My Cookery Page

This mousse is light and fluffy and has a subtle hint of orange.  Serve with fresh fruit sauce.  Impress your guests during Christmas.

Ingredients:

100g semisweet chocolate, melted; 1-1/4 cup plain yogurt; 4 tbsp superfine sugar; 1 tbsp orange juice; 2 extra large egg whites; 1 tbsp brandy (optional); 2/3 cup lowfat soft cheese; 1-1/2 tsp vegetarian gelatin; 9 tbsp cold water; coarsely grated semisweet and white chocolate and orange rind, to decorate.

Method:

Put the melted chocolate, plain yogurt, soft cheese, superfine sugar, orange juice, and brandy in a food processor and process for 30sec.  Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

Sprinkle the gelatin over the water and stir until dissolved.  In a pan, bring the gelatin and water to a boil for about 2 minutes.  Cool slightly and then stir into the chocolate.  Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form and fold into the chocolate mixture using a metal spoon.

Line a 500g loaf pan with plastic wrap.  Spoon the mousse into the pan.  Chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours until set.  Turn the mousse out onto a serving plate, decorate and serve.

Another recipe to try for the holiday season.

Ingredients:

1 whole well-trimmed beef brisket (2.25kg/5 pounds); 2 large onions, peeled and cut into 1/4 inch slices; 4 cloves garlic (minced); 1 bottle or 375ml/12 ounces chillie sauce; 1 tbsp or 15ml packed brown sugar; 2 tbsp or 30ml worchester sauce; 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper; 3/4 cup or 187ml beef broth or water.

Method:

Preheat oven to 350F/180C.  Place brisket, fat side up, in shallow roasting pan.  Spread garlic evenly over brisket - sprinkle with pepper.  Separate onions into rings and arrange over brisket.  Combine the chilli sauce, worcestershire sauce , broth and sugar and pour over brisket and onions.  Cover with heavy-duty foil or roasting pan lid.

Roast for 2 hours.  Turn brisket over;  stir onions into sauce and spoon over brisket and cover.  Roast 1 - 2 hours more or until fork-tender.   Transfer brisket to cutting board.  Tent with foil , and let stand for 10 minutes.

At this point, brisket may be covered and refrigerated up to 1 day before serving.  To reheat brisket, cut diagonally into thin slices with carving knife.   Place brisket slices and juice in large skillet.  Cover and heat over medium-low heat until heated through.  Stir juices in roasting pan.  Spoon off and discard fat from juices.  (Juices may be thinned to desired consistency with water or thickened by simmering, uncovered, in saucepan).  

Carve brisket diagonnaly across grain into thin slices with carving knife.  Spoon juices over brisket.                          

Don’t forget the children these holiday season.  Try this cookie.

Ingredients:

1 cup/250ml peanut butter flavoured chips; 2 large eggs; 2-1/4 cups or 562ml all purpose flour; 1 tsp baking soda; 1 cup or 250ml butter or margarine, softened; 3/4 tsp salt; 3/4 cup or 187ml granulated sugar; 3/4 cup packed brown sugar; 1 package or 337g mini baking semi-sweet chocolate candies; 1 tsp vanilla.

Method:

Preheat oven to 375F or 190C.   Place flour, salt and baking soda in a mixing bowl and mix well.  Beat butter, granulated and brown sugars in large bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy, scraping down side of bowl once.  Beat in eggs and vanilla, scraping down side.

Add flour mixture.  Beat at low speed until well blended, scraping down side. Stir in candies and chips with mixing spoon.  Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of dough about 3inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown.  Let cookies stand on cookie sheets for 2 minutes.  Remove cookies with spatula to wire racks, and cool completely.

Store tightly at room temperature of freeze up to 3 months.

Ingredients:

1 cup/250ml milk; 2 eggs; 1/2 tsp salt; 1 cup/250ml all-purpose flour; 1/4 cup/62.5ml) reserved drippings from roast or unsalted butter.

