Salad

I think everybody knows Chinese people do not eat salad and Dr Marie has asked me to prepare a bowl of salad for her son's party today.  Here is the salad I prepared.



From left to right - pomegranate, cherry tomatoes quartered, 200 grams Duchy feta cheese - 0.5 cm cubed, sweet corn 160 grams, raisins - 2 handfuls, 5 large carrots, 5 stalks of celery and 3 eating apples and the middle are 4 sweet gem lettuce and coriander leaves which will be used for garnish.

For the dressing, I used extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and sugar.

Everybody who ate the salad really liked. 

I did not add cucumber because Dr Marie's son is allergic to this vegetable. I did not onions or spring onions or white or black pepper because I suffer from acid reflux. There were people in the party who cannot eat hot food and I therefore did not add chillies.

The cost of the above ingredients was £8.  All ingredients were bought from Waitrose and we fed 30 guests. 

At the end of the party, at tea time, I made these lovely little chocolate cakes for the guests.

Sonya's Chocolate Cake

Dr Marie has a granddaughter living in Germany, whose name is Sonya. When Sonya was 16 years old, she asked me to make her a chocolate cake. I told her I would make one for her in two years time. So here is the chocolate cake I have made for her.

 

Swiss butter cream recipe

1/3 pint or 6.67 fl oz [189 ml] egg white
10 oz [280 grams] golden caster sugar 
1 lb [450 grams] unsalted butter

In a water bath heat up the egg white and sugar until the mixture reaches 88 C. You need to keep stirring to stop the egg white being cooked.

Then whisk the egg white and sugar at high speed, using a tabletop cake mixer like Kenwood Chef for 5 minutes until the temperature of the egg white approaches room temperature. By then, the egg white will be whisked until stiff peaks.

Then add the butter, a little at a time. Continue to whisk and make sure that the butter cream does not curdle.

For Swiss Chocolate Butter Cream, add the melted 7 oz of very dark high quality chocolate into the butter cream.

Imperial Weights and Measures

As we have got our independence back, we should also remember our Imperial weights and measures. 

Imperial Weights

1 lb [pound] = 16 oz [ounces]
14 lb = 1 st [stone]
1 hundredweight [cwt] = 8 sts = 112 lbs


2 stones = 1 quarter
4 quarters = 1 hundredweight

20 hundredweights = 1 ton [NOT tonne and 1 tonne = 1000 kg]

Of course the only weights we use in cooking and baking are pounds and ounces - but I thought I remind you about the others as well, in case you have forgotten about stone, quarter, hundredweight and ton.

Other useful weights to remember:

1 stick of butter = 0.5 cup = 4 oz = 113 grams
200 grams = 7 oz
1 lb = 453.592 grams

In the Far East and East Asia, they also use "catty"

1 catty 斤 = 16 taels 兩
1 catty = 20 ozs

However, in China one catty is rounded to 500 grams and in Taiwan, it is rounded to 600 grams.

In general, I normally weigh ingredients instead of using volume measures. However, for the fatless sponge cake, Misia uses cup sizes and thus you will notice the 2/3 cup of flour.  

However, most of us use volume to measure liquid for cooking.

Here are some useful measures to remember.

1 cup = 8 fluid ounces [fl oz] - size of traditional English china tea cup 
1 cup = 16 tablespoons [tbsp] 
1 tbsp = 3 teaspoons [tsp]

1 pint = 16 fl oz = 2 cups 

1 gallon = 8 pints 
1 gallon = 4 quarts
1 quart = 2 pints

1 litre = 1.75975 pints
1 pint = 568.261 ml
1 gallon = 4.54609 litre 

Distance

12 inches = 1 foot
3 feet = 1 yard
1760 yards = 1 mile

1 inch = 2.54 cm
3.28 feet = 1 meter
1.61 Km = 1 mile

However, we just have to think about inches when we are cooking or baking.

4 inches roughly equal to 10 cm
6 inches roughly equal to 15 cm
8 inches roughly equal to 20 cm
10 inches roughly equal to 25 cm
12 inches roughly equal to 30 cm

And finally, you should have noticed our eggs are sold in 6 or 12 - this is because 

12 items makes a dozen
and there are 20 in a score
1 gross = 12 dozen = 144 

I hope you find the above useful in reclaiming our heritage!

