Matcha Roll Cake

We figured we could make them ourselves instead of buying ‘em from Breadtalk all the time. And..I always forget to post the recipe after trying it out so here it is, before I head off to bake =)

 

Matcha Roll Cake

For 1 cake (size: 30cm x 30cm roll pan)

Ingredients:

Cake:
3 eggs
90g sugar
75g all purpose flour
3 teaspoons (6g) Matcha
2 tablespoons hot milk

Filling:
150cc heavy cream
1 teaspoon Matcha
1 tablespoon sugar

(Preparation)
Sift flour and Matcha together 2 times.
Preheat the oven to 200C (400F).
Line the roll pan with wax paper.

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth. Cover the bottom of the bowl with hot water until the dough becomes about the same temperature as the human body – approximately 37C (98F).
2. Remove the bowl from the hot water and continue beating for 3 to 5 minutes until small stiff peaks form in the dough.
3. Add the flour and Matcha mixture by lightly sprinkling it into the bowl, then fold it into the dough with a rubber spatula.
4. Add hot milk and fold again with the rubber spatula. (Don’t mix too much!)
5. Pour into the roll pan and tap it on the countertop to remove any air bubbles.
6. Bake at 200C (400F) for 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean. Set the pan on a wire rack to cool.
7. After the cake has completely cooled, remove the wax paper from the cake.
8. To make the filling: in a large bowl beat heavy cream and sugar with an electric mixer until it is stiff. Then add the Matcha and mix well.
9. Spread the Matcha whipped cream on a roll cake and roll.
10. Wrap the cake in wax paper and chill in the refrigerator for more than 30 minutes.

This recipe makes about 6 slices of Matcha Roll Cake

That Little Updates

First term of school at the At-Sunrice Globalchef Academy’s finally over nearly 2 weeks ago. It made me realise my mistake of persuing a course which my mind tells me to… yet my heart desires this other course – Diploma in Pastry & Baking. It’s a huge difference between the Advanced Culinary Diploma, I’m sure most people would find it bizarre that I’d make sucha big switch, even I was confused by myself for a while. If my love is in pastry, then let it be, let the transfer take place. It wasn’t very nice, in fact, it was horrendously complicated, I’ve complicated many people along the way but I’m glad it’s over.

In 1.5 months time, I’ll officially become a pastry student! It truly warms my heart when I say that.

There was the required interview with Chef Federick, the head pastry instructor/chef and I learnt alot from him in that short little session.

1. Strength – physically & mentally
2. Commitment
3. Imagination & Creativity
4. Skills
5. Taste
6. Responsibility

I think another great factor would be an openness to learn new things ie techniques, ingredients.

Baked a couple during the past 2 weeks, unfortunately my new computer doesn’t have photo editing programs (I’m just too lazy to install it)

Dark Chocolate Orange Souffle with White Chocolate Chunk Whipped Cream
The souffle was too chocolatey for my liking (I don’t prefer chocolatey desserts) but the cream was heavenly!

Accordion Treats
Cute & easy to bake cookies which uses foil folded accordion to give the long, slim wedged-shape.

My current craze … BISCOTTI. An entry all about this wonderful treat soon…(simply because wordpress is screwing up, no photos, NOT BAKING THEM ENOUGH!!)

Fromage D

Following the influence of F1, or rather that little corner at the McClaren’s buffet spread featuring a selection of cheeeeze, some of which I sneakily placed into my mouth…

..and now, I think I’m in love with those smelly things.

Loadsa cheese! *loves*

Would anyone care to educate me into this wonderous world of fromage?

Sable Viennois & the Mocktail

Sadly, I will post the recipes when I finally’ve the time..Had loadsa fun doing them though =)

 

Created a mocktail for last Friday’s bartending assignment… I’m kinda psyched ’cause my bro likes it =9 & apparently, Bibby likes it too…

That’s how it looks like after you stir it for a bit. I’ve no idea what to call it yet.

(Named it Dazzler during restaurant training but only to match the name of the restaurant Enchante. It’s not my kinda.)

Recipes up soon!

Tired Cooking

For the past few days, though the girl was really tired & up to her neck, she did loadsa cooking to de-stress.

Saturday:
Summer salad + Rosemary roast pork loin + Chix sausages + Ham & potato soup

Sunday:
SG style Phad Thai + Gula Melaka Vanilla Ice-cream

Monday:
Rosemary roast pork loin (again, but different method of preparation : ) + Stir Fried Bean Sprouts. Then there was Pear Tart (didn’t make this, they’releftover from today’s RT, I got to take home!) with vanilla ice cream

Got a new cookie recipe from chef Ram today – Sable Viennois xD I’ll try it out tomorrow and post ‘em outcome here..

..but right now, I’m too tired to blogggg…

Butter + Tomato Paste = X

It’s not cool to cook when one’s sick but I was hungry…

These are the leftovers in my fridge:
Brown Button Mushrooms
White Button Mushrooms
Tomato Paste
Rose Wine (that wasn’t in the fridge but there was lil left)

Being sucha lazy arse, I decided to throw them unto the saute pan together with garlic, onion, butter, pepper, salt, sugar. Skipped all the recipe searching stuff.

