Monday, December 31, 2012

Creamy Salad {Francia Saláta}

P1190866 Hungarian "Francia Saláta", literally translates to "French Salad", is often served in new year's eve party platter. The origin of this salad is unknown to me, but this year I thought why not make my own instead of serving the store bought one.

Creamy Salad {Francia Saláta}
source : http://www.nosalty.hu/recept/franciasalata

Ingredients (I have halved from the original)
150gm frozen green peas
100gm carrots, diced
1 apple, diced
1-2 pcs of gherkins, diced
185ml sour cream
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp sugar, or to taste
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Method
1) Cook diced carrots in cold salted water. When carrots are almost done (al-dente) add in frozen green peas, when both are ready, drained and set it aside to cool
2) When carrots and peas are cooled, start the dressing by mixing mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, salt and lemon juice.
3) Finally mix in carrots, peas, diced apple and gherkins.
4) Keep in the fridge until time to serve. You can serve this as a side to any main meals or cold cuts.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Ischler Cookies

P1190817
For this Christmas, I've written Ischler cookies in my baking list, thinking that I would use the recipe featured here before but then I came across this one from The Eccentric Cook . Hers look absolutely scrumptious, so I thought "why not give it a try?".
These turned out crumbly and nutty, just the way I (or we) like it! Since these cookies are better the longer you keep them, you could bake them few days before serving. Just keep in an air-tight container and store in a cool place.

Ischler Cookies
makes about 15 cookie sandwiches (or depending on the cutter you used)
source : http://theeccentriccook.blogspot.hu/2012/12/ischler-cookies.html

Hungarian Walnut Cookies {Diós Kifli}

P1190826

Hungarian Walnut Cookies {Diós kifli} 
http://www.nosalty.hu/recept/mezeskalacs-kifli


Ingredients for 6 people
125 g of flour
50g ground hazelnuts or any ground nuts
50 g of  powdered sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
100g butter, at room temperature
1 egg yolk pinch of salt

For coating
1 tsp ground cinnamon
125 g of powdered sugar

Method
1. Toast nuts in heated pan and grind finely. Mix the flour, sugar and ground cinnamon.
 2. Combine well, soften butter with pinch of salt and egg yolk . Add in dry ingredients to form a smooth dough. Wrapped dough in cling film and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
3. After dough rests in refridgerator for 1-2 hours, start pre-heating oven at 160 ° C.
4. Let dough sit for 5-10 mins. in room temperature after taken out from the refrigerator before working on it.
5. Shape dough into croissants shape, place on baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 10-15 mins.
6. Coating cookies by tossing in sugar-spice mixture when it is still hot.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Hungarian Fish Soup { Halászlé}

P1190827 
Hungarian fish soup is a must during Christmas time; however, we love our fish soup, so I try to cook it as often as possible. The recipe that I am about to share might not be from scratch as most Hungarian would cook it, but this is how my late father-in-law did his. And this version is so easy that it is ready in just an hour!

Hungarian Fish Soup
Serves : 4-5 pax

Ingredients
1 whole carp, filleted or 3 frozen fillets of white wish (defrosted)
1 medium-size Onion, sliced or minced
1 medium-size tomato, quartered
1 Hungarian green pepper, halved
3 tsp of smoked paprika powder (spicy or sweet) - you can also mix, eg. 1/3 sweet + 2/3 spicy
1 ltr of water
fish paste concentrate,
fish stock cubes, to taste

To serve : Match stick pasta

Method
1) Sauté onion with some oil in a pot. When onion is soften, remove from heat and put in the smoked paprika. Stir it a bit , add a little cold water and return it to the stove, let it come to a boil.
2) When the liquid boils, you can add in the green pepper,  tomtato and salt. Cook until pepper and tomato are almost done. Then add in fish paste and fish stock cube and simmer further for 20 mins.
3) Add in the fish fillets and cook until done. Do not over cook fish.
4) Serve very hot with match stick pasta.

If you wish to try cooking the soup from scratch, this link may be helpful.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Chocolate chip and raisins cookies


As much as I like chocolate chip cookies, I haven't tried baking them before this. Turns out, it is so easy to just bake it at home with just some basic pantry staples.


Chocolate chip & Raisins cookies

Ingredients :
100g butter (room temperature)
80g caster sugar
1 egg *
170g flour (sifted)
1/2 tsp baking soda (sifted)
1/8 tsp salt
170g choc chips
60g walnuts (chopped into small pieces)**

* I've used only left over egg white, as a result, the cookies weren't yellow in colour. 
** Replace walnuts with raisins (soaked in milk for one hour prior to baking, just drain milk before putting into cookie mixture)

Method:
1) Pre-heat oven to 180°c
2) Mix butter + sugar until fluffy.
3) Crack in egg and mix
4) Mix in flour, baking soda and salt.
5) Put in choc chips and walnuts, mix a bit.
6) Put a tsp full of dough onto the baking tray (with baking sheet on it) and bake for 10-15mins

Monday, December 10, 2012

Canned sardines fish curry


I love sardines! Fresh sardines are of course better than canned but I have been eating canned sardines since I remember. Anyway, canned sardines can be very versatile. You can use them as filling for sandwich or empanadas, serve them with rice and make into curry like I did recently.


Canned Sardines Fish Curry
serves : 2-3 pax

Ingredients
2 cans x 90 gm sardines in tomato sauce
1 medium onion, slice
3 cloves garlic, mince
cooking oil
red or green chilli, slice, to taste
1 dried bay leaf
salt & pepper
lemon or lime

spice paste
2 tsps ground paparika powder, spicy
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 dash of fennel seeds
a little water

Optional2 medium potatoes, diced
Hard boiled eggs

Method
1) Mix ingredients for spice paste together with a little water. Set aside.
2) Heat a little oil, sauté sliced onion until translucent and then add in the minced garlic. Cook until garlic is fragrant. Next pour in the spice paste and bring it to a boil. Be careful not to burnt it.
3) If you're using potatoes, add in now, and pour in tomato sauce from canned sardine (not incl. the sardines) , if the liquid is not enough to barely cover the potatoes, add in some stock or water. Throw in the red / green chillies and dried bay leaf. Let this cook for a bit until potato is ready.
4) Once potatoes is ready add in the sardines and simmer for 10 mins. and it is ready.
5) You can add hard boiled eggs into the gravy before serving with your choice of carbs.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Easy homemade "barbecued" Pork {Cantonese Char Siu}

P1190700
If you are familiar with Cantonese cuisine, than Char Siu is no stranger to you. To those who has no idea what it is , you can read it here here
I have found a way to imitate that barbecued taste with just 2 ingredients.

