Killing time at Kansai Airport

Y'all know I love to eat. Staying over night at the airport was actually a good move! There's a huge range of food places open 24 hr and they accept credit card. Oh and there's free wifi.

Soba noodles with beef

Ube ice cream (purple yam) Yum!!

Free sample of Starbucks Creamy Vanilla with Lemon Swirl (vanilla milkshake, cream and lemon crunchy topping)

I can't remember the last time I had a donut. But I needed something to go with my Honey Latte.

Lol what the?! 

Genius! Strawberry Kit Kat 

Japanese meals and snacks

Japanese set lunch. Sweet miso mackerel, miso soup, rice and cold tofu

Lunch set is fried chicken in sauce, bamboo rice. Pickles and miso soup.

Green tea, chocolate and vanilla ice cream at Pinafore Maid Cafe

Giant rainbow Pocky (thanks A) in grape flavour 

Grape soft serve

Japanese breakfast with porridge

Sweetened mackerel jerky

Sweetened Wasabi rice cracker

Green tea kit Kat (thanks other A)

Hakone hot spring boiled egg (makes you live 7 years longer)

 

Dark chocolate kit Kat (thanks again other A)

Looks like a turd but it's a sweet potato pudding in cake. 

Green tea muffin with creme patisserie and red bean. Yay fusion

Herman the German Friendship Cake

Hello my name is Herman.
I am a sourdough cake.
I am supposed to sit on your benchtop for 10 days without a lid on me.
You cannot put me in the fridge or I will die.
If I stop bubbling I am dead.

Day 1 : Put me in a large mixing bowl and cover loosely with a tea towel.
Day 2 : Stir well.
Day 3 : Stir well.
Day 4 : Herman is hungry. Add 1 cup of sifted plain flour, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of milk. Stir well.
Day 5 : Stir well.
Day 6 : Stir well.
Day 7 : Stir well.
Day 8 : Stir well.
Day 9 : Add 1 cup of sifted plain flour, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of milk. Stir well. Divide into 4 equal portions and give 2 portions to friends. Keep 1 portion for later and use 1 portion to cook me tomorrow
Day 10 : I am ready for the final stage.

Add the following to me: 1 cup of sugar, 2 cups of sifted plain flour, 2 heaped tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 2/3 cup of cooking oil, 2 eggs, 1 tsp of vanilla esssence, 2 heaped tsp of cinnamon. Mix well then mix in 2 chopped cooking apples and 1 to 2 cups of sultanas.  Pour into a prepared cake pan. Sprinkle 1/2 cup melted butter and 1/4 cup brown sugar on top of the cake, then bake for 45 minutes at 170 to 180 degrees Celsius.  Test the middle with a skewer.  You may need to cover with aluminium foil and bake for a further 20 minutes until set.  When baked I can be frozen.

Tis the season to eat trifle

Merry Christmas!

This year has been a helluva year. Lots of change and I'm sadly feeling a bit drained.  However one must still chip in for the festive feasting. So this year the good old trifle reborn in a few ways. I've rehashed two English trifles, one tropical trifle and a mango coconut trifle in the past 4 weeks. This is a recipe for the latter as requested by my cousins.

There's not really much cooking in a trifle.  You prepare the jelly ingredients night before so it has time to set.  Then whip the cream and assemble a few hours before the party.  

The layers from the bottom to top are:
Pieces of Swiss roll, Chantilly cream, fresh mango, coconut agar jelly, mango jelly, custard and shredded dry coconut.

I use packet mango jelly and reconstitute according to the packet.  Generally you stir one cup of boiling water while sprinkling the jelly crystals slowly.  Then add 200mL of cold water and pour into a rectangular container of some sort. I use a rectangular Pyrex dish.

Coconut agar jelly is made with packet clear unflavoured agar (sold at Asian grocers), a can of coconut milk, about 125g(?) of sugar.  I'm not really sure about the quantities.  Basically I half the recommended amount of sugar recommended on the Agar Jelly packaging. I also subtract the volume of coconut milk ( 400mL ) from the amount of water needed.  To make the jelly you bring all the ingredients to the boil and pour into a rectangular container and put it in the fridge.  If you do not bring to the boil it will not set. If you cool to room temperature before refrigerating your jelly will separate into a clear layer and an opaque layer. However this is still edible but I guess it lets the presentation down a bit.

I make Chantilly cream immediately prior to assembling the trifle.  This is made by whipping 300mL of whipping cream, 3 tablespoons of sugar and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract.

I used 2 ripe Kensington mangoes in the trifle shown in the picture.  I grabbed a store bought swiss roll but if you cant' get any sponge slab will do.  I also used store bought custard from the dairy section.  The topping is shredded dry coconut which you can buy at Woolworths under their Macro brand.  I like it better than dessicated coconut which is too fine.

Enjoy!

Tropical Trifle

This is my spin on a traditional trifle with a tropical themed twist.  It made its first appearance last Boxing day at the family BBQ but I forgot to snap a picture of it in the chaos.  This trifle was commissioned by Mum for a BBQ.

The layers from bottom to top

• Sponge cake drizzled with rum
• Custard
• Pineapple Jelly
• Kiwi fruit
• Mango
• Coconut Agar Jelly
• Whipped cream
• Passionfruit Pulp

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

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.

Cherry Ripe Slice

Dear Nestle, thanks for this brilliant recipe in your promotional cook book.  <3 Suebie

Chop up 150g of glace cherries in a food processor and mix with 200g of dessicated coconut and 1 can of sweetened condensed milk.  Set aside.  Blitz 200g of Scotch Finger biscuits with 25g of cocoa powder in a food processor and add 90g of melted butter.  Press biscuit mix into the bottom of a prepared 20x20cm square tin with the back of a spoon.  Add the coconut layer, press and refrigerate.  Melt 200g of dark chocolate with 1 tbsp of oil and pour over the top. Refrigerate until firm.

World's Best Caramel Slice

I got the recipe for this Aussie classic from a Nestle promotional cook book from the local supermarket.  It lived up to it's name so I thought I'd share.

Mix 1 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup dessicated coconut with 125g of melted butter.  Press into a 20x20 prepared square cake tin and bake at 160 C fan forced for 15-20 minutes.  Meanwhile, melt 100g of butter 1/3rd cup golden syrup and 2 cans of sweetened condensed milk over low heat.  When the biscuit base is cool, tip the mixture in and bake for another 20-25 minutes.  Cool and top with melted chocolate.  Refrigerate until set and slice.

Tiramisu

The recipe from Savoiardi biscuit packaging.

Ultimate Brownie Recipe

Best brownie recipe to date. Too good not to share...

Melt 250 g of unsalted butter in a saucepan and add 400 g of sugar and 50 g of cocoa powder. Cool mixture. Beat in 5 extra large free range eggs, one at a time. Sift 150 g of plain flour mixed with 1/2 tsp of baking powder. Fold into wet mixture. Chop up 175 g of good quality dark chocolate and 75 g walnuts. Add to mix. Grease and line a square cake tin (about 25cm x 25cm). Bake at 160 C fan forced oven for 25 minutes. If you have a ridiculous Smeg oven like I do, drop the temp to 140 C or you wont get the rich gooey texture. Yields 24 squares.

Warning: Very Rich!!!!!!