Got a super tangy bittersweet mushroom dish that was too bittersweet for me. It’d do good as a starter but I wanted to ’snack’ so I added some tangerines (I’ve no idea where they came from but they’re addictively sweet!)

Now, I kinda wish I made mushroom tomato sauce instead. Or at least, leave the butter alone, skip the wine & roast the mushrooms with some herbs. Then again, I’m lazy. xD

Am trying to look for lavender petals for lavender panna cotta. Chef Ram says we can find it at Suntec City’s Carrefour but they’re nowhere to be seen.. & I’ve been postponing my visitation to Phoon Huat, they’ve probably got what I’m looking for.

Sigh, too busy with restaurant training to cook or bake.

I Cooked Cream, You Can Too!

This past 2 days’ been a disaster… because I didn’t go to school. 
I have nightmares of what my chef instructors are gonna do to me *knives, napkins, mandoline*…
All was so lost………………then in comes the MC which saves the day! 
*Ask me if you wanna know what REALLY happened for the last 2 days since I can’t disclose it here (the internet is sucha bloody small world)  else my nightmares’d REALLY come true.

I didn’t spend my time in vain, wrecked havoc in the kitchen with some chicken, and Panna Cotta (light Italian dessert of cooked cream)

Last week, the senior batch had a food presentation and the last course, the dessert was this angelic looking dish called Panna Cotta – it even has a funky name!. Some of us girls just couldn’t take our eyes off it so imagine how thrilled we were later when this dude comes up with 2 glasses of Panna Cotta and gave them to us. Guys, learn from him, it’s way better than flowers any day. One of my friend thought the PC was too sweet but nooo, not me, it was LIKE pouring HEAVEN in my mouth and I wasn’t even in Italy! (and I tasted rum & nearly anything with rum, I like)

I couldn’t stop thinking, talking about it, maybe that’s why I got sick and couldn’t attend school just so I got the time to make this hearts winning dessert. (okay, that’s B.S. but close)

The first recipe I got was from allrecipes.com. It was a nice first attempt, though still far from THAT panna cotta. They had to be chilled for at least 4 hours, I would recommend longer since by the next morning, they were barely holding together when unmolded. More gelatin prehaps? I will try making one with berries compote if I can find white wine, and more sugar and gelatin.

Panna Cotta With Fresh Strawberry Sauce

(http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Panna-Cotta-With-Fresh-Strawberry-Sauce/Detail.aspx)

Ingredients

 

Panna Cotta

355 ml milk

7 g unflavored gelatin

355 ml whipping cream

50 g white sugar

10 ml vanilla extract

 

Fresh Strawberry Sauce

615 g fresh strawberries, quartered

10 ml vanilla extract

50 g white sugar

60 ml water

 

Instructions

 

1.      Pour the milk into a bowl; sprinkle the gelatin over the milk. Allow mixture to sit until the gelatin softens, about 5 minutes.

2.      Combine the cream and 1/4 cup sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the gelatin mixture; cook and stir until gelatin dissolves completely, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract. Pour the mixture evenly into ramekins; cover and chill at least 4 hours.

3.      To make the strawberry sauce, combine the strawberries, 2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/4 cup sugar, and water in a saucepan over medium heat. While the mixture cooks, crush the strawberries with a potato masher. Simmer the sauce until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce has thickened, about 10 minutes; cool.

4.      Remove chilled ramekins from the refrigerator shortly before serving. Dip the bottoms of the cups in warm water to help loosen the custard. Run a thin-bladed knife around the inner edge of each ramekin to loosen the dessert; turn onto a dessert plate to unmold. Spoon strawberry sauce over panna cotta to serve.

Simple Dry Heat Cooking….

School’s officially started last week, and we didn’t have our first cooking opportunity until 3 days ago on Monday. It was a ‘colorful’ start as we were taught knife skills by Chef Martin & practiced the different basic cuts on LOADS of carrots & potatoes. Here’re 4 different cuts we did:

1. Julienne
- stick shaped
- dimensions: 1/8″ x 1/8″ x 2″ or 1/16″ x 1/16″ x 2″ (called ‘fine julienne’)
- called allumette when used with potatoes

2. Brunoise
- cubes of lengths: 1/8″, 1/4″, 1/2″, 3/4″
- can be obtained from julienne cut

3. Tourner
- football shaped, blunt ended cut with 7 sides
- done with tourne knife

4. Batonnet
- classic batonnet is a stick shaped cut (ie french fries) of 1/4″ x 1/4″ x 2″
- width comparable to standard chef knife’s rivet

They’re all in French, & the cut wasn’t as easy as it looks! (as least for me) Especially when obtaining fine julienne from a carrot…

No matter, we took all the little juliennes, brunoise etc, saute them with onions, added water, brought to boil, sprinkle of salt, some whipping cream, blended the ‘what was’ clear soup in the blender and voila! We’ve got deliciously smooth vegetable soup that has a bright yellow orange color!

There you go, a short casual recipe of carrot/potato soup =)

Today, we cooked Fish Curry with Lady’s Finger & Yellow Dhal – Indian cuisines (one of my total fave!) but I shan’t dwell into that.

