Blurred Vision (Blurred Lines Optometry Parody)

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Tiramisu Cake

Hey everyone! So for this past mother's day, I made my mom a tiramisu cake :) It's one of her favorite desserts and what's better than a homemade version of one of her all time favorite desserts =] This cake was a pretty bit hit I would say. My family basically finished ALL of the cake except for one last slice. I'm still amazed by that because this is a pretty rich dish. 

Now, there are several ways to assemble the tiramisu. I've actually already posted the recipe a few weeks ago. It's the same recipe as the one in the past, but this version is MUCH more presentable!  

Use a 9 inch spingform pan and soak the lady fingers to make the first layer. Leave an inch or so away from the edge so that you can line up the ladyfingers around the pan. After making the first layer, line up the ladyfingers without soaking them around the pan. (I used half a lady finger for the border, but you can use the whole lady finger if you want). Brush some espresso onto it with a pastry brush. Put a generous amount of marscapone cheese on the first layer and make sure that it's touching the lady fingers on the side so that it is well stabilized. Sprinkle on some cocoa powder and proceed with the next layer. 

On the top of the cake, I did something a bit different by putting on top some chocolate shaving. To get this chocolate shaving/curled look, just get a nice thick block of chocolate and use a vegetable peeler to peel the chocolate. This is done better on a thicker block of chocolate. 

Leave it in the fridge over night with the springform pan around it. When ready to serve, take off the rim and tie it with a bowtie :)

Happy Mother's day! 

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

(First version)

Japanese Strawberry Shortcakes are so light and fluffy and delicious! They are quite different from the shortcakes sold in American bakeries. Japanese short cake is sponge cake based while American short cake is more so vanilla cake or white cake based. The cream on Japanese short cake is also much more light and fluffy. The American shortcakes use whipped cream or butter cream. Either way, their cream is a bit more dense and buttery. So, in the end, it's really whether you prefer light fluffy cakes or dense rich cakes. I personally prefer fluffy cakes with the nice light yet sweet whipped cream. 

I've made this cake 3 times with some variations in each recipe. I just wanted to test out the differences and see which version produced the best results. The 2nd time I made was the BEST. It's the one I made for my boyfriend's birthday (perhaps it tasted good because I added a bit of "love" in it hahah)  

(Second version -- Best!! ^_^ )

(Birthday boy! Make a wish!)

This recipe is adapted from Cooking with the dog. I'm in love with her videos! She is an excellent cook and provides authentic Japanese recipes. Please check her out and subscribe to her :) You won't be disappointed!

First, if you want your sponge cake to rise nice and high like the one shown in cooking with the dog's video, you need use convection oven with a fan. A convection oven with a fan produces very different results from a regular oven. I needed to double her recipe in order to make my cake similar in height to hers. Her cake was still a bit taller than mine, but I think the height I made this time was actually perfect. 

The cake pan I used was also larger than hers. Mine was a 9 inch springform pan while hers was a 7 inch cake pan. 

If you have a convection oven, please reduce the ingredients of the sponge cake portion of the recipe by half. Also, if you can, use a 7 inch or 8 inch pan. It will probably give you better height results. 

Ingredients:

Sponge Cake:

• 6 eggs 
• 200 g sugar 
• 180 g cake flour 
• 30 g unsalted butter 
• 1 tbs milk

Syrup:

• 2 tbsp sugar 
• 3 tbsp hot water 
• 1 tbsp Kirsch or Rum (optional)

Toppings:

• 500 whipping cream 
• 3 tbsp + 2 tsp sugar (~4 tbsp)
• a box of strawberries (~1lb) 

Sponge Cake:

