Long Weekend 17-20 May 2012

Whew... it has been years since I wrote again.

Now... updates... I'm still working, I still love travelling, I still love eating, I'm a wife now but the new addition to this is I learn to love cooking :)

Hahaha... even I still can't believe it either... there I said it... I start to love cooking (but with help for sure).

So for these 4 days of long holiday weekend I wanted to make 4 dishes :

1. Peanut butter cookie dough brownies - I got the recipe from Rachel Ray's website

2. Baked white sauced salmon - recipe from www.detik.com

3. Organic Greens with Feta Cheese Bonbon - recipe from www.detik.com

4. Deviled Ham Croque Madam - I got the recipe from Rachel Ray's website

Trying not to be a narcist to my own cooking I have to say I luv them :)

Especially the peanut butter cookie dough brownies... even my hubby said that he really really loves it yeayyy...

Here's the recipes for all 4 foods I made :

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownies

Ingredients :

1. Brownie Layer

• Nonstick cooking spray (don't have them, I just use softened room temperature butter)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (around 100gr)
• 4 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate (around 115 gr, I used 3 squares colata dark cooking chocolate)
• 1 teaspoon (Tsp) Vanilla extract 
• 1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup sugar)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoon (Tbsp) all purpose flour - Tepung Kunci
• 1/2 Tsp baking powder
• 1/2 Tsp salt
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips ( I used the whole 1 box colata chocolate chips)

2. Peanut butter Cookie Dough Layer

• 1/4 cup Unsalted butter, softened (around 50 gr)
• 1/2 cup Packed light brown sugar (I use the only brown sugar available in my kitchen)
• 2 Tbsp Milk
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter, NOT natural style (around 130 gr, I used Skippy chunky)
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp all purpose flour - Tepung Kunci
• 1/2 Tsp Salt

3. Ganache Layer

• 3/4 dark chocolate chips (around 180 gr, I used the rest 3 squares of the colata dark cooking chocolate to finish 1 whole box probably it's around 125 gr)
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

How to Make :

Heat oven 350 F / 180 C

Use 8x8 inches pan (pyrex) with foil hanging over the sides & spray with cooking spray (I brush with the softened room temperature butter)

1. Brownie Layer

• Microwave butter & unsweetened chocolate in microwave bowl at high power until butter is melted +/- 2 minutes. But being a non believer for microwave, I bain-marie or water bath the butter (below layer) and chocolate (upper layer) until butter and chocolate are melted.
• Remove from below pan with water then add & mix the vanilla extract.
• Meanwhile beat the sugar & eggs in a large bowl (being a lazy cook I used mixer low speed) and add in the chocolate mixture.
• Stir in the flour, baking powder, salt and 3/4 cups of chocolate chips ( I started using wooden spoon here, bye bye mixer)
• Spread the brownie mixture evenly into the pan and add the rest of the chocolate chips on top
• Bake until brownies are set & a toothpick inserted in the center of the brownies comes out clean, about 22-28 minutes
• Remove from oven & let cool completely

2. Peanut butter Cookie Dough Layer

• Add butter & brown sugar to a large bow & mix until creamy (again I use mixer at low speed for this whole dough layer process)
• Mix in the milk & peanut butter
• Then stir in the flour & salt.
• Spread the peanut butter cookie dough evenly over the cooled brownies

3. Ganache Layer

• In a small microwaveable bowl, microwave the chocolate chips & heavy whipping cream uncovered, on high  for 1 minute, stirring after 30 seconds. continue stirring until the chips are melted & mixture is smooth.
• Again... being a  non believer for microwave, I bain-marie or water bath the chocolate until it is on the verge of being melted, then add the heavy whipping cream and stir it until the mixture is smooth with a wooden spoon.
• Spread the ganache over the peanut butter layer.
• Refrigerate until dough & ganache are set +/- 1 hour.
• Cut into 16 squares ( for fun I cut into 24 squares - from the 16 squares, the first 8 squares divided in 2 again)
• Store in refrigerator (As this time I used my usual pyrex for baking, for storing I have to cover it up using plastic cling wrap, next time I will use the pyrex with lid so that I can easily cover it up with the lid without the hassle of opening and recovering it again with the cling wrap)

Baked White Sauced Salmon

Ingredients : 

150 gr Salmon fillet - cut into sashimi cuts

50 - 75 gr baby bean (In Indonesian we call it baby buncis or Phaseolus vulgaris for latin)

50 - 75 gr onion, chopped

2 - 3 cloves of garlic, crushed

50 - 75 gr white radish

Lime juice & black pepper

Aluminium foil

White Sauce :

1 Tbsp Butter

1 Tbsp All purpose flour - Tepung Kunci

100 ml Fresh milk

2 Tbsp Heavy whipping cream

1/2 Tsp Black pepper

1 Tsp Salt

How to Make :

• Coat salmon with lime and black pepper, put a side for 30 minutes
• White Sauce : Melt butter, add flour mix them well. Add milk and cream mix them till thick, add salt & pepper, put a side.
• Prepare the aluminium foil, coat lightly with butter or oil
• Start stacking the onion, garlic, radish and baby beans in this order
• Now put the salmon cuts on top of the beans and pour white sauce over it
• Wrap the aluminium foil nice and tightly, make sure there is no opening, bake it in the oven 180 C for around 30 minutes, ready to serve.

Organic Greens with Feta Cheese BonBon

Ingredients & How to make : 

For each plate :

100 gr of mix greens - organic

5 cherry tomatoes

2 feta cheese BonBon

10 ml dressing

Dressing :

100 gr canned mandarin oranges  (I used fresh ponkam oranges take out the seed) - extract using blender

2 Tsp coriander leaves

2 limes - extract the juice

1/2 tsp Black pepper

1/2 tsp Salt

Mix them all and add olive oil to your taste (in the recipe stated 200 ml but this was too much for me)

Feta cheese BonBon :

300 gr Feta cheese ( I used 150 gr)

1 tsp basil leaves, chopped

1 tsp thyme, chopped 9 since it was unavailable for the fresh ones I used dry)

3 Tbsp Onion, chopped ( I used 1 Tbsp)

2 Tbsp Garlic ( I used 1 Tbsp)

1/2 tsp black pepper

100 gr melted butter (I used 30gr)

Frozen spring roll skin, thawed (I used fresh ones as it is a lot cheaper)

Mix well all the ingredients. fill in each spring roll skin with 1 tsp of the feta cheese mix, use the butter as the glue in the at the middle. Oven or deep fry them till done.