Vanilla Cheesecake

2012 will the past in a few more days. So for those of you having a New Years Eve party, this rich and creamy cheesecake will make a delight addition. It is very simple to make and ingredients are easily available. Although it takes an hour to bake in the oven, it takes only a few minutes to whip up all the ingredients so there is minimum stress. The star to this cheesecake is really the vanilla. So use the best vanilla pod you have. I used the vanilla pod my friend brought back from his Madagascar trip so I was lucky. Remember to store your quality vanilla pod in an air tight container cause the last thing you need is a dried out vanilla pod.

Little work for maximum pleasure. It melts in the mouth and tastes like vanilla heaven.

Vanilla Cheesecake

adapted from Foodbeam
serves 8 

Base Ingredients:

• 150g digestive biscuits
• 90g butter, melted
• 20g dark muscovado sugar

Cheesecake Ingredients:

• 300g cream cheese
• 250g mascarpone
• 150g sugar
• 2 eggs
• seeds of 1 vanilla pod

Decorate:

• Raspberries
• Mint leaves

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 140°C . (Depending on the heat of your oven, never have it higher than 170°C)
2. Crush the digestive biscuits and mix in the melted butter and dark muscovado sugar until well combine.
3. Gently press the biscuits with the back of a spoon onto the lined 18cm cake tin.
4. Refrigerate the base.
5. Whisk the cream cheese, mascarpone, sugar, eggs and vanilla pod until consistent.
6. Pour the mixture onto the biscuit base and bake in a bain-marie for an hour or until just set.
7. Allow to cool and chill in the fridge for at least four hours.
8. Run a hot spatula or knife round the edges of the cheesecake to remove from its tin.
9. To serve, cut and decorate the cheesecake with raspberries and mint leaves.

Continue

Pan con tomate (Spanish-style toast with tomato)

Tired from work and cannot be bothered to eat out or cook a proper meal? I know the perfect no-fuss, fresh and healthy food to make! It is the perfect mid-week quick and light dinner. Ingredients used are very basic so most likely, you already have them in the fridge so no shopping needed. Better yet, if you have a herb garden, freshly plucked basil is always a plus.



PAN CON TOMATE (SPANISH-STYLE TOAST WITH TOMATO) RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 5 slices of baguette


• 1 clove garlic cut in half


• 2 vine-ripen tomato (grated)


• 5 basil leaves (sliced)


• 1 tbs olive oil


• sea salt & ground black pepper

• salad leaves

Method:

1. Slice the baguette, as many as you please but the ingredients above are for about five slices.


2. Toast the baguette.


3. While the baguette slices are being toasted, grate the tomatoes into a bowl.


4. Mix the grated tomatoes with basil leaves and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, then set aside.


5. Cut the garlic clove into half and rub on to the toasts.


6. Spoon the seasoned grated tomato onto the toast and serve with salad leaves on the side.

Tips:

• Use good  quality olive oil and tomato.


• You can always add some ham on the toasts if you cannot live without meat.

Continue

Beef Pot Roast

Supermarket has always been my go to place for meat in London. That is because I have not seen any decent butcher near where I live, at least I used to. Recently, I found one. And this was the first time I bought any form of meat so early in the morning!! It was actually very pleasant being at my local butcher, Mr. Bull. It feels more personal chatting and buying meat there than at a supermarket.

Beef joint for pot roast, TICK!!

On the very same day in the afternoon, after an enjoyable rendezvous of breakfast, museum, lunch and shopping with Nz, we ended our day at Whole Foods! It was like heaven. Food Heaven! There was almost everything there. There were vegetables I have never seen before, or knew about; like black mooli, a dozen species of squash, even yellow beans!! This is definitely how two girls have fun. Shop for food!! We had similar fun doing that in Spain and obviously it did not stop there. Was there just for fresh bread but we ended up with an over flowing basket.

Bread to serve with pot roast, TICK!!

