A Classic British Treat

The Victoria Sponge - 100% Homemade.


A nice and easy cake to make and perfect for afternoon teas.

I used the recipe from deliciousmagazine, which required minimal ingredients.

Ingredients

Self-raising flour, caster sugar, egg, butter and a bit lemon to make the sponge and some bottled strawberry jam to make the filling (although it would be much better if you could make your own jam).

Cake mixture

Once the cake mixture is done, I divided it into two halves and poured into two spring-foam tins. You may put the cake mixture in one bigger tin. I chose to bake the two sponge layers separately as it is easier than cutting a big sponge into two equal halves.

Cake mixture in tins

Once the sponges are done, cool them on a rack before spreading any jam.

Sponges cooling

Sponges

Strawberry Jam spread

Once the sponges are cooled, spread strawberry jam on top of the bottom sponge then put the top layer sponge on top. Alternatively, raspberry jam can be used instead.

Victoria Sponge

Most recipes add whipped cream to the cake, but I am making the traditional Victoria Sponge which do not include whipped cream.

The edges of the sponge look torn. Perhaps next time I should grease the cake tins more thoroughly, lift the sponges out carefully and then dust the top with icing sugar.

Nice and tasty afternoon treat, with the hint of lemon cutting through the light and buttery sponge. Lovely strawberry jam sandwiched in between. Perfect with a cup of tea.

Here are some more Victoria Sponge recipes from deliciousmagazine and the queen of desserts, Mary Berry.

Souffle The Third

To fulfil a special request from a friend of mine, who really really wanted to try my soufflés......

My third attempt at making Lemon Soufflés and I think they looked much better than the first ones!

Exactly the same recipe by Mary Berry but slightly more cooking time as the ramekins I used were much bigger than suggested (possibly the reason why my last ones did not rise as much).

They rose beautifully, but to be a perfectionist, I still think they needed to be a bit more brown on top. Perhaps a couple more minutes next time!

I love those lovely little soufflés, light and fluffy with acidic flavour of lemon cutting through it. Simply delicious!


Perhaps I will be more adventurous next time and try different flavoured soufflés and even add some other ingredients in it.

Homemade Macaroni Cheese

One day at work, I just had this craving for a nice big bowl of macaroni cheese. I thought it would not be too hard to make, hence I went Google'ing' for the recipe.

I came across three almost completely different recipes (apart from the macaroni) and did not know which to choose!

There was BBC's, Nigella Lawson's and Jamie Oliver's recipe.

Votes were cast and Jamie's recipe won right out!

It was because he added a tiny twist to the classical "old-school frumpy Anglicized dish of macaroni cheese" by using four different types of cheese! 

So off I went to the supermarket to get the ingredients. Instead of Fontina or Taleggio cheese as suggested in the recipe, I got Cheddar simply because the other two were not available. I also added another ingredient to the dish for some protein - ham.

Ingredients

Recipe taken from Jamie Oliver's website.

Ingredients:

• 500g/1lb 2oz good-quality macaroni
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• a knob of buttera small bunch of fresh marjoram or oregano, leaves picked
• 100g/3½oz Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus extra for grating
• 100g/3½oz fontina or taleggio cheese, roughly torn
• 100g/3½oz mascarpone cheese
• ¼ of a nutmega
 small ball of buffalo mozzarella cheese




Method:

• Preheat your oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. 
• Cook the macaroni in a pan of salted boiling water 2 minutes short of the timing on the packet instructions, then drain in a colander and reserve a little of the cooking water. 
• Heat the butter in a large heavy-based frying pan. When it starts to foam, add the marjoram or oregano and fry for a minute until it starts to crisp up, then turn off the heat. 
• Add your cooked pasta to the marjoram or oregano butter, along with a couple of spoonfuls of the reserved cooking water and the Parmesan, fontina or taleggio and mascarpone. 
• Return to a medium heat and toss and stir around until most of the cheese has melted and you have a lovely gooey sauce – you may need to add a little more of the reserved cooking water. 
• Season to taste, then tip it all into an earthenware dish. Grate over the nutmeg, tear over the mozzarella and sprinkle over the extra Parmesan. 
• Bake the macaroni cheese in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes, finishing up with a quick whack under the grill, until golden brown and crispy on top.

And the result is......

Macaroni Cheese in oven-proof dish

Nice golden brown and crispy top that looks very inviting!

Plate of Macaroni Cheese with Peas

The Macaroni Cheese tastes amazing with all the different flavours coming from the four cheeses. Nice and 'gooey' but I thought it would have been nicer if it was a little bit MORE 'gooey' by adding a little bit more of the reserved cooking water.

