Yummy Almond Cheesecake

Find the recipe in the link below:
http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/recipes/amaretti-cheesecake/

Ikan Cakalang Pedas khas Manado (with Canned Tuna)

Ingredients:
1 can of tuna in water (about 150g), drained
2 large shallots, peeled
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 red chillies
2 or more red Thai chillies (optional)
1 tbs tomato sauce
3 kaffir lime leaves
1 cm ginger, peeled and bruised
1 tsp chicken stock powder
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar
Juice from half of lime

• In a food processor combine shallots, garlic, chillies, tomato sauce. Puree all the ingredients until smooth.
• Preheat 2 tablespoon cooking oil over medium heat, add the puree ingredients, ginger and the kaffir lime leaves, cook until fragrant (about 8 minutes), stir frequently. 
• Turn the heat to medium high, add the fish, stir to combine and cook until the fish dry, flaky and slightly charred.
• Turn the heat down, add the chicken stock powder, taste and adjust the seasoning with sugar, salt and pepper. 
• Turn off the heat, pour the lime juice and stir to combine. Serve it with steamed rice.

Julia Child's French Onion Soup

Recipe adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking

Ingredients:

680g yellow onions

3 tbs unsalted butter

3 tbs all purpose flour

1 tbs olive oil

1/4 tsp granulated sugar

4 cups (2 litre) beef stock

2/3 cup dry white wine

3 tbs brandy

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Garnish:

2 cups of mixed Swiss cheese (Schweizer hartkäse) and parmesan

2 tbs butter, melted

French bread, cut into 1 cm thick squares, toasted*

• In a large saucepan melt butter and oil over medium low heat, add in the onions, toss to evenly coated, cover the pan and reduce to low heat. Let it cook for about 15 minutes.
• Uncover the pan, put the heat back to medium low, add sugar and salt, cook the onions for about 30 minutes or until they are evenly caramelized. 
• Sprinkle the flour over onions and cook for about 2 to 3 minutes, add in the wine and then half of the stocks, stir and scrape the bottom of the pan, add the rest of the stocks, season it with salt and pepper. Simmer for about 35 minutes, skimming if needed. Stir in the brandy, cook for another 5 minutes and adjust seasoning.
• Preheat oven to 180 ˚C (350 ˚F), place few (about 6 or as desired) ovenproof soup bowls on a baking sheet. Pour the soup to each bowl about 3/4 full, take 1 cup of cheese and sprinkle evenly over each bowl of soup, place the croutons as desired, sprinkle each top with the rest of the cheese (1 cup). Bake for about 25 minutes (oberunter hitze) and additional 3 minutes on the broiler (ober hitze/ api atas) or until they are golden brown and bubbly.

*Toasted French bread (croutons)

Preheat oven to 175 ˚C, bake bread for about 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly brown and crisp. Remove from oven and drizzle the croutons with melted butter. 

Spitzbuben (Linzer Cookies)

Ingredients:

200g butter

100g powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

100 g ground almonds

200g all purpose flour

Raspberry or strawberry jam for filling

Powdered sugar for garnish

Powdered sugar icing, colored as desired

Decorating icing pen

• Whisk butter, sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract until light and creamy. Fold in the almonds, all purpose flour and knead the cookie dough until well combined, you can use either spatula or your hand. Divide the dough into half, cover each half with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
•  Preheat oven to 175 ˚C, line your baking sheets with parchment papers. 
• Remove one of the dough from refrigerator, On a lightly floured surface roll the dough evenly for about 0,5 cm thick, using any cookie cutter as desired cut out the cookies and place them onto prepared baking sheet about 2 cm apart. If you want a cutout in the center of the cookies, use smaller round cookie cutter to cut out half of the centers of the cookies on the baking sheet. Bake the cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes or until they are lightly brown around the edges.
• Let them cool completely and dust them with powdered sugar. To sandwich the cookies together, spread a thin layer of jam on one side of the cookie ( full side of cookie, not the cutout side). Gently sandwich them together, repeat process for all the cookies. If you want, you can fill the cutout with a little bit more jam. You can decorate them with colored decorating pen however you like. Store them in airtight container. 