Now after a happy day of shopping, the work begins in the kitchen.., kind of. Beef pot roast must sound like something that is really difficult to make or a dish that requires lots of attention. It is actually the opposite. The most attention needed was to buy good ingredients. The rest is up to the slow cooker. Well, I have not told you this, but I bought a new toy, the Tefal 8-in-1 cooker. What I love about this new gadget is that there is an in built timer.

All the fun effort put into making this almost no sweat 'Beef Pot Roast' is to welcome back my sweetheart from his partial holiday / partial medical leave where dental treatment is a lot more affordable. Yes, poor thing had to go through a root canal surgery and I have seen his swollen face the day after the dentist visit. Not very pleasant. So I think he needed some comfort food that is delicious yet easily edible. Nothing that will hurt him chewing.

Delicious melt in your mouth pot roast, TICK!! Mission accomplished!

BEEF POT ROAST RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 kg beef joint
• 3 tbs olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 1 tbs flour
• 2 cubes beef bouillon
• 300ml hot water
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 tbs worcestershire sauce

• 3 sprigs of thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 cloves unpeeled smoked garlic (prick with a knife)
• 1 red onion (sliced)
• 3 celery (an inch)
• 4 carrots (wedged)
• 1 tbs cranberry sauce
• 1/2 tbs of butter

• Bread (*The baker at Whole Foods recommended 'Beer Bread' to match with this dish. You can use any bread you like, of course.

Method:

1. Melt the beef bouillon cubes in hot water and set aside.
2. Heat the pot with olive oil. While waiting for the pot to heat up, season the beef with salt, pepper and flour.
3. Brown beef on hot pot. When both sides of beef are brown, transfer it into the slow cooker bowl.
4. With the pot that you have browned the beef, add the wine and worcestershire sauce into the pot to deglaze.
5. Let the alcohol evaporate and stir in about a cup of beef stock to combine into a smooth sauce. Make sure you stir out any lumps.
6. Now pour the liquid from the pot into the slow cooker bowl where the beef was resting, and the rest of the beef stock into the slow cooker along with the garlic, celery and carrot.
7. Caramelise the onions on a separate pan and tip them in to the slow cooker.
8. Let the beef braise in its own juice in the slow cooker for about 6 hours or until beef falls off easily and vegetables are soft.
9. When it is almost ready, melt that tiny knob of butter and stir in cranberry sauce to give it that extra flavour.
10. Serve in a bowl with some bread on the side.

Tips:

• While beef is browning, try not to toss it around as it will not brown well.

You may also like:

• Bigos (Polish Hunter's Stew)
• Beef Stew

Continue

Watermelon & Goats Cheese

Whoever combined watermelon and goats cheese together is a genius!! Who would have thought the two would be match made in heaven. I vaguely remember seeing watermelon and goats cheese somewhere on the web and thought what crazy person would put those two together in their mouth?! I am now one of those crazy person.

To be frank, it was just a coincidence that I made this appetizer. One day after my third Bokwa class on my way to the tube station, I passed by Sainsbury's and thought I will buy some food back. And out of the ordinary, I bought goats cheese for the second time. The first time I had it, I did not like it at all but after so many years, I thought it is about time for me try it again to make sure I really hate it so I will never go near that thing again. Of course I was being quite a coward by getting the milder version, ranked number 2 on its maturity level.

When I got home to stock my refrigerator with food, I saw that quarter of a watermelon and thought this is the perfect time to try the food I never thought tastes good on its own and together. I meant goats cheese and, combination of goats cheese and watermelon. I love watermelon!! I had one bite with the two together and man, they are really meant for each other. I think they are the perfect couple.



I have shared the version I made in the recipe below. Hope you like it too. And if you have not tried this before, open up and try this at least once.

This is such a simple and healthy food.

WATERMELON & GOATS CHEESE RECIPE

• Watermelon


• Goats cheese
  
  
  
  • for vegetarians, please use a substitute cheese
  
  
  
  


• Alfalfa sprouts


• Mint

Method:

1. For the more casual style, cut the watermelon in cubes. De-seed them if needed. Crumble the goats cheese on to the bowl of cubed watermelons. Add some chopped mint and alfalfa sprouts. Mix them all together and eat to your hearts content.


