Biscoff Buttercream Icing

Posted on April 23, 2018 by missamateurchef

Happy Birthday to my fatter half!

Biscoff is one of my favourite cookies, crispy and aromatic, full of caramelized sweetness of well-toasted sugar, they are simply out of this world! And you know what? These Belgian babies are even more addictive when made into buttercream icing…

Ingredients:

5 large egg whites
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature (cubed)
1 cup Biscoff spread

Directions:

Place egg whites and sugar into a medium-sized bowl, whisk until combined.
Place bowl over a hot water bath on the stove and whisk constantly until the mixture is hot and no longer grainy to the touch (approx. 3mins).
Whisk on med-high with hand mixer until the meringue is stiff and cooled (the bowl is no longer warm to the touch (approx. 5-10mins)).
Switch to paddle attachment. Slowly add cubed butter and mix until smooth. Add Biscoff spread and mix until smooth.

Lemon Butter Sauteed Clams

Posted on March 1, 2018 by missamateurchef

Woohooo It’s starting to feel a lot like spring!

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m so ready for the change in season! Awaken your taste buds with this lemony dish after winter’s heavy meals.

Ingredients:

1 ½ lb littleneck clams, scrubbed and cleaned
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, mined
1/4 cup dry white wine
Pinch of cayenne pepper
Juice from 1 lemon
1 teaspoon chopped parsley

Directions:

Heat up a skillet on medium heat.
Add the butter and saute the garlic until slightly browned.
Add the clams into the skillet, and quickly toss around.
Add the wine and cayenne pepper. Cover the skillet and let cook for 1 minute, or until the clams are all open.
Add the lemon juice and parsley, stir to combine well. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Bourbon-Maple Glazed Pork Belly

Posted on February 24, 2018 by missamateurchef

The more you weigh the harder you are to kidnap. Stay safe… Eat pork belly!

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh pork belly
2½ cups chicken stock
½ onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
½ cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
3-5 whole allspice cloves/ anises

Sauce:

¼ cup real maple syrup
100ml bourbon whiskey
4 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp soy sauce

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 180C.
Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a large pot or Dutch oven. Sauté onion, garlic, cinnamon stick, bay leaf, and spices until fragrant.
Add in stock and cook for 20-30 minutes.
Place pork belly in the Dutch oven, bake for 2½ hours, until tender.
Drain away sauce; chill the pork overnight to improve the texture of the meat.
When ready, tip the ketchup, soy sauce, maple syrup and bourbon into a small pan. Set over a high heat and bubble for 5 mins until thick and syrupy. Pour over the chunks of pork and toss to coat. Roast for 15-20 mins more until sticky.
Serve with risotto!

Ferrero Rocher Cookie

Posted on February 16, 2018 by missamateurchef

Happy year of the dog everybody!

Chinese New Year is the time when you visit your friends and relatives, very often those you only see during this time of the year, and got “interrogated” by them =.=. Gift plays an important role in Chinese culture, so you never go empty-handed! If you pay attention to TV commercials enough, you may notice that many of the most popular gift items among Hong Kongers are, interestingly, not Chinese produces. Kjeldsens Cookies, Almond Roca, Sugus, Ferrero Rocher… just to name a few. Ferrero Rocher is particularly popular in Hong Kong for its golden package, a color Chinese people love for it symbolizes wealth. I’m not a superstitious person, but I do like their creamy, nutella-like centres!

And…. Surprise, surprise! They are equally nice when made into cookies!!

Ingredients (yield 12 pieces):

6 Ferrero Rochers (freeze them before baking)
1 cup (packed) all-purpose flour
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ cup butter (1 stick), softened
¼ cup white sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

Place the Ferrero Rochers in the freezer until firm, about an hour. Remove from freezer and hit with a hammer in a zip-loc bag a few times until they’re broken into chunky pieces. Put back in the freezer until ready to use.
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
In a small bowl, mix together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the full egg, then the vanilla, mixing until smooth. Add flour mixture in three parts, stirring until just combined after each addition.
Stir in ½ the Ferrero Rocher pieces. Drop tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto prepared baking sheets, spaced 2 inches apart. Place the remaining Ferrero Rocher into the tops of the cookies, pressing them into the dough slightly.
Bake for around 10 minutes until edges are nicely browned. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Mushroom Garlic Butter Chicken Bake

Posted on February 5, 2018 by missamateurchef

Winter is here! Dark days of winter make me want to pull on my heaviest sweater and stay in bed all day. That’s where these simple, casserole recipes come in handy. Baked to perfection in a single pan – a hearty casserole always satisfies your hunger and warms you from the inside out.

Ingredients:

4 bone-in chicken thighs
2 Tablespoons Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
1 bowl sliced mushrooms

Creamy Parmesan Garlic Sauce:

¼ cup butter
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
½ cup bacon
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Season chicken with generous amount of salt and pepper.
Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Sear chicken on both sides, for about 3-5 minutes each side, until golden all over. Transfer chicken to a plate.
Fry bacon in the remaining oil, add in mushroom and cook for a further 3-5 minutes, or until just beginning to soften. Transfer to the same plate as the chicken
To make the sauce, melt butter, add in garlic and cook until tender. Whisk in chicken broth, heavy cream, parmesan cheese, garlic powder, pepper and salt.
Put chicken and mushrooms back to the sauce, brush chicken with butter and sprinkle with extra salt and pepper, bake for 30-40 minutes.

