Triple Chocolate Brownie

I once came across a rather heated discussion about how Brownies ought to be.  Crumbly or Chewy?  It's astonishing how passionate  some people can get when it comes to their food. 

It reminds me of how Jamie Oliver almost  started civil war in Spain after adding chorizo to his  Paella and tweeting about it.  Fortunately for me, being a mere mortal/unknown blogger, I do not fear being the receiving end of somebody's wrath  for bastardising a national dish. (^_^)

So back to the Brownie question. Crumbly or chewy? To compromise,  my friends , is the key to good foods and world peace. Why settle for one gustatory gratification when you can have both? Take this brownie recipe for example, the sides and top is both crumbly and crisp, yet once sliced, it is a gooey, fudgey and chewy. The best of both worlds.

Ingredients:

250 g dark chocolate

200 g butter

50 g coconut oil

3 eggs

200 g brown sugar

50 g white sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

130 g flour

30 g cocoa powder

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

150g  of your favourite, chocolate chip 

 Whisk together eggs, white and brown sugar and vanilla until well combined

 Put a heat-proof bowl over a pot of steaming water. Melt butter, coconut oil and chocolate together. Once chocolate mixture is smooth and lump-free, take bowl from the heat. Rest for 5 minutes.

 Whisk egg mixture into the chocolate mixture.

 Sift flour, cocoa and salt and fold into the chocolate mixture .

 Add in the chocolate chips. Stir! Stir!Stir!

Bake in a preheated oven ( 180°C) for 20 minutes.
Allow to set for about 20-30 minutes before slicing.

Best eating warm as it is or with a scoop of your favourite ice cream and sauce. Yum!

Buko Pandan

Tropical fruits and vegetables are appearancing at our local supermarkets . To my delight,  cassava , bak choi , mangosteen, Asian mangoes   her!her!her! okra ( Although I hate it, I'm just happy to see it. It's like meeting your least favourite relative in a foreign land when you're 

homesick! (^_^) , dragon fruits and rambutan are now displayed right along local grown potatoes,  apples, berries and pears.

I was almost skipping with happiness when fresh young coconut decided to join in! Probably the most Instagram-ed fruit or nut ( ?)  while  holidaying in the tropics.  Now, I don't have to buy plane ticket or  cross the continent just to sip that sweet, vitamin- rich coconut water!

The only downside of having this exotic treat here is the sky- high price that came with it. Coconut are literally growing like weeds in our farm in the Philippines, buying one for almost 5 Euro a piece is both dismaying and discouraging. On the other hand, a plane ticket back home cost more than a grand, so I went off and bought few of these precious fruits or nuts ( ?) !

I have been dreaming of making  Buko Pandan for years! Now, I finally got the chance to make it from scratch ! Preparation is so easy, anyone can make it with one hand tied behind their back! Let me show you how!  4 Thai young coconuts gave their lives for their recipe. I would have massacred a whole bunch but it's  too expensive and my conscience is just against it.   

Ingredients:

 shredded young coconut meat

1 pack Pandan gelatine  aka Gulaman

3 tbsp. sugar

400 ml coconut water

1/3 cup Pandan Tapioca pearls aka Sago 

500 ml  water

3 pandan leaves, tied into a knot

200 ml all purpose cream

180  ml  condense milk

Let's get cooking!

Bring coconut water and sugar into a  gentle boil. Add pandan flavoured gelatine. If you don't have it, just use a pack of regular jelly and add few drops of green food colouring to it. Pour mixture into a container. Allow to set. You can pop it in the fridge to speed up the process. 

Put 2 cups of water in a pot. Add pandan leaves  and bring it to a boil. Add tapioca pearls ( the pandan flavoured or green ones, if you could find it).  Cook until almost translucent . Takes around 12-15 minutes. Strain, discard pandan leaves and transfer cooked tapioca pearls in a  large mixing  bowl.

Add your coconut meat(  I like large strips of coconut for extra bite but you can shred it finely too. ). Add in cream and condense milk. If you prefer sweeter dessert, feel free to add more condense milk into the mixture. 

Gently stir all the ingredients until well integrated.

Cut pandan jelly into cubes.

Add into the buko mixture. Toss gently. Refrigerate for about 4 hours. 

Serve cold and do enjoy life's simple pleasures.