Fatless Sponge Cake & Cream Cake

Deacon Julio and Seminarian Daniel, brothers from my community, are coming for a late lunch today. I am serving Valencian paella and we are having a cream cake for dessert. 

The cream cake is made from a fatless sponge.  Misia, a Polish friend, shared with me her fatless sponge recipe and I have modified her recipe and this is my version of Misia's fatless sponge. 



Ingredients:

5 large free range eggs [12 oz with shells] - separated 
3/4 cup sugar golden caster sugar - 6 oz - divide this into two equal portions 
2/3 cup McDougalls Supreme Sponge - 3 oz
2/3 cup potato flour - I use mąka ziemniaczana, Polish potato flour 4 oz 
a little Valencian orange oil - I am sure you can use vanilla extract instead or any other flavourings of your liking 

There is no raising agent, butter or oil in this fatless sponge cake recipe.

Line an 8 inch or 20 cm round baking tin.
Sift the two types of flour together.
Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of cream of tartar and then add half of the sugar, a tablespoon at a time and whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks.
Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until white and fluffy.
Fold in the sifted flour into the whisked egg yolks and then add the orange oil.
Fold in the whisked egg whites and then pour the cake mixture into the prepared 8 inch round baking tin. 
Bake the cake mixture in a preheated oven at 175 C for 50 minutes. Increase the temperature to 180 C for the last 10 minutes of baking time. 
When the cake is cooked, cool the cake on a cooling rack.



For filling and decorating the cake, I used the following:

600 ml [1 pt or 20 fl oz] double cream
icing sugar - as much or as little as you wish
400 grams [14 ozs] strawberries 
your favourite liqueur
Valencian orange oil or any flavour of your choice
strawberry jam

The cake should rise to over 3 inches tall and slice the cake into three equal cross sections.
Drizzle each cross section of the cake with your favourite liqueur liberally.
Whip the double cream, flavour it with orange oil, sweeten with icing sugar to taste.
Extract some of of the whipped double cream and add some chopped fresh strawberries. [You need to reserve 14 - 16 strawberries, depending on size for decorating the top of the cake.]
Spread strawberry jam liberally on each cross section.
Then fill the cake with whipped cream and chopped strawberries.
Then cover the cake with whipped cream and place strawberries on the top edge of the cake and scatter rainbow 100s and 1000s.
Refrigerate the decorated cake for at least an hour to allow the whipped cream to set before serving.  



This cake will cut 14 slices but some people might eat 2 or 3 slices! 

Tortilla Española, Spanish Tortilla

Sam Skinner, a brother from my community, came to visit today and I made Spanish omelette for him and he ate this with Qingdao beer 青島啤酒.



I thought I would share with you my recipe for making Tortilla Española or otherwise better known as Spanish omelette.

I have used many types of potatoes to make Spanish omelette and my favourite is Vivaldi potatoes. 

450 grams [16 oz] Vivaldi baking potatoes - peeled and sliced finely
4 free range eggs - I use medium size eggs 
1/2 a medium size onion - peeled and diced finely
3/4 tsp Himalayan salt
freshly ground white pepper to taste
extra virgin olive oil

In a hot frying pan, sauté the thinly sliced potatoes on both sides in olive oil - do not brown the potatoes and sprinkle some diced onions.
When the sliced potatoes are cooked, drop these into the beaten eggs and sprinkle the salt and pepper. 
The potatoes need to be sautéd in batches - perhaps five batches for this amount of potatoes.
Let the potatoes soak in the beaten egg for half an hour or so.
In a 20 cm round frying pan, cook the omelette on both sides, turning over the omelette with the help of a plate. 
Do not over cook the omelette and the inside of the omelette should be moist - which means it should be slightly runny. 

Dehraduni Basmati Rice

Dehraduni basmati rice is from North India, grown in Dehradun, Uttar Pradesh by the Himalayan foothills. 

My neighbour, Ajun's mother, from number 18, Bhavna comes from Dehradun and she has given me 5 oz of this rice, which could feed two people.  It is an old rice and thus it is yellow in colour. It is best to use old rice when cooking pulao. 

