of birthdays and breakfasts

Two things that I love are birthdays and breakfasts. Birthdays simply cos we should celebrate the day we came into this world and are still alive and kicking! Breakfast cos it's the first meal of the day so we should make it the BEST meal.



So this long weekend was my mother-in-law's birthday. We hosted my in-laws together with my folks at our house. I whipped up a 3-course meal consisting of Creamy Asparagus Soup with Bacon and Cheese Scones, followed by Braised Lamb with Mash and wilted Baby Spinach. But the highlight of the night is dessert. I made a Forest Noir Swiss Roll served with brandy-soaked cherries! Was so happy that the roll was a success as this was the first time I did this by myself after my baking course. Shall let the photos speak for itself.



Now to breakfast. I've recently discovered a simple cheat's croque monsieur. It's really simple to make but oh so delicious! Here's the simple recipe so you can wake up to a satisfying brekkie too!



What you need

• 2 slices of thick soft bread
• 4 slices of ham
• handful of grated cheese (any kind you fancy)
• dijon mustard
• butter

Let's cook

1. Heat a skillet pan over high heat
2. Spread the dijon mustard on 1-side of both slices
3. Top on 1 slice cheese, ham then cheese again
4. Cover with the other slice
5. Spread butter on both sides of bread and put onto hot skillet
6. Fry till brown and serve hot

baking 101

Rainbow Roll (R): Chocolate Roll (L)

As you all know I recently went for a short baking course at Creative Culinaire. It was a basic class consisting of 4 classes, which I learnt to bake batter type cakes (butter) and chiffon type cakes.



Traditional Pandan Chiffon

Personally I prefer chiffon types as it is a lot lighter and uses no butter, so friendlier for the waistline too :)

And the last lesson we learnt how to dress the cake up. We also learnt how to make this interesting checkered-board style cake, which looks so pretty when sliced up.



Checkered Pandan Kaya



Traditional Black Forest

There's the intermediate course. No I'm not going for it now. Maybe later in the year perhaps. In the meantime, I'll be practicing more of these I've learnt.

migration

I've decided to migrate to wordpress purely cos there is an app on iphone so i can blog on the go hehe! So pls follow me at http://awwesomepossum.wordpress.com :)

pardon my pandan

Haven't had time to mention that I have been attending baking classes this month and am into my 3rd lesson already. Next week is my last class. Am feeling bit sad that it's ending as it has been really fun and a good escape from daily work routine. Anyway, by special request, here's the recipe for the ol'skool Pandan Chiffon Cake from lesson 2. Think this is a winner with most of us but let me warn you, our teacher said you need to bake a chiffon 800 times in order to perfect it *gasp*!! So good luck gals! Stuff you need Ingredients A

• 3 egg yolks (48g)
• 30g sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 20g vegetable oil
• 36g coconut oil
• 54g cake flour
• 1/4 tsp pandan paste

Ingredients B

• 3 egg whites (120g)
• 40g sugar
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar

Let's Bake!

1. Stir yolks, salt, sugar (A), coconut milk, corn oil & pandan paste with a hand whisk and mix till smooth.
2. Sieve the flour into the above mixture and mix till smooth.
3. Whisk egg whites till snowy then add cream of tartar and drizzle in sugar (B) in a steady gradual stream. Whisk till peak.
4. Fold meringue into flour mixture gently.
5. Pour mixture into a 6" tube pan then "bang" on table top few times to loosen air bubbles. Bake at 190 degres for about 30mins or until brown.
6. Invert cake in tin on cooling rack immediately when out of the oven. This is very important so as to avoid cake from sinking.
7. When cooled, remove from tin, slice and enjoy!

Btw interesting fact: a chiffon cake cannot be called a chiffon if it's not presented in it's traditional shape with a hole in the centre BUT you can bake this in any other type of pans though :)

weekend dinners

Saturdays is chef's day off and we usually eat out. But last Sat, due to the unbearable heat, we came home early after a day at the Peranakan Museum, so I whipped up a Creamy Tomato Scallop & Prawns Pasta for our dinner. Ok I know this sounds weird but see I like tomato-based pasta and the hubs of course likes cream. So I thought why not combine the 2 and there you go...a new recipe!! I love Sundays! It's not just family day, it's also to complete my chores and whip up something special for dinner for us. Last week, a good pal of mine posted a yummy-licious shot of her Braised Lamb for dinner and she was kind enough to share her recipe. So I gave it a shot and boy were we pleasantly and happily surprised. It was yummy beyond words! The meat was so flavourful and it fell off the meat nicely! Thanks Siska! Bless your sweet soul for the yummers recipe! Will definitely be making this again soon! P/S: Siska babe, you know I still follow and make the potato salad recipe that you taught me when I was like 16! And it still rocks my world! Just made it again tonite...happy camper!!

mooore macaroons

Pistachio & Raspberry Macaroons!! Rows of baked Pistachio shells just outta the oven

Pistachio filled with hazelnut

Raspberry filled with 4-berries jam

Made another 2 new batches of macaroons last weekend. Pistachio and Raspberry. My personal fav of the 2 is Raspberry as the sweetness of the shell is balanced off by the tarty 3-berries jam that I used for the filling. Had some feedback that the macaroons were too sweet. But I have news for you guys, 2 types of sugar goes into the making of the shell...so go figure! I guess that not only explains the sweetness but also the tiny size and prices of macaroons! It's meant to be savoured and not swallowed people! P/S: I just started my basis baking course at Creative Culinaire. No macaroons is not in the syllabus but it's definitely an eye-opener for me just from lesson 1. Looking forward to lesson 2 next week where we'll be learning to make chiffon cakes :)