Baking Exploits: Lemon Yogurt Olive Oil Cake and Key Lime Pie

My First Cake Ever!

My family and my close friends know that I am not a big fan of baking. I love the kitchen and I love cooking, but baking is a whole different story for me. I just really find the need to measure each and every ingredient so tedious. Not to mention, the need to follow each and every step in sequential order. In many ways, I just like to freeform. In my cooking, I usually modify a recipe that interests me so I achieve the taste I know I want out of a dish. Once in a while I'll follow the recipe exactly. That's when it is a dish, cuisine or a technique I'm exploring for the first time, or if it comes from someone I know is an excellent cook or chef. 

In my book bakers and pastry chefs are highly regarded. I think that their discipline and technique is amazing. I just love watching or reading about those who are so comfortable in their art that they can even freeform their baked goods. Amazing!

The thing that freaks me out the most about baking is the the thought that for an amateur like me, there seems to be no way of knowing whether the goods will be perfect or, god forbid, a complete disaster! Not until it's too late. Not until the only way to fix it is to chuck it and start over. My heart hurts just thinking of all the ingredients, time and effort that could possibly go to waste. 

WET ingredients, measuring going well so far...

All together now! Hoping for the best...

Mr. P and I were invited by my godfather to a picnic last weekend. Days have been getting warmer and I thought, hooray, what a fun way to spend what would have been a lazy Sunday. I of course ask what we could bring and while picnic-friendly savoury ideas are running through my mind, I get a text back saying: a cake. A CAKE?! Wow, left field suggestion. God help me, I don't bake. "But you don't bake," Mr. P confirms to me when I tell him the news. We were both laughing. My fighting spirit drove me to take this challenge on, a challenge from my godfather nonetheless. I resolved that I was not going to succumb to a store-bought mix or a bakery-bought cake. I was going to bake from scratch.

I announced on my Facebook page that I was going to bake. My wonderful cousins suggested in jest a donut cake, because that's what our Nana would serve for dessert every Sunday. No, it is not a giant sized piece of fried dough, but rather a regular cake baked in a pan with a hole in the middle. We liked to call it donut cake as kids. I went out to the store and found exactly that pan. I thought that since it was Nana's death anniversary that week, I would make a donut cake in her memory. As I was scouring through my cookbooks and favourite food blogs, Trina and Rachel (some of my favourite food exploring friends) both came up with wonderful suggestions. Two desserts that were fitting for a beginner baker like me.

Trina's suggestion was Key Lime Pie. I absolutely adore anything that involves tart and sour flavours. Reading her recipe here, I thought it would be easy enough. This was definitely going to be my back up in case my main cake did not rise, OR taste good.

"But how will you know that it tastes good if you can't cut the cake until it's time to serve it?" asked the very concerned husband. I think that knowing the potential for an embarrassing situation at the picnic was secretly killing him. "I don't know, I'll just follow the recipe to a T and it should be good, Rachel told me how to do it and she is one of those whose recipes I like to follow exactly." Obviously, I didn't realize that it would rise in such a way that I'd have to cut the top and yes, have a piece to taste before THE day.

Hooray! He has risen!

Rachel shared a fabulous Lemon Olive Oil cake recipe. I read it and it sounded very similar to Ina Garten's Lemon Yogurt Cake, only Ina's cake base had less steps. What I loved about Rachel's cake was the inclusion of Olive Oil and the topping of blueberry syrup and mascarpone cheese. So I asked Rach if it would be possible to do a hybrid and she gave me the go signal. Yes! I am going to get on with this cake. I was actually excited! 

Right as I was about to start, I speak to my awesome cook and non-baking sister Mrs. G who asks: "do you have extra ingredients in case you have to repeat?" Gosh, the faith in my baking prowess is apparent with both the spousal and sisterly units!

Here's my hybrid of both recipes:

Lemon Yogurt Olive Oil Cake

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup Greek style yogurt

1 1/3 cup sugar divided

3 large eggs

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 170C, grease the pan, dust with flour and line with parchment paper. 

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the yogurt, 1 cup of sugar, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients slowly into the wet. I did it in three batches. Fold the olive oil into the batter using a spatula. Once all ingredients are incorporated, pour the batter into the pan. For my pan, I just needed 40 minutes in the oven. 

