Lemon Cheese Cake Virgin No More, and Duck Pasta

When I got a request from now 8 year old friend, and recent baker, to make a lemon cheese cake for her birthday I was hesitant because, 1. lemon is not a universally adored fruit, unlike its rounder sibling, the orange, 2. I have never attempted a lemon cheese cake, 3. now that I am getting paid for these things, there's a whole lot more stressed involved.

Fortunately, I have like 200 cookbooks at my disposal, so finding a recipe for lemon cheesecake was as easy as looking for news on snatch thieves in the local papers. But I think we all gravitate to our roots eventually, and I found myself using Catherine Lau's recipe from Cheese cake seduction. What I like about her recipes is that they are quite easy to follow.


Fortunately, it turned out quite well. It was fairly light, not too sour, just the right amount of zest, and well, a few of my friends had seconds, and since they were paying for it, I guess I could have relied on them for brutal honesty if the cake stank.

I originally wanted to add a layer of chocolate in between the biscuit base and the cheese filling, but completely forgot. Last Friday, I was doing some "market research" and had a slice of lemon cheesecake in Chinoz on the Park, which had chocolate glaze. But that was a baked cheese cake. This particular one, as you can see, is the chilled variety.


The other thing I tried over the weekend, which was inspired by the Duck Pasta in Delicious, was Roast Duck Pasta. Too lazy to cook the duck myself, I bought some roast duck.

Although none of my guest raved about this, I personally liked it very much, and even had the leftovers for lunch the next day. This is how I went about it.

Some diced raw garlic (about 1 bulb, I guess)
Oyster Mushrooms, sliced finely (about 300gms)
Half a Roast Duck, deboned, and sliced finely
Generous amount of coriander, finely chopped
10 basil leaves, finely chopped
250ml olive oil
4 red chillies, diced

500gms vermicelli pasta

1. Heat a little bit of the olive oil, or grapeseed oil, fry a small portion of the garlic until fragrant, and fry the roast duck together with the oyster mushrooms, to impart a lovely garlicky ducky flavour to the mushrooms. Set aside

2. Using rest of olive oil, slowly fry the garlic, and diced chilli. It should give a lovely aroma.

3. Boil the pasta to al dente.

4. Toss all the ingredients together, and sprinkle chopped herbs to incorporate.

5. Serve with parmesan if desired.

SERVES 14.

Culinary CPR

I have to say that the response to my semi commercial venture has been very encouraging. Now, the proof of the pudding is in the eating as the old adage goes, so, it remains to be seen how many repeat orders I have. Last week I've had to cater the following: Apple Pie, Tiramisu Cake, Tiramisu in A Tray, Peach and Banana Crumble, Scones, Chocolate Tart, Lemon Pistachio Sour Cream Cake, Banana Walnut Loaf, plus a side "encore" of a butter cake for Evil Twin's wife's birthday during bible study, but she no show, so the cake went to my mother's cell group.

A Chocolate Brownie That Doubled Up as a Birthday cake on Thursday night, for Toekneetoe

The major bulk of orders were for pickup on Saturday afternoon. I had premade the chocolate tart the night before, and plonked it in the fridge. Honestly, I don't know if it was the domestic help's fault, or my own, but to my abject horror, the next day, when we took it out, the whole tart pastry had turned soggy from water accumulated in condensation of sorts. Now, if I had been serving friends, it wouldn't have bothered me too much, but as this was a first time sale, I had to make a proper first impression, so desperately tried to dehydrate the tart, by placing it on a perforated pizza pan, and warming in on a low heat.

Can you see the soggy pastry?

But after half an hour, I gave up the CPR, and thankfully, had a spare pie tart casing, so after informing the buyer that I need some extra time, managed to whip up a new chocolate tart.

I subsequently froze the old tart, (no, I am not referring to cryogenically freezing some woman), which was subsequently served to the other cell group as well. I had a taste of it, and actually, it wasn't bad. However, if you are a not a chocaholic, I think this is way too rich for the average person, and can only be taken in small doses. Slithers of it. And even then, this recipe is not 100% solid chocolate, unlike some other recipes. Half of it is actually baked, with eggs, cream, cocoa, etc....

