Tag: Food

Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce

Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce

amcarmen9 Comments

Hello Everyone! I’ll keep this short and to the point today, to compensate for a rather long post yesterday. Also only because I don’t have an amazing back story to tell! I mean, it’s just Salted Caramel Sauce really. Don’t forget to check out the original recipe at American Heritage Cooking where dubbed the BEST Salted Caramel Sauce.

Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce Ingredients

PREP TIME 2 MINS | COOKING TIME 10 MINS | MAKES 1 JAR

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 170g unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into pieces
  • 1 cup double cream, at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon sea salt rocks

METHOD

  1. In a small saucepan, melt the sugar over medium-high heat, stirring frequently to avoid burning. Once all the sugar has melted, watch your caramel carefully, swirling the pan occasionally.
  2. As soon as the sugar turns amber in colour add the butter and whisk vigorously until all the butter has melted.
  3. Remove the pan from the heat and slowly pour in the cream while whisking vigorously until the cream is incorporated well, and then whisk in the sea salt rocks.

Now, the salted caramel in this recipe was used for Lydia’s birthday cake (which I did a post on yesterday). If you are making this sauce to keep for other recipes, set the sauce aside to cool for 15 minutes prior to pouring it into a glass jar, that has been sterilised, to cool completely. You can then refrigerate the sauce for up to 2 weeks, but remember to warm it up before using.

Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

myTaste.com

Layered Chocolate & Salted Caramel Cake

Layered Chocolate & Salted Caramel Cake

amcarmen3 Comments

Hello Everyone and welcome back to reading another blog post! So this recipe was actually made (and consumed) yesterday, but I would like to take this opportunity to tell you all what the cake was for. Basically last week when Jialing and I were having our lava cake bake off session, Lydia asked if I was free next week (which was yesterday), to make a chocolate cake for her birthday (which is today, Sunday). So first off, Happy 21st Birthday once again to my housemate and friend, Lydia! So on Thursday, I was going through chocolate cake recipes to make, and I came across this one on Taste. Chocolate and Salted Caramel – the ultimate flavour sensation! Jialing, and most specifically the birthday girl, were happy with this selection. So Saturday morning, Lydia and I met up with Jialing at Kingsford, had a gigantic lunch, and then headed over to Maroubra Junction to do our grocery shoppings, and also of course cake ingredient shopping. While shopping – may I just point out, we saw a tub of ready made salted caramel. We debated over whether we should just buy one, and I made the call to just make our own caramel – I mean why not? We were already making the cake from scratch!

Got home and immediately started on the cake because we knew it was going to take a while. Of course, Lydia was on dry ingredient duty, Jialing took over the wet, while I helped Lydia with the dry. Popped the mixture in the oven, and then it was onto the salted caramel. Seriously, so many problems with this, but nonetheless, it tasted #amazeballs. Also, while I was working on this, Jialing and Lydia started to prep the frosting for the cake. Also, somewhere in-between all that, Vidhya, our acting supervisor (not really) sat around and watched the chaos unfold in the kitchen – okay she did help a little bit as well before going back to sleep again (after having just woken up from her slumber). It was then more or less time to take the cakes out of the oven, left to cool, and then assemble! We assembled the first two layers and then, disaster struck. Our top layer wasn’t cooked all the way through so we had to pop it back into the oven. Once we got it out of the oven, we still had to wait for it to cool down. While that was happening, we left everything to where it was and headed out to get a take out dinner. We were so engrossed in our cake making session that we totally forgot about dinner! So went to the Indian place nearby and got dinner for 6 – by then Abdullah, Marissa, and Vidhya (when she woke up) joined us.