1. Preheat the oven to 320 F or 160 C
2. Using a hand mixer, beat 6 eggs in a bowl until well beaten. Add 200 g of sugar and beat until well combined.
3. Put the bowl of of beaten eggs and sugar over a saucepan of hot water. (This is to dissolve the sugar in the eggs) Beat the mixture on high over the hot water sauce pan until the egg mixture comes to at least room temperature. The color of the mixture should start to be a pale yellow color with a thicker consistency.  
4. After the egg mixture has raised to a warm temperature, remove from hot water bath and continue beating with hand mixer until the batter forms a rippling pattern. 
• Test to see if the batter is ready by lifting the mixer and seeing if the batter drips down in a slow ribbon-like pattern that doesn't disappear too quickly. If the pattern disappears within 1-2 seconds, the batter is still too liquidy. Beat on high some more. This could take 10-15 minutes. 
5.  Meanwhile, as you beat the egg and sugar mixture until its consistency is right, put combine the butter and milk in a small bowl and place it into the saucepan with the hot water. Allow the butter and milk to melt.
6. When the batter is ready, use a whisk to beat the mixture and make sure the batter from the bottom and sides are mixed in evenly. 
7. Shift in the cake flour and use a spatula to fold the mixture GENTLY about 30 times or until well combined. Scoop from the bottom and let the batter fall gently back down.
8. Pour the melted butter and milk into the batter over the spatula. Fold gently about 50 times or until the batter is thick and glossy. Try not to break the foam or overbeat the mixture!
9. Pour the batter into a 9 inch springform pan and give it a few drops on the counter to release the air bubbles. 
10. Put the cake pan into the preheated oven and back for about 23 minutes. Check if the cake is ready by sticking a chopstick/bamboo stick and see if it's still runny inside. 
11. When it is done, get a piece of parchment paper. Put it over the pan and flip the pan upside down and let it cool on the wire rack with the parchment paper. Let the pan remain over the cake and let the cake cool in the pan upside down in order to retain its moisture.  it must be completely cool before you start frosting and assembling the strawberries!

Syrup:

1. Dissolve the sugar in hot water and stir it around with a pastry brush. Set aside to cool. 

Frosting:

1. Cut strawberries in half or 1/2 inch pieces. Pick a few good strawberries to keep it whole.  This is completely up to you. You can choose how to decorate the cake with strawberries, but the half sliced strawberries will go into between the layers. 
2. Pour the whipping cream and sugar into a bowl. Put the bowl over an ice water bath or chill the bowl before combining the whipping cream and sugar. This will make it easier to whip the cream. Try and whip this with a whisk instead of a handmixer. It only takes about 5 minutes or so and it will prevent the cream from becoming over whipped. You want a soft peak consistency. Not stiff peak. You want there to be a peak that forms when you lift the whisk up, but not so stiff. 

Assembly:

I hope you guys have a cake turntable and a nice icing spatula. I unfortunately do not so my cake decorations are not exactly up to par. It would be a lot easier to put the cake on the cake turntable and rotate it as you slice the cake in half and put whipped cream on it.

1. Make a mark around the cake at the half way point of the height. You're going to slice the cake in half with a serrated knife across the cake. The mark you make on the side will help give you a guide when slicing the cake.
2. Put the top half of the cake upside down so that the inside of the cake is shown. Put some syrup on the 2 cakes with a pastry brush
3. Add a generous amount of cream onto the bottom half. Spread it evenly with an icing spatula. Put the half cut strawberries onto the cake. Add another generous amount of cream on top of that until it covers the strawberries. 
4. Put the top half of the cake back on top and cover the whole cake with the left over whipped cream.
5. Assemble the strawberries on top however you like. 

Ta-da!! 

This recipe really isn't that difficult once you make it a couple times. Please check out cooking with the dog's video for a 7 inch cake pan and use of convection oven. This recipe is intended for those who use 9 inch cake pan and regular oven! Convection oven will allow your cake to rise much higher so you won't be needing to double the recipe. 

Linguine with White Clam Sauce

After watching cooking videos on how to make white clam sauce linguine and tasting my roommate's version, I just knew I had to make my own! This dish is flavorful in its own way in that it's doesn't have a powerful seasoned taste to it but more of a subtle seafood taste. Some people don't like the subtlety of its taste, so they would add lots of other herbs and seasoning to it. However, others like the natural flavor of clam and white wine sauce. Today, I tried to cook it the most basic way without experimenting with too many flavors since this was my first time. I've gotta say... not too bad :) The boyfriend loved it and we had a nice spinach salad with some mozzarella, cheese, walnuts, and balsamic vinegar made by him =] (very proud of him) and of course, had a a glass of that white wine that we use in the clam sauce. 

