Savory Tiramisu ( One Layer )

Back story

I saw Cho Ahran making Savory Tiramisu on Master chef, and then I thought to myself that it would be nice to start making savory dessert instead of the normal desserts I usually make. Also, I didn't follow Ahran's recipe but rather tried to innovate and build as I go along.

What to Expect

If you don't like the taste of Pasta Sauce, then I will tell you straight up that you will freaking hate this. Expect something different and unique!

Ingredients
a) Lady Fingers ( Or as my Aussie friends say, sponge fingers )
b) Two cans of diced tomatoes
c) Brown Sugar ( I used three tablespoons )
d) Minced Meat of your choice
e) Ketchup ( Half a cup mixed with water )

You can use any sauce you like for the taste

f) Thickened cream
g) Sour Cream ( Sprinkle some salt)
h) Spices ( Oregano and Basil )
I) Big Onions ( Add garlic if you love them )
j) Olive Oil

Procedure
a) Slice Big Onions and fry in pan with olive oil till golden brown. When golden brown, throw in the minced meat and fry until cooked.

Season the minced meat with a little salt and pepper first. I usually add a dab of oyster sauce but yeah, I'm Asian. "What the heck is Fish Sauce, and why does it taste like death?" Quoted from Monti, Masterchef Season 3.

b) Pour in the diced tomatoes, Ketchup water mix and the sugar and stir. Taste along the way and improvise if you need to.
c) When done, separate the liquid and the other things in the pot. The liquid will be used to dip the lady fingers in.
d) Dip the lady fingers and build the base of the Tiramisu.

I know people who soak the lady fingers. Their Tiramisu becomes soggy and quite scary really. Just dip and take it out. Count to three quickly if it helps.

e) Spread the solids separated from the liquid mixture on top of the lady fingers evenly.
f) Whip the thickened cream and sour cream together and then pour on the base of the Tiramisu.

People tell me they hate this part cause its hard. I tell them just concentrate on covering all gaps, the unevenness will fix themselves later in the oven.

g) So preheat the oven to 160'C and wait.
h) Now, sprinkle the oregano and basil on the Tiramisu.

If you are a fan of cheese, you can sprinkle some mozzarella on top before baking.

I) Bake for around half an hour while constantly checking on the Tiramisu. This will allow the cream to even themselves out and let them give a better aroma while the lady fingers absorb the sauce.
j) Serve hot or warm.

My friend tried my recipe but used mascarpone instead. He said it tastes better. But I don't know.
Sure, my recipe goes against the conventional rules ( I mean baking a Tiramisu? Seriously ) but you know what, YoLo. 

Panna Cotta (Unsweetened)

Ingredients

Part A : The Panna Cotta (That white pudding thingy)
a) Full Cream Milk (One and a half Cups)
b) Whipping Cream (One Cup) - yeah, should be liquid form so dont whip it to any peaks!
c) Gelatine Powder
- One teaspoon of gelatine powder is enough to gelatify (is that even a word) two cups of water to soft jelly like texture
- Two teaspoons can gelatify two cups of water to a pudding like texture - as seen in the illustration
- Add as you see fit :3 I would add Two and a half teaspoons.

Part B : The Topping and the Sauce (Per Serving)
a) Castor Sugar (One Tablespoon)
b) Full Cream Milk (One Tablespoon)
c) Chopped Peaches

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Procedure

Part A : The Panna Cotta yo
a) Pour the full cream milk and the whipping cream into a pan and heat it until it simmers - BUT DONT FREAKING LET IT BOIL YEAH THIS IS THAT IMPORTANT. NO BOIL. DONT FREAKING LET IT BOIL.
b) Okay, now bloom the gelatine powder in a cup of cold water.

I have people asking me like wtf is "bloom the gelatine powder", like plant them and make them bud flowers or something? I tell them well, when you pour gelatin powder onto cold water, they spread out like they are blooming. Stir them until you get an applesauce or jam kind of consistency and you sir, have bloomed the gelatine powder.

c) add the bloomed gelatine mixture into the milk and stir until they are mixed. I know it is hard to see whether they are mixed well, but trust me and just look at your ladle. If you can still see grains of gelatine when you scoop, its not mixed.