She reminded me that I should soak the rice grains before cooking. I have therefore washed the rice grains several times in cold water, without breaking the rice grains, and soaked the rice grains salted water for four hours prior boiling the rice in 1.5 L of salted water for 6 minutes before draining the rice and then placing the rice on a bed on sliced potatoes with 50 grams [2 oz] butter and a little Himalayan salt in a closed pan and cook in low heat for over an hour. This method is described already in my post on Chicken Pulao. 

The purpose of today's post is to experiment cooking Dehradun basmati rice and to evaluate the quality of the rice to help me decide if I want to buy this rice instead of sella rice. 

Evaluation:
I have now cooked, served and eaten the Dehraduni basmati rice and I have concluded that it is not as robust as Pakistani sella rice. It does not have the fragrant associated with basmati rice. Dehraduni basmati rice is very expensive and the cheapest which I have found, can be bought from HDS Food. However, the rice is better than any of the basmati I have used, which could be found from normal supermarkets in London. 

Notes: Regarding the sizes of cups. A universal cup is 8 fluid ounces or 227 ml. An espresso is 90 ml in size and a rice cup is 150 ml in size. Fr Jose thinks a person can eat 90 ml of rice and Dr Marie thinks 150 ml cup can serve two people. As for me, I eat 2 tbsp of rice per meal.  However, as I am doing this experiment on Dehradun basmati rice, I am cooking all the rice which my neighbour has kindly given to me, which is 150 ml of rice, which is roughly about 5 oz. 

Paella

Joe and Joan Fernandes from the US are coming for lunch on Tuesday 5th July and Dilip, Dr Marie's son, has come home from India, who is also joining Dr Marie and me for lunch. Joe is a surgeon, trained in Italy at Padua University. Joan is a counsellor. So there are lots of very educated people for lunch!  

Paella originated from Valencia, Spain and in this post I will share with you my Valencian paella recipe.



First of all, I want to thank Fr José Manuel Hernández Castellón, who is from Valencia, who has helped me to perfect my paella Valenciana.  He wrote to me last year that my paella is as good as his mother's and I think this is an excellent commendation. 

Paella is both the dish and the pan in which this rice dish is cooked. I do not have a paella pan and I use either my skillet or my wok. I do not see the point of buying lots of pots and pans.

The most important part of paella is the rice - not the chicken or vegetables and the rice grains must not stick to one another and yet it must be cooked. The rice must be tasty and it must not be soaking in a soup - this dish should be dry. 

Ingredients - to feed 4 people [250 grams rice] or 5 people [300 grams rice]

1.5 kg [just over 3 lbs in weight] corn fed chicken or free range fresh chicken - cut into ten pieces depending on the size of the chicken - do not remove the skin of the chicken
450 ml fresh chicken stock - very hot [as in boiling hot] [540 ml if you are using 300 grams of rice] + more chicken stock
1 Kallo organic chicken stock cube
250 grams arroz bomba [a special paella rice from Valencia] and I use the brand La Fallera, which is recommended by Fr José
2 tsp Hungarian paprika - the best paprika in the world comes from Hungaria
a few good pinches of good quality Iranian saffron soaked in 20 ml cold water overnight - the best saffron in the world comes from Iran 
1 tsp Himalayan salt
3 sprigs of rosemary [optional] washed - I use rosemary from the garden
3 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 lemon - cut into wedges for serving
12 langoustines, crayfish or king prawns with shells - I soak these king prawns in vodka and salt as soon as I get home from the shops and refrigerate the prawns until I need them - allow 2 king prawns per person 
any green beans such as stringless beans, helda beans, sugar snap peas - allow 2 stringless beans or helda beans per person and I cut these into 2 inch lengths - alternatively, use 100 grams sugar snap peas or any other green beans such as French beans - I am using sugar snap peas today because Waitrose is selling these at discounted price 
200 grams [7 oz] cooked butter beans  I use butterbeans from a tin from Wairtose
200 grams [7 oz] artichokes - I use artichokes from a tin from Waitrose

There are no peppers or onions or chorizo or any sausages in the original Valencian paella!  Originally, there was no seafood in Valencian paella, and the original Valencian paella had a mixture of rabbit and chicken. I cannot eat rabbit because the bone structure of rabbit reminds me of little Charlemagne. However, Fr Jose informs me that one can add other seafood if one wants to make a modern paella. 

I add the stock cube, paprika, saffron liquid, salt into the fresh, boiling hot, homemade chicken stock in a separate cooking pot. 

