Dad ~ Baker & Chef

Christmas Dinner 2011

2011-12-28T08:21:00.002+08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I haven't had much time to update this blog as the Christmas Season has been rather busy. Christmas Eve Dinner was held at my house and my family together with The Lovely Wife's family came over to celebrate the arrival of Christmas.

This was the menu for the night and more detailed posts on the items soon - I hope!

In the meantime, Have a Blessed New Year!

My Birthday Hamper

2011-12-01T21:03:00.004+08:00

I turned 44 on the 29th November 2011 and this is how I spent the day. Just like we celebrate every birthday in our house, the birthday boy/girl is wished first thing in the morning and given their gifts. The kids each gave me a lovely hand made card and then proferred a bag full of gifts. First up was the 'obligatory' shirt from The Lovely Wife. She always buys me a nice shirt / T-shirt to make me look more hip and happening - usually something a little more expensive than I would otherwise buy! Then came the gifts from the kids that were specially chosen by them. Somehow gifts from the kids seem to revolve around the kitchen but I guess I shouldn't be surprised by that.

First up was this cute flexible cutting board that is shaped like a duck! The tagline says "from board to bowl with one simple fold".....

Next was a pair of kitchen chopsticks or wok chopsticks - very useful indeed! Then came a nifty little gadget. It looks like a small bowl but it has blades in it and it turned out to be a garlic chopper. The reasoning behind this was that "Mummy doesn't need to help Dads chop garlic anymore!"

Finally they gave me a small, sealable glass container that is oven proof. This was explicitly purchased so that I could store the chocolate sauce that I make for them and reheat the sauce in the oven/microwave easily. Rather clever of my kids if you ask me - getting me a present that will benefit them! All the presents were really lovely and will definitely come in handy.

Then it was off to work and the day unfolded rather uneventfully.

We had decided that we would go out for dinner and it was after dinner that The Lovely Wife and kids surprised me yet again.

They had purchased some of my favourite food items and presented it to me in a basket - like a hamper!

The contents of the hamper consisted of "the stuff that Dads likes" - a Jar of Nutella - coz Dads loves his Nutella and bread; A small bar of Dark Chocolate - the best chocolate is dark chocolate; a double packet of Arnotts Chocolate Covered Teddy bears - Dads favourite from his Uni days in Melbourne; a packet of Pepperidge Farm Geneva biscuits - we all love this; a large bottle of Coke - Dads loves his coke and the kids get to drink it too - and finally a bottle of Guinnes - coz Dads enjoys his stout once in a while.

I was very touched by the hamper as it was really made up of a few of my favourite things.

Now to digress a little, but not too much! When I was in Australia, I learnt of a special way to enjoy Arnotts Chocolate Covered Teddy Bear Biscuits. There's a real trick to this so you have to pay attention. First, get a wide mouthed glass or coffee mug and pour in some port. Next, holding the Teddy Bear so that it faces you, bite of a little bit off its LEFT ear and a little bit off its RIGHT foot. Now dip the right foot into the port and suck on the Left ear till you taste some port. What has happened is that the entire teddy bear is now steeped in port. Now you slowly eat the teddy bear infused with port. Delicious!

I did that last night but I used Brandy instead of Port. Why did I use Brandy instead of Port? Simply because I was too lazy to go and fish the port out of the cupboard! It was still delicious although the brandy was probably a tad too strong as opposed to Port.

The Lovely Wife felt a bit sad that she didnt get me a cake but I told her that the hamper was much more special as a lot of thought went into it. The kids also piped up and reminded her that "bought cakes arent as nice as Dads cakes so dont bother!"

I had a very lovely Birthday celebration. Happy Birthday to me!

Banana Split Birthday Cake

2011-11-26T11:11:00.002+08:00

My son turned 10 on the 15th of November and this post is rather late! As has become customary in our household, we woke him up early in the morning after 'hiding' his presents under his bed.

Being a school day, we woke him a little earlier than usual so that he would have enough time to open his presents, but unfortunately not enough time to play with any of them!

A few weeks before his birthday, The Lovely Wife and I had 'negotiated' with him on what to do for his birthday. He wanted to invite a few friends over for a small birthday party and we said that he could do that on the weekend following his birthday. With that settled, we said that we would just do something simple on his actual birthday and maybe go out for dinner or make some of his favourite dishes.

I promised that I would make him a cake as well but also 'negotiated' that instead of a cake with a design/pattern, I'd make him a 'designer' cake - meaning a dessert cake that he would enjoy eating rather than just a cake that looked nice with a fancy pattern.

We thought that was that and that everything was settled. However, a week before his birthday, he 'renegotiated' with us. He asked if he could invite the extended family over - meaning his grandparents, uncles and their families. In his own words - "it's not a party, just a gathering."

And that is how we ended up having a party/gathering on his actual birthday!

The Lovely Wife took the day off work and spend it cooking up quite the feast. Michael had specified what he wanted for his birthday dinner but since so many more people were now coming, The Lovely Wife had to make some additional dishes. I had made the cake earlier on Sunday evening with some finishing touches on Monday evening. My mother in law came over later in the afternoon too and made her famous fried prawns that is a firm favourite with all of us.

So, the menu for the evening was Ketupat with Kuah Kacang, Stir Fried Satay, Fried Prawns, Fried Rice with a Pork Trio, Fried Rice with Corned Beef and we also served some Char Siew (BBQ Pork), Siew Yok (Roast Pork that my Mom had bought. Mom in Law also made some Vadai. Quite the feast actually! Missed photos of the Fried Prawns and Vadai though!

Now we come to the cake. Michael had asked that I make his something new, something that I have never done before but something that he would like. Since the cake was going to double up as dessert, I envisaged a cake made up of layers of sponge, covered with chocolate mousse and coffee cream and then serve it with sliced bananas and homemade chocolate fudge.

That was the original plan but once I made the mousse, I realised there was too much and so I used it to cover both layers of sponge. I then piped a layer of Whipped Cream over the top and covered it with Caramel Almonds. As per the original plan, I served it with Bananas and Hot Fudge topping.

This is what I did. The sponge is based on Dory Greenspan's Perfect Party Cake with a few minor alterations where I used some lemon juice in the milk as a substitute for buttermilk.

Banana Split Cake
Components
- 1 Sponge Cake
- Chocolate Mousse
- Whipped Cream
- Hot Fudge
- Almond Pralines (Caramel Almonds)
- Bananas

Sponge Cake

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 ¼ cups buttermilk or whole milk
1 Tbsp Lemon Juice (omit if using buttermilk)
4 large egg whites
1 ½ cups sugar
125g (4 ounces) butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure lemon extract

To Make the Cake
Mix the lemon juice and milk and let stand for 10 mins to make buttermilk.
Sift together the flour and baking powder.
Whisk together the milk and egg whites in a medium bowl.

Cream butter and sugar - working with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light.
Beat in the extract, then add one third of the flour mixture, still beating on medium speed.
Beat in half of the milk-egg mixture, then beat in half of the remaining dry ingredients until incorporated.
Add the rest of the milk and eggs beating until the batter is homogeneous, then add the last of the dry ingredients.
Finally, give the batter a good 2- minute beating to ensure that it is thoroughly mixed and well aerated.
Divide the batter between two lined pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides of the cakes, unfold them and peel off the paper liners.
Invert and cool to room temperature, right side up

Chocolate Mousse

450ml cream
3 Tbsps icing sugar
300g dark chocolate
4 egg yolks

Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Add in the egg yolks and stir vigorously for about a minute. Chocolate will thicken. Don’t worry if the mixture seizes or becomes a little lumpy. Take off heat and beat with an electric mixer for about a minute or two. Chocolate will become smooth and thick. If it is still lumpy, dont worry and allow to cool a little. While cooling, whip cream with icing sugar until soft peaks form. Add a little into the chocolate mixture and beat till smooth. Beat in the remainder of the chocolate mixture until nicely incorporated.

