20111224 Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

This holiday season was a mellow one for me. I just put my feet up and enjoyed the company. I only cooked something simple on Christmas Eve night - stuffed portobello mushrooms as starter, roasted new potatoes as side dish, grilled rib eyes as main course, and some fruit yoghurt as dessert. I was even too lazy to find a recipe for the stuffed portobellow mushroom, and simply made one up myself. To be very honest, it was definitely not a WOW dish, but was a good and simple starter for sure.

INGREDIENTS
2 large portobello mushrooms
vegetable oil
1 cup grated cheese
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/3 fresh parsley, roughly chopped (leave some for garnishing)
1/4 cup drained oil-packed sun dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
salt and freshly grounded black pepper

METHOD
1. Heat the oven grill to high. In a small bowl, mix the cheese, breadcrumbs, parsley, and tomatoes together. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Spray a small oven dish with vegetable oil. Lay the mushrooms gill side down in the dish, and grill for about 4 minutes.
3. Turn the mushrooms and stuff them with the cheese filling. Return to the oven and grill for another 5 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. Sprinkle with some roughly chopped parsley and serve.

20111217 Banana Bread

I just can't ask for a nicer breakfast for a lazy Saturday morning. I am listening to Diana Krall's Christmas Songs and enjoying these warm slices of heaven, while my husband is sleeping in and snoring away. I just can't praise this recipe enough, as it takes only 15 minutes to prepare and less than an hour to bake. I am making banana bread almost twice a month, and we are never tired of it!

20111215 Cauliflower Casserole

I wanted to cook loads of comfort food because of the winter weather. I wanted meatloaf, chilli, sloppy joe, beef stew...But on the other hand, I wanted to cook something healthy before stuffing our face with food during the holiday seasons. Because of this dilemma, I have been struggling to find cooking inspirations. So I made this casserole tonight - the tomato-y meat sauce and cheese topping satisfied (some of) my crave for comfort food, and the cauliflower and carrot helped to make the dish (a bit) healthier.


INGREDIENTS
300g potatoes, cut into large chunks
1 small cauliflower, cut into florets
1 carrot, shredded (leave about 1 tbsp of carrots for garnish)
1 small onion, finely diced
300g lean minced beef
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp tomato puree
250g canned tomato blocks
100ml vegetable stock
75g grated cheese
salt and freshly grounded black pepper

METHOD
1. Heat the oven to 175 degree C.
2. Cook the potatoes in boiling water for about 15 minutes. Drain and set aside.
3. Cook the cauliflower in boiling water for about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
4. In a large pan, brown the beef in 1 tbsp of olive oil. Add the onion and carrots, and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the basil, tomato puree, tomato blocks, and vegetable stock. Bring to the boil, and simmer for about 15 minutes with a lid on. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. In a large casserole dish, throw in the potatoes and cauliflower. Cover with the meat sauce and grated cheese. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven. Garnish with some shredded carrots and serve.

20111211 Banana Muffins with Poppy Seeds

In an attempt to make healthier muffins, I used bit less butter here. To make sure the muffins are moist, I used more bananas and yoghurt. The result was...erm, not that good. They still tasted alright and moist, but they were very pale. I could have left them in the oven for longer until they were golden brown, but I was afraid they would be overbaked and became all dry. It is tricky to alternate baking recipe!

INGREDIENTS
250g self raising flour
125g packed white sugar
2 tbsp poppy seeds
50g butter, melted
1 1/2 ripe banana
2 eggs
5 tbsp yoghurt

METHOD
1. Heat the oven to 200 degree C. Mix together the flour, sugar, and poppy seed in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. In a small bowl, mash the bananas. Mix in the melted butter, yoghurt, and eggs.
3. Add the banana mixture into the dry ingredients. Mix well with a fork, then divide them into the muffin tins.
4. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.

