Lychee Dessert Plate

What a sweet way to celebrate the passing of 2011 in the lunar calendar - chinese new year eve. Whilst I knew exactly what I wanted to make for dessert, 5 components to a lychee themed dessert plate (a good friend laughed at how I like to make themes for dessert!), I was utterly and completely blank with dinner itself! Luckily enough, my mother in law was here to help.

Lychees are not native to Australia and it is quite difficult and expensive to get it fresh here down under. However, during the chinese new year season, you do see quite a bit of lychees at the supermarket, no doubt not as plump and juicy as the ones you get from Malaysia. I don't know why I was thinking lychees this year, maybe because it's such a "chinese" type fruit, I've certainly heard of stories of the fruit being used widely as a delicacy in the Chinese Imperial Court. It's from Chine, no? Hence CNY = a lychee dessert??

This dessert was planned so thoroughly, started 3 days in advance. (And the rest of the menu in havoc, 3 hours prior!)

Lychee and nectarine frangipane tart
Fresh lychee ice cream
Lychee cream macaron
Lychee japanese jelly
And a green tea infused syrup (which I regretfully omitted in the end)

The frangipane tart was the hero, the recipe I adapted from Citrus and Candy. I love the buttery, very short, melt in the mouth pastry. Yum yum...


Almond Frangipane Tart, with fresh nectarines and lychees.

Buttery Shortbread Pastry (Pate Sablé)

Makes 1 x 20cm tart

Ingredients

125g plain flour
50g icing sugar
pinch of salt
100g butter, cold and chopped
1 egg yolk

Method

In a food processor, add the flour, sugar and salt and give it a quick whirl to mix. Add chopped cubes of cold butter and process until it roughly resembles breadcrumbs. Add the yolks and process until the dough comes together.

Pat dough together into a round disk and wrap well in clingfilm (you might need a little sprinkle of flour if dough gets too soft or warm). Refrigerate until ready to use or until well chilled.

Lightly grease a 20cm loose-bottomed fluted tart tin. Roll pastry between two sheets of non-stick baking paper to a circle roughly 25-26cm in diameter and about 3mm thick.

Wrap dough around the rolling pin removing the baking paper from the bottom as you do so. Line the tin and tuck in the pastry into the sides and bottom. Remove the top sheet and run the rolling pin over the top of the tin to cut off the excess.

Use excess dough to patch up any holes or flaws. If the dough gets too warm and soft, refrigerate for 5-10 minutes to firm up.

Chill pastry for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Scrunch up a sheet of baking paper and lay on top of the tart shell. Fill with ceramic pie weights and blind bake for 15-20 minutes or until cooked, lightly golden and the bottom is ‘dry’.

Remove the baking paper and weights and bake for another 3-5 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

Note: This is a really buttery pastry so it isn’t exactly summer/humidity friendly. Be sure to refrigerate as soon as the pastry softens too much to make it easier to work with and rest it adequately to prevent shrinkage in the oven. It definitely needs to be rolled between two sheets of baking paper but don’t worry if you mess up a little when lining the tin. You easily can use the pastry to patch up any holes or mistakes.

Almond Frangipane

Ingredients

150g butter, slightly softened
150g icing sugar
150g almond meal
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
20ml Grand Marnier
1 tsp vanilla extract
30g plain flour

Method

Cream butter and sugar until pale, light and fluffy (at least 5 minutes). Add the almond meal and beat until mixed. Add the eggs, Grand Marnier, vanilla and flour and beat until combined.

Mixture can be refrigerated covered for a couple of days or frozen. Allow the mixture to come to room temperature to soften before adding to pastry case.

Spoon enough frangipane into your cooled shortbread pastry case and use an offset spatula to even it out (do not fill more than 0.5 cm below the top of pastry case).

Bake in a preheated 180°C oven for around 15 minutes until frangipane is puffed, cooked through and lightly golden (it’s ready when the centre springs back).

Remove tart and cool on wire rack.

Brush the surface of the warm tart with some warmed apricot jam then shower with sifted icing sugar. Allow to cool completely.
Tart is best served on the day but can be stored for a short time in an airtight container.

Lychee Cream Macaron

Macarons and me, we have a hit and miss relationship. I started with the french method (macarons au blanc monte) after a bit of research online, fell in love with My Tartelette, and then hovered over the Italian method (macarons au sucre cuit) after a few failed batches of macarons au blanc monte. And I still couldn't get it quite right.

