| Friday, May 12, 2006 |
Hello everyone, First of all, Happy Wesak Day and Happy Mothers Day in advance. I was so into making something new and 'adventurous' today, so while flipping through Nigella's How To Be a Domestic Goddess, I saw this Pistachio Macaroons. It looks very nice and delicious. From what I read in other food-bloggers site, macaroons are quite a kick in the a**. It's not so easy to handle. So, being an amateur, I failed on my first attempt on making what might be the best-looking elegant macaroon. *sigh* Let's analyse and see what went wrong.. Nigella said "Grind the pistachios in a food processor along with icing sugar, until as fine as dust. Whisk the egg whites until fairly stiff, but not dry, sprinkle the caster sugar over and whisk until very stiff. Fold the whites into the pistashio-sugar dust, and combine gently. Pipe small rounds onto your lined baking sheet, using a plain 1cm nozzle. Let them sit for about 10 minutes to form a skin. Then put in the oven and cook for 10-12 mins at 180 C" right, so basically it's only pistachio, sugar and egg whites. sounds easy huh ? I guess that the egg whites weren't THAT VERY stiff, cause when I folded the pistachio-sugar dust in, it became abit watery and wasn't that stiff. *ching!!!!* Now that I'm typing it out, it said "fold the whites into the pistachio-sugar dust" .. i kinda did it the other way round. Does that affect the stiffness of the egg whites ? What do you think ?
I knew this wasn't going to be right.. -.-"
It became.. gooey melted pistachio flavoured sugar
yes, that's right. But, I already made the pistachio buttercream. HOW ? HOW ? So, made a Victorian Sponge Cake from HTBADG (was suppose to make the Boston Cream Pie tho, but since I have so much of buttercream, just settle for a Victorian Sponge Cake with Pistachio Buttercream and strawberries (what a combi.) So, for Victorian Sponge, ! food-processor-fool-proof-recipe-and-method ! 225g unsalted butter, very soft Put in all ingredients in the food processor except for milk. Pulse it till u've got a smooth batter. Then add in milk gradually through the funnel till your cake mixture's soft. Pour and scrape the batter into 2 x 21cm tins and bake for about 25 minutes at 180 C. When done, leave them on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out and cool completely. So, this is a multi-purpose sponge cake. use it anyhow u like. eat it plain, eat it with cream, or spread some jam in the middle and add some raspberries, or do cream cheese icing, perhaps chocolate ganache. or, I don't know, It's totally up to u. so my variation is with pistachio buttercream!
Quite messly done. was on the way out! hehe -- edited--- 13th may
made from left over chocolate ganache and beryls nuts. Little brother complained that I left a nicer looking cake at my uncle's place. He wanted a nice one at home too. (that's the existing pistachio buttercream victorian sponge) |
| Sunday, May 07, 2006 |
oh, what more could I say right, the ingredients speaks for itself  This recipe is from the Children's section of Nigella's How To Be A Domestic Goddess.  in the oven It's a relatively simple recipe. Stir together 250g of plain flour, 6 tbps golden caster sugar, 11/2 tbsp baking powder and a pinch of salt. Add 6 tbsp of crunchy peanut butter and mix until you have a bowl of course crumbs. Add 60g melted butter and 1 beaten large egg to 175ml milk. Stir this genlty into the bowl. Mix in 3 chopped Snicker Bars and dollop into the muffin cases. Bake for 20-25 minutes in 200 C Thats about it! pretty easy right.     And, really, it tasted as good as it looks. I mean, who could resist peanut butter AND snickers, right ? the texture was fluffy which was good! But i had it burnt a lil, so at the base of the muffin it's abit dry.. and burnt.. but, it was great, suddenly baking back again. I should bake more.. Hahaha. and find people to eat it! I can't possibly eat 12 muffins in 1 day right ??  |
just some time ago, I made Nigella's Chicken Mushroom Pie. I think i saw it from Sarah's Sarah-Discovers-How-To-Eat.. I wasnt quite satisfied with the chicken filling, so i decided to make it again. This time, I used Campbell's instant Chicken Soup.  but this time, the shortcrust pastry wasnt that great, maybe because I had insufficient butter. It was a bit too dry, and not so pliable.  The filling was better than the previous one. but still it wasn't great! Would try again another time, well, maybe other pies  |
