Spontaneous Euphoria

Pumpkin and Rocket Tortilla Wraps

2012-01-28T22:40:00.000+04:00

I haven't blogged more than a month. Why, you ask? Well I've had finals. And any of you who are in college/have been to college will know how stressful finals can be when they're in your senior year. Top that off with tons of papers due right before finals week and you end up with someone (me) who has no time to bake, let alone photograph and blog about it.

I finally finished exams last week and have been busy in the kitchen making all sorts of things (which inevitably end up being eaten before they can be photographed). I made a lovely no-bake chocolate pudding/trifle dessert, a raspberry cheesecake (also no-bake), swirly blueberry and caramel ice-cream, tiramisu, cake bites (nope, not cake pops- cake bites.. my own invention), oreo cupcakes, and a whole lot of other savory stuff.

This tortilla wrap I had been meaning to make for lunch since before my finals. I finally did, but I need to learn how to wrap it better. This is a delicious wrap that is filling and wholesome and a whole lot of fun to make.

Ingredients
2 tbsp cream cheese
2 tbsp basil pesto
6 tortilla rolls
2tbsp olive oil
2 onions, thinly sliced
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dark brown soft sugar
300g butternut pumpkin, chopped finely
2 tsp chili flakes
1 tbsp fresh sage, torn
1.5 cups rocket leaves
4 tbsp crumbled feta cheese

Procedure
In a bowl, stir together the cream cheese and basil pesto until smooth and well-mixed. Spread over one side of each tortilla roll.
In a pot, on high heat, heat the olive oil and then add the onions, coating to stir. Cook for five minutes and then add the balsamic vinegar and brown sugar and stir well. Reduce the heat to medium and cover the pot and allow to cook for 10 minutes. After that, increase the heat back to high and stir in pumpkins, sage, and chili flakes. Add more oil if necessary. Cook for 15 minutes, or until the pumpkin is soft. Season to taste.
Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly before adding the rocket leaves which will wilt in the heat. Stir in the feta cheese.
Place one heaped spoonful of the mixture in the center of each tortilla wrap. Fold over both sides (bottom and top) and then roll the left side of the tortilla over to make a wrap. Place on a flat surface with the fold at the bottom- this helps secure it.
After five minutes, slice the wrap in the middle and serve!

Fresh and Light Side Dishes

2011-12-23T18:19:00.002+04:00

(Written on December 18- hence the lag in dates!!) I am finally getting back to normal routine after working for the Dubai International Film Festival for the past two weeks. It was an insanely busy time since I was sort of working full time and studying full time. I'm really glad that I chose to have all my classes on three days of the week this semester so that left me with Monday and Wednesday mornings to catch up on studying.

This was my sixth year at DIFF and the first time that I worked on the red carpet. My first two years I was a volunteer and did everything from working at the standby queue to ushering and checking tickets. The year after that I became staff and managed the Green Room which was quite interesting. I was basically babysitting any VIP talent or film talent until the screening began. I got to see quite a few "celebrities".. I've never really been interested in them or their lives and so none of them impressed me so much... apart from Gerard Butler. Who is the most charming and witty person. Who I might have fallen in love with had I managed to spend more time with him. Hahaha.

And last year, I managed the 1400-seater theater. That was a lot of fun, very challenging, dynamic, perfect if you're OCD about organization like me. But this year, I finally got to see all the energy of opening night as it happens. I was on the red carpet with the guests, invitees, security, press, and fans. And opening night was great since Mission Impossible 4 was premiering and the amount of worldwide press and fans we had was insane. Tom Cruise himself spent almost 2.5 hours on the red carpet speaking to every single fan and reporter. He was beyond nice. Except that a couple of times I kept on sarcastically wishing he was a snob like other celebrities so that he would just glide through and ignore most of the fans. I had to wait for him that entire time to do my job and got very impatient. But no, he was really nice and I am very impressed at how down to earth he was.

Now that DIFF is over, I am experiencing withdrawal symptoms as I(and every other staff member) experience ever year. All of us staff are such a close-knit group that we're almost like family- family that gets to reunite once a year. I've made some great friends through DIFF, people who I consider to be closest to me.

But enough about that, and onto the recipes. These are two side dishes I always make because they require very little effort and taste amazing. They're quite filling and make a very adequate meal in themselves.

The first is an arugula and olive salad.

Ingredients
3 cups arugula leaves, washed and patted dry
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp sliced olives
1 tbsp pine nuts
1 tbsp crumbled feta cheese.

Procedure
Combine everything together and serve immediately.

The next dish is a wonderful meal in itself: roasted capsicums stuffed with feta cheese, olives, basil, and pine nuts.

Ingredients
3 red capsicums, halved and deseeded
1 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/3 cup basil leaves
1/4 cup olives
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 tbsp french dressing
1 tbsp basil pesto

Procedure
Roast the capsicums, skin side up in a 200C oven until the skin is blistered and black- around 30 minutes.
Place the capsicums in a sandwich bag and seal well so that the steam loosens the skin. Allow to cool for around 15 minutes before peeling off the skin.
In a bowl, mix together the rest of the ingredients with a splash of balsamic vinegar, if desired.
Take two to three teaspoons of the feta cheese mixture and place in the middle of each capsicum slice.
Roll up and secure with a toothpick.
Mix together the basil pesto and french dressing and pour over the tops of each capsicum.

Cucumber Sandwiches for an Elegant Tea Party

2011-12-06T10:58:00.001+04:00

even

Last week, I had a small tea party- that's why I made those macarons. It was a wonderful gathering where I got to catch up with many friends whom I had not seen in a while.

Sometimes life get so busy that you have no time to do the things you want to do most. I always ponder about how much we're slaves to a capitalist way of life. Work, studying, errands, extracirriculars, projects, businesses, and then- what happens to relaxing? Soaking up the atmosphere? Taking a leisurely stroll? Doing what you really want when you want to do it.

I, for one, love catching up with friends in a relaxed atmosphere, I love cooking and baking, and I love organizing events- it's such a creative process. And so I put all those things together last weekend and threw a party.

So the menu was made up of mini sandwiches in rectangular and triangular shapes, scones with homemade clotted cream, and mini cakes and tarts. The table was set with carnations and roses and pink-lined china.
I also had a "tea bar" with a teapot full of hot water, sugar cubes, and milk next to tiny bowls holding various types of teabags- each bowl labeled with damask paper- all on lacey linen. I wish I remembered to take photos of the tea bar!

These mini cucumber sandwiches are adorable to look at and VERY easy to make. I usually make them when I want a quick snack or when I feel like something solid with my soup dinners. They work really well with a roasted capsicum soup- the recipe of which I must share with you sometime soon- now that it's "winter".

Ingredients
12 slices wholegrain bread
40g Philadelphia cheese
12 olive slices
24 cucumber slices
12 mint leaves

Procedure
With a 3cm round cookie cutter, cut out two rounds from each slice of bread. If the slice of bread is a bit small for cutting out two rounds, use a pastry roller to flatten the slice out a little.
Toast both sides of the rounds on a heated grill plate for around 1-2 minutes.

Spread Philadelphia cheese on one side of each round.
On half of the rounds, place a cucumber and a mint leaf.
With the other half of rounds, cover the cucumber-rounds.
Now that the rounds are sandwiched, top each with a cucumber slice and olive oil.
Serve (almost) immediately because the water from the cucumber tends to make the toasted bread soggy after an hour or so.

How can you have a tea party without tiered stands, right? Haha. Here are some of the pastries and mini chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.

A Treatise on the Macaron

2011-11-30T13:05:00.002+04:00

I can say with a lot of confidence that upon reading the word "macaron" you thought of Paris and its wonderful pastries. Maybe you're really imaginative and you pictured a rainy day on the Place de la Concorde, with the Eiffel Tower in distant view and cars driving around the cobbled streets. Maybe (if you're a woman) you were wearing a wonderful trench coat in a sublime shade of raspberry, and maybe you were nibbling on a macaron that you had just picked up from Pierre Herme, Laduree, Gerard Mulot, or some other amazing bakery.

But apart from that, I can also predict fairly certainly that if you're one of those people who have tried making macarons or who have wanted to your heart skipped a beat or you made an inward groan upon reading its name.

Macarons, wonderfully indulgent as they may be, are also notorious little devils. I've lost count of the numerous blog posts or articles I've read about the art of macaron-making, and how disastrous it can be.

I for one, tried macarons once in late 2009/early 2010. It ended up looking like soup. Admittedly, the recipe was a very basic one which didn't talk about technique or anything at all. Then, I took a macaron making class at Ateliers des Chefs Dubai in May 2010. Then, I tried making them in September of that year and they turned out pretty good! The next two tries were a disaster. And then two months ago, I researched, and researched, and researched.

The nerd in me came up with a sheet full of notes I had gathered from various books, different websites, talking to other people, and pure trial and error. I studied that sheet so religiously and then began making my macarons *drumroll*

The entire process I was extremely nervous- constantly checking to see if my macarons had developed feet or if they were smooth-topped. The entire process took me three hours and drained me. I made raspberry macarons that day and they turned out reaaally good.

Last night, I decided to attempt to try them again- I thought that maybe it would take less time but it took three hours again. I manage to get about 60 shells or 30 macarons from the batch that I make which is pretty good!

I'm posting the version of a macaron recipe I'm most comfortable with below and I'm going to follow that up with a list of explanations.

Note: I prefer using Italian meringue instead of French meringue as I find it makes the shell a lot smoother and the texture better. The recipe below uses Italian meringue.

How to make classic macarons!
Ingredients:
200g ground almonds (plus extra to make up for residue- around 100g)
200g icing sugar
180g caster sugar
55ml water
130g egg white
Gel food coloring of your choice
-for the buttercream filling
40g butter
150g icing sugar
2 tbsp milk

Procedure:
-With a bottlecap, draw circles on three sheets of baking paper spacing them around 1.5 inches apart. Turn the baking paper over and place each on one baking sheet. Make sure that the side that you drew on is on the underside.
-Process together the ground almonds and the icing sugar until fine and well combined. Then sift the mixture into a large bowl. You will end up with residue of the ground almonds- pieces that are too coarse or too big to be sifted. Weigh them out and then sift the same quantity of new ground almonds. Repeat the process until you have made up for all the ground almond residue.
-In a saucepan over low heat, place the water and sugar and allow for the mixture to boil. Make sure the temperature doesn't go above 115C.
-Meanwhile, whisk 50g of the egg whites till soft peaks form. Then, slowly pour in the hot sugar mixture and beat on high speed for 15 minutes or until the mixture is stiff and forms a beak like shape on the tip of the whisk.
-Take the remaining egg white and with a rubber spatula, mix together the egg white with the almond and icing sugar mixture. At this stage, also add your coloring.
-Take four tablespoons of the egg white mixture and mix into the almond mixture. Then add the rest of the egg whites and start the macaronage process by incorporating them with an alternating cutting and folding motion.
-Once all the egg white has been incorporated, lift your spatula with some of the macaron mixture and analyze how it falls from the spatula. You want the mixture to fall into the bowl in a smooth ribbon-like motion.
-Preheat the oven to 150C and place the macaron mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 2-3cm round tip. Pipe circles onto the already drawn rounds.
-Lightly tap the baking sheet on the surface of a counter and allow to form a crust for around 30 minutes.
-Place in an oven for around 20 minutes.
-Remove and allow to cool before spreading with buttercream.
-For the buttercream, mix everything together and whisk really well until mixture is as white as possible.

Macaron Cheat Sheet:
-age the egg whites by keeping them at room temperature for 6 hours prior to using.
-make sure that your kitchen is well ventilated. If it has a door that leads directly outside, keep that door shut. If your kitchen has air conditioning of any sort then switch that on!
-do NOT underestimate the importance of EXACT measurements. Even one or two grams here or there might alter your final result.
-If you don't have a candy thermometer (like me), then take tiny teaspoons of the water and caster sugar mixture (while it's boiling) and place in a bowl of cold water. Quickly attempt to touch the sugar mixture with your fingers. The mixture is done boiling if the tiny sample you put in the water forms a pliable round structure in your fingers.
-it is crucial that you get the macaronage process correct. Keep checking every few seconds to see whether the mixture is falling in a ribbon like form or not.
-while incorporating the egg whites, and macaronaging, use firm, steady motions with a flexible spatula.
- it is very, very important to allow your macarons to form a crust. They should not be sticky when you touch them before putting them in the oven.
-it's better to bake macarons in a low-heated oven for a longer period of time than in a hot oven for a shorter period of time and risk spoiling it.
-that's why: temperatures above 150C (non fan forced) might be dangerous
- once you've piped the macarons, tap the tray to break up the air- this reduces the risk of air pockets in macarons.
- when baking, make sure that the top of the baking sheet reaches the middle of the oven.
-open the oven door every two minutes to let the humidity of the oven out.
- right before removing the macarons from the oven, spray a countertop with water and as soon as the sheet is out, pull out the baking paper with the macarons on it and immediately place over the damp countertop. This makes it easier to remove the macarons.
-do not eat the macarons on the same day that they're made. store in the fridge for 24 hours in order for the flavors to develop.

Almond Butter Loaves

2011-11-16T14:15:00.002+04:00

Just one more week left to take part in my giveaway: click here for details!

So it was Sunday evening, and I was having a supposedly therapeutic baking session. I wanted to make a cinnamon teacake and frost it with rainbow sprinkles and baby pink icing. I forgot to add the egg to the mixture until the very end but figured that the little glitch wouldn't have an effect.

BUT IT DID. The cake didn't come out of the tin.. only the top half did, leaving a crater in the cake tin the size of the moon. I'm guessing that was because of the adding-egg-at-the-end-thing but maybe it wasn't. Either way. I turned the cake into dark chocolate cinnamon cake pops and decided to make something else which would turn out successful. So I decided to make almond butter loaves. Sounds great, doesn't it?

Except that the recipe called for 250g of butter and I only had 220g out and softened. I decided to take the big leap and halve the quantities to make a cake of half the size. I had done that once before, in my early baking years, and it had turned out disastrous. Nevertheless, I attempted to try it once more.

So I creamed half the required butter with half the required sugar and then guess what? I added all the eggs. All four of them. I only realized what I had done when my mixture had the consistency of water. After some frustration, I decided to add everything together. And make the entire quantity of cake.. except for the 30g of butter... I made it.. without expecting the cake to be anything spectacular but it turned out WONDERFUL.

Melt in your mouth, buttery, cakey goodness.

Here's my tweaked recipe:

Ingredients:
220g unsalted butter, softened and cubed
1 tsp almond extract
220g granulated sugar
4 eggs
150g self-raising flour
75g plain flour
90g ground almonds
10g unsalted butter, softened
100g icing sugar, sifted
2 tsp milk
25g dark chocolate, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and flour six mini loaf tins or a 19cm square or round cake tin.
Cream the butter, extract, and the sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat thoroughly.
Sift the flours and ground almonds directly onto the egg mixture and beat through until just combined.
Spoon into tin(s) and bake for 30 minutes at 180C. Then, reduce the heat to 160C and bake for another 30 minutes or until baked through.
Remove from the oven and allow cake to cool in tins for 10 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool thoroughly.
Simmer water in a small saucepan and in a heatproof bowl that fits above, stir together the butter and icing sugar till a paste forms. Add the milk and stir until the glaze is smooth.
Drizzle over the cake and allow to set.
Then, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over the same pan of simmering water. Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, place in a sandwich bag and make a VERY, VERY small incision at the base of the sandwich bag.
Drizzle the melted chocolate over the glaze diagonally.

Serve these cut into slices and with a cup of tea- it's perfect!

Eid Mubarak! & a Spiced Caramel Cake recipe!

2011-11-07T14:36:00.001+04:00

Have you taken part in my giveaway yet?! Closing date is November 23!

My centerpiece

Eid Mubarak everyone!!
Yesterday was the first day of Eid al Adha here in the UAE.
Eid is a major religious holiday just like Christmas and Diwali except that we have it twice a year. The first Eid for this year was in early September and the second one was yesterday. It runs for three days each.
Eid's dates on the solar calendar change according to the moon so next year Eid Al Fitr (the first eid) will be in mid August and the second one will be in late October.
I love Eid and all the preparations that go along with it. With any event, I think half the fun is in preparing for it.

For Eid, Muslims are religiously obligated to shop for a new outfit (amazing, huh!) or wear the best outfit that they have. Women obviously take this shopping task much more seriously than men and there is a lot of talk on what outfits each person has bought, where to find the best ones, and what colours they're wearing.

I, for one, designed my own outfit this Eid. It was somewhat Grecian inspired and had a creamy jersey bodice with a tight gold, silk, and high-waisted skirt. Everyone thought I had bought it from somewhere, so I gather that it was a success then! I personally really liked it.

Eid is all about reconnecting with one's friends and family. It is an occasion to take time off from your daily routine and catch up on everyone you haven't seen in a while. Eid is also a time to pamper children where instead of receiving gifts, they receive money which they can then use to buy whatever they want. So during Eid, you have people visiting you and then you visiting other people. And with all that visiting comes lots and lots of eating. Eating sweet things, to be precise.

The Eidiya for the neighborhood children

I had a dessert overdose yesterday and I think it's going to take 26 hours of running to burn it all of.

Each family has their own Eid routine and ours go something like this:

I start baking for Eid two days before it starts. A whole mix of biscuits and cookies and everything of the sort. I always have a few "classics" that I make every Eid, these mainly being lemon cake, vanilla cupcakes, chocolate shortbread drops, and vanilla and chocolate cookies among many other things. This time though, I decided to go on a complete revamp and the only "classic" thing I stuck to were the chocolate shortbread drops.

This time, I made vanilla biscuits, chocolate shortbread drops, spiced Belgian biscuits with raspberry jam, maple syrup butter whirls, vanilla kisses, cherry and almond loaf, spiced caramel cake (which I am sharing today!), marble cake, mini triple chocolate cakes, and lavender cupcakes.

Bread for breakfast!

The night before Eid, I package them in cute boxes and send them to some relatives and friends. The rest I keep for Eid breakfast at our place.

I love planning for Eid breakfast at our place because that's when I get to be all creative with a table setting and give out presents to family members and friends who come over. Our breakfast also includes doorbell rings from neighborhood children asking for Eidiya (eid money that you give children). We package these in cute little pouches with candy and hand it out to them.