Caramel Almonds
Make a caramel and add in whole almonds. Swirl in pan to coat the almonds and then pour out onto waxed paper. Allow to cool and then chop roughly.

Homemade Hot Fudge

Whipped Cream
300ml Whipping Cream
4 Tbsp Icing Sugar
2 Tsp Vanilla

Whip cream with icing sugar and vanilla till stiff peaks.

Assembly
Place one layer of cake in a springform pan or cake ring. Cover with one layer of Mousse. Place the other cake on top and cover with remaining mousse. Allow to set in fridge. Pipe whipped cream over the top. Garnish with caramel almonds. Serve with sliced bananas and hot fudge.

I had a few minor issues with the cake. Firstly, I didn't use Large eggs as I was supposed to so the cake wasnt as spongy as it could have been. Small issue but something to note in the future! Secondly, this was the first time I was using a cake ring and I thought I'd be clever and place some cling wrap around the inner sides to help get the cake out easier. Not too sure if that helped any as it was still difficult getting the cake out! The fact that I had to put the cake in the freezer as the fridge was too full of items for dinner didnt help either.

Anyway, all in all the cake turned out really, really well. Everyone loved it especially the fact that it was more of a dessert rather than a cake. We cut small slices and served it with Banana slices and hot fudge for that Banana Split effect although some people wondered why I couldnt serve the cake on its own. Because then it wouldnt be a Banana Split Cake! It would be a Choc Mousse Cake! Aaahh... some things are just to difficult to appreciate :)

The praline almonds (Caramel almonds) on the top made a great topping and the added crunch gave the cake a bit more sophistication. The cake was enjoyed by all with many asking for second helpings. The thing about this cake is, you can choose to make everything on your own like I did or just buy the components and assemble it yourself.

The next day, we enjoyed the remainder of the cake, this time sans bananas and hot fudge and it was just as delicious. Somehow the cake seemed to develop over the days.

Another birthday, and another cake. The kids 'demands' are getting more and more complicated and my body seems to ache more each time. Age is catching up with all of us I guess. Whatever it is, there is a special kind of satisfaction in baking your own cake for your children. The best part is seeing their smiles when they dig into it.

Happy Birthday Michael my darling boy!

Back to Childhood Cupcakes

2011-11-06T13:28:00.004+08:00

A couple of Saturdays ago, The Lovely Wife and I were supposed to catch up with two friends - Lynn and Ms Kong Piang - over drinks. My son however had developed a fever so the two ladies asked if it was okay if they popped round instead. When I know that friends are popping over, I always feel that I have to serve something.

A good friend, Naomi, had given us some lovely Cheddar cheese when she had come back to Malaysia recently for a holiday. The cheese was tangy and had a lot of bite that made it really delicious with crackers. That would go down well for the after dinner drinks.

I also decided that I would make some muffins. I know Ms Kong Piang likes my cakes and Lynn is also one of my favourite 'consumers'! I was tempted to just redo what I did on my last post - Walnut Choc Chip Muffins - but decided that I would try something new. I browsed through my cupcake/muffin book and found a recipe for Cookies and Cream cupcakes. This was basically throwing in some crushed Oreos into the batter. Another variation called for substituting the Oreos for Nougat bars. A lamp bulb started to flash in my head and the gear wheels in my brain started to churn as well. What if I used Oreos and Snickers? That would have to taste delicious! Woulnd't it??

So thats what I did. Bought a pack of Oreos and two Snickers bars. Crushed and chopped them up respectively and then threw them into the cake batter. I knew that the cupcakes would be a tad sweet due to the Oreos and Snickers so I put in a disc of dark chocolate in the middle of each cupcake. This would give it a slightly bitterish tinge when bitten into.

Ingredients
250g butter
225g Caster Sugar
225g Self Raising Flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 Tbsp Milk
1 packet Oreo Cookies - crushed
2 snickers bars - shopped
Method
Melt the butter until very soft but not completely liquid. Add in the sugar and beat till light. Add beaten eggs a little at a time and continue beating
Fold in Sifted flour and baking powder.
Add in Milk and Vanilla. Mix Well. Fold in Oreos and Snickers.
Fill muffin cups ¾ full and top with a Dark Chocolate disk. bake for about 30 minutes or till done in 180°C oven

I made two sizes of cupcakes. Twelve medium sized cupcakes and twelve large ones. I went a bit overboard with the large ones and overfilled them. They rose beautifully but then started to spill out over the sides of the muffin cases. If they had held, or if I had placed the muffin cases into a muffin pan, I would have gotten lovely muffin caps but alas, the cases were too big to fit into the muffin pans and the batter just spilled over...

No use crying over spilled batter.

Nonetheless, the larger cupcakes turned out really nice and cakey with a light, soft crumb. The taste of the Oreos combined nicely with the taste of the Snickers although neither taste was overpowering. The cupcakes were a tad sweet - sweeter than what we are normally used to and this was due to the Oreos and Snickers. The cupcakes were still very delicious nonetheless.

Since the cupcakes seemed to fit into the mould of a dessert, I served up a batch with Ice Cream and Chocolate Sauce. Yummy! Very, very delicious and my kids absolutely loved it.

Later that night, I served Lynn and Ms Kong Piang the dessert version and they both agreed that although a tad sweet, it was very nice. Both of them took some home too while the rest was eaten throughout the weekend - either on its own or covered with Ice Cream and doused in Chocolate Sauce!

I call these cupcakes, Back to Childhood cupcakes because with Oreos and Snickers in them each bite kind of transports you back to your favourite indulgences when you were a kid. Every kid will definitely like these cupcakes and every adult that still has some kid left in him will love it too!

Self Therapy - Vanilla Walnut Choc Chip Muffins

2011-10-20T20:55:00.003+08:00

Last Saturday morning was the weekend before the kids end of year school exams. It's not a very fun time for the kids as they are busy brushing up on their work. I on the other hand, had arranged some appointments for some home repairs. The Lovely Wife figured that the kids would be distracted by the repairs going on and hence wouldn't be able to concentrate on their school work. So, she decided she would take the kids out shopping while the work was being carried out. Not fair! I was going to be left all by my lonesome to stay at home to wait for the repairmen. They were only due to come late in the morning however and the day started off with my son yelling from downstairs:

"Dads! Can you make us some of your Chocolate Sauce? To eat with Mummy's waffles?"

I had to smile as there is something very satisfying about your kids asking you to make them something to eat - even more when it is Chocolate Sauce that in most households simply comes out of a store bought bottle. Anyway, I made up a batch of the chocolate sauce for them and they enjoyed it with their waffles. With breakfast out of the way, they left soon after and as expected, I was home left alone.

Alone, alone, all, all alone!

Truth be told, sometimes it's fun to be alone when you get to do your own things. However, being alone to monitor work being done isn't really a fun thing to do.

The repairs finished off sooner than expected and since I had a litle time to myself, I thought I would indulge in some therapy for myself. There's something very therapeutic about whipping up a quick cake and having your house smell wonderfully of freshly baked goodness. The smell of vanilla on your hands seems to linger throughout the day too and not matter how much you scrub it, your hands still smell great!

I had decided I wanted to make a cake but wasn't quite sure what cake to make. I considered making my usual chocolate cake or chocolate brownies - both of which are firm favourites. I decided though that I wanted to try something new. A few weeks earlier, The Lovely Wife had enjoyed a cake that had walnuts in it and so I thought that I'd use some walnuts. A peak into the fridge showed that there were indeed walnuts and also some chocolate chips. How about Vanilla Walnut Chop Chip Muffins? Seemed like a good idea to me!

