Chocolate cake

I experimented a bit. I heard flourless cake and wanted to make one. In my imagination the flourless chocolate cake is soft, smooth and light. Not heavy not chewy and not over sweet. It can be a bit less firm than a soufflé. I read through my recipe book. The only flourless recipe looks not my kind. So I went online to do a little research. After modification here is my version.

Materials:
- 8 oz chocolate (milk, dark, semisweet)
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 4 eggs
- 4 tablespoon sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoon rum
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preparation:
- Microwave chocolate and butter (less than 1 min)
- Put sugar, egg yolks, rum, vanilla in a big bowl and mix with a low speed for 10 min (until the dough becomes creamy)
- Pour the melted butter and chocolate and salt in the bowl
- Mix them for 10 sec
- In a small bowl mix the egg white for 2 min until the foam appears
- Fold the foam in the dough in the big bowl gently
- Preheat oven to 300 degree
- Put the cake pan in the oven and bake for 50 min

The cake puffed. A bit like soufflé. When I tested the cake with a folk, I got a similar feeling of cutting a soufflé. The outside was a bit crispy. The inside was moist. Very moist. I put it outside to cool it down for more than 30 min. I think I should have served it warm. After 30 min, the cake went to the normal form, no puff anymore. When I sliced it, I saw how smooth the inside was. My friends like it very much. The taste was between a Soufflé and a mousse. Very happy to have it. Happy to have it after a good dinner.

Daube

This daube has my most satisfaction. It was awesomely tasty.

According to Wikipedia, daube is a style.
Daube is a classic French stew made with cubed meat braised in wine, vegetables, garlic, and herbes de provence. Although most modern recipes call for red wine, a minority call for white wine, and the earliest recorded daube recipes call for white wine. Variations also call for olives, prunes, and flavoring with duck fat, vinegar, brandy, lavender, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, juniper berries, or orange peel. For best flavor, it is cooked in several stages, and cooled for a day between each stage to allow the flavors to meld together.

I have some good red wine. They were open for some time. Friends told me wine's taste lasts short, once you open a good bottle, better serve and finish within a day, you should turn it to a cooking wine otherwise. I wanted to give this wine another new life. I wanted it to know how good it is by giving the credit of a delicious dish to it. A bit silly. But I meant it :)

I then went ahead to getting all ingredients for this daube.

1. Two big chicken thigh with bone
2. Half box tomatoes
3. One bay leaf
4. One big onion
5. Wine
6. Salt
7. Black pepper
8. Half cup chicken broth

I washed the thigh. I removed the skin and fat. Skin and fat can contribute some flavor to the dish, but, for the health's sake, tossed them. I cut the thigh to smaller pieces. Put the chicken in a big pot. Then put the sliced onion and washed pearl tomatoes in. Poured all nice wine in. The amount of the wine was around half bottle. Put the bay leaf. Dashed salt and pepper. Covered the pot and marinated the ingredients.

I cooked the chicken after one day. One side story. The pot was a bit burned due to the carelessness. The wine volume was half yet I didn't set the first checkpoint accordingly. The pot delivered a burn smell after 30 min. I saw the bottom of the pot turned black. Was a bit sad. So put some chicken broth in and continued the cooking. After 10 more minutes the cooking was complete.

The taste of the chicken was superb. No burn taste at all. The chicken was tender and the vegetables were fully blended with the good wine. The juice was not abundant. Right amount. 200% satisfaction.

Banana nut bread

I remember I had a very tasty banan nut bread in Maui on the Road to Hana. We got it from a small local shop. The bread was moist. The shop was not frugal on banana. I saw banana and tasted banana at my every bite. It was a good memory.

Now I am competent at baking. Look around, I got banan, walnut, flour, sugar, and my good old mixer. Why not realizing my good memory to reality? I checked my recipe book, seems like I need to get baking powder. Alright, marked it on my note. Tomorrow I should have everything.

Making a banana nut bread needs patience and care. More than 20 ingredients are needed. I simplified the recipe to fit it to my like. List: 2 teaspoon baking powder; 2 cup all purpose flour; 4 tablespoon melted unsalted butter; 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk; pinch salt; 3/4 cup walnut; 2 very ripe banana fingers; half cup sugar; 1 tablespoon orange zest.