Layered Chocolate & Salted Caramel Cake

We then assembled the cake. Once that was done and over with, we had Vidhya distract Lydia so that we could put candles on her cake (which by the way she was not expecting). It was hilarious because whatever Vidhya needed doing was basically a one-man job turned two/three person job just to keep Lydia distracted and away from the dining room for a bit. When she finally walked back into the dining room, she was SO happy and even had a little jump/skip when she saw the candles on her cake. Priceless moment. We then took photos, sang happy birthday, had more housemates join us, ate cake, drank wine, and had a good time. So yes, if you took the time to read all that, thank you! And if you are just here for the recipe, fear not, it begins here…

Layered Chocolate & Salted Caramel Cake Ingredients

Layered Chocolate & Salted Caramel Cake Ingredients

PREP TIME 20 MINS | COOKING TIME 30-35 MINS | SERVES 8-10

INGREDIENTS

For the cake

  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1 & 1/2 cups self-raising flour
  • 1 & 1/2 cups buttermilk
  • 1 & 1/4 cups caster sugar
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 395g can caramel*
  • 4 free range eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 tsp if using concentrated extract)
  • 1 & 1/2 tsp sea salt rocks
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • Sea salt rocks, to decorate (optional)

For the chocolate frosting

  • 400g dark chocolate, melted and cooled
  • 250g unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
  • 1/4 cocoa powder, sifted

*If you read all of the above before scrolling down to the recipe, I actually made my own salted caramel which I will be uploading the recipe to tomorrow (hopefully), so stay tuned for that!

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease three 9″ round disposable aluminium tins (we didn’t have cake pans to work with so we bought these instead, and since they came in a pack of three, we made a three-layer cake instead).
  2. Sift flours, sugar, cocoa, baking of soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt into a large bowl. Add in the eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract, and 1 cup cold water. Combine using a spatula. Then, using and electrical mixer, beat the mixture over medium speed for 3 to 4 minutes or until the mixture is smooth.
  3. Divide the batter between the tins and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Stand in pans for 5 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool.
  4. Meanwhile, gather ingredients for your salted caramel while waiting for your cakes to cook (if making from scratch).
  5. Chocolate Frosting: Whisk the cocoa powder and 1/4 cup of warm water in a bowl until the cocoa powder has dissolved. Meanwhile, using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the melted chocolate, then cocoa mixture until combined.
  6. Using a serrated knife, trim tops of cakes. Then, transfer the base of 1 cake to a plate. Spread with 1/3 of the caramel. Top with another cake layer and spread with 1/2 of the remaining caramel. Repeat layering with 1 cake layer and remaining caramel mixture. Top with remaining cake layer. Spread top and sides of cake with chocolate frosting. Serve!

Layered Chocolate & Salted Caramel Cake

Layered Chocolate & Salted Caramel Cake

You can’t really see the layers of caramel in-between because while we were assembling we realised that the top layer wasn’t cooked all the way through. So while waiting for that to bake away in the oven, on top of getting take out and eating dinner, the caramel that was on the other layers of cake either seeped into the cake or dripped over the sides. Sad times, but still oh so decadent in flavour!

Happy Birthday Lydia

Once again, Happy Birthday Lydia! ❤

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

myTaste.com

Red Velvet Chocolate Lava Cake

Red Velvet Chocolate Lava Cake

amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! Back with another recipe for you! I know right? It’s a weekday and she’s actually uploading a post? If you read yesterday’s post, I mentioned that I had a baking session with my good friend/lover Jialing. What happened was that she was feeling bait down that she couldn’t do the internship that she really wanted due to requirement issues with our University – and so she contacted me and basically wanted to bake a chocolate lava cake to drown her sorrows in. So, we decided to do that! I suggested that we make a red velvet lava cake – drooled instantly as I made that suggestion. So Sunday we met up at the grocers and bought our ingredients for it. While shopping, Jialing decided that she wanted to make a dark chocolate lava cake, and bought ingredients for those too. Lava cake bake-off!

Red Velvet Chocolate Lava Cake

This was my first time trying out this recipe and I don’t particularly like making lava cakes because I always end under either undercooking it, or overcooking it until it’s rock solid and dry. Jialing’s dark chocolate lava cakes were slightly overdone and not very molten, while mine on the other hand were slightly undercooked – the sides were perfect, but the tops (as in when you invert them) weren’t cooked at all, even when they were in the oven for the maximum amount of time they should be in. Nonetheless taste and texture were spot on – and in my opinion made the presentation of the dish more dynamic! Please check out the original recipe on The Dinner Pages. I SO wanted to make the cream cheese ice cream, but I didn’t have an ice cream maker so I mean, store bought Cadbury vanilla ice cream did wonders as well anyway!

