Thursday, May 31, 2012

Oatmeal & Cranberry with Maple Syrup Cookies

Something easy to break away from sophisticated baking and this cookie is a choice of mine for the purpose !

Making it more colorful..I chose dried cranberry to do the job and it definitely went well with the oatmeal !

The recipe could be found here.  


























Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Braised Pork with Mustard Sauce

To me, nothing is better than cooking something that doesn't require a lot of ingredients ,yet the outcome is terrific and scrumptious. Everytime I find or come accross any recipe that falls into the category mentioned above , I feel like winning a lottery !

This pork is certainly the case. It's another great recipe given out by Khun Koy of Jykell & Hyde. Lots of people have made it and posted the photos all over FB ( that happened to show on my timeline )..what made me so amazed and convinced to give the dish a try is that noone has failed to love it and how people have been raving about !

Anyway, I didn't expect it to be that easy to make the dish but when I've seen the recipe , I just couldn't believe how simple the recipe is and honestly, had a little doubt if it could be as good as its reputation..:)  Incredibly, it turned out to be what people exactly have said about..and I felt like getting a jackpot from a slot machine!

However, in my own opinion , this pork might not be as kid-friendly as the chicken ( from the same reliable source !) I've previous made..but it could definitely make adults impressed ! Considering all inputs needed and a fabulous outcome..this is a must to try!!

The recipe could be found here. Big thank again toKhun Koy for kindly sharing this recipe..:)































   

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Bitter Dark Chocolate Mousse Cake with Banana Foster Filling

There are a lot of times that I planned to do something to begin with but ended up with a different plan and this mousse cake is also the case !

When I firstly saw the chocolate banana mousse cake from here , it undoubtedly made me tempted and wanted to give it a try so I kind of went ahead and got all ingredients sorted ! Then I went back to the recipe and read through it carefully..started with a cake sponge base which made me have second thoughts ! Given many times of failure to make a sponge cake that contains neno emulsifier , I honestly was not confident to follow the recipe provided..from there, the first change was then made !

I opted to make the cake base for a different recipe which I finally picked the chiffon cake rather than sponge. While the cake was being baked , I was about to prepare the banana, all of a sudden, banana foster popped into my head ...so here come the second change ! I quickly looked for banana foster recipes and chose the one from pioneer woman that I know I can always trust the source..:)          

The third change I made was caused by my laziness.. since I couldn't be botherd to make two different mousse ,I simply chose dark chocolate mousse to cover the whole cake and being warned on the original recipe that the mousse might melt quickly due to using nothing but chocolate and cream..  the thought of how difficult it would be when deliver the cake to my victims made me change my mind ( for the last time ! ) again !

I ended up with the recipe from epicurious which doesn't call for anything to make the mousse hold its shape strongly..so I decided to add some gelatin powder for the purpose ..and finally it turned out to be this one..the one I would proudly present !

The cake base recipe could be found here.
The banana foster recipe could be found here.
The mousse recipe could be found here. ( I made 1.5 portion of dark choc mousse and added 1/4 tsp gelatin powder)

Note : For the assemble, I brushed the top of layers with the banana foster sauce. Adding banana pieces on the first layer and mousse on the second.






















































  

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Pistachio & Chocolate Chips Biscotti

I've baked lots of different cookies but strangely, I hardly make biscotti despite of it's actually also a type of cookie / biscuit ! When I found this pistachio & choc chips biscotti is the time I remembered that it's been a long long time since my last biscotti..so it's just the right time to make one, isn't it ??      

My only problem of making these biscotti is to slice/cut the dough into pieces after the first baking...turned out that most of slices broke into pieces when cut and didn't hold their shapes easily which I realised later it's because I added more nut and chocolate chips into the dough than the recipe calls for, consequently, it caused me a difficulty to do the job ! But apart from this problem, everything was just fine..:)

The recipe could be found here. And big thank to Khun Pook of dailydelicious for sharing the recipe and giving me the answer of what I doubted..:)


























 

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Braised Chicken Thighs with Thai Style BBQ Sauce

I stumbled upon a photo of this yummy chicken on Facebook posted by a friend of my friend ( coincidentally,  the three of us are all namesakes! lol..) and it happened to be the same time as I was thinking of what to cook for the next dinner ! So I immediately wrote a comment and asked for the recipe... Few minutes later I got a reply from her telling me to wait which was not that long since the next morning when I checked on FB , I was already informed where to find the recipe! So I promptly went to it after leaving a thank-you note to the poster for being kind and sharing the recipe..

