Roast Tomato Thyme and Cheddar Tart: Thin Tart with full flavor!

 Last night I spent most of my time reading, well you can guess what kind of book that I read, haha. I saw this recipe in the  ............... and it looks so gooood!

Brownie Pecan Tart: Feeds my mind with comforting aroma

There're times that I just running around everywhere but my kitchen^^", I know that I complain about it many times already but what can I do, when I still believe that I need more (and a lot more) times to bake.

Jolly Jammers: Little treat from my delicious jam!

Making blog gives me many things, like something to do when I'm bored (and that's often, hehe), sharing some good (or even great) recipes with the people who love to bake and most of all "Friends". 

Rose water and white chocolate gateau: For the white chocolate lover...

My sister really love white chocolate, no matter it's a cake, cookie or anything, if it has the white chocolate, my sister will say yes. So it's my mission to try all the possible recipe that contains it, haha, I have to say that I feel like this! 

This time I saw the recipe from the advertisement of the Divine chocolate in the Olive magazine issue March 2010, and I really want to try it. But as you know me, I have a lot (I really mean it, A LOT!) of things which I really want to do, so the cake still in my list but just postponed, until I felt that I should make it or I won't make it a all, -*-. 


The reason for the postponement is the recipe calls for the crème fraîche which is not easy to get, all I have to do is making it by myself, and wait for it to become thick and tangy.
But after I make it I think it's not a must, the crème fraîche will give the cake a tangy taste that contrast to the sweetness of the white chocolate icing. You can use whipped cream with a bit of lemon juice if you want a tangy taste or you can use plain whipped cream that will add richness to the cake, both way the cake will be delicious, too.
Because the base of the gateau is a sponge, the cake best served the day it make, because the sponge doesn't have other kind of fat than the grated white chocolate. 
For the rose water essence it's up to you!, if you don't have it or don't like it just leaves it out and use the vanilla essence instead, believe me, homemade cake will be more delicious as long as you make it with whatever you like!

White chocolate gateau

 Serves 12 

CAKE
4 ....................................... Eggs 
125g ................................. Caster Sugar
125g ................................. Plain flour 
50g ................................... White Chocolate, finely grated


ICING
3 tbsps/2-3 drops .......... rosewater or rose essence 
150ml ............................... crème fraîche
200g ................................. White Chocolate , broken into pieces
75g .................................... unsalted butter
3 tbsps ............................. single cream , at room temperature
125g ................................. Icing Sugar 


White Chocolate curls to decorate
Icing Sugar sifted, for dusting

Prepare the Crème Fraîche by mix 1 cup of whipping with 1 tbsp of the yogurt, cover and let it sit on your counter (or any place that is not hot), for overnight, then refrigerate for 1 day before using.
You will get the thick and a little tangy cream. 


• Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C, butter and line the bases of two 20cm round sandwich tins 

Whisk the eggs and caster sugar together in a large bowl using a hand-held electric whisk until pale and thick enough to leave a trail when the whisk is lifted. Sift the flour into the bowl. Add the grated chocolate and fold everything together with a large metal spoon.
Divide the mixture between the prepared tins and bake for 20 minutes until just firm to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.


When you ready to assemble:

Stir the rosewater into the crème fraiche.

• Put the white chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water so that the base of the bowl is not touching the water and leave until melted. Allow to cool a little, then stir in the cream and icing sugar and beat until smooth.
Leave the mixture to cool further until thickened.

Use the rose water cream  to sandwich the 2 cakes together on a serving plate.
 Spread the white chocolate frosting over the top and side of the cake.

• Decorate the top of the cake with white chocolate curls.

Rose water and white chocolate gateau: For the white chocolate lover...

Pork spare ribs braised in coconut (Suon ram man)

Seen like a long time since I posted the food recipe, well, I still cook, anyway, after my sister keeps on  cooking better and better, I just sit back and wait for eating time, haha.

