Stash from BBW Sale : The Oprah Magazine Cookbook @ RM25

A must get book with recipes from especially all the celebrity chefs that appear on The Oprah Winfrey's Show.

Recipe : Chocolate Ice-Cream (with egg)

This is a slightly more complicated recipe compared to the Chocolate Ice-Cream (without egg) one. But it's worth the trouble, trust me.

To make this classic, use good quality chocolate to give the best flavour.

Serves 6.

Got this recipe from 500 Delicious Desserts Book.

Ingredients:
750ml / 3 cups milk
10cm / 4inch piece of vanilla pod
4 Egg Yolks
150gm / 5 oz or 3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
225gm / 8oz Dark (bittersweet) Chocolate, melted
* If Milk Chocolate is used rather than Dark Chocolate, you'll get a very sweet ice-cream. Too sweet for my taste buds. Good quality bittersweet dark chocolate is best!

Method:
1. To make the custard, heat the milk with the vanilla pod in a small pan. Remove from the heat as soon as small bubbles start to form. Do not boil. 

2. Beat the egg yolks with a wire whisk or electric beater. Gradually incorporate the sugar, and continue beating for about 5 minutes until the mixture is pale yellow. Strain the milk, and slowly add it to the egg mixture, drop by drop.

3. Pour the mixture into a double boiler with the melted chocolate. Stir over moderate heat until the water in the pan is boiling, and the custard thickens enough to lightly coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

4. Pour mixture into an ice-cream maker and let it mix till thickened. The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture. If you would like a firmer consistency, place them into a container and in the freezer for 2 hours.

5. If you don't have an ice-cream maker, after point 4 - Pour mixture into a freezer container and freeze until set, about 3 hours. Remove from the container and chop roughly into 3 inch pieces. Place in a bowl of a food processor and process till smooth. Return to the freezer container, and freeze again until firm. Repeat the freezing-chopping process 2 or 3 times until a smooth consistency is reached, then freeze until it is to be served.

I don't have a picture of this ice-cream cos we walloped it before I could manage to snap one. =p

Stash from BBW Sale : Mediterranean, Food of the Sun @ RM8

Got this book thinking mainly of Z =p She loves experimenting new cuisine and has made quite a few Middle Eastern dishes. This is a really thick book filled with healthy, hearty, light meal, and only at RM8.

Stash from BBW Sale : Bob Green, The Best Life Diet Cookbook @ RM10

He used to appear on Oprah's show lots and taught how to whip up lotsa healthy meals. Seem quite a genuine guy so thought I'd give his book a try.

Stash from BBW Sale : Grill @ RM8

Another steal at the BBW Sale. Will come in handy now that we have a BBQ grill at home, thanks to my lovely mum who got the grill for me.

Stash from BBW Sale, Starting with Baking Ingredients @ RM35

This was the most expensive book we purchased at the Big Bad Wolf Sale. It's thick and heavy and filled with really informational and educational jewels, especially for new learners or even season cooks and bakers who have been in the field for a many years but would like some refresher.

Information in the book is simple yet thorough.

And of course, it's filled with great recipes too!

Mum has tried one so far and turned out great! If I'm not mistaken, it was a chocolate-strawberry filled cake she made for one of her cellies.

Stash from BBW Sale - Jamie Oliver @ RM30

Have yet to try any recipes from this book. But will do soon.. :)

No longer a virgin...

to the Big Bad Wolf Sales. 

Check out the plunder mum and I came home with!

Sadly though, the 3 main cooks I wanted to get were not available. But I got some pretty good deals on some other books.

Got mainly cooking, baking, biographies, true stories and some Christmas gifts. Can't wait to start on them. 

Recipe : Simple Chocolate Ice-Cream (without egg)

I've made this recipe twice and both times it vanished from the freezer in just a couple of days.

A simple ice-cream which takes only 15 minutes to prepare. A must-try for everyone who loves to bake and loves it easy and fast.

Ingredients:
1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
*I used Hershey brand
2/3 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed Brown Sugar
1 1/2 cups whole Milk
3 1/4 cups Heavy Cream
*I used Anchor Whipping Cream
1 tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract

Method:
1. Place the cocoa and sugars in a medium bowl, stir to combine.

2. Add the whole milk and use a hand mixer on low speed or whisk with a balloon whisk to combine until the cocoa and sugars are dissolved, about 1-2 minutes.

3. Stir in the heavy cream and vanilla.

4. If not freezing immediately, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

5. Pour mixture into an ice-cream maker and let it mix till thickened. The ice cream will have a soft, creamy texture. If you would like a firmer consistency, place them into a container and in the freezer for 2 hours.

