Chocolate Fondant

Recipe from Masterchef season 2

Ingredients

Melted butter, for greasing
Cocoa powder, for dusting (approx ¼ cup)
200g dark couverture chocolate
4 eggs
4 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
150g plain flour, sifted
100g butter, extra
vanilla ice cream and berries, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Place a small square of paper in the bottom of 6 ramekins and grease with melted butter and cocoa powder. Place ramekins on a baking tray.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a small saucepan of boiling water, turn off heat. In an electric mixer, add the eggs, egg yolks and sugar and mix on high speed until fluffy and white. Tip chocolate mixture into a large bowl, pour egg mixture into chocolate mixture and fold together. Fold in flour and mix until smooth. Spoon or pour mixture into ramekins and bake in oven for 8-9 minutes.
3. place in fridge until ready to serve. When ready to serve, bake in oven for 8-9 minutes.
4. To serve, gently run knife along outside of each ramekin and turn fondant out into serving bowls.

Notes & Tips

Fondant mixture can be prepared ahead of time. Place in fridge until ready to serve. Bake in oven for 15-17 minutes

Serve chocolate fondants with vanilla ice cream and mixed berries

Berries in syrup:

Ingredients
2 tablespoons white sugar
¼ cup water
½ cup mixed berries (fresh or frozen, thawed)

Method:
Combine sugar and water in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 to 8 minutes or until sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stand in pan for 5 minutes. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until cold. Combine mixed berries and syrup in a bowl. Stir gently to coat berries.

Veal Osso Bucco with Cannellini Beans

I love Gary Mehigan's recipes from TV show Masterchef Australia. I've been meaning to try out this recipe for quite some time and finally got the chance to cook it this weekend. Thankfully, this is one of the easier recipes to cook and it's absolutely delicious! Packed full of flavour and perfect to eat on a cold Winter's night.

Recipe adapted from Masterchef 2011, Masterclass 

Ingredients

1.5kg veal osso bucco
½ cup plain flour
50ml olive oil
2 stalks celery, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
¼ bunch parsley stalks, leaves picked and roughly chopped, stalks reserved
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
250ml white wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs thyme
zest of 1 lemon
400g tin crushed tomato
2 cups veal or beef stock
100g dried cannelini beans, soaked overnight or 100g tinned cannellini beans, drained, rinsed

To finish

Freshly cracked pepper and sea salt
½ bunch parsley leaves, roughly chopped
zest of 1 lemon
1 loaf crusty bread, thickly sliced

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180⁰C.
2. Season meat with salt and pepper and toss in flour to coat, shaking off excess. Heat oil in a frying pan over high heat, add meat and pan fry until caramelized then remove meat from pan and set aside to a plate. Reduce to medium-high heat. Add celery, onion, carrot, reserved parsley stalks and garlic to pan, cook for 8-10 minutes.
3. Add tomato paste and cook for 1-2 minutes then deglaze pan with wine.
4. Add all remaining ingredients including the meat to pan. Cover with a lid and cook in oven for 1½-2 hours.
5. Remove lid, cook for a further 45 minutes or until sauce has thickened.
6. Remove pan from oven, sprinkle with cracked pepper, sea salt, chopped parsley and lemon zest.
7. Serve with crusty bread.

Notes & Tips

If using tinned cannellini beans, add when almost ready to serve

Creme Brulee

Hubby bought me a blow torch as a wedding anniversary gift. I was so excited to receive another kitchen toy to use and decided to test it out by making some crème brulee. It works pretty well and caramelised the sugar quite nicely :)

Recipe adapted from Masterchef 2010, Masterclass 4 season 2

Serves 4

Ingredients

600ml thickened cream
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
6 egg yolks
¼- ½ cup caster sugar
120g demerara sugar

Method

Step 1: Preheat oven to 120°C.

Step 2: Place the cream, vanilla bean and seeds in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to scalding point, then remove from heat. Remove vanilla bean and discard.

Step 3: Whisk together egg yolks and caster sugar in a bowl for 2-3 minutes or until thick, creamy and pale.

Step 4: Pour hot cream over egg yolk mixture, continuing to whisk until well combined. Strain mixture into a jug, evenly divide between 4 x 200ml ramekins.

Step 5: Carefully place ramekins in a deep roasting pan. Pour boiling water into pan to come halfway up the sides of ramekins. Cover pan loosely with foil.

