Tasty Thursday- Heaven Chocolate Tart

My husband has been bugging :p requesting me to make seri muka a.k.a putri salat for him since last couple of weeks. Finally, I got the mood to make some last night, but the result was very very disappointing. It was all smooth until I made one big mistake by skipping a crucial step, and it ruined everything. I really thought I would pass this kuih easily hmm..but NO..cis2x I carried the frustration to bed and vowed to whip something that would make me feel better tomorrow... Hence the chocolate tart.. :)  

The taste is  there despite the look =P Adam smashed the tart edges with a measuring cup before the photo-shooting session T_T

Anyway, I love simple dessert. To me, this chocolate tart is one of them. Nothing fancy about it, no decorative what so ever, yet it look indulgently comforting. At least to my eyes and taste buds. I was so afraid to make fancy dessert that would end up like those seri muka.. thus, making this tart was  a perfect choice to chase that frustration away.. ;D I used few recipes as guidelines and voila! A delicious, sweet and super chocolaty tart in an hour!  Super duper yummy.. Okay-all the praises are just to make me feel better..please excuse myself for ferasan angkat bakul today he he 

The taste is absolutely heaven [hence the name] and for those who're having bad days, this dessert is a sinful yet comforting cure. :D

Okay, here's my own version of choc tart recipe. Simple and quick. 

Heaven Chocolate Tart

Serving: 8 medium slices

Yield: One medium tart pan 

For the crust;

1 and 3/4 digestive biscuits

1/4 cup cocoa powder

4 tbsp confectionery sugar

5 tbsp melted butter

For the filling;

100g butter

100g dark chocolate 55% 
100 g white chocolate 
50g nuttela

1/4 of condensed milk tin

Any nuts, if you like.. I don't have any at the moment.. so I omit..ade kacang2 lagi sedap , more crunchy..


For the crust-Ground the digestive biscuit, together with cocoa powder and sugar in a food processor or 'dry' blender. Transfer the mixture into a bowl, and distribute the melted butter evenly and mix it up. Make sure it's well combined. Press it on the tart pan firmly. Bake at 120C for 10 minutes or until the crust harden.


For the filling-Mix all the filling ingredients in a pot and stir it under medium low heat until well combined. Chill for few minutes, and pour it on the crust. Store it in fridge until it's set. Enjoy!

Anyway, I'm sooo into Adele nowadays.. beside Casey Abrams of course hihi..enjoy her clip below..Someone like You..

Tuesday- Char Kuay Teow wrapped with Eggnet

I love to watch cooking shows. They give me inspiration and ideas on how to vary my kitchen menu. Besides, I get to experiment with ingredients I'm not familiar with [or haven't touch] before i.e. passion fruits, vanilla beans, corned beef, watercress, just to name  a few. Do you guys came across with watercress before? I didn't know they exist! But I bought some last week and made 'masak bening' with it, boleh? hehe 

Recently, we subscribed ourself a TV cable and there's 4 food & lifestyle channels inside. Hurray! AFC, Food Network,TLC and BBCLifestyle-my favs. For the time being, I'm hooked to BBCLife channel, where re-runs of Masterchef Australia are shown daily. I love Masterchef shows, be it USA,  Australia, or the coming Malaysian one hihi. There are few cooking skills you can pick up while watching it.

Okay, let's talk about the char kuay teow  now. How I came across with this recipe? In MasterChef Australia, it's known that each contestant who won the challenge will enter a cook off dual with a well known top Australian chef in Celeb Chef Challenge. If the contestant win,he/she will place him/herself on the last top 3 spot. On one of the challenge, Brent dual with Chef Martin Boetz on the chef's recipe of Egg Net with pork, prawn, beansprouts and cucumber relish. I was stunned on the egg net lacy texture and vowed to try it myself. See it for yourself here. 

Then, I stumbled on Almost Bourdain's Char Kuay Teow with Eggnet. I love char kuay teow, and why not give this recipe a try since I was really lured into the eggnet.


