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Sunday 17 November 2013

Herb Rice Cakes

Growing up in a Chinese family, I used to have a bowl of white rice everyday at dinner. My dad always told me to really chew and savour the first bite of rice because it tastes sweet when a mouthful of salivary amylase turns the starch into sugars. As much as I liked that sweetness of the first bite of rice, I liked it more when my mom occasionally burnt the rice at the bottom of the rice cooker. My brother and I used to scrape off the patches of burnt rice into our bowls. There's a heartiness to toasted rice that I really like, and plus, it brings back good memories, so when I found a bowl of leftover cooked rice in the fridge, I made these immediately. 

Recipe (not really a recipe...just a method of using up leftover rice)
Ingredients:
  • 2 cups cooked rice
  • 2 egg whites
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheese
  • 1/2 cup chopped parsley
  • oil for the skillet (opt.)
Stir all ingredients together, and drop spoonfuls onto a hot, non-stick skillet (or an oiled skillet). Let them sear for a few seconds on high heat, then flip the whole dollop over with a spatula and compress into a patty. It's easier to press it down on the seared side without the rice sticking to the spatula. Let it cook and get toasted by heating a few minutes on both sides. Best enjoyed while they're warm because the cheese will be gooey inside. It tastes even better with some mayo or Miracle Whip on top. 

Cheese (didn't want to wash a grater, so I chopped it instead)

parsley

Rice cakes

Sunday 11 August 2013

Homemade Chocolate Candies

You know how ridiculously expensive those dark chocolate coated super fruits and nuts are? The ones that come in fancy re-sealable packages? They're actually really easy to make at home, and I decided to make a batch this weekend. I only used three ingredients: dark chocolate, dried cranberries, and walnuts. The chocolate I used came in a bulk 2.5 kg package from the Lindt Outlet near me. A trip to Costco took care of the other two ingredients. I didn't even need to turn on the stove or use the microwave oven to make these, which is perfectly fine with me, seeing how hot the summer weather already is. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
  • 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips 
  • 1/2 cup walnut pieces
  • 1/2 dried cranberries
Place chocolate chips in a heatable bowl, and over securely with cling wrap. Place on top of the fridge where a warm spot is for about an hour or so. A windowsill warmed by sunlight, or the interior of a car will work as well. When chocolate is melted, pour in dried fruit and walnuts, and stir to coat completely. Line the chocolate coated in pieces or small chunks on a lined baking sheet and slide into the fridge (freezer if impatient) for a 15 minutes to allow chocolate to firm up. Enjoy when chocolate has firmed up!




Sunday 4 August 2013

Summer Salad: one of many!

We plant tomatoes in our backyard. As a result, in our mid- to late summer months, we have tomato for almost every meal everyday, and still have extra to share a big bag with all our friends. I never get sick of these sweet, juicy, fruits because I help plant them and well, because they're so sweet and juicy. These little banana tomatoes are my favourite. They're firm but not starchy, and work well when used raw or cooked or baked. Here is one of the colourful summer salads I made with these tomatoes.

Salad components: 
  • tomatoes
  • bell peppers
  • avocados
  • lime (juice)
  • canned beans (I used romano beans)
  • sliced black olives
  • salt and pepper
  • olive oil
Simply dice tomatoes, bell peppers, and avocados. Toss everything in lots of fresh lime juice, with some olive oil, and salt and pepper. Add canned beans and olives and toss again. If you want, you can toss the tomatoes, bell peppers, and avocados separately so you can arrange the salad layers. 