Sauté the king prawns in a frying pan after washing off the salt and alcohol, remove and set aside when the prawns turn pink and whatever you do, do not overcook the prawns!

Chickens have a strange, smelly odour, at least those from London, and I dislike this smell.  I therefore add shallots and ginger to my paella to get rid of this smell. The original paella does not have these two ingredients perhaps because the chickens in Spain eat natural food. I slice and julienne these finely and sauté these in the extra virgin olive oil before I sauté the chicken pieces. One should not be able to taste or smell or see these two secret ingredients at the end of the cooking. 

I then add extra virgin oil - yes extra virgin oil - into my largest cooking pan [whose bottom is 25 cm or 10 inch in diameter] and add the finely sliced shallot and finely minced ginger and then I sauté the chicken pieces. When the chicken pieces have been browned on both sides, I removed the chicken pieces and set these aside. [Note: I do not sauté the chicken breast pieces because if the breast of chicken were to be over cooked, it would not taste good.

I then pick a leaf off the Indians in making pulao and fried the rice grains. The Indians fry their rice grains when making pulao to ensure the rice grains to not stick together. I then add the hot boiling chicken stock with all above mentioned ingredients into the rice grains. I then place the chicken pieces on top of the rice and chicken stock. I then add beans on top of the rice and around the chicken.

About half way in the cooking process, I checked on the rice and I felt that it needed more liquid and I therefore spooned hot boiling chicken stock on those uncooked rice grains which were protruding from the paella. I must have added about four tablespoons additional hot boiling stock. 

When the liquid is almost absorbed, I add the sprigs of rosemary and the artichokes and cover the pan [the top diameter of my cooking pan is 36 cm in diameter] and let it cook in low heat for 45 minutes. The idea is for the bottom of the rice to be browned. 

After 45 minutes of slow cooking, I remove the lid of pan and rosemary, add the cooked prawns and paper kitchen towels on the top of the paella, cover the lid and let the paella stand for at least 20 minutes. I cover the pan with a blanket of towels to keep the paella warm. [The paper kitchen towels will absorb any excess liquid from the paella. In the old days, Spanish people put newspaper on top of their paella to remove any excess liquid.]

After the rice has been left to stand for 20 minutes, I add lemon wedges to the top of the paella removing paper towels. Serve the paella immediately, unless you like cold paella. 

If you do not have a weighing scale, then use 1 espresso cup [90 ml] of rice for each person and for each cup of rice, add 2 cups [180 ml] of chicken stock. The maximum amount of cooked rice you can have in a pan is 1 inch thick. [1 inch = 2.5 cm] Therefore the more people you serve, the bigger the pan you need, and the bigger the hob you need. My largest hob is 10 inch in diameter and therefore the bottom of pan I can use is also 10 inch in diameter and the maximum number of people I can serve is 4 or 5 people. 

If you are one of these people who do not like green beans to be overcooked, then you can cook the sugar snap peas separately, drop these into very cold water to stop the cooking process, and season these with a little salt and drizzle with extra virgin oil and set these aside. When you add the cooked prawns on the rice, you can add some of these cooked peas as well.  Traditionally, the Spanish would overcook the beans and they seem to like overcooked beans. 

In the old days in Valencia, poor people ate paella. They caught rabbits from their surrounding areas, killed a chicken which had been running around their garden and cooked these with rice and beans. However, other people started cooking paella, they began to add exotic ingredients and made this dish into a very expensive dish.

In London, the La Fallera arroz bomba retails for £6 a kilo, which makes it the most expensive rice I keep in stock. However, Fr Jose and Seminarian Daniel have bought for me arroz bomba from Spain last year.  

Going back a couple of hundred of years, the people in Valencia cooked paella with rats - not the rats you find in the sewage in London. These were water rats which were large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodents. Nothing disgusting about these rats! And the poor people caught these rats and cook paella with them.  In the last one hundred years, they substituted these rats with rabbits and chickens. 

Spanish people sauté the chicken pieces in olive oil and they then pour water into the pan and simmer this for a time and they then pour rice into the pan in the form of a cross.  The problems with this way of cooking paella are that the chicken becomes insipid and the taste of the rice is also not optimal. This is why I use homemade chicken stock instead of water and let the chicken pieces sit on top of rice and while the rice is being cooked, the chicken pieces are being steamed cooked. 

