Isabella's Lemon Meringue Cupcake

At last! Star World is screening Australia's first Junior Masterchef here in Singapore! When I was in Sydney last November, practically everyone I met was talking about it. My Australian colleagues were raving in disbelief about how 12 year old kids were cooking snails and  11 year old boy was making lamb wellington.

When this started screening 3 weeks ago,I was shocked and amazed by what the children could do.The skeptic in me wondered if this is all preconceived...that the producers had put the kids in some perversely dark boot camp where they had to practice all the dishes before hand. There was something incongruent about watching the kids hovering and fussing over a real stove when one has been more used to see them molding  playdough over kitchen play kits.

Nevertheless, the kids were amazing and it was pure delight to watch them. Stripped of the ugliness, the politics and the sacarsm that usually accompany competitive reality TV, Junior Masterchef was sweet, endearing and inspiring.

The judges were always encouraging and it was wonderful to see the children's faces light up when they were praised. The camaraderie they showed for each other was also refreshingly sweet when compared to the conniving behaviour normally seen in the adult version of the same. Just yesterday, Pierre, the challenge winner from last week was asked to pick a leader for the opposing team for their new challenge.He picked Anthony (the goofiest of all contestants and my favourite!) because they are good friends.... how I wish the adult world can be as simple as this.


Today I share with you Isabella's Lemon Meringue Cupcake which won her the first mystery box challenge. In the challenge,the children were given a mystery box with a collection of ingredients with which they had to create a dish in 40mins... without a recipe in sight. When it came to judging time, Isabella's cupcakes were so luscious that it literally had the judges swooning over them.

When I saw the recipe in the Masterchef magazine, I knew that I had to recreate this....in 40mins. With enough focus, 40 mins is sufficient to create this 3 component cupcake which includes the cake, the tangy lemon curd and the meringue. The cake made with pouring cream instead of butter, is a breeze to make and yields a beautiful even dome shaped cupcake.

The verdict? I burnt the tip of the meringue a little but these cupcakes were GORGEOUS! The combination of fluffy meringue, tangy lemon curd and soft crumbly cake was an absolute winner. I now understand why judge Gary Mehigan almost melted when he tasted the cupcake.

So, dear readers, will you challenge yourself to complete this in 40mins? I hope you would.


Recipe (from Masterchef website )
Cupcakes

250ml /1 cup pure cream
220g /1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
225g/ 1 1/2 cups self raising flour
Finely grated rind of 1 lemon

Lemon curd
125ml/ 1/2 cup lemon juice
100g butter
110g/ 1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
3 egg yolks

Meringue
3 egg whites
110g/ 1/2 cup caster sugar

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180'C. Place 12 patty cake liners in a 12 hole 1/2-cup capacity muffin pan.

2. Place cream, sugar and eggs in a large mixing bowl and whisk until smooth. Gradually add flour and zest and continue whisking until mixture is thick and smooth.
3. Divide mixture between prepared liners and bake for 15-20 minutes or until cakes spring back to touch. Cool in muffin pan.
4. For lemon curd, heat lemon juice and butter in a small saucepan and simmer until butter has melted. Add sugar, egg and yolks and cook, whisking continuously until mixture becomes thick and glossy. Pour into a shallow oven tray to cool.
5. For meringue, beat egg whites in an electric mixer until firm peaks form, gradually add sugar, a tablespoon at a time, beating until sugar has dissolved between each addition. Spoon meringue mixture into a piping bag.
6. To serve, preheat grill to medium-high. Cut a small hole in the top of each cupcake and fill with 1-2 teaspoons of lemon curd. Pipe a swirl of meringue mixture on the top of each cupcake and place under heated grill for 60-90 seconds or until golden. Arrange on a serving plate with spoonfuls of lemon curd if desired.

Mandarin Friands - 金吉蛋糕

春到堂前添瑞气  日临庭上增吉祥
To all those who are celebrating the Lunar New Year, (and that includes all Chinese in China, Taiwan, SE Asia, the rest of the world and not forgetting the Koreans) here's wishing every one a very prosperous and successful Rabbit year ahead. ( And I learnt that for the Vietnamese, it is the year of the cat!!?)