I modified my usual Choc Chip Muffin recipe just a little and this is what I did:

Ingredients
250g Butter
220g Sugar
4 eggs
250g Flour
3 Tsp Baking Powder
100g Walnuts - chopped
100g Choc Chips
1 Tbsp Milk
1 Tbsp Honey
2 Tsp Vanilla
Method
Melt the butter until very soft but not completely liquid. Add in the sugar and beat well till light. Add beaten eggs a little at a time and continue beating
Fold in Sifted flour and baking powder.
Add in Honey, Milk and Vanilla. Mix Well
Fold in Chocolate Chips and nuts ensuring it is well mixed
Fill muffin cups ¾ full and bake for about 30 minutes or till done in 180°C oven

The muffins were halfway through baking when The Lovely Wife and kids got home and both my son and princess bounded into the kitchen to see what was causing the lovely smell. The muffins baked up and cooled while we were having lunch and then I decided that I would make a little icing with the Chocolate Sauce for some of the muffins.

I mixed the chocolate sauce with some icing sugar and more cocoa powder till it resembled a nice thick icing - almost like a ganache. I piped this over a couple of the muffins while I slathered it over another two.

AS expected, The Lovely Wife preferred the muffins 'naked' while the two kids loved it with the chocolate icing. We enjoyed the muffins later after dinner too and on Sunday as well. There was enough left over on Monday morning for them to take a muffin each to school for the first day of their exams.

The best therapy is not so much baking or even the smell of baked goods. The best therapy is the smiles and satisfied looks on the faces of the kids as they enjoy the food that your hands have created.

What's your best therapy??

More on Blogger MasterChef

2011-10-04T19:41:00.005+08:00

So these are the pictures of what transpired the other day at the Blogger MasterChef semi-finals hosted by Astro and Nuffnang. This event was held to build up awareness for the MasterChef Malaysia that will be starting REAL Soon on Astro!

The Lovely Wife and the kids came along to support me and they started off with this photo.

After a briefing by the judges, we moved into the Kitchen area at The Cooking House in Desa Sri Hartamas where the contest was held. I was given station number 16 after picking out a number from a bowl. The kitchen was rather cramped and I think it was more suited to 10 people rather than 20 as every table and stove was shared by 2 people. There was a lot of bumping into one another as we cooked!

We were given MasterChef Malaysia aprons to wear and that was rather exciting!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we were given a box full of ingredients that we had to use. The main ingredient was chicken and I did ask if we had to use everything in the box. The answer was no but I assumed that one would need to use as many of the ingredients as possible. This however was not the case - you didnt have to use any of the ingredients from the box with the exception of chicken and were free to use anything that was on the counters.

In retrospect, I should have made something Western rather than the Fusion Chilli Chicken that I opted to make. There were a lot of ingredients that I didn't see that seemed to be spaced out along the cooking stations. But no excuses though. Most critical though was that I couldn't get my brain ticking given that we only had 50 minutes to think up and cook a dish. I usually spend hours and even days thinking up my 'gourmet' dishes! So Kudos to all the winners that had the presence of mind to think of something creative and execute it in the limited time available.

The Lovely Wife and the kids realised that my super duper SLR was too heavy to carry around and they made a quick detour home while I was cooking to drop of the camera. The rest of the shots come from The Lovely Wifes I-phone.

After the cooking challenge came the skills challenge. Chef Ryan demonstrated how to poach an egg using the swirl method and with some vinegar to get the proteins in the egg to bind. I've poached an egg succesfully before and was fairly confident. However, my first egg turned out disastrously but thankfully the second egg was just lovely!

I had another egg ready to go into the water when time was called. So that was a good time for The Lovely Wife to take a shot of me!

I was really thrilled as I presented my egg to the judges as I presented both my 'disaster' egg as well as the good one. Chef Ryan actually said "Well done, lovely!" as he sliced my egg and watched all the gooey goodness spill out. There were a few other cooks that managed to get more than one lovely poached egg. One of them, Yatie was given full marks for getting two perfectly poached eggs - just as Chef Ryan had shown how to do.

The results were announced a short while later and the judges took quite a while deliberating on who the top 5 should be. I have to say that it was a very humbling experience cooking with the other 20 bloggers as there were some really fantastic and creative dishes that came out. Quite a number of the bloggers managed to get pretty perfect Poached Eggs even though it was the first time they were doing it. Plenty of skilled cooks out there!

As you all know, I didnt make the cut to the top 5 but each blogger got a prize anyway. I was given my prize by one of Malaysia's well know food bloggers KY from KYSpeaks.com.

and finally, a group photo with all the other blogger chefs!

A really fun experience that I would not hesitate to do again. I met a lot of fun people and I have to say that I had an AWESOME time. The only regret that I have is that the organisers didn't let us take the aprons home. Would you believe it? We actually had to return the aprons. Oh well!

I really, really have a new found respect for those that take part in MasterChef. I realise it's really easy to be an armchair critic and criticise and make fun of the competitors but when you are actually doing it, well, it's really quite difficult.

Keep a look out for the launch of MasterChef Malaysia. Coming soon on Astro.

Not the first Blogger MasterChef

2011-10-01T17:34:00.003+08:00

So I didnt make the cut...

The semifinals were held this morning at the Cooking House in Desa Sri Hartamas. There were three judges - a lady from Astro (Azlina I think her name was - rather cute!) then there was KYspeaks - a reknowned food blogger and finally Chef Ryan - the resident chef at The Cooking House.

First up was a invention test where they gave a box full of stuff you could use. Main ingredient was chicken. I chose to make a Fusion Chilli Chicken and actually used up most of the ingredients in the box. Should have looked around and seen what else there was available before I rushed into deciding what to cook. I thought it tasted great but seeing some of the other dishes, I realised that what the judges were looking for was something unique and out of the box...

Still, in retrospect, with only 50 minutes to make the dish, I really don't know what I would have picked to make. Its really not so easy to decided what to cook when you have limited time.

Next up was a skills test - had to make Poached Eggs. First try was a disaster but the second one came up beautifully. Really, really beautifully.

Taking part in this has given me a whole new appreciation for MasterChef and Chopped and all the other cooking reality shows. It's really easy to be a MasterChef in your own kitchen but its a different story when under pressure and in a strange kitchen.

I think my invention skills let me down... still, lots of fun, met lots of people and as always learnt a few things. Kids were there with me and they liked my Fusion Chilli Chicken - so I'm still Their MasterChef!!

Thanks to all for the support!

First Semi's Today at 10am

2011-10-01T09:09:00.001+08:00

So today is the first Semi's of the first ever Blogger MasterChef competition organised by Nuffnang and Astro and I'll be there!

How does it work? It's all a bit of fun and bloggers had to post about why they think they are worthy of being the first ever Blogger MasterChef. 40 selected bloggers will take part in two semifinals (20 on each day) and the top five from each semi final will move to the Final that will be held on October 15th.

So...I'm on my way to the first semi's in a short while. From what I know, two challenges will be handed out and each competitor is supposed to complete it and will be judged on creativity and taste. I have NO Idea what is to be expected but I'm going in to have lots of fun!

So lets see what happens!

My Dream as Malaysia's first ever Blogger MasterChef

2011-09-26T17:55:00.003+08:00

Have you heard that MasterChef is coming to Malaysia??

Astro is launching MasterChef Malaysia REAL SOON! I was really excited when I heard about this but the problem is, you need to take time off from work and be away from the family as well for quite some time. So that put paid to taking part in MasterChef.

However... Nuffnang is organising the first ever Blogger MasterChef competition and I thought I would enter that! As part of the contest, I'm supposed to write about why I think I should be crowned as “Malaysia’s First Ever Blogger MasterChef”. I'm also supposed to blog about my signature dish.

Firstly, I'm passionate about cooking and baking. Unlike a lot of Malaysian Food Blogs, my blog details out food that I make myself rather than featuring restaurant food. I share my recipes as well as I believe that good food should be shared.

I have a wide repertoire of dishes that cover include a variety of cuisines including Italian, Western, Indian, Chinese. You could say that I'm a jack of all cuisines! I also love to replicate dishes that we taste at restaurants and so far my 'succes rate' has been pretty good as judged by The Lovely Wife and our two children.

