Cup Cake Journey: Part 1

14th February 2009
Weather: Sunny. Perfect valentine day for those love

My Bro has asked me to prepared fondant decorated cupcakes for his wedding. And today I had my first go. My biggest concern is whether I can bake some presentable cupcakes. Below is the result of my first attempt.
The cupcakes overflowwww!!!! Haha. The results of using self-raising flour. But I do like the loose and soft texture of the cupcake thou. Yum. I might just reduce the amount of mixture in each cup next time.

to be continue..............

Baklava

Baklava. From how I see this dessert, it is a variation of the galaktoboureko substituting custard with nuts. Most of the time, people uses macadamia, walnuts and pistachio. Don't use peanuts k. haha. I always had an impression before I came to Adelaide that nuts should be relatively cheap over here in Australia. But let me tell you, this is definitely not the case!!. Its still so expensive. Costed me near to 30 bucks to make this dessert. haha. But at least it turned out fine. Tada~~~ Well, not too bad considering its my second try making it. (I burned by first one by leaving it in the oven unattended..haha). Well, if I were to make it again, I would do the adjustment below.

1) More filo.
2) Thicker nut layers and coarser grain
3) Gonna cut before I bake for better presentation
4) Gonna fry the but into a moist mixture. Not sure how I am gonna do this. Most probably with sugar syrup and honey. hehe.

And christmas is coming!!!. I wonder how will I celebrate it this yr....

Site Introduction

Gomen!! For those that have visited my site for the past few months, I'm sorry for the lack of updates. Life wasn't good for the past few months and my crappy kitchen forbids me to cook anything. Haha. Other than that, I lost my camera on my way back to Malaysia back in January.
Well, I still doesn't have anything to update thou but I will introduce a very good site to the cake lovers out there.


Its unfortunate that the site is in Chinese. Unlucky for all the bananas out there.


They even have my favourite tiramisu cake!!!!! Goshhhh....

And my Creme Bruleee which I have attempted last time but failed miserably...haha..
Anyway, here is the link to the site

http://www.rthk.org.hk/elearning/dessert

Have fun!!!! And tell me if u are successful.
Ohya....I have to give credit to Kylie for introducing me to this site

Christmas Special

During last Christmas, a friend of mine decided to hold a small dinner gathering at her place just to celebrate this festive season. Thou, I never really celebrate Christmas, I was kinda looking forward to it. I'm roasting my first ever turkey..:). thou it didn't turn out that well. Haha.

Baked Ham with Sweet Sauce
2.25kg of smoked Gammon
1onion (finely diced)
1carrot (Roughly chopped)
1 celery stick
1 bouquet garni sachet
6 peppercorns

For the glaze
Whole cloves
50 g of brown sugar
2 tbsp of golden syrup

Directions

1. Soaked the Smoked Ham in water overnight and removed any scum and appear on the surface.
2. On next day, bring a pot of water to simmer and add in the onion, carrot celery, 1 packet of bouquet garni, peppercorns and ham. Simmer the ham for 1 hour.
3. Remove the ham from the water and let it cool for an hour so as to let the ham regain its firmness.
4. When cooled, remove the skin of the leg ham and carve the surface into a network of diamond shape.
5. Insert the cloves in the middle of each diamond cutting as shown below..:)


6. On a pan heat the brown sugar and sugar syrup together and stirred in a little bit of water just to make it liquid. Glaze over the ham.
7. Baked the ham in the oven for 45 mins or until the surface turns golden brown.

Yakitori
(Skewered Chicken)
1kg chicken thigh fillet
½ cup sake
¾ cup Japanese Soy Sauce
½ cup mirin
2 table spoon sugar
1 cup spring onions, cut diagonally into 2 cm pieces

Directions

1. Prepare the skewer as shown the picture above.
2. On a pan, heat the sake, Japanese soy sauce, mirin and sugar together until the mixture are mixed properly.
   
