A guide to making awesome scones.

One of the most satisfying things to eat has to be a simple plain scone with jam and cream.

The key to making perfect scones is to work lightly and quickly, don’t overmix the dough as the scones will become tough.


Here is a great scone recipe which I got from my favourite website for baking recipes - The Joy of Baking, I have made some additions to the method and provided step by step pictures and some tips.


These scones have a nice crusty exterior with a light and soft interior which has a rich buttery flavour.


Ingredients
• 2 cups plain flour, sifted
• ¼ cup caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ salt
• 80g cold unsalted butter
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ cup cream (ie: whipping cream)


(The butter and cream should be used cold - straight from the fridge)


Method
Preheat oven to 200C and line baking trays with greaseproof paper. 
Cut the butter into small pieces. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 

With the tips of your fingers, rub the butter into the flour mixture until it forms coarse crumbs. (You can use a food processor for this step but many recipes recommend mixing by hand to prevent overmixing the dough. It is important that the butter is cold when it is worked into the flour mixture so that is becomes small flour coated crumbs and not a smooth dough. This process is similar to how a pie pastry dough is made and gives the biscuit a wonderful delicate and flaky texture)

In a small measuring cup, combine the cream, beaten egg and vanilla. Add this mixture into the flour mixture.

Use a pastry knife (a knife that has rounded edges) to cut/mix the liquid into the flour mixture until just combined and you get a lumpy, soft, sticky doughy texture.

Lightly flour work surface and your hands. Gather up the dough mixture from the bowl in your hands and press it together into a cohesive mass, and then put it onto the floured work surface, and knead quickly and lightly until the dough is nice and smooth. (Only knead for a minute or so, just enough to shape it into a rough ball, be careful not to overwork it or you will end up with a tough scone)

Use you hands to gently press/pat the dough out to about 2-3cm thick.

Cut the dough into rounds with a cookie cutter (slowly twisting the cutter into the dough rather then pushing it straight through as this produces higher scones). Dip the cutter into some flour before each cut (so the dough doesn’t stick to the cutter and it will come out easier). Press together the remaining dough and cut out more rounds. 

Place the rounds onto a baking tray. (Scones that are placed closer together, that is, almost touching will have softer sides and their crusts will be less crispy, if you place the scones further apart, they will be crusty all over). Brush the tops of the scones with a little cream (this helps to brown the tops of the scones during baking).

Bake the scones for about 12-15 minutes until they have risen and are golden, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

(Not the prettiest looking scones, but they taste amazing!)


Served split open with jam and crème fraiche! 

Yum!

Vietnamese Beef Stew

The French have had a lot of influence in Vietnamese cuisine (maybe there are some good things that have come out of colonization).


Combine the very French technique of stewing with ingredients like bay leaves and tomatoes, with an assortment of fragrant Vietnamese ingredients like lemongrass, star anise, cinnamon, curry powder, fish sauce. Garnish with coriander and served with a fresh baguette…what do you get?


I lovely Vietnamese beef stew!

Bread spread with butter dipped into stewing liquid of fragrant ingredients (lemongrass, star anise, cinnamon, curry powder, Chinese five spice powder, fish sauce plus much much more)  = a mouthful of heaven!

Ingredients
• 1 kg stewing beef, chopped into cubes
• 4-5 slices of ginger
• 3 cloves garlic, bruised
• 1 tablespoon annatto seeds
• 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised (only use the bottom third of the stalk – mainly the white part) 
• 3 star anise
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 cup of whole shallots 
• 2 bird’s eye chillies, chopped in half
• 2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1 ½ teaspoons Chinese five spice powder
• 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
• 2 teaspoons salt 
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 cups tomatoes (around 4 tomatoes), peeled, seeded and diced
• 1 ½ tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 medium sized carrots, chopped into 1-1 ½ inch pieces
• 1 large potato, chopped into 1-1 ½ inch pieces
• coriander for garnish 
• serve with baguette (spread with butter)

(Cubed stewing beef)

(Annatto seeds)

(1 cup of whole shallots)

(Fresh baguette from Lawley's)

Method


Par-boil the beef cubes, scoop beef pieces out of the pot with a slotted spoon and rinse with cold water. Reserve the water that you have used to par-boil the beef for stewing, skimming away any impurities.


Heat wok, add in some peanut oil and fry garlic and ginger together for 1 minute until aromatic. Then add in the beef cubes and fry quickly to sear the beef until it begins to brown on all sides. (Sear the beef in two batches) Remove the beef, garlic and ginger from the wok and put into a bowl.

