Lemon and Passionfruit Gelato

I have some egg yolks after making a pavlova. Most times, I will time it as such I can use the yolks by adding more eggs and turn them into omelette but since I've gotten an ice-cream maker, I use the yolks to make gelato :p instead!

This Lemon and Passionfruit Gelato was created as I go along with the fruits I have in my fridge. I made the base using the basic gelato recipe.

I've chilled the custard mixture in the fridge which helped churning faster! I removed the chilled custard from the fridge and added in the pulp of 3 crinkled passionfruits which is actually not enough to make a full passionfruit gelato. I reckon 7 - 8 passionfruits are needed. I tasted the custard and it's wayyy tooo heavy. The cream taste is too strong. I rummaged in the fridge and found one last lemon and decided to use this. Grated in the zest and pour in the juice of half the lemon. Hmmm still tasted very heavy... see never ever make anything unplanned :p

So I squeezed in the other half lemon and tasted with my fingers crossed. Woohoo finally over came the creaminess taste. Thank goodness the half lemon did save the day, otherwise I'll be stumped! Can't possibily go out and grab anything since it was already way past 10pm when I made this LOL!

Pour custard into ice-cream maker and churn till a thick consistency before chucking into the freezer. The gelato turned out to be fabulous! Tested with the Persimmon and Apple Crumble and surprise surpise they actually went well together ;-)

SHF #61: Sweet Comforts - Apple and Persimmon Crumble

Geezz, I can't believe it that the last time I participated in Sugar High Fridays was in July 2007... wow that's so long ago sighh 2.5 years! That was SHF#33 and now it has reaches #61! Anyway, it's time to pick up the pieces. This round is hosted by Kate of A Merrier World. This round she picked desserts that you turn to for comfort.

For us in Malaysia, we're so blessed with so many local sweet desserts that we can turn to. From ice cold cendol, air batu campur, the various kuih-muih, tong shui (sweet soups), gulab jamun, kulfi and so forth; well on top of other foreign desserts that are available. We're never short of them! However, for comfort sweet... nothing beat a warm apple crumble topped with cold cold vanilla ice-cream! As the vanilla ice-cream melts and meld into the crispy crumble and soft fruits... it's just soooo Heavenly!



Since persimmon is abundant at the moment, I added some to my apple crumble, hence making it a Apple and Persimmon Crumble. Making a crumble is the simplest and the recipe... well just throw in what you have or fancy as one does not need to follow the recipe. I've based the crumble recipe on Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 2's Apple and Blueberry Crumble. The fillings were roughly based on her Apple Pie recipe.

Apple and Persimmon Crumble

Crumble:
75g butter, soften
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
handful of chopped walnuts

Place all ingredients except walnuts in a bowl and mix to combine.

Fillings:

(A)
3 medium sized persimmon - skinned, deseed and slice into thin wedges

(B)
7 apples - skinned and slice, Granny Smith would be the best since I've a lot of Fuji apples, I've used those
1 tbsp water
1/3 cup sugar, I've used brown
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp ground cinnamon, use less if you're not a fan

To make the filling, place the apples and water in a pan over medium heat. Cover and simmer, shaking the pan occasionally, for 5 minutes or until just tender. Drain and cool completely. Stir in the sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon.

Once cool, add in the persimmon and mix thoroughly. Place in heatproof dish.

To assemble, place the crumble all over the apple and persimmon. Bake in preheated over at 180C until the crumble became dark golden and crisp which is about 30 - 45 mins (recipe mentioned 55 mins but I think it's a tad too long) depending on your oven.

I served here with my homemade Lemon and Passionfruit Gelato.



Thanks Kate for hosting!


Check out my previous entries:
Sugar High Fridays #11 - Coffee
SHF#12: Cooking up Custard
SHF#13: The Dark Side
SHF#15: Sugar Low Friday - Banana Muffins
Sugar High Friday: Ginger it Up!
IMBB27 + SHF20 = The Joy of Soy
SHF#31: Neutral Territory - Longan Royale
SHF#33: Tropical Paradise - Mango & Nata De Coco Konnyaku Jelly

Review: Starters at Finnegan's; Mains at twentyone

**Non-Halal**


One afternoon, I made late reservation at both Finnegan's Irish Pubs & Restaurants and twentyone kitchen+bar which are located side-by-side along Changkat Bukit Bintang via theQguides. That got Lisa scrambling to contact me thinking that I made the wrong dates since both were reserved on the same date but she missed out the time factor :p What to do, we're procastinators anyway. Capt'n Hook and I planned to have a drink at Finnegan's before proceeding to twentyone for dinner.





Whilst we were both enjoying our drinks, we decided to have a small bite here, so we opted a Pork Snackers (RM22) platter has bacon, ham and sausage served with a dollop of mustard. I can't say much about the bacon and ham since well, they're bacon and ham on the saltish side, great with beer but the sausage is really terrible. They're just too floury.



