Oscar Night

So tonight was the Academy Awards so we decided to host an Oscar's night with food inspired by the nominees. Among the best picture nominees, we couldn't think of anything for "The Fighter" but I think we fared pretty well for the most part.

For "Inception", I made spelt cheese crackers with an imprint of a maze:
"True Grit" was turned into these polenta (or grits) cakes topped off with a roasted grape tomato:
Choux pastry swans made black by black sesame paste is probably the easiest to guess for "The Black Swan":
"The Kids Are Alright" took a while to think of so these are marshmallow "boobs":
For "The King's Speech", we did tea sandwiches with a crown imprint:
A blue raspberry mix with 7up made this "Blue Valentine" drink:
The main thing in "127 Hours" is the scene where he cuts off his arm. We did full chicken wings:
These ribs were "Winter's Bone". More of a literal approach:
"Toy Story 3" had Mr. Potato Head so we had mini baked potato bites with sour cream and bacon chips:
"Alice In Wonderland" has magic mushrooms and the Queen of Hearts so these are mushrooms stuffed with a shrimp mixture and topped off with a ham heart:
These are spelt cupcakes topped off with a coffee buttercream and a Facebook disc for "The Social Network":

Overall, I think it was fairly successful. Definitely lots of fun:)

Butternut Squash Soup

Creamy butternut squash soup with a dollop of sour cream and crumbled chestnuts.

Roses are Red

The timing of this cake is very fitting since Valentine's day is just 2 days away. Although it is for an adorable girl's birthday, it can easily be adapted for your valentine. Bright pink and red roses all over a subtly pink background is very fun and beautiful at the same time. Underneath all the buttercream roses is a chocolate cake with ganache and chocolate buttercream.

Happy Chinese New Year!

The Year of the Rabbit is upon us again! I'm not really too enthused about Chinese New Year but I do have a soft spot for the food during this time so I took a stab at making Turnip Cake, or Lo Pak Goh. I looked up a few recipes online and kind of combined them all in one, changed a few things to taste and hoped for the best!

The result was way better than I expected. I do hope it's not beginner's luck though. Eating it pan-fried was the best! Crispy on the outside, and warm and soft on the inside. The flavor of the turnip was prominent enough and the bits of chinese sausage and dried shrimp? So good! Here's the recipe (for the flour/water mixture, when I made it, it looked like too much paste to daikon so I just measured out the 600g to mix in. You could probably calculate it out so you don't have to waste it):

Lo Pak Goh

800g grated daikon
200g water
1 tsp salt
300g rice flour
60g tang meng flour (wheat flour)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/3 cup dried shrimp, chopped
3 shiitake mushrooms, chopped
2 chinese sausages, chopped
2 green onions, chopped

-bring the water to a boil with the daikon and cook till soft
-drain the daikon and press and reserve the liquid
-saute the sausages, then the mushrooms lightly
-measure out 600g of the reserved liquid and heat up.
-mix the flours together with the salt and pepper
-pour the hot liquid on top of the flour and mix till combined
-measure out 600g of this mixture and add the remaining ingredients
-press into a cake pan and steam for 1 hour
-cool, cut into slices, and pan fry
-serve with oyster sauce

Last Minute Fruit Tarts

Rushing to get these fruit tarts done for my sister, a simple pate sucre, thin layer of raspberry jam, vanilla pastry cream, and fresh fruits. I had some extra pink modeling chocolate lying around so I did some quick roses out of that while watching tv (I love multi-tasking, haha).

Goat Cheese Dessert

Goat cheese for a sweet concoction may seem strange but it's still a cheese and it lends itself very well to a variety of fruits. This dessert isn't too sweet and is quite light on the palate even though goat cheese on its own can be quite strong. It is a goat cheese mousse with red wine roasted fruits and an oatmeal crumble.

Goat Cheese Mousse:

100g goat cheese
25g cream cheese
1 gelatin sheet, bloomed
140g cream
20g sugar

-scald 1/3 of the cream with the sugar and add the gelatin to dissolve.
-cream the cheeses together and add the warm gelatin mixture and whisk till smooth
-whip the remaining cream and fold it into the above mixture once it's cooled down
-pour into molds and freeze

Roasted Fruits:

15 blackberries
1 pear, diced
small handful of dried apricots, quartered
300ml red wine
80g brown sugar
1 vanilla pod
5 cloves
1 cinnamon stick

-toss everything together and roast in a 350F oven till fruits are soft and wine has reduced slightly. cool

Oatmeal Crumble:

100g butter
100g brown sugar
100g flour
50g oatmeal
pinch of salt

-mix everything till crumbly and bake in a 350F oven till golden brown.

Doughnuts

I love brioche. In any form. Brioche a tete, french toast made with brioche, brioche cinnamon buns, fried brioche. Yes, deep-fried brioche, aka: doughnuts! This is a recipe from Johnny Iuzzini's Dessert Fourplay that has citrus notes to it. He fills his with a creamy cheese mixture but I left mine plain 'cause I was too lazy to make a pastry cream.

Doughnuts

from Dessert Fourplay by Johnny Iuzzini

Sponge:
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1 cup lukewarm water (I used milk because I didn't have enough milk powder)
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup milk powder
1/2 cup flour

-sprinkle yeast over water and stir to dissolve. stir in remaining ingredients and leave at room temp till bubbly

Doughnut:
2 tbsp butter
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp salt
grated zest of 1 lemon
1/2 tsp lemon oil

-mix above ingredients till smooth. add the sponge and knead till elastic and smooth
-leave to proof overnight in the fridge.
-roll out the dough to 1/3 of an inch and cut out rounds
-proof till doubled in size
-fry in oil and drain on a paper towel
-toss immediately in a mixture of sugar and citrus zests (I used a drop each of lemon and lime oil)

The result was about 2 dozen of sugary, fluffy doughnuts scented with lemon. Yum.

Chocolate, Pear, Hazelnut

Gianduja mousse atop a chocolate feuilletine base. Slices of caramelized pear with a pear mousse to top it all off.

Steak Cake

A steak dinner complete with a baked potato and vegetables, all made from fondant and cake. The steak itself was a devil's food cake filled with chocolate buttercream. I really liked how the baked potato skin turned out as well as the broccoli florets.

Breakfast

French toast with maple syrup breakfast sausages. So calorific and so good! I soaked Challah bread in a mixture of egg, half and half, sugar, and orange blossom water overnight and pan-fried them over low heat with some honey butter (equal parts honey and clarified butter).