wednesday awesomeness: birthday cake for the lover

It was a perfect scenario, he went for biking with his pals and there I was on Wednesday night , blasting my internet radio channel in the kitchen, and started making some birthday cake batter for the very first time. All is due to the Mayan Chocolate that my sister brought me from Mexico. Its been staring at me for weeks and I felt bad for not trying to make something good out of it.

 It was right for staring at me and put the thoughts in my brain.

Although I failed the suprise ( he opened the fridge before I attempted to secure and hide the cake), I am glad for the real good suprise:

Velvety.         Smooth    . Yummy.    Chocolatey.     Coffee.      Rich. Orange     . Love.         Creamy. Cheese    .  Dark Chocolate.  Soft.      Tangy.          Mocha.

                                       Love.       Love.  Over the Moon Lover~

So here I share with you my recipe for Wednesday night awesomeness, just in case you celebrate the birthday on Wednesday, or any other day will do!

Adapted from dark chocolate from Allrecipes

Cake:

• 2 cups boiling water

• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3 tablespoon of instant coffee

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 1 ¾ cups white sugar

• 4 egg and don't  forget  1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract  for some heavenly goodness

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 2 - 9 inch round cake pans. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa , and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Last put in the instant coffee and mix batter gently and throw it into the 2 greased pans.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool.

Icing:

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 table spoon of orange rinds

• 2 table spoon of orange marmalade jam

• In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the powder sugar. Put in the orange rinds and marmalade jam the last.Store in the refrigerator after use.

Once you prepared the cake and the icing, take out the cake from the pans and flatten the uneven sides of the cake by carving the cake horizontally. Cover the top with cream cheese icing and put the other cake on top. Cover the whole cake with cream cheese icing and finish it off with shaved chocolate, orange rinds, and coffee!

Good luck : good Eat!

Passion + Patience *Gastrobutterfly* A food to your soul.

The day after Turkey Dinner

Happy Christmas!

Holiday is the joyous season in the house. A fresh oven baked treats, the fragrant vanilla is perfuming the house. The best part is when the family come together to say grace and be thankful for the juicy turkey and provisions for the year. I am keen on those memories. Over the years I have always been the “guest”-in charge. Besides the pressure to forget the caloric count, nothing much I have to prepare to enjoy the night really. I have been blessed to be in a family of self taught cooks. However, this year is rather special; we finally have a family of our own and a new tradition to follow. I think I understand the glimpse of stress for putting together a decent Christmas dinner. But if you are open to new ideas, Christmas dinner might just be a little easier.

Last week I made my second turkey ever for some who never have any. Lemon pepper seasonings and garlic pampered the turkey with burst of flavour. For sure worth the wait. Also, a crowd pleaser falls to the Spinach Pom Man salad with simple honey balsamic reduction. I am featuring these two on my next blog since my friend has the pictures.

But the real deal is what’s next after the big night? Cinderella is back riding on her pumpkin? I find the meal after such a celebration could be quite tricky. What about left overs?

I specially love the lemon seasonings on my turkey since it is simple and fresh, allowing me to layer more flavour for left over. I sprinkled the meat with some Italian seasoning and  panko  crumbs .Since its already cooked, drizzled with olive oil  I  baked it for 10 minutes under low broil just to give a little texture. In a boiling pan I cooked some “acini di pepe pasta”  any type of pasta meanwhile sautéing some onions, garlic, bacon, sundried tomatoes and broccoli. Once the pasta is half cooked, I incorporate them into my bacon mixture.  Top with just enough chicken broth, salt and pepper, we have a complete stress free yummy dinner!

Make 4 servings

Ingredients

200 -300 grams of turkey meat left overs

½ cup of panko crumbs mixed with 1 tbsp of Italian seasoning

Olive oil, 1tbsp of chopped onion, ½ tbsp of garlic

½ cup of Chicken broth

2 tbsp of chopped sundried tomatoes

1 cup of broccoli

300 grams of pepe pasta (follow cooking instruction)

Passion + Patience *Gastrobutterfly* A food to your soul.

Sweet Grilled Beef Back Ribs

I am guilty as charged for not updating this blog for more than a week!  I had prepared everything before hand and thought about possible things to write a week in advance, and still with Christmas arriving already for a retailer, I had to be at the front line of my duty for 15 hour sometime in a day putting decorations and making the store as merry as it can be. You know it Christmas is here when Starbucks have their holiday cup! Some of the holiday famous purchase of the week: dried fruits, sultana raisins and more glazed cherries!  Over the chit chat two customers suggested me to soak raisins in gin for a week to battle with any kind of pain.  She said: shoulder pain, internal pains, joint stiffness etc. I hope watching me work was not that painful; I wonder where the suggestions come from. But I had an aha moments seriously thinking, how did this people know what I am dealing with everyday. Ha!