Heat up a pot, add in 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and then add in 1 tablespoon of annatto seeds. The seeds will start to release their colour, stir until the oil turns orangey/red. Then scoop out the seeds and discard. (The red colour of the stew comes from the use of annatto seeds which also provide a slightly sweet and peppery flavour to the stew)

Then add into the pot – lemongrass, star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, chillies, curry powder, Chinese five spice powder, tomatoes, tomato paste, hoisin sauce and shallots, and fry for 2-3 minutes until all the ingredients are combined and it is aromatic.

Add the bowl of beef cubes into the pot, including the garlic and ginger and fry for 1-2 minutes until the beef is coated with the ingredients in the pot.


Add water to the pot till it covers the beef (use the reserved water from par-boiling the beef), bring to boil and then simmer on low heat for 1 ½ hours. 


After 1 ½ hours of simmering, add in fish sauce, salt and sugar to taste. Then add in the carrots and potatoes and simmer for another 30 minutes until the vegetables are cooked and the beef is fall apart tender.

Before serving – remove the lemongrass, ginger, star anise and cinnamon, and do a final taste the stew to see if any further seasoning (salt, sugar or fish sauce) is required to intensify the overall flavour and you can add in a little water to lighten/thin out the stewing liquid if necessary.


Serve garnished with coriander and slices of baguette.

Another way of eating this stew is with rice noodles. Cook some rice noodles according to the packet instructions and then spoon the stew on top.

BON APETIT!!

Xpress no-bake orange birthday cake

It was my friend birthday party on the weekend and there was no birthday cake!


How can one have a birthday party without a birthday cake? I lead some quick brainstorming in the kitchen to find a solution for this dilemma….it was a quarter past midnight….baking a cake was out of the question at this time of the evening and many of us were drunk so it would have been a disaster.


In the corner of my eye I spy a fruit bowl. Fruit cakes are awesome right! So a quick no-bake orange birthday cake was made.


Time required
• 10 seconds


Ingredients
• 1 orange (can be substituted with any other type of fruit, a ‘real’ orange is preferable)


Utensils
• 2 not so drunk people (the sphere shape of the orange means that it doesn’t stand up on its own, therefore, one person is required to hold up the orange while one other person lights it)

Method
Hold the orange upright and stick as many candles as you can into it. Smell the lovely aromas of the orange essence as you pierce into it with candles!

Lights out

Here it comes out to the birthday boy…

The birthday boy took a bite being careful not to touch the bottom of the orange in order for his wish to come true.

Cooking Tip - It’s the thought that counts :)

Braised pork spare ribs with pumpkin

My family’s favourite Chinese restaurant in Perth is the Northbridge Chinese Restaurant on Roe Street, just across from Wellington Bus Station. If you are after looking for somewhere to have dinner and want to eat some authentic and tasty Chinese dishes, I recommend this restaurant (this is where we have our Chinese New Year dinner each year). 

One of our favourite things to order is a braised pork spare ribs and pumpkin dish. When we eat this dish, my dad and I would always discuss what ingredients we thought was in the dish and how we could replicate it. 


My dad’s restaurant is open for lunch from 11am to 3pm and then for dinner at 5:30pm to 10pm. Between 3pm-5:30pm, this is the time where everyone gets to relax and eat, my dad cooks up a few dishes and all the staff at the restaurant sit down together and eat lunner (lunch+dinner – what do you call that? breakfast and lunch = brunch? so maybe I can call it ‘lunner’). My dad uses this meal time to try out new dishes and all the staff at the restaurant are the guinea pigs. 


My dad has been cooking various iterations of this braised pork and pumpkin dish at his restaurant for his staff to try. One day my dad finally showed me the results. It’s not exactly the same as the dish that we have at the Northbridge Chinese Restaurant but it does contain many key elements and flavours, and it’s delicious!


What makes this dish so tasty is the use of pastes and condiments which you find aisles of at Asian supermarkets.

The Chu Hou paste and Ground Bean paste used to braise the pork spare ribs are the key flavour components of the dish (they are made up of a combination of soy beans, sesame, garlic, ginger, fermented bean curd and some spices - it’s packed with umami!). It’s hard to describe the flavour - I guess it’s provides a licorice-y, anise-y, savoury flavour but along with the other ingredients it’s quite subtle, and you get a bit of heat from the curry powder and chilli, and the hoisin sauce and the pumpkin provides sweetness, and the addition of Shaoxing wine rounds out all the flavours The pumpkin is delicious as it absorbs all the wonderful flavours of the braise. All I can say is that I find this dish very rewarding to eat!


