Nuvolone - (Cloud Soufflé)

Souffle for breakfast? Yup, you bet! But don't be surprised how easy it is to whip up this impressive and yet delicious dish.

Nuvolone - (Cloud Soufflé)

I was attracted to the picture of this souffle on the cover of the 'Winter In The Alps' Cookbook. I knew I just had to make this for breakfast as soon as I brought home this book.

Winter In The Alps - "This is similar to a traditional souffle, but the eggs remain separated. It is the simplest dish to make and looks very impressive. I've called it Nuvolone, which literally translates as 'big cloud', because when it comes out of the oven it looks like a big cumulus in a sunset."

Nuvolone (Cloud Souffle) Recipe (Serve 1)

(Adapted from Winter In The Alps Cookbook by Manuela Darling-Gansser)

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, separated
• Sea salt
• 50 ml (2 fl oz) cream
• 40 g (1 1 /2 oz) grated Gruyere cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 15 g (1/2 oz) unsalted butter

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F). Butter an individual ramekin per person (about 15 cm / 6" in diameter). Beat the egg whites. When they start to become stiff, add salt to taste. Continue beating until they hold their peaks well.
2. Spoon the egg whites into the ramekin. With the back of a soup spoon, make a well in the middle of the egg whites, pushing the egg whites up the sides of the ramekin. Carefully drop the 2 egg yolks into the well.
3. Then add the cream and Gruyere. Grind over some black pepper and add the knob of butter. Smooth the egg whites back over the hole.
4. Bake in the oven for 4 to 5 minutes. The top should be lightly golden, and when you break the crust, the yolks and cream should be soft and hot.
5. Serve with crusty bread to dip into the yolks and cream.

Julia Child's Popovers

It's love at first sight when I saw these cuties at Muffins Are Ugly Cupcakes. Mix 5 ingredients together, into the oven and wait for them to Pop! So easy and yet so pretty!

Julia Child's Popovers

I made them for breakfast yesterday. I like them with jam and butter. Muffins Are Ugly Cupcakes suggested to drizzle them with honey or dust them with icing sugar or even melt some cheese over. I had a few leftovers from breakfast and I used them to mop up the sauce from our chicken stew dinner. Mega YUM!

Julia Child's Popovers Recipe

(Adapted from Baking with Julia and Muffins Are Ugly Cupcakes)

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup whole milk or 2% milk, at room temperature
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Method

1. Preheat oven to 210C (425F).
2. Mix all ingredients together with a whisk to form a thin batter. Sieve the batter if it's lumpy.
3. Pour the batter into individual greased muffin cups or ramekins, about 3/4 full.
4. Bake them in the oven for 25 minutes.
5. Turn down the oven temperature to 180C (350F) for 15-20 minutes.

Yorkshire Puddings

Are you still looking for a perfect side dish for the Thanksgiving dinner? Look no further. These Yorkshire Puddings might just be the one.

Yorkshire Puddings

Yorkshire pudding is a dish that originated in Yorkshire, England, and has attained wide popularity. It is made from an egg batter similar to that used in making Popover. It's most often served with roast beef, chicken, or any meal in which there is gravy.

Food historians generally agree on the American origins of the popover recipe, albeit derived from Yorkshire pudding and similar batter puddings made in England since the 17th century.

Yorkshire Puddings

Yorkshire Pudding is cooked by pouring a thin batter made from flour, eggs, milk and seasoning into a preheated greased baking tin containing very hot fat or oil and baking at very high heat until it has risen and browned. It is then served in slices or quarters, depending on the size of the tray in which it was cooked.

In recent years, it has become more popular to cook them in batches in bun tins (baked in muffin trays or baking tins like Popovers), making individual mini puddings.

Yorkshire Puddings

Traditionally, Yorkshire pudding is cooked in a large tin underneath a roasting joint of meat in order to catch the dripping fat and then cut appropriately. Yorkshire pudding may also be made in the same pan as the meat, after the meat has been cooked and moved to a serving platter, which also takes advantage of the meat fat that is left behind.

In pub cuisine, Yorkshire puddings may be offered with a multitude of fillings, with the pudding acting as a bowl.

The pudding can also be eaten as a sweet dish, with jam, golden syrup, lemon juice or sugar.

