The Devil Duck Eggs

NOTE: Duck Eggs not Salted Eggs. LOL! Well, I have to tell this because most people, especially Malay/Malaysian, they always associate duck eggs with salted eggs. Well, not all duck eggs are salted but salted eggs are definitely duck eggs. Hahahaha...

Ingredients:

6 Large size of duck eggs, preferably organic duck eggs
1/2 cup of boiled butter bean, cooled off
5 large slice of defrosted smoked salmon (if you don't have it fresh!)
2 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt & black pepper, to taste
Caviar (I'm using two colors)
Cherry tomatoes, sliced (not too thin)
Flat leaves (Italian) parsley

Methods:

1) Boiled the duck eggs - hard boiled, cooled off, peeled off & halved.
2) Take out the egg yolks and clean dry the yolk-case area.
3) Meanwhile waiting for the duck eggs to completely boiled or cooled off, you may put the butter bean, smoked salon, olive oil and salt & black pepper in a food processor and process all the ingredients until well-blended and smooth.
4) Place the mixture carefully into the cleaned yolk-case. Not too full, just a lil' bit above 3/4 full. 
5) Place 1 slice of sliced cheery tomato above the salmon mixture.
6) Carefully place the caviar (using end of teaspoon or tip of knife) on top of the sliced cherry tomato.
7) Add on the flat leave parsley as a finishing touch.

 

Prawn Pasta Aglio Olio

Do you like your pasta to be dry and spicy yet tasty? Aglio olio is definitely an option for you. I called aglio olio pasta as "mee goreng barat" (western-style fried noodles). LOL! Seriously, it is not much difference to our local fried noodles just we don't use chili flakes. And for aglio olio, I like it with seafood rather than chicken or beef. So, let's go!


Ingredients:

2 plate of cooked, cooled-off spaghetti
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Olive Oil
4-6 large-size prawn
Chili flakes according to your spiciness-tolerance (LOL!)
Water
4-5 black olives, sliced
4-5 cherry tomato, halved
Salt & black pepper, to taste
Few of fresh basil leaves
1 Large pinch of English parsley, chopped
1 Large pinch of grated parmesan cheese

Methods:

1) In a frying pan, medium heat, saute garlic until it turn light brown.

2) Add chili flakes and prawns together with the garlic, stir fry till cook. Make sure prawns not over cooked! You don't wanna chew a rubber!

3) Add about 2-4 tablespoon of water followed by salt & pepper to taste, chopped English parsley and grated parmesan cheese.

4) Add the cooked, cooled-off spaghetti into the mixture and stir fry till well-mixed.

5) Before served, under low-heat, add fresh basil leaves, sliced black olives and halved cherry tomato and stir fry about 1 minutes.

6) Pour onto serving plate and you may garnish with extra chopped English parsley and parmesan cheese.

Black Olives Farfalel in Tomato Basil Sauce

This is another pasta recipe using the home-made tomato basil sauce (recipe provided in previous posts). Very easy. Very simple. You also may add your favorite meat (chicken, beef, crab, prawn, cockles, mussels, etc) & other vegetables to suit your appetite.

Ingredients:

2 plate of cooked farfalel @ bow-tie pasta, cooled (you can use other type of pasta too)
2 clove garlic, chopped (you may use more than 2 if you like the garlic-ish taste & aroma)
Olive oil
1 small handful of sliced black olives or stuffed green olives, your choice
6 tablespoon of tomato basil sauce
Water (if the sauce is too thick for your liking)
1 tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon of chopped English parsley
Salt & black pepper, to taste
Garnishing: chopped English parsley, grated parmesan cheese, basil leaves

Methods:

1) Saute garlic in olive oil until sweat or lightly brown.

Note: At this point, you may add in your favorite seafood or other meat and vegetables. Stir fry till well-cooked.

2) At lower heat, add in the tomato basil sauce and keep stirring. If the tomato basil sauce look too thick, you may add water which I normally do.

3) Add in pinch of salt & black pepper to suit your taste follow by grated parmesan cheese and also chopped parsley. Stir well.

