Salmon & Mushroom Quiche

Pie Dough

Ingredients:
130g all purpose flour (can also use pastry or cookie flour)
20g shortening
70g cold butter - diced
Cold water as needed
A pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Sift flour into a mixing bowl and add salt. Rub the fats into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add a tablespoon of water to the mixture and gently knead until a soft dough ball forms. Cover with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a circle with a diameter of 10 inches. Line an 8 inch tart pan with the pastry. Press down into corners and sides. Trim the edges and prick the pastry base using a fork.
4. Blind bake for about 10 minutes.

Salmon Filling

Ingredients:
1 yellow onion - finely sliced
1 tbsp butter
2 eggs
150ml cream
1/2 cup grated cheese - more if you like
About 50g salmon fillet - thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Melt butter on a frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until caramelized (translucent and a bit brown) while constantly stirring.  Remove from the heat, transfer the onion into a clean bowl and set aside.
3. Using the same frying pan over medium heat, add the mushrooms and cook until the moisture slightly dried out. Set aside.
4. Whisk eggs and cream in a medium bowl. Lightly season with salt and pepper. 
5. Spread the onion and mushroom onto the cooled pastry case. Scatter the salmon slices on top and sprinkle with grated cheese. Gently pour the cream over the filling.
6. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and the filling set.

Fruit Tartlets

Sugar Pastry

Ingredients:
100gm icing sugar
100gm butter, at room temperature
 1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla
250gm all purpose flour

Instructions:

• In a bowl of a  stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light in color and fluffy.  Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Take the dough out and form a ball. Wrap the dough with a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.
• Roll the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Using a medium round cutter, cut the pastry and press them into tart shells.
• Bake at 190C until golden brown.
• Let them cool completely before piping the vanilla cream.

Vanilla Pastry Cream

Ingredients:
350 ml milk
70gm white sugar
4 yolks
40gm cornstarch
35gm butter
1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

• Combine 300gm milk and sugar in a pan and bring them to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat. 
• In a separate bowl, whisk the remaining milk, yolks and cornstarch until smooth. Temper the egg mixture by slowly beating about quarter of the hot milk in a thin stream. 
• Pour the egg mixture into the hot milk and return them over the heat and bring them to a boil, constantly whisking.
• When it starts to thicken, remove from the heat. Stir in the vanilla and butter until completely blended in.
• Transfer to a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap to avoid the cream from forming a crust.
• Cool in refrigerator.

Assembly:
Pipe the cream into the shells and arrange the fruit of your choice such as strawberries, peaches, kiwis, cherries or grapes. 

Classic Genoise

Another basic recipe that I learned from the chef is Classic Genoise. A genoise is an Italian sponge cake which is using whole eggs, unlike American sponge cake where yolks and egg whites are beaten separately. What we did in the class was preparing a genoise for the Strawberry Shortcake layers. As it is very hard to get a nice and sweet strawberry in the supermarket now, I thought I could use these recipe for my Lemon Mascarpone Layer Cake. I guessed the Strawberry Shortcake needs to wait until end of the year or early next year when it is easier to get good strawberries...wow! that's a long wait...errr...let's see. At the meantime, here is the recipe for a Classic Genoise.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
80g caster sugar
80g cake flour
20g cornflour
20g melted butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease two 6-inch round baking pan and line their bases with a parchment paper.
2. Prepare a double boiler. In a bowl of a stand mixer, combine and whisk the eggs and the sugar. Put the bowl on the double boiler, continue whisking until the mixture is slightly warm and foamy. Remove from the heat. Put the bowl in the stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk the eggs mixture to a ribbon stage.
3. Sift the flour onto the eggs, add in the melted butter and fold carefully until just incorporated. It might be a little bit lumpy bit it is okay. You do not want to over-mix the batter or it might deflate.
4. Spoon the mixture evenly into the pans. 
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown.

Note: 

A genoise can substitute lady fingers in making a tiramisu. It also can be used to make a roulade or swiss roll.

