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A love of mine smelled like
Summertime Strawberries
In the middle of fall.

Augustine April 2, 2014

A delectable beautiful piece of love packaged in individual little cheesecakes.

INGREDIENTS:

  • Biscuits – 6
  • Strawberries washed, hulled, halved – 500g
  • Caster sugar – 1 Cup
  • Cream cheese – 400g
  • Plain flour – 1 Tb
  • Vanilla essence – 1 tsp
  • Eggs – 3

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 6 large muffin pans with paper cases. Place biscuits, flat-side up, in the cases.
  2. Heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the strawberries and 155g (3/4 cup) sugar and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Drain, reserving syrup. Set aside to cool.
  3. Meanwhile, use an electric beater to beat the cream cheese and remaining sugar in a bowl until smooth. Beat in the flour and vanilla essence. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating until combined.
  4. Spoon half the strawberries over the biscuits. Top with the cream cheese mixture.
  5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until just set. Set aside to cool completely. Place in the fridge to chill.
  6. Transfer to a serving platter. Serve with the remaining strawberries and reserved syrup.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/caramelised-strawberry-shortcakes/7bcdf823-eb6f-44c5-b61e-dd1168dba4f8?ref=collections,strawberry-recipes

 

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I am back with some more sweetness to share with you all. I had a lot of oranges (mandarins) lying around the house. At first, I felt like making some kind of cake but then I came across this recipe.  I am used to making chocolate (white and dark) brownies. This is the first time I attempted to make fruit flavoured brownies. Honestly, I don’t need anything to make me satisfied after this sweet little addition to my kitchen right now. Needless to say they were all gone in a jiffy.

INGREDIENTS :

  • All purpose-flour – 1 ½ cup
  • Sugar – 2 cups
  • Salt – 1 tsp
  • Butter (Softened) – 1 cup or 2 sticks
  • Eggs – 4
  • Orange extract ( pure)- 2 tsps
  • Grated Orange -1 tsp

For the glaze

  • Confectioners’ sugar – 1 cup
  • Orange juice – 2 tbsps
  • Grated Orange – 1 tsp

INSTRUCTIONS :

  1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees.
  2. Grease well, a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan and set aside.
  3. In a mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and salt.  Add butter, eggs, orange extract and orange zest, and beat with a handheld electric mixer until well blended.
  4. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until light golden brown and set. Remove from oven and pierce entire top of cake with a fork.

To make the glaze:

  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stirring with whisk until smooth.
  2. Pour glaze over warm cake.  Cool cake and cut into squares.

http://www.yummly.com/recipe/external/Orange-Brownies-771885

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Sometimes you don’t realize how little you can live with and be happy with till you lose everything. I’ve come to that realization now. Sure, we all have things that we want, desire and lust over. But are those really the things that we need all the time? Happiness seems temporarily at hand for all of us with the achievement of little to big things. But to create happiness for our own self is quiet the challenge. I am struggling to fulfil that part of my life and YES I do accept the challenge. 😀 I always wanted to bake chicken and here I am creating my happiness for today by giving it a go. It is as simple as it can get. I substituted the sherry with normal red wine and a little bit of brown sugar. I used coriander leaves instead of parsley and omitted olives since I did not have any at the time.

INGREDIENTS :

  • Chicken breast fillets, trimmed – 4
  • Plain flour – 1/3 cup
  • Butter chopped – 50 grams
  • Medium brown onion, finely chopped – 1
  • Dry sherry – ½ cup
  • Canned diced tomatoes – 400 grams
  • Kalamata Olives – ¼ cup
  • Chopped fresh flat – leaf parsley leaves – 2 tbs

INSTRUCTIONS :

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Place flour in a snap-lock bag. Season with salt and pepper. Add chicken breasts, 2 at a time, shaking to coat. Shake off excess. Place on a plate.
  1. Melt butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes each side or until golden. Transfer to a 5cm-deep, 20cm x 30cm (base) baking dish.
  1. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add onion to pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until softened. Increase heat to medium-high. Add sherry. Bring to the boil. Boil for 1 minute. Add tomatoes. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 to 6 minutes or until boiling. Spoon tomato mixture over chicken. Cover.
  1. Bake for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through, adding olives for the last 5 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve with potatoes and broccolini.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/23414/chicken+provencale

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Dry Fried Eggplants

 

Fried indulgence is what I would like to call them. For anyone who never liked eggplants before…this dish can surely change your mind. I had this dish for the first time ever a couple of months back in an authentic Chinese restaurant. Eggplants never tasted so good to me before, this dish totally changed my outlook towards them. I came home and scurried through the net to find the recipe. And after three relentless days of narrowing down my search. I ended up with this recipe and gave it a go.

INGREDIENTS :

  • Vegetable oil, for frying
  • Hot (Chinese) chili powder – ½ or 1 tsp
  • Hot paprika – ½ or 1 tsp
  • About 6 (1 1/2 pounds total) Chinese (long) eggplants, trimmed, peeled and cut lengthwise into 2- or 3-inch-long, thick “steak” fries (about 8 fries from each eggplant)
  • Water
  • Cornstarch – ½ cup
  • Leaves and tender stems from 4 to 6 stems cilantro, coarsely chopped

INSTRUCTIONS :

  1. Heat at least 4 inches of oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat until the oil reaches 350 degrees.
  2. Place a wire rack over several layers of paper towels.
  3. Combine the chili powder and paprika (to taste) in a small bowl.
  4. Meanwhile, wet the eggplant fries with a little water. Spread the cornstarch on a rimmed baking sheet.
  5. Working in batches, lightly and evenly coat the eggplant fries with the cornstarch, shaking off any excess. Discard any remaining cornstarch.
  6. Carefully add about 8 fries at a time to the hot oil; fry for 2 minutes, or until just browned, crisped and tender. Use a Chinese skimmer or slotted spatula to transfer to the rack to drain. Repeat to fry all the eggplant.
  7. Transfer the still-warm, crisped eggplant fries to a serving bowl; season with the chili powder-paprika mixture to taste; this dish is supposed to be spicy, and, if you can stand it, you should use enough of the mixture to color the eggplant fries a reddish-orange. Toss quickly with the cilantro; serve right away.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/pb/recipes/dry-fried-eggplant/12553/