Pork Terrine

Pork Terrine

This pork terrine goes well with salad. It can be made ahead of time, at least a day before you are planning to serve it. It can be served as an appetizer or as a main course, depends on what you serve with it. I think potatoes would go well with this as well.

It is my first time trying to make terrine and without any recipe to follow. I just imagined how things would go and with what consistency I was looking for and it worked just right and I'm so pleased with it, especially when you slice and it reveals the black olives and tiny green leaves of thyme. In fact I’m going to explore some more flavors with terrine. Some interesting ideas came up during dinner; hubby suggested fish terrine but use smoked salmon instead of bacon. Hmmm… quite a challenge to figure out how it would work out.

Ingredients:

500 g. minced pork

1 large onion (finely chopped)

4 cloves garlic

Salt and pepper

100 g. black pitted olives

1 Tbsp. Corn starch

1 Tbsp. flour

fresh thyme

300 g. bacon

Procedure:

Preheat oven at 250 degrees C. or gas mark 6.

In a mixing bowl, mix pork, onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper. Using a food processor or blender, blend the mixture until fine. Remove from the blender and add flour and cornstarch. Lastly, add fresh thyme Mix thoroughly by hand. You may want to use gloves as it will be messy.

Line a loaf pan with foil with 3 inch extra on the sides to overlay. Arrange the bacon on top of the foil leaving the ends overhanging the tray.

Put the meat mixture in the lined tray using a spoon. Randomly put the pitted black olives with the sides lying down. Push the mixture with the back of the spoon to make it compact.

Fold inside the remaining bacon that is exposed to cover the meat. Make sure the meat mixture is fully covered with bacon; add extra bacon if necessary

Fold the foil inside to cover the bacon.

Place the pan in a large roasting pan and add boiling water until it reaches half of the loaf pan.

Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes at 250 degrees C.

Remove the pan and drain extra fat from the bacon by tilting the loaf pan to the sink, but do not remove the terrine just yet.

Put some weight onto the terrine so to keep it pressed and compact and leave overnight in the fridge until ready to serve.

To reveal the terrine, carefully remove the foil on top and turn upside down and completely remove the foil. Serve in slices with salad. If served as a main course, potatoes would go well with it.

Yet Another Chocolate Cake

I have learned another technique of decorating a cake, it's called stenciling; its basically using a pattern of design laid on top of the cake and sprinkle icing sugar on it and remove the pattern to reveal the design. I used paper doily for this design. The cake is the same as the French Chocolate Cake I have posted last Father's Day. A friend have tasted it and came back with her ingredients so I can teach her how to do it, I was more than glad to share. Instead of the lattice pattern of the French Chocolate Cake, I used a different design.

Croissant

I’ve been itching to make croissant since a very long time and I finally made a dip to commit myself to make it and eventually dedicated to succeed in making one which was quite a challenge for me. I didn’t make it perfect, but its edible so-to-speak, anyway, hubby and I were the only judge and we evaluated the result. It wasn’t flaky enough and the layers of dough are a little bit thick as it should be. It took time to cook that what was stated in the recipe, the recipe says 15-20 minutes at 190 degrees C to brown but it took 45 minutes to brown. My croissants didn’t fluff much.

I’m not giving up just yet, I’m going to make it again.

I’m trying to figure out where did I went wrong in the process and possible factors and concluded the ff:

a) The recipe didn’t say what particular kind of flour to use, I used Bread flour type “00” Maybe there is not enough gluten in the flour causing the dough not so elastic.

To correct: use flour with high gluten content.

b) The flattened butter was a little bit thick and there was not enough space to spread it thinly, so during the folding process, some of the butter got out of the dough folds at the sides.

To correct: Allow a space at least about 2 inch at the sides to seal the dough when the butter is folded in.

My source of the recipe is from video jug;The video looks very easy to do, all you need is patience. The text version of the recipe I just paste it below; for easy reference.