Lots of fresh banana tomatoes from the backyard

Yummy avocado

Yummy salad

All the beautiful, colourful layers

Monday 22 July 2013

Microwave test cookies

Sometimes, extreme hot summer weather coincides with the craving for freshly baked homemade cookies. I didn't want to turn on the oven to bake though. Just the thought of having a 350 F oven in the house was enough to make me sweat. But I couldn't leave that cookie craving unsatiated, so I looked for an alternative. Can cookies be baked in a microwave oven? I tested five different times and power settings...
Microwave used: 1200 watt Panasonic microwave
Flour for a small batch of cookies: whole wheat flour on left, peanut flour on right; sugar, salt, baking powder in middle

Dough with wheat bran stirred in

Cookie before "baking"

After baking 

Cookie bottoms after baking

Sample 1: heated at 70% power for 1 min 30 sec. Looked well baked and dry on top, but had a burnt patch on inside. 

Sample 2: heated at 50% power for 1 min 30 sec. Appeared light and dry on the outside with a small burnt patch inside. 

Sample 3: Heated at 100% power for 50 seconds. Burnt marks on the outside with centre converted into charcoal. Emitted acrid burnt smell; potentially carcinogenic. 

Sample 4: heated at 100% power for 30 seconds. Exterior looked slightly translucent, moist and soft. Inside texture resembled stale dry cake. 

Sample 5: heated at 100% power for 35 seconds. Appeared just like the one above but slightly drier.  
Overall, cooking at 50% power for 1 min 30 seconds appeared to give the best result. The cookie was crunchy through out , but I had to cut off the burnt patch. None of the power and time settings were able to achieve results a conventional oven would because the microwave cooks food from the inside out. Since my cookies were rather thick, I guess rolling them out thinner next time might help get a more even "bake". The microwave seems to be better at cooking food that remains a higher moister content after cooking and so maybe I should be trying a microwave cake recipe instead. Saving that for next time...

I guess this will have to do for now until the weather cools a bit and I can actually face using the oven. Hope you enjoyed this sequence!

Sunday 7 July 2013

Citrus Angel Biscuits

It's July, the middle of summer, and I feel like baking. I've been suppressing the urge to bake for a few weeks because it's been so hot, and I didn't want to have to reve up the air condition just because I've decided to do some baking. Anyway, I couldn't resist any longer, and since this weekend is a little cooler, I baked some angel biscuits. These biscuits are a little sweet and tangy because I slather some zesty citrus glaze on them before baking. The glaze also gives them some wonderful, summer colour: yellow, orange, and green. Can you guess what citrus zests I used?

The Recipe:
Dry ingredients:
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom
  • 1 1/2 tsp dry instant yeast
Wet ingredients:
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/3 cup plain cream cheese
  • water
Glaze:
  • 1 orange
  • 1 lemon
  • 2 limes
  • 3 tbsp sugar
Stir dry ingredients together. Cut butter and cream cheese into little chunks and rub into the flour mixture until the largest piece of butter of cream cheese is about the size of a split pea or lentil, and evenly distributed. Add water until a soft dough forms. Gather dough into a dough ball, wrap loosely with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for a few hours to let the dough soften and rise. 

To make the glaze, wash the orange, lemon, and limes, and grate the zest into a bowl. Add sugar and mix to evenly distribute the zest. To make it spreadable, squeeze either the juice of the lemon, or the two limes over the sugar. 

Roll out dough to 1/4 inch (or ~3/4 cm) thickness, fold the dough in half so that there are two layers. Cut out into squares or circles or whatever shape you want your biscuits to be, brush citrus glaze over biscuits, and slide into a hot oven to bake. Bake at 425 F (~220 C) for 10 to 12 minutes. Let biscuits cool on a rack and enjoy!

Rested and risen dough with a particularly large chunk of butter

Ready to be baked

Cooling and waiting to be devoured



Sunday 2 June 2013

Cranberry Cheesecake: A very late post

I hope you're looking forward to summer! What is the one aspect of summer that you're most looking forward to? Maybe you like the long hours of daylight, the endless blue skies, all the outdoor activities, family gatherings and holidays, the beach, or glorious sunsets? Or perhaps you like watching the magnificent summer thunderstorms? I'm mostly looking forward to enjoying those cool, sweet treats that the hot sun makes me crave. Here is a recipe for a no-bake cheesecake filling that I made last year around this time. I'd promised to post about it when I made those mung bean potato biscuits (remember?) but never got around to writing the post. Well, here it is, a year late, but still a recipe to make.