Ingredients
• Peanut oil
• Pork spare ribs ,1 kg chopped into 3cm cubes
• Pork stock or water 
• Star anise, 3
• Garlic, 3 cloves smashed
• Ginger, 2 slices with skin left on
• 10-15 small dried red chillies, soaked until softened
• Curry powder, 1 tablespoon
• Hoisin sauce, 1 heaped tablespoon
• Chu Hou paste, 1 ½ heaped tablespoons
• Ground Bean paste, 1 heaped tablespoon
• Dark soy sauce, ½ tablespoon
• Shaoxing wine, 1/3 cup
• Salt, 1 teaspoon (I used rock salt)
• Sugar, 3-4 teaspoons (I used rock sugar/yellow lump)
• Pumpkin, quarter of a whole pumpkin chopped into bite sized pieces

(cane sugar)

Method
Par-boil the pork cubs and rinse with cold water.


Heat peanut oil in a wok. Add in garlic, ginger, star anise, chillies, Hoisin sauce, Chu Hou paste, Ground Bean paste and fry over medium heat for 1-2 minutes until aromatic.


Add the pork cubes into the wok and fry for 7 minutes until the pork pieces are browned and coated in the sauces/pastes.


Then add in the curry powder and dark soy sauce and fry for 1 minute.

Add in the Shaoxing wine to deglaze the wok and fry for 1-2 minutes. 

Transfer the pork to a pot and add in hot stock or water to just cover the pork.

Bring to boil and then simmer on low heat for 1.5 hours until the pork pieces are tender.


Bring to boil again to season with a little salt and sugar to taste.

Then add in the pumpkin pieces (move to the bottom of the pot) and cook for 15-20 minutes until tender.

Serve with rice. 

Here are some of my other pork belly recipes:

• Vietnamese braised pork belly with eggs in coconut juice (Thit Heo Kho Trung)
• Twice cooked pork (Sichuan style)
• Roasted pork belly - sui yuk
• Kakuni (Japanese Braised Pork)
• Braised pork belly with daikon
• Chinese BBQ Pork 
• Communist Pork (Red Cooked Pork)
• Baki Kecap (Indonesian braised pork in sweet soy sauce)

Sesame Cookies

These cookies are really tasty and have a soft crumbly texture.


The recipe is from Nicole Routhier’s Foods of Vietnam which asked for 1 ½ cups of vegetable shortening and there was no butter. 


I have adapted the recipe and used half butter and half shortening, estimating the quantities in grams. The use of vegetable shortening gives the cookies its fluffy texture but shortening doesn’t have much flavour so I substituted half of it with butter because butter makes everything taste awesome! I also baked them for a shorter amount of time and added in a pinch of salt.


Ingredients
• ¾ cup sesame seeds, toasted
• 2 ¼ cup plain flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 175g vegetable shortening
• 190g butter, room temperature
• Egg wash (1 egg yolk mixed with 1 teaspoon of water)


Method
Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking trays with greaseproof paper.


To toast sesame seeds – lightly fry the sesame seeds in a skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly until fragrant/golden brown ~ 3 minutes (be careful not to burn). Remove from heat and cool.


Reserve ¼ cup of the toasted sesame seeds for garnishing the cookies and coarsely grin the remaining seeds using a mortar and pestle. Don’t grind to sesame seeds to a fine powder, they should still have a grainy texture.


Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl – ground sesame seeds, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.


In a bowl, beat the butter, vegetable shortening and sugar together until creamy and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Add in the vanilla extract and beat to combine.


Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, a little at a time and mix with a wooden spoon until well combined. The dough will be moist and pull away from the sides of the bowl.


Dust a work surface with flour and knead the dough to form a smooth ball.
Roll tablespoons of the dough into a ball and press lightly to form a 1 ½ inch round discs. If the dough is too soft to roll into balls, chill in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to make the dough firmer and easier to work with.

Place the cookies on baking trays and freeze for 20 minutes (until firm).

Brush the cookies with egg wash and sprinkle some of the reserved sesame seeds on top.
Bake for 12 minutes until lightly browned. 


Remove and allow to cool.

Stuff Foodies Like

I have just started a new blog called "Stuff Foodies Like". 


I have to confess that it was inspired by the likes of Stuff White People Like and Things Bogans Like. I did a search on the internet and found that there is no equivalent blog on foodies (however, I may be wrong, I do not know everything about anything). Foodies like stuff and things too! If white people and bogans can produce more than 100 random points about themselves, then why not foodies?!


If you would like to check it out and follow it click here – STUFF FOODIES LIKE.


I hope that I will be able to keep the content going and build up a good list.


I welcome comments and suggestions :)