6. If you don't have an ice-cream maker, after point 4 - Pour mixture into a freezer container and freeze until set, about 3 hours. Remove from the container and chop roughly into 3 inch pieces. Place in a bowl of a food processor and process till smooth. Return to the freezer container, and freeze again until firm. Repeat the freezing-chopping process 2 or 3 times until a smooth consistency is reached, then freeze until it is to be served.

Use good cocoa powder and heavy cream for a better taste.

This recipe makes about fourteen 1/2 cup servings.

Vanilla Pods

Source

These are certainly God's creation. The aroma is gives is just heavenly.

I bought my first ever 2 pods for RM25.90. They were from Madagascar. But today I walked into Chang Tung and they were selling 3 pods for only RM7.60. However the ones from Chang Tung are from Indonesia but I'm sure they give just about the same flavour and aroma.

I'm planning to make more desserts with vanilla pods and was super psyched when I saw that I could get them much cheaper. I mean, RM13 per pod is just too expensive!! But now it's only RM2.50.

So look out for more desserts using this heavenly ingredient. 

Recipe : Classic Vanilla Ice-Cream

Nothing beats the creamy simplicity of true vanilla ice-cream. Vanilla pods are expensive, I paid about RM25.90 for 2 pods, but well worth buying for the superb flavour they impart.

This recipe serves 4.

Ingredients:
1 Vanilla Pod
300ml / 1/2 pint / 1 1/4 cup Milk
*the original recipe states to use semi-skimmed (low-fat) milk but I just used regular full cream milk
4 Egg Yolks
75gm / 3oz / 6 tbsp Caster Sugar (superfine)
5ml / 1 tsp Cornflour
300ml / 1/2 pint / 1 1/4 cup Double (heavy) cream
*I used Anchor whipping cream

Method:
1. Using a small knife, slit the vanilla pod lengthways. Pour the milk into a heavy pan, add the vanilla pod and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse.

2. Lift the vanilla pod and scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife and add them back into the pan of milk. Bring the milk back to a boil.

3. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy. You may either use a balloon whisk or an electric mixer (I used a balloon whisk and it took less than 5 minutes to whip it up). Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly.

4. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over gentle heat, stirring constantly.

5. When the custard is thick and smooth, pour it back into the bowl. Be careful not to overcook the custard as it burns easily in the pan.

6. Leave to cool, then chill in the fridge.

7. Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon. Fold it into the custard and pour into a freezer container. Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating twice with a fork or in a food processor.

8. Alternatively if you have an ice-cream maker, you can skip step 7. Stir the cream into the custard and churn the mixture in an ice-cream mixer until thick. If the consistency is not as desired, freeze for a couple more hours.

9. Serve scooped into bowls or cones.

White Chocolate Truffles

I made this for the first time last December for my parents' 29th anniversary. It's the easiest dessert to make, and it doesn't require any baking!

Inspired by Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa.

Ingredients

2 tbsps Heavy Cream or Whipping Cream
7 ounces Good White Chocolate - chopped
*you can get 1kg of Selbourne chocolate for under RM15*
2 tbsps Baileys
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
1/2 cup Chopped Hazelnuts - lighty roasted
6 ounces Bittersweet or Dark Chocolate

Method

1. Place the cream in a heat-proof bowl, and set the bowl over a pan of simmering water. This is also otherwise known as double boiling.
2. Cook until heated through. Using a wire whisk, slowly stir the white chocolate into the warm cream until completely melted. 
3. Whisk in the liqueur and vanilla. Cover and chill for 1 hour or until pliable but firm enough to scoop.
4. With 2 teaspoons or a melon scoop, make dollops of the chocolate mixture and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
5. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes, until firm enough to roll into rough spheres.
6. Melt the bittersweet chocolate in a heat-proof bowl, set over a pan of simmering water.
7. Drizzle the melted bittersweet chocolate over 10 of the truffles. Roll the remaining truffles in the chopped nuts. 
8. Chill until ready to serve.

This makes about 20 truffles. 

You could also roll the truffles in hazelnut and top it with drizzle bittersweet chocolate.

Best served with a cup of good coffee. Try this the next time you want to whip up an easy dessert without much effort. You surely will not be disappointed. 

Recipe : Apple Cream Tart

Been watching Laura Calder lots on AFC and last week I decided to try her recipe on Apple Cream Tart. It didn't turn out the way I expected it to be so tweaked the recipe a little using mum's Tart Shell recipe as well as amended the filling slightly. 

This tart is slightly different from apple pie you're used to eating, but it is just as comforting. 