4) Add cooked & cooled farfalel into the pan and stir well at medium high heat.

5) Add the sliced black olives or stuffed green olive. At high heat, stir the pasta and olives until well-mixed for few seconds and then turn off the heat.

6) Place on 2 plates and garnish with chopped English parsley, parmesan cheese & fresh basil leaves.

Vegetarian Penne Pesto

Using the home-made basil pesto (recipe provided in previous posts), trust me, you'll get the best pasta pesto ever! Doesn't matter seafood pasta or chicken pasta or vegetarian pasta or just the plain pasta pesto, you'll lovin' it. I'm lovin' it too! Here, I'm sharing with you vegetarian penne pesto.

Ingredients:

2 plate of cooked penne, cooled (you can use other type of pasta too)
2 clove garlic, chopped (you may use more than 2 if you like the garlic-ish taste & aroma)
Olive oil
1 handful of sliced button mushrooms
Other vegetables i.e. capsicum, egg plant, carrot, etc.
3 tablespoon of basil pesto
Water
Salt & black pepper, to taste
Garnishing: chopped English Parsley, grated parmesan cheese, basil leaves

Methods:

1) Saute garlic in olive oil until sweat or lightly brown.

Note: At this point, you may add in your favorite seafood (i.e cockles, mussels, crab meats) or cooked shredded chicken or raw diced chicken. Stir fry till well-cooked.

2) Add in sliced mushrooms and any other vegetables until soft.

3) At lower heat, add in the basil pesto and keep stirring. If the basil pesto look too thick, you may add water which I normally do.

4) Add in pinch of salt & black pepper to suit your taste.

5) Add cooked & cooled penne into the pan and stir well at medium high heat. 

6) Place on 2 plates and garnish with chopped English parsley, parmesan cheese. I like it with lots of parmesan chese! Love it! And fresh basil leaves, too!

Stove-baked Orange Sponge Cake

No oven? No problem! No parchment paper? No problem! No vanilla pod? No problem! No eggs? Yes problem... Hahahaha! Now I gonna share with you my mom's recipe of very simple orange sponge cake. I like so much when it still a lil' bit warm and eat it with a large scope of vanilla ice cream. Yummeh!!!

Ingredients:

5 eggs (med size)
1 cup of white sugar
3/4 cup softened butter
1 1/2 cup of flour
1 tablespoon of vanilla essence
1 tablespoon of orange flavored essence
1 orange, zest

Methods:

1) Dust the cake-pan with flour and heat it on the stove. You may grease the cake-pan with butter.

2) Using electric hand-mixer, beat the eggs until it light and fluffy.

3) In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar until the mixture turning pale in color.

4) Add in orange zest, vanilla essence & orange-flavored essence.

5) Pour the eggs into the mixture and flour gradually. Using hand whisker, whisk slowly. Or fold.

6) Pour the cake mixture into the heated cake-pan and put it on the stove at low heat for about 45 minutes. You may check using skewer stick, too.

Done. How about that? Easy eh? Try it!

Constructive Tomato Sauce

Nope. Not ketchup. This is a tomato sauce to be serves with pasta, as a pizza base, and many others. I don't like to buy a ready-to-use or ready-to-eat either in a bottle or can or packet because the taste is just not like something that I want. Plus, you can keep this tomato sauce up to 2 weeks if you keep in a chiller at a temperature of 1-5celcius or up to a month or two if you keep it in the freezer.

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
5-7 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 large size red or yellow onion, diced
4 stalks of fresh rosemary
1handful of fresh basil leaves
1 can of 3kg tomato pulp pelati (I'm using San Paolina brand)
1 liter of water
2 teaspoon of Tabascco or birds chilli juice if you like it spicy - this is totally optional
Salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
White Pepper, to taste
Honey, to taste

Methods:

1) In a large stockpot, heat up the olive oil and saute garlic & onion until light brown. Add in 2 stalks of rosemary till you can smell the beautiful fragrance.

