Basil Pesto

Hey,


do you know how to make pesto?
it is so versatile, isn't it? Ben (my hubby) loves pesto. He likes to spread it in his sandwich, or put it in salad, or in the pasta...Even in the chicken and pizza.


So here is a home made recipe for pesto that you can make at home:
To make 1 1/2 cup you will need:
2 cups basil leaves, coarsely chopped (preferably from your garden/balcony)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1/4 cup (45g) toasted pine nuts
1/3 cup (35g) finely grated parmesan
1/2 cup (125ml) olive oil, plus extra

Method:

1. Place the basil, garlic, pine nuts and parmesan in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely chopped. (Alternatively, place ingredients in a mortar and pound with a pestle until well combined).
2. With the motor running, gradually add the oil in a thin, steady stream until well combined and a smooth paste forms. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
3. Transfer to an airtight container and pour over a little extra oil to cover the pesto surface (this will prevent the basil from oxidising and turning black).

Image from Salt and Pepper blog

Puff Pastry and Shortcrust Pastry. what's the difference?

We see all this options of pastry available in the supermarket. So what is what? what to use for what?

Image source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/pastry

At its most basic, pastry is a mixture of flour and fat bound with water to form a paste. Historically it was used as a case for baking other items, but people eventually realised the pastry was worth eating too. The wide range of pastries made today vary in texture and taste according to the proportion of fats used, the way in which it is incorporated with the flour, and the method used to shape the dough


Puff pastry can generally be described as flaky, light and buttery, good for pies and pastries; while shortcrust pastry has a more crumbly, biscuit-like texture which is good for tart or quiche cases. Sweet puff pastry is literally puff pastry with sugar added to it, while sweet shortcrust pastry is not commercially available. When making a pie, many cooks use shortcrust on the bottom and puff pastry for the lid.

Puff pastry Puff pastry is best for pastries, sausage rolls, sweet or savoury pies, turnovers and palmiers. Puff pastry is usually made with canola or a vegetable oil. Butter puff pastry is puff pastry made with butter instead of the vegetable oil and no sugar. Whether you use normal puff pastry or butter puff pastry is entirely a matter of personal preference. Sweet puff pastry is puff pastry made using sugar. In Australia, it is not available ready-made. It is used in sweet recipes that require a flaky, buttery pastry such as a sweet pie.

Shortcrust pastry Shortcrust has a slightly biscuity, crumbly texture that is resistant to soaking up fluids so is perfect for quiches, tarts, samosas and other savoury delights with wet fillings or those that are not being served immediately. It is surprisingly sturdy when removed from its tin. Plain shortcrust is usually used for savoury fillings but can be a good counterpoint to very sweet fillings too so it is an all-purpose option. Pate sablee is a sweetened shortcrust pastry, though more like a biscuit dough, in that butter and sugar are beaten together before the flour and liquid are added. The word sablee means sandy or grainy and this effect is sometimes enhanced by the addition of ground almonds.

Fillo Fillo is wafer thin and crunchy and brown when cooked. Use fillo when a light, crunchy pastry is required, like a spinach pie, or where it will receive a good soaking in a syrupy liquid such as when making baklava.

Choux Choux has very specific uses such as for making eclairs, croquembouche and choux buns. When baked, it transforms into light-as-air puffs with hollow pockets perfect for filling with cream or chocolate.

Source: ninemsn and BBC

Dulce de leche - a south american passion

So, what is Dulce de Leche?

I was born in South America, so for me it's so clear, but so hard to explain what it is.

But I found this sweet explanation from Baking Bites Blog.

Here it goes:

Dulce de leche is a thick, milk-based caramel sauce. It is probably most popular in South American Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries, but variations exist in other countries and cultures as well. The most simple caramel sauce starts with sugar, and depending on the variation you have in mind, ingredients like cream and butter are added to the hot sugar to form caramel. With dulce de leche, milk and sugar are cooked together to make a caramel, a process that takes quite a long time but results in an incredibly rich-tasting sauce with a strong milky flavor behind its sweetness. It is similar to sweetened condensed milk (and can be made from it, too), although dulce de leche is thicker and much more caramelized (darker in color and flavor) than sweetened condensed milk alone.

Try out a few different brands if you are ordering, since dulce de leche, like other types of caramel, can taste different from brand to brand.

Basic Cookie Dough

From the amazing The Decorated Cookies here are some recipes of Basic Cookie Dough.

