Chocolate Hazelnut Creme Cake

 Chocolate Hazelnut Creme Cake

 

The Chocolate Sponge Cake (rather standard recipe) 

(Note: Prepare a day or 2 in advance and keep in fridge after it is cooled to room temperature)

Ingredients

4 eggs

150 ml sugar

100 ml corn or potato starch

50 ml flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

50 ml cocoa powder

Method

Mix dry ingredients (except sugar) and set aside. Beat eggs and sugar together until stiff (basically when the batter looks light yellowish) then sieve the dry ingredients folding into the beaten eggs. (Don't stir, if you stir it will release the air and your cake my end up more dense and lose the spongey airy texture). Bake in a 9 inch round tin at 175° C for 35-45 mins (check constantly as every oven varies) Stick a toothpick in the center and if the stick comes out clean the cake is ready.

Chocolate Hazelnut Creme Filling

 The Chocolate Hazelnut mixture before adding the cream (It looks rather grainy)

Ingredients

A)

4 Tbps Hazelnut butter (You can make this yourself if you can't find them from the store)

100 ml water

2 pcs gelatine leaves (soak in cold water until soften)

3 Tbsp sugar (I don't like my cakes too sweet, so you can add more and if you like it with EVEN less sugar you can reduce it)

1 Tbsp butter

200 grams of cooking chocolate (semi sweet)

B)

500 ml of whipping cream

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla essence

Method

Prepare two pots, one for heating the hazelnut butter to give it an extra punch and the other to boil the water and sugar. First heat up the hazelnut until you get a nutty fragrant (this will take about 5 mins on medium heat) stiring constantly. Leave aside, on the second pot heat water until boiling point, add sugar until it is melted. Remove from heat and drop the gelatine leaves and stir until dissolve. Now add the chocolate and stir until melted followed by butter to add the extra taste and gloss. Finally add hazelnut butter paste and stir well.

Now prepare the whipping cream, mix the sugar and vanilla essence and beat until the cream stand in peaks. Pour in the hazelnut creme mixture and fold until mixture is even (yes the mixture still has to be lukewarm, don't worry if the cream melts a little the gelatine will set it once it's in the fridge). Now leave the entire bowl in the fridge under a cling film for at least 3 hours.

Chocolate mousse topping

Ingredients

600 -700 ml  whipping cream

200 grm cooking chocolate (semi sweet)

6 Tbs sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence (or 2 tsp vanilla sugar, vanilla essence is rather pungent and will overwhelm if you use too much, unless you like it by all means :D)

100 ml of water

3 pcs  gelatine leave (soak in water) 

Method

Bring water to boil and add sugar. Stir until dissolved, remove from heat and add the gelatine leaves. Add chocolate pieces until melted. Whisk the whipping cream with vanilla essence (no extra sugar is needed as it is all poured into the chocolate mixture) until it stands in peaks. Fold in the cooled chocolate mixture into the whipped cream. Don't worry if there are some streaks, it creates a nice effect :). Cool in the fridge for at least 3 hours before using to decorate on the cake or else it will start to weep.

Notes: It is best to keep the cream overnight in a piping bag if you're using it to pipe on the cake. This way it avoids the mousse or cream from melting.

When assembling the cake, you should assemble it back into the cake tin that you made in, this way the cake will hold its shape better. After assembling the filling return the cake under cling film back into the fridge for an hour before piping the 'icing' on.

Sambal Ikan Billis (Sambal with anchovies) + Vegan version

Original recipe:

1 Über large Onion
1 dl of Anchovies (dried and salted kind you can find from Asian stores)
1 clove garlic
6 shallots
3 Tbs of Tamarind Juice (Make this out of tamarind paste, the kind that has still the seeds in them)
10 large dried chillies (soaked)
Prawn paste (I would not recommend this) (optional)
Salt and Sugar up to taste

Method

• Fry the ikan Bilis until crisp and put aside
• Grind the prawn paste (ewww) together with shallots, garlic, deseeded (why the hell?) dried chillies. Slice über onions into rings.
• Heat about 2-3 tbs of oil (don't use olive and don't even try margarine <__<)
• Fry the grounded paste until fragrant, then add sliced über onion rings.
  
