Pan de Sal

One afternoon after seeing a Facebook post from a friend who baked humble Filipino bread bun pan de sal (spanish for 'bread of salt') i felt that little knot in my stomach.... Which eventually turned out to be hunger. For this bread. So i set off to make some of my own!

A previous post on pan de sal here

I was lucky to have some liver spread in the pantry... to my mind this is like a poor man's pate... This is actually one of the preferred sandwich fillings, the other options being margarine and maybe a sprinkling of sugar... Peanut butter... A sweet coconut spread... But I would have opted for tinned corned beef, sauteed in some garlic and onions, if i had some! (mental note to get some this weekend!) This could have been a Pinoy breakfast, or merienda (afternoon tea)...

I think i was homesick for a split second.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Homegrown Giant Lemon

Can't get over how big this one is... The rest are still chilling out in the tree!

Peas

The new batch of peas standing proud - I hope they survive to bring forth a bountiful harvest!!!

So now we wait and see!


- Sent from my Blackberry

ColorSplash Test 4

Wet in Warburton





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Centerpiece

Found another use for the cake holder







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Poached Pears in Honey, and Kaak d'Essaouira

We had a couple of friends over for dinner one evening, and the meal was Moroccan inspired. The starter was zaalouk - an eggplant and tomato dip with homemade moroccan bread (khobz). The main meal was a chicken tagine flavoured with chermoula and homemade preserved lemons... but I think the most interesting part of it all, which is the one I decided to actually blog about - was dessert.

I found some inspiration from this blog and saw her recipe for poached pears and figs in honey, and thought that would be quite delightful! But I also thought that a bit of crunchiness to accompany the softened pears would be nice... so after a bit more googling I came across these cookies called Kaak d'Essaouira, named after a coastal city.

A bit of a gamble to offer something that I haven't made before, but I had a good feeling about it especially after reading the recipe.

The pears were peeled and cored from the bottom, and poached in an aromatic liquid made of water, honey, crushed cardamom, 3 cloves, a cinnamon stick, and the peel of one lemon. When the pears were done, the liquid was left to reduce into a sticky syrup.

prepping the pears

green cardamom - before they were bruised a little bit

For the cookies, I had get orange blossom water from the shop. It proved to be an excellent addition to my pantry! Beautiful flavor, and smelled heavenly. Not to be overdone though, as I think too much of it may render something taste like soap! I used the recipe from this link but I halved the quantities. I had a bit of an error because I was supposed to use half a teaspoon of ground anise seeds, but ended up using a teaspoon of whole seeds.

orange blossom water - around $8 for this bottle (!)

A step by step procedure is clearly articulated in this link  so the photos below are merely for me to remember how I did mine!

i used the knife as a template for the length so I end up with similarly sized cookies

i used the back of the butter knife to create the ridges... although I think I should have spaced them farther apart

let them rest before popping into the oven.... meanwhile the pears were also done during this time and were chilling!

crunchy cookies, very tasty and great for afternoon tea

the finished product quickly went for a photo shoot before it was served to guests!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Light and Lily

Light and Lily




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Pancakes and Coffee

This photo was not edited :)

It was just perfect timing - a cool morning, a stream of sunlight, hot food, and my camera. Just had to capture the moment.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Crispy Crackling Pork with Plum Sauce and Bok Choy

Ahhh... pork. It is the meat of choice for  (most of) us Filipinos. Cheap and tasty meat, available everywhere, can be used for a myriad of recipes, easy to cook, so flavorful....

... and also has high cholesterol :) so it is a rare treat at home where the preference is lean meat (I know there is lean pork, but pork without the fat just doesn't quite make sense to me!) But when the cravings come for pork, they come calling quite loud. So one weekend during the usual trip to the butcher, there was a nice piece of pork belly that called my name. And the rest was history.

I still had some of the plum sauce from the last batch so I thought I'd just give the meat a dry rub of sea salt+sichuan pepper and bake it in the oven in a pan as it rests on a bed of chopped brown onions, and the last few minutes under the grill to make the crispy crackling. When it's done and while the meat is resting, the pan (with the onions still there, now caramelized)  is deglazed with cherry liquer, the plum sauce added in and a bit of extra seasoning.

Dish up with steamed rice and bok choy. And enjoy the crackling!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Raisin Muffins

A breakfast treat one Monday morning. I have been looking for the dark brown muffin paper cases but the shops close to our area do not have them! The closest thing were these pink ones (and there was another which had hearts in it!). It was a good thing that they faded a bit after baking... I'm not a huge fan of the color pink!

Anyway, this is one of the easiest muffin recipes :

1 1/2 cups wholemeal flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup quick oats
1 cup raisins
2/3 cup milk (or more if the mixture is too thick)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs

Pre-heat oven to 200C. Prepare muffin tins and cases (if using).

