The Food Monologues

I made some wife biscuits or lo por beng in Cantonese for my Dad as its his favourite treat.  The recipe I followed was from My Kitchen Snippets and I managed to make 15 biscuits and baked half the batch and froze the rest to be baked another day.

Labels: Baking, Chinese Cooking, Chinese New Year

Fluffy Cream Filled Cakes with Fruit Topping

4 egg yolks
20 g castor sugar (or substitute with sweetner like stevia if going lower sugar)
35 g corn / vegetable oil
45 g full-fat milk
60 g self raising flour

4 egg whites
40 g castor sugar (can substitute with half sweetener - put the sweetner with the yolk mixture instead)

200ml whipping cream
1 tbsp castor sugar (or sweetener to taste)
¼ tsp vanilla extract

Fruit and Icing Sugar or Jam Glaze for garnish

Method
Line a 12 hole muffin cake pan with cake cases.
Preheat oven to 165°C ot about Gas Mark 3.

Separate the eggs into yolks and whites (making sure that the whites are in a large bowl that is greasefree and there is absolutely no yolk mixed in with the whites)
Whisk the egg whites with the sugar until stiff and you can turn the bowl upside down and the whites do not fall out

Then in a second bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and foamy, then add the oil and milk and then stir in the flour, making sure is it well mixed but do not over beat.  The start folding in the egg whites, a third at a time until you get a light foamy batter.

Spoon the batter into the cake cases and then bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until the cakes are very well risen, golden brown and should feel very springy.

Take the cakes out of the oven and allow to cool.  The cakes will collapse down and sink and look wrinkly - but don't worry, they plump up once they are filled with cream.

Once the cakes are cool, whip the cream until a soft pipeable consistency with the vanilla extract and sugar to taste. Fill a piping bag, fitted with a nozzle with the cream and pump cream into the centre of each of the cup cakes.  The cakes should puff up with the cream.  Top with a little more cream and arrange fruit on top.

Labels: cake, cupcake, eggs, Recipe

Every now and then I make a vegetarian meal and this is one of my easy go to recipes.  A red lentil dahl with a golden vegetable rice.

Ingredients for Dahl
1 small onion finely chopped
1 carrot finely chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
100g red lentils
1 vegetable stock cube
3 cups of water
1 teaspoon garam masala
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon butter or vegetable oil if you want to go vegan

Method
Gently fry the onions, garlic and carrots in the butter until soft.  Add the garam masala and fry off for minute before adding in the lentils that have been washed along with the rest of the ingredients.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for half an hour until the lentils are soft and the mixture has thickened.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Serve with rice.

Labels: curry, lentils, Recipe, Vegan, vegetables, vegetarian

I made a Miffy the rabbit cake for my niece.  Its just a simple chocolate cake covered in whipped Elmlea with dark chocolate eyes and a kiss for the mouth.  I was pretty pleased with the result and so was my niece.

Labels: Baking, birthday cake, cake, miffy, rabbit

A lower fat recipe for short crust pastry which is enough to make two very big pasties.

100g strong plain flour
50g self raising flour
20g Trex shortening
30g butter
a pinch of salt
enough cold water to bind into dough

Mix the flours together with the salt.
Rub in the fats until rough breadcrumbs
Add water to form the dough
Wrap in clingfilm and allow to rest in fridge for at least 10 minutes and then it is ready for rolling.

Labels: Baking, pastry

I was in two minds about what to bake this weekend.  I have been thinking of making Chinese egg tarts, dan tat with proper flaky pastry from scratch for a while now, but I have also had thoughts about trying to make Portuguese custard tarts, pastel de nata instead.  In the end, I opted for the latter as I was short on time and missing some ingredients for egg tarts (it was eleven o'clock at night when I decided to bake - yes I do suffer from insommina but its also the only time I get to bake in peace) and I still haven't bought some proper big dan tat tins yet.  The only ones I have are tiny - perfect for mini dan tats but since I only have 8 mini tins, it would take until 3 am to make enough to feed the family.