This recipe is adapted from Anne Burrell. I cut the serving size to 2. I combined the techniques that I observed from watching cooking videos along with this recipe to make this dish.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound linguine
• 25 fresh live clams (little neck clams)
• about 3/4 cup dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc, or Pinot Grigo)
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 tbs of butter
• salt
• red pepper flakes
• extra virgin olive oil
• mesh strainer
• coffee sieve paper 

Protocol:

1. Soak the clams in cold water for at least 30 minutes, the longer the better. You want the sand to collect at the bottom. Scrub them really well under running cold water. 
• If you have a stiff brush, use that. I didn't, so I had to scrub 2 clams against each other. After you scrub them, make sure they are dried off as much as possible!
• No matter how much you scrub these clams, they will always have some sand. I scrubbed them about 3-4 times and every time the water gets cloudy, meaning there's sand. I'll show you the technique later that avoids letting the sand get in. 
2. Chop up 3 cloves of garlic and mince 3 cloves of garlic. (You can actually use a many cloves of garlic as you want.) Set them aside. 
3. Coat a medium sauce pan with extra virgin olive oil. Sautee the chopped garlic cloves in the oil until they are brown. Discard the garlic cloves. 
• We want the garlic flavor to infuse into the oil, not eat them. Add red pepper flakes. 
4. Put in about 10 clams into the sauce pan and pour about a cup of white wine into the pan. If there's not enough liquid, add some water. Cover the pan with a lid and steam them until the clams open up. (5-10 minutes)
5. Take the clams out. Set them aside. 
6. Prepare a bowl with a mesh strainer resting over it. Place a coffee sieve paper on the mesh strainer and strain the clam juice from the sauce pan. Save the clam juice and set it aside.
• Do it as many times if not all of the liquid goes through the first time. The clam juice in the bowl will be pretty much clear, which is what you want. 
7. Again, coat the same sauce pan with olive oil and toss in the MINCED garlic. 
• This time, we will only sautee them until they are lightly brown. We're not tossing them away. 
8. Place the rest of the 15 clams into the pan and add the clam juice into the sauce pan. Cover lid and steam until they open up. (5-10 minutes)
9. Meanwhile, boil your linguine in a pot for about 8-9 minutes or until they're al-dente. 
• Salt lightly the boiling water since the clam juice is quite salty and it's easier to put in salt than take out salt. 
10. After the clams open up, take them out and wait for them to cool to deshell the clams. 
11. Add the deshelled clams back into the sauce pan and add about a table spoon of butter to thicken up the sauce. 
12. strain the pasta when it's done and toss it in with the clams and its juice! 
13. Add some olive oil if you like it to be more thick or rich. Add some salt and pepper to taste.
14. Add the rest of the clams that are still in their shells into the pasta and garnish with them
15. If you want the sauce to be more thick, let it sit in the pan for a while longer or add some parmigiano regianno. I didn't have any cheese on hand, so I had to skip this step, but the butter seemed to thicken the sauce up quite a lot after a while! 

After the sauce got absorbed into the linguine, you can taste that all the clam juice and seafood flavor is in that pasta. It tastes like the sea! 

Few tips:

• you don't need to have some of the clams deshelled and others shelled. You can leave them all shelled and boil them at the same time if that makes life easier. That was for garnishing. 
• Boil the clams with beer next time. My roommate did that and my boyfriend and I found that the clams were much more flavorful than the way these were steamed. I would do that next time and maybe add the white wine later in the sauce. 
• Get a stiff brush to scrub those clams!! It would make things a lot easier :(
• Add more garlic and pepper and other flavorings if needed. Add parsley, or oregano. 
• Add some grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese. I know there's the thing: no cheese and seafood! doesn't work! Well, from the recipe I showed you, Anne Burrell did and so did many others. I think cheese with anything tastes great. If I had shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese I would've used it. It would've been a great way to thicken up the sauce and bring more flavor to the dish. 

On the side, my sous-chef boyfriend made the salad: 

 It was very simple: just some fresh spinach, 1 cut up strawberry, a few diced up mozzarella cheese and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. 

We paired our dinner with some nice white wine that was used for our clam sauce and had a lovely dinner date :) 

Enjoy the recipe! Good luck in the kitchen! 