CRÈME BRÛLÉE CHEESECAKE

I baked a cake and ate it. Why? Because it was my birthday. And since it was my birthday, I got choose what cake to bake and how much calories to take. Creme Brûlée , my all-time favourite dessert  , incorporated into a cake. What a treat! So this year, no procrastination of what's inevitable , no thoughtful speech about  should haves and must haves  . Today , it's all  about  this delicious cake which was pretty easy to make, and being thankful  for another year of wonderful existence.



Ingredients:

 Crust:
200 g graham/ leibnitzs biscuits
60 g butter, melted

3 tbsp. brown sugar

Creme Cheese Brûlée :
2 packs Philadelphia cheese ( 180 g each)

2 eggs
4 egg yolk

1/2 cup sugar ( more if you like your cake sweeter)

1 tsp. vanilla

Others:
3 tbsp. brown sugar


Let's get cracking!

1.  Crush graham crackers or any biscuits of your choice in a manner most convenient to you.

2.  Add in melted butter and brown sugar. Mix until mixture resembles wet sand.

 3. Grease springform pan. I used 20 cm  pan.  Line the bottom and sides with baking paper. The butter will act like a glue, but I guess you know it .

4. Dump crushed biscuit mixture. Pat using the back of spoon or using hands. Squeaky clean hands, of course! Put in the fridges for about 30 minutes to set.

5.  Then bake in a preheated oven, 200°c for 10 minutes. Take out from the oven and allow to cool.

6.  Now, for the creme cheese brûlée batter, just dump everything in a food processor or blender, mix until smooth. That's it! Allow to rest for about 20 minutes to pop unwanted air bubbles . 

7 . Pour batter into the biscuit crust.

8.  Bake for 40 minutes at 180° c or until set but middle still jiggly. The cake will set as it cools. 

9. Refrigerate, bake a day before for best result. Have a stress free day or birthday for that matter! (wink! wink! ) Remove baking paper.

Sprinkle brown sugar on top of the cake. And if you're old enough to play with fire, then  have fun torching those sugar !

Now, if you are celebrating your special day...

Sit back and appreciate your not -so- hard labour.

 Close your eyes and make a wish.

 Blow your birthday candle and hope for the best.

Enjoy a slice with people that matters most and just be grateful of this day the days to come.
The good and the bad because you know, that's life.

Thai Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango

Mango sticky rice is probably one of  , if not the most  popular Thai  dessert there is. Anybody who have been to Thailand or visited a good Thai restaurant must have tasted and fell in love with this simple yet sumptuous  treat.

What's not to love anyway? Light and  tasty rice, sweet and velvety mango, all drizzled  in this silky and slightly salty coconut cream sauce . Lastly,  that addictive crunchy mung bean is just well, a cherry on top. This is one of those very, very rare dishes that nobody seemed to hate. Even those who aren't much of the rice eater or for some reason, don't like mango, still end up giving this humbling dish,  a thumbs up.

I ate this dessert almost every day when I was in Bangkok last month and somehow missed it. Well, after reading this blog,  you must already know that nothing comes between me and my food melancholy. So I searched for recipes, look for the much needed ingredients and even hunt down authentic looking cooking apparatus ! Thanks Amazon! The only thing that's missing are Thai mangoes but hey, I guess I simply have to make do with what I could get my claw into.

So today, I finally make mango sticky rice and  It was just divine......

Ingredients:

For the Sticky  Rice:

500 g glutinous rice

2 1/2 cups coconut milk

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. salt

5 pandan leaves

Salty coconut sauce:

3/4 cup coconut milk

1 tsp. rice flour dissolved in 2 tbsp. water

1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar

Others:

1 tbsp. peeled split mung bean
Aaaaand as much mangoes as you can eat!

Let's get cooking! 

1. Prepare crunchy mung bean toppings. Wash yellow mung bean . Put in a sauce pan, fill sauce pan with  1 cup of water bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn off the heat , cover sauce pan and let mung bean simmer in hot water for 10 minutes. Drain and spread on paper towel.

2. In a not stick pan or skillet, toast mung bean until crispy. Takes 8-10 minutes. Set aside. If you can not fine peeled mung beans in your place, toast some sesame seeds instead, it will be just as delicious.

