Alaska Crab Salad

This is really easy to do as long as you are willing to devote some time and stand in the kitchen for quite a while and are willing to pay for the expensive cost for a fresh Alaska Crab!!

Ingredients: (for 12 persons)

Fresh Alaska Crab x 1 (steamed or boiled, with the crab meat all removed from shells)

Avocado (please choose the ripe ones) - around 7pc - cut into cubes

Tomatoes (please choose the italian ones or the ones which you think are sweet and tasty) - remove skin using method stated below, then cut into
cubes and drain the tomato juice

Fresh Chives - minced

lemon/ mayo/ sesame dressing/ lemon olive oil


How to make:

1. If you are not arranging directly on plate but is preparing in advance, cover the bottom of each stainless steel cylinder with plastic wrap and place the 12 cyliners in a tray.

2. Mix the avocado cubes with mayo to a consistency you desired and spoon them into the base of the cylinder.

3. Mix the tomatoes cubes with sesame dressing to a consistency you desired and spoon them above the avocadoes layer. Try avoid spooning the juice into the cylinder though.

4. Use your hand to tear the crab meat to bite size and mix with a splash of lemon juice, then mayo to a consistency you desired and spoon them above the tomatoes layer.

5. Wrap the whole tray with the 12 cylinders arranged in the fridge.

6. When you are ready to serve, place one cylinder on one plate and remove the plastic wrap at the bottom of the cylinder bu sliding it carefully away from the plate, then remove the cylinder.

7. Add some a few drops of lemon olive oil on top of the crab layer then sprinkle with the minced chives and serve!!

This presentation looks professional but is so easy to make anyone can do this. Enjoy!!

Removing Tomatoes Skin:
a. lightly cut a cross around the tomato skin.
b. place them in boiling water for 30 seconds and immediately place them in a ice water bath.
-> the skin tear off itself easily.

Beef Wellington

* this receipe is modified from the one from "Christmas with Gordon Ramsay"

Ingredients:
(serves 4-6 paersons)

900g beef fillet (perferably the centre cut with even thickness)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
English mustard, to brush meat

Mushroom Duxelles:
700g chestnut mushrooms or just brown mushrooms, cleaned, and stalks removed
a handful of cooked chestnuts
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
2 thyme sprigs, leaves only

To assemble:
8 slices of parma ham (choose those with less salty flavour)
500g ready-made-all-butter-puff pastry
plain flour, to dust
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp water (eggwash)

How to make:

One night before cooking:
1. Wash and dry beef with kitchen towel, season with salt and pepper.

2. Heat olive oil in a frying pan over high hear, quickly sear outside of beef until evenly browned, about 5 mins, turning as necessary.

3. Transfer beef to a plate and brush all over with mustard and allow to cool.

4. For the duxelles,out the cleaned mushrooms, cooked chestnuts and garlic in a food processor, add a little bit of salt and pepper and blend to a fine paste, stopping to scrape down the sides a few times.

5. Heat a fry large frying pan and scarpe the mushroom paste to the pan and add the thyme leaves, mix well and cook over high heat until dry, sitriing occassionally. The duxelles must be sufficiently dry to avoid making the pastry too soggy. Spread out on a tray to cool down.

6. On a clean working top, line a large piece of cling film, then lay the parma ham on top, overlapping each other so as to form a rough rectangule large enough to wrap the whole beef fillet.

7. Using a palette knife or a spatula, spread the mushroom duxelles on top of the parma ham, a thin and even layer does it.

8. Lay the beef fillet along the middle of the mushroom layer. Keeping a tight hold of the cling film from the outside edges, neatly rool the parma ham and the mushroom duxelles over the beef into a tight barrel shape. Twist the end of the cling film to secure. Refridgerate for 15 mins to firm up.

9. On a clean working surface, lightly dust with flour and roll our pastry to a thickness of roughly a HK$5 coin thickness and brush with some of the eggwash.

10. Take beef out of fridge, remove from cling film carefully and place it in the middle of the pastry.

11. Roll the pastry around the beef to envelope it and then presss the edges to seal. Pinch the pastry at the ends to seal and trim off the excess. You can use the excess pastry to make patterns on top of the wrap.  Wrap the log tightly in cling film and chill in fridge.

On the night of cooking:
1. Take the beef out from the fridge 1 hr before cooking and bring it to room temperature.

2. Preheat oven to 190'C. Remove cling film and brush the whole pastry with eggwash and bake it oven for 35 min. If pastry appears to be browning too quickly, lower the temperature slightly.

