・Mille crepe・

Because I have whipped cream left from decorating blueberry cheesecake.
So I thought of make something that has whipped cream as an ingredient.
and I thought of Mille crepe.
It was the sweets that I always avoid. Because I think it's too complicate and I always admire those who can do it.
But since I have plenty of time and it's not an order from my customers so I have a chance to fail again and again, why don't give it a shot.

I search recipes from the internet and I found this one.
But since it was written in Thai. So I will translate as below.
Thank you khun Lookson for the recipe ka.

By the way, the recipe owner work more hard than me. She has 4 component in this cake.
- Sponge cake (base)
- Crepe
- Whipping cream (I use plain whipping cream, didn't add any icing or flavor)
- Strawberry sauce
But since I'm a super lazy girl, I decide to cut off the sponge cake part and using only crepe, whipping cream and strawberry sauce.

Crepes

Made 15 sheets of 9-inch crepes, or 24 sheets of 7-inch.

Ingredients: Crepe batter

4 Eggs
Milk 500 cc.
Sugar 1 tbsp.
All purpose flour 200 grams.
Salt 1 / 8 tsp.
Baking powder 1 / 2 tsp.
Vanilla 1 / 2 tsp.
40 g unsalted butter, melted.

Direction
Strat from sifted flour, salt and baking powder together.
In a large mixing bowl, add eggs, sugar and 250 cc milk in. Mix together.
Then, gradually put 1 / 3 amount of flour into mixture. Then stir. Add the rest, stir.
Then pour the rest milk in.. Then stir.
Followed by the melted butter, vanilla. Then stir again.
Wrap with plastic cover and chill for 30 minutes to 2 hours.

When ready to fry crepe, bring crepe batter out of the fridge. Stir.
Put teflon pan on medium fire. Pour the batter in. Spread evenly.
Wait until you see the bubble then reverse side.
(Don't panic if you fail, me too. Haha..)
Cook until the crepe got golden. Bring it out.
Repete frying until the batter is out or until you feel tired (like me).

Don't worry about left over batter, you can keep it or up to 4 days.
But if you fry it all, that's better. You can keep crepes by store it in the ziplock back between pieces of wax paper and freeze it up to 2 months.
When you need it you just leave it thaw in the room temperature and then warm it in the pan/oven.

Ingredients: Strawberry sauce

2 Cups fresh or frozen strawberry
1 / 3 Cup sugar

Direction

Put Strawberry in the saucepan and use potato masher to mash up strawberries.

Add sugar and bring it on middle heat.
Wait until the sauce boiled and thicken up.

Now if any one wants a smooth sauce, use the seive and leave it cool.

Assemble

Laid crepe on a plate, spread over with whipped cream.
Then repeatedly the crepes - cream - crepe - cream - crepe action.
Until you don't have crepe / whipped cream / energy left.

Trim the edge for better look.
Chill and serve with strawberry sauce.

Tada!

Lastly, I was glad that I try. Enjoy :)

・Green tea tiramisu ・

First of all, I want to say "Merry Christmas and happy new year" even it's been really late right now.


I also gone from my blog for a long time. No excuse. Just because of my laziness - -' .

Last Christmas I've made this treats for my friends and they all of it.
You guys can follow the instruction easily. I think this is quite a fuss-free tiramisu recipe.
The special thing is that it is grean tea tiramisu. I love green tea, especially when it's come in cold / creamy form and I don't drink coffee so this is the first time that I urge to try tiramisu recipe.

But what I don't quite happy with my tiramisu is the color of green tea I used.
It's dark green and make most people feel a bit worry that it would be some kind of fungus. （ ；´Д｀）Sob sob...