CROISSANTS

You will need:

· 500 g flour

· 15 g active dry yeast

· 90 g sugar

· 15 g salt

· 300 ml warm milk

· 340 g butter , room temperature

· 1 egg, beaten with 2 Tbsp water

· some extra flour

· 1 rolling pin

· 1 knife

· 1 baking tray lined with parchment

· 1 mixer with hook attachment

· 1 mixing bowl

· 1 tea towel

· 1 plastic bag

· 1 brush

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Step 2:

Begin the dough

Put the flour into the mixer. Add the salt, sugar, milk and yeast. Mix it on low for 8-10 minutes until it has a smooth elastic consistency. Dust the dough and a large bowl with flour. Remove the dough from the mixer and transfer it into a bowl. Cover it with the towel and let it rise until it doubles in size. This should roughly, take 1.5 to 2 hours.

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Step 3:

Prepare the butter

Put a sheet of cling film onto your working surface. Place the butter on top and cover it with a second sheet of cling film. Flatten it with your hands, roll it into a rectangle of about 20 X 25 cm with your rolling pin and place it into the fridge to chill.

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Step 4:

Roll out dough

After the dough has doubled in size, sprinkle it with a little bit of flour. Punch out the air with your knuckles and place it onto a floured work surface. Dust the dough with flour and roll it out into a large rectangle that is big enough to hold the sheet of chilled butter. Move the dough around in the flour. You may have to dust the table again, if you need to.

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Step 5:

Fold in butter

Unwrap the chilled butter and place it onto the upper part of dough. Fold the dough around the butter to enclose it completely. Lift the dough and sprinkle the table with flour. Turn the dough around and roll it into another long rectangle. Fold the dough into thirds, brushing off the excess flour as you go. This completes the first turn. Now wrap it in cling film and place it into the fridge for a minimum of 25 to 30 minutes.

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Step 6:

Turn the dough

At the end of the 30 minutes sprinkle your working surface with flour. Unwrap the dough and place it onto the work surface. Make sure that the dough has the seam vertically placed. Dust it with a sprinkling of flour and roll it out into another rectangle. Fold, brush and wrap, exactly as before. This now completes the second turn.

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Step 7:

Chill and turn again

Place it back into the fridge for another 30 minutes. Once removed, roll and fold for the third and final turn. Make sure that the dough is well wrapped before placing into the fridge once more to chill overnight.

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Step 8:

Shape the croissants

One chilled, cut the unwrapped dough into half, on a floured surface. Dust the dough with some flour and roll one half of the dough into a rectangle. Reflour the surface when necessary and continue to roll until the dough is roughly less than half a centimetre thick. Turn the rectangle around. Flour the surface and trim the edges of the dough neatly. Cut it into triangle shapes. Take the bottom of the triangle at its widest part and using your hands, tightly roll it up into a croissant shape. You can freeze the other half of the dough for use another time, or repeat the process and make more croissants.

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Step 9:

Allow to rise

Place the croissants onto a prelined baking tray. Cover them with a clean plastic bag and leave to double in size.

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Step 10:

Preheat the oven

Set the oven to 190ºC (375ºF/ gas mark 5).

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Step 11:

Wash and bake

Once the croissants have risen remove the plastic bag. Very gently brush them all over with the egg wash. Place them into the centre of the oven. Bake them for roughly 15 minutes. When they are a deep golden brown remove them from the oven.

Knives

knives

Knives are very important in performing tasks in the kitchen and the most important thing to remember is "use the right knife for the right job"

The first two knives from the left are chef's knife, next is bread knife, next is filleting knife, and the paring knife. Sharpen knife with the sharpening rod.

Bamboo Mat

bamboo mat

Useful to make sushi or anything that needs to be rolled in a log shape

bamboo steamer

Bamboo steamer and wooden mortar and pestle

Bamboo steamer - used to make steamed dumplings. The bamboo steamer adds a subtle wooden aroma to your dish. I prefer to used bamboo steamer than steamers made of metal.

To use a bamboo steamer, it should be placed over a simmering water where the steam is just bellow the bottom of the steamer so that the steam won't escape.

cookie cutters

Cookie cutters

Egg Molder

Want a perfect circle fried egg? Use the round non-stick molder or a heart shaped fried egg on valentines day! The choice is yours!

ice cream scooper

For scooping ice cream and sorbet. I also use this for serving mashed potatoes in scoops. I find it easier and more attractive than serving with a spoon. I am using this more often; you can see it in most of my posts.

Potato Masher

As the name suggests, it mashes potatoes! It is a lot better than mashing potatoes with fork, hence, saves a lot of your energy and time.

