Black forest gateau

Hello lovely people out there!
So, it's Valentines day, got plenty of time on my hands, eyes stuck on the tele watching curling, winter olympics and hubby out working all day.  So anyway, I've been eyeing on baking the black forest cake for awhile now and thought why not try it on Vday, and so I did! Yup!  And that's to surprise my hubby cos he love anything sweet and chocolatey, such a treat if it turns out right of course haha. 

I've been following a recipe from The Joy of Baking.com, watched the video and fully convinced myself that I can do it :-) althought I didn't have kirsch and forgot to put my butter into the batter, I think I pulled it off and made justice to the recipe. Yes, anybody can be a great cook/baker if you put your heart and mind/concentration to it.

 

One happy bunny here :)

Ingredients: Cherries 24 ounce (700 ml) jar of Morello Cherries in syrup 4 tablespoons Kirsch or Cherry Brandy 1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar Chocolate Genoise: 3 tablespoons (42 grams) hot melted unsalted butter 1/2 cup (60 grams) cake flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/3 cup (30 grams) unsweetened regular or Dutch-processed cocoa powder 4 large eggs 2/3 cup (135 grams) granulated white sugar 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Whipped Cream Frosting 2 1/2 cups (600 ml) heavy whipping cream (double cream) (35% butterfat) 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 3 tablespoons (35 grams) granulated white sugar   Chocolate Genoise:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Butter, or spray with a non stick spray, a 9 inch (23 cm) round cake pan and line the bottom of pan with parchment or wax paper. In a bowl, sift the flour, salt and cocoa powder. In a heatproof bowl whisk the eggs with the sugar. Place over a saucepan of simmering water, and whisking constantly, heat until lukewarm (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat and transfer to the bowl of your electric mixer. Beat on high speed until the mixture is thick (about 5 minutes) (the batter will fall back into the bowl in a ribbon-like pattern). Beat in the vanilla extract. Then sift about one-third of the flour mixture over the egg mixture and gently fold in using a rubber spatula or whisk. Sift and fold in another third, and then fold in the rest. Take 1 cup of the batter and fold it into the melted butter (to lighten it). Then gently fold it into the egg batter. Pour into your pan, smoothing the top. Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (cake starts to shrink from sides of pan). Cool on a metal rack before removing from pan. The cake can be stored for two days or frozen for a month. Whipped Cream Frosting: In your mixing bowl place the whipping cream, vanilla extract, and sugar and stir to combine. Cover and chill the bowl and wire whisk in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, then beat the mixture just until stiff peaks form. Assemble Cake: Using a sharp knife, cut the genoise, horizontally, into two layers. Turn over the top layer of the cake (top of cake becomes bottom) and place on your serving plate. Brush the cake layer with 1/4 cup (60 ml) cherry syrup. Take 1 cup of whipped cream and spread on the moistened genoise. Place the cherries evenly over the cream. Brush the cut-side of second genoise layer with 1/4 cup (60 ml) syrup. Place cut-side down on top of the cherries, gently pressing to compact. Reserve one cup (240 ml) of whipped cream and spread the remaining cream over top and sides of cake. Place reserved cream in a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe rosettes on top of cake. Cover and refrigerate the cake for several hours (or overnight) before serving. Decorate with fresh cherries and shaved chocolate.

Dinner Rolls : Goldilocks recipe

 Hello my loves!!  I have attempted to bake the lovely goody from Goldilocks recipe book with my bare hands, defo no help from a bread maker machine :) I think, it turned out  ok..well, my husband ate it let's put it that way.. Edible enough. But honestly, it's very delicious although this is my second try , first one having trouble with bread rising, I think, it must be the cold environment where I'm working affecting it. Second one is a lot lot better, as seen in picture below.