At Eid, women also get elaborate henna designs done and the henna salons are packed with hundreds of people the nights leading up to Eid. Sometimes you have a wait of 8 hours (yikes! I know!) They hand out numbered coupons like counter tickets and if I'm getting henna done at a salon I pick up a ticket at 1PM and return at 9PM (which is inevitably when my number is called!). Most times, I have a henna lady come over to the house. It's so much better that way since I prepare for bed, wear my pyjamas and then get Henna done. It takes a while to dry and if you wash your hands soon after it dries off, chances are the color won't turn out as deep as it could. That's why I prefer getting Henna done at the end of the day and at home. It also gives me a chance to prepare for breakfast until the last possible minute.

Here's the recipe for the spiced caramel cake which is extremely easy and quick to make!

125g butter, chopped
200g dark brown soft sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp golden syrup
225g self raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
125ml milk
240g sifted icing sugar
30g softened butter
2 tbsp milk
50g dark chocolate, chopped

Grease deep 20cm round cake pan, cover base and side with baking paper.
Combine all ingredients in medium bowl of electric mixer, beat on low speed until ingredients are combined. Then, beat on medium speed until mixture is just smooth and changed in color; do not overbeat. Spoon mixture into prepared pan. Bake in moderate oven about 55 minutes. Stand 5 minutes before turning onto wire rack to cool.
Mix together the icing sugar, butter and milk until fluffy, smooth, and spreadable. Spread over the cake.
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water and spoon into a sandwich bag.
Make a tiny incision at the base of the sandwich bag and draw lines over the cake with the melted chocolate. First draw vertical lines, then horizontal ones, then diagonal ones.
Eat and enjoy!

spiced caramel cake

Random Recipe: Orange and Ginger Stained Glass Biscuits

2011-10-27T17:43:00.001+04:00

Have you taken part in my blog giveaway yet?

Dom's random recipe challenge for this month was awesome! We were partnered up with another blog who randomly chose a recipe for us from one of our books after we numbered them! My partner was Manu at http://cookingmanu.blogspot.com/

Manu randomly chose a recipe for me called "orange and ginger stained glass biscuits" in BBC Food's 101 Cupcakes and Small Bakes.

The picture with the recipe was so cute since the heart shaped biscuits had ribbons tied to them and were hung from branches of a Christmas tree.

I made mine round but it was a total fail as they didn't come off the tray! :( apart from one. Which I abused excessively for pictures.

The recipe quite simple and I think to get it right you should add parchment paper to the already greased baking tray.

Here's the recipe:

175g plain flour
zest of one orange
1 tsp ground ginger
100g cold butter, cut into chunks
50g muscovado sugar
1tbsp milk
12 fruit flavored boiled sweets, crushed

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease two non stick baking sheets with oil. Whiz together flour, ginger, orange zest, and butter in a food processor. Pulse in the sugar and milk and turn out and knead briefly until smooth.
Wrap, then chill for 30 minutes.
Roll out to the dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. Cut shapes with 7cm cutters and use 4cm to cut out the middle.
Put the crushed sweets in the middle of each biscuit and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until middles have melted and edges golden brown.
Leave to harden then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Nasi Goreng- 2nd Blog Birthday and a GIVEAWAY!

2011-10-22T23:42:00.000+04:00

It's been exactly two years since I started food blogging and like everything else, it seems as if it was just yesterday.

Looking back, I realize how much as I've grown as a person who enjoys cooking and baking (dare I say chef?). I've discovered a wealth of new information, met amazing people (both online and in real life!), and read some amazing posts. I've tried to harness my interest in photography by focusing on food (but admittedly, not as much as I'd like to) and what's the best part is that having a blog has been a catalyst for my increased passion and interest in the world of food.

Here's the first food related post I wrote on this blog (exactly two years ago) "Autumn- the season for rich colors and gorgeous comfort food". This post was dedicated to butternut pumpkin which has grown to become one of my favourite vegetables along with capsicums. It contains two soup recipes and one vegetarian stew recipe. And yes, there aren't any photographs in that post.

And exactly one year ago: I posted a restaurant review of one of my favourite restaurants: Saladicious in Jumeirah.

To mark this auspicious event, I'm having a giveaway! One lucky winner is going to receive this lovely little book called "200 Delicious Desserts". The publisher is Hamlyn and what I love about this series is that the pictures are gorgeous, the recipes easy to read, and the results fabulous. The choice of recipes in this book is wonderful and includes a pear and almond tart, coffee and hazelnut choc ices, double chocolate puddings (YUM!), and strawberry choux puffs (to name just a few!- there are 200 as the title indicates!)

What you have to do in order to win is really simple!
1. Like "Spontaneous Euphoria Food Blog" on facebook
2. Follow @Spontiphoria on twitter
3. Leave a comment on this post saying that you did the above two and mention which of your recipes on this blog is your favourite and why!

The winner will be chosen by a friend of mine through picking a name out of a hat (fun, eh?)
The deadline to enter is exactly a month from today November 23, 2011

Now on to today's recipe:

Nasi goreng. Nice spicy rice with prawn crackers and fried egg and chicken satay skewers with peanut sauce. MMMMM.. but this is a vegetarian option (with the eggs, though- but you can easily omit it!)

I made this a month ago, and have made it four times since already. It's THAT good.
And it's so simple!

Ingredients
3 tbsp peanut or sunflower oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 onion, finely chopped
2 birds-eye chilies, finely chopped and deseeded
2 garlic cloves, crushed
5cm ginger, grated
1 cup button mushrooms, chopped
200g baby corn, chopped
1 red capiscum, chopped
1 yellow capsicum, chopped
1 green capsicum, chopped
3 cups brown rice, cooked
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 spring onion, finely sliced
80g brussel sprouts

Procedure
- Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a wok and add the eggs. Swirl to coat the base of the pan. Cook until set and then remove from wok and slice into thin strips.
- Heat the remaining oil and cook the onion, chili, garlic, and ginger until fragrant and soft, around 5 minutes.
- Add the button mushrooms, baby corn, and capsicums stirring for around 10 minutes until mushroom and corn has softened.
- Next, add the rice and stir to coat. Then add the sauces, spring onion, and brussel sprouts and stir again until everything is well combined.
- Transfer to a serving dish and arrange the strips of omelette on top of the rice.
- Serve immediately.

It's THAT simple and takes around half an hour to make! It's indulgent for a simple dinner at home in front of the TV and glamorous enough (if presented nicely) for when you have guests!

Enjoy! And don't forget to take part in the giveaway contest!!

How the Aztecs did it..

2011-10-19T15:35:00.001+04:00

Have you taken part in my blog giveaway yet? Details here!

Choclette is hosting this month's We Should Cocoa challenge with the wonderfully exotic theme of chili and chocolate. It's my second time participating after I made a triple chocolate party cake for last month's challenge.

I love chili with chocolate but have only ever had it in chocolate soups (as I did at Hotel Chocolat in London) and or hot chocolate shots (In Dubai's Vintage Chocolate Bar) and I wondered what it would taste like in ice-cream.

I could sort of imagine the play of the flavours and textures. Velvety chocolate ice cream that cools the throat but has a strong chili aftertaste after you've swallowed it. Seemed so heavenly to me. And so I tweaked a normal chocolate ice-cream and added some thinly sliced red birds-eye chilies.

Ingredients
120g chopped dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids
2 tablespoons single cream
300ml double cream
2 tbsp milk
50g icing sugar, sifted
2 red birds-eye chilies, thinly sliced
80g chopped dark chocolate, 70% cocoa solids, extra
2 tsp single cream, extra

In a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt the chopped chocolate and single cream until mixture is smooth and incorporated. Allow to cool.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the double cream and the milk until soft peaks form. Stir in the icing sugar and chilies.
Add the first batch of melted chocolate and beat until combined. Place the mixture in an ice-cream maker and churn for around 20-25 minutes.
While ice cream is churning, melt the extra dark chocolate and single cream in a bowl over simmering water.
Spoon the ice-cream in a small airtight container.
With a teaspoon, drizzle the extra melted chocolate over the ice cream.

Place the lid on the container and refrigerate it to firm up for at least 90 minutes before serving.

Blueberry and Mascarpone Biscuit Bites

2011-10-09T16:49:00.001+04:00

Lemon and blueberry... one of those classic combinations where you can't go wrong, just like raspberry and white chocolate.

I found a recipe in a book called "Lemon and Blueberry Cakes with a Cheesecake Topping"... the picture was adorable, there were these mini cakes topped with a second, equally thick and really white layer of cheesecake topping. The whole thing was topped with some tiny blueberries. The picture did not correspond to the recipe... in the sense that the procedure in no way would end up making cakes that looked like that!

Anyhow, I tried it. And my suspicions were correct. I ended up with very moist muffins. Disheartened with this result, I decided to play around the concept and come up with something quite similar but not exactly.

So I made these blueberry and mascarpone biscuit bites. The base is a biscuit layer (cooked in a mini cupcake tray). The topping is simply some piped mascarpone cheese and blueberries.

I took these to Devina's potluck this Friday and they were a big success. And they're very, very simple to make!

Ingredients,
oil or butter for greasing
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
1 cup self raising flour
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Procedure
Generously grease the cupcake tray.
Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the egg and beat until combined.
Add the sifted flours and fold in.
Mix in the vanilla extract and make sure everything is well combined.
Take teaspoons of the dough and press into each hole in the tin. Make sure they're 3/4 full.
Bake at 180C in a preheated oven for around 20 minutes until relatively cooked but soft.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely in tin, around one hour.
Once cooled, spoon the mascarpone cheese into a piping bag with a small star tip.
Pipe from the center out and place two to three blueberries on top.

Random Recipe: Mozzarella, Mushroom, Basil, and Tomato Sandwiches

2011-09-29T17:55:00.000+04:00

University has begun. Although I think I've mentioned this before.

And so with university having begun, the first signs of stress, sleepless nights, and reams and reams of paper start to appear.. (not to mention the ghosts of all those trees we seem to have killed while printing...)

And naturally, there is less time to do the things you really wish to do.. those include one's nails, watching a movie, spending hours in the kitchen, and cuddling up in bed with a book..

But sometimes, feeding oneself takes prominence over all other tasks and duties, and that is when you try and make something that you know you'll really enjoy eating.

I was so excited when I read about Dom's challenge for this month. It was to pick a random recipe from all your food related magazines and clippings and the like.. I have a little section on my bookshelf devoted to recipe related magazine clippings/magazines but to be honest with you, I've never made a recipe from any of them. That's why I was so glad when I read about this month's challenge because then I'd be able to explore something new out of all these recipes I had never tried.

The magazine I randomly picked was called "Soups and Sandwiches" by Fine Cooking. I bought it at JFK airport this April so that I could have some light reading/entertainment on the fifteen hour return flight (although traveling with 18 twenty year olds was much fun in itself.)

I like the idea of soups and sandwiches for dinner. It's light yet filling and hearty and is very convenient to eat. Since I've recently gone vegetarian (since the beginning of this month actually) I tried picking a random recipe from the vegetarian section of the magazine which was towards the end. I ended up with mozzarella, mushroom, basil, and tomato sandwiches which are very quick to prepare.

Recipe
Ingredients:
4 sandwich rolls/buns
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp crushed garlic clove
basil leaves
1 cup button mushrooms, cooked
1 tomato, sliced
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

Procedure:
Combine the mayo, cheese, and garlic in a bowl and evenly spread over both sides of cut sandwich rolls.
On the bottom half, layer mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, and tomato.
On the top half, place the basil leaves.
Sandwich together and lightly heat on a heated grill plate for 4-5 minutes until bread is lightly toasted.
Serve warm.

I had these with some tomato and capsicum soup.. the combination was amazing!

I hope I'm not past the posting deadline for this! >_< sorry if I am, Dom! :(

In other news, I just realized that this was my first savoury post of the month (and it's the end of the month!)
But I have made some nasi goreng, pasta, and grilled fish a few times.. all really good.. hoping to post up some of those recipes soon!

I also made macarons after doing much research on techniques. I now have two A4 pages full of tips and techniques that I've gathered while reading blogposts, watching videos, and reading cookbooks. Should I have a post on my macarons? "Dissecting the Macaron" as I'd like to call it..

Sorry about the picture quality! I didn't have a proper camera with me and these were about to be gobbled up in a second..

Triple Chocolate Party Cake

2011-09-24T00:55:00.001+04:00

You know when you walk past a restaurant that seems really nice and you think "I'm definitely going to try this some day" or when you see a book you really want to read and say to yourself: "I'm going to start reading this as soon as work slows down a bit"? Inevitably, you don't manage to eat at that restaurant or read that book for a VERY long time, no matter how much you want to. That was the case with me and the We Should Cocoa Blog Challenge. Every month, the challenges seemed so interesting and mouth-watering. And every month, either I had papers to write, exams to study for, work to go, events to manage, or some odd amalgamation of all of the previous (which was most likely what happened). Anyways, I never got to participate in the We Should Cocoa blog challenges even though I really, really, really wanted to but this month, I did. This month's challenge is hosted by the lovely Chele of the The Chocolate Pot.

I think what really pushed me to make this was that the theme was "chocolate masterpiece".
"Masterpiece!" I thought. Oooh yess, time to spin toffee and melt fondant and create a wonderful chocolate swan in a stainless steel kitchen with my chef's hat and whites. I got all sorts of ideas (I always do). Alas, attempting to be creative is what drives me more often than not.

And a masterpiece automatically means that it has to be presented with some pomp and show does it not? Masterpieces, after all, fit in perfectly with celebrations. And so, I decided to make a chocolate 'masterpiece' cake for the first birthday of our food bloggers group.

Famished in Arabia, or TableTalk as it is now known, was formed a year ago by Arwa @ I Live in a Frying Pan and Sally @ My Custard Pie . They decided to collaborate and form a UAE-based food bloggers group. The group has now grown to over 60 members and is such a wonderful network between all of us who love to love to share our love of food. I have made some wonderful friends this past year thanks to our group and have created some lovely memories. We constantly share our posts with one another and always have one fun event or another coming up. I'll always remember when we made gingerbread biscuits at Sally's, or had a picnic in the park, or Iftar at Sukaina's, or took a Thai cooking class, or had a mini chocolate fest at my place. And now I'll remember our epic first birthday celebration.

We raided the first floor of the wonderful Tea Junction today and had our cake-a-thon celebrating our first birthday. Each one of us was supposed to bring a cake (which resulted in some two dozen cakes!). And so, quite aptly, I decided to make this triple chocolate cake. Another reason I made this cake is because I wanted to tie a bow around it this time. I made a similar cake two weeks ago (topped with berries instead) as a birthday cake for a friend who absolutely refused that I add a ribbon. But I had to have my ribbon. And so I made this cake again albeit slightly differently.

The last one was a 9" double layered chocolate cake with milk chocolate finger biscuits around it. The topping was a mixture of heavy cream and whipping cream and was topped with berries. This one, in contrast was a 5" single-layered chocolate cake, with chocolate buttercream, milk and dark chocolate fingers, and semisweet chocolate chips.

I am not joking when I tell you that the decoration part of this cake took exactly 10 minutes. It is SO much easier than simply coating a cake with frosting. SO MUCH EASIER!

I started making the cake at 1PM and by 3PM everything was ready (and yes, I did other stuff in those two hours!)

Recipe
Ingredients
100g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
140g caster sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
40g butter
1 egg
120ml milk
0.5 tsp vanilla essence
1 packet Cadbury Milk Chocolate Fingers
1 packet Cadbury Dark Chocolate Fingers
Semisweet chocolate chips
300g icing sugar, sifted
40g cocoa powder, sifted
100g butter
40ml milk
1 yard satin ribbon, color of your choice

Procedure

Preheat the oven to 170C and grease and base-line a 5" cake tin.
Place together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and butter in a large bowl. Mix until well combined. In a small jug, beat together the egg, milk, and vanilla extract. Pour half of the milk mixture into the flour mixture and mix until well combined. Add the other half and beat for two minutes until all mixed together.
Bake in the middle rack of the oven for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Allow to cool.
Meanwhile make the frosting by mixing together the icing sugar, cocoa powder, and butter until it reaches a sandy consistency. Gradually add the milk and beat for 5 minutes until buttercream is fluffy.
Place the cake on an icing turntable and with a spatula, apply frosting only around the sides of the cake. Apply just enough so that the fingers can stick on comfortably. Once the sides of the cake have been coated with the buttercream, carefully place the chocolate fingers all around alternating between the milk and dark chocolate fingers.
Once that's complete, place the remaining chocolate frosting in a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 98 nozzle and pipe around the edges of the inside of the cake. Complete by filling the middle of the cake with the piped frosting. The best way to achieve this look is by arbitrarily piping across the center of the cake. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the semisweet chocolate chips. Refrigerate the cake for 20 minutes until relatively hardened before tying the bow across the cake. Try to make the bow look neater than mine.

Rose Custards

2011-09-13T19:51:00.000+04:00

Perhaps I'm being too much of an Orientalist here, but any dish to do with roses immediately evokes an Arabian Nights-esque vision in my mind...

You know what it looks like: a large marble balcony, lit delicately by the full moon. There's a fountain in the centre, made of the most intricate and beautiful turquoise tiles, and it slowly gushes out water. A large chaise longue rests beside it, amply supplied with plush cushions with glittering gold edging. At each end of the balcony is a large terracotta pot filled with water and topped with rose petals and floating candles. The scent of roses gently wafts up to the balcony from the rose bushes below, and on the chaise longue sits a beautiful princess with the darkest eyes and richest curly hair, savouring each mouthful of a rose custard...made from roses plucked right from the bushes below...

Yes that's what I imagine when I read any recipe to do with roses. That and the colour pink. I think I'm falling in love with it all over again. I had a pink phase when I was five, and then was I was thirteen, and now... I think there's a cyclical pattern in there somewhere.

This rose custard is somewhat like a rose creme brulee and tastes so succulent you'll want to close your eyes and savor it each time you taste it. And the best part is that it is fairly simple. This recipe makes six individual custards. Make sure you ovenproof glass dishes for this.

Recipe:

Ingredients
200ml low fat milk
250ml thickened cream
6 egg yolks
85g granulated sugar
4 tablespoons pink rose syrup
3 tablespoons rosewater
6 rose petals
1 egg white
6 teaspoons caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 200C.
In a saucepan, mix together cream and milk until it boils. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for one minute. Remove from heat.
In a bowl, mix together the egg yolks and granulated sugar until pale. Sieve the milk mixture into the bowl. Add the rosewater and rose syrup and beat everything together thoroughly.
Divide equally among six 100ml ovenproof glasses.
Place the glasses in a roasting tin and fill the tin with water up to the 5mm below the rim of the glasses.
Bake for 45 minutes or until the edges have set but the middle is slightly loose.
Remove from oven and remove glasses from tin. Allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating for at least two hours.
Meanwhile, gently wash and dry the rose petals. With a paintbrush, delicately brush one petal with the egg white, sprinkle one teaspoon of caster sugar on top and slowly shake off the excess. Allow to dry and set. Repeat with other rose petals.

