Pana Cotta

According to the wikipedia, Pana Cotta is and italian dessert of sweetened cream thickened with gelatine and moulded. Based on the description by one of the judges in My Kitchen Rule, after removing from the mould, it should be wobbly and be able to shake shake shake.

And I'm so happy, each time I made it, I successfully have it wobbly.

To those who are interested, here is the sure success recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups of milk
• 3 tsp powdered gelatin
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1.5 cups cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch salt
• Cooking spray

Steps

1. Pour the milk in a saucepan and sprinkle the powdered gelatine on it. Let the gelatin soften and looks a bit wrinkle.
2. While waiting for the gelatine to soften, which takes roughly 1 to 2mins, grease the ramekin with the cooking spray.
3. Set the saucepan over low heat and warm the milk, stirring it frequently. Make sure the milk does not come to a boil, it should be just warm. 
4. Once the gelatine dissolve, add in the sugar and continuously stir the mixture. Again, the milk should not be too hot or come to a boiling stage. It must just be warm enough that you can dip your finger in it for at least 3-4 seconds without burning.
5. Once the sugar is dissolved, remove the pan from the heat and which in the cream, vanilla and salt. 
6. Once mixture is even,  pour into the ramekins and chill for at least 3 hours. To unmould, run a knife at the side of the ramekin and place a plate over it. Flip and let the pana cotta slide down. Serve with your favourite sauce, nuteella or jam.

Cloud Bread

Stumble across this thing called cloud bread, which is actually not bread, not biscuit, but more like softer version of a meringue. It looks simple and I thought it will be a great snack for the kids yet reduce a little carbo amount on their diet.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, separate yolks from white
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 85g cream cheese (can be substituted with thick yogurt or ricotta cheese too)
• 2tbsp honey
• a pinch of salt 

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 140c.
2. Prepare some baking tray and line them with greased paper or for me I used the silicon mat (it is easier to take off).
3. Place the egg white and cream of tartar in the mixer. Beat till the egg white reached stiff peak. It should be really thick, fluffy, won't fall off when you turn the bowl upside down.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese till smooth. Add in the rest of the ingredients (egg yolk, honey and salt) and beat till it is all well mix and the mixture turn into pale yellow colour.
5. Slowly fold in 1/3 of the egg white to the cream cheese mixture and continue till you finish with all the egg white. Do not over do it and do it slowly to avoid deflating the air in the egg whites.
6. Once done, scoop the mixture on the baking tray to your desired size. Do not place them too near as they will slightly inflate after baking.
7. Bake for 35mins at 140c for till it is dry and crispy on the outside. You will not be able to remove it if it is not ready.

Pumpkin Kaya / Jam

Something that's healthier yet taste yummy. This pumpkin jam goes well with bread and it is suitable for vegetarian that does not take egg.

Ingredients:

• 400 grams of pumpkin
• 2 Pandan Leaves
• 50 grams of brown sugar
• 100 ml thick coconut milk
• 100ml thick cream

Steps:

1. Instead of the normal steaming of the pumpkin, I roasted them on the air fryer to give it that extra nice flavour. So cut the pumpkin to small cubes and air fried them for bout 15-20mins on 160C. However if you don't have one you can just steam it till it is soft for the same amount of time.
2. Blend the pumpkin with the cream and coconut milk. I used the hand blender. But if you have one, mash it and sieve thru it so that there is no clump in the mixture.
3. Pour the mixture on top on non stick wok/pan/pot. Then add in the rest of the ingredients.
4. Cooked on low fire (I'm lazy, I want it fast, so I started with slightly higher fire and once it gets heated and before it bubbles, lower down the temperature) till the mixture thickens and when you run a spoon over it, it draws a line on the mixture.
5. Let the mixture cool down before transferring it to a clean, dry and sterilised container.

