Chocolate Cup cakes with White Chocolate icing

I was craving cup-cakes last night (I'm not pregnant, just like to sympathise with pregnant ladies), so I quickly did up a batch.
I cheated & used packet mix. (Oh no...I feel my limited credibility dropping further) But you must give me a chance to explain my reasons for using packet mix.
Firstly, it was already 9pm at night. My husband, was already thinking I'm crazy for cooking cup cakes on a week day night, & plus it was already 9pm & Christian wasn't asleep yet. So hence the quick & simple packet mix. I was pretty desperate. (I'm sounding like a pregnant lady again, except I can't force my husband to drive out & buy me cake. I have to cook it for myself!)

Now, hopefully I can re-gain more of my credibility back by telling you about the fantastic "White Chocolate Icing" I put on top.

Makes 12 cup cake toppings

100g white chocolate
2 teaspoons copha
2 tablespoons icing sugar
Sprinkles

Melt chocolate & copha together in Microwave. Heat for 1 minute. Stir. If not completely melted, heat for another 20 secs & stir. Repeat if necessary.
I like to add more vegetable fat (copha) to the chocolate, to make it more runny. It makes it easier to spread over the cup cakes. Add icing sugar & mix well.
Scoop 1 teaspoon amount into the middle of the cup cake & spread out. Sprinkle the sprinkles on top.

Now here's some pictures of Christian enjoying them. I hope you enjoyed them too!

Stir fry Vegetables, Fish & Udon noodles

It's been a little while since my last entry. I was wondering whether it would be my last, but it turns out I couldn't resist! Plus I couldn't disappoint the small, but faithful followers who have taken time out to give me good, encouraging feed back. Thanks guys!

Tonight, I have another simple, after work, chuck stuff in the wok, kinda recipe. It's a weekday recipe & those people out there who work & have young kids will understand the importance of "quick" meals!

Feeds 4, or 3 very hungry people

Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic
3cm cube of ginger (optional - I didn't use any tonight, but it gives a very different, but nice taste)
1 dash of sesame oil (optional - but gives a nice smell to the dish)
1 teaspoon - 1 tablespoon olive oil (depends on your non-stick pan & how healthy you want to be)
300g fish cut into wedges (I used snapper, but this breaks up very easily when frying. I recommend "kingfish" or similar white, thick fleshy fish. I think Barramundi would be good too)
Vegetables:
1 bunch of Bok Choy
1 carrot
1/2 capsicum
1 handful of snow peas
1 handful of broccoli stems
(I can keep listing all kinds of vegetables, but any veg is good. Some other suggestions are Cauliflower, Chinese broccoli, mushrooms, onions, choy sum, celery. Nothing, which will result in the stir fry turning wet. I.e. avoid lettuce. Keep the proportion of veggies to fish of 3:1.)
2 spring onion stems
1 cup Chicken stock
1 tablespoon Oyster sauce
1/2 tablespoon Soy sauce
2 teaspoons of corn flour
(mix Chicken stock, Oyster sauce, soy sauce & corn flour all together in small bowl)
500g Udon noodles (You can use any type of noodles, but I prefer Udon or Shanghai noodles) Prepare the noodles per the packet instructions.
salt to taste

Instructions:
Heat wok with oils, garlic & ginger. Add fish & cook till lightly browned. Try not to move the fish around too much, otherwise the fish may break up into flakes. Lightly fry on once side, then gently turn over & brown the other side. Remove the fish from the wok & place into separate bowl to avoid further break-up. Add vegetables to the wok & stir-fry till cooked. (Will take about 5mins). Once vegetables are cooked, add the fish & noodles. Mix all together.
Add the small bowl of flavouring to the wok & continue to mix all together. The corn flour will thicken up the sauce. Add salt to taste.

Variations:
- Rather than fish, use any kind of meat
- Cook steamed rice as a side dish, rather than adding noodles.
- Add 1 tablespoon sweet soy sauce & 3 stems of fresh basil leaves, for a Thai flavour

Simple Steak & Salad - favourite sauces

Tonight I cooked an extremely simple BBQ Marinated Scotch Fillet Steak & Maggie Beer Vino Cotto Salad for 2. This dinner took me <1/2 hr to prepare & cook. It left me time to enjoy the great evening weather & went bike riding with the family.

Below is a picture of my 2 favourite sauces:

1. Maggie Beer's Vino Cotto; it's like a sweet balsamic vinegar. Use it sparingly, drizzled over salad. You don't need a lot of it, to make a statement. Probably only about 1 tablespoon. It's also great with your best olive oil for dipping bread. I first got introduced to it through my sister-in-law who bought it direct from the Maggie Beer farm, but you don't need to travel to the Barrossa Valley to buy it, as it should be in David Jones.