Butterscotch Blondies

2011-09-05T18:11:00.000+04:00

Ever since I first heard that something called "blondies" (sister of brownies) existed.. I keep associating them with hair colors.. and I constantly ask why there isn't a reddie... maybe I should invent one..

Anyways, I've done the brownie thing a few times but never the blondie one. And so I decided to begin my adventure into blondie land (not that I'm not mentally one...) with these butterscotch brownies. Who doesn't like butterscotch? I sure do.

The best part while making this was adding the muscovado sugar to the hot, melted butter and stirring. The color turned into the most amazing golden brown.
The recipe is quite simple and quite fun and what I love about both brownies and blondies is that you can dress them up and dress them down. Spoon a scoop of icecream over a brownie/blondie and top with some chocolate or butterscotch sauce and you've got yourself an epic dinner party dessert.

Serve them on their own and it's the best bake sale dish you can make.

Recipe

115g unsalted butter
220g muscovado sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
180g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and base line a 20cm square cake tin.
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar with a wooden spoon until well combined.
Gradually add the eggs and vanilla extract and stir together.
Sift the flour and baking powder into the saucepan and stir again until combined.
Add the chocolate chips and stir well.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 10 mins before cutting.

Orange Blossom Cakes

2011-09-04T16:38:00.002+04:00

I've been trying to find excuses to use orange flower water ever since I first made a Moroccan juice with it almost four years ago. The smell is so refreshing and it tastes floral as opposed to citrussy. If floral is a taste... which in my world it most definitely is.

I tend to make things just because I have leftover ingredients I don't want to go to waste. I.e. extra mascarpone: chocolate mousse... golden syrup: caramel dumplings...and for orange flower water: mini tea cakes.

The recipe is extremely simple and tastes slightly of almonds which complement the flavor of the cake wonderfully. They're bite sized- so watch how many you eat!

Ingredients

110g butter, softened

1 tablespoon orange flower water

110g caster sugar

2 eggs

150g self raising flour

30g ground almonds

125ml milk

-for the icing

40g icing sugar

1 tablespoon water

1 teaspoon orange flower water

Procedure

Preheat oven to 180C.

Grease a mini teacake mould.

Cream the butter and the sugar with the orange flower water.

Add the eggs one at a time- don't panic if the mixture curdles.

Sift the flour and mix with the ground almonds in a small bowl.

Add half the flour mixture to the cake batter and mix well.

Add half the milk and stir thoroughly.

Repeat the last two steps.

With a teaspoon, pour two teaspoons of batter into each mould.

Bake for 25 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely.

Mix the sifted icing sugar with the water and orange flower water and drizzle over the cakes.

Chocolate Caramel Slice

2011-09-02T16:29:00.000+04:00

I like the idea of making slices.
They're cute and dainty. They're not your usual cake, or your usual biscuit.. they're something it between. And the idea of it being triple layered is pretty cool.

I made these super quick chocolate caramel slices this morning. And when I attempted to photograph them outdoors the chocolate topping started to melt in the 45C+ degree weather.

Nonetheless, it's delicious. I kept munching on them as a I photographed....... oops...

Ingredients
0.5 cup plain flour
0.5 cup self raising flour
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup soft brown sugar
125g melted margarine
395g sweetened condensed milk
30g margarine, extra
2 tablespoons golden syrup
150g dark chocolate
3 tsp olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180C.
Grease and line a 20cm x 20cm baking dish.
In a bowl mix together the flours, desiccated coconut, sugar, and margarine.
Press into the base of the baking dish and smoothen the top with the back of a spoon.
Back for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, place the sweetened condensed milk, golden syrup, and extra margarine in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until well incorporated and color is a medium golden brown- it should take around 10 minutes.
Take the baking dish out of the oven and pour the caramel mixture evenly on top.
Bake for 7 minutes or until just set.
Allow to cool slightly.
Melt the chocolate with the olive oil in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water.
Once completely melted, pour over the caramel mixture and refrigerate for at least three hours.
Before serving, cut into slices.

Classic Lasagna with a Side of Roasted Vegetables

2011-08-19T17:40:00.001+04:00

I think this is perfect for an indulgent and filling weeknight meal. For me, indulgent weeknight meals are those which COOK ON THEIR OWN! Where you have to let something simmer for 45 minutes, let it bake for an hour... roast it for two.. That way you've cooked, you have a good meal, and you have time to do other things while it cooks on its own.

The following is a classic lasagna served with roasted potatoes and carrots a la herb (yeah I invented that last bit).

I love the messy, splattered effect you get when you bake something big like this. Such a homey feel.

Classic Lasagna

Ingredients
2 tablespoons oil
30g butter
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stick, finely chopped
500g lamb mince
2 tablespoons tomato paste
400g can diced tomatoes
250ml cranberry juice
2 tablespoons fresh coriander, chopped
One packet instant lasagna sheets
60g butter
40g plain flour
560ml milk
100g grated Parmesan cheese

Procedure
-Heat the oil and butter in a heavy based pan and cook the onion, carrot, and celery over medium heat until softened, stirring constantly. Increase the heat, add the mince and brown well, breaking up any lumps of fat. Add the tomato paste, can tomatoes, juice, and parsley and season to taste. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
- To make the bechamel sauce, melt the butter in a medium pan over low heat. Add the flour and stir for 1 minute. Remove from heat and gradually stir in the milk. Return to heat and stir constantly until the sauce boils and thickens. Simmer for another minute. Add the nutmeg and salt and pepper, to taste. Place a piece of plastic wrap on surface of sauce.
-Preheat the oven to 180C.
-Take a large, ovenproof dish and place a thin layer of the meat mixture over the base, top with bechamel sauce and layer the lasagna sheets over that. Repeat the process until all the ingredients have been used up and the final layer is bechamel.
-Spread the grated Parmesan cheese on top and bake in the oven for around 30 minutes until top is golden and cheese has melted.

Roasted Potatoes and Carrots with Fresh and Dried Herbs

Ingredients
2tbsp olive oil
Two medium potatoes, roughly chopped
Two medium carrots, cut into chunks
30g butter
Salt and pepper
1tbsp mixed dried herbs such as basil and chives.
2tbsp fresh coriander, finely chopped

Procedure
Grease an overproof dish with half the olive oil.
Arrange the cut potato and carrot chunks onto the dish and drizzle with remaining olive oil.
Cut the butter into chunks and scatter around the dish.
Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with dried herbs.
Bake in an 180C oven for one hour or until vegetables have softened and cooked through.
Before serving, scatter coriander over dish.

Two Tiered Wedding Cake with Fondant Roses (TUTORIAL)

2011-08-14T00:35:00.000+04:00

I've been dreaming of making tiered cakes for sooo long.. And I've had a few experiences doing so but never really professionally. But ever since I've started looking through pictures of tiered party cakes I've began to daydream. And daydream. And daydream. And get this unrelenting urge to sit (or potter around) in the kitchen for hours creating one of these beauties.

I made the following cake over three days although if you wanted to, it's quite possible to make it in one day. I baked the bottom tier cakes on Thursday, the top tier cakes on Friday morning, did the dowelling, stacking, rolling fondant, and roses on Friday night and put the final touches with the pearls and royal icing Saturday afternoon.

I am by no means an expert at this and being an amateur baker, I want to show that these kind of cakes aren't difficult to create at all. They're challenging, and that makes it all the sweeter once you get the results you want. I wanted to make a cake which was entirely my idea and not copied from any of the books and so I came up with this. I also wanted to start off making two tiered cakes because I wanted to take it slow.. and gradually build up skill and also because.. I mean, seriously, I have no idea how I'd manage to get a four tiered cake eaten up (not by myself.. obviously...)

This is the first time I'm writing up a detailed tutorial so please bear with me if anything doesn't make sense (ask if you're confused).. obviously by saying this I'm assuming all my readers are going to get this wonderful streak of inspiration and go off to the kitchen.. but I don't think that's going to be the case..

And so here's the tutorial:

Equipment
A cake board
Measuring cups and spoons
Two bowls
A whisk
Four cake tins (two 6" ones and two 8" ones)
Baking paper
A cake leveller
An icing turntable
An offset spatula
A rolling pin
A sharp knife
3 dowel rods
Sandwich bags
A cake fondant smoother
Toothpicks
Ribbon of your choice
Piping bag
1.5 icing tip/nozzle
Sifter
Strainer
Pastry brush
Unused makeup blusher brush

Ingredients
For the bottom tier:
1.5 cups self raising flour
1.25 cups plain flour
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the top tier: (identical.. and you'll have enough leftover batter to make one batch of cupcakes)

1.5 cups self raising flour
1.25 cups plain flour
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For the buttercream
50g unsalted butter, softened
300g icing sugar
3 tablespoons milk
Pink gel food colouring

For the coating and roses
1/2 cup apricot jam, boiled, strained, and cooled
1.5kg marzipan
1.5kg white fondant (ready to roll icing)
Light pink gel food colouring
Rose gel food coloring
500g icing sugar

For the royal icing and pearls
1 egg white
200g icing sugar
Juice of one lemon
One packet edible pearls (preferably white)

Procedure

For the bottom tier:
-Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line two 8" cake tins. Put the flour together in a bowl and mix well together.
-In a separate bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar a quarter cup at a time and beat well between each addition until sugar dissolves and mixture becomes fluffier and paler.
-Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Add a third of the flour mixture and beat well, followed by a third of the combined milk and vanilla extract mixture. Repeat until all flour and milk has been incorporated into batter.
-Spoon into cake tins and bake for 30 minutes on the middle rack of the oven until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

For the top tier

-Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line two 6" cake tins. Put the flour together in a bowl and mix well together.
-In a separate bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the sugar a quarter cup at a time and beat well between each addition until sugar dissolves and mixture becomes fluffier and paler.
-Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Add a third of the flour mixture and beat well, followed by a third of the combined milk and vanilla extract mixture. Repeat until all flour and milk has been incorporated into batter.
-Spoon into cake tins and bake for 30 minutes on the middle rack of the oven until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

For the buttercream
-Beat the butter until smooth. Add the icing sugar and beat until mixture is of a sandy consistency. Add the milk and beat until incorporated.
-Add the coloring and keep on beating for five minutes until mixture gets fluffy.

Assembling and coating the cake
-Refrigerate the cakes for around half an hour before assembling them. Refrigerating cakes makes them harder and much easier to handle.
-Split each cake into half so you get a total of four layers for the bottom tier and a total of four tiers for the top tier.

-for the bottom tier
-Place the bottom-most layer of the bottom tier on an icing turntable and with an offset spatula, spread the top with buttercream.
-Place a second layer on top and repeat until you reach the last top-most layer for the bottom tier. Do not put buttercream on top of the topmost layer of the bottom tier.
-Brush the cake with the boiled, strained, and cooled apricot jam.
-Knead half the marzipan until soft and pliable and then roll out onto a surface liberally dusted with icing sugar (trust me when I say you're going to need a collective of 500g of icing sugar just to dust the surface- don't underestimate it! you don't want fondant sticking to the surface after you've wonderfully rolled it out). Remember to roll out marzipan to cover a slightly larger cake than the one you're actually covering. Having extra-long marzipan or fondant on your cake prevents it from folding over each other and skirting and makes for a smooth, straight finish. You can always trim the excess off with a knife (and then you have excess marzipan/fondant to make roses with!).
-Gently lift the marzipan using both hands and rest the marzipan on your wrists. and lower forearm.
-Place the center of the rolled out marzipan onto the center of the cake. Smooth down over the edges with your hands and then trim off the excess with a sharp knife. Smooth with an icing smoother.
-Brush the marzipan-coated cake with boiled, cooled water.
-Knead the fondant until pliable. With a toothpick, add streaks of the baby pink food coloring and continue kneading until color is even throughout. Roll out on a surface VERY LIBERALLY dusted with icing sugar until, again, slightly larger than the size of the cake.
-Gently lift up and place on top of the cake. Smooth with the icing smoothener. Trim off the excess and smooth again.

-for the top tier
-Repeat the steps of the layering and coating the bottom tier.

-stacking the cakes.
-Place three wooden or plastic dowel rods into the center of the bottom tier cake. Measure the height of the cake on the dowel rod with a pencil. Remove the dowel rods and trim to the size of the cake.
-Do that with all three dowel rods and place in the center of the cake forming a triangular shape.
-Lift the top tier and gently place it on top of the bottom tier.

-"ribboning the cakes"
-Take the ribbon and place it around the base of bottom tier, measuring how long it should be. Cut out the required length.
-Dab a little royal icing or buttercream on the cake where the ribbon will be placed.
-Place the ribbon around the base of the cake and make the end of the ribbon slightly overlap with the start of it. Dab in place with a little more buttercream.
-Do the same for the top tier.
-Take the makeup blush brush and dust the cake off any icing sugar.

-for the roses
-Color the leftover marzipan rose pink and shape a little bit of it into a 4mm diameter sausage. Keep the rest in a plastic bag or tightly wrapped in foil to prevent it from drying out.
- Take the sausage and cut off the ends. Then cut the remaining sausage into six slices with a 3mm width each.
-Take a plastic ziplock or sandwich bag and open the sides to make it into a foldable plastic folder. Place the six slices evenly spaced out inside the sandwich bags, with the rounded sides facing away from you and the flat sides facing towards you.
-Place the top half of the sandwich bag over the bottom half and press down and flatten each slice with the base of your thumb (no, that isn't the part of your thumb right under your nail but the base of the thumb by the wrist).
-Then run your actual thumb around each piece to smoothen the edges.
-Take the smallest petal and roll it around on itself so it curls.
-Then, take the next smallest petal and place it around the rosebud. Keep on working your way outwards using slightly larger petals each time until you use up the six.
-Repeat to make five more roses.
Place around the cake as you see fit. Or do it like I did: two on top, one in the middle, and two at the bottom.

-for the royal icing and pearls
-Beat the egg whites till the soft peak consistency, add the sifted icing sugar and beat in until incorporated. - --Add the strained juice of half a lemon and beat in.
-Add the color with a toothpick and beat in until smooth and not too runny.
-Prepare a piping bag with the 1.5 nozzle and spoon in the royal icing. Secure the piping bag.
-Holding the piping bag at a 60 degree angle to the cake, pipe around 5 or 6 round pearls onto the top of the cake in front of the roses.
-Don't pull the piping bag away as soon as the icing starts coming out of it otherwise you'll end up with sharp studs instead of pearls. Instead, wait till the pearl is formed and then gently release.
-Once you finish the pearls on the top tier, ice the top of the bottom tier (you'll only be able to have access to the outer edges of it due to the top tier placed above it).
-Once that's done, with your fingers, gently add the edible pearls on top of each pink royal icing pearl. You'll have to work fairly quickly because the royal icing hardens fairly quickly and crusts if you apply too much pressure.

And you're done! As you can tell from the pictures, I'm having issues getting the icing completely clean and smooth without cracking a bit. First, I need to knead the colour in a lot more so little white streaks don't show. Plus, I also need to not put SO much icing sugar on TOP of the fondant when I'm rolling it out. It's important for it to be under but not on top. But I had to re-knead the fondant around three times before I could lift it without it breaking. I had to keep adding more icing sugar for that.

Tomato and Eggplant Burek

2011-08-12T02:01:00.002+04:00

The food I find the most aesthetically pleasing is Mediterranean food. The colors, the textures, the different consistencies... all make for some wonderful eye candy. And the flavors are no less satisfying.
Feta cheese, tomatoes, capsicums, olives, eggplants, artichokes, goat's cheese, cherry tomatoes, spinach... I could go on and on and on..

Today, I made some burek. At least that's how I think it's spelled although I see BOREK everywhere. Anyways, same thing. Good food. And what I was glad about was that I made the pastry myself... I didn't get any filo pastry or anything of the sort. And it isn't really filo pastry.. anyways, on to the recipe..

Ingredients
75g butter, melted
80ml olive oil
185g plain flour
250g tomatoes
2 tbsp olive oil
1 chopped onion
2 tsp ground cumin
300g eggplant, cut into tiny cubes
2 tsp tomato paste
1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
1 lightly beaten egg

Procedure
Put butter, oil, and 80ml water into a large bowl and season with salt. Gradually add the flour, stirring with a wooden spoon to form an oily, lumpy dough that leaves the sides of the bowl. Knead gently to bring the dough together, cover with plastic, wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
Plunge the tomatoes in a bowl of boiling water for one minute, followed by plunging them in a bowl of cold water the next. Remove and peel the skin off.. chop roughly, discarding seeds.
Heat oil in a frying pan, add onion and cook, stirring, over low heat for 2-3 minutes or until soft. Add cumin, cook for 1 minute, then add eggplant and cook, stirring until eggplant softens. Stir in tomato and tomato paste. Cook over medium heat for 15 minutes or until mixture is dry. Stir in coriander and leave mixture to cool.
Preheat oven to 180C and grease two baking trays.
Roll out half of pastry onto floured surface until 2mm thick and cut out rounds with a 3 inch cutter. Place a teaspoon of tomato and eggplant mixture on each round and fold the dough over. Crimp and seal with a fork and wash with beaten egg.
Bake in the top half of the oven for around 15 minutes until pastry is browned through.
Serve hot, with a spicy sauce if desired.

Vegetarian Paella

2011-08-12T01:24:00.000+04:00

I love the idea of paella..it seems so delicious...in those huge vats, with wonderful red and yellow colors- and to be honest, rice mixed with meat and vegetables is almost always good. Risotto, biryani, and... paella! I've never had it though since I'm allergic to shellfish and I've been looking for a vegetarian recipe for quite a while. Yesterday at 5AM, I was flipping through some cookbooks and came across this one and immediately decided to make it.

I was quite happy with the result (although I forgot to season! did that at the end >_<) but somehow I feel as though adding diced tomatoes would enhance the flavor.. that and some pieces of chicken. I knew that paella used arborio rice but I was concerned when the recipe said to leave the stock and rice mixture to simmer without stirring- continuously- like you have to with risotto.. I kept on thinking it would stick to the bottom of the pan but it didn't!

The recipe is fairly simple and quick and can be ready in an hour and a half, maximum.

