Melon Salad

The first time I've heard about this melon salad was during my diploma. I have to look for a few dishes from South Africa and this melon salad was one of the recipes for their dessert. They were easy to make and absolute refreshing treat to have during summer. The original recipe I found in the internet years ago contains some alcoholic drinks. But I'm not drinking. So I've altered the recipe a bit to my liking and convenience.

To make this melon salad, you need is a few types of melons. Watermelon and honeydew are two of my favorite melon to use. But you can always use the yellow melon, rock melon, sunlady melon, any melon that you like. 

The fun part was to scoop the melon with a melon baller. Then you will need some mint leaves, lemon juice (or orange, or lime) and just a little bit of plain syrup (or mint syrup). Toss the ingredients together and there... You have it. Store them in a container for a night before consuming for a better result.

Passion Fruit Cupcake

I first heard of passion fruit during my practicum training four years ago. I had to prepare a passion fruit mousse. I remember that they were using passion fruit puree. So I have absolutely no idea how a passion fruit looks like.... Imagine how excited I am when I saw this fruit in the market! I bought them without really knowing how to tell if they're ripen or not, and not knowing how to eat this fruit. So I decided to cut them into half, and eat the inside. Passion fruit had a tart and acidic taste with aromatic flavors. I decided that I'm going to experiment making passion fruit cupcakes. I thought it's going to taste perfect -- and summer-ish.

Passion Fruit Vanilla Cake (modified from Angry Cherry's recipe)

1 & 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 cup passion fruit puree

1/4 cup milk (I used coconut milk)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F/175°C

2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

3. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, making sure the batter is completely smooth and the each egg is incorporated before adding the next.

4. Stir in the vanilla extract passion fruit puree and milk.

5. Add the flour slowly and fold the ingredients together.

6. Divide the batter equally between the muffin cups.

7. Bake for 30 ~ 32 minutes, or until a cake tested inserted into the middle-most cupcake comes out clean.

8. Allow to cool to completely before frosting.

I frosted the cupcake with creme cheese frosting and spooned a bit more of extra puree on top. The cake itself taste really good (especially when they are still warm out of the oven)!

What would you experiment to do with this fruit?

Visit Angry Cherry to learn to make a passion fruit frosting!

Yogurt with Honey and Kiwi

I once read an article that frozen fruits are good for your digestion as it will force you to take a small bite at a time. My favorite would be strawberry. Frozen strawberry tasted like ice cream. And sometimes, I like to keep any extra fruits in the freezer to prevent them from spoilage.

I had a couple of frozen kiwi stored in the refrigerator and decided to mix them with Yogurt and Honey. I’ve seen my friends preparing them during an exam back in culinary school (And my lecturers love them!). This dish is a simple and refreshing dessert that you can prepare on any dessert emergency occasions.

Yogurt with Honey and Kiwi

1 cup plain yogurt
2tbsp honey
1 frozen kiwi (or any of your favorite fruit) – cut into dice

1. Mix yogurt and honey together.
2. Add in a layer of frozen kiwi in an individual serving cup or bowl. 
3. Then, topped with yogurt and honey mixture.
4. Sprinkle yogurt with more frozen kiwi. Refrigerate for an hour and serve.
5. Or you may keep the yogurt in the freezer and have them as frozen yogurt. Anyway you like :) 

Fruit Tartlets

Fruit tartlet remains as one of my favorite tarts of all time. That flaky pastry, cooling and sweet custard, and that refreshing fruits on top - it's a perfect combination! I made these tartlets the other day for my mom's best friend. Her son is getting married, and I made these as the dessert for their guest. It's a hit!

All you need to do, is prepare the sugar crust.

Spread some melted chocolate in them - to prevent the pastry from getting soggy.

Fill in custard into the pastry

And arrange your favorite fruits on top - strawberries, kiwis, grapes, apricot, blueberries... And don't forget to spread some apricot glaze on top of fruits to make your fruits.

Sugar Crust (adapted from Professional Cooking)

240g flour

140g butter

100g confectionery sugar

1# egg

15ml milk 

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.

2. Sift flour and sugar together. Rub in egg yolk and butter into the flour mixture.

3. Turn dough onto work surface and divide them into two balls (base and top crust) and flatten them. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for an hour.

4. Roll one pastry on a lightly floured surface. Gently transfer them to a pie pan/mold.

5. Trim the edges of pastry to fit the mold.

6. Dock the crust with fork. 

7. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for five minutes.

