Xmas Red Velvet Cupcakes

My contribution to the pre-Xmas luncheon at work.  I made these from a box of supermaket cake mix and used Wilton decorations.  It's hard to tell but I put non-toxic glitter on the cream cheese frosting for "snow" too.  Looking back, I think I should have piped it, but as usual I was baking in the middle of the night and ran out of steam.

Mango and White Chocolate Cheesecake

I feel like a fraud when I tag "baking" on this post.  Most cheesecakes don't go near an oven!  Recipe from Women's Weekly Christmas edition.

The whipped cream in this cheesecake makes it light and fluffy.  The chocolate makes the mixture nicely sweet and not sour at all.

Crush 100g of sweet biscuits (I used Arnott's Nice) in a food processor and combine with 60g of melted butter.  Alternatively put the biscuits in a bag and bash it with a saucepan or rolling pin or frypan.  You get the idea. Press the crumbs into the base of a springform pan with the back of a tablespoon. Melt 200g of white chocolate buttons in the microwave by heating on high for 30 seconds at a time and stirring.  Whip 300ml of cream and set aside.  Beat 500g of cream cheese with 110g of caster sugar.  Fold in whipped cream and melted white chocolate.  Dissolve 1 sachet or 3 tsp of gelatine powder in hot water and add to the cream cheese mixture.  Pour into springform tin and refrigerate overnight.  Add 2 mangoes to the top of the cake before serving.

Portugese Custard Tarts

Cant believe I've been forking out $2.50 a piece for these babies.  They're really easy to make!  Especially if you use ready made frozen puff pastry like I do

In a heavy saucepan, bring 155ml cream and 115ml milk to boil on medium heat. While it is heating, cream together 2 egg yolks and 80g caster sugar until colour pales and ribbons form when beats are lifted from the mixture. With the beaters running, mix in the hot milk-cream mixture gradually.  The put the mixture back into the saucepan and heat gently for about 8 minutes, stirring constantly.  Put this in a pouring jug to cool to room temperature.

Defrost 2 sheets of puff pastry; use butter puff if you're brave because ti's very floppy and hard to work with.   Roll the pastry up into a log and cut into 6 even pieces. Place a piece flat end down in a well buttered muffin tray and push down and out with wet fingers to make the tart casing. Take care you do not have holes or the custard will leak below and form a sticky caramel.  Fill the tart shells 1/3 full and bake at 200 degrees Celsius for 15 to 20 minutes.  By the way, don't be greedy like me and put too much custard in the tarts.  The filling will puff up in the oven and it'll overflow down the sides to make a sticky mess.  Blackened bits on top of the custard is desirable and that's how you know it's ready.

Happy Birthday my Love

Your favourite on your special day xo

Profiteroles

I haven't made choux pastry in years and when I was gifted with half a dozen freshly laid eggs from my boss's pet chickens I thought of this recipe.  This recipe also brought a smile to my face because it reminds me of a dear patient of mine; Mrs Dalrymple.  I met Mrs D over 10 years ago when I was filling in at my sisters workplace.  I remembered how excited the girls and I got when she brought over a plate of her awesome profiteroles or "Cream Puffs".  Years later, at another workplace, I was pleasantly surprised to recognise her bright red hair and cheery smile.  And, as I remembered, we were also graced with plates of chocolate drizzled Cream Puffs at Christmas and throughout the year.    

Donna Hay's Profiteroles

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Bring half a cup of water and 50g of butter to the boil.  Turn down the heat to a simmer and add 75g plain flour.  Stir quickly until the mixture combines into a ball.  Turn off the heat.  Let it cool a bit before placing in a mixer.  Add 3 eggs, one at a time, beating well in between.  It is ready when  "ribbons" of batter falls from the beaters when lifted from the mixture.  Place this in a piping bag and pipe 4cm rounds on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper.  Bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown and no longer wobbly. 

Allow to cool, then fill with store bought custard.  This can be done with a piping bag and small nozzle or a syringe from the local pharmacy.  You can dust with icing sugar or top with melted chocolate.  

PS - These were good ,but not as good as Mrs D's

Green Curry Chicken Noodles

Fry 5 tablespoons of Valcom green curry paste with a tablespoon of oil until fragrant.  Add one diced chicken breast and brown all sides.  Add 1 sliced carrot and 1 sliced potato and about 200ml of light coconut milk.  Simmer for 20 minutes then add 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and 1 tablespoon of sugar.  Serve with boiled rice noodles or rice.

Easy Chicken and Chorizo Paella

This is a paella recipe for people who aren't fans of seafood.  If you have fussy eaters that dislike vegetables, try using a food processor to "hide" the vegetables in the sauce.

Blend in a food processor or finely dice 1 small brown onion, half a red capsicum and 1 clove of garlic.  Fry in 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1/2 teaspoon mild paprika in 1-2 tablespoon of olive oil briefly then add the vegetables and 8 saffron strings.  Add 200g of diced chicken and 100g of sliced chorizo and 200g of short-grain rice.  Cook until it looks dry then add about 600ml hot chicken stock.  When it boils, reduce heat to low and simmer. Set a timer for 25 minutes.  When there is 10 minutes left on the cooking time, add a couple of handfuls of frozen peas to the top. When the timer hits 5 minutes turn the heat up to high to burn a crust into this baby.  When the timer sounds take it off the heat and cover with a tea towel if it looks wet, and with a pot lid if it looks dry.  Then you should end up with this.  You can used a frypan instead of a paella pan.