My latest treat to myself, Jamie Oliver's new book. I am not really a JO fan, but I got a 20% discount plus free brolly, so I am a reallll sucker for these things.


Had a glance through, it's typical Jamie Oliver, simplicity is its trademark. However the dessert section is disappointingly short. I think there are only about 20 types of desserts featured. One or two do look rather delectable, but the rest...hmmmmm......

Anyone want to buy it off me???

Weekend Travails

Yikes!!! I've been baking everyday since Friday. On Friday, it was the birthday cake for friend's birthday party, (no cell group), who requested the flourless chocolate cakes. Again, let me reiterate that decoration is not my forte. I really need to attend some cake decoration class, so if any of you have any pointers as to who conducts these classes, without making it like a diploma course with commensurate pricing, do let me know.



Starting with Friday night, this was the outcome of 34 pieces of flourless chocolate cakes piled together. The problem with this cake was the stress involved in getting it to the destination without it toppling. Of course, I had structurally enforced with with skewers, but you never know, it's like the equivalent of 10 on a Richter Scale when the car goes over some potholes in KL!!

On Friday night itself, I get an order from Datin, asking for passion fruit cheesecake, lemon meringue pie and scones. Aiyo, wheeeeeere to find passion fruit at such last minute. Hardly something I can buy in the wet market, or even cold storage. After much objection, she resigned herself to any cheesecake. I asked if she wanted the chilled variety or baked. Fortunately, it was the former, so she got an orange cheesecake. I have NOOO idea how this one tasted. Lemon Meringue Pie, now becoming a standard order, wasn't much of a problem.

Fellow gym member had ordered a Durian Poppy Seed Cake as well. (all this was for Sunday morning pick up). So on Saturday night, before going off to join my pals for a spot of Pok Kuat (Dead Gin), I had to basically make, the cheesecake, the lemon meringue pie, the durian poppy seed cake, and the sponge base for Baby Boy's 4th birthday on Sunday.

On Sunday, after church, and after a nap, had to prepare Scones, Chicken Pies and assemble the chocolate oreo cake for the birthday party.

The chocolate oreo cake, which in my opinion, tasted better than it looked. I had just plonked on some power ranger toys as decoration, coz that's what the kid wanted. Then again, I spent all of 15 minutes icing it, with ganache.

These chicken pies sold out like hotcakes at the tea party. It was a last minute inclusion in the menu. Quite handy albeit a bit more costly to use the disposal tin foil pie containers.

The scones which were also popular, but not as popular as the pies.

Although I did get the following compliments for the scones:

wendy says:
oi! your scones were lovely...

datin says:
Scones r crazy! We went berserk. Orga*****.

HOW FLATTERING!!!!!!! WOO HOOO!!!!

All Kinds Of New Experiments

I've been dying to try these Mini Beef Pies In Guinness (Stout) that I saw in AWW. It's meant to be finger food, and are bite sized, the size of the mini muffins....which in my opinion, is too small, and too much work. The ingredients call for beef, guinness stout, beef stock etc...and ready rolled shortcrust pastry.

Mid valley megamall at the moment is quite an exasperating place to do grocery shopping, coz both Carrefour and Jusco are undergoing renovation, and half the stuff is not available, which includes, PASTRY. So I am combing the mall on Thursday night is a futile quest for ready made shortcrust.

Conclusion : The supermarket that sells the most variety of ready pastry, is Village Grocer, Bangsar Village. You can get Pampas Puff Pastry, Shortcrust, Borg Puff Pastry, Canola Pastry, Filo, etc etc...Not even cold storage has that variety.

I decided to experiment on my cell group first, on Friday night. Beef in guinness stout is not everyone's cup of tea, or stout, or beer. Anyway, I decided on an assortment of puff and shortcrust pastry. Now, since I couldnt find ready rolled shortcrust, I had to contend with the block of shortcrust, which you have to roll yourself. And as I forgot to defrost it early enough, it was still too hard. After zapping in microwave, it was too soft. Looked like a disaster from +the word go

Muffin Sized (not mini muffin) Beef Pies in Guinness

For my main event on Saturday, I got lazy, and made just one big pie

Also made cream puffs,


with very badly made custard, that turned out looking like scrambled eggs.



I must try to make a creme patisserie from scratch.