If I can't attempt to be Malaysia's First MasterChef, at least I should be crowned as Malaysia First Blogger MasterChef!!

Now comes the hard part - blogging about my Signature Dish. You see, my favourite stuff to make is desserts - all kinds of desserts especially chocolate based desserts. I also love to make Savoury stuff. So the quandary is what do I pick as my Signature Dish?

Since this is all about fun and also sharing, I decided I'd pick my Signature Savoury dish and ALSO my Signature Dessert. Both of these have been posted before on my blog and you can go to the links to get the recipes if you like.

My Signature Savoury dish is Beef Kheema or Minced Meat Curry. This has been a favourite of mine from childhood and its based on a recipe that Mom used to make. I modified it of course while I was a student in Uni back in Melbourne. I used to love this dish so much that almost every time it was my turn to cook, I would cook this. As a result, my flatmates used to call me the "Minced Meat Man" although they used to enjoy this dish as much as I did!

It's fairly simple to make but the results are truly delicious. The full recipe is on the link above but this is a brief synopsis of how its done.

Slice onion into thin slices. Dice Capsicum and thaw frozen vegetables. Lightly fry onions with cloves until onions are soft.
Add in Curry powder and Chilli powder and fry till fragrant. Be careful not to burn the mix.
Add in tomatoes and mix well. Add in a little water if needed.

Continue cooking till a nice paste is formed.
Add in Mince and cook well.

Add in Capsicum and frozen vegetables
Continue cooking, stirring frequently. Add a cup of water and cover pan. Simmer for a further 10-15 minutes then remove cover, mix well and cook till most of the water is evaporated.

It goes really well with yellow rice or what I call Fools Saffron Rice - the recipe of which is also on the same link.

As far as my Signature Dessert goes, it would HAVE to be Chocolate Mousse. I have always been a sucker for Chocolate Mousse and would always order it at restaurants that served it.

When I was about 8 or 9, my parents took us to the Equatorial Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, which used to serve these great High Teas. The dessert spread was huge and they had Chocolate Mousse served in martini glasses. That was my idea of heaven at that age! I ate so much that the buckle on my pants broke! True Story.

They say the apple doesnt fall far from the tree and in that respect, Chocolate Mousse is also my sons favourite Dessert!

For those of you who haven't heard about MasterChef, read on...

MasterChef is a worldwide phenomenon. A cooking reality show that, although not allow viewers to vote, has still broken viewership records in US and Australia. MasterChef is a success because not only is food something we are all very passionate about but the show only allows amateur cooks to compete. Malaysians who love cooking but never had a chance to really showcase their skills and be appreciated, now get the opportunity! Get ready for the MasterChef phenomenon to take over Malaysia on 22nd October 2011!

Details of MasterChef Malaysia is as follows:

Program title – MasterChef Malaysia

MasterChef Program Information - MasterChef TX will be starting from 22nd October 2011, every Saturday – Wednesday, 9.00pm. Master Class will be on every Friday, 9.00pm.

Program Channel – Astro Ria (Channel 104)

Official Site URL - http://www.astro.com.my/MasterChef/

Facebook Page - http://www.facebook.com/MasterChefMalaysia

Twitter Link – www.twitter.com/MasterChefMY

So here's hoping I get selected by Nuffnang to take part in the cook-off!

Brinjal, Mushroom & Rocket Salad

2011-09-13T09:52:00.002+08:00

Most of you will know that I'm not a salad kind of guy. I enjoy eating them but I really don't like making them. I leave that to The Lovely Wife and at the risk of repeating myself, she makes damn good salads. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure if I've EVER made a salad!

Some time ago, we went for dinner at this place where we had this salad with Brinjals, Mushrooms and Rocket. It wasn't a cold salad but neither was it hot. Bottom line was, the taste combination was really, really good.

So, as I am accustomed to doing, I decided I was going to try and replicate it. And replicate it I did!

This is what I did:

Ingredients
3 cloves Garlic - chopped
1 tsp basil
3 baby brinjals - cut into slices
200g Button Mushrooms - quartered
50g Rocket
Splash of Balsamic Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Method
Degorge the brinjal by sprinkling some salt over it and then patting dry. Sautee the garlic with the basil till soft. Add in the brinjal and lightly fry until the brinjal is tender. Add in the mushrooms and cook till juices are released and mushroom is tender. Season with salt and pepper. Toss together with Rocket and balsamic vinegar.

The salad was really tasty and I liked the slightly sourish taste of the balsamic vinegar. The trick is not to put in too much and you can even leave it out if you don't like the taste of vinegar.

The rocket added a nice crunch and freshness to the salad while the mushrooms and brinjals complemented each other really well. Make sure that the brinjal is cooked through thoroughly but not to the extent that it is mushy.

A great salad to serve as a side dish or make a larger batch as a vegetable accompaniment to a main meal. Whatever you choose to do with this, you can't go wrong.

Now who says I can't make salads!!

Homemade Honeycomb

2011-09-01T11:21:00.004+08:00

Honeycomb is not something that I thought could be homemade. I always thought that it was only something that was commercially available and if at all it could be made at home, you would need some sort of industrial production line or at the very least a huge machine. Wrong!

Honeycomb is known by a variety of names throughout the world. In Australia, South Africa and most of Britain, it is known simply as Honeycomb although some Brits refer to it as Honeycomb toffee. The Kiwis refer to is as Hokey Pokey while I am informed that it is not hugely popular in the USA but is more commonly known as Sponge Toffee.

For those of you that have no idea what Honeycomb is, think of that golden crunchie stuff that you find inside Crunchie bars or Violet Crumble bars.

So anyway, while vegetating in front of the Tele one evening with the kids, I watched as Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris from MasterChef Australia gave a MasterClass on how to make some dessert that had, you guessed it, Honeycomb in it!

The kids and I watched spell bound as the honeycomb came to life and the kids then turned to look at me and asked me what honeycomb was and how it tasted. I reminded them that they had eaten it in a chocolate bar before - Crunchie and Violet Crumble.

The next question out of their mouths was: "Dads, Can you make it?"

So a few days later, what did I do? I made the honeycomb! The recipe from MasterClass actually uses liquid glucose but I chose to use honey instead. I also followed my own method of making a caramel and just added in the honey and then the sodium bicarb. The Sodium Bicarbonate actually aerates the caramel and that is what produces the honeycomb texture.

Ingredients
7 Tbs Sugar
2 Tbs Water
2 Tbs Honey or Liquid Glucose
1 tsp Sodium Bicarbonate
Method
Line a small baking pan or bowl with non-stick baking paper. In a heavy saucepan, heat sugar and water till it dissolves. Add in the honey and bring to the boil till edges start to turn a little golden/darker at the edges. (This may be difficult to see if using honey) Quickly add in the sodium bicarb and whisk. Mixture will froth up. Pour into the paper lined bowl/pan. Mixture will continue to cook and rise. Let sit for about 40 minutes till honeycomb is cool and hard. Break into pieces and serve with ice cream or dessert or just eat it!

The size of the pan is dependent on how thick you want your honeycomb. If you want it really thick, use a deep bowl. If you want it thin, then use a swiss roll pan or flatter bowl.

Be really careful when you are working with caramel as the temperatures get really hot. And I mean really, really hot! I've been making caramel for years now and I still take extra precaution.

So how did the honeycomb turn out? I was amazed! Really, really amazed! It was really crunchy, really airy, really tasty. But sweet. Then again, that's what honeycomb is supposed to be - sweeeeet. (spelling intended!)

The kids enjoyed it and it went really good with ice cream. I made the mistake of not putting the honeycomb away in an air tight container or in the fridge and found that after a few short hours, it began to weep rather badly. I guess the humidity in Malaysia doesn't help either!

So! I can now add honeycomb to my list of 'achievements' and I can think of a variety of desserts that would go well with honeycomb.

