There's nothing better than easy to make meals packed with lots of flavours.

Tip 1: It's better to pan fry your potatoes with butter, salt and pepper. I know because I tried it and it has way better flavours.
Tip 2. You can have your kale baked until it becomes a crispy chip or you can have it stir fried. Whichever it is you prefer.

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
6 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper to taste

knob of butter
10 pcs baby potatoes, halved
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to even thickness
Bunch or two of kale toss in olive oil, salt and pepper

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 400F
• Whisk together 2 tablespoons olive oil with honey, Dijon, garlic, oregano, basil, salt and pepper.
• Reserve 3/4 of the sauce for later.
• Marinate the chicken with the remaining 1/4 sauce for an hour.
• Line the sheet pan with foil
• Spread a little sauce on half part of the foil. Lay the chicken on top of the sauce 
• Generously drizzle the reserved sauce all over chicken
• Bake 20 minutes. Add the kale leaves on the other half of the pan and continue baking for another 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
• In a pan, fry potatoes in a knob of butter until brown
• Serve chicken with potatoes and kale chips

My kids love, love, love this dish. The sauce is the key. It kept the chicken moist and flavourful. Granted I took poor shots of the dish, I promise to re-create this with the buttered pan-fried potatoes next time and re-take the shots.

My boys have been asking me to make this again, make again I will :)

Happy Eating!

Croissants in our house do not really go stale because my boys are huge lovers of croissants. If I buy a box of it in the morning and do not tell the boys to calm down the munching a bit... it will be gone by sundown. It's that serious.

It's not that they'll lose appetite in main meals, they're growing boys, it's just that I'm all about moderation when it comes to their meals? (I'm not saying it applies to me and hubby alright?).

Trying to make this recipe made me buy 3 boxes of croissants because every single time I want to make it stale, the bloody bread just disappears into thin air!

In the end, I told the boys to leave me at least four and they can eat everything including the box. That solved it. :P

Ingredients:
4 stale croissants
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
a drop of vinegar
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons Bailey's Creme Caramel
1/2 cup whole milk
2 eggs, beaten

Serves 4-6 hungry diners

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a medium size baking dish, tear the croissants into pieces. Set aside.

In a saucepan, put the sugar and water. Swirl the water around to wet the sugar. Place the pan in a medium high heat and let it bubble away. Add a drop of two of vinegar to avoid sugar from crystallizing. It will turn into a deep amber, about 5 minutes. DO NOT STIR and DO NOT WALK AWAY. Let the bubble caramelize on its own. 

Once amber colour appears, take the pan off the heat. Whisking continuously  add the cream, Baileys, milk and beaten eggs, in that order. If the caramel seems to get stuck at the bottom of the pan, put the pan back to a low heat and continue stirring until it's fully dissolved.

Pour the mixture all over the croissant pieces in the baking dish and leave it for 10 minutes to get absorbed.

Bake for 20 minutes. Take a slice or two, add whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on the side and voila! Stale turned simply delicious.

This could easily be a picture recipe to be honest. It's that simple.

Tip 1: You can skip the lemon since your sauce is already with lemon.
Tip 2: Smudge butter like I did.
Tip 3: You can make your lemon-butter sauce thicker by adding 1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 teaspoons COLD water.
Tip 4: Put on your chefy hat, it's your fish! It won't complain whatever you add in the packet!

Ingredients:
2 white fish fillet
1/2 lemon Slice (optional)
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
2 butter cubes (optional)
2 Baking paper or parchment papers cut to the size of each fillet


Serves 2

Pre-heat the oven to 150F

Make sure fillets are de-boned and skinned. Rub olive oil all over fillets.

Place fillets in each baking paper. Sprinkle salt and pepper.

Close packets by folding the ends together.

Bake for 15 minutes or until parchments are a bit brown.

Discard juiced in packet and serve with lemon butter sauce. Recipe below.

Related Recipe: Lemon Butter Sauce

Halloween is just around the corner and this recipe is perfect!