Red Velvet Chocolate Lava Cake Ingredients

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 15-18 MINS | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup white chocolate buttons
  • 85g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
  • 1/2 cup plain flour
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cocoa powder
  • 2 large free range eggs
  • 2 tsp red food colouring
  • pinch of salt

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 200C. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the white chocolate and butter until smooth, at intervals of 20-30 seconds to prevent the mixture from burning (approximately 2 minutes altogether). Grease the moulds with the extra butter.
  2. Add in the cocoa powder and sugar to the white chocolate and butter mixture. Stir until well combined.
  3. Beat the eggs in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Add in the chocolate mixture in small amounts, stirring together to allow the eggs to warm slowly (temper) and avoid scrambling. Add in the remaining chocolate batter in small amounts as well and stir until fully combined.
  4. Stir in the red food colouring, flour, and pinch of salt until well combined. Then divide the batter amongst the 4 well greased moulds (should go up to about 3/4 of the way).
  5. Bake for 15 minutes (or as I found that my cakes didn’t quite cook at the top, add an extra 2 minutes, maybe).
  6. Remove from the oven and run a knife around the edges right away. Invert each mould onto an individual serving plate and let sit for 2 minutes, then carefully lift up the mould. Top with vanilla ice cream to serve.

Red Velvet Chocolate Lava Cake

I mean, look at that gloss on the lava! So much loves!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

myTaste.com

Blueberry & White Chocolate Pancakes

Blueberry & White Chocolate Pancakes

amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! Again apologies for the lack of posts, but I already explained my situation in the last post so I won’t be going through all that again! Anyway, apologies as well as this post was supposed to go up last night but I got so caught up in the kitchen the whole day from morning to afternoon, and night. Basically cooking all day long, firstly because I promised my housemate pancakes, and promised Jialing a baking session to drown her sorrows in, and then an impromptu homemade dinner session with Jialing as well. Recipes will be posted hopefully within the next few days, if I can get them all written up by tonight and just post over the coming days. I was also helping my lover Jialing to prepare her for her interview today, and also helped a fellow housemate with his internship application. The night flew by so quickly that it was way past midnight – I hadn’t written a post, and I needed to go to bed for an early 9am start. But don’t worry, because here it is now for you!

So, I actually promised my housemate Lydia that I’d make pancakes for her for breakfast on Saturday morning, but because I had a pretty rough night on Friday/early morning Saturday, I didn’t end up making pancakes for her. Long story short – it was a friend’s birthday party, things got out of hand, ended up spending my early weekend morning in the hospital until 3:45am. Don’t be alarmed! I was totally fine and sober (even after so many drinks, more than I thought I could handle), it was my friend who was totally out of it and I stayed by her side and made sure she was okay.

Blueberry & White Chocolate Pancakes

Anyway, so yes, pancake making day was pushed to yesterday morning. It was a great success in my opinion – especially since that this was the first time I was trying out this recipe, I mean, I’ve made my fair share of pancakes before, but not particularly with blueberries and white chocolate. So a little back story (because I know a few people out there who enjoy a few creative words on my posts), my housemate Lydia was trying to flip pancakes one night, prepping for breakfast the next day of course, and her pancakes crumbled. She got a few good ones though, but all in all she labelled them as fail pancakes. So the next time she made pancakes again… Well, it was hilarious! Basically we were having lunch together one day or more like our lunch times crossed at one point because I finished eating before her and I went back to my room. To my surprise when I came back down, I saw her in the kitchen and she was flipping pancakes. I asked her how she was going with them, and she replied “not so good. I actually waited for you to go upstairs so you wouldn’t see my fail pancakes!” How cute! So funny!