Ingredients :-
Smoked ham
Sour cherry jam (50% fruit content), to taste

Method :-
1) First soak the smoked ham in cold water for about 4 hours to get rid of some of the saltiness.
2) Once ham has been soaked, dry it with kitchen towel and slice into preferred thickness. Set aside.
3) Heat a sauce pan with a few table spoons of sour cherry jam. Let it simmer until intense red colour.
4) Place ham pieces all over the sauce pan to absorb the jam flavour, flip it a few times to let it completely infuse in the sauce. When the ham has picked up the colour of the jam, it is ready.
5) You can serve with rice, cucumber and some of remaining gravy. Or simply eat it with plain bread :)

 

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Apricot Butter Biscuits { Thumbprints cookies }

P1190692

Apricot Butter Biscuits { Thumbprints cookies }

source : Orang Blossom Water


Ingredients
1 cup (226 g) butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar **will lessen sugar the next time
2 large eggs yolks
1 sachet vanilla sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
About 1/2 cup apricot jam
1/2 zest of lemon


Method :-
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed beat butter and sugar until smooth.
Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat until well blended. Mix in the lemon zest
Stir in flour and salt and beat just until dough comes together.
Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place about 1 inch apart on buttered or cooking parchment lined 12 by 15 inch baking sheets. Press your thumb gently into the center of each cookie to make an indentation.
Bake cookies in a 325 °F (163 °C) oven until lightly browned, 18 to 20 minutes; if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide spatula to transfer to racks to cool completely.
Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon jam into the center of each cooled cookie.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Vegetables croquette

12 golden croquettes ready to be served!

vegetables being roasted


Vegetables Croquettes
Makes : 12 Croquettes
Receipe from My Kitchen Snippetsy
Ingredients:

Vegetables to be roasted

800gm potatoes
2 carrots
1 onions
1 Kolhrabi
2 cloves of garlic

1-2 tbsp of regular breadcrumbs (added sour cream as mixture too dry)
3 spring onions – chopped
2 tbsp grated cheddar or parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

For coating:


½ cup flour (omitted)

2 eggs – beaten
2 cups regular bread crumbs 

1. Roast vegetables on medium heat (180°c) until golden and al-dente (30 mins + 20 mins. + 15mins)
2. Put the roasted vegetables in a food processor and give it a few pulses. It should not be too fine. 
3. Remove and add in the spring onions, parmesan cheese, breadcrumb (if needed), salt and pepper. Mix well. Shape the mixture into croquettes. 
4. Let the croquettes rest in the fridge for 15 minutes. Heat up oil over medium high for deep frying. Dust each croquette with flour, coat in beaten eggs and then roll it on the breadcrumb.
5. Heat up some vegetable oil over medium heat for deep frying. Working in batches to avoid crowding, fry croquettes, flipping once, until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes total. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. (Adjust heat between batches as needed to keep oil at a steady temperature.)
6. Serve warm or at room temperature with your favorite dipping sauce.



Sunday, July 22, 2012

Sour Cherry Pie {Meggyes Pite}

P1190383

This is my take on the traditional Sour cherry Pie, a favourite during the early summer months in Hungary. Also, one of my MIL's favourite fruit in desserts. Since the weather dropped 10°c overnight, I thought I'd bake one pie for my MIL when she was visiting this weekend.

There are simply too many variations of this pie found online ; however, I'm too lazy to follow any new recipe at the moment, I've actually just used my tried and tested pastry recipe combined with a simple sour cherry compote.

Sour Cherry Pie {Meggyes Pite}

For pastry { source : nami-nami }
100gm butter, room temperature
50 gm sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
175gm flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt

For the compote
1x450gm jar of preserved sour cherries, stoned and drained
3 - 4 Tbsp of sour cherry juice from preserve
1 sachet vanilla sugar
3 Tbsp sugar, or to taste
1/2 lemon zest
few drop of lemon juice
2 Tsp flour or corn starch, mix with a little water to use as thickener
Bread crumbs

Steps
1) For the filling the filling:
In a saucepan, pour-in  the sour cherries , add 3-4 Tbsp of the preserve liquid, vanilla sugar, 3 Tbsp sugar or to your taste. Cook cherries until boiling, reduce heat and pour in the a little by little flour/corn starch to thicken the liquid. Continue to cook until re-boil and liquid thickens, squeeze in the lemon juice. Let it simmer a little and switch off the heat. Let it cool completely before using it as filling. You can make this ahead of time and keep it in fridge until you need it.


2) For pastry dough :-
With an electric mixer mix butter, sugar and egg until light and creamy. Mix the dry ingredients, then pour into the batter (wet) mixture. Do not over mixed, just until the dough comes together. Put into the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

3) Start pre-heat oven after dough has rested for 15 mins. Set oven at 180°c / Gas mark 3.

Grease baking dish* well.
*Baking dish
I like using my rectagular 18x24cm dish as I am baking a close pie with top and bottom layer but you may use a 26 cm springform tin to bake a open pie.

After 30 mins. of resting. Take out dough from fridge.

Assembly :-
If you're making a close pie, divide dough into 2 and press down the bottom layer by using your hand.
Pour filling over bottom layer and sprinkle with some bread crumbs to absorb some of the excess liquid
Roll out the second half of the dough and cover the top.

Bake for 20 mins. or until pastry is golden brown.


Fried Pizza

P1190353 There's no way I'm turning on the oven in summer; so, I thought let's try fried pizza!

My pizza dough recipe was based on http://www.italianrecipesmadeeasy.com/fried-pizza.html . Please visit the link to see different stages of this recipe but I'll still post the recipe below just in case the link doesn't work in the future.

Fried Pizza
Italian Recipes Made Easy

serving : For about 8 mini pizzas

300g of strong white flour
1 tea spoon of dry yeast
1 tea spoon of salt
1 tea spoon of sugar
20ml of extra virgin olive oil
190ml of warm water
vegetable oil

1)For the dough put flour, yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil in a bowl.

2)Using your hands and adding slowly the water mix all the ingredients together until you obtain a soft and smooth dough (if too dry add more water, if too sticky add more flour).

3)Cover and let the dough rise for a couple of hours or until has doubled in size.

4) At this point take small pieces of dough, shape them into mini pizzas and fry in hot vegetable oil. Drain them on kitchen paper.  To me this recipe is good not only to top with pizza garnishes but also good with sour cream, cheese or just plain powdered sugar.

To make into pizza :-
5) In the middle of each mini pizza pour one or two table spoons of the tomatoes sauce and grated parmigiano to your taste.
Serve immediately.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Spinach & Potato Cakes

P1190374
I have misplaced the link to this recipe but I'll look again and give the proper credit when I've found it.

Spinach & Potato cakes
Makes : 10 cakes

450gm fresh spinach, blanch and chopped coarsely, cooled
2 medium potatoes, boiled, mashed and cooled
1 small onion, finely sliced (I used spring onion)
2 eggs
6 Tsp herbs/spices (I used garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika)
2 fresh green chillies, finely sliced
Fresh coriander, finely chopped (I used parsley)
2 Tbsp flour salt & pepper, to taste
Bread crumbs for coating
Vegetable oil, for frying

Method
1) Mix everything except for bread crumbs until well combine. Let it rest for 30 mins.
2) After 30 mins. start heating oil. Meanwhile start shaping mixture into balls and coat with bread crumbs.
3) When oil is hot enough, fry until golden brown.
4) Serve hot with yoghurt, chilli sauce or sour cream.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Quiche Lorraine without pastry crust


P1190303 Quiche Lorraine without pastry crust
source : Taste

Ingredients (serves 6)

1 tablespoon olive oil 
1 brown onion, finely chopped 
4 rashers bacon, rind removed, finely chopped 
1 cup grated tasty cheese 
3 eggs 
1 teaspoon plain flour 
300ml cream 
1/2 cup milk

Method
  1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a fluted 3cm deep, 23cm (base), loose-base flan pan.
  2. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and bacon. Cook for 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Cool. Sprinkle over pastry. Top with cheese.
  3. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C. Whisk remaining ingredients and salt and pepper in a jug. Pour over bacon. Place onto tray. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until set. Stand for 5 minutes. Serve.