Yorkshire Puddings Recipe (Makes 12)

(Adapted from Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook)

Ingredients

• 125 g (4 oz) plain flour
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 250 ml milk
• A pinch of salt
• Shortening

Method

1. Sift flour and a pink of salt into a bowl. Make a well in the middle and add eggs and a little milk.
2. Whisk the milk and egg, then whisk in half of the milk, drawing in the flour to make a smooth batter. Stir in the other half of the milk. Cover and stand for at least 30 minutes.
3. Put some shortening (white vegetable fat) into each cup of a 12-hole bun or muffin tin and and heat in a preheated oven at 220C (425F) until very hot.
4. Remove the tin from the oven. Whisk the batter and pour into the cups in the tin.
5. Bake the Yorkshire puddings in the oven for 15 minutes or until well risen, golden, and crisp.
6. Serve immediately.

Kaya (Coconut Custard Spread / Coconut Jam)

Kaya (Coconut Custard Spread / Coconut Jam)

Kaya is Malaysia's favorite spread, usually serves at breakfast with toast, or as filling for pastry, bun, or even made as part of popular kuih (Nyonya desserts) including pulut taitai or pulut tekan, a dessert of sweet glutinous rice coloured blue with butterfly pea flowers (bunga telang), and pulut seri muka, a similar dessert but coloured green with pandan leaves (screwpine leaves).

Kaya means 'rich' in Malay language because of its golden colour. What makes kaya so wonderfully delicious is the richness of coconut cream combining with the distinctive taste of the caramelised sugar. It's also common to enhance the flavour further by adding pandan (screwpine) leaves or honey.

A typical Malaysian Kopitiam (a traditional Malaysian coffee shop) breakfast consists of Kopi-O (black strong coffee), soft boiled eggs and roti baker (thick soft white bread toasted on charcoal burner) with thick layer of butter and kaya spread.

Cooking kaya is like making custard the Malaysian way with 3 basic ingredients: coconut cream, egg and sugar. It's then steamed or boiled in low heat. It sounds easy but all the risk factors associated with failed custard are there. It may 'burnt' and it may 'turn' (overcook and curdle).

There are many ways of making kaya. Google it and you will find many different recipes. What I have here may not be the best but it provides a simple, no fuss way of making kaya.

Kaya (Coconut Custard Spread / Coconut Jam) Recipe

Ingredient

• 4 eggs, beaten and sieved
• 250 g sugar
• 50 ml pandan / screwpine water (blend 5 pandan/screwpine leaves with 50 ml water in a blender and sieve the mixture)
• 250ml coconut cream (or thick coconut milk), sieved

Method:

1. Put sugar and pandan water in a heavy-based pan and boil until sugar dissolved and caramelised.
2. Remove from heat and pour in coconut cream / milk and eggs.
3. Cook and stir constantly in low heat for 25-30 minutes until the mixture is smooth and thicken.
4. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
5. Serve with toast.

Note: If you'd like to can your jam: Simply place three clean jam jars and lids on the middle rack of your oven. Turn oven to 225F (110C). Leave the jars there until your kaya is ready (the heat will sterilize the jars).

Blueberry-Lemon Cake

Blueberry-Lemon Cake

Blueberry-Lemon Cake Recipe

(Adapted from The Good Housekeeping Step-by-Step Cookbook)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups blueberries

Lemon Glaze:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
2. Grease and flour 9" by 5" metal loaf pan.
3. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt.
4. In large bowl, in mixer at low speed, beat margarine and sugar just until blended.
5. Increase speed to medium; beat about 5 minutes, until light and creamy.
6. Reduce mixer speed to low; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each addition until well blended, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.
7. Alternately beat flour mixture and milk into egg mixture, mixing just until blended.
8. Gently stir in blueberry.
9. Spoon batter into loaf pan.
10. Bake loaf 1 hour 5 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
11. Place sheet of waxed paper until wire rack.
12. Cool loaf in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes.
13. Remove from pan and place on rack.
14. With cake tester or skewer, prick top and sides of warm loaf all over.
15. Prepare Lemon glaze: In small bowl, mix lemon juice and sugar. With pastry brush. brush top and sides of warm loaf with lemon glaze.
16. Cool loaf completely on rack.

Applying A Glaze: Besides adding flavour to a cake, tea bread, or tart, a glaze can give a smooth, lustrous finish and seal in its moisture. Glazes can be as simple as melted jam, or a mixture of sugar and liquid. Set the cake over waxed paper to catch drips. For a flavor that permeates, prick the cake all over, then brush glaze over the top and sides of the still-warm cake.

