Mini bread bowls with toppings

Chicken piccata served with salsa

This is definitely one of my favorite recipes . The lemon flavor of the chicken is so zesty and appetizing . It matches perfectly with some refreshing salsa. What a perfect dish for summer . So what exactly is chicken piccata ? It is a dish originated in Italy using veal . Piccata is a method of preparing food- meat is sliced , coated , sauteed and served in a sauce . I like to serve it with copious amount of coriander . It's really fast and easy to cook but do turn on your ventilating fan in kitchen coz it can get quite oily.

Serves 2

Ingredients
2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, butterflied
pinch of salt/garlic salt and freshly ground black pepper
All-purpose flour, for dredging (just enough to coat both sides of the chicken breast)
90g unsalted butter (30g for sauce)
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup chicken stock
coriander, chopped

Salsa
1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced
1/4 red onion, diced
1 tomato with seeds removed, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
pinch of salt and black pepper
1 fresh lime juice
chili (optional)
coriander, chopped

Directions

1. Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper and marinate for about 15 minutes. Dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess.
2. Dice yellow pepper, red onion, tomato, mince garlic and chop coriander. Mix together. Add salt and pepper and lime juice. Stir well and set aside or keep in fridge to keep cool.
3. In a large skillet over medium high heat, melt 60 grams butter with olive oil. When butter and oil start to sizzle, add chicken and cook for 3 minutes. When chicken is browned, flip and cook other side for 3 minutes. Remove and transfer to plate.
4. Remove pan from heat, add lemon juice and chicken stock into the pan. Return the pan to stove and bring it to boil, scraping up brown bits from the pan for extra flavor.
5. Return chicken to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes with low heat.
6. Remove chicken to platter. Add remaining 30 grams butter to sauce and whisk vigorously.
7. Pour sauce over chicken and garnish with coriander. Serve it with salsa.

Adapted from
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chicken-piccata-recipe2/index.html

Raspberry swirl cheesecake cupcakes

This is the first cupcake I ever bake. I haven't even bought some beautiful cupcake liners yet. The reason why I chose this recipe was because of the beautiful swirls on the cupcakes. I'm an artistic person so it was fun for me to make the marbling with raspberry puree. The cupcakes were delicious but they were not as pretty as the one shown on the recipe. I like the freshness and tartness of the raspberries on the cheesecakes.

Not sure why my cupcakes looked quite puffed on the edge and sunk in the centre. Also, they looked more yellowish than the one in the recipe. It could be because the ingredients do not work perfectly when I divide everything by 4 or I didn't use the slow bake function of the oven.

Yield 8 cupcakes

Ingredients

For crust

5 digestive biscuits

20g unsalted butter, melted

0.75tbsp sugar

For raspberry swirl

1/4 box fresh raspberries

1/2 tbsp sugar

For filling

225g cream cheese, at room temperature

0.375 cup sugar

pinch of salt

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg, at room temperature

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 160C. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.
2. Crush the digestive biscuits in a food processor (or put in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin). In a small bowl, combine the crumbs, melted butter and sugar. Stir together with a fork until well blended and all the dry ingredients are moistened. Put 1 tbsp of the mixture into the bottom of each cupcake liner and evenly press the crumbs down by the bottom of a glass. Bake until just set, 5 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack.
3. To make the raspberry puree, combine the raspberries and sugar in a food processor. Process until smooth, then pour through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.
4. To make the cheesecake, beat the cream cheese on medium-high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy. Blend in sugar until smooth. Mix in the salt and vanilla. Beat in the egg and mix well.
5. To assemble, spoon 3 tbsp of the cheesecake batter over the crust in each cupcake liner. Dot a 1/2 tsp of the raspberry puree in a few dots over the cheesecake filling. Use a toothpick or wooden skewer to lightly swirl and create a marbled effect.
6. Bake until the filling is set, about 22 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack and let cool to room temperature. Transfer to refrigerator and let chill for at least 4 hours before serving.

Adapted from

http://annies-eats.com/2010/08/06/raspberry-swirl-cheesecake-cupcakes/

Chocolate fondant

I'm more of a savory person than a sweet person, although I'm actually quite sweet :D A while ago, I suddenly fell in love with a particular dessert - chocolate fondant. I had cravings for it all the time and could eat it several times a week! I never thought one day I could actually made this dessert by myself. This is the very first time I bake and of course I want to learn how to make my favorite dessert. It's much easier than I thought and I succeeded the first time. The hot and gooey chocolate oozing out from the chocolate fondant tasted like heaven.

Yield 5 fondants

Ingredients
melted butter, for brushing
100g good quality dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces (I used Green & Black's organic dark chocolate, 70%)
100g butter, in small pieces
100g sugar
80g plain flour
2 eggs and 2 yolks
5 quenelle of vanilla ice cream, to serve
5 cherries/strawberries, for garnish

Directions

1. Heavily brush the melted butter all over the pudding moulds/baking pan.
2. Place a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water, then slowly melt the chocolate and butter together. Remove bowl from the heat and stir until smooth. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and yolks together with the sugar until thick and pale yellow. Use an electric whisk if you want. Sift the flour into the eggs, then beat together.
4. Pour the melted chocolate into the egg mixture in thirds, beating well between each addition, until all the chocolate is added and the mixture is completely combined to a loose cake batter.
5. Evenly divide the fondant batter between the moulds. Do not fill up the whole mould as the batter will expand a bit.
6. Put the moulds in pre-heated oven in 200C and bake for 8 minutes or until the tops have formed a crust and they are starting to come away from the sides of their moulds. Remove from the oven, then leave to sit for 1 minute before turning out.
7. Turn the fondants upside down on a plate. Serve with a quenelle of vanilla ice cream and garnish with a cherry or strawberry.

Adapted from
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/8168/chocolate-fondant