Crustless Spinach Quiche.

Been busy with all the christmas shopping. There are simply too many people in the malls these days, would rather stay at home and bake or simply do nothing. I've decided to bake quiche today because its been something I have been wanting to bake ever since I am able to remember.

The first time I tried quiche was in secondary school, when a friend brought her mum's home-made quiche for us to try. Its was so good, I fell in love with quiche. For some reason quiche also reminds me of something very british. Well perhaps because it became popular in England sometime after WWII.

 I did some research and found out that although quiche is now a classic dish of French cuisine, quiche actually originated in Germany, in the medieval kingdom of Lothringen, under German rule, and which the French later renamed Lorraine. The word 'quiche' is from the German 'Kuchen', meaning cake.

(Food Reference)

(Pictures were taken when I was in Edinburgh )

Adapted from (Allrecipes)

2-1/2 Tsp Vegetable oil

1 onion

110g Fresh spinach leaves

4 Eggs, beaten

2 1/2 C Munester Cheese ( I used parmesan and leftover pizza cheese)

1 Slice ham ( had a slice of leftover ham, so I threw it in as well)

1/4 Tsp salt

1/8 Tsp black pepper

1/4 Tsp Garlic

1/4 Tsp Oregano

1) Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Lightly grease a 9 inch pie pan.

2) Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring occassionally, until onions are soft. Stir in ham and spinach and garlic. Continue cooking until excess moisture has evaporated.

3) In a large bowl, combine eggs, cheese, salt, pepper and oregano. Add spinach mixture and stir to blend. Scoop into prepared pie pan.

4) Bake in preheated oven until eggs have set, about 30min. Let cool for 10min before serving.

Could be eaten warm or cold.

The perfect egg.

I had lunch that looked more like breakfast to most people. Did not feel like baking because I doubt I could actually eat anything I bake right now.

So I prepared for myself a simple salad for lunch today. Bought these lovely tomatoes yesterday, and I could simple just have tomatoes that are lightly salted any time of the day.

Tomatoes, Lettuce, Black olives and Cucumber. Tossed together with balsamic vinegar dressing.

As Dean Martin sings 'How do you like your eggs in the morning?'

I absolutely love mine half boiled! Runny egg yolk is something I simply can't resist! What would I do without the egg cooker!

Life is good :)

New York Cheesecake

Have been down with a sore throat for almost the entire week and that throat of mine does not seem to be recovering as it should be. My mum would reckon that the cause of my sore throat is due to my baking and eating the food straight out of the oven. Oh well I will still bake with a sore throat!

Its been almost a month since I baked sweet stuff and today I crave for something light and simply. With three packet of cream cheese sitting in my fridge. Cheesecake is just perfect!

No dramas, No fancy dressing. Just simply Cheesecake.

The best recipe I found has to be this recipe from allrecipes.

Ingredient ( I halved the recipe)

15 Pieces of Wholemeal biscuit ( I used Leibniz biscuit)

2 Tbs Butter

Filling

425g cream cheese

3/4C white sugar

1/4C and 2 Tbs Milk

2 Eggs

1/2 C Sour cream ( I used 1/2C yoghurt + 1.5 Tsp baking powder)

1.5 Tsp Vanilla extract

2 Tbs All-purpose flour  

1) Preheat oven to 175 degree C. Grease a 9 inch springfoam pan.

2) In a medium bowl, mix biscuit crumbs with melted butter. Press onto bottom of springform pan.

3) In a large bowl, mix cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Blend in milk, and then mix in the eggs one at a time, mixing just enough to incorporate. Mix in yoghurt, baking powder, vanilla and flour until smooth. Pour filling into prepared crust.

4) Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour ( Mine took only 40mins because its only half the ingredients). Turn the oven off, and let cake cool in oven with the door closed for 2-3 hours; this prevents cracking. Chill in refrigerator until serving.

( I tried it while its warm, and it tasted great too! )

Baked Schnitzel . Cool Cucumber Salad . Rosemary Potato .

Whats on the menu for dinner tonight?