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Instant Fish soup

P1190296

Instant Fish soup
serves 4-6 pax

6 white fish fillets
2 Tbsp Paprika oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
about 250ml water
about 250ml milk *
2 Tbsp sour cream *
1 Tbsp flour *
1 fish stock cube
salt & pepper, to taste
chopped parsley or dill, to garnish
vermicelli or any kind of pasta / noodles, to serve

* you may substitute milk with coconut milk. if coconut milk is being used, sour cream and flour can be eliminated

Steps
1) In a pot, heat paprika oil, sauté onions until translucent. Stir-in the spices and minced garlic, fry until fragrant, be careful not to burn spices. add a little water to the pot and let it come to a boil. Once boiling, you can add remaining water and heat until the liquid come to a boil again.
2) Once the liquid starts to boil, put in the fish stock cube you can add in milk and meanwhile mix together sour cream and flour until smooth, add this mixture in as well. Let it come to a boil.
3) Finally, add in the fish fillets and cook for a few minute or until fish is cooked through.
4) Serve hot with your favourite pasta or noodles, garnish with parsley or dill.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Honey, mustard & Lemon roasted chicken






P1190287
Honey, mustard & Lemon roasted chicken

Ingredients
4 chicken thigh, clean & pat dry
2 Tbsp Honey
1 dollop mustard
1 lemon, juice only
2 tsp garlic powder
a few pinches of dried rosemary
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
black pepper, to taste

Steps
1) Pre-heat oven at 200°c / Gas mark 6 for at least 45 mins.
2) Meanwhile, start marinating chicken by mixing together all the spices. Rub the mix spices all over chicken and let it sit for 45 mins. in room temperature.
5) Grease roasting pan, place chicken skin side down on roasting tin. Bake for 25 mins.
6) After 25 mins. turn chicken over and bake for another 20 mins. until cook through and skin crisped.


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Chestnut puree Ice cream

IMG_20120517_084843

Chestnust Puree Ice Cream with chocolate specks
makes about 450ml Ingredients

For chestnut puree custard
3 Egg yolks
1 sachet Vanilla sugar
1 Tbsp Flour
150ml milk
175gm ready-made chestnut puree
30-50gm powdered sugar, to taste
(if chestnut puree has been sweetened beforehand, then less sugar should be added)
1 Tbsp cocoa powder

200ml whipping cream (30% fat content)
1/2 tsp rum

Steps
1) In a sauce pan, put egg yolks, vanilla sugar, powdered sugar and flour. Mix-in a little bit of the milk and whisk until you get a smooth paste before pouring in the remaining milk. Mix well.
 2) Cook the mixture over low heat for a few minutes. Add in the chestnut puree and let it melt slowly while stirring constantly.
3) The custard is ready when the mixture thickens and coats the back of wooden spoon. You can stir in the cocoa powder. Set it aside to cool completely.
4) When custard is cooled, start whisking the whipping cream until soft peak. Add rum into whipped cream and whip a bit more. Then slowly mix in the whipped cream into custard.
5) Pour the cream mixture into a freezer-proof container and freeze for at least half a day.
6) Before serving let it sit in room temperature for at least 15 mins.

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Soy milk pudding (Tofu fa)

P1190218
Soy milk pudding (Tofu fa)
serves : 1 - 2 pax

Ingredients
200ml soy milk
30ml cold water
1/2 Tbsp powdered gelatine

Sugar syrup
3-4 Tbsp sugar , or to taste
1/2 cup water
few slices of ginger, optional

Steps
1) Heat soy milk gently, do not boil. I heat the milk for 1:30 mins. in the microwave. Set aside while you get ready the gelatine
2) Put double boiler on stand by while sprinkle powdered gelatine over cold water and let it sit for 5 mins. untouched. After 5 mins. heat gelatine over double boiler until gelatine dissolves. Do not let it boil.
3) Mix together gelatine and heated soy milk. Let it set in the fridge for at least 6 hrs. or over night.
4) Cook ingredients for syrup. Serve soy milk pudding with either cold or hot syrup.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Raffaello Cake

P1190214

Raffaello Cake

Ingredients
For the base
4 egg whites
pinch of salt
3-4 Tbsp sugar (incl. 1 sachet vanilla sugar)
100gm desiccated coconut

For the cream top
2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp plain flour
250ml milk
1 sachet vanilla sugar / or vanilla extract

200ml whipping cream
3-4 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 Tbsp gelatine

For decoration
Toasted almond slices
Toasted desiccated coconut

Steps
1) Pre-heat oven at 160°c / Gas mark 3. Grease cake tin
2) In a bowl, pour in egg whites and pinch of salt. Beat egg whites until soft peak. Add in sugar gradually and continue to beat egg whites until stiff peak. Fold in desiccated coconut carefully.
3) Pour batter into cake tin and bake for 15 mins. or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.
4) Set cake aside to cool.

5) In a sauce pan, mix together a little of milk with egg yolks and flour until smooth in texture. Then gradually add in remaining milk.
6) Cook mixture over low heat until thicken by stirring continuously.
7) Once thicken to the right consistency, remove from heat and cover the custard directly with cling film. Set aside to cool.

8) Once custard is cool, you can start soaking gelatine powder by sprinkling gelatine power over 60ml of cold water. Do not stir the mixture! Leave to soak for 5 mins. Then cook gelatine over double boiler until gelatine is fully dissolved. Do not boil the mixture. Set aside to cool.
9) In a mixing bowl, pour whipping cream and 3 - 4 Tbsp of powdered sugar until stiff.
10) Mix half of whipped cream into cool custard and whipped until well combined. Mix in a few table spoons of gelatine liquid into the custard mixture, combine well and pour this custard cream onto cake.
11) Mix remaining whipped cream with a couple of spoons of gelatine, combine well and pour whipped cream over custard cream.
12) sprinkle a little of the toasted desiccated coconut over cake. Let cake chill in fridge over night.
13) sprinkle toasted almond slices over cake when serving.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Garlic Paprika Roast chicken

P1190201b 
Garlic Paprika Roast Chicken 

Ingredients
1 whole chicken
2 tsp smoked paprika powder
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp garlic powder
3 Tbsp cooking oil
salt & pepper, to taste

Steps
1. Pre-heat oven at 375°c (Gas mark 6)
2. Mix dry spices into cooking oil.
3. Clean chicken and pat dry. Spread spice mix (step 2) all over chicken, place chicken skin side down onto roasting tin and let it sit in room temp. for about 30-45 mins.
4. Bake chicken first for 20 mins. After which remove roasting tin from oven, flip over chicken, this time skin side up. Baste chicken with juice from roasting. Place roasting tin back to oven and continue to cook for another 20-30 mins. After 50 mins. chicken should be fully cooked and skin crisp.