2) Pour in the tomato pulp pelati with 1 liter of water. Cook well under medium heat. Keep on stirring frequently so the bottom part will not burned. Let it simmer and then cool it off about 1-2 hours.

3) In a food processor, blend the cooled cooked tomato sauce 1 or 2 cups at a time, to the texture you desire. I preferred it a little bit coarse so I'd taste the tomato chunks. Place it in a new stockpot.

4) Under low heat, add in salt, black pepper, white pepper and honey to taste. Please add all the seasoning gradually, we don't want the sauce to be too salty or too spicy or too sweet.

4a) At this point you might probably want your sauce to be spicy, so you may add tabasco or birds chilli juice.

5) When it almost boil, add in the balance of the (2) rosemary and basil leaves. Switch off the heat and let it cool off completely before you keep it for future use. You may use it immediately, too!

Traditional Basil Pesto

Basil Pesto is commonly used on pasta, traditionally with Mandilli de Sæa, trofie or trenette. Potatoes and little green beans are also traditionally added to the dish, boiled in the same pot in which the pasta has been cooked. Pesto is sometimes served on sliced beef tomatoes and sliced boiled potatoes.


Ingredients:

2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan-Reggiano or Romano cheese
1/3 cup pine nuts or walnut, toasted
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 clove garlic
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Methods:

1) In a food processor - blend basil leaves, garlic, nuts and cheese.

2) Gradually, slowly pour in olive oil whilst the mixture being process.

3) Add in salt & pepper to taste.

Done ;-)

Pappardelle Puttanesca @ Pasta Puttanesca

Dafuq is "pappardelle puttanesca"? It is just a PAPPARDELLE PUTTANESCA. Not "aglio olio". Not "marinara". Not some pasta with basil pesto or tomato basil sauce. It is just it is...

Ingredients:

30ml extra-virgin olive oil, or as needed
70g sliced mushrooms
2 clove garlics, finely chopped
120ml dry white wine
70g anchovy-stuffed green olives, drained and halved
20g capers, drained
1tablespoon caper juice
200g (can) crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste
250g dried pappardelle pasta

Methods:

1) Stir in mushrooms and garlic with hot olive oil. Cook until the mushrooms have begun to brown.

2) Set heat to high. Pour in wine. 

3) Bring to a boil, then stir in olives, capers, caper juice, crushed tomatoes, and pepper flakes. Return to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low and cook about 15-20minutes.

4) Meanwhile, bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain and toss with sauce to serve. 

EASY!!!

 

Babababa Baba Ganoush

A dip for vegetarians/vegans. The outstanding taste of the char-grilled eggplant mix with some other herb and spices, and also the smooth texture make it one of the best dip to snack on. Best eaten with warm toasted pita bread or foccacia bun. Try it! You'll love it although if you are not vegetarian/vegan. Because I am not.

Ingredients:

2 large eggplants
1 tablespoon tahini (or more as needed)
3 garlic cloves, chopped
A pinch of ground cumin
1/4 cup of lemon juice (or more as needed)
Salt & black pepper to taste
2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
1/4 cup of black olives, sliced


Methods:

1) Prick the eggplants with a fork in several places and place on the fire or grill rack. Grill, turning frequently until the skin blackens and the flesh just begins to soft. Around 10-20minutes. Let it cool slightly and peel off and discard the skin.

2) Place the eggplants flesh in a bowl and mash the eggplant to a paste by using a fork.

3) Add the tahini, garlic, lemon juice and cumin. Mix well. Season with salt & black pepper. You may add more tahini and/or lemon juice, if needed. Up to your taste!

4) Transfer the mixture to a serving bowl or individual small serving plate with the back of a spoon to form a shallow well. Drizzle olive oil over the top and garnish with the chopped parsley and chopped olive.

Olive & Mushroom Tapenade

Olive & mushroom tapenade taste a lil bit weird at first if you eat just like that so I add some variation on how to eat this beautiful dip from Morocco (see notes below).

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of butter
500g mixed thinly sliced white button mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 small handful of black olives
Olive oil
A few of fresh basil/sage leaves
Salt & black pepper to taste


Methods:

1) Lightly saute the garlic & mushrooms in the butter until they sweat. Allow to cool briefly.