Preparation:
1. Mix eggs, yolk, butter, zest, and sugar with low speed for 3 min or until you see the dough turn to creamy
2. Put flour, salt, and baking powder in and mix the dough for 3 min
3. Cut and mash banana
4. Crash walnut to small size
5. Put the mashed banana in
6. Mix the ingredients
7. Put the walnut in
8. Preheat oven to 350 degree
9. Put the dough in a loaf pan
10. Put the loaf pan in the preheat oven for 40 min

I didn't put any butter or spray around the loaf pan since the dough has butter. The buttered dough is a non stick guarantee. Another tip is that when you mix banana with the dough you need to ensure the mix is not over blended so you can taste the banana in the bread. You wonder if you don't have to mash banana because you like to see banana trunks. My advice is that if you don't mash the banana to a good degree, the bread will be too loose when you cut it. The third trick is that the creamy form of the dough has to be there. Your bread will taste better if you mix the dough enough time. The 6 min make a difference.

Crêpe

Cook well, eat well. You can feel the power of eating well inside you. Seriously. I modified the crêpe recipe, you can find the original one in previous posts, and the result was gorgeous. Thinner and lighter. This is good if you want to have a light dessert.

2 egg white and 1 egg
400 ml milk
1 cup flour
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons rum
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar

1. Mix all ingredients in a big bowl well with low speed
2. Let the dough stand for hours before cooking
3. Put some oil on a flat pan and use napkin to even out the oil
4. One scoop of dough one time
5. Cook both sides to golden brown

Popovers

This baking is entertaining. It's dramatic. You will like it.

Ingredients for 12 muffin size ones:
- 2 eggs and 2 egg white
- 1 1/4 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation:
- Use mixer to blend eggs, milk, oil, flour, sugar, and salt, careful not to over blend ingredients
- You can add more sugar if you like sweet taste
- Preheat oven to 425
- Oil the muffin pan
- Fill each cup half full with the dough in the pan
- Put the muffin pan to preheated oven for 8 to 10 min

Tip them and remove them from the pan immediately. Serve hot. A fun desert :)

Apple clafoutis

It's always fun to make desert. This time I felt more, more than just fun, more than just excited, I felt nervous because of a good friend, she is super good at desert making, she taught me how to make desert and gave me good know how, is going to come. The feel is like that a pupil is going to present something to his teacher and nervous about if he will get a smile from his teacher. Oh I'd better to have a good result on desert :p
I got more than a smile. I think this recipe is very good, if you want to have a light desert that will earn many compliments, this is it!

For the batter:
- 4 egg white and 2 yolks
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup milk

For the filling:
- 2 apples and 1 pear
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 3 tablespoon rum

Cooking:
- put the ingredients for batter in a big bowl butter needs to be melted before putting into the bowl
- use the mixer to beat the batter for 5 min
- peel apples and pear
- remove the apple cores and pear core
- dice the apples and pear
- put 2 tablespoon butter in a skillet and melt it with medium heat
- put the diced apples and pear in
- put 1/3 cup sugar in
- put 3 tablespoon rum in
- stir the ingredients in the skillet well and wait 5 min until the cubes are warm and coated with sugar and rum
- preheat the oven to 400 degree
- put the pan to the oven and heat it for 4 min once the oven is ready
- take the pan out and put parchment paper in
- pour half amount batter in
- pour the coated cubes in
- be careful not to put juice from the skillet in
- pour the second half batter in to cover the cubes coarsely
- put the fully loaded pan to the oven
- bake 40 min

I always like to mix apples and pears. Pears are juicy. With pear the desert will be more favorable.

Cherry clafoutis

"Smell good! Look great! It's going to be a success!" I said to myself while waiting.

Last week I made a cherry clafoutis. I love fruits inside pastry. The natural flavor from fruits is always impeccable. The taste is ten times more unforgettable than artificial flavor. I found a recipe and modified it a bit and I got a very impressive result, so I'd like to share it with you.