So basically, I decided to show Lydia how to flip pancakes yesterday. She tried, but still couldn’t flip them – so we made a deal that she will, by the end of the semester, be able to flip pancakes properly and cook me some! She did however participate in the making process – she was in charge of measuring out the dry ingredients while I worked on the wet, flipping of pancakes, presentation, and photography. And before I get on moving with today’s recipe, please check out the original recipe that I followed over on Oh Sweet Basil.

Blueberry & White Chocolate Pancakes Ingredients

PREP TIME 15 MINS | COOKING TIME 45 MINS | SERVES 3-4

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 2 cups buttermilk*
  • 2 free range eggs
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
  • 1/2 white chocolate chips
  • 2 tbsp white sugar
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt

*I didn’t have any buttermilk in the pantry so what I did was for every cup of milk I added a tablespoon of vinegar. Buttermilk has enzymes and lactic acid, which will react with the baking powder to create a light and fluffy texture with lots of little pockets of air for the pancakes. The vinegar in the milk will help to ensure this. Using just regular milk will not give you this result.

Blueberry & White Chocolate Pancakes

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 100C. Start by adding all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
  2. Separate the egg whites and egg yolks in two small bowls. Using an electrical mixer, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
  3. In the other bowl whisk the egg yolks until light in colour. Then add in the butter and whisk. Finally add the buttermilk and whisk to combine altogether. Add the egg yolk mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon.
  4. Fold in the egg whites gently together with the blueberries and white chocolate chips. Be careful as to not to over mix the batter.
  5. Lightly butter a small fry pan over medium heat and add about half a cup of batter. Allow it to cook until the bottom begins to turn golden and bubbles just start to form on the top. Flip and cook until set on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter – should make about 9 pancakes. Place the cooked pancakes on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and place in the oven to keep warm until all the pancakes have been cooked. Serve immediately.

Blueberry & White Chocolate Pancakes

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

myTaste.com

Mini No-bake Blueberry Cheesecake

Mini No-bake Blueberry Cheesecake

amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! Very sorry indeed for the lack of updates! I’ve been quite busy the past two weeks almost since my last post upload. I haven’t had the time to really get into the kitchen and cook up a new dish, or try a new recipe. For starters, uni was hectic last week. I also had a high school friend from Brunei visit me last weekend, ate out lots so expect a few café reviews soon.

And finally, I started my graphic design internship this week with Hello Social, a social media marketing agency that is based in Sydney that works with a variety of businesses to assist in achieving their marketing objective’s, through social media. I am basically now at uni twice a week, and at my internship 3 times a week, which really means that I only have the weekends to really enjoy my cooking. So I’m letting you know now that my posts will not be as regular as they used to be, but I will still upload whenever I take on another culinary adventure in the kitchen. Thank you for understanding.

All that aside! Let’s get on with today’s recipe shall we? So I actually made these (not-so) mini no-bake cheesecakes last week Monday – I just never had the chance to do a write up and post it immediately. Also, I said not-so mini because when I gave one to Marissa, she struggled to eat the whole thing herself in one go. To quote her, “Dude, this is not mini okay?!” She loved it never the less! I honestly wasn’t expecting you to finish the whole thing in one go, even I could only eat half and the other half a bit later!

What actually happened that day was that I had a 9am-12pm Photography class, and interview for my internship straight after, and then a cheesecake bake-off with my food lover Jialing. Well more or like she asked me in advance if she could use my oven (since she doesn’t have one at her place) to bake a cheesecake for her boyfriend and their two-year anniversary! Of course I wasn’t just gonna sit back and watch her make a cheesecake that wasn’t for me to eat as well – so I decided to make a (few) cheesecake(s) too!

Please check out the original recipe here at taste.com.au. Now, this recipe as you can see makes one 6cm-deep, 20cm-round base cheesecake, which equates to about 5 mini tins (I only had 4 with me on hand, so I made the remaining one in two small ramekins and ate it straight out of it – with Jialing of course!

