All That Fudge

I've been looking for a good fudge brownie for ages and have tried a bunch of recipes but never really got the feel. But today, I finally found a recipe that worked wonders and yielded the best fudge brownies I've ever tasted - soft, rich and absolutely fudgy!

Ingredients
4 large Eggs
1 1/4 cups Cocoa
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Espresso Powder
1 teaspoon Vanilla
1 cup Unsalted Butter
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour
2 cups Chocolate Chip

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9"x13" pan.
2. Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat them with the cocoa, salt, baking powder, espresso powder and vanilla until smooth.
3. In a saucepan, melt the butter & add the sugar. Keep heating and mixing the butter/sugar mixture. Don't let it boil. The heat will allow more sugar to mix into the butter and this will yield a shinier top top-coat on your brownies.
4. Add the hot butter/sugar mixture to the egg/cocoa mixture, stirring until smooth.
5. Add the flour and the chips. If you want the chips to stay whole, wait for the batter to to cool, about 20 mins, and then fold them into the batter.
6. Spoon the batter into the greased pan and bake for 30 mins or until the cake-testing toothpick comes out either clean or with only a few crumbs on it.

Best eaten hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top! :-)

The French Connection

I never really liked soup. I didn't understand the point of soup really. Until one day when my Grandfather and I were discussing culinary specialties & he told me that he loved French Onion soup. From that day onward, the name was stuck in my head. I have been looking for some place promises me a good French Onion but couldn't find any. The restaurants were either too disappointing as a whole or too expensive. So I decided to make it myself. The recipe I found on the internet looked good and easy but it called for red wine. Can't just pour in some alcohol into a bowl of soup and serve it to my Muslim family now can I? lol

But I substituted it with some vinegar to deglaze the pan and some honey for the sweetness. Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients
1/2 cup Unsalted Butter
4 Onions, sliced
2 cloves of Garlic, chopped
2 Bay Leaves
2 fresh Thyme sprigs
Kosher salt & freshly ground Black Pepper, as per taste
1/4 cup Vinegar
1 teaspoon Honey
3 heaping tablespoons All-Purpose Flour
2 quarts Beef Broth
5 slices Bread, cut into quarters
1 pack mozarella, grated

Directions

1. Melt the stick of butter in a large pot over medium heat.
2. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, thyme and salt & pepper. Cook until the onions are very soft and caramelized, about 25 mins.
3. Add the vinegar and honey, bring to boil and reduce the heat. Simmer until the vinegar had evaporated and the onions are seemingly dry, about 5 mins.
4. Discard the bay leaves and thyme.
5. Dust onions with flour and give them a stir. Turn heat to medium-low so that the flour doesn't burn and cook for 10 mins to cook out the raw flour taste.
6. Now add the beef broth, bring the soup back to a simmer and cook for 10 mins.
7. Arrange the bread pieces on a baking sheet in a single layer and top with mozarella and bake for 15 mins or until the mozarella had completely melted. (Alternate method: Ladle the soup into bowls, top with a slice of bread and then top that with some grated mozarella and pop the bowl into the oven for 15 mins.)
8. Ladle the soup into bowls, top with the mozarella croutons & enjoy.

Chinese Time: Chicken Chow Mein!

I have a thing for noodles or pasta of whatever you want to call them. My love for them keeps me looking for new recipes that I can try; the most recent noodle adventure being Chicken Chow Mein. I found a very easy recipe on the internet & made a few changes. Didn't get quite the results I was hoping for but still it was worth the try. Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
250g Medium Egg Noodles
2 tablespoons Oil
1 tablespoons Sesame Oil
2 cloves of Garlic, chopped
4 Chicken Breasts, thinly slices
1/2 cup Chicken Broth or 1 Chicken-Flavor Cube
1 teaspoon Salt
2 teaspoons White Pepper
1 large Bell Pepper (whatever color you want), thinly sliced
110g Sweet Corn
8 Spring Onions, cut into thin strips
3 tablespoons Soy Sauce

Directions:

1. Put a large pan of water on boil. Add noodles and cook until al dente.
2. Heat both oils in a large saucepan, add garlic and stir-fry for 30 seconds.
3. Add chicken broth, salt and pepper to the oil.
4. Add chicken and stir-fry for 5 minutes or until cooked.
5. Remove from pan with a draining spoon and set aside.
6. Add bell pepper and stir-fry for 4 minutes, then add corn and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add spring-onion and stir-fry for 1 minute.
7. Return chicken to the pan and add the noodles.
8. Add soy sauce & heat through, tossing the mix for 2 minutes.

Original Recipe: http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/8458/chicken-chow-mein.aspx

Apple Pie!

I love autumn. It is probably my most favorite season of all. It's not too chilly and it's not hot. Plus the leaves are changing color and they go all crunch under your feet. What's not to love?

Also, when I think about autumn, the first thing that comes to my mind is cinnamon. I LOVE cinnamon! It is my absolute favorite spice. And cinnamon tastes best with apples and that's where you get apple pie with loads of cinnamon in it - perfect autumn dessert.

So, I got around to looking for the perfect Apple Pie recipe but all the recipes that I found asked for a pre-baked pie-crust. Then I had to go and look for a pie-crust recipe. But in the end I found easy recipes for both & combined them. Here goes:

For the crust:

Ingredients:
4 cups All-Purpose Flour
1 3/4 cups Shortening (or Oil)
3 Tablespoons White Sugar
2 teaspoons Salt
1 Egg
1/2 cup Water

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, shortening, sugar, and salt. Blend together with a pastry cutter until crumbly.
2. In a small bowl, mix egg with water. Blend into flour mixture. Knead through until slightly firm. Divide into 2 balls and roll both out to 1/2 cm thickness.
3. Once rolled out, take a knife and cut 1-inch thick strips out of one of the crusts.

Original Recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ruths-Grandmas-Pie-Crust/ 

For the Filling:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter

3 Tablespoons All-Purpose Flour

1/4 cup Water

1/4 cup White Sugar

1/4 cup Packed brown sugar

8 Granny Smith Apples

1 Lemon

2 teaspoon Cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.

2. Core & slice the apples and squeeze the lemon juice on them so that they don't go brown. Put in the cinnamon and mix gently until apples are coated well with the cinnamon.

3. Place the bottom crust of in a 9-inch pie pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover by placing the dough strips in a crisscross manner. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it doesn't run off.

4. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 dergrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35-45 minutes or until apples are soft.

Original Recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/apple-pie-by-grandma-ople/