Pink Champagne Jelly with Lycee in Vanilla Syrup

How is this Christmas? How is it not! *its the champagne that makes it Christmas :) *

I was surfing through some websites for some Christmas recipes and so I found this, and it looked doable, and I got my dad to buy me the pink champagne just so you know. I'll make some Lemon Posset and caramelized figs with some biscuits. Anyways just enjoy this recipe...

Ingredients:

Jelly-

750ml- Pink champagne or sparkling wine
215g- Caster Sugar
3- Sheets of Gelatine

Lycee & Vanilla Syrup-

215g- Caster Sugar
250mL- water
1- Vanilla Bean
1- Lemon, juiced and zested
1Tbsp- Fresh Ginger
1Kg- Fresh Lycees

Method:

Jelly-

To make the jelly, first soak the gelatine sheets in cold water until soft. Place the champagne and sugar in a saucepan and cook over medium heat or until sugar dissolves, then add in the gelatin sheets and stir until it is melted. Cool, then place in dariole moulds or use cups and refridgerate until set.

Fragrant Syrup-

Split vanilla bean down in half and scrape the beans, put in a saucepan with the water, sugar, lemon juice and zest over medium heat and place peeled lycees in a bowl and pour over the syrup. Cool in the fridge.

Hint: To serve, place hot water in a cup and place set jelly moulds in the cup until it is loosened up, then it's easier to take out without ruining the shape. Then pour the syrup over the jelly.

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Orange Chocolate Truffles

Yes... it's chocolate again... and I haven't been cooking for a while lately because of school and other stuff, I only made this because I was bored. Anyways these are my orange dark chocolate truffles, dark chocolate was too strong for me. I don't even know why I use dark chocolate, next time I'm using milk chocolate. The texture was good, it's like silk in your mouth, and it's very easy to make, it's one of the easiest things I've made, anywho enjoy the recipe. Oh and Christmas is coming up, so I'll be sure to post a few Christmas recipes.

Ingredients:

225g- Dark Chocolate (Good Quality, none of them Cadbury crap)
175mL- Thickened Cream
2Tbsp- Orange Juice
Lemon Rind
Icing Sugar to dust
Cocoa Powder for coating

Method:

Melt chocolate with a double boiler (baine marie) over medium heat. Turn heat down to low and pour in the thickened cream, use a spatula to mix through, and mixture will thicken and become glossy, mix in orange juice and rind. Take off from heat and let it cool in room temperature for 30 minutes and refridgerate for a further 1 hour. Once cooled, mixture could easily be handled by hand and not runny. Use teaspoon to scoop out the bite-sized pieces and roll with hands (clean first with cold water so chocolate doesn't melt fast or use gloves), then roll in cocoa powder and dust it with icing sugar. Serve with coffee or ice cream.

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Dark Chocolate Tart With Chocolate Sauce & Creme' Anglaise

The tart base is too thick, but oh well it was my first time making a tart, also this took me literally 3 days to finish, first day I just made the tart base and i got lazy, so 2nd day I spent all day making the filling and the glaze, then today just for the chocolate sauce and garnish.

This is VERY rich, so those who enjoy rich dark chocolate, then this is for you, but i recommend using milk chocolate in substitute, I couldn't even finish one slice of tart...

Ingredients:

Shortcrust Pastry-
320g- plain flour
60g- cocoa
160g- caster sugar
160g- cold butter
2- eggs

Filling-
200g- Milk Couverture (See note)
175g- Butter
1- Egg
3- Egg yolks
40g- Sugar

Glaze-
250ml- Cream
175ml- Milk
110g- Butter
110g- Caster Sugar
500g- Dark Couverture
175g- Milk Couverture
10ml- Liqueur/Rum (optional)

Chocolate Sauce-
60g- Cocoa powder
200ml- Water
120g- Caster sugar
25g- Butter

Creme' Anglaise-
1- Vanilla bean/1tsp Vanilla extract
200ml- Milk
1- Egg
3- Egg Yolks
80g-Caster Sugar

Method:

Shortcrust Pastry-

Preheat oven to 180°C , then sift dry ingredients together until fine, and combine with butter. Rub your fingertips together against the butter or use food processor until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Crack eggs in one by one and mix with your hand thoroughly until mixture combines and holds together, roll the pastry into a ball and wrap it with glad wrap and refridgerate for 10minutes. Once the pastry has rested knead the pastry and roll it out into a long circle about 3mm thick, then spray the tart tin with cooking spray and place the pastry over the tin and mould it together on the sides. Prick the pastry and blind bake (See note) for about 10-15 minutes, then bake for a further 8-10minutes or until pastry is firm to touch.