(At this point, I have to confess that I tasted the batter and it was not lemony enough for me. I knew about the next step but the freeform-er (and hard-headed girl) in me just HAD to add a little lemon juice. I just squeezed in the juice of about half a lemon.)

While the cake is baking, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves. Set aside. When the cake comes out of the oven, allow it to cool in the  pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. Cut off the top, hurray for scraps that you can taste test! Pour the lemon syrup all over the cake and allow it to soak through and cool completely.

For the topping:

1 pint blueberries

1 lemon, zested

1/3 cup sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1/4 cup water

1 pint mascarpone

Combine all the ingredients except the mascarpone in a saucepan. Bring mixture to a simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes until the berries burst and the liquid comes to a jam-like consistency. Remove cinnamon stick and allow to cool completely.

Separately, whip room temperature mascarpone with the zest of 1 lemon and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. 

I made my cake two days ahead, covered it tightly in plastic wrap and kept it at room temperature. About 15 minutes before serving, I spread the mascarpone mixture on top of the cake and poured the blueberry mixture over it. 

Finally, here they are. My Key Lime Tartlets and Lemon Yogurt Olive Oil Cake. They both tasted great to me and I think the reactions proved the same. 

Not so great looking but yummy nonetheless.

The real star of the show.

Bowl Food: Thai

Dinner time is sacred, to me at least. I attribute this to the way we grew up and spent so much time at the dinner table. In our family, like most I'm sure, we sat together for meals. Dinner time however, being the only meal of the day when everyone was surely home from work or school could not be missed. All seven of us would sit and eat our dinner course by course. We'd start with soup and nobody could go on to the next course unless each one was done with their soup. If you just had one serving and I wanted to go for seconds or thirds, you and everyone would have to wait for me to finish before starting on the main dishes that followed. Once in a while, someone would get impatient about another taking long but more often, these "waiting periods" were the most enjoyable moments at the dinner table. These were the moments when lively family conversation would happen. Sometimes it would be two people conversing, other times three or four or more. It was so much fun growing up at the dinner table like this. I'm sure it is one of the things that brought us so close to each other that to this day no matter how scattered we are all over the globe, we still want to and manage to keep the lively conversations going - dinner time or not.

I'm thankful that our parents (unbeknownst to us back then) designed dinner time as family bonding time. It is something I want to continue with my own unit. So for now, our unit of two (not seven) looks forward to meal time not just for the food but for the bonding as well. More often than not, we'll sit at the table for dinner, say grace and chat endlessly over our meal. BUT, we do make exceptions. Mr. P. works really long hours so on some days, he'd rather stay on the couch from the time he gets home until the time he showers and goes to sleep. On nights like these, I make sure to prepare something that can be eaten easily with one hand holding the bowl of food and the other hand holding just ONE utensil. We'll cozy up on the couch, put on one of the shows we follow and happily eat our bowl food. It may not be the ideal scenario for building closeness if and when we have our own kids but for just the two of us, it definitely works. It feels like quality time and dinner time all rolled into one.

Bowl food night last week was Thai inspired: Satay Style Chicken over rice with sauteed vegetables on the side.

Satay Style Chicken (for 2)

This recipe was adapted from here. Marinate 3-4 chicken thigh fillets overnight in equal parts (as per original recipe, it's 2 tablespoons each) of:
-lime juice
-fish sauce
-soy sauce
-curry powder
-sugar
In addition, I put in about 1 teaspoon of Sriracha sauce into the mix and seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper prior to marinating. I just think that despite the marinade, this step ensures a tasty piece of chicken. I for the life of me, cannot stand under-seasoned chicken. Cut the thighs into strips before marinating to further enhance flavour absorption of each piece.


The ideal way of cooking this is to grill the chicken if you have a barbecue grill. Since we don't I just placed the chicken pieces on a baking rack over a cookie sheet and grilled them in the oven. I put the outer leaves and unusable parts of two lemongrass stalks on the baking sheet, beneath the chicken, for added fragrance and flavour while grilling. Preheat the oven to 180C. Since the chicken had been cut into strips, it only took about 10-15 minutes in the oven. It came out really juicy and tender. For the real satay effect, you can skewer your chicken, but for this meal, it had to be bowl food.