Rolling Pin

For flattening dough. Alternatively, a round shaped long bottle could be used, but its easier to maneuver a rolling pin than a bottle.

Chef's Ring

Chef’s Ring

I am not a professional chef and it’s not my ring! Well, this one makes wonders. I use this for molding rice, mashed potatoes, cakes, dough, anything that needs a round mold. It is great for molding layers of different textures, colors and flavor.

Chicken Siew Mai

We love dimsum! I can repeat that a hundred times in this blog. Because we love it so much, I am perfecting my wrapper for these lovely dimsum recipes. Siew Mai is a frequent menu on the table for us and not as snacks as dimsum supposedly, but for us it is as good as a meal. I can eat as plenty as I can as long as there is still space in my tummy!

I’ve been buying dumpling wrapper in the supermarket but these days they run out of stock and it has been out-of-stock for awhile now. To my disappointment of not finding these dumpling wrapper, I am in a quest for perfecting my dumpling wrapper. The challenge is to find the right ingredients.

I am so intrigued with these dumplings with wrappers which look like almost transparent. I found the recipe but I can’t find the right flour. I finally found the recipe from a magazine; the ingredient that makes it green is spinach puree, now I know! The recipe calls for potato starch and Tang flour which I can’t find it in anywhere. So the next thing in mind is to substitute with what I have and see if it works. Yes it did but the wrappers are not that transparent as they should.

For the record, I have to post here what I’ve done for me not repeat the same mistake; in my quest for perfecting dumpling wrapper. It took a tedious job to it but once I got used to the hang of it, everything comes fast. First it was so thick and big, and finally I made it very thin but it took me a lot of testing 2 pieces each before wrapping all the fillings. At the end of this experiment, I’m already half full. It could have been easier if the recipe is well expound step-by-step but it was not.

Note: if you can find dumpling wrappers in the supermarket, no need to do the hassle of making your own wrapper, but if you are just as curious how to make it as I am, then go ahead, do it. Note that it will take your patience at first but once you have done it once, next time would be a lot easier!

Ingredients:

Filling:

¼ kg. Minced chicken

1 Tablespoon cornstarch

¼ Teaspoon sesame oil

Salt and pepper

Combine all the ingredients in a mixing bowl until thoroughly mixed and set aside.

Make the Wrapper:

100 g. potato starch

100 g. All purpose flour

½ cup water

50 g. spinach

Procedure:

In a blender, put spinach and water, blitz for few seconds until pureed. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Let stand for 3 minutes to cool down a little bit but it should not be completely cooled.

In a mixing bowl, add potato starch and flour, add pureed spinach little by little while mixing the flour using a chopstick until the mixture comes altogether and forms into a dough. Knead the dough on a lightly floured board until smooth and elastic.

Divide the dough into 3. Work on one part and cover wrap the other two parts with a kitchen towel to avoid drying up. Shape the dough into a sausage-like and flatten with a rolling pin flouring the dough on both sides every time you roll the rolling pin. Using a Chef’s Ring, or cookie cutter cut the thin dough to form small thin circles.

Place 1 teaspoon of the filling in each of the wrapper and form into a siew mai.

Steam in a bamboo steamer for 10 minutes.

Serve with soy sauce with calamansi and few drops of sesame oil.

Cook’s note:

I could have used the pasta machine but I realized it too late and was lazy to assemble the machine.

Cook’s review: the wrapper has a mild background flavor compared to the ready-made frozen wrappers. They are a little bit sticky yet firm and still soft when cooked.

French Chocolate Cake - A father's day special

When baby was still a week old.

Taken today on Father's Day. Leila is 3 months

French Chocolate Cake

I’ve been marking this recipe from my one of the cake recipe books I had, waiting for an occasion. I think father’s day is just perfect for it. French Father of my baby and a French Cake, and its his first time Dad, so it calls for a little celebration. Or a little indulgence.

A decadent heavily dense chocolate cake with the Father’s favorite whisky Jack Daniel. Especially made for my French Hubby, this French cake has the same consistency as the Cheese cake, in fact the procedure is quite similar to that of Cheese Cake. The bitterness of the whisky is just perfect accompaniment for coffee. I made it on the night before Father’s Day; left it in the oven to cool until morning and had it with the morning coffee served with whipped cream. Then, had it as afternoon coffee which was even better after it is chilled well and served with lots of whipped cream! Whew! I feel so guilty afterwards of all the calorie intake, but hey, Father’s day is not everyday huh! Nice alibi…(winks)

Note: Must be served chilled for at least 1 hour.