Green tea tiramisu
Serve 10
Recipe from Okashi sweet treats made with love



Ingredients

Biscuit sponge 1 quantity (I used pre made lady fingers)

Mascarpone cheese filling

Egg yolks 40 g, about 2 eggs
Caster (superfine) sugar 70 g
Mascarpone cheese 250 g
Whipping cream (35% fat) 100 g
Egg whites 70 g
Grean tea powder 10 g + extra for dusting
Hot water 90 g

Direction

1. Prepared biscuit sponge (I skipped this step due to lady fingers that I used)
2. Prepare mascarpone cheese filling. Combine egg yolks and 30 g sugar in a bowl and beat until mixture thickens and becomes pale yellow in colour. Add mascarpone cheese and mix well.
3. Whip whipping cream in a chilled bowl until stiff peaks form. Add whipped cream to the mascarpone cheese mixture and fold through.
4. Make meringue. Place egg whites in a clean bowl and beat until foamy. Add remaining sugar and beat until stiff peaks form and egg whites are glossy. Fold into mascarpone cheese mixture.
5. Place green tea powder in a small bowl and mix with hot water a little at a time. Stir until completely dissolved. Quickly dip both ends of each biscuit sponge (lady fingers) in the grean tea mixture. Then place in a medium serving dish such as a 27-cm oval dish, or into individual serving glasses.
6. Spread half of mascarpone cheese filling in a layer over soaked biscuit sponges (lady fingers). Dip more biscuit sponges into green tea mixture and place on top of mascarpone cheese layer.
Spoon over remaining mascarpone cheese filling.
7. Dust generously with green tea powder and refridgerate until required. Tiramisu can be kept refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Eat chilled and you will feel like youe are in the heaven, enjoy. :)

The Daring Cooks December 2010 Challenge: Poach to Perfection!

Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chose Eggs Benedict recipe from Alton Brown, Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, and Homemade Sundried Tomato & Pine Nut Seitan Sausages (poached) courtesy of Trudy of Veggie num num.

I haven't try to poach egg before and I thought it would be not so difficult.
I saw it many times in (cooking) comics and it's seems really easy. (Just throw eggs into water) And after I have join this challenge, I realize that, of course , it has to be that easy because they are not in real life. :D

And now it's time to show my (un)perfect poach. Haha...




I decided to combine my poached egg with spaghetti again.
And this time it's quite different because this spaghetti is sweet.
It might feel strange at the first time but I think the taste is smoother along the way.

Again, I used recipe from my favorite "Pasta Pasta" book.

Pasta with poached egg, mozzarella, and tomato.

Ingredients

Capellini 50 grams
Boiling water 1.5 Liter
Salt 1 tablespoon
(Synthesis salt 2/3 tablespoon)

Mozzarella 30 grams
Ripe tomato 1
Basil 4-5 leaves

A ingredients
Olive oil 1 tablespoon
Sugar 1 tablespoon
Salt 1/4 teaspoon
Pepper to taste

Olive oil 2 tablespoons
Poached egg 1
Pepper to taste

Direction:

I. Poach egg

Ingredients
Eggs (size is your choice)
Splash of vinegar (for poaching)

• Add salt and a splash of vinegar (any kind will do). I added about a tablespoon of vinegar to my small saucepan (about 3 cups of water/720 ml of water), but you may need more if you’re using a larger pan with more water.

• Crack eggs directly into the very gently simmering water (or crack first into a bowl and gently drop into the water), making sure they’re separated. Cook for 3 minutes for a viscous but still runny yolk.

In this book, it also suggest another way to poach egg by using instant noodle cup by put egg (with shell) in the cup. Pouring hot water about 8 part of the cup, cover with foil and wait for 25 minutes.
But I didn't try this method because I don't have any instant noodle cup. But I think I should keep some to make this experiment next time.

II. Spaghetti

• Rubbing mozzarella and knead it to square shape size 1.5 c.m. Cut tomato into square shape size 1 c.m. Leave core and seeds. Coarsely chop basil and combine all 3 ingredients with A ingredients. Stir.
• Put salt in boiling water, break half of capellini and put it in the pot.
  Boil as long as suggested and bring to cold water. Drain.
• Combining cooked capellini with olive oil and mix with mozzarella mixture in the first bullet. Mix well.
  