Banana Bread


P1190211
Finally I've found the best banana bread recipe!

Banana Bread
source : http://www.thelittleteochew.com/2011/01/banana-rum-cake.html

Ingredients
90g canola or sunflower oil
70g castor sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
125g plain flour, sifted (- 2 Tbsp, + 2 Tbsp ground walnuts)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
a pinch of salt
2 large bananas, mashed with a fork
25g regular milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (I used vanilla sugar)

Steps
1. Pre-heat oven at 175°F (Gas mark 3). Grease and line loaf tin.
2. Beat egg and sugar till light and creamy.
3. Add milk, mashed bananas, oil, vanilla and combine.
4. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and baking soda, and give a quick whisk. Fold in flour into the wet ingredients until no traces of flour remain. Do not over-mix. Stop the moment everything is incorporated.
5. Pour into a lined loaf tin.
6. Bake for about 30mins, or until cooked.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Chocolate carrot cake





P1190199
Chocolate Carrot Cake
http://mochachocolatarita.blogspot.com/2009/08/chocolate-carrot-cake-moist-very.html

2 eggs
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cups grated carrots
handful of cherries, chopped

Chocolate Icing
60gm chocolate
Rum essence, to taste
vegetable oil, as needed to loosen chocolate

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
Lightly grease a loaf pan.
Using a electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar until pale in colour. Add in vanilla extract and vegetable oil continue to mix until well combined.
In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.
Add flour mix into egg mixture and beat until well mixed, add grated carrots and chopped cherries and mix well.
Pour batter into your cake pan, bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Set aside to let it cool on a wire rack.

After cake is fully cooled, prepare chocolate icing by melting chocolate over double boiler or the microwave.
To loosen the melted chocolate add in about a teaspoon of vegetable oil and finally the rum essence.
Glaze the top of the cooled  cake with chocolate icing and let it set before serving.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Oven Fried Chicken Wings

P1190072  
Oven Fried Chicken Wings
Preptime : 45 mins.
Cook time : 40 mins.

Ingredients
14 pcs chicken wings
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbsp plain flour
Bread crumbs, for coating

seasoning
1 1/2 tsp salt, to taste (take into consideration saltiness of garlic powder)
2 tsp white pepper powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder

Method
1) Pre-heat oven at gas mark 6; for minimum 45 mins.
 2) Clean and dry chicken wings. Mix together flour and beaten eggs. Mix together seasoning. Rub wet and dry mixes all over chicken. Leave to marinate for 45 mins.
3) Coat chicken wings with bread crumbs. Place on greased baking pan.
 4) Bake for 20 mins., then take out from oven and flip over chicken pieces. Put it back to oven to cook for further 20 mins. until crispy and browned nicely. Remove from oven when cooked through.

Update :-
I have tried now using chicken thigh meat the same seasoning and method, the result was great. Chicken was crispy and meat was moist. Even after re-heating!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Homemade tomato ketchup




P1190067
Homemade Ketchup
serves : 3 - 4 hamburgers

Ingredients
2 ripe tomatoes, peeled
caramelised onion
vanilla sugar, to taste
2 tsp tomato paste

Basil, a pinch
Garlic paste, small pinch
pineapple syrup, to taste
smoked paprika powder, a pinch
1 bay leaf
hot chilli , to taste
parsley, chopped finely

1) Heat up a sauce pan, put in caramelised onion, place tomatoes on caramelised onion, sprinkle vanilla sugar and cook until tomato starts to caramelised.
2) Next put in remaining ingredients and cook it down to preferred consistency. Check for seasoning. Use it as you would with ketchup
 

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Carrot cottage cheese cakes

P1190066
Carrot Cottage Cheese Cakes

Ingredients
250gm cottage cheese (or ricotta)
1-2 pcs carrot, grated
2 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 slices onion, chopped finely
1 tsp fresh parley, chopped finely
cumin seeds, to taste
garlic powder, to taste
paprika powder, to taste
salt & pepper, to taste
bread crumbs, for coating
oil, for pan frying

 Method
1) Mix together all ingredients excl. bread crumbs. Set mixture aside to rest for for 30 mins.
2) After 30 mins. , start heat oil on non-stick pan. Shape mixture into flat cakes and then coat with bread crumbs. The mixture is a little soft. So, do it carefully.
3) Once oil is hot enough, pan fry cakes until crispy on the outside.
4) Serve warm as a side or with dips. 

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Pearl Barley Risotto



P1190022 Hungarian style Pearl Barley Risotto 
serves 4 pax

Ingredients
150gm pearl barley
150gm smoked sausage
oil, if needed
1 Onion, finely chopped
ground smoked paprika, to taste
ground cumin, to taste

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp tomato puree
2 fresh tomatoes, peeled sliced or chopped finely
splash of white wine
1 hungarian pepper , sliced
1 carrot, chopped
1 bay leaf
300gm chicken stock

salt & pepper, to taste
sugar, to adjust the acidity if needed
parley, finely chopped, to sprinkle

Method
1) Heat sauce pan with little oil, and fry smoked sausage to render out some fat. Remove smoked sausage from sauce pan and set aside
2) Use this fat (remove excess if desire) to sauté onion until translucent. Put in the pearl barley and cook it for a bit. Remove sauce pan from heat and sprinkle to taste ground smoked paprika, ground cumin & chopped garic. Stir it and add a little bit of the chicken stock before putting back sauce pan to the heat. Let it boil.
3) Next add in chopped tomatoes,  tomato puree and splash of white wine. Cook off the alchohol.
4) Then pour in the rest of the chicken stock, followed by carrot, Hungarian pepper & bay leaf. Cook for 25 mins. but stir on and off to avoid sticking.
5) After 25 mins. stir in the parsley and smoked paprika, check for seasoning, remove from heat. It is ready to serve








Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Quick & Easy Donuts


P1190016

Quick & Easy Donuts
Source : Ste/ A te recepted Sep 2011
Makes 12-16 donuts

Ingredients
150gm plain flour (changed to 130gm)
pinch of salt
1 sachet x 10gm baking powder (half baking powder + baking soda)
1 egg
150gm yoghurt, natural flavoured (changed to 1x130gm tub)
Oil for frying

To serve with dips
sweet option Good quality fruit preserves/jam or dust with powdered sugar,
savoury option sour cream and grated cheese

Method
1) Whisk together  egg and yoghurt, then mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until well combine. Let it rest for 10 mins. Meanwhile , heat oil in frying pan
2) Make sure oil is hot enough, or it will be too greasy. Use a spoon to scoop out batter and fry 1.5 mins. each side until golden brown. Drain fried donuts on kitchen paper.
3) Serve while still warm with preferred dipping sauces.