But for a last few months after she gave birth to her little baby, she doesn't have time, so I'm have to be back in the kitchen for cooking again.
I love to cook, and for I long time I believe that I'm not good at cooking (or I just cook without the confidence), but things are change after my friend (who is a professional chef) told me not be afraid of it, just believe that it will be great and it will be.  Actually he makes me feel better about it, just a little by little (and a little harder than usual, haha), and taste it until you like the taste add a bit by bit and don't push yourself too hard. And now, I'm cooking with happiness again.


So, all I have to say is just do what you really want to do and don't be afraid, it's an adventure in your own kitchen. This time, I choose the recipe, that I think it must be delicious by its own ingredients, the spareribs and the coconut water, both of them have their own character the sweetness from the coconut water enhances the taste of the dish. This dish is great when served with a bowl of jasmine rice,  this sweet and salty dish will make you happy (to have another bowl of rice, haha)


Ps. if you serve the people who love to eat, this dish will serve only four people, this is my warning ^ ^.

Pork spare ribs braised in coconut 

Suon ram man

 Serves 4-6

2 tbsp ...................... finely chopped garlic  
1 red ........................ Asian shallot chopped 
2 tbsp ...................... fish sauce 
1 tsp ......................... oyster sauce 
2 tbsp .......................  sugar 
500g .......................... pork spare ribs , cut into 2 x 3cm pieces (ask the butcher to do it) 
.................................... vegetable oil for deep frying 
300ml ....................... young coconut water  
................................... (this can usually be found in small cartons for drinking)
1 ................................ onion, sliced into thin wedges
2 tsp ......................... chilli sauce  
2 ............................... coriander sprigs 
.................................. jasmine rice to serve

• In a bowl, combine 1 tbsp of the garlic, the shallot, fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper. Mix well, then add the pork ribs and stir to coat well. Cover and place in the fridge to marinate for 20 minutes.

• Pour the oil into a wok and heat to 180C, or until a cube of bread dropped into it browns in 15 seconds. Add the undrained pork in batches and deep-fry over medium heat for 3 minutes or until brown. Remove the pork and drain on paper towel.
• Put the coconut water in a saucepan and bring to the boil Add the pork ribs, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, then increase the heat and cook for a further 3 minutes, or until the coconut water has reduced to a quarter of its original amount. 

Add the remaining garlic, the onion, chilli sauce and a pinch of freshly ground black pepper. Stir constantly for 5 minutes, then turn off the heat. Transfer the ribs to a serving bowl and garnish with the coriander sprigs. Serve with jasmine rice.

Pork spare ribs braised in coconut (Suon ram man)

Lemon Biscuits: Easy and delicious cookies, that I want to share!

 

I always have lemons in the fridge, because it's like the basic ingredient for the baking. But there are many times which I was too busy (with my work, well, I'm not lucky enough to bake for living) and I had to find the recipe to use it, as I don't like to waste anything.

This time the recipe that comes to save my life come form The Olive magazine Issue: February 2010. Talking about the magazine, I really like this one. There was a time that I just couldn't resist it, I buy 4-5 magazines per month (well,  they are good but it's too much I never had enough time to try the recipes from them). So, I try to change, I just read it before buying it (^ ^, so, now you know that most of the time I just grab them from the shelf and pay>*<, no browsing just paying, very bad habit).
But this one is still the one that I buy almost every month, I like the photo (the style of the photo is great, and very modern), I like the easy recipes which I never disappointed. There is another magazine from the BBC, that my friend's very crazy about, the BBC Good Food, she's really love it. But for me Good Food is great but I still like Olive more.

If you like cooking or baking, you know that food magazine is a good way to give you the inspiration. I love to read about the new trend in cooking or baking market (I think, because I have blog about baking so I'm in this business too, I have my mission to show you some great baking trend, haha). Anyway, the thing that I really get from all of my magazine is the good recipe to share with all of you, and hope you like it too.