I have made petits choux before but not this traditional one, it was an updated one with AcousticChef stamped all over it. A combination of hot and cold filling with a crunchy casing.

BUT of course this traditional recipe is a right of passage and to be honest, it tasted equally great as my experiment.

Tip 1: Practice makes perfect, once you find the right piping tip and the right size of piping, it'll be so easy the next time around.
Tip 2: You can use your hand mixer and bowl if stand alone is not available. If that's not available too, a wooden spoon will also do the trick though for sure you'll have bigger biceps after :)
Tip 3: If you have no piping bag and tip, use a ziploc bag and cut the tip or plop a heap of batter using a teaspoon.
Tip 4: You can make your puffs as small or as big as you want but the bigger the size, the longer it will take to bake.
Tip 5: Don't go greedy and eat all the pastry before it's filled!

Pastry Ingredients:
2 cups water
1 cup unsalted butter
2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 large eggs

Kiwi Cream Filling Ingredients
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups milk
2 pureed Zespiri Kiwi
4 egg yolks
1 greed Wilton food colouring (no taste)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla or in my case, pinch of vanilla powder

Makes 72 decent sized petits choux

Preheat the oven to 400F and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

To make the creme:
Combine pureed kiwi and milk. Set aside.

In a decent size saucepan, over medium heat, combine sugar, flour and salt. Pour milk mixture in a slow stream while continuously stirring the flour. Mixture will become thick.

Turn the heat down, stir for another 3 minutes then remove from heat. In a mixing bowl, place the egg yolks and slowly pour a slightly hot milk mixture while whisking continuously so that the egg doesn't scramble. Once fully combined, return the mixture to the pan.

Gently bring to a boil and let it bubble for 2 minutes. Add a tiny teeny drop of your green food colouring. Finish it off with butter and vanilla. 

Transfer the mixture to a shallow bowl to cool. To prevent a skin from forming, position your cling film or plastic wrap right on top of the cream. Refrigerate until cold.

To make pàte à choux or puffs
In a small bowl, combine flour and salt.

In a medium size saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add butter and let it melt. Add flour mixture and stir vigorously. Continue stirring until mixture forms a ball and no longer separate. Cool pan slightly off the heat.

Transfer the dough to your stand alone mixer's bowl (like KitchenAid). Using the paddle attachment, mix at slow speed. Add eggs one at a time, making sure it's blended well before adding another one. 

Transfer batter to pastry bag fitted with a medium size star tip. Pipe circles on the parchment papers, about 2-3 inches. Pipe outside in.

Leave good enough space in between piped doughs. You need that for even baking and proper air circulation. 

Bake for 20 minutes then cool them on cooling racks.

Cut a small slit through the puff using the tip of your knife ala samurai... hi-ya!

Using piping bag and star tip, or ziploc bag, transfer enough cream to the bag Squeeze enough creme inside the puffs opening until it overflows and looks like a gooey green blob is coming out of puff's mouth. 

Cut mini marshmallows in two, stick choco chip on it and position it on top of the puff. You then have an alien-looking puff drooling green blob... Dust the whole plate with icing sugar to finish it off.

Happy yummy Halloween!!!

For Yummy Creepy Crawlies Spider Cupcakes Recipe, click here.


-AcousticChef, cookin' one tune at a time!

There are days when I get really lazy in the kitchen. Tonight is one of those days and boy I'm glad I was lazy... I wouldn't have gone creative otherwise.

Easy peasy recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup sherry
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon ground or freshly cracked black pepper

Directions:
Smile! You just won an amazeballs recipe :P

Simple really... baking pan + aluminum foil (so you don't really have a war fight when you wash it) and the ingredients. Voila!

Cover with another foil to seal steam. Bake in the oven for one hour and a half hour, flipping them on the other side half way through the baking time.  

Grill press until it gets nicely charred. Baste using caramelised sauce in the pan. If there's no grill available, take off the foil covering and bake for another 10 minutes.