3. Leave to rest in a warm place for 10-15 min before carving.

Enjoy with your favourite gravy, mash and veggies~~

Warm Chocolate Cake

* This Receipe is a modification of the receipe at "Dessert Fourplay by Johnny Iuzzini"

Ingredients:

250g unsalted butter - cut into small pieces
250 bittersweet chocolate (preferbbly Veronha 72% cacao chocolate) - break into small pieces
5 large eggs
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (125g) caster sugar
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp (50g) all purpose floor

How to Make:

1. Butter eight 4oz ramekins or sixteen 2oz molds and dust them lightly with flour. Place them on a baking tray.

2. Boil water in a saucepan.

3. Place butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place on top of the saucepan with boiling water. Turn fire to low and keep stiring the butter and chocolate mixture on the heatproof bowl above the saucepan until all melted smoothly.

4. Put eggs and egg yolks to a bowl of a standing mixer fitted with whisk. Beat at medium speed until frothy.

5. Pour in sugar and increase speed to medium high. Continue to beat until eggs have trippled in volumne.

6. Scrape the butter and chocolate mixture into the eggs. Beat until well mixed, scraping the bowl once or twice.

7. Sift the flour and fold gently into the egg and chocolate mixture.

8. Spoon the mixture into the ramekins or molds, cover each of them with plastic wraps and place in fridge.

9. 1 hour before cooking, take them out at room temperature.

10. Preheat oven at 230'C and bake them for 6-7 minutes. Centre of cake will still be soft and a bit melting. Once taken out from oven, leave them for a few seconds, then you'll be able to either invert them into plates or spoon them out of the molds and place in plates. Sprinkle with icing sugar on top.

Best serve with Vanilla Ice Cream.

Enjoy~

Roast French Poussin

Ingredients:
French Poussin (preferrably the white one instead of the yellow ones)
Lemon
Fresh Basil
Garlic
Butter
Honey
Dark Soy Sauce
Salt and Pepper

How to make:
1. Wash and dry poussin in and out. The worst job in this receipe! especially when you have to pull out all hair remaining on the skin (with care or else the skin will be torn).

2. Marinate chicken using dark soy sauce - and using your hand to coat the dark soy sauce evenly on the skin - this is my creative step on bringing some color to the skin. It does not add much to the taste really. Keep this marinate in for at least an hour.

3. Preheat oven to 230'C.

4. Stuffed 1/4 of a cleaned lemon together with a few basil leaves (cleaned and wiped dry) and a piece of garlic clove inside the tummy of the chicken. Then tie back the legs together using the string that comes with the poussin when you bought them.

5. Season the poussin top and bottom using salt and pepper and place them neatly in a baking tray lined with foil.

6. Melt some butter in a oven proof dish in the preheat oven or in microwave. Using a brush, drip the melting butter over the skin (try dripping as even as possible).

7. Put the tray with the poussin to oven for 10 minutes. Then remove from oven, change position of tray, turn oven temperature down to 190'C. Drip more melted butter all over and cook for another 30 minutes at 190'C. Then take out again and drip/brush honey all over poussin's skin and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes until skin turns golden color.

Serve with the sauce you like or with the juice coming from the chicken and the butter and honey in the tray!!

** dont put your tray too low in the oven or the skin cant get the golden color as you may wish for. But not too high to avoid burning the skin too.

Enjoy~

Sous Vide (Slow Cooked) Chicken Breast in Morel Sauce

Ingredients:
Chicken Breast x 1pc

Morel Sauce:
1oz dried morels
35g butter
1tbsp flour
100ml dry white wine
100ml cream


How to make:
Follow Step 1 to 2 [if you are using a slow cook machine. Otherwise, just wah and dry the chicken breast and marinate with salt and peper and pan fried in frying pan to medium.

1. Wash and dry chicken breast and put in vacuum bag with some milk. Sealed up the bag.

2. Turn slow cook machine temperature to 64'C. Once this temperature is reached, put vacuumed packed chicken breast inside the water bath for 2 hours.

Morel Sauce:
1. Rinse the morel mushrooms.
2. Either soak the mushrooms in 500ml milk or hot water. If former, you need at least 1-2 hours. For latter, 15 to 30 minutes will do.
3. Squeeze out water form mushrooms and drain them. Rinse the mushrooms but reserve the mushroom liquid by sieving them to a clean jug for later use.
4. Cut the mushrooms into bite size.
5. Melt butter in pan, then add flour and stir well for 1 minute.
6. Add the white wine gradually, but stirring well at all times.
7. Add the mushroom liquid slowly, stirring.
8. Add all mushrooms and simmer for 20 min.
9. Add cream, season with salt and pepper to your tasting.

Take out chicken from slow cooker and remove from vacuum bags, cut into pieces and put morel sauce on top.

