Basil Pesto

Hiee!!

One of my goals this year is to blog weekly in my cooking blog and it also motivates me to try new stuff weekly :)

One of the dishes I tried recently was to make my own basil pesto.. guess I was motivated by Ko earlier, seeing how much she loved this pasta.. but sadly, she doesn't seemed to like it so much these days, let her try a ready made one and my own one but she doesn't seemed as eager.. though she still ate when I fed her. Paul said it was not bad though..  :)

Recipe is from here:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/basil-pesto-recipe2.html

Combine the basil, garlic, and pine nuts in a food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped. Add 1/2 cup of the oil and process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

If using immediately, add all the remaining oil and pulse until smooth. Transfer the pesto to a large serving bowl and mix in the cheese.

If freezing, transfer to an air-tight container and drizzle remaining oil over the top. Freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw and stir in cheese.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/basil-pesto-recipe2.html?oc=linkback

Here are my ingredients:

1) Basil leaves (1/2 cup)

2) Pine nuts (1/4 cup)

3) 2 cloves of garlic

4) Freshly grated pecorino cheese (1/2 cup)

5) Olive oil (2/3 cup)

6) Salt and black pepper to taste

Basically. I followed the instructions. One step I took was to bake the nuts.. but it was too hot and they were burnt.. so I used a second batch of nuts which was much lesser.. and pine nuts were pretty expensive.. like $10 for 500 g... so a bit heart pain.. and I realised really need quite a lot of olive oil.. or it will look pretty dry.. I added chicken stock instead of salt so it also tasted a bit weird to me... hee.. so the next try is to use normal salt and have more pine nuts :)

Gingerbread Man

Hm,

just wanted to share this recipe which I found rather successful when I baked gingerbread man for the first time! Hee

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/gingerbread-boys-and-girls-recipe.html

I used Muscavado Sugar though. 1 stick butter is 113 g. I didn't add nutmeg. But I felt that the confectioners' sugar with 2 tbsp of milk is still too think to come out of the icing pen... maybe 4 TBSP..

German cookies

German cookies

125g unsalted butter ( soften on room termperature
40g icing sugar (sifted)
1 tsp vanilla extract 
125g potato starch
80g plain flour

Preheat oven to 180 degrees

1. In a mixing bowl, use electric mixer to beat the butter & icing sugar till light & fluffy.
2. T Then add in the vanilla extract and continue beat until well combined.
3. Sift in potato starch and plain flour. With a spatula, mix to form a soft dough. Leave the dough to chill in the fridge for about 10 mins.
4. Roll the dough to form a small ball. Place on a baking tray line with baking paper, use fork to press lightly down and dip the fork in the water after each press to prevent the cookie dough from sticking to the fork.

Steaming chicken

Nowadays I just love steaming chicken since it is a healthy meal for kids and I love the juice.

I will marinate with pear for an hour at least, then steam it with wolf berries. Take abt an hour to cook through. Love the essence!

White chocolate cheesecake "souffle cake"

Made the cake for pau's birthday but dunno why the words are so fat and smudge together :( Must go and ask.. haha..


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVvPOE-C7AE&feature=share

This is the link I used.

Here are the instructions:

Japanese Cheese Cake

3 eggs

120 g white chocolate

120 g cream cheese

1)       Separate egg whites

2)       Put egg whites into fridge

3)       Preheat oven to 170 degrees

4)       Place white chocolate in large bowl

5)       Melt chocolate in hot boiler over hot water

6)       Whip egg whites until peaks form

7)       Mix chocolate till smooth

8)       Mix cream cheese together

9)       Remove bowl from boiler, add egg yolks

10)   Add one third meringue and blend well each time

11)   Line round cake pan (put a bit of oil), pour batter in, put on tray (put some water in tray)

12)   15 mins 170 degrees, 15 mins 160 degrees, off oven and 15 mins in remaining temp

Orange Chiffon Cake

Same recipe as my pandan cake. I like it! It was really nice :) Ko loved it too. Timing wise for my oven in Cape Town:

Oven was 190 degrees initially. After 15 mins, I removed top tray which I initially put in to block the heat, after another 5 mins, decreased to 180 degrees, at 35 mins, took out the cake to cool.

Orange sponge cake/pandan (replace juice with coconut milk)

3 eggs

100g og Prima brand cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

100 g castor sugar

75 ml freshly squeezed orange juice

75 ml corn oil

1 tbsp orange zest

¼ tsp cream of tar tar

1)        Preheat oven to 170 degreees, line cake pan

2)        Sieve cake flour and baking powder together (big bowl)

3)        Separate yolks from whites. Whites to metal tin, yolks to mixer bowl.

4)        Beat egg yolks with half amt of sugar till thicken and pale yellow

5)        Add zest, juice, oil, whisk by hand

6)        Add flour 1/3 at a time and mix together

7)        Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and remaining sugar using mixer till stiff

8)        Add 1/3 of egg whites to cake batter from before and fold in gently

9)        Bake at 30 to 40 mins at 180 degrees

10)     When done, remove from oven, peel off grease paper and leave to cool on cooling rack

Pandan cake

Woohooo!!!!!!!!!! Finally succeeded in my pandan cake. For the first few tries, it was still a bit sticky on the inside. I thought it was the container but after using the round container with the hole, it was still like that. I had to try various ways, after getting tips from Joan, I tried the way of increasing temperature of oven to 190 degrees, use a tray to block the heat first then remove after 15 mins. Anyway lemme share the recipe first. For my orange cake, all is the same, except I replace coconut milk with orange juice and also added 1 tbsp of zest. For pandan extract, I add 3/4 of tsp with this recipe.

Orange sponge cake/pandan (replace juice with coconut milk)

3 eggs

100g og Prima brand cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

100 g castor sugar

75 ml freshly squeezed orange juice

75 ml corn oil

1 tbsp orange zest

¼ tsp cream of tar tar

1)        Preheat oven to 170 degreees, line cake pan

2)        Sieve cake flour and baking powder together (big bowl)

3)        Separate yolks from whites. Whites to metal tin, yolks to mixer bowl.

4)        Beat egg yolks with half amt of sugar till thicken and pale yellow

5)        Add zest, juice, oil, whisk by hand

6)        Add flour 1/3 at a time and mix together

7)        Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and remaining sugar using mixer till stiff

8)        Add 1/3 of egg whites to cake batter from before and fold in gently

9)        Bake at 30 to 40 mins at 180 degrees

10)     When done, remove from oven, peel off grease paper and leave to cool on cooling rack