Friday 4 November 2011

Avocado Chicken Parmigiana

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Parmigiana (a short form of Parmigiana di melanzane) is a Southern Italian dish made with a shallow-fried sliced filling, layered with cheese, tomato sauce and baked before serving. But here we are making a quick version of this "Avocado Chicken Parmigiana" where tender chicken breast schnitzel is topped with bottled tomato pasta sauce and fresh avocado together with generous amount of grated Mozzarella cheese.

Thursday 3 November 2011

Bosch Original Recipe Contest with Bosch MUM 54230

Photos courtesy of BSH Home Appliances Pte Ltd

Christmas is approaching soon with the Lunar New Year just a month later. With all the roasting and baking to be done you might want to consider getting some help from the new Bosch Styline MUM 5 All-In-One Kitchen Machine. And in conjunction with your purchase Bosch is running an Original Recipe Contest, whereby 10 winners will stand a chance to win 100% reimbursement in their purchase as well as feature of their recipe in the Bosch Recipe Book. Best of all ONE of the lucky winner will also walk away with the above "Bosch Classic Edition Refrigerator" worth S$2,299


HOW TO PARTICIPATE


Step 1: Purchase a Bosch MUM8, MUM5 kitchen machine or MCM 4 food processor (detail HERE)
(available at Courts, Harvey Norman, Best Denki (S) Pte Ltd,Carrefour Singapore Pte Ltd andRobinsons, The Centrepoint)

Step 2: Create your own original dessert using your Bosch MUM 54230.

Step 3: Submit your recipe and a picture of your creation HERE by 30th November 2011 for a chance to win.

Photos courtesy of BSH Home Appliances Pte Ltd

The new Bosch Styline MUM 5 All-In-One Kitchen Machine is equipped with proven Bosch technology that will enable even an inexperienced cook to prepare fabulous home-cooked food and goodies. The machine functions on an intuitive Bosch operating concept and the three-dimensional Multi-Motion Drive mixing system that ensures first-class pastry processing in mixing ingredients perfectly.


BROWNIES A LA BOSCH

Photos courtesy of BSH Home Appliances Pte Ltd

Here is a complimentary recipes from Bosch where you can Indulge your guests with delectable brownies, an all-time favourite, made using the Bosch Styline MUM 5 Kitchen Machine.

(make: 20 x 30cm size tin | Preparation: 15 minutesCooking: 30 minutes)

Ingredients:
100g Hazelnuts
250g Soft Butter
200g Icing Sugar
6 Eggs (medium)
175g Plain Flour
100g Ground Hazelnuts
60g Cocoa Powder
3 Tablespoons Ground Espresso Coffee
100g Dark Chocolate

Method:-
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (fan oven 180°C). Roast the hazelnuts on a baking tray in the oven for approximately 10 minutes.

2. Take the nuts out of the oven, gently rub the shells with a kitchen towel, and allow them to cool down. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (fan oven 160°C).

3. Use the blender attachment. Coarsely chop the hazelnuts and then the chocolate (separately).

4. In the mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together for 5 minutes until fluffy. Sit in the eggs one after the other.

5. Stir the nuts, chocolate, flour, ground nuts and espresso powder into the egg and butter mixture.

6. Line brownie tin with a broad strip of greaseproof paper. Transfer the mixture to the tin and smooth over. Place it on the second lowest rack in the oven for 30-35 minutes.

7. Remove the tin from the oven and allow it to cool completely. Remove the brownies from the tin, cutting them lengthways into rectangles or small squares.

8. For a touch of Christmas magic, dust with icing sugar.

If you are looking for a new mixer this coming festive season or you have already owned a set of this Bosch MUM 5, remember to send in your "secret" recipe to stand a chance to win the fabulous Bosch Classic Edition Refrigerator shown above. More detail at Bosch official website HERE.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Cardamom Chocolate Chunk Cake

Cardamom has a strong, unique taste, with an intensely aromatic and resinous fragrance. It is also one of the common ingredient use in Indian cooking but whereas in the Middle East, usually green cardamom powder is used as a spice for sweet dishes and traditional flavouring in coffee and tea. Today I am sharing this butter cake recipe using Cardamon Powder and Chocolate Chunks which would filled your kitchen with wonderful aroma release from the cardamon used.


CARDAMOM CHOCOLATE CHUNK CAKE


I always love the sweet scent release from the Cardamom seeds while using them for either cooking or baking. After searching from a few Indian provision shops around my area, I finally found a packet of the ground cardamom powder which is one of the main ingredients for this recipe.