Ingredients:

2 tsp Instant yeast

1 1/8 cups Water

3 3/4 cups All purpose flour (sifted)

1/2 cup Sugar

1/2 tsp Salt

3 egg yolks (from large eggs)

1/4 Cup Evaporated milk

1/3 cup Salted butter

Baking Procedure:

1. Dissolve instant yeast in 1/3 part of water. Set aside until it creates a froth

2. In a mixing bowl, place the sifted all-purpose flour, sugar and salt then mix it.

3.add the remaining water, egg yolk, evaporated milk and dissolve yeast to the mixture and incorporate      /knead them together.

4. Add butter and continue mixing until very soft dough forms or until gluten is slightly develop.

5.transfer the dough in a greased bowl and cover with cling film.

6. Let the dough rest for about 15 mins at room temperature.

7. Punch down the dough and divide into round pieces weighing 35 grams each.

8. Place rounded dough in greased 8"x8" baking pan

9. Let the dough rise until it doubles in size about 1 hr room temperature.

10. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden in color

11. Brush top with egg wash

12. Let bread cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan.

Guinisang Monggo with Chicken and Sotanghon

Guinisang Monggo with Chicken and Sotanghon

I'm going to do anything for the love of food :)  I am always excited to see my girls on my days off, it on means one thing, Yup! Lamon (foodtrip).  And this one is well liked. Just some few ingredients and wala! Food good for a king :)  Anyway, to those who are new to the foreign country (wherever you are) and wanting to do some filipino cooking, it's always a good start to find the nearest asian shop in the area and you'll find things very similar to what we've got back home or they sometimes carry our very own if you're lucky.

Ingredients:

1 cup mung beans
5-6 cups water
400 grams chicken (legs chopped into small pieces or fillet)
1 small pack vermicillè noodles (sotanghon)
1 brown onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced finely
3 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp knorr seasoning sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Cooking Procedure

1. Boil 6 cups of water in a pan, add mung beans and continue to boil until mung beans turns soft and mushy. Always check water if you need to add little bit more. Set aside.
2. Sautè garlic and onion in another pan, add in the pieces of chicken until light brown.
3. Transfer cooked mung beans together with other sauted ingredients and bring to boil for 5 mins and simmer for 20-25 mins under medium heat. At this time you can add salt,pepper and seasoning sauce that you need. Make sure you've got enough water in the pan.
4. Lastly, add in vermicelli noodles (sotanghon) and leave it simmering for another for 3-5 mins.
5. Job's done! Transfer to a serving bowl, rice ready and enjoy glorious food :)

Pinakbet

Pinakbet

Hello my loves!! I know its been awhile since i last posted on here but important thing is I'm back! :)

I went back home for about 3 weeks in pinas and had the taste of  proper home cooking. It then inspired  me to do a bit of rambling here and hopefully will help you a little bit in you own kitchen. We all know that this is a very tasty dish that we all love, maybe different ways in cooking it but really, whatever that pleases your tastebuds would surely do. And oh btw, dont forget to put some rice on while following these simple steps.

Ingredients

• 1/4 lb pork, thinly sliced
• 1 large aubergine, sliced
• 1 whole butternut squash, chopped into cubes
• 3 pieces large tomato, sliced
• 1 piece onion, chopped
• 1-3 cloves garlic, chopped very finely
• 8-10 pieces okra
• 1 pack of string beans
• A dash of Knorr seasoning sauce
• Salt or magic sarap if you prefer it ( according to taste )
• 1 cup of water

Optional ingredients:

• 1 medium-sized bitter melon, chopped
• shrimp paste (according to your liking) I know its never complete without this ingredient but when you have a foreign husband you've got to do without, still taste scrumptious anyway :)

Procedure

1. Heat oil in the pan then  sauté garlic, onion, and tomatoes.
2. Add in pork and cook until color turns light brown then add knorr seasoning sauce.
3. Put-in the shrimp paste and cook for 2 minutes. (Optional)
4. Add water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until pork is tender. (Simple trick, whilst waiting for your meat, put your veggies except okra into microwavable dish, cover and microwave them for a good 5 minutes.) veggies are cooked slightly, soft not mushy and not very crunchy either.
5. When ready, add all veggies in the pan and add all remaining vegetables and simmer for 5-10 mins, add salt or magic sarap to your desired taste.
6. Serve with steamed white rice.

