Tasty Thursday- Sicilian Orange Cake

This Sicilian Orange Cake is the famous orange cake from the once popular Café Agostini (this cafe has closed on 22 July, 2005) owned by Margie Agostini, in the heart of Sydney ’s suburb for the rich and famous, Woollahra. Customers have often been heard to say that “Margie’s orange cake is to die for”.

I found this recipe on Rick Stein's Mediterranean Escape Cookbook a while ago but was surprised to find out how this recipe was linked to Australia:

Rick Stein: "To be accurate, I suppose this cake should be known as Margie Agostini'sorange cake. It was her signature dish at her greatly missed Caffe Agostini in Woollahra in Sydney. It seemed to me to be just made for Sicilian oranges. The recipe came from an article in the Times by Jill Dupleix, although I had eaten the cake at the cafe a few years earlier and I thought it was amazing. As Jill says, it has to be the richest, moistest, butteriest and yet lightest orange cake in the world."

~Ellie,  Almost Bourdain, Aug 16 2009

Hello there. It’s been a little while since my last post, and certainly longer than planned. Well, you do know that I'm a part-time blogger and a full time house-mom-wife right...

Right now, after gone for almost 10 days [it feels like 10 years tho], I'm back with the renowned Sicilian Orange Cake. This is a perfect orange cake. Ask around if you don't believe me. It became a blogosphere phenomenon since 2009, and everyone who tried it, loved it! 

I believe no one will say no to this buttery, moist and full with mild aroma of orange citrus cake. It's a simple cake, yet so pleasing.. I had to agree with Ellie excerpt above, it is the richest, moistest, butteriest and yet lightest orange cake in the world..

I came to know this cake from Ellie of Almost Bourdain. Early this week,  Ellie decided to leave the blogging world, and I had to admit that I'm quite shock to hear the news. Personally, I'm a big fan of Ellie's blog. Her appetizing photos and inventing recipes were so inspiring. Most of my baking/cooking goodies came from her site, whether it get published here or not. There's more recipes waiting to be tried and her blog would be my online "recipe-book" for years coming. :)

And to be honest, I baked this cake for her. My so-called farewell tribute for her leaving. To Ellie, you'll be missed.. Wish you the best of luck with your life and I hope we get to see you again...soon :)

Sicilian Orange Cake Recipe

(Adapted from Almost Bourdain)

Makes 1 x 22-cm cake, to serve about 8 

Ingredients

250g lightly salted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing

250 g caster sugar ( I cut down to 230g)

4 medium eggs

1 1/2 tsp finely grated orange zest

250 g self raising flour (make sure you get self raising flour!)

85 ml freshly squeezed orange juice

For the icing (optional):

125 g icing sugar

5 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line a 22-cm clip-sided round cake with non-stick baking paper.
2. Using an electric whisk, cream the butter and sugar together for 4-5 minutes until very pale. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating very well between each one, if necessary adding a spoonful of flour with the last egg to prevent the mixture from curdling. Beat in the orange zest. Add the flour all at once and mix in well, then slowly mix in the orange juice.
3. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer, inserted into the centre of the cake, comes out clean. If it starts to brown too quickly, cover loosely with a sheet of lightly buttered foil.
4. Leave the cake, in its tin, to cool on a wire rack, then carefully remove the sides and base of the tin and peel off the paper. Put it onto a serving plate.

For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in the orange juice until you have a spreadable consistency. Spread it over the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides, and leave to set. Serve cut into slices, and store any leftovers in an airtight container.

Friday- Meatballs with Tomato sauce

Phew..glad to see my dashboard again..while Blogger was on the freeze thingy yesterday, I don't know about you guys, but I felt like I was cut off from the outside world..and that just make me realized just how obsessed I am with blogging world. Even though I seldom put up a post or drop a comment on your blog, but I checked the headlines from time to time just to catch up with the your update..hi hi

Okay, another recipe from Ramsay's World Kitchen. :D I baked, instead of frying them, which made the outer part less crunchy.. hmm..  tastewise, biasa-biasa je.. ;p My favorite part of this recipe was the tomato sauce. It has a good balance of sweet and sour taste. It yummy-ed {?} the meatball more, and I think I'm gonna stick to this tomato sauce recipe. So yes to the tomato sauce and boohoo to the meatball recipe. He he..

Does anyone else have a good meatball recipes? care to share...?

Tuesday- Roasted Black Pepper Chicken with Plum Sauce {Edited}

It has become a routine of ours to spent some time in the library once in every week or two. Husband would always browse items from management, career-related and photography sections while Adam browse his on kiddy sections. Sometimes he likes to 'arrange' the book too..bersepah-sepah..In order to avoid that, one of us would pick few books, find a place, sit and read to him- and that's would give some ample time for each of us to browse whatever we like on the shelves. 

