Needin' some Puddin'

I could re-tell the story for the...tenth time, about the horrible start of the day but it's allright. I think the previous nine times sufficed. 'Nuff with the whining, on with the pudding.

I'm a religious reader of Delicious. I read it every month without fail and will proudly announce that it is the best food magazine I've come across. *YAY!*. This month just made their status skyrocket when they rocked up to the newsagent's shelves with a gluten-free special (and the awesome Shaun wrote me a note just in case I missed it). So I flip through it every other morning over breakfast, dog-earring the pages holding recipes I just have to try. I usually don't end up trying them because when I have a craving I forget...forget to look through my stash of mags. Luckily this time I remembered! CHOCOLATE SELF-SAUCING PUDDING. Exactly what a girl needs when shes down with somesort of sickness, feeling slightly ghostly and neck high in assignments. oh and plus, she doesn't know what to dress up as for Halloween.

Pirate, anyone?

Chocolate Self-saucing Pudding by Sue Shepard from October 2007 Delicious Magazine
(This is the half the recipe) serves, 3-4

45g fine rice flour (from Asian Grocers)
1.5 tbsp soy flour
1.5 tbsp g.f.cornflour
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp g.f. baking powder
1/2 tsp xantham gum (optional)
70g caster sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder

1) Triple sift the ingredients in a bowl

95ml soy milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp olive oil

1) Mix all together in a bowl and pour into the flour mixture
2) Pour mixture into a 3 cup capacity baking dish
3) If it is too shallow it might overflow

215 ml hot water
70g brown sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder

1) Mix altogether
2)Pour over the chocolate cake mixture, do not mix!
3)Bake at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a crisp spongy top develops (I baked mine until the fudge sauce started bubbling over the edge of the pan...think I overfilled)

Sugar High Friday: Drunken Apples

I hardly drink alcohol and what I've got lying around does not directly belong to me. Let's see...I've got Kahlua but it's my sisters (yet I use it) and I've got Vodka, the remnants from a girls night in some 4 months ago? And it's still sitting there, in all it's half-drunk glory, untouched since then. So when this SHF rolled around, I was practically spoilt for choice. Vodka or Kahlua? =P And I wasn't about o go out and buy more alcohol only to use 1/2 cup at most and leave the rest of it sitting on top of the fridge. There's a war going on there-and right now the cereal boxes are winning. 4:1.

So I typed in 'vodka + apples' and did a little google search for possible inspirations. All I got was apple flavoured vodka, not much luck there. Sat around and thought about buying some other form of alcohol, cointreau maybe, or maybe a little wine but decided against it when I chanced upon Smitten Kitchen's Boozy Baked French Toast. I could work with that!

I went to the market after uni and got me some apples and craisins. Got home, took my gluten free bread out of the freezer and warmed it up on the jaffle maker. Ever notice how bread never turns crispy in there, only the edges, while keeping the middles moist and squidgy? Might be because of the steam created by the icy bits on the frozen bread, which is a good thing for this sorta 'lazy-i-just-cant-be-bothered-leaving-my-bread-to-thaw-slowly' things. So I decided to halve the recipe, used 2 eggs instead of said 1.5 and hid apple slices & craisins between the bread layers. Left it in the fridge overnight and this morning I had a no-effort-sweet-as brekkie. YUMS! I don't know if I'm drunk yet, but I think you could definitely add more Kahlua (3 tbsps maybe?)

The french toast bordered on the line of bread-and-butter pudding but a lot alot ALOT less fat and alot less sweet, which is why I suggest maple syrup or maybe a kahlua syrup? I tried but failed, luckily I didn't need it too sweet. I reckon gluten free bread soaks up alot more liquid so if you were using normal bread I suggest you stick to Smitten Kitchen's quantity of ingredients. Otherwise, It's really yummy. =)

Baked Drunken Apple French Toast (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:
6 slices gluten free bread
2 eggs
2 small apples, sliced thinly (I used Sundowner, just because.)
handful of Craisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1.5 cups fat-free soy milk (that's all I had on hand)
2 tbsp raw sugar + 3 tbsp extra
3 tbsp Kahlua

Pyrex Loaf pan

1) Whisk the eggs, sugar, milk, kahlua and cinnamon together
2) Line 2 slices of bread in the pan, and slice another up to fill in the gaps
3) Place the sliced apples onto the bread and sprinkle with craisins, top with one tbsp of sugar
4) Top with remaining bread and pour egg/milk mixture over
5) Let sit for 3 hours or overnight in the fridge. Sprinkle remaining sugar over the top before baking
6) Bake at 190 degrees for 25 minutes and drizzle with maple syrup if desired. YUMMERS!

me, myself and saturday

I realized that when you start working more often, you really and I mean REALLY treasure the free time you get off work. I don't remember a Saturday afternoon where I haven't had to go to work or at the very least, haven't had to think about work. And honestly, I like it very much. Lucky me it was sunny this morning so I woke up all bright and cheery, ready to go to the market. The market is good when it's sunny, actually the market is good whenever. As long as I don't have to rush around. It was good today, Fred came along and carried half the groceries I bought which means I could buy more. simple maths.