Method: 

Process milk, eggs and salt in blender for 15 seconds.   Add flour and process for 2 minutes.  Let batter stand in food processor at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour.  Place drippings in 9-inch square baking tin.  Place in 450F or 230C over for 5 minutes. 

Process batter for another 10 sec and then pour into the hot drippings.  Do not stir.

Immediately return pan to over and bake for 20 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 350F or 180C.  Bake for 10 minutes until pudding is golden brown and puffed.  Cut into squares.  Makes about 6 to 8 servings.

Countdown to Christmas!  Here’s one delicious recipe:

Ingredients:

1 leg of lamb, well-trimmed, boned, rolled and tied (about 4 pounds/1.8kg); 3 tbsp/45ml coarsely-grained mustard;  2 cloves garlic (minced); 1-1/2 tsp/8ml rosemary leaves, crushed;  1/2 tsp/2ml freshly ground black pepper; mint jelly (optional).

Method:

Preheat oven to 400F/200C.   Combine the garlic, rosemary,mustard, black pepper.   Rub the mixture over the surface of lamb.   The lamb may be covered and refrigerated up to 24 hours before roasting.

Place roast on meat rack in shallow foil-lined roasting pan.   Insert meat thermometer in thickest part of roast.  Roast for 15 minutes.  Reduce overn temp to 325F/160C.  Roast 20 minutes per pound until roast registers 150F/72C for medium.

Transfer roast to cutting board; tent with foil.  Let stand for 10 minutes before carving.  Temperature of roast will continue to rise 5-10F (4.8C) during stand time.  Cut strings with scissors, discard.  Carve roast into thin slices with carving knife.  Serve with mint jelly, if desired.

Useful skills to have during this festive season! 

There are two ways in which chickens or poultry can be cut up, one for home use and the other for professional use.  The technique can be learned quite easily and it’s a useful skill to have.

The advantages are that it is more economical to cut up chicken or poultry yourself than buying in portions, and you can cut the way you want them in any various combinations such as drumsticks with or without the thigh, or breasts with or with the wings, etc.

A key point to remember is to feel the joints when you have to sever sinews and cartilage.  To cut through bones, ideally a serrated knife or poultry shears are used.

The method that is common and popular amongst home cooks is as follows:

Basically there are eight steps to cut up the chicken or poultry.  Firstly, by using a large sharp knife,  free the leg by carefully cutting the skin between the body and the leg.  Cut through the skin as far as the joint, bending the leg outwards with the hand.  Then twist the leg until the ball of the joint springs out.  After that, cut through the joint, pressing lightly.  Cut through the leg at the knee joint to separate the thigh from the drumstick. Separate the wing at the shoulder joint, cutting off a small part of the breast with it. Press quite firmly to split the collarbone and divide the back parallel to the backbone.  Cut across the back at the middle point, breaking the backbone with short movements of the knife.  Finally to separate the breasts, carefully cut left and right along the length of the breastbone. 

The professional cooks have a different method of cutting up chickens or poulty and the following method is based on 1-3/4 pounds poultry, in order to achieve portions of equal size:

In eight steps, firstly make a cut approximately 3/8 inch deep across the back under the shoulder blades.  Cut along the backbone at a right angle to this and remove the “chicken oysters”, which is the tender part whose quality matches that of the breasts.  Cut through the skin between the body and the leg.  Spread out the leg and cut through the joint.  Chop off the outermost section of each wing, cutting through the joint with a small chopper or large knife.

Remove the wings with some breast meat, along the breastbone and wishbone as far as the joint.  To remove the breasts, first hold the chicken firmly by the wishbone and cut along the breastbone.  Turn the carcass 180 degree, then loosen the breast from the front along the wishbone as far as the joint.  Take off the breast, making a cut from the joint to the end of the breastbone.

The legs are left in one piece and the wing tips are removed, for the sake of appearance.

The number of individual pieces depends on the size of the chicken.  You can use the remainder of the carcass to make stock, soups and sauces.

The two methods above are simple to master and whether you choose to cut your chickens simply or professionally, these are the correct methods to follow.

