Beef wellington recipe

Almost a month late to post this and I did contemplate if it's even worthwhile to do so. But if I don't, I'll probably forget what I have cooked last Christmas. December is a magical time of the year and what better way to end the year than being surrounded by your loved ones. Hence the need to cook something fancy and cross your fingers that it will turn out alright.

Been meaning to tackle making beef wellington for a long time but due to lack of commitment, I frequently push that thought out of mind. Recipe wise, it's not complicated as long as you pay attention to seasoning, quality of ingredients and most importantly, timing. My piece of sirloin steak was not cheap and should I overcook it, it would have been a very depressing Christmas.

Ingredients:
A decent sized sirloin steak
2 sheets of puff pastry
200g of mushrooms
Rosemary
3 cloves of garlic
6 pieces of Prosciutto
70ml white wine

1. Generously season your steak with salt and pepper. Don't be stingy here.
2. Blitz mushrooms until it resembles semi-chunky crumbs (not a paste).
3. Melt butter in a pan, add your garlic and rosemary. Allow garlic to brown slightly then incorporate mushrooms. Continue to cook until mushrooms have lost most of their moisture and truly resembles crumbs at this stage. You may then add in your wine. Cook mushrooms until the wine has evaporated. Remember, you do not want a soggy dish. Voila, that's your mushroom duxelle.
4. While mushroom duxelle is cooling, heat a pan on high heat and drizzle with olive oil.
5. When the pan is smoking hot, place your sirloin steak on it. Allow about 3 minutes on each side, depending on the steak's thickness. Be careful not to overcook. Once completed, take out to cool.
6.Thaw your puff pastry sheets and neatly align the prosciutto on it before smearing on a layer of the mushroom duxelle.
7. Place the cooled steak on the mushroom duxelle and tightly wrap it with the puff pastry. Take your time.
8. Clingwrap the entire roll and refridgerate overnight.
9. Heat oven to 220C. Egg wash your wellington and feel free to dress it with leftover pieces of pastry.
10. Place wellington in the oven over a tray to prevent the juices from making the pastry soggy. Bake for 10 minutes then reduce oven temperature to 180 and bake for a further 20 minutes.
11. At this stage you may serve it or preferably, allow it to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Fruit mince tarts recipe

After coming home from Hong Kong, it feels as though Christmas and New Year is fast approaching! I have a few more Christmas recipes to try out but doubt I'll be able to make them up in time:( Oh wells, I'll try again next year..don't really want to deprive myself from have a relaxed Christmas break from work!

About a month ago, I made some fruit mince mix which consisted of about 500g of raisins/ sultanas, 100g of pitted prunes, 50g of dried currants, juice and rind of 1 orange, 100g of dried dates, 50g of cherries and about 80ml of rum. I think you can definitely mix the fruit portions to your liking or even use a different fruit as there's not really a fixed fruit mince recipe (I tried googling and eventually got confused!). I did, however, allow the fruit mix to marinate with the rum in the fridge for a good few weeks before using them.

Pastry ingredients:
300g plain flour
60g cornflour
200g butter
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 egg

Place the butter and flour in the food processor and blitz until it resembles a crumb like texture. Add your sugar and egg, continue to blitz until the mixture comes together. Cling wrap the pastry and allow to rest in the fridge for 1 hour. Roll out your pastry into the tart tins and refrigerate for an extra 30 minutes before blind baking in the oven at 160C until it appears to be almost done (still slightly blonde in colour).

I chose to under-bake as I had to bake it again after adding the fruit mince (which, by the way, had the right amount of intoxication and fruity sugar taste to it). Bake for an extra 10 minutes using the bottom heating grill before switching to the top heating grill. Bake for an extra 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Dust with a bit of icing sugar (this Christmas treat is not sweet at all, a very suitable treat for adults) and serve with a bit of ice cream if you like:)

Merry Christmas, folks!! Enjoy this festive season with loved ones:))

Gingerbread star cookies recipe

My second Christmas inspired blogpost for 2013! Was uber happy with the results as I was pretty nervous, having never made gingerbread biscuits before nor do I have them every Christmas. The last time I tasted one was around 2006 and I loved every bite.