The past few days has seen me struggle with being good, avoiding the Haighs chocolate coated scorched almonds. I failed, gave in and ate 3. Just THREE. And I knew for sure that the next time the bout of chocolate want hits me, it'd be worse. So i decided to bake me something better, a chocolate tart of sorts. I don't know how it turned out because I didn't have much expectations. I just needed something that tasted like chocolate. I couldn't find a pie crust recipe to follow, so I made up my own. It turned out odd. Not in a bad terrible inedible way, just, maybe I should've blind baked it first. It's edible nonetheless, definitely would be good to improve upon, we've all got to start somewhere anyway.

It's not the most appetizing photo but it was the best I could get since I just really wanted to sink my teeth in. The crust is odd (like I said) so I won't be posting the recipe I used. Just use your favourite pie crust. The filling was taken from here, and maybe I should've baked it for a longer time (I left it baking for 45 minutes in a water bath) but it set up quite nicely, mousse-like and all. stable yet not hard. =) I'd say it's definitely good for a chocolate fix and most importantly, the guilt factor hardly creeped in at all!

And for my first entry for Presto Pasta Night, I decided that this little baby oughta do the trick!

Gluten-free Pasta with Avocado and Mushrooms

2 serves gluten-free pasta, cooked as per instructions on the box
5 big white button mushrooms (or however much you like, really)
3 big shiitake mushrooms (just 'coz they were on sale)
1/2 brown onion, sliced thinly
1 large clove garlic, bashed and diced
1.5 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt, pepper
1 avocado, diced and slightly bashed

1) heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, add in garlic and onion and saute
2) when onion softens and browns, add in mushrooms and a splash of water and salt, cook until tender
3) Add in balsamic vinegar and pepper and continue cooking until desired softness
4) Place pasta in a bowl, top with avocado and pour the hot mushrooms on top, serve!=)

SugarHighFriday! on a Saturday

Finally, I am on time with participating in SHF #31. I always seem to miss it or find out right after the due date for submissions. So this month's theme is Neutral Territory. So, naturally, I think of white chocolate, panna cotta, white angel food cake, bombe alaska? OKAY, so I was thinking they were things that were kinda 'been there, kinda done that'. I needed something that I have been been to try out, something that I was craving. I was really tempted to bake a lemon cupcake topped with a rich thick white chocolate frosting but I changed my mind.

So here's where I am with this whole 'white' thing. Almond Jelly. It's a Chinese thing (oooh it's one of those 'i wanna go home' days) and my mom likes serving it in thick cubes, swirling through some canned lychees and ice cubes, easy! Oh and it doesn't stop people from coming back for more. Normally ours comes from a packet-just add water. Most people's come from packets, it just seems alot easier.

Oh and I just remembered something funny. My sister loves all things under 'Chinese dessert' and so she bought heaps of the instant almond jelly and one day she decided that letting them sit in the fridge to set was wayyy too much torture to bear. she wanted to eat it NOW so she put it in the freezer. Not smart, we ended up with a block of almond ice sitting in the sink, slowly thawing.

OHWELL, Here's my sugar high! =)

2 cups cold water
1/3 cups caster sugar*
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1/2 tsp almond essence*
2 tsp agar-agar powder*

1) Place cold water and caster sugar in small saucepan
2) Sprinkle the agar agar powder over it and bring to a boil then simmer for 1 minute
3) Take off heat and add in the evaporated milk and almond essence
4) Pour into prepared container* and chill for at least 1 hour

*I used normal white sugar and because I only had 2 tbspoons under 1/4 of sugar in my ENTIRE HOUSE, I had to half the recipe
*I found that the almond essence wasn't enough so I added double the amount, well, I added enough to make sure that I could smell the almond more than the evaporated milk
*Agar-agar powder is from seaweed (i think) and it can be found in most asian groceries. I had no trouble finding mine!=)
*I poured it into those plastic take away containers just coz my mom always does that. It depends on how thick you want the jelly to be, I just mine substantially thick so I can sink my teeth in. YUMMMY!

I'm finally going for Vietnamese tonight. YAY! Damn these food cravings. I think I might bake me some Ciabatta tomorrow. Im a little skeptical about my baking skills...