8. Bake blind for 15-20 minutes

Custard

250 ml milk

1/2 egg - beaten

50g sugar

15g corn flour

10g custard powder

2-3 vanilla essence

1. Melt milk, corn flour and custard powder.

2. Add in vanilla essence. Then add in sugar.

3. Add in the egg, and cook until cook.

Fruit Tartlet (Assemble)

Sugar Crust

Custard

Fruits - at least three types

Apricot glaze

1. Spread melted chocolate in the crust.

2. Pipe pastry cream in the crust.

3. Arrange fruits on top of pastry cream. Make sure the fruit completely covered the pastry.

4. Spread apricot  glaze on top of fruits.

Apple Cream Tart

I missed my kitchen (okay, it's my mum's) a lot while being away for two weeks. So, when I get back from my 'disappearance' I told my mum I wanted to bake something. I flipped over some of my magazine to search for a new dishes to be experimented on. Then, I found a recipe of Apple Cream Tart from Food Digest's volume 4. The recipe was provided by Laura Calder. So, I thought, I should give it a try :)

Of course, mine didn't look as good as Calder's

Apple Cream Tart

Tart Shell

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup flour

Cream Filling

1 egg

1/2tsp vanilla

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1/4 sugar

Topping

3 apples - peeled and thinly sliced

1/4 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup slivered almonds or chopped walnuts.

Tart Shell

1. Heat the oven to 200 Celsius. Make the crust: cream the butter and sugar. Stir in the vanilla. FInally mix in the flour to make a smooth dough.

2. Press into the bottom of an 20cm/8-inch spring-form pan, giving it about a 1-inch/2.5cm rim. Bake 15 minutes until lightly golden. Remove from the oven.

Cream Filling

1. Beat all the ingredients for the cream filling together until smooth.

2. Remove the tart shell from the oven. Spread over the cream mixture.

Topping

1. Make the topping by tossing the apple slices with the cinnamon, sugar and nuts.

2. Arrange the apple slices on top, then scatter over the nuts. Bake until the apple are tender and golden, about 40 minutes.

I had some leftover dough for crust and filling. I sprinkled some chopped chocolate on top, and bake them in the muffin tin :)

Apple Pie

Apple pie was one of the pastry items I learned in culinary school. Well, my first class in Pastry class was on shortcrust/sugarcrust. Then, it remains as one of my favorites recipes. Sometimes, I would make them for families and friends. They would love this apple pie as the pastry is rich and crumbly. This crust recipe is my favorite. I've tried several different crust recipes, and I'd still like this one. What's your favorite crust recipes?

Apple Pie

Pie

500g Flour

250g Butter

2# Egg Yolk

50g Confectioners Sugar

Filling
3# Apples - peeled, cored, diced
200g Brown Sugar
1# Cinnamon Stick
Cinnamon Powder- as desired
100g Raisins
50g Butter
5g Corn Starch

Crust
1. Sift flour and sugar together.
2. Rub in egg yolk and butter into the flour mixture.
3. Turn dough onto work surface and divide them into two balls (base and top crust) and flatten them. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for an hour.
4. Roll one pastry on a lightly floured surface. Gently transfer them to a pie pan/mold.
5. Trim the edges of pastry to fit the mold.
6. Dock the crust with fork.
7. Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator.

Filling

1. Sweat diced apple with butter and cinnamon stick.

2. Add in raisins, and sprinkle cinnamon powder to your liking.

3. Sprinkle corn starch, and let the juice thicken.

Assemble

1. Preheat oven to 180 Celsius.

2. Spoon the apple filling into the pie crust.

3. Roll half of the pastry, and cover the top of pie.

4.Trim the pastry crust and crimp the edge using your fingers or fork.

5. Dock the top of pie to allow steam to escape.

6. Brush 1# egg yolk on top of each crust.

7. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes.

8. Let cool for an hour before serving.

Almond and Dates T'ings

T'ings are one of the simplest things in chocolate making. There's no measurement, and the ingredients are really simple. All you need are milk, dark or white chocolate, tempered or compounded and some nuts and dried fruits for toppings. You could even use your leftover chocolate from finishing other chocolate to make T'ings.

I made this using the leftover chocolate from dipping some cake truffle. I used chopped almonds and dates for toppings as they're the only nuts and dried fruits I could find in the kitchen. Of course, you could try making them with other toppings too. Just spoon your melted chocolate in bite-size pools, and add on the desired toppings.