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Monday, December 31, 2012

Creamy Salad {Francia Saláta}

P1190866 Hungarian "Francia Saláta", literally translates to "French Salad", is often served in new year's eve party platter. The origin of this salad is unknown to me, but this year I thought why not make my own instead of serving the store bought one.

Creamy Salad {Francia Saláta}
source : http://www.nosalty.hu/recept/franciasalata

Ingredients (I have halved from the original)
150gm frozen green peas
100gm carrots, diced
1 apple, diced
1-2 pcs of gherkins, diced
185ml sour cream
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp sugar, or to taste
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Method
1) Cook diced carrots in cold salted water. When carrots are almost done (al-dente) add in frozen green peas, when both are ready, drained and set it aside to cool
2) When carrots and peas are cooled, start the dressing by mixing mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, salt and lemon juice.
3) Finally mix in carrots, peas, diced apple and gherkins.
4) Keep in the fridge until time to serve. You can serve this as a side to any main meals or cold cuts.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Ischler Cookies

P1190817
For this Christmas, I've written Ischler cookies in my baking list, thinking that I would use the recipe featured here before but then I came across this one from The Eccentric Cook . Hers look absolutely scrumptious, so I thought "why not give it a try?".
These turned out crumbly and nutty, just the way I (or we) like it! Since these cookies are better the longer you keep them, you could bake them few days before serving. Just keep in an air-tight container and store in a cool place.

Ischler Cookies
makes about 15 cookie sandwiches (or depending on the cutter you used)
source : http://theeccentriccook.blogspot.hu/2012/12/ischler-cookies.html

Hungarian Walnut Cookies {Diós Kifli}

P1190826

Hungarian Walnut Cookies {Diós kifli} 
http://www.nosalty.hu/recept/mezeskalacs-kifli


Ingredients for 6 people
125 g of flour
50g ground hazelnuts or any ground nuts
50 g of  powdered sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
100g butter, at room temperature
1 egg yolk pinch of salt

For coating
1 tsp ground cinnamon
125 g of powdered sugar

Method
1. Toast nuts in heated pan and grind finely. Mix the flour, sugar and ground cinnamon.
 2. Combine well, soften butter with pinch of salt and egg yolk . Add in dry ingredients to form a smooth dough. Wrapped dough in cling film and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
3. After dough rests in refridgerator for 1-2 hours, start pre-heating oven at 160 ° C.
4. Let dough sit for 5-10 mins. in room temperature after taken out from the refrigerator before working on it.
5. Shape dough into croissants shape, place on baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 10-15 mins.
6. Coating cookies by tossing in sugar-spice mixture when it is still hot.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Hungarian Fish Soup { Halászlé}

P1190827 
Hungarian fish soup is a must during Christmas time; however, we love our fish soup, so I try to cook it as often as possible. The recipe that I am about to share might not be from scratch as most Hungarian would cook it, but this is how my late father-in-law did his. And this version is so easy that it is ready in just an hour!

Hungarian Fish Soup
Serves : 4-5 pax

Ingredients
1 whole carp, filleted or 3 frozen fillets of white wish (defrosted)
1 medium-size Onion, sliced or minced
1 medium-size tomato, quartered
1 Hungarian green pepper, halved
3 tsp of smoked paprika powder (spicy or sweet) - you can also mix, eg. 1/3 sweet + 2/3 spicy
1 ltr of water
fish paste concentrate,
fish stock cubes, to taste

To serve : Match stick pasta

Method
1) Sauté onion with some oil in a pot. When onion is soften, remove from heat and put in the smoked paprika. Stir it a bit , add a little cold water and return it to the stove, let it come to a boil.
2) When the liquid boils, you can add in the green pepper,  tomtato and salt. Cook until pepper and tomato are almost done. Then add in fish paste and fish stock cube and simmer further for 20 mins.
3) Add in the fish fillets and cook until done. Do not over cook fish.
4) Serve very hot with match stick pasta.

If you wish to try cooking the soup from scratch, this link may be helpful.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Chocolate chip and raisins cookies


As much as I like chocolate chip cookies, I haven't tried baking them before this. Turns out, it is so easy to just bake it at home with just some basic pantry staples.


Chocolate chip & Raisins cookies

Ingredients :
100g butter (room temperature)
80g caster sugar
1 egg *
170g flour (sifted)
1/2 tsp baking soda (sifted)
1/8 tsp salt
170g choc chips
60g walnuts (chopped into small pieces)**

* I've used only left over egg white, as a result, the cookies weren't yellow in colour. 
** Replace walnuts with raisins (soaked in milk for one hour prior to baking, just drain milk before putting into cookie mixture)

Method:
1) Pre-heat oven to 180°c
2) Mix butter + sugar until fluffy.
3) Crack in egg and mix
4) Mix in flour, baking soda and salt.
5) Put in choc chips and walnuts, mix a bit.
6) Put a tsp full of dough onto the baking tray (with baking sheet on it) and bake for 10-15mins

Monday, December 10, 2012

Canned sardines fish curry


I love sardines! Fresh sardines are of course better than canned but I have been eating canned sardines since I remember. Anyway, canned sardines can be very versatile. You can use them as filling for sandwich or empanadas, serve them with rice and make into curry like I did recently.


Canned Sardines Fish Curry
serves : 2-3 pax

Ingredients
2 cans x 90 gm sardines in tomato sauce
1 medium onion, slice
3 cloves garlic, mince
cooking oil
red or green chilli, slice, to taste
1 dried bay leaf
salt & pepper
lemon or lime

spice paste
2 tsps ground paparika powder, spicy
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 dash of fennel seeds
a little water

Optional2 medium potatoes, diced
Hard boiled eggs

Method
1) Mix ingredients for spice paste together with a little water. Set aside.
2) Heat a little oil, sauté sliced onion until translucent and then add in the minced garlic. Cook until garlic is fragrant. Next pour in the spice paste and bring it to a boil. Be careful not to burnt it.
3) If you're using potatoes, add in now, and pour in tomato sauce from canned sardine (not incl. the sardines) , if the liquid is not enough to barely cover the potatoes, add in some stock or water. Throw in the red / green chillies and dried bay leaf. Let this cook for a bit until potato is ready.
4) Once potatoes is ready add in the sardines and simmer for 10 mins. and it is ready.
5) You can add hard boiled eggs into the gravy before serving with your choice of carbs.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Easy homemade "barbecued" Pork {Cantonese Char Siu}

P1190700
If you are familiar with Cantonese cuisine, than Char Siu is no stranger to you. To those who has no idea what it is , you can read it here here
I have found a way to imitate that barbecued taste with just 2 ingredients.