Mocha Cream Cheese Bun

Ingredients:

Dough

• 300g bread.high protein flour
• 15g coffee powder
• 15g chocolate powder
• 5g instant yeast
• 50g sugar
• 3g salt
• 7g milk powder
• 190g water
• 40g butter

Filling

• 140g cream cheese
• 50g sugar
• 50g cheddar cheese

• 3tbsp milk to brush the bun

Steps:

1. Put in all the ingredients for the dough in the mixing bowl in order. Knead on the mixer for about 20-35mins (I used speed 4/5 for about 35mins on my Kenwood). The dough needs to reached window pane stage to be ready. This will mean being able to stretch out as thin layer as possible without breaking.
2. Set aside to proof till double (should take bout 40mins if weather is warm or could be up to almost 2hours if it is quite cold)
3. Mix the filling ingredients till evenly distributed. I used the creaming hook on my Kenwood, very easy, it only took me bout 15seconds to get this down. Divide them into 10 blobs on the baking paper and store in the fridge. This will make it easier to wrap later.
4. Once the dough has double, punch down the air and divide to 10pieces. Wrap the filling into the dough and let it rest for another 40-50mins.
5. Preheat oven at 160c (180c if non forced fan and 140c if using air fryer)
6. Brush some milk at the top of the bun and then bake for 15mins or till done.

Apple Strudel

Had been thinking and thinking for a long time and finally, managed to do it this time. If you want it easier, you may buy ready made pastry, otherwise make yourself. If you making yourself, start with the pastry, while resting it in the fridge, do the apple filling, then work on the pastry again and the custard cream and back the pastry. This way, you can maximise your time.

Do note that I had used brown sugar instead of castor sugar and I had reduced the amount. If you using castor sugar and have sweet tooth, top up a bit of it.

Ingredients

For the pastry:

• Puff Pastry, refer to recipe here
• 35g brown Sugar (if castor sugar, 70g)
• 1tsp cinnamon powder
• 1tbsp melted butter

For the apple filling

• 5 small size apple
• 50g butter
• 70g brown sugar (if castor sugar, 90g)
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon powder
• 30g raisins
• Juice from half a lemon
• 7g corn flour
• 1 tsp water

For the custard cream

• 2 egg yolks
• 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 2tbsp plain flour
• 1 cup cream milk mixture (I used 80% cream and 20% milk)
• 1/2tsp vanilla

Steps:

1. Prepare the puff pastry as per instruction of the recipe link provided.
2. Prepare the filling. First, peel the apple, core it and cut to either small chunks or slices up to your preference. Mine was cut to small slices. Sprinkle half of the lemon juice to the apple to prevent it from browning.
3. Melt the butter in the pot, add in all the apples and stir it till it is well coated. Cook with medium low fire and continuously stir to avoid it from burning.
4. Once the apple is soft and a little wilted, add in the sugar and cook till it dissolved.
5. Sprinkle in the cinnamon powder and continuously stir it.
6. Mix the corn flour with water and the balance of the lemon juice. Set it aside.
7. After cooking for about 5-6mins, slowly pour in the corn flour mixture and stir till it is thicken. Turn off the fire, set aside to cool
8. Next, prepare the custard cream. Stir in the yolks and sugar in a pot till it is creamy. 
9. Add in flour and stir till it is even and no clump.
10. Finally, add in all the other ingredients and turn on the fire, low and stir. The mixture must be stir continuously.
11. Once it started to thicken, turn off the fire and continue to stir till it cool down. Scoop into a container and let it cool in the fridge.
12. Roll out the pastry (half of the recipe, unless you using store bought one) to roughly 1cm thickness and cut it to 3pcs.
13. Mix the sugar and cinnamon and set aside. Brush the butter to the top of the pastry, and then sprinkle the sugar cinnamon mixture to the top of the pastry.
14. Preheat the AF at 200c for 2mins (if using oven, preheat at 180c for at least 10mins). 
15. Place the pastry into the AF and air fried it for 16mins at 160c. If using oven, 190c (fan forced) for 16mins too.
16. Once done, take it out to cool before plating.
17. Arrange the first piece of the pastry and top with some custard cream, apple filling, then the other piece of pastry, custard cream and apple filling and finally covered with the last piece of pastry. Sprinkle some icing sugar to it if you like and serve. 

Below is the other version that I had made using the curry puff mould.

Home Made Custard Cream

Seeing a friend posted profiteroles and those contestant in the cooking competition preparing it, felt like trying it out on my own. But, wait, I need some custard cream and I know we can do that at home without using the custard powder.

