How to stay happy in a relationship (4)：Be Sweet
I made a cheescake last night and put it in the fridge. This morning, I received an SMS from my husband:
“Hi, trying cheesecake now. Fantastic. There are reasons to keep loving you! X”
He is pretty sweet, isn’t he?
Despite being married for quite a while, we still remain sweet to each other. We always kiss good bye – it comes so naturally to us. It’s actually another friend who noticed and asked another western friend of hers why he doesn’t kiss goodbye, thinking it’s the western norm…
We often tell each other “I love you”. It doesn’t cost anything to show our affection. When you say “I love you”, it reminds you that you have someone to love. You ARE in love. Even if you don’t get the loving feeling, hopefully the one whom you say it to believes that you actually love him/her, feels more loved after hearing what you say, and love you even more. It’s a no cost investment to express your love, isn’t it? So, why not?
Be sweet. Make something special for your loved ones.
Here is the recipe of the cheesecake with LOVE:
Ingredients
125g digestive biscuits
75g melted butter
300g cream cheese
60g icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
250ml double cream
2 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1 cup blueberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Method
- Crush digestive biscuits into crumbs, then stir in the melted butter.
- Press the biscuit mixture into a 20cm springform tin.
- Beat together the cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla extract and lemon juice in a bowl until smooth.
- Whip the double cream, then fold it into the cream cheese mixture.
- Spoon the cheesecake filing on top of the biscuit base and smooth with a spatula. Put it in the fridge for 3 hours or overnight.
- For the blueberry topping, mix sugar, cornstarch, water, and lemon juice in small saucepan. Cook and stir until thickened. Add blueberries; cook until bubbly. Chill. Spread on top of cheesecake and refrigerate.
Tips
- Digestive biscuits can be crumbled in a food processor. The manual method is to put biscuits into a ziploc bag, crush them with a rolling pin.
- Be sure you line the cake tin with baking paper. Biscuit base tends to stick to the tin and it’s hard to take it out.
- It takes time to set the cheesecake filing. Do not spoon the blueberry topping over the cake until it’s set. Otherwise it won’t look clean.
- The blueberry topping takes 24 hours to properly set in shape. In terms of timing, make it immediately after you make the cake, but chill it separately in the fridge. Spread it over the cake after at least 3 hours, and then chill for a day to get a nice layer of blueberry topping.
Nigella Express
This is one of the best recipe books I have ever bought. I have tried quite a few recipes in it, and all have proven to be utterly successful. Easy and quick to make, and very tasty!
I tried one recipe tonight, and here it is (with my own adaptation):
Spaghetti with Prawns and Chili
(Serve 4 as a starter, 2 as a main course)
Ingredients:
200g prawns, peeled
30 ml oil
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
4 spring onions, finely chopped
8 hot chillies, finely chopped
200g sunblush tomatoes (see tips below)
125 ml white wine
50g rocket leaves
- Cook pasta according to packet instruction.
- Fry garlic, spring onion and chillies for a few minutes.
- Tip in the tomatoes and the prawns, fry for about 5 minutes.
- Add the white wine and let it bubble up. Add the rocket leaves and stir until wilted a little.
- Drain the pasta when ready, toss in the chilli-prawn pan.
Tips:
- I added the heads of the prawns to the sauce for extra flavour.
- 8 hot chillies are quite a lot. Use less if you don’t like spicy food. Chillies and prawns go very well together.
- Chopping up chillies can make your fingers feel very hot. Either chop up very quickly, or protect your fingers with gloves or plastic film. (I did none of the above then I stupidly took out my contact lenses – it really stung my eyes!!!! Don’t try it!)
- Sunblush tomatoes are made in this way: Preheat the oven to 220C. Cut cherry tomatoes into half and sit them cut side up in an ovenproof dish. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, 1 teaspoon dried thyme and 30 ml olive oil. Put tomatoes in the oven, immediately turn off oven. Leave them in the oven overnight or for a day without opening the oven door. This intensifies the tomato flavour. I totally fall in love with it!
The dish smelt so good that I couldn’t wait to eat. I forgot to take a picture of the dish. Anyway, I will make it again and I will upload a photo of the dish when I make it next time. : )
If you are interested in other recipes in the Nigella Lawson recipe book, just go the library and borrow it. After all, we pay taxes and public library is one of the few public facilities that we actually use!
Desserts – to welcome the New Year!
For our New Year gathering we promised to supply desserts for our good hosts and friends – meaning that we would prepare homemade efforts and not simply take the easy option of something from Cova. Truth is, we
Christmas Cocktail – Encore!
Birds never fly on one wing. How can a Christmas dinner be capped off with just one cocktail? Just browsing through the cocktail book, we chose another one – B-52, one of our all-time favourite shooters.
B-52
25 ml Kahlua
25 ml Bailey’s Irish cream
25 ml Grand Marnier
Pour Kahlua into a shot glass, use a bar spoon to float Bailey’s on top of Kahlua, do the same to float Grand Marnier on top.
Though there is a lot of alcohol in this drink, it’s not as strong as you think. At least I am still writing without any spellling misstakes – I hope…….
Credit and thanks to Bar Moose for making such a hearty shooter!
Winter Warmer
One of the Christmas gifts I received from Alan – a cocktail recipe book. No time wasted, I went to the “Winter Warmers” section and chose the “Mexican Marshmallow Mocha”.
