Chi ha avuto la fortuna di vivere un Natale a testa in giù in Australia sa che è un esperienza diversa dal solito. Il clima condizione fortemente questa festa, da trascorrere quindi in short e bermuda anziché il nostro maglione con berretta e sciarpa. Ma ciononostante gli australiani hanno comunque un grande momento, rimane il fascino dello scambio di regali (Chrissie presies) e la tradizione prevede la possibilità di un barbecue in spiaggia, proprio per la giornata del 25.Se le decorazioni tradizionali ... read more »
I remember when I was young and my mum would take me to the show and how excited I'd get when she bought me a big stick of fairy floss. Light pink, glistening in the sun almost as if a magical spider had cast a spell and produced this web that was so magnificent in every way. Sugar melting and crystallising and getting stuck in my hair - little sticky pudgy fingers putting fingerprints everywhere. Fast forward to today and fairy floss comes in every colour of the rainbow and now my gorgeous girls enjoy i... read more »
Being an advocate of Earth Hour 60, I am reposting this article I wrote last March 2010. World Wide Fund of Nature (WWF) and The Sydney Morning Herald had organized Earth Hour 60 in 2007, dedicated to the global awareness on climate change. Residents of Sydney Australia turned off non essential lights and electrical appliances for an hour both in businesses and residential homes. In 2008, Earth Hour 60 was participated by major key cities in the world. Earth Hour 60 is held yearly on the last week of Ma... read more »
Here are some of my salted caramel macaron... Recipe adapted from BAROQUE BISTRO, The Rocks Sydney Not Quite Nigella SALTED CARAMEL FILLING INGREDIENTS 125g Fresh Cream 175g Caster Sugar 5g Maldon Sea Salt (crushed into smaller flakes) 175g Butter Step 1. MAKING YOUR FILLING: Chop your butter into small cubes. Weigh your sugar into a medium saucepan. Weigh your cream into a small saucepan and bring to the boil, remove from heat as soon as it starts to boil. Commence cooking your sugar stirr... read more »
Here are some of my salted caramel macaron... orange shells, sprinkled with cocoa and filled with love. I cooked the first tray at 140°C for approx. 25 minutes but the bottoms were a tad sticky and the feet weren't as high. When I cooked the second tray at150°C for 22 minutes the texture was a lot better and the macs a lot easier to take off the parchment paper. Also, the second tray had higher feet compared to my first tray which you can probably see in the photos. Recipe adapted from BAROQUE BISTRO... read more »
After experimenting with many different recipes and temperatures with my oven, I've finally mastered the mysterious macaron using Baroque Bistro's recipe from Not Quite Nigella and tips from Honey and Soy Food Adventures. When these macaron developed "perfect feet' within the first five minutes of cooking you couldn't wipe the grin off my face and similar to others I too did a lot of dancing in my kitchen. Comparing my macaron against the master himself "Pierre Herme Macaron in the photo above" and "e... read more »
We're off to a dinner party tonight and I had another attempt at making macaron. Still difficult and not perfect but much improved. Just hope the Italian meringue was the right consistency. Yeah - tiny little feet! Just need a bit more practice piping - the ganache doesn't have quite enough filling and some of the macaron spread a little and ended up different sizes but most were ok. I made two different types of ganache, white chocolate infused with lavender and the other with raspberries an... read more »
I made Alvin's Caramelised Pork Belly yesterday but unfortunately it wasn't a great hit in our household. I've made quite a few pork belly recipes including Pork Adobo and Chairman Mao's Red Braised Pork with Water Chestnuts which are fantastic but this just didn't hit the spot for my family. There was just too much brown sugar in this recipe for my liking and if I were to do it again I would caramelise the pork in a totally different way albeit a much safer way. You see, I had a slight problem with the ... read more »
Most of us have made a Thai curry but only recently did I learn how to get that wonderful depth of flavour you get at restaurants. The secret lies in how to crack that nut but not just any nut, specifically, coconut.Firstly, reduce coconut cream - best done in a wok - until it gets to a stage that it looks like you've got curds and oil i.e. cracks. Add your curry paste, combine the two and stir fry until the paste is fragrant. Then you can throw in your poultry or whatever takes your fancy, toss it a bit... read more »
Today, started out glorious... bright, colourful and full of puff. And, so I thought would be the result of my macarons - how wrong could I be? I think the batter looks ok. But after I put the macaron into the oven it seemed the vision of my beautiful coloured balloons popped and so did my buttons. I've used the French meringue method and Italian meringue but just can't seem to get anything right. Here is tray number 3 and out of all of the macaron I only got one near perfect button... good enough f... read more »