• Add tamarind juice, salt and sugar
• If it seem to get a bit too dry you may add a few tbs of water
• Cook, stirring occasionally until gravy thickens.
• Add Ikan bilis and mix well
• Serve with steaming hot Nasi Lemak

El-Modified version (Vegan Friendly) 1 Über large Onion 1 clove garlic 8 shallots 3 Tbs of Tamarind Juice (Make this out of tamarind paste, the kind that has still the seeds in them) 10 large dried chillies (soaked) Salt and Sugar up to taste Method:

• Grind the shallots, garlic and dried chillies (not deseeded) together. Slice über onions into rings.
• Heat about 2-3 tbs of oil (don't use olive and don't even try margarine <__<)
• Fry the grounded paste until fragrant, then add sliced über onion rings.
  
• Add tamarind juice, salt and sugar
• If it seem to get a bit too dry you may add a few tbs of water
• Cook, stirring occasionally until gravy thickens.
• Serve with steaming hot Nasi Lemak

Curry Puff (Malaysian)

Ingredients

Water Dough:
350 gm of flour
about 3/4 dl of oil
about 1 1/2 dl of water
pinch of salt to taste

Grease Dough:
180-200 gm of flour
100-130 gm of margarine/butter (I prefer margarine it's easier to work with and doesn't taste too heavy, plus you can make this ultimately vegan without using any form of animal product)

Filling:
2-3 Large potatoes diced to about 0.5 cm cubes or smaller but not minced. (preferable all purpose potatoes, the hard ones take too long to cook and the mashed type...well you know <_<)

Other:
1 litre of oil for frying

Method:

Let's start with the filling since it takes a bit longer to prepare. Put oil in a large wok or frying pan and heat until medium hot. Reduce the heat and add in garlic and onions. Fry until soft. Put in the curry paste and curry leaves and fry until fragrant in low heat (about 3 mins should be enough to avoid drying). Now increase the heat to medium -high and throw in the potatoes and a bit of water at a time and keep frying until potatoes are cooked. Towards the end add the sugar and salt. Taste and adjust to your liking. (Note: I use sugar to bring out the taste of the potatoes, you may reduce the amount as this filling is not meant to be too sweet or else it'll be curry dessert and it's not that nice <_<).

Water dough: Mix all ingredients together and knead into a firm dough.

Grease dough: Pinch melted margarine into flour and mix into a firm dough.

Split both water dough and grease dough to equal amounts of little doughs (around 4 balls?). Water dough is approximately 1 1/2 times bigger than the grease dough.

O - size of water dough (not to scale :P)
o- Size of grease dough (not to scale :P)

Wrap the grease dough inside the water dough and seal them and leave under cling wrap to avoid drying until all dough is completed.

Now take one of the dough balls and flatten it into a long oval sort of like a flat loaf (or shape of naan bread with even ends) avoid breaking the dough so that the grease dough reveals. Now roll the dough like you would a swiss roll tugged in tigthly avoiding air in between. Use a sharp knife and cut the roll into 1 cm cookie like slices. After all the rolls are cut, flatten the cookie like slices into a nice round pastry crust and put about 1-2 tsp of filling in each, fold in half and pleat the sides to seal. Avoid stretching the dough too much since broken dough makes holes that would cause hell while frying as the filling touches the oil and POPS!. Otherwise wear a biohazard or space suit while frying to avoid oil burns.

Gyoza

More or less like Japanese version of the Chinese 'Wo- Tip' instead of just steaming it's sorta grilled then semi steamed.

• 400 grams ground pork
  
• 2 - 2.5 dl chopped cabbage (boiled and cooled)
  
• 1 tablespoon soya sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
• 3-4 tablespoons vegetable oil for frying, or as
• 1 small green/yellow onion, diced
• 2 teaspoons minced ginger (REALLY minced)
  
• 1 egg
• salt and white pepper to taste

In a bowl, combine the ground pork, cooked cabbage, onion, minced ginger, egg, soya sauce, salt, pepper and sesame oil. Mix well until all ingredients are well combined to avoid having saltier spots.