Mini No-bake Blueberry Cheesecake Ingredients

PREP TIME 35 MINS* | COOKING TIME 20 MINS |
MAKES 4 MINI CHEESECAKES

*Add 4-5 hours extra for chilling time in the fridge

INGREDIENTS

For the cheesecake

  • 2 x 250g packets cream cheese, softened
  • 300ml thickened cream, whipped
  • 250g ginger nut biscuits
  • 125g butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
  • 1/2 cup caster sugar
  • 1/4 cup boiling water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Icing sugar mixture, to serve

For the blueberry compote

  • 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
  • 1/4 cup caster sugar
  • 3 tbsp water
  • 2 tsp lemon juice

Mini No-bake Blueberry Cheesecake

METHOD

  1. To make the blueberry compote, combine 1 cup of the blueberries, water, sugar and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add the rest of the blueberries and cook for 8 minutes more, stirring frequently. Set aside until needed.
  2. Prepare the springform pans by lining the bases with baking paper and greasing the edges with butter. In a food processor, process the ginger nut biscuits until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Tip it into a medium sized mixing bowl, add the melted butter a mix until well combined. Press the mixture over the base of the prepared pans. Place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes or until firm.
  3. Next, sprinkle the gelatine powder into a mug and add the boiling water to it. Whisk with a fork until the gelatine powder fully dissolves. Set aside to cool for 15 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, whip the thickened cream in a small mixing bowl using the electric mixer – be careful as to not over whip the cream (this is what I did and ended up with a lumpy mixture, managed to fix it but it still wasn’t a smooth and silky in texture). Set aside. Beat the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in a large mixing bowl using the electric mixer. Then, gradually beat in gelatine mixture until combined. Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the whipped cream in.

Now for the fun part! This is where you can get creative with your cheesecakes – and of course, typical me, why make 4 cheesecakes exactly the same when you can use the same ingredients but incorporate them differently into the mixture? But first, let’s separate the cheesecake batter into 2 mixing bowls. Here’s my take on no-bake blueberry cheesecake 4-ways:

Mini No-bake Blueberry Cheesecake
Cheesecake #1: Add the cheesecake mixture into one of the springform pan as is and top with the 1/2 cup of blueberries.

Mini No-bake Blueberry Cheesecake
Cheesecake #2: Same as the first cheesecake, but instead, top with the blueberry compote

Mini No-bake Blueberry Cheesecake
Cheesecake #3: Same as the first two cheesecakes, but instead, marble in the blueberry compote.

Mini No-bake Blueberry Cheesecake
Cheesecake #4: Pour the blueberry compote into the cheesecake mixture and using the electric mixer, beat until well combined. Add the mixture into the last springform pan.

Lastly, remember to wrap each springform pan with cling film and place in the fridge for at least 4-5 hours to set. Top the cheesecakes with a sprinkle of icing sugar before serving.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

myTaste.com

Corn Salsa

Corn Salsa

amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everybody! Short post today as I have no long-winded back story for this dish. I just wanted something fresh on the plate to accompany my wings and this came into mind! Please do check out the original recipe here though by allrecipes once again.

Corn Salsa Ingredients

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME — | SERVES 3-4

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 can (420g) sweet corn kernels, drained
  • 1 red pepper, diced
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 1 tomato, diced
  • Handful of rocket leaves
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • Ground salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

  1. Add all the ingredients into a large bowl and toss together until well combined. Chill until ready to serve. Simple as that!

Corn Salsa

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

myTaste.com

Honey & Lime Wings with Corn Salsa

Honey & Lime Wings

amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! So I made this dish two days back and I must say, it was finger-licking good that I just wanted to devour everything in one go! Note that I made enough for at least 3 meals so downing all of them in one go is actually a lot to eat! Oh well, at least I can enjoy this scrumptious meal for another 2 days.

Anyway, I think you can gather from previous posts that I love me some chicken wings! I don’t actually have much recipes for wings up my sleeves, so for today’s recipe I had to do a little bit of research, to find something new that I hadn’t really had before. I then came across this recipe from allrecipes for honey lime chicken wings. A few of the photographs on the recipe uploaded by others who tried out the recipe looked different, but nevertheless, I stuck to the original recipe and just added an extra step to the cooking process. I also served this dish with a lovely fresh corn salsa on the side (which again the recipe for will be posted separately from this the next day). So much yum!