2. If you are making this for a dinner party or just want to make pretty appetizer, cut the watermelon with a circle food ring so it looks neat round. Top it up with a bunch of alfalfa sprouts stacked neatly on top of the watermelon. Scoop the goats cheese on top and add a few leaves of mint.

Continue

Salmon and Mango Salsa Stack

There was a fat juicy mango sitting in the fridge for the past days, waiting to be eaten. I was just going to criss-cross cut each half, push the cubes out by flipping the skin inside out and devour the juicy sweet meaty flesh, cube by cube off the skin when I sit home and relax, not think about anything but chill on a Friday night.





Instead of just simply enjoying my beloved fruit on its own, she was very carefully prepared to be married with smoked salmon. I came across the 'scallop with gingered mango-tomato salsa' post on DorieGreenspan’s blog and thought I could spread this idea over to salmon. When I surfed further, I found Health Burst’s site on Salmon stack and  thought it looks stunning and delicious.  So I made my version of salmon stack and initiate my attempt to carefully stack the ingredients in the food ring. It looks really impressive. And it looks like it came straight out of a restaurant kitchen!

So easy and no cooking involved! Brilliantly simple.

My similar version of Healthy Burst's Salmon stack.

SALMON AND MANGO SALSA STACK RECIPE
adapted from the Healthy Burst
Makes 1 stack

Ingredients:

• 60g smoked salmon
• ½ avocado (sliced)

Mango Salsa

• 1 mango (1cm cube)
• 1 tomato (chopped)
• ¼ cucumber (cubed)
• ¼ red onion (finely chopped)
• ½ chilli; deseeded (finely chopped)
• ½ lime
• Small bunch of mint (chopped)
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

Lime Chilli Mayonnaise

• ½ lime
• ¼ chilli
• 1 tbs japanese mayonnaise

Method:

1.  Prepare the lime chilli mayonnaise first. 
2.  Stir the mayonnaise with juice of half a lime and finely chopped chilli. Put aside for later.
3.  Prepare the mango salsa by mixing the ingredients together. Sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste.
4.  Place a the cylindrical food ring on the plate you are serving with.
5.  Layer it with the salmon then avocado. Push them down slightly to make sure they are compact.
6.00Top it up with the mango salsa and make sure they are well packed so they keep in shape and will not fall off when the ring is lifted out.
7.  Lift the ring when ready to serve and spoon some of the mayonnaise mix on to the salmon stack.

All ingredients well packed and supported by the ring

Tips:

• I would try make the mayonnaise with a pinch of chilli powder or curry powder the next time.

You may also like:

Halloumi Fig & Pomegranate Salad

Salmon Ceviche

Watermelon & Goat’s Cheese

Continue

Seafood Stick Tortilla Cup

There must a time when you are left with too many tortilla wraps and not sure what to do with it. Well, I have found a way to use them! Instead of the usual tortilla chips, make them into little tortilla cups instead! You can always fill the cups with whatever filling you fancy. The recipe below is for fillings made with seafood stick. I know it is processed food and will not be very healthy but that was what I had in the fridge as my backup food and it's tasty. So when you are out of ingredients and have too many tortilla wraps, this could be a lovely option. Seafood stick is also handy for a quick addition into Tom Yum Soup or anything for that matter. Get creative!

Below is a step by step compilation of images and further down are the ingredients and methods.

Quarter the tortilla wraps and push each quarter into ramekins or muffin tray, whichever you have handy. Make sure the edges are pushed through but be careful not to break it.

Once all the ramekins or muffin tray is filled with tortilla wrap, fill each of them with some shallots and bake.

Fill the crispy tortilla cups with the mixed fillings and top with basil leaves.

Recipe: Seafood Stick Tortilla Cup

Ingredients:

• 2 tortilla wrap


• 2 shallots (sliced)


• 1 ripe avocado (sliced)


• 1/2 long sweet pepper (chopped)


• 200g seafood stick


• 4 tbs mayonnaise


• 10 basil leaves (tear)


• juice of 1 small lime


• sea salt & black pepper to taste


• extra virgin olive oil

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.