I also took the opportunity to tell my kids that many people claim to be good cooks. However, the 'true test' of a good cook is whether they can make their own Hot Fudge/Chocolate Sauce and their own Honeycomb!

And I'm only half joking about the 'true test'...

Le Snick Snack - A Homemade Snickers Dessert

2011-08-27T06:52:00.000+08:00

Every meal has to end with a dessert and to finish off my dinner for eight series of posts is this dessert.

When deciding what to make for dessert, The Lovely Wife suggested I go down the route of a tried and tested. After all, she advised that I wouldn't want to make something that might not turnout well. In her infinite wisdom (and good looks too!) The Lovely Wife suggested that I should make my version of Le Kit Cat that I had made some time ago for her friends. That is one seriously lovely dessert.

The Lovely Wife made a lot of sense. However, I realised that there is a serious problem with having a food blog. It's really difficult keeping it 'alive' as that means knew recipes and posts have to be added in all the time! The upside to having a food blog though is that I keep challenging myself to come up with new recipes and this means that not only do I keep broadening my horizons, it also means that the kids and The Lovely Wife get to keep trying out new foods.

So with that in mind, I decided that I would HAVE to make something new. Sometimes the best new thing to do is to combine a few elements made from other recipes and come up with a completely knew when. That's what I did and I came up with Le Snick Snack - my own take on a Snickers Bar but made as a dessert!

Snickers is probably one of our favourite chocolate bars. Whenever we are feeling like a chocolate fix and pop in to the nearby petrol station or supermarket, we always end up getting either a Snickers Bar or a Kit Kat. So, since I already know how to make a Kit Kat dessert, it was time to make a Snickers Dessert.

Base:
3 Eggs whites
150 g castor sugar
150 g ground almonds
Make the base. Line a 9" Springform pan with baking paper. Whisk eggs whites till foamy and then add in sugar and whisk till stiff. Fold in ground almonds. Spread meringue mixture into springform and bake in preheated 170C oven for about 40 minutes or till meringue is cooked. Remove from oven and cool slightly. Remove springform and greaseproof paper from meringue. Allow to fully cool then replace into springform.

Caramel Layer
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (250 g) whipping cream
¼ cup (50 g) butter
2 whole eggs
1 egg yolk
2 ½ tablespoons (15 g) flour

In a saucepan, caramelize 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar using the dry method until it turns a golden caramel color. Incorporate the whipping cream and then add butter. Mix thoroughly. Set aside to cool.
4. In a mixing bowl, beat the whole eggs with the extra egg yolk, then incorporate the flour.
5. Pour this into the cream-caramel mixture and mix thoroughly.
6. Spread it out in the tart shell and bake at 160C for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Top Layer:
400 ml whipping cream
200g good quality dark chocolate
3 egg yolks
2 tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Crème de Cacao
100g Peanuts

For the top layer, melt the chocolate over a double boiler on low heat. While chocolate is melting, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and quickly add into the melted chocolate. Remove from heat and continue whisking till smooth. If chocolate becomes clumpy, add in a little warm cream. Add in the Creme de Cacao. Whisk the cream until soft peaks form. Fold a little of the whipped cream into the chocolate, then fold in the remaining cream.

Sprinkle the peanuts over the caramel layer then spoon over the Chocolate mousse and smoothen the top. Chill for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.

It all sounds rather cumbersome and complicated but if you break it down into it's individual elements it really isn't all that bad. There were a few lessons that were learnt along the way that I will attempt to improve when I make this again.

Firstly, the caramel layer leaked a little down the sides of the meringue so the caramel layer wasn't quite thick enough or well defined. I suppose maybe I should keep the pan lined until after the caramel has been baked. Or maybe make a casing of meringue so the caramel cant leak down the sides. Another thing I would do differently is to add the peanuts into the caramel mixture rather than sprinkling it on top. You can see all the layers above. The almond meringue base, the caramel centre with peanuts and the choc mousse on top. Kind of looks like a Snickers Bar doesn't it!!

Having said all that however, the dessert was absolutely delicious and tasted quite like a snickers bar - only more luxurious and fancy schmancy like a great dessert should! All our guests had two servings each and my son was delighted that he got home in time for dessert!

I'll probably make this again some time and when I do, I"ll incorporate the changes and see how that works out.

So...with Kit Kat and now a Snickers Bar converted into desserts, I wonder what other Chocolate Bars I can convert to desserts. Any ideas or suggestions??

Karniyarik - Turkish Style Eggplant with Lamb

2011-08-24T18:57:00.001+08:00

Still keeping on with the theme of what I served for the dinner for eight the other night, when a few friends came over for dinner, this is the Main Course.

I really wasn't sure what I wanted to serve as the main meal. I wanted something a little different yet something that would be satisfying. Some years ago, we visited Turkey and about 4 years ago, I posted my variation of a dish we had enjoyed in Turkey that I called Turkish Style Lamb Sausages.

I learnt since then that what we actually had in Turkey and really enjoyed was Karniyarik - Turkish Stuffed Eggplant. For my version, I didn't really stuff the eggplant but rather cooked it with loads of minced lamb in a tomato based sauce.

I also used some fresh basil to give it some added flavour and I think if I make this again, I might spice it up a little with some chilli flakes. This is what I did:

Ingredients
900g minced lamb or mutton
3 bay leaves
2 large onions - chopped
8 cloves garlic - chopped
3 tsp oregano
4 tomatoes - quartered
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 Tbsp Tomato paste
50g fresh basil
6 large brinjals / eggplants (the longish kind)
Salt
Black Pepper
Method

Halve the brinjals lenghtwise and then cut into pieces about 4-6 inches length. Sprinkle with salt to degorge. Meanwhile, sautee the onions, garlic and oregano. Then add in the mince and cook well. Add in the fresh tomatoes and canned tomatoes and allow to simmer.
While the meat is simmering, rinse the brinjals and then place in a baking tray. Lightly oil the brinjals and then make a small incision lengthwise followed by three diagonal incisions making sure you dont cut in too deep. Bake in a 170C oven till the eggplants are tender - about 30 mins.
Once the meat sauce is thick but still with enough liquid, season with salt and pepper. Add in the basil and mix well. Spoon a layer of the meat sauce into a baking pan then place the brinjals on the meat. Try to get the brinjals close to each other. Cover the eggplant with the remaining sauce and then cover with aluminium foil. Bake again in a 180C oven for another 30 mins to make sure brinjals are really tender and soak up some of the flavour from the meat sauce.

The brinjals turned out really well although there were some thicker parts that weren't as tender as they should have been. I had also thought of garnishing each brinjal with a slice of tomato and some sliced chilli but when the time came we were all too hungry and just wanted to get down to the business of eating!

I served this with rice and The Lovely Wife made a Greek Salad that went really well with this dish. I liked the mix of taste and textures and the mince tasted really good with the eggplant. My son had some the next day for lunch and he really enjoyed it. So all in all, a rather successful Karniyarik - although maybe not as authentic as it should or could have been!

Leek, Mushroom and Spinach Pies

2011-08-21T18:50:00.000+08:00

Following on from my post on the dinner for eight the other night, this is another of the appetisers that I served that night. After serving the Bacon wrapped apricots and the chicken version of Nachos, these mini pies came out.

When planning the menu, The Lovely Wife was concerned that we were only serving one dish for the main meal. And the salad of course. She felt the table would be a little bare and that somehow our guests would not have enough food or enough choices. We decided to overcome that with lots of appetisers and these pies were to be the substantial appetisers that would not only taste good, but help in filling up out guests as well!

I was a bit apprehensive about making these mini pies as I felt that they may be a little time consuming. The Lovely Wife had originally suggested my Vol au Vents but I knew that although those would be well received, it would definitely be time consuming in cutting out the rounds, baking them, filling them and then baking them again.

Lining muffin pans with pastry seemed to be a simple solution and it turned out to be far easier, far faster and no less delicious. This is what I did.

