Spiced Lamb Cutlets - Jack

Once again, been a little slow with my Junior Master Chef challenge. This recipe was from week 2 of the show. Jack's spiced lamb received lots of great comments from the judges so I thought I would give it a shot. According to the recipe, it needed approx 35 minutes in the oven but I'm pretty sure I cooked it longer than that. Other than that, it was a pretty simple recipe. I probably wouldn't make it again any time soon but it was yummy!

Sponge with Strawberries and Cream - Lucy

This is my first Junior Master Chef Challenge and it was a success! I made this cake a while ago but only realised that I haven't blogged about. Once again, the worst part of this was over whipping the cream but it was super yummy! Def going to use this recipe again. I think cornflour is what added so much height so that's a handy tip for all you bakers out there.

What's Next?

This challenge really has been a challenge. Finding the time was a difficult part of the process, but also locating ingredients so have to improvise at different times.

This challenge has also been very rewarding! I loved every minute of it and I'm sure my family and friends enjoyed eating my dishes too. I have learnt a lot in terms of techniques and flavours and I am itching to do more!

So what's next? I have applied for MasterChef 2011, but have to wait and find out if I have been accepted for an audition. My signature dish is Thunder Cake, which will be my next blog entry.

In the mean time, I will start cooking from Junior MasterChef. I know this may be a step backwards but I could be in for a shock, since the trailers have shown some very talented kids.

Stay tuned...its not over yet!

Final Challenge - Chocolate Ganache Tart

For the final challenge, decided to make another masterclass dish. This was one of Gary's most memorable dishes of the competition. Due to lack of resources at the time, I had to modify the recipe slightly which was a little unfortunate, but the show must go on.

So first, the pastry. I used Fiona's recipe for the pastry and the ganache filling. The pastry turned out fine, with no problems at all. The part that didn't quite work was the ganache. Rather than use normal eating chocolate (like always) I decided to try out the new Lindt cooking chocolate. I have made ganache several times, with no problems, but this time round, it wasn't smooth, very bitter and very lumpy. I decided to use the smallest amount in the tarts since they were quite small anyway.

The cream, I served whipped cream that had a hint of sugar to sweeten. I was unable to locate dried lavender, but I now know I can buy it from an online store if I ever plan to use it in the future. Another thing I didnt have was raspberries. My local Woolies and fruit market didn't have any so I settled for strawberries.

It was not the most successful recipe but I did learn a lot. For pastry, this particular recipe, it was a little too flaky for my liking, so I think I will stick to Matt Moran's shortcrust pastry as it is more crumbly. In terms of ganache, I'm going to stick with eating chocolate. I will definitely try to make chocolate ganache tarts again, but with more changes.

Fish n' Chips

This was inspired but the challenge between Alvin and Aaron. Who would have thought that a basic dish could be so vital to the competition! My version of fish n' chips was my own in a way but also got some help from the masterchef magazine.

So first, boiled some potatoes (whole with skin on) till just cooked. Took them out and cut them into nice thick chips and fried them until nice and crunchy on the outside but fluffy on the inside. It took a couple tests to make sure the oil was at the right temperature but we got there in the end.

For my batter, I used the recipe from the magazine. It was a mixture with equal amounts of plain and self raising flour, a little bit of oil and a can of beer. Let that settle for about 20 minutes and then started to coat my fish. I decided to use Sea Bass because it was cheap. I have never cooked with fish so I thought it would be worth a shot. So portioned my fish, coated it in corn flour and then dipped into my batter and fried it for approx 3 minutes. Didn't take long at all.

For sauce, I didn't have time to make my own tartare sauce, so instead, Fil made a Peri-naise sauce. It was Perinaise (peri peri sauce and maynonaise sauce) and added mustard seeds, capers, parsley and some lemon juice. It was perfect for the fish n' chips. Sorry I didn't take pics through the process but it can get a bit messy to make so didn't want to ruin a camera.

This challenge has made me not want to buy normal fish n' chips again. Maybe buy the chips, but fish is easy to batter and cook and its fast so I will definitely be making this dish again.

Chocolate Fondant

Nearing the end of the beloved MasterChef Challenge now. It has been super fun creating this blog. Don't know what I will do next...

I know it has been a while since I last blogged but I am very committed to completing a dish a week which featured on the show in some shape or form. This recipe featured in Week 12, Masterclass. I modified it slightly, but not to the actual fondant...you will see what I mean after you read on.

First, melt the butter and chocolate. No tricks to that really. Rather then use ramekins, I decided to use food rings to present my chocolate fondant. Buttered them twice and then coated with cocoa. Got a little messy but I guess that is expected.