Pictures to follow computers playing up.....

Tinolang Manok

It's always a comfort to have something soupy and hot to warm the system on a cold and miserable day. Yup, TINOLANG MANOK always comes to mind.  Being away from home may seem to be a challenge to find the ingredients for this recipe but fear not my lovely, there's always a substitute for things that are not easy to find. Just like the chilli leaves or malunggay some other places in the uk can get frozen version of these but you can always use rocket leaves if not available. Most of the asian store got green papayas but failing that you can opt for sayote.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken, cut into serving pieces
•  chicken stock ( 2 cubes chicken cubes )
• 1 pc small green papaya, cut into wedges
• 1 tbsp garlic, minced
• 1 medium sized onion, chopped
• 1 thumb size ginger, cut into strips
• chilli leaves/malunggay/rocket leaves
• Lemon grass

Procedure:

1. Sauté the garlic, onion, and ginger
2. Put-in the chicken and cook until color turns light brown
3. Pour-in the chicken stock and add lemon grass (enough to cover the chicken)
4. Add the green papaya wedges and simmer till soft.
5. Add the chilli leaves
6. Add salt and pepper to taste
7. Best serve hot with boiled rice

Chicken Adobo

Here's another recipe that's well liked .  It's very easy to cook and not a lot of preparation needed to dish up one. I always love adding a bit of a twist when I cook. Well, I put lemon grass on my adobo, I just love the aroma of lemon grass and makes me want to eat more everytime :)

All You Need:

• 500 Grams Chicken/Pork (or both)
• 1/2 Cup Vinegar
• 1/2 Cup Soy Sauce
• 1/2 Cup Water
• 1/4 Cup Seasoning Sauce
• 2 Cloves Garlic (minced)
• 1 Onion (chopped)
• 3 Bay leaves
• 8 Pcs Peppercorn
• 3 Tsp Sugar
• Lemon grass (optional)

Procedure:

1. Combine all ingredients together  in a pan.
2. Bring to boil and reduce heat,  Cover and simmer until meat is tender about 35-40 mins.
3. Delicious served over rice.

Sapin-sapin (Layered)

I was very excited to try this ilonggo's delicacy for the first time. I always thought it's very complicated and too much work involve but no, no, no....it is a straight forward recipe, promise! :) I'm not boasting but it's delicious, even my hubby likes it so much that he's scraping the plate, finishing every little bit left. Btw, I added purple yam (from frozen) with the purple flavouring for a bit of texture and you can add sweet potato with the yellow bit if you want.

All You Need:

•     1 Cup Glutinous Rice Flour
•     1 Can Condensed Milk
•     2 Cups Coconut milk
•     1 Cup Sugar
•     1 Tbsp. Vanilla Essence
•     1 Cup Purple Yam (mashed)
•     Yellow food Colouring
•     Purple Food Colouring

Procedure:

•  Mix flour, condensed milk, coconut milk, sugar and vanilla essence together into smooth batter                                  (except  mashed yam and food colouring).
• Divide Into 3 equal parts: Take one part, add purple yam, add a dash of purple(blue & red) food colouring. Mix well.    Take second part, add yellow colouring. Mix well. Leave the third part plain.
• Grease baking pan, then pour in purple mixture. Spread evenly.
• Steam for 20-25 minutes or more, until firm. Note: cover the baking pan with cheese cloth before steaming.
• Pour in yellow mixture (2nd layer) on top of the purple mixture. Cover again and steam for 20-25 minutes.
• Lastly, pour in 3rd layer or the plain mixture. Again, steam for 30 minutes or until firm.                                         Note: use toothpick to check if mixture is cooked enough, if toothpick is clear then that's good to go.
• Cool before slicing.