Ingredients :-
Smoked ham
Sour cherry jam (50% fruit content), to taste

Method :-
1) First soak the smoked ham in cold water for about 4 hours to get rid of some of the saltiness.
2) Once ham has been soaked, dry it with kitchen towel and slice into preferred thickness. Set aside.
3) Heat a sauce pan with a few table spoons of sour cherry jam. Let it simmer until intense red colour.
4) Place ham pieces all over the sauce pan to absorb the jam flavour, flip it a few times to let it completely infuse in the sauce. When the ham has picked up the colour of the jam, it is ready.
5) You can serve with rice, cucumber and some of remaining gravy. Or simply eat it with plain bread :)

 

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Apricot Butter Biscuits { Thumbprints cookies }

P1190692

Apricot Butter Biscuits { Thumbprints cookies }

source : Orang Blossom Water


Ingredients
1 cup (226 g) butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar **will lessen sugar the next time
2 large eggs yolks
1 sachet vanilla sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
About 1/2 cup apricot jam
1/2 zest of lemon


Method :-
In a large bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed beat butter and sugar until smooth.
Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat until well blended. Mix in the lemon zest
Stir in flour and salt and beat just until dough comes together.
Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Place about 1 inch apart on buttered or cooking parchment lined 12 by 15 inch baking sheets. Press your thumb gently into the center of each cookie to make an indentation.
Bake cookies in a 325 °F (163 °C) oven until lightly browned, 18 to 20 minutes; if baking more than one pan at a time, switch pan positions halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide spatula to transfer to racks to cool completely.
Spoon about 1/2 teaspoon jam into the center of each cooled cookie.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Vegetables croquette

12 golden croquettes ready to be served!

vegetables being roasted


Vegetables Croquettes
Makes : 12 Croquettes
Receipe from My Kitchen Snippetsy
Ingredients:

Vegetables to be roasted

800gm potatoes
2 carrots
1 onions
1 Kolhrabi
2 cloves of garlic

1-2 tbsp of regular breadcrumbs (added sour cream as mixture too dry)
3 spring onions – chopped
2 tbsp grated cheddar or parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

For coating:


½ cup flour (omitted)

2 eggs – beaten
2 cups regular bread crumbs 

1. Roast vegetables on medium heat (180°c) until golden and al-dente (30 mins + 20 mins. + 15mins)
2. Put the roasted vegetables in a food processor and give it a few pulses. It should not be too fine. 
3. Remove and add in the spring onions, parmesan cheese, breadcrumb (if needed), salt and pepper. Mix well. Shape the mixture into croquettes. 
4. Let the croquettes rest in the fridge for 15 minutes. Heat up oil over medium high for deep frying. Dust each croquette with flour, coat in beaten eggs and then roll it on the breadcrumb.
5. Heat up some vegetable oil over medium heat for deep frying. Working in batches to avoid crowding, fry croquettes, flipping once, until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes total. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. (Adjust heat between batches as needed to keep oil at a steady temperature.)
6. Serve warm or at room temperature with your favorite dipping sauce.



Sunday, July 22, 2012

Sour Cherry Pie {Meggyes Pite}

P1190383

This is my take on the traditional Sour cherry Pie, a favourite during the early summer months in Hungary. Also, one of my MIL's favourite fruit in desserts. Since the weather dropped 10°c overnight, I thought I'd bake one pie for my MIL when she was visiting this weekend.

There are simply too many variations of this pie found online ; however, I'm too lazy to follow any new recipe at the moment, I've actually just used my tried and tested pastry recipe combined with a simple sour cherry compote.

Sour Cherry Pie {Meggyes Pite}

For pastry { source : nami-nami }
100gm butter, room temperature
50 gm sugar
1 sachet vanilla sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
175gm flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt

For the compote
1x450gm jar of preserved sour cherries, stoned and drained
3 - 4 Tbsp of sour cherry juice from preserve
1 sachet vanilla sugar
3 Tbsp sugar, or to taste
1/2 lemon zest
few drop of lemon juice
2 Tsp flour or corn starch, mix with a little water to use as thickener
Bread crumbs

Steps
1) For the filling the filling:
In a saucepan, pour-in  the sour cherries , add 3-4 Tbsp of the preserve liquid, vanilla sugar, 3 Tbsp sugar or to your taste. Cook cherries until boiling, reduce heat and pour in the a little by little flour/corn starch to thicken the liquid. Continue to cook until re-boil and liquid thickens, squeeze in the lemon juice. Let it simmer a little and switch off the heat. Let it cool completely before using it as filling. You can make this ahead of time and keep it in fridge until you need it.


2) For pastry dough :-
With an electric mixer mix butter, sugar and egg until light and creamy. Mix the dry ingredients, then pour into the batter (wet) mixture. Do not over mixed, just until the dough comes together. Put into the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.

3) Start pre-heat oven after dough has rested for 15 mins. Set oven at 180°c / Gas mark 3.

Grease baking dish* well.
*Baking dish
I like using my rectagular 18x24cm dish as I am baking a close pie with top and bottom layer but you may use a 26 cm springform tin to bake a open pie.

After 30 mins. of resting. Take out dough from fridge.

Assembly :-
If you're making a close pie, divide dough into 2 and press down the bottom layer by using your hand.
Pour filling over bottom layer and sprinkle with some bread crumbs to absorb some of the excess liquid
Roll out the second half of the dough and cover the top.

Bake for 20 mins. or until pastry is golden brown.


Fried Pizza

P1190353 There's no way I'm turning on the oven in summer; so, I thought let's try fried pizza!

My pizza dough recipe was based on http://www.italianrecipesmadeeasy.com/fried-pizza.html . Please visit the link to see different stages of this recipe but I'll still post the recipe below just in case the link doesn't work in the future.

Fried Pizza
Italian Recipes Made Easy

serving : For about 8 mini pizzas

300g of strong white flour
1 tea spoon of dry yeast
1 tea spoon of salt
1 tea spoon of sugar
20ml of extra virgin olive oil
190ml of warm water
vegetable oil

1)For the dough put flour, yeast, salt, sugar, olive oil in a bowl.

2)Using your hands and adding slowly the water mix all the ingredients together until you obtain a soft and smooth dough (if too dry add more water, if too sticky add more flour).

3)Cover and let the dough rise for a couple of hours or until has doubled in size.

4) At this point take small pieces of dough, shape them into mini pizzas and fry in hot vegetable oil. Drain them on kitchen paper.  To me this recipe is good not only to top with pizza garnishes but also good with sour cream, cheese or just plain powdered sugar.

To make into pizza :-
5) In the middle of each mini pizza pour one or two table spoons of the tomatoes sauce and grated parmigiano to your taste.
Serve immediately.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Spinach & Potato Cakes

P1190374
I have misplaced the link to this recipe but I'll look again and give the proper credit when I've found it.

Spinach & Potato cakes
Makes : 10 cakes

450gm fresh spinach, blanch and chopped coarsely, cooled
2 medium potatoes, boiled, mashed and cooled
1 small onion, finely sliced (I used spring onion)
2 eggs
6 Tsp herbs/spices (I used garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika)
2 fresh green chillies, finely sliced
Fresh coriander, finely chopped (I used parsley)
2 Tbsp flour salt & pepper, to taste
Bread crumbs for coating
Vegetable oil, for frying

Method
1) Mix everything except for bread crumbs until well combine. Let it rest for 30 mins.
2) After 30 mins. start heating oil. Meanwhile start shaping mixture into balls and coat with bread crumbs.
3) When oil is hot enough, fry until golden brown.
4) Serve hot with yoghurt, chilli sauce or sour cream.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Quiche Lorraine without pastry crust


P1190303 Quiche Lorraine without pastry crust
source : Taste

Ingredients (serves 6)

1 tablespoon olive oil 
1 brown onion, finely chopped 
4 rashers bacon, rind removed, finely chopped 
1 cup grated tasty cheese 
3 eggs 
1 teaspoon plain flour 
300ml cream 
1/2 cup milk

Method
  1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a fluted 3cm deep, 23cm (base), loose-base flan pan.
  2. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and bacon. Cook for 3 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Cool. Sprinkle over pastry. Top with cheese.
  3. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C. Whisk remaining ingredients and salt and pepper in a jug. Pour over bacon. Place onto tray. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until set. Stand for 5 minutes. Serve.

