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!

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!

Mom's Own

Always the best!

For me, home-cooked meals are always the best!


This Braised Pork dish is so good that I thought it deserved a post all on its own!

Pork belly and pork rib braised (seared in high heat then cooked in liquid) with some hard boiled eggs.

The pork skin was rubbed with salt then seared in some oil at high heat. Some ginger and garlic was browned then star anise, peppercorn and the 'liquid' added. The 'liquid' that I mentioned consists of 'kicap manis' (sweet dark soya sauce), good quality brandy and some water until the liquid fully covers the pork.

PS Brandy was used here in place of Chinese Shao Xin Wine because we could not find any Shao Xin Wine in the supermarket!

Pork Belly

As the pork was cooking in the kitchen, the aroma filled the kitchen and was very iniviting!

Pork Rib

The braised pork was intended to be served the following day but it was so irresistible that we 'begged' (kind of) my mom to allow us some tasting session!

Braised Pork with Hard-boiled Eggs

Lo and behold, the pork tasted even better than it smelt! The very good quality brandy stood out but did not over-power the other flavours of soya sauce etc. A well-balanced seasoning and the layers of pork skin, pork fat and lean meat absorbed all the wonderful flavours and the meat was so tender that it flaked off with a touch of a fork - simply delicious!

Those wonderful hard-boiled eggs not only added texture to the dish, their mild taste also acted as a nice accompaniment to the very strong flavours of the dish.

I would not mind having this dish every day for a year, only if it will not affect my cholesterol level! haha

Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year is the celebration of a new year according to the Chinese Lunar Calender. The celebrations usually run for 15 days and traditionally the Chinese people carry out different tasks on each day.

There are many activities during Chinese New Year like Lion Dance, playing Fire Crackers, going to the night markets, visiting friends and family, FEASTING and many more......

It is tradition to have 'Reunion Dinner' on New Year's Eve where people who lives in different parts of the country or the world go home to have a dinner, a feast to be exact, with family.


So this year I am back home, and the same as every year we all went to my aunt's place for dinner.

It was surely a spread of feast on the table with duck, chicken, pork, prawns, fish, vegetables etc

Tea-smoked Duck

Here, we have the Tea-smoked Duck which was cooked in three different steps. First it was covered with brown peppercorn then steamed, then it was smoked with tea leaves and orange peels before being fried to get a crispy skin.

A duck dish that tastes as good as it smells! The room was filled with aroma from the smoked duck, the wonderful smoky flavoured meat and crispy skin was absolutely delicious!

Duck - Plated

There was also the famous Hakka Cold Sliced Chicken. Simply boiled in soup, of course with a special technique to keep the chicken meat moist and retain its flavours. The important thing is getting the best ingredients and very fresh chicken to make a wonderful cold sliced chicken.

Chinese Cold Slice Chicken

This next dish is one of my favourite - 梅菜扣肉 (Fermented Dried Vegetable with Pork Belly)


A delicious dish with a bag full of flavours from the marinating sauce and the fermented dried vegetable. You can taste the saltiness from soya sauce and the acidity of the fermented veg cutting through the fatty pork belly. That is why this is my favourite dish!

梅菜扣肉

With all those meat dishes, surely we need to have some vegetable to balance the diet. Here we have a stir-fry of mixed vegetables topped with the fragrant roasted cashew nuts to add texture - yum!

Stir Fried Mixed Veg. 

Then comes the seafood dishes. One of my favourite seafood dish - Butter fried prawns. These prawns are HUGE and I mean huge as they are larger than the 'King' prawns found in the UK! Stir fried with lots of garlic and butter, you can imagine the fragrance steaming out, and of course it tastes even better!

Fresh prawns with the flavour of the sea, rich buttery garlic taste....YUM!

Butter fried prawns

Oh, and this HUGE Pomfret fish too! It weighs around 1.5kg and looked a bit menacing but it is absolutely delicious! Steamed Chinese style with lots of spring onions, shitake mushrooms, soya sauce, sesame oil and sprinkled with some fragrant fried shallots, all these wonderful flavours!

The flesh of this fish was silky smooth but firm, a pleasure to eat!

Chinese-style steamed Pomfret 

Last but not least, my grandma's famous stuffed tofu. Another one of my favourite Hakka dish!