Eton Mess

I came across this recipe from Laura in the Kitchen and decided to give this a try. After doing some research on this dessert, I realize it's a traditional English dessert. Pretty cool... thought it'd be nice to try something new. The presentation of this desert looks absolutely delicious. This taste is quite refreshing and I think it would be excellent on a spring or summer day :)

This recipe isn't complicated at all. Although I've never tried this before, it's pretty much just heavy whipping cream, strawberries, and meringues. I'm not a big fan of meringues to be honest. I think they're just too sugary and not tasty alone, but since my boyfriend loves meringues and strawberries, I decided to give this recipe a try.


Ingredients:

• Orange (for zest and orange juice)
• 1 cup of heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
  1 to 2 Tbsp of Confectioner Sugar
  1 ½ cups of Chopped Strawberries
  2 Tbsp of Granulated Sugar
  1 Tbsp of Balsamic Vinegar
  2 Tbsp of Fresh Orange Juice
  1 tsp of Fresh Orange Zest
  About 8 Meringues - See more at: http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/all/episode.php?episodenumber=530#sthash.BbFAPrp8.dpuf
   1-2 Tbs of confectioner's sugar
• 1 pound of strawberries
• 2 Tbs of granulated sugar
• 1 Tbs of balsamic vingear    
• 6 medium sized meringues or 8-10 small meringues

Procedure:

es - See more at: http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/all/episode.php?episodenumber=530#sthash.BbFAPrp8.dpuf

1 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
1 to 2 Tbsp of Confectioner Sugar
1 ½ cups of Chopped Strawberries
2 Tbsp of Granulated Sugar
1 Tbsp of Balsamic Vinegar
2 Tbsp of Fresh Orange Juice
1 tsp of Fresh Orange Zest
About 8 Meringues - See more at: http://www.laurainthekitchen.com/all/episode.php?episodenumber=530#sthash.BbFAPrp8.dpuf

1. Wash and dice up about a pound of fresh strawberries. (More or less of the strawberries really doesn't matter) Put them into a bowl and add 2 Tbs of granulated sugar
2. In a stainless steel bowl, pour the cold heavy whipping cream in.
3. With a grater, zest a good amount of orange skin into the heavy whipping cream bowl
4. Slice the orange in half and squeeze the juice out of both half into the strawberry bowl. Mix well and set aside
5. Beat the heavy whipping cream until it forms stiff peaks. The original recipe tells you to whip them until they are soft peaks. I made them with soft peaks and feel that they would've been much better if the peaks were a bit stiffer. Add about 2 Tbs of confectioner's sugar along the way.
6. Pour about half of the strawberry mixture into the whipping cream mixture. Fold it together delicately.
7. Crush about 6-10 meringues with your fingers into the whipping cream mixture. You can put as much or as little as you'd like. If you want it more crunchy, put more in. If you want it less crunchy, put less in. 

Assembly:  

In a trifle cup, put some heavy whipping cream mixture in. Top it with the fresh strawberries left over from before and crush a few more meringues on top of everything. 

This is a very simple and quick recipe. I know for some, this recipe is to die for. You can't really go wrong with whipped cream, strawberries and a little crunch from the meringues. In my honest opinion, this was a nice dessert but wasn't anything striking to me. This was fun for me to make ;) I would probably make this again during the summer time for guests. 

Tiramisu

I did a ton of research on how to make Tiramisu. I've made Tiramisu twice... this is my second time. the first time I made it was for my mom's birthday and it was okay. She was happy with it, but I wasn't too satisfied. I used the same recipe again this time, but made sure to beat the egg whites much more until they were stiff. Also, I added a little something else to the original recipe to give the custard some more volume and thickness.

I used the recipe from Giallo zafferano. Here's her video. I watched it a couple times, but for some reason, my egg whites NEVER get as puffy and voluminous as hers does in the video. I find it impossible... it could be because she has a stand mixer and I'm just using a regular old hand electric mixer. I did beat the egg whites until they were stiff enough for me to put the bowl upside and see that nothing will drip out (a little trick to see if your egg whites or cream has reached it's stiff peaks ;) always a great trick) However, they did not come to the size that she shows in the video. If I were to do this recipe again, I'll try and whip those egg whites even longer, but I highly doubt it will work.