I haven't really appreciated public holiday until I started working. Waking up any time of the day, without having to dress up for work and without having to stand like packed sardines in the morning train. Just simply opening your eyes and thinking what to do for fun is FUN.

I had actually been planning to bake this all week, because its the first time I am preparing dinner, with proper food. Or rather with raw meat. Went grocery shopping with Sister Tan this morning and if the temperature had not be so cold in the supermarket, I would have stayed there the whole morning, stocking up the kitchen.

So dinner for tonight is Cool Cucumber Salad. Well The first time I had really good cucumber Salad was at ah huat's grandma's place. I honestly did not know this simply vegetable could taste that good! So I was searching for a nice simple recipe and found this chive cucumber salad recipe. I've modified a little because I prefer using dill instead of chives.

Ingredients

2 Large cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced

1/2 C Yogurt

1.5 Tbs Fresh dill

1 Tbs vinegar

1/4 Tsp Garlic powder

1/4 Tsp Salt

1/4 Tsp Pepper

Salad: Mix all the ingredients and Store it in the fridge till ready to serve.

Afraid that the food might not be enough for the three of us, I decided to bake some herb potato which is super simple to make!

Ingredients

1 Bag New potatoes, scrubbed and diced. ( The potatoes were small enough for me to just halve them.)

Salt

Pepper ( for taste)

1 Tbs Rosemary

1 Tbs Garlic

2 Tbs Olive Oil

1) Preheat oven to 219 degree C.

2) Coat the base of your baking pan with olive oil

3) Mix the ingredients together with the potato, ensure that every potato is coated with the seasoning.

4) Place seasoned potato in the pan and drizzle some olive oil before baking for 20-25 mins.

The star for tonight is the Schnitzel of course! Its definitely not the typical wiener schnitzel!

Ingredients
2/3 Chicken Breast ( Depending on number of servings)
1 C Breadcrumbs
1/4 C Parmesan cheese
1/4 C Flour
1-2 Eggs ( Depending on quantity and size of meat)
1 Tbs Oregano
1/2 Tsp salt/ Pepper

1) Preheat oven to 218 degree C. On one plate combine flour, salt, pepper. On another plate Combine breadcrumbs, parmesan and oregano and in a bowl scramble the egg.
2) Place chicken breast in a bag and pound them. In assembly line fashion, dredge your meat in the flour first. Shake off any excess. Move on to the eggs and then to the breadcrumbs. Place on a baking sheet, coated with thin layer of oil.
3) Depending on how thin your meat is, bake for about 20mins. Tadah! Dinner is ready to serve!

The schnitzel was moist on the inside and not too oily on the outside. Serve it with a slice of lemon and mustard!  Together with the Refreshing cucumber salad and herb potato!

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Onion . Hamcups .

Brussels sprout is a vegetable i've alway liked but did not get much chance to eat them, because over here its not a common dish during meal. I love the texture and crunchiness of brussels sprouts. Had wanted to try it out last week but could not find it in the supermarket ( Fairprice does not have brussels sprouts!). So i've finally got my hands on these lovely green brussels sprouts.

I found the extremely simple recipe from Kalyn's Kitchen and skipped some of the ingredients because I was planning to bake Hamcups as well and did not want my parents get an overdose of cheese.  So here goes, my adapted version!

Ingredients (Serves 4)

1 Packet of brussels sprouts ( I can't remember how much, but just enough for your family/ friends should be good! ) Trimmed and halfed

1 Onion

1.5 Tbs Olive oil

1 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar ( I used balsamic vinegar salad dressing, which worked well!)

1/2 Tsp Rosemary

Salt and pepper for taste ( because I used balsamic dressing, could do without if using balsamic vinegar)

1) Preheat oven to 220 degree C. Trim Brussels Sprouts, remove any discoloured leaves and cut into halves. Cut Onions. Put Sprouts in mixing bowl and toss with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, pepper, salt.

2) Covering roasting pan with foil if desired, and spray with non-stick spray if needed. Arrange sprouts and onions in a single layer on roasting pan, and roast 20 mins. turning occasionally or until sprouts are slightly crisp and golden brown on the edges.

