Not so fishy cakes

The daring cooks February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax and Lis and they chose to present patties for their ease of construction! Ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes! And learned the different types ofbinders and cooking methods to producpour own tasty patties!

 

Unfortunately some of us can’t remember to take a photo analtered two busy stuffing their face after fast tracking dinner to sit in front of my kitchen rules! I made my salmon patties twice, oncedoor me and a friend for a quick healthy lunch before aiMovie with a nice chickpea salad, and again tonight for me and the boyfriend, who has always held he does not like fish cakes, but obviously does not dislike them enough to know when to tell he’s actually eating them! He’s picky I tell ya. I did tell him what it was after he’d eaten without complaint, he even said his ‘potato cakes’ were ‘quite nice’ .

 

So I don’thave photos but can tell u the recipe was a woman’s weekly retro classic, minus the dill cream which lookedlovely, but wasn’t in my on hand ingredients, and I had them with mayo or tartare instead. They contained mashed boiled potatoes, skin on and chopped so the skin pieces aren’t too big, crushed garlic,shoppedspring onions, and chives cause I only had two stunted spring onions from hiding under my home grown tomato bush monsters. Then some butter and egg mixed in, andberated Parmesan. Then add some tinned pinksalmon, drained and flaked, salt and pepper and shape and coat in breadcrumbs, lightly fry in a small amount of live oil. They hold better for frying in they are chilled a bit in between but we weregoing to run late for the movie if I didn’t feed us quick. The cakes were yummy fresh off the fry pan and great for sandwiches the next day. I think they weren’t too fiswhich hitch was nice and I think Steve appreciated that….maybe it’s only tuna fish cakes that he doesn’t like. I think they’re more stronger fishy.

 

Sorry about the lack of photos, I really did eat mine that quickly.

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

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Chinese pork buns

Yum yum this months challange was delicious. The marinade for the pork made it tast lovely and it smelt great cooking. It was so nice to eat that we almost ate it all between the two of us before I could save a portion for the pork buns. I will be keeping the recipe, minus the glug of food colouring, and using it in my summer bbq’s on all the meat.

Our Daring Cooks’ December 2011 hostess is Sara from Belly Rumbles! Sara chose awesome Char Sui Bao as our challenge, where we made the buns, Char Sui, and filling from scratch – delicious!

I will post pics of steamed pork buns, I have had these before at yum cha and wanted to see if this would replicate the puffy buns. The pic will be up at the end of the week, when my internet usage renews as my boyfriend did a massive security download thing and left my comp S.L.O.W.

I just steamed them individually in a small steamer over water, and I froze them after the second rise before cooking so I can have the rest for a yum cha party once I get a bigger steamer. 

fresh croissants

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!

 

I used the recipe early and was really excited to make laminated pastry. Unfortunately I was so quick getting the recipe that I got the version where the flour was double what it should have been. The dough was really dry and wouldn’t come together. I perservered with more water, but I was disappointed with the results and that the recipe was wrong in the first place. I didn’t have time to try again with more butter and the right amount of flour I would like to in the future.

 

Here’s a pic of the white choc, then candy coated mini toffee apples I made to share at a house warming. And oooch my first sugar burn. Only little tho

 

They looked cute and made me happier

 

Warm potato bowl

Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

 

The potato salad I made was a vegie medley. I steamed the potatoes in their jackets and tossed the chopped up potatoe pieces with asparagus, radish, and pumpkin that had been saute’d in olive oil with garlic and rosemary. I then wanted to make a creamy emulsion of a vinagrette, using avocado instead of any dairy. I used avocado, salt, pepper, olive oil, mixed italian herbs, a small amount of fetta, lemon juice and balsamic vinegar and mashed it all together in a pestle and mortar.  I then mixed it through the warm potato salad and enjoyed. It had a lovely tang and I will be trying to use avocado to make other creamy sauces like over pasta. Do any of you have any other ideas?

fondant figures for friends

Here are fondant figures of my friend Cindy and her husband-to-be Tom I made as a hens party gift. Maybe they’ll even get to go on the cake!

 

 

and here is the bride]

a baking day at home, reward for the rested

Ah, nothing like a lovely day off baking and experimenting with your baking tools to make you feel all domestic. I had a lovely day in the kitchen after a not too bad night shift at work. I was on a mission to use up some things kicking round in the fridge like yogurt an cottage cheese and ricotta (gee a lot of dairy) and I wanted to try making some yummy treats like nougat that has been on my to try list for a long long while, after seeing it in amongst the christmas blog recipes. I had a bit of a surf about at work to look for recipes to use up yogurt and cottage cheese, and found mostly the cake and cookie variety (good, I wasn’t in quite the savory mood) and hit the shops, also grabing the lovely fresh fruit veg and herbs for the next few days meals.