Ingredients
3 cloves garlic - chopped
1 medium onion - chopped
1 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
400g Button Mushrooms - sliced thinly
3 leeks - sliced thinly
200g spinach
3 eggs
2 Tbsp Sour Cream
Black Pepper
Puff Pastry Sheets
Method
Blanche the spinach and then chop roughly. Set aside. Sautee onion, garlic, oregano and basil together until onions are tender. Add in the mushrooms and leek and cook till tender. Add in the spinach and toss well. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl. Beat the eggs and pour into the mixing bowl together with the sour cream. Mix well. Season with salt and black pepper.

Line a muffin tray with the puff pastry and then spoon the mixture evenly into the pastry, about 2/3 full. Bake in a preheated 200C oven till pastry puffs up nicely and the mixture has set.

In retrospect, the could probably have been a little bit more filling for the pastry but it was very tasty as it was. The puff pastry lent a nice flakiness to the filling and the eggs were not too overpowering or even noticeable.

A very tasty and satisfying appetiser indeed and even something that could be used as an accompaniment for the main meal. My little princess really enjoyed the pies and both my son and her wolfed down a couple over breakfast the next morning.

I have to admit that in terms of presentation and appearance, Vol au Vents would have been the much better choice but in terms of speed and ease of execution, these just cant be beat! Call them mini pies or call them quiche, fill them with whatever you like. This is something I will file for frequent use as the possibilities for these mini pies/quiches are really quite endless!

Bacon Wrapped Brandied Apricots

2011-08-19T18:36:00.003+08:00

This is the first appetiser that I made for the dinner for eight the other night. I had wanted to serve an appetiser with bacon and tossed up a variety of options. Searching the web yielded a few recipes with ham wrapped fruits as well as bacon wrapped fruits. I found a few websites that featured apricots wrapped in bacon and that idea stuck in my head!

The recipe is really easy and the result is quite spectacular both in presentation and in taste as well. The saltiness and meatiness of the bacon contrasted really well with the apricots.

This is what I did:

Ingredients
30 dried Apricots
2 Tbsp Orange Juice
1 Tbsp Brandy
10 rashers back bacon
Method
Soak the Apricots in the mix of orange juice and brandy for at least 2 hours to rehydrate the apricots. Trim the fat off the bacon and cut into three strips (lenghtwise). Wrap the apricots in the bacon strips and secure with a toothpick. Place on a baking tray and bake for about 30 minutes till the bacon is cooked and the apricots are slightly tender.

Now how easy is that! My son sampled a few before he had to leave for his birthday party and declared it a success. The guests really enjoyed popping them into their mouths as appetisers with their drinks and it got polished off very, very quickly.

Dinner for Eight (plus one)

2011-08-17T06:41:00.004+08:00

Last Saturday, we had a few friends over for dinner - 3 couples to be exact. 3 times two equals 6. Add in The Lovely Wife and myself and that makes Eight. The plus one is for my little princess. My son had a birthday party that night so he didn't partake of the food. He did help out with the tasting though and came back just in time for dessert!

So what did I make? As usual, The Lovely Wife and I tossed up the menu. She suggested going down the trail of tried and tested but as usual, I wanted to push myself. I also wanted to have something that I could update on this blog!

We decided we would make a few starters. That way, we could chat and munch and munch and chat and throw in a few drinks at the same time! The Lovely Wife decided she wanted to throw together a delightful Sangria and I must say that it was very well received.

So, for appetisers, I decided on Bacon Wrapped Apricots. This was followed by Nachos although I used chicken instead of beef. Leek, Spinach and Mushroom Quiche followed up before we moved to the Dining Table for the main meal.

For the Main, I whipped up my version of a Karniyarik - a Turkish based recipe with Eggplant and Minced Lamb. The Lovely Wife tossed together a lovely Greek Salad and we served the main with Rice as well as loads of bread.

Finally, the dessert. I made an original dessert that I'd like to call Le Snick Snack. Its basically a dessert based on a Snickers bar - chocolate, caramel and peanuts.

I'll post the recipes in due course together with the photos. It's always difficult to take photos while guests are around so I apologise in advance if the photos arent quite as detailed as I would like!

Stay tuned!

TLW gets her Birthday Dessert

2011-08-13T06:42:00.003+08:00

The Lovely Wife celebrated her birthday on Wednesday, 10th August 2011. As usual, I was going to bake her a cake but this time, she asked if rather than making her a cake, if I could just make her my Tiramisu. She reckons that Tiramisu is her most favourite dessert and she wanted it for her birthday. Who am I to refuse a woman, a woman so gorgeous and especially when she is The Lovely Wife!!

So Tiramisu it was.

Actually, making a dessert was far easier than baking a cake and far quicker too. This time, I jazzed up my usual Tiramisu recipe by adding chopped chocolate in between the layers. A simply small bar of 45g of Dark Chocolate was enough.

For the topping, I made some caramel almonds and chopped them up before sprinkling it on top. Unlike last year where I was in such a rush that I messed up the caramel almonds, this time they turned out truly beautifully.

For her birthday, the kids and I woke her up early to give her her cards and presents. Then it was off to school and work. Later in the evening, we went out for dinner, where sadly the food was rather disappointing. No dessert was ordered of course as the Tiramisu was waiting in the fridge! We came home to 'cut the cake' and everyone had a huge serving. The kids enjoyed stuffing their faces with the Tiramisu and The Lovely Wife was very, very happy indeed.

As for me, as long as The Lovely wife is happy with her Birthday cake, or dessert as the case may be, I am a happy camper!

Happy, Happy Birthday to The Lovely Wife!

Fudge gone awry transforms to Truffles!

2011-08-07T10:00:00.000+08:00

For the longest time, I've wanted to make fudge. Chocolate Fudge that is. My Aunt Julie makes a great toffee fudge and she tells me that the secret is in the quality of Condensed Milk. In looking for a recipe for Chocolate Fudge, most of them either required a sugar syrup boiled to soft ball stage or the use of Condensed Milk.

What I dont like about condensed milk is that in Malaysia, is is now almost impossible to find Condensed Milk. Real Condensed milk that is. What is sold here is sold as Sweetened Thickened Creamer. The Reason? Whereas Condensed Milk is sweetened milk where the water has been removed, the Sweetened Thickend Creamer is actually mixed with Palm Oil and other additives so it's not really 100% milk anymore.

So when I found a recipe that used Evaporated Milk instead of Condensed Milk, I was rather pleased. I modified the recipe a little and started to make the Fudge. First mistake though was that I cut down on the sugar. Not a very bright thing to do in retrospect as the sugar would be what thickens the milk. Next, I didn't watch the boiling mass and it overboiled and spilled all over my stove top. To cut a long story short, the mixture didn't set. It just refused to harden up sufficiently to fudge consistency even after I placed it in the freezer.

It tasted bloody good though! So, in order to salvage the 'disaster', I decided I'd roll up the mixture in cocoa and produce truffles. And what truffles they were! I still had to keep them in the freezer as they melted really quickly but that was part of the magic. The chocolate truffles were really rich and chocolatey and were what you would expect from an expensive store or hotel. Simply delicious.

This is the recipe for really simple but stunning Chocolate Truffles.

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
400g tin evaporated milk
4oz butter
300g good quality chocolate
2Tbsp Cocoa
100g roasted almonds
1 Tbsp vanilla
Method
Combine sugar and milk in a saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil and then cook for 12 minutes, stirring to make sure mixture doesn't boil over. Allow to cool slightly and then add in butter, chocolate and vanilla. Mix well till nicely combined then beat until mixture starts to lose its gloss. Add in nuts and chill for a while. Roll into balls with cocoa dusted hands.

I doubt I would make these again as I'm sure there are easier ways to make truffles which would probably taste just as good if not better. I really have to try and make a fudge again some day but what I am most happy about this attempt is that nothing went to waste and quick thinking saved the day for all that chocolate that went into this. Most importantly, the kids really enjoyed this although they both looked at me and asked:

"But Dads, I thought you were making Fudge?"