Call me crazy but I am not a huge fan of 'em macs. Perhaps, maybe I like ONE macaron. Then it becomes sickly sweet. But I want to make them. I need to make it perfect. To achieve the standard beauty of a macaron, you need a smooth dome of a shell with pretty little ruffles down the bottom otherwise known as the feet. You could almost jump with joy at the first sight of "feet" hurrah!

So I went back to basics. I counted how many successful batches of french and how many italians, strangely enough, the french method wins! (The Italian method is known to be more stable and hence more feet successes).

I will not post the recipe for macarons here, but if you would like to make them, hop over to raspberri cupcakes. She has the most gorgeous looking macs and her ideas are just brilliant!



Lychee Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 whole vanilla bean, split
• 3 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup castor sugar
• 2 400g cans peeled whole lychees in heavy syrup

Instructions

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, cream, and vanilla bean. Place the mixture over medium heat and bring to a simmer.

2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until light. Pour a small amount of the hot milk into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the milk in the pan and cook and stir until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Transfer the mixture to a bowl.

3. Drain the lychees, reserving 1/4 cup of the syrup. Place the lychees and the reserved syrup in a food processor or a blender. Process for 15 seconds, or until the mixture is puréed but with some pieces remaining. Stir the purée into the cream mixture until well blended. Chill.

4. Transfer the chilled mixture to an ice cream maker and churn for 30 minutes. Transfer to a freezer safe container and chill overnight.

There you go! That was my lychee dessert plate for chinese new year eve. Never was I this excited over a dessert plate before. I think I had my dinner guests in a sugar high as we ushered in the new year. Beauty!

***

Perfecting the Pasta Recipe and Making Fresh Egg Noodles

Hubby says that I have to use the pasta maker attachment 500 times to make it worth while. So I am nearly 1% there. I am honestly in love with this little extra helper in my kitchen. I don't know, there's something about playing with flour and dough. Seeing all that transform into silky smooth sheets of dough and long oodles of noodles. So I am happy. 500 times? Oh yeah, we'll get there some day.

Having tried and tested a few basic pasta recipes, I've settled on one from Gary Mehigan and George Colambaris' book: Your Place Or Mine?

200g Strong Plain Flour (00)
2 large eggs
2 tsp Olive Oil
2 tsp Water

And this will feed 2 people. A nice and easy recipe to remember.

***

As a child growing up in Malaysia, on the first day of Chinese New Year, I would wake up to a cloud of sweet warm heady aroma of garlic fried in oil and tumble out of bed to a breakfast bowl of steamy heart warming mee suah soup - delicate, silky smooth strands of fine wheat noodles for longevity and health. And each bowl has a red egg, a symbol of luck and prosperity.

Now having children of my own, I am trying my absolute best to uphold and honour this tradition. Long oodles of noodles for longevity! It may not necessarily be mee suah (some noodles are better store bought!), one year it was spicy Taiwanese noodles and the other year it was Maggi 2 minute noodles (only joking grandmother!). And each bowl MUST have a red egg in it.

So this year, we had home made egg noodles in a clean chicken broth, shredded chicken breast, shittake mushrooms, fried garlic AND a red egg.

(Funnily enough, I did not take a photo of the CNY noodles.)

***

My sister in law suggested we made yet another type of noodle, Pan Mee or some call it Mee Hoon Kueh. We ate this as little kids in hawker centres back in Malaysia! So we googled the recipe online (after trying to decipher her mom's recipe over the phone - a pinch of this and a handful of that!) and we came across this (click click). The dough recipe works and I'm keeping it for next time! I used this exact same recipe for the egg noodles too. It's pretty similar to mom's.

Mee Hoon Kueh
Adapted from Cooking Crave

Dough Recipe

250g plain flour
1 egg
100 ml
1 tbsp cooking oil
pinch of salt

I threw everything into the KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook on and let it mix for about 10 minutes or so. Then I took it out and knead gently with my hands and shaped it into a ball. I wrap the dough with some cling film and let it rest for about an hour.

You can read the rest of the recipe HERE.

I hope you are all enjoying your holidays and eating lots of yummy Chinese New Year goodies! Enjoy the weekend!


.

Reunion Dinner 2012

This year, Gary and I are honoured to host the family Chinese New Year reunion dinner - a Chinese tradition, where family members gather round to eat and usher in the new year.

We started dinner with lo hei – which is a celebration where everyone gathers around a special salad called yu sang. Everyone uses their chopsticks to help toss the salad, lifting up the ingredients as high as possible, as a symbol of great prosperity in the new year.