Once done, we hopped over to twentyone. Lucky the rain had drizzled out, otherwise we would be clambering over the fence or rather brick barrier in between the two places kekeke. Since we were a little stuffed with the pork platter, we just opted for their Y mains platter... yeah 'twas platters night that evening! We can picked 3 items from a selected choices in the Y section. No Xes for us. I can't recall how much but I think it's around RM50plus which we thought it was value for money for being able to try 3 main courses in one go, heh the tham jiakness (greedy) in us!







His platter consist of Bangers and Mashs (RM40 for full course) + Wild Mushroom Risotto (RM36) + Marinated Duck Breast (RM42). Bangers and Mashs are just ordinary but twentyone nailed the risotto perfectly. I urged Capt'n Hook to try the wild mushroom risotto as I've tasted before and it was still great! The grains are separated but yet creamy and not mushy nor lumpy. Fantastic! We both opted for the duck breast. I loved the tender meat which went very well with the leek!





I picked Crispy Skin Salmon (38) + Basil and Asparagus Risotto (RM36) + Marinated Duck Breast (RM42) for my platter. Was surprised that the salmon turn out to be quite sizeable which is perfectly done and the skin remained crispy throughout my course :p. The only thing is I'm not used to the slightly sweetish honeydew melon salsa. Loved the risotto that have bits of feta in it, they nailed it again here!





Bursting to the brim, we declined dessert and head home with a bubbly buzz in our stomach knowing that it was a great dinner indeed.


Finnegan's Irish Pubs & Restaurants
20, Jalan Changkat Bukit Bintang,
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (603) 2145 1930


twentyone kitchen+bar
20-1, Jalan Changkat Bukit Bintang,
50250 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: (603) 2142 0021
Facebook
Note: twentyone kitchen+bar will be closing Sunday for some freshening, 24th Jan till Thursday, 28th Jan. Reopening on Friday, 29th Jan at 6pm!

Helping the Haitians via PayPal, eBay, Amazon or Google Checkout

Following up on my yesterday's plug on how to help the Haitians, I did some searching and found out that one can donate via PayPal and eBay from PayPal's Blog. Read more here.

At Save the Children donation site, also noted that one can donate using Amazon Payments and Google Checkout (not sure what's this) other than PayPal.

If you're earning via your blog and have money in your PayPal account, you can try donating via Save the Children as PayPal will be waiving the payment processing fees for a limited time.

So hurry!

Thank you for all the loving kindness ;-)

Helping the Haitians

The earthquake that hit Haiti on 12 January 2010 was the most devastating news to begin the new year. I do not need to continue more over here, for the daily visuals that was published in the local newspaper, on the internet and telly were enough to touch all ours hearts. However, aid was slow. So we need to act fast.

In this time of need, here are a few organisations you can turn to by pledging funds to help the Haitians:

World Food Programme have emailed me as I was involved with the Menu For Hope projects. On their home page, there's updated info on the emergency operations to feed the Haitians. Click here to donate using your credit card.


If you have been reading the local newspapers, you would have come across UNICEF's appeal. So all you need is fill in the form and send your cheque. You can donate online via here using your credit cards!


Over the weekend, the wet market at my area were dotted by people dressed in dark blue tees and white trousers. They were from Taiwan Buddhist Tzu-Chi Foundation Malaysia, collecting donations from the market goers. If you don't see them in their smart uniform, don't fret. You can bank in your donation to their Maybank account 0040-6750-0119 with the payee as Buddhist Tzu-Chi Merit Society Malaysia. More info here.


Malaysia Red Crescent Society (MRCS) is appealing for donations for the MRCS International Relief Fund, in response to the emergency appeal launched by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) for US$10mil (RM34mil) to assist some 100,000 disaster victims.

Donors can sent cheques or cash to the following address:

Secretary General
Malaysian Red Crescent Society
National Headquarters
32, Jalan Nipah off Jalan Ampang
55000 Kuala Lumpur

Cheques should be made out to the “MRCS International Relief Fund” with ‘Haiti Earthquake’ written at the back or bank in into
MAYBANK Account Name : MRCS INTERNATIONAL RELIEF FUND
Account No : 5144 - 2210 – 2657

** Donations to the MRCS are entitled to tax exemption in Malaysia **


MERCY won't be able to send assistances to Haiti according to it's President as stated here. So try the above means.

My Homemade Yoghurt

For the past one year, I've been hearing my colleague (B), a male one, making his own yoghurt. He explained it to us many times over but somehow it sounded darn troublesome. The lazy me would rather just reach out those tubs in supermarket fridges, well until one day I made him bring some for us to try. I was wowed for the texture was slightly different from store bought and it tasted creamy with a nice hint of vanilla flavour. It's not as sourish as store bought tubs Z(the plain ones). That batch I was told made from HL milk, plain yoghurt and some Yakult. He uses both yoghurt and Yakult cos both contained different strain of bacterias.