Pear and Chocolate Mousse Cake

2011-07-07T11:05:00.000+08:00

Not too long ago, actually it could be sometime in May, so that makes it quite some time ago, I made this dessert for a couple of friends that came over for tea and good conversation. Lynn brought along a lovely salad while the delectable Ms Kong Piang brought along a team smoked trout that was rather delicious. She also mentioned that she hadn't had a nice dessert in a while and that all the stuff she had been 'forced' to eat was really not worth her time. Ms Kong Piang often repeats that same story to me just to get me to make her desserts. *Yawn*

So anyway, not wanting to disappoint neither Ms Kong Piang nor Lynn, I decided I was going to make something different. Something chocolatey yet fruity. The Lovely Wife kept bugging me as to what I was going to make but I hushed her up. Very politely too!

In my mind, I wanted a chocolate cake with a pear mousse on top. I surfed the web for a Pear Mousse recipe and found this recipe from cdkitchen.com reproduced below.

For the cake, I decided on using my Baked Chocolate Mousse as I wanted a nicer soft texture.

While I was baking the mousse, I decided to make a cinnamon sauce to complement the pear mousse.

Ingredients
PEAR MOUSSE
3 large pears
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup brandy
1 cup Whipping cream

Method
Peel and core pears and chop coarsely. Place pears in pot with sugar and butter and lemon juice and cook and stir over low heat 15 to 20 minutes.

Let cool slightly and place in blender and puree smooth. Add the brandy and mix well. Cool completely.

Whip heavy cream and blend into cooled pear mixture. Chill well for several hours.

BAKED CHOC MOUSSE CAKE
200g Good Quality Dark Chocolate
4 eggs
200g Caster Sugar
300 ml Thickenend Cream
3 Tbsps Corn Flour

Method
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler and let cool. Meanwhile, beat eggs with sugar till nice and foamy. Add in the melted chocolate and continue beating till nicely incorporated. In a separate bowl, whip cream to soft peaks. Fold into the chocolate mixture and then add in sifted corn flour. Mix well to incorporate. Pour into a 9" round pan and place in a water bath. Bake in 180C oven for about 30 minutes.

Caramel Cinnamon Sauce
5 Tbsp Sugar
2 Tbs Water
1 Tbsp Butter
about 1/2 cup cream or milk
2 - 3 tsps Cinnamon powder (to your taste)

Method
Melting the sugar and water and allow to cook without stirring till the sugar turns amber. Turn add in the butter and stir quickly. Mixture may sputter. Reduce heat and allow to cool slightly before adding in the milk/cream. Return to heat and whisk until everything combines and mixture is nice and thick. Add in the cinnamon powder to taste.

Before serving, I dusted the top of the pear mousse with some cinnamon powder for those that didnt want to eat it with the caramel cinnamon sauce. The cinnamon really did make a difference and seemed to bring out the flavour of the pears.

The pear mousse turned out really nicely although if I make this again, I would let the pears mixture thicken some more as the mousse took a long, long time to set. In fact, even after being in the freezer overnight, the mousse melted very quickly. However the next day, the mousse had set up very, very nicely as you can see above.

The mousse was great as a dessert on its own too - especially with the caramel cinnamon sauce! Ms Kong Piang remarked that it would make a very good ice cream.

The combination of the pear mousse and the baked choc mousse was rather sublime and very interesting. The fruitiness of the pears combined really well with the chocolate and one slice was definitely not enough. This is the kind of dessert that you can just eat and eat... and that's exactly what we did!

Mocha Pudding

2011-06-28T02:52:00.000+08:00

A few weeks ago, I had promised the kids that I would make them a nice dessert, something chocolatey and pudding-like. They were rather excited and they asked if I could make them something Mocha instead. Mocha has become the flavour of the month with the kids and truth be told, they like little sips of coffee as well!
I had planned to make it one weekend but then the 'lazy monster' took over and I apologised to the kids and said that I would make it another day.

A few days later, I took the kids out for dessert as The Lovely Wife had a dinner date with some friends. We ended up going to TGIF and wanted their Mocha Mud Pie but as luck would have it, they were out. They had something called Mini Delights which were actually a variety of small puddings served in shot glasses. I told my kids not to bother with them as firstly, the servings were too small and secondly, I could probably make something better. They both agreed and we ended up just having the Sundae which I have to say was pretty darned disappointing. As we left the restaurant, they both asked me if I would make them the puddings that I had promised soon and I promised I would.

I was actually going to modify the tried and tested Chocolate Pastry Cream Recipe from a previous Daring Bakers challenge. Or maybe even the Chocolate Custard recipe from my Chocolate Trifle.

The issue that I had with both those recipes was that they both needed egg yolks and I didn't want to waste the whites. So I surfed the web and found this recipe that used Whole eggs for the custard! I've never used whole eggs for custards or custard like puddings and I was a little worried how it would turn out.

I modified the recipe slightly and this is what I came up with:

Ingredients
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 2Tbsp coffee powder
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 3Tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 3 large eggs
• 100g. bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

Method

Combine milk, coffee and heavy cream in a heavy, medium saucepan and heat up to just under a boil. Meanwhile in mixing bowl combine cornstarch and sugar and sift in cocoa powder. Whisk until blended. In another mixing bowl, whisk egg until blended, then add to sugar mixture and whisk until well combined.

Slowly add half the hot milk mixture to egg mixture to temper it while whisking continuously. Pour egg mixture back into pan with rest of the milk mixture and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture has become very thick . This should take about 7 minutes, depending on how cold your eggs are.

Remove from the heat and add in the chocolate and let heat of the custard mixture melt it. When the chocolate has melted, whisk together until smooth. Spoon the custard into cups right away and then chill for several hours.

I took a leaf out of the TGIF Menu and chopped some Snickers Bars and added them to the top of the pudding as a garnish. This gave the dessert and extra bite, a bit of crunch and more of a yummy factor.

The top of the custard formed a little bit of a skin the longer it stayed in the fridge but the Snickers on top more than disguised that. It was kind of nice to have a bit of a thicker top as well.

The verdict? The kids loved it! They liked the fact that the coffee wasn't overpowering and that the coffee flavour was more of an undertone and more noticeable as an aftertaste.

Both the kids had two servings at one go and then looked forward to having the dessert at every meal till there was no more. After the last one was finished, both of them looked at me and asked if there was any more. When the reply came that everything had been polished off, they immediately asked when I was going to make this again!

Father's Day 2011

2011-06-21T20:56:00.004+08:00

This last Sunday, 19th June 2011, was Father's Day in Malaysia. I know that Father's Day is not celebrated on the same day in every country although I think the UK and the USA celebrate it on the same day.

I do know that Australia and New Zealand celebrate Father's Day in September and I know this through experience. When I was a Uni Student in Melbourne, Australia, I recall calling home just after the 3rd Sunday in June. I had a pleasant conversation with Dad who then remarked that he was upset that I hadn't wished him for Father's Day. I quickly replied that it wasn't Father's Day in Australia and how was I to remember that it was being celebrated back home in June?! He wasn't terribly impressed by my answer but nonetheless once September rolled around, I made sure I called home on Father's Day in Australia and that made him very pleased!

This year for Father's Day, we went out for dinner the previous night as The Lovely Wife had to go out of town on work on Sunday. On the Sunday morning, My little princess presented me with a lovely hand made card. My son went one step further and got The Lovely Wife to 'hijack' one of my favourite white T-shirts for him to personalise with a fabric pen set that we had bought for the kids some time back. He drew a fabulous stylised Elephant on it and then wrote a message underneath it!

The message reads: "I Love you Dads! Michael" and its not a grammatical error either as both the children like to call me Dads. Yes, with an 'S'

I was thrilled beyond words and I insisted on wearing it to church on Sunday morning. With great pride I showed it off to friends and family!

