Skillet Smores

Small treat for the girls over the weekend with my stash of dark chocolate in the refrigerator.  Got this idea from pinterest (where else :D) and I thought it was cool to have it done for the girls.  So with my medium size skillet, good dark chocolate bars plus some leftover bittersweet chocolate chip cookies, they had a great time munching this after lunch.  I partially melt the chocolate for a bit in the oven before I arranged the marshmallows on top.  Then put it on grill in the oven till the marshmallow turns brown.  We had it with soda crackers instead as we don't have graham crackers easily available here.  The combination is wonderful!  

What you need:
2 bars or more of your favourite chocolate
1 bag marshmallow
crackers

What you do:
1. Break the chocolate and heat the skillet in the preheated oven till partially melted
2. Arrange marshmallows on top of the choc
3. Put the skillet back to the oven and let the marshmallow browned, serve with crackers

Vietnamese Yogurt (drink)

I make my own yogurt at home using my yogurt maker and cultured powder, once a few weeks. They are usually made with low and full fat milk and quite recently with coconut milk.  I usually eat it on its own or use it for my bakes and cooking.  A few days ago, I chanced upon a recipe of a vietnamese yogurt that uses sweetened condensed milk.  Very interesting I should say and that made me wanted to try. The recipe I chose uses yogurt as a starter, curious with the taste, I made it 2 days ago.  Unfortunately my low-fat yogurt is not potent enough to firm up the yogurt nicely but I really do like the taste.  Instead, I have myself a yogurt drink that tastes very much like Yakult *yummy*

Next time I will use the powder instead and replace some of the water with full cream milk.

I used my yogurt maker for this, but you can use your oven to set the yogurt.  Best to do it at night so that it will be ready by the next morning.  Recipe follows:

What you need:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can boiling water (use the same can of the condensed milk)

1 can room temperature water (use the same can of the condensed milk, original recipe uses 2 cans)

1/2 cup yogurt (store bought is fine)

What you do:

1. Pour condensed milk into a bowl, add boiling water and stir the mixture

2. Add room temperature water and stir till well blended and let the mixture cool a little bit (you do not want it to be too hot when adding the yogurt as it will kill the bacteria and your yogurt will not set)

3. Add yogurt and stir

4. If you are using a yogurt maker, pour mixture into your yogurt maker and let it set in the maker till it sets

5. If you are using the oven, preheat the oven to 75C then turn it off the heat

6. Pour the yogurt into small containers and place them in the oven with the light on overnight.

7. Yogurt is ready for consumption the next day.  Keep some yogurt to be used as a starter for the next batch

Happy trying !

Random: My coffee corner

Just some random entry which is not food related :)  I always enjoy a good cup of coffee and feels that it would be a shame to hide this cute pixie in the kitchen.  So I decided to dedicate a small corner of my flat for my coffee machine so that I can serve my guests with good quality coffee.  Nothing fancy really, just that I got a good friend to do one framework for me to hang above the coffee cart as it was pretty bare.  So yesterday I got my father-in-law to drill my wall so that I can hang this up... Cosy isn't it?

Juicy Lucy Cheeseburger

One of those weekends when you do not know what to prepare for lunch.  Then the hubby requested for a burger after he saw a photo of the juicy lucy burger done by his cousin. So since I am in the mood to be busy, I made this for lunch. Mince the meat using my grinder and baked the burger buns - everything from scratch .. well almost everything :)

You know I always go for easy recipe and this is easy. Very minimal seasoning required. 

This is how we had it, with potatoes and sweet potato chips.

Here is the link to the recipe I used for the patty.

http://www.food.com/recipe/jucy-lucy-cheeseburger-383042

What you need:

1 kg ground beef, chilled

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp garlic powder

150g a mix of cheddar and mozarella cheese cut into 1cm cubes

kosher salt

ground black pepper

What you do:

1. Place beef, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, and pepper in a bowl; mix well, portion into eight (size of lemon)

2. Flatten the the beef and stuffed the cheese into the patty

3. Preheat a cast-iron skillet or heavy-bottomed pan to medium heat

4. Cook burgers over heat 3 to 4 minutes on first side (Burger may puff up due to steam from melting cheese. This is normal. Do not be alarmed)

5. Flip, and using toothpick, prick top of burger to allow for steam escape. Allow burger to cook 3 to 4 minutes on this side.

6. Remove patties from pan or grill, place them on the burger bun, add some condiments on, and ready to be eaten

Enjoy !

Quick Rise Yeasted Rolls

I was thinking of baking bread but not in the mood to do something that takes hours. So tried this recipe because of the rave reviews. It also doesn't use huge amount of yeast considering this is a quick rise roll. Verdict: really good. Soft and delicious.

I made minor changes. Refer to the link for the original recipe. Mix the dough till slightly stretchy before the first rest. No need to knead. The dough I got was soft but manageable.  This rolls also keep well, they still stay soft the next day.

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/13827/quick-yeast-rolls

Quick Rise Yeasted Rolls

What you need:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons raw sugar

1 cup hot water

7g instant yeast

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees C

2. In a large bowl, mix the oil, sugar, and hot water

3. Allow to cool until lukewarm, and mix in the yeast until dissolved
4. Mix in the egg, salt, and flour, allow the dough to rise until doubled in size.

5. Divide the dough into the prepared muffin cups or tray, and allow to rise again until doubled in size.

6. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.

Double Chocolate Banana Muffin

I had some overriped bananas in the refrigerator that was calling me.  Need to clear them and I was thinking of something chocolaty. After checking the internet, I ended up with this. Recipe is taken of a magazine and not only it was easy, but they came out delicious. I have made some modification to the flour but I would encourage you to try the original recipe

Double Chocolate Banana Muffin

What you need:
1 1/2 cup plain flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup mashed bananas
1 large egg
1/3 cup oil/melted butter
1 cup chocolate chips
*1/4 cup milk (this is not in the original recipe. I added because my batter was really dry due to the flour I used)

What you do:
1. In a large bowl, sift and combine all the dry ingredients
2. In a small bowl, combine bananas, oil and egg and stir into dry ingredients until moistened. Add milk if batter is really dry. Fold in chips 
3. Fill paper lined muffin cups 3/4 full

4. Baked at 170C for 20-25 mins or until toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean