Marmalade and Whisky Ice Cream

Feeling bored with the usual pancakes with maple syrup? If you run out of ideas for pancakes, try topping them with your choice of fresh or poached fruits and a scoop of the marmalade and whisky ice cream. Drizzle with more warmed marmalade and serve with freshly brewed coffee. A perfect start to a weekend morning!

Marmalade and Whisky Ice Cream

Marmalade and Whisky Ice Cream Recipe (Makes 400ml)

(Adapted from Delicious Magazine April 2008)

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup (115 g) orange marmalade
• 150 g creme fraiche
• 250 ml thick Greek-style yoghurt
• 1 tbsp whisky (optional)

Method

• Place the marmalade, creme fraiche, yoghurt and whisky, if using, in a bowl. Beat with a wooden spoon to combine, then churn in an ice-cream machine following manufacturer's directions.

Ricotta Hotcakes with Honeycomb Butter

Bill Granger: "Born in America, the hotcake has assimilated well into Australian breakfast society. Take it back to its roots by substituting maple syrup for the golden-flecked crunch-sensation butter."

Ricotta Hotcakes with Honeycomb Butter

Ricotta Hotcakes with Honeycomb Butter (Serves 6-8)

(Adapted from Bill Granger's Bills Sydney Food)

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups ricotta
• 3/4 cup (6 fl oz) milk
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 cup plain (all-purpose) flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 50 g (1 1/2 oz) butter

To Serve

• Banana
• Honeycomb butter, sliced (below)
• Icing (cofectioners') sugar for dusting

Honeycomb Butter

• 250 g (8 oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 100 g (3 1/3 oz) sugar honeycomb, crushed with a rolling pin
• 2 tbsp honey

Method

1. Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.
3. Place egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites through batter in two batches, with a large metal spoon.
4. Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop 2 tbsp of batter per hotcake into the pan (don't cook more than 3 per batch). Cook over low to medium heat for 2 minutes, or until hotcakes have golden undersides. Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden and cooked through. Transfer to a plate and quickly assemble with other ingredients.
5. Slice one banana lengthways onto a plate, stack 3 hotcakes on top with a slice of honeycomb butter. Dust with icing sugar.
6. Honeycomb Butter: Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Shape into a log on plastic wrap, roll, seal and chill in a refrigerator for 2 hours. Store leftover honeycomb butter in the freezer - it's great on toast.

Note: Hotcake batter can be stored for up to 24 hours, covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator.

Appel Pannenkoeken (Dutch Apple Pancakes with Caramelised Sugar)

Pannenkoek / Pannekoek is a Dutch pancake. Unlike the fluffy American pancakes that we know and serve, Pannenkoeken are usually larger and thinner (slightly thicken than crepes) and may incorporate slices of smoked bacon, apples or other fruits, or raisins. Plain ones are often eaten with white or brown sugar. The ingredients are flour, milk, and eggs. Beer may also be added to the mixture in order to give it a better flavour, but most of all it helps the batter rise.

The size and taste of a Pannenkoek can vary depending upon who is doing the cooking and what method they use. It can be as large as 12" in diameter, rolled out thin with most of the ingredients baked right into the batter. The thinner Pannenkoek can be rolled up to eat but most can be eaten just as they are.

Apel Pannenkoeken (Dutch Apple Pancakes with Caramelised Sugar)

Pannenkoeken Huis (Pancake house) is an institution in Holland. If pizza is to the Italians, pancake is to the Dutch. There are more than 250 Pannenkoeken Huizen in Holland. Many of these restaurants are found in historical city centres, nature reserves, historic buildings, windmills or farmhouses - part of the fun when visiting Holland! You do not go to a pancake house in Holland for breakfast. You are very lucky if you find one that operates in the morning. Instead Pannekoek is served as a main dish for lunch or dinner at a Pannenkoeken Huis. It's meal by itself.

Almost all of the pancake houses in Holland offer over 100 varieties of savory and sweet original Dutch pancakes. Every time I visit one, I struggle to decide on what to order. From apple with sugar and cinnamon, raisin with rum, pineapple with icing sugar, ham and cheese, mushroom ragout, chicken with satay sauce to bacon with stroop (a dark, thick syrup common in The Netherlands)..... there are endless combinations and toppings to go with your pancake. Just imagine if a crepe and a pizza had a baby.