Ingredients
750ml vegetable stock
500ml water
1/8 tsp saffron threads
2 tbsp olive oil
120g baby eggplants, quartered
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion, chopped finely
2 tomatoes, seeded and chopped finely
1 green capsicum, chopped finely
1 red capsicum, chopped finely
1 yellow capsicum, chopped finely
2 tsp paprika
250g arborio rice
150g frozen peas
120g green beans, chopped and trimmed
1/4 cup black olives
1/4 cup fresh coriander, chopped.
1 tbsp pine nuts

Procedure
Bring stock and water to a boil. Add saffron threads and remove from heat.
Heat oil in a saucepan and cook the eggplants until softened and browned. Remove from pan and set aside.
In same pan, cook onion, garlic, tomatoes, capsicums, and paprika until onion softens.
Add arborio rice and stir to coat in oil mixture.
Pour in the stock and water mixture and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat, and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally until water is absorbed and rice is tender- around 30 minutes.
Add peas and beans and cook, covered for 10 minutes- stirring occasionally.
Add coriander, olives, and pine nuts and stir through.
Stand, covered, 5 minutes before serving.

As you can tell, I didn't spend any time food styling- too eager to try it haha

Crème Brûlée

2011-08-11T17:06:00.001+04:00

So who here doesn't like crème brûlée? Hardly anyone, as far as I know- maybe even no-one. Alright, well maybe I'm generalizing. But I, for one, love crème brûlée. There's something about biting into crisp, tart topping followed by a wonderful creamy goodness. I love creamy desserts: panna cotta, tiramisu, chocolate mousse, crème brûlée, all of that.. and this is one dessert that I will undoubtedly order if I happen to see it on a menu anywhere.

And crème brûlée is wonderful to serve at a dinner party. It sounds so elegant and sophisticated. Alright, let's admit it- anything in French sounds elegant and sophisticated. Imagine this scenario: "Oh, what do you have for dessert?" "Umm, a pound cake." How does that sound compared to "crème brûlée"?

With a name like crème brûlée you'd think it would be extremely difficult to prepare but it isnt.. it has four ingredients.. it can be part of one those Australian Women's Weekly books called "TAKE FOUR INGREDIENTS" or "QUICK SUPPER TONIGHT".

The two places which I've found have really good crème brûlée in Dubai is La Petite Maison in DIFC and The Market Cafe in Grand Hyatt. La Petite Maison's is quite a large serving and you might need around 3 people to share it but the Market Cafe one is in individual little glasses. Both amazingly good.

And quite surprisingly- although I had this intense love for crème brûlée- I never made it. I kept on thinking I'd need a blowtorch and there was this whole hassle of getting one and setting it up.. and then making sure the water comes halfway up the ramekins etc... anyways I never really had this intense urge to make it until a few weeks back.

You really don't have to read this italicized bit- it's just a little story of my hunt for the Crème Brûlée Set.

A few weeks back I was in Divertimenti on Marylebone High Street in London. Divertimenti is this absolutely fantabulous kitchen store- until this year I only knew about the Brompton Road one but when I stumbled across the Marylebone one early one Saturday morning I was smitten. Huge, airy, bright, and fully stocked with all sorts of kitchen gadgets, Divertimenti is a shopaholic-cum-chef's (aka my) dream store. I saw a crème brûlée set and was instantly attracted to it. A nice compact little box with four ramekins, a wire rack, and an oven dish... all very nicely and ergonomically structured so when you add the water they're held up halfway around the ramekins. All very nice. I decided I would buy it- but not right then. When I went back a week later (after having thought of it countless times and somehow fallen in love with it), it was gone. I spent ages describing it and asking if the Brompton Road branch had one. Which apparently they did.. except with three ramekins instead of four. NO PROBLEM, I said. I'LL TAKE IT.

And so during my lunch hour, I walked down from work to Brompton Road's Divertimenti and asked about the crème brûlée set. They had kept it aside and brought it out for me. As soon as I clapped eyes on it I was disappointed. It was just a normal oven dish used for crème brûlée- none of that fancy schmancy wire rack holder thing going on. I decided then that I would hunt this crème brûlée set down. And so I was told that Peter Jones might have it. So there I went, somewhat ricocheted back to Sloane Square which was close to the office. Checked with Peter Jones, they had nothing. They didn't even know such a thing existed. I was then told to go to David Mellor across the street (I did even though I highly doubted they would have it)- which they didn't. Then I heard that there was a wholesale catering store on Shaftesbury Avenue which might have it- and so after work I went there. They had no idea what it was.

Anyways by now my rational little self kept telling my other more idealistic more dominant self that maybe I should give up. I mean how important is a little crème brûlée set? I admit, it isn't- but I'm the kind of person that if I decide I want to do something, I will do it. Even if it has to take me halfway across the world, or in this case all over central London. I kept admonishing myself, telling myself that I had become a slave of capitalism and materialism. That what kind of a person was I that I had to have this crème brûlée set or else I'd be eternally restless. There were more important things in life, Sid. But right now, this was an interesting adventure that would have been entertaining regardless of whether or not I found that blessed set (although if I didn't find it that would sort of have been a buzzkill).

Anyways, I gave up actively searching for it- but I kept an eye out wherever I went. Harrods, no. John Lewis, didn't even try. But one day, several days later, I was in Selfridge's- just walking around- when I remembered that Crème Brûlée Set. I had forgotten about it, to be honest. And so I tried my luck. And there it was. In Selfridge's.. five minutes away from my apartment.

Anyways so back here in Dubai I decided to make Crème Brûlée. The recipe at the back of the box was extremely simple- I modified some of the measurements and I am sharing it here with you today. And getting a blowtorch is a good idea. The first time I made it, when I wanted to burn the sugar on top I put the ramekins in the top half of the oven for a couple of minutes but then it turned into a pudding/souffle kind of weird mixture. Not good. So get a blowtorch. But be careful how you use it. I also tried using both a cigarette lighter and a candle lighter but neither worked.

Recipe

Ingredients
6 egg yolks
1/4 cup granulated sugar
240g heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
8 tsp granulated sugar (for the topping)

Procedure
Preheat the oven to 160C. Fill an ovenproof dish halfway up with water.
Beat the egg yolks and the sugar until pale and thick. Add the cream and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated. Spoon into the ramekins and place the ramekins into the oven dish filled halfway with water.
Place in the oven and cook for around 35-40 minutes until the edges are set but the middle is slightly loose.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the oven dish.
Remove the ramekins from the dish and refrigerate for around 6 hours.
Half an hour before serving, sprinkle 2 tsp of granulated sugar on top of each ramekin and with a blowtorch, caramelize/burn/whatever-you-want-to-call-it the sugar. Make sure you move the blowtorch in circular motions over the ramekin to equally caramelize.
Re-chill in the oven until you're ready to serve.

It was the first time for me to use a blowtorch and somehow most of the golden dark bits ended up in the center of the Crème Brûlée instead of all over. It still tastes really good though!

Tip: if you get little shot glasses, you can even make mini versions of these- which will look wonderful.

Chicken and Tomato Curry

2011-08-10T22:11:00.000+04:00

This reminds me of home-cooked food. The kind of food I grew up eating. Salan, chawal, daal, biryani, kabab, pulao. In other words, desi khana. I don't cook subcontinental food that much because I often want to try making things I haven't eaten a lot while growing up. New, different food- unchartered territory; and so I submerged myself into the world of risotto, tofu, pastry, and mousse. But ever so often, it's nice to go back to your roots and eat something which reminds you of your childhood- and to add a little something of your own in it. Whenever I do cook desi food (or subcontinental food for all of you who don't know what desi is), I thoroughly enjoy it. I find it extremely simple to prepare (maybe that's because I'm half Pakistani) and the house ends up smelling wonderful. I never, ever get that aromatic smell when I cook other dishes such as Italian, Chinese, Mexican, or Thai.

And so here is the extremely simple chicken tomato curry I made today. You can serve it with rice, or naan, or just on its own really (which is what I did). It's a curry without the whole swimming in gravy thing going on. It's moist and will do wonderfully to mix with rice but is fine enough to eat on its own.

Ingredients
6tbsp peanut oil
1 onion, chopped finely
1 green capsicum, chopped finely
2 tsp cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 can diced tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, crushed
350g chicken mince
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
600ml chicken stock

Procedure
Heat half the oil in a saucepan, add the onion and capsicum and stir until softened. Add the bay leaves, cardamom pods, and cumin seeds and stir until fragrant. Season. Add the diced tomatoes and stir on medium heat for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the garlic cloves in a separate saucepan with the remaining oil. Add the chicken and spices and stir continuously, breaking up any lumps. Cook for around 10 minutes until chicken is cooked through. Transfer chicken mixture to saucepan with tomato mixture and add chicken stock. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 45 minutes, covered.

Chocolate Raspberry Cake

2011-08-10T00:24:00.000+04:00

So the two things which make up the title of the cake are actually in its topping. But it's still a chocolate and raspberry cake. You know how people say rice or pasta are like these somewhat flavourless dishes which means you can experiment a lot with them? I think the same way about vanilla cake. Well obviously it's sweet, you putting ketchup as frosting won't really work, but it's quite a good base if you want to get creative on the sweet side of the tastes spectrum.

I found this wonderful chocolate and raspberry jam from Cocomaya in London and ever since I bought it a couple of weeks back, I've been dreaming of using it as frosting on a nice bundt cake. I love the way icing/glaze just drizzles down in a bundt cake. I've never had mine look that professional but I'm hoping to get there. I used a spoon and then an offset spatula when I frosted mine. I think if you're using a runny glaze simply pouring it down the cake will achieve a nice old-fashioned look but my topping was more of a thick frosting so I had to apply it using a spoon.

Recipe:
Ingredients
230g unsalted butter, softened
230g caster sugar
4 eggs
230g self-raising flour, sifted
4 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
-for the frosting
70g heavy cream
1/2 cup fresh raspberries
1/2 cup raspberry and chocolate jam (if you can't find the jam I think you can achieve something similar by mixing equal parts nutella and raspberries and whisking it together with around 2-3 tablespoons of heavy cream)

Procedure:
Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and lightly flour a bundt cake pan.
Beat together butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs one by one, whisking well after each addition. Add the sifted flour and fold in using a metal spoon. Add the milk and vanilla and mix well together. Pour the batter into the cake pan and bake for 25 minutes. Once baked, allow to cool completely before frosting.

for the frosting:
take the chocolate/raspberry jam and whisk until smooth. Add the cream and beat until color has lightened and mixture has become fluffier. Gently spread over top of cooled cake. Arrange raspberries around center and in the middle of cake.

Swirly Glittery Cupcakes Tutorial

2011-08-07T16:31:00.000+04:00

OK, well this isn't exactly a tutorial if there aren't step-by-step photos. I made these without the intention of blogging about them but a lot of people have been wondering how to get swirly frosting that holds its shape.. and even to get the rose-like look on them. So I decided (since these looked so pretty) to share these pictures with you and also explain verbally (as best as I can) how to get frosting like this.

1. I never make frosting with measured or weighed ingredients. I use my intuition- or I just see how well it's progressing.. But let's say for ingredients- I use 50g of unsalted butter (give or take 20g either way) that is softened. It is extremely important for the butter to be softened. I then mix in around 350g of icing sugar that isn't sifted. For one, I find sifting icing sugar extremely frustrating- you get little icing sugar smoke all around you. And two, I don't think the sifted factor makes much of a difference.

2. For cupcakes like these, you need frosting that is "tough".. or more solid.. Runny frosting won't do. Once you've mixed the butter and the icing sugar, add around 2-3 tablespoons of milk and beat well until combined. Add the gel food coloring at this point. Gel is best since you only need to add a very small quantity for strong color, and its nature doesn't change the consistency of the frosting-whereas liquid coloring would.

3. The longer you beat, the more fluffy and incorporated the entire mixture will become.

4. If the mixture is too runny, keep on adding more icing sugar to tighten/harden it up until you reach what you think is the right consistency. A lot of this is done by eye.

5. Take a piping bag (plastic or paper one) and pop a 1M nozzle inside. This is the most important part. It has to be 1M otherwise the size/shape of the piping will be different. Hold the piping bag open over a jug, and with a spatula, pile in the icing. Make sure that the piping bag is a bag which is floppy and not one of those mechanical syringe like ones. It's more challenging to use an actual piping bag but the results are so much better because you have a lot more control over it.

6. Hold the cupcake in your left hand if you are right handed and in your right hand if you are left handed and with the piping bag (nicely secured at the top) in your dominant hand, pipe from the center, bringing the bag around like you're drawing a snail pattern anticlockwise. Loosen your hand as you reach the outer edges of the cupcake (this will create somewhat larger swirls which will overlap creating petal-like features).

7. Release the piping bag from cupcake once you have covered the entire cupcake. Do not abruptly pull away as that will show on the cupcake. Instead, "seal" the frosting in by making the last bit of piping extremely thin and tight.

8. For the glitter, take a very thin (un-used!) paintbrush and open a pot of EDIBLE glitter, Dip the brush in the surface of the glitter in the pot. Bring the brush (whose tip is now coated with glitter) over the cupcake and with your index finger tap the brush. This will release all the glitter from the tip of the brush onto the cupcake. Tap the brush lightly while moving your hand around the entire cupcake so the glitter doesn't end up all in one place.

9. If you're using edible pearls, carefully place them around the swirls with your fingers.

Chocolate Cheesecake/Ice Cream Cake

2011-08-05T15:41:00.000+04:00

A two-in-one! Which is fabulous? Sometimes I really do believe that making mistakes has its benefits- Such as this time when the mixture curdled (and the dish ended up becoming an ice-cream cake almost magically!)

So this is actually a cheesecake which works as an icecream cake if you just tweak a couple of the steps around..

The basic recipe is here:

Ingredients
115g digestive biscuits, crushed
4tbsp melted unsalted butter
2tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
800g mascarpone cheese
200g sifted icing sugar
175 plain milk chocolate, melted and slightly cooled
Juice and rind of one orange

Procedure
Grease a 8" cake tin.
Place the crushed biscuits, cocoa powder, and melted butter in a bowl and stir until well combined. Line the base of the cake tin with biscuit mixture and press with the back of a wooden spoon to flatten.
Mix the icing sugar and mascarpone in a bowl with the melted chocolate (the heat from the chocolate will melt the mascarpone and make mixture smooth and runny). Mix until just combined to avoid mixture from curdling.

If you're making the cheesecake:
Place the chocolate mixture in the cake tin and refrigerate for at least 5-6 hours.

If you're making the ice cream cake:
Place the chocolate mixture in a heatproof bowl (in stages if bowl doesn't hold entire mixture) and set over a pan of simmering water till mixture melts and becomes liquidy and runny. Wait for it to slightly cool and then place it in the cake tin. Place in fridge till chilled and then in freezer for 3 hours.

Yes, it's starting to melt but doesn't it look soo good?

Mini Chicken Quesadillas

2011-08-04T23:03:00.001+04:00

These are the tiniest little quesadillas ever- they're bite-sized and fit comfortably in your fingers. And that makes them super-dangerous: you can eat the whole plate and not even realize it. They look like food for dolls- tiny little miniatures you'd find in a dollhouse..

They're also super simple to prepare and if you don't like the miniature size, you can just make them large, normal-sized quesadillas. You get about 35 pieces of minis.

Ingredients
7 flour tortilla wraps
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 red capsicum, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon cumin powder
450g chicken mince
400g can chopped tomatoes
100g cheddar cheese, grated

Procedure
Using a 3cm cookie cutter, cut out rounds from each tortilla wrap. One regular sized tortilla yields around five mini circles. Place them on to baking trays.
Heat half the olive oil in a pot and cook the onion and capsicum until onion has softened. Then, add the garlic cloves and spices and cook for two minutes, until fragrant. Add the chicken mince and the remaining oil and cook for 8 minutes until browned. Break up any lumps. Add the can chopped tomatoes and bring to simmer for around 20 minutes.
Spread one teaspoon of the chicken mixture on half of each round. Sprinkle cheddar cheese on top of each round covering all sides.
Bake in a 180C oven until cheese melts. Once melted, remove trays from oven and fold over to create a quesadilla.. the melted cheese will hold the whole thing together.

ENJOY.

My friend demonstrating how tiny the quesadilla is.

Profiteroles

2011-08-04T13:52:00.003+04:00

I've been wanting to make profiteroles for the longest time ever. I had never made them before and the technique seemed so different from other things I had baked. I just love those quirky little tips you get when it comes to making certain things, like knowing that the macaron batter is ready when it slides off the spoon like a ribbon. Or in this case, when a wooden spoon stands upright in the choux pastry. And I think the part I was most looking forward to injecting the custard cream into the little spheres. What I didn't realize however was that I wouldn't know when I had injected enough pastry into each profiterole. But I just kept on squeezing it in. Surprisingly these are extremely simple to make and really fun, too. I think my favorite time is watching them rise in the oven. They go from tiny little spoonfuls of batter to puffy little dough balls. Like magic!

Ingredients
for the choux pastry:
50g unsalted butter
90g plain flour, sifted twice
3 eggs, lightly beaten
for the filling:
375ml milk
4 egg yolks
90g caster sugar
3 tablespoons plain flour
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
for the topping:
110g dark chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoons vegetable oil

Procedure
Preheat the oven to 210C. Place the butter in a large pot with 185ml of water and stir until butter has melted and mixture is reaching a boil. Remove from the heat and quickly beat in the flour and then return to heat until mixture comes together and leaves sides of pot. Leave to cool for 5 minutes. Transfer mixture to a bowl and gradually add the egg, one tablespoon at a time, beating well throughout. Beat with a wire whisk until mixture is thick and glossy and a wooden spoon stands upright in the center of the mixture. Drop teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto two lightly greased baking trays, leaving room for spreading. Sprinkle with water (steam helps profiteroles rise) and place in oven for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the custard. Put the milk to boil in a pan. Meanwhile whisk egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until light and creamy. Whisk in the flour. Pour the hot milk slowly onto egg mixture, whisking constantly throughout. Return milk and egg mixture to pan, stir constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Let boil for around one minute, while stirring constantly and then stir in the vanilla essence, transfer to a bowl, cover with a plastic wrap and leave to cool in a refrigerator.

Once it's cool, place the mixture into a piping bag and with a 1.5 nozzle, gently pipe cream filling into the sides of each profiterole. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate and oil in a bowl over simmering water. Once profiteroles are filled, dip the top of each one in the melted chocolate to coat the top half. Leave to set.

Best served cold, in my opinion.

What I did with the leftover filling and chocolate topping...

Grilled Chicken Burgers with Caramelized Onion

2011-08-03T19:57:00.001+04:00

Very simple. Most of this dish is just assembling to be honest. And it's so good for you. It ticks all the boxes: vegetables, carbohydrates, protein, good fat (olive oil)...

You can omit the cheese and mayo if you want to make this healthier.