Next step was the eggs and sugar mixture. I didn't have my stand mixer with me so I used the hand held. It took a little while but it did the trick. I added this mixture to the chocolate, with a gentle folding action. Then fold in sifted flour.


Voila! That was it! It was a pretty simple recipe, in terms of ingredients and steps. The slight modification I mentioned earlier, was just regarding the amaretto shake. Instead, I served it with cream and some fresh strawberries. and blueberries. Sorry about the picture quality! Really need so start carrying a camera around with me.

Lamingtons

This was one of my more successful challenges yet. It wasn't too difficult and it was YUMMY! This challenge was inspired by the CWA challenge where not many dishes turned out according to plan. The recipe was in the latest issue of the masterchef magazine so I thought it had good cred. Once again, I forgot to take pics, but I did take a picture of the final product because I was so proud of them. Oh and I almost forgot, I need to thank Alyce for helping me with the macaron and lamington challenge. Would have taken me twice as long otherwise.

Ok so first off was the sponge mixture.Very simple sponge mixture but the trick with this was to beat the eggs and sugar in a bowl which was sitting in the sink with some water. I have never done it like that before but I will definitely try it again. Don't know if it made a huge difference, but seeing as I have never done it before and it was the best sponge yet, logic would say to try it again. Baked the cake and let it cool and I put it into the fridge to firm up a bit so it would be easier to cut.

The icing mixture was basic too. Cocoa, butter and heaps of icing sugar. When I say heaps, I mean HEAPS! It was just a matter of combining all the ingredients in a bowl over a double boiler.

Ok so the fun part was coating my lamingtons. Note to self though, the smaller the pieces of lamington, the more lamingtons need to be coated! It was lots of fun though and the end result was amazing. Dare I say, better than bakery quality lamingtons.

Macarons

Inspired by the challenge in London, I decided to attempt macarons. I couldn't quite locate all the ingredients for Callum's violet macarons so I decided to some simple chocolate macarons instead.

The mixture was pretty easy, just had to make sure that my eggs were beaten to nice soft peaks and I had to be careful to not knock out much of the air. So I managed to get a nice mixture and managed to pipe most of the macrons in the same shape. After I let it stand for about 30minutes, then they went into the oven for about 15 minutes.


Unfortunately, they didn't turn out the best. They didn't get the smooth top (well most of them didn't) and they didn't have "feet". However, the inside texture was quite yummy and slightly chewy which was good and the filling was good too but I forgot to take pics. We ate them before I remembered to take pics...hehe. Anyways, overall it wasn't a complete epic fail but not a complete success either. Then again, it was my first time so I wasn't expecting to master it quite yet. I know for next time that the egg whites cant be cold (straight from the fridge) I need to watch them while they bake, and too much sprinkling of cocoa on top will make them cave in.

Chocolate Ganache with Peanut & Caramel Ice Cream

This challenge was an EPIC FAIL but I still have to blog about it. It is the type of recipe I probably wont try again for a while too. It was a lot of effort so 'little' reward. OK so first thing was the ice cream...in terms of making the actual mixture to be churned, it was not very difficult and it was really tasty! I totally forgot that the the tubs for the churner need to be in the freezer for at least 12 hours prior to using it so that might have affected how the ice cream churned. However, one batch did turn out perfect.





Ganache, that turned out well. I'm a bit of a veteran at making ganache so that was easy. Plus, as long as you follow the recipe, its pretty hard to fail.



OK so this is the epic fail part...HONEYCOMB! Tried it twice and both times it was an EPIC FAIL. Rather than a crunchy honeycomb, it was more like a toffee. I don't know what happened exactly, because I did follow the instructions but my honeycomb just didn't bubble.



Anyways, it was a pretty said master chef challenge. I have posted pics anyways because some parts did work out really well. My next challenge may be delayed as I will be at Perisher this week and Melbourne for the week. I guess it will be another double challenge!!

Lemon Tart

After my not so successful attempt of Pizza, I decided to attempt another dessert. However, after watching all the episodes of week 8, there were no dessert challenges except for the Adam and Aaron cook off where they made the lemon tart for Matt Moran. So I decided to do a Baked Lemon Tart.



Using the same pastry recipe as the frangipane tart, I made the base but this time I blind baked it for a little while. For the filling, I modified Carrie's Signature Dish which was a baked lemon tart. I only modified it because of the size of the tin I had. It was a simple mixture of eggs, sugar, cream, lemon zest and lemon juice.



Anyways, in the end the tart turned out great! It was a tad sour but since I served it with some whipped cream and some fresh strawberries, you couldn't really notice.

Frangipane Tart

After such a crappy pizza I was super excited about how my tart turned out! It was my first time making shortcrust pastry so I had a feeling it wouldn't turn out but I was pleasantly surprised. It was relatively easy in terms of number of steps.

