Great minds think alike

What a co-incidence that I made salted caramel chocolate tarts a few days before I attended Chef Ryan Khang's demonstration about how to make a salted caramel cake. I would like to think that great minds think alike.

In my last post, I shared with you the recipe of the salted caramel, chocolate tart with coffee truffle. Everyone that had tasted it seemed to like it so I was encouraged to bring some with me when I went to see Chef Khang's event at Jaya Grocers Pantry the following day. When I arrived at the Pantry, there was a big crowd waiting for the demonstration. Before he started I said hello and told him that I had something similar to what he was about to demonstrate, but in a tart instead of cake and offered him one to try. He immediately took a bite and nodded with approval and said it is very delicious. YAY! The rest of the attendees heard that and asked if they could sample the tart as well. Since I still had two extra tarts, I cut them into small pieces and gave each of them a small piece to try. They all liked it and agreed with Chef Khang. Some even asked me for the recipe and I told them I would be sharing it on my blog, which I did. For those who miss my earlier post titled "She has a heart of a Buddha", and interested to get the recipe, click on the photo to go get it. It is free! LOL!

Then, a comment was posted on one of my older posts (titled "Wow I got Goosies"). It was from a reader who asked if I had been to the class, and asked if I would share Chef Khang’s Salted caramel chocolate cake recipe on my blog. She said she missed the demo so here is the recipe. All the attendees enjoyed the cake and if you are looking for a good salted caramel chocolate cake recipe, you have found it.

Salted caramel chocolate Cake

Recipe from Chef Ryan Khang

Salted caramel chocolate cake by Chef Ryan Khang

Ingredients:

120gm plain flour (sifted)

60gm cocoa powder

120gm ground almond

200gm corn oil

100gm dark chocolate

120gm brown sugar

8 eggs (yolk and white separated)

180gm castor sugar

2 tsp instant coffee diluted with 4 tsp hot water

180gm cream

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C

In a bowl, mix together plain flour and cocoa powder.

Mix almond with cream to form almond paste and keep aside.

Melt corn oil and chocolate in the microwave.

Mix together almond paste, melted chocolate, egg yolks, brown sugar and sifted flour.

In a clean bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy, slowly add sugar and whisk until stiff peak forms.

Fold 1/3 meringue into egg yolk and chocolate mixture. Then slowly add in the rest of meringue in batches, combine well.

Our the batter into a 9 in round cake tin lined with parchment paper and bake for 45 minutes or until inserted cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before removing from cake from cake tin. Cut into three tiers. (see video how to cut the cake)

Chocolate Ganache:

Ingredients:

370gm whipping cream

310gm Lindt dark chocolate

Method:

Bring the whipping cream to boil and pour over chocolate, then stir well and place in the fridge to cool down. Stir occasionally so ganache doesn’t get too hard.

Fill some ganache into a pipping bag with a nozzle and reserve balance for spreading on the cake.

Caramel filling:

Ingredients:

130gm sugar

50ml water

2 tbs dark corn syrup

60gm butter

60ml whipping cream

a large pinch of sea salt

Method:

In a saucepan, bring sugar, water and corn syrup over low heat until sugar dissolves. Increase heat and cook for high until syrup turns dark amber.

Remove from heat, add cream, butter and sea salt. Allow to cool completely before use.

To Assemble the cake:

How to slice the cake

How to fill the layers

Use chocolate ganache and caramel to sandwich the three layers together and to cover the top. Sprinkle the sea salt on the top. (The side of cake may be covered, drizzled, or simply left un-covered).

Eye Candy

I first heard the term "Eye Candy" when I saw a post from a young girl calling my son, Nicholas, "Eye Candy". 

That was few years ago, when he was first getting into singing and songwriting. Back then, I did not know what it meant so I googled and found out the meaning. Eye Candy means someone or something that is visually attractive or pleasing to look at. Recently, there were Eye Candies at Jaya Grocers, Subang Empire. LOL!

