White Bread with Truffle Oil

Posted on by lotsofbutter

Happy Sunday!

I’ve got the easiest bread recipe, and you can make it a bit more luxurious by adding truffle ok instead of olive oil.

You will need:

  • 250g white plain flour
  •  1 sachet of instant yeast
  • 1/2 teaspoon of caster sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • 150ml luke warm water
  • 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of white truffle oil

 

Combine the flour, yeast, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Once combined make a well in the centre and pour in your water and your oil. Gradually mix the flour in until it forms a dough.

Transfer the dough to the work top and start to knead. Your dough will be wetter than a pizza dough. It should be sticky. Carry on kneading the dough for about 10 minutes. Place your dough into a lightly oiled, bowl and leave to prove covered for an hour. Whilst proving preheat the oven to 220C

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Once your hour prove is done, knead the dough for another 10 minutes, then divide the dough into two parts. Put the dough in two identical bowls to create the round shape and place them in a baking tray. Form these sections into small rounds and place on covered baking trays for another hour.

Now cook your rolls in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Check the rolls at 15 min to see if they are done by tapping the bottom of the rolls to check that they sound hollow. When they are ready put them in a cooling rack covering them with a clean tea towel so that it absorbs the steam coming out from the rolls.

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Letme know what you think!

Ana

Spicy Pulled Pork Rissoles

Posted on by lotsofbutter

Hope you are all doing well.
Growing up in a Portuguese/Chinese household, I have been exposed to fusion food quite a lot.
So I have decided to make these lovely Spicy Pulled Pork Rissoles – in Portuguese Rissóis – I am basically filling this Portuguese snack with an amazing American meat.

 
For the Spicy Pulled Pork,  you will need:

  • Shoulder or Pork Butt
  • 2 onions
  • 1/2 tablespoon of chili powder
  • 1/2 tablespoon of chili flakes
  • 1 tablespoon of paprika
  • 500ml Pear cider
  • 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
  • Salt and Pepper

Start by turning on your oven on 150C.
Cut the onions in quarters and scatter the pieces all over a big roasting tin. Place the pork on top of the bed of onion and rub all of the dry ingredients on the meat – don’t forget to wash your hands thoroughly after.. you don’t want to be touching anywhere sensitive after.

Pour over the cider and cover the tin with foil and let it cook covered in the oven for 4 hours, and 1 additional hour with the tin uncovered. The meat should be fork-tender, that’s when you know it’s done.
Remove the meat from the pot and shred completely with two forks and return the shredded meat to the pot and keep in with the juices until you need it. You can always tweak the quantities of spices to your taste and add on other herbs and spices. You can also use cheap cola or a stout instead of pear cider – the world is your oyster.

To make the dough:

  • 125g all purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 125ml water
  • Salt
  • 1 beaten egg
  • Breadcrumb
  • Oil for frying

Bring water to a boil in a pot and add the salt and butter, turn the heat off and stir in the flour stirring with a wooden spoon until a ball is formed and leave it to cool completely.

Once the dough has cooled down, dust your work surface with flour and knead the dough. I find it easier to use the pasta machine to roll the dough out, but you can do it with a rolling pin too, or your favourite bottle of wine. Roll the dough to about 0.5cm in thickness and using a cutter (or a pint glass in my case) cut disks of dough, the diameter should be about 7cm, but again that’s to your discretion, if you want to make one giant rissol, I am not going to stop you. In fact, please do and let me have half of it!

Place the pulled pork filling in the middle of a circle and fold the dough over to form a half circle (fat half circle), pressing the edges together and set aside. When you run out of dough or run out of filling you are one step closer to AMAZINGNESS!
Brush the pastries in beaten egg, and quickly dip them in breadcrumb. Fry until golden brown in hot oil, doing so in batches. You can check if the oil is hot enough by putting one of the rissoles in.

You definitely need to try this! Let me know how it goes for you guys!

Ana

Ramen with Braised Pig’s Ears and Roasted Pork Belly

Posted on by lotsofbutter

Hello!
If you have not watched THE MIND OF A CHEF, please do yourselves a favour and go check it out! it’s very inspiring and educational (culinarily speaking)

Chef David Chang is an absolute junkie for ramen like me (not much choice, we got the Asian in us!)! I was inspired to make my own Japanese ramen noodles from scratch.


For the Ramen Noodles:

  • 200g all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons of baked soda
  • 50ml warm tap water
  • 50ml cold tap water

    To make the baked soda, spread a a good amount of baking soda on a foil-lined sheet pan. Put it in the oven for about 1hour on 150C. You will only need 2 teaspoons for this recipe but you can store the extra in a jar for as long as you need. I read on a few websites and thought the baking soda would change colours, but that is not correct.

    We need the baked soda to change the pH levels in the water, this is what gives the ramen its texture.