I am Chunky

There's always that question, are you chunky or smooth? Well, I thought I was smooth that's why I opened the smooth jar first. I've been pinching off that jar, dipping spoon after spoon in it, opening and closing the refridgerator door, then popping my head back in there again. And there it sits, in all it's smooth glory, right at the front of the second top shelf. Then today I decided I wasn't a smooth. After 3 months of peek-a-boo with smooth, I realize I am chunky. And that was what I had for dinner, on a warm thick fresh slice of wholemeal kamut bread. yeap, guys! I'M CHUNKY!=) and if I continue peek-a-boo-ing with chunky, I will be definitely chunky-in the other my-pants-are-becoming-too-snug sense.

and here's a very unflattering photo of my Plum Clafoutis. Trust me, it tastes alot better than it looks. Now I'm sad the photo doesn't do it justice and while I'm at it, Let me whine. I've been meaning to say this in a self-pity, slightly angry sort of way. I don't even know why I'm angry but here goes. WHATS THE POINT OF BAKING AND SELF-PROCLAIMING THE STUFF I BAKE TASTES GOOD WHEN, NO ONE EATS IT. mostly anyway. Okay, there I said it. Now I shall wallow in self-pity and eat more clafoutis. I'm not gonna ask anyone to eat it anymore, it's not a chore eating it anyway-is it?

*grumble grumble*

I will blog more about my clafoutis when I feel better. Today's not a good food day. I need more chunky.

ice cream scones

Okay, so the title might be a little misleading since no, I didn't bake scones with icecream and no, there's nothing about icecream here. heh, But I thought it sounded...CUTE! Which, in my opinion, is a good enough reason to put it as my entry's title. =) whoopdeedoo!

I did, however, bake SCONES! I've never really had an urge to do so I just needed to use up the double cream that Vee and I bought for chocolate fondue and since I resolved to try my best to not waste ingredients, I decided I'd bake scones using whatever double cream I had left and make up the rest with full cream milk. Not too shabby I say!

My initial intention was to use the double cream during the EATING part of the scone, but then I realized that I could easily incorporate it into the PRODUCTION part of it. Besides, I got really excited knowing that I was trying something that I don't normally do. and MY MOM LOVES SCONES. So I guess that was good enough reason to bake me some scones=)

Took a recipe from Cuisine July 2005 (which is probably the most used recipe magazine I own, I baked their Irish Soda Bread the other day..MMMMMMM) and adapted it. Might be (and probably is) a mistake on my part because the scones didn't bake up quite as high as I hoped they would. My fault because I did roll them kinda thinly and I have no idea if using heart-shaped cutter might have affected it but yeap. Those which I did cut quite thickly did rise and looked more scone-like. and they were in the shape of HEARTS. HOW CUTE! =) The heart-shaped thing was purely out of laziness- I was too lazy to go buy a round cookie cutter. heh.

I did have a little trouble with the recipe, not because it was complicated but because I couldn't mix the flour mixture and milk/cream mixture to form a dough, seemed a tad too dry, so I just kept adding tablespoonfuls of milk until it stuck together. ALL GOOD! and the dough didn't stick to the table surface I was rolling it out on, which is why I KNOW I'm definitely baking scones again. They're clean to bake.=)

ANYWAY! here's the recipe:

Scones (by Julie Le Clerc)
3 cups self-raising flour
1 tablespoon caster sugar
large pinch salt
35g butter, cubed
1 1/4 cups milk (I used half double/thickened cream and half full-cream milk)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
extra flour for dusting
butter or jam and clotted or lightly whipped cream to serve

1)Preheat oven to 220degrees celcius
2)Sift the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl
3)Rub in the butter to form fine breadcrumbs
4)Make a well in the centre and pour milk/cream in, using a dinner knife, mix quickly and lightly to just combine.
5)Turn mixture to lightly floured surface and knead to combine
6)Dust again with flour, and roll out to about 3 cm thick and cut into rounds with a 6cm pastry cutter (i used a heart-shaped cookie cutter, worked okay for me)
7)Gather any pastry scraps to make more scones.
8)Bake for 10-15 minutes or until puffed and golden
9)Cut in half and fill with butter, jam and/or cream. Makes 12

*The use of double cream makes for a richer scone. You could try using thin cream or whipping cream. For flavour variations you could omit the raisins and use chocolate chips or poppy seed and orange zest. I think this is a really good basic scone recipe and so forgiving, so feel free to add whatever you wanna!=) Maybe feta cheese and sundried tomatoes.


On another note! Fred and I cooked meatballs the other day. heh, It was fun and yummy and so easy. =)


OHWELLS! I'll update soon, when I get round to baking my Italian coffee and Walnut cake. CAN'T WAIT!=)

I miss home...

