Mango Eton Mess

There is nothing that says "Summer is here" more than a good homemade Eton Mess.

I wanted to do a twist from the traditional Strawberry flavoured one, don't get me wrong, I love strawberries, but it is 'boring' and it does not really correspond with my personal excitement of the arrival of Summer hence Mango, it is exotic and definitely screams Summer.

To make the Eton Mess, you can either make your own Meringues, or buy them at supermarkets. I wanted to make everything from scratch, so I made the Meringues the day before.

Meringues
3 large egg whites (best at room temperature for a couple of hours - aged)
175g caster sugar

Preheat oven to 150°C.
Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks, then gradually add the sugar, continue to whisk until all the sugar is incorporated.
Spoon the mixture into 6 meringues on a lined baking sheet or tray, then place in the centre of the oven, turn down the heat to 140°C. Bake for 1 hour
After an hour, turn off the oven, and leave the meringue sitting in the oven until it is cool or preferably over night.

Mango Eton Mess 
2 Mangoes - 1 skinned and diced, 1 puree
150g double cream
150g greek yogurt

Prepare the mangoes first. Place 1 mango into the juicer and pulse until it resembles a puree liquid form; Skin and dice up the other mango and place them in a bowl and refridgerate;
Whisk the double cream in a large bowl until it thickens, then mix in the greek yogurt;

Assembling:
Break the meringues into chunks, place them at the bottom of your serving bowl, then spoon the cream mixture, spread some mango puree on top - repeat twice. Then top with the diced mangoes and meringue crumbs. Finish with swirls of mango puree around the bowl. 

Ta-da! Enjoy!

Homemade Dumplings

There is always something comforting about dumplings, in particular homemade ones. I have always made my dumplings with shop bought dumpling pastry, and though they are easy and convenient, I felt that it is missing something in taste and texture. Thus, this time, I have decided to make everything from scratch.

Homemade dumpling pastry is simple, but a word of warning – it is time consuming! So make sure you have a couple of hours to spare and preferably a chair or stool to sit while working on the kitchen table.

This recipe makes 48 dumplings

 

Dumpling pastry:

500g Plain white flour or all purpose flour

250g Cold water

1) Sift the flour into a bowl, and make a well in the middle

2) Pour in the cold water into the flour gradually, while mixing and stirring with a wooden spoon, to form a dough

*You may or may not need extra water, please judge by the texture of the dough*

3) Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, just to bring the mixture all together and to loosen it a bit

4) Leave it to rest for around 1 hour in the bowl

5) Divide the dough into quarters (working with smaller portion of dough is easier)

6) Roll each quarter into a log shape, then cut into chunks (approx. 2-3cm wide)

7) Using your palm, flatten each piece into a disc; Take the rolling pin, and roll out to a circle, about the size of your palm

8) Make sure your work surface is dusted with flour to avoid the pastry from sticking to it

Now for the filling; the most common meat we use is minced pork. I marinated the minced pork (500g) with 3 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp salt, 3 tsp rice wine and 1 tbsp of sesame oil. Then to the meat, I added diced black fungus (黑木耳) (alternatively you can add Chinese mushrooms冬菇), Spring Onions; for a bit of spice, I added some pickled vegetables (榨菜). Give everything a good mix, just to make sure they all stick to the meat. If the vegetables are not sticking to the meat, add a little cold water just to give it a help.

To make the dumplings:

1) Place a sheet of the pastry onto your palm

2) Take about 1 ½ tsp of the meat mixture and put it in the middle of the pastry

3) Wrap the dumpling, starting from the centre, working to the sides, press gently with fingers to make sure the sides are sealed (otherwise the meat will pop out when you cook them later)

4) Dust them with flour

5) Repeat until everything is used up

To cook the dumplings:

1) Carefully place the dumplings into boiling water

2) Cook them until they float on the water

*You should see the dumpling pastry becoming translucent*

 

Best served with vinegar (black not white) and some chilli oil; Alternatively you can pan fry them.

Bread Making with the Masters @ Leiths School of Food and Wine

I have always been a big fan of breads, all sorts of bread (literally) and as a bread lover, I am as passionate as one could be when learning to make breads. Thus, I signed up to the one day Bread making class at Leiths School of Food and Wine to master the basics of bread making.

A few tips before the class:
- bring an apron (if you do forget, they can provide you one in class)
- bring a notebook and a pen (trust me, you will need to remember the helpful tips)

Upon arrival, you will be seated in the dining room where coffee, tea, and fresh baked pastries are served as breakfast. This is the 'waiting room'; you will then be given a booklet specifically designed for your course (bread making in my case). Inside the booklet, you will see the schedule for the day, what sorts of bread will be demonstrated and baked, and most importantly, recipes (which you will be following later on).

After everyone in the class has arrived, we were led to the demonstration room. I felt like a student again (and a geek), front-row seat, making sure I jotted down all the notes and tips I gathered from the demonstration. First of all, we were introduced to fresh yeast (my first encounter) and the standard process of bread making (mixing, kneading, proving, knocking back and proving again). The demonstration includes making the doughs for an enriched white loaf, Italian bread (foccacia) and how to make your own starter (for sourdoughs for example).

After the learning and notes taking session, we went to the kitchen, where hands-on baking began.