Serve with hot sauce and extra sauce on the side

So, I'm now a big fun of 2D Icing Tip and Roses! Since I'm a huge fan of whipping cream and strawberries too, why not combine them all for more fun?

One fine day, which is today, hubby is at work and my kids are at their cousins for another day or so and I'm seriously in need of something productive to do other than watching Olympics 2012 segment and reporting it impulsively on Twitter. I thought of being creative.
 
My cousin-in law asked me for a Strawberry Whipped Cream Frosting and I thought why not? So I made this super duper easy whipped cream to test.

Tip 1: I ate this with vanilla ice cream and it was amazing. You can use this to frost cupcakes or cakes.
Tip 2: you can use more pureed strawberries but know that the more puree you use, the less stable your cream will be.
Tip 3: you can use gelatin as a stabilizing agent if you wish too but taste will definitely vary

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup icing sugar
3 - 4 tablespoons freshly pureed strawberries (look at slideshow on how to puree)
a tiny tinge of red food colouring (optional),

Procedure:
Whip heavy whipping cream until it resembles those ready-to-spray whipped cream.  

Add sugar and whip some more. Add pureed strawberries and food colouring. Finish whipping to the consistency you like.

Be careful not to overwhip it at this stage because it will start to split and gone will be your pretty cream.

*I used the cream straight away and notice it to be warm and so couldn't create the rose shape, which means it will not hold any shape.

*I chilled it for half an hour and pipe out a rose and it came out beautifully. Of course, it being a whipped cream without stabilizer, it means, it will not hold its shape as long as a normal icing or buttercream would.

*If you don't mind serving chilled cake then frost your cake and chill them in the fridge until serving time.

I have always wanted to make something out of rice crispies and mallows and this couldn't be any perfect. I still want to try some twists on this but this basic one is practically what I was looking for.

Tip 1: If you have a ready to use tempered chocolate, then use it for added crispiness
Tip 2: Adjust peanut butter according to your taste but keep in mind that this helps the chocolate to set so if you use considerably less peanut butter then the chocolate might be too syrupy,,, unless of course you're using tempered chocolate.
Tip 3: If you want the bars sweeter, then add additional 1/4 cup sugar to the ingredients

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 cups rice krispies

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 9 x 13 inches pan, line the bottom with baking paper and set aside.

In a bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and stir.

Add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.

Spread batter into prepared pan. Bake for exactly 15 minutes.

Evenly layer top with marshmallows. Return to oven and bake for another 3 minutes. Cool on cooling rack.

In the meantime, melt chocolate chips and peanut butter in a pan over low heat. Stir to melt the chips and combine peanut butter completely. Pour in rice krispies and spread the mixture over the marshmallow.

Rest for 10 minutes. Chill in the refrigerator for half an hour or until the chocolate is set. 

Cut into bars and serve.

I was just gonna make this a Picture Recipe but decided against it. I have seen too many recipes and video how-tos that suggest using cake out of the box. I mean, yes it's not a bad idea but seriously? If you're not a child... out of the box cake is a let down of any adult's skills.

This foundation cake is not sweet at all, so perfect for decoration since we all know how sweet most icings are. This cake will complement your icing like burgers and french fries.

Ingredients:
125 grams dark chocolate
125 grams butter
250 grams caster sugar
350 grams self-raising flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon white vinegar
250 ml milk
2 medium eggs

Directions To Bake:
Preheat the oven to 160C.

In a mixing bowl, sift, self-raising flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda.

in a separate bowl, add vinegar into the milk, cultivate for 5 minutes. Add eggs and beat well.

Break up the chocolate into a double boiler or a large bowl on top of a pan with simmering water. Help the melting process a little bit with a teaspoon butter. Once chocolate is melted, take it off the heat and add the rest of the butter to the chocolate. Stir until smooth. Cool for 5 minutes.

Add chocolate mixture into the dry sifted ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa and baking soda). Add milk and vinegar concoction and beat until it's smooth.