Beer Bread with Cheese and Sunflower Seed Crust

I have never thought of making my own bread when one can buy all sorts of fresh bread from the bakery. Not until I saw this recipe.

Beer + 4 other simple ingredients. No electric mixer is needed. Simply mix the ingredients together & into the oven for 45 minutes. I couldn't resist to give it a go. The results are fantabolous!

Beer Bread with Cheese and Sunflower Seed Crust Recipe (Serves 6-8)

(Recipe adapted from Delicious Magazine by Valli Little and Amanda Biffin)

Ingredients

• 3 cups (450g) self-raising flour
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 450 ml chilled lager (beer)
• 1/2 cup (80g) sunflower seeds
• 1 cup (120g) grated tasty (cheddar) cheese

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Grease and line a 7cm-deep, 10cm x 26cm loaf pan.
2. Combined flour, sugar and 1 tsp salt in a bowl. Add beer and stir until combined.
3. Spoon mixture into pan and sprinkle with seeds and cheese.
4. Bake for 45 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when base is tapped.

Croque Monsieur à la Bill Granger

I love using this recipes for Sunday breakfast, brunch or lunch because they are so simple to make. This recipes are also very well liked by my friends and family members.

Croque Monsieur à la Bill Granger Recipe (Serves 4)

(Recipe adapted from Bill s Open Kitchen: Ham and Gruyere French Toast)

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 185ml (3/4 cup) milk
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 4 slices white bread, 3cm (1 1/4 inch) thick
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 4 slices leg ham, trimmed to fit bread* (see note at bottom of post)
• 4 slices Gruyere cheese, trimmed to fit bread* (see note at bottom of post)
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F / Gas 4). Place the eggs and milk into a large bowl. Whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
2. With a sharp, thin-bladed knife, carefully slit open one side of each slice of bread to form a pocket, leaving 1 cm (1/2 inch) around the edges. Spread the mustard on one side of the pocket and place a slice of ham and cheese inside. Put the pockets into a shallow dish. Pour over the egg mixture and leave for 5 minutes, turning once.
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium to high heat, add half of the olive oil and swirl to coat the base of the pan. Add two bread pockets, cook on one side for about 2 minutes until golden brown, turn and cook for another minute. Remove from the pan and place on a baking tray. Repeat with the remaining oil and bread pockets. Place the baking tray in the oven and cook for 10 minutes, or until cooked in the centre.

Note: I always try to use ingredients that are available in my pantry and fridge. For this recipe, I replaced the ham and Gruyere cheese with shaved Silverside (beef) and Dutch Gouda cheese.

Norwegian Cinnamon Buns

Adapted from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess)

Ingredients

• For the dough:
• 600 g flour
• 100 g sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 21 g (3 sachets - yes, really) of easy-blend yeast or 45 g fresh yeast
• 100 g butter
• 400 ml milk
• 2 eggs

For the fillings:

• 150 g soft, unsalted butter
• 150 g sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 egg, beaten, to glaze

Roasting tin approximately 33 cm x 24 cm or large brownie tin, lined with baking parchment bottom and sides

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 230C.
2. Combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a large bowl. Melt the butter and whisk it into the milk and eggs, then stir it into the flour mixture. Mix to combine and then knead the dough either by hand or using the dough hook of a food mixer until its smooth and springy. Form into a ball, place in an oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave it to rise for about 25 minutes.
3. Take one-third of the dough and roll it or stretch it to fit your tin; this will form the bottom of each bun when it has cooked. Roil out the rest of the dough on a lightly floured surface, aiming to get a rectangle of roughly 50 x 25 cm. Mix the filling ingredients in a small bowl and then spread the rectangle with the buttery cinnamon mixture. Try to get even coverage on the whole of the dough. Roll it up from the longest side until you have a giant sausage. Cut the roll into 2 cm slices which should make about 20 rounds. Sit the founds in lines on top of the dough in the tin, swirly cut-side up. Don't worry if they don't fit snugly together as they will swell and become puffy when they prove. Brush them with egg and then let them rise again for about 15 minutes to let them get duly puffy.
4. Put in the hot oven and cook for 20-25 minutes, bu which time the buns will have risen and will be golden-brown in colour.
5. Don't worry if they catch in places. Remove them from the tin and leave to cool slightly on a rack - it's easy just to pick up the whole sheet of parchment and transfer them like that - before letting people tear them off, to eat warm.

Note: I reckon the oven temperature recommended by Nigella is a little too high. So I would suggest to turn to 210C and bake for 20-25 minutes or 230C and bake for 15 minutes.

Welsh Cakes

Pancakes? Cakes? or Scones?

I first heard of these Welsh cakes on BBC show: Great British Menu where the UK's top chefs (Richard Corrigan, Marcus Wareing, Nick Nairn, Angela Hartnett... etc) were competing for the opportunity to cook for the Queen. During the 2006 series, Welsh native Angela Harnett created a memorable dessert: Welsh cakes with roasted apricots and Welsh cake ice cream which has since stucked in my mind until now.

I was curious about the texture and taste of these traditional Welsh cakes and finally get to make them this morning.

These Welsh cakes are traditional Welsh snacks. The cakes are also known as bakestones within Wales because they are traditionally cooked on a bakestone, a cast iron griddle about 1.5 cm or more thick which is placed on the fire or cooker; most people refer to them though as girdle scones. Welsh cakes are made from flour, butter or lard, eggs, sugar, and currants and/or raisins. They are roughly circular, a couple of inches (4–6 cm) in diameter and about half an inch (1–1.5 cm) thick.

Welsh cakes are served hot or cold dusted with caster sugar. Unlike scones, they are not usually eaten with an accompaniment, though they are sometimes sold ready split and spread with jam, and they are sometimes buttered. They are often eaten with a pot of tea.

Next, I want to make the Bara Brith - A Welsh yeast or baking soda-raised sweet bread, quite dense and cake-like in texture, containing spices and tea-soaked dried fruit. Delicious served warm, sliced and spread with salty Welsh butter.

Welsh Cakes Recipe

(Adapted from Mary Berry's Complete Cookbook)

Ingredients

• 250 g (8 oz) self-raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 125 g (4 oz) butter
• 90 g (3 oz) caster sugar
• 90 g (3 oz) currants
• 1/2 tsp ground mixed spice
• 1 egg, beaten
• About 2 tbsp milk
• sunflower oil for greasing

Method

1. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the butter and rub in with the fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Add the sugar, currants, and mixed spice, and stir to mix. Add the egg and enough milk to form a soft but not sticky dough.
3. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 5 mm (1/4 in). Cut into rounds with pastry cutter.
4. Heat a griddle or a heavy frying pan and grease with a little oil. Cook the Welsh cakes on the hot griddle or pan over a low heat for about 3 minutes on each side until cooked through and golden brown.
5. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Serve on the day of making, if possible.

Note: If prefered, serve the Welsh cakes hot, lightly sprinkled with sugar, straight from the griddle or frying pan.

Nuvolone - (Cloud Soufflé)

Souffle for breakfast? Yup, you bet! But don't be surprised how easy it is to whip up this impressive and yet delicious dish.

I was attracted to the picture of this souffle on the cover of the 'Winter In The Alps' Cookbook. I knew I just had to make this for breakfast as soon as I brought home this book.

We love the Alps in Europe. Every home trip we make to visit Mr J's family in Holland, we always include a detour to the Alps. Inevitably, I fell in love with this cookbook with all the beautiful pictures of the Alps and the food by the fireside.

Mont Blanc from Chamonix

Winter In The Alps - "This is similar to a traditional souffle, but the eggs remain separated. It is the simplest dish to make and looks very impressive. I've called it Nuvolone, which literally translates as 'big cloud', because when it comes out of the oven it looks like a big cumulus in a sunset."

Nuvolone (Cloud Souffle) Recipe

(Adapted from Winter In The Alps Cookbook by Manuela Darling-Gansser)

Ingredients

• 2 eggs, separated
• Sea salt
• 50 ml (2 fl oz) cream
• 40 g (1 1 /2 oz) grated Gruyere cheese
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 15 g (1/2 oz) unsalted butter

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F). Butter an individual ramekin per person (about 15 cm / 6" in diameter). Beat the egg whites. When they start to become stiff, add salt to taste. Continue beating until they hold their peaks well.
2. Spoon the egg whites into the ramekin. With the back of a soup spoon, make a well in the middle of the egg whites, pushing the egg whites up the sides of the ramekin. Carefully drop the 2 egg yolks into the well.
3. Then add the cream and Gruyere. Grind over some black pepper and add the knob of butter. Smooth the egg whites back over the hole.
4. Bake in the oven for 4 to 5 minutes. The top should be lightly golden, and when you break the crust, the yolks and cream should be soft and hot.
5. Serve with crusty bread to dip into the yolks and cream.