Beef Brisket Noodle Soup

So, the weather in Sydney's been pretty cruddy lately. In fact, it hasn't really been a great year, weather wise. We went from a non-existent Summer of 90% rainy days straight to a uncharacteristically cold Winter. Which is why I currently have an obsession for soups and stews and braises. Which leads to my second ever savoury post, incidentally also a soup.

Pretty much every day I'm trawling the world of food blogs for soup recipes and photos (yes, just looking at soups makes me warmer). Most of my soup porn seems to be focused on recipes for slowly simmered and braised things, like ox tail soup. And beef brisket. Brisket is something I always want to order in a Cantonese themed restaurant, but somehow seems always to be trumped by some congee, or something deep fried. And every time, after I pay, as I am walking out of the restaurant, I'll see someone's bowl of steaming beef brisket noodle soup and be overwhelmed with sudden food envy (despite being really really full).

I was craving this over the long weekend just past (God bless the Queen), and decided to make it, braving the rain to run out for the meat required (brand new Hunter boots makes this so much more do-able). After a huge steak dinner at home involving parmesan pan bread and green tea tiramisu, the brisket sort of got put on the back burner until later that night, which of course meant I was having a bowl of soup at 2AM. This soup though, is better left until the next day ladled over some freshly boiled noodles and Chinese vegies. Makes for an incredible meal at work.

Beef Brisket Noodle Soup 
This recipe is pretty free for you to play around with. If you like more soup, add more stock. If you like your brisket to be more stew-like, add less stock and more tendon to thicken.

Soup
1.25 kg  beef brisket
500g  beef tendon
2 thumb sized pieces of ginger
6L beef stock*
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/4 cup Chinses cooking wine
1 tbsp black or mixed peppercorns
1 cardamom pod

To serve
Bok choy (or any Asian greens you like)
Noodles (I use white wheat noodles, feel free to improvise)

*Use Asian beef stock. Either carefully select one you like from an Asian grocery or make your own with a combination of beef bones and a bit of meat such as chuck or blade steak. When making stock for this soup, I would suggest staying away from bouquet garni, celery, or parsley as it will change the flavour of the soup.

1. Place the beef tendon in a medium sized pot and cover with hot water. Boil for 45 minutes or until soft enough to cut.
2. Meanwhile, cut brisket into 2 inch cubes and set in cold water to soak for 30 minutes to remove excess blood.
3. Rinse brisket and place in a large pot with the ginger. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Boil for 2-3 minutes then remove from heat, discarding the water. Rinse the brisket and ginger well with warm running water, pouring off any impurities you can see.
4. Wash the pot clean. Return the meat to the pot and add the remaining soup ingredients. Bring back up to a boil and turn down to a simmer.
5. Take the tendon off the heat, and rinse with cold water until it is a manageable temperature. Cut into chunks similary sized to the brisket and trim off any obvious fat. Add to soup.
6. Simmer until brisket is tender and tendon is meltingly soft (3 hrs for me on very low heat).
7. To serve, boil noodles and bok choy separately. Layer noodles under the bok choy in a noodle bowl and ladle over the soup and brisket and tendons.

Peanut Butter Cookies

When I was small, I was often sent to school with a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. In Australia, PB&J is not nearly as common as just plain old PB. The thing with peanut butter sandwiches, was that they somewhat easy to get sick of. Or maybe that's just being a kid. In any case, peanut butter sandwich lunches came to me in the same way as all the other lunches I got: in bursts.

Day 1, Mum would supply a peanut butter sandwich. It would taste sensational. For some reason, I would always forget how good they tasted. Day 2, continue to revel in the awesomeness that is PB. Day 4, starting to get a bit bored of PB, and is the bread a little stale? Day 6, please...please...no more PB. By this point, I'd have probably complained to my Mum about it, and the next day, magically, lunch would be different. Maybe ham, maybe roast beef, maybe turkey (if I was very lucky). And so the cycle would continue.

As an adult, I eat less peanut butter these days. Somehow, though, it taste better than it used to. And it was only this year that I began to really, really appreciate the stuff. The chief contributor to my new found affection is none other than Costco. How I now love peanut butter. And how I love Costco.

You see, Costco opened its massive warehouse doors for the first time in Australia last year. I was instantly a member. My second trip there, we came back with four 1.5kg bags of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (Mini). And so the obsession began.

It was during this mad PB craze that I was searching for more ways to use my giant, industrial, Costco sized jar of peanut butter. I stumbled upon these peanut butter cookies. Now, for those of you who don't know, I've been toying with the idea of making Chinese peanut or almond cookies for some time now. This seemed like a good avenue to explore. I was not mistaken. They were yummy. And they disappeared quickly (speed of vanishing is how I judge my baking).

