BROWNIES

 

Forgive me for the long silence. Things have been a little hectic. But I'm back and there is no better way to start off a-blogging than with these moist, scrummy and fudgy brownies.

These are the most delicious brownies ever! They're chocolatey, fudgy, slightly chewy, with that shiny crackly skin on the top. They are addictive. You can't stop at one. Swear to god. They are even better cold straight from the fridge and I've even had them half frozen from the freezer.

I had kept them in the freezer so we would not gorge on them in one sitting but apparently frozen brownies were even more engaging to eat. I don't think these brownies would ever get dry.

They were born from a small home business run by a young man who is an engineer by day and brownie baker by night. How more intriguing could that get? And they have crossed the seas to Singapore, Sri Lanka and Brunei.

They are baked in a 10 inch by 10 inch tray.

Yum!

STICKY THAI CHICKEN

This is another grilled chicken recipe from Rachel Allen. Thai influenced and easy. I was tempted to add some coconut cream but decided otherwise at the last minute because I thought her chicken looked yummy enough. 

We had this for dinner. I was expecting it to be a little stickier considering the name but it wasn't as sticky. Okay I'll admit I did not follow the recipe to a T.......neither did Rachel on tv.....but it was tasty. The next time I make this i would add some dry  roasted and crushed cumin seeds or a dash of cumin powder and a splash of coconut cream to the marinade. I think it would be much more flavourful. Having said that, this wasn't bad at all.

I like baking or roasting chicken. I get to nap.

The Recipe ~ adapted from Rachel Allen

6 chicken thighs and drumsticks
2-3 red chillies, chopped
1 inch ginger, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 sticks lemon grass, white part only and sliced
2 - 3 T brown sugar, I used palm sugar
juice of 2 limes
3-4 T fish sauce
a small bunch of coriander, chopped roughly and extra for garnish
salt to taste, if necessary


Put all ingredients except chicken into a small food processor and process until a loose wet paste. 


Dry chicken pieces well, slash each piece twice at intervals to allow the marinade to penetrate the meat. Place chicken into a large plastic bag. Pour the marinade/paste into the bag and massage chicken pieces gently so that the marinade covers the chicken and coats evenly. Reserve teh excess marinade for later. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

Pre-heat oven 350 F


Take chicken pieces out of the marinade and place on a  baking or roasting tray. Roast for about 40-45 minutes at 350 F. Take the roasted chicken out and check for doneness by looking at the juice that runs out. If it is clear and has no pnkish hue it's done. Using a tong lift off the chicken pieces onto a large platter.


Take the excess marinade and pour into the baking tray. Place the baking tray over the stove on medium heat. Stir and adjust seasoning if necessary and reduce the sauce until it becomes a thick syrupy liquid. Pour it over the chicken pieces. Serve with hot steaming white rice.

DOBOS TORTE

Seeing that I have only one one rack in my oven a Dobos Torte was not something I was keen to attempt. But I did it. In 4 hours.

The sponge layers took only 5 minutes to bake but must be watched and baking those thin layers should never be paired with accidental naps in between.

The chocolate frosting made me falter and I almost went for another recipe because 3 raw egg yolks could mean salmonella attacks, hospitalization and doctor's bills en masse. I decided to be brave and went ahead. We are all well, alive and hungering for more Dobos Torte. Thanks be to God.

I had cut the last piece of sponge layer into 8 wedges and seperated them a little before pouring the amber caramel over. One thing I learnt was that you only need to cut through the caramel when the caramel has hardened. With a very sharp knife. It is much easier than having sticky caramel globbing up your knife and gooey caramel threads stretching between your fingers endlessly.

A Dobos Torte looks much harder to make than it really is. And it is very very delicious and beautiful to look at. Maida Heatter's recipe is a winner. The birthday boys yummied it. 

The recipe ~ taken from Smitten Kitchen ~ a Maida Heatter recipe.