* I did not manage to take any pictures of the roasted Brussels sprouts because I was too busy eating them!

Apart from the brussels sprouts, I baked hamcups as well. You might be wondering, huh?! Whats hamcups. Ah haut first saw this recipe and said that I should try it, and indeed its really worth trying! Its simple and taste very good! I found this recipe from Hail's Kitchen

Ingredients
4 slices ham
4 eggs
1 onion, diced
2 tbs sour cream or plain yogurt
1 tbs thyme, minced (or any herb you like, I used oregano)
1/2 cup shredded cheese (whatever you like, parmesan, cheddar, gouda, I used a mixture for pizza)
1 tbs olive oil or butter or both
salt/pepper to taste

* I did not have mushrooms, but the result was just as great!

1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with the ham slices. Be careful not to rip the slice, as it will be the 'cup' for you egg. 

2) Heat a saute pan over medium heat and add the olive oil or butter. (If you add the butter and olive oil you can turn the heat up higher without the concern of your butter burning). Add the shallots to the pan and saute until transparent, then add the mushrooms. Once the mushrooms are browned, season with salt and pepper and stir in the sour cream and thyme. 

3) Spoon the mushroom mixture into the bottom of the ham. Carefully crack an egg into the ham cup. Sprinkle with cheese, salt and pepper. Bake 10-15 minutes or until the egg is to your desired consistency.

Looking and tasting good!

Spinach Olive Pizza

After beer bread for breakfast, which turned out to be a big hit in the family, my dad suggested I should  bake something for lunch. So I turned to food porn again on Tastespotting. The first thing I saw was pizza!

So lets trace back the first time I had good pizza. It might come as a surprise, but its actually Germany! While I was there for immersion about a year ago, pizza could be readily bought and most taste pretty good and cheap! Most of us lived with a host family within Münster itself, but a couple of my friends lived further out, in a village. So one day, after class we decided to check out the village. Since its a village and the train comes every hour, we stayed for dinner. With the guidance of Mel and Celeste's host father we made pizza!

Pizza is simple to make with the help of ready made dough. All you need is the toppings of your choice! Of course the star ingredient is spinach and garlic!

Ingredient ( 3 personal size pizza)

Ready made pizza base ( I don't know the exact size)

3 Tbs Tomato Paste

1 1/2 C Spinach

1/2 C Black Olives

1/2 C Pizza cheese ( Mixture of Mozzarella, Parmasan, Chedder)

Garlic ( as much as you like)

Sprinkle Oregano

Salt and pepper

Drizzle of Olive oil

1) Preheat oven at 220 Degrees.

2) Spread the tomato paste and place all the ingredients on the pizza.

3) Drizzle Olive oil before baking for about 15-20 mins or until crust turns slightly brown.

*4) Crack an egg before placing it in the oven and Tadah you have Pizza alla Bismark!

Oh yes, I sliced the beer bread from yesterday and added Butter, Parmesan, pepper and garlic and toasted it for about 8min. A nice hearty breakfast!

Herb Beer bread.

Sometimes, food for me is like a journal. The taste of certain food evokes a distinct feeling, a memory or simply captures the scene at that moment. I guess I like baking also because it momentarily brings me away to the time when I was traveling. Wondering along the streets and finding little surprises. The unpredictability of things!

Everyone remembers Köln for the Dom. Its never ending spiral stairs and of course the shopping!

But my first memory of Köln was walking in the rainy city with my friends, searching for something I can't quite remember. Feeling hungry and sad because we could not quite find what we were searching for and ended up at a bakery ( which happens to be a really good bakery, because about one year later I landed up there again to have lunch!). What caught my eye there was beer bread! In the cold rainy weather, feeling low and empty, beer bread came to the rescue, alright maybe I am dramatizing a little but I had really fantastic beer bread for the first time in my life. ( And I honestly thought it was beer flavored bread, well it isn't surprising to have this sort of stuff since we were in germany, where Beer is dirt cheap! )

And so today, I decided to recapture that memory. Its also partly because sister tan is complaining that I am baking too much sweet stuff and odd to quit sugar for once. Little did she know that I don't really like baking healthy stuff. hahaha!

