Monday, June 24, 2013

How To Make Easy No Bake Chocolate Pots de Creme with Fresh Berries And Fruit Compote

Chocolate Pot de Creme with Fresh Berries & Fruit Compote
A super duper easy dessert to make. Totally right up my alley.

Luscious chocolate, a kick of tartness from the compote and fresh summer berries.
Chocolate Pot de Creme with Fresh Berries & Fruit Compote
Perfect.
Recipe
(adapted from May's recipes Chocolate Pot De Creme)
Serves 6 (but I made this into 4 bigger portions)
The chocolate
- 100g dark chocolate
- 1/2 tsp instant coffee
- 250 ml cream
- 30g white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tsp whiskey (omit if making for kids)
- a pinch of sea salt

Chop chocolate, place into mixing bowl.
Put cream and sugar into saucepan, add vanilla and salt. Bring to almost boil.
Pour into chopped chocolate, add instant coffee & whiskey. Set for 1 minute, beat until smooth and shiny.
Pour into ramekins, let cool, chill for at least 5 hours.

The fruit compote (optional)
- a handful of berries (I used 3 strawberries and 7 blueberries)
- a tbsp of water
- 1 tsp sugar
Chop berries, place in sauce pan, cook using low heat. Keep cooking until fruit became softened and produced some liquid. Add a bit of water if needed. Add sugar bit by bit until you achieve balance between tartness and sweetness. Let cool, add into chocolate pot de creme with fresh fruits...

...or eat with toasts, or croissants, or bacon... the sky is the limit really.

Now... dig into that luscious pot of chocolatey fruity goodness.
Chocolate Pot de Creme with Fresh Berries & Fruit Compote
Happy summer!

Monday, June 17, 2013

Happy Father's Day Homemade Dinner

Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
We had a simple dinner at home celebrating Father's Day. I didn't make that cake. It's a black and white chocolate mousse cake from Arome bakery, costs about HK$160 (credit card discount) with a free pack of "Japanese" cookies. Good deal!

The dinner prep was really a father-son bonding session. What on earth were they trying to make?
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong

This. Homemade roast pork - the recipe comes with the halogen cooking pot.
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong

Did it work?
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
We love how it is transparent and we can all argue about the state of the food in the cooking pot. Perfect ice breaker for family gathering!

The father-son bonding only got stronger from there.
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
Proven by how SC and his dad collaborated plucking out remnants of pig hair...

...and after 15+30 minutes... voila!
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
Tasty roast pork! The meat's tender enough. The skin could use a little more poking, but not bad at all!

Here's MIL whacking away the siu yuk. She looked damn cool doing it. Don't mess with her.
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
Tasted AMAZING with rice. Not advisable for those on low carb diet :D

We also had beef curry. Very spicy.
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong

And fish wrapped mangoes FIL learnt from TV.
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
If I could ever find that TV chef who taught this, Imma have to whack him/her with a cutting board. What a waste of beautiful fresh mangoes!

The cake has tool box shaped chocolate. Everybody loved it.
Homemade Happy Father's Day Dinner Hong Kong
I grew up without a dad, but I love celebrating father's day with SC's family :)

Happy belated father's day, y'all. Hope you had a fantastic father's day celebration :)

Monday, June 3, 2013

Easy French Onion Soup Recipe

French Onion Soup Jamie Oliver Recipe
I am not a big fan of French Onion Soup. The ones that I've tried were all too sweet for my taste. But when my friend suggested that we make our own version together, we instantly agreed. I figured that if we are making it ourselves, we could definitely adjust the flavors to suit my savoury taste ;) and we did just that.

We adapted a recipe posted on Jamie Oliver's website by a member, and we love how easy it is.
French Onion Soup Jamie Oliver Recipe
Here's the recipe.
Our adaptation:
- we omitted the egg yolks
- we used red wine
- we used gruyere and cheddar
- we seasoned with salt and white pepper until we achieved the perfect balance of sweet and savory, but bearing in mind that cheese will be added
- we added grated cheese, then croutons, then grated cheese again on top
- we'd consider adding mozzarella into the cheese mix next to add that "stringy melty" quality to it

French Onion Soup Jamie Oliver Recipe
The recipe mentioned that using croutons isn't convenient, but we did it and it was easy and yummy. We'd use croutons again.

French Onion Soup Jamie Oliver Recipe
Grilling in the oven.

French Onion Soup Jamie Oliver Recipe
Perfectly golden brown.

French Onion Soup Jamie Oliver Recipe
Out of this world.