Bread and Batter, Cakes and Cookies

Buttermilk Biscuits

7shasha7

From the same page I got my Buttermilk Fried Chicken, I made these fabulous biscuits this morning. It’s my first time ever making biscuits and I was disappointed with the result because I obviously didn’t understand what “roll to 2 1/2″ thick”. I’m horribly bad at Math and if I had understood what that meant, I would know that 1 inch is about 2.5 cm and hence 2.5 inches would be slightly more than 5 cm. Well.

The result was a tasty flavourful biscuit (what with the butter and buttermilk in it) but it looks flat. I served these with Buttermilk Fried Chicken for today’s lunch.For added flavour, I ate the biscuits with margarine.

Recipe

1. 2 cups plain flour

2. 2 tsp baking powder

3. 1/2 tsp baking soda

4. 1 tsp salt

5. 1/4 cup shortening (I used butter)

6. 3/4 cup buttermilk

In a dry bowl, stir to mix all the dry ingredients. Add the butter and rub it in till it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Pour in the buttermilk and lightly knead to a dough. Flour the work surface and roll dough out to 2.5 inches thick (do the Math please) and cut using round cutters. I had The Little Girl to do this, and she did a mighty fine job, cutting rounds till there was no more dough left to cut. She rolled and cut the leftover dough three times. Wonderful. Oh, and then bake in the hot oven till golden and cooked in the centre.

Notice that incomplete round dough? That was when The Little Girl cut too close to an earlier round. But I used that as the tester biscuit to check the doneness.

 

Seafood

Fish and Fried Mushrooms

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Remember the pollock cod? I bought a pack again (it’s $5.80) and decided to make fish and chips. Except of course, I didn’t have any potatoes or french fries. So I decided to fry the fish using Chef Wan’s recipe for fish and chips and put them in between slices of sourdough rye bread that I had bought from Carrefour.

When I dipped the fish in the batter, I thought it won’t be crispy but it was! I love Chef Wan’s recipes. It always turns out fine.

The batter has to sit for an hour but I only let it rise for 20 minutes. The recipe called for fresh yeast and beer (yes, beer) but I used dried active yeast, added a bit of honey and tepid water to plain flour, salt and white pepper.
Fry in fresh hot oil till brown and crispy.
I squeezed a bit of fresh lemon juice on the fish.
It looks like a piece of fried chicken from this angle.

 

Flaky white crispy fish.

I served these with fried white button mushrooms cut in half using the leftover batter.

Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top before serving.

Totally unhealthy, totally delicious.

Desserts

Tiramisu

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My aunt has an easy  tiramisu recipe and this afternoon, I finally used her recipe. The topping was fantastic, the end product looked good but when we tasted the whole thing after it was chilled, I kicked myself (not literally). The fingers were bitter, bitter to the core! (I penalise students for using the phrase ‘to the core’ but this was really to the core of bitterness, as bitter as bitter can get!) I didn’t add sugar to the coffee mixture for dipping the fingers in! Argh! Do try this at home because it’s really simple to make and delicious. Just don’t forget to add SUGAR to the coffee mixture.

For the creamy topping: 1 litre of whipping cream, 1 packet of Philly's cream cheese and 1 cup of sugar plus a teaspoon of vanilla essence. Beat till creamy but do not overbeat it. Just enough to scoop it with a spoon.
Dip the lady's fingers (at Cold Storage or Carrefour) in a tablespoon of coffee mixed with hot water and SUGAR. Layer them with the cream mixture in a see through bowl - it just looks pretty.
Top with cocoa powder and shaved dark chocolate. Leave to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving.

As imperfect as my tiramisu was, there was only a little left in the fridge. The other bowl I intended to bring to the in-laws tomorrow. The excuse I’ll give? It’s intentional because sugar is bad for diabetics! ;p

 

Poultry

Fried Chicken Thighs with Apple Chutney

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The Hubby said that I’ve perfected fried chicken because each time I cook it, even though they are all using different recipes and spices, they turn out crispy and juicy. Yay for me! Boo for my waistline 😦

This time round, I marinated the chicken thighs using lime juice, paprika (love them), black pepper, salt and garlic salt. Coat them with beaten egg and the flour (mixed with paprika again and black pepper) and fry till done. The skin will always be super crispy when fried this way.

But the real kicker is the apple relish. I got the idea from watching Sunny Anderson (from Cooking for Real) when she made a pear relish. I used apple and instead of cider vinegar, used balsamic and added in a couple of cloves. I used brown sugar (quite a lot to bring down the acidity of it all) and while that was cooking, kept tasting to adjust the seasoning. Luckily for me, The Hubby loved the relish, though The Little Girl hated it. I suppose apples have to look and taste like apples for little girls.

 

Experiment. Use whatever there is in the fridge. Try out new combinations.

 

Next time, I want to try using a mixture of plain flour and polenta since I have like leftovers and have no idea what to do with them. Experiment.
Apple Relish. Oh I forgot, to speed up the thickening proess, I added half a teaspoon of cornstarch.
Dinner! The overdone bread? One piece I cut into squares as croutons for the salad.
Use these Sadia brand frozen chicken thighs. Affordable, easy to cook and the skin is just delicious when fried.

 

Seafood

Crumbed Baked Pollock Cod

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I saw crumbed fish on Chopped plenty of times. And what do you know? Yesterday while toasting some bread in the oven, I lost track of them and they got hard. So today, I whizzed them in a food processor and added some herbs (dried) and garlic salt. In a pan, I fried the pollock cod (frozen, from NTUC) and then before putting them in the oven to finish cooking, patted the crumbs on top. The result? Great recipe except execution wise, I overcooked the fish. But The Little Girl said, “It’s not dry for me, I love it. So crispy!” Give it a try if you have breadcrumbs to spare.

The cod is fantastic. They weren't expensive at all less than 6 dollars for that whole lot. It was on sale.