HHDD#20- Thai-inspired Profiteroles

It’s almost HHDD deadline time again, all things choux this time, and for a moment there I thought I was not going to make it. But here I am, right on the cut-off date again, with my entry.

As with the clafoutis this was a new challenge for me and one I really wanted to try. Every time I ever bit into an eclaire or profiterole I thought to myself that it must be a really tricky process to create something so decadent and rich, yet light and airy.

But Suzanne, decided to prove me wrong. Making the choux dough necessary for these kinds of pastries takes a little time, but the ingredients are really simple and easy to work with. I was pleasantly surprised to see the first batch taking shape in the oven and retaining their puff after I removed them. Well most of them, I became a bit to excited after a while and disregarded Suzanne’s suggestion to leave it in a little longer, ensuring they do not slowly deflate after being removed. Yes, lessons are being learned.

I decided to stick to the original Donna Hay recipe, as slightly amended by our host (adding about 3 additional tablespoons of flour) and create profiteroles. For the filling I took inspiration from some local ingredients and sweets.

Kaffir lime is a flavoring used in numerous Thai dishes. The leaves are used to flavor soups and salads, while the fruit’s rind gets used in the making of numerous curry pastes. The fruit yields no juice, oddly enough, so only the rind and leaves are used. Thai iced tea can be found at any coffee and tea stand on the streets of Bangkok and is a refreshing rich and sweet drink, creamsicle orange in color. Pandanus is a kind of palm leaf that is used a s flavoring in lots of Thai sweets and desserts. Some call it an Asian vanilla. A simple but fairly representative collection of regional favorites.

To make the choux for the profiteroles you need only 4 ingredients:

1cup water

100g unsalted butter

3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons flour, sifted

5 eggs

For the filling you will need:

2 cups pouring cream, whipped

1/3 cup icing sugar

1/4 teaspoon pandanus essence

1/2 teaspoon grated kaffir lime rind

1/2 teaspoon instant Thai tea powder

The process:

Preheat the oven to 180C and prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Bring the water and butter to a boil over high heat in a saucepan. Slowly add the flour, making sure clumps do not form. Continue stirring over low heat until the dough leaves the sides of the pan. Pour this into a mixer or mixing bowl and mix with an electric mixer on high, adding the eggs one at a time. Make sure each egg is completely mixed in before adding the next. Keep on mixing until the dough resembles very thick mayonnaise.

Spoon the dough into a piping bag with a 12mm plain nozzle (if you do not have one, a Ziploc bag with a hole cut to size in one of the corners works just as well) and pipe about 2cm rounds onto your prepared baking sheets. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and puffy. Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.

While the baking is taking place, add the icing sugar to the cream and mix it through. Divide this into thirds and add a flavoring to each. When the pastry has cooled, cut open and spoon generous helpings of the flavored cream into them. Not all into one of course, that may be a bit too weird.

I added some simple icing as topping to the tea and kaffir lime ones. I mixed a bit of icing sugar and milk together, divided it and add some powdered tea to one half. Mainly for some color on top of the profiteroles. The rest I kept plain and brushed it over the tops of the lime roles with thinly sliced slivers of kaffir lime leaves on top. The pandanus ones I bound with thin strips of fresh pandanus leaf.

They tasted great. So said my only loyal taster (not that he has much choice). The puffs were firm, yet airy, and the creamy fillings subtly flavored in a few of the tastes of my current home.

Phew, in goes my entry for this edition- Choux!

Note- Thank you again to Alexander for the great pictures of my baking.

 

Icebox Butter Cookies with Martha

This year, for my birthday (which was some months ago), Alexander spoiled me with the enormous Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. Not only that I’m also getting sent on a baking course at Vanilla Industries! That unfortunately has to wait until late June, as they are currently remodeling the bakery. So in the meantime, I am have been experimenting with Martha’s recipes.

I’ve never actually used any of her recipes as far as I know, and I have to admit I was quite intimidated by the big book, loaded with recipes and lovely pictures. Everything looking perfect. All the time reading recipes, I heard her very formal voice in my head. Eep!

