Pizza

Adam and I have pizza once a week. It’s easy because it comes frozen in a box and it taste good. Since I love to try my hands on making my own, I made my pizzas from scratch. Yes, I knead the dough myself. This is the outcome.

Pizza ~ Seafood and Diabolo

Seafood pizza with a hot salsa base topped with shrimps, mussels, squids and shredded Asiago cheese.

Freshly baked seafood pizza

Pizza Diabolo (inspired by a pizza we had in the Dominican Republic) has a hot salsa base and topped with fresh red onion slices, pickled green chillies, fresh basil, Prosciutto de Parma, Lomo and loads of Asiago cheese.

Pizza Diabolo

Love it!

 

Banana Cake

I baked again!!! This time I made a banana cake.

Why banana cake? We have over riped bananas at home and I feel bad throwing them out. So I thought of making them into something yummy. So here’s a shot of my cake.

My banana cake.

 I have not made banana cakes before but have tasted many. I just know that my banana cake has to be moist and does not contain banana extract (I hate the smell of fake banana and the taste of it – yuck).

I searched on the internet and found this recipe by An Empty Stomach Is The Best Cook. Thank you.

My French neighbour is a banana cake expert. She loves to eat it, not make them. So I asked her over and got her to try some. Her honest comment was – ‘This is a very good banana cake. I love it’. YAY!

Moist-on-the-inside-no-banana-extract banana cake.

So I guess this recipe I got is a good and tested one. Go try it if you don’t want to throw out that over-ripe banana sitting on the kitchen counter.

 

Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake

I have not been baking for many years now. Over the weekend I bought myself a hand mixer. Since I am now a proud owner of one, I have to make good use of it right?

This is what I made!

Marbled Chocolate Cheesecake

I have made this cake a few times many many years back. Recently I came across the recipe again so I thought I’ll give it a shot.

Chocolate Batter

• 250 gm butter
• 200 gm chocolate bar (I used 60% pure cocoa)
• 150 gm chopped walnuts (optional)
• 80 gm cocoa powder (sifted)
• 65 gm plain flour (sifted)
• 1 tsp baking powder (sifted)
• 150 gm caster sugar
• 4 large eggs (lightly beaten)

Preheat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

 Line a baking tin with parchment or greaseproof paper. 

 Melt chocolate and butter over a pot of boiling water. Mix until smooth. 

 In a separate bowl, mix cocoa powder, plain flour, baking powder and sugar.

Remove bowl with melted ingredient from the pot of boiling water.

Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the chocolate and butter mixture. 

Add 2 tbsp of the chocolate batter into beaten eggs  and mix well. This is to make heat up the egg mixture a little so that it does not turn into scrambled eggs when it’s mixed with the batter which might still be a little hot.

Then add the egg mixture into the chocolate batter.

Keep folding the batter until it achieves a silky texture.

Stir in nuts if using.

Pour batter into the prepared baking tin and set aside.

Cream Cheese Topping

• 250 gm softened cream cheese (I used Philadelphia)
• 100 gm caster sugar
• 1 large egg yolk

Whisk together cream cheese, sugar and egg yolk in a bowl until smooth.

Spread the cheese mixture over the chocolate batter.

Swirl the cream cheese batter with a butter knife.

Bake in the oven for approximately 30 – 45 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool for 15 minutes before cutting.

Enjoy!

I like gooey yumminess of the chocolate portion. Love it with black coffee. YUM!

 

Toad in a Hole

That’s Adam’s favourite English dish. Eh? Apa tu katak? There are no toads, frogs or any other forms of amphibious lifeform in a traditional British Toad in a Hole dish.

Essentially, Toad in a Hole is sausage covered and baked in Yorkshire pudding. It’s a favorite pub food and also a classic dinner, usually served with roasted potatoes, vegetables and gravy.

Yorkshire pudding is an English savoury dish made from batter. The Yorkshire pudding recipe is not an actual pudding, but a baked pudding made from flour, milk, and eggs.

When my MIL came for a visit in Feb, I asked her to teach me this dish. After 5 attempts, I finally made an entire meal successfully. Success is determined by how well the pudding rise and that is determined by how hot the oil in the pan is when you pour the batter in but your batter has to be well beaten if not it will not rise even if the oil is hot enough. Simple dish yet difficult to master.

I have slightly changed the cooking methods to what my MIL taught me. Somehow my way suit me best and it works for me.

Recipe
4oz plain flour – sifted
1/2 pint milk
2 eggs
Pinch of salt

Measure flour and sift it into a mixing bowl.
Add a pinch of salt.
Create a well in the middle of the flour mixture and break in 2 eggs.
With wooden spoon, mix eggs with flour.
Add milk and mix well.
Beat the batter with a hand mixer for about 3 – 4 minutes.
Once done, let it stand for 20-30 minutes
Stir again before pouring the batter into the pan.

8 sausages

Cook the sausages in a pan and set aside.

Cooking instructions
Drizzle some olive oil into a square cake pan.
Put the cooked sausages into the pan and place it into a pre-heated 450F oven for 10 minutes
Remove the pan with the bubbling hot oil and pour in batter.
Let it bake for 30 minutes.

Adam likes his Toad in a Hole with steam vegetable, roast potatoes and gravy. For gravy my MIL suggested I get Bisto which is a brand of instant gravy powder she uses in England. Thankfully I can find it here and that saves me time from making real gravy.

I also made individual Toad in a Hole, the same method as above but just use a muffin tin rather than a sqaure tin. I like the looks of it.

If you like some British food, give this a try but please be reminded that

1) the batter has to be well beaten. Using a hand-mixer is the best way to do it.
2) the oil in the pan has to be very hot before you put the batter into the pan.
3) try not to open the oven door the first 15 minutes when it’s baking.

Good luck!