Ingredients
- One bl. fresh cherry
- Two large eggs and two extra yolks
- Six tablespoon flour
- One-third cup sugar
- One-fourth teaspoon salt
- One tablespoon vanilla extract
- Two-third package of cream cheese (from Trader Joe's)
- Some orange zest

The fun!
- Mix eggs, yolks, one-sixth cup sugar, and salt in a big bowl
- Use the highest speed to mix the ingredients well for eight minutes, the mix should look puffy after the beating
- Add flour, vanilla, and cream to the bowl
- Reduce the speed to medium and beat the mix to well blended
- Take a small bowl and put cherry, one-sixth cup sugar and zest in
- Use hands to well mix the above ingredients in the small bowl
- Preheat the oven to 375 degree
- Put the baking pan in the oven and heat it for 4 minutes once the oven is preheated
- Apply some PAM to the pan
- Put the cherry mix from the small bowl to the baking pan
- Pour the mix from the big bowl in to cover the cherry
- Put the pan in the oven
- Bake 35 minutes

The clafoutis is delicious and light. Your will love it!

Thanksgiving recipe III

A hot soup is always a brilliant idea for cold weather. I have longed for having a good carrot soup for years. Well, a comparable one to my memory. I had a very good carrot soup three years ago in France. Since then, I have been looking for a good one. Perhaps, I can make a good one. I told myself. It could be a good idea, perhaps. I looked for it online and found this recipe. In my memory, the soup has a ginger flavor. Not sure if I tasted any leek flavor. Hesitant to replace the leeks with ginger cubes. Well how about keep the way it is at this time?

What we used for 6 people
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 6 carrots
- 2 leeks
- 2 cup2 chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 3 egg yolks

What we did
- peeled carrots and sliced them
- cleaned leeks and sliced them
- used the food processor to finely chopped sliced carrots and sliced leeks
- melted the butter in a pot
- put carrots and leeks in and raised the heat to medium
- cooked about 10 min
- put chicken broth, salt, and pepper in
- brought the mix to a boil and simmered it for 30 min or until the carrots become soft
- mixed the heavy cream and egg yolks and put the mix in
- cooked about 2 min
- tasted the soup
- used the blender to smooth the soup

The result looked perfect. Of course, the soup was tasty. A not heavy soup goes well with a good dinner. It warms people's hearts and bodies.

Thanksgiving recipe II

I have thought to try the spring roll for weeks. The freshness of the spring roll shall please stomachs for the Thanksgiving dinner. This little appetizer turned out well and proved itself as a good complement to a heavy dinner.

What I used
- A package of rice vermicelli
- A package of rice wrappers
- 12 big prawn
- Several fresh basil (not chopped and a nice shape basil made the spring roll look delicious)
- Several fresh mint (not chopped and a good shape mint was another essential element of a nice looking spring roll)
- 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce (Dip I)
- Finely chopped peanuts (Dip I)
- 4 teaspoons fish sauce (Dip II)
- 1/4 cup water (Dip II)
- 1 clove minced garlic (Dip II)
- 2 tablespoons white sugar (Dip II)

What I did
- Boiled rice vermicelli 3 to 5 minutes
- Drained the vermicelli
- Boiled the prawn
- Peeled the prawn and cut in half
- Put some warm water in a big plate
- Dipped one wrapper into the water for 10 seconds to soften
- Transported the softened wrapper to another dry plate and laid it flat
- Put three half prawn, skin outside, in the center
- Put three big basil leaves on top of the prawn, one per prawn
- Put some mint leaves on top of the basil leaves
- Put some vermicelli
- Folded the wrapper starting from the bottom, then sides, then the top
- Turned the finished spring roll to ensure the prawns are on top (look better)
- In a medium bowl, mixed all ingredients for Dip I
- In a medium bowl, mixed all ingredients for Dip II

I made the first one and then had my guests to make the rest. It was fun to make spring rolls. The hard part of this recipe was to prepare all the ingredients. The doing part was not hard at all and fun. The doing part created many interactions among guests. The amazing part was that no matter how the spring roll looks, it always tastes good.

Thanksgiving recipe I

First and foremost, I wanna share my turkey recipe. I modified the online recipe. The outcome was - a pure awesomeness. The turkey was not dry at all. Juicy and tender. The skin was crispy. Although the preparation took time and efforts, I was quite happy to cook that 17 - 18 bl turkey, especially when I saw smiles from my guests.

