Indian Style Sardines

This recipe is for those who fancy sardines and wanna try something new rather than a plain one from cans...there are a few ingredients called for to make the dish much more interesting !

The recipe

Ingredients :

Canned Sardines in olive oil – three tins
One red onion – finely chopped
Garlic – five cloves, minced
Ginger – 2 tbsp minced
tomatoes – 2 medium chopped
Lemon juice – 2 tsp
Cilantro – few fresh twigs
Cumin powder – 2 tsp
Red chilli powder – 2 tsp
Green chillies – 3 , finely chopped
water - 1/3-1/2 cup
Salt to taste

Instructions :

Heat the olive oil from the can in a pan (it should not be smoking hot).
Fry the garlic first, then add the onions, followed by ginger.
Once the onions are translucent enough, add the tomatoes and wait till the tomatoes becomes mushy.
Add the spices, green chillies and fry it little more, and add the sardines with their oil and water.
Check for the seasonings, a bit of spicy and sweet, adjust accordingly.
A good drizzle of lemon juice over it and garnish with freshly chopped cilantro.
Serve it over bed of rice.

Double Chocolate Cookies

Normally, when I feel like baking but don't have much time, I then always opt for cookies which are simple and quick to prepare and get it done but these cookies are not the case !

It needs some times to chill in the fridge but I could say that all the effort made really pays off..it's one of the best chocolate cookies I've ever made and eaten !

The recipe ( adapted slightly from here )

   
INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 ounces bittersweet chocolate, cut into larger-than-chip-size chunks

1/2 cup unsalted butter

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1-1/4 cups sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. Also set aside half of the bittersweet chocolate to add to the batter at the end.

In the top of a double-boiler, or in a heat-proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, gently melt together the remaining 6 ounces of the bittersweet chocolate, the unsweetened chocolate, and the butter.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract on high speed for about 10 minutes. The resulting mixture will be thick and will form a thick ribbon when the whisk is lifted and allowed to drizzle back into the bowl.

Turn the mixer down to low and slowly add the melted chocolate, scraping the bowl well with a spatula to get it all. Then add the flour, and continue to mix only until just combined. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir the remaining bittersweet chocolate in by hand with the spatula. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours, or overnight. According to the recipe, the batter can be made as much as 4 days in advance of baking.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Scoop the dough out onto the cookie sheet by tablespoonsful , allowing at least 2″ space between for spreading. Expect the dough to be really sticky.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. When baked, these cookies will puff up, and then collapse and form a shiny, flaky top as they cool, much like a brownie. If you’re in doubt about whether they’re done or not, it’s better to err on the side of underbaking. Allow to cool on a wire rack for a few minutes before removing from the cookie sheet and allowing to cool completely.

Carrot Chiffon Cake

After making the butter & jam bundt cake that I previously posted , I then felt like making something lighter which I couldn't think about something else but chiffon cake !

One of sources that is reliable and hardly let me down when looking for a great cake recipe ( especially chiffon cake ! ) is this blog. Coincidently, the blog owner just published her latest post and it happened to be this chiffon cake...hurraayyyyy !

The recipe could be found here. ( I added more sugar ( upto 75 g ) than the recipe calls for )

Butter & Jam Bundt Cake

It's been a while since the last time I visited foodgawker website , so last week I opened it on iphone to have a look through the photos and my attention was caught with the photo of this cake..I then quickly click to the link to find out more about it and for some reason, I decided to make the cake a minute later!

The recipe could be found here. ( Note : I reduced sugar to only 1 cup )

Thai Beef and Piper Leaves Curry

Despite being Thai but oddly that I rarely cook Thai food ! I spotted this curry while flipping through my friend's cookbook and I was very convinced to give it a try because I never cooked this curry before plus I felt like eating piper leaves after looking at the photo..so what else could be the better reason ?? Next thing I did is to take a photo of the recipe..:)

I made a curry paste by myself instead of using a store-bought or commercial one. It needed a little effort to do a paste but it really paid off ! For me,  the curry was rich and tasty and I loved the taste of piper leaves cooked in the sauce...just right to my tasting bud but unfortunately, it's too hot/spicy for my husband to handle with... who cares thou ?? ..lol..

        
This is the recipe..

Pork Tinga

Finally, I am back here on track after a long break since the summer started..not much to say and rather update on what I've cooked and baked recently !

Start off with this gorgeous Mexican dish I've found on one of my following foodblogs ..it's pretty easy to get it done and the outcome is fabulous!!

The recipe could be found here.

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Blueberry & Coconut Muffins

It's just another time that I ended up with something that I didn't really plan to do at the first place ! Luckily, it's done with a huge success !

The recipe ( inspired by here):

Ingredients:

1 cup self-raising flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 extra-large egg
1/3 cup caster sugar
40 g unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup Half & Half ( I mixed milk and whipping cream )
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut
a punnet of 125 g of fresh blueberries

Method :

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line a muffin pan with baking cups.

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, sieve together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg and sugar until pale and thick. Add the melted butter, half & half, and vanilla . Whisk after each addition.

