Saturday 30 October 2010

Macadamia nut & white chocolate brownies - recipe

Chocci's Macadamia Nut & White Chocolate Brownies 

This recipe is from Ottolenghi's first cookbook "The Cookbook".  So far I'm really loving the cookbook as the recipes are really spot on.  Apparently the key with baking brownies is not to overbake them.  This means you have to take it out earlier than you think it will be done to avoid it turning into into a cake. 


Ingredients:
  • 300g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
  • 200g unsalted butter, plus some extra for greasing the pan
  • 280g plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 free-range eggs
  • 230g caster sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • 200g macadamia nuts, toasted for 5 mins
  • 200g white chocolate chips (or chocolate broken into pieces)
Steps:
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees celcius. 
  2. Brush a 20 cm tin square pan or similar sized round pan with melted butter and line with baking paper.
  3. Melt the dark chocolate with the butter in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water until fully melted.  The bowl should not touch the water, and take the chocolate butter mixture off the heat once it has melted.  If it get too hot, then the brownies can get a bit greasy when it is baked. 
  4. Whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence in a large bowl until just combined.
  5. Add the melted chocolate butter mixture and mix lightly.
  6. Fold in the sifted flour.
  7. Add the macadamia nuts and chocolate chips.
  8. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out with gooey crumbs (not completely dry).  The top of the brownies should be completely dry.
These were my first batch of brownies and when they came out, they were a bit on the greasy side.  But I let them rest overnight and they firmed up very nicely to a rather dense fudgy texture on the next day.  They were so rich I had to cut them into small squares as I was worried people would OD on chocolate. 

For my next batch I'm thinking of adding raspberries, and maybe almonds or hazelnuts.

What's your favourite flavour of brownies?  Let me know!

Wednesday 27 October 2010

Macadamia nut & white chocolate brownies

I'm not sure whether I've never made brownies before yesterday.  After reading a couple of my baking books I discovered that the recipe wasn't as complex as other seemingly simple cakes, like sponges!  Recipe to follow soon.  I promise.  
(Source of recipe: Ottolenghi - The Cookbook)

Macadamia nut & white chocolate brownies
Stack of brownies, which disappeared pretty quickly. Into my tummy.

Monday 25 October 2010

Bakerella Cake Pops

I had no idea what cake pops were when they popped out on my screen this morning, turns out they are gorgeous lollipops that you can stick onto top of your cake.

Bakerella makes these fantastic lil cake pops out with cake, melted candy and fun candy bits like sugar pearls for the sheep below.  Super creative and very cute!

Bahhhhh!


Made with mini and regular sized oreos, how cool is that?

Sunday 24 October 2010

New addition to our family

Fire engine red cast iron Le Creuset casserole pot.  We've put it to use already, but more about that another day!  


It's just so pretty!

Wednesday 20 October 2010

Top 10 tips for food photography

Some really useful tips on food photography:
I particularly like the one about keeping the background clean, I think I definitely need to do that more often!
Sof,

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Mist, Japanese ramen, Hong Kong


Since our trip to Hokkaido in February this year, A and I have been trying to perfect the ni-tamago recipe. A fellow food blogger Chubby Hubby had helpfully posted a recipe which we tried out a few times.

But sometimes you just want to have it without the rigamole of cooking it.  Mist, an up market ramen restaurant in Hong Kong (is that an oxymoron?) gives this satisfaction.

It's the only place in Hong Kong so far where I've had ni-tamago cooked properly, a soft boiled egg marinated with the yolk still gooey inside.  Apparently the ingredients have been sourced from all over the place, with the eggs from Toyama and soy sauce from Chiba.  Well whatever it is, it works and the broth is flavoursome and the ramen tastes ... as good as ramen has ever tasted.

The menu is not cheap at around HK$100 per bowl of ramen but I think its worth every penny.  Try their ramen sushi as well, it's an interesting take on sushi ... who says you can't make sushi out of anything other than rice?

Mist
4 Sun Wui Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong  
+852 2881 5006
Reservations recommended 
http://www.mist.com.hk

 

Sunday 17 October 2010

Creamy mushroom puffs

Mushroom puffs with quail egg & thyme

"I think we have a winner!" declared my friend D as he munched his way through this little bite sized canape.  This was the same afternoon tea that I made the prawns with garlic aioli.  "Yes", he nodded, "this is my favourite".

