Chocolate Meringue Cake

When I came back from Chiang Mai, I got nothing but an extra 1 kilogram of raw macadamia nuts. I got it from a health food store called Kasem in Nimmanhaemin. It was only 900THB, almost half the price of what I get here in Bangkok. How can I not buy them? They were also selling two kilograms of walnuts for only 580THB! Curse the two ladies who walked away with two huge bags full of them!

Anyway I have been wanting to do something with the macadamia nuts since. There was this meringue that I loved but didn't blog. I felt I owed it a post - something in me was urging to remake the meringue (gluttonous, perhaps?)

This was a real test to my patience. Firstly, there was some itsy bitsy bits of egg yolk in the egg white that I turned a blind eye to. BIG MISTAKE: it didn't even get into the soft peak stage of whisking. I spent 30 minutes holding the hand-held blender for nothing. Secondly, for whatever stupid reason, I put the meringue straight into the refrigerator right after baking - it shrunk, and became chewy. I threw it away. Sigh......

I was not one to give up easily though. I set out to making it again the next day. I was so paranoid - but it was probably good to be. It finally turned out right. Phew...... I'm glad I did it because it's so delicious! Not just the meringue cake but the strawberry too! I always complain about the local strawberry but this, coming from Royal Thai Project, was as good as the Korean. They are of the right tenderness and sweet tartness. Top grade! AND same price as the other local brand. Why are they not selling this all the time?

Before you set out to making the meringue, take a moment to read this BIGGEST MERINGUE MISTAKES. Good luck.

Chocolate cake layer:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 114 gram unsalted butter, soften at room temperature
• 1 cup natural cane sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Lightly grease two 8" cake pan and set them aside.
   
2. In a bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
   
3. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Add egg yolks, one at a time, follow with pure vanilla extract.
4. Using a spatula, alternately add flour and milk in a few addition, beginning and ending with flour. Divide the batter equally to the two prepared pans. Set aside.

Meringue layer:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2/3 cup organic white sugar
• Macadamia nuts (optional)
  

1. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add lemon juice and continue to beat until soft peak forms..
2. Gradually add sugar, one tablespoon at a time, and beat until stiff peak forms. Fold in macadamia nuts.
   
3. Divide into two and place on top of the chocolate cake layer in each pans.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
5. Let it cool in the oven for at least 1 hour before removing to room temperature. Remove from pan once completely cool.

Almond Cream Filling:

• 1 cup cream
• 1 Tablespoon organic white sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 70 gram 90% dark chocolate, grated

1. Mix together cream, sugar, cinnamon powder and vanilla extract. Let it chill, together with beater, for at least 30 minutes.
2. Beat on high until stiff peaks form. Fold in almond meal and chocolate.
   

Assembling the cake:
Place one of the cake layers, meringue side down, on a serving plate. Spread with almond cream. Gently place the second cake layer, cake side down, onto the almond cream. Garnish with fresh strawberries. Place in refrigerator until serving time.

Roasted Garlic and Bell Pepper Pizza

Before Adrian left home, I told him we were having pizza for dinner - it's my way of saying "have-anything-in-between-as-long-as-it's-not-the-same-as-dinner". He came home, told me he watched the guy tossed pizza at the Food Loft. He may have guessed I was trusting him with the crust rolling responsibility. Look what he did. Instead of the conventional circle, he made a country map. Australia?

Look aside, it's a good pizza. I prepared most of the ingredients a day ahead. It was all about putting things together come dinner time. You can use store bought sun-dried tomatoes instead of roasting your own. I just wanted to make sure those cherry tomatoes went for good use before they turned bad.

I loved the smell of the garlic as it was roasting. It kind of became obscure when mashed into paste with the roasted tomatoes. It was fun squeezing them out of the garlic cloves; they were so soft I didn't even have to use blender - just a few good mash. If I ever make this again, I'd be sure to use more onions: it didn't matter when I wasn't aware of it, but once I tasted how good it was, I wished there were more in every bite.

Ingredients:

• 1 pizza crust
  
• 1 head garlic, unpeeled, head sliced
  
• 1 yellow onion, sliced into rings
• olive oil
• 1/2 cup Oven-roasted herbed cherry tomatoes
• 1 roasted red bell pepper, cut into strips
  
• 6 ounces Mozzarella, grated
• 2 1/2 ounce Feta, crumbled
  
• 2 tablespoons parsley, chopped
• 4 tablespoons basil, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 150C. Place garlic onto a baking dish and drizzle with one tablespoon of olive oil. Place onion rings to a separate baking dish and coat with one tablespoon of olive oil. Bake in the oven until garlic is brown and soft; onions are tender - about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.
2. Set oven to 250C. Using fingers, squeeze out roasted garlic cloves into a bowl; add tomatoes and mash into paste. Set aside.
3. Roll out pizza crust. Spread garlic paste evenly over crust. Layer with onions, bell pepper, Mozzarella and feta. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoons parsley and 2 tablespoons basil. Bake for 10 minutes; until cheeses turn golden brown and bubbly.
   
4. Remove from oven, top with the remaining parsley and basil.
   

Spinach and Goat Cheese Pizza with Garlic Oil

When I was in Chiang Mai, Adrian sent me a SMS from London that says "just had the BEST pizza! "Padana Pizza": spinach, goat cheese, red onion, caramelized onion and garlic oil!" It was from Pizza Express. I managed to find a few online pizza recipes that use spinach and goat cheese as ingredients. I then googled for homemade garlic oil and Voila!