Now, B had learnt this from errmm yet another male colleague A (pssst A is still very much available kekeke), so we asked him to bring his version for us to taste. Oh my this one really blown us all away!!! The texture was thicker and wayyy creamier... so very different. I was told the temperature of the milk will cause this.

That very weekend I set out making my own yoghurt with A's method as B's method involved in using thermal cooker which I do not own one.

This was A's method...

Equipments needed:
1 tall biscuit tin with cover
newspapers
1 clean and dry glass jar

Ingredients:
1 litre fresh milk, I used HL plain milk (can use strawberry as well)
2/3 tub plain yoghurt (small tub I think 225ml)


Firstly, insulate a clean biscuit tin with thick layers of newspaper on the sides and bottom. This is to ensure the milk is kept warm for a longer period in order for the bacteria to multiply.

Next, find a glass jar which is big enough for the amount of yoghurt you wish to make and smaller enough to be inserted into the insulated biscuit tin. I've used Nescafe bottle which can be filled with almost the entire 1 litre milk. You can use smaller jar, so just need to adjust the amount of milk accordingly.



Heat up milk in saucepan. Let it come to the point of small bubbles start to appear on the side of the pan. Make sure do not boil the milk!!! My colleague's method was to pour the milk into glass bottle then do the temperature test by touching the glass bottle. If you can touch it without withdrawing your hand, then it's good to go. It has to be warm and not hot. For myself, I just test it by scooping some milk with the spoon and place my finger onto the milk :p I washed my hands first ok before doing this heh. Since I don't have a food thermometer, I'm not sure but as long as it's not boiling hot nor it's too cold, has to be slightly higher than comfortable level.

Pour milk into glass jar and stir in yoghurt. Put on the cover and place jar into the insulated tin. Place some newspaper over before covering the tin lightly with the lid. Set aside for about 8 hours or so. What I usually do is I make this at night and voila, I'll have the yoghurt ready the next morning.



For me, I was a bit kiasi that it will not work kekeke so I place the tin next to my fridge wall with the tin touching it cos the wall was hot but then do that note that the wall doesn't stay hot all the time though. You don't need to do this as it worked as well without extra temperature from the fridge :p.

For B's method, he just place the milk into a thermal cooker without having to worry about keeping the milk warm. This is easier but A argued that his poor man's method worked as well kakaka.



Once it's done, scoop out the yoghurt with clean dry spoon into air tight containers and store in the fridge. Remember to use clean dry spoon to scoop out your yoghurt. Ohh and yes, keep some in another container to make your next batch of yoghurt!

Well, so far we loved the yoghurt and have been eating it with fruits and cereals. So making your own yoghurt is actually very easy, don't need any fancy schmancy store bought equipment nor powder. Go make some today!

Note: (added 22 January 2010)

In the event that you're not successful in curdling the milk (you can call it failed yoghurt but in actual fact it became yoghurt drink), don't throw away the concoction. Turn them into yoghurt drink/lassi by blending the so called failed yoghurt with fruits like mango, peach, kiwi, orange etc.

Steamed Minced Pork with Dung Choy

**Non-Halal**


On the night that I made Steamed Chicken with Chinese Sausage, I had this plate of Steamed Minced Pork with Dung Choy (Tianjin Preserved Vegetable) (also known as ching yuk pheng) on the second tray of my electric steamer.

Hahaha I tell ya, it's so convenient and easy to cook these days by just steaming our food. Sometimes, it can get quite healthy and I can cook up to 3 dishes in one go! The best point is... very little cleaning up! The electric steamer is one of our most indispensable electrical appliances in the kitchen now. I could cook rice, a meat dish and vegetables in one go. Save a lot of time and energy, very environmental friendly as well hehe. We also uses it to reheat our food, ohh our poor microwave oven is kinda neglected these days hahaha, cos the steamer moists up the food.

Ok back to the steamed minced pork, all I did was minced the pork together with dung choy in a chopper. Mix in some water (very important*), soy sauce, white pepper, wee bit of sugar and some sesame oil. Place the mixture in heat proof plate and steam until cook. Around 12 minutes in my steamer, or what my mom did is usually just place it onto the surface of just cooked rice in the rice cooker and wait for 20 minutes or so. Just cooked as in the moment one hear the click of the button reset from cook to keep warm.



* As in why it is important to add in some water to the minced meat mixture is the water actually make the steamed meat moist and soft. During my early days of cooking, I never knew I had to add water and I always wonder why my steamed meat come out rock hard. Never bothered to ask my mom too until one day my aunty asked my mom how come her steamed minced meat always come out hard! Hahaha imagine having eaten few years of rock hard steamed minced meat only I found out accidently that I have to add some water to the mixture!