Applepannenkoeken (Dutch Apple Pancakes with Caramelised Sugar) Recipe

Serves 2 (Makes 2 large pancakes or 4 small pancakes)

Ingredients

• 1 cup (200 g) flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 2 apples (I use Granny Smith)
• Lemon juice
• Caster sugar
• Cinnamon sugar
• Butter

Method

1. Peel and core the apples and slice them thinly. Turn them in lemon juice so they retain their color.
2. Combine the flour with the baking powder and salt, and add enough cold water to make a thick batter. Stir in the eggs. Heat a little butter in a skillet and spoon in the batter.
3. Immediately arrange the apple slices like tiles on top of the pancakes. Sprinkle with sugar and cook until the pancake is brown.
4. Using a dinner plate or pot lid, carefully turn the pancake over so that the apples cook and the sugar caramelizes.
5. Turn once again, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and serve hot.

Shanghai Pancake

Shanghai Pancake

This Shanghai Pancake is usually served as after dinner dessert. It's usually paired with Tong Sui such as sago pudding, black sesame paste soup or peanut paste soup.

Shanghai Pancake Recipe

Ingredients

• 90 g flour, sifted
• 30 g rice flour, sifted
• 1/2 tsp baking powder, sifted
• 1 tbsp castor sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten lightly
• 180 ml water
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup oil for frying

Filling:

• 500 g red bean paste

Method

1. To make the batter: Mix flour, rice flour, baking powder, castor sugar, eggs, water and salt together until smooth. Strain.
2. Pour some batter into a non-stick pan, swirl to form into a pancake.
3. Remove and spread with red bean paste filling, brush sides with batter, fold into half and seal.
4. Prick with a tooth-pick and press out air.
5. Heat up the oil, fry pancake until golden brown on both sides.
6. Drain on paper towel.
7. Cut into pieces and serve hot.

Malaysian Lacy Coconut Pancakes (Roti Jala)

It is currently the final week of Masterchef Australia. Six contestants are battling it out to become the first Masterchef Australia winner this week.

One of the finalists, Poh, who has a Malaysian Chinese background, decided to cook this interesting combination of Lacy Coconut Pancakes and Chicken Floss Curry during last week's challenge. The challenge was to dish up dinner for four mystery special guests - who turned out to be four of Australia’s most respected chefs (Margaret Fulton, Jacque Raymond, Amando Percuoco and Cheong Lui) - and Masterchef judge Matt Preston.

I have special interest in Poh because we share a similar background and she has cooked some interesting Malaysian dishes during her Masterchef journey. Two of her most notable dishes are: Hakka Abacus Beads Yam Dumpling (???) and Sweet Potato in Coconut Custard (Bubur Cha-Cha). These dishes are not readily available in Australia and probably most Australians have not yet tasted them.

For some reason I can't explain, I was expecting Poh to cook this Malaysian Lacy coconut pancake (it's called Roti Jala in Malaysia) and when she finally did it last week (you can watch the episode HERE), I was ecstatic. She also did a Malaysian Chicken Floss Curry to pair with the pancakes. I couldn't resist but to recreate the same dishes for our Sunday dinner: I was very very happy with the results.

The name Roti Jala is derived from the Malay word 'Roti' (Bread) and 'Jala' (Net). It is usually eaten spicy with curry or sweet with serawa. Serawa is made from a mixture of boiled coconut milk, brown sugar and pandan leaf.

We use a Roti Jala Mold - A special ladle with a five-hole perforation - to make the pancake look like a fish net:

This roti jala mold is easily available in Malaysia but if you can't get hold of it, don't be put off. Poh cut a tiny hole from the corner of an empty fresh cream container and used it to make her pancakes!

Here is the recipe for the Roti Jala. Chicken Floss Curry recipe can be found HERE.

Malaysian Lacy Coconut Pancakes (Roti Jala) Recipe

Ingredients

• 100 g all purpose flour, sieved
• 100 ml water
• 100 ml coconut milk
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder

Method

1. Mix all ingredients well to form a smooth batter and strain it through a fine sieve.
2. Add more water if the batter is too thick.
3. Grease the frying pan with oil, then add in some batter into the roti jala mold and sing a circular motion, let it drip to form a thin layer of pancake.
4. When cooked, fold it into desired shape and serve with curry or sugar.

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.