• Bring to plate. Put poached egg on top. Serve.
  

Enjoy :)

・Spaghetti Basil Sauce ・

Another of my "Home alone" breakfast that I would like to introduce is "Spaghetti Basil Sauce".
I tend to cook many of spaghetti dishes because it is quick and easy.
Especially when I have this book - Pasta Pasta. That I already introduced here.



As I said, most of the recipes in this book require only a bowl and microwave.
And what I like most is it does not ask for many ingredients for each dish and because of less seasoning, so the taste and aroma will reflect the quality of ingredients that you use.

Let's get started.

・Spaghetti Basil Sauce ・

1 servings

Ingredients

Spaghetti 100 grams
Boiling water 1.5 Liter
Salt 1 tablespoon
(Synthesis salt 2/3 tablespoon)

Basil sauce
Basil 1 pack (20 grams)
Sliced garlic 2 cloves
Sliced red chili 1
Olive oil 1 tablespoon
Grinned white sesame 1 tablespoon
Salt 1/4 teaspoon
(Synthesis salt - use a pinch)
Pepper to taste


1. Divide basil, chop and leave some for decoration.
2. Put salt in boiling water, break half of spaghetti and put it in the pot.
Boil as long as suggested .
3. Prepare heatproof bowl mix basil, garlic, red chili, olive oil.
Wrap with a little open at the edge. Bring to microwave (600 watts) for 1.30 min.
4. Take the bowl out of the microwave, open (BE CAREFUL OF THE HEAT!!),
add grinned white sesame, salt, and pepper. Stir.
5. Mix sauce mixture with cooked spaghetti. Decorate with basil.




Enjoy :)

・Sophie Dahl's Omelette Arnold Bennett ・

Hi! everyone.

Since this week I'm alone in the house.
So I don't have pre-packed breakfast from my mom and I have to make it myself.
Sometimes I quite jealous those who can drink only coffee and count that as their breakfast.
It looks so easy, compare to me that have to eat a big meal breakfast.

But once you start eating a real meal on your breakfast, you can't turn back to your "coffee only" breakfast again.
You will be super starving and won't have any energy to do things.
(Am I too dramatize ? ;b)

Another shameful reason is that my stomach is a super grumpy one. If you don't feed it on time, it will rumbling like it says "Feed me... feed meeee......". LOL LOL
It's sound is super loud and will increasing the volume until I feed it.

And because I have to take care of everything before I leave the house, feeding cats, dogs, and fish, I have to choose less complicated and quickly prepared recipe.

And I found this,

What I love about the recipe is all ingredients are basic ingredients that most kitchens already has plus the procedure that is quick and easy.
I did adjust a little by adding cooked rice to help me survive until noon. (As I said, I need a BIG meal breakfast. :) )
And because I didn't have creme fraishe so I made it up by adding yogurt into whipping cream. Here is the direction. (Thanks to khun Pook from Dailydelicious. :) )

Now... my failure's turn, see .. even the easiest recipe, I still made mistake.
How incredible I am. LOL LOL

I bring the omelette out of the oven too soon and the egg still raw. - -'

But it is easy to fix, I just put it back in the oven. Haha..
And I garuntee that the taste is still good.
I think this is a great combination like Miss Dahl said; Parmesan, eggs, and fish these ingredients brings a spectacular taste and aroma. Ummm... :9


And this is Lamewliving's version of Omeltte Arnold Bennett.


Tada !!

Yum. :)

The Daring Cooks November, 2010 Challenge: RISE AND SHINE!

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.

I chose chocolate souffle for this month's challenge.
It is quite exciting to watch souffle risen in the oven.
It dramatically rose in my oven and also fall in light speed. Haha..
So I agree with Dave and Linda that the hardest part of this challenge is taking photo, you should prepare the set before hand and get ready to take photo as soon as souffle is out of the oven.