I like Jamie's 'rustic and flavour-filled' take in his recipes! Yum Yum!

Waterloo Gardens Teahouse

In the UK, when you mention afternoon tea, scones and clotted cream usually comes into mind. Teas, cakes and sandwiches also come into the picture.

The last time I had proper afternoon tea was at The Berkeley, Knightsbridge and the Grosvenor House Hotel, Mayfair.

So, I was pretty excited when friends and colleagues told me about this cafe in Cardiff that serves afternoon tea on a 3-tier stand!

This little cafe or teahouse - The Waterloo Gardens Teahouse, is not located at the 'famous' Waterloo in London, but is aptly named after the street where it's located, called Waterloo Gardens in Penylan, Cardiff.

According to the teahouse's website, one can only reserve a table by pre-booking afternoon teas, and we soon found out the reason why when we arrived at the place.

Signboard Outside Cafe

View from our table

The place was filled with people enjoying their teas and cakes, people standing by the counter and people queueing up to wait for free tables!

Busy afternoon

As you can see on the wall behind the bar, the shelves are filled with pots of teas for sale to the public. You can buy "fine artisan tea from award winning estates around the world from this tiny little teahouse!

Tea Menu

Faced with a very extensive list of different teas that I can choose from the rather thick tea menu, I chose the award-winning Lychee Oolong. For me, fruity teas never fail to impress with their subtle sweetness complimenting the fragrant Oolong.

Hourglass

I was wondering why every table had this colourful hourglass and soon found out that it was to time how long different teas should brew in the teapots!

3-Tier Stand and Tea Set

3- Tier Stand

Clotted Cream and Raspberry Jam

Top tier consists of the clotted cream and raspberry jam for the miniature scones found in middle tier.

Scone and Coffee & Tia Maria Cake

Middle tier carries the miniature scones and slices of Coffe & Tia Maria cakes.

Finger Sandwiches

The bottom tier then holds the finger sandwiches including Mixed Vegetable Sandwich, Cheddar Cheese and Tomato Chutney Sandwich and Salmon with Soft Cheese Sandwich.

Normally, we start with the savoury food, hence the sandwiches. I thought the sandwiches were nice and normal, a far cry from being exceptionally impressive.

After finishing the savoury foods, we proceeded to the scones. I thought the scones were tiny and baked a bit too long as they have gone rather hard and dry. However, a big dollop of my favourite clotted cream just about saved the day. I must say that the cream tea (scones and cream) I had in Dartmouth was way better although it is unfair to compare scones here vs. those served in a Michelin starred restaurant. But even the cream tea in a normal cafe @ Cotswolds was nicer.

Then we continued on to the sweet cakes - Coffee & Tia Maria Cake. I liked this cake as it was very moist. The cake has a nice coffee flavoured buttercream, a very subtle Tia Maria flavour infused in the coffee flavoured sponge.

A rather rich cake but a sip of my Lychee Oolong tea just nicely cut through the richness of it.

Although this afternoon tea has not achieved the elegance and attention to details of those offered in Berkeley and Grosvenor House but this was very well compensated with a considerably lower price of GBP11.50 (compared to GBP35-40 at the other two establishments).

In conclusion, I would picture afternoon tea at this place as "like having sandwiches, cakes and tea in any other cafe" but served on a 3-tier stand and a tea set. But I do like the friendly atmosphere of this place as long as I don't have to wait in an amazingly long queue for a free table!



On a note, I found it rather difficult to enjoy my afternoon tea when the chairs are higher than the table! 

.CN

If you are wondering what .CN is, it is the name of a fairly new restaurant in Cardiff.

Opened about 2 years ago in City Road, this restaurant boast Authentic Chinese Food. They serve food in their restaurant and they also do takeaways. I heard that they even have Karaoke rooms upstairs if you like singing in private!

But this time, we were only interested in the food.

Now, China is a huge country with so many different provinces that the food they eat can be so different from each other from North to South and from East to West. According to the restaurant website, they offer food from the Northern Provinces of China, in particular the Szechuan Province. It is known that, whenever people hear Szechuan food, it means super hot and spicy! That is also one of the reasons why I waited so long before visiting this place (I can't take food which is tooooo spicy!).

They also offer the traditional Chinese Hot Pot in the restaurant but we went for the a la carte this time.

There were so much to offer on the menu that we decided on these five dishes including vegetables, meat, fish and squid.