I'd made this mushroom canape many years ago but using short crust pastry as a base.  We already had a strawberry tart on the menu so I decided to use puff pastry instead, which makes this recipe quite similar to the mushroom vol au vents that had their heydays in the 80s.  The good thing is that this version is simpler to make. I like simple.

This recipe makes you about 12 of these little puffs. 

You will need:
  • read made puff pastry, one large sheet (around 30 cm x 30 cm)
  • cookie cutter, around 5-6 cm.  You can use larger puffs of course but
  • regular sized muffin tray
  • 10 large brown mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 large sprig of parsley
  • 1 small sprig of thyme 
  • 6 quail eggs
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 cup of cream
  • 2 tablespoons milk
  •  salt & pepper to taste

Puff pastry shells

You can find the frozen puff pastry in the frozen section of most supermarkets.  It's either rolled up so it comes like cling wrap which you can unroll or flat sheets.  I find that London has the rolled up ones, whereas in Australia they tend to come as flat packs.  Both work fine but with the rolled up variety the important thing is to wait until it's defrosted before you unroll otherwise they will break pretty easily.  I usually let them sit out for about 10-15 mins before I need to use it.  That said, if you leave it too long they will completely defrost and getting a bit soggy which can be hard to handle.

To make the puff pastry shells, cut out the round shapes of the puff pastry with your cookie cutter.  You can use a plain round one or a "scalloped" one shown below.  I had no idea the curly edged ones were called "scalloped" until A looked it up for me but there you go.  Brush the muffin trays with some of the olive oil and place your round puff pastry into each muffin hole, pushing down so it makes a nice little cup shape.  Brush the puff pastry with a little milk.  This will give it the nice golden colour as it bakes.

[Note: At this stage, you can either place the mushroom mixture on top of the puffy pastry (which will help weigh the pastry down, but means your pastry won't be as crisp), or line the pastry with baking paper and baking beans/rice and "blind bake".  I tried the latter but the puff pastry was too strong and puffed up anyway!  I would just let the puff pastry puff up which is kinda fun, and then press it down as described below to create the cavity you need to add the mixture. ]

Place in a pre-heated oven (170 degrees celcius) and bake for 10 mins or until light golden brown.  Now you'll find that it has completely puffed up.  We want to create a hole in the middle of the puff where you want to place the mushroom mixture. So using a spoon or other round heavy object which will leave about half to one cm rim around the pastry shell (I used the top of my wine stopper), push down the middle so that you create a bowl shape.

Mushroom filling

Pan fry the sliced onions in hot olive oil with the chopped garlic and parsley until the mushrooms are nice and golden brown.  Add the cream and cook for another 10 mins until you get a thick consistency, add the salt & pepper to taste.

Boil the quail eggs for 3 mins and peel like normal hard boiled eggs, or 1 mins for a soft runny yolk. Slice in half.  Be careful to spoon the quail eggs gently into the pan of boiling water and not to cook them for too long otherwise they will implode, the shells are incredibly thin.  You'll see in the picture below that I had that accident with a few of my eggs!



Putting it all together

This is my favourite part.  Spoon the mushroom mixture into the puff pastry shell until it is just full.  Top with the halved quail egg and a sprig of thyme.  Voila!  Ready to be served.

What I like about this canape is that the puff pastry is incredibly light but when you bite into it you get this burst of creamy herby mushrooms.  The quail egg on top adds an extra richness and luxe factor as a canape.

King prawn toast with whole grain mustard aioli


Perfect for afternoon tea or canapes
This was a bit of an experiment for an afternoon tea we had at our place recently.  The whole recipe is very simple though, and will only take about 20 mins to put together.

Ingredients:
(makes 12)

