Friday 27 November 2015

Milk Meringues + Dried Candied Orange Skin

I found out about Milk Meringues from David Kinch's Book Manresa. It's only one component of an awesome looking dessert but it looked simple enough to make and it is quite interesting. There's only two ingredients to Milk Meringues ... full cream milk and sugar syrup. Heat both items together, froth it and dehydrate the milky foam for 2 hours. Simple but I was a little worried if the foams would hold.

but it did! so Happy to see it ... at this moment, I hope the foam structure will stay for the 2 hours of 

low heat.

 
I also took the chance to dry my Candied Orange Skin that I had to keep it in the fridge, to hide it from the ants and lizard
   
the finished product :) It's really crispy
 
the whole batch ... I just love the sweet milky flavor ... what an awesome way to make Meringue !
 
 
the re dried Candied Orange Skin turn out ok ... not as dry as I hope for but I am happy for it at it's current stage

Keeping it in a Jar .... thought I dry it properly but somehow water leaked into it
haiz ... have to make it again tomorrow :) also I will be trying to make the other component of David Kinch's dessert ... hope it will turn out well too

Friday 16 October 2015

Reheating Lasagne

Since I don't have a microwave machine ...I tried using the oven to reheat the lasagne from yesterday.
At first I defrost and then I tired to heat it up at the lowest temperature. Took a while and while The lasagne wasn't really heated up, it was warm enough to eat. After half hour wait, I was just too hungry to wait anymore
11 October 2015 2022hrs

Saturday 10 October 2015

Easy Meat Lasagna

My first time using the oven to make something savory and it's Easy Meat Lasagna recipe off the box of Oven Ready - Instant Lasagna Sheet. I been wondering ... Really don't need to cook the pasta sheet first?

 and then I realize ... the sheet get cook with the Lasagna sauce / gravy in the oven.

 first part ... softening the veggies ... on the recipe, it's one line of instruction ... but it took a while to get the carrots and onion to soften. This Easy Meat Lasagna recipe is easy ... but it's not quick ... definitely not for someone who is hungry and looking for a quick bite (> me)

 then add the meat and can tomatoes n tomatoes sauce ... and they are suppose to simmer for 20 mins. I made the white sauce in the meantime (but no photos here)

 layering the meat sauce, the white sauce and the Lasagna pasta sheets ... actually the sauces are quite nice at this stage .... can be eaten without baking it in the oven ... but I must endure

 hmm the best part of making this Lasagna was chucking it into the oven ... I can finally rest after the "long" cook .... was kinda hungry and was a little dismay to "find out" that I still have to let it cook in the oven for 35 to 40 mins

But the results was pretty good ... it tasted like a Lasagna supposed to be ... some parts were a little too salty for my liking but the rest were quite good.

Wednesday 7 October 2015

Crème brûlée with Vanilla

After a week of Bad Haze, I finally found the "will" power and oxygen to get back to my oven usage schedule. This time round, Creme Brulee! This oven has a function of making Creme Brulee without bain-marie. One less step! I can't wait to try it out ... plus I have some Vanilla Pods that expiring soon


First Time using a Vanilla Pod ... I thought it had all dried up but turn out the seeds inside are really small and it takes a bit of effort to scrap them out ... or it might be that my pods had already expired.


In goes the pots of Creme Brulee ... without bain-marie


and it turn out to be quite ok ... firm and jelly like


now layering with Sugar ... and I think this is where the oven cook book start to have some problems


most of the recipes that I saw would put the creme brulee pots into the fridge for 2 to 4 hours ... here the recipe just say "add light brown sugar and caramelize with burner" ... the brown sugar I added burn in a fashion that wasn't Creme Brulee-y ... I quickly replace it with white sugar and it had better result


there's also a big bubble rising from the creme brulee when I tried to torch it .... very strange ... previously I didn't have that problem... again I wonder is it because I didn't let it cool down before caramelizing it


the biggest failure of this attempt would be the burnt sugar part ... I need to try this again. Otherwise the custard taste nice and yummy ... texture wise they seem ok to me... GF say it's a bit watery at the lower part ... I wonder if it is because I put it too much ... maybe a shallower container might be better?

anyway, I fridge the last pot of creme brulee and I couldn't find any watery bits in it

Friday 25 September 2015

Meringue : Take 2

This time round, the Uncle who sold me this oven gave me his meringue recipe and I followed it to the T. Took a bit longer to whisk the egg white but when it firms up, it had the glossy shine to it.