What I used
- A fresh turkey
- A chopped carrot
- 2/3 bottle of lemon juice
- A chopped yellow onion
- A package of fresh rosemary
- Several bunches of fresh mint
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil

What I did
- Cleaned the turkey especially the cavities and arm bits, dried it inside and outside with napkins
- Inject the lemon juice into the cavities
- Let the turkey sit for 5 min
- Applied the salt and pepper both inside and outside
- Let the turkey sit for 5 min
- Applied the olive ail to the outside, massage the turkey at the same time
- Preheat the oven to 400
- Adjusted the turkey and ensured the turkey was breast down
- Sprinkled salt and pepper generously
- Opened the bottom cavity and put carrot, onion, rosemary, and mint in
- Opened the top cavity and put rosemary and mint in
- Used the turkey's neck skin to close the top cavity
- Casually put the rest of the rosemary and mint around the turkey (e.g., around the thighs, wings, arm bits)
- Put the turkey inside the oven
- Cooked for 2 hours (no heat reduction)

The turkey looked super gorgeous after 2 hours baking. The skin was crispy. The smell was nice and not overwhelming. I was worried if I put too much rosemary and mint. Not at all, I think the amount was just right. The meat was unbelievable. Guests told me that this turkey was by far the most juicy one. I was flattered. Thanks to this online recipe I was able to have a perfect turkey debut!

Steam

Light and healthy food is always welcome. I love steamed fish. My mom has a nice steamed fish recipe and her steamed fish is one of my favorites. I have thought about cooking a steamed fish and yet, due to many reasons, I and a home-cooked steamed fish had not bumped into each other in my kitchen until recently. Weeks ago, I just couldn't wait any more. I overcame the most terrified obstacle to the steamed fish cooking - a steamer. I am a practical person and like a simple kitchen. I don't like buying a big collection of plates, cookware, bake ware, or a knife set. A steamer is not a necessity. So I was so struggling - should I get a steamer or should I wait? The truth was that I decided to get it. This big pot looks somehow professional. I have a good expectation for it. Got a 1.3 bl fish fillet. Yay, pretty happy and just wanted to rush home.

My memory is not too good these days. The specific amount in my mom's recipe quite fades away in my mind. Went to Google. Google has become my friend ever since I moved in. Whenever I have a question, Google it. The following is what I did. Of course I modified much from others' recipes. You know, mom's recipe is always unique.

1. 1.3 bl fresh fillet
2. 8 sliced ginger
3. A handful chopped garlic
4. 1/4 cup soy sauce
5. 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
6. 1/2 teaspoon sugar
7. 2 tablespoons Chinese wine (nice to have)

It was my first time to use the steamer. The time measurement could not be optimal. So I will not list how long I cooked it this time. Luckily the steamer's cover has a see through window. I didn't have any Chinese wine with me when I cooked. I realized the wine part is essential. Without the wine, the fish smelled a bit fishy during the cooking. So I put more ginger and vinegar. Good thing was that the end product was not fishy at all. A good texture and taste fish. So delicious.

Time to reward

Reward? Yes, reward my tummy. I changed. From a no-cooking me to a cooking-is-fun me. I got a training from my sister-in-law. She lived in Shanghai for some years and at those times a mama-san prepared this dish for her. She liked it a lot and asked the mama-san how to do it. Since then this dish has become her signature dish (she has many). The dish is so tasty so I asked her to teach me. The teaching was interesting and yet frustrating. Not only due to my poor cooking skills, the non-specified amount for each ingredient also complicates the teaching. I did my diligence and was so looking forward to practe. The first try was successful. I have tried this recipe twice with modifications and both results were super yummy.

What is needed
- Rice cakes: 1/2 package
- Cabbage: 1/2
- Pork: 1/2 lb
- Mushroom: 1/2 cup
- Carrot: 3
- Green onion: 2
- Rice wine: 2 tablespoon
- White pepper: 3 tablespoon
- Soy sauce: 2 tablespoon
- Oyster sauce: 2 tablespoon
- Corn starch: 1 teaspoon
- Oil: 2 tablespoon

On the show
- Cut cabbage, pork, mushroom, carrot to long and narrow pieces
- Marinate cut pork with the rice wine, corn starch, and soy sauce for 5 min
- Heat a big pan and add the oil in
- Cook the mushroom till it becomes golden brown
- Put carrot in
- Put cabbage in
- Put pork in
- Add 1 tablespoon white pepper
- Put green onion in
- Put rice cakes in
- Add 2 tablespoon white pepper
- Cook until the rice cakes become soft
- Add water if rice cakes resist to becoming soft after 2 min
- Add oyster sauce in the mix
- Turn off the heat after 30 sec