Serves 12

Cake :


7 egg, seperated
3 egg yolks, additional
455 gm (1 lb) confectionaer's sugar (icing sugar)
94 gm all purpose flour
1 T lemon juice
1/8 tsp salt


Frosting :


227 (8 oz) bittersweet chocolate ( I used 60 per cent cacao)
226 (8 oz) gm butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 large egg yolks
2 T confectioner's sugar (icing sugar)


Caramel :


1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 T water


Make cake ~


Line, butter and flour well 8 8 inch round pans or 7 9 inch round pans. I only had 3 8 inch round pans so I had some relining and buttering and flouring to do.


Pre-heat oven to 450 F


Beat 10 yolks on high of an electric mixer for a few minutes until it turns pale and lemon coloured. Reduce speed, add sugar gradually and increase speed again and continue likewise until sugar is finished., and mixture is thick and glossy.


Reduce speed again and add flour gradually and then increase speed and mix for about 5 minutes. Add lemon juice and mix a few seconds more.


In a seperate bowl that is clean and dry beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. 


Stir in a few tablespoons of the egg white  into the egg yolk mixture to loosen the yolk mixture up. Then add the rest of the whites in 3 batches until the whole mixture is smooth. I used a wire whisk to do this.


Divide the batter into 8 or 7 portions depending on the size of your pan ( I weighed my batter) and pour into tins, leveling the batter and baking each layer for 5 minutes.


Keep the baked sponges aside and if you stack them please make sure you have baking paper in between. 


Make frosting  ~


Melt chocolate until smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature. In a bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter till soft and smooth. Add vanilla and 3 egg yolks. Add sugar and cooled chocolate beating well until thoroughly mixed. 


Spread this frosting thinly on each layer on cake leaving one layer unused.

Cover the whole cake with the chocolate frosting and chill in fridge while making the caramel layer.


Make Caramel Layer ~


Place the unused layer of sponge on baking paper. Cut the into 8 wedges. Seperate them a little. 
Meanwhile place sugar and water in a small pan and heat on high until the sugar melts and turns amber. Immediately take off heat and pour the caramel over the cut sponge cake.Let teh caramel cool and harden somewhat before cutting with a very sharp knife seperating teh wedges and neatening the edges if necessary. 

Arrange on top of the frosted cake. 

HOKKIEN MEE

I had planned to do a Hokkien Mee for dinner and then decided that I might as well blog about it. This is one of my favourite noodle dishes apart from a  hearty and spicy mee mamak. To be honest I didn't know that there were variations of this dish until I googled it. I had always thought of Hokkien mee as the dark, thick sauced, fat noodle dish. Period. Now I know that Penang has it's own version as does Singapore. All three look absolutely scrummy!

This version however is really quick to put together and it must be made just before serving. Because the sauce is a simple mixture of sweet dark soy sauce, some oyster sauce and stock I find that the yellow noodles used in this dish cannot be substituted by any other because the flavour of the noodles contributes to the flavour of the dish as a whole.

I had tried using my own home made noodles but it didn't quite taste the same because it did not have the flavour particular to Hokkien Mee made with yellow noodles. The yellow noodles made a whole lot of difference. I also fell a little short cooking it this time around. I had not made enough sauce. More sauce.

The recipe ~

Serves 4 


I have to give you this recipe from memory because I had not measured the ingredients when I made it. So the measurements are approximate. 


450 gm packet of yellow noodles, blanched in hot water to soften and kept aside


Any green leafy vegetable that you like, I used sawi, washed and cleaned and cut
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
4-5 T dark sweet soy sauce
1 T kecap manis, I used ABC brand
About 3-4 T oyster sauce
 1- 1/2 cups of water or stock
a handful of prawns shelled, deveined with tail left on
1 large squid, skinned and sliced into bite sized pieces
1 slab of fish cake, sliced


salt, pepper
vegetable oil

Heat wok, pour in about 2 T of cooking oil. When the oil is hot throw in the garlic and stir fry till fragrant but not brown. Add them prawns, squid and fish cake slices and continue to stir fry till the prawns just turn pink. Add the three sauces and the  water or stock and allow to come to a boil. Just as it comes to a boil add the noodles and greens. Stir well to coat evenly with sauce. Add salt and some pepper to taste. Serve immediately.


* Adjust the water/stock and the amount of sauces to your taste. I personally wish I had made more sauce.