Reserve 2 tbsps of the coconut, then add the remaining coconuts and blueberries to the dry ingredients. Lightly toss to coat. Next, pour this mixture onto the wet ingredients. Gently fold with a spatula to incorporate all of the ingredients. The batter will be lumpy, so do not overmix.

Divide the batter into the prepared muffin pan, then top each muffin with 1 tsp of the reserved coconuts. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes, then rotate the pan. Bake for another 10-12 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a muffin comes out cleanly.

After removing the pan from the oven, immediately transfer the muffins to a cooling rack.

Serve warm or room temperature with coffee or tea! Enjoy!

Sweet Pandan Buns

I've got some concentrated pandan juice left from making pandan chiffon cake, then I had an idea of making a bread version which I ended up with my own creation in a bun form !

The recipe :

Ingredients:

285 g plus few tbsp bread flour
50 g sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
85 g concentrated pandan juice
85 g Tangzhong water roux ( made from 25 g flour + 125 g water )
one sachet ( 7g) instant yeast
50 g butter, softened and cut into small pieces
some demerara sugar and slivered almonds for topping
1 egg + a tbsp milk for egg wash

Directions:

Combine the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a bowl of a stand mixer. Make a well in the center. Add all wet ingredients (milk, egg, Tangzhong and pandan juice). Fit the dough hook attachment on your stand mixer and begin mixing on low speed and knead until your dough comes together. Add butter and continue kneading until the dough is smooth, not too sticky on the surface and elastic (about 25 minutes with mixer and the last 5 minutes by hands).

When the dough is ready, you should be able to take a chunk and stretch it to a very thin membrane before it breaks. When it does break, the break should form a circle. Knead the dough into a ball shape. Take a large bowl and grease with oil. Place dough into the bowl and cover with wet towel. Let the dough rise in a warm place until it's doubled in size, about 45-60 minutes.

Transfer to a clean surface. Divide dough into 16 equal portions. Shape each into a ball. Place the balls into 9" square tin. Cover with cling wrap, let rest for 30 minutes. Brush the top with egg wash. Sprinkle with sugar and almonds. Bake in the preheat oven ( 180c ) for 20 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.

Pandan Chiffon Cake

I'd been wanting to make this pandan cake for ages but somehow, didn't manage to do it until now! And to my surprise, there wasn't any recipe on google that I felt comfortable with..so, for the record, I bravely made my own version!!

The recipe :

Ingredients:
(for 7" tube pan)

3 xl egg yolks
45g caster sugar
70g coconut milk
35g canola oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp pandan essence
40g concentrated pandan juice
pinch of salt
100g cake flour
1/4 tsp baking powder

4 xl egg whites
1/4 cream of tar tar
40g caster sugar

Method:

Sieve flour, baking powder and salt together twice, then set aside.

In a mixing bowl. With a manual hand whisk, whisk the yolks, sugar, coconut milk, oil, vanilla extract, pandan essence, pandan juice to combine. Sieve over the flour and whisk till the flour is fully incorporated. Do not over mix. Set aside.

In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tar tar with a handheld electric mixer on low speed until mixture becomes frothy and foamy.  Add half of the sugar amount and turn to high speed and beat the mixture. Continue to add in the remaining sugar and beat until the egg whites reaches the soft peak stage.The soft peak stage is reached when the peaks of the whites curl over and droop slightly. The egg whites should appear smooth and glossy. (Do not over beat the whites still stiff, it is better to beat the whites still soft peaks for easy folding with the yolk batter.)

Add the beaten egg white into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.

Pour batter into a 17cm tube pan (do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter. Bake in pre-heated oven at 180 degC for 30 mins, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, when lightly pressed the cake will spring back.

Invert the pan immediately and let cool completely before unmould. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan and the center core. Release the cake and run the knife along the base of the pan to remove the cake.

Semolina Wholewheat Pumpkin Seed Crackers

I was tempted to make rye & pumpkin seed crackers that I've found in the latest issue of BBCgoodfood magazine but because that I didn't have or, in fact, never have rye flour stocked in my cupboard, so it kind of made me have second thoughts and came up with an idea of making something different, yet similar which I ended up with these crackers !


The recipe :

100g semolina flour
100g wholewheat flour
60g pumpkin seeds
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 scant tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup water  

Mix all ingredients in a bowl to form the dough, then knwad briefly until smooth. Wrap the dough with cling film and let to rest for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 140c. Divide the dough into 2 pieces, roll each out as thinly as possible and cut into squares or any shape you want..Bake for 45 minutes, then remove the tray and flip each cracker over and returen to the oven for a further 30-45 minutes until crispy. Cool on wire rack and store in a sealed container for up to 2 weeks.

 
 

Torcettini ( Italian Sugar Crusted Twisted Cookies )

Honestly speaking, the only reason why I decided to give these cookies a try is beacuse of a yeast called for in the recipe! However, I was tempted at the first glance by its look & shape that somehow reminded me of taralli , one of my favourite Italain savory snacks/biscuits , although they are obviously different in a few ways..


The recipe could be found here. ( Note : I weighed the dough and divided into the same size pieces,15 g. each before rolling and baked a bit longer ( 30 minutes ) than the original recipe states..)