Tried my best to pipe it but I think I need a lot more work :)


This time round ... I even set how white I want my Meringue to be. Yup Rowenta Oven comes with a preset for making Meringue (Menu 13) and they even have an option to choose how white or brown you want your end result to be.


Was told that I could do 4 rows at the same time ... but I shall start small n attempt 2 rows first 


Success! Better than the first batch that I made! 


Crispy from outside to the center ... the type of Meringue that I want to make.

Happiness 

Tuesday 22 September 2015

Brownie : Premix

This time round, GF wants to make Brownie ... I don't really like Brownie but since Scones was a perspective changing experience, I thought "hey let's just go with it ... I might change my mind"


Somemore she use a premix ... what can go wrong?
(I don't like using premix too but since it was my first time and less prep work ... I just went with it)


So She did all the mixing and I did the other prep work ... like cleaning the contrainer and fixing the SECU display issue


She even added Marshmallows into it ... free styling. Well I like to follow recipe (specially for my 1st attempt) and she like to free style her cooking.... I don't know ... maybe she know better so I kept quiet... 

Then she left me to watch over the Brownies as they cook ... and the result wasn't really that good ... the top was burnt while the middle wasn't thoroughly cook (using the poke test)

so holey

When I flipped it over ... I saw holes and bits sticking to the container ... wonder what are those holes


The Brownie taste oily and dough-ly ... urgh ... how can a premix fail like that ... then my GF utter ... "maybe I shouldn't free style with an extra egg (and Marshmallows)"

I couldn't say it out loud but in my mind ... I had this moment.



haiz .. back to the drawing board and maybe next time, we will do the Brownie from scratch

and to my GF, in case you are reading this post ... I still Love You ... we will get over this failure together :)

SECU on my Rowenta Oven Display

SECU kept showing on my oven display. No matter what button I pressed, SECU just won't go away from my Rowenta Oven.

Lucky I found the solution on Yummy Food Book comment section. And the solution is ...
"The oven screen show the word “SECU” it mean the oven is lock. Just press on the light button [Top right button] and hold for few second and you should be able to hear a peep sound to unlock."


Problem solved... Thanks Scharlie Lim

Friday 18 September 2015

Crystal Apple Slices

This is the first thing I wanted to do when I scan thru the Rowenta Oven Cookbook. I had always wanted to dehydrate fruits but I don't think my old oven was up to it.


The process simple enough and this recipe only requires 2 ingredients ... 
... Slices of Apple and Icing Sugar


after 2 hours ... the apples slices started to curl up 


the result after 4 hours of low heating (80°C)... I think I put too much Icing Sugar on it


It wasn't as crispy as I hoped it would be. Would have been better if I left it for another 1 or 2 hours but I was getting sleepy. It's still very nice to munch on them and they disappeared quickly

Thursday 17 September 2015

Cookies - Earl Grey Cookies

My Fave Tea X Cookies

Got this recipe from the Rowenta Oven Salesman cum Chef cum Teacher. Among all the recipes that he showed me, the Earl Grey Cookies caught my eyes and frankly, I can't wait to make these cookies.
 
Had to let the butter and egg set to room temperature ... so let it in the Oven, went for a quick dinner before making these Earl Grey Cookies
 
 Whisk the butter and sugars up and then add egg, flour and Earl Grey Powder

  Already smell quite nice ... the Earl Grey Smell is quite strong

 Didn't have instruction on how much we should roll out the cookie dough so we agar agar ... I think it's way too much

 Half of that would be better .... this size dough > Cookies all become very big

 I didn't get the tray yet ... so I thought maybe can put it on the rack with the baking paper as base ... wasn't a good choice

 I also guess that since the recipe say use Fan mode, I assume heat will be evenly spread so let's do 2 level of cookies at the same time

 about a few mins in, the cookies on the side of the rack start dropping 

 I thought they might be able to tahan (withstand) until the timer is up but ...

 right side dropped ...

 and then the left side dropped ... argh ... but wasn't too bad ... a bit of injury to the cookies at the bottom and cookies that dropped became deformed

The finished result ... well after I rebaked them again. the 15 mins at 170 Degree C weren't enough to properly cook the cookies. it took 30 mins to do them properly. Not sure where I went wrong again... need to ask the experts.

Taste was good tho ... but I cannot detect the Earl Grey flavour as much as when it was still in dough form. But they are still yummy cookies