Month: June 2011

How to make peppermint chocolate sticks candy.

I made this at 3am last night after being briefly comatosed (2 hours) from half pint of beer. With ice. I’m a cheap drunk like that.

# – Peppermint bark candy.

In my defense, I don’t normally knock out so quickly especially if I had something to focus on, such as a movie or a conversation.

But, it was a balmy evening, BF was busy with work so I was left to my own device, Charlie was sleeping quietly on my foot, I was flipping through a book called “The Chocolate Bible” while sipping iced beer and before I knew it, I fell asleep with peppermint bark in my mind.

# – Only 5 ingredients! #winning

I popped up after the effect of alcohol had worn off and all I wanted to do was make the damn candy. These things are fated.

The ingredients:

  • 200 grams of chocolate (by the way, I used Ikea’s 60% dark chocolates which are MUCH cheaper and taste significantly better than those overpriced cooking chocolates. Which is why I bought 1.5 kilograms of them :P)
  • 1/2 teaspoon of peppermint essence
  • 115 grams of granulated sugar
  • 150 ml of water
  • 4 tablespoons of dessicated coconut

# – First, boil the water and granulated sugar in a saucepan on medium heat. Stir until all sugar has dissolved.

# – Allow the sugar mixture to boil on its own for about 13 minutes or till it has turned into amber colour. Immediately stir in the peppermint essence.

# – Pour the mixture onto a greased metal baking tray. Don’t use paper like I did as it may stick. I had to painstakingly break off the bits with papers stuck on it to be discarded. Tilt the tray to make sure the sugar has spread out evenly. Be very careful as liquid sugar is extremely hot!

# – Leave it to set for an hour or stick it in the fridge for 15 minutes. The sugar should harden and you can lift it off the tray.

# – Bash the sugar into small pieces with the end of a rolling pin or a pestle. Set aside.

# – In the meantime, melt the chocolate. You can do it with a double boiler or stick it in the microwave for 2 minutes at Medium Low.

# – Dump in the peppermint sugar and dessicated coconut into the melted chocolate.

# – With a spatula, stir till everything is well coated.

# – Dump the mixture onto a silicon sheet or baking tray. With a knife or long spatula, spread it out as thinly as possible. Stick it in the fridge to chill for a minimum of 30 minutes.

# – When the chocolate has set, use a sharp knife to cut it into sticks.

# – Peppermint chocolate stick candy, DONE!

Fans of peppermint flavour would LOVE this! The peppermint candy gives the chocolate a lovely cool crunch while the dessicated coconut keeps the mint flavour from getting too harsh with its own brand of sweetness that would remind you of the sun, sea and beach.

If you asked me, this candy conjures up images of Christmas in the tropics, which is apt because I live in Malaysia. It’s 6 months too early but this is going into my Christmas menu for this year. By the way, unless you know how to temper chocolates (a process that keeps the chocolates glossy and solid in room temperature), you got to keep these babies chilled.

Addictive!

Steamed pork and fish meatloaf recipe.

This was supposed to be an authentic Indonesian “otak-otak” (that’s what the recipe book claimed anyway). I was quite excited to make it, since I had one frozen dory left and I was itching to use it.

Alas, luck was not on my side as I realised the dory was too small even for 1 person…

So, without so much of a blink, I decided to incorporate pork into the dish. And hence, the dish had to be renamed to “Steamed pork & fish meatloaf”. I’ll make real otak-otak another time..

# – Steamed pork & fish meatloaf, served with rice.

Funny thing was, the BF was unable to ascertain that there was pork in there. I guess if you blitzed the mixture fine enough you really can’t tell what it is. He was really surprised to know that there was pork!

The ingredients:

  • 200 grams of pork, cut into cubes
  • 120 grams of boneless white fish fillet (I used dory), cut into cubes
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 5-7 shallots
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 100 ml of coconut milk
  • 1 teaspoon of white pepper
  • 1 tablespoon of lime or lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon of chilli powder
  • 1 teaspoon of salt

# – First of all, chuck the fish into a blender or food processors. Give it a blitz.

# – Then, add the pork.

# – Followed by the shallots, garlic cloves & chopped onion.

# – Pour in the coconut milk. Blend till combined.

# – Add the salt, lemon/lime juice, white pepper and chilli powder.

# – Blend till fine.

# – Lay a clingwrap film over a chopping board.

# – Scoop half the paste onto the middle of the film.

# – Fold the bottom part of the film over the paste.

# – Then fold the part with the paste inside over the top of the film.

# – Tie a knot on each end to form a sort of Christmas popper shape…like this.

# – Wrap the parcels in aluminium foil.

# – Stick them in the steamer for 20 minutes.

# – When it’s done, cut the clingwrap film and carefully remove it. Let the loaf stays in the foil.

# – This is optional, but you could use a kitchen torch to crispen the top a bit. Otherwise stick in the oven in grill mode for 5 minutes at 210 degrees celcius.

# – Steamed pork and fish meatloaf, DONE! Instead of rice, you can serve it with grated cauliflower for a slow carb option.

The looks were nothing to shout about but it was juicy, tender and very flavoursome. It’s also really healthy because as you probably have noticed, there’s not a drop of oil used in making this dish!

Cauliflower macaroni cheese recipe.

The BF has been bugging me to make him cauliflower cheese for the longest time. He grew up eating them and it’s one of his favourite comfort foods.

I don’t know why I haven’t gotten around to making it. I guess I was intimidated by the vegetable?

I’ve never cleaned and prepared cauliflower before. And it’s white. That’s just abnormal. Vegetable is supposed to be green or at least in darker shades of colours. White is creepy.

Then, one day while out grocery shopping, he plonked a 1.5 kilograms worth of cauliflowers into our trolley. I had nowhere to run. I had to make cauliflower cheese or else…

I decided to chuck in some macaroni, so I didn’t have to cook a carb to go with :D

# – Cauliflower macaroni cheese.

The ingredients:

  • 300 grams of macaroni
  • 800 grams of cauliflower, cut into florets
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 180 grams of grated parmesan and a bit more for the topping (you can use cheddar or any crumbly hard cheese too)
  • 300 ml of milk
  • 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 3 tablespoons of mustard powder
  • Salt & Pepper

# – Prepare a deep pot of boiling water seasoned with salt. Throw in the cauliflowers. They take about 8-10 minutes to cook through. Depending on how long your pasta takes to cook, chuck them in at the appropriate time too so they cook together with the cauliflower.

# – Put your baking tray or heatproof dish over the stove, heat up a bit of oil and throw in the sliced onions to brown.

# – Pour in the milk.

# – Then the grated parmesan. Stir till mixture’s combined.

# – Next, put 3 tablespoons of mustard powder. Stir.

# – Followed by the drained cauliflower and macaroni.

# – Give it a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper (Actually you can season the cheese sauce first before adding in the cauliflower/pasta but I forgot :P). Stir.

# – Sprinkle more grated parmesan all over the top.

# – Place the halved cherry tomatoes all over the top.

# – Stick it in the oven, on a top rack to grill at 210 degree celcius for 10 minutes or till the top is browned.

# – Cauliflower macaroni cheese, DONE!

Cheesy, creamy and soft but most importantly, easy to whip up. The ultimate comfort food! I guess you can say it’s quite healthy too as there’s no meat involved.

But who am I kidding? Something that tastes this good CAN’T be healthy, hahaha.