Arroz means rice and bomba means bomb in English. Rice was introduced into Spain by the Muslims who ruled Spain for some 800 years. So when I meet Fr Jose, I often remind him that he is half muslim! LOL! A joke! 

I have a friend who finds arroz bomba very difficult to digest and she has suggested substituting this rice with others. My other Spanish friends who live in London use basmati rice.  As arroz bomba is difficult to digest, Spanish people eat paella for lunch and not for dinner. 

However, I will continue to use La Fallera arroz bomba to make paella.

Huntun 餛飩

Dorothy Vas from Mangalore [Mangaluru] India, Susanna Okafor from Switzerland, Dr Marie my neighbour, came for lunch today and we had huntun miantang 餛飩麵湯 and Victoria sandwich for afters.  

Chinese people had been making huntun miantang 餛飩麵湯 [huntun noodles soup] for over 2 000 years and this dish had been recorded in Chinese historical records.  

Perhaps you know this dumpling by its Cantonese name wonton 雲吞. 

Chinese people buy huntun skins [wrappers] from Chinese supermarkets. There are two types of huntun skins - Cantonese and Shanghainese. I use Cantonese huntun skin and it is labelled as 雲吞皮 on the package. There are 64 wrappers in this pack of 400 grams of huntun skins. 



I imagine it is possible to make huntun skins if one were to have a pasta machine as the skin has to be very thin. The Shanghai wrapper has no eggs and the Cantonese wrapper has added eggs. 

Therefore one has to make the filling for the huntun.  Here is my recipe for the filling. You will need 600 grams of huntun skins to use up all of this filling below. 

500 grams of free range lean pork - minced
200 grams of prawns with its shells - uncooked prawns - about 180 grams of prawns without shells

4 stalks of spring onions - finely sliced
1 inch ginger - finely minced

seasoning
1 tsp Himalayan salt
1 tsp sugar - huntun has to have a little sweet taste
2 tbsp soya sauce - I use Golden Orchid soya sauce

2 tbsp Chinese rice wine 紹興酒 Shaoxing rice wine
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp shallot flavoured oil 

To get rid of the fishy smell from the prawns, soak the prawns in rice wine and salt as soon as you get home from the shopping and put the soaked prawns in the fridge until you need them. Remove the shells from the prawns but do not throw the shells away. You can add the shells into the chicken stock to improve the taste the soup. In addition, you can add dried anchovies and dried prawns into the soup as well. 

Mix in the finely chopped spring onion [the green part only], finely minced ginger, with the pork. Add the above seasoning into the minced pork with the minced prawns.

Allow the mixture to stand in the fridge for at least half an hour.

How to wrap the huntun

Place one of the wrappers diagonally with one end facing you
place a teaspoon of filling on the middle of that wrapper.

Moisten the edges of the wrapper with water - you could dip your index finger on a bowl of water to moisten the edges of the wrapper.

Fold the wrapper over to a triangular shape - slightly off centre, and seal the edges.

Gently bring the wings [ends of the wrapper] together, moisten one wing and place the other wing on top of this and ensure the wings are stucked together.

Bring to boil 3 litres of water and the water boils, add the wrapped huntun into the boiling water. When the huntun floats to top, fish the huntuns out and drop these into cold water, if you are not going to serve these immediately. 




Huntun Mian 餛飩麵

Mian you should know this Chinese word. Everybody knows chaomian 炒麵, which is stir fried noodles. So huntun mian are the noodles which are eaten with huntun. You can buy huntun mian in two forms - one fine and the other broad. For this lunch, I am using the broad version because the fine version did not look very good in the shops yesterday when I went to get the ingredients for this lunch. 

There are five portions of noodles in this 400 grams pack. However, for small eaters, you could share each portion of noodles wtih two people. 

When the guests have arrived, bring to boil 3 litres of water and when the water is boiling, add some of the huntun noodles into hot water and boil for a couple of minutes. Then add the drained cooked huntun. When the huntun is hot, noodles are cooked, drain these and add these onto a bowl. Add 200 ml of hot boiling soup onto the huntun and noodles. Top with some vegetables, if you wish.

The recipe of how to make stock for the soup has already been explained in the post on chicken pulao.



We finished the meal with a Victoria sandwich to celebrate the English independence with green tea. 