Turned out that the recipe is from one of Thai famous chefs and it's so simple that calls for only few ingredients ! The key thing, I reckon, to make the dish ( at least, look !)scrumptious is the homemade BBQ sauce. Luckily, I had all ingredients for the sauce, so I undoubtedly started making it straight away and later, went out to buy the chicken !

As for the verdict, the BBQ sauce is amazing and really makes the dish truly delicious and all in all, I personally think that  it's far too good to be missed! Anyway, there are different ways to cook with the sauce as suggested on the original post..so, given some of leftover sauce, I've already planned to play it with something else in the near future!!

The recipe could be found here ( Note : for the sauce, I reduced amount of sugar & vinegar while added more of kikkoman sauce. And for the chicken, to make it easier to eat , I took the bones off and cut the chickens into bite-size pieces , then throw them back into the pan to coat with the sauce and sprinkled some chopped spring onion to get a bit more colorful. Served it with rice ).

Big and huge thank to Khun Koy of Jekyll and hyde who has kindly shared a lots of great recipes and tips to make food more delicious on her blog and more importantly, for becoming my FB friend..:)

































Saturday, May 19, 2012

Citrus Bars

I've been having fun with cooking and baking a few things using new recipes from the lastest issue of BBCGoodfood magazine...and so far, none of them has made me disappointed..and this citrus bar is also the case!

While the weather is getting hot ,so eating something tangy is a great way to freshen yourself ,don't you think??





















  

Friday, May 18, 2012

Custard & White Chocolate Biscuits

Here's another great (cookie) recipe from the lastest issue of BBCGoodfood ( June's ) ...so far so good !

The recipe could be found here.
































Thursday, May 17, 2012

Plain Young Coconut Chiffon Cake

Few weeks ago I've seen the photos and messages about this chiffon cake posted on FB by one of my FB friends which totally caught my attention..I then politely asked for the recipe and she kindly and quickly responded to my request !

This is the second time I've made the cake after getting a good feedback from the first one. Anyway, I strangely thought it seemed not good as the previous one but one of tasters confirmed that it's equally nice as the first time she had..so, at the end I chose to believe her and felt much relieved with the verdict !!

Here is what I've done..

Ingredients :

Dry part :

67 g cake flour
2/3 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Wet part :

54 g canola oil
60 g young coconut juice
3 xl egg yolks
1 tsp each of pandon & vanilla extract
26 g caster sugar

To finish :

3 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tar tar
45 g caster sugar

Some young coconut pieces to stuff and top on the cake.

Preheat the oven to 170c and bake for 30 minutes. The method is exactly the same you'd prepare a chiffon cake batter. Pour half of the batter into the prepared tin ( I used 8" square cake tinand the base lined with parchment paper ) then spread some of coconut pieces on top. Pour the remaining batter and finish with the rest of coconut.




















 

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Murgh Makhani ( Butter Chicken )

My husband and I love Indian food and we used to eat them almost every Sunday back then when I didn't really cook regularly like now but in these days , we no longer have curry that often becasue we've agreed that they are quite heavy and the older we are , the more difficult to digest it !

Anyway, since Indian curries have still been our favorite..so we both are happy to have it once in a while and given I'm now more capable of cooking than the past, so it's even better to have e a homemade one than a takeaway !

This butter chicken is also from the lastest issue of BBCGoodfood magazine ( June's )..one of good recipes I've given them a try apart from Apple Crumble Loaf and Cherry Oat Squares made earlier which so far, none of them has made me disappointed!!

The recipe is TBC...