overpowering sweetness, and with discernible chocolate chunks or chips in them.  I've tried many recipes from cookbooks, magazine cutouts, and some of the aforementioned places.  Soon, when I can remember to make the cookie dough 36 hours before I want to bake, I might try the NY times cookie.

On my hunt to find my perfect chocolate-chip cookie, I came across this one.  I've made them twice already and both times I have made them (for other people), I have returned with an empty box.  So I guess it is also a (very) good chocolate-chip cookie.  It fits everything that I want as I have listed above -- my only gripe with it is that it's slightly a bit too sweet for my Asian tastebuds (but nothing that can't be solved).  What's more, there's only one bowl (and a wooden spoon) to wash afterwards.  I don't know whether it can get any better than this.

A one-bowl chocolate chip cookie

Makes 25-30

Ingredients

• 120g unsalted butter, softened
  
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 cups good quality chocolate chunks (I would suggest nothing more than 70% cocoa)

Method

1. Melt butter in a large mixing bowl.  Beat both sugars into melted butter.  Let the mixture cool to room temp and then beat in vanilla, egg and egg yolk.
2. When mixture is well blended, beat in baking soda and salt making sure that the baking soda is evenly distributed.
3. Add flour and stir just until it is mixed in. Add chocolate chips.
4. Chill dough for 1 hour or until pretty firm.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment.
6. Scoop up tablespoonfuls of dough and drop onto a lined baking tray or cookie sheets spacing them about 5cm apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until cookies appear done and lightly browned around edges.  To get that chewy cookie, do not overbake!  It's hard to say how long they should be in the oven for, it depends on the oven -- in one oven, these were done in 10 minutes, in another it was 13.  My general rule of thumb is that they are 'done' when they get a bit golden brown on the outside.
7. Cool on sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling. 
   

Blueberry muffins

I love finding long lost items in the freezer.  Not that my freezer is big enough to harbour the frozen piece of steak from last year, an odd slice of quiche or a bag of unidentified things -- it is more so I hardly look into my freezer for anything.  And on the occasions that I did look, I've always been pleasantly surprised.  Like that time when I remembered there was a frozen filo (filled with lamb and sweet potato) that ended up being the perfect post work snack, a slice of banana bread to cure a sudden sugar craving and this time, frozen blueberries.

So what else to do with them ...?

Muffins of course!  The web is full of blueberry muffins recipe and I finally decided on a fuss-free, streusel topping free, spice free muffin.  I think that these taste better the next day, but is still very good warm and oozing with berry juices!  Just remember not to thaw the frozen berries, just chuck them straight in otherwise you'll end up with a purple tinge to your batter.

Blueberry muffins

Makes 10-12  




Ingredients

• 300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 300g (1 1/2 cups) frozen blueberries (or raspberries), do not thaw
  
• 250 ml milk 
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg, lightly whisked

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190°C.  Line muffin pans with paper squares.  
2. Combine flour and sugar in a large bowl. Add blueberries (or other berries), and stir lightly to coat the berries.  In a separate bowl, whisk the milk, oil and egg together. 
3. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and add the wet ingredients.  Fold with a metal spoon until just combined (do not overmix).  Divide the mixture into pans and bake for 25 minutes or until done.  Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and turn onto a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Green tea pudding

The kitchenware section is always on par with the clothes section in the 'best section in a department store' stakes.  I could happily spend an hour or two in a kitchenware store  or the respective section in a department store looking, touching, examining, wondering about the possibilities each utensil or gadget could bring.  I also get easily sucked in by sales on kitchenware, whether it's purely browsing or browsing that leads to purchasing.  It is a trait passed down from my mum.

It was therefore no surprise that in the past week, I have gone down to Myer and DJs to check out the mid-season sales.  I ended up getting myself a fine sieve and 4 small ramekins to make the following dessert that I had previously made without the aforementioned things.  Least to say, not having green tea lumps while eating the pudding out of various types of bowls makes the experience lots better.  The dessert is not overly sweet and so leaves a nice finish to the meal.  Depending on how much you like green tea, adjust how much you put in.  I'm a bit of a fanatic and found the green tea taste was definitely there and just right!

