Friday 18 November 2011

Sweetens This Festive Season with Häagen-Dazs

Photos courtesy of Haagen-Dazs

Celebrate the season of giving with your loved ones this Christmas and enjoy irresistible dine-in creations from Royal Fondue, Love in Paradise and Christmas Cassata which are readily available for order at all Haagen-Dazs outlets from 1 Nov 2011 - 2 Jan 2012. Plus you can redeem 2 complimentary tickets to enjoy a 45 minutes bus-ride along Orchard road on their specially-decorated Haagen-Dazs double-decker bus and indulge in free-flowing Haagen-Dazs ice cream and etc with a minimum amount spent(terms and condition applies).

If not you can also surprise and pamper your loved ones this season with the unexpected gift of Häagen-Dazs where you can make a selection between 2 sets of gift hampers to convey your message of love and joy to family and friends. The Royal Celebration (S$60.00 nett) gift set shown above comes with 3 pints of your choice, a Secret Sensations twin pack and a S$20.00 gift voucher. Whereas The Festive Treasure (S$34.85 nett) gift set comes in a limited-edition cooler bag with 2 pints of your choice and a Secret Sensations twin pack.

Photos courtesy of Haagen-Dazs

Christmas Party can never go without a decent log cake for dessert. So for the chocoholics in the family, the luxurious Chocolate Colysee (S$80.00+) log cake which is deliciously rich with Belgian Chocolate ice cream and irresistible Macadamia Nut ice cream that topped with chocolate curls and marshmallow stars must not be missed from the party menu.

If you are looking for something special with festive colors that is bound to light up any party perhaps Rainbow Log (S$80.00+) might be an excellent choice. This log cake consists of many all-time favorite ice cream and sorbet flavours, such as Chocolate, Vanilla, Green Tea, Macadamia Nut, Mango Sorbet and Raspberry Sorbet which I am sure there is bound to be a flavour that you like.

Photos courtesy of Haagen-Dazs

For those who chose to dine-in, the Royal Fondue (S$48.00++) that comes with four popular flavours (Belgian Chocolate, Caramel Biscuit and Cream, Chocolate, and Vanilla coated in almond nibs) and decadent accompaniments such as freshly baked waffles, marshmallows, brownies, bananas, kiwis and strawberries that you could never resist the temptation.

But if you prefer to take away your ice cream and enjoy it while strolling along the way, do try the Joyous Crunch (S$10.50 nett) that comes with rich Belgian Chocolate ice cream and decadent Crème Brulee ice cream. Or if you prefer something with coffee taste, go for their Christmas Delight (S$10.50 nett) with scoops of Tiramisu ice cream and decadent Crème Brulee ice cream. For your information these two take away choices served with crunchy waffle bits or in a cone depending on your preference.


Photos courtesy of Haagen-Dazs

Lastly, in order to experience the “Journey of Indulgence”, customers have to spend a minimum of S$50.00 (dine-in only, before service charge and GST) at any Häagen-Dazs café to receive two complimentary tickets to the bus. There will be three rides a day at 7pm, 8pm and 9pm, from 19 November 2011 to 4 December 2011.

Each "Journey of Indulgence" will start and end at Häagen-Dazs Esplanade cafe with a 45 minutes ride along the CBD area and culminating in a trip down the beautifully-lit Orchard Road. Come onboard a specially-decorated Haagen-Dazs double-decker bus and indulge in free-flowing Haagen-Dazs ice cream, gourmet chocolates and bubbly champagne.

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Aloha Tropical X'mas @ Crystal Jade 2011

Photos courtesy of Crystal Jade

This year December, Crystal Jade is aiming to bring Christmas menu convenience to celebrations in both home and office where they injects local flavor into its festive take-away menu with dishes like Roasted Home Recipe Turkey, Smoked Duck Breast and Ham Wellington together with some pies, log cakes, desserts and etc.

The above Crystal Jade’s Roasted Home Recipe Turkey ($78.00, approx. 3.5-4.5kg) is prepared the day itself before collection with it right combination of east and west seasonings that include five spice, orange juice, oregano and more leaving you an exotic taste.