Ingredients
4 hamburger buns
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons water
500g chicken mince, seasoned
4 Boston lettuce leaves
4 slices of tomato
4 dill pickles, sliced
Mayonnaise, ketchup, and mustard

Procedure
Slice open the hamburger buns and toast them cut side down on a heated but not oiled grilled plate.
Remove and set aside.
Shape the seasoned chicken mince into four, not too thick (otherwise they won't cook that well on the inside while burning on the outside), patties. Grease the grill plate with half the olive oil and cook the patties until cooked through... around 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in a pan and fry the sliced onions. Once they're cooked, add the balsamic vinegar, water, and brown sugar. Stir until onion caramelizes.
Arrange one lettuce leaf and one slice of tomato on each bottom half of hamburger bun. Top with cooked chicken patty, and pile the sliced dill pickles and caramelized onion on top. Spread mayonnaise on top half of the bun and place over the burger. Serve with mayonnaise and ketchup.

Spicy Tomato, Mint, and Olive Salad

2011-08-02T22:48:00.002+04:00

This is the quickest salad ever. I know, I know. I say that about a lot of stuff. "The quickest cake! The quickest cookie!" Well this is the quickest salad. Relatively speaking. The quickest salad I've ever made. But I

don't make many salads so I'm maybe just talking through my head…

It's a Turkish dish called domates salatasi and is wonderfully flavoured with mint and chili. We had it for Iftar

today and it was very refreshing. This would work amazingly with warm bread and some nice goat's cheese.

Ingredients
4 medium tomatoes, sliced
1 onion, sliced
2 red chillies, finely chopped
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Juice of one lemon
A handful of mint leaves
A handful of whole black olives

Procedure
Place the tomatoes, onion, and chilli in a salad bowl. Mix together the lemon juice and olive oil. Drizzle over salad. Top with mint leaves. Season. Garnish with olives.

Peach and Raspberry Pie

2011-08-02T17:37:00.001+04:00

It's here. Ramadan is finally here.

It's most definitely my favourite month (and that of almost everyone else I know!). There's such a feeling of community spirit that surrounds the entire month- from getting up at 4AM and sharing the first (or last, depending on how you look at it) meal of the day with your family, to breaking your fast with family and friends, to sending food to the neighborhood mosque so those less fortunate than you can enjoy a hearty meal as well, to sending food to those you care about, to going to the mosque at night and meeting everyone for special Ramadan prayers- all of these bring with it such a feeling of peace and harmony.

And more than just the community feeling, the sense of spirituality within oneself is even more overpowering. Ramadan is not just a month where you don't eat from sunrise to sunset- it's only one aspect of that- and perhaps the aspect most easily noticeable. Ramadan is about freeing yourself from worldly trivialities and from material concerns. It's a sort of asceticism where you look deep inside yourself, challenge yourself spiritually, connect with God, and strengthen your faith. It's supposed to be a month of reflection, where you are grateful for all that you have and where you evaluate where you are spiritually. It's a month of askance and forgiveness. And personally, I think Ramadan is the one of the best gifts you get being a Muslim.

Yes, you do feel hungry, and yes, you do feel tired- but the aim of the abstaining from food is to be able to empathize with those who have to experience this on a day to day basis, and I think with what is happening in Somalia just now, this fact is especially poignant. While you 'suffer' for about 15 hours, what keeps you going is that you know there's going to be a feast for you when the sun sets. Can many other people say the same? I think worse than the feeling of hunger is the feeling of not knowing whether that hunger will be satiated, the feeling of not knowing what is to come. We should all unchain ourselves from our selfish preoccupations and focus on what we can do to improve the situation of those who have to endure hunger, thirst, exhaustion, fear, and doubt on a day to day basis.

Sadly, in this world where money is tried to be made on just about anything, Ramadan has become commercialized. Media industries have played on the lazy factor that not eating tends to create by preparing year long for television shows to be specially aired during this month. The shows are all day long and are, to put it bluntly, pointless. How many soap operas can one watch? I know people who are obsessed with their shows and make a list of which ones to watch, when to switch channels, and which airing of the show to watch so they can watch another one.

I know people who make countless amounts of food, and ironically make food the entire focus of the month. Ramadan, quite surprisingly, is now associated with iftars (the meal when you break your fast- which probably lasts less than an hour). Supermarkets and restaurants have put out such intense marketing campaigns and the day before Ramadan, the supermarkets were packed and all the shelves were empty. I know many other people who eat from dusk till dawn (the time when we do not fast) and sleep throughout the day (when we are supposed to abstain from food). Is this the purpose of the month? I highly doubt it. The general, basic requirements of the month are to do your prayers (like always but perhaps more diligently), refrain from food from dawn till dusk, and to read the Quran. Sure, you do all of that, but then you watch TV for hours, eat like a someone who hasn't for weeks, and sleep for 12 hours a day? What's the point? Is food really that important?

Now you're probably thinking how messed up I am for blogging about all of this in a food blog, right before I post a recipe but here's what it is: I don't have work or university this month, I am completely free, and I miss cooking. And so I am helping out the household by making meals so we can send food to our family, friends, and the mosque. And yes, one of my aims this month is to try making new things I haven't made before, and I plan on blogging about them- but what's wrong with sharing food with those you love if you do it in moderation?

****

Ingredients
for the pastry
1 cup plain flour
90g chilled and cubed unsalted butter
2 tablespoons icing sugar
2 tablespoons iced water
for the filling
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 tablespoons corn flour
1 cup milk
170g white chocolate, chopped
50ml whipping cream
for the topping
3 peaches, sliced
70g raspberries

Procedure
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a 23cm loose-based fluted pie tin.
Sift the flour into a bowl and add the cubed butter with your finger-tips, mixing till you achieve a sand like texture.
Add the icing sugar and mix in. Then, make a well in the center and add the iced water. Using a knife, make a cutting action through the dough until the mixture comes together.
Roll out the dough on a floured surface until its big enough to fit base and sides of tin. Place in tin and refrigerate for twenty minutes.
Place a sheet of wax paper on top of tin and fill with uncooked rice. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the wax paper and uncooked rice and bake for a further 15 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Then, make the filling. Whisk together egg yolks, caster sugar, and cornflour until pale. Heat the milk in a pan until almost boiling and separately melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Gradually pour the milk into the egg mixture, whisking CONSTANTLY. Sieve the mixture back into the milkpan and cook over low heat until mixture thickens, about 4 minutes. Remember to constantly stir.
Once mixture has thickened, fold in melted white chocolate and whip in the cream. Allow to cool to room temperature and then place in the fridge for 15 minutes.

After that, pour the custard onto the pie crust and arrange the peaches and raspberries on top.

****

I've never been lucky with pie crusts. I have never had a glitch free experience while making one. Today, after I rolled out the dough and while lifting it to the tin, the mixture kept on sticking to floured surface. Then, I added some MORE flour and then the mixture kept on breaking. Eventually, I went caveman style and pressed the dough gradually into the tin. When it finally came out of the oven, I ended up pushing the loosebased tin up and so a quarter of the crust lining broke off. And then, obviously, when I poured the custard in, it sort of dripped out and down..

I've been craving peaches for the past five days and decided that I would pair them up with raspberry a la peach melba style..

It's now in the fridge, recovering...

Lemon and Mint Cupcakes

2011-08-01T01:48:00.000+04:00

And I'm back. In Dubai that is. And back to blogging so it seems. I just spent almost two months in the wonderful city of London doing an internship. I loved my job- I learnt so much, both about the nature of the work and about myself. And more than anything, I fell even more in love with the city. I discovered new places, did different things, spent so much time just wandering around, and truly relished the city by fully absorbing its sights, sounds, and smells. And with that exploration and discovery, I found out how much I'm inclined to certain things. Those things being small businesses, entrepreneurship, tiny alleyways, the absolutely beautiful roadside cafe or bakery, and just the idea of walking and walking to places (which I almost never get to do in Dubai).

Maybe the thing that you might find funny reading that previous sentence was that I discovered how much I like entrepreneurship- since Dubai is in some ways considered to be the embodiment of that. And it is- in many ways. But mostly, I find businesses in Dubai to just consist of bringing the latest foreign fad to town. Or bringing the newest chain store which- gasp- doesn't have a branch in Dubai. Entrepreneurship should be the total opposite. It should aim to create a culture of its own, a following of its own, ideas and techniques of its own, and most importantly, an identity of its own.

But anyways, on to the recipe. I got back to Dubai- and the heat- with a longing for lemonade. Or anything lemon and mint, really. And almost suddenly, I had an idea of lemon and mint cupcakes. Lemonade cupcakes, in some ways. I wanted to put 7up in the cake batter (something like Irish soda bread, haha) but decided against it.

Ingredients
115g unsalted butter, softened
115g caster sugar
2 eggs
115g self raising flour
Juice and zest of half a lemon
-for the buttercream
66g butter
5cups icing sugar
2.5tbsp milk
Juice and zest of half a lemon
1 tbsp mint leaves, finely chopped

12 mini lemon slices and 12 sprigs of mint- for decoration

Procedure
Preheat oven to 180C and line a 12 cup cupcake tray with liners. Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy for about eight minutes on medium speed. The key for the sponge is for it to be very light and so beating the butter and sugar for a while really helps. Add the eggs one at a time, beating in between. Add the flour and fold in, followed by the lemon zest and juice. Fill the liners with batter and place in the oven in the lower rack for 15-20 minutes so that the top of the cakes reach the middle of the oven. When the cupcakes are done, bring them out of the oven and let them cool till room temperature before icing them with the buttercream.

For the buttercream:
Beat the sugar and butter until incorporated, add the milk and beat. Fold in lemon juice and zest and chopped mint leaves. Beat on high for around six minutes until very fluffy.

Sorry for the picture quality... color-wise. When I edited the size, they somehow messed up and I didn't feel like changing anything, haha.

The Cake Decorating Weekend

2011-07-04T01:10:00.002+04:00

This weekend I had the wonderful opportunity of taking cake decorating classes with both Eric Lanlard and Mich Turner who are, in today's words, epic cakemakers. I have books by both of them and whenever university work gets a little more stressful than usual, I plonk myself in bed and flip through the books whilst daydreaming. I'd rather be making cakes than taking politics notes that make no sense, really. (No, I still love my major.)

Eric, Mich, and Peggy Porschen have been the three people who have inspired me to create tiered cakes and glamourous/couture-y cakes like these mini rose cakes, this three-tiered cake, and the first one of them all- the one I decided to make one midnight: a simple two tiered imprinted cake. Their creations are the prime example of eye-candy and are awe-inspiring in their level of detail, elegance, and beauty.

The class that I took with Eric was the Cupcake Masterclass (Info for classes can be found here.) We learned how to work with gumpaste (Which I had never done before!- Gumpaste is slightly different from sugarpaste/fondant in its texture- it hardens fairly quickly), we used the gumpaste on silicon moulds to get desired shapes and then learned to how to color the figures and use glitter. Eric also showed us three lovely techniques to ice cupcakes (a wonderful swirl, petals, and one that was absolutely gorgeous and sort of looked like petals and leaves) Sadly I didn't manage to the last one really well. It was great since I tried a lot of things I hadn't tried before. The session was followed by a wonderful afternoon tea. Each of the sandwiches and pastries were presented soo beautifully that all of us gasped everytime they were brought out. Only after I took the pictures did I realize that they were blurry- I was so excited to eat all of the goodies haha.

The class with Mich was a crowncakes and cookies master class at the beautiful Langham hotel on Regent Street. We learned how to ice and flood a cookie (I FINALLY learned how to flood a cookie- now I can use all my cutters to their full potential!) and then learned four wonderful designs for the crowncakes. I was quite proud of them- they looked so pretty I didn't want to eat them! But, also in this case, there was one technique I didn't quite master which was the candy striped cake. My lines were really squiggly and shakey :( But it was the design I loved best. The one I was happiest with though was the monochrome lace with pink icing in sashes and bows and drops. It was a great class ALSO followed by a wonderful afternoon tea. I hope I can recreate something like this on my own because my main issues seem to be getting the royal icing the right consistency and covering the cake neatly with fondant. More info on the classes here.

the squiggly cake.... but I made the rose myself!

I'm extremely glad I got to take both these classes and the icing on the cake (pun not intended) was that they were on consecutive days. I conquered my fears of gumpaste and royal icing and I'm ready to work with both of these mediums a lot more extensively than I previously had.

Mushroom, Leek, Basil, and Pine Nut Risotto

2011-06-28T17:31:00.000+04:00

Lately, I've been going to the vegetable aisle in supermarkets to stare at it for inspiration. I did that yesterday at Waitrose and came up with this. It's really light and summery. Before that, I came up with a corn, asparagus, and capsicum risotto recipe but I can't exactly remember what else went into it.

I haven't used carnaroli rice much- only about twice before and twice now- and I find that it takes much longer to cook than arborio.

Ingredients
4 cups chicken stock + 2 cups water
2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 medium sized leek, sliced thinly

1 cup carnaroli rice
0.5 cup button mushrooms, quartered
Freshly grated zest and juice of one lemon
3 tablespoons fresh basil
2 tablespoons pine nuts
30g parmigiano reggiano

Procedure
Put the stock and water to simmer on low heat.
In another pot, heat the butter until melted. Add onion, garlic, and leeks, stirring until translucent. Add the carnaroli rice and stir for 1 minute to lightly "toast" the rice. Add 1 cup of stock/water mixture and stir constantly until absorbed.
Add the mushrooms and one more cup of water and stir. Keep on stirring until almost all the water gets absorbed. Once water is absorbed, add another cup of water.
Check the rice once in a while to make sure it's cooked. If the rice is still not fully cooked and the water has run out, add some boiling water from the kettle and stir. Repeat the process until rice is fully cooked.
Remove from heat, stir in lemon zest and juice, basil, and pine nuts. Garnish with parmigiano reggiano.

Motcomb Street

2011-06-28T02:31:00.000+04:00

I already posted this on my travel blog here http://sid-sees.blogspot.com/2011/06/motcomb-street.html but here are some pictures!

Motcomb Street is a wonderful little street tucked away in Knightsbridge- it has restaurants, a chocolate shop, cafes, and eateries. And everything is wonderful.

This is just a roundup! You can find the whole post (with more pictures and writing- details!) on my travel blog here: http://sid-sees.blogspot.com/2011/06/motcomb-street.html

Teatime Treats

2011-06-20T23:27:00.001+04:00

These are all adorable tea-time treats that are for the most part bite-sized. I used the same ingredients in a many of them. The tart filling is the same as the filling in the Victoria Sponge Cake. And the buttercream on the heart shaped cakes is the same that is in the mini tarts.. and the berries, well they're in everything. Almost.

I got around 30 little tarts, 4 big tarts, 20 heart-shaped cakes, and two 5" cakes from one pie dough and one cake batter. My dad took the Victoria Sponge (which was coffee-infused, tiramisu style) to his office, and I sent the rest of the cakes to friends' homes and took some to uni with me.

These are all pretty simple to make.

For the Victoria Sponge, make two vanilla cakes and when they're cool mix together 250g of mascarpone, 284ml of double cream, and two tablespoons of coffee together. Spread over one cake, top with berries, and place the second cake over it.

For the heart shaped cakes, either use silicon heart shaped cupcake cases, or a heart shaped cupcake tray. Make and bake them just like cupcakes and then pipe the frosting on top.

For the tart crust, make a normal pie crust and put them into pie tins for the normal sized ones and for the mini ones, place them in a mini cupcake tray. The berry tart's filling is the tiramisu filling and the mini tart filling is vanilla buttercream (tinted pink!)

Taste of London

2011-06-20T01:20:00.000+04:00

After attending Taste of Dubai this past March, I was extremely excited to see what the London version of the festival would be like. And so, on Thursday the 16th, I made my way to Regent's Park Outer Circle in the bitter cold and drizzle (ok it wasn't that bad) to check out Taste of London. And I was not disappointed. Regent's Park itself is a beautiful park that reminds me of the English garden (go figure, considering it is in England).

But anyways, the tickets were more expensive than Dubai's. GBP26 at the door compared to AED75. The conversion is 1GBP to AED6 if I'm not mistaken. Do the math, I'm not bothered.

Taste of London was at least double the size of Taste of Dubai but the layout was pretty much similar. White semi-tents with three or four dishes from each restaurant- and around 4 restaurants to a tent. What they had which I don't think Taste of Dubai did was a small producers/business market with individual stalls belonging to small business owners. There was the usual cupcake business but other really unique ones (compared to what I've seen) were ones such as a chili oil business called David's Chili Oil or a cordial making one... I LOVED the pomegranate and rose flavoured one. There were also small businesses selling cupcake decorations. Edible sugar decorations. Really good idea. I got a few lovely edible pearls and heart shaped decorations.

And the dishes at some of those restaurants were absolutely divine! Such unique ones! I tried a chicken tikka pie with a BERRY compote. It was heaven. I had no idea that chicken tikka and blueberries went so well together but they do...
Also tried a pea and mint mousse with goat's curd... it looked like sorbet but.. obviously, wasn't. Good stuff.

The festival also had a cultural section promoting Jamaica and they had looots of Jamaican food which was soo good. One that I tried was deep fried yam balls... For some reason I always confuse yam for yak and was a bit concerned but yams are a vegetable and they have a VERY unique taste..

One chocolatier that had a stand there was Paul A Young whose stand had what I think are some of the yummiest chocolates ever. I tried a 70% chili one which was undoubtedly heaven but one which blew my mind was a sea salted caramel truffle. HEAVEN, I tell you. The shop is at Wardour Street and I am going to hunt it down and buy the entire pack.

Also, you know Bonne Maman, the jam brand? Apparently they do chocolate mousse and creme brulee.. WHICH ARE REALLY GOOD. I tried them. Yes, I did. DROOL.

And San Pellegrino had a lovely little tent to itself styled like a Roman courtyard with stone benches- and with every bottle of water they gave you sundried tomatoes, cheese sticks, and olives, because "water goes well with food" according to the guy at the stand.

The Ritz's English Custard Cake with Date Syrup

The chicken tikka/shepherd's pie/berry compote which was surprisingly so so good- from Benares.

Cake! Baked stuff!

The mint and pea mousse which I thought was some sort of sorbet at first. Reallllyy good.

That sea salted caramel chocolate truffle from Paul A Young chocolatier.. Wardour Street, here I come!

A Cuban band.

David's Chili Oil.. realllllly good stuff.. It was mindblowing.. So spicy and amazing.

Huge slabs of fudge.

cupcakes

The crowd inside the small producers' market.

more cupcakes! with edible wafer decorations

The deep fried yam balls.

