Month: August 2011

A Pie Like No Other.

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Ever seen a recipe and add it to your bookmark list almost immediately but have no courage to give it a try? This was one of them. I got about 100 more recipes bookmarked and still trying to give them a go! I’m not kidding or exaggerating.

Truth be told, I never had a very good experience with pies. Or tarts for the matter. Especially food that involve the pie/tart tin. haha. One horrible experience was the Chocolate Ganache, Cream and Strawberry Tart that I tried to bake after watching Masterchef. It was a DISASTER! Free form tarts like Hot Apple Tart I could still handle. anything to do with short crust pastry or a tin, not so much.

But I decided to suck it up, and give tarts another shot. One consolation was that I didn’t need to make shortcrust pastry. But that’s not to say that this is any simpler! Although I have to admit, I love the fact that the base is made of oats! That made me push myself even more to try this recipe!

And so I did. As you can see from the picture above, it’s not a perfect looking pie. But I think I did pretty well! And boy was it yummy! The gooey-ness of the filling was just to-die-for. REALLY. Everyone should give this a shot! Don’t think about the calories, just have it. You will love it!

One of the challenges I had was taking the pie out of the tin, without the sides and corners crumbling on me. Let me tell you this, it is not a one person job. You need extra hands for this! Thankfully I had the Mr help me! (: And he also helped me in finishing up the pie! haha and after you do finish the pie, you need to head to The Training Geek to get some exercise tips and work the sugar off! But it will all be worth it, I repeat, worth every calorie intake!

So here’s the recipe from the Momofuku cook book! Enjoy every single crumb!

What’s better than hot gooey pie and ice cream?

Oatmeal Cookie for Crust

Ingredients
2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon flour
Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
Scant 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup softened butter
1/3 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
Scant 1 cup rolled oats

Directions
1. Heat the oven to 190°C.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Cream the butter, brown sugar and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Whisk the egg into the butter mixture until fully incorporated.
5. Stir in the flour mixture until fully combined. Stir in the oats.
6. Spread the mixture onto a 9-inch-by-13-inch baking sheet and bake until golden brown and set, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to the touch on a rack. Crumble the cooled cookie to use in the crust.

Crust

Ingredients
Crumbled cookie for crust
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions
Combine the crumbled cookie, butter, brown sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse until evenly combined and blended (a little of the mixture clumped between your fingers should hold together). Divide the crust between 2 (10-inch) pie tins (I used a long rectangular tin and 8 small round ones). Press the crust into each shell to form a thin, even layer along the bottom and sides of the tins. Set the prepared crusts aside while you prepare the filling.

Filling

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup plus a scant 3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 teaspoon milk powder
1 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup plus a scant 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 egg yolks

Prepared crusts

Powdered sugar to garnish

Directions
1. Heat the oven to 180°C.
2. Whisk together the sugar, brown sugar, salt and milk powder. Whisk in the melted butter, then whisk in the heavy cream and vanilla.
3. Gently whisk in the egg yolks, being careful not to add too much air.
4. Divide the filling evenly between the 2 prepared pie shells.
5. Bake the pies, one at a time, for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 325 degrees and bake until the filling is slightly jiggly and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the pies and cool on a rack.
6. Refrigerate the cooled pies until well chilled. Serve cold, and the filling will be gooey. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

You. Will. Love. It. I. Promise. (:

My Mr’s Special : Roasted Beef Ribs

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Ever had something that was so good, you had to try to make it at home?

We did. We had the best beef short ribs at Pancake On The Rocks in Sydney and we couldn’t stop talking about it. To the point where the mr had to go buy short ribs and make it back at home! (:

And boy did the mr do an awesome job! He made his own bbq sauce and the beef ribs were nice, succulent and yummy!

Doesn’t it look absolutely mouth-watering? hehe

The good thing about this recipe is you just need to make the marinade and allow it to take in all the yummy flavours; the bad thing is you would need to allow it to marinade for a whole day to get maximum flavour. so YOU GOTTA WAIT! haha as the saying goes “good thing comes to those who wait!“

And these babies would go well with anything and everything! You could cut it up and put it on pizzas (which is what we did the next day with the left overs), you could have it with salad, you could have it with chips. For that night, we had it with a side of salad, baked portobello mushrooms, and buns with homemade eggplant dip! (:

It was a super yummy and, not to mention, filling dinner! (: So here’s the recipe the mr adapted to create this yummos dinner! Give it a shot!

