Lemon Mint Granita

I've got a pot of mint growing in my garden and oddly, I've always loved the scent but never really did like mint in my food.

That's it sitting there with my rosemary :)

But then again it was such a waste having it there and not using it... so I thought "Let's make some zesty granita!!!"

I went online and this recipe by smitten kitchen really caught my eye. It looked SO adorable... those little lemon cups. I had to give it a try!

The original recipe called for 4 lemons, 4 cups water, 3 tbsps sugar and a handful of fresh mint leaves.

I gave it a bit of a twist.

These are the ingredients - lemons, mint leaves, sugar and water. How much of each bit you use really depends on how much granita you're making. I decided to go with the recipe and use four lemons.


First I zested two lemons. I just thought this would give it an extra kick!

Then I cubed four lemons up. I removed the skin as much as possible and also roughly deseeded them.


Then I chucked in what seemed to be a handful of mint leaves. I cut seven sprigs of mint from my pot - so you can roughly do a bit of estimation.


Pulse it up into a puree in a blender or a food processor and then let it sit for a bit. This will allow the mint to fully infuse its flavors into the lemon.


This is the fun part. Sieving the pureed lemon & mint. I actually did two rounds of this - first with the sieve, then I scooped it all into a cup and used my hands to squeeze some more out.


Add in the water. I measured three cups here in the bowl but only used about two cups. Then I added sugar bit by bit until I got the taste that I wanted. It still has the nice zesty lemon-mint tang and the sugar just helped to keep it from going overboard.

I love these little mint specks :)

Pour it into a shallow pan


And chuck it into the freezer. You'll need to remember to scrape it a bit after an hour or so. This really depends on your freezer too... some people set theirs on high so it will freeze faster. Mine is set on medium and I checked it after half an hour, it was still very watery.

I'll post an update when it's ready :)

Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!

Every time we walk past Famous Amos, the waft of freshly baked cookies always make us stop for a second and just take it all in.

So one day I thought, okay, let's make cookies!!!

Ingredients are - sugar (white & brown), butter, all-purpose flour, salt, baking soda, vanilla essence, eggs and chocolate chips.

The original recipe I have goes this way

1 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 cup chocolate chips

(1 cup here is about 240mL)

But I remembered that it made quite a big batch. Plus, I didn't want to make such a huge one and fail since I haven't made cookies in at least three years, so I halved everything!

First you combine the flour, baking soda and salt together through a sieve. This is to get rid of all unnecessary lumps. Then put it aside.

Next - the butter and sugar. I don't have a mixing bowl so I used a large plastic container instead :P Oh and I usually chop my butter into little cubes because it's much easier.

Cream it all together. It's really best to leave the butter out in room temperature for a while because then it's a lot easier to cream! Plus I don't own an electrical mixer so I just use a fork, sit in front of the telly and just slowly do it...

Then I added in the vanilla essence and the flour and mixed it well.

Be careful while mixing in the flour though, it does fly away so what I normally do is spoon in a bit, mix it up and add a bit more and mix it up again. You'll end up with a nice butter-floury lump like this.

Crack the egg(s) into a bowl and lightly beat it....

Then mix it in with the cookie dough.


I've tried quite a bit of choc chips back then but so far the Hershey's ones work the best for me. Plus they really taste fantastic!

Although the recipe calls for 1 cup, I say go with your gut instinct :) I poured in about 1/3 of the packet in.... which was just of this batch of dough.

Such yummy goodness!!! This is when you preheat your oven. I usually set it to about 220 C for about 10 mins before putting the cookies in.


Shape them into whatever sizes you want. Bake them at 190 C for 9-11 minutes or until they turn brown.

Oops! Hahaha turns out they were a tad too big and while they were baking, they expanded and got stuck! You might want to try slightly smaller sized cookie doughs :)

Last but not least, remember to let them cool on a wire rack before you eat or store them!!!

Happy baking :)

xxx
Bunny

The weekend meals : Shepherd's pie

Another favorite weekend meal for us is Shepherd's Pie. I usually make a big batch and it lasts us two days! So we'll usually have it for a nice hearty Saturday night dinner and a super late Sunday luncheon!

How do we do it? This is going to be a bit difficult to actually write down a recipe because I really go by instinct for this one... but here's an approximate of what I normally use...

p/s: feel free to modify this!

Ingredients

• 2 carrots, diced
• ~6 celery sticks, diced
• 2 onions diced
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• ~250gm ground beef
• 1 can, tomatoes, diced
• 1 box mushrooms, sliced
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Few lugs of olive oil
  
• 3 potatoes, mashed
• 2 handfuls of grated Parmesan

First dice up the carrots, celery and garlic. Place aside. Depending on my mood, sometimes they're chunkier and sometimes they're really finely diced. Take a couple of bay leaves and put it there too.

I learnt this trick from Jamie Oliver. Cut your onion this way, but don't go ALL the way down. Place it sideways and just slice. You'll get neat little squares!

First, put two dashes of olive oil into the pot/pan/wok/whatever you're using and brown the onions. I add about two shakes of McCormick's mixed herbs in it as well to give it a fuller flavor.

