Green Tea Soufflé

I was looking at this recipe from Just One Cookbook and inspired me to try doing this amazing green tea flavour soufflé. I actually planned for one week to do this, first I did research on many other recipe and of cos I found my favourite Michelin Chef Gordon Ramsay's video and boost my confidence to try it on. Then I plan to get the green tea powder which is not usually found at the local supermarket, so I have to get down to the Japanese supermarket in town like Isetan or Meidiya. Then I have to combine both the recipes and techniques from the 2 chefs above into one.

That's it for my long winded process....

Let's move on to the recipe which is adapted from Just One Cookbook and with my additional tips.

Before you start, I would advise you to watch these 2 youtube, then you will have a smooth sail during the whole process...

Serves: 4 (3 inch diameter ramekin)

Ingredients
For coating ramekins
unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tsp green tea powder (optional)
Mix the sugar and green tea powder in a small bowl. Brush the ramekins with butter, using upward strokes. Put in the mix sugar and green tea in one ramekin and rotate the ramekin to dust the insides and pour the excess to the next ramekin and so on. Chill in refrigerator to set.

                       

Things to take note:

1. Make sure the ramekin is dry before you brush the butter over, this is to ensure the soufflé rise evenly.
2. Make sure you brush the butter using upward strokes, this technique will push the soufflé up during baking.

3. Make sure you coat the whole inside of the ramekin from the bottom to the top edge, so they can rise evenly.

For the Soufflé

150 ml milk
100 ml heavy whipping cream (double cream)
3 large yolks
22 g granulated sugar
15 g all-purpose flour + 10 g corn flour
1 Tbsp.green tea powder

3 egg whites
44g (4 Tbsp/1.6 oz) granulated sugar

For dusting
1 Tbsp. powder (icing) sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Prepare the Ramekin.

3. Whisk egg yolk and sugar in a heatproof bowl until pale and thickened slightly.

4. Sift the flour into the egg mixture and mix well.

5. Heat the milk and heavy cream in a small saucepan until almost boiling.

6. Add a splash of hot milk mixture into the egg mixture and whisk well until the mixture is smooth. Then gradually whisk in the rest of the milk mixture.

7. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Whisk the mixture ALL TIMES over a medium-low heat for 2-3 mins until thickened and smooth. KEEP WHISKING during this process otherwise your custard will overcook and become clumpy.

8. When the custard has thickened, immediately transfer to a bowl (otherwise remaining heat from the saucepan will “overcook” the mixture). Cover with plastic wrap and cool to room temperature (you can put in the fridge to make this process faster).

9. Once the custard has cool down, sift green tea powder into the custard.

10. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl till bubbles start to form (Kitchen Aid mixer Level 3 for 2 minutes). Start adding sugar gradually a spoonful at a time. Once you add all the sugar, increase the speed to Level 8 and whisk to make a firm, glossy meringue, about 3 minutes.

11. Whisk ⅓ of the meringue into the custard and mix until homogenous.

12. Very carefully fold in the rest of the meringue using a rubber spatula. Do not over mix.

13. Spoon the soufflé mix into ramekins until half filled. Tap them on the work surface so it filled the bottom of the ramekin well and it will rise nicely in the oven. Fill in the rest of the soufflé mix to the ramekin until it is fully covered. Finally run the thumb around the edge.
p.s if its difficult to understand, please look at the Gordon's video.

14. Place the ramekins on a baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and slightly golden on top. The souffle should wobble gently in the middle when it’s ready. 

15. Finally dust with powder sugar and place on a plate and serve immediately.

This time round I managed to record how the sexy soufflé rise in the oven. So please do click on the youtube link below and enjoy....

Can you see the souffle were dancing in the oven near the end of baking time?
If you ask me what is the secret to making a successful soufflé, I would say that's because I were singing to them so they can feel my love and dance to the top and rise... :)

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Bacon Egg Muffin with Mushroom Sauce

This is actually a pretty simple breakfast to do with many kind of varieties that you can try around, you can add sausage in it or use quail egg instead of egg and etc.