Ok so first thing, butter and flour into a food processor until they resemble bread crumbs then add 1 egg. That was easy. Then just letting it come together and I just moulded it into a log to go into the fridge.



As I was multi-tasking, the dough was put in the fridge a little longer than expected so it was VERY difficult to roll out the dough. I'm not a physically strong person so I really had to put some muscle into it. I finally managed to roll it out and put it into the tin with no tears or holes.



Ok so next step is the filling which was super easy and took no time at all. Once it was in the oven, I just kept an eye on it. I find that when I bake, timing never matched the recipe so I go by feel. End result was perfect!! Pastry was cooked, filling was set. It is delicious, simple and easy to share. Definitely making this one again.

Homemade Pizza

Hello fellow readers! Not that there are very many. Anyways, last week was a little crazy in terms of work and social outings so made 2 dishes this week. First one being the so called "basic" pizza. This was the most difficult challenge yet. Even worse than my first attempt at creme brulee.

Step 1 was to make the base...ok so I follow the instructions for the main part except for the part about the yeast. There were no instructions on how to use the dry yeast on the packaging and me thinks I killed it because my dough didn't double in size =[ The cold weather probably didn't help the situation either!!



I also made my pizza base sauce which was a cheat way of doing it. I reduced some tomatoes, added salt, pepper and mixed herbs and that's it! Pretty basic and it was yummy.



Anyways, after waiting for my dough to "prove" and noticing it didn't prove, I started to make my pizzas anyways. I made the Classic Margherita and the Pizza Bianca with Potatoes and Anchovies. Great tasting topping but not great tasting base. The toppings cooked faster than the base too which was another indication of fail dough. If I didn't make pasta for dinner as well, probably would have starved.



Overall, pretty horrible outcome. The pictures make the pizza look good but they really weren't. I am determined to try again, but probably not for a while. Next blog entry...FRANGIPANE TART!!

Pork Schnitzel

After a frustrating creme brulee, I decided to make something simple for this challenge. After watching the episode, I figured it would be easy enough with a recipe so I gave it a go and it was a success!

First, I prep my potatoes. I cleaned, sliced into thick chips (with skin on) and boiled them to make them nice and soft. Then I fried them and voila! Too easy. Tasty too. Leaving the skin on was an awesome idea because it gave them an extra bit of crunch.

Next, I process some sour dough so I have some crumbs. I used the crust of the bread too because I thought it would add a bit more of a crunch to them which it did! To that I added, parsley, mixed herbs and some parmesan cheese. Then I start coating my PORK! Yes it was pork! Didnt have to do much to the pork since it was already quite thin.

I guess the only hard part was making sure my oil was hot enough for my schnitzel. There was a point where I thought it may have been too hot so I turned it down but instead, it was not hot enough so one of my pieces soaked up a bit of oil. Nothing I couldnt fix though. Other than that, recipe was a success and was very tasty. I decided not to make the coleslaw since I'm not a fan, I just had some green salad on the side instead.

Creme Brulee

It is almost 1am and I have spent the morning at Penrith working, then spent my evening at Origin working but I am super excited to post this blog!! After a very failed first attempt at making creme brulee, I was determined to try again and the second time was a HUGE success!! I wont delve into the details of how I failed the first one (because it was very stupid) so here is how its done properly! Its not a hard recipe, as long as you are patient...which is very difficult for me at times.

First thing first, whisking 6 egg yolks and half cup of sugar till its light and creamy. Then scoulding cream and vanilla bean (OMG vanilla beans are AMAZING!) then adding that mixture to the eggs. Quickly whisking them together, straining, then pouring into ramekins.



Ok so here comes the tricky part, I had a tea towel in the base of my pan, and my ramekins and water. I wasnt 100% of how much water to add so had no idea if this had an effect or not. Covered them in foil just like the recipe and I baked them for 1 hour instead of the 40mins quoted in the recipe. Even after that I still wasnt sure.

Once the baking was done, I put the ramekins into the fridge for as long as I could. I did take one out after 2 hours or so and it was still too runny so I just had to wait. Another 2 hours later, I tried to finish them off with the demera sugar and VOILA! It worked! There was a crack, and the custard was the perfect consistency. Not too sweet and not like condensed milk (like my first attempt).


Overall, very pleased that the creme brulee finally turned out! Its a long process but it is worth it. Its yummy and can be made in advance which is always a bonus.

Sausage Rolls

This has been a little delayed but life got in the way unfortunately. This post will be short and sweet I think. Anyways, last Sunday I tried to make Gary's Sausage Roll recipe. Overall I thought they turned out great.