Step 6: Bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until the custard has just set (custards should still have a slight wobble when done). Remove ramekins from the water bath, and set aside to cool. Refrigerate, covered for at least 4 hours.

Step 7: Sprinkle demerara sugar evenly over the surface of the baked custards. Run a kitchen blowtorch over the custards, or place under a preheated grill until the sugar bubbles and caramelises. Set aside for 5 minutes or until toffee sets. Serve.

Notes & Tips

Placing custards in a dish full of ice keeps the custard chilled and stops it overcooking while the sugar caramelises under the grill (or blowtorch). Placing the custards as close as possible to the grill also speeds the process. If using the grill, position the grill rack as close to grill as possible and preheat it to medium high.

Nonya Fried Rice

If you haven't figured it out by now, I like food and I like to eat. Which shouldn't come to anybody's surprise that I also like to watch cooking shows. However, I don't often cook what I watch on T.V. as most of the stuff that's cooked on the telly these days is too gourmet or fine dining for me. When I come home from an exhausting day at work, I don't want to necessarily be slaving away in the kitchen for 3 hours on a meal that will be eaten in 30 minutes and that doesn't taste nice reheated the next day for work. I tend to cook more easier, simpler, practical meals on a work night and occasionally on a weekend or a day off I might try a recipe that requires a bit more effort.

Watching Poh's Kitchen the other day, I saw her make a dish called Nonya Fried Rice. It looked quite easy to put together and the flavours of this Malaysian style fried rice intrigued me so much that I decided to give it a go and to my surprise I quite liked it (and so did hubby). There is a spicy prawn flavour as you eat the fried rice (that comes from both the dried shrimp and fresh prawns), with the refreshing and cool taste of the cucumber. The cucumber also adds a nice crunch and bite to the dish.

It's great to see Poh (the runner's up to season 1 Masterchef) have her own T.V. show and share some of her Malaysian recipes with the wider audience in Australia.

Ingredients

¼ cup vegetable oil
2 large red chillies, chopped and seeded
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4 shallots, chopped
¾ cups dried shrimp, soaked in boiling water
10 green prawns, peeled deveined and cut into small pieces
1 ½ cups jasmine rice, cooked
2 tbs light soy
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp white pepper
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 telegraph (long thin) cucumber, quartered lengthways, seeds sliced off and discarded (for maximum crunch) and then sliced diagonally - about 2 to 3 mm

Method

1. Pound the chilli, garlic and shallots to a paste in a mortar and pestle. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, chopping finely will be completely appropriate.
2. Heat the vegetable oil in a wok till hot and add the paste and sauté till it is rich and aromatic. (If finely chopping the aromatics, add the garlic first to the wok, and cook briefly, then the shallots and chilli and stir fry till aromatic).
3. Pound drained dried shrimp in mortar and pestle till shredded, or blitz in a food processor to a crumbly consistency. Add to the wok and stir fry till fragrant. Add prawns and stir fry till just cooked. Immediately add rice, soy, salt, sugar and white pepper.
4. Cook till rice has separated, and tender.
5. Make a well in the middle of the wok pushing rice to the sides. Tip in the egg and let it sit for a while so the bottom has a while to caramelise. With an eggflip turn it over on the other side till that is also nice and brown, then chop it with the eggflip so little pieces of it cook all the way through. Add the cucumber and give it all a final toss so everything is incorporated, checking for seasoning. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Notes & Tips

The trick to cooking great fried rice is to pre-cook the rice and put it in the fridge overnight spread out on a baking tray lined with a sheet of baking paper. This makes the grains stay separate and prevents the fried rice from getting stodgy when cooking.

Lemon Diva Cupcakes

I finally had the chance today to make these Lemon Diva Cupcakes. The original recipe is from Julie Goodwin, winner of Masterchef season 1. I see why she won the cupcake challenge. These cupcakes are moist, fluffy and they do certainly pack a punch in terms of lemon flavour!