Oooh, look! More cupcakes

2011-06-15T01:51:00.000+04:00

The title of this post says it all. I had made some basic vanilla on vanilla cupcakes a while ago and never managed to post pictures of them.

You can find the recipe for both the cake and the buttercream in an earlier post here.

Tell me what you think!

Quick Canapes

2011-06-14T00:21:00.003+04:00

I was walking home yesterday and happened to look at the window in the building to my left- and there was a guy in his kitchen, chopping some basil leaves and frying some tomatoes in a pan. I actually stopped and stared and had this intense yearning to go cook something. Sigh. I miss cooking up meals. I love those times when you just have to make do with what's the in the fridge. It fuels creativity. And so today, I created two little bites that would be perfect for a snack- or a canape (I feel like being fancy).

First one is crackers with marmalade and feta cheese. I was so tempted to try the marmalade and feta combination and Yasmin at Red Panda Bakes said she has them all the time! And so I piled them on top of little crackers and bit into them.

Marmalade and Feta Cheese Crackers
Ingredients
1 packet cream crackers
1 jar orange marmalade
40g crumbly feta cheese

Procedure
Spoon a generous teaspoon of marmalade over the cracker and top with crumbled feta cheese. That's it!

Next, I made bruschetta. I was GOING to make risotto and bought all the ingredients for it.. BUT, ended up forgetting the onion and garlic. And right now I'm not bothered to go down to the Tesco Express and buy any. And so I sliced up a mini baguette and spread some basil pesto on each slice. I topped each with a piece of sundried tomato and some feta. I thought the whole thing was going to be rather salty but surprisingly it wasn't!

And they looked pretty cute.. If I may say so.

Basil Pesto, Sun-dried Tomato, and Feta Cheese Bruschetta
Ingredients
1 baguette
1 jar basil pesto
1 jar sun-dried tomatoes
20g crumbly feta

Procedure
Slice the baguette.
Spread a teaspoon of the basil pesto.
Top with one sundried tomato slice
Add some feta.
Eat.

Yes, eating is part of the procedure.

http://redpandabakes.blogspot.com/

Mini Rose Cakes

2011-06-06T20:15:00.000+04:00

I haven't had a chance to blog in a while- I've been extremely busy with university work. Last week, we held a Model United Nations conference for high schools around the UAE. We had planned for the event for months and last weekend was the weekend that all our efforts bore fruit. I am extremely happy with the way things turned out- we all are. Everything was fabulous and ran so smoothly. I was Director of Logistics and Event Planning which meant I had a whole lot of running around to do the entire conference. I'm proud to have catered for the coffee break through Spontaneous Euphoria Baking and Dessert Services. I spent two days preparing around 200 cupcakes and was up till 3AM the night before the conference icing all the cupcakes. My mechanical piping machine was getting stuck for some reason so I had to resort to that which I fear most- a plastic piping bag. I'm glad to say I have overcome my fear- and LOVE using a plastic piping bag. You have a lot more control over the way the final outcome looks.

While the opening ceremony speeches were taking place, my friend and I snuck out to set up the table for the coffee break. I would like to ask myself why I didn't take a picture of everything just as soon as we finished setting it up because literally three minutes into the coffee break, EVERYTHING was gone. The only things left were some biscuits and like six mini cupcakes. Which then were all eaten up in the subsequent seconds.

Anyways, I sort of went on a fondant phase two weeks ago.. and I think I'm still on it.. I bought a few cake decorating books from New York City (which weighed a TON) and have been obsessing over every design in every book. One thing I cannot seem to master though is STIFF ROYAL ICING. I bought a flower nail, I bought the parchment, I'm holding my hand at the right angle, everything! but the icing isn't thick enough. And when I pipe on the flower nail, I can't lift the piping bag easily without smudging whatever is on the flower nail or dragging the parchment up with me (yes I stick the parchment on the nail with a little buttercream or icing). SIGH. So these mini cakes were supposed to have those royal icing flowers on them.. but since that didn't work out, I made roses out of marzipan. These are suprisingly SO easy to make. I could make tons.

I wish I had a picture of what the cake looked like from inside. There were four layers, two pink and two plain vanilla- alternating.

This was another cake which required the same royal icing- but which didn't work out. So I made fondant daisies..

I'm still a bit messy when it comes to fondant.. the fondant seems to overlap and when I lift it up to smoothen it out it creases a bit. But I'm learning!

Candles, flowers, crystal, and fingerfood.

2011-06-06T20:11:00.000+04:00

I hadn't seen my friend Khulood in over four months.. we only see each other about three times a year anyways! And so, last week I invited her over for dinner. She loves fingerfood and so I started looking through my cookbook trying to find recipes for bite sized meals and canapes etc.. I've never really made fingerfood so yesterday's cooking experience was something new.. I didn't have to use the stove once! And everything was done in less than an hour.

I made a sweet and sour yogurt dip which I served with some crisps, mini burgers, small pizza slices, bruschetta, and chocolate mousse.

The yogurt dip was delicious (and healthy!). All you have to do is take one cup of fresh yogurt and beat it until smooth with around a third cup of sweet and sour sauce. I added some fresh chives to the mixture and seasoned with salt and pepper. It is SO addictive and works great with just about anything- especially breadsticks. Easy!

The pizza slices were also extremely simple and quick. Just take around four pizza bases and spread each with basil pesto. Sprinkle with some pizza cheese and pine nuts and bake for around 15 minutes at 180C. Cut each pizza base into four equal pieces and further slice each piece into three slices. You get 48 pieces with just four pizza bases.

I love the idea of using lots of glasses in a table setting. I've used them as vases and as candy holders. And now for crisps and the dip!

The Chocolate Mousse

Enjoy the photos!

Baked Mini Lemon Doughnuts with Vanilla Glaze

2011-06-06T13:37:00.001+04:00

Lots of studying to do and a new baking pan I haven't used. That's the perfect combination to get me into the kitchen when I'm stressed.

And so yesterday, I went to make a mini baked doughnuts. BAKED, yes, that's the key word! I love doughnuts but hate myself after eating one, because they're almost always deep fried. As if sugar and butter weren't enough, add oil to that and a whole lot of topping. Umm, no thank you. You might think my reaction is odd- considering I bake and am a food blogger.. but it's important to eat healthy most of the time so you can enjoy cakes guilt-free.

These are adorable and bite sized. Perfect for kids or as a snack with tea. Or coffee. Or just on its own, really.

I wanted to experiment with colouring the glazing and doing some more creative things but funny enough the glazing was not easy. I took a tea spoon and starting dripping the glaze all down the sides of the doughnut but I guess the doughnut itself was too tiny! I got a lot of excess glaze down on the bottom of the wire rack on the newspaper that I kept for easy cleanup.

But these are fairly simple to make and are a melt and mix batter.

Ingredients
1.5 cups cake flour
0.5 cups granulated sugar
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
0.75 teaspoon salt
0.5 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
0.5 cup buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
1.5 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Chocolate sprinkles, optional

Ingredients
Preheat oven to 220C and lightly grease a 12 mould doughnut tray.
Sift the flour twice.
Add sugar, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest to flour. Stir to combine.
Add egg, melted butter, and buttermilk to flour mixture and lightly whisk to combine until just smooth.
Take a teaspoon and add the batter carefully to the insides of a doughnut mould.
Bake in preheated oven for 6 minutes until doughnuts spring back at touch.
Let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
Meanwhile, make the glaze by mixing together the icing sugar, milk, and vanilla essence in a bowl.
Once doughnuts are cool, drip the glazing over the sides. Quickly add the chocolate sprinkles as the glaze hardens fairly quickly.

#BakefestDXB

2011-05-27T22:46:00.001+04:00

Does anyone actually eat cupcakes like this? (I don't).

I haven't blogged in ages and I miss it entirely! I actually miss cooking and baking for the PURPOSE of blogging about it, and I miss spending ages taking photographs of my food, and I miss writing these posts and reading your lovely comments. Mostly, I miss reading through all your blogs and getting inspired by each and every post. The creativity, innovation, talent, and love that goes into each of your posts is just phenomenal and I quite love being part of an international community of food bloggers. I feel as if we all share something special and can relate to each other in a way not many other people can!

I also miss taking part in all the amazing blog challenges that go on every month- the creativity in them is wonderful and the best part is the round-ups where we see all the pictures!

My awesome new invention of serving cupcakes in drinking glasses.

Attempting food photography

I've been baking and cooking quite a bit recently- I had a couple of dinner parties and one afternoon gathering that kept me busy in the kitchen. And today, I took part in Round 2 of #BakefestDXB which you might remember from an earlier blog post. The event was lots of fun with a few familiar faces from last time and lots of new ones.

My dessert table.

I made raspberry cream sandwiches, chocolate shortbread drops, a three toned pink layer cake, vanilla cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, and some mini cupcakes (made from left over batter and frosting!) -That's why I love mini cupcakes so much.

You can find the recipe for my raspberry cream sandwiches here. I made them early this year and they were a huge success. The cream is made out of pureed raspberries and white chocolate and the cookies have vanilla beans in them (which, in my opinion, make ALL the difference).

And here's the recipe for the vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting.

Oh, and GUESS WHAT? My mixer broke. Again. The new one. So all of this I made by hand. I also made risotto yesterday after baking the cupcakes so my arms got one hell of a workout. It's a handheld Kenwood electric mixer- just like my old one.. very basic, no fancy attachments or anything.. and now the whisks just won't move.. I think it's the icing sugar. The last one stopped working as I was making frosting. And my cute mechanical sifter also gets jammed with icing sugar! SIGH.

Anyways, here are some pictures from the event. As you can tell (I hope you can- it's not too subtle!), I went on a pink theme. Mainly because Spontaneous Euphoria (both the catering business and the blog) are pink. And also because I had been coming across lots of pink dessert tables recently and was just INSPIRED.

Maple Mousse in an Edible Chocolate Container, A Daring Bakers Challenge

2011-04-27T21:56:00.002+04:00

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com

So I made these today. On the day we had to post them. The actual recipe called for maple mousse in ham containers... and since I don't eat ham and to be honest found the meat/maple taste mixture a bit odd, I opted to make edible chocolate containers.

I had seen a technique for this in one of my many cookbooks and decided to recreate it with some variations of my own.

For the edible chocolate container:

200g milk chocolate (I used Van Houten's baking chocolate)

Turn small glass bowls upside down and place on a tray.
Scrunch up some baking paper and form it over the upside down bowls.
Melt the milk chocolate on a double boiler and leave to cool for five minutes.
Pour the melted chocolate over the bowl covered with baking paper. Use a spatula to evenly coat the bowl with the chocolate. Leave to set for half an hour and then place in a fridge for two-three hours to completely form.

For the maple mousse:

Ingredients:

1 cup (240 ml/ 8 fluid oz.) pure maple syrup (not maple-flavoured syrup)

4 large egg yolks
1 package (7g/1 tbsp.) unflavoured gelatine
1 1/2 cups (360 ml. g/12 fluid oz) whipping cream (35% fat content)

Directions:

1. Bring maple syrup to a boil then remove from heat.
2. In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks and pour a little bit of the maple syrup in while whisking (this is to
temper your egg yolks so they don’t curdle).
3. Add warmed egg yolks to hot maple syrup until well mixed.
4. Measure 1/4 cup of whipping cream in a bowl and sprinkle it with the gelatine. Let it rest for 5
minutes. Place the bowl in a microwave for 45 seconds (microwave for 10 seconds at a time and
check it in between) or place the bowl in a pan of barely simmering water, stir to ensure the
gelatine has completely dissolved.
5. Whisk the gelatine/whipping cream mixture into the maple syrup mixture and set aside.
6. Whisk occasionally for approximately an hour or until the mixture has the consistency of an unbeaten
raw egg white.
7. Whip the remaining cream. Stir 1/4 of the whipped cream into the maple syrup mixture. Fold in the
remaining cream and refrigerate for at least an hour.
8. Remove from the fridge and divide equally among your edible containers.

The maple mousse was heavenly. I don't think I've had anything moussey apart from chocolate or lemon mousse and this just gave me the idea that I can make tons of different types of mousse! And all sorts of flavours! The more cream I added, the lighter the color became, but the taste stayed wonderful.

Here are some pictures, which I'm not too happy with.. they took me a total of 3 minutes to snap. I'm still horribly jet-lagged and just wasn't bothered to spend lots of time taking photos. But enjoy.

OH! And the edible containers? Yeah, make sure you pop them back in the fridge after each attempt to peel the paper off. Chocolate bits kept on breaking off and the entire thing was starting to melt in my hands, so I put them in the fridge after every attempt to peel and eventually peeled the whole thing off while it was all still the fridge.. I was half in the fridge as well...

My Foodie New York City

2011-04-27T00:32:00.002+04:00

I spent the past week in New York City exploring all its delights with around twenty friends from university. We were attending the National Model United Nations Conference and found the entire experience, both the conference and the city, to be exhilarating. While the conference did not allow much time for serious foodie expeditions, I did manage to come across some wonderful delights which I am sharing with you now:

1. Teuscher Chocolates, 620 5th Avenue, New York

Absolutely delicious truffles and an even more amazing window display for Easter. It's located in a wonderful spot between 5th Avenue opposite Saks Fifth Avenue and Rockefeller Center.

2. Rock Center Cafe, 620 5th Avenue, New York

Looking over the ice rink, you have to take a special elevator to the basement to get to this cafe. The cafe is wonderful and the ambience is lovely. Best of all is this dessert which was two whoopie pies sandwiched with a coconut cream layer in between. And that chocolate glaze? Heaven.

3. Tartinery, 209 Mulberry Street, Nolita, New York

Wonderful for a light lunch, Tartinery is super fab, sleek, and modern. The best part is the seating area in the basement- it's wide, bright, and airy. I had a roasted vegetable tartine which tasted fantastic.

4. Breakfast at a diner on Broadway and Times Square.

I cannot seem to remember the name of this diner, I guess because we were all super-hungry and rushed in as soon as we saw it. But the pancakes were WONDERFUL. I was caught between choosing this (old-fashioned pancakes) and their lemon and ricotta ones.. for once, I decided to go with the "safe" option. My friend had the delicious chocolate pancakes below.

5. Fluffy's Cafe, 855 7th Avenue

Good, cheap, filling, and wholesome food. Fluffy's had a wonderful variety of wraps, sandwiches, and baked items. The cafe was supercrowded and I had to improvise by sitting on the counter. One thing I noticed about NYC was that there were a lot of wraps everywhere- and being my favourite sandwich- I was in heaven! My friend had this gorgeous chocolate cake below. My sandwich was already devoured before I had the energy to dig out my camera.

6. The Halal Guys- 53rd and 6th, New York

The longest lines ever outside this place- and well worth it- or so everyone I knew told me. I was attempting to be vegetarian that week and didn't try the meat. Although now I wish I had.

7. Ray's New York Pizza, 736 7th Avenue, New York

Wonderful pizza which we first had late at night the day we arrived and once again at 11pm when my friend and I were super hungry. Yes, they sell you one slice (you can obviously have more) but that one slice is sooo filling and delicious.

8. Sarabeth's, 40 Central Park South, New York

WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL French Toast. It was soo good and crispy and sweet but not too sweet and HEAVENLY with the fresh strawberries. I want to make French Toast like that. And their jam was the icing on the cake. They had an apricot and orange flavoured one and a raspberry and rhubarb if I'm not mistaken. My friend recommended this restaurant to me before we left Dubai and I made sure I went there to try it early one morning. GREAT breakfast. GREAT jam.

9. Armani Restaurant, 717 5th Avenue, New York

On our second last day in New York, I had some last minute shopping to do.. (I always have last minute shopping to do...what gives?)... anyways, on our second last day in NY, I quickly took the bus to 5th Avenue to finish some retail therapy...and halfway through I felt very hungry.. shopping is an exhausting activity, let me tell you. I wanted a good place to eat, I wanted to sit down in a nice, quiet restaurant and relax for a while, and savour my meal.. unlike the other days when all I was doing was rushing everywhere. And so I spotted Armani Restaurant. And there I discovered the best bread I have ever had. They brought a little basket filled with around five different kinds of bread, each more amazing than the other. There were parmesan flavoured breadsticks, sage flavoured bread like pappadums, and best of all, soft bread that was baked in a cupcake tray (I could see the paper case lines) and was savoury but had the slightest hint of a raisin flavour. It was mindblowing. Yes, I do realize I'm talking about bread. The bread went amazingly with this tomato gazpacho that was courtesy of the chef, and the risotto reminded me so much of the one I make back home. All good, but nothing beat the bread.

10. Novella, 191 Grand Street, Little Italy, New York

I went here for lunch with three really good friends and although the food was good, the service was horrible. The food took more than half an hour to bring (AFTER we got our appetizers) and the staff were extremely rude. I asked one waiter for the bill and he gave me a dirty look and walked away. Before that, when I asked for chili flakes, I got the same expression. It didn't bother me much though. I just wanted to have a good time with my girls and eat. Which we did. The food was good. I had the spring vegetable pasta with pink sauce (although I couldn't reaaally see the pink sauce). The bruschetta we shared was very, very good, especially the one with avocado on it, and the artichoke starter was lovely as well.

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And this, ladies and gentlemen, is a quick roundup of my foodie picks of NYC (without prior research or true exploration).

Floral Pastel Feminine Cupcakes

2011-04-15T16:06:00.001+04:00

I made these cupcakes for a friend's surprise birthday party that was yesterday. I wanted to go for something cute and pastel. And I wanted to use both the new fondant cutter set and drying roll slider that I had got. And so I came up with these. Light and moist with a vanilla buttercream topping. Only when I was icing the last batch did it strike me to add more icing sugar and see how the texture would change. Adding more icing sugar made piping the buttercream a lot better, the shape held more strongly since the buttercream was stiffer.

Here's the recipe I adapted from Magnolia's Bakery and The Hummingbird Bakery:

Yields about 55 mini cupcakes or 24 regular sized cupcakes.

Vanilla Cupcakes
1 cup butter, softened
1 and a 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs
1 and 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 and a 1/2 cups plain flour
1 cup milk
2tsp vanilla extract

Combine the flours in a bowl.
In a separate bowl, gradually add the sugar to the butter and beat until smooth and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat after each addition. Add a third of the flours to the butter mixture, beat well. Follow with a third of the milk and vanilla. Repeat until all flour and milk are incorporated. Spoon into paper cases and bake at a preheated oven of 180C.

Vanilla Buttercream
85g softened unsalted butter
350g icing sugar, sifted
30ml milk

Beat the icing sugar with the butter until fully incorporated. Gradually add the milk while beating at slow speed until mixture comes together and is of the right consistency. Once all the milk has been added, increase the speed to high and beat for a couple of minutes.

