Drop Scones

Dead easy recipe for Drop Scones...

This recipe is from Rachel Allen.

Whisk 170g of self raising flour, a pinch of salt, 50g of sugar and 2 eggs together. Add milk little by little until the batter attained a thick dropping consistency. Drop 3 tablespoons of it at a time onto a greased warm pan. Cook one side until bubbles form at the sides and flip over. Wait and cook till the centre feels springy to touch.

Avocado Relish

Yummy Avocado Relish! Just tried it just now!

1 avocado
2 wedges of lime (according to taste)
1 tomato (cubed)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped finely)
a bunch of cilantro, chopped up (including the stems)
a pinch of salt (according to taste)
a drizzle of olive oil

Method
scoop the avocado out from the fruit and leave it in a bowl. mix in the rest of the ingredients and mash lightly. make sure the tomato dices still maintain its shape and not go all mushy ! that's a big no no >

BlackForest Pudding from Assembly

good morning singapore!! its a balmy morning with very little wind, and a 60% chance that it'll rain by 12pm this afternoon. don't let that hinder your plans for the day! its gonna be a warm 33 degrees celsius / humidity level 85% during the day. so dress appropriately!

hello hello! in such a lovely mood today! yesterday evening was a blast. it was some quality alone time together without any outside interventions. no TV, no loud music, no nosey parents. just ken, me and the bottle of chilled chablis on the balcony, overlooking the Town. how blissful!

okay enough about me, today (since i'm in a good mood) i'll share with you another recipe! this is dead easy and all it needs is ASSEMBLY! minimal cooking, NO BAKING!

BlackForest Pudding from Assembly (what Ken made yesterday!!)

Ingredients
Chocolate pound cakes, sliced (its best you use the Chocolate Pound Cakes from Sara Lee)
400ml whipping cream, whipped up with a machine
some Baileys Irish Cream
some dark chocolate sauce
digestive biscuits, crushed in a plastic bag
chocolate shavings

For the Fruits Dressing
2 large handfuls of fresh raspberries
2 large handfuls of black currants
2 large handfuls of blue berries
2 large handfuls of SEEDED fresh cherries
a tin of cherries in syrup, drained
a heapful of demererra sugar
a shot of brandy
a shot of orange Cointreau

The Minimal Cooking Part

in a heavy bottom pot, throw in a handful of berries from each item listed above (hence the need for TWO LARGE HANDFULS) and the tinned cherries. over low heat, mush the berries till its all gooey but still very lumpy. Ensure the mixture does not start to bubble. add in the demererra sugar and liquors and mix well. Remove from heat and add the rest of the berries. don't mush them. you still want them nice and whole.

The Assembly

in a large glass bowl, place the slices of chocolate pound cake, enough to cover the bottom. press firmly, ensuring the pound cake covers every nook and cranny of the bowl. drizzle the Bailey's Irish Cream all over the pound cake. Pour the chocolate sauce, covering the pound cake. dribble over the fruity berry mix before layering the whipped cream. ensure the berry mix is fully cooled before you put the whipped cream!!

sprinkle the digestive biscuits over the cream for some good ol' texture. repeat the layering till the pudding reaches the top of the bowl. the topmost layer should be the whipped cream. sprinkle the digestive biscuits over the whip cream, as stated, but for this last layer, ribbon in some of the excess berry mix. throw in some chocolate shavings for good measure!

allow the pudding to sit in the fridge for a good 5 hours before serving!

To serve, bring the entire bowl to the table and just scoop it out and serve it! that easy!!

Tadah! your ticket to ultimate indulgence!! yummy yumm! have fun trying and do keep me updated at the final outcome! tell me if its yummy, or bland, or just too cloyingly sweet! all feedback is better than no feedback!

have fun trying and toodles!

kai

La Recipe for Moi Bread and Butter Pudding!

actually i don't use much measurements because i got it through trial and error. its actually really easy.

What you'll need:
Bread (slightly stale is the best. wholemeal works just fine!)
Butter (lots of it!)

