Sponge Finger (Dessert Base)

In life imagination and expectations always turns out different. And some people maybe more artistic, or creative or something that is your own strength.

I was never the artistic person, a bit of creative maybe but I always tried my best. LoL! And remember never to be dishearted when things dont go your way, somehow some stuff are never meant to be! The same goes for friendship, relationship and even kinship. Toxic people just let go, mingle less if you cant. Year is coming to an end, lets set off to a more positive vibes year in 2022! Ok, getting a bit heavy now! 😅

Today I tried making some sponge fingers from scratch as I wan to build my own christmas house. Turns out I didnt have the flair for it so I decided to use it as a base for my dessert! 

Since I have some whipped cream and frozen fruits and ta-daaa~~~ Our after dinner dessert is ready! Now chilling in the fridge for us to eat later on! 😋😋 After putting them in a box, looks like a snowglobe to me! Actually its a great gift to make for your friends too!

I tried 2 ways of baking the sponge and as it is too light, the rack on top of paper works better for me! And freshly baked sponge fingers is not so dry as compared to storebought and taste so much better! So here today, sharing my sponge fingers recipe along with my failed house and tree pics! 🙊

Sponge Finger (recipe adapted from Cookidoo)

4 whites

4 yolks

80g icing sugar

Pinch of salt

120g plain flour

1) Sift flour and set aside

2) Whip whites and salt til soft peaks

3) Continue whipping whites and add in icing sugar gradually, til glossy stiff peaks

4) Fold in flour gently and lightly, without overmixing

5) Pipe onto baking paper your desired sizes

5) Sprinkle icing sugar on the piped fingers and rest 5mins

6) Preheat oven to 180deg

7) Bake fingers for 10-12mins x 180deg or til top is nicely browned

#priscillacooksnov

Bacon Rolls - 2 Way

 Yay to another western meal! (we had homemade burgers for lunch too hahaha) Does the coriander looks like christmas tree in the photo?

We had 2 types of rolls today, sneaking in some capsicums to bluff the kids! Great as appetizer or serve with your carbs. 

The kids totally loved it and even asked to try the spicy ones. NO ONE MENTION THE CAPSICUMS! Mummy wins hands down! 🙊 Actually the only time I eats capsicums too! LOL! Can u see the chicken still so juicy and the colourful strips of capsicums! 😋

Made some teriyaki tossed pasta with greens to go along. Total fuss-free cooking without any grease! 😋😋 Yummy! 

Bacon Rolls - Curry and Non spicy version

Bacon strips (I used 300g pack)

500g of chicken thigh meat, in big cubes

3 col capsicums, cut strips

Nonspicy marinate : 1Tbsp each of Blackpepper, onion powder, mixed herbs 

Curry marinate: 1Tbsp curry powder, 1Tbsp onion powder, 1/2tsp Chilli flakes

1) Marinate chicken with above for 1-2hrs

2) Put chicken on 1 end of bacon strip, and 4-5 strips of capsicums then roll up tightly and secure with a toothpick

3) Grill on Hi x 10mins, flip and grill another 5-8mins til meat is cooked

(Pls adjust accordingly to the size of chicken cube)

Teriyaki Tossed Pasta

Angel Hair, 4 pax portion

3Tbsp Homemade teriyaki sauce

1/2 cup water

1) Boil angel hair to al dente and drain. Set aside. 

2) Add water and teriyaki sauce and press saute mode on Hi and bring to boil

3) Off heat and add in pasta then toss them well. Season with some black pepper before serving.

#priscillacooksnov

Sea Salt Chocolate Tart w/Christmas Choux

 Actually wanna make some sea salt chocolate tart and last nite during a meeting, we were talking about christmas tree made up of choux! 

Then it somehow brought me thinking to combine them

both and also have a chance to try out fixing a christmas tree with my choux! 

I would prefer using chocolate callets as the hershey chips cant really set well. It is more like flowy chocolate filling when u bite it! Tastewise, it is good cos I am using the sea salt chips! So tasty with the bits of sea salt sprinkle on top of the tarts! 

