Cooking with Alison

Posts Tagged ‘recipes’

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Chinese Mango Pudding Recipe (Mango Bo Deen)

In Asian Desserts on September 26, 2011 at am

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Unlike custardy or bread puddings, Chinese mango pudding (mango bo deen) is more like a fruity and creamy jello.  It is a popular dim sum (tea time) dessert that is best served cold with evaporated milk.  I believe it originated in Hong Kong.  It is one of my favourite Chinese desserts.  It is very easy to make and it is the perfect light and cool finish to a heavy or spicy meal.  I especially love having it in the summer time.  I was inspired to make it when my sister and I were served a very disappointing mango bo deen at an expensive and high class Chinese restaurant.  My sister, who doesn’t like mango puddings, said that my mango bo deen was good… for a mango bo deen.  😉  Update: I recently made these again using mango nectar instead of 100% mango juice, and everyone agreed that it was the best mango pudding they had ever had.

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Deep Fried Salt and Pepper Squid Tentacles (Chinese Restaurant Style)

In Seafood on September 21, 2011 at am

When eating in Chinese restaurants, my family often orders deep fried squid or deep fried octopus tentacles.  We love the simplicity of the salty, peppery, and spicy coating.  The tentacles (squid or octopus) are my favourite part, because they tend to be the crispiest and I love the chewy, almost crunchy, texture.  You can easily make this at home.  In fact, you can easily make it better than the restaurants.  A few days after I made this dish for my sister, she ordered it from one of our favourite restaurants and she thought that my dish was better and crispier.  If you feel intimidated by the tentacles or by working with fresh squid, you could use calamari rings instead.

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My First Wedding Cake (and the Sugar Shack that Anthony Bourdain went to in No Reservations)

In Cake Decorating, Cakes, Reviews on September 17, 2011 at am

Two of my good friends got married on September 10, 2011 at Sucrerie de la Montagne in Quebec, Canada.  On a side note, Chef Anthony Bourdain went to this very sugar shack for his television show, No Reservations.  My friends had an intimate wedding and invited their friends and family to bring cakes for dessert.  So I took this opportunity to make my first wedding cake.  It was a one-tier, two-layer chocolate cake with strawberry raspberry jam and vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream.  It was covered with marshmallow fondant and topped with fresh, fall coloured flowers.  I was very happy with how it turned out and people loved the way that it tasted.  My cake decorating skills have come a LONG way since my Michael’s cake decorating course.  🙂  This cake was surprisingly easy to make.  See below for the recipes and a few tips.

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Fondant Recipe

In Cake Decorating, Cakes, Cookie Decorating, Cookies, Cupcakes on September 16, 2011 at am

Fondant is used for decorating cakes (especially wedding cakes), cupcakes, and fancy cookies.  It creates a beautiful and smooth covering that makes your homemade desserts look professionally made.  Fondant is actually quite easy to work with, but store bought fondant is expensive and, in my opinion, doesn’t taste good.  Homemade marshmallow fondant, however, is easy to make, is much more affordable, and tastes good.  Thanks to the step-by-step photo instructions from this website, I was able to make my first wedding cake.

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Swiss Meringue Buttercream with Flavour Variations

In Cake Decorating, Cakes, Cupcakes, Other Desserts on September 15, 2011 at am

Swiss merginue buttercream is so good and versatile that it truly deserves its own post.  Think of it in this way:  swiss meringue buttercream is to buttercream frosting as Egyptian cotton is to 200 thread count bed sheets.  Swiss meringue buttercream is stiff enough for piping and cake decorating, but it feels and tastes light, satiny, smooth, elegant, and luxurious.  I love it when people taste it for the first time and turn to me with wide, adoring eyes, to ask, “What is this?”.  🙂  This is the stuff that the professionals use and you can easily make it yourself.  It will take your baking to a whole new level.  Although swiss meringue buttercream is slightly tedious and time consuming to make, it is definitely worth the effort.  You can make a large batch and store it in the refrigerator or freezer.

I have used swiss meringue buttercream for strawberry cupcakes, mini chocolate cupcakes, chocolate cake, and a wedding cake with great success.  I originally shared the recipes for strawberry and vanilla swiss meringue buttercream in my yellow cupcakes and favourite moist chocolate cake posts, respectively.  I recently made chocolate swiss meringue buttercream for my dad’s chocolate birthday cake and it instantly became my new favourite chocolate frosting.

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Stir Fried Snow Pea Shoots with Garlic

In Other Asian Foods on September 12, 2011 at am

Living in an apartment that faces north prevented me from growing my own vegetables until now.  This summer, I rented a community garden plot and tried gardening for the first time.  I wasn’t as successful as I had hoped, because I was (too often) too lazy to make the trip to the plot and water it.  I was the most excited when a single Japanese eggplant started to grow.  I proudly inspected it for a couple of weeks while researching recipes that would be worthy of this adorable, surely to be delicious, eggplant.  But before it was fully grown, a rabbit ate it.  I was really disappointed.  Luckily, I was able to enjoy a bunch of young and tender snow pea shoots.