Fanny's Baked Chicken Wings

Ingredients:
600g chicken wings
1lt water
2 cloves garlic, bruised
1,5 cm ginger, bruised
Salt and pepper to taste (only a little bit)

Marinade:
2 tsp paprika powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chicken stock powder
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves stripped from stem
2 tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper (i used about 1 tsp of salt and 1/2 tsp of black pepper)

•  In a pot, add the chicken, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper and 1 litre water. Bring it to boil and reduce heat to low, cook for about 15 minutes. Remove chicken wings from the pot and set aside to cool down for about 10 minutes or so. 
• In a resealable plastic bag, combine all the marinade ingredients. Add the chicken, seal and carefully mix until the wings are evenly coated. Marinate for about an hour in room temperature. 
• Preheat oven to 210 ˚C (oberhitze/ api atas), line your baking sheet with parchment paper. Lay the wings not too close to each other so they brown evenly. Save the remaining marinade to pour over the wings before flipping. Cook for about 13 to 15 minutes on one side, remove from the oven, spoon a little bit of marinade sauce over each wings, flip them and bake for another 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.   

Note: If you think the remaining marinade is not enough to spoon over each wings, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and mix it well.

Vanille Kipferl - Crescent Moon Cookies (Kue Putri Salju)

Ingredients:
2 cups all purpose flour (250g)
1 pinch of salt
200g butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
1/2 cup powdered  sugar (100g)
2 egg yolks
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup of ground almonds (100g)
Powdered sugar for rolling

• In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and the salt. Add in the butter, mix it well with a spatula or with your hands.
• Add in the sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract, vanilla sugar, ground almonds and mix just until well combined. Cover and refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 200 ˚C, prepare baking sheets by lining them with parchment papers.
• Divide the dough into several parts, take one part and refrigerate the rest. Take a teaspoon of dough and shape into ball, roll into small short log form, bend the dough and shape into crescent moon form with pointed end. Repeat to the rest of the dough. 
• Lay the crescent form cookies over prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2 cm between cookies. Bake for about 9 to 12 minutes or until the cookies are slightly brown. 
• Remove cookies from the oven, let it cool for about 3 to 5 minutes and then roll carefully the warm cookies in the powdered sugar.

Singaporean Pork Jerky (Dendeng Babi Singapore)

Ingredients:
500g ground pork
2 tbs fish sauce
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 tsp 5 spice powder
1 tbs paprika powder
2 tbs Chinese cooking wine
1 tbs cooking oil
1 tsp black pepper

• In a large bowl combine all the ingredients and mix until well combined.
• Preheat oven to 175 ˚C, line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
• Spread the meat onto the baking sheet, lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the meat and press the meat either with a wooden rolling pin or a spoon to form a thickness of 3 mm. 
• Bake for about 30 minutes, flip the meat and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes or until the sides are charred.
• Let it cool completely before cutting the jerky.

Note: Have some left over of these? Try this fried rice with jerky recipe.

The Perfect Cupcake Recipes

Chocolate cupcake recipe and frosting adapted from cupcakeproject.com

Vanilla cupcake recipe and frosting adapted from cupcakeproject.com

Chocolate Zucchini Cake

Recipe adapted from cookingwithalia.com

Ingredients:
1 Zucchini (about 250g), grated
2 large eggs
150g granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
160g all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
30g unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup of dark chocolate (min 50% cacao), cut or break into small chunks
Powdered sugar for garnish (optional)

• Prepare a 23 x 13 cm or 9 inches loaf pan, lightly butter it and line the pan with a parchment paper. Preheat oven to 180 ˚C.
• In a mixing bowl combine eggs and sugar, beat them until pale and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract and vegetable oil, mix for about a minute or so just until well combined. Set aside.
• In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cocoa powder and sift them over the egg mixture. With your spatula mix them until well combined. And then add the zucchini and chocolate chunks, stir to combine.
• Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, bake it for about 50 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Let it cool before serving. Sift an even layer of powdered sugar over the cake (optional).

Note: If you use dark chocolate with more than 50% cacao content, i suggest to add the amount of sugar between 20 to 30 grams.

Bulgogi (Korean Beef BBQ)

Ingredients:

500g beef loin, thinly cut and don't forget to pound each slice of beef lightly to tenderise it

Cooking oil

1 stalks spring onion for garnish, sliced

1/2 tsp toasted sesame seeds for garnish

For marinade:

1 pear, peeled and cut into pieces

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 1/2 tbs sesame oil

1 tbs brown sugar

1 tbs toasted sesame seeds 

1/4 tsp chilli powder

3 cloves garlic

1 small onion

2 stalks spring onion

2 tbs honey

1. In a food processor combine all the marinade ingredients and puree until smooth. 
2. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine the marinade and the beef. Place in refrigerator and marinate for about 8 hours or overnight. 
3. In a large skillet, preheat 2 tablespoon cooking oil over medium high heat. Add in half of the beef and cook for about 6 minutes or until golden brown, stir constantly in the last few minutes to prevent burning. Repeat with the rest of the beef. To keep the first batch of bulgogi warm, wrap it with aluminium foil. 
4. Garnish with spring onions and toasted sesame seeds, serve it with steamed rice.