sushi night

We look like one big happy family...hehehe






Many would probably have seen my sushi pictures on facebook.

Decided to blog about it. =p I have a lot of pics that I wanted to blog about but simply is either too lazy or no time to blog.

It all started on a day in November when I had a strong craving for sushi and CF kindly agreed to buy a salmon. He went to the market and found a really fresh salmon which was quite expensive. Without the salmon, we probably wouldn't be able to have a feast like this. =p

I tried to make dragon roll which failed miserably because the avocado I bought was not of very good quality. Thank God CF managed to get some good avocados from Morrisons so that saved the salmon rolls. He also bought the sweet potatoes so we could make tempura.

I bought the miscellanous stuff to make the sushi. Anyway, we had great fun. I started preparing at 4pm. At the same time, I was waiting for CF to call me so that he could pass me the salmon. I was guessing that he was having his afternoon nap so I didn't want to pester him to bring over the salmon. By the time I got the salmon, it was 7pm. I told Gerald and Shen wei to come over at 7pm and when they got over, I had only just started preparing the salmon.

Preparing the salmon was hard work without a sashimi knife. I only had a cooks knife which I had to sharpen so many times so that I do not destroy the precious fish. Took me 40 minutes to deskin the fish and cut it into different parts for nigiri and sashimi. It was then CF surprised me with another salmon from Morrisons. So, I had to prepare the salmon again. By the time I finished preparing two salmons, it was 8.30pm which is not too bad.

We ate the sashimi and concluded that the salmon from market was so much fresher compared to the salmon bought from Morrisons. Morrisons salmon tasted as though it was thawed after being freezed even though the fishmonger from Morrisons told CF that it was caught on the morning itself. The salmon from the market was caught 2 days earlier yet it tasted so good. I was surprised by CF skills in choosing salmon because the salmon was so fresh. I admit I was worried beforehand that his money may be wasted if the salmon wasn't fresh and I might not make any sashimi or nigiri if that was the case.

Sushi night was great. The next time I am making sushi again would probably be in 3 months time. In the meantime, all of us are scared of salmon because we had an overdose that night! =p

Marbled cheesecake

Uni holidays started a week ago which kicked off the baking spree again. Had a cake order from a friend this week which was a bit of a disappointment to me because I accidentally put in a bit too much sugar making the cream too sweet. If not, the cake would have been just nice.

Tried baking two new cakes which were green tea tiramisu and mango cheesecake. After baking the green tea tiramisu, I realise that I am not actually much of a fan of green tea because it has a slight tinge of bitterness which my taste buds are unable to tolerate. =p Mango cheesecake was quite good but it was not set enough or maybe I had been too greedy and put in too much mango puree. Plus the mangoes in UK are not sweet so my mango cheesecake wasn't that great in my opinion.

Anyway, I decided to go back to basics again..save my time and the cakes are delicious too. I decided to try a marbled cheesecake from the recipe book I got Malaysia (Y3K Delicious cakes). It is considered one of the most basic cakes compared to the other cakes I have attempted which were relatively complicated.

I brought the marbled cheesecake to Yee Kuan's place for pot luck and there was good response. Many liked the cake and took many many helpings. Some people wanted to take some cake home but I quickly stored it away so that I can keep some pieces for shen wei's friends who are my regular guinea pigs + customers.

Since the cake was so well received, I decided to share this recipe on my blog. =)

Ingredients:
For base:
200g digestive biscuits (milled)
50g ground almond (toasted)
120g butter (melted)

Filling:
750g cream cheese
120g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
120g white cooking chocolate (melted by double boiling)
30g cornflour
300ml UHT whipping cream
3 eggs (beaten)

Topping:
50g dark cooking chocolate (melted by double-boiling)

Utensils needed:
9" loose-base cake tin

Method:
1. Base: Preheat the oven at 140 deg celcius. Mix melted butter with dry ingredients until well-combined. Press into a 9" loose-base cake tin. Refridgerate until set.

2. Filling: Beat cheese and sugar until creamy. Add in melted white chocolate. Add in cream, vanilla essence and cornflour.
Lastly, add in eggs.
Pour batter onto set base, drizzle with melted dark chocolate on top.
Steam bake for 1 hour 15 minutes.
Leave cake in oven with door closed for 30 minutes but temperature turned off.

3. Remove cake from oven and let cake cool at room temperature. Refridgerate for 6 hours before serving.

Enjoy baking this fabulous cake!! I would strongly recommend this recipe book! =)

I apologise for the grammatical errors etc because I am too lazy to edit it since it is not one of my assignments that need to be handed in into uni. =p

Merry christmas everyone!