As for me, most of my borrowed items, so far, are from the cooking books shelves.  I'm a sucker for pretty cookbooks, especially if it has appetizing pictures with minimal clear instruction...To me, a good cookbook MUST have pictures for every recipe written inside, unless it's a renowned old cookbook like Julia Child's.  A step by step pictures are bonus, but not necessary.

I borrowed Gordon Ramsay's and Martha Stewart's Pies and Tarts this week, and today menu was inspired from Ramsay's roasted duck with plum sauce. I've bookmarked another 4 recipes and can't wait to try it! 

Anyway, happy Mother's day to all mom out there.. I bought this lilies for myself..he he..no gift from si dia tu.. ;p okay pe celebrate sorang2x.. ;p

Friday- Opera Cake..finally..

"Opera Cake is a type of French cake. It is made with layers of almond sponge cake (known as Joconde in French) soaked in coffee syrup, layered with ganache and coffeebuttercream, and covered in a chocolate glaze. According to Larousse Gastronomique "Opéra gateau is an elaborate almond sponge cake with a coffee and chocolate filling and icing."The cake was popularized by the French pâtisserie house Dalloyau." -Wikipedia

It took me forever to cut this cake into a diamond shape slice. Almost a diamond perhaps. {Phew} The most forever about it was making the cake itself actually. Yerp..I did it..I can finally crossed opera cake from my baking list..Hip2x hurray for me..wuhoooooo... *cheeky proud grin*

I whipped the mocha buttercream on Thursday, and thought of assembling the cake on Friday- the same date as the royal wedding day. It would be great to have a special delicacy to mark the royal wedding ceremony rite.. since it was called the wedding of the year, of the century, of a lifetime, blah blah.. But it didn't happened..err my cake I mean.. =/ You wanna know why? You see..I was glued on TV from 3pm, and after 2 hours in front of the screen, I started to feel dizzy and felt like to throw out already. I knew the wedding service would start at 6, but me being me, over-excited blah blah, didn't want to miss watching every single second of the live telecast.. and by the time Will and Kate finally tied a knot, the headache was swirling all my head already. It was terrible. [I used to be a TV junkie during my teen years..what happened to that part of myself..hihi..] So the plan had to be postponed on the next day. Long story short, I created this marvelous cake on Monday. Period. ;p

Well, it's a rich cake, enough said. Layers of almond sponge cake, with mocha buttercream and chocolate ganache in between.. heaven! You could imagine the taste your self he he..  I made an 8x8 inch square cake, too big for our family to consume it at once. I halved it and keep one half in the fridge and the other half on the freezer. We shall finish it by this month he he.. 

Opera cake
{Recipe adapted from Bisous A Toi..Thanks K Rima!}

Ingredients

• 200g finely ground almond
• 100g caster sugar
• 6 eggs
• 50g butter, melted
• 60g all purpose flour
• 115g egg whites
• 55g confectioner sugar - i used caster sugar

For the Jaconde:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.. Prepare two pans (20 x 20 cm), greased and lined with baking paper.
2. In a large bowl combine ground almond, caster sugar and 3 eggs, beat at high speed for 10 minutes, scraping often.
3. Add remaining eggs one at a time, continue to beat for another 10 minutes.
4. Stir in 4 tbsp of almond mixture into melted butter and mix till well combined, set aside.
5. Add sifted flour to the remaining almond mixture, mix well... put aside
6. In another bowl, beat egg whites til foamy, add sugar gradually and continue to beat until soft peaks formed.
7. Take 1/3 of egg white and pour into almond mixture and mix it gently.. pour back almond mixture into the remaining 2/3 egg white mixture and continue to fold in gently.. dont overmix or u might deflate ur egg white..
8. Divide and spread into prepared pans, bake both pans at once for 20 mins in 175C. Cool completely, remove from pans, discard paper and slice it into total 4 layers.

For Coffee Syrup:
100ml hot brewed espresso - you can of course use 15g of instant coffee with 100ml hot water
100g sugar

Mix all ingredients, stirring until sugar dissolves. Set aside.

