Mini cheesecakes

I went through my photos and found this photo.  I made these mini cheesecakes to cheer my friend Ace when she was feeling down.  

The recipe and instruction for these are from " Joy of Baking.   I used raspberry instead of strawberry as I prefer the tandy sour raspberry which compliments the cheese and chocolate perfectly.   I added a some tia maria to chocolate after melting them for an added kick.  When I made these for my dear friend Angie's birthday, she declared them as the best cheesecakes she has ever eaten.

Thai styled steamed pomfret

I have not updated Bread and butter for the longest time, and I think it is time I do so.   We are supposed to leave for Shanghai tomorrow, but for as Ti is unwell and the doctor certified him unfit to travel, so we have  to cancel the trip, but Vincent is going ahead as he has a seminar to attend.  So we celebrated father's day in advance and I baked pandan butter cake and cooked curry and steamed pomfret.

We had this in Penang when we went there end Dec/early Jan and we liked it so much, so I decided to try steaming this.   It is actually quite easy, I mixed 2 tablespoon of tomyam paste (which is easily available at all supermarkets) with half 1/4 cup water, add juice of 2 lime, sliced 2 chilli padi and one stalk of lemongrass, pour over the pomfret and steam for 10 minutes.    Adjust the tomyam paste to taste. A very simple yet tasty dish and Vincent loves it.  

Hopefully I will be back with the recipe for the pandan butter cake tomorrow. 

I made these for Swee Khee's 48th birthday and we  had a mini celebration during class yesterday.    I melted white chocolate with thicken cream for the icing and decorate it with pearls.

I made these for Jer's 18th birthday, had lots of fun putting them together. As it was meant to be a mega surprise for her, I can only work on them when she was out of the house.

Main Course - Chilli squids

Ingredients
500 grams squids, cleaned and sliced
2 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
1 tablespoon belachan chilli paste
3 garlic, minced
3 onions, minced
thumb sized ginger, minced
1 tablespoon oil

Method
1. Fry minced garlic, onions and ginger in oil till fragrant.
2. Add squids and chilli and stir fry for 2 minutes, add 1/4 cup water and stir fry another 3 minutes. Serve hot

Dessert : Apple Crumble with Nutmeg and Hazelnuts

Apple Crumble with nutmeg and hazelnuts

Ingredients (filling)

4 apples, cored and sliced nto thick wedges

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon butter

1/4 cup water

handful of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries

handful of rasins

icing sugar, for dusting

ground nutmeg for dusting

Ingredients (crumble)
100 grams butter, softened
120 grams flour
80 grams hazelnuts
80 grams sugar

Method
1. Prehead oven to 180 degree C
2. Cook apples with brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, water and butter until softened
3. Portion the apples together with the berries and rasins into 6 ramekins, filling them about 3/4 full, leaving space for the crumble.
4. Pound hazelnuts in mortar and pestle.
5. Combine hazelnuts, flour, butter and sugar. Using fingertips, rub all the crumble ingredients until mixture is crumbly. Alternatively, with a food processor, pulsed all the crumble ingredients until they are crumbly. (When using the food processor, there is no need to pound the hazelnuts.)
6. Spoon crumble over the apples/berries/raisins.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
8. Sprinkle icing sugar and nutmeg and serve warm.

Iused baking paper to line 4 of the ramkins as I wanted to pack them as gifts. When serving them at home, there is no need to line the ramkins.