Place gyoza wrappers in front of you. Wet the edges with water. Place a teaspoon or two of filling in the middle of the wrapper. Fold the sides up to form a semicircle, and then pinch the edges to seal. Continue with the rest of the gyoza wrappers until the filling is gone. (I'm lazy so I bought meself a gyoza clamping thing-a-me-bob)

To cook, heat 2 tablespoon oil in a heavy frying pan over medium-high to high heat. Add 12 - 15 of the gyoza and cook for 2 minutes, or until golden brown on the bottom (Eh, GOLDEN BROWN not BURNT!).

Add 250 ml of water to the frying pan. Cover the dumplings and cook until the water is absorbed (8 minutes). Repeat the procedure until all your dumplings are out.



Tip: I usually buy the frozen wrappers from the oriental store/asian store. I have a recipe to make those wrappers too but when you make them yourself, the wrappers tend to become thicker than the ones made from the store and the size...don't even let me start! <__<

Pineapple Jam

Cut the pineapple, remove skin, eyes and core.

After you've grated/crushed/pureed follow the
cooking instructions below and
boil it to reduce the liquid.

The texture should look something
like this

Ingredients:

1 Whole Pineapple (Remove skin, core and crushed) (semi-sweet preferred)
8-10 Tablespoons of Sugar
1 dl water
1 teaspoon Cornstarch (mixed with 1 tablespoon of water)

Method:

Boil the pineapple in medium heat stirring constantly until soft (approximately 45 mins). Add water and keep boiling until pineapple looks slightly brownish while constantly stiring to avoid the pineapple from burning at the bottom of your pot (another 20 mins). Reduce heat to low and add sugar (cook for another 5 mins or so). End it with the Cornstarch mixture and let simmer for another 5-10 mins until it looks pastey. Leave aside to cool for at least 30 mins before placing it into a jar. Keeps refrigerated for approximately 5 days. If preservatives were added (according to package instructions) It could last from 1 month to a year....*

* I don't recommend preservatives, hence I only make enough to last a few days or to make a few tarts ;). You can always double or triple the recipe for making bigger batches.

Pineapple Jam version II (mainly for use in pineapple tart)

Ingredients:

1 Whole Pineapple (Remove, skin, core and crush/blend) (also semi sweet -sour even)
8-10 tbsp of Sugar (More if using sour pineapple)
1 stick of cinammon
1 piece clove
1/2 a piece of star anise (optional)
1/2 - 1 dl of water to rinse remainder of blender from pineapple smoother

Method:

Pour everything into a pot and heat at medium until boiled. Reduce the heat but come back to stir every now and again. Cook for about 1 hour (or more depending how moist you like your jam). Allow to cool before starting to create tarts. Same goes with the instruction above you can double or triple to increase the batch size.

Vegetarian Curry (Vegan Friendly)

1 clove garlic (big clove or single clove garlic)
4-5 shallots
3 tablespoon of cooking oil (not olive oil)

1 litre water
Salt to taste
1 cm Ginger
1 dl coconut milk
2 carrots
1 big potato
1/2 cauliflower
1 zucchini
1 Aubergine
1 block hard type tofu or few pieces of fried tofu
(you can replace with any vegetable you wish as well)

For Mixing
1 1/2 tablespoon of water
2 tablespoons of curry powder (preferably the Malaysian type ;) )


Method:

Chop garlic and shallots to itty-bitty pieces. Put the water into the curry powder and make into paste (not soup PASTE!) Then fry the garlic, shallot and ginger mix in the heated oil in low heat until fragrant. After the garlic, shallots and ginger mix is ready, fry in the paste. Make sure the stove heat is very low when frying...fry for 5 mins. Pour the water a little at the time until the paste dissipates, about 500 ml. Then add the coconut milk. Now add the vegetables that take a longer time to cook first putting in the zucchini and aubergine last. Add a bit of salt at a time. Then add the rest of the water and leave it to boil on low heat for another 10 mins with lid on.