2. Cut the tortilla wraps into quarters. Push each quarter into the ramekins / muffin tray.


3. Slice the shallots and place them in the tortilla cups.


4. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until tortilla cups are brown and crispy.


5. When the tortilla cups are ready, leave it to cool.


6. While waiting for the cups to bake, fork or tear the seafood sticks into long strips. You can also cut them with a knife, whichever way you prefer.


7. Mix the seafood stick strips, chopped peppers, basil leaves, lime juice and mayonnaise in a bowl and mix well.


8. Add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil then season with salt and pepper to taste. Give it a quick stir.


9. Slice the avocados and arrange them in the tortilla cups. Top it up with a generous amount of the crab stick mix.


10. Decorate it with basil leaves and they are ready to serve.

Note:

1. You can substitute the seafood stick with crab meat, tuna, pieces of chicken or even minced pork. Be creative, cooking is suppose to be fun.


2. This is also a quick and pretty party food.

Continue

Chilli Ginger Salmon

Friday morning, the last day of the work week. Everyone anticipates for the weekend. Clearly, I was already drifting in my dreams. I was in the train to work as usual. Normally, I would get off at the right station and do that 20 minutes walk to the office but not this day. The iPhone kept me really busy communicating with the girls from the other side of the world. So, I missed my stop! Neither the girls or the phone was to be blamed, but it was the ballet I watched the night before that got me excited and still thinking about it the next morning.

Missed the stop and this is what I spotted! Beautiful morning dew stringed into tiny droplets on the spider web. Do you believe it was taken with the iPhone camera?

The first time inside the Royal Opera House Theatre

At the Paul Hamlyn Hall Bar during the break

That ballet was entitled Polyphonia / Sweet Violet / Carbon Life. They were three separate ballets by different choreographers. Each, unique on it's own but only one stood out!

Carbon Life was my favourite out of the three. It was choreographed by Wayne McGregor with music collaboration by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt. It was a fantastic fusion of ballet, contemporary, futuristic pop, live music, fashion, great backdrop and lighting. The whole choreography was well put together; very inventive. Angular costumes by Gareth Pugh fitted well in the choreography. I liked the spiky tutus although I wasn't sure about te spiky boots.

The opening of Carbon Life was filled with suspense where dancers dance behind a thin, almost transparent screen, dressed in skin coloured body fitted costume. Spot lights that shone on them make them glow like dancing fireflies. There were spots of glowing light above the dancers that looked like some sort of floating spaceship. I would sum this scene up as futuristic heaven with glowing fairies dancing around in their birthday suits. Further into the choreography, the fairies in the wonderland moved into more energetic moves with power and precision yet with fluidity of movements.

Even the exterior looks romantic; the lights of the interior shining through the glass windows and the sparkly light hanging on the naked tree.

When you saw the title of this post, you must have wondered how ballet, spider web and salmon makes a dish. Hopefully pan-fried salmon with sugar snap peas did not disappoint you.

Pan-Fried Chilli Ginger Salmon with Sugar Snap Peas

makes 2

Ingredients:

• 2 pieces of salmon
• 3 inch of ginger (grated)
• 6 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1 chilli (chopped)
• 2 tbs premium light soy sauce
• 8 tbs water
• 100g sugar snap peas
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• coriander (optional)

Methods:

1.  Descale the salmon skin if that has not been done by the fishmonger.

2.  Clean and pat dry the salmon with kitchen towel.

3.  Wash the sugar snap peas and place in a bowl. Boil some water, enough to cover over the bowl of sugar snap peas.

4.  While waiting for the water to boil, chop the garlic and chilli finely and grate the ginger. Place them aside.

5.  When water is boiled, pour over the bowl of snap peas, making sure the water covers over them. Cover it with a plate.

6.  Heat the pan with oil in medium-high heat. Place the salmon skin side down. Cover the pan and let it cook for about 4 minutes until skin crispy. Turn it over and cook for another 3 minutes. Time of cooking varies depending on the thickness of fish and how cook you like them. The timing above will cook the salmon to how i like it, slightly pink.

