Green Tea Creme Brulee???

It is Sunday morning I have gone for a jog, hit the gym and done the groceries…Tubby is still sleeping...

I decide to work on tonight’s dessert green tea crème brulee using a recipe I modified from topchefs.chef2chef.net. Although the flavour turns out well the texture is not quite creme bruleeish as I had misinterpreted instructions and only realised this after I put the brulees in the oven. Sadly as the broiler was broken I was limited to using the oven only and couldn't produce the caramelised sugar topping. Tubby and I agree that although we want to reproduce this dish we should not make any more desserts until we lose all the excess weight we have gained (note I had replaced original ingredients with healthier options).

Yields: 4 to 6 servings (but will depend on ramekin size)

Ingredients:
1 cup milk or skim milk
1 tbsp green tea powder (matcha)
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar, plus more for topping
1 cup cream or extra light cream

Instructions:
1. Heat milk and green tea powder in small saucepan on medium-high until bubbles rise to the surface. Leave cool for 5 minutes

2. Beat egg yolks and sugar until light, add cream and stir. Let rest and refrigerate for a few hours

3. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Pour mixture into ramekinds and place ramekins in a baking dish, fill dish with water halfway up the side of the BAKING DISH not the ramekin (this is the instruction I misinterpreted). Brulees are very sensitive to heat so this is very important to achieving the right brulee texture. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until center is barely set.
4. Refigerate.
5. When ready to serve, cover the top of each custard with a think layer of sugar and caramelise with a torch or under the broiler.

Result:

Lessons learnt:
This time Tubby the purist is right. Although I am the queen of improvising today alas I learn with creme brulees equipment is half the game. Paper cups inside tin cupcake holders don't quite work. Although the tin cupcake holders by themselves might of worked I did not want my food touching tin. So I have two choices when I reproduce this dish I either adopt Tubby's recommendation that I just invest in good ramekins or I can do the usual improvisation technique and see if I can use this mixture to turn it into a more flan like dessert. We'll just have to wait and see what I decide or maybe I'll do both.... But I really must get a broiler ... This weekend was not a successful weekend.

Fishy and Eggy attempts

Sunday has come and Tubs has hit the gym again. It's early morning and while I'm usually still asleep at this time, I'm expected to cook lunch today -Thai Fish Cakes. Unlike most people, it's essential that I get off to an early start as my process in cooking tends to be unusually...slow. I chose to do fish cakes due to it's simplicity, not only because I'm a Level 1 cook (indeed a very poor cook), but also because it's [I assumed it would be] quite tasty. I adapted this from several different recipes to create my own version.

Thai Fish Cakes



Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
500g fish paste
2 tbsp red curry paste
¼ cup (60ml) coconut milk
1 medium sized corn, grain removed from cob
1 clove garlic crushed
1 tbsp fish sauce
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp cornstarch
breadcrumbs or panko (Japanese breadcrumbs), to coat
2 green onions, finely chopped

Chilli Sauce:
5 tbsp water
3 tbsp white vinegar
7 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
4 tbsp finely chopped unsalted roasted peanuts
7 tsp soy sauce
5 tsp sugar

To serve:
vermicelli noodles
salad
cucumbers
spring onion & shallot oil
coriander

Method:
1. In a bowl, combine the fish, curry paste, coconut milk, corn, green onions, garlic, fish sauce, salt, and cornstarch. Mix well.
2. Moisten your hands with water and divide the mixture into balls. Flatten each ball into a patty about 5 cm in diameter and 12 mm thick.
3. Spread out the breadcrumbs on a plate or cutting board and gently press the fish patties into the breadcrumbs to coat lightly.
4. Preheat a frying pan over medium-high heat and then shallow-fry the patties until golden brown and cooked through. Using a slotted spatula or tongs, transfer to absorbent paper to drain. Serve with vermicelli noodles, lettuce, cucumber slices, coriander, shallot oil and chilli sauce.

Chilli Sauce:
Combine all the ingredients in a small pan, stir over heat until sugar is dissolved.

After our nod-of-the-head lunch (mum said it was ok, dad said it was nice, we thought it was pretty damn good for something that came from us), Tubs and I moved on to Chinese Egg tarts. Now I made this before with my cousin but it was terrible...a dismal attempt. How we moaned and groaned over our splatter of crust and egg custard; but that's another story. Today Tubs and I made another attempt -it tasted quite nice although appearance-wise, it wasn't exactly something to boast about. Perhaps this has something to do with our lack of patience and laziness...instead of making our own pastry/dough, we used frozen puff pastry. In any case, it was a new and improved version compared to the previous disaster, and for this I have to thank Chop from http://www.xanga.com/CantoneseCooking.
Here's her recipe below (I made some slight changes...very slight).

And keep in mind, though I'm not sure if it's just us, but it's important to prick the pastry many times NOT ONLY ON THE BOTTOM but also on the sides.


Before it was left to bake in the oven for the 2nd time...

Chinese Egg Tarts

Short-cut Crust:
Buy a sheet of frozen puff pastry and cut rounds into it (size depends on your muffin tins). Dock the dough (that means prick it with a fork), and press it into the lined muffin tin. You dock the dough so it doesn't get too puffed while baking. Bake for about 6-8 minutes on 170C (or until a light golden color). Remove from oven. Increase oven temperature to 200C. Fill your tarts and bring back to the oven. The puff pastry will give you a slightly uneven, but flaky dough.

Filling:
2/3 cup white sugar (I added a little more than this)
1 1/2 cups water
8 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 200C.
1. In a saucepan, add sugar and water and cook over low heat until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. (Sugar mixture MUST be chilled before mixing in eggs!!)
2. Beat eggs in large bowl and slowly pour in sugar syrup while stirring continously. Mix in vanilla extract and milk.
3. Strain the egg mixture through a sieve, and fill the tart shells. You don't have to strain it, but if you don't, you will not have a silky smooth texture.

To be honest, I simply mixed all the above ingredients together and used an electronic mixer hmm...


Not quite a looker I know...but it tastes good! =)


Mmm...close up tarties...mmm...