Happy International Women’s Day!

We’re definitely a progressive household. Tim TOO OFTEN jokes that he’d like to be a househusband one day!

While I went out to give a talk at the uni about the Women in Engineering group that I’m part of, Tim decided to get out the Masterchef cookbook and make a delicious meal (and dessert!)

My parents bought us the tagine for christmas, and we’ve used it several times since. You wouldn’t think it would make such a difference to the way the food is cooked, but it does!

At a glance, this meal seemed like a slow cooked meal that would take a looooong time to cook, but it was ready in less than two hours, with very little prep.

The ingredients included cardamon, cumin, coriander, fennel, black peppercorns, ginger, tumeric, cinnamon quills, garlic, chillies, dates and honey.

The tagine was the perfect combination of sweet and spicy, and the chicken thighs were also extremely tender after the tagine cooking. To top it all off, Tim toasted slivered almonds to garnish, which gave another great texture to the meal.

The meal was served with israeli pearl couscous; if you haven’t eaten pearl couscous before, do yourself a favour and get on it! Like other types of couscous, it was quick to make, but so easy to cook perfectly al dente. We found it at the local deli.

And for dessert, my fave… chai latte creme brûlée! I don’t think I should let Tim in the kitchen too often, I think he’s trying to outdo me!

Chicken Tagine with Dates and Honey

Serves 4

(Recipe from Mastechef Cookbook, Season 2)

Ingredients

3 tsp cumin seeds

3 tsp coriander seeds

2 tsp fennel seeds

12 cardomom pods (seeds only)

1 tsp black peppercorns

1/2 tsp sea salt

olive oil

2 onions (finely diced)

4cm piece ginger (finely grated)

2 long red chillies (finely chopped)

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground tumeric

2 cinnamon quills

1kg chicken thigh fillets (cut into 3 pieces each)

500ml (2 cups chicken stock)

10 fresh dates (pitted and chopped)

1/3 cup honey

1/4 cup slivered almonds (lightly toasted)

couscous to serve (you can use normal couscous, but I love pearl couscous!)

Method

1. Grind the cumin, coriander, fennel, cardamom, peppercorns and salt in a mortar and pestle.

2. Heat olive oil in a tagine (or casserole pan) over low heat. Add the onions and cook for 3 minutes, then stir in the garlic, ginger and chillies and cook for 5 minutes or until soft.

3. Add the spice mixture, ground ginger, turmeric and cinnamon quills and cook over low heat for 2 minutes or until fragrant. Increase the heat to medium-high and add the chicken. Cook for 5 minutes each side, turning occasionally, or until lightly golden.

4. Pour in the stock. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for around 50 minutes or until the chicken is tender and falling apart. Add the dates and honey and cook uncovered for a further 10 minutes or until sauce has thickened.

5. Serve the tagine with couscous (cooked according to packet directions) and garnish with chopped coriander and toasted almonds.

Posted by tinytimtams & filed under Baking, Uncategorized. This post has no comments yet.

Mmmm, I love my coffee every morning without fail! But I have to admit, I’m not a coffee purist, and I like my coffee SWEET! So I thought, why not combine it with a classic dessert to enjoy in the evening as well :) Especially with one as wonderful as the crème brûlée (it also helps that this dessert only requires egg yolks, and the macarons I make only require egg whites, coincidence?).

I took the basic recipe for crème brûlée and added vanilla bean paste and espresso to it. It was so smooth, rich and delicious. The recipe is below, it’s actually quite simple… you just need to start making it in advance. And the best part, you get to play with fire at the end ;)

Makes 3 large ramekin crème brûlée 

Ingredients

• 600ml thickened cream
• 5 egg yolks (make some macarons or pavlova with the egg whites! ;))
• 1/2 cup castor sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1 espresso shot
• Demerara sugar, to sprinkle before torching

Method

1. Beat egg yolks and castor sugar in an electric mixer until it becomes thick and pale (about 2 minutes).
2. Place cream and vanilla paste in a saucepan on low-medium heat until it comes to the boil.
3. Remove from heat and add the espresso shot to the cream.
4. Slowly add the cream mixture to the egg yolks while whisking CONSTANTLY until the cream and egg yolk mixture is fully incorporated. We don’t want scrambled eggs here, so make sure you pay attention! :)
5. Put a sieve over a jug and pour the mixture through the sieve to remove any lumps in the mixture. This ensures you’ll get a smooth custard.
6. Place the ramekins in a large roasting dish. Pour the custard mixture into the ramekins, dividing evenly.
7. Pour boiling water into the roasting dish until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekin dishes and cover the whole roasting dish with foil.
8. Place in the oven at 150 degrees celcius to cook for 40 minutes.
9. Remove the roasting dish with ramekins and leave to cool on the bench before removing the ramekins and placing in the fridge to chill for 4 hours.
10. YIPPEE! The fun part :) Remove ramekins from the fridge, sprinkle your crème brûlée’s with a good  amount of Demerara sugar and torch with a domestic blow torch. Serve immediately. A good crème brûlée should crack nicely on the top when you tap it with your spoon ;) Enjoy!

Posted by tinytimtams & filed under Baking, Uncategorized. This post has one comment.

Yesterday, we made a trip to a kitchen shop and I got spoilt :) I got new professional baking pans (the thicker ones, they rock!), espresso cups, glass treat jar, among other things! So today I had to try out my new baking pan on a batch of macarons.