7.  Use a thong to take the fish out of the pan and place on plate with kitchen towel to drain the oil.

8.  Use the oil (reduce it if necessary) and stir fry the garlic, chilli and ginger until fragrant.

9.  Add in the soy sauce and water. Let it boil and reduce to about half.

10.  Drain the snap peas, and toss with sesame oil.

11.  Place the salmon on a serving plate, along with the snap peas. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve with some coriander leaves on the side.

Continue

Salmon en Croute

When you feel like making something delicious yet quick dinner after work, I suggest making this. All you need to do is assemble and bake. Then wait for the timer to go off while you get on with reading the paper, checking your mails or wind down on the comfortable couch.

Salmon parcel ready to be baked

...et viola (after 30 minutes in the oven)

An impressive dinner with minimal effort

SALMON EN CROUTE RECIPE

Serves 2

• 250g salmon


• puff pastry (readily rolled)


• a squeeze of lemon juice


• 1 small egg

• 25g sun-dried tomato (chopped)


• 20g tapenade


• 10g basil (chopped)


• salt and pepper


• rocket

Methods:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C.


2. Descale the fish and pat dry with kitchen towel. Season with salt, peper and a squeeze of lemon juice.


3. Chop up the sun-dried tomato then mix it with the tapenade and chopped basil. Add salt and pepper to taste.


4. Roll out the puff pastry onto a flat surface. Place one piece of salmon on the puff pastry, spread the salmon with the tapenade mix. Then top it with anther piece of salmon.


5. Once the salmon has been sandwiched with the tapenade, fold the other half of the puff pastry and brush the edges with some egg wash to seal. Press the edges with a fork to make sure the parcel seals tightly.


6. Brush the parcel with the egg wash to make it glisten.


7. Make neat criss cross cuts on the parcel to allow steam through.


8. Bake for 30minutes.


9. When ready, half it and serve on a bed of rocket or any vegetables you prefer.

Tips:

• You can make this with different filling. Try it with cream cheese and spinach, or mustard seeds with butter and dill.


• If you have extra puff pastry after wrapping up the salmon, you can make them into tapenade or sun-dried tomato batons. The batons are great for party snacks.

Sun-dried tomato batons

SUN-DRIED TOMATO / TAPENADE BATON RECIPE

Ingredients:

• Sun-dried tomato / tapenade


• Puff pastry

Method:

1. Spread the tapenade or chopped sun dried tomato on one half of the leftover sheet of puff pastry.


2. Fold the sheet up and cut into about an inch batons.


3. Brush the batons with egg wash.


4. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Tips:

• You can make these batons with Dijon mustard as well.


• These batons freeze well.

Continue

Date Night In : Chocolate Thyme Cake with Orange Cream

..... a continuity of the Date Night In post with the Beef Stew recipe

Have you had thyme hot chocolate? It is one of my recent favourites. It gives the hot chocolate a very lovely scent and a smoother texture in mouth that I like. It has a calming effect too. There is just an extra step and ingredient added in your usual making of hot chocolate. All you need to do is add a sprig of thyme while heating the milk, remove it and froth the milk. Put a few teaspoon of your favourite hot chocolate powder and add the heated milk into the mug and stir well. The froth is poured in after for a finer finish of smoothly frothed milk. Try this and let me know how you like it. If you do not have a milk frother, omit that step or buy one. I currently use the Bodum Latteo Milk Frother but my I am itching for the Aeroccino that heats and froth at the same time.

From the above experience of the perfect combination of chocolate and thyme, it gave me the idea of adding thyme to the chocolate cake.



CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH ORANGE CREAM RECIPE

adapted from Sweet Paul's Fallen Chocolate Cake

serves 8

Ingredients:

• 250g dark chocolate


• 225g butter


• 6 eggs, seperated


• 4 sprigs of lemon thyme


• 6 tbs sugar


• 250ml double cream


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• 1 tbs caster sugar


• 1 orange

Methods:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.