** Chicken breast cooked this way is so tender that you won't believe it! It's healthy too! And morel sauce is also the perfect sauce for chicken breast.
With a glass of white wine, that's the way to spend a great evening indeed!

enjoy! :)

Potato and Egg with White Truffles

* this receipe is modified from the one from Al Soriso

Ingredients (for 4 persons):
Potato x 6pc (medium size is ok)
Italian Eggs x 4
Butter and Milk
Paremsan Cheese (grated)
White Truffles

How to Make:
1.Preheat oven to 180'C.
2. Peel and boil Potatoes in water until all soft.
3. For 4 pc of potatoes, dig a hole in the middle and place the potato scarped out from main potato in another bowl. Use caution when digging the potato to avoid the potato being broken into pieces.
4. For the other 2 pc of potatoes, mash them together with the scarped potato above with salt, butter and milk until creamy.
5. Carefully separate egg yolks from egg whites one by one.
6. Salt and pepper the inside and outside of the potato with hollow centre and place 1 egg yolk in each of the such potato using a spoon. Try to be careful and not break the egg yolk.
7. Seal the hole of the potato with eggs inside with the mash potato and place in an oven proof dish.
8. Cover the potato with some more mash potato on top and srpinkle grated parmesan cheese.
9. Bake in oven for 5 minutes.
10, Take out and shave white truffles on top. The egg yolk will spill once you cut into the potato.

Eccellente! Enjoy!!

Vitello Tonnato (cold veal in tuna sauce)

* this receipe is adapted from Guido & Guido (I sapori delle Langhe)
* first attempt and it was already quite a success!

Ingredients:

Tuna sauce
200g tuna in oil (better source those from Italy)
120g mayonnaise (if you can home made this the best, otherwise buy ready made mayonnaise from store)
15f white vinegar
5g capers
2pc anchovy fillets

-> just blend everythign in your blender until smooth! beware that if your tuna is chunky, your blender might get stuck. Just use a chopstick to loosen the mixture and blend again! then place in a bowl and chill in fridge with cover.

Veal:
800g veal rump (you will have a hard time finding this part in HK. Get veal loin instead and ask your butcher to tie it up for it so that it looks like a roll of meat)
100g butter
30g olive oil
1.5 meat or vegetables broth
1 onionm cut into quarters
2 carrots, cut into medium sizes
1 celery - cut into medium sizes
rosemary - wash and wipe dry

How to make:
1. Preheat oven to 150;C.
2. Wash and wipe dry veal loin and season with salt and pepper.
3. Put onion, carrots, celery, rosemary with the broth in a pot (which can be placed inside the oven later) and boil.
4. Heat up a frying pan with olive oil and butter and brown veal on all sides.
5. Place the browned veal into the broth pot and once boiled, remove from gas stoves and place to oven with the lid cover for 20-25min.
5. Remove veal from broth and cool down. Once cool dowm, place in fridge with cover.
6.  Before serving, slice the veal as thin as possible, then trim it by cutting away the brown edge or tendons at the side, leaving only the pink centre.
7. Line up a dish with your favourite salad - watercress, rockets, etc with some olive oil or a mild salad dressing of your choice. Then place the pink veal nicely around the dish.
8. Scoop the tuna sauce in the middle and serve!

Fantastico and Enjoy!

Roast Rack of Lamb with Mint Oil Sauce

Another simple dish to do! Lamb is not what i usually eat but this is what my hubby likes and i need to master the skills to do this!! After reading several books, i made up my mind to cook it this way!

Ingredients:

Scottish Lamb Rack (as Scottish lambs were fed with milk, grass and water only. So the meat is pretty tender!)

Rosemary - washed, dried and take out leaves.

Garlic - minced, just a little bit

Tomato and New Potato

Mint Leaves

Red Wine Vinegar

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Parprika, Salt and Pepper

How to Make:

1. Preheat oven to 200'C.

2. Wash and dry lamb rack. Score the lamb in a diagonal way (i.e. make a slight cut on the skin - dont cut too deep!). Marinate the lamb with parprika, salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and minced garlic all over, adding a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Set aside.

3. Boil water in a small pot and once boiled, put washed new potatoes in it for 5-6 min. Take out and drain and cut into half.

4. Tomato - wash, drain and cut into half (horizontally).

5. Heat up a frying pan, add olive oil and then sear the lamb rack until golden on all sides.

6. Place seared lamb rack on baking tray with the tomatoes and potatoes on the side. You can drizzle the oil remaining on the marinate plate to the baking tray and if not moist enough, drizzle a bit more olive oil on top of the lamb in the baking tray. Feel free to sprinkle a bit more parprika, salt, pepper and rosemary leaves on top. Roast for 25-30 minutes for medium and 40-45 minutes for almost well done. 