As you can see from my picture that some of my souffles are already fall. :b

Ingredients

FOR THE DISHES

2 Tbsp (30 ml) 1 oz (30g) unsalted butter, for greasing
Cocoa powder or finely grated chocolate

FOR THE CREME PATISSERIE

2 tbsp (30 ml) (18 gm) (2/3 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
2 tsp (10 gm) (0.35 oz) caster (superfine) sugar (regular sugar is OK)
½ tsp (4½ gm) (0.15 oz) corn starch (aka cornflour)
1 medium egg yolk
1 medium whole egg
4 Tbsp (60 ml) milk

5 Tbsp (75 ml) heavy cream (or double cream)
3 oz (90gm) good-quality dark chocolate preferably 70+% cocoa solids, broken in pieces
2 Tbsp (30 ml) (15 gm) (½ oz) unsweetened cocoa powder
Optional: 2 tsp orange zest or 2 tsp minced chipotle chile en adobo or 1 tsp chipotle chile powder. (I used chile version but mine is Hungary paprika)

Optional: powdered sugar for dusting

FOR THE EGG WHITES

6 medium egg whites

6½ Tbsp (95 ml) 3 oz (90g) superfine/caster sugar (if you don’t have it, regular sugar is OK)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to moderate 375 ˚F/190 ˚C/gas mark 5.
2. Take four 1 cup/~240ml soufflé dishes and brush them completely with softened butter. Tip a little cocoa powder or grated chocolate into each dish, roll the dish around tilting it as you do so it is evenly lined all round.

3. For the crème patisserie, mix the flour, sugar and corn starch into a small bowl. Put egg yolk and whole egg into a medium sized bowl, beat lightly, then beat in half of the flour mixture to give a smooth paste. Tip in the rest of the flour mixture and cocoa powder and mix well.
4. To make the ganache, pour the milk and cream into a pan and bring just to the boil. Remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and beat until it is melted and smooth with no lumps.
5. Gradually stir hot chocolate ganache into the paste from step 3, and add the orange zest or chile if using. This is your crème patisserie.
6. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks with an electric whisk. Sprinkle in the sugar as you are mixing. Keep whisking to give stiff, firm peaks to give volume to the soufflés.
7. Stir about 2 tbsp (30 ml) of the beaten egg whites into the crème patisserie. Carefully fold in a third of the rest, cutting through the mixture. Fold in another third (take care not to lose the volume), then fold in the rest.
8. Spoon the mixture into the dishes. Run a spoon across the top of each dish so the mixture is completely flat. Take a little time to wipe any splashes off the outside of each dish, or they will burn on while cooking.
9. Bake the soufflés for 15-17 minutes.
10. The soufflés should have risen by about two thirds of their original height and jiggle when moved, but be set on top.

Taste is good, not so sweet, and a bit of paprika aroma makes it more special.

Anyways, thank you Dave and Linda for this amuse challenge and couldn't agree more with the words of James Beard: "The only thing that will make a soufflé fall is if it knows you are afraid of it". :)

NOVEMBER 2010 DARING BAKER CHALLENGE: CROSTATA!

The 2010 November Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Simona of briciole. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make pasta frolla for a crostata. She used her own experience as a source, as well as information from Pellegrino Artusi’s Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well.

And all I have to say is thank you Simona, you introduce me a delicious sweet with a good and easy recipe.

But even the recipe is good and easy, I still make some mistake. - -'
I choose fresh raspberry to be crostata filling but I forgot to think that there will be too much moisture after bake and I didn't taste the raspberry first and the result is that I got a super sour crostata. Maybe I should call it a "Wake me up crostata". Haha...

Super sour raspberry crostata!

But as I say, the recipe is great and the pasta frolla is so good. So I did it again, this time I change the filling to blackberry jam and another one is filled with nutella and topped with slice almond. And the result is great. Let's take a look :)

Better blackberry crostatine.

