Strawberry Chiffon with White Chocolate frosting

Another way to get rid of fresh strawberries ... made strawberry chiffon cake and had it frosted with white chocolate frosting. This was made for my pil and bil during one of our regular monthly visit. The sweetness of the white chocolate blended well with the slightly sourish strawberry chiffon - nice combination :-)

Beef Stroganoff

I love beef but seldom cook them because my kids don't fancy them that much. But I could not resist buying some after seeing some nicely sliced stir-fry beef at the supermarket. After much thought, I decided to try making stroganoff and I was soo happy that the girls love it but they didn't eat the beef of course *LOL* There are loads and loads of stroganoff recipes in the internet but this particular one caught my eye because it has tomato juice added. I love tomatoes as it adds flavours to some dishes especially certain creamy ones. In this picture you see specks of white - those are sourcream which I forgot to stir before I threw them into the gravy :-P But looks can be deceiving, this was delicious.

I got the recipe from here and I omitted the sherry.

Nama chocolate wannabe (ala Royce)

With a tub of valrhona chocolate and cocoa powder to clear, I decided to make Nama chocolate made popular by Royce. This one of course is far from the original but to me it is delicious enough and true bliss especially for chocolate lovers ! It wasn't difficult to make but you have to fast with the Singapore weather, otherwise you will get a pretty messy fingers. To me this chocolate is more like a chocolate truffle, main ingredients are chocolate (good quality please) and cream .. and this is the end product !!!

Pure indulgence !!!

For those who are interested, I got the recipe from this site it's in Japanese btw. I was lucky to have found it translated at one site that I was surfing but unfortunately cannot remember which one :-( Please use good quality chocolates and for the cocoa powder, use dutch processed ones.

Ingredients:
195g dark chocolate (I used valrhona 50% cocoa but best is with 70%)
100ml fresh cream
1 Tbsp honey (if you are not using anything more than 70%, you can cut down the honey a little bit if you prefer slightly bitter taste)
enough cocoa powder to coat the chocolates later

Method:
1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces
2. Place cream and honey in a pot and heat it up. Turn off the flame the moment it boils
3. Add the chopped chocolate into the warm mixture and stir till the chocolate and cream are combined (it should look like ganache)
4. Lay baking paper on a tray (covering the sides too), then pour the mixture into it
5. Place it in the fridge for about 2 hours or until firm
6. Remove the hardened chocolate from the baking tray and chop them into cubes with a warm knife blade
7. Coat them generously with the cocoa powder and serve it chilled

Durian Puffs ... 2nd take (updated with choux pastry recipe)

My second attempt of durian puffs with a different choux pastry recipe. My first attempt was this one and I wasn't really satisfied with the choux pastry although it was ok. They kinda flattened on me after cooling :-( So I tried with another recipe taken from Small Cakes by Roger Pizey and it turned out great. The puffs kept their shape after cooling. I find the puffs are perfect with ice-cream fillings. Maybe I will do that once I can find some space in my freezer *LOL*

This time round, I didn't really have any particular recipe for the fillings. It was just plenty of durian pulp and some whipped cream. Mixed them together and chill it before serving. Make sure you get good grade durians. This is best served chilled also you can even drizzle some chocolate sauce or melted choc to go with it .. yumms

Here is the choux pastry recipe which I used for the durian puffs.

Profiteroles (Choux Pastry)
adapted from Small Cakes from Fondant Fancies to Florentines by Roger Pizey

Ingredients
150ml water
60g butter (I used salted butter)
2 tsp caster sugar
a good pinch of salt
100g bread flour
3 eggs, 55g each whisked - original stated 2-3 eggs, if you are using bigger eggs, you may need less than 3

Method
1. Place water, butter, sugar and salt in a pan and bring to boil making sure butter is melted
2. Add flour and stir with wooden spoon till the dough comes away easily from the side of the pan (you need to cook the flour fully, so try not to hurry)
3. Place dough in a mixer and while beating, add enough eggs slowly to make it suitable for piping
4. Cover dough with cling wrap and leave it to rest in the fridge till it cools
5. Fill piping bag fitted with a large nozzle with cooled dough
6. Preheat oven to 240C
7. Pipe a choux evenly on tray (size is up to you)
8. Place tray on the middle shelf of the oven and turn off the oven, leave it for 15mins
9. Turn oven back on at 180C and bake for about 20-30mins (Do not open the door untill nearly cooked or it will flatten - I took it out when the top turned brown)
10. Remove from the oven and turn out onto a wire rack to cool

Curry-in-a-hurry

Being a FTWM and having to prepare dinner on weekdays can be a real challenge sometimes. I am always open to recipes that are easy to prepare and fast. So by the recommendation from friends, I decided to get Rachael Ray's 365 book and this was the first dish that I made. To me it tasted very much like Japanese curry and very kids' friendly.

I used my trusty thermal pot and cooked this in the morning before I left for work and by the time I reached home, I had a piping hot dish waiting to be served ;-) I still have another 362 to try out ..(actually I have done some other dishes but didn't get a chance to take a picture of them) :-P and pretty happy that my kids are eating them with no complains !