Pan-Fried Pork Gyoza

I never cook Gyoza before, I didn't kow about this dish at all, but as a couple weeks ago I bought the book "Tokyo Cult Recipes", I decided to try this one because it looked quite esay and I found the ingredients without much trouble. I have to say it was a success. Me and my husband enjoyed the gyoza very much, it was really tasty and the recipe is well explained and easy to follow. I think I will try next the Matcha and White Chocolate Cake :)

Okaka Onigiri

This was my first attempt to make Okaka Onigiri, those rice balls are filled with Katsuobushi (dried bonito flakes), I had them before when a Japanese friend of mine made them, I have to say that hers were much much better, but mines were edible and I enjoyed them (my husband too) so I say they were a success :)

By the way I followed the recipe from the book Tokio Cult Recipes.

Pancake Day

This year for Pancake Day I decided to make some candied bacon to go with my pancakes, I never made it before (or ate it) so I was not really sure about the result, but I should had no worry because it was oddly tasty.

For the candied bacon:

1/4 cup of brown sugar
2 Tbsp of rice vinegar
2 Tbsp of maple syrup
Black pepper to taste
Bacon (I used Oscar Mayer )

Pre-heat the oven at 175C


Mix all the ingredients together and glaze the bacon with the mix.Palce the glazed bacon in a lined tray (baking paper) and cook it for about 15 minutes.

For the Pancakes:

500ml of milk
3 Tbsp of white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp of baking powder
500g of plain flour
piece of butter
Pinch of salt

Mix all the ingredients together until you get a thick batter and start pouring it into a hot pan, wait until you see that the top of the pancake is getting dry and flip it over, wait until the other side is cook to remove it from the pan. With this recipe you don't need to put any butter or oil into the pan.

Cooking Workshop

I decided to attend a cooking workshop in order to learn how to make scones, because as they are not tipical in Spain I never saw them until I came to the UK. They look so simple yet they are quite tricky to get right. Everybody seems to have a different recipe and get different results, so I signed for a one day cooking class with "Let's Cook Scotland", I had a fantastic day, the teacher, Sarah, was fun, engaging and made the hours fly. We cook a Gingerbread, some Chocolate Macarons, a Victoria Sponge, a Rhubarb and Orange Streusel Cake and the Scones, everything taste amazing and the recepies are easy to follow. I attach the final results photos :)

Cheddar and Red Pepper Quiche

Cheddar and Red Pepper Quiche

Base

• Flour 250g
• Butter 150g
• Salt ½ tsp
• Egg 1
• Milk 1 Tbsp

Filling

• Red peppers 2
• Onion 1
• Cheddar (grated) 150g
• Eggs 3
• Cream 150g
• Balsamic vinegar

First we made the base, we put the flour and the salt in a bowl and we add the butter (cold) cut into pieces, rub the butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Make a well in the centre and add the egg (beaten) and the milk, mix everything together by hand until we gave a smooth dough, we leave it to rest for about 20 minutes in the fridge cover in cling film.

Once the dough is rested, we roll it on a floured surface with a rolling pin until is quite thin, lift the pastry over the rolling pin and drape it over the tin (23cm / 9”), cut any excess pastry.

While the dough is resting we roast the peppers in the oven (180C), cut the peppers in quarters and remove the seeds, put them in an oven tray and pour a table spoon of olive oil. Roast them for about 20 minutes or until they are soft.

Now we have to blind bake the pastry, first we prick the base with a fork and cover the base and the sides with a nonstick paper, fill the base with baking beans. We bake it in a pre-heated oven (180C) for about 10 minutes, then we remove the baking paper with the beans and we bake it for another 5 minutes.

Meanwhile the base is being baked, we finely chop the onion and we fry it with a table spoon of olive oil over low heat until is soft, once is soft we add the balsamic vinegar and we allow it to reduce.

When the base is cook, we place first the onion, afterwards the peppers and on top of the peppers we add the grated cheddar and on top of everything we pour the cream but before we do that we have to add salt pepper and any herb you like, I added some oregano too and after we pour it I sprinkled it with rosemary.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden.

Chocolate and Orange Cheesecake

‎Chocolate and Orange Cheesecake

Base

• Biscuits (digestives) 200g
• Butter 114g
• Sugar 50g

Filling

• Cream cheese 700g
• Cream 375ml
• cornflour 4 Tbsp
• Orange 1
• Orange essence ½ tsp
• Eggs 3
• Dark chocolate 150g

Ganache

• Dark chocolate 80g
• Cream 90g

Candied Orange

• Orange
• Water 150ml
• Sugar 150g

Pre-heat the oven 180C

We make a base grinding the biscuits, adding the sugar and pouring the melted butter, we mix it and spread it evenly on the base of the cake tin (springform / 23cm – 9”).

We melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a sauce pan of simmering water (make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water), stir until the chocolate is melted and set aside.

Meanwhile the chocolate is cooling down with an electric wisk we mix together the cream cheese and the cream, then we add the zest of an orange and the juice too, to give it more flavour we add the orange essence, mix everything together and start adding the eggs, one at a time until they are fully incorporated. When everything is mixed, we fold the chocolate into the mix and we pour everything into the cake tin.

We bake it for about 50 minutes and leave it to cool completely.

Meanwhile the cake is being bake, we can do the candied orange, first we have to peel the orange with as little white as possible and the we cut thin slices. We put them into a saucepan of simmering water for about 2 minutes, this way we remove any residual bitterness, remove using a slotted spoon and drain well. Now combine equal amounts of water and sugar, in a saucepan and stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves, add the orange zest and simmer for about 10 minutes or until the mixture is syrupy and the zest translucent.

Once the cake is cool, we made the ganache, we melt the chocolate like we did for the filling and when is melted we pour the cream and mix with a wire whisk until fully combine, allow it to cool down a bit and then spread it over the cake.

Now we decorate the cake with the candied orange zest.

sugarpaste

It's been a while since my last post, that doesn't means that I was no busy :). This post is about my very first sugarpaste cake, it was no easy, I made it because one of my returning customers asked me about an Elsas's cake for her daughter's birthday, I told her I never made one of those cakes before and as I sold her a few cakes before I dared to give it a try. It was a lot of fun and I didn't expect to enjoy myself so much. At the end the cake look good, no perfect but for being my very first cake made with sugarpaste was no bad, at least it didn't end at the cakewrecks page :)