Sponge Cupcakes

Cupcakes!!!!!!!!!! Nom nom nom.....this recipe is sooo easy to make and they are hands down the best sponge cupcakes I have ever tasted. Enjoy!

This is an old recipe so the measurements are in ounces rather than grams but most scales have different units on them these days. If not, google.... :p

Ingredients:

4 Oz Butter

6 Oz Sugar

6 Oz Flour

2 Eggs

2 Tsp Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

1/2 Cup Milk

1 Tsp Vanilla Essence

Method:

Cream butter and sugar together. Add in rest of ingredients and beat for about 2 minutes. Thats it! Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for about 20 minutes at 180 degrees celcius.

Wait until cupcakes are completely cooled before icing them with whatever topping you like. I've used a basic butter cream. To make this icing, simply mix 250g icing sugar with 1 Tbsp of margarine. Pour in about 2 tablespoons of milk and mix till icing is well combined. Add more milk if icing is too hard, however be careful not to add too much!

*** To make coffee cupcakes, replace the milk with black coffee ***

Garnish cupcakes with rose buds, sprinkles, chocolate etc :)

Chicken With Green Beans & Capsicum

Ok so at the moment, my photographer is off on holiday :p sooo the next few posts wont have step by step photos, just the main one taken with my dodgy photo skills but i'm sure you'll cope :P

Had some fresh green beans from the garden which we didnt know what to do with so this is the result...Enjoy!

Ingredients:

750g Chicken Breast Cubes
1 Cup Sliced Green Beans
1 Roasted and Peeled Capsicum Cubed (Available at most supermarkets, keep a jar of these in your fridge at all times!!! They come in handy often)
1 Tbsp Soya Sauce
1 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
2 Tsp Garlic
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Fresh Pepper
1/4 Cup Cream
2 Tbsp Sesame Seeds

Method:

Marinate chicken with Soya sauce, Hoisin sauce, garlic, salt and pepper. Heat oil in a wok or frying pan. Stirfry chicken till just cooked. "Blanch" the beans by pouring boiling water over them and leave to sit for about 4 minutes then drain and pour cold water over them. Stir through beans and capsicum into the chicken and simmer.

When sauce looks thick, Stir through cream, bring to the boil and turn off. In a pan, dry roast sesame seeds until they release their oil and start to brown. Use to garnish the chicken.

Serve with rice :)

Spiced Poached Pears

After getting a request to make something with poached pears, I set about looking for a recipe. The most interesting looking one I could find was with red wine in it lol, so here's my adaptation sans alcohol and with a few tweaks...Enjoy

Ingredients:

750ml (3cups) Red Grape Juice
1/2 Cup Caster Sugar
2 Whole Star Anise
2 Cinnamon Sticks
1 Vanilla bean, split
2 Cloves
2 Cardomom Pods
6 just-ripe Packham's triumph pears, peeled

Method:

Combine the grape juice, sugar, star anise, cinnamon, cloves, cardomom and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Add the pears and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, turning occasionally, for 1 hour or until pears are tender.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer pears to a heatproof bowl.

Increase heat to high and bring the syrup to the boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until syrup thickens slightly. Remove all whole spices.

Pour over the pears and set aside for 10 minutes to cool. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 4 hours to chill.

Arrange pears in chocolate cups. Decorate with roasted almonds.

Serve with ice cream. Enjoy :)

Kunafeh

There are 2 versions of this dish. One made with shredded phyllo pastry (the one I made) and one made with semolina. This dessert is really filling and not good for your waistline, but oh so tasty!!!

Ingredients:

250g Kataifi (Shredded Phyllo Pastry)

300g Akkawi or Nabulsi Cheese (Available at Middle Eastern grocery stores)

1/2 Cup Melted Ghee

1/2 Cup Milk

3 Tbsp Semolina

1 Tbsp Caster Sugar

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Water

1 Tsp Rose Water

Pistachios and rose petals to garnish

Method:

Cut the cheese into cubes and soak in water for about 4 hours, changing the water every hour or so. This step is to de-salt the cheese.

Break up the pastry into small pieces. 

Mix with the melted ghee. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Grease a round oven proof dish with some ghee and place half the pastry into it to form a base.

Drain the cheese and crumble it. Heat the milk for about a minute then add the semolina and heat for another 30 seconds while stirring.

Add the crumbled cheese and caster sugar to this mixture and mix well.

Spread this mixture onto the pastry base.