Firstly, the carrot puree. This turned out to be more difficult than I thought. The first batch burnt so had to throw it out. The second batch, managed to not burn it this time but not having a hand held blender made it a little difficult. Instead of a carrot puree, I had a carrot, buttery mess. Still managed to use it, and it didnt effect the taste (which is always a bonus).

The next thing was my onions. I noticed my knife skills have improed. Managed to get the onions nice and small. I didnt add thyme, as the recipe uses, instead I threw in some mixed herbs I had in the pantry. Turned out yummy and fragrant but not over powering which is awesome. Forgot to take a pic of them.

So now I have my carrots and onions ready, its now just a matter of combining it all with my pork and mince beef. Added some salt, pepper and breadcrumbs then it was ready to roll. This part was a little tricky at first because the mince was not combining the way I wanted it too. Taking extra care though, managed to get it rolled nice and tight.




Baked it in the oven a little longer than the recipe said, and I used butter puff pastry. If I make these again, I will probably use normal pastry because I found it a little too oily for my liking. Overall the sausage rolls were a success! Could have used more pepper but other than that, taste was great! Note to self, buy a hand held blender.

Spiced Lamb

Master Challenge 2 had a few hurdles, some of which I was able to jump but others I could not. Firstly, my key ingredient was supposed to be Lamb Back straps however I could not find them anywhere! I checked out woolies, some local butchers and even Coles and no one had them so had to buy lamb steaks instead. They turned out to be just fine for the dish, if anything, better cos that meant I didn't have to slice a whole piece of back strap.

So first thing first. Lightly toast my spices until fragrant then they are ready to be grounded. That stage was probably the most simple. Spice mix includes; mustard seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, turmeric, garamasala and salt. The aroma of the spices filled the kitchen almost instantly. Lamb was coated and set aside for the juicy meat to absorb those awesome spices.





Ok so here comes the twist. On the show, the lamb was served with a frittata, herb salad and tomato salsa. Instead, I decide to serve with the tomato salsa, flat bread and tzatziki. So next step was to make the tzatziki. Very simple recipe I found on google which involved combining Greek yogurt, olive oil, lemon, continental cucumber garlic and a pinch of salt. First time lucky...it was perfect!! Well I thought it was perfect.



Stage 3, my balsamic vinegar reduction. This was the most difficult part of my dish. I wouldn't even say it was a success. Balsamic vinegar and sugar is combined in a small pot until thickened then mustard seeds, lemon juice, salt and pepper is added to form a dressing. However, it was way too sweet for some reason. I tried adding more salt, vinegar, mustard, lemon...all in random quantities but still didn't get there....so that dressing was an epic fail unfortunately.




Now that my sides are ready, only thing left to do is cook my lamb. The lamb steaks were quite lean and didn't need much cooking. They were ready in no time. Only a couple minutes on each side. Not much to report there.






FINALLY, plating up time. My tomato salsa was so simple yet I still stuffed up! I bought the wrong cheese and my dressing didn't improve but I served it anyway. My lamb was cooked to perfection and tzatziki on the side with some toasted flat bread. Overall, the dish was good but I need to work on my salad dressing skills. I just could not get those flavours right which did bring the dish down.

Pavlova!!

First master chef challenge was a success! After much deliberation about what to cook I decided on the Pavlova featured in episode 1. Not being a huge fan of this particular dessert, I have never made meringue or pavlova before so this was my first time. Thanks to master chef, I have an idea of the process and what I should be looking out for but I was still very unsure throughout the process.


My egg separating skills proved to be adequate which saved me a lot of time and making the meringue did not prove to be difficult at all. Of course, I documented my process with pics but next time I will try and remember to take more pics of each actual step.

Anyways, meringue turned out fine, but I think I could have kept it in the oven a little longer to get more of a crunch/cracking sound but there was still a sound and a nice gooey mashmallow centre.



Ok so the downside, I have also never been a fan of cream so was once again not sure. I stepped away from my mixer for a little too long which resulted in over whipped cream =[

Overall, I would say the pavlova was a success! My critics, Thanh, Lisa, Patrick and Charlie all agreed that the pavlova was good and there is always room for improvement. Question is, would I make this again? Probably not. The baking time and cooling time is way too long for a dessert I am not a fan of.

Ok, more next week! Suggestions please. Oh but no seafood. Allergies =[

welcome to the master chef challenge

Our favourite hit show is back and Donna Hay's pavlova in last night's pressure test has inspired me to cook. Not just anything and not limited to desserts but at least one dish a week which featured in season 2 of the show. My blog will keep everyone updated throughout my master chef challenge and nothing would make me happier than to open my blog to all of you for suggestions, tips, hints, comments etc.

Bon Appetit!