In a bowl, mix dry ingredients. In a separate bowl or jug, whisk wet ingredients together. Combine wet and dry, and mix only until the dry ingredients are just moistened (do not overmix, this leads to tough muffins!). Spoon on to muffin tins or cases until 2/3 full. Bake for around 20 minutes (you can tell that they're done by that beautiful smell!) or until tops are golden.

It is best served warm... or just warm it in the microwave (a quick 40 second blast should do the trick!)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Chocolate Mousse Cake topped with Cherries

A rich, decadent, chocolate cake made of 4 different types of chocolate and just a tablespoon of flour,eggs, honey butter and a tiny bit more sugar. A crowd pleaser!

200 g dark chocolate
100g bittersweet chocolatr
100g milk chocolate
100g lindt chocolate with a touc of sea salt
150 g butter, cut into cubes
A good glug of honey
1 tbsp caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tbsp flour, sifted

Grease and line a springform tin with baking paper and pre-heat oven to 220C.

Melt chocolate, butter and honey in a bain marie until well incorporated with each other. Set aside to cool a little bit.

Meanwhile, whisk eggs with sugar until pale and frothy. This could take a while (around 10minutes). It would have at least tripled in volume and would look very thick, leaving a ribbon trail. Fold in flour. Fold in chocolate and egg mixture, moving quickly so as not to loose the air. Pour to prepared tin and bake for 12-15minutes. Run a knife along the edge, and remove collar. Then let cool, and refrigerate overnight to set the center.

Top with berries, or cherries, like in this instance. I would have made a cherry coulis but I wasn't in the best form (was feeling a little bit under the weather) but I was informed that it didn't really need it this time - i guess adding a bit of milk chocolate decreased the richness compared to when i made this a couple of times before when i used more dark chocolate.

Recipe is a keeper :)

The cake was made for a colleague who celebrated his birthday and first month at work!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

ColorSplash Test 3

Saturday Night Table Centerpiece







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

ColorSplash Test 2

Kitchen Windowsill




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Citrus Semolina Cake

need to adjust the brightness in this photo! ;p

Adapted from a recipe from the 'Baking Bible' - which was originally a Lemon Semolina cake with Orange Glaze







3/4 cup self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups coarse semolina
1cup castor sugar
3/4 cup natural yoghurt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup canola oil
3 eggs
Grated zest and juice from 1 lemon
Zest of 1 freshly picked orange from the garden ;p it just happened to be lying around so I added this in!

Glaze
1/3 cups homemade grapefruit and ginger marmalade and 3 teaspoons honey


Mix dry ingredients together -instead of sifting it I like to whisk them in a mixing bowl. Mix wet ingredients and zest together in a separate jug. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour egg, yoghurt and milk mixture. Whisk into a runny batter. Pour into baking tin (i used a greased bundt tin) and bake for around 55 minutes at 180c or until top is golden.

Mix glaze ingredients and heat through in a small saucepan. Spoon over cake while still warm.

The recipe book said the cake is best served with a dollop of yoghurt mixed with some honey... :) this cake was served as it was, and was gone pretty quickly..!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Homemade Squid Ink Pasta

It was just one of those things that I've always wanted to try to make, so when I saw some whole squids at the fishmonger, I declined the offer to have it cleaned so that I can harvest the ink myself and make some squid ink pasta.

Growing up, I would bear witness to all the cleaning of fish and seafood in our kitchen, so I didn't need to google how to extract the ink. You need to gently pull the tentacles away from the body and above the eyes, there is a little sac that looks somewhat silver-ish... That's where it is. (see photo below - that little sack dangling in front of my pinkie).




I had 500grams of squid in total and about 6 small squids. With the patience that I didn't I know I had I managed to get maybe a teaspoon's worth of ink. Or less!






After that, I cleaned the casings, scraped leftover skins, removed the backbone and chopped them into rings. I used squeezed half a kiwi over them to tenderize the meat - believe me it works! (my mom can perfectly cook squids without making them rubbery at all - I on the other hand need a bit of a cook's trick to pull this off, heheh).

For the pasta, I used 300 grams of type 00 flour, 3 small eggs, a good glug of olive oil and the ink, mixed and kneaded into a ball, wrapped in cling film and left in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before rolling it.













The pasta was cooked in boiling water for around 3 minutes or until they rise to the top, then drained.

I minced 3 cloves of garlic, half a red onion, 1 green chili. A hot pan, evoo, and a couple of seconds for the garlic to turn golden brown (not burnt!) ensures a deeper taste. The onions and chili went in next, then squids for just a minute or until they turn the translucency disappears, then the drained pasta tossed into the mix.

This was served with cavollo cheese shaved generously on top, finished with cracked black pepper.






