Sunday, February 2, 2014

Frozen Strawberry Cheese Cake

It's been a productive week at work, so many deadlines and it's horrible! Beside making the Strawberry crumble before, I need another dessert that could indulge me (and my family) for this long weekend. Something sweet and sour and also fresh. So I decided to make a Frozen Strawberry Cheese Cake.



Been a long time since my first trial making  frozen strawberry & blueberry cheese cake couple years ago, it's basically same ingredients. I'm using this recipe from Nigela website with a bit of adjustment.

Strawberry Cream Cheese - Ingredients

  • 125 grams digestive biscuits- I'm using Ritz Cheese Crackers
  • 75 grams butter (soft)
  • 300 grams cream cheese- I use 250 gr Cream cheese & 50 gr Sour cream
  • 60 grams sugar- I use only 50 grams
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract- I omit this one because I don't have this at the moment
  • 250 ml double cream
  • strawberry jam (2 pots)
  • strawberries (fresh, a few to decorate or strawberry sauce to drizzle - optional) - I made a raspberry coulis instead.
  • Grated Lemon Zest
 

Strawberry Crumble



Another easy and simple dessert to make. After couple times made an Apple crumble, this time I wanna try using different fruits: Strawberry!

Ingredients

for the filling:
  • 500 grams strawberries (hulled)
  • 50 grams caster sugar + brown sugar
 for the topping:
  • 100 grams plain flour
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 75 grams cold butter (diced)
  • 100 grams muesli
  • 75 grams sugar+ brow sugar
  • double cream/ice cream (to serve)
 

#SundayCooking: Burgers

One of our favorite menu for Lunch/Dinner is Burger!. A homemade patty is really simple to make and it tastes even more delicious than the one that ready to buy.
You could also decide how thick the beef patty is, depends on how you like it.

There are lots of recipe from books/internet to make beef patty, I usually use this recipe:

3 small Red Onion
2 small Garlic
1/2 of small Onion
All slices and cook them with Olive Oil until half cooked

300 gr Minced Beef - less fat is more juicy
Herbs and spices (Rosemary/Italian Herbs Mix, Black Pepper, Garlic Powder)
Worchestersheir Sauce & BBQ Sauce
Breadcrumbs (instead of using breadcrumbs, I use a Wholegrain bread, toast and then crush them into pieces) 
Salt
Olive Oil
4 Burger Buns

How to:
Combine half cooked union/garlic to the beef, add herbs, add 1 Tbs Sauce Worchestersheir & BBQ Sauce, crushed wholegrain bread to the beef and then mixed them all with your hand.
Divide the mixture into 4 equal portions shape each portion with your hands into a patty.

Place the patties onto a tray lined with- greaseproof paper. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to rest. Chilling the patties will help them hold together when cooked. This also allows the flavours in the patties to blend and develop. If you chill the patties for any longer, increase the cooking time slightly.

Heat half the olive oil in a large, non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat and cook half the patties for about 4 minutes on each side or until browned and cooked through. It is important to cook mince right through because it has a larger ratio of surface area to volume than whole pieces of meat, and is therefore at greater risk of contamination by bacteria in the air. Transfer the patties to a plate, set aside and keep warm. Repeat with the remaining oil and patties.

For the buns, preheat grill on high. Place the hamburger buns, cut-side up, under the preheated grill and toast for 1 minute or until golden. 
To Serve, Spread mayonnaise on the buns add beef patty and sauted garlic & mushroom on top of it. You could also add shredded lettuce and tomato first or Cheese before.
Served with side dish, mixed veggies and french fries.

Enjoy your Burger with a homemade beef patty!



NYE Family Dinner - Steak Party

It's time to be Thankful for what we had in 2013 and to cherish the a new excitement on 2014.

We didn't go anywhere to Celebrate New Year's Eve, so I made a Family Dinner for 4 of us. Oh yes, we're expecting another baby this 2014 that's why we're very blessed and so excited.

We planned to have Steaks night complete with salad (minus dessert).

Start with Fruit Salad: Mixed of Grapes, Apples, Pineapples and Strawberries. Mixed with dressing: mayonnaise, lemon zest, a bit of milk (sweetened) and grated cheese.









Mixed Veggies from Asparagus, Baby Carrots, Baby Potatoes. Baked them with drizzled of Olive oil, rosemary, black pepper and sea salts.
Main Course: Rib Eye Steak and Sirloin Steak. Somehow I pan fried them a bit too long so it's too well done. Oh well, since I only cannot eat rare/medium steak so it's fine. I only marinated them with garlic powder, black pepper, italian herbs, sea salts and butter for only half an hour. And then cook in a pan with a bit of Olive oil.



Also made French Fries for the big boy.
I made a wasabi mashed potato. It's just a usual mashed potato with added wasabi on it. Not too much though.. only to get the taste of it. Surprisingly Wasabi goes really well with mashed potato.

Since I didn't make a dessert, so I made a refreshing drink to complete the after taste, a fresh Lemonade with Soda.

Totally full and happy tummy! And now we're waiting for the count down.

3..2..1.. Happy New Year!

Goodbye 2013, You've been awesome to us and Hello 2014
We're excited to see you :D


Easy Breakfast: Bread, Eggs and Asparagus

I love making an easy breakfast for me (and my family) and I try to do different menus everyday. Somehow it challenged me to be more creative each day.

No need a fancy ingredients.. sometimes you only need a bread or eggs that's already enough. I will try to post many variations of what breakfast that I usually make.


Let's have breakfast!