Spicy Lamb Dry Curry

This is my first time to use a pressure cooker for cooking..so I decided to go for something not complicated , yet interesting and scrumptious I've found from a great source!

With no experience, I was a bit nervous to begin with but later I became excited to see kind of magic when the cooker started doing its magic work..Honestly, I felt like having a blind date while waiting the cooker to cool down before opening the lid to see what I'd get inside..LOL

At the end, I made us a beautiful Saturday dinner and we really enjoyed eating!

The recipe could be found here.

 

Spring onion & Sesame Oat Crackers

It's time to refill my jar with a new lot of crackers since the previous one had been finished for a while and coincidentally, I happened to spot another oat cracker on foodgawker which is different from what I made last time..so I decided to give it a try, though I made a few changes to the original recipe to make my own one !


Here is what I've done..

Ingredients


1 cup Bread Flour
1/2 cup Old Fashioned Oats
45 g Unsalted Butter, softened
1 tsp Sugar
3 tbsp Finely chopped spring onion
1 tbsp Sesame seed
4 tbsp Milk
1/4 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Salt

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 320 F (160 C),  Stir together the flour ,oats ,salt, sugar, baking soda, spring onion and sesame seed in a bowl. Then add the butter and rub it into the dry ingredients until blended.

2. Add the milk, one tbsp at the time to the mixture and knead until the dough formed. Set the dough aside for 20 mins, Roll them into thin sheet and cut them into any shape you like. Place these crackers to bake on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat at 320 F for about 20-25 mins until golden and crisp ( the thinner the shorter time you bake ) .

Salted Caramel Mocha Cookies

Nothing is better to do than baking when I have some time to spend/waste ! These cookies have been saved to my google drive for a while and finally I found time to give it a try..


The recipe ( adapted from here ), make 13 cookies



1/2 tbsp instant coffeee powder
1/4 cup Hershey’s cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup + 2 tbs plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup turbinado sugar + light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 xl egg
7 kraft caramels, halved
2-3 tbs semi-sweet chocolate chips
coarse sea salt for topping

Directions:

In a medium bowl, sift together the instant coffee powder, cocoa powder, baking powder, flour and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until fluffy, add the vanilla and egg and beat until well combined. Beat in dry ingredients. Cover dough and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350. Form dough into balls. Press 1/2 caramel into the center of each ball and roll dough around until it is covering it completely, then place on lined baking sheet. Gently press a pinch of the chocolate chips onto the top of each dough ball, then top with a pinch of salt.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until the edges have set. Let stand for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

White Chocolate & Macadamia Sheet Cake

I've still got both white choc chips and macadamia nuts left from making the white choc & macadamia coconut oil cookie. And fortunately, I've found this sheet cake on seriouseat in time to help me dealing with the duo..


The recipe could be found here. ( Note : I made a half of recipe and used only 85g of sugar, then reduced baking time to 20 minutes )

S'more Brownies

It's been ages that I hadn't made brownie..so I found an excuse to make one at the right time when my daughter was about to have a playdate ! This time, instead of plain brownie, I played it up and made a S'more version..


The recipe :

• 125 g butter
• 145 g dark chocolate (70%)

• 90 g caster sugar
• 55 g light brown sugar

• 2 XL eggs

• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

• 1/2 scant tsp salt

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp cake flour

• 2 tbsp cocoa powder

• 5 digestive biscuits, crushed with your hands

• 9 regular size marshmallow

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and generously grease a 8*8 inches baking dish. In a large saucepan, melt butter and chocolate over low heat, stirring often until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in sugars. Then whisk in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Whisk in the vanilla and salt.

2. Sift the flour and cocoa over the chocolate mixture. Use a rubber spatular to stir just until blended. Stir in crushed biscuits. Pour into dish, spreading evenly and top with marshmallows.
Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out almost clean, 30-35 minutes. Cool and cut into squares.

Classic Banana Bundt Cake with Chocolate Fudge Sauce

I've been making bundt cakes using a silicone pan that I bought when I started baking and disappointingly, it keeps failing to give me any good outcome as I've expect. So I finally was fed up with it and decided to replace it with a new proper and better one.. and here it comes !!


Next thing is to think about what to make for a debut of my brand-new pan which I simply went for a basic,yet classic thing like banana cake!

Although I've had my favourite recipe for a banana cake but this time, I felt like trying something new with my new toy..so I typically searched on google to find the one. Undoubtedly, there are millions of results shown but to be safe and easy, I decided to go for something simple,yet classic like banana cake and finally, I ended up with the reliable source  that it would never fail to meet my expectation !

To make the cake more interesting, I chose the chocolate fudge sauce to top up on the cake and the duo really made me pleased..

The recipe is from the book, Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients :

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks / 226g unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups of sugar (refer to note above)

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, at room temperature

About 4 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups)

1 cup sour cream or plain yogurt


Directions :

Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C.

Generously butter a 9- to 10-inch (12 cup) bundt pan. I used an oil spray with flour. (No need to butter if you are using a silicon bundt pan)

Sift and whisk the flour, baking soda and salt together. Working with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a handheld mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar and beat at medium speed until pale and fluffy.

Beat in the vanilla, then add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each egg goes in.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the bananas.
Finally, mix in half the dry ingredients, (the mixture may curdle but that’s fine), all the sour cream and then the rest of the flour mixture.

Scrape the batter into the pan, rap the pan on the counter to debubble the batter and smooth the top.
Bake for 65-75 minutes, or until a skewer inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean.
Check the cake after about 30 minutes – if it is browning too quickly, cover it loosely with a foil tent.
Transfer the cake to a rack and cool for 10 minutes before unmoulding onto the rack to cool to room temperature.

The cake taste better the next day! If you’ve got the time, wrap the unglazed cooled cake in plastic and allow to sit on the counter overnight.


The Chocolate Fudge Sauce :

20 g butter
10 g cocoa powder
3 tbsp golden syrup
3 tbsp brown sugar
3/4 cup whipping cream

100 g 70% cocoa dark chocolate

1.5 tsp vanilla extract


Make the sauce, combine the first 5 ingredients in the saucepan and heat until boiling. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until melted. Add the vanilla and use a hand whisk to whisk until smooth. Pour over the cake while it's still warm.

     


 

Mexican Rice and Bean

After done a lots of cooking and baking through the past week..now I feel like taking it easy and more importantly, there are some leftovers in the fridge that need to be finished before the new lot is coming !

Pork carnitas is one of what I made ( too bad that I didn't have a chance to take any photo , hence, there is no post about it !) and got some left...what I need is something easy to go along with and I couldn't think of anything better than this mexican rice and bean which is one of choices suggested to serve it with !

I've found the recipe through a google search which is the one I like most for serving along with the carnitas..


The recipe could be found here. ( Note : I added some chicken broth to the rice to make it soften )