To decorate, color the icing whichever colour you like. I used Wilton's gel food colouring in sky blue, creamy peach, and ivory. Use any piping tip ( I used a small and medium sized star tip) and piped a border and kept going further in until I had a little pile of icing at the top.

For the fondant decorations, color some fondant in the color of your choice by applying a little gel colouring to the fondant with a toothpick. Keep kneading the dough until the color is even throughout. Roll out on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar and cut out shapes of your choice. If you'd like the shapes to be inverted, place them on a sloped or curved surface and allow to dry. Simply place the fondant decoration on top of the buttercream. To stick a smaller fondant decoration over a larger one (as in the picture above) use a little melted white chocolate or egg white.

Custard Cake with Honey Buttercream and Maltesers

2011-04-13T15:45:00.003+04:00

CUSTARD. CAKE. MALTESERS. Enough said. But I'll say it again. CUSTARD. CAKE. MALTESERS.

Yes, this cake is THAT good. Extremely moist with a hint of custard flavor with a honey buttercream that wonderfully complements it. And what could be better than crunchy Maltesers? (Insert your preferred choices here).

This cake is a melt and mix cake. Which means, *drumroll* no mixer! Yes I am still mixer-less. I'm looking into some good mixers to buy but don't know which options to consider. Is a KitchenAid good? I've heard so much about it and seen how well it works. I'm also considering KRUPS or Kenwood. I just want a mixer whose whisks/paddle attachment reaches the bottom of the bowl to fully incorporate all the butter/sugar/whatever it is that I'm blending. What mixers are your favourite?

Ingredients:
For the cake:
1 cup self-raising flour
2/3 cup custard powder
1/2 baking powder
125g unsalted butter
3/4 cup caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup buttermilk
For the honey buttercream and topping:
60g unsalted butter
1/3 cup icing sugar
2-3 teaspoons honey
1 packet Maltesers

Procedure:
Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 20cm cake tin, line with baking paper.
Sift flour, custard powder, and soda in large mixing bowl. Make a well in the center.
Melt the butter and sugar in a small pan over low heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved; remove from heat.
Combine eggs and buttermilk in small mixing bowl. Add butter and egg mixtures to the dry ingredients.
Using a wooden spoon; stir until combined; do not overbeat.
Spoon mixture into prepared tin; smooth surface. Bake for 35 minutes.
For the honey buttercream, beat the butter and sifted icing sugar until light and creamy. Add the honey and beat until mixture is smooth and fluffy.

Spread buttercream on top of cake with an offset palette knife and arrange Maltesers around.

Double Chocolate Cinnamon Muffins

2011-04-13T14:25:00.002+04:00

Why is that whenever a recipe has the word "cinnamon" in the title, only 1/2 a teaspoon or 1 teaspoon of it is listed in the ingredients? In my opinion, for a dish to have the word "cinnamon" in the title- it needs around a tablespoon- at least!

And so when I read the recipe for 'chocolate "cinnamon" muffins' in my Marks and Spencer cookbook, I scoffed. Half a teaspoon? Really? Ohh no, I'd add three more teaspoons, yes I would.

And that's what I did. Cinnamon works really well with cocoa powder.. And makes your kitchen smell like heaven. I just wish our oven was in the inside kitchen so that the whole house could smell like muffins. Or whatever it is that I'm baking. But an outside kitchen does have its benefits- especially when you have guests over and don't want the house smelling like onion and garlic.

But back to muffins, I love making them, perhaps because I don't make them that much. And also, the super-risen texture of it makes them look wholesome. There are so many ways that you can vary muffins, and make them savoury, unlike cupcakes, so that muffins make a great snack any time of day.

Anyways, without further ado, I present to you my modified version of chocolate cinnamon muffins.

Ingredients
butter, for greasing
225g plain flour
55g cocoa powder
1tbsp baking powder
4tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
115g soft light brown sugar
160g chocolate chips
2 eggs
250ml milk
85g butter, melted and cooled

Procedure
Preheat oven to 200C. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt into a large bowl. Stir in sugar and chocolate chips.

Lightly beat the eggs in a large bowl then beat in the milk and butter. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the beaten liquid ingredients. Stir gently until just combined. Do not overmix.

Spoon into prepared muffin tin and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes until well-risen and firm to the touch. Serve warm, dusted with icing sugar if desired. (which I did but didn't take pictures of because the muffins were already in my tummy).

I got an idea for "gourmet" muffins.. I wanted to serve these with a scoop of vanilla icecream and some caramel or butterscotch (or even chocolate) sauce drizzled along the middle of the muffin and ice cream scoop....something like my version of a peach melba.

A Mediterranean-infused baking break.

2011-04-12T02:07:00.002+04:00

On no, I still love cakes. But I thought that it was about time I fed myself something other than sugar. And what better detoxifying food than tomato? Tomato is known for its amazing anti-oxidant capabilities. And I'm still coming to terms with the fact that it's actually a fruit. And so, tonight I made tomato bruschetta and roasted capsicum with tomato, olive, and tofu. Yes, that tofu does seem a bit odd in the rest of the Mediterranean set-up doesn't it? But trust me, it's goood.

The bruschetta was very simple to make and the best part is that you don't even need to cook anything. Except for the baguette.. which can be toasted.

Tomato Bruschetta
Ingredients:
1 French baguette
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsps dried oregano
1/3 cup fresh basil
2-4 tbsps olive oil.
1tbsp pine nuts

Cut the baguette into even slices and place in a toaster or grill pan until crisp.
Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and season to taste.
Arrange the baguette slices on a platter and spoon equal, generous amounts of the tomato mixture on top of each slice.

Me attempting to create abstract art with balsamic vinegar...

Now is that easy or what?

*

Roasted capsicum with tomato, olive, and tofu

Ingredients:
2 red capsicums, cut in half and deseeded
1/3 cup sliced black olives
2tsps dried oregano
2tsps dried coriander
2tsps dried chives
1/4 cup tomato paste
2tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
100g tofu, cut in cubes
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

Place the halved capsicums on a baking tray lined with foil and roast in the oven at 200C for 10 minutes.
Place the olives, oregano, coriander, chives, tomato paste, olive oil, and garlic in a food processor and blend until a thick paste is formed. Be careful not to blend the olives completely.
In a large bowl, mix together the olive and tomato mixture with the cherry tomatoes and chopped tofu.
Spoon equal amounts of the combined mixture into the capsicums and place in the oven at 180C for 15 minutes. Enjoy warm.

Quadruple Chocolate Madness

2011-04-10T16:51:00.002+04:00

Close your eyes and imagine this: three layers of chocolate cake, filled with chocolate mousse in between, topped with a rich dark chocolate ganache with some milk chocolate shavings. Oh, and some dark, milk, and white chocolate truffles. Something akin to heaven, is it not?

Yesterday at a cake decorating class that some of us food bloggers are taking, our lovely instructor/chef gave us the idea of using chocolate mousse between cake layers instead of buttercream. And so I closed my eyes and imagined this. I also imagined something else, but that's going to be in another post.

I had some leftover cake I wanted to use up so what I did was whizz it in a food processor until I got cake crumbs. With those crumbs, I made truffles. And then the rest of the cake came together. I made the chocolate cake and the truffles last night and made the mousse and ganache and shavings this morning.

My favourite caster sugar to use is Tate and Lyle. But for some reason, the packet I used yesterday was rock solid. The sugar was one huge block and not grains of caster sugar. I placed it in a sandwich bag and beat it with the bake of a measuring cup. Very effective at stress-release by the way. That technique was somewhat effective but there were still some major cubes of sugar. And oh, I'm still mixer-less. I tried my best to break up the sugar cubes with my whisk while I will creaming it with the butter and that broke it down further although not completely. Anyways, this sugar cubiness somehow resulted in the cake not being cut evenly. So instead of having three neat layers filled with lots of mousse in between, I ended up with something very droopy. But it tasted wonderful. And it looked home-made.

Here's the recipe:
For the chocolate cake:
125g unsalted butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 cup cream (preferably Nestle)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.
Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg and extract, beat until combined.
Add sifted dry ingredients and cream and beat on slow speed until combined. Increase speed to high until mixture is smooth.
Spoon mixture into tin and bake for around 45 minutes.

For the chocolate mousse:
300g plain chocolate, in pieces
284ml double cream
250g mascarpone
3tbsp cranberry juice
1tbsp vanilla extract

Put the chocolate in a double boiler until it's melted and smooth. Remove from heat.
Add cream, mascarpone, juie, and extract to the chocolate and mix well until smooth.
Refrigerate for five to ten minutes.

For the ganache:
200g dark chocolate (preferably 70%)

Melt the dark chocolate on a double boiler until smooth.

For the truffles:
300g vanilla cake crumbs
2 tablespoons strawberry jams
3 tablespoons cream (again, preferably Nestle)
60g melted unsalted butter
300g dark chocolate
2 tablespoons cranberry juice
100g milk chocolate
100g dark chocolate
100g white chocolate

Mix together cake crumbs, jam, cream, butter, chocolate and juice; stirring until moistened.
Refrigerate for half an hour.
Roll teaspoons of mixture onto a baking sheet lined with foil. Refrigerate for a further 10 to 15 minutes.
Melt the white, milk, and dark chocolates separately.
Dip a third of the truffles into the melted white chocolate, a third into the melted milk chocolate, and a third into the melted dark chocolate.
Leave to cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
Refrigerate until firm and needed.

For the chocolate shavings:
50g milk chocolate

Melt the chocolate until smooth. Spread evenly over a piece of baking paper. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and then refrigerate until firm. With a flat bladed spatula, gently scrape at the stiffened chocolate to create chocolate shavings.

To assemble:
1. Cut the chocolate cake into three equal layers. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
2. Place half of the chocolate mousse mixture on top of the base cake, top with another cake layer, the remaining chocolate mousse mixture and the final cake layer.
3. Prepare the chocolate shavings mixture except for the part of scraping off the shavings themselves.
4. Melt the dark chocolate, leave to cool for about 3-4 minutes and then pour all over the chocolate cake, allowing to drip down the sides.
5. Then, create the shavings and quickly place over the cake. They melt in your hands.
6. Place three truffles of different colours over the cake and serve!

The cake is best served immediately while the chocolate mousse mixture is still cold and while the dark chocolate ganache hasn't hardened.

On how I made a three-tiered cake by hand.

2011-04-09T01:09:00.003+04:00

Wednesday evening and I'm baking a cake. A five layered cake. But a small cake. 5 inches in diameter. It was my idea of a little masterpiece. Two chocolate layers sandwiched with a rose flavored layer in between and flanked with two vanilla cakes. And iced with a pale pink frosting. And LOTS of Maltesers..

Let's just say the Maltesers never made it to the cake... because they ended up somewhere else.

Right when I was creaming the butter for the frosting, my trusty 15 year old Kenwood mixer broke down. Somehow. The beaters won't beat.. and when I place it in flour or butter it makes an extremely strange wheezing sound. Sigh. I guess it's time to invest in a more high tech mixer. As a result, I couldn't beat the frosting that well AND I ran out of icing sugar.. 1 kg of it. Yep. So the cake never fully iced.

halfway done icing

But I am happy with it. Although it needed more icing to cover all the sides, it looked very neat. The flavours were the best part. And I'm extremely glad that I FINALLY attempted refrigerating a cake before and after crumbcoating it. It works like magic.

Anyways, I cut the cake into a top three layers and a bottom two.. just to make it easier to cut.. and so that I feel less guilty when eating it.

And ANYWAYS, next thing I knew it was Thursday and I was in the kitchen trying to make four vanilla cakes. Sixteen eggs, four cups of butter, eight cups of sugar. A health freak's worst nightmare. But I wanted to make a gradiented three layer cake. YES! But ohh, I forgot one thing... I didn't have a MIXER! What was I to do? Keep everything back in the fridge and abandoned my cakey dreams? NO. I'd mix it by hand of course... why, I'd get an arms workout! No need to head to the gym! I can work out in my kitchen! (And obviously have it come to zero benefit since I've started eating buttercream with my bare hands).

And yes, I made the cakes by hands. Thank the Lord though that it was only two batches of the vanilla cake that I needed to fill all the tins I had prepared. So yes, no sixteen eggs, no four cups of butter, and no eight cups of sugar.

And so this was the initial idea for my cake (although don't you find that sometimes - or MOST times- the idea you started off with always gets changed a little?): Three vanilla cakes, each of a different size, each halved and filled with chocolate buttercream and each covered with fondant. The largest one would be rose pink, the middle one pale pink, and the smallest one white. I'd tie a ribbon around each cake and make some lacey designs with royal icing.

Most of that happened. Up until the royal icing, the cake was going just as I had planned. But then I had to make royal icing. And without a mixer, that didn't work. And so all my ideas of completely abandoning a mixer and reverting to the "authentic" and "rustic" way of baking were shelved. How would I whisk egg whites to firm peaks?! I hadn't even thought about that. I had been too caught up in my daydream of being Henry VIII's pastry chef for his wedding to his seventh wife. Yes, I realize that one must have one's head on one's shoulders, and one's feet on the ground.

Yes, everyday IS cake day.

So the royal icing was thick. And the cake was too narrow for lacey designs so I decided to make dots all around it. Thank God I had the good sense of first practicing with the royal icing on parchment paper. The mixer was sticking to the nozzle of the piping bag and not staying on the parchment paper/cake. (ooooh did I tell you that I finally conquered my piping bag fears? I no longer only use the mechanical kind!) :) So yes, the idea of dots were abandoned. But I am happy with the cake.

So here are some of my little words of wisdom about baking:
-You don't have to have a mixer. You actually feel quite accomplished once you bake something with your bare hands (and maybe a spatula).
-Never fear piping bags. And no matter how much of an expert you think you are with them, always practice the pattern you're aiming for first on some scrap baking paper.
-Refrigerate cakes before coating with fondant.
-Yes, it's wonderful to deviate from the recipe and be creative, but sometimes these cookbook writers do talk sense. For example, when they tell you to coat a cake with boiled APRICOT jam before placing fondant, then use APRICOT jam. Do NOT use strawberry jam because then you know what.. you're going to end up with dark blotchy bits under your pearl white fondant. BAD IDEA. (Thank God the blotchy bits of my cake weren't that visible!)
-When lining a cake with ribbon, melt some white chocolate and sporadically brush tiny amounts all around the edges of the cake, then line the ribbon around. If making a tiered cake, start and finish the ends of the ribbon in a straight line.

The ravaged cake.

More than one way with cake batter...

2011-04-02T02:37:00.001+04:00

Don't you LOVE getting tons of baked goodies out of only ONE batch of cake batter? I do. It allows me to get a bit extravagant in the kitchen- which I love doing.

Last week, I made one batch of my favorite vanilla batter- and managed to make 18 cupcakes and 2 cakes. A whole feast! From one batter!

And so I decided to try out different kinds of frosting.

The only frosting (or ICING) I used to make was royal icing... and although those are more for biscuits than they are for cupcakes, I'd still ice my cupcakes with them. I occasionally tried a cream cheese frosting or a dark chocolate one, but never anything more. I was on the hunt for the PERFECT frosting.

Then, last May, I came across Magnolia Bakery's cookbook (which I bought along with a cupcake) and saw a recipe for chocolate buttercream. It seemed fairly simple and so I set out to make it. It was a wonderful frosting.. light, moist, not too sweet, and not too bitter. I was so happy that I had found the "perfect frosting" that I kept on using it whenever I made cupcakes. And I mean WHENEVER... to the point that I was told outright that maybe I should consider making vanilla frosting...

And so I did.. I made Magnolia Bakery's vanilla buttercream frosting. Which ended up being the antithesis of the chocolate one. It was horrible.. It reminded me of that pink gooey like liquid that the kids are after in that Power Rangers movie I was obsessed with when I was seven...

Needless to say, I was back to my trusty chocolate buttercream frosting. But then, I wanted to experiment with colors, I wanted to try different things with my cupcakes, and so I decided that... yes, I would go on the best search ever. And find the best frosting ever. I watched YouTube videos, looked through cookbooks, and read through various food blogs until I decided to attempt two.. or maybe three.

I chose to make Hummingbird Bakery's vanilla frosting.. and their chocolate frosting... I think they were the easiest frostings I have ever made. And SOOO good. And somewhat magical, if I may say so. You first have to mix the butter and icing sugar together (with cocoa powder if you're making chocolate frosting) and when everything's mixed, you add some milk. I was a bit scared (OK fine, REALLY scared) when I saw that the butter and icing were turning into.. a powdered mess. The butter wasn't creaming and it looked NOTHING like frosting. It didn't even look like cookie batter. It looked like flour and that's it. THEN, I added the milk and within two seconds- EVERYTHING came together and became this wonderful frosting. I also.. for the first time in my life, managed to add JUST the right amount of itsy bitsy red food colouring to get that baby pink haze..

And so this is what I made with Hummingbird Bakery's vanilla frosting. (And yes, this is my attempt at photoshopping a background...)

I was inspired after watching this lovely YouTube clip on how to make icecream-like cupcakes. They seemed so easy.. and they were! It was just a bit challenging (for a frosting noob like me) to get the frosting perfect all around. And I didn't stuff the bottom of the cone with candy like the video suggested. The funniest thing about these cupcakes or ICECREAMS, whatever you want to call them, was that they fell over about twice.. and nothing happened.. hardly any icing came off as well.

The second frosting that I made was from this video by Laura Vitale. I think she's absolutely wonderful.. and I discovered her through this video.. her recipes are very simple and straightforward and she sounds extremely relaxed and friendly throughout her clips, unlike many online fooding (yes that's my word for baking and cooking) tutorial presenters.. who seem very robotic.. The frosting for this was divine. Not too sweet and with a wonderful jammy taste. I used strawberry jam.. And she is so right- the jam with the little seeds in them make the frosting look wonderful!

And finally the two cakes! I had initially planned on just layering them with some chocolate frosting in the middle and some frosting covering the entire cake but then I had SO much vanilla frosting left over that I decided to cake each cake in half (and end up with four layers), frost them in between and then frost the whole thing all around with that same vanilla frosting. Bad calculation on my part, since the vanilla frosting wasn't THAT much. It was only enough to crumb-coat the cake. The cake itself was a 5" or 6" cake and was very tiny. And a couple of cake layers were precariously leaning on the edge...

My dad was sitting in the kitchen with me when I was attempting to frost (and salvage!) the cake that he started teasing me by calling it the Leaning Tower of Pisa and telling me that it was RUINED. He even impersonated the cake and went on an impassioned speech from its point of view on how I was placing way too much burden on it .. more than it could handle. I was determined to prove that it wasn't overburdened and that the cake WOULD be salvaged so I made some chocolate frosting.