Then here is the easy and yet delicious dish. The portion above are for 4 people

Chicken drumsticks for BBQ

My recipe! I somehow wanted to try chicken BBQ. Grilled chicken is always tender. However, sometimes it is a bit plain. So, chicken somehow is in secondary position of the BBQ cast. I wanted to level up chicken so I spent some time on researching know-how. And here comes one. I tried this recipe and my guests like it.

Marinate:
- 3 garlic gloves
- 1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
- 1/2 cup hickory sauce
- 1/2 cup ketch up
- 2 tablespoon olive oil

Place chicken drumsticks in a gallon bag. Then pour sauce inside. Seal the bag. Make sure all drumsticks are covered with sauce. Marinate time can be over night or just a few hours.

A lamb chop recipe

Lamb is tricky. You want to taste lamb's special flavor but not the unwelcome one. Before we tried to cook lamb rack. But lamb chop is the first time. When Totof proposed to have lamb chops at BBQ, I was quite skeptical. Lamb chop? What if the odds are against us and all guests are going to hate us? On the other hand, I was quite curious. Why not, just be brave. He told me the recipe was from a coworker. HP had a work BBQ and his Russian coworker brought marinated lamb chops to the BBQ. According to Totof, the chops were a hit. All right, I felt more confident. Just show me the monkey.

Ingredients:
- 5 ~ 7 tablespoon teriyaki sauce
- 4 tablespoon hickory sauce
- 1 tablespoon non-salt seasoning
- 1 tablespoon olive oil

You try the spell

Petite raspberry tarts

Free time, baking time

To make things clear, I need to say it first. I am not a cooking person.

But, this holiday season, I have spent many times in the kitchen. Abnormal. Guess it is due to the holiday atmosphere.

I just made some petite raspberry tarts. Why petite? Because they are easy to be eaten :p Trust me, it is harder to make petite raspberry tarts than normal size raspberry tarts. I followed the same recipe which you can find it here. I am going to indulge myself with some.

No-name chicken recipe

Look at my freezer and got me made this bold decision

The holiday atmosphere kind drives me nuts. I looked around and checked what was inside my freezer. I saw some chicken pieces. For some unknown reasons, I decided to cook them. I was thinking to follow Navaline's recipe. Navaline is a good cook but I am not. Oh, what was in my mind? It must be due to the holiday atmosphere.

The first time I had this chicken dish was in Navaline's. Navaline told us she used to have this dish when she was little. She saw her mom prepared the chicken, cut the fat out, chopped the lemongrass and garlic, and prepared the sauce. Navaline told Totof and me that this recipe was simple.

What you need just four ingredients.

- chicken thighs (the big one)
- some lemongrass
- some garlic
- some soy sauce

For the cooking, only oven and an oven friendly cookware are needed. The cooking has two steps. First step: cook the chicken alone for 45 min. Second step: cook the almost-good chicken with the rest ingredients for 15 min. After the cooking, just cool the chicken down to make sure these chicken pieces will not burn your guests' tongues.

Oh, sounds like a wonderful recipe. So, around one month ago, Totof and I tried to reproduce this recipe. But, we replaced lemongrass with ginger. (we could not find lemongrass in Safeway at that time) We also got a fancy blender :p for the chopping purpose. We got everything ready. Baked, chopped, and baked. The first attempt was not bad. The only drawback was that we baked too many chicken pieces. The fresh chicken pieces were tasty (although the skin was burned...) When the chicken became leftover, the tasty level dropped crazily.

My time to try. For this holiday season, I have tried twice. My first attempt was not for a feast. So, I just put the all available chicken pieces I had (2 pieces). I did not have blender at home. So, what I did was just to chop ginger and garlic with knife. The result was interesting. Lots of liquid. I guess the juice was from the chicken thighs. Still tasty. But just quite oily. I guess my chickens were quite fatty.