Honey & Lime Wings Ingredients

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 12-15 MINS | SERVES 4-5

INGREDIENTS

  • 15 pcs chicken mid-wings, washed and cleaned
  • 1/4 cup Capilano honey and ginger blend
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil, for shallow frying
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 tbsp plain flour
  • Juice and zest of 1 lime
  • Ground salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 180C. In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the honey and ginger blend, lime juice, zest, garlic, salt and pepper. Set aside.
  2. Coat the chicken wings with a flour, salt, and pepper mix. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over high heat and fry the chicken wings until golden brown (about 2-3 minutes per side). Once golden, transfer to a lined baking tray and finish off in the oven for another 6-8 minutes or until cooked through.
  3. Place the cooked wings in the honey/lime mixture one by one and toss to coat well. Serve immediately with a side dish of your choice, in this case I served it with a nice serving of a fresh corn salsa.

Honey & Lime Wings

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

myTaste.com

Mashed Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes

amcarmen2 Comments

Hello Everyone! Another simple recipe for you that has already probably come up in a few recipes as an accompaniment to a main dish, but I thought that I’d separate the recipe from a post I did two days ago. I love mashed potatoes. I still even remember the time I “made” them – a cringe-worthy experience I must say! I was THAT inexperienced that I “made” mashed potatoes by simply buying those pre-packed ones where you would just add water and violà! Can’t believe I did that for a year.

And you may think that mashed potatoes are simple and easy to make? Well somehow I still managed to stuff them up one time – it had a glue-like texture to it… It was just awful in texture but at least the taste was somewhat still there. I seriously had NO idea how that happened until I came across a Masterchef Australia’s Masterclass on TV where Gary showed how to make the perfect mashed potatoes. I then understood where my mistakes were and they were mainly to do with temperatures and process of mashing (I used to use a potato masher, but for a smoother consistency…you’ll find out below). Nonetheless, I can say that I’m pretty much there with my mashed potatoes – some days more creamy and some days more fluffy because I pretty much just eyeball the amount of milk and butter. Also always inconsistent with the number of potatoes that I use. So for this recipe, just adjust the amount of milk and butter to your liking.

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 15-20 MINS | SERVES 3-4

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 medium-sized white potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks
  • 1/2 cup milk, warmed but not boiling
  • 10g unsalted butter
  • Ground salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

  1. Steam the potatoes for about 15-20 minutes or until tender (check by piercing a fork into the chunks of potatoes). Drain and pass the potatoes through a sieve back into the pot with the heat turned off. Work in batches if needed.
  2. Add the warmed milk, potatoes and ground salt and pepper, and mix until a smooth and creamy texture. Serve as an accompaniment to a main dish.

Mashed Potatoes

Also note the waterlily bowl that I used to hold my mashed potatoes in! If you’re a new follower or have not seen my blog before, head on to a post I did a while back on my Lovelily Tableware Collection where I hand-built plates and bowls for my introduction to ceramics course as part of my degree elective.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

myTaste.com

Honeyed Dutch Carrots

Honeyed Dutch Carrots

amcarmen2 Comments

Hello Everybody! If you read yesterday’s blog post, I mentioned that I would be posting the recipe to these lovely honeyed Dutch carrots separate from yesterday’s recipe – so here it is now! Don’t worry, I’m not going to write another long-winded post as I have no back story to this. I just wanted some vegetables to go with my steak au poivre yesterday and I looked up some ways that I could make my Dutch carrots a little more fancy than just having them just steamed.

I came across Julie Goodwin’s recipe for honey carrots and they are just divine! Instead of using just regular honey, I decided to go for a fusion by Capliano which is a blend of honey and ginger (recently getting into these honey fusions, if you remember from a few posts I used a honey and maple syrup a couple of time in various recipes). Also, apparently these carrots are in season in Australia around July time (though I am one week into August already), but if you do want to keep on your budget, you can make do with ordinary carrots, just remember to cut them into small batons to cook through well.