Our brains think that food which is black or grayish is not very appetizing! But give it a go, and see how good it can be!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Stuffed Eggplant

One of the tastiest vegetables that I love is the eggplant. Or aubergine as they call it sometimes. The fleshy veggie meat has a distinct taste and you can throw it into almost anything. It is also a good filler :)

This dish was made of 2 small round eggplants, halved lengthwise, drizzled generously with evoo and seasoned with salt and pepper, baked in a hot oven (200C) for around 30 minutes. I also had a leftover portobello mushroom so that went into the oven as well (ingredients summarized at the bottom of this post) :







While that's cooking, plain basmati rice was cooked the usual way(about a third of a cup), and let cool when done.

When the flesh of the eggplant is cooked (but not overcooked so as to retain the shape of the shell), spoon it out of the shell carefully and set aside. Mince the mushroom and add to the eggplants.









The spices : we like it hot so there was half a teaspoon each of whole fennel seeds, chili flakes, hot paprika and a heaped teaspoon of (homemade!) Moroccan spice. 2 small tomatoes and a brown onion were minced, and a couple of sprigs of thyme. For some reason I ran out of garlic - gasp! So this didn't have garlic! I also got some parsley for garnish.










Bring them all together in a hot wok : sauté onions and tomatoes, add spices and let the flavors infuse. Add rice, eggplant and mushroom, and stir until all the lovely spices cover the rice and veggies. Spoon over eggplant shells. Serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt on top.














might be a good starter if you only serve one half... But definitely a really good lunch :)


Stuffed Eggplants


Ingredients 
2 medium sized aubergines
1 portobello mushroom, minced
1/3 cup raw basmati rice - cook according to instructions
Half a teaspoon each of whole fennel seeds, chili flakes, hot paprika
a heaped teaspoon of Moroccan spice
2 small tomatoes, minced
1 brown onion,  minced
a couple of sprigs of thyme
olive oil
parsley, for garnish
greek or natural yogurt, to serve

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Saturday Night (cooking) Live

Instead of heading out to get something to eat, there was a decision to create a 3 course meal, prepared as a team, one lazy Saturday night.


For the entree : scallops, black pudding and parsnip mash with horseradish

The mash was made with 1 parsnip, pan fried in butter until tender. Then it was mashed with cream, more butter, milk and grated horseradish. It was seasoned to taste and left covered to keep warm.

Meanwhile, the black pudding was pan fried in the same pan. Roughly 4 minutes before the black pudding was done, the scallops (seasoned with salt and pepper) were fried on one side of the same pan, just about 2 minutes each side. The mash was spooned onto the serving plate into 3 mini piles, the black pudding placed on top, and the scallops last. A parsley leaf on top of the tower, a little sprinkle of chili flakes to echo the heat from the horseradish... And it's a gourmet treat.








The main : baked barramundi parcels with lemon, ginger, soy and mirin

2 round slices of lemon on baking paper
Add barramundi on top
Pile 2 thinly sliced ginger
Salt and pepper
a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and
1 wombok leaf, the top part (the part of the leaf around 2 inches from the top) sliced and shredded and placed alongside the fillet
The rest of the wombok served as a cover over the fillet
A flavorful sauce made with a dash of black sesame oil, a dash of soy sauce, a dash of mirin and about 2 tablespoons water will serve as the tasty steaming liquid






... then parcel was wrapped and tied up, and placed into a 180C hot oven for 20 minutes






Ad that's done! This fish was served with par boiled potatoes finished by panfrying in duck fat, and steamed asparagus. What I would change is to serve it with plain rice, or noodles. Nevertheless, it was very, very tasty.







Dessert was a lemon souffle. The recipe was originally called 'hot lemon curd souffle' due to the lemon curd base.

The lemon curd is a quick version made of 1 egg whisked with some sugar, lemon zest and the juice of 1 lemon, and a teaspoon of cornflour. This was whisked over low heat until it thickened to the consistency of curd. This was spooned over buttered ramekins, and set aside on room temperature. Then, 2 eggs were separated, the yolks whisked with a bit more sugar and the zest and juice of 1 lemon. The whites were whisked to stiff peaks, facilitated with a teaspoon of white sugar. A spoonful of the whites were mixed with the yolks to slacken the mix, then the whites were folded in. This mixture was dolloped over the curd, and baked for 15 minutes on 180C or until the tops were golden.







A couple of minutes was worth the wait to cool the curd down a bit. The souffle would have deflated during this time, which may take some wow factor away during serving... But the taste should be able to compensate!





Served with a sliver of lemon peel just for additional color.








Every bite has to be spooned from the bottom for maximum impact,






Two bottles of shiraz later, the after glow of a fabulous dinner remains.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad