Cheesy Garlic Bread

Ingredients:
Any bread of your choice (i'm using a French baguette)
½ cup of butter (1 stick - at room temp)
1 tablespoon crushed garlic
Freshly chopped parsley
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Freshly grated parmesan cheese

Directions:
Make the garlic butter by mixing the butter, garlic and parsley together.

Cut the bread into about 1 inch slices and spread the garlic butter on each slice.

Load each buttered slice with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. Finish off with a few sprinkles of parsley.

Bake for 5 - 10 minutes or till the cheese is well melted.

Home-made Ice Cream

Ingredients for the base:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
½ cup condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring

Directions:
Add the vanilla and cream to a bowl and whip till you form stiff peaks.

Add the condensed milk and whip some more till it's well combined.

After making the base, add whatever you like to it...Play around with flavors.
To make cookies and cream flavor, add some crushed oreos and fold with a spatula.

To make mint chocolate chip flavor, add some finely blended mint leaves (or 1 teaspoon mint flavor) and some chopped chocolate. Add a drop of green food color to get the green color. Fold with a spatula till well combined

To make strawberry flavor, blend some strawberries and strain into the base. Fold in with a spatula but just enough so streaks of strawberries are visible.

To make nutella flavor, add nutella to the ice cream base and fold till well mixed.

Transfer ice-cream to a clean bowl and freeze overnight before serving.

Mint Chocolate Chip

Nutella

Strawberry delight

Cookies and Cream

Creme Caramel

Ingredients for the custard:
1 ½ cups evaporated milk
2 large eggs + 1 yolk
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for the caramel:
½ cup sugar
3 tablespoons water

Directions:
Combine half cup of sugar and 3 tablespoons of water in a pan and heat. Do not stir the mixture. Hold the pan by the handle and swirl gently till you get an amber color.

Divide the caramel evenly between 6 silicone cups and set aside while you make the custard. You can use 4 ramekins if you have those...or foils cups. (If you're using silicone cups (like me), have them in the pan they'll be baking in before you fill them. It'll be easier to transport into the oven).

Now add the eggs, vanilla and sugar to a bowl and whisk thoroughly. Add the milk and whisk well to combine.

Divide the custard evenly into the caramel cups.

Pour boiling water into the baking pan till it's about half way up the sides of the cups.

Pop into the oven and bake till the center is set. Baking time will depend on your oven temperature and the size of your cups (mine baked for 20mins at 200C). When they are set, remove from the pan and let cool. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight before serving.

Enjoy the creamy goodness of the easiest dessert ever ;)

TIP FOR PEOPLE THAT DON'T HAVE AN OVEN: This dessert is actually steamed and not "baked" per se, so you can totally do this on a stove. Just use a foil bowl instead and cover with foil. Add to a pot of boiling water(make sure the bowl isn't touching the boiling water), cover the pot and cook till the center is set. I tested it and it worked.

Coconut Fried Rice

Ingredients:
1 lb chicken
2 carrots (chopped)
1 green bell pepper (chopped)
1 red bell pepper (chopped)
Spring onions (chopped)
Shrimps (de-veined and de-scaled)
1 large onion bulb
1 habanero pepper
1 can coconut milk
Maggi, curry, garlic and salt to taste
3 cups long grain rice (parboiled)

Directions:
Wash the chicken and add to a pot. Blend the onions and pepper (or chop if you prefer) and add to the chicken. Season with maggi, curry, garlic and salt.

Cook till the chicken is done then remove the chicken from the stock. Add some water to the stock if you don't have enough. You'll need the stock to cook the rice in.

Add the coconut milk to the chicken stock and bring to a boil.

After the stock boils, add the parboiled rice and cover the pot. As soon as the rice starts boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook till the stock dries out.

Add some vegetable oil to a wok and heat. Add the shrimps and fry for 1 minute then add the vegetables*. Season with garlic, curry, maggi and salt. Fry for another minute or two.

Mix the rice in till it's well combined.

Enjoy your delicious meal ;)

PS: Instead of "parboiling" rice, I soak it in boiling hot water for about 10-15mins then strain. This helps prevent the rice from being soggy and sticky.

*Feel free to add whatever vegetables you like (e.g. peas, sweet corn, green beans etc).

Home-made Meatpies

Ingredients for the pie crust:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup margarine (NOT butter)
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
¼ cup cold water

Ingredients for the filling:
½ lb ground beef
1 carrot (chopped)
1 potato (chopped)
1 small onion (chopped)
Maggi, curry, salt n pepper to taste
½ cup water
1 tablespoon plain flour
Egg wash (1 egg + 1 tablespoon water well beaten)

Directions:
Boil the carrot and potatoes till it's soft (not soggy), strain and set aside.

To make the filling: Season the meat with maggi, salt n pepper and cook till it's done. Mix in the cooked carrots and potatoes.

Mix the flour and water in a cup and add to the meat mixture (this step is to ensure the filling doesn't dry out while baking). Stir and cook for a minute or two and then set aside to cool while you make the dough.

Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a big bowl and mix well. Cut the margarine into small pieces and add to the flour. Use your hands to mix the butter into the flour till you get the consistency of wet sand.

Add the cold water one tablespoon at a time and knead till the dough comes together into a ball. Let the dough rest for about 10mins.

Using a rolling pin, roll out a chunk of dough to your desired thickness. Place on a meatpie cutter, add a spoon of filling and close the cutter. The cutter will cut the excess dough off and seal the pie ;)

If you don't have a cutter, you can improvise using anything with round edges. Add the filling to one side, fold the other half over the filling and seal the edges with a fork.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, arrange the pie and brush with the egg wash. Bake till the crust is brown.

ENJOY!!!

Death By Chocolate Cake

Ingredients for the cake:
1 3/4 cups cake flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup warm water or coffee
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Ingredients for the frosting:
1 pack cream cheese
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 tub mascarpone cheese (optional)
1 cup heavy cream
3 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Sift all the dry ingredients for the cake (flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda, sugar and salt) in a mixing bowl and set aside. Mix the wet ingredients (buttermilk, water/coffee, eggs, oil, vanilla) in a separate bowl. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients.

Mix well and divide the batter evenly between two 9inch round baking pans (spray the pans with oil and line with parchment paper). Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow cool completely then carefully take the cakes out of the pan and peel off the parchment paper.

For the frosting:
Using a hand mixer, beat the mascarpone, cream cheese, butter and vanilla till it's well combined.

Sift in the sugar and cocoa powder (to avoid lumps - see pic)

Whip the heavy cream in a different bowl till stiff peaks form. Note: You can add the heavy cream to the cream cheese/sugar mixture and beat everything on high speed till the cream whips...but because I was using a brand of heavy cream I hadn't tried before, I beat it in a different bowl just to make sure it whips. Then I folded the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

After folding in the whipped cream, cover tightly with cling film and refrigerate for about 10 - 15 minutes. I use that time to clean up my work space before I begin assembling the cake.

Assemble the cakes on a board. I like to line the board with strips of parchment paper and then pull them off at the end so that the cake board stays clean (see pic)

Cover the entire cake with the frosting and refrigerate while you make the chocolate ganache (recipe here).

Let the ganache cool completely then drizzle on top of the cake and refrigerate.

Make some chocolate covered strawberries (recipe coming soon) and top off the cake.

Pardon my lil cerebellar ataxia (medical joke) on some of those strawberries. Haha.

This is such a sinful cake so don't take too huge a slice ;) I wish I could cut into the cake but it was a gift to someone.