Recipe adapted and modify from Australian Table(aka Australian Good Food) magazine

(make: 2 (17cm x 8cm x 6cm) loaf tins | Preparation: 10 minutes | Cooking: 35 minutes)

Ingredients: 
150g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
150g Light Brown Sugar
3 Large Eggs, lightly beaten
50ml Fresh Milk
300g(2 cups) Self-Raising Flour, sifted
*2 Teaspoons Ground Cardamon(refer to note below)
100g Dark Chocolate, cut into chunks


Method:-
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. Grease and line loaf tins with baking paper.

2. Place soft butter and sugar in a big mixing bow and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes on medium speed).

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well before next addition. Stir in sifted flour and cardamon powder together with milk and continue to beat until mixture is smooth.

4. Mix in chocolate chunks until well combined. Spoon mixture into prepared tins(about half full each tin) and level top.

5. Bake for about 35 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

6. Cool in pan for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note:-
*~ If cardamom powder is not available, you can replace it with 2 teaspoons cardamom seeds which are pounded in a mortar.

~ If you are baking this in 1 "single" tin the baking time would varies from 50 - 60 minutes depending on the size.

Just for your information, the cake batter for this recipe will be a bit thick rather than runny. And since it is using self-raising flour do fill the baking tin till half or slight more than half full in case the batter raise while baking and overflow from the tin.

Overall this is a very fragrance tea-cake that which I recommend it to go with a cup of good English tea to pamper yourself in cold winter day or serving this to friends for an afternoon get together tea session. For savory dish using Cardamom pops, you can refer to my Orange Scented Rice recipe HERE.

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Dim Sum @ Breakthrough Cafe

Breakthrough Cafe is run by a Christian based aftercare association, which provides skills to ex-convicts who face difficulties in employment due to their criminal record. This cafe is officially launched on the 27th of October 2007 by Associate Professor Ho Peng kee (former Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs and Law). At Breakthrough cafe it offers reformed drug addicts the much needed employment opportunities where they can further their skills and be better prepared in reintegrating into the society.

Other than array of dim sum, they also have homemade dishes such as curry chicken and curry fishhead served bubbling in a claypot which are very popular amongst patrons. And you could choose either bread or rice (or both) to go with it. But since our aim for that day was to try their dim sum I have to give those dishes a pass till my visit.

The four(3 adults plus 1 kid) of us ordered about 10 Dim Sum items plus Black Vinegar Pig Trotter and drinks which add up to a total of S$34.00 which was quite reasonable for it's value. The moment the Century Egg Porridge - 皮蛋粥 (S$3.00 per bowl) arrived I was quite stunned as this is my first time seeing "fishcakes" in dim sum porridge which makes it look so home cooked. We love the smooth texture of the congee which infuse with chicken stock and served with some shredded chicken, fish-cakes, century eggs, fried onions and etc.

Beside porridge we also tried their homemade fragrance "Steamed Glutinous Rice - 糯米饭" (S$2.00 per plate) that comes with generous portion of ingredients such as dried prawns and mushrooms together with their delicious Sambal chilli. Overall the texture of the steamed glutinous rice was still quite good as in not too overcooked or salty.

Similar to most Dim Sum restaurants or eateries, Breakthrough also offers different types of freshly made Chee Cheong Fun - 肠粉(S$3.00 per plate) with fillings such as Char Siew, Scallops and Prawns to meet their customers' preference. Personally I love the accompany sauce of the cheong fun which is fragrant and match with the right seasonings to bring up the taste of the steamed rice roll.

My aunty recommended us to try their Fried Dumplings - 锅贴 (S$4.20 per plate) and Steamed Yam Cake - 芋头糕 (S$1.50 per plate). Surprisingly their fried dumplings are not oily and the skin of the dumplings was crispy and definitely can taste it is made from those handmade dumpling skin. On the other hand, the steamed yam cake was rather good with hint of yam slices in between too.

Their Black Vinegar Pork Trotter - 猪脚醋 (S$6.00 per claypot with rice) is delicious which is not too sour or sweet towards our liking and it would be great to go with some rice during lunchtime as a meal. From a glance during lunch hour that day, I saw quite a number of tables ordered this Pork Trotter and Curry Chicken which I assumed are their signature dishes.

The environment of this cafe is quite comfortable even for a morning/afternoon tea session where you could order their toast and egg set and enjoy some chatting with friends. And most importantly the friendly services definitely added value to the place. To reach this cafe, you could take the North-East Line train and alight at "Chinatown" station, walk towards the exit to People's Park Centre. The cafe is at ground level facing the Singapore Subordinate Court direction.

Breakthrough Cafe
101 Upper Cross Street
#01-02C
People's Park Centre
Singapore 058358
Telephone: +65 6533 5977
Website: HERE

Opening Hours
Monday – Thursday: 7am – 7pm
Friday: 7am - 5pm; Saturday: 7am – 3pm
(Closed on Sun/PH)


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