I lightly assemble the choux on my 6” tart, filled with the chocolate filling. Carefully adding some toothpicks for those choux above to secure them! Wearing a santa hat for my tree! Ta-daaa~~ So cute!!!

Sea Salt Chocolate Filling

125ml Whipping cream

110g Hershey sea salt choc chip (works better with choc callet)

Sea salt for garnish

Choux recipe is here

Tart recipe is here

1) Put water in pot and put in steam rack. Saute mode Hi

2) Place pot with whipping cream on rack and wait for water to bring to boil

3) Add in chocolate chips, close lid and off power. Wait 3-5mins

4) Open and stir them well. Used as desired. 

Simple Early Christmas Dinner

 

A pre-christmas trial dinner today! 

Baked a orange marinated chicken, along with homemade herbs & garlic butter shortcrust pastry and a homebaked orange cake with creamcheese frosting 😋

Chicken is so juicy and nicely marinated with the orange juice and herbs. Loved to baked chicken in my ninjafoodi, always gives me crispy skin and juicy meat! 

Hub love the shortcrust pastry christmas tree, the homemade herbs & garlic butter was so tasty! I think oldest love it too as she asked for more of it! I totally love the spread cos it makes the whole pastry smells and taste so great! Crusty and filled with garlicky herb fragrance ❤️

The orange cake was moist and goes super well with the creamcheese frosting! I love the slight tangy taste from the creamcheese frosting that compliments the orange fragrance from the cake. My eldest says ‘The white thing is so GOOD!’ and I agree with her too! 

So what did you had for dinner today? 😋😋 Now I am stuffed! 

Orange Baked Chicken

1 orange, juiced

Some orange wedges, thinly sliced

1Tbsp onion powder

1Tbsp dried parsley flakes

Pinch of black pepper

1) Marinate and rub above seasoning all over chicken and stuff some oranges inside chicken

2) Bake chicken 180deg x 30mins

3) Flip and bake another 15mins 

Herbs & Butter Garlic Christmas Shortcrust pastry 

30g Butter

5-6 garlic cloves, chopped

1Tbsp mixed herbs

Shortcrust pastry

1) Mixed butter, chopped garlic and mixed herbs

2) Put shortcrust pastry on baking paper and spread the above butter mix on 1 side of pastry then fold and seal edges

3) Use a cutter to cut out the shape of a christmas tree 

4) Cut the sides and twist them

5) Bake at 180deg x 25mins or til its nicely browned.

Orange Cake with Creamcheese frosting

(unable to share cake recipe as its a private bake along class)

Creamcheese frosting

42g creamcheese

30g butter

50g icing sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

1) Mix all above ingredients with a handwhisk til smooth.

2) Use as desired

Lemon Curd Tart

 

Decided to bake some Lemon Curd Tarts as gifts, using a simple short crust pastry recipe. With my thermomix, I jus simply add all the ingredients for my Lemon curd and I am almost ready to go!

I saw this idea of someone using the extrerior of the tart shell to make the flowery pattern and decided to have a go. And I realised mine was too narrow and not detailed enough so cant see the petal details. 🤦🏼‍♀️ (PS: Time to go shopping again)

Loved all my baking boxes and cases as it helps to make the tarts more beautiful! The tarts inside the cupcake cases reminds me of little snowball! So so cute!!

Taste so tangy and so good! 🤤🤤

 Short Crust Pastry (From cookidoo)

100g icing sugar

200g unsalted butter, cut into cubes

370g plain flour

1 egg

1tsp vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

1) Using rub-in method, rub icing sugar and butter til it resemblemce breadcrumbs

2) Add in egg, salt & vanilla to knead into a dough, working fast so butter do not melt

3) Shape into a disc and cling wrap for 1 hour before using

4) Roll out to desired thickness and cut out preferred portion to make tart shells 

5) Bake 180deg x 15mins

6) Cool before removing them from tart shell

7) Use with desired filling 

(I am using Lemon Curd from cookidoo recipe) 

Honey Soy Grill Chicken

Trying to use chinese-style recipes to do a chinese dinner for Christmas! 