I found a couple of beer bread recipe and decided to modify a little,

Adapted from Recipezaar

Ingredients

3 C Flour (Sifted. Very important step!)

3 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Salt

1/4 C Sugar

1 Tsp Garlic

1 Tsp Oregano
1/2 C Parmesan

1 (12 ounce) can Beer

1/4 C melted butter

1) Preheat oven to 178 degrees

2) Mix dry ingredients and beer

3) Pour into a greased loaf pan

4) Pour melted butter over mixture

5) Bake 1 hour, remove from pan and cool.

Its so simple, smells fantastic and taste even better than it looks!

Green Tea Shortbread.

Its sunday and for once the sun is out and shinning today. No surprise I am baking yet again. I've decided to bake for my colleagues, and I figured, lets try with something that I could bring to work more easily and not as filling. Hence Shortbread! There aren't many variations in Green tea shortbread, so I decided to use the one I found from Here.

I love baking with jazz music. If I have a kitchen of my own, I'll definitely have a good music player and a huge oven of course! Nothing beats that! Ah, jazz (Stacy Kent is my favorite singer!) is something I totally indulge in. All the romantic ideals, forgetting about the fast pace city life, enjoying and soaking up the music. Helps make the world a beautiful place to live.

For easy reference, I shall post the recipe here as well.

Ingredients

1/2 C Confectioners sugar

5oz ( about 147g) Unsalted Butter

1 3/4 C Flour

3 Egg yolks

1.5 Tbs Matcha powder

1/2 C Granulated sugar (for coating)

1) Whisk confectioner's sugar and green tea together in a bowl

2) Add the butter and green tea/sugar mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix until smooth and light in colour ( I used my spatular to mix)

3) Add the flour and mix until well combined

4) Add the egg yolks and mix just until eggs are fully incorporated and a mass forms.

5) Form the dough into a disk and chill in the refrigerator until firm ( about 30 mins)

6) Prehear the oven to 177 degree C. Line a sheet pan with baking paper

7) Roll the dough out to 1/2" thickness

8) Cut the dough with cookie cutter

9) Toss each cut cookie in a bowl of granulated sugar to coat

10) Place the sugar-coated cookie on the baking paper lined pan. Bake for 12-15mins or until slightly golden around the edges.

Japanese Cheesecake.

This week was a rather unusual week, many highs and many lows. Perhaps its the weather perhaps its hormones. At the end of the day we still have to live each day as it is. We can neither turn back time nor fast forward. We could look back and pause and think about all the silly, foolish and happy moments in our lives. Reflect at how complicated and tiring it all seems while we were in that moment, yet when we look back at it again, everything seem so simple. Every single moment makes us all wiser and smarter. Now why am I going on about life when I am posting a food entry. Well I think baking is very much like life. All the different steps needed to bake something, some easy some complicate, at the end, we get  the reward of tasting the delights we make.

I am sure everyone has a list of things to bake and this japanese cheesecake has been on my list ever since I can remember, I know I say this for almost every other thing I bake, oh well there are too many things I would like to bake! I did not bake this cheesecake in the past because I did not have the equipment and ingredients to do so. But I finally got down to buying the stuff. Tadah! here it is.

What I like about japanese cheesecake is its light, fluffy and soft texture. Much lighter than the American cheesecakes. I must admit this cheesecake had some a missing ingredient, so I was not able to try the recipe proper. But I must say, I think the lemon in this recipe plays a big roll! Never underestimate that few drops of lemon juice! I thought there was something missing..

So after searching high and low for the perfect recipe, I concluded with This recipe as most people use the same recipe to bake japanese cheesecake. The plus point is, even though there are a number of steps to baking the cheesecake, its really not that complicated!

Savory and Sweet Palmiers

There is always a first to everything. Today is my first time baking with puff pastry. Its unbelievably EASY. Simply idot proof! I first wanted to play with puff pastry when I was reading the cook book that ah huat's mum gave me. In the book, its Pesto- Palmiers. I used olive spread instead because there are two bottles of olive spread from Greece sitting in my fridge and nobody seem to know what to do with it. I bought ready made puff pastry and simply used the recipe as a rough guide to what I should do.