Then came the feast, a home made banquet that was really sensational! It was a joint effort, between my mother in law and myself, my dear sister in law Ching Mei and brother Kelvin. We had abalone soup, braised sliced abalone and sea snails (hmmm... an Asian delicacy??), braised shitake mushrooms with oysters and fat choy, curry chicken, sang choy bao, roast duck, roast belly pork with a crispy crackling and pan fried prawns. It was delicious! We ended the night on a sugar high: a lychee dessert plate - Lychee and white nectarine salad on a frangipane tart, home made lychee ice cream, lychee jelly and lychee macarons.

We ate and ate - until our bellies hurt and our hearts deliriously happy.

Here's wishing my dear family and friends, my (Chinese) readers near and afar a Happy Chinese New Year! May the year of the Dragon bring in to you all good fortune, good health and prosperity. Gong Xi Fa Cai!!

Sweet As...

Day 19|Sweet

Pistachio Cream Macaron

I haven't got a picture for today but I thought I'd point you back to one of my favourite post. It's one of the rare occasions that they actually turned out not bad!

So click click HERE to read the whole post.

With the Chinese New Year lurking around the corner, I have my egg whites separated and I'm thinking... NO pineapple tarts this year, but how about some pineapple macarons?

Citrus and Candy has some serious sweet eye candy, as well as some heart throb dessert happening, so why not hop on over that way and tell her I sent you?

Happiness is...

Day 15|Crepes with homemade strawberry ice-cream, strawberry coulis, fresh strawberries and cream.

I was at the shops the other day, wanting to buy some fresh strawberries to make ice-cream. Yes, home made ice cream! The ice-cream maker was my other evil post-boxing day sales splurge. Anyways, I digress. Strawberries are in season right now and they are so cheap at the shops. I couldn't help myself to a box of strawberries for $6! There was at least.... 6 kilos in there.

So, what did I do with the box of strawberries? There was plenty for ice cream. I made strawberry jam, strawberry sauce, strawberry and white chocolate muffins (that I forgot about, left in the oven for an hour at 200 deg...it was burnt to a crisp!), the kids ate bowls after bowls of strawberries (they had strawberry poo...yuck!). And there's still some left in the fridge. We are all strawberry-ed out!

I declared love at first sight with these crepes, one of Poh's recipes from her book Poh's Kitchen.


I love the texture of the gorgeous folds of thin silky crepe, even more luscious paired with the ice cream and strawberry coulis. Heavenly! I've declared that I love them more than regular pancakes now. The batter is quite thin, not too floury and you only need one small dollop at a time. Makes it all OK to have more than one crepe in the one serving! And the vanilla hit...mmmm. It goes so well with the strawberries.

Crepe batter (makes about 8 crepes)

Ingredients

40g plain flour
2 large free range eggs
190ml whole milk
pinch of salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
butter, softened to grease the pan

1. Pop a non-stick pan on low heat to begin warming.

2. In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients and whisk until silky smooth.

3. Ladle about 1/4 cup of batter into the pan, greased with a little butter, roll it around to cover the surface of the pan. When the edge crisp up and turn a little golden, it is perfect to flip it over to cook on the other side, just for a few seconds.

4. You should end up with crepes that are about 1mm thick and a little translucent.

Let Lachie show you how it is best eaten!

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream
(Adapted from Cuisinart website)

Ingredients

3 cups fresh ripe strawberries, stemmed and sliced
4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1-1/2 cup sugar, divided
1-1/4 cups whole milk
2-3/4 cups heavy cream
1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. In a small bowl, combine the strawberries with the lemon juice and 1/2 cup of the sugar. Stir gently and allow the strawberries to macerate in the juices for 2 hours. Strain the berries, reserving juices. Mash or purée half the berries.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, use a hand mixer on low speed to combine the milk and remaining granulated sugar until the sugar is dissolved, about 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream, reserved strawberry juice, mashed strawberries, and vanilla.

3. Turn the machine on; pour the mixture into freezer bowl, and let mix until thickened, about 20 to 25 minutes. Five minutes before mixing is completed, add the reserved sliced strawberries and let mix in completely.

4. The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture. If a firmer consistency is desired, transfer the ice cream to an airtight container and place in freezer for about 2 hours. Remove from freezer about 15 minutes before serving.


Strawberry Jam
Adapted from taste.com.au

Ingredients

• 3kg strawberries, hulled, halved
• 3kg white sugar
• Juice from 1/2 a lemon

Method

1. Wash and sterilise jars and lids. Place strawberries in a saucepan and stir through sugar. Leave for 1-2 hours while sugar softens the fruit.

