A quick and easy meal idea again - from Thursday night actually.
Ok, this time it's not the traditional recipe, I just used whatever I have on hand.
Beef Stroganoff
500g Heart Smart Beef Fillet Steaks
2 small onions, sliced
200g mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp white pepper
½ cup white wine
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp raw sugar
1 tsp all spice
1 tbsp dry mixed herbs (use fresh thyme, parsley and dill chopped fine if there’s any on hand)
2 tbsp thick Greek Yoghurt (use sour cream if you have them)
Method:
Cut steaks into 2mm thin stripes, toss in flour and white pepper mixture.
In a non stick frying pan, heat up some cooking oil (use butter if you want, but cooking oil or olive oil is my choice of healthier diet), brown onions and add beef stripes, lightly brown, about 2-3 minutes.
Add salt and herbs and all spice.
Mix well and caramelize meat further, deglaze with wine.
Mix in mushrooms and cook for a further 2-3 minutes
Add yoghurt and sugar. Mix well, cook for another 2-3 minutes and it should be ready.
Potato Pancakes
6 Medium starchy potatoes
150g plain flour
1 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
125ml milk
1 knob of butter
Method:
Boil the potatoes in skin, cool in colander, remove skin.
Shred potatoes.
Prepare flour batter with flour, pepper, salt, melted butter and milk.
Mix in shredded potatoes, should still be quite chunky.
Heat some cooking oil in pan, 1 tbsp at a time, and drop ¼ cup of batter in for a big pancake or 1 tbsp of batter in for a smaller pancake.
Brown both sides.
The healthy cut of the beef is very tender, and it's nice even though it's not "tradition".....
There's no cookies left in the cookie jar...
So, someone has to make some cookies right?
I've decided to make some pinwheel cookies for Luke and Monique, so they can bring to school / kinder as snacks, but of course, they can't have nuts in their lunch / snack boxes, so I went with the chocolate version for luke:
Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies:
250g plain flour
180g unsalted butter.
100g white sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
30g cocoa powder
20g dark chocolate chips
Method:
Cream softened butter with white sugar.
Add in flour and mix well, add in lightly beat egg.
Divide cookie dough in 2 halves.
Add brown sugar, cinnamon powder, cocoa powder and dark chocolate chips to one half.
Roll out both on marble slab into rectangular shapes, same shape.
Put the chocolate sheet on top of the plain sheet, and roll into a log.
Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes for easier cutting, cut into 0.8 cms slices and place on lined cookie sheets.
Bake in 190C oven for 10-15 minutes or until ready.
And Dad loved them as well, so I made some for dad, but since he loves peanut, I made the peanut butter pinwheel cookies for him:
Peanut Butter Pinwheel Cookies:
250g plain flour
150g unsalted butter
30g peanut oil
100g white sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp peanut butter
Method:
Cream softened butter with white sugar.
Add in flour and peanut oiland mix well, add in lightly beat egg.
Divide cookie dough in 2 halves.
Add brown sugar, peanut butter to one half.
Roll out both on marble slab into rectangular shapes, same shape.
Put the peanut butter sheet on top of the plain sheet, and roll into a log.
Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes for easier cutting, cut into 0.8 cms slices and place on lined cookie sheets.
Bake in 190C oven for 10-15 minutes or until ready.
Normally, during the week days, I pick up Luke from school after I finish work. He's a good boy and normally stays at school for 15-30 minutes after school so I can make it through the busy traffic, and he gets to play a bit with his friends.
But that normally means that it's about 4:15 when I get home, and usually I get about 1 hour and half to put dinner on the table, for everyone. Sometimes, it's a bit harder as Graeme and I love spicy food but the children can only take very plain food. We have chicken a lot because even the 3 year old Monique can eat it all by herself and she normally likes it as well. So I always have some really simple and easy recipes for those busy moments.
This recipe was adapted from a very popular Rice Cooker 3 Cup Chicken recipe from Chinese websites. The traditional 3 cup chicken was cooked in clay pots, and is a popular Taiwanese dish. The rice cooker version is quick and easy, but I decided against the rice cooker today, because I need it, for the rice.
2 cloves of garlic
2 onion sliced
1 whole chicken 1.2kg - use free range organic chicken for better flavour
½ cup vegetable oil or canola
2/3 cup soy sauce, half light and half dark
Rice wine – Cantonese style, bit like sake.
1 knob of ginger
1 slice of sliced sugar – or ¼ cup of raw sugar.
Slice the ginger, garlic and 1 onion.
Soak in mixture of soy sauce, oil and rice wine, and place chicken in the sauces, turn and coat all over, marinate for 30 minutes at least.
Fish out the onion and garlic and ginger from marinating sauce and place at the bottom of the pot (or rice cooker), place the second onion there as well.
Add all sauces to pot and add the sugar.
Add chicken and simmer over low heat (use high heat to get the sauces to boiling point and reduce to low heat, for the microwave version, just switch it to cook), turn every 15 minutes till chicken is cooked, normally 40-45 minutes in total. There should be still plenty of sauce left after cooking, which can be served as gravy on chicken.
Please note the original recipe called for 1 cup soy sauce (light and dark combined), 1 cup oil and 1 cup wine, therefore it's called the 3 cup chicken, however I do find the original recipe called for too much oil and normally there will be some fat coming out of chicken as well.
I've been thinking of baking a loaf for Luke's lunch boxes, something a bit more healthier than brioche but still eggy and tasty... And then I saw Emmanuel Mollois making Baguette Viennois on Poh's Kitchen.