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Instant Fish soup

P1190296

Instant Fish soup
serves 4-6 pax

6 white fish fillets
2 Tbsp Paprika oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
about 250ml water
about 250ml milk *
2 Tbsp sour cream *
1 Tbsp flour *
1 fish stock cube
salt & pepper, to taste
chopped parsley or dill, to garnish
vermicelli or any kind of pasta / noodles, to serve

* you may substitute milk with coconut milk. if coconut milk is being used, sour cream and flour can be eliminated

Steps
1) In a pot, heat paprika oil, sauté onions until translucent. Stir-in the spices and minced garlic, fry until fragrant, be careful not to burn spices. add a little water to the pot and let it come to a boil. Once boiling, you can add remaining water and heat until the liquid come to a boil again.
2) Once the liquid starts to boil, put in the fish stock cube you can add in milk and meanwhile mix together sour cream and flour until smooth, add this mixture in as well. Let it come to a boil.
3) Finally, add in the fish fillets and cook for a few minute or until fish is cooked through.
4) Serve hot with your favourite pasta or noodles, garnish with parsley or dill.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Honey, mustard & Lemon roasted chicken






P1190287
Honey, mustard & Lemon roasted chicken

Ingredients
4 chicken thigh, clean & pat dry
2 Tbsp Honey
1 dollop mustard
1 lemon, juice only
2 tsp garlic powder
a few pinches of dried rosemary
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
black pepper, to taste

Steps
1) Pre-heat oven at 200°c / Gas mark 6 for at least 45 mins.
2) Meanwhile, start marinating chicken by mixing together all the spices. Rub the mix spices all over chicken and let it sit for 45 mins. in room temperature.
5) Grease roasting pan, place chicken skin side down on roasting tin. Bake for 25 mins.
6) After 25 mins. turn chicken over and bake for another 20 mins. until cook through and skin crisped.


Thursday, May 17, 2012

Chestnut puree Ice cream

IMG_20120517_084843

Chestnust Puree Ice Cream with chocolate specks
makes about 450ml Ingredients

For chestnut puree custard
3 Egg yolks
1 sachet Vanilla sugar
1 Tbsp Flour
150ml milk
175gm ready-made chestnut puree
30-50gm powdered sugar, to taste
(if chestnut puree has been sweetened beforehand, then less sugar should be added)
1 Tbsp cocoa powder

200ml whipping cream (30% fat content)
1/2 tsp rum

Steps
1) In a sauce pan, put egg yolks, vanilla sugar, powdered sugar and flour. Mix-in a little bit of the milk and whisk until you get a smooth paste before pouring in the remaining milk. Mix well.
 2) Cook the mixture over low heat for a few minutes. Add in the chestnut puree and let it melt slowly while stirring constantly.
3) The custard is ready when the mixture thickens and coats the back of wooden spoon. You can stir in the cocoa powder. Set it aside to cool completely.
4) When custard is cooled, start whisking the whipping cream until soft peak. Add rum into whipped cream and whip a bit more. Then slowly mix in the whipped cream into custard.
5) Pour the cream mixture into a freezer-proof container and freeze for at least half a day.
6) Before serving let it sit in room temperature for at least 15 mins.

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Soy milk pudding (Tofu fa)

P1190218
Soy milk pudding (Tofu fa)
serves : 1 - 2 pax

Ingredients
200ml soy milk
30ml cold water
1/2 Tbsp powdered gelatine

Sugar syrup
3-4 Tbsp sugar , or to taste
1/2 cup water
few slices of ginger, optional

Steps
1) Heat soy milk gently, do not boil. I heat the milk for 1:30 mins. in the microwave. Set aside while you get ready the gelatine
2) Put double boiler on stand by while sprinkle powdered gelatine over cold water and let it sit for 5 mins. untouched. After 5 mins. heat gelatine over double boiler until gelatine dissolves. Do not let it boil.
3) Mix together gelatine and heated soy milk. Let it set in the fridge for at least 6 hrs. or over night.
4) Cook ingredients for syrup. Serve soy milk pudding with either cold or hot syrup.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Raffaello Cake

P1190214

Raffaello Cake

Ingredients
For the base
4 egg whites
pinch of salt
3-4 Tbsp sugar (incl. 1 sachet vanilla sugar)
100gm desiccated coconut

For the cream top
2 egg yolks
2 Tbsp plain flour
250ml milk
1 sachet vanilla sugar / or vanilla extract

200ml whipping cream
3-4 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 Tbsp gelatine

For decoration
Toasted almond slices
Toasted desiccated coconut

Steps
1) Pre-heat oven at 160°c / Gas mark 3. Grease cake tin
2) In a bowl, pour in egg whites and pinch of salt. Beat egg whites until soft peak. Add in sugar gradually and continue to beat egg whites until stiff peak. Fold in desiccated coconut carefully.
3) Pour batter into cake tin and bake for 15 mins. or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.
4) Set cake aside to cool.

5) In a sauce pan, mix together a little of milk with egg yolks and flour until smooth in texture. Then gradually add in remaining milk.
6) Cook mixture over low heat until thicken by stirring continuously.
7) Once thicken to the right consistency, remove from heat and cover the custard directly with cling film. Set aside to cool.

8) Once custard is cool, you can start soaking gelatine powder by sprinkling gelatine power over 60ml of cold water. Do not stir the mixture! Leave to soak for 5 mins. Then cook gelatine over double boiler until gelatine is fully dissolved. Do not boil the mixture. Set aside to cool.
9) In a mixing bowl, pour whipping cream and 3 - 4 Tbsp of powdered sugar until stiff.
10) Mix half of whipped cream into cool custard and whipped until well combined. Mix in a few table spoons of gelatine liquid into the custard mixture, combine well and pour this custard cream onto cake.
11) Mix remaining whipped cream with a couple of spoons of gelatine, combine well and pour whipped cream over custard cream.
12) sprinkle a little of the toasted desiccated coconut over cake. Let cake chill in fridge over night.
13) sprinkle toasted almond slices over cake when serving.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Garlic Paprika Roast chicken

P1190201b 
Garlic Paprika Roast Chicken 

Ingredients
1 whole chicken
2 tsp smoked paprika powder
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp garlic powder
3 Tbsp cooking oil
salt & pepper, to taste

Steps
1. Pre-heat oven at 375°c (Gas mark 6)
2. Mix dry spices into cooking oil.
3. Clean chicken and pat dry. Spread spice mix (step 2) all over chicken, place chicken skin side down onto roasting tin and let it sit in room temp. for about 30-45 mins.
4. Bake chicken first for 20 mins. After which remove roasting tin from oven, flip over chicken, this time skin side up. Baste chicken with juice from roasting. Place roasting tin back to oven and continue to cook for another 20-30 mins. After 50 mins. chicken should be fully cooked and skin crisp.