Oat and Chocolate Cookies

I made these for the peeps at work today.  I guess they were tasty coz they're all gone :)

Classic Apple Pie

Winter is definitely here and the weather's been stormy and cold.  I've been hiding indoors all weekend and got busy in the kitchen with some baking.  This is my version of Family Circle's Apple Pie recipe.

I cheated with store bought shortcrust pastry base and top.  I usually bake the base for 10 minutes at 180 degrees C because it stops the pie getting soggy. If you use baking beads, it'll stop the base from losing shape.

The filling is made from 1 kilo of Granny Smith apples simmered until soft (15 minutes) in 2 tablespoons of water, 100g sugar, ground cinnamon and ground cloves.  Drain the fluid and mix in 80g butter and a tablespoon of marmalade.  Allow to cool completely then refrigerate.  If the filling is hot it'll melt the uncooked pastry and you wont get a nice crust.

Fill the cooled pastry base with filling and top with pastry. Cut to size and press down on the rim to seal the edges.  Brush with milk and sprinkle with sugar.  Bake at 180 degrees C again for 30 to 40 minutes.  It' best to place the pie on a baking tray too!

Orange Almond Cake

This is a traditional Jewish Passover dessert from this episode of Food Safari.  I followed the recipe and found it was wonderfully moist with a slightly bitter taste from the inclusion of whole oranges.

If you don't like the bitter complexity of this cake, you can always substitute the boiled oranges with the rind of 2 oranges and 2.5 cups of orange juice.  You may need to increase the sugar to 300 grams to suit mainstream taste buds too.  Personally, I dislike too much sugar in my desserts.

I found I needed about 90 minutes at a lower temperature (160 degrees C fan forced) to stop the top burning.  In my opinion you can always decapitate the burnt top of a cake but it's harder to save a sunken cake so make sure your cake doesn't wobble when you move it and the skewer comes out clean-ish.

Pumpkin Salad

Roast chucks of pumpkin and quartered brown onion with olive oil, thyme and rosemary at 180 degrees Celsius for 30-40 minutes.  Dress half a bag of baby spinach leaves and cubes of baked Margaret River herb and garlic baked ricotta with one tablespoon of Pakora Caramelised balsalmic vinegar and half a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.  Top with roasted vegetables.

Roast Pumpkin Soup

This is a recipe for cold, rainy, windy days like today.

I started with 1 kg of Kent pumpkin.  I removed the seeds and rind, then chopped the pumpkin into 1 inch cubes.  Season with salt and pepper; and a tiny sprinkle of dried rosemary and thyme.  Drizzle with olive oil, toss and roast at 200 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop a brown onion and saute in 100g butter until softened.  Add 1 litre of chicken stock and bring to the boil, then simmer.

When pumpkin is cooked, add to the stock and simmer for 15 minutes.  Let the soup cool then take to it with a a stick blender.  Add about half a cup of cream and reheat.  Serve with bread.

Chinese Crispy Roast Pork Belly Attempt Number 1

A classic Chinese dish is crispy roasted pork belly or Siew Yook. A good Siew Yook has a crispy crunchy crackling and lovely layers of pork and fat underneath.

I used this recipe and adapted the technique with a few tips from my Hainanese Uncle in New Zealand.

Not a bad result but I think I can tweak it. Stay tuned!

Now what do I do?

I harvested the vegetables from the garden and this is the result. 

I'm thinking beetroot relish, vegie soup and carrot cake :)

<3 my leek. It's so leeky :)

What a cute carrot!! It made me think if Peter Rabbit was real,

 this is the carrot he'd be stealing from my garden.  

Speaking of Peter Rabbit... I'd like to wish a very special young lady a Happy 5th Birthday :) Wish we were there to celebrate it with you, A. xoxo

Cheese and Onion Muffins

To make 12 muffins start by preheating oven to 180 degrees fan forced.  Melt 60g of butter in a measuring jug then add 1 cup of milk and 1 egg. Whisk with a fork to mix.  In a medium mixing bowl mix 250g plain flour, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of dried rosemary and 1 tablespoon of baking powder until evenly distributed.   Add to this 1 packet (200g) of Kraft's Italian Cheese blend, 1 finely diced onion and 2 cloves of crushed garlic.  Mix again.  Make a well in the middle of the dry mix and add wet mixture. Mix until just combined; about 15 strokes.  Grease a muffin tray with olive oil spray and distribute the mix evenly.  Bake for 20-25 minutes until brown on top and muffin springs back when poked.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

A variation of Nigella Lawson's recipe because I don't measure with cups and tablespoons anymore and I can't find red food colouring paste.  I used this handy website to convert the recipe.

Makes 12 cupcakes
100g unsalted butter
225g of caster sugar
3 tbsp red food colouring (eg Queens Pillarbox Red)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 XL eggs
210g  plain flour, sifted
2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup of milk

Cream butter and sugar together then add vanilla and food colouring gradually.  Beat in eggs then sift in half the powders.  Fold in. Add the milk and fold in. Add the balance of powders and fold in.  Beat on high for 2 minutes.  Bake at 170 degrees C fan forced for 20-25 minutes.  Cool then add icing. For the icing, beat 100g of unsalted butter with 1/2 tsp of vanilla essence.  Then add 200g of icing sugar and beat until fluffy.