Today tried making Honey Soy chicken and I believe this will be a good main course for kids and serving them on skewers makes it easier for them to eat! 😋😋

Made some Sambal Petai with my hub too! I believe he will be happy to have this with a bowl of rice as compared to all the roast turkey and ham! 🙊

Honey Soy Grill Chicken

300g chicken thigh, big pieces

2Tbsp honey

1Tbsp dark soy

1tsp Mirin

Pinch of black pepper

1) Marinate chicken thigh pieces with above marinate for 2-3hours

2) Put on grill x10mins, flip and grill 5mins

3) Use marinade sauce and add cornnstarch mixture to thicken it. Serve grill chicken with sauce on the sides

Creamcheese Ravioli

Had some leftover ribs and beef and decided to finish them for next day lunch. Thinking what carbs to go with it and decided to make some creamcheese ravioli! 

This is my first time making so the night before I was trying to decide what sauce, and what filling should I use. Finally decided on creamcheese filing and pair with the leftover stew!

 Had a short video of how easy it is too wrap n make them at home! 

I even did a quick tom yum soup for my portion!!  So spicy n tangy with the creamcheese!! 

A dear friend shared a baked version ravioli to me! So i wrapped some with prawns to have it like an appetizer!! So yummy!!

This recipe is so easy to work with! I think we can have fresh pasta as and when we want. With or without filling and it will be so fun for the kids to try making them in the own special shapes too! ❤️

Hope you will enjoy this recipe as much as I do! Uncooked ravioli can be freeze for up to 2 weeks too! 

 

Pasta Dough (recipe from cookidoo)

• 200 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 2 eggs (53-63 g each)
• 1tsp pumpkin powder
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 
• Filling: 
• 100g creamcheese mixed with basil flakes, pinch of truffle salt, soften
• 6 prawns

1) Knead above with a mixer til it forms a dough and rest for 15mins (dough will be slightly crumbly)

2) Roll dough out and cut into rectangular strips then spoon 1 tsp of filling and put at 1 side of the pasta strips

3) Use fork to press down and form a square ravioli, repeat til all is finished

4) Boil in hot water + pinch of salt til ravioli is cooked (approx 3-5mins depending on size), drain and set aside

5) Put on serving plate and serve warm 

Truffle Prawn Risotto

Thinking of doing a main carbs for Christmas to serve along with the meats or seafood. Thinking that rice is more filling than serving with mash, I decided to try out this Prawn Risotto from Martha Stewart. The recipe looks so simple and straightforward and I have all the ingredients at home!

You can always prepare this the last dish after finishing off the proteins as all it takes is a short 15mins or less. So yummy even serving it as a main on its own! 

Prawn Risotto (adapted with slight modifications from Martha Stewart)

4Tbsp butter

1/2 Onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

11/2 cup arborio rice

41/2cup chicken stock 

300g prawns, deshelled

3oz parmesan, grated and more for garnish

1tsp Truffle salt

Basil leaves

Black pepper

1) Put on saute mode, med hi and add in 2Tbsp butter

2) Add in onions and garlic and fry til you can smell the fragrance, around 3-4mins

3) Add in rice and cook while stirring it for around 1 min

4) Add in 3 cups of chicken stock and season lightly with salt and pepper

5) Pressure cook on high for 9mins and quick release

6) Add in remaining 11/2cup of stock and prawns and bring to a boil, while stirring til prawns are cooked

7) Add in parmesan, 2Tbsp butter, truffle salt and stir well

8) Serve warm with grated parmesan and basil to garnish

Beef Stew

 Previously I cooked this recipe using my thermomix and it was so well received by the family. Today I decided to share this recipe and use the pressure cook method to help speed up the time used to cook this dish! It can be prepare ahead for parties or gatherings and warm up later or kept warm in a thermal pot.