My second attempt was with a much better result. I changed the main characters from chicken thighs to drumsticks. I got some peeled garlic. Nice. I prepared all stuff in Totof's. So, I had the fancy blender at hand. Cool. By all means I used the blender to help me. After an hour, the dish was ready. Wow, the skin looked so crispy but not burned. The smell was good. Not much juice. My chickens this time were not soaked in oily juice. Good job. I could not wait to try it. Oh, I was amazed by myself. I was not a bad cook this time.

Onion soup - my try

So simple... but

Guess some people were born to be chef de cuisine. Me? I dare not.

Three days ago, I was having a thought of treating myself with a nice soup. The weather was cold. My body was grumpy a bit. A hearty soup was quite favorable in that condition.

I looked around and decided to make some onion soup. I went to the previous post to see how Totof did it. In addition, I tried to recall everything Totof did when he made the soup. I mimicked as much as I could. I chopped onions (I had done this before so the chopping was a piece of cake.) But, the cooking part was not. I put butter and melted it. Then, I put all onion slices inside the pressure cooker. I thought in this case the oil spill would be less and the cooking would be less intimidating. The start was fine. I checked the recipe and it said the onions need 20 min slow cooking. 20 min. I decided to play a song in this waiting time. I went to the living room and chose my new favorite song - Welcome Home.

After the song, I went back to the kitchen. Oh no. The onions became blackish. Not all of them, but the bottom part did. There was no time for me to blame myself. I turned off the stove. Got all onions out. Then soak the pot. After 5 min, I cleaned the pot gently. Then, continued the cooking. I poured the chicken broth (organic one, nice) with the blackish onions into the cooker. I turned on the heat and wanted to bring the cooker to boil. The cooker did not fail me. It functioned well. I put the 1/4 teaspoon grounded pepper. And, put the lid on. Turned the switch to 2 and locked the cooker.

Forgot to say something. I reduced all the ingredient quantity. I was cooking for myself. So, I did not think reproducing the soup with all the same quantity would be a good idea. Too much for one person. So, I cut all quantity into half. I put 3 onions, 2 tablespoon butter, 3 cup chicken broth, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. For the cooking time, I still followed the recipe. Put the switch to 2 and cooked the cooker for 15 min.

After another song (Highway Star, perhaps), I went back to release the pressure cooker pressure. I was not too good at pressure cooker. I was a bit lost in releasing the pressure part. How come it looked so easy for Totof to do it but not the same case for me? I turned this and switched that. After another 5 min, I did not hear any loud pressure releasing sound. I assumed the cooker was ready. I used a fork to poke the yellow button. It looked good. Safe. I unlocked the cooker. Oh, the soup looked good (not the most gorgeous soup I had ever seen).

I waited for another 5 min so that the soup would not burn my tongue. The soup tasted not bad. I put some salt. It was even better. But, I preferred Totof's version :p

Raspberry tart

It becomes a signature dessert

Holiday season, good food season. If you want to have some fresh and delicious dessert after a rich dinner, fruit tart can be a good way to indulge yourself .

For crust:
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup sugar

- 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- 2 tablespoons cold water

For filling cream

- 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

- 1/4 cup sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla

- 1 large egg, beaten lightly

- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

For dashing jelly

- 1/4 cup seedless raspberry jam

- 1 tablespoon water

For raspberry on top

- 2 packages raspberries

Take a bowl for the dough. Make sure all ingredients are well blended. Then, make the dough a ball and wrap the ball by plastic wrap. Put the wrapped ball in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degree. Take the dough out after 1 hour. Use the dough to make the crust. You can use imagination here to have a nicely done crust (e.g., fold, pattern).

Put the crust into oven and bake it for 30 min. In the meantime, you can prepare the filling. Mix the filling nicely. Then, pour the filling to the cooked crust. Then, put the crust back to the oven and continue to bake it for 20 min.

You can prepare the dashing jelly and raspberry when the crust is baking. I don't like my tart too sweet. So, I will deliberately reduce the sugar amount a bit. If you are a sugar person, you can increase the sugar amount from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup. The result will still be fantastic.

I like this tart recipe very much. It becomes my signature.

Grilled chicken apple sausage

This is my favorite brunch dish in Cafe Brioche

At a Friday night, I suggested to cook something light. I said how about trying the grilled chicken apple sausage dish from Cafe Brioche? Totof and I like this dish. I order it almost every time when I have a brunch at Cafe Brioche. This dish is tasty. When it is served, you can smell something really good. This dish always comes with a slice of brioche. The brioche (see the photo) balances the dish well.