Banana Bread


P1190211
Finally I've found the best banana bread recipe!

Banana Bread
source : http://www.thelittleteochew.com/2011/01/banana-rum-cake.html

Ingredients
90g canola or sunflower oil
70g castor sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
125g plain flour, sifted (- 2 Tbsp, + 2 Tbsp ground walnuts)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
a pinch of salt
2 large bananas, mashed with a fork
25g regular milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract (I used vanilla sugar)

Steps
1. Pre-heat oven at 175°F (Gas mark 3). Grease and line loaf tin.
2. Beat egg and sugar till light and creamy.
3. Add milk, mashed bananas, oil, vanilla and combine.
4. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and baking soda, and give a quick whisk. Fold in flour into the wet ingredients until no traces of flour remain. Do not over-mix. Stop the moment everything is incorporated.
5. Pour into a lined loaf tin.
6. Bake for about 30mins, or until cooked.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Chocolate carrot cake





P1190199
Chocolate Carrot Cake
http://mochachocolatarita.blogspot.com/2009/08/chocolate-carrot-cake-moist-very.html

2 eggs
1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cups grated carrots
handful of cherries, chopped

Chocolate Icing
60gm chocolate
Rum essence, to taste
vegetable oil, as needed to loosen chocolate

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
Lightly grease a loaf pan.
Using a electric mixer, beat eggs and sugar until pale in colour. Add in vanilla extract and vegetable oil continue to mix until well combined.
In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder.
Add flour mix into egg mixture and beat until well mixed, add grated carrots and chopped cherries and mix well.
Pour batter into your cake pan, bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Set aside to let it cool on a wire rack.

After cake is fully cooled, prepare chocolate icing by melting chocolate over double boiler or the microwave.
To loosen the melted chocolate add in about a teaspoon of vegetable oil and finally the rum essence.
Glaze the top of the cooled  cake with chocolate icing and let it set before serving.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Oven Fried Chicken Wings

P1190072  
Oven Fried Chicken Wings
Preptime : 45 mins.
Cook time : 40 mins.

Ingredients
14 pcs chicken wings
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbsp plain flour
Bread crumbs, for coating

seasoning
1 1/2 tsp salt, to taste (take into consideration saltiness of garlic powder)
2 tsp white pepper powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder

Method
1) Pre-heat oven at gas mark 6; for minimum 45 mins.
 2) Clean and dry chicken wings. Mix together flour and beaten eggs. Mix together seasoning. Rub wet and dry mixes all over chicken. Leave to marinate for 45 mins.
3) Coat chicken wings with bread crumbs. Place on greased baking pan.
 4) Bake for 20 mins., then take out from oven and flip over chicken pieces. Put it back to oven to cook for further 20 mins. until crispy and browned nicely. Remove from oven when cooked through.

Update :-
I have tried now using chicken thigh meat the same seasoning and method, the result was great. Chicken was crispy and meat was moist. Even after re-heating!

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Homemade tomato ketchup




P1190067
Homemade Ketchup
serves : 3 - 4 hamburgers

Ingredients
2 ripe tomatoes, peeled
caramelised onion
vanilla sugar, to taste
2 tsp tomato paste

Basil, a pinch
Garlic paste, small pinch
pineapple syrup, to taste
smoked paprika powder, a pinch
1 bay leaf
hot chilli , to taste
parsley, chopped finely

1) Heat up a sauce pan, put in caramelised onion, place tomatoes on caramelised onion, sprinkle vanilla sugar and cook until tomato starts to caramelised.
2) Next put in remaining ingredients and cook it down to preferred consistency. Check for seasoning. Use it as you would with ketchup
 

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Carrot cottage cheese cakes

P1190066
Carrot Cottage Cheese Cakes

Ingredients
250gm cottage cheese (or ricotta)
1-2 pcs carrot, grated
2 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 slices onion, chopped finely
1 tsp fresh parley, chopped finely
cumin seeds, to taste
garlic powder, to taste
paprika powder, to taste
salt & pepper, to taste
bread crumbs, for coating
oil, for pan frying

 Method
1) Mix together all ingredients excl. bread crumbs. Set mixture aside to rest for for 30 mins.
2) After 30 mins. , start heat oil on non-stick pan. Shape mixture into flat cakes and then coat with bread crumbs. The mixture is a little soft. So, do it carefully.
3) Once oil is hot enough, pan fry cakes until crispy on the outside.
4) Serve warm as a side or with dips. 

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Pearl Barley Risotto



P1190022 Hungarian style Pearl Barley Risotto 
serves 4 pax

Ingredients
150gm pearl barley
150gm smoked sausage
oil, if needed
1 Onion, finely chopped
ground smoked paprika, to taste
ground cumin, to taste

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp tomato puree
2 fresh tomatoes, peeled sliced or chopped finely
splash of white wine
1 hungarian pepper , sliced
1 carrot, chopped
1 bay leaf
300gm chicken stock

salt & pepper, to taste
sugar, to adjust the acidity if needed
parley, finely chopped, to sprinkle

Method
1) Heat sauce pan with little oil, and fry smoked sausage to render out some fat. Remove smoked sausage from sauce pan and set aside
2) Use this fat (remove excess if desire) to sauté onion until translucent. Put in the pearl barley and cook it for a bit. Remove sauce pan from heat and sprinkle to taste ground smoked paprika, ground cumin & chopped garic. Stir it and add a little bit of the chicken stock before putting back sauce pan to the heat. Let it boil.
3) Next add in chopped tomatoes,  tomato puree and splash of white wine. Cook off the alchohol.
4) Then pour in the rest of the chicken stock, followed by carrot, Hungarian pepper & bay leaf. Cook for 25 mins. but stir on and off to avoid sticking.
5) After 25 mins. stir in the parsley and smoked paprika, check for seasoning, remove from heat. It is ready to serve








Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Quick & Easy Donuts


P1190016

Quick & Easy Donuts
Source : Ste/ A te recepted Sep 2011
Makes 12-16 donuts

Ingredients
150gm plain flour (changed to 130gm)
pinch of salt
1 sachet x 10gm baking powder (half baking powder + baking soda)
1 egg
150gm yoghurt, natural flavoured (changed to 1x130gm tub)
Oil for frying

To serve with dips
sweet option Good quality fruit preserves/jam or dust with powdered sugar,
savoury option sour cream and grated cheese

Method
1) Whisk together  egg and yoghurt, then mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until well combine. Let it rest for 10 mins. Meanwhile , heat oil in frying pan
2) Make sure oil is hot enough, or it will be too greasy. Use a spoon to scoop out batter and fry 1.5 mins. each side until golden brown. Drain fried donuts on kitchen paper.
3) Serve while still warm with preferred dipping sauces.




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