The Recipe (makes two 8" tarts):
Pie crusts (follow recipe here)

Filling:
  • 300 mL fat free, plain greek yogurt
  • 400 mL light, plain cream cheese 
  • 3/4 cup frozen cranberries
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 2 tsp gelatin (powder)
  • some water
Mix together yogurt, cream cheese, and milk until a smooth mixture forms. It's best to let the cream cheese come to room temperature so it softens before blending. You can also soften the cream cheese in  the microwave using the defrost setting. 

Melt and cook frozen cranberries in a pan. Pour some water on the bottom of the pan until the bottom is covered with a layer of water. Cook until cranberries pop and soften. Pour into blender and blend until an even mixture forms. Strain to remove large pieces of skin and seed. Return to pan, add sugar, stir to dissolve, and cook until thickened, like a syrup. Take off heat and stir in gelatin to dissolve. Add to cream cheese and yogurt mixture and stir to combine. Pour into prepared pie tins, and place in the refrigerator to set for at least 4 hours before serving. 

Note: you can set aside some cream cheese and yogurt mixture to decorate the top if you like. 

This is the yogurt I used. I also added the jam to the rest of the cranberry puree (it's only a small amount). 

Frozen cranberries.

Mung bean potato biscuits baked into a tart crust

Adding the filling

Swirls for decoration

You can also make it one colour. Texture after setting. 

Thursday 23 May 2013

Homemade Chocolate Candy Cups

A few years ago, one of the best things happened in our neighbourhood: a Lindt chocolate outlet store opened. Last month, there was a 50% off sale on all store items and we bought a couple 2.2kg bags of dark chocolate pieces. When there's that much chocolate sitting in the house, the biggest temptation is to just take some and try out recipes. So I tried making some chocolate peanut butter cups and some chocolate ice cream cups.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups:
Filling Ingredients:
  • 2 tbsp peanut butter (preferably slightly hardened chunks from the bottom of natural peanut butter jars)
  • 2 tbsp sour cream
  • 2 tbsp honey
  • 1/2 tsp instant coffee
  • 1/4 tsp salt
Shell: ~ 2 oz Dark chocolate
Materials: Twelve ~1 inch diameter paper liners

Melt chocolate in the microwave using 10 second bursts, and stirring in between. Spoon a teaspoon into each paper liner and coax to the edges using a small spoon or toothpick. Stir mixed filling ingredients and place in a piping bag (or plastic bag with a corner cut off) and pipe into the centre of the paper liner on top of the chocolate. Pour enough chocolate on top to cover the peanut butter filling, allow chocolate to re-solidify at room temperature and place into the fridge until ready to serve. 

Peanut butter fillings

Chocolate peanut butter cups. Just have to wait for these to firm up

Chocolate Ice Cream Cups:
Filling Ingredients: 
  • 1/3 cup whipped cream
  • 1 tbsp melted dark chocolate
  • 1 tsp sugar
Shell: ~ 2 oz dark chocolate
Materials: Twelve ~1 inch diameter paper liners

Melt chocolate in microwave using 10 second bursts, stirring in between. Spoon a teaspoon into each paper liner and coax chocolate all the way up the edge of the paper liner using a toothpick. Add more chocolate if needed to keep a thin but consistent layer all around. Place liners into the fridge to let the chocolate solidify and cool down. For the filling, fold sugar and melted chocolate into the whipped cream and spoon or pipe into the cooled chocolate shells. Place into the freezer to let the filling firm up before serving.

Frozen chocolate ice cream cups. There's a bit of frost on the surface of the ice cream. 