Yum nutella almond crostatine.

Making pasta frolla - I choose to make it by hand.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c. minus 1 tablespoon [105 ml, 100 g, 3 ½ oz] superfine sugar (see Note 1) or a scant 3/4 cup [180ml, 90g, 3 oz] of powdered sugar
• 1 and 3/4 cup [420 ml, 235 g, 8 1/4 oz.] unbleached all-purpose flour
• a pinch of salt
• 1 stick [8 tablespoons / 4 oz. / 115 g] cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• grated zest of half a lemon
• 1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk, lightly beaten in a small bowl

Making pasta frolla by hand:

1. Whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a bowl.
2. Rub or cut the butter into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse crumbs. You can do this in the bowl or on your work surface, using your fingertips or an implement of choice.
3. Make a well in the center of the mounded flour and butter mixture and pour the beaten eggs into it (reserve about a teaspoon of the egg mixture for glazing purposes later on – place in the refrigerator, covered, until ready to use).
4. Add the lemon zest to your flour/butter/egg mixture.
5. Use a fork to incorporate the liquid into the solid ingredients, and then use your fingertips.
6. Knead lightly just until the dough comes together into a ball.
7. Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Place the dough in the refrigerator and chill for at least two hours. You can refrigerate the dough overnight.

Assembling and baking the crostata di marmellata:

1. Heat the oven to 375ºF [190ºC/gas mark 5].
2. Take the pasta frolla out of the fridge, unwrap it and cut away ¼ of the dough. Reserve this dough to make the lattice top of the crostata. Refrigerate this dough while you work on the tart base.
3. To help roll the crostata dough, keep the dough on top of the plastic wrap that you had it wrapped in. This can help rolling the dough and can also help when transferring the dough to your pan. You can also use parchment paper for this. However, you can also roll the dough directly on a work surface if you prefer.
4. Lightly dust the top of the dough and your work surface (if you’re rolling directly on a work surface) with flour. Keep some flour handy to dust the dough as you go along.
5. If the dough is very firm, start by pressing the dough with the rolling pin from the middle to each end, moving the rolling pin by a pin's width each time; turn the dough 180 degrees and repeat; when it softens, start rolling.
6. Roll the dough into a circle about 1/8th inch (3 mm) thick.
7. If you used the plastic wrap or parchment paper as rolling surface, flip dough over the pan, centering it, and delicately press it all around so the corners are well covered. Peel away the plastic wrap.
8. Trim the excess dough hanging over the edges of the pan. Press the remaining dough around the border into the sides of the pan making sure the border is an even thickness all the way around.
9. Prick the bottom of the dough with a fork in several places.
10. Take out of the fridge the reserved pasta frolla you had cut away earlier. Roll it with your pin and cut into strips or use cookie cutters to make small shapes (this is not traditional, but it looks cute); or roll with your hands into ropes.
11. Spread the jam or fruit preserves evenly over the bottom of the crostata.
12. Use the prepared strips or rolls of dough to make a lattice over the surface, or decorate with the cut shapes. (Note: You can use dough scraps to make cookies: see the Additional Information section for some pointers)
13. Brush the border and strips of dough with the reserved beaten eggs. You can add a drop or two of water to the beaten eggs if you don’t have enough liquid.
14. Put the tart in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
15. After 25 minutes, check the tart and continue baking until the tart is of a nice golden hue. (Note: Every oven is different. In my oven it took 34 minutes to bake the tart until golden.)
16. When done, remove the tart from the oven and let cool. If you have used a tart pan with a removable bottom, then release the tart base from the fluted tart ring. Make sure the tart is completely cool before slicing and serving.

I think we should make pasta frolla ahead and freeze it, so we will have crostata at anytime we want because it is good with many style fillings.
Next time I think I will try making a savory crostata.

Thanks again Simona. :)