2) Pour mixture into a food processor and pulse just for a while, let say 5 seconds.

3) Add the a little salt, basil/sage leaves and a little olive oil. Pulse for few seconds. Check the texture. I prefer it rough with visible mushroom chunks in it.

4) Transfer to serving bowl or individual small serving plates.

Notes: Taste much nicer if served straight away while it still a little bit warm with toasted pita bread and some roasted garlic and/or grilled vegetables i.e eggplant, courgette, etc. with a lil dip of olive oil and balsamic.

Speedy Hummus

I am not a fan of any Mediterranean food. Might it be a starter or main course or dessert. Nope. But I started to like hummus because it is light, flavorful, easy and best to serve with toasted pita bread. And it doesn't took me second try to master it.

Ingredients:

2 clove garlic
1 can of chick peas, half the liquid reserved
1-2 tablespoon of lemon juice (or up to your taste)
1 tablespoon of tahini
Salt & black pepper to taste
1/4 cup of olive oil
Garnishing: Paprika powder, chick peas, olive oil & chopped parsley

Methods: 

1) In a food processor, chop the garlic. 

2) Pour chick peas & the liquid into blender, reserving about a tablespoon for garnish. 

3) Place lemon juice, tahini, salt & pepper in the food processor together with the processed chick peas. 

4) Pour the olive oil and blend until creamy and well mixed. 

5) Transfer the mixture to a medium serving bowl or individual serving small plate. Garnish.

Easy Wild Mushrooms Soup

Shrooooooms! This fabulous wild mushrooms soup wont get you hang to death penalty in Malaysia. It is addictive but it does not contain any magic mushroom that will make you high and hallucinating. LOL! Trust me, you'll like the taste ;)

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
1 teaspoon of dried thyme or handful of fresh thyme leaves
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
2 stick of celery, roughly cut
1 stick of large leek, roughly cut
1 liter of chicken/vegetable stock
1 cup of dried porcini, soak with hot water until soft, tossed & roughly chopped.
500g of mixed wild mushrooms (i.e shiitake, oyster, de mort, chanterelles), cleaned & sliced.
200g of white button mushrooms, cleaned & sliced
600ml liter of cooking cream
salt & pepper to taste
knob of butter


Methods:

1) In large stock pot, saute garlic, onion with olive oil until it turn slightly light brown, not burned.

2) Add in thyme, celery and leek and stir until it become soft.

3) Pour in the chicken or vegetable stock, simmer under medium heat.

4) Add in the porcini and all the mushrooms, under medium heat, bring to boil.

5) Lower the heat and then add the cooking cream, salt & pepper to taste.

6) Leave it at the lowest heat for good 15-30 minutes or it reduced a little.

7) Off the heat, put in the butter. Let it cool off for an hour in the stock pot.

8) Roughly blend the soup to the texture that you desire.

*You may it need to reboil again before serve.
**You may serve it with normal toasts or foccacia bun or any kind of bread with butter.

Non-baked, Frozen Cheesecake

serCheesecake not suppose to be spongy or airy. And personally, I don't like a baked cheesecake. I like it chilled especially here in Malaysia where the weather is too hot and humid. So yeah, lets say CHEEEEEEEEEESE!!!

Ingredients: 

Base:
1 packet (or more) Cookies or biscuits - you can use any type of cookies or biscuits! Oreo, digestive cookies,mary, cream crackers, tigers, shortbread, etc. Totally up to you!
125 unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup of sugar - more or less, depends on your taste actually :)

Cheesecake:
750g of cream cheese (Philadelphia is too expensive here so I opted to Tatura from Australia)
1 lemon, zest
1-2 teaspoon lemon juice, to taste
Condense milk, to taste
3/4 teaspoon of powdered, unflavored gelatine (to mix with 2 tablespoon of hot water, dissolved)

Methods:

First, we make the base:
1) Using food processor, crash-crush the cookies/biscuit.
2) Add the sugar and melted butter and process till well-mixed.
3) Pour in to cake tin and press firmly.
4) Put in the refrigerator meanwhile making the cheesecake.