Divide the batter into the pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until inserted skewer comes out clean. Start checking after 1 hour.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely.

Cut it into 4 portions. Over a big bowl, rub 2 portions against each other to create small and even crumbs. If some big chunks come off your cake, just use your fingers to crumb them smaller.

To Mold:
Using icing of your choice, add some blob of it to the crumbs until it starts binding. I'll leave the amount to your judgment because different icings have different consistencies. Let's just say not too saggy wet that it will fall apart and not to dry else it'll crack when you coat it... should be just the right consistency that you can form a ball. Mold one, if you're happy with it and you think it'll hold then that's it... if it's either way then modify until you get the right texture.

Use two tablesppons of cake crumbs to make a decent size cake balls. Roll it on your hands until the sides are smooth. Line a shallow cake pan with wax paper. Rest your cake balls on it. Put the pan in the fridge to toughen the balls a little bit. Some keeps them in freezers but I personally prefer just the fridge especially if I can coat it as soon as it hardens a bit.

To Coat:
Take the cake balls out of the fridge.

Place chocolate melts in a microwaveable dish and power it up for 1 - 2 minutes. Stir after a minute to make sure it is melting evenly.

Dip your stick 2 inches into the melted chocolates. This will serve as a glue. Insert the dipped stick into the center of the ball, just before you hit the center of the ball. Pushing it farther will break the top of the ball and you dont want that

Holding the stick 180 degrees. Dip the ball ensuring it's fully covered with chocolate melts. Either by using a teaspoon to assist with the coating or by gently rocking the balls on each side. Don't stir the melt with the ball because it will loosen the stick in the center... you sould just rock it gently. Lift the ball straight, dripping excess chocolate melts on top. If you think the coating is still a bit thick on the sides, hold the stick approximately 80 degrees, while slowly rotating the stick, tap the holding palm of your hand with the other hand gently. The excess will drip on the sides. 

Before the melts hardens, you can decorate with confetti of sprinkles or a dripping of contrasting colours.

Perching the sticks on a styrofoam will keep it secure and dry. 

Last week was the Diamond Jubilee Celebration for the Queen of England... oh no... I'm definitely not British now am I living anywhere close... but... The Queen of England is not just any Queen in this lifetime and it must be commemmorated in some way... and so I baked a cake that screams Brittania.

Divine way to use fresh berries I tell you. This is not really a kids' cake with all the tartness it offers... it's cake for the big boys and girls. Tart and Sweet, Creamy and Spongy... definitely healthier than most chocolate cakes I've made.

Every bite is a burst of flavour. It is freshness at its best... crisp and unadulterated.

Ingredients:
175 grams butter, softened
175 grams caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
175 grams self-raising flour, sifted
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon icing sugar

Procedures - Baking:
Heat the oven to 180C. Grease two 20cm baking tins and line with greaseproof paper.

Beat together butter and sugar until the mixture looks pale and fluffy. Gradually add in beaten eggs, beating well between each addition. Then, fold the flour.

Divide the mixture between the two tins and bake for 20 minutes or until firm to the touch. Cool in tins for two minutes, then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Procedures - Whipped Cream:
Beat whipping cream and icing sugar until fluffy but not stiff.

Procedures - Assembling:
Once the cakes are cool, spread the flat side of cake with freshly whipped cream. Top with slices of strawberries and whole blueberries.

Gently pressed down with the other layer of cake. Spread with some more whipped cream and finished off with berries of your choice. I love them all and so I put as many strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and most especially, the yummiest of them all... raspberries.

Tried to copy Union Jack... it was close.. so I'm pretty happy with it.

Tuck in!

-AcousticChef, cookin one tune at a time

Who doesn't love pizza? It's one of Italian's best gifts to humanity... it's soooo comforting, it's so delicious that it can make any day so much better after a slice or two. Have it with an ice cold beer, have it with wine, soda or just plain water... either way, you know you'll enjoy the meal.