A good gingerbread biscuit has to have the right balance of spices, sweetness and chewiness. An incorrect measurement of any of these components can retard the biscuit batter and can be a painful process (do not like to throw away failed attempts but at the same time, I can't afford to put my health at risk!).

Have obtained this recipe from Gourmet Traveller and I have tweaked the amount of incorporated spices a bit to suite my taste. Enjoy baking and consuming this fun and festive biscuit. Ps, icing can be a pair especially when you have to work really fast otherwise it may dry out:(

Ingredients:
350g plain flour
95g light brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tbsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
3/4 tsp nutmeg
110g butter
90g golden syrup
1 egg

Cream the butter and sugar together until it appears light and fluffy before incorporating the egg into the mixture. Slowly add in the golden syrup until the mixture looks evenly mixed. Sift the dry ingredients together before mixing in the wet ingredients.

Cling wrap the dough and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. The ideal dough has to be slightly moist and it can be a bit messy to handle especially during summer so make sure it is about 40% solidified before rolling out. You are aiming for approximately 0.8cm thickness in the rolled out biscuit dough. It will burn quickly if it's too thin.

Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until it appears to have browned well but still a bit soft. The trick to baking cookies is that they will continue to cook despite taking them out of the oven. Being under is a lot better than being overbaked!

I rolled mine out a little too thin which was disappointing as it made it difficult to shape. I did not have various star shaped cookie cutters so I just estimated the size of each cookie. A bit messy and would highly recommend getting cutters if you can afford it!

The edges were not even:(

Spot the star with the crisp edge!

Royal icing ingredients:
1 egg white
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2.5 cups icing sugar

Whip the egg white with the cream of tartar until stiff peaks appear. Fold the icing in and add your colouring (if you intend on using them). Try to achieve a stiff but yet easily spreadable icing mixture if you can. Quickly fill your piping bags and let the fun begin!

Do try this recipe out, it makes a perfect gift as well as a treat for guests. Got to admit that each biscuit looks pretty meh individually (I'm horrible at icing, trust me!) but once I put them together, I think their unique characteristics worked brilliantly. Made it an interesting baked piece to look at:)

Some Christmas cheer to end the year!

Have recently attended a few Christmas gatherings with lovely company and I think this has to be one of my longest blog posts in 2011!

Sister's place

Red wine to start the meal!

Cheesy pancetta pasta~

Simple salad with balsamic dressing~

Turkey~ the leftovers were still flavourful even after a few days in the fridge.

Friend's place

Capsicum, cucumber and carrot sticks with crackers and a cheesy dip as appetizers~

Potato and pork dumpling~ Potato dumpling wasn't too bad but it probably would be better with some soy sauce:)

Beef~ I love the marinade! No idea what was in it but I think some oil, herbs and garlic? Really nice :D

Honey soy chicken~ Yummy:D

Truffles and shortbread cookies~ We also had tiramisu, fruitcake and an ice-cream cake, mango pudding and fruit punch for dessert. So much food that we could hardly finish! xD

Ex-collegian's place

The final place to complete my Christmas weekend:)

My homemade chilli paste/ sauce~ didn't make it too spicy :) Better than someone's chilli paste, indeed hahahaha ;D

Beehoon noodles~

Vegetarian dhal~

Stewed pork belly and anchovy fried rice~

Tofu sumbat!! Wasn't really as good as I have liked it to be (had it in primary school, a really really long time ago...could hardly remember how it tasted like:/). Overall, everyone liked it but I'm not sure if the guests are being nice -.-'

Cookies~ not bad :)

Mango pudding~ the finale of almost every party. Have a joyous New Year and best of luck with preparing your new year's resolution list. I know what's mine ;)