Jaya Grocers, Empire Subang is the supermarket that I usually shop in. I like shopping there because the store Manager, Wilson, and the supervisor for the vegetable section, Janet, are very helpful people. The cashiers there are efficient and cheerful. I found the staff at Jaya Grocers understand what customer service is all about. I have met the owner, Mr. Teng, on several occasions. He is a warm and friendly gentleman who makes his customers feel very welcome. There was one occasion that I was at the meat section and he recommended that I try some imported salami. It was over-the-top delicious. Furthermore, it is a one-stop center for me for most of my baking and cooking needs and my favorite table wine. It is so convenient for me. I was very happy that now they give free cooking demos every Saturday at their cosy pantry,  one schedules for 1.00pm and another at 3.00pm. I have been to two of these demos so far and both were conducted by young promising, friendly and handsome chefs. Oh yes, they were "eye candies"! LOL! If you are interested in attending a demo, just go to Jaya Grocers’ facebook and book your seats in advance or if you are at Jaya Grocers Empire Subang, you can inform the staff there to book a seat for you.  I enjoy attending cooking and baking demos by chefs because I found that I will learn something new each time. Many of thes tips are things that you will not find in a cook book.

The first demo I attended was Berrie Pie by Chef Ryan Khang,

and last Saturday’s lasagna was by an award winning chef,  "Christopher".  I liked his recipe because it was a vegetarian recipe. I brought a friend with me and she liked the recipe too, so after the demo, she got all the ingredients in Jaya Grocers itself and was eager to go home and make the dish for dinner.

Chef Christopher is a talented young chef who won many awards during his culinary career. His roots are in modern French cuisine and his wizardry with fine-dining dishes can only be described as a palate-pampering experience. He brings with him a firm culinary foundation and a passion for creativity.  He has gained much exposure in restaurants such as Zen Satori and Nippon Tuk in Hilton Metropole London. He also conducts cooking and baking classes at The Cooking House and has been assigned to conduct public demonstrations for food companies in malls and exhibition. Here are the step-by-step photos on how Chef Christopher made the lasagna. I think these pictures will benefit those who wants to make this dish but do not know how. My Quay Lo said it was funny that a chef was needed to demo lasagna. He said every cook in the U.S. likely has a recipe for this family favorite. But I pointed out to him just how different lasagna is compared to the standard table fare that is common here in Malaysia. He thought about it and realized what an opportunity this is for a grocer here to sell into the growing desire to experience different foods here.


Vegetable Lasagna
recipe from Chef Christopher

Ingredients:

8 sheets Banila Lasagna Bolognesi La Collezione DItalia

1/2 small pumpkin

1 long eggplant

150gm spinach

40gm parmesan cheese, grated

Olive Oil

Tomato Sauce:

Ingredients for tomator sauce:

3 tbs olive oil

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 small yellow onion chopped

1 stick celery, diced

1/2 red capsicum, diced

500gm tomato puree

1/4 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp ground oregano

6 sweet basil leaves, sliced

1 tsp sugar

salt and pepper to taste

Method to make tomato sauce:

Saute garlic, onion in oil until softened. Add Celery, capsium tomato puree and dried herbs. Cook until reduced and thickened. 

Bechemal sauce:

Ingredients for bechemal sauce:

60gm butter

60gm flour

550gm milk

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt

a good dash of ground black pepper

Method to make bechamel sauce:

Heat the milk. Melt the butter in a saucepan and cook the flour, stirring to prevent lumps forming. Add the milk gradually and cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens and boil. Remove from heat and stir in the nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Preparation of vegetables:

Peel, core and slice pumpkin to about 1/4 inch thick. Slice eggplant to 1/4 inch thick. Rub both pumpkin and eggplant in olive oil and roast in a preheated oven at 200 degrees C until cooked. 

Blanch the spinach in salted water until soft but still green, drain and transfer to a bowl ofice water to stop further cooking. Chop the spinach.

To Assemble:

To assemble the lasagna, line a 7 inch square baking pan with aluminium foil, with a 2 inch overhang at the sides. Stir in 30 gm of parmesan cheese into the bechamal sauce. Spread a thin layer of sauce at the bottom of the tin and lay on 2 pieces of lasagna sheets side by side. Spread 1/3 of the tomato sauce over the lasagna sheets, cover with a layer of pumpkin and 1/4 of the bechamel sauce. Lay another layer of lasagna sheets, then tomato sauce, eggplant and bechamal sauce. Next, layer with lasagna sheets, spinach and bechamel sauce. End witha final layer of lasagna sheets and top with the remaining bechamel sauce. Sprinkle an even layer of parmesan cheese over the bechamel sauce. Cover with alumnium foil and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for 20minutes. Remove the aluminium foil and return to bake for another 10 - 15 minutes or till cheese is brown. 