2 eggs
1 pod real vanilla, seeds scrapped out
100 ml cream
400 ml milk
5 tsp castor sugar

a handful of raisins
three peach halves in syrup, diced

method!
cut the bread into triangles and butter both sides. butter the baking dish as well. arrange the slices in the baking dish, along with the raisins and peaches.

in a jug, mix the eggs, vanilla seeds, cream, milk and sugar together. beat till slightly frothy and pour it all over the bread and fruits in the baking dish. allow it to absorb a little (say three minutes?) and randomly put small chunks of butter on the bread and fruit pieces sticking out from the liquid mixture.

Bake in the oven at 240 degrees celsius for 30 minutes or till golden brown and the bread edges look yummily crisp! don worry! the batter will rise dramatically! but it'll sink back to normal level in time.

best served hot with ice cream or vanilla custard sauce!!

Raspberry Parfait Crumble

You will need:

For the Raspberry Coulis
125g frozen raspberries
50g fresh raspberries
3 tbs icing sugar
fresh juice of 1 lemon

Blend everything till it forms a smooth paste. if needed, thin it out with a tiny bit of water

For the Parfait
200g plain yoghurt
200g vanilla ice cream
a pod of vanilla, seeds, scrapped out
a slice or two of good non bake cheesecake

Again, mix everything in a mixer at high speed. BEWARE! it splatters! do this till you get a nice, smooth consistency. once that's done, put it into the freezer while you assemble the rest of the ingredients.

For the Crumble
some Marie's cookies or wholegrain cookies. about 4 or 5 pieces will suffice.

Crush them all with a banger till you get some nice crumbles.

For some Zing
A handful of berries (raisins, blueberries, black currants, raspberries, cherries...)
A shot of Kirsh
A shot of good rum
A shot of cherry brandy

place everything in a bowl and SLIGHTLY bruise the berries. You still want some intact while some and dismembered. let it marinade for 30 minutes.

To assemble the Raspberry Parfait Crumble, get a good sized glass tumbler, say 175ml in capacity, put in the parfait first, followed by a good layer (1 finger thick) of crumble, a layer of coulis and lastly the zingy berries. If your glass still looks 1/2 empty, repeat the layering process again till you are happy.

Enjoy it as a good and hearty breakfast on a hot morning or as a tea time snack with some pistachio biscotti!! Yum Yum!!

Buffalo Wings

i asked tan wei how to do buffalo wings. he gave me a recipe, though its rather vague, measurements wise, but hey! that's the fun of it right? you can tweak the recipe to suit your needs!

chicken wings, deep fried in hot oil till cooked.

melted butter
hot sauce (not tobasco)
vinegar

mix the melted butter, hot sauce and vinegar in a large deep bowl. then toss the chicken wings in the sauce. serve with celery sticks and blue cheese.

the wings must be so hot and spicy that the flavour shoots up the nose when you bite into it.

Create your own Roux

Traditional Recipe calls for :

a knob of butter, softened
plain flour, sifted

In a bowl, mix the softened butter with flour till there is JUST ENOUGH flour. the mixture should be thick and not runny. Transfer this to a pan and heat it up. If the roux turns runny, add more flour till it re-thickens. The roux is now ready for use.

Lazy Bugger Recipe calls for :

some olive oil
plain flour, sifting not necessary

in a pan, heat the oil up. continue adding the flour till a smooth paste is formed. usually, its 2tbs oil to 6tbs flour. The roux is now ready for use.

Substitute for Delicious caramelised onions

you will need...

3 large onions
1 tsp sugar
3 tbs oil

in a pot, heat up the oil. once its nice and hot, lower the intensity of the fire to a steady low and add in the onions. stir it around to coat them evenly with oil. add in the sugar and stir again. MAKE SURE THE FIRE IS LOW AT ALL TIMES. once the onions are nice and browned, remove from heat and it is ready for use.

Disclaimer's note: BROWNED is nicely cooked and exudes a beautiful and delicious fragrance. BURNT is over cooked and is too toxic to be used for cooking.

Carrots and Potatoes Creamy Stew

was feeling peckish and there was nothing to eat for lunch. so i decided to fix something for myself. this turned out well, so maybe i'd like to share this recipe with you guys!