I will not state exactly how much ingredients I used because its really base on estimation. Base on what I am able to remember,

Ingredients
175g of Puff pastry ( Which is about half a packet)
1.5 Tbs Olive spread ( Or Green/ Red Pesto)
Handful of Parmesan, to be placed on top of each Palmier.
1 egg yolk + 1Tbs water

Its as simple as roll (the puff pastry to about 3mm thickness), Spread ( Spread whichever spread you are using), fold ( Fold in both sides of the dough.)

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.

Place the rolled up dough in the fridge for about 15min, so that it is easier to cut, alternatively if you have no problems cutting the dough, its alright to simply cut and put it in the oven. The pastry could also be kept in the freezer till you are ready to bake them.

Cut the pastry, brush each with egg wash and place some Parmesan on top before placing it in the oven

Bake for about 10-14 min or until pastry become golden brown.

Serve hot! Perfect as finger food for parties :)

I also tried making it sweet. Tried it with Jam and then with sugar cinnamon. Turned out to look like mini cookies.

Chocolate cheese cake brownie.

Ah huat's mum gave me a cook book when they were in town last week. Now that I have some time on hand to bum around, I decided to open the book and check it out. I sure do miss baking and really wanted to bake something savory for a change this time. Wanted to bake something with puff pastry. But again, wanting to do something and actually getting my butt out to get the ingredients is another thing. So I decided to bake something thats on my to bake list, since...donkey years. And since I have the ingredients anyways, I decided to give it a go!

So today I baked Chocolate cheese cake brownie. The first time I came across this recipe was actually from Tastespotting. Unfortunately the recipe was in spanish or something. So I was too lazy to check out for translation and stuff and kinda forgot about it, until I was gonna have a potluck with my hall mates one fine day. ( Which did not work out, because I had to stay for a meeting till 9.30pm of all days!) That would be the perfect dessert to bake! That did not happen of course. Hence today was a perfect day to try it out.

I kinda combined two recipes into one. The first one is from an awesome One Bowl Brownie and the second is from a Chunky Cheesecake Brownie recipe. Okay does not make sense that I used two recipe when the latter is the recipe of the Brownie I am gonna bake. My only reason is that I wanted to bake with the best brownie recipe I could find. Hence the added step, only to realise that I had some missing ingredients, because sister Tan stole some of my chocolate! Hence I used cocoa powder as a substitute for the missing chocolate, which I believe is also a healthier alternative.

28g of chocolate in baking could be substituted with 3tbsp unsweeten cocoa powder and 1 tsbp of butter
or
28g of premelted baking chocolate could be substituted with 3 tbsp of unsweeten cocoa powder and 1 tbsp of vegetable oil.
I modified the recipe such that it makes 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients
Cheesecake portion
112g Cream cheese
1/4 C White Sugar
1 Egg

Brownie portion
50g Chocolate ( I used 70% dark chocolate)
3 Tbs Unsweeten Cocoa ( To substitute the remaining shortage of Chocolate)
 ( The recipe asked for 75g chocolate)
110g Butter
1/2 C White Sugar
2 Eggs
2/3 C Flour
1 Tsp Vanilla

1) Preheat oven to 175 degree C.

2) Combine cream cheese with 1/4 cup sugar and 1 egg in a mixing bowl; beat until smooth.

3) In a double boil, melt butter and chocolate, together with the cocoa powder.

4) Stir until chocolate is melted. Stir in sugar. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour.

5) Pour half of the batter into the muffin tin. Spread the cream cheese mixture over the chocolate layer.

Top with remaining Chocolate mixture

 

Using a knife/ toothpick, swirl the top chocolate layer into the cream cheese to make a marble pattern.

6) Bake in preheated oven at 175 degree C for 25-30 minutes, or until top is crinkled and edges pull away from sides of the pan. Cool throughly. Store in the refrigerator or freeze.

Cheesecake does not like brownie.

( Please pardon the terrible lightening!)