7. During roasting, you can prepare the fresh mint oil sauce - just wash and dry all mint leaves. Put the leaves in the blender, add some salt and sugar, then blend until smooth. Scrape them to a sauce bowl, add some red wine vinegar and a lot of extra virgin olive oil and mix well. Try the taste and adjust the seasoning to your likings.

8. Once you take out lamb from the oven, let it rest for 5 min with loose foil on top - so that it can retain some juice inside.

** it's important to note you will need to serve the lamb within 5-10 minutes after resting. Otherwise, the lamb will become overcooked during a long resting time.

Enjoy!
8. For

Aubergine and Mozzarella

* original recipe from Don Alfonso where the photo as shown below was layers of round shape aubergine and mozzarella with tomato sauce dripping over it. Unfortunately, mine was not a bit close! Sorry~

Ingredients:
Aubergine
Mozzarella cheese
fresh basil, finely chopped
tomato sauce
salt and pepper

How to make:
1. Preheat oven at 175'C.

2. Wash and dry aubergine and cut them into thin slices. If possible, buy bigger size aubergine with a neat shape so that you can cut out even round slices.

3. Fry aubgerines in hot olive oil and drain on kitchen towels.

4. Thinly slice mozzarella cheese - keep the round shape and size similar to (or just a little bit smaller than) the aubergine slices.

5. Prepare your own version of the tomato sauce (as Don Alfonso's book did not mention how to make this tomato sauce at all!). For me, I use 1 tin can of whole tomatoes from Italy and puree it in a blender, then cook in a small saucepan by adding a little bit of ketchup, salt and sugar.

6. Alternate two slices of aubergine with a slice of mozzarella, a pinch of chopped basil and a dollop of tomato suace. Continue layering for a few times.

7. Put them in a ceramic dish and bake in overn for approx 10 mins.

8. Once done, nap each dish with the warm tomato sauce, centre the aubergine tower and decorate with a fresh basil leaf.

This should be an impressive and tasty starters or side dish which is easy to do and not costy at all. However, the one that i did (as seen in the top photo) was not acutally what i intended as i was not able to buy aubergines which i could cut out a few even round slices! and the mozzarella i got was only those "ball-shaped' ones and it's impossible to have even round slices from them too. As such, my aubgerine tower cannot stand up on their own without the toothpick in the centre. And with the toothpick in the centre, i can no longer decorate it with the basil leaf. Try for yourself. It's fun!
Enjoy~

Porcini and Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients: (serves about 4 paxs)

30g (or simply half a bowl) dried porcini mushrooms
1 onion - minced
2 garlic cloves - pressed
1 tbsp olive oil
80g butter
1.2 L chicken stock **
350g risotto rice (preferrably Carnaroli and you are able to get Aged Risotto, even better!)
100ml dry white wine
50g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
250g fresh mushrooms of your choice
salt and pepper

** For Vegetarian version, replace with vegetable stock

How to make:

1. Rinse dried porcini mushrooms, then soak them in a bowl of hot water for at least 20 min until soft.

2. Drain the porcini mushrooms using a fine seive (so that the gritty part of the mushroom water is filtered out) and save the mushroom water for later use.

3. Squeeze water out of the softened porcini mushrooms and finely chopped them.

4. Bowl the chicken stock + the mushroom water in a pot, then turn down the heat to simmering point.

5. Heat olive oil and 50g of butter in another frying pan and stir fried the minced onion and pressed garlic until soft. Then add the finely chopped porcini mushrooms, then add the rice.

6. Stir fried all ingredients until the rice are all covered with the oil and butter and starting to turn a little translucent.

7. Pour in the white wine and let it evaporate for a while (it will happen fairly quickly).

8. Add the simmering chicken stock - ladle by ladle into the rice and stir until the rice has absorbed it. At this point, yo should turn down heat for the frying pan cooking the rice to medium fire, otherwise, the chicken stock you add to the rice will be gone very quickly.

9. Continue to add the stock ladle by ladle and don't drown the rice, and keep stirring all the time until the rice becomes plump and al dente! In my experience, this process takes approx 20 min! So, be patient!

10. Once the rice becomes al dente, add the remaining 30g butter and the freshly grated Parmesan cheese and season with salt and pepper. Then switch off heat and cover the pan the let the rice rests for 5 min.

11. In the meantime, stir fried the fresh mushrooms in either olive oil (which is healthier) or butter (which is more tasty and fragrant) which are already cleaned and chopped to the shape and size you desired in a separate pan.

12. Add the mushrooms to the top of the rice and serve!

* have the Parmesan cheese ready at the table so that whoever wants a more cheesy taste, they can just grate some more on top of the rice!