Cake version:

 

Trifle cup version: 

Ingredients: 

• 1-2 boxes of 7 oz lady fingers (try to use hard shelled ITALIAN made lady fingers. Not the soft shelled ones)
• 1 pound of marscapone cheese
• some cocoa powder
• 10 Tbs of granulated sugar
• 6 eggs (will need to separate them into egg whites and yolks)
• 2 cups or so of really strong coffee (preferably espresso)
• about 4 Tbs of rum (or however much you like) This is something I added myself since I saw lots of other recipes use it
• 1 cup of heavy whipping cream (This wasn't in the original recipe. I added it to give the custard more density and volume. Without this, it would be a bit too runny for me)

To be honest, the amount of lady fingers and marscapone cheese that you use is all relevant to how big your casserole dish or baking dish is. I used a 2.8 L square glass baking dish that had a good amount of height to it. I found out that I really only needed ONE 7oz box of lady fingers. Two wasn't really necessary. I ended up making a huge cake with 3 layers by using 1.5 boxes. (Lady fingers are quite pricey, so if you don't need to buy that many, don't lol) My cake would have been better off with just 2 layers (by using 1 box of lady fingers) and a little less marscapone cheese mixture (perhaps 1/2 - 3/4 pounds would have been enough) 

Procedure:

1. Separate the egg yolks and whites into 2 separate bowls. Prepare a bigger bowl for the egg yolks, because this is where all of your ingredients will combine into in the end. Wash your eggs well! Use organic and good quality eggs (Grade A or Grade AA) These eggs will NOT be cooked, so make sure everything is clean. Try to avoid letting the egg yolk or whites touch the shell. Make sure to dry the eggs after you wash them. You can't have any water in the egg white mixture.
2. Add 5 tbs of sugar to the egg yolks. Whisk until well combined and the sugar is dissolved.
3. Add the Marscapone cheese to the egg yolks. Mix well. It should be a slightly thick mixture with a pale yellow color.
4. In the bowl with egg whites, beat on high until it becomes frothy. Add a pinch of salt and gradually add 5 tbs of sugar while mixing. Beat it vigorously with either a stand mixer or hand mixer until it forms nice stiff peaks. Make sure there is absolutely NO water or oil or anything in the bowl before placing your egg whites in there. They will definitely prevent your egg whites from forming stiff peaks. If you're using a hand mixer, this will require some patience, but don't worry it will form those stiff peaks in the end. If it doesn't, you need to start over, because the results that these egg whites produce aren't that voluminous to begin with. :(
5.  Fold the egg whites into the marscapone mixture. Fold them together very delicately just until the mixture comes together. Since I feel that my mixture was on the runny side, I thought of a way to make it a bit more voluminous. I beat about a cup of heavy whipping cream in another bowl until it formed stiff peaks. I added a bit of sugar along the way. Then, I also put that into the marscapone + egg white mixture. It helped add a little bit of texture, but not a whole lot :/ That's our custard mixture :)
6. Get your casserole or deep pan dish ready so that we can start assembling our Tiramisu
7. Get another shallow, wide pan for dipping the lady fingers in. Make some espresso or very strong coffee and add a little bit of rum in it. mix it well and wait for the mixture to be cool. 
8. Soak the lady fingers in the espresso mixture for about 2-5 seconds and let the excess espresso drip out and then line them in the casserole dish to form a layer. 
9. Cover generously with the custard mixture and dust that layer with some coco powder using a fine mesh strainer. 
10. Repeat steps 8-9 one more time except line the lady fingers in the opposite direction as what you did for the first layer. This isn't really "necessary" but I think it provides more stability and prevents the custard from leaking to the bottom too easily. 
11. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours (preferably OVERNIGHT!) Patience is key :) let it set and enjoy it the next day :)

I've also made these in little trifle cups which I think are adorable :) They look so cute and much more presentable than in a big square glass dish lol. The procedure for assembling it is pretty similar. You break the lady fingers in thirds, soak them, and place them on the bottom however they can be arranged in a trifle cup.  Put some custard on, do another layer and then dust with cocoa powder. 
Use lady fingers or espresso beans if you have any on hand to garnish the trifle cup. I think it adds a little extra touch to it ;) If I had espresso beans, I would definitely put on 2 or 3.