For Mocha buttercream:
100g egg whites
200g sugar
300g unsalted butter - cubed and chilled and let it out once u start to whip ur egg white/sugar
1/2 tbsp mocha paste
1tsp coffee oil - u can use coffee essence/flavor if u cant find coffee oil

1. Using double boiler.. heat egg white and sugar till sugar dissolved - use ur thermometer ok.. heat till 65C..
2. Pour egg white mixture into ur mixing bowl and whisk using high speed till mixture turns glossy.. add in cubed butter one at a time and continue to beat till its slightly fluffy.. (buttercream texture)
3. Add in coffee oil, mocha paste and 50ml of coffee syrup into buttercream.. stir till well combined.. set aside

For Chocolate Ganache
200g dark chocolate compound
200g milk chocolate compound - I used a mixture of 70%, 64% and 55%)
75g unsalted butter
250 ml fresh cream - I used double cream

1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces.
2. Heat cream until warm. Remove from heat and pour it over chocolate.. let it sit for 5 mins and stir
3. Add in butter and continue to stir well again.
4. Put it aside till it thickens.
Assembling

There are various way to assemble Opera, you can find many on internet. Heres my version..

1.  Place one sheet of joconde upside down (top of the cake on bottomside).
2.  Brush thoroughly with coffee syrup until moist.
3. Spread one part of coffee cream evenly over the cake.
4. Cover with another sheet of joconde, always upside down.
5. Brush thoroughly with coffee syrup until moist
6. Cover with thick ganache and cover with another sheet of joconde.
7. Repeat above steps until all joconde, coffee cream and ganache are stacked completely. Chill for 10 minutes.
8. Double boil remaining ganache over low heat just until simmer, pour evenly on the top. Chill for another 30mins.
9. Trim the sides thinly to remove excess cream & ganache to reveal the layers of art and delicacy.

Tuesday- Durian Soufflé

Remember my Chocolate Soufflé here? I made another suicidal soufflé attempt today, and I chose to make durian soufflé out of hundreds soufflé recipes available on Google. It' durian season, and why not joined the blogosphere durian fever festive kan? Most of the food blogs that I followed tayang resepi durian, and I wanna take part too.. ;D

The urge came after I saw one of "The F Word" episode this morning, where Gordon Ramsay made a Christmas pudding soufflé. He pointed out few tips while preparing it and I was eager to try it out. The tips are about the same as in Muchabout recipes and it's highlighted in bold below.

As for the durian flavor, I did plan to buy some durian today since I wanted to bake kek lapis 

durian for my parents. I guess I had to go out again tomorrow to replace it back. ;) or maybe whip another layer cake flavor for them. I never make layer cake before, so hopefully it'll turn out well *crossed finger*

The durian soufflé is creamylicious nyum nyum nyum and it wasn't sweet as I thought it would be. Nyum nyum.. Too bad husband is not around to taste it. Wait till you come home eh bebeh ;p 

Durian Souffle Recipe

{Adapted from Muchabout..TQ!}

Serving:3-4

Ingredients:

• 4 nodes durian
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 Tbsp melted butter
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar powder
• 2 tsp sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 4 egg whites
• Additional butter and sugar for ramekins

1. Preheat oven to 375 F
2. Smear cold butter over the inside of the ramekins, making sure that all of the surface is covered. This is the most important step. The batter will stick to any uncovered patch of the ramekin and you won’t get a good rise.
3. Pour some sugar into the buttered ramekins, tilting and turning them until all the bottom and especially the sides are covered. Again, super-important that this step is done right. Place the ramekins in the refrigerator until needed, to keep the butter from melting.
4. Scrape the durian flesh away from the seeds. Combine with the milk and melted butter into a blender, and blend until smooth.
5. Into a large mixing bowl add the egg yolks and 1 tsp of the sugar. Whisk until smooth.
6. Add the blended durian mixture into the egg yolks, beat until smooth. Set aside.
7. Into another mixing bowl add the egg whites along with the remaining 1 tsp sugar, whisk until frothy. Add the cream of tartar powder, then continue to whisk until you get stiff peaks. In this step you are adding air bubbles into the egg whites which will expand in the oven and provide the lift for your soufflé.
8. Scoop out 1/3 of the beaten egg whites and add it into the durian mixture. Mix thoroughly.
9. Take half of the remaining egg whites and add into the now-lightened durian mixture, using a gentle folding motion to preserve the volume of air bubbles as much as possible. Repeat with the remainder of the egg whites.
10. Take the ramekins out of the fridge and pour in the batter to about 3/4 full. [RibbonClown-I put the batter full, then scrape it flat] Do not overfill. Wipe any drips away from the lip, as these will stick and interfere with the soufflé rising.-important!
11. Place the ramekins into the oven, and bake until the top is risen and golden brown, about 15-20 minutes depending on your oven.

Weekend Food

Teriyaki Chicken Wings

Cik Som, boleh lawan itik you tak? hehe

So called Vege Omelette

 

Motif dadar

Murtabak Megi Lapis

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 ;)