Enjoy this with a glass of chilled white wine and no more worries about the trouble of the day! hahaha!

Roast Prime Rib

Ingredients:

Rib eye (best quality one being the PRIME Black Angus from US. If prefer with ribs, i personally prefer the one from Canada instead of Australia. US beef with ribs are still restricted to be imported to HK) - ask butcher to tie it up with strings for you for roasting purpose

garlic, rosemary, thyme, black pepper, olive oil

How to make:

1. The night before your dinner, marinate the beef. First, wash and wipe dry the beef.

2. Then mix together a bowl of minced garlic, minced rosemary and thyme (fresh or dried ones are both ok), black pepper and olive oil -> so that it becomes paste-like. NO SALT at this moment.

                                                                                                                          3. Rub the above paste to the beef and massage the beef for a while before tidying it up like a paste on top.

4. Cover with foil and put to fridge overnite.

5. On the day of cooking, 1 hr before cooking, take out beef from fridge and stand at room temperature. At the same time preheat over at 230C.

6. After 1 hr, season with beef with sea salt and black pepper again. Place beef to oven at 230'C for 20 to 30 min, then turn down to 180'c and roughly another 1.5hr to 2 hr (depending how big your beef is) until a thermometer inserted into centre of meat registers approx 44'C (which is rare to medium rare).

7. Take out from over and stand at room temperature for another 10-15min - the beef will continue to cook by itself and the centre can then reach medium rare status while the sides will be pretty cooked.

* The really cook chef will then deglaze roasting pan and make gravy with red wine. But this sounds pretty difficult for me. So i prefer to order the gravy from Pen Hotel in advance! All u need to do is to boil the whole vacuum pack of gravy, then pour to gravy boat and serve with the beef!! sorry for this shortcut.

* Best served with mash potato and cream corn!

Enjoy!! 



Braised Hamachi

Ingredients:

Chilled Hamachi (order this from sushi shop/counter and request for the head + belly and you'll have freshly arrived Hamachi from Japan)
Daikon
Taro (optional)
Pumpkin (optional)
Burdock (optional)
Ginger slices

Braising Suace:
Water - 300ml
Cooking Sake - 1.5 tbsp
Mirin - 1.5 tbsp
Soy Sauce- 4.5 tbsp
sugar - 4.5 tbsp (can reduce if you prefer less sweet)

How to make:
1. If you are using head, you can ask fishmonger or sushi chef to cut the head into pieces.

2. Wash and wipe dry fish and cook in boiling water for a few minutes, drain.

3. Put ginger slices on bottom of a cooking pot and then braising sauce and bring to boil.

3. Add the sliced daikon, taro, pumpkin and fish pieces into pot, once boiled, turn to medium heat and cook with aluminium foil covering the top for 10 to 15 minutes (depending how much fish you can cooking)

ready to serve & enjoy with a bowl of japanese rice!!

* you can add a few drops of dary soy sauce to add color
* if you prefer your vegetables to be softer, you can cook them a bit first before adding to the fish pot. But bear in mind, japanese pumpkin takes a short time to cook and become soft easily.
* ginger slices are essential to remove the bad odour of the fish, so dont forget!

** this is actually a very good and healthy recipe, especially if you can cut down the sugar a bit as there's no oil in cooking at all and you can eating fish and vegetables at the same time. :)

Osso Buco in Bianco with Risotto Milanese

(original recipe from Antonio Carluccio & Gennaro Caontaldo)

OSSO BUCO

Ingredients:
4 slices of veal shanks (approx 2cm thick)
plain flour for coating
1 large onion - finely chopped
2 carrots - very finely diced
2 celery stalks - very finely diced
4 bay leaves
1 spring rosemary
4 sage leaves
finely grated zest of 1 orange
100ml dry white white (i used the Joseph Drouhin Chablis)
1 litre chicken stock

How to Make:

1. Wash and wipe dry the meat and coat them in flour and season wtih salt and black pepper.

2. Heat olive oil in a large pan and add the veal and brown each side, then set aside and use a ktichen napkin to absorb the extra oil.

3. Using the same pan, add onion, carrots, celery and bay leaves and fry until onion is softened.

4. Pour in ine and allow to evaporate slightly, then add back the veal, the stock, sage, rosemary and orange zest.

5. Bring to boil, then turn down to simmering, then cover and cook gently for 1.5 hr to 2 hr until veal is tender. Check from time to time and add a little more stock if mixture is getting too dry.