Of course, chicken satay is not chicken satay without the peanut sauce. Here's how I modified the original recipe:

Peanut Sauce
1T ground ginger
2 cloves of garlic
1/3 red chili, minced

3T ground lemongrass

3T chopped cilantro

1T ground turmeric
1/2 tomato, diced
4T peanuts
1/8 c rice bran oil and a dash of sesame oil
1/8 c soy sauce
1/8 c mirin
2T sugar
1/8 c coconut milk
1/8 c peanut butter

Heat the oil in a saute pan and add in the ginger, garlic, chili, lemongrass, cilantro and turmeric. Heat over med-low heat until very fragrant. Add the tomato, peanuts and a dash of sesame oil. Continue to heat for about 3 more minutes, until tomato softens. Stir in the soy sauce, mirin, sugar, coconut milk and peanut butter. Allow the mixture to simmer for 5-7 minutes until it thickens. Stir pretty constantly so that nothing burns. Remove from heat and use a stick blender to crush the peanuts and process the mixture into a thick and slightly chunky consistency. Serve hot with the chicken over rice.


He was happy so I too was happy. It was exactly what he needed after a long day at work. We'll definitely do this again.

Decadent Breakfast at bills

My friend Cat was in town with her cousin Trish and for her final morning in Sydney, we decided to have breakfast at bills in Darlinghurst. This is the original breakfast joint of Bill Granger and one that I have been wanting to eat at.

There's Cat outside the door of bills.

My breakfasts whether out or at home can NOT start without a cup of coffee. I'm glad I had that taken care of before heading out this morning because there was no way I could pass up on bills Hot Chocolate made with Callebaut. I was expecting a cup of brown chocolate-y liquid to arrive at the table but was pleasantly surprised by something even better. A glass of warm milk with the actual nibs of Callebaut chocolate in it, melting slowly. Ah, it was decadent and it was divine. Enough said.

Lusciousness in a glass!

Apparently, bills is famous for their organic scrambled eggs. The eggs is the food item that supposedly brought him his fortune. I decided to see for myself if it is all it's cracked up to be, and all I can say is: wow, who knew that something as simple as scrambled eggs could be so good! These are your favourite hotel style scrambled eggs taken to the next level. With a side of house cured trout, fresh butter and organic sourdough bread, I was in heaven. It reminded me of why breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.

The other thing I love about bills is the ambience. Glass windows that allow lots of natural light into the place, minimalist wooden furniture, and warm lighting makes the place feel smart and homey at the same time. The best part: his cookbooks are there for you to read through while you wait for breakfast to be made. Lo and behold, the recipe for his scrambled eggs calls for 2 eggs and a THIRD OF A CUP of cream. Ay! No wonder it is so rich and fluffy at the same time. Can I say decadence part two? And that I'll need a major workout tomorrow and for the next three days?

The communal table at the center, making the place really feel homey.

Trish leafing through one of the cookbooks.

Here is Cat's breakfast which was equally delicious. Ricotta hotcakes with fresh bananas and honeycomb butter. Though she was looking for something salty after a while, the two bites I had were really yummy. The pancakes were as fluffy as they look and the honeycomb butter is a new pancake accompaniment that I would crave and come back for.

So there you have it, our bills experience was a fantastic start to our morning. To burn off some of those calories we splurged on, we decided to stroll through Darlinghurst and Paddington as the sun finally decided to beat the wind and rain. And I leave you with a decadent reminder along our walk.

Max Brenner side wall

A day of decadence indeed! You would have loved it.

...A Little Lamb For My Mint Sauce

Every time I do a big grocery shop, I make sure to include some fresh herbs in my basket. Since there is only two of us eating here, I have to stop myself from buying too much for fear that they will wilt and go to waste. I've devised a system of alternating between various herbs and planning dishes around them, realizing that this allows me to push the envelope in terms of experimenting on dishes and cuisines I may not be accustomed to cooking. It also helps in changing up the flavours coming out of my kitchen, ensuring that Mr. P and I don't get stuck with the same types of dishes week in and week out.