3. Marinate the skewered meat with the mixture and put it overnight in the refrigerator.
4. Bake in the oven for 30-40 mins on 160 degrees
   
   

Parsnip and Bacon Croquettes
450g parsnips, cut roughly into small pieces
2 tbsp of butter
1 garlic cloves
1 tbsp of chopped fresh coriander
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 egg beaten
panko

Directions

1. Boil a pot of water and add a pinch of salt into the water.
2. Once the water starts to boil, put the parsnip into the water and boiled for 10 mins or until soft.
   
3. Remove the parsnip from the water and allow to cool.
4. If you have a food processor, blend the parsnips and the rest of the ingredient until smooth or blend it manually.
5. Shape the mixture into any shape of your liking.
6. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs for 2~3 mins.
7. Dip the croquettes into the egg and roll it in the panko.
8. Fry the croquettes in batch. Take care as to control the heat of the oil as they brown easily.
   

Roast Turkey
4.5 kg oven ready, turkey , with giblets(thawed if frozen)
1 large onion,
6 whole cloves
50g butter, softened
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the stuffing
225g rindless streaky bacon, chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp of fresh parsley
2 tbsp of dried mixed herbs
1 large egg, beaten

For the Gravy
2 tbsp Plain Flour
450ml Giblet stock

I didn't find the turkey delicious so I won't post the recipe here. The steps are more or less imaginable with the key steps below

Preheat to 200 degrees
Allow 15 mins per 450g plus 15 mins over
Lower to 180 degrees
Baste every 30 mins
Put meat ball in during the last 20 mins

Okonomiyaki

I learned this recipe from an interesting friend of mine (She sweat's while eating ice cream...^^) in Japan. Its a well-known street food there and its recipe varies from areas to areas. Some people called it Japanese Pizza for some unkown reasons. What I have here is a very simple versions of it. hehe. I do not have the metric amounts of the ingredients to use as while we are making it, the 'chef' instructions goes like this, "Drops a few egg, add some flour, add some milk, add the rest of the ingredients, if too watery, add more flour, if too stiff, add more milk, haha....thats how it goes".

Ingredients

• cabbage
• milk
• eggs
• flour
• cheese
• bacon

Seasonings

• BBQ sauce/ okonomiyaki sauce
• Mayonnaise
• Fish flakes

Directions

1. Drops a few egg, add some flour, add some milk, add the rest of the ingredients, if too watery, add more flour, if too stiff, add more milk, haha....That's roughly how it should looks like
   
2. Heat some oil on a pan. When its hot, scoop some of the mixture onto the pan. Flatten the mixture to the shape of the pancake. Place a piece of bacon and cheese on top of the okonomiyaki. After that layer another level with the mixture.

3. When the okonomiyaki is cooked, squeeze some BBQ sauce and mayonnaise onto it. For a finishing touch, add some fish flakes on it.

Delicious....

Crab-bing Crab-bing

"Crabbing" has always been the word known among my frens as catching crabs. Haha. Great. We just created a new english vocab. haha. Crabbing has always been my favourite sports that I enjoyed doing in Adelaide. You have fun and obtained FREE SEAFOOD at the same time which I consider as a luxury. Chinese calls it kill two bird with one stones.

In Adelaide, summer is the best time for catching crabs as this is the season for sand crabs. People have told me of stories being able of catching 100++ crabs in one go around this season. Drools..food for a week...haha,..but my best catch so far is only 26. Below are the photos from that day's journey....

haha...cooking crabs is a pain in the ass....so hard to clean , so complicated to cook, ...but still I enjoy crabbing ....

creamy leek potato soup

Upon the request of whitetulips, here it is, the creamy leek soup.

INGREDIENTS

• 2.5 kg white potatoes, peeled
  
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 leeks, bulb only
• salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Cook the potatoes in water until soft. Drain and set aside.
2. Diced the potatoes and put it in the food processor in batches. Add 5 cups of chicken stock.
   
3. Half the leek and diced the buttom part of the leek (One with the bulb). Place in the food processor
   
4. Blend until smooth.
5. In a pot, stir in the blended mixture and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and white pepper. Cook to desired consistency, adding more stock if necessary. Garnish with parsley.

This soup might seem complicated at first but it's a very simple and easy to make soup. No cream or milk needed at all. Enjoy