Try this for Christmas for a change! I get requests for cookie recipes for this Christmas and since our very own celebration has just passed, I thought people would like to try the cookies I baked. Pineapple tarts are popular in the East, I am not sure if this cookie is known in the west. If it’s too troublesome to make your own pineapple jam, I am quite sure in Asian supermarts, they sell ready-made jam - now this is not the same as those in the bottles!

Ingredients

120g plain flour
120g self-raising flour
150g butter
1 egg beaten
2 tbsp (or more) cold water
A little salt

Pineapple jam:

2 cups grated pineapple
330g granulated sugar
4 cloves

Method to prepare the pastry:

Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Rub in butter lightly with fingertips till it becomes crumbly. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Pour in the beaten egg and water and bind the ingredients together. Do not knead too much. Sprinkle a little flour over the pastry boards and roll out the pastry thinly. Cut pastry with a fluted cutter. Put a little pineapple jam in the center of each piece.

Method to prepare pineapple jam:

Put grated pineapple and sugar and cloves into a saucepan and bring to the boil over slow fire. Stir constantly until the sugar is dissolved. Boil ntil the jam is thick. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Bake at 350F or 175C for 25 minutes.

This is one of the crispiest cookies ever! So easy to do, so delicious and I promise, will make your guests happy during Christmas.

Ingredients

115g butter or margarine
225g castor sugar
175g plain flour
115g rice crispies cereal
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch of salt
1 cup chocolate chips
½ cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional, if you want crunchier cookies
Method

Using electric mixer, cream the butter or margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.  

Sift over the flour, bicarbonate of soda, and salt and fold in.

Add the cereal and chocolate chips, stir to mix thoroughly.

Drop spoonfuls of the dough, about 1-2 inch apart on the lightly greased baking sheets. 

Preheat oven to 180C.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden. 

I named this cookie such, after deciding on the butterfly shaped cookie cutter.  You can make your cookie anything you want it to be , in any shape of your choice. 

Ingredients

400g self raising flour
250g chocolate rice
250g butter
200g sugar
60g eggs
60g cocoa powder
2g salt
½ tsp vanilla essence
Pinch of baking powder
Method

Sift the flour together with baking powder.

Beat butter and sugar till light and creamy.  Add eggs, vanilla essence, cocoa powder and flour.  Mix well till it becomes a dough.

Roll out on pastry board.   Use a cookie cutter with butterfly shape and press into the dough. Arrange the cookies on baking tray.

Brush the top of the cookies with egg and then sprinkle with chocolate rice.

Preheat oven. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes.

I simply cannot believe the overwhelming interest in my bread pudding recipe, the picture of which I posted a week earlier.  I am happy to share the recipe, which, by the way is my modified version after going through quite a few recipes and experiments.     I had thought who could be interested in a humble bread pudding, for which you can easily get the recipes .  

This is baked using bain-marie method to ensure the pudding is moist.  Bain-marie method means the baking tin is place into a basin of water and bake in the oven.

Here’s what I did, and in my usual fashion, I use estimates, hope you will use your own judgement too.

Ingredients: 

Day-old slices of white bread (about 7 to 8 pieces); 200-250ml fresh milk; a fistful of raisins; 20g sugar, 1 egg; 50g butter; dash of cinnamon and nutmeg, a sprinkle of brown sugar.

Method: 

Tear out the bread into pieces and place in baking tin or dish.   Put raisin and some water in a saucepan and boil, let simmer for 5 minutes and leave to soak.  Melt butter over heat, add milk and sugar and stir until sugar melts.  Add egg into the mixture and stir to combine.  Add the soaked raisin mixture.

Scoop the mixture over the bread ensuring the raisins are evenly distributed in between the slices of bread.  Set aside for at least an hour to soak well.  Ensure the bread is submerged.   Just before baking, sprinkle brown sugar on top as well as the cinnamon and/or nutmeg.  This gives a nice crunchy texture to the pudding.

Baking:  Preheat the oven at 180C.  Bake for at least an hour.

There you are!  So easy isn’t it.  Hope you enjoy it.