Goes great with whipped cream or ice cream. 

Ingredients

Tart Shell
200 grams Plain Flour - sifted
50 grams Icing Sugar - sifted
Pinch of Salt
100 grams Butter
Little ice water to bind to a dough

Cream Filling
1 Egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
8 ounces Softened Cream Cheese
1/4 cup Sugar

Topping
2 Large or 3 Medium Red Apples - peeled and thinly sliced
1/4 cup Sugar
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 cup Sliced Almonds or Chopped Walnuts

Method

Tart Shell
1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celcius.
2. Put flour, icing sugar and salt in a bowl. Rub in the butter till it resembles bread crumbs.
3. Bind to a soft dough with the cold water.
4. Roll out pastry between two plastic sheets and cover a greased 8" pie tin with the pastry.
5. Prick all over with a fork and bake 'blind' for 10 mins at 175 degrees Celcius. Baking 'blind' means baking  it without filing. You may also use beans or rice to prevent it from puffing up.
6. Remove from the oven.

Cream Filling
1. Beat the cream cheese and sugar together till creamy. Add in the egg and the vanilla essence until smooth. Don't overbeat.
2. Make the topping in a separate bowl by tossing the apple slices with the cinnamon, sugar and nuts.
3. Remove the tart shell from the oven. Spread over the cream mixture.

Topping
1. Arrange the apple slices on top, then scatter over the nuts.
2. Bake until apples are tender and golden for about 40 minutes.

Mum featured in The Star

A write up on mum's cake making and her cookbook was featured in today's The Star. Remember this post, we thought that the article would be featured in Flavours Magazine but instead it was released in The Star which is even superb. Nearly everyone reads The Star as compared to Flavours. Mum's phone has been ringing off the hook the whole day since morning! I had to even drive her around as there were just so many calls coming in.

Some have been calling to ask if mum gives lessons, but mum says that if they buy the book, she won't mind teaching them and guiding them through some of the recipes - fondant icing, flower paste etc. I told mum that she should just charge them for the classes but she said it's ok. She remembers when she was much younger how she just looked high and low for people to teach her all this but it was just either too expensive and or she was not able to find teachers. So she resorted to learning all that she knows now mainly from books. So nice rite? And here I was just thinking of another way to make some $$$. Mum says that it'll be a good opportunity to reach out. Must really learn this attitude from her.

It's only 3.30pm and mum has already gotten about 3 confirmed wedding cake orders and countless inquires on wedding cakes, one lady's even coming this evening to the house to see the patterns and order her wedding cake. Not to mention, mum's confirmed selling quite a number of her books. Someone even called in the morning to ask if he could get her to re-print 3000 books for a certain project. Mum was not sure if it was a prank or someone who was genuinely interested. So she told him that when he calls back, to speak and get more information from my dad.

Many old friends from school and church saw mum's picture and called her. Some of whom she has lost contact with. Mum is so grateful for this opportunity. Thank you Ps Linda for the contact! Read on below for the write-up..

Tuesday May 26, 2009

Keen on cakes

By MAJORIE CHIEW

Esther Foo’s fruit cakes have stood the test of time; they still taste good after 12 years.

MOST of us can’t imagine eating cakes that are months old. But Esther Foo’s wedding cakes are so special that they’re still being eaten after 12 years.

And the verdict? “Yummy!”

“Yup, that’s what I’ve been told,” says Foo, from Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya. Foo who is in her 50s, bakes with a passion. Once, she baked 11 cakes weighing a total of 32kg and assembled them into multi-tiered wedding cakes. The bride, a close friend, kept leftover cakes in the freezer and ate them year after year.

Foo recalls: “Several years ago, she called to tell me that it was delicious even though it’s 12 years old!”

The fruit cakes can keep well for so long because they have brandy and rum in them, says Foo. And they are well-stored to withstand the test of time.

Foo’s niece, Carmen Leo, is another happy customer.

In 1997, Foo baked Leo’s wedding cake. A sentimental person, Leo not only kept the flower paste decorations but was so taken with the fruit cake that she wanted to keep it for as long as possible.

“Last June, Leo called to say that the wedding cake was still delicious. Come June, she will be cutting a few slices to savour on her 12th wedding anniversary!” says Foo.

She is amused that her niece wanted to break the record by keeping her wedding cake for her 13th wedding anniversary.

What about Foo’s own wedding cake?

“I baked a three-tiered wedding cake but it’s all gone,” quips Foo.

Foo first learnt to bake during domestic science class in Methodist Girls School, Ipoh. At 18, Foo baked her first wedding cake.