After church, The Lovely Wife had to catch a taxi to the airport while we went to Avanti Restaurant at Sunway Hotel where we met up with my Parents for lunch. We all had a good time - especially the kids who enjoyed stuffing their faces!

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads out there!

Black and White Butter Cake

2011-06-18T08:10:00.000+08:00

Just last week, Sarah's Godparents came over to visit over tea and as usual, the question of what to cook cropped up. I decided to keep things simple yet at the same time take the opportunity to try out something new. I settled for a simple Butter Cake.

Although I have a tried and tested Butter Cake recipe - that is basically a Pound Cake (you know, a pound of everything), I decided to broaden my horizons and try something new. This recipe comes from The Australian Womens Weekly Old Fashioned Favourites - Desserts|Cakes|Biscuits|Slices
and this is how it goes.

Ingredients
250g Butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4 (275g) caster sugar
3 eggs
2 1/4 cups (335g) self raising flour
3/4 cup (180ml) milk
Method
Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a 22cm round or 19cm square cake pan.
Beat Butter, vanilla extract and sugar till light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in sifted flour and milk, in two batches.
Spread mixture into pan. Bake about 45 minutes or till done. Stand cake 5 mintues. Turn top side up onto wire rack to cool

Funny thing is, the actual recipe said to bake for about 1 hour but my cake was nicely done in 45 minutes. I think this may be due to the fact that my pan was slightly smaller and I used some of the batter to make a smaller cake. That probably accounts for the time difference perhaps.

We couldn't wait to try out the small cake as the house was filled with a lovely smell of baking! So as soon as the cakes were done, I popped the small cake out and my Little Princess proudly carried it off to show to The Lovely Wife. We wasted no time in cutting the cake and tasting it.

The cake was really nice and light. Almost like a sponge cake rather than a butter cake. Compared to my usual butter cake recipe, this has one less egg and about a 100 grams more of flour. Interesting how this affects the texture so much. Taste wise, it was really good too.

Too make it more interesting, I whipped up a batch of Orange flavoured butter icing and another batch of chocolate icing. For the Orange Icing, I mixed 60g butter, 2 cups icing sugar and about two Tbsps freshly squeezed orange juice together. I also added in some orange essence. I iced half the cake with the orange icing and then used the same basic recipe but omitted the orange juice and added in about 4 Tbsps of cocoa. I used the chocolate icing to ice the other half of the cake.

I also covered the cake with some roasted almond flakes. This gave it a nice crunch and the nuts went really well with the icing.

So with the twin colours of Black and White, I decided to name this simple cake, a Black and White Butter Cake. The kids preferred the chocolate icing over the orange but having two small slices of each flavour was really the way to go!

Pesto, Eggplant and Mushroom Pasta

2011-06-08T11:55:00.001+08:00

After making and devouring the Mushroom Burger with Pesto for lunch, there was still a considerable amount of pesto left over. The kids and The Lovely Wife liked the pesto so much that I decided to make a Pasta that very same night - using similar ingredients. I needed to pop down to the local Super to get more ingredients and I chose button mushrooms and a few more baby eggplant to go with the pasta.
The kids wanted Fettucine as their choice of pasta so that is what I used.

Ingredients
3 cloves garlic - chopped
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Basil
Pesto
2 baby Eggplant - sliced thinly
200g Button Mushrooms - sliced into chunks
Fettucine
Method
Fry the garlic with oregano and basil. Add in the sliced eggplant and cook over high heat till tender. Add in the mushrooms and cook till tender. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
Cook the pasta and then toss in the Pesto and mix well until nicely combined. Serve the mushroom and eggplant over the pasta.

How easy is that? And how delicious did it turn out too! The whole family loved it as did I. The pasta becomes a nice green once coated with the Pesto and it even looks like it is a spinach pasta or some other sort of green pasta! Completely natural, completely healthy.

I'm sending this quick and easy dish over to Kirsten of From Kirsten's Kitchen to Yours who is hosting the ever popular Presto Pasta Nights for the fourth time it seems! Presto Pasta Nights is the brainchild of my friend Ruth from Once Upon a Feast. Now what could be better than sending in a Presto Pesto Pasta for Presto Pasta Nights? Enjoy!

Mushroom Burger with Pesto

2011-06-06T10:21:00.002+08:00

A couple of weekends ago, we realised that we had been eating out a lot. One of The Lovely Wife's relatives had come to visit and it's always fun to take people out for food in Malaysia since we live in a veritable food haven. Trouble with eating out though is that most times, the food is full of oils, fats and it also contains a lot of MSG (mono sodium glutamate). Tasty yes, but not good for the system. Since we never use additives at home, we immediately feel the effects of MSG. For me, my sinus tends to act up and with the kids, they start coughing at night. You also feel sluggish the next morning. Maybe its all in the mind, but we really think that one of the causes is MSG.
Anyway, come Saturday, we were tossing up what to do for lunch. Since Saturday is usually cleaning day at home, we tossed up getting some take out (Again!) but The Lovely Wife and I decided that enough was enough. I hadn't made anything different for a while so I thought that I would try something that we had seen on TV. The Food Channel has these short simple recipes that they show as 5 minute fillers between shows and on one of them, they featured a mushroom burger with garlic mayonnaise, pesto and a whole heap of other sauces. They used Portobello mushrooms as a replacement for the hamburger. We all know how Portobello's have that 'meaty' texture.

I decided to keep it simple and just use Pesto. Home made Pesto of course! Instead of the usual Cashew nuts for the pesto, I used Almonds. To make the burger more interesting, I jazzed it up a little by adding some grilled eggplant slices as well. I also used Lollo Rosso lettuce for a slightly different texture and taste. Nice thick tomato slices finished it off. e

Ingredients

4 Portobello Mushrooms
2 large ripe Tomatoes -sliced thickly
Lollo Rosso Lettuce
4 wholemeal buns
2 baby Eggplant - sliced thinly

For the Pesto
2 cloves garlic
50gm Basil Leaves
Large Handful of almonds
20gm cheddar (or more to your taste)
1/8 cup Olive Oil

Method
Make the pesto by processing the garlic, then the basil, almonds, cheese and oil. Season with salt and pepper. Step by step instructions here
Heat a little oil in a skillet and then cook the eggplant till tender - about 5 minutes or so. Lightly season with salt. Remove and allow to drain on paper towels. Remove the stems from the mushrooms and set aside for later. In the same pan, cook the mushrooms on both sides till tender. Remove and set aside. Chop the stems from the mushrooms and cook till tender - so as not to waste!
Toast the buns in the oven till lightly toasted. Assemble the burger by spreading a generous amount of pesto on one half of the bun. Cover with eggplant, mushroom, lettuce and tomato and finally, sprinkle the chopped mushroom stem over the top before covering with the other half of the bun. You can add some tomato sauce too if you like.

The results were fantastic! The pesto gave a nice taste to the burger and you could have eaten it just as a spread as well. The grilled eggplant complemented the mushrooms really well and the mushroom was really juicy. The burger was very filling too and the best part about it was that it was all healthy!

The kids loved it and didn't mind at all that there was no meat in it. My little princess was rather excited about the burgers and she went to get some flag toothpicks that we had previously bought for one of their birthday parties. She stuck the toothpicks into the burgers - "just like they do in the restaurants!"

This is definitely something that we will make again and its so easy and tasty that you could even serve it to guests!

Quick Update

2011-06-02T19:07:00.002+08:00

It looks like a month has gone by and there have been no updates whatsoever. That doesn't mean that the cooking has stopped. It has slowed down a bit but it hasn't really stopped. There hasn't been a heckuva lot of new stuff that I have whipped up although there have been a few.

The reason for my lack of updating is actually because I switched jobs and just started on the new one yesterday! Time to update this blog has been hard to find and although there are a few recipes waiting to be written up, I haven't had much 'inspiration' to do the writeups as well as not having much time. So, bear with me loyal readers and I hope to get my stuff up on this blog soon!

Hope all is well with everybody!