Filling-

With a Baine Marie (See note) melt the chocolate, butter and sugar together. slowly add egg yolks and egg together one by one, and slowly fold and mix the chocolate together until it becomes glossy and thick, then pour mixture into tart, and refridgerate until set.

Ganache Noir (Chocolate Glaze)-

Melt chocolates over Baine Marie and leave aside, place the cream in a saucepan and bring it to the boil then add milk, butter and caster sugar Then pour cream mixture over chocolates and mix thoroughly.
Add liqueur then mix.
Let ganache cool and pour over the tart, if ganache hardens, melt it over low heat and pour it while it's warm. Use pallete knife to smoothen the surface and refridgerate until set

Chocolate Sauce-

Combine all ingredients but butter together and bring to the boil, then stir in butter until melted and boil again and reduce until mixture has thickened, once it has thickened, refridgerate until cool.

Creme' Anglaise-

Split the vanilla bean in half and combine with the milk in a saucepan over very low heat, whisk the eggs and sugar together until just combined, and pour a small amount of the hot milk in with the eggs to temper it so it doesn't curdle and cook, then pour the rest of the milk and stir with a wooden spoon. Pour mixture back in the saucepan over low heat and constantly stir until mixture thickens, be careful that it doesn't curdle and becomes lumpy.

Note:

Chocolate Couverture- Chocolate Couverture is a good quality chocolate unlike chocolate bars that you usually eat, although it has a higher percentage of cocoa butter and is commonly used in pastissier and cooking industries.

Baine Marie- Also known as a double boiler, a metal bowl with a saucepan below boiling the water as you melt the chocolate in the metal bowl.




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Rhubarb & Green Apple Yoghurt Fool

I never tried rhubarb before, so when I saw this simple recipe , I may as well give it a go, and it was alright... I don't know if you'd like it, but give it a shot, although rhubarb does have a unique taste, it's very tart and sour, refreshing too also crunchy.


Ingredients:

1 bunch rhubarb
1 green apple
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Method:

Cut both ends of the Rhubarb and discard, then wash the rhubarb stalks. Cut in halves and use a small knife to peel bits of the skin, you don't have to peel all the skin off, do NOT discard the skin. Cut rhubarb to small bite size pieces, roughly 1cm, for the apples, seed them and core them, and then cut them into dices. Simmer the peeled skin from before until water turns red, remove the skin and combine the apple, rhubarb and sugar together, and boil until fruit has softened. Leave it aside and let it cool, stir in nutmeg, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Once cooled, fold the yoghurt in and serve in cups or shot glasses. Serve cold.

Note: only reason why there isn't much water is because rhubarb already has a lot of water in its stalks and while heating it will release the water.

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Corn & Leek Soup

This soup I made wasn't too bad... I got home hungry like always, checked the fridge to see if there's any food left from last night, and there's nothing but fish and vegetables, called Dad, he said he was busy so I just grabbed the leek and corn out and had some fresh cream left and milk :) and so then I just threw in things that would go nice with the soup. In the end it actually tasted pretty good, funny how you can come up with something out of nothing. This is a simple and easy soup, takes about less that 1hr to cook.

Ingredients:

1- Corn
1whole- Leek
100mL- Milk
150mL- Cream
300mL- Water
2Tbsp- Flour (to thicken the soup)
1 1/2Tbsp- Chicken powder
15g- Butter
Salt & Pepper

Method:

Slice the Leek and cut the corn kernels and keep the stalk of the corn, once you've done that melt the butter in a pot and saute' your leek for a few seconds, and then throw in the corn kernels and cook for another 30seconds. Throw in the liquid ingredients and let it bowl over medium heat, then put in the chicken power, salt & pepper to your likings. Once it's at it's bowling peak, throw in the flour after 30minutes, and let it reduce until it becomes a third less that it was before. Take the stalk out and use a hand blender and blend the solids until a smoothe mixture, if you don't have a hand blender, use a normal juice blender and blend until it's smoothe. Then reduce for another 30minutes until mixture becomes thick and creamy. Serve hot with cool cream in a shot glass or a small cup.