So, started my googling and did a little adjustment to meet what I have in the kitchen.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups hilo milk
• 0.5 cups of light thicken cream
• 3 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar (need to reduce this, I find it too sweet)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp flour

Steps:

1. First, mix the milk and cream together in a saucepan. Put it on high fire and leave it to simmer till it starts to bubble, lower the fire to as low as possible. I'm using the electric cooktop and I remove the entire saucepan from the heat.
2. Mix the egg yolks with sugar, vanilla extract, salt, cornstarch and flour till even.
3. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the milk mixture (at this point, I had return the milk mixture to the cooktop, but did not turn on the power yet.
4. Make sure you continuously stir the mixture so that the egg does not curdle up and ended up with cooked yolk rather than custard.
5. Once both the mixture are evenly mix together, turn on the fire up high for half a min while constantly stirring the mixture. Once thicken, quickly remove from heat and still stirring it to ensure that there is no plastic like layer formed up and this help the mixture to cool down.
6. Pour it into a container, cover it up and let it cool in the fridge.

Hokkaido Chiffon

I'm now in the midst of trying to clear off all the food stock in the fridge and hence, had been baking quite often lately (clearing off all the flour), doubt the apartment in KL comes with oven for me to bake.

This time, instead of Hokkaido Bread, since I'm out of bread flour, I manage to get a recipe to help clear out the low protein flour that I have. The recipe is from http://jeroxie.com/addiction/10-2010-hokkaido-chiffon

This is when it is in the oven, raised all beautifully. As per the recipe, it should sink after that which it did just 2mins right out from the oven. It is soft and fluffy.

Then this is how it looks like after I pump in the cream and some extra at the top. I think it taste good by itself without the cream. So, if I'm gonna make again, will just omit the cream portion though it taste good but not with the cake.

Mee huen kueh with yong tau fu and radish soup:

Creamy noodle with sauted mushroom and wasabi:

Creamy Potato Stew

• 1.5 cups of cranberries bean



• 1 cup of water



• 1 pinch of salt



• 1 big size potato, chopped to small cubes



• 1 small carrot, cut to medium size chunk



• 1 cube of butter



• 1 cup of evaporated milk



• 2 teaspoon of mixed herbs



• 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese (shaved with peeler)



• 1.5 cups of chopped scallion



• 1 pinch of pepper

1. Boil the beans and potato, with salt and water.



2. Add in butter once the water boil and stir till butter melts evenly.



3. Lower the fire. Add in mixed herbs and carrot once the water almost finish evaporating.



4. Add in evaporated milk, scallion and parmesan cheese.



5. Dish and serve. Sprinkle some pepper on the top before serving.

http://www.grouprecipes.com/15347/creamy-potato-stew.html

Creamy Macaroni

• 1 cup of macaroni


• 2 big leaves of lettuce


• 4 pieces of chicken (marinated with oyster sauce, pepper and corn starch)


• half glass of milk


• half cup of flour


• 1 pinch of salt


• 1 pinch of pepper


• 1 teaspoon of cream cheese


• 1 teaspoon of cornstarch

1. Boiled macaroni according to instruction on packet. Serve it on to of the lettuce leave.


2. Pan fry the chicken till cook.


3. Mix milk, flour, salt, pepper, cream cheese and cornstarch together and heat it in the pan till thicken.


4. Serve it with the macaroni and chicken.

http://www.grouprecipes.com/9293/creamy-macaroni.html

Creamy Brocolli Chicken

• 50g cut chicken fillet (marinate with soy sauce, pepper and oyster)


• 3 pieces of chinese mushroom (sliced)


• 50g brocolli


• 2 tablespoon of mixed vege


• 1 tablespoon of garlic


• 5 tablespoon of milk


• 1 teaspoon of thick corn starch solution (for thickening)

1. Saute the garlic till golden brown.


2. Add in chicken and stir fry till it is cooked. Add in mushroom.


3. Finally add in brocolli and mixed vege.


4. Fry till brocolli is cooked and add in milk. Add in the corn starch solution once the milk is boiled and turn off the fire.


5. Dish out to serve.

Creamy Chicken Brocolli @ Group Recipes