You may want to start from here for your own homemade dough. I was short of all-purpose flour and hence substituted half the flour with organic rye flour.

I started with making caramelized onions, using the recipe from a previous post. The onions reduce in size considerably when cooked. Adjust amount needed to approximately one onion per person. Use white or yellow onions instead of red. I substituted lemon juice with apple cider vinegar; it worked fine. I was skeptical of it at first thinking it looked too dark and soft, but Adrian said it taste just like the restaurant's. :)

As the onions were being cooked, I set out to making garlic oil. I took one head of peeled garlic and 1/2 cup of olive oil to simmer over medium low heat. The garlic turned brown as it cooked in the hot oil. This took about 15 - 20 minutes.

Now here's to assemble the pizza:

• Spinach leaves, tossed and coated with olive oil
• 4 ounces goat cheese, grated
  
• 1 red onion, sliced
• Caramelized onion
• Garlic oil
  

1. Preheat oven to 250C.
   
2. Go here for pizza crust.
3. Brush the base with enough olive oil and sprinkle generously with grated Parmesan cheese. Bake the crust for 10 - 15 minutes.
4. Remove baked crust and turn the oven down to 180C. Layer the crust with olive oil-coated spinach leaves, follow with goat cheese and red onions. Drizzle with garlic oil. Let bake until cheese melt.
5. Drizzle with more garlic oil and serve with more fried garlic.
   

Lazy to Blog

It's been one month since I last posted. Not that I haven't been cooking, but I was lazy.

So I decided to wrap them all in one post.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Bread Pudding

It's a deconstruction of Strawberry Cheesecake French Toast. What's interesting about this is I forgot to add egg to the batter. As it sat in the fridge waiting to be baked the next day, I was worried sick the whole night. As it turned out, it was very good. Here, an egg-less bread pudding was born!

Apple Gorgonzola Tart

For awhile now I knew there was a jar of apple sauce in the back right corner of the freezer. And I had been wanting to use it with Gorgonzola cheese. I just couldn't remember where and how that apple sauce came about. The most reason blog entry that used apple sauce was as far back as Thanksgiving..... I digress. We basically loved the tart - the sweet tartness of apple and distinctive acquired taste of Gorgonzola was a winning combo. I wish I did a better job with the butter crust: it was good but didn't hold up very well.

Herbed Polenta Muffins

There was a whole bunch of cherry tomatoes sat untouched for more than a week. They looked fine except a few that had wrinkled skin. What's better than preserving them before they go rotten? So I made a jar of Herbed-Oven Dried Tomatoes, and used them to make a savory Herbed Polenta Muffin. I think I used this muffin recipe combined with ideas from here to come up with this. It's good on its own but better with something creamy. I tried it with a creamy Broccoli Cheddar Soup, which I liked. Adrian liked it with scrambled eggs.

Sticky Meringue

Now, this Sticky Meringue does deserve a post. But I'm lazy. It came to me one night when we were both still full from lunch but wanted something for the night while watching Heroes. It's not hard to make but requires some patient: a total of 2 hours. We took the short cut putting it in the freezer to chill, otherwise it would have taken longer before it reached our mouth. It's basically made of (a lot of) butter and sugar, some flour, and eggs. Things that you can find readily in the pantry. The hard part was whipping the eggs to form peaks. I had to switch from one hand to another with a hand held electric blender. When I complained, Adrian replied, "imagine doing it with hand". That was a call for help, Mister Smarty Pants! It's a good recipe and I will definitely do it again, and hopefully blog about it.

Despite heaps of good-will advise, I chose to go with overnight train. The nice people at the train station kindly advised me to take the second class cabin (shared by 4) instead of first (shared by 2), seeing that I traveled by myself.

Tonight, I'll be leaving to Chiang Mai for one week. I bought a one-way train ticket that leaves at 7.25pm. I should wake up in Chiang Mai around 9.30am. This is going to be my first train ride in SEA. I am well aware that it is nothing like traveling in Europe, but it should be interesting. We'll find out how interesting it is by the mode of transport I chose for my return.

3 bags full of yummy goodies, complete with instructions.

Adrian left to London two nights ago. He'll be back in two days, coming home to a lonely apartment. He's going to miss me (and my foods) so badly. Poor thing. Since yesterday, I have been cooking and baking; making fridge-stored ready-to-eat foods. Nothing extraordinary but some adaptation of old recipes.

Savory Zucchini Sun-dried Tomatoes and Roasted Red Bell Pepper Muffins

Although I don't know how it tastes, I loved the smell. It took awhile to prepare: roasting the red bell pepper, and chopping the vegetable into mince - the down side of being vegetarian.

Sweet Baked Turnover: Blue Cheese Figs with Pecan Nuts and Cranberry Brie with Raspberry Jam

The last time I made this was before my trip to Maldives. I did it because Adrian used to love them. I wonder if he still loves them as much?

Spiced-Coconut Chocolate Pudding

It's a special recipe because it uses curry powder. Period.

I thought I would blog about the foods that I prepared for Adrian. But......
Let's hope this trend doesn't continue.