My first attempt, sugar cookies, was a bit fat flop, although Alexander managed to save a lot of the cookie dough and managed to make some cookies. After that I attempted banana bread, which turned out much better and has since been adjusted into vegan banana cupcakes!

But my greatest success so far, and inspiration to continue experimenting, adjusting and learning from the great lady were icebox butter cookies.

Preparing the dough was real easy, and fun. Plus the cookies came out nicely and I still have a log and a half of dough stored in the freezer!

So to make these yummy butter cookies you need:

1 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2.5 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup sanding sugar or granulated sugar, for rolling

3/4 cup dark chocolate, finely chopped

1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped

To make the cookies:

Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium, until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Now add the flour, chocolate, nuts, and salt and mix till combined.

Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and half it. Roll each piece into a log that’s about 1.5 inches in diameter. Wrap in parchment paper, ensuring the ends are covered and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or more. To help the logs retain their shape, place them in empty paper towel tubes.

When you are ready to start baking, remove the dough from the fridge and preheat the oven to 175C, line a baking tray with parchment paper. Allow the dough to get soft enough to cut, not too soft though.

Cut as much of the dough as you want to bake off. The rest can be kept in the fridge for up to three weeks and used as needed. Roll the logs in sanding sugar to coat and slice into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Place 1 inch apart on the parchment paper.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown, rotating halfway. Let the cookies cool and serve.

 

Frittatas Before I Go

Yes, these are frittatas. Muffin frittatas if you want. I made some a while ago and thought of throwing the egg mixture into my muffin pans and see what the end result is and loved it. Actually, I loved it better when they were still in the oven because they become very puffy and fun, but they loose a bit of that when they are released from the heat. But I still like them, little individual muffin-shaped frittatas.

They’re super easy to make. What you need is:

5 eggs

1/3 cup pouring cream

1 spring onion- white part minced

8 cherry tomatoes, quartered

salt and pepper

some grilled and sliced pepper for the topping

To make:

Preheat the oven to 200C. Have muffin pans handy, I used silicone ones, if you don’t I suggest greasing your pans a little first.

Mix the eggs, cream and spring onions together in a bowl and add slat and pepper to taste. Put the tomatoes into the pans and pour the egg over. This should be enough for 4 pans. Cook in the oven for about 30 minutes or until set. Remove and let it cool slightly before serving with the sliced pepper on top. Easy, tasty and fun to look at!

And now we are almost on our way to Cambodia! My sister is visiting and we decided to spend some time there.

We’ll be re-visiting Siem Reap and the temple complexes at Angkor. Alexander and I were there last year and I went with another friend almost 7 years ago. Even so I am still looking forward to wandering around between these awesome structures. And kicking back with a cocktail at the FCC afterwards!

From Siem Reap we’ll be going back to Phnom Penh and then onto Kep and Sihanoukville along the coast. Hopefully I will have some stories and good pictures of our trip upon our return next week.

 

Chicken and Pork Adobo

I was craving adobo again recently and decided to try my hand at a new recipe. Only recently, thanks to Joey, have I discovered this popular Filipino dish, which is also their national dish.

Adobo can be prepared in numerous ways and with a large selection of ingredients and flavors. One of my favorite aspects of adobo is the addition of a little vinegar to some of the recipes early on in the preparation. This adds a great tart flavor, different from that gained from adding lime juice to some Thai dishes. A lot of the recipes also calls for cracked or fresh peppercorns, another favorite of mine.

The dish I made was a chicken and pork adobo. I strayed a little from the recipe, I marinated my meat a little first and used coconut milk instead of stock- I did not have any available when I started cooking.

So to make my version of this dish you need to find:
- 200g pork belly, cut into cubes
- 200g chicken, cut into cubes
- 2 tablespoons vinegar
- cracked pepper
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 1/2 cup coconut milk (or 1 cup stock)
- fresh green peppercorns

To make:

Marinated the meat in 1tablespoon oil, the turmeric and about a ¼ teaspoon cracked pepper for an hour.
When the meat is ready, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan and sauté garlic until fragrant. Add the meat and brown until golden. Add the vinegar, but do not stir until the vinegar boils and release it’s acidic odor. Add a little more cracked pepper if you like and the fish sauce. Add some green peppercorns and the coconut milk (or stock) and stew for a couple of minutes, while stirring regularly. Dish up and serve.