    In a big mixing bowl put the warm water and the 2 teaspoons of baked soda to dissolved, then add the cold water. Lastly add the flour and mix until it forms into a dough. The mixture is quite dry and crumbly. Knead it for a full 5 minutes and wrap it in some cling film and let it rest for 20 minutes. Then knead again for another 5 minutes (very good work out). Reward the dough  in cling film and let it chill in the fridge for about 1 hour. 

    For this recipe I would highly recommend for you to have a pasta machine, the dough is not easy to hand roll and cut if you don’t have the experience. Once the dough has chilled devide it into 4 equal portions. The thickness setting on the pasta machine is to your descretion, I like mine not so thin. 

    Like Italian pasta, cook the noodles in a deep pot with plenty of water. The cooking time will depend on the thickness of the pasta, mine took about 3 minutes. Check the noodles regularly while they’re cooking; if they stick together, rinse them under cold water immediately after straining them from the pot to stop the cooking and rinse off any excess starch. Make sure you only cook the noodles when you’re ready to plate, you don’t want the noodles sitting around while you get the rest ready. 


    Ingredients for Braised Pig’s Ears

    • 2 pig’s ears
    • 1/4 cup Shaoxing Rice Wine, or sake
    • 3 Tablespoons dark Chinese soy sauce
    • 2 Tablespoons brown sugar
    • 1 star anise

     

      f your pig’s ears come with a few strand of unwanted hair and you don’t have a blow torch to hand, like me you can burn the hair using your gas stove – it is in no means as efficient as a blow torch, but it helps. 

      Par-boil the ears in a pot of water for a few minutes, this will help remove any dirty from the skin. 

      Remove the ears from the pot and put it in another clean smaller pot and fill it with enough water that will cover the ears, then add all the ingredients. Bring it to a boil and reduce it to simmer for 2hours30min. You will want to keep an eye on it for about every 30 minutes to turn the ears and add more water if necessary. 

      When they are done, the ears should be very soft and dark. Let it chill completely before you sliced the ears into thin strips.This dish is supposed to be served cold but is just as good hot.

      Please do not discard of the liquid used to cooked the ears, this will be used for our ramen broth base!

       

      For the Pork Belly: 

      • 1 Strip of pork belly cut in half
      • Salt and Pepper
      •  Chili oil 

      Use a knife to poke the rind as many holes as possible. Brush the rind with chilli oil and season it with salt and pepper. You should marinate if you have time, but if you don’t, it isn’t a problem. place it in the roasting pan lined with foil and roast it in hot oven for an hour in 200C. The skin should puff up into crackling. Remove pork from oven and allow to rest uncovered. When ready to serve, cut into 1cm slices. 
      For the Broth (1 serving) 

      • 1/2 ladle of the pig’s ears cooking liquid
      • 1 ladle of water 
      • 1 teaspoon of miso paste

      If you are not making it the pig’s ear and don’t have the liquid, you can make your broth/stock from scratch with any pork, smoked meat or chicken bones/fat – I will post a recipe for an easy broth in the next couple of days for you.

      Add all the ingredients to a pot and bring it to boil. The thing I like about the ramen broths is that is very open to taste, so you can add absolutely anything you want as it is to your taste. I like it fat and flavoursome.

       
      To assemble your lovely bowl of awesomeness, put your noodles in a bowl, add a few strips of the pig’s ears and a few slices of the pork belly (or whatever meats or vegetables you want to have with your ramen!) and add the broth. I have served this with a soft boiled egg and some spring onions. To create those lovely curls, cut the spring onions into thin strips and put it in a bowl with cold water, this will make the strips curl up. 

      I hope you enjoy making this as much as I did, I am definitely happy with the results, nothing tastes better than your own success! 
      Ana 

      Penne with Pesto and Black Olives 

      Posted on by lotsofbutter

      Happy new year by beautiful people! Sorry I haven’t been very active with my posting, you have to understand that I have been in multiple food and alcohol comas during the holiday season! 

      My other excuse is that I can’t take good pictures of the food due to the stupid winter and not having natural sunlight! However I have solved that problem by buying a mini studio set up with lights. 

        
      I’ve decided to post quite an easy, healthy and quick meal for you today (also I haven’t done food shopping yet and I was dying to test out the studio set and lights. 

      I’ve chosen to use penne, but you can use any pasta you have – if you have fresh pasta that’s even better! 

      Ingredients you will need for this recipe:

      • 1 cup of pasta
      • 1 tablespoon of pesto
      •  8 black olives (chopped) 
      • 1 fresh chilli (chopped) 
      • salt and pepper

      Cook the pasta to your liking, I like mine al dente, about 10-11min on boiled water in medium high heat. 