Note:

Serving- Serving with cool cream is because to balance out the over heating power of the soup and the cool cream to give you a warm soup.
Flour- To thicken the soup

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Vanilla Panna Cotta & Strawyberry Sauce with Mint

Here's my Panna Cotta, was better than the first one I made :). It's silky and smoothe and it's good, I think you should try it.


Ingredients:

Panna Cotta-

300mL- Cream
100mL- Extra Cream
1Sheet- Gelatin
1- Vanilla bean (if you can't get this, then just use 1tsp of vanilla extract)
Lemon Peel (cut some off the lemon, try cut one long strip, it makes things a lot more easier)
70mL- Milk
70g- Caster Sugar

Method-

Place the 300mL cream in a saucepan along with the lemon peel and the vanilla bean (split the vanilla down in half) over a very low heat, also don't boil the cream or place it over the heat for too long otherwise it'd reduce. Soak the gelatin in cold water and allow it to soften (see note), then combine the sugar and extra cream together and mix together with a spoon. Once the gelatin has softened squeeze out any excess water and place in the saucepan along with the milk and stir until the gelatin has dissolved. Then add in the creamy sugar and stir to combine. allow mixture to cool. Then use 125mL dariole moulds or coffee cups, spray them with a little bit of oil and pour in the mixture, fridge it over night (takes about 6hours to set).

Strawberry Sauce-

100mL- Strawberry Puree' (see note from the mousse)
50g- Caster Sugar
Mint leaf for garnish

Place strawberry puree' in a saucepan over a low heat, add in the caster sugar and stir until sugar has dissolved, then sieve/strain the sauce until smooth mixture is resulted. Cool this in the fridge.

Once the panna cotta has set, turn it upside down and squeeze the moulds until it falls out, if it's too stuck together, use a small knife and cut the edges.

Note:

Gelatin- The gelatin will be soft when it's flexible and doesn't feel as hard but soft and silky.

Garnish- I also used a small ammount of caramel on the panna cotta, also the splitted vanilla bean from the panna cotta.

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Roasted Chicken Thighs with Mint & Pear Salad

Okay well this chicken was so juicy, loved it, although my brother Arnold gave me a hand with this dish and i only had 1 piece when I made about 3, and so he just took 2 and gave me 1 small one... and in here I used a salt rub that contains Salt (obviously), Coriander, Kaffier Lime and Chili.

Ingredients:

Chicken-

2- Chicken Thighs
50mL- Brandy
Salt & Pepper
2Tbsp- Olive Oil
1Tbsp- Butter (Salted)
Dried Herbs & Spices (optional)
Salad-

1bunch of Mint leaves
Handful of Spinach
Cherry tomatoes (as much as you want to liking)
2- Asparagus
Thinly Sliced Red Onion (to your liking)
1- Pear

Vinaigrette-

1Tbsp- Olive Oil
2-Tbsp- White Wine Vinegar
1tsp- Maille Wholegrain Mustard
Segment of Lime juice
Crack of Pepper

Method:

Chicken-

Preheat oven to 200°C. Place Chicken Thighs in a bowl and pour over the Olive oil then crack the salt and pepper or any other dried herbs (optional), and mix with your hand thoroughly until chicken is well marinated. Use a non-stick frying pan and put it over high heat, once pan is hot enough, throw in the chicken and any excess olive oil with it. Seal all sides or until skin has a light golden color, then use half of the brandy (25mL) over the chicken and Flambé (see note), once the fire dies out Flambé once again, and quickly add in the butter until it's all melted, cook for another 30 seconds or so and off the heat and into the oven for 30minutes (turn over half way).

Vinaigrette-

Combine all ingredients together and use a fork and whisk the mixture together until well combined.

Salad-

Wash ingredients over cool water then, cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters and place in a bowl with the spinach. Pick the mint leaves and roughly cut them and mix it with the spinach and tomato. Thinly Slice the red onion and mix through with the rest of the salad until vegetables are combined, cut pears into small bite sized pieces and place on top. Then pour over the vinaigrette and mix through. For the asparagus, snap off it's end, you'll feel a woody bit then it should easily be snapped, once that's done, blanch the asparagus in a hot pot of water until color of the stalk changes to a darker green, this shouldn't take too long otherwise you'd over cook the asparagus. Once blanched quickly place it in a bowl of cold water and slice it down the middle and garnish or combine it with the salad.