I topped the adobo with some fried plantains. It made a fine accompaniment to the stew. Note that you can completely leave out the whole marinating in turmeric part, I just felt like experimenting.

 

Hay Hay it’s Donna Day #19- Clafoutis

I was convinced that I would not make the deadline for this round of HHDD. Between extensive vacation time, traveling, quitting my job (yes!) and taking on some new tasks I experimented a bit with the theme for this round, clafoutis, but they came out more like cla-floppies. Kind of tasty, but terrible to look at.

Then industrious host and winner of the last round, Bron, notified me that the deadline was extended by a week. Phew! So Monday afternoon after work I rushed home with my new ingredients and set to work on another attempt. And I think it kind of worked.

Bron’s original Donna Hay recipe was for plum and chocolate clafoutis. As I am a big fan of chocolate I decided not to stray too far from the original recipe. I am also a big fan of dark chocolate with orange and so decided to make chocolate and orange clafoutis.

Now I don’t know anything about clafoutis to be honest, so I have no idea what the actual texture or taste should be like, wikipedia.org says it’s close to pancake batter and judging by all the pictures I’ve seen that seems to be correct. If that is the case then this was another round of cla-floppies because mine came out more with a brownie consistency even though I followed the recipe pretty closely. But it looks much better than previous attempts, so I’m entering it!

To make these clafoutis you need to collect:

- 1/3 cup all purpose flour, sifted

- 1/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted

- 1/3 cup caster sugar, sifted

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 3 eggs

- 1 cup pouring cream

- 1 cup chopped dark chocolate- a mixture of dark chocolate and dark orange chocolate in this case

- 1 teaspoon orange zest

- a couple of glazed orange rings- quartered

- 20g unsalted butter

To make:

Preheat the oven to 180C. Sift flour, cocoa and sugar in a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, stir together the eggs, cream and vanilla and then whisk together with the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate and orange zest. Melt the butter and divide between two small baking pans (ideally it should 2-cup capacity pans, mine were a bit bigger but worked fine). Place the orange slices at the bottom of the pan and pour half the batter into each, bake for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through, it should be puffed up. Let it cool and then flip it out onto a plate so that the orange slices are at the top and enjoy!

Now that I think about it and look at the pictures more closely, I guess that the texture might look right for a clafouti, but when you eat it it certainly has a much more brownie-like texture. I’m beginning to suspect that I unknowingly added a bit more than a cup of chocolate. So sue me for being over-indulgent.

I’m looking forward to your round-up, Bron. Thanks for hosting and introducing me to a new delight. Thanks also to Barbara for initiating this fun event. I’m looking forward to more!

 

HHDD# 18- Coconut Chocolate Tarts

Dear All,

Why, you may ask, am I posting the next Hay Hay it’s Donna Day! challenge so soon after winning the last round? Why am I not savoring the moment and kicking back with a glass of wine to celebrate? Why am I already spending hours (not really) in the kitchen working on the new challenge?

Not being one for secrets I will tell you that it’s because I miss the ‘relax’ gene, I’ve never been good at kicking, wine in Thailand is stupidly expensive, and we’re spending most of March traveling to northern Vietnam and Thailand’s Andaman coast (jealous?). So Barbara and I decided to do it sooner rather than later. Because for me, later never happens.

So here it is, your next challenge for this event that was created by the innovative and very sweet Barbara, inspired by the (as I am discovering) great Donna Hay and previously hosted by my funky Southeast Asian neighbor Joey; Coconut Chocolate Tarts from Donna’s book New Food Fast. It is a very-very-extremely simple recipe. And the ingredients are very basic and easy to get your hands on as well. Preparation time should not be too long, the thing that takes the most time is for the chocolate to set, but more about that later. The reason I chose such an easy recipe is because with simplicity, in this case, comes endless possibilities. Endless. So what I’m giving you is the opportunity to let your inner culinary artist go nuts!

Let me explain the recipe.

You need to gather:

For the shell-

2 egg whites

1/2 cup white sugar

2 cups dessicated coconut

For the filling-

1 and 1/4 cups cream

300g dark chocolate, chopped

Make:

Preheat your oven to 180C (350F).