While Christmas is a time for religion,parties, pretty dresses and presents, Chinese New Year is a time for spring cleaning, tradition, family get together and non-stop feasting. For many, this is a time, where we literally hop from one family to another, visiting some relatives whom we would only see once a year...
L was complaining to me how he has been eating every 2 hours and gorging himself to surfeited lethargy...
I made matters worse for him when I faithfully regurgitated what I heard over the news yesterday... a pineapple tart contains 180-200 calories, a slice of barbeque pork (bak kua) carries with it 300-400 calories and a couple of egg rolls/love letters will throw in another 150-200 calories... Should I feel stressed? Yes, definitely! To think that popping 10 pineapple tarts would already have completed one's calorie intake required for the whole day, I must have consumed at least 3X of what I need for the day, binging on the variety of Chinese New Year treats.

I choose to share this Mandarin Friand treat because it does not contain any oil or butter. Nevertheless, the little cake is still amazingly moist and tender because of the generous amount of pureed Mandarins. The Friand, for those who are not familiar, is a traditional French cake which is based on nut meal. Most commonly baked with almond meal, I chose to make mine with Macadamia nut meal instead. It is not unsimilar to the Financier but this version does not contain any melted butter. Instead, seasonal Mandarin Oranges are boiled ,pureed and added into the cake to impart an exceptional burst of citrusy moistness. With the auspicious Mandarin Oranges as the staple ingredient, the aptness of this treat for the festival is impeccable.Served with orange flavoured Chantilly cream, this would also be a perfect treat for afternoon tea...


Recipe :
2          Mandarin Oranges, washed and scrubbed clean.
55g      All purpose flour
1 tsp    Doubel baking powder
3         Eggs
150g   Castor sugar
250g    Macadamia Nut meal
1tsp     Orange extract
Candied orange peel for garnishing.

Method :
1. Place oranges in a small saucepan. Cover with water and  bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 1hour. Cool down. Cut the oranges in half and remove the pith and pips. Puree the oranges with skin in  food processor and set aside.
2. Heat oven to 180C.
3. Mix flour and baking powder in a small bowl.  In a mixing bowl, mix Eggs and sugar until well combined. Whisk in flour, macadamia nut meal , orange puree and orange extract.
4. Grease mold with butter and pour batter into mold. Garnish with a strip of orange peel.
5. Bake at 180C for 20mins.
6. Cool down and serve.

Bourke Street Bakery's Macadamia Nut Short Bread

You may have already noticed that almost every popular Chinese New Year pastry we are serving for the festival is buttery, eggy and richly rich. Catch phrases such as 'soft against the tongue', 'melt in your mouth', 'short and buttery' are the usual ravings for the scrumptious treats that we are reaching for during this holiday season.

In my attempt to find something a little different to put in my cookie platter with my Pineapple Tarts, I decided to try out another recipe from what I suppose is now my favourite cookbook fom Bourke Street Bakery. This is a very buttery but rustic shortbread. Everyone should know by now the secret to an amazing shortbread is really copious amount of good butter. While most of the shortbread recipes I have come across call for creaming the butter and sugar together until a smooth whipped cream texture is obtained, this one simply requires the butter to be worked into the dry ingredients with fingertips - very much like the way short crust pastry is prepared. This method, when used with fine grain castor sugar instead of powder sugar, yields a more grainy texture hence, my earlier rustic comment. The shortness of most short bread - the melt-in-your mouth sensation- is usually achieved with the use of corn flour but BSB's recipe calls for rice flour instead.  In recent years, the Japanese have raved about using rice flour for chiffon and sponge cake to impart a light and springy texture. Hence I was rather curious when I saw this not so common ingredient in the recipe. Last but not least the addition of chopped macadamia nuts just added another dimension of marvel.