So, this week has been more a survival for the fittest period for me, not to forget the flu season got me too! I am so glad the holiday season prop has been set up well and now is time for me to get back to my real hobby; to write and picture it in 7x11 inch sets of image. But maybe if you are lucky  we will get to a bowl of raisins soak in gin or rum prefferably, oh but it only work with gin if you want to heal any kind of pain ( quoting a customer).

This week food is very far from any merry alcoholic infused dishes. It is just a simple beef ribs marinated in soya sauce and other earthy spices. I served it with tomatillos hot sauce over a bed of rice.

Here are the ingredients:

1 kg of beef back ribs

In a zip lock bag mixed the marinating ingredients:

1tbsp of brown sugar

1 ½ tbsp of minced garlic

2 tsp of coriander powder

1tsp of minced ginger

1/2tsp of cinnamon

1 star anise

½ tsp of black pepper

½ tsp of salt

Lemon juice from 1 lemon

5 tbsp of Indonesian sweet soya sauce

Marinate the beef ribs for at least a day to make sure a flavourful meat.

Preheat the oven for 350 F  cook for  45 minutes ( with the aluminum cover),  open the aluminum cover ,drain the juice and change it to broil  for 15-20 minutes to give a smoky texture . Brush the ribs with the juice once in a while to keep it moist and a layered flavours!

 Hopefully the picture is enough to keep your eyes busy for now.

Passion + Patience *Gastrobutterfly* A food to your soul.

My Grandfather's Macaroni Schotel

 

The best food is a food born out of love. Eating this special dish recalls precious memories and spread the warmth snugly feeling inside your soul, or nothing too instantly. You feel unpretentious and comfortable on your skin because of the simple message it conveys (love) or you may feel nothing at first. It will grow in you and take a little space of your heart and it will stay under a reserved area that is always special.

My Grandfather's Macaroni Schotel

 

For me, the name is Macaroni Schotel, the irreplaceable taste of my very dear late grandfather’s Mac & Cheese. My mother siblings love it, and all the grandchildren grow up with it within a walk away. Yes, he loved walking. Whether it is a 1 km or 5km, my grandfather is the man who would get up early in the dawn to sip his coffee and cook his grandchildren favourite’s foods and visit us with a warm yummy foods wrapped in a kitchen cloths as soon as it is ready to eat. I don’t know which one comes first, our favourite foods or his foods, because ultimately what he cooked for us is our favourites. I remember all the moments with him very vividly. He was the best cook I know who showed passion and love in every food he made, it was so sad that He passed away before any of us could digest how much our love of food is his legacy.

Nobody can make the meanest Macaroni Schotel like my grandpa. Not my mum, not my aunties, not even my uncle or my grandma, even when all of them know the exact ingredients. You see, my grandpa was a bold person, and it showed in his cooking. He put the best and fattiest milk and the best Edam cheese and smoked ham. The rest of the family is way too scared of the high cholesterol profiles ingredients and stayed away from it. We, the children were exempted, we were growing and young we need the “good fat”. I am glad for the spoonful of love that we tasted

.

Today I want to share with you this warm feeling through a recreation of my grandfather Macaroni Schotel; obviously with some ingredients substituted mainly because Iam not as bold as he was.

This is what I used:

6 cups of water to boil 2 ½ cups of fussily pasta for 8 minutes

100 grams of fermier ham ( the best from quebec)

100 grams of cremini mushrooms

1 tsp of minced garlic

½ tsp of chicken bouillon powder

¼  of sweet onions minced

1 ½ cups of milk

3 tbsp of flour

80 grams of smoked gouda cheeses

50 grams of silani mozzarella cheese

2 tbsp of butter of substitute with olive oil

Pinch of nutmeg

Panko crumbs

Salt and black pepper to taste

Once you prepared the ingredients, boil the fusilli or macaroni pasta al dente, then you sauté the onion and garlic with butter/olive oil. Once its browned, throw in the mushroom and the cut up hams until the mushroom wilts. Put in the flour to make a roux and then pour in the milk, and the pasta. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. If you are so tempted like me I normally stop at this stage and put in the cheeses and eat it right away. But, if you are patient enough, you could put in the pasta into a baking pan and top it with the cheese and panko crumbs on top.

Baked it for 10 minutes on broil to make the top crispy or bake for 20 minutes on 350 F for crusty, schotel version of the Macaroni. Whatever works for you should be good.

I treasured the memories with my grandfather very much and I miss him a lot. Macaroni Schotel is just one thing that always brings me a little warm fuzzy feeling. What is your best treasured memories of food?

Passion + Patience *Gastrobutterfly* A food to your soul.