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Favourite Moist Chocolate Cake or Cupcakes Recipe (using buttermilk)

In Cupcakes on September 8, 2011 at am

Update:  I discovered a similar chocolate cupcake recipe (see here) that I like a bit more than this one.  The difference is very slight and the two recipes differ mainly in the ingredient, cornstarch.  I still recommend this original favourite below, too, as it is delicious and has never failed me.

I have tried many chocolate cake recipes, but this is only the second recipe that I have posted so far.  Can you tell I’m picky when it comes to chocolate cake?  The first one posted is my favourite casual chocolate cake recipe that incorporates mayonnaise (recipe here).  The recipe I’m sharing now uses buttermilk and vegetable oil and yields a fantastic chocolate cake that is very moist and chocolatey.  Through recipe testing, I discovered that making cake with vegetable oil results in a better moistness than making cake with melted butter.  This recipe is very quick and easy to make and I’ve used it successfully many times for cupcakes, mini cupcakes and even a wedding layer cake (see here).  As a layer cake, this cake has the perfect texture; it isn’t too dense and it slices beautifully because it holds its shape well.  In my opinion, this recipe makes the best mini cupcakes.  I made mini chocolate cupcakes with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream for coworkers to celebrate an engagement and everyone loved them.  The compliments were endless and people loved the ratio of cake to frosting, so resist the temptation to frost your cupcakes too heavily.  I’ve also included a recipe below for a simple, spreadable chocolate frosting if you don’t have the time or the ingredients to make swiss meringue buttercream.  Update:  I recently made a chocolate layer cake with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream and the chocolate swiss meringue buttercream was amazing.  I highly recommend you try it.  See here for instructions.

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Coconut or Macaroon Popsicles Recipe

In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, Other Desserts on September 6, 2011 at am

Before I knew it, summer was almost over and I hadn’t made any popsicles yet.  I fully plan on enjoying homemade popsicles well into fall this year.  This sophisticated, coconut popsicle is creamy and has a lovely chewy texture.  The toasted, shredded coconut floats to the top (which then becomes the bottom of your popsicle) and creates a macaroon like texture.  If you want the whole popsicle to taste like a macaroon, then you might want to add an extra pinch of salt and use up to 1 cup of toasted, shredded coconut.

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Momofuku Chicken Wings with Vinaigrette Recipe

In Appetizers, Hors D'oeuvres, Snacks, Meat and Eggs on September 1, 2011 at am

This is a very easy and delicious recipe that comes from the famous momofuku restaurant’s cookbook by David Chang.  I made this for Krystal and Ed as a late night snack the last time they visited,  and they were still talking about these wings a few days after they had gone home.  I usually prefer deep fried chicken wings over oven-baked wings, but this vinaigrette was so good, that I didn’t miss the deep fried at all.

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Malted Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

In Cookies on August 23, 2011 at am

Malted milk powder is probably most commonly known as being an ingredient in malts (malted milk shakes) and in the chocolates, Maltesers or Whoppers.  It can also be used in homemade pancakes, waffles, ice cream or gelato, hot chocolate, cake, and cookies, etc.  In our home, we grew up with the malted milk drink, Horlicks.  As an infrequent treat before bed time, my dad would make it for us with boiling water or hot milk and sugar.  Once in a blue moon, he would randomly call out, “Who wants Horlicks?”, and we would all yell, very excitedly, “I do! I do!”.  You see, we lived in, for the most part, a junk food and sugar free home.  To this day, I still get a little bit excited every time I decide that I deserve a hot cup of Horlicks, but it never tastes as good as when my dad makes it.  I associate malt drinks with comfort and I’m loving experimenting with malted milk in baked goods.

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Pasta with Brie, Tomatoes and Basil (A Great Summer Garden Dish)

In Pasta, Rice, and Doughs on August 18, 2011 at am

A neighbour was kind enough to give me a large basil plant.  I wanted to use it for something different than the standard pesto and this pasta recipe was perfect for that.  If you have a garden with tomatoes and basil, this is an easy pasta dish that will help you use up a lot of both.  It’s also perfect for cheese lovers as it contains an entire pound of brie.  This is a great option for entertaining.

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DIY Paw Print Impressions for Decorations or Keepsakes

In DIY and Crafts on August 14, 2011 at am

I wanted to make paw print impression keepsakes of my “new” old dog.  But the only kits that I could find were surprisingly pricey (or had poor reviews) and came with display frames that I didn’t want.  So I decided to save some money and make my own.  These are fun and easy to make and they’re great as a kids’ craft project.  You could make childrens’ hand prints too.  How-to instructions are provided below.

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