0058 - Multicultural Homemade Chicken Pizza

Personally, my idea of enjoying pizza is on a picnic, on a beautiful sunny day.


-Updates soon-

0057 - Traditionally Kiwi; Afghan Biscuits

Don't ask me why a traditional Kiwi biscuit has such a politcally sensitive name.

No one seems to be able to come up with any reason.

The first time Matt tried to bake these biscuits, it was a roaring failure. I am not kidding. He was so disheartened by the failure that it took him a month before he tried to impress me with his baking skills again.

So he had another go on it, on this recent Sunday. Needless to say, nothing like a failure to spur you to do better than before :) Now that it is a roaring success, he planned on baking more off them. Of course he will. Since Aidilfitri is nearing, AND, I am adamant on filling the house with cookies, biscuits, chocolates and cakes even though there's no one coming over to feed on them. It is my (meek) personal attempt to make it more festive, and Matt's attempt to "celebrate" the festivity with me. Having said that, this traditional Kiwi biscuit is going down into my books of traditional biscuit which will be a must for future & every Aidilfitri.

Afterall, if Matt & myself are going to share our lives together, food will definitely have to be taken into account.



At the request of Zakiah, and my personal urgent reasons, here's the recipe.

Ingredients:
Biscuits
200gm butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups plain Kellogs cornflakes, crushed

Chocolate Icing
1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp water
Pecans, optional
*this can be substituted to your preference

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
   
2. Lightly grease your baking tray and line the bottom with baking paper.

Method:
Biscuits

1. Cream the butter & sugar until light & fluffy.
2. Sift flour & cocoa separately.
3. Stir the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture.
4. Fold in the cornflakes.
5. Spoon mounds of mixture onto tray.
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until biscuits are browned & firm to the touch.
7. Remove from oven & cool it on the wire rack .
   

Icing

1. Combine the icing sugar well with the cocoa powder.
2. Add water & mix well until the mixture is free of lumps and of a creamy consistency.
3. Spoon a little icing on the cooled biscuits & decorate with Pecans.

You can choose to exercise your tastebud in the sinful indulgent immediately, OR, leave the whole biscuit to cool at room temperature before placing them in an airtight container. We left the container in the fridge and prefer eating it cold instead. However, we do notice that when we leave it at room temperature, the biscuit becomes a little bit more chewy, and according to Matt,

"Mmmm... yum."

0056 - Grilled Beef w/ Vegetables

What happens when this Kiwi fella conquers the kitchen?
What happens when this Kiwi feels the need for variety in his dishes?



From 0042 Grilled Beef with Potato & Bak-Choy (served with Chili Vinegrette Sauce) to 0049 Grilled Beef with Potato & Orange, now you have Grilled Beef w/ Vegetables. And by vegetables, it's Potatoes, Mushrooms & Zuchinis :)



Oh... I always love that Chili Vinegrette Sauce combi.

0055 - Marshmallow Brownie

From this:


To this:


It wasn't a roaring success, but it wasn't a failure either. But it certainly didn't whet my appetite enough as I might have gone overboard with the marshmallows. Next test-drive, it'll be better, and I'll let you in on it :)

0054 - Striped Cheesecake

On second look, this cake feels like ice-cream. Yum.

THIS, to me would be the best-tasting cake I've baked to date & I hope to be able to do it again with better success.

Only problem? Manual whisking is not exactly an exciting activity.

0053 - Banana Cake

"This is one of your best cakes to date."

I'm sure Matt was just trying to be polite.

0052 - Blueberry Cake

Baking a Blueberry Cake has always been a dream of mine. One wintery August day of 2009, that dream came true.
I love blueberries.

Ingredients:
1 cup + 1 tsp all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
115gm butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
2 large eggs
2 cups (or box of 500gm) blueberries, rinsed and drained (if using frozen blueberries, thaw and drain first)
1 tsp lemon juice
powdered sugar for dusting

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
   
2. Lightly grease a 24cm springform circular pan and line the bottom with baking paper.

Method:

1. Combine 1 cup of flour with baking powder and set aside.
2. Beat the butter really well before adding the sugar and vanilla. Continu beating until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until well blended.
   
4. Slowly add the flour mixture, beating until smooth.
   
5. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan.
6. Combine the berries with the remaining teaspoon of flour and the lemon juice in a bowl.
7. Spoon the berry mixture randomly over the batter.
8. Bake on middle rack in oven for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
   
9. Remove from oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
   
10. Carefully slide a thin knife around the edges of the cake to release it from the pan. Transfer the cake to a platter, berry side up.
    
11. Dust the cake with powdered sugar before serving.

The next mission after this will be a Blueberry Cheesecake or, a Mixed Berry Cheesecake. Do share what your turn out is like if you've done this before.

0051 - Marble Cake

Marble Cake is one of the more "famous" cakes within my family especially with my aunt & my cousin always being the "chief" in baking heaps of them for us all. I always thought it was such a cumbersome cake to bake. It wasn't till I tried making it myself. Now that I know better, I'll be happy to bake these on any given day, come rain or shine.