As no liquid is used in shortbread recipes, the dough is commonly pressed compactly into a square mold, baked and cut into fingers or squares while it is slightly warm. For Chinese New Year, I have learnt that cookies are best served in small bite sized morsels. (For those who are unfamiliar with the customs of Chinese New Year, we typically house hop, visiting as many as 4 or 5 friends/ families in one day... eating from house to house. Hence food are usually best served in small bites..the smaller the better.) So instead of using a rectangular / square baking tray, I chose to make my shortbread in my long financier molds. When these are turned out, they take the form of a long slim stick. These can then be cut easily into small nuggets.

How do they taste?.. Crumbly and buttery, they melt away on the tongue like sweet nutty sand - rustic heaven!


Recipe (Macadamia Shortbread from Bourke Street Bakery)

Ingredients
175g         Unsalted butter
250g         plain flour
60g           rice flour
1tsp          baking powder
1/2 tsp      salt
125g         castor sugar
80g           Macadamia nuts, chopped. (do not use food processor as it will turn into a paste)

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Sift plain flour, rice flour,salt and baking powder together. Add castor sugar to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
3. Cut the butter into 1.5cm cubes. Rub the cold butter into (1) with finger tips until mixture resembles bread crumbs. Add chopped macadamia nuts, rubbing together to combine. and then knead to form a dough.
4. Pat the dough into a lined square tin (20cm x 20cm x 4cm). Smoothen the surface of the dough with the back of a spoon.
5. Set (4) in the fridge for 20mins to set.
6. Bake @ 180C for 30-40mins until the shortbread is light golden. Allow to cool in the tin before turning it out. Using a serrated knife, cut the shortbread while it is still slightly warm into fingers.

Pineapple Tarts

By the time this is published, most of you would have seen,baked and eaten one pineapple tart too many in the last few weeks to want to read about yet another Pineapple Tart post...

As popular and festive as it may be for Chinese New Year, I have never made the pineapple tart before. I wrote about how futile it would be to try to create a tart that is good enough to hold its own against the myriads of family heirloom recipes here. A couple of sightings last few weeks prompted me to give this a go this year. First glimpse was sighted on Ju's Tweet. Second came in the form of a step by step guide to homemade pineapple jam at Wendy's blog.

Some of you may know that I had traveled to 2 continents and 3 regions in the last 2 weeks. I touched down at midnight last Saturday and was already stirring at my first batch of pineapple jam on Sunday morning. Made with ripe pineapples, I found the jam too sweet even though I had reduced the amount of sugar suggested by the recipe. In my desperation, I tried to balance the sweetness with fresh lime juice. This complemented the jam so well that for all subsequent batches, I retained the lime juice component.

For me, the element that blew my mind was the little ball of homemade jam on the buttery pastry. Juicier and fruitier, this is starkly different from the dry sticky pre-packed paste sold at bakery supply stores. And really, cooking the jam is more easy and effortless than I had originally thought.


Typical of me and prompted by my vegetarian sister, I also experimented with organic wholemeal flour for the pastry. The pastry took on the strange musty brown colour of the wheat flour. Although the texture was very similar to the cookie made with refined all-purpose flour, a 'wheaty'/grassy after taste lingered. I am not keen to see the scrunched up faces of friends I will be serving these to, so I guess between my sister and myself, we will have to clean these up.

P.S.: Just learnt that j3ss kitch3n is hosting a Aspiring Bakers event for 'My Favourite CNY Cookie'. I shall contribute this to join in the fun!


Recipe :
Pastry (Adapted from Ju's Recipe)

200g            All purpose flour
50g              Corn flour
1 tbsp          Icing sugar
1/4 tsp         Salt
140g            Butter
2                  Egg yolks
1/2tsp          Vanilla extract
1.5 tbsp       Cold water

1 egg yolk for glazing

Method :
1. Sift flour,corn flour,icing sugar and salt together in a mixing bowl. Refrigerate for 5 mins.
2. Cut chilled butter into cubes.
3. Add cubed butter into flour and work the butter into the butter with finger tips until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
4. Mix egg yolks, vanilla extract and cold water together in a cup. Add this to (3). Work briskly with finger tips to mix the liquid with the flour. Gather the dough into a ball and refrigerate for 10-15 mins.
5. Roll out dough to 0.8mm thickness. Cut dough with pineapple tart cutter.
6. Brush egg yolk glaze over the cut dough.
7. Place a ball of pineapple jam on the dough.
8. Bake at 160C for 20mins. Cool down and store in air tight containers.