So, by default, I opted to make Portuguese Custard Tarts instead and followed Rachel Khoo's recipe .  There were a couple of adjustments to the recipe as I didn't have full fat milk - only semi skimmed and no cream, so I substituted with all semi-skimmed milk and I reduced the sugar by a quarter to make it a little less sweet.  I also used shop bought puff pastry as Hubby picked some up for me the other day. The results are still lovely smooth creamy custard in crispy pastry which were perfect for breakfast in the morning for a very excited Small Boy and Hubby.

Labels: Baking, eggs

My dad called me last night and asked if there was going to be bringing cakes round as it was my niece's birthday this week.  My sister told me that she was going to buy some cake to bring round, but I thought I had better make some low sugar cakes too, as my mum is diabetic and shouldn't really be eating cake, but as its a birthday treat I didn't want her to miss out.  So at eleven o'clock at night, I set about baking some Hokkaido cupcakes, which are filled mini chiffon cakes which are super light and fairly low in sugar.  I used this recipe, Hokkaido Cup Cake Recipe and tweaked the recipe a bit by using stevia sweetener for half the sugar in the recipe and scaled the recipe to a four egg recipe so that I could make 12 muffin sized cakes.

They rose beautifully in the oven and I had to wait for them to cool down before I could fill them and as soon as they cool down, they will deflate.  As it was past midnight when the cakes were done, I thought I would call it a night and would fill the cakes in the morning.

The early the next morning, as it was snowing outside, I really didn't fancy a trip to the local convenience store to see if they might have any cream, which is what I normally fill Hokkaido cupcakes with so I looked up a recipe for cream patissiere. that was not too sweet and that I had the ingredients for.  I found this Cream Patissiere Recipe that fit my bill.  Substituting with semi skimmed milk (because that was all I had) and replacing half the sugar with stevia again, I added a whole scraped vanilla pod in with the milk as well.  I have never made cream patisserie before but it was very straightforward and I was very pleased with the smooth rich taste - though with the stevia added it tasted a little too sweet, so maybe next time I will reduce the amount I add a little.

Chinese cream cakes, like the ones you get from a Chinese bakery are often topped with a vast array of fruit, and these cupcakes are a little bit like mini Chinese cream cakes.  In my fridge I had some blueberries and kiwi fruit and in my cupboard I had some tinned peaches, so I was good to go and prepped the fruit and was ready to assemble to cakes.  Filling the cakes with the cooled cream patissiere plumps the cakes back up and then topping with lots of fruit to complete the look.  Finally, I finished the cakes off with a small amount of apricot glaze made from apricot jam mixed with a splash of apple juice.

I was pretty pleased with the end result and they went down well with my family, my mum was happy to be able to have a little bit of cake and my dad insisted on keeping any of the remaining cakes for later .  I worked out that each cake contained about 150 calories each and contained about 6g of sugar in total.

Labels: Baking, cake, Using Sweeteners

One of Hubby's favourite cakes is Battenburg cake, and as I was in a baking mood this weekend, I agreed to make him some little cakes.  I followed the Hairy Biker's Battenburg Cake Recipe, but scaled back the recipe to two eggs as I was baking some other cakes as well this weekend.  The result were some petit four sized little cakes, perfect for afternoon tea on Sunday.

Labels: Baking, cake

Labels: Baking, bread

Labels: Easy Dinner, One Pan Dinners, Recipe, Rice

I was sent a text message by my sister this evening with the question - 'do you have the recipe for the anchovy pasta?'  It must have been a good few years since I made this dish, but as I was busy cooking dinner  at the time when I got the message, I sent her two very brief recipes in less than 140 characters:

Heat chopped garlic in oil until soft, add cooked pasta with a bit of cooking water & anchovies. Stir well. Season with black pepper. Serve

Or

Reduce mixture of chopped tomatoes, garlic, onion, black olives, olive oil & tinned anchovies until thick. Stir into pasta and serve.

She opted for the non-tomatoey one and I got a message from her later saying it was a good - another easy dish I should remember to make again.