The truffle-y ice cream centres and thin crisp (from the freezer) chocolate shell make these such an enjoyable treat

Wednesday 22 May 2013

Egg Medallion

Last time I went on vacation with my family, we bought these small cake tins with removable bottoms. I'm actually not sure whether they're for making cakes because the bottom is pretty loose, which will allow the batter to leak out easily. It could be for individual bread rolls, but they're only ~5 cm wide and 4 cm tall and I only have four of these, so it would be a very small bread recipe. This morning, I used these as egg moulds to make breakfast today, and it worked quite well. Take a look!

The removable bottom cake tins. I just put them upside down (as in the picture above) on a hot pan and slipped a raw egg with some cheese and pepper into the small whole at the top. 
One large egg fits perfectly into tins this size: 5 cm diameter, 4 cm height. Since I used a non-stick pan, I didn't use any oil. I was reminded to be careful not to scratch the non-stick coating with the tins by my mom, and the rounded edges of these tins were perfect. After removing the bottoms of these cake tins, I placed them upside down on a hot pan, and allowed 30 seconds for the cake tins to heat. In the meantime, I whisked an egg slightly with some black pepper and shredded cheese. Once I was sure the pan and cake tins were hot, I poured the whisked egg into the upside down cake tin and waited.

This is how it looked when I turned the tin onto a plate after a few minutes. The hot aluminum tin evenly distributes the heat from the pan to the sides of the egg medallion, which allowed the whole egg to get cooked. 

A sprinkle of very finely chopped red pepper, and some green fruit and veg (avocado and cucumber) makes a pretty and tasty breakfast. 

Thursday 16 May 2013

Green Tea Ice Cream

While I'm on the green tea trend, I made some green tea ice cream. The first batch of homemade ice cream this season marks the start of many warm sunny days...

The Recipe:
Ingredients:
  • 1 tbsp green tea powder
  • 1 1/2 cup whipping cream
  • 1 3/4 cup water
  • 1/4 cup sugar + 6 g splenda (or 1/2 cup sugar)
  • pinch salt
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
Place egg yolk in a large bowl that will hold at least 4 cups of liquid. Stir together 2 tbsp sugar and cornstarch and set aside. In a pot, place in the rest of the sugar (and substitute) and green tea powder and stir to mix evenly. Add water and cream and heat on medium heat, whisking to make sure everything is evenly mixed. Once cream mixture is just simmering (tiny bubbles should be forming at the surface and it should feel hot if you put a drip on your finger), take pot off heat. Add sugar and cornstarch to egg yolk and whisk to form a lumpy mixture. Slowly pour hot cream into the egg yolk and sugar mixture while whisking. Now pour entire mixture back into the pot and stir with a heat proof spatula or wooden spoon gently until it thickens a bit. Mixture should coat the spatula or back of spoon and leave a clean track when you run a finger across it. Strain mixture through a sieve, allow to cool to room temperature and chill completely in the fridge.

Pour into pre-frozen ice-cream maker after chilling and churn away! For me, it took about 25 minutes for a chunk to get stuck, so I knew it was ready. Scoop into a freezable container (about 4 cups volume) and freeze for a few hours to let ice-cream firm up.
Churning ice cream after 15 minutes. 

Some microwave toffee walnuts to go with the ice cream. 

A few hours later: green tea ice cream


Tuesday 14 May 2013

Green Tea Croissants

There's this program called "peaksaver" in Canada where electricity costs more during the daytime on weekdays and less at night and on weekends, so as to lower the stress on the power grid. This means I save most of the baking for weekends. Sometimes it becomes too hard to wait for the weekend and I find myself getting started on a weekday. Last week was one of those weeks, but I thought of the perfect thing to make: croissants. Croissants are made by folding a layer of solid fat (usually butter) into a yeast dough, and folding the resultant dough over and over again to achieve many layers. Making them can take up to a few days because the dough has to rest in the fridge for hours between each fold. Starting on a Thursday night made them ready for baking on Saturday. I combined cream cheese and butter with some green tea powder for the fat layer for half the recipe, and just butter and green tea powder for the other half. Since I only had whole wheat flour at home, I used that for both recipes. Both turned out alright. The cream cheese croissants were softer while the butter ones were crispier.