Green Tea Pudding

Adapted from Pittsburg Needs Eated
Fills 4 small ramekins

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk (I used low fat & it was OK)
• 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon powdered gelatin softened in 2 tablespoons of cold water (do before adding it into the milk mixture -- done prematurely and you end up with gelatin balls)
• 2 tablespoons matcha (green tea) powder
• Small squeeze of lemon juice (optional)
  

Method

1. Put milk, sugar and salt in a small saucepan and warm over medium heat until bubbles begin to form around the edges -- be careful not to boil the milk.
2. Add the softened gelatin and water to the milk mixture and stir until dissolved.
3. Remove from heat and let the mixture sit until it cools to room temp.  I tend to let it sit in a bowl of water to quicken the process.
4. Add the matcha powder plus lemon juice into the milk and gelatin mixture and whisk or use a hand blender until the matcha powder has been completely dissolved (some small lumps are OK) 
5. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve (important!) and divide into ramekins. 
6. Refrigerate uncovered for about 3-4 hours or until set.

Chinese paper sponge cakes

Ingredients

• 5 eggs, separated
• 85g caster sugar
• 85g cake flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons corn starch
• 60g butter

It's important to get everything ready because if you work too slow, then the egg whites that you whip will deflate and your cake won't rise.  These are one of the times when I actually take the effort to get ready -- usually I grab whatever I need out of my pantry as I require it (mostly to use less utensils and hence less cleaning)
Mise en place

Prep cases -- for some bizarre reason I couldn't find paper-cups at the supermarket.  Improvised a bit.

Preheat oven to 220oC (200oC for fan-forced)
I did a bit of research on whipping egg whites before I started, being my first time.  The tips I came across were 1) separate the eggs while they are still cold (stops the yolk from breaking and mixing with the egg white because egg yolks or grease in egg white is BAD!); 2) let the egg whites sit at room temperature for 30 minutes and 3) use the egg whites straight away.
I read that if one does it properly, the volume of the egg whites can expand to 6-8 times it's original.  Pretty amazing stuff.  I gave a yelp of excitement when I started to see it poof up and Mum who was standing beside me gave me a funny look.  Heh.  Add the sugar a tablespoon at a time when you get to stiff peaks.
Add whisked yolks and fold.

Add both flours and fold -- beating the heck out of it will mean that you deflate the egg whites, thus defeating the purpose of all that whipping.  Boohoo.

Fill cases to 80% full.  Messy job here, next time will use piping bag.

Place in preheated 220oC oven for 5 minutes (this is to make the tops golden).  Turn heat down to 180oC and bake for another 15-20 minutes.  Use skewer to test done-ness.
Fresh out of the oven.


And a close up ...

According to my taste-testers, they tasted very much like the ones you get in HK but wasn't as fluffly, which I suspect is because I didn't beat the egg whites long enough.  Will definitely try them again!

Garlic and herb pull-apart

After waking up earlier than usual, and having more hours to spend for the day, plus with shops being closed, I decided to venture into baking yeast bread.  It was another one of my attempts to see how making bread will turn out.  I adapted a recipe I found on Taste.com and while it tasted quite good while it was warm, it didn't have that 'bread' taste anymore.  I'm not sure whether it's the flour or not adding enough of a salt or sugar or just a lack of kneading skills.  It was good fun though ... I think I need to practice kneading.  Then I need to attempt at making a pizza base.

Garlic and herb pull-apart

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 375 ml warm water
• 7g (1 sachet) dried yeast - I used instant dried yeast
  
• 2 teaspoons caster sugar
• 525g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes
• Olive oil, to grease
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh continental parsley
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil
• 10-15 pitted and halved 
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tablespoon milk (for milk wash)

Method

1. Combine the water, yeast and sugar in a bowl. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 5 minutes or until frothy. 
2. Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast mixture. Use a wooden spoon to stir until combined, then use your hands to bring the dough together.
3. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and elastic. Brush a bowl with oil to grease, place dough in it and cover with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel. Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
4. Preheat oven to 210°C. Brush an 11 x 21cm (base measurement) loaf pan with oil to grease. Combine the parsley, thyme, basil and olives* in a bowl. Punch down the centre of the dough with your fist. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2 minutes or until dough is elastic and has returned to original size.
5. Divide into 18 equal portions. Roll each portion into a 6cm-diameter disc. Combine oil and garlic in a bowl. Place 6 discs in the pan. Brush with oil mixture and spoon over one-third of the olive mixture. Continue layering with remaining dough, oil mixture and olive mixture. Cover with a damp tea towel and set aside in a warm, draught-free place to prove for 30 minutes or almost doubled in size.
6. Brush pull-apart with milk. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden and loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Serve warm or at room temperature.