Macarons

I made 4 attempts over 2 years to bake macarons before I decided to call it a day and swore that I need to learn the techniques from the expert. Even before these attempts, I did a lot of research, I spent hours reading the tips and the dos and don'ts of macaron making...but still, I ended up with a bunch (a lot) of failed macaron shells in the bin. When I was reading the tips from well known bloggers, it seems so easy and I thought I fully understand them but when I was in the kitchen doing the exact same process and procedures...everything went WRONG!! So after the fourth unsuccessful attempt, I quit and told myself that I need to watch and learn from the guru.

In my first class in Taylor's last month, Chef Karam taught us how to make macarons but not just any macarons...they are Laduree's macarons. Yes, I heard about Laduree but not as much as I heard about Pierre Herme. From what I gather from the www, Pierre Herme is claimed to be THE best macaron but since I haven't tasted it, I'm at no position to judge it. But I'm sure they taste great.

Being trained at Laduree during his younger days, of course my chef claimed that his Laduree's version is the best. What a good macaron looks like? The top of the shell is shiny, it has ruffled straight feet and when you break it into 2 with your fingers...the shells didn't break into pieces. When you bite it, it is chewy and not crunchy like you are eating a biscuit. All in all, a good macaron is a perfect shell with nice ruffled feet and chewy texture.

The moment I bite into the chef's Laduree macaron, it was like falling in love for the first time...I was on cloud nine...the nutty taste of the shell which I love so much is very prominent and it wasn't as sweet as all the macarons that I have tasted previously. Now that I have learned to make them and understand the macaron as a whole, I am beginning to appreciate what macarons are all about. Macarons are about challenging yourself, perseverance, humble but confident and strive for perfection. YES! It is challenging and I'm still perfecting my macarons.

Ingredients: (digital scale is a must, don't convert into cups!)

125g ground almond

125g confectioners' sugar
45g egg whites
125g caster sugar
45g egg whites
Coloring gel

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, mix together ground almond and confectioners' sugar with the first egg whites and coloring. Using a wooden or silicone spatula, stir until it becomes a paste.
2. In a small deep saucepan, put the sugar and add a little bit of water until it just wet. Cover the pan with an aluminum foil. Prick a fee holes on the foil using your sugar thermometer. Suspend the thermometer in the pan and boil the sugar until it reaches 118C. 
3. In a mixing bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, on medium speed whisk the second egg whites until foamy. Once the sugar reaches 118C, remove from the heat and straight away pour it into the foamy egg whites in a slow steady stream from the sides of the bowl. Whisk until firm peaks form and the meringue looks smooth and shiny.
4. Fold the meringue into the ground almond mixture and pipe onto a sheet on the baking tray. Rap the tray a few times and leave them to dry for 30 minutes to an hour.
5. Bake at 150C for about 8-10 minutes depending on your oven.
6. Cool completely before applying your choice of filling.

Peach Almond Tart

The main observation that I learned from the pastry class was always digitally measure the flour, the sugar, other dry ingredients, butter and eggs. An accurate measurement is crucial for some delicate pastries or confectioneries so digital scale is a must in one's kitchen. For milk and cream, use measuring cups. Water and vanilla extract...just trust your instinct! :)

Ingredients:

Shortcrust Pastry
200g all purpose flour
100g cold butter, cut into 1 inch cubes
30g caster sugar
1 egg

Almond Filling
70g butter, at room temperature
75g caster sugar
80g ground almond
1 egg
1 tbsp all purpose flour
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Zest from half lemon
1 peach, sliced



Instructions:

Shortcrust Pastry

1. In a large mixing bowl, sift flour and add sugar. Rub the butter into flour mixture until crumbly and resembles a coarse breadcrumbs. 
2. Add in the egg and knead until it forms a soft dough that doesn't stick to the bowl.  If it is too dry, add a tablespoon of cold water at a time to soften it. 
3. Form the dough into a ball, put it onto a plastic wrap, using your palm flatten it a bit, wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

Almond Filling

1. While your pastry is in the chiller, prepare the almond filling.
2. In a mixing bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until pale. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat for a minute. 
3. Using a silicone spatula, fold in the almond, flour and zest until incorporated. Set aside.

