Mango & Passion fruit mess

I came across this recipe recently and it's a nice twist to the more traditional rendition  of the Eaton Mess. This version is a quick way to enjoy dessert. Whip, crush, chop, purée and you have dessert 😃👍

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe mangoes
• 300ml double cream
• 1tsp vanilla extract 
• 2 tbsp icing sugar, sifted 
• 5 meringues- crushed
• 4 passion fruits- pulp

Method: 

Peel and chop one mango and set aside. Perl and purée the other mango in a blender till smooth and set aside. 

Whip cream with vanilla extract and icing sugar until thick and then add the crushed meringues. 

To assemble: 

Layer mango purée, crushed meringue and cream mixture and top with chopped mango and passion fruit pulp in a glass. Serve immediately. Serves 4. 

Vegan Chocolate Mousse

If you beat the liquid from a can of chickpeas (called aquafaba), then it will froth into a meringue. This sure is a breakthrough in vegan cuisine

No eggs, No cream, No gelatin, No cholesterol, No soya, No gluten, No nuts, No avocado, No chai seeds, No coconut cream, No flaxseed, just the magic of commonly used brine, sweetener and dairy-free chocolate, few sprinkles of imagination, and viola-the most delicious airy chocolate mousse.

Ingredients:

• liquid of 1 can of chickpeas ( around 125ml)
• 100g dark chocolate, melted
• 1-2 tsp confectioner's or icing sugar
• a pinch of salt

Method:

Bain marie the chocolate, melt in a bowl placed over a pan of simmering water. Take the pan off the heat but keep the bowl over the hot water then remove it. Allow it to cool down whilst you prepare the next stage

Beat the chickpeas liquid with electric whisk until peaks form and you have a meringue, then add the remaining ingredients except the chocolate. Whisk for another 15 seconds.

Now gently fold in the chocolate (make sure the chocolate has cool down) with a spatula until enough to incorporate. Spoon into a cup or mousse bowl.  Put into the fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Golf Ball Cake

A cake a cake fit for an avid golfer 🏌⛳️

The cake might look difficult to do but in actual fact it's really easy, if you have the right material. You can either do a cheating way by buying ready cake mix & frosting or make it yourself  from scratch. 

Ingredients:

For the golf ball

• A box of chocolate cake mix and ingredients it requires
• A can of frosting, you can make this if you like
• Non-stick baking/cooking spray
• Wilton sphere cake tin as picture below
• Plastic chopstick or any round edge blunt object

For the brownie base:

• 3/4 cup flour, sifted
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 170g butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

Method:

For the golf ball

Preheat oven according to the cake mix instructions. 

Prepare the baking pans by spraying with non-stick baking/cooking spray.

Combine cake mix ingredients together, as instructed in the box. Pour cake batter into balls pan and bake until a long toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Should take about 40-50 minutes to fully bake. Let it cool completely. Flatten the tops of each half-circle by cutting off the excess cake.

Turn the cake pans over to release 2 half-circle cakes. I prefer  to cover and refrigerate the cake over night or for at least for a few hours. It helps "firm up" the cake and reduce the amount of crumbs while decorating it.

For the brownie base:

Preheat oven to 180℃/160℃for fan oven. Grease a 9 inch square baking pan.

In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa and salt. Melt butter in a large saucepan and remove from heat. Stir in sugar and vanilla extract. Quickly whisk in eggs, one at a time.

Add butter mixture to flour mixture and stir until well blended. Spread brownie batter into prepared tin and bake for 20-30 minutes. Cool completely.

Assemble the cake

Place the brownie in a square cake base board that was cover with green ready roll icing. Make a shallow hole in the centre of the brownie to sit the golf balls so that it don't roll away.

Make or buy buttercream icing and add green colour to the icing and mix well. Use a grass pipping nozzle then pipe all over the brownie except the hole that sits the golf balls.

Place the golf balls in the hole. Use a clean, smooth knife, spread a thin layer of icing on the large, flat cake surface and place the other half of the golf ball on top of that. The cake should have a 3-D ball-shaped cake.

Using a clean smooth knife, carefully take icing and smooth it over the entire cake. Stick it back to the fridge for 30 minutes or so, to help harden the icing.

Then get a cup of cool water. Using a flat spatula, dip the spatula in the water and carefully smooth over the icing. This is a trick to help get as smooth an icing surface as possible. Continue to dip it in water and smooth the icing until you are happy.

Put back in fridge for 10-15 minutes to hep harden the icing.

Remove cake from the fridge. Dip the fat end of a plastic chopstick in a cup of water and make a shallow indentation in the icing. Continue the indentations in s straight line. You can make 5-8 indentations before you need to dip it in the water again ( the water keeps the chopstick from sticking to the icing). You may need to clean the chopstick every now and then with a paper towel, just to prevent icing sticking. You can also put the cake back in the fridge every 10 minutes or so....the harder the icing the easier this indentation process will be. Continue to make indentations until the cake is covered with dimple

Char Siew Pork (Chinese BBQ Pork)

A delicious and simple recipe for a Chinese-restaurant classic which you can make at home.

One thing that I miss about living in Malaysia is being able to nip to the wet market in the morning or  a kopitiam that selling ready make char siew that they will served with chicken rice.

Usually the char siew pork you find often has a tinge of red in the meat as they either use red  food colouring  or red fermented beancurd. 

I find that it is easier to prepare this dish a night before serving or make it first thing in the morning so that the meat has had some time to marinat before roasting. 

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 3 tbsp runny honey and 2 tbsp for extra
• 3 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce 
• 1/2 tbsp dark soya sauce
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp five spice powder
• 2 cloves garlic, finely grated
• 1 inch garlic, finely grated 
• 500g pork tenderloin 

Method:

Place all the ingredients for the marinade into a bowl and whisk to combine.

Place the pork into a large ziplock freezer bag and pour the marinade inside. Make sure the pork is well coated in the marinade. Place the bag into the fridge and leave it to marinade for 2-3 hours or preferably overnight.

When you are ready to roast the pork, take it out of the fridge  and let it come to room temperature in the marinade. 

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place a roasting  rack inside a large baking tray and fill the tray with boiling water. The rack needs to be high enough so that when the meat is sitting on top of the rack, the meat should not touch the water. The water helps to create a steam in the oven to cook the pork and keep it moist.

Place the pork on the roasting rack and roast for about 30 minutes, basting every 10 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, pour the reserved marinade into a small saucepan and add the extra 2 tablespoons of honey. Bring the sauce to a boil and simmer gently for a few minutes. Use this sauce to baste the pork. 

After 30 minutes, turn the oven to grill mode on high heat, if possible, place the tray high as possible in the oven under the grill. Baste the pork generously every 3-5 minutes, making sure that it is browning nicely and doesn't burn. Once the pork has caramelised nicely, remove the tray from the oven.

Let the park rest for about 10 minutes before slicing.