Category: Western

Meat, Western

Beef Cheeks Burger

7shasha7

My first time ever cooking beef cheeks! I had seen this at the premium butcher and decided to try it. Beef cheeks takes an extremely long time to cook, but when it’s done, it’s so soft and gelatinous. Well, not that gelatinous, but definitely it doesn’t have the firm meaty texture of regular cuts of beef.

I decided to just cook them simply. My supermarket ran out of non-alcoholic red wine so what I did was to first sear the beef cheek, and then in my cast iron enamel pot, simmer it with a whole bottle of passata, chicken stock, lots of rosemary sprigs, garlic, a dash of Maggi seasoning (or Worcestershire sauce), salt. Because this took almost three hours to cook! The resulting sauce was soooooo sweet! But like I swore to my mom who had come to visit that night, I did not add any sugar! The sweetness really came from the hours of simmering, rendering the tomato passata sweet naturally.

The next day, I turned the beef cheeks into a burger. It was the bomb! Soft buttered toasted buns, alfalfa sprouts, baby spinach leaves, beef cheeks and slather some of its sauce over.

I doubt I’ll be making this again not because it’s not delicious, but nobody in the family liked the soft gelatinous texture of beef cheeks. Oh, well. At least I enjoyed my cheeks!

Poultry, Western

French-inspired Roast Chicken

7shasha7

Today’s meal is so simple but soooooo flavourful. Maybe I can call it chicken provencale but I don’t want to offend any food purists out there. But all I know it’s definitely delish! Served with my garlic and rosemary focaccia (well, the Italians had to make a presence here because currently it’s the easiest bread I know how to bake!). The family totally loved this dish!

Coat seasoned chicken pieces (yes, you have to salt the chicken too) in seasoned flour (salt and black pepper), then when one side is browned, turn over, add fresh rosemary, plenty of garlic pieces and a sprinkling of herbs de Provence (I just used the bottled herbs).
Turn over again after the other side is browned and now add two tomatoes, wedged. I added about 1/2 cup of boxed chicken stock and then transferred the entire thing to the oven.
Slightly charred because I used the roasting setting (I have impatient kids forever asking for food!) but the flavour from all this is sublime!
And now I’m worried there isn’t enough chicken! Looks like I will have to cook something else soon for later in the day!
Bread and Batter, Snack, Western

Homemade Pizza: (new technique learned!)

7shasha7

So I learned a new way to cook pizza at home by Dr Leslie Tay, Singapore’s food guru. He is a legit doctor, by the way, but he’s more well known as a foodie with a very popular blogsite.

Anyway, he had a video promoting the Tefal Ingenio pan and it is from here that I learnt his techniques and applied them. However, 1. I did not buy the Tefal pan. I used my go to WMF steel pan, and 2. I did not blowtorch my pizza 😌

Here’s the link to his site and here’s my end product!

I must say, his technique really works so I’ll be making my pizzas like this from now on.
See how crispy and well cooked the bottom is? No more soggy bottoms! 😂
And here’s my video on YouTube. Subscribe to my channel at Shasha Cooks
Cakes and Cookies, Desserts, Western

Victoria Sponge Sandwich

7shasha7

To celebrate the nation’s 55th birthday, I decided to make this red and white cake. It’s meaningful actually. It’s symbolic of the historical ties we had with the UK and it was also the first cake I learnt to bake! I was only a Sec 1 13 year old girl then, and they made us do this for our Home Econs practical test. I still remember this so vividly. I was so scared of the gas oven back then, and made my partner turn it on most times. For the exam, I remember asking my mom for a dollar so I could get a purple orchid to decorate my piece. I put my purple orchid in a small vase on the tray. I never knew how much I got but I will never forget baking this cake for the exam. 😂

And now decades later, I’m baking this again. I don’t have my Sec 1 Home Econs book anymore so I scoured the net and settled on Mary Berry’s recipe. How very British. 😄

However, after this was done, I must say this recipe is really good! The cake was very moist and very soft! I couldn’t bake it as long as suggested because mine was done ten minutes earlier. But the result was perfection! Another trick I got was to buy one of those cake liners with handles! I reckon I’ll be baking now more because of these liners I got from Amazon. They were amazing and come in various sizes. You can get them here: Cake Liners

Look how they fit so perfectly! This is the best thing I ever thought of buying!
The batter is so easy peasy! Just cream butter with sugar and then the eggs and flour. Oh, I did tweak a bit by adding a teaspoon of vanilla. I wonder why vanilla was not in the recipe.
Bake baby bake!
Not bad for a novice baker!
After that, I inverted one cake and placed it on a plate. Then I added whipped cream first then the strawberry jam (because of the national flag). And then put the second cake on and dusted powder sugar all over.
That beautiful plate? I got it from a UK seller on Etsy. So pretty, don’t you think?
Check out that lava filling! Now, one would think I was overzealous and slathered too much. And maybe I did but believe it or not, when we started eating, we wanted more cream and jam! 😂 There’s never a thing as too much.

I really recommend Mary Berry’s Recipe. And to my country, Majulah Singapura! 🇸🇬

Meat, Snack, Western

Shepherd’s Pie

7shasha7

About two weeks ago I went to the butcher and got two packets of minced lamb. I didn’t realise how expensive it was! So I kept in the freezer and waited for the time when I would make good use of this expensive purchase!

Well, the time came yesterday. My Maris Piper UK potatoes got delivered and so it was the perfect time to make shepherd’s pie.

Maris Piper potatoes are wonderful! Unlike russet potatoes (the potatoes easily available here), they’re fluffier and more rounded in taste. After boiling and ricing them fine, I seasoned with salt, black pepper, butter and cream.

For the minced lamb, it was simply ensuring they cooked slow and well. I added only some oyster mushrooms chopped small and seasoned with a beef cube, a heaped tablespoon of tomato paste and salt pepper.