Very simple ingredients to put together. I am using briskets today. 

I love the slight tangy and thick sauce that it is cooked in. The beef is so tender and juicy that we kept dipping in breads to soaked up the flavourful sauce. This would go so well with baguette if you prefer too. I am using it as a pasta toppings today for the kids.

I baked some homemade croutons and pair with the beef stew. So shall we serve as a main, as a starter or? 

Beef Stew (adapted with slight modifications from Cookidoo)

2 brown onions, chopped

4 garlic cloves, chopped

30 g olive oil 

800 g beef brisket, cut into pieces (3 cm)

500 g chicken stock

2 tbsp Vegetable stock paste or Meat stock paste (see Tips)

350 g carrots, cut into rounds (1 cm)

100g cherry tomatoes

4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only (i omit as i ran out of them 🙈 )

3 dried bay leaves 

1Tbsp dark soy for col

sea salt, to taste

cornstarch to thicken 

1) Place onion, garlic and olive oil Saute Low-Med

2) Add beef and cook til it brown nicely on the outside on Saute Hi

3) Add all remaining ingredients and bring to a boil

4) Pressure cook on Hi x 30mins and natural release 

5) Add salt to taste, dark soy sauce for some colour and thicken it 

6) Serve with choice of carbs

Grilled Ribs

Wanted to do a simple ribs for christmas as it is always a favourite on our meat platter! Love to have it soft and tender that it can come off the bones easily! Great for adults and kids to eat without ‘fighting’ with the bone. 😅

Thinking I have some thyme at home, decided to do a simple marinade. Finish off with grilling the pressure-cooked ribs and thickening the marinade as a sauce to serve it with 😋

Loving how the subtle honey taste goes with the thyme. Meat is soft and comes off easily like how we want it to be. Serving with some greens on the sides to balance out the grilled meat. Definitely a keeper to redo on christmas itself! Try it and let me knw!

Was playing with plating earlier on. Which do you prefer?

Grilled Ribs

1 baby ribs rack

1sprig thyme, leaves only

2 clove garlic, chopped

1 sliced ginger, chopped

2Tbsp honey

2Tbsp garlic powder

1) Put seasoning in blender and do a quick blend and rub over ribs. Best overnight if not 2-3hrs

2) Pressure cook with a bowl of water on Hi x 30mins and let it natural release. Poke with chopsticks to check softness preferred

3) Grill x 10mins and baste with marinade liquid and flip and grill another 5mins

4) Serve with choice of greens

Mala Flavoured Lok Lok Sticks

Decided to share some chill out ideas on Christmas with my favourite lok lok sticks! Made the mala sauce myself with a few simple ingredients and its ready to go! 

Made some teriyaki-flavoured sticks for the kiddos too, with the homemade teriyaki sauce too! Nice finger food for the kids and adults during gatherings or meetups! 

Simple grill and serve along with your choice of booze! A great way to chill the night off on Christmas eve, counting down together to open all the presents pass midnights!  

Mala Flavoured Lok Lok Sticks

Chicken leg, cube (dun cut too small so easier to poke thru)

Some other ingrdients of your choice

I used:

Taiwan sausage

Small franks

Small ngor hiang

Mala sauce (from Cookidoo)

50g oil

5 garlic cloves

2-3pcs ginger slice

100g Spicy bean paste (辣豆瓣酱) *I added more

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

3/4 dried chilli

1tsp sichuan Peppercorn, optional (i omit cos i dun like the numbing)

1) Heat up oil

2) Add all ingredients and fry til fragrant

3) Cool it before using it as marinade for the skewers

4) Grill on 8mins, baste with marinade and grill another 5mins. Remove sausages and ngor hiang then continue to grill chicken another 5-8mins til its cooked

5) Serve with rice and some cucumber on the sides

Choux Pastries Christmas Theme

Wanna make something christmassy and decided to make some meringue christmas tree as topper for my choux. Been a while I had some choux and since my thermomix can help me with it, so why not?