To cut a long story short, I made this dish yesterday and my eggnet turned more into a fish net rather than an elegant lace hehe It needs practice, practice and lots of practice to get into that Chef's lacy eggnet level. I'm happy with my fish net for time being hehe And the Char Kuay Teow was absolute delish! I betrayed mr. Diet and had a double plate. Husband had it thrice.. ;P

Char Kuay Teow wrapped with Eggnet 

{Loosely adapted from Almost Bourdain}
Serving: 4

Ingredients

Part A (basic ingredients):
400 g fresh kway teow (flat rice noodles)
1 stalk chinese chives (kucai), cut into inch-long strips
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 handful beansprouts (more, if you like)

Part B (add-on ingredients):

1/2 chicken breast, chopped
Fish cake, cut into thin slices and fried
Tauhu, cut into thin slices and fried

Part C (for the seasoning sauce):
2 tbsp thick sweet soy sauce
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp water
dash of salt and pepper (if required)
Mix all your everything in a bowl and leave aside.

Part D (Eggnet):
2 eggs, lightly beaten and sieved

Method
To Make Eggnet: 

Grease the frying pan with oil. Use a roti jala mould or simply use your hand to drizzle the egg on the frying pan to create the eggnet pattern. Turn once.Remove and spread the eggnet in a bowl.


To make Char Kuay Teow:

1. Heat oil in wok on high. You have to maintain high heat throughout.
2. Stir-fry garlic a few seconds.
3. Toss in chicken meat, and stir-fry till semi-cooked.
4. Add noodles , drizzle 3 to 4 tbsp of the seasoning sauce soy sauce mixture/ all over the noodles. Gently stir-fry for 3-5 mins.
5. Add kucai and bean sprouts, fold the noodles over, give it one good last stir-fry to mix well with the noodles.Add in fish cake and tauhu slices. 
6. Turn off heat, dish onto individual bowls layered with eggnet. Turn over the bowl and gently pour the noodles and eggnet onto a serving plate, garnish with spring onions and chopped fresh chilies.

Note: I used Ellie recipe as guideline,but you can visit her blog for the original recipe.

Sunday- Lacy Pancake a.k.a Roti Jala

Roti Jala is a Malay word which literally translated as "Net Bread". Lacy Pancake sounds more elegant tho ;) I made this for makan-makan session at my sister in law place yesterday and I believed I made too many Roti Jala sapai tak habis makan T_T huhu [we also ordered a large batches of BBQ Chicken, and that's part of the reason why people weren't attacking my dish ;p]

Despite matching it with creamy chicken curry, I replaced it with extra creamy beef and potato curry instead. My waistline kembang kejap semalam sbb creamy sgt plak curry tu hehe  owh, I forgot to snap the curry picture. 

Anyway, I believe most of you know how to make this Roti Jala kan.. I used the recipe below, and made some adjustment since the batter is kindda too thick for my lattice mold. Whenever I used the mold, the first few rounds would always ended up with disaster. Instead of flowing out smoothly from the mold, the batter chose to drip and I have thousands of dot on my pan..sigh 

I have to adjust the batter then until I get the right consistency for the batter to flow down smoothly.  [Tips: Just add a lil more oil(if it's a thick natter) or flour (if it's a thin batter) and try again] Owh I am so an amateur cook..hehe

ROTI JALA “NET BREAD” OR MALAYSIAN LACY PANCAKES 
{Recipe taken from RasaMalaysia}
Yield: 20 pieces
serving: 4 person


Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour (1/2 lb) 

1 1/2 cup low fat milk 

1/2 cup water 

1 egg 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

3/4 teaspoon turmeric powder 

1/2 tablespoon oil Ghee or butter (to grease the pan)

1. Sieve the flour and set aside.
2. In a big bowl, mix all the ingredients well together (except the oil) and strain the batter.[I  used a blender to get a smooth batter] 
3. Add in 1/2 tablespoon of oil and set aside. 
4. Heat up a pan with medium heat and grease it with some butter or ghee. 
5. Pour some batter into the mold and transfer the mold to the pan. 
6. As the batter flows through the holes of the mold, make circular rounds around the pan to form the netty patterns. 
7. After the top is set and done or when the bottom turns light brown, transfer the Roti Jala out and fold it into triangle shape. [ I choose to roll like a spring roll] 
8. Arrange a few Roti Jala on a serving plate and add some curry chicken/beef chicken/durian sauce/maple syrup+butter on the side and serve immediately.