2. Korean BBQ meat marinade. I don't know what it says on the label, but it's a really nice beef marinade. Just a tablespoon of it rubbed over 1 piece of steak, then grilled, is great. You can find this sauce in any Korean Grocery. There are a couple on Grote St in Adelaide city.

I chose 175g Scotch Fillet steak, as I find it to be the most tender, as it has the most fat. But heh, you only live once right? If I'm only going to eat meat once (or twice) a week, I might as well enjoy it : )

For the salad, it was a handful of baby spinach leaves, 6 raw snow peas, 1 tomato, 1 avocado, 1/2 carrot, 1/3 capsicum. These were the only veggies in my fridge tonight, but the dressing will go great with anything.

Almond Shortbread (Greek Shortbread-Kourabiedes)

I'm no expert at Greek cooking, but I was craving a crumbly, almond shortbread type biscuit, so I thought I would try making Kourabiedes. I wouldn't even know how to pronounce it. But what I lack in Greek Literacy, I made up in taste! However, if your Ya-Ya was to come over & complain they don't taste authentic enough, it's probably because I didn't stick word-for-word to the recipe. Once again...I added my own little flare. But it did pay off, as I received a quote; "This is the best tasting biscuit I've ever had!!" However, that was from my husband & he has to say nice things. But today, I do tend to agree with him.

Makes: 35

Ingredients

175g unsalted butter
1/3 cup icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoons brandy
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup rice flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g almond meal
sifted icing sugar, for dusting

Method
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line tray with baking paper.
Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add vanilla essence, brandy and egg yolk & beat till well combined.
Fold through sifted flour, baking soda and almond meal. Take scant tablespoons worth of the mixture and roll. Curve into a crescent shape and place on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned.

Pour some icing sugar into a bowl & coat each biscuit while they are still warm. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
When cooled, dust with icing sugar for a more even appearance.

Asam Fish Curry

Yesterday I decided to cook fish curry, but this time I wanted it to be special. Normally I would just use a Malaysian Curry Powder (has to be Malaysian as they are the only ones who know Asam curry & I'm Malaysian) but I wanted it to be better that my past ones.

Spice up your life!....

I bought spices from the Continental Wholesaler, in bulk; whole cumin, whole coriander seeds, whole peppers plus loads more. Cleaned out my pantry. Cleaned out my old spices & made way for tubs of new ones. Then today, I went & bought a coffee/spices grinder from Myer, so I can grind up the spices I bought yesterday. It seems a little excessive to go to this much effort for spices you can buy ground up already, but by doing it this way, the spices, smell & taste a lot better. Also I find that its important to add more spices to the curry powder as a lot of the curry powders have different tastes. Just open different brands of "curry powder" & the colour difference is significant.

Next, choosing the right fish...

It's important to chose a good fish. Normally for this dish I would chose Snapper (even a large Snapper head, to make my mum proud - you'll understand if you're Malaysian). But this time, we decided to chose Kingfish & it was a fantastic choice. (Lucky my Husband's friend works at the fish factory & he recommended it - see husbands are useful too when it comes to food)


The Kingfish isn't as fishy as Snapper & the flesh is also tighter which is better for such a dish. We got the shoulder area, as it's tastier especially sucking the sauce from the bones : ) However, not recommended if you want to avoid the bones, especially with kids. Therefore it's better to stick closer to the tail.


Ingredients:
2 tbs olive oil
4 tbs curry powder
Additional spices: 1 tbs coarsely ground cumin, 1/2 tbs ground coriander seeds, 1/2 tbs ground fennel, 5 bay leaves
1 Onion, diced
1 can tomatoes, loosely chopped
Water
1 kg fish
300g Okra / lady fingers
Add to taste: Approx 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 tbs soy sauce, 2 teaspoon fish sauce


Instructions:
Heat oil in large deep fry pan/wok. Cook spices all together. The aroma is fantastic!
Add onion. Fry. Add Tomatoes. Tomatoes give the dish the sourness you'll find with Asam curries. Add water & boil for several minutes. Add the fish & okra. Cover & let simmer on medium heat for 1/2 hour. I like to cook this dish for as long as possible, so the flavours get stronger and the sauce gets thicker. All along, taste the dish to make sure it's salty enough. Use the soy sauce & fish sauce for added flavour.

Serve with steam white rice.

This dish will bring out the Malaysian in anyone!