Add the other half of the pastry over the top.

Put to bake for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile make the sugar syrup by placing the sugar, water and rose water into a pan and boil till sugar syrup is slightly thick.

Remove the kunafeh from the oven and gently separate the edge with a butter knife.

Invert the dish over your serving tray. Pour the hot syrup over to soak in and garnish with pistachios and rose petals. Serve hot.

Tikka Masala Fish

Ingredients:

2 Whole Snapper
200g Plain Yoghurt
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 and 1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Pepper
2 Tsp Ginger
2 and 1/2 Tsp Garlic
1 and 1/2 Tsp Cumin Seeds
1 Tsp Turmeric
1 Tsp Crushed Green Chillies
1 Tsp Red Chilli Flakes

Method:

Wash and clean fish thoroughly. Make slits in the skin.

Mix all ingredients together to make a paste.

Marinate fish in this mixture, pushing marinade into the slits and into the cavity.

Prepare a coal BBQ. Oil the grill well to prevent fish from sticking. Cook fish for about 8 minutes a side.

Serve hot with lemon wedges. Enjoy :)

White Chocolate, Rose & Raspberry Cheesecake

While browsing through an Asian supermarket the other day, I came across a packet of dried rose buds. On impulse I bought them and set about looking for a recipe that I could use them in. While you don't actually use them in this dish, I had seen a few recipes which used them as a garnish, so here's the result! 

Ingredients:

1 Cup Raspberries (Frozen is fine)

1/4 Cup Sugar

1/2 Tsp Gelatin

250g Marie Biscuits

100g Melted Butter

250g Cream Cheese

300 ml Cream

1 Cup White Chocolate

1 Tsp Rose Water

1/4 Cup Caster Sugar

1 and 1/2  Tsp Gelatine

Crystallized Rose Petals and Dried Rose Buds to garnish

Method:

Mix Raspberries and sugar and leave for 30 minutes to macerate. Mix the gelatin with 3 Tbsp of hot water till dissolved. Add this to the raspberry mixture. Pour into a flat tray and leave in the fridge to set. This step is to make the raspberry mixture less runny.

Crush the biscuits in a food processor and mix with the melted butter. 

This quantity gives a fairly thick base, if you prefer a thinner base, half the amount.

Line the base of your spring-form pan with grease proof paper. Firmly press biscuit mixture into the base of the pan and leave in the fridge to set.

Beat cream cheese, rose water, sugar and cream till well mixed. Melt the chocolate and pour this into mixture. Dissolve the gelatine in 1/4 cup of water and add this to the mixture. Mix well.

Pour half the mixture onto the biscuit base. Remove raspberry from pan and gently place over mixture.

Add the other half of the mixture and place rose buds into mixture facing upwards.

Refrigerate till set.

Garnish with rose petals, glitter or anything else you can get your hands on! The rose buds don't taste that great, so might be an idea to tell your guests to remove them before eating lol.

Enjoy :)

Herb Crusted Lamb Cutlets

Every season on master-chef, someone always seems to make a herb crusted rack of lamb or lamb cutlets. Every time I see it, I say hmmm I should try that. Finally got around to doing it lol. Feel free to adjust the crumb mixture depending on the nuts and herbs you prefer :)

Ingredients: 

5 Lamb Cutlets

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/2 Tsp Black Sesame Seeds

1/2 Tsp Sumac

1/2 Tsp Garlic Powder

3 Tbsp Almond Meal (Can substitute this with any other ground nuts you like Eg. Pistachio, Walnut etc.)

1 Tsp Fresh Thyme

1 Tsp Fresh Olive Leaf (Can substitute with Rosemary if you don't have Olive Leaf)

Method:

Finely chop thyme and olive leaf.

Mix this with the salt, pepper, sesame seeds, sumac, garlic powder & almond meal.

Wash and dry the lamb cutlets.

Brush the cutlets with olive oil on both sides.

Dip the cutlets in the crumb mixture and coat well.

Press mixture onto cutlets firmly.

Heat a grill pan on medium heat. You dont need to add any oil into the pan as the olive oil and fat on the cutlets will be enough.

Pan fry the cutlets for about 4 minutes each side for medium, for well done about 6 minutes a side. take care not to keep turning or moving them as the crumb mixture will fall off. When almost cooked, stand cutlets upright to brown the sides.

Can be served with salad, rice, or potato wedges. Enjoy!