Tofu stuffed with minced pork then steamed, a very healthy dish but yet absolutely delicious!

This dish is always the favourite of the many grandchildren.

Stuffed Tofu

A wonderful spread of food shared with family!

Happy Chinese New Year to you all and be blessed!

CNY Spread

Christmas Cake 2011

The cake is now completed!

Remember my previous post on the making of the Christmas fruit cake?

Step two - icing and decorating, is now completed!

It brought back childhood memories of playing with plasticine, but of course, I used the edible icing to decorate the cake.

The Christmas cake was first covered with a layer of marzipan then another layer of royal icing. This of course was not an easy task as I thought, as I almost broke the rolled-out icing in several places while trying to put it over the cake. But it was quickly saved with a little dab of warm water, clever trick taught by my work colleague.

Then I rolled the green coloured icing into cone shapes, Christmas trees look-alike. However, due to difficulties in finding BROWN coloured icing, or even BROWN food colouring, I had to improvise and used white icing covered with chocolate flakes to try and imitate the BROWN tree trunk. Clever eh?

Then it gets even more fun when I rolled white icing into two different sizes of balls to make the snowman, before using colourful chocolate buttons to decorate it. Guess what? I could not find any suitable stick-look-alike for the hands and nose, hence I used broken pieces of spaghetti! Isn't my little snowman cute? haha!

After piping many dots of white icing on the trees and around the base, '~ta~da~' the cake is complete!

Well, the cake did not look exactly LIKE the professional looking one in this page found in the Decemember issue of deliciousmagazine.

Page from delicious. magazine

But I still love my very own version!

With that, I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and all the blessings with friends and family!

All-butter Shortbread

Not just any shortbreads, they are star-shaped shortbreads - 100% homemade!

Thinking what to give my colleagues at work for Christmas, I got this great gift idea from the December issue of deliciousmagazine.

Shortbreads made any shapes you like and wrapped beautifully any ways you like!
For me, a homemade gift is always the best gift! These shortbreads are pretty, delicious, easy to make and a wonderful gift for this festive season.

Recipe for 'All-butter shortbread stars and hearts' by delicious.magazine as follow:

Makes about 32
Takes 10 minutes to make, 15-20 minutes to cook, plus chilling and cooling


Ingredients:
60g golden caster sugar
120g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla or orange extract
175g plain flour, plus a little extra for dusting


Cooking method:
1. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, butter and extract. Sift over the flour and mix until it forms a dough. Shape into a disc, wrap in cling film, then chill for at least 30 minutes.

Stars

Star-shaped dough

2. Preheat the oven to 180 degree C/fan 160 degree C/gas 4. Lightly dust the work surface with flour, then roll out the dough to a thickness of 5mm. Use small cutters to cut out stars or hearts and place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden around the edges, the transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Shortbreads in festive paper cups

Once the shortbreads are entirely cool, I filled some paper cups with them then wrap the cups with cellophane and finally tie them up in a bow with some curling ribbon.

*Drum-roll*.......and we get a pretty little edible gift!

The shortbreads were wonderfully sweet and very buttery and crumbles nicely in your mouth...yummy!

All wrapped up in gold stars cellophane

My colleagues loved the little gifts they received, took photos of them and did not even want to open them up!

With that, I wish you all a joyous and blessed Christmas. Remembering that it is all about God's love for us that He sent His only Son, Jesus, for our salvation!

Happy holidays and have a lovely time with family and friends!

Rise, Soufflé, Rise

I would say most, if not all, people would agree that it is absolutely essential for a soufflé to rise!


I love soufflés not only because it is not the easiest recipe to make, but also because of it's beautifully light texture holding immense flavours!


Everytime some chefs try to make a soufflé in competitions on TV, the judges always say:"He/she is really brave making a soufflé here, any tiny error could mean disaster!"


I braved it today and decided to make Lemon Soufflés following a recipe by none other than the queen of baking herself - Mary Berry!






Mary Berry's Hot Lemon Soufflés Recipe from BBC Food website:


(There is even a video where Mary Berry shows you how to make the soufflés!)