Friend ordered a durian cake, which I had to make by Sunday night. As it is chock full of fresh cream, I hope that along the way, the cream doesn't melt, in transit. Unlike some commercial cakes, that use non dairy cream, which hold its form, fresh cream melts darn fast. Again, this is a guinea pig case.... It's my first attempt at this type of durian cake, inspired of course by my recent less than pleasant experience at the cafe mentioned in previous post.




On Saturday night, I got an emergency order from friend, for birthday cake with purple icing. Decorative cakes are not my forte, but since she wasn't in a position to be choosy, I relented. (which was a bad idea coz was up till 4am on Saturday partying, and was sleep deprived on Sunday). Forgot to take a picture of the purple cake.

As I was getting the cake ready, I get YET another SOS from friend, who said her restaurant had run out of dessert. It was 2.30pm, and she was picking up purple cake at 4.30pm, so the only dessert I could quickly whip up for her was the peach and banana crumble.

Why Do People Have To Be So Rude?

I do not usually blog about negative experiences, but since this is food related, I think I should relate my experience, so that whoever goes into the F&B business should not make the same mistake.

Fellow flogger (food blogger) and me went for coffee and cake at this cafe in the vicinity of Atria. The minute we entered, we were greeted by the aroma of durian, so I suspected they must have durian cake, which was good. We plonked ourselves at a cosy corner, only to be told, almost impolitely, by the proprietress, "oh, you're only having coffee and cake? Can you move to the smaller table as I'm expecting my lunchtime crowd". Fine, although a "please" or "do you mind" would have been welcome, I attributed the lack of manners to stress.

We had our cake, and coffee, which really, to her credit, was quite good. So good that my fellow flogger wanted to take away a piece of the durian cake for his mum. Then the waitress comes and says, very unconvincingly, oh, cannot pack, because it's too soft. Well, it's not like it was falling apart when they served us, and I didn't think it was THAT soft, so I casually enquired after the owner, "oh, you mean the durian cake can't be tah pau-ed?"

She literally snapped at me, "No, I am expecting a lot of walk in customers..... (and for good measure, threw in the excuse)...and its too soft to pack". Now this time I got really irate. There are many ways to skin a cat, there is no need to be rude. Anyway, I shouted to my friend, "I'm waiting outside, I can't take this".

Ah, it's good to get it off my chest.

Fiddling With the Same Old Stuff

Ever since my little venture into "commercialism", most of my exploits in the kitchen have been restricted to the same old stuff, hence, nothing much to update. The lemon tart and lemon meringue pies seem to be doing okay, with an average of 1 to 2 orders per week. Other stuff I have been "supplying" include the Orange Mocha Chocolate Brownie, Peach and Banana Crumble, Flourless Chocolate cakes......

In addition to the the commercial supply, of two lemon meringue pies, peach and banana crumble in separate containers which I had to get ready Friday evening, I also had to prepare a birthday cake for my other half as it was cell group night, so I also had to prepare supper, of puff pastry quiche with luncheon meat and mushrooms. The birthday cake was a Chocolate Mint Cake, different from the Chocolate Peppermint Cake which was featured in an earlier post. This was a serendipitous result of carelessless. Why? Well, I had set out to make the Chocolate Oreo Cake, actually, and asked my 6 yr old son, whilst in the supermarket, "Have we got any oreos at home", and he confidently replied, "Yes". Normally, I am very kiasu, and would have bought another one anyway, just in case, but not wanting to undermine his reply, I accepted it as gospel. Turns out, there was an Oreo box, but inside were ritz crackers. And I have actually started crushing the ritz crackers before realising what they were.

So, necessity being the mother of invention, I had to think how to best utilised the 3 cups of cream that had alread been whipped, and the chocolate that had been melted. Aha, then the brain wave struck, to flavour the chocalate cream with peppermint. Anyway, leaving it to the the forces that be, it turned out to be a hit with the cell group. Boy said it was like eating mint ice cream. And the mint cream is a lot lighter than the peppermint butter cream in the earlier post.





For the following night, celebrating with friends, I had the oreos, so made the oreo cake, which was also well received.





Last night, for family dinner with Singapore uncle, it was apple crumble, as all have health issues....