And proceeded to ice the cake. Then, I arranged some Raffaelos around it. A cute idea, but not so great with a tiny cake.. it made it look like an alien or some aquatic plankton. But it tasted wonderful- and after all that's what matters. As a good family friend always tells us- the Queen is not coming to tea!

Excuse the mess!

The Epic Picnic

2011-04-01T16:55:00.002+04:00

Arva's carrot cake sandwiches

Sukaina's strawberry and hazelnut cake

Anja's peppadews, veggie sticks, and hummus

What do you think of when you hear about almost a dozen food bloggers getting together for a picnic?

If you thought exquisite, creative, and absolutely delicious food, then you're absolutely right.

This weekend, a whole bunch of us at Table Talk gathered at Safa Park for an afternoon of foodies and food. Every dish was more delicious than the last and for around three hours all we did was chat, eat, and take photographs. It was wonderful.

The dessert section

More of Sukaina's cake

Sarah's Melba toast

Sarah brought spicy chicken wraps and melba toast with pickled beet, goats cheese and curried onion jam. I didn't eat the spicy chicken wraps (I must have missed them amongst all the food!) but the melba toasts were absolutely heavenly. They were perfectly bite-sized and I must have had about 5 or 6 without even realizing.

Arva brought carrot cake cookie and cream cheese sandwiches and halloumi and zaatar southern-style biscuits. The carrot cake sandwiches were SO creative.. and absolutely delicious.. They were two tiny rounds of carrot cake with cream cheese frosting in the middle.

Sukaina brought strawberry and hazel nut cake with mascarpone frosting which was sooo light, elegant, and flavourful.

Anja brought rosewater-scented pistachio cake, avocado chocolate truffles, hummus and veggie sticks, and feta-stuffed peppadews. The peppadews were wonderful as they were just the kind of thing I felt like eating after my habanero pepper attempt went disastrously spicy. And the hummus was soo good.. don't think I've ever had homemade ones and these beat all the ones I've had at restaurants.

Kari brought Reggae Salsa... Mexican salsa with a Jamaican Twist and Toasted Pita Chips which was magical!

Sandy brought Goat Cheese Tomato Tart which I must have had a hundred slices of.. gorgeous!

Sally brought ginger chocolate cookies and mini spiced butternut squash frittatas. The cookies were one of the best things I think I have ever eaten. The two flavours went wonderfully together and the frittatas were delicious as well.

Yasmin brought mini chocolate pudding tarts which looked way too amazing to be homemade but they were! Each tartlet was a little piece of perfection.

Lin brought roasted tomaotes with salt pepper, basil & garlic and banana and lemon muffins. The best
thing about the tomatoes was that they were homegrown!

Edwina brought a zucchini and chocolate cake- which fully converted me to the idea of zucchini in cakes. I had seen tons of zucchini cupcake recipes before and always found it very odd. I decided to be adventurous and try Edwina's cake and LOVED IT! I never knew how great zucchini can work in a cake. It was soft and subtle and complemented the chocolate flavour in the cake WONDERFULLY.

As for me, I brought some Italianesque sandwiches and these corn muffins.

Anja's pistachio and rosewater scented cake

Yasmin's chocolate tartlets

All the food.. and my Italianesque sandwiches

Sandy's goat cheese and tomato tarts

Daring Bakers March Challenge: Yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake

2011-03-27T15:44:00.003+04:00

All ready to eat!

The March 2011 Daring Baker’s Challenge was hosted by Ria of Ria’s Collection and Jamie of Life’s a Feast. Ria and Jamie challenged The Daring Bakers to bake a yeasted Meringue Coffee Cake.

This is my first Daring Bakers Challenge that I participated in and to be honest, I was kind of intimidated when I saw that this month's recipe used yeast. Baking with yeast always freaks me out since I always hallucinate that the dough is never going to rise. And I always have the impression that it's going to take aaaaaages to prepare.

Anyways, the recipe was extremely fun to make and was quite quick for yeast (and TWO rises)! I started around 2 pm and by 4.45pm everything was ready. The BEST part was the part below: spreading the meringue on the cake and sprinkling walnuts, chocolate chips, cinnamon, and sugar. Rolling it up was quite amusing as well.. since I had never done something like that before.

The second rise before it was baked

The smell of the kitchen as it was baking was HEAVENLY. And the smell of the actual cake was even better. Everyone was trying to stick their noses into it to get a full whiff of that cinnamony, chocolatey, sugared goodness.

Corn Muffins

2011-03-26T21:45:00.001+04:00

Light and Airy Corn Muffins

These corn muffins were a breeze to prepare. 10 minutes tops. And 20 minutes in the oven. Perfect for a snack if you're hungry and great for breakfasts! AND picnics (which was where I took these muffins to).

Recipe

Ingredients:

Oil, for greasing

175g plain white flour

1tbsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

freshly ground black pepper

115g medium polenta

2 medium eggs

250ml milk

6tbsp sunflower oil

175 frozen sweetcorn kernels

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 200C. Grease 12-cup muffin tin. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and pepper into large bowl. Stir in polenta.

Lightly beat the eggs in a large bowl then beat in the milk and oil. Make a well in centre of dry ingredients, pour in beaten liquid ingredients and add sweetcorn. Stir gently until just combined.

Spoon mixture into prepared muffin tin. Bake in oven for 20 minutes until risen and golden brown.

Serve warm or cool.

The Results of Baking at Midnight: A Wedding Cake

2011-03-25T23:22:00.001+04:00

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Last night at about 11.30PM, I was so frustrated with writing- or should I say not writing- my paper that I had this intense urge to de-stress in the kitchen. I wanted to make a cake. But not just any cake. I wanted to use equipment I had hardly handled before- fondant smoothers, imprint mats, edible glitter, egg white as glue, and most importantly: a tiered cake. OK a tiered cake isn't exactly equipment but you get what I mean.

And so I made a wedding cake.

Or what I hoped looked like one anyways.. although it was a little on the small side..

That's so typically me. Deciding to do something small and relatively trivial and ending up overdoing it. Like take the instance of me wanting to cook a dinner, not just everyday suppers, but a dinner that's slightly "formal" although only with family. No, I won't just make one starter, one main course, and one dessert. I will make 2 starters, 3 main courses, 2 desserts, and maybe 2 side dishes..

I happen to pile up so much (in any aspect of my life) that at times it exhausts me. But I enjoy it. It makes me feel fulfilled and accomplished. I guess we're all different. Some people like to take things nice and slow and others like to go on turbo speed.

Yes, that was my idea of a mini adventure.

And so I went buzzing around the kitchen and lining up ingredients that I wanted to use. Butter? Nah. Self-raising flour? Definitely. I came up with a recipe whose result surprised me. Not too sweet but just perfectly moist.

Ingredients
2 cups self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 cup skimmed milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup fresh raspberries

Procedure
Grease and lightly flour two cake tins: a 5 inch one and an 8 inch one.
Sift flour in bowl. Add salt. Beat together oil, sugar, and eggs. Add flour to oil mixture, alternating with milk and vanilla. Stir well. Add the raspberries and fold in. Bake at 160C for 30 minutes.

Once cake is done, roll out fondant onto a surface dusted with icing sugar. When you get the appropriate size needed to cover the entire cake, gently lift fondant and press onto cake. Trim off edges. Smoothen with your palms. Decorate as you like.

*******************

It was my third time to use fondant. The first time I used it was when I placed it on top of a regular vanilla cake. I also cut out little flowers and colored them yellow for that cake.

The second time I made some cupcakes with a good friend and used fondant as icing. It was quite fun and we were extremely happy with the result.

I wasn't tooooo happy with the cake since it didn't look absolutely PRO. The fondant was dimpled thanks to my fingers and the ribbon was smudged with too much egg white. And I didn't trim the edges of the fondant as well as I would've liked to. But hey, practice practice practice.

The little pearls were a later idea of mine. I rolled little balls of fondant and then sprinkled some edible glitter on them and then stuck them on the cake using a little egg white.

And I got the fondant imprint right on the second try. The first time it The fondant wouldn't lift from the sheet. Perhaps because I placed the sheet on top of the fondant. Second time I tried it, after rolling up the same fondant, I placed the fondant over the mat. Then I lifted the mat and placed it (fondant side down) on the cake. OH, also remember to brush your cake with cooled boiled jam before applying fondant. :)

Galeries Lafayette Gourmet: Dubai

2011-03-25T01:17:00.008+04:00

I love my major. In retrospect, when thinking back to the time when I was fifteen or sixteen and deciding what I wanted to study in college, I think I have made the best choice. I can’t even remember all the other things I wanted to study. Was it business? I think I wanted to study business for like a day. It was law at one point, and genetic engineering at another. And for a couple of months, I was torn between the two. And one day during the summer of 2006, I realized it was international relations. My family and I were in Malaysia and after having spent hours perusing through all the books at Kuala Lumpur’s Kinokuniya (the Dubai one hadn’t opened as yet, and that bookstore to me was unlike anything I had ever seen), I bought a book called “The Big Book of Majors”. I remember sitting down next to my mother in the hotel room and peeling off the plastic wrapping (all Kinokuniya’s books have plastic wrapping for some reason- although they voluntarily open it for you if you want to read a book there). I started flipping through all the majors and was fascinated by the sheer score of choices. Every major had its own page and there was a little subsection called “Good if you like….”. That section listed various interests and if you happened to like most of them, then International Relations (or whatever major it was) would be a choice to consider for you.

All the listings in that section applied to me. Traveling, check. Geography-related trivia, check. Social issues, check. And on and on the list went. I excitedly showed the page to my mother and after reading it she exclaimed that everything on that page applied to me. I then knew then it was International Relations which I wanted to study. What I didn’t know was that WHY didn’t I think of it before? Sometimes all you need in life is a tiny push in one direction…. And the rest is you and your merit.

So now, three years into university, I do think I’ve made the right choice. I love reading different opinions about things, I love being able to apply them to day-to-day life, and I love that the main focus of international relations is PEOPLE. Human beings. I don’t think I’m the type of person who would be able to work in a field where the main object would be machines or numbers or anything of that sort. I sometimes joke around by saying that all we’ve ever studied are just opinions.

Reading through politics articles, books, and essays, you realize that there could be a thousand explanations for one occurrence, and a hundred ways to go about something. You want to open up your economy? Sure. That’ll be a great chance for foreign investment and it would increase productivity. But what about domestic markets? The infant industry argument? Or, you want to transition a state to democracy? Do you start off with votes and then establish the institutions or do you delay votes till all the mechanisms and institutions are stable? You get the picture. Every one of these arguments can be and are valid. But if there’s one thing that I’ve learnt in IR, it’s that it depends. Nothing is ever universal. There’s always a unique set of characteristics and events at play that a certain solution might work under those circumstances only. That’s why we see states who imitate other successful economic models fail miserably sometimes. And unfortunately, mistakes made in foreign policy can often have devastating consequences.

It’s quite like life, isn’t it? No two people are alike, and neither are their lives. You can’t judge and you certainly can’t give the best advice or make a good decision by applying what worked in one situation to another. In life, just as in international relations (which arguably is life, or the greater workings of it), everything depends. But depends on what? Depends on each other. Life is a series of consequences. But that gets me thinking about that whole great debate on whether you make your own decisions in life or whether everything is sort of predestined. I love that discussion, but for some reason it always ends up in spirals. I’d like to think that it’s a sort of combination, that you make your own decisions but ultimately your path in life is set. It’s confusing to understand how that works, but I like to think of both opposing mechanisms working in tandem….somehow…

OK by now you must be wondering what place all of this has in a food blog. Well, I went off topic.. like I do in everything.. but I was talking about my major and how I love it.

Sometimes, I don’t love it. Like right now. Sometimes I get tired of all the reading and writing and analyzing and repeating. Sometimes I wish that all I had to do was cook. And cook and cook and cook. And feed people. And animals. Feed family, feed friends, strangers, children, beggars, lawyers, architects, entrepreneurs, artists, cats, dogs, stray animals, sick animals…

I want to be able to wake up in the morning and have no idea what I’m going to do that day. I want to create masterpieces in the kitchen and attempt all sorts of things I had never tried before. I want to travel the world, live in small towns around France and Italy, meet the locals, develop my own cooking style. But more than all of that, I just want to make food. Makes me sound like a glutton doesn’t it? Meh. I have a whole list of things I want to try making and I want to be able to make them without other interruptions- like getting a Bachelor’s degree.

A few days ago, I was thinking about just this. How I’d like to be a “freelance cook” as I call it. I then realized that that meant a housewife. Well, kind of. Not to undermine it or say that homemakers don’t have other responsibilities- they’re often the very foundations of our society- but for some reason, I think that housewife was the most accurate word to use when thinking of freelance cook. No business deadlines to meet or to menu orders to churn out at the speed of lightning- just you and your kitchen, making three meals a day and maybe some snacks. Mostly up to your creativity. That came as a little shock to me. I don’t think I’d like to be a stay at home mom. Not for long, anyways. But I think I’d always like to cook. If only life could be such that you could glide, at whim, in and out of corporate profession to uninterrupted domesticity. Maybe you can do that. It all depends.

So my love of food, and the desire it has sparked in me to devote my life solely to exploring all its wonders, has led me to be more creative in the kitchen. It’s a slow process, but one that’s certainly progressing. Earlier on, I’d only invent savoury dishes. Stir-fries and pastas. But now I’m inventing recipes in the world of baking. Which can be scary. Baking is just like chemistry; get one measurement messed up and there goes your experiment. As I type this, I actually have a cake in the oven- a cake whose recipe I developed. Major yay factor for me there. And it’s midnight. Almost 1AM. I’ve been getting these creative urges at nocturnal hours of the day. Quite surprising since I pride myself on being a morning person… but there’s something very different about night. Perhaps the perceived solitude which gives rise to creative energy.

But no, this blog post isn’t about the cake. It’s about Galeries Lafayette’s Gourmet section. I visited it yesterday and as I was browsing through the aisles I got all these wonderful ideas for things I could make. Mediterranean things in specific. Complete with backdrops of azure sea, white-washed buildings, bougainvilleas, and cobbled streets.

I bought olive oil with sage, green olives with Pronvencal herbs, a tomato sauce, an artichoke sauce, and red habanero peppers.

I ate habanero peppers stuffed with cheese at the restaurant called Olives in DFC’s Crowne Plaza. It was heavenly. Since then, I’ve been wanting to make my own but I never found habanero peppers anywhere. I bought them as soon as I saw them and this afternoon, I sliced the top off, removed the seeds and stuffed them with spoonfuls of Philadelphia cheese, since that was the only cheese we had at home that I thought would work. I roasted the whole thing in the oven for about five minutes…. The Philadelphia cheese started oozing out of the peppers and OH MY GOD, the peppers were the spiciest thing I have ever eaten. Spicy to the point that I had a nano-bite and my tongue was on fire. It was horrible. What happened to those sweet, juicy, SLIGHTLY spicy habanero peppers at that restaurant? I started thinking that maybe I got the pepper’s name wrong. Maybe they looked like habaneros but weren’t. But then what’s the explanation for all these habanero peppers stuffed with cheese recipes that I see everywhere? Needless to say, everyone had a tiny, tiny bite and gave up. I can’t believe how spicy they were. WORDS do NOT describe them.

On a good note however, I used my olives with provencal herbs in a little salad I tossed together for myself. Roca leaves, semi-dried tomatoes, olives, red and yellow capsicums, some balsamic vinegar and that sage olive oil. Worked perfectly. And was very, very appetizing.

Galeries Lafayette Gourmet is definitely worth a visit. What I find odd though is that they sell things that you find in all other supermarkets… Chocos and Nesquik cereal, local canned pineapple juice, 7up, Pepsi… It’s a full fledge supermarket with a very gourmet flair. I think they should have focused only on the things that you don’t get elsewhere. For one, all the regulars things that you get elsewhere were extremely overpriced, and second, not many people (according to me, anyways) are going to go to the 2^nd floor of Galaries Lafayette in Dubai Mall to do their monthly grocery shopping. Or even pick up something that’s run out in the house. I think they’re trying to emulate the great food halls in departmental stores around Europe, but it isn’t really working. Don’t get me wrong- the food selection of things that you don’t get in regular supermarkets in the UAE was fabulous- amazing. But I really think tissue boxes and detergents were slightly out of place.

Oh, on a totally random note, what was totally cool was that their shopping baskets were little gold things. Oh, and the vegetable section is amazing. Habanero peppers and artichokes and all other ingredients you rarely find in some mainstream chain supermarkets around Dubai.

On another note, I just wrote 1826 words in around an hour. Why isn’t it this easy for me to write an academic paper of the same length? SIGH.

Recipe for my epic salad:

1 cup roca leaves

1/2 red capsicum, sliced

1/2 yellow capsicum sliced

1/4 cup green olives

1/4 cup semi dried tomatoes

Balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

Feta cheese (I didn't use it but it would be great)

Place leaves, capsicums, olives, and tomatoes in bowl.

Mix well.

Add one tablespoon (or to taste) of balsamic vinegar and an equal amount of olive oil. Toss salad together with cubes of feta cheese, if using.

Forever Nigella: Ciao Italia

2011-03-20T21:42:00.004+04:00

Nigella's shows are extremely fun to watch. And up until today, I didn't know how extremely fun it would be to make her recipes..

I'm taking part in Maison Cupcake's Monthy Blog Challenge called "Forever Nigella". The theme for this month was "Ciao Italia" - to make anything Italianish from Nigella's recipes.

I found this love one called "Italian Chicken and Pasta" at Nigella.com and decided to use that. Partly because apparently the it had all the colours of the Italian flag. And since, Italy's 150th birthday was a few days ago, why not celebrate one's patriotism. (No I'm not Italian no matter how much I'd like to be). It also reminded me of a triple layer sandwich that we make at home.. which reminds me of the Italian flag.

I changed some things around from the original recipe. Here's my version:

Boil 150g of pasta.

Fry half a red capsicum, and half a green capsicum in olive oil.

Add tomato pasta sauce (as much as you'd like!) and stir well. Allow for the mixture to boil.

Toss in some whole black olives.

Add the pasta and stir well with a handful (yes!) of chilli flakes.

Garnish with chopped coriander and mozzarella cheese and serve!

I didn't use any chicken because I thought I had some boiled chicken leftover from lunch.. which I didn't.. And instead of bechamel sauce I used tomato pasta sauce because I'm trying to be healthier.

It tasted really good and was very, very light.