AGAIN, DONT LET THE MIXTURE BOIL. If you see steam, get the pan away from the fire before it boils. If it boils, the gelatine will not work and your Panna Cotta will not set. You will have to refire and rebloom the gelatine again if it doesnt set.

d) Pour into ramekins and refridgerate overnight. If like me, you are impatient then add more gelatine to bloom and it will set in one or two hours.

Part B : The sauce and garnish - For once your Panna Cotta is ready
a) Caramelize the castor sugar in a pan.

I do have people asking me (imagine heavy Chinese accent because my friends are mostly Chinese) : " What is Caramelize!?"

My answer to that is - Put sugar in a pan with water. Heat it until it boils, and it will go on the verge of burning. Add more water if necessary to stop the process of it being burnt black, usually happening if you are making small serves. And walla, you have caramel.
But for the sauce, instead of adding water before it is burnt to crisp, add two tablespoons of milk instead. Now, you have the sauce tasting like praline. Pour it into a small cup and leave it be so that it thickens.

b) Chop the peaches.

Procedures for Plating
a) Use a paring knife to unmold the Panna Cotta (Or leave it be in the ramekins if you are lazy).
b) Top the Panna Cotta with the chopped peaches
c) Add the sauce on the Panna Cotta

I do have friends who prefer to drown their Panna Cotta in the sauce, but I prefer minimal amounts

d) Ready your camera, and snap! - That must go to Instagram
e) Aw yeahhh time to freaking dig in.

People are asking me whether there is a proper substitute to gelatin for vegans. It is really hard for me to answer. Well, Panna Cotta is a gelatine based dessert and so it is very hard to acquire the texture you want without gelatine. You could use Agar, but well the texture is just different.

• I should be posting less, seems like I am spamming the post hahah
• Oh well, that must be it for today

Edit: I read that Vegan Gel can be used to replace Gelatin - but no idea where to get it, so yeah

Baked Lamb Loin sitting on a bed of Salad

Ingredients
Part A : Lamb Loin
a) Lamb Loin DUH
b) Seasoning
- Salt
- Pepper
- Rosemary
- Fried Onion/ Garlic :/
- Whatever seasoning you like and love and adore, even your boyfriend's hair EHEHEH

Part B : Uh um, Salad :/
Part i : The Actual Salad
a) Spinach
b) Grated Carrots
c) Chopped Blue Kraut (Or as my fellow Asians say, red cabbage )
d) Cabbage
e) Up to you really, I know people who suggest adding in Feta, Goat Cheese, Haloumi, Lettuce, Assortments of nuts (Pecan, Macademias, Pistachios), Lettuce and other things you can put in salads, and again, I dont despise people who put in their boyfriend's hair or anything, as long as its edible is the rule in salads

Part ii : The Dressing
a) Olive Oil
b) Rice Wine Vinegar
c) One or two drops of fish sauce (Yes, sounds crazy but it is true)
d) Apple Cider Vinegar
e) Soy Sauce

Experiment with the dressing until you find the best mix of flavors, mine is a teaspoon of everything except the fish sauce

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Procedure (Damn its simple)
Part A : The Lamb Loin
a) Get ready a baking tray, lined with aluminium foil. Preheat your oven to a 180 degrees Celcius. Lay your Lamb loins down on a bed of roses, sink it in a river at dawn.. I mean lay the loins on the aluminium foil in the baking tray and season them to your preference. Rosemary should be sprinkled on top of the lamb loins.
b) Bake for half an hour or so, until you can smell the aroma. Took me more than half an hour to get the lamb to be done medium well at a 180'C, but if you are experienced then you can use whatever temperature you like to speed up the process. It is up to you to cook either rare, medium rare or well done. I like mine well done - to check if it is well done, press your index finger against your thumb for the texture you should feel when you poke the lamb loin.