(pic courtesy of PA Khoo)

Tiramisu For Kung See Lai

Since Kung See Lai heard that I have started selling desserts, she has suddenly become very kan cheong (what's the english word for this? sense of urgency) to get all my recipes off me before err.....I become a celebrity chef!!!! HAHAHAAH!!! Yar, like that's gonna happen. Worry not, dear Kung See Lai.

Here's the tiramisu recipe you've been asking for:

Sponge fingers..... depending how much sponge you like in your thing.
Coffee and kahlua mixture ...i usually use two tablespoons coffee powder, 1/4 cup hot water to dissolve the coffee powder, and 3/4 cup cold water, & anywhere from 2-6 tablespoons kahlua.

Filling:
4 yolks
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 cups whipping cream
250gm mascarporne

1. Whip up the whipped cream till fairly stiff. Don't over whip. Over whipped cream is like an abacus to an anglophile. Absolutely useless.

2. In a separate bowl, whip the egg yolks, with the caster sugar, until pale yellow. Stir in the mascarporne, and stir until well combined. It should be a lovely creamy light beige texture. Add in some kahlua, up to you how much, 2-6 tablespoons.... I love mine with more.

3. Combine together with the whipped cream, and stir. And run it through the electric beaters for a minute or so, to combine it nicely.

4. Dip the sponge fingers into the coffee mixture quickly. Its best to put the coffee mixture into a flat bowl, which allows maximum surface area for the sponge fingers. Line the bottom of a flat based bowl or dish with a layer or two of sponge fingers. Or individual cups.

5. Either top up with all the filling, or half, and place another layer of sponge fingers and top up with the rest. Sprinkle with cocoa powder or grated dark chocolate. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. The colder the better. Alternatively, sprinkle the cocoa/chocolate only just before serving.

Tips: Its imperative you do not oversoak or undersoak the sponges. Oversoaking will make it soggy, undersoaking leaves it hard.
And watch the beating of the cream. Overbeating will render the thing useless.

Food Exploits Of The Week

My landlady gave me a slice of this decadent Sticky Date Pudding With Toffee. Simply divine, albeit too sweet. She has offered to hook me up with the lady who makes these delicious treats, apparently she'd even be willing to teach me a thing or two. Yahoo!!! Free culinary lessons.



Leftover Lamb Wraps, from my Roast Leg of Lamb on Saturday. Plonked on top of a tortilla wrap, garnished with undressed salad, comprising lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, rocket leaves, it made a perfect Monday lunch. I should imagine it's quite healthy. Afterall, the lamb's lean, roasted, and there's no dressing on the salad.



Apple Pie With Pure Cream and A Scoop of Haagez Daz Vanilla ice cream, family dinner dessert on Tuesday night. Not good for the waistline, no matter how an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Full of cinnamon, strips of lemon zest, and a pastry that requires 4 different types of flour. A pain to make, but worth it.

Blog Friend

This is not a food posting per se. It is related to this food blog though. One of the interesting thing about blogging is meeting all the new people in this virtual blogosphere. It's the modern day equivalent of pen pals I guess. In a food blog such as this, the people all share a common interest, ie, food.

Anyway, I've occasionally wondered who all these people are, what they look like, whether or not masak masak will organise a blogosphere get together, so I get to meet the culinary luminaries like herself, and others....Well, as it turns out, yesterday I actually met up with a fellow blogger for lunch, and it was a rather pleasant experienced. The illustrious young chappie is in the process of setting up a restaurant.....how much more foodier can you get!!!!!

May I introduce you my first food blogging buddy who I've actually met:
http://jacksonkah.blogspot.com/

Young man, you can be rest assured that we will descend on your restaurant and scrutinise every dish.

Ironically, we didn't take any pictures of our meal, which was basically at the new outlet, Shanghai 10 in Bangsar Baru, (replacing the Only Mee outlet), and dessert at Bakerzin. I never knew that tapas dessert set was so palatable. RM15 for 3 dessert tapas, and coffee. We had Banana Pizza, Raspberry Panna Cotta and Vanilla Cream Brulee .... I think.

Quick Dinner For 15 Pax

I guess if your guests don't mind eating the same food everytime you host dinner, it can get progressively easier to prepare dinner... and considering the average time cycle that elapses before they get the eat this particular menu again would be anywhere from 6 months to a year, I guess memories should have been erased by then.