* Feta or sun-dried tomatoes be used instead of olives

Linzer biscuits

I went through 5 years worth of my Super Food Ideas magazine collection and ripped out the recipes I wanted to keep, organised and filed them; and while doing so came across a recipe for Linzer biscuits.  Given that I had a) lots of time, b) had no inspiration to make anything else and c) love sandwiched goodies ... melting moments, macaroons, oreos and the humble sandwich itself, I decided to give these a go.

Mum goes to me as I was rolling out dough for the 3rd time, "Don't you find it time consuming ... having to knead, then roll, chill the dough, cut out the cookies, chill it again before you actually bake it?", and looks at me strangely when I reply to her, "That's why I'm doing these!".  When my mum bakes, she prefers things that are quick, easy and require minimal fuss; these however need time and patience, but of course is perfect for taking my mind off things for an hour or two.  The dough rolled out beautifully without cracking and after freezing it for a bit, was lovely to work with -- as all the offcuts would come off without a hassle.

I had a taste test of them and they turned out really good!  They were crisp and the biscuits themselves weren't too sweet so to allow for the jam to make up for it.  Will definitely make them again!  And invest in a proper Linzer cutter (I spent a while hunting around the kitchen for something just the right size for that hold in the middle).  I made a couple of them with holes for it to actually look like the real thing -- but my brother has a particular palate so I left most of them as they were as they came out of the oven.  Of course, one could substitute anything for jam .. nutella, peanut butter, frosting even.

Linzer Biscuits
(Recipe adapted from Super Food Ideas)
The amount varies depending on how big your cutters are.  I used 4cm cutters and got a good 30-odd prior to being sandwiched.

Ingredients

• 100g butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional) - I didn't add any and it tasted fine
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 2/3 cups plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Jam or spread of your liking

Method

1. Beat butter, vanilla and sugar with electric mixer until well combined.  Add egg and mix well.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon over butter mixture.  Stir until mixture forms a dough (may take a bit of time).  Knead gently to bring together
3. Divide dough into 2 and place between 2 sheets of baking paper and roll out until 3-5 mm thick (but really just so long it's not a centimeter, anything will do).  Place in freezer for a few minutes or until firm.  Preheat oven to 180oC
4. Using a biscuit cutter, cut as many as you can and arrange them on lined trays.  With a couple of them, find a smaller cutter and cut out holes -- the original recipe said to freeze them first before cutting the holes but I found that this caused the actual biscuit to crack so it's best to do it all in 1 hit
5. Freeze for another few minutes until firm to cut
6. Bake for 6-8 minutes or until lightly golden.  Allow biscuits to cool on tray for 5 minutes before transferring them onto a wirerack.
7. Before serviing, spread jam over whole biscuits and pop sandwich cut-out biscuits on top.

Spring onion pancake

I must've mentioned before how one of my 'things to do in life' is to learn how to make dimsims.  Of all the things that I would really love to learn how to make are har-gau, char siu bau, chiu-chow fun gwo (as my Mum loves them), ma lai go and those sesame balls filled with red bean past.  I've yet to attempt them, partly because they're all labour intensive or require equipment that I don't have.  The things that I have tried are egg tarts, the various types of pastries, other types of buns and now, the spring onion pancake.  I came across a recipe for the spring onion pancake a while ago, bookmarked it and forgot about it.  It only came back to me when I was clearing out my fridge and saw half a bunch of spring onions looking like it needed to be used.  It's a simple recipe -- the only downside is that it isn't fast food.

The recipe can be increased or decreased.  I halved the original recipe and ended up with one pansized pancake, and I ate it all while watching the Saturday Night Live vids of Tina Fey as Sarah Palin.  Hee-larious!  It was an afternoon very well spent.

Spring onion pancake

Makes 1 medium sized pancake

Ingredients

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup of warm water + more (if necessary)
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• Salt
• Sesame oil

Method

1. Make your dough by adding the warm water to the flour and incorporating well.  You want the dough to be come off the sides easily, be barely sticky and certainly not rock hard -- add more water as you see need be.  Cover with a damp tea towel and let sit for 30 minutes so the dough can relax.
2. After resting, roll your dough out to about 5 mm thin. If you're doubling the recipe, divide the dough into two pieces first before rolling out.
3. Brush with sesame oil and sprinkle lots of salt over it.  Add the spring onions (as much as you please!). Pick up one end of the round and begin rolling it into a tight little cigar.
4. Pinch the ends, then twist the dough into a snail.  Let it rest for about 10 minutes.  Then roll it out to the thickness you want (I'd say 5-10 mm thin).
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Heat a non-stick pan and add oil -- enough to just slightly coat the entire pan (you need the oil to make it crispy)
6. Slice into wedges and eat warm

Lemon cupcakes with lemon glaze

I don't know what it is about lemons and its use in sweet, and savoury things that makes me love it so much.  Perhaps its the tang that livens up the dish (and myself), or that by having two opposing flavours, makes each one stand out a bit more.  I had a couple of lemons donated to me from a kind person's tree, and the possibilities of the things I could make were endless:  lemon tart (my favourite dessert of all time), a lemon drizzle cake, lemon muffins, lemon zest cookies ... In the end, I settled on a lemon glaze cupcake.