Let me know how you go with it :) .

Peanut Butter Cookie (adapted from Joy of Baking)
Original recipe here.

3/4 cup butter*
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup peanut butter**
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
*I often use salted butter for baking cookies, simply because I like the taste, feel free to use reduced salt or unsalted if you prefer.
**I have tried this recipe with both smooth and crunchy peanut butter, and they both work very well. If you opt to go the crunchy way, make it an extra generous 3/4 cup.

Preheat oven to 170°C line a cookie sheet with baking paper.

Beat butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Beat in the peanut butter. Add the egg and vanilla and beat to combine. Add the dry ingredients and beat to combine.

Roll the batter into 1 inch balls and place on lined cookie sheet, squashing them a little flatter as you do. Then, using a fork, press into each cookie twice, making the checkered pattern you see above.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove and cool. Devour.

Vanilla Cupcakes Dipped in Fondant Icing

All by herself with the boys...

The story of these cupcakes must begin with the story of another cake. A birthday cake. A friend of mine announced a birthday dinner the day before it was to happen. I didn't have a present for him! Neither did Nooboy. So, I thought I'd make a cake for him. I thought, why not make my first fondant cake? Sure I've never before worked with fondant. Sure I had no cakes stashed away and must bake new ones. Sure there was only one night's time to get it done. No worries. All under control. Pfft. Me and time management have long been enemies. Oh well. It came out just fine. That's right, Time Management, I owned your ass! 

Here is what that cake looked like:

I know it's a bad photo. But I was already 30 minutes late for dinner. To explain the roach, the birthday boy (who is very tall, very macho, and only slightly gay) is terrified of them, so we thought it'd be a fun addition.

After the birthday thingy had come and gone, I was left with a whole bunch of left-over marshmallow fondant, and a whole bunch of pink marshmallows (I can't seem to find white only packs). The only logical thing I could think to do with them was cupcakes. I turned the pink marshmallows into pink MMF, made a batch of cupcakes, painstakingly embossed my rolled MMF with stamps and covered them. And they all mysteriously disappeared before my Canon had a look at them.

I still had a large-ish stash of MMF left, and since I've been smitten with CakeJournal's poured fondant cupcakes for so long, I thought I'd give it a go (I was also a bit lazy to go through rolling, stamping and covering them all over again). I was a bit unsure of how it would go with MMF, but it worked a treat. I just microwaved the fondant with a little bit of boiling water, stirred until it was all mixed in, and gradually added more water until it looked to be the right consistency.

Aren't they cute?

An army of cupcakes waiting to be piped.

They were then piped royal icing and topped with a couple of cachous here and there. And just as Louise from CakeJournal promised, the cakes all had perfect little domes. The vanilla cupcake recipe is from Joy of Baking and is very easy to mix up. I prefer to pipe the batter into the cupcake cases. I find I get a more even result like this, and can control exactly how much batter goes into into each one.

Creme Caramel

Remember me waxing lyrical about how much I love custard? In the days before I could make anything, my custard of choice came out of a little plastic cup with an aluminium cover and tiny little tabs on the bottom.

It was delicious. Sometimes I wouldn't even bother turning it out onto a plate. I'd just spoon it straight out of the cup. Yum. 

This time, I made my very own. From scratch. In my own oven. With eggs and everything. Aren't you proud?

My only issue is a bit of a silly one. The roasting tin I used to bake these in is kind of big for my oven. I can't just put it on an oven rack. It needs to sit directly in the grooves that the rack itself would rest on. Usually this isn't a problem, but when baking custards in a water bath, it all gets very heavy, so it took me about 10 minutes to get it in there comfortable. During this time my oven lost a lot of heat, so of course, I turned it up. Now, what you may not know about my oven is that it's kind of small and only has a heating element at the top. So, these turned on full blast and basically overcooked the tops (or is it bottoms) of my creme caramels. I had to do what I do for macarons and put in a foil covered oven rack just under the heating element. Dumb oven.

The solution? I just scraped those bits off before turning them out. And they were delicious. =)

Creme Caramel

1 cup caster sugar

1/4 cup water

Quick squeeze of lemon (optional)

2 cups whole milk

1 cup cream (at least 35% milk fat)

2/3 cup caster sugar

Pinch of salt

4 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

2 tsp vanilla extract

Add the caster sugar, water and lemon (if using) to a small-ish saucepan. Heat on medium, giving is a swirl every now and then to make sure all the sugar is dissolving. Try to resist the urge to stir. Instead, brush down the sides of the pan occasionally with water and a pastry brush. Cook it until is looks like caramel. It may take a little time, but watch it closely, because once it starts to take on colour it will brown quite quickly. The darker your caramel is, the more pronounced that burnt sugar taste will be in the end result. Once you're happy with how your caramel is looking, take it off the heat and immediately pour into your ramekins or dariole moulds, dividing equally. Swirl your moulds around a little bit to coat the bottom and gently encourage the caramel to crawl up the sides a little. 