It very easy to fix up the choux pastry with my thermomix and I am so glad that my choux puff up nicely in my ninjafoodi. 🤞🏻🤞🏻 Well done to my 🥷

So nicely puff up right!!! Love it. I rem doing stove top training my arm muscles and it is not 100% success rate! Woohoooo! So excited!

If you are lazy, whipped cream and sprinkles does the job too! I tried piping a christmas hat, christmas tree and a round wreath. Doesnt seems that alike but the whole deco makes the choux so pretty! 

All packed and ready to share fats with my neighbours! A nice gifts for your frens too.!!

Choux pastry (recipe from cookidoo)

*Pipe into bigger base and cut into halves

• 
  
• 150 g water 
• 80 g butter, unsalted, cut in pieces
• 1 pinch salt 
• 2 tsp sugar (10 g)
• 120 g plain flour 
• 3 medium eggs
• 
  
• Place water, butter, salt and sugar in mixing bowl and bring to a boil.
• Add flour and mix into a thick consistency.  Remove and set aside to cool for 10 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with baking paper and set aside.
• Once mixture is cooled, add eggs one at a time and ensure it it nicely mixed in
• Transfer pastry mixture to a piping bag and pipe into balls leaving 5 cm space between each. 
• Bake for 15 minutes (180 deg) or until golden brown. 
• Once all batches are done, i put back to the hot ninjafoodi to cool and dry while leaving the lid ajar
• Remove tray from oven and allow choux pastries to cool completely before serving or filling as desired

**note: I am using ninjafoodi similar to airfryer so i cut baking time and temp

**For oven pls bake at 200deg x20-25mins and let it cool with door ajar for 10mins

• Swiss meringue (recipe from cookidoo)

*omit vanilla and uses pandan gel instead

• 100 g icing sugar 
• 2 egg whites 
• 1 tsp lemon juice 
• 1 pinch salt 
• 1 tsp pandan gel
• pure icing sugar, for dusting
• 
  
• Double boil egg whites, lemon juice and salt into mixing bowl and whip til soft peaks
• Then remove and continue to whip while lowly adding sugar 
• Add pandan gel and mix until colour is mixed through evenly. 
• Transfer into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle (10 mm).
• To assemble, cut cooled choux puffs into halves horizontally. Pipe Swiss meringue generously over bases, top with a meringue christmas tree and dust with icing sugar before serving immediately.

Korean Style Chicken Chop

 

Decided to do a korean style chicken chop serving it with salad for us. Trying to go carb-less as much to diet for upcoming CNY 🙊

I added grill vegetables on the sides while baking my chicken chop. Brush them all with the marinade liquid before i start baking. Halfway thru just remember to remove your chicken so that they wont be overly charred. 

Burger or salad? This is for grandma, she still need to be fed full full hor! 🙊🙊 Love the marinade and goes so well with the salad on the sides! 

Try and tell me which u prefer. Serve with salad or burger bun?

Korean Style Chicken Chop (adapted from cookidoo)

• Marinade (enough for 4 boneless leg)
• 2 garlic cloves,chopped 
• 30 - 40 g Korean chilli paste (gochujang), to taste
• 1 ½ Tbsp caster sugar 
• 1 ½ Tbsp sesame oil 
• 1 Tbsp sesame seeds 
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce 
• 1 Tbsp water 
• ½ Tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 Boneless chicken leg
• 
  
• Mixed veg of your choice
• 
  
• 1) Marinate chicken leg with above seasonings for at least 2-3hours
• 2) Add chicken leg and mixed vegetables of your choice into Ninjafoodi. Bake 180 deg x15 mins skinside up, then flip and bake another 8mins. Flip and aircrips another 3mins to crisp up skin.
• 3) Serve with choice of sides and enjoy

Teriyaki Salmon Burger

 

Decided to serve burgers for lunch! Made some homemade teriyaki sauce to seasoned my salmon patties! Yums! Homemade sauces always taste best. 