I made them and took them to a morning tea and they were well received.  These are good.  They're crumbly and they ooze of lemon deliciousness.

Lemon cupcakes with lemon glaze

Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes 12

Ingredients

Lemon cupcake

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  
• 1 cup caster sugar
  
• 2 large eggs
  
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk or plain low-fat yogurt
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
  

Lemon glaze

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  
• 1 cup icing sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175oC.  Butter and flour a muffin tin or line them with cases.
   
2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour with the baking powder and salt.  In a small bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, vanilla, and lemon zest and juice of 1 lemon.  Set aside.
3. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light.  Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk mixture.
4. Divide evenly among muffin cups.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a cake comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes in tin, then cool completely on a rack.
5. Set rack over wax or parchment paper.  In a small bowl, stir icing sugar with remaining lemon juice until smooth. Pour over cakes, spreading to edges with a small knife.  Let set 30 minutes.

Risotto with pumpkin and swiss brown mushrooms

,Sometimes I just itch to make something.  Not so much that I want to eat it, but I just want to make it - go through the process of preparing the ingredients, cooking it and presenting it.  I can't really pinpoint why I have these sudden urges - they just come.  So it was a great thing that Becky came over for dinner the other night and picked having a pumpkin and mushroom risotto over rice and chinese veg.  I've been wanting to make risotto for a while, and have had the arborio rice and chicken stock staring me in the face in the pantry willing itself to be used.

Risottos are one of those things I love to cook and eat.  I'm a bit particular with cooking risottos - the stock needs to be warm and that it is added in a ladle at a time (rather than all at once) and I believe in taking the time to watch over it over a stove (rather than put it in a rice-cooker).  Besides, it's also a perfect excuse to sneak in some downtime while watching those arborio rice grains plump up.  Once I get all this right, I hope to make my own stock and pair them together.

When I first started making risottos, I found it pretty hard to tell when it was done.  The best way to tell is by tasting it.  The first couple of times I was tasting from the 20 minute mark and thus have eaten my fair share of semi cooked arborio rice grains.  Nowadays, I gauge whether the rice is by hearing it 'whistle' and seeing it  bubbling -- an observation I made after cooking a couple of risottos.  See if it is like that for you - it hasn't failed me so far!

Risotto with pumpkin and swiss brown mushrooms

Serves 2



Ingredients

• 400-500g butternut pumpkin, peeled and cut into 1-2 cm cubes
• 150g Swiss brown mushrooms
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 1 small glass of dry white wine (i.e. Chardonnay)
• 800 ml chicken / vegetable stock (this is a rough guide, you may need to add more or less depending on how fast the rice cooks - I usually dilute it with some warm water)
• Shaved parmesan to serve

Method

1. Prepare the pumpkin:  Preheat the oven to 200oC.  Place pumpkin on a baking tray lined with baking paper (makes it so much easier).  Drizzle about 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil over it and toss to coat.  Pop into the oven and cook for about 15 minutes.  
2. Meanwhile warm the stock in a saucepan or in the microwave.  You want it to be lukewarm (not piping hot). 
3. Heat a heavy base saucepan over medium heat.  Add about a tablespoon of oil and sweat off onions (this means that you want the onions to turn transluscent - avoid browning them!).  After a minute or two, add in the garlic.  Stir for a minute. Add rice.  Toast for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the wine and let the rice soak up all the wine, and then start adding the warm stock about 1/2 cup at a time.  I try to avoid stirring the mixture too much -- just one or two stirs with a spoon, and then I just let it sit and shake the pan a bit.  Allow the liquid to completely absorb first before adding the second lot of stock.  Continue doing this until the rice becomes al dente. For me, this usually takes about 30 minutes but it depends on the pan size to rice ratio.
5. Check on your pumpkin and just before it's done, take it out and drizzle a bit of honey over the pumpkin and pop back into the oven to finish cooking. 
6. Just before you risotto has finished, heat a small frypan on medium heat.  Slice the mushrooms thickly (no less than 5 mm) and dust a bit of cornflour over the mushrooms (optional).  Spray the pan with some oil or add a small knob of butter and saute mushrooms in the pan until cooked. 
7. Add the mushrooms to the risotto and stir.  Take the pumpkin out of the oven, and add to the risotto, taking care not to mash up the pumpkin too much.  Divide, top with some shaved parmesan and cracked black pepper.  Serve warm.
   