6. season to taste and serve with Risotto Milanese~


RISOTTO MILANESE

Ingredients:

2 litres chicken stock
4 tbsp olive oil 100g unsalted butter
1 onion finely chopped
280g carnaroli/risotto rice
2 sachets of powdered saffron
50g Parmesan, finely grated

How to make:

1. Boil stock in a saucepan and turn down to leave it to a gentle simmer.

2. Heat olive oil in a large pan with 1/2 of the butter and fry the onion until soft.

3. Add rice and stir until rice all coated with butter and onion.

4. Then start to add the hot stock, laddle by laddle until each is all absorbed by the rice. ** Avoid drowning the rice in the stock!

5. After 10 min cooking and stirring, add the powdered saffron. Continue to cook and add stock in the same way until rice is al dente (approx 10-20 min more), then add the rest of the butter and the grated Parmesan and season with salt and black pepper.

ENJOY!!!

Cherry Clafoutis

(original recipe from Raymond Blanc)

Ingredients:

For the Cherries:
500g fresh cherries, stoned
2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp kirsch (optional)

For the dish:
10g unsalted butter, melted
2 tbsp caster sugar

For the batter:
100g plain white flour
a pinch of salt
3 eggs + 1 egg yolk (preferrably italian eggs)
6 tbsp caster sugar
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
150ml milk
150ml whipping cream
75g unsalted butter

How to make:

1. Mix cherries with sugar and kirsch (if using) and leave for 30min to 1 hr to maximise flavour.

2. Brush baking dish with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar and shake the dish so it coats the inside evenly. This will give the clafoutis a lovely crust during cooking.

3. Preheat over to 180'C.

4. Put flour and salt in a mixing bowl and make a well in the centre. Add eggs, egg yolk, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla extract. With a whisk, slowly incorporate the egg mixture into the flour until smooth.

5. Whisk in milk and cream.

6. in a small saucepan, heat the butter until it turns a pale hazelnut color, (you can smell it like caramel), then whisk it into the batter while still hot.

7. Mix the cherries and their juices into the batter and then pour into baking dish and bake for 30-40 min until side is browned and skewer when inserted in the centre comes out clean.

8. Sprinkle a little caster sugar over and serve warm.

ENJOY~~

Madelines



* receipe adapted from Catherine Atkinson's "500 Cookies, Biscuits and Bakes"

Ingredients (makes around 12pc):

100g self raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2 eggs
75g icing sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon
1tbsp lemon juice
75g unsalted butter - melted and slightly cooled


How to make:

1. Preheat oven to 190'C.

2. Butter madelines tin tray and dust with flour.

3. Sift the flour and baking poweder into a bowl and set aside.

4. Put eggs and icing sugar in another big bowl and use hand held electric whisk to whisk until thick and creamy and the mixture leaves a ribbon trail when the beaters are lifted (around 5-7min)

5. Gently fold in the lemon zest and juice. Then fold in the flour in several batches. Then the butter, until all is until combined.

5. Leave the mixture to sit for around 10 min. Then carefully spoon them into the madelines tray. Tap the tray gently to remove air bubbles before placing them into oven,

6. Bake for 12-15 min until golden and until skewer comes out clean until inserted inside.

7. Remove from oven and place them on wire racks to cool down.

8. Optional: dust with icing sugar before serving.


** Best enjoy with tea!**

Baked Tomato stuffed with Risotto

* original receipe from Raymond Blanc

Serves 4.
prepartion + cooking time: approx 2 hrs

Ingredients:
4 large ripe beef tomato (if not available in market, just choose some bigger and wider tomato)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
fresh chives, finely chopped, to garnish

For the tomato sauce:
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 sprigs of fresh thymes
3 tbsp olive oil
4 ripe tomatoes, chopped
100g (4oz) tomato puree
400ml (14fl oz) water
sugar, salt and pepper to season

For the risotto stuffing:
1 small onion, finely chopped
20g unsalted butter
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1 bay leaf
100g (4oz) long grain rice, washed and drained
200ml  (7 fl oz) water
30g or 1 small carrot, finely chopped
30g or 1 small courgette, finely chopped
30g peas
2 tbsp whipping cream
75g Gruyere cheese, finely grated
salt and pepper to season

How to make:

Making the tomato sauce:
1. On a low heat in a medium saucepan, soften the onion, garlic and thymes for 2-3 min with olive oil.

2. Add the chopped tomatoes and the tomato puree and cook on medium heat for 7-8 min, until tomatoes have cooked down.

3. Add water, season with sugar, salt and pepper to the taste you desire and cook for a further 5 min.

4. Puree the sauce in a blender and strain through a sieve. (those tomatoes remaining on the sieve are best used as pasta sauce and cook with minced beef and no food is wasted!)