Ingredients:

• melted butter, for greasing
• 2 lemons, juice and zest
• 2 free-range egg yolks, plus 4 free-range egg whites
• 6 rounded tbsp caster sugar, plus extra for the ramekins
• 3 rounded tsp cornflour
• 1 rounded tbsp plain flour
• 90ml/3¼fl oz double cream
• 110ml/4fl oz full-fat milk
• icing sugar, for dusting (optional)

Preparing Ramekins

Preparation Method:


1. Brush the insides of four ramekins with butter. Add a small amount of sugar to each and turn them to coat the sides and bottom, shaking out any excess. Set aside to chill in the fridge.

Coated with butter and sugar

2. Use a fine grater to zest the lemons – grate the yellow outer skin, but be careful not to grate the white pith underneath (the pith will make the soufflés bitter). Cut the lemons in half and squeeze the juice. Add the zest to the juice and put to one side.


3. Separate the eggs – crack each egg in half and tip the contents between the two shells, allowing the whites to slide through into the bowl beneath while the yolks stay in the shells.


4. Put four egg whites into a large bowl and two of the yolks into a separate small bowl (the left-over egg yolks can be saved for scrambled eggs or custard). Add 6 tablespoons of sugar to the small bowl with the egg yolks.


5. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan assisted)/350F/Gas 4. Put the baking tray into the middle of the oven.


6. Put the cream, flour and cornflour into a medium-sized bowl and whisk to a smooth paste.


7. Warm the milk in a large saucepan over a medium heat until just boiling. Remove from the heat.


8. Mix the hot milk into the cream, flour and cornflour mixture with the whisk – add a little to start with and mix well until the mixture is smooth like really thick cream. Press any lumps to the side to break them up. Then add the rest of the milk.


9. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and put it over a gentle heat. Beat vigorously with a hand whisk until it’s thickened. It’s important to keep whisking all the time so that the mixture doesn’t stick.


10. When you feel it thickening, remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the lemon juice and zest a little at a time. The heat of the pan will continue to cook the mixture.


11. Use a wooden spoon to beat the egg yolks and caster sugar together in the small bowl. Beat them into a thick paste.


12. Add this paste to the mixture in the saucepan and mix well until smooth. Put the saucepan back on the hob to thicken again. Whisk until it begins to bubble and then take if off the heat – the mixture should look like custard. Put it to one side to cool before adding the egg whites.


13. Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl using a hand whisk or electric hand mixer. Before you start, make sure the bowl and whisk are completely clean and grease-free, and make sure there’s no yolk with the egg whites or they won’t whip to full volume. Whisk until soft peaks begin to form – the egg whites should look like clouds.


14. When the mixture in the saucepan has cooled you can add the egg whites. Check the temperature of the mixture before you add the egg whites – it should be body temperature or cooler. Add one large spoonful of the egg whites and beat well with the whisk to make the mixture less stiff. Now use a large metal spoon or spatula to very gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Use the spoon to go round the outside and cut through the middle – the aim is to fold in the air bubbles slowly, without breaking them up. Continue until it’s a pale yellow mixture with no streaks of egg white.

Filled with mixture

15. Fill the ramekins to the brim with the mixture and level off with a spatula or palette knife. Run a thumb nail around the inside rim of the ramekins (this helps the soufflés rise evenly without catching on the sides).


16. Place the ramekins on the baking tray in the middle of the oven for about 14 minutes until risen and turning golden. Don’t open the oven during cooking. Time and watch the soufflés carefully – take them out as soon as they’ve risen and are starting to go golden. If you’re using smaller ramekins you’ll need to reduce the cooking time by a few minutes (5 or 6 smaller soufflés will need about 10 minutes).


17. Dust with icing sugar and serve immediately.

Hot Lemon Soufflé

Following through the very long preparation method, it can be rather labour intensive as it is very important to follow each and every step to the word because any errors would result in a failed soufflé. However, I did enjoy each and every step of making the soufflé, especially the 'beating the egg-white part' until I got a fluffy cloud of egg-white - beautiful! And of course, the part where I take them out of the oven.

The soufflés has RISEN!

14 minutes in the oven, no more, no less. Although it would have been perfect with a touch more browning to the surface with just a couple more minutes in the oven, but I was too concerned about getting them burnt!

Regardless, to me, they looked beautiful, had a super light texture and was filled with acidic lemon flavour cutting through the sweetness of the sugar.

The inside

For me, a rather good first attempt at making a soufflé, and I am looking forward to the next one! Maybe a savoury one......