The Recipe:
Ingredients:
Fat layer:
  • 100 g unsalted butter
  • 125 g plain cream cheese (or use all butter if desired)
  • 2 tsp green tea powder
Dough:
  • 250 g whole wheat flour
  • 25 g pea fibre (not really necessary)
  • 1 tsp yeast
  • ~1 cup lukewarm water
  • 4 tbsp sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
Softened the butter and cream cheese, add green tea powder, and stir together to combine. Roll into a large, flat square about 6" (~15 cm) wide between two pieces of plastic wrap. Store on a flat surface in the fridge for 15 to 30 minutes to let it firm up. Meanwhile, prepare the dough by stirring all ingredients together and kneading it into an smooth, elastic ball. Roll out into a rectangle about 7" by 14" (~17.5 by 35 cm) large. The idea is to get it slightly larger than twice the size of the butter layer. Place the chilled butter layer on one side of the rolled out dough and fold the other side over so that the butter is sandwiched between two layers of dough. Make sure there are no air pockets between dough and butter and pinch the sides to seal the butter in. 

Roll the dough out a bit so that it becomes a rectangle with one set of edges longer than the original 7". Fold into three like a letter, wrap loosely with plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill for anywhere between 1 to 8 hours. Repeat this roll, fold, and chill process again three to four more times. 

When the final dough has had time to chill and rise slightly in the fridge, it is ready to be rolled out, cut, and shaped into a croissant. On a floured surface, roll out dough into a layer just less than 0.5" (~1 cm) thick. Cut into triangles and add a small slit at the base of the triangle to help with even baking. Roll into crescents starting at the base, and place on a lined baking sheet. Allow to rise at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours and bake in a 350F (~175C) oven for 20 – 25 min. Allow to cool on a rack. 

Green tea butter sitting on dough

Cut out dough, ready to be shaped into a croissant

Before baking (this is the cream cheese and butter batch)

Before baking (this is the pure butter batch)

Fresh from the oven (this is the butter batch)

Texture of the cream cheese and butter croissants (retained green tea colour better than the butter ones)

Texture of the pure butter croissants



Wednesday 8 May 2013

Honey-snap cookies

I've been having trouble finding inspiration for stuff to write here lately, so lets just skip right to the cookies. I think I'm going through a "cookie phase" right now, because I just made those chocolate ginger cookies, and now I have a batch of honey-snap cookies in the kitchen. These have toasted millet, which are supposed to be very healthy due to its rather abundant B-vitamin content (look at the WHFoods: Millet page for more info). Here's how they were made...

The Recipe:
Ingredients:
  • 2/3 cup minute oats (any rolled oat will probably work as well)
  • 1/3 cup wheat bran (can substitute oat bran, small flaked coconut, or psyllium husk if you don't want gluten)
  • 2 tbsp toasted millet (toasted in dry pan until they popped)
  • 2 tbsp skim milk powder
  • 2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • (optional) 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Sift and stir together cornstarch, milk powder, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. In a small pot, heat honey and butter until the butter melts and mixture is runny. Take off heat, and allow to cool slightly. Add sifted mixture, oats, bran, millet, and egg, and stir to get an even mixture. Add cocoa powder if desired. Place spoonfuls of batter on a lined baking sheet, making sure to leave at least a 2 inch (~5 cm) border around each spoonful because cookies will spread while baking. Bake at 350F (or ~175C) for 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges begin to turn golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and cookies will become crispier as they cool. 

Note: Cookies can be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature to preserve crispness; they will turn into a moist, cake-y texture if stored in the fridge. 

Millet and oats, with milk powder, cornstarch, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon on top

Spoonfuls of batter before baking (these ones have cocoa powder)


The baked cookies. Again, these have the cocoa powder and appear darker.