Saturday- The Napoleon Cake a.k.a Mille-feuille

This is the dessert I've been waiting for. This is it.The Napoleon Cake. It's one of the scrumptious food seen in Eat.Pray.Love and I was keen to try [eat] it since then. I love it. So did my husband. Adam? he's too young for this hehe..

the pastry cream is hiding somewhere between the layers

 DLLurpak has listed few "eat scenes" in EPL including this Napoleon cake in her post here. [psst..she's going to Italyyy soon for her gastronomic holiday!!!..buon viaggio!] 

cair kena matahari..the icing is melting..

Back on the napoleon cake, here's some info from Wiki on this dessert;

"The Mille-feuille (French pronunciation: [mil fœj], "thousand-leaf"), vanilla slice, cream slice, custard slice, also known as the Napoleon, is a pastry originating in France. The name is also written as "millefeuille" and "mille feuille. Traditionally, a Mille-feuille is made up of three layers of puff pastry (pâte feuilletée), alternating with two layers of pastry cream (crème pâtissière), but sometimes whipped cream, or jam. The top is usually glazed with icing or fondant in alternating white (icing) and brown (chocolate) strips, and combed. Alternatively the top pastry layer may be dusted with confectioner's sugar, cocoa, or pulverized nuts (e.g. roasted almonds)"

It's not that difficult to make this dessert. The steps sounds simple enough. With a store bought puff pastry, it's just a matter of whipping the pastry cream and assembling all of them together. I used From Yeast to Zest's pastry cream recipe and watched few experts assembling it on YouTube clips.  

Napoleon cake a.k.a Mille-feuille

{Recipe taken from From Yeast to Zest}

Please visit From Yeast to Zest blog for the full recipe. It's too long to paste it here hehe 

Note: 

1. If you're lazy enough to do the pastry cream, you can opt for whipped cream or jam with fruits like berries.

2. In order to get to get a nice flat top, make sure you squeeze the puff pastry between 2 baking pans while baking it... ..[refer to YouTube video above if you didn't get what I mean]

"Life is unpredictable, eat dessert first"..Have a nice weekend ;)

Tuesday-Poached Pear in Cage

Here's another excellent dessert recipe I made yesterday. There are 3 reasons why I baked this dessert. First: I have three untouchable pears left in my fridge, no ones seem interested to finish them off. Secondly: the lattice pattern and thirdly; the whole idea about poached pear.I looooovvvveeee 'cooked/baked-fruit' as dessert. The combination from fruit aromas mixed with the spices i.e cinnamon and cloves are just heaven..Same goes to this cage puff. BigDaddyO loved it so much and requested me to do another batch of it. he he insyaAllah =p

These puffs were rather less elegant than the one I saw on the internet, [one of mine got a big hole at the back], but trust me, no one will care once they take a bite. he he Google on 'pear in a cage' and you'll end up with few photos on how these puffs should look like..  My puffs are made by amateurish home chef je =p 

Poached Pear in Cage 

{Recipe is inspired and taken from Sprinkle Bakes's Honeyed Pear in Puff Pastry..TQ =D}

Yield: 2 medium sized puff

• 4 small pears-I used 2 pears
• 1 sheet of ready made puff pastry dough, thawed
• 4 cups water-half
• 2 cups sugar-half
• 1 cup honey-I used golden syrup
• 1/2 lemon-omit
• 1 vanilla bean, seeded with hull reserved
• 3 sticks of cinnamon-1 stick
• 6-8 whole cloves-omit