The good things about regurgitating the same menu is you become an expert and can get away with shorter and shorter time. Last Saturday's menu, for friend's farewell, comprised basically the following:

For Starters we had:

Fajitas; a medley of tortillas, honey roast chicken, avocado, caramelised sauteed onions, hot chilli jalapenos, and a mango tomato salsa..

This is really easy to prepare. Buy tortillas, they're cheapest at Carrefour, of various flavours. There's garlic, plain and potato. Roast your own chicken if you must, but with the abundance of roast chickens, very aromatic too, in various supermarkets, like Tesco, Giant, TMC, from as low as 5.99 per bird, heck, .....
I used two ripe plump Aussie avocadoes, removed the stone, and crushed it with some lemon. Onions were sauteed on a hot fire, with grape seed oil, and sea salt.
Mangos (chokanan) and tomatoes are finely diced, (cubed), and tossed in some lemon juice.
Sour cream from the tub.
Zap tortillas in microwave for 30 seconds before serving.

Cheese platter : I know ze cultured have cheeses AFTER dinner, but I find it suits my chinky palate to have cheeses as a starter. I served a block of Harvati Cheese, and Brandied Apricot Fruit Cheese, which some described as almost like eating ice cream. I suspect the true blue cheese connoiseurs would tut tut this as being an impostor cheese, but who cares, as long as the majority loves it. Served with Ritz Crackers. I find Water Table a bit overated.... I like the slight saltiness of Ritz crackers.

Freshly baked baguettes : Delifrance has these frozen baguettes, which you throw into an oven for about 20 minutes, and it's like eating freshly baked bread. Goes divinely with REAL butter.

Creamy Potato and Leek Soup : Deskin one whole chicken, and boil in a stock pot. (I used 15 cups of water, estimating 15 bowls of soup). Chuck in some onions, and whatever else you think will sweeten the stock. An hour before serving, chuck in the potatoes, (I used 8 large potatoes), 4 large leeks, 2 large onions, and chunks of thick bacon. It might be a good idea to remove the chicken (which should have disintergrated by now) before adding the potatoes and stuff. If not, you'll have to sift through a conglomeration of chicken, potatoes, leeks, onions...which you have to puree in a blender. After pureeing the concoction, put back into stock to boil. Actually, the soup is creamy on its own, but I added in some cream, and about 1/4 bottle of white wine, with sea salt. Goes brilliantly with the freshly baked baguettes.

MAINS

Roast Leg of Lamb With Rosemary, Garlic and Honey Mustard Glaze.

The night before, I seasoned the leg of lamb with the garlic and rosemary. Pierce the skin of the leg of lamb (mine was 2.3kg), and stuff with garlic...I used 2 garlic bulbs? cloves? Two whole garlic. Also pierce with rosemary sprigs. Put in plastic bag, and refrigerate overnight.

2 hours before dinner, place on roasting pan at 180C, and roast for 1 hour. Take out, glaze with honey mustard, (1/2 cup seeded mustard, 1/2 cup dijon, and 1/2 cup honey), and put back to bake for a further 20-30 minutes, until the meat thermometer shows your preferred doneness.

Serve with pan juices and mint jelly.

Zuchinni Mushroom Pie

Use ready made puff pastry, unless you have all the time in the world, and a cold kitchen.
Slice 1 pack of button mushroom and 2 zuchinni, into a large bowl. Toss in one cup of cream, 1 packet of instant mushroom soup, (mixed into a concentrated soup), and some grated cheddar, or sliced cheddar cheese torn into bits. Line bottom of pie plate with puff pastry, put in filling, close the top with more puff pastry, glaze with milk or egg, and bake until nice and brown, in the same oven with the lamb.

Salad With Quails Eggs

Salads have got to be the empty canvass equivalent for a cook. Really, possibilities are endless. This time I used two types of frisse lettuce, 2 yellow capsicum, a punnet of cherry tomatoes, 30 quails eggs, a handful of toasted pine nuts.
Dressing : 1/2 cup seeded mustard, 1/3rd cup honey, 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/2 cup olive oil.

Spaghetti With Aubergine and Oyster Mushroom

Have to ask the maid.