Peanut Butter and Jam Rolls

Posted on January 7, 2018 by missamateurchef

Peanut butter has always been one of my favourite food. That’s been the case ever since I was a little girl. I may have developed a more refined palate over the years ( at least I hope I have… ). Still nothing- not the finest caviar, the most aromatic truffles or the flakiest croissants, can beat the pure joy of eating peanut butter straight from the jar. Haha, yes, still doing that, feel no shame for that!

Hope u like this bread roll idea as much as I do! There is just something about those two flavors that brings back childhood memories ♥

Ingredients (yields 6 rolls):

Dough

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1/2 cup milk
1/8 cup butter
1 egg

Filling

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup jam

Honey for glazing

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine 1 cups flour, 1/8 cup sugar and pinch of salt, set aside.
In a sauce pan, melt butter and milk until warm. Let cool to about 40 degrees C.
Once yeast has proofed, add in milk/ butter mixture along with an egg to the flour mix.
Stir to combine the remaining flour gradually, until dough starts to pull away from bowl.
Dump out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and elastic, add in additional flour as needed, about 5 minutes.
Cover the dough and let rise in warm place until doubled.
Once doubled in size dump the dough out onto lightly floured surface and roll out into a 12″x15″ rectangle.
Spread peanut butter over the dough (leaving 1” at the edges), then dollop jam over top, spread unevenly.
From long side, roll the dough up, cut off edges and then cut into 6 equal rolls using dental floss.
Place rolls cut side up in a greased muffin pan and cover again and let rise until doubled.
Once risen preheat oven to 180 degrees C, bake for about 20minutes.
Apply honey evenly using a brush, then bake for 10 minutes more.
Serve warm!

Braised Short Rib with Sautéed Vegetables

Posted on December 25, 2017 by missamateurchef

So this is Christmas…

We all have a holiday tradition or recipe that we hold so dear and near to our hearts, don’t we? One that we keep making the same way for years and never get bored with. Boeuf bourguignon is one of such dishes for me. Hearty and so packed full of flavour. It is a must in our house in the winter months.

This Christmas I am trying to make an elevated version of beef stew based on Gordon Ramsay’s recipe with a few modifications: cutting down the amount of red wine and adding in extra tomatoes cause I like a little more acidity in the sauce. The vegetables are sautéed instead of adding to the stew at the very beginning so to avoid a soggy texture.

p.s. This is my first time working with pearl onions and they are truly god-sent!

Ingredients:

Olive oil, for frying
3 thick-cut meaty beef short ribs
Minced garlic
2 tbsp tomato purée
250ml bottle red wine
1 cup beef stock
100g pancetta lardons
6-8 small chestnut mushrooms, trimmed and halved
6-8 pearl onions
Carrots (optional)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tomatoes cut in wedges

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 170°C.
Season the short ribs thoroughly, then panfry in the dutch oven for 10–15 minutes to brown well on all sides.
Add the minced garlic, pushing it to the bottom of the pan. Add the tomato purée and heat for a minute or two to cook it out. Pour in the wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up the bits at the bottom. Put in tomato wedges.
Bring everything to the boil and cook for 10–15 minutes until the liquid is reduced by half, then add stock to nearly cover the ribs. Bring to the boil again, basting the ribs with the juices.
Put the dutch oven in the preheated oven for 3–4 hours, until the meat is tender and falling away from the bone.
About 10 minutes before the short ribs are ready to come out, peel the pearl onions and boil them for 5 minutes.
At the same time, panfry the pancetta for 2–3 minutes until crisp and golden. Add the mushrooms and carrots, cook for 4–5 minutes until tender. Drain off any excess fat.
When the short ribs are ready, remove from the oven and transfer to a serving dish. Spoon off any excess fat from the beef cooking liquid.
Serve the short ribs topped with the hot pancetta and mushrooms and the sauce poured around.

Crab Cake Benedict with Sriracha Hollandaise Sauce

Posted on December 10, 2017 by missamateurchef

Trying out something a little outside the box with this Crab Cake Benedict served with a Sriracha Hollandaise sauce. A tribute to Sarabeth’s- one of my favourite breakfast places in New York.

Revisit my authentic homemade crab cakes recipe at:

Authentic homemade crab cakes

Sriracha Hollandaise Sauce

Ingredients:

4 tbsp butter, melted
4 Egg yolks
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1-3 tsp Sriracha
Sea Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1-2 tbsp water, room temp

Directions:

Vigorously whisk the egg yolks and lemon juice together in a stainless steel bowl until the mixture is thickened and doubled in volume.
Place the bowl over a saucepan containing barely simmering water the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl.
Continue to whisk rapidly. Be careful not to let the eggs get too hot or they will scramble. Slowly drizzle in the melted butter and continue to whisk until the sauce is thickened and doubled in volume.
Remove from heat, whisk in salt paper and sriracha, taste and add more sriracha if desired for more heat.
Cover and place in a warm spot until ready to use for the eggs benedict. If the sauce gets too thick, whisk in a few drops of warm water before serving.