Makes 12

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
finely grated zest of 3 lemons
2 eggs
1⅓ cups self raising flour
½ cup milk

Icing

125g unsalted butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1½ tbs lemon juice

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 12 hole medium muffin pan (1/3 cup capacity) with paper cases. Using electric beaters, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and creamy. Mix through the lemon zest.
2. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each egg. Gently fold through the flour and milk in two alternate batches. Divide the mixture evenly among the paper cases.
3. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown and springy when touched. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
4. To make the icing, use electric beaters to beat the butter until light and creamy. Add the icing sugar a little at a time, beating constantly. Add half the lemon juice and beat until well combined. Add the remaining lemon juice a little at a time. Using a 1cm fluted nozzle, pipe the icing onto the cooled cupcakes.

Microwaved Lemon Curd

Lemon curd is delicious served on toast or scones, and also very good as a filling for cakes, biscuits or crêpes. This is one of the recipes demonstrated by judge of 'MasterChef Australia 2009', Gary Mehigan in one of the Masterclass episodes.

Makes approx. 2 cups curd

Ingredients

3 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1 cup caster sugar, sifted
125g unsalted butter, cubed
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
200ml lemon juice, from about 3 lemons

Method

1. In a microwave-safe bowl, beat whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar until incorporated. Cut butter into small cubes and add to the egg mixture.
2. Add grated lemon rind and lemon juice, give it a quick stir and place into microwave.
3. Microwave, uncovered, on MEDIUM or 50% (I used a 700W-power microwave) for about 8 minutes, or until the mixture thickens. During the cooking, stop the microwave every minute and give the mixture a stir before resuming cooking.
4. Store in sterilized jar in the refrigerator. Best consumed within 1 week

Hainanese Chinese Rice

Hubby and I ate Hainanese Chicken the other day at a restaurant which inspired me to try and make this dish at home. The effort was worth the time in the kitchen. This recipe will yield a nicely poached chicken infused with ginger and rice cooked in freshly made chicken stock served with fresh ginger & shallot sauce. Hubby wanted to go back for seconds, but since I had only made enough for two, I should double the recipe for next time!

Serves 2

Steamed Chicken

2 Chicken Marylands
1 spring onion, roughly chopped
3cm piece ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
1 tbsp shao xing wine
2 tbsp light soy sauce
½ tsp sesame oil

Chicken Stock (makes approx. 3 cups)

2 chicken wings
2 chicken breasts, skin removed, roughly chopped
1 chicken carcass
1½ cup chicken stock
5cm piece ginger, thickly sliced
4 spring onions, green part only, roughly chopped

Rice

2 tbsp peanut oil
Skin from one chicken breast
Parson’s nose of chicken
2 garlic cloves, grated
2cm piece ginger, grated
1 cup jasmine rice

Chilli dipping sauce

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 red banana chilli, roughly chopped
1-2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp white vinegar
½ tsp peanut oil

Ginger and spring onion dipping sauce

¼ cup peanut oil
3cm piece ginger, finely shredded
2 spring onions, green part only, 3cm pieces, finely shredded

Method

1. For steamed chicken, fill a wok half way with water, place a wire rack on top, making sure water does not touch the rack. Place a shallow bowl with the chicken pieces, on top of the rack. Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl to make a marinade. Place marinade over and around the chicken. Cover and cook over medium heat for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Remove meat from the bones or chop up if desired.

2. For chicken stock, place all ingredients in a medium saucepan with just enough water to cover the chicken bones. Simmer over medium heat for 30-40 minutes. Strain, set aside stock.

3. For the rice, heat peanut oil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Add skin and parsans nose, cook for 3-4 minutes, remove skin and parsans nose from the pan. Add garlic and ginger, cook for 2-3 minutes or until slightly golden. Stir through rice to coat in oil, add 2 cups of chicken stock. Bring to the boil, cook partially covered 5 minutes or until holes start to appear in the surface of the rice. Cover completely with the lid and turn heat down as low as possible. Cook a further 10 minutes. Remove the pan completely from the heat and leave to stand, a further 10 minutes. Season to taste.

4. For chilli dipping sauce, pound garlic and chilli in a mortar and pestle until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, stir through remaining ingredients until well combined. Spoon into dipping dish, to serve.

5. For ginger and spring onion dipping sauce, heat peanut oil in a small saucepan over high heat, place remaining ingredients in a medium bowl and carefully pour over the oil. Spoon into dipping dish, to serve.

6. To serve, place chicken pieces/maryland on a plate, top with spring onion. Spoon rice on the side of plate. Serve with the chilli dipping sauce and ginger and spring onion sauce.


Notes & Tips

You'll need 1 whole chicken for this recipe.