Dessert

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Warm Chocolate Sauce and Pure Cream
Lemon Meringue Pie

Both of which have been described in earlier posts. These can be made ahead, either day before, or morning of dinner.

Moist Moist Carrot Cake

If you're like me, and like moist cakes, moist, dense, wholesome, hearty cakes, then this has to be THE carrot cake recipe for you. Good enough to eat without frosting, and I daresay, fairly healthy, judging by the ingredients.

What To Put In

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger

1 cup brown sugar

4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
125ml sunflower oil

4 grated carrots, large-ish
10 prunes chopped
1 can pineapple, chopped and drained
handful of walnuts, chopped roughly

1. Sift together all the dry ingredients
2. Mix in a separate bowl the eggs, oil and vanilla, and chuck into the dry ingredients. Stir, (I use a whisk to stir), until all combined.
3. Chuck in all the other stuff, until all combined.
4. Pour into square 8" pan, lined and greased, and plonk into 180C oven for 45-50 minutes.

So easy!!!! Even better if you have domestic help to help grate the carrots. I'm not sure if food processors grate it too finely. Can someone tell me?

Anyway, I made this on Monday night, just before popping out to Zeta Bar for a friend's birthday. Served it on Tuesday night, and it was wonderfully moist. Sister said it could have done with a dollop of thick pure bulla cream, but ahem, I am into health food these days, so no cream. Okay, okay, that's rubbish, I forgot to stock up.

Pie Are Square

Well, it's Friday night, you have to (well, not HAVE to out of compulsion, for there is no compulsion in religion, so, its HAVE TO out of lurve) whip up some semblance of supper for your cell group mates. I was feeling lazy this Friday, and I had a pack of Pampas Puff Pastry which I bought two weeks back, so what to do, what to do?

Not every thing has to be done from scratch, though there is no clear boundaries as to what constitutes "scratch". I mean, strictly speaking, we don't plant our own wheat and grind our own flour, or milk our own cows (though son did suggest once, "Papa, why don't we buy a cow?", "Why" I ask, "So that we can make our own cheese", he says). So, when people say, you made it from scratch, I ask, what do you mean scratch??? Is using ready made pampas puff pastry cheating? Actually, I reckon making puff pastry is too much effort. And not cheap either. Not with the price of butter these days anyway.

So, I stopped by at TMC on the way home, and bought a roast chicken, honey roasted, for RM6.99!!! And a bag of frozen vegetables, ie, peas, carrots and corn combo.

The wonderful thing about this is how quickly it is to assemble. I start at 8.20pm, bible study starts at 9.00pm.

First, cut the pastry into squares, and put into a muffin tin, alternating pattern so they don't overlap. I can't be bothered to cut the pastries into rounds, and reroll the cut offs.



Shred the chicken, and add a cup or so of cream, frozen veggies, a handful of shredded cheddar, (or even those sliced kraft cheeses adds a nice taste), and for added flavour, one packet of Campbell's powdered mushroom soup, mixed in some water. Guess you could use a can too, but more expensive.


Fill the little pies. Funnily, one chicken fills exactly 12.... and a pack of 6 sheets, divided into 4 squares, yields 12 pies.

Cover with another square, and using a fork, press the top and bottom sheets together.

Employ slave/child labour to glaze the top of the pies, with either milk or egg, or both.

Bake in 180C or 190C oven until brown.



And VOILA, freshly baked pies, which are square, hence PIE ARE SQUARE!!!

Tiramisu Cake

This baked version of tiramisu is a lot more work than the version where you used ready made savioardi sponge fingers, unless you're making the sponge fingers yourself. For this version, you need 3 main components, the coffee chiffon cake, the filling, and the caramelised nuts. I got this coffee chiffon recipe from Alex Goh's Creative Cakes. Altered somewhat, to avoid copyright infringement. In any case, with recipes, I wonder who does one really define copyright.

Coffee Chiffon
Group 1
4 egg yolks
2 tbspn coffee powder
115 ml water
85 ml vegetable oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder

Group 2
4 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tspn cream of tartar

1. Mix the group 1 ingredients until all properly mixed.

2. In separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks appear and gradually add in sugar and cream of tartar.