Pan Fried Dumplings

First up, we had the Pan Fried Dumplings. I was surprised to see the presentation of it, Chinese Dumplings looking like a pancake is new stuff for me!

I thought Chinese dumplings usually look different as shown here.

Nevertheless, dumplings are still dumplings when they are made of minced pork enveloped in flour 'skin', dipped into Chinese black vinegar.

Nicely pan-fried to give a crispy skin, coupled with well-marinated mince, I am happy.

Steamed Seabass 红烧鲈鱼

Then the Steamed Seabass arrived, basked in dark, sticky sauce and garnished with some spring onions.

This dish is actually a common dish within Chinese households where the fish is normally steamed or braised in a nice spicy sauce filled with ginger, chillies and spring onions.

The fish was nicely fried, giving a crunchy texture and the sauce was tasty although not as spicy as I thought it would be.

My housemate cooked this dish before - Spicy Seabream, and personally, I thought it was much better tasting, and better looking.

Northeast China Salad 五彩大拉皮

As for the vegetable dish, we ordered the Northeast China Salad.

I thought it looked beautiful with many different colours.

This salad dish is made of julienne carrots, cucumbers, shredded pork, flat rice noodles (made of rice flour), shredded omelette and some parsley. The dressing for this salad is a type of peanut sauce. Everything on the plate was mixed together before being served.

I love the different textures and flavours of this salad with the sweet shredded pork and delicious peanut dressing - wonderful!

Salt and Pepper Squid 椒盐鲜鱿鱼

The Salt and Pepper Squid (deep fried) was amazing!

I love the crunch with each bite, well seasoned with salt and pepper, and the perfectly cooked squid which was not too chewy and not too hard.

I must say that this was my favourite dish that evening.

Braised Chinese Meatballs 红烧狮子头

The next dish was the Braised Chinese Meatballs. Because it was new on the menu, we decided to give it a go.

However, I thought this dish was rather disappointing.

The meatballs were a tad too soft and mushy for my liking, maybe that is how Szechuan makes it but I have to say that it is an acquired taste.

I thought it had too much tofu content compared to meat and the meat tasted like luncheon meat out of a can!

The sauce was exactly the same as that of the fish dish.

I was not impressed by this dish.

Again, my housemate made similar Chinese Meat Balls before and it was way nicer than this!

Steamed Twisted Bun 花卷

Last but not least, was the very simple Steamed Twisted Bun to accompany all the flavours of the many dishes.

We thought the Steamed Twisted Bun would go well with the sauces of the different dishes so we ordered one to share.

I had quite an interesting experience in this restaurant where I found out what dishes to order and what not to for the next time.

Most importantly, I enjoyed the fellowship with my friends!

Pork Chops with Sage and Apple

I have done more cooking from recipes this week as I am in 'cooking-from-recipe-mood' now!

This pork chop recipe was found in the January 2012 issue of deliciousmagazine.

It sounds like a dish for the cold winter season (as it was appropriately published in a winter issue), I thought it was perfect for the rather unusual wintry weather we are having now in April!

Ingredients

This dish was an easy one to cook with minimal ingredients which obviously include pork chops and apples. I used dried sage instead of fresh ones because I could not find any in the supermarket.

Cider and Crème Fraiche used in this recipe created a dish more exciting than the classic Pork chops with apple.

The recipe called for dry cider, but I chose this cider made from apples as I thought it would match the dish pretty well.

Sauté Pork Chops

Butter and olive oil was first heated in a large pan over high heat. When the butter started to foam, pork chops were added in the pan and seasoned with salt and pepper. Both sides of the chops were cooked until they turned golden.

Then apple slices were added into the pan and tossed until they were golden and softened and the chops were cooked through.

Apple slices added

The cider was then poured in and the crème fraiche and sage stirred in, then brought to a simmer and allowed to bubble for a couple of minutes until the sauce was slightly thickened.

The dish was seasoned with some salt and pepper before being served.

Pork Chops with sage and apple

The pork chops were really nice with the thick and creamy sauce, although I would have loved the chops to be seasoned a little bit more with salt.

The cider nicely cut through the thick creamy flavour of the sauce and the meaty flavour of the pork.

The wonderfully sweet and soft apples accompanied by the rich and domineering sage gave a lovely cold-weather combination to the meaty pork chops!

A delicious dish served with a perfect dollop of mashed sweet potatoes.

Braised Chicken Legs with Shallots, Lettuce and Peas

As the title suggests, I have made Braised Chicken with some shallots, little gem lettuce hearts and frozen peas.