I'm not totally satisfied with this recipe, but it is the most authentic one that I have come across. If I make another revised version in the future, I will be sure to post about it. Lots of websites have said that bakeries use pastry cream instead to make their tiramisu because it's simply much easier to hold up and it has that nice texture/volume. As much as I would love for the custard texture to be perfect, I want to make the tiramisu the authentic way. Making it without marscapone cheese or lady fingers, to me, is just simply not tiramisu. You just can't substitute it with sponge cake or white cake for lady fingers.The taste will be similar but it's just not the same. Honestly, I wouldn't put in the heavy cream if I didn't have to... that was just out of desperation to save the custard lol. Substituting it with cream cheese will also give it a sour taste. I've gotta say making this tiramisu is quite pricey and could be more pricey than what you buy in stores, but it's fun and you feel like you accomplished something after you do it :) 

Vegan Chocolate Strawberry Cupcakes

This past valentine's day, I made these vegan cupcakes for my dear friend Cassie :) I love her for always being there whenever I need her and for being supportive. I know how hard it is for her for find vegan baked goods, because so many of the key essential ingredients that we use in baking all the time are things that she can't eat like eggs, butter, milk, etc. So, I searched long and hard for vegan cupcakes and I came across Chef Chloe's recipe.

Again, I kind of winged it at the end with the whole decorating. It was so much fun decorating these cupcakes and I felt that that was the most time consuming part. The cupcakes themselves were easy and quick to make. 

Ingredients

Chocolate Cupcakes

• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (or gluten-free all-purpose flour plus ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup coffee, water, or coconut milk
• ½ cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons white or apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Frosting

• 1 cup non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening (I hate using this so much!! But I had no choice..)
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 to 5 tablespoons soy, almond, or rice milk  

Garnish

• 1 ½ cups hulled and sliced fresh strawberries
• Powdered sugar

• Procedure

  Chocolate cupcakes:
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 (12-cup) cupcake pans with 14 cupcake liners.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together coffee, oil, vinegar, and vanilla. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk until just combined. Do not over mix.
  4. Fill the cupcake liners about two-thirds full with batter. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean with a few crumbs clinging to it. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.
  Frosting:
  1. Use a electric mixer, beat the shortening until smooth. (I suggest you let this shortening come to room temperature or at least NOT straight out of the fridge so it'll be easier to beat it...) With the mixer running on low, add powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon nondairy milk at a time, as needed, until frosting reaches a spreadable consistency. Beat on high for 2 more minutes until light and fluffy.
  Now, I don't know why my cupcakes didn't puff up as much as Chloe's did and I realize that I h ave constantly been having this problem with all my cupcakes.. not just vegan ones. I think that it's because I don't add enough batter to each cup because the ones that puffed up more were the ones that I put more batter in. However, I divided the batter in such a way that all 14 cups can be lined up. If you want to make them more puffed up, I suggest to just use 12 cups and see if you can fill it up all the way. The reason why I really needed them to puff up was so that I can slice off the top part of the cupcake and decorate accordingly to make it into a sandwhich effect. 
  From, the picture, you can see that some of my cupcakes have a chocolate top on them while others didn't. I cut the tops off of the ones that were really puffed up. The ones that weren't as puffed were just garnished like a normal cupcake. 
  So, to assemble the cupcakes, wait from them to cool COMPLETELY. Slice off the top 1/3 of the cupcake and put the frosting and freshly sliced strawberries. Place the top back on and put some more frosting on. Dust with powdered sugar for garnish. Again, garnish these cupcakes however you want! The white frosting with freshly sliced red strawberries make these cupcake look gorgeous instantly. Plus, confectioner's sugar always adds a little magical touch to them :) 

Raspberry Semifreddo Heart

I made a raspberry semifreddo with bittersweet chocolate for my boyfriend for this past valentine's day. I've never had semifreddo in my life before, so I have no idea what it "should" taste like, but from researching this online and reading people's comments about the texture of semifreddo, I think I pretty much got it down :)
I used recipe from Martha Stewart. This is what it's supposed to look like:

 

I made some improvisations on mine since I messed up on the bittersweet hearts lol. I'll mention later what I think MAY have gone wrong... 