3. With a light hand, mix the two groups of ingredients until well combined, pour into a 8" round pan, sides UNgreased, and bake at 175C for 40 minutes. Apparently chiffon needs to climb up the sides of the pan, hence no need to grease. (no need to use the chiffon pan)

4. When cake is done, invert and let cool, as one usually does with chiffon. Remove from pan after the cake has cooled.

5. Split cooled cake into 3 horizontal layers.


Filling:
250gm mascarporne, but if you are feeling generous, then 500gm.
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup castor sugar
2 cups cream, whipped till fairly thick.
Kahlua or Marsala wine - to taste

1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar, until pale and creamy.

2. Add in the mascarporne and stir until combined, and all lumps removed. It should be a creamy texture. Add the kahlua. I usually chuck in about 6 tablespoons, that's why, cannot sell commercially. Too expensive.

3. Mix together with the whipped cream.

4. Chill mixture.

Coffee & Kahlua Mixture

Usually, I put 2 tablespoons coffee, into 3/4 cup water. Very concentrated. And also embellished with another 4-6 table spoons kahlua. This is to be brushed over the cake to make it nice coffee-ish moist.

Caramelised Nuts

1 cup sugar
50gms butter
1 cup chopped almonds (chopped coarsely as per picture)

1. Melt the sugar and the butter, until it turns a beautiful golden, caramelly thick liquid.
2. Stir in the nuts, and quickly lay out onto a tray lined with baking paper. Let cool, and when it has cooled, crush it either with a mortar, or food processor, or whatever heavy object you have. With mortar, just put into plastic bag and pound.
3. Set aside

Putting together the cake.

1. Brush the bottom layer of cake with the coffee mixture. Don't drown it. It should be just enough to make it moist, with disintergrating the whole thing in coffee.
2. Pour 1/4 of the mascarporne filling. Sprinkle chocolate chips or chocolate pieces evenly over the layer of mascarporne.
3. Repeat with another layer, but no need for more chocolate, unless it is your desire.
4. After finishing with top layer, sprinkle the caramelized nuts over the cake, and on the sides, if you wish. I put chocolate rice around mine, coz I didn't have enought caramelized nuts.
5. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours

Tip:
1. I put back the cake, when layering, into the 8" pan with removable base. This way, it's in a mold, and won't flop about, as the mascarporne cream isn't really very "thick"

2. You might want to add the element of gelatine, as recommended by some books. I personally loathe the idea of putting gelatine into tiramisu, but I suspect that is how the cake holds its shape for long distance travel. This recipe is fine, if you are serving it right from the fridge to the mouth, but if you need it to stand around for awhile, it'll melt really fast, as the ingredients are pure.

Gelatine: 1½ tablespoons to 40 ml water. Go try and see, and let me know.

Tiramisu, Cake Version

Stay tuned, for my experimental recipe of this cake version (okay, it's somewhat inspired by the Alexis and Su Chan versions, but is also available partially in the Australian Women's Weekly).
Eat your heart out, Jackson Kah.

Son's Favourite Lemon Meringue Pie

Another dessert that falls into the very niche category, coz if you don't like the sour taste of life, then this certainly is NOT the dessert for you. Also, for reasons I can't fathom, the calorific content in this seemingly "healthy" dessert, is shocking. I think it's about 500 kcal per slice, according to the Australian Women's Weekly Cookbook.

There are so many recipes to choose from, eventually, I've just settled on a composite of several different recipes, for the pastry, as well as the filling and meringue.

Pastry :

125gm butter
2 tablespoons castor sugar
2 cups flour
cold ice water, about 2-3 tablespoons

1. Blitz the above (without the water) in a food processor. If don't have food processor, then tough luck, you gotta rub the butter into the flour and sugar, until it resembles breadcrumbs. Keep your fingers cool, (I don't know how, maybe intermittently put them in the freezer), and when it resembles breadcrumbs, (both manually or food processor), add the ice water, little by little until if forms a nice cohesive dough that looks like it can be easily rolled.

2. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, prepare the filling and also preheat oven to 180C

Filling:

Group 1
1/2 cup corn flour
1 cup water
3/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup - 3/4 cup castor sugar (depending on your sourness tolerance)

Group 2
grated rind of two lemons
60 gms butter
3 yolks

4. Mix the group 1 ingredients in a saucepan, or pot, over moderately high heat, until the mixture become thick and glossy. It should look like yellowy transparent play dough.... well, maybe not THAT thick....yellowy transparent err.... jelly like.... oh well, you'll learn through trial and error.

