Clam in Sake Sauce 清酒煮蜆

This is a very easy dish for everyone that can make anytime.

Ingredient:
Clam 1kg
Butter 1 tbsp
Garlic 1 clove minced
Mirin (sweet Japanese cooking wine) 1/2 cup
Japanese Sake 1 cup (divided to 2 half cup)
Chicken broth 1/2 cup
Green onions

Direction:
Soak fresh clams in salted water for an hour. Then rinse it with water and drain.
Heated saucepan with butter. Add minced garlic.
Add clams and stir a bit.
Pour in chicken broth, Mirin and half cup of Sake.  Cover saucepan and let it simmer in medium heat for 5-8 mins or until the clams opened.
Pour remaining half cup of Sake to clams and add green onions. Do not cover. Let simmer for one minute.
Served hot.

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake 黑白朱古力慕絲蛋糕

 

August 31 is my friend Christine's birthday. And on Sept 2, it is my cousin-in-law Matthew's birthday! On Sept 1, we have a dinner party at my place and I made this cake to celebrate their birthday together in this occasion. Since my friend Christine does not like cheesecake, and Matthew is OK with anything. I decided to make them a chocolate mousse cake. And chocolate mousse cake is also one of my favorite desserts of all time!!! ^_^

(9" Square cake)

 For the chocolate cake layer:

1 stick (112 g) unsalted butter

1 1/3 cups (257 g) sugar 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons (56 g) cocoa powder

2 large eggs

2 oz (56 g) dark chocolate, melted

1 3/4 cups (210 g) all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon (4 g) baking powder

3/4 teaspoon (3 g) baking soda

1/4 teaspoon (1 g) salt

1/2 cup (118 ml) water

1/2 cup (118 ml) milk

For the dark chocolate mousse:

1 teaspoon (3 grams) powdered gelatin

 2 tablespoons water

1/2 cup (105 g) whole milk

6 oz (175 g) good quality dark chocolate, finely chopped

1 1/4 cup (280 g) heavy cream

For the white chocolate mousse:

1/2 cup (105 g) whole milk

6 oz (175 g) good quality white chocolate

1 teaspoon (3 grams) powdered gelatin 

2 tablespoons water

3/4 cup (180 g) heavy cream

For the chocolate glaze and sauce: (I follow this recipe, but the glaze melt)

4 oz (112g) dark chocolate, finely chopped

1/2 cup (80g) heavy cream 

3 tablespoons light corn syrup

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

 (I will try to use gelatine next time to settle the glaze layer)

3g (1/2 packet) gelatin 

15g (1 tablespoons) water

Directions:

Make the Chocolate Cake base:

(I use cake mix this time-lazy and lack of time) 

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Melt the chocolate. Melt it in the microwave in 30-second intervals. Chocolate burns easily, so stir between every zap. Set it aside for the moment.
3. Using a tabletop or handheld electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar, and cocoa powder together on medium high speed until smooth, creamy and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Hard to see with the cocoa in the bowl, but this is what it looks like 3 minutes later.
4.  Add the eggs, one at a time, until each one disappears into the mix.
5.  Pour in the melted chocolate.
6. In a medium bowl, stir together the dry ingredients, which include flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir ‘em up good.
7. Combine the milk and the water and microwave until hot, about 45 seconds. 
8. Drop the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl and mix on low speed until MOSTLY combined, and then, with the machine still running, pour in the hot water/milk mixture
9. Pour it into pan that’s been first sprayed with nonstick cooking spray and lined with parchment. Bake in your preheated oven for about 18 minutes. 

 

(Cake layer can be made a day ahead, if you’d like to break up the labor of this recipe. Wrap the whole thing, sheet pan and all, with plastic very well, and refrigerate.)

Make the dark chocolate mousse:

1. First we’ll rehydrate the gelatin (otherwise known as “bloom” the gelatin.) Sprinkle it evenly over a small bowl with the water. In 5 minutes, it’ll have slurped up the liquid and will look, well, gelatinous
2. Next heat up the milk to a simmer in a small sauce pan. Turn OFF the heat (This is important. When subjected to high heat, gelatin deteriorates and turns grainy) and then scrape the gelatin blob into the hot milk. Swirl the pan around until it’s completely dissolved. 
3. Pour this milk/gelatin concoction over the finely chopped chocolate and let it rest for 2 minutes. The heat from the milk will melt down the chocolate. Whisk it up into a smooth pool of goodness. Set it aside and let it cool to lukewarm. 
4. Now, with a clean whisk, whip the cream.
5. A soft peak is perfect. This texture is easiest to fold into the chocolate.
6. Scoop about a third of the whipped cream into the chocolate. Since the chocolate is kind of dense and heavy, this will help lighten it up. When we fold in the rest of the cream, it won’t deflate as much.
7. Then add the rest of the whipped cream, and gently fold that in.
8. Pour the mousse into the molding pan. Put the whole tray in the freezer while you make the white chocolate mousse.