4.  Wash and thoroughly rinse glutinous rice until water runs clear. This will help to get rid of the extra starch. Soak rice in water for at least 4 hours. I soaked mine overnight.

5. Drain rice well. Try not to overwork the rice at this point since the rice grains are quite brittle.

6. Steam rice for 25 minutes. I used this traditional bamboo steamer I bought from the internet. If you don't have a steamer , use the sieve ( picture number 5) . Just make sure to cover it well.

 7. When the rice is almost cooked, make coconut syrup. In a saucepot, put 2 1/2 cups coconut milk, 1 cup sugar, salt and panda leaves. Bring to a gentle boil , cook until  sugar dissolves. Takes less than 5 minutes!

.8. Transfer hot steamed rice in a container/bowl . Pour just cooked coconut syrup.

9.  Mix carefully until no lumps are formed or until rice grains are soaked in the sweet syrup. put panda leave. The rice is wet and '' soupy'' at this stage but the rice will absorb the liquid soon enough. Cover  tightly and let it set for 30 minutes. The rice will be ready then.

10. For the sauce. Put 3/4 cup coconut milk in a sauce pan, add 1/2  teaspoon salt and 1 tsp. sugar. I fished  pandan leaves  out from the sticky rice and put it into the pan for some extra flavour.

11. Dissolve rice flour in 2 tbsp. of water. Add into the coconut milk. Stir.  Bring sauce to a boil, simmer gently until it thickens and until sugar and salt are dissolved. Do not overcook.

Peel and slice mangoes  . Now, for the fun bit, assemble the elements unto a plate!

Let your inner domestic goddess reign for 5 minutes. Empress your loved ones or guests by plating this dessert as beautiful as it deserves.

Cassava Cake with Flan Topping

Our motivation on weight loss is dwindling at  an all time low. My girlfriends and I have long given up inspirational talks  and half-assed hearted membership to  fitness studious.

Since coaching apparently isn't working,  we resort to challenging. A weight loss challenge with some cash involve. Recession and potential christmas shopping could be the push we all direly  need.  So weigh ourselves , wrote that dreaded numbers on a piece of paper and promise each other to stay fit , healthy and yes,  shred few unwanted kgs before 2015 ends. Whoever loses weight the most, gets the money. The prospect of being few bucks richer in December  pulls us like donkeys on a  carrot and stick for months.

The group tried , I know. We keep tab on each others  success failures. But the lack of determination  finally shine  like a golden nugget in the mud. Nobody  was really is up to the challenge!
So instead of trying to loss weight, each of us is now determined to make our opponents gain more weight than us!

I met my girlfriends/competitors again this week . We discuss our usual shenanigans  over dinner. I made this rich,  calorific  Cassava cake. I could have made a simpler topping but I want to make it extra irresistible. It was wipe out in no time. Butter, cream, eggs, sugar , calories and all.

We women are devious creatures!

Ingredients: 

1 kg cassava/maniok, peeled and grated

1 can condense milk

2 cans ( 400ml each) coconut milk

1/2 cup or 100 g granulated sugar

50 g butter, melted

3 eggs beaten

4 egg yolks

1 bottle macapuno

a handful of cheeses ( I used Parmesan and Emmental)

1 can ( 400 ml) evaporated milk



Baking Instruction:

1. In a large mixing bowl, put coconut milk, 2/3 of the condense milk, sugar and melted butter. Mix everything thoroughly. Set aside.

2. In a separate bowl, put grated manioc or cassava and 3 beaten eggs. 

3. Add in 2/3 of macapuno strip. Stir! Stir! Stir!

4. Fold in cassava mixture into the liquid mixture. Mix well until everything is well incorporated.

5. Pour batter in a well -greased/buttered baking pan /pans. I used 2 baking pans.

6. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and grated Cheddar/Emmental over it. Bake in a preheated oven ( 175°C) for about 30 to 35 minutes until set but the middle still wobbles. 

7. While cake is baking, make custard topping. In a mixing bowl , beat together 4 egg yolks, the rest of the condense milk and evaporated milk. Whisk until mixture becomes homogenous. Stir in the rest of the macapuno strips.

 8. Take almost cooked cassava cake from the oven and pour custard topping on top. Pop it back in the oven, increase temp. to 180°c and bake until custard is set and turns golden brown. Takes 15-20 minutes.