I made a loaf using his recipe totally but into one big loaf, and then - just like what I always do, I decided to add in my taste....
30g Sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp dry yeast
3 eggs
400g strong bread flour
50g butter
200ml milk
80g whole meal flour
Heat milk up and then cool back down to around 40-45C.
Add in 10g sugar and dry yeast and wait 10-15 minutes for it to get frothy.
Put salt at the bottom of the mixing bowl (make sure it’s away from the yeast), add flour and the rest of the sugar and make a well in the middle.
Add yeast mixture liquid – I’ve used the bench top mixture for this recipe, but you can use hand….
Mix well flour and liquid, and then gradually add soft room temperature butter which was broken into small cubes, and mix well.
Add eggs, one by one, and mix well into a soft dough but a bit wet.
On a nice clean bench (I do take it out of the mixer once the butter is all blended in) and knead with the help of a dough scraper if you need to use one, as the dough can be wet and sticky.
Knead till dough is elastic and not sticky and smooth.
Put it in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth to prove for 2 hours or till it’s double in size.
Separate into 3-4 smaller portions and roll them up, and put in the greased loaf tin.
Prove for another 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes, until it’s full size, and bake in pre-heated oven 190C for 30 minutes.
This bread is tasty and eggy but not as rich as brioche loaf, which is very nice in between.
Please note that this recipe was adapted from Emmanuel Mollois but there are some changes: I added a bit of whole meal flour and reduced amount of sugar. I also added an extra egg and reduced the amount of the liquid. I made the loaf from the original version the week before, and Emmanuel’s original recipes were made into Baguettes and rolls.
I quite like this bread and will submit this to yeastspotting.
Sometimes, we don't have time to make desserts, but as chocolate always make my family happy especially the children, I need something for "emergencies" and this is one of them, great for sudden guests as well, as it can be devided into individual moulds for individual guests...
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
100g self raising flour
75g butter
1.5 cup of boiling water
50g cocoa powder
½ cup dark chocolate chips
50ml cream
50ml milk
Cream butter and ½ cup of brown sugar.
Add milk and cream and lightly whisked egg, mix well.
Add sifted 25g cocoa powder and flour, mix well.
Add dark chocolate chips.
Sprinkle the rest of cocoa powder and sugar on the mix.
Pour boiling water all over.
Put microwave on 80% heat for 12 minutes…
If making a big one, just scoop out and serve with cream...
My family must have loved oranges so much... we use oranges a lot and one of our family old favourite is the Duck in Orange sauce.
Instead of the trendy duck bread pan seared version, we actually prefer the whole roast duck version with crispy skin...
However, when I was about to make it, I can't seem to find my favourite recipe, so I cooked this with my memory plus some common French cooking knowledge, and it has got more herbs? My version that is.
1 x sz 16 Free Range Duck
2 Orange Peels
1 Orange
1 lemon
3 Sprigs of Parsley
1 sprigs of rosemary
2 Bay Leaves
Couple of black pepper
1 onion
2 Shallots
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp dry herbs
1 tbsp all spice
2 tbsp salt
30g butter
1 tsp salt
½ cup raw sugar
½ cup white wine
¼ cup white wine vinegar
½ cup chicken stock
Method:
1. Pre-heat oven to 130C.
2. Clean duck, cut off neck and wing tips, rub outside and inside of the duck with the mixture of 2 tbsp dry herbs, 2 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp all spice, put in orange peels and "sew" up duck with a metal skewer,
3. Juice the Orange and Lemon, keep the skin, cut in slices.
4. Put duck on rack, in oven and set time for 1 hour.
5. Meanwhile, add a bit of cooking oil to pan and add sliced shallots, onions, garlic and brown.
6. Add the neck and wing tips and head, and caramelize all sides.
7. Deglaze with wine and white wine vinegar, add chicken stock, add rosemary, parsley, orange & lemon peels, bay leaves and black pepper, and simmer for 15 minutes.
8. Drain sauce through sift, retain sauce, and discard the onion, herbs etc, and add to a smaller saucepan. Add sifted orange & lemon juice and bring it to boil. add butter and raw sugar and the 1 tsp salt, more if needed, adjust salt and sugar amount slightly to personal taste.
9. Add butter, and reduce sauce to 2/3 - or the thickness as desired.
10. When duck is cooked for 1 hour, heat oven upto 230C and set for 20minutes each side.
11 Cut duck into portions, and serve with sauce…
We had it with mashed potato and beans...
I got my new book - I love Macarons and I decided to have another go at the family's new found fav...
This time, orange coloured macaron shells with dark chocolate and orange flavour...
Macarons:
300g Icing Sugar
200g Almond meal
150g Egg Whites
80g White Sugar
1 drop of red food colouring
1 drop of yellow food colouring
Ganache:
150g Lindt’s Orange 70% Dark Chocolate
100g Cream
2 tbsp Marmalade
Method:
Sift icing sugar and almond meal.
Whisk egg whites (separated 3 days ago) to firm peak, slowly add in white sugar till glossy.
Add in food colouring and keep whisking.
Blend in sifted almond meal and icing sugar, put in piping bag and pipe onto baking trays lined with silicon baking matts.
Wait for 1 hour for crust to form.
Heat oven to 200C and then reduce to 140C
Bake for 23 minutes.
Make ganache:
Boil cream, pour over chopped chocolate and mix well.
Wait until room temperature and add in marmalade.
da da.....
Really glad that the liquid food colouring worked well this time, I do have the powdered colourings, and next batch, I'm thinking, maybe the green tea powder... something oriental?
Anyway, these ones do disappear very quickly...