An alternative way to serve huntun mian - the Cantonese lo mien 撈麵: - After cooking the noodles, toss the cooked noodles with some oyster sauce and soya sauce - do not add too much oyster sauce, as it is very salty. The put the noodles on a plate with some cooked vegetables and with the cooked huntun - I serve 8 huntun parcels per person.  Finally, sprinkle the whole dish with a little sesame oil. Serve with the hot soup on the side. I serve 200 ml of soup per person.  

Chicken Pulao

On this Sunday after Thursday's independence, I am posting this Independence Chicken Pulao, which is also known as chicken pilaf, to celebrate our independence.

The rice cooked in a wok

How the rice dish is presented - rice in the bottom of the bowl, with cooked vegetables in the middle layer and chicken pieces on the top

I use sella rice to make this dish. One needs to soak the rice the night before and I normally soak sella rice in water with a little salt for at least 24 hours before cooking the rice.

If you were to buy a rice cooker, you get a plastic cup which is a little more than a quarter of a pint [150 ml]. And I use 5 cups of sella rice.

I also soak the saffron the night before and I soak it in room temperature water in a little cup.

For this amount of rice, I use two small chickens - each chicken is under two and half pounds in weight [1.2 kg chicken].

Cook each chicken separately in just over 100 fluid ounces [3 L] of water with half an onion, one teaspoon of Himalayan salt, a handful of black peppercorns, and a few slices of ginger. When the water is boiling, I slowly put the chicken in the pot and at high heat I wait for the liquid in the pot to come to a boil.  When it starts boiling, I lower the temperature and set the timer for 10 minutes. You need to make sure the liquid is constantly boiling during these ten minutes. The pot too needs to be covered and I use a pot with a glass lid so I can see that the liquid is boiling and adjust the heat accordingly. At the end of the ten minutes. I switch off the heat and put the pot aside without lifting the lid and allow the chicken to continue cooking in the hot liquid for an hour. At the end of the hour, I remove the chicken, and allow the chicken to cool so I am able to handle the chicken. When the chicken is cooled enough for me to handle, I remove and dispose of the skin, the parson's nose and any bits of the chicken which I do not like. I then remove the cooked flesh and put the bones back into the stock and let that boil for another hour. At the end of the hour, I fish out the bones, black peppercorns, sliced ginger, onion and dispose of these ingredients. I then season the liquid with enough Himalayan salt to taste and also add two Kallo organic chicken stock cubes into the liquid.

The five cups of rice and two small chickens should be able to feed 8 people.

I also prepare some spices. Which spice you use is very personal. The minimum should be one cinnamon stick and handful of cardamon pods. However, I also use three star anise and three pieces of dried mace. If these whole spices do not look clean, do not be afraid to wash these whole spices in cold running water. 

Get 100 fluid ounce [3 L] of seasoned stock boiling, drain the soaked rice onto a colander and when the stock is boiling, slowly and carefully pour the drained rice into the boiling stock.  You need to cook the rice in hot liquid for 8 minutes and you start counting the eight minutes from when the stock starts bubbling and you also need to keep stirring the rice grains gently without breaking them. By the end of the 8 minutes, the rice grains should have elongated to twice its original length at a minimum. On the 7th minute, that is with only one minute to go, add the whole spices to the stock and rice. At 8 minutes, drain the rice onto a colander. 

Meanwhile, on a large non stick pot, add about 2 ounces [50 grams] of butter and when it is hot and melted, add a little shallot fragrant oil, and add slices of a peeled potato. I normally do this at the same time as cooking the soaked rice for eight minutes. When the rice is 90 percent cooked, the large non stick pot is ready with the fried sliced potato.

I gently add the 90 percent cooked rice on top of the potato, and then pour the soaked saffron and liquid on top of the rice. I cover the pan and cook in low heat for at least one hour.  And if your guests are late by a few minutes it does not matter as this could be cooked for perhaps one hour and 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I fry some sliced shallots, cashew nuts and sultanas for garnish.

When it comes to serving the rice, I fill a large serving bowl with the rice, add cooked vegetables on top of the rice, the chicken pieces and the guests can add the cashew nuts, sultanas and shallots on top of their rice. 

You can also serve green salad and cherry tomatoes with the rice dish and perhaps some yogurt as well, if you wish. 

