Mushrooms en Papillote

En Papillote (French:  means "in paper") - refers to a quick, easy, healthy and delicious way of cooking where the food is enclosed in parchment paper or foil or even banana leaves, then baked in the oven.  The parcel holds in moisture to steam the food  in their own juices.

Ingredients:

60g button mushrooms
60g shimeji mushrooms
60g enoki mushrooms
60g king oyster mushrooms
50g butter, chopped
1 tbsp white wine
salt & pepper

• Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
• Cut a 40cm square of baking paper. Lay the paper on a stainless steel plate.
• Place mushrooms in the centre of the paper and drop pieces of butter all over the mushrooms.  Drizzle with white wine and season with salt and pepper.
• Fold the edges of the baking paper together to seal properly.
• Bake mushroom parcels for about 30 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.

 

Angel Food Cake

A wonderful recipe from Stephanie Jaworski.  This snowy white sponge cake was named Angel Food Cake because of its airy lightness that was said to be the "food of the angels." 

Ingredients:

125g sifted cake flour (I substituted with self-raising flour)
300g castor sugar (I reduced to 220g)
1½ cups egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract  (I omitted this)

• Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.
• In a large bowl, sift together 150g of sugar with flour. Set aside.
• In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until foamy.  Add cream of tartar, lemon juice and salt.  Continue to beat until soft peaks form.  Gradually beat in the remaining sugar until glossy stiff peaks form.  Beat in vanilla.
• Sift the flour mixture into the beaten egg whites and fold gently.  Do not over fold the batter or it will deflate.
• Pour the batter into a 25cm tube pan.  Bake for about 45 minutes.
• Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven, invert the pan.  
• Allow the cake to completely cool before removing the cake from the pan.

Black Sesame Glutinous Rice Balls ( 黑芝麻湯圓 )

Ingredients:

270g glutinous rice flour
200ml water (approx.)
100g black sesame seeds
50g walnuts
70g raw sugar
3 tbsp melted butter

To make black sesame paste:

• Lightly toast black sesame seeds and walnuts. Set aside to cool.
• In a food processor, grind the toasted sesame seeds and walnuts until fine.  Transfer into a mixing bowl and combine with sugar and melted butter to form a paste.  
• Divide the paste into 50 pieces and roll into balls.  Refrigerate.   

 To make dumpling (tang yuan) dough:

• Sift glutinous rice flour into a mixing bowl.  Add water and knead into a dough.
• Break a small piece of the dough and flatten into a round disc.  Cook it in boiling water and simmer until it floats to the surface.  Remove the dough and knead it back into the main dough when it is cool enough to handle.  This helps the tang yuan to be chewy and sticky.
• Divide dough into 50 pieces and roll into balls.  Cover with a damp kitchen towel to prevent from drying out.
• Fill each dough with sesame paste and seal properly.  Lightly roll into a ball using both palms.  Set aside on a tray.  *

To cook dumpling (tang yuan):

• Boil a big pot of water.
• Put dumplings into the boiling water.  Cook until they float to the surface. Cook for a further 1 minute.
• Scoop up the dumplings and transfer into hot ginger syrup.

To prepare ginger syrup:

•  Boil water with rock sugar and a couple of slices of ginger, some pandan leaves and 1 tsp osmanthus (optional).  Stir until sugar dissolves.

Note:   *  Tang yuan can be frozen and stored in a ziploc bag.