2. Add juice then cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until fruit is soft.

3. Remove 1/3 of fruit. Set aside. Cook remaining mixture until fruit is mostly dissolved and jam coats the back of a spoon. Divide reserved fruit between the jars then fill with jam. Allow to cool,then seal with lids.

Making Fresh Pasta

A few girly chit chats, one or two clips on YouTube, a few clicks later... this arrived at my doorstep!


So fresh pasta is on the menu tonight.

I have made fresh pasta before, but with a manual pasta roller and cutter. 2 batches later, it's packed up in the box it came in and stored away at the back of a cabinet.

So what's different about this one? Why, it's so that I use my KitchenAid stand mixer to its full potential? Haha! Powered by the motor of the mixer, the three roller attachments will make lasagna sheets, fettucine and spaghetti for the family, many many times over. (I'd better! At $274.95 plus free shipping at YourHomeDepot.com.au, fresh pasta better be on the menu EVERYDAY so says hubby)


Here's the recipe for fresh pasta:

(Adapted from Taste.com.au)

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 375g (2 1/2 cups) plain flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• Plain flour, extra, to dust

Method

• Place all ingredients in the mixer bowl and attach the flat beater. Turn on to speed 2 and mix for 30 seconds.
• Exchange flat beater to a dough hook and knead for 2 minutes. Take it out of the bowl and hand knead for 1-2 minutes. Let it rest, covered with a cling film for 20 minutes.
• Divide dough into 4 pieces, and start working each portion into the pasta roller. Pass it through the roller a few times, folding it 3-4 times over each time. This process is called lamination.
• Pass the laminated pasta sheet through a cutter. I made fettucine this time.

Now I need one of those fancy pants pasta drying rack!

Fettucine with garlic, prawns and zucchini ribbons...

...made with love.

Making Gnocchi

Someone told me you can never have too much mash potatoes. Only too little gravy!

So that is the trouble. We never usually have gravy with our mash potatoes. And when I do make mash potatoes, I forget they are meant to be a side dish. NOT the main meal. And I end up with a whole heap of leftover mash. My husband loves them! I know... he pretends to transfer the leftovers into a clean glass container, only to lick the spoon and the OTHER bowl clean. He eats them for lunch the next day. Or a pre-dinner snack.

So today, before he got to my leftover mash, I quickly turn them out onto my stone bench. With a pinch of salt, an egg and just enough flour, I knead them into a soft potatoey floury dough.

I made gnocchi. Oh, I meant we. We made gnocchi.



Everytime he sees me working on my bench, he would ask "what's that mummy?" and "can I help?" Before I could even respond to that, he has taken the little foot stool out of the bathroom and climbing up onto the stool so he could reach the dough.



He loves it, he loves getting his hands (and face) dirty. So, I admit. The flour on the face was my doing. One for the camera! He he he! But I didn't even have to. Before I knew it, this little man is covered in flour!



He made Twisties shaped gnocchi. Oh so cute! And that's exactly what he had for lunch today.



Mmmm.... Twisty gnocchi with burnt butter, garlic and sage. Delicious!

The Omnitrix

I remember those days when sugar crafting was completely alien to me. And now I'm crafting mysterious watch-like alien device out of sugar! By the way, this is a birthday cake for a Ben 10 themed party.

For those who don't know, an omnitrix is a device worn by Ben 10 that is used to transform him into some kind of alien form (I think).



It was Nigella Lawson's old fashioned chocolate cake recipe, an old favourite and lots and lots of ready rolled out icing.



Disclaimer: No person(s) were transformed into aliens in the making and the demolition of this cake.

Check out some of the other cake creations that I've made in the past. Click click.

Banana Bread

Bananas! They're like a household staple, my lazy last minute snack box item, a guilt-free hunger buster or a pre-exercise re-energiser. Every time we're at the shops, there will always be a bunch or sometimes bunches of banana in our shopping trolley. And in our fruit bowl, a display of bananas in different shades of green, yellow and... spotty dotty browns.

So every now and then, when there's a spotted banana or two, I always throw them together in a loaf. And it's great when you yearn something freshly baked, because it is just so quick and so easy. This recipe is one of Curtis Stone's, and isn't full of the usual butter and cream. Once you have tried this, I am sure you will be hooked, like I have!



Banana Bread
Recipe by Curtis Stone

250g self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
150g caster sugar
125ml vegetable oil (I use olive oil)
3 overripe bananas, mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 tbsp Greek style yoghurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g walnuts, roasted and roughly chopped

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees Celsius. Grease and line the base and sides of an 8cm x 11cm x 30cm loaf pan.