Assembly:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a circle with a diameter of 8 inches. 
3. Line an 6 inch tart pan with the pastry. Press down into corners and sides. Trim the edges or crimp it if you want. 
4. Using a fork, prick the pastry base a few times and blind bake for 10 minutes.
5. Remove the pastry from the oven and allow to cool until you can touch the tart pan with your bare hands.
6. Spread the almond filling and garnish with some peach slices.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Variation:

You can also use apples and pears instead of peaches.

I'm in HK

I was supposed to write on my pastry classes but here I am in Hong Kong on business trip. Well, I will blog about it out in detail later. The class was fun, the fierce-looking chef was actually very nice but with some sarcastic answers to some "dugh" questions :). We took home some lovely pastries..they are all delicious. The chocolate mousse cake was to die for, we can't get enough of the strawberry shortcake, the tarts are great and overall, I am glad that I took these classes.

In the meantime, this is Hong Kong through Note3. The first time I was here was 5 years ago.

Pastry Class

One of the many things in my bucket list is enrolling into a culinary program in Le Cordon Bleu. But not the one in France of course, but here in Klang Valley...someday. Being a full time employee in a big corporation as well as trying to balance my quality time with the family, well...it has to wait. LCB only offers full time program so if I were to join in, I have to go for an unpaid leave at least for 3 months. I'm not ready to do that now! 

But I need to go for short weekend courses somehow...so a couple of weeks ago I signed up for a short pastry course in Taylor's University. This weekend, I had my first 2 classes on Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 1pm. It was held in its Lakeside campus in Sunway. For the past few days prior to the class, I had some nervous breakdown because I didn't know what to expect. Albeit I have baked for more than 10 years...I worried for so many things. I had this thoughts, that what if I couldn't do what I have normally mastered? What if I can't even separate the eggs? What if everybody else has a perfect macaron feets that mine were flat? There were so many things in my mind...

Eventually, on the first day...I finally had my first macaron with perfect feets and they are chewy and yummy! I baked my first ever eclairs and tried the chef scone's recipe. Having baked scones for so many times and my recipe has already a hit in the family...I learned a few new tips and techniques from the chef that day. No matter how many times you have done something...there is always something new that you can gain if you open up your mind.

For the next few entries, I am going to document this pastry class journey. Even though, it was very tiring at this age, standing for 4 hours straight in the pastry kitchen, I am glad that I took what I considered as the first step in venturing into something that I really love and passionate to do. Till then...my first weekend class produce.

Molten Chocolate Cake - (Flourless)

Ingredients:

113 gram unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
170 gram dark cooking chocolate (60%-70%), finely chopped
3 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tbsp sugar

Instructions:

1. Using a silicone pastry brush, generously butter four 8oz ramekins and dust the insides with granulated sugar. Set aside. 
2. Preheat the oven to 200C.
3. In a microwavable bowl, combine the butter and chocolate together. Microwave for 20 seconds, take it out and stir using a silicone spatula. Put it in the microwave again for 20 seconds and stir. Repeat until the mixture fully melted and smooth when stir. Set aside.
4. In a bowl of an electric mixer, combine the yolks and sugar. Beat until thick and pale, about 3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla.
5. Using a silicone spatula, fold in the chocolate mixture into the yolk mixture until well blended.
6. In a clean mixing bowl, whip the egg whites until frothy, add the cream of tartar and whip until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar and continue whipping until firm peaks form.
7. Using a silicone spatula, gently fold in the egg white mixture into the chocolate mixture until just incorporated.
8. Scoop the batter into the prepared molds. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the outside edges set but the inside still wobbly when you give them a shake.
9. Take them out from the oven and let them rest for a minute or two. Serve with ice cream or cream, or just dust the top with confectioners' sugar.