 

Here was my reward for  baking, a lovely polenta (cornmeal) and bluberry stuffed lemon and yogurt cake, that I changed slightly by upping the yogurt (as I had more than called for), decreasing the oil (hmmm heart healthier) and drenching the lot in a lemon sugar syrup for an extra sour sweet treat that would keep well in my little cake dome so I can share the cake love around. Mmmmm earl grey and a blueberry studded slice in the sunshine

The later in the afternoon I thought I’d attempt the nougat, one of my boyfriends favourites that I wanted to surprise him with my evil genious candy making skills to show him how awesome I am before he left this morning for his week away at work….sound desperate much nah, he know’s I’m awesome already, and lucky cause the nougat mixing darn well almost busted my hand mixer. Note to self: get kitchen aid ASAP! Anyway, the recipe was simple enough, sweet ingredients like honey, sugar, glucose, vanilla flavour, etc, all the liquids go into a sausepan and boil together till they reach 315F degrees. All fine, I’m not scared of sugar, I have a sugar themometer, and I wasn’t afraid to use it. What didn’t help was the mid-boil transfer of the mix to a bigger saucepan to prevent a boil over, then the fear that I’d burnt the crap out of the syrup and it still wasn’t at 315 degrees yet, which the recipe warned me, was necessary for the nougat to set and not seep into a sticky mess. With the fear of a burnt tasting inedible candy and wasting half a cup of precious WA honey that I’d just got from the swan valley, I decided the smell of burning sugar, and the reaching of 300 degrees was near enough good enough. Then into the whipped egg whites the hot syrup was drizzled and I had to mix mix mix for 10 or so minutes till everything cooled. Fine, easy enough, I’ve made butter cream before, I’m no stranger to hard core whipping….except the sticky, thick nougat mix was creeping up the arms of my beaters, threatening to balloon and marshmallow over the whole thing and swallow my hand. I persisted to 8 minutes, then panic’d, added the nuts and cranberries, and then panic’d again as I struggled against the setting candy with a wooden spoon I could hardly force through the mix. Then I proceeded to try and get it out of the bowl, into the pan to set, coating half the bench, and engulfing my hands, and three spoons in the mix that would stick everywhere else than where I wanted it. Did I end up with nougat at the end of this? Yes I did. Was is edible? Yes it was, but I knew it had come close to burning, and am sure, even though it didn’t ruin or dominate the taste, that I could tell I’d burnt it slightly. Was it worth almost killing my beaters and having to clean the entire bench with industrial cloths? It did taste nice, and it did set, although I think a bit longer boil would have made it perfect if it hadn’t burnt, as it wasn’t extremely solid, but didn’t sog up or go everywhere either. It stayed nicely in it’s pieces, but was a bit sticky on the edges. Will I make it again? Talk to me when I have a kitchen aid and I’ll let you know.

 

 

I also made some chocy mouse for Steve, as it’s his absolute fave, and surprised it with him after dinner, a yummy thai beef green curry, with all the fresh herbs hand chopped and pounded to make the curry paste, mmmm lovely and fragrant. Steve even helped do that bit, and get some rice on awwww. Sadly no mouse photos cause the crappy glasses fell out of the crappy fridge and broke the crappy stems, lucky I didn’t use the good crystal huh! I know better, such a disaster area me. He still enjoyed to mouse, minus the glass. Next it’s mini hamburgers with fresh home made lil baby sesame seed buns, they will have to wait till he gets home.

 

Oh all this homely baking reminds me of my cousing in the UK and how much i miss hanging out with her. I am visiting in under a month and just can’t wait to do some cooking in the kitchen with her and go out on the town. I am going to try on a dress tomorrow to take over so I can hit the party running and go out with some sort of style as she is so gorgeous already I have to make an effort so I don’t look too much like a homeless lady oh I am so looking forward to it. She and my aunt looked after me when I went over for the first time as an adult and got sick. Even though being sick wasn’t  fun I really cherish the memory of the time I spent there and getting to know them both more. And their crazy crazy pets. But they aren’t as cute as my jet. Here he is with his cousins, Steve’s parents dogs, when we were babysitting them for
Steve’s parents trip. Have a happy week and go bake something to go with the sunshine

My own cake challange

The May 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Emma of CookCraftGrow and Jenny of Purple House Dirt. They chose to challenge everyone to make a Chocolate Marquise. The inspiration for this recipe comes from a dessert they prepared at a restaurant in Seattle.

As I’ve let others know on the DK website, I am unable to make this yummy sounding desert. Instead I’ll share pics of the celebration cake all my time this month has been dedicated to. It is to celebrate the conclusion of the volunteer ambulance service I used to belong to. As the metro expands, this country volunteer depot is now filled by paid staff. It’s a shame that the community members can’t help and volunteer here any more, but we’ll have fun celebrating with each other tonight.

 

The cake is a chocolate 4 layer cake layered with raspberry swiss meringe butter cream, from the recipe by sweetapolita’s site. Covered with choc ganache, rolled fondant, piped with some royal icing, be-ribboned, and hand painted details, as well as the crowning fondant figurines and model fondant ambulance equipment, and dead patient

 

hope everyone else enjoyed the rich marquise.

tasty mouse

Hi all

Here is my creation:

vegan maple mouse, using gelatine, not agar agar. I am trying the use of silken tofu in deserts due to the lower cholesterol benefit. I have eaten it fried in japanese food before, but never in a desert and was scarred. I made a base with a hazelnut almond and pecan pastry, precooked in the oven, and then the vegan maple mouse on top, 300g silken tofu, blended smooth, then with gelatine disolved in 1/2 c maple syrup and some lime juice to try and disguise the nutty flavour of the tofu. It ended up making a very thin cheesecake, and very sweet with the sweet pastry and the super sweet maple syrup in the mouse. Although I enjoyed it, not all the tasters could get through a whole slice due to the sweetness, but they all said they were happy to eat it, and it wasn’t tofu-y. I topped it with drizzled choc and some broken up nut brittle I’ve made to pack up for mum on mothers day.

Here are some cute pics of cupcakes I recently decorated too, consolation for the late photo entry:

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!