Add in the celery, carrot, garlic and bay leaves. Stir fry and combine till they're almost cooked. Remove from heat into a plate/bowl and set aside.

Using the same pot/pan/wok/whatever, add another lug of olive oil... and then put the ground beef in and stir fry till it's cooked. If it gets a bit too wet, scatter a bit of flour onto it. The flour will help absorb the extra moisture.

When that's done, pour the veggie mix back in. Remember to remove the bay leaves before pouring it back in because you do not want to accidentally bite on a bay leaf! Mix well.

Then pour in the tinned tomatoes and mix well.

Put in the sliced mushrooms. Here, I put in the celery tops as well. I usually save the celery tops because I love that flavor. Also, it makes it look nice and 'green'. Stir well and leave it to cook for about 30-45 mins. Make sure you stir it often and don't cover it with the lid too much because then it will become very watery. You want this mixture to be moist but not wet.

Spoon the mixture into a deep pan. I usually line mine with some tin foil so that it's less messy - this way it doesn't stick to the pan and I generally don't have to wash up after this!

Line the top with mashed potatoes. I find it easier if you scoop small bits in and gently spread it across like peanut butter. Be careful though, the base is quite squishy so don't press too hard!

Score the top of the mash with a fork.

Scatter the grated Parmesan over it. This of course depends on personal preference :) We love it with lots of cheese...

Stick it in the oven for about 30 mins or so at 200 C or until the top becomes nice and brown.

See? The scored marks creates this nice crispy cheesy top which makes it OH-SO-YUMMY!!!

Happy cooking!

xxx
Bunny

The weekend meals: Meatballs and pasta

It's usually around the weekends that I have the time to really cook and most times, I'll try to make something that's hearty, a bit more elaborate than the usual daily food and of course something that can last two meals.

This is one of my favorites to make - meatballs in a tomato base sauce with pasta (types of pasta varies but mostly the puppy prefers penne)

Prepping everything
First I prep the meat by adding minced shallots and garlic with fresh basil and rosemary.

Combine that with the meat in a bowl with just your fingers and mash them all up together. I usually add in a dash of Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce with some pepper (powdered, not ground) for some extra flavor.

Once that's done, ball it up and put it in the fridge till you're ready to cook. Sitting in the fridge also helps it to set properly as well as absorb the flavors. If you're going to leave it in there for more then 1.5hrs, it's best to cover it with some cling wrap or use a container that has a lid.

Then comes the tomato based sauce. I've recently discovered this way of prepping the tomatoes and garlic to give it a stronger and richer flavor. Roasted.

So what I do is, slice the tomatoes in half, if they're big, quarters are fine and lay them skin down on a baking tray. I also like roasting one whole bulb or garlic. It's just got this intensity and flavor that you will definitely fall in love with.

Preheat the oven first. I set mine at 200C/390F

Drizzle some olive oil over all of them (tomatoes and garlic) and then some salt. Then shove them in the oven. I usually leave them in there for about 20 mins or so, at 180C/350F.

Making the base

While waiting for the tomatoes, I finely minced two yellow onions and roughly chopped two cloves of garlic.

Heat up the pan (I used a wok here - it's the Asian-ness) and add in about two glugs of olive oil over medium heat. Chuck the garlic in and let it sauté till it turns lightly brown at the sides, then add in the onions and stir fry.

Time to check on the roasted tomatoes and garlic. You'll know they're done when they look like this.

You'll notice that the garlic and its clove jacket is starting to separate, and the tomatoes will look rather puffed up and glossy.

Then I'll just chuck the tomatoes in the pan with the sautéed onions and garlic. The roasted garlic is a little tricker. You'll have to squeeze it out of its "shell". Don't worry though, it comes off pretty easily.

I usually take some kitchen towel and hold it and just slowly squeeze. It really does come off easy and all you're left is an "empty shell"

Mash everything up in the pan and add about 2 tbsps of tomato paste. This gives it a nice tangy flavor. Also, sometimes using fresh tomatoes gives off a light and clean taste, which is good, but you'll still need that robust-ness. This of course is a personal preference, so if you like more, add more.

Then just let it sit and simmer for about 45 mins. Stir occasionally and season with salt/pepper/herbs to suit your taste.

Frying the meatballs

Take the meat mixture out of the fridge and form them into balls. Size is up to you, but I keep them to about 1- 1 1/2 inch in diameter. I find that with this size, it's easier to cook. I've tried making massive meatballs, which were great, but I had a bit of difficulty cooking it properly.

Heat up a frying pan and drizzle about 2 tbsps olive oil and evenly coat the pan with the oil. When the pan's hot enough, put the meat balls in and gently fry them.

p/s: sometimes I find it easier to just sear them on the pan and shove them into the oven for another 15mins of baking so that it cooks evenly.

When that's done, add the meatballs into the tomato based sauce and just mix well. Now it's time to get your pasta ready!

This right here, is the puppy's secret. One layer of shredded Parmesan on top of freshly cooked pasta before adding the meatballs and tomato based sauce.

Top it off with the meatballs and tomato sauce and you're ready for dinner!

Happy cooking! :)

Our weekend fix

Prawn noodles at Yong Len Coffee Shop in TTDI.

*YUM!*