William-Sonoma Giveaway from Someone Nice :)

 I learned about this sweet giveaway from Daphne’s blog. As a novice baker and cake decorator, I would love to stock up with items from William-Sonoma. I love going to that store but had to walk out empty handed most of the time. Andy loves that store for all the yummy samples that they cook for the patrons.

With that said, all I have to do is mention the giveaway on my blog and post a comment about my posting on that blog. Me hopes to win

Squash & Green Bean Simple Curry

I was inspired to make this dish while thumbing through February’s issue of Yoga Journal that my dear friend SS had subscribed for me as my birthday present. The original recipe is called Butternut Squash and Green Beans in Coconut Milk Curry, and was also adapted from 5 Spices, 50 Dishes: Simple Indian Recipes Using Five Common Spices by Ruta Kahate (Chronicle Books, 2007). I had decided to finally use my acorn squash that had been sitting on my kitchen window will for about 2 months instead, and made the curry using the method that I am more familiar with. I think this dish would be much better with butternut squash,  sweet potatoes or yam. The recipe also called for using chopped cashews, which I did not have. What does a domestic goddess do? She modifies again and uses pinenuts.Pinenuts tastes much creamier than most nuts I know, with the exception of macadamia …. mmmm yummmm….

The important part of making any curries would be the tadka. The magazine gave a bried introduction of making tadka to those who are new to making Indian food. My tadka for this dish consists of mustard seeds, ginger and curry powder.

Ingredients

• 1 acorn squash, peeled and cubed into 1″ pieces
• 2 cups of green beans, cut into approx 2″ lengths
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 t mustard seed
• 1 thumb-size ginger, skin removed and cut to matchstick pieces
• 2 T vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• 2 T curry powder
• Salt & sugar to taste
• 2 T pinenuts or chopped cashews

Method

1. Cook the squash in boiling water for 5 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.
2. Dry roast the nuts and set aside.
3. Heat the oil in a wok or any cooking vessel. Add ginger and fry until fragrant. Add mustard seed and cover. After the seeds stop sputtering, add the curry powder and  and mix thoroughly with the mustard seed.
4. Add green beans and cook until tender.
5. Pour coconut milk and add the squash back into the wok.Bring the coconut to a boil, then immeditealy reduce to low heat.
6. Season with salt and sugar to taste. Sugar may be ommitted if using sweet potatoes or yam.
7. Garnish with roasted nuts.
8. Serve with steaming hot rice.

Wilton Course 3: Tiered Cake - Brush Embroidery

 

This is the cake that I made tonight. I was supposed to make the flowers out of royal icing or buttercream but I was gone last weekend so the flowers will not be dry enough for cake assembly. The objective of the class was to learn how to tier the cake, so I did some research online for some designs.

Basically, I covered the cakes with fondant and the transferred the rose pattern onto the cake using piping gel. Then I piped buttercream on the gel and used a wet brush to paint the edges in. This is called brush embroidery technique. We learned this in our first class for Course 3. I’ve read that you should use royal icing instead, but my teacher taught us using buttercream. The only difference is that royal icing dries hard.

I used silk flowers between the tiers and used a ribbon to cover the imperfection of the fondant edge. I’m still having trouble getting the fondant to lay right at the edges. The ribbons were “glued” onto the cake by piping a line or a few dots of buttercream onto the cake. We’ll get to make beautiful flowers like these next week in the Fondant & Gum Paste class…

I love this cake so much, and the pink roses are the same that I’ve used at my wedding. I wish that this was my wedding cake instead

Spinach and Tofu Salad with Sesame Miso Dressing

Spring is around the corner and just like the original author of this recipe, I’ve been feeling kinda chubby lately. I’ll be eating a lot of salads and grapefruit until I am able to shake of the feeling of lethargy left over from the long, cold winter. While I use tofu in my salad, Andy’s version has slices of roast turkey leftover that his mom packed for him from Easter dinner over the weekend.