A promise is a promise

I am sure you have heard this phrase before, “Promises are meant to be broken.”  This concept does not exist in my book. For me, a promise is a promise and demands fulfillment or at least a best effort. I have no respect for people who make empty promises. To me, people who make empty promises are not much better than a con artist. Like my Quay Lo often says, such people are "all talk, no do". On close examination people that casually break a promise, or worse, make promises with the full intention of not keeping to their word, will repeat. Some people approach pathological behavior, and will lie through their teeth to get what they want. Sometimes, their moral decay is so great, they will lie or misrepresent even when they don't have to.  I have been thus "conned" many times throughout my life as I am sure many of you have as well.  I have come to believe that this is all because of my own weakness. I too easily trust so called "friends". 


Just recently, I trusted one of my son’s friends who is pursuing a career as a real estate agent. I should have known I should not have trusted him when he asked me to write the commission to his name instead of to his company. That was a clue right there and how stupid of me it was to ignore that sign and comply. I think I did that because he is my son's friend and because the deal involved another agent, a relative of his. I favored this young man when I was shopping for an investment property. I felt like I wanted to encourage his career and to his credit he had done some leg work in finding a property suitable. So subsequently, I was pleased when he got a tenant for that property even though it was for a six month lease instead of the year term that I wanted. As it turns out I now know that he had not represented me well and in fact, he and his relative caused a lot of misunderstanding between the tenant and me. I "rolled with that" however,  so all was ok because I gave what the agent promised (without my consent) to my tenant and he was happy. 


The tenant who is an expatriate had stayed in my property for three months, when he text messaged me yesterday. In the text he said he had left the country in a hurry, citing a "death in his family" and had left the keys with his agent (the relative mentioned above). The note told me to get the keys from that agent (who is not my agent). I called the agent and told him to put things right, and at least get a termination letter from his client but he asked me to "speak nicely to him with the right tone of voice." I argued that I was and was intending to be firm. I was already feeling victimized by his client and him. Then, he told me he was "not in the mood to talk to me" and hung up on me. 


Now I have to roll back a bit. This guy was angry with me from the very beginning of the deal. The reasons initially involved not agreeing to some of the terms he had submitted to us with this client. (Little did I know he had already mis-represented the terms to the client in the first place.) In addition, he wanted me to pay my agent another half month commission on top of the half month paid to him for the six months lease should the tenant renew another six months. The commission was shared between my agent and him. I found out from other agents that there was no such rule that the Landlord had to pay commission to real estate agent for renewal of lease and my lawyer confirmed that. Furthermore my Quay Lo pointed out that the agent was asking for a commission promise without assuming any risk of the outcome.  Of course I told him that I do not agree. He made his displeasure very clear. I suspected that was why he behaved so badly with me when I called him. I was VERY upset and almost exploded but then I remembered what my Quay Lo told me. He said we will always make the wrong decision when we get mad but if we stay cool, we will be on the winning side. 


Haha so, I stayed  very cool and here I am writing this post, sharing the demo by Chef Ryan Khang (click to find out more about this young handsome promising chef) at Jaya Grocers last Saturday and his Berries Pie recipe with you.  It was a promise I made in my earlier post to share the recipe. A promise is a promise and I have to keep it. Moreover it is better to feed my eyes with Chef Khang's beautiful pie and feel happy than to feed my soul with anger and feel bad, don’t you think? 

Blueberry and Raspberry Pie (8 inches pie)

By Chef Ryan Khang (with slight amendment)

Pastry Dough:

250gm plain flour

40gm sugar

15gm walnut, roasted and blended

110gm butter

50gm water

10gm salt

1 cup blueberry

2 cups raspberry

Almond Cream:

4 tbs unsalted butter

4 tbs suger

4 tbs beaten egg

3 tbs almond powder

¼ tsp vanilla essence paste

Custard Cream:

4 egg yolks

50gm sugar

2 tsp cornstarch

2/3 cup milk

2 tbs unsalted butter

Method:

Pastry Dough:

Mix all the ingredients together until a dough is formed. Roll out dough to 3mm thickness. Cut dought with a pastry cutter and place into the pie pan.

Almond cream:

Cream unsalted butter and sugar with a wooden spatula. Add beaten egg and almond powder and vanilla. Mix well and make almond cream paste.

Custard Cream:

Mix egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch until creamy white. Add lukewarm milk and unsalted butter and cook over high heat until it becomes thick and creamy. Leave aside to cool.

To Assemble

Pour almond cream onto pie pan.  Add the custard cream and spread evenly. Add in the berries and bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C for 35 to 40 mins. Cool on rack.