And then, for the cheesecake:
5) Blend the cream cheese in a food processor until the texture become smooth
6) Add the lemon zest, lemon juice & condense milk (according to your taste) and keep on processing until the texture become really smooth and glossy.
7) Add in together with the gelatine, mixed well.

For the final:
8) Take out the cookies/biscuits base from the refrigerator.
9) Pour in the cheesecake mixture on top of the base. Shake the cake tin slowly to get the even surface.
10) Cover with cling film and put it in the freezer for at least 2 hours before serve.

Tadaaaaaa!!! You may serve the cheesecake with your favorite fruits or syrup or jam. Be creative! Picture below - I'm using oreo as a cookies base with fruit syrup with mango & strawberry dices.

Powerberries Pavlova

After so many try & error... finally, I did it! I did it! F**k yea! I am so proud of myself :)

Ingredients:

4 egg whites
225g caster sugar
1 teaspoon cornflour
1 teaspoon lemon juice or white wine vinegar
1 lemon, zested 
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
300ml whipping cream
Berries: raspberries, strawberries, or blackberries or a mixture
1 tablespoon icing sugar

Methods:

1) Heat the oven to 180celcius. Cover a baking sheet with baking parchment.

2) Whisk the egg whites with electric beaters until they just form stiff and shiny peaks. Gradually add the sugar a couple of tablespoons at a time and whisk really well between each addition.

3) When all of the sugar is used up continue whisking for 3-4 minutes or until the meringue is stiff and glossy and stands up in peaks, then whisk in the cornflour and lemon juice/vinegar.

4) Spoon the mixture onto the baking parchment and use a palette knife to make a circle (depends on you how big you want your pavlova to turn out!).

5) Put in the oven, turn the temperature down to 120celcius and cook for 1hour 45minutes. Turn the oven off and leave the meringue inside until completely cold, around 4-6 hours or overnight.

6) Carefully peel off the baking parchment and put the pavlova on a serving dish.

7) Mix the vanilla essence into a mixing bowl, add the whipping cream and lemon zest and softly whip, then spoon onto the pavlova.

8) Mix the berries, spoon the fruit on top of the cream, dust with a little icing sugar and serve.

"Cheat Tiramisu" a.k.a Easy Tiramisu

What?!!! Mascarpone? Double Cream? Heavy Cream? Whoaaa!!! Damn bloody f**kin' expensive man... It'll cost lot!  Stop complaining! Try this "cheat" recipe! Cut more than 50% from the traditional tiramisu cost and still get the sae texture and excellent taste!

Ingredients:

500g Cream Cheese (I use Tatura Cream Cheese instead of Philadelphia)
120ml cream (doesn't matter cooking cream or whipping cream or heavy cream)
60g unsalted butter, softened
5 tablespoon castor sugar
Biscuit (normally for tiramisu, people use ladyfingers @ savoriardi but I just use any kind!)
Unsweetened black coffee, cooled

Optional: Tia Maria or Kahlua
Optional: Dark Chocolate, grated or cocoa powder - for ganishing
Optional: Strawberries, sliced (you may use any other fruits that you like!) - for ganishing

Methods:

1) In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, cream and butter until well blended. (I call this as "mascarpone substitute")

2) Beat the mixture above and caster sugar in a mixing bowl with electric beaters until soft peaks form. Set aside. 


3) Combine the coffee (and Tia Maria or Kahlua, if using) in a large bowl. Dip the savoiardi biscuits quickly into the coffee mixture and then arrange over individual serving glasses.

*You may arrange the sliced strawberries or other fruits on the side or bottom of the serving glasses.

4) Spread half the "mascarpone" mixture evenly over the biscuits.

*You may repeat the step #3 for another layer. Finish with a layer of the remaining mascarpone mixture.

5) Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight.

6) Sprinkle with the grated chocolate or cocoa powder just before serving.

SERVES 6-8