Pineapple Jam (Please refer to Wendy's post if you need more details)
Recipe
1000g         Semi ripe pineapple, cut into chunks and puree in a blender.
150g             Castor sugar
1                   Lime juice
2                   Twigs of cinnamon

Method
1. Place pureed pineapple into a large heavy pot.
2. Add lime juice, and cinnamon. Heat over medium heat until 80% of moisture has evaporated. Stirring occasionally.
3. Add sugar. Stir once and leave to reduce further over medium -low heat until jam is 90% dry.
4. Increase heat and continue heating for another 10mins. Stirring 2-3 times to avoid burning.
5. Reduce heat to low and further dry up jam.
6. Remove from heat and cool down completely.

Guest Post @ Rasa Malaysia : Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee

Rasa Malaysia is a site that needs little introduction. Owned by Bee, I don't think I exaggerate when I say that, the site presides over the Asian Food niche in the Flogosphere. As such, I was extremely flattered to learn that Bee had actually noticed my humble blog and had generously invited me to do a guest post at her site.

Deciding what to feature in this guest post for Rasa Malaysia is not easy. The site is already so rich in content, it is literally an Asian Food encyclopedia.(especially for Malaysian/Singapore food)



I am glad that I can still bring something new in the form of the Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee. Please head over to Rasa Malaysia to read about my all time favourite Singapore street food.

Bourke Street Bakery's Berry Custard Tart

When delectable strawberries start to find their way into grocery stores, it is difficult to fend off their draw. Those little red gems are trickling in from the North - Japan and Korean. Albeit still a little pricey as it is still not the peak season for these strawberries but they are too alluring to ignore.

I think I will need to officially proclaim the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook as my favourite cookbook of 2010 moving into 2011. I find myself flipping through it every other day, drooling over the rustic,scrumptious treats.For the third time, I am drawn again to their tart recipe... yes, I am that boring but trust me, dear folks, they are truly delicious.

Less work than the Ginger Brulee Tart or the Passion Fruit Meringue tart, this one works with a classic creme patissiere filling. I, have, for some reason always feared the pastry cream. I have a tendency to either overcook or undercook it. Stirring the custard in the pot, I am always unsure if I have already reached the 'end point'.

Bourke Street Bakery handles the creme patissiere a little differently and for the first time, I feel that I have really achieved a successful custard! First whisking the sugar and plain flour into the egg yolks, a smooth base is already created before the warm milk was added. Cooking the custard without corn flour, allows it to thicken gradually, hence the custard continues to stay smooth and light. For this tart, the custard was further aerated with the addition of whipped cream. The overall texture was silky smooth,creamy yet light with just the right level of sweetness - a perfect combination with the tart pastry and the juicy berries.

I can't wait to use this custard again and again...!


Recipe :
1 quantity of short crust pastry (see here)
750g creme patissiere (see below for recipe)
20ml Grand Marnier
80ml Pouring (whipping) cream
500g Strawberries (original recipe features a mixture of strawberries, blueberries and raspberries)

Method :
1. Prepare tart cases as demonstrated here.
2. Whisk creme patissiere with Grand Marnier on high speed until smooth.
3. Whip whipping cream into soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream into (2) and place in the refrigerature for an hour to chill.
4. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the custard mixture into each tart case and arrange berries on top. Serve immediately.

Creme Patissiere (You need to triple this recipe for the above tart recipe)

250ml milk
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
50g castor sugar
3 egg yolks
15g all purpose flour

1. Into a saucepan add milk and vanilla seeds and bean. Heat up until just boiling point. Remove from heat and pour into a container to cool. Refrigerate at least 6 hours to allow vanilla to infuse.