Chocolate Madeleines

Ingredients:
1/3 cup (60g) all purpose flour
1/4 cup (20g) Dutch processed cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (125g) sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 tbsp (90g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Confectioners' sugar for dusting

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 190C. Using a pastry brush, heavily brush a 12 standard madeleine pan with room temperature butter. Dust the pan with flour. Turn the pan upside down, tap it gently to discard the excess flour.
2. In a medium bowl sift together the flour and cocoa powder. Set aside.
3. In a bowl of a  stand mixer, combine the eggs, sugar and salt. Beat until light in color and fluffy (about 3 minutes).  Beat in the vanilla. Sprinkle the flour mixture and beat on low speed until combined. 
4. Using a rubber or silicone spatula, fold in half of the melted butter until just incorporated. Add the remaining butter and mix until well combined.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan evenly.
6. Bake until the tops spring back when lightly touched, about 10-12 minutes.
7. Remove the pan from the oven, invert it over a wire rack and rap the pan on the rack to release the madeleines. Let cool for 10 minutes and dust the shell patterned sides with confectioners' sugar just before serving.

Family Vacation (Perth) - Day 5

The last day in Perth, after packing our belongings and tidied up the apartment, we headed to King's Park for sightseeing. Then we stopped by at Harbour Town for a little last minute shopping and lunch. We arrived at the airport around 1:30pm and returned the car. After dropped off our luggage, we went to the musolla for solat. We finally said goodbye to Perth and took by by 4:30pm.

Family Vacation (Perth) - Day 4

Our first destination on Day 4 was Fremantle. On our way to Fremantle, we dropped by at Cottesloe Beach which is about 15 minutes west of Perth. The beach is one of Perth's main attraction and as it is overlooking the Indian Ocean, it also one of the best spot to watch the sunset. Even though cloudy, the wave that day was not that strong. There were some people swimming and some kids playing with the sand. It was peaceful.

The journey to Fremantle through the coastal road took another 15 minutes. We straight away went to Fremantle Prison. It is WA's most significant historical attraction. The prison was built by the convicts themselves sent by British government in the early 1850s and was used as a prison until 1991. In 1992 it was reopened for tourists. Visitors can join a 1.5 hours guided tour but since the time was quite limited, we didn't. After visiting its gallery and souvenir shop, we hopped on to Cicerello Fish Market for lunch.

After a good heavy lunch, we continued for an hour long journey to Mandurah.

We arrived just in time to catch the 1 o'clock dolphin cruise. We managed to see a couple of dolphins who glided together by the side of the boat. The cruise also took us to see luxury houses (or mansions) by the canal. Most of the houses are millions and all of them have their own luxury boats.

Family Vacation (Perth) - Day 3

We woke up to a cloudy day with a bit of drizzle in the morning on the third day of our vacation in Perth. Quite a nice weather actually because it was very hot the day before. After taking our breakfast, we started our itinerary by driving for half an hour to Whiteman Park. Western Australia is very well known for their parks which homes to all kind of wildlife, birds, wildflowers and local plants. Whiteman Park is located about 20km north of Perth and Caversham Wildlife Park inside the park is the main attraction. 

The park is also another family owned business which opens everyday from 9am - 5:30pm. Beside watching the animals in their enclosures, there are also some shows and meet-and-greet session featuring the animals. You can watch the sheep shearing, bottlefeeding the baby lambs and sheep dog mustering the sheeps in the Farm Show. You can also hand feed the kangaroos and meet the koalas who appeared to be sleeping all day.

Sheep shearing

Bottle feeding the baby lambs

Sleepy head

There were a lot of things to see and do in this park, we spent at least 3 hours in here before moving on to the next agenda. The address of the park is as follows:

Caversham Wildlife Park
Whiteman Park, Whiteman, WA, 6068

Whiteman Park is in Swan Valley region. This region is very famous for its wineries and local produce. There are many family owned farms that grow and sell all sort of fruits such as grapes, olive, melons and strawberries. We stopped by at Margaret River Chocolate Factory outlet where we  sampled and purchased some chocolate products.