  • 6 pieces of sliced bread (I used white but you could use wholemeal)
  • a scalloped cookie cutter around 5-6 cm
  • 12 pieces of cooked king prawn (they came pre-cooked from my supermarket but you can gently cook them until they are pink if you can't find the cooked variety)
  • 1 cucumber, thinly sliced into 3-4 mm slices
  • sprigs of fresh parsley to decorate
For the aioli: 
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard
  • 2 table spoons lemon juice
  • salt & pepper to taste
Aioli is basically garlic mayonnaise.  I first discovered it in Spain when it was served on top of a tortilla, and then together with fiduea, which I call the noodle version of paella.  Fiduea is deserving of its own post some other day when I manage to make it!  Anyway back to aioli, the creamy mayo with the garlic kick just brings out the flavour of foods, particularly seafood, so well.  Now I find it hard to have tortilla without it.  Aioli goes really well with prawns but I didn't have time to make the aioli from scratch so I experimented a bit with the store bought mayo.
    1. Scalloped cookie cutter
      Using the cookie cutter, cut two rings of bread from each slice of bread.
    2. Toast the bread in the oven at around 180 degrees celcius until just golden brown, which should take around 5-10 mins.
    3. While the bread is toasting, you can make your aioli.  Chop your garlic as finely as possible, using a food processor if possible.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly - it should be a nice thick consistency.  You can vary the quantities of the ingredients depending on your taste, e.g. whether you like it more tangy (more lemon) or garlicky! 
    4. Place a slice of cucumber on the toast, topped by a small spoonful of aioli and then the king prawn.  The aioli will help keep the prawn in place.
    5. Add a sprig of parsley.
    6. Serve within 2-3 hours. 


      Thursday 14 October 2010

      Tang yuan recipe

      Going to try this sometime soon!

      • 50g of raw unsalted peanut
      • 1tbsp of peanut butter
      • 1tbsp of icing sugar (taste and add more if you like it sweeter)
      • 1 pinch of cinnamon
      • 1/2 tsp of grounded ginger

      Ginger syrup

      • 50g of fresh ginger
      • 80g of sugarcane rock sugar
      • 10g of pandan leaves
      • 10g of chrysanthemum flowers
      • 3 cups of water

      National Restaurant Awards

      The Ledbury was named National Restaurant of the Year 2010, led by Australian chef Brett Graham, the Notting Hill restaurant also received the Best Front of House Award.
      Other awards handed out by Restaurant Magazine included The Restaurateurs' Choice, which went to Restaurant Nathan Outlaw (at the St Enodoc Hotel in Cornwall), and Best Gastropub, which went to The Hardwick in Abergavenny (in Wales, near Cardiff).

      Rest of the details here: http://www.nationalrestaurantawards.co.uk/.

      Tuesday 12 October 2010

      My first stamp image

      Created from a photo I took of some David Austin flowers and tea light lanterns, using photoshop.

      Love how easy it was to create a stamp!

      Saturday 9 October 2010

      Pear, chocolate and hazelnut cake



      L Mama made an awesome apple cake over Xmas last year in Pittsburgh. She kindly sent through the recipe and I'd been meaning to make it for a while.

      I dug it out tonight and made a few change, swapping it for ingredients I had in the kitchen which turned out quite well. It's amazing that this cake which has no butter tastes so moist.

      Here's the original recipe

      1973 Teddie's Apple Cake

      All purpose flour, 3 cup plus more for dusting cake-pan & butter for greasing pan
      veg oil, 1 cup
      sugar, 2 cup
      eggs, 3 large
      salt, 1 tsp
      cinnamon, 1 tsp

      baking soda, 1 tsp
      vanilla, 1 tsp
      apples, 3 cup peeled, cored & thickly sliced tart apples [ like Honeycrisp or Granny Smith]
      walnuts,1 cup chopped
      raisins, 1 cup
      1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
      2. Butter and flour a 9-inch bundt/ring pan.
      3. Beat the oil and sugar together in a mixer
      4. Add the eggs and beat until the mixture is creamy.
      5. Sift together flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda. Stir into the batter.
      6. Add the vanilla, apples, walnuts and raisins and stir.
      7. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan.
      8. Bake for 1 h 15 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
      9. Cool in the pan before turning out.
      10. Serve at room temperature with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, if desired.



      To make my variation, simply substitute the pear for the apple, 1/2 cup hazelhuts for the walnuts and 1/2 cup chocolate pieces for the raisins. It's quite sweet so you can also reduce the amount of sugar, say by half a cup.

      Friday 8 October 2010

      Gorgeous stamps


      from http://www.craftpudding.com/
      It's a shame but her shop is closed for now. That said, it's inspired me to collect some stamps from other designers on Etsy, maybe one day create my own.

      Saturday 2 October 2010

      Mother of all curry cookbooks?


      A's mates invited us over for a very yummy Spanish dinner and had this book by Madhur Jeffrey on their shelves.  Browsing through it it looks like the mother of all curry bibles.  I couldn't bring myself to buy this copy seeing as I still have so many bookcooks which are unused, but it did inspire us to buy a couple of (cheaper) curry recipe paperbacks including the Curry Secret and An Indian Housewive's Recipe Book.  Really looking forward to trying these out!