I finally got around to cooking something that I've been wanting to since...awhile ago. haha. Pulut Hitam. For those who are unfamiliar, it's a malay dessert that's quite similiar to a soup. It's creamy because of the black glutionous rice that is used and it's usually served with swirls of coconut milk.

Okay, so I'm not the usual fan of Pulut Hitam but all the same, I missed home and this was one of the easier (and more interesting) desserts. GAH, I'm having trouble typing because my arm hurts from carrying the microwave. I know, i love carrying microwaves around for fun, makes me feel so...manly. hah! kidding, ours died, apparently it's 10 years old. So it just failed on us one day and I have to say, living without a microwave is worse than living with a tv. AND I'VE SURVIVED WITHOUT BOTH. I deserve icecream for that. oh! and I still don't have my tv, but TOMORROW-it's coming. can you say heyyy...hoh YIPPEE AYE YO! nownow, don't judge me. =P

Okay, back to the pulut hitam. I burnt it, well, i thought i did, but in the end i realized that it was just a case of the rice being STUCK at the bottom of the pot, but luckily, i transferred whatever that wasn't stuck into a smaller pot and continued letting it simmer while I so painstakingly scrubbed the stuck rice off the big pot. ohwell. =) I should have ended up with MORE of the pulut hitam but because well, 1/2 of the rice got stuck and some of the 'soupy' bit got erm, bubbled out of the pot sooo, I ended up with about 5 serves. lovely. It was good though, albeit a little too much pandan (screwpine) leaves so I will use less next time. ALL IN ALL! It was a good first try, and my sister loved it. =)

By the way, I'll be submitting this to The Heart of the Matter since it's low in fat compared to other desserts and has no butter/oil or eggs and dairy in it. =) check the round up out!!!


the icing sugar, gula melaka and pandan leaves, about to be stirred in

Pulut Hitam (Black Glutionous rice pudding from Malaysianfood.net)
280g Black Glutinous Rice
4700ml water
55g icing sugar
55g gula melaka [coconut palm sugar]
2 pandan[screwpine] leaves [substitue with pandan essence/coconut essence]
2 tbsp corn flour [i left it out, forgot]
3 tbsp water [left it out, again]
1 can coconut milk [for topping]

Wash glutinous rice until the water runs clear. Leave rice to soak in water for 2-3 hrs or best overnight in the refrigerator
Put rice and water in a deep pot and cook over med heat until the rice is soft and creamy
When reached the desired creamy consistency, add gula Melaka [Malaccan sugar], pandan leaves [optional] and icing sugar
Simmer for another 10-15 mins
In a small bowl mix the cornstarch flour and water
Add the cornstarch slurry into the rice, keep stirring
As soon as a boil is reached, remove from heat
Ladle into dessert bowls, swirl 2 to 3 tbsp of the coconut milk on top, serve warm

superwoman kinda day

Today I felt like I did alot. By alot, I mean cooking everyone buttermilk pancakes for brekkie and making myself lunch and a snackpack at the same time AND packing my bag for uni. I feel brilliant. haha, one of those better days I'd say.

The problem i always have with ingredients is that I buy an entire carton/pack of something and never get to really finish it which results in me having to chuck it out, feeling a little guilty since there are kids in Africa starving. This time, it was buttermilk. Well, I've had to thow out a couple of cartons of buttermilk and yes, I do feel insanely guilty. Therefore I now feel better that I made use of my third carton. Initially I had to buy the carton of buttermilk for my avocado cupcake experiment which then led to me cooking everyone pancakes today! Found this amazingamazing recipe from cdkitchen.com and the promise of extremely fluffy pancakes were fulfilled, down to the tiny little ones i made for myself and sprinkled a couple of blueberries on (oh shoot, now I've got the blueberries to finish...any ideas?) Guys being, well, guys, fred wanted his with NO berries but chocolate chips seemed to work fine. I suppose it's a very basic recipe that makes use of buttermilk and other flavours you could try out might be adding 2/3 tbsp of dessicated coconut and serving with palm sugar sauce. Or maybe adding 3 tbsp of cocoa powder and making a marshmallow chocolate sauce. Possibilities are endless I might say.

And today, Vee's dad brought us out for dinner and then Max Brenners after. FINALLY had a hot chocolate. I know it sounds silly but i've never had a hot chocolate from Max before, it's usually the crossiant with chocolate sauce and WATER. I had the magic hot chocolate or something along those lines. It was AUD$6 and terribly yummy. It's a milk chocolate hot chocolate so it bordered on the sweeter side and it supposedly had 'chocolate covered waffle balls' which promised MUCH but, it turned out more like the chocolate valrhona ball things that I used to serve at work. Like, rice crackle covered with good quality chocolate. HMMMM... ohwell, go try it out and let me know what you reckon!

Til next time...support racial chocolate equality!!!