 

So here's the recipe: 

Ingredients

Semifreddo:

• 18 oz of fresh raspberries or 1 pound frozen raspberries (I used fresh raspberries)
• 4 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 2 tablespoons kirsch, or champagne (I used Martini's Asti champagne)
• 3 large egg whites
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon superfine sugar
• Confectioners' sugar, for garnish

Bittersweet Chocolate:

7 ounces of bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped

Procedure: 

1. prepare a pan that you would like to use. I used Wilton's Heart mold as my baking pan. You can use a regular baking pan, line it up with parchment paper and then later use a heart cookie cutter to make the heart shapes. I just thought this heart mold made things much more convenient.
2. Place fresh raspberries into a medium skillet over medium heat. Simmer so that the raspberries can break down and some liquid is released (4-5 minutes). Transfer it to a food processor and puree (only takes a few seconds) Use a fine mesh strainer and place a bowl underneath it. Let the rapsberry pass through it and help it by stirring it with chopsticks/spoon. Leave it there to cool. 
3. Fill a large bowl with ice and water and set aside. Fill another pot with water till it's about 1/4 way up. Let it come to a boil then let it simmer. Use a medium stainless bowl to whisk together egg yolks, 2 Tbs of sugar, corn syrup, and champagne. Place the bowl over simmering water. Whisk constantly until the mixture is thick. (The mixture should be thick but runny at the same time. When you lift the whisk up, you will see it leave a ribbon-like trail, but more fluid than you would expect it) Transfer the bowl into an ice-water bath and whisk the mixture while it cools. Add 3/4 cup of raspberry purree to mixture. Whisk to combine, set aside
4. Use an electric mixer and beat the egg whites on high speed until frothy (30 sec). gradually add 6 Tbs of sugar as the mixer is running. Beat until very stiff. 
5. Use another bowl to beat the heavy cream until it has stiff peaks. *Crucial: Do not overbeat the heavy cream! It can curdle in a second so make sure to keep an eye on it! The rate that it changes from stiff peaks to curdled cream happens quicker than it does for egg whites! I made that mistake and had to start over again T.T*
6. After the cream is beat, fold it into the egg whites. Fold raspberry mixture into the egg white and cream mixture. Pour the mixture into a prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap and set it into the freezer for at least 4 hours. 
7. For the rest of the raspberry sauce that remains, stir in superfine sugar (2 Tbs). (You can skip this step it you want... I didn't find it necessary to add the sugar in)

 Bittersweet Heart Chocolate: 

1. Cut parchment paper to fit a 9-by-13-by-2-inch pan. Brush vegetable oil in corners and center of the pan, pressing parchment to adhere it. Set aside.
2. Bring a medium pot of water to a simmer. Place chocolate in a medium stainless-steel bowl; place the bowl over, the simmering water to melt the chocolate (~4 to 6 minutes)
3. Remove chocolate from simmering water. Pour chocolate into prepared pan. Using a large metal offset (bent-neck) spatula, spread the chocolate evenly over the surface 1/6 inch thick. Freeze until chocolate sets, about 6 minutes.
4. Working quickly, use a heart-shaped cookie cutter (3 1/4 inches across at widest point), to cut out six chocolate hearts. If chocolate begins to soften, return to freezer for several minutes. Run an offset spatula under the hearts, and place in a container. Cover and freeze until ready to use, up to 2 weeks.
   (I think I may have made a mistake when I let the chocolate set in the freezer for way more than 6 minutes. By the time I took it out to cut it with the cookie cutter, it was way to hard for me to cut it and even when I did, the chocolate shattered into random pieces. I'm thinking that you should take the chocolate out when it's in the middle of freezing but is still soft enough for you to cut through with the heart shaped cookie cutter)
   Serve this however you like :) Be creative! It doesn't have to look like the way Martha Stewart's was set up. You can place the bitter sweet chocolate off center and then the semifreddo somewhere. Garnish well with fresh raspberries and confectioner sugar! Use the raspberry sauce to decorate the plate however you want ( I may have OD'ed on that part lol but hey, this was my first try:) 
   
   

Asian style Beef Stew with Potatoes and Tomato

This soup is wonderful for a cold wintery day. It warms you up so nicely and makes you feel very cozy inside :) I learned how to make this soup from watching my mom whenever she made it for us. I didn't use the exact same ingredients as she did and my measurements are probably way off from hers, but here's my version :) It's still tasty and filling.