Labels: Easy Dinner, Fast Food, Fish, In less than 140 characters, Pasta, Recipe

My first bake of 2016 are some little Bakewell fairy cakes.    As it is the new year and after eating our way through masses of Guylian over the festive season.  I thought I would try my hand at making smaller batches of baked goodies and try reducing the amount of sugar in the recipe.


Ingredients

Labels: Almonds, Baking, Recipe, Using Sweeteners

The first lunch of the New Year was a simple pasta salad rustled up from various ingredients I found in the fridge and freezer.



Ingredients

75g dried pasta twists
1/2 a yellow pepper diced
A handful of broccoli florets broken into bite sized chunks
4 button mushrooms, sliced
2 spring onions chopped
1 piece of pepper mackerel broken into bite sized pieces
Lemon juice from half a lemon
1 tablespoon of mayonnaise

Method
Place the pasta in a roomy saucepan and cover with enough water to cover plus a little bit more and cook for 8 minutes. Then add the vegetables and let them cook until for a couple of minutes more.  By now there should only be a little bit of liquid in the pan.  Add the peppered mackerel and put a lid on the pan for a minute or two to heat through and then add the spring onions and lemon juice and mix thoroughly.  Take the pasta off the heat and stir in the mayonnaise.

The proportions here fed one hungry small boy and one mummy.  The hubby decided he wanted an omelette instead, so I made him a cheesy omelette with yellow pepper and spring onion filling served with a big hunk of bread.

Labels: Easy Dinner, Fish, Lunch, Pasta, Recipe

Labels: Chicken, Easy Dinner, Recipe, What to serve with rice

Over the past few days, post the Christmas excesses, I have been thinking more about random foodie thoughts - mainly what sort of food resolutions to make this year as well as what crazy food related experiments and recipes I would like to try in 2016.

It has been a very long while since I last updated this blog - erm seven years in fact.  I guess that has been rather a long time and a lot has happened in that period.  Motherhood being the biggest event and I am now the very proud mama of a growing four year old little boy and the most recent food thoughts have often been on making sure he, and hubby too have good, healthy (though sometimes treats are nice too) food that we can eat as a family.

The Resolutions

1.  Family friendly, easy to make, quick and healthy meals is sometimes a real struggle - especially if I am lacking in inspiration or short on time which is why I should keep notes on meals that work and what doesn't and hopefully be able to draw inspiration from.

2. Keep food waste at a minimum and portion control!  This is not only good for your pocket, the environment but also for the waistline.  The problem when you love cooking is sometimes your imagination runs away with you and you really want to make everything and try everything.  I have a foodie wish list of things I would like try to make that is ever growing but I don't always have willing food tasters.

3. Have fun with food and keep on experimenting - especially with baking and write down the recipes!  Especially the ones that work really well.

I bought the biggest bag of carrots last week, but am now pondering what to do with 5kg of carrots, so today I made carrot and pumpkin soup, served haggis with mashed potatoes and crushed buttered carrots and made two carrot cakes.  I must have used a fair few carrots, but there are still plenty more to be used up.  I wonder if the meal will turn me orange?
Carrot Cake Recipe (serves about 20 people)
500 g carrot
1 apple
1 orange
50 g raisins
2 eggs
100 g brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
100 g oatmeal
400 g plain flour
125 g butter
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
Method
Grate the carrot, apple and zest of an orange into a large mixing bowl.

Add the spices, sugar, honey and raisins and mix well.

Beat the two eggs into the mixture.

Melt the butter and pour onto cake mixture.

Add the oatmeal, flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and fold into the batter.

Pour mixture into two loaf tins and bake at Gas Mark 4 for 1 hour.

Labels: Baking, Recipe

There is a lot of pumpkin around at this time of year and I have a load of this vegetable to use up. Soup is a good way to use lots of this up.  Just throw the ingredients into a pot and cook until the vegetables are soft and the soup is thick and creamy. 

Ingredients

1 Carrot

1 Parsnip

1 Onion

Some marrow

Some Pumpkin

3 rashers of chopped bacon

1/2 teaspoon of cumin

1 sachet of instant porridge oats

3 Cups of water or Stock

Salt & Pepper

Labels: Recipe