Ingredients

Organic baby spinach
Sesame seeds (for garnishing)
Organic Firm tofu, cubed
Alfalfa sprouts
Grape tomatoes, halved

Low Fat Japanese Sesame Miso Dressing

1 tablespoon white miso
1 tablespoon ponzu sauce
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, coarsely ground
1/4 cup water

Method

1. Mix the sesame miso dressing ingredients until well blended. (You can heat up the dressing in a small sauce pan and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before use.)
2. Rinse baby spinach and drain excess water.
3. Pan fry cubed tofu with a teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil.
4. In a salad bowl, toss the baby spinach with tofu and sesame miso dressing. Dish out and serve cold.

Source

Buttercream Recipe

I’ve been asked to share my buttercream recipe with quite a few people, and it is a recipe that I got from my cake decorating supply store in town called Joy’s Kitchen Magic in Dearborn. This is the same buttercream and I’ve used in all of my Wilton cake decorating classes despite what the textbook says This buttercream is truly white in colour.

The buttercream recipe below yields 6+ cups, (which is A LOT) I use to ice a whole 2 layer 8″ cake plus extras for class …You may want to just make half of this and store extras. They last quite awhile during the winter in Michigan. In hot climate you might need to store in the fridge. Whip them up with the electric mixer prior to using again.

Ingredients

• 1 pound shortening (in M’sia popular good brand is Krimwell, in US it’s Sweetex) - room temperature
• 1 pound white margarine - room temperature
• 2 lbs. icing/confectioner’s sugar, sifted
• 1 cup evaporated milk (water is OK too, but evaporated milk is yummier)
• 1 tsp of flavouring (butter + vanilla, or butter + almond/orange, etc)

Method

• Cream shortening and margarine together on low to medium speed until fluffy and nicely incorporated.
• Add flavouring, beat again.
• Add sifted sugar and evaporated milk alternately until you get the consistency that you want.
• Note: Use less milk if you want stiffer consistency.

Chocolate Flavoured Buttercream
For chocolate flavoured buttercream, simply add melted unsweetened chocolate to the regular buttercream until you achieve the chocolat-ey taste that you want. I like a lot of chocolate To get the colour that you want, you can add chocolate brown icing colour to the mixture due to melted chocolate to white icing ratio being relatively small.

Soy Sprout Stir Fry

My paternal grandpa used to cook for us quite a bit when I was little. I remember looking forward to dinner at my Ah Ma’s and Ah Yeh’s house because they put a lot of effort in cooking a full 8 or 9 course meal for every reunion dinner. Ah Ma passed away last September and I have fond memories of her specialty dishes until today. Even though we rarely have those reunion dinners when she and my Ah Yeh were weakened by old age, my family and I still talk about the usual dishes that they would make whenever we go to visit them.

This dish is not as elaborate as the 8 Treasure Roast Duck or Jumbo Shrimps that they make for the reunion dinners, but rather it’s one of the regular items on my Ah Yeh’s menu for lunch. I would walk to my grandparent’s house when I have to “stay back” after school to wait for my Dad to take me home. My Ah Yeh knew that if I saw this dish on the dining table, he would give me a bowl of rice and a big cup of Chinese tea to chow down while I wait for my Dad. Although the version that I’m used to having was made with real pork, whenever I see these soy sprouts I must get them because of the fond memories that I have of my Ah Yeh.

To make this easy stir fry, simply fry sliced ginger and pork (soy or meat kind) until fragrant and semi-browned. Then toss cleaned soy sprouts (rinsed and tail ends removed) into the wok and cook for a few minutes until the sprouts start to soften. Turn the heat down and season with soy sauce, salt, dashes of white pepper and some vegetable seasoning or sugar if desired. Turn off the heat and thicken the sauce with cornstarch and cold water mixure.  Best eaten with a big bowl of hot white rice.