The kitchen area

First, we had to make the dough for the Enriched White bread. The enriched part is from the butter, egg and milk that we added. Usually, you can make a white bread with just flour, yeast, water and salt. This enriched flavour bring a slight sweetness to the bread, and a yellowy colour as well. Once the dough is done, we had to place them by the ovens to let them prove. Meanwhile, we got on with the dough for the Foccacia - a bit wetter than the white bread dough. Knead, knead, knead and let it prove.
Third dough - we made a Soda bread dough with fruits and nuts, which does not need to be proved (as we used bicarbonate soda as an active agent instead of yeast). We were given a lot of freedom in terms of how to shape our breads. I stuck with the classics, and shaped my Fruit Soda Bread as 4 round rolls. As for my white breads, a small loaf and a plait.

My white breads before and after second proving

Our breads were happily baking in the ovens, while we had our simple yet warming lunch. One of our bread chefs made us a Carrot and Coriander soup and of course breads go best with soup! We ate the breads which had previously been demonstrated to us in the morning. As soon as we tried the breads, we all thought "if only our breads turn out to be this good!"

After lunch, we had to glaze our white breads which have had their second proving. We were given poppy and seasame seeds to decorate our white breads. Then all we had to do was to wait for them to be baked.

The course ended around 2.30pm. Because with breads, it is very time consuming with a lot of waiting around, most of the hands-on baking were done in the morning.

I left the school with some much joy and satisfaction that I felt like I was a little kid who had just made her first art sketch. Oh, and of course with many freshly baked loaves of bread.

I would highly recommend anyone who is or would be interested in learning to make your own bread. Freshly homemade breads are the best, and I can guarantee that you will not be shopping for bread at your bakery shops for a long while!

This is also a great activity for your weekends, afterall, baking is very therapeutic and brings great satisfaction. What is the best thing to do but baking when the weather is just being so unpredictable?

For info on the course, please visit http://www.leiths.com/enthusiasts-courses/bread-workshop-12/

I am now looking at other courses at Leiths for my next challenge!

Steak Salad and Hasselback Potato

1 Sirloin or Rump steak
1 tsp Olive oil 

1 Marie Piper Potato - rubbed and washed
2 cloves of garlic - chopped
20g unsalted butter - at room temperature
Salt and Pepper

Salad leaves - I used Spinach here, drizzled with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar

1. Preheat oven to 200°C
2. Line the baking tray with foil or baking paper
3. Cut the potato, approximately 1cm thick, and make sure you do NOT cut all the way through.
*Tip: I placed a wooden spoon beside the potato when I slice it to make sure that I do not accidentally slice all the way through
4. Break the butter into smaller pieces and start by rubbing the potato, making sure you rub the inside of the 'half sliced' potato
5. Season with salt and pepper
6. Sprinkle the chopped garlic onto the potato, place some in the potato slices. Rub more butter if the garlic and the seasoning do not stay
7. Place the potato on the baking paper or foil, and place it in the centre of the preheated oven. Let it bake for 50-60 minutes until crisp and golden and fluffy in the inside.

When the potato is almost done, cook your steak:
1. Heat the grill pan (there is no need to add oil onto the pan)
2. Rub a spoonful of olive oil onto the steak, then season it with salt and pepper
3. Grill the steak to your liking - usually 90 seconds on each side for rare (depending on the thickness of your steak)
4. Once cooked to your liking, take it away from the heat, cover with foil and let it rest for 5 minutes

To assemble:
1. Place the salad leaves on one side of the plate
2. Place the piping hot potato on the other side of the plate
3. Slice up your steak to 2-3cm thick and place them on the bed of salad leaves

Earl Grey Hot Cross Buns

As a Good Friday tradition, we all need to eat a good Hot Cross Buns.

I made the traditional ones last year, so this year, I wanted to attempt to play around with flavours.

Having tried Heston's Early Grey and Mandarin hot cross buns from Waitrose, I decided to try out Earl Grey flavour.

Earl Grey Hot Cross Buns

(makes 8 big ones)

2 Earl Grey tea bags (I used loose tea leaves, approx 3 tsp)

150ml boiling water

150g raisins and mixed dried fruits

500g Strong White flour

2 tsp dried yeast

2 tsp mixed spices (1 extra tsp ground cinnamon for those cinnamon lovers!)

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp marmalade

100ml milk

50g unsalted butter

1 egg

Milk to glaze

1) Make the tea (adding boiling water to tea bags or loose leaves)

2) Add the raisins and dried fruits into the tea, and let it infuse and do its job for at least an hour (preferably overnight if you have time)

For the bread dough:

1)Place milk and butter into a saucepan and put on a low heat just until the milk starts to bubble, remove from heat and let it cool

2) Mix flour, yeast, mixed spices, salt, marmalade

3) Add the soaked dried fruits, remaining tea, cooled milk and butter mixture into the dry ingredients, then add egg

4) Form a dough (if too wet, add more flour; if too dry, add more milk)

5) Knead the dough for a good 15 minutes

6) Place the dough into an oiled large bowl and cover it with cling film and let it sit for 2 hours (I like to leave it overnight)

7) Knock back the air from the dough, knead for another 3-5 minutes

8) Divide the dough into 8 portions, roll them into a ball

9) Place them onto a baking sheet, and let them sit and prove themselves for the second time (approx 30-40 minutes will do)

10) Preheat oven to 200°C

11) Glaze the the buns with some milk

To make the cross:

Mix plain flour with tepid water to form a paste

Place the mixture into piping bag, ready to use

Pipe the cross on the buns

Bake for 15-20 minutes

When the buns are done, sugar glaze them just before serving (sugar glaze: melt caster sugar with hot water)

 Happy Easter everyone!