Japanese Cheesecake ( trial 1)

I've been hesitating if I should blog this one because it didn't rise like I wished it would, BUT it does taste delicious. Definitly going to try making this again. I got this recipe from an asian website, the cake should rise up like a souffle, and you need precise measurements.

Japanese Cheesecakes taste a lot lighter and fluffier than NY cheesecake, it requires less cream cheese ( less fat!) . It is so much more difficult and time consuming to make! It was definitly worth it though.

p.s Ignore the sour cream in the picture, I didn't end up using it.

Ingredients:

- 200g of cream cheese

- 128g of milk

- 26g of flour

- 14g of corn starch

- 43g of melted butter

- 4 eggs (seperate the yolks and the whites, the whites cannot touch any water/oil)

- 1/4 tsp of cream of tar tar

- 1/4 tsp of lemon juice

- 86g of sugar

Steps:

1) Preheat then oven at 170degrees

2) Cut the cream cheese in little pieces and drain them in milk for half an hour

3) Melt the cream cheese, milk with a heating water bath until the mixture is smooth, sift the mixture to take out the cheese lumps ( important!)

4) Mix in the butter

5) Mix in the flour, corn starch

6) Add in egg yolks and lemon, make sure the mix is super smooth, sift the mixture if necessary

7) In a seperate bowl, whip the egg white with tar tar for about 20 sec on mixer.

8) Add in the sugar slowly in 3 diff. times on high speed, until the egg whites becomes shiny and pointy ( as pictured)

9) Scoop the egg white mixture into the cream cheese bowl gently, fold it in until evenly mixed.

10) Pour the mixture in 8" cake pan, bake on top of a water bath! ( so almost like steaming it)

11) Bake at 170degrees for 20 mins, 40 mins at 150degrees

Chicken Parmesan

I got inspired to make chicken parmesan when I saw some amazing-looking cherry tomatoes. I totally recommend cooking with seasonal veges, since the meat products are rarely not in season. I also find that when chicken breasts are prepared this way, they tend to stay very juicy on the inside. Again, this is very easy to make who doesn't like fried chicken?

Ingredients:


Tomato sauce-
- handful of cherry tomatoes
- 1tbsp of tomato paste
- 1 shallot
- 1clove of garlic
- basil leaves

Chicken-

- flour ( enough to coat)
- chicken breast
- a mixture consist of 1/2 tempure powder, 1/2 potato flour
- salt& pepper
- thyme
- 1 egg
*tempure powder can be found in most grocery stores with asian food selections.

Steps:

1) scramble the egg

2) cut the chicken breast in the middle, and open it up and flatten it out, make it easier to cook through

3) prepare the 1/2 tempure, 1/2 potato flour mix, season with thyme and salt&pepper

4) coat the chicken in flour

5) dip it in the egg, then coat it again in the mixture with 1/2 tempure mix, 1/2 potato flour

6) fry in in a pan until brown on each side

7) prepare tomato sauce: fry garlic and shallots

- put in the tomatoes, stir fry until soft

- stir in the tomato paste

8) put the tomato sauce on top of chicken, top it with mozzarella cheese and bake it for 7 mins.

Mint Chocolate Souffle

Happy Easter everyone!

I was bored to death on a friday long weekend (sad, I know) then I decided to bake myself some cake.
There are many ways to make a souffle, they are all fairly simple. The hardest part is to make the souffle lift. It also requires a lot of beating of the eggs.

The tip to beating the egg white is that it cannot have contact with ANY water and fat, or else it won't set.
Eat it while it's hot! even better, with ice-cream!

Ingredients:

- 1tbsp on cocoa powder

- butter ( enough to

- 2 eggs ( seperate your yolk and white)

- 80g of mint chocolate chopped (or your choice of chocolate)

- pinch of cream of tar tar

- 100mL of milk

- 75g of white sugar

- 10g of corn flour

Steps:

preheat oven at 180

1) On medium heat, simmer the milk, add corn flour, until thickens

2) add in your chopped mint chocolate

3) in a seperate bowl, beat the 2 egg whites with cream of tartar, slowly add in the sugar, you will know it is ready when you lift the beater and the egg white is ..pointy

4) add the egg yolks one by one into the chocolate mixture, mix it ( make sure the mixture is chilled when you add in the yolks)

5) Add 1/3 of the egg whites in the chocolate mixture and fold it in slowly ( repeat with the rest of the whites)

6) butter the souffle containers generously, then sprinkle with cocoa power+sugar, make sure the containers are covered in the cocoa.

7) put in your mixture and bake for 6 mins!

Ramsay's Sticky Lemon Chicken

You know how sometimes things just don't turn out as you saw on the food channel when you actually make it yourself? I tried Ramsay's lemon chicken today!

I didn't know how to cut the top off the chicken thighs like he did, despite the fact that he did is so effortlessly. He was right though, the chicken neede to be cooked a lot longer than he did (35mins~)

I only used chicken thighs, the sauce turned out to be a lot more lemony than I expected, but the chicken itself got just the right about of tangy-ness. Overall, it was a success! thanx Gordon!

I made a platter of veges too.

I sauteed the carrots in butter& sugar& salt, roasted potatoes, zucchini in e.v.o.o.& salt& pepper, cherry tomatos& avacado and roasted garlic salad.