Chilli con carne

This is one very special dish to me coz someone special loves chilli and I used to cook this dish for him once every week. I have fallen in love with this dish since the first time I cooked it because it is so simple and quick to cook but it's packed with flavors. I have been cooking it for at least 20 times before writing this recipe and this is still my weekly must cook dish.

I hope you will love this recipe as much as I do. Reduce the cayenne pepper to 1tsp if you want a milder chilli.

Ingredients (Serves 3)

1 tbsp virgin olive oil
1/2 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper/chilli powder
a dash of cinnamon
salt & pepper
1 red pepper, chopped
400g minced beef
5 tbsp beef stock
1 can peeled/chopped tomatoes
1 tsp tomato puree
1/2 can kidney beans
shredded mozzarella cheese
1 piece of dark chocolate
lots of coriander

Directions

1. Heat your pot over medium heat. Add the oil and leave it for 1 minute until hot. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes, or until the onions are soft and slightly translucent. Tip in the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. 
2. Add cayenne pepper, ground cumin and cinnamon. Give it a good stir and cook until fragrant.
3. Turn the heat up a bit and brown the beef. Break it up with spatula. Keep stirring until there are no more pink bits. Make sure you keep the heat hot enough for the meat to fry and become brown, rather than just stew. Season with some salt and pepper.
4. Pour the can tomatoes, beef stock and tomato puree into the pot and stir the sauce well. 
5. Bring the whole thing to the boil, then turn it to very low heat. Cover the pot and simmer it gently  and leave it for 15 minutes, stirring it occasionally to make sure the bottom of the pot is not burnt.
6. Add the beans and cook for another 5 minutes. Then, add the chocolate and red pepper and cook for another 2 minutes.
7. Turn off the heat and then add the cheese. Cover the pot to let it melt for 10 minutes.
8. Serve with coriander and boiled rice.

Mango pudding

Spring has come and time to have some cold dessert that keeps me cool. I fancy some mango puddings with some fresh and sweet mangoes. Can't believe it's actually super easy and quick to make but I have never done it before.

The mango puddings are so yummy and keep me cool and calm. Definitely gonna make it again and again in summer. I love to eat it with lots of evaporated milk and top up with some extra fresh mango. Snowy loves mango too, but he can only eat little bit of mango and not the pudding.

Serves 3 cups

Ingredients 

Mango jelly powder 1 box
1 egg
Hot water 300ml
Full cream evaporated milk 1/3 can, 100g
2 fresh mangoes, diced

Directions

1. Add egg into jelly powder and whisk to mix
2. Pour hot water into the jelly mixture while whisking quickly to avoid curdling
3. Pour in the evaporated milk and mix well
4. Put the diced mango in the mixture
5. Pour the mixture into glass and keep in fridge to chill

Veal osso buco with gremolata

Since I bought my first Le Creuset pot, I have been only using it to cook chilli con carne for hubby! It's time to cook something else with it. I have never cooked braised meat before, and LC is just perfect for braising. Let's give it a try.

The ingredient list is rather long for this dish and just the herbs alone costed me $60!! That's so expensive but I decided to buy them all because I want the dish to have authentic Italian flavor. I also never cooked with wine before coz I'm not a big fan of wine. But god, the white wine was actually the hero of the dish. The house smelled absolutely divine when the veal was braising! Can't believe the wine enhanced the flavor of the dish and it should not be missed.

The veal shank was braised for an hour. It was quite tender but I could have cooked it 30mins longer and made it melt in the mouth if the pot has not started to get burnt. So, I just turned off the fire and kept cooking with the lid closed for 20 mins more. OMG! The veal was so delicious. The sauce was sooo rich and flavorsome. It was so delicious that I couldn't believe I actually cooked it myself. It tasted just like a restaurant dish. The bone marrow was aromatic and creamy. It was good to eat with mashed potato coz the potato absorbed all the beautiful juice. The gremolata was not just for garnish. It completed the whole dish with the extra freshness and flavor. The dish totally brought me back to Italy. I love it very much and will definitely cook it again.