Totof said why not. So we took off for ingredients. We shopped based on our memory. We took a bag of apple chicken sausage. The small package. A red bell pepper. Some baby Spinach.

Ingredients

1. Chicken apple sausage

2. A onion

3. A bell pepper (yellow or red)

4. Baby Spinach (for 2 people)

5. Heavy cream

6. Unsalted butter

7. Bread (brioche will be the best)

We did not have a grill pan. We used a normal pan instead. Chef Totof sliced a medium size onion and chop a half of the red bell pepper. He put a tablespoon butter in the pan. Put onion slices and bell pepper slices in the pan. Cooked until golden brown. Then took them out.

The second step was to cook chicken apple sausage. This one took some time. Around 15 min. Put onion and bell pepper slices back when the sausage was half cooked. Then cut each sausage into 2. The sausage juice gave onions and bell peppers another flavor.

When the sausage was almost ready, got another pan out. This pan was for Spinach. Sliced some butter. Put the Spinach. Spinach took 2 min to cook. When the Spinach was half ready, poured 3 tablespoons heavy cream on top of the Spinach.

I sliced the bread and put the bread on the side.

When Chef Totof was done with cooking, we placed everything. The chicken apple sausage on the left, the cream Spinach on the right. The smell was just like what we remembered. It turned out this dish was as great as that from Cafe Brioche.

The preparation and cooking time was less than 30 min. The outcome was delicious.

Onion soup

So simple so healthy

Around a year ago, for some reasons, pressure cooker was mentioned. After a while, Totof told me he purchased a pressure cooker online.

We were excited when we received it. We wanted to try something with it. Luckily, this pressure cooker came with a recipe book. We read through it. Da la la. I wanted to try onion soup. The ingredient list looked simple. The preparation and cooking time looked reasonable. Ok. That was it. We went to Safeway to get all the necessary.

So excited. We were like two excited kids. We wanted to try our new toy.

Chef Totof chopped 5 medium onions. Put a tablespoon butter in a fried pan. The fun began. The recipe book said all onions needed to be cooked to golden brown (another golden brown. why golden brown is so popular in recipe books?) We followed the instruction and cooked onions around 20 min. Then, we moved all onions to our new toy - pressure cooker. On top of onions, we poured 6 cup chicken broth. We used high end chicken broth... Not because we were rich... Just because we purchased six packages organic chicken broth a week ago. We put pinch grind pepper inside. These were all we needed. Then we covered the cooker and locked it.

We used the second choice. This pressure cooker had 2 choices: 1 and 2. 1 took more time and 2 took less time. Of course we were eager to see the results. So, we agreed to use 2. The recipe book said it took 15 min to cook onion soup.

15 min waiting time. Not bad. So we turned on projector. Maybe we were playing Guitar Hero. Maybe we were watching an episode of something. Bang. The cook time alarmed went off. We went to kitchen. We heard the pressure cooker's si si sound. Please imagine the si si sound. Chef Totof turned to Physicist Totof. Physicist Totof said the si si sound was an indicator of the pressure cooker's condition. When a pressure cooker had a si si sound, it meant the pressure was about the threshold. You needed to release the pressure before you opened the lid. Otherwise you would be hurt by the high pressure.

I half believed half doubted Physicist Totof. But it did not matter. As long as the soup was tasty, I would not mind his bullshitting if he made up this explanation.

Physicist Totof released the pressure. The si si sound turned up to super si si sound. So loud. We needed to cover our ears when we were there. If you let yourself expose to this super si si sound for 30 min, you would turn to a deaf.

After the pressure were gone, Chef Totof unlocked the cooker. The smell was fantastic. The smell proved that our soup was successful. Was it? We setup the table and scooped some soup. The recipe said we needed Parmesan cheese. We did not have it. So we put some Mozzarella. We needed some couton. Safeway did not have it but it had some crispy Italian bread. Good enough. We got some. We took the bread package and opened it. We put one in each bowl. The soup was ready. Mission completed.

We could not wait any longer. We tasted. Oh la la. The soup was absolutely a hit.

So simple so healthy so delicious.