Ingredients:
200gm butter, softened
1cup caster sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
2cups self-raising flour
1/2cup milk, reserve 2tbs of this
1tbs cocoa powder

Preparation:

1. Pre-heat the oven at 180C.
2. Prepare a lightly greased 24cm diameter springfoam pan & line with baking paper.
   

Method:

1. Beat the butter, sugar & vanilla until pale & creamy.
2. Add 1 egg at a time & beat really well.
   
3. Sift 1/2 of the flour & stir in the milk.
4. Repeat step 3 with the remaining flour and milk until well combined.
   
5. Divide the batter into 2.
6. Combine cocoa powder into the 2nd batter mixture & add the reserved milk.
7. Stir well.
8. Place alternate spoonfuls of the 2 mixtures into the prepared pan, tapping the base of the pan on a flat surface to settle the mixture.
   
9. Use a spoon or a knife to gently swirl the batters together to create a marble effect.
   
10. Tap the base of the pan on a flat surface to smooth the surface.
    
11. Bake in preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
    
12. Remove from oven and set aside in pan for 5 minutes.
    
13. Let it cool completely before serving. Or, keep it in an airtight container - not in the fridge though.
    

As always, with cakes like these, I prefer indulging in mine slightly warm to the touch.

0050 - Ramadan 2009

For all Muslims, may you have a blessed & better Ramadan, Insya'Allah!

0049 - Grilled Beef with Potato & Orange

After Matt's success on Grilled Beef with Potato & Bak-Choy (served with Chili Vinegrette Sauce) in Entry 0042, he gave it a go again, substituting the Bak-Choy with an Orange.



Unlike the first one, I'm afraid this wasn't my favourite. I prefer my orange on the side. Of course, beef & potato? You can never go wrong :)

0048 - Homemade Cheeseburger

Have you ever had one of those very random moments where your stomach craves for a Cheeseburger? I've been having those moments eversince I came to Brisbane in February.




With all the key ingredients ready, Matt whipped up our first ever Homemade Cheeseburger. It was really good, for me especially, since my favourite fast-food chain, MacDonald's is not Halal, in Brisbane. So this, was as close as it gets to satisfy my cravings :) But it's a little bit more special, coz I know it's homemade and you can never get anything outside as close as this. Even more so, when he added his own homemade (more like EXPERIMENTAL) sauce to go with it!



Because this meal was specially prepared by Matt, other than the ingredients captured above, I have no idea how you can go about making the beef patties. I'm sorry guys. You might have to work a little bit harder and surf the net (or look in one of your recipe books) for the "How-To". Whatever it is, do share if you get round to it :)

0047 - Marie Fudge Cake

It was really good (& sinful) the first round that I made it again within a week. The above image was from the 1st attempt. Our 2nd go at it to include pecans. Next time, I'll take on Matt's suggestion and try a different biscuit. The best part about this dessert, it's bakeless :)

Ingredients
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup milo
125ml boiling water
170gm butter - cut into large chunks
200gm sweetened condensed milk
110gm white granulated sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g (1 packet) Marie biscuits

Note:

1. You may adjust the amount of milo and cocoa powder to your taste, for example 1/2 cup milo + 1/2 cup cocoa powder :)
   
2. You may opt to sub the biscuits for something else to your preference... although, I have yet to try any other biscuits.
3. For fun's sake, I actually added leftover Pecans the 2nd time I made it & it turned out pretty good too.

Preparation

1. Break each bisuits into quarters, set aside.
2. Line the base and two long sides of a 23cm x 9cm x 7cm deep loaf tin (or other cake tin with similar capacity) with baking paper. Lightly grease the inside of the tin so the paper sticks to the tin, extending the paper about 5cm above edge of tin. Don't forget to grease & line both short sides with baking paper as well.

Baking

1. Slowly add boiling water to milo and cocoa in a heavy based saucepan, stirring vigorously until it is smooth.
2. Add butter, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, lightly beaten eggs and vanilla to the saucepan.
3. Place over moderate heat and cook, stirring all the time with a whisk or a spoon - give & take 10minutes lah until you feel the bottom starts to thicken.
4. Turn heat down to low, and continue to cook, stirring without stopping, for about another 20 minutes, or until a thick custard forms.
5. Transfer the thick custard to a large mixing bowl, add quartered biscuits.
6. Mix until all the biscuits are coated with the custard.
7. Transfer mixture into the prepared tin.
8. Press down firmly so there are no air pockets in the mixture. You might want to consider banging the tin (either on a table, or anywhere) a couple of times to settle the mixture.
   
9. Fold the paper extensions over the top and press down to even the surface.
10. Let it cool to the touch in room temperature.
11. Cover with cling film and place into the refrigerator to chill for at least 4 hours, or preferably overnight.
12. When the cake is firm, use the paper extension as handle to pull the cake out of the tin (you might need to loosen the paper from the sides of the tin first by sliding a knife between the paper lining and the sides of the tin). My boyfriend cheated and put it over the electric stove for a few seconds. HaHa!
13. Slice and serve and Enjoy!

Taste? Fudgy chilled cake :) Do share once you've made it!

0046 - Marbled Cheese Brownie

This bake tempts even my mum who is not a fan of chocolate.
Best served chilled.
Chewy.
Yum.

0045 - Tomato Soup with Mexican Sausage

I love soup <3.