Banana pecan muffins

Sometime back in 2nd year uni, I developed a love for banana bread.  I used to consider things like carrot cake, banana bread, pumpkin bread, zucchini muffins a bit strange -- I was so used to the usual chocolate chip / vanilla cupcakes.  But through a chance stumble at one of the campus centre shops, I was hooked onto it.  The ones that they sold were moist, full of banana flavour and light - essentially the perfect after uni snack.  Without an oven, the only way I could get my hands onto them was the store bought kind.  It was $2.20 that I was willing to part with.  Then when I got an oven, Cyclone Larry hit Queensland's north coast and banana prices went shooting up the roof - paying $12 / kg for bananas didn't seem to sink in that well.  When it finally came back down to $3 / kg, I went about searching for the banana bread recipe.

And I have found it.  The recipe from Simply Recipes I've made it again and again, without fail.  It creates a banana bread that's just the right texture, and is full of banana flavour without using too many bananas.  There's hardly any sugar, and it's so versatile that you can add other things -- nuts, coconut, chocolate chips, more fruit to it.  It's really just perfect.  This time I made them into cupcakes, added some pecans to it and popped a pecan on top for decoration.

Banana Pecan Muffins

Makes 12



Ingredients

• 3 or 4 ripe bananas (skins brown and banana feels mushy), smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup caster sugar (use more sugar if your bananas are less ripe)
  
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup of toasted pecans

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C.
   
2. Mix butter with mushed bananas in large bowl.  Mix in sugar, egg and vanilla.
3. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in.
4. Add the flour and pecans (if using).  Mix.
5. Pour mixture into greased muffin pan and bake for 20-25 minutes (until cooked with skewer test).
6. Cool on rack, remove from pan and serve with honey and ricotta or butter.

If you want to make it into a loaf, just put it in a greased loaf pan and bake for 40-50 minutes (in my pan, it takes about 40) - cool on a rack and serve.  Try it with some ricotto and honey -- it is seriously the bomb!

Banana and pear bread

I had 2 pears on the verge of turning into mush and 2 bananas already too ripe for me to enjoy, and they all  begged to be used in a quickbread.  So I did.  I had a hunt around for recipes, and sort of did a mish mash of everything, hoping it'll turn out OK.  Usually with baking I'm pretty anal about following the correct ratios of dry and wet ingredients (as it's the chemistry of how the ingredients work together that produces the final product), but decided to give experimenting a go.  It tasted like banana bread (love the stuff) with pear chunks so it was a lovely combination of texture and tastes.

It was certainly a very quick, quickbread.  Minus the cooking time, it took me only 15 minutes to whip up.  (Which was perfect as I had to zip out to the labs in 20.  I left the timer on, and when I got back, I came home to a nice warm banana and pear bread ready to eat).  I've devoured 3 slices already.  Thankfully the rest have been frozen (which means there's a chance I'll forget about them and not finish it all before the weekend is over).

Banana and pear bread
Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

• 2 over-ripe bananas
• 2 ripe pears, cut into ~1cm cubes
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C.  Mash bananas in big bowl, add in pear chunks.  Add sugars, oil, eggs, vanilla and mix well.  
2. Combine flour, baking soda and cinnamon in another bowl then add it to the wet mixture.  Mix till just combined.  
3. Place in a lined 9" x 5" loaf pan (or I'm sure these can be placed in muffin trays).  Cook for 45-50 minutes or when top is browned and a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Allow to cool in tin for 5-10 minutes before turning out on a wire rack.  

Rosemary and Cheese Focaccia

I woke up much earlier than I had planned to on the weekend and couldn't fall back to sleep.  It was frustrating as the week had left me exhausted and the one thing I was looking forward to was a decent sleep in.  Having a couple of hours to kill until a somewhat decent breakfast hour, I decided to make bread.  Yes, bread.  I don't know how on earth that thought came about, but once my mind got going on what I type of bread I could make, I was getting excited!  I decided on a focaccia and hunted around for a recipe.  This one from Allrecipes.com seemed to be quite well received, and luckily, I had everything I needed.  I took it out of the oven just when the sun was creeping up for a crisp autumn day so it wasn't that bad that I couldn't sleep after all!