*points at title* To practice dry heat cooking, Chef Andreas taught us Pan Fried Chicken Breast which was yet another simple delicious recipe. I couldn’t help trying it out at home again as I had all the ingredients on hand (being a big fan of spices..)

The chicken breasts were sitting in orange juices as I didn’t have lemons and the sweet citrus of oranges is much more preferable to me anyways =D Learnt that one really important factor’s heat control, I wasn’t used to the school’s crazy professional stove & the heat it produces hence the chicken ended up overcooked on the outside and was a little dry. Home’s stove? Perfect!………. Gotta start building new relationships with the new kitchens.

I’m not sure if we’re allowed to place the recipes here but the spices – oregano, basil, paprika.

One of my favorite spices is oregano as it has such special aromatic flavors, my nose really likes it too xD

There are a number of different varieties of oregano. The strongest is considered to be Mexican oregano (Lippia graveolens), which is actually from a different botanical family. Mexican oregano is also known as Mexican marjoram or Mexican wild sage and if your recipe calls for this specifically, try not to substitute. Spanish (Origanum vivens) and Greek (Origanum heraclites) oregano follow in depth of flavor.
- about.com Homecooking: Oregano Recipes & Information

Oregano is taken by mouth for the treatment of colds, influenza, mild fevers, indigestion, stomach upsets and painful menstruation. It is strongly sedative and should not be taken in large doses, though mild teas have a soothing effect and aid restful sleep. Used topically, oregano is one of the best herbal antiseptics because of its high thymol content. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, used oregano as an antiseptic as well as a cure for stomach and respiratory ailments. A Cretan oregano (O. dictamnus) is still used today in Greece to soothe a sore throat.
- wikipedia.com

My 1st Stuffing Job

Over the weekend, I made apple stuffed chicken breast which recipe I found from the dearest allrecipes.com. It was made on a whim as I only had 40 minutes before rushing off to catch The Dark Knight (which was grand by the way)

This is how it looked like after 3 hours of being left on the table – kinda dried up. The sauce (as it contains cornstarch) also became kinda weird. Heated them both in the microwave (separately of course) and it turned out okay… eating it immediately would definitely made it much yummier!

Reviews by others led me to think that the original recipe was pretty bland so I added allspice, a little basil, paprika (since I didn’t have curry powder), cinnamon, brown sugar & a tiny tinge of garlic salt to the stuffing mixture. Those’re the only additions =)

 

Apple Stuffed Chicken Breast

(http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Apple-Stuffed-Chicken-Breast/Detail.aspx)

Ingredients

 

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts

1/2 cup chopped apple

2 tablespoons shredded Cheddar cheese

1 tablespoon Italian-style dried bread crumbs

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup water

1 tablespoon water

1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

(additional brown sugar, cinnamon, spices)

 

 

Instructions

 

1.      Combine apple, cheese, and bread crumbs. Set aside.

2.      Flatten chicken breasts between sheets of waxed paper to 1/4 inch thickness. Divide apple mixture between chicken breasts, and roll up each breast. Secure with toothpicks.

3.      Melt butter or margarine in a 7 inch skillet over medium heat. Brown stuffed chicken breasts. Add wine and 1/4 cup water. Cover. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink.

4.      Transfer chicken to a serving platter. Combine 1 tablespoon water and cornstarch; stir into juices in pan. Cook and stir until thickened. Pour gravy over chicken, and garnish with parsley. Serve.

The Crêpe’s Creeping In

This – crêpe -a French origin word I’ve no idea how to pronounce, is creeping into our local scene. Originating from Brittany (some say Southwest Asia), made usually with wheat flour and comes in a whole loada variety - sweet or savoury.

Pictures: The Australian Crepe Cafe features such a huge delectable selection of sweet & savoury crepes…mouthwatering enough! Check it out =)

However, it’s still pretty basic in Singapore, and I’m still not willing to pay $5.80 for a dessert crêpe filled with strawberries, chocolate sauce, custard and ice-cream. It’s alota stuff but .. xD budget

So it got me jumpin’ when I stumbled upon this basic crêpe recipe – very very simple, with a delightful ingredients list that didn’t require me to get out and buy stuff. It’s gotten rave reviews from nearly everyone who’s tried it and true enough, the little round darlings were light & delicious! It does take a bit of time to cook ‘em, since we can only cook it one at a time..

Basic Crêpe (with some changes)
(adapted from: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Basic-Crepes/Detail.aspx)

Serves 4.

Ingredients:
250g All-Purpose Flour
2 Eggs
1/2 cup Milk
1/2 cup Water
1/4 tsp Salt
28.5g Butter, melted

Instructions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, water and eggs. Gradually add in flour, whisking to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.
3. Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot.

Variations: sugar for sweetness, water to desired consistency, vanilla (1 tsp), anything to your imagination!

So now, I’ve a stack of crêpes sitting on the table but I’ve no idea what to fill them with *lol*

These two other recipes I’d like to try:
Vanilla Crêpes (with a touch of vanilla & sugar)
Breakfast Crêpes (wonderfully French!)