And this time the recipe that I want to share with you is the lemon biscuits, it's very easy to make, because this time you don't have to use anything much, only the food processor.
Just pour everything into the machine, step by step, roll and cut, then bake, and you get the tangy sweet (and delicious) cookie, ^ ^ fresh from the oven. The Lemon icing is easy to make too, it makes the cookie looks lovely and more yummy.
After baking and drizzling with the icing, it's your decision that you want to keep them for your own tea time treat (^ ^, I know that you consider this one first), or give it to your friends or any people you love, well, 60 cookies is a lot, so sharing them with other people is my suggestion, and they will love you much much more, haha.  

Lemon Biscuits

makes about 60

 

Lemon biscuits

325g ...................... All purpose flour

200g ...................... Salted butter, chilled and chopped

125g ...................... Golden caster sugar

.............................. Lemon zest from 1 lemon

.............................. Juice from 1 lemon

2 ........................... Egg yolks

Lemon Icing

100g ..................... Icing sugar

............................. Lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line the baking sheet with the baking paper or silpat.

Put the flour, and butter into the bowl of the food processor, and process until breadcrumb like.

Put the lemon zest, egg yolks, sugar and lemon juice into the bowl and process to a combine.

Pour the mixture onto the working surface, and press them together.

Roll the dough to 5 mm thick.

Cut the dough using 4.8 mm round cookie cutter.

Put on the baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Let the cookie cool completely.

Make the Lemon icing:

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, and mix with enough lemon juice to make a runny icing.

Drizzle the icing over the cookies.

Lemon Biscuits: Easy and delicious cookies, that I want to share!

Turkish coffee creams: Little cup of my love

I got this coffee a long time ago (my sister traveled to Turkey, and she bought this coffee as a souvenir), and I really don't know what to do with it. The Turkish coffee is different from other kind of coffee in a method of preparation and the Turkish coffee are ground or pounded to the finest powder. When prepare it, you will have to boil it with the water then serve without filter the grounded coffee bean out, and that is the main problem for me.

I find it very hard to drink the coffee that contain the coffee bean in it (or because I don't know how to prepare it properly, my coffee had a burnt taste), so I need to find a better way to enjoy it.
And the Olive magazine from last month is my answer for me, actually the recipe comes from the book name:................... There are a lot of interesting recipe in the magazine, but I can see only one recipe, that I want to try.
The Turkish Coffee Cream, this little cup is so tempting, the ingredients are interesting too. The coffee mix with the cardamon (actually, there is a cinnamon in the ingredient list too, but because my sister doesn't like it, so I just leave it out) and the chocolate. So, the fragrance of it is very good, and the texture is like a thick chocolate mousse.

This kind of dessert is very good to serve after dinner, esp. when you prepare a dinner for someone special (^ ^), the feeling of lingering the thick delicious mousse while talking with the one you love, well, I like this kind of feeling.
Actually, if you can't find the Turkish coffee, you can use the other kind of grounded coffee, as I said that it's not the kind of the coffee, it's the way that you prepare it.
So, come along with me and have a happy time with the small cup of love!

Turkish Coffee and Cardamom

Turkish coffee creams

Makes 2 little glasses (shot-size)

24g	finely ground Turkish coffee
1	cardamom pods, crushed
100ml	double cream
20g	dark chocolate, grated
2	egg yolks
22g	caster sugar

• Moisten the coffee with a little water and put onto muslin square with the cardamom pods, then tie securely with kitchen string to make a bag.

Put the cream into a heavy saucepan with the muslin bag and bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave to cool and infuse for about an hour.

• Squeeze the muslin bag back into the pan to extract as much flavour as possible, then discard it. Reheat the infused cream gently, then add the grated chocolate and stir until it has melted.

• In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar. Pour on the hot cream mixture and whisk gently to combine.

Pour the mixture back into the rinsed-out pan and cook gently until it thickens to a custard consistency. You should be able to draw a distinct line through the custard on the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and cool in a sink of iced water. Stir from time to time as the mixture cools down.