Lots of greens and protein served with a little carbohydrate from the creamy mashed potatoes - a very balanced meal indeed!

I have not attempted any recipes from the magazine that I subscribe to for quite a while, but I could not resist it when I came across this wonderful looking dish.

The recipe was taken from the May 2012 issue of deliciousmagazine.

Ingredients

The herbs used in this recipe was Thyme and Tarragon, each a perfect match to the chicken and greens in this dish!

The chicken legs were washed then the knuckle end chopped off then seasoned all over with sea salt and pepper.

Olive oil was heated in a large deep frying pan then the chicken legs were added skin side down to sauté until nicely golden.

Shimmering in Chicken stock

Then Thyme, garlic and chicken stock were added and brought to boil, then partially covered and simmered for 45-50 minutes.

About 10 minutes before the chicken legs were ready, butter was melted in a pan then shallots were added to cook gently until tender and lightly brown.

At this time, the kitchen was filled with the lovely aroma from the caramelising shallots and herby fragrance of the thyme and garlic simmering with the chicken in stock.

Shallots, Lettuce and Peas added

When the chicken legs were ready, they were transferred unto a plate and kept warm with aluminium foil.

Excess fat was skimmed from the surface of the remaining liquid then peas, sugar, tarragon and some more butter were stirred in. The mixture was seasoned with more salt and pepper then simmered for another 5 minutes.

Then the lettuce wedges, shallots and chicken legs were added to the pan and simmered for another 3 minutes until the lettuce and peas were tender and the chicken had heated through.

Braised Chicken with shallots, lettuce and peas

The bitter-sweet, aromatic flavour of thyme flourished in the braised chicken dish. The 'green and grassy' character of anise-flavoured tarragon is not only a classic partner for chicken dishes, its sweet anise flavour with a bitter edge also suits pea, which is sweet enough itself. (The flavour Thesaurus)

Not forgetting the wonderful garlic that heightened the flavour of this savoury dish and the sweet caramelised shallots that bought even more flavours to this dish.

Served with creamy mashed potatoes

A delightful evening meal packed with many wonderful flavours of the greens and herbs bringing out the flavour of the savoury chicken. Served with a nice and hearty creamy mashed potatoes.

I love following a recipe that brings many wonderful flavours together in one dish!

Khazana - A Food Review

Whitchurch Village in Cardiff is dotted with many wonderful restaurants offering different cuisines from different cultures including Italian, Thai, British, Chinese and Indian.

This time, we visited an Indian restaurant called Khazana to celebrate a colleague's birthday and to meet up with an old friend.


We were greeted with a nice smile as soon as we arrived and was led into a dining space with a very nice ambience with dim lights.

According to my colleague, who recommended that place, Khazana has changed management over a year ago, undergone renovation, and is now much better than before!

So, without further ado, we 'studied' the menu in great detail as it seems to offer so many different dishes. Different meat and vegetarian dishes and so many different types of curries, not what you would normally see in an Indian restaurant in Cardiff.

Menu

After much deliberation, most of us went for the Butterfly Prawns for starters.

It did come out looking somewhat like a beautiful butterfly - deep fried!

It looked really delicious, perfectly deep fried in a nice batter, giving it a nice crunch with the big juicy prawn. Those who had this, loved it!

Butterfly Prawn

I went for the unconventional (to me personally) duck dish to start. Maybe it is a common thing in an Indian restaurant, but I have never seen a duck as a starter in one!

Duck Breast

The duck was nicely roasted and the sticky sauce went really well with it. The sauce has a nice sweetness to it, almost like a plum sauce. While the sauce in the little pot just added some spice and kick to cut through the sweetness of the sticky sauce.

Then it was the main dishes to follow, with a bit of pilau rice and some naan breads......

Murgh Anarosh 

Again, I liked something unique and went for the Murgh Anarosh. Which consists of strips of chicken marinated in chef's special recipe (a restaurant secret of course) stuffed in a pineapple shell!

Pineapple cap off

Not only it looked amazing, it tasted amazing too!

As promised, it was a mild curry (yep! I cannot take food which is TOOOOO spicy!). It has a wonderful array of spices in the sauce, a citrusy sweetness from pineapple pieces, and I can taste some almond and coconut flavours coming through.

Wonderfully delicious eaten with some pilau rice and coconut naan bread!

Monkfish

One of our colleague ordered the Chef's special monkfish cooked in Chef's special recipe (again, a restaurant secret). It looked amazing!

Coconut Naan Bread

A very nice meal, good ambience, delicious food and of course wonderful people!

I would definitely come here again.