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 12 MINS | SERVES 2-3

INGREDIENTS

  •  1 bunch baby Dutch carrots, peeled and tops trimmed to 2cm
  • 10g unsalted butter
  • 1 tbsp Capilano honey and ginger blend
  • Ground salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

  1. Steam (or microwave) the carrots for 3 minutes until tender but not soggy.  The time will depend on how big that carrots as smaller ones may need even less than 3 minutes.
  2. Melt the butter in a medium frypan over medium-high heat. When it starts to froth, add the carrots and cook for about 1-2 minutes, browning the carrots slightly before adding the honey in. Then toss in the pan for 5-6 minutes or until the honey becomes a lovely dark brown in colour.
  3. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately as an accompaniment to any dish. In my case, I served with yesterday’s Braised Steak au Poivre in Red Wine dish.

Honeyed Dutch Carrots

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

myTaste.com

Braised Steak au Poivre in Red Wine

Braised Steak au Poivre in Red Wine

amcarmen3 Comments

Hello Everyone! So last night, if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you would’ve known that I posted I few images of this dish and apologised for not being able to post the recipe on the same day (just had a lot of course reading material to get through and prepare for class the next day). Anyway, here is the recipe! And an early upload as well than my usual upload time.

So a couple of weeks (maybe 1 or 2 weeks back I guess) I was searching for a slow-cooked beef in red wine recipe as I had a lovely gravy beef steak waiting to be cooked and a bottle of red wine that was given to me by a friend. I don’t usually drink wine so that’s why I figured, why not cook with it instead?

Braised Steak au Poivre in Red Wine

Please check out the original recipe here. I changed mainly the quantities because of the amount of meat I had, but otherwise I kept to the recipe and added a few veggies to the dish. I completely forgot to add in the crème fraîche when I photographed the dish (but I remembered when I was halfway through eating), so I do apologise if the dish is looking a bit dark!

Au Poivre, for those of you who don’t know, is a French dish which translated just means steak (traditionally a filet mignon) prepared or served with a generous amount of coarsely ground black pepper. The peppercorns form a crust on the steak when cooked and provide a pungent but complementary counterpoint to the rich flavor of the high-quality beef.

Braised Steak au Poivre in Red Wine Ingredients

Braised Steak au Poivre in Red Wine Ingredients

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 4 HOURS 10 MINS | SERVES 3-4

INGREDIENTS

  • 450g beef shank, cut into 3 large chunks
  • 220ml red wine
  • 250g small cup mushrooms
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp crème fraîche
  • 1 tbsp plain flour
  • 2 tsp whole black peppercorns
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 small zucchini, cut into 1-inch long strips
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme (or a tsp of dried thyme leaves)
  • Ground salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 180C. Crush the peppercorns coarsely with a mortar and pestle. Mix the ground peppercorns together with the flour on a plate. Then coat the pieces of meat into this mixture, pressing it well in on all sides.
  2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over high heat in a casserole dish (make sure it is really hot), and quickly brown the pieces of meat on all sides, and then transfer them to a plate.
  3. Keeping to a high heat, add the remaining olive oil to the pan and brown the onions, about 3-4 minutes. Then add in the garlic and cook for another minute. Add in any remaining flour and pepper left on the plate to the pan, stirring well to soak up the juices. Pour the red wine in a little at a time, continuing to stir to prevent any lumps forming, and scraping in any crusty residue from the bottom and edge of the pan. Bring to a simmer.
  4. Once simmering, add the meat to the sauce, season it with salt, then pop in the bay leaves and thyme. Bring it back to a simmer.
  5. Once simmering again, put a lid on the casserole and transfer it to the middle shelf of the oven to cook for 4 hours or until the meat is tender. During the last hour of cooking, add in the cup mushrooms and zucchini strips.
  6. When you’re ready to serve, remove the herbs, add the crème fraîche, stir it in well, then taste to check for seasoning before serving. Serve on a bed of mashed potatoes and a side of honeyed Dutch carrots (optional, open to creativity).

Braised Steak au Poivre in Red Wine

I will post the recipes for honeyed Dutch carrots and mashed potatoes in a separate post so stayed tuned for those two in the next two days!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

 

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