Corn and cheese biscuits

The weather outside looked so sunny and perfect for a lazy late morning by the pool.  I changed, got all ready to head down but was greeted by a cold draft as I opened my window to test the temperature.  Brrr…..

Then I got all bored from surfing the net and decided to channel my energies to baking (again).  Lunch hour was near and I was craving for these corn muffins, you know the ones that you could get at Kenny Rogers?  So, I decided to make me a small batch for  I figured it would be a good way to shave off 2 hours from the lazy day.

Fluffy corn and parmesan cheese biscuits (Recipe adapted from Waiting for Gateau)

Makes 9 small biscuits

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of all-purpose flour, plus extra for the counter
• 1/2 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup of canned corned (can be adjusted according to your liking)
• 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese (can be adjusted according to your liking)

Method:

1. Adjust the oven rack to upper-middle position and preheat the oven to 160degrees C. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and parmesan cheese. Then pour the corn into the dry mix and give it a good mix.  Stir in the cream by hand until dough forms, about 30 seconds.  You may need to add 1-2 tablespoons of cream if the dough seems dry from the cheese.
3. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gather it into a ball. Knead the dough with floured hands about 4-6 turns until it’s smooth.
4. On a floured counter, roll or pat the dough to 3/4-inch thick. Cut the biscuits into rounds with a floured biscuit cutter (I had no biscuit cutter so I used the end of the can to make the round shapes for the biscuit).
5. Place the biscuits on prepared sheet pan and bake 20 – 25 minutes until golden brown. Remove biscuits from oven and place on cooling rack to cool slightly.
6. Brush the hot biscuits with melted butter and serve.

As I took the biscuits out of the oven, I was really pleased with the results, for the top of the biscuits was a lovely shade of golden brown.  Again, I couldn’t resist popping one to see if it tasted any good and it did!!!  The parmesan cheese provided a nice savory flavour to the sweet corn.  The biscuit was light and fluffy.  This would taste so good with some good ol’ mac-and-cheese along with roast chicken or with a bowl of hot vegetable soup.  Yumz!

This is definitely going into my recipe book for its quick and simple to make.  Perhaps for the next batch of biscuits, I’ll play around with other ingredients. 

Leftovers

When we moved to Geneva, we thought the easiest way to deal with the appliances was to just gett everything here.  So, we obviously didn’t think of shipping a rice-cooker here.  Kind of a big mistake!  Yes, while the rice cooker can be found here but the brands available here aren’t even heard of (by me, at least).

Since we were only going to be here for a year, we thought we’ll get the cheapest rice cooker.  Well, the cheapest here cost us CHF 39.95.  You pay for what you get, for the cheapest rice cooker we got was not the best in the market of course (for obvious reasons).  That’s not all, the rice cooker actually ‘spurts’ out water while cooking the rice, making such a mess in the kitchen.  As you can imagine, cleaning up is now a CHORE!

I can go without carbs for most days but the Man can’t. So, whenever he craves for rice, I’d make sure I cook enough for 2 days so that I don’t have to go through the ‘spurting water’ ordeal.  I can always use the leftovers as fried rice the next day.

That’s what I did for one of our meals.  I used the leftover rice and made Garlic Fried Rice with it.  Other than chopping up loads of garlic and having my fingers smelling like garlic, it’s really quite simple.

Garlic Fried Rice (Makes 2 portions)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 bulbs of garlic (chopped finely)
• Leftover rice (portion for 2)
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• Chives for garnish

Method:

1. Heat frying pan and melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter.
2. Add garlic and fry garlic till it turns golden brown.  Remove garlic and set aside.
3. Add 1 tablespoon of butter to frying pan.  Wait till butter melts before adding the rice.
4. Stir-fry the rice and then add the eggs to the rice.
5. Continue to stir-fry the rice until the egg mixture is fully absorbed into the rice.
6. Add the fried garlic and stir-fry the rice further.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.
8. Serve rice warm, and add chopped chives as garnish.