2. Sift all dry ingredients into a bowl.

3. With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar on high speed until thick and pale. Reduce speed to medium, and drizzle in olive oil in a slow steady stream. Add bananas, yogurt and vanilla and beat until well combined. Fold through flour mixture and half of the walnuts.

4. Pour into prepared pan, and scatter the rest of the walnuts on top.

5. Bake in preheated oven for about an hour, until skewer comes out clean.

6. Cool in pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.

7. Serve warm, thickly sliced.



I love the method of emulsifying the oil in the egg mixture, as you would in making mayonnaise. It gives the cake a lovely fluffy texture, not too heavy or dense. The trouble with this is that you always end up having another slice, and another! Mmmm... the aromas emanating from the oven is almost as good as the flavours for this banana bread, and you can guess what's for brekky tomorrow. If it doesn't get wolfed down piping hot from the oven for supper that is!

Happy weekend everyone!

Banana Ice Cream

OMG, it works! Thank you Lins for sharing this recipe. Well, err.... it is not really a recipe or is it?

Here's the recipe for banana ice cream:



Ingredients:

Bananas. That's IT!

Gosh, I never thought I would be this excited over bananas.

Method:

Freeze bananas in the freezer. Whizz it up in the blender until smooth and creamy. And voila, you have banana ice cream! And it seriously did work.



If you ask me, it's like eating bananas, well it is. Except it is frozen. But the boys, they love it! Because ice creams work a treat. And the best part, it's fruit, no added sugar or fat.

Coconut Panna Cotta with Mixed Berries

A very delayed post.. :)



It was MasterChef grand finale some weeks ago, and we had a very impromptu dinner get-together.

So I wasn't going to let a MasterChef dinner go without a dessert. But I opened my pantry and nothing jumped out at me. And next the fridge, a half opened carton of coconut cream and a half bottle of cream. Hmmm....


(....Panna Cotta with berries, brought to you by... my junior masterchef!)

You see, I have seen a fair few Panna Cottas being made on reality TV (?My Kitchen Rules and of course MasterChef). It looks simple enough, but then again, those that I have seen have somehow ended in a disaster! And the fact is, I have never made one before, nor do I remember ever having eaten one in my life! I probably had, but even if I have it wasn't quite memorable enough, you can see. So will I pull this through with the limited time that I have (It was 5pm by the time I decided I wanted dessert!) and knowing that it needed at least 4 hours to set?

With the wonders of the world wide web, a simple google search brought me here. And the recipe:

Coconut Panna Cotta with Mixed Berries

Super Food Ideas - February 2004
Recipe by Janelle Bloom & Dixie Elliott

Ingredients

• 400ml can coconut milk
• 300ml thickened cream
• 1 cup caster sugar
  
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 tablespoon gelatine
• 250g fresh strawberries, hulled, quartered
• 150g fresh blueberries
• 200g fresh raspberries

*I reduced the amount of sugar to 1/2 cup, also I didn't have fresh berries so I used frozen raspberries and blueberries instead and fresh cherries (that was initially intended for a black forest cake).

Method

1. Place coconut milk, cream and 3/4 cup of sugar into a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes or until sugar dissolves (do not boil). Remove from heat.

2. Place hot water into a small bowl. Sprinkle over gelatine. Whisk with a fork until dissolved. Add to coconut milk mixture. Whisk well to combine.

3. Rinse (6) 8 x 1/2-cup capacity dishes or moulds. Shake out excess water. Pour in coconut mixture. Cover. Refrigerate for 5 hours, or overnight if time permits, until set.

4. Place strawberries, blueberries and raspberries into a bowl. Sprinkle with remaining sugar. Cover. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

5. Turn panna cotta onto plates. Serve with berries and any juice.

Easy...it's child's play!

On my reading list this morning, I read on one of my favourite foodies blog, a post on The Perfect(ish) Vanilla Panna Cotta. And that was what reminded me of this post that needed to be done. So thank you, Karen, from Citrus and Candy. You have been full of inspiration and wonderful ideas. Here's a line from her post that I lazily copied and pasted here because I love it!

A wise man once said that, "a panna cotta should wobble like a Rubenesque woman wearing 5 inch heels". That wise man was Matt Preston wasn't it?

So did mine wobble and jiggle like a seductive temptress? Silky and smooth it was, but I don't remember it wearing 5 inch heels. So maybe next time I will try undressing unmoulding the sexy goddess and see if it wobbles.


This Panna Cotta was completely dressed by Lucas, my 2 year old MasterChef and later completely demolished by that same little person.