1. Peel pears and core from the bottom. 
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the 4 cups water, 2 cups sugar and 1 cup honey. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. When the sugar has melted, add the pears, vanilla seeds and hull, 1/2 lemon, cinnamon and cloves. Simmer pears until they are fork tender. This can take 20-40 minutes, depending on the ripeness of your pears. 
3. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
4. When the pears are soft, remove them from the pot and allow them to cool slightly. Discard solid pieces from saucepan.
5. Cut 2 medium size of puff pastry in square. about the same size as your pear.
6. Put the pear on the puff pastry [bottom layer]
7. As for the top layer, make several cuts just like below lattice pattern, and stretched it a lil bit, be careful not to tear it, [or you'll end up like mine-the big hole huhu] and put it on top of the pear. secure both end with fork or your hands. 
8. Baked it for 15-20 mins or until the puff pastry turns golden brown. Serve with ice-cream. 

lattice pattern

                                             

Adam cooks on Monday..err..Friday he he

Alas, I'm few days late, but I still wanna squeezed this week "Adam cooks on Monday [ACOM]" today.. Adam and I went to the library last Monday, had our lunch outside, and by the time we were finally home, we both were so tired from the long walk. [Mommy was the one who got tired the most actually, had to carry him around after he tired to walk himself =p] So no cooking mooking on Monday. 

As usual, Adam did the easiest part only, and this time he got to sieve the dry ingredients. I helped him pour the ingredients on the sieve and let him kacau2 with a spoon. Memang mengacau pun after that.. he really kacau me by asking me to carry him around, messing the floor with the butter, sepah2kan my bowls and pots, and nearly tumpahkan tepung yg dah disieve tu.. err..err.. "I'd got to bring him out of my kitchen.." Switched on the TV, luckily Mickey Mouse Clubhouse was on it, and he got excited & left Mommy by herself in the kitchen, with all the 'great' mess T_T 

No baking-making-caking after this..I'll let him spread the Peanut-Butter-Jelly instead. =P I should choose recipe with less preparation time and steps sepatutnya.. Obviously, I'm dealing with a 20 months toddler, who couldn't stand still even for a minute! And ade je new things that will catch his interest.. tu nak pegang, ini nak masuk mulut.. =p 

So here's my version of Steamed Zebra Cake. Mine is a bit hideous, isn't it. The taste is there, but there's no zebra stripes whatsoever inside.. Outside, adelah selai dua stripes.. =P And I forgot to tap the cake pan before I put it in the steamer, so there you go, uneven-rocky-mountainous top cake .. isk isk.

Steamed Zebra Cake {Recipe taken from Rima Bisous A Toi-Thanks!!!}

Yield: 8 pieces [I did half butter only]

Ingredients
(A)

• 8 eggs
• 250g sugar
• 1 tbsp emulsifier
• 1/2 tsp salt

(B)

• 250g flour
• 50g milk powder

(C)

• 50g butter, melted
• 50g fresh milk

(D)

• 75g margarine, melted - I used butter
• 2 tbsp instant coffee mix with a little hot water
• 1 tbsp mocca paste - I used mocca latte paste

1. Heat steamer.. greased a 24cm round pan.
2. Beat ingredients A until thick and fluffy.
3. Add in sifted B.
4. Mix well. Weigh and divide batter into two equal part.
5. Add C to one part, mix well, set aside.
6. Add D to another part, mix well, set aside.
7. Pour plain and mocca batter alternately till finish
8. Steam on medium high fire for abt an hr or till set
9. Remove from pan, slice into pieces. Serve.

Tuesday- Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes {CCC}

I baked a dozen of chocolate coconut cupcakes[CCC] this morning. EARLY this morning. Lately, I've went to bed earlier than I usually had and woke up in the wee wee hours of the morning. 