“It was for my second brother’s wedding. The cake had three tiers and was covered with white royal icing.”

A garland of flowers made from flower paste on a three-tier dummy cake.

Today she bakes frequently: breads, cakes and cookies. Occasionally, she gets orders for wedding and birthday cakes, and other special-occasion cakes, mostly from friends.

“I enjoy baking as I derive pleasure from experimenting with new things,” says Foo.

Friends who know her well book her up to one year in advance to make their wedding cakes.

Come July, Foo will be making a two-tier wedding cake that will be covered with real red roses, and an additional seven large 5kg cakes that will be cut up and distributed among guests.

Foo likes a challenge when it comes to baking.

“The more difficult the cake design, the better for me,” she says.

She bakes her fruit cakes six weeks ahead and works on decorations for the cakes three weeks prior to the big day. Closer to the day, she would cover the cakes with fondant icing and start decorating them.

Foo picked up tips from cookbooks and took lessons in making flower paste.

“When I first started out, one customer told me that my fondant icing was too hard and could not be cut. It had too much gelatine. I started experimenting and came up with a softer fondant icing,” says Foo.

Delicious cakes without proper presentation would be a shame. So Foo doesn’t just bake and deliver the cakes, she makes sure they get noticed, too.

“I get upset when caterers do not have proper tables to display the cakes. So now I bring my own tablecloth and table just in case,” adds Foo.

Passionate about her craft: ‘The more difficult the cake design, the better for me,’ says Esther Foo.

She buys cookbooks to keep abreast of the latest techniques in baking and cake decorating. To date she has more than 200 cookbooks. Her customers get to flip through her cookbooks and make their pick before she proceeds to make their dream cakes.

A year ago, her daughter, Michelle Melissa Foo, 24, a final-year business administration student, started taking an interest in cake decoration and is learning from her.

In her younger days, Foo would help her mother with the baking. “My mum would place her cake tin in a huge pot with sand that would be heated by firewood underneath. The pot would be covered by a lid and topped with hot coals (for top heat).

“The cakes all turned out very nicely,” says Foo who is married to a Chinese. Her late father hailed from Madras, south India, and her late mother from Sri Lanka.

The second youngest in a family of 10 children (five boys and five girls), Foo moved to Kuala Lumpur in 1977. Her four sisters are all good cooks and she learns from them, too.

Foo has self-published two cookbooks containing an assortment of recipes: Simply Delightful in 2000, and Heritage Cookbook last year. Her second cookbook is selling like hot cakes. A developer recently bought 100 autographed copies to give to house buyers.

“I came out with the cookbooks to preserve family recipes that have been handed down the generations,” says Foo.

She also included recipes from her parents: Papa’s Unique Dodol, a sticky cake made from black pulut flour, coconut milk, ghee and cashew nuts, and Mama’s Toffee, a sweet treat for Christmas made with evaporated milk, castor sugar, butter and cashew nuts. Foo also included recipes which won her prizes in cooking competitions.

Esther Foo can be reached at 017-887 3177.

Pasta Mania

I'm on a pasta craze...

Cooked Spaghetti Bolognese for lunch yesterday..

Whipped up some really fast Mac and Cheese for lunch today.. Which surprisingly turned out so yummy! I don't think I've ever mad Mac and Cheese that tasted this good.. I'm proud of myself.. =)

Double Chocolate Crips

Made this little number for my girls during Valentines' Day... As a token of appreciation for playing a special part in my life..

Prep: 15 mins
Bake: 10 - 12 minutes per batch
Yield: 4 dozen

250 grams Butter
1 3/4 cups Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
4 ounces Unsweetened Chocolate - melted & cooled
2 teaspoons Vanilla Essence
2 1/4 cups Plain Flour
1 teaspoon Sodium Bicarbonate or Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1 cup Semisweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup Chopped Pecans or any other nuts of choice

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

3. Beat in chocolate and vanilla.

4. Combine and sift the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; gradually add to the creamed mixture.

5. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans.

6. Drop by tablespoonfuls (small portions) 2 inches apart onto greased baking sheets.

7. Bake at 175 degrees Celsius for 10-12 minutes or until tops are cracked.

8. Remove to wire racks to cool.

Chock-full of chocolate, these crispy cookies have a tantalizing aroma while baking. They'll surely satisfy a sweet tooth. They taste better the next day.

Mum wants to try them again but with white chocolate bits and macadamia nuts.

Arrrggghhhh.....

I'm not feeling well! Down with flu and sore throat.. Don't feel good at all..

Smell of fish curry's filling the house.. Can't wait to have some..

Have to eat in a rush though cos class is in one hour!!