 Make the white chocolate mousse:

1. Here are the ingredients. They’re pretty much the same as the dark chocolate mousse, except there’s less cream to whip.
2. The method is also the same as the dark chocolate mousse, and will feel like old hat by now.
3. Again, we bloom the gelatin.
4. Simmer the milk
5. scrape in the gelatin, and let it dissolve.
6. The gelatin/milk mix gets poured over the white chocolate and we whisk it up into a smooth pool.
7. Whip the cream to soft peak stage and fold a third of it in to lighten.
8. It gets poured into the molds, most of the way up. Leave some space on top, about 1/8″ – 1/4″ for the chocolate glaze. Pop the tray back into the freezer while you make the glaze and garnish.

chocolate sauce/glaze:

1. bloom the gelatin
2. Pour the heavy cream, corn syrup and oil into a microwave-proof cup and nuke until almost boiling (you might be able to see it gurgling in the cup), about 45 seconds. It will look curdled but pay it no mind. Stir it up to blend.
3. scrape in the gelatin, and let it dissolve.
4. Pour over the chocolate and allow to sit for a minute to melt it all.
5. Whisk everything until completely smooth.
6. Wait until the sauce cools to lukewarm (so it doesn’t melt down the mousse), and carefully pour sauce onto the tops of your molds. It’s going to start setting almost immediately on contact from the cold, so work fast. Back into the freezer they go for at least 4 hours, to fully set. Once set, if you plan to keep them frozen for a while, be sure to wrap the tray very well to keep the cakes from absorbing strange freezer flavors.

Gettin’ ready. You can see how sweaty my eggs are in the photo. All cold ingredients should be at room temperature for better incorporation. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

- See more at: http://www.pastrypal.com/2011/07/triple-chocolate-mousse-cake/#sthash.De1snTio.IlMbQ9AW.dpuf

- recipe adapted from http://www.pastrypal.com/2011/07/triple-chocolate-mousse-cake/#sthash.De1snTio.dpuf

Happy birthday to my friends!

 

 

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Vanilla Flour Frosting

August 31st was my friend Christine's birthday. And we were having a BBQ picnic at Locarno Beach Vancouver. Another friend Christy suggested we can give her a cake as surprised birthday celebration during the picnic. And she asked me to make some mini cupcakes for 40 people to share. I remember Christine likes romantic theme. I decided to make her red velvet cake. And I will decorate it with romantic theme. I put a heart shape icing decorations for each mini cupcakes. And I make a flower bouquet for her on a flower pot as well.

Since we were having picnic outside from 4:30-8:40pm. The weather is warm. I need to use an icing that can stand for heat outdoor. I found this recipe and it said it is less sweet and can stand from heat and keep the shape. I give it a try. And it is quite good in taste and the shape of my flower frosting can stay!

Beside making this cupcakes cake, I also need to prepare another cake for Sunday party and also prepare food for bbq party as well. To save time, I use Red Velvet cake mix, and spend more time on decorations. But I did make red velvet cupcakes before. Please refer to link below for Red Velvet Cupcakes recipe.

Red Velvet recipe:

http://winniemsfong.blogspot.com/2012/11/red-velvet-cupcakes-with-dental-fondant.html

Makes enough to frost 24 medium cupcakes (I frosted 50 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients:

5 Tablespoons Flour
1 cup Milk
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Butter
3/4 cup Caster Sugar (Not coarse sugar, not brown sugar, not icing sugar)

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk.

2. Turn on the heat to medium and continously stir until it thickens in order to avoid lumps. DO NOT STOP STIRRING.

3. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. Please make sure that the mixture is cooled complete or it will melt the butter. When it's cool, stir in vanilla. I put a cling wrap on top of flour mixture and put in refrigerator to speed up the cooling process.

4. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy for approximately 7 minutes.

5. Then add the completely cooled flour mixture and continue beating until the frosting combines perfectly. It took me about 2-3 minutes. Just beat it until it resembles smooth whipped cream and looks pipeable. You can now add colouring if you like.

 And you are done! You will get the most perfect vanilla frosting, not too sweet, light to the taste and can stand for outdoor temperature.

- See more at: http://phat-baker.blogspot.ca/2011/03/vanilla-frosting.html#

The weather is so nice at the beach. This is what I like the most in Vancouver.