Photos courtesy of Crystal Jade

As for the Christmas package, it comes in either Premium Tropical Xmas Package(S$128.00) for parties of 6 - 8 persons or this Deluxe Aloha Package (S$330.00) for parties of 15 - 18 persons. With these professional cooked dishes it will definitely leaves you with more time to catch up with your guests. And as you can see from the above it comprises of:

~ 1 Mixed Fruit Tropical Christmas Cake
~ 1 Roasted Whole Home Recipe Turkey with Herbs and Spices
~ 1 Honey Baked Ham
~ 2 plates of Aloha Fried Rice with Pork Floss
~ 16 pieces Fried Almond Fish Fingers
~ 16 pieces Pork Skewer with Teriyaki Sauce
~ 16 Mushroom Vol-Au-Vent
~ 16 pieces Sambal Crabmeat Vol-Au-Vent
~ 16 pieces Cheese & Bacon Croquette
~ 16 pieces Mini Spicy Minced Pork and Bean Pie


Photos courtesy of Crystal Jade

Kids at the party will be thrilled with all these Tropical Cutie Cupcake(S$14.80/6 pcs) that are decorated with cute Christmas theme toppers. These cupcakes comes in 3 different theme at price ranging from S$12.80 - S$14.80 for 6 pieces which is a great treat for kids' party at childcare or Sunday school too.

For your information there is a also an exclusive 10 - 15% discount for CITIBANK Card members while making orders. All Christmas orders starts from Wednesday, 16 Nov 2011 - 02 January 2012(terms and conditions applies).

You can call their Party Hotline @ 6512 0800 (Mondays to Fridays, 9am to 6pm excluding public holidays) or visit their festive promotion website HERE.

Monday 14 November 2011

Nutella Cupcakes with Chocolate Chips

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There are so many versions of Self-frosting Nutella Cupcake recipes available online whenever you do a goggle search. Here I am using a recipe from Camemberu with slight changes by adding my son's favourite mini chocolate chips to make it more chocolatey on top of the Nutella used.


NUTELLA CUPCAKES WITH CHOCOLATE CHIPS


For the recipe of this Nutella Cupcakes with Chocolate Chip you would notice that I have used 2 types of flours like what I did for the Kiwifruit and Lime Cupcakes as i prefer a lighter texture by in-cooperate some self-raising flour. But if you find it too troublesome, you could always follow the original recipe and use 100g of plain flour plus 1 teaspoon of baking powder instead.

Recipe adapted and modify from Camemberu Self-Frosting Nutella Cupcakes.

(serves: make 6 | Preparation: 10-15 minutes | Cooking: 20 minutes)

Ingredients:
70g Plain Flour
30g Self-Raising Flour
70g Unsalted Butter, soften
70g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs, 60g each
1/4 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips
Pinch of Salt
Some Nutella Spread


Method:-
1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy(about 2 minutes on medium speed)

2. Add egg one at a time and beat till no trace of egg mixture.

3. Next add vanilla and stir in flour mixture until flours are full in-cooperate before toss in the chocolate chips and mix well.

4. Fill each cup with 1/4 of the batter, add in 1 teaspoon of Nutella each before covering it with batter to fill 3/4 full.

5. Give the mixture a quick swirl using toothpick and bake in preheated 180 degree celsius oven for 20 minutes or until skewer insert and comes out clean.

These are some of the Mini Nutella and Peanut Butter Cupcakes which my boy would occasionally request as his tea snack or breakfast. And I guess these mini version would be great for kids to bring to school or outings compared to the normal size cupcakes above.

Lastly I would like to submit this Nutella Cupcakes with Chocolate Chips for Aspiring Bakers #13: Enjoy Cupcakes! (November 2011) hosted by Min of Min's Blog. Enjoy everyone!



DOUBLE CHOCOLATE NUTELLA CUPCAKES


This is another version of our Double Chocolate Nutella Cupcakes which is filled with lot of Dark Chocolate and Chocolate Chips. You can find the recipe exclusively from Cuisine Paradise Facebook page, HERE.