Ingredients:

• about 1 pound of short ribs (or any kind of nice-quality beef. if it has a huge bone in the middle, that would be even better! unfortunately, i didn't :( oh well)
• about 2 inches in length of ginger
• 2 stalks of scallion
• about a cup of cooking wine
• about 8 small potatoes or 2 big potatoes
• 1 medium sized onion 
• whole tomatoes (or 14.5 Oz (411g) diced tomato can)
• 1 medium sized carrot (didn't have them on hand, but if i did i would've put them in!)
• 2 tsp potato starch 
• salt, sugar, pepper, hondashi
• ketchup
• water

The best way to cook this is with a slow cooker or a pressure cooker. Unfortunately, I didn't have any of those on hand, so I just use a normal pot and a stove.

Procedure:

Wash the short ribs well. Pat them dry. Trim away any excess fat (unless you want it). No need to cut them unless they are so big they can't fit  your pan

Heat a pan with oil until it's hot and place the short rib chunks onto pan. It should be sizzling pretty loudly now. Brown each side of the chunks. We're not cooking the ribs. We're merely browning the sides to give it some color. (This step is optional. You can put it immediately into the saucepan)

Transfer the short ribs to a medium sized pot/saucepan. 

Cut 2-4 chunks of ginger (peeled) and cut the scallion into 2 inch pieces. Put them into the pot. Add about 1 cup of cooking wine into the pot or until it reaches about an inch or so of the pot's height. Add water until it covers the beef.

Turn the heat on high and let it come to a boil. After boiling it for a few minutes, reduce it to a simmering level. Simmer on the lowest heat setting for at least 2 hour. (i simmered for almost 5 hours) 

Let it rest on the counter and cool down. Put it in the fridge over night. Remove the fats that float up the next day in the pot (you don't have to do this step unless you want to remove the fats from the soup)

Peel and cut the vegetables: onion, carrots, and potatoes into big chunks. Add them to the soup. Bring the soup back to a boil

In the mean time, heat a pan with the diced tomato in it. If you use whole tomatoes, heat it so that you can flatten it and almost make a paste into it. You want the liquid of the tomatoes. Add the tomato into the pot. 

Boil the soup on low to medium heat for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes and other vegetables become soft. Stir occasionally. Combine about 2 tsp of potato starch with enough water to mix the ingredients together. Pour that into the soup to thicken it. 

Add a good amount of salt, pepper and hondashi to taste. (Hondashi is a type of stock Japanese people use to flavor their soup. If you don't have it, skip it) Add about 2 tsp of ketchup (or 2-3 full squeezes out of the bottle)

Stir and combine everything well. Simmer for another few minutes and serve!

This recipe is very simple with only a few key ingredients. It's prefect for a chilly day and you can store this soup in the fridge for quick access to it whenever you're in a rush that day. This process may seem like it takes a very long time, but you are simmering the soup for majority of the time. That's why it's best to make this in a slow cooker. The point of simmering the meat for that long is so that it becomes very tender and juicy. If you have meat with a bone, the meat will become so tender that it will fall right off the bone! If you find the stew too salty, just add more water to dilute the flavor. You can skip the process where it requires you to cool the soup in the fridge overnight. I recommend you not to skip this step so you can make a much more healthy soup :) 

Welcome!

Welcome!

My name's Diana. I'm a biology major who will be going to optometry school next fall! :) I've always been really interested in cooking since I have a mom who cooks everyday. Most of my cooking skills have been picked up over the years of observing her casually whenever she prepares dinner for our family. I've become really into cooking and baking ever since I stopped having a meal plan at my university. I thought to myself, "why keep eating unhealthy, huge portioned food made from the college cafeteria that serves it at such a high price when I can make myself a nice healthy, hearty meal at a decent price?" Ok, maybe not ALL of my dishes are healthy but at least I know what ingredients I use and whether the meat/vegetables I use are fresh or not.

I also love deserts and sweets! They are to die for. I love deserts that are presented in such a beautiful and elegant way. Most people must think I'm crazy for constantly taking pictures of food, but I'm truly inspired by the way some restaurants and chefs present their food.

Cooking is something that I feel can be done using common sense, but baking is a whole different story. There is an art to both cooking and baking, but right now, I aspire to improve my artistic side for baking.

I hope that this blog will inspire you to try out new recipes and I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do :)