ching!! another long overdue post. gomenasai... remember the place Osaka Restaurant? Like I mentioned before, it's quite a common place for me and my family to hang out. We went there about 2 weeks ago or was it last week, anyway, we had our usual food. This time we ordered something new, Chicken Sukiyaki (they had beef too) so, What exactly is Sukiyaki ?? (extracted from wikipedia.com) Sukiyaki (Japanese: 鋤焼 or more commonly すき焼き; sukiyaki) is a Japanese dish in the nabemono ("one-pot") style. It consists of thinly-sliced beef, tofu, ito konnyaku (noodles), negi (welsh onions), Chinese cabbage, and enoki mushrooms among other ingredients. Generally sukiyaki is a dish for the colder days of the year and it is commonly found on the menu of Japanese year-end parties (bonenkai). The ingredients are slowly simmered in a shallow iron pot in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin. Before being eaten, the ingredients are dipped in a small bowl of raw, beaten eggs. A common joke in Japanese comedy is that making passable sukiyaki can be done with a very tight budget, especially if one is poor.  ingredients - chicken slices, tofu, japanese noodles, shallots, carrots, chinese cabbage  the pot is heated, added with onions  Chicken is added  When the chicken is cooked, this broth is added. (which could be made of, japanese soya sauce, water, sugar, and maybe other ingredients)   The rest of the ingredients are added into the pot..  Just wait for the broth to boil, and it's done! It's quite nice, but it was a bit too salty, probably because of the soya sauce broth. I think it should taste better with rice, to ease the saltiness. |
this is a long overdue entry, and i totally forgot about it. please forgive me. last month when I went to Seremban, we bought some roasted pork slices back. Tea time, wanted to munch something.. so, i made something really easy n simple..  first, slice some carrots (any vegetables you prefer actually) i only had carrots at home.. so ..ok, anyway, heat the pan with some oil, gently fry the carrots (if u like them raw, skip the frying part). Then, beat 2 eggs with some milk, salt and pepper. fry the egg, when it's almost done, take it out. Roll the omelette with roasted pork slice, carrots and chicken floss. becareful its hot! p/s : Really sorry for the lack of entries lately, blogging will resume, so does cooking n baking |
| Friday, April 28, 2006 |
Hi again! Finally i have time for this one entry after a very very long lost from this blog. 1stly, im kinda bz and stress over my uni work. 2ndly, i haven been doing any kitchen task and 3rdly, i haven been dining anywhere nice and interesting. but heck, this is gonna be interesting. its about marche movenpick, which is located at the curve, mutiara damansara. marche means market in french. im sure there are a huge number of you out there have checked out this place. sorry, i m kinda slow and outdated. anyway, this is how marche movenpick looking like..
alright, the place looks kinda interesting because there are many stations with a great variety of food ranging from pizza, pasta, cheese fondue, roast chicken, baked potatoes, rosti, grilled mushroom, grilled seafoods, desserts and bla bla...too many to name...the food is quite good. i kinda like rosti, which is the fried potato strips and oh, the creme caramel and mango crepe were yummy!
mango crepe!
the fruit cake...kinda dry....but its ok...
creme caramel..yummy...can anyone tell me how to make creme caramel? funny thing, i only remembered to take pictures of desserts but it never occurred to me that i should also be snapping pictures of main courses! gosh...how could i? well, i admit, im kinda forgetful. mmm..i mean quite ask me for opinion? well, this place is surely worth checking out. its quite fun to dine in there. go in group so u'll be able to share the portions and try greater variety. yummy yummy... la la la~~~
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| Monday, April 10, 2006 |
*oppss, abit exaggerating?* Anyways, It's my dad's birthday yesterday, and i decided to make the birthday cake.. They didnt want something too sweet.. or cheesey... So, a Carrot Cake would be good i presumed This recipe has been tried. I made it last Nov for my dog's birthday but without nuts. It was a really good cake, so, making it for my dad's birthday... again.. would be good !! (no need to fear if it turns out good or not.. hahaha) Ok, so first, grate the carrots (about 6 medium carrots). and crush some nuts, i used almonds, walnut would be good too. Then whisk oil, sugar and eggs until thick n creamy. Add in the carrots and nuts, stir well. Sift in the dry ingredients (flour, bicarbonate soda and 1 tbsp or cornflour*) . I pour the mixture into 2 8" baking tins, so i'll have the layers ready, dont need to halved them later.. Bake at 180 C for about 45 mins.. well, depending on what type of baking tins u use.. Then beat butter, cream cheese and icing sugar to make the frosting After that, it depends on your creativity on how u wanna decorate the cake.. or just eat it *Nigella said, with a lil bit of cornflour added, it'll make the cake's texture fluffier n softer*
I could have eaten the whole cake.. but er... need to watch my waistline
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