After that, we visited Mondo Nougat and Morish Nut which was not very far from Margaret River Chocolate. Then we stopped by at Range View Vineyards to buy some freshly picked Crimson seedless grapes. Oh my! they were so crunchy and sweet and very cheap! A basket of 3 types of grapes which I thought weighing almost 3 kg was sold at AUD8. Since there are no other customers or tourists when we arrived, we asked permission from the owner to walk by the vineyards and take photos. There are still some grapes on the trees and the olives are heavily producing their fruits. In WA, olives harvesting is between April to July.

From Swan Valley, we continued our journey to Hillarys Boat Harbour but before that we stopped by at Al Majid Mosque in Padbury. The mosque is located in a suburb residential areas in Padbury Boulevard. A very clean and well maintained mosque, I guessed there are a lot of Muslims nearby. It also has a proper and plenty car parks which surrounded by well trimmed olive trees.

We reached Hillarys Boat Harbour around 4pm. The wind and waves were very strong that day. There are people doing fishing and some are mending their boats.

Nothing much to do there, just walked and admiring the boats at the harbour. There are also some restaurants and small shops if you would like to do some shopping. Bought some more souvenirs there too.

On our way home, we stopped over at Scarborough Beach for a while. On a clear day, it was supposedly one the best spot to see the sunset. On a windy day, it was perfect for surfers.

Lesson learned: Aussies are very good in preserving their national treasures....the land.

Family Vacation (Perth) - Day 2

The first itinerary for the day was to drive half an hour down south to Roleystone. It was a 40 minutes drive down to the south of Perth. This area is full of orchards and home to Araluen Botanic Park.

That's our rental parked in front of the stall

Our first stop is the Raeburn Orchards. It is a family owned farm which goes back to 1948 and it grows many fruit trees such as apples, peaches, avocados, mandarin oranges, pomegranate etc. We can also purchase some freshly picked fruits at their stall in front of  the farm. The apple season was over during our visit. March/April is the season for persimmons, avocados, plums, mandarin oranges and mangoes. This farm is not pick-you-own farm however we were allowed to visit and walk in the orchards as well as taking pictures with the produce...the owner said 'just pretend touching the fruit'.

The address is as follows:

4 Raeburn Rd
Roleystone 6111WA

Source: Own Waze Driving Record

Could not recall what trees are these...

Nice ripe plums...how I wish!

About 5 minutes drive or 3.5km from Raeburn, we entered into Araluen Botanic Park. It situated in the Perth Hills and a home to many beautiful Australian and international flowers and plants. First, we went to the Rose Garden and the flowers are enormously big like a party plate or a big teacup. They smell so nice and you can tell beforehand judging by the bees flying around them.

Hydrangae

Lavender

The address is as follows:
362 Croyden Road
Roleystone WA 6111

By noon, everybody was tired and hungry so we drove back to Perth while munching some apples and grapes bought at Raeburn earlier. We stopped by at Perth Mosque for Solat Jamak. 

Perth Mosque address:
427 William St, 
Perth WA 6000

After solat, we drove into Perth City, parked our mpv inside one of the multiple storey parking at Queen's Lane and just walked to Murray St. We bought some kebabs from one of the stall there for lunch. Australian Souvenirs shop is next door, so we also did some souvenirs shopping afterwards. By then, everybody was so tired and sleepy so by 5pm we headed home to our apartment. Before reaching the apartment, we stopped by at IGA Kooyong Rd which was like 2 minutes drive from Tanunda Drive to buy some groceries. This IGA sells halal chicken called Steggles Chicken. So, I bought some rice, chicken and frozen veges for dinner. Good walk, good dinner...good night sleep...zzzzz.