Ingredients:

250 g. Dark chocolate, chopped

225 g. butter, cut into pieces

½ cup sugar

30 ml whisky

3 eggs

2 Tablespoons all purpose plain flour

Icing sugar for dusting

Whipped cream

Procedure:

1.) Line a 23-cm round baking tin with a baking paper. Generously grease the baking paper and the sides of the pan to avoid the cake from sticking into it.

2.) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. or gas 4.

3.) Place chocolate in a small sauce pan and put it over a bigger pan with simmering water or assemble a DOUBLE BOILER. Stir occasionally until the chocolate has completely melted. Add butter and sugar and stir until all the butter has melted. Let it cool down a little bit for 5 minutes. Add the whisky.

4.) In a mixing bowl, beat eggs lightly with an electric mixer. Beat in the flour and slowly beat in the chocolate mixture. Continue mixing until everything is thoroughly combined.

5.) Pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

6.) Place the tin a big roasting tin (must be bigger than the cake tin) and pour boiling water into the roasting tin as a water bath for the cake. Water must come at least ½ of the thickness of the cake tin.

7.) Bake for 20 – 30 minutes until the cake has set but still soft in the middle.

8.) Switch the oven off and let the cake cool inside the oven to avoid the middle of the cake from collapsing. At least 3 hours. This is best made at night and leave the cake inside the oven until morning. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

9.) Run a knife on the sides of the tin so it would be easier to detach. Using a cake tray or plate, invert the pan and tap the center so the bottom of the cake becomes the top. Remove the baking paper.

10.) Cut 6 strips of baking paper about 2.5 cm wide and place randomly over the cake to resemble a lattice design. Dust with icing sugar and carefully remove the paper.

With paper strips randomly placed to make a lattice -style pattern

The strips of paper has been removed after dusting icing sugar

11.) Cut into slices and serve.

Sweet and Sour Fish

This is nice with pineapple chunks, but I don’t have stock in my pantry, hence I just settle with what I had. Pureed carrot is added to thicken the sauce instead of cornstarch. It has that mild sweetness that balances sharpness of the vinegar and tomatoes.

Ingredients:

2 Fish Fillets (cut in cubes) any fish with flesh

2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)

1 large white onion (cut in cubes)

1 Red bell pepper/capsicum (cut in cubes)

1 yellow bell pepper/capsicum (cut in cubes)

2 large tomatoes (cut in cubes)

1 carrot (cut in florals)

1 carrot (pureed)

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon sugar

4 tablespoons vinegar

½ cup flour (for coating the fish)

1/

Salt and pepper

Oil for frying and sautéing

Procedure:

1. Slice the vegetables and puree 1 carrot using a blender or food processor.

2. Season the flour with salt and pepper and coat the fish with the flour mixture. Shake off excess flour from fish and shallow-fry them in a moderate fire until golden brown. Drain in kitchen paper towel.

3. Sauté garlic and onion in a sauce pan. Add half of the cubed tomatoes; reserve the half for the last addition so they don’t wilt.

4. When the tomatoes are wilted, add a little bit of water, vinegar, and sugar.

5. Add the bell peppers

6. Add pureed carrots. Stir well occasionally.

7. Add tomato paste and season with salt and pepper

8. Add tomatoes

9. Add the fried fish and let it simmer for about 2 minutes. The consistency must be thick.

Egg Tart

My first attempt of making egg tart. It wasn’t too bad, except that we both consumed 18 tarts for just hubby and me. Thinking of all the butter, eggs in it is not healthy.

It was a trial and error for me coz I don’t have recipe to follow but I was sure of the pastry would work coz I have tried it many times on a larger tart. Lately I used the same with APPLE TARTE. The only thing I wasn’t sure of was the egg mixture which was a guess by what I’ve tasted in some café. It wasn’t too bad but it was not perfect. The filling fluffed up a little bit and hollow at the bottom. Now, I know where I went wrong. I didn’t put water in the egg mixture. Hmmm, there’s always room for improvement. They taste great however; it was just the filling that wasn’t the same as what is available in the cafés around here. I have to do it again and that time, I’ll post the proportion. For the sake of “record” I have to post what I’ve done to avoid the same slight mistake. This yielded 18 tarts.

