Crème brûlée

Dedicated to my brother Pranav.

Tried and tested, washes your mouth out with flavour and leaves you begging for more. :D

Ingredients:
6 Large egg yolks
1/2 Cup sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 Pinch salt
2 Cups heavy cream

Directions:

1. Separate the eggs into a large bowl.

2. Whisk eggs until just broken.

3. Add sugar, vanilla and salt to eggs.

4. Mix until uniformly blended.Avoid over beating the eggs, but always over mix rather than under mix.

5. Add cream and mix until incorporated.

6. Cover and refrigerate overnight.


The next day

1. Fill a large kettle with water and set it to boil.

2. Move an oven rack to one notch below the middle.

3. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.

4. Pour batter through fine sieve into ramekins.

5. Place ramekins in a shallow bake-able container.

*For best texture, use as large a container as possible.

6. When kettle is boiling AND oven is at temperature: pour the boiling water into the container with the ramekins until the water height matches that of the custard.

*Make sure no water gets into the ramekins.

7. Immediately cover with aluminum foil and place in oven.

8. Begin checking for doneness in about 40 minutes

*The custard is done when mostly set everywhere but still jiggly in the middle.
**If the custard doesn't appear set after a long time, just take it out.

9. Remove the ramekins from the water bath and place them on a wire rack to cool.

10. Once completely cooled, cover and place in the refrigerator over night.


Forty-five minutes before serving

1. Remove the ramekins from the fridge.
2. Use a paper towel or other absorbent material to remove any condensation from the top of the creme.
3. Spread just enough light brown sugar on top to thinly coat the entire surface.
4. With a mini torch make spiraling circles over the top of the creme brulee, getting the torch as close as possible without burning the sugar. When the sugar has melted into a sheet it should be done.

*The ramekins may be placed in ice water during the brulee to keep the custard cold.

OR

If you don't have a mini torch: Set the oven to broil and move a rack to the highest position. Put the ramekins directly on the rack beneath the broiler. Rotate and check frequently until all the sugar has melted into a nice sheet.

5. Place the ramekins back in the fridge for up to 45 minutes.

*This is done to cool the custard back down after the brulee.
**If the creme brulee is allowed to sit for more than 45min. the sugar on top will begin to dissolve into the custard.

How do I know when the custard is done?

- The edges are set but the center is still jiggly.
- The internal temperature should be about 170° F
- A knife inserted off center should come out clean.

What's the best baking temperature?

- Anything between 250 and 300° F
- Anything below 250° F wont cook and anything about 300° F will scramble the eggs.


That's about it but its totally worth the time.

Comment if there are any questions and I'll try to help as much as I can.

CREDIT : To http://www.dostuffright.com/creme-brulee-recipe-torch-dessert-ramekins-dish You are a genius :D

French beans in spices with carmelized onions

Today, my mother woke up tired and feeling lazy so I decided to cook to give her a break. I didn't want to look up a recipe and thus ended up throwing things together and in turn, throwing that on the gas. It turned out quite good, if I say so myself. I have no idea if the dish already exists (if it does, then kudos to the person with a similar train of thought!) but I thought the dish was noteworthy. Or blog worthy. Depends on your point of view. So here goes:

Ingredients:

- 1/4 kg of French bean
- Olive oil
- 2 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of dried China Grass (optional)
- 1 tsp of chili powder
- 2-3 tbsp of oyster sauce (optional. If you are a vegetarian, just substitute with dark soy sauce)
- 3-4 tbsp of dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 tsp mustard seeds
- 2 tbsp garlic chili sauce
- 2 medium sized onions
- 1 tsp of sugar

Method:

-Cut off ends of french beans and cut each into half, depending on their sizes. -Pre-heat the oven to 200 C for five minutes.
- Drizzle olive oil (or normal if you aren't exactly health conscious)into a baking tin and roll french beans in them. Add all ingredients except onions and sugar, into the pan and mix with a spoon.
- Then place in oven to cook. Stir it every 15 mins to make sure it doesn't burn. After half an hour or so, poke with a fork to see if it has cooked. Bake till cooked. (If you don't have an oven, you could do this on the gas. I just think in an oven its cleaner. :) )
- In a seperate pan, melt a bit of butter and add diced onions. Wait for ten seconds and add sugar. Stir till onions are brown and delicious smelling :D
- Then turn off the gas and add onions into baking tin (or other pan) and mix.
- Serve hot with rice.

In the picture, the dish was slightly burnt because my family likes it that way. It has a smokey flavour to it. Of course each one to his own.

If you don't like french beans, you can try this recipe with pasta or noodles. It should work out fine :D

Dinner Time!

Chocolate cake

Chocolate is a human's best friend. No exceptions.

When I first came across this recipe, I was skeptical, thanks to all the pop up ads that irritated the hell out of me. I was relatively good at making chocolate cake but the picture on this website (http://www.bestmoistchocolatecakerecipe.com/) was the most delicious thing I'd ever seen.

So delicious that I doubted whether what I made would ever look like that. But the end result was so good that even though it was 1 AM in the morning when I finished making it, tired and grumpy (emergency birthday cake), I had tears in my eyes. It was that beautiful. Not only was it beautiful but it melted in my mouth when I took a bite.

So here is the divine God sent chocolate cake recipe. Don't take it for granted ;D. :

Ingredients:

-2 Cups Flour
-2 Cups Sugar
-¾ Cup Hershey's Cocoa (I used regular cocoa and it turned out just fine)
-2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
-2 large eggs (I used 3 medium ones)
-1 Teaspoon Salt
-1 Cup Buttermilk (HOW TO MAKE IT : 1 cup of milk. Add 1 tbsp vinegar and stir fast)
-1 Cup oil
-1 ½ Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
-1 Cup Boiling Water (Mixing the other ingredients first and then adding water and mixing made it easier to mix.)

Method : (So easy, even kids can do it)


# Preheat Oven to 300° F
(This is not a typo! This is a slow bake chocolate cake recipe.)
# Grease and coat baking dish in butter and then loose flour.
9 x 13 in. Baking Dish. (It's a one layer chocolate cake!)
# Place all the ingredients into a mixing bowl.
# Mix at medium or medium high speed until all ingredients are blended and smooth.
# Pour into greased and floured baking dish
# Bake for 1 hr.
# Test by sticking with knife. If it comes out clean, it's done!
# Allow to cool.


The website also gives a recipe for icing that goes well with the cake but I didn't bother making it. You should try it though.

CREDIT : to http://www.bestmoistchocolatecakerecipe.com/ for this amazing recipe!

I'll be putting up the next recipe soon enough. Now I'm going to eat cake :D

Cheers

From the Start...

My Aunt Nina tasted one of my pasta dishes and loved it. Then she kindly suggested that I create a blog to celebrate and spread the recipes. I loved her idea as mush as she loved my pasta.

So basically this blog will have recipes to dishes I've created or found are THE BEST version of the dishes out there.

Experimenting at home, was always a speciality of mine and I have absolutely no training. I warned you. But lets just say I'm a foodie so Im sure my opinion will not suck.

So here's to all those beginner chefs (or advanced ones who happened upon my blog :D)...

Make a mess, waste ingredients, go by instinct and then give in to gluttony.