20111129 Meatballs in Curry Sauce

(SOURCE: Bill Granger - Relax)

I got this wonderful cookbook, Bill Granger's Relax, for my birthday - thanks Heather! His recipes are so easy to follow, so I couldn't help but try one of them right away. Tonight I made half the meatballs but the same amount of sauce. I served my meatballs with some steamed basmati rice, and wish I had some roasted cashew nuts to go with them. As my husband was late from work and we had to dash out, I simply made him a meatball ciabatta sandwich to go - the fragrant sauce and the fresh and crusty ciabatta, yummmm. Next time I may just make those meatballs alone as finger food at parties!

INGREDIENTS
For the meatballs - 
300g minced pork
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 small egg, lightly beaten
25g breadcrumbs
1/2 red chilli pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the curry sauce -
3 tbsp curry paste
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
4 tomatoes, finely chopped
200ml coconut milk
200ml chicken stock
lemon juice and brown sugar, to taste

METHOD
1. Heat the oven to 220 degree C.
2. In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients for the meatball. Then make about 20 little meatballs. Grease a roast pan with some olive oil (about 1/2 tbsp) and toss the meatballs in. Cook the meatballs in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown.
3. In the meantime, cook the curry paste and ginger over high heat until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes. Then add the coconut milk and stock. Bring it to the boil, and then let it simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes.
4. Throw the meatballs into the curry sauce and let it simmer for another 20 minutes. Season with lemon juice and brown sugar, and scatter with roughly chopped coriander leaves.

20111123 Pear and Honey Muffins

(SOURCE: Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson - Pear and Ginger Muffins)

What's best to do when you wake up at 4am? BAKE! Nothing says a good morning better than some warm breakfast muffins. I had had a flu for the last couple of days, and have been living on hot tea with honey. So this morning I wanted some warm muffins served with honey. And looking at what I have in the kitchen, I figured I could simply make pear and honey muffins. They were SO GOOD, especially when they are still a little warm. I used a very ripe pear so the muffins are very fragrant. As the muffins are very sweet already, don't smear it with any more honey - unless you have a very big sweet tooth, of course. Perfect muffins for this misty fall morning.

INGREDIENTS
250g flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
75g brown sugar, plus 1/2 tsp per muffin for sprinkling
1tsp ground ginger
142ml sour cream
125ml vegetable oil
1 tbsp honey
2 eggs
1 large pear (about 300g), peeled, cored, and cut into 5mm dice

METHOD
1. Heat the oven to 200 degree C, and line muffin tin with 12 muffin cases.
2. In a large bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, caster sugar, brown sugar, and ground ginger).
3. In a measuring jug, whisk together the sour cream, oil, honey and eggs. Then fold into the dry ingredients.
4. Mix in the diced pear, and divide the batter evenly between the muffin cases.
5. Sprinkle each one with 1/2 tsp of brown sugar and bake for 20 minutes. Remove to a cooling rack.

20111113 Cake decorating workshop

My sister in law always wanted to learn how to decorate a cake with marzipan and how to make roses with marzipan. So this year I decided to take her to a cake decorating workshop as her birthday present, and she LOVED IT!

I was not particularly interested in marzipan cake, but enjoyed the workshop nonetheless. It's like playing play-doh for 3.5 hours, and the best part is, I could eat what I crafted. So here is my fall cake with pumpkins and porcupines.

My sister in law did an absolutely amazing job with those marzipan roses on her oilily cake. Seriously, you can't tell that this was her very first time decorating a cake with marzipan.

Okay I am still not crazy about marzipan, but have to admit that I am tempted to decorate cupcakes with marzipan just for the fun of it. Now I just need to find the audience to eat them.