I hope you will try this chicken pulao dish to celebrate our independence.

For those people who do not know how much is 100 fluid ounce, it is about 3 litres and a quarter of a pint is about 150 ml.  Two and a half pounds is about 1.2 kg. 

Cream Puffs

Cream puffs were the first thing I learnt to bake as a child.  



Some Europeans call this dessert profiteroles.

7 fl oz [200 ml] water

½ oz [14 grams] caster sugar 
a pinch of salt (optional - some people do not salt in their desserts!)

3 oz [85 grams] unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing or use a silicon mat or silicon cases

4 oz [113 grams] good quality flour - about 11 percent protein content

3 medium free-range eggs, beaten – may not use all of the eggs 

Method for making the pastry casing

Preheat the oven to 200 C fan baking mode.  If your oven is in fahrenheit then you will need to set it to 400 F and that would be gas mark 6. 

For making of the pastry casing: place the water, sugar, salt and butter into a saucepan with a heavy base. Heat gently until the butter has melted – the butter should have melted before the water boils! Turn up the heat, then quickly pour in the sifted flour all in one go. Turn off the heat, if you are using an induction hob [if you use a gas stove or other electrical hob, remove the pan from the stove] and beat the mixture vigorously until a smooth paste is formed. Once the mixture comes away from the side of the pan, allow the mixture to cool, perhaps for 10-15 minutes.

Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, until the mixture is smooth and glossy and has a soft dropping consistency - you may not need all the eggs.

Lightly grease a large baking sheet or use a silicon sheet or cases. Using a piping bag and plain with a ½ inch [1.25 cm] nozzle, pipe the mixture into small balls in lines across the baking sheet. Gently rub the top of each ball with a wet finger - this helps to make a crisper top.  You should be able to pipe 20 pastry cases.

Place a small roasting tin on the bottom shelf of the oven to heat.

Place the baking sheet into the middle of a heated oven. Before closing the oven door, pour half a cup of boiling water into the roasting tin at the bottom of the oven, then quickly shut the door. This helps to create steam in the oven and this will make the pastry cases rise better. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden-brown - if the pastry cases are too pale they will become soggy when they cool down. If you are using a steam oven, then you will not need to have a roasting tin on the bottom shelf of the oven. 

Remove pastry cases from the oven and turn the oven off. Prick the base of each pastry case with a skewer. Place back onto the baking sheet with the hole in the base facing upwards and return to the oven for five minutes. The warm air from the oven will help to dry out the middle of the pastry cases. 

When the pastry cases have been cooled, pipe whipped sweetened double cream [600 ml - about 1 pint] into the cases and pour cold chocolate sauce on the cream puffs before serving. One would need a pint of double cream for 20 cream puffs. 

Space and Music Cake

Nav has ordered a sample cake for her son Chet's 18th birthday.  Here are pictures of the sample cake. The inside is a Victoria sandwich with strawberry jam filling and Swiss butter cream is used to glue the icing to the cake.

At the moment the weather in England is very hot and humid. Hence the icing on the cake is sweating! You might be able to see the sweating cake in these pictures.

Chet's interests includes space and music and you will see symbols of these on the cake. 

Vinay 18th Birthday 22 June 2016

Vinay is celebrating his 18th birthday today - 22 June 2016

Many happy returns of the day - Vinay

Vinay is a chocoholic and therefore I made a chocolate cake covered with ganache.

Osita and Bijal Wedding Cake

Dr Osita Okafor is marrying Dr Bijal Shah today and I have the privilege to make their wedding cake.  The cake is painted with a pink gold luster, including the flowers. The pictures were taken at sunrise this morning so the cake could look romantic! 

Congratulations Dr and Mrs Osita Okafor - and why are we so sexist that Dr Bijal Shah is now known as Mrs Osita Okafor!  Anywhere I am not here to fight with society!



I have also made extra cakes - one eggless cake and two chocolate marble cake - one glazed with icing and another with ganache.

Queen's 90th birthday cake

We had a community celebration for the Queen's 90th birthday today and I made a special Victoria sponge cake.

One layer is filled with strawberries, cream and strawberry jam another with blue berries, cream and wild blue berry jam and the top with fruits like the Union Jack. 

The cake was 10 inch in diameter and about 4 inches tall, enough for 30 slices.