• Spoon the coffee cream into 2 petite pots or little glasses (shot-size) and chill well before serving.

Turkish coffee creams: Little cup of my love

Mini Chocolate Cake with Ice cream: super easy dessert for any busy day!

Hello everyone, are you missing me?
Well I have to tell you that I really miss baking and posting my blog haha. Anyway there are many things to do in the last 3 weeks, I really have no time at all. (And, I have to say "Sorry" for all the people who posted the questions and comment on my blog, because I didn't have time to answering you).

So, today I need an quick desserts (we all need it, right?, something easy when we have so little time but still want a homemade dessert,^ ^). I found this dessert in ...................

This cake is seriously easy haha, and the ingredient list is super short, ^ ^, but the taste is not bad at all!
So, when your life is very, very busy, and you feel you need some comfort from the warm and delicious cake that serve with creamy ice cream (that turn out into delicious sauce when it touch the warmness from the cake).

I made this cake and served it with the Double honey ice cream, you can use any flavor that you like, and it'll be great anyway.

Mini Chocolate Cake with Ice cream
Make 4

50g	Cake flour
¼ tsp	Baking powder
50g	Unsalted butter
2 tbsp	Cocoa powder
	A dash of salt
50g	Caster sugar
1	Eggs
½ tsp	Vanilla extract
	Ice cream to serve

Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder together, set aside.

Prepare 4 - 200ml molds.


Cream together the butter and sugar. With the mixer still on the lowest speed, add the vanilla and egg then beat until fully incorporating. Pour the flour mixture and mix, when combine, stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl.

Pour the mixture into the molds, and bake for 15-20 minutes.

Remove from the molds, and place the ice cream on top then dust with cocoa powder.
Serve immediately.

Mini Chocolate Cake with Ice cream: super easy dessert for any busy day!

Double honey ice cream: Honey flavor ice cream with home made honey comb

As the weather still hot (as always >*<), I think a scoop of ice cream will be great. And this time, the flavor of the ice cream is something that I like, the HONEY.
I like the one with a great fragrance , but if you not totally love or don't have , any kind of honey will be good too. The honey in this recipe make the ice cream texture real good, and very easy to scoop too.
I reduce the honey in the recipe (I use only 80g, but if you love your ice cream to be sweet, you can use 100g of the honey).

The honey comb is very easy to make, the trick is to boil the sugar until color (the darker is more flavorful but beware of the bitterness too), and when adding the bicarbonate of soda, let the mixture boil heavily and your honey comb will be crunchy.

So,no matter how the weather is, having a scoop of the delicious ice cream will be a good time, right?

Ice cream
80g	Runny honey
1tsp	Vanilla extract
300ml	Whipping cream
125ml	Milk
3	Egg yolks
Honey comb
60g	Golden caster sugar
½ tbsp	Runny honey
⅛tsp	Bicarbonate of soda

Start by making the ice cream .

Warm the honey in a small pan over a low heat

In another pan heat the cream and milk together until just below boiling point.Pour the hot cream mixture over the eggs whisking constantly. Return the whole lot to the pan and set over a low heat stirring constantly until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Strain into a clean bowl.

Add the warmed honey, vanilla and mix thorough. Cover and then chill for at least 2 hours before churning in an ice cream machine following the manufacturer’s instructions

To make the honeycomb tip the caster sugar into a saucepan and add the honey and 2-3 tbsp water. Bring slowly to the boil to dissolve the sugar. Continue to boil steadily until the caramel becomes honey coloured. Add bicarbonate of soda and, working very quickly, swirl the pan to mix evenly.

Immediately pour into a greased baking tin set on a heatproof surface (I use silicone baking paper) and leave until the honeycomb is completely cold and brittle.

Break the honeycomb into pieces and gently mix through the ice cream mixture. Tip into a freezer-proof container and cover with the baking paper (to prevent the droplet of the water to drop into the ice cream) and freeze until needed.

Double honey ice cream:
Honey flavor ice cream with home made honey comb