20111109 Zoervleis

(SOURCE: AH.nl - Stap-voor-stap zoervleis volgens Robin Berben)

As I am not feeling 100% and it is getting cold, I wanted to make something warm and meaty tonight. I never had or even heard of zoervleis (literal translation: sour meat) before. It is a traditional dish from Maastricht - which is a stew of beef with onions, vinegar, ontbijtkoek, and apple (or pear) syrup. It is usually served with apple sauce, and (home-made) fries with mayo. Another way is to pour the zoervleis all over your fries, and serve it with a simply green salad. As I was feeling lazy, I simply served this with boiled potatoes and steamed broccoli. This recipe was picked as the "best recipe of traditional Dutch dish", but it just didn't work for me. I didn't like the sweet and sour taste at all, as in my opinion beef stew should always be hearty. Maybe I didn't cook it right, but no more zoervleis in my kitchen for sure!

INGREDIENTS
700g stew beef, cut into 3cm blocks
300ml red wine vinegar
3 bay leaves
3 cloves
butter
3 medium onions, cut into chunks
3 slices of ontbijtkoek (Dutch spiced cake), broken into crumbs
3 tbsp appelstroop (apple syrup)

METHOD
1. Add 300ml of water, vinegar, cloves, and bay leaves to a large bowl. Add beef, and season with salt and pepper. Let it marinate for at least 24 hours in the fridge.
2. Remove beef from the bowl and dab dry. Remember to save the marinade for later.
3. In a Dutch oven, brown the onions with some butter. Remove and set aside.
4. Brown the beef, then add the onions and marinade. Bring it to the boil, and let it simmer over low heat for 2 to 3 hours. Stir occasionally.
5. When the beef is done, add the ontbijtkoek crumbs to thicken the sauce. Season with appelstroop, and salt and pepper to taste.

20111105 Peanut Butter Cake Bars

(SOURCE: Taste of Home - Peanut Butter Cake Bars)

For some reasons, I really wanted to bake these days but am not really up to eating loads of baked goods. As my friend loves peanut butter cookies, I looked for peanut butter baked good recipes so I can satisfy my need to bake and hopefully her stomach. I read a lot of reviews saying peanut butter cakes tend to be a little dry, but this recipe got a lot of good reviews so I gave it a go. As I could only find mixed chocolate chips here and couldn't be bothered to pick out the milk chocolate ones, I simply threw in 200g of a mix of white/milk/dark chocolate chips, instead of 300g of milk ones. The cake bars were finished by my friend and family yesterday - all family members ate 2 to 3 bars yesterday, so they bars must be okay. I wonder if I could replace the chocolate chips with Smarties or peanut M&M's next time...

INGREDIENTS
150g butter, softened
2/3 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
4 eggs
2tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
200g mixed chocolate chips

METHOD
1. Heat the oven to 175 degree C. Grease a 13x9 inch baking pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Then gradually add to the creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips.
3. Spread the mixture into the baking pan. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack, then cut into bars.

20111104 Mini Oreo Cheesecakes

(SOURCE: Baking Bites - Halloween Oreo Cheesecakes)

Though I love cheesecakes, I just can't seem to make them right and they always look awful. Argh! One of the biggest challenges is to know when it is done. For muffins and cakes, you can test if they are done by inserting a toothpick in the middle. But how do you know when cheesecake is "set"? I think I have overbaked these mini cheesecakes. They still tasted alright and my husband liked them - there are Oreo cookies in them, so what not to like? But they were just not cheesecake-y enough for me, as my cheesecake craving was still there after eating two of them. One tip: make sure you have some spare Oreo cookies in case you have enough batter left to make more mini cheesecakes.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup sugar
450g cream cheese, room temperature
3 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cups chopped Oreo cookies
16-20 whole Oreo cookies

METHOD
1. Heat the oven to 175 degree C. Line 16 to 20 muffin cups with paper liners, and place one Oreo in the bottom of each muffin cup.
2. In a large bowl, beat together sugar, cream cheese, eggs, milk, and vanilla extract until very smooth. Then blend in flour, and lastly stir in the chopped Oreo cookies.
3. Top each muffin cup with 1/4 cup cheesecake batter. Bake for 16-19 minutes, until cheesecakes are set. Cool in pan.
4. Chill cheesecakes for at least 2 hours before serving.