5. Those sauce drained from the seive is very smooth - set aside for later use.

Preparing the Beef Tomato:
1. Clean the tomato and wipe dry. (better to retain the star shaped green item on top)

2. Slice about 1/4 off the top of each tomato to make a hat and set it aside.

3. With a spoon or the special knife to cut orange nectar, scoop out the pulp and juices from the tomatoes into a bowl and set aside.

Making the Risotto Stuffing:
1. On a medium heat in a medium saucepan, soften the onion and thyme leaves and bay leaf with the butter for approx 3 mins, without letting it color.

2. Stir in rice and cook for 1 min so that rice all coat with butter, onion, etc.

3. Add water and carrot and apprpx 150ml (1/4 pint) of the tomato pulp and juices you extracted earlier and bring to boil.

4. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for 5 min, stirring from time to time.

5. Add courgette and peas for cook for another 15 mins until risotto rice is al dente or soft enough to your liking. Check water all the time. If not enough, add hot water little by little.

6. Correct tastings if necessary, then add cream and the grated cheese and mix well.

Stuffing and cooking the Tomato:
1. Preheat over to 180'C.

2. Divide the risotto between the tomatoes, stuffed them with a spoon and top each of them with the tomato hat.

3. Place them in a baking tray, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and bake for 20 min.

To servce:
1. Reheat the tomato sauce and spoon them into the base of the plate/bowl.

2. Place the baked tomato in the centre.

3. Granish chopped chives around with a dash of extra virgin olive oil.

ENJOY~

Summer Vegetables Risotto

* original recipe from Raymond Blanc

Ingredients:

For the risotto base
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 onion, finely chopped
1/2 garlic clove, crushed
200g carnaroli rice
300ml hot water
4 pinches of sea salt
2 pinches of white pepper
300-400ml fresh tomato essence (see previous recipe on how to make this)

To finish the risotto
1/2 small fennel bulb, finely chopped (optional)
1 courgette, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced, and blanched for 1 min
100g peas (defrost if using frozen ones)
20g parmesan cheese, finely grated
2tbsp mascarpone cheese
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
4 black olives (optional)

to garnish:
2 tbsp mascarpone cheese (optional)
baby salad leaves (optional)
ground black pepper

How to make:

To cook the risotto
1. Heat extra virgin olive oil in saucepan over low heat and sweat onion and garlic until soft.
2. Stir in rice and cook over medium heat for 2 min until grains appear shinny.
3. Stir in all the hot water and bring to gentle simmer and season with salt and pepper.
4.Cover and cook gently until all water has been absorbed.
5. Add 3/4 of the tomato essence and continue to barely simmer, covered, with one 'single' bubble breaking ths surface, until the eseence has been absorbed. There is no need to stir the risotto constantly at this moment,

To finish the risotto
1. Add remaining tomato essence, all of the vegetables and the cheese.
2. Cook the risotto, briskly sirring, for 5 min or until rice is al dente to you The vigorous stirring of the ric enow will help it cook evenly.
3. When it's ready, add the cherry tomatos and mix well.
4. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary, sprinkle freshly grated parmesan cheese on top is also great!

* any summer vegetables can be added or substituted to vary textrues and flavour.

Enjoy~

Lemon & Poppy Seed Cake

Ingredients:-
175g butter - at room temperature
2 lemons - finely grate the zest
175g caster sugar
3 eggs - at room temperature
1tsp vanilla essence
225g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
2 tsp sea salt
2 tbsp milk
2tbsp poppy seeds

How to make:
1. Preheat oven to 180'C. Grease cake tin with some butter.

2. Mix butter with sugar with electric whisk until fluffy, then add eggs, milk, vanilla essence, salt and mix well.

3. Sieve self-raising flour and baking powder to egg mixture and fold well with a spectular.

4. Add lemon zest and poppy seeds and mix well .

5. Pour mixture into cake tin and bake for 45 min. To test if the cake is ready, place a skewer inside cake and if comes out clean, then it's ready.

Option:
If you prefer a more "lemon"/ sour taste, you can finish the cake by preparing a sauce and sppon onto cake:
* juice from the 2 lemons above,
* some lemon zest
* 4tbsp sugar
-> mix the above well and spoon onto cake. Leave to cool completely. The lemon and sugar will harden to a zingy, crystallised crust.