Mix the egg whites, coconut and sugar well. Scoop the mixture into muffin tins and with wetted hands (works best this way) press it out to create a base and sides for a cup. Put into the oven at bake for about 8-10 minutes, or until it begins to lightly brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for one minute. Gently remove the cups from muffin tins and let it cool more.

While this is happening, heat the cream in a saucepan until almost boiling. Remove from heat and throw in the chopped chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted into the cream and you have a decadent and rich looking chocolate liquid.

Carefully, fill each cup with the liquid. Put the cups on a plate or tray in the freezer and leave it for 10 minutes or until set. When set, remove from the freezer and serve to guests with coffee or as a dessert. You’ll be an instant hit. Or be selfish and enjoy it all yourself, I know I would!

Suggestions for Coconut Chocolate Tarts:

- Although you should use muffin tins, I used paper cupcake forms and went through the whole process and only removed the paper after the chocolate has set.

- Mine took longer than ten minutes to set, but I think my freezer is not that cold.

- If you follow this recipe, you may end up with some of the chocolate liquid at the end. Either eat it all immediately or keep some to add on top of the tarts later for decoration.

- I got about 14 tarts with the regular sized cupcake forms I used.

- Be imaginative and creative! The possibilities are really endless. One can play with different ingredients, textures and flavors for the shell. And as for the fillings- go crazy. Add a bit of liqueur, chili or any other spices, use other kinds of chocolate, use nuts, dried fruits, preserves. Also, if you can be very creative with toppings and decorations. I would say you can do whatever you like, as long as you make a sweet tart in a similar format. Have fun!

Here are the dates for this challenge:

Entries should be in by March 2nd. The roundup will be posted by the 7th (same day we are flying out!) and the winner will be announced the next week from somewhere in northern Vietnam.

The winner will receive a gift from me, perhaps I will pick up something fun in Hanoi?

And here are the rules:

RULES FOR HAY HAY ITS DONNA DAY

Hay Hay Its Donna Day is open to all food and wine bloggers.

Entries submitted for HHDD must be made specifically for this event, although photos may be submitted to Does My Blog Look Good In This.

The host will select, make and post the original Donna Hay recipe without any changes. Participants may make the same recipe as is, or put their own spin on the recipe by altering the ingredients whilst remaining with the theme. Entrants must include a link to the host in their post.

Entries can be made at any time once the event has been announced but must be posted and emailed to the host by the closing date. My email address is bordeaux76@gmail.com

Good luck and enjoy.

 

Sunday Sandwiches

We had a friend from work over for lunch last Sunday, and I decided to try these sandwiches I saw in a copy of Real Living I picked up recently. It’s real simple to prepare and a makes for a very satisfying and refreshing lunch.

All you need is some pesto and olive oil, grilled vegetables, some fresh greens or herbs like basil and parsley and cheese. Grill your veggies. Slice the top off the bread and hollow it out, the breadcrumbs can be saved for other cooking (like in burgers). Spread pesto and olive oil along the insides of the bread and then layer veggies, cheese, and greens inside the bread. Put back the top of the bread, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate overnight. Slice and enjoy.

Alexander made a dragon fruit and watermelon salad to accompany the bread. Refreshing!

I made the pesto using fresh basil, garlic, cashew nuts and olive oil. Of course I made too much, so the leftovers found themselves being used up in other dinners throughout the week.

Monday I made mushroom burgers and sweet potato chips. I spread some pesto on the toasted buns. And there was a surprise in the burgers! What you do is make two thin patties and put some sauteed mushrooms on one, cover with another and seal before cooking. I am convinced that you can absolutely have your imagination run wild here.

Thursday night I made oven baked chicken and had pesto and pasta on the side. Marinade some sliced chicken breasts in a mixture of fresh lemon juice, chopped garlic, black pepper, and olive oil. Wrap this and some sliced shallots and fresh green peas in aluminum foil and cook in a preheated oven (250C) until juices run clear. Mmm succulent and flavorful chicken.

And that was pretty much my week in the kitchen.

 

Fruity-nutty Dessert Pizza

Just some apricot cheese, fresh snow pear and almond slivers on top of melted mozzarella and voila!