2. Gently reheat milk over low heat. Put egg yolks in a metal mixing bowl. Gradually whisk sugar into egg yolks until completely combined. Continue whisking while adding flour until a smooth mixture is obtained.

3. Pour warm milk through a fine sieve into (2). Whisk until smooth.

4. Pour (3) back into saucepan and bring to boil. Stirring it continuously with a wooden spoon. Once the custard boils, reduce heat to a simmer for another 5 minutes. Stirring must be done throughout.

5. Cool down and refrigerate.

Crabcakes with Lemon-Dill Mayonnaise

During the 2 weeks that I was 'trapped' in New Jersey, I had the worst meals of the trip at the company cafeteria. However, one of the highlights of the trip also happened amidst the meetings and debates... For team building exercise, the whole group of us went to Viking Cooking School for a cooking-bonding session. Although I have done similar sessions in Asia, I was still brimming with excitement as we walked into the Viking Range Showroom. I was especially mesmerised by their range of sturdy, rugged-looking stoves and ranges. When I eventually got to cook over these heavy-duty ranges, I was really impressed by the intensity of the heat from the open flame burner. These would be perfect for Chinese cooking where cooking in a  wok over high heat imparts a unique essence to the food known as 'wok hei' ( translated literally to read wok's energy).

Anyway, I digressed... we were split into groups of 3 and given a recipe pack to prepare 6 dishes for our dinner. We had picked an advanced recipe pack which featured Fish and Shellfish Cookery. The Vikings team literally spoon fed us throughout the whole session, demonstrating every step and ensuring that we followed instructions. As a result of which, it was not as challenging for me and I got a little restless during the session. However, the recipes yielded some delicious preparations which I couldn't wait to replicate.



The dish that I enjoyed most are these crabcakes with Lemon-Dill Mayonnaise. Meaty and tasty, these were perfect for yesterday's New Year's Eve party. To all who continues to drop by my humble blog, I wish to usher in the new year with you with this delicious crabcake and may today be a great start to an amazing 2011 with good food in abundance!


Recipe :
Crabcake
2 tbsp Mayonnaise
1.5 tsp  finely minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 green onions, green tops only, finely minced
1 tsp seafood seasoning (such as Old Bay)
1 large egg white
2 tbsp Japanese breadcrumbs
400g crab meat (jumbo lump)

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Position rack in the center of the oven.
2. Combine mayoonaise, parsely, green onions, seafood seasoning, egg white and breadcrumbs together ina mixing bowl.
3. Gently fold in crabmeat, coating it thoroughly. Chill in refrigerator for at least 15 mins.
4. Place a medium, non-stick frying pan over medium high heat. Add 2 tbsp canola oil and heat through. Lightly oil the insides of a round food ring/cutter. Place food ring on pan and spoon one fourth of the crabmeat mxiture into the ring. Press gently to pack tightly. Carefully lift the round ring straight up. Repeat with the remaining crab meat.
5. Cook crabcakes until the bottoms are golden brown, about 3 mins. Carefully turn each crabcake over. Cook for 1 min, then transfer pan to oven and cook for additional 5 mins.
6. Transfer crabcakes to warmed plates. Garnish wtih lemon wedges and serve with lemon dill mayonnaise.

Lemon Dill Mayonnaise

1 large pasteurized egg yolk.
1/2 tsp Dijon mustard.
1 tsp finely minced lemon zest
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup canola oil
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 tbsp chopped fresh dill
1/8 tsp fine salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground white pepper.

1. Briskly whisk together beaten egg yolk, mustard, lemon zest and lemon juice until it is pale yellow in colour, about 1 min.
2. Pour oil (drop by drop at the beginning) very slowly while whisking constantly and vigorously. After the first few drops of oil has been absorbed pour the rest of the oil in a slow steady stream into the mixture while whisking energetically.
3. Keep whisking until mayonnaise becomes smooth.