5. Lower the heat, and leave it on while stirring vigorously, for another minute.

6. Remove from heat, and add in the group 2 ingredients, and stir until all combined. You should get a lovely yellow lemony curd, the texture of thick custard. Lovely to eat on its own. Leave aside to cool.

7. Meanwhile, blind bake the pastry shell, in a flan or pie tin.

8. When tart shell is ready, put in the lemon curd filling, and whack on the meringue on top, and bake for another 10 minutes, until meringue is nice and brown.

Meringue:
4-5 egg whites, absolutely unpolluted
pinch of cream of tartar
1/2 cup castor sugar

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, gradually add tartar and sugar. The way to test if your egg white is sufficiently beaten is, if you invert the bowl, the mixture doesn't spill. Of course, don't invert too long, just quickly to test if the egg whites stay in the bowl, defying gravity.

I think this is good enough to be served without any embellishments.

Durian Season Is Upon Us Again

Posted the recipe before, but for lack of anything new to post, and also, for the newer readers who might not have seen this before, made my "signature" durian poppy seed cake for friend's birthday last saturday. The recipe has been posted earlier, here, but as I said....nothing new to post.

The stuff on top of the cake is just pure durian, as I found this species that I bought so creamy as it is, it wasnt necessary to add whipped cream. It was a hit, as usual. Ahem.

Godma's Banana Loaf

This has to be one of the easiest and rather yummy loaves to put together. Recipe courtesy of "godma" Pat. Better copy it quickly, for I haven't gotten her permission to post this, and if she objects, off it goes.


Mix together
2 eggs
1 cup sugar or less
1 cup oil

1½ cups high protein flour sifted
pinch salt
1½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

5 large ripe bananas or more, mashed
raisins soaked in liquor, or in my case, 10 prunes soaked in rum, plus handful of raisins
chopped handful walnuts, or replace with pistachios, as some people (like my evil twin) find walnuts too bitter.

Literally just mix all the ingredients together. A kid could do this, and my 3½ year old did just that.

Pour into loaf pan, lined and bake at 170C for 50 minutes.

Delicious on its own, sinful with butter or fresh cream.

Allan's Sour Cream Blueberry Cake, and Other Stuff

Allan's Blueberry Sourcream Cake

Ham, Basil, Coriander & Mushroom Quiche

Friday Night, Bible Study Night. What to make, what to make, for man does not live by bread alone.

A friend of mine, from Singapore, who is also a semi professional baker, and caterer, (check out his website, allanbakes.com), very kindly gave me his recipe for a blueberry sour cream cake. Alas, I am not at liberty to publish it here, since it's his recipe, but he might oblige you if you went to his website and contacted him directly.

The cake turned out quite well, and was aptly described by Allan as a sponge but damp. I wasn't sure what the texture was meant to be, so I was relieved to find out that it was indeed a damp sponge. As I had reduced the sugar dramatically, I wasn't sure if the blueberry taste would overpower all else. I personally liked it, and thought it was nice especially when warm and freshly baked.

To complement the sweet cake, I also prepared a Ham, Basil (Homegrown by boy no 1), Coriander and Mushroom Quiche. If you want the quiche recipe, it's been posted here before. Quiches, like pizzas, are a blank canvass, with endless possibilities for the artist. For this particular filling, I used 3 thick slices sandwich ham, sliced into cubes, a handful of coriander, chopped finely, 7-10 basil leaves, chopped, two large button mushroom, finely sliced, 3 eggs, 1 cup cream, a slice of cheddar cheese roughly torn up and chucked in. Stir all the ingredients together and bake in the prebaked pastry shell (see recipe), in 180C oven for about 20-25 minutes till set. If you have the time, add in a whole chopped sauteed onion as well, it would go very well.

Banana Loaf With Raisins, Prunes and Walnuts

I forgot to blog about this banana loaf that I made two weeks ago, a recipe given to me by "godma". Very VERY easy to make, and rather good to eat, especially when warm. Contains no butter, just vegetable oil, prunes soaked in rum, raisins, walnuts, bananas, and high protein flour. Let me know if you want the recipe.