A dessert pizza is born.

Out of all the pizzas I made recently I think I personally loved this one the most. The fruitiness tasted kind of unique. and looking at it made me very happy.

 

My Tom Khaa Kai, with Banana Flower too!

I grabbed what was lying around in the fridge last night and tried to make something like a thom khaa kai, it translates as boiled galangal chicken and is used to describe a milder coconut-y sour soup. Mine was less soupy and more like a kind of stew, but it was still tasty, blending some lovely Thai flavors in a creamy-dreamy coconut dish.

To make my version of TKK you need to round up:

1 chicken breast- sliced

4 slices galangal

1 stalk lemon grass chopped into 1 inch pieces

4 kaffir lime leaves

1 small green chili, chopped

3 shiitake mushrooms

6 cherry tomatoes

2 spring onions- whites slices into 1 inchpieces

some sliced and wash banana flower

lime juice and fish sauce to taste

1 and 1/2 cups water

1 cup coconut milk

Make:

Bring the water to a boil and add the lemon grass and galangal. Cook till fragrant. Add the chicken, mushrooms, tomatoes, banana flower and the coconut milk. Bring to a boil and cook until the chicken is done. Add the spring onions, kaffir lime leaves and chili. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add lime juice and fish sauce to taste. Remove from the heat and serve.

I cooked some brown rice to go with the dish and sliced some kaffir lime leaves to garnish and to add a bit more flavor. The earthiness of the brown rice and the creaminess of the main dish were quite complimentary I thought.

 

Food & Places- Bobotie from South Africa

South Africa is not known as a country with a wealth of culinary delights like, say, Thailand. In fact, I’ve heard travelers complain about the food being bland. Even some guidebooks suggest that you certainly don’t visit SA for the food.

But I disagree, considering South Africa’s incredibly rich cultural heritage it only makes sense that there is a curious and exciting mix of food to be discovered by anyone looking for a good meal.

And to back-up that statement I bring you… Bobotie!

Bobotie, (the tie pronounced like Bet-tie) is a delicious Cape Malay dish filled with flavors, fragrances and textures and anybody calling bobotie dull has no taste buds. This dish brings together the fruity sweetness and vinegary tart of fruit chutney, the sexiness of cinnamon, and the spiced-goodness of curry and turmeric. Biting into bobotie you go through a layer of crisp glaze, followed by egg custard before finally getting to the richly flavored meat. Mmm.

There are quite a number of bobotie recipes out there, but they all combine basically the same ingredients; meat, bread, milk, eggs, onions, curry, turmeric, and fruit chutney. My version of bobotie actually does not make use of fruit chutney, I use apricot jam instead and add just a little bit of vinegar or lemon juice for the tart flavor.

The best thing to do when making this most certainly non-bland South African dish is to experiment until you find the right balance of flavors for your tastes. This is what I usually do when I make bobotie. So I’m leaving you with more of a guideline than a recipe, the rest will be up to you.

Find:

500g ground beef

1 chopped onion

1 slice bread- white or brown

1 cup milk

2 eggs

turmeric

curry powder

bay leave

pepper

salt

sugar

chutney or apricot jam

vinegar or lemon juice

olive oil

Make:

Preheat your oven to about 180C and prepare a deep oven dish. Soak the slice of bread in the cup of milk. Heat the oil and add the curry powder and turmeric and then the onion. Add the beef and brown. When the beef is browned, mix in the chutney or jam, a little vinegar, and sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Take the slice of white bread and squeeze out all the milk, keep the milk as you will use it for the glaze and custard. Crumble the bread into the meat mixture and pour all of this into your oven dish, push a bay leave into the top. Bake for about an hour, until everything has set.

For the glazy-custardy part you mix the eggs with the milk and pour this on over the meat about thirty minutes before it’s done.

Suggestions for bobotie:

- bobotie is best served with some fragrant yellow rice, but I ‘ve used dahl and brown rice and it works just as well

- you can let your imagination run wild with adding some extras, some people add raisins, dried apricots. Almond slivers adds a lovely texture to the meat.

- make it and say to yourself “Mmm, South African know a thing or two about making a great meal!”