Crisp Duck with Apple & Orange Sauce serve with Rosemary & Garlic Flatbread

I have hardly use DUCK meat as one of my ingredient while planning for our daily meals. I guess the only dish that I known how to cook by using whole/portion duck is to make "Braised Duck with Dark Soya Sauce" which is a well-like dish in most Asia families. Not long ago, I have read up a recipe and post from Jacob over at Cook.Snap.Eat.Love where he takes the effort and time to prepare Duck Confit as a main course to host a few food bloggers on a tasting session(read more HERE).

After going through Jacob's recipe plus some others similar recipes online, I find making Duck Confit was rather complicated and time consuming for my standard as a home cook. So after much consideration, I think I better settle for something easier which I could managed and keep that big project aside for the time being.


CRISP DUCK WITH APPLE AND ORANGE SAUCE


This is a pretty easy dish with minimum preparation but comes with delicious combination of savory crisp duck, crunchy fresh apple plus salad greens swam in pool of aromatic spiced orange sauce. Personally I love the sweet and tangy taste of the orange sauce which really goes well with the whole combination and especially on the crisp duck.

Here I used half portion of the duck(which included the duck breast fillet and drumstick) instead of two duck fillets because I have left over from the previous dish on braised soya duck. If you are getting the duck from the wet market poultry stalls, you could also ask them to help you de-bone the fillet which would be easier for you.

(serves: 2 | Preparation: 30 minutes | Cooking: 25 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 Duck Fillets, skin on
1/2 Tablespoon Sea Salt
Dash of Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 Red Delicious Apple, sliced thinly
2 Servings of Salad Greens


Method:-
1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Place a wire rack over a foil-lined baking tray.

2. Make shallow incisions diagonally across skin of duck apart 1cm apart, rub sea salt into skin.

3. Place a non-stick frying pan on medium heat, add duck, skin-side down and cook for 8 minutes until skin is crispy.

4. Transfer to wire rack, skin-side up and bake for 12 - 15 minutes until tender. Remove from oven and stand on wire rack for 10 minutes before slicing it.

5. Using a vegetable slicer or knife, sliced the apple thinly and place it on the duck slices on prepared plates.

6. Drizzle some orange sauce on the apple and duck mixture, top with some salad greens and homemade rosemary and garlic flatbread on the side and serve warm with extra orange sauce.


Orange Sauce:
2 Tablespoons Orange Marmalade
1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
Zest of 1 Orange
125ml of Orange Juice
60ml Cup Water
2 Star Anise

Method:-
1. Place orange marmalade, sugar, orange zest, orange juice, star anise and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir until sugar has dissolved.

2. Simmer for 8 - 10 minutes, until sauce reduced and sightly thickened. Strain and serve warm.



ROSEMARY AND GARLIC FLATBREAD


A flatbread is a simple bread made with flour, water, salt and then thoroughly rolled into flattened dough. Many flatbreads are unleavened which is made without using yeast or sourdough culture similar to the recipe shown below. And in order to make the above crisp duck salad more filling, I decided to pair it with some homemade Rosemary and Garlic Flatbread which could be used to wrap up the crisp duck salad.

Recipe adapted and modify from Australia Masterchef website HERE.

(serves: 2 | Preparation: 30 minutes | Cooking: 10 minutes)

Ingredients:
125g Plain Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
2 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
65ml(1/4 cup) Lukewarm Water
1 Tablespoon Finely Chopped Fresh Rosemary
Extra Flour, dusting
2 Tablespoons Melted Butter


Method:-
1. Combine olive oil and lukewarm water in a jug.

2. Process flour, salt and rosemary in a food processor or alternatively place them in a large mixing bowl.

3. Slowly add olive oil and water mixture to the flour to form a dough.

4. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead until smooth. Rest dough for at least 30 minutes

5. Divide dough into 6 dough balls, roll out flat and fry(without oil) for 2 minutes each side or until golden.

6. Brush with melted butter. Keep warm and serve together with the Crisp Duck salad above.

Other than making your own flatbread from scratch you could also purchase those ready-made "Wraps/Tortilla " which are available in most leading supermarkets. I am sure you would like this dish as much as I do, and if duck fillets are not available in your area or liking you could always replace it with chicken fillets. And furthermore if you could get hold of kumquat marmalade I am it would add extra and unique flavour to this dish too. Enjoy!

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