South East Asian Food in Cardiff

One might think that I will not want to have anymore Asian food since I just got back from Malaysia and Singapore.

But how can I resist opportunities to try out new places in town?! These restaurants are not exactly brand new or just open in town, it is just that I only recently found out about them!

Pho Bac in Canton, Cardiff.

From the name of the restaurant, you can safely guess that it is a Vietnamese restaurant! I got really excited that there is finally a Vietnamese restaurant in town!

The last time I had Vietnamese food was during my holiday in Kota Kinabalu, it was not that exciting so I did not blog about it. KK food need to improve!

The last time I had GOOD Vietnamese cuisine in the UK was in Hoxton, London. When I say good, I mean very good!

The menu looked impressive with lots of authentic Vietnamese dishes like the Rice Paper Summer Rolls, Roast Pigeon, Beef Noodle Soup, Cold Vermicelli Salad etc.

Shredded mango and ginger Tilapia

The Tilapia with Shredded mango and ginger was delicious! Deep fried Tilapia with a nice crunch, accompanied by sweet, sour and slightly spicy sauce, to top it up with some summery flavour of mango - perfect South East Asian taste!

Cold Vermicelli Salad

The Cold Vermicelli Salad that I ordered was absolutely comparable with the one I had in Song Que last year! It was served similar with grilled pork, deep fried rolls, lots of julienne daikon, crushed peanuts and of course the signature mint leaves! Drizzle with the special Vietnamese sweet chilli sauce.

The grilled pork had a fragrant char-grilled taste to it and the spring rolls was nicely deep fried which added a crunchy texture to the dish.

The dish could have been better if they added julienne carrots and cucumber to make it even more like the original. But that is just me being a perfectionist in food, nevertheless, this one is good enough!

Crispy Noodle with Seafood

We also ordered the Crispy Noodle served with Seafood. This dish is not dissimilar to the Cantonese Crispy Noodle.

What took us by surprise was the sheer enormity of the dish! There was so much noodle and seafood at a reasonable price of GBP 8!

The noodle was nicely fried and maintained a nice crunch, with a thick tasty sauce giving a nice fresh seafood flavour to it. I must also praise the well cooked squid as it was not chewy at all and had a very soft texture. So nice that I could have the squid all day long (just joking, need to watch the cholesterol!).


Vietnamese done, Malaysian next!

1Malaysia - where food is 'prepared with high authenticity and originality, eliminating commercial flavour!"

After dining here, we can surely vouch for that brave claim of bringing original and authentic Malaysian flavours to Cardiff!

Murtabak 

For starters, we had the Murtabak stuffed with chicken. This is an Indian style pancake with stuffing. The Murtabak is actually found commonly in Saudi Arabia, but Malaysians call it Indian pancakes as it is commonly (if not entirely) found in Indian Mamak stalls or shops only!

The variety without stuffing is called Roti Canai, which is also available in this restaurant.

The Murtabak we had was served with Dal and I absolutely loved it! The chicken stuffing was well marinated and had lots of Indian spices and curry flavours!

Nasi Lemak

For mains, we had the Nasi Lemak, which literally translates into fatty rice!

It is a Malay dish whereby coconut rice is served with belacan with squids (spicy shrimp paste sauce), fried ikan bilis (dried anchovies), peanuts, cucumber, chicken curry and of course the hard boiled egg.

All the flavours were nicely balanced with lots of different textures from the crunchy fried ikan bilis and peanuts to the soft and spicy squid in belacan. The coconut rice was of course very fragrant, served with spicy chicken curry. The cucumber and hard boiled egg nicely diffused the spiciness of all the other ingredients. Delicious!

Laksa Lemak

We also had the Laksa Lemak  for mains and it looked absolutely beautiful (and spicy!).

Served with lots of fresh king prawns and squids, this is a dish for the brave as it is very spicy (but in a nice way).

It has a nice chilli spiciness to it but it is not THAT spicy that it tingles your tongue until you lose all sense of taste.

It's the wonderful combination of spices, herbs, chillies that make South East Asian food so wonderfully flavourful and delicious!

Dessert Platter

Because we could not decided and what dessert to order, the very kind owner of the restaurant treated us to this dessert platter!

On the platter was banana fritters, Fried rolls stuffed with shredded coconut meat, Chinese Jian Deui (my favourite) and ice-cream.

A Malaysian dessert platter giving a perfect end to a wonderful and authentic Malaysian dinner!

This meal depicts the multi-cultural and multi-racial Malaysia with Chinese, Indian and Malay food all under one roof!