This particular shop saw me buying a bunch of mint for a change. Trina's previous entry inspired me to try making my own mint sauce (yes, sauce, not jelly). Unlike her, I'm a huge fan of lamb and thankfully in this town, it's not too pricey. The butcher showed me a cut that he said would be great for simple pan grilling. A perfect vessel for the mint sauce I was so keen to make, I thought.


After looking up several recipes on Mint Sauce, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it is oh, so simple.  I settled for my own rendition which consisted of stuff already in my cupboard:
-1 bunch of fresh mint
-3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
-6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
-1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard
-1 tablespoon of honey
-salt and pepper


Chop up the mint finely and whisk all the rest of the ingredients together. Alternatively, you can dump all the ingredients into a mini food processor and blitz to emulsify. Amazing what the addition of an herb like fresh mint can do to alter the taste of your most basic vinaigrette. The combination of flavors definitely brought out the crisp minty taste that goes very well with lamb dishes. However, don't be stuck on lamb with this one. It makes a great dressing for mediterranean style salads, chicken, fish and a whole slew of other stuff.


For this evening, it was drizzled on pan grilled lamb that had been seasoned with salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic. Alongside the meat was roasted potato and lemony-minty orzo. Clean crisp flavours cut through the lamb's slight gamey taste. All together, it was delicious. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the star sauce so here is an image of dinner plated up instead.

Lately, I've been into making dressings, some sauces and preserves (like this one) from scratch. I find that some of them are really not that difficult to do. I say some because I have yet to (or may never) build up the courage to make things like X.O. Sauce, Sriracha, Oyster Sauce, curry pastes and the like from scratch. So I'm starting with things that are not too daunting to me. Sauces and such that we may have gotten so used to buying pre-made, off a shelf. As Trina pointed out, by sticking to what we know and what is natural, it is possible to get the same great flavours minus the unnecessary additives. My kitchen will definitely be on experimentation mode and I hope to start churning out more complex items sooner rather than later.

Pica Pica for La Furia Roja

Tonight, I decided to treat Mr. P to some pica pica. Good thing because he came home from work, hungrier than normal. The theme for tonight's pica pica was Spanish. This is in taking my dear brother J's suggestion to prepare and put up a Spanish food entry in anticipation of the huge game that is upon us. I won't share my thoughts on that, allow the game kicking off in about 5 hours to do the talking. Let's just say this house is all red and yellow, leave out the black please!


For now I'll just tell you about my Gambas and Albondigas.


For my Gambas I don't like using tomato sauce at all. I like to do it in what I think is the classic way of just using the following ingredients:
- olive oil
- 400g of fresh prawns
- about 6 cloves of garlic
- about 3T paprika de pimenton
- 1T chili flakes
- salt
- pepper
- a splash of lemon


Peel and clean the prawns. Squeeze lemon over them and season with salt and pepper. Sliver garlic like you are going to make garlic chips.


In a hot cast iron pan, cover the bottom with olive oil. When oil is heated through, put in the garlic and lightly season with salt and pepper. This is a good time to add in the paprika, I like to use a lot since this is the main source of flavor. When the garlic is starting to show a cast of golden colour, throw in the prawns and toss in the flavourful orange oil. Make sure each prawn is coated in the oil. You may season again as needed. Finish with a little more paprika if you wish, and a dash of chili flakes depending on your tolerance for spiciness. Serve with a wedge of lemon in case, but I like eating it straight up. Toasty bread is good too for soaking up the garlicky-paprika oil in the end!

Now for the Albondigas, I honestly just had left over beef mince from my tortang talong preparation so this was an impromptu addition to the menu. Great because Mr. P was happy with the meatballs he'd been clamoring for. 

Ingredients:

Meatballs

- 250g ground beef/beef mince

- olive oil

- 1T garlic

- half an onion

- 1 tomato

- 1T parsley

- 1T bread crumbs

- 3T parmesan cheese

- 1 egg

Spicy Tomato Sauce

- olive oil 

- 1Tgarlic

- half an onion

- 1 stalk celery

- half a carrot

- 1C canned diced tomatoes

- 1T paprika

- 1t chili flakes

- 1T red wine vinegar

- soy sauce (just a dash)

For the meatballs, finely mince all the vegetables. Cook the garlic and onion until transparent and allow to cool slightly. Combine all ingredients and shape into balls. In a pan, add just a little olive oil and cook the meatballs over medium heat until brown on all sides and cooked through. Set aside.