      While your pasta is cooking, start prepping your sauce. Cut the fresh chilli in half and remove the seeds by scrapping it with the back of your knife – I love spicy food but I think this pasta benefits with just a bit of heat. Chop up the black olives, or if you want you can mince it, it’s to your preference. 

      Once your pasta is cooked, make sure you drain it well and add all the ingredients. Salt and pepper is to your preference, I like to let the pesto speak for itself so I barely add any salt. 

      I will be posting  my recipe for the pesto soon, I think everyone should try and make their own pesto st least once! 

      Enjoy! 

      Ana 

      Coconut and Key Lime Pie

      Posted on by lotsofbutter

      Hello lovelies! Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately! I have been busy loving life! 

      Jokes! I haven’t had much time to cook beautiful meals unfortunately! I have had the day off today and have craved for key lime pie for weeks, so I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to make it! 

        

      The ingredients you will need: 

      • 200g digestive biscuits
      •  20g desiccated coconut
      •  100g butter, melted
      • 397g can condensed milk
      • 1 tablespoon finely grated lime zest 
      • 125ml lime juice
      • 4 egg yolks
      • 150ml coconut cream
      • 3 tablespoons icing sugar

       For the meringue: 

      • 4 egg white at room temperature
      • 100g icing sugar
      • 100g caster sugar 

      Place the can of coconut cream in the fridge overnight to settle.

      Preheat oven to 160C. Grease a tart pan with removable base. Place the biscuits in a food processor and process until finely crushed. Add the dissecated coconut and butter and mix until combined. Spoon into prepared pan and use the back of a spoon to press the mixture evenly over the base and side of the pan. Fine crust or thick crust is up to you! Place in the fridge for at least 30min to chill and harden. 

      Whisk the condensed milk, lime zest, lime juice and egg yolks together in a large bowl. Pour over the chilled crust base. Place on a baking tray. Bake for 30 mins or until just set. Once it’s done, set a side to cool down and put it in the fridge. 

      To make the coconut cream, open the can of coconut cream and scoop the hard cream at the top into a bowl. You won’t be needing the coconut water/liquid. Add thickened cream and icing sugar. Use an electric mixer to beat until it’s soft then spoon the coconut cream over the pie. 

        
      For the meringues, reheat the oven to 100C . Put the egg whites on a non plastic bowl and beat them on medium speed with an electric whisk until the mixture resembles a fluffy clouds and stands up in stiff peaks when you lift the whisk. 

      Now turn the speed up and start to add the caster sugar, spoonful at a time. Continue beating while you add the sugar slowly. However, don’t over-beat. When ready, the mixture should be thick and glossy. Sift icing sugar over the mixture and gently fold it in. Continue to sift and fold in the rest of the icing sugar bit by bit. Again, don’t over-mix. The mixture should look smooth! 

      I’ve used silicone muffin trays to keep them the same size, once spooned you can sprinkle with lime zest or thinly sliced lemon zest like I did. Bake for an hour and a half in the oven, until the meringues look crisp. Leave to cool on the tray and put them on top of the coconut cream to decorate. 

      Scricchiolio Signore Muffins 

      Posted on by lotsofbutter

      Beautiful Sunday to stay in bed! 

      After sleeping for 12hours, all I had in my mind was a big fat breakfast! But because I have this conflicting feelings and ideas in my head that I want to lose weight and be fit, the 2 sausages, 2 bacon, 2 eggs and 2 toasts fly out of my mind. 

      I then rembembered that a few years back I used to make Rachel Khoo’s croque Monsieur muffins on a regular basis! Had a look in my fridge and I didn’t have the ingridients for a traditional croque monsieur, so I had to improvise and make an Italian version with pancetta and mozzarella! 

        
      Ingridients:

      • Butter
      • 2 slices of white bread
      • 2 tablespoons of fried chopped pancetta 
      • 2 eggs
      • 2 tablespoons of grated mozzarella cheese
      • 2 tablespoons of whipped double cream
      • Salt and black pepper

      Start of for melting a little butter for coating both sides of the bread
      Star of my cutting the crusts off the bread and roll the bread with a rolling pin to about half its original thickness. Melt a little of the butter and coat the bread.

      Place the slices into the muffin tray to create cup shapes, then add the fried chopped pancetta  into the bottom of each bread cup. Break a raw egg on top of the pancetta – remember to drain off most of the egg white before adding otherwise it will overfill! 

      Add one tablespoon of the cream in each cup then add the grated mozzarella  on too until it’s all covered. Cost the edges of the bread cups with some more of the melted butter, it will make it crispy! There’s never enough butter! 

      Place in oven at 180C for 15 mins for runny egg or 20mins for firmer egg. 

        

      Blueberry Muffins

      Posted on by lotsofbutter

       I am not the biggest fan of sweets, so it will take a lot for me to actually make something something sweet. I am more inclined to bake during the cold weather because who doesn’t like a nice warm muffin?