I've been eating pizza for as long as I can remember. The first one being Shakey's, then some local company, then as Shakey's popularity faded out.. it's time to turn to Pizza Hut for much needed comfort. Every now and again, I crave for gourmet pizza where unique toppings are the star.. guess it won't be the case now... I can make my own gourmet pizza!

I always thought making pizza will be easy ... didn't think it'll be super easy.

This dough is sooo good that I plan to use it in sausage rolls, garlic breads and other goody adventures.

The only tip is: have fun and be as creative as your taste buds wish you to be!

Dough Ingredients:
2 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water (blood temperature, perfect to cultivate the yeast, too hot or cold and yeast will die)
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon olive oil
+sausage or cheese strips for stuffing if you like stuffed crust

Toppings
Bottled Pizza Sauce
----or make your own if you really want to, 1 1/2 cups ground tomatoes, 1 tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp dried basil, and 2 tblspns grated Romano cheese, combine all ingredients
Mozarella Cheese, sliced thinly
Pepperoni
Canned artichokes
Sauteed mushroom
Sauteed minced beef
Pineapple bits
Sliced olives
Parmegiano Regiano
Pepper flakes
add whatever you feel like eating...
++if you are adding leaves like rocket or spinach, add it on top when the pizza is done. The oven heat will wilt it and will destroy the colour and taste.

Dough Directions:
In your mixing bowl, combine the first 3 ingredients and stir for a minute. Add the vegetable oil, all purpose flour and salt. Using a wooden spoon, stir until ingredients starts to bind.

If you have a mixer, attach the paddle and use it on medium speed for a minute. Replace with a dough hook attachment and on medium speed, knead for another 3 minutes. Turn your dough out on a lightly floured surface and manually knead using the heel of your hands for another 2 minutes until pliable.

If you want to do it manually, knead the mixture for 8 minutes.

In a separate bowl, pour the olive oil. Turn your dough ball twice on oil until all surface is coated. Cover your bowl with cling wrap and let it rest for 2 hours. If you will use the dough the following day, do the mixture at night, keep the bowl overnight in the fridge, it will rise slower. Take it out one hour before cooking.

Shaping Directions: +now is the perfect time to preheat your oven to 475F.
If you want to make a deep dish pizza, don't punch the air out. Place the dough on the deep-dish pan, press and stretch the dough until it reaches the side of the pan. When cooked, the middle section of the pizza will be almost as thick as the sides.

If you want to make a biscuit-thin crust pizza, turn your dough onto a lightly floured surface. Press your fingers all over the dough (resembling a massage move). Flour your wooden rolling pin and roll out on all sides, turning the dough couple of degrees to get the even thinness. It also helps to stretch your dough by hand on every turn. Sprinkle a little bit of cornmeal on your cookie sheet or baking pan before transfering the dough. Roll your pin a bit more if there is enough space for the dough to stretch to make it super thin.

If you want a stuffed-crust, turn your dough onto a lightly floured surface. Press your fingers all over the dough (resembling a massage move). Flour your wooden rolling pin and roll out on all sides, turning the dough couple of degrees every time while also stretching the dough's sides whenever you turn it. Stop at your preferred thickness. Place your stuffing on the edge of the dough, sausage or cheese or whatever stuffing you prefer. Roll the edge inside to secure the stuffing and also create a wall. Sprinkle a little bit of cornmeal on your cookie sheet or baking pan before transfering the dough.

Assembling Directions:
Lay the mozarella slices on the dough, overlapping them to make sure you cover the surface. Spread the pizza sauce on top of the cheese. Lay on the toppings you want to munch, pepperoni, minced beef, etc. The final touch is to generously sprinkle parmegiano regiano on top. 

If you are making a stuffed-crust pizza, brush the edge with melted butter (add garlic on your butter before melting if you want it garlicky). Sprinkle parmegiano over the butter.

Cook it in pre-heated oven (475F) for 20 minutes.

Take your pizza out and rest for 3-4 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy!!!!

-AcousticChef, cookin' one tune at a time!