Can use salmon fillet if you do not want to use patties, or use on any other meats too! Just lightly brushed them and send in to bake! Ta-daaa~~~ A yummy Teriyaki salmon burger is ready! 😋

Salmon Burger

2Tbsp homemade teriyaki sauce (recipe below)

2 Salmon patty (or u can use 2 salmon fillet)

Pinch of black pepper

1) Brush sauce and sprinkle black pepper on salmon patty

2) Put to grill x 8mins, flip and grill another 8mins

3) Assemble with burger cheese, lettuce, drizzle some mayonaise, chilli flakes (optional) and burger bun

Serve warm with choice of sides

Teriyaki Sauce (modified from Cookidoo)

• 15 g fresh ginger, peeled and cut into thin slices
• 1 garlic clove 
• 50 g mirin 
• 200 g water
• 100 g soy sauce 
• 150 g brown sugar 
• 3 tsp cornflour

1) Chop garlic and ginger into paste-like

2) Add all ingredients into a sauce pot and cook over low heat, stirring them til it reaches a thick consistency

3) Strain and cool before storing in an airtight container

Sweet Potato Truffle Fries

 

Love the baked potato fries and decided to try and play with Jap sweet potato! This time round I toss them with truffle salt so that it will be nicely seasoned after baking them ❤️

Very easy peasy, freshly baked and crisp well. It is slightly drier as compared to normal potatoes. Feels like roasted sweet potatoes, tad drier. Overall the truffle salt seasoned it nicely! 

Sweet Potato Truffle Fries

3 Jap Sweet Potatoes, cut in strips

2Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1tsp truffle salt

1tsp parsley flakes

1) Bake 180deg x 15mins

2) Toss and aircrisp 160deg x 3mins 

Serve with mains

Confetti Meringue

 

Made some meringues for the kids to snack on! And i wanna share a hack!! 

Rem hw ppl were saying baking paper keep flying? Light food tt u bake will fly? When my first batch of meringue flew, suddenly i realised i can use the metal rack to sit on my baking paper! YAY! no more flying! 

Jus leave it in my ninjafoodi to slowly cool down after baking. Prop over a cooling rack so it kept ajar. Kids had it with some fruits for snack! Sugar rush!

Confetti Meringue (recipe from cookidoo)

3 whites

114g sugar

1-2drops pandan extract

1. Whip whites til bubbles form

2. Continue whipping whites and add sugar bit by bit until its finished

3. Add a few drops of pandan extract and mix another 30seconds.

4. Pipe on baking paper, sprinkle with some colourful sprinkles and bake at 120deg x 60-75mins, depending on size of meringue

5. Leave it to cool with door ajar once done baking

**All steps remain same except that I used pandan extract instead of colourings

Yam Rice (Ninjafoodi)

Since I have some leftover yam, I decided to make some Yam rice for grandma as she requested. Decided to try out my own style of making it, abit similar to cooking claypot rice style previously.  

Very simple ingredients and sauces, yet so flavourful. Best is another Grandma-approved dish cos she ‘ordered’ this with the leftover yam from making Yam cake the other day! ❤️

Try it! Took less than 30mins to get this fast meal done! Plating or no plating also looks so flavourful! 😋 

Yam Rice

2cups rice

2cups water

handful of dried shrimps (soaked)

200-250g yam, cubes

200g minced meat

red onions, chopped

2Tbsp oyster sauce

3-4Tbsp dark soy sauce 

1tsp five spice powder

Pinch of pepper

2Tbsp cooking oil

1. Saute mode med-hi: Put in oil, dried shrimps and onions and stir fry til fragrant.

2. Add minced meat and yam and fry til meat changes colour

3. Add in water, seasoning and rice then give a quick stir.

4. Close lid, set to seal, pressure cook on hi x 5mins and let it sit for 10mins before quick release

Serve warm