Here it goes:

Ingredients
1 cup (227g) of unsalted butter
1 cup confectioner sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cup of  flour
1 tsp of salt

Method
Cream the butter with the  sugar. Add egg and blend well. Add extracts and blend. 
Mix flour and salt in a separate bowl and gradually add to the mixture. 


Cover dough with plastic wrap (or Ziploc bag) and chill dough for about 2 hours. 
Working with about 1/3 of the batch at a time, briefly knead the chilled dough and roll about 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch thick. 
Cut out shapes. 
Bake cut out cookies on parchment lined baking trays at 190C for 12-14 minutes. 


Note: You can also freeze dough. After mixing, put dough in a Freezer ziploc bag (or wrap well) and freeze. Thaw overnight or for at least a few hours in the refrigerator in the ziploc bag. If too chilled to handle, let sit at room temperature for about 1/2 hour to 1 hour until it's workable. Chilled is good, though, don't let it get too mushy.

Granola x Muesli - What's the difference?

I Actually never thought about it, but:
Do you know the difference between Granola and Muesli?

GRANOLA

MUESLI

I made a little bit of research:
Basically Granola and Muesli share some ingredients like a mixture of grains (such as oats), nuts, dried fruit and sometimes bran and wheat germ.
Granola is coated with sugar or honey and then, oven baked. Then, sweeter and usually, more fatening. 
That said: you can imagine that making your own Muesli or Granola is fairly easy and you can choose whatever you want and don't, mix it up all together and Ta- dah!!!!

Muesli

Granola

Muesli

Granola

Have a good Breakie,

Love
Vic

Adriano Zumbo Cafe and its Macarons

We went, well, we tried to go, to the new Adriano Zumbo café.
Apparently we were a little bit advanced on time, given the sitting down cafe will only be open in a month or so, but the patisserie was open and steaming. There was a huge queue but I must say whatever you buy there is worth it.

We bought some Macarons with different flavors, but nothing too risky (There were things like Mandarine with Hummus, but didn't appeal to me).
Things like Orange with chocolate, Burnt Caramel, Strawberry.
OMG, they are worth the 2 dollars / each!

www.adrianozumbo.com

Definitely worth it every single calorie.

Love, 

Vic

"How do Pop Rocks candy work?"

I found that in a post from one of the best food blogs I've seen lately:
http://www.melbournegastronome.com/

So How do Pop Rocks Candy Works?

01 April 2000.
HowStuffWorks.com.

Pop Rocks" is an extremely cool candy to some people, but to other people it is just plain weird and they won't touch the stuff. Regardless of which view you subscribe to, you have to admit that it is definitely a technology candy -- nothing in nature works like Pop Rocks do!

So how do they work? One of the amazing things about Pop Rocks is that they are patented. That means that you can go read the patent and see exactly how they work. You can click here to see the patent -- this page is a synopsis, and if you click the "View Images" tag at the top of the page you can look at scanned images of the actual patent. Page 4 is the key page.

Here's the basic idea. Hard candy (like a lollypop or a Jolly Rancher) is made from sugar, corn syrup, water and flavoring. You heat the ingredients together and boil the mixture to drive off all of the water. Then you let the temperature rise. What you are left with is a pure sugar syrup at about 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). When it cools, you have hard candy.

To make Pop Rocks, the hot sugar mixture is allowed to mix with carbon dioxide gas at about 600 pounds per square inch (psi). The carbon dioxide gas forms tiny, 600-psi bubbles in the candy. Once it cools, you release the pressure and the candy shatters, but the pieces still contain the high-pressure bubbles (look at a piece with a magnifying glass to see the bubbles).

When you put the candy in your mouth, it melts (just like hard candy) and releases the bubbles with a loud POP! What you are hearing and feeling is the 600-psi carbon dioxide gas being released from each bubble.

Isabella's Italian & Seafood Restaurant

Last night, we went there for dinner with another couple.
It wasn't my first time at Isabellas, but was definitely the first time I get there and is not packed. I wonder why...

The place is a fair italian place, although I don't think anyone there is Italian.
We had bruschetas for Entrée and I've never had bruscheta with melted cheese on the top. I found it a little bit funny.

The for of us had pasta and I must say mine was pretty good.
That's not the recipe but the idea / ingredients is worth it.

Penne al Oliva

Marinated olives, sundried tomato, artichoke, basil and tomatoes, served with a touch of cream

Isabella's Italian & Seafood Restaurant
183 Alison Rd, Randwick NSW 2031
(02) 9314 7399