Ingredients (Adapted from Food.com)

1 (14 ounce) bottle ketchup1/2 cup honey3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce1 tablespoon Dijon mustard1 tablespoon fresh minced garlic
3 finely chopped green onions1/2 teaspoon cinnamon1/2 teaspoon all spice1/4 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 dash tabasco
2 kg meaty beef ribs (or short ribs)

Steps :

1. In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients, except the beef, and adjust seasonings to taste (the sauce should have a good balance of sweet and savory flavors).
2. Place the ribs in a large bowl, and coat with the sauce.
3. Cover, and refrigerate for 2 hours or as long as 48 hours, turning the ribs every so often. (I would say the longer the better!)
4. Preheat the oven to 165°C. Drain the ribs (reserving the sauce), and place them in a large roasting pan, bone-side down.
5. Brush with sauce, and bake for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from oven, and turn the ribs over, brush with additional sauce, bake for another 30 minutes.
7. Turn one more time, brush with the remaining sauce, and bake for another 35-40 minutes, or until ribs are tender, basting every so often.
ENJOY!! (:
On a side note, since it is the mister who cooked this dish. I would like to congratulate him on making the Fresh Press page of WordPress! (: All your hard work has paid off sweetie! Keep up the good work! And for all you guys who would like to get more exercise tips, head over to his website and educate yourself! Exercise Yourself Healthy! WOO!

Winter Warmer

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So it’s the middle of winter. Rather  2 months into winter and besides these couple of days that have been all about sunshine and clear skies; the rest of the days include cold winds, cloudy skies and temperatures below 10 degrees! I’m never a winter person, more an autumn or spring person. There’s something about leaves falling from the trees and flowers blooming (opposite ends of the spectrum, I know) that puts a smile on my face.

So the only way to cheer me up during this gloomy winter is to cook something that would warm us up (with a little kick of spice) What do I have in mind? Fish stew! (: And it goes really well with … Garlic bread ! My favourite winter warmer at the moment. A one pot wonder too! No mess, no fuss! And pretty yummy if I could say so myself (:

Please pardon the lack in quality of my photos. Was too hungry and didn’t really adjust the lighting well enough! Plus the messy bowl. Goodness me!

So here’s the recipe, give it a shot and warm yourself up this winter! (:

Fish and Seafood Stew (A Food Made With Love Original)

1 leek, sliced thinly

4 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly

1 onion, cut into wedges

1 carrot, cut into small cubes/pieces

3 red chillies, de-seeded and sliced thinly

2 tbs olive oil

1 tin chopped tomatoes

2 tbs tomato paste

1 tin tomato puree

2 tsp hot paprika

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp garlic salt

2 fillets of basa, sliced into 1-inch pieces

300g marinara mix

50g spinach

750ml fish stock

100ml white wine

Steps :

1) In a large pot, heat the olive oil on a medium heat and add the leeks, garlic, onion, chilli and carrot and cook till soft and fragrant. (make sure the onion or garlic does not brown, just until the onion is translucent)

2) Add the hot paprika, chilli powder and garlic salt and stir to incorporate.

3) Add the dried oregano and allow mixture to cook for 5 minutes before adding the wine. Allow the wine to reduce by half before adding the tomato paste, chopped tomatoes and tomato puree. Stir it well and add the fish stock. Cover the pot and cook over low heat for 2 hours.

(note : you don’t have to cook for this long, if you want a quick meal, just allow it to cook for 30 mins before going on to the next step. If you have the time, allow it to cook for at least 2 hours or more for more flavour as well as a thicker stew)

4) Add the fish fillets and seafood 20 minutes before serving, and the spinach 10 minutes before serving.

5) Serve with a side of homemade garlic bread or white rice.

ENJOY !

Stay warm everyone ! (: