Yummylicious Experiments

More experiments on Chai  Tea. This time its Chai Tea Chiffon Cake with Chai Whipped Cream.

I adapted the Chai Cream recipe from this site. But instead of preparing all the spices, I infused the cream with the tea leaves from T2. The steps are exactly the same, and the cream is prepared one day before so that it's cold enough to be whipped.

Chai Tea Chiffon Cake

Ingredients
(A)
225g all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
65g sugar

(B)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
6 egg yolks
3/4 cup water
1 tbsp Chai Tea leaves

(C)
6 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
95g sugar

1. Preheat over to 175 degree celsius.
2. Combine (A) in a bowl. Stir well to blend.
3. Combine (B) and stir till well blended.
4. Make a well in (A), add (B) to the flour mixture. Beat with mixer until smooth.
5. Beat egg whites till foamy. Add in 1/3 of the sugar and cream of tartar, beat for a few minutes.
6. Add in remaining 2/3 sugar and cream of tartar, continue beating with stiff and glossy peak.
7. Gently fold in 1/3 of egg white mixture to egg yolk mixture.
8. The mix and fold in the egg yolk mixture to the rest of the egg white mixture till well combine.
9. Pour mixture into cupcake liners.
10. Bake for 10 - 15 min.
11. Whip Chai Tea cream till peak. Decorate cupcake with cream once the cake is cool.

I remember the Chai Cake that I had from The Patissier years ago. With more exposure to Chai Tea Latte recently, I start appreciating the unique taste to Chai even more, and this brought back memory of the cake I had many years ago. It's amazing how flavors can help to bring back wonderful memories, 'cause I still vaguely remember where and under what environment I had the cake.

So while I was shopping for Tea Leaves at T2 in Sydney recently, and came across Chai Tea leaves, I just felt it's something that I should try my hands on.

So I googled for Chai Tea cake and came across this interesting recipe.

This meal was whipped up from the leftover herbs I had in my fridge. Rosemary, Thyme and Parsley found in my fridge. All not cheap! So I had to make sure that they were fully utilized and not thrown out!

I didn't had any recipe to follow for the pasta. I just randomly put it together with my leftover ingredients, including an interesting tip I picked up from Masterchef.

Fusilli with Prawn in Pomodoro Sauce

Ingredients
2 extra large prawns
1 bulb of shallot, peeled and sliced
30g Italian Parsley, finely chopped
15g Thyme
150g Fusilli Pasta
200g Pomodoro Sauce or Tomato Pasta sauce

1. Remove shell from prawns and devein it. 
2. Do not throw out the shells. Prepare a small pot of oil, stir-fry shell in oil so that the oil absorbs the flavor from the prawn shell.
3. Boil pasta in a pot of boiling water with salt. Cook till al dente.
4. Heat up pan, with the prawn oil, fry the shallots till fragrant.
5. Add in prawns and fry them for a couple of minutes.
6. Add in tomato sauce and fry for a few minutes. 
7. Next, add in pasta, chopped parsley and thyme. Stir to coat all ingredients evenly.
   

Pan-fried Honey and Rosemary Chicken

Ingredients
2 chicken thigh
2 sprigs of fresh Rosemary
Olive Oil
2 - 3 teaspoons of Honey
Salt and Ground Black Pepper

1. Heat up oil. Place chicken thigh in the pan.
2. Drizzle honey over chicken. Add salt, ground black pepper and rosemary over the chicken. 
3. Flip chicken every 5 minutes and baste chicken with honey and oil.
4. Serve when chicken is brown on both sides and cooked in the centre.

I had really tasty Aglio Olio at Nassim Hill Bistro recently, so I decided I want to make my own since the husband is always too lazy to drive out for meals!

So we were out doing grocery shopping with the little one one day, the husband saw Extra Large Prawns at the Fish section and suddenly craved for Garlic Prawns. But I preferred lamb chops, so we ended up having both for dinner. How to diet in such cases???

1. Heat pan up. Melt half of the butter in pan. Add in half of the chopped garlic and stir-fry till its fragrant. Make sure its not too browned else it will turn bitter. Dish it out and leave it aside.
2. Turn each prawn on its back and, with the point of a sharp knife, make a deep cut down the centre of each prawn, but do not cut through.
3. Stuff the butter garlic into the centre of the prawn and it let sit and marinate for about an hour.
4. Once it's marinated, heat up the pan again, add the remaining butter. Once the butter has melted, add in the remaining garlic. 
5. Add in the marinated prawns and fry till the prawns and cooked.
6. Serve.

1. Season the lamb chops with the roast lamb seasoning. I usually coat the entire lamb chop with the seasoning as its not very salty.
2. Marinate lamb chops for about an hour.
3. Pan-fry lamb chops till your preferred done-ness.

The husband and I have been very inspired by Masterchef lately and we have been whipping up meals during the weekends when we can find the time. Here's one of our latest creation where the husband was craving for Honey-Baked Chicken. So I got the recipe off Allrecipe.com and modified a little.

Instead of whole chicken, I used chicken thigh. And I replaced Garlic Powder with Chopped Garlic.

And on the sides, I included Mushrooms lightly sauteed with salt and pepper. As well as Wild Rocket Salad with Japanese Sesame Sauce.

Verdict? The chicken was not good enough to satisfy the husband's palette. I didn't find it very good either. The chicken didn't really had the honey taste to it even though we baked it for 45 - 60 mins. I enjoyed my mushroom and salad more.