Avocado Icecream

Avocado Ice cream by Alton Brown

3 medium Avocado
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 1/2 cup of milk
1/2 sugar
1/2 cream


Method

1) Peel and pit the avocados. Add the avocados, lemon juice, milk, and sugar to a blender and puree.
2)Transfer the mixture to a medium mixing bowl, add the heavy cream and whisk to combine.
3) Place the mixture into the refrigerator and chill until it reaches 40 degrees F or below, approximately 4 to 6 hours.
4) Process the mixture in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions. However, this mixture sets up very fast, so count on it taking only 5 to 10 minutes to process. For soft ice cream, serve immediately. If desired, place in freezer for 3 to 4 hours for firmer texture.

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Pão de Queijo / Brazilian Cheese Bread

Ingredients

1 egg*
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup milk
Scant 1 1/2 cups (170 grams) tapioca flour
1/2 cup (66 grams) grated cheese
1 teaspoon of salt (or more to taste)

Special equipment recommended:

One or two mini muffin tins. Mini muffin tins are about half the size of a regular muffin pan. The muffin openings are about 1-inch deep, and 1 3/4 inch wide at the top

Method

1 Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a mini-muffin tin. Put all of the ingredients into a blender and pulse until smooth. You may need to use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the blender so that everything gets blended well. At this point you can store the batter in the refrigerator for up to a week.


2 Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until all puffy and just lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for a few minutes. Eat while warm or save to reheat later. Enough batter for 16 mini muffin sized cheese breads.
Note that Brazilian cheese bread is very chewy, a lot like Japanese mochi.

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Zebranana mini cake

Ingredient
2 large eggs
2 bananas - mashed
125g castar sugar
125ml milk, at room temperature
125ml vegetable oil
1/3 teaspoon vanilla essense
150g plain flour, shifted (scoop out one 1tbsp from it & put aside) 1/2 tbsp baking powder
1tbsp dark cocoa powder



Steps:
1. Combine flour & baking powder in one bowl.
2. Combine egg & sugar in another bowl & beat until colour turns light & creamy.
3. Add in milk, oil & vanilla essense and mix well.
4. Add in the flour mixture into wet mixture.
5. Divide the mixture into 2 equal portions.
6. Keep one portion plain, add in the remaining 1 tbsp of flour & mashed banana & mix well.
7. Add cocoa powder into another and mix well.

Creating the Zebra strip
Scoop 1 spoon of plain batter into the middle of the cupcake, then add another spoon of cocoa batter onto the center of the plain batter. Keep repeating the same process until the batter reached 3/4 of the cup.

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Shepherd's Pie

I wanted to made shepherd's pie as I am going to have this dish for a special occassion so I better master it 1st.

Understand that the main ingredient for the pie is beef or mutton but that is not the kind of meat that my family will usually take so I need to change it to chicken and vegetable to go with it.

Looking ard for some good recipe to work on.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/2335/classic+shepherds+pie
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/easy_shepherds_pie/
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/30-minute-shepherds-pie-recipe2/index.html

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Soft and gooey brownie

After looking around for a good brownie.
I decided to try Jamie Oliver gooey brownie for this year xmas. However I only added 50g of walnut into my brownie.

It is ok to follow Jamie recipe as for me I reduce the sugar to 300g using dark brown sugar instead of caster white sugar. I increase the flour to 80g as I dun want the brownie to be too gooey.

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chocolate-recipes/bloomin-brilliant-brownies
Ingredient
• 250g unsalted butter
• 100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
• 100g milk Chocolate
• 50g chopped walnuts
• 80g cocoa powder, sifted
• 80g plain flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 300g brown sugar
• 4 large eggs

Topping
• optional: zest of 1 orange
• optional: 250ml crème fraîche

Method:
Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line a 25cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper. In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth. Add the cherries and nuts, if you’re using them, and stir together. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, then add this to the chocolate, cherry and nut mixture. Stir together well. Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency.

Pour your brownie mix into the baking tray, and place in the oven for around 25 minutes. You don’t want to overcook them so, unlike cakes, you don’t want a skewer to come out all clean. The brownies should be slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the middle. Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares. These make a fantastic dessert served with a dollop of crème fraîche mixed with some orange zest.

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Gingerbread Men

Gingerbread Man from http://bakingbites.com/2007/11/gingerbread-men/

Gingerbread Men
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp (freshly) ground nutmeg
pinch ground black pepper (optional)
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup coffee or water
1 tsp vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, cinnamon and black pepper, if using.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in molasses, water and vanilla, then gradually add in flour mixture until a smooth dough forms. Divide dough into two or three pieces (dough will be quite soft), cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until firm.

Preheat oven to 375F.
For softer cookies:
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to just under 1/4 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters of your choice (2-3″ gingerbread men are ideal!) to cut dough. Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, depending on size of cookie cutter. Cookies should be slightly firm to the touch at the edges. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

For crispier cookies:
On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to just under 1/8 inch thickness. Use cookie cutters of your choice (2-3″ gingerbread men are ideal!) to cut dough. Place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes, depending on size of cookie cutter. Cookies should be slightly firm to the touch at the edges and will be lightly browned. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

When cool, decorate with lemon icing (recipe below).

Makes about 30-40 gingerbread men, depending on size of cookie cutters used and whether you make them thick or thin.

Lemon Icing
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2-3 tbsp tsp lemon juice

In a small bowl combine powdered sugar and lemon juice. Substitute milk or cream plus 1 tsp lemon extract, if no fresh lemon juice is available. Add enough lemon juice to make the icing thick and pourable, but not runny (start with 1-2 tbsp and add more if necessary. You can always add a bit of extra sugar to thicken it if you add too much) and stir until very smooth. Scrape into piping bag with a fine tip or a ziploc bag with a corner cut off and pipe onto cooled cookies. Allow to set for at least 30 minutes, until firm, before storing cookies in an airtight container.

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Mushroom Soup

Mushroom Soup (serves 6)

4 tbsp unsalted butter
2 shallots, finely diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp celery, finely diced
600 g White mushroom, Swiss brown mushroom & oyster mushroom
1/4 fine salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/4 cup dry white wine
500ml chicken stock
1 bouquet garni (1 stalk parlet, 1 bayleaf, 4 sprig thyme, tied together)
a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup thickened cream


Method
1) Heat butter, sweat shallots, garlic and celery till soft but not browned for 5 mins
2) Add mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and cover the pan.
3) Add wine and let it bubble for a min before adding the stock. Bring the boil and skim surface. Add bouquet of garin and simmer gently for 20 min, covered.
4) remove bouquet garni and puree the soup in a blender. Dun puree too smooth.
5) Return to pot, add nutmeg and cream and cook till it just comes to the boil, then taste. Add more salt and pepper if needed. Remove from heat and serve.

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