Part B : Seriously? You need a procedure for Salad!?
a) Mix the ingredients in 'Part i' in a small bottle so you can shake it well.
b) Chop the ingredients in 'Part ii' to your liking and put them in a salad bowl
c) Toss ingredients well.
Procedure for Plating
a) Prepare a clean plate
b) Decorate the base of the plate with a bed of tossed salad
c) Lay the lamb chop on the bed of salad like a sleeping prince
d) Garnish with fried garlic and onions
e) Use a high quality camera to take a picture of it, and preferably edit it before posting to instagram
f) Consume

The salad can be prebought if you are too lazy to make it from scratch

Baking - My Approach to Serenity

So I am embracing my newfound love for cooking. It started early last year in 2014, when I have just moved to a new house. There was no internet, no fixed line (yeah, you could have seen how disappointed I was and how much I ranted, just on and on for the past few blog posts).

With nothing to do (I just do not want to imagine what my parents do in those days when the weather wasn't so hot, crimes weren't occuring as often in Malaysia etc) except jogging to spend my evening, my holiday mornings became boring. I started watching a few shows on TV like Masterchef and Hell's Kitchen. When I saw some leftover ingredients in the pantry at home, ideas gushed into my mind and for the very first time - I cooked my very first dessert; The Panna Cotta.

The Panna Cotta is a very simple dessert. You just needed to mix together Milk and Whipping Cream in a pan and heat it until it simmers. Bloomed gelatine is then stirred in until mixed well and then the mixture is poured into ramekins and put in a refridgerator to set. When set, the sauce is made by caramelizing sugar and then adding some milk to give a praline taste to it.

From then on, I started baking more and more. I made Sponge Cake, Swiss Rolls, Cookies, Tiramisu, Cheese Cake etc.

I even moved on to making savory food - for example; Macaroni, Curry, Steak.

Every time I cook, I gain the confidence to cook the next dish. In the kitchen, I actually felt tranquil. This is where I felt I could enjoy my life. 

Baking is my new hobby - borne from the emptiness of having nothing to do.

Soft Fluffy Almond Cookies

Ingredients
a) 1/3 Piece of a 200g Slab of Butter (Melt it first!)
b) Half a cup of castor sugar
c)  Flour (Self Raising Flour + Plain White Flour - Mind the ratio!)
- I used 1/3 Self Raising Flour to 2/3 Plain White Flour by measurements of a cup, this makes the cookies soft and fluffy on the inside, but crispy and crunchy on the outside!
d) Ground Almonds (Half a cup)
e) One Egg (Both white and yolk)
f) 2 - 3 drops of Vanilla Essence

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Procedure (Very simple!)
a) Beat the Egg, and mix it with the melted butter and castor sugar until mixed. Drip in the vanilla essence and whip the mixture again for a few seconds. Also preheat the oven to 200'C
b) Now, carefully sift in the flour mixture while folding in the batter. After all the flour is folded in, the texture should be similar to wet mud. Now, pour in the ground almonds and fold again.
c) Line a baking tray with baking paper and prepare a spoon. Put one tablespoon of batter, and separate them (about 3 to 4 inches every one tablespoon of batter)
- Half a tablespoon makes small cookies as compared to a normal cookie for one tablespoon of batter
d) Bake for around 6 to 8 minutes (watch the cookies , they should spread and become wider in diameter - hence the separation distance)
- When the edges of the cookies become golden brown, it is time to test whether the cookies are baked through
     > Prepare a toothpick and poke the cookies. If there are no batter sticking onto the toothpick, then it is baked beautifully
     >The texture should be similar to a muffin at the middle, so do not be surprised. The edges should be crunchy :smile:


A different rendition


>> Extras: Cocoa Powder and didnt grind almonds



>> Extras: Smarties Chocolate instead of almonds.


>> Extras: doTERRA peppermint supplements - 10 drops of it instead of Vanilla Essence. Baking Choco chips added