Note that the pastry has to be made in advance.

Ingredients

Filling:

3 eggs

1 cup evaporated milk

¼ tsp. vanilla essence

½ cup white sugar

Sweet Pastry Dough:

½ Cup and 1 Tbsp. margarine

½ cup icing sugar (sifted)

1 egg

2 ½ Cup All Purpose Flour

1/8 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. vanilla essence

Procedure:

Make the Sweet Pastry Dough:

1. In a mixing bowl, mix margarine and icing sugar until creamy, add eggs and mix for another minute until soft and creamy.

2. Add flour and baking powder. Continue beating.

3. Add vanilla essence

4. Bring the mixture altogether to form a dough and mix with the hand.. Form the dough into a ball, Cover with Plastic Clingfilm and refrigerate for an hour.

5. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

6. Take the dough out of the refrigerator and knead on a floured surface. Divide dough into 3 portions. Divide each portion into 6. Place each small portion in 1 tart mould and push to the bottom and sides to form tart shells.

7. Make the filling by mixing all the ingredients slowly with a wire whisk taking care not to make the mixture bubbly.

8. Pour the filling mixture in each tart shell until ¾ full.

9. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees C for 20 minutes or until the filling has completely set and the tart shells turn golden brown.

Note for next time: for the filling; Add ½ cup water and reduce milk by ½ cup.

risotto

Risotto

This one scrumptious risotto I’ve ever made… Been perfecting my risotto and it took me awhile to finally made a perfect one. A little bit of practice and it will be one of the frequent menu on the table. Finding the right ingredient is the key. I finally found Arborio rice in one of the supermarkets. It’s a delight to have the sight of it at last. I have tried instant risotto in fancy boxes. They are quite good but nothing beats it when you do it with real ingredients and do the long way instead of just putting it in a pot and in an instant you get a short-cut of what you are looking for. Sometimes short-cut works but with risotto, I prefer to do it. It won’t take that long anyway, preparation and cooking time took 30 minutes, which is not too bad.

Ingredients:

1 cup Arborio rice

½ cup diced Parma ham

½ cup diced Bacon

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 glass white wine

2 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)

1 large white onion

1 liter chicken stock

1 Tablespoon butter

3 Tablespoons olive oil

Procedure:

Boil the chicken stock; while boiling, heat olive oil in a casserole and sauté garlic and onion until onion becomes translucent; not brown.

Add Parma ham and bacon. Continue sautéing.

Add Arborio rice and stir constantly.

When the rice has absorbed the oil and color becomes pale, add white wine.

Continue stirring until all the white wine has absorbed. This allows the alcohol to evaporate and the flavor of the wine is absorbed in the rice.

Add 1 ladleful of chicken stock and continue stirring. Wait until the chicken stock is fully absorbed by the rice before adding another ladleful of chicken stock. Continue this process until the rice is done all the stock has been added and the rice is done. The consistency should not be too gooey and the rice should be al-dente.

Add parmesan cheese and just before serving, add butter.

Best served when hot.

Steamed Salmon with Broccoli Puree and Baby Potatoes

Steamed Salmon with broccoli puree and baby potatoes

This is one healthy meal. I don’t like broccoli very much when its whole but the puree was a trick! I incredibly love it! It was all mild flavors that needs some contrast to cut the mildness but a few freshly ground black pepper would do for me, but for hubby he added Tabasco sauce which was also great. The baby potatoes were quite a great substitute for rice for a change.

Ingredients:

2 slices of salmon

2 bouquet of Broccoli

½ kg baby potatoes

Salt and pepper

Procedure:

Season broccoli and salmon with salt and pepper. Steam broccoli together with the salmon for 10 minutes.

While steaming the fish, boil baby potatoes in salted water for 10 minutes.

Strain the baby potatoes and cut in half. In a very hot non-stick pan, pan roast the potatoes until the sides turn dark brown. Add finely chopped parsley at the last minute.

Place the broccoli in a blender or food processor, add a little bit of water used to steam the fish and broccoli (the drippings from the fish adds flavor), blitz until fine.

Assemble the dish by placing the fish on top of the bed of green puree, alongside the baby potatoes.