For 2 servings:
4 teaspoons cocoa powder
50 ml Kahlua coffee liqueur
175 ml hot coffee
mini marshmallows
whipped cream
Method:
Put 2 teaspoons cocoa powder into each glass, add the Kahlua and coffee until mixed. Drop in the mini marshmallows and float the cream on top. Garnish with cocoa powder and serve.
It really is a great after-dinner drink and can almost substitute as a dessert. Just don’t count the calories when you sip it in – a moment on the lips and a lifetime on the hips!
The best comment to this blog will receive one of these cocktails!
Christmas dinner (without turkey)
Christmas is a time for sharing. We just finished one of our best home-made Christmas dinners, and not a turkey in sight! Thanks very much to Alan’s friend who owns a food import company for giving us a fantastic rack of lamb. True to her word, this Australian lamb rack is the best you can find in Hong Kong.
It didn’t take us long to decide on what to do with the rack of lamb. We found a great Jamie Oliver recipe. Simple to cook, and the flavour is disproportionately good compared to the effort you put in.
Tray-baked lamb with aubergines, tomatoes, garlic and mint oil
Ingredients (serves 2):
8 rib rack of lamb
1 aubergine
8 ripe plum tomatoes
8 cloves of garlic
1 large handful of fresh mint
Method:
Slice aubergine crossways into 1 inch thick pieces and cut tomatoes in half. Fry aubergine slices to give them a little colour. Remove the aubergines from the pan and place on a roasting tray. Put tomatoes and whole garlic cloves beside them and sprinkle with oregano and seasoning.
Criss-cross the fat on the lamb, season. Fry it until lightly golden on all sides. Place lamb skin-side up next to aubergines and tomatoes and bake in oven for 30 minutes at 200C. Remove from the oven and allow the lamb to rest for 5 minutes.
For mint oil, put the mint into a pestle and mortar with a pinch of salt and sugar, mash up until smooth. Add a couple of tablespoons of red wine vinegar and loosen with 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Drizzle mint oil over vegetables and lamb.
The lamb was cooked to medium-well and retained its juices giving it a very rich taste and tender texture, which was in a word simply mouthwatering. For home cooking, this has surpassed restaurant standard. You simply won’t guarantee this superb quality even if you are willing to pay a high price in a top-end city restaurant.
To complement this, we also roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots and garlic in a separate dish for 1 hour. The garlic in this tray is cooked to perfection – melt in the mouth style, whereas the garlic in the lamb tray (baked for only 30 minutes) is mainly added for flavour but not soft enough to enjoy.
Tip: For roasting beef or lamb, it’s important to pan-fry it to seal the juices before you pop it into the oven.
Where to get the rack of lamb: www.freshin.com.hk
I hope by the time you read this blog, you have also had a great Christmas celebration. Happy Christmas to you and yours!
連續兩日炆牛腩
剛剛這個weekend天寒地凍，最適合打邊爐或者食羊腩煲。但奈何我屋企一向只煮西餐，所以我就攪攪新意思，試試西方窩心暖意食譜。西餐中冬天暖胃菜式有炆肉，stew。和中菜炆的菜式一樣，一炆就要幾小時，慢火炆到肉淋。這個weekend試了兩個口味截然不同但都十分成功而且易煮的stew，想在這裏介紹，讓你可以在Christmas party時，impress下你的guest[click title for more...]
Recipe – Serves 4
Prawns with Chilli, Parsley, Ginger and Garlic on Toasted Ciabatta bread.
A fusion between Italian and Thai comes to mind when you taste this quick and easy to prepare dish and it should prove to be a popular one for friends and family. It can be served as a starter or a main course – you’ll need the following ingredients:
Extra virgin olive oil
1 finger-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
2-3 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely sliced
16 large whole tiger prawns, tails on or off (use more if prawns are small)
1-2 lemons
1 handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Sea salt and ground black pepper
4 long slices of ciabatta bread, toasted
Method: Heat a large frying pan and add 4 tablespoons of olive oil, ginger, chilli, garlic and prawns. Stir-fry for about 3 minutes, then turn the heat down and squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon. Add the parsley and add a few splashes of olive oil. Toss around and remove from heat. The sauce should be nice and juicy. It may need a little more lemon juice. Season with salt & pepper to taste. Serve immediately over the ciabatta. Enjoy!!
Tips: Keep a bottle of chilled white wine in the fridge to accompany this dish. Add more chilli if you like it spicy.
Drinks for Christmas
These drinks are traditional winter cocktails. They can be enjoyed as a stand alone beverage or after dinner favourites and are most popular in the winter months. They are easy to make and share some common ingredients.
IRISH COFFEE
(Whiskey based)
1 generous measure (3cl) of Irish Whiskey
12cl hot black coffee
1 teaspoon of brown sugar (optional)
1 heaped dessertspoon of whipped fresh cream
Grated Chocolate for garnish (optional)
Method: pre-warm a stemmed glass. Put sugar into glass and cover with Irish whiskey. Stir in the coffee and mix well. Float cold cream on the surface by pouring it into a teaspoon and letting it overflow on to the surface of the drink. Grate or shake a little chocolate on top.
BAILEY’S (Irish Cream) COFFEE
(Bailey’s based)
1 generous measure (4.5cl) of Bailey’s Irish Cream
12cl hot black coffee
1 heaped dessertspoon of whipped fresh cream
Grated Chocolate for garnish (optional)
Method: pre-warm a glass. Pour Baileys into glass. Top with coffee and mix well. Float cold cream on the surface, as above.
Tip: Don’t over-whip the cream – make it just thick enough to float off the back of a spoon. Grated chocolate adds to the rich blend of flavours.