Tired, perhaps. Or over-ate. =P 

While some people despise the taste of coconut in their food especially desserts like cake, candy or ice-cream, I'm on the other hand, love most food with coconut flavor. Especially those Raya cookies with coconut flakes inside, kuih ketayap, and who can forget the delectable Bounty chocolate bar. :D

Same goes for this cupcake, I love the taste combo even though the chocolate flavor somehow overpowering the coconut's a little bit.Just a lil bit. Maybe I should reduce the cocoa powder to 3 tbsp. Anyway, it's edible hehe. So long Mr. Tong Sam Pah. I spread some cream cheese [left-over from the pumpkin roll] as the cupcakes topping and sprinkled them with toasted coconut flakes. Luckily, the imbalanced taste of chocolate-coconut was saved by the sweet & creamy cream cheese topping and coconut-aroma flakes. :D BigDaddyO'haven't give his take on this cupcakes yet. I packed two for him to munch in his office. 

Anyway, here's the recipe. Give this recipe a try, will you? hehe

Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes [CCC] 

{ Recipe taken from Sweet Paul}

Yield: 12 large cupcakes

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut
• 4 tablespoons good quality cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Beat butter and sugar until pale.
3. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix well.
4. Add flour, coconut, cocoa and baking powder.
5. Mix well.
6. Pour the batter into a 12 cup buttered cupcake tin.
7. Place in oven and bake for 12-15 minutes.
8. Cool on a wire rack.
9. Spread topping and sprinkle with toasted coconut flakes. 

Wordless Wednesday- Asparagus?

United we stand, together we fall...

I'm tiring of cooking asparagus in the same way, stir fried with soy, garlic and ginger. So far, those flavors are match made in heaven for asparagus, to my palate at least. But I'm getting enough of it..

How do you cook your asparagus? 

Tasty Thursday- Cranberry-Orange-White Choc Chips Scones

Before putting it in the oven...

After taking it out of the oven..

Recipe taken from Eat Real's Scone Four Ways.. TQ2..it's a keeper!!

Tasty Tuesday- Tangerine-shaped Pineapple Tart

Sorry for not being around that much. I've been putting my nose on my sewing machine lately. It's my new found hobby and there're so much things to learn and I'm all excited for it. hehe 

So, what's up? For us, we're going back to Melaka, visiting my parents and siblings this CNY holiday. Oh I miss them so much already..wish I'd a Mary Poppin's umbrella with me right now.. [oh wait, Doraemon's pintu sesuka hati is way easy hehe].. we also planned to go for Adam's med check up and shots at Prince Court Med Centre [PCMC] and maybe spend a night or two at our KL home. 

My sisters have been asking for Adam every time I phoned them this week. They're all excited to meet Adam and eager to spend time with him. [I'll have my own sweet time..yeay..] Adam is the first grandson and nephew of our family and yet, my family didn't get to meet him that frequent. So you could imagine how much my family especially my parents miss him... I bet they'll have some marvelous time together. I can't wait for a picnic, shopping, visit kambing2, hehe, cooking with my mom, my dad's lecture on various topics, my sisters' jokes, laughters and tears, meal times esp dinner and solat jamaah... 

Since my family is really into pineapple tarts and it's CNY celebration, so I made a jar of it [about 100 pieces of big tarts] for them. I totally forgot to count BigDaddyO in since he also crazy over this tarts. So I might have to stay up tonight preparing another batch of tarts for him hehe.. 

The recipe was taken from my previous Flower-shaped Pineapple Tart.

Okay gtg now.. I need to finish off my sewing project, then bake trays of tarts, 2 cakes, and if the weather permits, I might also making some macarons for my family. It's been raining cats and dogs these few days!! Humidity plays a large part in making this little beauties. Soggy day was not a good day to make macarons. It'll take few hours for the batter to dry which normally took about half an hour only. 

okay..can't wait to go back to Melaka and have fun, fun fun.. Org Jasin a.k.a Lurpak, jgn jeles kay haha.. I'll be back with load of photos..and foods :D :D