ENJOY~

Floating Island (Iles Flottantes)

(recipe from Raymond Blanc)

Ingredients: (serve 6-8 persons)

For poaching the meringue:
1.25 lites (2 and 1/4 pints) of full cream milk
2 vanilla pods, split length wise

For the meringue:
8 medium free range egg whites
275g (10oz) caster sugar

For the vanilla custard:
8 medium free range egg yolks
75g (3oz) caster sugar
milk used for poaching the meringue

For the caramel:
50ml (2 fl oz) water
150g (5oz) caster sugar

How to Make:

1. Infusing the Milk
Pour the milk into a large and shallow pan and bring to simmering point. Scarpe the vanilla seeds into the milk and use a whisk to disperse them; add the split vanilla pods too. Bring to boil and reduce the heat to a slow simmer for 5 min to infuse the milk with the vanilla,

2. Making the meringue
Whisk the egg whites abd sugar with an electric whisk on full power for at least 15 minutes (hand held version) or until mixture becomes firm and glossy with firm peaks formed after lifting up the whisk.

3. Poaching the meringue
With a large spoon, carefully scoop the egg whites, one by one, into the simmering milk. Poach them one side for 3-5 min and turning it over for abnother 3-5 min, taking care not to break them! If the milk begins to boil and rise out of the pan, turn doen the heat and gently push the meringue side ways so the build up of heat and steam can esacpe.
Carefully lift each meringue to a baking tray without the milk.
Strain the milk into a saucepan.

4. Making the vanilla custard
In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the caster sugar, then gradually add whisk in the hot milk. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.

Cook over medium heat for 4-5 min until the custard begins to thicken. Stir constantly to distribute heat and lift the spoon for every 10-15 sec to check if the sauce is thick enough to cover back of the spoon. Strain immediately into a large bowl and continuously stirring for at least 2 mins to stop any further cooking (or else it becomes scrambled eggs!)

Leave to cool and chill in refrigerator and the meringues in another tray in refrigerator.

5. Making the caramel:
Put tge water in a small heavy base saucepan and scatter the sugar evenly over it. Let the sugar absorb the water for a few mins, then place the pan over medium heat and leave without stirring, until sugar has dissolved and formed a syrup. Simmer until it turns to golden brown caremel. But watch carefully cause it can becomes burnt in a short time. One has to be very patient in preparing this caramel cause it seems to take forever!

Serve:
Place the cold custard sauce at the bottom of the serving tray, then carefully place each meringue on top (like the "floating islands"). Then using a spoon to pour caramel on top of merginue. It will take 1 -2 minutes for the caramel to get set (i.e. becomes crispy), then serve!

Yummy, especially in summer time. Enjoy!

Baked Spaghetti in Tomato Minced Beef Sauce

Ingredients:

Minced Beef
Onion x 1 - minced
Garlic x a few pieces - pressed
bay leaves - 1 to 2 pieces
Tomato sauce
Spaghetti
Parmesan cheese

How to Make:

1. Preheat oven at 190'C

2. Prepare your spaghetti or preferred pasta according to packet's instrucions or until al dente. Then mix with olive oil and place at bottom of the oven proof dish.

3. Marinate minced beef with a bit of everything (light soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, pepper, cornflour).

4. Fry garlic with olive oil until fragrant, then add minced onion until soft.

5. Push them to the side of the frying pan and add the minced beef. Cook the beef until almost done, then mix with the onion and garlic.

6. Add the tomato sauce of your liking, correct the seasonings and add the bay leaves and let the sauce simmer for 5 minutes or so (until thickened a bit).

7. Pour minced been tomato sauce over pasta, sprinkle some freshly grated parmessan cheese and bake in oven for 20 minutes or even the top becomes golden brown.

Enjoy!

Baked Eggplant and Zucchini with Cheese

Ingredients:

Eggplant x 2 pc
Zucchini x 2 pc
Grated Parmesan Cheese x 1 bag
Grated Morzarella Cheese x 1 bag
Tomato Sauce (buy a brand you like. For can type, use 2 cans, for bottle type, use 1 bottle. I personally prefer the japanese brand ママ一. For Italian bottle type, Bertoli Tomato with Sweet Basil is also good)
Onion x 1 - minced
Garlic x a few pieces - pressed

How to make:

1. Preheat over to 190'C

2. Clean eggplant and zucchini and wipe dry and cut them into slices.

3. Pan fried eggplant and zucchini with olive oil ina few batches, making sure you turn on each side unitl both sides are a little bit brown and soft.

4. Drain them in kitchen towel.

5. Fry the pressed garlic in olive oil, then add the minced onion until they are soft and fragrant. Then add the tomato sauce. Whichever brand you use, do some tastings and correct seasonings to your likings. eg. adding a bit of ketchup, salt and sugar.

6. Using a over proof dish, add some cooked tomato sauce on the base, then add a layer of eggplant, then sprinkle some parmesan cheese. Then another layer of tomato suace, a layer of zucchini, then sprinkle some morzarella cheese...repeat you are done with all your ingredients. Best to reserve some cheese as the top layer.

7. Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Enjoy!