Combo (saging)

Just got home from work one day and feeling a little bit peckish. Too early for tea and just needed a bit of something to see me through until supper's ready.
Anyway, this idea came to mind when I saw a ripe plantain waiting for its final judgement..lol
I've not had this (merienda) for a long time, well I can't find a recipe to start with but I made up my mind that I'm going to improvise a recipe for myself and hopefully be able to share it with you too if the experiment is a success :)


You will need:

2 Pcs Banana (I use Plantain)
1 cup Self Raising Flour
1/2 Tsp. Bicarbonate of soda
1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
1 1/2 Cup water
1/2 Cup Flour
Oil for deep frying
Sugar

Procedure:

Cut and slice banana into thin slices, coat them with flour.
In a bowl, Sift self raising flour and bicarbonate of soda. Add water and vanilla essence and mix to a smooth batter.
Drop banana pieces into batter and deep fry until golden brown.
Remove from oil and drain excess oil with kitchen towel.
Sprinkle granulated sugar and Enjoy!!

Mince Beef with Mixed Veg.

When I get stuck with my cooking, I can always depend on this dish...So easy and simple to cook.
This is one of my hubby's favorite dishes, actually second to guinisang monggo :) Well, let's get started...

All You Need:

• 250 Grams Mince Beef
• 1 Pc. Onion Chopped
• 2 Tbsp. Oil
• 1 Pc. Red bell pepper Diced
• 1 Pc Small Carrots Diced
• 2 Pcs. Potato Diced
• Peas
• 1 Small Pack green beans
• 1/2 Can Sweetcorn
• 2 Tbsp. Seasoning Sauce
• 1 Beef Cube
• 2 CupsWater
•  A dash of Salt, Pepper and Sugar
• 1Tsp. cornflour (dilute in water)

Procedure:

In a pan, heat oil and sauté onion and add in mince beef, cook until well browned.  Add in all mixed veg, seasoning sauce, pepper, sugar, beef cube and water.  Mix well, cover and simmer gently for 20 - 25 minutes. Add cornflour for thicker sauce and simmer again for 2-3 minutes. Serve it with rice.

Banana-que

The all time favorite I suppose... It's very easy and it's yummy too.

Since Saba (shorter version plantain) is quite difficult to find here in the UK, I use the longer version Plantain as substitute for when I make my banana-q. I hope my take on this plantain makes sense when I post picture of it.

All You Need:

• 2 Pcs Plantain Banana (ripe)
• 1 Cup Oil
• 1/4 Cup Sugar

PROCEDURES:

• Trim both ends of each banana and peel off skin, since we're using plantain, cut it into 3 pcs per banana.
•  In a large wok  heat cooking oil,  put 3 Tbsp sugar, and wait till sugar melted.
•  Put in the bananas and stir until all are coated about 3-5 minutes.
• Sprinkle remaining sugar unto bananas if needed. Stir again for another 2 minutes.
• Drain excess oil.
• Serve...Yummy with soda or cola.

My cooking banana

Saba

Nilagang Baka

I was so excited to do this dish...I was craving for it for ages.  Don't laugh, but was so pleased to see lemongrass with its grassy bit on it, don't know how to describe it , but we don't get all the nice bit here really, I was like a little girl in a candy shop.  Anyway, Got the ingredients to finally make one. Oh, beef shank or pata is quite difficult to find so I used beef skirt and bit of beef  rib bones.

All You Need:

•  Beef skirt or Beef Shank
•  Half a packet sinigang mix as souring agent for the dish
•  Green Jackfruit (Langka)
•  Lemongrass
•  1 Small Onion chopped
•  2 Cloves Garlic
•  Dash of salt
•  2 Pcs Chilli
•  1 Tbsp of Annato seeds
•  2 Tbsp oil

Procedure:

1. Saute garlic and Onion in a pan.
2. Add the beef shank or beef skirt, brown the meat slightly.
3. Add water enough to cover the meat, and add in lemongrass and bring to boil.
4. Check after half an hour and add in Jackfruit, sinigang mix and continue cooking until both beef and jackfruit are fork tender.
5. In a cup, put annato seeds and add hot water and let it sit for a while until colour comes out.
6. Add extract from Annato seeds in a pan together with whole chillies and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
7. Serve Hot.