It’s really that simple but yummy!!  I just wished I knew how to get rid of the garlic-ky smell from my fingers after making this dish.  Any ideas?

blueberry madness

Oh-kay, this will be the last baking post for the week for I’m officially tired of baking! Hehe… The reason why I had to make these blueberry muffins was because I had a whole punnet of them and had used some for the Lemon & blueberry scones made earlier this week. I didn’t want to eat the rest of them and instead of letting them to go to waste, my ‘crazed baker’ persona started googling for the simplest fuss-free blueberry muffins recipe to whip up for the Man for his breakfast. (FYI: The Man wakes up early but he makes his own breakfast.)

Approximately 45 minutes later, I was happy with how the muffins tasted but wished that the shots that I had captured would make the muffins look more mouth-watering.

Light blueberry muffins with lemon sugar crust (Adapted from Manu’s Menu)

Ingredients (makes about 12 muffins but I halved everything to make 6 muffins):

• 1 ½ cup flour
• ¾ cup sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil (I use sunflower oil)
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk (plus more if the batter is too dense)
• 1 cup of blueberries (I used a big handful of blueberries)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Put all the dry ingredients in a big bowl and mix them together.
3. Put the vegetable oil, the milk and the egg in a measuring jar and whisk together.
4. Pour the egg-oil-milk mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon until just combined. Make sure NOT to over mix your batter or your muffins will not be fluffy and light. It is ok if you see small lumps in the batter.
5. Adjust batter till you get a fluid yet dense butter so add milk accordingly where needed.
6. Add the blueberries and slowly fold them into the mixture so that they do not break.
7. Fill the muffin pan with the batter or individual muffin cups. I used some parchment paper to fill the batter with for I was trying to achieve a rustic feel with the muffins.
8. Sprinkle the top of the batter with sugar mixed with grated lemon zest (Note: the proportion of lemon zest to sugar can be adjusted to your liking. I used half the zest of a lemon to about 1 tbsp of sugar as I wanted the lemon flavour to be quite strong).
9. Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes.
10. When ready, take them out of the oven and let them cool down in the pan for a few minutes. Then carefully pull them out of the pan and put them on a rack to cool down completely.

While I was photographing these, I couldn’t resist popping one of them for my tea-break and they tasted so good! The lemon-sugar crust lent the zest needed to balance the sweetness of the blueberries. A heavenly combo!

Lemon bars

I had some leftover lemons in the fridge, so decided to give this ‘Lemon Bars’ recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery a go. It looked relatively simple to follow, plus it was a sweltering 31 degrees, so this recipe was perfect for a tangy kick for our taste-buds.

I invited the girls over for tea and they popped by while I was making this so they got to sample a bite of this and I packed some of the bars for them as an after-dinner dessert which I hoped they enjoyed.

Lemon Bars (adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery)

Makes about 16 small bars

Ingredients:

• 200g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 100ml of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 3 teaspoons of grated lemon zest

Ingredients for base:

• 140g plain flour
• 35g icing sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 120g unsalted butter
• 2 teaspoons of grated lemon zest

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.
2. Grease baking tray or line it with parchment paper.
3. For the base: Put the flour, sugar, salt, butter and lemon zest and using a handheld electric whisk (or a freestanding electric mixer), beat until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.  Press the dough evenly into the base of the prepared baking tray.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or until light golden brown.  Leaving the oven on, leave the crust to cool slightly.
4. Put the sugar, eggs, lemon juice and zest in a bowl and whisk until well-mixed.  Pour carefully over the baked base and return to the oven.  Bake for 20 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the topping has set in.
5. Leave to cool completely and dust with icing sugar before serving.  Alternatively, you could cover the lemon bars and refrigerate it overnight before cutting them up into individual bars.

We had this for dessert after dinner and as I bit into the bars, my senses were immediately awakened thanks to the tangy-ness of the lemons!  The Man surprisingly enjoyed this sour treat with his cuppa espresso.

Another winner in my recipe book. 

[Ooh and update:  This post is featured on Kitchen Artistry.]