2. Melt the chopped chocolate with the butter and lemon thyme in a bain marie or in the microwave.


3. Beat the yolks and sugar until pale. Mix in the chocolate.


4. Whisk the egg whites into stiff peaks and gently fold into the chocolate mixture.


5. Pour the mixture into ramekins or into a 12 inch cake tin.


6. Bake for 12 minutes if using ramekin or 16-20 minutes if using cake tin.


7. The cake will rise and fall so don't panic.


8. While the cake is in the oven, zest half an orange and squeeze out juice from half an orange.


9. Use the remaining half of the orange for decoration of the cake. Cut them into small wedges.


10. Whip the double cream with a teaspoon of vanilla extract and sugar until soft peak.


11. Combine orange juice and zest and mix well.


12. Scoop the whipped cream on top of the cake and decorate with the orange wedges.

Tips:

• The cake tastes much better when warm. So heat it up before serving and scoop a generous amount of orange cream onto it afterwards.

Continue

Date Night In : Beef Stew

Valentine's Day has always been quite controversial. There is a legend behind this day but some think that it is a day created so businesses could benefit from selling cards, buying gifts, flowers, restaurants hiking up prices just because it is a day of romance and everything else that is related to February 14th.

Personally, I think it is not necessary to go out on expensive dinner dates on this very night just cause everything is twice the price, restaurants are packed, most places would have a set menu to make their life easier so there is limited choice, and then there is higher expectations cause it is suppose to be this perfect night spent with your loved ones. All these are unnecessary. What is most important is that loved ones are nice and caring towards each other throughout. The most romantic in my opinion is the little everyday details. It could be the morning or I'm home kiss, even making dinner for him/her, helping out with laundry and cleaning, or waking up with that amazing breakfast with juice and hot chocolate or tea waiting for you. All that daily details aside, what makes a girl happiest are surprises at the most unexpected moments.

Since M and I won't be celebrating Valentine's Day on the day itself, we had a date night in on Saturday. It was a perfect evening with great meal home cooked with love, good wine and the best company. It was simple but lovely.

MENU for DATE NIGHT IN

~ no starter ~

~ beef stew with puff pastry ~

~ chocolate thyme cake with orange cream ~

Beef Stew with heart shaped Puff Pastry sprinkled with herbs

The beef stew was initially planned to be served with rice or potato puree but I thought of giving it some texture so chose puff pastry instead. It makes it sort of like a dismantled beef pie; less rustic with heart shaped puffs.

BEEF STEW RECIPE

adapted from SmallKitchCara's entry on Food52
Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 700g stewing beef, cut into 2-3 inch cubes
• Salt & pepper
• 2 tbs olive oil

• 1 anchovy
• 2 slices of bacon
• 1 leek, sliced thinly
• 1 large onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 celery, diced
• 150g white mushrooms, quartered
• 70g tomato paste
• 60ml red wine vinegar
• 120ml red wine
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• 150ml water
• 1 can chopped tomatoes

• 2 small bay leaves
• 2 sprigs thyme (I used scented thyme)
• 10g dark chocolate
• Handful chopped parsley

Scented Thyme

Chopped ingredients

Methods:

1. Brown the beef that has been seasoned with salt and pepper in high heat. Remove to plate
2. Fry the bacon then the onions and garlic until fragrant. Add in the rest of the vegetables and cook for about 5 minutes until softened.
3. Stir in anchovies and tomato paste, melt it and distribute.
4. Add in the beef and its juices, vinegar, wine and chopped tomatoes.
5. Add the beef bouillon that has been melted in 150ml of water into the pot. Then put the bay leaves and thyme in and bring it to boil.
6. Let it simmer for about 3 hours then stir in the dark chocolate and let it cook for another 30 minutes.
7. Cool to room temperature. Have it to sit for a few hours until ready to serve.
8. Heat it for about 3o minutes and garnish with chopped parsley.

The lovely multi-sized heart shaped puffs with the simple but delicious beef stew

Please click here for Chocolate Cake recipe.

You may also like:

• Bigos (Polish Hunter's Stew)
• Beef Pot Roast

Continue