      I was having a look in my fridge the other day,  and saw that I had frozen blueberries. The first thing I thought I could make, was blueberry muffins.

      What you’ll need to succeed:

      • 110g plain flour
      • 110g butter
      • 85g caster sugar
      • 2 eggs
      •  1½ teaspoons of baking powder
      • 125 frozen blueberries


      Cream the butter and sugar together then slowly add the eggs. Add the flour, baking powder and stir to combine. This is the hardest part: refrigerate the mixture overnight.

      Place a spoonful of muffin mixture into each muffin case, filling each to just over half way.

      Bake in an oven set at 200C/400F/Gas 6 for 20 minutes, or until golden on top.


      Best served  warm out of the oven! You do not want to have these cold.. It won’t taste the same!
      Ana xx

      Pumpkin Soup 

      Posted on by lotsofbutter

      It’s autumn and we love it right? We love the leaves, we love pumpkin lattes and pumpkin spice, pumpkin all things everything!

      So I have a really easy and quick pumpkin soup recipe!

       

      What you’ll need:

      • Splash of olive oil
      • 1 chopped onion
      • Half of a small pumpkin (chopped, deseeded and peeled) – let’s say about 500g
      • 400ml chicken stock (or vegetable if you’re vegetarian)
      • Double cream to serve

      Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan, then gently cook the chopped onions until soft but not coloured. Add the pumpkin to the pan, then carry on cooking stirring occasionally until it starts to soften and turn golden.

      Pour the stock into the pan, then season with salt, pepper and some smoked paprika. Bring everything to the boil, then simmer on a low fire until the pumpkin is very soft. Purée the ingredients in a blender and the most important part: push the soup through a fine sieve into another pan for a smooth consistancy!

      Once you’re ready to serve, add a tablespoon of double cream! And taaaadaaah! Smooth delicious pumpkin soup!

      Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it!
      Ana X

      When in Switzerland

      Posted on by lotsofbutter

      I haven’t been anywhere this summer, so to treat myself, I decided to go see a friend in Switzerland.

      I have to say that the country has stolen a piece of my heart. Cheese and chocolate, what else do I need?  Yesterday, was my last night in Basel and we decided to have cheese fondue at home!

       
      I have had a lot of fondues in my life.. Like meat fondue, chocolate fondue or the Chinese fondue. Never really had cheese fondue until last night.

      The classic dip for this would be bread, but I went a bit crazy.. I started googling ingridients that would be nice for dipping… No, unfortunately no nachos! On the table we have boiled cauliflower and new baby potatoes. Also have pears, cured sausage, pears and our main guest: bread.

      You’ve guessed right, there was no cheese left behind.

      We have bought ready grated cheese pack for fondue. I’ve done my research and the simple version seems to be from Neuchâtel, which only uses Emmantel and Gruyere. Add about 200ml of white wine – I cannot stress enough about this, but please use a wine that you would drink. If you wouldn’t drink that wine then why would you use it to cook and eat? To the wine, add two tablespoons of strong white flour or ideally cornstarch, once the mixture is warm, add the cheese and melt it. The consistency should be thick but a bit runny.

      It’s the perfect social dish for winter.

      Ana xx

      Mamamia Pan Grill Pizza 

      Posted on by lotsofbutter

       
      We all love a good pizza take away! But I like my pizza crispy thin, like a cracker! So no take away pizza will ever satisfy me. This recipe is quick and too easy!

      I’ve cheated on the dough and used pizza base mix from sainsbury’s, I can make two thin crust pizzas with one pack. You will need 100ml of water to add to the mix, combine it well and leave it to rest for a bit. While your dough is resting you start on your tomato sauce. For mine I used tomato purée, olive oil, water, 1 shallot and 2 cloves of onion, some salt and pepper. Blitz it in your blender or food processor, I don’t like the the sauce too smooth, so I leave small chunks of the shallot and garlic.

      For the filling, I used smoked mozzarella and chili luganica sausage meat, but it’s your pizza so you can use whatever tickles your fancy.

      I roll out half of the dough thinly, and fold the “corners in”, spread the tomato sauce, add the grated cheese and then the meat… Then the cheese again! In a frying pan (big enough to fit your pizza), heat some olive oil and transfer the pizza to the pan once the oil is hot. Yes, we are “frying” the pizza base first.

       
      Once the base gets dark, take the pan off the stove and put it under the grill. Make sure you keep an eye out on the pizza, as you don’t wanna burn it.

      The cheese will start to bubble and you’re pretty much done once the meat and the crust gets a bit of colour!

      If you can get your hands on some rocket, I would definitely suggest adding at the end to give this crisp freshness to your pizza.

      Not to blow my own trumpet, but I make a good damn pizza!

      I hope you enjoy!