At this stage, boil a big kettle of water.

Add the milk, cream, sugar and salt together in a pot and bring to a boil. As soon as it reaches boiling temp, take it off the heat. If you want to add any other flavourings (coffee, citrus, chocolate...) add it to the milk mixture.

Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and vanilla. When the milk mixture is ready (i.e. scalded) pour into the eggs, whisking constantly. Strain into a jug and pour into the ramekins, over the caramel (which should have set by now). 

Arrange a tea towel in the bottom a baking/roasting dish so that is sits more or less flat. Place your filled ramekins on top. Pour hot water into it until it comes up 1/2 to 2/3 of the way up the sides of the ramekins. Bake at 160°C for 30-35 minutes. To check if they're done, you can gently slide a knife into one of them. If it comes out mostly clean, but with a few little bits of gently set custard clinging to it, then it's done. You can also just give them a little shake. They should be wobbly in the middle, but shouldn't be too watery. 

When you determine them to be cooked, cool them on a wire rack, then chill overnight*. To serve, loosen the custards with a knife and turn onto a plate.

*I've seen recipes which say that 3 hours of chilling is fine. Which is probably ok, but as well as cooling the custard, chilling also loosens up the caramel, giving you that nice oozy sauce. As far as I can tell, the longer you chill it, the more sauce you will get (instead of it all clinging to the bottom of the mould).

Chocolate Crackles

This is my second attempt at writing this post. The first one just sucked. I'm not sure why. Something to do with pre-breakfast morning grouchiness. So to avoid that, I'm writing this now at half past midnight.

Chocolate crackles are the quintessential Australian confection. You will almost surely find these at an Aussie kid's birthday party. They're sort of restricted to kids though (no idea why). The last time I had one of these must have been at least ten years ago. Being an Asian migrant, my mother had no idea about these ugly looking chocolate thingys, so I only got to eat them at other peoples birthday parties. Which is fine, because if it were any other way, I'd probably weigh twice as much as I do now.

I made these ones last week for a friend from Canada to try. I've only made these myself once before in my life. That was probably about fourteen years ago. I made these with a teacher at school with two bowls and a microwave (yes, I remember). So yes, a six year old can make these (with supervision of course) and I promise you they are very yummy.

Chocolate Crackles


4 cups rice bubbles (or any other rice puff cereal I suppose)
1 1/2 - 2 cups icing sugar, depending on how sweet you want it
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/4 cup cocoa powder
250g copha*

Mix together the rice bubbles, icing sugar, coconut and cocoa in a large bowl. Melt the copha in a heatproof bowl in the microwave (or on the stove if you prefer). This won't take long, but probably a little longer than butter would take.

When it's all melted, pour it straight into the bowl containing everything else and mix together thoroughly, taking care not to crush all the rice puffs, if possible. If you find that it's all looking a bit gloopy and feels hard to move around, your copha may be starting to set, so just pop into the microwave for 30 seconds or so and it should loosen up.

Spoon into cupcake liners and refrigerate until set. That's all!

*Copha is an Australian brand of vegetable shortening. It is solidified coconut oil and is special in that it is solid at room temperature. For this reason, I'm not sure if you can substitute just any brand of vegetable shortening, as it's pretty important that it sets at room temp. I've heard of using melted chocolate to make chocolate crackles, so that may be the way to go, but the flavour won't be truly authentic.

Chocolate Pavlovas and Mascarpone Mousse > Daring Bakers June 2010

The June 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Dawn of Doable and Delicious. Dawn challenged the Daring Bakers’ to make Chocolate Pavlovas and Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse. The challenge recipe is based on a recipe from the book Chocolate Epiphany by Francois Payard.

I did it! It is up :). 


I know it's late, but it is here. My first Daring Bakers challenge. Chocolate pavlova with mascarpone mousse. It was supposed to have mascarpone cream on top as well, but I thought that it kinda looked like something naughty... I also didn't want to have to buy a whole extra tub of macarpone just for that, especially seeing as I don't actually like pavlova. I know. I live in Australia and I don't like pavlova. The travesty. While we're on the subject, you should know that I also dislike Vegemite...


I blanched when I read "pavlova" in the Daring Bakers forums, and seriously thought about not doing this one. I mean, why make a dessert that no one's going to eat? BUT! I did it anyway. Aren't you proud? I reasoned that the chocolate may cover up the inherent sweetness of a pavlova a little. And I also planned to make the mousse the star of the show, which is how I ended up with these mini pavlova nests with a massive pile of mousse of top.