For two people

Ingredients

Veal osso buco
2 veal shanks
Pancetta 60g, diced
1 canned tomatoes (I added 2 small cherry tomatoes for extra sweetness)
1/2 onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 carrot, sliced
1 celery stick, diced
New potatoes 7pcs
1/2 cup white wine ( I used chardonnay)
1/2 beef stock
butter (for making the mashed potatoes)
Salt & pepper
flour for dusting the meat before browning
1 bay leaf
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
Olive oil

Gremolata
1 lemon zest
2 garlic cloves, chopped
fresh Italian parsley, chopped

Directions

1. Season the veal with salt & pepper. Dredge the veal shanks through some flour, shake off any excess.
2. Fry the pancetta in the pot with medium heat, add extra olive oil if it's dry. Cook, stirring occasionally until most of the fat has rendered (about 2mins). Remove the pancetta to a plate and set aside.
3. Turn the heat to medium high. Brown the veal shanks in the pot (about 2mins each side). Set aside.
4. Add olive oil and fry the onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Cook the vegetable for about 3mins.
5. Pour in the white wine and simmer until the wine has evaporated (about 1 min). Add the beef stock and canned tomatoes. Bring it to simmer.
6. Return the veal and pancetta to the pot and bring it to boil. Then reduce the heat to small, cover the lid and allow to simmer for 1 hr at least or until the meat is fall off the bone tender and the sauce is deliciously rich.
7. Cook the mashed potato about 20mins before the veal is cooked. Peel the skin and boil them in water for 20mins.
8. Prepare the gremolata while the veals are cooking. Mix the lemon zest, garlic and parsley together.
9. Once the veal is done, serve on top of mashed potato and garnish with gremolata.

Seared duck breast with orange, honey and soy sauce

I'm getting bored of eating the same protein and cooking the same dishes all the time. So tonite I decided to cook something different. I saw some really beautiful french duck breast in Three sixty and I wanted to cook duck. I have never cooked duck before so I was a bit worried I would ruin the duck.

After scoring the duck skin, I seared the duck with skin side down. Recipe said sear it with 3-4mins but the skin was already burned with just 2-3mins. Byebye crispy skin. haha Then I roasted it in the oven for 8mins at 200C and rested it for 5mins. The duck breast was lovely pink. Duck should always be served medium rare otherwise it gets dry and tough. I think I like it even more rare next time, probably 1 min less would be perfect.

I have read that duck and orange is a good match. It was a bit tricky to balance the flavor of honey, orange juice and soy sauce so it didn't get too sweet and remained a bit tangy. Luckily I nailed it. The orange marmalade and soy sauce glaze matches perfectly with the rich and gamy taste of duck. It tasted so refreshing with a copious amount of my favorite herb, coriander. :) It's a really appetizing dish for spring or summer. My dog loves duck very much too, though his duck was cooked to well done! haha

For two people

Ingredients
1 Duck breast
half an orange, peel off skin and cut into small pieces
some green leaves for the salad
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp light soy sauce (1tbsp should be enough coz I used the bottled orange juice with much sugar in it)
salt and pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced
coriander, for garnish

Directions

1. Pat the duck breast skin dry and score it in a cross hatch pattern. Season both sides of the breast with salt and pepper
2. Place the breast skin down in a cold non stick pan on a medium heat without oil for about 3-4 mins or until golden brown. Seal the other side for 30 seconds.
3. Place the skin side up in the preheated oven at 200C and cook it for 8mins for medium rare.
4. Rest it for 5 mins at room temperature.
5. While the duck is cooking in the oven, prepare the sauce. Mix garlic, orange juice, honey and light soy sauce together. Taste it to check the sweetness and adjust if necessary.
6. Pour off the duck fat from the pan and deglazed the pan with the sauce. Ready once it's boiled.
7. Place the duck breast on top of veggies and orange salad. Pour the sauce on the duck or serve on the side and garnish the duck with coriander.

Chocolate cheesecake cupcakes

Filling:

225g 70% semisweet chocolate, melted
225g cream cheese at room temperature
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 heavy cream
4 large eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

Ganache:

1/4 cup cream
110g semisweet chocolate


Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 175C
2. Stir chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove bowl from over water. Cool chocolate until lukewarm but still pourable.
3. Blend cream cheese, sugar, salt and cocoa powder in processor until smooth.
4. Blend in eggs 1 at a time, then heavy cream, and finally chocolate. Blend until smooth.
5. Pour filling onto biscuit base and bake for 20mins or until set.
6. Spread chocolate ganache on top and done.

Strawberry cheesecake cupcakes

I haven't been baking for 5 whole months since I adopted a dog, Snowy. I decided to start baking again in 2014! My first bake in 2014 was chocolate cupcakes and hubby totally missed and loved them. He requested to bake it again but I feel like baking cheesecakes which are yummy and super easy.

This time I tried to bake strawberry cheesecake cupcakes. The recipe is basically the same as normal cheesecake except that I used Philadelphia strawberry cream cheese instead of normal cream cheese. It tasted so yummy and strawberry-ish. Love it!

The cheesecakes are very creamy and luscious but I found them a bit too soft for appearance. Maybe I should add less hot water in the water bath to avoid too much moisture.

Snowy always suffer when I bake coz the house smells so good but he can't have any human cakes with the butter, cream and sugar in it. I want to bake some dog cheesecake but I can't find any recipes I like. Snowy wanted some cheesecakes so badly.