For my case, I think with some mushroom sauce will be perfect as it will not be too dry to eat on its own and its an addition of nutrition.

The following recipe is for a couple portion. However you can do one whole dozen of the muffin and and eat it as it is without the mushroom sauce or adjust to your liking.

Ingredients
2 slices of bread
4 slices of bacon
2 eggs
salt and pepper
dried parsley

MUSHROOM SAUCE
350g white button mushroom (or your choice of mushroom), thinly sliced
1 tbsp butter
250 ml chicken stock
1 tsp corn starch
1 tsp garlic powder/1 clove garlic

Direction
1. Cut circle (slightly bigger than the bottom of muffin cup) out of each piece of bread. Grease the muffin tin and press the bread in the muffin cups. Place in the oven and bake at 180 degree Celsius for 5 min and then remove from oven.

2. Slightly pan fried the bacon around 5 min or until slightly crisp. Place 2 slices of bacon on top of the bread so they wrap around the sides to form a cup.

3. Crack an egg into each muffin cup. Remove some egg whites if its too excessive.

4. Bake in the oven at 180 degree Celsius around 15-18 min until the eggs are set.

5. Heat up a pan and melt the butter. Add the sliced mushroom and garlic powder and cook until fragrant. Dissolve corn starch in a small amount of water and add to chicken stock. Gradually add chicken stock and continue to stir and cook until the sauce is thickened. Add pepper and parsley to taste.

6. Place the bacon egg muffin on a plate and sprinkle some dried parsley on the egg and season with salt and pepper. Pour the mushroom sauce over it and ready to be served.

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Mini Napoleon Strawberry with Lemon Curd

I have always thought of making puff pastry desserts at home, however the thought of making the pastry has deterred me from starting one, until I found this frozen puff pastry sheet at the local supermarket and they turn out to be pretty fluffy. I was so happy with the outcome and I have started to try out a series of pastries and this time round I am sharing with you a Mini Napoleon Strawberry with Lemon Curd.

Ingredients
1 packet of pastry sheet
Icing sugar
1 box of strawberries (~500g depending on the size) you can always replace with raspberry or blueberries

LEMON CURD
4 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
2 tsp lemon rind
4 tbsp lemon juice
120g cold unsalted butter, chopped to small pieces

Direction
1. First of all you need to take out the frozen pastry from the freezer and let it thaw at room temperature for 2 hours.

2. In the meanwhile, lets prepare the lemon curd so it has time to cool down and in time to use (you can prepare one day in advance too).
   -> Whisk egg yolk and sugar in a heatproof bowl until pale and thickened slightly.
   -> Whisk in rind and juice.
   -> Stir with spatula over simmering water about 10 min or until it coats your spatula.
   -> Remove from heat and gradually whisk in butter piece by piece until well combined.
   -> Set aside to cool and refrigerate.

3. Preheat the oven to 220 degree Celsius.

4. Roll out the sheet into 3mm thickness and cut into 4cm x 12cm. Place on the baking tray with baking paper and dust the top of each pastry with sifted icing sugar. Refrigerate for 10 min and bake pastry for about 15min or until it brown slightly. Leave to cool.
Note: You can always cut the pastry into your desired shape and you may want to follow the instruction of the frozen pastry puff you bought.

5.  Using a serrated knife, carefully split each piece in half horizontally. Spread a thin layer of lemon curd on the bottom pastry and then place 2 strawberries at two ends. Squeeze more lemon curd in between the strawberries and spread a thin layer on top of the strawberries so the top pastry can stick to the strawberries. Dust some icing sugar on top of the puff. 

The following video can help to explain better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=besqto20y5s

6. Ready to be served or you can keep in refrigerator to be served later.

Bon Appétit!!!!

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