3 medium carrots, cut up diagonally (don't remember the proper term for this)
1 large potato, cubed
3 tbs caramelised onions
(if you do not have this, follow the one i'm gonna put up in the next post)
1 clove garlic, chopped up finely
2 tbs roux
1tsp dried bay leaves, crushed
1tsp coarse black pepper
1tsp dried basil, crushed
some bacon, cubed
salt to taste
500ml chicken stock
3 slivers of dried small anchovies (ikan bilis)
teeny bit of oil

Method for Carrots and Potatoes Creamy Stew

In a pot, heat up some oil and fry up the bacon pieces and caramelised onions. Once fragrant, add garlic and stir it around for 5 minutes. Once that's done, add in stock followed by the rest of the ingredients, except roux. All this while, the heat should be on medium.

Once the soup starts to bubble, bubble, toil and trouble, remove the scum floating on the surface. this scummy, foamy thing is all the impurities from the root vegetables.

Using a fork, whisk in the roux.

Let it simmer for a further 15 minutes.

Before serving, discard the anchovies. THI IS THE SECRET INGREDIENT!! DO NOT EXPOSE IT TO YOUR GUESTS!!

the stew should have a smooth, creamy consistency.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge Sauce

Ladies and Gentlemen, please bear in mind, this sauce may transport you to unknown heights of ecstacy...

125g chunky peanut butter
150g bitter chocolate buttons
300g condensed milk

pour the condensed milk into a non stick pot and heat gently. add in the chocolate buttons and stir till most of it is melted. add in the peanut butter and stir till all is mixed well. add some water to thin it out. serve with some cold vanilla ice cream . yum yum.

the great macaroni dish!

Amounts of ingredients:

2 cups macaroni pasta, measured dry and then boiled

400-500 grams ground beef

1 large onion, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon blackpepper(1 tablespoon paprika or curry powder if you like or a bit of crushed garlic)

3 eggs, yolks & whites stirred
3 cups milk or cooking cream

stir fry the beef, onions and spices together first in a pan. mix in together with the cooked macaroni in a casserole dish and cover 2/3rds of it with the milk and eggs. top it off with plenty of cheese; cheddar, parmesan, emmantel or mozarella...

bake in ovem for 1/2 an hour at 200 degrees Celsius.

eat.

Coconut Macaroons

These are a very English kind of macaroon, the sort you always used to see displayed in bakers’ shops alongside the madelines (those sponge castles dipped in luminous strawberry jam and dredged in throat-catching dessiccated coconut, and so very different from those that inflamed the memory of Marcel Proust). The difference with coconut macaroons is that you need neither to be ironic nor self-consciously retro-cool to enjoy them.One bit of retail bossiness here: buy shredded, not desiccated, coconut, otherwise the sugary, fragrant dampness – which is, after all, the whole point – will be lost.

2 large egg whites

quarter teaspoon cream of tartar

100g caster sugar

30g ground almonds

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or coconut essence, should such be available)

250g shredded coconut
1 baking sheet, lined

Preheat the oven to 170?C/gas mark 3. Beat the egg whites until frothy – no more – then add the cream of tartar and carry on beating, until soft peaks are formed. Add the sugar a teaspoon at a time and whisk until the peaks can hold their shape and are shiny. Fold in the almonds, salt, vanilla and coconut. The mixture will be sticky but should, all the same, hold its shape when clumped together. Form into clementine-sized domes, 6-7cm in diameter. Don't make them too flat; they look best if you keep them nicely rounded, but this is really just a matter of personal taste, so follow your own. Cook for 20 minutes or until they're just beginning to turn golden in parts. Makes 8 large macaroons.

pistachio fudge

i learnt a new recipe! its called chocolate pistachio fudge! and its dead easy!

250g dark chocolate

1 can condensed milk

2 tsp butter

pistachio nuts

put the chocolates and the milk into the pan and simmer. no double boiling required1 ( isn't that amazing?) when it melts, put in the pistachio nuts, as much as you desire. after it has all mixed, pour it into a tin and let set in the fridge.

after that just take it out and cut it up into nice small squares! your road to simple indulgence!