For the sauce, mince and saute the garlic, onion, celery and carrots until tender in a small sauce pot with olive oil. Season with salt, pepper, paprika and chili flakes. Pour in the canned tomatoes, red wine vinegar and soy sauce. Allow this to simmer until the sauce thickens. Taste the sauce to ensure that all ingredients are incorporated well, season as needed with salt and pepper. When the sauce is to your liking, pour it into the pan where you cooked the meatballs and simmer for a minute or two. This will allow you to pick up the bits on the pan and let the meat juices and tomato sauce combine. Serve on its own or with toasty bread to sop up the sauce.

If you make a bigger batch and have leftovers, you can serve it over noodles the next day for a classic spaghetti and meatballs treat.


In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these little Spanish delights. AND I hope our little pica pica fest is a prelude to a celebration for a Furia Roja win tonight (or tomorrow morning/afternoon depending on where in the world you may be reading this from). Vamos Espana!

An Abundance of Oranges

For some reason, Mr. P decided to purchase a 3kg bag of oranges when we were out shopping the other day. I thought to myself, why not, stocking up on healthy fruit to snack on is not a bad idea. Two days later, he comes home with 4 more oranges. The abundance then pushed me to think of ways to use up all this citrus.


Coupled with a craving for chocolate, I decided to experiment with a combination I like. Orange and chocolate. Presenting, store bought chocolate chip muffins with a twist of my own.

Ingredients:
-1 box of chocolate chip muffin mix
-juice from about 2 oranges
-rind from 1 orange


For the curd:
-juice from 1 orange
-1 teaspoon flour
-rind from 1 orange
-1 egg yolk
-3 tablespoons butter
-1/4 cup of sugar


Prepare the muffins according to box directions, replacing the water with orange juice. My mix called for 1 1/4 cup of liquid. Fold in orange rind and scoop mix into a greased muffin tin. Bake according to instructions.


Making the curd is rather simple. Put flour into a sauce pan and whisk in the orange juice. Once flour has been dissolved, turn on the heat to medium. Whisk in the egg yolk, sugar and butter. Keep stirring until butter melts and sugar is dissolved. Add in the orange zest and keep stirring over heat until mixture thickens to the right consistency. It should split when you drag the spoon down the middle of the pot. Remove from heat and let curd cool.


Once muffins are baked. Let them cool. Spread curd on muffin tops.

World Cup Food Part 2

As I mentioned in this post, I stocked up on food for the World Cup. One night was Thai night. I guess you could say it was in celebration of the Asian teams doing better in the tournament than they usually do. I sure hope that the development of top quality football players from our part of the world continues. 


For Thai night, I decided to make green curry. Okay, I kinda cheated because I used prepared curry paste, but I added elements to make it my own. I didn't just throw in the meat and pour in coconut milk. I used prawns for this version so we had to eat it up right away.


Ingredients:
- 2-3 tablespoons of green curry paste
- 3 cloves of garlic
- half a medium onion
- 2 eggplants
- 1 bunch bok choy
- 1.5 - 2 cups coconut milk (add more or less to adjust heat)
- 400g of prawns
- 4-6 kaffir lime leaves (cut in half for easy removal later)

- 10 Thai basil leaves

- 2 stalks of cilantro (optional)

Here's how I did it: I sauteed the curry paste in canola oil. Then threw I in the chopped garlic, onions and kaffir lime leaves, and continued to saute until onions were cooked through. At this point, you add in the eggplant and after a couple of minutes, the bok choy. Pour in coconut milk and allow it to simmer for about 10 minutes. Add whole prawns to the pan. I left the skin and heads on as I thought it would add more flavor to the dish (which it did!). As soon as the prawns turn pink, remove from heat. Finish with whole leaves of Thai Basil to give the curry it's well known fragrance. I'm not too sure if cilantro is part of green curry but since I had some, I just added a bit in anyway.

Remove the Kaffir Lime leaves before serving because they are tough to chew. Serve with hot rice.