Monday, January 01, 2007
Friday, December 29, 2006
Gingerbread Men and Women
If you have seen my earlier post, I conducted 2 workshops on this Christmas cookie and Gingerbread men. I have the recipe posted below as a Christmas gift to all of you! Try it next year cos the children in my workshop could make them ... I am certain you can too.
You'll be surprise how long you can keep these little tough men. They can be consumed up to 1 month if kept in an airtight container in the fridge. A wonderful treat with piping hot coffee in the morning after a peaceful night rest.
Home-made Gingerbread Men (20 pcs - 12cm cutter) 125 gm unsalted butter (room temperature) 60 gm brown sugar 90 gm mollasses or golden syrup 1 egg 300 gm all-purpose flour 2 Tbsp ground ginger and 1 tsp soda bicarbonate 1. Preheat oven at 180 degree celsius. 2. Beat butter, sugar and syrup till light and creamy. 3. Add egg. 4. Sieve flour into the butter mixture and knead 2 minutes. 5. Take out and shape into a flat dough. 6. Cling wrap the dough and refrigerate for 15-20 minutes. 7. Take out and put dough in between 2 pieces of greaseproof paper and roll into desired thickness. 8. Cut into gingerbread man shape and transfer onto baking sheets. 9. Bake for 8 minutes or until slightly brown. Icing 1 egg white 280 gm icing sugar (sifted) 1. Wash and dry mixing bowl to remove any oil. 2. Beat egg white with a fork until foamy. 3. Add icing sugar in gradually. 4. Beat till icing stand in soft peaks. 5. Divide into bowls. 6. Pipe using disposable paper piping bags.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Christmas Dinner for Six
Appetiser was stuffed portobello mushrooms, grilled in the oven for 10 minutes at 170 degree celsius. Easy to make and delicious to gobble.... Just use a small vegetable brush or a new toothbrush to brush away the dirt on the mushrooms. Cut off the stem slightly and place them with the stem facing up (like a shallow bowl). Fill the mushroom with finely diced yellow capsicum, zucchini, tomatoes, bacon or ham and topped with some shreaded cheddar and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle with a little sea salt, a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and pop them in the oven and before you know it, it's ready! Note : Do not rinse portobello mushrooms, it will spoil the taste.
Brussel Sprouts seems to be great idea for tonite's meal, maybe the fibre will scrap down all the cholesterol in the prawns. Wishful thinking. Trim off the bottom part of the stem. Blanche the sprouts and leave aside. Heat a pan, drizzle some grapeseed oil and saute some bacon chips or in this case some chicken ham. Put all the sprouts into the pan and saute for a good 2 minutes, season with sea salt and a dash of white wine.
As for the carbo, an interesting nutty flavoured bread and butter pudding seem appropriate. First, slice one and half sticks of french loaf and arrange them slightly slanted on a oven proof dish. Butter in between slices and throw in some hazelnuts and baby almond (raisins optional). In a litre jug, crack 4 farm fresh eggs, a can of evaporated milk and 250ml fresh milk. Stir mixture together and pour onto the bread slices gently, making sure liquid is pour over every slice of bread. Pop it into the oven marked 160 degree celsius for 15 minutes then sprinkle some demerara sugar over the pudding and drizzle 2 scoops of brandy over it. Pop it back into the oven for another 5 minutes. Cover with aluminium foil if your pudding starts to brown too much. Take out from the oven and sprinkle another tablespoon of sugar and 1 more scoop of brandy. Pudding ready to be served. Note : this pudding has a crispy top layer unlike some other soft spongy bread pudding.
As for dessert, the wonderful christmas cupcake was served. Will post later!
Thursday, December 07, 2006
It's Christmas Time!
Here's a "Parent and Child" busy with the creative side of baking!
An adult participant cookie decoration.
Christmas cookies and Gingerbread men all rolled and cut-out by my wonderful participants!
A 14 year old girl did this and pretty isn't it!
This is the work of an 8 year old.
Creativity oozing out from a 9 year old with her 5 year old sister.
Another batch of cookies baked to perfection waiting to cool for icing. Had to say even the boys, all six of them did their parents proud! Would love to have more posts coming but my notebook is still being fixed in the hospital so I am using someone else terminal. For those of you who left messages and comments, I will get to them in due time. My sincere apologies! When the goin gets tough, the tough gets goin!
Friday, November 24, 2006
Vanilla Rosettes Cupcakes
- Heat oven at 180 degree celcius.
- Sieve flour, baking powder together in a bowl.
- Cream butter until light and add sugar, beat till it turns a shade lighter and sugar combined.
- Add vanilla and an egg at a 30 seconds interval, alternate with 2 scoops of flour mixture.
- Pour in milk, alternating with the rest of the flour mixture.
- Pour batter into cupcake liners or cups. Fill only half full.
- Bake for 10 - 15 minutes, till cake skewer comes out clean.
- Cool completely before icing with vanilla buttercream frosting.
- Beat all the ingredients together taking great care not to add too much milk.
- Consistency must be soft and creamy but does not drop off from the spoon.
- Pipe using a medium size star nozzle.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Yes, I Am Still Here (Sigh!)
- Heat oil in a saucepan, add garlic and chili.
- Garlic should only be slighly brown, take off from heat.
- Toss in cooked pasta and parsley.
- Season with sea salt and crushed black pepper.
- Garnish with julienne of carrots and parmesan, if desired. (Parmesan is a no, no for me)
- Because this pasta is so simple, the use of good quality ingredients is highly encouraged.
Saturday, November 18, 2006
Clear Fish Noodle Soup
Fish Stock 2 thumb size old ginger (washed and smashed) 500 gm fish bones 2 litres filtered water
- Heat a saucepan and add some olive oil.
- Fry ginger and fish bones until fragrant.
- Add water and bring to boil for 15 minutes. Simmer for 30 minutes and leave to cool.
- Drain stock.
- Put blanche rice noodles (bee hoon) in a serving bowl.
- Scoop some fish stock into a small saucepan, bring to boil.
- Put in the ginger, tofu, fish slices and vegetable of your choice.
- Let it boil for 2 - 3 minutes, season with a little sea salt.
- Pour over rice noodles in the serving bowl.
- Garnish with lots of garlic oil, white pepper and spring onions.
- Serve with a small sauce plate of chopped chilies with soya sauce.