Rosemary and cheese focaccia

Makes 1 baking sized tray




Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups bread flour
• 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 (7g) package instant yeast
• 1 1/3 cups warm water (45oC)
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
• 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

Method

1. In a large plastic or glass bowl (not metal), stir together the flours and salt.  Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture.  Sprinkle the sugar and yeast into that well.  Carefully pour the water into the well.  Let stand until the yeast begins to act, about 5 minutes.
   
2. Pour 2 tablespoons of the oil into the well.  With a wooden spoon stir the mixture in the centre of the bowl. Gradually widen the circle of stirring to take in all of the flour at the sides of the well.
3. Turn out on a floured surface, and knead just until smooth, adding the rosemary gradually while kneading.  Keep the dough soft.  Pour 1/2 teaspoon of the oil into a clean bowl.  Place the dough in the bowl, turning once to oil the top.  Cover.  Let rise until doubled, 30 to 45 minutes.
4. Punch the dough down.  Use 1 teaspoon of the oil to coat a baking sheet, and place the dough on the baking sheet. Gently press the dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness.  Pour the remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil over the top of the dough.
   
5. Use the handle end of a wooden spoon to dimple the dough at 1 1/2 inch intervals. Sprinkle with the cheese (and more rosemary if desired).
   
6. Place in a cold oven on the center shelf.  Place a flat pan of hot water on the shelf below the bread.  Let rise until doubled, 20 to 25 minutes.
7. Turn on the oven to 190oC.  Bake the focaccia for 20 to 25 minutes, or until browned on top.  Remove from the pan, and cool on a wire rack.  Serve warm.

Apple crumble

I have this perhaps slightly peculiar habit of having to use things up after a certain period of time -- it annoys me a bit having random bits of everything sitting in the fridge.  It may not be a surprise then that I love having a fully stocked pantry.  Anyway, I had 1 apple and a knob of butter to use up, and coincidentally, I had been brewing an apple crumble craving all day.  Checking I had oats and sugar, I researched recipes online.  This was inspired by a number of different recipes seeing as I only had 1 apple and many used 4-5.  I have posted the recipe for 4 serves below, as I would dare to say that one would certainly not be enough!

Unfortunately I didn't have icecream to serve it with, but on its own, it was equally divine.

Apple crumble
Serves 4

Ingredients 

Filling

• 4-5 apples, peeled and roughly chopped into bite sized pieces
• 4-5 tablespoons of caster sugar
• juice of half a lemon
• (optional) pecans / walnuts / sultanas - personal preference

Crumble

• 90 g butter, cold and cut into 1.5 cm cubes
• 1/2 cup of tightly packed brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cup self raising flour
• 2/3 cup rolled oats (not instant oats)
  

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Mix all the filling ingredients in a bowl.  Divide into ramekins leaving about 2cm at the top.
3. In another bowl, rub the butter, brown sugar, self raising flour and oats together.  Divide evenly between ramekins.
4. Pop ramekins onto a baking tray and place in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is golden.  After taking them out, let them stand for about 5 minutes before serving.  Serve with ice-cream or custard.

Things to attempt

Things I still want to try my hand on for the first time or as another attempt.

• No knead bread
• Macarons
• Profiteroles / Choux pastry
• Sushi
• "3 cups chicken"
• Braised beef brisket
  
• Hainanese chicken rice
  
• Asian style stewed beef brisket
• Glazed fruit tarts
• Hong Kong style egg tarts
• Hong Kong bakery breads
• Matcha ice-cream
• Eggless tiramisu
• Lemon or lime tart/bars
• Gingerbread
• Pizza dough
• Brownies
• Mango Panna cotta verrines
• Pepsi/coke chicken
• Red bean mochi
• Lor Bak Gao
• Ma Po Tofu

Recipe Index

Still to come!

About Me

Hi everyone!

I’m Carmen, a 20-something year old in Melbourne, Australia and love everything about food -- the eating, the cooking, the company that comes with it, the pleasure it brings to myself and others, and a whole lot more!  I started this blog quite spontaneously one Saturday afternoon years ago, and I have to admit it's been neglected on and off (and has even gone through a change of hosting sites!).  I figured I should probably start posting again, even if just so I have a place to record and share my recipes.

I love visitors, so thanks for dropping by and hope that you enjoy the site!

(And thanks to Lewis for the site title!)