However, despite the mousse being lovely and dark-chocolatey, the stupid thing was still too sweet. Damn you, pavlova! 

So here is the recipe, taken straight from the Daring Kitchen website. Unadulterated and unchanged. I made 2/3rds of the recipe, so if you also dislike pavlova (in which case you probably wouldn't be making this) feel free to do the same. It works fine.

Recipe 1: Chocolate Meringue (for the chocolate Pavlova):

3 large egg whites
½ cup plus 1 tbsp (110 grams) white granulated sugar
¼ cup (30 grams) confectioner’s (icing) sugar
1/3 cup (30 grams) cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 200º F (95º C) degrees. Line two baking sheets with silpat or parchment and set aside.
2. Put the egg whites in a bowl and whip until soft peaks form. Increase speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar about 1 tbsp at a time until stiff peaks form. (The whites should be firm but moist.)
3. Sift the confectioner’s sugar and cocoa powder over the egg whites and fold the dry ingredients into the white. (This looks like it will not happen. Fold gently and it will eventually come together.)
4. Fill a pastry bag with the meringue. Pipe the meringue into whatever shapes you desire. Alternatively, you could just free form your shapes and level them a bit with the back of a spoon. (Class made rounds, hearts, diamonds and an attempt at a clover was made!)
5. Bake for 2-3 hours until the meringues become dry and crisp. Cool and store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Recipe 2: Chocolate Mascarpone Mousse (for the top of the Pavlova base):

1 ½ cups (355 mls) heavy cream (cream with a milk fat content of between 36 and 40 percent)
grated zest of 1 average sized lemon
9 ounces (255 grams) 72% chocolate, chopped
1 2/3 cups (390 mls) mascarpone (don't forget we made this a few months ago - get the printable .pdf HERE)
pinch of nutmeg
2 tbsp (30 mls) Grand Marnier (or orange juice)

Directions:

1. Put ½ cup (120 mls) of the heavy cream and the lemon zest in a saucepan over medium high heat. Once warm, add the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let sit at room temperature until cool.
2. Place the mascarpone, the remaining cup of cream and nutmeg in a bowl. Whip on low for a minute until the mascarpone is loose. Add the Grand Marnier and whip on medium speed until it holds soft peaks. (DO NOT OVERBEAT AS THE MASCARPONE WILL BREAK.)
3. Mix about ¼ of the mascarpone mixture into the chocolate to lighten. Fold in the remaining mascarpone until well incorporated. Fill a pastry bag with the mousse. Again, you could just free form mousse on top of the pavlova.

Chocolate Macadamia Brownies

I was a teenager before I discovered brownies, there being no brownies in our home before then. My parents, my Dad especially, were not big fans of sweets. Eventually though, they met and befriended a baker, who began to bring all sorts of pastry to their mah-jong sessions. There were butterfly pastries, almond stick thingys, uncooked croissants to bake at home, and there were brownies. His brownies were dark, dark chocolate, with crunchy, rich macadamia nuts dotted throughout. Slightly cakey, with a crusty top. And oh so sweet.

It has now been at least a year since I last had a brownie, and that last one wasn't very good. It was uber-dense, which is not a bad thing, but it was also hard as rock... They might as well have called it a cookie.

So, faced with brownie cravings, and a largish gap in the blog, I decided to bake brownies. Chocolate ones with macadamia nuts, just like the ones I remember oh so fondly. The recipe is one I came up with after about an hour of pouring over many, many brownie recipes, and is a happy medium between them. It is mostly done in one bowl (except for measuring), so makes for easy cleanup as well.

Chocolate Macadamia Brownies

150g butter
170g dark chocolate
150g brown sugar
50g caster sugar (optional, if you want it sweeter)
2tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs
90g flour
30g cocoa powder
150g macadamia nuts, halved
Sifted icing sugar, to dust

Pre-heat oven to 160°C. Lightly grease and line a 20cm square tin.

Melt the butter and chocolate together in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, making sure that the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. When it is smooth and shiny, remove from heat and let cool slightly before adding the sugar and vanilla extract, mixing well with a wooden spoon. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions.

Sift in the flour and cocoa powder. Fold in with the wooden spoon. Add the macadamia nuts and fold through. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top, pushing the batter into the corners of the pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until cooked when tested with a skewers (there may be some moist crumbs still sticking to the skewer, but no liquidy batter). Dust lightly with icing sugar and cut into 16 squares.

Note: I used 72% dark, bittersweet chocolate, but feel free to substitute milk chocolate if you prefer.