Note:

Flambé: During a cooking procedure alcohol is added to a hot pan and bursts into flames

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Rosemary and Thyme Salmon

This was my first time cooking with fish, so please don't judge me... I didn't even know how to cook it, I forgot to put it in the oven, so yeah... it's just a tad raw in the middle. I'll have a fixed recipe though.

Ingredients-


Salmon
350g- Salmon Fillet (with skin)
Small bunch of Rosemary & Thyme
Crack of Salt & Pepper to taste
Olive oil

Spinach Salad-
Handful of Spinach
2Tbsp- White wine vinegar
1Tbsp- Olive oil
1tsp- Lemon rind
Squeeze of Lemon juice
Salt & Pepper

Method-

Preheat oven to 180°C, Check if the Salmon is deboned, if there is any traces of bones in the Salmon pull them out with kitchen tweezers. Cut Salmon evenly in half and place it in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and crack of salt & pepper, mix thoroughly and add rosemary & thyme, leave some for garnishing (optional). Place a stainless steel frying pan over a medium heat and once it's hot enough, place skin side down of the Salmon and allow it to cook for about 1 minute or until golden and crisp, then seal the sides and top. Once the Salmon is then sealed, crack a bit more of Salt & Pepper over the top and place the skin side down once again, and place in the oven for 15 minutes or until cooked through.

For the salad, grab a handful of spinach and rinse it over cold water and dry off any excess water and place in a bowl. Mix the Olive oil and White win vinegar together with a fork until mixture combines, then add in Salt & Pepper along with the Lemon rind and Lemon juice, mix again until mixture is then combined well. Add any other optional herbs for your choice of tasting, then drizzle over the spinach and mix through.

Once Salmon is cooked Garnish on a plate along with the Spinach Salad and drizzle with Olive oil on top.


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Strawberry Mousse Cake

I used my mum's molder which helped me give me that shape. The chocolate sauce was hard to pipe, but it was my first attempt in these sort of stuff.
yea i know feels like something's missing, i just ran out of strawberries to garnish...
Ingredients:

Mousse-
1 and 1/2 - Gelatin Sheet
150mL - Strawberry Puree' (see note below)
50g - Caster Sugar
250mL - Cream

Jelly-

200mL- Strawberry Puree' (see note Below)
1- Gelatin Sheet
50g- Caster Sugar

Chocolate Sauce-

100g- Dark Chocolate (Good Quality)
150mL- Cream

Method:
Mousse
Place gelatin sheets in a cool bath and let it sit there for about 5-10 minutes or until soft. Whip the cream until soft peaks form and place inside the fridge and allow to cool, once the gelatin has softened place, squeeze out any excess water and then place it in a saucepan or a double boiler (recommended) and let it melt over a low heat, place in sugar gently and use a balloon whisk, and whisk until mixture combines. Remove from heat and slowly whisk in the strawberry puree', (if lumps of gelatin begins to show, you can put it back on the heat) then remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Take the Whipped cream and add a third at a time mix in with the puree' and whisk. Once the mixture has been combined and no lumps of cream is left, place inside mold and allow it to cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Jelly
In a saucepan, place the softened gelatin sheet and allow to melt over low heat, whisk in the caster sugar and then combine with the puree'. Allow this mixture to cool for about 15 minutes. Once the mousse is set and the jelly mixture is cool enough, place a small amount of jelly over the mousse and allow to set in the fridge.

Chocolate Sauce
Place Dark chocolates in the double boiler and allow to melt, once it's silky enough, remove from the heat and slowly mix in the cream (use a spatula), until it becomes a dark glossy colour. Pour in mixture inside a piping bag or plastic sandwich bag and garnish with it (do not put it in the heat for too long otherwise it will lose it's glossiness and texture).

Note:

To make a strawberry puree is simple, cut the leafy bits of the strawberries and place inside a blender, and blend until there is no more solids, if it's not blending well, put a spoonful of caster sugar and a small amount of water and once it becomes a smoothe texture, it's ready to be used.


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