For flavours, we decided to make Jaffa and Saffron with Honey and Ginger buttercream. I am a sucker for orange and chocolate, one of my favourite combinations! The other was chosen by chance when I picked up a jar of interesting looking “Ginger in Honey” from the supermarket. I thought saffron might be an interesting compliment to the flavour. I added saffron threads into the shells, with yellow powder colouring. I added dried ground ginger to the buttercream, along with the ginger in honey, and a tiny dash of thickened cream.

Apples even got a special macaron of her own, using her favourite chicken liver paste as a special filling.

She wants it!!

“No Apples!! Leave it………”

She got it :)

For the jaffa, I added powdered orange colouring to the shells. I made an orange chocolate mousse for the filling by boiling a sliced orange (+zest) in cream. Once boiled, I strained the large parts out of the cream mix, and added the hot cream mixture on top of equal amount of chopped good quality chocolate (300ml cream = 300g chocolate etc.) I mixed this till smooth and melted, then placed in the fridge to thicken up. After about half an hour, I removed from the fridge, and beat with an electric mixer on medium for about 3 minutes, or until it was light and fluffy in texture, and also lighter in colour. Done!

SO! Have you ever thought of making macarons? The shells are only made from four ingredients, easy enough (!), but they can be a temperamental and fussy little cookie sometimes! I’ve tried to put in some tips that have really helped me in the recipe below, enjoy, and if you’ve been thinking about attempting macarons, please give it a go!

Macarons

Makes approximately 60 completed macarons

Ingredients:

• 170g egg white
• 240g almond meal
• 240g PURE icing sugar
• 240g castor sugar
• 58g water

NOTE: The ingredients all depend on the weight of the egg white you’re using. To adjust, just select the quantity of egg white, and then multiply by 1.35 to get the quantity of almond meal, icing sugar and castor sugar, and divide by 3 to get the quantity of water.

Method:

1. Prepare your baking tins with sheets of baking paper. I free-pipe circles of mixture now, but I used to draw circles on as a guide. Up to you!
2. Leave egg whites to “age” if time allows. This means leaving your egg white out at room temperature for anywhere from a few hours to three days. I’m not very good at planning ahead, so I usually leave my egg whites out in the morning and make the macs in the afternoon.
3. Sift the almond meal and icing sugar into a large bowl. You need to sift the mixture, this will give your macaron a smooth top.
4. Place half of your egg white (weight it!) on top of the almond meal mixture, and mix into a paste. 
5. Place the remaining egg white in a clean, dry bowl of a mixer.
6. Place your sugar and water in a saucepan over the stove of medium heat. At the same time, immediately start your mixer on medium speed on the egg white (we want soft peaks before the sugar is ready to take off the stove).
7. Using a digital thermometer, monitor the temperature of the water and sugar mixture, once the mixture reaches 115 degrees celcius, take off the stove and immediately pour down the sides of the mixer into your egg whites (beater should still be running).
8. Continue to run the beater on medium for the next 5 minutes, until you have a lovely glossy meringue that has increased in size. The meringue is ready when you lift the beater from the mix and get a “bird beak” on the end (a picture speaks a thousand words, see below!)
9. With a spatula, mix in one third of the meringue with your almond meal mixture. This will loosen up the mixture before you can fold the rest of the meringue in. It’s a great time to add colours to the paste before you add the meringue.
10. Now, the “macronage”, that is, mixing in the meringue with the almond meal mixture! Pour the rest of the meringue in the bowl, and using the spatula, fold the mixture about 50 times (yep, I count!) or until you have a thick ribbon that flows from your spatula when you lift it from the mixture. You want it to be very well incorporated, but not runny!
11. Fill your piping bag with the mixture, and pipe even circles onto your baking sheets. You need to hold the piping bag directly above the sheet, not on an angle, so that you get nice round shapes. The macaron should spread and the little lumps and bumps from piping it should disappear within 30 seconds. If the macaron mixture is not settling out and looking smooth, mix the batter some more before piping again.
12. Leave the piped mixture to dry for AT LEAST 30 min. This is crucial. You want a ‘skin’ to develop on your macaron before you bake it. If you don’t have a skin, your macarons won’t have nice pretty feet (the frilly part of the macaron) and the tops may crack in the oven. You’ll know when it’s developed a skin when you lightly touch the macaron and it doesn’t stick to your finger. Did you notice the heart shaped mac below? Couldn’t help myself ;)
13. Preheat the oven to 150 degrees celcius. Place one tray of macarons in the oven on the centre shelf and bake for 11 minutes, opening the oven after 5 minutes to turn the tray 180 degrees so they cook evenly. You should see the little ‘feet’ of the macaron springing up within the first five minutes. I have to admit that I usually (OKAY, ALWAYS) anxiously wait in front of the oven door for this moment… it’s still just as exciting as the first time that I made macarons!
14. Remove the tray from the oven, grab a damp sponge, and give your kitchen counter a quick wipe to dampen it. Then remove your baking paper and macarons from your oven tray and place straight on the bench. The thermal shock will help you remove the macarons from the baking paper! They should be easy to remove, if they are sticky, cook your next batch for longer, or at a slightly higher temperature. Everyone’s oven is different! The picture below shows what the bottoms should look like.
15. Match your macarons with one that is similar size and shape :) Pipe a decent dollop of your desired filling onto one side, and then sandwich the macaron halves together, twisting as your push down (like the opposite of trying to pull apart an Oreo!! ;)).
16. Sit back and admire your hard work :) Store your macarons in the fridge overnight for the flavours to develop… if you can wait that long!

Any questions, PLEASE ask! :)

Posted by tinytimtams & filed under Baking, Uncategorized. This post has 3 comments.